MTG 30th Oct 2022 Prediction update, How did I do?!?

[@deeterful]

My take on how 30A cards would effect the values of CE/IE was very similar to yours. I think this conclusion was logical if one were a part of the OS community. You basically had an entire subset of Magic players waiting for the market to crash on CE/IE cards just so as to swoop in. Thus in tern preventing an actual hard crash. I recall having many a discussion with OS players who were practically salivating at the prospect of a CE/IE price crash. The purchasing habits of OS players has not changed much as far as I can see. They just keep plugging away at filling their collections. Fortunately I never needed to convert my collection to cash, unfortunately during all this I had no cash to spend on cards. I came out with the same hand I went in with. The Magic community at large mostly is unaware of the OS community and of the buying power within our small subset of players/collectors. The vast majority of Magic players don't even know that OS exists, and of the players that have heard of the format, most think it's just some janky diversion for Vintage players at Eternal Weekend events. I got into an argument with some guy trying to tell me that it was Commander players who were driving the price increases of CE/IE cards (pre-pandemic/pandemic), to which I laughed. He didn't think our community was large enough to have any impact on the singles market. While it is true that Commander players are probably the largest drivers of singles sales, CE/IE does not hold much for the Commander community. Outside of dual lands, Copy Artifact, Wheel of Fortune, and Timetwister which RL cards are seeing a ton of Commander play? And with all those excluding Twister, there are plenty of Revised copies available. So while the Commander community may have had an impact upon the price of Timetwister, I highly doubt they affected the rest of the prices. I'll venture that the OS community, on average per capita, possesses more purchasing power than the Commander community. Anyway, good to see you back and sorry to hear about your health issues. Take care.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I LOVE IT when people come in and demonstrate so much wisdom in this space. Thank you! You nailed it, yes it's absolutely the Old School community who's supporting CE/IE, not the Commander/EDH players. No EDH player cares about a CE Shivan Dragon... but we sure as heck do! When I have that same discussion I like to switch over to numbers to really prove my case. All efforts to gauge the number of Old School players around the world seems to land on around 25k to 40k active Old School players. Well, considering 9k CE printed, 5k IE printed, that's 14k of CE and IE put together. And you only get one copy of each card in a set... so if everybody wanted a playset of lightning bolts... only 14k/4 = 6.5k people can have that. 6.5k people in a community of 25k to 40k who might want is DOES make sense that they could push prices around. The math works... which aligns with my lived experience in it.

[@deeterful]

@@EdwintheMagicEngineer , I had no idea there were even that many of "us" out there. I would have guestimated closer to 10ish+K. I also, when discussing this issue with Commander people, like to break out the numbers. Most people do a lot of presuming the facts without looking at the figures. I am one of those OS players with playsets of many CE cards, taking that bite out of the total. Question for you, do you have any educated deductions as to how many CE/IE cards were destroyed and/or re-backed? I had some person trying to tell me that number was @ 30%, which I think is far too high. I've only ever seen or heard legitimate claims of scant few, anecdotally speaking that is.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@deeterful I wish I did have a sense of how many were rebacked or destroyed. Unfortunately I really don't. The reason is because you only ever see a tiny % of the total supply in the market at any one time. You never see Old School events larger then 400 people, and you rarely see more then 50 copies of a certain really good CE on the market. Even if all those 400 people at a given event have a single copy of the same CE card... that's 400/14,000 or 2.87% of the total supply there in one room. So I personally have no idea how anybody can get a correct figure on how many CE were destroyed like that.

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

Welcome back Edwin, nice to see you making a video again. Stay healthy 🙌

[@stefanwesseling8653]

Great to see you again and that you’re doing well

[@TheZoomoftheWell]

Welcome back. Yep I’ve been trying to complete collectors p9 set during this period. Just 2 left.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Nice work! What is left?

[@natethetoe386]

True they did not brake the RL, but It is kind of like marching your entire army up to the walls of an enemy city, and getting offended when everyone says you are about to lay siege. It is true that you have not invaded yet, but your intentions are clear. I have lost all hope in WOTC, and will not spend any more money on D&D, or MTG. Magic 30 just makes me sick. I would sell everything, but I do not want to get crushed in taxes, and I don't really know who to sell to anyway(I guess eBay). The NYSE crushed it in 2023, and I am glad that I did not invest in MTG over the last year. Glad to see a video for you. Keep making them and I'll keep watching.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Don’t worry about RL break. An actual break would be far too costly and not worth it. They have singled for years they want to break it… but they cannot Look up the video from KZbinr Law about the Reserve List if you want to know why.

