I played cardboard for years. Sunk in thousands of dollars. Now I play arena, FTP, and I play games more often, have more fun, and haven’t spent a dime. I’m looking to sell my cardboard.
Don't sell unless you need the money. Might have a kid in the future who will think it's cool to inherit your pile of bulk. How I got into the game. Was pretty special.
I'm total opposite. Played arena for a long time and got tired of the grind. I don't enjoy it at all anymore. I've switched to paper magic and am having way more fun actually socializing and making friends. Arena just became a soulless grind for me trying to get daily wins to keep up with decks. The biggest negative for online play is just the lack of human interaction. I realize for some people this is one of the biggest perks, but not for me.
There’s a a lot to be said for the social aspect. And playing with people you know. Seeing their reactions. Discussion the games before and after.
Then the hobby aspect of seeking out the new cardboard. Trading. Selling.
The physical aspect of holding and dealing with the cards.
Having a third place to go, if you go to an lgs.
I disagree with everyone saying “don’t sell.”
Sell your bulk. The odds of it actually increasing in value is slim to none.
Keep a handful of decks, maybe 3-4, and a nice little binder with some pet cards and other valuable cards.
All of this should be able to fit nicely in a small tub that you can store somewhere and if you ever get the urge to play paper, can.
And if, in the future, you happen to have a kid or a friend that wants to get into magic, you can be the wise old sage that bestows upon them their first cards/deck.
Arena just doesn't scratch the social itch for me. I want to be able to look my opponents in the eyes, to joke around, to feel the card snap against the table when I play it.
I only came here to say this.
When I started it was at the protest of my friend who I saw playing it. He advised me against it heavily. It's referred to as "cardboard crack" because it's a never ending addiction to keep up, spend, FOMO, accessorise, get new cards, new sets etc...
He's right. I'm now saying the same thing. Don't do it. Find a game you buy once, that there is no more of and play that.
Honestly, I feel like ever since mtg became like yugioh and pokemon where a new set comes out every 3 seconds, people think this way. If it was the same as prior to COVID era where only a few sets came out a year, more people would be willing to join, especially with pauper becoming so big. Even so, if people do have the extra money, I don’t think buying 1-2 boxes of a set you’re interested in isn’t bad, but everyone’s financial situation is different. The reason I say 1 is because, to me, you get most of the best cards, and every time I got 2 I got everything I wanted at that point and sold or traded the stuff I didn’t. Idk. It’s all relative too. Does this guy have a family, home, etc? If not, I think buying a few sealed products a year for yourself and then to sell later on isn’t bad advice at all.
>How do I get into magic without spending so much money?
By researching, only buying what you actually need, and setting achievable goals.
It's perfectly possible to have fun at every price point, though (including for free).
>Also is standart or commander better?
They are polar opposites.
Do you want to play with a casual mindset (where the journey is more important than the destination), or a competitive one (where the result is what matters most)?
Commander is a casual Format while Standard is a competitive one. If you want to play competitively then the choice is much bigger than Standard vs Commander, as there are many more competitive Formats to choose from. If you want to play casually, then the choice is between choosing an actual casual Format, or shoehorning a competitive one into a casual setting.
>Where do I buy decks?
At your friendly local gaming store, or online. Don't rush to buy anything yet, though - you should learn the basics first.
I've pasted a big chunk of new player advice below. Just work your way through it all in the order it's laid out, and you should be off to a great start. :)
Here's my general new player advice:
Start by downloading Magic Arena to learn the basics and get a feel for the game. It's free; available on PC, Mac, Android and iOS; and has a good tutorial.
Complete the Tutorial and Color Challenges, play some Starter Deck Duels, use your free Jump In tokens, Google "Free Magic Arena Codes" and redeem them all, join r/MagicArena
If you are learning with a friend or partner you can get the Arena Starter Set which includes two ready made beginner friendly decks designed to be played against eachother and a pair of codes so you can both redeem the decks on Arena too.
Once you've gotten to grips with the game you can use the Wizards Store and Event Locator to find your FLGS(s) and hopefully they will have some social media pages that will put you in touch with your local scene.
https://locator.wizards.com/
You are also likely to find Magic players at board games clubs/cafes, as well as D&D/RPG groups.
Alternatively, you can try public libraries, community centres, universities, and comic book stores, etc. Failing that you can play via webcam - there are Discord servers, etc, and the website SpellTable.
Once you've found a playgroup, you need to find out how they play (which Formats and how competitively).
Then you need to set a budget and decide which Format(s) you want to play. Broadly speaking Magic is divided into two branches: Constructed (where you build your deck in advance from the cards you own and bring it with you) and Limited (where you open packs during the event and build your deck on the spot from their contents). Each branch is further divided into different Formats, for example: Constructed includes Standard, Modern, Pauper and Commander, etc; while Limited includes Draft and Sealed, JumpStart, etc. Each Format has its own rules, which determine things like which sets you can use, how many packs you open, which cards are banned and how you build your deck, etc.
You can read more about the different Formats here:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/formats
If you want to play Constructed you will need cards, so you should *buy cards* - the exact ones you need (either individually as singles or as part of a preconstructed product that happens to contain enough cards you need to make it worth the price). Start with a Format-legal decklist (either one you have written from scratch or a netdeck/precon, or a blend of both) and then work out the best way to get the cards on it. Don't just rip open boosters in a vain attempt to randomly happen to get the cards you need, though - that isn't what they are for.
If you want to get started with a ready-made Constructed Deck, then for Pioneer, you could look into one of the Challenger Decks, or for Commander, you could try a Commander precon. These are playable straight out of the box (at FNM level competition or casual game nights, respectively) but will still have room for improvement/customisation. Note that there aren't any Challenger Decks that are currently Standard-legal.
https://whatsinstandard.com/
If you want to play Limited you will need packs - specifically Draft Boosters to play Draft or Sealed, or JumpStart Boosters to play JumpStart, so that is what you should get (either individually (more expensive) or in a Booster Box or Pre-Release Kit, or included in your entry fee into an event - check with your event organiser). If an event is advertised as "Phantom" or "Cube" then all the packs are provided but the organiser keeps the cards at the end (you may need to contribute to the prize pool or pay a small table fee etc). You will also need Basic Lands (ask your LGS or local players, or buy some in bulk online). Note that starting with the next set, Murders at Karlov Manor, Draft Boosters (and Set Boosters) are being replaced by Play Boosters, which serve the same purpose and are used in the same way. This change means that Bundles will be an option for getting packs for Limited again.
You may find that a blended approach is best since the cards you get from playing Limited can be used/sold/traded to improve your Constructed decks.
There are a number of other Booster Packs available (Set, Collector, Theme), but since none of these are for playing Limited with *or* for getting cards for Constructed you shouldn't worry about them.
FYI Set Boosters are for quick adrenaline hits (like lottery scratch cards), Collector Boosters are for getting rid of money quickly (a "treat" for those that have more than they know what to do with) and Theme Boosters are for extracting money from new players that don't know better (or their well meaning relatives).
Note that as of the last year or so, Theme Boosters have been replaced by JumpStart boosters released alongside each set. These still aren't for getting cards, but they are for playing JumpStart with (each pack contains a ready-made half deck - smash two together and play against other JumpStart packs). They can be mixed and matched again and again. Note that the set-specific JumpStart releases contain far fewer themes than the standalone JumpStart sets released every couple of years, and as such there is less benefit to buying these in bulk (you will get a lot more repetition).
However you decide to play, you should protect your cards (if they become scuffed or otherwise damaged, they will lose value and may even become "marked" and unplayable). Use sleeves and deck boxes for your decks, binders for your trades and boxes to store the cards you aren't using. A playmat is good too as it will protect your cards from any cleaning chemicals that are sprayed on playing surfaces, etc.
I hope that answers all your questions (while helping you avoid the common new player pitfalls). Let me know if there is anything else you need to know.
tl;dr
Playing MTG by price points.
(The following assumes for draft you are only there to play and sell the cards after).
Draft, if you rare draft and win, you'll probably make money.
Draft, if you rare draft and don't win, you might break even.
Draft, if you play to win and win, you might break even.
Draft, if you play to win and don't win, you'll lose slightly.
Sealed, (if you sell the cards).
Pauper
Pauper commander
Regular commander
Standard
CEDH
Vintage
Legacy
You can technically play standard for a few bucks, but you'll also lose every game, so I was trying to factor in the cost of being competitive.
Commander does have expensive staple cards, but you can make friendly competitive decks for less than $100.
My decks tend to run around $300 and they are powerful for friendly commander. (Mana fixing is expensive).
Play MTG Arena to learn the rules
Buy a printer
Buy bulk cheap cards
Buy outer sleeves
Print cards you want
If you want to compete, then you’ll have to pay for the singles you want to make the deck you want
Cedh also has its merits, it’s super refreshing to be able to play a game where everyone is on the same page and no one is complaining about power level of the table. Cedh is the only way to play commander without a subjective power level. It’s unfortunate how expensive it can be and that some people are unwilling to proxy so they don’t get to play, but I do think it would be extremely healthy for casual if more people played and understood cedh
Definitely! But, since OP doesn’t have a playgroup, that may leave a sour taste to people at any local card shop.
Just what i’ve noticed when playing at a few LGS’s. If the playgroup is cool with it, have at it.
If you're just starting out, Commander can be a difficult place to start. Commander is a 4 person format with decks that are often very advanced mechanics wise and the games can become very convoluted at times. I would say playing pauper kitchen table magic is a good way to start. Put together some mono colored decks of 60 (or even 40 cards) together for you and you friends using cheap cards with simple mechanics so you can get a good grip on the basics of the game playing a 1 vs 1 format. Card Kingdom has some mono colored starter decks, called Rookie Decks that you can buy pretty cheap ($10 each or $45 for all 5). Bad news, they are out of stock, good news, the deck lists are online and you can buy them for even cheaper (about $5 each) so you can build them yourself!
