Hello all. I am over 40. I am finally starting to play Magic. The reason why I am starting now is because my son wants to play, so I can play with him. I have finally got a game in now so learning the basic rules. So is there a good place to talk to about Magic? Is there a forum that I should visit? Would the Bethesda forum here be a good place to talk about it?

What are your favorite colours? I prefer black for some reason, being evil, but just got a new deck because it had Dragons in it. I think it's an all red deck. I like dragons and with Skyrim coming out, I thought it might be cool to try out. Haven't opended the deck yet waiting for son to come home so we can share the experiance.

So what colours do you like and use and why? Do you stick to one colour or more? If more how many and why? I herd someone say stick to 2 colours and no more, but don't know why they said it.

How do you guys and girls play? Are you serious hard core players? Do you have fun playing?

What should I have in my deck? What should I be looking for to make my Deck better? What is good and what is bad?

Hope to talk to you guys and girls about Magic now.

I used to play it back when it first came out. Haven't played since then though. I like black and white most, but really Magic is all about the strategies... whatever color works.

There is a computer game with a free demo that would let you practice the basics ad infinitum. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/DuelsOfThePlaneswalkers.aspx

I recently started myself (maybe two months back) but I'm getting quite versed in the rules and such and if you have any questions just ask and I will try my best to answer (you can PM me too about it if this thread falls down and you don't want to necro it). I will use my deck as an example for one way to play and I will try to answer some of the basic questions I had when I started while explaining the premise of my deck, sorry if I get too thorough (or if I'm not thorough enough).

I like to play with a green and white deck (first I picked those colours because I like being the good protector kind of person in games and they seemed to fit the bill) which combo quite well with my sort of play-style that centers around surviving for a long time and then absolutely swarming my enemy with a lot of creatures.

White offers me a lot of control and enchantments, many white creature cards have abilities that for example give me life when a creature comes out which is excellent for me because I throw out a lot of creatures and I add to that a white creature that gains +1 in power and +1 in toughness for each life I gain.

Those many creatures I mentioned come from my green cards such as the creature http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249397 and green spells such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249662

As you can see Parallel Lives allows me to gain two Saporling creature tokens* however even then 3 mana is a lot of mana for only two creatures with only 1 in power and toughness, fortunately green decks usually have a lot of mana ramp (that is ways to gain mana quickly through creatures that give you mana such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221892 or spells that allow you to fetch lands in your library such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233231) so mana is often not of consequence and I can end up getting live for each token and in turn my before mentioned creature that gains +1 power and toughness, http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249413, gets counters. Basically it all works together, each card complimenting the next one.

*(A creature token as the name suggests is a token that represents a creature, it is basically like conjuring up creatures you don't have in your deck and they can be represented by most anything, even a face down card, but many use special token cards which often come in booster packs, those token cards are only meant to be kept to the side until a player puts out the kind of creature token that token card represents.)

Now I believe I mentioned green getting a lot mana, there are also other ways I utilize that besides my Jade Mages, many cards both cost a normal mana cost and then a X mana cost such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205112 and having a lot of mana to spend on the X cost is one of the good points of having a largely green deck. However the player isn't just going to sit still and wait for me to attack him so it can be good to have enchantments that help you either defend against your opponent or breach through his or her defenses which brings me back to white. I use enchantments such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234567 to keep my opponent from bringing his own plans to fruition by stopping whatever vital link there may be in it, and if I have a big creature out but can't attack my opponent because he has a solid defense of creature I use enchantments such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220154, a enchantment that makes the creature that has it unblockable and immune to damage from other creatures if I decide to use the creature with the enchantment to block with.

Then there are artifacts. Artifacts are those gray cards you can find that seemingly have no colour such as the artifact http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193528 (if you follow the link you will see that it is another card designed to work with all of my creatures as it gives some one creature +1 in power and toughness for every creature I have out, so if I've used a Jade Mage to summon 4 Saporlings which are quite weak by themselves and I put the artifact on one of them then it shoots up to 6 power and toughness, that is it already had 1 already, then +5 since I have 5 creatures out (the jade mage + the 4 saporling tokens who get counted as creatures too even if they are just tokens). But artifacts are not only equipments like Pennon Blade or items such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214345 (this gives me more mana and stronger tokens of the chosen color) and such, they can also be creatures, artifact creatures that is. Take for example http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=244251 (more token creatures anyone ?) who classifies as both an artifact and a creature, so he can both be destroyed by the spell http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=237015 which can destroy any artifact (or enchantment) and http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=226560, which destroys any non-black creature.

