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Pack to Power - Farewell

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It’s my last week here at ManaNation, but before I go I wanted to wrap up some loose ends from the Pack to Power quest. When we last left our hero, he was holding up a Mox Pearl and basking in the glory of success! But what ever happened to the Illusionary Mask? Did it make it to the hotel? What is going to happen to Mox? What’s next for Jonathan? Will he be doing another Pack to Power journey? All these questions and more will be answered in this article, so let’s jump in.

The Lost Trades

Before, we get too involved let me start by correcting the Trade Count. I was really pumped to see that I made it in less than one hundred trades. It’s funny because we didn’t intend to end the quest at trade number ninety nine; it was just serendipitous that it turned out that way. Unfortunately as real life would have it, the true trade count is one hundred and one. There were two missing traders. Let’s get in our time traveling DeLorean and go back to day two of the GP, so that we can see them.

I was wandering the tournament floor, looking to sum up a personal trade. As I passed through the crowd, I heard someone say, “John?” I stopped and looked around. Whenever someone says the name John, I always look. Ninety percent of the time they are calling one of the billion other Johns in the room.

There was a guy looking right at me. I said, “Hello.” He greeted me back and introduced himself, he said that he reads the Pack to Power column. I was pretty surprised that someone actually recognized me. I invited him to trade and we sat down. We talked shop and he was eager to help me along in my journey. This was our trade.

It’s pointless to add prices since this was over three weeks ago when Renegade Doppleganger was considered a bulk rare. It’s now at least a one dollar card. While I worked on this trade with Brian, that was his name. His buddy came over and we worked on this small trade.

After the trades I shook both their hands and then attempted to take a picture. I took my Blackberry out of my pocket, the screen was dark. “Crap! I can’t take a picture.” I said despairingly. Brian was quick to help, “How about I take a picture with my iPhone and email it to you?” What a life saver! He snapped two pictures and I gave him my email address. This is how I actually missed these trades, I usually write Pack to Power based on the pictures in my Blackberry and since these were buried underneath all my fan mail in my inbox, they were not included in my write up. It wasn’t until I was cleaning out the old inbox that I stumbled upon this.

It was a total fail on my part, I hope Brian will forgive me. If you are reading Brian, thanks for your contribution and for letting me borrow your iPhone storage! While we are tripping around in the DeLorean, let’s go back to about a week ago and find out about that Illusionary Mask. I called the hotel that I stayed at for GenCon.

The Fate of the Illusionary Mask

“Hello, I stayed there last week and I was expecting a piece of mail.” The voice on the other end of the phone sounded confused, “You sent a piece of mail here?” Man, the people at the front desk are so hard to communicate with. Finally after a fifteen minute explanation the lady responds, “Yes, we did receive your mail.” Well, ummm thanks for the phone call!? Were they just going to keep it? I am still baffled as to why they didn’t contact me after I left them my information and specifically asked them to. Anyways, the lady was nice enough to re-address the envelope and send it to me. Three days later this showed up at my doorstep.

I was so happy with the markings on the envelope that I sent him a special gift along with our trade.

The special gift was an uncommon from the original pack with my doodles on it. This completed the Illusionary Mask trade and officially upgraded my Pack to Power results to this.

My

Pack of Rise of the Eldrazi

The Universe’s

Mox Pearl

Illusionary Mask

Kird Ape

Singing Tree

Since the conclusion of Pack to Power, I have been getting alot of different questions. I want to answer a couple of the ones that I’ve gotten more than once. Let’s start with the question that I get most.

“What are you going to do with the Mox?”

I played with a lot of ideas for the Mox. I have considered giving it to a newb or raffling it to you the readers, but at the end of the day I decided to keep it. I have become slightly attached to the little guy! I know, I know, one of the number one rules of trading is not to get emotionally attached, but I poured so much effort and energy to get this thing, that it’s hard to part with. Not to mention, that now that my ray token is gone, it’s all I’ve got!

“Will you do a Pack to Power 2.0?”

There are no plans for this yet, but you never know. If we do it again, we would have to higher the stakes or something to keep it entertaining.

“Where can I read more of your stuff?”

I have a lot of writing out there and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Here are some places that you can read my stuff other than here on ManaNation.

My Blog = http://www.mtgmetagame.com

My SCG Column = http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/articlefinder.php?keyword=Jonathan+Medina

My Twitter = http://www.twitter.com/mtgmetagame

Thank You

Pack to Power was an epic adventure which I really enjoyed writing and doing. I really want to thank you all for the support and energy that you contributed to the project. I see that this column has inspired many of you to enter the world of trading and for some of you even to start your own Pack to Power quest. As a gift to you I will be launching a website where you can share your own trading adventures and read the adventures of others. I will also be posting official news about Pack to Power and other related projects. I plan to launch the site soon so be sure to check out:

http://www.packtopower.com

In addition to launching the website, I want to give you all a chance to get a piece of the first Pack to Power quest. When I traded the Pack to Power binder, I gave the guy the binder and the Rares, but I still have all the commons and uncommon that I traded for. If you want one of the cards simply send me an email with your mailing address and I will ship one out to you.

Thanks again and I will see you all on the interwebs!

Much Love

Jonathan Medina

Limited time 30% buy trade in bonus buylist