The big question you’ll want to ask yourself first is “Why are you collecting?”
Are you… 1 Collecting a competitive arsenal of weapons to use in organized play/tournaments?- Watch some pros play some decks in standard and pick one to build, then go from there. Buy singles from LGSs or major online card stores. Your collection will grow as you build and sell off old competitive decks and win sealed product as prizes.
2 Collecting a powerful and expressive tome of spells to sling with friends for fun?- Commander is the predominant form of casual play and bc most people who play magic will have some experience with the format, you’ll have the largest pool of players to play with. I find casual magic a great middle ground between strictly competitive and strictly aesthetic collecting. The text and game function on the cards still matters, but you can find a lot of room for self expression through curated decks and intricate combos. Nearly everything is legal in Commander so the limits are pretty endless and you can have nearly any sort of experience or collection work for you.
3 Collecting for pure investment- buy reserved list cards and sealed product. Having gameplay knowledge is a plus since that drives the prices currently, but in the last 3-4 years more and more cards have grown in price for purely aesthetic reasons. Reserved list cards and sealed product are the most resilient as they are out of print. I think the biggest opportunity right now is buying older non-reserved list singles in anticipation of the hobby developing an appreciation for vintage outside of play value. Very high risk, admittedly… but almost completely untapped. So far th
4 Collecting for pure aesthetic enjoyment- You’d be a rare breed in the hobby, but hopefully not forever. Obviously I’d recommend collecting whatever appeals to you, but know that some of the Foils (holos) from recent sets warp extremely badly. I recommend going for cards printed with the Old border. The oldest sets are the most collectible currently as @smpratte said (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and the “4 horsemen” = Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends and The Dark) but I personally love the look of 1998-2002 old border cards. They are what I grew up with, and the foils look uniquely beautiful in the TCG world.
Also you should know tha BGS is to Magic as PSA is to Pokemon/Vintage sports and if you are interested in grading I would go with them.
I personally fit into 1, 2 and 4 and have sturdy collections that fit all three needs.
As for communities and resources for collecting, there are some Vintage Magic groups spread around FB and Discord but I wouldn’t be the best guide for those. If you are looking to fit more into group 4 you can help pave the way for more e4 style appreciation for MTG that I feel is sorely needed.
Hello @candle, I’m mostly collecting for the artwork/aesthetic enjoyment and I’m trying to understand all the gameplay variants to eventually start playing with friends.
If you want to start playing, start with core editions, simple starter decks. They are easier to start with than expansions and help explain the basics really well.
Also MTG Arena (online game) is extremely helpful as everything is automated and it really shows what you can and WHEN you can do things.
This can be one of the hardest things learning the game (the stack is freakin complicated) and since online it is all automated you learn a lot every time you play.
After playing for a few weeks online you are ready to play with friends. Start with some pre-constructed decks. This helps with the balance of the games since generally the decks are made to be of equal power to each other. One format I really enjoy is Commander, you have a deck of 100 unique cards with one leader, the commander. The fun thing is with so many different cards there is so much diversity in each game.
Each year a new set of 5 preconstructed commander decks are released. You can find many comparisons online to find the most fun ones.
If you get the hang of those games you can make some decks of your own and play around with those. Also pre-release events where you open boosters and make a deck to play against other players greatly helps you learn the game. Most players are very welcoming to new players and don’t mind if you don’t know the ruler 100% and are very willing to help.
It’s a great game and there is so much depth. Enjoy!
The stack is complicated? It’s just first in, last out. Any triggered or activated ability or spell goes on the the top of the stack. If both players (starting with the active player) pass priority (meaning they don’t add anything new to the stack), the top ability/spell on the stack resolves. After it resolves, both players get priority again (starting with the active player). And so on until the stack is empty. That’s it. The stack is just a way to ensure that players can respond to spells and triggered/activated abilities before they resolve.
The stack is one of the simplest mechanics in MTG; it’s something that people tend to overcomplicate. There are a lot of elements of MTG that are more difficult. But overall, MTG is a super easy game to learn. People should NOT be intimidated by the rules. With enough practice, anyone can learn the rules. Mastering a specific deck or format is where the challenge and skill is.
For learning how to play, I think that Arena is not a good option precisely because it automates so many actions. Paper Magic or MTGO are the best ways to really learn the game. Plus, paper Magic has an unique feel to it that Arena lacks. Magic is a truly special game, and while Arena is good, it lacks a lot of what makes Magic special, IMO. I’d definitely recommend starting with paper.
I was just saying it’s something that people tend to overcomplicate. You’re not the only one who finds it complicated. But the people who find it complicated are thinking about it in the wrong way. If you think about in terms of ‘first in, last out,’ you’ll understand 99% of what you need to know about the stack.
I never really took the time to learn it too, until I had to explain other people how it works. That’s when I finally started to REALLY understand it.
Another game that I really enjoy is EPIC card game. It has the magic feel but there is no mana so it takes a lot of the randomness out. Lot less deep though, but a very nice game to start playing.
Thanks, I was thinking of trying MTG Arena, but I haven’t paid too much attention to it. Do you have to pay to have decent cards?
About the stack: when I read about it I thought of YuGiOh when you chain cards, but with Magic you can add more cards while resolving the stack right? For example: with YuGiOh once the chain of cards is completed you can’t add more cards until the whole chain has resolved itself, but with Magic if I have like a stack of 5cards I can play/add another card while resolving the third? @handschoen,
MTG Arena is F2P, but you can pay to speed up the process of building decks if you want to spend money on it.
You can add a spell/ability to the stack as long as you have priority (regardless of how many spells/abilities are on the stack). If there’s anything already on the stack, however, neither player can cast spells (aka add them to the stack) except for instants (or creatures without flash).
I’ll say 25% of new players I’ve met (and 100% of women I’ve met) who play Magic have learned through Youtube / the internet / MTG Arena, so even though paper is fun, there is absolutely a huge learning curve for early players and online just completely eliminates it with tutorials.
I would never point a new player to MTGO, it’s got a tiny interface and it’s incredibly easy to misclick. My ranking would go:
Paper with a very patient and experienced player
Arena
Be thankful you had such a patient teacher when you started out! My older brother taught me half the rules wrong and then got mad at me when I corrected him. I think my experience is much more common than yours, sadly.
@andrea, welcome! Magic is a super fun game when you can sit down with the same group of friends and just play some games.
I agree that Arena is an easier introduction to MTG than MTGO, but MTGO is much better for actually learning to play Magic well. Most of the people you play again on there are competent (unlike in Arena) and very few game actions are automated (except for inconsequential stuff like untapping). MTGO is as close to paper Magic as you can get without playing paper Magic.
But yeah, I definitely agree that the best way to learn is with paper and a good teacher. I’ve introduced countless people to Magic over the years, and it takes time to refine one’s teaching skills. It’s always good to ease people into the game, which Arena does well – the issue I have with it is the automating of actions, which makes paper Magic a tougher transition.
Can somebody help explain something on the Strixhaven set. I wanted to crack this alt art demonic tutor myself (which I just did about 10 min ago, yay!) but since it was Japanese only I bought the Japanese collector booster boxes… so all cards are Japanese in them. I just read somewhere you can get the same Japanese demonic tutor from the English collector booster boxes… is this true? Is there any difference between the cards? (obv I would prefer all the other cards be english because…you know… I can read them and I like to play MTG). If they are not identical how can I tell the difference between the ones from the english boxes and japanese boxes (assuming alt art pulls in both for Mystical Archives are in Japanese regardless). Thanks!