Set completion is the one collecting goal with a definite end, which is most of its appeal — and the end only exists if you draw it yourself. The same release can be finished at several different sizes depending on whether you count the variant frames, the foils, the promos and everything else that carries the set's symbol. People who abandon a set usually did not fail to find the cards; they never agreed with themselves about which cards were on the list.
After that the work is three loops that run until you are done: a checklist that says what exists, a record of what you own against it, and a routine for closing the gaps. All three are easier if the checklist is a list of printings rather than of card names, because a reprint from somewhere else does not fill a hole in this set.
Decide what complete means for you
Write the definition down before you buy anything. Most people are aiming at one of these.
- The main set. One copy of every card in the numbered run, any finish, any condition. This is the usual target and the only one that is unambiguous.
- The main set in one finish. Non-foil only, or foil only. A foil run is generally a much harder and much more expensive project than the ordinary one, and it is worth knowing that going in.
- The main set plus its variants. Showcase, extended art and borderless treatments generally sit at collector numbers past the end of the main run. Including them can make the list substantially longer.
- Everything carrying the set's symbol. Promos, prerelease stamps, box-topper and buy-a-box cards, and any other one-off printing attached to the release. This is the largest target and the least well-defined, because what counts differs from release to release.
- A play set. Four of each card rather than one. A different project entirely, usually pursued for a set you actually play with.
Two practical notes. Pick a set you would enjoy owning rather than the most valuable one you can think of — you are going to look at these cards for a long time. And expect the cost to be lopsided: in most sets a handful of cards account for the bulk of the total, so the last few slots can cost more than everything before them combined.
Changing your definition later is allowed. Changing it repeatedly is how a project dies, because the finish line keeps retreating and nothing ever feels close.
Build the checklist from the set list
A checklist is the set's own card list with somewhere to record what you hold. Get the list from the release itself rather than assembling it from memory: the set index covers releases, and each set's page lists its cards with their collector numbers — Dominaria is a typical example of what one looks like.
Build the checklist in collector-number order. That order is the spine of the whole project, because it turns "which cards am I missing" into "which numbers have no entry", and a numbered gap is something you can read at a glance rather than something you have to derive. Newer printings put the collector number in small type at the bottom of the card face; older ones do not have one, in which case the set's list is your only ordering.
Record your condition tolerance on the checklist too. "Any playable copy" and "near mint only" are different projects with very different costs, and deciding after you have started leads to buying the same card twice.
Track what you own against the checklist
Two representations of progress are useful, and they do different jobs.
The binder is the physical checklist. Filed in collector-number order, one card per slot, the missing cards are literally empty pockets. Nothing else gives you the same immediate read on how far along you are, which is why set collectors put up with the cost of the binder pages.
The written list is what you take out of the house. You will not remember thirty collector numbers at a store or a trade table, and a phone with the missing numbers on it turns a browse into a search. Keep it in the same collector-number order as the binder so the two read the same way.
Record which printing you own rather than just ticking a box. A card with the same name from another release does not complete this set, and the distinction is easy to lose once the card is in a sleeve — identifying the printing covers how to read that off the card itself.
Decide what to do about copies that are in decks. A card you own but have sleeved into a deck is not in the binder, and the checklist will tell you it is missing unless you record where it went. Either keep set copies out of decks entirely, or track placement properly so the record can distinguish "do not own" from "own, currently elsewhere" — tracking cards across binders and decks covers that distinction. Organizing the collection covers keeping the set binder from becoming the place spare cards get stuffed.
Fill the gaps by trading, buying and drafting
Different methods are efficient at different stages, and using the wrong one is the main way people overspend.
Opening product is efficient at the start, when nearly every card you pull is new to you, and increasingly wasteful as you go, because a pack is drawn from the whole set and most of the set is already in your binder. The crossover point where buying the specific cards you need costs less than opening more packs arrives earlier than most people expect.
Buying singles is the direct route. Order missing cards in batches rather than one at a time, since postage is usually charged per order rather than per card, and prefer a seller who has several of your missing numbers.
Trading works best on the commons and uncommons that everyone has spare and nobody prices. Bring the missing list to game night; most of the cheap end of a set can be closed this way for very little money.
Drafting and other limited play builds a set slowly while you get to play with it, which suits people who were going to play anyway and are in no hurry.
Then there is the tail. Most sets have a few cards that cost more than the rest put together, and you should decide early whether you are buying them, saving toward them, or declaring the set complete without them. All three are legitimate. Leaving the decision open is the one that never resolves.
Watch the variants that inflate the list
A set is often larger than the cards you saw in packs, and the extra printings are where checklists quietly disagree with each other.
- Numbered variants. Showcase, extended art and borderless treatments usually continue past the main run at their own collector numbers. They share card names with the ordinary printings, so a list built from names will conflate them — foils, showcase, extended art and borderless covers telling them apart.
- Foils. A foil run is effectively a parallel checklist the same length as the one you are already working on.
- Promos. Prerelease stamps, store promos, box toppers and other extras attached to a release. These are the least standardized part of any set and the most common source of "wait, is this one of them".
- Basic lands. Frequently printed with more than one piece of art, and just as frequently forgotten by people who otherwise track every number.
- Companion products. Some releases ship alongside a separate product whose cards carry a different set code. Whether they count is your call, but make the call rather than discovering them halfway through.
The rule that resolves most arguments with yourself: the checklist is defined by the collector numbers within one set code. A card with a different set code belongs to a different checklist unless you deliberately decided otherwise.
Doing this in ManaArchive
ManaArchive records each copy against a specific printing rather than a card name, so a card counts toward the set it was actually printed in and a reprint never quietly fills a gap in an older one. Placement is per copy and optional, which means the copies you have filed into the set binder carry their page and slot while the rest stay visible as an unplaced count instead of reading as missing. See how it works if your checklist and your binder currently disagree with each other.