Organize Your Magic The Gathering Collection

[@tedhand6237]

Leave it unorganized for a few years and it's like cracking packs all over again.

[@TheFirstJake]

For real. Finding my old playset of rustic studies a few years ago felt pretty nice.

[@blahpunk1]

Many years ago I sold my revised dual lands. I recently discovered recently going through my archive that, apparently, I forgot to sell the plateaus. It was a very satisfying discovery.

[@psychedelicsewell]

Hotel Manager with 3 kids here. Those cardboard boxes you don’t know where they come from can come from hotels. My hotel keys come in them, so I’ve taken some home with me. I’m a newer commander player, only being into MTG for 3 years. at this point I have about 3000 loose cards not in decks, and I for sure put way too much effort into keeping them organized. My method is: Rarity, then color, then alphabetically. My MAJOR issue are cards that have changed rarity throughout the years. Or from set to set. Arcane signet? Common in bloomburrow. Uncommon in foundations. Usually I just default to whatever their lowest rarity is. Lately I have started keeping a few piles aside for cards with purposes. For example, when I’m building a deck I also like to pull all the paper cards out that might work and then make cuts. But I always start with the mana base. So, nowhere in my card vaults will you find any non basic lands or mana rocks. Those are all in their own case. After that I decided that board wipes could also be their own category. And solemn simulacrum and burnished heart. Should those be with the mana rocks? And this can have me spiral. At the end of the day, deck building is part of the game I love. Playing is part of the game I love. And organizing my collection is also a part of the game I love. About twice a month, after I drop the kids off at school, before my wife comes home, and when I also have the day off, I’ll just spend a few hours going through and slotting back in all the cards I cut while brewing my last 2 or 3 decks. It’s very relaxing for me. It’s fulfilling.

[@TheFirstJake]

There really is a certain meditation in brewing and organizing.

[@KaladeshExpress]

These are all good strategies, but you forgot the best method, my method; just throw every card not actively being used in a shoe box to sort later, never sort them, then buy a new copy, until you have several copies, end up selling that shoebox, realized you sold your signed cyclonic rift, cry. Repeat.

[@TheFirstJake]

This is painfully true. I'm just going to put this Night of Souls' Betrayal over with the other 8 Night of Souls' Betrayals. I tend to subscribe to the stacks of cards on my desk, but it's a similar philosophy.

[@Plexxii]

Came from your short. Good advertising.

[@BCleal]

Sorting by set, each on their own box, has done wonders for the bulk, but I do have binders for pauper and it works. Great video!

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks a lot! What do you play in pauper? I've been messing around with madness and it's a whole lot of fun!

[@BCleal]

@@TheFirstJake I have an Elves and Bogles deck that I love, but I'm trying to put together an Izzet terror to play at the LGS.

[@ElmntFire]

This has been my thought process after coming back to the game from selling my collection. I still need to wrap my head around the role bulk rares play nowadays considering some uncommons can be worth more than most rares depending on the set and the amount of bulk does not really justify the binder space it takes up.

[@TheFirstJake]

@@ElmntFire I'm always a little torn on binder space. There's something super cool about people finding a weird old card that they've been looking for. I had someone just absolutely over the moon over me having an onslaught Enchantress's Presence.

[@True_Ronin]

I have an absurd amount of cards. I even have a large card catalog/library set up. I organized by color, type, cmc, alphabetical.

[@saleen12]

I only play commander and I keep a 3 row 1800 count magnet nice box for each color. Sorted by creatures, instants, sorceries and then a section with enchantments/artifacts/planes walkers/anything else. Makes it easy enough for me

[@chesterfieldthe3rd929]

I'm having a blast organizing my Sorcery Contested Realm cards. Freaking art is top tier ❤

[@TheFirstJake]

Sorcery looks sweet. My LGS just started getting it in. Probably going to hold off s little bit to see if a community forms. Agreed on the art though.

[@matthewbenoit3098]

I sort my staples by format (old school, premodern, pauper, commander). Each format is sorted by colour & arranged by CMC. That’s the best way that works for me.

[@TheFirstJake]

Oh man what a cultured set of formats. I love the variety.

[@matthewbenoit3098]

@ I’m thrilled whenever I hear people mention premodern in their videos 🙌 🙌

[@Kryptnyt]

I sort primarily by color, then into card type (creatures, instant/sorcery, enchantment/pw/battle/artifact) and then further into CMC/mana value. Got several large sturdy cardboard boxes for the things. It's a flexible enough system to keep intact while also making it easy to find specific things. I think my most confusing box to sort is my colorless/artifact box because I've kept so many mana rocks. I think I have to trim the fat.