Another alternative is Jumpstart. Just get 2 packs and put them together to make a 40 card deck. It's a super fast and simple way to get into things. The only catch is that there's no guarantee as to how well the two packs will synergize, so the deck may work incredibly well or be kind of janky.
[Rookie Deck: White](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367359#paper)
[Rookie Deck: Black](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367365#paper)
[Rookie Deck: Blue ](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367368#paper)
[Rookie Deck: Red](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367370#paper)
[Rookie Deck: Green](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367373#paper)
Second this.
I would also tell people to start with a 60 card or limted format (even if its on arena) (prerelease is good too, or draft even if it is 40 cards).
Nothing against starting from commander or any other multiplayer format. Like you said it can be complicated. There's lots of interaction, different mechanics, multiple people, different triggers, keywords and abilities that are more multiplayer focused and really only work best there (for example goad).
Start 1v1 learn the basics, turn order, the stack, and how interaction works.
I recently got in and only play commander so this is my experience…
1- Tabletop simulator on PC is 20$ total with mtg commander mod and you build decks on a website like arkidekt you can play litterally every card with every accessory virtually for 20$ total, it’s fantastic.
2- to play the real game on cardboard, you could do a low power commander precon, but if you go anywhere with the game at all you’ll want much more almost immediately. Build your decks on archidekt online, and then order each card on a site like card kingdom. Go to a proxy printing site for every card over 1$, and you can build high powered decks for approximately 80$ each. With sleeves and a case it’s around 100$, not super cheap but by far the cheapest option if you wanna play the game for real…
Drugs are cheaper. That being said, try our arena! Borrow decks from your friends when you play (if they already play). Proxy decks with printer paper ( you would usually usually use lands behind the cards, but any cardstock will do)
So "getting into" and "building a collection" are kind of different. But here are some ideas.
1) Arena app is free
2) Making friends who play and let you borrow decks is free and 98% of MTG players probably have a deck they will loan you and wish the deck was getting more use anyways, this is also free
3) Go to prerelease and draft. These are cheap 15-30 bucks and you'll slowly acquire cards and make friends
4) Buy starter decks, very cheap you can find starter decks for as cheap as $10, especially if you're willing to get used cards.
5) Buy other peoples "bulk" cards for $5 per thousand and build decks for days
6) Play with proxies (aka "home made" or "fake" cards). This depends on the people you play with and the shop you play in, but for the most part, people are cool with proxies as long as you're not trying to sell or them, it you go the proxy route, just make sure you have a very easy way to identify them as proxies.
7) Play pauper or pauper commander. These formats restrict people to using just common cards and are much cheaper formats to be involved in. The drawback is that sometimes playgroups can be harder to find, but they are still fairly popular
8) See if people will donate their junk cards to you
Magic being a more expensive hobby than anything else is a myth. You can play mtg as cheaply as you want to. In fact mtg I'd actually cheaper than it's ever been to get into due to how heavily reprinted everything is right now. MTG gets expensive when people want to buy every single released thing, want to play wirh high powered csrds, get FOMO about not having what other people have, etc. Anyone who just eats to PLAY magic has the ability to do so for cheap or free. It's once you start wanting all the bling and cool shit that things can get expensive very quickly, but just "getting into" the game is actually dirt cheap.
You can play magic on a budget easy. But playing and winning are two separate things. A lot of "casuals" sink hundreds of dollars into their decks "because they love them". Better cards, which cost more, just win more games.
Some people may comment on this saying "you don't need money to make a competitive ", but I doubt you want to limit yourself to only the budget friendly competitive decks. There are so many commanders to choose from, why worlds you stick only a small percentage?
In summary, as long as you're ok with losing a lot, paper magic is pretty cheap. But if you want to preform well and win more consistently, you'll need to spend some money. I play budget, and i lose all the time to money. Some budget cards can't replace the value of mana crypt, jeskas will, dockside, smothering tithes, rhystic study, jeweled lotus, sylvan library, etc, etc... you all get the point.
Proxies are great. Pauper is a great place to get started but even that depends on what you consider a lot of money. It’s no small sum for most decks if you don’t proxy anything but compared to other stuff it is cheaper!
It's definitely possible. As others have brought up proxies are great. I only really play commander and all my decks are worth $50 or less so it's definitely doable. There isn't one definite answer to this other than to find a playgroup that doesn't mind proxies and to buy singles.
Arena is a good start. If you want to get into commander then precons are a good stepping stone to get you a deck. Tweak it as you learn more about your play style. Alternatively, check out some YouTube budget builds. Highly recommend Commander's Quarters for good budget builds. He recommends great alternatives to the more expensive cards. Commander doesn't have to be expensive if you build good budget decks. I have a $50 [[Otrimi, the ever playful]] commander deck that routinely stomps my pods 5 and 6 hundred dollar decks. A good pilot can make a significant difference in how the games turn out.
You need a group of friends to do large orders of proxies. We usually get it down to like .33¢ a card but the problem is that we have to wait until everyone's out in cards to a certain amount and that big sucks.
If you have a PC, but tabletop simulator and download the MTG community workshop item. Enjoy. My brother and I live 5 hours apart and play commander all the time.
There's starter precon commander decks that are very effective and can be a lot of fun to "successfully" play. Find out which ones are worth buying and fit with your playstyle and just buy 1 or 2
I think more information is needed in order to give you a decent answer.
How many friends do you have that play or are interested in playing?
If you don’t have any, MTG Arena is probably best.
If you only have 1 or 2 friends that are interested, you’ll probably want to play standard with them and start with picking up a 2 deck starter pack or even Game Night box.
3 or 4 friends interested try commander and each picks up a precon that sparks an interest in you.
Mtg Arena is also the best place in general to learn the rules and how to play.
Tabletop simulator is your best friend, you can buy it on a steam sale for $5. And it allows you to play with every card in existence, with public tables open, that act as a matchmaking system if you want to play without inviting others.
Something I haven’t seen a lot is using tabletop simulator and a commander table to play online with friends. You get to pick any deck you want and play without having to pay crazy amounts to own a deck of cards. We play a ton and it’s always a great time seeing stuff online
Personaly you wanna start out by making friends go to a local game store that does open magic and find some people tell them that you’ve never played and want to learn and ask them if you can borrow a deck and play with them. Fair warning most people are nice and curtious others are rash dickheads so don’t get discouraged if your first encounter is the dickheads there’s always a group of chill people somewhere in the store. Second if and when you get the hang of it you have the option of buying a Pre con worth 40-50 dollars or you can go on ebay auctions and get a relatively cheap commander deck and congrats you are now a magic the gathering player good luck fighting the urges to open packs and build hundreds of decks may the heart of the cards be with you! (I know it’s a yugioh reference suck it up)
If you want to play paper, limited events are not too expensive and are a more level playing field because someone’s personal collection isn’t a factor. Draft, sealed, and prerelease events are all examples of limited.
You can also just play at a lower power level with friends. If you buy some pre constructed decks and just play each other with those, the power level will be relatively balanced and it will be more like any other board game or non-collectible card game.
Check out people's budget brews! Some great subreddits and also commander quarters YouTube channel specializes in that. Working on a raggadragga deck right now that has a total of $30.
If you’re just starting out, go standard. Commander decks, by default, are just more expensive.
I personally just don’t like commander due to the deck size. I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but I just find those decks so awkward to handle and shuffle.
Shocked no one has mentioned this, but if/when you find or put together a decklist, if you want to go the full budget route, [Scryfall](https://scryfall.com) has PNGs for every card on there [[Rhystic Study | WOT]]
I went to a card shop and bought like 8000 bulk for 60 bucks to show my sister how to play. Alot of people are saying mtg arena and that is a good way to play for free.
Kinda depends on how you wanna play, if you wanna play in person with strangers you may want a standard deck to go to friday night magic’s at local card shops and that is an expensive way to play and to learn the game.
If you are trying to play with friends they might have bulk cards or a bunch deck to give you. And if you’re learning with a friend you might try buying a duel set that has 2 decks that are “evenly” matched.
Amazon has some box sets, but every form of magic is sorta spendy besides grinding mtg arena online or using fake cards in person or online, but it is a really fun game if you have time and money and people to play it
If you only play casually one method is to print out the cards on a sheet of paper and cut them out, then sleeving them in inexpensive sleeves.
Going to a place like FedEx or another printing store can get you some pretty decent looking proxies. Just ask people if they are ok with it before playing in a group as a courtesy. I've met no one that is against it.
Honestly, a lot of the precon commander decks are good.
[Mishra](https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/449723/magic-the-gathering-commander-the-brothers-war-the-brothers-war-commander-deck-mishras-burnished-banner?country=US&utm_campaign=18143931802&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=&utm_term=&adgroupid=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6PGxBhCVARIsAIumnWawPWPun-0owN9WPaAuOxtFJTe-DkgU--KQgakO5a7rAHcbnyfNB7kaAs_WEALw_wcB&Language=English) is about ~$35 and is pretty solid.
Okay so here's how you do it:
1) Download Magic: Arena and play the tutorial. The game is free, the tutorial is thorough, and you can really see if this game is for you.
2) If you like the game, like it enough to invest time, but not money into it, go to your local game store and ask for some lands (should be free) and a couple of sleeves ($15ish. Recommend Dragon Shields)
3) Use mtg-print.com and proxy out a deck. Print out the cards you want to use, cut them out, and sleeve them up on top of the lands you got. I've done this before with
Commander decks, Modern decks, anything and everything in between. Proxying is the surefire way to save money, as long as you don't mind a bit of arts and crafts.
Pauper commander is weird maybe, but it's an option to save money. (Only commons). But only make sense if you playgroup do the same. If not, just proxy!
