Getting into MTG?

I used to play MTG back in college and I always enjoyed it. For the last few weeks I've been thinking if I should return to it. The thing is I don't intend to play at shops. Just want to play kitchen table / casual magic with my lil' bro. He is vehemently against it because he remembers how much of an addiction TCGS where for us both (and my rational brain agrees with him if I'm honest).

Should I get back? One idea I had was getting into Commander and have us each start with a precon deck or two each and just upgrade. Commander has another benefit, single cards cuts cost of buying singles. Not interested in Pauper magic with while cheap.

You shouldn't get into Magic at all. It is a waste of money where you pay 20 bucks for a bunch of cards with shitty 3D art that you can't even see cause the cards are so damn small.

The game has little tactical depth, likes to create mechanics that require you to remember eight different status effects, and in general is full of autism. The game is basically "attack with creatures when you have the advantage unless you think your opponent's going to get some shit out onto the field with haste" and generally just counterspell guessing and bluffing instants. The rest of the game is just deckbuilding, which consists of going onto tappedout and searching for good deck builds that will set you back 500 bucks.

MTG is not a good game, and it hasn't been since probably the Kamigawa block.

Kamigawa was my favorite because of theme

Get into an LCG like Netrunner or Deadlands Reloaded.

I have played Netrunner and Downtown. Didn't like either (Netrunner being better)

I recently got back into magic and there are two points.

1:
>you're going to get addicted to wasting money on stupid shit. It will happen, if you're okay with that, it's fine, but don't pretend like you're not.

2:
>Commander is awesome. As an older player I just drink a couple of beers with friends and play janky fun decks. If someone starts a power creep, call them out on it or make neat house rules. For example, my group plays with 20 infect damage because holy shit it's easy to get 10 infect damage on someone. Just don't let Spikes bulldoze you by calling them on their shit.

If you're okay with both of those points, get back into magic. If you're not, it's probably best to steer clear.

As long as you can both somehow avoid the drive to improve on your decks and buying singles and oh my god you're back in the fold.

Don't.

Commander seems the safest path together with Pauper. To get new cards, play Limited so you're still expanding your collection while playing actual fucking Magic as opposed to.blindly cracking a box of packs. Sell cards that Standard and Modern and Legacy want that you don't need for Commander so that your hobby covers itself somewhat. That's my strategy moving forward after Eldrazi Winter and Ancestral Visions unbanning.

All I can say is, if you left before Alara, be prepared for bump in creature power level and a nerf in Instant and Sorcery power levels.

Just dont get into standard or modern. Play sealed league maybe? Between 2 ppl it could get boring doe, same with commander.

Dont go back to MtG. Break any frienship with your rednecks addicted friends and dont go to any LGS with an active mtg community and you will be fine.

MtG is a waste of money, dont matter which format you get into it cause at the end you will want to play the other formats.
Sell your collection to get extra bucks to do whatever you want except buying more MtG products.

You will be happier with magic out of your life. Believe me.

How to properly play magic
Take one
>Win the lottery
Then you can afford legacy and/or vintage
>Get a lobotomy
Then you can enjoy standard and don't get why modern is bad
>Be a jew
Then you tell people to play limited so you can get ez 4-0s against noobs.

Nono, dont buy anything from Jews of the Coast. This game needs to die already.

Why, leaving apart the cost of the damn hobbie, Magic is a fun game that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Buy commander precons, play and brew commander decks.
Ho to lgs and scour old set boxes and dollar binders. Gitgood,
Starting point $50 ish
Spend $20 a paycheck on cards and you will have awesome decks that are playable for fun.

Now stay away from spegy fuckers that do not enjoy playing games as much as being grief erst.

Now find a group that can chill, play, be cool, have a beer. Build several decks by trading and playing draft and release events.

Be cool. Have fun.

>MTG is not a good game

It's the most well designed CCG out there but I grant that R&D have been slipping of late.

Now, I'll take bait for 500.

