I'm relatively new to magic (only been playing since innastrad). I mainly draft but piece together stuff I get from the drafts to make a coherent standard deck (once I get bored of the draft format) from the archetypes I've found by drafting and the cards I found most fun.
Standard seems to be about making your deck do one thing (maybe an additional small thing as well) and support that one thing to the best of your ability. If you try to cram more things into a deck it gets diluted somewhat and less consistent. Wizards typically puts these type of build around cards at uncommon so pick one of those with an ability you like and go for it.
You can also just take a look around and see what everyone else came up with and then change a few cards to ones you like an make it your own. Over time you'll figure out what you like and what typically works.
Also if your going to spend money typically the best way to improve a deck is to get the lands that support it, if it is a devotion deck you don't have to worry about that too much I suppose.
Guess this is my best top deck(s) in a while. I'm playing Izzet against a G/W deck. I've been burning the creatures I can but I'm at 10 he is at 12. Opponent plays his last card Scion of Vitu-Ghazi and now has 2 bird tokens, and a Voice of Resurgence. I've got Guttersnipe out, cast Goblin Electromancer and my last card Inaction injunction on the scion drawing a land but taking him to 10. He attacks me down to 6 with the tokens and "unblockable" Voice leaving mana open and one card in hand (probably Advent of the Wurm). I draw traitorous instinct, awesome!! Cast it on the Scion making it a 6/4 and guttersnipe takes him to 8 and attack with all for 10. He flashes in Boon Satyr and has to block the scion to not die and goes to 4 and gets 2 for 1'ed off a Traitorous Instinct of all cards. He draws and doesn't do anything and I draw lightning strike to burn him out.
I'd have to agree with Nev here. If we are living in a world where MoC is sitting on the battlefield for a turn or two and doesn't get removed you don't need rogues passage to get him through. Why not something like madcap skills that costs 2 instead of the 5 mana activation on passage to allow you the open mana to burn them out the same turn. Chances are they only have one blocker anyway and if they have more, the combo of deathtouch and first strike wipes their board if they are trying to prevent MoC from getting in plus madcap can help your other guys get more damage in earlier too.
I will say this, I play on MTGO a lot and the meta is pretty all over the place. The decks I'm familiar with I can dominate but others are much more difficult. There is a few variations of WW Heroics I've seen running around. I've seen WB, WR, and WG variants. The most troublesome card I've come across is Favored Hoplite. The protection aspect makes it extremely hard to deal with. It even stops Anger of the Gods. The only way to remove it is to do so while they are tapped out which really hurts the instant speed plan of this deck because that often means using your removal on your turn. Its also very easy for them to simply grow Heroic cards out of burn range for things like Shock and Izzet Charm and if you aren't quick about it even Lightning Strike and Mizzium Mortars. You can't even solve the problem by countering the buff spell because Heroic needs only be targeted, not resolved. I feel like most of the time in these situations we need Supreme Verdict or something. It comes down to a race situation and I'm not sure that's one we can win against WW. I feel like the deck needs another threat or just another creature in general.
How about mindsparker. Its not that slow and can help race by adding damage if they are casting white spells to protect their hoplite. Overloaded
blusersquall doesn't target/damage so gets around protection and can set them back a turn.
I don't play standard much competitively but I just love this deck and play it against "real decks" at the store in between drafts and just beat face out of nowhere. This is my version of the deck but I love how many different versions there are and how diversified the threats are.
I went for more of a draw burn strategy with a combo win con of Teleportal/Dynacharge/Blustersquall to go along with the G-Snipe and Spellheart win cons.
It can handle larger creature deck pretty well by just flat out stealing them or detaining them, and since it plays electromancer mizzium mortars can come down turn 5 or sooner. I'm thinking of bringing in Catch//Release for stealing because if you can toss one of those to a blast of genius your dealing 9 and drawing 2 cards. I'll probably want another steam augury to replace a thoughtflare eventually.
If you can get to 5 lands (and with the card draw it's pretty easy) you can start casting 2-3 spells per turn / or your haymakers because of electromancer.
