training deck

by Kazzong on 30 January 2012

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sorceries (4)


Instants (6)


Enchantments (10)


Land (20)

Sideboard (17 cards)


Enchantments (4)

Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.


Deck Description

A simple deck with the intention of teaching someone how to play. Just basic good cards, with very few abilities to confuse players with little to no TCG experience. I have nonetheless found it to be able to hold its own against my more advanced casual decks. (For that reason if I build a new deck that CAN'T beat this one, it gets restructured.). Works pretty well. :)

Deck Tags

  • Casual
  • Beginner
  • Orzhov

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

13
Likes

This deck has been viewed 4,783 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

2002800

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for training deck

i like it but the mana curve seems a little high to me.

1
Posted 01 May 2012 at 17:14

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So, what could I do fix that? Any suggestions on something to replace the golems? It has to be a simple but powerful artifact creature.

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Posted 01 May 2012 at 18:20

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what about if u made it more like mono white and used the razor golems? they have affinity for plains and vigilance

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Posted 02 May 2012 at 00:28

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Um... Not bad I guess, but wouldn't affinity be kinda confusing to someone who hasn't ever played, or has played only a couple of times?

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Posted 02 May 2012 at 07:04

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shouldnt be. its tells u exaclty what affinity is on the golem. plus u know ur going to have to explain a ton about the game to any new player anyways. ive done it many times and after a few duels most ppl get it pretty fast lol. i use burn decks to teach ppl.

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Posted 02 May 2012 at 16:03

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Hm... Well I will look into it. Thanks for the idea. :). Do you know any other decent art creatures I could use?

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Posted 02 May 2012 at 16:14

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not any good ones off the top of my head. it would depend on which way u wanna take the deck mostly. and np.

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Posted 02 May 2012 at 22:17

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yeah, I just want something cheap, and effective. I like the golems because they are big, and they are artifacts.

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Posted 10 May 2012 at 06:44

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Really great teaching deck. It is easy to understand. Thank you.

2
Posted 11 May 2012 at 22:15

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no, thank you for taking time to check it out. :)

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Posted 11 May 2012 at 23:38

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I wish there were more of these on MTG Vault. Getting new players involved can be a problem if the deck that they are starting with is too complicated. I love a simple, but solid deck. +37 Points.

1
Posted 20 September 2012 at 19:29

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Thanks. :). That is what I was going for. Simple but solid. Dread Warlock is the most complicated thing in here. (along with being my personal all time favorite card.) it has a simple, but powerful ability. I would love for it to be reprinted.

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Posted 04 October 2012 at 22:33

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"Simple" Is why I used to train people with a mono-green deck. XD Shanolin Dryad, Llanowar Elves, Scryb Sprites, Grizzly Bears, Giant Spiders, maxing out at Craw Wurm. Boosted with Regeneration, Giant Growth, and a couple other random spells.

Granted, that was back was 4th Edition was just cycling out... >.> *cough*

ANYWAY... If it wasn't for the Dread Warlock, I'd think you were trying to keep this T2. If this is just a casual deck, maybe replace Dark Favor with Unholy Strength? It's one less power, but I usually try to avoid self-induced life-loss in training decks. LOL

I like the idea of giving them some basic creatures and a toolbox to play with, though. Hmm... I would say, drop the Hulk and maybe put in some basic equipment and/or a mana-producing artifact. It would be a more useful way of showing them how artifacts work as opposed to just having anything creature. Not to mention it would help with your rather high curve. ;D If your pool is limited, then just stick to at least one of each of the new Rings and maybe something like Pristine Talisman (though I'd love to put in the old Orzhov Signets). Or even Kitesail or something like Trusty Machete or Darksteel Axe.

Hope this gives you some ideas!

1
Posted 21 September 2012 at 17:05

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I like the idea of equipment, but I need something really simple but really good. Preferably a common or uncommon. Rares seemed to be to complex for this deck when I made it.

Surprisingly it actually doesn't suck when played against more "advanced" decks. This is the standard testing deck. If a new deck that I make cannot hold its own against this, it gets redone.

0
Posted 04 October 2012 at 22:47

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If you are looking for a GREAT learner deck, here's one that went front page a few weeks back. It's not my deck so please don't think I'm spamming, I'm just trying to help. :)

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=377120

Other advice for learner decks, I often teach people how to play using Tribal decks. Tribal decks usually have a very simple and obvious synergy and will emphasize a small number of aspects of the game that are great as starting points for learning. I have several tribal decks but I'll point you at two I'm fond of for their relatively easy playability and functionality.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=381596 - Zombie deck, it's almost front page, I would appreciate comments and likes.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=382265 - Treefolk deck, drops big creatures fast with a simple but effective win combo involving making your treefolk indestructible, then dropping damnation. Suggestions and comments are appreciated as well.

Don't try teaching people on sliver decks though. Sliver decks aren't super complicated, but there are just too many abilities to keep track of. They would be best used after a new player already understands all of the basic game mechanics as a next step. :)

1
Posted 22 September 2012 at 09:47

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PS. I was an English teacher in China for two years, and I used Magic the Gathering for casual learning with some advanced English students (I wouldn't make them pay for that kind of lesson, lol). If they were gamers, they LOVED it. In the end I had some of them coming over to my house (uni students and Chinese English teachers) several times a week to play magic and other games (poker, Settlers of Katan, Munchkin) regularly. Def got my magic fix in China! :)

1
Posted 22 September 2012 at 09:52

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That is so many kinds of awesome that i cant really figure out how to say it.