[@penguinlust6749]

Welcome back. I took advantage of the price dip and finished out my collection -- much cheaper than I expected.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

nice move!

[@ericliu8488]

Welcome back! Missed your videos

[@hangryherbivore]

“Why are you renting a studio for $1200/mo? You should buy $2M mansion. It’s a much better investment!”

[@Dibiase206]

Keep the videos coming. You are pretty much the only person that touches on old school specific magic finance. Not sure people appreciate how closely related the prices of these old cards are tied to this niche community.

[@brandonrose4722]

Good to see you back!

[@ricardorodrigues5253]

Great to see you're back and what a great video to start again! I do believe you're right, that the ICE prices are flattening out, I do not believe they will go up much though, due to the fear that will constantly be present in the back of OS players' heads, that WotC might just do an m30 again. Is it likely, after m30's flop? No, I don't think so. Nevertheless, it's not impossible, and that's what is going to keep the ICE prices from going back up to something even close of what they were pre-m30. Here in Europe I now see ICE P9 pieces going for ~40%, or even lower, of what they used to cost before m30 came out. I do hope I'm wrong, because I love ICE, but this is my take on it. Thanks for your thoughts on this, it's really great to hear your analysis on this matter again!

[@tartuffethespry]

The return of the OG

[@7Alberto7]

Awesome to see you back Ed! Thanks for the video! 🎉🎉🎉

[@riddlermangaming3533]

Glad to see you're back and glad your health concerns are better! Absolutely and awesome time to get into Flesh and Blood as a collector or a player. 2024 is going to be an awesome year!

[@Kensiky]

Glad to see you back and stronger than every.

[@LifeAfterDeath2012]

Welcome back Edwin, I wish you all the best in 2024... and yes please do more video and I love the way you explaining stuffs. However, I may have a different opinion than most of the people, I believe some of the ABU cards may hit the market within this and maybe next year, IF fed is unable to cut the rate after all... some people may need to sell their collection to liquid cash. I cannot tell will this affect the price but do have one last chance for those who missed out to getting in this rabbit hole. :)

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Thanks for watching the video and commenting. I understand what you say about ABU cards hitting the market if the FED is unable to cut rates etc... what you are basically saying is that in hard times people might have to sell. My reply is to look back over where we have been for the last few years. People have been getting killed with inflation and MTG 30 scared the market badly already. Do you really think that period of hard times + falling prices didn't already wash out the weak hands from the market? You think people who can barely afford or lost faith are still holding out right now? I disagree, I think most people you would put in that bucket are already out. If we hit hard inflation again there could be WAY more people rushing into the MTG market to scoop up these assets before inflation runs away again.

[@kazekage_gaara_-8027]

Magic 30 wasn't about breaking the reserve list. It was about being $1000 for four packs of proxies. Everyone knew that if you could afford to buy in it was likely that they would be worthwhile in the long term. The biggest issue was Mark Hosewater saying that they wouldn't print anything similar to Collector's Edition/International Collector's Edition, and they in fact did.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

At the time of release there was a huge amount of fear and mis-information about what this was and what it meant. A LOT of KZbinrs and influences very incorrectly made videos/content saying it was a direct RL break. I actually made videos way back in 2017-2019 saying that nothing was really stopping WoTC from making another CE print.. other then Rosewaters comments. I did try to prepare people it could happen someday. Time will tell how the MTG 30th cards end up doing, but it's worth noting the fact WoTC cut the sale SO short is a primary reason they have value. They literally are very rare due to that and that really helps their price. Still... Old School players generally hate them.

