General deck building tips!

[Nirosen]

Mathematically running a 60 card deck gives you the best chance to get any spell at any given time. I've talked about in a few other post but i'll say it again here. There is a basic rule when u start deck building.

It's Called the
Rule of Nine

This rule helps the deck have a focused direction and higher consistency and makes it easier to change as you play and test it.

First you pick the nine cards that will make up the core of your deck. Only 9. Once you have picked these nine you will have 4 copies of each. this will give you 36 cards with 24 slots left open for lands. After doing this you will have a "First Draft" version of your deck. Play with it, Play against your friends and at this point you may notice that the strategy isn't working or you missing a crucial card. This is the point where you may want to take 1 or 2 cards down to 3 copies to make room for 2 copies of another card etc.

Ps. If your going to play extended or legacy mana ramping is important the best things to do is look at tournament lvl version of the deck you are trying to build and try to understand why each card has its place there.

Now for the best Gf in the world that was actually talked into playing magic, god bless your soul.

A very easy way to figure out mana is to count all the mana symbols in your deck exclude the colorless ones. Once you do that you make a ratio and that gives you your split. for example:

Your Deck has 4 cards...
1uu - card 1
uu - card 2
bbb - card 3
b - card 4

So you have 4 blue(u) mana symbols
And 4 Black(b) mana symbols
This gives you a 50:50 split

so if you have another deck that has 9u:3b you have a 3:1 ratio so for every 3 blue mana you will want to have 1 black mana.

It may seem a little confusing at first but once you get the hang of it you will always have reliable mana : )

[Ian]

I'm going to sticky this thread and use it to collect deck building tips that people post on this forum.

Of course, add in any you would like to share with other users! :-)

Ian

[Nirosen]

I was planning on making a deck building 101 Post and go thru all the colors/ combinations and such. I'm nowhere near an amaizing magic player nor deck builder but I think a lot of people could use a post that helps them develope a good foundation. Maybe Sunday i'll sit down and write one.

PS: I am flattered to have one of my post stickied.

Edit: Ok so mabey no this sunday but soon : )

[NickFlamel]

I would be very gratified if you would do this, it would help keep the forum clear of some repeat types of questions.
Another thing that would be cool is that if you wrote something about unadvisable decks, eg, 5 card win combos, or how to make a deck that doesn't get shut down, card advantage, and the meta game(All for beginning tournament players)
These are just ideas, they might help some people who haven't learned about these things yet.
p.s. nice article

[visno]

another general rule of thumb:

your deck should on average be composed of somewhere between 30-40% mana producing cards, with about 70% of it being lands or 0 cost mana producers.

[Karthwine]

You never need one of any card. If it's good enough for the deck, it's at least good enough to have two.

[Seth]

Mathematically running a 60 card deck gives you the best chance to get any spell at any given time. I've talked about in a few other post but i'll say it again here. There is a basic rule when u start deck building.

This is not really true, 60 cards is the minimum amount of cards one is allowed to have to make a legal deck and because of this is it is the optimal minimum. If 7 cards were alowed people would run 7 card decks.

Also 60 cards, being the minimum is the optimal amount of cards for 1 vs 1 tournament play where people start at 20 life. In multiplayer games deckbuilding is an entirely different ballgame. 60 cards becomes a weakness rather then a strength as a single game can easily take several hours and you will mill your own deck. It also becomes harder to have an answer to everything in a 60 card deck.

So yes 60 cards is fine if you have a single purpose like aggro or combo decks and you are racing. For control decks who try to stall the early game this 60 card limit becomes less important.


It's Called the
Rule of Nine

This rule helps the deck have a focused direction and higher consistency and makes it easier to change as you play and test it.

First you pick the nine cards that will make up the core of your deck. Only 9. Once you have picked these nine you will have 4 copies of each. this will give you 36 cards with 24 slots left open for lands.

This is an interesting appraoch but in my opinion you are making it look far too simple. Lets say my favourite 9 cards all cost 9 mana and more. Playing 4 of each just doesn't make a deck. It does not work like that.

The important concepts of deck building are mana curve and mana fix.

These 3 points should be taken into account when building a deck:

- The mana cost of your spell should determine how many copies you play.
- The color of mana required should determine how many copies you play
- The importance of a card for winning the game should determine how many copies you play.

For tournament play there is a pretty basic rule that says if it costs more then 4 mana it better win you the game or it is not worth playing. Though there are exceptions to this rule it is a good starting point.

Mana Cost

If a spell costs more then 4 mana you should not play 4 copies simply because you don't need these cards in your opening hand (they will be dead cards for many turns). If these cards are part of a combo or if they are your only win condition you can play 4 despite their mana cost.

Type of Mana

A spell like Cruel Ultimatum is obviously more difficult to cast then a mono colored spell of the same converted mana cost. This should be taken into account as well. If your deck has lots of mana fix or you play lots of dual lands and fetch you might not care about the type of mana a spell cost. This depends on the meta game however. Obviously in tournament play like legacy where there is a lot of land removal even your duals won't cut it.

Concept and Aim

Rather then build a deck around 9 cards I would suggest building a deck around a concept, an archtype if you will. Do you want a fast aggro or combo deck that wants a short game or will you make a control deck that is able to handle any type of game. This is very important as a control deck needs means to stall the early game so it can dominate the mid to late game where an aggro deck most of the time does not care about the mid and late game and just wants a fast and efficient kill. This plays an important part in your choice of cards.

