Magic: The Gathering's 2022 Starter Decks Are Way Better Than They Have Any Right To Be

thegamer.com:

One of the most commonly asked questions in Magic: The Gathering is simply “how do I start?”. With sets seemingly being released every few minutes, a billion formats to choose from, and almost 30 years’ worth of cards to sift through, simply shuffling up and drawing your first hand is often the biggest hurdle.

Fortunately, Wizards of the Coast releases yearly Starter Kits, which are tied in with the digital adaptation Magic: The Gathering Arena. Containing two decks and codes to redeem both of them in Arena, these are frequently players’ first real forays into the game. However, it wasn’t until this year that the decks you got actually included any decent cards. With the 2022 Starter Kit, Wizards has finally decided to give new players a taste of the spice Magic has to offer, while also making it a worthwhile buy for more enfranchised fans.

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The first Arena Starter Kit launched in 2020, and featured one monoblack deck, and one monogreen. This was the first Magic product I bought after getting back into the game over lockdown, and it does hold a lot of nostalgia: Kogla, the Titan Ape; Doom Pangolin, Honey Mammoth, Treeshaker Chimera, and Peer into the Abyss are all cards I heavily associate with that period on lockdown when everything was unknown and anxiety-inducing, and you needed something comforting.

However, after a few months of re-learning the game, I realised they weren’t actually any good. It doesn’t help that the Amazon version of the kit swapped out the one interesting card; Vito, Thorn of Dusk Rose; with the altogether much less impressive Demon of Loathing. They’re great ways to learn the game, but with an overall lack of mechanical