Hey guys (and gals)! Really new to Magic here. I've been reading a little about the different color combinations and what they aim to do. Does anyone have suggestions on which are the easiest to play for beginners? I started playing with some friends and co-workers and we don't have limits on the cards (as in which sets they come from). We just play casually.
I was also thinking about picking up a deck builder's kit or one of the battle packs. Would you guys recommend either of those? I would potentially like to build my own decks, and I already have approximately 100 rogue cards from booster packs in the past.
A good way of thinking of color combinations is that you can use each color's individual strengths. For example, White lacks card draw but has creature removal, while Blue has card draw but lacks removal. Combine the two colors and you can use both good card draw and creature removal. There are also often multicolor cards that incentivize playing two or more colors, providing powerful effects with the restriction of only being available to that color combo.
Here are the stereotypical strategies for each combination of two colors, Keep in mind these are just what
usually show up given the color's strengths; you can easily create a White and Blue aggressive deck or a Red and Green control deck with the right cards. Many people will refer to a two-color combination by a name of one of the Ravnica guilds, so I included those names in parenthesis.
White-Blue (Azorius): Defensive control of the game, utilizing card draw, high toughness creatures, reactive counterspells or removal, "Wrath" spells that kill every creature on the board, and flying creatures to keep the opponent at bay while you get closer to winning.
White-Black (Orzhov): Tends to fall into one of two strategies: Slow incremental game control using the colors' removal spells and life-loss/life-gain, or creature synergies that involve sacrificing your own creatures to wreck your foes.
White-Red (Boros): Attack attack attack. White and Red both use cheap aggressive creatures, and Red's direct damage can help finish off foes while White's removal can remove blockers.
White-Green (Selesnya): As the premier creature colors, White and Green work well for army-building with tokens and very efficient creatures. Traditionally this color combination relies less on dealing with the opponents' creatures and more on just having better creatures, but in recent years both White and Green have enough removal to be more reactive.
Blue-Black (Dimir): Defensive control of the game, much like White and Blue. However, Blue and Black tends to rely less on efficient fliers and more on killing the opponents' creatures and discarding threats from their hand.
Blue-Red (Izzet): Blue and Red have the most synergy with Sorceries and Instants, so Blue/Red decks will often take advantage of cards that let you recast, copy, enhance, redirect, or do other neat things with Sorceries and Instants. If you got a spell combo deck, it's likely Blue/Red.
Blue-Green (Simic): Lots of card draw, instant-speed creatures and spells, Hexproof creatures, etc. These two colors' strengths work together well for building constant advantage, especially in the long game.
Black-Red (Rakdos): Aggressive decks that often don't have the most efficient creatures but just mow down the opposition with creature kill, discard, and burn. This color combination is infamous for inflexibility, since Black and Reds' strengths tend to overlap and neither color can deal with Enchantments, but that doesn't stop them from dishing out some real pain.
Black-Green (Golgari): Both colors have cards that interact with the graveyard, letting you use it as a source of advantage. Beyond that, you get both Black's removal and Green's efficient creatures, along with some very powerful multicolor cards.
Green-Red (Gruul): Tends to fall into one of the following strategies: Aggressive mid-size creatures supplemented by burn spells that can easily break through defenses, or mana acceleration combined with big beats.