Do you have friends at school or people at your local game store who are just learning Magic? Maybe they don’t know all the rules. Maybe they do but tend to show up looking for a fun showdown where creatures get to wear big +7/+7 enchantments and ALL those 9 mana creatures are gonna get to come out and play. Are you looking to teach your mom how to play because she likes the art on these cards but doesnt understand why you think this game is so fun?
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One of the things I’m interested in is how to create fun and satisfying play experiences when people of significantly different understandings of a game and different expectations sit down at the same gaming table.
I want to explore a few of the game variants that Wizards has provided us that are great tools when newer and more experienced players come together. The variants below help create enjoyable play experiences for all gamers and can be used as teaching tools for newer players.
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Imagine this scenario:
You have two younger cousins and one of their friends who have picked up some Magic cards because kids at school have been playing and they want to play with you. You have a couple of options at this point:
OPTION 1: Just say “No”. I’m too old/cool/busy to waste time playing with some annoying kids who dont even know how to hold their instant card draw until EOT. Then you go look at your phone for 30 minutes and ignore them. [SPOILER ALERT!: THIS IS THE WRONG AND WORST ANSWER! If this is you, I recommend a deep amount of soul searching, some community service, and a reassessment of your life choices.]
OPTION 2: Say “Yes” while evilly tapping your fingers together. Then proceed to put on a Scapeshift clinic that shows everyone how much they do not understand the game and sends them away crying to go study for years to come back and be trounced again while you slowly grind them to dust – laughing a maniacal laugh, sitting alone in your magical castle, friendless and feared by all.
This is also not a great option.
Even if the goal of a newer player is to try and learn more of the nuances of tight play, get better at the game, and improve their decisions – the first parts of that journey are going to be from having fun experiences with other better players, not from being continually smashed.
Option 3: Say, “Yes” and “Let’s try this fun way to battle! Let me show you how it works.”
Hooray! You’ve made the right choice! And here are a few tips, tricks and tools to help make sure new gamers and veterans can both enjoy something together.
Spellslinger Starter Kits
Magic has created an excellent ‘out of the box’ experience for new players where (for a very reasonable price) you can get two well balanced decks, two d20 life counters, and an easy rules primer.
These decks tend to be medium powered and have an interesting amount of tension. They also tend to be built to allow each player to do some very cool things with some relative consistency. There are not as many 4x cards so players get to see different cards mix together, and there are enough complex cards or interactions to keep it interesting.
More seasoned players may not see a need for this product since they have their favorite decks or like to brew up new unique inventions, but I love having something like this with me at the right moments. (I even used to build my own versions of these before Wizards put their money and brains behind doing it better.)
This allows both players to have decks with similar power levels and similar goals which generally leads to more fun!
Challenge Decks
Challenge Decks are a Wizards product that came out during Theros block to evoke the flavor of heroes undertaking heroic mythic challenges. They were a way of setting up a multiplayer where it was all players vs. a Challenge Deck.
These were meant to be a multiplayer (or even solo) experience where the players are fighting together to beat some structure set up by the Challenge Deck. In the first version, Face The Hydra, for example, the players are battling a many-headed Hydra represented by a deck of cards and there are modified rules about what the hydra deck does and how your creatures and
spells work to defeat it. If you kill one of the hydra head cards, the deck flips two more cards off the top to see if any new heads grow from the stump! Very dramatic flavor and a great way to get players working together instead of opposing each other.
Face the Hydra, Battle the Horde, and Defeat a God – all three flavors of Challenge Decks are interesting twists on the same concepts and worth trying out.
As a game designer I was happy to see Wizards develop and polish something that was very similar to what we had been doing to accomplish the same goals around our own gaming table. We called our version The Dragon and I present it, not because it’s better than the highly developed Wizards version (it’s not), but because it may give you some ideas on how you can make up your own variations using whatever you have available.
The Great Fire-breathing Dragon
Well, we started this variant when my kids were young and wanted to play Magic but seemed to get frustrated when losing to each other. I also had lots and lots of creature tokens around that weren’t being used for anything.
The dragon was a ‘player’ with 20 life just like us but represented by a little dragon statue we had lying around. We shuffled up a deck of about 30-40 creature tokens. These were the dragons minions and their power and toughness ranged from 1/1 up to 4/4 creatures at a rate that was skewed to the smaller creatures.
Turns one and two the dragon revealed a token off the top and put its creatures into play.
Turn three onward the dragon rolled 1d4 and flipped over that many creatures from its token deck.
Then starting on turn 4 the dragon began breathing fire and rolled 1d6 for damage to a random player. Then on turn 7 the dragon began breathing 1d10 worth of fire damage.
Our combat rules were not well polished but the Dragon only damaged players with its fire and made its blocking decisions to kill the most number of attacking creatures with its token army.
We enjoyed it because it gave us a way to all unite around defeating a common enemy and made for some very exciting dice rolls when everyone’s life totals were withing roasting range of the dragon’s fiery breath.
Lets Play!
My goal with anyone interested in Magic or any other fantastic game is to find ways to introduce them to my favorite thing in ways that dont overwhelm them and that keep them interested and (hopefully) coming back for more of those experiences.
So, when I think about playing Magic and how I want to introduce it to new players I think about three things:
- Keep it simple. The bare bones of the information on a card, the turn structure, and combat are enough to get you started.
- Let people play with the cards and see what they do. This game has some fantastic complexity and getting to discover that on your own is very rewarding.
- Make sure people have positive play experiences. This does not mean they always have to win, but it means being aware of how the games are feeling to all the players, making sure players treat each other respectfully, and that the format is going to give those players some memorable moments.
If you’d care to share any of your own favorite variants for introducing Magic to new players we’d love to hear about them. Thanks for reading and keep on gaming!