Still working on the side board but my thinking is against boardwipes and removal heavy decks I'd pull out pyromancer/dynacharge package and replace it with more control/counter spells. For control take out the expensive stuff and threatens for more burn and stormbreath dragon and such. Probably Curse of Swine for devotion type decks.
Is this the strongest verison of the deck... no but it is fun if you like thinking on the fly, frustrating opponents and making something out of nothing this is good for that. Obviously I can improve my land base, but it actually isn't much of a problem so far.
What is the outcome if you play a threaten effect using quicken or Hypersonic dragon in response to a monstrous trigger. Does the trigger fizzle? If not who gets the added ability of the monstrous trigger the owner or the new controller?
Also can you steal control of a god card if you won't have the devotion to maintain it's creature status?
Tossing a thoughtflair or turn//burn to blast of genius is pretty big game.
In my experience you can typically cast it for 5 with the electromancer so it's like an improved prophetic bolt and you can typically get there with just 23 lands.
If you want to break blast of genius you need to run things like enter the infinite and the like but you don't need to break the card for it to be good.
I understand the importance of lands in a deck, but my deck wants to cast spells... lots of them... and would be nice to have more burn for aggro match ups.
I have card draw in the form of cantrips and filtering in the 1-2 cost range, then big card draw spells in the 4-5-6 range. I play goblin electromancer to reduce the cost of these so if I get to five I'm usually off an running and find I'm typically ditching lands to thoughtflare/izzet charm and the like.
So I guess what I'm hearing is it is a case by case basis and have to experiment a bit and there is no typical guideline.
Edit...
Trying to keep the conversation to general practice instead of deck help, but I'm currently running 23 lands, thinking I can go to 22.
How many scry's do you need to play to ensure hitting your land drops. For instance if you are running 2 magma jets, can you cut a land to play the third? (assuming you can reliably get to 2 mana and use the scry to keep you hitting lands) Is there a rule of thumb or general best practice?
Extending your mana curve for Blast of Genius and Lava Axe is a bad idea, your curve dramatically drops then allowing you to run 2-3 less land (your land count was too high anyway).
I agree with some of this though I think Blast of Genius is playable as it draws cards and is not just burn and it just awesome with Guttersnipe and Goblin Electromancer.
First thing:
+4 Turn Burn. Can be a 2 for 1, electromancer reduces both halves, guttersnipe triggers off both sides. Worst case scenario it's removal in colours that don't get it.
Turn and burn doesn't get dropped by 2 off of one electromancer and doesn't do two guttersnipe triggers. It is one spell, but it is useful and you can toss it to the blast of genius for 5 damage.
I agree with all this from my experience. Though I don't know if you want to tap out for a large creature so maybe put a couple of these bigger guys in the sideboard
Syncopate/Disolve might be better counterspells and have Essence Scatter and Negate in your sideboard.
Steam Augury is your best draw spell available to you.
I put counter spells and bounce effects in the side board and main deck more burn spells as your creatures won't be that big so it will be hard to deal with bigger threats on you opponents side. This is why I use things like traitorous instinct and Inaction Injunction.
I've had a couple of lucky pulls in drafts and what not so those help but you don't really need Ral or the steam vents but Mizzium Mortars is pretty useful as you can often overload it. I haven't run it in FNM in a while but do play it against some other people's decks and it holds it's own as it can steal threats or teleportal dynacharge for 10-15 out of no where. It is a bit weak to boardwipes so be careful not to over commit but it has a lot of card draw so you can keep your hand full while dealing 2. Once you start casting 2-3 spells a turn it gets crazy. Good luck and have fun with it, it's a blast to play.
I was lucky to be able to first pick it in my last draft, then passed 2 asps. 3-0 against 2 aggressive decks and even a slow control deck. Within 2 turns after playing it you should have a dominating board position. Draft defensive early plays and card draw/scry to get to it and you will be happy.
Just wondering why pick so many spells. It feels like you got a little side tracked with the heroic subtheme. 11 creatures doesn't seem optimal for a "Whip" deck. Double read the bones is good to find the whip or Erebos Emissary which at that point, it wouldn't mater what creatures you draw it becomes a good as it becomes a lifelinker or a pump spell. Looks like you could have picked up some Returned Centaurs over mediocre spells to stock your grave yard (or even potentially mill you opponent with 2 triggers from entering the battlefield) and is a decent blocker and wears an aura well.
