Magic: The Gathering has been around since 1993, which is a long time for any card game to be out. As with any other game that has been out there for a long time, sometimes you need a refresh to get new players into the fold. With the Foundations set released, Wizards of the Coast has brought out the Beginners Box, a new and easy way for new players to learn the decades-long card game… And give them a little taste of the cardboard crack that the game is.
Name: Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginner Box
Design: Reggie Valk (lead)
Release date: November 15, 2024
Plane: Multiversal
Expansion code: FDN
Contents: 2 Insert-Play Decks, 2 Learn-to-Play Guides, 16-page reference booklet, 2 Game board playmats, 2 spindown life counters, 8 JumpStart Decks
The new Standard for learning Magic: The Gathering
Previously, you would learn how to play Magic: The Gathering in a few different ways:
- Go online and learn via MTG: Arena
- Buy a preconstructed deck and jump into the standard game on a Friday night
- Get dragged along to a prerelease event and learn via drafting
- Someone gets you to join Commander/EDH because they hate that you have money
- You get lucky and get to learn with a mentor/teacher at a convention like PAX
The Foundations Beginners Box gives you a chance to learn in a very structured style. You are presented with two decks, a white and a black deck, which are pre-sorted to be played in a very specific order that you will see in the two learners’ guides that come with the set. Other things in the Foundations Beginners Box are things that you will need to play the game: A spin-down disc that keeps your life totals, counters for when you need to add +1/+1 to things, and the best thing of all: A solid playboard that shows you where to put the cards. Hence, you understand the terminology that you will encounter in a game. If you’re still stuck, then you have a handy reference and rules guide to work with as well as a couple of turn-order cards that you can keep by your side as you play any game.
Once you have passed your learners test with the pre-shuffled decks, you can move onto your next test: Choosing one of the 8 premade jumpstart decks that come in all of the 5 colors used in Magic: The Gathering, and from there you can put your training to the test and see if you can beat someone without everything being laid out for you. This challenge will see if you are ready to complete your training and move onto either the standard format or maybe even the dreaded Commander format… Either way, Wizards of the Cost has you covered (If you want to spend the money) by picking up the Foundations Starter Kit that was also released at the same time as the Foundations Beginners Box.
Makes Learning Magic: The Gathering Fun Again
Learning Magic: The Gathering has never been easier with the Foundations Beginners Box as it has everything you need to learn the basics of the game. The two decks that are used to learn with are very interesting to use as most people would be frightened to learn what a Black deck does since it involves mechanics like “return from Graveyard”, but the choice in cards here makes sure that fear does not take hold. As for the other deck, who doesn’t love good old white weenies?
The booklets that you are given with this set are very detailed but also very beginner-friendly, avoiding using too many game-specific terms until you get used to the game. Depending on how much you have to work out or explain, the whole game can take about 30 minutes to complete. During my playthrough with my wife, who already has a somewhat basic level of understanding of the game, we breezed through it in about 20 minutes, with limited times of explanations needed as following the guidebooks was the best way to go. Any other questions required me to break out the rules and regulations book to explain things further.
When Basics are Not Enough
If I had anything negative to say about the Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginners Box, it’s that it stops just short of getting people ready for the chaos of a Friday Night Magic event, or a casual Commander game down at the local card shop. Instead of giving people only jumpstart decks of the other 3 colors in Magic: The Gathering maybe we could have had another 3 pre-shuffled decks with guidebooks so that you could mix and match to learn all 5 colors rather than just 2. This way people could see and understand other mechanics to give them a chance to work out what decks they want to work with when they start playing other formats.
Another thing that I found lacking was Planeswalkers, these powerful cards that become a standard in many decks. I know that Wizards of the Coast likes to keep these cards as “pulls” for the Foundations set, but seeing these cards in action is something that even beginners need to know. If you can throw such cards into Commander decks, then you can add them to this set. The exclusion of these cards in the training and jump-start decks is not a thing I would agree with.
A Solid Opening Hand
Overall, the Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginners Box is the best way to play the game or gift it to someone to give the big hint that you want them to learn how to play. However, I think the set needs to work on being a bit more expansive, maybe changed to a multi-level system so that people can learn more than just how to sling basic spells, summon creatures, and gain life. Also, I think there is space to expand this beginner box format into the other big format for Magic: The Gathering… Commander.
You can find the Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginner Box at your local Wizards Stockist (Find your local location here) or on Amazon. Magic: The Gathering: Foundations is available now.
Special thanks to Daimian from DJ for the in-game photos.
You can buy the Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginner Box at your local Magic: The Gathering store (to find a location, visit https://locator.wizards.com/) or from an official online stockist. Magic: The Gathering: Foundations is also available via MTG Arena. Visit https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena for more information and to download the game.
Review Disclosure Statement: Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginners Box was provided to us by Wizards of the Coast for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please go review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
Summary
Magic: The Gathering: Foundations Beginners Box is something that Magic: The Gathering has needed for a long time. It’s the preferred way to gift something to a new player and get them hooking into the cardboard crack that card games are. However, once you learn the safety of the learning area, new players might get confused when they jump into standard or Commander formats as there are a LOT of terms that they won’t understand.
Pros
- A slow and steady learning environment
- A decent set of cards
- A good way to start players off
Cons
- No expanded rulesets like the Commander format explained
- No cards like Planeswalkers
- Small deck sizes are deceptive of the true product
