Current Events > How do I get good at Magic the Gathering (Arena)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I got into it because my friends play Magic and I have wrist issues right now preventing me from playing normal games.

Its fun I guess. Ive never really been into TCG especially since they can easily drain your finances if you want to get a good meta deck. But this is F2P so its alright. Since theres no friend stuff yet I managed to stop over today and they made me a red/green dinosaur deck. Ive won some and lost some with it but its fun.

What colors do you play? What are some of the best ones to try/win with? Im a total noob and have had my friends help me build the decks because I dont really get what the colors are good at yet and what synergies with them
---

How
---

Are you really telling me nobody here plays Magic
---

nah we don't play bad games
---

I would say find a decklist you want to put together and work towards creating it gradually with your wildcards. Your deck is going to be bad early on, but you'll be matched against similar opponents.
---

I would say probably the most common reason newer players end up with bad decks is just not being able to evaluate which cards are good and they think bad cards are actually good. Which is something you gradually pick up on with experience.

Other than that a good tip I guess is to try to have a good gradual mana curve. Don't be the guy who plays nothing but lands for 5 turns and then dies before playing his cool 6 mana dinosaur or whatever. Also don't be the guy who plays a billion 1/1 for 1s on the first 3 turns and then can't win because he can't get through a single stronger creature

As far as what colours to play: certain colours / deck archetypes are definitely better than others but at the level of "can I play well against people at low ranking of mtga" you can just play whatever colour pairing you want. Or mono colour. Or even tricolour I suppose but I wouldn't go above that. Personally I like blue/red. Your taste may vary. The game gives you a bunch of 2 colour decks over the first week or so of playing so you can check them all out and see what you like
---

I enjoy burn decks, which are designed to end the match asap. I highly recommend Tolarian Community College on YouTube. He has great videos on the deck archetypes.
---

happibivouac posted...

nah we don't play bad games

I mean I have like no experience with the genre but whats better than Magic? Im playing it because its what my friends play and its probably been around for the longest. Plus I dont hear fuck you Wizards of the Coast coming from them as much as I hear fuck you Konami

I did download Hearthstone too but something about that game has just made me... not interested in trying it. Maybe because I never had an attachment to Warcraft which I was under the impression the game draws from

bobtuse posted...

I would say find a decklist you want to put together and work towards creating it gradually with your wildcards. Your deck is going to be bad early on, but you'll be matched against similar opponents.

Idk about that. Even with default decks I was playing against some pretty crazy opponents. My second game was just some guy punching my face in with Merfolk.

During my second session with the game I lost to someone who was playing all 5 colors.

I probably lose the most to Blue. Fuck Blue. One time this guy was Red/Blue and shocked me to death without even playing a single creature.

I mean Ive also played against someone who mulliganed to 2 cards and he surrendered when he realized he fucked up but still...

kirbymuncher posted...

I would say probably the most common reason newer players end up with bad decks is just not being able to evaluate which cards are good and they think bad cards are actually good. Which is something you gradually pick up on with experience.

Other than that a good tip I guess is to try to have a good gradual mana curve. Don't be the guy who plays nothing but lands for 5 turns and then dies before playing his cool 6 mana dinosaur or whatever. Also don't be the guy who plays a billion 1/1 for 1s on the first 3 turns and then can't win because he can't get through a single stronger creature

As far as what colours to play: certain colours / deck archetypes are definitely better than others but at the level of "can I play well against people at low ranking of mtga" you can just play whatever colour pairing you want. Or mono colour. Or even tricolour I suppose but I wouldn't go above that. Personally I like blue/red. Your taste may vary. The game gives you a bunch of 2 colour decks over the first week or so of playing so you can check them all out and see what you like

Yeah I only got one of the decks so far. I have a red, green (stompy) and red/green (Dino) deck my friends helped me make so far. I use the Dino one the most. And yeah I get you have to build up properly. Green has been nice for that because some of the creatures can tap for mana.

GATTJT posted...

