7. A public commentary...

    So a particularly touchy issue has arisen over the last 2 days and I have seen unending facebook posts about a series of pictures that appeared on imgur, facebook, twitter, and about every social media source imaginable. If the picture doesn't ring a bell, here is an article from TIME magazine of all places! It is a rare event that the Magic community makes such a splash as to warrant attention from such illustrious publication companies. I don't want to get into a discussion about what the author of the photographs intended because I don't know him and analyzing what he was really thinking is moot. Instead lets realistically look at what happened with this series of viral photographs. Simple enough a series of photos that were posted which all depict the same person and over his shoulder is a player who has his backside exposed. Those dozen or so photos go viral in less then 24 hours, millions of people view the images and that is no small exaggeration, even secondary sites such as buzzfeed are getting a million or more hits in a single day after reposting the pictures. Millions of people around the world don't see a post about the biggest constructed tournament ever, Millions around the world do not see a hobby which is bringing people together, rather they are seeing something funny and laughing. Whether or not they actually attach it to the community is not clear.

    The community has since been in an uproar both supporting this player and denouncing him, evidently he has been identified and he may receive a 6 month ban from the game as the by-rules of competitive play also discuss appropriate behavior in tournament environments. To put this in context though, a game that has been around for 20 years, is incredibly popular announces a movie is being made a month before has less public attention then these photographs. So why is this important? Some people have taken this as an excuse to drag out their political platforms about public policy. Many players point to the waiver that is signed at events to allow yourself to be photographed and/or recorded and said it was his right to do so. Some players say, its funny and that's all, they don't care. In a very real way this action is going to have repercussions at least for the individuals who took the photographs. Realistically the impact of the photographs will likely be very minor in the long run for the magic community but possibly gaming at large it helps to reinforce a negative connotation as well. The message sends a fairly clear message intended or not. The subtle message is: Gamers are (typically) fat, and care little for personal appearance. This is a terrible image to present on a public forum and to spread internationally because it is simply not true. I have been a long time gamer, known many that range in body size and appearance. The same is true though of any avenue of life, even when I served in the military or go to school. These pictures conveniently fit stereotypical non-gamer preconceptions of the gaming community and help reinforce that stereotype.

    Evidently from the fact that he has been banned, the person in the photograph was a player in the community as well as the fact he was attending the event. He probably thought it was funny and certainly did not know it would make as big of an impact as it has. But the unfortunate part is not about what happens to him or that this took place in the magic community but that a fellow gamer is helping to stigmatize (some) of the community. One post I read pointed out a very realistic fact, there was a dozen or so pictures taken across the span of a day, at an event that over 4,000 players attended. Is this actually representative of the community? We as players may know it is not, but those outside the community may not. Nobody saw pictures of a dozen or more players showing up in suits with ties, public opinion of gamers is damaged by negative publicity. Now this does not mean that only negativity can come from this event though. It isn't all about punishing a player who did not think beyond himself. My hope for the community is that players will take a good look at the way that they can compose themselves and chose to represent each other in the public view. Just recently a player in the local area had his entire magic collection stolen, a bunch of players all donated cards, money, unopened product to give him the ability to keep playing the game. That isn't news for most players, its not going viral but it should be the way we support one another because we all love to play games and enjoy having a community to play in and feel welcome and accepted in. Lets build each other up and keep the community a friendly, inviting place.

6. Set Drafting!

(Picture above not my collection, I will add when possible)

I am going to explain a format I created a few years back and find loads of fun: Set Drafting.

What is a set draft? 

    The basic concept is very simple, it is a draft format but instead of opening booster packs and passing them, instead players select complete sets of Magic the gathering (1 of each card) sets and then draft from the binders. The twist of selecting sets to use instead of booster packs greatly changes how the draft format works. It really ends up being closer to a cube environment yet even more flexible. One step proceeds drafting the cards, which is drafting the binders. Once you determine seating, each player rolls off, the player with the highest roll picks their binder first and it proceeds in a clockwise order until the last player has selected then it reverses order. (Example: In a 4 man draft the first player will get picks #1, #8, #9. While the last player gets picks #4, #5, #12 ). I suggest keeping pods to 4 players, and playing a swiss (each player plays a match against every other opponent), this way players get to play everyone else and if you are playing for prizes it is easiest to figure out winners. If you are not familiar with drafting here is a quick article which can explain how it is done: How to draft Magic

    If you run pods of 4, each player gets to make a total of 4 selections from each binder (ending up with 16 cards per pack). If you however run 6 players, each player will get 3 picks from each binder netting 18 cards per round of drafts. (These picks are one at a time just like regular drafting, pick one card pass the binder.)

