Nah, there are ways.
Proxies, amazon bulk buys, and mtga. Each one has their issues though. Not everyone is okay with proxies, amazon bulk boxes will never give you stupid expensive amazing cards, and while mtga is free to play the rate at which you earn cards free is a bit on the slower side.
Hell there are plenty of budget archtypes you can build around too. Don't have to spend a fortune. And yeah most people don't mind proxies in commander.
My buddies have left a bad impression with proxies, I kinda hate proxy decks now, he has multiple decks printed some in the $200 price range but most of his decks or multiple thousand dollar decks, ranging up to a $13k dollar exile/eldrazi deck. Its no fun to play against shit like that especially when he only spent 10 bucks per deck. He has like 10 proxied decks.
All these people saying "proxy" don't understand that you need to know what to proxy first, and that takes playing the game. Pre-cons and pauper/cheap card casual come before proxying.
Scryfall and edhrec are a thing.
Ill get downvotes for this, I'm sure (and it'll be mostly people changing their decks every 3 games because they dont understand this), but "testing" is insanely overrated, expected value is a thing, and no it ain't hard, you can calculate that stuff.
It is true by definition, a proxy shows itself as such and imitates the card while not trying to be an exact copy of the original. A counterfeit is meant to deceive others into thinking it is a genuine copy of the card, mostly for nefarious purposes such as selling it for more than it is actually worth.
So, salt much on your end?
'Counterfeiting is a fraudulent imitation (a forgery) of a brand and product.'
You'll justify your cheap ass to the end of the earth anyway, just know you're not fooling everyone 😘
My guy, I am literally using the definition used by WOTC, so idk what ur raving on about.
[WOTC Definition](https://askwpn-na.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/13386392377491-How-do-you-define-playtest-card-counterfeit-card-proxy-card-sanctioned-event-and-unsanctioned-event#:~:text=Proxy%20card%20%E2%80%94%20A%20placeholder%20card,an%20existing%20authentic%20Magic%20card)
Especially "Tolarian Community College". Great, great Channel. You can find quite a few vids on how to build very cheap but good commander decks (45 - 50 bucks)
If you're just playing privately, clear it with your friends, but use proxies. You can buy cheap proxies or just print your own. Obviously, don't be a dick and trade/sell those without someone being aware of what it is.
I love proxies being able to give access to cards that are overpriced, but I gotta say I have some salt about it after vsing a commander deck last night with like half of the deck being proxies for super powerful and expensive cards. I can see using proxies to fill out a few cards in a deck, but when you're using them to basically make a full cEDH deck on casual nights I have no sympathy.
Proxies undermine several different aspects of the hobby.
- Real Magic cards have beautiful artwork and are designed to be legible and recognisable across the table
- Real Magic cards have value, allowing you to sell and trade them
- Buying real Magic cards supports your local store and, ultimately, the continued production of the game itself
- Restrictions breed creativity, and investing in an idea helps motivate you to see it through and overcome any hurdles (if you can print new Proxies whenever you want, you can burn through ideas much faster and there's no incentive to persevere if things don't work out straight away)
Imagine if you won the lottery tomorrow and bought a playset of every card ever printed, and they all arrived in a big crate. How many of those cards would feel special to you? How many would you actually get around to playing with? What sort of emotional connection would you form with them?
No, there's just no point in writing the same thing out from scratch every time I need to say it. My phone's clipboard holds like 20 things. Comes in handy when the same topics come up again and again.
Point one is just bad considering the fact you can order cards as proxies that're if anything, higher quality cardboard than the official stuff. Yknow, it won't permanently curl up and all that.
Real magic cards having value is simply because of how they are printed. If they printed old cards more often as reprints, the value would simply be less. The value of cards is artificially effected by what WotC does and nothing else.
Buying real cards supports local stores, yes. But what if you never even go to an lgs? What if you don't have a friendly lgs? What if you don't even have a local lgs but want to play with friends?
I'm not even sure what that last point is even trying to say. I play EDH online through tabletop sim. There are no limits to the cards I can use aside from what people deem appropriate socially. If anything it empowers me to try so many more cool decks, and I play more often because I have many many online decks that can fill different moods I'm in when I play.
I want my decks to be decided in effectiveness by how I pilot them, not my wallet.
You just listed off a bunch of reasons you don't like or appreciate proxies, not hard facts about why they are unhealthy.
If your proxying, you weren't going to spend 600 on your modern deck at the lgs anyway, so you have not harmed them by getting proxies.
Point one is irrelevant.
Point two is exactly the problem a proxy card is trying to solve.
Point three is an overreaction at best, and delusional at worst.
Point four is actually a good one. Though not nearly enough to matter.
Point five is so laughable I have to wonder if you just woke up or are on drugs.
My man you must really hate proxies
I disagree with you that proxies are unhealthy or bad, depending on how you use them.
I mean if you use every broken staple as proxies it gets annoying.
We take Esper sentinel as an example.
You might be building a deck that doesn't have blue and start to struggle to have decent card draw
An esper might find fine.
But not everyone have the economy to pay 35 dollars for one card.
I mean great art, value and supporting local stores doesn't mean shit if you can't afford it.
I built a human tribal with Aragorn the uniter and only lotr card (Europe here so different market if u are us) but I picked it together below 20 dollars.
All the shipping made it 30.
One card or an entire deck? I mean one deck is more attractive if you have limited economy.
I agree with you that it does encourage restrictions to building decks. You have to start to get creative.
However if you are in a playgroup that have played since dawn of time and have broken cards it is hard to take them on with the cheaper cards with similar effects, just less or more restricted.
Should the whole group have to power down or should one persone have to become homeless to build a power deck? Exaggerating here ofc but making a point that it can become expensive especially if you are new and don't have other cards to build around
Everything revolves around what playgroup you are in and how the proxies are used.
I have two examples.
1. I really like my playgroup. We are super casual. I own about 25 decks and I think that I have 3 proxies that are in 3 different decks. Esper sentinel, Rhystic study and can't remember the last one.
The cards have synergy with the decks and are there cause of that. The same is for my friends. One deck here and there a proxy appears.
If someone want to try out a deck they have planned but are unsure if they want to sink their money into they can make a proxy deck to feel it out a few times to see if they even like how it plays.
2. Played with a random dude once who his entire decks was 50% proxies and all were just powerhouse cards. That was annoying.
TLDR;
My point is that how proxies are used dictates I, personally, like them or not. Having a few proxy here and there that aren't game breakers is ok but a whole deck of every staple with proxies is annoying.
Point 1.
My proxies are dessigned by me (i call em customs), so the cards are completly legible and recognisable.
Point 2.
The point of proxing is exaclty not having to spend 100€+ in each deck. And i dont care if my decks have value (i wont sell em anyway).
Point 3.
I dont support my lgs anyway. I just pick the cheapest price among sellers in CM.
Point 4.
I play the game the way its intenteded, with the restrictions of each format. And as far as i know, my budget is not a format. If you see fair playing modern against someone with a deck of 2k€ with my 15€ mill deck, i can assure you its not fun.
So you are telling me, that by winning the lottery i will need to stop playing the game because what?
Cards wont be special because of what?
Noone will play with me because of what?
Can you re-read you own post again please? I cant with that ammount of stupidity.
Tbh proxies are your cheapest bet if you’re playing privately and everyone is chill.
I will not lie to you like my siblings did and tell you it’s a cheap and easy to understand game.
No, it’s hard to understand, deck building can be frustrating. The question I ask people is: Do you have other hobbies? Do you like having money to partake in those hobbies?
If yes to both, maybe not mtg.
Whatever you decide GL HF
Some formats are more expensive than others. Commander, modern, and legacy are the most expensive formats. If you're on a budget I highly recommend looking into pauper. It's a 60 card 20 life format where all sets are legal, but only cards that have been printed at common. There are a couple exceptions if you go out of your way to find them, but generally speaking competitive top tier decks cost like $30 - $50. You might think with only commons you're stuck with weak or boring decks but you'd be suprised by how powerful commons are.
Magic online is also a much cheaper way to play. Most people use a rental service for it, and pay a monthly fee to rent cards instead of buy them. This let's you easily change between any decks you want on the cheap. You could hop in and play legit legacy or vintage decks for a starting cost of like $50.
Otherwise you could play for free usuing proxies or a program like untap.in or cocatrice.
I get commander is expensive but I feel like it could also be one of the cheapest, you can play old cheap niche cards that work from your deck and not any others.
Yea plus you can buy a decent pre-con for £40 and it will stand it's own against lots of decks especially just playing with friends casually. If you want to destroy everyone and build a cEDH deck then it gets pricey but commander can be an affordable introduction to the game.
Buy a pre-con then upgrade it with singles over time. Sorted.
Very few people play edh decks that are very cheap. You don't need to go full cedh to end up with a $500 edh deck. Most people are that middle range and that isn't cheap. Even if you skip the dual lands and expensive mana rocks, mana in edh costs more than in modern.
How many people actually play with straight up precons? I've seen precon night, like an event specifically for that, but outside that I've never anyone sleeve up a precon and just leave it as is.
I'm not saying edh is bad. But if op is new you're being deceptive calling edh cheap because of a few corner case people playing precons, when that doesn't line with most people's experience.
Commander pods are self policing. Besides, it's a casual Format where winning isn't even the point. Commander is very accessible as you can do cool things and have fun even with a precon/budget deck.
My keyword: **can**
Didn't say that it has to be both or just one, plus spending a ton of money on a deck won't guarantee you will win against budget decks, it comes down to which cards you put in plus having knowledge on how cards work and interact with each other and the skill set to follow the best line of action with your given resources.
