Getting Started

The first steps at playing Magic: The Gathering can be both daunting and rewarding. You've probably seen other people playing, and perhaps played a game or two with some friends, and have decided that you want to learn to play. So how do you go about that?

Learning to walk

There are two barriers to starting to play magic. The first is to learn how to play. The second is to have your own cards.

The first of these can be solved with the help of a friend. The chances are that if you wish to learn you already know someone that plays; however, if you don't know, you could consider going to a shop and seeing if they have a games evening; while they might be fairly hardcore players, someone will usually be happy to teach you how to play.

There are two ways to learn to play. If your friend does not know how to play in the first place, or if they've not got a large number of cards available to teach you with, a starter set is a good way to get going. They vary in quality and age; don't worry too much if you get an older one or a newer one, and most shops will sell various types. Any will do; play the game in there and you'll be on your way. One word of warning, however; the core game will give you nothing more than a taster of the game, and if you don't have more decks available when you start to play, it would be advisable to get some prebuilt decks to provide some variety and a good feel for the game.

An alternative way to learn is to get a friend who has a large amount of cards to build a pair of starter deck of their own. This is easier said than done, and well beyond the scope of this article! If the friend hasn't got a nice simple deck with which you can learn, it may be better to invest in some prebuilt decks rather than using their (presumably!) advanced decks.

Prebuilds, Tournament decks and Boosters

Before long you will need a reasonable number of cards of your own. If you have a starter set, you will have some cards already. However, you will be far behind the level of friends or people you may play in a local shop or club. Before you can compete properly, you need to get up to speed with their decks. And this means buying cards and building your own decks.

There are two approaches to this. Firstly you can buy ready-made decks and build up from them, or you can buy many random cards and work from there. While the former method may seem easier, in many ways the latter method is much more rewarding.

Wizards of the Coast do a series of "prebuilt" decks, which show off parts of each set published. Each of these decks is a proper 40 or 60 card deck, ready to play. Prebuilt decks are a very good way to learn about decks initially. If you have a friend to play with, a simple way to learn is to buy two prebuilt decks and play them against each other. They are designed specifically for this, and it can produce a fun evening while you try to work out how the cards work.

However, prebuilt decks have some problems. They often tend to be underpowered, not really showcasing the best of the cards they have, and will rarely stand up to a deck built by even an inexperienced player. They also often feel a little contrived; part of the enjoyment of magic is the feeling that you created the deck, and this part of the game is taken away.

The other main way to buy cards is to buy random cards, in the form of tournament decks and booster packs. A booster pack is 15 random non-land cards, and a tournament deck is 45 random cards and 30 land cards - six of each colour. Since initially you will be very short of land, the best way to buy cards at this point is tournament decks; booster packs have their uses, but are not really worth it for a new player.

Buying random cards has an obvious disadvantage - you're not likely to get cards you specifically want; indeed, you may look at your new cards and wonder why on earth anyone would want some of them. However, in time you will begin to find uses for most cards; many players, including myself, spend some time thinking of a way to make use of a seemingly useless or underpowered card.

Aside: Singles

Many shops will also sell "singles" - individual cards outside of a packet. This is possibly the most expensive way to buy cards, but at the same time also gives you a chance to pick and choose the cards you want. However, for a new player, this is not a good idea; it takes time and experience to see a card that is good, and you may waste a lot of effort looking for no real gain.

There is another problem with singles; it may be tempting to find four of a card that you think is really good, just so that your new decks are the best possible. Indeed, for an expereinced player, this is a major advantage to buying singles. However, while you're gathering knowledge about cards, in the long run, it can often prove more useful to play with a wide variety of cards, and only specialise when you're sure how the cards interact. Winning will come with time.

Putting it all together

So, you've got a bunch of cards, and perhaps a prebuilt deck or two. It's a good start, but you can't really play with just random cards. I'm not going to go into advanced deck building; that will come with experience. But I will tell you how to get on with building your first decks.

It's really not too hard. Like many things, quality comes with practice, so rather than worrying too much about what you do, just go for it. A deck usually needs 36 non-land cards and 24 land cards. So, pick a colour. Any will do, although for a new player blue tends to be more difficult - I'll suppose green for now. Sort your cards into colour, and look at your green cards. If you like the look of the card (Does it have a pretty picture? Is it powerful? Does it have an interesting ability? Any criteria is fine!) put it in the "in" pile. If it looks complex, or you don't understand it, or the picture is ugly, put it in the "out" pile. When you've got 36 in the in pile, great! Add 24 land, shuffle, and you've just built your first deck. If you have more than 36, take out some that you've got more than one copy of - while duplicated cards are useful normally, you're really just getting started.

It might sound like you've built a really bad deck, and that's probably true. Cards generally don't work together very well randomly. However, as you play the deck, you'll find things that do work together, and you'll find that some of the cards you thought that you'd like turn out to be worse than you thought (a friend of mine has a great dislike for creatures that can't block, having lost a few games...) It's all down to experience.

Next steps

Don't be afraid to put all your cards back in your collection and start again. The first few decks you build are unlikely to be really good. Experiment with colour types - a two colour deck with 12 of each coloured land and 18 other cards of each colour will sometimes work. Experiment and see. Build more than one deck and get a friend to play you with your own decks; this avoids the discouraging losses that you will get, since even if you lose, your deck won!

Before long, you'll realise that one of the decks you've built is actually quite good. It might not be what you expect - but you'll suddenly realise you're winning against someone who's been beating you all the time previously. When that happens... Well done! You've learnt how to build a deck!

Written on 18th July 2008 by Sneeze (email)
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