Magic the Gathering - Noob thread

Hello everybody!

I had a good time at the first meeting of the year, but I was a little surprised that we had so much interest in Magic: The gathering but not that many people knew how to play or couldn't remember. As such, I intend to offer those who want it a little tuition. My name is Edwin and I'm a 24 grad student so just find the oldest guy at the meetings on Wednesdays in the city if you want to play/learn and you can't go wrong.

Here are the basic rules of the game, I don't expect any of you to read them in depth as the best way is to just play and learn, but they make a useful reference tool in case anybody tries to argue the rules with you, or if you want to know if you can do something in the game that could help you win -

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=magic/rules

For those of you who want to search and read up on specific cards you have or may want to order, The Gatherer is a very useful tool and can explain rules of certain cards for those who are unsure of them -

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

If you do want to pick up the game (and I heard several people say that they do) then it is best to buy your own deck to get started. You can get fully playable starter decks with all the cards you will need from www.magicmadhouse.com or www.manaleak.com If you don't want to order on-line, try Forbidden Planet in town, it's just up the road from Walkabout. Try to stick to older sets or the sets that I mention as the new ones don't give you all the cards you need for an easy to use legal deck out of the box as they are trying to force people to trade and also to make more money, which is lame. Sadly, a lot of the older but good starter decks have sold out (you can thank the tournament nerds for that) but there are still bargains to be had.

Here are a few good starter deck ideas for newbs, but please try not to all buy the same decks. This gets boring and problematic quickly in a large group of players:

http://www.manaleak.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=19900 = KITHKIN MILITIA: An angry army of soldier Hobbits who quickly overwhelm those who don't take them seriously.

http://www.manaleak.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=19903 = ELVISH PREDATION: Lots and lots and LOTS of Elves make short work of anybody. This is perhaps one of the most broken creature types in the game due to how overpowered it can be with the right cards from the new expansions, but out of the box it is a fair and solid starter deck. It's very pricey at manaleak so try Forbidden planet or ebay for a more reasonable price.

http://www.manaleak.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=19904 = BOGGART FEAST: Horrible little warty gremlins want to eat your face, and eat it they shall. At £4 including delivery, this is a bargain starter deck.

These are just some basic ideas. The new M10/Zendikar starter decks are playable, they just take a little work to get going and are harder to use out of the box. The basic rules to remember when building a deck are:

Have at LEAST 20 land cards.

Have at least 60 cards in total (any less and the deck is illegal) but don't try to have to many more.
(A deck can be as large as you like, but there isn't much point going over 60 cards as your deck won't be predictable enough for you to control. You can only have 4 copies of any one card in a deck apart from basic land cards, of which you can have as many as you like.)

Also, try to pick up a D20 for measuring how much life you have. They are pretty darned useful and compact for this.

If you have any questions about the game feel free to ask me via a PM. I also have a couple of spare decks to lend but they are a little bit beardy and overpowered for playing other newbs so please build your own ASAP if you are serious about learning to play. Remember, the game is a LOT easier than it looks and really is a doddle once you get going, no matter how complex it may look to you now. Have a go and enjoy yourself, that what games are all about.

Thank you, and I look forward to playing you all!

Edwin Jones, aka Captain Magic. ( Would a mod be so kind as to make this an official title please? )

edwinj85 wrote:

Have a go and enjoy yourself

Siryessir!

Seems you know your stuff! That would make you the guy in the orange shirt at our little gathering yesterday?

Regards deck size, I vote for 70 cards being the standard everyone goes for? Mainly cos all my decks are 70 cards and I cba to make them 60 I always found I agonized over what cards to leave out when I was making decks when I had a 60 card limit too!

But yeah, if anyone needs help with making a deck or with anything else, I can also offer my services! I don't think I'm as up to date with edwinj85, but I know enough to help a noob out :p

Btw, I am Paul and has looong hair like a girl, if you wanted to ask me at a social or something!

