New to game, have a few questions...

[The Strange One]

Hi, some of you know me from the Yu-Gi-Oh board, but recently I felt an interest in MTG. The only cards I have right now are from an old Starter Deck that my father purchased a few years back, but never opened. Anway, I have a few questions.

1. Is there a minimun/maximum number of cards in a deck? I couldn't for the life of me find that answer anywhere. It's probably in the rulebook, but I looked and couldn't find it.

2. I need to know some basic info about Boster packs. I know that a booster comes with 15 cards, but I'm not sure about the structure of boosters.
2a. Are you guarunteed a rare card like other games, or is completely random?
2b. Do booster packs have basic land cards in them?
2c. Is there a set number of cards in a pack? (like a set number of uncommons, commons, and lands)

3. I'm not currently planning on spending thousands of dollars buying Black Lotuses and Ancestral Recalls and becoming world champ, I just want a competitive deck to play against my friends. I want to build a Black/Blue deck with many artifacts.
3a. What sets do you recommend I buy to fufill the needs of my deck?
3b. What are some powerful cards for those colors?

4. Finally, I need to know what the playes are like. I don't mean skill level, but their personalities. I remeember from the days of Pokemon, everyone was courteous to eachother, but we were all little kids. Yu-Gi-Oh players were sometimes mean or rude to new players and some cards get stolen from time to time. Those kids are mostly preteens-teenagers. I know that a lot of Magic the Gathering players are adults/older teens and I've heard some horror stories about some real jerks who think they are better because they're older/more expirienced. The question is: Are Magic the Gathering players really that mean/rude or are those rumors false?

Thanks for your help. Who knows, maybe someday I'll be playing you guys in some World Cghampionship Tour someday...

[Zeta]

1. In Constructed, minimum and maximum is 60. In Limited, minimum is 40, and there is no maximum.

2. A booster pack contains 1 rare, 3 uncommons, and 11 commons.

3. You don't need to, because of the many formats. For more information on formats, go here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=judge/resources/banned
a/b. It depends on the format, but Torment is a good set for U/B.

4. Usually, M:TG players are older, so they often find younger YGO players immature. Really, it all depends on your area.


Somehow, though, I don't think this topic belonged here. -_-

[AKA:Battousai]

acually there is no maximun for any format...
most decks are built with 60 cards
Limited format decks can be as low as 40
Casual format is whatever you and your group are comfortable with

packs are structured to have random card types but they do follow some patterns if you open enough packs at the same time...

a pack from any Block will have 1 Rare, 3 uncommons, 11 commons... every box that contains 36 boosterpacks will have 1 foil Rare card

other foil cards are behind the rare in a pack so if you open a pack and are counting and you happen to only count 10 commons before you hit the uncommons, there is most likely a common foil behind the rare

well as for the whole rude thing...

it is kinda of an experience thing, especially when someone trys to correct others on rulings and stuff like that... this happens alot around our shop because both the owners are level 1 judges but one of them really doesn't follow the rules all too close

(in a draft, playing a drooling orge deck, I almost had to break out the rulebook and show her that a countered spell is still a played spell, she said no it was countered so you never played a spell, yadda yadda yadda... the deck still won that draft)

also new players do take alot of crap usually getting nicknames that aren't that fun (mantis, the dumb kid, cory's little brother, dennis, etc...) I had a few back when I was in the 7th grade (Mr. Topdeck, at least that was a good one) 12th now and I try to be nice to the new players...

[Ricohard1986]

1) constructed minumum:60 Maximum: what you can sufficiently randomize (shuffle), this usually is up to a judge and is somewhere around 300
Limited or draft minumum: 40 Maximum: as many cards as you drafted/were given

2a) Boosters are always 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 11 commons. You can find the exact order through print runs but thats only really important if your a serious drafter

b) basic Land cards (swamp, island, forest, mountain, plains) are only in the core set (8th edition) non-basic land (anything else) are in what ever set there printed in and are given a rarity usually common ( Blinkmoth nexus being the only rare land i can thing of in print at the moment)

c) answered in part A

3a) For artifacts you want to concentrate on Mirrodin or Darksteel

b) artifacts: Arcbound ravager (rare, Darksteel)
Chrome Mox (rare, Mirrodin)
Isochron sceptre (uncommon, mirrodin)
Black: Disciple of the vault (common, mirrodin)
Blue: Brain freeze (common, scourge)

4) this depends upon the maturity of your group but the majority of magic players ive met and played with are friendly and ready to assist new comers