Deckbuilding is truly an art and skill. From a pool of several thousand cards, the creator selects 60 (or more) cards from which to construct a deck to duel another opponent. There are an almost limitless combination of cards, themes, and strategies. However, there are some basic and fundamental principles with which to build your deck.
Deck Size: The first rule almost any player should know is to play with 60 cards. This 60 cards is the minimum deck size for tournaments (and just about everybody goes by tournament rules). Although it is sometimes acceptable to play with 61 cards, or maybe even 62 (its getting a little risky there), in general, you should stick with 60 cards. Keeping your deck size low helps insure many things:
Consistency-Having 60 cards increases the probability in which your draw the right cards at the right times. It also makes it easier to draw the cards that make the engine of your deck run. With too many non essentials, you can hardly topdeck and you could probably never get the cards to get your deck working.
Proportion-It is improper to think that building a 70
card deck with 10 cantrips or to make a 100 card deck with the proper mana
configuration but with "extra" cards in proportion (instead of 4 Disenchants
in a 60 card deck, you have 4 Disenchants and 2 Aura of Silences in a 100
deck).
First off, a 70 card deck with 10 cantrips will not work simply
because the cantrips do take time and mana. You might get a certain
card, say a Wrath of God by turn 10 just as quickly as in a 60 card deck,
but you will not get it in your opening hand or by the 4th turn as consistently,
and that's when it might make the difference. Also, with those 10 extra
cantrips, you also risk getting mana screwed more often.
And, in the case of the "proportion" deck, you risk getting
your hand more screwed, due to the fact that you have more cads. Instead
of having a hand of 4 Disenchants, you could get a hand of all Disenchants
and Aura of Silences. You can also get "land happy" more than usual.
In a 60 card deck, you might draw 6 land in a row. In a 100 card
deck, you might draw 15...who knows? Also, your sideboard will still
be 15 cards. That will also make your sideboard options harder to draw.
So overall, stick to the magic number: 60.
Choosing a Theme: The problem with many decks is that
they: A) try to do too much or
B) they have a bunch of cards that have no overall focus. You can't
simply say I choose red and green for my colors and toss a bunch of cards
Inquest gave 4 and 5 ratings, or cards that I gave 4 and 5 ratings on my
analysis'.
There are many themes to choose from. Most fall into
categories, the main two being aggressive or passive while some are just
run of the mill. Aggressive decks are quick, slaughter decks while
passive decks are defensive lock decks.
Under aggressive category, you can choose from a variety of
speed decks. Most speed decks revolve around one single color, as it
is more efficient and quick. Mono black: Suicide Black; Mono
blue: Merfolk Deck; Mono green: Stompy; Mono red: Sligh; Mono White: White
Weenie (many variations, some of which aren't outright aggressive). These
decks usually win by who can deal the most damage the quickest. Some
of these decks are not so one-dimensional and have some control, such as
Merfolk decks which have counters, disks, legacy's allure, and/or propaganda.
In building aggressive decks, you generally want to focus on the most
efficient creatures and the most efficient path of damage (burn, creature
swarm, etc.).
Passive decks have many, many archetypes. Most utilize
blue, however, for its countermagic. The second most used color for control
is white, for its life gaining and cre ature removal. Green also is
used for its walls, life gain, and its recursion. There are soo many
control decks to list, but here are some: 5CU, Humility/Orim's Prayer
(Monastery), Tradewind decks, Draw-go, and possible even some graveyard decks
like Peaches.
And of course, there are the run of the mill decks like White
Weenie with Cataclysms or Geddons, 5CB, 5CG, and Countersliver.
Lastly, some themes are just based around a card(s).
PandeNaught is based around the Pandemonium/Phyrexian Dreadnought combo.
ProsBloom is based around a lot of combo cards. Oath of Druids
decks are well, based around Oath of Druids!
Choosing Cards For Your Theme: It is of utmost importance that you choose cards that fit your theme the best. Cards that don't best suit your deck or don't add to the deck's focus will weaken your deck. Sligh playing with Sisters of the Flame for instance, would be immensely stupid since its an expensive creature (3 mana for 2/2) and its ability is inessential in a beatdown deck. On the other hand, Ironclaw Orcs is a cheap 2/2 for 2 mana with a drawback that isn't much of a penalty in an attacking deck.
Choosing Overall Efficient Cards: Not only must you choose cards that suit your deck the best, the cards themselves must be efficient and have great utility. While this normally applies more to control decks than to creature decks (creatures can just be any cheap creature that has no "special" or useful application besides attacking), it should apply to all decks. For instance, Mishra's Factory is a very efficient card usable in almost any kind of deck, passive or aggressive. It serves as an attack/blocker and a mana producer. Its a creature/land slot in one. Why play with a Gray Ogre instead of Mishra's Factory? (Actually, why ever play with the Gay Ogre?) Uktabi Orangutan is also another very efficient creature. Instead of playing with Verdigris, you should almost always play with Uktabi Orangutan (unless for some reason, you need instant removal). The monkey serves as both a creature and artifact removal. Two cards in one. Playing with efficient cards keeps your deck small without having to squeeze in other not as useful cards.
Mana Ratios: One of the biggest mistakes
among deckbuilders is too little mana (I have never heard of a beginner playing
with *too much* land). The common algorithm is that you play with 20
lands (1/3 lands). While this is fine in a low casting cost attacking
deck (Suicide Black and Sligh) or decks with artifact or creature mana (birds,
elves, diamon ds, moxes), in general, it is a bit off.
