Hello, I'm Philip, I just joined this forum today and thinking of starting magic, I have played games such as yugioh( for about 10 years) and also hearthstone. I am 15 and have about £60 a month to spend on hobbies such as mtg.
I suppose my main question is, what colour to play?
I have asked around at my local store and they said to start of with theros green or white as I am a beginner then expand with packs.
I have a local friend who is giving me about 500 creatures and no land so what should I go out and buy to make a successful deck?
Thanks in advance,
Philip
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 19, 2014, 03:05:43 AM
Hello, I'm Philip, I just joined this forum today and thinking of starting magic, I have played games such as yugioh( for about 10 years) and also hearthstone. I am 15 and have about £60 a month to spend on hobbies such as mtg.
I suppose my main question is, what colour to play?
I have asked around at my local store and they said to start of with theros green or white as I am a beginner then expand with packs.
I have a local friend who is giving me about 500 creatures and no land so what should I go out and buy to make a successful deck?
Thanks in advance,
Philip
Hello Phillip. I'm Logan. You can call me Papa or Budz. ;) Welcome to the community. Joining it was a great choice. Magic is a game that's full of strategy and adventure. You're definitely asking the right question first. The colors all have different feelings and tactics. I would agree {G} and {W} would be good starter colors to learn the game, but once you're familiar, experiment with the other colors and figure out what your play style is. Here's a link for some good info that'll help you out: CLICK! (http://imtgapp.com/forum/index.php?topic=11542.0)
If you have any questions my Inbox is always open, I'd be happy to help anytime.
Welcome to the wonderful world of magic. I have only been playing for about 7-9 months, but two things I can tell you that will help you(and helped me) is:
Try not to copy a deck. One of the most enjoyable experiences in magic is building a deck and playing it, then reforming it into something kick-ass.
Asking questions, especially on a forum like this is recommended and encouraged. I've learned a lot from my fellow iMTGers. There is not such thing as a stupid question(and no Patrick, mayonaise is not an instrument[ if you understand that reference you're awesome]).
Quote from: Spencer Addington on April 19, 2014, 03:40:55 AM
(and no Patrick, mayonaise is not an intrement[if you understand that reference you're awesome]).
lol. "No, Patrick. Horseradish isn't an instrument either."
Thanks for all the help guys,
Hopefully I will be able to enjoy the game as much as you do, I love card games and yugioh just seems to make me yawn now but magic is a lot more complex and it seems that the makers put a lot more care into the products, so should I just go for the theros intro deck or are there better decks to buy such as the jace vs vraska duel deck?
Hey there, and welcome to Magic!
The biggest pointer I can give you is to just have fun! If you have a local store to go to to meet new people and play games, take full advantage of that. Ask questions, learn new things, build new decks, but just make sure that you're having a good time. Back when I first started, I was probably a bit younger than you are now, but I was welcomed in to my store's community and encouraged to just keep playing. You also have the advantage of having online forums (such as this one) to go to. Need help deciding that new tech to beat a certain deck that's giving you trouble? Chances are, someone here might have your answer. If you have questions about rules or cards, feel free to ask away in the Rules section here. People here are fairly knowledgeable and can probably answer whatever questions you have (and if they can't, I'll find someone that can).
As for your first colors and deck, I'd agree that White and Green are the easiest colors for beginners to get ahold of, gameplay-wise. White focuses on Justice and Community, preferring to use large numbers of smaller creatures to attack in large groups. This is generally called a 'weenie' strategy and embodies White's philosophy of "The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts". Part of White's ideals are also purity, giving you access to some cards that allow you to remove enemy creatures or enchantments, clearing the way for your little guys to get through.
Green is more Nature-focused, wanting to bring in large beasts from the wilds of the Plane to wreck the enemy. Here, you'll find large beasts, centaurs and even Hydras that just overwhelm your opponent with sheer power. Green likes big creatures and it likes them fast, giving you access to a strategy called "Ramp". Ramp generally means having more Mana on a turn than you'd normally have. Normally, you get one land per turn. if you play a Forest on Turn 1 and another on Turn 2, you have two mana ready to go. Now, if you play a Forest on turn 1 and use it to cast an {Elvish Mystic}, and play another Forest on turn 2, you have 3 mana ready to go to cast 3-cost spells on your second turn. Through this, Green decks can power out larger creatures and bigger spells faster. Green also deems things like artifacts and a enchantments as unnatural, and uses spells to remove them from the battlefield. They also commonly have a newer mechanic called 'fighting', where you can literally have one of your creatures fight an opponent's creature.
