Eric Deschamp’s article on building a Magic: The Gathering deck emphasizes the importance of having a solid plan and having a clear strategy. The first step in deckbuilding is to decide on the format you’re building a deck for, such as the standard format or the 60-card deck for new players. Choosing a deck type is crucial, as well as determining the desired number of cards.
For the Constructed format, a deck should have at least 60 cards and a sideboard of 15 cards. In most formats, about 35-40 of the deck should include lands. It is important to remember that your deck should have a unified goal, not just a pile of cards.
To build a deck, determine how you want to play, determine the color combination, and create your template using the results from steps 1 and 2. This method will work on any version of a Magic: The Gathering deck and can be applied to any game format.
A basic rule of thumb for assigning land count to your deck is 24 lands for medium mana curve decks. If your deck has a solid plan, play cards that matter and use the search option to look at the mythic rares in your collection and decide which colors are best for your deck.
📹 How To Start Playing Standard Magic The Gathering |Intro To Deck Building, Card Selection And Events
#magicthegathering #mtg #mtgstandard Are you looking to Shuffle Up & Play games of Magic: The Gathering over webcam?
What cards are in a standard 52 deck?
A standard deck of playing cards consists of 52 cards in each of the four suits of Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs, each containing 13 cards. Modern decks usually include two Jokers. A variety of games can be played with a standard deck or a modified deck, with some listed on BGG. A larger list can be found under the Traditional Playing Cards family, while Traditional Card Games is a placeholder for games not in the BGG database. John McLeod’s Pagat. com offers a comprehensive list of traditional card games and articles about playing cards.
How do you set up a standard MTG deck?
To build a Magic: The Gathering (MTG) deck, you need to consider the different deck types available, such as Aggro, Control, creature-based, planeswalkers, enchantments, win condition, attack and linear, reactive, and flexible. To create a deck, you need to determine the number of cards needed, the desired win condition, and the desired mana colors. For Limited decks, you need at least 40 cards, while Constructed decks require at least 60 cards and a sideboard of 15 cards. For Commander or Brawl decks, you need one commander card, 99 cards for Commander and 59 for Brawl.
To choose the right mana colors, you need to understand the different Magic: The Gathering mana colors and their meanings. Once you have a rough idea of your deck’s goals, you can begin crafting your deck. Remember to have a good understanding of the different mana colors to create a well-rounded and effective deck.
What should a 60 card magic deck consist of?
Magic: The Gathering players should aim for basic mana to make up one-third of their deck, which can be 20 to 24 cards in a 60-card deck. For mono-colored or one type of mana, players can remove an additional basic mana card, ideally not below 20 mana. For multiple types of mana, players should aim for not going below 22 of all mana types combined.
The “mana curve” or the amount of mana each card requires to play is crucial for players. An ideal mana curve favors cards that cost less mana to play, allowing players to build up their forces early on in the game.
In addition to Standard, players can explore other formats like Modern and the free-for-all Commander. These formats offer thousands of cards to discover their preferred playing style or develop new ones. Players’ first Magic: The Gathering Standard deck is just the beginning of a larger multiverse of magic.
What are the three types of magic decks?
Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game where players create their own deck of cards, which are used to battle opponents. With over 20, 000 unique cards, players can construct various decks based on their play style and mode of victory. These decks can be loosely classified based on these archetypes to create competitive balance and diversity.
Aggro decks aim to reduce opponents from 20 life to 0 life quickly, while control decks avoid racing. Combo decks focus on avoiding racing, while midrange decks focus on combining different strategies. The game’s designers often create cards to fuel one or more of these archetypes to create competitive balance and diversity. These concepts extend to other collectible card games, with most deck classifications starting from one of four major strategies: aggro, control, combo, and midrange.
How big is a standard magic deck?
The rules for sanctioned Constructed formats include a minimum deck size of 60 cards, with no maximum size. Players can have a sideboard of up to 15 cards, and exchanges between games are not required on a one-for-one basis. A player’s combined deck and sideboard may not contain more than four of any individual card, unless stated otherwise. All cards named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest, and Wastes are basic.
