Beginner's Guide to Popular TCG
Blog Andrew Joseph 21 Jun , 2025 0

I've said a lot of tons over the past few weeks, but right Magic: Party It is at an all-time high. With the recent release of Final Fantasy World beyond the crossover suit, new players who may have never gotten a card are increasingly slow toward one of the most addictive and time-consuming hobbies. If you are one of these people, or someone who wants to dip your toes into the wonderful world of 100-dollar cardboard, IGN will cover our Magic: A Getting Started Guide.
Where to start playing
For new immigrants, the best place to start playing in person is what we call the “kitchen table” magic. No format, no banlist, no meta, just old-fashioned vibe. Find one Starter Kit You like, grab a friend, put them in the sleeves and jump in. These starter decks are a great way to learn the rules. I strongly recommend you pick it up and send it to you MTG Basicsbecause this set is specially designed for brand new players.
Now that you have learned the rules, found your favorite colors, and learned a strategy that works for you, you may want to move to your local gaming store (LGS) in your area. Your mileage will vary because some stores have players in comparison to other formats. But in most cases, many LGSS will be in standard format as their main Friday Night Magic (FNM) event. To find LG near you, use Wizard Activity Locator To enter the address and distance you want to check.
MTG format
Every store is different, not everyone likes to play the same format all the time. Here are some quick breakdowns The most popular format:
- standard: This is the best entry-level 60 card in magic, the best format. You can use the cards from the last two years and the cards will rotate every fall.
- Limited: The limited format is 40 card events and you won't show up on your own prebuilt deck. These two options are Boost draftthe eight players' pods will open the booster backpack, and then select one card one by one, passing their package to the next player until three packages are selected. seal Is the place where you get six booster packs, open them and build the deck from this pool.
- pioneer: Pioneer is the next step in standard power levels. This format is non-rotating and only the card from returning ravnica to the current suite is legal. Accessories such as Commander Deck or Modern Vision are not allowed.
- Modern: The most popular format among competing players is easy, Modern allows you to use Mirrodin's cards in addition to the Commander's deck card. A straight-up modern suite like Modern Vision is legal and a huge contributor to the current meta of this format.
- heritage: Each magic set is legal in the legacy, including the Commander's Deck. This means it has the most powerful deck in the game, which is the most expensive and the hardest to learn. If you were to start, if there were any, you probably wouldn't touch the legacy anytime soon.
- pauper: One of my personal favorite formats, Papper is essentially a traditional streamlined version. Each group is fair game, but you can only use common rare cards. Many of Legacy’s strongest cards are common, such as brainstorming and thinking, so Pauper is a great form of learning when you’re curious about these interactions.
- commander: Commander is a familiar format for most new and casual players. Commander is a format in which up to four players fight them with 100 cards, each deck built around their commander (the legendary creature of their choice). You can only build the deck with the commander's color.
TCGPLAYER is a great place to buy a card
All construct formats have one List of prohibited cards Helps balance metadata and remove crazy combinations from their respective formats.
If the best place to pick up a single set to fill your deck or find sealed products, I recommend you Kingdom of Card and TCGPLAYER. These are the two largest and most trusted TCG suppliers in the world.
Where can I play magic online
MTG: Online
Magic: Online party It has been around for years and it's a great translation of this in-person game for this online client. You can trade with other players in each format of paper, buy, sell and trade, which is the best way to grind the game to practice or learn different strategies.
MTG: Arena
MTG: Arena It is the latest online magic client launched in 2019. Get visual tips from games like fireplace fireplaces, arenas is my preferred method of using standard and pioneer formats – modern, legacy and other older non-rotating formats don’t exist on the arena. However, you can still do boost drafts and seal them. The arena also has some customizations Digital format only. Apart from the standards, pioneers and limited standards, this is something unique to the arena:
- alchemy: This is essentially standard. It has the same rotation schedule and relatively the same card pool. However, the existing card in the alchemy version has a digital-only mechanism that is not available in paper, such as connecting the card to your deck.
- historic: This is a non-rotating format similar to the pioneer, which works harder to get into the customer's only digital mechanism. Overall attractive is the idea of permanent gain or advent card.
- Fights in history: Brawl is a standard variant that commanders are less popular, and historical quarrels are exactly what you would expect: Use only digital cards to build your brawl deck.
Where to go from here
There is there! Everything you need to know start playing magic: face to face and online gatherings. Whether you are the next best Career Travel Grinder or run Commander table on LGS, there are countless ways to play and enjoy the most popular trading card games in the world. There are countless Sealed product purchase And build your collection and release new collections every few months. For hardcore collectors, we even help track some of the most Chasing valuable cards in Ages Collection's Final Fantasy. And if you're looking for that special hiker in your life or gifts that are interested in some of the best MTG accessories and supplies, check out we have one The guide breaks down dozens of personal suggestions from me.
Magic: Party accessories and supplies
Myles Obenza is a freelance writer at IGN. Follow him in Brusky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.