Deck Dr. ~ Aggro

Be sure to check out last week's post on Casual Magic! And now back to our regularly scheduled
program...

Tap those lands, and come out swinging with your 15/15 flying, protection from spells, annihilator, haste badie and stomp! Repeat as needed.

That's a good place to start as any, but there is so much more to Magic than bringing in the big guns late game and stomping. Check out the Magic Link for more info on deck building, guilds, colors, and other great info about our favorite game before diving into the Deck Doctor below.

Before throwing your best money cards together, adding some land and swinging for 6 turn 8 with Akroma or 15 muuuuch later with Emrakul (in which case you're not using him correctly if that's the case and you should probably lend him to me until you're ready), ask yourself these questions:

1. What is my deck trying to do?
2. Are 127 cards too many to have in my deck?
3. Are 18 lands too many to have in my deck? (after all they take up space my Ajani could otherwise occupy) 
4. Are twelve 8 mana cards too many? After all the bigger the better, right?

Answers: 1) Win & have fun while doing it (have fun loosing too- the main point is to have fun, period.) 2) Yes (a very big yes) 3) No- more lands might be needed 4) See answer 2


The first question actually sets the direction your whole deck will take, the colors you'll run, spells you'll play and creatures you'll stomp with. Is your deck trying to control the game; mill a player's library to 0; attack with a swarm of little guys and overwhelm; build up with mana boosters to play bigger and bigger threats turn after turn; or simply burn, burn, burn?

~ Routes to Victory (On a Budget) ~

The $200 card that could

As much as you'd like to stomp with that 15/15 bomb, and who wouldn't, do you want to fork over $50 to do that?

How about $200 for a single copy of a card all the pros swear by, ($500 for the pretty foil version)? You'll need 4 by the way and then the other 56 cards to fill out that deck. You in? Me neither...

So what does that leave the rest of us with? Quite a lot as it turns out. In the next few installments, I'll walk through the steps I'd take to build a fun, competitive deck using mostly commons and uncommons- the variety you'd find in the bulk section at most hobby stores. Most stores charge 10 cents for Commons and 25 cents for bulk Uncommons. For additional help building on a budget, check out a great series, Budget Brewing, on Puca Trade.


Ground Rules: The goal here is have a playable deck of no more than 60 cards that is fun in a casual setting among friends but can hold its own at a Friday Night Magic (FNM) event. It probably won't win all 4 rounds (or even 2) against the regulars who invest a lot into their decks, but you'll learn a lot about the game, meet cool people, trade for better cards, and have loads of fun. Each installment will highlight a build for one of the main deck types: Aggro, Control, Combo, or Mid-Range/Hybrid.

First up... Aggro- 

Aggro ~ (short for "aggressive") decks attempt to reduce their opponents from 20 life to 0 life as quickly as possible, with no real long term plan- Their motto might be "Leap before you look" or the ever popular wisdom of Jaya Ballard. Hit with creatures and burn to count down from 20 as quickly as possible. Aggro is an easy deck to get into, fast and quick to play, but tricky to master. 



Card Name (Casting Cost) Rarity and Type (sorcery, creature, instant)

Mana Key: (B)lack; (R)ed; (W)hite; (G)reen; Bl(u)e

Aggro- Take 1

Mardu Warriors (Tribal Deck) 

CREATURES (22)

• 3 Disowned Ancestor (B) Common Spirit Warrior (0/4)
• 4 Chief of the Edge (WB) Uncommon Human Warrior (3/2) 
• 2 Chief of the Scale (WB) Uncommon Human 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 Human Warrior (2/1)
• 2 Ankle Shanker (2RWB) Rare Goblin Berserker (2/2)
• 25 cent bulk rare
• 1 Zurgo Helmsmasher (2RWB) Rare Legendary Orc Warrior (7/2)
• $1 bulk rare

The goal here is to play early treats that share the creature type Warrior and pump them with your Chiefs- Scale (+0/+1) and Edge (+1/+0) 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. 

