Magic

Not enough time to play a Pathfinder adventure? Half your party is on paid sick leave from the Dungeon of Dread? Your DM was abducted by goblins and you won't pay his ransom because he had you fall in a portable hole and carried off by Splug and company?

No problem! Break out the decks and Magic things up. Not sure how to play MtG? Check out this cool site that explains the game through manga! 

The following is a good place to start for players new to Magic the Gathering (MtG) or looking for ideas to tweak a deck. Post questions on Ask Splug and the pickpocket will try to pick his brains for an answer. 

Need Help? Consult the Deck Doctor- Splug MD- for deck building tips.

• From the Ground Up 
• Dr. Aggro
• Part 1
• Casual Magic

LINKS ~ Rules ~ Keywords ~ Sets ~ MtG Wiki ~ Card Types ~ Abilities ~ Planeswalker Rules ~


DECK BUILDING ~ Magic Academy ~ 101 ~ Building Your First Deck ~ Building on a Budget Archive ~ Sideboarding 101 ~ Sideboarding 201 ~

ARTICLES ~ How to Find Your Cards ~ Talk Like a Geek (MtG Slang) ~ Shuffling Decks ~ Shuffling Tips & Myths ~ MtG Rules Changes ~ Tribal Decks ~ Booster Drafts ~

PUCA Trade ~ A great way to get the cards you need by trading online cards others want in exchange for Puca Points to get the cards you need. 


COLORS ~The five colors form the backbone of the game and drive every aspect of the game. All Magic decks depend on the combination and interactions of these 5 colors. In addition, each color has certain strengths and weaknesses so no one color is better than the others. Choosing your deck's colors can be as much a matter of personality as mechanics. Looking at the color wheel on the back of all Magic cards gives you a quick idea of each color's place in the game. Each color has two allies that are to the left and right of that color and two foes that are opposite that color. Example ~ Blue allies with White and Black but is opposed by Green and Red. This can help you build balanced decks with cards that support each other as each color specializes in a certain type of effect. Check out Mark Rosewater's article, "The Value of Pie" for a great read on the importance of color in MtG. 

• White ~ (Plains) the color of order, healing, light, and good; Clerics, Angels, and Soldiers dominate the field. White by itself is an aggressive color with many small creatures that flood the field before an opponent can respond. Types: Aggro White Weenie  ~ Land Lock Control ~ 
• Multiplayer Ideas ~  Mono White

• Blue ~ (Islands) The color of control, manipulation, and trickery; Blue tends to bend the rules of the game; by itself it tends to be a slower deck, biding its time to set up for the win; Mages, Drakes, and Illusions fill out its ranks seeking to evade other armies with flight or shadow.Types: Aggro Fish ~ Control ~ 
• Multiplayer Ideas ~ Mono Blue

• Black ~ (Swamps) the color of death and decay and is not above hurting you or others to win; It is a very aggressive color with creatures that damage you as they come into play and spells that benefit you while causing you to sacrifice creatures. Gorgons, Horrors, Imps, Zombies and other creatures of the night are all called by it to serve. Types: Aggro Suicide ~ Control ~ Land Lock Control ~
• Multiplayer Ideas ~ Mono Black

• Red ~ (Mountains) The color of chaos, rage, and aggression, red is a very fast deck with burn spells and creatures that attack when they hit the battlefield. Goblins, Orcs, Giants, and Dragons blaze across the field of battle pillaging and burning all in their path.Types: Aggro Sligh ~ Aggro Goblins ~ Land Lock Control ~ Aggro- Red Deck Wins ~ 
• Multiplayer Ideas ~ Mono Red

• Green ~ (Forests) the color of life, nature, and smash, smash, smash; With green you focus on creatures building in might until you can pull out a raging elemental with trample to pound your foes into the ground for the "puny humans" they are. Elves, Giants, Elementals, Trolls, and Beasts are set to pounce you foes from above with flash or pound them to a pulp with trample. Types: Aggro Stompy ~ Land Lock Control ~
• Multiplayer Ideas ~ Mono Green

• Artifacts ~ Relics of the past, these colorless treasures power all colors though some are designed to support one or more colors. Powerful weapons, artifact creatures, or mana sources, artifacts are powerful additions to the right deck.

