I started playing Magic in September 2014. At first every FNM I went to I was stomped by players with grossly stronger decks.
My 2 friends and my girlfriend started playing at the same time as me.
Out of the 4 of us I have spent the most money on MTG by far. I have enough cards to actually build some of the competitive decks on this forum, where as my friends - they barely have 1/5th of the cards to even make one.
I've went to about 7 FNM's and I have come to the realization that there is no room for casuals at FNM.
-Expensive decks are rampant, the same guys that come 1st, 2nd and 3rd/4th are all running decks that cost $200++ (more than my one friend has even spent on magic).
The fact is that playsets of cards like Battlefield Forge, Mana Confluence and Fetchlands simply aren't viable for a casual player.
I've personally played against great players of MTG, that simply cannot afford to win because of a lack of money. I played against a kid with a green/black enchantment deck and it was great, I'd never played against such a deck, but he was sorely missing things like Master of the Feast.
Some people's sideboards cost more than casual players decks, have an Elspeth+Sorin in your sideboard? GG 55$
It is as such that I realize something as 'casual' as FNM isn't really casual at all.
I have even won a small local FNM, playing against some my friends. I have spent the most money on magic of all my friends. Coincidence - I don't think so. Even though I sideboarded very effectively, chances are I still would have won regardless due to simply having cards like Hero's Downfall/Rabblemaster/Purphoros/Bloodstained Mires etc etc
As such I found my friends preferring to stay at home and play MTG instead of at FNM where they can be more competitive - no one likes to lose all the time because of money vs skill.
Its more of a store meta game than an issue with FNM. Some stores are extreamly competitive, while others are much more casual. If you can, shop around for a different store/additude.
Dont play STD then , you can play other competitive formats like pauper or Draft , pauper is more skill intensive and has some of the best magic cards of all time , is a nice format for rogue decks, and the decks are inexpensive... or you can aproach the other way , speak to your friends and persuade them to buy a modern deck , yes it will be expensive (500+) , but they will have the deck forever...
For cases like this its a good idea, if you have enough people to split into 2 FNM.
One for the "competitive" people and the other for the more casual style decks and newbies.
That way everyone has the level of competitive and deck building they want.
Its not really much fun if half the people play totally casual decks, while some pack the actual constructed decks (it might be, and if its cool, just do so).
But in general, if you have the option, split into groups that make sence.
You can make budget decks and win at FNM like Boss Sly decks and W/B heroic.Using a budget deck to beat these hich costed decks is the best feeling ever so thats why i keep trying even tough alot of my oponents have a card more expensive then my intire deck because the reward for winning is worth it
Having a standard deck worth $200 isn't really that much - that could really just be the cost of a mana base for a 3 color deck. It wasn't that long ago where stuff like Esper Control or Jund were $600+ decks.
I've had FNM experiences all across the spectrum. I'm at my 3rd new store for the year. It is probably the least rewarding shop, but I like all the people that go there. The problem is that new players don't really have much of a chance. You don't get a pack for entering like you did at my last 2 shops, so it's really hard for a new player to make any momentum and build a collection. We do have an established group of 20 or so players where that's not really a problem, but it is worrying that new players are going to find it very hard to get into the game when they're never going to win anything.
It is solely dependent on the store and I think more particularly the size of the store. My local store's more competitive crowd comes out for standard on Thursday night, while FNM has some competitive players, but more just college kids and high school kids who play kitchen table decks. It's also a store where there are sixty people at a FNM and pairings generally separate the two levels of play. If that store didn't suit you and you're not having fun, then find a new store. Ask the store owners if they run more casual events like EDH nights or something.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I stopped playing in tournaments years ago. My local FNM became exactly like this. Too competitive, too serious, and honestly, I had just out-grown it. Here's the kicker though, I was one of the guys playing all the expensive decks. Even so, I just stopped enjoying the constant ebb and flow of Standard, and how my cards would lose value at an exponential rate once they were not Standard legal.
