Newbie to the forums and the game.

[Vicious]

Hello. I just got into the game of Magic. I know some of the basics, but other than that. I'm pretty much stomped. I've been reading articles all over the place, and none of them are really helping me out too well. Most of my friends told me to read most of the advance decks, but I wanna know what type of deck should a new guy start off with.

[Sabre]

Ummm... it depends on what kind of player your are.

If you like to pump out a lot of creatures at do dmg as fast as you can a basic stompy variation might be a good choice(fairly easy on the wallet also )
If your not into creature so much an old megrim warped devotion type deck with recoils, boomerangs, duress', hymn to tourach'sand urza's guilts might be in order(still fairly inexpensive)

A tog upheavel deck kinda combines the control aspect of counterspells and the powerful creature aspect of Tog,( still one of the most powerful creatures in magic today)

keep in mind that these deck i just described dot have much place in classic tournament today, but if you are looking to just get into the game and have some fun with yur friends they can be good choices, but dont limit yur self to these, there are so many different decks out there that i couldnt possibly begin to list them all, any way i hoped that helped(if you need a list for any of the decks e-mail me i can get one for you i am sure)
welcome to the wide world of magic

[TheFram]

Decide on your play style, then choose an appropriate deck. If you like to be aggressive, then play a creature-based deck. If you are controlling, a counter/removal based one. If you like cool card interactions play a combo deck. If you like more than one of these things alot, then play one of the hybrid archetypes (Aggro-Combo, Combo-Control, Aggro-Control).

If you use the search engine on this forum and type in "budget" or "budget deck" you will find innumerable options. Some names of budget decks are:

Stompy (Mono Green creature deck)
Sligh (Mono Red creature deck)
White Weenie (Mono White creature deck)
Suicide Black (mono black creature/disruption deck)
Slax (Artifact based creature deck)
R/G Beatz ( Red Green critter deck)
Survival/Dragon or Budget Dragon (Budget Combo deck)
Gay Fish or Gay/r (Blue or Blue/Red creature and disruption decks)
Gro, Super Gro, and Gro-a-Tog (Aggro-control decks based on Quirion Dryad)
Chalice Black (Mono Black disruption deck)

There are many more and you will find them if you use the search engine.

Good luck finding a deck, and welcome to the community.

-Thefram

[Cavocavi]

What is Slax? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you mean Stax.

[HuntedWumpus]

I think a great T1 Starting deck is Gay Red or Gay/r. Its a combo of blue control and red agression. Speak with Phantom Tape Worm he's the master of that deck. I think youll enjoy it.

[TheFram]

Cavo

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9123

It artifact based budget aggro. Like Stacker3, but budget.[/list]

[Vicious]

Thanx folks. I'm pretty much interested in all because I wanna play with them all ^_^, but I can't be greedy. So I'll start off with the the one HuntedWumpus stated. Thanx again.

[Ephraim]

With all respect to my T1-loving comrades, Vicious, it is important to note that even the cheapest competetive deck is probably more expensive than a decent casual deck. If you're not interested in playing competetively yet, it might be worth your while to take the budget decks suggested here, then make them even cheaper, if necessary (although Stompy really is inexpensive), and just have fun with them. That'll give you a better chance to get acquainted with the game and with the style that best suits you. Then, if you decide you wish to spend more money on the game, you can select the competetive deck most similar to your favourite casual deck and build from there.

[Jacob Orlove]

Thanx folks. I'm pretty much interested in all because I wanna play with them all ^_^, but I can't be greedy. So I'll start off with the the one HuntedWumpus stated. Thanx again.

One point worth mentioning is that in T1, there are always inferior alternatives. The reason these cards are worth looking at is that they can be substantially cheaper than their superior (and often rarer) equivalents. Fish, for example, runs Force of Will, which is pretty much irreplaceable, but if you can only find 3, a Misdirection or two can compensate for the deficiency. Likewise, Volcanic Islands and Flooded Strands/Polluted Deltas are not cheap; Shivan Reefs and basic lands aren't as good, but they may be good enough, particularly if you don't want to (or can't) spend $80-$90 on lands. And expensive cards like Ancestral Recall and Moxes can just be cut completely if you can't afford them, to make room for more of the other cards the deck runs.

[Vicious]

Ok, I think I'll reconsider then since I hardly know how any type of deck works. Also, I'm a bit stomped again.

The terms of these type of decks

Red= Burn(that's the only one I know)
Blue
Black
Green
Silver
White

Oh I don't really plan on buy any cards at this point seeing that I'm using a program called apprentice.

[cssamerican]

Vicious: If you are not buying cards, play some of the powered decks. They require a little more thought to play, but you are rewarded for that thought. Not to mention, playing decks like Ninja Mask, Keeper, wMUD, and Dragon will force you to learn some of the "Subtle" rules of the game. Knowing and understanding those rules will make you a better player.

Personally I would encourage you to play Ninja Mask not only because it is fun , but because it has Aggro, Combo, and Control elements. This will help you in deciding on how you like to play, plus it is a deck that forces you to learn and understand most if not all the phase of a turn, and how stack interactions work. It might seem complicated at first, but the best way to learn is to play the deck with a print out of the Turn Structure, and if something comes up that your not sure about post a question and someone will answer it.