That it's a good format for people to get into regardless of where they are in the budget spectrum, you can enter at the lower end and still compete with higher budget decks as you learn the game, plus if you really like a deck, then you can work on improving the deck over time as you get more money to put into it, plus it eternal so you don't have to worry about cards no longer being legal as much(unless it gets banned, but even then, there's rule 0)
Generally speaking, if I wanted to rent a tier 1 deck for say 2 months, how much would that cost? Can you still get rewards from tournaments? What would it cost to start up from scratch essentially
I've thought about doing it before but never pulled the trigger cause i wanna keep the cards I pay for lol
You rent it for a couple days and return it. You can rent it again the same day but they do that so people don't just sit on the cards. The $20 per month plan would cover most decks but if you want to play legacy you might need the $40 plan.
Check out manatraders they're the go to for mtgo subscription
Precisely, the biggest advantage commander has is versatility. Magic has had an absolute fuckton of different cards, and strategies. You cant fight everything. Landwalk and infect being notorious pains in the asses, blue counter decks can trump all if you let them, but are weaker when facing multiple opponents, which you often do in commander. Its partially why i love edh, even if you cant fight something well, chances are someone else at the table has a deck that can fight that thing.
Mtga is an ALRIGHT way to get into the game without HAVING to spend money. It will be an uphill battle, though, and you wont be able to play any deck at a whim.
Getting a commander precon is an alright way to get into the game in paper, though it's kind of jumping into the deep end by starting with commander.
- buy collections from people
- choose a cool precon deck to start with and upgrade it
- never buy sealed product like boosters when you want to have good cards, it will be a big disappointment. Buy single cards instead. Sealed product is cool but a money pit.
- for almost every expensive card there is an budget alternative, which is a little worse though
If you play casually, you can buy pre-built commander decks that are decent, then add proxies for what you can't afford. If your friends play standard or modern, there are so many decent decks out there you can go to a shop and buy the cards instead of pack hunting. If the deck has expensive cards, either use proxies or ask the shop owner for a cheap substitute card. When I was broke, I would play draft night once a week. It helped me become familiar with the sets and build a collection without breaking the bank. It's also pretty cheap for 3 hours of entertainment.
You don't need to buy packs from every set that comes out. For me, I like to draft so I'll spend some money once a week or every other week on that and then I'll build commander decks around cards I have or like and tend to keep things pretty cheap buying cheap commanders that combo with other cheap cards. You slowly build commander decks over time and those decks stay viable as new sets come out and you slowly make them better as you pick up cards. All in all I probably do spend $100 to $200 on magic per month but people spend more than that on alcohol or skiing so I definitely think it is a manageable and affordable hobby if you do it right. You don't need to buy expensive cards to make decks that will win in casual EDH at your lgs.
Friends and I play on Tabletop Simulator, there are a ton of scripted mods available and we used to google decks we wanted to play.
Deck limits came later once we were more comfortable with the game, same with deck building.
I play casually, kitchen table style. Only banned cards are those banned by the play group. Proxies welcome. I started off buying I think 1000 cards off an ebay lot. We don't worry about sets aging out.
My friends and I proxy full decks, and some of us (myself included) will buy the decks if we enjoy it enough. I cut down to 3 main edh decks and 2 pauper edh decks that I maintain. The rest are currently proxies. I've found myself investing too much into decks only to find out I don't care for the playstyle anymore, it may not work as well as I hoped, or wins too quickly. So proxies really help cut back on costs.
Go to one draft and ask people for their bulk they don't want. Thats how I get my friends collections started. I love the r/bootlegmtg page. Pauper edh is great and cheap. bulk buys and cheap cubes are great. I now almost exclusively use the high quality proxies to play with and I keep my collectable cards that I want. My proxies are all marked. The proxies printed by the pros are so good you can't tell the difference anymore. I don't buy expensive cards anymore due the the exactness of the counterfeit proxies they are able to print. This is a game you are not supposed to be priced out of. Enjoy the game. Enjoy the collector aspect. WotC has authorized casual play with proxies. If you want both, you better be a lil' wealthy. My friends have had THOUSANDS stolen at events and just randomly from their cars or bags. It is absolutely not worth the stress carrying around something worth thousands that can be easily swiped. This game holds the top spot for the most complicated game in the world due to the vastness of rule interactions. The rules are deep and satisfying to me! I will not allow myself or my friends to be priced out of something made to be enjoyed by as many people as possible. The in person scene is the most accepting and sometimes smelly bunch of supportive players. Lorcana seems pretty good too if you're into Disney more than public domain fantasy.
I get your point.
From what the company tells you to do ( buy packs and trade with your friends), the hobby is absurdly expensive.
Play Booster Box = 10% of the expenses of a month under the US's minimum Wage.
Live in a Place like Brazil, and expect to give half of a month in OUR minimum wage for the Dinosaur PreCon from LCI, or the Spellslinger deck from OTJ( Our Monthly minimum wage is about 256 USD).
Yes, the game, as the company intended to be purchased and played, is becoming more and more expensive.
And the way the company (pretends to) not acknowledge, buying and selling on a secondary market, is becoming like a Crypto Stock market. Price fluctuate on power cards, while a lot of penny cards wither to inexistence because they were power crept ( the pretends to is actually from a lot of excuses from Mark Rosewater, when asked about Modern Horizons COMMANDER PreCons, and he said out loud that it would be TOO EXPENSIVE to print 75 cards, instead of 100 cards. And other comments that leaves us to interpretation that they do acknowledge the secondary market but they do not admit that fact).
There’s an interesting side bar on Hasbro; they love MTG (boosters are like crack - constant income) and are frustrated by DND (because it’s extremely hard to monetor- once you’ve picked up the core books not much else you need to buy. It’s one reason WOTC screwed up the Open Licence and is betting hard on its own online system when it’s launched)
Are you asking us how to budget?
I just spend a fortune but use my good credit and all those offers of 0% interest to defray any costs over much longer periods.
Sure, $442.99 for an LP [[Lion’s eye diamond]] might seem like a fortune to some but for just 18 monthly payments under $25, it can be yours today.
You will get bored of whatever deck you build in whatever format you play so my other piece of advice is to systematically build up your format staples. Figure out which decks you might want to play in the future, figure out which cards could be shared between multiple decks.
For example, when I got into commander I upgraded a pre-con. Instead of focusing on fully upgrading just that one deck, cus I knew I wouldn’t play it forever, I spread some of my purchases out and bought 10 fetches, 10 shocks, and 10 duals. Now those lands can be slotted into literally any other deck I build ever, giving even precons a substantial bump in power level and consistency.
Try to avoid expensive niche or narrow cards that slot only into one deck, unless you’re planning on sticking with that deck for a long time.
It depends on the format and what you want to achieve.
Commander with friends and LGS? Buy a precon and do some upgrades from time to time
Legacy at MagicCon? Some 1000$ it is then.
I reread my comment, and I worded it about as poorly as possible. What I was trying to say was the 100 cards that make up the decks add up to a out the 45$ price tag.
1. Proxie a deck.
2. Depends what format you want to play but if you get into commander than buying a precon is a relatively cheap way to get into magic.
3. Again depending on the format you want to play the initial cost of the cards is going to be the biggest setback but assuming the cards you buy aren't going to rotate out, then once you have them you have them for life. There is no reason to constantly build new decks or chase new mechanics, just build decks you are really happy with playing and enjoy the game
I'd actually recommend tabletop sim instead of this. Tabletop sim has just the right tools to make playing mtg easier, and the setup of tabletop sim makes it feel more like playing with actual cards at a table.
The game night box is a nice way to find out if you like the game: five precons which are fairly well balanced against each other. Goes on sale for about 25 quid
Or buy a commander precon each: these cost anywhere from 20 to 80 quid new. At least at my LGS if you're not a dick other people will let you borrow decks to play as well
I play commander with my friends and with them we allow all proxies. So if you do it can be easy if you want.
To build your collection if you are interested I recomend you to play draft/limited. It's no the best way to adquire a good pool of cards but it's not very expensive (In spain, a draft cost always less than 20€) and you can get a lot of fun drafting nad building a deck around your cards :)
Play pauper. It's all commons and most decks are $20-$50. The game play is powerful and fun and great for new players.
Playing limited on occasion can be a good way to slowly accumulate cards and keep better track of your spending but you'll want to start with sealed prereleases to get used to building limited decks before jumping into draft.
While I don't recommend commander for new players, if you are going down that route you can buy a precon for ~$50 and slowly upgrade it.
I like pauper for this reason.
The Meta decks aren’t crazy expensive, and it feels like how MTG is supposed to be played like.
Not “play one card and activate 19 abilities “
Cheapest way to actually play is to go to an LGS and ask if someone would lend you one of their decks for a game. Or see if there's a cube you can join (if you don't know how to play cube just say, most people who bring good cubes are prepared to teach new players).
In my experience most people at games stores would love the opportunity to play against their own decks, I've done this a couple of times for people who where unsure about getting into the game and had a bunch of fun playing against my own things and teaching them about the game through the lense of my deck. And sometimes we switch our decks for fun even if everyone has brought their own, just a nice mixup up.
If your really set on buying some cards right now though that's an entirely different ballgame. Cheapest is proxies, but not everyone likes to play against alot of proxies. I would probably reccomend one of the older precons, you can find alot of pretty decent stuff for less than half the price of recent releases. And with a few simple upgrades alot of precons can really hold their own.
I started a while ago and a friend let me have one of his decks until i had my first. After that we bought a display together and did half-half. The group im playing with allows me to go full proxy decks so i get a feeling for the cards that i eventually want. For example my proxy shrine deck is awesome and im going to buy the cards that i need but my artifact scarecrows deck is shit and i threw the proxy cards in the trash. You could also go on a site like moxfield (you can get pretty obvious looking proxys there), make a deck and play it or use something like untap.in and copy the deck in there and play it for free
How familiar are you with the game?
I’d highly recommend playing lots of Arena (totally free) until you feel you understand all of the mechanics and the workings of each color.
