I used to play it with some sets.

Fun game, but the basic set by itself kinda sucks and feels like it forces you to get the more advanced ones. Intrigue is the better starter as long as you understand basic strategies quickly.
I own basic, Intrigue and Dark Ages and so that's all the 'basic' big sets without any addons besides the Ruins.

The problem with just basic is that strategies that are better than just straight Silver Rush are limited.

>>46219117
so regarding a first buy you'd recommend skipping the basic set altogether? also silver rush = big money?

>>46219165
oh right yeah, I forgot the name of it. Silver rush = big money.

Intrigue is a good enough start unless you're superdumb. It's good to mix in the basic cards, but basic by itself gets boring pretty fast.

Dark Ages is almost a complete set on its own, but its cards are pretty damn complex so I wouldn't recommend grabbing it until you're more familiar with other sets and card archetypes.

>>46219055
I used to play it, but now my five boxes are just collecting dust.

Yes. I own all nine expansions and all promos.
>>46219117
>>46219165
This is what I did and I'd recommend the same for someone such as a MtG player. Casual players should start with the base set.

After that I'd go with Prosperity or Seaside. Prosperity really opens the game up because of the new base cards, and Seaside has a lot of cool actions.

>>46219117
FYI Dark Ages is the most advanced set in terms of card effects and it doesn't come with base cards.

I'd recommend starting with Intrigue and Prosperity. If you want to expand beyond that, you can do a tiny bit of research and pick up expansions that correspond to mechanics you like.