How to and where to
Standard forum
Posted on June 15, 2015, 2:37 p.m. by michaelmattel
So, I'm new to MTG and I've bought a duel deck some boosters.. But I want to get into competitive play. How do I build a standard deck? Where do i start? How do I start? What are the cards to look for?
TheMagicalDuck says... #3
I personally think the best way to build your skill and card collection is to go to a couple booster drafts at your local game store. Go to a couple, don't get discouraged about losing - Everyone does it. If you'd like, you can download a Duels of the Planeswalkers game which will immensely help your skill level. There are online draft simulators and reviews on cards by professional MTG players. These will give you a better understanding of how cards work, why some are good or bad, and expand your knowledge on other playability. As for getting cards, drafts will help greatly, but if you like, booster packs would be a section option. Over time, you will find what cards are powerful and which cards are very weak. (For example - many new players - me included - find life-gain to be a terrific strategy and veer away from advantageous cards such as card draw or cheap cards with life-loss downsides.) You can look on this site's standard page and see what kind of decks are being cooked up at the moment. Many websites will show you tournament results on decks that have been winning. Overall, any constructed format is very expensive - so I'd wait a couple months before going too deep into standard.
June 15, 2015 2:48 p.m.
michaelmattel says... #4
FAMOUSWATERMELONBlue. I really enjoy playing with blue decks and blue cards, also green and white and no, not really a budget. If I see that it's worth every penny I'm all for it.
June 15, 2015 3:11 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #5
I take it you're a control player then? The best control deck out there right now is Esper Dragons, a control deck using things like Dragonlord Ojutai and Dragonlord Silumgar as finishers. I'm by no means a specialist though.
June 15, 2015 3:18 p.m.
Just for the record, I would not recommend getting into the game on a control deck, especially not into competitive magic. I'd start off win a RDW style deck, or if you're really focused on blue, try White-Blue Heroic. These decks are much less taxing on knowing card interactions, and so better for newer players without the time put in to knowing all the standard decks.
June 15, 2015 3:45 p.m.
Is this strictly Standard? If so, I agree with the above. If you want to venture into Modern, then there are a lot more deck types and variety. May be biased here, but I personally recommend Modern over Standard, but it's you choice and to each their own.
Glad to see new players, btw!
June 15, 2015 3:58 p.m.
michaelmattel says... #9
awphutt So a RDW style deck stands for Red, Dark and white? Sorry, but just want to make sure lol. Should I search on here for a RDW styled deck and playtest it to see how things go? Like I said, I'm open to everything here because I'm so new to the competitive part.
June 15, 2015 5:54 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #10
RDW stand for Red Deck Wins. It's an aggro (aggressive) strategy that relies on cards like Zurgo Bellstriker, Foundry Street Denizen, Hordeling Outburst, and Stoke the Flames.
I actually believe RDW is a very poor choice for beginners. People suggest it because it is cheap. While it is economical, it actually requires very tight play and extensive knowledge of the potential lines to pilot well. Your cards are less powerful and so you have to know how to utilize tempo and leverage it.
The best place for a new player to start is a green based midrange deck. Green cards tend to be easy to evaluate and have a tangible impact on the board. Mono Green Devotion, G/W Aggro, G/R Dragons, and G/B Midrange are all great places to start. They are proactive so you can go into every match up with a plan (smash face) and not have to worry so much about what your opponent is doing. Green's creatures are typically the most powerful for the mana you spend which will allow you to lean on your cards for the heavy lifting as opposed to playskill. Green's weakness is it's lack of ability to interact with the opponents cards, that's where 
, 
, or 
comes in to lend a hand with cards like Crater's Claws, Valorous Stance, and Ultimate Price.
June 15, 2015 6:36 p.m. Edited.
Well first you need to determine your favorite style of play, the problem with this is that what you like in theory might not be what you like to play. What I mean by this is that to be certain you like a certain archetype you need to play it or else you could regret spending for the cards. Now that ain't always possible so I'll give you a tip below. Standard is expensive and unless you're really comfortable spending thousands of dollars annually for magic I recommend you choose two colors and stick to those.
Assumimg you like control and going blue is the worst assumption you could make IMO. If you go blue you'll be stuck playing control 95% of the time (blue aggro is not always a viable archetype). While if you go green white you can play aggro, midrange, devotion and control (if you splash black).
Alright so once you've found a style of play that you like you go on mtgtop8.com and look up tier 1-2 deck that play that style. Once a deck in there interests you go on youtube, go on the SCG channel, search up matches of that deck and listen to them. Keep referring to mtg top 8 lists when they play cards you don't know about. Do that for 3-4 decks, this way you'll be sure you like a certain deck and at the same time that will make you learn the cards.
Resume: make sure you like control before buying the blue/black good stuff. To make sure you like a deck play it first. Stick to two main colors in your standard journey unless magic is what you work for everyday. Look at mtgtop8 decklists, look up matches of certain decks on youtube/scg. Last tip: don't buy tier 3 decks even though they might seem the ones you prefer, you'll regret it in the long run.
June 15, 2015 7:18 p.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #12
For a new player, I would suggest starting with G/R Dragons or G/R Devotion. They are relatively good decks and are fairly easy to pilot (meaning play them). There are difference between the decks. G/R Dragons is simply, play dragons, smash face. G/R Devotion is all about mana ramp and build your board faster and THEN smash face. I would suggest starting with one of those. Also, I would recommend watching some YouTube videos of standard open series events. Search "starcitygames" and find them on their page. There is quite a lot of interesting decks out there right now, you can't really go wrong. If you want further assistance, reach out to me, and my page has a ton of different decks on it that you may like. Feel free to check them out.
June 15, 2015 8:30 p.m.
Jimmy_Chinchila says... #13
Call your local card shops, ask what days they do tournaments and what format. Almost every decent sized store runs tournaments and of course the bigger the city the more options. You'll start meeting people and Magic players like helping people improve decks. Go to a few different ones so you can get a feel for varied environments: some have lots of people that are very competitive, some have smaller groups that are more casual. Friday Night Magic is a weekly thing and good to practice. Once you get comfortable there are tournaments through Star City Games pretty often around the country. Find a group of players you like and just play regularly, seeing their decks and play styles will give you ideas. Everyone's telling you which deck to start with, I'd say make a few. Duel decks, event decks and intro packs have premade decks that you can use as a core to modify. Fat Packs are good as they have a 20-side dice, 9 boosters, and a guide book that talks of the set's mechanics and has a visual list of all the cards. I also agree that the Duel of the Planeswalkers games for console are good to practice with. Lastly, go to Starcitygames.com and on the right hand side it has results for recent tournaments, where you can see the deck lists for popular, competitive decks. Start out buying boosters then fill in what you need buying singles. You will eventually discover your preferred strategy/ play style and what color magic you want to wield!
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #2
Well, here are a couple questions.
What is(are) your favorite color(s)? What is your favorite style of play? What kind of a budget do you have?
June 15, 2015 2:39 p.m.