It is 2025, and it is time to pick up a brand new hobby with a couple of months break ahead of me. Magic the Gathering is a card game I have heard of since I was growing up, but I had always been a bit daunted to step into a world ongoing longer than I have been alive. A month on, and I am absolutely loving the infinite combinations, varying play styles and abundance of cards available. Like me, you may be wondering, where do I start with all of this and would this be worth the time and investment?
Learning the Game in 2025
There were three things that I found super useful as someone brand new to the game: 1) the Magic the Gathering Arena App, 2) buying my first set of cards to craft my own physical deck: Foundations – Beginner Box and 5 Foundations Play Booster packs and 3) finding a group of friends who were Magic players who could slowly ease you into the game (as well as lend you a couple of decks, give you deckbuilding and play style advice)
The Magic the Gathering Arena app was an excellent way to get into Magic to try out the game and give you an initial idea of the variety of cards out there from more recent releases (known as Standard) and the basic mechanics. The app brings you through a full tutorial, explaining the different colours and allowing you to try out around 15 different preset decks. I found this exceptionally helpful in identifying what worked better for me in terms of card combinations. However, once you are exposed to the wider game, I did find it quite difficult to keep up with players in general matchmaking who had been playing the game for much longer and had very advanced collections and killer combinations.
The Foundations Jumpstart box was an excellent entry point into Magic, providing 200 cards, a handy reference book, 2 how to play booklets, a game board and 2 spindown life counters. Step by step, it guided myself and another friend through our very first game of magic with physical cards. I appreciated the step by step, which made it easy to run through the game, and with all the different deck combinations, we were able to play several games on level footing and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and different decks we were able to conjure quite quickly without having to worry too much about building.
Brand new Beginner Box and pack arrive! Exciting!
My 5 brand new Foundations Play Booster packs arrived the next day, and it was really good fun cracking open packs and figuring out how to use what was inside with what I had in the jumpstart box. I got lucky and pulled a Bloodthirsty Conqueror (which I later found out was one of the best cards in the Foundations set) and has led me to playing a vampire/angels hybrid to make full use of this card.
Finally, having a couple of friends to keep you going, play some friendly games and trade cards with is what is ultimately what will keep me going with the game. It was good fun to see the variety of decks my friends are building (even with Lord of the Ring and Marvel themed cards) and trying my luck with the cards I currently had on hand (a mix of the beginner box and some pulls from the play boosters). Similar to my experience Some great suggestions on individual cards that I could purchase (or try my luck at pulling from packs) that would enhance the deck for the next time we gather.
What I am loving about Magic:
1. The variety of cards on offer – there are about 14 sets that are currently standard legal, which equates to somewhere between 1500-2000 cards or so at any one time. So many possibilities!
2. The playstyle options – whether you are keen to build up giant monster cards, trying to set up one hit KOs with very niche cards, launching spell after spell at your opponents newly played creatures or just classic control decks, I am finding MtG has it all.
3. Deckbuilding and theory crafting – after being dismantled by your opponents, thinking that I should get that cards, how can I get this into my deck to do that? And then eventually getting to test that out again the next game. This is one of the really great parts of the game.
For anyone new to the game, I think it’s a great time to start. The Foundations set is going to be legal in standard for 4 more years and with all the resources out there. Next steps for me, a couple more packs and possibly some individual card purchases, then perhaps onto some other casual events around London to meet other players getting into the hobby! Hope to meet you all there 🙂
