We are looking at buying a bunch of magic cards for our "man cave". Neither of us have played MTG since ~10-15 years ago, so we are unsure as what to get.
I see there are at least a few different product lines which might make sense, e.g. Commander decks? Event decks? Duel decks?
Our requirements are
We are not looking at buying boosters, and building the decks ourselves. We want something that we can pick up and play immediately.
We are not looking at playing in any tournaments, or against anyone outside of group.
We want something where there are many different decks available: goblin build, rush, control, angel build, red instant casting .. or w/e it's called.
We are not concerned about what generation the cards are from, it doesn't have to be a new standard, as long as the decks are somewhat playable with eachother.
We want something where there are at least a dozen or more different decks. We want options available to pick from, and are willing to pay.
What are our options?
From some brief googling, I saw a few product lines which could be used, although again, I've not touched or kept up with MTG for over a decade, which is why I am asking in here.
Event decks?
Commander decks?
Duel decks?
Prebuilt decks made by someone else?
Something else?
Assuming you'll be playing 1v1, you may want to look into creating a Pauper Battle Box (8+ deck archetypes from MTG's commons-only format). The format has lots of different options although it's a little light on Angels. It may be challenging to acquire complete decks but MTGgoldfish.com may be a good starting point to check out the format and amassing a few decks.
Commander decks will probably provide the most variety easily. Assuming you want to play that format.
Duel decks are also good assuming you can find a good variety of them. Some of the older ones are better. The Duel Deck Anthology has fun decks, but it’s also pricey.
If you by any series of decks from the same time frame they will be “mostly” balanced.
All precon decks are subpar(IMHO). It’s best to by boosters from the same era as the decks to fluff them out. My play group we each got a different commander deck from Strixhaven, then we got singles from the same release to tune up the decks. They played out pretty evenly, but two of the decks showed more potential than the others.
@ZombieShakespeare
When I say angles, I don't mean that as a specific requirement. Just, you know, lots of fun different play styles
So what I could read about the Battle Box, is just that it's a collection of ready decks. Which fits what we wanted. So you suggest I use MTGGoldfish to find decks, then use the purchasing option in there, to buy the cards combined? Is there any way to search for names or pricing on these decks?
@Perodequeso
Looking at the rules of Commander, it's not what we want, we mostly play 1v1. So I guess that option is out.
Does Duel deck have to be played against the "duel" deck, or could you take two duel decks, and play a deck from each across? Given that, I understand they were build to play against eachother, but ..
What's a precon deck? And if we go with duel decks, will they be from same time frame, or are duel deck also across different time frames, so we have to pick one? Which I guess would be the one with most options.
You might try a box of Jumpstart packs. Each pack contains a group of 20 cards that are intended to work as half a deck. You open two packs each, shuffle them together, and off you go. I believe each pack comes with a list of the cards it contained, so once the games are done, you can split the deck back into its component parts. Put each half-deck into a box together, and any time you want to play, you can each pick two half-decks and play. I believe this gives you 276 possible decks you can create from just one box (and of course a second box increases that number), and thousands of games where you and your opponent never play the same two decks against each other. Even if you just open all 24 packs and choose which ones go together, and keep them together forever, you still have 12 different decks to play.
This gives you a ton of prebuilt decks that are all mostly balanced against each other (with duel decks you'll find that while the two released together may be optimized to play against each other, playing one from 2012 against one from 2016 may give you an unbalanced game). And if they ever release a Jumpstart 2, presumably you'll be able to expand your half-deck collection to give you even more variety.
Someone mentioned Challenger decks, that they come in updated versions, and in a lot of different variants, and are fully ready to play. Are these an option we could use? Just buy 20-30 of these in newest version available? Is there something I'm overlooking here?
Based on some brief Googling I think there are only 16 different decks widely available plus another 2 only released in Japan. WOTC has released 4 per year since 2018. Most (I assume) are balanced against the others in their respective year but I'm not certain how any would fair if pitted versus decks from other release years.
Card Kingdom offers a variety of decks called the Battle decks. These decks are ready to play, are well balanced and fun to play with.
They rotate the decks offered every few months. Here's their link: https://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/shop/battle-decks
Good point Zombie Shakespeare, that's maybe borderline too few. Maybe if they release more over the years it will be viable, but then there's the whole powercreep as you mention.
Frostangles suggestion actually look really spot on, unless I am missing something. Pre made decks around specific themes, dirt cheap, 60 card games packs ready to be picked up and played? New ones releasing every 1st in month. Maybe we will just buy one of every in-stock option they have.
I recommend Card Kingdom's battle decks if you are looking to play 1 vs. 1 with 60-card decks casually. Basically, you are treating these decks like a board game you pull out of the closet.
I think we will go with Card Kingdoms Battle Decks. They seem to fit everything we want, and we will probably wait 3 months, as there are only 37 available in stock at the moment - and let's be honest, round numbers. Thank you everyone for the feedback.
Some final questions,
Let's say we want to substitute cards in this deck, by buying some large bulks (5.000 - 10.000) loose cards on the side, to both replace cards we won't like, and maybe to build for fun some additional decks. What kind of cards should I be looking at getting then, what would fit into this category / power of cards? Anything? Since we are playing entirely as beginners for fun, or are there different type of cards.
