At the heart of the joy of playing Magic the Gathering is deck construction. Both beginning and experienced players enjoy finding new and fiendish ways to put abilities together. Here we show the basics at deck building (most of the info you can find over the web) used here as an easy way to find all the information. All the info that comes from other sites has its link at the end of the Primer. Enjoy !!
THE CHAPTERS
HAVE FOCUS
Set a focus to your deck, like "I want to drop Broodstar".
In order to fulfill your goal, you need to be entirely focused. If the goal of the deck is to get a Broodstar into play quickly, focus on that theme – add in more cards that can ensure you draw a Broodstar (such as Ponder, or Brainstorm); add in more acceleration, don't try to splash in other colors, and cut cards that don't help you achieve your goals (Bladed Pinions won't matter in that deck since Broodstar already has fly and with her fat body why we need first strike). Try running four-of the best cards in your deck, when possible. If Vapor Snag is important to your deck, run four of them. If you need better options for searching and renewing your hand, run a higher count on Ponder, and cut out cards like Crown of Ascension. Your Broodstar has fly and your deck possibly doesn't have Beast as the most common creature type.
Remember, once you decide a deck's goal, focus your deck on achieving that goal. The more focused your deck becomes, the more likely you are to have your deck perform as intended.
On the flip side, don't be a slave to your theme. Just because you're focusing on a certain theme does not mean that you have to include suboptimal cards to meet that theme.
A Chromescale Drake is a worse version of Broodstar; you don't need to run it in the deck, even if he has the theme of Affinity. A cheaper and earlier Frogmite will help more, since he helps Broodstar to come into play or can help with early defense.
ARCHETYPE
First, there are three main types of strategies: aggro, combo, and control. The idea was that, very generally speaking, aggro lost to combo, which lost to control, which lost to aggro. That is basic.
Nowadays, our "Aggro → Control → Combo" chart looks a lot more like this: Aggro → Midrange → Ramp/Combo → Control/Disruptive Aggro
Aggro is your traditional "kill your opponent as quickly as possible using efficient creatures" kind of deck. It usually features potent attacking-based one-drops (Champion of the Parish and Jungle Lion) and a mana curve heavily weighted to the first several turns. Frequently, it will supplement its primary strategy with "range," or ways to end the game after its initial assault has been blunted.
Tips and builds for Aggro Decks
- Aggro decks plan to deal damage to an opponent until that opponent dies, generally ignoring their own life total completely.
- The majority of cards in an aggro deck should be able to kill the opponent.
- An aggro deck usually needs 8 to 12 one-drops and 8 to 12 two-drops.
- An aggro deck usually plays 23 or fewer lands or non-attacking mana sources.
- Cheap creatures played early will usually deal at least as much damage as your best burn spells.
Midrange (sometimes called Aggro-Control or Midrange Beatdown) tends to feature one-drops with abilities (Llanowar Elf) and early threats that are more defined by their resilience than by their raw size, speed, or power. These decks tend to be a turn slower than the aggro decks—although still reasonably fast—and oftentimes use Planeswalkers to generate advantage on the battlefield. They will sometimes use a few reactive cards to deal with key threats, but tend to be at a disadvantage if they draw too many of this type of card (and thus are unable to develop their board). Some midrange decks tend toward the aggressive end of the spectrum, and others toward control. What they hold in common is their focus on accumulating advantage on the battlefield itself, as opposed to gaining an advantage in raw resources (having a 4/4 versus a 2/1, as opposed to having two cards in hand versus a single card, for example).
Tips and builds for Midrange Decks
- Midrange decks plan to deal damage to an opponent until that opponent dies, but using more mana intensive cards.
- More 'fatties', less 'weenies'; you can't play a midrange deck without excellent fatties! Classic midrange creatures are Ravenous Baloth and Exalted Angel.
- Midrange decks sport relatively high mana curves. They contain spells for the early game that lead into cards included for the midgame. There's also relatively good incentive to play 'scaling' cards like Fireball that get better and better as the game progresses.
- Less than "Ramp", more than "Aggro", because of their high curves, midrange decks must reserve a healthy amount of deck slots to mana to effectively play their spells. You'll often find mana acceleration and mana sinks that somehow make effective use of all the spare mana midrange decks have lying around. These cards usually are 8 spots; they use 22-24 spots for lands.
- Midrange decks normally find one way or another to defend themselves, especially against aggro decks. Here you'll often find dedicated board control elements not unlike what you'd expect in a control deck, like Wall of Blossoms and Windborn Muse, and sometimes they run reset buttons like mass removal.
- Just remember the immortal words of one of midrange's biggest fans:
"It's the last fatty that kills you." – Jamie Wakefield
Ramp decks tend to spend their early turns developing their mana advantage instead of deploying threats to the board. Because we've made a concerted effort to push more expensive spells, which requires us to expand the space of mana-costs that would ordinarily be considered playable—the return on a six-mana card tends to be better than that of two three-mana cards, three two-mana cards, etc. Moreover, it's typically easier to kill creatures than it is to disrupt mana-advantage spells. Taken together, what this means is that if a Ramp deck successfully ramps and an aggro deck successfully curves out, usually the Ramp deck will be at an advantage when the dust settles. The drawbacks, however, are twofold: First, Ramp decks are usually a little less consistent because the mana-acceleration can be disrupted. Second, they rely upon one or two threats to do a lot of work for them, so if those are countered or stripped out of their hand, they usually run out of gas.
Combo are most of time powerful engines that end the game quickly and consistently. We also can use this term to refer to decks that attack your meta at odd angles. For classic combos you can see the Dragonstorm decks. Good examples from the "odd angles" would be the Open the Vaults deck from a few years back, or Team StarCity Black's Invisible Stalker deck at Pro Tour Avacyn Restored. Ideally, we aim for strategies that have severe weaknesses, assuming everyone is gunning for them, but can take advantages of holes in the metagame to really storm a particular tournament or meta.
Tips and builds for Combo Decks
- Firstly, you must find the combination of the cards that will be a "combo." Suppose you are building a racing car. This process is likened to the assembly of an engine. No car will move without an engine. Some samples are Tinker + Blightsteel Colossus or Stuffy Doll + Guilty Conscience.
- You need fuel for your engine, like mana ramp to combo faster. The Dragonstorm combo works with that, casting spells like Lotus Bloom and Rite of Flame.
- Another point is how you protect your combo, its like the "body" of your racing car, if body is weak, your engine falls. Cards that help to defend your combo are used in control decks or disruptive decks like Gigadrowse or Duress.
- Now you need a key to turn on the car, the draw and tutor cards are that, these cards search your deck for the combo piece. Idyllic Tutor, Ponder, Fabricate are some cards for that job.
Control means more or less exactly what it sounds like. These decks attempt to accumulate resource advantage, contain threats, and run opponents out of options. Typically—though not always—they end the game with the very same threats midrange or ramp decks use. The difference is that they're not focused on getting those threats out as soon as they possibly can. Instead, they use them to mop up a game they've already secured and stabilized. Alternatively, the large threat itself can be used as a tool to stabilize, either by virtue of its size or its ability to remove threats.
Tips and builds for Control Decks
- Erases them at a reduced cost. Whether this means killing a multitude of creatures with one spell like a Wrath of God or Earthquake, using a relatively cheap Cancel to stop an expensive spell like Akroma, Angel of Wrath.
- Doesn’t play threats to be answered. The control deck is so robustly dedicated to reactive spells that it can go without playing early creatures and other proactive spells.
- Disrupts synergies. Even if they don’t deal with every spell you play directly, they can leave out whichever ones don’t stand well on their own and still be in good shape. The most extreme example of this is a creature enchantment that might never need attention if you can’t make a creature stick.
- Drags the game out past your preparations. A Savannah Lions is a fine spell in the first few turns of a game, but on turn ten, when you have more than just a few lands, it will be a disappointing draw.
Finally, we use the term Disruptive Aggro to describe decks that either (Control-Combo or Midrange Control) deploy a powerful threat and protect it long enough to end the game, or (Aggro-Control) couple pressure from resilient threats with removal, discard, and countermagic such that the opponent can never really get his or her game plan off the ground. These differ from Midrange Beatdown decks in that they usually contain far fewer threats, focusing on those that either hit the hardest or are the most difficult to remove. They usually goldfish slower than Midrange, too, but tend to be less vulnerable to the strategies that attack the battlefield (mass removal, for example).
Tips and builds for Disruptive Decks
- The Disruptive decks exploit the other decks' focus on one particular threat by targeting that threat and leaving those decks unable to function, with that we can disable the decks. Here we can see the classic counters, disrupt and spot removals, sometimes we can find a mass removal. Duress, Mana Leak and Pernicious Deed are some cards we can find in these decks.
- Efficient at all costs !! Doesn’t play threats to be answered. Your creatures should be a pain in the field or at least give to you enough advantage, disruptive decks runs more creatures that do something when they hit the battlefield, and less "Aggro" creatures than Beatdown. Here we can include Eternal Witness, Gaterkeeper of Malakir, Phyrexian Metamorph or Vendilion Clique.
- Disruptive decks normally find one way or another to defend themselves, but most of your creatures try to give a disavantage for the other decks. Here you'll often find dedicated board control elements not unlike what you'd expect in a control deck, but a more aggressive kind of control. Like Phyrexian Obliterator and Vampire Nighthawk, Wurmcoil Engine and Inferno Titan.
- Bombs
Bombs are our Finishers, "Deal with me or lose" cards, our win conditions, most of decks should use at least two finishers and one alternate win condition, think about a (R/G) aggro deck, the bomb is our best creature, a Troll Ascetic, if you put a single Banefire on that deck, your chance of draw is reduced and when your deck was running out of gas you have a alternative bomb. The Three Cornerstones of a “Bomb” card: Effect on Gameplay, Cost, and Efficiency.
Here are some other examples of a bomb: Sword of Fire and Ice, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Angel of Despair, Simic Sky Swallower, Pernicious Deed.
- Removal
Removal is anything that can disable or remove permanents in play (such as Doom Blade, Faith's Fetters and/or Man-O'-War). While you may not think of something like Man-O'-War as removal, they clear the path for your creatures and buy you time to find an answer to whatever creatures your opponent is threatening you with.
- Efficiency/Evasion
Efficient Spells are those that work in conjunction to help you win the game. The combo of Peel From Reality and Izzet Chronarch is great - but Peel from Reality is still a great card without the Chronarch hanging around. Drake Familiar had an interesting aura-based archetype, think about Reality Acid or Oblivion Ring - cards that are great/fun on their own merit, but amazing with the Familiar. For aggro decks we can say that about the aggro creatures like Jungle Lion, also we can find the evasion creatures too, evasion is an ability of a creature that improves its chances of damaging the defending player by restricting which creatures can block it like Silhana Ledgewalker. Trample, fly, protection and others are good evasion ability.
- Advantage
Advantage (most of times Card Advantage or CA) is one of the most misunderstood terms in Magic, so let's start with a simple definition:
"If a sequence of plays (or decisions) ends with a player up one or more cards, that player has gained card advantage."
Simple enough, right? Now let's take a look at some real-life examples of card advantage. The basic draw cards are pure advantage like Ponder, Brainstorm or Sign in Blood. Some cards are in that category and also on above items:
Something like Slice in Twain is an obvious source of card advantage and removal. You get to destroy one of your opponent's cards and draw a card.
Similarly, Phyrexian Rager allows you to impact the board and replace itself. Once again, we've identified a source of card advantage.
- Dudes/Dregs
The D stands for Dudes which is Magic Slang for creatures. Basically it means if you have nothing of the former categories anymore than fill up your slots with creatures - because those ususally still can attack or block and have some use.
So it means, its better to put that Hill Giant into your deck if you still need cards because it can A: help you get to your other cards by being some kind of obstacle or B: even win you a game as its the only thing you have at hand to beat down somebody skrewed or to push in the final 2 damage. From the other side there are Dregs what is slang for bad cards.
Check Street Savvy, dont replace himself, if the enchanted creature dies its 2-1, have only defensive bonus and conditional defensive ability. You dont need that kind of cards, even if the focus of your deck is Auras !! Like said in the first part, you should run a "dude" over a "dreg" card.
MANA CURVE
The "mana curve" is the application of mana optimization theory to deck construction. By organizing the cards that are to go into a deck by their casting cost, a player can see how likely a player is to optimally utilize each turn's mana (i.e., to play a card or cards with a casting cost or costs with a total equal to the mana available on that turn).
As a general rule of thumb, the higher the mana-cost, the more powerful the effect. You're going to get more out of Decree of Pain or Plague Wind than you are out of Terror or Rend Flesh. However, if your deck runs too many high-cost cards, you run the risk of being unable to cast any spells before you get run over. You need to make sure that your deck is capable of either casting spells all throughout the game, or surviving until late enough to cast your business spells.
- Bigger versus Better
Every new set has in it some cards that are incredibly powerful but not necessarily useful. Decree of Pain or Plague Wind are a great example of this. They grabbed the attention of many players... but only until they saw the casting costs.
