MTG: We were all new once

Once upon a time we were all new to Magic. Think back. What was your first deck? The one that is perhaps so casual and bad that it would get absolutely crushed by the player you are today.

Tell me about it. What did your deck do?

Mine was Merfolk Tribal. But it wasn't the good Merfolk that see some Modern or Legacy play. It was tokens and nonsense with the white Lorwyn Merfolk and pic related.

Pic related is a decent card in Inalla.

My first deck was a no-format U/B counterspell deck that topped out into Harbor Serpent. It was awful but I loved it.

MtG wasn't my first card game rodeo so my first deck was a rakdos aggro in RTR/THS that won a GP and costed around 50 dollars including shocks.

That UR precon with Scornful Egotist.

White blue control. It ran mana leak and oblivion ring and tried to close games with bladeholds, angelic destiny, and sun titan. I was very new and bad at using the stack and resource management.

Fuck, this was mine too. I added my first rare to it (Mistform Skyreaver) and it was rad but extremely slow.

Then Mirrodin/Darksteel came along and I fell in love with Memnarch.

some goblin pre con from onslaught

This was my first deck. Monowhite angels and lifegain...and Armageddon.

my very first deck was the conflux esper precon. the first deck I really played with however was the magic 2013 black/white exalted deck.

I had this deck that worked off axebane guardian and defender synergy. I had Stormtide leviathan as my first wincon being summoned by axebane ramp and I had doorkeeper as a backup.

U/B Zombies running 4x Lord of the Undead circa Invasion/Odyssey blocks. Staples were gravedigger, zombie trailblazer, and malevolent awakenings, along with all the counterspells necessary during that time period (though admittedly those were added in a bit later)

WR that relied on walls and healing to keep me alive while I slowly whittled away at my opponents with burn spells and abilities.

I had plenty of lightningbolts, lava axes, and lightning-worshipping minotaurs from a collection a friend had given me. I think that the only reason I didn't go full turtle like the coward I was.

Think it was the monoblack Darksteel starter deck? It wasn't very good, even after adding some bulk rares

The first deck I learned on was CawBlade before it broke standard.
The first deck I owned was a mono blue unblockable deck that was utter trash, and a gift from a friend

It was a deck based around getting out Goblin Electromancer, Guttersnipe, and Talrand then casting a bunch of decent spells for all that value. Actually was pretty good for a first deck, I was able to fairly consistently beat my friends that had been playing longer with it.

GW RtR token populate deck
Then a really bad Burn deck

Very first deck I owned was some super-basic green starter deck from like... 8th edition or something.
Had the Rhox (the version that looks like a dino, pic related) in it and I thought dinos and wurms were cool. But I lived in bumfuck nowhere and had noone to play with.

Years later I got a gf who played Magic, this was during old Ravnica. Wasn't very fond of the game, but played because of her (breaking tradition, lel).
Played a terrible Simic deck, the one with the Graft mechanic.

I missed out on Mirrodin because I didn't have anyone to play with - the nearest LGS was an hour away. I didn't get any more cards aside from a couple singles when I was passing through other towns with LGSes until Alara, I didn't start regularly buying packs until RtR, and I didn't start playing regularly until Khans.

Wanderwine Prophets convinced me to make a merfolk deck as well back in the day, such a cool card and he won me a ton of kitchentable games

Nowadays my merfolk deck is updated to be modern playable but my Wanderwine Prophets still have a place in my "not for trade" binder

The earliest deck I remember used Statis, Opposition, Horseshoe Crab, Counterspell, Sigil of Sleep and Hermetic Study.

Pic related was my first deck. I actually don't know if it was actually good or not since the only person I ever played was my stepbrother and he cheated like a motherfucker and we didn't know how protection worked.

One of these days I wanna pick it up again and bask how mediocre it probably was.

I've heard that there is an underground site with game stats for many MtG critters. I am wrong.

>Mirari's Wake
>Krosan Verge
>Nantuko Monastery

Not too bad for a precon.

Oh yeah, I remember Mirari's Wake at the very least. I mostly used to funnel the mana into this bad boy.

Looking at the precons from that time, Sacrilege would have been a blast to play.

I took the M14 R/B starter pack and mixed it with a bunch of cards from Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon's Maze. Made an autistic Rakdos deck that I've updated over the years and cycled out many cards, but still use today. It wasn't awful, and now it's a decent deck.

