Which recent set release should a new player purchase?
General forum
Posted on April 18, 2022, 12:02 p.m. by RegularDegular
I apologize if this isn't the right place to ask this, so just let me know and I can delete/fix it :)
I'm pretty new to MTG but have caught the bug pretty bad. I've really enjoyed the draft events I've attended but I'm a little lost on my next move. Standard and Modern both appeal to me much more than Commander because when I'm not at an event, I'd be playing 1v1. Everyone I've spoken to in my local MTG community says that I should be buying a deck online, which is obviously cheaper than cracking packs. Maybe it's because I'm so new/fresh, but outright buying a deck that looks good feels like it would take away some of what I'm enjoying. Building the best deck I can from what I have, growing it's potential opening packs, etc. I was initially thinking of working around with only Standard sets, but when I play outside of my LGS, it would be Modern anyway, so maybe that's best.
So I get that long term, buying decks is the MUCH smarter financial decision. But my question of the day is if I WANT to buy packs, even a booster box to open, which recent set would be the best option? I suppose Standard would be preferred to keep the options of building a Standard deck and a Modern deck both open, but if there is a CLEAR choice that's out of standard, I'd love to know that too! I heard Modern Horizons 2 was a clear non-standard pick, but it seems the prices reflect that as well on Amazon...
If your getting into modern. Modern horizons 1 and 2 are a good place to start
April 18, 2022 2:41 p.m.
And sorry to double post, but the one mistake to avoid is cracking packs trying to get a particular card. It never works : )
April 18, 2022 2:46 p.m.
wallisface says... #5
From a modern perspective, cracking packs generally won’t help you at all. Each standard set would be lucky to have even 4 cards that are modern-viable. And those few viable cards’ll all be for different archetypes. You will ALWAYS be better off buying a deck (if you’re brewing, it’s a good idea to get feedback on a list here before committing to the $$$). Just to reiterate, there is zero-chance to build a modern-deck from only cracking packs.
From a standard perspective, I can see a (marginally higher) reason to be cracking packs, though with some caveats:
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You need some idea of what deck you’re wanting to build, and what set is best-geared to give you most of those cards
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The pack’s you’re buying need to have useful cards the rest of your local community are after, allowing you to trade/sell towards pieces you actually need.
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Super-ideally, would be to get some play-value from the packs as you open them. If you’ve got a buddy also cracking packs, then get a bunch and do a sealed deck to battle each other.
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Be aware that even if you can check-off all of the above bulletpoints, you’re still going to be spending around 5x more for a deck by cracking packs, than just buying the single cards.
April 18, 2022 4:09 p.m.
If you want to keep the feel of opening packs and growing your collection, Draft is the way to go. It's possible to build a decent Standard deck from drafts, but it's going to take a big time and potentially money investment.
On the subject of money, a tournament-level Standard deck is worth about 200-400 USD right now, and Modern looks like it starts at 800 USD and goes up from there. If you want to make this investment for Modern, I recommend starting with the mana base. The essential lands for any multicolor deck are the fetch lands (cards like Windswept Heath and Arid Mesa that search for a land with a basic land type) and the shock lands (cards like Temple Garden and Sacred Foundry that can enter untapped and provide multiple colors of mana). The mana base is almost always the most expensive part of a tournament-level deck, thanks to relatively low supply and high demand, but once you have it you don't need to change it.
Of course, it's possible to have a Modern deck or two on hand for tournaments and free play, and spend time drafting as you want. But to reinforce what everyone else is saying, you're not going to build a Modern competitive deck out of a random box.
April 18, 2022 5:50 p.m.
wallisface says... #7
Its probably worth saying also, that standard/modern decks don’t have the same growth-stories to draft/sealed.
In draft/sealed, a big part of the game is trying to figure out how to make the resources you’re given work. There’s a lot of suspense/enjoyment in pack opening because its revealing what tools you’ll have to work with, and oftentimes the pack will have something that improves what you’re currently building.
This philosophy doesn’t even get close to holding-true as you move to eternal formats. Everyone is generally-speaking, going to be playing with fine-tuned decks. Your odds of having “fun” opening a pack is going to be monstrously-outweighed by the minuscule odds of pulling anything remotely relevant. HOWEVER, fun from constructed comes in different forms. Fine-tuning a deck and the sideboard to cope with problem matchups can be hugely rewarding. And, as new sets are released, tinkering with new options to see if they’re viable can also offer a lot of enjoyment.
I think if you’re trying to get the same feel from sealed and constructed, this is a mistake. They’re completely different beasts. You’ll find a lot (most?) mtg players enjoy playing both - so don’t go thinking that you have to give up on draft just to play modern/standard!
Niko9 says... #2
I don't have a ton of experience with finance in mtg, so take this with a huge, whopping, grain of salt, but Kami Neon might be a good one because it has a very powerful land cycle (which prices will always stay high) and it's printed at rare, so you have a good chance to get at least some of them.
This all being said, it's generally a crap shoot at the best of times. The people who really make out in investing are the people who don't necessarily do it for a love of the game and who buy large amounts of things at a time. I mean, the number of fetchlands that are sitting in collectors collections, never to be played, must be nuts : )
I definitely crack packs and make decks out of what I have available, and I find that fun. A lot of what I end up using is stuff I wouldn't have really thought about, but looking through things, brewing, and testing, that's so fun to me. But I never view that as a sound financial way to go. I guess I see it as a fun way to spend a little bit on over time, and I get to make a lot of decks that way. It may be smarter to just make one really good deck and trade it over time, but I like having a lot of decks I can break out. The main downside is that none of mine are as good as an optimized deck, because I'm spreading what I've got out.
It's all fun, and it's all how you want to play it. There are plusses and minuses to each approach, but as long as you like what you make, it's all good. It's just, no matter what you do, you can't expect to hit the finance nail on the head. Even when you do get a great pull and that card price skyrockets, if you play it and don't sell it, it's really all about the same. Happens to me all the time : ) Oooh, Maralen of the Mornsong skyrocketed since I bought it, nice, but she's still just sitting in my deck, so...
April 18, 2022 2:18 p.m.