[@kazekage_gaara_-8027]

@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Fair. Most of my experiences around the product were that they broke the spirit of the RL when they made Magic 30 which was a sentiment that came from his own comments and that definitely is part of the vitriol. It showed that even the higher ups can't necessarily be trusted and that definitely dealt a serious blow to consumer, collector, investor confidence. All in all though, you make good points and it's nice to see some new vids from the channel.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@kazekage_gaara_-8027 I fully agree it was a huge confidence blow to MTG and that goes double for Mark Rosewater. He definitely did promise people that CE would never get reprinted and talked about "spirit of the list" etc. All that went right out the window. I'm really hoping that WoTC themselves sees MTG 30th as a huge failure. They barely sold any, caused a huge pullback on the secondary market, and even risked some litigation due to secondary market damages. All for what? So they could sell a handful of boxes? I cannot imagine that was worth it for them.

[@mfdoom1898]

WE WANT MORE!!!

[@christhemagnif]

Glad to see you Edwin! We missed your videos 👍

[@chrisfloto3599]

Can you bring back the unhinged magi please. Glad you are back

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Dan has been too busy to do it. That's been the bottleneck. We both want to do it and I can put the time in. If he can find the time again, it will happen.

[@michaelc6817]

@@EdwintheMagicEngineer Welcome back Edwin. Hope you can continue to put content up on your channel. One of these days we'll discover what is going/did go on with Unhinged. You say Dan is too busy, and Dan says you are not available. Dan has posted some by himself on the Unhinged Channel and continues to post on Openboosters. So ... In any case, it would be good to see Unhinged revived again with both Magi. That being said, I still think Unhinged should NOT detract from each of your individual channels! You are first and foremost Edwin the Magic Engineer!!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@michaelc6817 Dan and I are great friends and we even were just hanging out last night. But it is funny he keeps saying it's me, no it's definitely him being busy. He just needs to carve out some time to film and invite me!

[@andrewostman3135]

Good to see you again. It is a great time to play FaB

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Indeed it is. I cannot think of a better time to introduce people to FaB. Because now there is a lot of cards out there, players who are hungry for new players to join, and they are all a ton cheaper with all the collector/investors doing an exit. The game is literally supported by players right now. Full disclosure, I'm a little worried about the games future. Players like cheap game pieces but that's not the model a TCG or CCG operates in. And an LGS cannot do business with a bunch of cards that have no value. That's just not the model. If prices don't eventually rise back up... FaB will die. I wish more people understood that. On the other hand... even if the game did die, nothing says you need to stop playing with the cards you own. I can definitely see a section of people who keep right on playing with FaB even if LSS shut down.

[@jdj-sapphire]

Welcome back Edwin! Good to see you! Would love to hear your thoughts on the playability and collectibility of Sorcery TCG.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Coming up! I already have a lot of it :)

[@TheDadue]

Nice to see a new video of you! Want to say something: FCK MTG30! 😂

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I feel very similar to that. Beyond being a total wreck... it was SUCH a missed opportunity. Let me explain. I personally believe had WoTC made a HUGE amount of MTG 30th and sold them at $4 a pack... a very different dynamic would have happened. If MTG 30th was like 10x the print run of CE+IE then CE+IE would again be special for a lot of valid reasons. Supporting their prices. And a huge print of cheap MTG 30th would have opened the door WIDE OPEN for MANY new people to grab packs and try out the Old School format. This is where numbers matter... They say MTG has 40 million players world wide. Even 1% of those players works out to around 400,000 people.... now think for a second how many actual people play the Old School format... I definitely think it's around 25k to 40k people world wide that play the Old School format (I have lots of reasons for landing on that number). Well there is a 30 year history of MTG players always wanting the older, cooler, original card. And 400,000 new people coming into a format where the current market is around 30k people would place HUGE DEMAND on the original.... actually legal... print cards. Even the CE/IE would be in demand because they were far more rare then MTG 30th in this scenario. So the downward force of new prints would be TOTALLY OVERWHELMED by a massive inrush of new players and therefore new demand. MTG 30th could have exploded the format in popularity and make prices on 30 year old paper skyrocket.... while at the same time half a million new players can actually get their cards on those game pieces to play. Dropping a 30 year old CE Black Lotus would be a serious statement when you are surrounded by thousands of copies of MTG 30th Lotus going for $50 each. Not to mention all the times we could do stuff like "Beta Draft" with MTG 30th. See where I'm going? This is what they COULD have been a HUGE boost to that format and that market. But WoTC completely missed it by being so greedy and charging $1000 for 4 packs instead of $4 a pack. I would have bought a PALLET of MTG 30th had it been a normal price.

