I am looking at making my first deck. My girlfriend likes to play and has let me use a couple of her decks and I figure it's about time I make my own.
I have enjoyed playing most decks so far I think aggro is more my style but control is very entertaining to me as well. I didn't love the heroic deck I played.
I've been reading different websites to learn as much as I can and I've watch some YouTube videos lol but I definitely don't have the skill to make my own deck yet.
Tldr
I've come up with two plans - with 60 bucks
Either I was going to buy the Theros and Born of Gods event decks for a bit under 40 and then use the extra 20 to upgrade those to make them better then I would also have two decks to use.
Or it seems like a lot of people just say build a deck from singles so with some help I could just build one deck that is good for 60 bucks.
What do y'all think? Any deck suggestions? I also have been looking through this forum and there are a lot of 10-30 dollar decks so I could just build like 3 of those... Are any of these decks going to be good enough to go to the card store with and play with other people? Or more for casual play?
Also I know new cards are coming out soon I know that affects some of the cards I can use. When does that actually happen? I'm not spending a ton so that's kind of ok to me unless the deck I build becomes useless next month or something.
WOW sorry that was so long too many questions for noobs in the game haha.
Well to be honest... Nope. Hers are kind of random she just looks at whatever cards she has found in boosters and builds whatever. I'm more the type to plan stuff out. After reading about how different decks play I think a more aggressive attacking style deck would be more my style. But control also would be fun if that's easier or cheaper to make because I imagine it makes the game longer and aggravates people which is fun.
I do know that her brother plays with black decks that deal with death touch and she says she can't ever beat him. But I think he spends hundreds on his decks so I probably wouldn't have a chance either. But it would be fun to make a deck that would be effective against that.
Maybe that would be better for my next deck when I want to spend more though.
No, you can kill that guy exclusively with the ten cent box if you know what you're doing and I don't mean by being a better player. I mean by having a better made deck. Aggro will be cheaper than control. What you need to know mostky boils down to the following.
Aggro must run fast.
Aggro does not run high mana cost cards.
Aggro is not afraid to lose a creature here and there if it furthers the goal efficiently.
Do not be afraid to trade creatures. (As a byproduct, this makes deathtouch a laugh)
You can aggro in any color but on the matter of keeping it simple and cheap, I'll suggest only single color decks. All except mono blue I will be listing filthy cheap versions for.
Now, mono blue devotion is going to be a bit pricier because it operates on the back of master of waves (a 5 dollar card) and thassa, god of the sea (an 8 dollar card). Without it, there wouldn't be much point in pursuing the deck. Jace, architect of thought is 5 bucks ish and is also good for the deck. Nightveil specter is good too but isn't a good use of budget. I adjusted this one for a high bident count, high number of evasive one drops. I figure that your best bet is drawing your way to master of waves and trying to bury the opponent in card advantage. This one might hit just a little above 60 bucks. I wouldn't really recommend this one on that budget but it can be done.
And all three of these are aggro decks just in different colors? So mostly you are trying to get out as many creatures as you can as quick as you can and kill them before they can do anything?
Can't look at each card yet until I get home... Well atleast easily. So ill prob have more questions soon. Some of the cards in the red deck sound familiar from when I was looking around at things yesterday.
I just threw out 5 different aggro decks, one for each color.
And yes, you're trying to blitz them before they can mount an effective defense. As far as deathtouch goes... I attack with lots of cheapo creatures. We trade one? Sure. I hit you for the rest. No big deal. Deathtouch is only somewhat meaningful when the opponent is unwilling to swing into it and trade something bigger for something cheaper. This is often caused by player inability to calculate whether the situation will improve by waiting and waiting for no good reason, resulting in some newer players overvaluing deathtouch. But instead of trying to teach you that cost analysis thing (not that hard, really but this will give the other guy a wakeup call), you can show him that deathtouch is meaningless when he has to consider that the most you paid for your stuff is maybe 2 or 3 mana and there's a whole hand more where they came from. So even if you guys trade, you're making gains and he'll run out of deathtouchers and life before you run out of creatures.