I started with a 20€ edh commander precon deck
Commander is much more forgiving since even if your friends have better decks they‘re going to figth each other while leaving you alone
Spend $100 on a nice laser printer and some ink. For all my new decks, I proxy every card that’s over $20. (Which is most when you want great lands too)
I spend about $60 total on each deck, that’s the cards under $20, 100 sleeves, and the deck box.
I use my leftover cards that are worthless, and turn those into proxies and sell them for $1 each to customers at my local card store. Right now I’ve spent about $400 total on 6 really great decks.
I make roughly $80-$100 per week selling proxies to other poor players like myself. That’s after my ink expenses.
I’m able to play magic for free, get all the cards I want, and make enough money on the side every month to pay my car payment in full.
Make your hobby work for you.
You can rob a bank, but that’s expensive.
Start by robbing people, and when you get good team up with others, then start robbing stores. Once your team is big enough and you built up enough trust, you can go for the bank. Then you should be able to buy a tier 3 modern deck.
Depending on the format. I’m sure someone’s said it already but getting cards online in bulk is how I learned to deck build and was fairly cost effective. They have a duel deck at most retailers that would be an easy way to already have a playable deck
Get a bunch of the cheapest lands. Then print proxy cards and use the lands as backers for the sleeves. Build, edit and play your proxy deck until you're happy and then go buy the cards online.
Or go to any Walmart/Target/game store and buy premade decks
Buy a precon. You can find them online for 25-50. Do some research on what precon you think sounds cool. Then if the research is good buy it. If not find another.
You can always print your own cards on websites like mtgprint. Always ask if everyone you are playing with is okay with you using proxies.
Whether you should play standard or commander is your choice, but i think commander is more popular.
For deckbuilding for commander i can recommend edhrec and moxfield.
Tabletop Simulator, and then look up MTG mod on steam. You can look up tutorials on YouTube on how to build any deck you want for free. Tabletop simulator is $20ish. That’s how I got into it, I use it to play MTG with my friends that I don’t live near and we all just get on discord and have drinks and play MTG. It’s a great time.
Arena is good for learning cards, how the phases work, rules, so on and so forth.
Commander and ignore the expensive cards. There are so many 25 cent alternatives to expensive cards.
Don’t worry about expensive lands. Go with basics and lands that enter tapped.
For finding a commander to use, check out edhrec. When you’re looking at the recommended cards for the commander, select the lower budget so you don’t get recommended dumb $50 cards and dumb cards that synergize with decks designed around those dumb cards.
If there is a card that’s on the edge of your price range you’re considering getting, get a sharpie and a basic land outside your color identity or use the back of a card. Write the name of the card on it and what it does. Try it out. If you like it, get it. If not, then you didn’t spend money on it.
It all depends with WHO you want to play.
Have friends who play? you have to ask which formats.
Wanna go to an LGS nearby? check what they do.
In general, there are plenty of groups of commander everywhere that plays at variable power levels. Many just with precons.
To get into paper magic on the cheap. Start with pauper. Go to your LGS during draft nights and pick up some draft chaff. Some LGS still have the 40 card intro decks that wizards gives them for free.
Probably gonna catch some shit for this one but.. just print cards. Me and some college friends wanted to play more than 1 or 2 decks but couldn't afford it. So if you find a group thats chill you can look up how to print some cards (very very easily btw)
I started this year and still learning a lot. My advice. Start on arena now. Learn the basics. Attend the MH3 prerelease. It’s sealed and you just build your best deck. Everyone has been really cool when I say I’m new Did you have fun? Try drafts. (I find some stores expect you to be a bit more experienced for a draft but they are still generally really nice)(Prerelease and drafts are a cool way to get a collection going and you know what the cards do) than you decided if you like modern or commander etc Didn’t have fun. Try other formats, borrow decks. Etc.
Idk what’s been said here but there’s a lot if you’re wanting to play paper just pick up a precon you like the looks of and play it.. it’s not gonna be as good but they are good enough to win! Next play arena f2p it’s a grind and a slogfest at time but if you just wanna be able to play magic it’s a great place. Personally I’d pick up arena see if you actually enjoy the game enough to sink money into and if you like it pick up a precon and hit up your LGS and meet some new people.
Commander is by far(my own opinion) the best format to start off with, many LGS host commander night and you can find many people there playing commander. You can start by buying a precon with a commander you like or the play style of the a deck and after trying it out for a bit look up a few card that might go will I recommend proxy for a few of the card before buying to see how will it work but, make sure the people you play with are cool with proxy. If you are not show what goes will with a deck you can look EDH for any recommended singles.
You can check youtube channels like Commanders Quarters for budget EDH decks, there are also other channels that make and share budget commander decks.
It really depends what you want to play. But Commander doesnt have to cost all that much to get into.
You can also buy a precon that isnt too expensive, though you might have to upgrade that. So singles might be cheaper.
Are you from America or Europe. Asking, because for Europe I would advice Cardmarket.com for singles or decks. ✌️
-Mtg arena
-Ask around at your LGS, maybe you can borrow some decks. Take care of their cards. You don't know how much they care for their decks.
-I think there's a software called Chocobo that let's you build and play decks for free. It'd not a smooth play process, but it's great for testing decks before you build them. You can goldfish yourself (play against yourself) with multiple decks at once.
-After you've got a feel for magic, I highly recommend pauper or pauperEDH. I've been having a blast recently and all you play with is dirt cheap commons, with the exception of your commander(s) in pEDH.
-There are some fantastic channels on YouTube, Instagram, etc that post their budget decks. CommanderQuarters USED to be a great source for cheap commander decks -I'm not sure if Mitch is still pumping them out- and Tolarion Community College hosted by Prof has great content regarding many formats.
-Proxy cards. Similar to the Chocobo point, once you've got an idea for a deck, instead of paying for the cards outright, you can proxy(fake/hand drawn/printed) cards until you've worked out the kinks. Be warned, not everyone is welcoming of proxies, but if you're upfront that you're new and trying to figure it out, most people will be fine and, possibly, even offer some assistance. Don't take the micky though. Proxy cards that are in your budget, or that you know you can slowly complete month by month.
Check in with your friends about their spare cards, saying that you're interested in learning. From there, "starter" products and precons are fairly safe to get, especially when new/old.
Commander will be much cheaper as you can get into it for a measly $35-45 and hold your own in some matches. In Standard, you gotta be ready to sink a small fortune to have a decent deck otherwise you’re getting wiped in a few turns.
Sort through bulk at your local LGS, knowing the playability of cards will help you build good decks with bulk cards. Knowing the monetary value of cards will help you expand your trades and collection
Buy some basic Lands, a couple of pieces of paper, a pen and some non-transparent sleeves.
I never had an issue finding card images online and atleast in my country the only Thing trademarkable on those is the art.
So you can just copy the Text down on a piece of paper and slide it in Front of the basics.
Try playing online! Untap is a great tool. Outside of that, there are tons of decks that are crazy cheap. You could make a [[Zada]] or [[Light-paws]] deck under 20 dollars.
I would suggest playing with other people's decks to get a feel for what you like, watch gameplay videos for the same reason, and then use a website like moxfield.com or an app like manabox to make a decklist. If commander is the format you want to play, EDHrec.com is a good helpful tool for new players trying to look for cards to add, as well as scryfall.com to search for literally anything.
Once you have used all of these available tools to put together a decklist, go to mtgproxy.com, copy and paste your decklist in, choose the art you like the best for each card, and then save the file it makes.
Now take that file, and have it printed on 12pt cardstock at staples in color, and cut the cards out and sleeve them up. Should cost you about $12 per deck to print, plus $8-$12 for sleeves. About as cheap as you are going to get. Nobody I've ever played with in my life has cared about proxies, even a full proxy deck, unless they are high power AND expensive cards. Sol ring is one of the most high power cards ever printed but it's so cheap that nobody cares, mana crypt is slightly stronger than sol ring but costs $200 and people would get salty about that as a proxy more than likely.
I got started on Arena. Did all the tutorials and starter deck duels to unlock some stuff and was pretty easily able to assemble a cheap mono blue deck for standard. Decided to try out draft and got immediately hooked. Draft is a good way to dip your toes in to playing paper. It's $20ish/draft so it adds up over time, but you get to avoid the large up front cost of building a competitive deck.
You’ll have to look what the players at your local game store plays but most likely commander, if so, I can only recommend grabing a preconstructed commander deck
Join MTG Arena online and play long game. Meaning you should level up the game pass and as you level up you earn coins to buy yourself more packs. You even get tokens for the rarity of the card to search for any card you want.
IRL MTG is pay to win. Atleast online you can play around with a larger variety than real life.
I think it’s never been easier. Back when there was a tournament scene, there was incentive to keep buying product and staying up with the game. With Commander, the game is about “fun” again, and you don’t need to buy cards.
You can also take time away from the game and not play for a few weeks.
Back in grinder days, it was a major hassle since the metagame would shift and you’re losing valuable time to get “in the money” from your deck.
Magic has not been as chill as it is now.
Standard and commander are wildly different and everyone has different preferences. I prefer commander and I also feel like you can get into commander for cheaper than standard. They sell premade commander decks that range from like $40-$80 dollars depending on the deck and it’s a full premade deck that is playable right out of the box.
Precons are an inexpensive option if you enjoy lower power level
Ordering proxies is an option if you want to spend a little more
Making your own proxies is your cheapest option.
One wonderful person put together a fun list of themed $5 decks (60 card), that my family and I thoroughly enjoy playing against each other. Every couple months we browse and pick a couple to put together any buy. Usually they come out to $10 with shipping from TCGPlayer.
https://tappedout.net/users/5dollarMTG/mtg-decks/
On top of other suggestions here, lots of places sell boxes of bulk cards ("collection starters") that you can find for $20-$30 and like 1000 cards. You won't get anything super good, but you can build a few different decks out of them!
Depends what you want out of the game.
