Deck building
can be one of the most challenging parts of Magic: you have 100s of
cards, all of which look great laid out on your kitchen table and you
can't bring yourself to cut any of them. There is no easy way to break
the habit of the deck of two hundred cards, but you'll find that if you
trimmed it down to the standard 60, you'll end up with a well oiled deck
ready to hit the battlefield with a fighting chance. If you still like
the idea of the mega deck, maybe Commander
is the format for you. But... want to play at Friday Night Magic (FNM)
or at a local tournament? You'll want to cut that massive deck down to
size.
First rule
~ In any deck you can have 4 cards of the same name with the exception
of basic lands. A good way to think of how many of a specific card to
include goes something like this...
4 = a card you want to see EVERY game at least once and hopefully in your opening hand
3 = a card you'd be happy to see in your opening hand, but would rather draw into
2 = a card that answers a specific threat or bails you out of a sticky situation
1 = a card for dire straits or to seal the win
2nd Rule ~ Versatility
~ Make sure that the cards you include are the best for the job. There
are tons of 2 mana 2/2 creatures (known as bears) that are nothing but a
creature, which is fine, but for every 2/2 bear, there are a plethora
of 2 mana creatures that do more than just growl. In evolutionary terms,
any of the cards below are miles better than Runeclaw Bear: Ashcoat has
flash, but Skylasher also can't be countered and has protection from
blue for the same mana cost. There's even a deck built around cheap 2
mana creatures called Hate Bears.
In
the same way, Instants are more versatile than Sorceries, while Charms
offer several options- the Swiss Army equivalent for MtG. Azorius Charm
offers the best of Unsummon, Lifelink, and Divination in one package at
instant speed and, unlike Unsummon, it places the bounced card on top
their library messing up their card draw for 1 turn.
3rd Rule ~ Synergy
~ As powerful and versatile as the spells are in your deck, if they
don't work well together, or worse work against each other, then your
deck isn't doing all it can do. Power alone is not enough. I'd love to
put Ash Zealot in most of my red decks, but if I'm playing cards with
flashback or unearth then I'll be bolting myself each time I cast one of
those spells. The Warrior Deck below tries to follow these basic ideas-
Versatility and Synergy to create a budget deck that's fun to play and
competitive. This is the deck for you if you like building an army,
removing any and all threats, and swarming your foes before they can
recover. Check out a different take on the Black / White Warrior deck (Athreos's Warriors) for other ideas.
4th Rule ~
Curve ~ The final part of deck design is to ask yourself- will your
deck be able to cast spells and play creatures each turn most of the
time? If you only load your deck with 4+ mana cost spells, your early
game will go something like this: Turn 1- play land, pass turn; Turn 2-
play land, pass turn... not too exciting. Plus, what happens if you miss
your turn three land drop? You might not be able to cast any spells
until turn 5! In the meantime, your opponent will be building an army
and attacking for 4-5 free turns before you can do anything. To figure
out if your deck is balanced, lay out your cards by mana cost from 1 up
and see how many of each type you have in the deck.
The
60 card Warrior Deck below is an Aggro deck, meaning it is looking to
win as quickly as possible. It doesn't have time to beat around the bush
and so needs fewer higher mana cards. It wants to flood the field with
low-costing creatures and put our opponent on the ropes as quickly as
possible. It's curve breaks down as follows:
1 mana ~ 6 spells (3 creatures / 3 removal spells)
2 mana ~ 22 spells (16 creatures / 6 removal spells)
3 mana ~ 5 spells (3 charms / 2 removal)
4 mana ~ 1 spell (Enchantment)
5+ mana ~ 3 spells (3 creatures- 2 sweepers to clear the field and 1 beater)
Our
curve is very low with 45% of the deck costing 1-2 mana. Because of
this, we'll be happy to see a 2 land opening hand with several of our
early threats out. As the game develops, we'll start to see some of our
charms and other removal spells to take care of any threats that start
to clog the field. If the game gets out of hand, Ankleshanker (our 2 of
sweeper) can help clear the board followed by a mid/late game Zurgo to
close it out. If we loaded up the deck with more Zurgos and
Ankleshankers, we'd be more likely to flood our opening hand with cards
that would be dead for several rounds. For an aggressive deck, this
curve is perfect to help dish out max damage over the early rounds.