While these cards definitely have some awesome effects, having more than one or two of them in your deck spells an almost certain loss. While you're sitting there waiting for enough mana to play your killer spells, your opponent is beating you down with a Grizzly Bears. That's where the idea of a mana curve comes in. It is sometimes better to play with less-powerful spells just so you will be able to play something early in the game.
- How It Looks
The rule for the mana curve is to be able to play a spell every turn, rather than waiting for several turns before you really begin the game. For most deck types, it is desirable to have a few one casting cost spells, a few more two casting cost spells, several spells that cost three to five mana, and then only a few that cost more than that. If you do that it would look something like this sample:
The numbers at left show the mana costs of spells in the deck, and the * on the right show how many spells of each cost are in the deck. For example, in this sample there are ten spells that cost 2 and two spells that cost 6. The avg cost is 2,7 and show us that we are in the "several spells that cost three to five".
- But that is the Good Mana Curve ?
There is no hard and fast rule for what a mana curve should look like. While the one shown above may be good for many decks, there are some decks that will have a totally different mana curve and will still work just fine. In some decks, it may actually be good to have four Broodstar (like Affinity, since the deck has a theme to reduce the cost of the high mana cards). But, regardless of what type of deck it is, the mana curve is a very important part of deck-building that should not be forgotten.
In general we can think of there being three typical mana curves: low, medium, and high. In practice there's a huge amount of variation but at minimum we can categorize any mana curve into these ranges.
Example of a low mana curve:
CMC 1: 8-12
CMC 2: 8-12
CMC 3: 4-6
CMC 4: 2-4
CMC 5+: probably none, maybe 1-3
Example of a medium mana curve:
CMC 1: 0-4
CMC 2: 8-12
CMC 3: 6-8
CMC 4: 4-6
CMC 5 or 6: 4-6
CMC 7+: probably none, maybe 1 or 2
Example of a high mana curve:
CMC 1: 0-4
CMC 2: 6-10
CMC 3: 4-6
CMC 4: 4-6
CMC 5: 3-5
CMC 6 or 7: 3-5
CMC 8+: probably none
Most aggro decks have low mana curves, most control decks have high mana curves, most ramp decks have high mana curves. alot of decks end up with medium mana curves just because its fairly consistent. some decks are called midrange for no reason other then they have a medium mana curve. Here's a very basic rule of thumb for assigning land count to your deck. 24 lands is the default number for medium mana curve decks. If your deck has a low mana curve you can justify playing fewer then 24 lands. 22 works for most aggro decks. A very slim one (with lots of 1 drops) can get away with 20 or 21. If your deck plays fewer then 20 lands it has to have a curve that is lower than low. Lots of free spells, maybe a mana cheating mechanic. If your deck has a high mana curve you definitely need more then 24 lands. 26 is the most typical number for control decks. Ramp decks often play as many as 27.
MANA FIX / COLOR BALANCE
The mana base in your deck serves a very important purpose – it enables you to cast your spells for the game. Without a good mana base, your deck will not perform and you will be locked with your spells.
- Mana Screw (Not Enough Mana)
Make sure you deck has enough lands and mana sources to support the spells you want to cast. There is a huge temptation to try to cut lands to get more spells into your deck, but this makes the deck prone to getting mana screwed. Imagine running a deck with sixty good spells and no lands – you'd lose every game! Sure, your draw would look amazing each game – but without the ability to cast any cards in your hand, it'd be over for you.
- Mana Flood
The flip side of not enough mana sources is too many mana sources.
Too much mana will limit your options in the deck, and will subject you to mana glutting later in the game. There's a real temptation to stuff your deck with too much mana, especially if you're paranoid about not being able to cast your spells each game. However, just like in the deck with too little mana, having too much mana will seriously impact your chances to win the game. If you're going to run twenty-eight lands in a sixty-ish card deck, have a good reason for it – such as running a Genju deck and expect the lands to die, or playing a control deck where you can reasonably expect to win if you hit your land drop each and every turn. If you're running an aggressive deck with a low curve and no use for excess lands, cut down the lands in your deck until you reach a more comfortable number – usually 21-23. In this deck's case, I'd add in more creatures and/or burn spells in place of the extra 5-7 lands.
- Where Is My Color
The last case involves having too few colored lands in your deck. Imagine a (U/B) control deck.
Make sure that the colored mana in your deck can support the spells you have in your deck. This can be helped through mana-fixing, as well as diversifying your mana base. Divide your colored lands equally to the proportion of mana symbols in your deck. What I mean by this is that if your deck has more blue symbols than other color, you should run more islands (or blue mana sources). We also know that we will want to cast our removal/support spells early, so we will need to have one black mana on the board to do this. Therefore, instead of playing 17 Islands and 5 Swamps, I would actually run 15 Islands and 7 Swamps, thus erring towards the middle and playing slightly more of the underrepresented color. One additional note on this specific build is that we might be playing one or two more land than is actually required by the deck. This is something you would typically discover by playing this deck against others and learning what minor tweaks should be made in the deck's design. If you can get some lands or mana sources that can produce more than one color like Dimir Aqueduct. Another hint is to find easy splash cards like Doom Blade over a heavy color Geth's Verdict.
60 CARDS BODY - DECK TWEAK
Ok now we have all the cards we need. That part works like the Focus item. It's tempting to try to cram as many cards as possible into your deck. However, the further you go past sixty cards, the less chance you have of drawing any one particular card in your deck. You can only have four of any given non-basic land card in your deck (please, no talk of Relentless Rats), and the further you get from sixty cards, the less chance you have of seeing these cards.
Let's say you're running four Shocks in a deck.
In a sixty-card deck, Shock will be one out of every fifteen cards.
In an eighty-card deck, Shock will be one out of every twenty cards.
In a one-hundred-card deck, Shock will be one out of every twenty-five cards.
In a sixty-card deck, you have pretty decent odds of seeing Shock before the game is over. It's not guaranteed that you'll see a Shock, but your odds are much better than if you're packing one-hundred cards.
- And how we cut cards until we get 60 ?
Remember the Mana Screw tip ?? You're doomed if you don't get your lands or other mana-cards, but you're not better if you only get mana and no Creatures or other Spells. It has to be balanced. You should have a little more than 1/3 of your deck as mana.
The balance between the number of Creatures and other spells varies from deck to deck. BUT you always need creatures and enough. You need Sorceries, Instants and others to destroy opponent's life and creatures, getting card control, enhancing you creatures and more. But Creatures are there to defend you from your opponent's creatures, attack your opponent and can be sacrificed for other spells. Keep them balanced. Most people have more creatures then Spells in their deck.
