Decks to get people (back) into magic?

[RoddyVR]

So there are a few people who i want to get into playing magic. They used to play a bit before so i dont realy need to teach them, but what i do need is some cheapish deck ideas to get them back into magic.

What i was hoping to do was put together some monocolored decks (mono color is way cheaper for not needing duals/fetches) to give as gifts to these people for birthdays/xmas. Since i play legacy, and most of these people will remember some of the older cards (nostalgia factor) i want to make the decks legacy legal.

So i would love to hear some suggestions for decks to build to give as presents... this means they cant realy be $100+ decks cause if i give one as a present and then the person doesnt get into magic, i dont want to have wasted a playset of FoWs or something on the whole thing. If they get into magic again, they'll update the decks with the expensive cards (or build their own new decks).

Burn is a great candidate as its cheap even in its non budget form, and i've got one built already, and i even think i know who to give it to (gotta make sure he likes burn decks in general first, but i think he does).

Will build a MUC deck prety soon (probably build it with FoWs but replace them with something else if i give the deck away).

Not sure what to realy make for other colors. White wheeny seems a good idea, but i litteraly have never seen a list of one so i dont know what usualy goes into it. Green would probably be acceleration and large beats (dont even suggest goyfs, i'm not giving anyone a $200 present that they may never use.) Black would probably be discard, but the thoughtseizes are a bit expensive. How expensive would affinity be to build at this point?

Anyway the reason i post this here is that i would like help putting together a few lists for budget monocolor decks that wouldnt be completely out of whack (from eachother) in power level. The power level issue is cause i'd probably get together with some of these people before giving them a deck, and play a few games with different decks (to guage both their interest in coming back into magic, and to figure out which deck(s) they would most like to start with).

[Dilettante]

If you need help gathering stuff, I have... a fairly large stock of staples at home.

Depending on personality, would you believe an aggro elf-chain or white weenie could be sufficient for getting people into replaying?

An elf deck would be more 'optimal' with gaea's cradle, but... the only real expense beyond that would be Priests of Titania. The deck uses untap effects like Vitalize and uses Glimpse of Nature and Sylvan Messenger to generate card advantage, then piles over the top with a Tribal Forcemage. Dies to Pyroclasms and such, but hey, every deck has its weakness.

As for white-weenie... if you want to keep it budget... Mask of Memory, Silver Knight, Soltari Priest, Mother of Runes, Swords, possibly Aether Vial and go from there?

[FoolofaTook]

I'd think mono-black if I was doing this. It's still the fastest, cheapest way to get something going early and you can easily build in anti-graveyard hate in the sideboard or maindeck.

Maybe something like this:

4x Leyline of The Void
4x Duress (budget)
2x Ill-Gotten Gains
2x Extirpate
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Dark Ritual
2x Tombstalker
4x Order of The Ebon Hand (budget and anti-StP)
4x Dunerider Outlaw (budget and anti-Goyf)
3x Big-Game Hunter
2x Spined Fluke
4x Diabolic Edict
2x Nevinyrral's Disk
19x Swamp

I'm guessing the whole thing comes in under $40 and will beat a Legacy opponent often enough not to be boring to play as people learn the new rules. It also makes minimal use of the stack so it's hard for them to mess themselves up as they try to figure out what's what.

Edit: whoops, Leyline of the Void has gone waaaaay up since I bought mine. Looks more like a $75 dollar deck now.

[Zach Tartell]

I'd think mono-black if I was doing this. It's still the fastest, cheapest way to get something going early and you can easily build in anti-graveyard hate in the sideboard or maindeck.

Maybe something like this:

4x Leyline of The Void
4x Duress (budget)
2x Ill-Gotten Gains
2x Extirpate
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Dark Ritual
2x Tombstalker
4x Order of The Ebon Hand (budget and anti-StP)
4x Dunerider Outlaw (budget and anti-Goyf)
3x Big-Game Hunter
2x Spined Fluke
4x Diabolic Edict
2x Nevinyrral's Disk
19x Swamp

I'm guessing the whole thing comes in under $40 and will beat a Legacy opponent often enough not to be boring to play as people learn the new rules. It also makes minimal use of the stack so it's hard for them to mess themselves up as they try to figure out what's what.