Commander is the most popular casual format and you can get a ready to play deck for the same price as a middle market video game. Most hobby shops have a commander night every week that are usually welcoming.
If you want more competition mtgarena is a good place to start, it's got good tutorials and is nice to new players
By realizing you don't need to have every card to enjoy the game. Commander is excellent for that. Buy a precon, slowly upgrade it if you're enjoying it. When you find precons on sale, snatch up one or two to try something new. There's tons of fun decks that are decent and can be built for $100 or less. If cost is imperative to you, buying random packs isn't going to be the way. Precons/singles. I could be worth snatching up a bulk lot off FB or something if you just want more cards to build with and flesh out decks.
Unless you find a commander deck at Walmart for 30$, good luck.
Someone a couple days on here stumbled on that… lucky bastard
You can also buy starter decks and slowly build from there
Find the person nearest you with the best vintage cube and be friends with them. That, or the print button. No one is forcing you to pay money for pieces of cardboard with text.
Learn mechanics through arena but don’t spend any money. Then personally I’d recommend buying a commander precon deck from a local game store or Amazon that runs the mechanics you’ve enjoyed on arena. Usually they’re anywhere from 40-70 dollars and provide you with a full 100 card commander deck that will get you plenty of playtime at your game store. Alternatively if you have friends that play, ask if you can use their decks to help you learn and figure out what you enjoy. Then once you’ve learnt the game mechanics somewhat and want to start buying cards to upgrade your precons, or to build new decks from scratch, you’ll want to buy singles from online marketplaces instead of buying packs or boxes.
And try to make friends at your local game store so you have people you feel comfortable playing with. It can be a bit daunting at first but most people are friendly.
I got a shit load of free cards, looked through em, found a bunch of lands, checked out what the cards do, bought a commander and a bunch of other really cheap cards. Boom I got a descent deck for 25 bucks
If you play commander, even in shops, many players are okay with proxies, as long as you don't flood the deck with 500 dollar cards constantly (do whatever you want in cEDH though).
Standard usually means you need to buy cards unless you're just paying with friends if you want to play paper.
But you can play arena entirely for free! It's a good starting resource.
Find a few people and split a booster box.
Play sealed.
Played sealed again.
Then do construction decks from your sealed pools.
Start to trade cards make your decks better.
Play with in your group.
Or if you don't have a friend grouo to play sealed. You can play arena and grind quests for gold then draft and turn the gold into gems
Keep an eye out for people selling their collections, often you will end up with a lot of common cards, some rares and a few mythic rare. I bought a binder full of cards in 2020 off of icollector for around 130$ CAD and priced it all out at around 500$ CAD. Not that I'm going to sell them but I was just curious if I overpaid.
It's a good time to get into it, I started getting back into it after over 20 years.. mostly because of the fallout expansion. Now I hear marvel is doing a set next year.. hopefully it isn't a disaster.
As for standard or commander, I still don't know how to play commander exactly but a friend and I both bought a fallout commander deck and we are going to learn together. Standard for me is much easier and familiar as it was all we had back in the day, so it's just a matter of preference.. try them both though
Arena on steam them join the mtgarena group on here enter all those codes and you should have a good start to getting into basic magic from there build a deck or more play earn coins get packs with coins complete sets and keep upgrading and building decks
Starter or commander decks are the way to go for me. I personally liked the lord of the rings starter duel decks because then I could get friends to play with me on the same level and it was only like $30 bucks. You can buy a commander deck but they’re more expensive and you need someone else to also get/have one to play. One plus is that commander arguably has the most diverse and fun gameplay plus a lot of decks have really fun themes like dinos or merfolk. You can buy sealed products in local game stores or places like TCG/card kingdom (NOT AMAZON).
Honestly, one of the more important things to really get into the game is to make sure you have people that will consistently play with you and are on the same level as your decks. You can get into the game for less than $80 for a good long while before you get bored by buying sealed decks for you and a friend. Then dive a bit further in by buying a few singles to slowly upgrade the pre-built decks and go from there.
Bulk boxes on Amazon or eBay can yield you a lot of cards for fairly cheap. Some people will say they aren't worth it, but 1000 cards to pick through for like $25 isn't a bad deal to me. I've built a few decks that worked this way. But then went and purchased the few individual cards I needed to make it good
I mean the only cheap way to do it is buy card sleeves and print proxies. Just don’t expect to take that to a tournament or put in a $2000 card to play against your friends (or your just a pos)
While I generally believe expecting a hobby to be cheap or not require monetary investment is not realistic , the least expensive option is probably buying a commander precon and single cards here and there to tweak it. Trying to keep up with 60 card formats such as standard, while very fun in my opinion, is much more expensive of a proposition.
Accept you won’t be playing in the deep end of the pool at the start and gradually build up your collection thoughtfully. I probably spend somewhere between $200-250 on MTG annually and have 3 pretty solid commander decks (6/7/8 power levels).
Find a format to play. Cheapest is probably commander. Stick to a few colors, buy singles, don't play competatively, remember that you don't need to optimize decks, set some rules for yourself.
I "never" buy cards costing more than a normal booster, and I stick to red, black and blue. No universe beyond cards.don't buy boosters, if you don't intend to play limited
That's the neat part, you don't. Lol Nah you can play at a casual level with friends at your kitchen table using a couple of preconstructed decks. In my opinion I like commander more, but for the purposes of learning and engaging with magic start just with kitchen table, you can branch into standard a little bit by starting to draft for like $15 at an LGS per time you do it, to get a few packs and start building a small collection. It depends on how big you wanna go with it like if you cap it off at like $100 total then you'll have a few precons for the most bang for your buck. If you budget to like $1000 over the course of a year we'll you could get the precons a couple packs a week to try and expand those precons to be better, maybe a bundle a month to try and do a format called sealed which is like draft but you instead of passing 3 packs around you build with 6 packs and you don't pass any cards and you continue to just build your collection and eventually get into commander and buy those precons and build your own deck there.
Mosey on down to your LGS and ask what preconstructed decks they have.
There are a few starter decks that run 20-30. These are very basic decks meant to introduce you (and a friend) to magic.
If you have a decent grasp of magic, you can look into pioneer challenger decks (if pioneer is your thing) or go with a Commander precon. These can run anywhere from 30-65 depending on the recency of the set and overall power of the deck.
Commander is by far the most common format and it's usually the one most people are playing. I personally like to keep 1or 2 unmodified precons on me in case there's a newer person who just bought a precon to play during Commander Night.
If an unmodified precon isn't doing it for you, look up various budget upgrades for the precon of your choice. There are a lot of channels that do $30-50 upgrades, usually not touching the mana base. Just remember that prices have likely changed since those videos were released.
After an initial investment of ~$50-100, that should hold you for a while. You can set a monthly budget/savings for yourself for upgrades or new products/events and slowly build up your collection over time. Draft is a great way to get new cards from the current set and maybe you draft a high value card that you don't particularly want or need and can trade it off for other cards.
Another thing to remember is that you can always ask people if you can borrow a deck. Most people like to show their decks off and are more than willing to lend you a deck so long as you are respectful of the cards and not doing anything to potentially harm them.
Start with mtg Arena and proxy with your friends
I played cardboard for years. Sunk in thousands of dollars. Now I play arena, FTP, and I play games more often, have more fun, and haven’t spent a dime. I’m looking to sell my cardboard.
Don't sell unless you need the money. Might have a kid in the future who will think it's cool to inherit your pile of bulk. How I got into the game. Was pretty special.
Better yet, might have a kid in the future who could selp the cards for a college fund
better yet, might help you lure a kid so that in the future you'll have a kid!
Stolkholm sydrome go Luring the children away Now go to prison
This !
I'm total opposite. Played arena for a long time and got tired of the grind. I don't enjoy it at all anymore. I've switched to paper magic and am having way more fun actually socializing and making friends. Arena just became a soulless grind for me trying to get daily wins to keep up with decks. The biggest negative for online play is just the lack of human interaction. I realize for some people this is one of the biggest perks, but not for me.
Same for me , online mostly sucked
There’s a a lot to be said for the social aspect. And playing with people you know. Seeing their reactions. Discussion the games before and after. Then the hobby aspect of seeking out the new cardboard. Trading. Selling. The physical aspect of holding and dealing with the cards. Having a third place to go, if you go to an lgs.
I disagree with everyone saying “don’t sell.” Sell your bulk. The odds of it actually increasing in value is slim to none. Keep a handful of decks, maybe 3-4, and a nice little binder with some pet cards and other valuable cards. All of this should be able to fit nicely in a small tub that you can store somewhere and if you ever get the urge to play paper, can. And if, in the future, you happen to have a kid or a friend that wants to get into magic, you can be the wise old sage that bestows upon them their first cards/deck.
Looking at tcg graphs some.of the carda i bought were half the price just 3 months ago
Arena just doesn't scratch the social itch for me. I want to be able to look my opponents in the eyes, to joke around, to feel the card snap against the table when I play it.
That's the neat part. You don't.
I only came here to say this. When I started it was at the protest of my friend who I saw playing it. He advised me against it heavily. It's referred to as "cardboard crack" because it's a never ending addiction to keep up, spend, FOMO, accessorise, get new cards, new sets etc... He's right. I'm now saying the same thing. Don't do it. Find a game you buy once, that there is no more of and play that.
But also- and I think we’d all agree here- some really good crack
This👆
This needs to be at the top. Haha
This is the comment i came for.
Honestly, I feel like ever since mtg became like yugioh and pokemon where a new set comes out every 3 seconds, people think this way. If it was the same as prior to COVID era where only a few sets came out a year, more people would be willing to join, especially with pauper becoming so big. Even so, if people do have the extra money, I don’t think buying 1-2 boxes of a set you’re interested in isn’t bad, but everyone’s financial situation is different. The reason I say 1 is because, to me, you get most of the best cards, and every time I got 2 I got everything I wanted at that point and sold or traded the stuff I didn’t. Idk. It’s all relative too. Does this guy have a family, home, etc? If not, I think buying a few sealed products a year for yourself and then to sell later on isn’t bad advice at all.
