Completely new player here, any advice?

[Saintinel]

Hello!

As the title says, I am a completely new player to MTG, recently I've been wanting to get a new hobby, and TCG was what caught my attention. After looking around, MTG seemed like the one to go for and after some research, a lot of people seemed to say to try MTGA in order to gain understanding of the game so here I am!

If any of you have any advice, I'd be more than happy to hear them out :D

[Kurt Angle's Neck]

Arena is a decent way to learn the mechanics of the game, learn the current meta, and practice drafts. Due to the lack of social interaction, Arena caters more towards competitive players rather than casual players who want to build "fun" decks. The real fun is in playing with people IRL, I suggest that once you get a hang of things you head to your local game store and join in on some Friday Night Magic.

[Saintinel]

Originally posted by Kurt Angle's Neck:

Arena is a decent way to learn the mechanics of the game, learn the current meta, and practice drafts. Due to the lack of social interaction, Arena caters more towards competitive players rather than casual players who want to build "fun" decks. The real fun is in playing with people IRL, I suggest that once you get a hang of things you head to your local game store and join in on some Friday Night Magic.

Thanks for the heads up :) Yeah, I'm definitely someone that's more inclined on a casual level and my goal as someone who knows nothing is to try and make my own decks and learn from my mistakes and so on so forth :) I'll have to look around and see what my options are when it comes to IRL shops :)

[anaris]

throw together a deck you like (23 lands and anything that seems cool) and keep tweaking it based on losses, if you wanna play on here Brawl is a more casual format and Timeless is the most serious and mean. You gotta be ok with losses if u play on here, and ignore the salt on the forums.

Basically u just gotta open some packs and see some cards and go "oooooh" (magic designers deliberately design packs to have this effect)

[Argstein]

i suggest you save up rare & mythic wildcards as much as you can before using them
wait to have a good sense of which cards are actually worth crafting for your builds
while there is some budget meta a lot of the meta builds require many rares/mythics

also 23 land anaris said is only for 60-card builds
historic brawl format has an exact 100-card requirement instead of the non-brawl 60 to 250

[anaris]

yeah 37 for brawl

[anaris]

u can change these land counts as u go they're just given as a starting point. more land if u keep running low or have lots of high cost spells, less land if everything in ur deck costs less than 3 mana and u always have six lands left unused at the end of a turn

[Argstein]

Originally posted by anaris:

u can change these land counts as u go they're just given as a starting point. more land if u keep running low or have lots of high cost spells, less land if everything in ur deck costs less than 3 mana and u always have six lands left unused at the end of a turn

this ^
kinda gotta play it by ear

[Winter Wolf]

Welcome to the game!
As has been noted above:
-- Do build your own decks. Be prepared for them to fail a lot. Tweak them regularly as has been suggested.
-- ALSO learn what "meta" means and check out the meta for M:TGA. Build whatever decks you can that closely match what you have observed. (You might have to substitute inferior cards for a while until you find a deck you can make and play.)
-- As also has been said, conserve your wild cards and do not just impulsively spend them on whatever card seems neat at the moment. There will be many that seem neat that do not do the thing you want to do. Again think about the meta you have leaned about and save towards the cards that give you the best chance to win or at least enjoy the games you play.
-- Check out brawl (or even Standard Brawl) to use those 1 ofs you will accumulate as you collect more cards. Brawl is a singleton format so you only need one of any non-basic. It is also a little more friendly towards casuals but as has been indicated Arena leans heavily towards the spiky side of things (people who like to win more than anything else).
-- accumulate gold and spend it on packs until you have a sizeable collection.
-- Then work towards being able to play Draft (Quick draft tends to be easier and is cheaper but it may not fulfill your desire for fun. Premium draft is 2x as expensive and is where you draft cards against other players rather than vs the machine. You still play other players in both formats though.)
-- Also check out jump in. It is not a hugely beneficial way to get new cards but it can be helpful in learning the ropes strategy-wise while getting into the game.
-- Check out videos and streamers playing the game.

Wherever you live, Wizards of the Coast keeps a fairly up to date list of stores nearby that are part of their WPN. Which in turn can turn out to be the Local game store (LGS) you are looking for. Be aware age ranges quite a bit from younguns to geezers (like me). The social experience in stores may be different than what you expect.

Also know this: Magic is fundamentally expensive. Once you get into it, you may have some difficulty maintaining a budget for it. Products come out all the time. Not all of them are for you. Check videos/streamers for information about upcoming events and products so you can make informed purchases.

Good luck, and have fun!

[anaris]

KNOW the meta - figure out what cards you see a lot and need to know how to beat - but don't PLAY the meta unless it's something you are genuinely excited by. Too many people lose the fun of deckbuilding by trying to fit an archetype they don't like just because it's good.

[Hariman]

Leave while you still can.

The game is arguably fun, but it's full of people who play the most stupidly broken decks possible AND the free to play mechanics are designed to be addictive so you'll never want to leave this living hell.

[Zlehtnoba]

Originally posted by Hariman:

Leave while you still can.

The game is arguably fun, but it's full of people who play the most stupidly broken decks possible AND the free to play mechanics are designed to be addictive so you'll never want to leave this living hell.

Heh. I played for a long time (since Saga), then left for two years, now I'm back.

