Welcome to this week's pack to power update. Last week was a success in terms of content, we received alot of positive feedback via the comments. Be sure to keep the feedback coming so that I can continue to write relevant reports for you. Speaking of relevant, I wonder what someone would write about if he had no trades to report. Would it be worth reading? Stick around, let's find out together.

Shout Outs

I want to give a shout out to the guys over at MTGO Academy. They are doing the digital equivalent of what we are doing but instead they are trading up to a Foil Force of Will. A Foil Force is the most expensive card on MTGO and power is currently not available on MTGO. This is an interesting read for those who are trying to build an digital MTG collection. Check it out if when you get a chance.

Trades

Sunshine and rainbows are forever stuck in the world of fairy tales. I took a chance last week with some high risk trades and this has clogged the trade engine. I have cards sitting in my binder that do not interest most people, namely Nirkana Revenant. This not a problem in my normal trade binder. I am a firm believer in opportunity and I don't mind holding mediocre cards until the guy, opportunity, who "needs" them arrives. The problem with this strategy in my Pack to Power quest is that I can't afford to wait. It's working in the opposite direction, instead of extending my availability for opportunity, I am locking myself out of trade opportunities by having cards that very few people want. Every time someone opens the Pack to Power binder and doesn't trade with me is an opportunity lost. The question is, will the eventual payout for my mythics justify the loss of opportunity?

Ok, confession time. I had the opportunity to trade one Nirkana Revenant, but I blew it. There was a casual player who wandered into the shop. You can always tell who the casual players are because they refer to their decks based on the color. I asked him if he wanted to trade and he obliged but warned me that he didn't have any trade stuff on him. He opened the binder and his eyes lit up when he seen my Nirkana, "I could really use that for my Black deck!" He handed me a deck and said, "Most of this is for trade." I said that Nirkana was worth about $7-8 and I pulled some rares out of his trade deck; 2x Sanguine Bond, 2x Open The Vaults and a Talus Paladin. He looked over as I called out prices, "Aren't those Sanguine Bonds going for more?" he responded to my $2 price tag. I said, "I take 'em at two, I cant give more on 'em." He looked at the trade and then resisted. This is the issues with trading with casual players, he is seeing five cards for one and it's not worth it to him.

Tournament players view cards more like currency instead of property. In the end he didn't take the trade, because I used the wrong approach. I had tunnel vision on diversifying, but I should have tried to trade two Nirkana Revenant for his Sorin Markov, I think that might have been more attractive to him.

Strategy

This coming week, I have to make up for lost time. I've made a list of low priced cards that I expect to rise in value over the next couple of weeks and I will be focusing on the short term turn over, as opposed to last week's strategy. Here are the list:

Sovereigns of Lost Alara: This card is in the fuzz, not everyone knows that it actually went up. If I can find a couple I will snatch them up before everyone realizes.

Eldrazi Conscription: This goes hand in hand with the card above, incase you've had your head in the ground for the last couple of weeks the Mythic Conscription deck is good.

Devastating Summons: RDW Chapin style is seeing some love. These are bound to see a small bump.

Hellcarver Demon: This was one of Ben Bleiweiss' picks for the set. He is seeing play in the Brilliant Ultimatum Deck and he has a lot of build-around-me potential. Not to mention he has mythic status going for him.

Kor Spiritdancer: The name is pretty lame, but I am hearing rumblings about an enchantress deck that makes this dancer into a killer. It's probably just internet buzz but the buzz is creating enough demand for me to pick these up.

That's all for this week kiddies. I hope you have a rocking weekend. Good luck for those of you going to National Qualifiers. If you want the sick tech, I'll tell you now that it's UG Polymorph. See you next week.

Bonus: Deck List

[cardlist]2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Ponder

4 Rampant Growth

4 Spreading Seas

4 Deprive

3 Into the Roil

3 Negate

4 Awakening Zone

4 Jace the Mind Sculptor

1 Garruk Wildspeaker

4 Polymorph

4 Khalni Garden

4 Halimar Depths

4 Misty Rainforest

5 Forest

6 Island

Sideboard

4 Fog

4 Vines of Vastwood

3 Narcolepsy

2 Iona, Shield of Emeria

2 Reality Spasm[/cardlist]