Magic: The Gathering - Tips & Strategies

A great way to get started with Magic is to pick up a recent Duel Deck set at your favorite local game store (or even at big retailers like Wal-Mart or Target). The Duel Decks cost about $20 dollars and offer two complete fun decks that are very well balanced and have a good selection of cards that work well together.

Many of the Duel Decks are planeswalker vs. planeswalker sets which offer players a chance to experience this exciting type of card (many of which are very expensive as singles and extremely rare in booster packs). Each player has a specific planeswalker and a deck that is built to suit that planes walker’s unqiue style and full of flavor. The other Duel Decks that have been released in the recent past are faction vs. Faction, which offers a fun look into the various types of cards out there and a good introduction into the lore ofnthe Magic multiverse.

My husband and I have picked up several Duel Deck sets and thoroughly enjoyed each one. They all offer solid decks, help you learn the strategies and combos that make the game so fun to play, and are very well balanced against each other. In repeated plays we have not yet found one side or the other to be overpowered in any of the match ups.

Lilianna Vs. Garuk gives Pits the forces of darkness (Lilianna’s black deck) against the vast power of nature (Garuk’s Green deck) with two very different styles of play.

Phyrexia Vs the Coalition revists a famous battle in the history of the Magic multiverse, with a zombie ridden black Phyrexian deck against a 4 color (everything but black) deck full of interesting legendary creatures and dragons.

Elspeth Vs. Tezzeret pit a white soldier deck against a blue artifact deck with powerful and interesting planes walkers on each side.

Knights Vs. Dragons presents the classic battle between the chivalrous knights (white and green) against the fire breathing terrors of the sky (red deck).

With these sets we have had many hours of fun enjoying the flavorful themed decks, learned a number of new strategies and combinations, played with cool cards that would be too expensive to buy as singles, and experienced a series of evenly matched duels which often seem to end with the winner barely hanging in there. We enjoy games where it is close and tense all the way through, and these are one of the most balanced options I’ve found fro casual magic play.

Upcoming Duel Decks thatnhave been announced are Ajani Vs. Nicol Bolos and Vesner Vs. Koth, and hopefully they will continue to be amazing and a great value!.

Over the last 8 years or so blocks have become very cohesive and there is a lot of tournament support for block constructed and almost every draft your going to sit down for is going to be block. Many players will just shelve an older block when the newest hits the stores so they can remain focused on Standard. Those cards aren’t suddenly rotten, so why leave them to collect dust. Repurpose them into a CUBE!!

This assumes that most players will have enough cards to build one, but from my experience it should not be difficult for most to assemble. Here’s my suggestion: Since a lot of foundation cards for the block are going to be at the common slot and in the large set, include 2-3 of each common from the large set. then include one each of every remaining common and uncommon from the block. This lets you keep your rares and mythics in the trade binder if you want and create a diverse set of cards to work with. Draft at will and enjoy over and over.

The decks you create will not be nearly as powered as you expect from a cube, or even from a draft for that matter, but it’s a great way to get more mileage out of cards that you may not ever even look at again. ENJOY!

Introduction

This article gives you a basic, beginning method for building a deck for Magic: The Gathering. It is not the end of the subject – there are worlds of variants, special cases, exceptions, and alternatives that a more advanced player with a large pool of cards might confront. Instead, this article seeks to establish some basics of the game, giving you a style of play that will fit well in a wide variety of places and situations.

A deck is 60 cards…

Everyone knows that a basic Magic deck is 60 cards. But you are immediately confronted with the eternal question as soon as you start picking out those cards – how many land cards and how many other cards? Lands are necessary, but we don’t want too many because they don’t help us win the game directly. Other cards help us win, but we need land to put them into play.