My best advice is to stop playing Standard as soon as you can. Start collecting cards gradually for Modern/Legacy, or play Commander with your friends at the kitchen table. Drafting is also alot of fun. You can make a Cube for play at home as well. Keeping up with Standard can bleed your bank account dry, and it isn't something for I suggest to a casual player.
The fact about Magic is that, no matter how skilled you are, you still need to invest money to win at a consistent rate. The best players in the world can't pilot a terrible deck to victory. *except for Draft. A hobo with 15 dollars to his name can win Draft*
With all of that said...I have to bring up the point that in another recent post, you said that you don't understand why Siege Rhino is good. Not to be mean, but that shows me that you still have alot of room to grow before hitting a plateau. Magic, at its core, is a simple game, but to truly understand the intricacies of the game takes practice and time.
Ok so I figured I'd post about my experience with this sort of deal. In my area there three shops one is more laid back and casual (still has players including myself who have tier one decks that costs lots of money)
Anyways I get sought out by alot if these players and really I don't know why I guess they find me approachable compared to others I don't know if that's besides the point.
I get approached by them and asked if I can help them with there decks. So we spread it out and I tell them what's wrong or what to fix(these fixes are imo of course) they ask how can they win more. I always tell them you have to clean up your play but also tell them the unfortunate thing most don't want to hear but need to hear. In order to win you have to get competitive and in order to do that you gave to pump the $ into your deck. Now of course I always suggest budget friendly option like mono red, u/w heroic, even jeskai ascendency isn't that expensive it's like 250$ at the most. Then I suggest how the should aquire the cards most of the time I say eBay and tcg player are your options.
In the game now a days if you wanna win you have to be competitive. If you wanna be competitive you at least have to be prepared to put at least some money into your collection.
Fnm is to me imo a casual competitive tournament so one should never go into it expecting to face straight casual fun decks or intro decks.
It amazes me how people will probably never stop complaining about how much it costs to build and play a "tier" deck. Be glad you didn't play during Caw-Blade, that deck was an easy $600. The cost to play standard competitivly has dramatically dropped. And $200 isn't a massive sum of money for many hobbies. Compare it to the cost of video gaming, and it's pretty comparable. Or skiing. Or a set of golf clubs. Or paintball. Or whatever. All hobbies need some form of cash pumped into them on some level to compete at higher levels, and Magic has done a great job of making good cards affordable.
That's about half the equation- having the capitol to compete effectivly in a constructed environment. Theother half of the equation is that you're playing with people who have years of experience on you. Some may have honed their skills for 10 years or more. To expect to do well against that field after two months is unrealistic. However, you'll learn much more quickly from playing against players at this skill level, and it shouldn't take you the same amount of time to reach a comparable skill level.
If you or your friends are unwilling to invest the cash needed to play standard, do drafts. Inexpensive, and puts everyone on a level playing field in terms of card availability. Do enough drafts and you'll accidentally acquire some number of playable pieces for standard that can be traded to build a better deck.
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I think it really depends on the store. The one that I frequent has a tight-knit group of fun, semi-competitive players that have all known each other for years. You just need to find a scene that isn't as cutthroat.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
It amazes me how people will probably never stop complaining about how much it costs to build and play a "tier" deck. Be glad you didn't play during Caw-Blade, that deck was an easy $600. The cost to play standard competitivly has dramatically dropped. And $200 isn't a massive sum of money for many hobbies. Compare it to the cost of video gaming, and it's pretty comparable. Or skiing. Or a set of golf clubs. Or paintball. Or whatever. All hobbies need some form of cash pumped into them on some level to compete at higher levels, and Magic has done a great job of making good cards affordable.
That's about half the equation- having the capitol to compete effectivly in a constructed environment. Theother half of the equation is that you're playing with people who have years of experience on you. Some may have honed their skills for 10 years or more. To expect to do well against that field after two months is unrealistic. However, you'll learn much more quickly from playing against players at this skill level, and it shouldn't take you the same amount of time to reach a comparable skill level.
If you or your friends are unwilling to invest the cash needed to play standard, do drafts. Inexpensive, and puts everyone on a level playing field in terms of card availability. Do enough drafts and you'll accidentally acquire some number of playable pieces for standard that can be traded to build a better deck.
