For the next few weeks, I'm going to post some of the old articles we wrote or published on MTGZone.com back in the late 90s and early 2000s! There's not a lot of content but some of it is still kinda relevant today 😛
This article was originally published in January 2003. All spelling and grammar mistakes are left as is. I have modified the referenced cards to link to the scryfall page for the card.
I remember a time when you could actually buy a preconstructed deck, or "precon" as I like to call them, and put up a fighting chance against your friend's deck. I'm talkin about Tempest block and maybe even Urza's block. White Heat, Dominator, and that near-mono-red burn deck from Tempest block rocked. They gave you good, usable cards like Paladin en-Vec, Counterspells (Forbid and Mana Leak), and Aluren. Rares that could pay the rest of the deck off on the market and in the trading scene. And you got three of them.
I don't know what happened after that. Maybe they realized that they could make more money doling out cheap rares (and only two, nonetheless), that certain cards weren't even getting played by the little kids at sealed deck/draft tournaments, or just that they felt like screwing us out of $10. But not knowing the sorry state they have hit, I decided on buying one to get myself up-to-speed somewhat on the current Type II environment. Browsing through the card lists of the current four none possessed even the possibility that they could win and were very poorly put together. They look like what my 10 year old cousin scraps up when he plays his friends: 20 basic lands, some cool non-basic ones with pretty pictures, huge creatures that won't hit the table (check out the green/red "Devastation" from Onslaught), and mediocre spells only prolonging your death. None are worth buying; you can't even sell all the cards back to dealers for half the deck's price.
So if you want some advice, it would be cheaper and much more worthwhile to make up your own deck of cards from the set and buy them online or at a store. You'd actually get cards you want, would play, and would use again. And you'd gain valuable deck-making experience. I hope more people, especially players newer to the game that buy them to learn, notice that we're getting ripped off and that Wizards of the Coast should know how to make a decent deck.
Your thoughts are welcomed,
~Mike Gioia
This was originally published in January 2003 on MTGZone.com.