Best Modern Deck for Beginners
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 23, 2016, 6:02 p.m. by BlueMageBrandon
Hey everyone!
I have a friend that has been playing Magic for about six months and he still thinks that there is only one format: Kitchen Table. I want to fix that.
The best way I could think of was to have him play on Untap.in. That way he could could try all the decks he wants without having to spend a thing.
However, I can't think of a good deck to have him try. As I said above, he's a relatively new player and to be honest, isn't the best (sorry buddy).
Some of my thoughts are BW Tokens and CoCo Elves. When I asked him what kind of deck he wanted, he said he liked creatures
Both of those fall under that category but I'm still not sure if one of those would be right. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Edit: Thanks for all of your help! Would this be a good deck?
Now You Sea Me, Now You Don't!
Modern
SCORE: 4 | 19 COMMENTS | 1273 VIEWS
Servo_Token says... #3
Merfolk. It's creatures, but it's also playable. Affinity is another option. If he likes big creatures, load up eldrazi.
February 23, 2016 6:09 p.m.
Dalektable says... #4
Bogles is easy to pilot and effective. Come to think of it, does anyone have experience playing the deck versus eldrazi? Seems like it could be a good match up.
February 23, 2016 6:24 p.m.
BlueMageBrandon says... #5
Thanks for all of your help! would this be a good deck?
Now You Sea Me, Now You Don't!
Modern
SCORE: 4 | 19 COMMENTS | 1273 VIEWS
February 23, 2016 6:35 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #6
I played bogles at SCGLouisville this weekend, 0-7. The deck is in theory great against eldrazi, except it's a terrible deck that doesn't stand up competitively right now.
February 23, 2016 6:39 p.m.
creatures? id say hatebears, goblins, merfolk, elves, zoo, kiki chord, or tooth and nail(emrakul counts, right?)
February 23, 2016 7:06 p.m.
GOBLINS!! Plus then you can direct him to The ULTIMATE Modern Goblins Primer - it covers all the basics :)
February 23, 2016 7:13 p.m.
I second Hatebears, Merfolk or Goblins. All are very easy to pilot and IMMENSELY fun to play!
February 23, 2016 7:18 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #10
Ok, off topic I know but the guy named DevoidMage DIDN'T play eldrazi? Am I the only one who sees this?
Affinity and fish are probably your best options. A nice thing about both decks is that there is very little needed to port those two to legacy which is nice.
(FoW and Daze for fish and artifact lands for affinity)
In modern both are very strong contenders able to easily top 8.
Affinity can be a bit more complicated to play so if your friend has trouble with complex interactions I'd say Fish is a LITTLE easier on the mind.
February 23, 2016 7:21 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #11
Pod got banned once, i'm never going to play with a deck that's getting banned again. Plus, I'm a finance guy before a player, and I will definitely sell you those Eye of Ugins for $50 when I bought them for $6. I had my fun with drazi, but the time to sell out has already past.
February 23, 2016 8:06 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #12
DevoidMage Fair, I'm at least going to enjoy it till april. The deck is an absolute blast to play.
February 23, 2016 8:15 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #13
I'm just going to point out that Merfolk is deceptively challenging to play well. Crapping out a ton of fish with your vials is easy, but often not the best idea; the deck is interactive. As a tempo deck, there's a lot of lines of play and choosing the wrong one can cost you dearly. If your friend is cool with a skill-intensive deck though? It's a lot of fun! If not, you may want to look at something a bit more linear.
CoCo elves is an interesting idea; recognize that it is actually an aggro-combo deck. There's a few variants of it than lean more towards one side than the other, but it does want you to get particular creatures on the board in order to go for that huge, lethal swing. It's a lot of fun though to be able to say "swing with the team for 83, with trample?" That's something I've actually done at FNM before. My current list (Worst Christmas Ever) could conceivably swing for 200+ on turn three with absolute nut draws and an uninteractive opponent. At that point the numbers are academic, but it's hilarious to know it's even possible.
February 23, 2016 11:48 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #14
ComradeJim270 I can't speak for the others but as for myself I'm sorry if I made folk sound stupid easy, I was just comparing it against affinity which really is a incredibly difficult deck to play well. When you compare the two it makes it hard to explain it right.
Thanks for bringing that up.
February 24, 2016 12:02 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #15
@Ohthenoises: It's all good, I just want to make sure the OP gets sound advice. Both decks are challenging but for different reasons. The thing I was mainly trying to point out is that Merfolk looks easy, but actually isn't. Leave it to the sneaky little fish to pull that off.
Amusingly, I had a conversation about this recently with a friend who plays Affinity... and yes, it is hard to explain. The decks operate on different axes and I think if we swapped decks we'd both be at something of a loss.
February 24, 2016 12:10 a.m. Edited.
Ohthenoises says... #16
I tried to explain how to play affinity correctly to a friend of mine and he was at a loss. Ravager, in particular vexed him.
To be fair though, even if OP's friend was new I feel like Fish is a bit more forgiving no? I mean especially since everyone and their mother has hate for affinity, less so for Fish. It would allow him to learn the deck and the format and get better with the deck with less frustrations.
Affinity doesn't really have the same "cushion" in that if I handed affinity to a new player they would look at me like "so, how do I do those explosive starts?"
Let me know If i'm talking out my ass, I'm genuinely curious how easy fish is to pick up.
February 24, 2016 12:29 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #17
@Ohthenoises: I don't know well enough to answer that without feeling like I'm talking out of my ass.
It's perhaps easier to pick up, but I've found it's extremely challenging to actually play optimally. Being a bad fish player is quite an easy mistake to make; I've certainly done it. I would speculate that fish is easier to pick up but has a higher skill ceiling.
The main thing I've noticed is that as a tempo deck fish's lines of play can change considerably based on matchup, whether you're on the play or the draw, and whether you're on game 2-3. It isn't a deck that can be goldfished (ha!). That actually gives merit to what you're saying about learning the deck and the format and it's been my experience. I understand Modern a lot better since I started playing fish than when I played a less interactive deck.
I certainly wouldn't advise a player new to the format to sleeve up robots over fish.
February 24, 2016 10:15 a.m.
Sceadugenga says... #18
I'd also have to chip in and say that for a beginner, Affinity is NOT a good deck. Combat math is challenging, mulligan decisions are difficult, sequencing is very important (moreso than in a deck like Burn, which is what I would recommend as the best beginner deck), and sometimes the deck just loses to itself, which isn't a great feeling for a new player. I have solid Modern experience playing Affinity and BG/x, as far as competitive archetypes go, and I'd say that playing Jund or Abzan would be a decent consideration, since the decks are more straightforward than other creature based options, and straight up BG Rock is always a value town blast, especially if you're playing the ObliteRock variant.
ninjaclevs13 says... #2
B/W tokens, Merfolk, Zoo, Burn, and Bogles are all viable options for beginners. Bogles especially is fun.
February 23, 2016 6:08 p.m.