General Deck Advice, Read This First!

[AeroSigma]

This is a collection of standard deckbuilding advice that tends to get repeated here.  Go ahead and take a look through it before posting your deck for review.

I'll try to be adding new topics to this guide as they come up, so check back every so often!

PM me if there's something else you'd like to see in this guide.

Cheers!

DECK STRATEGY

You should really think about what your strategy is, and how each card works toward that. I see (pretty often) someone who has a bunch of dissimilar strategies (as in 4 mill cards, a little bit of discard, two or three agressive cards, a counterspell or two, one beater with infect.) Decks that lack in synergy like this are very hard to make work, many of these strategies need a big commitment in order to help you win the game.  For example, milling a few cards dosen't change your chances at all.  It's just as likely that his win-con is in the cards that you mill, as it is right beneath those and he get to draw it sooner!  However, if you can mill his entire deck, you win on his next draw, but you need to devote a lot of cards to the mill strategy in order to have enough to get there. Many strategies are the win-con, but not all.  It could be trying to stall out the game with Isochron Scepter and Dawn Charm or Angels Grace, but you'll need a way to end the game too, once they can't kill you.

DECK SYNERGY

Once you've focused on the base strategy, you also need to keep in mind all of the other parts of an interactive game.  Your list will probably do well with some supporting cards, rather than just a single minded card type.  Examples include removal, ramping, or some control to protect your creatures. On a per-card basis, consider if each card supports your strategy, or if some other effect would fit better. For example, Board Sweepers would work well with the Zubera, since there's synergy with killing your own creatures in that case.  Thus, in a Zubera strategy, you would want to run Damnation instead of Murder. Make sure that you don't have too many win-cons/beaters that will be dead cards cluttering your hand early to mid game.  You want enough to consistently have 1 or 2 by late game when you'd be casting it, but have the rest of your cards be control/tempo plays that will get you to that late game.  Having 14 finishers leaves you with too many in your hand when you can't cast them.

BETTER CARDS

Also, think about if another card could do it better.  Consider that what you're trying to do with Dismiss Into Dream is a one-sided board wipe, but it's expensive, and you need to combo it with other targeting spells or abilities.  Could something like Earthquake be enough, wiping the ground but leaving your fliers?  What about Mizzium Mortars, it costs 1 less to overload, doesn't need to combo with anything else and will wipe their side that has 4 or less toughness. Is that close enough for you to win the game? In competitive magic, efficiency matters a lot. At the same (low) cost, your spells need to do the most possible.  Even if Phyrexian Arena cost 1B, the same as Dark Confidant, it wouldn't get played since the 2/1 body on Dark Confidant can be useful, and you need to squeeze out every marginal advantage that you can.

CARD EVALUATION

It is natural for everyone to evaluate cards on first glance in their more-win senario.  Most people think that Vexing Devil looks great because if you're already in a good spot and control the battlefield, 4 extra damage is great!  So is another great beater!  The problem is that you're not always winning, and when you are, it doesn't really matter how good your top-deck is. Make sure that you look at a card in the other situations: you're both establishing the board position (early game), the board is locked down (tie,) or you're loosing (weak board state and lower life, etc.)  How will the card help you get from there to a win? For example, with Vexing Devil, when you're down on board position, top-decking and the opponent has a fair amount of health, the opponent will take 4 damage, which doesn't matter because you can't deal enough other damage to close out, and all you really need is another blocker. Marshall Sutcliff and Brian Wong, of the Limited Resources podcast has some great explanations of this, listen to LR #184. Sidenote- Vexing Devil can be pretty good in the right aggro deck, but only if the rest of the deck has enough synergy to make use of both modes.

MANA CURVE

Carefully consider your mana curve.  When you've got a lot of 6's, 7's, and 9's, it's going to be hard to cast those consistently without a fair amount of ramping (or at least, (much) more than the usual 24 lands.)  In competitive magic, especially tight eternal formats, mana cost is VERY important.  Getting things done even a single turn earlier matters, and is the reason we call these formats 'tight.' The best way to make sure your mana curve is good is to play with the deck!  Sometimes, the mana curve may be pretty high, but the 1 and 2 drops all have recursion;  it looks a little thin on the early game, but could end up working well.  The reviewers haven't played the deck, so they won't know for sure how odd mana configurations could work out.  If your deck uses a wierd mana curve, but you have a strategy for why you think it will be OK, be prepared to back it up with playtesting experience.