Is it best to attack with everyone often or always save some for defending? I still haven't had a chance to look at the non creature cards you picked. Plus that's a general question seeing that I've only actually played twice lol. But this aggro style sounds like a lot of fun
Is it best to attack with everyone often or always save some for defending? I still haven't had a chance to look at the non creature cards you picked. Plus that's a general question seeing that I've only actually played twice lol. But this aggro style sounds like a lot of fun
The best thing to do is put together one of these decks and play. You will figure out the balance of when to attack and when to hold back with experience.
I run a black aggro deck similar to the one that Nev posted. It is a lot of fun. All of the above would serve you well; pick the one you are closest to completing and start playing it.
Generally, you'll attack with one of the 4 following groups.
1. Everything.
2. Nothing.
3. Everything evasive.
4. Everything that they won't want to block.
But it is much simpler than that. You will almost always at least attack with everything that they can't profitably block or can't block at all. For the rest, ask yourself "If I did this, how much damage would get through and is that damage worth the cost of losing the creatures that would die?" Generally, you will not care about blocking and defending yoyrself. If they would hit you, hit back twice as hard. Lol. Just use your head. If the other guy has a 20/20 with no evasion, you want to make sure you can block. But more often than that, they won't attack anyway because they won't be able to kill you in one shot with their fatty while one of your creatures will die anyway as they block. So attackibg does nothing but make them take more. Keep the initiative and pin them down.
Ok I'm gonna look at them all and choose one to start building tonight and hit the store tomorrow. As for building the one I'm closest to these will actually be my first cards so I have to nab a bunch of lands and what not while I'm doing it.
Are they all pretty similar in how well they play? Or how well you think they will do? Or how would you rank them against each other?
They are all aggro but have their differences which you'll understand best by playing them. I would suggest white, red, or black for the starting budgeteer in no particular order.
I think the red and white decks both look like a lot of fun. So I think I will build both of them just so I have some variety. Even then they will be under my target budget building the two of them. Then after I have played a while I can try different types of decks.
How expensive is it to build a control deck? How about a poison counter deck?(not sure what people call these) I havent seen any of them use on of those and it sounds interesting.
Thanks a lot for your help. If you have other suggestions or tactics I will appreciate all the information I can get.
Control decks cost a lot more money, primarily (but not entirely) because of the land they use. Mono-colored aggro decks use good-ol' basic lands which are practically free.
Another option is to then take the best of the red and white deck, combine them and see how it goes. Boros (R/W) aggro is a solid strategy, so for a pretty small cost, you can have three decks to experiment, play and learn with.
Given how close we are to rotation and which control cards are good, I woukd suggest not doing the best control atm, uwx. Single color control isn't too feasibly efficient or good and you kinda want the dual colored lands for control. Poison counter decks have no cards in standard at the moment.
Ah to bad about the poison ones. I ended up grabbing a box of her cards she doesnt use and went through them and got lands and a bunch of the commons and a couple of the uncommon and rare ones. So that will make it easier.
She had a ton of those special lands that count as two different ones and what not but I dont need those I guess. I assume that is what you are talking about for the control deck though.
I think I will just work on the red, white, and black decks until all the new cards come out and then work on another deck.
I can always upgrade one of these 3 decks as I decide which one I like the most and put even better cards in it. She prob has some cards that would be considered upgrades I could use as well. But I am going to try them as you suggested first so I can learn lol. So much to take in with this game.
Thanks again. I am going to go hit the card store in about 45 minutes and try and pick the rest of the ones I need up.
Multicolor lands are helpful to aggro decks too. With them, you can increase your card pool of creatures and still be consistent. Thus you end up picking the best of two colors rather than just one. But unless you have all the standard ones, just go with mono color first.