Numerical Value of Lands: Although I don't statistically analyze the following guidelines, here are just general reasons of how much land per deck:
| Number of Land | Deck Guidelines |
| 18-20 *** |
-An absolute weenie rush deck with many 1 and 2 casting cost creatures. -A deck with Birds/Elves or 1 mana non land mana sources |
| 21-22 *** *** |
-A weenie deck with maybe some mana intensive spells (Hammer, Cursed
Scroll, Fireblast, Overrun) -A passive deck with artifact mana (stones, diamonds) |
| 23-24 *** *** *** *** |
-A medium-sized creature deck -Typical amount of land in a control deck needing to get to 4 mana (Wrath, Wisdom) -General amount of mana in a combo deck requiring mana (control Necro, graveyard deck) |
| 25-28 *** *** *** |
-A mana intensive control deck continuously using mana while being untapped
to counterspell (decks with Jayemdae Tome) or a control deck that can just
"sit there" and lay land. -A mana intensive combo deck (Turbo decks) |
Color Distribution: Now, after deciding how much
mana you will be running, you ne ed to know what color mana they will be
producing. There are several factors of what kind of colors your land
should produce and how much of each:
1) Number of cards of a certain color
2) How color intensive each card is
3) How soon/late you need the cards of a certain color
If there was to be a general guideline char t for the color distribution it would be really depend. But here is another table of general guidelines showing the relationship between the number of cards, the color intensity (the number showing how much of a color is in each card [a blue deck would have 2, normally, since most spells have 2 blue in the casting cost [counterspells]), and the amount of mana producing lands of that color you should have:
| Number of Cards | Color Intensity |
Number of Land |
| 1-4 | 1 | 4-8 |
| 1-4 | 2 | 6-12 |
| 5-8 | 1 | 8-14 |
| 5-8 | 2 | 12-16 |
| 9-15 | 1 | 14-20 |
| 9-15 | 2 | 16-24 |
| 16+ | 1 | 16-24 |
| 16+ | 2 | 18-26 |
The ranges in land reflect:
A) The range in the number of cards
B) The dependency on when the card needs to be used/drawn
C) Whether the cards are mana intensive
(i.e. Counter decks want more blue to counter more;
Drain Life and other X color spells want more mana)
Playtesting is also a big factor in determining how much
land you should play with. Keep in mind, there are certain things that
can, and cannot replace l and. Obviously, the Lotus, Moxes, and Sol
Ring of T1 can easily replace land. In T2, you can only replace a certain
amount of cards for these replacements, since most of the time, they take
mana to cast and can't be used immediately. Cards that are common substitutes
from good old land are: Dark Rituals, Birds of Paradise, mana producing Elves
(sorts that take 1 mana to cast), Mirage Diamonds, Tithe, and Mind/Fellwar
Stones. To some Impulse counts as a land, as you can search for a land
with its ability. To me, I wouldn't want to take a land and have to
put (possibly) 3 good cards at the bottom of my library (if you must Impulse
for that land, you might end up putting 3 counterspells at the bottom of
your library).
Cards that cannot replace land are: Mox Diamond, Lotus
Petal, and mana produci ng artifacts/creatures that take 3 or more mana to
cast.
Sideboard: Ok, now that you've got your 60 cards, land and spells, you're all packed and good to go right? Wrong! A tournament deck without a sideboard is as adaptable and compatible as a chameleon that can't camoflague. A sideboard allows you to switch cards in that will help against the deck you are paired against, and to switch out cards that are less effective. Imagine playing an anti creature deck without a sideboard. If you play against another anti creature deck or a deck with very few creatures, then you stuck with a handful of useless cards, while your opponent might be sideboarding cards in against your deck without you having any way to stop it.
Building your sideboard is really up to you and your area. Although there are only certain cards which you should use against a certain type of deck or a certain color, the prescense or the amount of cards is up to you. If Deck A is weak against Deck B, but Deck B can't beat any other deck consistently, Deck A doesn't have to fear Deck B, because no one will be playing it. Therefore Deck A doesn't need too much if any sideboard cards against Deck B. This is also what we call the "metagame", which is knowing what people are playing and expecting. Depending on what decks a re played, most sideboards are always atleast slightly varied from place to place even if the main decks are alike.
However, there are some guidelines as too which cards to use in a sideboard. You only want sideboard cards that will directly hurt the deck. You can't just have a color hoser, and expect the color hoser to deal with any deck having that color. Perish won't work against an Oath of Druids deck for example. Although, Perish is a great sideboard card, it won't deal with *every* green deck. Deathgrip also really isn't a good sideboard choice for black, as black probably is busy casting creatures and on the offensive. Another example would be playing Scragnoth for anti blue in a creature deck while playing City of Solitude in a combo deck. Therefore, you want sideboard card s that are easily usable in your deck and directly hurt the deck you want to decimate.
What next? Now that you have built your 60 card lean mean fighting
machine, with its 15 card sidekick, you're off to playtesting. Not
all the decisions you made on paper and the decisions you made mentally will
always work. Sometimes just playing it out works the best. You
then refine and tune the deck after seeing some weaknesses then you didn't
realize or account for and you might also discover new and hidden strengths.
&nbs p;Your deck might then be slightly different to accommodate for
things it didn't foresee or just be totally reworked. But that is the
art of deckbuilding.
Back to Frank's Magic Dojo!
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