The best Collectible Card Game Decks & Sets: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Make sure you're looking at the right ones. The original run of GF9 cards are now out of print, and a new updated printing is in the works. You can get the updated printing for only a couple of classes right now, and things like the arcane deck will be available very soon. Whether or not the revised decks will stay in print is another question, so make sure you order them soon.

Amazon: Arcane Deck, revised edition

It's up for sale on Amazon already. And as a side-note, the Amazon Starter Kits have different Foils than the starter kits sold at LGS's and Big Box stores.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B093CHZ62N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Depending on her playing level, a great competitive entry point would be the Keldeo vs. Rayquaza Battle Arena Decks. It has two decks, so she could play/learn with her parents or a friend. It has numerous trainer cards that are seen in competitive play (VS Seeker, Professor Sycamore, N, Lysandre, Ultra Ball), so once she "outgrows" the template decks, she could take those trainers and build a deck of her own.

At the moment Amazon already offers the set with $6 off -- it's a great deal. https://smile.amazon.com/Battle-Arena-Decks-Rayquaza-Keldeo/dp/B01GT1CY7K

Spend ~$30 and buy this. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WMZ7T9K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_dl_6QXZRXTFWHW6VD84XVWQ

5 decks to learn with. Get comfortable shuffling and playing. Decide if you like it then move on to other formats and build your collection. This is what I do at the shop I run and it works really well for fostering positivity and longevity in the player base.

Battle Arena Deck are good options, as they have strategies and actually some viable cards. Gives you a base to start with and can be upgraded from there. Unfortunately the newest iteration of them was just canceled, but you should still be able to find the Keldo vs Rayquaza or Black vs White Kyurem in stores and online.

Amazon Keldeo Link

Amazon Kyurem Link

When my brother started learning the game, I bought him a product called "Game Nights". It contains five decks, one for each color, that can be played multiplayer or 1 vs. 1. This gives you lots of variety, a good feel for the colors, and, if you want to, you can even take the decks apart and build one two-color deck each. This is the Amazon listing, although you might also be able to find this in your local game store: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories-dp-B07WMZ7T9K/dp/B07WMZ7T9K

"Strixhaven" and the "Core 2021" are not names of expansions (there are four expansions published every year). These are not ready-to-play products, they are an expansion of new (and reprinted) Magic cards sold in a number of products, notably booster packs which contain randomly selected cards.

Yeah, $152 there for me, but it might be better for some if they have the Amazon card and don't get charged tax where they are: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Ikoria-Behemoths-Commander/dp/B08561K4WW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=commander+2020&qid=1595098037&sr=8-1

The current introductory-level product is the "Magic Arena Starter Kit" (not to be confused with, uh, Magic Arena, the digital mtg platform)

https://www.amazon.ca/Magic-Gathering-Arena-Starter-Number/dp/B0881XZ49W you can probably find it for sale at a large retailer near you but here's an amazon link just in case

This is basically the same product as what was called the "spellslinger starter kit" a couple of years ago.

The decks/cards in he kit are NOT as simplified as Portal or other bare-bones intro products from the past, but they do come with a play guide and a "scripted" first game, where the decks are stacked to play a specific series of cars & game actions for the first game as a tutorial.

I second the Arena Starter Kit. It's available in general retail (Target, grocery stores, etc) but here's a link to it on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0881XZ49W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_2m3-FbCB1SR3A

This is what you're looking for. Two 60-card decks you can use to play against each other, plus a code for Arena.

The Arena tutorial will get you up to speed on the rules.

Customizable spell books.

My wife doesn't want to use a computer/phone/tablet for her spells... and in a perfect world wouldn't use a spell card. Ultimately she wants to create her own spell book (with room to grow for spells/cantrips she learns). Something like this with interchangeable pages (with spell description) would be great.

