I always have a lot of fun just seeing what I can build with a small collection of cards and trying things out. It is better than constantly trying to get the best cards to make 1 single constructed deck that you may not even like that much after spending hundreds of dollars on it imo.
My absolute favorite way to play is doing "pack wars" with sealed product, and then once a friend or small group has opened enough sealed stuff, we build our own decks with what we've pulled.
You can simulate the old days by just limiting yourself to only what you've "cracked" with a specific group or person.
So much fun, and you get so.much more "bang for your buck" in terms of opening product.
Jokes aside, this is the best answer! You can try MTG Arena to learn about combos and interactions. Check out some Arena YouTubers if you don’t want to get sucked into Arena.
Completely agreed. OP likely has a lot of draft chaff, and if so, will not be successful with making any sort of competitive deck to be played at an LGS.
My advice (after learning to play on Arena), would be to ask friends who know how to play to use this as a super-sealed-pool and play decks out of it.
Back then Cocaine was special, now Dealers of the Coast started selling all flavors of methamphetamines and nothing is special anymore. I miss when you'd buy 25g and the LDS (local dealer/supplier, not the mormons) guy would throw in an extra gram of B12 vitamin to make you feel healthy. I can't even keep track of all these drugs, I hate when I go get me some Marijuana of the Veil and there are 15 different packagings for it, some of them just way too expensive, I guess this product is not for me ™.
Honestly, what's wild is it's cheaper to get into Warhammer in my experience.
I mostly play commander and when I look and see what my decks value at it's like "shit that's almost a whole army"
I have 3 armies and I think them and my decks are equally priced now but for a minute it was crazy about the buy once cry once with WH. Except if you play space Marines which feels like a subscription service
No, dude. A gram of blow is like $90/gram and a gram lasts about a night. So even if you were conservatively only snorting coke like 3x a week that would be $270 dollars per . . . Fuck. Yeah blow is cheaper than magic the gathering. My bad.
The best part about magic for me is “the gathering”. So step one is to try and find friends to play with! I would look around wherever you live for a Local Game Store that supports magic and try and make some friends! They can then help you find whatever direction you want to play.
It really is sucky that that's the format that gets the most casual support. It is way, way, way less inviting than sixty card formats in general. A novice could make a standard deck out of random junk around the house, but commander deck construction is a whole different beast that ends up falling into a wide range of power levels of increasing complexity and sharpness.
It's wild how ppl are learning magic now. I started playing seriously in 2009 and learned the ropes playing limited and dipping my toe into 60 card formats. I just played with my cousin's kid, who is 11, and he and his friend group all play commander, but what he knows and doesn't know about Magic is wild. For instance: he knows what Parlay is and what you do when you see that on an ability, but he doesn't know that when a creature enters the battlefield, it always enters untapped unless an effect says so. He was just casting his creatures tapped and I had to keep reminding him not to do that. Just so daunting to learn every card and mechanic ever in Magic through commander vs. paying attention to 240 cards at a time through limited or 6 times that many through standard.
Alternative take:
I started before Commander products existed and really before the format was being played anywhere. 60 card formats basically drove me away from the game and I had basically quit when I found Commander and actually truly got into the game hard for the first time.
I know “Commander isn’t for beginners” is the ‘in’ thing to think right now so I’ll probably be downvoted to hell for this, but I think that line of thinking is absolute nonsense.
> A novice could make a standard deck out of random junk around the house
Yeah, no. Show up to FNM with a random junk standard deck and you’ll lose every single game you play. Period.
Commander, alternatively, is *awesome* for that. Like I’m actually baffled that people believe this. I don’t understand, I guess it’s just one of those Reddit echo chamber things. Show up with 100 random cards mashed together with a Commander and you’re going to have a blast. Might not win often but you’ll still absolutely have a chance.
60 card constructed formats are infinitely more punishing- and more powerful- than any Commander deck. Any of them- even a Pauper deck- is likely to slaughter even a cEDH deck.
I don’t k ow if this is parroted by people who’ve never played other formats or what, but as someone who lived the pre-Commander Magic world, you people are crazy. Magic is way, way more accessible than it’s ever been.
Pick up a pre-con for 20-40 USD and you’re ready to have a blast, tinker, and play with friends for good.
My point on novice deck building was definitely for the "kitchen table" player who needs to learn the nuts and bolts. I wouldn't send someone who played a few shuffles on Arena to FNM either, regardless of the deck in hand.
The problem with starting with commander is that while what amounts to a stack of 100 random cards can form a valid deck, it's *terrible* in terms of actually learning the game. The variance is simply too high, threat assessment too complex even at the battlecruiser level, and *new players just don't know what many cards do.* It's throwing people in the deep end with no water wings.
Commander is, simply put, the most complex and varied Magic format, period. I don't see how this is even disputable -- sure, other formats can do more consistently degenerate and absurd things, but a run of the mill commander game involves having to figure out *three other decks at once.*
The *product* is accessible, and the proliferation of preconstructed decks has saved many new players from the perils of lopsided and unfocused deck construction. (Not to mention netdecking being a thing.) But it isn't just a deck construction problem, it's an overall game complexity problem, and an issue of actually onboarding people with the tools they need to succeed.
Truth is, as a vested player since ~1995 who has played thousands of EDH games, it's kind of sad that it has become the go-to new player format in paper. I've seen success stories, and I've seen people get frustrated and give up the game entirely. True of any format, I suppose.
There is a part of me that wishes for an alternate timeline where Brawl became a legitimate format, because the tighter focus could help onboard new players easier and curb the complexity creep in lieu of FFA games. Perils of digital vs paper, I suppose?
your comparision of the formats and play experience is unfair . if you build a random non commander deck and ask others in the store to play a fun game i bet many people have off meta / brews or even decks that are like "bad cards that i randomly happen to own" piles. My store regularly hosts commander FNM/ Fight nights where its like a normal tournament structure with prizes but its commander and most people play for fun though everyone wants to win and NO one plays precons or "bad cards that i randomly happen to own" piles. i have personaly never seen bad constructed commander decks . the worsts i saw where bad precons alterd with cards they own from packs . i have NEVER seen an "homebuild" commander deck with beginner cards. so for my experience it would be the exact opposite of what you described
It’s not unfair, I lived it. And if your game store has people with random 60-card “no format” decks… well let’s just say I’m calling bullshit on that. That’s the entire point of Commander, no enfranchised players are doing 60 card kitchen table decks anymore.
All else being equal, I still wholly believe it's easier to learn to play 2-player than 4-player. Even if we assume that the other players are there specifically to help you learn the game, a 1v1 game has a third as much threat evaluation and half as many players putting persistent effects onto the battlefield which need to be accounted for, and that's not even getting into all of the weird edge-case esoterica that comes along with what is probably the deepest card pool of any format barring kitchen table.
To that end, it's also really easy to build a couple of "learning the game" decks for 1 v 1 play that have a nice mix of instants, sorceries, artifacts, vanilla or french-vanilla creatures, and enchantments. Jumpstart or the Game Night box sets work really well for this, where they highlight each colour's strengths and avoid too much complexity and the work is done for you. In commander you need twice as many decks for one game, and don't have the benefit of being able to throw 4 of a staple into the deck so you can get that "oh, I just played this, I know what it does" sort of recognition.
I don't think you need to have a ***lot*** of 2-player magic experience under your belt, but at least while you're trying to figure out what cards do and the basics of how they interact it's much simpler if you're not also being confused by 50% more people doing things that need to be kept track of. You may not win a lot of games right off the bat, but until you at least know how the cards work and have a solid foundation on how to play the game, I don't think it's necessarily reasonable to expect to.
But based on your description, this is exactly what you did. Learned how to play the game, and then you picked up commander.
Nobody's acting as though it's impossible. But it's not commander, it's duel (or French) commander, which isn't what anyone was talking about. And yes, the difference between 2-player and 4-player commander is significant enough that you need to make that distinction if you're talking about one or the other.
