Magic: The Gathering

[Paragon Fury]

Ok, this is a bit odd for me. I used to play Magic: The Gathering, but I stopped back when Mistform and Artifact creatures were a "new" idea. A while after that, I sold my cards to a Collector, since I didn't use them anymore, and there were way too old to be allowed in any sort of official format. (I did get a cool $200 for them, which is exactly $180 more than I thought I would get for them)

Strangely enough, I've been thinking about playing again, but I'm not sure. Its been a hella long time since I've played, and I don't know if it'd be any good anymore. For one, I don't know even what series is the most recent anymore, and I don't even know if Blue/Black and Green/White are even viable combos anymore, which were the only ones I knew how to play really.

So i you had to suggest, on a budget of AT MOST $80 dollars what to get to start again, what would you suggest?

 

[Chased]

I started during Onslaught and stopped playing 2 years ago. They've made tons of changes I hear, like Planeswalkers being actual cards.

I have no interest in the game, I would only suggest playing if you already have friends to play with or desire to play competitively (which is sadly incredible expensive). Just don't spend 80 bucks on cardboard that's going to be sitting in your closet next week.

 

[Vigormortis]

Artifact creatures have been around since the beginning. (granted, not printed as such) Still, you've been out of the game for quite a while.

The core mechanics of the game are still intact and have changed very little since the days of ABUR. New mechanics and abilities have been added, but the old mechanics are still around. (albeit tweaked and balanced)

If you loved the game back in the day and are willing to accept that the game has advanced and changed, after over a decade of printings, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how far the games gone. As long as you have people to play with, it's still amazingly fun. A lot of areas have groups that meet to play on a frequent basis. Many partaking in FNM - Friday Night Magic.

There are many formats of play now, almost all of which are supported officially by the DCI. In fact, your old collection would still be legal in such formats as Legacy and Vintage, as well as Prismatic and others.

If you're planning on starting a new collection and only plan to spend $80 at first, and want to get a starting collection large enough to build several decks, I suggest three things.

The first is going here: [link]http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Default.aspx[/link] and here: [link]http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx[/link] and poking around, soaking up the latest info and perusing the archives.

Second, look around for info in the format resource section and doing a search on the play format called "Pauper". Pauper is a format wherein every set printed is legal. However, you may only play common rarity cards in your deck. It's fun, cheap to partake in, and makes for an interesting deck-building challenge. You can find a bevy of top winning deck lists on the Magic website, which will give you a good place to start when considering what cards to get and what kind of decks to build.

The last suggestion, should you be interested in playing in Pauper, is going to a local card store or a site like TrollandToad.com or CardKingdom.com and buying playsets of commons. You can usually get boxed sets of one or two hundred commons for $20 or so, since many commons run around $0.10 to $0.25.

Now, if you prefer to play in more open formats, but still only want to spend $80, my suggestion would be to go to an online store like those listed above and buying a booster box. You won't be able to find a booster box of a current or recent set for that price, but you can easily find one from a set or block that's several years old.

Either way, that's a good place to start. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to answer them as best I can.

 

[Paragon Fury]

I mean from back when Artifact creatures were rare, and not something you got every 3rd or 4th card. And I already sold my old collection, since it was not really of any use to me.

 

[MisterGobbles]

As someone who just started playing a couple months ago, I can tell you it's still fun assuming you have a bunch of friends to play with. I just started out buying a core deck and that starter deck-building kit, which gives you a considerable amount of commons and land cards in each color as well as some boosters. That ran me about forty dollars, and you could just use the rest to buy boosters. However, I'm sure there are more scientific ways of getting more cards for less.

I mean from back when Artifact creatures were rare, and not something you got every 3rd or 4th card.

The current expansion set is heavily artifact-centric, so that may be why. I don't think they're very common in any other set however.