Alone each color is the master of one element of the game and can do quite well against other decks. After all, when you draw land it can only go to fuel one color and tends to result in faster decks. The recent Theros Block featured a mechanic called Devotion which rewarded you for running one color in your deck, growing in power as your devotion to that color grew. Some of the best decks at the time in Standard were Mono Black Devotion and Mono Green Nykthos Devotion

When combined with one or more colors, combinations and interactions are set in motion that can set up some of the best moments of the game.  The Return to Ravnica block (a series of 3 releases based on a central theme) featured 10 dual-colored Guilds competing with the other guilds in all out war. 

And Then There Were 2

One of my favorite parts of the recent Magic sets are the Ravnica Guilds. These guilds are so popular that many two color decks are referred to by their guild colors: "Boros Burn" = a Red/White Burn Deck. Combining 2 colors in your deck builds on the strengths of each color at the expense of reliable land draws. Because of this, basic lands start to be sided out for nonbasic dual lands: lands that tap for 2 or more types of mana or artifacts that do the same. Because 2+ color decks are extremely popular and powerful, some of these lands are among the most expensive cards in professional decks. But don't fear! Each set has some sort of bargain basement land that taps for two.

Dual Land Types: Pain / Fetch / Filter / Shock / Karoo / Tapland / Scry / Clan

~ THE GUILDS ~   

Allied Colors ~ Formed from adjacent colors on the color wheel, they tend to naturally complement each other.

(White/Blue) ~ Azorius Senate ~ (Control / Evade / Defend) ~ The lawmakers of Ravnica, the Azorius Senate manipulate the game as only BW decks can- by detaining, bouncing, countering, and exiling your threats until only theirs remain. White/Blue tends to feature flying creatures and other defensive creatures to stall the game and buy you time.

(Blue/Black) ~ House Dimir ~ (Manipulation / Evasion) ~ Ravnica’s dark guild deals in secrets and wins the game by controlling your opponent's deck and hand, forcing them to discard that key spell or milling their library to 0. Black specializes in targeted removal- Doom Blade & Terror while Blue excels at bounce effects. Blue/Black creatures tend to be evasive and disrupt a player's hand or library when they hit a foe. 

(Black/Red) ~ Cult of Rakdos ~ (Self-Sacrifice / Aggression) ~ Power at any cost, Rakdos throws caution to the wind and combines rashness with bloodlust. Unleash allows you to gain an extra +1/+1 on a creature when you cast it at the expense of not being able to block while Hellbent rewards you for ripping through your hand and going all out. Black/Red asks you to sacrifice a creature, cards in hand, life, or the ability to block for a quick advantage to crush your foes. 



(Red/Green) ~ Gruul Clans ~ (Ramp / Aggressive) ~ a savage clan with little subtlety when it comes to winning. Their game plan is simple... Smash with bigger and bigger threats. What would you expect from a guild whose key mechanics are called Bloodthirst and Bloodrush which boosts creatures in combat by pitching one to the graveyard for its Bloodrush cost. Trample and Haste are typical of these colors and allow you to hit fast and later hit hard. 

(Green/White) ~ Protection / Efficient ~ Selesnya Conclave ~ "The Voice of Nature," Selesnya looks to flood the field with creatures and ramp into bigger and bigger threats. Some of the most efficient costing creatures find their home in Green/White. Turn 1- Dryad Militant (2/1 with graveyard hate); Turn 2- Watchwoolf (3/3); By turn three they can field a 4/4 Elephant Soldier... do you feel lucky? Combine this with their ability to populate and flood the field with tokens, deal with artifacts and enchantments, and gain insane amounts of life- what's not to like about nature's colors?

Enemy Colors ~ 2 opposed colors on the color wheel that sometimes destroy, prohibit, or prevent certain combinations from happening- While at odds with each other, they often combine in new and deadly ways.

