Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[chamber]

Need you to buy new cards!

[Inferno390]

But I want to spend my money on actually new cards

Not fake reprints of old cards

[popsofctown]

They tend to avoid doing renamed reprints with expensive cards, but I really agree this should be a thing.

It'd be nice if you could play refuges as your gainlands to customize the art in your deck (so long as you did not also use the versions just printed into Standard)

[chamber]

It seems obvious from a rules perspective why it would be disallowed. How would it interact with cards like meddling mage? How would it interact with the card limit rule if there were multiples in the format at once.

[Inferno390]

That's why I said substitute, not also use

For example, you could have Tormenting Voice act like whatever the Tormenting Voice clone they just printed is, in name and otherwise.

It seems really silly that they print a functionally identical card to a card they just printed because of flavor, and then people who want to use that card have to go out of their way to buy more copies of that card when they already own a card that does exactly the same thing.

They could just have a rule that just allows you to treat the older cards as if they were the exact same as the new cards, name and all.

[popsofctown]

It seems obvious from a rules perspective why it would be disallowed. How would it interact with cards like meddling mage? How would it interact with the card limit rule if there were multiples in the format at once.

You just have to change the rules slightly. Of course you do so, since this is itself a rules change.

Rule: you can't have 5 or more cards that are functionally identical in Standard (actually, probably it's ok for Modern and Legacy too, they don't actually run copies 5-8 of anything. Even in burn.)
Rule: "name a card" will correspond to the card you named and also will correspond to any card that is functionally identical. If you Meddling Mage someone and name Blink of an Eye, you must be thinking about "Man, I really just don't want this guy bouncing my permanents," so when he shows you Into the Roil it's not going to escape your notice that it's the same card.

[Psyche]

I've been trying to get into this game as a way to make irl amigos and have even started to play arena (I found a way to do it on my phone, too!). Feels kind of tough to engage due to the mix of a money barrier and ignorance about exactly what I should buy in order to enjoy the game. Guess I'll just keep playing games on Arena until everything clicks? It's too bad that even there I have to gradually win booster packs or happen to encounter people playing new cards to learn more about the kinds of cards and mechanics in the game.

[popsofctown]

I've been trying to get into this game as a way to make irl amigos and have even started to play arena (I found a way to do it on my phone, too!). Feels kind of tough to engage due to the mix of a money barrier and ignorance about exactly what I should buy in order to enjoy the game. Guess I'll just keep playing games on Arena until everything clicks? It's too bad that even there I have to gradually win booster packs or happen to encounter people playing new cards to learn more about the kinds of cards and mechanics in the game.

I owned no Standard legal cards when Ravnica Allegiance came out but wanted to play some constructed even though I had somewhat poor awareness of what was being played.

My process was, I looked up decks on mtggoldfish, and sifted through them keeping in mind their prices vs. my preferences, until I found some Gates decks that had performed well.

I'm much better at limited than constructed, but feel the urge to be creative and customize, so looked at a few of the cards in the Gates deck that seemed not too important, and used gatherer.com + price listing to identify alternatives.

Then I ordered the singles online and went and played with them. I would have won more if I had picked one of the decks with more data on mtggoldfish suggesting they are good (I had two choices around the same cost: monored and monoblue), but it was important to me to indulge some of my preferences, and I was still able to win and have fun plenty with an ~80$ deck.

If you manage to befriend one of the crazy people who builds multiple Standard decks (or the even crazier ones, who build multiple Modern decks) you can ask to borrow since they can't play both their decks at the same event, and you can just return the deck immediately after the adept. This is what I did in college.

If your local store fires drafts consistently enough and you enjoy drafts, you can also focus on that, which is this recurring 15$ cost instead of a lump investment.

[Micc]

Do you have a local game store that you can go to a pre-release event next weekend? Those are very good for networking in your local community and you don't need any cards or supplies beforehand, just money to enter the event. For me, meeting people was as straightforward as showing up for events regularly at my local store. Find out what formats they play, get a deck together no matter how cheap/bad it is, and go play. Once you get a good idea of who the other regulars are at your local shop, you can ask to borrow cards or even whole decks for constructed events. The people who are willing to help are worth being friends with.

predit: oh good our advice matches for the most part.

[Psyche]

having no trouble meeting people beyond the sense that they prefer to play w people who already know enough of the game for play to feel fun to play with
yeah i guess ill just have to accept ill make mistakes and keep going

[Inferno390]

See I didn’t get into standard until a couple of years after I started playing, and that was mostly just because I was cracking booster boxes that were in standard.

I would argue that it’s far from necessary to start with Standard and would even recommend not doing so in paper magic. Instead, i would highly recommend going to the Throne of Eldraine prerelease that’s coming up (1 week EEEEEEEEE). You get 6 boosters a promo and a bunch of other cool stuff for only 25 dollars, and then you get to play (potentially for even more packs). This will help you crack into Standard and get a feel for the game without committing nearly as much money, and you will definitely meet quite a few people.

From there you can find people who play “tabletop Magic,” which is code for casual magic without rotation and such. Be careful you actually find people who are playing casually. Pick up tips from them. You can borrow a deck until you have your own built.

[popsofctown]

As far as I can tell there's a decline in formatless magic, because those types of players are hooked on Commander. You probably get a lot more potential opponents by playing Commander, now. There are pricey ways to build a Commander deck, but I think it's pretty inexpensive, especially when you take into account that free-for-all Commander tends to have a political component that can handicap a more powerful deck. I hear you can take the preconstructed decks to a table with no changes and still do okay, really.

