which cards to buy first?

[chrissss]

I kinda want to become more serious with playing type 1, so I decided I need a lot of P9 cards in order to compete.

I now have timetwister and ancestral recall.

whcih cards should I go for next?

time walk
mox sapphire
mox jet
mox ruby
mox emerald
mox pearl
black lotus

library of alexandria
2 more mana drains

anything else?

since magic cards are expensive, BUT they are an investment, I dont mind to much buying them, since i can sell them in a few years with profit.

black lotus is very expensive though, so I might wanna wait till I get a good bargain.

any ides to which cards to go first?

cheers.

[Tha Gunslinga]

since magic cards are expensive, BUT they are an investment, I dont mind to much buying them, since i can sell them in a few years with profit.

I wouldn't bet too heavily on that.

[Matt]

Yeah, it sounds like you should definitely spend the money on some economics classes instead.

[chrissss]

why not?

I bought a timetwister for 80 a few years ago, and now I can easily sell them for more.

in the shop I always play, all P9 cards keep increasing in price. same goes for dual lands, and other expensive cards like ; mana drain, workshop, library, etc.

btw, I always play wit CE cards instead of my real cards, except in a tournament, so that I hardly use/damage my cards.

mana drains is another example, I bought mine for 35/45, mint, and now they go for 90-120 on ebay (english, near mint)

so does anyone recomend an order of preference for the cards? I am not planning to buy them in one week, I will devide my time, plus wait untill I can buy it for a bargain price.

[Kasuras]

Vintage cards have indeed increased a lot in the previous years. However, they have also decreased a couple of times and I wouldn't expect them to increase any further; they're more likely to stay at this price, with a decrease to your cards because you played with them.

Moreover, previous experiences do not hold any certainty for the future.

Edit: to answer your question, go for the Drains first so you can actually play something rather than waiting for the next piece of power.

[chrissss]

ok.

I was thinking of the drains

then a mox sapphire

time walk

other moxen

maybe one day lotus, if I can find it cheaply.


if cards dont keep increasing, then I will see what I do. I do wanna make sure that the rate of inflation isn't bigger than the price they would go up . I still have the advantage of euros/dollars though.

cards tend to be more expensive here in europe anyway, so if I buy a card for 380 dollars, (300 euros) I can always sell it for about 400 here. and make a lot of profit.
same goes for dual lands, which cost 30-40 euros in my shop,whil I buy them for about 18-26 dollars.

[Kasuras]

Why are you thinking about any future profit? Even for a Mana Drain it sounds like a good deal of money for you to spend, and I don't know anyone for who can just spend 100 dollar on their hobbies: are you really sure you want to buy those cards? If you do, then you should buy them because you love MTG.

Just think a while before you buy those cards; it's a lot of money if you're not entirely certain on this case.

[chrissss]

I have been playing for 8 years now, and I do love the game, so its notreally a waste of money.
buying a 600 dollar graphics cards which becomes obselete in a few years is more a waste of money, so I prefer to buy a few cards. I can spare the money, since I work for it, and I dont spend that much.

but I made my choice, and I will just go for the cards I can use the best in my decks. mana drain isnt really a card I use now, so I might as well wait with that untill I need it.
moxen are more important.

[zeus-online]

If you really want to buy another one, try time walk or black lotus
Both cards does more then a lone mox.

And they are both really good in budget decks.

/Zeus

[TheAlpha]

Why don't you sell the Twister since it's only good if you have 5 moxes and a lotus?

[jazzykat]

If your goal is to get them all eventually just be chill and wait to see what deals come your way. Otherwise I would say that a black lotus, ancestral recall, or perhaps timewalk change the game more than any other card.

Ancestral Recall is good unless you have 2 or less cards in your library, or someone has an underworld dreams on you and you have 3 or less life etc. Simply put, for 1 blue it often fundamentally shifts card advantage (regardless of how you measure it) and the game in your favor and breaks open an "evenly" matched game.

Lotus is often part of a chain of broken events that wins you the game, the classic one being; ...Black Lotus --> Yawg Will --> replay Black Lotus --> ...

Time walk is deceivingly good IMO. I never thought it mattered much but when used correctly can often unbalance a balanced game in your favor.

They are also the most expensive pieces of power I believe (a sapphire certainly was around a timewalk in my parts, though).

Lastly, don't buy Magic cards if you will need the money from them later. They are little pieces of cardboard that some people believe to have value, so they do. What other people were saying (some in a persnickety way) is a basic rule of investment: "past performance does not indicate future performance" meaning that just because something went up yesterday or even went up for 3 years in a row does not mean it will always be like that. That being said I believe P9 cards will maintain value better than any other card over the span of a few years.

Side opinion/note: I have a full set of p9, loa, extra ancestral (I like ancestrals!), and a set of drains and I doubt I would part with them due to love of the game and the relatively insignificant amount of money (once you get into the real world) that they really fetch.