The basic is to walk again to all of the topics in that thread, but, with more focus !!
Think about the 1/3 or 20/20/20 body (20 lands, 20 creatures, 20 spells/others), we know that the mana, most of the time, should be 22-24, so now we have ~36 cards for creatures and spells, you can choose 18/18 (now the body is 24/18/18), check what archetype you choose, increase the spells if you are control, increase the creatures if you are aggro. If you choose a mono-color deck or/and have low mana curve, you can change the lands to 22 too.
- What about "4of" ?
Increase your best spells to 4, drop the weak ones, keep in mind that isnt a rule, think like that: Shock vs Lightning Bolt - in that case, Lightning Bolt is better in anycase. Doom Blade vs Terror vs Grasp of Darkness - here, we know the worst one is Terror, and what about Blade and Grasp ? If you are a control deck, you can mix both, just care about the BB that Grasp needs, if you run more than one color, Blade can be better since has easy splash.
I hope that primer help the new players and give some tips for the old ones, also if you guys have other topics to include here please post and i will include.
So i have been playing Magic for about one year now and have been playing very casually. i am hoping that i can get better but i only have a couple of Decks and want them to be better. I got this deck from my cousin right before he got married and it was originally the Onsalaught set green deck with nothing changed. I added a few cards and edited it a little. Its not very good. The best card in it is Vigor. Can i get some help fixing and re-building it? Also it would be great to know what kind of deck it is because i cannot tell. (Aggro, Control,etc) I know it needs Some fight cards likePrey Upon and i think it might be good as a red/green too? Essencially i need some help. ANY HELP IS VERY APPRECIATED!
i see your point, but, "dudes" can be less used for constructed, they still help at casual constructed, and "dregs" is a nice advice for novices at casual deck building. Just remember that was a thread for novices with starting tips !! ^^
- Advantage
Advantage (most of times Card Advantage or CA) is one of the most misunderstood terms in Magic, so let's start with a simple definition:
"If a sequence of plays (or decisions) ends with a player up one or more cards, that player has gained card advantage."
Simple enough, right? Now let's take a look at some real-life examples of card advantage. The basic draw cards are pure advantage like Ponder, Brainstorm or Sign in Blood. Some cards are in that category and also on above items:
Something like Slice in Twain is an obvious source of card advantage and removal. You get to destroy one of your opponent's cards and draw a card.
Similarly, Phyrexian Rager allows you to impact the board and replace itself. Once again, we've identified a source of card advantage.
Ponder and Brainstorm do not offer card advantage. They trade 1 for 1 and give you card quality, but no advantage. (Amongst others, as brainstorm has also discard protection and the potential to cycle unwanted cards when combined with shuffling). Better expamples would be Harmonize, Ancestral Vision and Hypnotic Specter. I would change the definition into 'ends with a player up one or more extra cards'
Next to 'pure' card advantage, there is also 'matchup' card advantage.
This is advantage that is derived from matching up your spells against the spells of your opponent.
For example:
If all my creatures have shroud, all the targeted removal that my opponent has, becomes worthless. This is card disadvantage for my opponent, thus -mutatis mutandis- card advantage for me.
If I have no nonland, noncreature spells and my opponent has 4x duress, I have 'matchup' card advantage
It is good to be aware of this in deckbuilding too.
This is why I don't like to play decks with four artifacts/enchantments because they match up perfectly against opponents with four disenchants/naturalizes/etc.
In my opinion, playing significantly less or more of card types that (you expect) your opponent can handle is a step towards 'matchup' card advantage and good deckbuilding advice.
Another aspect of card advantage is avoiding card disadvantage. I know this sounds very trivial, but it is a concept that is worth mentioning explicitly to new players. Aura's carry a big risk of becoming card disadvantage as the target of your aura might be removed in response to casting the aura. Spined Fluke and Lotus Petal are other examples of card disadvantage. (This doesn't mean that they are bad cards, btw.)
I like the inclusion of 'who's the beatdown', one of the essential articles in the history of MtG...
At the heart of the joy of playing Magic the Gathering is deck construction. Both beginning and experienced players enjoy finding new and fiendish ways to put abilities together. Here we show the basics at deck building (most of the info you can find over the web) used here as an easy way to find all the information. All the info that comes from other sites has its link at the end of the Primer. Enjoy !!
THE CHAPTERS
HAVE FOCUS
Set a focus to your deck, like "I want to drop Broodstar".
In order to fulfill your goal, you need to be entirely focused. If the goal of the deck is to get a Broodstar into play quickly, focus on that theme – add in more cards that can ensure you draw a Broodstar (such as Ponder, or Brainstorm); add in more acceleration, don't try to splash in other colors, and cut cards that don't help you achieve your goals (Bladed Pinions won't matter in that deck since Broodstar already has fly and with her fat body why we need first strike). Try running four-of the best cards in your deck, when possible. If Vapor Snag is important to your deck, run four of them. If you need better options for searching and renewing your hand, run a higher count on Ponder, and cut out cards like Crown of Ascension. Your Broodstar has fly and your deck possibly doesn't have Beast as the most common creature type.
Remember, once you decide a deck's goal, focus your deck on achieving that goal. The more focused your deck becomes, the more likely you are to have your deck perform as intended.
On the flip side, don't be a slave to your theme. Just because you're focusing on a certain theme does not mean that you have to include suboptimal cards to meet that theme.
A Chromescale Drake is a worse version of Broodstar; you don't need to run it in the deck, even if he has the theme of Affinity. A cheaper and earlier Frogmite will help more, since he helps Broodstar to come into play or can help with early defense.
First, there are three main types of strategies: aggro, combo, and control. The idea was that, very generally speaking, aggro lost to combo, which lost to control, which lost to aggro. That is basic.
Nowadays, our "Aggro → Control → Combo" chart looks a lot more like this: Aggro → Midrange → Ramp/Combo → Control/Disruptive Aggro
Aggro is your traditional "kill your opponent as quickly as possible using efficient creatures" kind of deck. It usually features potent attacking-based one-drops (Champion of the Parish and Jungle Lion) and a mana curve heavily weighted to the first several turns. Frequently, it will supplement its primary strategy with "range," or ways to end the game after its initial assault has been blunted.
Tips and builds for Aggro Decks
- Aggro decks plan to deal damage to an opponent until that opponent dies, generally ignoring their own life total completely.
- The majority of cards in an aggro deck should be able to kill the opponent.
- An aggro deck usually needs 8 to 12 one-drops and 8 to 12 two-drops.
- An aggro deck usually plays 23 or fewer lands or non-attacking mana sources.
