MTGO as a beginner?

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MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 26 Oct 2015, 01:07

I'm really sorry if there is already a Topic here that I haven't found.

For the last year I've been playing with the idea to start playing Magic. (again)
Since I can't go to the only local FNM(bad timeslot), and my friends don't play, there is only the option of MTGO left.

Now the question is, can I have a good time without burning through my wallet, or should i just stick with watching the Streams.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby AdmiralMemo » 26 Oct 2015, 02:11

Depends on what formats you like. (Also depends on exactly what you mean by "burn through your wallet" too.)

If you just like drafting, then you can sell your cards to bots for more packs, and just keep chaining it. (It's hard to "go infinite" on MtGO, but it will slow the bleed certainly.)

You can also pick up Constructed Pauper for pretty cheap. I personally picked up Pauper as something to do with the draft chaff that the bots won't take.

All other formats of Constructed usually have some sort of one-time big expense, but then you can play for a significant amount of time before your deck is no longer viable.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 26 Oct 2015, 10:19

Thanks :)

Well, it would most likely be less drafting than constructed in the beginning, I guess.
The last time I've really played was around Urza's.

Well it might be worth the experiment to use my next vaccation to at least test the starter Kit.

Is there an Option to play for free (Account and price of the deck excluded), or does every game cost tickets?
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby Randus2003 » 26 Oct 2015, 10:34

I would recommend finding someone that can walk you through the interface when/if you give it a shot because it can be a lot to take in and the online help/tutorials aren't that good.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 26 Oct 2015, 11:26

Sounds like a good plan.
LR and the complains in the LLR streams somewhat prepared me for a counter intuitive UI and functions.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby AdmiralMemo » 26 Oct 2015, 11:41

MtGO itself is free, but if you don't sign up for an account, you're limited to 5 pre-built decks to face off against other free folks.

If you pay $10, you get a number of cards (I think 200) and some "New Player Points" to use. I'd recommend playing some test games before paying to get used to the interface. Then, once you've paid, use the New Player Points to try your hand at drafting. Once you've drafted twice, you should be ready for the real thing. :-)

Every draft other than the New Player drafts (of which I think you get 2) costs tickets and/or product. If you win Constructed tournaments or Phantom Drafts, you earn Play Points, which you can turn around and use for more tournaments, Constructed, Phantom, or otherwise.
Graham wrote:The point is: Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I'm an old man.
LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 26 Oct 2015, 12:17

Thanks Memo, but i think I've failed to get across what I've meant.

After I've bought the Account and did the new player drafts, and invested some cash in a deck, is there a way to play matches with the deck without having to use tickets. So the equivalent of playing a friendly game.
____

Ok, after checking the MTGO site, its 700 Cards, 300 of them are Lands, and 20 Tokens, that can be used for the new Player events, so up to 5 Drafts or 4 Sealed events.

So I guess, 5 Drafts, even if i can't keep the cards, since its a phantom event, should be enough to feel like the 10$ are well spent. ^^
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby Kapol » 26 Oct 2015, 12:23

MTGO is, basically, just paper Magic online in a lot of ways. That includes everything from the cost to the priority system. Honestly, I don't find the interface that bad. The only real issue I think it has is being... well, kind of ugly. But it's functional, and that's the important part. At least based on my experiences.

The nice thing about playing online is that you can't actually play the game wrong. It's a lot easier for learning things like priority, targeting, and board wipes. It also makes it impossible to mess up what a card does and realize much later (playing something as a morph when it's not and stuff like that).

One of the other benefits of MTGO beyond the 'on your time' aspect is that it's generally cheaper. Constructed cards are usually a good deal cheaper than their physical counterparts online. Especially if you want to play something like Vintage. The downside is that stuff you get from drafts is generally not worth as much either, making it hard to go infinite, as Memo said.