For instance I could make a control deck with a single card as win condition, a Nicol Bolas Planeswalker for instance can serve this purpose. That means I have a lot of open card slots to spend on anti cards that shut down my opponent.


Basic deck building tips

A good basic rule for a 60 card deck is the 20/20/20 rule meaning 20 land, 20 spells and 20 creatures. This is your template and you change these proportions based on your card choice.

If you play lots of spells that cost more then 3 mana play more land 22-26. 20 will be your minimum unless you are building a legacy tourney deck in which case this post will be pretty useless to you anyway.

Build in multiple victory conditions, for example a green deck with lots of mana accelleration can play a single Rude Awakening as an alternative kill while it will usually win using big creatures the rude awakening serves as a backup plan. Adding 1 mountain and a fireball to that deck adds another win condition. The more versatile a deck the stronger it becomes. Spells like Thought Hemorrhage, cranial Extraction, extirpate and the likes won't hurt you as much and you'll have a deck that is harder to predict by your opponent. He might opt to spend his last counter countering a creature that will kill him in 3 turns while your alternate kill can now finish him right away.

hope this helped some of the new players on this site

cheers

Seth

[bigben2009]

this rule is definitely the standard for begining deck builders, but one factor to take into consideration is the type of deck, as well as the types of creatures and spells you should include.

For example, if you are building a token deck (my personal favorite), with say 4 squirrel nest, then you can afford to put less creatures in; as long as the creatures SUPPORT the enchantments. This frees up more slots to ensure that those enchantments stay in the game, such as protection and resurrection spells and enchantments.

Another way to cheat is with the mana. I like to put mana creatures into my token decks, these are creatures that either continually produce mana or allow you to get more out when it is sacrificed (Diligent Farmhand). Make sure these are cards that could be played on the first turn (1 mana cost).

Now, lets say I was making a Green Token Deck, this deck is inherently weak against blue and black decks since most of the cards are enchantments and the few creatures are essential to the deck. Well, since so much of the deck is used for spells, I have plenty of room for backups (I like to throw in 4 fogs). To counter black Destroy effects throw in a couple of protection spells and artifacts (Whispersilk Cloak), and to counter black Flying and Prevent effects throw in a couple of Life Gain and and cards that allow you to return enchantments and spells from the graveyard.

The theory is that you will be able to survive long enough to still play/return all of the essential cards long after they have used up the ability to prevent it

Good ideas for the sideboard are cards that allow you to benefit from the type of deck your opponent is playing (eg. "Gain 1 life every time a ____ spell is played") or that negates the effect of their deck (Quietus Spike is extrodinarily effective at countering Life Gain decks).

If you follow these rules you should end up with a token deck that is 60-70 cards big and is a match for any type of deck. Also, with this type of deck it is possible to have a mana curve of 2-3 (Like my Squirrel/Wolf token deck).

If you would like to view my deck it is called Attack of the Giant Tokens

[THC-Shrine]

this is prolly going to be one of the longest running threads on this site

[pelican]

You never need one of any card. If it's good enough for the deck, it's at least good enough to have two.

following this logic, you could easily say if its good enough to have 2 then its good enough to have 3

in certain formats its very common only to play 1 copy of various cards. if youre playing a deck which has many card draw spell or search spells, 1 copy is often all you need to certain utility cards

i.e. if im playing a land destruction deck which runs wasteland and strip mine i dont really NEED crucible of worlds but if i could draw it it would often be very useful, so therefore i might only play one, to give me that option when i draw demonic tutor, vampiric tutor etc. This now give me several cards which will enable me to get crucible of worlds into play yet without having to put 3-4 copies in the deck wasting space(especially where crucible of worlds is useless in certain circumstances and completely redundant to draw multiple copies

[marvelcardcollector]

How do I post a deck with MTG Vault? I've tried signing in away from the forums site and using the main page. It says click the register link that it sent me but I did not get a link to click on. By the way I can still post in forums. I think my account is stuck. How do I fix it? Thanks.

[WyLL]

thanks for the tip, because of you i was able to build what i believe to be a good deck.

[Krivenextreme]

i have played the game for many years and always ran 20 land never really have mana issues what is the benifit of running 24 lands?

[NightLoki]

I don't want to go through all the math right now, but with 24 lands you have a better than average chance of hitting your 6th land drop on turn 6 without getting flooded with too many lands. 20 lands might work for you if your curve's low and/or your deck's fast, but it varies. 24 tends to be a good starting point for the average deck.

[goblinguide]

Perhaps you want to build a standard deck in the current format.

1) Are you familiar with the cards in the set - even if you do not own all of them?

2) Are you familiar with any current decks being used in tournaments?

3) What kind of decks are popular where you play?

4) What kind of player are you (this has to do with your temperment and personality)?

5) Are you familiar with the new game mechanics, i.e. Landfall or the rules for Planeswalkers, etc.

6) How will my deck win or what is its win condition? Many players actually do not comprehend the importance of this and in a 2 out of 3 matches timed event they play on, for example, against a Control deck which is happy to win slowly so there isn't enough time for a second or third match. So if you can't realistically reach your win condition save the time for a second and third tie breaking match.

7) Do you have a relaistic win condition and implementable strategy?

