Starting Magic The Gathering in 2024 - Buyer's Guide For Beginners

I started playing Magic: The Gathering 2 months ago and today I'm giving you guys a guide on what to buy and not buy. What product of MTG should you skip?
#magicthegathering #mtg

0:00 Intro
1:28 Free Options First
2:00 Find Your Goal & Theme
4:29 What Product Should You Get?
5:00 Starter Kit
6:10 Commander Decks
7:39 Booster Packs & Boxes
11:13 What Are These??
11:24 Bundles
12:26 Prerelease Kits
13:48 Buying Singles
14:44 Compare Prices EVERYWHERE
17:15 Check for used options
18:02 Must Have Accessories
18:44 Dice
19:19 Sleeves
20:44 Top Loaders
21:21 Deck Box
23:40 Dry Erase Playing Cards
24:49 Must Have Apps
26:07 Outro

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[roubador]

You made a pretty good video here, but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
Prerelease packs are specifically designed for playing in the prerelease tournaments held at your local game store. I don't think they offer any real value outside of that, but I highly recommend attending those tournaments. They are very casual, and a lot of fun. They are meant to onload new players.
Secondly, I can't recommend buying Collector's Packs for anyone, for any reason. If you want the cards that come in them, just buy singles. The chances of opening a particular card in a 300+ card set is effectively zero. especially for rare and mythic cards. This applies to Play Boosters, as well.
Having said that, opening packs is fun, but don't plan on getting the cards you want or need that way.

Welcome to the Magic community. Enjoy your journey!

[AA-hvym]

Pre release kits are worth the money, but only when you go to pre-release events. All lgs near me have cheap entry for the kit plus a prize structure that gives these events 1-2 additional boosters when you actually attend the events. Great events for new players as they are pretty casual, no equipment or cards required and experienced players can help you deck build plus improve your knowledge of strong cards/combos in the set.

[jumiller]

Very informative video! Let’s not lead anybody on tho. 😅 More often than not the cards you get from collector boosters do not add up in value to the cost of the pack. It’s like playing the lottery and more often than not you lose money. But it’s still fun. Lol

[carriepickett]

The pre-release kit is cheaper, but you get them in person at a local game store and there is usually a special event where you play and get bonuses. The cost to participate at my local store is $30 and you get the kit plus they give bonus cards to winners and participants from the WOTC directly for these special events. I think these events are really fun for beginners and the price is worth it if you attend one of these in-person events. The secondhand sellers markup up the price because you can't buy these from normally as a member of the public except at the events. These pre-release events are beginner friendly, so I recommend going 100%.

[Wouldyoukindlyy]

The starter kits are great to learn with. That’s where I started, and since it comes with 2, you have an evenly balanced match. My husband taught me how to play along with watching the prof and command zone. If I could go back in time, I’d play with more precons to try out what color decks and style I liked- which arena is great for in their tutorials!

As many have said, the prerelease bundles are of value if you play a prerelease event. My LGS offers 3 booster packs if you lose all your matches. But they’re a great way to get into the community and learn and are very beginner friendly.

I love that you shared online options bc not everyone has a LGS nearby, but I do believe shopping local is the best when you can.

With the tokens, I will use the small dice to represent them if I start churning them out >5.

In summation I appreciate this video! There are a lot of lessons learned and it is easy to sink a ton of money into this hobby. It can be overwhelming for new players trying to find their footing. But thank you for doubling back and sharing what you did and what worked, and what you’d forego in hindsight.

[orisa]

At my store the Prerelease Kits are about 30 euros and the Bundles 45 euros. So the Prerelease Kits are an option that is worth buying. They are also tied to the Prerelease Event where you unpack and build limited 40 card decks with them.

[pedrogoncalves]

My gf and i started MTG arround a month, we got some random bulk cards in a flea market, got some cards to start understanding the game but no lands, i found a good site where i could buy from sellers in my own contry and got 100 lands for like 4 bucks, then i started researching the max amount of singles that i could order with the lowest transport tax, and our collection is growing alot, with this im telling u that u can build a cool collection withouth spending alot of money, this was just my example.

[VelocitySmith]

The prerelease kits are used for the format called sealed... which is all contained in the prerelease kit. it contains 6 packs which you open and make a deck from.

[hinsie]

A prerelease box with 6 boosters and 1 showcase card for $30usd. 100% worth it for a theme you really enjoy imo.

[horatiofresh]

Regarding pre release kits, they were originally made for play at local game stores. They really didn’t start selling them outside of these events until more recently and the pandemic increased the push from WotC. The value usually comes from the included promo card, these almost always carry a decent collector value due to the rarity. I would highly recommend playing AT a pre release event to newer players. It’s a great way to learn how to build a deck. Pre release events are also based on the draft format, so everyone playing is working with the same amount of cards and no one is bringing in anything from the outside. So you can show up with nothing and be at no disadvantage against someone with a binder full of expensive cards.
Very informative, it’s nice to see some MTG content that’s not tailored exclusively to the die hards. Anything that makes the game more accessible is good for the game.