A mono-green Modern deck I made on Xmage a few months ago. It was alright for a noob, then I moved to EDH

White/Green portal precon with packs smashed in.

Starlit Angel, Archangel, Untamed Wilds and Natural Order into Primeval Force.

I got it right with one of those cards, and Untamed Wilds was a good option despite it's low poer.

Mono black weenie full of common revised staples

Threw up Wall of bone / skelies and tried to make frozen shades as large as I could. It was terrible but I was 4-5 years old

I lost to scryb sprites every game and my siblings got bored of playing with me because I was bad and their decks had good cards

Mono-red deck that used Dwarven Warriors and Firebreathing to get in there.

I opened a 2012 Core Set booster box and ended up with a WU deck full of Serra Angels and Sphinxes of Uthuun and whatever else looked good.

5 color mess.. my best guy was ekundu cyclops.

I used tob uy booster packs and shuffle them into my starter deck until the starter deck box was bursting at the seams.

Etherium Master is still my nigga.

yeah boy 8th edition theme decks. i had the red one.

It was a starter deck called "The Wilds and the Deep" but now it's a casual evolve/counters deck with stuff like Hardened Scales and Mistcutter Hydra to make it better.

White Weenie/Soldiers and Bant Exalted were my first decks. They were both pretty bad. I'd hate to see how poorly balanced and tuned they actually were, but I only ever played them against my kitchen table group.
I remember trying to make this piece of garbage work, but I'm still running my Noble Hierarchs in modern, so I don't really feel too cringey about it.

The '98 Brian Seldon World Championship deck. Featuring such wonderful cards as Survival of the Fittest, Spirit of the Night, and my all time favorite card, Recurring Nightmare. Several years later, i added some og Ravnica cards like Shambling Shell and other dredge cards. Pretty sweet deck.

Interested in getting into MtG, what are some new player pitfalls I can avoid when starting out?

Some green/red kicker deck my cousin gave me. Best card I had in it was Terastodons.

Ended up beating him in 4 consecutive matches with it, he got fucking pissed.

Draft a bunch. You'll learn how to build a decent deck and get good at card evaluation. Don't just buy and crack packs, it's a money out and you'll never pull anything you actually want. Buy singles once you know some stuff about the game. Don't get stuck in one playstyle; play a bunch of different decks. You'll learn not only how to play different archetypes, but also how to beat those archetypes.

One thing I do is watch a bunch of games on YouTube. Seeing what better people do, how they play, and where my choices differ from theirs helps me get better at the game. Also, remember it's a game. We're supposed to be having fun whether we win or lose. And you're going to lose a lot before you win.

How would I know what makes a good deck at draft if I've barely played?

if your FLGS is good they'll help you out. They have these starter decks that they let you play with to help you get a hold of the mechanics. After that, enjoy the Friday night spent out for 20 bucks playing and getting cards.

>Wanting to use specific cards because the art looks cool
Is this idiotic?

Don't try to build your own deck. It's expensive as hell to buy individual cards, and chances are your deck will be borderline unplayable if you don't know what you're doing ahead of time. Buy one of those premade decks and play with a friend. If you don't know anyone who already plays, buy a duel pack deck and invite friends to play with you.

After a while you'll start to understand how the game works and what is or isn't good for a deck and how to create synergy.

Mostly just play for fun, it's a game after all, no point in trying to tryhard and build the ultimate deck to take to the competitive scene if you aren't enjoying the game in the first place.

>if your FLGS is good they'll help you out
What does it mean if the regulars go up and scratch up any Masterpieces that non-regulars pull, deliberately give new players and children bad advice, and the owner refuses to do anything about any of that, and supports them because "they've been playing at the store for over a decade, plus they're older than everyone else, so they know better".

Go somewhere else? If you're stupid enough to stay somewhere like that and give them business, then the only one to blame is yourself.

Call them out on it
Don't be passive

I was like 12 and revised / the dark had just came out. My dad and each built really bad five color decks and played against each other. We had no idea what we were doing.

>regulars go up and scratch up any Masterpieces that non-regulars pull

My actual first deck was turbo stasis.

I really wanted to make a deck that featured King Cheetah.

I don't know why.

Basically all the white and green from a 4th edition duel deck tossed together. I didn't hear about restricted deck-sizes muuuuch later.

