Collecting

Magic is a collectible game, which means 'expensive.'  I'm not kidding.  In a typical game, you buy one package containing all components.  You own the complete set with one purchase. But Magic is more like collecting baseball cards (for those old enough to remember that hobby)- you buy packs of randomized cards.  There are other ways to amass your collection, of course, but this is the most common method.  You can also buy preconstructed sets of cards and secondary market products (like single cards, repackaged sets, and more). This page (and links on it) will describe the different ways you can grow your collection.

The following topics should dictate how you collect Magic:
1) Cost
2) Play preference
3) Completeness of collection
4) Focus on older releases
5) Desire for 'extra' cards

Framing these as questions, we have:

1) "How much should I spend?"

I need to say this up-front: Magic has been going strong for over 25 years because it's a great game . . . and it's addictive as anything.  The below meme is true.

image from here

It's easy to let your costs spin out of control.  I have a number of friends who avoid the game for just this reason: they know they'd love it, and know they couldn't stop.  I respect their decision.  I'll look more at costs in a separate post, but trust me- this can get pricey.  You can spend $20-$1000 per set.  (There are 3-4 sets released per year.) Decide up-front how much you can (or should) spend (per set or per year), and let that be your first guide to collecting.

Once you have a number, the other questions can be considered in any order.

2) "How do I like to play?"

There are many ways to play Magic (see the Formats page), each has associated costs.

• If you like booster drafts, expect to spend a small amount per event (the cost of a few packs). You won't get many cards, but if drafts are your thing, there's no need to spend more.
• If you prefer constructed, you'll spend much more to get cards ahead of time.  These costs vary based on how competitive you want to be and percentage of cards you want (see question 3).
• If you want one very good [read: tournament competitive] deck, you can spend hundreds just to obtain the 60 cards necessary.
• If you want a few decent decks, you can buy a booster box or common/uncommon playsets and supplement that with purchasing desired singles.
• If you like pauper, you can get a playset (4 copies) of every common card in a set cheaply.
• If casual play is your thing, and you're content playing 'whatever,' you can pick up bulk collections cheaply- here you can buy thousands of cards for reasonable prices and be set for a long time.

There are too many ways to play to be comprehensive here, but it's an important question to ask, as you'll want to align your collecting with what you ultimately enjoy most about the game.  Some people, for example, like the experience/'gamble' of opening packs just as much as playing.  Others don't care about that, they just want to win.  Still others just want to enjoy the game and have no need for competitive decks or even winning; they enjoy exploring the different card interactions.  What do you enjoy?

3) "What percentage of cards do I want to collect?"

Magic releases 3-4 sets per year.  What percentage of those cards do you want?  The more you have, the more possibilities/flexibility you have in deck construction- and you'll spend more. 

• Decks are limited to having 4 copies (a playset) of a given card.  Thus, if you have a playset of every card, you can build any deck you want.  That can cost you a ton of money per set.
• Intuitively, the rare and mythic rare cards are the most expensive.  You could get playsets of the commons and uncommons, then buy one copy each of the rares/mythics (or just focus on the cheaper ones, driving costs down further).  You couldn't build any deck you want, but you could build a lot of fun decks.
• Booster boxes give you 540 cards (36 packs x 15 cards per pack) of a given set.  I'm working on a post showing what percentage of a set you get from this method; check back for updates. 
• If you don't care about having a lot and just want one really really good deck, you can focus on buying single cards alone to make a tournament-worthy deck.  

Again, There are many options, but I hope the above conveys the importance of the 'completeness' question.  Are you okay not having a playset of everything, or are you a 'completist'?

4) "Do I care about previous releases?"

I assume you're starting out in the game, which means you've missed out on the first 100 expansions.  Unless you're a millionaire, don't bother trying to collect all those older cards (the first sets are so hard to find nowadays that you'd spend six figures tracking them all down).  And many older sets are expensive because they're scarce, not necessarily because the cards are powerful.  That's an important distinction I'll look at another time.

If an older set appeals because of a theme or mechanic you enjoy, take heart: Magic often revisits these things, so I'd bet you'd see a similar set released within 5 years.  So the bottom line here: if you care about older releases, get out your checkbook.

5) "How many extra cards do I want?"

If you build a collection through bulk purchases or buying packs, you'll eventually have many extra cards (meaning more than 4 copies of each).  This is not necessarily a bad thing- you can sell or trade extras to recoup some expenses or get other cards- but it bears mention because collections can accumulate quickly, requiring extra storage and organization.  I recommend you set physical limits to your collection.

Conclusion

The collecting possibilities are endless in Magic.  Future posts will look in more detail at costs associated with the different options, and other related topics.