The big downside for a new player is that it's hard to play MTGO 'casually.' Playing in one of the just for fun rooms will have you faced against salty opponents with powerful decks. Unless you find a playgroup to play with online, it's going to be hard to play really 'just for fun.' Though the runners do a fan-draft every week that's normally pretty good, if I'm not mistaken.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby AdmiralMemo » 26 Oct 2015, 12:24

Oh yes... Friendly games are quick and easy to set up and do not cost anything outside of the cards. :-) I play them all the time. I've got like 30-odd casual Commander decks, a couple of Modern, a couple of Pauper decks, and Momir/Jhoira/Stonehewer Giant/MoJo/MoJoSto decks. :-)
Graham wrote:The point is: Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I'm an old man.
LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby Kapol » 26 Oct 2015, 12:25

I'd trust Memo on that more than me then. I don't play much online, so I trust Memo's expertise more than my own there. :p
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 26 Oct 2015, 12:41

@Kapol:
Ok, so the normal rules for people in online games do apply.
I translate that as: "you'll have a bad time with a cheap standard Deck."

The fan drafts sound interesting but could be a problem due to timezone magic, I'm sitting in the UTC+1(+2 on DST) Zone.

@Memo:
Thanks.
Sounds good, guess I'll have to just try it. :)
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby AdmiralMemo » 26 Oct 2015, 12:43

Kapol wrote:it's generally cheaper. Constructed cards are usually a good deal cheaper than their physical counterparts online. Especially if you want to play something like Vintage. The downside is that stuff you get from drafts is generally not worth as much either, making it hard to go infinite, as Memo said.
Yep. If you spend the money, it's cheaper, mainly because you only ever need 4 of any card max (except Shadowborn Apostle) no matter what format you play or how many decks you want. Physically, you need the number of cards per deck unless you want to be constantly deconstructing and reconstructing decks. Thus, the secondary market is cheaper in both buying and selling.
Kapol wrote:The big downside for a new player is that it's hard to play MTGO 'casually.' Playing in one of the just for fun rooms will have you faced against salty opponents with powerful decks. Unless you find a playgroup to play with online, it's going to be hard to play really 'just for fun.' Though the runners do a fan-draft every week that's normally pretty good, if I'm not mistaken.
Oh yes, the community is a bit hard to get into, granted. Finding games with randos is easy, but they're randos, so you have no idea what their deck is like or how much they've invested in it. It's easy to play games with randos, game-interface-wise. Whether you want to play with those randos is up to you. I recommend joining the LRR MtGO clan and then you might find nice people to play with.

Maybe you can get in the Sealed League? That's pretty fun. All you have to spend is 6 packs and you get to play for an entire season of Magic. :-) (Also, most people just enter a sealed event to get their cards for it, which gets them 3 more rounds out of the same pool. :-) )
hacofo wrote:@Kapol:
Ok, so the normal rules for people in online games do apply.
I translate that as: "you'll have a bad time with a cheap standard Deck."
Yeah, pretty much, if you're concerned about winning with any frequency. I make all my Standard decks out of draft chaff and don't really care too much whether I win or not. :-D
Graham wrote:The point is: Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I'm an old man.
LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby Kapol » 26 Oct 2015, 12:53

hacofo wrote:I translate that as: "you'll have a bad time with a cheap standard Deck."

The fan drafts sound interesting but could be a problem due to timezone magic, I'm sitting in the UTC+1(+2 on DST) Zone.



It depends on what is expensive for you. You're likely not going to be able to do a lot with a $20 deck. Though you can get a much better base than you'd be able to with paper. Looking at the Atarka Red decks, they seem to be about $170 for a top-tier version. You could likely play a cheaper version without the lands for less than $100. In paper, the deck is $470, as a point of comparison.

But if you find people to play more casually, or try a different format like Pauper, you could likely play for a pretty cheap price.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby SixFootTurkey » 26 Oct 2015, 12:59

When joining a 'free play' match (no entry fee or prizes), there are four options that go from 'just starting out' to 'professional testing'. There's no guarantee that the random opponent you are matched against will be of the same mindset as you, but it gives you a better chance than not dividing the player base at all.

I don't believe clans have an internal chat yet, but you can find online players (through LRR or LR for example) who want to play at a similar competitiveness to you.

Magic Duels is worth looking into as well; it's a free program on steam or on mobile, that is essentially a single player tutorial.

I don't have a standard deck on MtGO put together yet, but if you want I can join a call/hangout and help walk you through the various differences regarding the interface on MtGO.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby Randus2003 » 26 Oct 2015, 13:22

Not sure if it's been pointed out yet or not (you said that you have been watching videos so you may have noticed) but I think you should be aware if you haven't played since urza's block there have been some major rules overhauls and power level "adjustments" in card types.

