Getting into Magic: The Gathering can feel a little daunting but there’s never been a better time to do it. The MTG Foundations Beginner Box is the best possible starting point and it’s perfect for players who’ve never touched a card.
Magic: The Gathering is the rightfully hailed godfather of Trading Card Games with a storied history stretching back over three decades. Veterans of the hobby are no strangers to the intricacies of the game and its complex deckbuilding or powerful synergistic combos.
As an outsider looking in, MTG can seem a little prohibitive, and while there’s a range of products that can be fun right out of the box, a little bit of background is often needed to engage. Wizards of the Coast are taking things back to basics with MTG Foundations, the latest set released at the time of writing.
Among the new products they’ve added to the game is the MTG Foundations Beginner Box and after some hands-on time with it, we can confidently say it’s one of the best onboarding tools we’ve ever seen for new TCG players. Here’s how it works.
MTG Foundations Beginner Box contents
Coming in at around $30.00 USD / £24.99 GBP / $43.95 AUD (depending on the retailer), The MTG Foundations Beginner box offers some insane value for money, even for seasoned players. In the box, you’ll get over 100 MTG cards and a range of accessories.
The contents of the MTG Foundations Beginner Box include:
- 10 Themed Jumpstart decks
- 2 Reference cards
- 1 Reference guide booklet
- 2 “How to Play” guides
- 2 Gameboard playmats
- 2 Spindown life counters
The core of the experience centers around the Jumpstart Decks and two in particular that will help even the greenest prospective MTG players learn the game. It certainly did when I tried it out.
Breaking out the Beginner Box
One of the most difficult things I find with introducing newcomers to hobbies I enjoy is my admitted inadequacy as a teacher. Even as a relative journeyman in MTG, I tend to assume certain knowledge or forget important contextual information that I take for granted.
The MTG Foundations Beginner Box did all the hard work for me and that’s probably a good thing for the unwitting guinea pig I used to help me test it out. I should qualify that the guinea pig I’m referring to was a person and the Beginner Box isn’t so good that it will teach a rodent to play MTG.
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Within the box, two of the previously mentioned Jumpstart Decks are the Cats Deck and The Vampires Deck and these are ordered in a very specific way. The reference cards for these decks explicitly tell you not to shuffle them and you’d be wise to listen.
The Cats and Vampires decks have their own corresponding booklets that take you turn-by-turn through an introductory game of MTG. The highlight here is that they don’t just explain what you should do and why, they also go over your opponent’s decision.
The reason you shouldn’t shuffle the decks is that you’ll draw cards in a specific order to properly take you through this introductory match. The instructions include detailed explanations of core MTG concepts like the individual phases of the game, Land and Mana, combat order, and more, while the cardboard game mats introduce the layout of the game in simple terms.
If you already know how to play, this on-rails style of play might feel a little tedious, but what struck me as I took my budding MTG enthusiast through the motions was how much better at explaining things these booklets were than I. It was also very easy to envision a scenario where two people, entirely new to the game, could pick up this box and have a smooth introductory experience.
Going beyond the Beginner Box
Following a few run-throughs of this introductory experience, the MTG Foundations Beginner Box features two Jumpstart Decks for each of the five Colors that can be mixed and matched. There’s a deckbuilding guide that explains how each archetype likes to play as well as outlines for how many cards of each type you should consider when building your own.
My guinea pig and I kept things simple by combining decks of the same color but after the solid onboarding of the scripted games, they held their own remarkably. Their Red deck combined Goblins and Dragons to deal direct damage and take me down swiftly. I countered with a Green deck made up of Elves and Primal beasts that punished them for not dealing with me quickly enough.
Among the Jumpstart decks, you can pick up some solid staple cards for each Color that are a fantastic… Foundation (sorry) for a new player and a handy addition to the library of an experienced one. If you’re looking to finally jump into Magic: The Gathering or want to make indoctrinating friends and family easier, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better way than the MTG Foundations Beginner Box.
