MTG Salvation

Greetings! So I have been playing MTG for a few Months, and I have been putting together some modern decks because I feel that standard is a bit restricting on Card selection,and also because I do not lik3 the Theros Block at all.

While playing with a few of my friends my decks stand up fairly well, even to those that have been collecting for a couple of years. I was thinking about how well some of the decks are constructed between myself and my friends one day and this made me really curious about what the Meta-game was like. So I Google search for a listing of the top few decks that people have been using and winning with and I was........confused to say the least.

Now, certainly I am fairly new to building decks, but see how these are made just didn't make sense to me. I usually make a deck out of a theme of some sort or an idea (ex. Mono-Blue "Nope", Control/Burn Izzet, Mono Red Dragons+Artifacts [By far one of my favorites and it works really well for me], etc). Seeing all of this new terminology, all of these cards that I have never heard of while also looking like complete junk to me, all of these special multi-lands that require the right cards at the right time to use to them to their full potential. All of it is completely alien to me and what I expected to look at, and these are the decks that are top tier currently.

So I guess I have a few questions that I would like to be answered:
1.Why is the Meta like this?
2.After looking at some of these decks, how do they really function?
3.Are Modern styled Meta-Game decks all that functional in a casual, at-home, group setting?
4.Have I been making my decks wrong? (Note: I know decks have their strengths and weaknesses, but am I making horribly inferior decks?)

I'd love to get a some answers. Not that I am anxious on how the decks I use perform, but getting better is always a step in progression.

Small note: In some games other than MTG; I am against most meta game/cookie cutter builds. This is usually due to it taking customization and personality out of the game.

Wow, this actually helps quite a bit. Not sure how to reply other than that this clarified a lot. I am a bit interesting in Tron concerning my Dragon+Artifacts deck because it seems like I should be going for something similar.

So yeah, awesome, Thanks

I would say most of your confusion comes from not understanding the combos in the decks. For instance casting the exarch he mentioned above at end of opponents turn and then enchanting it with splintertwin gives you infinite haste creatures possibly as early as turn 4. Pod uses Melira, Sylvok Outcast and kitchen finks and friends along with a sac outlet to gain infinite life or do infinite damage. Scapeshifting for Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and 6 mountains does 18 damage. Either a deck has to be able to win before these decks can or they need to play a ton of versatile removal spells like thoughtseize to stop the combo.

Quote from q_125 »

3. Yes and no. You would have to use your judgement on what cards are appropriate and not. The aforementioned Abrupt Decay and Spell Snare might not do much on a kitchen table, for instance.

I want to highlight this. In a way, modern is kind of a narrow meta that most good decks are tuned specifically to. My GW D&T deck might be an extreme case since it's a meta hate deck, but while I usually go 50/50 in a competitive setting, my deck can embarass me if I'm up against a casual/pauper deck. This is because I'm running cards like Leonin Arbiter and Linvala, Keeper of Silence that are very relevant against a lot of the top decks in modern, but might do absolutely nothing against your just-for-fun budget BR Goblins deck. It's very much a know your enemies format.