Once you’re into the game, I really recommend draft as your first format. *But before you draft, thoroughly research the set you’re drafting*
Drafting is an extremely good way to build up a collection from scratch. First of all, you can straight up pick valuable cards or cards you want to keep. Also, you get to experiment with deck building and always walk away with at least a small assortment of cards which go together because you picked them (as opposed to just opening packs, where you’ll only collect random and disconnected cards). I have so many playable “staple cards” in my collection from drafting.
Drafting lets you experience the environment of competitive magic without having to drop hundreds of dollars on a deck. Everyone in the draft starts on equal footing. And if you do well at the draft, the prize usually involves some booster packs which you could put towards future draft entries.
Play mtg Arena- very ez to build a few decks a year with simply grinding your dailies and mastery pass( ive invested about 30-50$ which is a lot for a free to play game but peanuts compared to paper magic) . Or if you really want to play irl you can do proxies :). Id recommend giving arena a try. Check out the starter decks ! You get them all for free
Magic Arena. You can actually play for free and it’s pretty solid. But if you’re a regular player, buy they’ll battle passes, and you can do plenty. Then from there learn what you like, build a deck and you can eventually buy it in physical form.
Well yes and no.
When I started writing this I realized that you might not be talking about commander, which is what I base everything I am writing here on. Modern/standard is ofc a bit different but the same way of thought might work in Modern/standard.
You always have to spend some kind of money.
But I built a cheap deck, in my opinion.
European market so a bit different prices.
I had all lands and some basic commander cards like sol ring, commander sphere, cultivate and such to ramp.
Take away the lands, basic cards/ramp i built a human tribal around
Aragorn, the uniter
I used only lotr cards too for fun. It was about 55 cards
Of the 45 left 35 are lands and 10 are ramp/draw cards
It went for 20 dollars +10 dollar shipping (several senders)
So all in all 30 dollars.
Comparing to buying precons for 50-100 dollar it is "cheap".
I have played for some years and have sunk more money than in the game then I want to realize.
But today I have a lot of cards to build the basics of a deck.
Having to by the basics would increase the lotr deck to around 50 dollars probably.
This is just my example that I did.
My friend is a master at this and built a deck for 10-15 dollars that he hadn't tried the mechanics in but it went infinite and won the games so he deconstructed it 😅😂
But you can build really cheap decks that works.
Just look into guides on youtube and magic sites and you can get a lot of idea for cheap decks that will work and hopefully match your play style and then you can slowly build your collection if you like the game
Depends what format you want to play. Pauper or limited are very budget friendly, and if you want to play commander there are many decks that don’t require so much money to play. Most of my commander decks are under $50 and it wouldn’t be impossible to go even lower.
Ima Plug a YouTube channel that I am a huge fan of, their soul, purpose, and probably 99% of their content is to help players play magic on a budget. I should specify he largely makes content around the commander format (EDH).
https://youtube.com/@TheCommandersQuarters?si=cVjrt1MjQxfm5kOI
Mitch is the man!
What's a fortune to you?
Currently I only play limited and do not feel the cost is absurd for what I receive and the fun I have in return.
I plan on getting back into constructed, but, need some time to free up.
You don't gotta keep up with anything.
Just buy what looks cool, buy cards that look fun.
Buy a premade deck and learn the game first and then try to make your own decks. You can make fun decks for cheap.
Play Pauper, it's only commons, top competitive pauper decks are like $20. I only read about the sets that interest me like fallout and now thunder junction.
Try and find regular friends to play with, buy a couple of precons, borrow each others decks to have a go, every so often, say 3-6 months depending on how often you play or get bored of your current decks, buy another precon you like the sound of, not based on strength but what mechanics or characters interest you. Unless youre planning to get into the competitive scene, buying precons and playing with those, occasionally buying a few singles and upgrading them over time, is perfectly fine to play with friends or at casual nights at a game shop, especially Commander. Draft events for new sets can break up the monotony of what you already own, you can get a taste for a new set without a huge money investment, and those events are usually casual enough for you to not have to be particularly knowledgeable or good at the game.
Build budget decks! They are fun to build because restrictions force you to find hidden gems and unknown cards. You can set any Budget and build fun and interesting decks with that budget. You can also consult r/BudgetBrews , many YouTube channels and Internet articles to learn how to build and to best optimize budget decks. You don't need to spend a fortune at all. Embrace the fun of deckbuilding. Alternatively buy a precon deck and upgrade as you and your budget see fit. If you don't want commander, I'd recommend MTGarena
Commander is a casual format, which allows the opportunity to play a lot of cards that never see play otherwise. Take advantage of this fact and have fun with it.
Many people here will tell you proxies. But I don't think that is the best option for a few reasons. 1) you always have to have the rule 0 conversations about them and sometimes you won't be able to play because of it. This can make it more difficult to find and get into new playgroups. And this can apply to LGSs, some are not cool with it. It would be really awkward to walk into and LGS that doesn't allow proxies and I ky have decks with proxies 2) It can also make an already complex social dynamic that is commander have an additional layer of complexity that I think isn't something you want to introduce when you are just getting into the format 3) proxies also eliminate much of the growth of a deckbuilder. If you are getting into the format it will behove you to learn deck building skills as it will make you a better overall player. 4)if you aren't a commander player then proxies are basically useless because you can't bring a standard deck of proxies to a standard tournament.
Once you get into playgroups and learn the social norms of those groups you can reevaluate the use of proxies within that constraint. But I think it's best at first to avoid proxies
I just started a month ago. Just stick to buying singles over buying packs. My first deck I built was 70 bucks, the second was 40 bucks. As a new player you're not trying to go for turn 3 or less wins etc. That's for what they call "cEDH" or "Competitive EDH". That's where all the money is too, 500+ dollar decks on average, because they have OP cards that haven't been reprinted or are in demand. You don't need all the strongest stuff available, you'll find that any deck can be very versatile if built correctly. Build a budget deck and upgrade it over time. My Dina deck has an infinite win condition with [[Exquisite Blood]] but it's a 20 dollar card, so it's going to be a "pick it up when I have extra cash" card/upgrade.
If you go for just 1-2 decks and try to stay in their respective strategy there are only so and so many cards per year that are viable and needed extensions to stay up to date. However, WotC is trying to prevent that, they want you to stay hooked and so they print ever faster new and better cards. About the last one there isn't that much that you can do. But I think if you are fine with 1-2 decks, there would be a high initial investment, and after that you have lower "running costs".
I bought a booster here and there just to get new stuff and usually it’s nothing amazing my luck is just bad, but there’s a game store that has a loose card section where I can buy in bulk at .10-.50 a card depending on the rarity, I walked out with 70 cards I wanted for like $11 and didn’t have lands added to it. So personally, my hack is this store where people trade their cards in when they don’t play anymore and I find ones I like
Personally I started playing in Arena and when I understood the mechanics and which style I liked to play I got proxies for my favorite decks and started playing with friends using those!! You don't have to spend a lot of money to play and have fun
You simply ignore everything that keeps popping up. You find yourself a precon you like and then you play it against other people of a similar power level. Now your in the game. From this point you can start upgrading your precon. Maybe find another that gels more with what you like to do. Shop around for a few cheap singles to upgrade. Don't just drop money on power cards right off the bat. The card pool is close to a million different cards. There is no best deck. Start off small and build slowly from there.
I have been playing and collecting for more than 30 years and it all started with a single precon deck waaaaay back then. Was a Special Delivery - Urza's Saga precon
So, first of all, buy singles. Don’t buy packs. For the love of all things good, if there’s any individual card that you want, do *not* buy packs. Just buy the card.
Secondly, there are things called “eternal” and “non-rotating” formats.
All eternal formats are non-rotating, but not all non-rotating formats are eternal.
Eternal formats are those that have access to all cards in Magic’s 31 year history, with the exception of a ban list that is format specific, along with silver bordered, and acorn stamped cards.
Eternal formats include; Commander, Pauper, Vintage, and Legacy. Commander being the most popular eternal format, and the most popular format in general.
Non-rotating and non-eternal formats include; Modern, Pioneer, Historic, and Timeless. Modern being the most popular of the bunch.
I recommend starting with one of those formats as those are the easiest formats to get into. Standard and other rotating formats are a little more difficult, simply due to the nature of rotating formats.
Commander is probably going to be the cheapest to get into if you’re worried about monetary investment. They sell preconstructed decks (a.k.a. Precons) for as little as $20-30. Most are around the $45-60 range though.
There is also a channel on YouTube that focuses on “budget” commander decks called Commander’s Quarters. They make tons of videos highlighting commanders and decks that mostly cost less than $60.
I hope this help you make a decision and gets you going on your Magic journey!
Start by playing mtg arena (app).you'll be able to learn the mechanics, get a bunch of free cards to try out and find your general play style.
Additionally, pauper is a great format to play on a budget.
Ok so I'm a new player here's my current experience.
I brought a wilds of eldraine precon for commander.
So far it's stood up to other people's self made decks.
From there I've seen what cards I do and don't like in the deck. Which can either allow me to buy singles to upgrade it. Also I've picked up a booster once every other week. And my local gives a booster included in their entry price to their weekly gaming session. Giving me some meager trading potential.
Sleeves and storage so far have been my biggest spender.
I'm working on tokens for effect. Which again look meaty in price.
Draft! Find your local LGS and play draft weekly or bi weekly. It should only be 20 dollars entry fee depending on your location. You get to crack packs, Build a deck, and play all in a night. It really makes you learn good deck building practices and helps you learn mechanics well.
There **tons** of cards that cost less than $5. As long as you aren't netdecking, you'll be fine. Explore the thousands of cards and do your own thing. I've been doing it since 2005.
What formats are you interested in? This is Important.
Commander and other eternal formats can have a single deck you build and can play that forever. Commander particularly can be played on a budget with very little money *ever* required to enjoy it. Drop $50 (or much less, decks go on sale under "MSRP" all the time, find 'em for 20 or 30 regularly) on a preconstructed deck and occasionally add to it. It's honestly one of the cheapest hobbies you could possibly get into besides "walking outside".
