RE: Had my first Magic: The Gathering games yesterday: Any advice for newbie?
May 9, 2016 at 8:40 am
I'm so happy this thread is here! I'm seriously geekin out right now lol
Okay, so Rob says build a 60 card deck. That's the legal minimum number of cards you can have in a deck. For me, most of my decks (I have over 20 decks) run just fine with 80 or more cards. My artifact deck has 108 cards in it. I have a total of 13 creatures in the deck. That is it. However, I have four of each of the following:
Crown of Empires, Throne of Empires and Scepter of Empires and those three cards, once out on the battlefield, can be powerful. Throne of Empires allows me to do this: Pay one colorless and tap: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield. Put five of those tokens onto the battlefield instead if you control artifacts named Crown of Empires and Scepter of Empires.
In that same deck, I also have the following combination:
I attach a Darksteel plate to an Indomitable Archangel and then attach a Whispersilk Cloak, to the creature, in that order. It's a pretty nasty combination.
As for how much mana to use - the way I was taught is you want to base the number of land cards to be half the number of other cards in your deck. In other words - a 60 card deck you would have 20 land cards. This is based on 40 cards of any combination of creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments and/or artifacts.
Rules and important tips for building a deck:
1. If you're picking a theme, stick with the theme. For example: It isn't necessary to have shadow in a deck if you have other stuff. It is not possible to be prepared for every single situation you will encounter.
2. If you can build a deck that will shut down your opponents deck, all the better.
3. If you can add cards that will help you search your library for other cards, wonderful. Get those cards out by turn three or four.
4. With the exception of BASIC lands - you cannot have more than four of the same card in any deck. In other words - you can have as many basic lands that you want. But you are limited to four of the exact same card in any deck. Example- you can't have more than four pandemonium's (I have 4 of these in a deck. They are tons of fun to play with) in your deck. This also applies to special land cards such as Evolving Wilds. You can only have four of those in your deck. There are similar cards in MTG that do the same thing so you can always have four of several kinds of cards that allow you to search for land cards in your deck.
5. Legendary cards and planeswalkers are the same way with the exception that you can only have ONE of the same card out on the battlefield at any given time, otherwise both cards will cancel each other out. For example: You can have 2 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalkers in your deck, but only one can be on the battlefield at any given time.
MTG's card archive is a good place to start if you want to see what a certain card set contains.
If you click on a link above that I've included, it will show you that specific card, what it does, its mana cost, rating and any rules that apply to it. Once you are on that page, you can, alternatively search for any MTG card, using the search box, as long as you have the name of the card. If you are uncertain about the rules of a particular card, you can type it in the search box and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page for any rules. If there are none listed, then you'll need to either ask a more experienced player or you'll need to consult MTG's rules. I've included a link below.
Rules change over time and are also dependent on what type of game you are playing. Rules for Commander decks are slightly different than a regular MTG game. There are also house rules - our house rules in our family are that you can only attack the person with the highest life total and you can only target someone's creatures if they have the most creatures (unless you are being attacked or you are attacking - then that opponent's creatures who are either attacking you or blocking you, are fair game). Our only other house rule is that once everyone's life total is 10 or less, everyone is fair game.
The rules you'll need are here. This link provides downloads to both the basic and comprehensive rules in PDF format.
If you get really serious about the game like I do, then download the comprehensive rules, But unless you are playing in a tournament, you won't really need that huge file.
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions
Personally, I love running white decks, as they are life gaining decks. I also like running salt and pepper decks too. (black and white decks) Since you are relatively new, I would suggest sticking with a mono-colored deck for now, until you get the hang of the game. Playing a five colored deck is much much harder than playing a one color deck and it takes experience to be able to build a strong five color deck. (Slivers comes to mind hee hee)
Okay, so Rob says build a 60 card deck. That's the legal minimum number of cards you can have in a deck. For me, most of my decks (I have over 20 decks) run just fine with 80 or more cards. My artifact deck has 108 cards in it. I have a total of 13 creatures in the deck. That is it. However, I have four of each of the following:
Crown of Empires, Throne of Empires and Scepter of Empires and those three cards, once out on the battlefield, can be powerful. Throne of Empires allows me to do this: Pay one colorless and tap: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield. Put five of those tokens onto the battlefield instead if you control artifacts named Crown of Empires and Scepter of Empires.
In that same deck, I also have the following combination:
I attach a Darksteel plate to an Indomitable Archangel and then attach a Whispersilk Cloak, to the creature, in that order. It's a pretty nasty combination.
As for how much mana to use - the way I was taught is you want to base the number of land cards to be half the number of other cards in your deck. In other words - a 60 card deck you would have 20 land cards. This is based on 40 cards of any combination of creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments and/or artifacts.
Rules and important tips for building a deck:
1. If you're picking a theme, stick with the theme. For example: It isn't necessary to have shadow in a deck if you have other stuff. It is not possible to be prepared for every single situation you will encounter.
2. If you can build a deck that will shut down your opponents deck, all the better.
3. If you can add cards that will help you search your library for other cards, wonderful. Get those cards out by turn three or four.
4. With the exception of BASIC lands - you cannot have more than four of the same card in any deck. In other words - you can have as many basic lands that you want. But you are limited to four of the exact same card in any deck. Example- you can't have more than four pandemonium's (I have 4 of these in a deck. They are tons of fun to play with) in your deck. This also applies to special land cards such as Evolving Wilds. You can only have four of those in your deck. There are similar cards in MTG that do the same thing so you can always have four of several kinds of cards that allow you to search for land cards in your deck.
5. Legendary cards and planeswalkers are the same way with the exception that you can only have ONE of the same card out on the battlefield at any given time, otherwise both cards will cancel each other out. For example: You can have 2 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalkers in your deck, but only one can be on the battlefield at any given time.
MTG's card archive is a good place to start if you want to see what a certain card set contains.
If you click on a link above that I've included, it will show you that specific card, what it does, its mana cost, rating and any rules that apply to it. Once you are on that page, you can, alternatively search for any MTG card, using the search box, as long as you have the name of the card. If you are uncertain about the rules of a particular card, you can type it in the search box and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page for any rules. If there are none listed, then you'll need to either ask a more experienced player or you'll need to consult MTG's rules. I've included a link below.
Rules change over time and are also dependent on what type of game you are playing. Rules for Commander decks are slightly different than a regular MTG game. There are also house rules - our house rules in our family are that you can only attack the person with the highest life total and you can only target someone's creatures if they have the most creatures (unless you are being attacked or you are attacking - then that opponent's creatures who are either attacking you or blocking you, are fair game). Our only other house rule is that once everyone's life total is 10 or less, everyone is fair game.
The rules you'll need are here. This link provides downloads to both the basic and comprehensive rules in PDF format.
If you get really serious about the game like I do, then download the comprehensive rules, But unless you are playing in a tournament, you won't really need that huge file.
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions
Personally, I love running white decks, as they are life gaining decks. I also like running salt and pepper decks too. (black and white decks) Since you are relatively new, I would suggest sticking with a mono-colored deck for now, until you get the hang of the game. Playing a five colored deck is much much harder than playing a one color deck and it takes experience to be able to build a strong five color deck. (Slivers comes to mind hee hee)
Disclaimer: I am only responsible for what I say, not what you choose to understand.
