Still kickin

It's been far too long since I posted anything. I probably should at least talk about the last few MTG releases.... Maybe I could write a bit on my massive re-organization of my collection... I don't know really...

Rest assured I am alive, and still playing magic :)

Best Purchase Ever?

Back in the mid 90s I purchased a play set of Force of Will for 12 dollars.... I was unhappy they cost me that much.

This was of the best decisions I made back then..

How ChannelFireball.com lost me as a customer

So I wanted to share my recent experiences with ChannelFireball.com in the hopes that others will have the sense to go buy stuff from another dealer.

In business, customer service is what separates the men from the boys, and man did Channel Fireball drop the ball on this one.

So to start lets lay some history down.. With most set releases I pre-order a playset of the commons and uncommons.  I have done this in the past from about 4 different vendors.   Now it has been my experience over the last 10 years doing these kinds of transactions that a pre-order ships usally the day of release, and/or within a couple of days of release.

So flash forward to the present day.  Mirrodin Besiged is poised to release on February 4th so I went ahead and place my pre-order in early January for it.  At the same time I also place orders for a Fat Pack and boosters from my local hook-up :)

February 4th comes... Thanks to an Ice storm our Fat Packs and boosters arrived late, so we got them around February 8th.  Oddly enough I still had not received my playset from Channel Fireball...  I kept checking the website for a tracking number and such... Checking the mailbox.... No order... 

Well on February 10th I get the following email:

Yes... That's right.. My order had just shipped... After I had received and opened my Fat Packs and Boosters.... Wow...  

So I sent the following email to Channel Fireball in response...

I tried to keep it formal... I just wanted an explanation on the delay, and was seeking some sort of compensation.  After all this site looks like it has grown tremendously, maybe they had gotten too many pre-orders... I didn't know.  Anyway... about 4-5 hours later I received the following from them.

Well I did get a tracking number... And an email about the fact that it would take a week to arrive (No priority on shipping it), but the reason didn't fly very well with me.  I know that they receive their product before the release date. They expect me to believe that it took them 6 days to go through it all and ship my order?  What exactly is a pre-order to them? 

Absent from Channel Fireball is a pre-order policy or information on what they consider a pre-order.  So I replied.

This time I get right to the point... I am unhappy and I feel that I deserve something.  I'm not asking for anything extraordinary.  I would just like to get some money back.  Cause basically my pre-order was treated essentially the same as if I had ordered it day of release.

To this day I have gotten no reply from Channel Fireball.... I am honestly not surprised.... I am pretty sure they don't care. I am one unhappy customer... I've haven't ordered tons of stuff from them in the last year... They can stand to lose me... But I still am quite unhappy with them.   I am torn because I like the professional players who are associated with that site, I like their videos and articles, but their store is crap.

I have placed a lot of orders over the last 10 years... Pre-orders and regular.  they don't always go as planned....

When I had problems with a StarCity order in the past they called me on the phone.... That was enough to make me a returning customer.

When I had problems with CardShark, an email cleared it up fast.  

Customer service makes people come back.  So guess what... I'm no longer a fan of Channel Fireball.  I advise my friends and readers to order from other retailers online, or better yet, visit your local store :)

Looking for a deck

So since the last time I posted... My second son was born and a new year has begun.  I finally managed to find a  few moments to play a little magic this weekend.

My buddy SJ came over for the Super Bowl and afterwards we play tested a couple of his decks ideas. He had a very interesting take on Blue Black control... It pretty much ate my lunch... I was trying to work on my Tide/Proliferate deck.  I love the mechanic, but I think I am going to have to try a different angle on it....

Since I had about 9 Scars boosters that have been lying around for over 3 months I finally cracked them.  Nothing great, but I can't complain.  I got the Sword I had been missing for my WW equipment deck... It made that deck infinitely better.

At some point this week I should be all my MBS stuff in.. I am looking forward to playing with it.  I also have a couple of deck ideas I want to try.

I still haven't built my Commander decks :(

Hope all is well in my friends Magic world :)

Any good ideas?

So I am pruning my collection and eliminating commons in excess of eight from sets that are not in extended or standard at the moment.  This has left me with a large stack of bulk :)

Your mission... give me ideas what to do with it....  Ready, Set, GO!

Example Ideas:
Pauper Cube
Magic Paper Mache Art
Firewood?
Iron Man Magic

Alpha Strike-ish deck

So when Scars of Mirrodin came out I was immidiately was drawn to Precursor Golem.  I am a Johnny at heart and this card begged to be built around.  So I have been working on a build.  The mothership had a building on a budget article on it the other day that took the same route I was in a since... *shrug*  They had 2 good ideas for the deck I was not using... So I will have to try and incorporate those... At any rate here is the list I am currently running. 
11  Island
9  Mountain
4  Terramorphic Expanse
24 lands

4  Kiln Fiend
4  Precursor Golem4  Trinket Mage
4  Sea Gate Oracle

12 Creatures

4  Everflowing Chalice 

4  Distortion Strike 

4  Preordain 

4  Staggershock
4  Lightning Bolt
4  Treasure Hunt 

24 Spells

Basic Premise, get a Kiln fiend or Precursor golem out... and make them big enough to get through.  Use the burn to remove/keep pace with opponent.

No sideboard yet.. I usually don't do sideboards anyway... I'm slightly lazy and that is a part of my game that needs the second most work.. (see Shuffing for #1)

In testing it did ok... Nothing spectacular, of course this is not a deck for FNM it is casual... But it does have the nice ability to "win" out of nowhere :)  I'll update it later this week, but for now it is in the casual testing catagory.

Sleeves

So yesterday I placed my large sleeve order for the year.  I usually have to do this as a result of the fact that sleeves just become kind of useless after some time.. This is probably due to my large stature and the presence of food while playing the game :)

I have asked around and gotten some good information on the types of supplies most people are using, and even some nifty products (Looking at you Medina) I will have to ask/beg for for Christmas. 

Myself I have my cube in Purple Dragon Shield sleeves.

Most of my decks are in Ultra Pro Sleeves. (Powder White/Candy Orange/Tsunami Blue)

My EDH decks will be in Black sleeves.

Some things I have noticed and I would like to gripe a bit about. 

I'll never use an Art sleeve :) They scratch and mark too easy...

I'll never use those Shiny Ultra pro ones again (I think they stopped selling them).. you could literally pick off the shine/color film and have a clear sleeve... This happened alot as a result of rifle shuffling.

Why are the colors not consistent? Ultra Pro sells Powder White sleeves in packs of 50.  They sell a "white" sleeve in packs of 100.  These sleeves are not the same colors for some reason...  A good percentage of my sanity is lost to the fact that all my powder white sleeves mixed in with this rogue 100 pack.  If I mix the sleeves the cards are marked.. GRRRRRRR.

Another interesting factoid about the 100 packs.  The overall sleeve quality is less.  I don't know why, but when I buy the 100 pack I split them about 3 times as often as the sleeves I buy in the 50 packs.  Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me.

Ultra Pro seems to be the only company who also makes the oversize sleeve for Planes and Schemes.  Thank you for this, however WHY did you make them side load and not top load?  I cannot rifle shuffle these side loaders.. :(

Ok.. I feel better having gotten that off my chest.

At any rate, man.. I wish I could trade cards for sleeves... No one around here will seem to jump on that...