Quest for ancient (2006) secrets
December 21st 2009 23:49
I have here four of the last unopened Time Spiral boosters in Melbourne. One of the retailers I usually buy boosters from is all out, and the other (where I got these) has only three left. If I go back next week, they’ll probably still be there; 2006 is generally considered kind of old already, even though the cards are no less cool and no less fun. With Time Spiral, there’s also the problem that some newer players didn’t get all the references to older cards.
It’s hard not to like opening any booster pack, even an older set. Each card is a window into the setting, and fifteen of them together form a fascinating cross-section of the world. Sure, it may not be the most effective way to get singles, because you can’t guarantee what’s inside the wrapper, but it’s a lot more fun. And besides, when you don’t know what’s in the booster, it might be bad cards - but it might also be good cards. After all, there are still unopened Limited Edition boosters lying around, and some of those are certain to contain Black Lotuses and other hard-to-find cards.
Let’s try it with one of my Time Spiral boosters. I’ll open the one on top of the pile and quickly glance through the cards. The first card is a Grapeshot; always good to have more of those. Here are the uncommons and rares . . . oh, my. Is that Teferi, the planeswalker?
Teferi was once the most in-demand card from the entire Time Spiral block. On the one hand, I feel grateful to have opened him. But the fact that he’s here, now, probably means that somebody who wanted to play with him at FNM and didn’t have the disposable income to buy him at someplace like Meta Games never got to. It’s not quite certain, since print runs are huge now compared to when I started playing, and there are people out there who lend cards (I don’t, ‘cause I have trust issues, but some people are different). Incidents like this, though, show that on a large enough scale, collecting Magic cards is a zero-sum game.
The next time you see some old boosters at your local store, don’t just walk on by. Magic did not begin with Shards of Alara and it does not end with Zendikar, awesome as those sets might be. Sure, most of those old cards won’t help you build your Standard deck, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value and can’t do something for you. And they’re doing nobody any good sealed in those little packages. Set them free.
Merry Christmas.
This one isn’t even from that long ago.
It’s hard not to like opening any booster pack, even an older set. Each card is a window into the setting, and fifteen of them together form a fascinating cross-section of the world. Sure, it may not be the most effective way to get singles, because you can’t guarantee what’s inside the wrapper, but it’s a lot more fun. And besides, when you don’t know what’s in the booster, it might be bad cards - but it might also be good cards. After all, there are still unopened Limited Edition boosters lying around, and some of those are certain to contain Black Lotuses and other hard-to-find cards.
Let’s try it with one of my Time Spiral boosters. I’ll open the one on top of the pile and quickly glance through the cards. The first card is a Grapeshot; always good to have more of those. Here are the uncommons and rares . . . oh, my. Is that Teferi, the planeswalker?
Teferi was once the most in-demand card from the entire Time Spiral block. On the one hand, I feel grateful to have opened him. But the fact that he’s here, now, probably means that somebody who wanted to play with him at FNM and didn’t have the disposable income to buy him at someplace like Meta Games never got to. It’s not quite certain, since print runs are huge now compared to when I started playing, and there are people out there who lend cards (I don’t, ‘cause I have trust issues, but some people are different). Incidents like this, though, show that on a large enough scale, collecting Magic cards is a zero-sum game.
The next time you see some old boosters at your local store, don’t just walk on by. Magic did not begin with Shards of Alara and it does not end with Zendikar, awesome as those sets might be. Sure, most of those old cards won’t help you build your Standard deck, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value and can’t do something for you. And they’re doing nobody any good sealed in those little packages. Set them free.
Merry Christmas.
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