I start this review by caveating that I am quite new to Magic the Gathering (MtG), with around 100-200 games on MtG Arena and around 10 or so games in person. As such, you will be getting the viewpoint here of a brand-new MtG player (admittedly not entirely unfamiliar to the concept with just under a decade’s worth of Hearthstone experience previous) who has been binge watching gameplay, pack openings and reading endless content in an attempt to figure out how best to put together workable decks and strategies to take on a handful of 6 month to 16 year MtG veterans who have adopted me into their circle. For more on my journey so far and thoughts on the game as a beginner, keep and eye out for the rest of my blog posts!
I start this review by caveating that I am quite new to Magic the Gathering (MtG), with around 100-200 games on MtG Arena and around 10 or so games in person. As such, you will be getting the viewpoint here of a brand-new MtG player (admittedly not entirely unfamiliar to the concept with just under a decade’s worth of Hearthstone experience previous) who has been binge watching gameplay, pack openings and reading endless content in an attempt to figure out how best to put together workable decks and strategies to take on a handful of 6 month to 16 year MtG veterans who have adopted me into their circle. For more on my journey so far and thoughts on the game as a beginner, keep and eye out for the rest of my blog posts!
Beginner Box: Items in the box.
As someone relatively new to MtG (and as a semi responsible adult), seeing that this was likely going to be the start of quite a bit of investment, I started off with playing games on MtG Arena and reading/watching suggestions from some very helpful content creators out there such that I wouldn’t have to blow my hard earned pounds on opening potentially thousands on all sorts of packs (really spoilt for choice here). The Foundations set on the whole has stood out to me for several reasons:
1) Beginner Products – As I understand it, a set similar to the Foundations set tends to come out every 5ish years or so, typically to allow a guided pathway into MtG for newer/returning players. The introduction of very affordable boxes containing sufficient cards to showcase the variety of cards and playstyles was quite appealing.
2) Simplicity of the Mechanics – Particularly for a beginner here, the Foundations set sticks to relatively straightforward mechanics with simpler, shorter text on the cards. This allows for slightly smoother gameplay but reduces the number of potential combinations with other existing cards I would suspect.
3) Several meta cards even veterans were keen on – Speaking to friends and reading online, there were a handful of cards that are able to establish themselves in this years early meta’s for both Standard and Commander (e.g. Llanowar Elves, Cut Down, Scavenging Ooze, etc.).
4) Length of time in Standard – Foundations cards are set to be standard legal all the way up to 2029 allowing for a good amount of time to use the cards drawn from boosters over this time.
That said, I ended up buying both a Foundations Beginner Box as well as 5 play booster packs here.
The Beginner Box was very much designed to teach the game, with two pre-shuffled decks (cats and vampires) and a handy step by step guide taking you through one game. Also in the box were 8 other “jumpstart” decks that allowed for very gameplay without drafting, with the idea being you took two decks and shuffled them together to play against a friend who did the same. This gave variety, allowing a testing of different combinations to work out a playstyle that works best for you. The Beginner box in my opinion was a very helpful and gentle introduction to the world of magic with sufficient variety in cards offered to kickstart your journey and keep the interest. At just under £25, I felt it was quite good value for money (the equivalent of about 6 booster packs which would not have necessarily guaranteed I could build a deck with each of the 5 colours to test them out. It was also excellent to introduce other friends who were curious about the game to magic, and then to play several games very quickly. However, I don’t think this product will add any value to veterans of the game looking to build collections, as it is likely to simple and won’t add anything to already established deck builds.
I opted to go for 5 more play booster packs to give myself to customise the beginner decks and potentially direct my gameplay depending on what I managed to pull. Each play booster contains 14 cards, 1-4 cards being rare or higher, 3-5 uncommon and 6-9 commons with one land card. Across the 5 packs, I only pulled two duplicates, with 2 mythics and 3 rares. Big pull was a Bloodthirsty Conqueror, which I am now trying to build a deck around. This was of course very exhilarating I was hoping to pull some good cards to slot into the beginner decks.
My entire stack of cards now, beginner deck on the left and right sides, with the pulls from the booster packs in the middle.
I think the main fun with the play boosters is very much the joy of opening packs and crossing fingers and toes hoping for some really good pulls, but of course, this probably isn’t the most cost effective way of looking for your individual card. For more competitive players with a deck build in mind, it probably does make a bit more sense to try buying or trading for individual cards to complete decks, with the odd pack here and there to perhaps point you in a new direction for a new deck.
