With collecting I have mistakenly thought I was “done” many times and now accept that will likely never be the case. Each time I change directions it plays out pretty much the same way. I am getting close to finishing my goal, I push to finish it and then when I do I feel empty. To cope with the emptiness I quickly pivot by setting new and more difficult goals for myself. The piece of advice I give to others is to make your collection goals stretch out as long as possible. The journey is far more enjoyable if you take your time rather than rushing to the destination.
Over time my aesthetic preferences and my collection have changed fairly dramatically. A prime example of this is City of Brass:
Coming from Vintage I had a love for Japanese cards. I had been to Japan in 2016 and over the years had cultivated a collection of every playable card for Vintage Workshops in Japanese over the years. When I started playing City of Brass in Old School in 2018 I used Japanese FBB 4th Edition Cities. Before I played a single game I ordered 4 of just about every inexpensive Japanese card I could find that might be playable in Atog. Throughout 2018 I acquired pretty much all of the playable Japanese Old School legals cards, some format staples not printed in Japanese and 40 Collector’s Edition Duals. At the time I thought I was done, but I wasn’t even close.
In 2019 I found myself with an invite to n00bcon. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go to Sweden and throw my hat in the ring, but my Old School collection was setup for American rather than Swedish reprints. With n00bcon on the horizon I turned as much of my collection as I could into Swedish legal. Thanks to the generosity of Scott Bradley and Mano I was able to borrow some cards so I could play at n00bcon, but I was hoping to make that a one time thing. Due to solely playing Workshops in Vintage for 10 years I didn’t own Duals, but had Beta Power. In 2018 I picked up a full set of CE duals and they would remain that way for the time being because I couldn’t afford Beta duals, but because I liked the aesthetic of having my whole deck black border everything else transitioned over to English. And so as with many other cards, I found a set of Arabian Nights Cities of Brass and sold my FBB set.
Sometime in the dark age that was 2020 I set a goal of playing at n00bcon on my birthday in 2021 with a deck that was entirely my own and ideally fully black bordered. The circumstances which enabled these fever dream to become reality were unique. I had reacquired my original Unlimited Black Lotus at Eternal Weekend in 2019 which allowed me to essentially trade my Beta Black Lotus for 4 HP Beta Volcanic Islands and also due to COVID I was spending significantly less than before and thus could afford to purchase a Beta Blue Dual every month or so. Before I knew it my collection was fully black bordered and Swedish legal aside from my Black Lotus (which I will write about in a separate post at some point). While COVID pushed n00bcon to be virtual rather than in person, I am happy to say that I did achieve my goal of playing my own cards in n00bcon on my birthday.
At this point I was inching closer to the point where I had everything to play all of the tier one decks with Swedish reprints. I eventually got to that spot and quickly realized how much more I enjoyed the journey than the destination. I was at a crossroads collection-wise as I owned 32 Beta Duals, but didn’t see myself ever wanting to play Savannah or Bayou in Sweden and thus wasn’t sure I should push myself to upgrade them to Beta. On one hand, the idea of 40 before 40 was appealing, but on the other I didn’t want to commit so many resources for no reason other than to take a cool picture. No shade at anyone who has 40 Beta Duals, I just decided that was not for me.
In 2021 during one of my late night compulsive Facebook scrolling sessions I stumbled upon a playset of four season altered Arabian Nights Cities of Brass. I thought the price was fair and didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
I have always liked signed cards, but these Cities represented a turning point in my collection. From there I went deeper and deeper into the alter rabbit hole. I attend a lot of Old School events and many of them have Magic artists in attendance which gives me a lot of opportunities to get my cards altered. Over the last 3 years I have started to prioritize events with artists over those without when all else is relatively equal.
At the outset, I decided that if possible I would avoid sending cards to artists; instead getting everything done on site. By taking this approach I have made the process much more fulfilling than it would be if I had done it via mail through an intermediary. I get the experience of meeting the artists, can share with them my enthusiasm and passion for the game, hear their feedback on my ideas for alters, and create a lasting association that ties each card to a specific moment in time. The process certainly takes longer than it otherwise would, but for me that is a pro rather than a con because I know it will be that much more satisfying when I eventually arrive at my destination.
After setting out to get my cards altered, I found a new side quest which has captivated me ever since. At n00bcon in 2022 I was the soberest person in the room at 2am and thus asked to be the scorekeeper for the Ante40k World Championship. Similarly to how I became hooked on Old School after spectating at the Eternal Weekend Old School event in 2017, I left n00bcon knowing deep down that I wanted to get into ante. In hindsight I am not sure why it took me 10 months to get an ante deck together, but at Arvika Festival in 2023 I jumped into the pool and haven’t gotten out since.
For the uninitiated, the way that Ante40k works is that you build a Swedish legal deck which must be worth at least 40,000 SEK ($3,764) and then play games of Magic for ante. The ante cards are all restricted except for Jeweled Bird and each player antes the top card of their deck before the game begins. Whoever wins gets the card that the other person anted or in many cases, a Jeweled Bird which saved their ante card. When you lose a card it is customary to alter it to memorialize the occasion. Some of the alters are good and others are bad, but the end result is that you can win Swedish legal cards which have the added benefit of a good story associated to them.
At n00bcon in 2024 I didn’t win a shark, but I had a very productive weekend playing Ante 40k. That weekend I returned to the Ante40k World Championship as a player rather than a scorekeeper. I lost in the finals to a very deserving Jonnie Myrbacka but over the course of the weekend I managed to win a City of Brass, Badlands, Moat, Unlimited Sol Ring, and Su-Chi. The alter that Mike Frantz did on the City of Brass I won from him was cool, but by virtue of his level of inebriation and the fact that we both wanted to get in as many games as possible in the Ante 40k World Championship it was rushed. When I got home I knew I wanted to do something to embellish it and make it my own because there was no way I wasn’t going to be playing that City of Brass in all of my decks going forward.
As of writing this my aesthetic hierarchy for a card that I play looks something like:
- Needs to be Swedish legal
- Ideally is black bordered
- Has an event stamp, alter, or changed ownership in an ante game.
For me, every card should have its own story. I know at this point that I never will be “done”. I may get to stopping points where I am content with not adding anything more to my collection for a long while and eventually the churn will slow down. Each person is on their own individual journey with their own aesthetic preferences and goals. What is right for me is likely not right for you and that’s OK. Enjoy the journey, savor the hunt, and be happy with where you are along the path.
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