The upcoming Arena Starter Kit 2021:

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Starter-Ready-Play/dp/B093CHZ62N/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=arena+starter+kit+2021&qid=1627572148&sprefix=arena+startrr&sr=8-3

If your willing to spend a little money (less tha $5) may I suggest buying the code for "Battle Arena Decks: Keldeo vs Raquaza"

It comes with 2 pre made decks. The Keldeo one is actually quite good and both decks great for starters.

It contains 4 meta EX Pokemon, several meta trainer cards, and other meta Pokemon.

There is one caviat it only works in expanded format. Not theme!

It's a very good start and well worth the money! Heck buy the IRL for you and your son and use the code it comes with online!

Here is an Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Arena-Decks-Rayquaza-Keldeo/dp/B01GT1CY7K

You could search eBay and find the code alone fairly easily.

GL Have Fun!

You will run into issues with licensing on most websites unless you are cool with paying for the tools on: dndbeyond.com

You will have access on some sites like orcpub2.com to the SRD spells (ones allowed for public use without purchasing usage rights) but you’ll be limited.

My best recommendation is to buy a bunch of index cards (color ones preferably) and fill them out with the spell details.

You can also purchase spell cards for most of the spell lists off amazon: 73915 D&D: Spellbook Cards: Arcane Deck https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRVJ1TB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FEe.AbXZH3Y7K

... but I hate spending money so I just use index cards :)

Um, I believe they were just from Amazon.

I think these are the ones.

I must recommend the magic the gathering game nights boxed "sets". Here is the 2019 one, and here is the 2018 one both on Amazon and less than $50 each. They are designed to introduce people to magic, complete with rules and dice and whatnot. I don't personally have the 2018 one, but I do have the 2019 one. From my experience with that (and my previous years if experience with magic) I find it a decent product to play. The decks are meant to be played against each other so they are reasonably balanced. They also suggest to add more longevity to the product taking the game nights symbol cards from two decks and making a two color 60 card deck. I've not done that yet personally. Hope this helps and welcome back.

Edit: there are 5 decks in each of the boxes. Forgot to mention that.

You can buy them, recently it appears they just came back in stock but the most popular one is the arcana which has basically every spell you'll need are a nice plastic print and the box they come in isn't terrible. This one is in stock on the 14th but you might check your local LGS if they have a set as they're quiet useful.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRVJ1TB/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A26AGLDRF7OY12

I completely agree that more fluency would be better, but I think a lot of the potential solutions would probably be relatively newbie/casual player unfriendly, and RAW puts a lot of emphasis on making sure the game is approachable to those players.

I think someone could come up with an interesting system where you use something like spell cards and if someone intends to cast a spell they put a spell card down in front of them so that when initiative arrives at them it will be possible to respond immediately and say "This character will attempt to counterspell your spell." All the turns within a 6 second round are really happening roughly simultaneously, so it could make sense to look at it like an NPC is able to look around and know that both the wizard and the cleric appear to be working on mustering a spell right now, while they make the decision about who they're going to use their reaction on.

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Starter-Ready-Play/dp/B093CHZ62N

Get this. This is exactly how we started playing about six months ago. You get this and you've got paper decks to play with, and codes to take online for free versions of these decks. Then Google "Magic Arena Codes" and you'll find a bunch of codes for more free decks and cards. Then you can play paper if you feel like keeping track of everything, or you can play on the computer/app if you don't.

Then when you get rolling and figuring out the rules (Arena will teach you if you don't know how to play), check out Tolarian Community College on YouTube. My fiance loves Prof, and I don't know we'd be as deep into Magic right now without him.

>They broke up the books so that to get all the player information you needed to buy three books, each of which cost what one did in 3.5e. So instead of approximately $30 per player for the Player's Handbook, it was a $100. And the GM had another 6 books to look forward to instead of 2! That is a huge outlay to start a game. (I can't recall if they held to that plan, or managed to "fix" it after the first books came out. My gaming group had already decided to forgo 4e, so didn't bother with any of it.)

