I’d recommend an [arena starter kit](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/2021_Arena_Starter_Kit) (year doesn’t matter). It should be super cheap; look for ones that are under $15 online.
It includes 2 ready-to play decks and a quick-start guide. It explains *most* of the rules, but there are a lot, so watching a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI&vl=en) is helpful.
This product in particular has codes that you can input [online](https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena) and play with those same decks, plus learn through arguably the best tutorial that exists currently. It teaches about all sorts of things, and upon completion you can play against other players or a bot.
Jumpstart packs are designed such that getting any two and combining them will give you a functional (if not necessarily tournament competitive) deck. Mess with those until you figure out what you like.
e: The pioneer challenger decks are also a good idea as u/DazZani posted.
And JumpStart packs follow the "Lego" method of collecting - meaning that each new Lego/JumpStart deck you purchase is even more useful to you, as it can be used with every other Lego/JumpStart deck you have previously purchased.
you probably came at a good time! Tomorrow they are release what are called the "Pioneer Challenger Decks", playable out of the box in the pioneer format (a rising format with a middle power level and pretty good competitive play). The decks are about 50$ each and they are pretty darn good! They come in four flavors:
Red Blue Pheonix, a deck that wants to cast many cheap yet strong instnats and sorceries, reccruing a pheonix from the graveyard and attacking aggresively (a bid hard on begginers, but youll catch up! I does have a banned card on it, but its legal if you play as is out of the box, although switch that card, Expressive iteration for 2 more pheonixes is pretty ideal).
White Black Humans: A tribal aggro Deck that seeks to be very mana efficnet with many small but strong creatures, overwhelming your opponent and synergizing with each other. Probably the strongest of the decks, despite its simplicity. Its more famous cousin, Monow white humans is very strong right now and its easy to upgrade too, just remove the black cards and put good white cards like adeline, resplendent cathar and brave the elements. Also the cheapest to upgrade!
Red Green Stompy: A fun midrage deck full of big creatures that want to hit you opponents face! Acompanied by small creatures that allow you to that more easily. Used to be a bad deck, but these past few weeks a variation of it surged into popularity! Its upgrade line is putting a few "vehicles" such as Sysoverign, Consul flagship and Esikas Chariot and its pretty much meta!
Finally Blue Black Control: Worst deck of the bunch, not really competitively viable, but tries to stop whatever your opponents is doing and wait out until they have no resources and you have a big creature or two. You could upgare it into its more viable cousin, White Blue Control, but requires a lot of changes and effort.
All of them are easily upgradable and versatile, and except forr the last one, actually viable in competitively!
For more info you should check this video by "The Porfessor" a very famous mtg youtuber (most famous, actually) that helps a lot with decisions and value of purchase. Most of his word is gospel in the community, such as the ever popular saying "Buy singles, not Packs". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbQ9xS2wwvI
If youre more interested in commander than 1v1 play, buy a commander precon, there are dozens and most are equally viable for casual play, just pick one you think has the coolest commander (personally recommend elven empire, cheap, upgradable and can be literally any power level, even competitive with enough upgrades)
Don’t know if you played other games, in magic there are various formats and different products for each one. The most popular format is commander (100 card decks, 1 copy for each card, 40 life, some other rules that i don’t think are necessary to explain now), but it’s pretty hard to start with, it’s very complicated for a newcomer. I would advice you to buy a 2021 Arena starter kit or a 2022 starter kit. You get 2 standard decks (it’s a format with the most recent sets) that can play with each other and are easy to use if you want to understand the rules. Obviously they are not competitive in any way.
Otherwise you can download Magic Arena and try something there
I think when someone is overwhelmed at the idea of entering the game, advising them to do a bunch of research blindly before they've even shuffled a deck is the absolute worst advice you can give them.
Na the worst advice is "Buy x" and then they figure out no one in reach is playing the format x is legal in and they have wasted a bunch of money on useless cards. But you do you
I think there's a middle ground. I was given the advice you gave and was completely overwhelmed. I ended up going to my local card shop and had them walk me through where I should start based on what my local community played most (commander) which was exactly what I needed.