CARD COUNT

Make sure you get your deck down to 60 cards.  Every card over 60 is just one more draw step before you get what you need. *unless you're running Battle of Wits :p

CREATURE:SPELL BALANCE

Also, consider your creature/spell balance. Most (but not all!) decks are close to an even split.  I'm not saying that skewing this balance is wrong, some very good decks are almost all one or the other, all I'm saying is that you should be aware of this, and make sure that a significant departure from even is a conscious decision.  A creature heavy balance could very well work out for your deck, especially when combined with cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, or creatures with Battalion, but you're going to be a bit sparse on removal. It could be showing 24/13, but remember that cards like Lingering Souls, Gather the Townsfolk and Captain's Call all create creatures, so you could really be at 27/10.

LAND COUNT

The standard for a 60 card deck is 24 lands (just think 40% lands) and that's a good starting point for any deck.  Then, if you end up going aggro, with a mana curve that's all 4s and belows,  you can try cutting that down a land or 2.  If you're going control, you probably want 25 to increase your chances of having the land late game for your bombs.

CHEAP MANA BASES

The Bounce lands are pretty slow (though they do give you an extra land draw, essentially.)  Consider that.  Make sure you bounce a tapped land. The Alara 3-color taplands are also slow.  Normally I'd be okay with 1-of or 2-of in an otherwise fast deck, but thess will delay a stompy deck (ex. delay what would be a T5 3/3 Primordial Hydra to turn 6.) Depending on how competitive you want your deck to be, the slower pace of your lands is going to hurt. Consider the M10/Innistrad checklands (the ones that check to see if you already have the right basic land type out) which will be straight up dual-color-no-drawback lands as long as you draw and play any thing else (combos with the shock lands very well.) The filter lands (eg. Mystic Gate) will give you good color fixing, and can tap for colorless right away in a pinch. It can sometimes be very useful on T2 or T3 to tap for the off color for your basic, and use the filter to turn it into two on-color mana.

EXPENSIVE MANA BASES

In terms of more expensive cards, the first thing that comes to mind are dual lands.  The shock lands (Ex. Temple Garden)  are great, since you get to decide if you need that mana NOW and pay the two life, or if you're sitting pretty and can handle the delay.  These pair really well with the fetch lands, since you can tutor up the shock that will get you the color fixing that you need. The reason the Fetchlands and Shocklands are so expensive is because the fetchland/shockland combination works REALLY well.  If you're willing to go VERY expensive, go with the Revised Duals, like Bayou, straight up Dual Land, no drawback.  Legacy legal only.

NEW PLAYERS

As a new player, if you're needing more people to play with, find a local game store and start attending Friday Night Magic (FNM).  You'll get to practice playing and also meet other players, many of whom are willing to trade the cards you want to add to your deck for cards you're not using.  Scheduling and format varies from shop to shop.  Most shops have a website calendar that they'll post it on, but you're best bet is to just call them up and ask what they're doing for FNM this week. You chould also think about joining an online trading site, such as MOTL.

