Is It Worth It To Buy Game Night 2019 Edition for Magic: The Gathering?

"I don't mind an Agent of Treachery" – Prof, 2019

I bought this Game Night for my family and I because we literally were just starting into Magic. Amazon delivered it just a few days after my husband and I first walked into our local game store and inquired about learning Magic. (We were in a date night and looking for an adventure) The only other cards we had were the starter decks. For us, this was our best investment. As a family, we would take this into our local game store, sit at their tables and play. The staff would assist us when we had questions. Now, six months later, we are buying our own decks (from our local game store) and using our Game Night to teach other family and friends. In fact, just last weekend, my best friend and I sat with Game Night at her kitchen table and I taught her. She’s getting her own mono-blue deck from me for her birthday. Game Night is not meant for the serious player who has been collecting cards since they were 11 and has three Commander decks built. Game Night is for the families with kids, just like mine, who want to learn. Dull? Maybe. But that slow game play is necessary to learn the intricate vocabulary lessons and understanding how to strategically use a sorcery card. #AnotherPointofView

Fiendish Duo is trending at $20+ right now. Is it possible to see a re-review of the individual cards presented in the box?

As this is a standalone product not intended to be played elsewhere, instead of 60 card decks, make 40 card decks and maybe even a low count sideboard (5 cards?)

Strip 15 cards from each colour that aren't doing anything and play with limited size decks.

Pros:
Better consistency
Easier shuffling
Higher value cards (if the product price were to remain the same and the total "value" of the cards inside was also kept the same)

Cons:
Confusing switch between formats? (bit of a reach seeing as nobody minds that limited/standard/commander etc. All have different deck rules)

oooooh! You got a bit of sass in there right at the start. I like it!

Right now fiendish dup I'd 16.99😳

People complaining about this product but unpopular opinion, I think it’s actually value. I got mine for USD40 and get 5 60 card decks (totalling 300 cards) plus tokens and 5 D20s.

Calculate the price of each card (not counting tokens and D20s) brings you about USD0.14! That 14 cents a card! And most cards in here are at least worth 10-20 cents (where I’m from), so technically it’s value if anything.

Add to that, the true purpose of the product is to have a casual game night with friends, particularly those that are new to or are being introduced to Magic. Which for me is quite handy for a go to grab-and-play type of product.

Also the mono colour theme to each deck create less complications for new players in my personal opinion, especially those you want to bring into Magic. I agree, they are limited in what they can do but playing with those restrictions can be fun! It makes you learn how to play in situations where you are unable to optimise your deck, preparing you for the likes of sealed and draft.

i may or may not be addicted to heroin

I had very good experience with this set.

I agree its uber simple.
And for experienced player choosing this over established format decks makes no sense.
But this is not what this product is for.

This product is for completely new players.
It is designed to not overwhelm them with too much information.
And give beginning player a chance by dropping a bomb without any tricky ways to deal with it in the format.

This set is extremely new player friendly and provides the best customization options for completely new players.
Each color has a simple theme and reasonably coherent set of cards without being too parasitic to be easily extended.
Out of the box you can try experimenting with all different color combinations.
Something you will not be abler to do with any other product without spending much more and getting much less consistent card pool.
Also power level is really low so any booster you get, even the worst one, can be used to customize experience with this product.
As it stands this is the product to recommend to a completely new player who wants to experience some MtG but is not allured to MtG complexity.

This also allows multiplayer – something other new player friendly products do not allow.
When i tried playing precon commander decks with my non MtG playing friends it did not go well.
You have to read wall of text, then get a few complex stack interactions. And the result is: "don't bring them again please"
Here i played 5 color star and it goes smoothly even with beginner players.
As decks are simple to pilot and you can focus on explaining essentials and just playing the game.

Blue has no counterspells, even no cancells. Instants are very limited. Most cards have little to no text.
This creates decks that make it easier to learn basics of the game without most frustrating elements.
I see no other off the shelf MtG product like this.
You can get a bunch of commons for cheaper and build more interesting decks. But not really when you're completely new to the game.
I'd love to get a box like this when i was a kid to play with my friends.
As a standalone without power creeping with buying power with more boosters casual constructed nonsense.

My biggest downside is black getting graveyard "trickerty" theme that doesn't work if opponent just attacks you.
I think they should go less graveyard and better stats vanilla cards.

And I agree 99% cards are useless in "normal" formats.
But this makes this really easy to expand with pretty much any card set.
Especially as you get enough of not parasitic cards in each color to include anything you get.
With duel decks it is hard to add random cards as they make little sense of don't align with thew plan.
Decks here are so basic anything can be used to spice them up.

This was a great way to teach a few friends how to play magic without being overly complicated.

Thanks for saving me some money. Actually thought it might be fun to play round the table.

I picked it up for 25$ and bought 2… I use it to teach my third graders reading and math!