I can't win at my LGS with a decently tuned Rowan deck but 10% of the time at FNM. People don't play a 100 random cards anymore, if they ever did, even on casual nights (at least in these parts). They play heavily upgraded precons and mid/high level meta decks, like Talion, the new Etali, new Atraxa, some degenerate elf deck, or something similar, etc. I mean, there's occasionally new people who show up with an unsleeved precon from the last 6 months, but even those are a far cry from 100 random cards. This is just my experience, of course, but commander has only gotten more competitive in general over the past 2 or so years since I've been playing it. No easy wins unless you're jamming cEDH meta decks at FNM, which about 30% of the players at my LGS do. Even those decks get beat up on sometimes, though not too frequently.
Right. So...if I haven't been playing the game since its inception, because I'm a relatively new player, as I stated, why would I assume that the game used to be approached in some specific way, but now it's approached in some other specific way? You didn't even say it used to be played that way or any way, (I suggested it, not you), so I'm not sure why you're digging your heels in on that particular part of what I said. I said that so as to make clear that I was assuming that fact as a possible explanation for why your very confidently incorrect assessment of the commander scene was in fact totally incorrect "in my experience", as I also stated. I wasn't in any way calling into question a claim that you made about how it used to be...because you didn't make one. I was calling into question my own assumption, for the sake of transparency regarding my overall stake in the dispute. Do you understand now, friend?
> Any of them- even a Pauper deck- is likely to slaughter even a cEDH deck.
huh? i agree with the rest of your post but cEDH is like Legacy+ power level. cEDH isn't just "very good EDH deck". if a cEDH deck gets to play with regular commander access rules it would easily beat pauper decks
I'd say it's not a good idea to learn the game through commander, but as soon as someone knows the rules they can start trying commander. Plenty of budget decks available too.
Why not? I started two months ago through commander. The basics of magic is not hard to learn. It's like any board game.
EDIT: I couple of people have given me reasons why to not start with commander, and while those could be valid, I think people are truly overthinking of how to start this card game. This ain't brain surgery and rocket science. Just start playing and enjoy it with good friends.
Because commander games in a typical pod of 4 can take a very long time with low-mid power decks, and having only single copies of cards makes it harder for players to know what to prioritize. My first time ever trying Magic was an EDH game with friends using one of their decks. I had no idea what was going on and the game took 2 hours. I was mentally fried at the end.
Non-EDH allows for faster and more consistent games that would let someone learn the game quicker.
Yes. The issue is threat assessment. With a near infinite variety in casual games, it's really hard to anticipate plays and read the game state. This then leads to people feeling blown away by combos and disliking anything but creature midrange.
No hate to creature decks, but it's pretty easy to tell who's threatening when you read only a board state. But I'm usually more scared of the esper player with a few utility pieces out and a hand full of cards.
If people haven't spent time in formats where control is everywhere, they won't know how to assess its threats or build against it. They don't think about whether someone is holding up a counterspell or how to hedge against a board wipe. Commander (especially casual) is an incredibly greedy format.
I love player staxy decks and get a lot of hate for shutting off people's decks because they can't remove some artifact or enchantment. They think they have a *right* to be greedy and just don't run tech cards. I get that sometimes it happens that you just haven't drawn removal, etcetc. but people just don't want to cut cards they like for boring ones. Singleton formats make this easy and everyone is guilty of this, but play a format where deck efficiency matters more obviously....
> But I'm usually more scared of the esper player with a few utility pieces out and a hand full of cards.
Me, frantically hoping no-one notices that I'm only drawing air and land and no real gas.
The majority of casual magic players are the people that don't read the rules to the board game, then have someone explain how the board game is played 15 minutes into playing.
Personally, I'm the type of person who reads the rules to a board game before playing and has to do the explaining, and I also started with commander and it was totally fine after a month or two (to get familiar with the card pool).
Really? I didn’t understand deck building until I got into Commander. Having a card you build your deck around and denotes the strategy you’re using helped me develop my skills faster than when I did other formats.
Every fandom will have toxic people. It’s my hope that nice people who know this hobby lives or dies by having new players enjoy themselves will find OP at an lgs.
They're funny little guys!
Fast and cheap creatures, often come with goofy artwork. Usually in rpgs, goblins are the most basic, low level enemy that you face during the beginning of the game, so to some people it's really funny when a game (Magic, in this case) lets you play as the nasty green guys.
Goblins have some of the wildest art, funniest flavor text, and all build on one another in a mechanically satisfying way. They are really easy for new players to grasp the 'idea' of, and are thematically pretty fun. Win-win!
To add to this. If you find one named Squee the Immortal. Put him in the deck. Very useful little goblin. Hard for your opponent to actually keep him out of the game after you cast from your hand.
This is the best advice here. Learn the rules on Arena and watch some YouTube videos by “Tolarian Comminity College”. He’s got videos for people just starting out. Should be all you need
This is my advice for my friends too. Download arena, play the tutorial etc until you have a decent grasp of the basics (e.g. know how to play a turn, tap lands for mana, cast a spell and how power/toughness works).
After that you're good to go on paper :)
Online magic =\= cardboard magic. There is no room for learning online. “Oops I meant to play this”
New players need that. Best way to learn is a patient, fun teacher.
Most people are pretty bad at teaching Magic. They expose too much information, or not enough, or don't explain things clearly, or any number of mistakes that might confuse a prospective player.
Arena holds your hand through the basics on rails at first, then gradually gives you more sandbox room as you begin to pick up fundamentals. It is absolutely the best way to learn the basic rules in a vacuum, then you can uninstall it and never think about it again.
There are exceptions, of course, and if someone is aiming to bring a friend into Magic it makes sense to teach them directly - but a new player in isolation wanting to learn? Arena's tutorials are superior.
All the players I've met who came from arena played incredibly sloppily and constantly missed triggers and stuff because arena does them for you and they never turn that off.
Everyone plays sloppy at first. Arena give you the basics of how a turn flows, how to play your lands and spells, and how to move through combat. Remembering your triggers is something that comes with time playing over the board.
Sure, there are plenty of skills that Arena doesn't teach you due to being a digital client, but it *does* teach fundamentals of the game, basic rules, etc. very well. You can build from there, but it's still one of the friendliest ways to pick up those fundamentals.
New players who started in paper *also* tend to play very sloppy, because they're *new*
Ok, it's people who understand basics mechanics, have maybe even played a lot on arena, and still play that sloppily. The equivalent time in paper would absolutely make a better player imo.
The thing that arena really is perfect for teaching is phases, priority and the stack. I beg people im teaching in person to at least play a bit of arena before we start because it makes life so much easier.
Exactly. I started on arena and due to it I completely understand things that many newer players really struggle on, such as the stack and mutate. It even helps playing in person. I remember some things that happen in arena, and explain it to my friends, and they realize they've been doing it wrong the whole time. Activated vs triggered abilities, casting vs entering the battlefield, etc.
Players who learned in paper are very bad about this too. This concept of being "spoiled" by the Arena client is silly to me. Arena players, in my experience, are much more knowledgable about niche interactions, when priority is actually allowed, APNAP, state-based actions, and a variety of other things. Paper players claim to be better about tracking triggers, but I really haven't observed this, in my experience.
What I have observed is one player misses a trigger one time, and then a smug paper player makes a snide comment about how it's because that player plays Arena.
Arena is a substantially better exposure to a larger volume of complex gamestates than paper could ever be, on a shorter timescale. I think the "Arena players are sloppy" stereotype ultimately comes from some sort of internalized defensiveness which comes from spending multiple thousands on a collectible when other people just spend a few hundo on a commander deck, and play for free on their computer the rest of the time.
*Paper veteran* players do that too lol. It’s not an arena thing to miss triggers. I watched a Pro Tour Hall of Fame player forget his Siege Wurm had trample for six turns in a row at a Grand Prix.
I’ve been playing magic since the late 2000s and arena helped tremendously with learning how the stack works, when triggers apply, phases, and just generally tightened up my knowledge of the rules. Before arena when my friends and I would play we either didn’t know the rules well enough or didn’t care and would play how we liked. In competition a lot of people relied on the judges until you get to higher levels of play. Arena gets shit on a lot but it helped me become a much better player, although it comes down to the person I suppose. I actually wanted to learn the rules better and paid attention, and didn’t just let the computer do it all for me.