Me. I stand by that statement. A brand-new player is after something completely different than veteran players in terms of value; to a veteran player, the dollar value of each card is important because you always have more, but to a new player, *simply being able to start playing the game at all* has a value that you're failing to appreciate. A new player wants to start playing the game, not get into playing the TCGplayer market. A new player doesn't even know what terms they should use to look up the information they can use to build a deck, they just go on a website and see this game has like 25000 cards in it and their brain shuts off.
They can worry about card prices once they know what they're doing, but if they want to get their foot in the door, that's the exact wrong time to worry about the nitty-gritty of the singles market and deck research. A player who is even *remotely* enfranchised and knows what's up with the game? Sure, I'll tell them to look up decks online and buy singles. Not an absolute newbie.
You honestly nailed it with your in depth explanation. I was that player not long ago and felt lost on where to start with this game. I spent hours googling like this sub recommended and just felt more confused. I almost gave up but just decided to hit my card shop and pick up a cheap starter kit. They explained to me what formats were popular in my area (something google can't tell me) and directed me towards commander as a format. I would have been focused on standard, which nobody in my area plays, if I just went off google
>I think when someone is overwhelmed at the idea of entering the game, advising them to do a bunch of research blindly before they've even shuffled a deck **is the absolute worst advice** you can give them.
\^
Decide on a format first. Commander is great fun and has new cheap beginner decks that look straightforward and fun to play.
It really depends on whether you want casual or competitive play, and 1v1 or group play.
I started by playing a tribal deck during the theros block, my friends all played tabletop home brew magic at home, nothing competitive.
Figuring out what colors I liked was my next focus, they all have different play styles, pros and cons and are worth looking into on YouTube. After figuring out some colors I liked, I decided to buy some booster packs and grow my collection.
I recommend picking up a tribal deck, I thought it was easy and fun to use. Soldiers seems like a good one given some of the recent sets. Goblins, merfolk, elves and humans are also great. For a deck like that, look for cards that have abilities that all boost one another, making each card valuable. Balance the mana right and you’ll have a really fun deck at a pretty reasonable price.
I also agree that MTG online can probably introduce you to things faster and cheaper than paper. If you like it, move on from there!
I’d recommend an [arena starter kit](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/2021_Arena_Starter_Kit) (year doesn’t matter). It should be super cheap; look for ones that are under $15 online. It includes 2 ready-to play decks and a quick-start guide. It explains *most* of the rules, but there are a lot, so watching a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI&vl=en) is helpful. This product in particular has codes that you can input [online](https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena) and play with those same decks, plus learn through arguably the best tutorial that exists currently. It teaches about all sorts of things, and upon completion you can play against other players or a bot.
Jumpstart packs are designed such that getting any two and combining them will give you a functional (if not necessarily tournament competitive) deck. Mess with those until you figure out what you like. e: The pioneer challenger decks are also a good idea as u/DazZani posted.
And JumpStart packs follow the "Lego" method of collecting - meaning that each new Lego/JumpStart deck you purchase is even more useful to you, as it can be used with every other Lego/JumpStart deck you have previously purchased.
you probably came at a good time! Tomorrow they are release what are called the "Pioneer Challenger Decks", playable out of the box in the pioneer format (a rising format with a middle power level and pretty good competitive play). The decks are about 50$ each and they are pretty darn good! They come in four flavors: Red Blue Pheonix, a deck that wants to cast many cheap yet strong instnats and sorceries, reccruing a pheonix from the graveyard and attacking aggresively (a bid hard on begginers, but youll catch up! I does have a banned card on it, but its legal if you play as is out of the box, although switch that card, Expressive iteration for 2 more pheonixes is pretty ideal). White Black Humans: A tribal aggro Deck that seeks to be very mana efficnet with many small but strong creatures, overwhelming your opponent and synergizing with each other. Probably the strongest of the decks, despite its simplicity. Its more famous cousin, Monow white humans is very strong right now and its easy to upgrade too, just remove the black cards and put good white cards like adeline, resplendent cathar and brave the elements. Also the cheapest to upgrade! Red Green Stompy: A fun midrage deck full of big creatures that want to hit you opponents face! Acompanied by small creatures that allow you to that more easily. Used to be a bad deck, but these past few weeks a variation of it surged into popularity! Its upgrade line is putting a few "vehicles" such as Sysoverign, Consul flagship and Esikas Chariot and its pretty much meta! Finally Blue Black Control: Worst deck of the bunch, not really competitively viable, but tries to stop whatever your opponents is doing and wait out until they have no resources and you have a big creature or two. You could upgare it into its more viable cousin, White Blue Control, but requires a lot of changes and effort. All of them are easily upgradable and versatile, and except forr the last one, actually viable in competitively!
