I planned on trading hardcore at the pre-release, but upon arrival I found out that a bunch of the guys brought their EDH decks. I don't know what it is about EDH that makes it so addicting! I've played the format since it was in its very early stages, so my level of addiction is pretty high. I went 1-1 drop and shuffled up one of my hundred card piles. Six hours later I finally got the trade binder out to do some work.

The release of a new set brings a new surge of excitement to all of us players. We can't wait to see, play and own the new cards. It's important to take note of our insatiable appetite for new cards because it means that we should trade a little bit differently. The release of a new set is one of the only times that I will trade for commons. The fact is that many players get their commons and uncommons through drafting. When a set first releases, no one has the commons that they need and they are willing to trade for them. Sometimes they are willing to over-trade to get the cards that they want.

I remember at the Rise of Eldrazi release, Craig Wescoe was scouring the tournament for a set of See Beyond. He had a tournament later that week that he had been practicing for using a proxied deck. It sounds strange, but it's true. If you want to maximize opportunity then heed the power of commons and uncommon. Here is a list of the M11 common and uncommon that I recommend for your trade binder.

Preordain – Everyone needs it, from vintage players to casual players. It is HOT.

Cultivate – This card is SICK in EDH and works well right next to Kodama's Reach.

Fling – Man people have dreams about throwing creatures at their opponent's face in trades as well.

Pyretic Ritual – It's a desperate ritual! It's gotta see play right?!

Crystal Ball – All I hear is "This is no Sensei's Divining Top." This card will see play and it's already in demand for EDH's and Mono Black Players.

Voltaic Key – Nostalgia meets awesomeness. I know these move quickly. People are already building Key / Chalice decks.

Autumn's Veil – This card will see about as much play as Guttural Response and people are looking to make their play set.

Any new card has some level of demand but those are the cards that I think have the highest demand. Naturally, reprints like Lightning Bolt, Duress and Flash Freeze are good cards to get but they are in less demand than the brand new cards. Before I got derailed at the pre-release, I hit a midnight draft to try to get some M11 in the trade binder.

EDH is getting huge at my store. If you don't know the format you should get familiar with it, it's getting popular enough to start generating demand for cards. This trade was for an EDH staple. We talked about trading earlier in the night; he had just got finished with a draft, so we sat down to deal. I find that if you catch someone after a draft, it's pretty easy to trade from their draft pool, especially if they won. It has something to do with the way that drafter value the cards in their pool. It's almost as if they view them more like tools than actual cards. It makes sense that they would use these “tools” to get the cards they want.

I noticed that the guys had a Titan and some other stuff that he slid into his box. He handed me a stack of cards, some still in sleeves. I handed him my Pack to Power binder. After shuffling through the stack I pulled some commons and uncommons out. I asked if he would mind throwing in some of the M11 common uncommons. I explained that they traded well and he accepted. He had already pulled out what he wanted to keep. Take note of the Mind Control, I don't usually trade for them, but Emo-Jace was too irresistible, some people will want the alternate art.

I valued the Liliana at $2 and everything else on the bottom at about a buck. I put the Life From the Loam at $7-8. This was a great trade to help me get my M11 on.

My (7.99) Life from the Loam 7.99 His (19.02) Cultivate .35 Swamp Foil M11 .49 Mind Control M11 .35 Fling .25 2x Pyretic Ritual .25 Foresee .49 2x Preordain .45 Liliana's Caress .75 Deathmark Foil M11 .99 Stormtide Leviathan 1.49 Captivating Vampire 3.99 Voltaic Key 1.99 Lightning Bolt 1.49 Liliana Vess 4.99 Net +11.03

Remember all that stuff I said at the beginning about trading away commons. This is exactly the type of trade that I was looking for. This guy did a couple of drafts and still couldn't make his set of Preordain and Cultivate. I traded them to him for this steaming pile of human extract, but I know that some kid is going to want that set of Jace's Erasure!

My (1.25) 2x Preordain .45 Cultivate .35 His (4.73) Spined Wurm Foil .25 4x Jace's Erasure .25 Aether Adept .25 Combust .49 2x Back to Nature .25 Relentless Rats .99 Duress .75 Pyretic Ritual .25 Garruk's Packleader .25 17x Random Commons 4x Random Uncommons Net +3.48

At the end of the night, people always just leave their common uncommon on the table. If you are building a collection I recommend that you stick around for the end of draft night, and then help clean up! Unfortunately, it isn't that easy for me since I have to trade for everything, I have to trade for my garbage piles or face the wrath of the interweb trolls. I stumbled through an explanation of why I needed to trade this guy a Demystify for his garbage. He was perplexed but accepted the trade. I was excited to dig through for lost treasure, sometimes there are junk rares in there. Here's what I found.

