The Magic Arena Starting Pack is a beginner-friendly package created for new players of the popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It is designed to give new players a solid starting point, providing them with a great variety of cards to begin building their own decks and playing against friends or at local game stores. The starting pack includes two carefully curated 60-card decks, each focusing on a different color combination. This allows players to explore different strategies and play styles right from the start. It also includes a variety of powerful and rare cards, giving new players a taste of the more advanced mechanics that Magic has to offer. One of the main advantages of the Magic Arena Starting Pack is that it comes with two 15-card booster packs.
One of the main advantages of the Magic Arena Starting Pack is that it comes with two 15-card booster packs. Booster packs contain random cards from various expansions, allowing players to further expand their collection and customize their decks. This element of surprise and randomness is an essential part of the Magic experience, as it keeps the game fresh and exciting.
5e Magic Shop – Review
A couple days ago, I was in the middle of my 5e Kingmaker game, and the players decided to shop. Now normally, I have some pretty loose rules with what they can buy, but they were specifically going to a shop that had limited supplies, on a frontier. I needed an inventory list, and went to the trusty google (its an online game, I didn’t break out a laptop while playing) while the players talked. I got the usual sea of terrible generators that are unwieldy, covered in ads, or generally just terrible, but at the bottom of the list I saw 5e Magic Shop. I was pretty impressed, and thought I’d do a quick review of each of their tools.
Overall
Overall, what I like most about the site is how simple it is. Most of the random sites you find that do this sort of thing are clunky, hard to navigate, or just filled with extra crap. You go to this site and right on the front are big pictures and links that make it very clear where to find what you want. Its also got a toolbar up top if you like the more streamlined navigation. It also has a login feature, that saves your pre-made stuff, but I never really found a need. Maybe if I were smarter, I’d pre-do a bunch of my work.
At the bottom of the homepage, they have a little essay on what and why the shop is. I appreciate that, and it jives very much with my experience.
Magic Shop
The Magic Shop is the obvious big one, and it works really well. You click it, and it brings you right to the generator with intuitive, helpful fields you can enter. First, it asks for how many of each item you want, hit go and you’re done. You can even do pre-sets like “general store” or “village”. If you expand the advanced options, you can go in and tell it what things to include or leave out. Armor, nonmagic items, or even min/max prices. Very handy.
When you click the generation, it has a slider at the top so I can adjust markup or discount the shop offers, and I get a quick and easy spreadsheet that includes item name, item type, a “sanity category”, rarity, and price. All of those show what you expect, and the sanity category seems to be a better category than the default 5e types. I could do without it, but whatever. The magic here, is that each item is also linked to its DNDBeyond entry, for quick and easy look up. One nice perk I found, was that if I copy and paste an entry into a roll20 handout, to share with my players in a static way, the DNDBeyond linkage carried through. Overall very happy with this tool.
Mercenary Cost Calculator
This tool is very very basic. You put in the CR of the merc, and how long you want to contract them for. Its spits out a gold cost and you’re good to go. I don’t know the math behind the scenes here, but I’m betting there is a chart somewhere I don’t know about, that shows CR and cost per day, and this is just multiplying. I don’t see a lot of value on this one, but it looks like being a merc might be more profitable than being an adventurer.
5e Spellbook Generator
This one was cool. I made dozens of spellbooks just for fun. You input school preference, and level. Then you can enter a title if you want one, but I found leaving it blank automatically gives better names than I would. You can also change the language, and put it into something the players may or may not be able to read based on fantasy languages. It then spits out a list of spells in the spellbook, and gives it a cool title. It gives you a pretty generic, pre-generated book that I am betting if I upgraded to the Keeper level member I could make look cool. I can link the spells to their DNDBeyond account, and I can share the output with players right away. For the review, I didn’t pick a specialty school, and it output “The Granite Lexicon of the Sky” and gave me the spells Alarm, Burning Hands, Charm Person, and Chromatic Orb. For a level 1 wizard, that’s pretty reasonable.
Bounty Calculator
This seems almost the same as the mercenary cost generator. It asks for CR and “rarity” and then spits out a price. Its neat, but I think using a tool for this is probably slower than just throwing out an offhand price, and doesn’t add a lot of value beyond.
