Colored glass stones, a d20, a fancy purpose built dial, pennies or poker chips, etc.
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We're all just here for the deep Urza lore - Talking about Magic: The Gathering!
Mr Bean
Chief Detective
A couple of questions that might help us point you in the right direction:
Is there a particular format you’re looking to play or your playgroup plays a lot? Commander / EDH is the most popular format since it’s 4 players and can be nice and casual.
Do you have a particular play style? Like who was your favorite hero in Hearthstone and we can probably point you at similar decks.
Is there a particular format you’re looking to play or your playgroup plays a lot? Commander / EDH is the most popular format since it’s 4 players and can be nice and casual.
Do you have a particular play style? Like who was your favorite hero in Hearthstone and we can probably point you at similar decks.
Commander seems to be what they play most often, I don't really know what that entails but that's the format I always see mentioned.
Don't really think I played enough to develop a particular style or preferred hero, I tried Warlock a lot since that was my WoW main but it didn't translate to any real success in Hearthstone. So mostly a blank slate here.
Don't really think I played enough to develop a particular style or preferred hero, I tried Warlock a lot since that was my WoW main but it didn't translate to any real success in Hearthstone. So mostly a blank slate here.
Mr Bean
Chief Detective
Commander is a 100 card singleton format. You have 100 different cards in your deck (excluding basic lands) and a commander - a legendary creature who lives outside your deck and can be played any time. Most decks have a theme or synergy around their commander since that’s the one card you know you always have access too.
The easiest way to start in commander is the pre-constructed decks that Wizards puts out on a regular basis. There are some duds, but generally speaking they’re designed to be cracked open and played right out of the box with no other setup required and hold their own against pretty much anything but a competition deck. My suggestion would be to look at the commanders on the front of the box until you find one that makes you go “NEAT I wanna play that guy!” Let the group know you’re learning and most players will help you through turn phases and general strategy.
The easiest way to start in commander is the pre-constructed decks that Wizards puts out on a regular basis. There are some duds, but generally speaking they’re designed to be cracked open and played right out of the box with no other setup required and hold their own against pretty much anything but a competition deck. My suggestion would be to look at the commanders on the front of the box until you find one that makes you go “NEAT I wanna play that guy!” Let the group know you’re learning and most players will help you through turn phases and general strategy.
So, I would advise a slight tangent here - Magic is a very complex game with lots of rules and interactions, and jumping into a full commander game with three other people is likely to be confusing at best and overwhelming at worst. I'm not saying you shouldn't play commander ever, but rather that you should spend a little more time on Arena first to get a better understanding of the rules before you jump in. It's got a pretty reasonable tutorial that'll also introduce you to the various colors and what they tend to do in terms of gameplay. Arena's rules engine is very robust, so it won't let you make illegal game actions or anything like that.
Speaking of Arena, you should also redeem all the "Play[XYZ]" codes on this page for a bunch of free packs to help boost your collection. Opening all of those packs will also earn you some wildcards, which you can use to craft any other cards too. And once you finish the tutorial, it should unlock 10 starter decks, alongside a queue specifically where you can play them against other new players (I think it's called something like Starter Deck Battle). It's a good way to get your feet wet without having to invest much aside from your time.
And then once you feel like you have a decent grasp of how a turn of Magic goes, hop into some commander games with your friends!
Speaking of Arena, you should also redeem all the "Play[XYZ]" codes on this page for a bunch of free packs to help boost your collection. Opening all of those packs will also earn you some wildcards, which you can use to craft any other cards too. And once you finish the tutorial, it should unlock 10 starter decks, alongside a queue specifically where you can play them against other new players (I think it's called something like Starter Deck Battle). It's a good way to get your feet wet without having to invest much aside from your time.
And then once you feel like you have a decent grasp of how a turn of Magic goes, hop into some commander games with your friends!
I agree with what lincolnic said above: you definitely want a good grounding in the basics before worrying about anything more. That said, I'd also add that there is a ridiculous volume of Commander content on Youtube. You could watch years worth of well-produced games and not run out. So that's probably a good place to start once you have the basics of play down! I'm sure most of the folks in this thread could offer their own recommendations, but for someone learning the game, I'd probably suggest starting here, maybe?
ETA: Oh, and one other note of warning that I don't think has already been mentioned: be aware that building a Commander deck can be *expensive*, depending on your play group. If you're content to just have one deck that you slowly tweak over time, then most of that cost will be up front, but just be aware that prices can get up there. The preconstructed decks mentioned above are a great way to defray that a bit.