Let’s take a look at three special cases to help us with this dilemma. These are as follows;

1) 20 land and 40 other cards
2) 25 land and 35 other cards
3) 30 land and 30 other cards

Most people would agree that in most cases, the first one is a bit too little and the third one is a bit too much. But, what we really need to know here is how likely it will be that we will draw a certain number of land over a certain number of cards. Let’s run some tests and see how many lands are drawn in our first 9 cards. Yes, you typically start the game with 7 cards, but if you go first, you’ll want to have played 3 lands on your third turn, by which time you will have had 9 cards. That is, this projection counts beyond the opening hand into the first few draws to improve the usefulness of our data.

So, if we draw a few opening hands with each deck structure… say 10,000,000 each, then we might get data that looks a bit like this;

number of land 30/30 results 25/35 results 20/40 results
0 10019 49673 168482
1 120151 410135 978230
2 606055 1392401 2327779
3 1640630 2544703 2958635
4 2648366 2769177 2219411
5 2636320 1856992 1015151
6 1619834 764543 282351
7 592813 186502 45947
8 116321 24540 3883
9 9491 1334 131

number of tries 10000000 10000000 10000000

There’s something subtle to notice here. Even with such a different land to non-land ratios, we see in each case that we hit a sweet spot. For 30/30 it’s a bit above 4, for 25/35 it’s between 3 and 4, and for 20/40 it’s closer to 3. That’s not much of a spread considering the very different constructions. This data tells us that it is best to pitch the average cost of a card at about 3 in almost any deck! We should, therefore, build a deck with about 24/36 to 26/34 and an average converted mana cost of about 3. This will help our deck play as consistently as possible, absolutely minimizing the number of mana floods and droughts.

The Cost Curve

If we know that the average cost of about 3 is best, we next need to consider how we’ll get an average of 3. We could just pile things together and average their costs, but it’s often easier to have a structure as way to remind us to have our costs fall along a regular curve. A regular curve is another way we build consistency. Take two examples, assuming 36 non-land cards;

1) 18 cards that cost 1, 18 cards that cost 6 = average cost 3.5
2) 6 cards each at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 = average cost 3.5

In the first example, we have 18 cards that will remain unplayable until we can get 6 lands in play! Even though the average cost is a good number, nearly 3, it is very likely that we’ll draw some cards we won’t be able to play before the game is over… and unplayable cards are useless cards. Instead, we should reduce the number of the most expensive cards. Similarly, we should avoid all cards that are very cheap; generally, they aren’t as powerful as cards that cost more mana. As our mana sweet spot is about 3.5 in 24/36 deck, we’ll probably want cards in the 2, 3, and 4 cost range, with a few quick cards at 1 and a few powerful, but expensive cards at 5 and 6 cost. Something like this perhaps;

4 at cost 1
6 at cost 2
8 at cost 3
8 at cost 4
6 at cost 5
4 at cost 6+

If we use this as a guideline, perhaps pulling one in one place and putting it in another from time to time, we’ll continue to maintain the deck that is most likely to play well – consistent and playing the best cards it can without drawing too many expensive or trivial cards.

Creatures versus Non-creatures

The game of Magic is generally won when you reduce your opponent from 20 life to 0. It’s fun and flashy to do this with a combo or to try to win in one of the alternate ways, but those are pretty advanced methods, highly specialized around certain cards. In general, the far more common method, the reliable and tested true way to get the job done is to attack with creatures. Whether swarming with fast little ones or controlling the game until your giant monster can command the field, you’re going to want a good portion of your non-land cards to be creatures. In practice, we can extend our cost curve, breaking each step into creatures and non-creatures. For example;

2 creatures and 2 other cards at cost 1
4 creatures and 2 other cards at cost 2
5 creatures and 3 other cards at cost 3
6 creatures and 2 other cards at cost 4
4 creatures and 2 other cards at cost 5
3 creatures and 1 other card at cost 6

This gives us 24 creatures and 12 other cards, making the majority of our cards the most useful and effective type of card – creatures. Note that generally as you go up in cost, it becomes harder to find worthwhile cards that are not creatures, so you may want to skew more towards creatures among the more expensive cards.

At this point we have a very effective basic structure, one which is pretty easy to fill in and roll. But a few additional tips can help even more.

