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| PorterTroll |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:49 pm |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 1193
Location: not sure yet
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| I just played Magic for my first time at GenCon. I entered the 2 a.m. coldsnap draft tournament with one of my friends just for fun, but now im thinking about playing it for real! I’d like to focus on the mana color Green to start (the veterans there told me that was a good one for beginners) so id appreciate any decklist (with strategy included) to help me get started, thanks! |
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| BrianBoitano |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:14 pm |
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Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 124
Location: Houston, TX
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Well, the core sets (the latest being 10th edition) were made for beginners, with simple strategies and reminder text for all the keyworded abilities, so you’ll know how to play them right out of the box.
Green is a nice color for starting, so the "Custom Creatures" preconstructed deck (Precon) should probably be your first purchase. It’s all about green’s penchance for aggressively costed creatures and bombatious creature enchantments (Auras).
It is also a nice segway into one of my favorite kinds of decks (I’m even writing an article about one right now!), the Enchantress deck. An Enchantress deck uses Verduran Enchantress (you’ll get one in the precon) and a plethora of utility (read: Swiss Army Knife) enchantments to make sure you never have a turn that goes "draw, go". It goes beyond the straightforward strategy that the precon offers (play as big a creature as you can, attack with it), and into one of the most important rules of deckbuilding: two cards that work together are better than each of them seperately.
A general rule is that enchant creature cards are not worth playing (if something kills the creature, the aura goes with it), but if it has already replaced itself (drawing from Enchantress), then an unplayable card becomes a good idea. Sure, there are some cards that are just useless 99% of the time, but in your Magic career you should always consider synergies when you see something seemingly useless.
Wow, you asked for a decklist/strategy and gave you a lecture. Tell ya what, I’ll post a mono-green Enchantress deck that should do well in casual, that will help you learn timing and play decisions.
Creatures{20}
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Gatherer of Graces
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Verduran Enchantress
4 Yavimaya Enchantress
Enchantments {20}
4 Web
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Genju of the Cedars
2 Treetop Bracers
4 Beastmaster’s Magemark
2 Lure
Land {20}
20 Forest
There you have it. You have a very low mana curve (the highest casting cost you have in the deck is 4 for Emporer Crocodile), so you shouldn’t have to worry about being able to cast lots of enchantments each turn.
This deck also doesn’t have very many confusing plays. The main strategies you should consider are these:
Don’t empty your hand of enchantments if you don’t have Verduran Enchantress yet. Save some for when you get her, or in case the creature you’re enchanting gets killed by a spell or ability (not a problem with Silhana Ledgewalker, load her up!).
In general, don’t focus all your auras on one creature. The Magemark works for all your enchanted creatures, so it is a good choice to put on a non-combat creature. Web is a defensive enchantment, so you might want to put it on your Verduran Enchantress since she won’t be attacking much anyhow.
Lure is an interesting play, and a difficult choice. Whomever you lure should be able to be blocked, so don’t pair up lure and treetop bracers or silhana ledgewalker (most of the time). You could either put lure on a low power creature (like Llanowar Elves) so that your big boys get through (at the cost of probably losing the elf), or on your biggest creature so you can take out lots of defenders at once (possibly losing your main threat).
I’ve kept this deck monogreen so it’s easier for you to tinker with. If I had made it multicolored, substitutions wouldn’t be so easy to make, since you’d have to figure out what your new land ratios should be. Monocolored decks are easiest to start out on, but there are some abilities and strengths you just can’t get all in one color.
Booster Drafts are great chances to learn how to build a deck using more than one color, and they’re a fun way to get new cards in the more recent sets. There are lots of articles on booster drafting on other websites, but none here... yet  (this doesn’t mean I have dibs on this, if anyone else wants to write one, be my guest!)
I hope your transition into MTG is happy and fun. I know I’ll enjoy a new member to our little corner of CC  |
"Not again" -Hans
Hello kind Sir or Madam, I am a polite sig virus. Please put me into your fine and dandy signature so that I might continue to replicate. Thank you for your time. |
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| mojo |
![]() Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:33 pm |
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Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Posts: 32
Location: your mom
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| you should run gruul beats.. red/green deck. thats fast and easy to use. it will also help....plus its really fun to play. as an option. i ran that when i first got back into the game and it teaches you the basics. |
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| PorterTroll |
![]() Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:14 pm |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 1193
Location: not sure yet
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Wow! Thanks Brian! That article/deck really helps! By the way, do all those cards come in one set?  |
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| mojo |
![]() Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:17 pm |
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Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Posts: 32
Location: your mom
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| nah, looks like its 9th with kamigawa and ravnica |
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| PorterTroll |
![]() Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:27 pm |
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 1193
Location: not sure yet
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mojo wrote: nah, looks like its 9th with kamigawa and ravnica
i bought a Ravnica starter deck yesterday, so i guess i might have some of those cards already |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:29 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Yeah. If you want a deck to "get the hang" of the game, PLUS starting with a nice poll, buy 1-3 Red (don’t know the name in English, sorry) decks from 9th edition. They come with less cards, so to make a 60-card deck you would need some boosters anyway, so getting more starters is good. Also, the rares are pretty nice, and the cards are a lot basic, but not TOO basic, so you’ll get the hang for some of the game’s abilities pretty fast. The starter Green deck from the Core Set (9th Edition) is ALSO nice, but not nearly as powerful. |
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| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:43 pm |
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 3065
Location: Rivendell
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Does Cobra sell starter decks? I can’t seem to find where...  but maybe i’m just being stupid. Can you point me in the right direction? |
Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 10:27 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Actually, I asked Cobra this, and still have got no answer. Apparently, Cobra Cards does NOT sell Starter Decks or Sealed Deck/Booster Boxes, so you’d have to buy from another store, or maybe from e-bay or the liking. |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:19 am |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Oops, sorry Felipe! I was in the middle of typing a reply when my laptop overheated and shut itself down  , and by the time I let it cool off and started it up again, I had forgotten what I was doing... 
The short answer is no, Cobra Cards does not offer sealed products for Magic: the Gathering. (The math simply doesn’t work out very well for a small online card shop; I may give this another look in the future though.)
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| http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games. |
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