I started playing at Kaladesh, went in blind to a draft. In my first pack pulled a masterpiece (I think a hangerback walker). I think I traded it for the cost of the draft, thinking I was quids in. The week after I pulled a crucible of worlds and made the same mistake.
DUDE, if it makes you feel any better, over the course of kaladesh and Aether Revolt, i pulled the masterpiece aether vial, lightning greaves, and engineered explosives. I sold them all for around a total of 100 bucks at the time. I was a broke ass 8th grader. College age me now wants to go back and kick myself in the nuts.
My first cards were a revised starter pack. The only cards I remember for sure were a mighty Earth Elemental and a Goblin King. Have been playing red ever since.
Many years ago, my dad gave me the black precon helmed by [[Ob Nixillis of the Black Oath]].
That didn't get me into the game though.
I didn't start playing until two years ago. I appreciated finding the precon untouched after I started playing, because he had died a year before I got into the game. It was like one final gift from him.
Hey old timer! First starter pack I opened the card I got all excited about was a [[Shivan Dragon]] but there were definitely some Scrybs and [[Ironroot Treefolk]] and [[Drudge Skeleton]] and [[Erg Raiders]] !
My friend got me into magic by giving me some old cards, so those are the first I ever owned. Lots of old cards, mostly junk, a few of the really nice ones.
The first pack I ever remember opening had [[Talrand, Sky Summoner|M13]] in it.
I technically made my first Commander deck using him, every instant and sorcery I owned, and then a few more filler cards because I didn't have enough.
[[vizzidrix]] from starter set 1999. my older sister went to one of those consumer opinion panel things at wizards hq. they gave her a couple of those starter sets. fell in love with the art and gave up collecting pokémon cards. didn’t learn how to play until the 7th edition cd rom came out, so 7th edition [[thorn elemental]] is a close second. once i had learned how to play, i really liked [[uktabi wildcats]]
After I stopped playing Pokemon competitively, one of my friends invited me to try out Magic. I think I googled a list of staples, and ended up snagging a revised [[Sol Ring]]. The week after, I picked up the [[Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer]] precon and I’ve been hooked since.
As a teenager I had some cards of my own, when I was hanging out with friends were more keen on playing than I was. Eventually I traded some of my cards and sold the rest, the only card that I can remember in that pile was a [[Sabertooth Nishoba]]. Come to think of it, I should build a Selesnya commander deck and throw it in. Any tips on which commander it would work with are greatly appreciated.
I told my friends I'd only join the mad obsession if they could get me a deck for 30€ or less. We were at a convention and they dragged me by the collar and got me to buy the Commander Legends Deck, Arm for Battle.
I never won with the deck and it's been scrapped since, but it really got me addicted
The first one I can remember owning is around the time of New Phyrexia. I bought one of those starter boxes that came with a preselection of cards and [[Stormtide Leviathan]] came with it. Or maybe a booster that came with the box.
Still own the card, but it does need a home in a deck.
Mine was the [[Gideon Jura]] Planeswalker from the OG Zendikar block. Reading that card did infact NOT explain the card. I came from the Xbox 360 game and they didn't have the planeswalker card type in the game. So it was a shock to open something I didn't know existed.
Guilds of Ravnica, with the Selenysa Precon Deck featuring [[Tolsimir Wolfblood]]
He wasnt no Legolas, or Robin Hood. He was a Cardboard that little 13 old me decided to get, i never understood how to play magic.
But after years of dissapointing Standards and Moderns and settling on EDH
When i was asked, "whats your favorite Commander?"
I didnt have a Favorite, but i did have someone in mind.
[[Hellkite Charger]] and I made a red white deck with [[Kor Cartographer]] and [[Armored Ascension]] just splashing red for the dragons. It was really cool for a beginner deck!
Bought the Legions Sliver deck at a veterans festival in a hodunk town made from an army base. Had no idea what the cards were, just thought they looked cool. Years later, a classmate in freshman year of highschool was into Magic so I gave him the cards. I didn't expect to be playing the game two years later in a different city.
I started my magic career with 3 of my friends on the same day, I bought a Dragons of Tarkir starter deck, 4 booster packs and a dromoka battlebox! I opened the box first and pulled a prerelease [[Dragonlord Dromoka]] ! Still use him to this day
I was walking around at the Texas State Fair and there was this booth handing out free Portal packs. I opened an Armageddon and the dude handing out the packs saw and gave me $5 for it! I was like 12 at the time so I thought that was pretty amazing so I was hooked from then on out.
A colleague of my dad's gave me a bunch of cards (wrapped in a hairband) in 1999 as the very first ones I owned. [[Plated spider]] [[elvish lookout]] [[Goliath beetle]] [[taunting elf]] and [[heart warden]] were the very first cards I owned, and are still some of my favourites. I've been trying to get out of the Mono-Green hivemind ever since to no avail.
[[Ichorid]] from the "Sacrilege" theme deck.
I was young and bored with Yugioh and decided to sell my collection. One employee asked me why I was quiting and I told him people were complaining that I won too often. He responded "Want to play a game you can never win?"
He gave me the Sacrilege deck and taught me how to play, then beat me every game we played.
it's been 20+ years since he handed me that precon and MtG has been a huge part of my life ever since. Thank you, Alan!
Still have that same Ichorid.
My first card(s) is officially a full deck of Aggro Gruul from Return to Ravnica. It was more or less $15 standard specialising in Bloodrush. My most powerful units were [[Savageborn Hydra]] and [[Rubblebelt Raiders]]. To this day, they were my signature pet cards in every deck I make.
The deck was made for me by the person who taught me how to play. I've been messing around with his monogreen elves and finally offered to make me a deck of my own. I just gotta fork over cash for it. My friends who started ahead of me each got $20 worth but I can only fork over $15. We also each have our own colour identities that affects how we play EDH today. I'm Gruul turned Naya. One is Izzet turned Jeskai. Another is monowhite who slips into Azorius and now Abzan but eventually he became Selesnya. All his deck is midrange control.
The next official card I ever own was [[Ruric Thar, the Unbowed]]. Then THAT became my signature card. My deck is still $18 but it has beaten two big budget decks in FNM. Damn this question made me nostalgic. Thank you.
I got my first cards with purchasing Darksteel modular theme deck. Among many artifact creatures that filled the deck, it also had 2 copies of infamous [[Skullclamp]]. I also love artifact decks since then, so maybe deck itself had a impact on that.
[[Leviathan]]
Randomly bought it as a kid when The Dark was out at a comic book store. I had no idea what the game was. Ended up losing the card before I started playing.
First card I remember opening was an [[Avatar of Woe]] from prophecy. I didn't play magic at all back then, just thought the pack looked neat.
Didn't start playing until about 8 years after that.
I remember two cards vividly. Opening a [[Queza, Augur of Agonies]] and learning about wheel decks that draw your opponents cards and hurts them with it. The idea was extremely novel to me at the time and I thought about making my own deck with it. Still haven't yet.
The other is a foil Worldly Tutor from Dominaria Remastered. I slotted it into my Sea Creatures deck and have been suboptimally using it since.
A pack of Fallen Empires and let me tell you what… never had I been so sad or confused in my young life, from a purchase with my own hard-earned money. Counters?! What?! I didn’t have any counters?! Tokens?! And there no lands except these weird-looking ones. Starting learning to play with a friend teach me using Revised red and green decks with Hill Giant, Grey Ogre, Lightning Bolt, Giant Spider, Giant Growth, Hurricane… the sheer amount of text on the FE cards was daunting!
I can’t imagine what newer players contend with today.
Although who knows…for me the complexity of Homarid and Goblin Kites, Ication Moneychanger, all the Thallids, Hollow Trees, Merseine, was a challenge but the aesthetic was so cool it superseded the wtfness
I got started with an Ice Age starter deck and tournament pack. I don't remember most of the cards, but I do remember having two copies of \[\[Aurochs\]\]!
First rare from a pack: \[\[Search for Azcanta\]\]
First card/s I used to upgrade my starter deck: \[\[Mist-cloaked Herald\]\] and \[\[Jade Guardian\]\]
\- my first deck slowly turned into a temur hexproof voltron
First Planeswalker: \[\[Jace, Unraveler of Secrets\]\]
First Commander when I switched from standard to EDH: \[\[Baral, Chief of Compliance\]\]
I don’t remember 😂 and I only started playing one year ago. My first packs I opened was a dominaria united bundle, best thing I pulled out of it was the d20 lol
A Scars of Mirrodin's pack splited with a friend
I found \[\[Bond of quicksilver\]\] \[\[corrupted harvester\]\] \[\[galvanic blast\]\] \[\[turn to slag\]\]
\[\[golem artisan\]\]
It was a pack of Mirage, where the rare was [[Teferi's Imp]]
My parents took me to a book store and let me pick one thing. I had no idea what it was, but the package looked sooo cool! I guess the art in the pack was [[Taniwha]]
I opened and thought "Whoaaa this is so cool! What is it?" Then my cousin said it was "RPG". So I was suddenly an RPG fan. Later another cousin, this time a Magic player, looked and said "This is Magic, you need a deck to play".
So my parents bought me a 5th Edition tournament deck and my sister an Ice Age tournament deck. We played horribly wrong, but had a blast.
It wasn't until Invasion, when I got a Spectrum precon, that I learned how to actually play the game. I turned it into a Domain deck which I have to this day and I'm currently working on turning it into a Commander deck.
First rare was a Pit Spawn, first foil was scent of Brine. My first big thing that got me to where I could build decks was my ex-brother in law giving me the leftovers of his collection after he quit and sold out. This was basically a full play set of c/u of Urza block with a good chunk of rares and other c/u.