- Cheap creatures played early will usually deal at least as much damage as your best burn spells.
- Aggro deck spells are damage/removal (Lightning Bolt), pump spells (Rancor/Brute Force) or Aggressive CA (Call of the Herd, Strangleroot Geist).
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Glimmervoid
4 Ornithopter
4 Frogmite
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Vault Skirge
4 Master of Etherium
2 Etched champion
2 Broodstar
4 Cranial Plating
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Skullclamp
2 Thoughtcast
10 Forest
Creatures 30
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Skyshroud Ridgeback
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Ghazban Ogre
4 Mtenda Lion
4 Nettle Sentinel
3 Rogue Elephant
3 Taunting Elf
4 Briar Shield
4 Giant Growth
4 Bequeathal
4 Rancor
4 Land Grant
Midrange (sometimes called Aggro-Control or Midrange Beatdown) tends to feature one-drops with abilities (Llanowar Elf) and early threats that are more defined by their resilience than by their raw size, speed, or power. These decks tend to be a turn slower than the aggro decks—although still reasonably fast—and oftentimes use Planeswalkers to generate advantage on the battlefield. They will sometimes use a few reactive cards to deal with key threats, but tend to be at a disadvantage if they draw too many of this type of card (and thus are unable to develop their board). Some midrange decks tend toward the aggressive end of the spectrum, and others toward control. What they hold in common is their focus on accumulating advantage on the battlefield itself, as opposed to gaining an advantage in raw resources (having a 4/4 versus a 2/1, as opposed to having two cards in hand versus a single card, for example).
Tips and builds for Midrange Decks
- Midrange decks plan to deal damage to an opponent until that opponent dies, but using more mana intensive cards.
- More 'fatties', less 'weenies'; you can't play a midrange deck without excellent fatties! Classic midrange creatures are Ravenous Baloth and Exalted Angel.
- Midrange decks sport relatively high mana curves. They contain spells for the early game that lead into cards included for the midgame. There's also relatively good incentive to play 'scaling' cards like Fireball that get better and better as the game progresses.
- Less than "Ramp", more than "Aggro", because of their high curves, midrange decks must reserve a healthy amount of deck slots to mana to effectively play their spells. You'll often find mana acceleration and mana sinks that somehow make effective use of all the spare mana midrange decks have lying around. These cards usually are 8 spots; they use 22-24 spots for lands.
- Midrange decks normally find one way or another to defend themselves, especially against aggro decks. Here you'll often find dedicated board control elements not unlike what you'd expect in a control deck, like Wall of Blossoms and Windborn Muse, and sometimes they run reset buttons like mass removal.
- Just remember the immortal words of one of midrange's biggest fans:
"It's the last fatty that kills you." – Jamie Wakefield
1 Kuldotha Phoenix
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Hero of Oxid Ridge
4 Perilous Myr
4 Artillerize
4 Galvanic Blast
Sorceries 4
4 Kuldotha Rebirth
Planeswalkers 2
2 Koth of the Hammer
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Panic Spellbomb
Lands 23
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
19 Mountain
6 Forest
1 Island
4 Plains
2 Selesnya Sanctuary
4 Temple Garden
1 Treva's Ruins
2 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Erhnam Djinn
2 Exalted Angel
1 Forgotten Ancient
1 Genesis
1 Glory
3 Lhurgoyf
1 Pristine Angel
2 Tradewind Rider
4 Vine Trellis
4 Yavimaya Elder
3 Armageddon
2 Serenity
4 Wave of Reckoning
Ramp decks tend to spend their early turns developing their mana advantage instead of deploying threats to the board. Because we've made a concerted effort to push more expensive spells, which requires us to expand the space of mana-costs that would ordinarily be considered playable—the return on a six-mana card tends to be better than that of two three-mana cards, three two-mana cards, etc. Moreover, it's typically easier to kill creatures than it is to disrupt mana-advantage spells. Taken together, what this means is that if a Ramp deck successfully ramps and an aggro deck successfully curves out, usually the Ramp deck will be at an advantage when the dust settles. The drawbacks, however, are twofold: First, Ramp decks are usually a little less consistent because the mana-acceleration can be disrupted. Second, they rely upon one or two threats to do a lot of work for them, so if those are countered or stripped out of their hand, they usually run out of gas.
Tips and builds for Ramp Decks
- The ramp decks abuses the mana advantage from ramping cards such as Birds of Paradise, Solemn Simulacrum, Fertile Ground, Rampant Growth and Wayfarer's Bauble in place of early threats. These cards usually are 12 spots, also they use 23-24 spot for lands.
- The utilities, spot and mass removal are beteween 8-12 slots. Some spells used here are Terminate, Mana Leak and Primal Command. You can find one or two bombs too like Banefire and Violent Ultimatum.
- The creatures, in general, stay in 12-16 slots, here you can find some creatures that can survive from spot or mass removal like Kitchen Finks, Chameleon Colossus and Troll Ascetic. The other creatures are our bombs too, like Craterhoof Behemoth or Primeval Titan.
2 Plains
14 Forest
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
Creatures 24
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Archdruid
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Craterhoof Behemoth
3 Primeval Titan
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Soul of the Harvest
4 Fertile Ground
4 Primal Surge
2 Rites of Flourishing
2 Shrine of Boundless Growth
Combo are most of time powerful engines that end the game quickly and consistently. We also can use this term to refer to decks that attack your meta at odd angles. For classic combos you can see the Dragonstorm decks. Good examples from the "odd angles" would be the Open the Vaults deck from a few years back, or Team StarCity Black's Invisible Stalker deck at Pro Tour Avacyn Restored. Ideally, we aim for strategies that have severe weaknesses, assuming everyone is gunning for them, but can take advantages of holes in the metagame to really storm a particular tournament or meta.
Tips and builds for Combo Decks
- Firstly, you must find the combination of the cards that will be a "combo." Suppose you are building a racing car. This process is likened to the assembly of an engine. No car will move without an engine. Some samples are Tinker + Blightsteel Colossus or Stuffy Doll + Guilty Conscience.
- You need fuel for your engine, like mana ramp to combo faster. The Dragonstorm combo works with that, casting spells like Lotus Bloom and Rite of Flame.
- Another point is how you protect your combo, its like the "body" of your racing car, if body is weak, your engine falls. Cards that help to defend your combo are used in control decks or disruptive decks like Gigadrowse or Duress.
- Now you need a key to turn on the car, the draw and tutor cards are that, these cards search your deck for the combo piece. Idyllic Tutor, Ponder, Fabricate are some cards for that job.