[calsonic]

I just got into it this week, I fell in love with the magic orthodoxy white phyrexian cards. Sad to hear they mightn't do them again haha

[googoune]

I also got the dry erase cards and they are time saving! So much better than having to find your tokens.

[sirsaturn]

Just found your channel bro and I’m getting into magic at the moment too. Really informative video, I’ll definitely keep up with your stuff going forward 👍

[FirePhoenix]

So im relatively new to magic only playing for around 2 years. With that being said, i love building and playing custom decks (have around 10 decks built with more decklists) so this is what i find best works for me and what id suggest new players do: If you are for sure not going to be a collector and will actually play the game, buy around 3-5 packs of every new set. This allows you to always have a couple cards of each set. id encourage you buy more if the set is particularly high in good cards or lands you like the look of. Then spend a majority on singles for decks. The couple packs you bought also allows you to ofsef the price if you pull cards you could put in decks and will later just allow you to throw together a somewhat functioning deck.

One last added benefit, it gives you a taste for cards and can show you a commander option youd otherwise not see.

[Goofygooberston]

Back in the day when I first tried getting into it around 2014-2015(failed because there's almost no community anywhere near me as it turns out) a deck builders toolkit + a then-called fat pack was the way to go of you were just trying to see what you could build, since deck building is for me the most fun part.

[richardinman]

Your video was super inspiring. I have been thinking about getting into it, and this video helped me pull the trigger. So i sold some personal things and bought 2 commander decks, 2 standard decks, 2 booster boxes, and 3 deck storage box sets you recommend. Then yesterday, someone broke into my truck and stole all of it!! Im shattered. I dont know if i could ever afford that much again. But none the less I'll still watch your videos and live vicariously though you! Keep up the awesome content

[yobanyhernandez]

yeah wife and I jumped into this together, we got the bloomburrow starrter kit and loved it, then I got a bloom burrow bundle and wife will be getting duskmore bundle :D maybe a commander deck is next. But right now we are sticking to the standard since the only thing we want to do is play for our selves.

[PrimordialTuna]

I purchased the Dogmeat, ever loyal precon deck yesterday for my first deck ever. I immediately dropped 240 bucks on upgrades 😂 I'm already hooked.

[Zuul]

As someone who is relatively new the two deck starter kits are great. For new releases I do like the Prereleases as well

[DuraheLL]

my biggest tip for any NEW players.
If you all have your own cards, play commander (look that up what it means) Buy pre-made decks as said in the video or construct your own ones from scratch.
If you are the one that have all the cards, pick any SET, as in, what expansion/theme you like in the game, buy a display box with play/draft boosters of said set, then play LIMITED with your friends (nobody else now need to have cards)
I think you need to take up LIMITED as a valid format as it's extremely potent and popular, I for example only play limited :) The only commander decks I have are pre-made ones like fallout and warhammer 40k, but I only got them because collector value etc. Never to play with. So buying a booster box (containing 36 play/draft boosters) Is a valid way to allow YOU and all your friends to play without any of your friends to need to buy any cards. This is how I made 4 people addicted to magic and allowed them to try and play without buying anything themselves. And arguably more fun than playing with pre-made decks that you might get bored of after a few plays. Limited will never be the same experience, ever.
When you have opened all the packs?
You re-cycle the cards and you will now CUBE draft the cards.
the main methods we draft is "pick and pass" and "grid draft", when there are 2 players we do winston draft.
We also add commander to our drafts. But some rules need to be applied.
since a lot of sets don't have legendary creatures, talk with the players and agree what sort of creature can be commanders.
Any one? Sure, I mean, why not.
We restrict (in our group) rare/mythic/planeswalkers OR legendary creatures to be commanders.
This work perfectly.
we also reduce health to 25 or 30, since the only reason to have 40 is in constructed regular commander when everyone have beast decks that explode in power all the time.

PS: Pre-release kits. I think you misunderstood them a bit. A pre-release kit is made only for pre-release events. Containing handy tools you will need to play on the fly. When a new set come out they always celebrate early with a mini-tournament. You play SEALED format. Meaning, 6 boosters per player and then you make a deck out of the card you opened, minimum 40 card size.
It's NOT intended to be bought or compared with other products. Any pre-release kits you find in stores are leftovers from the events.
Try participating in a pre-release sometime, it's amazingly fun. You don't have to be particularly good at it either. You'll likely get exclusive promo cards for participating too.

PS2: I personally don't ever use dragonshield sleeves, I find them too thick and pricy. I use ulta-pro sleeves, size 2½ x 3½ inch. they work really well! You get 100 for a few bucks and that's all great too :)