8) Do I know what the 15 side board cards are for? Have I written notes so I know specifically which cards to add and which ones to remove when I sideboard against a deck.

9) This is a postulate or general rule and applies as appropriate, but like the rule of 9 (4 x 9 = 36) which establishes your core nine cards and how they interact is good. You are duplicating how those 9 cards interact. For example, the 9 core cards in a Kor Soldier deck may be Kor Duelist, Kitesail Apprentice, Brave the Elements, Armament Master, Trailblazer's Boots, Kor Firewalker, Kor Outfitter, Kor Skyfisher, and Magebane Armor - in order of casting cost.
Some of the new comes into play effects of mana (Lands) such as Sejiri Steppe should be counted in your land ratio, although if used they add synergy to your 9 core cards. My general rule is the rule of 3. If you wouldn't at least run three copies in your deck leave it out.
Exception: The Mana curve by groups and outliers. I like at least one card that cost one mana in my opening hand, two that cost two mana to play, one that cost three mana, and only one that cost 4 or more mana in my opening hand along with 2 or 3 lands depending on the average mana cost of my deck and whether or not I am playing two colors and or have a lot of cards that require two of the same type of mana symbols to be played. So in the Core group above I had 12 one casting cost spells, 20 two casting spells and 4 three casting cost spells. So add 5 lands for a single color deck and 6 lands for a dual colored deck. Try your miniature 15 or 16 card deck against another deck to play test it. What worked well, what didn't work well, or did you discover any surprises? Make some notes. In the above miny deck I noticed that I didn't consistently get enough artifact spells in my opening hand so a ratio of 2/9 isn't high enough. So 4 more artifacts may be needed. A weenie creature deck has less land and therefore less of the 3, 4, or higher casting cards than a deck with more land. The Kor Soldier deck, for example, has no 4 casting cost spells.

10) Card advantage, efficiency, and time (as it applies to a card game - not time for alloted match). Time proceeds in turns in Magic the Gathering. Efficiency involves how many turns it takes to play your cards on average based on your deck design and card advantage means that as play progresses you obtain more cards than your opponent. Do you understand your deck from this frame of reference? Lets consider some tradeoffs.
If black plays a tap land on turn 1. On turn 2 plays a basic land then plays Sign in Blood - draw two cards to replace one. On turn 3 plays a land and plays blightning doing three damage to an opponent and causing the opponent to discard two cards for one card played. That is a net card advantage of two cards in three turns. But was it efficient? White's Kor deck plays a Trusty Machete (Artifact equipment) turn 1. Turn 2 plays a Kor Outfitter and equips with machete. Turn 3 attacks for 4 points of damage. Then plays Armament Master and leaves one mana unused and holds a Brave the Elements Instant. So if white played first 9 cards were drawn, 6 permanents are in play after 3 turns, two are discarded, and 1 remains in hand. Black playing second has drawn 12 cards, has 3 lands in play and has seven cards in hand. Black has 14 life versus 17 life for white. How would you evaluate this? Can black's card advantage neutralize the real threats that are in play? Equipment in some respects acts like multiple cards because besides permanently boosting the creature's capabilities it is attached over and over again like it is a new card. So if it requires two spells to destroy a creature wearing equipment then white soon gains the card advantage. White's efficiency is on par with black's card advantage in this scenario!

These tips should give you a framework for building your deck - if you believe a Goblinguide - although i cannot remember if I've forgotten more than I've learned about MtG.

[goblinguide]

Very good. One of the interesting things about MtG is how Mages of each color break the Universal rules. For example:
1) A hand has at most 7 cards at the end of turn or one has to discard.
2) Land is only played one per turn.
3) We take turns
4) We draw only one card per turn
5) Cards in the discard pyle (Graveyard are typically off limits)
6) We generally do not know in advance what the next card will be.
7) Generally we get just one creature per card played.
That is seven good examples - perhaps you wise mages can think of others - after all I'm a Goblin and have trouble finding my hame home each night - mostly because Goblins have to sleep somewhere different every night! We aren't very tidy. Have you looked at the card "Ancient Stirrings"? Once I misatkenly went back to the same place and woke covered in worms - fortunately, Wolves don't like worms!
So some mages and decks break the universal rules.:mad: Green mages:manag: have been known to generate more mana than other mages and can play creatures that cost four or five mana on turn 3. Isn't that cheating? Imagine 3 small Goblins trying a sneak attack only to encounter a snake, wolf,......we almost avoided them, but splat...an elephant came out of no where.:eek: I litterally made it by a toe - because the Wolf bit my big toe because I was slower than the other two Goblins. The wolf jerked me just before the "splat...". The wolf choked on my fungus ridden big toe's nail and I hopped away on one foot which confused the snake! Drawing more than one card - I can't remember one spell let alone two so knowing the future would just confuse me. I once encountered a young wizard :manau:who let me pass.:D I asked him why he looked so forlorned and hadn't boomeranged me. He said he knew the future and it didn't look good for him! So I'd rather take one day at a time. I finally remembered one of the other Universal rules - I guess I forgot because it generally dooesn't apply to me. Goblins are always in a haste. We get into a lot of bad situations by not thinking things through - like when we charged across that open field and ran into a snake, wolf, and elephant. Goblins have bad eyesight - how could we have missed an elephant AIEEEE! So the 8th rule) Creatures must be in play for a turn (go through an untap phase) before they can attack. Well I hope I opened up your imagination - let me know how a white mage violates the rules because my head hurts and I can't remember.:confused:

[Ian]

Thanks for all the tips guys n gals! Keep it up!