Basic Strategy

Generally, you’re going to be best off with two colors. Each color in Magic is specialized around doing certain things with access to only some styles of offense or defense. When you build to one color, you’re missing complimentary effects that occur only in another color – no destroying enchantments in red and no direct damage in blue or green, for example. Beyond two colors in a deck and you are often stuck including many cards whose sole purpose is converting mana of one color to another or searching your deck for the right lands. Those are slots that could have been spent on taking it to the opponent. For the purposes of this guide, 3, 4, or 5 color decks are too hard to manage. So, when we pick a pair of colors, what are we looking for?

Essentially, all colors contribute one thing beyond their creatures – the ability to control the field of play. Thus, you want to look for cards that will let you render enemy creatures useless. Red does this by blowing them up. Green does this by making yours too big to stop. Blue does this by manipulating them, stopping them from entering play or sending them back to the hand. Black can damage them or simply annihilate them. And white can borrow many of the other colors effects in different ways. This is the most useful thing to add after creatures – things to eliminate enemy creatures.

It is also handy to be able to deal with other sorts of cards. Red and green are good against artifacts, white and green against enchantments, and blue can stop many things, but only temporarily or at a cost of your own development and black tries to empower you to race past difficulties in your way by sacrificing some things to get others.

As most of the game is about creatures, making sure your creatures are effective can be important. This means finding a way for them to get past enemy creatures if possible. Creatures that evade through special effects like flying or being unblockable are very powerful – they are often blue or black. Green uses trample to power through, and red does sometimes too. White will try to control the field, dictating who can block … or who survives long enough to block.

The major limiting factor on creatures is that the opponent will see them coming. To get that essential edge of surprise and flexibility to interrupt an opponent’s offense or defense and turn the tables in your favor, you’ll need surprises that leap from your hand at any moment to monkey wrench the situation. There’s nothing wrong with a slow Sorcery or Artifact if it is really good, but most of your non-creature cards should probably be Instants, cards you can play at a moment’s notice to turn things to your favor and set the tempo.

Creatures, creature removal, controlling other things on the field of play, making your creatures count with evasion or power, and the ability to surprise your opponent with instant speed effects are essential. No matter what pair of colors you choose, pick these effects first and often.

Color Ratios

When you play two colors, you’re going to have to split your land among the colors you end up with, but you’ll want to make sure the ratio of lands in each color match the amounts you’ll need to play your cards.

Generally, you’ll want to avoid cards with more than 2 repeated specific mana symbols. That is, if a card costs 3 green and 3 more, it better be a card that is very likely to win you the game – it has very specific costs as well as a high cost. Try to keep cards to only 1 or 2 of specific mana symbols in their cost as much as possible. This helps keep your deck consistent and reliable.

Another aspect of this is making sure that cards of each color occur at each cost level. If all your white cards are 4, 5, and 6 cost and all your red cards are 1, 2, and 3 cost, then you run the risk of not drawing spells of one color with land of the other.

To avoid this problem as much as possible, go through the cards you’ve selected and count the mana symbols on the casting cost of the cards. Let’s say, for example, you go through the deck and find 38 blue mana symbols and 22 black mana symbols. Reduce this ratio to the lowest common rough equivalent. 38:22 is almost 2:1 (40:20). In a deck with 24 land then, we want lands in this ratio – 2 Islands for every 1 Swamp – so 16 Islands and 8 Swamps. Perhaps, if we hit a few too many black cards with two black mana symbols in their cost and don’t have many like that in blue, we could go to 15 and 9 or even 14 and 10, but generally we’ll do quite well at 16:8.

Some Final Tips

At the beginning of the game, we want land, but as the game progresses, drawing land is less useful. Try to consider including cards that have effects on them that let you spend mana you aren’t using to cast new spells. These make good use of late lands. Or look for cards that let you discard cards from your hand for additional effects – discarding your 10th land card to give a creature +2/+2 turns a worthless land draw into a game winning play.