I... don't entirely know what you're referring to here?

4e launched as basically every edition did - with a PHB, a MM, and a DMG.

It did later introduce more PHBs and more DMGs and more MMs but that was hardly unprecedented (3.5 had a PHB2, a DMG2, and 5 MMs).

As for the power cards - they did exist, but were entirely optional. Basically the exact same thing as 5e's Spellbook cards.

I suggest Magic Game Night.

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories/dp/B07WMZ7T9K/ref=sr_1_2?crid=210H919OTMMWN&keywords=mtg+magic+night&qid=1645546639&sprefix=mtg+magic+night%2Caps%2C64&sr=8-2

This is about $40-$45 USD. It features five mono-colored 60-card decks with instructions. They play linearly but each deck is able to show off its primary mechanics. No complex mechanics from recent sets like the Arena decks, so these are great for beginners.

The product appears to be designed as a "pick-up game" like any other board game or card game (like Uno), so it should be attractive to beginners. After you get comfortable with those rules, you can try an Arena deck kit (between $7 - $15 USD depending on retailer) which are 2 60-card decks with more complex mechanics. After that, you can pick up a Commander pre-con.

I suggest Magic Game Night.

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories/dp/B07WMZ7T9K/ref=sr_1_2?crid=210H919OTMMWN&keywords=mtg+magic+night&qid=1645546639&sprefix=mtg+magic+night%2Caps%2C64&sr=8-2

This is about $40-$45 USD. It features five mono-colored decks with instructions. They play linearly but each deck is able to show off its primary mechanics. No complex mechanics from recent sets like the Arena decks, so these are great for beginners.

If none of you own any cards, in my opinion, this is the best way to learn. 5 monocolor decks. Once you’re comfortable playing mono color, you can split each deck by set symbol and combine it with the matching half of a different deck and play with 2 color decks. I taught my son and a few family members how to play with this set.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WMZ7T9K?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

This I think

I like the Jumpstart booster box idea a lot. There is also a good product for beginners called Game Nights that comes with five decks: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories/dp/B07WMZ7T9K

https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories/dp/B07WMZ7T9K

It’s got five pre-made decks with instructions. I wish it wasn’t through Amazon, but oh well.

Some of the black cards might be a little scary for a kiddo. Undead and demons and stuff.

The Cards that Adaine Abernant/Siobhan Thompson uses are the official cards by wizards of the coast, each box has the spells for an specific class. If you don't like them, there is a lot of better fan-made cards

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Spellbook-Cards-Arcane/dp/B01MRVJ1TB

I’ve thought quite a few friends how to play with this set. I originally bought it to teach my son how to play.

Magic: The Gathering Magic Game... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WMZ7T9K?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Not a yugioh pro but I recently picked back up the game and I like the simple era of the game like it was when I was a kid in the 2000's. I picked up legendary duelist 1 and 2 they are both boxes that contain 3 decks each. There's one that's a joey deck (red eye's) a yugi deck and a Kaiba deck (blue eyes) I think this would be perfect for you guys. :) https://www.amazon.com/Yu-Gi-Oh-Legendary-Decks-Themed-Starters/dp/B01HVRXTXE/ref=pd\_bxgy\_img\_1/131-9643614-8859666?pd\_rd\_w=kbkzT&pf\_rd\_p=c64372fa-c41c-422e-990d-9e034f73989b&pf\_rd\_r=5WJ4H5DSX1KR7QA1C7D7&pd\_rd\_r=b394d368-997...

If you're introducing your kids to the game, you might be interested in the Game Night pack...

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https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Gathering-Night-Players-Accessories/dp/B07WMZ7T9K/ref=sr\_1\_1?dchild=1&keywords=mtg+game+night&qid=1634843345&qsid=147-2269585-4684056&sr=8-1&sres=B07WMZ7T9K%2CB07H9KB51J%2CB01DDZAFOY%2CB008745EG6%...