Well my local shop had almost all the cards and they had them for about half as much as star city had them so I built all 3 of them haha and was still under budget.
I played a few games so far. I played the white one twice, the first time I was drawing way to many lands I ended up getting her down to 9 and then ran out of cards in my hand and couldn't get creatures out. Ones I did died quick and she killed me.
Second time it went perfectly pretty much I still felt like I was drawing to many lands but I got about 7 creatures out before they had one (3 player game). And then got that buff for +2 on creatures and finished them both off.
The red deck did not go well I was drawing to many lands again and no creatures. Guess it's a matter of luck if you draw creatures or land haha.
Is there anything I should do if it gets to far into the game and haven't killed em yet or should I just assume I'm gonna die cause I didn't go fast enough?
Generally you just want to move faster and plan ahead to max your chances. Admittedly, I did pad the land counts, figuring you were just starting and would not appreciate having to mulligan. For most budget players, I suggest they 1 or 2 less lands. Black and red can each play one fewer in favor of whatever else.
You should also keep in mind that these decks are made to kill one person, not a group. So in 3+ plarer games, your power will severely decrease.
Make sure that you shuffle well. Don't just indian shuffle. Use riffles and pile shuffles.
Would you say to keep the white deck with 21 lands? Also should I look to add more creatures or instants?\
Ha ya I tried the black today. It def plays different then the others. But I was playing in a group again so that probably affected it. I didnt realize how often they played in a group. So I pretty much picked someone and just blitzed them until they died and then I followed them quickly out lol... Good times still.
It depends on whethr you can stomach having to mulligan a bit but itis definitely stronger with 19 or 20. I pay 21 with the not so budget mutavault as 2 of the lands.
Aggro does have that issue in groups. What kinds of cards trash you that your friends play? I may be abe to give yu a better suggestion.
Well I usually get killed by everyone else attacking me cause I was attacking someone else haha. But I did get dominated by a card called mutilate that just killed everything and then I was out of cards at that point. I would probably do better if I didnt attack with so many cards everytime but it always seems like they have something that mass kills me if the game goes long enough so I figure I might as well attack em. Lots of plainswalkers and legendary creatures as well.... I usually killed one and 1/2 of them before I die when we were playing with 5 people.
in multiplayer it usually is better not to stand out too early. I remember my last 2 multiplayer games. I was playing a casual budget mono black zombie tribal: i was carefully watching everyone's life totals and only really targeting the life gain deck. Just building up a pitiful little group of wimpy zombies, while i creature cycled. I could have made big splashes with massive gouging but i kept it pretty low key. Only directing fire at the life gainer deck. Been holding a gray merchant of asphodel and keeping 2 zombies that cause life drain tied to the # of zombies on the field. Only one person was onto to me but he couldn't convince others to pick on me. That round on my turn i alpha striked plopping down my gray merchant of Asphodel which took out 3 of 4 of my opponents gaining me over 40 life. So By the time the life gainer flailed to make a play, i cycled two zombies dishing out 16 damage taking him out, with 2 more tap effect zombies that could do the same thing. In multiplayer games aggressive decks usually fall early, they focus too much on one target allowing the others to build up their field and cycle for answers, upon which they then gang up and crush the aggresser. It is usually better to wait for ur chance to take out the field than it is to go straight on the aggressive, since on turn 3-4 in a 5 player game( players have gone through more than 60 + cards for answers). One other reason is that it allows them to waste answers on opponents that come out with stronger more threatening positions.
Most standard decks are not very good in multiplayer since they are way too focused on damage/removal. Global effects that hit multiple players are the name of the game. Things like wrath of God, Overrun, Exsanguinate, master of waves, syphon mind. As for what is in standard, GR mid-range, black devotion, Blue devotion and uwx control and UW Heroic work decently. But if u really want some good standard decks i would go beyond the limits of standard, also many different multiplayer decks can be made on budget.
