Might return after years away

I'm interested in finding some games I can play with my avid 9-year-old son. He loves board games, and has taken a liking to Settlers of Catan. He has been in to Yu-Gi Oh! and Pokemon for a few years, mostly to collect and trade with his friends at school.

I hadn't played Magic: The Gathering since the Ice Age set. I still have nearly all my cards. I bought boxes of them in the day, I got out when I saw a never ending procession of new series coming.

I remember with fondness some of the games, the ease with which to pull out a deck and play a few hands when the D&D group didn't all show up.

My son sees my D&D books and asks often when he can try. Thing is, I haven't decided which edition nor have I found a group to play in regardless of edition, D&D is not very 2-player friendly.

Magic is though. I'm don't want to get in to be a rabid collector again. I only want to get it to get enough cards to be able to play and have fun with my son.

What should I know about how things changed since I last played?
What is needed to get started?
How much more could we get to add variety and not go collector crazy?
How often does Magic change series and what does it mean when they do now?

Eric Anondson said:

I'm interested in finding some games I can play with my avid 9-year-old son. He loves board games, and has taken a liking to Settlers of Catan. He has been in to Yu-Gi Oh! and Pokemon for a few years, mostly to collect and trade with his friends at school.

I hadn't played Magic: The Gathering since the Ice Age set. I still have nearly all my cards. I bought boxes of them in the day, I got out when I saw a never ending procession of new series coming.

I remember with fondness some of the games, the ease with which to pull out a deck and play a few hands when the D&D group didn't all show up.

My son sees my D&D books and asks often when he can try. Thing is, I haven't decided which edition nor have I found a group to play in regardless of edition, D&D is not very 2-player friendly.

Magic is though. I'm don't want to get in to be a rabid collector again. I only want to get it to get enough cards to be able to play and have fun with my son.

What should I know about how things changed since I last played?
What is needed to get started?
How much more could we get to add variety and not go collector crazy?
How often does Magic change series and what does it mean when they do now?

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If you have all of your old cards, sounds like you already have all you need to play! The rules have been updated, but only minor tweaks, I'd recommend visiting WotC's Magic site and downloading the rules. There is a new card type called "Planeswalker" that is pretty cool, but isn't necessary to play.

As far as purchasing new cards, it isn't really any different than before. New sets still come out with new and revisted mechanics every couple of months. Going "collector crazy" is merely a state of mind, IMO. I personally purchase a booster of new cards every now and then, and I've started purchasing the "Duel Decks" preconstructed 1-on-1 decks. That might be a good buy for you and your son. So far they have released Elves vs Goblins, Jace vs Chandra, Garruk vs Liliana, and Phyrexia vs Coalition. Jace, Chandra, Garruk, and Liliana are all planeswalkers with the new card type, and that would be a good intro to the concept.

There are these products called Duel Decks. One just came out, Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition.

They're sets of two pre-constructed 60 card decks with themes and which are specifically created to be balanced against each other. In other words, they're a perfect little "fire and forget" slice of Magic.

Phyrexia vs. The Coalition's theme is steeped fairly heavily in Magic lore, and if you're a fan from back in the day you might get a kick out of it. Basically, the Coalition represents Urza's forces and Phyrexia Yawgmoth's.

Other Duel Decks include Divine vs. Demonic (angels and demons), Elves vs. Goblins, Jace vs. Chandra (a blue planeswalker and a red planeswalker) and Garruk vs. Liliana (a green planeswalker and a black planeswalker).

Rules wise, there's been a relatively significant shakeup (about on par with the rules changes from 6th edition, if you recall those). The overall game hasn't been changed significantly, but the minutiae have. There have also been a few terminology changes (we're back to casting spells instead of playing, things are now exiled instead of removed from the game, and "in play" has been replaced with "the battlefield"). Combat damage no longer uses the stack, and there's been a change to how damage assignment works in cases where there are multiple attackers or blockers.

Don't worry too much about the changes, though. They really don't matter that much.

If you have an Xbox360 I highly suggest you purchase the Magic card game on there. There are 8-10 preconstructed decks to play around with, and you can play against someone or with someone against another two folks.

All for 10 bucks.

It mights be available on the other game consoles or a PC, but I am not sure.

Its a good way to judge whether or not your son will like magic before thinking about buying cards.

I also suggest if you do want to get into Magic again that you consider buying some card lots off of ebay or a reseller. Why spend 20 bucks on a couple packs of cards when you can get 2000 random cards for the same price from Troll and Toad?

DS

Grr!: "You must spread some Experience Points around before giving it to Dire Bare again."

Sabathius42 said:

If you have an Xbox360 I highly suggest you purchase the Magic card game on there. There are 8-10 preconstructed decks to play around with, and you can play against someone or with someone against another two folks.

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Thanks for the recommendation but we're trying to find fewer electronic/video games.

I have a ton of old cards still, as I mentioned above, I don't really need to buy new to teach him a game. There is still something special about unwrapping the new thing and playing.

Gave Dire Bear an XP for ya, Eric.

Just wanted to mention that I picked up Phyrexia vs. The Coalition today and gave it a few plays.

Phyrexia is monoblack and a bit more aggressive. Coalition is 5-color domain (though it only has a splash of black and blue). Both decks have some control elements in them.

Both decks have a lot of room for making decisions and for skillful play to reveal itself. The coalition deck is filled with modal spells like charms and battlemages, while the Phyrexian deck focuses heavily on sacrificing your creatures and life as a resource. I do worry that the decks might be a bit complicated for the purpose of teaching someone to play Magic, though.

Good to hear a pseudo-review from the angle of teaching the game. I'll put that duel deck far down my mental list.

Any pointers to certain duel decks that might be friendlier than other for teaching the game? By name alone, it seems like Elves vs. Goblins would be newb-friendliest.

The Duel Decks are limited, and the older ones can be quite pricey... Just checked Star City Games, and they've got Divine vs. Demonic (which I would have recommended as a good simple one) for $40, Elves vs. Goblins for $70 and Jace vs. Chandra for $70.

Besides Phyrexia vs. The Coalition, the only one that's not too bad yet is Garruk vs. Liliana. I haven't played it, so can't comment.

Asmor said:

The Duel Decks are limited, and the older ones can be quite pricey... Just checked Star City Games, and they've got Divine vs. Demonic (which I would have recommended as a good simple one) for $40, Elves vs. Goblins for $70 and Jace vs. Chandra for $70.

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Holy ----! Good thing I picked them up when they were new.

WotC is coming out with a Deckbuilder's Kit which sounds to be a good selection of commons and uncommons for a group of friends to build multiple decks from. Might be a cheap investment to supplements your old cards. Comes out in May: Announcing: Deck Builder's Toolkit : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering