Examining Blue: UW Pickles

I talked about Wafo Tapa Monoblue in the previous article, and now it's time to proceed to the GP Krakow winning list, the UW Pickles piloted by Paul Cheon. First of all, congrats to Paul for making level 6 and obviously this deck contributed a portion of the success. The deck looks pretty solid on paper, and further testing will justify whether the deck performs as solidly as it looks. Here is the original list of Paul's, where I've started testing.

UW Pickles Paul Cheon
2007 Grand Prix Krakow, Poland Format: Type II - LRW
Finished: 1st Place Number of Players: 847
Main Deck:
3 Brine Elemental
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Cryptic Command
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Rune Snag
3 Wrath of God
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Calciform Pools
3 Nimbus Maze
10 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Urza's Factory
Sideboard:
2 Aeon Chronicler
3 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Faerie Trickery
2 Jace Beleren
2 Magus of the Tabernacle
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Wrath of God

A general rule of thumb when copying a net deck; always test the original list before you make any modification. I know, it's a normal thing for everyone to have the urge to improve the deck once you see it, but before you actually applied any of the “improvements”, you should always test the original version to get the real feel of the deck. I mean, it won a GP on its strength, so who are we to question it? However, if you had tested it for a dozen of matches, you pretty much know how the deck works and you know what cards are appropriate for the specific metagame. For example, the UW Pickles was designed to take on a heavy creature field, therefore featuring many main deck hate like Phyrexian Iroofoot and Wrath of God maindeck and even more in the sideboard.

After testing dozens of matches with the original list, I found myself on the losing end instead of the winning road. The deck is actually a very complicated deck to play and faces many difficult decisions in every single turn. As the deck features both Wrath of God and a decent amount of creatures, you actually have to make the right decision on holding back or committing to the board as early as turn 3, with many more complicated decisions later to made, especially against aggro strategies. Surprisingly, it is a simpler match to play against control because there is less decisions to make. You simply charge up your lands, wait for your opponent to do something, and you catch them up with an end of turn Teferi, cast a few counters exhausting your opponent and go for the throat in your main phrase.

That being said, it was the original version. Here is my updated version of UW Pickles:
UW Pickles Terry Soh

Main Deck:
2 Aeon Chronicler
3 Brine Elemental
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
4 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Cryptic Command
4 Faerie Trickery
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Wrath of God
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Calciform Pools
3 Nimbus Maze
11 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Urza's Factory
Sideboard:
3 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Jace Beleren
2 Magus of the Tabernacle
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Remove Soul
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Wrath of God

I had taken out Rune Snag in place of maindeck Faerie Trickery. I know, Rune Snag suits the curve better and there is already plenty of three drops in the deck besides Faerie Trickery, but the fact that most people are aware that the deck runs 4 Rune Snag is a disadvantage. The deck has plenty of maindeck anti-creature elements such as Wrath of God, Oblivion Ring and Phyrexian Ironfoot and running 4 Rune Snag, which is much better against creature matchup anyways, does not help much in other midrange matchups. Most people either wait or cast cheaper spells rather than risking Rune Snag once you reached mid-game, since most people who read the internet knows the deck runs 4 Rune Snag.

I also had taken out Venser in place of maindeck Aeon Chronicler. I always felt that the deck has enough answers to permanents on board, and it lacked of some card drawing. I think Aeon fits the perfect role here as he serves as a win condition, defense and card advantage as well. Even if you disagree with the Aeon over Venser, I would definitely play a 4th Oblivion Ring in the maindeck and something else rather than Venser. Don't get me wrong, Venser is a great tempo card, but when you have better options and solutions in the other color, in this case white, why do you still want it anyway?

The land base is almost perfect, the only difference is I had taken out the 2nd Urza's Factory and added an Island because the deck actually has some hard times casting Cryptic Command, not to mention it is really bad to draw into 2 Urza's Factory. Pickles combo will get the job done most of the time.

The difference between my version and the original is...

+2 Aeon
+4 Faerie Trickery
+1 Snow Covered Island

-2 Venser,Shaper Savant
-4 Rune Snag
-1 Urza's Factory

Matchup Analysis

Straight-up Aggressive decks
+2 Magus of the Tabernacle
+3 Aven Riftwatcher
+2 Remove Soul
+1 Wrath of God

-4 Faerie Trickery
-2 Aeon Chonicler
-1 Brine Elemental
-1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

Most of the decks in this category do not have access to counterspells, and they are packed with quality creatures and removal such as Oblivion Ring, Eyeblight's Ending and Incinerate. You don't really need to counter much; you would rather have more direct hate such as Wrath of God, Magus of the Tabernacle etc. Remove Soul is still a fine option here since you don't have much too do on turn 2, and it is still a cheap removal compared to the expensive Faerie Trickery. Basically, the ideal plan is to stall the board with Ironfoot and Riftwatchers, forcing your opponent to overextend to the board. Once you felt it's time to reset, cast the Wrath of God.

Aggro-Control decks

(Against Faeries)
+3 Sower of Temptation
+3 Aven Riftwacher
+2 Remove Soul
+1 Oblivion Ring
+2 Magus of the Tabernacle

- 3 Wrath of God
- 4 Faerie Trickery
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot


(Against Mannequin)
+2 Remove Soul
+1 Teferi,mage of Zhalfir
-3 Wrath of God

I would define decks with counters and a couple of cheap creatures as aggro-control, and Mannequin is one of them despite not packing any countermagic. This is one of the most complicated matchup for you, as you have to take into consideration your opponent being able to counter your wrath effect and playing around it, since some of their creatures either is Wrath-proof such as Epochrasite or has flash such as faeries.

Therefore, I concluded that siding out all Wrath is the right way to go. Good players will never overextend like those straight aggressive decks and even if they do, they are pretty sure they can stop your Wrath with Thoughtseize, countermagic etc. The sideboard card to take out is easy; you take all Faerie Trickery out against faerie, obviously, along with Ironfoot since it doesn't block anything. Against Mannequin, it's a whole different dimension. It is actually better to keep all the Counterspells in the deck since most of their creatures are 187 creatures, therefore it is pointless to use an Oblivion Ring on a Mulldrifter or Shriekmaw, since they had got their job done if they are on the table. Ironfoot is one awesome creature against them as it singlehandily holds an army of Shadowmage, opposing Ironfoot and Shriekmaw all by himself. Teferi is good against them because they have four Epochrasite and four Riftwing Cloudskate as well as stopping them from doing dirty tricks with end of turn Mannequin. Again, they seldom commit much to the board, so Wrath is rather pointless. Once you stabilize, Pickles will get you there.

Control decks

+2 Jace Beleren
+1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
+1 Oblivion Ring
+3 Sower of Temptation

-3 Wrath of God
-4 Phyrexian Ironfoot

Wrath of God and Phyrexian Ironfoot are redundant in this matchup and naturally none of them stays after sideboard. Jace and Teferi are a no-brainer inclusion after boarding, but the rest require some explanation. You are the aggressive player in this matchup, as other deck such as Guile tends to have more countermagic than you. So you play in a different direction. You tend to have a lot of problematic permanents (after board) against them; almost all your cards are good threats by themselves and provide card advantage. In this case, the extra Oblivion Ring gives you protection from a resolved Teferi. Your own Sower is meant to fight opposing Sowers as well. You could also bring in Remove Soul instead of Sower, depending on your preference. It's just that the Sower plan is more rewarding if it managed to resolve.

I took it to an 8-man for the first time after testing it a bunch of times, and I meet Faeries. I kept a hand with 2 Faerie Trickery and that costs me a game. The 2nd game was all defending but I was never in a good position to lock him, and incoming fliers is something you can hardly deal with when they have counterpells as well.

The second 8-man I played against a deck whom goes turn 2 Oona's Prowler, turn 3 Mulldrifter, turn 4 Bonded Fetch, turn 5 Cairn Wanderer. Turns out he's a Reanimator. We both split the first two games and headed to the third. We headed to the third game where he actually discards on turn 2 after not playing a land and proceeded to win the match later. The deck was rather disappointing in the 8-man rather than the profit-making Guile deck. Perhaps I am not as skillful as Cheon is, or the deck really lacks of something. For all you out there wanting to test this deck, let me remind you. This is a very complicated deck to play, be very cautious on each decision you made each turn because it heavily affects your upcoming plan. There is hardly any auto pilot hand for this deck. Never the less, locking the hell out of your opponent is still a lot of fun. If you are the type of person whom enjoys solving complicated board puzzles, this is the deck for you.

by Terry Soh, magic.tcgplayer.com

One Pool, Three Decks

The story of a little bug begins at an innocent first birthday party for my girlfriend's niece. Some anonymous guest, hoping to get some delicious baked treats and a snapshot with the adorable baby, casually saunters into the party and pours some pop into a plastic container. Presumably, after partaking in said eating and picture-taking, the guest then places the unmarked container next to another unmarked container filled with the same substance. My girlfriend's sister-in-law, mistaking the anonymous guest's cup for her own, then drinks the vile serum.

