I made these decks originally in 2017. Through the years, some cards in the lists got more expensive, and I've made a few changes along the way. Importantly, other cards have also gotten cheaper, including planeswalkers. With these new options, I revamped the lists, but stayed true to the concept.

Also, the prior set was unfinished. I wanted an infinite combo deck and started one with Freed from the Real, but then that card became too expensive. With this update, I worked to make an infinite deck that incorporated a planeswalker, and ended up with the Izzet spellslinger deck, the last in the series. I've also completed and tuned the prior combo deck, as a bonus option.

I've added the planeswalkers starting with the fourth, black, deck. Because of the upgrades, the power level shifted, and in the end I made changes to every deck.

After drafting the new lists, I did a massive project of playing EVERY deck against every other, round-robin style, at least 3 games per pairing (playing both sides). Yes, this took an absurd amount of time. Turned out the black deck especially was overpowered, and I made further changes to several decks and redid the round robin AGAIN.

End result: a now complete and updated set of beginner Magic introduction decks, better than ever.

Specific changes for each color:

Green: with the upgrades for the other colors, green initially was falling behind. The biggest upgrade was to go to 4 Garruk's Packleader. This also makes the deck more enjoyable, as it was vulnerable to stalling out with tons of mana. Other changes: Switched Prey Upon for Primal Might. Green needed this buff to close out games. Elvish Visionary was removed to make room for the Packleaders and for Overrun. At the prior power level, Overrun was just too much, but it really helps green out and fits stompy green's style well. Drove of Elves was replaced by the slightly stronger Dungrove Elder. Also, the Elder is simpler (lands instead of "green permanents"), but it does cost a few cents more. Elvish Mystic crept up in price. Still cheap, but Llanowar Elves is cheaper and a green staple.

Red: This was the first deck to get a big update. In the playtesting it has remained consistent. The main change was that Chandra's Spitfire took the place of Impetuous Sunchaser, much better for the deck. Kiln Fiend was so strong in the prior deck, that the games were decided depending on if you drew it or not. The Festival Crasher works similarly, but is more reasonably powered. I also like the art and flavor for the new red cards. Twinferno replaced Assault Strobe, which had gone up in price and never had good art anyway. It is a modal card, which is a little advanced for the first two decks of these teaching decks, but IMHO not too hard to understand and use.

Jeska, Warrior Adept had crept up in price. It is not prohibitive, and you can still use it. However, in an effort to limit the deck cost I explored a lot of options. The most similar card is probably Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter, but is more complicated and is too Avatar specific for a generic red theme. Dragons with simple text boxes were either not impactful (Furnace Whelp) or cost too much CMC for the deck's playstyle (Drakuseth, Maw of Flames). Finally, I found Imodane, the Pyrohammer, who actually works very well in this deck.

White: Knight-Captain of Eos had become expensive. Replaced him with Darien, King of Kjeldor. Pentarch Ward was removed, as protection was a little too complicated, and replaced it with Indestructibility. The deck needed a little help at the new power level, and Pacifism was only effective against some decks; I replaced them with an extra Oblivion Ring, Indestructibility, and Mentor of the Meek.

Black: had the biggest changes. It was underperforming and needed a boost. The first obvious change was dropping Drown in Sorrow. The art was nice, but it never did enough, sometimes worse for black. Terror Tide is a much better real board wipe, and fits the deck perfectly. Doom Blade is a classic, but it was awkward against the multicolor decks containing black. Cast Down fit better, and added some nice thematic relevance to the legendary one-ofs. It was still struggling to use the graveyard, and I swapped in the Stitcher's Supplier for the Blood Pet, which turbocharged the deck, the Stitcher is easily the strongest card in the deck. The last change was to switch out the Lord of the Pit for a different card, as it never had an impact in game tests. I wanted to keep a demon and one that held the self-sacrifice theme. Doom Whisperer slotted in very well, and allows the player to kill themselves in a very black appropriate manner. Finally, it needed some draw, and I added the Sign in Blood.