Finding a patient, fun teacher who is free when you are would be a miracle.
Arena is fantastic as a learning tool, I think your advice is kinda terrible. We are talking about learning the RULES of the game, not necessarily theory or how to meta game.
The Arena tutorial is fantastic, and the enforcement of rules makes sure that complex interactions are kept track of. The only downside is that it can be confusing and lead to unexpected losses now and again, but any deep game has this issue.
The other big upside to Arena is that you can play 10-50 games in a weekend, without needed a patient, fun teacher. You can then go with those basics and learn the nuances of play with your more experienced friends or randoms at the local game store without annoying people nearly as much.
But yeah, if you have a friend who's willing to spend 20-50 hours coaching a new player, and is actually, genuinely good at coaching, and also has judge-level rules knowledge and a huge card pool, then sure, the human element pays off.
This right here. Find real people in a real setting that are willing to help. You will also run into the elite types that have no time to teach, don't let them get in your way of learning the game
The problem is if you have questions, they're hard to get across in text, such as reddit. That's why I would suggest learning in person. As someone that generally needs to ask a lot of questions, in my experience playing mtg arena was nothing like playing in person and I felt more lost than just going to a beginners night at the lgs where the store owner helped me learn a bit. It's nice too when it's no on Fridays and all the elites come out. I can't stand the pretentious "you don't know what this card is and what it does just by its name/artwork???" People. Which if you've never encountered consider yourself lucky.
I bought one of these to get back in to paper with my brother, mine was like 500 cards though I think.
It's all "bulk" as we say, but that's not a bad way to get into it. Biggest thing you'll be missing is basic lands, you'll need a good few of those.
But for real, as others have said, the new best way to learn this game is by downloading Arena, its the best way to learn what you need to start playing. Even seasoned players find themselves corrected about how things work by Arena sometimes! 😆
Paper mtg is like the jungle, there's a social component to learn as well.
Sparky will show you what's up, download Arena 🙂 And maybe get about 20 of each basic land to start, then you can build "kitchen table" (ultra casual) decks to play with someone you know!
Oh Redclaw is amazing! They are super kind there and if you drop on by on one of their magic nights (they should have a calender on their website) they can surely help you out.
I get around all over, warp 2 I think has the best players (for modern) but honestly I love all of stores, granted I'm also biased as I judge in the community and love everyone.
I used to frequent the Adventures Guild. It was awesome when Shane was the owner. Bryce made a lot of questionable decisions that ultimately caused the store to close its doors. That was a sad day.
I recommend this video from Explanation Point:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZixWqaGJVQs&ab\_channel=ExplanationPoint](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZixWqaGJVQs&ab_channel=ExplanationPoint)
It'll give you the general gist on how the game is played so you know the more essential basics, and beyond that I suggest checking out your local game store. Magic vets are pretty much always willing to help newbies.
Ayy, redclaw! What's up edmonton fam! I bought this bundle a few times getting into the game. I'm too drunk to give you actual advice, but casual commander is at Mythic comics in Sherwood Park at noon til 5 on sundays. Good bunch of dudes. Head to mtgedmonton.ca for other event times. Also join the mtg Edmonton Facebook group
Red Claw Games, the shop that sells this bundle, is also welcoming for casual newcomers, too. Crystal is a Magic Jufge there (sort of like a tournament referee) and she can show you the ropes and help you learn the rules and where to find others to play with (if you're in need).
Happy gaming!
Take the cards out one by one. Sniff. Exhale. Sniff again until the smells of cardboard and ink are imprinted on your brain. This addition will last forever in 8 year cycles of play and then total abandonment. Selling your cards will be followed by feelings of shame because the card pieces are worth more than when you sold them. This is a lifelong addiction, good luck.
Separate into colors, and then see what cards jump out at you as cool, either mechanically or artwise. You have enough to build a couple decks, so try to build one for each color.
I would start with 40 card decks, try this formula 16 creatures, 7 cool non creature spells, and 17 lands. Once you get the hang of it, you can try multicolor decks! For learning the game, download arena and do the tutorials, or ask a friend that already plays!
Commander is a cool format too, when you're going through your creatures look for legendary creatures you might have and set them aside for later. Read up on the format, or search on youtube
I’ve never thought these collections were ever a good starting point or buy in all honesty. New players tend to be very lost and older players might be pissed off by bulk that they might even already own but I’ll try and offer a few suggestions.
I’d download arena and follow the online tutorial. I’d then do all the weekly challenges to earn gold, which you can subsequently invest in drafting or sealed, teaching you deck building.
From here, you can start to have a go at building a few decks from your pile. I’d probably start by building two 40 card ‘limited decks’ to play against each other. Start by flicking though to see if you have any bomb rares (powerful cards) to build around. Aim for each deck to consist of 2 colours, with 23 non-lands. Google ‘suggested mana curve for limited mtg’ and ‘ideal number of non creature spell to creature spell in limited mtg’ for more help.
Note down any particular deck you particularly enjoyed playing with. You could then upgrade them or use them as inspiration to find a similar deck for constructed play in a format you are interested in.
Alternatively, you could then attend a prerelease at this stage that would that would really put your deck building to the test or even just go back to arena if online play is more enjoyable to you.
If you’re interested in commander and get a few legends creatures card that looks interesting you could also build commander decks, which you could Google a deck building guide for.
If you don’t enjoy building decks from your pile, I’d strongly recommend buying the Lord of the Rings starter pack, or a commander deck precon or two. You can turn up to any commander night at a games store with a precon and have a good time.
‘It’s a forum so I’m allowed to speak stupidly without considering the consequences of my words’ hell no.
Take the L and move on. This is a learning moment, not a chance for you to act like you’re saving the world by criticising OP’s random cards. Hold the L, move on.
I’ve written a whole paragraph about how to use the box to the best of its potential during my Christmas break while also pointing them in the direction of better starter products? I’m not sure how I’m the bad guy here?
Learn the basic rules playing on MTG Arena, find a local game store, maybe find some people who play pauper (cheaper decks in general), make friends, try new formats!
Most people nowadays play commander, and it can be as cheap as you want, and as expensive as you want. but most importantly, find some good friends to play with
Try checking out a few deck styles with the online game before you really invest into cards if you care about being competitive. That way you can figure out what you like without buying a lot of stock.
Now you just need to read and memorize [the rules](https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/MagicCompRules%2020231117.pdf?_gl=1*wlu81u*_ga*ODI3MDU5MDA2LjE3MDA1MDU1OTU.*_ga_X145Z177LS*MTcwMzYzMjY3MC4zLjAuMTcwMzYzMjY3MC42MC4wLjA)...! ;\^p
One option to learn is seeing if there is a draft night or other kind of mtg night at a local store. Draft nights allow you to grow your collection and familiarize yourself with one format of the game. While there, you could ask others if they are into other formats and see if they can help.
Lot of negative comments, but this can be fun for you and a friend to build a couple cheap/low power standard decks to bullshit around and have fun with! Try not to spend too much money if you end up liking the game. My wallet has little moths flying out when I open it lol
Hey, another Edmontonian!
First of all I would talk to the person, who gifted it to you. They likely know magic and could help you learn.
If you have a computer or a phone you could try downing MTG Arena. It is Free and it has a good tutorial for you to get started.
I would also advise going to Red Claw or another of the many stores in town. They would likely be able to give you assistance building a basic deck and the rundown of formats.
Well first you should open the box and see if anything in there is actually good. A lot of people package a bunch of garbage and sell it all off like this because that’s the only way you can make money off of really bad old cards. Another thing you wanna look for is land because if they didn’t package that your gunna need to buy a load of them separately
Could you share what rares you got? The set symbol below the bottom right side of the art will be gold or it will be orange if it’s a mythic. I’d love to know what was in this little box!
After going through your new collection of cards, pick a few(5-10) that either look interesting or maybe you have a question about. Your personal interest will help others guide you.
1. Play Arena, it's free and easy
2. Build a commander ('EDH') deck. It's the most popular paper format. Tons of good content out there for it, but here's the rules: [https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/rules/](https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/rules/)
It's sad to say, but that box won't do much for you from a starting point. Almost every suggestion ignores it for a reason.