There are more features to my deck which I have not mentioned yet but I don't want to be too daunting to a new player, but as I've said if you have any questions just ask here or send me a PM.

Played it back in the 90s. Think I last played it in 1997. I have no idea what the game is like these days but I'm sure it's different enough that my old decks would not stand a chance or might even be illegal.

I bought the Deck Builders Toolkit which was great because it gave 25 of each land and enough cards of each type to build a decent deck. Picked it up about 3 weeks ago because the college I went to is big into things of that nature. Starting off I would say build your deck around the uncommon(silver icon) cards. Some of them are pretty handy and if you have multiples will really give you some help. Magic involves a lot of reading and understanding what things mean so I would say read each card and start to formulate how they work together. Another tactic ive seen for building decks is to have a good series of moves that you try to build up to, basically a finishing combination that once that game has played out you can use.

eg. One strategy called Dovescape uses a really basic flying creature, 1 artifact and a couple other effects but used correctly can spawn an endless army of 4/4 birds. I got it for about 19 million on that one time.

I actually enjoy it despite never playing any table top or card game before. Just have fun with it at first and play a lot of games using any combination of 1-2 lands types that you have. Then once you find out what works and what doesn't you'll find games going a lot smoother.


Edit: As a novice I find that either the green or white/ or a combination of both; are much simpler to use and generate strategies.

I've played since 1999. I prefer black and blue, although I used to be an avid red player. I would suggest you start out with maybe buying a starter deck and then getting boosters and just messing with the composition of that deck. Hunter2121's idea about the Deck Builder's Toolkit is also awesome because it gives you a lot of options.

If you do not know about it, use http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx to search cards and stuff. Check out http://mtgsalvation.com/ for an awesome wiki and website for rules and whatnot. Just type in something and it will usually have an article on it.

Thanks Ellert for that post. Looking forward to more from you. I am still not sure what colour I want to collect yet, but will try Black, maybe white and Red since I just got a deck with Dragons vs Knights.

From what I seen so far, Green Land cards, some of them have extra abilites, that so far I haven't seen from others. Is this unique to Greens then?

I haven't seen a Deck Builders Toolkit yet, but I will keep my eyes out for them. Thanks Orzorn for the links I am checking them out now.

Type Deckbuilders Toolkit into Amazon, theres about 15 choices there, usually costs 24 bucks with S&H.

Used to have an awesome wall deck back in the day.

Probably half the cards in it are banned from tournament play nowadays <_<

Heh heh got about 3 of the rare Jace cards that were worth like $80 to $100 now they ain't worth squat .


Used to play and collect however with money being tight I stopped however as one novice/newbie to another here's what I can offer up.

1. Put a minimum of 15 land cards in your deck possibly 20.
2. If you go for a dual color spec becareful and put in dual colored lands like the Dragon's Spire *if current* to get you manna.
3. Above all else remember you can only have 4 of 1 particular type of card in your deck this does not include lands unless they are special like the mentioned Dragon's Spire card.
4. Customize the deck to have different play styles and strategies however figure out if you are a spell caster or creature person. Have a friend who was near professional level to professional level *not sure* and built a wicked deck that was meant to burn the enemy down.

Above all else I just say have fun and don't try to get too wrapped up in it as it can really consume people.

Also if you have a bit of computer expertise I would try a program called LackeyCCG and download the Magic The Gathering Plugin. It will let you assemble decks, print out sheets, and let you play online against other people to give things a testfire. Just make sure to visit the main site for MTG maker so you can see what cards are legit to use.