I think the issue here is the perception of Magic versus the reality. Magic is marketed towards teens and young adults primarily. It is marketed to approximately the same demographic that plays modern video games such as Dragon Age and Halo. Teens and young adults don't have much spare money, and to them, $50-$60 (the price of a new video game) is about all the can reasonably produce for quality entertainment. Because of this, they assume Magic follows the same trend. $50-$60 dollars should get me a good deck. Not some indie budget deck, but a Good deck. Unfortunately for them, Magic has a much higher price ceiling than $50-$60, and many new players don't realize this until they are already losing and disappointed with their purchase.
Golf, skiing, and even paintball to a lesser extent, have the perception of being a more expensive hobby. Magic doesn't have that same perception (a pack of cards is only $3.99!?), and that can be misleading depending on what you expect your experience with Magic to be like.
You can't expect to be "casually" into a hobby and be on par with the people who are "seriously" into it. If I were casually into sewing I would expect someone who is seriously into it to have better equipment and be more skilled. If I were casually into tuning cars I would never race for pink slips.
The store I used to play at was like this. They had 5 or 6 of the best players in my state and they are very competitive. They would get upset if you played a rogue deck like turbo fog or white weenie because they were always getting ready for a big tourney. They wanted to play test against tier 1 decks only. The truth is one of the reasons that pro players are so good is because in competitive events there are only 3 or 4 decks that are going to see play. That makes meta gaming a lot easier for pros than most FNM players.
We actually did split our local FNM into casual and competative. it was very very successful for around a year and a half. however those that joined with the casual crowd eventually got so invested in the game some were better than the competitive crowd but they were attached to the casual crowd so stayed in the casual FNM. meaning it was no longer as casual or relaxed where as the newer players all joined the casual so the competitive started dying off due to lack of new blood.
Given it just looked like what was going to appear was the same thing as was before. they just made it one big FNM, this works much better.
Overall though i believe that the game is mostly about skill. but you need to invest to get the most out of ouyr deck too. it just so happens that the skilled players will be the ones more willing to invest making it look like money buys sucsess. (I learnt this is not true when i shelled out for a $300 deck and still lost until i got better at the game)
Obvisiously it makes no sence to have "casual" players with competitive decks which simply are not casual at all.
If you make a clear cut into 2 groups they have to be distinquished.
Time-wise they can both happen at the same time, it just exists that a casual player wont get 4+ competitive opponents and simply get crushed.
The idea is that casual players will indeed get other casual players to play with.
For a competitive player its also not really worth your time to simply crush some "newbs" , you want some competition, so you need better opponents with actual decks.
In the end, if the players dont care for the differences in casual/competitive, you just dont (unless you want a quicker tournament with less rounds, reason enough we have multiple FNM, some 8-men 3 rounds for the people that cant stay too long and bigger ones for the rest).
Problem gets similiar in Drafts for FNM. You just want to pair the "casual" newbies together, and the competitive players aswell ; unless you simply dont have enough players to make a split anyway.
I think the issue here is the perception of Magic versus the reality. Magic is marketed towards teens and young adults primarily. It is marketed to approximately the same demographic that plays modern video games such as Dragon Age and Halo. Teens and young adults don't have much spare money, and to them, $50-$60 (the price of a new video game) is about all the can reasonably produce for quality entertainment. Because of this, they assume Magic follows the same trend. $50-$60 dollars should get me a good deck. Not some indie budget deck, but a Good deck. Unfortunately for them, Magic has a much higher price ceiling than $50-$60, and many new players don't realize this until they are already losing and disappointed with their purchase.
Golf, skiing, and even paintball to a lesser extent, have the perception of being a more expensive hobby. Magic doesn't have that same perception (a pack of cards is only $3.99!?), and that can be misleading depending on what you expect your experience with Magic to be like.
100% agree also some people will rip you off when you start, heck even after that. Sharks are a thing this days and you should be aware of prices and winning decks at all times.
To the OP: You are correct, there is no room for casual decks on today's FNM, specialy in big stores and cities with lots of players.