Attending a pre-release is a great way to acquire lots of random cards that would be cute to put in a Commander deck, if Commander is the format for you, going to the prerelease to have fun and then ordering a precon Commander deck on your favorite colors and customizing it with some of the stuff you got from the prerelease is a good way to go. They put cards that seem like Commander "plants" in every set now. It's a very social format and the GP Vegas numbers for it were so high for such low prize support there's a strong argument it's the most overall popular format.

I just dislike free-for-alls. Likely I'm missing the social skills.

If you can ascertain that I'm wrong or your store is different and there's a lot of casual magic going on, it's a fine way to go.

[InflatablePie]

having no trouble meeting people beyond the sense that they prefer to play w people who already know enough of the game for play to feel fun to play with
yeah i guess ill just have to accept ill make mistakes and keep going

if you're looking for more 'what can I do to get better at the game' type advice, since you mentioned 'happening to encounter' things to get better, I'd say just read up on some articles about general game advice and consume some MtG-related content in your off-time (Twitch streamers, podcasts, etc.) if you can

I've been a fan of Reid Duke for a while, and a quick google brought up this giant list of articles from a few years back. There's the classic Who's The Beatdown and the decade-later update. Frank Karsten's mana article is also great when you start tinkering with your first budget deck(s), the latest update is here.

for other MtG content, I can vouch for Limited Resources. Here's a buttload of episodes. Mostly based off draft and sealed, a lot of advice obviously carries over into general play. I highly, highly recommend the podcasts explaining

Rotty

and

Quadrant Theory

even if you don't plan on playing Draft or Sealed. The

CABS

episode is great specifically for Limited as well, and you can generally poke around from there. for more general content to absorb, I used to watch a lot of pro players (Reid Duke, LSV, Marshall Sutcliffe) draft Cubes and whatnot, and that helped me learn a lot over time even though formats like Cube can be a lot to take in when you're still learning a bit. and I'll always vouch for LoadingReadyRun - they just did a PRE-pre-release on Twitch for the next set coming out if you wanted specifically to look at the new cards for the new set. definitely recommend going to the prerelease coming up regardless.

depending on your LGS, I suggest netdecking a solid budget Standard deck in about a month from now once the new metagame forms post-set rotation, assuming your LGS has decent turnout, and then go from there. otherwise research budget options for the applicable format (Modern, Commander, Pauper, etc.). especially if they have a decent Standard crowd, you could draft in the meantime to build your collection. either way, once you win prizes, I suggest taking your rewards in store credit and buying singles instead of taking prize packs, if possible, and then everyone else said the other important stuff.

definitely save all your gold in Arena to draft the new set - two weeks after it comes out on Arena I think? you can also just straight up buy Eldraine packs to rush wildcards if you'd rather use Arena to practice Constructed, but even though I prefer Constructed, Limited really does teach you a ton about the game

[popsofctown]

Don't be afraid to ask for a takeback now and then in pickup games, within reason. It can help give your opponent a closer game.

[panthaleon]

Throne of Eldraine looks beyond hype. I am very excited for this limited environment.

[popsofctown]

I'm too excited and want to pre-order a deck too early

Monoblack knights looks like it wouldn't want any mythics and would be really cheap.

Spoiler: cards

4 Knight of the Ebon Legion
4 Foulmire Knight (1/1 deathtouch knight, quest: pay 3 lose 1 draw 1)
4 Gutterbones
4 Order of Midnight (2 mana 2/2 flier knight, quest: 2 mana disentomb)
4 Blacklance Paragon (3/1 flash knight, target knight gets deathtouch lifelink)
4 Smitten Swordmaster (2 mana 2/1 lifelink knight quest: 1 mana to drain opponent for each knight you control)
4 Murderous Rider (2/3 lifelink knight, quest: 3 mana kill a walker or creature and lose 2)
4 Oathsworn Knight (3 mana 4/4 knight like Ugin's Construct but only loses 1 counter per hit)
4 Deathless Knight (4 mana 4/2 haste knight, when you gain life it jumps out of graveyard into hand)

3 Castle Lochtwain
3 Witch's Cottage
14 Swamps

The card advantage monoblack gets incidentally in this set is crazy

My biggest concern is reach. Smitten Swordmaster is a reach spell and Witch's Cottage and Order of Midnight both loop it. And Order of Midnight is in the air. But that still might not be reachy enough? Deathless Knight works as reach against the people who want to stabilize by having 12 board wipes in their deck and never putting up blockers, but not of people that think Cavalier of Thorns is good after rotation, which it probably is.

[Inferno390]

Guys this set enables a new modern infinite combo
Someone start putting together a shell

[popsofctown]

No idea which or what one that is, but I am plenty happy with upgrading dredge with Merchant of the Veil and Once Upon a Time.

[Inferno390]

It's Cauldron Familiar, Witch's Oven, Glare of Subdual

Three colored and kind of janky, but the costs are all low enough that I could see a way to get it our pretty quick and just go off from there

[chamber]

Glare of Subdual taps something with its ability, it can't be used to untap the oven (also three card combos are pretty bad as a rule).

[Inferno390]

Oh I misread the card
Surely there's a card somewhere that allows you to tap a creature to untap an artifact

[Inferno390]

There's not
Strange

[popsofctown]

I played against Garruk in a sealed in MtGarena limited.
Why can't they remove Pack Rat tier cards from limited somehow :/

[chamber]

They want the game to be winnable by worse players. Losing all of the time isn't fun.

[panthaleon]

Garruk is also a powerful six Mana mythic that requires you to be in a couple specific colors. Evasion also makes him look very foolish since Mana for two bad wolves isn't a great rate.

He's def powerful, but a lot of the packrat nonsense is that it was a one card combo. If you're pressuring your opponent, Garruk looks rapidly less appealing for them.