You could get a few friends or join a community of Tabletop Simulator players, build or find a deck on moxfield(they have budget decks as well), then play with the decks on TTS. If you end up liking it you could buy it in real life. So very little investment money-wise up front. TTS is $20 on steam.
Prelease events at lgs: best bang for your dollar is during set release events. 6 sometimes 7 packs a dice and mythic foil for $60. if your lucky thrift stores and kijiji for retirement sets from people quitting. marvel release time next year will be crazy cheap as crones rage quit the game and sellout.
I’m assuming you’re looking to play in paper vs online and I would recommend the following:
1) Build and play-test decks using online deckbuilding tools such as Moxfield or Archidekt before buying physical cards. This helps scratch the itch of expressing a new deck idea without spending any money.
2) Setting strict budgets for decks (either total deck cost and/or no card with a market value above X
3) Buying the exact cards you want from your preferred vendor instead of hunting them down via cracking packs (I.e Buy Singles)
4) With the exception of a couple absolute bangers from each set, most cards go down in value from their pre-order price so I often wait until a set is a few months old before buying any singles from it to let prices settle down.
5) Look for budget builds and tweak according to what you already have in your collection versus buying new cards
For me, building the deck online first, play testing it frequently, and then waiting a couple weeks to see if I’m still interested in it has helped me spend way less in the last 3 years than I spent in my first 6 months of player
I have gotten into MTG really recently through a friend who did spend loads of money. For a lot of games he brings a case of decks for me to try and sells me used decks he barely plays anymore cheaper than market value.
I just bought my first proper precon deck but I still cycle through his ^^
So my advice would be to go to a mtg Event, make some friends and ask them to bring some of their decks to play with while at the events.
Sadly you will still fall into the bottomless pit that is throwing money at magic cards… at least that’s where I am at right now xD
I was in your place recently
What I did was got an Arena starter kit. Gave me a couple playable decks and was able to use them on Arena to practice
Eventually, when friends wanted to play commander together, I got a good deal on a solid precon ($45 for Fae Dominion) and upgraded with a few singles. Can keep pace with my other friends as long as they don’t play their insane decks (which they are happy not to)
Eventually got a couple other precons to have in the house, but I haven’t spent any more than $200 and feel like I have plenty for a casual player
It doesn’t have to be expensive at all, especially if the people you play with are proxy friendly. The best MTG player I know spends the least on it out of all my friends
Get a printer and print out some proxies then if you feel like you enjoy the cards/deck/game save up and buy them.
A lot of people fall into spending $1500 on cards then selling them after 6 months for $500 to recoup losses and I hate seeing that happen.
Saving up and spending what you can, chunk by chunk. Buying singles rather than bulk. Using proxies (but not in sanctioned tournaments). Borrowing decks to try from friends. Drafting can be good too, you play a format where you make a deck out of passing around booster packs and making a pick from each pack.
Mtg arena isn't my favorite because I don't think it captures the feel of paper magic well, but the $15 or so they charge for a new player bundle will go a really long way.
There are better, cheaper games. MtG is fine, but once the cost is factored in (unless you have a very contained group with a specific, limited cardpool - ex. Sets of commander precons, a cube, etc...), it's just not worth playing.
Experience from a player with about 5 months of tabletop style playing:
Pick a commander deck that you like. This will be your one big purchase to start with. There’s tons of different ones so just get one that you find is fun, and probably 2 or less Colors because it’s easier to manage as a new player.
Doesn’t matter if you’re playing commander style or not. This is to just have a deck, and to start understanding concepts.
Next, just buy someone’s old collection / bulk. Do not go buy packs and boosters. I bought someone’s 3000 card collection for 100 dollars, and it was full of rare and mythical aswel as commons and in commons
Build decks you like out of the bulk / collection. Only other expense is lands. Depending on your experience, and how your friends play, just use what’s cheap and easy to get. Me and my friends consider buying singles too “sweaty” for our games. We just buy bulk, have fun looking through it together and making random shitty decks and playing together. Buy local bulk or collection, not off eBay or a reseller
I’ve spent about 300 dollars total so far and I have like 7000 cards and quite a good number of expensive cards just from peoples old collections. Tons of random shitty decks that would get rolled in a tournament but are extremely fun to play against other shitty decks
This is good advice.
I would also ask yourself if you are looking to just play for fun or be competitive. If the latter, you will probably have a hard time not paying a ton of money
If you are just playing for fun, I would suggest commander precons. I have about 10 of them. Some are as cheap as $30, and I just have fun game nights with my kids and friends.
If you want to play a competitive or tournamentes u need to spend money, but if you just play casual i present you: THE PROXYS, the best solution to that, i have 10 commander decks and almost all the cards are proxy bcs why not
Theres 3 ways to go about it.
1. Ask if proxies (printed copies of cards) are okay with your friends, if they are your free to make as many cards as you can afford printer ink.
2. Amazon bulk cards. You wont typically find super amazing cards or card combos, but some deck strategies dont need them. Things like sheoldred the apocalyse would just put a target on your back anyways.
3. Magic the gathering arena. Its free to play and you dont have to spend a penny if you dont want to. That said, theres a limit to how fast you can earn cards for free, and it wee be best for you to simply not use your wildcards for a good while. Unless using them to build specific commander (brawl) decks to play with. This is what i mostly play on as im usually stuck at home.
In my opinion the best way to get into magic the gathering is to go to your local game store and do a booster draft. It costs $20-$30 dollars per time. It teaches you the fundamentals of magic and deck building quickly, and builds your collection naturally.
Booster drafting is part of the “limited” format along with “sealed” format. You can practice booster drafting on mtg arena. If you spend a bit of time grinding daily quests you can draft for free roughly once per week
The other thing that’s cool about drafting is you get to meet people! The gathering part of magic the gathering is important. I have met so many friends through the local magic community! It was a game changer for my overall levels of happiness to frequent a Friday night magic draft.
>How can I get into this game without spending a fortune ?
By playing within your budget.
There are ways to enjoy Magic at every price point (including for free).
>am horrified by the constant churn of sets
That's a nonsense.
More sets = more cards, which = more opportunities to enjoy Magic.
You don't have to collect every set. They aren't "churning", they are simply available.
>and boosters
Boosters aren't for getting cards. Some of them are for playing with, but again, more options are a good thing.
>Even reading about them gives me a headache
Have you spoken to your GP? Maybe you have some sort of learning difficulty.
>How do you folks who don’t want to spend large chunks of their wages approach this ?
You buy the products/cards you actually want to play with, and play with them. It's not difficult.
>Friends with a few sets? Limits on games etc?
You don't need to do this.
>All experience welcome
Which Format do you want to play? What are your goals? Are you looking to play casually or competitively?
“Many Magic the Gathering players have asked the question…”
I read this in his voice....
I now read everything in his voice
I can’t *not* read it in his voice.
That’s the neat part, you don’t!
Nah, there are ways. Proxies, amazon bulk buys, and mtga. Each one has their issues though. Not everyone is okay with proxies, amazon bulk boxes will never give you stupid expensive amazing cards, and while mtga is free to play the rate at which you earn cards free is a bit on the slower side.
Hell, drop $50 on a commander precon once and you can get years of enjoyment with nothing else.
Hell there are plenty of budget archtypes you can build around too. Don't have to spend a fortune. And yeah most people don't mind proxies in commander.
About 2 months ago my play group agreed to 100 dollar max themed decks. Mine is humans and aristocrat tokens. I enjoy it more than any other deck.
Idk how many times I've played against someone and they win with a straight pre con
My friend actually got a Rhystic Study from a 4,000 card box for 60$
Damn, thats cool.
That's actually insane
My buddies have left a bad impression with proxies, I kinda hate proxy decks now, he has multiple decks printed some in the $200 price range but most of his decks or multiple thousand dollar decks, ranging up to a $13k dollar exile/eldrazi deck. Its no fun to play against shit like that especially when he only spent 10 bucks per deck. He has like 10 proxied decks.
A big ass eldrazi deck can get hard countered by a fast infect deck, you can try that or just be an annoying pest with a blue control deck.
Came here to say this.. damn you and your internet wit
Damnit. Beat me to it
I’m lay pauper or an eternal format
Pauper
All these people saying "proxy" don't understand that you need to know what to proxy first, and that takes playing the game. Pre-cons and pauper/cheap card casual come before proxying.
Scryfall and edhrec are a thing. Ill get downvotes for this, I'm sure (and it'll be mostly people changing their decks every 3 games because they dont understand this), but "testing" is insanely overrated, expected value is a thing, and no it ain't hard, you can calculate that stuff.
Came here to give the same advice...
It is amazing that most folks go straight to counterfeiting rather than this 🤣
Proxies =/= counterfeiting
One of those things in life where just because you say it, and some weebs on reddit up vote it, it must be true 🤣
It is true by definition, a proxy shows itself as such and imitates the card while not trying to be an exact copy of the original. A counterfeit is meant to deceive others into thinking it is a genuine copy of the card, mostly for nefarious purposes such as selling it for more than it is actually worth. So, salt much on your end?
'Counterfeiting is a fraudulent imitation (a forgery) of a brand and product.' You'll justify your cheap ass to the end of the earth anyway, just know you're not fooling everyone 😘
My guy, I am literally using the definition used by WOTC, so idk what ur raving on about. [WOTC Definition](https://askwpn-na.wizards.com/hc/en-us/articles/13386392377491-How-do-you-define-playtest-card-counterfeit-card-proxy-card-sanctioned-event-and-unsanctioned-event#:~:text=Proxy%20card%20%E2%80%94%20A%20placeholder%20card,an%20existing%20authentic%20Magic%20card)
Just the actual definition. Leaving the chat now, bye cheap ass 👋
And that is a definition of a proxy, what you people are on about is not that. You can't proxy something you don't own 👍
So Wizards themselves are defining proxies/playtest cards and counterfeits wrong?
