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1 year ago ::
May 01, 2012 - 6:11PM
#1
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I played magic when the game first came out and recently got reintroduced to it by some people who play at a college my fiancé attends. Most of the people in this group I talked to play Standard format and when the told me how much money they spent on their decks I was totally floored. Now, you have to understand that when Magic first came out I was just starting high school and had very little extra money. I did odd jobs for relatives in order to save up money to buy booster packs/tournament packs and my friends and I just played with what we had so my card pool was never really that huge. We just played and did a little trading and had a lot of fun. These decks were not anything that would work in a competitive enviroment but we were just playing with what we had.
I thought that now that I was older I might give tournament play a shot, but with these college students telling me that the average cost of a standard deck is anywhere from $400-$600+ to even have a chance of winning a single game I just can not see how it is worth the cost especially if the cards are going to rotate out every single year and have to be replaced.
I know a lot of people play standard so I guess what I am asking is how do people afford to play if deck prices are really that high with cards rotating in and out every few months especially when most of the research I have done suggests that most cards value drop by 50% or more after it has rotated out. I am sure the introduction of Modern has helped prices somewhat but how do you guys find the money and motivation to keep playing in this format and what would you suggest for someone who is like me and living on a budget who can not afford to spend $1,000.00+ a year just to play at any kind of competitive level?
Thank you for the advice in advance.
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1 year ago ::
May 01, 2012 - 6:56PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Sep 14, 2009
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Well, it is an investment, so you really have to think of it in that way. Cards are legal in Standard for an average of close to 2 years. That's more than enough time to get your money's worth in my opinion. Then you can sell off all of your money cards before rotation if you are not interested in playing other formats.
As for winning in tournaments and what kind of money is required it really depends on how competetive you want to be. You can definitely win games at Friday Night Magic with a cheaper deck, say about $200. Aggro decks are going to be the cheapest option because of the simpler mana bases. (Rare lands tend to be expensive.)
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1 year ago ::
May 01, 2012 - 8:41PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 18, 2003
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If you're just starting again (and I played in Alpha, I know how you feel), Magic Online is excellent. Dollar Rares are more like Quarter Rares on MTGO, and the only thing that costs as much is extremely expensive Chase Rares like Planeswalkers and Mythics. I spent around $250 and Built an excellent deck from the ground up.
Resident Logic Cannon
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1 year ago ::
May 01, 2012 - 9:18PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Mar 12, 2006
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Standard has a lower cost of entry, but you have to keep paying that cost as the format rotates. Legacy has the highest cost of entry, but most of the high dollar cards are things you will want to play in every deck you play (duals and fetches) so your cost to play a deck becomes less the more decks you build.
If you're worried about the cards you play with holding value, go with Legacy. If you don't mind dropping cash on a regular basis (or don't want to get good at, then consistently do, trading) then Standard is your game.
Modern is a bit of a middleman, but IMO the format has been highly dissapointing on a competetive level, as the decks are so stupid linear that I just don't find it fun. That, and the format is really awkward.
(at)MrEnglish22
"still a better Commander card than Emmara Tandris"
-On the topic of Squire
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1 year ago ::
May 02, 2012 - 7:43AM
#5
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get a job, that pays for magic.
Blue is the best color ever. How do you deal? Team GFG - "gulf, foxtrot, gulf" Twitter: Burning_Forest ------------------------------------------------------ I started making some Dubstep and Electronica. Check me out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXLxlHeE1rg My Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/whitefender69?feature=mhee It is a little bit chill. Let me know what you think. 
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1 year ago ::
May 02, 2012 - 10:00AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jan 30, 2012
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I played a lot back around the time Ice Age came out. I got back into it really accidentally when I came across Duels of the Planeswalkers on X-Box Live (which happened to coincide with online poker withdrawal). While I'm starting to collect physical cards again, I play almost entirely online because quite frankly, I am a lot busier than I was fifteen years ago or so. You can have a lot of fun playing casual online for not very much. You can get ridiculous amounts of virtual cards for pretty cheap aside from the most highly sought after rares and mythics. I found myself gravitating toward tournaments because quite frankly it's the only place online where I can get 100% effort out of the competition on a regular basis. Admittedly, that's getting a bit pricey, but that is as much due to my inability to gain much satisfaction from playing the same list that someone else came up with over and over as anything. However, the idea that you cannot hope to win a single game without buying a super expensive deck is ridiculous. Try some of the Building on a Budget column decks. You're not going to 4-0 tournaments that way, but you can definitely win some matches with just a little luck. Also, the Delver deck lists that dominate tournament play recently can be put together for Magic Online for about $150 tops. The only really expensive card in there is Geist of Saint Traft.
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1 year ago ::
May 02, 2012 - 7:56PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Mar 12, 2006
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get a job, that pays for magic.
But he can't, he's a dirty hippy.
(at)MrEnglish22
"still a better Commander card than Emmara Tandris"
-On the topic of Squire
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1 year ago ::
May 02, 2012 - 10:02PM
#8
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get a job, that pays for magic.
But he can't, he's a dirty hippy.
No, I am not a dirty hippie and I do have an income but at the moment it is rather limited as I have many bills to pay. If a typical card is standard stays in rotation for two years then I do not think that is horrible. Seems like you could get your money's worth that way especially if you wanted to play other formats, but I must confession that I thought the rotation for standard was a single year before the cards rotated out? I used to think extended might be the format for me to go into because of the larger card pool and longer rotation cycle but a lot of people have told me that format seems to be dying off and being replaced by Modern which I think is a shame. I am excited that they have a new format that does not cost as much to play as Legacy or Vintage but back in the old days when I was researching touraments I thought that the old extended looked like and interesting format and I am kind of sad if they have really done away with it.
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1 year ago ::
May 05, 2012 - 10:25AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Apr 18, 2011
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@lordknikon
I was in your same boat a few months ago - just wanting to get back into magic, and surprised at the high cost of cards. The thing with current standard... is that the decks are mostly cheap, with the exception of a few cards. These cards run around $20 a piece, and if you run 4 copies of them, boom there's $80. That multplied by 3 or so really good cards, and all of a sudden you have roughly a $250 deck. If you take a look at some of the top decks, it's the fancy lands that are a huge portion of the deck's value.
Also, a deck's sideboard can get very expensive. You may not win as many matches on FNM, but you can easily build a top deck without using the fancy lands and no sideboard, and still have a (relatively) functioning deck.
Just my 2 cents.
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1 year ago ::
May 05, 2012 - 1:46PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Nov 11, 2009
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Disregard friends playing Standard.
Tell them to play Legacy.
Its both a more interesting format, and after you pay to get into the format [Quite high, mind you], the costs overtime are almost nil.
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