Noob Question..help please?

Murderface

So, i bought the 5 PWs and the 2 packs of cards that were $4 and $5. I won't spend $30 or $40 on the packs, been bit too many times in the past playing other freemiums. I understand that by not investing LOTS of money, i will be limited in how far i can progress since i just started a week or two ago. My question is this. Would it be wiser to buy the dual-colored PWs - 650-(maybe they have different names), the 295 credit single color PWs or the different packs that might have the badass cards in them? I can't afford to waste currency so, what is the best way, in your experience, considering what the new patch has done to the tourneys, i can't beat the first stages. Any help would be appreciated.

bk1234

Aj1, Ob, Koth, Kiora, Tezz2 

Spend cash on cards (if you want to spend $$) and crystals on PW -- work through Story Mode and complete Training Grounds and individual events every day. When you are ready to play with a coalition, send me a PM. Our alliance takes new-to-game players and we will help you a lot. Coalition rewards also help a lot. 

Good luck and welcome!

EDHdad

It takes about 160,000 runes to fully level a 2 color planeswalker and about 80,000 runes to fully level a one color planeswalker.  Because of this, I would concentrate on just a few top tier planeswalkers when they become available, rather than trying to get every one.

Some of the best planeswalkers in my opinion are Saheeli Rai, Koth, Nahiri, Tezzeret II, Kiora, Ob Nixilis.  Some of the others are very good if you have the cards to make them work (Liliana II with Zombies, Gideon II with Allies, Sorin with good Lifegain cards). 

Matthew

bken1234 said:

Aj1, Ob, Koth, Kiora, Tezz2 

Spend cash on cards (if you want to spend $$) and crystals on PW -- work through Story Mode and complete Training Grounds and individual events every day. When you are ready to play with a coalition, send me a PM. Our alliance takes new-to-game players and we will help you a lot. Coalition rewards also help a lot. 

Good luck and welcome!

I would add J2 to this list. Ob, Koth, and him are (in my opinion) the three best mono-color PWs to own.

Also, bken1234 is right, if you're going to spend actual money, spend it on individual cards. There are a number of cards that are exclusively available for purchase with each new set. You can get an idea through the forums here and the reddit page as to which cards will provide the best bang for your buck.

That being said, there is a general sentiment amongst the player base that the developers have made too many aggressively anti-consumer moves in recent months, and so many of us aren't giving them any money. Feel free to do as you choose, though.

span_argoman

Considering the Vault planeswalkers available now, I'd say get Saheeli from the Vault. Jace, Telepath Unbound is weak and you will have trouble with the Blue nodes in the events using him. Saheeli is much stronger and will help a lot.

The other base planeswalkers are serviceable in Bronze tier and by the time you progress to Silver you should have replacements for the weaker ones.

You don't need to burn all your runes on maximizing the level of your planeswalkers. My suggestion is to only level them to unlock abilities or to increase mana gains.

Event matchmaking usually matches you to an opponent thats up to 5 levels higher (sometimes higher) than your planeswalker so not levelling your planeswalkers that much isn't that big a deal. It also costs a lot of runes to level all your planeswalkers up so spend them prudently.

Do note that Nissa gets weaker relative to the other planeswalkers as she levels so you should not bring her to too high a level (preferably below 30). The other 3 (excluding Jace) should be fine till 40s if you do bring them that high.

Saheeli will do well at level 22 where she gains an additional mana bonus until you get a better handle of the game and how to build better decks.

As you progress you will be spending Crystals on the stronger planeswalkers to substitute your weaker ones in each colour like Kiora for Green, Ob Nixilis for Black and Nahiri/Koth for Red. If you don't get Saheeli, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets (not Telepath Unbound) is also good for Blue nodes. The best White planeswalker to have will depend on your card collection and the event.

Take part in the Training Grounds events to earn 15 Crystals each event when you achieve 4 wins in the event. Participate in daily events and focus on winning for now until you feel ready to tackle the secondary objectives. Don't worry, opponents are all AI-controlled so you can build up your skill level without worry of embarrassment. Use Story mode to earn Runes and Crystals, and to get a handle on the game.

Also there's a coalition event ongoing so if I'm not wrong you're not able to join any coalitions during this period but you can pm me if you're interested to join my coalition and we can arrange to have you join after the event is over. We also have a coalition groupchat and you can pm me if you're interested to join for game advice and general chatting.

Thuran

Id agree with the sentiments above: Get planeswalkers

You will need a good selection of walkers to compete in events, and many of the basic walkers quickly fall behind the more modern ones. I would advice to get multicoloured walkers, namely saheeli, tezzeret and kiora if you can, since they can compete in a larger range of colour-locked nodes, meaning you can focus more on making a few walkers powerful initially.

As said by others, complete story mode, it gives you a lot of runes and a huge amount of crystals. Not sure if you should get the special offer packs in order to get your collection kickstarted, but it wont take that long to get a few rares anyway. Under no circumstances should you buy kaladesh packs here at the beginning! You will be swimming in packs from events, so that is the least of your worries until you have a solid base of walkers. If you want packs you should try to grab shadows over innistrad, failing that you can get some origin packs, as many key cards are contained in those sets. 

Also, join a coalition, even a casual coalition helps you get extra rewards from events, all of which contribute to your progress.

Besides that, have fun and take it easy, don't burn yourself out right at the beginning with the pressure of having to ace every event right from the get go.

wereotter

I would add to the suggestions:

Certain planeswalkers, even some who were previously suggested, aren't all that great unless you have the card collection to support them. To that end, I could focus on solid planeswalkers that work with any build first.

Nahiri is really solid for creature-based strategies, definitely a good one to pick up.

Jace, Unraveler of Secrets wants you playing with support gems, which you should have some at any play level, and he's got good mana gains, so he's another one who's good to pick up. Tezzeret the Schemer is similar, but he does better with specific supports like Blightcaster and Tamiyo's Journal, however he does have solid mana gains, and so is worth considering.

Kiora has a powerful collection of skills that work with any build, so I would agree to getting her if you can.

Nissa, Vital Force is strictly better than Sage Animist, so if you enjoy green, then I would say to look at her. She does use energy, but doesn't require it as her last ability creates the energy to charge the skill for you.

More solid, but niche planeswalkers are ones like Dovin Baan, he's great, but if you don't have a few good energize cards he's not quite as good, Empyreal Voyager is a definite one for him. Liliana, the Last Hope is really solid, but needs you to have the right zombies to work well. Same story for Arlinn, but with werewolves.

Lastly, I would avoid Garruk, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Sarkhan the Mad, and Tezzeret the Seeker. They all lack the strength of other planeswalkers and with some like Gideon rely too heavily on a creature type we're not likely to see much of. Sarkhan relies on dragons for his abilities, and those are pretty rare, and hard for him to cast with his low mana gains (though if you have the cards, he does do red/black madness from Innistrad really well, just use his first ability to get your cards back).  Tezzeret can be good, but requires very specific cards, and he's REALLY slow. Expect matches with him to take about twice as long, and have a higher rate of failure if your opponent gets a lucky cascade, as he tends to rely on heavy control.