The Standard format, introduced in 1995, became the flagship format in the constructed deck tournament scene and is most commonly found at Friday Night Magic tournaments. A variation called Arena Standard is used for online play through Magic: The Gathering Arena. This format consists of the most recent standard sets (expansion/core set) releases and is included for up to three years. The number of sets included in the standard format increases as new sets are released until the oldest sets are rotated out again the following fall.
As of May 2024, the current Standard set includes Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Streets of New Capenna, Dominaria United, The Brothers’ War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: the Aftermath, Wilds of Eldraine, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Murders at Karlov Manor, and Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
What is a Tier 1 Magic deck?
The Rakdos Aggro deck is a top-tier deck in the Bloomburrow Bo1 meta, with a strong presence and favorable games. It is considered the most dominant deck in the format, with a high percentage of victories and favorable games. The deck also has a solid presence in the meta, with a good pilot likely playing one of these archetypes and achieving good results. However, it has a low presence and lower win rates, making it difficult to stand out until new cards or meta shifts are released.
Players who master these archetypes often achieve good results. The deck aims to buff up the power of creatures, swing in for a significant amount, and finish them off with an adventure. The only black card is mostly used for its red adventure.
What is the standard format for magic decks?
MTG’s standard format is a 60-card Constructed format with an optional 15-card sideboard, which requires that a deck adhere to specific construction rules.
How many of each card type should be in a standard deck?
A standard 52-card French-suited deck is the most common pack of playing cards used today, with its double-sided design ensuring anonymity and fungibility. The deck comprises 13 ranks in each of the four suits: clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), and spades (♠). Each suit includes three court cards (face cards), King, Queen, and Jack, with reversible images. Each suit also includes ten numeral cards or pip cards, from one (Ace) to ten.
The English pattern pack is the most common pattern of French-suited cards worldwide, while the Belgian-Genoese pattern is the second most common. Other major international and regional patterns include standard 52-card packs in Italy that use Italian-suited cards. In other regions, such as Spain and Switzerland, the traditional standard pack comprises 36, 40, or 48 cards.
Commercial decks often include from one to six Jokers, which are often distinguishable from one another in design or color, as some card games require these extra cards. Jokers can also be used as replacements for lost or damaged cards.
In English-speaking countries, the English pattern pack is the only traditional pack used for playing cards, while in many countries, it is used alongside other traditional, often older, standard packs with different suit systems.
How many creatures should be in a standard magic deck?
To run a typal deck, it is essential to include as many creature types as possible, with a build ranging from 30 to 40 depending on the creature type. For instance, an elf ball deck should have 35 to 39 creatures to generate synergy with elves and ramp significantly with staples like Circle of Dreams Druid and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest. Combo decks don’t need as many creatures, usually having 8-10 cards to protect combo pieces. Success can be achieved with a few creatures and a couple combos, depending on the win condition. In some cases, no creatures are needed, except for the commander.
What is the basic deck ratio in Magic: The Gathering?
In a 40 card deck, play 17-18 lands, while 24 lands in a 60 card deck. If playing cards with five or higher mana costs, increase the number of lands. For example, if the critical cards cost four mana and you want to cast them on turn four, you need to hit your first four land drops. To draw four lands in ten cards, you need to play at least 40 lands, which means 16 lands in a 40 card deck. If your important cards are five drops and you want to play them on turn five, you need five lands in your first eleven cards, or 45 lands, which means slightly over 18 lands in your deck. With 17 lands in your 40 card deck, you have a 42. 5 chance of a randomly drawn card being a land.
What should my first MTG deck be?
Magic: The Gathering has recently launched its Assassin’s Creed crossover and teased new sets like Bloomburrow and Duskmourn. For beginners, learning the game’s mechanics can be achieved through beginner-friendly decks. Some suggestions include constantly discarding cards, aggressive Mono Red and Blue builds, a control-oriented Blue setup, and a Blue/Red deck that counts down to enemy destruction. The game’s mechanics can be learned through easy-to-build newcomer decks, such as 12 swamps, 7 plains, 3 Scoured Barrens, 1 Roadside Reliquary, 4 Nurturing Pixie, 4 Deep-Cavern Bat, and 2 Morbid Opportunist.
