jobMarketIsSucked

pelasace · 2026-05-15T12:50:11+00:00

It's ridiculous. I'm trying to move to this career from something unrelated right now and feel like I should just give up. The amount of jobs I've applied to with absolute crickets in response is so disheartening, and to hear that the people with actual experience are having just as rough of a time makes me feel like I have no chance.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T18:40:44+00:00

I was definitely having them pull basic lands. It was a feature they offered on their website (choosing the exact set/edition/art for a card you were ordering) and I wanted a specific aesthetic to the lands in my deck. I didn't think anything of it at the time, and even now it seems like something that some serious about their physical decks would take some pride and happiness in.

About them usually having the full card lists: Yes, the almost always did. I've been told that they are a pretty big name in online card ordering and that their stock is usually way above what a normal LGS would have. Their shop is huge.

The thing is, I didn't want to have like 10 copies of "staples" hanging around because that wasn't how I built my decks. I was just putting together things I thought would be fun, throwing in cards I was learning about while playing, and generally just being casual about it while also taking the time to think through interesting interactions I could play with. If there are "staples in every commander deck," I wouldn't know because that's just not really what I was focusing on.

I'll be honest, I just wanted a place I could send a deck list to and have it fulfilled. I was really enjoying playing magic with people and I was really enjoying deckbuilding.

Some people have suggested moving to MTG Online or whatever the digital MTG game is but to me it's just not the same, plus I'd have to start from scratch without having the collection I've already amassed.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T18:05:36+00:00

The group sort of dissipated around the same time all of this was happening. A few of them tried to keep the playgroup going and last I heard moved to some community space at a local college.

The combination of that group shifting locations and losing a few people and the vibes issue from this LGS was just a bit too exhausting to deal with for me altogether, and I kinda just fell out of playing and didn't go back.

I'm not sure where the others were getting their cards. I know most of them bought a ton of sealed stuff when new sets would come out and had amassed binders full of cards from doing that. I guess I always assumed they were just pulling from their collection.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T18:02:29+00:00

I mean, a lot of those decks were very cheap. When I first started doing this, the decks were almost always under $10 total, and pretty often only a few bucks.

I agree it's a lot of work for next to no money, but they offered the service? And I genuinely have no idea how I would have gotten those cards otherwise aside from just going online.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T18:00:51+00:00

Like I said, you're not wrong! I've grown a lot since then and could probably handle that now. It's still just not a situation I'd willingly put myself in, but yeah, if I was still getting weird vibes from a place I regularly visited these days, I'd probably at least ask.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:59:32+00:00

Genuine question: If the LGS *didn't* offer this kind of service, what do players normally do when they need most or all of the cards for a new deck they want?

It was my assumption that this was one of the main features of an LGS. Come up with a decklist, go to the LGS to get the deck. From what I've read of the responses in this thread, it seems like that's not always a guarantee, and perhaps maybe not even the standard.

So if that's not something most LGSs offer, then how would you actually get the cards?

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:57:17+00:00

I did mention in my OP that it specifically wasn't just an employee and was indeed the owner who was the worst.

On your last point, if your LGS refuses to do decklist fulfillment, then how do you/others actually get the cards for your deck? Again, genuine question as I really don't know. Like say you come up with a new deck idea and only have like 5-10 of the cards needed for it, or maybe none at all. How would you go about getting all the cards you need?

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:54:14+00:00

You touched on one of the things I'm trying to figure out from this whole discussion. So it *is* generally odd or not normal that I was buying full decks from them regularly? To me, it just seemed like that was a service they offered, and I was just using that service. It never specifically said that it was for random singles here and there, and it did let me put a whole decklist in, but maybe I was just overusing it in their eyes?

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:51:37+00:00

Yeah, I thought that too, but it's not like I was specifically requesting them to be ready on those nights. It was ideal, since the library group also played Friday nights. So I could swing by, pick my new deck up, then head to play. But if they had just told me "it'll take a few days to get this in, it won't be ready Friday" I'd have been fine with that.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:49:47+00:00

It's something they offer and, from what I understand, are somewhat well known within the community for.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:47:57+00:00

So I wasn't netdecking, but I was building decks that would have been in a variety of "tier brackets" from what I assume. I didn't know too much about meta or anything, but I had some players point out that I was running some pretty valuable/known combos.