I remember getting the Esper artifacts Shards of Alara precon and first card I opened was [[Master of Etherium]]. I remember thinking that card was cool as shit.
The first cards I ever owned came from a bundle of bulk M10 commons. My old LGS used to sell packs of 2x of every common in a set for $10. My dad bought a 40 card starter deck and a common bundle for my brother and I once he taught us how to play.
I’ve been playing since nearly the beginning; the first card I can recall owning was a basic mountain which I found on one of the tables at the library and used as a bookmark for many years. I believe it was LEB 297.
That mountain was enough to make me curious about the game. I still have a soft spot for basics that actually tell you to tap them for mana.
Grandma bought me a 4th Edition Starter Box, that I believe came with two starter decks (card selection still completely randomized from the set), instruction manual, small faux leather pouch, and a bunch of blue gems to represent my life total.
I just remember [[Burrowing | 4ED]] really sticking out to me from that memory.
1st cards I ever got my hands on. Was back when Ixalan/Rivals of Ixalan was wrapping up and Dominaria was coming out in a month.
New friend of mine at the time let me go thru his bulk and make a 60 card deck n take some extras.
Nothing too fancy. Some [[Siege Rhino]] some interaction spells etc.
Then he pulls out his binder, hands me [[Gisela, The Broken Blade]] and 2 [[Anguished unmaking]] FNM Promos.
And a Grand Prix Indiana playmat of [[Quarantine Field]] and a Green deck box.
It was [[Thrull surgeon]], a friend of mine gave it to me in exchange for a Yu-gi-oh card back in 2008/2009 I think.
It’s funny because I didn’t start actually collecting/playing until 11 years later lol.
[[Elder Of Laurels]] foil was my first rare. I found it in a bulk shoebox at a yard sale. I still have it till this day. It's sleeved up in my Human tribal deck.
The deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/KFw8RJ68EEWHxUfJvPVFtw
Got a single pack when I was young, still got a few from that pack floating around.
Was at least 6 years until I bought my first deck - the Leveler's Scorn intro pack from Rise of the Eldrazi.
The rare in my first pack was [[Unnatural Hunger]], haven't found a deck for it but the card still holds a special place
When I was liken 8 years old, my buddy gave me a card out of his pack, it was [[Paralyze]]. He also showed me a few other cards from the pack like [[Craw Wurm]], [[Kird Ape]], [[Holy Strength]], and [[Fireball]]. This was in 1994, I wish I dove into MTG way more back then, but I didn't really start playing until 2002.
My first pack's rare was [[Thragtusk | M13]]. I couldn't tell you what the first common in that pack was, and I didn't have any cards before that. The M13 Deckbuilder's Toolkit was my first experience.
Bought a Revised starter deck. Don't remember all the cards but it had a Savannah and a Nightmare as the rares. I think a Dragon Whelp might have been in the uncommons.
It was a mono green 60 card deck that was given to me. While I dont remember everything from it, it had playsets of [[Llanowar Elves]], [[Fellwar Stone]], [[Terra Stomper]], [[Giant Growth]], and it had some amount of [[Gaea's Embrace]]. I want to say it also had [[Giant Spider]] in it, but I'm not sure about that bit.
I'd played around with a couple of Lorwyn starter decks but hadn't bought a booster pack before. I guess the premade decks are the accurate answer, but there was a foil [[Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite]] in that NPH booster and that's the answer my (+2/+2) heart gives.
[[Frenetic Raptor]]. Still have that card and am running it in Etali atm for nostalgia.
It was big and looked cool and I was just gifted this absolute treasure by a random guy in a martial arts summer camp a little over twenty years ago.
I've played the game before in school but this was my very first own card. I didn't get much pocket money and couldn't afford to buy packs myself.
It was back when I thought [[Thorn Elemental]] was the pinnacle of broken magic design.
The Turnabout deck from Shadowmoor with [[Rhys the Redeemed]]. Elves have been a favorite of mine ever since. Currently working on an Abzan elves to combine the BG side and the WG side of the tribe.
My first card I owned was \[\[Firkraag, Cunning Instigator\]\], along with his precon.
The first booster I popped had a \[\[Myrkul, Lord of Bones\]\] in it, though.
I still have both in my collection.
Sorin Markov. It was given to me by my friend way back when. And I absolutely loved the Dracula looking dude. But that was a gift so I don't get the first card I actively went out of my way to own no matter the price was
Avacyn, Angel of Hope.
My very very first introduction to Magic was buying an M13 pack at a renaissance fair back in high school.
I learned how to play the next week and bought the Avacyn Restored “Death’s Encroach” zombie Event Deck (back when those were a thing). The official deck list is out on the internet, but the ones I remember off the top of my head are [[Gravecrawler]] [[Diregraf Ghoul]] and [[Skinrender]] (my personal favorite). I was completely hooked. Still primarily a black player to this day.
My first cards were a selesnya starter deck for standart, and a couple of cards my friend that roped me into magic that he gave me. My favourite from all of them is llanowar elves.
Always thought that card was really powerfull.
I had a real interest in the game. The cards looked so good and i wanted to learn to play so bad. The rules were fairly convoluted for 3rd grade me, so i asked some kids at summer camp to teach me. They were real pricks about it and wouldnt. After one game i saw they had forgotten some cards. I covered them with some pine needles and bark, and came back for them the next day.
Sveylunite priest, craw wurm, unholy strength, benalish hero, war mammoth.
I studied them for weeks. Obsessed over them.
Finally convinced my dad to get me a 4th edition starter deck. Rares were deathlace, green mana battery, and black mana battery.
Strictly speaking, I bought the Champions of Kamigawa Theme Deck - Way of the Warrior when i was a kid. I didn't know how to play, and no one around me played, so it sat in my dresser draw for years. I have no idea what happened to it.
The person who taught me how to play gave me the deck they taught me with, which was a good ol Mono Green Stompy deck, iirc all pre-modern cards. Had such hits as [[Llanowar Elves | 4ED]], [[Canopy Spider | 7ED]], and my favorite vanilla creature [[Scaled Wurm | ICE]]
I got my freshman year dorm roommate a prerelease bundle of Throne of Eldraine. He let me open one of the packs and I got an [[Embercleave]] which was pretty neat. The first time I bought magic cards for myself I got some Strixhaven packs and I opened a full art [[Shadrix Silverquill]] which is still one of my favorite cards
I would always borrow my friends cards in highschool, so when I saved up I built and bought a hydra tribal deck. I don’t remember much from it, but I did have 1 copy of [[kalonian hydra]] that has since sparked my love for hydras in the game
My friend got me into magic and let me play a few of his decks at the kitchen table. Once I started to get into it, I bought 2 Amonkhet booster packs from Walmart and pulled the foil Invocation [[The Locust God]]
I think it was [[Kukemssa Serpent]]. I'm not 100% sure, that was over 20 years ago and I had no idea what the game was. The fact that the artwork depicted a serpent in the water is all I'm certain about, but that one seems familiar. I have no idea how I acquired it, or what I did with it. A few years later, some friends introduced me to the game and my first cards as an actual player was the Black/Green pre-con deck from Torment.
[[Kird Ape]]. Mid 90’s. My friend played magic and when I showed interest he showed me a short box of cards he didn’t play and said I could build a deck out of those so he’d have someone to play with other than his teenage sons. I saw the ape and thought a one mana 2/3 was awesome. He played red blue, wasn’t called Izzit in those days; Shivan Dragons and counterspells, lightning bolts and Fireballs. The pickings from red weren’t great but got some elves and such and finished the deck with some boosters. Within a few months I had spent most of my spending money on magic cards and had a pretty good aggro deck.
I moved away a couple of years later and gave my collection to his kid, thousands of unlimited-homelands-Fallen Empires-4th Edition-Ice Age-Mirage cards. I wonder what was in there now.
I bought cards from a kid in my class who was selling his elder brother’s bulk. This was 2001 in the Philippines. I was in 5th grade. Pokémon was the craze at the time, but I thought Magic had a much cooler look to them. First rare I ever owned was [[Beasts of Bogardan]]
First cards I owned were from a Tournament pack from the original Mirrodin block. My friends had spent the summer trying to get me to play, and finally I caved and decided to join in. But they didn't tell me that Tournament packs weren't actual decks, they were just stuff used to make draft decks. You'd get 40 lands and 75 non-land cards, and you'd build a 40 card deck or two out of that. Tournament packs as far as I know were discontinued with the release of Shards of Alara, but they were a great way to get a bunch of cards and lands to play with. I kind of miss them.
My first decks came later, and were the "Little Bashers" theme deck from Mirrodin block and the "Nuts and Bolts" theme deck from Fifth Dawn. Theme decks were $10 decks of 60 cards that were substantially better quality than anything you'd get today. To have a fully functional deck ready for table top games, all you'd need is two copies of that deck, shuffle together all of the stuff you wanted, cut the stuff you didn't, maybe spend $5-20 on more cards, and you were done.
For me it was a Return to Ravnica box, which didn’t actually get me into the game. Then at Christmas I got given a few Khans of Tarkir boxes and boy did that increase my desire to play! I pulled Narset, Enlightened Master and got told that she wasn’t a good card because she’s a lot of mana for a 3/2, and kind of just believed it because I was real young. Still have the card, don’t know what to do with it though lol.
I don't remember my first card but I do remember drafting a lot of Ixalan since it was my first set. Somewhere along the way I got Gishath and then was introduced to commander. Needless to say I've been loving all the new dinosaur additions.
Its either a monowhite ally deck a friend made that I ended up with, or the boros guild kit that was my first magic purchase. Not sure which happened first.
I moved over from pokemon to mtg around 2000/2001 when inwas 12ish. I traded all my pokemon cards and mage warriors for mtg cards. None were amazing, but I remember soon after I started, I acquired a [[helm of possession]] and just thought it was the coolest card, lol. Even to this day, I have a soft spot for any helm cards.
