Aight boys, i ain't reading 538 pages so i'm gonna be a cunt bout this, sorry in advance.
I played MTG back in the beta/alpha days, don't ahve cards anymore, my 2 boys told me over dinner to my shock they play with a few of their friends. They don't have their own decks so they borrow from their buddies.
In this current ruleset/expansion or whatever we're at 25 fucking years later, what is the best way to get them going as far as starters + boosters. They ain't gonna be playing anywhere but with their buds, need enough cards to make a few different decks and have fun.
Another way is finding standard Jumpstart (not the expansion-based horrid versions of Jumpstart, the one that is based around core sets). The way it's designed is that you pick any two Jumpstart boosters, mix them, and you get a working bi-color deck with a semi-consistent pair of themes. For example, you could end up with a white/green Unicorn and Elves theme deck, or a Minion/Flying deck. Jumpstart 2020 was good and there is some around still, Jumpstart 2022 which ships tomorrow is expected to be okay as well. The three expansion "jumpstarts" were universally badmouthed.There are a number of different preconstructed deck products.
Starter Commander Decks Available December 2, 2022 | Magic: The Gathering
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If they're just pissing around the kitchen table with their friends the commander precons are probably just fine. There are also standard precons if they're friends are playing standard. I would think gifting them something that is actually a deck and maybe some packs would go over fine.
the real problem is some variant spinoff format is more popular than the game they designed (tournament magic)
What kind of fan fiction is that? This game was not designed for tournaments. If anything, EDH is closer to what the good people at WotC envisioned back in 92/93.
And that means they did not design it for tournament play, right?they had no idea what they wanted then, it took several years for them to figure out what they wanted to do, by 1996 drafting was part of pro magic.
And that means they did not design it for tournament play, right?
The game structure itself was designed in the year(s) leading up to the release in summer 1993. Then, after it blew up into a huge success, the tournaments gradually sprung up, and certainly influenced individual card design as early as the late 90s. But the game was not designed for tournament play to begin with, that's just false.
Well, "suddenly" was like a decade ago, too.
I do think they've pivoted the product too far from what it was in the 90/00s and that's been going on for some years. The slow death of organized play started when, 2014ish? I guess Covid and trying to compete with digital were merely the final nails in the coffin.
New Secret Lairs on Monday, must be that time of the week.
Frank Frazetta gets his own - The Legendary Artwork of Frank Frazetta Is Coming to Magic: The Gathering
3 Transformer SLs - Secret Lair: Transformers
I do actually like the look of the Transformer cards (not enough to buy them, let's not go crazy here!). The kid in me would love to see an entire Transformers set or even block, if they were normally priced. But I realize I'm likely in the minority on that.