Blue: Moment of Truth was a recent addition, but the big change for blue was getting the first planeswalker in the series. Jace, Unraveler of Secrets is about as "blue" as you can get, a perfect fit for the deck, I took out 2 Treasure Cruise to make room, which kept the deck's power in check.

Golgari Infect: got a lot of changes. Some were due to cost, such as removing Elves of Deep Shadow. Vraska the Unseen made for a good planeswalker, and I took out the Doomgape (although I still love the card). I shifted out the Golgari Rot Farm bounce lands for Evolving Wilds. Loxodon Warhammer got too expensive, and Sword of Vengeance worked great to bring the equipment to the center of the deck. Adding Explorer's Scope helped the deck draw a little, although draw is still the deck's (intentional) weakness. Rogue's Passage and Wings of Hubris provide some evasion to add spice to the deck.

Orzhov Aristocrats: several changes. Its on-theme planeswalker is Liliana, Death's Majesty. The deck was actually falling behind somehow, and adding the Nested Shambler provided help (and cool flavor text). I ended up making room by taking out the Disciple of Griselbrand, and Spirit Bonds. Plaguecrafter was remarkably ineffective in the matchups and I removed it as well. By then the deck had gotten too good and I slowed it down by replacing the Vampiric Rites with Bankrupt in Blood (art is amazing). The Vengeful Bloodwitch took the place of the Cruel Celebrant when its price spiked, but the price is back to normal, and either is a good option as these cards are similar. Blood Artist has the best art IMHO, but is too expensive.

Izzet Spellslinger and Bant Defender infinite combo decks are the final additions to the series and complete the lineup.

**PUZZLE UPDATE: I made a complementary series of simple puzzles to help teach combat basics to beginners, featuring the cards from the green and red beginner teaching decks. With the 2025 update, I also changed the puzzles to a more interactive webpage with slideshow format here: PUZZLES **

This series of casual decks is designed to teach Magic to new players in the best way possible. Each color deck is a "real" constructed deck: the card choices are very deliberate and work together to highlight a play style typical for that color. The new player is meant to start with the and decks. As they learn the game mechanics, they then progress to play the other colors, which increase a little in complexity. A LOT of work has gone into balancing the decks, so that any one of them is an interesting match-up against the others.

Because this is meant to try to "capture" new players and sell them on the game, there is a focus on good art and low prices. Each deck is meant to work as a cohesive unit, so the new player is indirectly exposed to deck brewing concepts. The card text is kept as simple as possible, so the new player can focus on learning the game.

Credit for the concept goes to massivecreature. His approach and his red and green decks on reddit link served as a starting point for this project.

Cost: I try to keep up, but card prices can spike and sometimes it can be hard to slot in a replacement. Let me know if a card has become too expensive.

The Curriculum

Budget Beginner Teach Decks (#1 Green) w Puzzles! : Ramp deck.
Introduces trample, reach, hexproof, enchantments, costs, card draw/cantrips.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#2 Red) : Aggressive/burn deck.
Introduces haste, flying, first strike/double strike, sacrifice costs, direct damage, gain control, end step, exile.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#3 White) : Tribal go wide deck.
Introduces tokens, auras, anthem/lord effects, indestructible.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#4 Black) : Recursion/control deck.
Introduces destruction, graveyard interaction, mill, hand discard, wraths, deathtouch, filtering (surveil), lifelink.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#5 Blue) : Control/combo deck.
Introduces alternate win conditions, planeswalkers, artifacts, counterspells, scry, bounce, non-basic lands, cycling, delve.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#6 Multi) : Voltron/infect deck.
Introduces equipment, counters, regenerate.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#7 Multi) : Aristocrats.
Introduces alternate form cards (double faced).

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#8 Multi) : Spellslinger infinite combo deck.
Introduces copy spell, treasures, cost reduction, flashback.

Budget Beginner Teaching Decks (#9 Multi) : Bonus infinite combo option.
After I first designed this, Freed from the Real spiked a lot. I did all the playtesting for this deck, and it fits in the series, but is not budget. On the other hand, the combo is more intuitive than the Izzet combo. Introduces defender, untap, awaken, buyback.