I'd consider swapping the Borderland Marauders for 4 War-Name Aspirants (25 cent uncommon) a warrior that frequently enters the battlefield as a 3/2 and can't be blocked by creatures with power 1 or less. Call out Zurgo to wrap things up- 

Consider swapping out the Disowned Ancestors for Bloodsoaked Champion 

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

To get through your foe's defenses, you'll need removal and plenty of it. These spells should take care of most of your opponent's threats while making sure that yours get through round after round. Consider swapping out the Oppressive Rays for Banishing Light (hits all permanents though a little slower) or Suspension Field. Other budget cards worth mentioning: Kill Shot, Magma Spray, Dark Betrayal, Bile Blight, or Ulcerate. If you can get your hand on Crackling Doom go to town removing their best creatures and win with a card (Chief of the Edge) most other players scoff at.


COMBAT TRICKS & OTHER SPELLS (1)

• 1 Raiders' Spoil (3B) Uncommon Enchantment (Creatures get +1/+0) and allows for card draw

Consider swapping some of the removal for more combat tricks, spells that make combat for your opponents a nightmare. Spells likeTrumpet Blast boost all your creatures +2/+0 at instant speed while Boon of Erebos or Gods Willing hit 1 creature either regenerating it or protecting it from 1 color for the turn. Titan's Strength is another out of nowhere Giant Growth type card giving a solid +3/+1 boost + scry 1. 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.



LANDS (23)

To figure out how many different lands to run, add up all the color mana symbols in your spells.

BBBBB BBBBB BBBBB BBB (18)
WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWWWW WWW (23)
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 $7.50 dollars as is with Commons costing 10 cents each, most uncommons here are 25 cents each and the lone Zurgo a whooping $1.

Aggro- Take 2

Mono Red Aggro 

CREATURES (20)

• 3 Frenzied Goblin (R) Uncommon Goblin Berserker (1/1) Target creature can´t block (R)
• 4 Foundry Street Denizen (R) Common Goblin Warrior (1/1) +1/+0 for each red creature entering the field
• 4 Akroan Crusader (R) Common Human Soldier (1/1)
• 1 Arena Athlete (1R) Uncommon Human (2/1)
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear (R) Uncommon Human Monk (1/2) +1/+1 Prowess for each noncreature spell cast
• 4 Firedrinker Satyr (R) Rare Satyr Shaman (2/1) 

The goal here is to play tons of small creatures that either stop blockers (Frenzied Goblin and Arena Athlete) or grow bigger for each spell cast (Swiftspear) or creatures entering the battlefield (Foundry Street Denizen) and hit for massive amounts of damage before your foe can recover. 

I'd consider swapping the Firedrinker Satyrs ($1 each) for the more budget friendly Satyr Hoplite (common with Heroic) or War-Named Aspirant (uncommon that can't be blocked by low power creatures) 

REMOVAL (6)

• 2 Arc Lightning (2R) Uncommon Sorcery
• 4 Lightning Strike (1R) Common Instant

The original Mono Red Aggro deck calls for 4 Stoke the Flames ($5 each) which is a perfect card for this deck- our budget friendly version runs the slower Arc Lightning. I'd also consider running 2 Magma Jets for the scry 2 ability.



COMBAT TRICKS & OTHER SPELLS (16)

• 2 Hordeling Outburst (1RR) Uncommon Sorcery (creates 3 Goblin tokens) Great spell- triggers Swiftspear's prowess and triggers Denizen 3 times (+3/+0) for a killer attack
• 4 Titan's Strength (R) Common Instant (+3/+1 to target creature / Scry 1) 
• 4 Hammerhand (R) Common Enchantment- Aura 
• 4 Dragon Mantle (R) Common Enchantment- Aura
• 1 Coordinated Assault (R) Uncommon Instant
• 1 Hall of Triumph (3) Rare Artifact (+1/+1 to red creatures)