Carnage ensues.

First the sister-in-law, then her cousin, then my girlfriend.

Then me.

Oh, what violence the 24-hour stomach flu hath wrought! The queasiness! The chills!

The Lorwyn Release Events? Sign me up for League #1064499, please!

I suppose being sick has its perks. Missing three classes and a lab ain't so bad when you can join a Sealed League. Especially when you go 5-0 in that League the same day. Especially when the pool is so damn interesting, you can build three different builds out of it before your day is through. Here's the pool:

White -
Summon the School
Favor of the Mighty
Dawnfluke
Goldmeadow Dodger
Harpoon Sniper
Hillcomber Giant
Judge of Currents
Kinsbaile Balloonist
Kithkin Healer
Oaken Brawler
Veteran of the Depths
Wellgabber Apothecary

Blue -
Broken Ambitions
Scattering Stroke
Glimmerdust Nap
Zephyr Net
Spellstutter Sprite
Ethereal Whiskergill
Faerie Harbinger
Faerie Trickery
Inkfathom Diver
Mulldrifter
Pestermite
Sentinels of Glen Elendra
Surgespanner
Wings of Velis Vel

Black -
Boggart Birth Rite
Weed Strangle
Peppersmoke
Black Poplar Shaman
Bog Hoodlums
Boggart Loggers
Hornet Harrasser
Hunter of Eyeblights
Nectar Faerie
Nightshade Stinger
Dreamspoiler Witches
Footbottom Feast
Shriekmaw

Red -
Hurly-Burly
Blades of Velis Vel
Needle Drop
Adder-Staff Boggart
Axegrinder Giant
Blind-Spot Giant
Caterwauling Boggart
Changeling Berseker
Giant Harbinger
Glarewielder
Lowland Oaf
Soulbright Flamekin
Stinkdrinker Daredevil

Green -
Woodland Guidance
Spring Cleaning
Sylvan Echoes
Elvish Branchbender
Elvish Eulogist
Gilt-Leaf Seer
Warren-Scourge Elf
Fertile Ground
Battlewand Oak
Cloudcrown Oak
Elvish Handservant
Garruk Wildspeaker
Lignify
Seedguide Ash
Woodland Changeling

Other -
Horde of Notions
Deathrender
Moongloove Extract
Wanderer's Twig

As you'll notice, almost every color is playable, with White being the clear weakest link. What I always do with my Sealed pool, before I do anything else, is cut away everything but the stuff would almost certainly play if I were playing that color. For Lorwyn, I include cards that are playable if I have the necessary tribal interactions. After this sifting is complete, I go and see if the other colors have those tribal interactions. If they do not, I scrap those cards during the next step of my pool evaluation process. So here's the color breakdown (cards that are only playable if the necessary tribal interactions are there are in parenthesis):

White - 7 (9)
(Summon the School)
Harpoon Sniper
Hillcomber Giant
(Judge of Currents)
Kinsbaile Balloonist
Kithkin Greatheart
Kithkin Healer
Oaken Brawler
Veteran of the Depths
Oblivion Ring

White is clearly the weakest of the colors, with only Oblivion Ring, Kinsbaile Balloonist, and the Summon the School to get excited about. Looking at the blue cards, the School is not going to see play because Surgespanner is the only exciting Merfolk in the pile. This cuts Judge of Currents, and with no tribal interactions or exciting synergies to speak of, we cut white.

Blue - 8 (10)
Ethereal Whiskergill
(Spellstutter Sprite)
Broken Ambitions
(Faerie Harbinger)
Faerie Trickery
Mulldrifter
Pestermite
Sentinels of Glen Elendra
Surgespanner
Wings of Velis Vel

Ah, the Wings! My favorite card in the format. Personal bias aside, blue has a lot of power, if not a lot of depth. A total bomb with Surgespanner, a solid team of fliers with Mulldrifter on top, and two playable counterspells. I consider counters to be very important tricks in Sealed, much more so than Draft, so two good ones is a real incentive to play blue. The depth just isn't there, so we can't base ourselves in blue, even though it is a likely second color.

Black - 8 (11)
(Boggart Birth Rite)
Weed Strangle
Peppersmoke
Boggart Loggers
Hornet Harrasser
Hunter of Eyeblights
(Nightshade Stinger)
(Nectar Faerie)
Dreamspoiler Witches
Footbottom Feast
Shriekmaw

Aside from stuff like Lignify, Zephyr Net, and Glimmerdust Nap, these black spells and Oblivion Ring are our only playable removal spells. This gives us a real strong incentive to play black. Fortunately, Dreamspoiler Witches, Peppersmoke, and Shriekmaw are all splashable. Also conveniently, our only Vivid land is black. Unfortunately, the color is not very deep at all. The Birth Rite gets back nothing, there is no internal curve or synergy in the color. This black is like an upgraded white; odds are we'll just splash for its removal.

Red - 9 (11)
Blades of Velis Vel
Adder-Staff Boggart
Axegrinder Giant
(Blind-Spot Giant)
(Caterwauling Boggart)
Changeling Berseker
Giant Harbinger
Glarewielder
Lowland Oaf
Soulbright Flamekin
(Stinkdrinker Daredevil)

Very nice red. Lots of solid guys. Sadly, aside from the Blades, that's all we have. However, the guys all have a nice curve and a solid internal synergy. The Stinkdrinker teams nicely with the army of Giants. Our most bomby non-Shriekmaw creature, Changeling Berskerer, is also in this color, with a Harbinger to find him. Admittedly, it is off Curve, but whatever. I really like the raw, explosive potential of the red in this pool. Glarewielder and the Berseker are solid playmakers. Again, however, we don't quite have the makings of a deck. We have a lot of second colors.

Green - 7 (9)
(Elvish Branchbender)
Fertile Ground
Battlewand Oak
Cloudcrown Oak
(Elvish Handservant)
Garruk Wildspeaker
Lignify
Seedguide Ash
Woodland Changeling

That's all five colors. No solid starter yet. We have our unadulterated bomb of the pool, Garruk, in this color, giving us a super strong incentive to play him. While Green is our most plentiful color, it is also the one with the least depth. So much crap in this color. Woodland Guidance, Sylvan Echoes, and Elvish Eulogist? We do have Garruk, however. And in a pool that is more likely to win off of power than consistency, Fertile Ground is a major help.

Other - 4 (5)
Vivid Marsh
Deathrender
Moonglove Extract
Wanderer's Twig
(Horde of Notions)

All playable stuff, and two cards to help us splash. Deathrender, while a build-around me card at best, is also a beatstick even if you can't abuse it with multiple Warren Pilferers. Horde of Notions is unplayable chaff. However, with Shriekmaw and Mulldrifter in the pool, along with a strong possibility of a double splash, it's almost tempting...

The First Deck

I took my first iteration of the deck through round one before scrapping it and trying something new. My initial deck building process was to Squeeze as much consistency out of the pool as I could, and then shore up the weaknesses with off-color splashes. Since Red and Blue are my deepest overall colors, I decided to start working with them. The two colors had a lot of nice synergies, too: they both had Changeling instants and the Harbingers to go with them, red had guys and blue had tricks. It seemed like a solid match. After some tweaks for the curve, here is what the first build looked like:
Red -
Soulbright Flamekin
Stinkdrinker Daredevil
Blind-Spot Giant
Lowland Oaf
Changeling Berseker
Glarewielder
Axegrinder Giant
Blades of Velis Vel

Blue -
Pestermite
Surgespanner
Sentinels of Glen Elendra
Faerie Harbinger
Mulldrifter
Wings of Velis Vel
Faerie Trickery
Broken Ambitions
Glimmerdust Nap

Black/Other -
Dreamspoiler Witches
Shriekmaw
Moonglove Extract
Deathrender

Land -
1 Vivid Marsh
2 Swamp
8 Island
7 Mountain

I decided to go with 18 land in this deck since the curve starts on turn three. I feel this deck has the highest overall card quality, but it is probably the weakest deck. Put simply, the deck is schizophrenic. It appears to play the control game, but aside from Mulldrifter, Shriekmaw, and the two counterspells, all its guys were built to smash face. Glarewielder isn't the most impressive five-drop when you started your curve on turn three with Moonglove Extract.

Even though I won the first match I played with this deck, I wasn't happy with it. While the deck wasn't lacking in individual card quality, it was lacking in focus. The cards did not form a cohesive deck, so it was really hard to play towards a cohesive strategy. Sometimes, just laying cards that are better than your opponent's cards will work. That is, until you get to the point where their cards are just as good as yours.