This hobby has evolved far beyond the kitchen table where there are millions of dollars in prices and events across multiple countries.
The international community drives the prices up to a point never before seen in the history of the game.
If you want casual get your organizer to run special turnaments like pauper or get together a commander deck (heck even commander is cutthroat now).
My point is that that is how things are nowdays casual has lost its appeal since there si so much to be gained and most folks are going after the free candy
at the end of the night for top 8 or top4 depending on attendace and cost of event.
My advice if you dont want to spend so much cash, get a different hobby.
I understand your frustration. I have played tier 1 competitive decks in the past, but I have multiple local metas. When I am at sea, my meta is full of random casual decks, like golem.dec, etc. When I am home and I go to my LGS, there are tier 1 decks.
My solution may not work for you, but I hope that it might. I built one rogue competitive deck that happened to be budget that I play at the LGS. At the time it cost me around $50, and it consistently places well, but it's not the playstyle that many people like to play with or against, but I'm fine with that. I enjoy playing it. I could probably build other tier 1 decks on my budget (I budget $80 a month on Magic, no exceptions), but it would take me quite some time. Also, the deck would be no fun to play in my at-sea meta, as no one enjoyed playing with me when I used to do that. So, I set limits to myself. My decks are usually less than $50, and no quick-combo kills. What I tend to do is pick a tier 1-2 deck and see if I can build a budget version. For example, budget Tron can be built with Firespout instead of Oblivion Stone, Steel Hellkite instead of Wurmcoil Engine, and Terastodon in stead of Karn, Liberated. The deck works very similarly, but is way cheaper to build and is still fun to play against and with. I'd never take it to any serious tournament environment, but it appeals to my Spike style of play without making it unfun for my at-sea meta or breaking my budget.
When you begin to build a deck on a budget, you have to first learn about as many "engines" as you can. What I mean by "engine" is a card or group of cards that work together to create tempo or card advantage. A deck without an engine is really a stack of randoms with a hope for a win. Some engines are absurdly expensive, while others are alright for the budget. Due to budget constraints, most of your decks will use engines that specialize on card advantage rather than tempo, especially if the engine uses multiple colors, because of the price of a manabase. A tempo engine in multiple colors requires a manabase that doesn't rely on lands that enter the battlefield tapped, thus the requirement for an expensive manabase. That's something that people like us are going to just have to accept for the time being.
Some example of budget engines are Haakon, Stromgald Scourge combined with Nameless Inversion and other knights, as you get to repeatedly use Nameless Inversion to take out opponents' creatures, giving you card advantage, or Reveillark combined with various utility creatures, using cards like Grisly Salvage to stabilize the manabase, get the utility creatures into the graveyard quicker, and to search out the Reveillark.
So, it can be done, but it requires that you set limits for yourself, become extremely familiar with decks, their engines, and archetypes, and accept that you aren't going to win every game. I still win most games in my at-sea meta, and I still do well at my LGS with my (now expensive) rogue deck.
"Casual" play is relative. For some people, it means brews, budget decks, and generally playing things that are not "tier 1" (or maybe even 2 or 3). For others, it means not having to follow competitive REL rules, and watch for cheaters like a hawk every match like you would at a GP. Personally, I like my stores modern FNM because it is the right level of competiveness for me: people generally play tier 1 & 2 decks with a few brews here and there; they are out to win but they're polite about it. I generally bring "tier 2" decks like soul sisters, U tron, and UW control and generally win more matches than I lose. But yeah, if you bring your $50 brew you probably won't do that well.
Stores really are different. Some are much more casual than mine. As others have said, draft is a great way to make it not about money, while also allowing you to "brew." It can be pricey since it's usually $15 or so to draft, but if you're good you can put your winnings toward future drafts at most stores. Make no mistake though... draft can be every bit as competitive as constructed.
Look into other formats they support... a lot of stores have an EDH league for more casual play. Some people think this can get too competitive as well, but I think it's less cutthroat than 60-card formats at almost every store. My store has a powered cube draft every week that is free and has no prize support. I haven't played it, but imagine it's much more casual-player oriented.