Ian

[mortenya]

i'll add one that i've learned recently:

as important as it is to have the right amount and ratio of land in your multicolor decks, it is equally (if not even more) important to have some form of mana fixing.

what i mean is, lets say i'm playing grixis (B/U/R) but all i have are my R and U lands, no swamps, and no multi lands out and it is turn 6. if i had used that terramorphic expanse instead of just tossing it, then i could using to search for the color i need rather than just praying for the right card next. because it never shows up.

i've also run into the problem in dual color decks where i don't have the multi lads to add to it. 1 plains and 5 islands doesn't do me any good when i see WW in the casting cost.

[goblinguide]

In current Standard (Eldrazi, M10, etc) the "fetch" lands that fetch a land "untapped" are expensive - $10 a pop since it requires quite a few pack purchases to acquire them. But to reduce the chance of being mana screwed because of a certain color, and dual mana symbols in the casting cost of a spell, decks that want to run more than one color and be consistently competitive require them. In a Pro-Tour qualifier, for example, which has more than 5 rounds followed by a play-off (top eight, etc.) decks will eliminate themselves from contention simply by getting bad land draws in one of the rounds. So to play dual or tri colors in order to play multiple Plainswalkers, Spreading Seas, and Day of Judgement, etc. consistent mana draws are key.
For a mere one life a fetch land can even get a land during your opponent's turn. Hint- do not use its ability until you need the mana - so if someone attempts to destroy it (non-basic land) or attach a Spreading Seas to it then use its ability which will cause their spell or effect to fizzle which means they have also squandered valuable resources!
Of course MtG wants to sell lots of packs so rares are important to compete, but I support local store owners who throw in "rareless" Standard tournaments to give everyone an opportunity to compete on equal ground since most of the common and uncommon cards are easy to obtain. So deck design, how you play, and the meta game will come into play but everyone can build something competitive.
But if fetch lands are breaking your bank (they do mine) try one color weenie decks. But even when two weenie decks built the same except for lands (fetch lands) the deck that can get land out of its deck without it coming into play tapped stands a better statistical chance over a number of matches of drawing that card/spell/equipment that leads to an advantage which otherwise may not be drawn. So if fetch lands remove 2 of 22 lands from my deck when I want to draw a creature, spell, or artifact (equipment perhaps) I have better odds of doing that in a randomized deck.
After 2 turns a deck that used 2 fetch lands has this deck ratio: 18 lands/50 (all cards) versus a deck without fetch lands (or not played on first 2 turns) 20/52 is 38 % versus 38 1/2 %. That 1/2 % of being more likely to draw a land impacts play significantly and is generally worth the 2 life paid for the cards drawing advantage. And as more Fetch lands are drawn and played in lieu of basic lands that 1/2% difference jumps to a full 1 % or more advantage.
So cards that have dual mana symbols of the same land type pose a statisitical risk. The tradeoff had better be an advantage of another type if utilizing these cards in a dual or tri color deck. For example, a creature protected from the color of deck you are facing may offset the disadvantage of key card draws (top decking), especially if it drawn in your opening hand.

[goblinguide]

Some new ones are "totem armor" for enchantments or "levelers" in Rise of Aldrazi. Allies was a new introduction, which seems an improvement over "tribal" cards. Repeated mechanics or re-introduced mechanics include "deathtouch" and spells/abilites that "tap".

There are two way to evaluate them generally. First is to determine which sets and colors have the mechanic and how many cards of a color have the mechanic. Compare the quantity, casting cost, and utility of the cards. Which color seems to benefit the most from a mechanic. Black mages seem to benefit from the "cycling" mechanic, because not only did it help you draw deeper into the deck to reach a key card, but it helped you get key cards in the graveyard which is one of a black mages's methods of disrupting the universl rules. Generally, one or two of the five colors (six if colorless is added) has an advantage over the others for certain mechanics.

Second is to compare mechanics to other mechanics. Do you prefer totem armor over levelers? In draft, such preferences can be very important to help you draft efficiently. Drafting cards that enhance the mechanic that your drafted cards may focus around, i.e. leveling
can be advantageous. Venerated Teacher, although not a leveler, adds synergy by rising all your levlers two levels when it comes into play. This can save mana and time normally required to increase a creatures level such that its power/toughness/ability may impact the game construct. On the other hand Aura Finesse complements Auras and Totem Armor. It also allows an extra card draw.

I'm evaluating a deck built around the mechanic of tapping, for example, and a key card "sleep" which is only uncommon. It doesn't target the creatures just a player and only impacts "all" your targeted opponent's creatures.
My list has sleep, Paralysing Grasp, Twitch, Wall of Frost, Alluring Siren (creatures forced to attack have to tap unless they have vigilence) Tempest Owl, and Surrakar Banaisher (which returns tapped creatures to a player's hands & complements the mechanic). Can you add others to the list?
What static ability(s) or mechanics are a hindrance to the tap mechanic? Vigilance is a minor one (takes Siren out of the equation) Another one is shroud - fortunately Sleep gets around it since it doesn't target as I mentioned above - like Day of judgement "all" is the key operative word. Be cautious of cards that use the word "all" as they can definately be game changing or altering.

