Comments on: Five Reasons Why Intro Packs Matter

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By: ertaislament

ertaislament — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:49:57 +0000

In reply to @adamzak. Damning me with faint praise, eh? But seriously, cheers for that, mate, I hope it doesn't disappoint!

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By: milesd3503

milesd3503 — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:00:03 +0000

As a newer player i have to say that starting with a precon deck was what made the different. I started with core 2011 Power of the Prophecy. That gave me a great base on some strategies that work and some that don't. However that deck has evolved into a blue black control deck that drives my friends crazy simply because i have given myself enough ways to win that they can't keep up. So the real drive of the precon is to give them an idea then you need friends to help show you what to do with it, and the rest is just learning the cards and toying with your deck.

By: Stric9

Stric9 — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:52:57 +0000

Ertai's Lament is the best!!

By: Hireling

Hireling — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:50:15 +0000

I know this is a tad off topic, but don't underestimate the power the the Deck Builder's Toolkit. I unboxed one with a friend the other day and we managed to make two decks that were fairly competitive. My only complaint with the Toolkit is that you can't build a mono colored deck because there are only 20 lands in each color. But we tried. We managed to make a nasty soldier deck (mono white) that was shy on land but had the mana curve to pull it off. Then we built a red/green beat n' burn with some nice fat creatures (including two of the lesser Eldrazi). We had some very fun matches with these decks and the deck building guide included in the box seems very helpful.

By: ertaislament

ertaislament — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:09:20 +0000

In reply to douglaslinn. Absolutely right about consistency and variance- it's a theme we're constantly banging on about in our precon reviews, but it's the way of things. Once upon a time the decks did have that- Tempest's Deep Freeze packs in a startling amount of countermagic, for example. Somewhere along the way, the theme deck/intro pack became 'repositioned,' and I believe they've suffered for it somewhat. I can't take credit for the linking- that was my stalwart and intrepid editor, Adam Styborski, who tuned up my piece and made that suggestion. It's a champion one, and I'll be making sure even the very decks have links in all subsequent pieces!

By: ertaislament

ertaislament — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:05:19 +0000

In reply to ertaislament. For the M11 decks, these pieces virtually wrote themselves! When we brought that tradition into Scars, it was surprisingly (and refreshingly) tougher going. The decks stuck more solidly to a theme (which was good for most all except the proliferate-centred Deadspread, which didn't have enough pieces to reliably work), had more copies of multiple cards, and so on. It's probably imprudent to draw conclusions off of just one set, but if Scars is any indication, Wizards is definitely moving in the direction of that 'sweet spot.'

By: ertaislament

ertaislament — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:05:12 +0000

In reply to Mike.

Mike-

Thats a great point, and as Corbin mentioned below the forthcoming Event Decks will be looking to address that concern. I think for the most part, though, you're not going to have a ton of players who are going straight from learning the game to their FNM (though you'll have many!). For learning, these things are at home at the kitchen table, and even the inserts these days have sections written in them that discuss ways to improve the very deck you just bought.

OVer at Ertai's Lament, we have a series called "Ertai's Meddling" which we started during M11. In it, we take a precon deck and using only commons and uncommons (which any new player might have reasonably easy access to), we look to cut out its weaknesses and strengthen it overall.

(continued)

By: Corbin Hosler

Corbin Hosler — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:13:45 +0000

@Mike
They are actually doing this with the new tournament deck series, which they claim you can pick up and be competitive at an FNM. So they are at least attempting to bridge the gap.
All in all, great article! I'm actually introducing two friends into the game right now, and precons would be so much better to teach them the basics than our kitchen-table, million-keyword games. We're getting them their first draft tomorrow in a friendly non-sanctioned environment. Keep up the good work!

By: douglaslinn

douglaslinn — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:27:28 +0000

Mike hit on a good point. I wonder if there's a way to get stores to do a precons-only tournament! One of the goals of precons is to expose newer players to a lot of interesting cards that they can play with. The downside, though, is that the players don't get to see the huge advantages of playing a deck with 4-ofs. The materials in the Duel decks even don't cover that you really should mess around with them and try to up the quantities of cards that you like.

Great article, by the way! I really appreciated all the links, it made for a well-researched article and your passion for precons comes through. I especially liked the fly-in-amber metaphor.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:15:04 +0000

With the ever-increasing push by WotC to get players of all experience levels to their LCS for FNM and other sanctioned events, the one thing that the intro decks DON'T do is give newer players a deck that won't get destroyed.

It can be very devastating to a new player to roll into an event thinking they have a reasonable deck and just get completely shut down — which is a great way to lose players. And with drafting being an even more complex endeavor for most, standard is going to be where many players get their feet wet with tournaments.

It's not that I don't understand a need for true "intro" decks, but I think a better model would be "basic" decks released with each core set and remotely "competitive" decks with the blocks with far less 1 and 2-ofs, some additional rares and tighter themes to build around.

The move to 60 card intro decks is a HUGE step forward from the 40 card decks – but I think Wizards is still having a hard time finding the perfect sweet spot for pre-cons and there's definitely room to improve these products that will suit both beginners and seasoned players alike.