# What do I need to play Magic the Gathering with my kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 9, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311 "2012-04-09T22:24:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/1 "2012-04-09T22:24:07Z")
I go to Target and I see these “starter packs” (or words to that effect) with sixty cards. Is this enough for _one_ person to play, or is it enough for _two_ to play? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/2 "2012-04-09T22:25:32Z")
I think [this](http://www.amazon.com/Phyrexia-Intro-Deck-Green-White/dp/B004X80VOA/ref=sr_1_4?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1334010289&sr=1-4) was one of the ones I saw. There were like four or five different ones called “intro packs.” ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/3 "2012-04-09T22:26:38Z")
BTW we tried playing once last year. They gave out free thirty card packs at Gen Con. (Which suggest sixty is enough for two but I just want to be sure here…) but one of the decks we ended up with seemed completely unquestionably by far to be more powerful than the other. So we gave up. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/4 "2012-04-09T22:44:43Z")
You may want to look in to the “Duel Decks” products. Each one comes with two decks balanced to play against each other and they have some fun themes (water vs. fire, angels vs. demons). The cards are a bit more advanced than what comes in the intro packs, but I don’t think it would be too difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/5 "2012-04-09T23:18:02Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > You may want to look in to the “Duel Decks” products. Each one comes with two decks balanced to play against each other and they have some fun themes (water vs. fire, angels vs. demons). The cards are a bit more advanced than what comes in the intro packs, but I don’t think it would be too difficult. I agree with this but they can be harder to find. If so the starter decks you linked to are okay too. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/6 "2012-04-09T23:21:38Z")
There’s something called the “Deck Builder’s Toolkit” that I saw at Target, which contains 125 cards, four booster packs, and 100 basic lands. > **[Wizards of the Coast](https://company.wizards.com/en)** > > Wizards of the Coast is a family of studios specializing in building role playing, trading card, and digital games for all genres of players. I have also heard from people that playing the computer game “Duels of the Planeswalkers” is a good way to get children interested in playing Magic. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/7 "2012-04-10T03:57:12Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I think [this](http://www.amazon.com/Phyrexia-Intro-Deck-Green-White/dp/B004X80VOA/ref=sr_1_4?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1334010289&sr=1-4) was one of the ones I saw. There were like four or five different ones called “intro packs.” That is a single deck…looks like it comes with a booster pack of 15 semi-random extra cards that may or may not be useful with the deck. Each of you would need one of those decks to play a game. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/8 "2012-04-10T08:27:44Z")
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve played Magic. I don’t remember the minimum number of cards required. I want to say forty. You say, no problem, then I pick up two decks, right? Wrong. The problem is that most players (back when I was in the game) will tell you that you should have just two colors in your hand, three at most. The reason for this is because you need to have lands in order to do anything meaningful. Certain types of lands will give you access to green magic, other lands to white magic, etc. The colors are balanced so that while White magic will give you a lot of healing and defense, it’s weak on offensive magic, but Black magic can give you a lot of offensive magic, but it’s weak on healing and defense. And so forth. So a lot of the game is actually not what happens when you’re facing an opponent, it’s building your deck. This involves trading cards (in the case of you and your kid, you’d probably take turns picking the cards, face up, from the common deck) with others, buying booster packs, and even buying individual cards. Some people find building decks to be more enjoyable than playing the game with others. And actually, building the deck is more a matter of weeding out what doesn’t work in your collection, rather than adding cards. Magic works better with three or more players, up to a certain point. Might I suggest another card game? Get [Munchkin](http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/). Kill the monsters. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddies. It’s better with three or more players, but it’s doable with two players. You can buy expansion packs, and the flavor text on the cards is hilarious. You don’t get a random assortment of cards, each deck or booster pack will contain the same number and same kind of cards. One guy illustrates most of the cards, but on at least one occasion, there have been guest artists. I think that Munchkin is easier to learn, easier to play, and a lot more fun. YMMV. Magic can be quite an involving hobby, and if you get into it, I suggest locating a gaming/comic book shop in your area, because even though you can buy individual cards on eBay and other places online, it’s more interesting to browse through a collection. A gaming shop might also offer space to play games, as well. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/9 "2012-04-10T08:36:05Z")
Magic: The Spendening… is expensive. Duels of the Planeswalkers is a fairly decent XBox Live game. Hell, you could probably buy two consoles, and put a copy of the game on each, and get a year’s Live subscription for less than the price of building two top flight decks. