Let’s face it. Playing Magic: The Gathering can be expensive.

Aside from the rising prices of MTG singles, players also have to worry about procuring binders, sleeves, deck boxes, playmats, dice, and other accessories, as well as paying for tournament entry fees and worrying about travel expenses (for those trying to become pro players). Depending on what kind of player you are, be it a professional player, a grinder, a semi-competitive player, a kitchen table player, or a collector, there may be some expenses that apply to your demographic and not to others (and vice versa). But, in general, the hobby will be costly.

I’ve been playing Magic off and on for the better part of ten years. In that time, I’ve hopped from one demographic to the next. I started off as a casual player, returned to the game after a short break and started playing more competitively. I tried to grind PTQs and Grand Prix events, only to later give up and play casually again. In my ten-year history, I’ve invested a staggering amount of money into my collection and spent much of my disposable income on playing events, making new decks, and commissioning card alters.

For those who might not understand some aspects of our hobby, referring to the costs of Magic cards as an “investment” might seem laughable. Nevertheless, we come out ahead of those with more traditional hobbies since our collections can be later sold to recoup some of the initial costs (many times even for a profit since card prices sometimes skyrocket overnight).

Growing up as an only child of a middle-class family, and having also worked part-time and full-time jobs consistently since I was fourteen years old, I have never found myself wanting when it came to buying cards for my collection, building new decks, or traveling to bigger Magic events. In fact, I would often find myself trading in entire decks at a loss and paying extra to build new, exciting decks week after week since I would easily become bored of playing the same deck at Friday Night Magic tournaments.

When I first started playing Magic, my cousin and I would be given a certain allowance to spend on the game, and we would frequent an underground flea market on weekends, searching for vendors who sold Magic cards. We would pore over rows of cards, pick out those that seemed most exciting to us (and those that we could afford), and drool over those that were out of our price range. My cousin and I only played for a couple of years before we both quit the game. When I came back and started building more competitive decks, I completely forgot about the struggle of budgeting and the yearning for those unattainable cards. I had enough disposable income to build any deck I wanted and I needn’t worry.

Traveling to GPs, PTQs, and other big events, I was surrounded by many players with the same outlook about the game and who could also afford to build multiple decks and were vying for the fame and fortune of winning big. It was only until two weeks ago that I questioned whether I would be having as much fun playing Magic if my deck choices were constrained by a budget.

What if I didn’t have the luxury of buying play sets of each card that were necessities in Tier 1 decks? What if I watched tournament coverage and read articles, only to find myself longing to play with more powerful cards, having no other option than to replace the expensive cards with sub-par alternatives? Would I still be able to win local events? Would I still enjoy the game as much?

These were but a sliver of the unending questions that were swimming through my head.

Back in 2012, Jonathan Medina wrote an article series called FNM Hero that was posted weekly on Legit MTG. He gave himself a budget of $100 and played in weekly FNM events, updating his decklist through trades and any store credit he would win from tournaments. He wanted to see if he could “go infinite” with a limited budget. His definition of going infinite was being able to build a tier-one Standard deck with $200 left over (doubling his initial investment) to keep grinding with.

I wanted to do something similar, but with a slightly different focus. While Jonathan set out to prove that it was possible to play with the big boys while also gaining a long-term profit, I wanted to focus on the overall experience of budget limitations and how it would affect my outlook on the game and the people playing the events around me. My journey will focus more on experience rather than hard facts and financial statistics. I’ll test if it’s possible to change my mindset and approach to playing the game we all know and love, and seeing if I think any differently in the end. I’m a big proponent of putting ourselves in other peoples’ shoes, as empathy can go a long way in life. While my writing and experiences will be subjective, I’m hoping that it provides some source of entertainment and education. Maybe the experience will even open discussion between players with different perspectives about the game and encourage lateral thinking!

The Questions

Here’s a list of some of the questions I hope to answer once the “experiment” has come to a close:

• How much of competitive Magic is really, truly about skill versus access to tier-one cards and decks?
• Can you be somewhat competitive, while also enjoying the game, even if your deck is not of tier-one caliber?
• How difficult is it to build up to a tier-one deck (or even semi-playable deck) on a tight budget?
• How has my mindset changed throughout this challenge? What have I learned?
• Have I changed the way I look at card prices, as well as how I assess cards?
• How do I feel about set rotations when faced with budget constraints?
• Do I interact differently with my opponents? What do I think of them? What do they think of me?
• Do I value my match wins more highly than before?

At the end of the article series, I hope to address each of these questions in-depth.

The Rules and Constraints

I will start the experiment with a clean slate: no cards and no accessories. After my initial purchase of an Intro Pack and some necessary items (sleeves, deck box, and binder), I will set a budget of $10 per week to spend on tournament entry and purchasing new cards.

I’m going to play in at least one Standard tournament per week (FNM or otherwise) and report bi-weekly about my progress, experiences, struggles, and successes. Any entry fees must be paid from my $10 weekly budget.

The Timeline

Initially, I thought that it would be a good idea to start the experiment when Khans of Tarkir was released so that I wouldn’t have to worry about Standard rotation, but I felt as though it would give me better insight as to how players with a budget approach deck building and trading when they’re concerned about set rotation.

The first tournament I play will be a Magic 2015 Game Day event. I will then play in weekly Standard events for the following ten weeks, with the last tournament I play being a Khans of Tarkir Game Day event. I’ll then present my final findings, insights, and personal thoughts on playing competitively on a budget and the work it took to improve my deck and results within that ten week period.

Will I have improved much? Will I have enjoyed the experience? Would I rather just spend the money in other ways, either playing limited events or purchasing other cards to play casually instead of competitively?

Stay tuned for more!