Is Magic the Gathering hard to learn?

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Have you ever tried to learn how to play Magic the Gathering? MTG game is designed such that it’s easy for a player to start playing and get into it, but it’s difficult to master both rules and moves as the game due to complexity. 

The difficulty also depends on the rules of the completed level. Some rules are simple to learn, but some levels with magic vocabulary are hard to learn, even with a clear understanding of the basic rules.

Is Magic the Gathering hard to learn? Yes, the MTG game is complicated to learn. However, the situation changes when a player has previous experience or has little knowledge background of playing any board game like chess and draft or card games like solitaire. 

The most challenging part of learning the game is mastering a sheet of rules required during the game and its mechanics applied during the game, such as extort, horsemanship, madness, haunt, evolve, ascending, and transforming. 

In addition, understanding the strategy of an MTG game is not as easy as it may look, especially when it comes to deck building and applying a winning strategy. 

This trading card game requires a lot more strategy and willing to learn thousands of card types, names and actions to take. 

In this article, we are going to dive deep into the challenging Magic the Gathering game. Answered below are frequently asked questions about the difficulty of learning how to play Magic and what other pieces you need to fully enjoy this trading card game. 

Is it hard to get into Magic the Gathering?

No, it is not hard to get into Magic the Gathering. In fact, MTG provides a free-to-play arena that means players can learn few things about the game at anytime. 

In addition, anything a player needs to start, including how to play, what starter deck to buy, and how the game is drafted, is all over the internet and rulebook, which means the information about the game is accessible to anyone. 

In addition, a beginner player can access places to play the MTG via the official Wizards of Coast locator. With the locator map, a player can tell which shops are running MTG events, which is done every week typically on Friday nights around the world. 

The social events are available to provide an enjoyable experience for all starters. Beginners eke out rules with experienced players in the MTG arena, making them develop interest and get a better orientation of the MTG arena game.

Grasping basic rules of MTG is straightforward for a beginner. In just a few matches, the player can really start to enjoy the gameplay. 

However, mastery of the game is not that easy. Starting up the MTG game as a beginner has been eased by online guidelines provided on websites like this. 

MTG requires simple creatures and spells, then the players are good to go before advancing onto more complicated Planeswalkers and complex cards. With a pre-made card set, the player can get to learn the game before making their deck fully custom. 

Is Magic the Gathering luck or skill?

Magic the Gathering involves both luck and skill. However, many parts of the gameplay are more skill than luck. 

We’ve come across a ratio suggesting that the game itself requires 70% skill and 30% involves luck. 

The luck comes about due to shuffling the deck and drawing cards, since essentially they are done randomly. 

However, skill is a critical element in the following areas:

• Knowing the types of decks to play and not to play with.
• Putting deck together.
• Managing resources.
• When switching cards in and out during the game to compensate the weaker areas.
• While drafting cards by determining cards to choose from and cards to pass.
• Negotiations, especially in a multi-player format.
• Maximizing opportunities and covering the weaknesses.
• Determining popular decks and weaker decks.

When two players of the MTG are equally good in the magic deck, the extent of the outcome depends 50% equally on both skill and luck. 

However, what significantly matters in MTG is the skill ability of a player to build a deck and the ability to play cards at hand. When it comes to drawing cards, that entirely depends on luck.

When two players engage in MTG games, they should play the best of three or five rounds to reduce the effect of luck in the game. 

Skills are well portrayed when it comes to winning strategy and making a tactical decision in every step. Luck is only involved when drawing cards or opponent mistakes.

Is Magic the Gathering harder than Hearthstone?

Yes, Magic the Gathering is more complicated than Hearthstone. In terms of mechanics, Mana, game rules and mulligans are a bit harder and more interesting than Hearthstone. 

In addition, the drafting process in MTG is much more complicated than Hearthstone in the sense that MTG is not solitary. Therefore, a player has to think about the effect of a given action, and more so, a player has to think of action the opponent has to take which makes a player keep guessing. 

In mechanics, MTG complicates issues since the lands system doesn’t allow a player to play the cards because of Mana and color. 

Sometimes a player may draw all the lands and be left with no spells. Mechanics such as counter spells and discarding cards make a player get rid of cards even before they play them.

Do you need dice to play Magic the Gathering/

No, you do not need dice to play Magic the Gathering. Playing cards are required, but a dice is very helpful when discarding the cards. 

Most MTG players regularly use 6-sided dice because the dice is more challenging to move than 20-sided dice. However, it’s not mandatory to use dice in Magic.

With help of a dice, MTG can played solo, but it requires a lot of thinking and creativity to pull this off. 

There are a few variants when a dice is not used in this game. A simple piece of paper can serve the same purpose as the dice in an MTG game, but it’s just enjoyable when the right tools are used for the proper purposes. 

Primarily, dice help a player in the MTG game keep track of difficult things to trace in other ways. Such details include measuring quantities of tokens and counters, some deck uses dice for mechanics purposes to keep gameplay in smooth motion.

Difficulty of MTG: Conclusion

Magic the Gathering is easy to enter but hard to master. Due to complex game rules, techniques, and wide range of cards, it can be intimidating for any beginner to jump in head first.

The mechanics and strategy are not easy to fully understand, especially when including deck building and winning strategies. 

Generally, win most games in the world involve some sort of luck, especially when drawing the right card at the right time the card is needed. 

However, MTG is more skill than luck since no player has an upper hand of a superior card than the other. Skills are needed to build a deck and play cards at hand with the proper timing.

But you do need luck to draw cards or for the other player to accidentally make a mistake that gives you an opportunity to win. Furthermore, MTG games do not require dice to play, however in some occasions the players prefer to use 6-sided dice to make a challenging game. 

Don’t hesitate to jump into playing Magic the Gathering. It is quite easy to get started, but the curve to mastery is steep and will take lots of gameplay to wrap your mind around winning strategies and deck building on a higher level.

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