Welcome Deck Decklists?
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Oct. 19, 2020, 6:47 p.m. by VampDemigod
I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, so Caerwyn, feel free to move it.
Does anyone know where I can find decklists for the free “welcome decks” WotC sends out to MtG clubs at LGSs, schools, and libraries?
I was just chatting with an EDH playgroup friend about MtG, and my boyfriend expressed interest in learning how to play Magic!
I’m not sure how to start, I often kind of drop people in, and I have a pretty good success rate. But, I recently gave away my low-power decks. So, I need to buy the decks I’ll be teaching him with.
I’d like to buy cards to make my own copies of the WotC welcome decks, because I need to keep this relatively low-budget.
I know some people are going to suggest Arena, sadly, my boyfriend is a console gamer, and due to COVID, we do not live together. MTGA is not supported on his laptop. I play Arena on a desktop, and all of our interaction has been taking place outdoors (once again, COVID). So we need to play it in paper.
So, does anyone know where I can find decklists for the welcome decks, or does anyone have cheap, low-power, simple brews that could serve the same purpose?
Here you go! The Magic Wiki is a fairly reliable, comprehensive source for things like this.
October 19, 2020 7:05 p.m.
VampDemigod says... #5
And good call riotrunner! That’s definitely where I’ll head when I try to intro him to more specific formats!
October 19, 2020 7:37 p.m.
StardustDragon11 says... #6
I'd recommend the CardKingdom's rookie decks and their battle decks.
Actual fun real decks and not just jank.
October 19, 2020 7:53 p.m.
Now that I'm at a computer, I recommend you look up some budget decks. There are a number of solid cards out there that are inexpensive (Opt, Llanowar Elves, etc.)--if you are going to be buying cards, you might as well buy cards that you might use in other decks.
Generally, I would recommend building 5 different decks, one for each color, as that gives the new player a basic introduction to the game and the different playstyles. Get all your classics--Blue Control; Red Burn; Green Stompy; Black removal; White Weenies--and then you can let the new player figure out what colors they like (generally) and what playstyles they like.
That said, the actual makeup of the deck is not important--making sure each deck can compete with one another is the hard part. Nothing turns off a new player more than thinking the deck they are learning on plays at a disadvantage. Make sure you playtest your decks a lot to see if they have about 50% win rates against one another. Related to that, make sure you switch up what decks you are playing; even if your new player settles on one starter deck they enjoy more than the others, you should still be changing things around.
October 19, 2020 7:58 p.m.
VampDemigod says... #8
I will admit, my favorite thing I’ve done to intro 2 new players to the game was to crack a box of WAR (I was in a better monetary situation and could afford to drop $120 on new players). I build a deck around each of the classic walkers, keeping themes from WAR in there, limiting myself to just the cards from the box, no mythics, 60 card decks. Then, after a few hours of showing them how the game worked, I told them they could go though the rest of the cards from the box to augment their favorite color’s deck, and that they could keep the cards. I also told them they could take cards that looked fun to them from the box. The rest got donated to the LGS. That was extremely fun. If I ever end up in that decent a monetary situation, I’ve got to do that again. It feels so great to make a new player’s day. Btw, one of the players I mentioned here started streaming MTGA on twitch about a week ago (idk his channel, sadly), and the other is in my EDH playgroup.
October 19, 2020 8:13 p.m.
VampDemigod says... #9
Not super confident in my ability to make a balanced group of decks without giving myself a limitation like “1 booster box” tho, so I’ll probably start off with intro decks.
October 19, 2020 8:15 p.m.
Duel Decks are another good option if you want balanced decks, and they tend to be a bit more complex than starter decks or simple budget decks. Best part about Duel Decks? They are all relatively balanced against one another--you not only can run Blessed versus Cursed (its pair), you can run Blessed versus Elves, or versus Mind, etc. (also against any of the clash packs).
I personally keep them intact in their original preconstructed form, but they also tend to have a few cards that are halfway decent so they have some upgrade potential or can be scavenged for parts.
October 20, 2020 12:21 a.m.
I do the same as Caerwyn. I buy a set of the duel decks whenever they are released, sleeve them up without modifications and carry them around, (back when we were still meeting in person to play magic), for new or surprise people to play games with.
RiotRunner789 says... #2
The challenger decks or a pair of planeswalker decks would be cheap. Also, if looking at CMDR, the zendikar ones were only about $20 each.
You might also have enough in your own collection to build a few mono colored decks to give you boyfriend the feel for each color. Just limit them to 1 or 2 bulk rates and the rest com/un.
October 19, 2020 7:04 p.m.