I am both a collector of, and a player of, the Magic the Gathering trading card game. I have been playing the game casually since about June 2004.

I would like to thank my Boy Scout friends for many things, among them introducing me to this awesome game. Indeed, I bought my first cards mainly to play at summer camp, and many of the first good players I knew were Scout friends or Scout leaders, the latter being someone who had started playing way back in 1993.

I am known on the Wizards of the Coast official forums and MTGSalvation as KingAlanI, and on eBay (where I often sell Magic cards) as homerthebeerbaron

I play a large variety of different decks; I am considering paring down the list. My favorite decktype is generally aggro, but I also have a decent amount of control decks.

According to Magic color philosophy, I would call myself White / Blue / Red, albeit maybe not in that order.

In terms of the player psychographics, I would call myself a Timmy/Vorthos/Spike.

Various sets I created with Magic Set Editor

And now, a non-paid plug for my favorite online store - www.CoolStuffInc.com. Honestly, they have the best prices I've ever seen on sealed product, and half the time on singles too. Never had any shipping problems or stuff like that. Their Customer Rewards program cuts a percentage discount to large customers.

Collection Storage

The Cliffs Notes version is that I use tournament sleeves for all of my decked cards (mainly DragonShield-brand sleeves of various colors), and I have my collection in an array of three-ring binders. Furthermore, most of those three-rind binders involve a straightforward breakdown of my collection by set/block, with a few 'offbeat' binders.

I also have printed out checklists for each set, for the intended purpose of checklists [keeping track of what I have]; in practice, I often use them when out at the FLGS and/or at tourneys, so as to avoid picking up cards I already have.

For an expanded description of my card-storage practices, click here.

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