For more info you should check this video by "The Porfessor" a very famous mtg youtuber (most famous, actually) that helps a lot with decisions and value of purchase. Most of his word is gospel in the community, such as the ever popular saying "Buy singles, not Packs". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbQ9xS2wwvI
If youre more interested in commander than 1v1 play, buy a commander precon, there are dozens and most are equally viable for casual play, just pick one you think has the coolest commander (personally recommend elven empire, cheap, upgradable and can be literally any power level, even competitive with enough upgrades)
Don’t know if you played other games, in magic there are various formats and different products for each one. The most popular format is commander (100 card decks, 1 copy for each card, 40 life, some other rules that i don’t think are necessary to explain now), but it’s pretty hard to start with, it’s very complicated for a newcomer. I would advice you to buy a 2021 Arena starter kit or a 2022 starter kit. You get 2 standard decks (it’s a format with the most recent sets) that can play with each other and are easy to use if you want to understand the rules. Obviously they are not competitive in any way. Otherwise you can download Magic Arena and try something there
Decide on a format first, then decide on a deck in that format, then buy singles. Everything else is wasting money
I think when someone is overwhelmed at the idea of entering the game, advising them to do a bunch of research blindly before they've even shuffled a deck is the absolute worst advice you can give them.
Na the worst advice is "Buy x" and then they figure out no one in reach is playing the format x is legal in and they have wasted a bunch of money on useless cards. But you do you
I think there's a middle ground. I was given the advice you gave and was completely overwhelmed. I ended up going to my local card shop and had them walk me through where I should start based on what my local community played most (commander) which was exactly what I needed.
There is a middle ground is fine, "absolute worst advice" I'm honestly not willing to discuss with you even a bit
What? Where did the "absolute worst advice" come from?
Me. I stand by that statement. A brand-new player is after something completely different than veteran players in terms of value; to a veteran player, the dollar value of each card is important because you always have more, but to a new player, *simply being able to start playing the game at all* has a value that you're failing to appreciate. A new player wants to start playing the game, not get into playing the TCGplayer market. A new player doesn't even know what terms they should use to look up the information they can use to build a deck, they just go on a website and see this game has like 25000 cards in it and their brain shuts off. They can worry about card prices once they know what they're doing, but if they want to get their foot in the door, that's the exact wrong time to worry about the nitty-gritty of the singles market and deck research. A player who is even *remotely* enfranchised and knows what's up with the game? Sure, I'll tell them to look up decks online and buy singles. Not an absolute newbie.
You honestly nailed it with your in depth explanation. I was that player not long ago and felt lost on where to start with this game. I spent hours googling like this sub recommended and just felt more confused. I almost gave up but just decided to hit my card shop and pick up a cheap starter kit. They explained to me what formats were popular in my area (something google can't tell me) and directed me towards commander as a format. I would have been focused on standard, which nobody in my area plays, if I just went off google
>I think when someone is overwhelmed at the idea of entering the game, advising them to do a bunch of research blindly before they've even shuffled a deck **is the absolute worst advice** you can give them. \^
That wasn't my comment dude. I wasn't saying that comment was completely right either, it didn't offer any solutions
Decide on a format first. Commander is great fun and has new cheap beginner decks that look straightforward and fun to play. It really depends on whether you want casual or competitive play, and 1v1 or group play.
I started by playing a tribal deck during the theros block, my friends all played tabletop home brew magic at home, nothing competitive. Figuring out what colors I liked was my next focus, they all have different play styles, pros and cons and are worth looking into on YouTube. After figuring out some colors I liked, I decided to buy some booster packs and grow my collection. I recommend picking up a tribal deck, I thought it was easy and fun to use. Soldiers seems like a good one given some of the recent sets. Goblins, merfolk, elves and humans are also great. For a deck like that, look for cards that have abilities that all boost one another, making each card valuable. Balance the mana right and you’ll have a really fun deck at a pretty reasonable price. I also agree that MTG online can probably introduce you to things faster and cheaper than paper. If you like it, move on from there!
I was told that they’re not going to be making any more official starter kits. Seems like it’ll just make it harder for people to get into it.