Uphill both ways, in Snow-Covered Mountains

[Tinfish]

An alternative title might be "What is this new-fangled trickery? You young rascals get off my lawn!"

I recently moved house, and my new flatmates played MTG in the past, so we're looking into picking it back up. So I unearthed my boxes of cards and played a few games. Pretty fun, although I'm pretty sure I can improve on my tweenage deck building! You see, I last played MTG in the late Nineties; my most recent cards are from Exodus, and most of them are Tempest, Stronghold, or Fifth Edition. So obviously none of them are legal in Standard or Limited (and I'm pretty sure they've been rendered obsolete by power creep anyway)!

I'm not really sure, now, how to progress from here. Pick up Theros while it's still available, or wait until Khans of Tarkir comes out? I'm not even sure what sort of deck to play (though I think I would have liked Golgari back in Ravnica).
For that matter, how do I find people to play with? According to my flatmates, the scene here in Christchurch, NZ is highly competitive, misogynistic, and features That Guy™, who ostensibly makes his living by swindling twelve-year-olds out of expensive rares in trades. Not really my scene!
Great people though they are, I'd rather not limit myself to my flatmates, either; one of them is a poor loser (insistently and exclusively mono-black, keeps threatening to rebuild her overpowered vampire deck from Innistrad, favoured strategy is to whine at her boyfriend until he lets her win) and the other (red burn, long-suffering) tends to let her win.

So, um ... I'm not sure what my point was. Thanks for listening to me ramble. Suggestions or advice are welcome - how does one figure out what sort of deck to play? And how does one distinguish between a bad deck and being bad at playing that colour? Most importantly, how does one find decent human beings to play with in my small and crumbling city?

[Duckay]

Do you know how to draft? My first recommendation would be to check out a local game store that runs drafts and try out playing there. I know you said the local community isn't really your flatmates' flavour, and I definitely don't endorse being a jerk of any form in the game, but even if there's a general culture that skews competitive (or skews asshole, which it does sound a bit like - they aren't always synonyms), if there's more than one game store you may find one of them a bit more to your tastes than the other. Also drafting will help you rebuild a collection and reacquaint yourself with what's going on.

[Kapol]

As a note, until you're comfortable with knowing prices, either always check the value of cards (via phone or whatever works best for you) or hold onto them until you can check their value. If there really is the kind of person who'll try to swindle others in trade, then you'll likely want to be a bit more careful.

That said, the Khans prerelease would be a good place to take a step back into the game. They're meant for 'newer' players, which can brand new people or people who haven't played in a long time. So it's a lot more casual.

[jkefka]

Wait for Khans. It's not a long wait and the prerelease is a good environment. Look at the intro packs, which are mediocre if sensible decks.

The gaming scene is made of the people who populate it. Be awesome and in it, and you will make it more awesome.

Having more people to play with will mutate the meta of any group of friends. You start building decks that mess with your flatmates, they will start to build new things to adapt, and you will get into interesting feedback loops and arms races until you end up in a new and more interestingly sophisticated balance...at least that's what happens with the people I play with regularly.

TL;DR play magic and let magic happen.

[Tinfish]

My experience with Draft so far is entirely watching LRR's MTG videos, but I think I have a handle on the basic idea, if not how it works in practice. There appear to be two stores here in Christchurch; since my flatmates are more familiar with one of them, I might try the other.

[Duckay]

Different gaming stores even in the same area can harbour wildly different communities so it's worth a try. Also, yes, first step should be prerelease.

[korvys]

Christchurch Magic did have a pretty competitive reputation up north, but I can't say I ever made my way down there.

If you don't care for people, or particular people, or the people in a particular community, MTGO is a pretty solid substitute, though some would disagree.

Either way, the prerelease is a good start, and drafting is a good way to build a collection and play while your own collection is lacking. You might not have the Standard staples, but everyone starts on the same footing in limited.

[Tinfish]

How often do you play constructed, as opposed to draft or sealed? I'd like a green/black token deck for some reason I'm not entirely sure of myself, but it seems that M15/Khans isn't the block to do it in. How much does it matter that such a thing probably wouldn't be tournament legal?

[jkefka]

Depends who you want to play with. I keep an incidental modern-legal deck around, and sometimes I come up with an idea worth turning into a standard deck. Most of my 60-card decks are not competitive-legal, or if they are it's in vintage and they would immediately lose. I just don't play in your average FNMs, I play with friends who have similar decks.

May I recommend the ancient and noble art of Commander, in which you can do damn near whatever you please and there are lots of people that play it. I don't know what NZ's commander scene is like, but it sounds like the arena for a GB token deck.

[Duckay]

How often do you play constructed, as opposed to draft or sealed? I'd like a green/black token deck for some reason I'm not entirely sure of myself, but it seems that M15/Khans isn't the block to do it in. How much does it matter that such a thing probably wouldn't be tournament legal?

That really depends entirely on how much you intend to play Magic outside of tournaments. I can tell you for my part that I almost never play Magic outside of a tournament setting (I don't really sit down for casual games unless I'm playtesting for a big event).

[jkefka]

Depends who you want to play with. I keep an incidental modern-legal deck around, and sometimes I come up with an idea worth turning into a standard deck. Most of my 60-card decks are not competitive-legal, or if they are it's in vintage and they would immediately lose. I just don't play in your average FNMs, I play with friends who have similar decks.

May I recommend the ancient and noble art of Commander, in which you can do damn near whatever you please and there are lots of people that play it. I don't know what NZ's commander scene is like, but it sounds like the arena for a GB token deck.

How often do you play constructed, as opposed to draft or sealed? I'd like a green/black token deck for some reason I'm not entirely sure of myself, but it seems that M15/Khans isn't the block to do it in. How much does it matter that such a thing probably wouldn't be tournament legal?

That really depends entirely on how much you intend to play Magic outside of tournaments. I can tell you for my part that I almost never play Magic outside of a tournament setting (I don't really sit down for casual games unless I'm playtesting for a big event).

Timmy, meet Spike

Anyways, these are all valid approaches, it's just a matter of what you want to do.

[Kapol]

To be fair, I rarely play outside of tournaments too. But that's because I don't have enough Magic-playing friends to draft. But I don't think only playing in tournaments is necessarily a 'spike' quality.

I know I don't play any constructed anymore myself. I have a couple of standard-legal decks ready just in case (mono-green devotion and Temur Prophet), as well as an EDH deck because it's likely the biggest constructed format. But my one true love is limited. It's just unfortunate my love is tainted by only having access to chaos drafts...

[korvys]

Johnny-Spike reporting in

I have a Standard deck (Dredge), a Modern deck (Restore Balance), and am currently building a Legacy deck (1-Land Belcher, maybe 0-Land, WIP). If you know these decks, you might be able to tell they are all semi-competitive combo decks.

Also have a couple of Commander decks, cause they're the easiest to get games with in a variety of scenarios.

But normally, I prefer limited. I can't get a lot of paper limited practice, and I've been a bit anti-social lately, so haven't felt like dealing with people, so MTGO has been my go-to.

[Duckay]

Timmy, meet Spike

Anyways, these are all valid approaches, it's just a matter of what you want to do.

I'm sorry!

But I mean, it's not just you, but also the people around you who play. I'd start off with something fun if I was just going to play with flatmates, or something tournament legal if I were going to try out something at a games store, and go from there depending on what the community there is like.

[tamaness]

My play preferences change based on what I'm doing. I'm pretty Timmy in Commander, and spiky-as-hell when drafting. I play Modern (pod) and Standard (currently enchantress), as well, but just because I like to play the game. If there were a legacy or highlander scene here, I'd try and get into those, too.