Extirpate = budget? Not to mention the obvious lack of synergy between Leyline and Extirpate.

I feel like a mono-black, Ritual into Hippy sort of deck is defenetly (My computer can't recognize definitely but suggests Defenestrate (which is probably the best verb ever)in its place. Weak, Firefox spell-checker people) the way to get people excited about magic. Like, I'm prolly gonna goad a friend who got me into magic (casually) into coming to a local by building him Deadguy. Shit's like the most fun a casual player can have, short of the "let's pick our hands" sort of Swamp, Ritual, Sol Ring, 4x Black Vise, go.

[Ewokslayer]

I feel like a mono-black, Ritual into Hippy sort of deck is defenetly (My computer can't recognize definitely but suggests Defenestrate (which is probably the best verb ever)in its place. Weak, Firefox spell-checker people)

Gee, I wonder why it didn't recognize Defenetly as a word?

[Zach Tartell]

Gee, I wonder why it didn't recognize Defenetly as a word?

For spell checking, asshat. For instance, asshat= as shat or ass hat. Defenetly = defenestrate, defensibly, frenetically, defenestrated or defenestrates. But not definitely.

[Cavius The Great]

I'd run a deck like this. I call it Redneck Sligh and it's really fun.

// Lands
3 [ON] Wooded Foothills
11 [OD] Mountain (2)
3 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
4 [TE] Wasteland

// Creatures
4 [TO] Grim Lavamancer
4 [4E] Ball Lightning
4 [SH] Mogg Flunkies
4 [TE] Mogg Conscripts
4 [TE] Jackal Pup
4 [10E] Mogg Fanatic
4 [PLC] Simian Spirit Guide
4 [BOK] Goblin Cohort
3 [TO] Hell-Bent Raider

// Spells
4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [FUT] Magus of the Moon
SB: 4 [PT] Fire Imp
SB: 3 [LG] Spinal Villain
SB: 4 [LRW] Ingot Chewer

Minus the fetches and perhaps wastelands and replace them with a playset of barbarian rings and more mountain and you got yourself a budget deck.

[Dilettante]

Alternate black deck list:

4x Duress
4x Hymm to Tourach
4x Dark Ritual
4x Smallpox
4x Hypnotic Specter
4x Phyrexian Totem
4x Shriekmaw
2x Funeral Charm
3x Phyrexian Arena
4x The Rack
23x Swamp


3x Arena would cost $3 from OtE (that includes shipping), (http://cgi.ebay.com/AP-Phyrexian-Arena-heavy-play-Apocalypse-Magic-MTG-FREE_W0QQitemZ360035213474QQihZ023QQcategoryZ19115QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem)though in HP condition.
4x Hyppie would cost $13 (http://cgi.ebay.com/MtG-Magic-the-Gathering-4x-Hypnotic-Specter_W0QQitemZ180226922210QQihZ008QQcategoryZ19115QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)


Rest is easy pickup.

[Metaknight]

9 land and Sligh can be built for about $45-50 total. I'm sure there are lists somewhere on this site for both.

[FoolofaTook]

Extirpate = budget? Not to mention the obvious lack of synergy between Leyline and Extirpate.

I feel like a mono-black, Ritual into Hippy sort of deck is defenetly (My computer can't recognize definitely but suggests Defenestrate (which is probably the best verb ever)in its place. Weak, Firefox spell-checker people) the way to get people excited about magic. Like, I'm prolly gonna goad a friend who got me into magic (casually) into coming to a local by building him Deadguy. Shit's like the most fun a casual player can have, short of the "let's pick our hands" sort of Swamp, Ritual, Sol Ring, 4x Black Vise, go.

I wanted to put Hyppies in but they're listed as like $7 a pop or therabouts on the major card sites and that was too much for a creature.

Extirpate was to work with the discard and allow people to get rid of something they forced the other guy to discard if it looked really threatening. Realistically even with mulligans you only start with Leylines in play about 50% of the time so there has to be a disruptive plan B for things like Ichorid also.

You could replace the Extirpates with 2x Tormod's Crypt if you wanted, that would be another plan B for the inevitability of Leylines not being in play a lot.