ETA: Oh, and one other note of warning that I don't think has already been mentioned: be aware that building a Commander deck can be *expensive*, depending on your play group. If you're content to just have one deck that you slowly tweak over time, then most of that cost will be up front, but just be aware that prices can get up there. The preconstructed decks mentioned above are a great way to defray that a bit.
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Alright, I'll try out some more Arena to get a good handle on things.
So about commander decks, are they all playable against each other? Like those third-party sets, I think Doctor Who is the big new one, and there was a LOTR set not too long ago, can you pit those commanders against each other or can you only play within the same franchise?
So about commander decks, are they all playable against each other? Like those third-party sets, I think Doctor Who is the big new one, and there was a LOTR set not too long ago, can you pit those commanders against each other or can you only play within the same franchise?
You can absolutely play them against each other, there's no restriction against worlds. There might be kitchen-table rules where people only want to play within a certain universe, but honestly I've never run into that myself.
JBear's suggestion about watching some videos is a good one. It's one thing to play on Arena, but seeing how an actual table of people go through a game is helpful too. A lot of channels will also put card images up on the screen as they're played, so you can pause and read them at your leisure. The Command Zone (linked in his post) is probably the biggest commander channel around, I also like the stuff LoadingReadyRun does a lot. They have a separate channel for all their Magic content, LRRMTG. They have a lot of very casual commander videos (a lot of them only involve the pre-con decks that have been mentioned in the thread) and their crew is generally delightful.
In personal news, I finally trophied a Lost Caverns of Ixalan draft tonight after a very rough start. Went 7-1 with a weird R/W deck that didn't feel particularly synergistic, but was able to curve out pretty much every game. I kind of have a feeling that this is a set that's going to play a lot better with an in-person pod rather than on Arena -- or if not that, probably as we get a little later in the format. I'd bet a lot of other people drafting on Arena right now are also just kind of flailing around and trying to figure out what works, which can make signals hard to read (at least for me).
In personal news, I finally trophied a Lost Caverns of Ixalan draft tonight after a very rough start. Went 7-1 with a weird R/W deck that didn't feel particularly synergistic, but was able to curve out pretty much every game. I kind of have a feeling that this is a set that's going to play a lot better with an in-person pod rather than on Arena -- or if not that, probably as we get a little later in the format. I'd bet a lot of other people drafting on Arena right now are also just kind of flailing around and trying to figure out what works, which can make signals hard to read (at least for me).
Alright well, while I was out yesterday I visited a comic and game shop and saw some of the MTG Doctor Who sets. Thought long and hard about getting one but decided to wait, but then I was out again today and decided to go ahead and grab one. Might be getting in way over my head, but I just couldn't say no to that 13th Doctor card:
The set also came with a handy life-counter dial so that's neat.
The set also came with a handy life-counter dial so that's neat.
Looking at some videos playing the Doctor Who decks it seems they have a unique rule in the planer cards, which I assume can be just ignored if playing against non-Who commanders? Or could they be mixed in anyway, depending on the tastes of the other players?
It was looking at the various pieces for a MTG Arena code but it looks like the Doctor Who sets aren't added? Or at the very least I can't just add everything in the set I bought to my Arena account like I could the starter decks.
It was looking at the various pieces for a MTG Arena code but it looks like the Doctor Who sets aren't added? Or at the very least I can't just add everything in the set I bought to my Arena account like I could the starter decks.
Correct on all counts. Planechase is a mechanic they sometimes print in Commander, but it's very optional. They brought it back for these decks since it's a flavorful way to show the Doctors traveling through time and space. You could play it (or not play it!) in any Commander game if your group wants to, it's not unique to this set.
As for Arena, they have no Commander content* there since you can't play Commander on Arena. The power level is just too different when Arena is designed only for 1v1 games and paper Commander cards are designed for four players. The closest thing available is Historic Brawl, which uses the same concept of 100 card singleton decks built around a commander, but is only played against a single opponent. It uses Arena's full card pool, which is a lot smaller than the full paper card pool (because paper had a 25 year head start), but still big enough to provide a lot of variety.