Mardu Warriors (Tribal Deck)
CREATURES (22)
- 3 Disowned Ancestor (B) Common Spirit Warrior (0/4)
- 4 Chief of the Edge (WB) Uncommon Warrior (3/2)
- 2 Chief of the Scale (WB) Uncommon Warrior (2/3)
- 4 Oreskos Swiftclaw (1W) Common Cat Warrior (3/1)
- 4 Borderland Marauder (1R) Common Human Warrior (1/2 & 3/2 when it attacks)
- 2 Mardu Skullhunter (1B) Common Warrior (2/1)
- 2 Ankle Shanker (2RWB) Rare Goblin Berserker (2/2)
- 1 Zurgo Helmsmasher (2RWB) Rare Legendary Orc Warrior (7/2)
The goal here is to play early treats that share the
creature type Warrior, building synergy from the Chiefs and Raider's
Spoils pumping them (+0/+1) with Chief of the Scale and (+1/+0) with
Chief of the Edge to ensure they continue to threaten the board.
Disowned Ancestor is a great 1 drop to slow down explosive openings with
decks that use Monastery Swiftspear. The only non Warrior in the deck
is the little goblin that could, Ankle Shanker, who gives all your
creatures first strike and deathtouch to sweep the board of any threats
(Versatility). Call out Zurgo to wrap things up-
- 4 Borderland Marauders for War-Name Aspirant or Battle Brawler
- 3 Disowned Ancestors for Bloodsoaked Champion or Mardu War-Reaper
- 3 Mardu Charm for Merciless Executioner
REMOVAL (14)
- 3 Oppressive Rays (W) Common Enchantment- Aura
- 4 Lightning Strike (1R) Common Instant
- 3 Mardu Charm (RWB) Uncommon Instant
- 2 Pillar of Light (2W) Common Instant
- 2 Ride Down (RW) Uncommon Instant
COMBAT TRICKS & OTHER SPELLS (1)
- 1 Raiders' Spoil (3B) Uncommon Enchantment (Creatures get +1/+0) and allows for card draw
LANDS (23)
To figure out how many different lands to run, add up all the color mana symbols in your spells.
BLACK: BBBBB BBBBB BBBBB BBB (18)
WHITE: WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWW (23)
RED: RRRRR RRRRR RRRRR (15)
and round up... Black (20), White (25), Red (15) then divide by 10: Black (2), White (2.5), Red (1.5)
This part gets a little tricky with the maths :) but is worth it in the end: For every 2 Swamps I add, I'll need 2 1/2 Plains and 1 1/2 Mountains. Now I'm not one to tear my mountains and plains in half so for an easier fix, double everything to get ride of the half. Now it's simple- for every 4 Swamps I need to add 5 Plains and 3 Mountains. To help balance my land base, I'll use Dual Lands and Tri-Lands for consistency.
- 5 Plains
- 4 Swamps
- 3 Mountains
- 3 Nomad Outpost (taps for R, W, or B)
- 3 Scoured Barrens (taps for W or B and gains me 1 life)
- 2 Bloodfell Caves (taps for B or R and gains me 1 life)
For the last three lands, not wanting any more "comes into play tapped lands," I'll add 1 extra Plains, Mountain, and Swamp to round it out. 23 lands is about right for a 3 color deck with most of its spells costing 3 or less mana. The whole deck comes in at around $7.00 dollars as it is built with mostly Commons costing 10 cents each. Most uncommons here are 25 cents each and the lone Zurgo a whooping $0.65.
For more deck ideas, check out the last post on Aggro Decks.
