The Preconstructed Deck Buyer’s Guide: An Introduction

By Jay Kirkman | 07 April 2011 | Feature, Free, Timmy | Preconstructed | 9 Comments

I haven‟t always loved preconstructed decks. Although

I‟ve come to be almost inextricably linked to them now
through writing here and on Ertai‟s Lament, my passion
for collecting and playing them has a rather pedestrian
origin. The more I‟ve thought about it, the more I‟ve
concluded that it stems from something that many (if not
most) of us have done at least once: quit the game.

This is the third time I‟ve taken up Magic: The

Gathering as a hobby, and it‟s certainly after the
longest drought. I began at the very start of the game
and continued on through Legends, quitting when I left
home and moved on my own out of state. I fell into it again somehow right
around Mirage, and stuck with it a little longer this time, quitting right
before Mercadian Masques.

Returning once again for Zendikar, it seems that a fair part of the reason that I
fell in love with preconstructed decks was because I had missed so much
of Magic„s history in my time away. Whole blocks had come and gone, new
mechanics surfaced and submerged, stories were started and finished their
telling.

Entire worlds had passed me by.

I had neither the time nor inclination to go chasing down scads of booster
packs to catch up on lost time, and I‟ve never been all that partial to any
format other than Standard. Although I‟d only owned a single theme deck in
my time before (Deep Freeze from Tempest), I suddenly discovered that they
made the perfect little windows into the sets I had missed. Having the interest
kindled, the next step was to go about collecting them.

This presented some rather unique challenges. For one, it was largely
unexplored country. I really had no idea what was a „good‟ price for a precon
deck, and what was a rip-off. Were some decks better than others? More
valuable? More scarce? It wasn‟t too hard to gauge the price of Magic singles
as there are always scores of dealers out there vying for business, and one
only had to check a few pulses and read a few articles to get a feel for what
was the fair market value for a card. We may no longer have access to
standardised pricing like Beckett for sports cards or Scrye for Magic, but in
the age of the internet those resources are obsolete.

Another factor adding to the difficulty was scarcity. You can go on eBay at any
time and you‟re all but guaranteed to find Stoneforge Mystics, Tezzerets, and
anything else you might want for Standard. You‟re highly likely to get anything
you need whenever you want it for Extended. Vintage and Legacy? You‟re
probably good. And if you happen to have a spare $100,000 burning a hole in
your pocket, what says „sound investment strategy‟ quite like a BGS-10
graded Beta Black Lotus?

But when it comes to precons it‟s not quite so easy. I would have liked to have
had some sort of guide or advice as I began my collection, and as the proud
owner almost 150 precon decks I felt it might be time to create one for others
who might be starting to do the same thing. We‟ll begin today with an
overview of the series to come.
In order to build a good precon collection,
it helps to be one of three things.

1. Rich

This is the easiest way to assemble a

collection:just buy ‘em all and damn the
cost. As cruel fate has it, this category
probably doesn‟t cover a great many of
us. It certainly doesn‟t me.

2. Patient

This is the one I‟d recommend, effectively trading time for money. If you are
able to manage the impulse to buyitnow, you can slowly and steadily amass a
very solid collection for a relatively modest amount of money. Here‟s an
important observation: you can buy most precons for between $5.00 and
$8.00, a figure that includes shipping. There are a small number of decks
you‟ll rarely see at this price point, but that‟s where the patience comes in.
One of the most expensive theme decks to acquire is Tempest‟s The
Slivers, which typically sells for $60-80. To my disgust, I once missed bidding
on an auction for two sealed Tempest decks, one of which was The
Slivers. When I saw the closing bid was $10, I wanted to retch. The deals are
out there, though, and they‟re waiting to be found. Of course, when all else
fails, that leads us to our next characteristic:

3. Crafty

Know that most precon decks hold the value they‟re assigned for one of three
reasons. One is demand. Obvious, right? But to dig a little deeper, most of the
expensive precons contain something in demand beyond the precon itself.
The best example is the Betrayers of Kamigawa deck Rat’s Nest. Nobody
cares much about the Rat nezumi anymore, outside of a few tribal enthusiasts
whose dreams contain waterfalls of Relentless Rats, but this deck typically
clocks in at the $20-25 level. The reason?Umezawa‟s Jitte. How about
Prophecy‟s Distress, which retails for the distressingly large sum of around
$40? Hint: it ain‟t the Maggot Therapy. No, we‟ve got the wildly-popular Avatar
of Woe to thank for this one.

Our friend the Avatar is a nice transition to Reason Two: inertia. Unlike the
singles market, where inertia can be death, the precon market is marginal
enough not to demand the fastidious attention that a singles inventory does.
Prices can spike, but they tend to stick around that level. The Avatar of
Woehas since been reprinted twice (and again as a Pro Tour foil), and you
can find her at your card-merchant-of-choice for around five bucks. For a
more modern example, the prospect of a foilStudent of Warfare spiked the
price of Rise of the Eldrazi‟s Leveler’s Glory. How many Students do you see
burning up the tables in Standard? She faded, but her intro deck‟s price often
stayed right where it was: too high.

