Happy New Year!

The past few weeks have been relatively uneventful for the Arcum deck.  I have been busy at work and the holidays filled up most of my schedule.  I was only able to pick up 8 more cards for the deck.  I picked up all 8 cards from stores I had previously checked, and players I had already traded with.  I find that it is important to maintain relationships with players and stores.

When dealing with a store, maintaining a good relationship is simple.  If you spend money at a store on a regular basis, they will keep you in mind when they are buying stock.  An example of this can be seen beyond Magic the Gathering.  My favorite mixed drink is a Rusty Nail.  Unfortunately for me, most bars do not carry Drambui.  I ask for a Rusty Nail whenever I am at a new bar.  This last New Years Eve, my girl friend and I went to our usual club to celebrate.  Our favorite bartender greeted me with a, “Hey, we bought a bottle of Drambui.”  A combination of asking for something unusual, being a frequent customer, and tipping well paid off.  I rang in the New Year with a liver full of Rusty Nails, which was much better than it sounds.   Card shops will do the same thing.  They are more than happy to let me know when they have received cards that they know I will be interested in, as long as I buy product and don’t just freeload in their gaming space.  In the past few weeks I bought the following cards from my local shops;

• 2x Merfolk Looter (Korean)
• Hypnotic Specter (Korean)
• Gather Specimens (Foil) <- Going in the Deck
• Thousand Year Elixir (Japanese) <- Going in the Deck
• Thran Dynamo (Japanese) <- Going in the Deck
• Maze of Ith

Keeping up trade relationships with players is a little more difficult.  You have to do 2 things to have players want to trade with you; trade with them and play with them.  I keep several EDH decks, a standard deck, several extended decks, a legacy deck, and a peasant deck.  I bring all these decks with me, so that I can play with whoever shows up.  Players are much more likely to trade with you when you play with them.  It is important to make sure the people you are playing with are having fun.  When you repeatedly crush someone, they want nothing to do with you.  I am not saying to lose on purpose, just play casually with casual players.  I also trade with everyone who wants to trade.  It’s not really important that I get something I want.  It is more important that they get what they are looking for.  I would rather give up a few dollars in value every week than have no players who will trade with me.  In addition, I want my trade binder to be constantly changing.  No one wants to look at the same cards in a binder week after week.  The more rotation you have, the more likely people will be to look through your trades.  These past few weeks, I found the following cards in trade binders;

·         Karn, Silver Golem (From the Vault Relics)

·         Fact or Fiction (FNM Promo)

·         Hinder (Foil)

·         Tezzeret (Dual Deck Foil)

·         Basalt Monolith (Unlimited NM)

I have said nearly everything I could about EBay.  I still look every few days to see if there are any great deals.  Recently, I found a Korean Disk for the deck.

That is all for now.  I will start updating this more often now that the holiday season is over.

68 cards down, 32 to go. 

Thanks for reading,

Sean

P.S.

 I had thought no one was reading these blog entries, until I listened to the Scrubland Podcast today.  If you play Magic, and you haven’t listened to this podcast, you should start listening immediately.  Scrubland gives a fresh perspective on competitive Magic while being incredibly entertaining.  I have received deck advice from the hosts that has been responsible for me winning, and placing at several small events.  Their draft advice has also been excellent.  Go give it a listen.