Disclaimer: all the events described below are how I memorized them. I didn't keep track of any trades after February 2011, so I might be off on some numbers.
1 year, 4 months, 14 days. That's how long it took me to get from 50 tix to the planned 1000. 11 months. That's how long it took me to write another post.
When I last wrote on this blog, things weren't looking too well. I was 5 and a half months into the challenge, and I hardly made any progress. The value of my collection was roughly 80 tix - that was way lower than I expected at that point. I didn't feel like I could finish this in a reasonable time, and I nearly gave up. I didn't sell my stuff, or delete my account, or anything like that, but I stopped trading. That of course meant I stopped writing. I was on hiatus for nearly 4 months. Caw-Blade was dominating Standard during that time and everyone was getting irritated about the Jace-driven menace. And that was where I found my trading spark again. It came slowly at first, as my confidence was still pretty low, but with the 20th of June and the B&R announcement coming, I felt I could start making tix again. I woke up in the morning and found the info I was looking for - Jace and Stoneforge Mystic banned in Standard! I took my 25 tix and invested them the best I could - I bought 2 Primeval Titans. That was some 10 minutes after the announcement. 10 hours later, the Titans were sold, I had a fresh 72 tix.
This was all I needed to get me interested again. I sold all that was worth anything (Fauna Shamans), and started trading. And frankly, I was still pretty bad at it. I lost some tix on Primeval Titan trades, and decided that I need to rethink my strategy:
-no more pure speculation trades, unless there's absolutely nothing better to put my tix in
-no more long term trades
-look for information, interpret it, and predict the price changes
I had my eyes set on Standard. I came to the conclusion that Caw-Blade may be weakened, but it still had the Caw, and it still had the Blade. And the Blade was being sold for a ridiculously low 7 tix. Within a week, I sold all my Swords of Feast and Famine gaining something like 80% in the process. After that, good trades came like an avalanche. Consecrated Sphinx. Hero of Oxid Ridge. Week in, week out, I invested 60% of my tix and made at least 50% profit. I was on a tear. A month and a half after the B&R announcement I hit the 300 tix mark.
Then came Modern. A brave new format, and with it new opportunities. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't analyze the format well, and only made some pennies on stuff like Living End. Right now it seems obvious that the correct choice was spending all my tix on shocklands. It wasn't obvious for me back then. But I was still determined to make some tix on Modern, and after PT Philly I was pretty sure the next B&R update will bring more control card into the format: particularly Ancestral Visions and Bitterblossom. I spent around 100 tix on each, and waited. I was dissapointed to find I was wrong. Bad trade? Not at all. I was fast to unload the cards, and still got 50 tix out of the deal.
With Innistrad coming I decided that it will be right to predict the best decks post rotation and buy key cards from those. I went with Tempered Steel and Chandra's Phoenix. Again, this wasn't the right decision - it should have been Scars of Mirrodin dual lands. Lesson learned. Still, I was sitting on a healthy 500 tix. The Innistrad card that got me interested was Geist of Saint Traft. I just felt that there had to be a top Standard deck playing Snapcaster Mage, Geist of Saint Traft, Sword of Feast and Famine and Mana Leak. I went nearly all in - 420 tix spent, mean buy price of 10 tix. You may imagine how angry I was when the first SCG Open after rotation was won by Wolf Run Ramp. Suddenly my Geists were down to 7 tix, and I had a big chunk of tix locked up. I didn't want to accept my losses and chose to wait instead. I used the spare tix well - Hero of Bladehold and Elspeth Tirel were some good trades. When I found the Illusions deck by Todd Anderson, I knew I was right with Geist. It took way longer than I expected, but when the legendary spirit hit 15 tix, I decided the time was right. I sold them all at 13 each, gaining over 100 tix in the process. I was up to 650 tix, with the Standard season nearly over.
Modern MTGO PTQs were looming on the horizon, and I decided that I have learned my lesson - I invested safe. Shocklands were selling pretty high, so I went with the fetchlands, Past in Flames, Cryptic Commands and Lotus Blooms. I sprinkled some Through the Breach on the top as that seemed very cheap and powerful at the same time. This time I was right. The only card that didn't go up was Lotus Bloom - all the other cards did. I started selling around the turn of the year, and pondered what to buy next. Modern prices started to decline, and Standard was stale. Olivia Voldaren looked like the best unused Standard mythic, and it was cheap at 6 tix, so I bought 50. To my surprise, the market reacted immediately - the mythic vampire went up to 8 tix, and then back to 6 again. I bought another 50, and after GP Orlando (and the SCG Open on the same week) added Heroes of Oxid Ridge and some Glissa, the Traitor. Memo: never trust the deck name, always check the deck list. Traitor Ramp, huh? Looked like Jund Titans to me, and I felt dissapointed again. In the meantime I bought a lot of Heartless Summoning, as it should be good with Havengul Lich.
And there I was, on the 25th of January, looking through my collection, and deciding that no card apart from Heartless Summoning was worth keeping. I didn't estimate the total value, but when I started selling Olivia, a thought struck me: is it just me, or have I just hit the 1000 tix mark? I wasn't sure up until the last 10 Glissas were left - yes, I did it! I finished selling 15 minutes before midnight, and there it was - 1002 tix. It took me longer than the expected 1 year, but not by that much. I must say it was a fun ride, and I learned a lot. What happens now? I'll write about that soon :)
