1

(1 replies, posted in MTG California)

To save anyone else the trouble of looking, PTQ Santa Clara is being held March 1st at the Santa Clara Convention Center, which is at 5001 Great American Parkway.

Saturday, March 1st has a standard tournament, CDubSurf says there is Modern on Sunday, too.

Posted my thoughts on the deck. Definite room for improvement, but I like what the deck does.

Hi there! Welcome.
I've been meaning to post for a few days, but have been pretty busy.

You want to build what's called a "constructed" deck. These decks are very different from draft decks, because you're pretty much going up against people's best - and their collection or war chest.
Since you're new to the game, your pool of cards is just smaller than your competition's, and it will be very difficult to build a decent deck that competes with them with what you just have (sorry!). I've actually tried, here and here, using the cards that you put in your inventory, but wasn't satisfied with the end results - they needed more of the cards that enable the deck to do what they wanted to do or had severe weaknesses.

So you'll kinda need to get more cards then, huh? Yes, -ish.
Standard has a roughly 2-year period, and you're trying to enter it with cards from only the past 6 months. So there's a bit of catching up to do there. But I don't recommend buying booster packs from older sets and hoping you get lucky. I hate to recommend it, but until your collection gets bigger going forward, you should consider buying the missing pieces you need for a deck you build.

Good news is, people are sheep, and expensive cards are expensive because of supply and demand. There are plenty of ways to make a good deck on the cheap. Mainly: just use the good cards that are common (high supply) or aren't popular (low demand)!


So! I have one temporary recommendation to help you get started:
I recommend you start with a mono-colored deck.
They're easier to play, more consistent, and can help you get the ropes of the game. Additionally they don't require expensive dual lands. Of the colors, I recommend either mono-red or mono-black. They're the most straightforward and have lots of good but inexpensive cards. I specifically don't recommend starting with mono-green, as green has more weaknesses, or blind spots, than any of the other colors (to make up for it getting the "strongest" creatures, I guess). Green usually goes excellently with another color that fills the gaps.

Want a concrete example?
I encourage you to take a look at my Welcome to the Necropolis deck. Not a single card goes for over 99 cents, so you can pick it all up for a $20 I'm sure.
I've played it several times and it does well.
It's an aggro deck with lots of synergy. It hits them with small creatures early, and makes them bigger or keeps hitting with them later with intimidate. Deathtouch helps your attackers go through, or buys time on defense until you get a Mogis's Marauder for an alpha strike or a Gift of Orzhova to fly over them. Have a Rakdos Cackler that can't block but attacking would be suicide? Make it your opponent's loss by trading it with Slum Reaper. Placing Ordeal of Erebos on your unleashed Cackler or Thrill-Kill Assassin means it will trigger only the second time you swing. Putting a Dark Favor on your Tormented Hero means you get 6 damage in already by turn 2 if they don't have a blocker. Enchant or bestow Agent of Fates with anything to make them lose a man. Bestow Spiteful Returned on a creature, and even if they block twice he will still connect 4 damage.


Anyway, I hope that all helps. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Also, I apologize if I'm coming across in any way condescending - that's not my intention at all. I intend my teaching style to be very thorough, but I know I have this problem at times.

Welcome, again!

Frostburn Weird seems like a card that would help a lot here. It's a 1/4 for 2 mana that can turn into a 4/1 and inbetween. With that body it can both stall and kill.

One thing that slightly saddens me is the lack of any 3-drop cards, especially since you're running Pyretic Ritual.
But on both that front and the mana-ramp front, Grinning Ignus comes to mind. Good card, check it out.

Both these cards are inexpensive commons.