Hi, I'm looking to create two decks to play Magic with my nine-year-old son and also to teach him the game at the same time. So this is to ask for help with my endeavor, please, i.e. two suggested deck lists. I believe there are ready-made decks that Wizards sell but I'm not sure they'll be suitable and I'll explain why. So here's my backstory and what I'm looking for with the decks.
My backstory
I played Magic heavily in my teens, almost exclusively casually, with friends (I played just one tournament), from 4th Edition up to Tempest in 1997. After Tempest I sold all my cards because I had become addicted and figured that was the safest way to regain my life. I remember regularly walking from Camden in London to Virgin Megastore in the West End of London instead of taking the bus just so I could buy one extra booster. Anyway, I haven't played since until a couple of weeks ago when I tried Arena on my computer, which has been a lot of fun. It's amazing to me that Interrupts are now Instants, that Lightning Bolt is not currently in print and that the current counterspell spell has an increased cost! Not to mention the complexity of some of the new mechanics - my brain hurts!
I'd love to construct two decks to use to teach Magic to my nine-year-old kid, who is a sweet boy with a great imagination to whom we allow too much screen time. I see this as a way to keep him happily off his video games and help with his development. Speaking of which, his academic abilities are a little under-developed (such as his maths - he has mild dyslexia - and his ability to memorise and then follow a longer list of instructions that other kids his age could manage), although his reading skills are very good.
What I'm looking for
I'm happy to spend money to buy the cards individually (and realistically if that's going to be next to impossible I'll include a couple of proxies). But to keep things sensible, let's stick to the Modern format.
I'm hoping the two decks will have two or three fun ideas in each one that require a bit of thought (for a child) to play. And they should be balanced so they play well against each other.
In terms of complexity, this is the important bit for me to get right. Here are examples of things I think will be okay or, conversely, too much for my son to cope with:
Okay: each deck having two colours apiece. Creatures (duh!). The flying mechanic. Simple tokens. Sorceries. Instants. Enchantments. Artifacts.
Not okay: the trample mechanic. Cards with multiple mechanics/abilities where each mechanic isn't explained on the card. Cards with several lines of text to explain one ability or spell.
And ideally, as many mechanics and abilities as possible that are fully described on the cards, beyond flying which I think is intuitive for him to understand from the name and by its simplicity as a mechanic.
Examples of okay:Alpine Watchdog, Quirion Dryad, Library Larcenist, because they each explain what they can do on the card and it's not too complex to get one's head around nor does it require much maths.
Examples of not okay:Brash Taunter because Indestructible isn't explained and the three functions are, together, too complex. Same goes for any planeswalker and Heroic Intervention. Goblin Wizardry because the tokens are more complex than simple creatures.
Is this something anyone could help with please or point me in the right direction? If you could explain the reasoning behind any list too that would be great. In return, once I've got the cards and played, I'll report back how it went.
There you'll find not only his decks, but also the process of how we put them together. The thread also contains my own beginner teaching decks I had build some more years back for my gaming club. You may have to tweak a bit further yourself in regards to your own criteria, but I think this is a very good start.
Thank you Rezzahan, that's kind of you to reply. Perhaps mono-coloured decks are the way to go for this. I'll look into those and if I use them (or versions of them) will reply to you in that thread
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My backstory
I played Magic heavily in my teens, almost exclusively casually, with friends (I played just one tournament), from 4th Edition up to Tempest in 1997. After Tempest I sold all my cards because I had become addicted and figured that was the safest way to regain my life. I remember regularly walking from Camden in London to Virgin Megastore in the West End of London instead of taking the bus just so I could buy one extra booster. Anyway, I haven't played since until a couple of weeks ago when I tried Arena on my computer, which has been a lot of fun. It's amazing to me that Interrupts are now Instants, that Lightning Bolt is not currently in print and that the current counterspell spell has an increased cost! Not to mention the complexity of some of the new mechanics - my brain hurts!
I'd love to construct two decks to use to teach Magic to my nine-year-old kid, who is a sweet boy with a great imagination to whom we allow too much screen time. I see this as a way to keep him happily off his video games and help with his development. Speaking of which, his academic abilities are a little under-developed (such as his maths - he has mild dyslexia - and his ability to memorise and then follow a longer list of instructions that other kids his age could manage), although his reading skills are very good.
What I'm looking for
I'm happy to spend money to buy the cards individually (and realistically if that's going to be next to impossible I'll include a couple of proxies). But to keep things sensible, let's stick to the Modern format.
I'm hoping the two decks will have two or three fun ideas in each one that require a bit of thought (for a child) to play. And they should be balanced so they play well against each other.
In terms of complexity, this is the important bit for me to get right. Here are examples of things I think will be okay or, conversely, too much for my son to cope with:
Okay: each deck having two colours apiece. Creatures (duh!). The flying mechanic. Simple tokens. Sorceries. Instants. Enchantments. Artifacts.
Not okay: the trample mechanic. Cards with multiple mechanics/abilities where each mechanic isn't explained on the card. Cards with several lines of text to explain one ability or spell.
And ideally, as many mechanics and abilities as possible that are fully described on the cards, beyond flying which I think is intuitive for him to understand from the name and by its simplicity as a mechanic.
Examples of okay: Alpine Watchdog, Quirion Dryad, Library Larcenist, because they each explain what they can do on the card and it's not too complex to get one's head around nor does it require much maths.
Examples of not okay: Brash Taunter because Indestructible isn't explained and the three functions are, together, too complex. Same goes for any planeswalker and Heroic Intervention. Goblin Wizardry because the tokens are more complex than simple creatures.
Is this something anyone could help with please or point me in the right direction? If you could explain the reasoning behind any list too that would be great. In return, once I've got the cards and played, I'll report back how it went.
Thank you.
Several years back I helped someone else with a similar project, creating simple decks to teach the game to his kids. Here's a link to the thread:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/casual-multiplayer-formats/764583-help-me-build-decks-to-teach-my-kids
There you'll find not only his decks, but also the process of how we put them together. The thread also contains my own beginner teaching decks I had build some more years back for my gaming club. You may have to tweak a bit further yourself in regards to your own criteria, but I think this is a very good start.
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