[@CelticMTG]

My organizational method is: set, then collector's number. My collection goal is building full sets of each expansion so this is what fits my objective best, but I think this is something that lots of people can follow for deckbuilding purposes

[@vervastar]

Me too. Are you going to keep each set in its own binder

[@danmatthiesen9160]

i am glad that i started organizing early on. my way is first by colour, then cmc, then alphabetically. this way, i bank about what can fit in a booster box, take a few days on/off sorting them into my actual collection, and i can find cards very fast, even though i haven't digitized my collection. it took an ungodly amount of time to set up, but the upkeep is nice and chill, and i can always find my needed cards

[@QuicksilverSG]

I'm an old school paper player with both Premodern and Modern cards. I find that organizing by set works well for Premodern cards, because I'm familiar with the history of those sets and the blocks they share. With Modern cards, however, the sets all seem to blend together, especially since many of the most popular cards were reprinted in subsequent sets. What I've found most practical is organizing by color/multicolor/artifacts/land. Within each color, I keep creatures/planeswalkers in a separate bin from everything else, since it's easy to spot the difference at the lower right corner of each card. Within each of those two bins, I sort everything by converted mana cost, which I find much quicker to process than alphabetic sorting.

[@the_fat_wizard]

I like trying a lot formats and do quite a bit of trading. Because of this I used to do the alphabetized collection stuff since I mainly do digital deckbuilding, but that fell apart once one of my boxes needed to include a handful of cards once more, but didn't have the room. My options were to either get another box as an attachment, or to revamp the system in a way that works better with getting a notable but not massive numbers of new cards. Before I could decide, the universe did a reality check while I was setting to think on it and I tripped with one of my large boxes. "Well, start gathering" the universe said while mixing around 5,000 of my tediously catalogued cardboard pieces. Now my system is something I'd call "limited chaos" where I've embraced the messiness of having a sizable collection. I have my valuable cards in binders, non-english cards in one box, and everything else in groups of around 1000 random cards organized by color only. I have my collection on a spreadsheet where I note the box each card is in, and when I use a card in a deck I can simply cross-reference the sheet and the decklist, ticking a "deck" checkbox in the sheet for that card. If I need to check which deck a card is in, I check for the card within my active decks on my deckbuilding platform. A box of 1000 color-separated cards is not too large to be tedious to go through when looking for specific things, as long as you have a list of which boxes those things are in. And adding new cards is easy, Just keep putting them in a new box or segment until it reaches around 1000 cards. And if I accidentally get two or more boxes on the floor again, I can just wipe them from the spreadsheet and rescan without the need of thinking about reorganizing a major chunk of my collection.

[@ericsisolak9269]

I sort by color subdivided into creatures and spells (instants, sorceries, and enchantments), Colorless (artifacts (including colored ones) and other colorless cards, multicolor, and then non-basics, full-art basics, and basics. Each section is alphabetized. This allows for building digitally and just pulling a card list (I also have it inventoried) as well as just thumbing through piles looking for possibilities. Dividing by formats, rarity or sets just are a mess due to reprints. A card from an old set might now be standard legal, rarity shifted, or just spread all over. When building a deck I use a combination of flipping through organized cards, newly bought boosters (cause dopamine), and inventory searches to make a candidate pile that gets cut down (plus some scryfall searches for shopping). There are a few issues with my collection as it has grown (over 18,000). Smaller collections can get by with less subdivisions. Originally colored artifacts were quite rare so dumping them in with the colorless artifacts made sense (same with colorless non-artifacts), but now they probably should be divided out, and I will likely break out enchantments from "spells".

[@GreatWhiteElf]

My buddy bought an old library card catalog, and used that to sort his cards by set & color.

[@TheFirstJake]

That’s really cool. I have a mini one for some of my decks, but it’s a little snug with sleeves on.