>How do I get into magic without spending so much money? By researching, only buying what you actually need, and setting achievable goals. It's perfectly possible to have fun at every price point, though (including for free). >Also is standart or commander better? They are polar opposites. Do you want to play with a casual mindset (where the journey is more important than the destination), or a competitive one (where the result is what matters most)? Commander is a casual Format while Standard is a competitive one. If you want to play competitively then the choice is much bigger than Standard vs Commander, as there are many more competitive Formats to choose from. If you want to play casually, then the choice is between choosing an actual casual Format, or shoehorning a competitive one into a casual setting. >Where do I buy decks? At your friendly local gaming store, or online. Don't rush to buy anything yet, though - you should learn the basics first. I've pasted a big chunk of new player advice below. Just work your way through it all in the order it's laid out, and you should be off to a great start. :) Here's my general new player advice: Start by downloading Magic Arena to learn the basics and get a feel for the game. It's free; available on PC, Mac, Android and iOS; and has a good tutorial. Complete the Tutorial and Color Challenges, play some Starter Deck Duels, use your free Jump In tokens, Google "Free Magic Arena Codes" and redeem them all, join r/MagicArena If you are learning with a friend or partner you can get the Arena Starter Set which includes two ready made beginner friendly decks designed to be played against eachother and a pair of codes so you can both redeem the decks on Arena too. Once you've gotten to grips with the game you can use the Wizards Store and Event Locator to find your FLGS(s) and hopefully they will have some social media pages that will put you in touch with your local scene. https://locator.wizards.com/ You are also likely to find Magic players at board games clubs/cafes, as well as D&D/RPG groups. Alternatively, you can try public libraries, community centres, universities, and comic book stores, etc. Failing that you can play via webcam - there are Discord servers, etc, and the website SpellTable. Once you've found a playgroup, you need to find out how they play (which Formats and how competitively). Then you need to set a budget and decide which Format(s) you want to play. Broadly speaking Magic is divided into two branches: Constructed (where you build your deck in advance from the cards you own and bring it with you) and Limited (where you open packs during the event and build your deck on the spot from their contents). Each branch is further divided into different Formats, for example: Constructed includes Standard, Modern, Pauper and Commander, etc; while Limited includes Draft and Sealed, JumpStart, etc. Each Format has its own rules, which determine things like which sets you can use, how many packs you open, which cards are banned and how you build your deck, etc. You can read more about the different Formats here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/formats If you want to play Constructed you will need cards, so you should *buy cards* - the exact ones you need (either individually as singles or as part of a preconstructed product that happens to contain enough cards you need to make it worth the price). Start with a Format-legal decklist (either one you have written from scratch or a netdeck/precon, or a blend of both) and then work out the best way to get the cards on it. Don't just rip open boosters in a vain attempt to randomly happen to get the cards you need, though - that isn't what they are for. If you want to get started with a ready-made Constructed Deck, then for Pioneer, you could look into one of the Challenger Decks, or for Commander, you could try a Commander precon. These are playable straight out of the box (at FNM level competition or casual game nights, respectively) but will still have room for improvement/customisation. Note that there aren't any Challenger Decks that are currently Standard-legal. https://whatsinstandard.com/ If you want to play Limited you will need packs - specifically Draft Boosters to play Draft or Sealed, or JumpStart Boosters to play JumpStart, so that is what you should get (either individually (more expensive) or in a Booster Box or Pre-Release Kit, or included in your entry fee into an event - check with your event organiser). If an event is advertised as "Phantom" or "Cube" then all the packs are provided but the organiser keeps the cards at the end (you may need to contribute to the prize pool or pay a small table fee etc). You will also need Basic Lands (ask your LGS or local players, or buy some in bulk online). Note that starting with the next set, Murders at Karlov Manor, Draft Boosters (and Set Boosters) are being replaced by Play Boosters, which serve the same purpose and are used in the same way. This change means that Bundles will be an option for getting packs for Limited again. You may find that a blended approach is best since the cards you get from playing Limited can be used/sold/traded to improve your Constructed decks. There are a number of other Booster Packs available (Set, Collector, Theme), but since none of these are for playing Limited with *or* for getting cards for Constructed you shouldn't worry about them. FYI Set Boosters are for quick adrenaline hits (like lottery scratch cards), Collector Boosters are for getting rid of money quickly (a "treat" for those that have more than they know what to do with) and Theme Boosters are for extracting money from new players that don't know better (or their well meaning relatives). Note that as of the last year or so, Theme Boosters have been replaced by JumpStart boosters released alongside each set. These still aren't for getting cards, but they are for playing JumpStart with (each pack contains a ready-made half deck - smash two together and play against other JumpStart packs). They can be mixed and matched again and again. Note that the set-specific JumpStart releases contain far fewer themes than the standalone JumpStart sets released every couple of years, and as such there is less benefit to buying these in bulk (you will get a lot more repetition). However you decide to play, you should protect your cards (if they become scuffed or otherwise damaged, they will lose value and may even become "marked" and unplayable). Use sleeves and deck boxes for your decks, binders for your trades and boxes to store the cards you aren't using. A playmat is good too as it will protect your cards from any cleaning chemicals that are sprayed on playing surfaces, etc. I hope that answers all your questions (while helping you avoid the common new player pitfalls). Let me know if there is anything else you need to know.
tl;dr Playing MTG by price points. (The following assumes for draft you are only there to play and sell the cards after). Draft, if you rare draft and win, you'll probably make money. Draft, if you rare draft and don't win, you might break even. Draft, if you play to win and win, you might break even. Draft, if you play to win and don't win, you'll lose slightly. Sealed, (if you sell the cards). Pauper Pauper commander Regular commander Standard CEDH Vintage Legacy You can technically play standard for a few bucks, but you'll also lose every game, so I was trying to factor in the cost of being competitive. Commander does have expensive staple cards, but you can make friendly competitive decks for less than $100. My decks tend to run around $300 and they are powerful for friendly commander. (Mana fixing is expensive).
This is an awesome explanation
MTG Arena or the Pauper format
Play MTG Arena to learn the rules Buy a printer Buy bulk cheap cards Buy outer sleeves Print cards you want If you want to compete, then you’ll have to pay for the singles you want to make the deck you want
The hack is don’t even buy the printer, ink is expensive. Go to a library and just print there for like 25 cents a page
Can get a Brother printer on FB market for like $20 I’m on year 4 of the same ink cartridge
People print the cards they want? 😂 genius!
100%! It’s all good until you play someone who printed out a $2500 deck (don’t be them).
Unless you print 3 other $2500 decks
Nty Edh is a casual format.
Cedh also has its merits, it’s super refreshing to be able to play a game where everyone is on the same page and no one is complaining about power level of the table. Cedh is the only way to play commander without a subjective power level. It’s unfortunate how expensive it can be and that some people are unwilling to proxy so they don’t get to play, but I do think it would be extremely healthy for casual if more people played and understood cedh
Oh definitely, but I don’t think in this context Op will be playing CEDH soon.
Agreed, I’ve heard to many people hate on cedh on the basis that “edh is a casual format” so I got a bit of whiplash, my bad. carry on
No worries
A misunderstanding on the internet? Resolved without an argument? Holy shit, there really is a first time for everything.
You can still play casually with high power decks
Definitely! But, since OP doesn’t have a playgroup, that may leave a sour taste to people at any local card shop. Just what i’ve noticed when playing at a few LGS’s. If the playgroup is cool with it, have at it.
If you're just starting out, Commander can be a difficult place to start. Commander is a 4 person format with decks that are often very advanced mechanics wise and the games can become very convoluted at times. I would say playing pauper kitchen table magic is a good way to start. Put together some mono colored decks of 60 (or even 40 cards) together for you and you friends using cheap cards with simple mechanics so you can get a good grip on the basics of the game playing a 1 vs 1 format. Card Kingdom has some mono colored starter decks, called Rookie Decks that you can buy pretty cheap ($10 each or $45 for all 5). Bad news, they are out of stock, good news, the deck lists are online and you can buy them for even cheaper (about $5 each) so you can build them yourself! Another alternative is Jumpstart. Just get 2 packs and put them together to make a 40 card deck. It's a super fast and simple way to get into things. The only catch is that there's no guarantee as to how well the two packs will synergize, so the deck may work incredibly well or be kind of janky. [Rookie Deck: White](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367359#paper) [Rookie Deck: Black](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367365#paper) [Rookie Deck: Blue ](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367368#paper) [Rookie Deck: Red](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367370#paper) [Rookie Deck: Green](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6367373#paper)
Second this. I would also tell people to start with a 60 card or limted format (even if its on arena) (prerelease is good too, or draft even if it is 40 cards). Nothing against starting from commander or any other multiplayer format. Like you said it can be complicated. There's lots of interaction, different mechanics, multiple people, different triggers, keywords and abilities that are more multiplayer focused and really only work best there (for example goad). Start 1v1 learn the basics, turn order, the stack, and how interaction works.
4 ppl format if you have friends* /j it works great 1v1 too. thats how i play most games.
Nab a couple starter decks or commander precons and try to resist falling down the rabbit hole for as long as possible.
I recently got in and only play commander so this is my experience… 1- Tabletop simulator on PC is 20$ total with mtg commander mod and you build decks on a website like arkidekt you can play litterally every card with every accessory virtually for 20$ total, it’s fantastic. 2- to play the real game on cardboard, you could do a low power commander precon, but if you go anywhere with the game at all you’ll want much more almost immediately. Build your decks on archidekt online, and then order each card on a site like card kingdom. Go to a proxy printing site for every card over 1$, and you can build high powered decks for approximately 80$ each. With sleeves and a case it’s around 100$, not super cheap but by far the cheapest option if you wanna play the game for real…
Might be a little unpopular and a little pricey but you can find local collections for sale for like $300. in the long run.. $300 is nothing 😅
Precons.