I enjoy burn decks, which are designed to end the match asap. I highly recommend Tolarian Community College on YouTube. He has great videos on the deck archetypes.

Are burn decks red, blue or black? Im still learning what the colors are best for
---

Alpha218 posted...

Idk about that. Even with default decks I was playing against some pretty crazy opponents. My second game was just some guy punching my face in with Merfolk.

That's a deck you can actually earn, just fyi.
---

I would help, but I don't play standard or draft. I only play EDH and Legacy, which aren't on MTGA.
So my advice wouldn't be very helpful.

Most of the two color decks that the game gives you a new one of each day are fairly good for learning the game (some of them are worse than others, but). You're just playing regular best of 1 ranked, right?

When you start adding rares/mythics to your deck, there is a deck strength matchmaking formula that will likely put you up against people who are playing meta decks. So it's best to play the starter decks until you have enough wildcards to build an actual deck all at once.
---

saproling decks or bust
---

It's good, it's just frustrating to me, as a 20 year paper player, that I seemingly have to spend either alot of time or money to get actual cards for actual decks.

You get better by playing, but the real answer is that you need some real cards first. Which seems to take a long time. So don't get too frustrated, spend a bunch of money if that's your thing, just try to grind out the beginnging until you have some good cards flowing. It's gonna take awhile.

Also, these are some strategy sites:

channelfireball.com
starcitygames.com
magic.tcgplayer.com

Decklist compendiums(not as representative as they once were since they started holding back data):
mtgtop8.com
mtggoldfish.com
---

the merfolk deck feels to me like by far the strongest of the default decks so I wouldn't worry too hard about that. also yes sometimes you will just get totally rolled over and feel completely outclassed but that's how it is
---

DuranOfForcena posted...

this is decent advice, but you have to take into account that the deck strength formula only applies to quickplay. you can game the system and purposely avoid putting many rares and mythics in your deck to keep the power rating low and get matched with similar low power decks, but only for quick play mode. try that in a constructed event and you will be regretting it.

Yeah, I was only referring to quickplay. I don't think TC is good enough to not be throwing away money in other modes yet.
---

play selesnya
---

DuranOfForcena posted...

drafting is a whole different beast altogether. if you are good at drafting, you can potentially always win more prizes than you buy in for, and basically draft endlessly, earning packs and gem reward each time. this is a great way to earn a steady stream of packs and cards, if you have the mettle for it. but it takes an intimate knowledge of the set you are drafting, and of drafting strategies in general.

upside: earn a bunch of packs
downside: have to play boros mirrors 24/7
---

Bant is bae
---

I just got the green/black deck. Working on the dailies before I try it

Thanks for the websites. I'll probably take a look at them once I get some more sessions under my belt. I'm still trying to grasp some basics and am making some pretty simple mistakes

Also when you refer to specific decks I probably don't know what you're talking about

Anteaterking posted...

Alpha218 posted...

Idk about that. Even with default decks I was playing against some pretty crazy opponents. My second game was just some guy punching my face in with Merfolk.

That's a deck you can actually earn, just fyi.

Oh well it's cancer. lol god

I shouldn't save my coins for drafting then? My friend used to draft so I can ask him how it works he did tell me that they can't handle that many players in an instance so they give bots some of the packs
---

Alpha218 posted...

I shouldn't save my coins for drafting then? My friend used to draft so I can ask him how it works he did tell me that they can't handle that many players in an instance so they give bots some of the packs

It's not a technical limitation, it's that they chose to make it so that you can draft at any time without having to wait for seven other people to queue and you can take as much time as you want on each pick (whereas in real life you have a time limit).