If you combine these two colors, you get the philosophy of the Selesnya guild. On the plane of Ravnica (where the game's lore was on recently), there are ten guilds that represent each combination of two colors. Selesnya combines the ideals of both White and Green, as the members prefer to think of themselves as just a cog in the clockwork, rather than a great contributor. This is greatly represented in the Token strategy that selesnya had in the Return to Ravnica block. Instead of single, huge creatures, it was able to generate large amounts of smaller 'creature tokens' to swarm the board and attack.
This might be a bit long-winded, but I hope it helps!
TL;DR: Keep at it, be a part of your local community.
White does a bunch of little guys.
Green makes big guys and tries to make them quickly.
Green/White makes a bunch of moderately-sized dudes to swarm the board.
Can't go wrong with jace vs Vraska. The price is pretty low and it has a few high value cards like {remand} and {jace architect of thought}, and you get two different play styles with the two decks, so you can experiment and see what kind of play style you like.
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 19, 2014, 03:58:55 AM
Thanks for all the help guys,
Hopefully I will be able to enjoy the game as much as you do, I love card games and yugioh just seems to make me yawn now but magic is a lot more complex and it seems that the makers put a lot more care into the products, so should I just go for the theros intro deck or are there better decks to buy such as the jace vs vraska duel deck?
I felt the same way you did Phillip. I was into Yugioh way before I explored Magic. All I can say is, with this game I'll never look back. If you have the funds, I say try both.
Well I am coming to a close for now in terms of yugioh because I have nearly finished my deck and just trying to sell of the worthy cards but magic seems a lot more tactically aware it seems. Hopefully I can organise a half decent deck for small games so I stand a chance, my local stores organise a lot of events so I will be sure to turn up to some and trade and make new friends
The intro pack is okay. But I think I heard the theros event deck was pretty solid start. Maybe a suggestion that I can think of is if you have £60 a month to spend on the game. Buy the theros event deck and a fat pack(this will also give you a chunk of land cards to help you create other decks).Then hold off 2 months and buy a box of Theros. Theros will be around for at least 16 more months in rotation. If your looking to get into standard. Also buying a box is cheaper than buying single packs in long run. With buying a box, you'll be able to make really any color deck you want/try and card stock.
The main problem I have is that I may not want to spend that much for a box seeming a I haven't played a single game yet, I would prefer to slowly build a collection then possibly get a box. Also the fat pack doesn't look like value for money to be totally honest
My suggestion is check out an event deck. They are $25 less on eBay. It's a decent deck comes with inserts explaining how to play the game and how to mod the deck if you want to try different play.
Event deck is probably the optimum route. Go to a local FNM and there will be plenty of people that can give you advice and options on how to make it better. Also, a good shop will assist you and help get you hooked; they want to expand their customer base. Just have fun and improve. It will seem hard at first, but once you get the hang of it you understand how complex the game really is.
Many people have suggested the event deck so I will go for it, as suffer by starting with white, the main theme looks to be based around white. Secondly, how do I protect the cards I spend money on, in yugioh I sleeve them once but I have seen many people use double sleeving to get optimum protection, currently my friend has gifted me with a pack of avacyn restored sleeves by ultra pro so what sleeves should I use for a clear inner sleeve that fit inside the avacyn restored sleeves?
Thanks for all over replies given previously
Philip
Just my 2 cents, if youre responsible for your cards and take care of em, one sleeve is just plenty. Ive never had any problems whatsoever with a single sleeve, no bending scratchig etc. they all come out still looking NM even after moderate play. Just get some good sleeves and youll be just fine
Thanks for the advice.
As I am doing more research I keep on returning to the jace and vraska decks, are they good for a beginner or should I go for the event deck, I love the fact that where I live, I can get matching deck box and sleeves for the jace deck
Event decks are actually a great grab right now
A jace vs vraska plus an event deck is about $40-$45 USD.
This may be your best bet:
All 3 are preassembled decks; jace vs vraska being built to play one another. An easy way for you to learn balance and different play styles.
