Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game that is highly collectable, with various iterations of cards, be they showcase treatments, special art Secret Lairs, or just foiled versions of favorites.
However, the method of distribution for those collectables comes in the form of packs of cards, be they “draft”, “set”, or “collector” boosters, each containing a mostly predetermined number of cards based on rarity. Due to the random nature of this distribution method, a secondary market was propped up by players to buy, sell, and trade specific cards.
The advent of this player-ran market means that those looking to craft decks with specific cards would be able to so easily by purchasing singles instead of sealed product. Though this conventional wisdom is essentially canon at this point, some viewed the secondary market as a shortcut, a way to cheat the system. Enter Max Lively, a young man on a mission to have a “pure” Magic: The Gathering experience.
“He said he wanted to build a Modern deck, but wanted to do it without buying any singles,” a teary-eyed Francis Legume said. Legume, Likely’s fiancé, recalled the conversation that led to his untimely demise. “I told him he needed to buy singles. That it would be much cheaper, and much more efficient.”
Ignoring his fiancé’s warnings, Lively began purchasing draft boosters from sets released in the last twelve years.
“He spent thousands and got maybe, what, two or three of the cards he was looking for,” Legume said. “Packs from out-of-print sets aren’t cheap and a lot of the ones he purchased on eBay were resealed with basic lands or bulk. I thought that would be the end of it, but he was determined. This went on for years.”
Soon their home was overtaken by stacks of cards.
“When I couldn’t get to the bathroom without stepping on cards is when I had enough. I told him it was either me or the cards, and he chose the cards. After I left, there was nothing to stop him. Apparently, he took out a second mortgage and kept at it for years. I wasn’t at all surprised when I got the call.”
First responders to the home found a lifeless Lively buried under Magic cards.
“They said there were millions of Magic cards. Millions. After they were all removed, I found the decklist for the deck he wanted to build. It was the budget version of Grixis Death’s Shadow. Budget. He wasn’t even going to include fetches. In total it would probably be a couple hundred bucks.”
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