The Final Deck

So where do we go to fix the issue? What swaps can we make to decide on a cohesive strategy? Well, one way to do it is to fully cement ourselves in the control role. Of all the color combinations best suited to do this, GU seemed to be the ticket. Here was my second attempt.
Blue –
Pestermite
Surgespanner
Sentinels of Glen Elendra
Faerie Harbinger
Mulldrifter
Wings of Velis Vel
Faerie Trickery
Broken Ambitions
Glimmerdust Nap

Green –
Woodland Changeling
Fertile Ground
Battlewand Oak
Garruk Wildspeaker
Cloudcrown Oak
Seedguide Ash
Lignify

Other –
Dreamspoiler Witches
Shriekmaw
Footbottom Feast
Oblivion Ring
Wanderer's Twig
Moonglove Extract
Deathrender

Land –
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Swamp
1 Plains
7 Island
7 Forest

I know, I know. Just looking at that mana base is making me sick all over again. Despite the fact that I added a color, I actually trimmed back a land with this build. Why? Because the extra land was cut for Wanderer's Twig and a Fertile Ground made it into the deck as well. This deck also has a lower curve, with more than twice the two- drops while cutting a six-drop and holding the top end relatively constant. For this deck, I feel the overall power level has skyrocketed, thanks to the addition of Garruk and Oblivion Ring, even if individual card choices are weaker than the ones in red.

This is the deck I played for the other four matches in my Sealed League. The mana, surprisingly, was never an issue. Despite needing GGUUB to operate efficiently and GGUUBW to cast all its spells, the magic that is Vivid Marsh and Fertile Ground got me there. Each card showed up at least once per game, and if they didn't, I naturally drew into the needed basic (or Mulldrifter found it for me). The only time I struggled on colored mana was needing UU once for Surgespanner, but thankfully I had Garruk to untap some lands for me.

You might say I got lucky, and maybe I did. But I think that superior deck building, with an eye towards balancing power with consistency, helped me maximize the luck when it came. The most important improvement that this deck has over the previous one is a more focused game plan. In fact, I can almost justify playing the Zephyr Net in this deck over the Oblivion Ring if the mana makes you uncomfortable. Thinking of it now, the Zephyr Net probably deserved a slot anyway, maybe even over my beloved Wings of Velis Vel. This deck is an outright control deck, hoping to either lock the game early with a Surgespanner backed with removal, generate hordes of card advantage through Deathrender, Shriekmaw, and Mulldrifter, or play to the long game where Garruk can blow people out. This build gives me the best chance to outplay my opponent, as well. It's not just a collection of quick or fat guys to throw at my opponent in the hopes that they bring his life total to zero before I have to make a difficult play. Instead, the selection of cards gives me lots of subtle opportunities to get an edge in tempo or cards. This build also maximizes my removal suite. As we all know, removal is a scarce and precious commodity in Limited formats, especially Lorwyn. Even though I am playing two of the cards I feel are just awful removal spells, Lignify and Glimmerdust Nap, I feel they are necessary. Hell, I even want to Squeeze Zephyr Net in. I will rue the day when someone resolves Wispmare, or even Spring Cleaning, against me. ‘Til then, though, I will take whatever control cards I can for this build.

The Alternate Deck

Even after all that logical thought, the Timmy in me couldn't help but bring the deck-building full circle. If I already tried UR and GU, why not RG? In Sealed Leagues, you can play five matches a week. These count towards your main score. Every match you play after that builds up your tiebreakers. For these matches, I decided to try out the GR version of the deck. So far, I am 3-2 with this build. While that is clearly worse than the 5-0 I went with the blue cards, against some decks, the red cards were a clear beating. The stream of red fat backed up by Garruk is simply too much for most blue-based Sealed pools to handle. This is great to know because now I have a very strong sideboard option that can turn some matchups around. Here's how the RG version looks.

Green –
Elvish Handservant
Woodland Changeling
Battlewand Oak
Cloudcrown Oak
Seedguide Ash
Fertile Ground
Lignify
Garruk Wildspeaker

Red –
Adder-Staff Boggart
Soulbright Flamekin
Stinkdrinker Daredevil
Blind-Spot Giant
Lowland Oaf
Changeling Berserker
Caterwauling Boggart
Giant Harbinger
Glarewielder
Axegrinder Giant
Blades of Velis Vel

Other –
Shriekmaw
Footbottom Feast
Moonglove Extract
Deathrender

Land –
1 Swamp
1 Vivid Marsh
8 Mountain
7 Forest

This deck is clearly more aggressive and abuses Changeling Berserker to its fullest. A deck like this also turns Glarewielder into a bomb, often punching through 8+ damage and ending games out of nowhere. This build also abuses the aggressive aspects of Garruk much more effectively, more often dropping him late and using the +1 and -4 abilities in successive turns. With two haste guys and the maximum number of two- and three-drops available in the pool, why not? While this deck is clearly strong, it suffers from Timmy syndrome. Better players with trickier pools will often outplay you, not only because they're better, but because this card selection doesn't really give you too many real plays to make other than cast this guy, swing. You can get tricky with Deathrender and Blades of Velis Vel, but that's about it. With Sealed PTQs coming up, I would definitely recommend maximizing the “trickiness value” you could get out of your pool.

When building your deck, keep in mind you are doing just that: building a deck. You are not throwing a bunch of good cards of the same colors together and hoping that they will do the work for you. By arming yourself with the best tools to outplay your opponents and by building the deck with the best cohesive strategy, you give yourself the best chance of winning the most games.

I will be heading down to Daytona Beach for the Grand Prix this weekend, so if you see me down there, say hello!

And wish me luck!

-MW

Constructed: Pushing the Limits

Ah, Limited. The sweet smell of the pack being opened, flipping to the back to see that wonderful Vesuvan Shapeshifter. Nothing beats it. Everything about limited just screams fun, skill, and kick ass bombs. But it can be about so much more than that. It can improve your constructed game just as much as your limited game just by playing it. There are four basic aspects of improvement that limited gives to constructed: card evaluation, deck design, smart combat phases/open-mindedness, and keeping pace.

Card Evaluation

Playing limited is important to build card evaluation skills. Playing a card because you know that it is good is much different than playing a card because Mike Flores says to.

Card evaluation is probably the most relevant, and thus the most important skill that can be picked up in limited formats. In draft, you have forty seconds to analyze and entire pack. You must then select the best card from it and pass on everything else, with little hope of seeing other great cards from the pack. Let's analyze a pack as an example:

Magus of the Scroll
Vampiric sliver
Skittering Monstrosity
Truth or Tale
Phyrexian Totem
Moorish Cavalry
Pit Keeper
Gaze of Justice
Aetherflame Wall
Flickering Spirit
Durkwood Baloth
Rift Bolt
Thallid Germinator
Ophidian Eye
Foriysan Interceptor

This pack is tough. I'll analyze it in a vacuum first. The first cards we can drop are:

Ophidian Eye
Foriysan Interceptor
Thallid Germinator
Flickering Spirit
Aetherflame Wall
Pit Keeper
Gaze of Justice
Moorish Cavalry
Truth or Tale
Skittering Monstrosity
Vampiric Sliver

These can all be eliminated as their overall power level is low. Now for the rest of the pack:

Rift Bolt
Durkwood Baloth
Phyrexian Totem
Magus of the Scroll

Since this is in a vacuum, We can assume a 5/5 with no evasion is inferior to reusable removal. We can also assume Reusable removal is better than one-time removal. Here we drop Baloth and Bolt. Between Totem and Scroll, I'd pick Magus because it is cheaper and is more relevant during the entire game, rather than Totem who just gets better in the later game.

So, in a vacuum: Magus of the Scroll

Now, in a regular draft:

We can go ahead and eliminate all the same cards as before, and once again be left with:

Rift Bolt
Durkwood Baloth
Magus of the Scroll
Phyrexian Totem

The first thing I notice is that we have two great cards in red, which basically eliminates it as a color. The player we are passing to will no doubt be in red no matter which of the two cards we pass, so we might as well ignore red, unless we sense some very strong signals or receive a bigger bomb later. Also, as is common knowledge in TPF draft, Black is incredibly underpowered, and is strictly a splash color, unless you draft some power removal. The right pick here, then?

Durkwood Baloth.

You see, evaluation comes down to much more than just "Is this a good card?" It also comes down to noticing signals, avoiding sending wrong signals, and not allow the guy you are passing to dominate the second pack of your draft. It even comes down to which colors are stronger in the draft format, and the pace at which the format is set at. How does this translate to constructed?