Ya I am going to play with these decks for a little bit but I think I will want to make another that might be more targeted towards group play soon.
What did you mean by not playing by standard limitations? I thought they were all using standard decks...
Not sure how it all works but I have been thinking about going to the Pre release event for the new M15 release. The sealed deck tournament sounds fun to me although I am sure I am going to be terrible at it haha. Is it usually worth going for the promo cards and what not? Is it a good idea to get a booster box when the new cards come out? I imagine the cards are worth quite a bit when they first come out.
What i mean is that standard decks trend to be best at 1v1 play, so if u want play well in multiplayer its best to look beyond standard to cards that have cycled out. Like for instance exsanguinate, one of my favorite and one of the best cards in multiplayer is pretty budget but is from 3 whole blocks back (~3 yrs old). There are exceptions, sometimes there will be available in standard some truly good Gems that will eventually make waves in multiplayer.
In this standard i believe the only truly good standard deck that comes close to multiplayer playable is Mono-Black Devotion, or mon black devotion-splash blue. I have won multiplayer games with this deck before, and it is all thanks to the integral Gray merchant of Asphodel it is like a mini exsanguinate, but is a bit limited in that u need to build a board full of BBBBBBBBB symbols. also RG monster does well if i admit in the classical way of beating peoples faces in.
Highly recommend u visit the casual multiplayer sub-forum for help on this and guides.
Pre-releases are fun, and perfect for beginners. I love going there to get the feel of the set and hanging out.
I have enjoyed playing most decks so far I think aggro is more my style but control is very entertaining to me as well. I didn't love the heroic deck I played.
I've been reading different websites to learn as much as I can and I've watch some YouTube videos lol but I definitely don't have the skill to make my own deck yet.
Tldr
I've come up with two plans - with 60 bucks
Either I was going to buy the Theros and Born of Gods event decks for a bit under 40 and then use the extra 20 to upgrade those to make them better then I would also have two decks to use.
Or it seems like a lot of people just say build a deck from singles so with some help I could just build one deck that is good for 60 bucks.
What do y'all think? Any deck suggestions? I also have been looking through this forum and there are a lot of 10-30 dollar decks so I could just build like 3 of those... Are any of these decks going to be good enough to go to the card store with and play with other people? Or more for casual play?
Also I know new cards are coming out soon I know that affects some of the cards I can use. When does that actually happen? I'm not spending a ton so that's kind of ok to me unless the deck I build becomes useless next month or something.
WOW sorry that was so long too many questions for noobs in the game haha.
Got any deck lists of what you've played before so I can give better tailored advice as far as specifics?
I do know that her brother plays with black decks that deal with death touch and she says she can't ever beat him. But I think he spends hundreds on his decks so I probably wouldn't have a chance either. But it would be fun to make a deck that would be effective against that.
Maybe that would be better for my next deck when I want to spend more though.
Aggro must run fast.
Aggro does not run high mana cost cards.
Aggro is not afraid to lose a creature here and there if it furthers the goal efficiently.
Do not be afraid to trade creatures. (As a byproduct, this makes deathtouch a laugh)
You can aggro in any color but on the matter of keeping it simple and cheap, I'll suggest only single color decks. All except mono blue I will be listing filthy cheap versions for.
4 judge's familiar
4 soldier of the pantheon
4 suntail hawk
4 boros elite.
2 dryad militant
4 imposing sovereign
2 daring skyjek
1 spear of heliod
1 hall of triumph
1 righteous charge
4 brave the elements
The most expensive cards in here are maybe 2 bucks. Most are 10 or 20 cents.
4 foundry-street denizen
4 firedrinkersatyr
4 legion loyalist
4 akroan crusader
4 ash zealot
2 rubblebelt maaka
1 lightning strike
4 titan's strength
4 dragon mantle
4 madcap skills
Ash zealot and legion loyalist are several bucks. The rest are cheap.
