Well, as we've almost all beaten the cost of Legacy horse to death I was just wondering what YOU personally recommend for breaking in to Legacy. Realistically I think I have gotten some pretty solid advise from an ex-player on what to do but it wasn't very specific.
1. Build effective budget deck (I plan on finishing Goblins and Dredge both).
2. Play tournaments attempting to get lucky enough to pick up some store credit.
3. Use store credit/available cash for the hobby to pick up staples.
3a. Most likely start with staples like Zendikar fetch lands as their price is bound to raise.
3b. After picking up cards you speculate are incredibly useful and will spike in price then continue buying staples (starting with a mana base).
Essentially seems like a sound theory. At least in Legacy there are a few viable budget decks that can made for under $200.
What do you think? Any particular order? Pick up Duals before they keep skyrocketing? Forces? Anticipate SCG snatching up and burning three quarters of the world's brainstorms and destroying half to sell the rest at $50 a piece?
I remember when you had to really think about trading a Shivan Dragon for a Mox Jet. And usually you thought about that trade for weeks wondering if you should've kept the Shivan.
If you're not entirely new to the game and still play Standard/Extended/Limited, keep an eye out for local tournaments and try to win credit there as well. Other than that, when you go to events, make friends so you can carpool to larger tournaments and borrow cards when necessary. Keep an eye out for deals, my local store had a heavily played Volcanic Island in the case for $15, so I snatched it up.
As always, getting your mana base together is the most expensive part, and the only part you'll be almost required to shell out hard cash for it, so do that ASAP. Any other staples (except ridiculous things like Moat, Retainers, Tabernacle), you should be able to trade for in some extent. Maybe not FOW but that's the only exception.
I absolutely despire the other formats (except for Vintage) but there is a lot of wisdom in playing a few to attempt to build up store credit.
Deals are something I hadn't really thought about looking for in stores. I always figured stores would equal card sharks median or high price at all times. There are like 5-6 stores in a half an hour that all compete for players and don't really pull more than 5-7 legacy players and I'm sure they might have some things they're having trouble off loading.
I remember when you had to really think about trading a Shivan Dragon for a Mox Jet. And usually you thought about that trade for weeks wondering if you should've kept the Shivan.
If you get FoW, Goyf, blue fetches, and some blue duals, you can do a lot.
Most stores tend to be on the higher end, but once and a while you can find cards where the prices are either not totally up to date or the cards in question are heavily played.Originally Posted by stalkerzero
Finishing a budget deck or decks might not be the best plan in the long run. What you could do is finish both of those decks and then sell them for more so that you can buy the deck that suits your meta. Its hard to win store credit with Goblins when your Meta is all combo or something.
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Since I have had almost all the staples for quite a while now, I'm not sure what costs are but my suggestion is to figure out what deck you actually really like playing so even if it becomes less suited for the meta you will still be playing with something that is fun for you (don't underestimate the fun factor when this is your only deck). Then look at what you are missing to play this deck and what other cheaper decks can be built with a similar card pool.
For example you want to play AdNT. So you could play ichorid first without diamonds, then with, then you could get seas and fetches and you would have 2 decks...
Or you want to play Canadian Thresh so you can collect the cards for UW Tempo (this isn't as good an example as AdNT and Dredge). That gives you the countersuite, wastelands, some blue fetches towards Canadian Thresh. You still need to get goyfs and 8 duals but you are a lot closer than waiting forever and you have a competed deck in the meantime.
Do you have a favorite deck?
Unfortunately I am a fan of thresh. I know its one of the more expensive deck builds.
Th main reason I am building dredge and goblins is I don't want to wait forever to play.
I did have a brainstorm combo deck I used to enjoy playing but am missing my forces now (sold them for $71 for the set about two years ago). It is a tough call how to break in to the format especially when motivation takes a hit due to no local tournaments with much success.
I remember when you had to really think about trading a Shivan Dragon for a Mox Jet. And usually you thought about that trade for weeks wondering if you should've kept the Shivan.
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On a serious side, I think you should draft and take those cards you win/draft and trade them towards staples, or sell them and buy the staples you want. Drafting will not only improve your game, you'll love it. IMGO it's more skill intensive than constructed as you have to have good drafting skills, good deck building skills and good playing skills.
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This is more or less how I got into it:
- Pick the deck you want to play, make a list and build something as close to it as possible with the cards you already own.
- If you don't have FoW, and you want to play blue, buy FoW before anything else. (Somewhat less important but in the same vein, Tarmogoyf if you want to play a Thresh variant, there is no avoiding these.)
- If you want to play in the mean time, play the budget version of your "real" deck or a mono-color deck that has a large amount of overlap with cards for your "real" deck. Don't waste money/resources on side-projects that could be going towards cards for deck you actually want to play!
- Invest in fetches first and then pick up dual lands 1 at a time when your budget permits. You'd be surprised how well your mana-base can perform with a handful of fetches and 1 or 2 dual lands. No, it's not optimal, but it's workable and you'll get there.
I can only recommend this, it worked out rather well for me. Also try to get into a playgroup. Usually once the people know you they won't have a problem with lending you cards so even though you don't own the full deck you can play without budget-choices.
A good way to pick up some staples you need, or can trade towards what you need is to find unsanctioned X-proxy events. So say your local store is doing 5 proxy or 10 proxy legacy, with a first prize of like a pair or dual lands or forces, or maybe a playset of onslaught fetches. Jump on that, do your best to build a list with those proxies, and win some prizes. Also, making good trades is the best way I've found to getting needed stuff. This is especially great when you have players in your group that play multiple formats, and need cards for new decks but have older legacy cards sitting in their binders. Trade forums are great as well. There are many ways of getting into legacy without spending a lot of money, just find out which you can do.
Option L: Make friends with players who have large collections or large amounts of money and can be easily convinced to expand their collection. Leech hard.
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I'm a big fan of limited as a format, but as a means getting Legacy cards through trade, it's pretty terrible. People aren't going to trade legacy staples for anything but the chase mythics of current sets, and in terms of odds you're almost better off scratching off lottery tickets at a gas station than opening packs if getting Legacy cards is your goal.
I found that playing in the online community-run pauper tournaments has done a lot more for my playing/metagame evaluating/deck tweaking skills than playing limited has. And those decks usually run around $5-$20 dollars (and, like Legacy, are often "good forever"). Limited is still fun but between the huge amount of jank/worthless rares in packs is astounding.
Strongly suggest not building more than one 'budget' deck. I got caught up in building a few earlier on - not the best investment.
Sooner you jump on buying your duals/fetches, the better. A lot of decks you can get by with 1-2x of each dual, especially if it's a 3+ color deck.
Pick the deck you want, and start buying staples. If you're going to complete a budget deck, go for dredge since it is stupid powerful and sometimes a great meta call.
If your deck uses Zen fetches, grab em soon. Probably priority 1. FoWs very shortly behind that.
I know it sounds fun jumping from deck to deck, but early on in your legacy days, you should really pick one deck and focus on it IMO.
My advice on expanding your Legacy collection is not as much in your strategy but in your perspective. Admit that Legacy is a format for which you buy cards and keep them forever, and you can stomach the investment better. It takes awhile, and that is all there is to it. Be patient and enjoy the collecting process. And for Pete's sake, don't ever sell cards to buy other cards for your newest deck.
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Trading will never work. I draft and sell all of my singles online and magically morph them into duals using paypal :-)
Do not ever sell your cards, i agree!
Agree++. I sold a playset of Chalices last year and have been regretting it since. As much as playing 1-2 decks is fun in Legacy it's always better to have options.
Option T: Join a magic team.
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