Deck building 101

[Griffith_se]

Hi,

I was just wondering how you fine folks build your decks. Do you use a kind of template, or certain guidelines? Do you keep to a strict Mana curve? Do you go with X% creatures, X% spells?
Please share your Tech with the rest of the class.

Thanks

[me][/me]

 

[Daenen]

I thought of a new way to build a deck just last night. This is how it works:

1) Pick random card (a)
2) Find good card to go with Random card (a)
3) Find a good card to go with your second card
4) Continue

Here is what I ended up with:

4 Avalanche Riders
4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Lay Waste
2 Sowing Salt
2 Rumbling Cresendo

4 Masticore
4 Howling Mine (Goes good with Masticore)

2 Crater Hellion
2 Lightning Dragon

4 Shock

24 Lands

I ended up with a really Angry, Aggro Red Land Destruction deck. Try it, see what you end up with, then fine-tune it.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Tag guard

Ya thats pretty much how i build a deck..

 

[Daenen]

Would some one please explain "Tag Guard" to me?

 

[Griffith_se]

Daenen,

"Tag Guard" is part of a game. Look at the post in the battle arena titled "Tag Your Dead".

[me][/me]

 

[Daenen]

Hey, thanks.

 

[Apollo]

I find a card I like (most recently complex automaton), then find some cards that go around it well, and build from there. I don't use creature ratios, because some decks like different numbers. For instance, the automaton deck did not like permanents, so there are only 8 creatures, 4 with echo. I don't use mana ratios, I base that on the average casting cost of my decks. For instance, the automaton deck had lots of cheap burn and land kill, plus lands are more permanents. However, I had lots of "sac land" stuff, so I used 24 lands.

Hope that was of use to someone.

Apollo

 

[Killer Joe]

Zvi wrote an extensive article on this very subject matter, look it up in the columns archive section under Zvi. Any way, this is how I do it:
From scratch, I think about how I would like to win a game i.e. through board control, weenie rush, lock-down (I once played a 'Bastille a la Prison deck that had absolutly NO kill cards in it, just stuff like Winter Orb, Gerrard's Wisdom, Gaea's Blessing, Armageddon, Propaganda, Wrath of God, a few Gratuitous Counterspells, mana rocks, etc...) It's good to have the end goal in mind.
I then decied if I want this to be tourney viable or just a "Fun" deck to mess with.
Then, I do a little research to see if I can find a similar deck or concept elsewhere or I post a deck list and have folks look at it.
I do have some templates I work with for deck archetypes I've built before:
Stompy:
Mana Curve 16x1cc / 12x2cc / 8x3cc / 4x4cc / 1 Hurricane. 16 land. The creatures have to give as much bang for the buck and is allowed to have a drawback like Rogue Elephant.
Control Deck with Blue: 24 lands. 16x counterspells like in T2: 4x Counterspell, 4x Rewind, 4x Miscalculation, 2x Power Sink, 1x Thwart, 1x Misdirection, 4 Brainstorms and 2x Morphlings. If I'm using another color splashed in I focus on that color's strength and go for it, like Red; I'll add four Seal of Fire, 4x Lunge and 2x Hammer of Bogardens. If Black; I'll add 4x Terror, 4x Massacare, and two Engineered Plague. If White, I'll add 4x Wrath of God, 4x Disenchant or Seal of Cleansing, and two Story Circles. If green, well I just use my standard ConTroll deck.

 

[Spiderman]

Tag Guard

Magic Jackal: Is Yellowjacket in the game? He wasn't on your list in the Battle forums. Did he slip through? If so, I think you ought to clear up the confusion of whether you can say "Tag Guard' in the subject line.

On topic: I generally go the way Daenen goes: find a card and find good other cards that go with it. I tend to build creature decks though; hardly any combos, although soft locks are okay (like Stasis). As such, I try to keep a fair amount of creature and enchantment removal. Depending of the creatures I'm using, I might use artifact mana to speed up production (if they're fatties). I also initially keep 24 slots open to land, although that can change when "gold-fishing" with the deck or how the mana curve actually is.

 

[Griffith_se]

I'm Sorry,

What's "Gold-Fishing"?

[me][/me]

[Edited by Griffith_se on May 1st, 2000 at 09:42 AM]

 

[Gizmo]

It is a term with a long convoluted past.
Goldfishes don`t do much, in fact all they do all day is swim around going 'Plurp, Plurp', you can therefore imagine that they would be very little opposition were you to challenge them to a game of Magic.
Goldfishing is simply a one-player game of Magic, draw your hand, and play the first few turns (or a whole game) with your deck. Keep doing this and it will quickly show you if you have made any major errors in land distribution, or any bad combos you put in. You might feel you need more counters, or a little more mass-removal.
It`s just a simple way of testing your deck.

 

[Daenen]

So THAT's what it's called. I always called it Solitare.

 

[Griffith_se]

Hi,

I sort of do it the same way. Only I pick a kill method about 2/3 and 1/3 to force it, or to defend Myself. 2/3, 1/3 not including land.

[me][/me]

 

[galtwish]

For a T2 creature rush deck
18-24 creatures (nearly pure Power/toughness/CC considerations)
16-20 burn, enhancers
0-4 utility
17-22 Land (including manlands)

for T2 midrange control deck
4-10 card drawers (can combine with other categories, like Yavimaya Elder)
10-16 creatures (chosen for survivability, like Albino Troll, River Boa, Morphling, Masticore)
12-16 Control Theme (land destruction, counterspells, hand destruction)
23-27 Land (including port, manlands, etc)

Hard Control decks should be about 20-28 threat removal spells (counters, disenchant, wrath, shock)
2-6 roads to victory (including Stroking out an opponent in the 45th turn)
24-30 mana sources

Combo decks build themselves. Given the above examples, here are two T2 decks

4 Goblin Patrol
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Raider
2 Goblin War Buggy/Goblin King
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Scent of Cinder
4 Reckless Abandon
4 Flame Rift
18 Mountian

R/W Utility
4 Academy Rector
4 Ghitu Slinger
4 Radiant's Dragoons
4 Masticore
1 Scald
1 Worship
1 Angelic Chorus
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Confiscate
3 Parallax Wave
1 Serenity
1 Spiritual Asylum
4 Seal of Cleansing
4 Seal of Fire
2 Hammer of Bogardan
2 Forbidding Watchtower
2 High Market
2 Ghitu Encampment
4 City of Brass
7 Plains
7 Mountians

Strange decks come along every once in a while (9 Land Stompy, Accelerated Blue) that defy basic deck building priciples, but I try to build decks (especially casual decks) that never leave me holding my ---- in the wind. Card economy/drawing is key to any deck, and doubly so when building a multiplayer deck. The ultimate in card economy is producing a threat your opponent can't deal with, i.e. no matter how many cards they try to throw at it, it will not go away. The above goblin deck cannot deal with Worship and Thermal Glider on the other side, not matter how many cards it draws.

Erik