[@mawtaus]

I store most of my cards alphabetically by colour, with each colour in its own box. That's a total of 8 boxes for W/U/B/R/G/Multi/Colourless/Lands. The exceptions for this are 2 Binders for the more valuable cards, a "Brew Box" for any cards that I want to keep aside for new deck builds, and a Placeholder Box for any new cards that I haven't got around to storing yet. I use Mana Box as my collection management tool, so everything gets scanned there first before it hits the Placeholder box. I tried a few different options for storing the bulk but eventually settled on fully correct alphabetical order. That means I don't have to remember if Magic 2010 was release before or after Zendikar, I just have to remember the alphabet. Initial setup was tedious, and the maintenance was daunting at first but once I set up the Placeholder box it hasn't been a problem.

[@mattf1787]

One that works great for me: Color (color, land, colorless and multicolored), card supertype, and then alphabetical. Seems to be pretty good so far.

[@TheFirstJake]

Yeah that's fair, I just know by the time I've pulled the 500-600 cards to brew a commander deck, I wouldn't put them back in the right place. It's awesome that it works for you!

[@zefiend]

This is the way (for deck building). For bulk: set, then alphabetical is good enough.

[@brandotheone]

Same here but I use cmc instead of alphabetical. Alphabetical is also difficult if you have cards in multiple languages.

[@azedfvc]

Alphabetic by extension can be great for people playing with cards in a single langage. However, as soon as your collection is multilingual, this system is completely useless. As an European I have cards in my langage and English cards, like a lot of people in Europe. This is never talked about by content creator that recommend the alphabetical approach. For me, as I play mostly singleton format, my collection is mostly sorted by color, then type, then mana value. Lands are sorted by color identity (because commander). This is roughly the same mental load as alphabetical but you can indeed search physically for "the best white instants you have on hand". In conjunction with digital tools, it's really efficient if you're doing the upkeep regularly. Initial setup was a bit of a pain tho, mostly typing everything in deckbox. Over time, regularly used cards gather at the top of the pile so searching become quicker and quicker. What is not sorted like that is my trade binders and some sentimental decks.

[@MrSillycheez]

Love this video, and I'm in that "playing for decades" group that loves building by rummaging then edit from playing. We seem to sort very similarly, I do the "hanger" style with all of my boxes. One thing I did was relatively quick and simple land organization with a handful of extra bundle and precon commander deck boxes. Things that each have their own box on a shelf for lands: 1 box Full Art/Foil/"Fun" Basics(divided by color), 1 box each of Dual-Color, 1 box for Tri-Color and "Any Color", 1 box for mono-color (with dividers), 1 box Colorless/Utility, and a small box of "etc/oddballs" which has a slot for all Tribal specfic cards. I HIGHLY suggest this. Made getting manabases thrown together so easy.

[@TheFirstJake]

Yeah the staples/box o’ rocks boxes are handy. Definitely going to start putting together a good land box. I like separating by color combo, going to steal this.

[@willmcgraw5237]

The reality of managing a super large collection (three booster boxes of every set since revised) is that the commons and in commons beyond some just known staples have little value vs their sort difficulty. Dumping all of that chaff and picking up sub 1$ singles for as often as you actually need an uncommon from the dark or something really is worth while. It’s an epic feels bad when you first do it, but basically having all of your rares over 10$ by set color abc in binders, staples in a box like you’re talking about. It makes the sheer size of your collection manageable

[@Rocknoob49]

My first box was 1500 cards for 15 bucks off of ebay. It was a grand time of kitchentable garbage :)

[@Rocknoob49]

scanned it all using delver lens (it kinda sucks and i found out better options exist nowadays) to then import it into deckbox (also kinda sucks lmao). Sorted the physical cards by colour, alphabetical.

[@dentlike]

Alphabetical also doesn't work for multiple languages, unless you store it digitally including the language of the card.

[@cryptoking2755]

I do not recommend alphabetizing by set, unless you're almost solely a collector. You can also do archetype-alphabetical and Mana value - alphabetical, which are both better. I spent over 40 hours sorting mine rarity and color - alphabetical, which also sucks. Doing by set a farewell or opt could be in numerous sets, who knows which one you have in use. So digital would almost be necessary to do that. If I were to do it again I would do color - card type - mana value I probably wouldn't even alphabetize them. I'd probably put them in binders. But I would try to keep trash/multiples past a few in long boxes. Until we can easily rent a robot to alphabetize for us. ( It's probably closer than you think) I'd probably use sites like edhrec to see if a card is actually used. Some cards are worse versions of other cards. So not really necessary to keep them unless you really really need to do that specific thing. Also I already opened another booster box and am dreading the almost an hour it will probably take to sort

[@TheFirstJake]

Yeah i agree. I can’t bring myself to just get rid of cards, but there is definitely a good 20-30%of my collection that I’ve never touched.