Your typical early turns might look something like this- Turn 1: Monastery Swiftspear (swing for 1) Turn 2: Swing with Swiftspear and cast Titan's Strength (+3/+1), trigger prowess (+1/+1) and hit for 5 and scry 1 then play a second threat with your 2nd mountain. A dream play would be a second Swiftspear turn 2 followed by the Titan hitting both prowess triggers and buffing 1 for a massive 7 damage; or a Hammerhand (+1/+1 + the prowess trigger + stop a blocker), swing for 3 and buff with the Titan (triggering prowess again) for 7; or cast a... okay I better stop now before I get too geeked out by this card alone. You can see why Swiftspear comes in at $2.50 for an uncommon. The Combat Tricks this deck packs help it hit hard, trigger effects from most of your creatures (prowess, extra tokens from Akroan Crusader, heroic...) and help stop blockers to allow you to swing through the opposing army to end the battle quickly. Of the two decks listed here, this one is super fun to play with great interactions and awesome triggers. It makes combat a nightmare for your opponent with even 1 open mana on the table and is a nice take on a timeless classic- Mono Red Aggro.


LANDS (18)

• 18 Mountains

Overall the deck comes in around $23 but ditch the Firedrinker Satyrs and you'll shave off $4 making it more manageable. A lot of these cards you can pick up for free from friends or players who will gladly give some if not all of the commons for nothing. I built this deck largely with cards the Groton Hobby Shop donated to the Magic Club. All I had to add were the Swiftspears ($2.5 each); all the other cards were in the box for the taking. To max out on the deck, 4 Stoke the Flames would be awesome but the price tag alone pushes them outside the range of the deck, which tries to come in under $20.

Casual Magic

Looking for some ideas to spice up your MtG games? Well look no further! From 2 player variants to multiplayer epic battles there is no shortage of possibilities when it comes to everyone's favorite game. Click here for a full list of ideas for Casual MtG.


Limited MtG: Players build their decks from a small pool of cards (booster packs) and with the addition of only basic lands duke it out to see who comes out on top. 


Pack Wars / Mini Masters ~ You just picked up some booster packs. Rather than just open them and sort through them, don't look at the cards at all. Simply add 3 of each basic land type (Plains, Swamps, Forests, Mountains, and Islands), remove the token card (hint: it doesn't have a MtG back), shuffle and play. Each draw holds surprises as you play your way through your booster pack to see if yours is the rare that seals the deal, or leaves you for dead.

• Variant ~ your booster = your opening hand and each turn you can drop any 1 basic land from outside the game. You never draw a card and have no library so effects that allow you to draw a card have no effect just as there is no penalty for not being able to draw a card. 

Constructed MtG: Decks that are made before showing up for an event are considered constructed decks. Depending on the format- Casual, Standard, Modern... some cards or whole editions might be either banned or off limits but other than that, the sky is the limit. 60 card minimum decks with 15 card sideboards are the norm here- though there are formats where this changes a little. 

• Pauper ~ a Constructed format where only common cards are allowed in a deck. A good way to build on a budget or have fun with the stacks of commons most players collect, but seldom play with. Check out this great Puca Trade article, "Odds//Ends" on some fun Pauper decks. 
• Peasant Magic ~ a Constructed variant of Pauper which allows up to 5 uncommons in a player's deck. 
• Standard ~ A rotating Constructed format that only allows players to use cards in the two most recent story-based blocks + the newest Core Set. Starting in 2016, Core Sets will be discontinued and the pool of cards will change to blocks only. In addition story-based blocks will now only have 2 sets for each block rather than the usual 3. This format allows you to collect very recent cards that are easier to get your hands on and decks are constantly evolving as new sets are released, older sets rotate out, or new strategies develop. Currently, M15, Theros, Born of the Gods, Journey Into Nyx, and Khans of Tarkir are allowed in Standard. 
• Modern ~ A Constructed format that allows players to build decks using any card (- banned cards) from Eighth Edition (Core Set) and expansion sets on. Click on the link to see a list of all the sets that are considered Modern Legal. 

Multiplayer Variants 

Free-for-All ~ Most games of casual multiplayer MtG are Free-for-All games where each player is in it alone and can battle any other player at the table. Before the game begins, players decide how attacking occurs. "Attack Left/Right" only allows you to attack the player in that direction so you have to focus on that one player before getting a new target. In this version, you'll never be able to attack the player who is attacking you until all the other players are eliminated. Regardless of the direction of attack, a player can always target another player with a spell or ability (say a Lightning Bolt to a player or creature you normally couldn't attack with a creature). Another variant is the true free-for-all where you can attack multiple players anywhere in the circle of players during your attack step. Alliances can be forged and broken with any player, but each alliance has an expiration date as there can only be one champion. 