📹 Deck Building 101 with Jim Davis | MTG Arena
Jim Davis, 15-year Magic pro veteran, teaches you how to build your first deck in MTG Arena. Professor Jim leads you through the …
For all the flack it gets with it’s economy, I do think one of the best ways to introduce someone to the standard formant is telling them to download Magic Arena. Standard is by far the most popular on there compared to my couple of LGS in my area, were it is mainly modern and commander, and honestly it’s a great way to feel out if the standard format is worth investing into paper since most of the decks are $100+
Nice to see someone promoting standard play. Standard is really fun right now, bans have calmed down, and the variety is so good! I see a lot of doom and gloom about how it’s expensive, but playing competitively in every format is expensive, and standard cards that cost a lot are almost always played heavily in other formats as well
Hey Prof, super grateful for your contributions to the Mtg community. You made my learning the game and deck building so much easier. I appreciate all the hard work you put into your content and love your vibe in all the crossover stuff you do with other creators. Thanks again for making the last year of my life so much easier when it comes to Mtg and tcg websites. You rock!!!
“…and that includes, by the way, Commander.” Love it. Commander is great and all, but I think the community needs to push harder for a bigger spotlight on 1 on 1 formats. Huge shock to me when I came across a player who was drafting for the first time ever but had an incredibly expensive collection and only played commander.
I’m about to have 1year into MTG, I started with arena, I play a lot with my friends in Italy even tho I’m in Venezuela through MtgArena. And I think standard it’s a cool way to start playing since the pool of cards it’s lower to historic, but as I’m improving, I’m getting the hang of EDH so.. that path it’s a cool way to learn for new people
I’m grateful for this article. Standard is really enjoyable at the moment. Sure there are a handful of overpowered and overplayed cards but there’s tonnes of cheap, interesting, and complex cards to brew with and it’s not particularly difficult to build a deck that can handle an opposing Sheoldred or Fable of the Mirror Breaker. At the moment paper standard is a low-risk investment – most of the dollar value of multicolor meta decks is in multiformat staples whose value is largely derived from Commander and Pioneer playability. If you buy a playset of, for example, Fable of the Mirror Breaker or Raffine’s Tower it will almost certainly hold its value past rotation. Or you can just build monored, monoblue, or UW soldiers for under $50. I just don’t agree with the people who moan about the expense of standard. I’m playing monowhite midrange. With 3 copies of the Wandering Emperor and Lion Sash instead of Unlicensed Hearse my deck has a current value of just under $200. After Brother’s War released I spent about $20 updating my deck with Lay Down Arms, Tocasia’s Welcome, Steel Seraph, and Loran of the Third Path. I imagine spending another $50 or so on relevant cards that might be released in the next 2 sets. If I sell the deck after rotation I would expect to recover the bulk of its price – I don’t expect the money cards like Wandering Emperor and Wedding Announcement to fall significantly in price post-rotation. Even if my deck loses $100 post-rotation I will still consider it very good value for the games I’ve gotten out of it.
@TheProfessor I know that this doesnt have much to do with this article, but since your deck box kickstarter was such a success, have you considered possibly trying other kickstarter ideas in the future? I know for example that myself and many Magic the Gathering players would love a binder that was made for cycles of cards (aka 5 cards wide) to make collection sorting a breeze. Just a thought for you professor 🙂
Great article as always. But damn it’s sad to hear about all these event and pre-releases. In Russia we are screwed by all the events and the game is no longer supported here. We weren’t the most lucrative market anyway so it could have happened any day but it’s really sad. The prices were very high since 2014 and now it’s just crazy. Standard is not an option here anymore. Too expensive and with no fnm it’s basically dead.
Step One: Get GF to agree to play. Step 2: She argues that the colorless emblem is Red not Grey and it’s confusing, even side by side with a Mountain emblem, which is obviously Red. Step 3: Never ask her to play again because you’ve been playing 20 years and she can’t even concede that the emblem background for colorless is Grey. Step 4: Only play Arena using free things because WotC doesn’t deserve your money.