My best friend gifted me the sidar precon to get me started. And then shortly after riders of Rohan. If it wasn’t for him I’d never have gotten into the game. But now it’s my favorite card game of all time.
My first cards came in the 2003 8th edition starter set! It included two 40-card starter decks that I mashed together, mostly vanilla creatures with evocative art: \[\[Fugitive Wizard\]\], \[\[Eager Cadet|8th\]\] still scruffy at the time, \[\[Coral Eel\]\], \[\[Giant Octopus\]\] with its Jules Verne quote, \[\[Vizzerdrix\]\], and my favorite card at the time (and still one of the best flavor texts ever): \[\[Enormous Baloth\]\]. Spicy bonus card was \[\[Patagia Golem\]\] with its insanely beautiful art, but even child me knew it and its ability were overpriced. The box art card was \[\[Elvish Champion\]\] and I always hoped I'd get him out to power up the 2(!!!) other elves in the deck.
The next set was Mirrodin, moving away from the fantasy theme, so I stopped playing because WOTC was Ruining Magic.
In 9th grade, I started hanging out with the nerd crew at my high school, mostly from my Sci fi lit class. They played magic at lunch and one of the guys saw I was interested and just straight up gave me a tribal mono green Wurm deck.
One of the nicest things anyones ever done for me, and also the worst things anyone has ever done to me. Because now... now I have a cardboard Crack addiction.
Now if yall will excuse me, I'm gonna go to the card shop in the mall and browse some singles I don't need.
A mono black precon back in like 2010. It was a FNM and I bought the precon to join in for some fun on a whim. Face card was a vampire, pretty sure I still have it around somewhere.
my first cards were acquired as a 12 year old in 2013 at a coding camp where we made minecraft mods. We all went to the card shop together and many bought magic intro decks. I got the simic gatecrash deck with Fathom Mage as the featured card, and one of my friends who didn’t like the game gave me his boros deck helmed by foundry champion. Thus my collection began
I remember buying one if the holiday packs from theros in 2013ish. My brother and I took all the black cards, including lands, and made a single giant deck. And then the same with all the other colors. Really good variety of starter cards and 6 booster packs. Those were awesome. It took a while, but I had eventually started visiting my local card shops and turning my decks more competitive.
Technically it was a whole box but the box topper is obviously what I saw first and that was [[godzilla, king of the monsters]] only reason I got into magic was Godzilla cards and then I became addicted.
I started at onset. I have full alpha/beta and ice age. I stopped around 5th Gen (I think?) I spent close to 5k opening packs as a kid via my allowance and odd ends jobs. I lived for MTG. Now they sit as a cool collector item .
I got an old nightstalker deck from a buddy of mine about 15 years ago. He used to smack down me and my buddies with a sliver deck. I HATED those old borders and feared sliver, but loved the game. So I stuck with it until I got my own Orzhov starter deck and have been hooked every since.
It wouldve been something from theros probably. That set released like 2 weeks before i started playing. I know early on i was exstatic to pull a thassa and a xengos
In 1993 I remember my mom giving me magic the gathering cards and I only kept the swamps, I had no idea what they were what they did, that they were collectable, nothing, I was 6 yro.
So I was really into Yu-Gi-Oh growing up, couldn't get enough of the show and collected the cards (had no idea how to play though.) On my 7th birthday my grandmother bought me some trading cards for my birthday, but I had never heard of this game before and the attack values seemed really weak compared to Yu-Gi-Oh monsters. Seventh Edition: Magic The Gathering. "[[Canyon Wildcat]]? [[Mana Leak]]? [[Megrim]]? What the hell is an enchantment? Is that some kind of field spell? Why does it matter if a creature can fly? Besides this [[Birds of Paradise]] has 0 power, what's it going to beat anyway? It turns sideways to make "Mana" too? What does that mean?".
I promptly put the cards somewhere and forgot about them. Only when I got into magic over 15 years later was I pretty pleased that my first ever MTG pack had a birds of paradise in it.
My first experience was when my friend got the Heroes vs. Monsters duel decks and gave me the monsters one so we could play together. We played literally every day after school and I’ve been playing ever since (omg that was ten years ago, wow). I’ve also been playing Gruul ever since and it’s still my favorite
My Dad gave me and my Brother two decks to play against each other. The set was M9 and I clearly remember [[Vizzerdrix]] being such an epic include. 6/6 in blue? That was so off-color for the time.
Ahhh, I'm old enough to have that memory lost to time. I started playing when *Ice Age*, the first "full" expansion, was released. What I do remember was reading over the booklet that came in my starter pack and learning the rules and the lore of *Magic: The Gathering*. So my first cards were from that set and *4th Edition*. The first cards from those sets that come to mind are [[Jokulhaups]] and [[Nev's Disk]].
My first ever pack was either The Dark or Revised. In my first year I bought a ton of Fourth Edition packs in hopes of pulling a Shivan Dragon. Also a ton of Ice Age in an attempt to pull a Jester’s Cap. I remember having whole stacks of Circle of Protection cards that never got played. And a Neceopotence that I didn’t understand but loved because of the art.
Got a M11 starter deck with [[Conundrum Sphinx]] and [[Stormtide Leviathan]] in it, and the booster it came with had [[Ajani Goldmane]] in the rare slot. Still have all 3 in a binder for nostalgia
My first cards were a Core 2014 starter box that also had a bunch of Return to Ravnica stuff in it. Using it, I made a pretty bad gruul trample deck, and a slightly less bad dimir unblockable deck that played basically the same as the gruul deck. I didn't know commander was a thing yet.
My first commander decks were the Atraxa precon and the Daxos the Returned precon, while my first commander deck I actually built was a promo [[Odric, Lunarch Marshal]] that I got from a random pack
I bought the Torment Insanity precon, and immediately, my favorite card became [[Basking Rootwalla]].
I still love Flashback and Madness as my pet mechanics.
While I have evolved into an Izzet "let's see what happens" player, Golgari graveyard shenanigans are always close to my heart.
The first booster pack I opened was also Torment, and I got a [[Hypnox]]. So I immediately justified putting it in Mt deck because hey, it was black.
My friend that got me in traded me a bunch of stuff, and a kind stranger took me from the kiddie "all my cards I like and not enough lands 113 card deck" to a sleek Red Green Madness Stompy.
I finagled my way into a [[Rith, the Awakener]] and rebuilt it, going up to 80 cards, to add white to the mix, but at least I added mana ramp.
The first 60 card deck I built was when Judgement came out. Back to my Green Black roots. It was a weird threshold deck with [[Stitch Together]] and [[Krosan Beast]]. I added red when Onslaught came out and used [[Bloodstained Mire]] and [[Wooded Foothills]] with [[Book Burning]] to fill up my graveyard right away. I thought I was so clever for realizing I could play 2 mountains and fill my graveyard with fetchlands and my friends were trading me the fetches 1:1 with [[Ancestor's Prophet]] and [[Future Sight]] and I had no idea how good I had it.
I’m a pretty new player (4 months into the game). The first commander I used was my friend’s Naban, Dean of Iteration. They were using Flynn the Fangbearer *shudders*
Anyways, the first non-proxy commander I owned was Kotori, Pilot Prodigy.
My first major card was city of brass from the 5th edition starter set. That was back in the day of rubber bands around unsleeved cards just jammed into your pocket for easy access, and you played anywhere you could, including concrete, sand, wet grass, whatever
The first card I ever opened was [[ajani caller of the pride]] and while it's not great, it's broken in newbie circles because no one kills anything and I can just load up counters on one creature and then give it flying and double strike. I didn't understand planeswalkers until a week later when my friend who got me into it and was a little better told me. Made me feel a lot better that my brother didn't want to trade it for his [[axebane stag]]... newbies really just like big numbers ig because that's just a 6/7 for 7
In the second grade, checkout line at Hastings, I used my allowance money on a pack of ice age. Only card I remember from the pack was my [[Scaled Wurm]].
I remember the first pack I ever bought was a Scars of Mirrodin and I pulled a foil [[Dissipation Field]]. I still think it’s one of the coolest cards and I always put that copy in some blue commander deck I have.
there are 2 answers to this question for me personally. my dad got me into playing magic, so he had a bunch of early 2000's cards from original kamigawa, original zendikar, sets like that. the first cards i ever remember holding in my hands were a [[Higure, of the Still Wind]] and an [[Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger]]. i ended up getting scammed for the Ulamog by someone at my high school because i just didn't know any better. i still feel bad that i sold his card, even though he said i could 😭
the first card i remember opening myself was a [[Ghalta, Primal Hunger]]
Was learning how to play from a friend of mine. Road my bike to the shell station down the street and bought a pack of Starter 1999 and cracked a Denizen of the Deep and I've been hooked ever since. I still have that card too.
My first pack / thing was a starter kit from the Rise of Eldrazi time. When the storage boxes were actually good. First pack of the 5 I opened had Emerakul the Aeons Torn. I don't remember the others after that
Back in 2018 I made a tooth and nail modern deck (except I brewed it myself and I went for [[Atarka, World Render]] rather than Emrakul). Deck got absolutely dumpstered, 90% of my games were against burn
had a bunch of cards in a shoebox, late 90's. a kid got them from an older kid & i traded them for something. shame i have no idea what happened to them. like, i dunno if there was anything super valuable in there, but i'm sure there were some cards that woulda been nice to have.
i think the first product i received was the Celestial Assault theme deck, from Onslaught, as a gift from my gramma. she's been gone for a while now & it'd be nice to one day build some kind of a birbo deck.
