Guidance for a beginner

[Ptsgpbk]

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

[PapaBudz]

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!

If you have any questions my Inbox is always open, I'd be happy to help anytime.

[Spencer Addington]

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]).

[PapaBudz]

(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."

[Ptsgpbk]

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?

[Remillo]

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.

[Spencer Addington]

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.

[PapaBudz]

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.

[Ptsgpbk]

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

[Avnger345]

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.

[Ptsgpbk]

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

[Rass]

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.

[Dmreiss]

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.

[Ptsgpbk]

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

[MisterJH]

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