Puca's Mischief #5

I had slowed down for a while on Puca Trade as I had credit in the bank, cards on the way and an empty want list. I upped my standards for what I wanted to send and wanted it to be worth my while. Nearly a week went by of casually checking Puca with no deals worth taking. And then BAM, 5 fat envelopes in a single day were packed and sent to all corners of the globe (Finland, Canada, America, Australia and Singapore).

I received my first envelope last Friday and I expect two more to arrive some time this week. Inside was a pack fresh pair of Time Spiral Gemstone Mines and a Gruul Signet. I am now one Gemstone Mine away from finishing my Legacy deck (well the main deck, the sideboard could take a while).
The Gruul signet completes the cycle and puts a cap on my OCD for now.

With more members getting involved in Korea it's getting interesting. While it means I am no longer the exclusive Puca representative of Korea it opens up the chance for cheap and quick trading. It's easier and cheaper for me to go to the post office than it is to go to Seoul.
It has alsomeant the possibility of selling points to fellow members which opens up a whole new dimension to the trading I am doing. If that works out I could finally get Magic to pay for itself!

I am in the middle of finalising my cube want list after a massive overhaul so I am now willing to send a lot more of my collection.
I have a Legacy Deck, two Modern decks and a fun cube. My EDH deck could do with a little love and I should build another one or two for variety. So it feels time to sit back, put the feet up and try and remember who won the dice roll. 

Podcasts 2015

It's pretty early in the year and not long since I last did this but there have been some changes so I wanted to update the list.
Last time I wrote that a lot of the podcasts I listened to felt like they were at the crossroads, and looking back some fared better than others.

The Deck Tease is on hiatus and scratched from my playlist. The members of the EH team are playing more Magic and KYT is now on the pro tour (awesome) but it feels like the cast is an obligation rather than something they look forward too. Some of the hosts go missing for long periods of time and the cast runs for too long given so little content.

There was controversy around Heavy Meta as Channel Fireball leant heavily on Face to Face Games (the main sponsor) to have TSG removed from the cast. This was really petty from Channel Fireball and the cast just feels morbid as a result. TSG brought a lot of organisation to that cast and in his absence the cast feels much worse.
I stopped listening half way through the last one and it seems to all be about upcoming GP Vegas and merchandise from here on in.

I am probably down to only listening to 15% of Drive to Work episodes. Mark Rosewater's game designer series has gone from one of my favourites to an auto delete. I do really enjoy the 15% that are a format I like though such as the "during this year of magic" ones.

Limited Resources came out of it's co host search with LSV in the second seat. He is a fantastic addition and my only quibble is that he is too similar to Marshall's drafting style. Brian Wong seemed to draft different decks which led to more interesting discussions a lot of the times. There is actually a limit on how many times I need to hear the word "value" in a single podcast and it would be nice if they could spare a second for decks that attack the opponent before turn 15..

My Top 7 for last year were:

1 – The Spike Feed

2 – Brainstorm Brewery

3 – Ced Talks

4 – Heavy meta

5 – Limited Resources

6 – The Deck Tease

7 – Drive to Work

Ced talks has fallen a little on my rankings but only because Limited Resources have added LSV and I get plenty of Patrick and Cedric while watching Star City Games Open coverage via Twitch replays.

I like Wizards of the Cast because the hosts are nice guys and mostly talk about limited and cube. You don't get the level of expertise as you do from Limited Resources but the format is much easier to listen to. A Spike feed style 30 minute well produced podcast that focussed on limited would be ideal. The problem with limited resources is that it often goes too long with a lot of stuff that is irrelevant to me.

At Your End Step is a good review of recent SCG events and is very Standard orientated, with good chemistry between the hosts who all seem pretty decent at Magic.

MTG Goldfish is another financial podcast that features some really sharp people with interesting things to say.

My Top 7 for this year are:

1 – The Spike Feed

2 – Wizards of the Cast 

3 – Brainstorm Brewery

4 – Limited Resources 

5 – Ced Talks

6 – At Your End Step

7 – MTG Goldfish

Puca's Mischief #4

This morning was another Pucca first for me, I received notification that someone plans to send me a Revised Wheel of Fortune. I am pretty excited about that and it will be going into my cube straight away. I just checked and Wheel of Fortune is not banned in EDH, I will definitely be jamming it in my EDH deck as well.
It is banned in Tiny Leaders which is further personal justification for never playing that format again.

I am especially excited to add a card from Revised as that was the set I started playing Magic with and I feel nostalgic for the cards from that set. I have to admit though that the Korean 4th Edition versions of the classic cards look better. Instead of a white border and a faded pastel look they have a spiffy black border and decent contrast.

Sending wise I have picked up a few points but it's probably later this week or early next week when I will really start to bank some points as all the trades I did straight after my 10 card sending limit was removed start to arrive.

I have slowed down in the sends this week, I was waiting to see if people would actually send good cards to Korea and my collection is in a bit of flux so I wasn't comfortable sending out good cards I may need.
Once the first card has arrived I think that will give me the impetus to really get a move on with listing my inventory and getting more points.

Another exciting development over the weekend was that I am no longer the only Korean Puca Trader. Another player from Dalmuti's Suwon has joined the Cult and sent out an invite to entice another.

It hasn't all been online where exciting Magic card trading has taken place, this week in real life trades I received a Deathrite Shaman, Hersheys Chocolate Ice Cream and a Beta Sea Serpent amongst others. A pretty cool haul, not huge in value but I have never owned a Beta card before and I cracked a Sea Serpent in my very first Magic Starter.

When looking for an image of a Beta Sea Serpent, this one cracked me up. Someone bothered getting it graded!