I played back when it first came out (early/mid 90s) but only casually with my girlfriends son. It was a blast because the 3 of us would sit down on a Friday night an play for hours. Getting new cards and building decks then playing with them provided hours and hours of fun. We would talk about different strategies, research cards in magazines (this was back when the internet was just beginning and no one had a connection) and we would stop by bookstores and buy more booster packs/decks. It was kind of an enchanted time because the game was so new and easy to pick up and we all picked it up quickly and had a blast doing so.

After I broke up with that woman, I didn't really play much for years.

Then I found the game on the xbox and I've played it a lot since. I still can't get any of my friends to play so I just play the computer. It's better than nothing and it's quite fun.

Anyways, I play love playing and experimenting with all different kinds of decks. There are descriptions in the decks of that decks abilities and strategies. I use that as a rough guide on how to play and just go with the flow.

I particularly like green decks because of the creatures and the ties to nature. Something about that just appeals to me but black does also. Nothing like the unleashing an undead horde.

Fun game.

Magic is great game, I used to play on tournament level legacy games when I was younger.
My favorite deck was Prismatic Dragon deck which basically was able to play huge load of different kind of dragons fast. I have that one still laying around here somewhere...

I started somewhere between Fith Dawn and Kamigawa, can't remember which year.
I really like the color red, I also like blue, and white.
I got a Goblin deck a wizard/control deck, a soldier deck and tons of more (I think I have about 8 or 9 decks) all my decks are work in progress.
I usually play with my cousins when they visit and my brother sometimes, there used to be a place up here where you could play each friday, but it died out. THe place where I could buy MTG cards in my town also shut down, so the closest place is about 10 hours away with a car.
As for what you should put in your deck it really depends on the deck, I think Scourge had some good dragon cards.

White and Red could be fun, red is a very aggressive way to play, it often encourages you to destroy your own creatures for the sake of dealing damage, for example with Flinghttp://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=241858 and http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220435, however that doesn't mean it's bad. Take the aforementioned Goblin Grenade and use to to sacrifice a creature called http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=242485, a creature that deals one damage to either a creature or player when it dies and costs only one mana. Then you're left with dealing at least 6 damage to the opponent for only two mana, even more if you manage to attack and he lets the attack through since you can play Goblin Grenade at any time, so you attack and your opponent decides if he want to block the 1 damage or not and if he does you can still play Goblin Grenade and deal 6 damage to the opponent even if you don't get that 1 extra damage from the initial attack through.

You'll see that this kind of playstyle leaves your own field quite empty of creatures but white is excellent at allowing you to survive and it can have enchants that offer you even more damage early on.

There is more to white and red but I'm not gonna delve too deeply into that while I don't even really know what kind of playstyle you may end up with

About mana, it was mentioned that you should go for 15-20 lands but it is generally recommended to go for around 20-24 lands, wizards of the coast design most all of their starter decks with 20-24 lands and they recommend a balance of 2/5th lands (24/60), 2/5th creatures (again 24/60) and 1/5th(12/60) of other spells such as instants and sorcery.

It's not an absolute and I myself have quite a bit less creatures and more instants and sorcery keeping them nearly equal (I got a bit more creatures) and I have 22 mana in my deck, 4 plains, 16 forests and 2 special lands called http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221923 (it gives me either white or green mana if I tap it, the choice is mine).

Some would say I have too few plains but I keep cards to find them such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233231, http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249399, http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=236907 and sometimes I even find myself searching for a plain through a creature called http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=241832, however it's rare that I don't have a plain out by the time I can cast that card even if I only have 6 lands that give me white mana (the 4 plains and the 2 sunpetal groves).

So you can have too little of some mana if you have enough of ways to acquire it, my mana searching tools can all use green mana so I mostly use green mana and then just keep a few planes around in my deck for a few white cards.

Sunpetal grove is also just one of many special lands and they are not bound to any color, you can use a special land in most any deck if it's of use to you.

About playing as black that is entirely possible and playing mono (single colour) can even be better as a beginner because it's easier to work with mono decks. My friend runs a mono black deck and can beat my deck just as easily as I can beat his deck, so it's viable but I personally don't find mono decks to be all that fun, there is a certain flavor that is added to the game when you mix two colors or even more together, however the general rule of thumb is that the more different kinds of colours you keep in your deck the harder it is to build it properly and if you carelessly throw all the colours in a single deck you may find yourself starved for certain kinds of mana you may need.

