Hey Veeky Forums, so I just started playing MTG a week ago. Me and my girlfriend both bought a starter deck and 16 packs of cards, she built white/green and i built red/blue.
We played together for the past week, but she will no longer play me because I'm winning every game, IDK if she will quit but I don't want too, I really like the game. I'm not very good in the grand scale of things though of course, and I don't want to go to a game shop or something and just get wrecked. I built my deck out of what the dude at the store said was "standard" so I can play with them until next year? First of all here is my deck;
I don't know where to start. I guess as a tip you can search sites like Tappedout for Standard deck ideas. The deck right now needs a lot less 1-ofs because you can never expect to get what you need if there's only 1 of something in your deck.
Luis Nelson
Thanks for the tip, I can't really do that right now since I don't have very many cards. Is red/blue a good combo? That's just what my starter deck was and I built on top of it, now I'm also collecting the black cards to build a deck with those in the future
Ayden Morris
Yeah red and blue is pretty big. Its focus is to typically cast a lot of instants and sorceries. Of the top of my head there are quite a few decks called "Thermo-Thing" that make use of Thermo Alchemist and Thing in the Ice.
Mason Wilson
seconding Tappedout.net, and I'd say just try and make something that looks fun without worrying how competitive it is
you can make some pretty fun kitchen table (casual) decks for 25$
Oliver Powell
You are gonna want to be careful about playing at shops because that's going to be where you find people who netdeck and pay attention to things like card efficiency, local meta, and such so expect to lose a lot and have to learn a lot.
Jaxson Baker
Thanks for the help so far guys, I'll look into the thermo/thing deck. Thing in the ice is really cool. I really like the game and want to play with people but I feel they are so far ahead of the curve it's going to be hard. I don't even know where to start, I try reading the threads on here and don't understand 90% of what's being said, I don't know the names of ANY of the old cards. My deck is made out of the two new types of packs with the werewolves and vampires (moon something? The packs are purple and blue) and the battle for zendikar and its brother set.
I put a lot of money into this hobby, I got the dragon sleeves for like 12 bucks and th card box and everything, I am serious about this, just really really nooby.
Brody Morris
I got this card in a booster. It's double sided so I'll post that too, it's my bet card but is it out of place?
Elijah Garcia
It's holo too
Elijah Perry
Best*
Luke Peterson
Sort of, its best in creature-heavy decks so you can flip it quick.
Carson Turner
Best thing i can suggest to a newer player is to read up on the nature of competitive play, standard is your best bet on where to start jamming some games at if you wanna play frequently. Check with your Fun Local Game Store to see when they hold what events.
Next, BUYING PACKS IS BAD. You very rarely get your value back out of cracking packs, tcgplayer.com lists the pricing for every magic card in existence. You can use them to find the price of stuff in your collection. Card prices shift base on how well they perform in the competitive scene. Your best bet is to buy the cards you want to use in your deck or trade for them(You might wanna get a binder to keep your high value cards in, easier to trade with them that way).
If you're looking to run some Blue/Red then i definately agree with building up a thermo-thing standard list, alot of the list is commons/uncommons so it wont break the bank either. You could find some example lists on MTGtop8.com if you go to the standard section and click UR Aggro.
Once you're feeling up to it, just breeze through the standard general on here to get a feel for the vocabulary of the hobby. Also, Tappedout.net lets you upload decklists and Veeky Forums users bitch at you for not using it, mainly because magic players are assholes.
Also, foil westvale abbey's are like 10 bucks, so sweet pull there.
Sorry if this all kinda spills together, i tend to ramble.
Isaiah James
Ok I'll double think about buying the cards then, it's just that I'm not really sure on what I needed so I just built my own. I'll go to the websites recommended and try and copy a deck or something.
What color is the best? The guy at the shop said they are all balanced, is this true?
Samuel Sullivan
Here's my best/favourite deck cards
Are spirits good? I have this sweet one called uninvited Geist and once it attacks it becomes a 3/3 unblockable
Cameron Russell
I love new player threads. My best tip to anybody is to treasure that first deck. It'll mean a lot to you down the line.
Spirits have been getting a lot better lately, though their main weapon is climbing and climbing and climbing in price. I still think they're a fun deck, though.
Luke Davis
Ok thanks I'll try my best to keep my original deck intact, I really like it and thought it was pretty good. I spent hours making it, now after I checked out tapped out I realise mine is pretty crappy lol
Brayden Price
By all means go and make improvements and shit. Just don't up and dismantle it
Hudson Flores
I really recommend you buy any duel deck to play with your gf. Those decks are made to be evenly matched. Don't change them much or at least have the list written down. As for the whole standard thing don't stress yourself about that at all. Welcome to the best tcg (that i know of)
Owen Howard
Don't be afraid to go to the lgs, people there are usualy really friendly and will help you out with figuring out the game. You also might get a lot of free cards because most experienced players either don't need or already have a collection of commons so they just pass it along to new players.
Jonathan Watson
A great place to start is to read Reid (haha) Duke's Level One series on the mtg official website. It's a pretty solid starting point. He'll explain basic concepts such as tempo, card advantage, mana curves, and play styles such as aggro, midrange and control. Armed with those concepts, you might wanna do some homework on what are good strategies. This is where you playtest your deck while researching on websites such as the mtg site itself, ChannelFireball, Star City Games, and more for deck ideas and videos. From there it's a question of which formats you want to play and how far you want to take it. Standard, the latest three two-set "Blocks" (aka the latest six sets) is tightly controlled by Wizards with an iron fist so there are fewer cards to know of and play with making it easier and cheaper to enter. Modern and Legacy use older cards and are very expensive to play. It's also a bad time for a newcomer to step in and buy into those formats. Limited is a pretty solid way to play, and indeed most magic cards are designed to be played in Limited, where you and a few friends open booster packs and build decks out of the packs you open. Limited is pretty popular and is usually the second most sanctioned format at game stores after Standard, plus you usually get to keep cards so if you get good at Limited you can funnel your cards into your standard decks.
Colton Price
that's a nice pull, user
ormendahl is a badass and can fit into any deck in casual. one of my favorites
Austin Price
So the people who play are cool people? The idea about the starter decks was perfect, I'll do that, and have a rule to only change 3 cards or so to make it even.
thanks man, its my coolest card for sure, ill probably never trade it. its pretty cool.
Jordan Nguyen
That ebbs and flows within specific formats. "They're all balanced" is a good enough answer for a new player. In the broad strokes, they might as well be.
Who with and how do you want to play the game? If you want to compete and don't care who with, standard is a good place to start. Check your local game store. Buy singles only for now on as you L2P and power your deck up. I'll n-th the thermo-thing advice.
Once you get your bearings, and if you don't mind spending a little money on your hobbies each week, I'd suggest trying a draft or two. Some hate it, but it's where you'll find the most variety and challenge in the long run. This is probably the only time you should be buying sealed packs if you have a budget. Feel free to crack packs for fun, but be aware it's grossly inefficient.
Lastly there's EDH/Commander. This is a casual multiplayer format with an alternate ruleset that, ironically, is probably the hardest to get into for a new player. Playing with randoms can be asking for a bad time because the format is fundamentally broken and you kinda have to trust your fellow players to keep things interesting. Check it out if you make some friends that also play.
Playing with the GF can be tough. Intro decks aren't balanced at all and the duel decks aren't necessarily either. In the mean time, try swapping decks or tweaking her list up. You might be shit outta luck until you're (if you're) fielding multiple of your own Commander decks. I've found significant others(who aren't interested in the game a priori) respond well to the multiplayer environment as it's more varied and they can "not win" without "losing".