Finally, we have Reason Three: cult status. This is a characteristic generally

found in tribal decks of the Elf, Goblin, and Sliver varieties, as folks from all
stripes of the game do love their tribes. As we‟ll see ahead, this boosts the
price of decks as varied as Scourge„s Goblin Mob and Legions„s Sliver
Shiversto Lorwyn„s Elvish Predation. All three (and others) punch above their
wight because they offer players a readymade tribal experience.

So what does this have to do with crafty? Simple.

Unless you‟re an absolute purist who absolutely
must have the original box and insert, you can bypass
these ridiculous prices altogether by assembling the
deck from scratch out of singles. That $60-80 The
Slivers? How does less than $24
on CoolStuffInc sound? That‟s using Tempest versions
of each card. Opt for more genericCounterspells and Dark Banishings and
you save even more. If, like me, you‟re something of a traditionalist who at
least wants to preserve the feel of the deck, throw in a little extra for some
Tempest Islands and Swamps at about thirty cents apiece. You‟ll still save a
bundle.

The documentarian nature of the Internet means that the insert manual you‟re
sacrificing is probably excerpted on some Wiki somewhere. Here‟s another
pro tip: the old inserts used to be standardised booklets that were the same
for each theme deck. In other words, get one and you‟ve got „em all.

In the coming weeks I‟ll be looking in great detail at the preconstructed

marketplace. If you‟re a collector of precons, or just looking to start, you may
be interested to know that we‟ll be checking every step of the consumer
experience, from buying through an online retailer versus eBay; which decks
will save you the most to make yourself; and how much you really should (and
should not) be paying for your precons. The answers might surprise you.

For simplicity‟s sake, I‟ve divided Magic„s precon history into three broad
periods. The “Vintage Era” begins with the advent of the theme deck way back
in Tempest, and ends with 2002′s Judgment. The “Classic Era” picks up from
there with Onslaught, and finishes with Coldsnap, from 2006. Finally, that
leads into the “Modern Era”, which began with Time Spiral. Naturally, we‟ll
also be looking at the Core Set decks from each era, and will also be taking a
critical eye on other releases such as Beatdown and the Duel Decks.

Thanks for joining me today. If you have any specific areas of interest or
concern, please don‟t hesitate to make a suggestion in the comments below.
See you next week, when we begin with the Modern!

Jay Kirkman
@ErtaisLament

www.ErtaisLament.com

COMMENTS (9)
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Stric9· 1 week ago

Jay, you've already saved me money when you pointed out some of those
same things on Ertai's Lament. I haven't recently bought any older precons
because I now realize, I don't actually need the box. Given the ease with
which an almost identical deck can be made through an online retailer, I
should be able to generate some really large savings. The only reason for a
sealed, new-in-box, deck is for purely collecting reasons. Since I, like you,
want to relive all those moments I missed during my extended hiatus, I open
the boxes anyways so I can play and get a feel for the sets.

eotfofyl· 1 week ago

Great article, looking forward to the next one...

web8970· 1 week ago

Oh, you sneaky wizard adept ... building theme decks out of singles is
somewhat a stroke of genius ... :-)

However, it depends whether you want those precons for fun reasons to see
how they play out or whether you are a real purist collector needing to have
each and every one sealed as they come shipped, never intending to opening
them, just admiring the collection on your shelf. (There are a bunch of toy
collectors out there that need their Star Wars figures originally packed ...)

This is as well something I find myself considering every once in a while: I do

not run a museum, I want to have fun out of my Mtg-Collection ... so open
those packs, play them, tweak them, take any reasonable advice on doing so
and curiously take challenges on creativeness ... that's the motto and amongst
others thanks to Ertai, it's being filled with life.

ertaislament44p· 4 days ago

I like to think of myself as being somewhere in the middle. Yes, they're
opened and played with, but also lovingly sleeved and double-boxed for
organised storage. A bit of an archival treatment, really!

DrJones· 1 week ago

This was a great article. I remember when I bought Exodus' Groundbreaker
just for the 3x Diabolic Edicts it included, and then bought the ones from
Tempest and Stronghold for the story snippets.

DrJones· 1 week ago

I've also bought Theme Decks with the prize card missing. These are pretty
cheap and you can replace it later for much less.

ertaislament44p· 4 days ago

I usually don't seem them broken up, but this is a good idea and the kind of
creative thinking that can really help build a collection for less. Another
alternative for the modern decks is buying them without the booster pack
inside. I've done that for a few, and saved good money in doing so.
 Andy· 1 week ago
Have you talked about the Vintage era/Classic era/Modern era distinction
before, and if so, where can I read about it? Not following precons too closely,
I'm curious about how you drew these lines.

ertaislament44p· 4 days ago

As it happens, quite arbitrarily! This is one of those times where in the
absence of any real definition in the game, you make one up that best breaks
your articles into reasonable length. In essence, I took the deck pool and
divided it into three, and each "Era" will get its own column here.