As to Memo's suggestion about our sealed league I would 2nd it but given that I'm currently running it I may be a little bias :)
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 27 Oct 2015, 04:05

@Kapol :
Well, The only thing I've looked up are some Theme Decks i'd like to try out, most of them are according to some websites in the 15-40$ Range.
170$ isn't cheap, but it's actually far less than I've expected for a deck in the competitive range.

@SixFootTurkey:
Thanks :)
I'll take you up on that.

I've tried Magic Duels, but I'm not a big fan.
It's cluttered, has unnecessary effects, and modifying your deck is a real pain.


@Randus
I've noticed, and Manaburn will not be missed. ;)
As I've said I'm thinking about playing again for about a Year now, but been watching streams and Listening to Podcasts (TTC and LR) for almost 3 years now.
So I'm not really going in completly blind.

The Problem for me was that like always, no one really likes to talk about money, so I didn't really have a concept of what to expect.
And I've managed to miss all mentions of the "free play" feature once you have a deck set up.

The League sounds like a great Idea, the question is at what times are the games scheduled?
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby AdmiralMemo » 27 Oct 2015, 06:31

hacofo wrote:The League sounds like a great Idea, the question is at what times are the games scheduled?
The League is filled for the first round, and Randus has said that new players will only be added in pairs between rounds, to prevent byes. So if you can find someone else who wants to join, you can slot in during Round 2 of this league. (Antitonic, hascow, adi_pie, and selenes92 have shown interest, but didn't submit pools in time, so your best bet would be coordinating with one of them, if you want to join before Oath comes out.)

How it works is that you get paired with your opponent on Sunday, and then you and your opponent have a week to coordinate and play your Round. Winner is best 2 out of 3 games. So, it's not "scheduled" per se, since you and your opponent can figure out when is best for both of you to play during that week. :-)
Graham wrote:The point is: Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I'm an old man.
LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby SixFootTurkey » 27 Oct 2015, 13:42

If you use the Desert Bus IRC, I hang out there and on Steam with the same name.

I just made a modern deck a few days ago on MtGO. It's unlikely to ever be competitive, but I'll be spending a while tuning this before I give up on it; I find it quite enjoyable, so it's a good deck for me to learn modern with. (A play set of Serum Visions ran me $6, but the rest of the pieces totaled at under $1. I've also added two bulk rares I had from previous drafts.)
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 31 Oct 2015, 01:07

Ok, I've pulled the trigger and made myself an account.
The not so smart part of that decision was that I've made it while starting my day at the university so I have to wait till tonight or tomorrow evening to get some time in.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby guidance » 01 Nov 2015, 19:01

Im also new to mtgo, just made an account this week to play innistrad drafts. I was wondering if there is a way to buy an innistrad booster as I have 2 already and would rather get the booster than buying tix. Can anyone help me out?
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby SixFootTurkey » 01 Nov 2015, 20:12

If you go to the 'trade' tab, you can search for people (or bots) that want to trade for boosters. (Most will use the set abbreviation, which should be 'ISD', so a search of 'ISD booster' should get you there.)
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby hacofo » 01 Nov 2015, 21:54

Ok, so i've managed to get in my first draft sunday morning. 0-2
Missed the point where I should have switched from Black / White to Blue / White.

But at least I think I know what went wrong. ^^
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby guidance » 01 Nov 2015, 23:46

SixFootTurkey wrote:If you go to the 'trade' tab, you can search for people (or bots) that want to trade for boosters. (Most will use the set abbreviation, which should be 'ISD', so a search of 'ISD booster' should get you there.)


Took a few tries but I found a bot with the booster. Thanks.
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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby AdmiralMemo » 01 Nov 2015, 23:59

I use Eternal Booster Bot for my old boosters.
Graham wrote:The point is: Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I'm an old man.
LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: MTGO as a beginner?

Postby Randus2003 » 02 Nov 2015, 07:47

AdmiralMemo wrote:I use Eternal Booster Bot for my old boosters.

what memo said, and goatbot for almost everything else.

Question to those new to mtgo: Would you find it useful if we posted a few screenshots showing how to get around or say memo (assuming he's ok with it) made a quick set of how to videos on his twitch page that you could use as reference.

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