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Trade any of my blues, I don't need them! - Trading for Newbies

This week I will be talking about different scenes at the local hobby club or card shack when you're trading as a newbie (whatever you would like to call them!). How does one get a good trade? How do you make trade routes? Have you ever been ripped off? Did you even know you got ripped off?

I remember the first time I went to a magic FNM (Friday night magic) scene, I was so eager to trade. I had my 20 dollars worth of a black theme deck from Darksteel and I was ready to kick some butt! I did manage to win one game which also proves theme decks do actually win!! Afterwards, I decided to ask my opponent for some trades. Ha! Boy did his eyes light up. Here a newbie asks to trade. Already I can remember the thought patterns going through his mind.

Brain of opponent: "I wonder what card he has that I need..."
Brain of Newbie: "I wonder what cool cards he's got!?"

I'm a black player, and that's what I'll play for life!

As you can observe here, the newbie is always looking for cool cards. Cards that sound cool, do cool things and looks cool. Like for example, the first card I traded. It was a Screams from Within. Boy, was that card cool for me after hearing my opponent describe the effects to me. I mean, I've never seen cards like that before! And when I thought what I could do with this card with Naomi's little basher's deck (my fiancie's sister) I thought "alright!"

Of course he had to take a card from my pile too. (Before I went to my first magic night I had already bought a tournament pack and a few boosters so I had "trades"!) He looked through the pile and took out a Fabricate. He asked me:

"Do you need this one?"
(and I said to him)
"Trade any of my blues, I don't need them!"

(I wish I could turn back time...wish I could find my.....ah hem.)

Now back then, I didn't know what the value was of cards, and when I thought to myself..."Fabricate...whatever, it's blue...I play black! Black all the way!" I sort of wished I didn't do that after a few weeks later. I ended up searching for 4 Fabricates to build a new deck. Oh and I ended up picking up about 10 Screams from Withins since everyone just gave me their "booster trash". Moral? Don't just trade any card. Ask a friend or a veteran magic player if it's a fair trade.

I'm a playing black and blue, you can take all my whites!

It's amazing how the human mind functions. We never learn from our mistakes until we loose a leg, or loose an arm or loose a few white rares.

I decided to play black and blue after a few weeks. I thought, "ah, what the heck, I'll splash another colour into my deck!" I had found out what the colours on the back of the cards meant. (if you don't know, the colours that are next to each other are friends and they apparently work well together!)

I went hunting for blues and blacks everywhere. I had a Mephitic Ooze and I was looking for three more. I had a Synod Artificer and I was looking for three more. It was so fun actually looking to complete my home made deck. I guess I just have one word to swallow after looking at fifth dawn's new abilities.

Sunburst.

I'll sunburst you! I have all these other colours and no whites...
I think we have all learned from this experience of the newbie? Hmm?

And now, a little bit about this week's trading.

Some times I have to admit, an unfair trade to you, may be a fair trade to them. It's true! If you haven't experienced it already, you may have traded a really crap card for a really good card (to you of course). I remember trading a Synod Centurion for a Skullclamp. Of course, it really sucked when they got banned a day after...heh.

I also remember trading a Pulse of the Fields for a Skullclamp. I think I got the down end of the bargain there...but to the newbie, he didn't need those white cards! Have a look at the price now of a Skullclamp compared to a Pulse of the Fields at www.findmagiccards.com and you will understand my pain. Nevertheless, one must go on trading and this week, I actually came up with a few good trades.

Here are this weeks trades: (I'll try my best to share my experience in what's a good trade and what's not to you)

Flamebreak FOR Acquire

Pulse of the Tangle + Greater Harvester + 2 bucks FOR 2x Mycosynth Lattice

Memnarch + Myr Incubator FOR Worship + Akroma's Vengeance

Pristine Angel FOR Obliterate

Okk FOR Relentless Rats

Analysis of this week's trades:

Flamebreak FOR Acquire

Upon checking the prices I thought this was ok to trade away because I needed the blue and he needed the red! Made sense to me. Simple trade.

Pulse of the Tangle + Greater Harvester + 2 bucks FOR 2x Mycosynth Lattice

Sometimes you can get away with trading a crappier card like Greater Harvester by adding a few more "counters" to it. So now that my Greater Harvester had +2...bucks. The trade went through. It's always so much easier to look at the current buy prices to see if you are getting a fair deal.

[Ed - Greg missed the analysis on this trade, and hasn't replied to my email, so I'll wade in... here's my view on it :) ]
Memnarch + Myr Incubator FOR Worship + Akroma's Vengeance

A little bit on the uneven side... looking at $10 worth for $16 worth but maybe someone wanted to build some block decks... or a collector needed some cards for their collection.

Pristine Angel FOR Obliterate

I think that's not too bad a trade. Of course, if you are not playing a specific deck, then I wouldn't just trade the angel away for that card. Since I'm building a specific deck, I'm trying to trade all the cards I know I won't use. It's a great way to save money too. (Of course I may regret this in the future heh)

Okk FOR Relentless Rats

When I read Okk...I thought..."what the heck...??" But when I yelled out:

"Anyone want to trade a rare for any uncommon?" I was up to my neck in newbies." :)

I guess sometimes you can get away with trading poor rares for an uncommon. To me, rats aren't all that special, but to others, I know they are worth something. So I traded him the rat. He was happy, I was happy. :) Price wise it was a few dollars off. This was no newbie either. He was just a collector. Sometimes, you can get lucky when collectors like to take up what you think is crap. One man's trash is another man's treasure!

Ok, that's it from me this time! Hope your trading goes well!

Oh, I forgot to tell you...
I got 3 Wrath of Gods for 5 dollars.
That was a cool "trade".