The event deck is something made to be slightly competitive for an FNM event or small tournament. It comes with useful cards in the current standard rotation.
Protip: don't trade away shocks lands for a large collection of junk rares. Shocks will always have eternal value.
Hi what do you mean by "shocks lands"?
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 19, 2014, 12:52:40 PM
Hi what do you mean by "shocks lands"?
They are lands like {godless shrine} where you can choose to have them come I to play untapped, but at the price of 2 life. Starting out I thought they were terrible, bit having that turn one play with mana fixing is huge.
Had a look at what money I actually have, I have £64 because my friend sorted out over 500 creatures for me to have for £6 so withe the remaining money I still want to buy an ultra pro binder and have my eyes set on a dragons maze binder which only costs £15.95 so that puts me down to around £49 to spend on mtg cards so that's my budget, what is worth buying from all the ideas I have had suggested to me by you fine lads and lasses out there
Philip
Jace vs vraska IMO
Buy a fatpack if Journey into NYX when available: that set will be worth the fatpack
Can I ask why it is a good set to buy compared to alternative fat pack?
If he is worried about playing at the local store, then the Jace vs Vraska is not a good option. He would be better off buying the event deck and individual cards to improve it. The duel decks will not be tournament legal except legacy and will not be competitive at all. There is not enough there by combining the decks to make one really good deck.
Really, he needs to decide how and where he wants to play and use that as a basis for his decision.
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 19, 2014, 01:11:29 PM
Can I ask why it is a good set to buy compared to alternative fat pack?
The card pool is much stronger than BNG (last set) and more value in most of the rares compared to BNG
Quote from: Muggywuggy on April 19, 2014, 01:51:10 PM
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 19, 2014, 01:11:29 PM
Can I ask why it is a good set to buy compared to alternative fat pack?
The card pool is much stronger than BNG (last set) and more value in most of the rares compared to BNG
There is some speculation there. The cards have not come out yet and have not seen play. We have a general feeling of what is good and will see play, but it is far from accurate. With a limited budget, you are better off buying singles to build a deck than buying packs.
I don't mean to knock buying packs; that is a whole different kind of fun. But buying singles will allow you to focus your money on the cards you need for your deck. A collection of cards will come later.
If I bought the duel deck then should I buy a few packs in attempt to pull money cards or good cards?
Also I will be buying a fat pack bit I just don't see the difference between buying that and getting 9 pack or so individually?
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 19, 2014, 02:16:39 PM
If I bought the duel deck then should I buy a few packs in attempt to pull money cards or good cards?
Also I will be buying a fat pack bit I just don't see the difference between buying that and getting 9 pack or so individually?
9 packs x $4 per pack is $36.00
A fat pack is 9 packs, plus 60 lands, booklet, 2 deck boxes (don't fit sleeved cards), a life counter, and the box. You have to decide if that other stuff is worth the extra $4 or not. To some it is, and to some it isn't. I usually buy a fatpack of each set just for the other stuff.
I have no need for the card boxes as they are absolutely terrible, I will be buying myself an ultra pro jace box anyways also I have a d20 so don't need a count down dice finally I am also getting the 2014 builders toolkit( I think it's called) and that gives me around 100 land and the 4 packs and 125 semi randomised cards which is about £13 cheaper, for now I would get that and a few packs, I will post when I have found out how much I have left from the sets I will buy
Core builder sets are awful IMO
Why do you think they are bad if you don't mind me asking?
The fatpack boxes are great boxes! One of the sturdiest boxes they make. I've bought one on every release for the past 8 releases. The fat pack can also store edh decks with ease. Save your money don't buy that ultra pro binder. I'm not a fan of the deck builder box. Anyways it's kinda late for that box. M15 set will be out in a couple months. If you want to be able to play in fnm don't buy the duel deck, it's not legal.
I would prefer to get the core builders kit now so I have a decent collection in which I can expand with the new journey to nyx in a couple of months when I need to.
Secondly I really need a new binder because ATM I have a really bad one which needs replacing and I have been after a side loading ultra pro pro binder for months, the only difference between the one I want and the generic one is the art on the front( which is stunning). I also need them to store yugioh cards which I need to trade for mtg or sell to get mtg. ATM I am trying to sell off 1650 yugioh cards to a friend because my collection is too big. The builders toolkit therefore provides a perfect way to store cards for a cheap price and starts me off with a small collection which I can use for the basis of other coloured deck to get the feel of them.