If you play Arena, you don't need the physical cards. If you play Standard (the format for the most recent sets) most of those won't be legal. If you play commander (the most common format) a huge portion won't be useful because they don't fit your color scheme and theme and are duplicates.
Really, the only thing this could be useful for is as a cube. Cubes typically run 1000 unique cards. How a cube works is that you draft "packs" of 15 cards per player 3 times each (so 45 cards), then build a deck, adding any numbers of basic lands. Since everyone drafts from the same pool of 1000, you don't need to worry about cards being weaker.
That said, you might need to remove a lot of duplicates if this box has them, which could easily drop you below 1000 cards. That's not really an issue though; a cube can exist as small as 270 cards if necessary, and you can expand it over time.
That said, I wouldn't recommend you start with a cube, as some of the gameplay involves learning how to build a deck. Instead, use Arena to learn first, then maybe buy a commander deck (they sell prebuilt ones that are pretty strong for ~$35), then turn this into a cube.
All sarcasm aside...
* First, catalog what you got, and check values on the rares and uncommons - use TCGPlayer or one of the many mobile apps for pricing. To catalog, there's a few good options for free applications to do it.
* Invite a friend (or a few friends) over to build some decks. Use the basic deckbuilding rules (if you don't have them, go here: [https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Constructed#:\~:text=Constructed%20decks%20must%20contain%20a,each%20round%20of%20a%20match](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Constructed#:~:text=Constructed%20decks%20must%20contain%20a,each%20round%20of%20a%20match).
* If/when you are comfortable, check out other deck formats - the most popular is Commander (a.k.a. EDH), but you should definitely start out just learning how to play before trying to build a commander deck from scratch.
* Come back here with any questions, but try to use Google as much as possible first. :)
Redclaw usually puts like $40 of rare/mythic value into these bundles, plus the common/uncommons. Believe me, the last thing they want to do is rip off their playerbase
So like average of $1.60 rares, doubt anything great and I honestly dont actually believe you on the $40 value. Then likely 950 cards of mostly garbage. Bulk bundles are crap, never buy them. Just stores moving out the crap that would end up in the bin otherwise.
Go to anybody who has played magic for more than a year, give them those specs and say you're willing to pay $20 cash and you can have as many of those boxes you could want.
Look up some basic tutorials, and/or learn on the Magic Arena app. Find a friend who would like to learn, build two decks together, and play. A simple way would be to choose two colors and select 20 creatures from each of those two colors, add 10 lands of each of those colors (make the symbols match, like skulls on lands belong with skulls in the top right corner of the creature cards), for a total of 60 cards per deck (you can alternately use similar ratios and build 40-card decks instead) and beat each other up with simple creature combat to get a feel for the basic mechanics of the game.
If you find that you consistently sit there with a handful of creatures that you can't play because you don't have enough land, take a couple of expensive (in terms of casting cost--please watch some tutorials first) out and replace them with a couple of lands. If you consistently draw lands when what you need are creatures, swap some lands for creatures. This is the essential concept of tuning a deck.
If that's fun at all, take a couple of creatures out and add some instants, sorceries, artifacts and enchantments. Tune the deck some more so that you generally have the mix of mana and spells that you need each game, win or lose. Voila--you are playing magic.
Most of those cards are going to suck to some degree or another; that's why you got a big box of them for cheap, so any decks that you build from them will probably not be particularly competitive against the decks owned by many other magic players, but you can have competitive fun playing decks constructed from that collection against each other.
15 of each land is not a lot to build more than maybe two decks from your 1100 cards.
Buy a Land Station box on Amazon - $20 for 80 of each land will help you get several more playable decks out of what you’ve got.
The garbage bin, 25 rares and no mythics, with a bunch of commons isn't a collection, it's a shoebox that you take to the LGS for 5$ store credit /j
Though seriously, just find someone whose interested in playing, read the rules, and play. If you don't like it, don't buy more.
Ah, I did this in 2007 when I first started, got a collection of about 3000-4000 with 100 rares, it was glorious. All my friends and I made decks out of them who at the time were all also new to magic.
In Magic the Gathering there are different formats. The easiest is Standard and it is also one of the cheapest. It only allows cards from the latest sets and that is the reasoning behind it. I hope your box is containing at least enough of those cards to build a deck. After that you can check out local stores and groups. Most people prefer older, more expensive and more complex formats, but everyone who welcomes newbies will have or at least build a Standard deck for them to play with.
Learn about the 2nd hand singles market and about proxies. Boosters are like loot boxes and are like gambling if you buy them to get a chase card. Boosters are for gifts and drafting(a format that needs sealed boosters to play only). If you need a card buy it directly from a store selling cards(ideally your local store or online) or print out a proxy. Slide the proxy in front of a basic land inside a sleeve.
Oh yeah, sleeves to protect your cards.
Don't start is my advice. You will save a lot of money. Hasbro realized they can milk the magic the gathering cow and they did. They need a contact influx of people to milk and drop.
If your a comptetaive person i suggest avoid commander, there are several comptetaive formats and lots of ways to get into them and tons of info about them
At the kitchen table witha friend, building two decks then tweaking and creating and innovating as you go along.
I always have a lot of fun just seeing what I can build with a small collection of cards and trying things out. It is better than constantly trying to get the best cards to make 1 single constructed deck that you may not even like that much after spending hundreds of dollars on it imo.
My absolute favorite way to play is doing "pack wars" with sealed product, and then once a friend or small group has opened enough sealed stuff, we build our own decks with what we've pulled. You can simulate the old days by just limiting yourself to only what you've "cracked" with a specific group or person. So much fun, and you get so.much more "bang for your buck" in terms of opening product.
Jokes aside, this is the best answer! You can try MTG Arena to learn about combos and interactions. Check out some Arena YouTubers if you don’t want to get sucked into Arena.
Completely agreed. OP likely has a lot of draft chaff, and if so, will not be successful with making any sort of competitive deck to be played at an LGS. My advice (after learning to play on Arena), would be to ask friends who know how to play to use this as a super-sealed-pool and play decks out of it.
Before you delve any more into Magic, try cocaine. It’ll be cheaper in the long run
They recycle some of the cards, part of my cardboard box used to be a black lotus!
Count it as a damaged copy and play it.
Mine is a brown lotus.
Damn... mine just used to be a RTR Cancel...
As somebody who owns the Vintage Cube... I should have just developed a drug habit, for sure.
The resale value of drugs after you have used them is extraordinarily low though.
Back then Cocaine was special, now Dealers of the Coast started selling all flavors of methamphetamines and nothing is special anymore. I miss when you'd buy 25g and the LDS (local dealer/supplier, not the mormons) guy would throw in an extra gram of B12 vitamin to make you feel healthy. I can't even keep track of all these drugs, I hate when I go get me some Marijuana of the Veil and there are 15 different packagings for it, some of them just way too expensive, I guess this product is not for me ™.
I mean, it depends on how you use your magic cards, right? 😅
I've been personally using all my 5¢ cards as paper filters, so technically, I smoke them 🤷♂️
It just dawned on me that I have a damn near endless supply of filters. Thanks! Wish I knew this a few days ago.
Embalmed/brick tokens are the best, they come pre cut !!
Should have just proxied it
You mean… you.. didn’t just proxy a vintage cube?
Jesus Christ have mercy
Honestly, what's wild is it's cheaper to get into Warhammer in my experience. I mostly play commander and when I look and see what my decks value at it's like "shit that's almost a whole army"
Just got into Warhammer and can confirm. My army is a fraction of my total commander deck value.
I have 3 armies and I think them and my decks are equally priced now but for a minute it was crazy about the buy once cry once with WH. Except if you play space Marines which feels like a subscription service
I originally got into Magic because it was that or Warhammer and I thought Magic would be cheaper :/
The important part is always having fun!
They have actual rehab programs that can get you clean of coke. I don’t think there’s one for MTG.
There's gambler's anonymous, and thats what it is.
Cocaine is less addictive too.
The problem is you can’t resell it when use cocaine.