My local shop has yet to if ever fully recover from COVID for Magic and it’s almost all EDH now. Standard died out, the shop moved away from singles, and found their new groove by catering more to the miniature and D&D groups. The sole judge on the ownership team sold his share to work at USPS so it’s up to the players to try and sort out rules problems. The EDH players are happy to pay the table fee since the lack of a judge on staff drove the 60-card spikes to shops further out. Arena makes Standard easy, I don’t miss it as much since I don’t have time to update decks for another format. Thankfully Pioneer is in a decent place and Modern only has a Horizons set every other year.
when the prof does more for standard than wizards… i am actually not asking for much support from wizards, but to realize magic is not all about commander and bring back the showdown booster (i mean did you see the japanese promos ? i would settle for just the showdown booster) … now our store runs just 1 standard event per month and this killed the format finally, since people dont wanna build a deck, which at best they can only play for 3 months
I love Standard, it’s honestly my favorite format. I love the rotation, and trying to make janky but workable decks with a small cardpool. But alas nobody I know plays it in paper anymore. All the games stores in my area have stopped doing Standard events and the de facto Friday Night Magic event is Draft (which I also enjoy). I’ve realized that Standard has moved to Arena and have made the adjustment myself. A little disappointing but it’s understandable when you take into consideration the price of some of the most competitive cards (Sheoldred in particular) and the rate at which sets are coming out in this current economy we are experiencing.
Great vid. Former paper MtG player and (briefly) MTGO. I occasionally think about getting back into the game and this is a joyful reminder of how fun the game is, though the big stopping points for me are the insane power creep I see and the cost (not helped at all with the insane pace of product releases). Started playing during the Revised/4e era and left paper MtG with the Urza block. Got into MTGO for the Invasion/Odyssey blocks, then left again after Time Spiral. It’s a damn fun game. I’ll never say otherwise. The game I started with definitely needed to be changed, and for quite some time, it changed very much for the better (colour pie realignment, power levels, card interactivity/combos, etc)…all good. Unfortunately, it gained so much momentum it never really stopped. What would happen is you’d get just insane power levels (like in Urza block), and they’d “correct” it by releasing a block that was just, generally, awful (Masques). And this cycle repeats, though lately…it seems to be stuck at Spaceballs “ludicrous speed”. The game has changed so much since my last time playing, I barely recognize it anymore. I’d never dissuade anyone from wanting to give it a go, it was and imagine still very much is fun…just know what you’re getting into. The Prof here is most assuredly a great resource for that. 🙂
I’ve never experienced standard at the LGS level to be receptive or favorable for people new to the game or returning to the game. Typically because all of the pre-release events, whales, and judges treated like a competitive event rather than local event and don’t explain a whole lot of things to increase the body of knowledge.
the problem with standard is that it rotates much too quickly for getting invested in it to be worth it, at least for me. I love the idea of taking a break from the extremely competitive and high powered scenery that is Legacy, and perhaps even Modern, and trying out completely new decks with fresh unique synergies, mechanics, and interactions. However, I am not fortunate enough to have a local game store in my immediate area, and the one place that I could have reasonably traveled to closed down almost as soon as I got into magic a few years ago. I might be lucky to officially use a standard deck once or twice per rotation if i really try, but even that’s not guaranteed. Maybe one day I’ll set myself up in a place where i can go to a game store regularly, but even if so, I’ll be missing out on a lot of supposedly fun standard formats. Apparently I already missed out on being able to use any cards from my favorite standard set so far, adventures into the forgotten realms, and it feels like i just drafted it not that long ago :/
Im truly blessed at my LGS here in Colorado, we run a rotation of pioneer, standard, and draft each month for fnm, with most of the same regulars and even new people showing up for each. Often times those who have built for standard will tweak their lists to adopt some of what pioneer has to offer since we only fire pioneer once a month and for our RCQ’s!
