help!!! dont know where to start

[planeswalkerjace]

hi guys. im sorta a noob at mtg. i used to play a lil in middle school,and that was a  long time ago. so i kinda forgot how it plays. now that im playing and collecting again im overwhelmed with all the formats,cards and possibilites in the game.i im trying to build my first deck but i dont know how to go about it. dont know what format to play.im leaning towards legacy since i can use all my cards.i dont know if i should pick a card and build around it.(thinking about building around scarab god) i bought a jace planeswalker deck, but was told that was a big mistake since the jace card is almost unusable in every format. can anyone here look at my card list and point me to the right direction on how to start? i know i dont have alot of cards but i know i got enough to build an ok deck. please help, i dont want to reach a point where i get fustrated and say screw it and not touch mtg ever again since i love the story, art cards etc..  please help  it will be greatly appreciated thanks

[Morganator 2.0]

Alright, I'll see what I can do.

First I'll address the social issue; you'll need some friends. When I started playing it was with a small group of friends. We didn't put a lot (if any) money into our decks, and we played for fun. This allowed us to play very low powered decks, and not have to worry about unfairness. The best way to make friends is to go drafting. Your local game store with set you up in a pod with 7 other people, just don't be scared to say hello.

Looking at your collection, most cards are from recent sets. Standard might appeal to you, but I am not the person to talk to about Standard. I'm pretty sure there's a standard deck that revolves around The Scarab God. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. You could also look into Commander (also called EDH) or Brawl, a new format. This will really allow you to build a deck with The Scarab God at the helm.

[planeswalkerjace]

i wish i can go to the lgs but sadly im on house arrest. so what i do is buy cards or packs when im allowed out. so i stay home and build my collection so when i get off this thing i have a nice deck to play with  so right now im just trying to put a good deck together

[MariusVDM1235]

Find out what type creatures and color deck's you want to pay with and start your deck.

Build it around a Planeswalker if you have too.

They need to support each other whether it is it makes your creatures stronger or protects them or just want to destroy your opponent from the start go till the end.

Cheep is good but you need a couple of big guys.

60 usually are 40% manna cost and 14 spells/instant cards and 16 creatures. You can go less on spells and more creatures or other way around but keep your manna cost on 40%.

[Mibuswolf]

I recommend watching some matches on YouTube. 

Search for any format (Modern, Legacy, etc.) and watch a few games to get an idea of where it's at.

[planeswalkerjace]

i only have 1 planeswalker and its jace the ingenious mind. it came with my planewalker deck. so its kind of crappy card.i have quite a few legendary creatures. should i use one of those?
im stay watching youtube videos on games, building decks etc...

[Mibuswolf]

I would say with the cards you currently have you can't go wrong with choosing your favorites and building off of that.  Legendaries are fine if your deck can support them.

Planeswalkers aren't everything, they aren't a "necessity".  It's more about the composition of your deck and what you're trying to achieve with it.  That said, it's also good to learn how to use them and be aware of their interactions.

[planeswalkerjace]

i created my first deck  its a pauper deck  lmk what you guys think

[Mostlynotgay]

i wish i can go to the lgs but sadly im on house arrest. so what i do is buy cards or packs when im allowed out.

Well obviously you're a Tron player, so you might wanna start there.  XDDDDD

(author's note: I almost had an anurism deciding to use Tron, Infect, storm, affinity, or Jeskai control here.  The point is all of these are terrible)

I was in a similar situation when I first started, only I had the additional caveat of "not wanting to be trucked by people at the LGS."  I just wanted to have fun.  So what I did, and you kind of saw it, was I just grabbed a bunch of the "theme decks" and my friends and I would just pick a random deck and go.  Once we all got comfortable, we just naturally starting building our own decks.  But not before I had picked up like 20 decks.  I still have them all.  Sleeved in Dragonshields and in boxes.  we will sometimes pull the box and just roll for a deck. 

As to the social aspect, I have a slightly different theory.  Going to my LGS for FNM or thursday night modern actually isn't very fun for me because I'm not interested in spending money on a competitive deck.  The rest of the people are.  Drafting is not fun unless you're willing to spend the time reviewing and knowing the current sets so that, when you sit down, you're not the one player at the table with packs piling up because you have to read the cards.  so there are four of us who just meet every week and play.  We each have a couple decks that we've taken time to make, but they're just fun decks.  The rest of the time we are coming up with an idea and just proxying the cards. 

if you are looking to actually play, i wonder if MTGO is an option for you.  much cheaper, with a much larger pool of people.  and if you are just "for fun" playing then you will run into a wide variety of other decks. 

Idk.  just my opinion.  I've not had a lot of good experiences playing at a LGS because, in those experiences, the other people are not looking for fun. they're looking for points.   