When evaluating a card, you need to recognize good cards that aren't hosed totally by a popularly used card in a popularly used deck. A good example of this is Soltari Priest. Before Planar Chaos hit, Soltari Priest was in every Boros deck, and Boros was one of the top decks in the format. Then Sulfur Elemental arrived, and it absolutely hosed Javilineers, Lions, and the ever-popular and hard-to-kill Priest. This takes more than card quality into mind, it takes into mind everything. Now people use Serra Avenger and Calciderm to make opposing Sulfur Elementals into good things rather than bad things. These seemingly "weaker" and "slower" cards have replaced one of the former staples in what was once the dominant deck in standard.

Deck Design

Limited forces you to go on the fundamentals of deck design, Like Hill Giant vs. Grizzly Bears. It's a very important aspect of any format you can play.

Another thing limited contributes to your constructed game is it aids in the deck design process. The easiest way to show this is to provide you with a draft pool, and then build a deck out of it. So here goes:

1 Aetherflame Wall
1 Battering Sliver
1 Benalish Cavalry
1 Emberwilde Augur
1 Flowstone Channeler
2 Ghost Tactician
1 Glass Asp
1 Grinning Ignus
1 Icatian Crier
2 Ivory Giant
1 Jhoira's Timebug
1 Magus of the Arena
2 Needlepeak Spider
1 Revered Dead
1 Rift Elemental
1 Shade of Trokair
2 Sidewinder Sliver
1 Sinew Sliver
1 Sliversmith
1 Subterranean Shambler
1 Vitaspore Thallid
2 Whitemane Lion
1 Chronomantic Escape
1 Dawn Charm
1 Dust Corona
1 Evangelize
2 Flowstone Embrace
1 Grapeshot
1 Imperial Mask
1 Marshaling Cry
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Patrician's Scorn
4 Riddle of Lightning
1 Shivan Meteor
1 Sulfurous Blast
1 Tolaria West
Appropriate # of basic lands.


The first thing I notice about this draft pool is its horrendous mana curve. We are going to have to run some sub-par creatures. It's also going to have to break the golden seventeen-land rule and hit eighteen because we want to hit five mana quickly. We're going to need to use all the creatures we can to support the good non creature burn we have: Grapeshot, Sulfurous Blast, and the four Riddles, which are amazing in the high-curve deck we're going to probably end up with. Evangelize is one of the bombier cards we have, so we're going to use it. That leaves us with:

18 lands
4 Riddle of lightning
1 Sulfurous Blast
1 Evangelize
1 Grapeshot

I think the Emberwilde Augur is a good choice for this, as it's burn on a stick. I also like the Giants and the Shade, as they're burnish creatures that have haste, and the Giant helps riddle if hit. Magus is a definite add because it's big, meaty, and has a good CC for riddle, plus is built-in removal. With the additions of these cards, we're up to thirty, which means we need ten more. We should use the Needlepeak Spiders, because they trade with 3/3 fliers and 4/4 ground forces, and they beat for four to inch your opponent lower and lower. Now I add the Benalish Cavalry and the two Whitemanes as tricks and beats. Flowstone Channeler allows us a smoother curve, being another three-drop. Next I'm adding Sinew Sliver and Battering Sliver. Battering acts as fat and helps out Riddle. Sinew has some synergy with Battering, is a bear, and helps smooth out the mana curve. For the final few cards, I add Grinning Ignus as sort-of acceleration, and as Grapeshot feed. To top it off, Subterranean Shambler Combos very well with Whitemanes, so we'll use it. This puts us at forty cards:

8x Plains
10x Mountain
2x Ivory Giant
1x Shade of Trokair
1x Emberwilde Augur
1x Sinew Sliver
1x Benalish Cavalry
1x Grapeshot
2x Whitemane Lion
1x Flowstone Channeler
1x Grinning Ignus
2x Needlepeak Spider
1x Subterranean Shambler
1x Sulfurous Blast
1x Evangelize
4x Riddle of Lightning
1x Magus of the Arena
1x Battering Sliver

The basic strategy of this deck, as you probably picked up before, is to beat your opponent as much as you can, and then save up to burn them out. This is made easy with four Riddle of Lightning, especially if you can hit things like Riddle off of a Riddle. It has neat synergy with Shambler and Whitemane, and they also save your dudes from Sulfurous Blast (which acts as another burn spell).

So, how can this be applied to constructed? Well, aside from the manabase which is usually much more complicated in constructed, you can see you need to still focus your deck. If you can focus a pile of random cards into a deck with a purpose, you can focus every card legal in the format into a good deck. It's about finding and selecting the gems in the pool, and using them, which is MUCH easier in constructed than in limited. Heck, this draft deck can be compared to Boros Deck Wins (albeit on a slower curve, but this is limited), with the quick aggro beats and the burn to back it up. This deck hopes to win by turn seven, which, in constructed terms, is turn four-ish.

Smart Combat Phases/Open-mindedness

 Limited helps by allowing you to keep an open mind on the game (and the board) and help finding alternate ways to handle a situation.

 Well, limited forces you to make decisions a lot more than constructed does. There is a lot of variety in the cards, and you take a lot more into consideration. This keeps your mind more open for when you are playing constructed. It allows you to realize there is no set way to play Magic, and limited is very good for helping one realize this. It also helps you play on the fly because really, you have no choice.

One of the most difficult things for new limited players to realize is the fact that anything is an option. Cards that you'd NEVER expect to see getting played in Constructed formats run rampant, such as Ivory Giant or Needlepeak Spider. You need to be ready for anything, no matter what color your opponent is playing or how good you think you are. I've played against red/blue decks that played a forest on one turn, and then at my end of turn they made three tokens with sprout swarm. I was definitely not prepared for that, and it cost me a game I thought I had in my hands. Make sure you thoroughly go over your sideboard for something that can help against things you don't expect. This can be translated to constructed, but not exactly. Just make sure your sideboard is prepared and can handle just about anything, rather than just one deck that gives you issues.

This also connects to another point, which is to always make sure you have a smart combat phase. This is about as simple as making smart blocks, correctly using your removal, remembering to do things on declare attackers phase, and smart attacks. Why does it connect? You don't know if your opponent is holding a Venser's Diffusion, or an Ashcoat Bears. His morph can either be Fathom Seer, a Coral Trickster, or it can even be Vesuvan Shapeshifter while you have down a Spectral Force. You need to be prepared for any of these options. So this says that, in a nutshell, limited helps a constructed player stay sharp.

Keeping Pace

 Playing limited is more than being a netdecking machine. There, you get to improve abilities that constructed doesn't offer. For example, mix synergy with other cards, mana curve, archetypes; all of that in less in less than 20 minutes in Sealed Deck, and less than 40 seconds in Booster Draft, which requires A LOT of skill to understand and perfect.

Speed is an aspect of the game that relates to card evaluation, but in a different way. You need to concentrate on making the fastest deck possible, as quickly as possible, and, in the case of draft, pay attention to signals and make the correct pick in less than 40 seconds. It exercises your mind so much, that if you do it enough you'll start to view cards in a different light, and start to recognize combos and synergies about them that you otherwise wouldn't. Here's an example pack, you have 30 seconds to pick.

The situation: You're in a TPF draft with forty second picks, on Future Sight. You're in RGu, and you need more removal and evasion creatures. You're almost positive the guy on you're passing to is in red, since you got cut off from it last pack. Here's the pack:

Magus of the Future
Narcoameoba
Sword of the Meek
Spellwild Ouphe
Gift of Granite
Kavu Primarch
Unblinking Bleb
Gathan Raiders
Sarcomite Myr
Edge of Autumn
Quiet Disrepair
Death Rattle
Ghostfire
Blade of the 6th Pride
Oblivion Crown

Looking at the pack, the first reaction is to take Magus. Unfortunately for us, though, it is somewhat color intensive and blue is only a splash for us (It's not exactly spectacular in Future Sight, either). There is little left in the pack if blue is gone, so we're onto our next colors. We need evasion and removal, but alas, there is no evasion. We see Ghostfire, Primarch, and the Always spectacular Gathan Raiders. This is a fairly easy decision, since we need removal; here we take Ghostfire.

Another situation:

The situation: We're in a TPF draft (with forty second picks), where it's pack one pick one. The guy next to us is loud, obnoxious, and he says he's going to try and force red/white. We need to decide whether or not to believe him, and still evaluate and make the correct choice. Here's the pack:

Serra Avenger
Evil Eye of Urborg
Tromp the Domains
Opaline Sliver
Auratog
Trespasser il-Vec
Rift Bolt
Viashino Bladescout
Pentarch Ward
Feebleness
Drudge Reavers
Search for Tomorrow
Clockspinning
Deathspore Thallid
Aetherflame Wall

What's the right pick here?

Looking at this pack, we have two bombs. Bombs almost always dictate your first picks. We now must think: are we going to get hosed of white? Serra is better than Tromp, but do we want to risk getting absolutely hosed of its color? We need to choose here. What do we take?