[@fwop7436]

Love this video! I scan with Manabox, and sort the cards into colour, then card type. I also have a box specifically for "recently used - to be sorted back in" that acts as a funnel in case I don't have time, and also sections of "sorted by colour, unsorted by type" in each coloured box. These are all scanned. Then I keep a few separate boxes/ piles for sets, like my MH2 uncommon set, and stuff like that

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks for sharing!

[@SwedeRacerDC]

Thanks for sharing! As my collection has grown and I brewed a ton of decks through Covid and post-Covid times, this is effectively what my system has become, but I have been wanting to upgrade and refine it by adding better tools and boxes at the very least. It seems we have a very similar interaction with this TCG being casual paper brewers with at least an intrigue into competitive formats.

[@TheFirstJake]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jonmattison3939]

Good stuff here. Thank you for posting. I've dipped into Magic several times with breaks in-between. I like your 3-part scoring: Setup vs Maintenance vs Use. On a scale of 1-10, ideally each part is in the 5-6 range. While it is good to be organized, a set up that is "too-organized" almost defeats the purpose as it takes too much time/effort to Setup and Maintain. When I started out I was alphabetizing everything into binder sleeves and realized how silly that was. At my "most cards owned" moment I had divided Rares/Mythics from Commons/Uncommons and had them sorted strictly by color. I dabbled with dividing by creature/sorcery/instant/etc but stopped. Also didn't try to keep them alphabetized. Due to reprints I also gave up on sorting by set early on. In the end, I realized that as my purchasing moved from packs/boxes to singles for specific deck builds (designed digitally) that it was easier to purchase another players set of a common, than to sort through boxes and boxes of cards. So in the end I sold all my magic cards to a local shop (could have made more if I sold directly to the public) and just bought card singles as needed for specific decks I wanted to sleeve up and play. Beyond that I switched to MTGO/Arena, and then basically dropped out of magic for the last couple of years. Life is busy. Too many hobbies, not enough time. I wish I could cash out of my MTGO collection.

[@Raymx3]

Love this video. Thank you. How I organize is based on value and staples, knowing I enjoy preferring with cards in hand but also online. Cards are first sorted into binders by color if $5 or more. There is a mono color, 2+ color and land binder. Rares valued between $1&$4.99 are sorted into a box, by color. From there, left over cards are separated into stable boxes, in my case just for commander since that’s all I play. I always know where my boots, cultivates, sol rings and command towers are and know right where they are in the box. After, cards are sorted by set then color(this is the bulk). If I happen to buy let’s say a lot of random cards, those go in a different organized box that’s just by color, set agnostic. With this I can find pretty any card within a few minutes. Downside though is a lot of commander decks have similar cards, upside, I can build 1-3 decks at once and in a relatively short amount of time! Last step is buying (cheap) cards I need for decks but don’t own.

[@danacoleman4007]

set color spell types by casting cost: creatures sorceries instants interrupts enchantments

[@jacobnardone169]

Starting this journey myself, this was a very well timed video! Thanks!

[@TheFirstJake]

Good luck and God speed!

[@ashleyrowley299]

My first cards I owned came from a casual draft at a friends house. I didn’t have a box so I threw them into Tiffany box. Turns out their bracelet boxes hold about 40 cards nicely. 😂😂😂

[@TheFirstJake]

STILL COUNTS! Only the real ones use Tiffany boxes.

[@davidcardoso3525]

Rares/Mythics/cards worth more than a dollar in separate binders by color & subdivided by creature/non-creature. Bulk by color, subdivided by creature/non-creature using those big white cardboard boxes. Those boxes' natural habitat is my LGS. I play Commander exclusively. I started during Revised & periodically purge/trade cards. Deckbuilding is done digitally.

[@TheFirstJake]

That makes sense. I also like the idea of an LGS as a nature preserve. Might use that.

[@schawnschoch5283]

Since I only play commander I have them separated by playability, identity, type, and alphabetical. It’s easy to find cards and organize new cards. The only downfall is every once in a while I have to reevaluate “playability”

[@Shinji0Ikari007]

Stared during Revised, took a long break restarted in '19. Store non-commander stuff in long boxes and bundle boxes. Have 'useful' stuff in bundle boxes separated by color. Do not have time to organize beyond that. Approx 20-30k cards. Bult a shelving system for the boxes 5 rows high and wide enough for 8-9 boxes per row. About at the point I need to move some to 'deep storage'. Oh and if a card is in the 0-$2 range, it may be easier to just buy another copy if you can't find it in 5 minutes. It is when you buy a card and then run across it at random in your pile that you slap your forehead. Still going through the long boxes and pulling anything the remotely looks useful in commander.

