Magic Origins Prerelease experience

We were in Nashville, TN, for Magic Origins Prerelease weekend, so we went to a noon event at The Game Cave in Hermitage, TN.

The Game Cave

Ian picked Black, and I took White.  He built a Green/Black deck, and I played Red/White aggro.  Here is a picture of our rares and mythics.  The foil Kytheon is probably the best card we pulled.

Foil Kytheon, foil on both sides

I love the flavor and design of Magic Origins.  They have done a great job of choosing the core Planeswalkers and have given them backgrounds that make you care about the characters.  Magic is one of Hasbro's most profitable brands, but they don't have character recognition like Star Wars or Pokemon.  Origins is the first attempt to make the characters brand names that will last, and not just something that goes away with the next set release.

We will probably draft this set a few times and I may buy a "repack" booster box for fun.

I also came up with a new way to play Magic (I'm sure it is not 100% original).
Basically play Magic like "Duel Masters" when you have no land for your decks.

1. Take all of your cards from prerelease and remove Rares and Mythics.
2. Split card pool into decks based on color.  Don't include land.
3. Play like normal, except you can play a card once per turn as a land instead of the actual card type.  This land produces one mana of the card color.

Modern Masters 2015

Ian and I went out last night so Ian could draft Modern Masters 2015.  I don't see any Tarmagoyf's in this deck.  Don't you need four of them in every deck?

Speculation in collectibles

I was in a conversation recently about speculation on Magic cards.  An argument was being made that no one can predict the potential price of a card long term, and that they are a good investment.

I agree that you can usually make a profit in the short term, but people forget how bad things have gotten for many collectibles.

My comic book collection has almost no resale value.  People my age across the country have the same collections, and no one wants them.  There was a boom in collecting in the 90s after some high profile comics sold for significant amounts.  But that was for old comics that are now rare.  Nothing is rare anymore.  I looked on eBay, and you can get a black bagged copy of the Death of Superman for under $10.  I found my copy in a bargain bin for $1.

So I don't think 4 copies of Tarmagoyf today is going to pay for my sons college education.  On the other hand, a couple of  Black Lotuses might...

a Tarmagoyf for sale on eBay

a Black Lotus for sale on eBay

The Death of Superman, new unopened