T2 Regional, cards, and the Type 1 player.

[raziel]

So you're probably wondering what a Type 2 event like Regionals has to do with the Type 1 player? Keep reading and I'll fill you in. How many times have people here posted "where do I find power", or "it's so expensive" You might not realize it but coming up in May is one of your best chances to pick up Power and other T1 staple cards. My first piece of power was a Black Lotus from a guy I met at Regionals 2 years ago. You would be surprised at the number of type 1 cards people bring to these events. Most times sitting in the back of their binders, sometimes brought specifically to sell at these events. Here's an example of some of the cards I've picked up at these larger events:
Black Lotus
Timetwister
Library of Alexandria
Mana Drains
Every Beta restricted card there is.
Any desirable card you can think of I've found at these larger events. The rest of my Power? Every other piece of Power came from people I met there or some other event, who later contacted me, to sell, or trade. The only power card I bought from a store was a Mox Ruby from C&J, and that was only because it was the last piece I needed and was priced right.  Any power card I've picked up was always for less than what a store would have sold it for. If you're patient you will find the right card, at the right price too. Need an example, that Lotus (NM) I mentioned started out at 350.00 We exchanged email addresses and told him I would think about it. 2 weeks later I emailed him and asked him to send me a scan of it. After a few emails I picked it up for 200.00 At that time the only store here in the S.F. area that had a couple was selling them for 350.00 in beat condition. Need more?  Game Con event - Timetwister(EX),  Beta Demonic Tutor(played), Intuition(NM) and something random, 65.00. The guy selling said he didn't play T1 so he didn't need the cards.  Pre-release event - Library(played), Foil Grim Monolith(NM), 50.00 for both. Same story, he didn't play T1, didn't need the cards. I can't tell you how many Force of Wills I've picked up over the years along with Dual Lands etc. The point is not to beat my chest and tell you about the great deals I've made. It's to let you know that deals are out there. And Regionals or any large event is the time for you to go out with your cash and trade. What's the best part? In most cases they'll take your T2 stuff in trade for it. If you're willing to invest some time and energy you'll be able to find the cards you need. Check the Wizards website for the location of your local Regional event coming up in May.
 
Quick thanks to C&J/Gto members Jeff and Bamm
for teaching and sharing the art of trading.

[Lord_Drazinus]

I've picked up some key staple cards at pre-releases. Bazaars, duals, Forces, and they've all been cheaper than what a localstore would have charged for them...

[raziel]

Feel free to post your best trade story here. I always like to here a good one. Here's what I think was one of mine. At an Odyessey Block event this guy walks up and wants to look at my binder. I happened to have 2 Call of the Herds in there. He had 2 Mishra's Workshops. This was right before they took off in value. Well, he just had to have those Calls. At that time they were still trading at 22.00, still I said "I don't know, the Calls are pretty playable, how about you throw in a couple Force of Wills and you got a deal". He thought about it for like 2 seconds and said sure. In his mind the Forces were unplayable along with the Workshops. But the Calls were still legal for T2. So we both parted happy.

[FORCE-OF-WILL]

My best? The one that got me into type 1?

I picked up a playset of english drains for $60 cash....this was four months ago.

I do appriciate you posting this thread as I will admit im not the best literary speker( ie I suck at writing stuff) and I plan on using the main post as an example to the players im getting into vintage in my area.
Its tough sometimes when the goal of power seems so far away, but I tell the players in my grounp (about 30% is powered) that they just need to keep their eyes open and look.

I plan on wearing a shirt to regionials that  has a sign on it with a picture of the power 9 that says "wanted- plz see management for details"

[illuzion]

A lot of my better delas have been made with cold, hard cash.  Because some people are up for t2, while others are up for paying some bills.

I once bought duals for $1 a piece, primarily because the guy just didn't know any better... but the important part is that he wasn't looking for more cards.

Feel free to post your best trade story here.

I ran into a guy with 20 Force of Wills (he'd been collecting them) and I traded a similar number of various blue uncommons currently worth less than $5... for all of said FoWs... (this is probably circa 1999).

[raziel]

Regionals is this weekend. Go out there and search for those Type 1 cards. Take your binders and some cash. If you're in California hit these events in the month of May.

Pro Tour San Diego
Pre Release Nor Cal, So Cal
KublaCon in San Francisco

Or you can save your money and buy the cards at really inflated prices online.

[Cpkrug]

this will be my first time to regionals, will the dealers there have any T1 cards?  I am guessing not, but just curious.  I am looking forward to a big day of trading.

[Bram]

The difficulty of getting power and good cards in overrated. Over the past 3 weeks, I've traded for a playset of Workshops (3 NM, 1 EX) for nothing else but crappy cards. One for 4 beta sinkholes, 1 for a pile of crap uncommons, one for 8 crappy revised duals like badlands and I bought one, paying for it by selling surplus painlands and maybe a Masticore and Intuition or two.