[@PimpTrizkit-42]

I've been collecting since Antiquities, I have a large collection. 3:35 - Alphabetized by Set? Are you nuts? I used that strategy for a while, but its a bad idea. Sets are coming out too quickly, I can't memorize every set. And eventually, to hold all my cards I had to switch to the five row boxes. That would mean putting more than one set in a box. Otherwise, I would be wasting soo much space so that I couldn't put my collection in my closet. Ignore sets entirely, their are too many reprints for it to matter anyhow. Sort by Color first, have a 5-row box (or more) for each color. And another for colorless, and another for mulitcolored, and another for non-basic lands. So 8 categories at the top. Then sort by type, with multi-types also having their own category (Enchantment Creatures / Artifact Creatures)... Then Alphabetized. This will group together all the reprints so that you don't have 30 copies of giant growth taking up space. Now you can rip out all the extra copies and only keep what you need in your main collection. Then have another box of just extras that you store away on ice and only bust it out once in a while to add more or if you are donating to a new player. Using this method your search time is still extremely fast. I grab the clearly marked Red Box, go to the Instants, go to L, find Lightning Bolt (regardless of set) and zap all your sorting methods in the face. This method integrates even more seamlessly with websites because I don't have to memorize each set symbol. I can just see its Color and Type and Name, and off I go to get it quickly. I don't have to dig thru a ton of sets to find a set with Lightning Bolt in it. You even admitting that organizing by color first is your preferred method (12:22) ! Other methods are just inferior... Instead of offering a rainbow of inferior options, just show and explain the best way you know of. 6:04 - Format Buckets? Dont get me started, I play commander... so almost every card I own is in that bucket 16:41 - That never happens to me. I grab the non-basic land box, fully alphabetical sorted, no sets... Just grab the box, and goto B, and get the Blooming marches, easy peasy. And march all over you wasting this valuable time you say you don't have. Also, my whole collection is on DeckBox. So before I even grab the box, I check to see if I own it first, saving a lot of time if I don't. Moral to the story? Sort by Color -> Type - > Alphabetical... Never sort by set, ever! And use digital tools! You can have brewing "packages" online. Everything is no much faster to find and test. I can playtest my deck 10 times before you can playtest it once in real paper. Heck, I can digitally build a deck and playtest it 10 times and have already made several edits before you even get half your deck together. You say you have limited time, but you are wasting so much time. PT

[@ExTreyu]

That intro was sick 😂 i thoroughly enjoyed the drop and all

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks!

[@sayntfuu]

In long white boxes: by color: by rarity: by type: alphabeticalish. For example I have 1 long white box all my Black cards sorted into Creature, Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Battle and Planes Walker by Rarity. I have two boxes for Blue. One is common and uncommon the other is rare and mythic sorted like Black. I can find anything i need quickly. It also makes surfing for themes in the cardboard itself much easier. I tend to not put things back every single time. So occasionally I have to spend 20-30 minutes putting cards in various places so alphabetical becomes more sorted by starting letter.

[@karspoppe1604]

Built my own Deck-builder's-toolkit in a bundel box. with cards sorted in ,card draw, ramp, non basic lands, etc,

[@robstuk1]

I sort by color and rarity. Commons and uncommons in boxes, rares and mythics in binders. Anything 2$+ in top loaders. I have a sideboard of uncommons and common staples in sleeves. I side sort out every sliver, dragon, dinosaur, eldrazi, and hydra into their own collections.

[@jaxyaboy]

I've only started a couple of years ago and I had the foresight to organize by color and CMC. I primarily play commander so it's worked for me so far but with me looking to get into standard as well I'm thinking about putting all my standard legal stuff in a box separated by set so I can take them in and out of that box as cards get rotated.

[@TheFirstJake]

That’s awesome! I really like where standard is at right now.

