I focus on a number of different things during my columns.

Again, for those just jumping on board - I believe the most important tool in Magic Finance is that space in between your ears. Forgetting the fact that even buying into one card can take an incredible amount of energy, there's those times where it's just simply hard to justify your time to not only yourself, but to your loved ones. Even the strangers you meet on the street can make it difficult for you to explain what it is we actually do.

Focusing on the mental side of Magic Finance also gives you the clarity to not only figure out what you are doing, how to move forward, and finding the appropriate exit strategy - it also gives you the ability to get other people on board. Getting your family and friends behind you, sharing that exuberance when you score that massive collection at a great price, and seeing the look of joy not only on your face, but on there's.....well, it can be a reward in and of  itself, for everybody.

Often times, emotion is the true ruler of all that we do. Love a card too much?! ORDER 100 COPIES! What's the worst that can happen? How many times have you been there already? There's that little voice in the back of your head. It tells us too often to take a certain course of action.

"Stop. Go. Turn Right, No your other Right. GO FASTER! WAIT, you missed it! WAAAAAAAIIIITTTTTTTTT"

In truth, it doesn't even know the proper action to take. It just likes to sit there, gnawing at you with self-doubt and insecurity. Making the landscape before you seem to be a roiling mass of shifting sands.

I'm here to tell you that it gets better.

Repetition is the crux of all things. Familiarity breeds all confidence. If you know a thing, you can be a thing. You can also see it for what it is. Magic has cycles. There's patterns. There's only so much design space they can implement. As this game begins to get older - there will either be new space defined and broken in, or the rehash of old concepts. Making improvements as they go.

[cardimage cardname='Primalcrux'] [cardimage cardname='Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx'] 

Knowing a thing, we see that not only did Wizards try Chroma but later they tweaked it in order to bring us Devotion. They didn't get it right the first time. In fact, Chroma was pretty much irrelevant during the time it was Standard legal. There weren't enough cards to make a difference in what Chroma really wanted to do. A scaleable effect like that can also be intimidating on first try as it can quickly get out of hand if not tested properly. The balance has to be struck just so.

This applies across the board on Finance. Dealing with a buylist for the first time? Time, patience, and making sure you've analyzed the proper time to get out of a card are key. Maybe time is the issue? Make sure you bite off just enough to chew. If you bite off too much, you might put yourself in a worse position. It's easier to undo a small thing, than to undo a large thing. If it's too large - it could even invalidate your back up plans.

[cardimage cardname='Godless Shrine'] 

They brought these back for a double showing

We focus on buylists here at Quietspeculation for a number of reasons. I primarily look at it as this is the bottom line price I can get if time is a crunch. In essence though - all we do is: target, buy in, hold, execute exit strategy. Rinse. Repeat. This familiarity brings confidence to the cycle. Expectations rise and we want to have the same success from the previous time. If we haven't done this enough, let's say we make a mistake. The result we get isn't exactly as hoped for, much less expected. We beat ourselves up, and often people will question us why we do something they have no confidence in themselves. They don't know a thing. It's unsure. Untested to them. And now, you've shown the negative side. How do we keep on track?

By simply starting again.

We do the same thing over & over again - because they work. If you have fallen into a trap, and something just isn't working for you - break it down. Target. Buy-in. Hold. Execute Exit Strategy. You made a mistake somewhere along those lines. There's only four steps. Just take a good hard look at all of them. Did you target the right card?

[cardimage cardname='Thoughtseize'] [cardimage cardname='Duress']

One of these things is not like the other

Take the time to hone your game. Take the time to sharpen you. You're the key cog in this wheel of finance. Sometimes it's not all about the cards we speculate on. Sometimes it's also about the things we do, behind the scenes - that make all the difference in how we move forward, or how we should move forward. Find what works for you. Rinse. Repeat

-Till next Time