The nearest alternative is a half-hour drive away, and even worse. Most of the people here actually live over there, and drive here because of how bad it is. The next nearest place is nearly two hours away.

People do. They just use their clout to deny it, and get the people (myself included) who do seen as liars.

And then, if they're called out about it, they say "Oh, it's just a printing error. Happens all the time to Masterpieces. The foil's really fragile."

I'm reading about the colour ideology and how it relates to the game, but is it autistic to want to play decks that have the colours you agree with?

Alright, well your choices are simple then. Either stay there and take it, or leave with dignity and self respect.

Invite some of the other people that hate that place and host your own game nights with those people and make some friends, and make sure the owners of the store know exactly why you've all stopped using them. Simple.

A green/white heroic deck, only splashing green for a low number of spells.
It was relatively good because I looked up what cards would be good on mtgsalvation and I already had a lot of experience from those shitty steam games

A friend (who I can't even remember the name of) got me to start playing back in the day and gave me a bunch of cards including this bad boy, which I thought was the coolest mother fucker ever. I ran almost exclusively mono-brown for years because artifacts were so dope, and I was only kitchen table. First real deck I had that wasn't just a garble was a myr charge counter tribal that ended up taking a billion turns with magistrate's scepter.

Play whatever colors you want man. You'll eventually play them all in some form or another.

Then after a few years you'll have even played every possible combination

>What was your first deck?
UR Scry in Theros
>What did your deck do?
Slam Flamespeaker Adept, give it unblockable with the enchantment that gave a scry trigger, buff it my casting some Magna Jets, Spark Jolts and Titan's Strength.

In my first game against non-friends I kicked the dick in of some 8 year old playing his dad's $1,000 modern deck in a casual match, was good.

UG Infect made out of a box of New Phyrexia. Friends took all the best cards out :(

If that's your thing, go right ahead, it's not like anyone will care.

Personally I choose my decks more based on playstyle than color choice. I like playing big monsters and spamming weak monsters, so Green/White is usually my go-to color combination, though my favorite deck is mono green.

That's exactly what I've done. It hasn't hurt the store much at all, since they make most of their profit from the regulars and the new people who show up either passing through town, visiting family, or arriving for college trying the store out.

>shitty steam games

Man those were aggravating. So often I wanted to do things on my upkeep and it just skips straight to drawing a card and entering Main phase.

Its baffling how the 1997 computer game is somehow better designed than the ones made in the last 5 years.

Well the hell do you care then? If you've got people to play with and don't have to deal with the store at all, why even give it a second thought? You can get cards and games just as easily online, and can keep hosting your own game events with people. Problem solved.

I had a 100 card WUBRG deck. It was so bad that my friend and I played with the houserule that you can't attack before the other player has at least 2 creatures on the field. This was during Ice Age so you didn't have that many ways to fix your mana.

My first deck was the RG starter deck in dragons from tarkir, it then morphed into a rainbow dragons deck because I pulled pic related and a crucible of fire, the goal of the deck was to get out said crucible of fire and as many big dick dragons as possible.

Because I go there to play other games, which have much more respectful communities and less ridiculous behaviors, and I see new players being roped in by the Magic community.

Alright, sounds like you've got everything settled. So why are you asking for advice on a malaysian fishing forum again?

That deck is one of the best and most fun "pre cons" to play of all time
Such a crazy engine.
Fuck, seldon has brewed such awesome decks.

PS add priest of gix

My first deck ever was some golgari junk from RTR and Unlimited, because I owned a Forcefield and Bayou. Obviously dissolved that one.
First standard deck was mono-green Pummeler. It still wins sometimes, though I'm gonna retire it once Ixalan is out in favor of something actually decent.
First commander deck was a terrible Breya combo brew. It's been pillaged for pieces in other decks, and I'm trying to sell off pieces like Arcum.
First modern deck was RDW. It's RDW, it's old faithful.

How do I avoid getting shafted or cheated on as a new player? I want to make sure the regulars aren't dicking me around

I lived in a house with a bunch of guys who taught me and they had a gigantic box full of commons and the occasional uncommon and a few junk rares. We all built decks and I built a mono-red aggro deck because we had tons of lightning bolts and stuff like that.

Play with friends at first, read about what cards are valuable, have card sleeves, and don't let people touch your cards.

look at the prices of cards in mtggoldfish or tcgplayer. when a card is valuable look up which format is inflating its price. standard cards usually loose most of their value after rotation, cards used in modern hold up really well unless they are banned, which is not a common thing.