2 Academy Ruins
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Kuldotha Forgemaster
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Blightsteel Colossus
Support 32
3 Noxious Revival
4 Tinker
3 Assert Authority
4 Mana Leak
3 Dispatch
3 Vapor Snag
4 Thoughtcast
4 Wrath of God
4 Brainstorm
1 Calciform Pools
1 Dreadship Reef
8 Island
4 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Hunted Dragon
Support 32
4 Dragonstorm
4 Gigadrowse
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Remand
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Telling Time
Control means more or less exactly what it sounds like. These decks attempt to accumulate resource advantage, contain threats, and run opponents out of options. Typically—though not always—they end the game with the very same threats midrange or ramp decks use. The difference is that they're not focused on getting those threats out as soon as they possibly can. Instead, they use them to mop up a game they've already secured and stabilized. Alternatively, the large threat itself can be used as a tool to stabilize, either by virtue of its size or its ability to remove threats.
Tips and builds for Control Decks
- Erases them at a reduced cost. Whether this means killing a multitude of creatures with one spell like a Wrath of God or Earthquake, using a relatively cheap Cancel to stop an expensive spell like Akroma, Angel of Wrath.
- Doesn’t play threats to be answered. The control deck is so robustly dedicated to reactive spells that it can go without playing early creatures and other proactive spells.
- Disrupts synergies. Even if they don’t deal with every spell you play directly, they can leave out whichever ones don’t stand well on their own and still be in good shape. The most extreme example of this is a creature enchantment that might never need attention if you can’t make a creature stick.
- Drags the game out past your preparations. A Savannah Lions is a fine spell in the first few turns of a game, but on turn ten, when you have more than just a few lands, it will be a disappointing draw.
2 Academy Ruins
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Ancient Den
4 Glimmervoid
2 Darksteel Citadel
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Master of Etherium
2 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Etched champion
Support 28
4 Assert Authority
4 Mana Leak
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Dispatch
4 Vapor Snag
4 Thoughtcast
2 Evacuation
2 Wrath of God
4 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
9 Plains
2 Celestial Colonnade
Creatures 4
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2 Azorius Signet
4 Cancel
3 Disenchant
4 Counterspell
4 Ponder
4 Mana Leak
3 Porphyry Nodes
4 Path to Exile
4 Wrath of God
Finally, we use the term Disruptive Aggro to describe decks that either (Control-Combo or Midrange Control) deploy a powerful threat and protect it long enough to end the game, or (Aggro-Control) couple pressure from resilient threats with removal, discard, and countermagic such that the opponent can never really get his or her game plan off the ground. These differ from Midrange Beatdown decks in that they usually contain far fewer threats, focusing on those that either hit the hardest or are the most difficult to remove. They usually goldfish slower than Midrange, too, but tend to be less vulnerable to the strategies that attack the battlefield (mass removal, for example).
Tips and builds for Disruptive Decks
- The Disruptive decks exploit the other decks' focus on one particular threat by targeting that threat and leaving those decks unable to function, with that we can disable the decks. Here we can see the classic counters, disrupt and spot removals, sometimes we can find a mass removal. Duress, Mana Leak and Pernicious Deed are some cards we can find in these decks.
- Efficient at all costs !! Doesn’t play threats to be answered. Your creatures should be a pain in the field or at least give to you enough advantage, disruptive decks runs more creatures that do something when they hit the battlefield, and less "Aggro" creatures than Beatdown. Here we can include Eternal Witness, Gaterkeeper of Malakir, Phyrexian Metamorph or Vendilion Clique.
- Disruptive decks normally find one way or another to defend themselves, but most of your creatures try to give a disavantage for the other decks. Here you'll often find dedicated board control elements not unlike what you'd expect in a control deck, but a more aggressive kind of control. Like Phyrexian Obliterator and Vampire Nighthawk, Wurmcoil Engine and Inferno Titan.
2 Abyssal Persecutor
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Gatekeeper Of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Dismember
2 Go For The Throat
4 Hymn To Tourach
4 Innocent Blood
4 Duress
2 Sign in Blood
2 Liliana of the Veil
Lands 20
14 Swamp
4 Strip Mine
2 Bojuka Bog
2 Trygon Predator
2 Qasali Pridemages
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Rhox War Monk
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
Planeswalkers 2
2 Jace Beleren
4 Mana Leak
4 Condemn
4 Counterspell
4 Vapor Snag
4 Brainstorm
Lands 24
3 Hinterland Harbor
3 Sunpetal Grove
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Plains
3 Island
3 Forest
2 Seaside Citadel
2 Celestial Colonnade
2 Strip Mine
We can find other definitions for BREAD, since the term is used for Draft, but we can use that term for our help, lets see:
- Bombs
- Removal
- Efficiency/Evasion
- Advantage
- Dregs/Dudes
- Bombs
Bombs are our Finishers, "Deal with me or lose" cards, our win conditions, most of decks should use at least two finishers and one alternate win condition, think about a (R/G) aggro deck, the bomb is our best creature, a Troll Ascetic, if you put a single Banefire on that deck, your chance of draw is reduced and when your deck was running out of gas you have a alternative bomb. The Three Cornerstones of a “Bomb” card: Effect on Gameplay, Cost, and Efficiency.
Here are some other examples of a bomb: Sword of Fire and Ice, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Angel of Despair, Simic Sky Swallower, Pernicious Deed.
- Removal
Removal is anything that can disable or remove permanents in play (such as Doom Blade, Faith's Fetters and/or Man-O'-War). While you may not think of something like Man-O'-War as removal, they clear the path for your creatures and buy you time to find an answer to whatever creatures your opponent is threatening you with.
- Efficiency/Evasion
Efficient Spells are those that work in conjunction to help you win the game. The combo of Peel From Reality and Izzet Chronarch is great - but Peel from Reality is still a great card without the Chronarch hanging around.
Drake Familiar had an interesting aura-based archetype, think about Reality Acid or Oblivion Ring - cards that are great/fun on their own merit, but amazing with the Familiar. For aggro decks we can say that about the aggro creatures like Jungle Lion, also we can find the evasion creatures too, evasion is an ability of a creature that improves its chances of damaging the defending player by restricting which creatures can block it like Silhana Ledgewalker. Trample, fly, protection and others are good evasion ability.
- Advantage
Advantage (most of times Card Advantage or CA) is one of the most misunderstood terms in Magic, so let's start with a simple definition:
"If a sequence of plays (or decisions) ends with a player up one or more cards, that player has gained card advantage."