[@kupothegreat4570]

I have mine organized by color, card type, mana cost. All artifacts(even if it's a colored artifact enchantment) get its own box and colorless/devoid also gets its own box

[@arrivtuber]

I have a few bundle boxes where I keep my staple cards or cards I often consider when I build decks (Or cards from decks I took apart). These boxes are often enough to build a deck. Then after finishing the deck I do a qick scrole through a deckbuilding site and see if I overlooked some obvious inclusions. And when I find some I look in which sets they were printed and the rest of my non staple collection is organised after Set -> Color -> Card typ -> Rarety that way I can take a quick look if I own the card and if not I can move on. Every thing over 5 bucks I keep in my binders where they are also organised the same way. If I open a new set (Wich I honestly haven't done in a while) I sort them the same way after cracking all packs and put them in a box

[@PreviewAvailable]

The worst is having 100k+ cards but loving older cards that are garbage but trying to put them to good use.

[@TheFirstJake]

Absolutely agree. I love making people read my cards. “Norritt does what?!?!”

[@coolcolon]

The way I've sorted my collection since i started was to separate the cards by color and then card type. Eventually, I added alphabetically when the collection outgrew my Kaladesh Gift Box. Then, ever since my collection outgrew my Zendikar Gift Box in addition to the Kaladesh Box I began to question this organization system. Especially now that I'm looking to downsize my collection. (There's far more boxes than the two gift boxes now.) The way I think I want to organize my collection is separating by set, then sort by set number, and possibly put it all in binders? However this is such a daunting task I can't convince myself to actually start sorting them out.

[@lachlanrussell18]

Loved this video! You’re almost the Bob Ross of magic- this was incredibly useful, I love the graphics. It felt like a class from a wizened planeswalker about all the ways you can use your spells for more than battle. Loved it, love your voice, and gave me some great ideas. (I think you should lean into that calm attitude more and cut the dubstep intro). Thanks for making this man- good stuff :)

[@TheFirstJake]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@obsidiansiriusblackheart]

Dragon Shield Gaming Box: Clears will save a lot of your time imo

[@TheFirstJake]

That’s a good suggestion. I do need better boxes.

[@sephorusFR]

My MKM stock is color > type> ccm. Type being itself always the same order : pws, legends, creatures, enchantment, instant, sorcery. This gives me a tree like search process that works well with the classic "oh it is a blue creature of 3 ccm" kind of demands.

[@NateFinch]

Dont sort by set unless you care more about collecting than playing. Your deck doesnt care what set the sol ring is from. I build decks online and then get the cards out of my collection. Thus I prioritize ease of putting stuff away and ease of finding a card by name. I sort by color and then first one or two letters. This makes putting away cards super fast, which ensures I actually put stuff away, and I never have to flip through more than a handful of cards to find the one I have. First letter is good for small to mid sized collections. Once you go above 10,000 cards you kinda need to go first two letters or you end up with very large chunks.. S cards specifically. I also do the "move recently used stuff to the front" which is good if you're in the middle zone of sorting by first letter but the sections get too big. If you build purely in paper with the cards you have, sorting by type might he useful, but i literally never go "what green sorceries do I have?". I am.using scryfall and moxfield to find specific effects on cards and do all the deck building online before I touch paper.

[@stonepatberg]

Intro alone got the sub

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks!

[@roywarnerfilms]

Color>Rarity>Mana Value, and if feeling spicy, semi alphabetical. If you don't have enough cards to justify 15 different boxes--don't worry, you will.

[@grantmurdock7385]

I presently use Color Identity > Alphabetical. I have a section of each large color box that needs sorting (new), letter dividers, and sometimes just nibble at that during boring WFH meetings. Brewing digitally without having to necessarily scan everything is fairly nice, and on occasion, I happen upon something weird and novel while sorting that might just work. Scanning never quite gets there for me, it's a shade too much to juggle. I trade a fair bit.

[@ruttokyrpa3472]

Just a few weeks ago I scanned my entire collection which was 17 thousand cards (excluding basic lands and tokens) and I just threw everything under 0.20€ in to a big bulk box, good stuff in a smaller box and rares/mythics in binders. I'm still keeping the large bulk box to construct bad highlander decks and occasionally to find some niche EDH card from it everything is still sorted by color and rarity

[@ChickenMcThiccken]

you scanned all 17,000 cards by hand ? in how long of a period of time? it took me 4 years to scan all of my 10,300 cards.

