Before now, I've always organized my binder by splitting cards up by format and color, then putting them in alphabetical order. It meant everything always had its own place and I could always find whatever I was looking for, but the major drawback was that every time I picked up new cards, I'd often have to shift dozens of other cards to make room for the additions. Even if I deliberately left empty spaces to allow for new cards, they'd soon fill up.
So I want to find a new system. I need to be able to keep track of what I have and find things, and I want other people to be able to find things, but I also want to minimize the drudgework of shifting cards around as much as possible. When I pick up new cards, I should be able to add them to my binder with a minimum of moving other things around.
What organizational system would you suggest to accomplish this? I have some ideas, but if someone else has a better system I'd love to hear about it.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
The most logical way I can think of to organize a binder is to do it by Set, Color, Type, CMC, Alphabetical (in that order of importance). I use Gatherer to see what cards go in-between the cards I have, and leave spaces accordingly, this way you don't have to worry about shifting cards over to make room since you have the spaces where necesary.
Player of "Magic the Gathering" since July 19th 2012. I have a LOT of catching up to do. XD
Please help with my decks: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29322665/Need_Input_-_Blood_Artist_Sacrifice_Deck
The U.S. Army: The best job in the world, working with some of the best people in the world, for one of the worst employers you could ever imagine.
Here's a shout out for Scholars' Books & Games in Bridgewater, MA, and for Paladin's Place in Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany where I was stationed for two years. Support your FLGS!
Attacking the darkness since 1987, turning creatures sideways since 1994.
Alphabetical is kind of over the top for me. If you put them by color and CMC, they should be classified enough. I mean when I'm searching for a lightning bolt, I know it's a 1 CMC card.
If your binder is big enough, you can also just do this
Page 1 : Red 1 CMC Page 2 : Red 2 CMC Page 3 : Red 3 CMC Page 4 : Red 4 CMC Page 5 : Red 5 CMC Page 6 : Red +6 CMC
and once one of your page is filled you just add a new page to have
Page 1 : Red 1 CMC Page 2 : Red 2 CMC Page 3 : Red 2 CMC (extra new page with only 1 card on it) Page 4 : Red 3 CMC Page 5 : Red 4 CMC Page 6 : Red 5 CMC Page 7 : Red +6 CMC
It keeps things simple and you dont have to move any card ever again. Dont do the mistake of doing the next example because you'll end up doing a lot of shifting, buying an extra 30 pages is well worth the time you'd waste shifting anything.
Page 1 : Red 1-2 CMC Page 2 : Red 3-4 CMC Page 3 : Red 5+ CMC
To be honest, when I'm looking at a trade binder, I usually know what I want or know what part of my deck are more shaky. I know that my red/white deck is missing a creature with 2 CMC, if they are placed by color and alphabetical order, I'll have to look at ALL the red cards anyway. If they are placed by color, cmc and alphabetically, it will not help me anymore than if they were just placed color and CMC, the extra work of alphabetical order is not worth it imo.
If you want to go further with my first example, you can separate the creatures from the other spells. Page 1 : Red 1 CMC creature Page 2 : Red 1 CMC sorcery/instant/enchantement/aura/other Page 3 : Red 2 CMC creature Page 4 : Red 2 CMC sorcery/instant/enchantement/aura/other like the odd artifact that can only be red : shrine of burning rage
Edit there's even colored separators that can be bought in stores like Staples, I've found, black, white. green and blue separators, didnt find red, so I've just put red at the top of my binder
I've never really understood sorting by CMC; I've never once looked through my cards for ones with a specific mana cost, and CMC is one of the aspects of a card I'm least likely to remember offhand.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
For linking a card to Gatherer without writting the name of said card for readers, use the autocard brackets together with and equal sign and right the name of the real card. Then put the message you want inside the tags, like you would do with autocarding. Like this:
I like storm crow because I really like crows in real life, as an animal, and the card isn't terribly stupid, but packs a good deal of nostalgia and also a chunck of the game's history. So it's perhaps one of the cards I have most affection to, but not because "lol storm crow is bad hurr hurr durr".
Although I do assume you deliberately refer to them (DCI) as The Grand Imperial Convocation of Evil just for the purposes of making them sound like an ancient and terrible conspiracy.
Now, now. 1994 doesn't quite qualify as "ancient".
Oh, it's a brilliant plan. You see, Bolas was travelling through shadowmoor, causing trouble, when he saw a Wickerbough Elder with its stylin' dead scarecrow hat. Now, Bolas being Bolas took the awesome hat and he put it on his head, but even with all his titanic powers of magic he couldn't make it fit. He grabbed some more scarecrows, but then a little kithkin girl asked if he was trying to build a toupee. "BY ALL THE POWERS IN THE MULTIVERSE!" he roared, "I WILL HAVE A HAT WORTHY OF MY GLORY." and so he went through his Dark Lore of Doom (tm) looking for something he could make into a hat that would look as stylish on him as a scarecrow does on a treefolk. He thought about the Phyrexians, but they were covered in goopy oil that would make his nonexistant hair greasy. He Tried out angels for a while but they didn't sit quite right. Then, he looked under "e" (because in the Elder Draconic alphabet, "e" for Eldrazi is right next to "h" for Hat) in his Dark Lore of Doom and saw depictions of the Eldrazi, and all their forms. "THIS SHALL BE MY HAT!" he declared, poking a picture of Emrakul, "AND WITH IT I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE OF DARKNESS -- ER, I MEAN A NEW AGE OF FASHION!"
And so Nicol Bolas masterminded the release of the Eldrazi.
The last couple days have been roughly every perverse fetish imaginable, but it only got "creepy" when speculation on Mother of Runes's mob affiliation came up?
I like to think up what I consider clever names for my decks, only later to be laughed at by my wife. It kills me a little on the inside, but thats what marriage is about.
Of course, the best use [of tolaria west ] is transmuting for the real Tolaria.
Absolutely. I used to loose to my buddy's Banding deck for ages, it was then that I found out about Tolaria , and I was finally able win my first game.
Browbeat is a card that is an appropriate deck choice when there's no better idea available. "No better idea available" was pretty much the running theme of Odyssey era.
Modern is like playing a new tournament every time : you build a deck, you win with it, don't bother keeping it. Just build another, its key pieces will get banned.
I always find it helpful when im angry to dress up in an owl costume and rub pennies all over my body in front of a full body mirror next to the window.
Dymecoar:
Playing Magic without Blue is like sleeping without any sheets or blankets. You can do it...but why?
Omega137:
Me: "I love the moment when a control deck stabilizes. It feels so... right." Omega137: "I like the life drop part until you get there, it's the MtG variant of bungee jumping"
Zigeif777:
Just do it like Yu-Gi-Oh or monkeys: throw all the crap you got at them and hope it works or else the by-standers (or opponents) just get dirty and pissed.
Normally it's difficult to pick up on your jokes/sarcasm. But this one's pretty much out there. Good progress. You have moved up to Humanoid. You'll be Human in no time.
This is why the world is such a wonderful place, I remember the CMC of most of my cards first and foremost along with what they do, then I remember the picture and then I remember the name (if at all). I'm pretty sure I could tell you exactly what card does what with what CMC in all my decks and I'm sure I'd have a hard time naming half of them.
Keep a library-style record ordered the way you used to order cards in your binder, but with each record containing a numbered reference to a specific slot in your binder. The downside being that you have to number all the slots. I admit this is a largely ridiculous idea, but hey.
Thread is so legit it's unbelievable, lol. Though I'm interested in knowing what gain there is to fish here. No, foreign prince, I will not invest in your grand profitable banking corporation.
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