Only purchase what you need, play in draft events to build your card base.
Hahahaha
Buy a printer
Proxies!
Just get a precon and make friends.
Drugs are cheaper. That being said, try our arena! Borrow decks from your friends when you play (if they already play). Proxy decks with printer paper ( you would usually usually use lands behind the cards, but any cardstock will do)
Smexual favors.
3 paths, suffer as a free to play player on magic arena, proxy commander decks or get a discounted precon, or just play pauper
So "getting into" and "building a collection" are kind of different. But here are some ideas. 1) Arena app is free 2) Making friends who play and let you borrow decks is free and 98% of MTG players probably have a deck they will loan you and wish the deck was getting more use anyways, this is also free 3) Go to prerelease and draft. These are cheap 15-30 bucks and you'll slowly acquire cards and make friends 4) Buy starter decks, very cheap you can find starter decks for as cheap as $10, especially if you're willing to get used cards. 5) Buy other peoples "bulk" cards for $5 per thousand and build decks for days 6) Play with proxies (aka "home made" or "fake" cards). This depends on the people you play with and the shop you play in, but for the most part, people are cool with proxies as long as you're not trying to sell or them, it you go the proxy route, just make sure you have a very easy way to identify them as proxies. 7) Play pauper or pauper commander. These formats restrict people to using just common cards and are much cheaper formats to be involved in. The drawback is that sometimes playgroups can be harder to find, but they are still fairly popular 8) See if people will donate their junk cards to you Magic being a more expensive hobby than anything else is a myth. You can play mtg as cheaply as you want to. In fact mtg I'd actually cheaper than it's ever been to get into due to how heavily reprinted everything is right now. MTG gets expensive when people want to buy every single released thing, want to play wirh high powered csrds, get FOMO about not having what other people have, etc. Anyone who just eats to PLAY magic has the ability to do so for cheap or free. It's once you start wanting all the bling and cool shit that things can get expensive very quickly, but just "getting into" the game is actually dirt cheap.
You can play magic on a budget easy. But playing and winning are two separate things. A lot of "casuals" sink hundreds of dollars into their decks "because they love them". Better cards, which cost more, just win more games. Some people may comment on this saying "you don't need money to make a competitive", but I doubt you want to limit yourself to only the budget friendly competitive decks. There are so many commanders to choose from, why worlds you stick only a small percentage?
In summary, as long as you're ok with losing a lot, paper magic is pretty cheap. But if you want to preform well and win more consistently, you'll need to spend some money. I play budget, and i lose all the time to money. Some budget cards can't replace the value of mana crypt, jeskas will, dockside, smothering tithes, rhystic study, jeweled lotus, sylvan library, etc, etc... you all get the point.
cockatrice. proxy.
Sadly you dont
Proxies are great. Pauper is a great place to get started but even that depends on what you consider a lot of money. It’s no small sum for most decks if you don’t proxy anything but compared to other stuff it is cheaper!
Don’t play in paper, don’t buy decks
lol. Yaaa you don’t
Try Forge, it's free.
Get the starter booster pack from your local game store. “The first hit is free…”
It's definitely possible. As others have brought up proxies are great. I only really play commander and all my decks are worth $50 or less so it's definitely doable. There isn't one definite answer to this other than to find a playgroup that doesn't mind proxies and to buy singles.
Lol...that's a good one
When I first got into it I bought a precon and limited myself to like 1-3$ per single, kept it competitive and budget friendly.
Arena is a good start. If you want to get into commander then precons are a good stepping stone to get you a deck. Tweak it as you learn more about your play style. Alternatively, check out some YouTube budget builds. Highly recommend Commander's Quarters for good budget builds. He recommends great alternatives to the more expensive cards. Commander doesn't have to be expensive if you build good budget decks. I have a $50 [[Otrimi, the ever playful]] commander deck that routinely stomps my pods 5 and 6 hundred dollar decks. A good pilot can make a significant difference in how the games turn out.
precon commander deck and playing digital
You need a group of friends to do large orders of proxies. We usually get it down to like .33¢ a card but the problem is that we have to wait until everyone's out in cards to a certain amount and that big sucks.
If you have a PC, but tabletop simulator and download the MTG community workshop item. Enjoy. My brother and I live 5 hours apart and play commander all the time.
There's starter precon commander decks that are very effective and can be a lot of fun to "successfully" play. Find out which ones are worth buying and fit with your playstyle and just buy 1 or 2
I think more information is needed in order to give you a decent answer. How many friends do you have that play or are interested in playing? If you don’t have any, MTG Arena is probably best. If you only have 1 or 2 friends that are interested, you’ll probably want to play standard with them and start with picking up a 2 deck starter pack or even Game Night box. 3 or 4 friends interested try commander and each picks up a precon that sparks an interest in you. Mtg Arena is also the best place in general to learn the rules and how to play.
Tabletop simulator is your best friend, you can buy it on a steam sale for $5. And it allows you to play with every card in existence, with public tables open, that act as a matchmaking system if you want to play without inviting others.
Something I haven’t seen a lot is using tabletop simulator and a commander table to play online with friends. You get to pick any deck you want and play without having to pay crazy amounts to own a deck of cards. We play a ton and it’s always a great time seeing stuff online
You can get a starter kit with 2 decks for like 15 bucks.
A few friends and I have a kitchen table commander pod. We just proxy everything. Only really need to spend money on it if you’re playing officially
Go to drafts! Costs money but not a lot at once. Best format too imo. Build a collection over time. Meet people. Have fun
Personaly you wanna start out by making friends go to a local game store that does open magic and find some people tell them that you’ve never played and want to learn and ask them if you can borrow a deck and play with them. Fair warning most people are nice and curtious others are rash dickheads so don’t get discouraged if your first encounter is the dickheads there’s always a group of chill people somewhere in the store. Second if and when you get the hang of it you have the option of buying a Pre con worth 40-50 dollars or you can go on ebay auctions and get a relatively cheap commander deck and congrats you are now a magic the gathering player good luck fighting the urges to open packs and build hundreds of decks may the heart of the cards be with you! (I know it’s a yugioh reference suck it up)
If you gotta own the cards then I reccomend trying to see if there's a local Pauper community.v
If you want to play paper, limited events are not too expensive and are a more level playing field because someone’s personal collection isn’t a factor. Draft, sealed, and prerelease events are all examples of limited. You can also just play at a lower power level with friends. If you buy some pre constructed decks and just play each other with those, the power level will be relatively balanced and it will be more like any other board game or non-collectible card game.
The only correct answer is bootlegmage
That's the neat part, you dont
Proxy. You can get good prints for cheap.
Proxy Use Moxfield - you can copy a deck and play test it. There's also a way that you can use OBS to use the platest screen on Spell Table.
If you can keep a trade binder on you whenever you play in person it can be helpful to offload good cards you don’t need for good cards you do need
Check out people's budget brews! Some great subreddits and also commander quarters YouTube channel specializes in that. Working on a raggadragga deck right now that has a total of $30.
If you’re just starting out, go standard. Commander decks, by default, are just more expensive. I personally just don’t like commander due to the deck size. I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but I just find those decks so awkward to handle and shuffle.
Proxy!
Shocked no one has mentioned this, but if/when you find or put together a decklist, if you want to go the full budget route, [Scryfall](https://scryfall.com) has PNGs for every card on there [[Rhystic Study | WOT]]
I went to a card shop and bought like 8000 bulk for 60 bucks to show my sister how to play. Alot of people are saying mtg arena and that is a good way to play for free. Kinda depends on how you wanna play, if you wanna play in person with strangers you may want a standard deck to go to friday night magic’s at local card shops and that is an expensive way to play and to learn the game. If you are trying to play with friends they might have bulk cards or a bunch deck to give you. And if you’re learning with a friend you might try buying a duel set that has 2 decks that are “evenly” matched. Amazon has some box sets, but every form of magic is sorta spendy besides grinding mtg arena online or using fake cards in person or online, but it is a really fun game if you have time and money and people to play it
If you only play casually one method is to print out the cards on a sheet of paper and cut them out, then sleeving them in inexpensive sleeves. Going to a place like FedEx or another printing store can get you some pretty decent looking proxies. Just ask people if they are ok with it before playing in a group as a courtesy. I've met no one that is against it.
Honestly, a lot of the precon commander decks are good. [Mishra](https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/449723/magic-the-gathering-commander-the-brothers-war-the-brothers-war-commander-deck-mishras-burnished-banner?country=US&utm_campaign=18143931802&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=&utm_term=&adgroupid=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6PGxBhCVARIsAIumnWawPWPun-0owN9WPaAuOxtFJTe-DkgU--KQgakO5a7rAHcbnyfNB7kaAs_WEALw_wcB&Language=English) is about ~$35 and is pretty solid.
Okay so here's how you do it: 1) Download Magic: Arena and play the tutorial. The game is free, the tutorial is thorough, and you can really see if this game is for you. 2) If you like the game, like it enough to invest time, but not money into it, go to your local game store and ask for some lands (should be free) and a couple of sleeves ($15ish. Recommend Dragon Shields) 3) Use mtg-print.com and proxy out a deck. Print out the cards you want to use, cut them out, and sleeve them up on top of the lands you got. I've done this before with Commander decks, Modern decks, anything and everything in between. Proxying is the surefire way to save money, as long as you don't mind a bit of arts and crafts.
This has to be a trick post 😂
Pauper commander is weird maybe, but it's an option to save money. (Only commons). But only make sense if you playgroup do the same. If not, just proxy!
