I’m looking to play casually (in person) with some friends and we were wondering what the cheapest format to start buying for would be? And what might be some good pick ups (we have the starter decks but want some more variety) thanks!

  • average golgari enjoyer@mtgzone.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Definitely pauper. There are some staples that are expensive, like Snuff Out and Spellstutter Sprite, but you can build plenty of meta decks and brews without them. It’s also very fun, I definitely recommend it. Otherwise, you can always try to proxy decks from other more expensive formats like legacy and modern. They are also fun to play imo.

  • silfarion10@mtgzone.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    Pauper is great as others have said. Pioneer is awesome too! Nonrotating so you can always play your deck, the staples are not too bad compared to most other formats.

  • Cloaca@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I think the absolute cheapest would have to be pauper, and depending on what your flg nearby runs you may be able to find games to play with others without too much work.

  • CORaven@mtgzone.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I agree with others that pauper is a great format to get into as it can be very price assessable.

    However I would like to make an alternative suggestion - JumpStart (or a mini JumpStart Cube if your group is very interested). The biggest benefit to this format is the sheer variety that you can have in games over the course of an evening of playing. It is very easy to pick up and play from a players perspective and can be treated like a board game. It will require someone doing a small bit of research on what packs you need to buy, or what singles you need if building a custom list.

      • thecdc1995@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Jumpstart also has the really fun aspect of mix and match and so is an easy sell for new players.

    • AtomicSeaSquid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I agree, JumpStart is awesome for “Hey I have an hour with a friend let’s jam a few games.” If you keep your packs organized, you can reuse them too!

  • monko@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    As the name suggests, Pauper is the go-to budget format. Admittedly, it’s less cheap than it used to be. But at its cheapest, it is one of the least expensive.

    EDH (Commander) has a huge range in price, but some decks (check out The Commander’s Quarters on YT) are super fun and affordable. It’s a good casual format to start a budget deck with and continue growing. It’s also a gateway drug, so be warned 😬

    Lastly, if you are playing in a private pod (i.e., not at your LGS), you can set your own limits based on market price. For example, no decks over 50 bucks total, no single high-cost card over 10 bucks, etc. Ultimately, rule zero applies to budget-conscious private games. You decide what’s allowed.

  • Doug@vlemmy.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I don’t know if it’s the cheapest but I recently got back into magic after 15 years and my friends have been playing eternal brawl.

    It plays really well with 3-4 players but works for 2-6. Like commander you have a commander but only 60 cards and all of your cards need to be from a block to avoid bad combos.

    It’s possible to set up a deck for a few dollars if everyone is avoiding expensive cards and using a few sets old block usually means most cards are a few cents.

    https://eternalbrawl.wordpress.com/formats/