When it comes to magic, there isn’t much better than holding the card you’ve needed to finish a deck in your hands. Is there a difference where the cards came from? Does it feel better if you crack open a pack and find it there? What about finding it in a bulk bin on accident? Buying it from your local game store? There are so many different ways to get your hands on these cards that it brings this topic to my mind. Is there a right and wrong way to get the cards? Of course not, but that’s not what I am asking. Which feels better to you? Which makes the happy chemicals flood your brain? For me, there is nothing better than the hunt.
So how do you hunt down that one card out of literal thousands? For me, it is a multi-prong attack. In our local town we have 5 different locations of a shop that sells all sorts of used nerd goodies. They have rather large boxes for MTG singles and then have them split by price. There is almost never a time that I walk into those and don’t comb over every card they have. You never know what kind of gold you could fine. At the start of this year I found 3 mesmeric orbs in a 10-cent box and at the time they were nearly 20 dollars each. I have found many cards this way and have saved myself a ton only because I was willing to dig through the cards when most people aren’t. always dig through them if you have time.
The next way that I go about finding cards is of course reaching out to people at your local game store, when we are finally able to do so again, and asking for trades or if they have certain cards you are looking for. You’d be surprised how many times they don’t even have them in trade binders assuming no one wants it. Unless you are looking for big money cards, it never hurts to ask if they have one somewhere else.
My least favorite but the easiest is to buy straight from your website of choice. This feels the least like the hunt and adventure I crave but sometimes, you just gotta have the card and someone has it at the right price. Also, if you are just someone always looking for a deal, Facebook groups are amazing and will lead you to being a very happy player. Once you join a few, make friends, treat everyone the way you’d want them to treat you, and you’ll be swimming in cards soon enough. Also, not a bad place to move some cards you no longer need to fund the new ones, just saying.
At the end of the day though, all that matters is playing the game. Doesn’t matter what cards we have or how powerful our decks are. The gathering is the most important part, as cliché as that sounds. Let me know in the comments or on social media what some of your tips and tricks are for hunting down that perfect card. Always looking for new things to try.
AoE Table Top 