Magic: Organizing your cards

[el-remmen]

So I won a huge lot of cards from Mirage and Visions for cheap on eBay and took the opportunity in figuring out what I got and incorporating the new cards in my existing collection to organize them all - as they have been pretty scattered and out of any order since I had a Magic party 5 years or so ago when a bunch of people came over and all used my cards to make decks and then at the end of the night kind of threw them all in the box.

It is taking forever! It took most of yesterday evening just to do the green cards alone and figure out a system that worked for me, and then all this morning and so far this afternoon I have done all the white and black and am half way through red.

Anyway, what method do you use for organizing your cards? I have the rares in a binder and a separate box for uncommons and for very commonly used commons (i.e. make their way in most decks) like giant growth or dark ritual.

The remaining commons (and the crappy uncommons) are all in one of those boxes with four rows.

I keep the creatures separate from spells, each in alphabetical order. My buddy keeps his creatures in order of power and toughness and the spells in order of casting cost (I think). I don't think I can get that anal, especially since I usually have an idea of the name of the cards I am looking for, so alpha-order works fine for me.

 

[Arkhandus]

I organize my cards kinda simply, but in a more practical manner than just pure alphabetical order....

Lands first, gold/multicolor cards second, dual-color cards from the Ravnica cycle and later third, split cards from the Invasion cycle and later fourth, artifacts fifth, white cards sixth, green cards seventh, red cards eighth, black cards ninth, blue cards last.

For each color, I organize the cards by type; interrupts first, instants second, sorceries third, local enchantments fourth (and ordered in the same style; enchant lands first, enchant artifacts second, enchant creatures third, enchant permanents fourth), global enchantments fifth (enchant worlds after those), and creatures last. For artifacts I put artifact creatures after the rest. So basically ordered by degrees of permanency and quickness, with spells before creatures.

For lands, I put them in the same color order, but nonbasic and multi-type lands are first. So nonbasic lands that don't produce mana go first, those that make only colorless mana go second, those that make white mana go third, those that make green mana go fourth, etc., with those that make multiple colors last. Alphabetical order within each category.

Within each card type, I organize them by mana cost, and then alphabetically within each mana-cost-category. So Dark Rituals before Funeral Charms before Terrors, for example. 1-mana cards before 2-mana cards before 3-mana cards, etc. For those with equal mana costs, I organize it by mana symbols; cards with a cost of 2G go before cards with a cost of 1GG, which go before cards with a cost of GGG, for example.

With multicolor cards, I group them by color combination first, then mana cost, then alphabetical order. White-green cards first, green-red second, red-black third, black-blue fourth, white-green-red fifth, green-red-black sixth, etc. around and around the color wheel until I get to five-color cards at the end. Just because I'd rather organize the multicolor cards by their individual color set before mana cost.

 

[Aus_Snow]

By colour (with artifacts, multicolours, basic lands and non-basic lands separated too), then alphabetically. I've never had a problem finding anything, with things organised that way.

 

[D.Shaffer]

I dont play Magic anymore, but I do play other CCGs. That said, I use the same system back then as I do now...

I have a 4 of Binder that collects up to 4 of every card. Each set gets its own section, with each set organized by set number. Uncommons and commons beyond that get tossed into a 'shoebox' divided the same way as the 4 ofs, each set of 4 in a penny sleeve.

Normally I just collect 4 of each rare/super, 8 uncommons, and 12 commons. The rest get tossed at people or kept in a trade binder.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Oh, I forgot about rares! It's been a while. Yeah, those are in binders, organised the same way.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I don't sort out my rares, subdivide by release or anything like that.

I simply seperate the colors, lands, artifacts, and gold/split cards. Then I subsort by alphabetical. Never had a problem finding a card, except when one of my buddies borrowed it.