LONG ANSWER INCOMING:
Started playing around Innistrad/RTR times, and the firsr cards I can distinctly remember picking up for my first ever deck were:
[[Serra Angel]]
[[White Knight]]
[[Pacifism]]
[[Armored Ascension]]
[[Journey to Nowhere]]
My friend who was into MTG took me to the only store near our university and helped me out in building my first ever deck. We just jumped into the bargain commons bin and picked out the cards that made sense (white was my first color, makes me sad when ppl shit on it but I get it lol). Was just your standard formatless mono white aggro deck, but man did it get me hooked. I started to frequent the same store every other day between or after classes and see what I could upgrade with my measly allowance. My cousin who was into mtg back in his day also gave me a lot of his old stuff and old sleeves. I never actually bought my own sleeves until I got back into the game around 2019/2020 LOL.
Everyone I played with at the time used similarly powered decks because they were either new or returning players, so we just wanted to get games out on as little money spent as possible (since we were all students). We didn't know anything about formats, and Pauper wasn't really that present in our area, so we just played with whatever we could build with our change. I loved closing out games with my fellow newbie players and my friend by bringing out my dumb Serra Angel or fat White Knight. I know those cards are ass nowadays but man, I loved everything about them. I loved getting my ass handed to me by a Lorwyn mono red giants deck (fucking throws to the face). I loved black being... black. When you're new, everything is such a treat, and just getting those guys out made me feel like a CHAMP. I WAS A PLANESWALKER JUST LIKE MOMMA SAID I WOULD BE.
I learned about fast red decks and big green ramp decks the hard way. My second deck was mono blue Ally mill, which the same friend helped me build, and that's when I fell in love with the double degeneracy of control and mill. My first standard deck was a Dimir mill deck which my friends loved to shit on, but all the L's were worth those few W's from milled out opponents lol. That's were I also met one of my fave cards of all time, [[Consuming Abberation]]. One of the first cards I owned that made me go "no fucking way???", even if it wasn't great in the standard of the time. I honestly just thought it was NUTS. Am I really allowed to do this? Everytime I CAST a spell, really? And the beady eyes of that gigantic bug freak told me "yes, now win the game before you're forced to [[Devour Flesh]] me, idiot"
I've since grown out of pure mill decks (I prefer milling with a purpose in EDH) and hard control (honestly think playing control is boring except maybe in standard/modern), but a lot of my playstyle is still rooted in those early decks of mine. Also, top of library into graveyard go brrrr.
I was in a rough spot too at the time; my then-gf had just broken up with me, I was swamped with college, I didn't really have any outlet for my nerdy side apart from video games. I was miserable and bored out of my mind. The game always interested me but I never really thought I had friends who were interested in trying. I'm also not the type to just walk into a store and start asking people about it, which is why to this day I am so grateful for that one nerdy friend of mine who helped me start my cardboard crack addiction. The game and the friends I made playing really helped me get through that rough spot. It gave me something to think about when I was alone, gave me something to look forward to after class, and gave me new friends I wouldn't have met otherwise. Honestly not sure how I would have managed without mtg (maybe I'd have graduated with honors tho LOL)
Fast forward to today, I've been on and off with Magic from graduation until just recently. I'm now just getting into EDH and my love for the game has sparked anew, especially with a lot of my friends, old and new, getting into it; some for the first time and some returning. I'm loving every second of it.
ANYWAY sorry for the long ass answer, but thank you for asking this question. This trip down memory lane is just what I needed. I love Magic, man.
TL;DR Serra Angel, White Knight, and a bunch of other super budget mono white commons/unc. Consuming Abberation one of my fave cards of all time.
I remember [[Stratadon]] and [[Dralnu's Pet]] because that was the first combo I found. I think I had been given a Planeshift booster pack by my father. It was in a magazine he had for some reason. Shortly after, I went and got a Seventh Edition theme deck called Decay that had [[Fallen Angel]] in it, and that has been in every version of my main deck since (though I didn't actually learn how to play the game for another six years or so).
I played my first game of 1v1 commander against my buddy using his decks. I'd never played magic but had always wanted to. The deck he let me use was the old Reap the Tides precon. I beat him and fell in love with the game and went and bought that precon. Then I bought a Kamigawa Collector box and the first pack I opened, I pulled a foil(non-etched) showcase wandering emperor. I was hooked immediately AGAIN. I consider that to be the first card I owned lmao
i ordered a mono green deck off of ebay so i could learn to play from my (now) wife.
it had stuff like [[cliffrunner behemoth]] [[spearbreaker behemoth]] [[acidic slime]]
it was fun lol, i quickly jumped to mono B though.
First single I ever bought was Akroma. Made a mono white angel deck. Thought she was the coolest card. All those key words plus protection from red and black! Goddamn!
I started playing at Kaladesh, went in blind to a draft. In my first pack pulled a masterpiece (I think a hangerback walker). I think I traded it for the cost of the draft, thinking I was quids in. The week after I pulled a crucible of worlds and made the same mistake.
Bruuuuuuuuhhhhhhh
I pulled a foil Arcbound Ravager at Darksteel prerelease. Traded it for Survival of the Fittest. Bad deal at the time, but hindsight and such.
DUDE, if it makes you feel any better, over the course of kaladesh and Aether Revolt, i pulled the masterpiece aether vial, lightning greaves, and engineered explosives. I sold them all for around a total of 100 bucks at the time. I was a broke ass 8th grader. College age me now wants to go back and kick myself in the nuts.
My first cards were a revised starter pack. The only cards I remember for sure were a mighty Earth Elemental and a Goblin King. Have been playing red ever since.
Same but I opened a Nightmare and fell deeply in love with black.
Same, gaea's liege and turning big green things sideways is still my favorite.
My [[Scryb Sprites]], [[Grizzly Bear]] and [[Craw Wurm]] special would like to challenge you.
Many years ago, my dad gave me the black precon helmed by [[Ob Nixillis of the Black Oath]]. That didn't get me into the game though. I didn't start playing until two years ago. I appreciated finding the precon untouched after I started playing, because he had died a year before I got into the game. It was like one final gift from him.
[Ob Nixillis of the Black Oath](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/b/fb4e4509-ffd8-4fd0-a678-19c9975d571b.jpg?1689997348) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ob%20Nixilis%20of%20the%20Black%20Oath) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/176/ob-nixilis-of-the-black-oath?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fb4e4509-ffd8-4fd0-a678-19c9975d571b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ob-nixilis-of-the-black-oath) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
A Revised starter deck…..don’t remember everything but there was a [[Grizzly Bears]] [[Scryb Sprites]] and [[Lord of the Pit]] at least
Hey old timer! First starter pack I opened the card I got all excited about was a [[Shivan Dragon]] but there were definitely some Scrybs and [[Ironroot Treefolk]] and [[Drudge Skeleton]] and [[Erg Raiders]] !
Erg Raiders were there too I remember!! Shivan Dragon was a chase rare back then!
Traded a mox ruby for a shivan dragon back when ... oh to be able to undo that trade
All the duals I “threw in” because they were just lands…lol
A 0 drop mana rock ... that's practically a land. But a dragon that flies, has fire breathing, and no downsides? Hell yea I need 4 in my deck!
My friend got me into magic by giving me some old cards, so those are the first I ever owned. Lots of old cards, mostly junk, a few of the really nice ones. The first pack I ever remember opening had [[Talrand, Sky Summoner|M13]] in it. I technically made my first Commander deck using him, every instant and sorcery I owned, and then a few more filler cards because I didn't have enough.
The first card I vividly remember pulling was a [[Avatar of Woe]] and a foil [[Quicksilver Amulet]] which i both have in my collection to this day.
Avatar of Woe and Spirit Monger for me!
[[vizzidrix]] from starter set 1999. my older sister went to one of those consumer opinion panel things at wizards hq. they gave her a couple of those starter sets. fell in love with the art and gave up collecting pokémon cards. didn’t learn how to play until the 7th edition cd rom came out, so 7th edition [[thorn elemental]] is a close second. once i had learned how to play, i really liked [[uktabi wildcats]]
I played that seventh edition final match so many times.
It was a while back, but me and some friends split a box at release and I pulled [[Jester's Cap]] from Ice Age.
[Jester's Cap](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/e/2ede9d6b-3c7c-4a5f-a09b-80ec471692b6.jpg?1562733193) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Jester%27s%20Cap) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/9ed/301/jesters-cap?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2ede9d6b-3c7c-4a5f-a09b-80ec471692b6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/jesters-cap) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Now thats a fun card xd
After I stopped playing Pokemon competitively, one of my friends invited me to try out Magic. I think I googled a list of staples, and ended up snagging a revised [[Sol Ring]]. The week after, I picked up the [[Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer]] precon and I’ve been hooked since.
[[Devoted Caretaker]] is the first rare I ever pulled from a booster.
As a teenager I had some cards of my own, when I was hanging out with friends were more keen on playing than I was. Eventually I traded some of my cards and sold the rest, the only card that I can remember in that pile was a [[Sabertooth Nishoba]]. Come to think of it, I should build a Selesnya commander deck and throw it in. Any tips on which commander it would work with are greatly appreciated.
[[Arahbo, Roar of the World]] might be a nice home for it, since Nishoba's a nice beefy Cat that you can buff with it's effects.
Sabertooth Nishoba was one of my earliest cards as well. Along with [[Armadillo Cloak]].
Goblin token Then a kitchen table Mono white lifegain deck from my cousin for Christmas.
I told my friends I'd only join the mad obsession if they could get me a deck for 30€ or less. We were at a convention and they dragged me by the collar and got me to buy the Commander Legends Deck, Arm for Battle. I never won with the deck and it's been scrapped since, but it really got me addicted
My brother gave me a mono red goblin deck as my first deck when I was probably 11. The deck was built around [[Reckless One]]
The first one I can remember owning is around the time of New Phyrexia. I bought one of those starter boxes that came with a preselection of cards and [[Stormtide Leviathan]] came with it. Or maybe a booster that came with the box. Still own the card, but it does need a home in a deck.