My (.49) Demystify .49 Best Explanation for why I need to trade my junk for his junk. $Infinite His (3.96) Llanowar Elves .39 Elite Vanguard .25 Negate .35 Plummet .25 Squadron Hawk .25 Duress .75 Ajani's Pridemate .49 Pyroclasm .49 Fling .25 Hornet Sting .49 Beast Token 0 Island 0 Forest 0 Plains 0 2 Mountain 0 5 Tip Card $Infinite «--- Remember the tip card drama! 47x Random Commons 0 12x Random Uncommons 0 Net +3.47

Spell Snare was the first uncommon that I could just kill for. I was building UG Threshold and I could not find these things anywhere! They will always hold a special place in my heart, so when this guy wanted to give me this pile of common uncommons for it, I held out and kept pushing until he added the Foil Autumn's Veil. I haven't looked up the Veil yet but I think it may be worth close to the Spell Snare alone.

My (5.99) Spell Snare 5.99 His (8.18) 2x War Priest of Thune .49 Excommunicate Foil .25 Duress .75 Spined Wurm Foil .25 Autumn's Veil Foil 1.99 2x Fling .25 2x Pyretic Ritual .25 Garruk's Companion .25 Ajani's Pridemate .49 White Knight .35 2x Plummet .49 Hornet Sting .49 Llanowar Elves .39 Juggernaut .25 Acidic Slime .25 50 Commons 0 7 Uncommons 0 Net +2.19

NOTE: At the time of writing/trading this Sarkhan was 20.99, it has since dropped to 17.99. I want to point out that I was right to try to move it quick.

I hope you brought a snorkel, we're about to go deep folks. The Sarkhan and a Survival of the Fittest are pretty evenly matched price wise, but I would never do this trade in reverse. Survival is older and harder to get than Sarkhan. Survival trades strong at between $20 and $25, where Sarkhan trades between $15 and $20. I haven't checked but I am willing to bet that most buylist prices are higher for Survival.

In this trade I did what I call "Bridging." It's when you combine multiple little "trades" to get a key trade for value. Keep in mind that we are dealing with virtual trades here, the little trades are really just part of one big trade but they are conceptualized as small trades to develop the illusion of equality. In this case it was two let's break them down to see what it looks like.

Trade 1

This trade is ok for me. I gain value but it wasn't much of a trade up and I run the risk of him asking for a throw-in. Now let's look at the second trade.

Trade 2

It would probably be hard to convince someone to do this trade alone, but when you bridge the two trades together the trade looks more cohesive. Trade one give you access to trade two via this "bridge." You can do this multiple times, by building multiple bridges but all bridges should focus on getting the key trade. In this configuration the key trade was the Rafiq and garbage for the Survival. The key trade is the trade that could not be done without the bridges that support it. It's the trade that you are going to maximize your value with, so it's ok to build around it.

Once you get comfortable with Bridging you can use more complex techniques like generating virtual value for your trade partner via a bridge trade. You generate value by trading down in a bridge trade or even losing value in a bridge trade, as long as the key trade can bury the loss and still turn value. When you segment the trades your partner sees that he is ahead in one of the “trades” as well as you and the rest are even. Remember the bigger the trade is the more even it looks. Focus on gaining value in the key trade and make the bridge trades even. If you do this it will ensure that you come out ahead.

If you are having trouble seeing eye to eye on values or if you suspect that you will have trouble, start to make the trade bigger. Identify the key trade and then break the trade up into bridge trades, discuss them separately with your partner and then combine them again. This should make the trade more palatable. Here is what my final trade looked like:

My (31.46) Rafiq of the Many 6.99 Lim Dul's Vault 4.99 Stormtide Leviathan 1.49 Sarkhan the Mad 17.99 His (51.98) 2x Survival of the Fittest 25.99 Net +20.52

There was no fancy bridging in this next trade. Here is how the conversation went.

Him: I want that foil Wall of Reverence!

Me: Ok, let me see your trade stuff.

Him: How about this Maelstrom Pulse.

Me: How about, yes!

Him: The stipulation is that you have to take these Pokemon cards.

Me: Humm, that could be a deal breaker. (Just Kidding, I handed him the Wall and Embarked on my journey of catching them all).

My (3.99) Wall of Reverence Foil 3.99 His (13.99) Maelstrom Pulse 13.99 2x Pokecrap Cards 0 Net +10.00

Man, is it just me or is this thing super long? I think its super long. Before I leave I just want to make couple of quick comments.

One, I know that the prices are “high” and that when It comes time to actually get power that I am not going to get .50 cents for my bulk rares. The monetary measure is here to help you visualize the incremental growth. It's also there to get you used to seeing prices.

Two, there haven't been any questions in the comments. Make it happen people so I can write about stuff!

That's all I have to say for the week. Have a rocking M11 Release, go build some bridges!

Pictures of the Binder and Trades

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