Vibe Check - Community Discussion

[3drinks]

If you're familiar with the Kaalia journal I've been working, you know it's a budget litmus test to snowball a basic brew to a real deck. I've had an idea cross my desk that I keep waffling on going both ways and I'm just looking for a ethics conversation before I make a call. I can go either way.

So, I've got a simplified Chinese print of Zodiac Dragon. Leftovers from when I meme'd Kaalia as white border only. I wanna sell it cause...it's really not good, it's more like an obscure collector piece. TCGPlayer suggests that version is ~$180. I'd want to take those proceeds and dedicate it fully to the Kaalia ledger.

- The accountant in me approves turning a used asset into a current project.
- Ethically, this feels gray as it's giving off a "injection of personal capital into business funds" aura and I wouldn't want this to skewer the budget work I've been doing to-date.

Obviously, such a one-time injection would go really far - it'd effortlessly shore up the mana up to the point right before I'd start shopping for fetchlands. It'd also be far and above any amount of capital this project has ever sniffed to-date, bordering on making irrelevant the grind to this point. But, that's assuming I could even find a buyer - these kinds of scarce oddities are notoriously ill-liquid in the first place. So I'm looking for a morality check from other, largely uninvested parties that can offer thoughts without a compromised judgment. Thanks.

[Dragonlover]

I wouldn't put the money to the Kaalia project, just doesn't feel right. The grind is the point of the project after all.

Dragonlover

[Dunadain]

There's not really any "moral" concern here, there's nothing ethically wrong with buying or selling magic cards.

I do suspect you'd come to regret putting that much money into your project all at once though. Part of the appeal of these kind of projects is the slow, incremental growth, injecting ~$200 into the deck at once will make all prior edits feel inconsequential, and all future edits as well, unless you up your spending going forward.

That's just like, my opinion though.

[onering]

I think you would regret putting your money into the project for the reasons already mentioned. The project is fun for you, and the grind and slow leveling up seems to be a big part of that. I feel like you'd be cheating yourself out of that by dropping that much cash on it at once.

If instead you set aside the money and draw from it when you would normally upgrade the deck, then that will probably work for you.

[Sinis]

I think Dunadain has the right of it. It's a little like a pay-for-convenience microtransaction (or as is sometimes called "pay to lose" or "pay to finish") in a game. The fun is engagement with the (side) game you're playing... Isn't it?

[3drinks]

Nice to see my initial thoughts are pretty well in line with others. That cheap excitement, is like, well yeah I did something similar with Eternal Might (adding foreign cards that'd get bulked out otherwise) and now I don't have the same excitement level towards playing it.

ChatGPT mentioned something similar to onering here, that I might sell it and dripfeed those proceeds into the ledger at a rate equal to what I'd try to clear in an average night. So I can still cash out of that but I'm not injecting a huge windfall at one time. Still, idk I can't shake the regret feeling, almost like it's an unearned bail out. Feels a waste to let that zodiac dragon sit there and taunt me from my binder like that 2:30am text to your ex you never should've made.

It's different from "buying" something outta my personal binder with ledger funds to go to the project (and subtracting the cost from the ledger appropriately). Feels like a cheat, and I think these responses here are just telling me what I already know deep down.

[TheGildedGoose]

You're cheating the entire point of the process and robbing yourself of the joy of the experience.

[PrimevalCommander]

I am in agreement with everyone here. Sell the card and put the funds toward something else, but don't dump it into the budget project. I say this as someone who is new to budget brews and is having a fun time with it. Dumping $200 would just be easy mode and spoil the fun of scouring low cost options and fine tuning using outdated tech.

[3drinks]

For perspective i inquired with my LGS. 50% cash or 70% credit. So a ~$126 injection. Definitely the right move to not drop that here.

I might drop that in my personal binder though.

[materpillar]

I'm not exactly sure on what your Kaalia restrictions are.

My Kotis, the Fangkeeper budget build was to keep the entire build under $2 per card but preferably as many jank sub-$1 cards as possible. My hope was that the deck would cost less than the price of one card of my opponents decks. The only exceptions ended up being Nature's Lore and Sawtusk Demolisher (which my friend just straight up gave me for free). The entire deck is listed as being $47 (including the 3 color mana base) which is still $10 higher than I was hoping but still pretty respectably low. That all being said if you're rocking a "budget" deck, throwing a random ~$150 (or roughly 3 times more than the total cost of my most budget deck) into it seems not budget.

[3drinks]

I came with a philosophy to maintain the integrity of the grind but also unload this P3K paperweight.

https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/pr ... m?r=5k67ld

I'm not exactly sure on what your Kaalia restrictions are.

My Kotis, the Fangkeeper budget build was to keep the entire build under $2 per card but preferably as many jank sub-$1 cards as possible. My hope was that the deck would cost less than the price of one card of my opponents decks. The only exceptions ended up being Nature's Lore and Sawtusk Demolisher (which my friend just straight up gave me for free). The entire deck is listed as being $47 (including the 3 color mana base) which is still $10 higher than I was hoping but still pretty respectably low. That all being said if you're rocking a "budget" deck, throwing a random ~$150 (or roughly 3 times more than the total cost of my most budget deck) into it seems not budget.

This journaling I'm doing (I'm trying to get into journalism and this is the start of my writing portfolio) is just a live update that started with the "baseline" (common/uncommon Kaalia) that adds $1 in cards for each player kill and $5 in cards for a game win, and that's the only way to add cards to the deck. Designed to both flex the analytical brain and maximize dollar spent per deck role, but also show "I eat my own cooking", providing a real path to take the basic entry point and turn it into a real deck.

[materpillar]

I came with a philosophy to maintain the integrity of the grind but also unload this P3K paperweight.

https://themtg3drinks.substack.com/p/pr ... m?r=5k67ld

I'm not exactly sure on what your Kaalia restrictions are.

My Kotis, the Fangkeeper budget build was to keep the entire build under $2 per card but preferably as many jank sub-$1 cards as possible. My hope was that the deck would cost less than the price of one card of my opponents decks. The only exceptions ended up being Nature's Lore and Sawtusk Demolisher (which my friend just straight up gave me for free). The entire deck is listed as being $47 (including the 3 color mana base) which is still $10 higher than I was hoping but still pretty respectably low. That all being said if you're rocking a "budget" deck, throwing a random ~$150 (or roughly 3 times more than the total cost of my most budget deck) into it seems not budget.

This journaling I'm doing (I'm trying to get into journalism and this is the start of my writing portfolio) is just a live update that started with the "baseline" (common/uncommon Kaalia) that adds $1 in cards for each player kill and $5 in cards for a game win, and that's the only way to add cards to the deck. Designed to both flex the analytical brain and maximize dollar spent per deck role, but also show "I eat my own cooking", providing a real path to take the basic entry point and turn it into a real deck.

I don't like any of my decks enough to play only them enough to do this. XD

It does make me kind of want to make a Booster Tutor commander deck that can only adds cards that it cracks.

[3drinks]

Man, that booster tutor deck is wild but that's gonna be super expensive. Especially if you want to try adding a Tempest pack or something. Peak chaos though I kinda love it.