As such I found my friends preferring to stay at home and play MTG instead of at FNM where they can be more competitive - no one likes to lose all the time because of money vs skill.
Good players play good decks. This is actually one of the cheapest times for standard in awhile, the previous format was cheap too. Typically an average deck will cost you around $700 and some will be over $1000. Decks right now are closer to the $250-$300 range. Magic unfortunately is a pay to play game, there are budget options but there aren't budget options for every type of deck. Right now the budget option is Boss Sligh, anything else is a waste of your time and money.
If that doesn't appeal to you, look into Modern decks. They have a higher upfront cost (a budget deck usually being about $500, up to some decks which are $2000) but they don't have rotation to force your deck out of the format, and their cyclical metagame means that decks fluctuate in effectiveness but rarely full drop out of being a contender. There's also a much greater variety of decks to play and it's a cheaper format than standard over time because rotation makes cards less expensive and more accessible rather than removing them from the pool you can play with.
If you don't like that option either there's limited. On the surface limited looks like it's a level playing field but sealed and draft are actually the most skill intensive formats. If you're a new player going up against better players you're going to lose way more often in limited than you would in constructed (especially standard which is all about who lands a bomb) because it's a format where better players get the leverage their ability to evaluate cards, build decks, and play decks opposed to just playing them.
The store I used to play at was like this. They had 5 or 6 of the best players in my state and they are very competitive. They would get upset if you played a rogue deck like turbo fog or white weenie because they were always getting ready for a big tourney. They wanted to play test against tier 1 decks only. The truth is one of the reasons that pro players are so good is because in competitive events there are only 3 or 4 decks that are going to see play. That makes meta gaming a lot easier for pros than most FNM players.
This is a huge advantage for anyone with byes. Starting 3-0 in a GP cuts the range of decks you'll face that day by a good 80%.
I used to think that all you had to do was spend a lot of money on a deck and you'd win.
Not true at all.
I used to be heavy into Standard. I bought every top card for every top deck. No matter what I played I'd never do very well. At least not consistently. I'd have a few good nights here and there but I wasn't one of the regular winners even at a small FNM of about 12 to 16 people.
After a while I discovered that winning at any kind of Magic took 2 things
1) Skill
2) Luck
There is a lot of variance in this game. Even with a top tier deck, you can draw poorly. Skill, while able to sometimes make up for some of that variance, can't eliminate it. I discovered this when I got heavily into Legacy. I'm a better Legacy player than Standard player (which isn't saying much) and even playing a "good" deck, I don't win a lot. Sometimes I get outplayed but sometimes I just have the worst luck like drawing 8 lands in a row out of an 18 land deck.
But I find that the ones who top 8 the most are the best players at our LGS. Sure, we all have $3,000 decks but some of us play them like they're $300 decks. One time I played my deck against somebody and got crushed and then we switched decks and I still got crushed.
Having said all that, no, you can't bring a deck of all commons to any event other than pauper and expect to win. Not even the best player in the world can win with a bad deck. But like somebody pointed out, the good players invest in the game. Some of them saved up for months to buy their deck. Now naturally in Standard that's not an option so maybe Standard isn't for your or your friends. I can't afford it myself anymore and have just put together one deck (mono black) that I intend to play until rotation. So far, I'm doing pretty well with it having made top 4 about half the weeks so far since this last rotation.
Unfortunately, this is an expensive hobby. Chess, which is entirely skill based, is cheap as heck. You can get a decent chess set for about $20. Magic isn't chess, but it's a lot more fun if you ask me.
Luck has some role in magic but if you put a tier 1 deck in a quality players hands they will win a lot of games. I remember playing against a player who had dominated my FNM for about a year. I thought he was a great player but when his deck rotated he became one of my easiest opponents. Some decks are so good they can make a player look better than they are.
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My 2 friends and my girlfriend started playing at the same time as me.
Out of the 4 of us I have spent the most money on MTG by far. I have enough cards to actually build some of the competitive decks on this forum, where as my friends - they barely have 1/5th of the cards to even make one.