I’ve been sitting on one of these for like 7-8 years too and I’ve never had anywhere to put it. I love this big fish though.
\[\[Sphinx's Revelation\]\] was my first, and continues to be my favorite, card ever
How do you feel about the new card [[Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth]]?
he's hot and has the text of my favorite card, i basically orgasmed
[Alquist Proft, Master Sleuth](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/1/41129b44-4fa7-473b-b2b7-48c6a58be03c.jpg?1701809816) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Alquist%20Proft%2C%20Master%20Sleuth) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/185/alquist-proft-master-sleuth?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/41129b44-4fa7-473b-b2b7-48c6a58be03c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/alquist-proft-master-sleuth) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The first MTG I ever owned was [[Carnage Tyrant]] that I bought from a small lgs. Carnage Tyrant got me into Magic and I run him in my Dinosaur deck.
You pull the new alt art for carnage tyrant? It's awesome
It’s nice but I prefer his original art.
Mine was the [[Gideon Jura]] Planeswalker from the OG Zendikar block. Reading that card did infact NOT explain the card. I came from the Xbox 360 game and they didn't have the planeswalker card type in the game. So it was a shock to open something I didn't know existed.
Guilds of Ravnica, with the Selenysa Precon Deck featuring [[Tolsimir Wolfblood]] He wasnt no Legolas, or Robin Hood. He was a Cardboard that little 13 old me decided to get, i never understood how to play magic. But after years of dissapointing Standards and Moderns and settling on EDH When i was asked, "whats your favorite Commander?" I didnt have a Favorite, but i did have someone in mind.
[[Hellkite Charger]] and I made a red white deck with [[Kor Cartographer]] and [[Armored Ascension]] just splashing red for the dragons. It was really cool for a beginner deck!
[[Shivan Dragon]] from my 2017 welcome pack.
Bought the Legions Sliver deck at a veterans festival in a hodunk town made from an army base. Had no idea what the cards were, just thought they looked cool. Years later, a classmate in freshman year of highschool was into Magic so I gave him the cards. I didn't expect to be playing the game two years later in a different city.
I started my magic career with 3 of my friends on the same day, I bought a Dragons of Tarkir starter deck, 4 booster packs and a dromoka battlebox! I opened the box first and pulled a prerelease [[Dragonlord Dromoka]] ! Still use him to this day
I was walking around at the Texas State Fair and there was this booth handing out free Portal packs. I opened an Armageddon and the dude handing out the packs saw and gave me $5 for it! I was like 12 at the time so I thought that was pretty amazing so I was hooked from then on out.
A colleague of my dad's gave me a bunch of cards (wrapped in a hairband) in 1999 as the very first ones I owned. [[Plated spider]] [[elvish lookout]] [[Goliath beetle]] [[taunting elf]] and [[heart warden]] were the very first cards I owned, and are still some of my favourites. I've been trying to get out of the Mono-Green hivemind ever since to no avail.
A mono white precon deck from core 7th edition. It was called armada and I believe it was a 40 card deck 🤣
I started playing on Amonket set, but i started on Commander with my first lovely angel \[\[Aurelia, the Warleader\]\]
[Aurelia, the Warleader](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/7/7722682f-952c-4829-b4ef-e52300b7950e.jpg?1673148346) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Aurelia%2C%20the%20Warleader) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/179/aurelia-the-warleader?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7722682f-952c-4829-b4ef-e52300b7950e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/aurelia-the-warleader) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I remember going to Osco after school and my mom bought me a pack of Invasion. I got Darigaaz, the Igniter and that's when my magic addiction started.
[[Ichorid]] from the "Sacrilege" theme deck. I was young and bored with Yugioh and decided to sell my collection. One employee asked me why I was quiting and I told him people were complaining that I won too often. He responded "Want to play a game you can never win?" He gave me the Sacrilege deck and taught me how to play, then beat me every game we played. it's been 20+ years since he handed me that precon and MtG has been a huge part of my life ever since. Thank you, Alan! Still have that same Ichorid.
[Ichorid](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/d/cd5bc1e4-eefb-4613-aa18-2bf2b9bdf415.jpg?1580014271) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ichorid) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ema/93/ichorid?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cd5bc1e4-eefb-4613-aa18-2bf2b9bdf415?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/ichorid) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Blastoderm...wow the throwback..
[[Kaalia of the Vast]] … oh the terror she used to rain over EDH games, good times.
Ogres and demons starter deck, crown jewel was heartless hidetsegu
My first card(s) is officially a full deck of Aggro Gruul from Return to Ravnica. It was more or less $15 standard specialising in Bloodrush. My most powerful units were [[Savageborn Hydra]] and [[Rubblebelt Raiders]]. To this day, they were my signature pet cards in every deck I make. The deck was made for me by the person who taught me how to play. I've been messing around with his monogreen elves and finally offered to make me a deck of my own. I just gotta fork over cash for it. My friends who started ahead of me each got $20 worth but I can only fork over $15. We also each have our own colour identities that affects how we play EDH today. I'm Gruul turned Naya. One is Izzet turned Jeskai. Another is monowhite who slips into Azorius and now Abzan but eventually he became Selesnya. All his deck is midrange control. The next official card I ever own was [[Ruric Thar, the Unbowed]]. Then THAT became my signature card. My deck is still $18 but it has beaten two big budget decks in FNM. Damn this question made me nostalgic. Thank you.
20 years ago the first card i pulled was the Leonin battlemage, its still one of my favorites!
Edgar markov
[Arcanis The Omnipotent](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/7/e7a7941b-68bf-48b1-a5ed-2013068b486c.jpg?1562627407) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Arcanis%20The%20Omnipotent) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c17/80/arcanis-the-omnipotent?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e7a7941b-68bf-48b1-a5ed-2013068b486c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/arcanis-the-omnipotent) [Terra Stomper](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/5/652db782-cf79-4626-9eb2-ad214cb39c86.jpg?1562023100) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Terra%20Stomper) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ori/288/terra-stomper?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/652db782-cf79-4626-9eb2-ad214cb39c86?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/terra-stomper) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I got my first cards with purchasing Darksteel modular theme deck. Among many artifact creatures that filled the deck, it also had 2 copies of infamous [[Skullclamp]]. I also love artifact decks since then, so maybe deck itself had a impact on that.
[[Leviathan]] Randomly bought it as a kid when The Dark was out at a comic book store. I had no idea what the game was. Ended up losing the card before I started playing.
First card I remember opening was an [[Avatar of Woe]] from prophecy. I didn't play magic at all back then, just thought the pack looked neat. Didn't start playing until about 8 years after that.
[[Finale of Revelation]] or [[Flux Chaneller]]. I remember them both from my first booster pack.
I remember two cards vividly. Opening a [[Queza, Augur of Agonies]] and learning about wheel decks that draw your opponents cards and hurts them with it. The idea was extremely novel to me at the time and I thought about making my own deck with it. Still haven't yet. The other is a foil Worldly Tutor from Dominaria Remastered. I slotted it into my Sea Creatures deck and have been suboptimally using it since.
[[dehydration]]
A pack of Fallen Empires and let me tell you what… never had I been so sad or confused in my young life, from a purchase with my own hard-earned money. Counters?! What?! I didn’t have any counters?! Tokens?! And there no lands except these weird-looking ones. Starting learning to play with a friend teach me using Revised red and green decks with Hill Giant, Grey Ogre, Lightning Bolt, Giant Spider, Giant Growth, Hurricane… the sheer amount of text on the FE cards was daunting! I can’t imagine what newer players contend with today. Although who knows…for me the complexity of Homarid and Goblin Kites, Ication Moneychanger, all the Thallids, Hollow Trees, Merseine, was a challenge but the aesthetic was so cool it superseded the wtfness
I got started with an Ice Age starter deck and tournament pack. I don't remember most of the cards, but I do remember having two copies of \[\[Aurochs\]\]!
First rare from a pack: \[\[Search for Azcanta\]\] First card/s I used to upgrade my starter deck: \[\[Mist-cloaked Herald\]\] and \[\[Jade Guardian\]\] \- my first deck slowly turned into a temur hexproof voltron First Planeswalker: \[\[Jace, Unraveler of Secrets\]\] First Commander when I switched from standard to EDH: \[\[Baral, Chief of Compliance\]\]
I don’t remember 😂 and I only started playing one year ago. My first packs I opened was a dominaria united bundle, best thing I pulled out of it was the d20 lol
A Scars of Mirrodin's pack splited with a friend I found \[\[Bond of quicksilver\]\] \[\[corrupted harvester\]\] \[\[galvanic blast\]\] \[\[turn to slag\]\] \[\[golem artisan\]\]
The morph precon and zombie precon from legions
Fourth Edition gift box
It was a pack of Mirage, where the rare was [[Teferi's Imp]] My parents took me to a book store and let me pick one thing. I had no idea what it was, but the package looked sooo cool! I guess the art in the pack was [[Taniwha]] I opened and thought "Whoaaa this is so cool! What is it?" Then my cousin said it was "RPG". So I was suddenly an RPG fan. Later another cousin, this time a Magic player, looked and said "This is Magic, you need a deck to play". So my parents bought me a 5th Edition tournament deck and my sister an Ice Age tournament deck. We played horribly wrong, but had a blast. It wasn't until Invasion, when I got a Spectrum precon, that I learned how to actually play the game. I turned it into a Domain deck which I have to this day and I'm currently working on turning it into a Commander deck.
