Just circling back on this... this has worked well. I've played a few evenings with my friend and he's picking the game up nicely. I gave him the green/black deck and a spindown counter after playing our first evening to keep. I put together a 'booster' stack of cards to pull from to modify his deck and gave those to him a few nights ago and last night I was happy to see he did well recognizing some good interactions between his deck and some of these new cards and his deck is hitting harder now.
He did observe I was holding back my attacks last night and mentioned I could have done some work. I haven't really taught many folks how to play so I've been trying my best to play the game and do some work but also lay off a bit with attacks in the game so he can get his deck rolling and learn. Rewinds are always an option I told him so don't sweat it. Think of your life counter as a timer. If you win with one life left, that's a win. Also layed out my hands a few times to show my options, even mid-game and talk about opening hands and when to mulligan and what not.
Also brought out some of my constructed decks to show him some of the synergies you can build into.
I enjoy this game and I'm psyched to share it with a worthy adversary.
Now I need my almost eight year old son to get the itch to play.
Thanks again for posting those deck lists Zombie Shakespeare. Bought these from my LGS and will give this a go with my friend. Two color decks with enough mechanics to get his feet wet.
Another idea could be to buy 6 packs each and play sealed. (You could write the contents of each pack, and even swap around packs to change up sealed pools for repeatable play).
Thanks for the idea however I'm teaching someone that's brand new to the game and this may be a bit overwhelming.
I have a friend who I'd like to teach to play MTG. I'd like to build a few budget($20ish or under) basic two color decks to teach him and then give him the deck he plays with at the end of the evening along with a spindown counter. I was thinking of a RW and BG decks. Any suggestions of current deck lists archetypes I could work off of? I wanted to stick with less complex cards.
Updated again with all input given. Just a note that I'm trying to keep this to a single page 'quick' reference and can reference the main MTG rules when further clarification/detail is required.
Appreciate all the input! Please let me know if this needs further honing.
I copied an old "Parts of a Turn" page I found online a while back and put it into an excel spreadsheet for reference when teaching folks about this game and for myself to reference from time to time. This is a 10k ft view of the official rules. I've tried to update the verbiage to match what's in the current rule set. If someone had a moment, I'd appreciate a sanity check of what I've updated in this document.
Appreciate any input.
somegeek
Edit - updated image with below input/corrections. Thanks!
So you basically just have to have every ability memorized to a certain extent?
I'm on the high-end of rules knowledge and even I don't have all the abilities memorized.
There are some general guidelines philosophically that can lead you to getting you to the right answer intuitively.
If it targets something, it's always a triggered ability, never a replacement effect.
If it has you choose something, the majority of the time it is a replacement effect. Sometimes triggered abilities have a choice on resolution so you have to be careful.
If it uses "when/whenever/at", it's triggered.
If it uses "as" or "instead" or "enters the field with", it's a replacement effect.
Would the creature survive if the ability used the stack? eg. Graft 5, if the 5 counters placed for Vigean Hydropon were placed by a triggered ability, it'd die before it ever received them, which means Graft obviously contains a replacement effect.
Likewise ask yourself "would the ability make sense if it was triggered?"
eg. scry lands enter tapped, if that's a trigger the land could be tapped for mana in response to the trigger which defeats the purpose of having it enter tapped.
I'm not involved in the discussion but thanks for this explanation. I like the angle you take here to mentally 'test' the mechanic.
I'm still not sure when I can actually go and play but I do plan to learn more about the game to know what's good and not and other stuff.
Check out the rulings section of this message board. This was something that allowed me to gain a solid understanding of the game and start seeing some very cool interactions between cards that I never pondered before. I've also learned that of the MTG message boards out there, the rulings section of this site is very reliable and accurate with DCI registered judges chiming in on questions in short order.
I enjoy this game immensely and only play with my game group at friend's houses. That being said, I did play once at a sealed event at my LGS and most everyone I played with was pretty easy going and easy to chat with. One guy had the upper hand in our match and was giving me tips toward the end... my anxiety was up just having gone to the event but I had fun and I'm glad I went. A few of the folks I played against took a look at my deck and my sideboard and gave me some suggestions which helped. I do better when I have more time to stare at my cards... 45 minutes, that was short for me to put a deck together. As folks mentioned above, walking through that door already puts you somewhere where you have something in common with those already there without having spoken a word. Great suggestion too to talk to the folks working at the shop.
He did observe I was holding back my attacks last night and mentioned I could have done some work. I haven't really taught many folks how to play so I've been trying my best to play the game and do some work but also lay off a bit with attacks in the game so he can get his deck rolling and learn. Rewinds are always an option I told him so don't sweat it. Think of your life counter as a timer. If you win with one life left, that's a win. Also layed out my hands a few times to show my options, even mid-game and talk about opening hands and when to mulligan and what not.
Also brought out some of my constructed decks to show him some of the synergies you can build into.
I enjoy this game and I'm psyched to share it with a worthy adversary.
Now I need my almost eight year old son to get the itch to play.
My friend is 20. He's a sharp guy and a bit of a gamer so he should pick up the basic play flow of MTG in an evening.
somegeek
somegeek
Thanks for the idea however I'm teaching someone that's brand new to the game and this may be a bit overwhelming.
Appreciate any input.
somegeek
Appreciate all the input! Please let me know if this needs further honing.
somegeek
Thanks much for your help with this!
Note - I will add 704. to the SBA footnote.
somegeek
Appreciate any input.
somegeek
Edit - updated image with below input/corrections. Thanks!
I'm not involved in the discussion but thanks for this explanation. I like the angle you take here to mentally 'test' the mechanic.
Check out the rulings section of this message board. This was something that allowed me to gain a solid understanding of the game and start seeing some very cool interactions between cards that I never pondered before. I've also learned that of the MTG message boards out there, the rulings section of this site is very reliable and accurate with DCI registered judges chiming in on questions in short order.
Good luck to you!
I have about ten decks sleeved up in Mat Red. Curious if the Hyper versions are the same color as the prior version?