(Red/White) ~ Boros Legion ~ (Combat / Weenies) ~ The guild of law and justice and a formidable military force, Boros decks overwhelm their foes with cheap creatures that give combat boosts when they attack together. By itself, Boros Elite is a 1/1 soldier, but when it attacks with a company of soldiers, it gets a +2/+2 boost. Many of its creatures have First Strike or Double Strike while others tap opposing creatures before combat to let the army through the gates. Ever popular cards like Lightning Helix combine a lightning bolt with a healing salve for 2 mana while Boror Reckoner is a nightmare to deal with on the battlefield.



(Black/Green) ~ Golgari Swarm ~ (Reclamation / Regeneration) ~ Scavengers and fiends who throw out their own with the trash and dredge them onto the battlefield from beyond the grave. Scavengers and decomposers at the fringes of the food chain, they are a force to be reckoned with. Black/Green cards tend to interact with the graveyard allowing cards to be either returned to your hand or worse, to the battlefield or even "scavenged" to lend new life to the living.


(Blue/Red) ~ Izzet League ~ (Looting / Spells) ~ Impulsive and sometimes reckless mages whose curiosity knows no bounds. Izzet Delver is a very popular deck that fuses burn with control while Niv-Mizzet Curiosity seeks to combo the famed dragon with a minor enchantment to draw cards and deal damage over, and over, and over until your hand is full and your opponent is dead. Popular cards include Young Pyromancer who floods the field with 1/1 Elementals for every spell you cast, while Guttersnipe shocks opponents for 2 for each spell cast.


(White/Black) ~ Orzhov Syndicate ~ (Life Drain/Gain / Exiling) ~ From the shadows the Orzhov manipulate and extort their foes... literally to death. The Extort mechanic allows you to bleed an opponent for 1 life while you gain 1 every time you cast a spell and pay 1 extra mana. Strings are always attached with White/Black colors.


(Green/Blue) ~ Simic Combine ~ (Evolve (+1/+1) / Card Draw) ~ Adapt, evolve, smash! The Mad Scientist meets nature unleashed- Simic looks to grow bigger and bigger threats through their experiments and the evolve mechanic which adds a +1/+1 token to creatures as bigger creatures are played.

3's Company

Three colored cards and decks are some of the most popular in MtG but run into many of the same problems as Dual Color decks with mana. For this reason, most three color decks tend to have one dominate color, one secondary color, and one color "splashed" for a specific card or effect. 3 color cards currently come in 2 flavors: Shards or Wedges. Using the color wheel on the back of a magic card helps demonstrate the difference between the two. A "shard" is a color with its two allies- say Red with Green and Black while a "wedge" is a color with its two opposing colors- say Black with Green and White. 

Shards ~ 5 Shards exist and give their names to many popular decks with those same colors. The central color of a given shard tends to be its dominate color. 

 (Green/White/Blue) ~ Bant ~ (Exalted / Strategic Combat) ~ Mixes the aggressiveness and mana ramp of Green with the control of White/Blue for removal and utility. It looks to play a series of brutal creatures alongside Exalted to hit once with a super-sized creature for the KO.

 (White/Blue/Back) ~ Esper ~ (Artifact Combos / Control) ~ Has its eyes on stalling the early game, controlling the flow with some of the best removal from White and Black with the card draw of Blue to always have options and restock for dropping its main threat (Elspeth anyone?) to seal the deal late game. Esper Control tends to rely on Planeswalkers as they like to clear the board from time to time with Verdicts to rid the field of pesky creatures.  

 (Blue/Black/Red) ~ Grixis ~ (Unearth / Graveyard) ~ reoccurs its creatures from the graveyard giving them haste before they are exiled from the game. Mixes the aggressiveness of Black with the burn of Red with a little Blue mixed in for control. Cruel Ultimatum is the (almost) perfect example of Grixis: your foe sacs a creature (black), discards 3 cards (also black), loses 5 life (red) while you bounce a creature back from the grave (black), draw 3 (blue), and gain 5 life (white)- Almost perfect example!