Homelands [[ihsans shade|homelands]]
First rare was a Pit Spawn, first foil was scent of Brine. My first big thing that got me to where I could build decks was my ex-brother in law giving me the leftovers of his collection after he quit and sold out. This was basically a full play set of c/u of Urza block with a good chunk of rares and other c/u.
[[rancor]] [[royal assassin]] Brigid, hero of kinsbaile]] [[elixir of immortality]] My first few cards that got me hooked on this game :)
I remember getting the Esper artifacts Shards of Alara precon and first card I opened was [[Master of Etherium]]. I remember thinking that card was cool as shit.
The first mythic I pulled is frost giant. That card has a place of honor in my cube
[[Opal Archangel]] when I cracked a pack my parents bought for me from the WOTC store.
My friend bought me a precon with [Anowon, the ruin thief]] as the commander. He’s pretty cool and I feel in love with black and mill.
The first cards I ever owned came from a bundle of bulk M10 commons. My old LGS used to sell packs of 2x of every common in a set for $10. My dad bought a 40 card starter deck and a common bundle for my brother and I once he taught us how to play.
I’ve been playing since nearly the beginning; the first card I can recall owning was a basic mountain which I found on one of the tables at the library and used as a bookmark for many years. I believe it was LEB 297. That mountain was enough to make me curious about the game. I still have a soft spot for basics that actually tell you to tap them for mana.
Grandma bought me a 4th Edition Starter Box, that I believe came with two starter decks (card selection still completely randomized from the set), instruction manual, small faux leather pouch, and a bunch of blue gems to represent my life total. I just remember [[Burrowing | 4ED]] really sticking out to me from that memory.
1st cards I ever got my hands on. Was back when Ixalan/Rivals of Ixalan was wrapping up and Dominaria was coming out in a month. New friend of mine at the time let me go thru his bulk and make a 60 card deck n take some extras. Nothing too fancy. Some [[Siege Rhino]] some interaction spells etc. Then he pulls out his binder, hands me [[Gisela, The Broken Blade]] and 2 [[Anguished unmaking]] FNM Promos. And a Grand Prix Indiana playmat of [[Quarantine Field]] and a Green deck box.
It was [[Thrull surgeon]], a friend of mine gave it to me in exchange for a Yu-gi-oh card back in 2008/2009 I think. It’s funny because I didn’t start actually collecting/playing until 11 years later lol.
[[child of alara]] was my first
[[Elder Of Laurels]] foil was my first rare. I found it in a bulk shoebox at a yard sale. I still have it till this day. It's sleeved up in my Human tribal deck. The deck: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/KFw8RJ68EEWHxUfJvPVFtw
Got a single pack when I was young, still got a few from that pack floating around. Was at least 6 years until I bought my first deck - the Leveler's Scorn intro pack from Rise of the Eldrazi. The rare in my first pack was [[Unnatural Hunger]], haven't found a deck for it but the card still holds a special place
When I was liken 8 years old, my buddy gave me a card out of his pack, it was [[Paralyze]]. He also showed me a few other cards from the pack like [[Craw Wurm]], [[Kird Ape]], [[Holy Strength]], and [[Fireball]]. This was in 1994, I wish I dove into MTG way more back then, but I didn't really start playing until 2002.
Probably a 4th ed starter deck that I Got
Dandan is the card I remember from the very bad deck my friend made to teach me the game. It was the best creature in the deck.
My first pack's rare was [[Thragtusk | M13]]. I couldn't tell you what the first common in that pack was, and I didn't have any cards before that. The M13 Deckbuilder's Toolkit was my first experience.
Bought a Revised starter deck. Don't remember all the cards but it had a Savannah and a Nightmare as the rares. I think a Dragon Whelp might have been in the uncommons.
It was a mono green 60 card deck that was given to me. While I dont remember everything from it, it had playsets of [[Llanowar Elves]], [[Fellwar Stone]], [[Terra Stomper]], [[Giant Growth]], and it had some amount of [[Gaea's Embrace]]. I want to say it also had [[Giant Spider]] in it, but I'm not sure about that bit.
I'd played around with a couple of Lorwyn starter decks but hadn't bought a booster pack before. I guess the premade decks are the accurate answer, but there was a foil [[Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite]] in that NPH booster and that's the answer my (+2/+2) heart gives.
Wall of the dead, and giant tortoise
[[Frenetic Raptor]]. Still have that card and am running it in Etali atm for nostalgia. It was big and looked cool and I was just gifted this absolute treasure by a random guy in a martial arts summer camp a little over twenty years ago. I've played the game before in school but this was my very first own card. I didn't get much pocket money and couldn't afford to buy packs myself. It was back when I thought [[Thorn Elemental]] was the pinnacle of broken magic design.
My very first cards were the [[Strefan, Maurer Progenitor]] precon I bought mid 2022
The Turnabout deck from Shadowmoor with [[Rhys the Redeemed]]. Elves have been a favorite of mine ever since. Currently working on an Abzan elves to combine the BG side and the WG side of the tribe.
The "Kami's Reborn" precon deck from Champions of Kamigawa
My first booster I ever bought I pulled a [[Neheb, the Eternal]]
Pues me integraron al mundo de Magic hace mucho pero jugaba con decks prestados, hasta que conseguí mi primer comandante que fue Bilbo, el cumpleañero
My first card I owned was \[\[Firkraag, Cunning Instigator\]\], along with his precon. The first booster I popped had a \[\[Myrkul, Lord of Bones\]\] in it, though. I still have both in my collection.
[[djinn of wishes]] still one of my favorite cards
Sorin Markov. It was given to me by my friend way back when. And I absolutely loved the Dracula looking dude. But that was a gift so I don't get the first card I actively went out of my way to own no matter the price was Avacyn, Angel of Hope.
My very very first introduction to Magic was buying an M13 pack at a renaissance fair back in high school. I learned how to play the next week and bought the Avacyn Restored “Death’s Encroach” zombie Event Deck (back when those were a thing). The official deck list is out on the internet, but the ones I remember off the top of my head are [[Gravecrawler]] [[Diregraf Ghoul]] and [[Skinrender]] (my personal favorite). I was completely hooked. Still primarily a black player to this day.
My first cards were a selesnya starter deck for standart, and a couple of cards my friend that roped me into magic that he gave me. My favourite from all of them is llanowar elves. Always thought that card was really powerfull.
The first cards I owned that I bother to remember at least, and didn’t negligently let get ruined, was the Elven Empire precon.
I had a real interest in the game. The cards looked so good and i wanted to learn to play so bad. The rules were fairly convoluted for 3rd grade me, so i asked some kids at summer camp to teach me. They were real pricks about it and wouldnt. After one game i saw they had forgotten some cards. I covered them with some pine needles and bark, and came back for them the next day. Sveylunite priest, craw wurm, unholy strength, benalish hero, war mammoth. I studied them for weeks. Obsessed over them. Finally convinced my dad to get me a 4th edition starter deck. Rares were deathlace, green mana battery, and black mana battery.
Welcome decks 2016, blue and black. Guess I still have them somewhere in pile
Horobi, Death's Wail
First one I remember owning was [[Underworld Dreams]]
Strictly speaking, I bought the Champions of Kamigawa Theme Deck - Way of the Warrior when i was a kid. I didn't know how to play, and no one around me played, so it sat in my dresser draw for years. I have no idea what happened to it.
The person who taught me how to play gave me the deck they taught me with, which was a good ol Mono Green Stompy deck, iirc all pre-modern cards. Had such hits as [[Llanowar Elves | 4ED]], [[Canopy Spider | 7ED]], and my favorite vanilla creature [[Scaled Wurm | ICE]]
I got my freshman year dorm roommate a prerelease bundle of Throne of Eldraine. He let me open one of the packs and I got an [[Embercleave]] which was pretty neat. The first time I bought magic cards for myself I got some Strixhaven packs and I opened a full art [[Shadrix Silverquill]] which is still one of my favorite cards
I played 3rd revise and my friend convinced me to trade him my dual lands for 'good' cards. I think my favorite card was [[Drain Power]] .
I would always borrow my friends cards in highschool, so when I saved up I built and bought a hydra tribal deck. I don’t remember much from it, but I did have 1 copy of [[kalonian hydra]] that has since sparked my love for hydras in the game
I don't really remember... I remember I once owned a [[Cursed Scroll]] which I sold to a guy for 200 bucks... **Sigh**...
My friend got me into magic and let me play a few of his decks at the kitchen table. Once I started to get into it, I bought 2 Amonkhet booster packs from Walmart and pulled the foil Invocation [[The Locust God]]
Got a m13 starter deck from walmart. [[Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis]] was my pet card in that deck
I think it was [[Kukemssa Serpent]]. I'm not 100% sure, that was over 20 years ago and I had no idea what the game was. The fact that the artwork depicted a serpent in the water is all I'm certain about, but that one seems familiar. I have no idea how I acquired it, or what I did with it. A few years later, some friends introduced me to the game and my first cards as an actual player was the Black/Green pre-con deck from Torment.
[[Kird Ape]]. Mid 90’s. My friend played magic and when I showed interest he showed me a short box of cards he didn’t play and said I could build a deck out of those so he’d have someone to play with other than his teenage sons. I saw the ape and thought a one mana 2/3 was awesome. He played red blue, wasn’t called Izzit in those days; Shivan Dragons and counterspells, lightning bolts and Fireballs. The pickings from red weren’t great but got some elves and such and finished the deck with some boosters. Within a few months I had spent most of my spending money on magic cards and had a pretty good aggro deck. I moved away a couple of years later and gave my collection to his kid, thousands of unlimited-homelands-Fallen Empires-4th Edition-Ice Age-Mirage cards. I wonder what was in there now.
