Just use the core premade books for these - they are designed to introduce a variety to new players.
They also have the advantage of an apprentice and full version if you need them.
You might want to stick with all core set cards for a first game to keep things simple.
ok, should have clarified this earlier:
The guy who wanted to learn arena has played academy before so he knew all of those cards and he is a hardcore gamer so he caught on really quick with the other cards. he has also watched a few arena matches. he asked me to build the books as I would play them. out of the 4 core mages he showed interest in the beastmaster and the warlock. he chose the beastmaster and i went through the book with him before hand and only really had to explain enchantment transfusion and acid ball for corrodes, in the beastmaster book. the other cards from other sets have the same mechanics as the core set cards. I actually went through the warlock book with him too and he decided beastmaster.
i completely agree 100% that when teaching someone arena it is best to use cards from the core set. this guy, however, expressed interest in these 2 mages and told me to go at it, he didnt care, plus has already played academy.
overall, it went really well. he enjoyed the game and had no problems learning any of the cards. he did like the knife and was scared it would be dissolved so we swapped a tangleroot for another knife.
he actually transfused a lion savagery from a guarding creature to his mage, then moved in and attacked with the knife for 7 dice? if i remember correctly.
divine might, i told him, was in there in case he asked me to play the wizard (whirling spirit), but he just said go with the warlock since that was another mage he liked.
i refrained from using the zombie, i'll let him have the fun with that tomorrow. i only used rise again once, he thought that was a really cool mechanic.
agian, i agree 100% with you guys but this guy wanted to play with most of what was out there already. But, yes I am trying to get him to get the core game and sell him on that when teaching. He got the general concept of both mages (swarm with beasts and blood demon with curses) and said if he liked it he was going to invest in arena and slowly get more (academy core and arena core, he said to start with) - and he loved it!!!
we are actually playing again tomorrow and he wants to try the warlock, which has more of the core set in it.