[@joeb1522]

​@EdwintheMagicEngineer I'm hoping WoTC learns from its mistakes. It would have been amazing to buy boxes (or a pallet) of MTG 30th. Totally amazing.

[@tartuffethespry]

That Castle Grayskull is sick

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I was so excited when it showed up! I'm itching to see it come out of the box, but it's also so cool to have it new in box. Every time I walk in the room it makes me happy :)

[@os_9394]

I always enjoy your content Edwin! Glad you’re back and hope to see more videos. Curious about your thoughts on Sorcery Contested Realm? I personally love it and am having a blast opening product, and it’s a fun game to play. I actually have stopped most magic buying and have been picking up more Sorcery. I know Rudy is big into it and have seen Dan open up several boxes on his channel, so curious what your thoughts are on the game. Thanks!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Hello! I have bought a lot of Sorcery and love it so far. I have not been able to play an actual game with anybody yet but I read through the instructions. I'm planning to do a video on it :)

[@amirceddy]

I have kept so much cash on the sidelines in funds like VMFXX and SPAXX. I think I will start dripping out of those money markets and put the money weekly into the market over a 36ish week time frame, to get all of the money in the market before the election. Being an EE myself, I definitely enjoy the investment side of your talks as much as the TCG talk.

[@jacobpearce4055]

I feel the same way about the markets. I’m in my last year of school for engineering and wish I was done so I’d have solid income to take advantage of this time. Side note you and Dan and Rudy should play commander and post it.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

We did exactly that! The video was posted on Unhinged Magi. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnqonYmjlJx4oMU

[@scottdorencz3356]

Edwin, good to see a new video! I agree that the US inflation will continue through 2024. Are you purchasing CE and ICE as an investment or for playing with? My 10 year old is just getting introduced to MTG and I’m looking forward to playing at home again!

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Honestly, I think it's great for both. The Old School 9394 community is very accepting of people playing with CE/IE. To us, they are basically the same as real cards for most events and purposes. There are a few Swedish rule folk who not only want real cards... but only original print (No Revised). Fortunately, they are a minority. I believe this is one of those rare moments in life where your hobby is both a fun thing to do and a great investment. I really believe that's the sweet spot in life because usually it's very expensive to seek entertainment. But honestly now... if you buy something for X dollars, and it remains worth X dollars or even goes UP... then you are really not "spending money" you are just transferring it into another asset. The proof being when you sell that asset you get your cash back. I have made videos on this in the past, but it's such an important topic that perhaps it's worth doing another video on it.

[@tragicslip]

happy new year

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Happy New Year back to you! Good to see you.

[@8bitgoonies]

More Edwin Vidoes would be great! I prefer you to Rudy To be honest, I disagree with FAB making any sort of comeback, the game is a slog and I watched it die here in Australia and all my local LGS's...

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Yeah I'm fully aware that's what's most likely in FaB's future. They are more likely to die then come back. You are not wrong. But at the same time, I do enjoy the game... many of the cards are rare... and even if LSS goes belly up there's a chance the players keep playing it (just like us Old School folk do it) and eventually the player base grows to surpass the supply.

[@collector8704]

Mtg collectors are getting older. There are no youngsters to take over. Its a dying collectible.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I don't find that to be true, it's just that the youngsters cannot afford the old cards. Their value has grown past the reach of most of them. But keep in mind there is a very limited number of old cards. It''s less then 0.5% of the next generations that have to show even a minor interest and have the funds to support that market. So the question is... do you think there's a good chance 0.5% of the current 40 million magic players around the world will gain wealth and want those old cards? I say yes.

[@collector8704]

@@EdwintheMagicEngineer this is not true for tcg like pokemon. Youngsters are buying expensive pokemon wotc and trophy cards. Between MTG and Pokemon, the choice is clear.