[D_ROC]

what if i have just a little splash of one color in my deck what do you think the minimum # of lands should be ?because my ratio would be 2:7 and i would only have 5 or 6 lands of the splashed color. suggestions please

thank you everyone who posted here, noobs need to know these kind of things and i'm sure will appreciate it, I know i do. :)

[Slayerfan231]

what if i have just a little splash of one color in my deck what do you think the minimum # of lands should be ?because my ratio would be 2:7 and i would only have 5 or 6 lands of the splashed color. suggestions please

thank you everyone who posted here, noobs need to know these kind of things and i'm sure will appreciate it, I know i do. :)

Check out the sticky post General Mana Ratio 101.

[Vigilentfool***]

I have a question about protection. If I have a card that has protection from color X and it's a 2/2, can that 2/2 block any creature that is color X (as long as it doesn't have flying) or does that creature still get destroyed?

[tpgh]

the creature that has protection will be able to block any creature like normal (flying, reach, shadow, etc).

if it has protection from a given color and the attacking creature is of the same color (let's say protection black) then your green creature with pro black can block the black creature and the green creature will not die.

[doramide7]

I would be very gratified if you would do this, it would help keep the forum clear of some repeat types of questions.
Another thing that would be cool is that if you wrote something about unadvisable decks, eg, 5 card win combos, or how to make a deck that doesn't get shut down, card advantage, and the meta game(All for beginning tournament players)
These are just ideas, they might help some people who haven't learned about these things yet.
p.s. nice article


your deck should on average be composed of somewhere between 30-40% mana producing cards, with about 70% of it being lands or 0 cost mana producers.

[DavidF]

I'd like to expand the "9 cards theory" a bit.

When creating a deck, before selecting cards you'll have to determine what type of deck you are constructing.

Begin firstly by selecting 3 creatures, and 3 spells that go well with the chosen theme of the deck. Next chose 3 cards that you determine will protect, support or amplify previously chosen cards.

You now have 9 cards as a basis for your deck that should nearly be a 1 per 3 ratio of creatures, spells and lands. 2/3 of your spells should be doing what your deck is ment to do, and 1/3 of your spells should give your cards the advantage and speed required.



Also try to keep in mind the 1O1D guidelines. Magic is a game of resources - be it life, cards, mana or creatures. Your cards are either designed to take one (or more) of these resources from your opponent (being an offensive card) or either protecting (or adding to) your resources, being a defensive card.

The thumb rule of 1O1D is having a 1 offensive card per 1 defensive card ratio, making the deck able to be agressive and defensive at an equal ratio.

When analyzing cards out of this perspective, notice the cards being both offensive and defensive at the same time, such as "target player looses 2 life, you gain 2 life". These cards that both takes resoruces from your opponent while adding to your own. Simply put, these cards are "unfair" as they are both 1D1O in a single card slot.

Cheers

[fockerthelopper]

You never need one of any card. If it's good enough for the deck, it's at least good enough to have two.

Not true, my friend has a deck based around fauna shaman, elf piper and emrakul one emrakul is enough for that deck.

Also in my eldrazi deck I have a couple of high mana cost spells that I only have and need one (disaster radius, world at war, overwhelming stampede etc.)

[nikole95.7]

this is prolly going to be one of the longest running threads on this site

in certain formats its very common only to play 1 copy of various cards. if youre playing a deck which has many card draw spell or search spells, 1 copy is often all you need to certain utility cards

[cherylfoster]

I don't know very well about this game.This is nice game to play.I think that I just need to understand the rules of the game.Thanks for sharing basic deck building tips for the beginers in the game.

[magimatt]

I have a new deck and i would like tht peple go rate ir pls.
It`s name is Skyshroud. :)
Hope u guys will like it!

[MDO]

I use a web app that I developed: http://magicdeckoptimizer.com/

The idea is to introduce the cards you want in your deck, and the "perfect behavior" you want for that deck. The app will tell you the card quantities that makes more probable (optimal) that your deck behaves in the perfect way.

Hope it helps!

[jiggs]

I was going through my files at home and I've found 1 interesting article that was published in the duelist (magazine for MTG) back in the 90's since we have here a thread for deck development and discussion, I feel that the article is appropiate for deck builders that wants to know if the deck they built is in the right track. the article talks about playtesting your new deck with your self. there are types of decks that was popular back then that is still usable today (although we have to update the card samples here ). without further ado i present the MTG playtest pets!

(I tried to post a new thread for this but the forum is closed for new threads.. oh well)

It's Magic day at your game club tomorrow, and you have a new deck idea you want to try out. You've picked out some spells that should work well together, and added a reasonable number of lands. Now you want to test it out, and do some tuning before you take it up against the tournament-level decks tomorrow. But you're home alone, and it's too late to call a friend. If only you could teach your pet to play....

Well, your pet can't really play Magic, but with a bit of imagination, it can inspire some good ways to test out a new deck. Various players swear by different tests, ranging from just dealing out several hands and checking to see whether you'd be able to cast any spells the first turn, to playing a duel against yourself using one of your other decks. The pet-inspired tests here are meant to give you some measurement of your deck's strengths or weaknesses, and how it's likely to fare when facing certain types of real decks. They also let you get used to playing the cards in your deck, and help you figure out your best combinations, which cards you need to protect with Counterspells, etc.