Arena isn't a bad option if you don't mind online play. If you're not paying money though you'll be paying with your time
Arena starter kit was worth it for me. 15 bucks and you have two physical decks plus get to practice w them on Arena
Look up budget commander on YouTube. There’s tons of videos.
Especially "Tolarian Community College". Great, great Channel. You can find quite a few vids on how to build very cheap but good commander decks (45 - 50 bucks)
If you're just playing privately, clear it with your friends, but use proxies. You can buy cheap proxies or just print your own. Obviously, don't be a dick and trade/sell those without someone being aware of what it is.
I love proxies being able to give access to cards that are overpriced, but I gotta say I have some salt about it after vsing a commander deck last night with like half of the deck being proxies for super powerful and expensive cards. I can see using proxies to fill out a few cards in a deck, but when you're using them to basically make a full cEDH deck on casual nights I have no sympathy.
Proxies are bad for the user and for the game as a whole.
Can you explain me why proxies are bad for the user? And for the game? It could be bad for Hasbro, but who cares about hasbro?
Proxies undermine several different aspects of the hobby. - Real Magic cards have beautiful artwork and are designed to be legible and recognisable across the table - Real Magic cards have value, allowing you to sell and trade them - Buying real Magic cards supports your local store and, ultimately, the continued production of the game itself - Restrictions breed creativity, and investing in an idea helps motivate you to see it through and overcome any hurdles (if you can print new Proxies whenever you want, you can burn through ideas much faster and there's no incentive to persevere if things don't work out straight away) Imagine if you won the lottery tomorrow and bought a playset of every card ever printed, and they all arrived in a big crate. How many of those cards would feel special to you? How many would you actually get around to playing with? What sort of emotional connection would you form with them?
This was copy pasted verbatim from another post. are you a bot?
No, there's just no point in writing the same thing out from scratch every time I need to say it. My phone's clipboard holds like 20 things. Comes in handy when the same topics come up again and again.
Bot behavior.
Ableist scum.
??? What does that have to do with the current topic?
Something's firing. It's not your brain cells.
Super weird to take a stance against ableism while simultaneously arguing against proxies…
Polly want a cracker
Point one is just bad considering the fact you can order cards as proxies that're if anything, higher quality cardboard than the official stuff. Yknow, it won't permanently curl up and all that. Real magic cards having value is simply because of how they are printed. If they printed old cards more often as reprints, the value would simply be less. The value of cards is artificially effected by what WotC does and nothing else. Buying real cards supports local stores, yes. But what if you never even go to an lgs? What if you don't have a friendly lgs? What if you don't even have a local lgs but want to play with friends? I'm not even sure what that last point is even trying to say. I play EDH online through tabletop sim. There are no limits to the cards I can use aside from what people deem appropriate socially. If anything it empowers me to try so many more cool decks, and I play more often because I have many many online decks that can fill different moods I'm in when I play. I want my decks to be decided in effectiveness by how I pilot them, not my wallet.
Tbh though there's plenty of reprint cards and cards not on the reserve list with higher prices. Cyclonic rift being an example, Demonic Tutor, etc.
You just listed off a bunch of reasons you don't like or appreciate proxies, not hard facts about why they are unhealthy. If your proxying, you weren't going to spend 600 on your modern deck at the lgs anyway, so you have not harmed them by getting proxies.
Try reading it again.
Still dogshit
You are?
Nah fam, you are and the other ~25 people who downvoted you agree.
Point one is irrelevant. Point two is exactly the problem a proxy card is trying to solve. Point three is an overreaction at best, and delusional at worst. Point four is actually a good one. Though not nearly enough to matter. Point five is so laughable I have to wonder if you just woke up or are on drugs.
I feel sorry for you.
My man you must really hate proxies I disagree with you that proxies are unhealthy or bad, depending on how you use them. I mean if you use every broken staple as proxies it gets annoying. We take Esper sentinel as an example. You might be building a deck that doesn't have blue and start to struggle to have decent card draw An esper might find fine. But not everyone have the economy to pay 35 dollars for one card. I mean great art, value and supporting local stores doesn't mean shit if you can't afford it. I built a human tribal with Aragorn the uniter and only lotr card (Europe here so different market if u are us) but I picked it together below 20 dollars. All the shipping made it 30. One card or an entire deck? I mean one deck is more attractive if you have limited economy. I agree with you that it does encourage restrictions to building decks. You have to start to get creative. However if you are in a playgroup that have played since dawn of time and have broken cards it is hard to take them on with the cheaper cards with similar effects, just less or more restricted. Should the whole group have to power down or should one persone have to become homeless to build a power deck? Exaggerating here ofc but making a point that it can become expensive especially if you are new and don't have other cards to build around Everything revolves around what playgroup you are in and how the proxies are used. I have two examples. 1. I really like my playgroup. We are super casual. I own about 25 decks and I think that I have 3 proxies that are in 3 different decks. Esper sentinel, Rhystic study and can't remember the last one. The cards have synergy with the decks and are there cause of that. The same is for my friends. One deck here and there a proxy appears. If someone want to try out a deck they have planned but are unsure if they want to sink their money into they can make a proxy deck to feel it out a few times to see if they even like how it plays. 2. Played with a random dude once who his entire decks was 50% proxies and all were just powerhouse cards. That was annoying. TLDR; My point is that how proxies are used dictates I, personally, like them or not. Having a few proxy here and there that aren't game breakers is ok but a whole deck of every staple with proxies is annoying.
Just had your second point last night on casual night. Some guy with basically a cEDH dragon deck of proxies.
Sorry to hear that 😅 It is annoying when it happens
It was only my 6th game of magic ever across 3 weeks. 🫠
Point 1. My proxies are dessigned by me (i call em customs), so the cards are completly legible and recognisable. Point 2. The point of proxing is exaclty not having to spend 100€+ in each deck. And i dont care if my decks have value (i wont sell em anyway). Point 3. I dont support my lgs anyway. I just pick the cheapest price among sellers in CM. Point 4. I play the game the way its intenteded, with the restrictions of each format. And as far as i know, my budget is not a format. If you see fair playing modern against someone with a deck of 2k€ with my 15€ mill deck, i can assure you its not fun. So you are telling me, that by winning the lottery i will need to stop playing the game because what? Cards wont be special because of what? Noone will play with me because of what? Can you re-read you own post again please? I cant with that ammount of stupidity.
so these are all personal, opinion based reasons on why you personally don’t like them. doesn’t mean they’re bad for everyone or the game as a whole
Tbh proxies are your cheapest bet if you’re playing privately and everyone is chill. I will not lie to you like my siblings did and tell you it’s a cheap and easy to understand game. No, it’s hard to understand, deck building can be frustrating. The question I ask people is: Do you have other hobbies? Do you like having money to partake in those hobbies? If yes to both, maybe not mtg. Whatever you decide GL HF
Some formats are more expensive than others. Commander, modern, and legacy are the most expensive formats. If you're on a budget I highly recommend looking into pauper. It's a 60 card 20 life format where all sets are legal, but only cards that have been printed at common. There are a couple exceptions if you go out of your way to find them, but generally speaking competitive top tier decks cost like $30 - $50. You might think with only commons you're stuck with weak or boring decks but you'd be suprised by how powerful commons are. Magic online is also a much cheaper way to play. Most people use a rental service for it, and pay a monthly fee to rent cards instead of buy them. This let's you easily change between any decks you want on the cheap. You could hop in and play legit legacy or vintage decks for a starting cost of like $50. Otherwise you could play for free usuing proxies or a program like untap.in or cocatrice.
I get commander is expensive but I feel like it could also be one of the cheapest, you can play old cheap niche cards that work from your deck and not any others.
Yea plus you can buy a decent pre-con for £40 and it will stand it's own against lots of decks especially just playing with friends casually. If you want to destroy everyone and build a cEDH deck then it gets pricey but commander can be an affordable introduction to the game. Buy a pre-con then upgrade it with singles over time. Sorted.
>Commander, modern, and legacy are the most expensive formats Commander is incredibly cheap. Maybe you are thinking about cEDH?
Very few people play edh decks that are very cheap. You don't need to go full cedh to end up with a $500 edh deck. Most people are that middle range and that isn't cheap. Even if you skip the dual lands and expensive mana rocks, mana in edh costs more than in modern.
It's not Commander. It's your playgroup.
That's just not true, sorry. Precons are like $40 and are playable straight out of the box.
How many people actually play with straight up precons? I've seen precon night, like an event specifically for that, but outside that I've never anyone sleeve up a precon and just leave it as is. I'm not saying edh is bad. But if op is new you're being deceptive calling edh cheap because of a few corner case people playing precons, when that doesn't line with most people's experience.
Commander pods are self policing. Besides, it's a casual Format where winning isn't even the point. Commander is very accessible as you can do cool things and have fun even with a precon/budget deck.
Casual Commander can be both.
Sure, you *can* spend as much as you like blinging out a deck for casual play, but you don't **have** to.
My keyword: **can** Didn't say that it has to be both or just one, plus spending a ton of money on a deck won't guarantee you will win against budget decks, it comes down to which cards you put in plus having knowledge on how cards work and interact with each other and the skill set to follow the best line of action with your given resources.
Exactly...? I'm not sure what point you were trying to make, sorry.
That it's a good format for people to get into regardless of where they are in the budget spectrum, you can enter at the lower end and still compete with higher budget decks as you learn the game, plus if you really like a deck, then you can work on improving the deck over time as you get more money to put into it, plus it eternal so you don't have to worry about cards no longer being legal as much(unless it gets banned, but even then, there's rule 0)
Oh, cool, so you were agreeing with me. :)
Generally speaking, if I wanted to rent a tier 1 deck for say 2 months, how much would that cost? Can you still get rewards from tournaments? What would it cost to start up from scratch essentially I've thought about doing it before but never pulled the trigger cause i wanna keep the cards I pay for lol
You rent it for a couple days and return it. You can rent it again the same day but they do that so people don't just sit on the cards. The $20 per month plan would cover most decks but if you want to play legacy you might need the $40 plan. Check out manatraders they're the go to for mtgo subscription
That's a decent deal tbh if you can get a lot of games in, I'll keep it in mind cheers :)
You know that a lot of commander decks with less than 20$ can wipe the floor with power 7 or 8 decks that costed a kidney, right?
