Help me to get into Magic?

[WhyBotherToTry]

I've been thinking about getting into Magic: The Gathering for a while now, but I have absolutely no idea where to start. I know some of the basics of the game, like the rules about lands and summoning, but is there anything really important about it that I'd need to know to get started?
In addition, I know cards can be quite expensive, so is there a way I can get into it without bankrupting myself? Any Magic players out there care to advise?

 

[Orange12345]

I would say start with the video games, they are pretty cheap and teach you all about the game, though they don't allow for customization. UNLESS you already have people to play with in which case I would say just buy a deck and start playing

 

[tippy2k2]

I would highly recommend the "Duels of the Planeswalker" Magic games on the 360, PS3, iPad, or PC (I've played it on the 360 so I can't guarantee the quality of the other editions).

The game gives you a nice tutorial and a variety of decks to get used to. It allows you to get a little bit into customizing. You can take cards out of pre-built decks but that's the most you can do. However, for a new player, I find that perfect since it gives you a bit of the strategy without the over-abundance of options that kill most rookies.

If you decide that it is worthy of going farther, I then recommend Friday Night Magic.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=events/magic/fnm

Basically, any comic shop/nerd gathering (said with utmost respect) worth it's name will have FNM. Most will have standard tournaments where you bring a deck AND draft games. Draft is where I built my stuff...

Drafting is where you and others (it was eight players and 24 booster packs in my shop) pull one card from a booster pack and pass it around. You do this with all 24 booster packs until you are out of cards. You then use said cards to create your own deck to fight the others. This is nice because it gives you the chance to experiment and see other strategies used by others AND allows you to collect cards to start your own deck (you keep the cards you draft). Everywhere I've gone, it's $15 to play, which is only slightly more expensive than it would cost for you to purchase three booster packs. Winning gets you more packs!

So there you go! Ultimately, keep in mind...don't go overboard. I played for about four months and ended up just plain getting bored with it. I put a decent amount of money into it but the usual trappings of these types of things tripped me up: Once a new set of stuff is released, your stuff very quickly becomes obsolete. You almost HAVE to keep putting money into it to stay relevant

 

[Gatx]

I would say start with the video games, they are pretty cheap and teach you all about the game, though they don't allow for customization. UNLESS you already have people to play with in which case I would say just buy a deck and start playing

I second this. Getting into a TCG is always daunting because of the vast amount of cards, unless you got in from the ground floor. Videogames are the best way to get a feel for the rules and what deck types work, and also protect your wallet before you decide to take the plunge.

 

[Rednog]

I say play the video game, while my experience is somewhat dated the whole turn over from each generation can get costly if you decide to get the physical cards. While there are some places that allow casual play with cards from any generation this usually gets messy because some cards work under differing mechanics; and it was my experience that any generation places usually have a majority of people with 2 turn win decks (see: anti fun).

 

[Ken_J]

Best advice i can give is unlearn what YuGiOh has taught you.

 

[knight steel]

Well the thing about my little po.....oh wait

 

[Stainlesssteele4]

Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 & 2013.
Its not quite MTG, but you can learn the basics, and get some enjoyment out of it too.
On the up side, you can try out all the various theme decks without dropping 20 bucks on each deck!

 

[Blackdoom]

My recommended place to start is to buy a starter deck which are petty solid decks so you don't really need to worry about building at first. Any Tabletop gaming stores near you are typically a good place to play as there are always people there willing to play games after a bit I would say buy some other cards to improve the deck that you have bought to make it suit your play style more. When you understand the game enough I would say have a go at building your own deck.

Building your own deck takes a lot of patience and fine tuning as you start to see what cards work well with what you have planned for the deck and what ones don't. I would also suggest expanding out from Standard and give a couple of other rules ago (I am personally a fan of Commander/EDH).

A lot of the early times in playing will involve researching stuff yourself or learning new things whilst playing games against people.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I'd start with the new games on PC, Xbox an PS3 because they're quite good and they teach you everything you'll need to know later on. Once you've got the hang of it try looking some basic decks up online and get a feel for what you'd like to play.
Then play, Whether it's draft or standard all you need to do is play.

 

[saintdane05]

Do you have any cards? If not, buy a starter deck. They are usually well built.

The second thing you need to do is decide what teh "Strategy" of your deck is. What does your deck revolve around? Land, a type of attack? Mine, for example, revolves around two things. One is the use of weak but cheap monsters to be able to be put on the field. One of them, Metnite, has a land cost of 0. The next part is the use of battle cry, which gives +1/0 to all of your creatures. Lots of cards + Lots of Battle Cries = Lots of death.

 

[Lizardon]

I second the idea of trying the video games. It's where I started and it help me get a real feel of what kind of playstyle I like, without having to go bankrupt on the cards. It also is a great way to learn the smaller details of the rules, as the game won't allow illegal moves.

If you want to get into the real game, you could get with one of the starter decks. If you've played a bit of the video game you could probably work on which one(s) are suited to you. You can find all the deck lists on Wizards website.

I also recommend getting one of these Deck Builders Toolkits if you can find one.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/dbt/productinfo

I grabbed on when I started and it was a good idea in my mind. You get a semi-random collection of cards, some boosters and 100 land. It's a fairly inexpensive way to start building a collection.

 

[Vhite]

Misleading thread name! I thought someone would finally want to get into proper magic.

 

[TJC]

www.cockatrice.de


A nifty online magic simulator which is pretty functional and most importantly free. There are pretty much always some games going on, you have all cards with images available and the built-in chat allows for question 24/7

Yeah, it's pretty manual (no automatization as in the official Magic Online) but it's free and awesome.
After getting a bit of experience, you can gather some more info and start building your collection.

Also, do some prereleases and releases. Sealed format is great for beginners, relatively cheap and incidentially, Gatecrash release is next weekend.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Just buy Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013. You will save yourself hundreds of dollars and have almost as much fun.

 

[Coffeejack]

Well, first and foremost, you should know that Magic should be used to serve Man and never to rule over hi-...oh.

 

[Lawnmooer]

I'd suggest trying out the video games as a starting point.

They're pretty cheap, allow you to learn some of the basics as well as get a feel for the type of deck you prefer playing (As well as the general theme the different colours tend to go for)

After that, I recommend finding someone in real life who actively plays MTG, see if they can help you learn rules better and teach you about deck building.

Finally I'd suggest grabbing a starter deck or 2 to get some solid decks going, you should start getting a feel for deck structure and such after a while and then be able to spend money on fatpacks and such to build your own decks or customize existing decks.

One of the best ways to get the most out of MTG though is to get some friends who also play, this allows you to be able to play whenever and you can always trade cards and practice with each other (Also it's very fun to play with friends)

I put a decent amount of money into it but the usual trappings of these types of things tripped me up: Once a new set of stuff is released, your stuff very quickly becomes obsolete. You almost HAVE to keep putting money into it to stay relevant

Not necessarily, some of my years old decks completely demolish some of my friends decks made out of newer cards (I know his decks are good, since he gets me to make them for him... He's not the best at making decks)

 

[Terminal Blue]

If you're only going to play with friends and your friends aren't dicks, you can always play with proxy cards. Just print the card images out from the Gatherer. Stick them onto cardboard and cut them out and voila, you have a deck. It might make it difficult to play with strangers, but it's a good way to get started and learn about the game and how to build decks before you blow money on actual cards.