4 rakdos cackler
4 tormented hero
4 spiteful returned
4 pain seer
2 thrill-kill assassin
3 mogis' marauder
4 herald of torment
3 ultimate price
3 bile blight
2 boon of erebos
3 bucks ish for herald of torment, dollarish or less for the rest.
4 dryad militant
4 elvish mystic
4 kalonian tusker
4 burning-tree emissary
4 brush strider
1 swordwise centaur
3 boon satyr
4 reverent hunter
3 setessan tactics
2 ranger's guile
19 forest
Experiment one should be around 2 bucks. Boon satyr maybe just a shy bit cheaper. Everything else a dollar or less.
4 cloudfin raptor
4 triton shorestalker
4 hypnotic siren
4 frostburn weird
3 tidebender mage
3 thassa, god of the sea
4 master of waves
2 rapid hybridization
24 island
Now, mono blue devotion is going to be a bit pricier because it operates on the back of master of waves (a 5 dollar card) and thassa, god of the sea (an 8 dollar card). Without it, there wouldn't be much point in pursuing the deck. Jace, architect of thought is 5 bucks ish and is also good for the deck. Nightveil specter is good too but isn't a good use of budget. I adjusted this one for a high bident count, high number of evasive one drops. I figure that your best bet is drawing your way to master of waves and trying to bury the opponent in card advantage. This one might hit just a little above 60 bucks. I wouldn't really recommend this one on that budget but it can be done.
Can't look at each card yet until I get home... Well atleast easily. So ill prob have more questions soon. Some of the cards in the red deck sound familiar from when I was looking around at things yesterday.
And yes, you're trying to blitz them before they can mount an effective defense. As far as deathtouch goes... I attack with lots of cheapo creatures. We trade one? Sure. I hit you for the rest. No big deal. Deathtouch is only somewhat meaningful when the opponent is unwilling to swing into it and trade something bigger for something cheaper. This is often caused by player inability to calculate whether the situation will improve by waiting and waiting for no good reason, resulting in some newer players overvaluing deathtouch. But instead of trying to teach you that cost analysis thing (not that hard, really but this will give the other guy a wakeup call), you can show him that deathtouch is meaningless when he has to consider that the most you paid for your stuff is maybe 2 or 3 mana and there's a whole hand more where they came from. So even if you guys trade, you're making gains and he'll run out of deathtouchers and life before you run out of creatures.
The best thing to do is put together one of these decks and play. You will figure out the balance of when to attack and when to hold back with experience.
I run a black aggro deck similar to the one that Nev posted. It is a lot of fun. All of the above would serve you well; pick the one you are closest to completing and start playing it.
1. Everything.
2. Nothing.
3. Everything evasive.
4. Everything that they won't want to block.
But it is much simpler than that. You will almost always at least attack with everything that they can't profitably block or can't block at all. For the rest, ask yourself "If I did this, how much damage would get through and is that damage worth the cost of losing the creatures that would die?" Generally, you will not care about blocking and defending yoyrself. If they would hit you, hit back twice as hard. Lol. Just use your head. If the other guy has a 20/20 with no evasion, you want to make sure you can block. But more often than that, they won't attack anyway because they won't be able to kill you in one shot with their fatty while one of your creatures will die anyway as they block. So attackibg does nothing but make them take more. Keep the initiative and pin them down.
Are they all pretty similar in how well they play? Or how well you think they will do? Or how would you rank them against each other?
How expensive is it to build a control deck? How about a poison counter deck?(not sure what people call these) I havent seen any of them use on of those and it sounds interesting.
Thanks a lot for your help. If you have other suggestions or tactics I will appreciate all the information I can get.
Another option is to then take the best of the red and white deck, combine them and see how it goes. Boros (R/W) aggro is a solid strategy, so for a pretty small cost, you can have three decks to experiment, play and learn with.
She had a ton of those special lands that count as two different ones and what not but I dont need those I guess. I assume that is what you are talking about for the control deck though.
