Magic The Gathering: Starting Again

[Paragon Fury]

So today I decided to start playing MTG again, and I went out got some of the cards from the MTG 2012 Core Set since they're still legal in Type 2 for quite some time and I wasn't sure what the current set situation is.

I got 3 boosters, one of those 2 person starters that also had 2 boosters in it and the "Illusionary Might" 2012 Event Deck.

I didn't get anything terribly awesome; Solemn Simulacrum, Royal Assassin, Glacial Fotress, Sundial of the Infinite and Mesa Enchantress. While I haven't played or collected any cards since the Myr were a new idea, I can tell that these are nothing particularly special.

While I am going to the release event at the local card shop this week for the release of Innistrad (the newest set) I've been looking for advice on how the new metagame has shaped up. The one person I've played with here isn't too keen; he wondered why even with a basic event deck I was able to beat him while he was playing a deck with no actual creatures and the other time got angry when I Mind Controlled his best Knights and rolled him with Phantasmal Dragon.

When I stopped playing (and stupidly sold my old cards) I used to play either a Green/White deck - either small white army bumped up by green enchanted or a green stomper protected by white magic - or a Blue/Black Mistform Deck - an interesting combo of creature control and force, but one that didn't win me a terrible number of games vs. non-creature decks.

So I'm looking for advice. Is there any particularly easy way to translate these playing styles to the new metagame, or have they been eclipsed (I did find the Illusion deck a bit of fun I have to say)?

To get started I have about $90 to spend this week for the Release and cards that I set aside just for it. Of that $90, $25 goes to the release (I get entry, 6 packs of the new set, a promo card of some kind and some sort of store bonus) and about $20 goes into getting a new binder and sleeves for cards so that I have somewhere to keep my rares. That leaves just under $50 for buying cards of any kind.

The only thing I've truly been looking at right now is this:

Deck Builder's Toolkit [http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Card-Builders-Toolkit/dp/0786955651/ref=pd_luc_sim_01_03_t_lh]


Because it comes with 4 packs, 125 semi-random cards and 100 lands and would give me space to store all my non-rare cards for the time being. But other than that, I haven't really decided. The one person I mentioned before was rather vehement that I avoid New Pyhrexia at all costs, but wouldn't say why.

So, what say you?

 

[Tautimona]

new phyrexia was the worst in the scars of mirrodin block, but scars and mirrodin beseiged are really handy still, but if you are looking for strong cards you might want to look at picking up one of the commander decks

 

[Macgyvercas]

new phyrexia was the worst in the scars of mirrodin block, but scars and mirrodin beseiged are really handy still, but if you are looking for strong cards you might want to look at picking up one of the commander decks

Mirrodin should have fucking won that war. Its a plane constructed of metal for god's sake! Poison should have no impact on it! Poison usually only affects organics!

God I hate the Phyrexians.

 

[Paragon Fury]

new phyrexia was the worst in the scars of mirrodin block, but scars and mirrodin beseiged are really handy still, but if you are looking for strong cards you might want to look at picking up one of the commander decks

Aren't those commander decks from a completely unrelated and basically non-compatible deck style though?

 

[warprincenataku]

I originally played when third edition came out and played up through... hmm, phasing was introduced, can't remember when that was. I remember Sandbar Crocodile and a series about some guy with a beard battling some guy on a giant flying ship. Oh well.

Then I came back when the Samurai and Ninja decks came out. I stayed for about a year, then quit again. The funny thing is, a lot of the people I played with back when I played the first time were still there, I saw many familiar faces and it was fun, for a while.

I didn't know any of the new play styles, any of the new abilities and couldn't recall cards verbatim like I used to, but that was ok. I picked it up again just as fast. I'm sure you'll do the same.

 

[Yossarian1507]

So today I decided to start playing MTG again, and I went out got some of the cards from the MTG 2012 Core Set since they're still legal in Type 2 for quite some time and I wasn't sure what the current set situation is.

I got 3 boosters, one of those 2 person starters that also had 2 boosters in it and the "Illusionary Might" 2012 Event Deck.

I didn't get anything terribly awesome; Solemn Simulacrum, Royal Assassin, Glacial Fotress, Sundial of the Infinite and Mesa Enchantress. While I haven't played or collected any cards since the Myr were a new idea, I can tell that these are nothing particularly special.

Actually, Solemn Simulacrum is pretty awesome in control decks (search a land, chump-block, get a card, Grave Titan/Wurmcoil Engine on turn 5 instead of 6 - gg), or in a Birthing Pod toolbox decks.

Aren't those commander decks from a completely unrelated and basically non-compatible deck style though?

They are legal in Legacy, but decks in this format cost shitloads of money.

Anyway, on topic:

I'd just go for the Innistrad fat pack, and went from there. Check out StarCity Games, Channel Fireball or MTG Salvation, to look at the current decks in the format you like (though, there will be rotation at the beginning of October so you may want to wait a week to build a deck), pick your favorite and buy single cards. Or just think of a deck like that yourself and have fun with brewing (currently I'm making a WW human aggro deck, which is capable of killing opponent in 4th turn with ease )

 

[Tsukuyomi]

Innistrad is looking interesting, but not overly so to me. Contrary to some here, I actually...didn't mind New Phyrexia. I get the gripe about poison, but for someone like me who I didn't HAVE any poison in my decks but was getting my ass handed to me by the new players I knew who DID have it, it was really nice. I know it didn't make any sense, but it was nice.

If all else fails, I'd say just work on Core-Set boosters and see what you like and where it came from and go from there. I'm still a bit lucky since my local shop still has a box or two of stuff like Kamigawa and Time Spiral so every so often I can surprise my friends and other opponents with stuff they haven't seen before or have forgotten since they're either new or constantly chasing the new stuff. Hell, I knew one guy who shut an entire five-man game down because he was playing Shroud creatures. TOTAL pain in the ass to play against, but definitely an effective strategy.

Your preferred playing style is your preferred playing style. I think it's possible to pull off at any stage. You may just have to work a bit harder to make it in the competitive world if you're doing that. You may not win quite as much as you did before or you feel you should, but I think we've all felt like that before. As far as I know, no, there's nothing particularly wrong with it, but you may have to dig back a set or two to really get something you're happy with going, depending on what Innistrad offers.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Its actually kind of funny but the MTG site a lot of people seem to think that though Innistrad has some fun flavor and lore the cards will be largely useless for competitive play.

Also there seems to be some extreme dislike for Jace the Mindsculptor.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

Yeah, my first glance at Innistrad just...the only new thing it introduced was Curse, which was fine since we probably don't need too many more rules to try and remember, but otherwise it just seemed like it was going to be just another set. I've also heard the hate for Jace, although not having seen the card I can't offer any statement one way or the other.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Jace the Mind Sculptor [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=195297]

Yeah...sort of beast....

 

[GrandmaFunk]

The Mind Sculptor is crazy broken...it's now been banned from Standard and Modern formats. all it took was a few months of every top8 deck at every event playing 3-4 of him lol

Innistrad is looking very interesting both in flavour and mechanics...definitely more interesting to me than the mirrodin remix we just suffered through.(mirrodin was already my least favourite block flavour-wise and poison has always been my most hated mechanics.. still very unhappy that they brought it back)

as for what cards to get when starting a new collection...if you need the land then it's worth getting a fat pack and/or a deckbuilder's toolkit.

beyond that...you'll get way way more bang for your buck by simply ordering singles online.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

oh! ...and ya, both green-white and blue-black are going to be extremely viable in the new Standard meta.