Building a Magic Deck

I've posted on my general enjoyment of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) here and discussed staple cards here.  Today's post focuses on a key aspect of the game: deck building.

Half of the fun of MTG (or any collectible card game) is preparing- building your deck.  Collectible card games like MTG give players complete control of  how their decks are constructed, allowing for near-infinite variety and countless strategies.  In 'normal' tabletop games, you have nothing to do or prepare before the game.  In MTG, preparation is essential if you want to have any chance of success.  So build your deck carefully- and today I'll give you high-level principles for how to do so.  There are four that I use:

1) Pick a theme (and format)

This is the necessary first step, as your theme dictates your general approach and choice of color(s) to use.  Will you be aggressive and fast-paced, or patient and controlling?  Do you prefer playing some colors to others?  We could continue to list questions . . . but the bottom line is this: you need an initial theme before anything else can happen.

Your theme can be chosen based on any number of things:

• Cards you have (or want)
• Some cards just have certain appeal to people, for all kinds of reasons (cool creature, cool ability, cool art . . . you name it).  If you have a card you love, start there!
• Combinations or synergies of interest
• Maybe it's not one card that's standing out to you, but a combination of two or more.  A synergetic combination of cards is often a staple of competitive decks, so starting here is never a bad idea.
• Expansions you enjoy
• Each MTG expansion has a theme.  It could be gothic (like Innistrad), tribal (like Lorwyn), artifacts (like Mirrodin), or lots of other things.  If a given expansion appeals to you, you may want to start there when building a deck.
• Mechanics you like
• Each MTG expansion has mechanics that feature strongly in it.  Mechanics are generally keywords specific to a certain set.  The current expansion (Shadows Over Innistrad), for example, has keywords like madness and delirium that you may want to build a deck around.
• Colors you like
• Remember that MTG has five colors of mana: white, blue, black, red, and green.  Each has its own tendencies, strengths, and drawbacks.  The color wheel below summarizes themes found in each; a good color overview (as well as good deck building tips) can be found here from the official source; the page here is also a good summary.  Some people play only one or two colors based on their preferences.

the five colors (picture sourced from pinterest)

You also need to consider the format you're playing.  There are many ways to play MTG, and the format will determine (among other things) which cards are legal to include in a deck.  You also need to remember the power level- in other words, are you competing in a pro-level tournament, local event, or playing casually with friends?  Don't bring a knife to a gunfight . . . or vice-versa.

2) Create a good mana base

There are essentially two types of MTG cards: those that produce mana (usually lands) and those that consume mana (creatures, enchantments, sorceries, instants, planeswalkers, and artifacts).  You could have the best cards in the world . . . but if you can't pay the cost to play them, they'll never see the light of day.

A typical MTG deck size is 60 cards.  Generally speaking, you want 40% of these (24 cards) to be lands.  This makes it probable that you'll draw enough of them throughout the course of the game.  If you draw too few (or too many), you'll experience 'mana screw' (too little land) or 'mana flood' (too much)- and either diminishes your chance of victory greatly.

The lands you choose are of course dependent upon the color(s) you're playing.  If you have a mono-green theme, then forests- basic lands that produce green mana- will probably suffice.  Multi-colored decks must balance the ratios of lands accordingly.  For example, if you're playing a blue/black deck, and two-thirds of the cards are blue, then two-thirds of your lands should be capable of producing blue mana.

3) Balance offense and defense

Good decks are flexible, meaning they can be victorious in a range of scenarios, under a range of conditions.  To do that, they need a mixture of offense and defense.

Offense 
By offense, I mean carrying out your theme or strategy (which you chose, at least in part, in step 1).  It could revolve around card combos, building swarms of small creatures, or myriad other things.  Whatever it is, now is the time to choose cards that are well-suited to execute your plan of attack.

Regardless of theme, you need to include a finisher- a 'bomb' of some kind.  The ultimate goal is winning- reducing your opponent to 0 life.  You can effectively carry out themes, but if you don't finish well, your decks will fizzle.  I'm very good at doing this (unfortunately).  For example, I once built a deck on a 'discard' theme.  I packed my deck with cards that forced my opponent to discard.  It worked wonderfully, in that my opponent had no cards in his hand.  However, once that was accomplished, I had no big creatures or other means of reducing his life total to 0.  So the rest of the game was a stalemate of sorts: he could do nothing, but I had no means of winning.  Remember the end goal.

Defense
By defense, I mean countering your opponent's strategy.  If you allow your opponent to do what he/she wants unchecked, it probably won't end well for you.  There are many ways to disrupt your opponent.  For example, cards that say things like:
- destroy or exile target [x], where [x] could = creature, enchantment, land, artifact, etc.
- return target [x] to its owner's hand
- counter target spell
- prevent damage
- target opponent discards [x] cards

Below are nine examples of great disruptive cards.  Note that each color tends to have its specialty (some are better at removing enchantments or artifacts, some at countering spells, some at destroying creatures, etc.).

If you don't include defensive cards, there's a chance your opponent could play something that would instantly render your strategy impossible to execute.  So heed my warning, and include these.

The ratio of offense to defense
Generally, you'll have more offensive than defensive cards, but it can vary widely.  Aggressive decks tend to focus more on offense; 'control' decks on defense (at least early in the game).  Either way, you have about 36 cards to play with (remember, ~24 of them will be lands), and I'd choose at least 20% of those to be defensive cards.

Other thoughts on balance
Your deck should probably have a mix of creature and non-creature (enchantment, sorcery, instant, planeswalker, and artifact) spells.  Again, this can vary widely, but each card type has benefits and drawbacks, so use a variety for balance and flexibility.

4) Respect the mana curve

My final tip: remember the mana curve.  Each spell has a cost- the quantity of mana it takes to play it.  Basically, some of your cards should have low cost, most should have medium cost, and some should have high cost.  It should look like a bell curve when plotted on a chart.  By low/medium/high cost, this is what I mean:

• low (cost is 0-2)
• medium (cost is 3-5)
• high (cost is 6+)

Generally, the more powerful spells cost more . . . but if you include only those in your deck, your opponent will beat you before you have chance to play them (this happened to my friend- he included only high-cost cards in his deck and lost before getting to play anything).  So choose your spells carefully.

If your initial deck design has a disproportionate number of low- or high-cost cards, it's not inherently bad- if you account for it.  For lots of low-cost cards, make sure you have some sort of card drawing mechanism to accelerate your strategy.  For lots of high-cost cards, make sure you have some sort of 'mana accelerator' (like playing creatures that generate mana, or spells that let you search your deck for more land) to play the expensive spells sooner.

The resource here gives you stats on your deck, to include the mana curve.

Conclusion

Build your deck wisely if you want to have even a chance of being successful.  There are many online resources to help- take advantage, and have fun!

Interested in reading more?  Official thoughts are here, and some deck building types here.