[lord3vil]

Merfolk. This one plays rather well and is quite cheap too:

4x Lord of Atlantis ($4.00)
4x Riptide Pilferer ($0.20)
4x Tidal Warrior ($0.15)
4x Manta Riders ($0.15)
4x Merfolk Traders ($0.15)
4x Silvergill Adept ($0.25)
3x Boomerang ($0.15)
3x Mask of Memory ($0.15)
4x Counterspell ($1.00)
2x Daze ($1.00)
2x Dissipate ($1.00)
2x Psionic Blast ($7.00)
20x Island

Total without the basic lands: $42.50

You can always swap the Psionic Blasts with Opposition ($2.50) or Quicksilver Fountain ($0.40) to bring the total cost down to $33.50 and $29.30 respectively.

[deviant]

Dragon Stompy?

Hitting people with Pit Dragons is really enjoyable, and don't get me started with arc-sloggers.
They also get a lot of free wins with blood moons, which is nice.
The only "expensive" cards I can think of atm are chrome moxes and jittes.
You can always replace them I guess..

[Metaknight]

Dragon Stompy?

Hitting people with Pit Dragons is really enjoyable, and don't get me started with arc-sloggers.
They also get a lot of free wins with blood moons, which is nice.
The only "expensive" cards I can think of atm are chrome moxes and jittes.
You can always replace them I guess..

lets see, 4x chalice ($6), 3x SoFI ($9), 4x Magus of the Moon ($4), 4x ancient tomb ($5), and 4x city of traitors ($8). lets now do some math

(6x4)+(3x9)+(4x4)+(4x5)+(4x8)=$119, and that doesn't include the rest of the deck (which is admittedly cheap). But 119 is hardly budget.

[Getsickanddie]

You can put a decent Ravager list together for little more than the price of the ravagers.

[from Cairo]

If your hope is to get them to progress from casually playing with you, toward moving into the Legacy tournament scene, I would not do White Weenie or 9 Land stompy since even once optimized they are pretty mediocre and the cards don't really transfer to a more competitive deck. Like Rogue Elephants and Silver Knights are good for what they are, but they aren't going to get much use outside their respective pretty narrow, underwhelming archtypes.

I would suggest Burn, or Mono Black Agro (Rituals, Hyppies, Hymns, Knights, w/e), maybe UG Madness or if working with a bit larger budget, Dragon Stompy. Burn can be viable, it can also be upgraded with some duals and Goyfs to Burning Tog. Monoblack can move to Eva Green or Deadguy if the player wants to invest in the format. UG Madness would cover alot of the commons/playstyle of agro control, obviously with alot of investment might turn a player on to Thresh.

Dragon Stompy is obviously just the most affordable completely tournament ready/competitive/proven deck.

If you just want your friends to play magic casually with you then build them w/e you think they would like cause obviously the transferability to a tournament deck is irrelevant.

[deviant]

lets see, 4x chalice ($6), 3x SoFI ($9), 4x Magus of the Moon ($4), 4x ancient tomb ($5), and 4x city of traitors ($8). lets now do some math

(6x4)+(3x9)+(4x4)+(4x5)+(4x8)=$119, and that doesn't include the rest of the deck (which is admittedly cheap). But 119 is hardly budget.

Those are not the prices I had to pay on ebay..
Besides, SoFI sucks and shouldn't be played anyway.
Just sayin' that if you want to, you can make a dragon stompyish deck for them built around moons, trinis and chalices f.e.

Or a RG-aggro built around orcish lumberjack.

[AngryTroll]

+1 on UG Madness. Most of the cards are pretty cheap, and can be upgraded later with Stifles and Wastelands to have a competitive deck. Add Forces for a medium investment, or replace the madness creatures with Geese and Goyfs, and suddenly you have two color tempo Threshold.

[Hanni]

You don't wanna build them crappy casual decks that are going to be considered jank though...

I think these are your best options so far:

Burn
Affinity
Mono Black Stuff

Obviously, find out what color and playstyle is their favorite first, before trying to figure out what kind of deck to make them.

WAIT... I HAVE A BETTER ANSWER... introduce them to MWS...