 (Black/Red/Green) ~ Jund ~ (Devour / Beatdown Combo / Versatile) ~ an aggressive "rock" deck that seeks to disrupt an opponents hand with Thoughtseize; play out the best threats Green has to offer, Lightning Bolt from Red's playbook, and Terminate any other threats that linger. Blightning sums up Junds motto of burn+: discard 2 and take 3 damage to 2 for 1 an opponent. 

 ~ (Red/Green/White) ~ Naya ~ (5-Power / Aggro Zoo) ~ Super speed, super-sized aggro deck with planeswalkers, Lightning Bolts, Exile, and numerous great removal spells from Red & White alongside some of the most aggressive creatures from Green and efficient creatures from White. There's a reason it's one of the most expensive decks on the market- it's brutal. In Standard, a typical midgame play for Naya might go something like this for 16 points of damage in one swing! 

Wedges ~ 5 wedges (a color with its two opposing colors) exist and date back to the five cycles in Apocalypse way back in the day (2001) but were never the official names of the wedge colors. Though fans of MtG have been begging for wedges since Apocalypse, they have only just made their official debut in the newest MtG block, Khans of Tarkir (42 expansions and 13 years later- See begging really does pay off if you're persistent enough)

 ~ (White/Black/Green) ~ Abzan Houses (Necra / "Junk") ~  (Endurance / Fortify / Control) ~ With White as its focus color, Abzan seeks to control the flow of combat with tough creatures and its "Outlast" mechanic which adds a +1/+1 counter to a creature and sometimes shares an ability with other creatures with counters. With the solid removal Black and White offers, effective creatures from its 3 colors, Abzan is a solid clan- Rocs, rhinos, and Sorin... Oh My! Check out Abzan's Midrange Primer for more on this brutal clan. 

 ~ (Blue/Red/White) ~ Jeskai Way (Raka / "America") ~ (Cunning / Strategy over Strength / Combo) ~ The Jeskai's focus color, Blue, allows it to constantly surprise its opponents, keeping them on the edge of their seats. Cards like Monastery Swiftspear come out swinging turn 1 and grow with their Prowess mechanic +1/+1 for each spell you cast. Others gain flying, lifelink, and other annoying abilities that an attacker or defender have to consider into their plans when ever you have mana open. Combine Jeskai with some artifacts from M15 and you can set up a combo for infinite +1/+1 pump on a flyer for lethal. All in a day's work for the Jeskai. 

 ~ (Black/Green/Blue) ~ Sultai Brood (Ana) ~ (Ruthlessness / Control) ~ With Black as its focus, the Sultai manipulate their resources from beyond the grave. With Delve, they can exile cards from the grave to fuel the cost of new spells. Its early game looks to stall out an opponent with walls and tough creatures- Courser of Kruphix and Sylvan Caryatid- that also serve to accelerate the game into their bigger threats. With access to Blue's draw power, Blacks hand control, and two crushing Planeswalkers, Sultai is a clan to be reckoned with. Check out this Primer to see it in action. 

 ~ (Red/White/ Black) ~ Mardu Horde (Dega) ~ (Speed / Aggression) ~ With Red as their focus color, it is little wonder that their key mechanic is Raid- a creature ability built around a very fast, aggressive style of play- gives you an advantageous effect if you attacked with at least 1 creature the same turn. Once the Horde is on the field and Red's fury is unleashed in the early game, don't be surprised by one of Mardu's bombs, a massive 5/4 demon with flying that gains haste when you dip into Mardu's dark side and sacrifice one of your minions. Check out this Primer to see the Butcher in action. 

 (Green/Blue/Red) ~ Temur Frontier (Ceta) ~ (Savagery / Tempo) ~ Lastly Temur who goes primal with its focus on Green. Its game plan is to field the biggest threat, getting the toughest creatures into play and then use its Ferocious mechanic which gives an advantage for controlling a creature with power 4+. Temur works great as a Tempo Deck, looking to stall the early game with Blue counterspells while playing its threats during key moments to control the pace of the game. See the Temur Tempo Primer for ideas on how to run this deck.