Your Ultimate Guide to MTG Arena's Starter Decks: The Best Way to Learn Magic
Hey everyone! So, you’re looking to get into Magic: The Gathering, or maybe you're trying to teach a friend how to play. Honestly, it can be a little intimidating at first. Magic has been around for decades, & there are a TON of cards & rules to learn. But here's the thing: it's gotten SO much easier to learn, & a big reason for that is MTG Arena.
I’ve been playing Magic for a long, long time, & I’ve taught a bunch of people how to play. Trust me when I say that the digital world has made it a whole lot smoother. MTG Arena, in particular, has a fantastic system for new players, centered around its starter decks. This guide is going to break down everything you need to know about them – what they are, how to use them to learn, & what to do once you’ve mastered them.
The New Player Experience (NPE): Your First Steps in the Multiverse
When you first boot up MTG Arena, you’re not just thrown to the wolves. The game has a structured "New Player Experience" (NPE) designed to ease you into the core concepts. It's pretty well-designed, & it all starts with the Color Challenges.
The Color Challenges: Learning the Ropes, One Color at a Time
The Color Challenges are basically the tutorial. You'll play a series of bot matches, each focused on one of Magic’s five colors: White, Blue, Black, Red, & Green. Each color has its own unique identity & playstyle, & these challenges do a great job of highlighting that.
White: You'll learn about creating an army of small creatures, gaining life, & using enchantments to boost your team. The White starter deck, "Keep the Peace," is all about this.
Blue: The Blue challenge, with the "Aerial Domination" deck, will teach you the joys of flying creatures, card draw, & counterspells – the art of saying "no" to your opponent's best plays.
Black: With the "Cold-Blooded Killers" deck, you'll explore the darker side of Magic, using creature removal, reanimation, & sacrificing your own creatures for value.
Red: The "Goblins Everywhere!" deck is pure aggression. You'll learn how to cast cheap, fast creatures with haste & burn spells to finish off your opponent quickly.
Green: Green is all about big, stompy creatures. The "Large and in Charge" deck will show you how to ramp your mana to cast enormous threats that overwhelm the battlefield.
As you win these matches, you'll unlock more cards for that color's deck, gradually making it more powerful & introducing new mechanics. It’s a really smart way to learn, because you’re not just reading a rulebook; you’re actively playing & seeing how the different pieces of the puzzle fit together.
One of the best things about the Color Challenges is that you can’t really lose progress. If a bot beats you, you just try again. It’s a no-pressure environment to get comfortable with the game’s flow.
Unlocking Your Arsenal: The Starter Decks
Once you've completed the Color Challenges, you'll have five mono-colored starter decks in your collection. But that's just the beginning. The next step is the "Starter Deck Duels."
Starter Deck Duels: Where the Real Fun Begins
The Starter Deck Duels event is where you’ll unlock the ten dual-colored starter decks. This is a free-to-play event where you pick one of the dual-color decks & play against other new players who are doing the same thing. When you win a game with a deck, you unlock it for your collection. It's a fantastic way to learn about color synergies & more complex strategies.
Here’s a quick rundown of the 2024 dual-color starter decks & what they’re all about:
Ancient Discovery (Red/White): This deck focuses on the "discover" mechanic, letting you cast spells for free from the top of your library.
Crack the Case (Blue/White): A detective-themed deck that creates clue tokens, which you can sacrifice to draw cards.
Desert Oasis (Blue/Green): This deck is all about playing deserts & using them to power up your creatures.
Dino Might (Red/Green): Exactly what it sounds like – a deck full of powerful dinosaurs that hit HARD.
Faerie Pranks (Blue/Black): A tricky deck with flying faeries & plenty of ways to disrupt your opponent's plans.
Outlaw Posse (Red/Black): An aggressive deck focused on "outlaws," a new creature type batching that includes assassins, mercenaries, pirates, rogues, & warlocks.
Power to the People (White/Black): This deck revolves around creatures with power 2 or less, using them to create a wide board & drain your opponent's life.
Saddle Up (Green/White): A deck that uses the "saddle" mechanic to give your creatures powerful abilities when they attack.
Second Chance (Blue/Red): A spellslinger deck that wants to cast multiple spells in a turn to get extra value.
Snack Time (Black/Green): This deck creates food tokens to gain life & power up your creatures. It's surprisingly resilient & has been noted by the community as one of the stronger starter decks.
Playing through the Starter Deck Duels is SUPER important for a new player. It’s a level playing field, so you don't have to worry about going up against someone with a fully-tuned, top-tier meta deck. You get to experience a wide variety of strategies & see which ones you enjoy playing the most.
The Big Question: Are the Starter Decks Actually Good?
So, here's the deal with the starter decks. Are they going to win you a major tournament? No, of course not. But that’s not their purpose. Their purpose is to teach you the game, & they do a fantastic job of that.
They’re designed to be relatively balanced against each other, though some are definitely stronger than others. For example, in the 2024 lineup, the Black/Green "Snack Time" deck has shown a higher win rate in the early days of its release. The Red/White "Ancient Discovery" deck, on the other hand, has some cards that don't synergize well with its main mechanic, making it a bit weaker.
But honestly, that’s all part of the learning process. You’ll start to figure out which decks feel powerful & which ones have weaknesses. That’s the first step to understanding deckbuilding & the Magic metagame.