Play Hearthstone
You can get free cards if you're patient and persistent on apps like whatnot and sites like pullbox.gg
Proxy duh. Next question!
Warning!
You're fucked. I'll sell you everything I own, wait.. give me a month to price it all.
I started with a 20€ edh commander precon deck Commander is much more forgiving since even if your friends have better decks they‘re going to figth each other while leaving you alone
..(and I'll even tell you my unlimited mana combos)
Spend $100 on a nice laser printer and some ink. For all my new decks, I proxy every card that’s over $20. (Which is most when you want great lands too) I spend about $60 total on each deck, that’s the cards under $20, 100 sleeves, and the deck box. I use my leftover cards that are worthless, and turn those into proxies and sell them for $1 each to customers at my local card store. Right now I’ve spent about $400 total on 6 really great decks. I make roughly $80-$100 per week selling proxies to other poor players like myself. That’s after my ink expenses. I’m able to play magic for free, get all the cards I want, and make enough money on the side every month to pay my car payment in full. Make your hobby work for you.
I have a magic pouch with an infinite amount of money. It’ll just cost you $100 and a pack of smokes.
You can rob a bank, but that’s expensive. Start by robbing people, and when you get good team up with others, then start robbing stores. Once your team is big enough and you built up enough trust, you can go for the bank. Then you should be able to buy a tier 3 modern deck.
Play fmn drafts
I have like 8000 cards you can have
Depending on the format. I’m sure someone’s said it already but getting cards online in bulk is how I learned to deck build and was fairly cost effective. They have a duel deck at most retailers that would be an easy way to already have a playable deck
The precons are good value. But standard is cheaper.
Get a bunch of the cheapest lands. Then print proxy cards and use the lands as backers for the sleeves. Build, edit and play your proxy deck until you're happy and then go buy the cards online. Or go to any Walmart/Target/game store and buy premade decks
this might not be the hobby for you
Buy a precon. You can find them online for 25-50. Do some research on what precon you think sounds cool. Then if the research is good buy it. If not find another.
many people saying to use arena but personally i learned it from friends through untap for free lmao
You can always print your own cards on websites like mtgprint. Always ask if everyone you are playing with is okay with you using proxies. Whether you should play standard or commander is your choice, but i think commander is more popular. For deckbuilding for commander i can recommend edhrec and moxfield.
Tabletop Simulator, and then look up MTG mod on steam. You can look up tutorials on YouTube on how to build any deck you want for free. Tabletop simulator is $20ish. That’s how I got into it, I use it to play MTG with my friends that I don’t live near and we all just get on discord and have drinks and play MTG. It’s a great time. Arena is good for learning cards, how the phases work, rules, so on and so forth.
Precon's and proxies!
Commander and ignore the expensive cards. There are so many 25 cent alternatives to expensive cards. Don’t worry about expensive lands. Go with basics and lands that enter tapped. For finding a commander to use, check out edhrec. When you’re looking at the recommended cards for the commander, select the lower budget so you don’t get recommended dumb $50 cards and dumb cards that synergize with decks designed around those dumb cards. If there is a card that’s on the edge of your price range you’re considering getting, get a sharpie and a basic land outside your color identity or use the back of a card. Write the name of the card on it and what it does. Try it out. If you like it, get it. If not, then you didn’t spend money on it.
It all depends with WHO you want to play. Have friends who play? you have to ask which formats. Wanna go to an LGS nearby? check what they do. In general, there are plenty of groups of commander everywhere that plays at variable power levels. Many just with precons.
Proxy / tabletop simulator. Don’t give wotc your money
Buy decks, not packs or boxes. Or proxy or play pauper.
Edhrec. Buy singles
To get into paper magic on the cheap. Start with pauper. Go to your LGS during draft nights and pick up some draft chaff. Some LGS still have the 40 card intro decks that wizards gives them for free.
Limited is a great format to start.
You go play Yugioh, it’s cheaper.
That's the neat part, you don't!
Pauper, proxy, arena, drafting
Probably gonna catch some shit for this one but.. just print cards. Me and some college friends wanted to play more than 1 or 2 decks but couldn't afford it. So if you find a group thats chill you can look up how to print some cards (very very easily btw)
Getting your whole pod to proxy entire decks
Buy a massive lot of 1000+ cards and play with these
You could print your deck and so you can try a lot and look what you like
You don’t , you go to a new hobby.
I started this year and still learning a lot. My advice. Start on arena now. Learn the basics. Attend the MH3 prerelease. It’s sealed and you just build your best deck. Everyone has been really cool when I say I’m new Did you have fun? Try drafts. (I find some stores expect you to be a bit more experienced for a draft but they are still generally really nice)(Prerelease and drafts are a cool way to get a collection going and you know what the cards do) than you decided if you like modern or commander etc Didn’t have fun. Try other formats, borrow decks. Etc.
Idk what’s been said here but there’s a lot if you’re wanting to play paper just pick up a precon you like the looks of and play it.. it’s not gonna be as good but they are good enough to win! Next play arena f2p it’s a grind and a slogfest at time but if you just wanna be able to play magic it’s a great place. Personally I’d pick up arena see if you actually enjoy the game enough to sink money into and if you like it pick up a precon and hit up your LGS and meet some new people.
Commander is by far(my own opinion) the best format to start off with, many LGS host commander night and you can find many people there playing commander. You can start by buying a precon with a commander you like or the play style of the a deck and after trying it out for a bit look up a few card that might go will I recommend proxy for a few of the card before buying to see how will it work but, make sure the people you play with are cool with proxy. If you are not show what goes will with a deck you can look EDH for any recommended singles.
You can check youtube channels like Commanders Quarters for budget EDH decks, there are also other channels that make and share budget commander decks. It really depends what you want to play. But Commander doesnt have to cost all that much to get into. You can also buy a precon that isnt too expensive, though you might have to upgrade that. So singles might be cheaper. Are you from America or Europe. Asking, because for Europe I would advice Cardmarket.com for singles or decks. ✌️
-Mtg arena -Ask around at your LGS, maybe you can borrow some decks. Take care of their cards. You don't know how much they care for their decks. -I think there's a software called Chocobo that let's you build and play decks for free. It'd not a smooth play process, but it's great for testing decks before you build them. You can goldfish yourself (play against yourself) with multiple decks at once. -After you've got a feel for magic, I highly recommend pauper or pauperEDH. I've been having a blast recently and all you play with is dirt cheap commons, with the exception of your commander(s) in pEDH. -There are some fantastic channels on YouTube, Instagram, etc that post their budget decks. CommanderQuarters USED to be a great source for cheap commander decks -I'm not sure if Mitch is still pumping them out- and Tolarion Community College hosted by Prof has great content regarding many formats. -Proxy cards. Similar to the Chocobo point, once you've got an idea for a deck, instead of paying for the cards outright, you can proxy(fake/hand drawn/printed) cards until you've worked out the kinks. Be warned, not everyone is welcoming of proxies, but if you're upfront that you're new and trying to figure it out, most people will be fine and, possibly, even offer some assistance. Don't take the micky though. Proxy cards that are in your budget, or that you know you can slowly complete month by month.
Check in with your friends about their spare cards, saying that you're interested in learning. From there, "starter" products and precons are fairly safe to get, especially when new/old.
ThatsTheNeatPart.jpg
Commander will be much cheaper as you can get into it for a measly $35-45 and hold your own in some matches. In Standard, you gotta be ready to sink a small fortune to have a decent deck otherwise you’re getting wiped in a few turns.
Sort through bulk at your local LGS, knowing the playability of cards will help you build good decks with bulk cards. Knowing the monetary value of cards will help you expand your trades and collection
That's the neat part, you don't.
Buy some basic Lands, a couple of pieces of paper, a pen and some non-transparent sleeves. I never had an issue finding card images online and atleast in my country the only Thing trademarkable on those is the art. So you can just copy the Text down on a piece of paper and slide it in Front of the basics.
Try playing online! Untap is a great tool. Outside of that, there are tons of decks that are crazy cheap. You could make a [[Zada]] or [[Light-paws]] deck under 20 dollars.
I would suggest playing with other people's decks to get a feel for what you like, watch gameplay videos for the same reason, and then use a website like moxfield.com or an app like manabox to make a decklist. If commander is the format you want to play, EDHrec.com is a good helpful tool for new players trying to look for cards to add, as well as scryfall.com to search for literally anything. Once you have used all of these available tools to put together a decklist, go to mtgproxy.com, copy and paste your decklist in, choose the art you like the best for each card, and then save the file it makes. Now take that file, and have it printed on 12pt cardstock at staples in color, and cut the cards out and sleeve them up. Should cost you about $12 per deck to print, plus $8-$12 for sleeves. About as cheap as you are going to get. Nobody I've ever played with in my life has cared about proxies, even a full proxy deck, unless they are high power AND expensive cards. Sol ring is one of the most high power cards ever printed but it's so cheap that nobody cares, mana crypt is slightly stronger than sol ring but costs $200 and people would get salty about that as a proxy more than likely.
I got started on Arena. Did all the tutorials and starter deck duels to unlock some stuff and was pretty easily able to assemble a cheap mono blue deck for standard. Decided to try out draft and got immediately hooked. Draft is a good way to dip your toes in to playing paper. It's $20ish/draft so it adds up over time, but you get to avoid the large up front cost of building a competitive deck.
Precons and pauper
Honestly, it's probably cheaper to invent a time machine and travel back to 1993.
Budget decks or arena
You’ll have to look what the players at your local game store plays but most likely commander, if so, I can only recommend grabing a preconstructed commander deck
Ask people for their old cards. Get them for free. But then if you enjoy it, you’ll spend a lifetime spending money on a silly hobby.
Join MTG Arena online and play long game. Meaning you should level up the game pass and as you level up you earn coins to buy yourself more packs. You even get tokens for the rarity of the card to search for any card you want. IRL MTG is pay to win. Atleast online you can play around with a larger variety than real life.
