mystical_tutor wrote:...You missed one very important point about boosters though. It is obvious, because of the fact that you have a zillion UNOPENED boosters that you don't neet the real "fix" that has propelled MTG for a large percentage of it's following.
There is a mental rush for most of us every time we open a booster. Will it have a Black Lotus in it... will it will it will it....., oh, well maybe the next one, Just one more, that has to be it.....
Gary
I still remember sharing a box of Revised with a mate! We couldn't afford a whole box to ourselves!
Back then we didn't now how many different cards were in a set, which ones were rare or how many uncommons were in a pack. We didn't know what any of the cards were worth, you couldn't buy singles and the internet was empty (plus we had to go to one of the new internet cafes to get online)
When we opened a booster we were generally surprised, we were all hoping to pull a Lord of the Pit, the most awesome and rare card there was, but most of the time we just stared at the rare card and tried to work out whether we could use it or what it did.
We didn't have Scrye for ages. I was putting together a set of Revised and that was pretty much the bible we all referred to when deck building. It used to drive my friend nuts when I opened something I didn't have because he knew he would never get to see it in action until I pulled a second one.
Then set lists used to come out a month or so after the sets, which was great because by that time I had a lot of the cards but just needed to know what remained for my sets. We had a regular supply of Scrye by then so we were looking out for cards we had seen mentioned and we had a working price guide to help with swaps, no more would my friend trade away a Nightmare for what he really needed, swamps!
Then they started giving away cards in the magazines, I remember getting a Norrit before Ice Ages, it really made you want to wait outside the hobby shop on the day the owner said he was getting the cards in. Would there be another Stone Rain type card in the set to add to the land destruction deck that everyone hated?
Now you have spoilers, and guess what, they spoiled it!
Now when you open a booster you are after a specific card, if you don't get that card it is a let down. You already know all the cards in the set, there are no surprises left, you know how many cards, the rarety, you even know the value of the individual cards. You even know what a good number of them look like and there are plenty of commentators giving you a run down of the top 10s.
I have some unopened boxes and starters from older sets and I have purposely not read anything about the sets. When I get some of the old friends over we will crack them like the old days, none of your drafting, just a starter and half a dozen boosters each and then we will play (once I make everybody sleeve them first, I bought sleeves as well, the are all still sealed up to)
A lot of the fun dried up once the mystery was gone, well not so much dried up, the focus shifted, from an orgy of cracking packs to deck building and better playing habits.
I have around 1350 unopened boosters and I can't say I am not tempted to see if I have that final fourth Jester's Cap (I needed one for my mill deck and I had five unopened boosters at the time, the first of the Global Set, my mate could not understand why I didn't open them to check) But I have no trouble not openning the modern sets, I already know most of the cards anyway.
Ahhhh, the good old days!