Your First Magic Upgrades: Singles on a Budget

Sooner or later, a deck you like starts to feel like it could be better. Maybe a card never does anything. Maybe a friend’s deck keeps beating yours the same way. This is the moment many new players buy a stack of booster packs and hope. There is a cheaper, calmer way.

Why singles beat packs for building

A booster pack is random by design. You might open the card you need, and you probably will not. A single is one specific card, bought on its own from a store or a marketplace. When you know what your deck needs, buying that exact card costs less than chasing it through packs.

Packs still have a place. Opening them is fun, and at a prerelease or a draft, opening packs is the game itself. Save your pack money for those nights, and use singles for the deck you take home.

Set the budget before you shop

Pick a monthly amount you are comfortable with and stop when it is spent. Magic rewards patience. A deck improved by three good cards a month will be very different by spring, and you will understand every change because you played each version.

A good rule: never buy a card the same day you first hear about it. Prices move quickly around new sets, and many cards that look exciting in a preview turn out to be ordinary on the table.

What to change first in a Commander deck

If your first deck is a Foundations Commander deck or another ready-to-play deck, play it unchanged for five to ten games first. Then upgrade in this order:

1. Cut the cards that never do anything. Your list of dead cards from the try-this box is the start. A card that is always too slow, too small, or too narrow for your deck is your first swap.
2. Make sure you can cast your spells. Count your lands and your ways to find more mana, using the starting numbers from the land count lesson. A deck that stalls on three lands loses to every deck that does not.
3. Add ways to draw cards. Commander games run long, and running out of cards in hand is a common way to fall behind.
4. Add answers. A few cards that remove a threatening creature or artifact help in every game.
5. Then add more of your theme. If your deck is about Dragons, more good Dragons. Keep the plan that made you choose the deck.

Swap three to five cards at a time, then play again. If you change twenty at once, you will not know which change helped.

Check your bracket when you upgrade

Commander Brackets are Wizards’ optional system for matching decks of similar power, currently in beta. There are five, from Bracket 1, Exhibition, to Bracket 5, cEDH. Wizards also keeps a Game Changers list of cards that swing games hard. Brackets 1 and 2 include none of them, Bracket 3 allows up to three, and Brackets 4 and 5 have no limit. The details are on the Commander format page.

Upgrades can quietly move your deck up a bracket. That is fine, as long as you tell the table before the game. Nobody minds a strong deck. People mind a surprise.

Where to buy singles

• Your local game store. Many stores keep a singles case or can look a card up for you. Buying there supports the place that hosts your game nights.
• Online marketplaces. Large sites list cards from many sellers, which helps with price and with finding a specific printing.

Condition and printings

Marketplaces grade condition, usually from Near Mint down through Lightly Played and worse. For a card that lives in a sleeve, a lightly played copy plays exactly the same and often costs less.

Many cards have been printed several times, with different art, frames, or foil. Every printing of a card plays by the same official rules text, even when an older printing words it differently, so the plainest printing is usually the cheapest way to play it. When a listing matters, the set code and collector number from the card reading lesson tell you exactly which printing you are getting.

If you want to play Standard

Standard decks hold at least 60 cards from recent sets, with up to four copies of a card. Building a competitive Standard deck from scratch costs much more than upgrading a Commander deck, so most new players try it last. If Standard is your goal, borrow a deck for a store night first, or start with draft and sealed, where everyone builds from fresh packs on the night.

Magic can be played on almost any budget, and our piece on precon versus cube compares a few low-cost ways for a group to play.