Typically there's no correlation between physical products and Arena; the starter decks you bought are an outlier. 99% of the time, buying a physical Magic product won't get you anything for Arena. One notable exception is if you go to a paper prerelease when a new set comes out, that will include a redeemable code for six packs of the new set on Arena. I actually have a spare code for Lost Caverns of Ixalan if you'd like!
*They just added four of the face commanders from the new LCI precons to Arena, but not the full decks, just the commanders themselves.
As for Arena, they have no Commander content* there since you can't play Commander on Arena. The power level is just too different when Arena is designed only for 1v1 games and paper Commander cards are designed for four players. The closest thing available is Historic Brawl, which uses the same concept of 100 card singleton decks built around a commander, but is only played against a single opponent. It uses Arena's full card pool, which is a lot smaller than the full paper card pool (because paper had a 25 year head start), but still big enough to provide a lot of variety.
Typically there's no correlation between physical products and Arena; the starter decks you bought are an outlier. 99% of the time, buying a physical Magic product won't get you anything for Arena. One notable exception is if you go to a paper prerelease when a new set comes out, that will include a redeemable code for six packs of the new set on Arena. I actually have a spare code for Lost Caverns of Ixalan if you'd like!
*They just added four of the face commanders from the new LCI precons to Arena, but not the full decks, just the commanders themselves.
One thing I've been curious about with Arena... I had an account and played it briefly a long time ago (like... when the return to Dominaria set came out?), but if I came back to the game now, would it be possible for me to start over completely with the same account? Or would I need to make a new account with a different email address?
No but what I mean is, aren't there a lot of new player bonuses right now if you sign up? All my cards would be out of Standard now so how would I be able to like... play and earn currency to get relevant cards?
Not that I'm aware? The free pack codes I linked above are available to anyone, and you should be able to claim the free packs from newer sets in your in-game mailbox.
Also, you don't have to play standard! All your old cards are still legal in Explorer, which is Arena's version of Pioneer, or Historic, which features the entire Arena card pool (minus bans). Historic also features digital-only cards that a lot of people can't stand, though, so if that's a turn-off for you I'd recommend Explorer instead.
Worst case scenario, you can always play in the Starter Deck queue I was telling SpoonyBard about and be on equal footing with everyone else there.
Also, you don't have to play standard! All your old cards are still legal in Explorer, which is Arena's version of Pioneer, or Historic, which features the entire Arena card pool (minus bans). Historic also features digital-only cards that a lot of people can't stand, though, so if that's a turn-off for you I'd recommend Explorer instead.
Worst case scenario, you can always play in the Starter Deck queue I was telling SpoonyBard about and be on equal footing with everyone else there.
So about two weeks ago I did something I've been saying I wanted to do for a long time: I reclaimed my childhood Magic/Pokemon/Star Wars cards from my parents' attic. I'm still in the process of sorting things, but I've been having an absolute blast looking through everything and occasionally finding some real value in there. I had a few things in toploaders, but I also had a bunch of cards that I just put back into their booster wrappers after opening the packs. (There were also some loose cards, most of which was chaff, but I did find some Wastelands and Lotus Petals floating around in there.) Shockingly, almost everything is still in great shape, although some stuff got warped. Case in point: while looking through some Urza's Saga packs, I found a Gilded Drake...which is pretty curved. I've currently got it in a sleeve, in between the pages of a thick book, at the bottom of a stack of other books. I'm really hoping it'll flatten out!
That's not the best thing I found today, though. I primarily just collected the cards as a kid since it was hard to actually sit down and play with other people, so I would buy stuff like the Magic Anthologies box, or in this particular instance, the Vanguard Gift Box. The Vanguard box in particular came with some international product - a Chinese Visions booster, Korean Weatherlight booster, and an Italian Mirage starter. Those were opened, much to the chagrin of my friends who I text about this stuff (apparently non-English versions of those sets are all quite rare), but I'd left the actual Vanguard cards themselves sealed. I figured I'd look through the boosters and starter for fun since they were already opened. The boosters turned up a Mana Web, but nothing too exciting. I opened up the starter deck and was immediately excited to see the Mirage basic lands again, and I was ready to happily text my friends saying "Hey, sweet Italian Mirage basics!" However, in starter decks like these, those of you who were around back then may remember that they were collated with three rares right behind the basic lands. So what was the first thing I saw after the final Plains?
Yep, that's a Lion's Eye Diamond alright.