I've found the cyclops to be very servicable, and found it is important to play 4 drops because the key to beating heroic decks I find is to just keep dropping bigger and bigger creatures until the run out of tricks as they won't be developing their board, only putting all their eggs in one basket. And just because you run monstrous creatures doesn't mean you don't have tricks also.
Have to agree with much of what was said above. Aggro was definitely a thing especially in White, so it seems key to put down blockers early. You may have to trade off your early creatures for their pump spells but since they won't be adding to the board they will quickly run out of steam and tricks and you can start dropping your larger guys and attack freely. I probably should have just run the helm over the splashed lampad but I just really like that card and it give my big guys evasion. People seem to underrate big vanilla creatures, so getting 10/11th pick Nisian Centaurs, Boarderland Minotaurs, or even an Ill-Tempered Cyclops was quite nice. Also the look on my opponents face when I droped the 3/7 centaur was quite amusing as there is really very little that can get through it. I was a little week to fliers which cost me two games but if I could get the asp down that shut down the skies pretty efficiently. Since removal is so narrow creatures are your best removal spells so picking an efficient creature or a premium pump spell seems like the way to go. I got a few 3-1's with coordinated assault which is amazing for R. The hasty mistcutter hydra is an absolute bomb, just wish I didn't have to pass a foil Hythonia the Cruel for it but I think it single handedly won me at least 2-3 games. Probably needed to draft another Leafcrown Dryad (passed 1 or 2), or a shreading winds for the sideboard.
Standard seems to be about making your deck do one thing (maybe an additional small thing as well) and support that one thing to the best of your ability. If you try to cram more things into a deck it gets diluted somewhat and less consistent. Wizards typically puts these type of build around cards at uncommon so pick one of those with an ability you like and go for it.
You can also just take a look around and see what everyone else came up with and then change a few cards to ones you like an make it your own. Over time you'll figure out what you like and what typically works.
Also if your going to spend money typically the best way to improve a deck is to get the lands that support it, if it is a devotion deck you don't have to worry about that too much I suppose.
How about mindsparker. Its not that slow and can help race by adding damage if they are casting white spells to protect their hoplite. Overloaded
blusersquall doesn't target/damage so gets around protection and can set them back a turn.
2 Traitorous Instinct
1 Steam Augury
2 Inaction Injunction
2 Izzet Charm
1 Quicken
1 Teleportal
2 Magma Jet
2 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Turn//Burn
2 Blast of Genius
1 Molten Birth
2 Thoughtflare
1 Blustersquall
1 Dynacharge
4 Goblin Electromancer
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Spellheart Chimera
1 Ral Zarek
9 Island
9 Mountain
1 Steam Vents
4 Izzet Guildgate
I went for more of a draw burn strategy with a combo win con of Teleportal/Dynacharge/Blustersquall to go along with the G-Snipe and Spellheart win cons.
It can handle larger creature deck pretty well by just flat out stealing them or detaining them, and since it plays electromancer mizzium mortars can come down turn 5 or sooner. I'm thinking of bringing in Catch//Release for stealing because if you can toss one of those to a blast of genius your dealing 9 and drawing 2 cards. I'll probably want another steam augury to replace a thoughtflare eventually.
If you can get to 5 lands (and with the card draw it's pretty easy) you can start casting 2-3 spells per turn / or your haymakers because of electromancer.
Still working on the side board but my thinking is against boardwipes and removal heavy decks I'd pull out pyromancer/dynacharge package and replace it with more control/counter spells. For control take out the expensive stuff and threatens for more burn and stormbreath dragon and such. Probably Curse of Swine for devotion type decks.
Is this the strongest verison of the deck... no but it is fun if you like thinking on the fly, frustrating opponents and making something out of nothing this is good for that. Obviously I can improve my land base, but it actually isn't much of a problem so far.
Also can you steal control of a god card if you won't have the devotion to maintain it's creature status?
In my experience you can typically cast it for 5 with the electromancer so it's like an improved prophetic bolt and you can typically get there with just 23 lands.