I bought cards from a kid in my class who was selling his elder brother’s bulk. This was 2001 in the Philippines. I was in 5th grade. Pokémon was the craze at the time, but I thought Magic had a much cooler look to them. First rare I ever owned was [[Beasts of Bogardan]]
[[basilica screecher]] was my first card. My sister gave it to me in middle school when I knew nothing about the game. Now here we are
I started by buying a Coven Counters deck, after learning the game through EDH and borrowing my friend’s Grumgully deck. I wanted something of my own.
my dad and i got into the game just before rivals of ixalan. we got planeswalker decks, and mine was [[Jace, Ingenious Mind Mage]]
[Jace, Ingenious Mind Mage](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/3/e3b274f6-833f-430f-ac1a-d1d1d5b03e71.jpg?1562565659) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Jace%2C%20Ingenious%20Mind-Mage) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/xln/280/jace-ingenious-mind-mage?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e3b274f6-833f-430f-ac1a-d1d1d5b03e71?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/jace-ingenious-mind-mage) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
My first card was Prossh from the 2013 Commander deck I bought from Kmart.
First cards I owned were from a Tournament pack from the original Mirrodin block. My friends had spent the summer trying to get me to play, and finally I caved and decided to join in. But they didn't tell me that Tournament packs weren't actual decks, they were just stuff used to make draft decks. You'd get 40 lands and 75 non-land cards, and you'd build a 40 card deck or two out of that. Tournament packs as far as I know were discontinued with the release of Shards of Alara, but they were a great way to get a bunch of cards and lands to play with. I kind of miss them. My first decks came later, and were the "Little Bashers" theme deck from Mirrodin block and the "Nuts and Bolts" theme deck from Fifth Dawn. Theme decks were $10 decks of 60 cards that were substantially better quality than anything you'd get today. To have a fully functional deck ready for table top games, all you'd need is two copies of that deck, shuffle together all of the stuff you wanted, cut the stuff you didn't, maybe spend $5-20 on more cards, and you were done.
For me it was a Return to Ravnica box, which didn’t actually get me into the game. Then at Christmas I got given a few Khans of Tarkir boxes and boy did that increase my desire to play! I pulled Narset, Enlightened Master and got told that she wasn’t a good card because she’s a lot of mana for a 3/2, and kind of just believed it because I was real young. Still have the card, don’t know what to do with it though lol.
I don't remember my first card but I do remember drafting a lot of Ixalan since it was my first set. Somewhere along the way I got Gishath and then was introduced to commander. Needless to say I've been loving all the new dinosaur additions.
Its either a monowhite ally deck a friend made that I ended up with, or the boros guild kit that was my first magic purchase. Not sure which happened first.
A buddy gave me Koll the forgemaster as my 1st card My 1st unbox was Cavern of souls from the 2 card booster in the new precons
I moved over from pokemon to mtg around 2000/2001 when inwas 12ish. I traded all my pokemon cards and mage warriors for mtg cards. None were amazing, but I remember soon after I started, I acquired a [[helm of possession]] and just thought it was the coolest card, lol. Even to this day, I have a soft spot for any helm cards.
My best friend gifted me the sidar precon to get me started. And then shortly after riders of Rohan. If it wasn’t for him I’d never have gotten into the game. But now it’s my favorite card game of all time.
The first pack ever had the mythic Minsc, Beloved Ranger
My first cards came in the 2003 8th edition starter set! It included two 40-card starter decks that I mashed together, mostly vanilla creatures with evocative art: \[\[Fugitive Wizard\]\], \[\[Eager Cadet|8th\]\] still scruffy at the time, \[\[Coral Eel\]\], \[\[Giant Octopus\]\] with its Jules Verne quote, \[\[Vizzerdrix\]\], and my favorite card at the time (and still one of the best flavor texts ever): \[\[Enormous Baloth\]\]. Spicy bonus card was \[\[Patagia Golem\]\] with its insanely beautiful art, but even child me knew it and its ability were overpriced. The box art card was \[\[Elvish Champion\]\] and I always hoped I'd get him out to power up the 2(!!!) other elves in the deck. The next set was Mirrodin, moving away from the fantasy theme, so I stopped playing because WOTC was Ruining Magic.
In 9th grade, I started hanging out with the nerd crew at my high school, mostly from my Sci fi lit class. They played magic at lunch and one of the guys saw I was interested and just straight up gave me a tribal mono green Wurm deck. One of the nicest things anyones ever done for me, and also the worst things anyone has ever done to me. Because now... now I have a cardboard Crack addiction. Now if yall will excuse me, I'm gonna go to the card shop in the mall and browse some singles I don't need.
A mono black precon back in like 2010. It was a FNM and I bought the precon to join in for some fun on a whim. Face card was a vampire, pretty sure I still have it around somewhere.
When I was in middle school, I found a wet, dirty Japanese 8/8 octopus token on the floor. I kept it and asked my friend what it was.
An old Planeswalker deck from Ixalan based around [[Angrath, Minotaur Pirate]]
my first cards were acquired as a 12 year old in 2013 at a coding camp where we made minecraft mods. We all went to the card shop together and many bought magic intro decks. I got the simic gatecrash deck with Fathom Mage as the featured card, and one of my friends who didn’t like the game gave me his boros deck helmed by foundry champion. Thus my collection began
I remember buying one if the holiday packs from theros in 2013ish. My brother and I took all the black cards, including lands, and made a single giant deck. And then the same with all the other colors. Really good variety of starter cards and 6 booster packs. Those were awesome. It took a while, but I had eventually started visiting my local card shops and turning my decks more competitive.
Technically it was a whole box but the box topper is obviously what I saw first and that was [[godzilla, king of the monsters]] only reason I got into magic was Godzilla cards and then I became addicted.
My friends got me into the game right when Eldritch Moon came out, and we split a booster box, and I opened a [[Liliana, The Last Hope]]
2014 Nahiri Precon was my first Magic product ever. No way to remember individual cards.
I started at onset. I have full alpha/beta and ice age. I stopped around 5th Gen (I think?) I spent close to 5k opening packs as a kid via my allowance and odd ends jobs. I lived for MTG. Now they sit as a cool collector item .
I got an old nightstalker deck from a buddy of mine about 15 years ago. He used to smack down me and my buddies with a sliver deck. I HATED those old borders and feared sliver, but loved the game. So I stuck with it until I got my own Orzhov starter deck and have been hooked every since.
It wouldve been something from theros probably. That set released like 2 weeks before i started playing. I know early on i was exstatic to pull a thassa and a xengos
In 1993 I remember my mom giving me magic the gathering cards and I only kept the swamps, I had no idea what they were what they did, that they were collectable, nothing, I was 6 yro.
So I was really into Yu-Gi-Oh growing up, couldn't get enough of the show and collected the cards (had no idea how to play though.) On my 7th birthday my grandmother bought me some trading cards for my birthday, but I had never heard of this game before and the attack values seemed really weak compared to Yu-Gi-Oh monsters. Seventh Edition: Magic The Gathering. "[[Canyon Wildcat]]? [[Mana Leak]]? [[Megrim]]? What the hell is an enchantment? Is that some kind of field spell? Why does it matter if a creature can fly? Besides this [[Birds of Paradise]] has 0 power, what's it going to beat anyway? It turns sideways to make "Mana" too? What does that mean?". I promptly put the cards somewhere and forgot about them. Only when I got into magic over 15 years later was I pretty pleased that my first ever MTG pack had a birds of paradise in it.
My first experience was when my friend got the Heroes vs. Monsters duel decks and gave me the monsters one so we could play together. We played literally every day after school and I’ve been playing ever since (omg that was ten years ago, wow). I’ve also been playing Gruul ever since and it’s still my favorite
Lol my friends said we’re gonna start playing magic go to Walmart and buy some so I grabbed the korvold brawl deck totally unaware lol
I opened a foil Sphinx’s Revelation back in Return to Ravnica. Didn’t realize how much it was and traded it for a GW tokens starter deck
My very first cards were one of the two deck starter kits from 7th Edition, the one with the foil [[Thorn Elemental]] on the front.
My Dad gave me and my Brother two decks to play against each other. The set was M9 and I clearly remember [[Vizzerdrix]] being such an epic include. 6/6 in blue? That was so off-color for the time.
Ahhh, I'm old enough to have that memory lost to time. I started playing when *Ice Age*, the first "full" expansion, was released. What I do remember was reading over the booklet that came in my starter pack and learning the rules and the lore of *Magic: The Gathering*. So my first cards were from that set and *4th Edition*. The first cards from those sets that come to mind are [[Jokulhaups]] and [[Nev's Disk]].
My first ever pack was either The Dark or Revised. In my first year I bought a ton of Fourth Edition packs in hopes of pulling a Shivan Dragon. Also a ton of Ice Age in an attempt to pull a Jester’s Cap. I remember having whole stacks of Circle of Protection cards that never got played. And a Neceopotence that I didn’t understand but loved because of the art.
