Hi there all,

Just recently started playing and I'm experimenting with building decks for the first time. I'm not as familiar with the entire Magic universe as many of you may be, so I'm wondering if there are cards I would just never know about unless told to me by word-of-mouth. Maybe what I'm doing with my deck could be doing what it should be doing better if I had a certain card? Perhaps the deck's just not as focused as I'd like to think it is? I'd love a wide variety of feedback.

http://deckbox.org/sets/479624

It's a blue and white deck with a focus on humans and spirits, with spirits being the main recipients of power ups and the humans ample opportunities to re-emerge from the graveyard if killed. I'm attempting to keep it exactly at 60 cards and I tend to like having ~25 land, usually no less than 23. Are there other perspectives on how many land should be contained in a basic 60 card deck. I hear back and forth between 20 and 25. I suppose a happy medium, then.

It's nice to (sort of) meet you all and I'm looking forward to any suggestions. I really appreciate it.

How are you playing your deck? Casually with friends? Planning on going to events at the local game shop? Do you plan to keep the deck in a standard format (see link below)? That can change people's advice a lot.

In general there's nothing "wrong" with your strategy. You need to shore it up some and get a more focused strategy, by obtaining more copies of important cards. Also, you need to decide what kind of deck you want to play. You have a little aggro a little control (see descriptions below). Blue and white have the ability to completely control the game and you can decide to win with whatever win condition you want. For tokens and taking advantage of your humans/spirits/etc, I believe that black and white provide more here. Cards like Xathrid necromancer, blood artist, cartel aristocrat combo so well, with cards like champion of the parish and doomed Traveler it's ridiculous.

magic formats
http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/resources.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/resources/formats-sanctioned

As far as basic deckbuilding strategy goes.

Archetypes – There are more specific strategies for building decks associate with one of the 3 main archetypes.

Aggro – typically 26-30 creatures, a hand full of removal or burn spells and just enough lands to make sure you can cast your most expensive spells, usually a 4 or 5 cost creature will be the most expensive you’ll play in these decks. These decks build on a pyramid of creatures with 1 drops making up the base, then 2s, 3s, and the top of the mana curve being 4 and maybe… maybe a 5 cost creature or 2. Typical load outs will be as follows.
a. 1 drops – 8-12
b. 2 drops – 8-10
c. 3 drops – 6 - 8
d. 4,5 drops – 4 - 6
e. Lands – 20-22
f. Spells – 6 – 8
Typically no spells with X in the cost you won’t have enough to cast them to any great effect.
Midrange – most mid-range decks run between 12 and 20 creatures with some typically being mana ramping creatures. The creatures that are played usually provide “value” they do more than one thing or are ability packed, provide some kind of combo or provide a measure of control in addition to being threatening on the battlefield. These decks will usually have lots of removal or stall, 12-15 spells, removal or life gain cards with x in the cost, and spells that help them draw or get them card advantage.

Control decks – the only reason you’re allowed to play cards against a control deck is because they let you. That’s the goal. They pack cards that wipe the board and let them search their decks for the cards they need to defeat you. The main goal here is to have the card they need when they need it to stop you from doing what you need to do to win. These are high level decks and require a lot of experience and thought to play.



Mana Base – As a rule of thumb you want a 1/3rd or more of your deck to be mana at a minimum. See some basic guidelines below. Notes these are lands not count other mana sources.
20-22 - Low cost aggro decks, usually topping out at a 4 cost card.
23-25 – typical midrange setup with ramp, fetch, or mana dorks. This will support larger cost creatures and spells and fuel cards with X casting costs.
25-26 – Some control decks will run this amount of mana to make sure they can consistently play their spells without mana fetching or mana ramp.
Less or More – running less lands or more lands than what’s listed here isn’t recommended unless you have a fine tuned and perfected strategy for what you’re trying to do


Resources to expand your knowledge .
gatherer.wizards.com/
• Rules on specific cards and just a general good tool for searching through all the different cards magic has to offer.
www.reddit.com/r/spikes/
www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/
www.reddit.com/r/magicdeckbuilding
• Spikes provides discussion on the competitive environment in magic
• Deckbuilding is pretty obvious, just another resource for people looking for help building decks.
• Magictcg is just a general discussion forum about all kinds of magic topics.
wiki.mtgsalvation.com/
• Rules database and general knowledge about the game.
www.draftmagic.com/
• Videos and articles about drafting and limited formats.
www.starcitygames.com/
www.tcgplayer.com/
www.channelfireball.com/
• Online stores for magic as well as some of the best written articles concerning magic topics.

I realize it'll take a while and he provided a LOT of reading, but elpablo has really given you some great resources and I cannot stress enough following through and reading up on what he's offered as it will help you immensely.

elpablo wrote:How are you playing your deck? Casually with friends? Planning on going to events at the local game shop? Do you plan to keep the deck in a standard format (see link below)? That can change people's advice a lot.

I honestly doubt I'll play any tournaments with this deck (or any really.) I mainly got into this for the purpose of playing with friends. So I'll probably keep it VINTAGE or MODERN.

Do tournaments tend to stay STANDARD?

elpablo wrote:In general there's nothing "wrong" with your strategy. You need to shore it up some and get a more focused strategy, by obtaining more copies of important cards.

The biggest thing I'm wondering is if there is just no way around having duplicates in a deck. I'm not necessarily against it, though I do like the variety of different cards. I'm assuming their must be a way to capitalize on both, in that there must be such a variety that different cards can do similar things to others. I've already noticed some crossover. Perhaps this is an absurd question.

And, elpablo, thank you for all the resources. It's nice to have the stuff I need to know streamlined for me. I really appreciate it.

It's a little overwhelming with the massive amount of cards and ways to play, but certainly keeps it interesting.

Hope it helps, i've been collecting info in a document and saving it thought this would be a good time to share some of it.

As far as tournaments go, most FNMs are standard but not all. Some are modern or legacy, though it's harder to find people willing to play legacy because a competitive deck (sometimes even a fun one) can be as or more expensive than a top tier standard deck. If you use wizards event page you can probably find shops and tournaments in your area that are the desired format.

Playing with friends is good, but playing against other people challenge you and force you to think differently about the plays you make.

Deck construction can be a tricky thing... there are plenty of reasons to only run 1 of a particular card in a deck. However, it's all about statistics. If there is a card in your deck and you really need it to win, then having only one in the deck drives the likelihood of drawing it down and makes it statistically invalid. A lot of decks that run a card at a 1 of or a 2 of, only need those cards late in the game or run other cards that provide similar but different effects so that one card or the other may be slightly favored in a given situation.

Your deck as it's constructed is really kind of all over the place. A more focused plan will make the deck more consistent and fun to play. Right now it's like you're playing a deck of cards with only one "4" and six Jacks. Your chances are all lopsided and the math won't work in your favor.