[@drunkmtg2264]

Well well well look whos back with a fresh pack of menthols. lets see more because I'm getting sick of Dan and Rudy. Tee-Hee :)

[@golDroger88]

I have only one problem with this analysis: it didn't account for the state of Magic as a game. It's awful. The gameplay, the art, the politics... you name it. Everything about the game is terrible now.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

I can talk about that in another video :)

[@deeterful]

@golDroger88, while I tend to agree with you in the large part, that is still all a subjective matter of opinion. To the average Commander player who has only be playing 10 years or less, your statement would make little to no sense. While most of the art is trash, some of the best art ever is still being made (see Seb McKinnon). The cards are more powerful and focused than ever before with cards being designed for every weird, off beat deck theme possible. To the modern players most of what the first ten years had to offer was complete garbage peppered with over powered nonsense. Sure, Standard has been a hot mess, but do I care..... mostly no. And with Masters/Horizons sets they've managed to screw up Modern, Legacy, and to a small part Vintage. But Commander is thriving and healthy, which is all that matters these days, right?

[@golDroger88]

@@deeterfulBro Seb McKinnon has been banned for wrongthink, keep up. He hasn't had any art in over a year I believe.

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@deeterful Commander/EDH is a great format. I do love that format and play it often (although I play the Traditional EDH version of it... where nearly any card is allowed but you manage your own list to make sure it's not OP and fun to play with and against...) But pretty much ALL new cards suffer the same massive issue... you are being asked to pay huge money for stuff that has no promise or track record of holding value or going up in value. In fact if it goes up they will likely reprint it to crush the price. That is a tough pill to swallow... when you think about how WoTC tries to sell you 4 booster packs for $1000 or perhaps 12 Collector Booster packs for $250. They want the money from high secondary market... but they constantly STEAL VALUE from that same secondary market through reprints. This is why so many people like me have abandoned nearly ALL new cards and put our money into old cards that either cannot be reprinted, or have something special that cannot be taken away (like how CE was printed on the same plates as Alpha and Beta... which were destroyed after CE was made.)

[@deeterful]

@@golDroger88 , that has zero bearing as to my point about newer players seeing the game very differently than enfranchised players.

[@cryptosandtokens7104]

#rekt! Would have been smarter to buy #Bitcoin! lol

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Although that's technically true based on the backwards viewpoint on price... It's a huge gamble considering Bitcoin has been 100% taken over by market speculation and it's future of being a world currency is dead. Gamble at your own risk.

[@mebinici]

LOL! It's more suited as a store of value... Speculation? Yeah, it's trading ETF's now! Will out last MTG until the last Bitcoin is mined plus years beyond...

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@mebinici A store of value does not swing wildly, it's stable. Wild swings in value is the very definition of volatile asset that equals speculation when you invest in it. Bitcoin is absolutely NOT stable in value. Nor will it be in the future. Be honest dude... your ENTIRE hope for Bitcoin is that it shoots UP in value to the moon right? That is absolutely NOT what stable, store of value means. That... is an investment. ETF's trading futures contracts on Bitcoin purchases is like throwing gas on a fire. It will not only make it MORE volatile, but it also makes Bitcoin directly in the control of those who can control and issue credit used to buy those future contracts on Bitcoin. Do you know how ETF's work? You should study how GLD and SLV are used to manipulate/control the precious metals market.

[@mebinici]

@EdwintheMagicEngineer there's Spot ETFs my guy... Do you not understand that more liquidity added to Bitcoin will eventually stabilize a price in the future? So many uneducated people like you... Sorry you need to go back to economics 101

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@mebinici Dude, check yourself. More liquidity does not mean more stability. Stability can come with low liquidity and even low trade volume, or high liquidity and high trade volume. STABILITY comes when supply balances with demand and there is not huge events pushing the potential future across the board up or down. I think it's you who needs to return to basics. Seriously, stop being arrogant and learn something. How do you think major banks and governments can take over an entire market? They print money, control credit etc. If they can get an asset with X amount of market cap, to start doing futures contracts with X*100 amount and they can use CREDIT to fund that futures trading market, then you can get HUGE SWINGS up or down on the asset under the control of the ETF's. The people who control the ETF, then control the asset. Again... go study GLD and SLV and don't come back until you can answer WHY the price of Silver is around the same amount as it was in the 1970s. This Bitcoin ETF is probably so big money can control it... not make you rich. Before I end this... let's HARD ANSWER your terrible assertion that LIQUIDITY = STABILTY Ok, say you have a 1000 people that all have $10,000 to invest in a given stock. That's 10 million of available cash. They are all eyeballing a stock that's $55 a share meaning each of them could buy 181 shares. Ok now say they all get reliable news that stock is going to drop to $35 a share within a month... What do you think they will all do... SELL IT. Now take that same group of people, give them each ANOTHER $10,000 so they each have 20k. You have added liquidity... right? Same situation... if they have 10k or 20k each invested in that stock at $55 a share and they hear it's going to $35 a share... what will they ALL DO? They will all sell it. It's not the LIQUIDITY that changes the direction, it's the FUTURE EXPECTATIONS of the asset. If you have no liquidity you only sell a good asset when you NEED THE MONEY for something else. Liquidity making you buy or sell is a personal choice that you must handle when you are very nearly broke. It has NOTHING TO DO with banks opening an ETF and injecting huge amounts of credit into trading futures. Stop... don't reply yet. Read that in repeatedly until you understand it. If you don't... find somebody local who can explain it to you.