I take Serra. If this guy DOES end up in white, we still have time to recuperate. It's only the beginning of the draft, we still have time. Your first pick doesn't always dictate what you get, but it can help set a path. Arguments can be said in the other way, as ShadowS does. Here's what he had to say:

 If you *knew* he was gonna hose you of white, I'd take Tromp.


Is that it?

 I feel that lots of things that can be applied to limited are relevant in constructed (or at least the smaller constructed formats like t2 and block); knowing a set in detail is very useful for limited. It can also help you to analyze how an opponent is playing, whether they play conservatively, or just have no more gas in hand for instance. It also helps you conclude when and if to bluff, which is definitely useful. Oh, one more thing--cards which are good in limited can often be very good in constructed, even if ruled out by most pundits (see Glare of Subdual). So in sum, limited makes you a better player and improves your deckbuilding ability.

The entire point of this article was to show something that not many people realize: you do not need to practice one format over and over to get better at it, but rather that you need to practice your skills over and over to get better. Sure, constructed requires some skills more than others, but so does limited. Limited stresses some very important skills, but can sometimes have a negative effect on your overall gameplay if you overload on it. Keep this in mind, and you should be fine.

Limited Help Corner: The Draft

In this article, I will analyze the draft in the following parts:
i. Pre-Draft Information
ii. Bombs
iii. Tempo
iv. Removal
v. Utility
vi. Signals
vii. Pack 1
viii. Pack 2
ix. Pack 3
x. Wrap-up
Pre-Draft Information
Pre-Draft information is basically the information you should know about the sets you are drafting. Let’s say you are drafting Ravnica block. You should know that Ravnica is not like the usual block that you draft. Ravnica has a lot of color fixing, so it allows players to include several colors in a draft deck rather than just one or two colors. So, if you are drafting Ravnica block, you should probably take a mental note to pick up signets, karoos, and duals (if you are lucky). Additionally, it is probably better to go three or four colors in Ravnica draft because it gives you more options and, as I said, you will not be set back much by using color fixers.

Another example is in Coldsnap Triple Draft. In Coldsnap draft, it is profitable to most draft decks to have some snow mana-producers to activate certain effects. Therefore, the player will have to take a mental note to take a snow-land or any snow permanent that produces mana to help utilize those effects.

If a block does not have a theme that calls for drafting certain cards (the usual block draft), then you should at least have a mental note of which colors have the most/best playables (in terms of commons). Furthermore, you also have to predict which color would be over-drafted at your table. However, just because a color may be over-drafted at your table, does not mean you should totally ignore that color. You should just be cautious and not end up fighting with the person to your left over one color.

Bombs
Here’s a topic that causes some debate. The definition of a bomb may differ from player to player. My general definition of a bomb is a card that a) drastically changes the game state when played (such as a mass removal card) and/or b) a card that will win you the game if the opponent does not take care of it quickly. If you are passed a card that, in your definition, is a bomb, then you should probably take it up unless you definitely know you cannot include it in your deck. If the bomb is not in the right color or if it drastically hurts your curve, then you should probably pass it on. An example is Akroma, Angel of Wrath. Obviously, if you are Red-Green, then you won’t pick it up (this example is pertaining to Triple Time Spiral Draft). Additionally, if you are only splashing the color white, then you should pass this card on (unless you are rare-drafting). There is another reason that you should pass a bomb. That reason deals with the next category: Tempo.

Tempo
I was in a limited discussion chat room and a certain someone, who we will, for the sake of this example, call “mufl0n,” said he would rather take Akroma, Angel of Wrath over Serra Avenger. Most people in this discussion naturally laughed because that is a terrible decision. Why is it a terrible decision? Tempo! Akroma, Angel of Wrath is an eight (8) mana spell, so you would be able to play it around turn eight, which is pretty much late game. Serra Avenger, on the other hand, can be played starting turn four. Furthermore, Serra Avenger is a two (2) mana spell so you can play another two-mana spell on the same turn. Although Serra Avenger is not a bomb, it is a very solid creature. Of course, when has a cheap 3/3 flyer with a weak drawback not been a solid creature? This applies to tempo because this is early pressure on your opponent and tempo usually decides the winner in a match. By turn eight, you may have Akroma, Angel of Wrath in your hand, but if your opponent has been applying early pressure and has tempo advantage, the game might already be over by then.

Tempo Advantage can be obtained by having a smooth curve of cheap creatures or have cards that slows down the opponent. By slowing down the opponent, I mean disrupting his tempo/pressure in any way (it is a plus if you can disrupt opponent’s tempo and speed your own tempo with one card; Riftwing Cloudskate for example). Tempo Advantage is key in a match as you will most likely win the match if you have a clear advantage in tempo. You should be considering this factor even during the draft process.

Removal
Removal is something everyone should know about. Removal gets rid of bombs, utility creatures, and it also lightens the opponent’s pressure. Removal cards are better if it can hit any kind of creature (like Putrefy being better than Terror), but even a removal card that has limitations on which creature it can hit is good enough to be used. You can judge which removal cards are better than others by what kind of limitation they have (Terror being better than Assassinate). Oh, I forgot to mention the type of removal. The types of removal are: spot removal (e.g. Putrefy), toughness removal (e.g. Sudden Death), damage removal (e.g. Shivan Meteor), and sacrificial removal (e.g. Cruel Edict). Spot removal is the best type of removal, while sacrificial removal is the lowest. Sacrificial removal is the lowest because most sacrificial removal cards allow the opponent to choose which creature to get rid of. Oh, I almost forgot, there is another type of card for this category. It does not technically remove a creature from the field, but it does remove the chance for the creature to beat down on you. These are “tappers” (e.g. Icy Manipulator). “Tappers” are useful because it can hold the opponent’s best creature at bay and/or clear a blocker when you want to attack.

Spot Removal does not only pertain to creatures. If you know the block you are drafting in has quite a few good artifacts or enchantments, it would be wise for you to draft some type of artifact and enchantment spot removal (e.g. Seed Spark). Some type of removal should always make it into your deck, because you will definitely need ways to deal with certain cards.

Utility
Utility cards are cards that do certain effects that help your board position. Utility cards include combat tricks, utility creatures (e.g. Ghost Warden) and cards that help card advantage (like draw cards). These cards are useful because, as I said, it helps board position and a strong board position goes hand-in-hand with tempo, because the stronger board position will win the game.
Signals
First, I have to say something. I’m sure most of you know this already, but for those who do not, I will say it: “You cannot draft a winning draft deck without knowing about signals and how to appropriately read and send them!” So, you guys can probably guess that this section is pretty important. Signals, in drafts, are messages sent to your neighbors, telling them that you’re in a certain color. Of course, you cannot just turn to your neighbor and say “Hey, I’m going red, so pass me the red cards,” so you have to send them appropriate non-verbal signals. Additionally, you have to know how to read signals so you do not accidentally end up fighting over a color.

Sending signals is pretty simple. If you are taking the best cards of a certain color, then the person you are passing to should realize pretty quickly what color you are in. Reading signals are equally as simple. You can just take a look at the pack and see which color(s) has an abundance of cards and which color(s) have very few cards. Of course, you can also read signals by noticing how weak the cards, of a certain color, are in the pack.

Let’s say it’s pick three and you get passed the following cards: Durkwood Baloth, Tolarian Sentinel, Traitor’s Clutch, Penumbra Spider, Savage Thallid, Thrill of the Hunt, Basal Sliver, Ground Rift, Children of Korils, Amrou Seekers, Darkness, Fool’s Demise, and Ignite Memories.

You probably can guess that the person on your right has not picked a green card and probably won’t go into green. This is a strong green signal as there are four good, if not decent, green cards. Also, if you were the one who passed this pack on, you are saying to the person you are passing to that you are not going green. Furthermore, you can probably make a guess at which card the person you are passing to will take and if you pass him more green cards, there is a good chance he will go green.

The person being passed this pack probably would not mind going into green at this point because, as I said, this is a strong green signal and a sign that there will be more green cards to come.

Of course, signals are not so simple in general. You may find yourself in a situation where you start off a pack seeing two great cards of one color. At times, if you pick one of those cards, your neighbor will pick the other and you both will start off in that color. However, do not get discouraged. If you are sticking to that color, then your neighbor will be passed very little, if any, quality cards, of that color, as the pack goes on. So your neighbor can either keep that great card he got early on and take the few, low quality cards, of that color that he gets from you or just switch to another color. My guess is that he will pick the latter.

In the end, signals works so well because you can predict what decks both your neighbors are drafting and you can draft your own colors as smoothly as possible without getting into fights over a color. You can predict what the person, you are passing to, is drafting by taking a mental note on the cards you are passing him/her. Also, as explained, you can tell what deck the person, who is passing to you, is drafting. Getting this kind of information early will make your draft run smooth and increase your chances of drafting a grade “A” deck.

