They finally did it... LRR got me to start playing Magic

[Aeralis]

I resisted for years, but I finally caved. Got a whole bunch of Zendikar for Christmas, picked up a pile of boosters from other sets, have plans to go get a Gatewatch fat pack this weekend, and even impulse purchased a Commander deck. (Haven't actually played yet, as I'm looking for people that actually play the game around me, but still.)

First off, LRR, how dare you. Second... Anyone got any good tips for beginners? I try poking around the internet for beginner tips, but everything I find is just super basic gameplay rules and stuff. Or overly complicated deck-building guides that use a decade's worth of jargon that I have no way of knowing yet. Deck-building pitfalls to avoid, ideas for good synergy, maybe a jargon glossary. Any kind of insight would be great!

[ThePasserby]

Hmm, my first bit of advice, is to start researching what Modern Deck you want to play in a year. Because once Standard rotates, unless you are willing to continually invest hundreds of dollars to make a remotely competitive deck it is not worth staying in. Not to discourage you or anything, because LRR got me into Magic too, and I love playing it. It just is Magic is expensive and you got to figure out your priorities and your ability to play to pay. Though if you like Standard, and have the money, do as you wish and ignore this old miser.

Like after this initial wave of booster openings, I recommend you find out what mechanics you like, and start building from there and refrain from buying more boosters after this. Buy singles, it will save you money in the long run.

Though if a financial breakdown is not what you are looking for.

Here are my top ten tips for a new Magic player.(I am a Magic Player for nearly 2 years...still a bit of a noob though.)

1. Find a friendly Local Game Store. If the store makes you feel like a intruder, that is not a place to play Magic or meet new friends. I once new a card shop that lasted barely a couple of years, because they were so insular that no new customers came in and all the people "knew" each other to the point of it being a hostile space to newcomers.

2. Make friends, play Friday Night Magic, and generally try and get as much seat time as you can. This will acclimatize you to the rules and culture.

3. Don't be afraid to call a Judge when you don't understand a rule, be it in a event, a casual game, or just because you don't understand a rule off hand and wish to learn.

4. Don't be afraid to call a Judge if you have misgivings about how your opponent explains the rules to you. While there will be friendly enough people, there are definitely people that invest too much and resort to cheats.

5. Don't be afraid to call a Judge before you make a play to make sure you are doing a legit move. They can't explain how to do things like a combo, but making sure that something happens the way you expect it is okay.

6. If you like opening boosters, Draft. That gets you gameplay for the price of a little under 3 packs. Usually I hear it's 10 bucks more or less, so you are in for the price of three packs more or less, and you get to play.

7. If you draft, make sure you have a Magic price app in your phone. While this may be looked down on, depending on the store, it never feels nice picking a card only to later to realize you gave away a $20 dollar card...

8. If you don't care about money, don't worry about money drafting...

9. Don't let people hussle you. If you get a trade binder, and offer trades, make sure you are getting a equitable trade. Don't let them guilt you into not checking prices, because while the difference of a dollar is no big deal...if the difference is more than 3 dollars, you are loosing essentially a whole pack. Some will try to suck you dry if they think you can be bullied as a new player.

10. Have Fun.

PS
If you want, I can give you my Skype profile, and I can voice chat with you and explain a few things if you want.

[MagisterMystax]

A tip that took me years to realise myself is that smaller decks are better. The smaller your deck, the more often you'll encounter its best cards, essentially. So while making a pile of 200 cards that are all pretty good and all follow your theme might be fun (this used to be my deckbuilding strategy), your deck will actually be way stronger if you stick to the minimum card limit.

As for a jargon glossary... It might help to know which colours people mean with certain terms:
Azorius: White/Blue
Dimir: Blue/Black
Rakdos: Black/Red
Gruul: Red/Green
Selesnya: Green/White
Orzhov: White/Black
Izzet: Blue/Red
Golgari: Black/Green
Boros: Red/White
Simic: Green/Blue
Bant: Green/White/Blue
Esper: White/Blue/Black
Grixis: Blue/Black/Red
Jund: Black/Red/Green
Naya: Red/Green/White
Abzan: White/Black/Green
Jeskai: Blue/Red/White
Sultai: Black/Green/Blue
Mardu: Red/White/Black
Temur: Green/Blue/Red

These names are derives from the Ravnica, Alara, and Tarkir blocks, where they were the names of factions that had those colours.

[ThePasserby]

These names are derives from the Ravnica, Alara, and Tarkir blocks, where they were the names of factions that had those colours.

In addition, there are older slang terms for places that do not accept the Tarkir color combinations.

RUG: Red Blue Green, Temur
BUG: Black Blue Green, Sultai

I need to look up the rest, but those can be a thing as well.

Here's a tool with more names, including bigger than 3 combinations.

http://humpheh.com/magic/c/

[fantôme]

I disagree with Standard needing to cost a lot of money. The top-tier professional decks are going to be expensive of course, but a good deck doesn't have to be. Financially speaking, I make a new Standard deck mostly by trading/selling cards from my previous deck along with cards from the couple of drafts I've usually done in between. Overall I spend very little (relatively), and get to play a lot of different things.

But anyway: think about what format you're interested in and what type of deck you're interested in - basic archetypes of deck being aggro, control & combo. Or from an even more basic starting point - and still a totally legitimate way to get started - think about what particular cards you want to play with.

The forums here will have folks from all experience levels in all different formats happy to help you with whatever. Likewise in a friendly LGS.

Good luck and have fun!

[MagisterMystax]

Another very important tip that's probably not necessary since you're coming into Magic through LRR: winning is only as important as you feel it is. If you lose every game you play, but have a wonderful time at it, that's fantastic too. A lot of people enjoy playing really splashy and impressive stuff (we call them Tammies), weird-ass theme decks or dubious combos (we call them Johnnies), or very story-focussed decks (Vorthoses), and winning is only a secondary concern. Which is not to say that it's wrong to want to win and/or show off your skill either.

[Aeralis]

I quickly learned that my favorite type of cards are the ones that do tricky sneaky nonsense. (Glances at forum avatar.) I guess my first deck I have here would be a "control" deck, with lots of Blue and White cards devoted to countering spells, tapping enemy creatures, and drawing more cards. It is a 90 card deck though, because with it being my first deck I just kinda threw in everything I really liked. I was planning on weeding out some more cards once I actually play the deck and see what happens. I have a few cards devoted to gaining life in there I might be able to just strip out entirely, if need be. (I also have a 90-card Red/White deck. I have a size problem, it seems.)

I also have that Commander deck. "Peer Through Time," it's called. I was going to modify it but while looking through it I thought it was already a really cool deck. Does anybody have any experience with the deck and have suggestions on how to modify it?

I made sure that everything I got was in Standard, and I plan on always having Standard decks on hand. Maybe once my non-standard card pile grows enough I can have a couple non-standard fun decks too. I found this awesome site while researching what exactly Standard was: http://whatsinstandard.com/

And thanks for the tips everyone! I do have a local game shop I visit semi-frequently that I plan on going to more regularly (especially since the Double Clicks will be playing there in a couple weeks!), and a friend has a group she plays with that she's going to introduce me to.

[Randus2003]

A - welcome to the club.
B - I've been playing this game off and on for the last 20 year (and I wouldn't say I'm anywhere near good). So trust me when I say it's more than ok to be a "filthy casual".
C - a good starting place might be the podcast "Magic the Amateuring" (stating with ep 1 and working forward to the current eps). I recommend this show (especially the old eps because it's all about an experienced player teaching 2 new players how to play...and it's got a lot of funny parts to hold your attention.
D - don't be afraid to ask questions here because "most" of us are good people.