Duel Masters player wanting to try Magic :)

[tactK]

Hi! I am extremely new to Magic and I really want to start off somewhere, probably as a casual player.

I do have past experiences in TCG especially DuelMasters as I used to play it competitively a couple of years ago (and yeah it burns up hella lot of cash T_T). ANYWAYS lol I've been having my eyes on the new Planechase theme deck "Metallic Dreams (http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/259&dcmp=ilc-mtgrss#64038)" and I was really interested in the amount of synergy you could pull out with artifact cards.

Was wondering if that's a decent pack to get for starters, and if I should get 2 of the same pack cause I really really dislike playing 1-offs(singles) as they are unreliable D:

[EchoIsWin]

Planechase isn't a standard Magic deck. It's a different format then most play, so I suggest you don't go that route.

If you wanna start out, I suggest you go to your local Target/Wal-Mart/Other store/ or perhaps even a gaming shop, if you're lucky, and pick up a Magic the Gathering starter deck. The deck will only be 40 cards, though, and you need 60 for a full Magic deck. If you're going to just play casually, I suggest buying packs whenever you can and start gaining a collection.

If you're looking to go competitive, you need to check out the Main site for the search thing that tells where sanctioned stores are that are near you. I'd be glad to supply the link, if you'd like it. If you have any more questions, I or another member of the Board would love to help you (:

[tactK]

Oh? Even without the whole Planechase rules I thought that deck would be fun to play with xD

And packs, do you mean boosters or fat packs(don't know if fat packs are worth getting)?

Thanks for the info by the way!

[EchoIsWin]

Either works. Boosters are better if you're just gonna by some here and there, but Fat packs will give you more packs, lands, a cool little die, and a booklet with all the cards from that set.

[tactK]

Thanks! I'll definitely go check them out!

Oh I have a question about core sets, what are they? Reprints of old cards? What happen to older core sets when new one comes out?

[Dunjohn]

Up until recently, Core Sets came out every two years and contained reprints of cards that WotC felt were worth keeping around in Standard. Starting with M2010, though, they've changed that. Core sets now release yearly and do contain a good few new cards, that wouldn't really have fit into the main sets. M2010 contains about 50% new cards, 50% reprints. The Core Sets replace each other in Standard, but if a reprinted version of a card is legal in standard then all older versions of it are legal too. So, if you get a bunch of M2010 cards, most of them will still be good to use when M2011 hits.

Whether Planechase is a good choice or not depends on what you want to do with Magic; if you just want to have a few cards to kick around, or if you plan to play regularly and attend tournaments. The Standard format is the primary tournament setup and only includes the most recent sets, and a lot of the cards in Planechase are too old to use there. The power level of the decks is also rather low; they sell on the appeal of the plane cards, and without them, the decks don't do a whole lot. I wouldn't recommend them to someone who's just starting out.

A Fat Pack is a good choice; the eight boosters would be enough to carve a couple of fun decks out of, and you also get a good bunch of land cards. Normally I'd recommend M2010, but if you really want to focus on artifacts, it's not the best; flavourfully, artifacts aren't that easy to find in the Multiverse, so the core Sets deliberately make them scarce.

The three Alara sets, on the other hand, were 1/5th artifact-focused (thematically, the plane was split into five shards, with one - Esper - being mostly metal) so it has a lot of silvery shenanigens going on. They're all standard-legal too. If you can find one of the Esper precon decks, they'd be a good start.

[tactK]

Thanks! I'll probably go check out the fat packs!

EDIT: Oh a friend of mine lend me a couple of old artifact cards to play with from the Mirrodin set I believe. Was wondering, can Sunburst (or any other abilities really, eg landwalk, flying) be countered by spells or abilities that negates Creature abilities?

EDIT2: Oh nevermind lol, I guess those are classified as "Mechanics" instead of being an ability for creatures xD