The Draft Process – Pack 1
Okay, this is an important pack! You know why? It’s where you start things off! Of course, the two other packs are just as important. Anyway, pack 1 is where you need to put your “thinking cap” on because you need to start gathering information on your neighbors as quickly as possible and this is the place to start.

For the first few picks, you can basically pick the best cards you see. I mean, just because you pick a red card as your first pick does not mean you have to go red. It would be fortunate for the best cards in the first few picks to be within 1 or 2 colors. However, the first few picks in pack 1 are mainly for getting a feel for the packs and take note of what you are being passed and what you are passing. After about the 4th or 5th pick (at the latest), you should start figuring out what color is open.

For example, let’s say for the first three picks, you drafted Errant Ephemeron, then Rift Bolt, then Penumbra Spider. Now these are three good cards. Yes, you just picked three different color cards, but that does not mean you’re in hot water. No matter which route you go, you will have a strong start. Depending on the picks you get after this, you can go into a strong combination. If you got Blue-Red, you have had a strong draft opening with Rift Bolt and Errant. If you go Blue-Green (maybe splash red), you can use all those three cards.

The point I am making is that the first three picks are just basically you taking the best card in the pack. From then on, you need to pay attention on what colors are open. If on pick four, you see some good green cards (like say if you see Gemhide Sliver and Weatherseed Totem), you can probably start to go green and then decide your second color as the pack goes on.

Start taking mental information, based on signals, while you go into an open color. By the late picks, you should definitely know at least one color that your right neighbor (the one passing to you) is drafting.

The Draft Process – Pack 2
Okay, it’s time for round two of the draft. By now, you should know what color(s) you are in, what color the person to your right is in, and have some sort of idea of what color the person on your right is in. Now that you know what color your right neighbor is in, you can feed them the appropriate color. By complying with that factor, you are making sure he does not have a reason to screw you over in the last pack. Also, if you guessed correctly at what color your left neighbor is in, then the cards he passes you should reflect it. Furthermore, if you appropriately sent signals, then your color should come in smoothly.

In pack two, you may be passed a bomb that may call for you to change into a totally new color. If you think that bomb is strong enough and if you think you can handle the color change, then do not be afraid to do so. However, I suggest making the first few picks to be the latest for a color change. You do not want to do a big color change around the late picks of pack two nor anytime during pack three.

For example, let’s say in pack one, you got some good green and red cards, but pick one of pack two is Damnation. You’re not seriously going to pass the damage right? No. Pick it up and if you get some black cards your way, you can start making black one of the two major colors in your deck (either go BGr, BG, RBg, or RB). I mean if you cannot get black into the deck, at least you stopped someone else (who you might play later on in the pod) from having Damnation against you.

Lastly, you should start looking at things such as your mana curve and the amount of quality removal cards that you have drafted. A successful draft deck has a smooth mana curve starting from turn one or two. Furthermore, a few removal/control cards are needed for reasons explained in Part I. If you are lacking in cheap drops or you do not have any removal at all, this is the right time to start drafting those cheap drops and removal/control cards.

Like say you’re G/X, and you do not have as many cheap drops as you’d like. See a Mire Boa? Take it up! It’s 2cc and it regenerates. See an Essence Warden? Perfect! Turn one drop along with life gain! Perfect for limited and both are common in pack two! It’s very important that you get some cheap drops like this because early pressure is always very good.

The Draft Process – Pack 3
Okay, it is time for the final round and it is time to wrap things up. This is your last chance to get playables for your final deck. This is also a chance to be very mean to your left neighbor. Since this is the final pack, you should be aware of what colors both your neighbors are drafting. Furthermore, this is the last round so your left neighbor no longer has a chance to pass to you during this draft, so you can feel free to hate-draft him all you want. Hate-drafting him will take away precious cards that he will need for his deck. Additionally, if your left neighbor was depending on this pack to fix up things such as his mana curve or removal/control card count, then this is a nice chance to screw him over. Of course, you won’t know if he did not fix his mana curve from early on, so you should not hate-draft with that in mind. Taking a bomb that is in his color would be a preferred hate-drafting tactic.

If you know your left neighbor is in black, then take that rare Korlash that showed up. A Tombstalker shows up (also rare), well do not let the black player have it!

If you have not started to do so in pack two, then you should be making sure you draft playables that fit into a smooth mana curve. Playing a draft deck that does not start doing something until turn three or four is not what you want to get. You will lose some serious tempo advantage, unless you’ve drafted a very solid control deck.

Wrap-Up
The drafting process is quite simple once you sit down and think about it. Once you understand the basics of what you need for a successful draft deck, then the only thing that stands between you getting a solid draft deck is the draft process. The draft process is all about gathering information and being smart about the draft signals. Furthermore, paying attention to your deck needs throughout the whole draft will prevent any problems during the post-draft deckbuilding. Of course, there are other things in a draft that you should know about. By things, I mean established combos (e.g. Martyr-Harvest in Triple Coldsnap or Sentinel-Reality Acid in TS/TS/PLC) and which color-combinations are strong in a particular block draft. I will not go into things such as that in this article as this article is an analysis of “The Draft” in a general sense. Until another time…

Magic: the Gathering: A General Analysis

This article will be analyzing the following points:
i. Myth Busting
ii. Efficient Gameplay
iii. Deckbuilding & Play-testing
iv. Tournament Scene
v. Wrap-Up

Myth Busting
There are some common misconceptions among players about this game. One of the most important misconceptions involves the judgment of a player’s skill. Many players think that just because they beat someone, that someone is of lower skill or a “noob.” This does not make sense. No one in this game can win every match, which is mostly due to the luck factor in this game, so you can never judge a player skill just because they lost a match. The correct way to judge a player’s skill is HOW he plays the match. If that player plays unnecessarily fast, makes many mistakes, uses rules-lawyering tactics and/or cheats, that player’s skill level probably is not that high. Furthermore, you can probably gauge a player’s skill level by his “playing theory.” “Playing Theory” is the way a player plays and how he thinks/strategize. But note that just because a player’s playing theory is unorthodox does not mean he has a low skill level. A player’s “playing theory” can be unorthodox, but still successful. Obviously, if their “playing theory” is unsuccessful and is constantly a losing theory, then that player has a low skill level.

Another myth that is worth busting is that more experience will equal more accomplishments and more skill. This is not correct. There are players who have been playing longer than some pros, but do not have as many accomplishments or skill level than those pros. For example, “Black_Elf,” is a player who has been playing this card game for over ten years. You would think he’d be a top player, right? No! This player is probably, at best, average. This is not just a one in a bunch thing. There are many players who are similar. They have been playing for a long time (some have been playing since this game was created), yet they do not have a high skill level and have little to no outstanding accomplishments. So experience is not the reason why certain players are outstanding. All the experience you need in the experience of play-testing a certain meta-game and of course, the experience of the rules so you know not to break them. However, in certain cases, it is not as simple as you will see in the next misconception.

The next myth is connected to the previous myth. Many players think just because one person plays M:tG in person and not online that he is automatically better than a player who plays solely online. This is not correct. Online players are put into two groups: players who do not feel they are good enough to play in-person tournaments and players who are unable to play in-person tournaments. In this myth, we will be addressing the latter. There are online players who have more important obligations in their life that prevents them from having the money and/or free time to play in-person. For example, many online players are school and paying to buy cards and travel to tournaments does not suit well with tuitions. Furthermore, since online players do not play in-person tournaments, one cannot predict how they would do in an in-person tournament. Therefore, you have no basis for comparison, so you cannot automatically say an in-person player is better than an online player.

The next myth is about in-game playing. I have seen a lot of people play unnecessarily fast and constantly rush their opponent, but their opponent is not stalling. Those players who play unnecessarily fast are the same players who think playing fast is a sign of a good player. This is not true. On the contrary, playing unnecessarily fast is a sign of weakness, because it is easier for you to make mistakes and they probably do not realize they are making mistakes until after the game. Additionally, even if they realize they make their mistake, they continue to play unnecessarily fast. Players who play at a moderate pace and think his/her moves through without rushing themselves, have the best chance to make little to no mistakes during the game. Making no mistakes drastically increase your chances of winning, especially if your opponent makes mistakes.