[@RobCoops]

Interesting, my personal organizational style is not here well kind of but not really. I sort by set, and within the set by set number. I also have a binder for each set (smaller sets share a single binder of course) this way I can very quickly find if I have a card as it will be in the binder for the given set. If. have a play set, is pretty easy to find, just grab the box with the set in there and look for the card based on the set number. Now I am also in the process of scanning it all into a digital solution just to make the do I have a play set question even easier to answer. My biggest problem with the digitization is the time it takes, much like you a few kids a busy job, a social life (even outside of magic) and a house to maintain so time is precious, and entering cards into a digital tool (however you do it) is painfully slow. I am seriously considering getting myself a card scanner for this purpose. Just to let a machine do the work for me so I can actually do fun stuff with my life instead of adding a few thousand more cards to the digital library. But cost... then again I am planning on playing for the next few decades so I feel I might be able to justify the expense (or I might build one myself likely at a much higher cost)

[@ChrisDavis-tt1dj]

I organize by Color - Card Type - Alphabetical. Example: in WUBRG order, my White cards are organized by Creature - then Sorcery - then Instant - then Enchantment - then basic Plains. I do the same thing with each color, artifacts, lands, Planeswalkers., tokens. I can find any card in my 20,000+ card collection in a few seconds.

[@WitchDoctor5999]

First time viewer. What an intro lol

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks for watching!

[@iamshamous5580]

Alright, I love the video but I am struggling to find a good way to sort cards.. started 3 years ago and really jumped in.. my friend who got me into it gave me about 30,000 cards randomly and since then I have about 100,000 or so and I have sorted by color and card type but still struggling to find cards since there’s so much .. any tips? I only play commander I used to buy a bundle and a full booster box every set but now I only buy singles for specific decks since I get overwhelmed with all my bulk. Is there a point in saving all the uncommons and commons?

[@TheFirstJake]

Lots of commons and uncommons are super useful, but really if you’re not using them, they might not be worth keeping. I have a “deep storage” box with tens of thousands of cards that i only delve into if I’m trying to do something really weird.

[@iamshamous5580]

@ thanks that’s a good idea maybe I’ll just call it a bulk bin and put them into that unless it’s like a super useful card I don’t really have a use for it

[@joshuaday9069]

This is the video i been looking for thanks

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks!

[@FlatlineGames]

Lol, I'm like you, similar to the organization method, only I keep my high priority and pet cards in binders. I'll keep the latest sets separately for about a month or so before I lump them into their appropriate color box or binder.

[@noise.s]

My collection is nowhere near as big but I do kinda the same. 5k cards half bought as singles. Mirrodin/darksteel from when I started and Bloomburrow cause I got a box for the first time ever are the only outliers of big bulk. So I have all the cards divided by color. A couple of row boxes of bulk and colors sorted by mana value, I don't touch those that often. And then a box of decks, AND good stuff also divided by color and mana value, the cards I used in decks or just considered are all in perfect sleeves in front of the respective piles, I figure I'm more likely to put them in decks and I like to double sleeve, it's also a visual indicator of where the better cards are. Slightly more valuable cards are in smoke sealable >_< still cheap af 5 I do have (99.9%) my whole collection on manabox/moxfield since it's small I scan them whenever I buy new singles. Just need a little discipline for a few days or weeks and anyone can however big, really useful.

[@shugo66]

I started sorting mine by color, type and mana value. But I think I need to fix that lol I have to much green and white

[@enthusiasticnihilst1032]

How are you finding premodern? :00 I just started 2 months ago and love it

[@TheFirstJake]

I started really getting into magic during the Masques -> Judgement era so it is super nostalgic for me. Basically a slightly bigger Extended format. I've been running Aluren combo. It's pretty sweet.

[@someguy4331]

most of my stuff that isnt $$$ and in a binder is set/color/alpha, but it takes forever. the last few sets i've bought are still waiting to be sorted. xD

[@davidfarias958]

Ive noticed that the collection gets outta control on its own 😅 ive been boxing them by set and attempting to scan through them for easier search ability the only piles i have that are mixed are lands and tokens, maybe after they are all scanned I can do more detailed sorting but I keep buying cards so im taking it little bits by bits and maybe someday ill have my lgs like codex system 😂

[@ansonlake]

I appreciate your perspective and it did present valid points of consideration, main criticism is the clickbait thumbnail, the irony of which is that you got not only a full view of my time watching, but elicited a comment as well. It would be remiss of me to begrudge you the very thing that you wished to happen, yet still I will bemoan the clickbait thumbnail.

