I played a long time ago but have stopped due to reasons. Friend's little brother is interested in learning and I'm taking on the efforts to teach him.
I do not have any cards at the moment. What do you guys recommend I buy as a start to teach him how to play? The products I see online now feel soo different to what I am familiar with in the past.
One question you may want to ask yourself (and your friend's brother) is how invested do you each want to become in the game? Do either of you expect to start playing FNM or local tournaments? Do you just want to play between yourselves? Do you want to make "good" decks? Do you want to just make decks and be able to make a bunch of different ones?
Here are some different options:
On eBay, there are lots of 1000-2000 cards that "guarantee" a certain number of commons, uncommons, rares, and mythics (and sometimes foils). If you are just looking to start playing and building whatever, I think these are a good first step. The caveat here is that these cards are rarely constructed playable or, at least, are the cheaper components to constructed playable decks. I think they are a good value for just getting started and being able to mess around with different themes, colors, strategies, etc. Just try to get ones that at least say they don't include more than 4 of any card. I am not sure how accurate this statement would be, but at least you can limit the possibility of getting 87 Healing Salve.
You could buy the Deckbuilder's toolkit. This gives you 500 or so cards along with 4 (I think) boosters to open. These, again, often aren't going to allow you to easily evolve into a constructed playable deck, but they give you a fair number of cards to work with.
You could each get an Intro deck with one of the planeswalkers. At least this way, you each get to play with a planeswalker, the decks are preconstructed so they are ready to play, they come with 2(?) booster packs, and they allow you to choose a strategy/theme up front. Again, these will not translate as well into an FNM type setting.
They stopped printing them, but the Duel Decks might not be bad either. They are cheap, not really constructed playable in anything for a variety of reasons, but it comes with two decks and you can each take one or swap every so often. If you can get one with planeswalkers as the face cards, you can then use those later in decks you may want to build.
Something that would translate better to a Standard tournament setting is a Challenger deck. These are actually themed to fit into one of a few Standard playable strategies and they provide a number of valuable and powerful cards. You will potentially want to modify them to make them better but they can at least be brought to an FNM out of the box and potentially make a good showing.
If you plan on doing more with tournaments and don't like the Challenger decks, you can just look up deck lists online and buy the singles needed to make a deck. The question at that point is what format to play. Standard is easier and cheaper to get into initially but Modern is cheaper in the long run since your deck pretty much never has to change (though it can with new printings of cards). Multiplayer EDH/Commander is also an option if you want something fun without being too competitive. This would require at least one more person though to do multiplayer. Either way, this is likely to be your more expensive option.
Almost all of Wizards' official products are awful for teaching new players how to play. They don't stick to evergreen mechanics, so you'll be teaching your friend all about stuff like Energy just for them to (likely) never use them again. There are a number of third party products out there which are better for new players, like Cardkingdom's Rookie decks. They also have Battle decks, which are slightly more complicated versions of old draft archetype decks. They don't have any cards worth any money but they're dirt cheap and will do a much better job at teaching a complete amateur.
Once your brother is familiar with the game, I'd probably just start jumping right into drafts. Rather than just opening your packs and being done with them, you can get a few hours of playtime in for your entry fee while you slowly expand your collection. The EDH preconstructed decks are also a good start to that format. They're actually built well enough to function right out of the box and with only $20 or so of upgrades, you can get something good enough to take wins at your LGS.
The planeswalker decks caught my eye first but was abit concern in teaching how a planeswalker works in the first couple of games. I doubt these decks can function without a planeswalker?
I also didn't know the Challenger decks exist. This sounds interesting and would research abit more on it.
The planeswalker decks have 2-3 cards that deal specifically with the planeswalker (including the Planeswalker themselves). You can just take out the planeswalker and use the other cards for their other effects. The decks can certainly function without them. They are just there because they are supposed to be fun to use a planeswalker. I would push more towards the Challenger decks since they are overall more cohesive though they are a bit more expensive.
Don't they still give out the free beginner decks? If your friend's brother is new, you can ask a game store if they have the beginner decks. I got one for each of my kids when I was teaching them, then slowly taught them about upgrading by replacing the worst cards with better ones.
I do not have any cards at the moment. What do you guys recommend I buy as a start to teach him how to play? The products I see online now feel soo different to what I am familiar with in the past.
Here are some different options:
On eBay, there are lots of 1000-2000 cards that "guarantee" a certain number of commons, uncommons, rares, and mythics (and sometimes foils). If you are just looking to start playing and building whatever, I think these are a good first step. The caveat here is that these cards are rarely constructed playable or, at least, are the cheaper components to constructed playable decks. I think they are a good value for just getting started and being able to mess around with different themes, colors, strategies, etc. Just try to get ones that at least say they don't include more than 4 of any card. I am not sure how accurate this statement would be, but at least you can limit the possibility of getting 87 Healing Salve.
You could buy the Deckbuilder's toolkit. This gives you 500 or so cards along with 4 (I think) boosters to open. These, again, often aren't going to allow you to easily evolve into a constructed playable deck, but they give you a fair number of cards to work with.
You could each get an Intro deck with one of the planeswalkers. At least this way, you each get to play with a planeswalker, the decks are preconstructed so they are ready to play, they come with 2(?) booster packs, and they allow you to choose a strategy/theme up front. Again, these will not translate as well into an FNM type setting.
They stopped printing them, but the Duel Decks might not be bad either. They are cheap, not really constructed playable in anything for a variety of reasons, but it comes with two decks and you can each take one or swap every so often. If you can get one with planeswalkers as the face cards, you can then use those later in decks you may want to build.
Something that would translate better to a Standard tournament setting is a Challenger deck. These are actually themed to fit into one of a few Standard playable strategies and they provide a number of valuable and powerful cards. You will potentially want to modify them to make them better but they can at least be brought to an FNM out of the box and potentially make a good showing.
If you plan on doing more with tournaments and don't like the Challenger decks, you can just look up deck lists online and buy the singles needed to make a deck. The question at that point is what format to play. Standard is easier and cheaper to get into initially but Modern is cheaper in the long run since your deck pretty much never has to change (though it can with new printings of cards). Multiplayer EDH/Commander is also an option if you want something fun without being too competitive. This would require at least one more person though to do multiplayer. Either way, this is likely to be your more expensive option.
Once your brother is familiar with the game, I'd probably just start jumping right into drafts. Rather than just opening your packs and being done with them, you can get a few hours of playtime in for your entry fee while you slowly expand your collection. The EDH preconstructed decks are also a good start to that format. They're actually built well enough to function right out of the box and with only $20 or so of upgrades, you can get something good enough to take wins at your LGS.
The planeswalker decks caught my eye first but was abit concern in teaching how a planeswalker works in the first couple of games. I doubt these decks can function without a planeswalker?
I also didn't know the Challenger decks exist. This sounds interesting and would research abit more on it.
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