I love sealed events, but I absolutely hate draft events. For one, I’m just bad at it, and every event I have ever attended I’ve just pulled trash. I hate that ‘drafting’ (at least at the events I have attended) have always been near impossible for more casual players to do well at, because everyone else comes in and drafts meta picks, or just sits and take the money cards. It’s also very off-putting to here ‘in the know’ players after the draft being like ‘there were a lot of strange passes that were actually worth things’ because you’re sitting there actually trying to contruct in your own colors and not looking up every single money card before hand. I’ve also seen the money chasing players get their spouse/SO to draft who then just leaves with the cards and doesn’t even play. I don’t want to have to rigorously study the meta to go out and have a good time, but every store I’ve frequented that clearly has been a requirement if you want a single win. I feel like Sealed is much more even footing because its a ‘you get what you get’ and doesn’t require immediate knowledge of the entire set before it even comes out.
Thank you for making this article. I always get looked cross-eyed when I tell people “I like to play standard”. I don’t care that a new set is released every 3 months, they fact is everyone that is playing Commander is still buying each set multiple boxes at a time. Why don’t we all use these cards we have to play the game the way it was intended. Multiple fast games, with 0 turn 1 infinite combo CEDH deck! Thanks
I don’t think I’ll get into Standard because I don’t like the idea of switching out decks every year. I’ll just play it on Arena. But drafting and prerelease events sound super fun! As someone who just got into MTG last month, and have attended a DMR draft, cracking packs to use immediately is super fun. It was very stressful, everyone else there knew what they were doing. I took a very long time to put my deck together and impulsively splashed black into my Izzet deck at the last second which took even more time. I did get one win though and would have gotten two if I didn’t misplay by using all my blue mana and not having it ready for a Counterspell against a lethal Lightning Bolt.
I just wished I had a place where I could play standard.. If you mention standard these days you get laughed at and for the hundredth time you’ll hear something like “hah, who plays standard these days, isn’t that some e-sport? Lol lol lol lol”.. Which breaks my standard heart as that is what have been my jam but after covid and arena and killed support its just gone.
Many Magic players ask the question: “Isn’t standard in paper dead?” (No, it just smells funny. Oh, wait, that was Jazz) But in all seriousness, in North Germany No LGS still offers Standard. There is NO Player base. So the better question ist, which is the best entry Point in Magic at LGSs? Wouldn’t that be a better article? Another question, is(would be If Not dead) Standard really the best entry Point if the average Decks in Pioneer are only slightly more expensive than the average Standard Deck? We tried to push Pauper at our LGS as entry point. Many LGS push Pioneer at FNM since it still sells packs in comparsion to modern.
Sad news about Standard: it actually isn’t always offered as an option anymore. A couple years of bad Standards, WotC being WotC, and the pandemic pushing established players towards eternal formats has left Standard offerings fairly lacking in many locations. Standard is also not so much cheaper than other formats that it’s worth getting into. Any deck that wants to run 4 copies of Sheoldred or Fable of the Mirror-Breaker are going to be expensive by default, and if you actually want to place anywhere above the bottom half of a tournament, you’re going to want them. I love your articles, Prof. I love your advice and clear love of the game. In this, I’m going to disagree with you, because WotC has done all they could to strangle Standard, and outside of the big LGS like your own haunts, it’s showing.
I love Commander and Pauper. Commander for the multiplayer and dealing and backstabbing. It’s something for everyone ❤ Pauper because I love that common cards gets to shine more than most rares. I’m a proud mono blue delver player and was named queen of pauper in my local community 😊 In commander I play mono blue Jace tribal 😂 it’s weird but fun
Its kinda sad that the Prof put all the effort on articles like this just to be told in the comments that the format is fucking dead, but sadly thats the truth: no one cares about Standard. theres like 3 or 4 LGS that sell Magic on my city and none of them run any Standard event, just EDH, Pauper and Modern (and sometimes Pioneer)
why is printed paper so expensive? My work throws copies away all the time, it just doesn’t make any sense in the mind. I found this article trying to sort out which format to play as I collect my first cards, but all I’ve learned is LoTR isn’t even eligible for standard play – cool, a-holes! As a newbie, I’m very confused why some seem to defend the modern format when it’s obviously cost-prohibitive for new players. I keep seeing the same “cheap/good” mono-red decks being recommended, but, if those worked, wouldn’t some of them be seen at tournaments in the top-8? I’m already in probably $400 on this LotR set and I haven’t even gotten the commander decks yet… do you guys actually want new players or do you just want to kick back on your collection us newbies couldn’t possibly replicate and take all the prizes amongst the “old guard”?
