Getting kids into Commander

[BaronCappuccino]

To those who've tapped to put any number of 1/1 human creature tokens into play, have you had much success turning them into Commander opponents? I botched Magic with my wife and step daughter nearly ten years ago - played budget Modern then, not Commander, but drove them out by not having it in me to go easy once in a while and make it fun. They've not played since. I've a second chance as my son is five, and it won't be long before he can use Magic to buff up his reading and vocabulary. How early did you get your kids into it? Did you just use precons? Build your kid a deck that you know is a good fight for your favorite? Throw your unfortunate spawn to the wolves and let him or her build an unsleeved rubber banded deck out of draft chaff? And then destroy said child utterly so that they always know you're far superior in all things?

[duducrash]

My friends daughter is getting into it now and she was watching us play and saw some really exciting turns and was "that sounds fun" and then she saw the buy a box promo with cats and dogs and is really fond of cats helping dogs and dogs helping cats. I think she is arround 11-12

I think in general avoiding land destruction will max your chances too 😳

[DirkGently]

I don't think it's appropriate to get kids hooked on drugs personally.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I'm not sure how to get people into Magic. Something just has to click, they gotta wanna put in the footwork to learn this wildly overcomplicated game. For some people, the aesthetics draw them in, for others its the rush of competition.

I do find it weird to hear that your inability to "go easy" turned away your wife and daughter. For me, I hate it when people go easy on me in any kind of game. My dad and I used to play board games a lot when I was growing up and until I was about 12 I got slaughtered every time regardless of the game (still can't beat the bastard at scrabble). But then one day I started winning, slowly at first and then eventually by a huge margin. It was those hundreds of losses that made the new era of victory possible and satisfying. I would have never gotten anywhere if someone 'let' me win. To this day, that same rush motivates me in the pursuit of better competition.

If it were my kid, I'd build some top tier pauper decks (NWO keeps complexity low) and rumble with those to pick up the basics and see what the kid enjoys about the game. Do they like big creatures or well timed responses? What colors appeal to their sense of satisfaction? What are the aspects of the game that make sense to them intuitively? Starting with a format as sprawling as commander is just an info overload and seems like a bad idea imho.

[TheGildedGoose]

I don't think it's appropriate to get kids hooked on drugs personally.

Some of us have to make a living.

[BaronCappuccino]

I do find it weird to hear that your inability to "go easy" turned away your wife and daughter.

We didn't know it at the time, but what they wanted from Magic was Commander - a longish creature battlefield centric game with a good amount of give and take. I would cast the first seven lightning bolts that I drew into. Totally uninteractive, By the time I discovered Commander, it was too late.

[Neptune]

Make another deck out of that same draft chaff and have a few fun games. Keep it simple, don't use complicated rules lawyering, and only introduce base level concepts - the ones you want to work on - reading and basic math. Hill Giants and Craw Wurms, ahoy!

Only introduce the more complicated stuff if they're interested. People have to want to know and you can't force it on the kid too early.

I remember one mom playing MTG with her kid at the LGS. She was telling her kid about summoning sickness by saying "This one is still 'dizzy', remember?".

[Chromaticus]

My son is 7 and we play every Saturday with commander decks. He likes when the decks synergize and go crazy over the top. Favorite card is Craterhoof Behemoth.

He beat me the other day with Varina by sacrificing enough creatures to Phyrexian Altar to play Twilight's Call.

All that to say, kids are smarter than we give them credit for. I started him with the draft chaff and he didn't get as excited.

[BaronCappuccino]

My son is 7 and we play every Saturday with commander decks. He likes when the decks synergize and go crazy over the top. Favorite card is Craterhoof Behemoth.

He beat me the other day with Varina by sacrificing enough creatures to Phyrexian Altar to play Twilight's Call.

All that to say, kids are smarter than we give them credit for. I started him with the draft chaff and he didn't get as excited.

Building him a deck that's in the same league as my own (I only ever keep one deck at a time) seems like the direction I'm most inclined to pursue. Fortunately, I've got about two years, as seven seems to be the youngest common age for kids playing Magic. He'll start off with a 100% proxy deck of whatever I can brew till he's old enough to respect the expense of cards.

[Chromaticus]

Yes, I'm exclusively on make playing cards for my commander decks. Yes, I would like 5 commander decks for $200 regardless of budget 😁