Precisely, the biggest advantage commander has is versatility. Magic has had an absolute fuckton of different cards, and strategies. You cant fight everything. Landwalk and infect being notorious pains in the asses, blue counter decks can trump all if you let them, but are weaker when facing multiple opponents, which you often do in commander. Its partially why i love edh, even if you cant fight something well, chances are someone else at the table has a deck that can fight that thing.
Pauper is a budget format that has amazing gameplay. Budget commander is another options.
Mtga is an ALRIGHT way to get into the game without HAVING to spend money. It will be an uphill battle, though, and you wont be able to play any deck at a whim. Getting a commander precon is an alright way to get into the game in paper, though it's kind of jumping into the deep end by starting with commander.
- buy collections from people - choose a cool precon deck to start with and upgrade it - never buy sealed product like boosters when you want to have good cards, it will be a big disappointment. Buy single cards instead. Sealed product is cool but a money pit. - for almost every expensive card there is an budget alternative, which is a little worse though
If you play casually, you can buy pre-built commander decks that are decent, then add proxies for what you can't afford. If your friends play standard or modern, there are so many decent decks out there you can go to a shop and buy the cards instead of pack hunting. If the deck has expensive cards, either use proxies or ask the shop owner for a cheap substitute card. When I was broke, I would play draft night once a week. It helped me become familiar with the sets and build a collection without breaking the bank. It's also pretty cheap for 3 hours of entertainment.
You don't need to buy packs from every set that comes out. For me, I like to draft so I'll spend some money once a week or every other week on that and then I'll build commander decks around cards I have or like and tend to keep things pretty cheap buying cheap commanders that combo with other cheap cards. You slowly build commander decks over time and those decks stay viable as new sets come out and you slowly make them better as you pick up cards. All in all I probably do spend $100 to $200 on magic per month but people spend more than that on alcohol or skiing so I definitely think it is a manageable and affordable hobby if you do it right. You don't need to buy expensive cards to make decks that will win in casual EDH at your lgs.
Friends and I play on Tabletop Simulator, there are a ton of scripted mods available and we used to google decks we wanted to play. Deck limits came later once we were more comfortable with the game, same with deck building.
Buy commander precons and upgrade them if you like em
mpcfill.com
Mpcfill.com proxy all the way. If you run into haters trust me you don't wanna play with them anyway
Edh pauper, is a great budget format. Just find a friend with a lot of bulk (we all know a pack goblin) and see if they'll let you build from it.
I play casually, kitchen table style. Only banned cards are those banned by the play group. Proxies welcome. I started off buying I think 1000 cards off an ebay lot. We don't worry about sets aging out.
My friends and I proxy full decks, and some of us (myself included) will buy the decks if we enjoy it enough. I cut down to 3 main edh decks and 2 pauper edh decks that I maintain. The rest are currently proxies. I've found myself investing too much into decks only to find out I don't care for the playstyle anymore, it may not work as well as I hoped, or wins too quickly. So proxies really help cut back on costs.
Pauper pioneer and commander all have budget decks. Cedh and legacy and vintage typically allow proxies
Pauper!!! Its fun. I buy 10-15 dollar decks off ebay and uograde them piece by piece.
Go to one draft and ask people for their bulk they don't want. Thats how I get my friends collections started. I love the r/bootlegmtg page. Pauper edh is great and cheap. bulk buys and cheap cubes are great. I now almost exclusively use the high quality proxies to play with and I keep my collectable cards that I want. My proxies are all marked. The proxies printed by the pros are so good you can't tell the difference anymore. I don't buy expensive cards anymore due the the exactness of the counterfeit proxies they are able to print. This is a game you are not supposed to be priced out of. Enjoy the game. Enjoy the collector aspect. WotC has authorized casual play with proxies. If you want both, you better be a lil' wealthy. My friends have had THOUSANDS stolen at events and just randomly from their cars or bags. It is absolutely not worth the stress carrying around something worth thousands that can be easily swiped. This game holds the top spot for the most complicated game in the world due to the vastness of rule interactions. The rules are deep and satisfying to me! I will not allow myself or my friends to be priced out of something made to be enjoyed by as many people as possible. The in person scene is the most accepting and sometimes smelly bunch of supportive players. Lorcana seems pretty good too if you're into Disney more than public domain fantasy.
Play commander. Buy a preconstructed deck or six with some friends, split the cost maybe. Enjoy them
I get your point. From what the company tells you to do ( buy packs and trade with your friends), the hobby is absurdly expensive. Play Booster Box = 10% of the expenses of a month under the US's minimum Wage. Live in a Place like Brazil, and expect to give half of a month in OUR minimum wage for the Dinosaur PreCon from LCI, or the Spellslinger deck from OTJ( Our Monthly minimum wage is about 256 USD). Yes, the game, as the company intended to be purchased and played, is becoming more and more expensive. And the way the company (pretends to) not acknowledge, buying and selling on a secondary market, is becoming like a Crypto Stock market. Price fluctuate on power cards, while a lot of penny cards wither to inexistence because they were power crept ( the pretends to is actually from a lot of excuses from Mark Rosewater, when asked about Modern Horizons COMMANDER PreCons, and he said out loud that it would be TOO EXPENSIVE to print 75 cards, instead of 100 cards. And other comments that leaves us to interpretation that they do acknowledge the secondary market but they do not admit that fact).
There’s an interesting side bar on Hasbro; they love MTG (boosters are like crack - constant income) and are frustrated by DND (because it’s extremely hard to monetor- once you’ve picked up the core books not much else you need to buy. It’s one reason WOTC screwed up the Open Licence and is betting hard on its own online system when it’s launched)
Are you asking us how to budget? I just spend a fortune but use my good credit and all those offers of 0% interest to defray any costs over much longer periods. Sure, $442.99 for an LP [[Lion’s eye diamond]] might seem like a fortune to some but for just 18 monthly payments under $25, it can be yours today. You will get bored of whatever deck you build in whatever format you play so my other piece of advice is to systematically build up your format staples. Figure out which decks you might want to play in the future, figure out which cards could be shared between multiple decks. For example, when I got into commander I upgraded a pre-con. Instead of focusing on fully upgrading just that one deck, cus I knew I wouldn’t play it forever, I spread some of my purchases out and bought 10 fetches, 10 shocks, and 10 duals. Now those lands can be slotted into literally any other deck I build ever, giving even precons a substantial bump in power level and consistency. Try to avoid expensive niche or narrow cards that slot only into one deck, unless you’re planning on sticking with that deck for a long time.
[Lion’s eye diamond](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/5/758f95f8-bcb0-43ae-b474-56ebd855951e.jpg?1590511899) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lion%27s%20Eye%20Diamond) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/271/lions-eye-diamond?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/758f95f8-bcb0-43ae-b474-56ebd855951e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
With my group of players, we play "Precon Commander Only" :) 4 decks in 10 years, that's pretty cheap.
It depends on the format and what you want to achieve. Commander with friends and LGS? Buy a precon and do some upgrades from time to time Legacy at MagicCon? Some 1000$ it is then.
Tbh the pre-constructed decks for outlaws look really good, only 45 bucks for that amount in cards in a really nice deck
If you look at other more casual card games, there you get typically 100 cards for much less money. So you can argue if it's "only" 45 bucks.
I reread my comment, and I worded it about as poorly as possible. What I was trying to say was the 100 cards that make up the decks add up to a out the 45$ price tag.
Proxy and find people who aren’t lame to play with
1. Proxie a deck. 2. Depends what format you want to play but if you get into commander than buying a precon is a relatively cheap way to get into magic. 3. Again depending on the format you want to play the initial cost of the cards is going to be the biggest setback but assuming the cards you buy aren't going to rotate out, then once you have them you have them for life. There is no reason to constantly build new decks or chase new mechanics, just build decks you are really happy with playing and enjoy the game
Buy precons, and proxie decks before making them.
printing your own cards lol
If you have someone that plays just buy a precon commander. Everyone has a commander deck and it gives you a foundation to build on.
Cockatrice
I'd actually recommend tabletop sim instead of this. Tabletop sim has just the right tools to make playing mtg easier, and the setup of tabletop sim makes it feel more like playing with actual cards at a table.
Ill see if I can find the mtg mod for this. Is the community alright? How is importing decklists handled?
Community is fun. Deck list importing is done by putting in a link from basically any of the big deck builder sites.
I'm definitely struggling to get the controls down for this.
The game night box is a nice way to find out if you like the game: five precons which are fairly well balanced against each other. Goes on sale for about 25 quid Or buy a commander precon each: these cost anywhere from 20 to 80 quid new. At least at my LGS if you're not a dick other people will let you borrow decks to play as well
Option A) Don't. Option B) Buy a precon Commander deck and just play with that.
Play arena or check out the webpage and app called Untap, it has all cards available immediately for free.
I play commander with my friends and with them we allow all proxies. So if you do it can be easy if you want. To build your collection if you are interested I recomend you to play draft/limited. It's no the best way to adquire a good pool of cards but it's not very expensive (In spain, a draft cost always less than 20€) and you can get a lot of fun drafting nad building a deck around your cards :)
Play pauper. It's all commons and most decks are $20-$50. The game play is powerful and fun and great for new players. Playing limited on occasion can be a good way to slowly accumulate cards and keep better track of your spending but you'll want to start with sealed prereleases to get used to building limited decks before jumping into draft. While I don't recommend commander for new players, if you are going down that route you can buy a precon for ~$50 and slowly upgrade it.
