Magical Monday

Hello again, and welcome to Magical Mondays!

If you’re just tuning in for the first time, this series will be posting every Monday on all things magical! This includes Magic: the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and anything else in the realm of magic.

Magic: the Gathering was the first topic of these posts. If you want a quick run down on its history and how to play, I would go back to that post from April 6^th.

If you’re a veteran, keep reading because I’m so excited to talk about this free and easy program to play called Magic: the Gathering Arena! Here’s the link: https://tinyurl.com/sqgdmyk to download.

First things first, if you’re a YA, always ask a parent before downloading anything onto your computer or using any of the pay to play features.

Now, on to the fun stuff!

As a player for the past year and a half, I’ve only ever played Commander. MTG Arena teaches Standard, a format I’ve heard of but never tried. This made this first video a bit of a challenge for me, but I was really excited to be learning a new format. 

The Standard format only uses the most recent card sets released in Magic. The main rules to creating a Standard deck can be found at https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/standard-formats-magic-gathering but I’ve also included them here:

Sets used for Standard as of 4/13/2020.

Note: some are not released, yet. 

• Your deck must be at least 60 cards.
• Up to 15 cards may be included in your sideboard, if you use one.
• Include no more than 4 copies of any individual card in your main deck and sideboard combined (except basic lands).
• There's no maximum deck size, as long as you can shuffle your deck in your hands unassisted.
• Though there is no deck size, most Standard players play with a 60 card deck and a 15 card sideboard.

Some other things to know are that this format is usually one vs. one, with each player starting with a total of 20 life.

MTG Arena does this all of this work for you, so don’t worry if you’ve never created a deck before!

After creating your account, you move through the tutorial where you have five different computer opponents that each teach you a different mechanic or combo of the game. For instance, they teach you when to best use an Instant card, or when to hold back from blocking against attackers. 

After that, you still play with computer opponents until you unlock the ability to play with other online users. I still haven’t unlocked this yet, and it might take me awhile to do so (you’ll see why in the video). You also unlock different cards to build your own deck instead of playing their premade ones.

There are pay to play features, but everyone I know who uses this program has never needed to pay for anything to get the most out of the game. That’s what makes MTG Arena really great, especially when Magic can become a really expensive hobby in its paper form.

So, if you’re looking for people to play Magic with or want to learn something new, MTG Arena is definitely the way to go. It’s great for beginners and veterans alike (everyone in my in-person playgroup, who I consider way better at Magic than me, have it downloaded). 

Enjoy the video and stay tuned for more magical content every Monday!

Email me with questions, suggestions, to talk about Magic, or just to say hello at alandry@cwmars.org.