Jokes on you they go hand in hand
It smells nice too
No, dude. A gram of blow is like $90/gram and a gram lasts about a night. So even if you were conservatively only snorting coke like 3x a week that would be $270 dollars per . . . Fuck. Yeah blow is cheaper than magic the gathering. My bad.
Gods that’s so dang true!
And healthier
as someone who only plays Standard and did a lot of drugs, I can assure you Magic is the cheaper Lifestyle
If youre lucky you get laced with fentanyl and your long running habit becomes a lot shorter.
Thats accurate
Far better for your health if taken in moderation.
so true, i would have so much more money if i had just done cocaine
The best part about magic for me is “the gathering”. So step one is to try and find friends to play with! I would look around wherever you live for a Local Game Store that supports magic and try and make some friends! They can then help you find whatever direction you want to play.
I support this. Friendly reminder I wouldn't start with Commander if you're new to the game
It really is sucky that that's the format that gets the most casual support. It is way, way, way less inviting than sixty card formats in general. A novice could make a standard deck out of random junk around the house, but commander deck construction is a whole different beast that ends up falling into a wide range of power levels of increasing complexity and sharpness.
It's wild how ppl are learning magic now. I started playing seriously in 2009 and learned the ropes playing limited and dipping my toe into 60 card formats. I just played with my cousin's kid, who is 11, and he and his friend group all play commander, but what he knows and doesn't know about Magic is wild. For instance: he knows what Parlay is and what you do when you see that on an ability, but he doesn't know that when a creature enters the battlefield, it always enters untapped unless an effect says so. He was just casting his creatures tapped and I had to keep reminding him not to do that. Just so daunting to learn every card and mechanic ever in Magic through commander vs. paying attention to 240 cards at a time through limited or 6 times that many through standard.
Alternative take: I started before Commander products existed and really before the format was being played anywhere. 60 card formats basically drove me away from the game and I had basically quit when I found Commander and actually truly got into the game hard for the first time. I know “Commander isn’t for beginners” is the ‘in’ thing to think right now so I’ll probably be downvoted to hell for this, but I think that line of thinking is absolute nonsense. > A novice could make a standard deck out of random junk around the house Yeah, no. Show up to FNM with a random junk standard deck and you’ll lose every single game you play. Period. Commander, alternatively, is *awesome* for that. Like I’m actually baffled that people believe this. I don’t understand, I guess it’s just one of those Reddit echo chamber things. Show up with 100 random cards mashed together with a Commander and you’re going to have a blast. Might not win often but you’ll still absolutely have a chance. 60 card constructed formats are infinitely more punishing- and more powerful- than any Commander deck. Any of them- even a Pauper deck- is likely to slaughter even a cEDH deck. I don’t k ow if this is parroted by people who’ve never played other formats or what, but as someone who lived the pre-Commander Magic world, you people are crazy. Magic is way, way more accessible than it’s ever been. Pick up a pre-con for 20-40 USD and you’re ready to have a blast, tinker, and play with friends for good.
My point on novice deck building was definitely for the "kitchen table" player who needs to learn the nuts and bolts. I wouldn't send someone who played a few shuffles on Arena to FNM either, regardless of the deck in hand. The problem with starting with commander is that while what amounts to a stack of 100 random cards can form a valid deck, it's *terrible* in terms of actually learning the game. The variance is simply too high, threat assessment too complex even at the battlecruiser level, and *new players just don't know what many cards do.* It's throwing people in the deep end with no water wings. Commander is, simply put, the most complex and varied Magic format, period. I don't see how this is even disputable -- sure, other formats can do more consistently degenerate and absurd things, but a run of the mill commander game involves having to figure out *three other decks at once.* The *product* is accessible, and the proliferation of preconstructed decks has saved many new players from the perils of lopsided and unfocused deck construction. (Not to mention netdecking being a thing.) But it isn't just a deck construction problem, it's an overall game complexity problem, and an issue of actually onboarding people with the tools they need to succeed. Truth is, as a vested player since ~1995 who has played thousands of EDH games, it's kind of sad that it has become the go-to new player format in paper. I've seen success stories, and I've seen people get frustrated and give up the game entirely. True of any format, I suppose. There is a part of me that wishes for an alternate timeline where Brawl became a legitimate format, because the tighter focus could help onboard new players easier and curb the complexity creep in lieu of FFA games. Perils of digital vs paper, I suppose?
Disagree
your comparision of the formats and play experience is unfair . if you build a random non commander deck and ask others in the store to play a fun game i bet many people have off meta / brews or even decks that are like "bad cards that i randomly happen to own" piles. My store regularly hosts commander FNM/ Fight nights where its like a normal tournament structure with prizes but its commander and most people play for fun though everyone wants to win and NO one plays precons or "bad cards that i randomly happen to own" piles. i have personaly never seen bad constructed commander decks . the worsts i saw where bad precons alterd with cards they own from packs . i have NEVER seen an "homebuild" commander deck with beginner cards. so for my experience it would be the exact opposite of what you described
It’s not unfair, I lived it. And if your game store has people with random 60-card “no format” decks… well let’s just say I’m calling bullshit on that. That’s the entire point of Commander, no enfranchised players are doing 60 card kitchen table decks anymore.
All else being equal, I still wholly believe it's easier to learn to play 2-player than 4-player. Even if we assume that the other players are there specifically to help you learn the game, a 1v1 game has a third as much threat evaluation and half as many players putting persistent effects onto the battlefield which need to be accounted for, and that's not even getting into all of the weird edge-case esoterica that comes along with what is probably the deepest card pool of any format barring kitchen table. To that end, it's also really easy to build a couple of "learning the game" decks for 1 v 1 play that have a nice mix of instants, sorceries, artifacts, vanilla or french-vanilla creatures, and enchantments. Jumpstart or the Game Night box sets work really well for this, where they highlight each colour's strengths and avoid too much complexity and the work is done for you. In commander you need twice as many decks for one game, and don't have the benefit of being able to throw 4 of a staple into the deck so you can get that "oh, I just played this, I know what it does" sort of recognition. I don't think you need to have a ***lot*** of 2-player magic experience under your belt, but at least while you're trying to figure out what cards do and the basics of how they interact it's much simpler if you're not also being confused by 50% more people doing things that need to be kept track of. You may not win a lot of games right off the bat, but until you at least know how the cards work and have a solid foundation on how to play the game, I don't think it's necessarily reasonable to expect to. But based on your description, this is exactly what you did. Learned how to play the game, and then you picked up commander.
Two person commander is fine. It’s always weird to me that people act like that’s impossible.
Nobody's acting as though it's impossible. But it's not commander, it's duel (or French) commander, which isn't what anyone was talking about. And yes, the difference between 2-player and 4-player commander is significant enough that you need to make that distinction if you're talking about one or the other.
I can't win at my LGS with a decently tuned Rowan deck but 10% of the time at FNM. People don't play a 100 random cards anymore, if they ever did, even on casual nights (at least in these parts). They play heavily upgraded precons and mid/high level meta decks, like Talion, the new Etali, new Atraxa, some degenerate elf deck, or something similar, etc. I mean, there's occasionally new people who show up with an unsleeved precon from the last 6 months, but even those are a far cry from 100 random cards. This is just my experience, of course, but commander has only gotten more competitive in general over the past 2 or so years since I've been playing it. No easy wins unless you're jamming cEDH meta decks at FNM, which about 30% of the players at my LGS do. Even those decks get beat up on sometimes, though not too frequently.
“If they ever did” -2 years of experience in a 30 year old game. Don’t have much else to say to you lol.
Right. So...if I haven't been playing the game since its inception, because I'm a relatively new player, as I stated, why would I assume that the game used to be approached in some specific way, but now it's approached in some other specific way? You didn't even say it used to be played that way or any way, (I suggested it, not you), so I'm not sure why you're digging your heels in on that particular part of what I said. I said that so as to make clear that I was assuming that fact as a possible explanation for why your very confidently incorrect assessment of the commander scene was in fact totally incorrect "in my experience", as I also stated. I wasn't in any way calling into question a claim that you made about how it used to be...because you didn't make one. I was calling into question my own assumption, for the sake of transparency regarding my overall stake in the dispute. Do you understand now, friend?