Goldfish

A goldfish is a rather boring pet: it doesn't do much, and you can't really interact with it. It just swims around in its bowl, and then one day the cat eats it or you come in and find it floating belly-up.

The most basic deck-test (originally called "The Test" on Usenet) is very much like a goldfish: it's an opponent who doesn't do anything. All you have to do is deal 20 points of damage as quickly as possible. (If your deck can't deal 20 points of damage against a defenseless opponent, it's time to give up Magic and start playing Go Fish. Unless, of course, it's a "jujitsu" deck—see below.)

Count how many turns it takes to kill the fish. Do this several times, and average the results to get a measure of the sheer brute power of your deck. Five or less is an amazing score, usually possible only with extremely lucky shuffles or a deck loaded with out-of-print cards. A more typical fast deck will score seven or eight fairly consistently. If your deck consistently scores over ten, you're likely to get chewed up by faster decks.

Exceptions to this are jujitsu-style decks—those that do almost nothing on their own, but turn all your opponent's forces against him. None of these tests will really give a good measure of a jujitsu deck's abilities. Also, the Goldfish opponent has no hand, so Black Vise and The Rack don't deal any damage and Hymn to Tourach is pointless. Decks based around these concepts will do better against real opponents than the Goldfish test would indicate. But even a jujitsu or hand-manipulation deck should have a few cards capable of dealing normal damage in case of an uncooperative opponent, so the test is still fair.

Turtles

A turtle lives in a bowl like a goldfish, but is better at defending itself. If anything bothers it, the turtle just holes up inside its shell. Some Magic decks are like turtles: they don't really do much, but they have good defenses. The Turtle test measures a deck's ability to cope with this type of strategy.

For this test, the Turtle starts out with an Ivory Tower and six Circles of Protection in play (one of each color, plus a Circle of Protection: Artifacts). Every time you draw a land (whether you play it or not), the Turtle immediately adds the exact same land to his cards in play, for free. The Turtle never plays any cards other than the free lands, and doesn't use any non-basic land's special abilities (for instance, Maze of Ith's tapping ability or Strip Mine's land-destruction capability). The Turtle also draws a card every turn, trying to maintain a full hand of seven cards to gain as much life from the Ivory Tower as possible. Discard decks can interfere with this, and Vise decks can take advantage of it, especially if you destroy the Tower. The Turtle will always prevent as much damage as possible.

We won't even try to give "average" scores for this or the rest of the pet tests, because they vary so widely. The Turtle test is a lot tougher than the Goldfish, and players with decks that have no way of dealing with enchantments may consider it unfair. Fighting a Turtle can be frustrating. You may not have dealt any damage by the time you would have destroyed a Goldfish completely. (But look at the bright side—at least a Turtle won't replace his Circles once you destroy them, or play Karma or any of the other color-specific spells, like a real opponent might!)

Turtles are far from invulnerable, though, no matter what colors you play. The simple ways to beat a Turtle are: 1) destroy one or more of the appropriate Circles, 2) destroy or tap enough of the Turtle's lands so he can't power the Circles, or 3) overrun him with so many sources of damage that he can't stop them all. Other approaches include using Sleight of Mind (to change the color a Circle protects against), casting Manabarbs or Psychic Venom on his lands (if he taps a land to power a Circle, then he takes additional damage from the enchantment and has to power more Circles) or Feedback and Power Leak on the Circles, and, of course, Gloom and Ghostly Flame. A few anti-artifact cards, to get rid of the Ivory Tower, can keep him from building up too much life before you get past the Circles.

Snakes

Most pet snakes are constrictors: they wrap around their prey and squeeze it to death. The Snake test is a simple measure of a deck's resistance to squeezing. The Snake opponent starts the game with two Black Vises in play. (Yes, this means that you'll take six points of damage the first turn, and will likely take another four or six the second turn!) Other than that, use the same rules as the Goldfish test. Unlike the Goldfish or Turtle, though, the Snake can win a duel—that squeezing gets painful fast if you can't reduce your hand size. So you'll need to keep track of your win/loss ratio instead of (or in addition to) the number of turns it takes to win when figuring your deck's Snake score.

If your deck has few or no low-cost spells, you'll usually lose to the Snake, and most jujitsu and "permission" decks will lose even more quickly since most of their spells can't be cast unless the opponent tries to do something. If you find this test too harsh, you can reduce it to a single Vise, or give the Snake only one Vise at the beginning of the game and a second Vise two or three turns later. Does this seem unlikely? Keep in mind that a real sixty-card deck with four Black Vises in it has about a 45% chance of getting one out on the first turn, and about a 15% chance of drawing two of them within the first four turns of the game, without using any library-searching spells. A Black Vise or two is often the difference in many real duels. A successful deck should be able to deal with the constrictions of a Snake.

If you prefer venomous snakes instead of constrictors, use the Rabbit test (below) but substitute Marsh Vipers for the rabbits. And be sure to keep a snakebite kit on hand....

Parakeets

Parakeets usually come in pairs, and when they're not hopping around on the floor or on the perches of their cage, they fly. And unlike goldfish, they sometimes bite.

The Parakeet test, in one or more variations, has been floating around the Internet for over a year. It's almost as quick and easy as the Goldfish test, and is, like the Goldfish, a measure of the brute power of your deck—with a slight bow to realism.

