PUZZLE UPDATE: I made a complementary series of simple puzzles to help teach combat basics to beginners, featuring the cards from the green and red beginner teaching decks. View the PDF I shared on Google drive here: link
Magic 101
This series of casual decks is designed to teach Magic to new players in the best way possible. Each color deck is a "real" constructed deck: the card choices are very deliberate and work together to highlight a play style typical for that color. The new player is meant to start with the and decks. As they learn the game mechanics, they then progress to play the other colors, which increase a little in complexity. A LOT of work has gone into balancing the decks, so that any one of them is an interesting match-up against the others.
Because this is meant to try to "capture" new players and sell them on the game, there is a focus on good art and low prices. Each deck is meant to work as a cohesive unit, so the new player is indirectly exposed to deck brewing concepts. The card text is kept as simple as possible, so the new player can focus on learning the game.
Credit goes to massivecreature. His approach and his red and green decks on reddit link served to guide the rest of this project.
The Curriculum
Budget Beginner Teach Decks (#1 Green) w Puzzles! : Ramp deck.
Introduces trample, reach, hexproof, enchantments, card draw/cantrips, upkeep step.
Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#2 Red) : Aggressive/burn deck.
Introduces haste, flying, first strike/double strike, sacrifice costs, direct damage, costs, gain control, end step, exile.
Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#3 White) : Tribal go wide deck.
Introduces tokens, auras, anthem/lord effects, protection, defender.
Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#4 Black) : Recursion/control deck.
Introduces destruction, graveyard interaction, hand discard, wraths, deathtouch.
Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#5 Blue) : Control/combo deck.
Introduces alternate win conditions, artifacts, counterspells, scry, bounce, non-basic lands, cycling, delve.
Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#6 Multi) : Voltron/infect deck.
Introduces equipment, legendaries, counters, regenerate, lifelink.
Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#7 Multi) : Aristocrats (alternate multicolor deck).
Introduces alternate form cards (double faced), counters, non-basic lands, drain, lifelink.
Card Choice Guidelines Show
- avoid complicated cards/rules text
- focus on mechanics characteristic of a color
- cohesion and synergy
- cheap cards. The deck should cost less than $15.
- distinctive interesting artwork
- some variety but not overwhelming. About 12 unique cards per deck
- balance, such that all the decks have a reasonable chance to win against the other colors
How To Play the Decks Show
The idea is to play against the other decks in the set. I have playtested them extensively against each other (several iterations of every deck against every other deck, I played both sides), and they match up pretty well.
How I envisioned this course:
In the first game, the new player should have the green deck, while the teacher has the red deck. That way the new player can focus on simple stuff like turn steps, mana costs, and damage. For the first game(s), both players should probably play showing their hands. Also, the teacher can sandbag a little by using spells on creatures (a slower game where the green deck eventually takes over the game and becomes unstoppable can inspire further play; getting crushed by a perfectly executed turn 3 combo burst could discourage them from playing altogether). It's not a bad idea for the teacher to make a few poor decisions, to let the new players have some success as they learn; this depends a lot on the people involved.
Once the beginner is comfortable with the green deck, and has faced the red deck, then the teacher and new player can switch decks. Now the new player has to think about timing his red spells to get in the kill.
Then, add in the white deck. The new player will pay white while the teacher has the red or green deck. Now the new player has a few more things to keep track of (e.g. what do the anthem effects add up to). This deck is still pretty linear, and highlights thematic variety as much as it introduces a few more mechanics of the game.
Next is the black deck and this is were it really gets fun for the new player. The teacher will have red, green, or white. Now the new player gets to interact with the opponents hand, with his own graveyard, and has destruction spells and a wrath.
Blue is a challenge. This is the first really complicated deck. Playing it successfully requires a good understanding of the rules. I strongly suggest the teacher show the new player the entire deck and walk them through it, maybe even playing a game showing their hands. The teacher should probably have red, green, or white. Playing against a control deck (blue or black in this set) can be exhausting.
Finally, the new player sees the multicolor decks. These add a lot of new mechanics, and by the time the new player can steer these decks, they have become a passable MTG player. They have been exposed to most of the basic mechanics of the game and have seen a variety of playstyles. Hopefully they had fun and got a good feel for what the game is about.
After that, teacher and player can play against each other with any of the decks they choose. Obviously, they can fall back on prior decks as they progress. For example, if you want to try extra games with red, green, white or black before introducing the blue deck, then by all means do so.
This deck: style and choices
This deck highlights the Aristocrats archetype. There are 3 components to the deck mechanism: fodder, "artists", and sacrifice outlets. The strategy is: 1) make creatures, 2) sacrifice our own creatures, 3) win.