[Firegriff]

You mentioned getting the blue/green merfolk Jace deck, so here is an example of something you could do.  Low cost creatures with the potential to grow your unblockable creatures early on.

https://deckstats.net/decks/75927/823451-rising-tide-merfolk-tribal-/en

[G. Moto]

       One suggestion I do have is to look over the sets that your cards come from. Reason being is that many cards do many things and often having a large collection can lead to a card soup when a predetermined focus isn't decided on first. This way if you look at the sets and take your time understanding how certain cards were intended to function in their respective limited sets then this will give you ideas on how to synergize cards from across multiple sets. That's my idea on that. Also if you look at all the different color pairings in this game ( I'd recommend looking at the 10x 2-color pairs and the 10x 3-color pairs) then this will give you some straightforward deck building ideas.
       Look at it from this perspective: Ravnica, Alara, and Tarkir were all worlds that helped shape the meanings and suggestive play styles when it came to their respective color pairings within their sets. If you keep in mind how those color pairings were intended to function for example, W/U is a more control intended build, U/B is a more secretive way of playing also using control spells and some mid-ranged tactics, B/R is mostly aggro, R/G can also be a pretty aggro and G/W can have mid-range synergies depending on what's in the deck.
     These are just some examples of possible deck builds but if you read over your cards and see what interests you see what cards function well WITH each other and then you can go forward with well thought out deck construction.

[Nellie6]

I have the same issue, albit not on house arrest!  I looked at the colours and found I like white blue and control, also like death and taxes decks as well.  Mind you I'm playing modern so I'm kinda being swayed by people saying control won't cut it in modern

[hotrodscott]

A little late to the thread, but I'll second MTGO.  It's a little cumbersome at the start, but is a great way to really understand the phases, priority, how/when abilities work etc.    You can build a deck, then launch a solitaire game and practice the fundamentals and see if you like the deck and learn how to pilot it before jumping into the queues. Virtual cards are generally cheaper than their paper counterparts (some exceptions since a lot of sets predated MTGO or had limited releases online, so they are scarce.) 

I like Modern as there are unlimited types of decks and there are lots of sources out there on how to do it on a budget. Legacy can get really expensive in a hurry for competitive decks.  (I guess that's true for any format, but there are lots of really strong budget Modern decks.)  Check out youtube or sites like MTGgoldfish for budget ideas.   

Pauper is a great way to get started and you can try them on MTGO for a few bucks for a decent deck and 50-100ish for a really strong deck that can win you some tournaments. (lots of expensive cards are in the sideboard, so you can build the main deck for a few bucks and have fun, you just might not have the right sideboard answers for some big decks in the format.  (ie, izzet delver is one of the main T1 decks in the pauper meta right now. A tier 1 version is around 100 online or 150 on paper.  Of the 100 online, about 80 bucks of that is optimized land and sideboard cards! You could totally have a lot of fun w/o those for $20!)   I have a ton of pauper decks online, and I don't see any of mine that are more than $20 and I have a ton of fun with them. I would need the "expensive cards" to compete, but I play for fun.   The downside of pauper is that it's hard to find an LGS that has regular tournaments in it, so you may be stuck to online or with friends.

My hope with MTGO was to try a few (budget) versions of competitive decks (in pauper mostly) to see what mechanics I liked, then once I nailed it down and knew how to play it well, "invest" in competitive version of that archetype on paper (and probably Modern) to take to the LGS (or work... lots of players at my office.)     Lol, it didn't quite work out that way as I keep trying new ones and have seldom used the paper ones I've built,  but I'm having fun!    One thing you can do if budget is super tight is play it a deck online to practice, buy the cheap paper cards for it to start your paper copy, then create an amazon wishlist for the rest and send that to friends/family for gift ideas on holidays.  (I actually got a Karn for Christmas that way... and I'm an adult with teenage kids... I do well, but have a hard time spending money on the expensive cards for decks I'm not competing with)  hahaha 

People might not like this suggestion, but "net decks" are a pretty good way to learn and play competitively right off the bat too.  They are powerful and can compete at your LGS, are pretty well sorted an can be pretty budget. 8-whack goblins, bogles, blistering rage (aka glass cannon), elves, red deck wins, burn, infect, etc. can all be really strong, fun, and built on a budget.  Knowing how to pilot your deck is probably as important as your deck itself, and since you can't get out much to practive, def. try MTGO.  For the price, I think this deck might be hard to beat:  (for paper or online... $1 online, $20 IRL! I've played it online and it beats a lot of decks it shouldn't!) Black Rogues: Unblockable, Untouchable

Here's a good primer on how to get going on MTGO.  Add that rogue deck and go kick some butt! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQRu9Cts2r4

Have fun!