Teaching a Beginner, Help!

[Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth]

I have taught a few people, but I think it is going to be a challenge to teach my 11 year old brother. I'm thinking of starting us off with 2 color Ravnica decks (who doesn't like Ravnica?) because that will teach him the basics and hopefully keep him interested, but past that I don't know.

[cltrn81]

Maybe try mono color?  I keep a mono black and a mono green deck just for this.  I have mostly vanilla creatures and the creatures with abilities are something simple like regenerate.  I would not have something like polukranos or something.  Then simple sorceries and instants like {giant growth} and {terror}.  The decks I built stick to the 20/20/20 rule of Land/creature/other spells. 

[particle]

Maybe try mono color?  I keep a mono black and a mono green deck just for this.  I have mostly vanilla creatures and the creatures with abilities are something simple like regenerate.  I would not have something like polukranos or something.  Then simple sorceries and instants like {giant growth} and {terror}.  The decks I built stick to the 20/20/20 rule of Land/creature/other spells.

lol regenerate is simple? since when? seen pro players get thrown off by regen.

[Dudecore]

Regenerate is confusing. I mess it up sometimes.

Your local LGS should have some New Player Decks for free. They're mono colored. They're balanced against each other.

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 is good. Although I find the automatic rules enforcement to be good, but it doesn't give new players a reason why things work out.

Then play them in paper when they figure out what they're good at. Keep it simple in the beginning,  and dont spike them too hard.

[Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth]

My LGS is run by a.......not so amazing person....so he doesn't give away anything (and yes, I know the decks you are talking about, he doesn't even give those out). He has some background with Magic, because he has played Duels on the Xbox (although I don't know how much) and he himself wanted to make a two color deck. I am going to play GU evolve/flash deck against him, nothing too fancy, not even counterspells, I think its a good mix of getting used to paper and learning new things.

[LinkCelestrial]

Mono red and mono green are the best learning decks IMO. Just explain the plays you make and why, point out what he could do to improve his game and tell him why it's an improvement.

As for combat show all the options and explain why you're picking the one you're picking.

Some people just get it and can build semi decent decks after a couple games. Others take time and are constantly learning.

My arcane deck is a massive headache to pilot for almost everybody in my playgroup, but I just get it. Save the complicated decks for latter.

It might be a good idea to start with both of you playing creature based strategies, then move into other ones. A fantastic learning matchup is mill vs burn (assuming they're balanced decks) once you move out of creature based strategies.

Experiment. Once you find his play style focus on that. As long as you're playing with honest players you don't have to really understand what they're doing to play against them.

You don't have to understand that I'm using my {Elite Arcanist} to cast  {Reach Through Mists} then I'm splicing on {Glacial Ray} and {Horobi's Whisper}. You need to understand that {Elite Arcanist} is messing up your stuff and needs to die. You also need to understand that those spells I'm casting are going back into my hand, so {Mind Rot} might be a good idea next time. Once they start to really grasp the game teach them how the arcane deck works. The biggest mistake you can make is overwhelming the newbie.

[Agrus Kos, Enforcer of Truth]

Update: just played the first few games and he seems to like it. The first game he kind of whined when he couldn't get G, but game 2 he thought it was hilarious that I was getting landscrewed and {Bramblecrush}ed my guildgate, completely shutting me out of the game. Now he is sorting through some of the cards I gave him looking for synergies. All-in-all, it went over pretty well.

[cltrn81]

I just don't see how regenerate is confusing but whatevs

[ibtrickey]

I have found that YouTube has some good videos for teaching new people:)

[Swamplord99]

Start with super basic mono decks with the basic abilities, ravinca honestly sucked in my opinion and that's when I stopped playing and then started in theros

[InfinitiveDivinity]

Start with super basic mono decks with the basic abilities, ravinca honestly sucked in my opinion and that's when I stopped playing and then started in theros

Er... What?

[Swamplord99]

Start with super basic mono decks with the basic abilities, ravinca honestly sucked in my opinion and that's when I stopped playing and then started in theros

Er... What?

But then I came back and I love ravinca block now. It's ok

[Boomer17]

Start with super basic mono decks with the basic abilities, ravinca honestly sucked in my opinion and that's when I stopped playing and then started in theros

[MtgCollector1337]

Starter deck?

[Swamplord99]

Intro packs!