Card Choice Guidelines Show

How To Play the Decks Show

The idea is to play against the other decks in the set. I have playtested them extensively against each other (several iterations of every deck against every other deck, I played both sides), and they match up pretty well.

How I envisioned this course:

In the first game, the new player should have the green deck, while the teacher has the red deck. That way the new player can focus on simple stuff like turn steps, mana costs, and damage. For the first game(s), both players should probably play showing their hands. Also, the teacher can sandbag a little by using spells on creatures (a slower game where the green deck eventually takes over the game and becomes unstoppable can inspire further play; getting crushed by a perfectly executed turn 3 combo burst could discourage them from playing altogether). It's not a bad idea for the teacher to make a few poor decisions, to let the new players have some success as they learn; this depends a lot on the people involved.

Once the beginner is comfortable with the green deck, and has faced the red deck, then the teacher and new player can switch decks. Now the new player has to think about timing his red spells to get in the kill. Then, add in the white deck. The new player will play white while the teacher has the red or green deck. Now the new player has a few more things to keep track of (e.g. what do the anthem effects add up to). This deck is still pretty linear, and highlights thematic variety as much as it introduces a few more mechanics of the game.

Next is the black deck and this is where it really gets fun for the new player. The teacher will have red, green, or white. Now the new player gets to interact with the opponent's hand, with his own graveyard, and has destruction spells and a wrath.

Blue is a challenge. This is the first really complicated deck. Playing it successfully requires a good understanding of the rules. I strongly suggest the teacher show the new player the entire deck and walk them through it, maybe even playing a game showing their hands. The teacher should probably have red, green, or white. Playing against a control deck (blue or black in this set) can be exhausting.

Finally, the new player sees the multicolor decks, which introduce other common archetypes and playstyles. The first also teaches equipment and counters. They use a lot of new mechanics, and by the time the new player can steer these decks, they have become a passable MTG player. They have been exposed to most of the basic mechanics of the game and have seen a variety of playstyles. Hopefully they had fun and got a good feel for what the game is about.

After that, teacher and player can play against each other with any of the decks they choose. Obviously, they can fall back on prior decks as they progress. For example, if you want to try extra games with red, green, white or black before introducing the blue deck, then by all means do so.

This deck: style and choices

This control deck introduces an alternate win condition as well as counterspells and planeswalkers. It is the most complicated deck to play so far. It is important to make sure the new player understands how to play the deck before starting or it will fail. The primary win condition is with Hedron Alignment. Most of the deck is designed to help churn through the library and find all four cards.

Jalum Tome and Moment of Truth are how we get a Hedron Alignment in the graveyard. Once there, we can use Treasure Cruise to exile a copy. Alternatively, we can cast Hedron Alignment and counter it with Syncopate or Dissipate and send it to exile.

Played correctly, the new player will be doing a lot on the opponent's end step. If the board is well established, then the player will be using scry until it finds a Hedron Alignment or there are only two mana left and then use Jalum Tome at that point.

The first version of this deck had Rise from the Tides. Treasure Cruise and Rise from the Tides have effects that directly oppose each other. The player had to decide if he wanted to wipe out his graveyard for the sake of more cards or not. Ultimately, I think Curator of Mysteries is a better fit (see comment section).

I wanted to add Control Magic to the deck because the card is beautiful and it is a simple "blue" effect. However, the deck was already overloaded with different cards and there wasn't room.

Rules To Learn Show

MTGO Show

Art Show

Links To Alternative Deck Suggestions Submitted by Others

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For a fun video introduction to the rules of MTG, check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZixWqaGJVQs

It is a bit fast paced, but it covers just about everything.

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Revision 16 See all

(5 months ago)

+2	Jace, Unraveler of Secrets	main
-2	Treasure Cruise	main

Date added	9 years
Last updated	5 months
Legality	This deck is Casual legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 10 - 0 Rares 6 - 0 Uncommons 22 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.00
Tokens	Emblem Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
Folders	Teaching, Teach friends, decks to check, Training, 1, Training deck, Teaching Decks, Beginner Teaching Decks, Blue, Teaching Decks
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