JK

[chrissss]

ancestral recall is my nr 1 priority. its still the best card imo. 1U and 3 cards, it doesnt get better than that. I used it in decks (using the Colectors edition) and its amazing.

time walk is great because in worst case senario, its just 1{B} and "draw a card, untap all permanents you control"

lotus is just really fast. but they are toooexpensive. I have been following auctions on ebay, and even very beeat up lotusses go for 400-500.

moxen are great, but one mox doest really make a huge difference I have noticed, once you get more, it gets better. then again, first turn underground sea and mox sapphire is always nice.

timetwister: I might sell it, but the thing is, that it doesnt sell for that much, ( I have an unlimited in excellent condition) and they go for 200 max on ebay.

I could have bought a mox pearl for 120 a few days ago, but the seller didnt reply fast enough, because he madea mistake of putting "US only" even though he wanted to sell to worldwide.

thx for the tips all.

[Tha Gunslinga]

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Umezawa's Jitte went from $4 to $20 in the past; should you pick them up now for their imminent rise to $100?

[chrissss]

you cannot compare cards that have been released the last 8 years with cards from 1993-1994.

Power 9, juzam, loa, mana drain, etc.

these cards wont go down, unless tomorrow the DCI decides to ban them.

I know that buying new cards isnt an investment at all. same goes for call of the herd, urzas rage, schadowmage, stroke of genius, blistering firecat, exalted etc etc etc. all cards that were 20-25 when they came out, but once they rotated out of standard, their prices dropped.

so I am not talking about these cards.


I am 100% sure that Power 9 cards arent going to drop half price one day, unless people stop playing magic, or the cards are added to the T1 banned list. ( both aren't likely to happen)

[CrashTest]

If you can save up and get a nice Lotus, it may be worth it. It is the most expensive piece, but at least you won't have to worry about getting it later on, and every deck uses it, while not every deck uses Time Walk/Ancestral Recall.

         If you are playing some blue based deck, I'd get: Recall, Lotus, and Sapphire first. If stax or other deck, then Lotus, and then any of the Moxes.

         I got my Black Lotus before I had finished other pieces, and it was a lot easier because I did not have to worry about getting a card that's almost 2 pieces of power in price later on.

[chrissss]

good point.

I might do that, since black lotus can fit in almost any deck, while the others wont. although every T1 deck I build has black in it though.

If I see a bargain, I might buy a lotus. but I dont trust spending 500$ on ebay. if I dont get the card, I am screwed. and paypal doesnt always repay you.

[CrashTest]

I have bought a lot of power from eBay, and if you buy from the right seller with good feedback, it's very safe.

       You won't find the prices practically anywhere else, so it is worth it imo.

[chrissss]

well, I bought a ancestral recal a few days ago, from a guy with 100% feedback, and 2000+ score.

so I will see how that goes.

its true about the prices indeed. the prices I pay on ebay, are less expensive than prices in euros in magic shops where I live.

for example, a 390$ card would cost 400 euros in my shop. 390$ is 300 euros.

[BossOfTheGame]

which ever one you can get the cheapest.

[Gabethebabe]

The first three should be Ancestral - Sapphire - Walk.

With that you can build a fully powered deck (Fish).

After that Lotus

After that the other 4 moxes, Jet first.

The two drains more and LoA

and finally TTwister

You can´t really do much with Drains if you don´t own the P8.

[Mr. Nightmare]

I think this depends a lot on if you're in a proxy or non-proxy environment.  For what everyone says, this is probably true if you're in a non-proxy, but I'd say you want the most playability(ie, versatility)  first in a proxy environment.  Most decks play Moxen, but some don't play Blue, etc.  With 4 to 5 moxen (and Drains if I choose to play them) you can get any deck under 10 proxies with UbaStax possibly being the exception.  I guess I'm saying I agree with this:

which ever one you can get the cheapest.

[Komatteru]

I'm faaaar too lazy to read all the advice in this thread, but I personally recommend gettin Moxes first.  Walk and Ancestral aren't necessarily in every single deck (Uba Stax had neither, and 5c Stax uses just Ancestral), but Moxes are.  If you really really want to maximize what you can build, Sapphire is probably the best, but picking up Ruby or Emerald isn't a bad idea if you don't want to shell out so much.  I would recommend picking up the cheaper Moxes because all cards proxy the same.

I don't recommend getting a Lotus.  The cost just isn't really worth it.  You can proxy in almost every tournament you would want to play in, and the Lotus is a bigger loss should your deck get stolen, lost, Mountain Dew spilled on it, etc.  There's really no reason to own a Lotus other than the sake of completion.  You can say "I own the crown jewel of Magic cards," but that's about it.  Walk is also a little on the expensive side, so unless you plan to complete the set, I wouldn't start with that either.

Only get the Lotus or Walk next if you are 100% certain that you are going to complete the set, with a plan to do so.  You likely won't complete the set unless you have a "Set aside X dollars a month" type plan to purchase the cards.

[Danzig]

In the order I grabbed them and recommend...

1) 2 Mana Drain, for reasons aid already, you can play something.
2) Black Lotus, you have to knock it before it's price gets too far out of reach.
3) Mox Sapphire, works well with your Ancestral Recall.
4) Mox Jet, 2 words, Yawgmoth's Will.
5) Time Walk, 2 words, Yawgmoth's Will.
6) Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, Mox Pearl, pick them off as you need them.