That's not the best thing I found today, though. I primarily just collected the cards as a kid since it was hard to actually sit down and play with other people, so I would buy stuff like the Magic Anthologies box, or in this particular instance, the Vanguard Gift Box. The Vanguard box in particular came with some international product - a Chinese Visions booster, Korean Weatherlight booster, and an Italian Mirage starter. Those were opened, much to the chagrin of my friends who I text about this stuff (apparently non-English versions of those sets are all quite rare), but I'd left the actual Vanguard cards themselves sealed. I figured I'd look through the boosters and starter for fun since they were already opened. The boosters turned up a Mana Web, but nothing too exciting. I opened up the starter deck and was immediately excited to see the Mirage basic lands again, and I was ready to happily text my friends saying "Hey, sweet Italian Mirage basics!" However, in starter decks like these, those of you who were around back then may remember that they were collated with three rares right behind the basic lands. So what was the first thing I saw after the final Plains?
Yep, that's a Lion's Eye Diamond alright.
Thanks! It was the best surprise in the collection for sure. I definitely had no idea what this was as a kid, so I probably just said "neat" and put the box away after looking at it once.
The other big money items I found were a Revised Tundra (which was the only thing I remembered having) and a Sliver Queen, followed by a Null Rod, Eladamri, and then a decent pile of things all in the $5-10/$20-40 ranges. Good job, kid me!
I was also very excited to find enough copies of Revised/Unlimited basic forests, swamps, and mountains to use as my draft lands for those colors. No idea why I don't have any plains or islands. I remember having some more cards that I didn't see in these boxes, so there's a non-zero chance that some stuff is still hiding in my parents' attic. I'll have to dig around some more next time I'm over there.
The other big money items I found were a Revised Tundra (which was the only thing I remembered having) and a Sliver Queen, followed by a Null Rod, Eladamri, and then a decent pile of things all in the $5-10/$20-40 ranges. Good job, kid me!
I was also very excited to find enough copies of Revised/Unlimited basic forests, swamps, and mountains to use as my draft lands for those colors. No idea why I don't have any plains or islands. I remember having some more cards that I didn't see in these boxes, so there's a non-zero chance that some stuff is still hiding in my parents' attic. I'll have to dig around some more next time I'm over there.
At just two weeks past its release, I've quit drafting Murders at Karlov Manor. I think that's the fastest I've ever dropped a set. I hate to be super negative, but I feel like this is the worst limited environment they've made since I started playing the game again in 2018. At this point I'm just hoping that Bloomburrow turns out well, because the rest of the sets coming out this year are very Not For Me.
Finally played my first live game of Commander, wound up not using my Doctor Who set that I had picked up previously and instead got another Commander set from one of those random box sets that included sleeves and a box. Got Galea Kindler of Hope from the Forgotten Realms set. I had fun with it and I'm looking forward to the next night this group meets up.
But the deck box that came with the Galea set got me thinking, is there a decent box I can get for my Doctor Who commander that would also easily store the dice, tokens, and (more importantly) the 10 oversized Planechase cards? I'm having trouble locating one that would be worth getting online but it might be due to my still not being familiar with all the lingo. Any advice?
But the deck box that came with the Galea set got me thinking, is there a decent box I can get for my Doctor Who commander that would also easily store the dice, tokens, and (more importantly) the 10 oversized Planechase cards? I'm having trouble locating one that would be worth getting online but it might be due to my still not being familiar with all the lingo. Any advice?
I don't think there's one deckbox that'll store your deck and the Planechase cards, since most deckboxes are intended for the widest possible market (i.e. without Planechase since that's a pretty niche mechanic). I found a Reddit thread specifically about storing Planechase cards where people have a lot of good suggestions!
As for deck boxes, Card Kingdom has a bunch of options, but I believe this one is pretty popular.
As for deck boxes, Card Kingdom has a bunch of options, but I believe this one is pretty popular.
I've had a few nights playing Commander under my belt, and now the main organizer of these events has raised the possibility of doing a Draft night which is not something I was familiar with. I've looked up the basics and it certainly seems interesting, it turns out Drafting happens a lot? Is that what all those booster packs are mainly for?
I might opt to join in if and when they try and do it.
I might opt to join in if and when they try and do it.
Basically yes. Sets are designed to be drafted. That isn't to say that they don't also design individual cards with constructed play in mind, but the overall set as a whole is designed for its limited environment. Some people love drafting, some hate it, but I highly recommend you try it out once or twice to find out for yourself. I like drafting a lot because you always get something different every time.
