I went to GP DC two weekends ago, as I have already mentioned. While I spent precious little time in the eating establishments of the Columbian district, I ended up spending that money on a variety of pointless additions to my Magic collection.
I mean, I also played in the main event and washed out of a couple of drafts, one time without even getting to play a real game of Magic (mulligans, man), but the highlight for me was being able to comb through the vendors for Commander cards.
Big boxes of mixed foils tend to be perfect for these endeavors; I spent all weekend asking around for low-level Eldrazi foils for my Five-Color Colorless deck and ended up paying way more for several cards that showed up in the bulk foil box. It’s not the end of the world, though. Thanks to my gig at StarCityGames.com, writing for Dear Azami, I’ve managed to significantly cut back on my out of pocket expenditures; between that and the amount of money you save on food when you’re starving yourself half to death I had some cash to burn.
Plus, it’s not like I have a history of making rational purchasing decisions, although time has certainly made that particular bet seem a lot better in retrospect.
Anyway, here’s some shit that I spent money on. Please do not do the math on how much this means I spent; I don’t want to know.
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Eldrazi Foils
We’re talking cards like Vile Redeemer that have little constructed appeal, even as the Eldrazi menace takes over Modern and makes incursions into Legacy. Cards like the launch party foils of Endbringer or Blight Herder, as opposed to pre-release foil versions which have a different piece of art and a slightly different date stamp. Bearer of Silence and Fathom Feeder also showed up in the bulk box, though I still had to pay full price for Sea Gate Wreckage, which is apparently a sought-after card.
I can see why!
Since we don’t have allied color Commander precons yet, my allied color Commander selection is actually pretty weak at the moment. So when I saw a Rasputin Dreamweaver staring back at me in a case, I gave into weakness and purchased it. I don’t even know what I want to do with it; I was thinking it might be a good card for colorless stuff. Of course, a white colorless-focused deck wants to run Eldrazi Displacer, and Eldrazi Displacer plus Rasputin Dreamweaver is an infinite mana combo, so I have some concerns. Plus, is this even interesting? I have a Sharuum, the Hegemon deck and a Five-Color Colorless deck; what will this do that the others don’t? I suppose we shall see.
That having been said… part of the appeal is just that it’s a weird card with a cool name. That’s not shallow, it’s Vorthos!
Selvala, Explorer Returned (foil)
Like Rasputin Dreamweaver, the Selvala purchase was an incentive to work on my allied color decks. I have made two Selesnya decks before and yet I have neither one; the gift deck was a gift and my Sigarda, Host of Herons enchantress deck really belongs to my lovely partner, no matter how involved I was in its conception. It’s been a while, and I do like me some green and white action.
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic (foil)
I guess it’s unclear how long I’ll have a Sharuum, the Hegemon deck for, though. I’m thinking about going down to one deck per identity (with an exception being made for five-color decks), and buying a promo foil copy of Oloro, Ageless Ascetic would pull me in that direction. Of course, we’ll see if I can actually pull the trigger on this; I’m working on two different Azorius decks at the moment, and my third Orzhov one. Still, if I do go down to one deck, “I have a rare promo foil of a commander that’s mediocre at best in the 99” is a compelling argument for Oloro’s ascendancy. Realistically, I will probably smush the decks together, and keep Sharuum as a Mulldrifter.
This was more of an attack of opportunity, but I’ve always wanted to make a Grixis “good stuff” deck and I never got around to actually doing it. Perhaps this commander will be just the kick I need, although losing Sedris, the Traitor King would be a bit of a blow. I do like that deck, even if I never get to play it.
Maelstrom Wanderer (foil)
This is my favorite Temur deck, and I so rarely get to play it because it is absolutely brutal. But in thinking of foiling out my commanders, I couldn’t pass it up. It’s just such a great card, and thanks to Dana’s success in a tournament we have a bunch of cards from the Commander’s Arsenal, just not that one. It just felt right, which is a terrible reason to spend money on Magic cards.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer (foil)
This was a gift for Dana. Now two of her three decks fight under the banner of a foil commander (Sygg, River Cutthroat being the second; the pricing for Karametra, God of Harvests and Sigarda, Host of Herons proved prohibitive).
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And that’s the story about how I spent way too much money on premium Commander foils. I did pick up other stuff, some miscellaneous and some just forgettable, but this does highlight something I’ve always loved about GPs. You can find some amazing stuff in those cases. Shopping at a GP is always worth at least a bit of time.
Jess Stirba is a bit too into the whole shopping experience.