The fodder: these are the cards that create our creatures, either as multiples or provide a benefit for us when they die. The most obvious fodder are the
Doomed Traveler
and
Midnight Haunting
, which both provide 2 creatures from one spell.
Spirit Bonds
is repeatable source for sacrifice fodder, and can also serve as a sac outlet (see below).
The "artists": these cards provide benefit to us when our creatures die.
Blood Artist
is representative of card of this type, and was in the original version of this budget deck. However, the price of the card has prohibitively gone up, and a budget alternative has been printed. Instead we use
Cruel Celebrant
. It grants us life and more importantly drains our opponent when a creature dies. This life drain is a big part of our win strategy. If we can flip our
Pious Evangel
into a
Wayward Disciple
, then he serves the same role. Aside from the drain effect, the
Wall of Limbs
also benefits from creatures dying because of the artists (and would be overpowered if it was not a defender). The
Vizkopa Guildmage
interestingly also fits in this category. If we activate her second ability (when you gain life, opponent loses life), then she effectively doubles the drain effect of the artists.
The sacrifice outlets: these are the cards that provide a way for us to kill our own creatures.
Cartel Aristocrat
is the namesake card of this archetype, and has a repeatable, no cost sac ability. Protection is a strong ability making this quite a good card.
Pious Evangel
and
Disciple of Griselbrand
can provide a little health when they sacrifice.
Maw of the Obzedat
is already good because it has a free trigger, but the way that it can pump the rest of the team can make late game combat challenging for the opponent and help stall while our drain triggers whittle away.
Flesh Allergy
and
Plaguecrafter
both provide removal when they sac one of our creatures.
Vampiric Rites
can be very helpful especially late in the game. Finally,
Spirit Bonds
has an added utility as an expensive but powerful sac trigger.
Maybeboard:
There are a lot of good alternative options for this deck. The maybeboard I have here is actually the short list. I won't discuss every card, but there are a few worthy of special mention.
Originally I made the deck with
Lingering Souls
but it was too overpowered in playtesting, the other decks could not keep up with this card.
Spectral Procession
is also just a bit too good.
There is a whole subtheme that could be done with humans, including
Requiem Angel
,
Gather the Townsfolk
,
Skirsdag Flayer
,
Unclaimed Territory
and
Avacyn's Collar
. I opted to keep it a little simpler, and limited to one token type, as the deck is already complicated enough.
I did want to include a legendary card, but had a hard time finding a good fit.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
is the best option, but he is just so strong against the blue deck that I opted not to include him.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
is much stronger than
Disciple of Griselbrand
but it just seemed thematically out of place in the deck with its odd ability set.
Baird, Steward of Argive
would slow down attacking opponents, but the deck already has a pretty good stall game.
Teysa Karlov
would be a good fit, but is still a little pricey for multiple copies. If it drops in cost, I may remove an evangel and a haunting for two of her.
Death Grasp
, and
Consume Spirit
both have excellent art, and were considered in my first runs of the deck. They gave the deck too much reach compared to the other decks, so I took them out to keep it interesting. I also wanted to include equipment, and considered
Blade of the Bloodchief
, but this made the original
Blood Artist
get out of hand way too fast.
Finally, I should mention
Exquisite Blood
. I really wanted to include this effect, because I don't yet have anything in the beginner decks that "goes infinite". This card, combined with the
Vizkopa Guildmage
ability causes an endless loop that wins the game. Regrettably, the card is way out of budget and there is no alternative.
The original version had
Merciless Executioner
, but for some reason the price spiked on this card.
Plaguecrafter
is a good cheaper substitution.
Rules To Learn Show
- If multiple
Cruel Celebrant
or
Wayward Disciple
die at the same time due to a wrath, they all trigger for all of the artists. E.g. 3 artists that die at the same time cause 9 loss/gain life triggers
-
Pious Evangel
can sac multiple creatures before it transforms, if you activate the ability the second time while the first trigger is still on the stack.
MTGO can actually be a good way to introduce a remote friend to the game, and the digital decks are dirt cheap. The client helps teach the turn steps and understanding the stack better. However, a few cards that are cheap on paper are expensive in MTGO (make sure you look at all editions; some are cheaper). The replacements below are suggested for MTGO play:
Art is subjective to personal taste. Here are my suggestions for artwork:
- Consider Return to Ravnica versions of the land art if you are not going to use original lands with text.
-
Blood Artist
has exceptional art and could be considered, but has become cost prohibitive.
Links To Alternative Deck Suggestions Submitted by Others
For a fun video introduction to the rules of MTG, check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZixWqaGJVQs
It is a bit fast paced, but it covers just about everything.