    Unlike regular drafts though players don't get to keep the cards they draft, this would defeat the purpose of set drafting. Just like a cube draft, once the draft is over have each player seperate the cards into the sets they drafted not colors. If they really want to help out then they can also arrange by color and alphabetically but most players dont have the patience for this. The advantage of set drafting is you get to save money by having a permanent draft set around and have an excuse to build an awesome collection! I like to get each player to chip in a small amount so we can have prize support too, but that is certainly not necessary to play. 

What do I need to set draft?  

    First you need willing players, set drafting takes a bit more time then a regular draft because the drafting time to look through the entire set takes a bit of patience. Getting experienced players makes the process much faster. Second and most obvious perhaps is that you need complete sets of Magic the Gathering which means (1 of each card, except tokens and basic lands are not needed). Set drafting can be a very expensive endeavor as even the cheapest sets go for around $30 for nearly unplayable Homelands. The average set of MTG costs approximately $100. So for a 4 man draft (the smallest number you can honestly play) you will need 12 sets of magic, which is realistically a minimum $1,200.
   It is advisable that you put the cards in binders to make selection and organization easy. I find ultra pro binders (9 pocket side loaders) to be the best, additionally they now come in a variety of colors which is helpful. Another tip that has proved invaluable to save time and wear and tear on the cards: Sleeve the cards in your binders! This may seem a bit excessive, but honestly the time it saves is huge if you do this even a few times in a month. It takes approximately 5-10 minutes for every one of your players to sleeve the cards and not needing to desleeve after to put the cards back in the binders is well worth the investment. This will bring your cost up another $100-$200 or so for sleeves but will also help maintain the collection as well. Last but not least, and this is easy to forget, make sure you have plenty of basic land sleeved up and set to the side. Its easy to forget about this and when you all sit down, have to go digging through boxes to find any.


How to obtain sets, and which ones to get:
    As previously mentioned some sets of magic are very cheap and some are extraordinarily expensive. I propose to start with the sets that are easily available. Often if you are a current player and play standard for instance, your likely to be pretty close to having several sets in cards laying around. Use The Gatherer website to check to see which cards are in every set. They are the most accurate card search engine and will even tell you alternate printings. Also I suggest to order your binders by collectors number, this makes it easy to find cards and put them back in the right spot, when you do a search for any expansion, once your results show up add Sort by: Collectors number Ascending. Additionally if you play online (MTGO or MODO) you can redeem sets of your virtual cards and have them shipped to you. This is one of the easiest ways to get complete sets of MTG and I highly recommend this process. It is actually cheaper to buy the cards online, and pay for a processing and shipping fee then just buying packs or even the singles from stores. Most often sets online sell for around $100 each and have a selection of about 8 sets at any given time. The other easy option is eBay.com just do a search for the set your looking for, or put "MTG complete set" in the search bar and away you go. Some 'alternate' sets to consider are sets of the Duel decks, or the commander decks etc. I in fact run several compiled alternate sets as selections in my set drafts. (example: Commander 2013, All the From The Vaults collections, Duel decks - 6 pairs in each binder.)
    Sets to avoid consist of the very inexpensive ones (Homelands, Fallen Empires, Chronicles) These sets may be cheap but most players will not want to ever set draft again, because too many of the cards are simply unplayable compared to high impact cards and these very inexpensive sets have too few high impact or even quality cards. Also I generally suggest avoiding old magic sets, many were not created to be drafted, and so there is a very large disparity between good and bad cards, not to mention some older sets are incredibly expensive! It is generally best to consider collecting sets after the period of Visions. This is around the time when drafting first became a conscious thought of a way to use the product by the design team for WOTC. That still allows for the majority of sets, honestly though the newer the sets the better chances you have of players recognizing the cards, which is a big key to them knowing how powerful they are.


The History of Set Drafting:
    Some of you may be wondering how I came up with this idea. Well when I was in college (circa 2009) I had taken a serious interest in collecting Magic cards again after a long time playing the game. I started simply trying to get playsets of all the cards I would need, then decided it would be cool to get whole sets and put them in the binder. After about a year of stockpiling cards and sets I was trying to figure out what to do to make use of all my cards. I often had friends over, we played cube, EDH, standard, extended (modern didnt exist at the time) and even vintage but I felt a large majority of the collection was being underused. One day it dawned on me we didn't always need to draft with packs, and constructed the first set draft with my roommate and a few friends. Since then it hasn't changed much, I have learned about the sleeving / desleeving time the hard way and eventually started sleeving my whole collection.
    Special thanks to my friends who were willing to put up with the clunky and unrefined system I had been trying to work out originally: Zach, Reed, Tim, Christ and Sean.
    Currently I am considering new ways to improve the format, and will be running the first of a series of drafts with a new group of players in the Atlanta area (2014). I intend on recording some video and posting on youtube which I will post a link to as soon as I have that information available. Showing both the draft process (from what I draft) to actual game play video as well.

