Where should a beginner start for deck building ?
General forum
Posted on July 20, 2016, 12:15 p.m. by blabla21
Hello MTG community.
I've been skulking around these forums and I have to say that the community is great (also MTG community as a whole) and I decided to join in hoping to ask for assistance since I'm a newbie at this game and I just want to first apologize if I'm creating a thread in wrong forum category since I didn't know where to ask this.
Anyway what I wanted to ask you folk is as a beginner in MTG deck building what are your suggestions for me to start with and where to look ?
And by this I mean that the MTG has a HUGE library of cards, and for someone new to this game I'm really stumped on which cards to pick since my knowledge of them is limited.
I already know how to play the game, just not the card names to look when building a deck.
I've been thinking of picking up a Deck Builders Toolkit and then atleast build myself my own deck from those cards, but after that let's say I would want to build my own deck (for example Dragons-themed Deck or Wizard Deck), I wouldn't know where to start and what cards to pick so I'm hoping to get some suggestions from you guys on how to build my knowledge of the cards.
Thanks in forward and it's great to be here.
Hello and welcome here!
First of all you should learn a little about the colors, their properties and inclinations. I have found this diagram from try useful to guide new players into their right path. Color Pie Diagram.
After deciding which one could be your path, I encourage you to browse some decks here in the page. Don't rush yourself; take a look at some decks and let interesting cards find you. Write the, down if you want.
You can also use the page Gatherer to search for interesting cards using different filters and parameters. Make the most out of that database; it's worth the while.
After choosing your general direction and what you want to do, start with the deck sketching and deckbuilding process begin! You can use this website for this, as it is intuitive and (pretty much) easy to use.
I started with a green ramp deck (lots of mana production and big creatures), and then moved towards other projects as the time passed. 
tends to be very friendly with new players, but that is really up to you (for example, some people start with 
right away and have no problems).
Always remember that you won't build a perfect deck on the first try, and there is always room for improvement. Keep an open mind and let the creativity flow.
I hope this helps you in some way. Any questions you might have, don't hesitate to ask for help.
Cheers!
July 20, 2016 12:41 p.m.
I have to agree with Busse. Gatherer is a fantastic place to get ideas. You could use it to search for all Dragon cards. You could also search for all Wizard cards, that are blue, that include the word "Tap" in their text box and are also Modern legal. I almost always start with Gatherer. For standard I like using the MythicSpoiler page as it's a visual spoiler.
July 20, 2016 1:34 p.m.
Deleted your other thread. Please don't multipost the same thread multiple times.
Copying over comment from landofMordor:
I'd say that your first actions should be to play a whole bunch of Magic, with lots of different decks. Do you like the rush of smashing face with mono-green, or are you more of a control-freak, or do you get impatient if nobody's won before T3?
Once you know what kinds of decks you find interesting, use tappedout's advanced deck search and choose different hubs (groupings of decks), which can help you filter by "aggro" or "budget" or "burn" or whatever. Or, you can follow different users on tappedout to check out their builds. This helps you get a feel for which cards work for you, before you commit to a certain deck. You can even create a 5C "deck" that just serves as a place where you write down cool cards you see in play, but you don't have a spot for currently.
Now you're ready to start brewing. Put together a preliminary decklist, and get feedback on forums like this. And playtest. Playtest a bunch. And do some light comparison with decks like yours -- is there some card you missed that's lower on the mana curve? is there a key combo you missed?
If you want to get really crazy about it, you can try Googling "mtg deck archetypes" and there are a bunch of really smart guys and gals who have done some serious thinking on MTG meta. For now, though, a deckbuilder's toolbox, or a "blind box" of 1000 random cards can be a great start! It's certainly the key to playing more Magic and familiarizing yourself with the game.
Hope that helps! If it helps, feel free to click on my username and check out the decks I've got linked on my profile. I'm happy to check out any of your brews, too.
July 20, 2016 1:37 p.m.
libraryjoy says... #6
I second all of the above - Gatherer (gatherer.wizards.com) is a great resource. I find a card I want to build with or an idea - say I want to build a wolf deck. I can look up all the wolf cards and see which ones I like. I can also use Tapped Out's deck builder advanced search feature to find all decks that are modern legal, have "wolf" in the title, and include Raised by Wolves, which is a card I already have and really want to use. I can look at several of these decks, and see what cards are in many of them, or if there are unusual cards that pique my interest. Make sure you find an article to read about building a good "mana curve" - it's one of the best principles for deckbuilding. I also bought big boxes of 1000 or more random commons when I was starting out, just to get a card base and to learn about many different cards. Good luck, and happy building!
July 20, 2016 1:43 p.m.
Speaking of articles, Epochalyptik wrote a series of articles regarding important aspects of the decks and game in general. As to be expected, they are well written and easy to interpret.
Take a look here: Pandora's Deckbox
Happy building!
I also would be happy to give feedback to anyone who needs/wants some ;)
July 20, 2016 1:55 p.m.
Now, the first thing I want to ask: What are you up against? What are you friends playing and how long have they been playing?
If they are all experienced players, you don't want to show up witha Deck Builders Toolkit, because it would simply not be good enough. And the other way around, if all your friends are new, a Deck Builders Toolkit is a good buy.
If you are all new, getting some free Sample Decks. This was my starting point and it was great.
July 20, 2016 5:47 p.m.
Thank you for your response, I forgot to add a few things.
Me and my friends are just playing casually (kitchen table play) with our own random themed cards, but we're trying to look to improve the decks through ofcourse trial and error.
Right now we're playing the Duel Decks Anthology which we bought (mainly to get familiar with the game mechanics and rules) and on Forge until we feel comfortable enough to buy cards in real life once we know which ones to buy.
We're right now struggling for finding cards for our decks since our card collection is very very little and we barely have any knowledge of the cards in MTG's HUGE library of it, so we're also wondering from where do you folk think we should start ?
Alpha ? Beta ? Core sets ? etc...
Thanks again.
July 21, 2016 8:53 a.m.
Rather than looking at individual sets, look at decks that seem fun and build those regardless of the set of the cards. Find your favorite deck right now and build it!
July 21, 2016 9:03 a.m.
libraryjoy says... #11
I agree with Boza, don't worry about the sets. If you want to improve your Duel Deck, look for cards that would do the things you want your deck to do. Elves deck? Look for some awesome elves, like Immaculate Magistrate + Joraga Warcaller or Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Elvish Archdruid. Or upgrade the Divine deck with stuff like Seraph Sanctuary, Staff of the Sun Magus, Kor Cartographer or Angelic Skirmisher. Or switch the focus to lifegain and add in a bunch of Angelic Accord. Where do you find out about these cards? Gatherer database. Or by surfing other people's decks on tapped out. Even don't be afraid to check out EDH/Commander decks, since the singelton format means they'll use a lot more different cards.
DERPLINGSUPREME says... #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jVmYpiqP4w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzSz5RJ6gu0
check out many of his other videos as well, hes a great guy with some great content
July 20, 2016 12:29 p.m.