The Parakeet starts the game with Drudge Skeletons (1/1 black regenerating creature) and Phantom Monster (3/3 blue flier). The Monster attacks whenever it isn't futile to do so, until you manage to get rid of it somehow. You're attacked by Drudge Skeletons if you have no creatures or nothing it could block. It blocks the most dangerous creature when you attack, and regenerates whenever necessary. Other than that, follow the Goldfish rules.

Rabbits & Rats

Think of rabbits, and you're likely to think of the phrase "breeding like rabbits." The Rabbit test has a number of variants, but they all work pretty much the same way. The basic Rabbit gets one free Drudge Rabbit (1/1 colorless regenerating creature) every turn. Drudge Rabbits regenerate whenever necessary, for no cost. The Rabbit will attack whenever she can do so, but will always try to leave enough Drudges untapped to block all of your blockable creatures. Other than that, the Rabbit follows the Goldfish rules.

Other variants of the basic Rabbit test replace the Drudge Rabbits with either Will-O'-Rabbits (0/1 colorless regenerating fliers—these never attack, for obvious reasons), Scryb Rabbits (1/1 colorless fliers), or Rabbit Thallids (1/1 green creature). All of the Rabbit tests give a crude measurement of how well your deck will do against a "weenie" or "horde" deck. For an extra challenge, give the Rabbit a Meekstone and/or a Winter Orb, since many weenie decks make use of these cards.

Tom Pitt of CompuServe uses a very tough Rabbit variant called the Rat test. The Rat opponent gets one free Plague Rats each turn, and always attacks with half of her rats (rounding down) whenever able to do so. The rest of the rats will block in whatever way is most effective. If you attack with any flying creatures, then half (rounded up) of the untapped rats gain flying until the end of the turn. If you play a CoP: Black, it lasts for only three turns and is then destroyed.

Another variant on the Rabbit test, suggested by Izzy Gambliel of Metro Seattle Gamers, is the Angel test. The Angel opponent does nothing for the first four turns, but then gets one free Serra Angel (4/4 white flier, attacking doesn't cause it to tap) every turn. She attacks whenever she has a chance of dealing damage to you or killing one of your creatures, and blocks whenever possible. This simulates decks which take a while to get rolling, but pump out large creatures as soon as they have sufficient mana.

Cats

Cats don't play Magic. They consider it beneath their dignity.

Dogs

Dogs are very smart, and, contrary to popular belief, you can teach an old dog new tricks. The Dog test is really a form of solitaire Magic. Take some of your extra basic lands (equal numbers of each type) and shuffle them together. Then choose one action to correspond with each land type. These actions can be anything you want; you can make the duel as easy or as challenging as you want by varying them, or make it simulate a particular type of deck. You can restrict the Dog to casting spells that fit his available mana, or you can ignore the mana entirely, or count the amount of available mana but ignore the color.

For example, you might pick:

Island: Dog does nothing now, but Counterspells the next spell you cast. The Counterspell costs no mana.

Swamp: If Dog has four or fewer lands, he plays a Will-O'-The-Wisp. Otherwise, he plays a Sengir Vampire.

Mountain: If Dog has three or fewer lands in play, he Lightning Bolts you. Otherwise, he hits you with a Disintegrate for as many points as he has lands.

Forest: If Dog has only one land, he plays a Scryb Sprites; if two lands, a Grizzly Bears; three lands, Land Leeches; four lands, Giant Spider; five lands, Durkwood Boars; six or more lands, Craw Wurm.

Plains: Dog plays a Circle of Protection for whichever color you're using most that isn't already protected against, or CoP: Artifacts if you have more artifact creatures than colored ones. (Pretend the casting cost is just if Dog has only one land.)

For this particular set of Dog rules, Dog must tap the appropriate number of lands for the casting cost of his spells, but ignores the color requirements for the creatures which need two or more of one color to summon.

Each time that it's Dog's turn, flip over the top card from the pile of lands and put it into play in Dog's territory. Dog then does whatever action you assigned to that land, and then attacks if it's profitable to do so. When you attack, Dog will defend and/or prevent the damage in the most effective way you can think of. (Dogs are smart, remember?)

Now What?

As you played your deck against the various pets, you probably noticed some problems. Perhaps you had trouble getting enough mana, or you had plenty of mana but not the right color, or way too much mana and not enough spells to cast. Perhaps you did well against Goldfish and Rabbits, but died a horrible death when your opponents produced larger creatures. Perhaps you got squeezed to death every time by the Snake. Or perhaps you romped easily through all of them.

Whatever happened, you certainly learned something about how your deck behaves. You can use that information to tune your deck. You may want to add more land, or take some out. You may want to add some larger creatures, or anti-creature spells. You may want to add some cheap, easy-to-cast spells. You may want to junk the deck altogether and start over with a new concept. Or you may pack it away carefully, take it to the club tomorrow, and hope you do as well against humans.

Whatever you do, don't forget to feed your pet.

and that the article. some cards needs to be updated but our members can modify this by posting suggestions. hope this helps!

[dannycolledge]

First you pick the nine cards that will make up the core of your deck. Only 9. Once you have picked these nine you will have 4 copies of each. this will give you 36 cards with 24 slots left open for lands. After doing this you will have a "First Draft" version of your deck. Play with it, Play against your friends and at this point you may notice that the strategy isn't working or you missing a crucial card. This is the point where you may want to take 1 or 2 cards down to 3 copies to make room for 2 copies of another card etc.