Travel Calculator
The travel calculator seems solid, but is really paywalled so I didn’t dive deep. By default it you enter distance, pace, and how many hours of travel per day. It tells you how long it takes. Pretty straight forward, and I don’t know that I’d find value, except their premium level adds things like terrain, mounts, vehicles, spell effects, favored terrains, encumbrance, searching or not, and what looks like tons of other stuff. This sounds great.
Magic Aura Reference
This is more of a chart than a generator (which I guess they say by the title), but it does solve something I see people struggle with a lot. They don’t want to say “It radiates transmutation” because that’s boring. So they come up with some hints and flavor text to make it fun. Then they don’t remember what they did and so they add different fun flavor text. But now they aren’t actually telling the player anything, and so they just give in and say it radiates transmutation. This gives a picture of each aura, a short sentence describing the aura, and then a paragraph describing the school. If you go to keeper you can build your own. Its a nice reference to have on hand if you have players who want more descriptive auras.
Teleportation Circle Generator
This is awesome, and I generated tons. You enter a name, and “the circle’s geometry is based on the name you provide”. Somehow it does some witchcraft, and builds you a circular rune. It quickly spits out a teleportation circle.
That’s awesome. If you upgrade to the keeper level, you can adjust color, and save them. Its simple, fast, and does what it says. I can see myself using this often.
My Reincarnation Table
Expanded reincarnation tables are a blast. This one is a d1000 table of all playable 5e races. It tells you the roll rage, race group (homebrew category listing they made), race, and source book. It shows you the whole chart, and you can pick from it too. There is a button, you hit it, and it tells you your new race. These are always popular and the core version is always limited. A nice thing here, is the DM can come in and build their own table. You can add or remove sources with a checkbox, and you can manually add or remove races, and explain what odds you want that race to have.
Summary
This site is an awesome little resource package. Lots of great generators and references, and the tools are phenomenal. This shop generator is probably my new go to. It certainly seems like signing up for the Patreon level rewards would unlock some handy bonuses.
In addition to the decks and booster packs, the starting pack also includes two quick-start guides and a rulebook. These resources provide players with an overview of the game's basic rules and mechanics, making it easier for them to learn and understand how to play. The quick-start guides offer step-by-step instructions for beginners, helping them get familiar with the gameplay and giving them some ideas on how to improve their decks. Overall, the Magic Arena Starting Pack is an excellent choice for new players looking to dive into the exciting world of Magic: The Gathering. It provides a solid foundation and a variety of cards to start building their decks. With the addition of booster packs and beginner-friendly guides, it offers new players a comprehensive and enjoyable introduction to the game..
Reviews for "Strategies for Building a Competitive Deck with the Magic Arena Starting Pack"
1. John Doe - 2 stars - While I initially thought the Magic Arena Starting Pack would be a great way to get into the game, I was sorely disappointed. The contents of the pack felt lackluster and didn't offer much value for its price. The card selection was mediocre at best, and I didn't feel like I was getting anything special. Additionally, the pack didn't come with any unique or exclusive items, which was a letdown. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this starting pack for anyone looking to jump into Magic Arena.
2. Jane Smith - 1 star - I found the Magic Arena Starting Pack to be a complete waste of money. The cards included were nothing out of the ordinary and didn't offer any real advantage in the game. I expected to receive some powerful or rare cards, but instead, I got a bunch of common and low-value cards that I could have easily obtained through other means. The pricing seemed unreasonable for what I received, and I regretted my purchase immediately. Save your money and look for better alternatives to enhance your Magic Arena experience.
3. Mark Johnson - 2 stars - The Magic Arena Starting Pack was a disappointment for me. The cards included were underwhelming, to say the least. I was hoping to get some exciting and powerful cards, but instead, I received a bunch of average cards that I already had in my collection. The value for the price just wasn't there, and I felt like I wasted my money. I would advise new players to explore other options before considering the Magic Arena Starting Pack, as there are better ways to build a strong deck and progress in the game without spending on this lackluster pack.
4. Sarah Thompson - 2 stars - The Magic Arena Starting Pack didn't live up to my expectations. I thought it would provide a good starting point for me in Magic Arena, but I was mistaken. The cards included were not particularly unique or powerful, and I felt like I could have easily obtained similar cards through regular gameplay or by trading with other players. The pack also didn't offer any additional benefits or bonuses, which was disappointing. Overall, I don't think the Magic Arena Starting Pack is worth the price, and I would recommend exploring other options to kickstart your Magic Arena journey.