I suggest just buying the decks and familiarizing yourselves with the game before going deeper. Buying bulk lots you usually end up with a lot of garbage.
Once you understand the game a bit you’ll also have more of an idea of what you’ll need to tweak your decks.
Buying specific single cards you want is the most cost effective way to acquire what you want. It’s fun to buy a booster box or two to crack open packs, but that has a lottery aspect to it. If a bulk collection is cheap enough maybe, but like I stated above, it’ll be a lot of hot garbage.
To reiterate, buy some decks. Learn the the game. If what you have becomes stale buy more decks. Then once you’re familiar with the game branch out. It’s really difficult to explain what you’ll need/want to beginners, there’s just so much to the game.
Take my advice, and once you understand your decks come back with questions. You find that you’ll have more precise questions to ask.
We are looking at buying a bunch of magic cards for our "man cave". Neither of us have played MTG since ~10-15 years ago, so we are unsure as what to get.
I see there are at least a few different product lines which might make sense, e.g. Commander decks? Event decks? Duel decks?
Our requirements are
We are not looking at buying boosters, and building the decks ourselves. We want something that we can pick up and play immediately.
We are not looking at playing in any tournaments, or against anyone outside of group.
We want something where there are many different decks available: goblin build, rush, control, angel build, red instant casting .. or w/e it's called.
We are not concerned about what generation the cards are from, it doesn't have to be a new standard, as long as the decks are somewhat playable with eachother.
We want something where there are at least a dozen or more different decks. We want options available to pick from, and are willing to pay.
What are our options?
From some brief googling, I saw a few product lines which could be used, although again, I've not touched or kept up with MTG for over a decade, which is why I am asking in here.
Event decks?
Commander decks?
Duel decks?
Prebuilt decks made by someone else?
Something else?
Duel decks are also good assuming you can find a good variety of them. Some of the older ones are better. The Duel Deck Anthology has fun decks, but it’s also pricey.
If you by any series of decks from the same time frame they will be “mostly” balanced.
All precon decks are subpar(IMHO). It’s best to by boosters from the same era as the decks to fluff them out. My play group we each got a different commander deck from Strixhaven, then we got singles from the same release to tune up the decks. They played out pretty evenly, but two of the decks showed more potential than the others.
When I say angles, I don't mean that as a specific requirement. Just, you know, lots of fun different play styles
So what I could read about the Battle Box, is just that it's a collection of ready decks. Which fits what we wanted. So you suggest I use MTGGoldfish to find decks, then use the purchasing option in there, to buy the cards combined? Is there any way to search for names or pricing on these decks?
Looking at the rules of Commander, it's not what we want, we mostly play 1v1. So I guess that option is out.
Does Duel deck have to be played against the "duel" deck, or could you take two duel decks, and play a deck from each across? Given that, I understand they were build to play against eachother, but ..
What's a precon deck? And if we go with duel decks, will they be from same time frame, or are duel deck also across different time frames, so we have to pick one? Which I guess would be the one with most options.
This gives you a ton of prebuilt decks that are all mostly balanced against each other (with duel decks you'll find that while the two released together may be optimized to play against each other, playing one from 2012 against one from 2016 may give you an unbalanced game). And if they ever release a Jumpstart 2, presumably you'll be able to expand your half-deck collection to give you even more variety.
Someone mentioned Challenger decks, that they come in updated versions, and in a lot of different variants, and are fully ready to play. Are these an option we could use? Just buy 20-30 of these in newest version available? Is there something I'm overlooking here?
Challenger Decks Wiki
They rotate the decks offered every few months. Here's their link:
https://www.cardkingdom.com/catalog/shop/battle-decks
Frostangles suggestion actually look really spot on, unless I am missing something. Pre made decks around specific themes, dirt cheap, 60 card games packs ready to be picked up and played? New ones releasing every 1st in month. Maybe we will just buy one of every in-stock option they have.
Some final questions,
Let's say we want to substitute cards in this deck, by buying some large bulks (5.000 - 10.000) loose cards on the side, to both replace cards we won't like, and maybe to build for fun some additional decks. What kind of cards should I be looking at getting then, what would fit into this category / power of cards? Anything? Since we are playing entirely as beginners for fun, or are there different type of cards.
Once you understand the game a bit you’ll also have more of an idea of what you’ll need to tweak your decks.
Buying specific single cards you want is the most cost effective way to acquire what you want. It’s fun to buy a booster box or two to crack open packs, but that has a lottery aspect to it. If a bulk collection is cheap enough maybe, but like I stated above, it’ll be a lot of hot garbage.
To reiterate, buy some decks. Learn the the game. If what you have becomes stale buy more decks. Then once you’re familiar with the game branch out. It’s really difficult to explain what you’ll need/want to beginners, there’s just so much to the game.
Take my advice, and once you understand your decks come back with questions. You find that you’ll have more precise questions to ask.
I hope this helps.
Seriously though, my vote is for commander decks, followed by a Cube to draft
Some of the older duel decks are also fun, convenient, and well balanced
I used to be a demigod, but now I'm an omnimage