Lotus ScanHow to Prepare for Friday Night Magic with a Price-Checked Deck
A step-by-step guide to help you prepare for friday night magic with a price-checked deck quickly and accurately.
Friday Night Magic is where most competitive Magic players actually live. It is the weekly ritual of sleeving up a deck, heading to the local game store, and spending four rounds testing your build against the local meta. But FNM is also where trades happen, where you pick up missing pieces for your deck, and where you either overpay for cards because you did not check prices or make sharp trades because you did. Prices spike on Thursday nights when tournament results from major events get published, which means the card you were eyeing at $12 on Wednesday might be $20 by Friday evening. Scanning your deck and trade binder with Lotus Scan before you leave for FNM takes fifteen minutes and gives you the price awareness to play every transaction correctly.
Step-by-Step Guide
Scan your current deck to get an accurate value snapshot
The day before FNM, scan your entire deck with Lotus Scan and note the total value. This serves three purposes: you know what your deck is worth if anything gets lost or damaged, you can quickly identify which cards have spiked since you last checked, and you have a reference point for evaluating trade offers during the event. A Standard deck worth $180 last week might be $220 this week if a key piece spiked from tournament results. Knowing the current value before you walk in prevents you from undervaluing what you own.
Tip: Screenshot your scanned deck value and timestamp it. If someone tries to trade for one of your cards and gives you a number from last month, you have current data to reference immediately.
Check Thursday tournament results for price spikes
Major MTG tournaments run on weekends and results get analyzed on Monday through Wednesday, but the community price response hits hardest on Thursday evening when content creators cover the results. Cards in top-8 finishes frequently jump 30 to 80 percent between Thursday night and Friday evening. Check r/magicTCG and MTGGoldfish's top movers on Thursday before FNM. If a card you own is spiking, you have a decision to make before you arrive at the store. If a card you want is spiking, buying it before FNM from an online vendor is often cheaper than buying it from another player who already knows the new price.
Tip: Set Lotus Scan price alerts on your top 10 most expensive cards so you get notified of significant movements without having to manually check every Thursday.
Prepare your trade binder with current prices in mind
Before FNM, scan through your trade binder and update your mental model of what each card is worth. Most trade disputes at FNM happen because one player is working from a price they remembered from two months ago. Going in with current prices means you can agree to trades confidently without needing to look everything up in the moment, which speeds up negotiations and makes you a better trading partner. Identify 3 to 5 cards you are actively looking to acquire and know their current prices so you know what a fair trade for them looks like.
Evaluate upgrade opportunities for your deck
Use Lotus Scan to check the price gap between the cards currently in your deck and their upgraded versions. If you are playing a budget version of a card and the premium version is only $8 more than you thought, FNM is a great place to pick it up through trading. If the upgrade is $40 more than expected, you have a realistic picture of your upgrade path costs before you start negotiating. This information shapes which trades are worth pursuing during the event.
Tip: Look for players at FNM who are switching formats or upgrading their own decks. Players moving out of a format often have exactly the pieces you want at reasonable prices because they want to move inventory quickly.
Scan cards you acquire through trades after the event
After FNM, scan any cards you picked up through trades or purchases before you sleeve them into your deck. This confirms you received the correct printing and condition, updates your collection record, and gives you a baseline price for the cards you just acquired. If something was misrepresented in a trade, you want to know before you leave the store rather than three weeks later. Most FNM disputes about card condition or identity are honest mistakes, but having a scan record protects you in either case.
Tip: If you traded for cards that seem significantly below market price, run them through Lotus Scan's counterfeit detection guidance. FNM trade tables occasionally surface fakes on expensive staples like fetch lands and Force of Wills.
Make It Easier with Lotus Scan
Lotus Scan for iPhone simplifies this entire process with AI-powered card recognition, real-time price tracking, and intuitive collection management. Just point your camera and scan.
Pro Tips
- Price alerts are your best FNM prep tool. Set alerts on your top 5 most expensive cards and you will know immediately if something spikes before Friday.
- Bring a printed or phone-screenshot decklist to FNM. Some stores require decklists for competitive events, and having a timestamped scan from the day before is useful if a card gets disputed.
- Do not trade away cards mid-tournament that you still need for remaining rounds. Identify which cards in your binder you can afford to move before round one starts.
- Check buylist prices at your local store before FNM. If they are buying a card you own at 60 percent or more of current market, that is worth considering even if you were not planning to sell.
- If a card in your deck spiked significantly since you bought it, consider whether finishing top 4 is worth more than the buylist value right now. Sometimes the math says sell into the spike and rebuild with a different list.