I am getting into magic right now and decks for Pioneer and Modern are all couple hundred dollars 😀 mono aggro red in standard is 89 dollar 😀 Sadly my local game store doesnt play standard tournaments, it seems to be pretty unliked in my area (vienna, austria). They have nearly everything else tough: Commander, Pioneer, Legacy, Modern
Hi, I wanted to reach out to you as somebody highly respected in giving MtG advice… have you ever thought of doing an episode for kids getting into MtG, advice, tips, how to build a deck on an allowance, etc? My son and his friends are learning and so much is over his head. But they want to build their own decks… plenty of people have articles geared towards adults but not the “You feel to old for pokemon, now what” age. Tolarian Jr. College?
Sheoldred being $60 and being the best card in standard is a modern tragedy. And YES, it is the best card in standard. Unless it gets taken out by a cut out the throat, destroy evil or an infernal grasp it will end the game. It doesn’t need to attack so the wandering emperor doesn’t do it either. Ban sheoldred! Wizards decided to just reprint another busted black card in phyrexian obliterator so you KNOW mono black is the best deck in the format. Please, just help us out wizards! Make more removal or ban sheoldred!!!
After 5th edition I gave all my cards away and went on about my life.. I was shocked that so many formats exist now that I’m playing again. I found with my budget and play group it was easier and cheaper to buy a bunch of commander precons, tear them apart and go from there. Any other suggestions for building a large collection?
I’ll be brutally honest here. This is a great way to get in to Standard. However it is not a good idea to get in to Standard. This depends on location, but in my area, the place where MTG was born, Standard is dead. All other formats, Modern and Commander, are the only events that fire. If you want to play Standard, you’ll have to go to MTG arena or Modo.
I only play Standard and Commander and I enjoy the stark contrast between the two formats. In Casual Commander, rounds can quickly go on for 2 hours or more. In Standard, you’re through after a maximum of 20 minutes, usually less. Commander is eternal legal, Standard is very limited, and the current Standard meta is very broad and interesting (though Black is quite ahead). I think it’s great that the Professor is back to this format after declaring it dead for a long time. Let’s hope that the health of Standard will not be “poisoned” by ONE.
Professor I have played magic the gathering since portal. I mostly play commander now. My question is I want to complain to wizards of the coast regarding infect. Currently it is set to 10 counters and with so many proliferate cards in commander this can be quick. I think they should increase to total 20 poison counters or grant cards to remove the counters. Just like D&D. Thoughts?
On Arena you can actually pretty easily build a tier1 standard deck without paying a single dollar, it just will take a bit of patience. The wildcard system allows for enough of the expensive cards that you can pretty well build almost any deck in standard, but that will then probably be your only deck in standard for the rest of the cycle, with minor adjustments here and there. The main bottleneck for tier1 decks on Arena will be the Rare wildcard rarity, with most of the more complex manabases requiring duals/triomes that for the most part are always on the Rare rarity.
It’s hard to get into standard knowing there is a time limit on how long you are allowed to play before your deck gets banned. You put all this time and money into a deck and then what do you do? If this is your only hobby maybe it’s not so bad to keep buying new decks, but otherwise you look at all your cards and decide it’s just easier to play other formats, or a different game.
I don’t know… just off the bat, standard has historically been the absolute least welcoming format in my experience, especially for new players. Constant rotation (which adds to cost as new cards come out and adds to confusion of what’s legal when you’re collecting cards regularly and not just cracking packs), the most defined if most changing meta (which takes a lot of immediate investment to keep up with), and the most competitive players (as it is the primary competitive tournament format). Add onto that the lost value when cards you bought rotate out and drop in value, or the fact that MTG Arena standard is brutal, and you’re left with a pretty hard format for new players.
