So I barely know anything about MTG but I want to get cards for myself and a couple friends. What's the easiest way to get into this? (I know there's the video game but I wanna go real cards). I see there are two deck starter kits which seem cool, maybe I get one of those for each of us and then some booster packs? Like $30 per person is what I'm going for. Are the starter decks balanced against each other? Is there other stuff I should know?
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Hi! Thanks so much for being so approachable! The idea of finding a fun card in the same color as some other stuff and making a jank deck around it is extremely up my alley. My closest exposure to something like mtg is playing hearthstone a few years ago. I randomly got a gold hogger card in the first free pack i opened and built a deck around it that hilariously whooped many opponents.
I appreciate the tips about net decking and getting in touch with local game stores!
Two questions:
So are proxies just nonofficial copies of cards that are cheaper but allow you to play with them "for fun" outside of official tournaments?
I see you can buy commander decks on amazon, would you mind explaining a little about what the commander format is or how it's different from whatever the main format is?
Commander deck prices on amazon have been running high since last summer. Check https://www.tcgplayer.com/ just search commander decks, they'll have some older stuff still sitting around the $30-40 range. I see someone already explained how it works differently from standard, but Commander is great for multi-player. Just be aware it can lead to some pretty long drawn out games. Like for hours. Which is a lot of fun... until you die and the motherfucker that knocked you out can't close the deal so you gotta sit for an hour waiting for them to finish up when the next card you were gonna draw could've completely won the game for you! Ahem, yeah, fun stuff.
If I may reiterate my other comment, this is exactly the experience Keyforge is designed to facilitate. You draw a unique procedurally generated deck that you cannot alter in any way. The cards are designed around this expectation, and so your experience is about learning the ins and outs of that specific deck. You have to work with the strengths and weakness and unexpected synergies (and anti-synergies) of it, which is an extremely rewarding experience. You can try the game out with just a pair of decks that will cost you $25 together.
Another game, SolForge Fusion, has a similar premise, but instead you draw two half decks which you mix together. Both of these are designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of MTG, directly in response to what he saw as the flaws in his biggest creation.
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Gosh this is incredibly helpful. Thanks again for this great explainer, it answered many questions I had and cleared up pretty much everything I was confused about. Proxies are rad, I'm relieved people are doing that hah. Definitely think I'm going to go with a few commander decks at this point. Seems like a great place to start and that it can be played with more than two players at a time is really ideal :gold-communist:
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