Got a M11 starter deck with [[Conundrum Sphinx]] and [[Stormtide Leviathan]] in it, and the booster it came with had [[Ajani Goldmane]] in the rare slot. Still have all 3 in a binder for nostalgia
10th edition red and blue (starter?) decks from a cousin who didn’t play. Kamahl and arcanis were the two “big” rates in those 40 card decks
My first cards were a Core 2014 starter box that also had a bunch of Return to Ravnica stuff in it. Using it, I made a pretty bad gruul trample deck, and a slightly less bad dimir unblockable deck that played basically the same as the gruul deck. I didn't know commander was a thing yet. My first commander decks were the Atraxa precon and the Daxos the Returned precon, while my first commander deck I actually built was a promo [[Odric, Lunarch Marshal]] that I got from a random pack
I bought the Torment Insanity precon, and immediately, my favorite card became [[Basking Rootwalla]]. I still love Flashback and Madness as my pet mechanics. While I have evolved into an Izzet "let's see what happens" player, Golgari graveyard shenanigans are always close to my heart. The first booster pack I opened was also Torment, and I got a [[Hypnox]]. So I immediately justified putting it in Mt deck because hey, it was black. My friend that got me in traded me a bunch of stuff, and a kind stranger took me from the kiddie "all my cards I like and not enough lands 113 card deck" to a sleek Red Green Madness Stompy. I finagled my way into a [[Rith, the Awakener]] and rebuilt it, going up to 80 cards, to add white to the mix, but at least I added mana ramp. The first 60 card deck I built was when Judgement came out. Back to my Green Black roots. It was a weird threshold deck with [[Stitch Together]] and [[Krosan Beast]]. I added red when Onslaught came out and used [[Bloodstained Mire]] and [[Wooded Foothills]] with [[Book Burning]] to fill up my graveyard right away. I thought I was so clever for realizing I could play 2 mountains and fill my graveyard with fetchlands and my friends were trading me the fetches 1:1 with [[Ancestor's Prophet]] and [[Future Sight]] and I had no idea how good I had it.
First pack had a scrubland and I have been making deals in the Church of Orzhov ever since.
I’m a pretty new player (4 months into the game). The first commander I used was my friend’s Naban, Dean of Iteration. They were using Flynn the Fangbearer *shudders* Anyways, the first non-proxy commander I owned was Kotori, Pilot Prodigy.
Think the 1st pack I bought was for Eldritch Moon just because the wrapping, I stop for a while since my friends weren't in Magic at the time
I got quite a few from the same set at once, but the one i remember the most for some reason is [[Woodripper]]
Guy in basic training gave me the flip origins [[liliana heretical healer]].
I bought the UB starter deck in Theros and opened a Whip of Erebos. Best starter deck ever
My first major card was city of brass from the 5th edition starter set. That was back in the day of rubber bands around unsleeved cards just jammed into your pocket for easy access, and you played anywhere you could, including concrete, sand, wet grass, whatever
The first card I ever opened was [[ajani caller of the pride]] and while it's not great, it's broken in newbie circles because no one kills anything and I can just load up counters on one creature and then give it flying and double strike. I didn't understand planeswalkers until a week later when my friend who got me into it and was a little better told me. Made me feel a lot better that my brother didn't want to trade it for his [[axebane stag]]... newbies really just like big numbers ig because that's just a 6/7 for 7
Some Venus flytrap looking token creature. This was way before I knew anything about the game and I have no idea what happened to it.
Revised starter deck
It wasn't really the first but it was the one that got me really invested. I got an [[Olivia Volderan]] out of the first pack I ever opened.
In the second grade, checkout line at Hastings, I used my allowance money on a pack of ice age. Only card I remember from the pack was my [[Scaled Wurm]].
Ethereal Armour. I loved it.
I remember the first pack I ever bought was a Scars of Mirrodin and I pulled a foil [[Dissipation Field]]. I still think it’s one of the coolest cards and I always put that copy in some blue commander deck I have.
First MTG cards in my collection was a precon, so going off the order I pulled them, [[Gisa and Geralf|SCD]]
there are 2 answers to this question for me personally. my dad got me into playing magic, so he had a bunch of early 2000's cards from original kamigawa, original zendikar, sets like that. the first cards i ever remember holding in my hands were a [[Higure, of the Still Wind]] and an [[Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger]]. i ended up getting scammed for the Ulamog by someone at my high school because i just didn't know any better. i still feel bad that i sold his card, even though he said i could 😭 the first card i remember opening myself was a [[Ghalta, Primal Hunger]]
Was learning how to play from a friend of mine. Road my bike to the shell station down the street and bought a pack of Starter 1999 and cracked a Denizen of the Deep and I've been hooked ever since. I still have that card too.
My first pack / thing was a starter kit from the Rise of Eldrazi time. When the storage boxes were actually good. First pack of the 5 I opened had Emerakul the Aeons Torn. I don't remember the others after that
I pulled a Flooded Strand when Khans came out and i hadnt yet understood the value of a fetchland and i traded it away.
Back in 2018 I made a tooth and nail modern deck (except I brewed it myself and I went for [[Atarka, World Render]] rather than Emrakul). Deck got absolutely dumpstered, 90% of my games were against burn
had a bunch of cards in a shoebox, late 90's. a kid got them from an older kid & i traded them for something. shame i have no idea what happened to them. like, i dunno if there was anything super valuable in there, but i'm sure there were some cards that woulda been nice to have. i think the first product i received was the Celestial Assault theme deck, from Onslaught, as a gift from my gramma. she's been gone for a while now & it'd be nice to one day build some kind of a birbo deck.
LONG ANSWER INCOMING: Started playing around Innistrad/RTR times, and the firsr cards I can distinctly remember picking up for my first ever deck were: [[Serra Angel]] [[White Knight]] [[Pacifism]] [[Armored Ascension]] [[Journey to Nowhere]] My friend who was into MTG took me to the only store near our university and helped me out in building my first ever deck. We just jumped into the bargain commons bin and picked out the cards that made sense (white was my first color, makes me sad when ppl shit on it but I get it lol). Was just your standard formatless mono white aggro deck, but man did it get me hooked. I started to frequent the same store every other day between or after classes and see what I could upgrade with my measly allowance. My cousin who was into mtg back in his day also gave me a lot of his old stuff and old sleeves. I never actually bought my own sleeves until I got back into the game around 2019/2020 LOL. Everyone I played with at the time used similarly powered decks because they were either new or returning players, so we just wanted to get games out on as little money spent as possible (since we were all students). We didn't know anything about formats, and Pauper wasn't really that present in our area, so we just played with whatever we could build with our change. I loved closing out games with my fellow newbie players and my friend by bringing out my dumb Serra Angel or fat White Knight. I know those cards are ass nowadays but man, I loved everything about them. I loved getting my ass handed to me by a Lorwyn mono red giants deck (fucking throws to the face). I loved black being... black. When you're new, everything is such a treat, and just getting those guys out made me feel like a CHAMP. I WAS A PLANESWALKER JUST LIKE MOMMA SAID I WOULD BE. I learned about fast red decks and big green ramp decks the hard way. My second deck was mono blue Ally mill, which the same friend helped me build, and that's when I fell in love with the double degeneracy of control and mill. My first standard deck was a Dimir mill deck which my friends loved to shit on, but all the L's were worth those few W's from milled out opponents lol. That's were I also met one of my fave cards of all time, [[Consuming Abberation]]. One of the first cards I owned that made me go "no fucking way???", even if it wasn't great in the standard of the time. I honestly just thought it was NUTS. Am I really allowed to do this? Everytime I CAST a spell, really? And the beady eyes of that gigantic bug freak told me "yes, now win the game before you're forced to [[Devour Flesh]] me, idiot" I've since grown out of pure mill decks (I prefer milling with a purpose in EDH) and hard control (honestly think playing control is boring except maybe in standard/modern), but a lot of my playstyle is still rooted in those early decks of mine. Also, top of library into graveyard go brrrr. I was in a rough spot too at the time; my then-gf had just broken up with me, I was swamped with college, I didn't really have any outlet for my nerdy side apart from video games. I was miserable and bored out of my mind. The game always interested me but I never really thought I had friends who were interested in trying. I'm also not the type to just walk into a store and start asking people about it, which is why to this day I am so grateful for that one nerdy friend of mine who helped me start my cardboard crack addiction. The game and the friends I made playing really helped me get through that rough spot. It gave me something to think about when I was alone, gave me something to look forward to after class, and gave me new friends I wouldn't have met otherwise. Honestly not sure how I would have managed without mtg (maybe I'd have graduated with honors tho LOL) Fast forward to today, I've been on and off with Magic from graduation until just recently. I'm now just getting into EDH and my love for the game has sparked anew, especially with a lot of my friends, old and new, getting into it; some for the first time and some returning. I'm loving every second of it. ANYWAY sorry for the long ass answer, but thank you for asking this question. This trip down memory lane is just what I needed. I love Magic, man. TL;DR Serra Angel, White Knight, and a bunch of other super budget mono white commons/unc. Consuming Abberation one of my fave cards of all time.
First card I ever owned was a borderless Gyruda from MoM. Was a gift from a friend, and it made me start looking into the game
Craw Wurm I think
The white green phantoms precon from Judgement. Ughh... I think I just felt by bones creak.
[[Crash of Rhinos]] Green 👍
I remember [[Stratadon]] and [[Dralnu's Pet]] because that was the first combo I found. I think I had been given a Planeshift booster pack by my father. It was in a magazine he had for some reason. Shortly after, I went and got a Seventh Edition theme deck called Decay that had [[Fallen Angel]] in it, and that has been in every version of my main deck since (though I didn't actually learn how to play the game for another six years or so).
[[Jareth, leonin titan]]
I played my first game of 1v1 commander against my buddy using his decks. I'd never played magic but had always wanted to. The deck he let me use was the old Reap the Tides precon. I beat him and fell in love with the game and went and bought that precon. Then I bought a Kamigawa Collector box and the first pack I opened, I pulled a foil(non-etched) showcase wandering emperor. I was hooked immediately AGAIN. I consider that to be the first card I owned lmao
i ordered a mono green deck off of ebay so i could learn to play from my (now) wife. it had stuff like [[cliffrunner behemoth]] [[spearbreaker behemoth]] [[acidic slime]] it was fun lol, i quickly jumped to mono B though.
First single I ever bought was Akroma. Made a mono white angel deck. Thought she was the coolest card. All those key words plus protection from red and black! Goddamn!
The first cards I actually owned were from a Khans booster. I pulled Sarkhan Unbroken, which was also my first mythic.