This process will help you identify strengths and weaknesses, allowing for further refinement. If you create a custom subsection your deck will no longer be grouped automatically. Scryfall makes no guarantee about its price information and recommends you see stores for final prices and details. For a sample decklist we’re looking at a Standard “white weenie” deck that took MTGO user il_matagatto to the Top 16 of a recent Standard Challenge event.
For instance, let’s say you are playing Black deck which wants to play 6 copies of Hearthless Act. You can’t do that, so you play 4 of them and two copies of another removal spell, like Bloodchief’s Thirst. Once you have that down, you can start considering every card in that light.
If your budget is a concern then it can definitely be useful to stick to fewer colors so that you don’t need quite so many expensive dual lands to make your deck come together. Now that you have a game plan you can make other key decisions, like what colors will you run? If we go back to the vampire example from before, it’s clear that you’ll probably be black and red given that vampires appear most in these two colors. In most formats, you can have a maximum of four copies of any card in your deck, except for basic lands (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest).
Play Good Cards
However, a mistake players new to control will often make is not running enough win conditions. It might seem reasonable to play many spells to disrupt your opponent/draw cards and rely on a couple bomb creatures to take down your opponent. But if your opponent has removal for those creatures you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot win. Regardless of deck type it is always important to consider how/when your deck wants to win the game and gear it to that end.
Strategies for Building a Successful MTG Deck
If they cost 4+ mana they will often be cast on curve, while cheap removal spells tend to be cast off-curve. For example, Lich’s Caress costs five mana and should be considered a 5-drop (your deck can’t support too many cards that cost this much!). Lightning Strike, on the other hand, costs just two mana but will rarely be played on your second turn. For that reason I suggest placing Lightning Strike in the off-curve category. Luminous Bonds is a little trickier and could more plausibly be considered a 3-drop, but it is probably safer to place in the off-curve category.
Strategy
Scaled Nurturer and Faeburrow Elder can get onto the board early and start generating mana. Dragonspeaker Shaman doesn’t help with mana ramp per se, but it can reduce mana costs to get your Dragons out sooner. Cards like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and Razaketh, the Foulblooded, can quickly come out with the enhanced mana ramp. Since the Scry ability isn’t limited to basic lands, you can play cards such as Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth or Breeding Pool with this ability. Creatures such as Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch can pitch in if you need more mana. Outside of magical Christmas land, there are a lot of other Zombie synergies that can make this strategy purr.
Choosing which cards to put in your deck can be a daunting task for any Magic player, especially if you’re new to the game. Today I’ll go through the process of building a deck from scratch, outlining what steps you should follow to make your next deck a success. The minimum deck size for most Constructed formats (Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage) is 60 cards. 40-card decks are specific to Limited formats like Draft and Sealed. In addition, there are also colorless decks and cards that can be used in any deck or color combination. These colorless cards typically represent artifacts, Aeldrazi, or lands that support various strategies.
Aggro decks want to empty their hand quickly and end the game before their opponent can empty theirs. This is a subtle form of card advantage that aggro decks can generate. Flying or unblockable creatures for example can allow aggro decks to continue attacking even in the later stages of the game. Another win condition for aggro decks is spells that can deal damage directly to their opponent. Combo – True combo decks are almost never seen in limited, because they rely on very specific cards to create a game-winning interaction. In draft it is nearly impossible to draft combo pieces and reliably draw them.
Most novice players will play their most powerful cards every turn, but it is often better to take a more measured approach. In this format you are limited on powerful cards, so ideally you want to trade off your weaker ones with your opponents’ removal so that your stronger ones can stick. Let’s say your opponent passes their turn with some dreaded untapped islands in front of them.
KrakenTheMeta offers a user-friendly deck builder that makes adding and organizing cards a breeze. The tool provides insights into deck composition and helps ensure a balanced mana curve. This is probably a question I could spend a whole article discussing, so let me give you the broad strokes. A deck’s mana curve is basically a term used to describe the distribution of your deck’s mana values. You should notice a curve if you sort your deck by mana value and lay all of the cards out in front of you with one pile for each mana value. The number of cards at each cost starts low, then increases, and then goes down as the mana costs increase.
Bone to Ash should be considered a 4-drop as it can be cast on that turn unless there is a better option available, and a deck can only support a few 4+ mana cards. Divination should be considered a 3-drop because it is a good option on your third turn unless your opponent has necessitated a different line of play. Essence Scatter on the other hand should go in the off-curve pile. Sometimes it will be played on turn 2, but more often it is a spell that you will hold off on to counter a more powerful creature later.
After ten Elves are on the battlefield, you can tap them to take ten life away from all opponents. Whether you want to build around a specific typal theme or a beloved pet card, Commander allows you to do edh deck it. Should either of those options not take your fancy, however, you can also play to win.