To the three people who actually are complete 'suitcases' (that is, own every card that they would need to play every Constructed or Eternal format), go nuts on pimping. Kevin Cron is Meandeck's Pimp in Residence; his 5-color stack is all hand-altered. His Stax deck? Everything Beta or Simplified Chinese foil. His Drain decks? Whoops, those are Beta duals (get the FUCK OUT you FBB wankers, get real cards thanx if you're going to pimp), the same Beta power, Simplified Chinese Fetchlands, the works. His is our most impressive collection by far. Steve used to simply have everything, but he's starting to get out of Bazaars and Shops.
Even his mighty collection pales to Jeff Anand's or Robert Vroman's. Dealers get a huge advantage on pimping things obv, but Jeff's 'fun' decks were all foil (including Wraths and Guru lands) when we played with them at SCG Philly.
I do agree with all that bling comes at an ultra premium price BUT there is always that small percentage of people that do have alot of money and are bored.
I will be one of them in a few years ahahha.
Funny thing about 2 months ago was some random guy came in to the store and started showing me all his Foil Onslaught lands, BB duals, the works. I just said "cool dude". I really am not impressed because if I really wanted to I could do the same thing.
About a week later that guy gets robbed all his magic GONEEEEEEE.
Owned.
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The only deck I have semi "pimped" is my madness. All the creatures and Logics are FNM foils WHEEEEEEeeee ....I'm so pimp right now. ....OH and dont forget the half way torn Jitte in there signed by my food that landed on top of it.
By no means am I Samite or Vroman or Cron, but I do ok for not owning a store/being a dealer/caring that much. I either own or have access to every good Legacy deck, the components to every good vintage deck, and don't really care about Standard or Extended. I'm working toward pimping things, but everyone starts somewhere, and I'm at the Foils/FBB stage, not the Foil Japanese/Beta stage. I'll take what I can get. Its understood I pale in comparison to some, but hey, at least I'm not running white bordered Savannah Lions. ;)
A white bordered Savannah Lion will still deal 2 damage to you when it swings, the same amount a Japanese foil one will. I simply hae excess funds and like having my cards look a certain way. Its not as though the cards lose their value, either, so I look at it as an investment.
In fact, I am in the process of liquidating my collection as I am getting out of magic. To date, my "investment" has nearly tripled since I purchased the bulk of it, so even though I might have been able to buy 60 Libraries or 1000 duals, its not as though I lost anything in purchasing my pimp cards; quite the contrary.
If you don't like or can't afford pimp cards, who cares? Show them what matters - winning.
I'm with those who prefer english, black-bordered. I also don't really like the look of foil cards. But, I enjoy beating opponents with fully pimped decks.
I'm German so obviously FBB doesn't mean that much to me. I also hate it when some kid shows up with his all-foil deck wrapped up in those shiny sleeves you think you get blind of when you look at them for too long.
What matters most to me is that the cards are playable. When they're mint it is of course a big plus but when given the option I'll always buy the cheaper one.
"Anybody want some . . . toast?" —Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
I mean, you have no idea how much people bitch when I bludgeon them with Revised/4th Savannah Lions and white-bordered Isamarus. Those are actually the awesomest cards I own - the white-bordered stuff like Stormscape Apprentice, Azorius Guildmage, Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Icatian Javelineers, Chalice of the Voids, and others. Vintage players especially hate when they lose to some idiot who makes all their cards look awful.
As an artist, I really appreciate the artwork of Magical Card art (for the most part). Thereby, I mostly take into account the picture of the card when "pimping" out my decks, over black border, condition, etc. For example, I'll take a fifth edition Goblin King over a Beta one any day just because I love that picture.
Otherwise, my preferences are usually black border, non-foil, and English as well. An exception is white bordered duals because they are way easier to fetch when they are the only white bordered cards in the deck. For basic lands prefer the large mana symbols* (portal 1+2) , over stuff like beta and FBB for largely the same reason; they are easier to fetch.
*wouldnt it be cool if they printed Dark rituals, Seething Song, etc with large mana symbols a-la portal? Three big skulls on a ritual would be teh shitz (correct me if they have already done this).
info.ninja
Personally I feel like foil asain cards are a little too cliché. If all you are going for is the most expensive deck possible then yes, foil miscut crimped artist altered asian is the way to go. The thing I hate though is that asain card collectors are catered to. Asain cards are more expensive yes, but not at all hard to find. Personally I love pimping out with only german cards because you have to search and try to find them. That and I have had my opponent reach over to read my card, start to read it and go, "what the who in the where is this, it looked like dit was english?", asian cards don't really have that effect.
I collect German and miscut cards. Please PM if you have.
Staples. The magic of erasers.
It involves masking tape along the edges and then a pen eraser. I have a bunch of cards done like that - mostly Vintage. They're the ones that are the most whiny about getting attacked for 2 with white-bordered cards.
The best in pimping is to play all your cards in asian (korean is the best), so that the opponent can't recognize your cards. Prefer Portal reeditions so that your opponent can't recognize the art neither. Then you can start trashtalk and look pissed off, so that the n00b player will prefer to stop asking when he's got some doubts and will eventually make some play mistakes that can win some games.
The flashy-foil-sparkling-cover option is not that efficient, except if you can recognize them before drawing them.
That is the only interests I see in pimping a deck. But everyone can have the investment he wants.
I actually do the opposite of pimping out my deck. I look to see which card out of the playset is in the worst shape and sleve that one. I play with my worst condition cards or the ones that are worth the least. I keep the pretty ones in my house... shoebox to be more exact.
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