I think I will just work on the red, white, and black decks until all the new cards come out and then work on another deck.
I can always upgrade one of these 3 decks as I decide which one I like the most and put even better cards in it. She prob has some cards that would be considered upgrades I could use as well. But I am going to try them as you suggested first so I can learn lol. So much to take in with this game.
Thanks again. I am going to go hit the card store in about 45 minutes and try and pick the rest of the ones I need up.
I played a few games so far. I played the white one twice, the first time I was drawing way to many lands I ended up getting her down to 9 and then ran out of cards in my hand and couldn't get creatures out. Ones I did died quick and she killed me.
Second time it went perfectly pretty much I still felt like I was drawing to many lands but I got about 7 creatures out before they had one (3 player game). And then got that buff for +2 on creatures and finished them both off.
The red deck did not go well I was drawing to many lands again and no creatures. Guess it's a matter of luck if you draw creatures or land haha.
Is there anything I should do if it gets to far into the game and haven't killed em yet or should I just assume I'm gonna die cause I didn't go fast enough?
You should also keep in mind that these decks are made to kill one person, not a group. So in 3+ plarer games, your power will severely decrease.
Make sure that you shuffle well. Don't just indian shuffle. Use riffles and pile shuffles.
Ha ya I tried the black today. It def plays different then the others. But I was playing in a group again so that probably affected it. I didnt realize how often they played in a group. So I pretty much picked someone and just blitzed them until they died and then I followed them quickly out lol... Good times still.
Aggro does have that issue in groups. What kinds of cards trash you that your friends play? I may be abe to give yu a better suggestion.
Most standard decks are not very good in multiplayer since they are way too focused on damage/removal. Global effects that hit multiple players are the name of the game. Things like wrath of God, Overrun, Exsanguinate, master of waves, syphon mind. As for what is in standard, GR mid-range, black devotion, Blue devotion and uwx control and UW Heroic work decently. But if u really want some good standard decks i would go beyond the limits of standard, also many different multiplayer decks can be made on budget.
My Decks:
All my Decks are budget
EDH:GRWHazezon TamarGRW, RKazuul, Tyrant of the CliffsR, BMikaeus, the UnhallowedB, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GRXenagos, God of RevelsGR, BGPharika, God of AfflictionBG
Standard:BMono Black Control(devotion)B- retired
Casual:UWHeroicUW, UGWall tribalUG, BPhylactery LichB
Modern:UBAbyssal PersecutorUB, WKnight TribalW
What did you mean by not playing by standard limitations? I thought they were all using standard decks...
Not sure how it all works but I have been thinking about going to the Pre release event for the new M15 release. The sealed deck tournament sounds fun to me although I am sure I am going to be terrible at it haha. Is it usually worth going for the promo cards and what not? Is it a good idea to get a booster box when the new cards come out? I imagine the cards are worth quite a bit when they first come out.
In this standard i believe the only truly good standard deck that comes close to multiplayer playable is Mono-Black Devotion, or mon black devotion-splash blue. I have won multiplayer games with this deck before, and it is all thanks to the integral Gray merchant of Asphodel it is like a mini exsanguinate, but is a bit limited in that u need to build a board full of BBBBBBBBB symbols. also RG monster does well if i admit in the classical way of beating peoples faces in.
Highly recommend u visit the casual multiplayer sub-forum for help on this and guides.
Pre-releases are fun, and perfect for beginners. I love going there to get the feel of the set and hanging out.
My Decks:
All my Decks are budget
EDH:GRWHazezon TamarGRW, RKazuul, Tyrant of the CliffsR, BMikaeus, the UnhallowedB, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GRXenagos, God of RevelsGR, BGPharika, God of AfflictionBG
Standard:BMono Black Control(devotion)B- retired
Casual:UWHeroicUW, UGWall tribalUG, BPhylactery LichB
Modern:UBAbyssal PersecutorUB, WKnight TribalW