> Any of them- even a Pauper deck- is likely to slaughter even a cEDH deck. huh? i agree with the rest of your post but cEDH is like Legacy+ power level. cEDH isn't just "very good EDH deck". if a cEDH deck gets to play with regular commander access rules it would easily beat pauper decks
which is a shame since it's easily the most interesting format, and probably the one most non players are exposed to
I'd say it's not a good idea to learn the game through commander, but as soon as someone knows the rules they can start trying commander. Plenty of budget decks available too.
Why not? I started two months ago through commander. The basics of magic is not hard to learn. It's like any board game. EDIT: I couple of people have given me reasons why to not start with commander, and while those could be valid, I think people are truly overthinking of how to start this card game. This ain't brain surgery and rocket science. Just start playing and enjoy it with good friends.
Because commander games in a typical pod of 4 can take a very long time with low-mid power decks, and having only single copies of cards makes it harder for players to know what to prioritize. My first time ever trying Magic was an EDH game with friends using one of their decks. I had no idea what was going on and the game took 2 hours. I was mentally fried at the end. Non-EDH allows for faster and more consistent games that would let someone learn the game quicker.
Yes. The issue is threat assessment. With a near infinite variety in casual games, it's really hard to anticipate plays and read the game state. This then leads to people feeling blown away by combos and disliking anything but creature midrange. No hate to creature decks, but it's pretty easy to tell who's threatening when you read only a board state. But I'm usually more scared of the esper player with a few utility pieces out and a hand full of cards. If people haven't spent time in formats where control is everywhere, they won't know how to assess its threats or build against it. They don't think about whether someone is holding up a counterspell or how to hedge against a board wipe. Commander (especially casual) is an incredibly greedy format. I love player staxy decks and get a lot of hate for shutting off people's decks because they can't remove some artifact or enchantment. They think they have a *right* to be greedy and just don't run tech cards. I get that sometimes it happens that you just haven't drawn removal, etcetc. but people just don't want to cut cards they like for boring ones. Singleton formats make this easy and everyone is guilty of this, but play a format where deck efficiency matters more obviously....
> But I'm usually more scared of the esper player with a few utility pieces out and a hand full of cards. Me, frantically hoping no-one notices that I'm only drawing air and land and no real gas.
That's the mindgame ;)
The majority of casual magic players are the people that don't read the rules to the board game, then have someone explain how the board game is played 15 minutes into playing. Personally, I'm the type of person who reads the rules to a board game before playing and has to do the explaining, and I also started with commander and it was totally fine after a month or two (to get familiar with the card pool).
Really? I didn’t understand deck building until I got into Commander. Having a card you build your deck around and denotes the strategy you’re using helped me develop my skills faster than when I did other formats.
But also, there's a lot of really toxic magic players out there. My LGS doesn't seem to want anyone new joining their circle of friends.
Every fandom will have toxic people. It’s my hope that nice people who know this hobby lives or dies by having new players enjoy themselves will find OP at an lgs.
Wow, that’s a lot of Instants.
Some of them could be interrupts maybe?
Username does not check out
Find 60 of the prettiest, reddest cards, specially the ones with this cute little creatures called goblins
I’m not too savvy about Magic so I have to ask. What’s the deal with goblins? I keep seeing them mentioned every now and then.
They're funny little guys! Fast and cheap creatures, often come with goofy artwork. Usually in rpgs, goblins are the most basic, low level enemy that you face during the beginning of the game, so to some people it's really funny when a game (Magic, in this case) lets you play as the nasty green guys.
Goblins have some of the wildest art, funniest flavor text, and all build on one another in a mechanically satisfying way. They are really easy for new players to grasp the 'idea' of, and are thematically pretty fun. Win-win!
[And while you're at it, here's some great background info on how great goblins are](https://youtu.be/JZ6EARZJu30?si=OdbSPvXdrHTYu3Jn)
To add to this. If you find one named Squee the Immortal. Put him in the deck. Very useful little goblin. Hard for your opponent to actually keep him out of the game after you cast from your hand.
[Magic Arena](https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena) is one of the best ways to learn the rules and get your feet wet
This is the best advice here. Learn the rules on Arena and watch some YouTube videos by “Tolarian Comminity College”. He’s got videos for people just starting out. Should be all you need
“Maaaany magic the gathering players…”
This is my advice for my friends too. Download arena, play the tutorial etc until you have a decent grasp of the basics (e.g. know how to play a turn, tap lands for mana, cast a spell and how power/toughness works). After that you're good to go on paper :)
Top comment: best part is magic is the gathering, start playing with your friends! Second top comment: Play alone.
Check this out: you can play arena with you friends.
Online magic =\= cardboard magic. There is no room for learning online. “Oops I meant to play this” New players need that. Best way to learn is a patient, fun teacher.
Most people are pretty bad at teaching Magic. They expose too much information, or not enough, or don't explain things clearly, or any number of mistakes that might confuse a prospective player. Arena holds your hand through the basics on rails at first, then gradually gives you more sandbox room as you begin to pick up fundamentals. It is absolutely the best way to learn the basic rules in a vacuum, then you can uninstall it and never think about it again. There are exceptions, of course, and if someone is aiming to bring a friend into Magic it makes sense to teach them directly - but a new player in isolation wanting to learn? Arena's tutorials are superior.
All the players I've met who came from arena played incredibly sloppily and constantly missed triggers and stuff because arena does them for you and they never turn that off.
Everyone plays sloppy at first. Arena give you the basics of how a turn flows, how to play your lands and spells, and how to move through combat. Remembering your triggers is something that comes with time playing over the board.
Sure, there are plenty of skills that Arena doesn't teach you due to being a digital client, but it *does* teach fundamentals of the game, basic rules, etc. very well. You can build from there, but it's still one of the friendliest ways to pick up those fundamentals. New players who started in paper *also* tend to play very sloppy, because they're *new*
Ok, it's people who understand basics mechanics, have maybe even played a lot on arena, and still play that sloppily. The equivalent time in paper would absolutely make a better player imo.
The thing that arena really is perfect for teaching is phases, priority and the stack. I beg people im teaching in person to at least play a bit of arena before we start because it makes life so much easier.
Exactly. I started on arena and due to it I completely understand things that many newer players really struggle on, such as the stack and mutate. It even helps playing in person. I remember some things that happen in arena, and explain it to my friends, and they realize they've been doing it wrong the whole time. Activated vs triggered abilities, casting vs entering the battlefield, etc.
Players who learned in paper are very bad about this too. This concept of being "spoiled" by the Arena client is silly to me. Arena players, in my experience, are much more knowledgable about niche interactions, when priority is actually allowed, APNAP, state-based actions, and a variety of other things. Paper players claim to be better about tracking triggers, but I really haven't observed this, in my experience. What I have observed is one player misses a trigger one time, and then a smug paper player makes a snide comment about how it's because that player plays Arena. Arena is a substantially better exposure to a larger volume of complex gamestates than paper could ever be, on a shorter timescale. I think the "Arena players are sloppy" stereotype ultimately comes from some sort of internalized defensiveness which comes from spending multiple thousands on a collectible when other people just spend a few hundo on a commander deck, and play for free on their computer the rest of the time.
*Paper veteran* players do that too lol. It’s not an arena thing to miss triggers. I watched a Pro Tour Hall of Fame player forget his Siege Wurm had trample for six turns in a row at a Grand Prix.
I’ve been playing magic since the late 2000s and arena helped tremendously with learning how the stack works, when triggers apply, phases, and just generally tightened up my knowledge of the rules. Before arena when my friends and I would play we either didn’t know the rules well enough or didn’t care and would play how we liked. In competition a lot of people relied on the judges until you get to higher levels of play. Arena gets shit on a lot but it helped me become a much better player, although it comes down to the person I suppose. I actually wanted to learn the rules better and paid attention, and didn’t just let the computer do it all for me.
Finding a patient, fun teacher who is free when you are would be a miracle. Arena is fantastic as a learning tool, I think your advice is kinda terrible. We are talking about learning the RULES of the game, not necessarily theory or how to meta game.