And trust me, I have NO insane negotioting skills or anything. Just keep your ears and eyes open, and jump into a deal without hesitation.

[johnstown713]

Oh all the sweet deals.

I met a guy a couple weeks ago on vacation that had a workshop.  I showed him my crap binder and he went crazy with like ten cards.  Also at a convention last year I watched a guy shuffle through a box and buy a fraternal exhalteration(I know I mispelled it) for TWO dollors.  If you can top that then we will talk about good deals.  Oh by the way, Richard Garfield was at the event and then signed the guy's card.

[raziel]

Cpkrug -
I can only tell you that here in N.California there are a few stores that have tables set up with cards for sale at Regionals. T1 and T2. Go early, take every playable T2 card with you even commons and uncommons. People show up with incomplete decks looking to buy, and trade before the tourny. Even the dealers have buy lists for all the junk cards they need.

Bram -

The difficulty of getting power and good cards is overrated.

Absolutely true.
Even if you don't find power cards, it's still a great place to find Duals, Morphlings, Masticores and other cards to use as trade up stock.

[raziel]

Update:
For the hell of it I'll let you know what transpired at Regionals. Gim "duck" Chu of C&J Gto fame won the whole thing placing first in 11 rounds of constructed play. My congratulations to the duckster . I don't know the official number of players there, but 11 rounds is easily 500+. Onward to Nationals for Duck. On a lesser note more T1 cards there than you could imagine. I picked up many foreign cards and foils since I'm not in the market for power. But it was there! Next stop San Diego?

[johnstown713]

Yeah here in the North East we had 11 rounds with 560 people and there was quite a bit of power.  I finished my english drain set.  Horay.  Props to all who gamed for 13 hours this past Saturday.

[D0rk]

there was a decent amount of power going around at Florida Regionals, most of it was from vendors who wanted 350 bucks for white boarder moxes, and upwards of 500 for BB ones. Don't even ask what they wanted for a BB Lotus, when i asked the guy someone else jumped in and said "too much, don't bother." There was a good amount of T1 goodies floating around though, i just didn't have the trade fodder to grab anything useful.

[Spike_Tribop]

I didn't pick up too much. I did manage to get a set of nice Volcanics,
a set of Sphere of Resistance, and some other minor stuff though.

@johnstown713: How did you do in Regionals?

[johnstown713]

I went 5-4-2.  I was playing mono white control which is designed to beat aggro especially ravager.  I lost to a bidding then played 4 control matchups in a row.  How unlucky.  It was still very fun.  I played at the regionals at Elizabeth, NJ.

@Spike_Tribop:  Did I play you or something?

[Shadow Ninja]

Our Regionals in the Midwest had something like 621 people there.  It was ridiculous.  I ended up placing 63th with a 7-4 record.  One of my teammates got 11th, so we were pretty happy for him.

As for deals, well, I may not have gotten quite as good of deals as some, but with my card pool being as it is (that is, not a lot of valuable chase cards) I'm happy with what I did get.  I ended up trading my playset of Negators, my CE Mox Jet, my shiny Nantuko Shade, and another Nantuko Shade away for a bunch of good stuff (dumping Suicide Black cards is secret tech).  I got a playset of Su-Chi, 2 Rectors, a playset of SotF, 2 DCI Kai, some beta lightning bolts that we figured out were fake afterwards (at least I have them now so no one else will get screwed), a playset of Deltas, my playset of Conclaves and Standstills, and a bunch of other goodness.  It was an awesome fun time I had.

[raziel]

Glad to hear you guys did well and had fun.  I'll post a list just to show you what's out there. Btw I was only there for 4 hours.

In trade here's what I picked up:
3 Blood Moon- Japanese
3 Mana Vault- Japanese
2 Animate Dead- Japanese
1 Lightning Bolt- Japanese
1 Mystical Tutor- Italian
1 Negator- Foil
1 Grim Monolith- Foil
2 Faerie Conclave- Foil
1 Roar of the Wurm- Foil
1 Animate Dead- Beta
1 Animate Dead- Alpha
3 Arcbound Ravager
The best cards I traded away looked like this:
4 Polluted Deltas
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Revised Bayou
The other cards were binder filler/ junk.

[Sirena]

I traded a combination of Meddling Mage/Shadowmage Infiltrator/Stifle
to get a Library of Alexandria at the South Regionals.

I spent the entire time selling and trading to dealers for cool foils for my deck(Chalice of the Void, Goblin Welder etc....)

I did not trade away any cards worth more than ten dollars.

[Chaos Blade]

How do you think everything is oging to be up in Nationals? Im hoping to go down there and aqquire some Fows and Duals.

[raziel]

Nationals is a great place to pick up cards. The larger the event, the more people to trade with. As it gets closer to the date check Wizards website to see what artist will be there. It's a great way to get your cards signed. Last year Richard Garfield was there, I had him sign most of my Beta cards. You can count on Vendors being there also.