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/10 "2012-04-10T08:46:03Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I don’t remember the minimum number of cards required. I want to say forty. You say, no problem, then I pick up two decks, right? Wrong. The problem is that most players (back when I was in the game) will tell you that you should have just two colors in your hand, three at most. The reason for this is because you need to have lands in order to do anything meaningful. Certain types of lands will give you access to green magic, other lands to white magic, etc. The colors are balanced so that while White magic will give you a lot of healing and defense, it’s weak on offensive magic, but Black magic can give you a lot of offensive magic, but it’s weak on healing and defense. And so forth. So a lot of the game is actually not what happens when you’re facing an opponent, it’s building your deck. This involves trading cards (in the case of you and your kid, you’d probably take turns picking the cards, face up, from the common deck) with others, buying booster packs, and even buying individual cards. Some people find building decks to be more enjoyable than playing the game with others. And actually, building the deck is more a matter of weeding out what doesn’t work in your collection, rather than adding cards. Magic works better with three or more players, up to a certain point. You’re talking several levels of complexity over what the OP is trying to do. He just wants to play the game with his kid. For that purpose, a store-bought “premade” deck, like the one he linked to and I commented on, is fine. Those decks are already balanced with an appropriate number of lands in the needed colors to support the offensive and defensive capabilities of the deck. They typically contain 60 cards in two colors. Some may contain a single color. They are ready to play right out of the box (after shuffling, of course). For $10-$15 or so, he can be playing the game with his kid at a very basic level. If they like it they can move on to more advanced decks. I think you may be confusing premade decks like the one he linked with other things…like “tournament packs”, which are just a selection of cards from a particular series and used in deck building by more advanced players. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/11 "2012-04-10T09:28:46Z")
A sixty card preconstructed deck is sufficient for a single player. For two players you need two preconstructed decks, a duel decks pack or enough booster packs/individual cards to build your own decks from scratch. If you can find the sort of game store that sells pen&paper RPGs, models and things like that, you should be able to find some of the out of print preconstructed decks, if there’s a particular theme you’re looking for. [This](http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Duel_Decks) and [this](http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Theme_deck_%28preconstructed%29) might help you find something you like. > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Might I suggest another card game? Get [Munchkin](http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/). Kill the monsters. Steal the treasure. Stab your buddies. It’s better with three or more players, but it’s doable with two players. You can buy expansion packs, and the flavor text on the cards is hilarious. You don’t get a random assortment of cards, each deck or booster pack will contain the same number and same kind of cards. One guy illustrates most of the cards, but on at least one occasion, there have been guest artists. I’d suggest against Munchkin, especially for two players. The game basically comes down to whoever has the next turn once everyone’s run out of ways to stop the Level 9 players hitting Level 10. Two player games lack even that, since there’s no room for diplomacy when you’ve only got one opponent. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/12 "2012-04-10T09:29:15Z")
Premade decks? Back in MY day, we didn’t have such things! We built our own decks out of DIRT, and we LIKED it! Or we didn’t like it, and gave up playing the game years ago, as I have. I still have quite a few binders full of uncommon and rare cards, but when I realized how much I was spending on the game, and how little I played it, well, I quit playing it. I’m sure that the rules are vastly different now. However, I still think that Munchkin is a better choice. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/13 "2012-04-10T11:12:22Z")
I have munchkin already. We couldn’t find a way to make it fun as a two player game. (And my wife does _not_ like to play this kind of game. She’s a scrabble/trivial-pursuit type of gal.) ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/14 "2012-04-10T15:38:28Z")
Just walk into any small magic the gathering D&D retailer around you. The nerds there will help you. But yeah, the dual pack sets are probably the best to get started, or two of the basic starter sets will work as well. It CAN be expensive. If you both have a laptop/PC I would suggest you give the video game a chance first. You don’t need gaming PC’s to run it, it’s usually cheap on Steam and it’s a lot of fun playing by yourself, against eahc other and co-op against others/the AI. I believe the new release later this year will also be out on the iPad, so you can use those if you’ve got 'em as well. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/15 "2012-04-10T15:48:00Z")
If you’re looking for alternative two-player card games, I can heartily recommend [Lost Cities](http://www.amazon.com/Rio-Grande-Games-124-Cities/dp/B00005UNAV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334072822&sr=8-1). Really fun, and definitely playable with 2 people. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/16 "2012-04-10T17:13:55Z")
Oh oh oh! Octagon 2.0 should still be a freeware program that lets you simulate all sorts of collectible card games once you download the skins. I’m pretty sure that Octagon is legal, but you’ll have to ask on other forums where you can best find a set of virtual Magic cards. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/17 "2012-04-10T17:21:45Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > But yeah, the dual pack sets are probably the best to get started, or two of the basic starter sets will work as well. Two intro precon decks (like the OP linked to) are probably better than a Duel Decks Pack for a new player. The game is complicated enough on its own; Duel Decks have a dozen different obscure mechanics from various points in Magic’s history. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/18 "2012-04-10T18:22:49Z")
Regarding the Steam game, I got it (the 2012 version) a while back when it was six dollars or so. As far as I could tell, the UI required me to right click and select something in order to be able to read a card–and then did not allow me to play the card until I had right clicked and selected something to de-magnify the thing. This seemed ludicrously clunky to me so I put it away. It’s possible I just didn’t figure out the right way to use the UI, but it wasn’t particularly important to me that I learn how to play that particular game as I had other ways to entertain myself available. But anyway, now I’ll ask–does it sound to you like I just was missing something UI-wise? ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/19 "2012-04-10T18:45:59Z")
Yeah. The UI doesn’t work that way on the console. You probably just need to fuck with your pause settings. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311/20 "2012-04-10T18:51:53Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > Yeah. The UI doesn’t work that way on the console. You probably just need to fuck with your pause settings. …pause settings? What does that have to do with it? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-play-magic-the-gathering-with-my-kid/618311.md?page=2)