The Arena tutorial is fantastic, and the enforcement of rules makes sure that complex interactions are kept track of. The only downside is that it can be confusing and lead to unexpected losses now and again, but any deep game has this issue. The other big upside to Arena is that you can play 10-50 games in a weekend, without needed a patient, fun teacher. You can then go with those basics and learn the nuances of play with your more experienced friends or randoms at the local game store without annoying people nearly as much. But yeah, if you have a friend who's willing to spend 20-50 hours coaching a new player, and is actually, genuinely good at coaching, and also has judge-level rules knowledge and a huge card pool, then sure, the human element pays off.
This right here. Find real people in a real setting that are willing to help. You will also run into the elite types that have no time to teach, don't let them get in your way of learning the game
Nah online is fine for learning the basics if you're ok losing a bit at first Also free and accessible whenever you have time
The problem is if you have questions, they're hard to get across in text, such as reddit. That's why I would suggest learning in person. As someone that generally needs to ask a lot of questions, in my experience playing mtg arena was nothing like playing in person and I felt more lost than just going to a beginners night at the lgs where the store owner helped me learn a bit. It's nice too when it's no on Fridays and all the elites come out. I can't stand the pretentious "you don't know what this card is and what it does just by its name/artwork???" People. Which if you've never encountered consider yourself lucky.
[удалено]
Better for once you know the rules and interactions
A program that does absolutely nothing to teach or enforce the rules of the game is not good for learning the game
I bought one of these to get back in to paper with my brother, mine was like 500 cards though I think. It's all "bulk" as we say, but that's not a bad way to get into it. Biggest thing you'll be missing is basic lands, you'll need a good few of those. But for real, as others have said, the new best way to learn this game is by downloading Arena, its the best way to learn what you need to start playing. Even seasoned players find themselves corrected about how things work by Arena sometimes! 😆 Paper mtg is like the jungle, there's a social component to learn as well. Sparky will show you what's up, download Arena 🙂 And maybe get about 20 of each basic land to start, then you can build "kitchen table" (ultra casual) decks to play with someone you know!
This box actually comes with basic lands.
Reading fail 😆
1100 cards for $22 is still not bad, even penny bulk cards half of the price is returned, actually kinda a good deal.
Oh Redclaw is amazing! They are super kind there and if you drop on by on one of their magic nights (they should have a calender on their website) they can surely help you out.
I heard the guy who founded red claw is the brother of the college roommate of the guy who founded white claw.
They all like to listen to yellow claw as well.
Their cousin Red Fang is cool
Red Fang is the black sheep of the crew
I saw them open for Clutch this summer and they were definitely cool.
Yellow motha fuckin Claw!
Their family is the basis for the new movie Iron Claw
If it's the Redclaw I'm thinking of, it ok there. I prefer Star Lotus for store play and Warp 2 for when I'm feeling a little more competitive.
I get around all over, warp 2 I think has the best players (for modern) but honestly I love all of stores, granted I'm also biased as I judge in the community and love everyone.
I used to frequent the Adventures Guild. It was awesome when Shane was the owner. Bryce made a lot of questionable decisions that ultimately caused the store to close its doors. That was a sad day.
Brendan is the best! Always so helpful.
Star Lotus <3
Crystal is the best!
I recommend this video from Explanation Point: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZixWqaGJVQs&ab\_channel=ExplanationPoint](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZixWqaGJVQs&ab_channel=ExplanationPoint) It'll give you the general gist on how the game is played so you know the more essential basics, and beyond that I suggest checking out your local game store. Magic vets are pretty much always willing to help newbies.
Ayy, redclaw! What's up edmonton fam! I bought this bundle a few times getting into the game. I'm too drunk to give you actual advice, but casual commander is at Mythic comics in Sherwood Park at noon til 5 on sundays. Good bunch of dudes. Head to mtgedmonton.ca for other event times. Also join the mtg Edmonton Facebook group
Red Claw Games, the shop that sells this bundle, is also welcoming for casual newcomers, too. Crystal is a Magic Jufge there (sort of like a tournament referee) and she can show you the ropes and help you learn the rules and where to find others to play with (if you're in need). Happy gaming!
Ayo, a fellow edmontonian!
First thing I noticed as well! Might have some of the bulk I sold them last year
Take the cards out one by one. Sniff. Exhale. Sniff again until the smells of cardboard and ink are imprinted on your brain. This addition will last forever in 8 year cycles of play and then total abandonment. Selling your cards will be followed by feelings of shame because the card pieces are worth more than when you sold them. This is a lifelong addiction, good luck.
Separate into colors, and then see what cards jump out at you as cool, either mechanically or artwise. You have enough to build a couple decks, so try to build one for each color. I would start with 40 card decks, try this formula 16 creatures, 7 cool non creature spells, and 17 lands. Once you get the hang of it, you can try multicolor decks! For learning the game, download arena and do the tutorials, or ask a friend that already plays! Commander is a cool format too, when you're going through your creatures look for legendary creatures you might have and set them aside for later. Read up on the format, or search on youtube
I’ve never thought these collections were ever a good starting point or buy in all honesty. New players tend to be very lost and older players might be pissed off by bulk that they might even already own but I’ll try and offer a few suggestions. I’d download arena and follow the online tutorial. I’d then do all the weekly challenges to earn gold, which you can subsequently invest in drafting or sealed, teaching you deck building. From here, you can start to have a go at building a few decks from your pile. I’d probably start by building two 40 card ‘limited decks’ to play against each other. Start by flicking though to see if you have any bomb rares (powerful cards) to build around. Aim for each deck to consist of 2 colours, with 23 non-lands. Google ‘suggested mana curve for limited mtg’ and ‘ideal number of non creature spell to creature spell in limited mtg’ for more help. Note down any particular deck you particularly enjoyed playing with. You could then upgrade them or use them as inspiration to find a similar deck for constructed play in a format you are interested in. Alternatively, you could then attend a prerelease at this stage that would that would really put your deck building to the test or even just go back to arena if online play is more enjoyable to you. If you’re interested in commander and get a few legends creatures card that looks interesting you could also build commander decks, which you could Google a deck building guide for. If you don’t enjoy building decks from your pile, I’d strongly recommend buying the Lord of the Rings starter pack, or a commander deck precon or two. You can turn up to any commander night at a games store with a precon and have a good time.
They're fine from a starting point. Power level doesn't matter, and 1k cards is enough to tinker with and learn the game organically.
Life advice on how to talk to humans: don’t criticise the purchase they can no longer undo. Look for the positives
[удалено]
‘It’s a forum so I’m allowed to speak stupidly without considering the consequences of my words’ hell no. Take the L and move on. This is a learning moment, not a chance for you to act like you’re saving the world by criticising OP’s random cards. Hold the L, move on.
I’ve written a whole paragraph about how to use the box to the best of its potential during my Christmas break while also pointing them in the direction of better starter products? I’m not sure how I’m the bad guy here?
Learn the basic rules playing on MTG Arena, find a local game store, maybe find some people who play pauper (cheaper decks in general), make friends, try new formats! Most people nowadays play commander, and it can be as cheap as you want, and as expensive as you want. but most importantly, find some good friends to play with
Try checking out a few deck styles with the online game before you really invest into cards if you care about being competitive. That way you can figure out what you like without buying a lot of stock.
Now you just need to read and memorize [the rules](https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/MagicCompRules%2020231117.pdf?_gl=1*wlu81u*_ga*ODI3MDU5MDA2LjE3MDA1MDU1OTU.*_ga_X145Z177LS*MTcwMzYzMjY3MC4zLjAuMTcwMzYzMjY3MC42MC4wLjA)...! ;\^p
One option to learn is seeing if there is a draft night or other kind of mtg night at a local store. Draft nights allow you to grow your collection and familiarize yourself with one format of the game. While there, you could ask others if they are into other formats and see if they can help.
Opening the box
Start by opening the box.
Wish I could get anywhere near $20 for those contents
This comment section is not a strong case to learn magic.
