Hey
Operate a LGS full time in Michigan. Magic is fantastic! BUT if your not careful its crazy. Depends on your favorite format. Play commander and you'll never want to foil anything again. Play modern and if your smart you can actually invest and potentially make a new deck by trading in the old
Packs usually lose you 25-75% of your investment, but any Eternal-format singles tend to keep their value. If you want a real investment, buy Reserved List cards like dual lands - they tend to double every 2-3 years.
If you're just starting out and have a proper game shop to go to, ask the clerk about getting into Magic. If they are worth their salt, they'll give you one of the free Welcome Decks (two 30-card monocolored starter decks, with one color picked at random,) almost instantly.
@Jordan Russell: Once a game shuts down the things you get from lootboxes either become worthless or disappear completely, whereas you get to keep the cards if the series stops... I can understand why that distinction was made.
Just find a LGS and get used to drafting. On most stores you can go infinite if you are good; draft well, win, use store credit / sell prize packs to draft again, keep what you open and sometimes you'll also plus from what you've opened. No deck required.
Any game could bankrupt you, MTG is an easy one for that xD
Specially if you don't have time/motivation to sell your cards, but it could be an investment (if you buy the shocklands now, you'll make some good money in about 6 months)
ok, I'll continue a conversation from yesterday since it's still the same theme xD
@Nos Rin I believe it's the best way not to actually lose money on this, I don't make much money, but I can always have my decks (nowadays I only play casual commander and competitive pauper, so it's not expensive)
I had a friend who would build decks with a deckbuilder on the internet and then print out the cards. Since he only played against other friends, he never had to spent money while being able to fully play Magic.
I like how with MTG:A you can literally play for free and have a decent game. Sure, it would take forever to make a tier 1 deck without paying anything, but you can still have a lot of fun even just with the cards they give for free in starter decks and dailies give you enough gold for draft a week.
As a kid, like you said, I was able to enjoy Magic quite a lot by just buying/trading the cards I wanted, individually, from other people. It was quite harmless. On the other hand, the game that destroyed my finances was freaking Warhammer. Brushes, inks, accessories, decorations, army... omg.
@Gavin No because the government and a bunch of other people are idiots and believe Lootboxes are a form of gambling, even though they did a court case a while back for baseball cards and determined that they weren't gambling because at least you get something from your money, even if it's crap
