Subject: Re: Trading Cards Date: Mon, 30 Mar 98 19:04:26 PST From: "James Osborn" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com --------------------------------------------------------------- A Beginners Guide to Trading Trading is a brilliant way of getting new cards for your collection. You can take cards you don't need, such as a Stronghold Assassin if you don't play black and trade it for something like a Silver Wyvern. However, some, more 'experinced' players can be very unscrupulous when it comes to trading with newbies. They will prey on you and the fact that most new players to the game, especially those who played Portal, think that 7/6 creatures are much better than all of these fuuny mana producers such as a Mox Diamond. You need several things to survive in the world of trading. Firstly, learn the relative value of your cards, using Iguana's Magic Catalog in the Duelist is good for this, even though they charge too much, the prices are well balenced, so you can easily find out if you are making a bad trade. You can easily see that your Salt Flats are worth much more than his Spined Wurm and it would be a bad idea to trade. Secondly, anyone who insists on a one for one trade is probably bad news, trading a rare you don't want for and uncommon you do is bad but trading for two uncommons you want is good. Thirdly, it is always better to trade with someone you know, you are less likely to be given a fake card, that said however, tourneys are great places for trading with people. Also the net is good to make trades, but be careful, don't start sending out really rare cards topeople you don't know, you have never seen the cards and there is nobody to regulate the trades and make sure you are trading with an honest person, also beware of people who insist that you send first. Finally, it's not all about Dragons, no matter what you think, and don't forget, trading should be fun, and as long as you ae happy with the trade it was a good one. Now for a pratical example of trading. I decided to go out and buy two booster packs of Stronghold and trade these cards and only these over a weekend to see what I could get. I have listed the cards below in order of rarity. Rare Rolling Stones Volrath's Shapeshifter Uncommon Crystalline Sliver Crystalline Sliver Lancers en-Kor Shifting Wall Wall of Essence Wall of Souls Common Bandage Cannibalize Contempt Craven Giant Crossbow Ambush Death Stroke Endangered Armodon Flowstone Shambler Honor Guard Foul Imp Leap Lowland Basilisk Mana Leak Mob Justice Nomads en-Kor Sift Skyshroud Archer Spike Colony Spindrift Drake Tidal Surge Tidal Warrior Youthful Knight Those are the cards, not brilliant, but they could have been worse, I _could_ have got a Sword of the Chosen, but I didn't. To show how I am doing during the weekend, I will keep a running total of the value of the cards I have using prices from Iguana's. Total Value at the start : $31 Saturday, Too Early in the Morning, Oragnised the cards in 'sets' to trade with, (you will often get a better deal if you put several cards together and trade them as a group, especially good if they make a combo). Set 1 All of the walls and Rolling Stones. Set 2 The two Crystalline Slivers. Set 3 All of the Weenies (Creatures that cost 1 or 2 Mana such as Honor Guard) I was hoping to trade Set 1 quickly but I didn't hold much hope of getting rid of the weenies. Later in the Morning, No tournies this weekend, have to do it the hard way and start visit my mates. Me and a couple of my mates mat up at my house. Played a few games and then started trading our new cards. I knew that one favoured slow, control type decks, and I hoped I could trade the Walls. I did, and got an Earthcraft and Pine Barrens for them. Total : $33 Next, one of my other friends saw that I had a Volrath's Shapeshifter, he offered me a Reflecting Pool, and I could not say no could I. Total : $38.50 No one wanted any of the weenies but I did trade the two slivers for an Extinction, with someone that was trying to make a Sliver Deck. Total : $41.50 Afternoon, Played some more Magic, couple of games against my friend who was trying to build a Sliver Deck. Waited until I got my new Extiction, killed all of his Slivers including the Queen and won easily. He decided that Slivers aren't so good and traded the Queen for all of my commons, said that he wanted to try a Weenie deck now. Total : $42.50 Evening, No more trades, time to take stock of what I've got. Rare Earthcraft Extinction Pine Barrens Reflecting Pool Sliver Queen Uncommon Lancers en-Kor Quite a good day, can't wait until tomorrow. Sunday, Early Morning, Got a good start, traded my Lancers en-Kor for a Heartstone. I see a cunning plan, I can trade the Sliver Queen, Earthcraft and Heartstone to make a Slivercraft combo (variation of mesacraft). I might even be able to get a Mox Diamond for the group. Total : $42.50 Afternoon, More trades, got a Maro, Humility, 2 Winds of Rath and a Orim Samite Healer for the Slivercraft combo. Total : $63.50 Evening, Last trade of the day, a Winds of Rath for Selenia Dark Angel. Total : $63.50 Time to see what I got, Rare Extinction Humility Maro Orim Samite Healer Pine Barrens Reflecting Pool Selenia Dark Angel Winds of Rath Great lot of cards, and all from only two booster packs. I don't say that anyone will be able to get such good cards, and I was lucky to get what I did, but you can always try. I know I broke most of my rules to get these cards, but I think it was worth it. Any comments/suggestions/flames can be sent to me at james.osborn@lineone.net bye for now james