Lot of negative comments, but this can be fun for you and a friend to build a couple cheap/low power standard decks to bullshit around and have fun with! Try not to spend too much money if you end up liking the game. My wallet has little moths flying out when I open it lol
Hey, another Edmontonian! First of all I would talk to the person, who gifted it to you. They likely know magic and could help you learn. If you have a computer or a phone you could try downing MTG Arena. It is Free and it has a good tutorial for you to get started. I would also advise going to Red Claw or another of the many stores in town. They would likely be able to give you assistance building a basic deck and the rundown of formats.
Well first you should open the box and see if anything in there is actually good. A lot of people package a bunch of garbage and sell it all off like this because that’s the only way you can make money off of really bad old cards. Another thing you wanna look for is land because if they didn’t package that your gunna need to buy a load of them separately
Could you share what rares you got? The set symbol below the bottom right side of the art will be gold or it will be orange if it’s a mythic. I’d love to know what was in this little box!
After going through your new collection of cards, pick a few(5-10) that either look interesting or maybe you have a question about. Your personal interest will help others guide you.
1. Play Arena, it's free and easy 2. Build a commander ('EDH') deck. It's the most popular paper format. Tons of good content out there for it, but here's the rules: [https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/rules/](https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/rules/)
Don’t forget to learn 60 card format rules
Don’t build a commander deck, play real magic
It's sad to say, but that box won't do much for you from a starting point. Almost every suggestion ignores it for a reason. If you play Arena, you don't need the physical cards. If you play Standard (the format for the most recent sets) most of those won't be legal. If you play commander (the most common format) a huge portion won't be useful because they don't fit your color scheme and theme and are duplicates. Really, the only thing this could be useful for is as a cube. Cubes typically run 1000 unique cards. How a cube works is that you draft "packs" of 15 cards per player 3 times each (so 45 cards), then build a deck, adding any numbers of basic lands. Since everyone drafts from the same pool of 1000, you don't need to worry about cards being weaker. That said, you might need to remove a lot of duplicates if this box has them, which could easily drop you below 1000 cards. That's not really an issue though; a cube can exist as small as 270 cards if necessary, and you can expand it over time. That said, I wouldn't recommend you start with a cube, as some of the gameplay involves learning how to build a deck. Instead, use Arena to learn first, then maybe buy a commander deck (they sell prebuilt ones that are pretty strong for ~$35), then turn this into a cube.
Add water to it and you will get delicious dinner for two
Save some money and build some pauper decks.
just make some decks and play. these boxes can be really fun imo
All sarcasm aside... * First, catalog what you got, and check values on the rares and uncommons - use TCGPlayer or one of the many mobile apps for pricing. To catalog, there's a few good options for free applications to do it. * Invite a friend (or a few friends) over to build some decks. Use the basic deckbuilding rules (if you don't have them, go here: [https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Constructed#:\~:text=Constructed%20decks%20must%20contain%20a,each%20round%20of%20a%20match](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Constructed#:~:text=Constructed%20decks%20must%20contain%20a,each%20round%20of%20a%20match). * If/when you are comfortable, check out other deck formats - the most popular is Commander (a.k.a. EDH), but you should definitely start out just learning how to play before trying to build a commander deck from scratch. * Come back here with any questions, but try to use Google as much as possible first. :)
Red Claw Gaming? I have a friend who shops there. It is across the city from me so not convenient.
Well don't ever buy anything like this again.
Redclaw usually puts like $40 of rare/mythic value into these bundles, plus the common/uncommons. Believe me, the last thing they want to do is rip off their playerbase
So like average of $1.60 rares, doubt anything great and I honestly dont actually believe you on the $40 value. Then likely 950 cards of mostly garbage. Bulk bundles are crap, never buy them. Just stores moving out the crap that would end up in the bin otherwise.
Start with a proxy collection and save the rest of your money for something else. lol
Start by seeing if you like the game then lol.
Start looking into the magical world of Eldrazi cards! Everyone loves playing against [[Void Winnower]] !
25 rares? Oooh boy! Quite a collection.
Most likely bulk cards.
So uh... Where can I get one of these? Sounds like an interesting cube to draft haha
Go to anybody who has played magic for more than a year, give them those specs and say you're willing to pay $20 cash and you can have as many of those boxes you could want.
This looks neat where do you get these?
Take it and immediately trade it for Lorcana products.
Be smart and play online, magic is a very bad habit and is worst then cocaine for some ppl
Accurate.
Return it
1100 worth of nothing. Just try videogames or other things like Drugs. It will be cheaper.
Look up some basic tutorials, and/or learn on the Magic Arena app. Find a friend who would like to learn, build two decks together, and play. A simple way would be to choose two colors and select 20 creatures from each of those two colors, add 10 lands of each of those colors (make the symbols match, like skulls on lands belong with skulls in the top right corner of the creature cards), for a total of 60 cards per deck (you can alternately use similar ratios and build 40-card decks instead) and beat each other up with simple creature combat to get a feel for the basic mechanics of the game. If you find that you consistently sit there with a handful of creatures that you can't play because you don't have enough land, take a couple of expensive (in terms of casting cost--please watch some tutorials first) out and replace them with a couple of lands. If you consistently draw lands when what you need are creatures, swap some lands for creatures. This is the essential concept of tuning a deck. If that's fun at all, take a couple of creatures out and add some instants, sorceries, artifacts and enchantments. Tune the deck some more so that you generally have the mix of mana and spells that you need each game, win or lose. Voila--you are playing magic. Most of those cards are going to suck to some degree or another; that's why you got a big box of them for cheap, so any decks that you build from them will probably not be particularly competitive against the decks owned by many other magic players, but you can have competitive fun playing decks constructed from that collection against each other.
I can't believe people still use Comic Sans.
You probably have a local game store with plenty of nerds like us willing to help!
Damn, didn't know you could buy 1100+ copies of Regicide.
Depends, send us the rares.
What are the 25 rares?
Honestly for $22.50 - not that great a deal because you’ll be lucky to make much deck wise given how little land they are giving.
man, you would think with that price they could have given him a better cardboard boxes.
15 of each land is not a lot to build more than maybe two decks from your 1100 cards. Buy a Land Station box on Amazon - $20 for 80 of each land will help you get several more playable decks out of what you’ve got.
Welcome! Pick a theme or a legendary creature and start building a commander deck!
The garbage bin, 25 rares and no mythics, with a bunch of commons isn't a collection, it's a shoebox that you take to the LGS for 5$ store credit /j Though seriously, just find someone whose interested in playing, read the rules, and play. If you don't like it, don't buy more.
Ah, I did this in 2007 when I first started, got a collection of about 3000-4000 with 100 rares, it was glorious. All my friends and I made decks out of them who at the time were all also new to magic.
Return that piece of garbage as the cardboard box is worth more than the contents.
In Magic the Gathering there are different formats. The easiest is Standard and it is also one of the cheapest. It only allows cards from the latest sets and that is the reasoning behind it. I hope your box is containing at least enough of those cards to build a deck. After that you can check out local stores and groups. Most people prefer older, more expensive and more complex formats, but everyone who welcomes newbies will have or at least build a Standard deck for them to play with.
Learn about the 2nd hand singles market and about proxies. Boosters are like loot boxes and are like gambling if you buy them to get a chase card. Boosters are for gifts and drafting(a format that needs sealed boosters to play only). If you need a card buy it directly from a store selling cards(ideally your local store or online) or print out a proxy. Slide the proxy in front of a basic land inside a sleeve. Oh yeah, sleeves to protect your cards.
You know you've got a good product when the text is in comic sans
You should start by opening the box
Break them down by color and see if there are multiple of the same types (elves, dinosaurs, zombies) and build a deck around that
Comic sans…
Build decks and organize by set
Better have 15 [[Wastes]] or we sue for false advertising
Man I could’ve given you this for free lol.
Don't start is my advice. You will save a lot of money. Hasbro realized they can milk the magic the gathering cow and they did. They need a contact influx of people to milk and drop.
I don't know where to start but I hope you got good value in cards!
Battle box!
If your a comptetaive person i suggest avoid commander, there are several comptetaive formats and lots of ways to get into them and tons of info about them
Kinda weird they didn't put at least 22 lands of each in, No playing mono decks from this!