Hello everyone! I have been a longtime fan/player of Magic the Gathering. I've been playing since Invasion, albeit at a young age. I would consider myself a "master" of the game; despite always learning weird interactions and strategies, I am pretty well versed in the game and in many formats.
My girlfriend, however, is not.
She is new to Magic, and has taken an interest in it because I am always talking about it. She is very interested, and so I have decided to teach her how to play. My first instinct was to have her watch my friends and I play, but we normally play Commander, and everyone just "knows" what is going on. I would try to explain if she did watch, but I do feel like it would be a bit overwhelming, given the format, and the 25 years of abilities and card diversity to accommodate those long years of success.
So, I spent 10$ and purchased the "Magic 2020 Spellslinger Starter Kit", featuring two 60 card, "ready to play" decks. I was not worried about the money despite them being mediocre decks (They have some interesting rares and the foils will probably eventually be worth at least 5$ a piece), but the main goal was to have some very simple decks to just jump into and explain the basic rules to. I feel like when someone understands the core rules of the game, as a new player, the other cards become intuitive because you understand the functionality of the different card zones and how the game generally works.
I know these decks are kind of... well, bad. My goal is to trim some of the fluff and add some cards that have a bit more impact to make the games play more interestingly, in order to entice new players to the game, mainly my girlfriend.
THE QUESTIONS:
- What cards would you include/cut (budget friendly) to make these decks more interesting, while keeping them on a fairly simple learning curve?
- Should I consider making the decks two colored? My girlfriend is fairly smart, I don't think two colored decks would be, well, mind-breaking.
- How do you teach a new player how to play magic without being overly complicated? As an experienced, longtime player, I've been exposed to everything MtG related. Trying to condense it down seems stressful, and while I believe I can do it, I would just like to hear some outside opinions on how to do so just to make sure that I don't scare her away with the complexity.
Thank you to everyone in advance, it is much appreciated.
Use those as starter decks. Get packs occasionally and let her add as many/little as she wants and you can only swap in one non rare from the pack.
Next up, find out what she likes. My S.O. Was big into Vampires and as luck would have it, Innistrad was on the shelves. I would look at the spoilers and share news of new vampires (still do to this day). I made sure to trade for things my SO would like and even fund the hobby for both of us.
Lastly, you want to start with low power and work up. One of our LGSes has chaff boxes with each card being 10 cents. We both grabbed cards for ourselves and once colors were obvious I recommended a few cards (removal, acceleration, mana fixing) and we had our own personal chaff decks. My SO’s deck grew and shifted to be a monoblack +1/+1 vampire tribal deck with an imposing late game board...Then they opened Olivia Voldaren that was the start of the RB vampire deck that it got so big while being almost singleton it became a commander deck.
Last year we made each other Commander decks. I am looking forward to using the one made for me at the upcoming convention.
Best of luck to the two of you! Tell us what color(s) she picks!
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My girlfriend, however, is not.
She is new to Magic, and has taken an interest in it because I am always talking about it. She is very interested, and so I have decided to teach her how to play. My first instinct was to have her watch my friends and I play, but we normally play Commander, and everyone just "knows" what is going on. I would try to explain if she did watch, but I do feel like it would be a bit overwhelming, given the format, and the 25 years of abilities and card diversity to accommodate those long years of success.
So, I spent 10$ and purchased the "Magic 2020 Spellslinger Starter Kit", featuring two 60 card, "ready to play" decks. I was not worried about the money despite them being mediocre decks (They have some interesting rares and the foils will probably eventually be worth at least 5$ a piece), but the main goal was to have some very simple decks to just jump into and explain the basic rules to. I feel like when someone understands the core rules of the game, as a new player, the other cards become intuitive because you understand the functionality of the different card zones and how the game generally works.
I know these decks are kind of... well, bad. My goal is to trim some of the fluff and add some cards that have a bit more impact to make the games play more interestingly, in order to entice new players to the game, mainly my girlfriend.
THE QUESTIONS:
- What cards would you include/cut (budget friendly) to make these decks more interesting, while keeping them on a fairly simple learning curve?
- Should I consider making the decks two colored? My girlfriend is fairly smart, I don't think two colored decks would be, well, mind-breaking.
- How do you teach a new player how to play magic without being overly complicated? As an experienced, longtime player, I've been exposed to everything MtG related. Trying to condense it down seems stressful, and while I believe I can do it, I would just like to hear some outside opinions on how to do so just to make sure that I don't scare her away with the complexity.
Thank you to everyone in advance, it is much appreciated.
Next up, find out what she likes. My S.O. Was big into Vampires and as luck would have it, Innistrad was on the shelves. I would look at the spoilers and share news of new vampires (still do to this day). I made sure to trade for things my SO would like and even fund the hobby for both of us.
Lastly, you want to start with low power and work up. One of our LGSes has chaff boxes with each card being 10 cents. We both grabbed cards for ourselves and once colors were obvious I recommended a few cards (removal, acceleration, mana fixing) and we had our own personal chaff decks. My SO’s deck grew and shifted to be a monoblack +1/+1 vampire tribal deck with an imposing late game board...Then they opened Olivia Voldaren that was the start of the RB vampire deck that it got so big while being almost singleton it became a commander deck.
Last year we made each other Commander decks. I am looking forward to using the one made for me at the upcoming convention.
Best of luck to the two of you! Tell us what color(s) she picks!