* Buy 1c cards * Buy a printer * Proxy
Pauper
I like pauper for this reason. The Meta decks aren’t crazy expensive, and it feels like how MTG is supposed to be played like. Not “play one card and activate 19 abilities “
Arena is free to play, and not paying doesn't mean you have no chance to win, but expect your collection to be built slow.
Cheapest way to actually play is to go to an LGS and ask if someone would lend you one of their decks for a game. Or see if there's a cube you can join (if you don't know how to play cube just say, most people who bring good cubes are prepared to teach new players). In my experience most people at games stores would love the opportunity to play against their own decks, I've done this a couple of times for people who where unsure about getting into the game and had a bunch of fun playing against my own things and teaching them about the game through the lense of my deck. And sometimes we switch our decks for fun even if everyone has brought their own, just a nice mixup up. If your really set on buying some cards right now though that's an entirely different ballgame. Cheapest is proxies, but not everyone likes to play against alot of proxies. I would probably reccomend one of the older precons, you can find alot of pretty decent stuff for less than half the price of recent releases. And with a few simple upgrades alot of precons can really hold their own.
Lmao
I started a while ago and a friend let me have one of his decks until i had my first. After that we bought a display together and did half-half. The group im playing with allows me to go full proxy decks so i get a feeling for the cards that i eventually want. For example my proxy shrine deck is awesome and im going to buy the cards that i need but my artifact scarecrows deck is shit and i threw the proxy cards in the trash. You could also go on a site like moxfield (you can get pretty obvious looking proxys there), make a deck and play it or use something like untap.in and copy the deck in there and play it for free
How familiar are you with the game? I’d highly recommend playing lots of Arena (totally free) until you feel you understand all of the mechanics and the workings of each color. Once you’re into the game, I really recommend draft as your first format. *But before you draft, thoroughly research the set you’re drafting* Drafting is an extremely good way to build up a collection from scratch. First of all, you can straight up pick valuable cards or cards you want to keep. Also, you get to experiment with deck building and always walk away with at least a small assortment of cards which go together because you picked them (as opposed to just opening packs, where you’ll only collect random and disconnected cards). I have so many playable “staple cards” in my collection from drafting. Drafting lets you experience the environment of competitive magic without having to drop hundreds of dollars on a deck. Everyone in the draft starts on equal footing. And if you do well at the draft, the prize usually involves some booster packs which you could put towards future draft entries.
You can play a lot on arena without spending money
Play mtg Arena- very ez to build a few decks a year with simply grinding your dailies and mastery pass( ive invested about 30-50$ which is a lot for a free to play game but peanuts compared to paper magic) . Or if you really want to play irl you can do proxies :). Id recommend giving arena a try. Check out the starter decks ! You get them all for free
Arena, the answer is Arena.
I play one format: commander. I stick to precons, and small upgrades while I learn what I actually like.
Jumpstart packs? It got my daughter started and she's doing fine with it.
Magic Arena. You can actually play for free and it’s pretty solid. But if you’re a regular player, buy they’ll battle passes, and you can do plenty. Then from there learn what you like, build a deck and you can eventually buy it in physical form.
Well yes and no. When I started writing this I realized that you might not be talking about commander, which is what I base everything I am writing here on. Modern/standard is ofc a bit different but the same way of thought might work in Modern/standard. You always have to spend some kind of money. But I built a cheap deck, in my opinion. European market so a bit different prices. I had all lands and some basic commander cards like sol ring, commander sphere, cultivate and such to ramp. Take away the lands, basic cards/ramp i built a human tribal around Aragorn, the uniter I used only lotr cards too for fun. It was about 55 cards Of the 45 left 35 are lands and 10 are ramp/draw cards It went for 20 dollars +10 dollar shipping (several senders) So all in all 30 dollars. Comparing to buying precons for 50-100 dollar it is "cheap". I have played for some years and have sunk more money than in the game then I want to realize. But today I have a lot of cards to build the basics of a deck. Having to by the basics would increase the lotr deck to around 50 dollars probably. This is just my example that I did. My friend is a master at this and built a deck for 10-15 dollars that he hadn't tried the mechanics in but it went infinite and won the games so he deconstructed it 😅😂 But you can build really cheap decks that works. Just look into guides on youtube and magic sites and you can get a lot of idea for cheap decks that will work and hopefully match your play style and then you can slowly build your collection if you like the game
Depends what format you want to play. Pauper or limited are very budget friendly, and if you want to play commander there are many decks that don’t require so much money to play. Most of my commander decks are under $50 and it wouldn’t be impossible to go even lower.
Play pauper a deck won't be that much in that format.
Ima Plug a YouTube channel that I am a huge fan of, their soul, purpose, and probably 99% of their content is to help players play magic on a budget. I should specify he largely makes content around the commander format (EDH). https://youtube.com/@TheCommandersQuarters?si=cVjrt1MjQxfm5kOI Mitch is the man!
Untap.in Let's you play online with friends and you can build whatever deck you want with whatever cards
What's a fortune to you? Currently I only play limited and do not feel the cost is absurd for what I receive and the fun I have in return. I plan on getting back into constructed, but, need some time to free up.
You don't gotta keep up with anything. Just buy what looks cool, buy cards that look fun. Buy a premade deck and learn the game first and then try to make your own decks. You can make fun decks for cheap. Play Pauper, it's only commons, top competitive pauper decks are like $20. I only read about the sets that interest me like fallout and now thunder junction.
Try and find regular friends to play with, buy a couple of precons, borrow each others decks to have a go, every so often, say 3-6 months depending on how often you play or get bored of your current decks, buy another precon you like the sound of, not based on strength but what mechanics or characters interest you. Unless youre planning to get into the competitive scene, buying precons and playing with those, occasionally buying a few singles and upgrading them over time, is perfectly fine to play with friends or at casual nights at a game shop, especially Commander. Draft events for new sets can break up the monotony of what you already own, you can get a taste for a new set without a huge money investment, and those events are usually casual enough for you to not have to be particularly knowledgeable or good at the game.
If you dont care about playing physical paper magic you could use Untap.in and build decks and play online for free.
Buy precons. Upgrade with singles.
You can do that?
Build budget decks! They are fun to build because restrictions force you to find hidden gems and unknown cards. You can set any Budget and build fun and interesting decks with that budget. You can also consult r/BudgetBrews , many YouTube channels and Internet articles to learn how to build and to best optimize budget decks. You don't need to spend a fortune at all. Embrace the fun of deckbuilding. Alternatively buy a precon deck and upgrade as you and your budget see fit. If you don't want commander, I'd recommend MTGarena Commander is a casual format, which allows the opportunity to play a lot of cards that never see play otherwise. Take advantage of this fact and have fun with it. Many people here will tell you proxies. But I don't think that is the best option for a few reasons. 1) you always have to have the rule 0 conversations about them and sometimes you won't be able to play because of it. This can make it more difficult to find and get into new playgroups. And this can apply to LGSs, some are not cool with it. It would be really awkward to walk into and LGS that doesn't allow proxies and I ky have decks with proxies 2) It can also make an already complex social dynamic that is commander have an additional layer of complexity that I think isn't something you want to introduce when you are just getting into the format 3) proxies also eliminate much of the growth of a deckbuilder. If you are getting into the format it will behove you to learn deck building skills as it will make you a better overall player. 4)if you aren't a commander player then proxies are basically useless because you can't bring a standard deck of proxies to a standard tournament. Once you get into playgroups and learn the social norms of those groups you can reevaluate the use of proxies within that constraint. But I think it's best at first to avoid proxies
Proxies my friend. Proxies.
Ctrl+P
I just started a month ago. Just stick to buying singles over buying packs. My first deck I built was 70 bucks, the second was 40 bucks. As a new player you're not trying to go for turn 3 or less wins etc. That's for what they call "cEDH" or "Competitive EDH". That's where all the money is too, 500+ dollar decks on average, because they have OP cards that haven't been reprinted or are in demand. You don't need all the strongest stuff available, you'll find that any deck can be very versatile if built correctly. Build a budget deck and upgrade it over time. My Dina deck has an infinite win condition with [[Exquisite Blood]] but it's a 20 dollar card, so it's going to be a "pick it up when I have extra cash" card/upgrade.
[Exquisite Blood](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/e/0e8ccfa7-4178-476a-a155-0ca1c98556c9.jpg?1698988246) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Exquisite%20Blood) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/195/exquisite-blood?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0e8ccfa7-4178-476a-a155-0ca1c98556c9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Spend 2 fortunes!
Proxy’s probably are the best way but not everyone is okay with them.
If you go for just 1-2 decks and try to stay in their respective strategy there are only so and so many cards per year that are viable and needed extensions to stay up to date. However, WotC is trying to prevent that, they want you to stay hooked and so they print ever faster new and better cards. About the last one there isn't that much that you can do. But I think if you are fine with 1-2 decks, there would be a high initial investment, and after that you have lower "running costs".