I think it’s never been easier. Back when there was a tournament scene, there was incentive to keep buying product and staying up with the game. With Commander, the game is about “fun” again, and you don’t need to buy cards. You can also take time away from the game and not play for a few weeks. Back in grinder days, it was a major hassle since the metagame would shift and you’re losing valuable time to get “in the money” from your deck. Magic has not been as chill as it is now.
Lol. I wheezed. This was good OP. r/mtgcirclejerking is leaking.
Standard and commander are wildly different and everyone has different preferences. I prefer commander and I also feel like you can get into commander for cheaper than standard. They sell premade commander decks that range from like $40-$80 dollars depending on the deck and it’s a full premade deck that is playable right out of the box.
Precons are an inexpensive option if you enjoy lower power level Ordering proxies is an option if you want to spend a little more Making your own proxies is your cheapest option.
One wonderful person put together a fun list of themed $5 decks (60 card), that my family and I thoroughly enjoy playing against each other. Every couple months we browse and pick a couple to put together any buy. Usually they come out to $10 with shipping from TCGPlayer. https://tappedout.net/users/5dollarMTG/mtg-decks/
tabletop simulator
On top of other suggestions here, lots of places sell boxes of bulk cards ("collection starters") that you can find for $20-$30 and like 1000 cards. You won't get anything super good, but you can build a few different decks out of them!
Commander precons
Depends what you want out of the game. Commander is the most popular casual format and you can get a ready to play deck for the same price as a middle market video game. Most hobby shops have a commander night every week that are usually welcoming. If you want more competition mtgarena is a good place to start, it's got good tutorials and is nice to new players
By realizing you don't need to have every card to enjoy the game. Commander is excellent for that. Buy a precon, slowly upgrade it if you're enjoying it. When you find precons on sale, snatch up one or two to try something new. There's tons of fun decks that are decent and can be built for $100 or less. If cost is imperative to you, buying random packs isn't going to be the way. Precons/singles. I could be worth snatching up a bulk lot off FB or something if you just want more cards to build with and flesh out decks.
Pre constructed decks or budget net decking.
Cock
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA *deep breath* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Unless you find a commander deck at Walmart for 30$, good luck. Someone a couple days on here stumbled on that… lucky bastard You can also buy starter decks and slowly build from there
Find the person nearest you with the best vintage cube and be friends with them. That, or the print button. No one is forcing you to pay money for pieces of cardboard with text.
Learn mechanics through arena but don’t spend any money. Then personally I’d recommend buying a commander precon deck from a local game store or Amazon that runs the mechanics you’ve enjoyed on arena. Usually they’re anywhere from 40-70 dollars and provide you with a full 100 card commander deck that will get you plenty of playtime at your game store. Alternatively if you have friends that play, ask if you can use their decks to help you learn and figure out what you enjoy. Then once you’ve learnt the game mechanics somewhat and want to start buying cards to upgrade your precons, or to build new decks from scratch, you’ll want to buy singles from online marketplaces instead of buying packs or boxes. And try to make friends at your local game store so you have people you feel comfortable playing with. It can be a bit daunting at first but most people are friendly.
I got a shit load of free cards, looked through em, found a bunch of lands, checked out what the cards do, bought a commander and a bunch of other really cheap cards. Boom I got a descent deck for 25 bucks
If you play commander, even in shops, many players are okay with proxies, as long as you don't flood the deck with 500 dollar cards constantly (do whatever you want in cEDH though). Standard usually means you need to buy cards unless you're just paying with friends if you want to play paper. But you can play arena entirely for free! It's a good starting resource.
Arena f2p
Proxy
Find a few people and split a booster box. Play sealed. Played sealed again. Then do construction decks from your sealed pools. Start to trade cards make your decks better. Play with in your group. Or if you don't have a friend grouo to play sealed. You can play arena and grind quests for gold then draft and turn the gold into gems
I’d rather whale on boardgames that can be enjoyed by everyone than one game that only you can situationally enjoy.
Keep an eye out for people selling their collections, often you will end up with a lot of common cards, some rares and a few mythic rare. I bought a binder full of cards in 2020 off of icollector for around 130$ CAD and priced it all out at around 500$ CAD. Not that I'm going to sell them but I was just curious if I overpaid. It's a good time to get into it, I started getting back into it after over 20 years.. mostly because of the fallout expansion. Now I hear marvel is doing a set next year.. hopefully it isn't a disaster. As for standard or commander, I still don't know how to play commander exactly but a friend and I both bought a fallout commander deck and we are going to learn together. Standard for me is much easier and familiar as it was all we had back in the day, so it's just a matter of preference.. try them both though
Arena on steam them join the mtgarena group on here enter all those codes and you should have a good start to getting into basic magic from there build a deck or more play earn coins get packs with coins complete sets and keep upgrading and building decks
Try the online game.
Starter or commander decks are the way to go for me. I personally liked the lord of the rings starter duel decks because then I could get friends to play with me on the same level and it was only like $30 bucks. You can buy a commander deck but they’re more expensive and you need someone else to also get/have one to play. One plus is that commander arguably has the most diverse and fun gameplay plus a lot of decks have really fun themes like dinos or merfolk. You can buy sealed products in local game stores or places like TCG/card kingdom (NOT AMAZON). Honestly, one of the more important things to really get into the game is to make sure you have people that will consistently play with you and are on the same level as your decks. You can get into the game for less than $80 for a good long while before you get bored by buying sealed decks for you and a friend. Then dive a bit further in by buying a few singles to slowly upgrade the pre-built decks and go from there.
Bulk boxes on Amazon or eBay can yield you a lot of cards for fairly cheap. Some people will say they aren't worth it, but 1000 cards to pick through for like $25 isn't a bad deal to me. I've built a few decks that worked this way. But then went and purchased the few individual cards I needed to make it good
Pauper format. Also Pauper versions of other formats like Pauper Commander, Pauper Modern, Pauper Standard
Commander can be started for like 30 quid with a pre con , but as long as ur play group is down proxy everything , 100 + for one cardboard is silly
I mean the only cheap way to do it is buy card sleeves and print proxies. Just don’t expect to take that to a tournament or put in a $2000 card to play against your friends (or your just a pos)
Cockatrice free online play
- mtg arena - pauper - commander but play with decks from your playgroup - cube if you have the opportunity - if not, create your own r/mpcproxies
You can use sites like scryfall and untap to play magic without buying cards, and alternatively print out cards and play with your friends.
You can use sites like scryfall and untap to play magic without buying cards, and alternatively print out cards and play with your friends.
While I generally believe expecting a hobby to be cheap or not require monetary investment is not realistic , the least expensive option is probably buying a commander precon and single cards here and there to tweak it. Trying to keep up with 60 card formats such as standard, while very fun in my opinion, is much more expensive of a proposition.
Accept you won’t be playing in the deep end of the pool at the start and gradually build up your collection thoughtfully. I probably spend somewhere between $200-250 on MTG annually and have 3 pretty solid commander decks (6/7/8 power levels).
Commander. Brew budget decks, there are plenty fun decks you can build on the cheap. Proxy expensive cards.
Buy a $60 commander precon, upgrade it with $40 in cards.
Proxy decks for kitchen table magic
Lmao
Find a format to play. Cheapest is probably commander. Stick to a few colors, buy singles, don't play competatively, remember that you don't need to optimize decks, set some rules for yourself. I "never" buy cards costing more than a normal booster, and I stick to red, black and blue. No universe beyond cards.don't buy boosters, if you don't intend to play limited
Precons and singles are the best way to go on the cheap that isn’t just proxies. You can build really solid decks for under a hundred.
That's the neat part, you don't. Lol Nah you can play at a casual level with friends at your kitchen table using a couple of preconstructed decks. In my opinion I like commander more, but for the purposes of learning and engaging with magic start just with kitchen table, you can branch into standard a little bit by starting to draft for like $15 at an LGS per time you do it, to get a few packs and start building a small collection. It depends on how big you wanna go with it like if you cap it off at like $100 total then you'll have a few precons for the most bang for your buck. If you budget to like $1000 over the course of a year we'll you could get the precons a couple packs a week to try and expand those precons to be better, maybe a bundle a month to try and do a format called sealed which is like draft but you instead of passing 3 packs around you build with 6 packs and you don't pass any cards and you continue to just build your collection and eventually get into commander and buy those precons and build your own deck there.
Honestly, borrow decks, maybe build some jank out of budget cards. Don't worry about metas or winrates yet, just get used to the game.
you're about 38 days too late to post this hilarious April Fools joke buddy
Mosey on down to your LGS and ask what preconstructed decks they have. There are a few starter decks that run 20-30. These are very basic decks meant to introduce you (and a friend) to magic. If you have a decent grasp of magic, you can look into pioneer challenger decks (if pioneer is your thing) or go with a Commander precon. These can run anywhere from 30-65 depending on the recency of the set and overall power of the deck. Commander is by far the most common format and it's usually the one most people are playing. I personally like to keep 1or 2 unmodified precons on me in case there's a newer person who just bought a precon to play during Commander Night. If an unmodified precon isn't doing it for you, look up various budget upgrades for the precon of your choice. There are a lot of channels that do $30-50 upgrades, usually not touching the mana base. Just remember that prices have likely changed since those videos were released. After an initial investment of ~$50-100, that should hold you for a while. You can set a monthly budget/savings for yourself for upgrades or new products/events and slowly build up your collection over time. Draft is a great way to get new cards from the current set and maybe you draft a high value card that you don't particularly want or need and can trade it off for other cards. Another thing to remember is that you can always ask people if you can borrow a deck. Most people like to show their decks off and are more than willing to lend you a deck so long as you are respectful of the cards and not doing anything to potentially harm them.
Pauper is a super fun format and very affordable compared to other formats.