I've went to about 7 FNM's and I have come to the realization that there is no room for casuals at FNM.
-Expensive decks are rampant, the same guys that come 1st, 2nd and 3rd/4th are all running decks that cost $200++ (more than my one friend has even spent on magic).
The fact is that playsets of cards like Battlefield Forge, Mana Confluence and Fetchlands simply aren't viable for a casual player.
I've personally played against great players of MTG, that simply cannot afford to win because of a lack of money. I played against a kid with a green/black enchantment deck and it was great, I'd never played against such a deck, but he was sorely missing things like Master of the Feast.
Some people's sideboards cost more than casual players decks, have an Elspeth+Sorin in your sideboard? GG 55$
It is as such that I realize something as 'casual' as FNM isn't really casual at all.
I have even won a small local FNM, playing against some my friends. I have spent the most money on magic of all my friends. Coincidence - I don't think so. Even though I sideboarded very effectively, chances are I still would have won regardless due to simply having cards like Hero's Downfall/Rabblemaster/Purphoros/Bloodstained Mires etc etc
As such I found my friends preferring to stay at home and play MTG instead of at FNM where they can be more competitive - no one likes to lose all the time because of money vs skill.
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One for the "competitive" people and the other for the more casual style decks and newbies.
That way everyone has the level of competitive and deck building they want.
Its not really much fun if half the people play totally casual decks, while some pack the actual constructed decks (it might be, and if its cool, just do so).
But in general, if you have the option, split into groups that make sence.
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I've had FNM experiences all across the spectrum. I'm at my 3rd new store for the year. It is probably the least rewarding shop, but I like all the people that go there. The problem is that new players don't really have much of a chance. You don't get a pack for entering like you did at my last 2 shops, so it's really hard for a new player to make any momentum and build a collection. We do have an established group of 20 or so players where that's not really a problem, but it is worrying that new players are going to find it very hard to get into the game when they're never going to win anything.
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I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
My best advice is to stop playing Standard as soon as you can. Start collecting cards gradually for Modern/Legacy, or play Commander with your friends at the kitchen table. Drafting is also alot of fun. You can make a Cube for play at home as well. Keeping up with Standard can bleed your bank account dry, and it isn't something for I suggest to a casual player.
The fact about Magic is that, no matter how skilled you are, you still need to invest money to win at a consistent rate. The best players in the world can't pilot a terrible deck to victory. *except for Draft. A hobo with 15 dollars to his name can win Draft*
With all of that said...I have to bring up the point that in another recent post, you said that you don't understand why Siege Rhino is good. Not to be mean, but that shows me that you still have alot of room to grow before hitting a plateau. Magic, at its core, is a simple game, but to truly understand the intricacies of the game takes practice and time.
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Anyways I get sought out by alot if these players and really I don't know why I guess they find me approachable compared to others I don't know if that's besides the point.
I get approached by them and asked if I can help them with there decks. So we spread it out and I tell them what's wrong or what to fix(these fixes are imo of course) they ask how can they win more. I always tell them you have to clean up your play but also tell them the unfortunate thing most don't want to hear but need to hear. In order to win you have to get competitive and in order to do that you gave to pump the $ into your deck. Now of course I always suggest budget friendly option like mono red, u/w heroic, even jeskai ascendency isn't that expensive it's like 250$ at the most. Then I suggest how the should aquire the cards most of the time I say eBay and tcg player are your options.
In the game now a days if you wanna win you have to be competitive. If you wanna be competitive you at least have to be prepared to put at least some money into your collection.
Fnm is to me imo a casual competitive tournament so one should never go into it expecting to face straight casual fun decks or intro decks.
That's about half the equation- having the capitol to compete effectivly in a constructed environment. Theother half of the equation is that you're playing with people who have years of experience on you. Some may have honed their skills for 10 years or more. To expect to do well against that field after two months is unrealistic. However, you'll learn much more quickly from playing against players at this skill level, and it shouldn't take you the same amount of time to reach a comparable skill level.
