When we continue to buy these un-inspired products one-after-the-other-after the-other-after the other, we send a very clear message to WOTC/Hasbro…we approve, send more shit.

When we fool ourselves into believing that modern sets with print runs in the billions of cards containing a few carefully controlled and placed chase, specialty treatment, alt art, or serialized cards are indeed rare, scarce or have real value based on those two points are somehow sound investments or healthy for the game, we are encouraging WOTC/Hasbro to focus on profit over the game and speculators over players.
Let’s leave that kind of thinking where it belongs, the Pokémon franchise.

When the non-player consumer base has slaked their thirst upon these sugary gimmicks and players interest wear smooth on a lack of utility and creativity, slow sales and the pinch of the bottom line will be felt.
WOTC/Hasbro will pivot again, make changes and undoubtedly dangle another pretty hook in front of us.

Do not take the bait.

Stop supporting this behavior with dumb money .

Invest in vintage.

Play Magic, not the market.

Completed my first Beta play set!

Collectibles are just one form of investment and one that needs to be considered very carefully.
You must consider what a collectible is and what it is not.
What its true rarity or scarcity is, not what is perceived.
What its real value is, which can be based on a number of points which may be dependent on any number of other points.
You should be familiar and comfortable dealing in the actual ‘trade’ profession of the collectible market you are buying and selling in.
You most certainly need to understand risk, risk, risk. How much you are willing to take on and what that really means.
These are just a few basic points to consider, there are many, many more and doing some research will uncover them.

Before you dump your money into the next hot M:tG IP release you may be better served by doing the following:
Max out your 401K, IRA and HSA for the month.
If you don’t have those or know what they are, please talk to some one who does.
Pay your damn bills for the month…completely.
Pay down your credit card debt and/or loans for the month…then pay more.
IF you find yourself with an abundance of cash after paying your bills, cost of living expenses, debt, retirement investments maybe then dip your toe into a collectible investment.
But, at that point will it really be the newest ‘Fill in the Blank’ M:tG IP crossover…really?

How many more outside IP’s can be shoehorned into a game that once created joy, memories and community all on its own creativity and merit?
How long will we continue to prop up this kind of self destructive behavior by flooding money into an obvious corporate cash grab and then fool ourselves into believing that the product is somehow rare or collectable?
When will this corruption fully take hold and finally kill the host, leaving a bloated corpse to cook in the sun?
Maybe that day will never come.
Maybe Magic will simply secure a spot on the dung heap of IP crossover games like Monopoly, Risk and their ilk that persist in perpetuity and annuity for countless ages, reborn anew every Christmas on the shelves of Walmart and Target as a kitschy seasonal item wrapped in clean, crystal clear plastic.

Our game, IS dying.
Stop consuming these products.
Vote with YOUR money, there’s still time to turnabout.

Play Magic like it’s 1993.

Just over a year ago I began to buy commons in an effort to build a well rounded play-set pauper library of staple cards of the format.
I swear, at some point I intend to play again.
I’ve also been picking up lesser and janky rares and uncommons as well, cards that I find interesting, nostalgic or just pretty.
This week I finally got the last card to complete a full play-set of the rare slot storage lands from Fallen Empires…Sand Silos.

Took forever to get that last Silo, well a year anyway.
May not seem like a big deal, but I’m frick’n stoked.

The Dragon (#26)
Vol. 3, No. 12
June, 1979

An old sci-fi bookseller once asked me this question.

“What is the golden age of Science Fiction”?

I was tempted to answer with a close approximation of a date I thought was the golden age but I couldn’t get it out in time and my pause nudged the bookseller to reveal the truth.
My answer, or any would have been incorrect anyway.

The seller slyly stated “The Golden Age of sci-fi is”.

Pausing briefly.

“12 years old”.

Of course it is…of course it is.

The answer/punchline speaks of an age, any age really, where one’s imagination burns brightly at the input of new electric ideas, of forbidden knowledge attained and of fantastical images over saturated with color blazoned upon wrappers of pulps, books and magazines.
Something that once seen cannot be unseen, something that resonates so deeply in a person that it forever changes them, binding them tightly within its grasp creating a gleeful sojourner along a zealot’s path.

An overly romantic take on the answer?
Maybe.

The question can be applied to a great many things.
‘What is the golden age of ‘fill in the blank’?

The answer is still the same, it’s not a date.

I belong to a certain alphabetic generation and because of that I was fortunate enough to have played my 3 favorite games; Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft during what I believe were truly their chronological golden ages…though that’s probably an arguable point.

But whether I was 12 or 26 or 39 it mattered not, each affected me profoundly.
Each I played for a period of time and each I eventually stopped playing…for various reasons.
But, I never truly gave up on them and deep down I knew that I was simply taking a break rather than quitting.

Magic: The Gathering arrived in my world after a long hiatus from playing D&D.
To this day I cannot remember how or where I found it, it may have found me, but in late 1994 I was opening packs of Revised and Fallen Empires knowing full well I was addicted. 

Ultimately Magic got 10 years of my attention but by 2004 I was no longer enjoying it. Competitive play, which I willingly went into, had sucked all the fun out of the game and more matches of rage and anger took the place of casual joyful play.
After several months of soul searching I sold my collection and promised myself not to return until I had forgotten how to play and/or became excited about the game again, like I was in 1994.

And that, was that.

July 2021

I wasn’t looking for it but once again Magic found me when I stumbled upon an article about the newest Magic set: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (AFR) a Dungeons & Dragons themed expansion.
And just like that, Magic was back in my life.

The old obsessions returned immediately as I read the article, wanting to collect the entire set.
Just AFR, nothing else, just this one set…and any other subsequent D&D related expansions.

Things had changed since I last opened a pack and looking through the card list I needed to wrap my head around alternative art cards, full art, extended art, showcase and commander cards, which had a foil version and which did not, dungeon cards, art cards and…what the fring was a collector pack?

Mostly though I wanted to play, did it really have a D&D feel?

So I set off on my quest to discover the answers to my questions and now feel ready to offer up my modest insights and opinions about the cards and observations on play with a little hindsight and perspective from a 17 year break from the game.

And though this will not be timely subject matter as AFR was released 5 months ago, a veritable eternity, I feel a deeper dive is in order to explore the set, the game and myself I suppose as I return to a once loved then reviled game in my life.
 
This will take some time to work through.

For the time being, I will simply start with this post.

Now, what’s next?