[Ephraim]

Vicious, to answer your question of what each of the colours specializes in:

Red
Red spells often focus on burn, as you noticed. Red pump effects modify creatures power, but seldom affect their toughness - and often reduce their toughness when they do. Red creatures tend to have high power and low toughness.

Blue
Blue spells traditionally draw cards, counter spells, or return permanents to their owners hands. Blue's creatures tend to be more expensive than creatures of other colours. However, blue is good at evasion. Many blue creatures have flying and it is the patron colour of genuinely unblockable creatures.

Black
Black's spells often focus on killing creatures, forcing opponents to discard cards, or causing "drain" effects (target player loses X life, you gain X life). Black creatures tend to be inexpensive to cast, manawise, but often have steep drawbacks, either requiring immediate or continual payments of life or sacrifices of creatures or other permanents. Black is also the patron colour of "fear", which is a form of unblockability.

Green
Green's spells often focus on making creatures larger or on speeding up your mana development. Greens' creatures tend to be huge and inexpensive. However, while Green creatures often have trample, they lack genuine evasion effects.

Silver
Silver is the nickname for artifacts. According to Wizards of the Coasts, artifacts don't do anything better than any colour. So artifact creatures tend to be "worse" than blue creatures and artifact card drawing tends to be "worse" than that of red or white. However, anything that doesn't have a home of its own often finds itself as an artifact effect. It takes a little bit of expertise to determine when an artifact is more appropriate than some other card with a similar effect.

White
White's spells often focus on damage prevention and life gain. White also has traditional role as the destroyer of attacking creatures. White's creatures tend to be small, but very efficiently costed. White is also the patron colour of creatures that don't tap when they attack.

[Vicious]

Vicious: If you are not buying cards, play some of the powered decks. They require a little more thought to play, but you are rewarded for that thought. Not to mention, playing decks like Ninja Mask, Keeper, wMUD, and Dragon will force you to learn some of the "Subtle" rules of the game. Knowing and understanding those rules will make you a better player.

Personally I would encourage you to play Ninja Mask not only because it is fun , but because it has Aggro, Combo, and Control elements. This will help you in deciding on how you like to play, plus it is a deck that forces you to learn and understand most if not all the phase of a turn, and how stack interactions work. It might seem complicated at first, but the best way to learn is to play the deck with a print out of the Turn Structure, and if something comes up that your not sure about post a question and someone will answer it.

=====================================

Now that Ninja Mask sounds a bit like me. Are there any decks of it's kind on this site anywhere so I can get a general idea of what it looks like?

Ephraim: Thanx for the info. I couldn't find that information on most of the other sites, and my friends wouldn't tell me.

[Jacob Orlove]

Use the search function to find decklists.

[Puschkin]

But before you do anything that the guys here recommended ... get sure that you really know what "Type I" is and what it means. If, by chance, you were just searching for a good start into the game in general and somehow stumbeled over this site, note that this site is dedicated to only one format, Type I, and that is not played by the mayority of players.

Generally, I would start playing casually before getting into ANY format.

[Hi-Val]

My suggestion is to go to Starcitygames.com and look at their vintage archive, as well as their beginner section. You'll learn about card advantage and tempo if you don't know them already, as well as learn the decks of now and past.

I think one of the greatest things you can do is to read primers and throw the decks together on apprentice and play with them. Being a good magic player doesn't just mean being good at your deck, it is knowing how all the decks work. If you are playing a control deck, what do you counter? What creatures spell bad news for you? This knowledge will tune you up more than just about anything else. If you see a new idea, throw it together in apprentice and play with it. Maybe it's a lot more fun than you thought!

[Plainswalker]

If you wish to visit a site with some mix of casual and tournament play, try checking out www.phyrexia.com It was my starting ground for learning about magic, Puschkin may still mod over there I'm not sure, but I did a quick check and at least a few of the people that helped me are still there. It's not the Drain, but other formats are talked about and it's a nice community.

Eitherway, I think your best bet is to stop trying to cram everything at once, and instead study one deck carefully. The most important thing to learn is how to play your own deck. After that, then you need to learn how others decks works and how they work against yours. For now though, your best bet is becoming on expert at one thing. I think somewhere else somebody mentioned Ninja-Mask (Kowal will love me for this shameless plug) This is a great deck to practice with since it has aggro, combo and control elements all mixed in. It's complex, but it teaches you many combat and stack tricks. If you don't know about these, then these can be what you study up on. Hope this helps a bit.

Edit: Sorry bout that Puschkin, it was a while ago, and you felt like a mod at the time. You helped me a lot anyways  

[Puschkin]

I am not , and never was a mod at Phyrexia.

Poor guy, so many opinions. Maybe we should wait for him to reply first. I have the feeling that he just picked up a few cards and tries to make his first steps and obviously does not know the difference between the formats and what it means to decide going for Type I/Type II or casual/tourney.