If you or your friends are unwilling to invest the cash needed to play standard, do drafts. Inexpensive, and puts everyone on a level playing field in terms of card availability. Do enough drafts and you'll accidentally acquire some number of playable pieces for standard that can be traded to build a better deck.
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I think the issue here is the perception of Magic versus the reality. Magic is marketed towards teens and young adults primarily. It is marketed to approximately the same demographic that plays modern video games such as Dragon Age and Halo. Teens and young adults don't have much spare money, and to them, $50-$60 (the price of a new video game) is about all the can reasonably produce for quality entertainment. Because of this, they assume Magic follows the same trend. $50-$60 dollars should get me a good deck. Not some indie budget deck, but a Good deck. Unfortunately for them, Magic has a much higher price ceiling than $50-$60, and many new players don't realize this until they are already losing and disappointed with their purchase.
Golf, skiing, and even paintball to a lesser extent, have the perception of being a more expensive hobby. Magic doesn't have that same perception (a pack of cards is only $3.99!?), and that can be misleading depending on what you expect your experience with Magic to be like.
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Obvisiously it makes no sence to have "casual" players with competitive decks which simply are not casual at all.
If you make a clear cut into 2 groups they have to be distinquished.
Time-wise they can both happen at the same time, it just exists that a casual player wont get 4+ competitive opponents and simply get crushed.
The idea is that casual players will indeed get other casual players to play with.
For a competitive player its also not really worth your time to simply crush some "newbs" , you want some competition, so you need better opponents with actual decks.
In the end, if the players dont care for the differences in casual/competitive, you just dont (unless you want a quicker tournament with less rounds, reason enough we have multiple FNM, some 8-men 3 rounds for the people that cant stay too long and bigger ones for the rest).
Problem gets similiar in Drafts for FNM. You just want to pair the "casual" newbies together, and the competitive players aswell ; unless you simply dont have enough players to make a split anyway.
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To the OP: You are correct, there is no room for casual decks on today's FNM, specialy in big stores and cities with lots of players.
This hobby has evolved far beyond the kitchen table where there are millions of dollars in prices and events across multiple countries.
The international community drives the prices up to a point never before seen in the history of the game.
If you want casual get your organizer to run special turnaments like pauper or get together a commander deck (heck even commander is cutthroat now).
My point is that that is how things are nowdays casual has lost its appeal since there si so much to be gained and most folks are going after the free candy
at the end of the night for top 8 or top4 depending on attendace and cost of event.
My advice if you dont want to spend so much cash, get a different hobby.
My solution may not work for you, but I hope that it might. I built one rogue competitive deck that happened to be budget that I play at the LGS. At the time it cost me around $50, and it consistently places well, but it's not the playstyle that many people like to play with or against, but I'm fine with that. I enjoy playing it. I could probably build other tier 1 decks on my budget (I budget $80 a month on Magic, no exceptions), but it would take me quite some time. Also, the deck would be no fun to play in my at-sea meta, as no one enjoyed playing with me when I used to do that. So, I set limits to myself. My decks are usually less than $50, and no quick-combo kills. What I tend to do is pick a tier 1-2 deck and see if I can build a budget version. For example, budget Tron can be built with Firespout instead of Oblivion Stone, Steel Hellkite instead of Wurmcoil Engine, and Terastodon in stead of Karn, Liberated. The deck works very similarly, but is way cheaper to build and is still fun to play against and with. I'd never take it to any serious tournament environment, but it appeals to my Spike style of play without making it unfun for my at-sea meta or breaking my budget.
When you begin to build a deck on a budget, you have to first learn about as many "engines" as you can. What I mean by "engine" is a card or group of cards that work together to create tempo or card advantage. A deck without an engine is really a stack of randoms with a hope for a win. Some engines are absurdly expensive, while others are alright for the budget. Due to budget constraints, most of your decks will use engines that specialize on card advantage rather than tempo, especially if the engine uses multiple colors, because of the price of a manabase. A tempo engine in multiple colors requires a manabase that doesn't rely on lands that enter the battlefield tapped, thus the requirement for an expensive manabase. That's something that people like us are going to just have to accept for the time being.
