Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (
More info?)
"M C" <hawaiian_punch66@fkshdjkshkjsh.com> wrote in message
news:XigWe.26358$Z31.18392@fe50.usenetserver.com...
>I am brand spanking new to M:tG. I am looking for web sites or forums or
>old usenet articles that dicuss deck building for beginners. I am trying
>to read all the newsgroups and have learned some things but mostly about
>specific cards and events, not much about "if your opponent has X type of
>deck you may want to try these cards or build a Y type of deck."
Sorry, I can't help you much with sites or forums.. but here's some advice
and suggestions.
1. Very basically, there are three types of decks: Aggro (aggressive, I beat
you over the head with as many creatures as I can), Control (I stop you from
being able to play or use your cards, until I win with one or two
creatures), and Combo (I ignore you until I have my combo available, at
which point I outright kill you). When you start playing, you will probably
play an Aggro deck, as they are generally the simplest and easiest decks to
pilot. Just remember not to play all your creatures as soon as you can
without good reason.
2. A *VERY* basic casual Aggro deck formula is this: 20 creatures, 20 lands,
20 spells. If you're playing casual, you generally have more time to build
up your resources, so operating with 'only' 20 sources of mana is ok. Once
you really get the hang of how the game operates, you can start looking at
building it under your own rules. Most tournament-level decks in ANY format
run somewhere around 24 slots for mana in a 60-card deck; more for control
decks, less for aggressive decks. But for a deck just to have fun with, a
20/20/20 gives you a good mix of everything, and it's easy enough to
remember. Also, one other note: You can have any number of basic lands in
your deck that you want. Most other cards are maxed out at four copies of
each.
3. Don't clog your deck with the high-costing stuff. If you run 20 lands and
all your creatures and spells cost four or more? You'll be sitting there, on
average, for the first five or six turns not being able to do anything
except maybe dropping land into play, which doesn't make for a fun game. As
a very rough estimate, at least 75% of your non-mana slots should cost under
four mana, and probably at least two-thirds of THAT should be around 1 or 2
mana. (So, 60 cards, 20 for mana leaves 40 cards, 30 should cost under four,
and 20 of that should be 1-2; in other words, 20 cards at 1-2 mana, 10 more
at 1-3 mana, and 10 at whatever cost you want.) Keep in mind, these are VERY
rough numbers, but you want a reasonable chance of being able to play
something earlier rather than later. When you design your decks later, or
start looking at decklists online, you may see numbers outside these
ranges - a deck based on Mishra's Workshop and Goblin Welder, or the Urza
lands in 8th and 9th Edition, can handle cards with much larger mana costs
because the lands can produce so much mana. Just remember not to jam all the
BIG stuff in without a way to handle it all, and you'll be ok.
4. You saw me mention formats in point #2. There are five different major
formats for the game. A synopsis of the biggests ones is as follows:
- Type 1, aka Vintage. Allows cards from every set except the Un-sets (ie
Unhinged and Unglued), and until October 20th won't allow cards from the
Starter/Portal sets either. Banned cards are ante cards and manual dexterity
cards (ie, cards that require you to physically manipulate them oddly, such
as flipping them in the air). Restricted cards are simply too powerful to
allow more than one of in your deck.
- Type 1.5, aka Legacy. Type 1's kid brother. Follows the same sets as Type
1, but has its own Banned/Restricted list. For the most part, the more
disgustingly-powerful cards in Type 1 (which are Restricted there) are
Banned in Legacy - but there's a few cards you can run 4 of in Legacy that
are Restricted in Vintage.
- Type 1.x, aka Extended. The half-breed of Type 1 and Type 2 (see below).
Currently allows cards from Sixth Edition and Tempest on up; this will
change on October 20, when (after a three-year cycle) it will be reduced to
7th Edition and Invasion on up - and Ravnica (the new set to come out -
prerelease is the weekend of September 24) will be made legal for it and all
other formats.
- Type 2, aka Standard. The definition for Standard is the most recent base
set plus the two most recent blocks. Currently that is Mirrodin block
(Mirrodin, Darksteel, and Fifth Dawn) and Kamigawa block (Champions of
Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Saviors of Kamigawa); on October 20th,
Mirrodin will rotate out and Ravnica will take its place.
- Block Constructed. Each block has its own format available. For example,
there's Mirrodin Block Constructed, Kamigawa Block Constructed, and soon
there will be Ravnica Block Constructed. Cards from one block are generally
not allowed in a deck for another block.
There are other formats as well, such as Peasant Magic or Two-Headed Giant,
but most of them follow the rules for one of the other formats, with a
couple more restrictions (eg, Peasant Magic could be anything from Block to
Type 1, with the restricted list removed and replaced with 'No rares
allowed, no more than five uncommons, use the most common rarity for a
card's printing to determine its rarity). A list of the formats Wizards of
the Coast supports and the Banned/Restricted lists for them is available at
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=judge/resources/banned.
You said you're a beginner; hopefully this is enough to get you started.
Start with playing only a single color at first, and have fun with it.
Hope this helps!
Erich
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