Cards that let you draw more cards or search your deck for cards are always worth considering. Remember, if the card does nothing but that, consider if you would have been better off drawing a different card instead, but finding that missing mana, the killer creature, or that decisive spell at just the right time is very powerful. And just drawing more cards every turn will find you tools to win almost as surely as searching.

Conclusion

Using this method, you can build the most consistent, reliable deck you can; it’s still a card game and you’ll always be subject to the vagaries of chance, but at least this way you aren’t giving bad luck extra help. A deck built using these guidelines will generally do well in almost any situation, but it is still just a basic deck. As you use a tool like this, you’ll begin to see opportunities play to different sorts of strategies or strengths and you’ll wander away from a basic deck to more advanced Magic… good luck!

Highlander is one of my favorite variants.

In Highlander, your deck must have at least 100 cards, and except for basic lands and basic snow-covered lands, it may not have any duplicates in the deck. That’s right, all unique cards. No sideboards are used (though I would allow them for the sake of “wish” cards) and all cards are allowed except for the banned cards below.

There is also a special mulligan rule where if your starting hand has 0, 1, or 7 basic lands in it, then you get a “free” mulligan. You can reshuffle your deck and draw 7 new cards. Afterwards, you may mulligan as normal and draw one less card each time.

Cards banned from the Highlander variant are:
Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Chaos Orb, Crop Rotation, Dust Bowl, Falling Star, Fastbond, Imperial Seal, Library of Alexandria, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Memory Jar, Mind Over Matter, Mind Twist, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Mystical Tutor, Power Artifact, Skullclamp, Sol Ring, Strip Mine, Time Walk, Timetwister, Tinker, Trinisphere, Umezawa’s Jitte, Vampiric Tutor, Wheel of Fortune, Worldgorger Dragon, all ante cards (Amulet of Quoz, Bronze Tablet, Contract from Below, Darkpact, Demonic Attorney, Jeweled Bird, Rebirth, Tempest Efreet, Timmerian Fiends), and all cards from Unglued and Unhinged except for basic lands.

One other format I’d like to mention is called Commander, previously known as Elder Dragon Highlander. This format is a trip, but it can be hard for newer players to get into. Read on to see if it’s something you might be interested in.

First and foremost, Commander is primarily a multiplayer format. It’s usually played as a free-for-all game. Attack anyone, no limited range of effect, alliances are tenuous at best. Classic, straightforward multi-player Magic.

The twist: You have 40 life. Your deck is 100 cards. No duplicates (other than basic lands). But one of those cards is very special indeed.

That special card is your Commander. It has to be a Legendary creature. It doesn’t go in your deck, but instead sits next to you. It’s always available to be played. Killing it only makes it more expensive to re-summon later.

The other, smaller twist: If one player’s commander deals 21+ damage to you over the course of the game (even if it dies, comes back and some guy takes control of it), you’re out.

The other, bigger twist: Your Commander’s colors determine what colors can go in your deck. If you want to build a deck around Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, it’s going to be Blue-Red, period. No red cards with green activation costs. No blue/white hybrid spells. Blue. Red. Artifacts and non-basic lands are fine, but they have to follow the rule too. Blue and red.

This little deck building twist makes things pretty interesting. Not only does your Commander put a restriction on how you can build your deck, the fact that you (almost) always have access to it means it will usually be a central part of how your deck operates. This creates an amazing amount of deck building space to explore.

The games themselves tend to be wide open. Multiplayer games tend to have a lot more elbow room, with plenty of time to develop. Combine that with huge starting life totals, and you end up playing games where players get to make some truly crazy things happen!

For new players, the singleton rule means you might have to dig deep to flesh out your deck. But Wizard’s Commander preconstructed decks are a great place to start. More established players are still going to have pretty crazy decks with tons of utterly broken cards but the political aspect can keep that in check to some degree, and if not, finding the right play group fixes the problem right up.

Links:
The Official Commander (aka, Elder Dragon Highlander) Page
Wizards’ Commander products page