For now I don't want to play in any tournaments due to GCSEs coming up in less than a month and I really just want friendly games with friends for now instead off competitive games.
I believe that the jace vs vraska set is a good deal for me because I haven't played one game and need to learn te rules properly, at the minute I am trying to find cheap sleeves due to my local stores only supplying yugioh card sleeves, it is so frustrating
I have some old match attax bindes which fit mtg so that is fine for any commons I have but th ultra pro binder will store any yugioh cards for sale or trade and anything above common from mtg so that I can keep them safe
Hey guys, bought everything to day, I ended up buying:
50 binder pages
Ultra pro 3 ring collectors binder
Intro pack core 2014 fire surge
Intro pack theros green and white( don't remember name)
1x return to ravnica pack
Deckbuilders toolkit
500+ creatures
2x 50 card sleeves
I got all of this for under £80 so am very happy about it
What rare and mythic rares did you get? (Gold and orange expansion symbols)
Chandras Phoenix
Shivan dragon
Mizzum mortars
2x ogre battledriver
Thorncaster sliver
Megantic sliver
Anthousa, setessan hero
2x bow of nylea
Soramaro first to dream
Kami of the crescent moon
Firemane avenger
Alms beast
Pyxis of pandemonium
Colossus of arkos
Solid pulls. Especially kami.
Not sure what deck to use though
You could make a good red deck wins, a deck utilizing fast red creatures before you opponent has much reaction time.
Any recommendations on what good cards to use in red
So fr I have:
1x scorchwalker
1x lightning strike
4x lava axe
3x regathan firecat
4x chandra's outrage
4x pitchburn devil
2x shock
1x staff of the flame Magus
1x lightning talons
1x explosive impact
3x flames of the firebrand
3x pyromatics
2x smelt
1x chandra's Phoenix
3x demolish
1x volcanic geyser
1x annihilating fire
1x Chandra's fury
23x mountain
Quote from: Ptsgpbk on April 24, 2014, 09:31:39 AM
So fr I have:
1x scorchwalker
1x lightning strike
4x lava axe
3x regathan firecat
4x chandra's outrage
4x pitchburn devil
2x shock
1x staff of the flame Magus
1x lightning talons
1x explosive impact
3x flames of the firebrand
3x pyromatics
2x smelt
1x chandra's Phoenix
3x demolish
1x volcanic geyser
1x annihilating fire
1x Chandra's fury
23x mountain
Add all the burn spells you can put in. If you have a pretty penny to spend:
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Boros Charm
would be a great start.
I would recommend Weenie Rush( low casting creatures that can be cast on turn one and just keep attacking and attacking). I think the red intro pack from Born of the Gods should help you understand weenie rush more.
Also, if you want a simple build I would go for a mono colored deck first as thag is ehat most beginners start with.
Hope this helps ;)
I would go mono but even though I have started properly yesterday, I already have an extensive collection if over 1000 cards
Also built a white green token boosting deck
The red deck seems to work well just not drawing the burning spells at the right times
Yeah i wouldn't stay on the pot too long or else you'll get hemmrhoids. Other than that, I enjoy a nice ice cream on a hot summer day!
I would love to enjoy having an Ice cream but unfortunately I live in newcastle so the best weather we have is clear skies with no sunshine
You have good beer at least!🍺
Alas, I'm only 15 but one day( eyes stare off into the distance).... Anyways got more on my mind at the minute, exams, revision and trying to find certain cards to finalise deck for FNM after GCSEs finished sand getting busy creating tokens
Gcse?
Main exams, the new O levels
Off topic but a GCSE stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education. It's the equivalent of a high school deploma in the UK.
With the new set just released try to get hold of some sought after rates from Nyx even if you won't play them. They're great as trade fodder to get the stuff you need. I did it with BNG and traded for loads of modern rares I needed.
Probably will in June but for now I need to get a few final cards to complete the token ramp green deck,
Trostani selenysa voice
2x call of the conclave
Trostani's summoner
Vitu ghazi guildmage
Kalonian tusker
Also I am testing with other decks ATM such as black blue library burial and blue red counter burn