Yeah, that's how I learned to play. First game or two my friend and I just played with our hands revealed (it goes really quick that way obviously). Then for the next game or two we played we would hide our hands but I would just ask him questions if I was confused.
He built me a nature deck with really basic cards. Bears, Wurms, Wood Elves, Wolfs, Giant Growths, Rampant Growths, a couple Natural Springs, an artifact, some enchantments, etc... a very good deck to learn on. Definitely wouldn't start someone on a Blue deck or a complicated White deck (look at what comes in standard starter decks for reference).
After a few games we just threw open his huge box of cards and built our own decks. That was a huge help in learning the game since, flipping through hundreds of cards, I was just able to see all the types magic. Ended up building some insane Blue deck and he built an equally insane Black deck and we played with those, refined them, had a couple of other friends come over and did teams. By the end of the night I was an "expert".
