New player. Questions. (Of course!)

Joefitts63

I am a new player. Today is my third day, so you can imagine I am not very far in. Went through the first part of story mode and the various training portions of story mode with the default Nissa. The packs I opened had very little love for green, however, and red has far better cards than green at this point. So I decided to get the Koth PW and try out some red deck play. It is working much better. I was wondering, however, what the point is of the default deck for Koth (for which I don't have the cards). Is there some reward for collecting them? Or perhaps the deck was packaged with the PW at some earlier time? 

Just the first of what I am sure will be many questions!

Laeuftbeidir

Welcome!
You'll get the cards in the "custom" slot for any pw purchased. The other one or three deck slots are meant to be some kind of guidance, to build towards to.. Well, it might be helpful, maybe not.
You'll receive a reward for each of those decks completed. Not a lot, but it's something!
You can see the cards in the planeswalker tab when you check "show all" and choose the walker in question

By the way : a good choice to buy planeswalkers based on your card collection. Green will come to you!

Joefitts63

Thanks for the info. Another one: I am seeing mention of a set rotation. Is it only the HoD set rotating, or is Origins also rotating out?

HomeRn

The cards will come to you eventually, just make sure to come back at least once each day to get your daily reward near the bottom of the main screen after loading; you will get a booster every 5 days you remember to do so each month, and a super pack if you remember to claim 21 daily rewards in a month!  There is also a free booster for you every 2 hours that gives you a card for free.
You can also check to see the rewards for events before entering them - PvE events tend to have lots of Mana runes and boosters while PvP events have more Mana crystal and sometimes Mana jewel rewards instead, depending on mastery tier.  Avoid events that have entry fees such as Trial of the Planes until you are comfortable with playing in Platinum tier!

Mainloop25

Joefitts63 said:

Thanks for the info. Another one: I am seeing mention of a set rotation. Is it only the HoD set rotating, or is Origins also rotating out?

Origins is supposed to never rotate out of standard. We'll see if they keep to their word, but you should be safe to collect those cards for all competition events. 

Enygma6

Latest that I knew, the plan is to rotate Amonkhet from Standard to Legacy when Dominaria is released some point later this month.  The Hour of Devastation is scheduled to remain in Standard at that point, leaving us with Origins and the 4 most recent block sets (HOU, XLN, RIX, DOM).  
The plans for this game to adapt the upcoming Core set have not been given.  
  
Story Mode and Training Grounds are considered Legacy events, so you can use any cards in your collection in those.  
Some of the other rotating Events are Standard-only (the newer ones), while other older Events are Legacy.

Joefitts63

Thanks for all the info! I had assumed Amonkhet was already gone, since I didn't see boosters for it in the vault for purchase.

mrixl2520

You can also pick up some easy cards & packs by doing the story mode tutorials. They also explain some of the set mechanics, but be warned that the Planeswalkers are level 1!

DBJones

Yeah, those tutorials are a nice early boost to the number of cards you have. You have to finish the first segment of story mode before they unlock though (chapter 1 part 1, 16 battles) which also gets you an Origins pack (the pack might be after part 2). Koth is so dependant on luck to do well, you might be able to beat a surprising amount of story mode if you're willing to try lots of times. Leveling up will heal your Planeswalker BTW, that can come in handy going through story mode.

Also, the only sets always available in the vault are Origins and whichever set is newest, all the others rotate unpredictably.

Joefitts63

And thanks again. And another question, naturally. Do you continue to get rewarded for wins after the fourth in training grounds? I am finding it surprisingly difficult to Google up simple answers for this game!

Mainloop25

If you consider 100 runes a win a reward, then yeah. 

Enygma6

There are no extra rewards beyond the 4th in Training Grounds, only the regular 100 runes for a victory.

Joefitts63

Thanks again. Is it worthwhile to get the 50 gem PWs in order to complete story nodes in all five colors? Or is the reward too small? Google again fails to find the reward amount. Is there a comprehensive FAQ somewhere that I am missing?

Enygma6

I found it was worthwhile to have them early on.  
Having all 5 means you can collect the crystal rewards for finishing each Story match with all 5 colors.
Also gives you a chance to see how your cards of each color set will play together while you save up for the fancier PWs.  
Personally, I leveled all of the original 5 up into the mid-20s as I was starting out, to get a feel for things.  After that, I continued on with Nissa and Gideon, as my deck builds for them at the time were the strongest.  It gave me a chance to build up and start participating in the weekly events as well, and Training Grounds, to earn more crystals and afford the more expensive PWs.

Mainloop25

Joefitts63 said:

Thanks again. Is it worthwhile to get the 50 gem PWs in order to complete story nodes in all five colors? Or is the reward too small? Google again fails to find the reward amount. Is there a comprehensive FAQ somewhere that I am missing?

Yes, unless you are close to having enough crystals to get a better pw. 

Good mono-color pw's for beginners: Koth(R), Ob Nix(B), Elspeth(W), Jace Unraveler of Secrets (U). But all of the original 5 are perfectly acceptable except for Jace1. I consider him the worst of the OG 5.

Kinesia

Even Jace 1 can be good if you end up with 1 useful spell you want to reuse lots...

I would say early on you want access to all colours and, costing 50, they are the easiest way to get them.
But, yes, only level them to about 20 to get all their abilities and then stop and think and your next steps.

You can see them at higher levels at http://mtgpq.info  to work out who you want to level the most.

Joefitts63

Alright, sounds like they are worthwhile then. That will keep me busy for a while. Thanks much!

Joefitts63

And another question. Since the Karn PW can be used with all colors of cards, can it be used to satisfy the story mode colored deck requirements when used with mono colors?

span_argoman

Nope, Karn being a Colourless planeswalker does not contribute to the Colour Challenge achievement in story mode.

Joefitts63

Thanks. And extra thanks for the links!

Mainloop25

I'll also put together a list of pw's to stay away from as a beginner:

Arlinn Kord (most abilities locked away in sets that aren't standard legal, Samut is way better)
Chandra, Torch of Defiance (bad abilities and low hp)
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (redundant)
Huatli Warrior Poet (worst of the R/W)
Jace, Cunning Castaway (redundant, mediocre abilities)
Nissa Vital Force (redundant, set-dependent abilities) 
Tezzeret the Seeker (redundant, mediocre mana gains, low hp)