...or...
Choose your own obsession:
1) Buy a loaf of bread.
Remove the bread from it's bag.
Now you have a handy carrying case for your 5.
(the bag, not the loose loaf of bread.) (although, that
would be something.)
Not to mention; you have a snack!
(the loose loaf of bread, not your 5.) (that, too, would be something.)
anyhoo...
2) Plan your deck, in the loose sense...
Do you want to play Control?
Beatdown?
Combo?
Mid-range goodstuff?
{Bear in mind that I am gearing this advice towards those that are hesitant about the format and do not wish to dimantle their existing decks and commit pricey rares to the unshaven masses.}
I'll tackle the hardest one, first:
Combo: There are a
ton of viable combo's in 5. There are also a few that are just better than others. Traumatize/Replenish is a good'n, Moma/Prints/Stroke is another. Problem is: every card in those titles is rare... some of them in the $10 range.
So, skip the dedicated combo idea, if you're a newbie.
[caveat
Dream Halls is a combo deck that can be built with very few rares, aside from the Halls, themselves. Just a note, if you simply must play combo, on a budget.
[/caveat
Control: While there are rares that really make control tick (Wrath, Rout, Deed, Disk, JonSnake, Masticore, etc.) It
is possible to play control in this format with few, if any, rares. Just take some:
common/uncommon counterspells (counter, dismiss, arcane, forbid, mana leak)
some efficient spot removal (terminate, plow, d-blow, orim's thunder, hull breach, FTK, Nekrataal, Fire/Ice)
some mass removal (breath of darigaaz,
savage twister, wash out, plague spitter, um...)
and some card-advantage/drawing (fact or fiction, whispers, sylvan, treasure trove, dominate, concentrate, 'PHID, Avenging Druid- The Green PHID, Browse, Magpie)
top it off with a robust finisher (Fireball, Sengir Vampire, whatever)
I'm not saying that your first control deck (with 0 rares) is going to be amazing... but it you and a friend are both just starting, what's the problem?
Beatdown: many of the best creatures for beatdown are actually not rare:
Hyppie
Flesh Reaver
Pouncing Jag
Wild Dogs
Jackal Pup
Kird Ape
Cloudskate
Dauthi's
Carnophage
Albino Troll
Blastoderm
River Boa
Skyshroud Elite
Mogg Fanatic
Fallen Askari
you get the idea.
Add in some efficient burn and removal to clear the way:
Bolt/Incinerate
Plow/Terminate
Maybe some cheap counters, maybe not:
Arcane, Mana Leak
Some card advantage:
Contracts (the 2nd most broken card, ever, and it costs $1 or less on eBay)
Standstill
Fact
Sylvan
Proceed to beat.
Mid-Range: this catch-all really crosses over between all archetypes... you can make control with a combo kill, beatdown with combo, beatdown with control. You get the idea. My first suggestion is Beatdown/Control:
Thornscape Battlemage
Thunderscape Battlemage
FTK
Uktabi
Avalanche Riders
Thrull Surgeon
Treasure Hunter
Auramancer
Control the board with your creatures.
Mid-Range is likely the best place to start, if you're a newbie. Just put together a bunch of cards that are really good in limited and play the card advantage game.
3) Build your deck: this is a lot of fun... and believe me; if you are at all motivated by my suggestions, here, you're going to find that 250 cards is not really that many when it comes to adding fun toys to your deck
Seriously:
90-100 mana sources (my recommendation)
18 cards for each color x 5 colors = 90 cards
that only leaves you with 60-70 "variable" cards in your deck, and you already know what it's like to build a deck with 30-40 variable cards.
And if you're looking for cards to top off your colors... here are some items that many, many decks play with:
Blue:
Ophidian
Fact or Fiction
Impulse
Allied Strategies
Red:
Bolt
Fire/Ice
FTK
Recoup
Green:
Sylvan
Harrow/Land Grant/Granger/Elder
Reclaim
Wall of Blossoms
Rancor
Thornscape Battlemage
Black:
Restricted Tutors
White:
Plow
D-blow/Seal/Thunder
Artifacts:
Mind Stone
Fellwar Stone
Jeweled Bird
Zuran Orb
Chromatic Sphere
Juggernaught
Lotus Petal
Gold:
Hull Breach
Goblin Legionnaire
Jungle Barrier
Dromar's Charm
Lands:
Mirage Fetch Lands
Gemstone Mine
~$1 rares that can make your deck better: (making no promises about prices in your area)
Blueprints
Abundance
Hanna
Mindless Automaton
CONTRACT
Trade Routes
Firestorm
Phelddagrif('s)
Back to Basics/Destructive Flow
And last but not least:
And you had to look through a 250 deck with a Tutor? Is there a time limit?
While this might seem daunting at first, you get used to it. It's just like looking through 3-4 normal decks
I play about 30 Tutoring effects in my deck each game... and you get better at it. If you're upset about the time it takes, have your friends/opponent help
If you've never seen 3-4 people dive into a 5 looking for that game-swinging spell, you haven't lived
CHA1N5