The Next Level: Upgrading Your Starter Decks
Once you've played with the starter decks for a while, you'll start to get a feel for their strengths & weaknesses. You’ll have moments where you think, "Man, if I just had a better version of this card, I would have won that game." That’s when you know you’re ready to start upgrading.
This is where the MTG Arena economy comes into play, specifically, wildcards.
A Quick Word on Wildcards
Wildcards are your best friend when it comes to building your collection. You get them from opening booster packs, & they come in four rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, & Mythic Rare. You can trade a wildcard for ANY card of the same rarity in the game. This is HUGE for new players, because it means you don't have to rely on random pack openings to get the cards you need.
A word of advice: be careful with your Rare & Mythic Rare wildcards. They're much harder to come by than Commons & Uncommons. Don't just go crafting every cool-looking card you see. Save them for when you have a specific deck in mind.
Simple Upgrades for Your Starter Decks
Upgrading your starter decks is a great way to learn about deckbuilding without having to start from scratch. Here’s a simple process you can follow:
Identify the Weakest Cards: As you play, you'll notice some cards just don't pull their weight. Maybe it's a creature that's too expensive for what it does, or a spell that's too situational. These are the first cards you should look to replace.
Find Stronger Synergies: Look for cards that work well with your deck's main theme. If you’re playing the "Dino Might" deck, for example, look for other powerful dinosaurs or cards that care about dinosaurs.
Start with Commons & Uncommons: You'll have more of these wildcards, so don't be afraid to experiment. There are a LOT of powerful Commons & Uncommons that can make a big difference in your decks.
Clone Your Deck First! A quick but important tip: you can't edit the base starter decks directly. You have to clone them first to create an editable copy.
For example, in the "Power to the People" deck, you might find that some of the creatures are a bit underwhelming. You could look for cheap, powerful creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects that you can reuse with some of the deck's bounce spells.
As your business grows & you start thinking about how to provide better customer service on your website, you might find yourself wishing for a tool that's as easy to customize as your starter decks. That’s where a platform like Arsturn comes in. With Arsturn, you can build a no-code AI chatbot trained on your own data. This means it can provide instant, personalized customer support, answer questions, & engage with visitors 24/7, all without you having to write a single line of code. It's like having a customer service expert that’s always on, ready to help.
Life After Starter Decks: What's Next?
So you’ve mastered the starter decks, you’ve made a few upgrades, & you’re feeling confident in your skills. What’s the next step? This is where you start to venture into the wider world of the MTG Arena metagame.
The metagame is basically the collection of decks that are popular & successful at any given time. It’s constantly changing as new sets are released & players discover new strategies. It can be a bit overwhelming to jump into, but there are some great budget-friendly options that can help you compete without breaking the bank (or your wildcard stash).
Budget Meta Decks: Your Gateway to Competitive Play
There are a number of websites & content creators that specialize in building powerful decks on a budget. These decks usually rely on Commons & Uncommons, with just a few key Rares or Mythic Rares to tie everything together.
Some popular budget archetypes that are often good for beginners include:
Mono-Red Aggro: This is a classic for a reason. It's fast, aggressive, & can win games out of nowhere. The strategy is simple: play cheap creatures, attack every turn, & use burn spells to finish the job. It's also usually pretty cheap to build.
Mono-Blue Tempo: This is another great option that plays a bit differently. You'll play cheap, evasive threats (like flying creatures) & then protect them with counterspells & bounce spells. It's a great deck for learning about timing & resource management.
Auras/Enchantments: These decks focus on playing a single creature & then loading it up with enchantments to make it a huge, unstoppable threat. They can be very powerful & are often quite budget-friendly.
When you’re ready to take this step, do some research. Look up "budget standard decks MTG Arena" on YouTube or your favorite MTG content site. You'll find a ton of great resources with decklists & gameplay videos.
As you get more serious about competing in the MTG Arena ladder, you'll start to think about optimizing your performance. You'll want to track your win rates, understand the meta, & make sure you’re always playing the best version of your deck. In the business world, this is similar to wanting to optimize your website for lead generation & customer engagement. A tool like Arsturn can be invaluable here. By building a custom AI chatbot, you can engage with every website visitor, answer their questions in real-time, & guide them through your sales funnel. It's a powerful way to boost conversions & provide a personalized experience that makes customers feel valued.
A Few Final Tips for New Players
Learning Magic is a journey, not a race. Here are a few final thoughts to help you on your way:
Don't Be Afraid to Lose: You are going to lose. A lot. Even the best players in the world only win about 60% of their games. Every loss is a learning opportunity. Think about what went wrong & what you could have done differently.
Watch Content Creators: Watching experienced players pilot different decks is a fantastic way to learn. You'll pick up on strategies, card interactions, & deckbuilding ideas that you might not have found on your own.
Have Fun! This is the most important tip of all. Magic is a game. It's supposed to be fun. Find a deck you enjoy playing, & don't worry too much about having the "best" deck. If you're having fun, you're doing it right.
I really hope this guide was helpful. The MTG Arena starter decks are an incredible tool for learning the ropes of this amazing game. They provide a structured, low-pressure environment to get comfortable with the core mechanics & explore different playstyles. So jump in, complete those Color Challenges, & start your journey to becoming a Planeswalker. Let me know what you think, & I'll see you in the Arena