I actually had somewhat close to that experience....Sorta. One of my friend's is host to the local high school's exchange student program, so every year for the last 8 or 9 years, we have seen two new people from new places. Most of them are pretty awesome, but the last two were absolutely the shit. Arjen, from Holland, and Jacob, from Denmark. They told me they were bored one day so i broke out my MTG cards and after playing their first game, they were hooked. i have somewhere near 90k cards, so they had hours and hours of fun building decks. We played almost every day till they had to go back, and they are trying to spread the word in their own countries now. I loved getting over the Language barrier with the cards like that. I didnt know the Freisan language existed...now i can almost speak it. It not as cool as Me going over there, like you did, but it really was a blast.

2
Posted 29 September 2012 at 13:59

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Ok, so the first deck that you posted is not really a teaching deck. It has 3 colors in it, for starters. But it is a good deck, and it looks fun to play with. :)

0
Posted 04 October 2012 at 22:51

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I love decks like this. Getting more players into the mysterious game of MTG is always great!

1
Posted 11 July 2014 at 15:59

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And I have found it to do they very well. :)
I also judge all new decks that I make by it.

0
Posted 11 July 2014 at 17:52

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I usually throw my "students" into the deep end of the pool by proxying the modern meta.
If they flap around helplessly I then shift to swimming wings decks.

I'd add something to deal with artifacts, enchantments and planeswalkers in the sideboard.
Feed the swarm and Disenchant or something like it.

0
Posted 13 December 2021 at 02:23

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Not a bad idea to have artifact and enchantment hate.although the caliber of decks this faces usually don't have any back breaking artifact or enchantment cards, they do have a few they are around the same level of annoying as enslave, so it wouldn't be unwarranted.

0
Posted 13 December 2021 at 03:02

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I've become rather fond of forsake the worldly.
Having hatred that is never useless is pretty good.
That card teaches the player about how flexible cards are often the most usefull.

Theres a good number of cards that hit two card types out there.
It might become a theme of its own.

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Posted 13 December 2021 at 03:29

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indeed. flexibility is excellent. Forsake the Worldly is nice. I also like Invoke the Divine, but I think the cycling on Forsake is generally better than the life gain. for my purposes the exile vs destruction is a non issue. so it would come down to the cycling vs the 4 life.

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Posted 13 December 2021 at 16:37

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+1
Personally I would remove the 2 Griffin Sentinel and add 2 additional Aerial Responder. To make sure you have the right mana you could add some dual- or search lands: Evolving Wilds, Scoured Barrens.
Aerial Responder was reprinted in the GameNight expansion, where the abilitys are explained with a text.

1
Posted 13 December 2021 at 07:39

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I think having 2 aerial and 2 griffin are a lesson in itself, learning the difference between 2w and 1ww is very educational. It might have been an intentional split.

1
Posted 13 December 2021 at 11:11

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@ Muktol
I will check the gamenight printing of Aerial Responder. I like having the reminder text for this deck. could also put in some Evolving Wilds, for mana fixing. not sure I want the dual lands, but they are certainly a reasonable suggestion.

@Wickeddarkman
you are spot on. that is exactly why I have Griffin Sentinel in here. good early blocker, can be good on offense with Dark Favor, and the diversity in casting costs to teach about tapping mana sources (strictly lands in this case) properly, and making sure you know what you can and cannot cast etc...

1
Posted 13 December 2021 at 16:11

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After I saw "ship it" by mtgremy on youtube I've been wanting to build a deck designed to teach new players when to mulligan/ship it. It would be cool to make it a deck filled with ships.

You'd play a mirror match where both players have to "ship it" playing the deck.

Show them the video first to set up the mood.

Speaking of mood, does any of you set up a play-mood with music ?
You could play certain CDs to set the mood for different levels of play to train the players to be serious business when you bring out the big guns.

A group I was in loved to have "dracula" on the cd player, and sometimes the music would get us to do stuff when the musical drama reached a crescendo, especially in groupplay situations.

-1
Posted 13 December 2021 at 18:56

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funny enough, when I learned to play we were usually listening to Enya. so now whenever I hear Enya, I think of magic. Wild Child in particular makes me think of Child of Night... because... reasons, aitwas a favorite card of mine early on, (I drastically overvalued lifelink), and there were a couple in my first deck.

as for good mulligan-ing, that isn't a bad idea. although I think it is a harder concept to teach than with a single deck. perhaps a pseudo format instead, which allows them to see their opponent's hand when deciding. to get them comfortable with understanding what kind of cards are good to keep early game, and which ones are not.

oh and mtgremy is hilarious. my favorites of his are I've Played Everything and Sounds of silence.

0
Posted 13 December 2021 at 19:15

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I like "867456" or whatever the number is, and land down under is my absolute favorite.
Theres also the asmo-song which is really well sung, it like to sing the name if I ever cast it.

Among the sketches my favourite is elite vanguard vs volcanic Island/birds of paradise.

Theres a lot of fun in his videos :)

Makes you want to build decks around the songs.

I once loved a girl who looked a bit like Bird Maiden when she was happy and Elves of Deep Shadow when she was in a bad mood.
The love was unreturned but eventually that was a good thing cause she turned more or less into a hag in the end.

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Posted 13 December 2021 at 20:50

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Lol... I like it!

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Posted 13 December 2021 at 21:10

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