If you want to break blast of genius you need to run things like enter the infinite and the like but you don't need to break the card for it to be good.
I have card draw in the form of cantrips and filtering in the 1-2 cost range, then big card draw spells in the 4-5-6 range. I play goblin electromancer to reduce the cost of these so if I get to five I'm usually off an running and find I'm typically ditching lands to thoughtflare/izzet charm and the like.
So I guess what I'm hearing is it is a case by case basis and have to experiment a bit and there is no typical guideline.
Edit...
Trying to keep the conversation to general practice instead of deck help, but I'm currently running 23 lands, thinking I can go to 22.
I agree with some of this though I think Blast of Genius is playable as it draws cards and is not just burn and it just awesome with Guttersnipe and Goblin Electromancer.
Turn and burn doesn't get dropped by 2 off of one electromancer and doesn't do two guttersnipe triggers. It is one spell, but it is useful and you can toss it to the blast of genius for 5 damage.
I agree with all this from my experience. Though I don't know if you want to tap out for a large creature so maybe put a couple of these bigger guys in the sideboard
I put counter spells and bounce effects in the side board and main deck more burn spells as your creatures won't be that big so it will be hard to deal with bigger threats on you opponents side. This is why I use things like traitorous instinct and Inaction Injunction.
Below is my build of this type of deck
2 Traitorous Instinct
1 Steam Augury
2 Inaction Injunction
2 Izzet Charm
1 Quicken
1 Teleportal
2 Magma Jet
2 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Turn Burn
2 Blast of Genius
1 Molten Birth
2 Thoughtflare
1 Blustersquall
1 Dynacharge
4 Goblin Electromancer
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Spellheart Chimera
1 Ral Zarek
Land
9 Island
9 Mountain
1 Steam Vents
4 Izzet Guildgate
I've had a couple of lucky pulls in drafts and what not so those help but you don't really need Ral or the steam vents but Mizzium Mortars is pretty useful as you can often overload it. I haven't run it in FNM in a while but do play it against some other people's decks and it holds it's own as it can steal threats or teleportal dynacharge for 10-15 out of no where. It is a bit weak to boardwipes so be careful not to over commit but it has a lot of card draw so you can keep your hand full while dealing 2. Once you start casting 2-3 spells a turn it gets crazy. Good luck and have fun with it, it's a blast to play.
1 Magma Jet
1 Warriors' Lesson
1 Coorinated Assault
1 Time to Feed
1 Savage Surge
1 Traveler's Amulet
Creatures
2 Minotaur Skullcleaver
1 Rageblood Shaman
2 Borderland Minotaur
1 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Nessian Courser
2 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
1 Sedge Scorpion
1 Polis Crusher
1 Cavern Lampad
1 Pheres-Band Centaurs
1 Nessian Asp
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Leafcrown Dryad
8 Mountain
8 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Deathbellow Raider
1 Prowler's Helm
1 Portent of Betrayal
1 Karametra's Acolyte
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
Have to agree with much of what was said above. Aggro was definitely a thing especially in White, so it seems key to put down blockers early. You may have to trade off your early creatures for their pump spells but since they won't be adding to the board they will quickly run out of steam and tricks and you can start dropping your larger guys and attack freely. I probably should have just run the helm over the splashed lampad but I just really like that card and it give my big guys evasion. People seem to underrate big vanilla creatures, so getting 10/11th pick Nisian Centaurs, Boarderland Minotaurs, or even an Ill-Tempered Cyclops was quite nice. Also the look on my opponents face when I droped the 3/7 centaur was quite amusing as there is really very little that can get through it. I was a little week to fliers which cost me two games but if I could get the asp down that shut down the skies pretty efficiently. Since removal is so narrow creatures are your best removal spells so picking an efficient creature or a premium pump spell seems like the way to go. I got a few 3-1's with coordinated assault which is amazing for R. The hasty mistcutter hydra is an absolute bomb, just wish I didn't have to pass a foil Hythonia the Cruel for it but I think it single handedly won me at least 2-3 games. Probably needed to draft another Leafcrown Dryad (passed 1 or 2), or a shreading winds for the sideboard.