Simple enough, right? Now let's take a look at some real-life examples of card advantage. The basic draw cards are pure advantage like Ponder, Brainstorm or Sign in Blood. Some cards are in that category and also on above items:
Something like Slice in Twain is an obvious source of card advantage and removal. You get to destroy one of your opponent's cards and draw a card.
Similarly, Phyrexian Rager allows you to impact the board and replace itself. Once again, we've identified a source of card advantage.
- Dudes/Dregs
The D stands for Dudes which is Magic Slang for creatures. Basically it means if you have nothing of the former categories anymore than fill up your slots with creatures - because those ususally still can attack or block and have some use.
So it means, its better to put that Hill Giant into your deck if you still need cards because it can A: help you get to your other cards by being some kind of obstacle or B: even win you a game as its the only thing you have at hand to beat down somebody skrewed or to push in the final 2 damage. From the other side there are Dregs what is slang for bad cards.
Check Street Savvy, dont replace himself, if the enchanted creature dies its 2-1, have only defensive bonus and conditional defensive ability. You dont need that kind of cards, even if the focus of your deck is Auras !! Like said in the first part, you should run a "dude" over a "dreg" card.
The "mana curve" is the application of mana optimization theory to deck construction. By organizing the cards that are to go into a deck by their casting cost, a player can see how likely a player is to optimally utilize each turn's mana (i.e., to play a card or cards with a casting cost or costs with a total equal to the mana available on that turn).
As a general rule of thumb, the higher the mana-cost, the more powerful the effect. You're going to get more out of Decree of Pain or Plague Wind than you are out of Terror or Rend Flesh. However, if your deck runs too many high-cost cards, you run the risk of being unable to cast any spells before you get run over. You need to make sure that your deck is capable of either casting spells all throughout the game, or surviving until late enough to cast your business spells.
- Bigger versus Better
Every new set has in it some cards that are incredibly powerful but not necessarily useful. Decree of Pain or Plague Wind are a great example of this. They grabbed the attention of many players... but only until they saw the casting costs.
While these cards definitely have some awesome effects, having more than one or two of them in your deck spells an almost certain loss. While you're sitting there waiting for enough mana to play your killer spells, your opponent is beating you down with a Grizzly Bears. That's where the idea of a mana curve comes in. It is sometimes better to play with less-powerful spells just so you will be able to play something early in the game.
- How It Looks
The rule for the mana curve is to be able to play a spell every turn, rather than waiting for several turns before you really begin the game. For most deck types, it is desirable to have a few one casting cost spells, a few more two casting cost spells, several spells that cost three to five mana, and then only a few that cost more than that. If you do that it would look something like this sample:
00
01 *******
02 **********
03 *********
04 ******
05 ****
06 **
07
08
09
9+
The numbers at left show the mana costs of spells in the deck, and the * on the right show how many spells of each cost are in the deck. For example, in this sample there are ten spells that cost 2 and two spells that cost 6. The avg cost is 2,7 and show us that we are in the "several spells that cost three to five".
- But that is the Good Mana Curve ?
There is no hard and fast rule for what a mana curve should look like. While the one shown above may be good for many decks, there are some decks that will have a totally different mana curve and will still work just fine. In some decks, it may actually be good to have four Broodstar (like Affinity, since the deck has a theme to reduce the cost of the high mana cards). But, regardless of what type of deck it is, the mana curve is a very important part of deck-building that should not be forgotten.
In general we can think of there being three typical mana curves: low, medium, and high. In practice there's a huge amount of variation but at minimum we can categorize any mana curve into these ranges.
Example of a low mana curve:
CMC 1: 8-12
CMC 2: 8-12
CMC 3: 4-6
CMC 4: 2-4
CMC 5+: probably none, maybe 1-3
Example of a medium mana curve:
CMC 1: 0-4
CMC 2: 8-12
CMC 3: 6-8
CMC 4: 4-6
CMC 5 or 6: 4-6
CMC 7+: probably none, maybe 1 or 2
Example of a high mana curve:
CMC 1: 0-4
CMC 2: 6-10
CMC 3: 4-6
CMC 4: 4-6
CMC 5: 3-5
CMC 6 or 7: 3-5
CMC 8+: probably none
Most aggro decks have low mana curves, most control decks have high mana curves, most ramp decks have high mana curves. alot of decks end up with medium mana curves just because its fairly consistent. some decks are called midrange for no reason other then they have a medium mana curve. Here's a very basic rule of thumb for assigning land count to your deck. 24 lands is the default number for medium mana curve decks. If your deck has a low mana curve you can justify playing fewer then 24 lands. 22 works for most aggro decks. A very slim one (with lots of 1 drops) can get away with 20 or 21. If your deck plays fewer then 20 lands it has to have a curve that is lower than low. Lots of free spells, maybe a mana cheating mechanic. If your deck has a high mana curve you definitely need more then 24 lands. 26 is the most typical number for control decks. Ramp decks often play as many as 27.
The mana base in your deck serves a very important purpose – it enables you to cast your spells for the game. Without a good mana base, your deck will not perform and you will be locked with your spells.
- Mana Screw (Not Enough Mana)
Make sure you deck has enough lands and mana sources to support the spells you want to cast. There is a huge temptation to try to cut lands to get more spells into your deck, but this makes the deck prone to getting mana screwed. Imagine running a deck with sixty good spells and no lands – you'd lose every game! Sure, your draw would look amazing each game – but without the ability to cast any cards in your hand, it'd be over for you.
- Mana Flood
The flip side of not enough mana sources is too many mana sources.
Too much mana will limit your options in the deck, and will subject you to mana glutting later in the game. There's a real temptation to stuff your deck with too much mana, especially if you're paranoid about not being able to cast your spells each game. However, just like in the deck with too little mana, having too much mana will seriously impact your chances to win the game. If you're going to run twenty-eight lands in a sixty-ish card deck, have a good reason for it – such as running a Genju deck and expect the lands to die, or playing a control deck where you can reasonably expect to win if you hit your land drop each and every turn. If you're running an aggressive deck with a low curve and no use for excess lands, cut down the lands in your deck until you reach a more comfortable number – usually 21-23. In this deck's case, I'd add in more creatures and/or burn spells in place of the extra 5-7 lands.
- Where Is My Color
The last case involves having too few colored lands in your deck. Imagine a (U/B) control deck.