[yawg07]

I would say Affinity for sure, burn and mono-black are great but they lack the versatility and sheer speed/consistency ratio of Affinity.
Affinity costs ...

Ravagers (~40) + Small Amount for rest of deck unless you want 3x Needle for the SB

[mujadaddy]

WAIT... I HAVE A BETTER ANSWER... introduce them to MWS...
End of thread.

[yawg07]

End of thread.

Except for the fact that MWS is full of a bunch of idiots who couldn't play correctly to save their lives.

Thread re-starts.

[technogeek5000]

If you want them to get back into paper magic, then Sui black is probably your best bet. The mono black builds without thoughtsieze are relatively cheap, the deck isnt exactly dificult to play, and it is fast plus exciting due to its explosive openings. Also introducing them to MWS could help, but im pretty sure they would get bored of that fast as they would be losing way to much and would most likely become another one of the MWS noobs that plauge the servers.

[mujadaddy]

Except for the fact that MWS is full of a bunch of idiots who couldn't play correctly to save their lives.

I resemble that remark! :tongue:

[Thehunter820]

I find that alot of new players have fun with Aggro decks like 9 land stompy, some red/green aggro, goyf isnt rly necessary there, and they usually like elves too. The only other cheap thing that I can think of is some bleack beatdown.

[technogeek5000]

If you want to get them interested, then your gonna want to build them something easy to understand while still exciting. Thats why affinity and Suicide seems like they would work so well. here is what i would build them:

4 Dark ritual
4 Carnophage
4 Sarcomancy
4 Hymn to tourach
4 Black knight
3 Snuff out
19 swamps
4 nantuko shade
3 Phyrexian negator
3 Hand of cruelty
4 smother
4 Duress

Not exactly the optimal build, but fast and exciting and no concepts of the deck should be to hard for them to understand. You can replace the duresses for something else because they will probably not be able to pick the correct card all of the time. Either build them this or something like this:

4 Blank (dont want to overload them, maybe something easy like myr servitor)
4 ornithopter
4 Myr enforcer
4 frogmite
4 cranial plating
4 archbound ravager
4 archbound worker
4 shrapnel blast
4 thoughtcast
4 disciple of the vault
4 Seat of synod
4 Great furnace
4 vault of whispers
3 Glimmervoid
1 somber hovergaurd

Again not to complicated but fast. No flings but shrapnel blasts... should be easier for them to understand.

[Bongo]

You can build interesting decks using only commons.
Something like:

8 Forest
7 Plains
4 Selesnya Sanctuary
2 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Essence Warden
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Veteran Armorer
4 Selesnya Evangel
4 Pallid Mycoderm

4 Fists of Ironwood
4 Scatter the Seeds
4 Sprout Swarm
4 Kjeldoran War Cry
3 Marshaling Cry

Sideboard
4 Terashi's Grasp
4 Guardian of the Guildpact
4 Sunlance
3 Faith's Fetters


(taken from www.pdcmagic.com, great site)
Affinity works fine without Ravager, and is a lot cheaper. Classics like MUC, MBC or RG Beats are great decks that can be built using only commons.
These decks are fun to play, not degenerate and cheap to build.

[Pulp_Fiction]

If they used to play, the BEST deck to build is 9-Land Stompy w/out Tarmogoyf. Something along the lines of:

4x Pouncing Jaguar
4x Skyshroud Elite
4x Jungle Lion ($15.00 for a PLAYSET on eBay or could be 4x Ghazban Orge/Mtenda Lion)
4x Vine Dryad
4x Rogue Elephant
4x Elvish Spirit Guide (most expensive card in the deck)
4x Skyshroud Ridgeback

3x Winter Orb
4x Land Grant
4x Bounty of the Hunt
4x Rancor
4x Might of Old Krosa
4x Giant Growth
9x Forest

SB:
4x Rushwood Legate
4x Compost
4x Tormod's Crypt
3x Naturalize

Not only is this deck old skool but it is also AMAZINGLY fun to play. This is probably a little more money to build than something like Burn but it is certainly the kind of deck to get someone back into magic as it is a very competetive deck and has a pretty good Thresh matchup. Plus, it has the added benefit of having that nostalgia value!