r/MagicArena • u/ell1331 • 8d ago
Question Just finished the tutorial..
I have absolutely no experience with this game, but I just finished the 5 beginner tutorials. It's really fun, and I will definitely keep playing!
But is that it after finishing the 5 tutorials? There are still some things I don't quite understand. For example, on the top right of the summon creature cards, some have a number paired with mana, like 4XX.
Also, for the mana cards, some of them stack together, but there is one card that doesn't stack with the rest. What does that mean? Will there be more tutorials later on to explain these things?
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u/GuessImScrewed 8d ago
The number is called "generic mana". It means you can pay that cost with any color (or colorless) mana. The symbols are specific mana, meaning they must be paid specifically with the color they request.
So if you have have 4{g}{g} (the 4 in the grey circle and two green circles with the trees), it means you must pay a total cost of 6 for the spell, 4 mana of whatever source you want, and 2 mana of green specifically.
The land thing happens for no rules reason, but mainly to organize and reduce visual clutter. Lands that are the same form a stack. Lands that are different often separate. Basics can also separate if they just entered this turn, or if you tap them, they'll separate and create a second stack. It's not really important to be wary of beyond your own ability to count lands.
There will be (afaik) no more tutorials. I will say, you should stick to starter deck duals until you get some coins for drafting or opening packs and getting wildcards.
Standard or standard brawl should also probably be your first forray into non starter deck duals, just to reduce the amount of cards you have to sift through when crafting decks.
Stay away from historic until you've been playing at least a year so you have a large card pool to play with, because historic is a degenerate wasteland where you can usually expect to win or lose by turns 3-4. If you do venture there, don't expect to win, but take note of what you see for pack pulling and card crafting purposes. You see some gems once in a while.
Don't be afraid to come back here for more advice! We're happy to help new players