The next myth is actually related to articles. Furthermore, it is related to M:tG advicein general. Many players rate an advice from a pro player higher than the advice of an average player. Now, this is not a bad thing in general, but there are specific cases where a player’s mindset is in the wrong place. For example, if Writer A writes an article, but Reader A has never heard of this player, then Reader A will completely ignore the article and not even read it. Reader A potentially lost out on some good advice or “deck tech.” Another example is if there is a Writer B. Writer B is a pro player who has reached the top 8 of a Pro Tour before. Reader A read the articles of both Writer A and B. No matter what Writer A says, Reader A will automatically listen to Writer B. This example can be taken further and suggest that although Reader A understands and agrees with what Writer A is saying, Reader A will still listen to Writer B even if the advice Writer B is not solid advice or if Reader A does not totally agree with it. This is a disappointment that Reader A will take in advice just because the name of the author and not because the advice makes sense or is skill-increasing. Just because someone is a pro player does not always mean his advice is good. You should be the judge and not just agree with someone just because he does well in tournaments. There are some players who are able to play good, but they suck at explaining and analyzing. I mean, Antonio De Rosa is a pretty good pro player and he thought Evangelize was an answer to Simic Sky Swallower.

The last myth is a rather silly one, but it’s a misconception in which some players believe. Some players believe the outstanding players have a natural talent for this card game. If you think logically, you will realize how absurd this belief is. Someone’s ability to play a strategy game is not innate. There is no game-playing ability that is innate. Everything a person does in life is learned. As I said, this myth is absurd, but I still had to point it out.

Efficient Gameplay
Now that you guys know that experience and natural talent are not the reasons why the top pro players play outstandingly, it is time to analyze the real reason. The real reason the top players do so well is because God likes them better. No, I’m just kidding! The reason these players do so well is because they play efficiently. They play efficiently to the tee. Everything they do is the best thing to do to win. Even the order they play their lands (in multi-color decks). But do not be discouraged. The way they play is not because of some secret advice they received. It is because they pay attention to detail. Being an efficient play is all about paying attention to detail. Playing this way starts off when you draw your opener. For example, if you are playing aggro, you have to think “Is this hand fast? Do I have a good mana curve opening?” If you do not know what your opponent is playing (game one), then you have to decide if your hand is a good opening to get your deck to do what it does. Then when you do know what your opponent is playing (Post-board), you have to think “Will this hand be able to deal with the opponent in early game? Will I survive until I can stabilize (control vs. aggro)? Is this hand resistant to hate (combo)?” Additionally, every deck needs mana so you also have to ask “Do I have enough lands to get started? If I keep this hand, what are the chances that I will get land [Insert number] on time (the later in the game you need to hit a land drop, the more likely you will get it in time; keeping a three-lander and needing to hit land four on time is better than keeping a one-lander and needing to hit land two on time). Also, you have to incorporate any mana accelerators you have to start with (e. g. signets).

Playing efficiently of course does not stop at openers. Once you have decided on the opener that will give you the best chances of prevailing in the game, you now have to play that opener and the cards you draw in the best way possible. Pay attention to a lot of details. For example, if you really need to hit a land drop, do not sacrifice that Terramorphic Expanse just yet. If you really need to draw a certain card, do whatever you can to buy yourself at least one more turn. If you get that extra draw phase and draw that card and you win because of it, then you have just won the game because of your efficient gameplay. Some may call it luck, and to an extent it is, but you, as a good player, know there is luck in this game, so you set yourself up to the point that if you are lucky enough to draw that certain card, you will win. The average player may just give up or they will not try to set themselves up for that certain card. This type of efficiency takes advantage that there is some luck in this game. You know you need a good topdeck and you try to give yourself as much time as possible to get that topdeck.

So now, we have covered openers and playing the luck factor in the end game. Now, let’s do the in-between. The best thing to do each and every turn is to stop a think for a second. Then think of the best possible play for this turn. This includes which land you play. Also, it has to be the best possible play, considering what deck your opponent is playing. For example, if you really want to play a turn two Castigate and the lands in your hand are Plains and Caves of Koilos, it is best to play the Plains. If you topdeck Swamp, you can play Castigate without taking any damage, while if you play the Caves of Koilos first, no matter what you topdeck, you will be taking one point of damage to play that Castigate. That one damage may come back to haunt you later. Do not be afraid to stop a think sometimes as you want to make every play count in the long run.

During the game, there may also be times where you can make plays depending on what you think the opponent is holding. Let’s say you did not get a look at your opponent’s hand. You are playing aggro and you want to apply pressure, but your opponent has four Damnations in his deck. You see in his grave that he already has 2 Damnations. You have to think what the chances are that he has another ready or that he will topdeck one. Depending on how early or late in the game, the possibility varies. If he just played the second one the turn before, the probability of him having the third Damnation is low. Also, if you do not apply pressure, you are giving him extra turns to draw his control cards. Checking the opponent’s graveyard every now and then will give you an idea of how to play your hand because if three out of four copies of a certain card are in the opponent’s grave, there is a low chance that he has the fourth. Additionally, you have to analyze the way the opponent plays his turn. Take into the consideration the way he attacks, what he plays and what mana he leaves open. In constructed, if you know what archetype he is playing, you should probably know what cards are in his deck, so you can make an educated guess at what cards he might have in his hand. For example, if you are playing against Red Blink-Touch, you are playing aggro and your opponent passes his turn with about eight mana open, without playing anything, he most likely has a Bogardan Hellkite ready to flash into play. If you take that into consideration, you can take preparation to be screwed as little as possible if the opponent does actually have the Hellkite.

Efficient gameplay is all about paying attention to detail. Even the slightest detail is helpful. That is the difference between the average player and a player who gets to the top 8 of a Pro Tour. To recap, efficient gameplay is a) analyzing your opener, while considering what your deck wants to do and what deck you are up against, b) thinking every turn to analyze your board, your opponent’s board, the amount of cards in his hand, the cards in his graveyard/RFG and what your opponent did the previous turn and then making the best play and c) squeezing out as many extra draw phases as you can in order to make that lucky topdeck.

Deckbuilding & Play-testing
Okay, this is obviously an important factor in this game. This is what you do before you even have a chance to play efficiently in a tournament. First, let me get something clear. Netdecking falls under this category. I know there are people out there who complain about people netdecking. Those who complain about originality are the ones who will never make any outstanding accomplishments in this game. Netdecking does not mean you will win a tournament. You need to be efficient in your gameplay to win a tournament. Netdecking is not enough, so just because someone netdecks a good deck does not mean they are supposed to win. So basically, there is nothing really wrong with netdecking. You can have fun and be original, but when you want to win a competitive tournament, that fun, original, casual deck is not what you want to use.

When you decide on a final decklist, you have to consider many things. You have to consider the meta-game: what decks are popular? You have to consider match-ups: what deck will give you problems? What can I do to even up the chances or make my chances better than that deck? Of course you have to know what your deck wants to do, but while you know that, you have to consider when you want to draw certain cards? Depending on what time in the game you want to get a certain card (most of the time, it depends on the card’s mana cost), you can figure how many copies of the card to include. Do you need a certain card (or type of card; like do you want a turn one 1cc mana producer?) in the early game? Mid-game? Late game? Does my deck use tutors (which act as a copy, draw-wise, as the card you want)? Do I have cards that draw more cards? These are all questions that you should consider depending on what your deck wants to do. However, none of this will matter without a proper mana-base. When constructing your mana-base, you have to consider up to what land drop do you want to hit on time, consistently? Do I need mana accelerators? If so, how many? By what turn do I need this particular color? All of these factor in when deciding on a decklist with a smooth, efficient mana-base and figuring out how many copies of certain cards are enough for the decklist (by not putting in unnecessary copies, you have more slots for other card possiblities).

The next step would be card choices. This involves card quality. In a format, if you want a certain card, you should look at the cards that your format allows and choose the best card in that category. For example, let’s say you are building a Solar Flare list. You want a card that can draw and dig in your deck so you get to your business spells faster. You find two good candidates in Compulsive Research and Foresee. However, you can only fit four copies in your deck so you have to choose between the two. When analyzing these cards, Foresee would be the better choice. Compulsive research digs three cards deep. Foresee can dig up to six cards deep (putting the 4 cards you scry to bottom and drawing 2 = 6). The card advantage to both is usually plus 1 card. However, with Compulsive Research, if you do not have a land to discard or you cannot afford to discard a land, then you basically just cycled some cards. Furthermore, Foresee can sometimes allow you to know what your next card is going to be. Therefore, you can play your turn even more efficiently because you know what card is on the top of your deck. Additionally, your Solar Flare list runs 6-7 signets, so you can, at times, get Foresee on turn three (the same turn you would play Compulsive Research). In this case, Foresee would be the clear choice.

After you have come up with a decklist, you should start play-testing in preparation for the tournament. You can analyze the match-ups in your head and judge which deck would have the advantage in each match-up. That is not a bad thing and sometimes, if you do not have enough time to play-test, it is all you can do. However, if you have the time to play-test, then play-testing is what you should do. If you get a feel for the match-up, see how the decks in the match-up respond to each other and analyze how much your deck wins/loses in the match-up (through trial-and-error testing; playing multiple games pre-board and post-board), then you will know what changes, if any, you need to make. Furthermore, it will be easier for you to play efficiently during the actual tournament.