UG Polar Kraken Ramp. It was Timmy as fuck but putting down a 11/11 was the coolest shit ever.

I actually just started last spring. My first deck was BW zombies with absolutely nothing but Amonkhet cards. Not even a single Diregraf Collosus. Not only that, but instead of going full aggro and utilizing good zombies I went midrange because I was so butthurt about all the artifacts in Kaladesh block

my first deck was handed to me because it was a simple, black blue zombie deck from the innistrad set.

I got this deck as a present when I got into MtG. I didn't like it that much though but I think I tried to rebuilt into a red aggro deck with all the flamekin cards.

I don't know where you are from but at my shop people are very friendly to newcomers and wouldn't cheat on someone just because they could.

Still if you are worried about getting cheated ingame just ask the judge or store owner about rules questions in case you think you are getting fooled. If you are worried about trades just check the price of the cards before trading.

I sometimes eschew useful cards if they don't fit with the deck's aesthetics.

Not the best deck to start with, it was slow and ful of complex interactions that probably flew over my head. It was my first proper deck after a a uber casual mono black deck full of one ofs.

My friend regularly stomped me with a mono green lorwyn elves, but I had lot of fun and those fucking werid creatures cemented my love for blue.

UW Heroic in Theros/Khans standard. It was a super cheap deck that was very well positioned in the meta; I was a very inexperienced player but I got so many wins against better players on the strength of the deck alone. I really miss that deck, I've still got all the pieces in my binder

Mono blue,make enemy cards 0 power and counter other spells until your big bad 6+ mana cost cards drops, and then keep counter their late game.

I believe you meant "wincon in Inalla".

A rat deck that no one at school could beat do to the power of rats. It was awful but I do love my rats

Started playing with a Portal starter set with two mini decks. Didn't really play long, dumped my cards, and didn't play again until high school.

First deck was a mess of white cards that were gifted to me. LOTS of Kamigawa stuff, as Ravnica was just around the corner. After Ravnica hit I made a GW deck, a RW deck, and a BU deck.

I recnetly got 3 friends into magic. I got them each a commander deck to get started with. 100 singleton cards will actually teach them a fair chunk of rules.

Afterwards we started drafting and everyone loved it. But they enjoyed playing Commander first.

My first deck was the white blue premade storm deck from Scourge.
My first own deck was a green elf odyssey/onslaught tribal deck. I beat everyone in my class, thought i was hot shit, and then some guy at the store stomped me with a madness deck. After that i got stomped by a psychatog deck. The one after that was Timmy with beasts. And that is how i went 1-2 at my first fnm.

I started in scars of mirrodin. I started with the starter box (I still have the box) and I got some packs with it. I pulled a tezzeret and I made a esper artifact deck. It wasn't control, but it worked.

Mono soulmender deck.
45x soulmender
15x plains
I knew it was bad but it was a joke between me and one of my friends who was also new.

I also cleaned out 3 LGS of all their soulmenders and made a soulmender binder.

t1 swamp, dark ritual, hypnotic spectre
t2 swamp, hymn to tourach, swing for 2 in the air
also had thrulls, black knights, ornithopters, unholy strength and drain life
4th/fallen empires so much fun and so many tribes

I have never noticed that synergy before.

Unpopular opinon incoming:

I played originally in mirrodin times and now that I'm coming back I despise Planeswalker shit. I hate them in concept, in how they work and in any other way possible
Yu-gi oh tier crap

First deck I owned. Got into the game because of peer pressure but I'm glad I did. I didn't know how shit these decks were at the time. Still had fun.
Didn't take much work to turn it into a mediocre monoblack Devotion/Pack Ratsdeck out of it. I couldn't afford any of the more expensive cards like Thoughsieze. The deck has long since been scrapped.

>45 of one card
I don't think so.

Goblins

Izzet shenanigans

UB Snow control with pic related as finisher and lots of dimir cards

I kinda miss when I was able to play like that without worry.

This was mine, but now I run a green/colourless ramp deck in standard so not much has changed

Rats and Coat of Arms. I'm a story fag, so all my decks had this theme and story behind everything.

First pre con decks I ever (got as a birthday gift) was the Beatdown pack that had a UB and a GR deck with fatties. My dad bought it for me and we played it on the outdoor patio of a barnes and Nobles. I miss those days.