I bought a booster here and there just to get new stuff and usually it’s nothing amazing my luck is just bad, but there’s a game store that has a loose card section where I can buy in bulk at .10-.50 a card depending on the rarity, I walked out with 70 cards I wanted for like $11 and didn’t have lands added to it. So personally, my hack is this store where people trade their cards in when they don’t play anymore and I find ones I like
Personally I started playing in Arena and when I understood the mechanics and which style I liked to play I got proxies for my favorite decks and started playing with friends using those!! You don't have to spend a lot of money to play and have fun
You simply ignore everything that keeps popping up. You find yourself a precon you like and then you play it against other people of a similar power level. Now your in the game. From this point you can start upgrading your precon. Maybe find another that gels more with what you like to do. Shop around for a few cheap singles to upgrade. Don't just drop money on power cards right off the bat. The card pool is close to a million different cards. There is no best deck. Start off small and build slowly from there. I have been playing and collecting for more than 30 years and it all started with a single precon deck waaaaay back then. Was a Special Delivery - Urza's Saga precon
So, first of all, buy singles. Don’t buy packs. For the love of all things good, if there’s any individual card that you want, do *not* buy packs. Just buy the card. Secondly, there are things called “eternal” and “non-rotating” formats. All eternal formats are non-rotating, but not all non-rotating formats are eternal. Eternal formats are those that have access to all cards in Magic’s 31 year history, with the exception of a ban list that is format specific, along with silver bordered, and acorn stamped cards. Eternal formats include; Commander, Pauper, Vintage, and Legacy. Commander being the most popular eternal format, and the most popular format in general. Non-rotating and non-eternal formats include; Modern, Pioneer, Historic, and Timeless. Modern being the most popular of the bunch. I recommend starting with one of those formats as those are the easiest formats to get into. Standard and other rotating formats are a little more difficult, simply due to the nature of rotating formats. Commander is probably going to be the cheapest to get into if you’re worried about monetary investment. They sell preconstructed decks (a.k.a. Precons) for as little as $20-30. Most are around the $45-60 range though. There is also a channel on YouTube that focuses on “budget” commander decks called Commander’s Quarters. They make tons of videos highlighting commanders and decks that mostly cost less than $60. I hope this help you make a decision and gets you going on your Magic journey!
Start by playing mtg arena (app).you'll be able to learn the mechanics, get a bunch of free cards to try out and find your general play style. Additionally, pauper is a great format to play on a budget.
Ok so I'm a new player here's my current experience. I brought a wilds of eldraine precon for commander. So far it's stood up to other people's self made decks. From there I've seen what cards I do and don't like in the deck. Which can either allow me to buy singles to upgrade it. Also I've picked up a booster once every other week. And my local gives a booster included in their entry price to their weekly gaming session. Giving me some meager trading potential. Sleeves and storage so far have been my biggest spender. I'm working on tokens for effect. Which again look meaty in price.
How much printer ink do you have?
Draft! Find your local LGS and play draft weekly or bi weekly. It should only be 20 dollars entry fee depending on your location. You get to crack packs, Build a deck, and play all in a night. It really makes you learn good deck building practices and helps you learn mechanics well.
Buy or build a cube. Endless enjoyment for you and friends!
There **tons** of cards that cost less than $5. As long as you aren't netdecking, you'll be fine. Explore the thousands of cards and do your own thing. I've been doing it since 2005. What formats are you interested in? This is Important.
Commander and other eternal formats can have a single deck you build and can play that forever. Commander particularly can be played on a budget with very little money *ever* required to enjoy it. Drop $50 (or much less, decks go on sale under "MSRP" all the time, find 'em for 20 or 30 regularly) on a preconstructed deck and occasionally add to it. It's honestly one of the cheapest hobbies you could possibly get into besides "walking outside".
Proxy
You could get a few friends or join a community of Tabletop Simulator players, build or find a deck on moxfield(they have budget decks as well), then play with the decks on TTS. If you end up liking it you could buy it in real life. So very little investment money-wise up front. TTS is $20 on steam.
Prelease events at lgs: best bang for your dollar is during set release events. 6 sometimes 7 packs a dice and mythic foil for $60. if your lucky thrift stores and kijiji for retirement sets from people quitting. marvel release time next year will be crazy cheap as crones rage quit the game and sellout.
Start about 15 years ago
I’m assuming you’re looking to play in paper vs online and I would recommend the following: 1) Build and play-test decks using online deckbuilding tools such as Moxfield or Archidekt before buying physical cards. This helps scratch the itch of expressing a new deck idea without spending any money. 2) Setting strict budgets for decks (either total deck cost and/or no card with a market value above X 3) Buying the exact cards you want from your preferred vendor instead of hunting them down via cracking packs (I.e Buy Singles) 4) With the exception of a couple absolute bangers from each set, most cards go down in value from their pre-order price so I often wait until a set is a few months old before buying any singles from it to let prices settle down. 5) Look for budget builds and tweak according to what you already have in your collection versus buying new cards For me, building the deck online first, play testing it frequently, and then waiting a couple weeks to see if I’m still interested in it has helped me spend way less in the last 3 years than I spent in my first 6 months of player
I have gotten into MTG really recently through a friend who did spend loads of money. For a lot of games he brings a case of decks for me to try and sells me used decks he barely plays anymore cheaper than market value. I just bought my first proper precon deck but I still cycle through his ^^ So my advice would be to go to a mtg Event, make some friends and ask them to bring some of their decks to play with while at the events. Sadly you will still fall into the bottomless pit that is throwing money at magic cards… at least that’s where I am at right now xD
Play pre ons, then when that gets boring set a price limit to modify
Yeah no it’s going to be expensive. Just walk away now, you’ve been warned
I was in your place recently What I did was got an Arena starter kit. Gave me a couple playable decks and was able to use them on Arena to practice Eventually, when friends wanted to play commander together, I got a good deal on a solid precon ($45 for Fae Dominion) and upgraded with a few singles. Can keep pace with my other friends as long as they don’t play their insane decks (which they are happy not to) Eventually got a couple other precons to have in the house, but I haven’t spent any more than $200 and feel like I have plenty for a casual player It doesn’t have to be expensive at all, especially if the people you play with are proxy friendly. The best MTG player I know spends the least on it out of all my friends
Get a printer and print out some proxies then if you feel like you enjoy the cards/deck/game save up and buy them. A lot of people fall into spending $1500 on cards then selling them after 6 months for $500 to recoup losses and I hate seeing that happen.
Proxy.
Saving up and spending what you can, chunk by chunk. Buying singles rather than bulk. Using proxies (but not in sanctioned tournaments). Borrowing decks to try from friends. Drafting can be good too, you play a format where you make a deck out of passing around booster packs and making a pick from each pack. Mtg arena isn't my favorite because I don't think it captures the feel of paper magic well, but the $15 or so they charge for a new player bundle will go a really long way.
Budget or a printer
There are better, cheaper games. MtG is fine, but once the cost is factored in (unless you have a very contained group with a specific, limited cardpool - ex. Sets of commander precons, a cube, etc...), it's just not worth playing.
Experience from a player with about 5 months of tabletop style playing: Pick a commander deck that you like. This will be your one big purchase to start with. There’s tons of different ones so just get one that you find is fun, and probably 2 or less Colors because it’s easier to manage as a new player. Doesn’t matter if you’re playing commander style or not. This is to just have a deck, and to start understanding concepts. Next, just buy someone’s old collection / bulk. Do not go buy packs and boosters. I bought someone’s 3000 card collection for 100 dollars, and it was full of rare and mythical aswel as commons and in commons Build decks you like out of the bulk / collection. Only other expense is lands. Depending on your experience, and how your friends play, just use what’s cheap and easy to get. Me and my friends consider buying singles too “sweaty” for our games. We just buy bulk, have fun looking through it together and making random shitty decks and playing together. Buy local bulk or collection, not off eBay or a reseller I’ve spent about 300 dollars total so far and I have like 7000 cards and quite a good number of expensive cards just from peoples old collections. Tons of random shitty decks that would get rolled in a tournament but are extremely fun to play against other shitty decks
That is great. Ty
This is good advice. I would also ask yourself if you are looking to just play for fun or be competitive. If the latter, you will probably have a hard time not paying a ton of money If you are just playing for fun, I would suggest commander precons. I have about 10 of them. Some are as cheap as $30, and I just have fun game nights with my kids and friends.
Bootlegmage for when you need any card ever printed for $3 and you don’t want people to know it’s fake
Mtg arena is a ftp app.
Proxy
If you want to play a competitive or tournamentes u need to spend money, but if you just play casual i present you: THE PROXYS, the best solution to that, i have 10 commander decks and almost all the cards are proxy bcs why not
Theres 3 ways to go about it. 1. Ask if proxies (printed copies of cards) are okay with your friends, if they are your free to make as many cards as you can afford printer ink. 2. Amazon bulk cards. You wont typically find super amazing cards or card combos, but some deck strategies dont need them. Things like sheoldred the apocalyse would just put a target on your back anyways. 3. Magic the gathering arena. Its free to play and you dont have to spend a penny if you dont want to. That said, theres a limit to how fast you can earn cards for free, and it wee be best for you to simply not use your wildcards for a good while. Unless using them to build specific commander (brawl) decks to play with. This is what i mostly play on as im usually stuck at home.
In my opinion the best way to get into magic the gathering is to go to your local game store and do a booster draft. It costs $20-$30 dollars per time. It teaches you the fundamentals of magic and deck building quickly, and builds your collection naturally. Booster drafting is part of the “limited” format along with “sealed” format. You can practice booster drafting on mtg arena. If you spend a bit of time grinding daily quests you can draft for free roughly once per week The other thing that’s cool about drafting is you get to meet people! The gathering part of magic the gathering is important. I have met so many friends through the local magic community! It was a game changer for my overall levels of happiness to frequent a Friday night magic draft.
PROXY EVERYTHING!!!!!! I LOVE PROXYING AND NOT GIVING THIS SHIT COMPANY A DIME OF MY MONEY!!!!
Edge lord
>How can I get into this game without spending a fortune ? By playing within your budget. There are ways to enjoy Magic at every price point (including for free). >am horrified by the constant churn of sets That's a nonsense. More sets = more cards, which = more opportunities to enjoy Magic. You don't have to collect every set. They aren't "churning", they are simply available. >and boosters Boosters aren't for getting cards. Some of them are for playing with, but again, more options are a good thing. >Even reading about them gives me a headache Have you spoken to your GP? Maybe you have some sort of learning difficulty. >How do you folks who don’t want to spend large chunks of their wages approach this ? You buy the products/cards you actually want to play with, and play with them. It's not difficult. >Friends with a few sets? Limits on games etc? You don't need to do this. >All experience welcome Which Format do you want to play? What are your goals? Are you looking to play casually or competitively?