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Mean
Green Oakenform is the name of the Magic: The Gathering deck that I am playing in Standard. I put it together over the Summer when I started playing for the first time since Exodus came out.
I don’t play Legacy because I’m not familiar with the cards that have come out since I stopped, and the game is totally different now. But Standard, especially since I came back with Magic 2010, has been a great place to pick things back up.
It’s not a bad place for you to start either if you don’t play Magic. As social publishers, it’s healthy to pickup something unrelated to what you’re working on but keeps you thinking. Magic: The Gathering teaches you better than any blog or book can. You need to know how to manage your resources, how to play the odds, how to adjust against the opposition, how to synthesize, and the importance of a plan.
I was looking around online today to see if anyone was using the game to teach business and couldn’t find much. I’m disappointed, so on the weekends I may pick up the slack and talk about business and financial basics you can learn by picking up the game. Think of it like a business 101 … just with Goblins and that weird “Tap” symbol.
For this week, let’s introduce the deck this column is named for.
Mean Green Oakenform
Land:
19 Forests
Creatures:
4 Birds Of Paradise*
4 LLanowar Evles
2 Borderland Ranger
1 Rampaging Baloth*
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Master of the wild hunt*
2 Ant Queen*
2 Deadly Recluse
Spells:
3 Overrun
4 Howl Of The Night Pack
4 Giant Growth
4 Oakenform
4 Rampant Growth
1 Garruk Wildspeaker*
*Card names followed with * mean the card is currently over $5 according to Star City Games. Like stock, Magic: The Gathering card prices change frequently, usually just as a new set comes out or rotates out of a format like Standard.
How Much Is This Going To Run You?
Not a heck of a lot. With some exceptions, the majority of cards here are under $5. If you were to price out a deck from any of the Pro Tour winners (Magics’s equivalent of the World Series Of Poker), you’ll find something that will cost well over $200 to put together. And that’s if you can find all the cards for it.
I was lucky and picked up Garruk, the Ant Queens, Master Of The Wild Hunt, and one of the Birds of Paradise playing in Magic: 2010 sealed deck tournaments this Summer. The other three birds I’m borrowing from my brother-in-law.
The Rampaging Baloth is new as of last night. I picked him up in a trade.
The Lesson
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to put together a winner. In fact, in the case of Mean Green Oakenform? The cards that make this deck win every time are the least expensive ones. Build the foundation with what you have and make additions when necessary. If you’re able to, you can tap in to your network to fill the gaps until you’re able to on your own. And if you can’t, barter.
Common sense? Sure. But all you need to do is watch the news to see when it comes to business (or money), common sense isn’t exactly abundant.
It doesn’t hurt to be lucky either, but you should never count on luck. I may have done really well with Magic 2010 packs, but I just purchased four Zendikar booster packs and only picked up one useful card … for White, which I never play. The rest? Crap.
We’ll talk more about Mean Green Oakenform next weekend, wherein we find out what happens when a competitor apes your great idea (and succeeds.)
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