I will also say that drafting asks you to exercise some very different skills than Commander, so don't feel bad if you feel overwhelmed the first time. Building a deck on the fly is tough! If you're not already familiar with whatever set you're drafting, you should look over the cards in the set ahead of time to give yourself a decent idea of what you can expect to see in the packs. Generally you're going to be drafting a two color deck, and each color pair will have what's called a "signpost" -- an uncommon card for each color pair that generally tells you what those colors are trying to do in that set. For example, in the latest set that just launched over the weekend, you can look at Jolene, Plundering Pugilist to see that creatures with power 4 or greater is a theme for R/G. You don't have to do exactly what the signpost says, but it's a helpful thing to be on the lookout for.
The other big piece of advice for drafting is to find the open lane -- in other words, pay attention not only to the cards that are in the packs you get passed, but also what colors aren't there. Are you on your sixth pick and noticed you haven't seen any red cards? That's a signal that at least one person to your right is drafting red, so that's not open to you. Did you notice you're being passed a lot of blue cards? Then the players around you probably aren't interested in blue, so it's open for you. Like I said above, it can be hard to read those kinds of signals sometimes, so don't get discouraged if you're not sure what to do at some point. One very important thing to pay attention to is the ninth pick of your first pack. That'll be the time when the pack that you opened makes its way back to you (assuming a normal eight person draft pod), which is called "wheeling". If there's a strong card in there that no one else took, chances are that color (or color pair) is open and you can start trying to draft it more heavily.
If you're interested, I can write up a bigger post about how I like to approach drafting. I mostly play limited these days so it's something I think about a lot!
Speaking of limited, my girlfriend and I went to the OTJ prerelease on Friday night because we both thought that it looked mechanically interesting even if we didn't care for the flavor. I ended up doing a clean sweep and going 4-0 without dropping a single game. That was a first for me and it felt great! I'm looking forward to drafting this one a bunch once it's live on Arena.
I will also say that drafting asks you to exercise some very different skills than Commander, so don't feel bad if you feel overwhelmed the first time. Building a deck on the fly is tough! If you're not already familiar with whatever set you're drafting, you should look over the cards in the set ahead of time to give yourself a decent idea of what you can expect to see in the packs. Generally you're going to be drafting a two color deck, and each color pair will have what's called a "signpost" -- an uncommon card for each color pair that generally tells you what those colors are trying to do in that set. For example, in the latest set that just launched over the weekend, you can look at Jolene, Plundering Pugilist to see that creatures with power 4 or greater is a theme for R/G. You don't have to do exactly what the signpost says, but it's a helpful thing to be on the lookout for.
The other big piece of advice for drafting is to find the open lane -- in other words, pay attention not only to the cards that are in the packs you get passed, but also what colors aren't there. Are you on your sixth pick and noticed you haven't seen any red cards? That's a signal that at least one person to your right is drafting red, so that's not open to you. Did you notice you're being passed a lot of blue cards? Then the players around you probably aren't interested in blue, so it's open for you. Like I said above, it can be hard to read those kinds of signals sometimes, so don't get discouraged if you're not sure what to do at some point. One very important thing to pay attention to is the ninth pick of your first pack. That'll be the time when the pack that you opened makes its way back to you (assuming a normal eight person draft pod), which is called "wheeling". If there's a strong card in there that no one else took, chances are that color (or color pair) is open and you can start trying to draft it more heavily.
If you're interested, I can write up a bigger post about how I like to approach drafting. I mostly play limited these days so it's something I think about a lot!
Speaking of limited, my girlfriend and I went to the OTJ prerelease on Friday night because we both thought that it looked mechanically interesting even if we didn't care for the flavor. I ended up doing a clean sweep and going 4-0 without dropping a single game. That was a first for me and it felt great! I'm looking forward to drafting this one a bunch once it's live on Arena.
This flavor isn't for me either, but I had a lot of fun at the prerelease myself! I like the mechanics and I think this is going to be a slower set, thank god. I would have 4-0'd myself but I gave a game to a birthday guy.
Also, I quit Murders after like two or three weeks too. It was miserable to draft, I'm just so sick of nothing but aggro decks. It's been aggro city for a year or so now.
Also, I quit Murders after like two or three weeks too. It was miserable to draft, I'm just so sick of nothing but aggro decks. It's been aggro city for a year or so now.