Make sure that the colored mana in your deck can support the spells you have in your deck. This can be helped through mana-fixing, as well as diversifying your mana base. Divide your colored lands equally to the proportion of mana symbols in your deck. What I mean by this is that if your deck has more blue symbols than other color, you should run more islands (or blue mana sources). We also know that we will want to cast our removal/support spells early, so we will need to have one black mana on the board to do this. Therefore, instead of playing 17 Islands and 5 Swamps, I would actually run 15 Islands and 7 Swamps, thus erring towards the middle and playing slightly more of the underrepresented color. One additional note on this specific build is that we might be playing one or two more land than is actually required by the deck. This is something you would typically discover by playing this deck against others and learning what minor tweaks should be made in the deck's design. If you can get some lands or mana sources that can produce more than one color like Dimir Aqueduct. Another hint is to find easy splash cards like Doom Blade over a heavy color Geth's Verdict.
Ok now we have all the cards we need. That part works like the Focus item. It's tempting to try to cram as many cards as possible into your deck. However, the further you go past sixty cards, the less chance you have of drawing any one particular card in your deck. You can only have four of any given non-basic land card in your deck (please, no talk of Relentless Rats), and the further you get from sixty cards, the less chance you have of seeing these cards.
Let's say you're running four Shocks in a deck.
In a sixty-card deck, Shock will be one out of every fifteen cards.
In an eighty-card deck, Shock will be one out of every twenty cards.
In a one-hundred-card deck, Shock will be one out of every twenty-five cards.
In a sixty-card deck, you have pretty decent odds of seeing Shock before the game is over. It's not guaranteed that you'll see a Shock, but your odds are much better than if you're packing one-hundred cards.
- And how we cut cards until we get 60 ?
Remember the Mana Screw tip ?? You're doomed if you don't get your lands or other mana-cards, but you're not better if you only get mana and no Creatures or other Spells. It has to be balanced. You should have a little more than 1/3 of your deck as mana.
The balance between the number of Creatures and other spells varies from deck to deck. BUT you always need creatures and enough. You need Sorceries, Instants and others to destroy opponent's life and creatures, getting card control, enhancing you creatures and more. But Creatures are there to defend you from your opponent's creatures, attack your opponent and can be sacrificed for other spells. Keep them balanced. Most people have more creatures then Spells in their deck.
The basic is to walk again to all of the topics in that thread, but, with more focus !!
Think about the 1/3 or 20/20/20 body (20 lands, 20 creatures, 20 spells/others), we know that the mana, most of the time, should be 22-24, so now we have ~36 cards for creatures and spells, you can choose 18/18 (now the body is 24/18/18), check what archetype you choose, increase the spells if you are control, increase the creatures if you are aggro. If you choose a mono-color deck or/and have low mana curve, you can change the lands to 22 too.
- What about "4of" ?
Increase your best spells to 4, drop the weak ones, keep in mind that isnt a rule, think like that:
Shock vs Lightning Bolt - in that case, Lightning Bolt is better in anycase.
Doom Blade vs Terror vs Grasp of Darkness - here, we know the worst one is Terror, and what about Blade and Grasp ? If you are a control deck, you can mix both, just care about the BB that Grasp needs, if you run more than one color, Blade can be better since has easy splash.
I hope that primer help the new players and give some tips for the old ones, also if you guys have other topics to include here please post and i will include.
Help Links
http://www.onlinewebpage.com/simplelandcalc/ - Simple Basic Land Calculator
http://deckstats.net/ - Simple Deck Analisys
Links with the original text/information used for that primer:
http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/3
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/bb62
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/207
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/li/174
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=346315
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~kel/MTG/
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/12549_Learning_How_To_Draft.html
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/3692_Whos_The_Beatdown.html
http://manabasecrafter.com/
http://www.firebrandcreations.net/Papercraft/Deck%20Box/DeckBox.htm
Deck Building Primer - Casual
Sliver Primer - Casual Share your tips with us !!
Want To Buy List Please Check !!
Now Playing:
Excaliboros R(R/W)W / Maverick G(G/W)W
Bant Pro Excalibur (G/U)W(G/U) / Merfolk (W/U)U(U/B)
Thanks to GR @ Yavin IV Studios for the signature!
22 Forest
Creatures
2 Taunting Elf
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Spore Frog
2 Overgrown Battlement
2 Wirewood Elf
1 Vine Trellis
1 Garruk's Companion
3 Wirewood Savage
2 Leatherback Baloth
1 Fierce Empath
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Korosan Vorine
1 Snarling Undorak
1 Fangreen Hunter
4 Vigor
2 Rampaging Baloths
1 Needleshot Gourna
1 Venomsprout Brackus
1 Korosan Groundshaker
2 Fog
1 Rancor
1 Primal Rage
1 Beastmaster Ascension
1 Gravity Well
1 Overrun
Plainswalker
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=400583
also you can use the ramp tips from deck building primer
Deck Building Primer - Casual
Sliver Primer - Casual Share your tips with us !!
Want To Buy List Please Check !!
Now Playing:
Excaliboros R(R/W)W / Maverick G(G/W)W
Bant Pro Excalibur (G/U)W(G/U) / Merfolk (W/U)U(U/B)
In particular, the D (Dregs/Dudes) portion, while apt for limited, is awful advice for constructed deckbuilding.
Deck Building Primer - Casual
Sliver Primer - Casual Share your tips with us !!
Want To Buy List Please Check !!
Now Playing:
Excaliboros R(R/W)W / Maverick G(G/W)W
Bant Pro Excalibur (G/U)W(G/U) / Merfolk (W/U)U(U/B)
Ponder and Brainstorm do not offer card advantage. They trade 1 for 1 and give you card quality, but no advantage. (Amongst others, as brainstorm has also discard protection and the potential to cycle unwanted cards when combined with shuffling). Better expamples would be Harmonize, Ancestral Vision and Hypnotic Specter. I would change the definition into 'ends with a player up one or more extra cards'
Next to 'pure' card advantage, there is also 'matchup' card advantage.
This is advantage that is derived from matching up your spells against the spells of your opponent.
For example:
It is good to be aware of this in deckbuilding too.
This is why I don't like to play decks with four artifacts/enchantments because they match up perfectly against opponents with four disenchants/naturalizes/etc.
In my opinion, playing significantly less or more of card types that (you expect) your opponent can handle is a step towards 'matchup' card advantage and good deckbuilding advice.
Another aspect of card advantage is avoiding card disadvantage. I know this sounds very trivial, but it is a concept that is worth mentioning explicitly to new players. Aura's carry a big risk of becoming card disadvantage as the target of your aura might be removed in response to casting the aura. Spined Fluke and Lotus Petal are other examples of card disadvantage. (This doesn't mean that they are bad cards, btw.)
I like the inclusion of 'who's the beatdown', one of the essential articles in the history of MtG...
These are the decks that I have constructed, and are ready to play:
01. Ankh Sligh to be exact.