Current Set Draft in my personal collection:
     The following are the sets I currently own and run as options in my own set drafts.
-Scars of Mirrodin
-Innistrad
-Avacyn Restored
-Dark Ascension
-M13
-M14
-Return to Ravnica
-Gatecrash
-Dragon's Maze
-Theros
-Born of the Gods
-Journey into Nyx
-Khans of Tarkir
-FTV (Relics, Realms, Dragons, Legends, 20, Exiled)
-Duel decks 1 (Goblins vs Elves, Jace vs Chandra, Divine vs demonic, Garruk vs Lilliana, Phyrexia vs Coalition)
-Duel decks 2 (Ajani vs Bolas, Koth vs Venser, Izzet vs golgari, Knights vs dragons, Speed vs. Cunning)
-Duel Decks 3 (Jace vs.Vraska, Sorin Vs. Tibalt, Monsters vs. Heroes, Elspeth vs. Tezzeret  )
-Commander decks 2013 (only one of each card, again go by collector number in the gatherer)
-Commander decks 2014
-Promo Binder
-Conspiracy

Previously I have owned and run set drafts with:
-Shards of Alara
-Conflux
-Alara Reborn
-Zendikar
-Worldwake
-Rise of the Eldrazi
-Chronicles
-Fallen Empires
-Urza's Saga
-Urza's Destiny
-Urza's Legacy
-Weatherlight
-Unlimited
-Archenemy
-Commander 2009
-Promo binder (including every promotional card I owned FNM/ Judge card / Book promos etc, I suggest not adding this until you have at least 150 cards in the binder with a fair balance between colors.)


I will be posting more information into this. For the time being however I wanted to add a quick link for those who are set drafting with me this weekend found here:

The Gatherer - Current set draft card pool

5. Painting on Cardboard

   Last time I said my next topic was going to be about trophies real vs. virtual. However today I would like to talk briefly about something I have been doing for a little over a year: card alterations. For anyone who is not a collectible card game player (CCG) the most famous game one is certainly Magic the Gathering. The game is balanced between having a wonderful game and something that many individuals treat as an investment. Now not all players invest large amounts of money in the game but many players the longer they play will invest more heavily in their deck or collection. Simply put many players like to have a specialized version of their decks, as such over the last couple years there has been an upsurge in artists doing alterations to the card art. This ranges from simple extensions to making cards appear to have art going all the way to the edges of the borders and completely covering all the text. The alterations range from tiny to massive, well done to well lets just say less well done.

    I began altering cards professionally after I left my job with SCUF gaming as I was actually making more money altering cards and had more free-time available. I altered professionally at a number of Starcitygames events including one in Atlanta which I was interviewed at (Leif Paulson or Evil Nerd INC). After that event I stopped attending events as an alterist because the frequency of new alterists was massively increasing. Additionally I was returning to school and knew I would not have the time to alter full time. I still continue to alter cards for commission but more often just for my personal collection. I have a dedicated youtube channel EvilNerdINC which goes into great detail about the process of altering cards as well as free give aways. I also have a facebook page which I post up all the images of my alters. So if your looking for examples of how its done, tips tricks etc. all of this can be found on either of these pages.

    I realized however, as much as I enjoy altering cards it seems somewhat unsustainable. Recently there was a rather large issue that hit the Magic community about fake cards surfacing in the community from a printing company based out of China. Essentially a company had figured out the printing process to produce magic cards and had effectively duplicated some extraordinarily expensive cards and massively distributed them on a scale not seen before in the community. I think this will have major rammifications on the community of alterists as often the assurance that the card is genuine has been favorable. However now that these fakes have become apparently widespread and there are only a very few ways to detect that the cards are fake altering becomes much more detrimental to the value of a card. Ironically alterists are probably one of the largest part of the group that can easily detect the fake cards due to working closely with the cards and being familiar with intimate details of the cards. In all honesty I hope the altering community remains strong and vibrant but especially with the announcement of M15 and some of the variations included in the new product design I have a sinking feeling that the community will get much less love then it was when I was altering professionally. I encourage those interested to support alterists as these may be new artists in the gaming industry in a few years. If you need help to find some excellent alterists drop me a message on my facebook.