BEING COMPETETIVE

Netdecking Once you know what format you'll be playing at the tournies (Standard, Modern, etc.) if you want to be competitive, look online for winning decks in that format.  Check out mtgtop8.com which collects and sorts the winning decklists from tournaments, mtgsalvation forums have a lot of good primers for the sucsessful archetypes. Take a deck that looks fun, and start building it.  Once you've been playing a proven deck for a while you really start to understand why each card is in there, and what works and dosen,t. Then you can start tweaking it as you see fit. I realize that this site really supports homebrewing, and in that regard, starting with a netdeck is not always what you want to do. However, if you're going to get competitive, and play at PTQs and GPs etc. you should start by playing netdecks until you really have a handle on card evaluation in the format, particularly eternal formats. This will significantly help you understand what decks you'll be playing against (and thus how your homebrew will need to play against them,) it will help you understand what cards are played over functional alternatives (and why,) and you'll get a feel for how fast the format is, and what the other decks are trying to do (and thus how your deck fits in that equation.) So by all means, homebrew your deck and take it to the GP, I personally still think this is one of the most fun parts of magic. But by spending time netdecking the popular constructed decks you'll only find ways to make your homebrew better, and you'll need to do this to be competitive at GPs and PTQs. This is less important at your local game store, but knowing the netdecks and what makes them good, you will be able to improve your deck, and your play skill. PPS-My favorite way to homebrew is to take a netdeck or archetype that performs ok, and seeing if I can overhaul it to my play-style and get some wins out. Try that too, you may find this hybrid approach to be fun. Deck Costs The truly competitive decks usually have some (to many) expensive cards, so based on your disposable income, it may take you a while to put it together. A lot of the expensive cards have less expensive alternatives that you could play in the mean time.  However, the more you play with those versions, you'll realize that they are cheaper because they're less effective. Practice Also, start attending Friday Night Magic at your Local Game Store to get into the tournament mentality.  These tend to be a little bit more forgiving of deck choices and rules too.  Magic Online is also a great way to get practice, it's always available if you have the time, and you don't have to wait for a local event, just make sure you're playing in competitive queues.  Keep in mind the time you play as well, 10 AM on a weekday morning tends to have more skilled opponents, because the full time grinders can play then, as opposed to after work/school or the weekends.  When you've played competetivley, get into GPTs (Grand Prix Trials) and PTQs (Pro Tour Qualifiers.)  GPTs are about the most laid back competitive REL events, and PTQs are the most competitive local events.

PLAYTESTING

ALWAYS do play-testing if you're thinking about going to a tournament with a deck. There is no replacement for play-time. The more you test, the better you'll do at refining your deck, and the better you'll play it at the tournament.  Tons of us on the Internet can all stare at the stat list all day, and think about how the deck will do, and give out opinions etc. but in the end, that's all educated guesswork.  Play the deck and you'll begin to see what it needs, try out the suggestions, and verify that they improve the deck.  (To be clear, I'm not dis-valuing  the thinking about it part, just saying that you need both.) Magic the Gathering Online (MTGO) can be a great place to get playtime in if you don't have friends to sit down across from you, and can be an efficient way to squeeze in another game before bedtime as well. There are also some other online tools to play against other playtesters, but you'll have to google those.

[AeroSigma]

Playing Around Board Wipes

One of the best ways to play around a board wipe is to avoid overcommitting on the battlefield.  Leave some creatures in hand if you think they might have a Supreme Verdict.  If you add the man-lands (Mutavault) or other creatures that are invincible to sorcery speed removal (Haunted Platemail, Aetherling) and you play wisely without over committing, you can probably drastically increase your chances to recoverboard position after a wipe. But remember, if you're going to lose to a board wipe even if you hold back, then don't hold back! Try to get in that extra damage and hope they don't draw the wipe before you win. Don't play around something if you lose regardless when they have it.

RAMPING

As to the quantities of ramp, the best way is to test it in your deck.  Play it, change it, play some more, etc. until you feel the balance is right.  Also, consider that Abundant Growth (while being my favorite green 1-drop) isn't really ramp, just color fixing and card advantage.  If your overall curve can handle it, swap a few rampant growths in.  I also usually prefer Borderland Ranger to Arbor Elf (since if the creature dies, you still have the extra land,) but in this deck, I'd keep the Arbor Elfs in order to keep the cost down.  But if, through testing, you find that the ramp allows you to run a higher curve while still being agressive, consider that swap as well. Your options outside of green are scant. If you're not doing much on early turns anyway, there are some good mana rocks available. I really like the talismans in Modern (eg. Talisman of Impulse.) If you drop one for two mana on turn two, you'll still be able to tap it for a single mana that turn.  A lot of people like the Signets from the original Ravnica block.  Don't use the Keyrunes or Cluestones if you're not being standard legal, these cost an extra mana to put down and clog up a later turn.

LIFEGAIN

You'll often have some sort of lifegain thing going on in a deck that's not well-formed. Lifegain is not good like that. You either need go all in with things like Soul Warden and having _everything_ do it, so you gain so much that you can't lose. Or you need to have cards like Ajani's Pridemate (or something better?) that can gain enough extra value from it. Ideally both, but then it's a lifegain deck, not whatever deck you're trying to build, so you should probably just cut it. A little life gain here or there won't swing the game in your favor, so it's really not worth the extra mana: replace those cards with cheaper versions that don't have the gain.