Magic is many things to many players. The best way to learn is to find a friend who plays and is prepared to introduce you to the game. Hard to do that on Arena. You should look for a game shop in your area, there will be people there ready to help.

Go through the tutorial. Learn how to build a mana base, lands are the most important part of this game. Learn the color philosophies of each color, and of each color pair. There used to be a great series of articles by Reid Duke on the Wizards web site for beginners called Level one, I'm sure you can find something current on the web, Magic has a great community.

And last, you should be aware that Magic is a very expensive hobby. Before you spend any money on Arena, know that you can't get it back, there's no trading here.

[Hariman]

Originally posted by Zlehtnoba:

Originally posted by Hariman:

Leave while you still can.

The game is arguably fun, but it's full of people who play the most stupidly broken decks possible AND the free to play mechanics are designed to be addictive so you'll never want to leave this living hell.

Heh. I played for a long time (since Saga), then left for two years, now I'm back.

Magic is many things to many players. The best way to learn is to find a friend who plays and is prepared to introduce you to the game. Hard to do that on Arena. You should look for a game shop in your area, there will be people there ready to help.

Go through the tutorial. Learn how to build a mana base, lands are the most important part of this game. Learn the color philosophies of each color, and of each color pair. There used to be a great series of articles by Reid Duke on the Wizards web site for beginners called Level one, I'm sure you can find something current on the web, Magic has a great community.

And last, you should be aware that Magic is a very expensive hobby. Before you spend any money on Arena, know that you can't get it back, there's no trading here.

I've gotten to Mythic in Ranked.

I repeat.

I GOT TO MYTHIC IN RANKED. I had a PERCENTAGE by my name.

I'm. Not. A. Noob.


I stopped playing for years and came back today because it came up in a Discord server I'm in.

It didn't take me long to remember why I hate this game so much.


What I detailed above? That's the tip of the iceberg.

LOTS of players with Bad Manners if they're losing, and walk away from their computer. So you'll be stuck waiting out the timer until they auto concede.

Then there's the players who deliberately play decks that take a long time to play so you'll get frustrated and conceded or need to sleep because the match has taken hours... and they WON'T finish you off sometimes, even though it's obvious they could have won an hour ago.

That's STILL only a fraction of the griefers.


On top of that, IF you want to remain competitive with the current meta, you MUST play daily to earn enough to buy pack and to have wildcards to be able to play the new broken bull manure. Or you need to pay money.


I'm not saying this as someone who played a few games and couldn't win.

I'm saying it from the POV of someone who escaped and regrets coming back even for a day.

EDIT: And THAT doesn't even cover the BUILT IN GRIEFING.

Like anti life recovery decks where you lose life every time you play something because the other guy has a bunch of cheap "opponent takes damage because of X effect" cards.

[anaris]

On top of that, IF you want to remain competitive with the current meta, you MUST play daily to earn enough to buy pack and to have wildcards to be able to play the new broken bull manure. Or you need to pay money.

Lol I run no cards from the last ten years

I GOT TO MYTHIC IN RANKED. I had a PERCENTAGE by my name.

oh wow what's that like, 50 games, super experienced lol

Like anti life recovery decks where you lose life every time you play something because the other guy has a bunch of cheap "opponent takes damage because of X effect" cards.

oh noooo u take 1 damage 5 times a match that's gonna be so baaaad

[13lack Talon]

QUIT NOW! While you're still ahead.

Magic the Gathering Plutocracy Arena

One-Armed Bandits in truck stops have higher win-rates than any deck you wield against this games that is using EOMM (Engagement Optimized Matchmaking). You'll find that out when once you're set into the game.

Personally I don't care to be ranked #1, i means nothing unless your in a tournament, I just want to maximize the card packs earned, that's it.

The more you play the more it turns against you to keep you playing to earn the only things you can earn with solely play-time during the game; Cards earned with Dailies and Weeklies.

Everything is is PAY ME!!! and if you did pay them half of the crap is cosmetic, the most WORTHLESS thing in a game of cards. Its really just filler so you feel like you earned something but it has no real use in the game.

I don't care what the card looks like, only that they work. You'll find those rules for cards will vary depending upon how the AI wish to bend the rule without other cards in play allowing for so to happen...

Back when I played, Orcish Archers had different rules in different game modes even though the wording on the card didn't say it could do things it was doing.

I've played at better ran tournaments with real people in charge that barely knew the rules to govern the game. They at least cared that the tournament was fair to all and we followed the rules. This game is mucho manipulated behind the scenes by the AI just to keep engagement up.

You've been warned.

[Kurt Angle's Neck]

Originally posted by 13lack Talon:

this games that is using EOMM (Engagement Optimized Matchmaking). You'll find that out when once you're set into the game

I've been "set into the game" for years and never "found that out". Show us the evidence (of which I'm certain you have none).

Originally posted by 13lack Talon:

Everything is is PAY ME!!

Literally the only thing behind a paywall in this game is cosmetics, and even the vast majority of those can be obtained without spending a single penny.

Originally posted by 13lack Talon:

You'll find those rules for cards will vary depending upon how the AI wish to bend the rule without other cards in play allowing for so to happen...

Provide a single example. Just one. You can't, because this is not true.

Nothing but pure conjectural assertion. Disgusting.