You can use 70 if you like, but remember the more cards you have the less predictable your deck becomes and the more land cards you need to insert to make sure you always have the mana (magic currency the game uses to play spells) to play your spells. Nothing sucks harder than a hand full of win that you can't play due to being manascrewed. The main rule is play casual and play fun, we can bend any rules we need to help people get into it. Being a rules nazi just puts people off and makes them hate you.

Yes, I was the man in the bright orange shirt with a rather awesome gundam on it. I'll try and wear the same shirt next week if possible after it's been in the wash to make sure people can spot me easily.

PS: That's a rather win Rukia Av you have there. Please let me know when the current filler arc ends as I am desperate for moar bleach.

Yeah amaya you n00b, decks should cut as close as possible to the minimum limit to increase the probabillity of drawing good cards, but then a good deck has no bad cards. then again I believe I've yet to beat you at Magic...get a Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, its an abortion of a card game but I'll pwn you at it

edwinj85 wrote:

You can use 70 if you like, but remember the more cards you have the less predictable your deck becomes

PS: That's a rather win Rukia Av you have there. Please let me know when the current filler arc ends as I am desperate for moar bleach.

I believe in the heart of the cards, fuck predictabiliy! :p

And why thank you dear sir, Rukia is pretty cool : ] The recent filler arc is decent, there has been a few good fights at least! I haven't been following it that closely though, just watch an episode or 2 when I've got an hour spare, am about 4 behind the current one I think.



Oh shoebox. You have much to learn.

after having a game of magic the gathering at the first game soc event i decided to buy a card and got the unstable terrian one, is this any good or have i just made a noob mistake?

from what i can gather, there are no bad pre-made decks, they have working strategies and are instantly playable. they just wont be as good or as flexible as a deck with pack cards added

(*edit*) 200 posts bitches! MEGA GAMER

Unstable Terrain is fine, as are most of the starter from Zendikar and M10 decks. You will notice though that you only have 45 cards that are blue and 15 are straight out a booster, which could be of any colour and therefore not playable with the blue mana you will now have.

They want you to buy a starter deck and then buy dozens of boosters until you get the cards you need for the deck, which is a bit evil. To be fair, I'm going to go ahead and make ALL starter decks legal for Gamersoc play, even if you only have a 45 card deck. Just buy yourselves any starter deck you like and we will get playing! Just remember that pretty much everybody else plays with the 60 card minimum rule.

Once you have played a few games you will see which cards you want more of, at which point you can go to www.magicmadhouse.com and order singles for that very purpose. Don't worry about that for now though.

Most pre-cons are playable but they are designed to be customised and a customised deck will almost always beat a pre-con unless it is a very good precon, like the ones I mentioned or you get lucky somehow. This is why I don't want to lend my beardy decks out too much as they will be too good for casual beginner play. I have a zendikar pre con myself, so I might use that for balance.

right got it, pick a few more booster packs then i should be fine, thanks!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

What I meant was play a few games with what you have, then you can figure out EXACTLY what cards you need and then buy the singles. Buying lots of boosters is expensive and there is no guarantee you will get cards you want.

Basically to anybody who is interested - Buy a starter deck and I will show you the rest at the next meeting. Don't go crazy or you may end up buying cards you don't want or need!

right wait till meeting next week to see what i need, ok thanks!

That will work. Don't be afraid to buy cards if you like the look of them though, this is all about having fun. I'm just a cheapskate and cut costs whenever I can. If you want to splash the cash, go ahead.

To Amaya - Heart of the Cards is for Yu-gi-oh. I have no idea what that game is like, but it's called top-decking in Magic when you are counting on the next card you draw (the one on top of your deck surprise surprise) to save your bacon. Whilst many a game has been won by bastard mofo top decking, it is not a good strategy in the long term. Every deck should be filled with useful cards if possible (obviously you may not be able to afford the best all of the time) and sometimes it makes more sense to have 3 of a good card rather than 4, especially if it is a very expensive card to play. You are more likely to draw one of three cards in a 60 card deck than 1 of 4 in a 70+ deck, so if you want to draw your awesome cards every game and save money the cult of 60 is win. It's also a good idea to make sure you have a range of cheap to expensive creatures/spells - not being able to play anything in the first few turns is not a good idea. Not having powerful game ending creatures/spells is also a bit sucky unless you just want to swamp the other players with cheapy little creatures.

