Monk Realist vs. "Wanting It"

Happy New Year, fellow Planeswalkers! Do the prices of Standard mythic rares concern you? Stop lying to yourself! Kyle Boggemes of Channel Fireball wants people complaining about prices to either put up or shut up:





I chose to talk about the price of Jace because it’s the mascot when it comes to how expensive Magic cards are becoming.

Great topic! As we all know, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the most expensive Standard card of all time, by a lot. Channelfireball.com sells one for $95 as I'm typing this. Four Jaces are nearly as expensive as any top Standard deck from before the debut of the mythic rarity. Please, continue!

Some of you sitting at home are probably saying that the cards are just too expensive to get. The inconvenient truth is that you just don’t want them bad enough.

Silly me! I thought spending a few hundred dollars on Magic should be enough, but I've been living a lie. That level of spending really says "I hate Magic, and I don't want any good cards, because then I might be competitive and win games or something." If only I wanted to own Jace more than I do: then I might be able to afford it!

Well, I'm not playing around anymore, guys. I'm going to want the fuck out of this card until it appears in my deck. I'll let you all know the good news when that happens, as a public "thank you" to Kyle for his Pro Tip.

You are all sitting at your computer reading an article about Magic: the Gathering. Does that sound like someone who legitimately cannot afford a standard deck?

Not at all. "You all" are really a bunch of phonies, pretending you can't afford Standard. I don't care if you're 10 years old or 110, if you have a job or not. Kids? Mortgage? Student Loans? Whatever, man, I don't want to hear your lame excuses. I know you have a computer, OK? What do you have to say for yourself?

I am aware this article will come off as elitist, but I made the choice to get the necessary cards to be competitive instead of the latest hot new gadgets.

It's easy, people: Stop buying all those iPads! I know it's tempting to get one for your dog, too, but for the same price, you could almost have enough to play Guillaume Matignon's World Champion decklist. It's about priorities.

Have you ever watched a deck tech for a cool new archtype [sic] at a Pro Tour? Normally Brian David Marshall or Rich Hagon asks the creator of the deck how they [sic] arrived at certain card choices. Have you ever seen one of those interviews go like this?

BDM: This is a very interesting card choice, care to explain how you arrived at that decision?
Conley Woods: Well you see Brian, my car broke down last week so I couldn’t buy the cards I wanted to play.
BDM: So you wanted to play the superior card, but it was just too much money?
Conley Woods: That’s right, the economy is tough these days.

I am pretty sure that has never happened before because there are players who will do anything to get ready for an event.

I am also pretty sure that has never happened because CONLEY FREAKING WOODS is a professional Magic player sponsored by Channel Fireball and probably others.

Seriously, Conley Woods? You could've picked anyone, real or imagined, for this hypothetical, so you pick one of the maybe 100 people on the planet that should never have any trouble whatsoever picking up cards?

The cards that you buy will also pay for themselves over time. I bought the power 9 a few months ago because it should be treated as an investment. Not only can I use them in tournaments, but they will appreciate over time. The same can be said for the expensive cards in standard because you can sell them at any point if money is tight.

No doubt about it: Magic cards are a great investment. I invested in a set of Baneslayer Angels back when they were just $50 each. Recently, when I needed a little extra money for the holidays, I decided to cash in and get a whopping $9 per Angel from a local dealer. I know, I know: if only I could've held on until October, when it might no longer be in Standard, right? She might be worth as much as $5 by then!

If you don’t want to buy the cards in order to be competitive that’s fine and it’s your choice. It just annoys me when I hear people complaining about how they cannot afford a good deck. I cannot afford to buy everything I want, but that does not mean everything is too expensive. All that it means is that I allocated my resources in such a way that I bought what I wanted the most.

Good for you, guy. That's nice, I guess.

(/firejoemorgan impression)

Obviously, most Magic players are not homeless people reading articles at the library. Competitive Magic has always required a significant chunk of dispensable income. Most players already know--as they always have--that they need the best cards to compete effectively in Constructed. Those cards frequently cost some money, though $100 Standard cards are a new phenomenon.

Boggemes asks — and never really answers — whether Jace's price is good for the game. As a player with a relatively low dispensable income, I don't know or really care whether $100 Jaces are “good for the game,” but I know they likely hurt the level of competition at the PTQ level. Some players will try inferior alternatives (those losers!) and some people will stay home, and that sucks. Why shit on those people, who likely make up a significant portion of the audience that reads strategy articles? Those people certainly want to play and compete, and they probably have done so for years, but wanting Jace badly enough doesn't make the card any cheaper to buy.

Of course, some people care more about Magic than others do. Serious players will call every spell-slinger they know who might lend them one, or they'll drop the dough if they've got it. They would have done this whether or not Boggemes told them to, and I doubt anyone is inspired by condescending talk from a pro who now likely has a relatively easy time getting cards.

Players such as myself with shakier financial situations might sit this one out instead, and that's OK. Nowhere is it written that Standard must be affordable to all; this game owes me nothing. Simply spare me your rant on how I must not want to win badly enough. Please don't disrespect players with bogus arguments such as “if sponsored professional players can put decks together, why can't you?” or “Magic cards are an investment in your future.”

Thank you.