[@TheFirstJake]

Thanks for watching! I appreciate the support.

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

I sort by color and then by type

[@TheFirstJake]

A classic is a classic for a reason.

[@stencil25]

Have you tried digital playtest tools? You mentioned testing in paper, but Moxfield allows you to playtest any deck with one button. Faster than shuffling 🕺

[@TheFirstJake]

I've used the moxfield playtest tool before, but out of the last 15 decks I've put into moxfield, 14 of them were built, revised, and heavily playtested before they were uploaded. It really doesn't make sense for me to build in a digital platform.

[@stencil25]

@TheFirstJake Fair enough. Personally, my collection is very commander centric. Digitally, all cards are in my Moxfield collection. Physically, cards are sorted; Color, Type, then ordered by mana value. I think this is the fastest for my flow. Build and goldfish digitally. Fast to maintain physically, not too chaotic to find cards.

[@Caliban_80]

Sorting by set has become extremely annoying in recent years. The volume of set symbols seems to have exponentially increased to an absurd number.

[@TheFirstJake]

Agreed. I abandoned set sorting sometime around commander products being printed. These days it's just wild.

[@Demonskunk]

I’m an “Alphabetized by set” kind of guy right now. I want, desperately, to combine all my cards into one alphabetized collection but my OCD demands that I keep them separate until I can find a compelling reason not to.

[@ericbortega]

Type > Color > rarity > alphabetical order is working for me.

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

you have a interesting skull if you just focus on the shape and imagine the beard away

[@TheFirstJake]

You made me go back and check. I have shaved my beard off multiple times in the last few years, but apparently always when i wasn’t filming anything. Oh well. Keep imagining i guess.

[@LittleMushroomGuy]

@@TheFirstJake haha :)

[@MrJpurvis620]

Are you related to @MoxManMTG?

[@TheFirstJake]

I am not, but I hear we have similar cadences and tone to the way we speak.

[@MrJpurvis620]

@ brother is that a real beard?

[@TheFirstJake]

@@MrJpurvis620 it is. I grew it myself!

[@hakarthemage]

Colour and cmc is enough for now. i'll probably go back through and alphabetise each cmc. I have everything scanned and imported into moxfield so that lets me hunt for where it is.

[@ChickenMcThiccken]

here is my sorting technique. rares all in 1 binder uncommons all in its own binders commons all in their own bindners non basic lands have their own binders and foils of any kind have their own binders.

[@dudecallmepan3196]

Its so overwhelming 😭

[@TheFirstJake]

Gotta eat that elephant one bite at a time.

[@savannahlion3081]

There is NO perfect system... unless you collect EVERYTHING ... 🤣😅😂😆, I do it (in binders for easy searching) by colour and then cardtype, but there is allways a moment the system cracks ! But going to watch your system ... you never know. 🤘🦁🤘

[@savannahlion3081]

I put the "Chaff" into the set /bundle boxes or the Booster box when I have a LOT. Playabl3s are in lomgboxes, value and what I like in the above mentioned binders... 😎

[@savannahlion3081]

I have special fondness for lands so have about 5 binders of the types and colours.... 🏴‍☠️🇱🇺

[@TheFirstJake]

Nice, a fellow land connoisseur. What is your favorite frame? I'm partial to the old unglued lands.

[@savannahlion3081]

@TheFirstJake Full Art are all sweet, even the modern ones. Most proud of the Arabian Nights Land cycle .... all but the Bazaar 😒... Rudy AlpaInvest 🦈 kind of spoiled it by buying up a lot of them and spiking the price. Euro Lands are special to me too ... Windmill and Tulil Land first cuz I'm Dutch 🏴‍☠️🇱🇺. Enjoy what you collect and collect what you enjoy. 🤘🦁🤘

[@adong1]

I have adhd. A plastic bag in the best I can do

[@TheFirstJake]

Don't forget the rubber band!

[@pickle-shoemarvin7574]

Do I like this card? Yes = Box A and No = Box B

[@TheFirstJake]

Ah yes the KonMari method. "Does this card spark joy?" or in Magic "Does this card suck the joy from my opponent?"

[@iokcs]

color, card type, alphabetically.

[@MayorMerculies]

My collection is sorted [Set [Color] [Mana Value] [Alphabetized]].

[@TheFirstJake]

Nice!

[@margreiv]

Why you keep calling cards Kurds?

[@TheFirstJake]

Because you keep calling cards cairds.