That said, feel free to go over the 60 limit. I power game to the max and that isn't for everybody. Play the game how YOU want to play it, I'm just here to teach the rules and guide people.

Remember, rule number one = have fun.

Oh, just had a brainstorm.

If you have an Xbox 360 and want to learn how to play, download the Magic the Gathering: Duel of the Planeswalkers demo. It will explain all the rules and will give you an excellent way to practise before next week.

Strewth, the XBLA game offers a handy little get-back-into-it tutorial, or probably a way to learn from scratch. =)

I'd also like to semi-recommend Vague Connections, a few hundred meters off Upper Parliment street, they have several starter decks for sale, as well as some singles (though not many).

It's also a nice shop, which offers open invitations to go sit and play in there and whatnot. I think.

Edit: And also, just found another shop that opened within the last month or so in Lace Market, Mondo Comico.
You can even apply to WotC for a free 30 card starter deck (I know, 30 card, but I'll point out "free"?) which you should be able to collect at Mondo Comico. If you're feeling like a booster pack, they also seem to have the most competitive price in town (£3), and offer quite a range.

They also do Magic tournaments on (I think) Wednesday nights? Or Tuesdays. Or something. And are having an opening event this weekend.

Hullo
Got my newb cards ready for the morrow, just one question though -
I have a card that has an ability "{T}: Add {F} to your mana pool." And I was wondering if you'd look through your library for one or use a counter, as I notice with most cards it would usually say "look through your library"

By the way the Gatherer doesn't seem to explain the rules for the cards, just appears to be a card viewer of sorts, although if you go onto the first link then go to Magic Set FAQs it has a rather in depth rule explanation for individual cards, didn't have what I was after though.

Andy-G wrote:

"{T}: Add {F} to your mana pool." And I was wondering if you'd look through your library for one or use a counter,

Neither I should think. Just add a mana to your mana pool... when you tap a plains you add one white mana to your mana pool, then use it to lay a card and you dont use a counter for that. Tis not a permanent addition, as if you dont use whats in your mana pool by the end of your turn you take 1 mana burn damage for each unused mana in your mana pool. Manamanamana. Pool. Mana.

Without knowing the card though tis difficult to say 100% though :p I assume its a creature that you tap to add mana of the colour type it says to your mana pool? To me, {F} = Forest, (though Im sure some will be {F} = Fire nub loolol) so I think it could be llanowar elves?

Still havent got my decks with me : (

I paid a visit to the London homestead over the weekend, and decided to sort out all my (and my brothers) Magic cards
He owned me with his Wizard deck, mnost because he had a shit annoying card that taps 5 wizards and lets him remove 5 cards from my deck from the game, and seeing as Blue costs shit all to summon half the time he fucked me over in several turns...

Anyways, I brought both my origional decks (A blue and White, and a Red and Green deck) as well as a newly designed Black deck i'm eager to test
In other words, peoples better bring their Magic decks tomorow so I can (try and) own, and seeing as I'll have 2 spare decks, others can play as well

I await you all...

The card in question is Turntimber Grove, a forest card.
So you're saying it's just the function of your basic land card?
It has another ability too so that may be why they felt it necessary to say "Oh, by the way, this also acts like any other land"

Andy-G wrote:

So you're saying it's just the function of your basic land card?

Except for the +1/+1 thingy ma jig - yarr, just basic land function! :p

And necro, Will seems to win a lot so challenge him

When I remember Ill bring my decks too!

Alrighty cheers.
I did kinda feel the unlimited land thing was a little too uber.
Nothing wrong with a little wishful thinking though