@thewhitedragon69 said in R/G/W Draw Engines?:

Pursuit of knowledge + scroll rack!

I don't think that actually works. Sylvan + Pursuit does, though. It was a Type 2 deck from decades ago.

I'll just (re-)state the obvious about how insane the market has jumped in the past 5 years or so, and share some stories about acquiring the now-multithousand dollar cards as a much younger me, solely for the purpose of annoying people and/or eliciting knowing chuckles and rueful shakes-of-the-head from those who can relate.

I started playing in '95 when a college buddy gave me a Revised starter. One of my rares was a Tundra, which I traded for my friend's Rod of Ruin (I mean, come on, I can play Plains and Islands in my deck without playing this "Tundra", whereas a Rod of Ruin actually does something). After becoming a little wiser in the ways of mana I slowly amassed a collection of good playable Eternal staples, buying Revised duals for around $7-$15 apiece until I had my playset. Fast forward a few years and I had my first real job as a SW Engineer, and I was throwing around all kinds of money on cardboard. A few of my more memorable purchases:

Unlimited P9 for around $100 a pop (except Lotus at $300). Beta Pearl and Sapphire at around $150-$200 each. A playset of Bazaars for $12 per. Workshops between $40-$60. Beta duals at $25. This was right after duals rotated out of Extended, and they were considered almost worthless as they were no longer playable in any format that WotC actively supported.

Anyhoo, there's more but I won't irritate you any further with this. I personally love that there are high earners with disposable income to throw around on these cards, as I've slowly been selling off my collection as a means of supporting myself while I pursue self-employment. I'm resigned to the likelihood that I'll never play another game of Vintage again; being able to use my Lotus as a downpayment on a house eases the pain considerably. I'll hold onto my Legacy cards (the only eternal format in my area that anyone seems to play) as long as I can but will probably end up selling them too.

Just the ramblings of an old MtG geezer.

Sylvan pairs nicely with Abundance and Convalescent Care.

This thread made me log into TMD for the first time in probably close to a year.

I sold my cards in 2014. I borrowed cards to play EW in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, as well as SCGCon 2017 and 2018. However, even in 2018 a deck getting stolen would be a bank loan to replace.

Now, I don't anticipate ever playing a game of Vintage again. My gripes with the format aside, it is no longer a bank loan. Borrowing a deck is now risking having to sell my house and get divorced to repay.

Cards are unobtainable. I live in the midwest and have a near-six figure job. My house is worth over 350k. I do pretty well for someone who is 34. What is my point with that? That even making what I make I couldn't ever justify buying even duals right now let alone any vintage staples. As someone who makes upper middle class money, this game is unobtainable to me. It truly now is only a format for the upper class, or the majority of folks who bought in earlier and didn't sell out.

If I owned any cards now, Id be selling them to pay off my house or my wifes student loan debt. Obviously peoples finances are vastly different, and I can't fault anyone for keeping cards, but personally I think it is foolish for anyone with any debt whatsoever or anyone without a solid retirement plan to own any Reserved List cards.