What To Do With MTGO Traders Gift Certificates

As most of you are aware, prizes for Monday Pauper Deck Challenge are sponsored by MTGO Traders, a fantastic online store that sells cards and tickets for Magic Online. MTGO Traders has been a long time supporter of the format and is the premiere online seller for Magic Online. They have amazing customer service, competitive prices, and a great staff. Definitely use them for all your Magic Online needs!

After you place in the Top 4 in one of our events, you will receive an initial Email from me as host confirming that your information has been submitted to MTGO Traders. Within 48 hours (and often much faster), you will receive a second Email, this one containing a gift certificate code which can be redeemed just like cash on their site.

But you might be asking, what should I spend my gift certificates on? After all, since most cards in the format can be purchased for a couple of pennies, with even the chase cards being less than a quarter in almost every case, it won't take long at all for you to own a playset of every card in the Standard Pauper format and still have money to spend. So what can you do?

1. Bling out your collection. Take your favorite archetype and then purchase foil copies of every card in the decklist. While this isn't for everyone, many players take great satisfaction in owning a premium copy of their favorite cards or deck.
   
2. Invest in another casual format. While you would have to take home the trophy every week for our prizes to support playing most competitive Constructed formats, classic Pauper is much less expensive and thus well within reach. By dropping a few dollars here and there, it wouldn't take long at all to collect many of the staples of that format. Mormir also used to be a popular choice, but I am unaware if it is still officially supported.
   
3. Fund a Limited habit.  Rather than investing in cards themselves, you can instead purchase credit on MTGO Trader's family of automated bots. While you can't directly buy tickets, you can purchase booster packs and then use those to play your favorite Limited formats. This can be a great way to reduce the cost of regularly drafting to be much more manageable.
   
4. Convert them to cash. If you amass a significant amount of gift certificates, you can also actually convert them to cash, although the process is somewhat involved. First, once again you need to purchase credit on MTGO Traders' bots. Second, spend that credit on valuable singles. Third, sell those singles back for tickets. And finally, sell the tickets back to MTGO Traders for Paypal credit by messaging their online seller. While you do lose a percentage from these transactions, the fact that you can actually cash out your winnings is a pretty good deal.

So what do you spend your MTGO Traders gift certificates on? Let me know in the comments below. See you next time.