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.