>and it hasn't been since probably the Kamigawa block


What is original Ravnica?
What is Time Spiral?
What is Lorwyn? (Some liked it, others didn't)
What is Alara?
What is original Zendikar?
What is Scars of Mirrodin?
What is original Innistrad? (Jury's still out on current)

>you pay 20 bucks for a bunch of cards with shitty 3D art
Subjective
>that you can't even see cause the cards are so damn small.
Nigger, get some fucking glasses.
>likes to create mechanics that require you to remember eight different status effects
Because that's so hard for someone older than 13.
>The game is basically "attack with creatures when you have the advantage unless you think your opponent's going to get some shit out onto the field with haste" and generally just Counterspell guessing and bluffing instants.
You haven't specified why this is bad other than your tone suggesting you don't like it.
>The rest of the game is just deckbuilding, which consists of going onto tappedout and searching for good deck builds that will set you back 500 bucks.
Netdecking, for all its flaws, is a good tool for learning the game because you begin to understand why the cards are good/useful. I agree with you on price but that's a secondary market issue beyond WoTC's control.

When my casual play group was degenerating into pay-to-win (and some of the guys' GPAs were tanking in college), I bought this game. Not only did it curb our M:tG addiction, but we also got new people involved easily. Buying an expansion was a lot easier and cheaper than buying magic cards for new decks. If you're looking for something casual, this is a solid game.

>how to recognise a shill

Magic most likely has the greatest and most varied deckbuilding possibilities of any other TCG out there (Over two decades worth of cards can do that). The variety of builds you can make by cashing in on tons of synergies out there is really amazing and playing a really well-built deck or just seeing one in action is truly satisfying.

...That said. The entry fee to get to that point in the game if you're starting completely cold is painfully steep. We're talking getting into an MMO during the 90s harsh.

Learning the game's base mechanics, grasping the meta, learning the sets of cards, learning why the good cards are considered good and why the bad cards are bad, applying all that to build a deck and how to use it to win... and I haven't even gotten to the damn cost of the cards.

My recommendation? Read the rules online and then find a few channels on YouTube that discuss various decks in either Standard and/or Modern. Also possibly find some "Best of" videos where they discuss the greatest cards ever and WHY they're the greatest ever. Then download X-Mage or one of the other non-official, free to play online clients and fiddle around with that to see if you actually like playing the game.

fellow Kamigawa bro

What was hard about trying to get into an MMO in the 90s? Ultima Online was around back then, so was Neverwinter Nights and Nexus.

1 is accurate.

2 is awful and I'll tell you why.
>Commander is shit
>House rules are for faggots

Overall I'd recommend Magic, though. Legacy is by far the best format.

>20 points infect
>when a spike starts powercreeping on you, call him out on his shit
I'm unironically telling you to git gud.

Depends on what the goal is.
Some people just want something to do when chilling that us fun and wholesome.

Today I was going trough my cards and saw a grinning demon next to a storm crow and now I'm making a deck based on "the raven" I'm going to have fun . making the deck and loosing to people with actual decks and playing against other flavor decks.

I'm telling you this as a person who has played the game since invasion, sometimes having a good time doesn't involve having the best deck.

Commander
Draft.
Sealed.
Singleton.
Tiny commander.
Board Plane chase
Dual commander
Legion or horde


Everything else is shit.

I tried to get back in with pauper. God. What a horrible idea. At least I only got 100 bucks in.

if you didn't do it on magic online it was a waste

I didnt. I bought a burn deck. Really just want to sell it and buy a LCG or something.

I guess if you were talking everquest or meridian 59 it was the metric shit ton of time it took to get anything, even just basic leveling, done I would get it. A lot of people thought you weren't even playing the game until you hit max level and had raid gear.

But old mmos weren't exactly about that, at least in my experience, as long as you had some fun and met some cool people, you were playing the game right.

Lot like magic really, there is a lot of fun to be had without necessarily dumping time and money into the game, but there's certainly that option for people who can only get their rocks off pushing it to the max.

Pauper is a fun, inexpensive format.


I hadn't played in nearly a decade, so when I recently came back I just bought tons of packs. I know it wasn't the "smart" way to get into Standard, but I needed the nostalgia of opening packs. And, I was actually lucky enough that I cracked enough goodies that I didn't lose too much in packs (maybe around $20, whereas I've opened 3 boxes).

It just depends on what you want to do man. I'm thinking about making an Onslaught cycle Pauper Tribal Cube.

Get some commander precons, get some friends, and get whatever drug your group finds acceptable to hang out and relax and enjoy the best casual magic you can find anywhere. It beats the lgs any day, and you only need one copy of the card for it to be 100% effective.

>20 points infect
user said he plays Commander so it makes sense due to half your starting life total. Plus with the card pool of an eternal format to play with, someone somewhere is going to find a way to break certain mechanics over their backs.