Helping get a beginning player a better deck

[TheWakaEmu117]

So I recently taught my dad how to play magic so that I would have someone to play against at home. My dad has grasped the basic concepts of the game but doesn't really have a good deck. He bought the Green/White support pre-built deck from OGW and the Red/Black madness pre-built deck from SOI. As we all know these deck are pretty bad, and I want him to have a good deck that he can have fun with. He likes to play but if I use my standard deck which is a tier 3 R/W ally equip deck he just doesn't stand a chance. I asked my friend what I should get him and they said Green Stompy, the deck list is here- http://deckstats.net/decks/61302/556826-green-stompy- . Its a little more expensive than I intended (I was hoping for around $65), and I wanted to see what you guys think or if you had any ideas for a good beginner deck. Thanks.

[keagster]

The black blue intro deck from EMN is pretty good actually. I would suggest editing some of it, check out my deck: http://deckstats.net/decks/14295/554735-zombies-galore/en for a better example.
I think this is a somewhat good deck, which gets better the longer the games goes on.

[keagster]

However, it's been losing recently to my U/W Human/Eldrazi deck, so if you need me to link that, I will
It's only about 2 more dollars than the zombie deck which is about 10

[TheWakaEmu117]

Okay cool I will check it out.

[keagster]

I'm also looking for suggestions on it since I am on a very cheap budget, so if you could help with that, that would be appreciated

[aizbert065]

hahah ok, i'll help you. forget about that monogreen, it's made so badly, it starts to play when your opponent has already finished. since your father bought an RB madness, i wanted to suggest you a list i was thinking about, without rares cards, but very aggressive.. as you know how to play it, or how does the madness mechanic works, it will become very strong. it's not standard, modern either pauper, but if you're interested in this deck and you want a "standard version of the deck" or modern version or pauper version, let me know and i'll make you have what you want

http://deckstats.net/decks/50939/556858-madness-rb-aggro-and-destructi?saved=1&lng=it

[TheWakaEmu117]

Okay I modified the R/B madness a little already to make it a little better, like I said he's not too experienced. He drafted with myself and some of my friends, and played a little bit with some of my friends casually. The other night when last played he was having a little trouble with the madness mechanic, so we switched (i was playing his G/W support) and I showed him how to play the madness deck. I think he is still kind of learning the madness thing. I don't think he wants to play competitively because it gets expensive but he does want to have fun and be able to win. I can talk to him a little bit about it, but like the build you have because its a lot less than the stompy deck and, it seems fun to play.
I might wait a little bit to see if any one else has any ideas for this I am open for any thing. But the R/B madness deck looks pretty good.
Thanks guys

[TheWakaEmu117]

My dad also said that he would be interested in playing a relentless rats deck. Any one got any suggestions for a rats deck, I know that Ogre Slumlord is a good curve topper for rat decks.

[keagster]

Took me forever to find the name of this card, sorry about that
Thrumming stone

[keagster]

Only cards in deck should be swamps, relentless rats, and thrumming stones.

[robort]

Why not just play those decks against each other and show him how to exchange better cards for each deck as you go along? Each of you play those decks of course and then show him other cards that can go into each deck to make each for better interaction and synergy. Try to aim to have at least 1 of those compete against your good deck

[Philippe Saner]

You're spoiled for choice, honestly. There are thousands of cheap, simple, reasonably powerful decks that your dad could use. 65$ is actually a pretty healthy budget for casual.

Gonna throw a bunch of random possibilities at you now. Arranged in rough order of complexity.

A red-green aggro deck like the one discussed here can be pretty good for not much money.

My Vraska theme deck is cheap, and would be even cheaper if you replaced Vraska with Spiritmonger. I expect it could beat an Ally Equip deck pretty handily.

Speaking of Equip, my Kor tribal deck is about 20$. And it does the Equip thing very well.

Jace27's 40$ Infect deck is intended to compete in Modern, and might actually be too strong. Then again, if your dad's not too skilled that might be good.

My Wizard tribal deck might also be too strong, but I'm fond of it so give it a look and see what you think.

PS: Relentless Rats is unfortunately quite expensive. With each of them costing about 2$, you'll have a hard time building a Relentless Rats deck for under 65$.

[aizbert065]

robot said a good thing! show your father hot to play that madness.. the madness list i posted works very well as you use the madness ability as interruption, especially in combat, avoiding your opponent to attack or block, or casting a new blocker your opponent doesn't expect to see... i chosen cards very well for this, because even talking about a creature or a sorcery, if it has madness, you can cast it as it were an instant..

anyway not talking about me, i like also that vraska deck, it sounds very simple, but also quite effective. in that i would insert elvish visionary, creakwood liege and royal assassin, because they are very effective.. i would replace killing glare with another removal spell, doom blade or victim of night sound good

infect is a nice idea too, but don't forget about rancor, and if you play casually or pauper or legacy, also don't forget about invigorate.. instead of dispel i would prefer turn aside or mental misstep.

[TheWakaEmu117]

Why not just play those decks against each other and show him how to exchange better cards for each deck as you go along? Each of you play those decks of course and then show him other cards that can go into each deck to make each for better interaction and synergy. Try to aim to have at least 1 of those compete against your good deck

I really like this idea because I can work with the limited card collection that I own and he won't have to buy an entirely new list of cards. I don't have a deck that I play regularly other than my R/W equip because its the best I have, a while back I posted about building a casual Izzet spells deck ( http://deckstats.net/decks/61302/549605-izzet-casual-i-don-t-know-izze/en ) this is the deck I hope to play I haven't actually gotten any of the cards yet. But building off of the madness deck is probably best because its a powerful mechanic and with a little bit of help and a lot of practice it can be really powerful. So going with the madness theme I like the deck that aizbert065 has and I think that is something that I can work with. I might keep using the current deck he has now to help him get better with the mechanic. And on that note, is prophetic ravings a good discard out let or at least a temporary one because the intro pack deck had like 16 madness cards and 3 discard outlets which were less than reliable. It seems like a pretty good substitute for now I just wanted to see what you guys thought.
Thanks for all the help guys

[robort]

Well that is where you come in handy by showing him the discard outlets, there are a few more in black and even some more in red... for instance.. Insolent Neonate or combo this card Lightning Axe with say Fiery Temper
You could also use this, Furyblade Vampire as well... I know there are others and I am sure the others will post them up for you