How to Start Playing Magic: Your First Product

Magic: The Gathering has been in print since 1993, and the shelf at a game store shows it. Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, Bundles, Commander decks, Jumpstart packs, and a new set every few months. For a new player, the hardest part is often not the rules. It is knowing what to buy first.

This is an unofficial beginner’s course for Magic. It runs from your first box to your first Commander night, your first draft, and on up the ladder to competitive play. Lesson one is light on rules and heavy on one decision: where to start.

Start with the Foundations Beginner Box

Wizards of the Coast made the Foundations Beginner Box to teach the game, and it is the first product we point new players to. Its official contents page lists:

• 10 themed Jumpstart decks, each with 20 cards from the Foundations set
• 2 reference cards and a reference guide booklet
• 2 “How to Play” guides
• 2 gameboard playmats
• 2 spindown life counters

Two of the decks, Cats and Vampires, come stacked in a set order for the tutorial. Do not shuffle them. The guides walk two players through a first game turn by turn, so nobody has to read a rulebook aloud. If the order gets mixed up, Wizards posts the tutorial deck order and every decklist online.

After the tutorial, the other eight decks come out. Each has a theme, from Pirates and Wizards to Elves and Goblins. Pick two, shuffle them together into a 40-card deck, and play. Ten decks make dozens of different pairings, which is a lot of games before you need another card.

The box is listed on Wizards’ Foundations product page, along with where to buy it.

Or start for free

Two free routes are worth knowing before you spend anything.

Magic Academy. These are new-player events at local game stores. Wizards describes two kinds: Learn to Play events teach the basic rules with simple decks, and Deck Building events show you how to build your first deck. They run about one to two hours, the store provides the cards, and kids are welcome. Find one with the Wizards store and event locator. The store night lesson covers what to expect.

MTG Arena. Wizards’ digital version of Magic is free on desktop and mobile, with tutorials built in. It is a good way to practice the order of a turn on your own time. It does not replace sitting across from a person, which is the part of Magic that keeps people playing for decades.

Your second purchase: a Commander deck, if your store plays it

Commander is Magic’s most popular multiplayer format: usually four players, 40 life each, and 100-card decks led by a legendary creature. If a store near you runs Commander nights, a ready-to-play Commander deck is the natural next step.

The Foundations Commander decks, released October 2, 2026, were made for this moment. Wizards says they are designed to introduce the format to new players. There are five, each one color with one clear plan:

• Calling All Angels
• Keen Engineering
• Wretched Ranks
• Reign of Dragons
• Tramplesaurus Rex

Each box holds a 100-card deck, a foil commander, ten double-sided tokens, a reference card, and a deck box. The decklists are on the Magic site. Choose by theme. A deck you love the look of will get played more than a deck someone told you was the strongest.

What to skip, for now

• Collector Boosters. Wizards’ own product guide calls them a “shortcut to the coolest cards”: foils, special frames, and alternate art. They are built for collecting, not for learning to play.
• A full box of packs. Opening a box is fun once. It is a slow and costly way to build a deck you can actually play.
• Single cards before you have a plan. The cards people pay the most for are usually strong in one specific kind of deck. Wait until you know which deck is yours. The budget upgrades lesson covers singles.
• Every new set. A new set arrives every few months. You do not need to follow them to have fun, and your Beginner Box cards still play next year.

A simple buying order

1. A Beginner Box, or a free Magic Academy event.
2. Ten games, with friends or at the store.
3. A Commander deck if your store runs Commander, or a seat at a draft night if it runs drafts.
4. Single cards, once you know which deck you want to improve.

That order keeps your money following your interest, instead of the other way around. If someone hands you a cube before any of this, even better: our piece on teaching Magic with a cube explains why that works so well. And if you want the case for why Magic is worth the time at all, read what Magic teaches.