MTG duel decks were an MTG series of decks printed from 2007 through to 2018, and there are some fantastic decks and cards in some of the sets. These decks were great because they were explicitly designed to be played against each other making them great for beginners. Let’s have a look at the best ones.
On average, the best MTG duel deck for beginners are Elves vs. Goblins, Knights vs. Dragons, and Heroes vs. Monsters. These decks focus on the colors red, white, and green. The mechanics and cards contained within these decks are easier for beginners to understand and start playing with.
If you don’t know what duel deck to get yourself because some seem a bit complicated, then don’t worry; I have you covered. I’ll guide you through MTG duel decks and which you should consider regarding mechanics and color choices if you are a beginner.
What are MTG duel decks?
In 2007 WotC started releasing a series of theme decks that consists of two decks of cards (each with 60 cards in them), and these decks were explicitly designed to be played against each other.
The cards that would come with these decks may be part of any non-unsets in MTG and are post 8th edition. Furthermore, the cards feature a black border and sport their own expansion symbol. These decks would also include a “learn to play guide” in them, which is excellent for beginners who do not understand the rules yet.
These sets could contain not only common and uncommon cards, but many of them included rares, foils, and mythic rares, depending on the decks. Some cards even featured alternate artwork, as with cards from the Duel Decks: Elves vs. Goblins with Ambush Commander and Siege-Gang Commander.
Later sets featured two foil mythic rares with alternate artwork, between six and ten rares, as well as four non-foil cards that had alternate artwork.
One thing to note is that many of the mythic rares were initially printed as rares but were subsequently changed to mythic rares for the duel decks.
When comparing the decks to each other, we notice that they depict a notable rivalry between two factions in the MTG universe, and they often tie into storylines.
- Elves vs. Goblins tie into Lorwyn
- Jace vs. Chandra tie into webcomic
- Heroes vs. Monsters tie into Theros
- Phyrexia vs. the Coalition, Elspeth vs. Tezzeret, and Venser vs. Koth all tie into Scars of Mirrodin
All MTG duel decks
There were a total of 21 duel decks that were invented and printed through the years 2007 through 2018. In 2018 they were discontinued and replaced by MTG challenger decks.
| MTG Duel Deck | Year of Release |
| Elves vs. Goblins | 2007 |
| Jace vs. Chandra | 2008 |
| Divine vs. Demonic | 2009 |
| Garruk vs. Liliana | 2009 |
| Phyrexia vs. The Coalition | 2010 |
| Elspeth vs. Tezzeret | 2010 |
| Knights vs. Dragons | 2011 |
| Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas | 2011 |
| Venser vs. Koth | 2012 |
| Izzet vs. Golgari | 2012 |
| Sorin vs. Tibalt | 2013 |
| Heroes vs. Monsters | 2013 |
| Jace vs. Vraska | 2014 |
| Speed vs. Cunning | 2014 |
| Elspeth vs. Kiora | 2015 |
| Zendikar vs. Eldrazi | 2015 |
| Blessed vs. Cursed | 2016 |
| Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis | 2016 |
| Mind vs. Might | 2017 |
| Merfolk vs. Goblins | 2017 |
| Elves vs. Inventors | 2018 |
Which MTG duel decks are best for beginners?
If you are a beginner and want to learn MTG by getting a duel deck, then you may be overwhelmed at the amount to choose from, and you probably won’t know where to begin.
Some of the decks have mechanics that may be difficult for a beginner, and it would be best if we removed those from the list to make things a bit simpler.
Typically blue and black decks will have mechanics that a beginner might struggle with if new to Magic The Gathering.
Blue is based on manipulating time and information and contains mechanics that include counterspells, card drawing, change-of-color effects, library destruction, mimicry, morphology, power reduction, returning permanents, tapping and untapping, and so on.
Black will deal with mechanics such as discarding, reanimation, regeneration, sacrifice, life loss, creature destruction, removing counters, and so on.
These types of mechanics that blue and black have can get pretty complex very quickly and could take the fun out of the game if a beginner doesn’t know how to use the deck properly.
Thus, what’s left is red, white, and green decks (mono or any color combination of the three).
For the most part, these colors in MTG deal with mechanics that a beginner can pick up pretty quickly. They deal with creatures, burn spells, gain life, making creatures larger (greater power and toughness), and giving creatures additional abilities.
This will throw a beginner right into the fray and get them enjoying and playing magic quickly.
The three best beginner duel decks
Taking into consideration our color combinations of red, white, and green and leaving out blue and black decks, we find that three duel decks match our criteria.
Now it’s not to say that you should get these decks because perhaps you are looking to get a deck with a specific planeswalker, or maybe you prefer the color blue or black. These sets will just be a little bit easier to understand regarding card and deck mechanics that a beginner should consider.
Duel Decks: Elves vs. Goblins
This duel deck contains two mono-colored decks: green (elves) and red (Goblins). Both red and green focus heavily on creatures and only have a handful of instants and sorceries at their disposal.
| Deck | Creatures | Sorceries | Instants | Artifacts | Enchantments |
| Elves | 29 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| Goblins | 30 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
This makes both decks easy to learn because all the abilities and mechanics of the creatures will work in conjunction with one another, so it will be straightforward, and nothing unusual will be going on. Typically creature decks are the simplest decks in MTG to play (for the most part).
Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons
Knights vs. Dragons consists of a mono-colored red deck (dragons) and then a multi-colored deck that is white/green (Knights). If you are familiar with some of the rules of MTG, then this deck would be a more fantastic starter. There are more instants and sorceries in both decks, and because the one deck is multi-colored, it will start to show you the possibilities of mixing and matching colors and how one simple ability can turn into something extraordinary when used in conjunction with another ability from a card with another color.
| Deck | Creatures | Sorceries | Instants | Artifacts | Enchantments |
| Knights | 24 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| Dragons | 17 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 |
Having more instants and sorceries allows you to develop more strategies, especially because you can only play them in certain parts of a turn structure. This will make you think more about how deep and complex a game in MTG can get.
This is also a great deck due to the balanced amount of other spells like enchantments and artifacts. Having these cards and enough so that you can play them will help you understand the rules of MTG better.
Duel Decks: Heroes vs. Monsters
Our last deck consists of two multi-colored decks. As you can see, we have systematically moved up from two mono duel decks to one mono and one multi-colored to this, which has two multi-colored decks.
The two decks are white/green (Heroes) and green/red (Monsters). If you like the idea of two-color decks and you are a beginner – then you can’t go wrong with this dual deck.
Featuring an almost even amount of speels and creatures between the Heroes deck and with the Monster deck having a little more creatures, you will be hard-pressed to find something about these two that you don’t like.
| Deck | Creatures | Sorceries | Instants | Artifacts | Enchantments |
| Heros | 19 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 6 |
| Monsters | 22 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
As you can see by the table, all the cards are dispersed across creatures, sorceries, instants, enchantments, and artifacts quite nicely. Additionally, you will be able to see how two-color decks work in conjunction with one another. This will let you grasp MTG rules a little quicker, making you a better player.
Conclusion
These decks mark a part of MTG history that many individuals will never forget, and some of the decks and cards are still highly sought after.
Going over all 21 decks, we took three that could benefit beginners in terms of their play style. This is because a beginner needs to grasp the rules and turn structure of MTG which can be a bit complicated at first. Thus we decided to go with green, white, and red decks that comprise mainly of creatures and spells that are easy to understand.
So if you are a beginner looking for a duel deck, check out Elves vs. Goblins, Knights vs. Dragons, or Heroes vs. Monsters.