The trouble with saying this is the fact that legendary creatures don't normally require 4 as after the 1st is in play your drawing dead cards. The other problem is with restricted cards you can only have 1. I'd recommend new players who have bought a collection make sure if they use this tactic for deck building they check the banned and restricted lists before playing it.

After play testing the deck what you may find is that you dont need 4 of each so cut a few down to 3 or 2 and then add in other cards which could help the deck run more smoothly.

[cawblader009]

Hi Guys,

I would like you to rate my build for caw blade. Below

Creatures:

4 Squadron Hawk
2 Sun Titan
4 Stoneforge Mystic

Artifacts:

1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Bonehoard
1 Batterskull
2 Tumble Magnet

Sorcery:

3 Day of Judgement
4 Preordain

Instant

2 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Leak
2 Stoic Rebuttal

Enchantment:

3 Journey to Nowhere

Lands:

3 Tectonic Edge
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Celestial Colonade
3 Island
4 Plains

Planeswalker:

2 Jace Beleren

Sideboard

1 Tumble Magnet
2 Gideon Jura
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Spell Pierce
3 Celestial Purge
3 Flashfreeze
4 Divine Offering

That's all my build without JTMS coz it is too expensive much.

I hope that my build is good already without TMS. :)

[marshall91t]

Hey Guys, I've been playing MTG for about 3 weeks now and was wondering if i could get an opinion on my current deck, its the first one I've ever built, let me know of any improvements.

Link: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=185767

Thanks

Marshall

[softpretzel]

what card could pull earlier killed small creatures from the graveyard onto the battlefield again

[truegrave18]

what card could pull earlier killed small creatures from the graveyard onto the battlefield again

I would go with a plainswalker....Liliana Vess she will let you pull all creature cards from all libraries and put them on the battlefield under your control....good times:D

[SavajCabbaj]

Comment condensed for Brevity's sake. (Brevity is my pet cat).

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that :)

[MercMadness]

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=217609

i wanted to make a deck that was very affordable.my creatures are there to control the battlefield to how i see fit, while damage is actually done by the opponent tapping there lands, or mana skimmer to do it for them. spells r there to make the opponent think im all tapped, then suddenly untapping all to attack or one just to chump block. and the best part......ONLY 13 DOLLARS. plz post so i can twick

[sethbodine]

Basic deck building tips

A good basic rule for a 60 card deck is the 20/20/20 rule meaning 20 land, 20 spells and 20 creatures. This is your template and you change these proportions based on your card choice.

A template that I used to use a lot (and still use sometimes), is to start out the deck with a ratio of 2 land cards per 3 non-land cards, for instance in a sixty card deck 24 lands and 36 non-lands. This may seem like a little bit too much mana, but if you get mana swamped you can always shift down the number of lands. In general, this strategy is most useful when you design a deck that contains say, forty non-land cards in it. One simple calculation later, and you know how many lands you will need to get a working prototype. This strategy is also useful for newer players, because newer players (Myself included) seem to tend to start out designing decks that have rather high mana curves. A slightly larger ratio of lands than the 20/20/20 deck design can help to compensate for that. One shortcoming of this strategy is that it lumps instants, sorceries, and non-land permanents together in one group. One bonus to it is that if you are designing a sixty card deck, this land strategy forces you to figure out what you truly need to make the deck work, cutting out cards that can potentially slow you down. Plus, again, if when the deck is complete you find yourself mana flooded, it is a simple matter of knocking out four lands and dropping in a playset of something useful. It tends to be easier to cut lands out of a deck design than to put them in, so its better to aim a little higher anyway.

[randombum]

A very easy way to figure out mana is to count all the mana symbols in your deck exclude the colorless ones. Once you do that you make a ratio and that gives you your split. for example:

Your Deck has 4 cards...
1uu - card 1
uu - card 2
bbb - card 3
b - card 4

So you have 4 blue(u) mana symbols
And 4 Black(b) mana symbols
This gives you a 50:50 split

so if you have another deck that has 9u:3b you have a 3:1 ratio so for every 3 blue mana you will want to have 1 black mana.


I have to disagree, This works if you are quickly making a casual play deck but if you have high cmc cards than you need a more effective strategy:

You need to give your cards a sort of point system:

Each card gets x :manau: points where x=the number of :manau: symbols in mana cost/cmc, and so on until you have done each card that has :manau: in its cost (record these numbers on a sheet of paper), this even manages multi-colors.

Now add the results for :manau: together and round of the result to the nearest whole number. repeat this for all of the colors in your deck.

Now count your cards (including land) that can produce mana and you want to put in but cards that can produce more than 1 coler count as y where y is the number of mana colers that it can produce and you can use(so for instance Manalith in a :manaw::manag::manau: deck counts as 3)

So in a :manaw::manag::manau: deck you now have on your sheat of paper a number that represents :manau:, a number that represents :manaw:, a number that represents :manag: and a number that represents total land.

You add the total :manaw::manag: and :manau: together (keep the old numbers you will need them later) and divide by the number of land. Call this number THE RATIO.

Now devide the :manau: number by THE RATIO and round off. This is the number of cards that produce :manau: that you will need.

Repeat for the other colors.

if this isn't quite working then add a little to the lowest color and remove a little from the highest or remove a color.