I've been playing since teneb, the harvesters set. Too lazy to look when that card came, but if someone actually cares about if it was 4,5,6 or 7 years ago, google is your friend.

Magic nowadays has been simplified quite a lot. There is of course a bazillion different rules only mentioned by their name that you need to learn if you truly want to know what is going on, but complex combat tactics like it was a few years ago has been taken away. Examples of such rules are trample, lifegain, first strike, double strike, shroud, hexproof, infect, flyer, reach, deathtouch and many more.


As for what i personally like, it changes every year with new sets coming and going from the T2 standard format I play, but i always try to create a land-destruction deck. (which doesn't work nowadays in T2 standard because it's f'd up with too much mana cost and such).

As a new player, you will probably just ignore the whole format thing? T2 standard uses only the latest sets, usually the stuff in between two coresets and a little in addition to that.


As for a general direction to follow when making a build: Don't use creatures without a special ability. That's just a terrible waste of a card. Use destruction/exile cards in your deck, but not too many if they are one-time use only cards as you'll lose slots in you deck that way. 5-6 instant/sorcery/enchantments that destroy big creatures from the enemy, or many small enemies is a good way to go about it.

As for general combat strategy; you'll always want to smite down as many of your opponents creatures as you can without killing your creatures. Especailly early on, new players tend to make the bad mistake of blocking with their creature so it dies just to save a few hit points. Bad bad bad. Build up your force early on instead.

As for dragons, lol. Good luck getting a good deck out of that without using dragonstorm combo.. It's just very slow and really needs some fast early on guys to even stand a chance.

Thank you everyone for yout tips. Me and my son are playing and we keep, or I should be saying I muck up the rules and keep making mistakes. (since he is going off by what I read the rules )

Just got a Vampire deck, and now I don't know what to put in LOL. So many choices now, with Vampires, Dragons and alot of the Black cards. My son seems to like Green and White, and me Black and Red. So far we don't like blue, but mostly because of the blue we do have is not that great.

Not sure if I want to try and get an Angel force. I see he has some Angel cards. Is there a deck for Angels like there is for Dragons/Knights and Vampires?

I've always been big fans of artifact decks actually... Mirrodin was my favorite block, needless to say......

And if you or your son has an Xbox and Xbox Live, I would really recommend downloading the Magic: The Gathering arcade game. It's a great way to learn and pretty fun to play online!

Angels tends to be very powerful so there are generally no starter decks with angels as a theme because to put out an angel you need time and if you only have angels in your deck then your opponent is going to have many turns of free shots at your life before you can throw out an angel. The White & Green starter deck for M12 has http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220086 in it but that is the only angel in the deck while the rest consists of weak creatures with low mana cost and enchantments to make them stronger.

I won't say it's not possible to create a deck made up entirely of Angels, I in fact have played with the idea for some time to make such a deck, however it's nothing a starting player would wish to delve into and quite possibly not all that efficient.

I used to run with a lot of angels in my White & Green deck and in the deck I had quite a good amount of creatures that allow me to tap them for mana such as http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221892 and spells that allow me to throw mana of my choice out on the field so I can get angels out faster. It was quite possible for me for example to sometimes have a game that would start like this.

1. I put down a Forest and tap it for http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221892.
2. I put down a Plains and tap it along with my Forest for http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233231. Depending on if I'm lacking Plains or Forest I get the appropriate mana and put it on the battlefield tapped. Then I tap the Llanowar Elves for enough mana for another Llanowar Elves or even an http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197959.
3. I put down either a forest or a plain, having at least 2 plains out at this point and 2 forests and my Llanowar Elves + either another Llanowar Elves or an Arbor elf I can tap it all for 6 mana and throw out an http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220086 in turn 3, or even a different angel like http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214030 in case I got 3 plains with a single forest and 2 elves for tapping. And even if you don't get such a perfect starting hand and you end up with a maximum of 5 mana in turn 3 then you could still throw out http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220176.

In the end the possibilities are quite many and if you have an idea you'd like to try out I'd just go for it, and of course it never hurts to ask for advice on how to execute your idea.