[@D0012D13]

28$ a cheap card? Thanks but no thanks

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

Would it change your viewpoint if you knew that card was going to $1000 in a few years? How does it change your viewpoint if the card was to at least hold it's value? Remember that MTG has NEVER been just a game. It has ALWAYS been both a game and a collectible, where the pieces have varied secondary market value.

[@D0012D13]

@EdwintheMagicEngineer ya it would change my viewpoint from it being too expensive to way too expensive. Used to have a bunch of dual lands I bought for like 40$ to play with in 2016 but at a certain point the price was so high I wouldn't pay that amount for a card currently so why wouldn't I sell. I'll leave the card speculation to the old heads who have no idea how miserable playing modern magic has been. Collectable is a garbage word anyway that's totally up to interpretation. My interpretation would assume that collectables would at least be able to be collected reasonably, you know collectABLE. While someone can collect van gogh paintings, that doesn't make one of his paintings a collectable. And if they are, then literally every tangible item is a collectable and the word just means thing I bought/found and am hoarding

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@D0012D13 I really don't mean this as an insult, so please don't take it as one... but perhaps TCG and CCG are really not for you. These things have always been created and meant to have and support a large secondary market. That's absolutely part of the actual intention both by WoTC and the people who have been buying MTG for decades. WoTC does not want or intend for all players to have all cards. They WANT to have a strong secondary market filled with cards of high value. Their entire model is literally built around exactly that. This is why cards are sold in randomized packages and have different rarity. This is what MTG always was, and always will be. Feel free to hate that if you want... but that's what it is. Rather then wasting your time and energy hating something you cannot change, perhaps consider making your peace with it, or moving on?

[@D0012D13]

@EdwintheMagicEngineer I haven't really engaged in magic for some time after playing over 20 years and accepted the fact that they are alienating players and pandering to brainless pack openers. Good bye players rewards hello collector packs. Can enjoy the gameplay but hate the toxic pay wall form of card aquisition. If the cards should have value they should have to be 21+ to even play otherwise they are just selling scratch off lottery tickets to kids. How is opening a pack and selling the cards any different from scratching off a ticket and turning it in for money?

[@EdwintheMagicEngineer]

@@D0012D13Thanks for continuing to engage on the topic. I do have answers for you. First, know that the different formats of MTG are not even CLOSE to the same thing. In Vintage or Old School a single deck can literally cost $80k, where a single deck in EDH, Modern, Standard, Pauper, Draft, and many others can cost $30 and be competitive. So don't get bent on the price for the whole thing, realize some formats are expensive and most others are not. The expensive collector packs sold today are NOT the only way to get those cards. They are the more expensive versions of those cards. You can get the functionally-equivalent exact same cards out of $4 packs. Yes there IS in fact an aspect of gambling to buying sealed product and cracking packs. WoTC got in a lot of trouble for it too because it amounted to teaching kids to gamble. That IS a thing. The way WoTC works around it is just by pretending to ignore the secondary market. It's all a big lie though because we all know they clearly do. Especially when the do special reprints on only the expensive cards. Anyways, if you want to hard avoid gambling, buy singles and play cheap formats. Or, just play in groups that allow proxies. Old School is the format where a deck can easily be $80k, and most local play groups allow proxies in that format. Having said that, a $400 deck can also be very competitive and win the event.