Some example of budget engines are Haakon, Stromgald Scourge combined with Nameless Inversion and other knights, as you get to repeatedly use Nameless Inversion to take out opponents' creatures, giving you card advantage, or Reveillark combined with various utility creatures, using cards like Grisly Salvage to stabilize the manabase, get the utility creatures into the graveyard quicker, and to search out the Reveillark.
So, it can be done, but it requires that you set limits for yourself, become extremely familiar with decks, their engines, and archetypes, and accept that you aren't going to win every game. I still win most games in my at-sea meta, and I still do well at my LGS with my (now expensive) rogue deck.
Lantern Control
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On speculators and counterfeits
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Stores really are different. Some are much more casual than mine. As others have said, draft is a great way to make it not about money, while also allowing you to "brew." It can be pricey since it's usually $15 or so to draft, but if you're good you can put your winnings toward future drafts at most stores. Make no mistake though... draft can be every bit as competitive as constructed.
Look into other formats they support... a lot of stores have an EDH league for more casual play. Some people think this can get too competitive as well, but I think it's less cutthroat than 60-card formats at almost every store. My store has a powered cube draft every week that is free and has no prize support. I haven't played it, but imagine it's much more casual-player oriented.
Good players play good decks. This is actually one of the cheapest times for standard in awhile, the previous format was cheap too. Typically an average deck will cost you around $700 and some will be over $1000. Decks right now are closer to the $250-$300 range. Magic unfortunately is a pay to play game, there are budget options but there aren't budget options for every type of deck. Right now the budget option is Boss Sligh, anything else is a waste of your time and money.
If that doesn't appeal to you, look into Modern decks. They have a higher upfront cost (a budget deck usually being about $500, up to some decks which are $2000) but they don't have rotation to force your deck out of the format, and their cyclical metagame means that decks fluctuate in effectiveness but rarely full drop out of being a contender. There's also a much greater variety of decks to play and it's a cheaper format than standard over time because rotation makes cards less expensive and more accessible rather than removing them from the pool you can play with.
If you don't like that option either there's limited. On the surface limited looks like it's a level playing field but sealed and draft are actually the most skill intensive formats. If you're a new player going up against better players you're going to lose way more often in limited than you would in constructed (especially standard which is all about who lands a bomb) because it's a format where better players get the leverage their ability to evaluate cards, build decks, and play decks opposed to just playing them.
This is a huge advantage for anyone with byes. Starting 3-0 in a GP cuts the range of decks you'll face that day by a good 80%.
Not true at all.
I used to be heavy into Standard. I bought every top card for every top deck. No matter what I played I'd never do very well. At least not consistently. I'd have a few good nights here and there but I wasn't one of the regular winners even at a small FNM of about 12 to 16 people.
After a while I discovered that winning at any kind of Magic took 2 things
1) Skill
2) Luck
There is a lot of variance in this game. Even with a top tier deck, you can draw poorly. Skill, while able to sometimes make up for some of that variance, can't eliminate it. I discovered this when I got heavily into Legacy. I'm a better Legacy player than Standard player (which isn't saying much) and even playing a "good" deck, I don't win a lot. Sometimes I get outplayed but sometimes I just have the worst luck like drawing 8 lands in a row out of an 18 land deck.
But I find that the ones who top 8 the most are the best players at our LGS. Sure, we all have $3,000 decks but some of us play them like they're $300 decks. One time I played my deck against somebody and got crushed and then we switched decks and I still got crushed.
Having said all that, no, you can't bring a deck of all commons to any event other than pauper and expect to win. Not even the best player in the world can win with a bad deck. But like somebody pointed out, the good players invest in the game. Some of them saved up for months to buy their deck. Now naturally in Standard that's not an option so maybe Standard isn't for your or your friends. I can't afford it myself anymore and have just put together one deck (mono black) that I intend to play until rotation. So far, I'm doing pretty well with it having made top 4 about half the weeks so far since this last rotation.
Unfortunately, this is an expensive hobby. Chess, which is entirely skill based, is cheap as heck. You can get a decent chess set for about $20. Magic isn't chess, but it's a lot more fun if you ask me.