I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before on here, but I play Magic: The Gathering, often going in to play casually at the game store, particularly in the Commander format (formerly known as EDH).  I pick a theme for a deck, and assemble 100 cards to build that deck according to that theme and the rules.

One of the decks I’ve always wanted to build, partly because it was one of the first things I ever heard about in Magic when my brother told me about it when we were kids, is a sliver deck.  Slivers are creatures within the world of Magic that mutate and share their mutations with other slivers (thematically).  Gameplay-wise, whenever you play a new sliver, it has some ability that it then shares with all the other slivers (more or less).  One sliver you play might give them all +1/+1, another might give them first strike or deathtouch, etc.  I finally built that deck recently, and had ordered some more cards to fine-tune it.  Yesterday, some of those cards came in, and I planned to start integrating them into the deck.

The deck is gone.

I’ve looked all over my house, my car, the game store, the bag I carried them in, the deck is not there.  It’s been driving me nuts for the past 24 hours.  I finally built what I wanted, and now it’s gone, possibly through carelessness on my part, and that irks me.  I’m going start carrying my decks in a more reliable setup, and take inventory of which ones I have on me much more frequently to prevent this from happening.  I put too much time (and yes, money) into this hobby to start losing things because i tried to carry too many decks in a bag that can’t hold them all without them falling out, or forgetting them behind a box or bag or something at the game table.

So, I’m rebuilding.   Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone found it, or maybe it’s in some weird place that I put it for some unfathomable reason and forgot.  But, I’ve always wanted to play this deck, and I’m going to.  And I’m going to build it better this time.

To help with that, I’m keeping in mind the things I learned from building it the first time.  It’s technically a five-color deck, but trying to truly play five colors, particularly in the Commander format that prevents you from using multiples of anything other than non-basic lands, is a recipe for getting stuck with the wrong mana at the wrong time.  I’m making it mostly tri-color, with a splash of the other two colors.  I’m also cutting out most of the non-basic lands that I used before that came into play tapped, and some of the not-so-great mana rocks that always came out at the worst possible time.

Also, this time I’m using this site: Deckstats.net

By putting my decklist in, I’m getting an analysis of the mana curve, mana color distribution, mana production distribution, test draws, and more to help me tweak the deck before I purchase (or in my case, repurchase) a single card.  I’m sad that I lost my cards, and it’s gonna cost me, but I’m going to build a better deck.

AND MAKE SURE I DON’T LOSE IT THIS TIME.

Hopefully none of you will make the same mistake.  Always keep track of your decks, and if your bag seems like stuff might drop out, you should carry less or get a more appropriate bag.