Two-Headed Giant ~ (2HG) 2 teams of 2 players play a single game of MtG with each team sitting on the same side of the game table. The player on the right in each team is the primary player while the player on the left is the secondary head... errr player. Each team starts with 30 life at the start of the game. You can look at your teammate's hand and discuss your strategy at any time. During a team's turn, both players take the turn at the exact same time. Click the links for specific rules. 

Tribal Wars ~ Ever wanted to recreate the Battle of Helms Deep with MtG cards? Orcs vs. Elves and Humans? Tribal Wars is for you then. Each player represents 1 tribe and builds a 60 card deck around that tribe to see once and for all which tribe dominates. At least 1/3 of your deck needs to include cards from your tribe. Major tribes include: Goblins, Demons, Dragons, Elves, Humans, Merfolk, Angels, Slivers, Zombies, Knights, and Soldiers to name some of the more popular tribes.

Star ~ Requires 5 players with each representing 1 of the 5 colors of Magic. Your deck can only consist of cards and lands of your color. Players sit in a star pattern exactly as it is shown on the back of every Magic card (White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green); the White player starts and play rotates around the color wheel to the left. A player wins when their 2 opposing (enemy) colors are eliminated regardless of who defeated them. Following the Free-for-All rules, players can attack anyone at the table, though those players to your left and right each share 1 enemy with you so it is in your best interest to ally with them if it suits your goals. As the White player, your foes are Red and Black and you when when both are eliminated; Your allied colors share one common foe but are each allied with one of your enemy colors- Green allies with Red, but shares Black as a foe while Blue allies with Black but has Red as a shared foe. Ready to see which color reigns supreme?

Commander ~ Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) ~ Commander starts with the basic Free-for-All rules but has very different deck building rules that make it unique and uniquely fun. Except for basic lands, your deck must only have 1 card of a given name in it and must have exactly 100 cards. Each Commander deck is lead by its commander or general who must be a legendary creature or one of 5 planeswalkers from the new 2014 Commander Decks. (Review Here) Each player starts with 40 life and duels Free-for-All style with any player at the table until one is left standing. Thunderdome anyone?

To start, you need to choose your commander or general to lead your troops. Only cards of the commander's colors can be included in your deck. Artifacts can be included as long as they don't include color symbols outside of your commander's colors. Imagine you choose Kaalia of the Vast as your commander. You deck can ONLY contain White, Black, or Red cards or artifact cards with those same mana symbols. Spellskite, while an awesome artifact, contains a Blue mana symbol so it is off limits. Split cards and hybrid cards count as both colors, so while you could choose a Rakdos Cackler (black/red), a Dryad Militant (Green/White) would be off limits.

Your commander starts off to the side in the "Command Zone" and not in you deck. You can cast it from your Command Zone any time you can pay its casting cost. If your commander were to die and be placed in the graveyard or exiled, you can return it to your Command Zone to be recast again with 1 catch: you'll have to pay a 2 mana tax each time it is returned there. For example, casting Kaalia from you Command Zone the first time costs 4 mana (1 colorless, 1 white, 1 black, and 1 red). If she were later killed in combat and recast from the Command Zone later, her casting cost would now be 6 (3 colorless, 1 white, 1 black, and 1 red). Next time costs 8 mana and so on. Lastly, you commander is a potent fighter, when she deals 21 points of combat damage to 1 player over the course of the game, that player loses the game. Interested in learning more about EDH? Click here for more information.

Still interested in more Commander ideas? Check out these cool sites:

Big Guide to Building Your Commander Deck
(Deck building ideas and must include cards and other ideas)

EDH Generals List
(List of popular generals / commanders to help lead your troops to victory)

EDH Staples
(Additional deck building ideas for EDH)

EDH Primer
(List of commander help sorted by color)

Top 100 Cards for Multiplayer