You can save your money for draft if you want. It's just that if you have a low win percentage, you get less than if you just bought packs straight up. For 5,000 gold you get 45 cards (which you can think of as being slightly better than 3 random packs), but losing three matches right away gets you 1-3 packs. So in the worst situation you're looking at 4 packs for 5000 but at the best you get 6 packs for 5000 (even without winning)
---

I've been enjoying the saproling deck i earned today so far. I might invest a little bit into making it better idk yet though
---

How do you deal with mermaids if you dont have a way to sweep them off the board (I know theres a card to do that but I dont even remember what color it is)? I thought my saproling deck had a chance to but they just kept buffing the sneak that I couldnt block.
---

I will try those next time I play white. Unfortunately I didnt really seem to get how I was supposed to play that color when I did but that might be because I was brand new to the game
---

happibivouac posted...

nah we don't play bad games

now come on, sir

I dont' play it myself but I used to very briefly. I don't think I remember how to play now. but I liked it. and it was the first big card game in history. if they ever did something on the level of hearthstone for Magic, I think it would slaughter blizzard's ripoff

Zikten posted...

happibivouac posted...

nah we don't play bad games

now come on, sir

I dont' play it myself but I used to very briefly. I don't think I remember how to play now. but I liked it. and it was the first big card game in history. if they ever did something on the level of hearthstone for Magic, I think it would slaughter blizzard's ripoff

The game this topic about, Magic Arena, is in like, open beta I think. Its free to play and they give you a lot of cards to work with

DuranOfForcena posted...

Alpha218 posted...

I will try those next time I play white. Unfortunately I didnt really seem to get how I was supposed to play that color when I did but that might be because I was brand new to the game

oh, are you just going mono-green for your saprolings deck? most token decks right now are going green-white, so i assumed you had some white in there, sorry.

there's not a whole lot of removal in green, because that's not the focus of the color, but Rabid Bite (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=409985) is a decent card if you have some relatively high power creatures in your deck, and have one on the board to use it with. Savage Stomp (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=savage%20stomp) is also an excellent choice if you run a dinosaur-heavy green stompy deck like i do.

The premade deck they give you is black-green. I like it because you can suicide the saprolings and poison-tipped archers do direct damage to the enemy. I didnt know synergy decks worked in more than one color set. Thats how noob I am
---

Alpha218 posted...

The game this topic about, Magic Arena, is in like, open beta I think. Its free to play and they give you a lot of cards to work with

I didn't realize what Arena was. I looked it up and now I'm interested.

Whenever they end up adding friends list and let you play against friends Ill probably make a topic on it. It would be nice to pair against people who are new to the game like I am
---

https://dr.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/9lfxuu/what_are_some_good_cards_to_upgrade_the_saproling/

Some good ideas in there as well.
---

My friend recommended I try to get Ritual of Soot in that deck to deal with merfolk. It sounds like a good idea actually.

If I have even one poison-tipped archer out Ill deal massive damage by wiping both sides
---

This is what I'm running right now (I know it could be better - don't want to waste all of my wildcards on one deck)

2 Slimefoot, the Stowaway (DAR) 205
10 Swamp (M19) 269
1 Woodland Cemetery (DAR) 248
3 Saproling Migration (DAR) 178
10 Forest (M19) 277
3 Yavimaya Sapherd (DAR) 189
2 Deathbloom Thallid (DAR) 84
3 Poison-Tip Archer (M19) 220
2 Thallid Omnivore (DAR) 106
2 Costly Plunder (XLN) 96
2 Fungal Infection (DAR) 94
2 Tendershoot Dryad (RIX) 147
4 Foul Orchard (M19) 251
1 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed (GRN) 180
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen (GRN) 213
2 Ritual of Soot (GRN) 84
2 Severed Strands (GRN) 85
3 Sporecrown Thallid (DAR) 181
2 Assassin's Trophy (GRN) 152
1 Journey to Eternity (RIX) 160
2 Fungal Plots (DAR) 160
---

Losing the game because I pulled 0 swamp land in a deck that has 10 is annoying
---

My friend says I should do draft soon because its Dominaria.

Idk though
---

Alpha218 posted...

My friend says I should do draft soon because its Dominaria.

Idk though

Give it a shot. Dominaria draft is sweet.
---

My friend helped me draft a red-blue deck (with some nice pickups in other colors) in Dominaria

I'm currently 3-1 with it which is farther than I expected to get
---

God, the blue cards that tap all of my creatures are infuriating
---