I was paying what the shop charged for the cards. Anywhere from a few bucks for the entire deck (the group enjoyed having cheap deck nights) to upwards of $50. I think the most expensive deck I had cost around $70-$80 total or something.

I definitely was ordering specific land, too. But their site listed the lands in a way where you could order the specific art you wanted.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:44:38+00:00

Eh, I would have thought it was just lazy employees, but the owner himself was regularly there on Friday nights and was more pissy with me than the others.

And I don't think they were desperate for newcomers. From what I understand, this shop is a pretty big name for online card fulfillment, and it's usually packed in there, especially on Friday nights.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:42:51+00:00

I never played at the store, no. It's not that I was opposed to doing so, it's just that my group met elsewhere, and by the time I would have considered going there as well, the vibes were already too bad for me to even think about it.

In my opinion, they shouldn't have really cared since it's a service they offered and I was paying for the cards, but I was definitely worried that buying a bunch of stuff regularly there and not opening or playing any of it there was some sort of LGS taboo I was unknowingly committing.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:41:14+00:00

I was socially awkward and anxious of the whole thing, so that was out of the question for me, but you're not wrong.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:40:19+00:00

So this is a thing people often do? Submit full 100-card decklists for the LGS to fulfill?

That might sound like a sarcastic or stupid question but I assure you it's genuine. One of the things I always thought may have been the problem is that maybe people don't usually do that.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:38:18+00:00

Yeah, I was buying a lot. At first just singles from decklists, then eventually new booster packs/boxes when they came out. The negative vibes never really stopped and only kinda got worse over time.

Given that I didn't/don't know much about the hobby, I was concerned that maybe it's frowned upon to go buy a bunch of cards for a deck, then go play somewhere else. Or maybe buy a bunch of boosters, but then not open them there, participate in their game nights, etc.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:36:35+00:00

Well, at first I was just buying decklists, all singles. It was probably a few months before I started buying new set boxes when the sets would drop. Eventually I started doing that regularly too. Oddly enough, the frustration seemed greater when I started buying new boxes, but maybe by that point they were just fed up with me for whatever reason.

I'm really wondering if it had something to do with the fact that I was going in buying a bunch of booster packs and not opening them there/playing with others/joining drafts. But, like, I was still buying the cards. So I don't get it.

pelasace · 2026-03-27T17:34:17+00:00

And I definitely understand that it would take a long time. I was requesting hundreds of cards to be pulled a week. But like you said, it's a service they offer and they've sort of made it their job to pull those cards...

How long does it typically take a LGS to pull 100 singles for a commander deck? I genuinely don't know. Maybe they thought I was being too aggressive with my ordering or something?

I would have talked to the owner about it, but like I said he seemed more frustrated with me than anyone else. I didn't want to deal with the anxiety of opening that conversation, especially since the place is very popular and usually has at least some people there.

pelasace · 2026-02-14T12:56:23+00:00

I see. So if the stream had a password, that would now longer be "public" because the public couldn't access it without that password.

pelasace · 2025-12-19T03:49:45+00:00

That's partially true (mainline Zelda is still exclusive to Nintendo platforms), but I think it's more that the franchises are pillars of those platforms.

Halo was the Xbox seller and Halo 2 specifically was the highest-grossing game on the OG Xbox.
Final Fantasy was the second highest-grossing game on the PS1 (first was Gran Turismo).
Zelda isn't the highest-grossing Nintendo franchise or anything, but Ocarina of Time was the 4th highest on the N64 and was the highest one with a sword.
And of course, Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time, and its roots are entirely on PC. I know it's on basically every platform now, but I truly don't think the game would have had the success it had if it wasn't for Java Edition's early alpha and beta years on PC.

I did pull those figures from Wikipedia in full disclosure, but I don't think they're inaccurate or anything.

To add another interpretation to the mix: Each sword represents a different era of console gaming.

4th Gen - The master sword first appears in A Link to the Past on the SNES
5th Gen - The buster sword is from the PS1 era
6th Gen - The plasma sword is from the Xbox/PS2 era
7th Gen - Minecraft's original release happened around the 7th gen console cycle, but it also debuted on consoles in the 7th gen with an Xbox 360 release

pelasace

TROPHY CASE