Commander has sunk all formats. Or they are on permanent life support. If you’re incapable of believing this; it must be hard to play mtg. I love competitive formats!!! (Modern,Legacy) After COVID and the surgical extraction of the spine of competitive organized play by WOTC. I want to believe in standard 75 card constructed. Because I love them. Sadly the scars on my heart and back from the aggravated assault by WOTC and time; have taught me otherwise. Mtg is now a 4 player game. Wake up sheeple!
Normally, I appreciate the honesty and straight forward information with your articles like this. But, your statement about standard cards holding their value post rotation, simply isn’t true overall. You’ll pay top dollar for a playset of whatever you need to even be moderately competitive and watch the value of those cards tank after they rotate out. This is a reality that simply doesn’t exist in the other formats. My local LGS starting introducing standard events again and I anticipate them going away soon because no one is showing up for them. In the current economy, everyone has a limit as to what they can spend for Magic and to buy into a format…the only format….where you will watch the value of your cards decrease over time just doesn’t make sense with the other formats available in the game.
Sorry, professor, standard is horrible to get into! It’s an absolute waste of money. You work all month, buy your favorite deck, then the meta changes almost immediately because WOTC releases another set. Then, you work another month to purchase the play sets of cards the new set requires for you to be competitive. Sorry, you need to warn every new player because it is never NEVER worth your time or money to “invest” in a standard deck.
I would love to do draft at one of my LGS’ but the charge for the entry fee is absurd considering they don’t offer monetary reimbursement for winning the draft and the winner only gets a single pack. Not even remotely worth it for me. I want to have fun playing magic, not leave feeling like I just paid $999 for 60 randomized proxies. I’m using hyperbole here but you get the picture. I love building decks, opening packs and playing magic. But with the lack of incentive to actually compete in draft at my LGS I would much rather just play commander and run a different deck every week or two.
3:47 Delver is such a scam in that deck. Take it from someone who’s been playing this deck since rotation, 4 jhinn’s are a must for this, together with a maximum … MAXIMUM ! 3 terrors. Believe me you don’t wanna get stuck with 4 terrors in your hand or a useless 1/1 delver that never triggers. Just replace them with more counters or bounce spells, never enough of them.
I’m always a little bit surprised by how Commander sort of seems to have turned into THE casual format. It always felt more complicated and harder to get into to me. For me the go-to “format” was always a sort of casual 1v1 60 cards, 4 per card, with a vague “no bs cards” rule as agreed to by the two players.
If your lgs only offers standard then fine but a better bet is getting into pioneer and pauper instead. At least your cards are always good and never rotate. My problem with any rotating format is true it can keep fresh when busted or broken cards rotate out but it’s a constant money drain to stay relevant for any period of time.
This strikes me as being rather odd. Why would you encourage people to come back to standard now when they’ve brought infect back? If they had real antidotes for it, or a couple of years from now (assuming Wizards even survives its attempted war on every other R. P. G. system,) then maybe it would be time to encourage people to enter standard again. But right now, in the thick of this chaos where common sense has gone out the window in both corporate decision-making and card design? Even though I was a magic player for years, I don’t think I will ever understand them at all.
Standard is an amazing format and is a great way to get into the game. Standard is a puzzle and contrary to what some people claim, one that is almost never completely solved. Deckbuilding/brewing is at it’s best in standard because there are constraints so newer players don’t have to struggle with 30 years worth of cards they need to know in order to perform well. The rise of decklists online actually can help with the creativity aspect to brewing. A standard player can look and see what decks are most popular, how often they appear in standard play, and then brew to exploit the weaknesses of those decks or find something they are totally unprepared to encounter. I think in Arena and paper playing both limited formats, like draft and sealed, help feed Standard play and vice versa. I would certainly recommend giving standard a try. You don’t need 4 copies of all the “best” cards and a pile of the top end Mythics, all one needs is the willingness to experiment with new things and finding the weaknesses of the “best” cards and decks in the format.