Tournament Scene
Some may not think this, but the tournament scene does have something to do with your success. Playing someone in-person is much different from playing someone online. You already have a good decklist that you have prepared for the tournament meta-game and you now use your critical thinking skills to play each turn efficiently. However, now you have to deal with body language. Body language can clue you in on what your opponent may have. This is another detail you have to pay attention to so that you can play efficiently. Body language tells how weak or strong your opponent thinks he/she is. Although, this is a good thing, in-person playing can also be a bad thing if you let your own body language clue your opponent in on how strong you are; in terms of board position and what cards you have in your hand.

Bluffing is way to fool your opponent into playing into your hands. If you have a strong hand, but play weak, then you can cause your opponent to become overconfident and walk into your trap. However, bluffing is a thing that people have gotten used to over the years. People can now tell when someone is bluffing, as even when you bluff you might have a certain “tell” that still tips your opponent off. So, what should you do? The best thing to do, is show neither strength nor weakness in your body language. Keep your body language constant and relaxed. If someone is relaxed throughout the whole match, you cannot tell when his hand his strong or weak. Therefore, you take away the possibility of him analyzing extra details depending on your body language. Furthermore, since this is a game of fun, why not joke it up with your opponent? Throughout the whole match, if you just joke around and have small-talk, you can a) prevent your opponent from predicting your plays from reading your body language and b) possibly distract your opponent and cause him to make a mistake (even a little one). However, if your opponent is set on fully concentrating and not taking your bait for small talk/joking, this strategy may not work.

Another thing you have to consider during an in-person tournament is endurance. When you are playing online, you can probably recline in your computer chair or go relax and eat something in your kitchen between rounds. However, when you are playing an in-person tournament, you are in the same space the whole tournament and you do not exactly have a play to sit back and relax. Staying in the same place for several hours may get tiring. Furthermore, you are in a crowded place and there may be spectators watching you. This can be nerve racking and affect your plays. The best thing to do is stay relaxed and not let it affect you. Just stay calm as if you were in your own house (which I assume is your comfort zone). The last thing you want to do is make mistakes because you are nervous. Making small talk at these times is also good as it loosens you up if you do indeed get nervous. You should make the tournament scene the last possible thing to have any effect on your game.

Wrap-Up
There are several myths that are not true about this game. Also, you should not be intimidated if you face someone like Kenji Tsumura or Gabriel Nassif. The only difference between them and the average player is that Kenji and Gabriel know that critical thinking is the key to this game. Efficient playing comes from thinking critically. The faster you realize that, the more successful you will be. Analyzing the details of this game IS critical thinking. By analyzing, you find little ways to improve the efficiency in your gameplay. And by improving your efficiency, you increase your chances of winning. Pro players do not have a magic spell. They are human like the rest of us. The reason Japanese players win more is because they are natural critical thinkers because of the way they are raised. I mean think about it. Do you know how advanced the Japanese are compared to the rest of the world in terms of technology? Those guys really use their noggin. However, that does not mean you cannot use your noggin in the same way. You just need to pay attention to detail, logic and make good use of your analytical skills. You should make yourself an efficient player, then make sure you reach for the top. Do not make reaching day two your main goal. Make reaching the top 8 your main goal and day two being a stepping stone for your main goal. I mean, if you are taking a test, would you reach only for a 75 or reach for the full 100? Then after you reach that top 8, reach for that first place trophy. Anyone can do it if they know what they are doing. Until next time…

On Synergy: Transcending Paper and Glue

Through reading this article, I guarantee that you will win the next game you play.

Just trust me.

I’ll have more on that later. Now it’s time for an article concerning a severely under-discussed topic. That’s right, VacancyMan is finally releasing his secret tech and revealing what is actually the greatest deck to ever grace Standard, if not the entire game of Magic. The deck is perfect – it is simple, it is fast, and it is dominating. Anyone can pick it up and instantly win with it. This is because my secret deck cannot lose, no matter who pilots it. It’s actually quite scary, and I’m warning you: you may never treat Magic the same way afterwards.
Are you ready?
Are you sure?
I’m giving you one last chance…
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.
.
.
.
.
.
You’re a stubborn one aren’t you?
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.
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Fine.
Here’s the decklist:
The_Greatest_Deck_Ever.dec
4 Sadly, I cannot
4 reveal this deck
4 to you. It would
4 endanger the
4 metagame, not
4 to mention M:tG
3 itself to have a
3 deck that is so
3 insanely powerful
3 at the disposal of
2 every player in
2 the game, from
4 the greenest n00b
4 to the most talented
4 professional. This
4 deck is too
2 powerful for you
2 or anyone else.
Sideboard:
4 Do not fret.
4 There is / still
3 much to learn
2 from a deck /
2 that doesn’t exist.
*
There are many reasons why players can’t simply net-deck the build that won the last Pro Tour and instantaneously become victorious. There are many reasons why no deck is simply the best in anyone’s hands. Magic: the Gathering is a game of both cardboard and contemplation. The relationship a player has with his deck is a major factor in that player’s ability. It decides matches and it decides potential. Now memorize and repeat:
This is my deck. There are many like it but this one is mine. My deck is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my deck is useless. Without my deck I am useless. I must play my deck true. I must play better than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must kill him before he kills me. I will. Before Richard Garfield I swear this creed: my deck and myself are defenders of my rating, we are the masters of my enemy, we are the saviors of my 20 life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but Hasbro’s undermining of its own consumer base. Amen.

(I salute you filthy maggots who got that reference.)

All right, maybe card game enthusiasts aren’t exactly the best to respond to military-style training. However, the intangible mental aspect is just as important in Magic as it is in war. Thus, gaining an edge on the opponent arises from beyond deck construction and direct strategy. They may seem obvious, but these tips are disobeyed all too often:
1: Play with Experience
Whether it be a casual game during school recess, Friday Night Magic, or hardcore PTQ testing, playing with your deck in any way can only help. When you can’t find a game, goldfish! Simply throwing around some cards and noting the notable, whether physically or mentally, will make the difference between a disappointed net-decker and a skilled contender.

2. Play with Focus
A) Play the game. Make it your first, second, and third priorities. When your mind slips, so does your play, and the errors aren’t always blatant. Sometimes you play one inferior two-drop over another, or forget to gain 1 life during your upkeep. Too many people can tell you how such miniscule mistakes can outright lose matches.

B) When online, don’t play in multiple tournaments at the same time. As well as damaging your ability to concentrate, overwhelming yourself with matches is aggravating for your opponents, who must wait for you to handle your extra game(s). It only hurts yourself as well as the league as a whole.

C) Play sober. Use common sense. If you are impaired while playing, you WILL make mistakes that you will regret later. If you really have to get drunk or high, at least don’t simultaneously play Magic (or operate machinery, or drive, or lose control on IRC).

3. Play with Confidence
Just by believing that you will win, you will win more. A negative attitude leads to a loss of mental sharpness, whether consciously or subconsciously. Never give up; never surrender. Be confident that there is a way out of any predicament. Great players always look at every opportunity. Every once in a while they find a way to win one turn before the game shifts out of their favor, or the crazy scheme that wins a seemingly unwinnable game, or even a topdeck Lightning Helix to steal the victory.

As for my guarantee at the introduction, I’m obviously not a prophet or clairvoyant or anything. However, if you believe that you will win, you are more likely to do so. Thus, quite a few of you will win the next game you play. When you do, thank me :P. Try it for every match you play. Though you will not win them all, the confidence boost can be nothing but positive for your game.

*The slashes are there for a reason. It’s a haiku! :)

Every person always has the opportunity to become a better player. Think back to the inevitably many games you have lost. How many of them do you think could have easily gone the other way? Sometimes more than a change of cardboard is needed for Magical success. Never forget where the game is truly played – not on the table, not on the monitor, but in the mind.

The Art of Making a Deck

Let's start with some simple rules:
1. Anyone can make a deck.
2. Don't throw cards in a pile and call it a deck.
3. Prepare for your metagame.
4. Test, test, test!

To make a rogue deck, you must start with an idea. Let's brainstorm: Megrim, Phytostomp, Zuberas. Mind you, these are only a few ideas, but I will go over how to make a rogue deck well.

Section 1
Card choices
Obviously, to make a deck, you need to choose cards to put in on it. Let's do the Megrim deck. What cards are obvious staples? Megrim? Duh. Hypnotic Specter? Obviously. Ravenous Rats? More than likely. Alright, that was easy. It gets harder. When selecting cards you need to think about a lot of things: Does this card have synergy with my deck? What can this card do? Is there a better card to use? Megrim: Lots of synergy, it deals damage when a player discards a card, there is no better card in a Megrim deck. Hypnotic Specter: Tons of synergy, it deals damage and forces a discard, this is a staple in my deck. Ravenous Rats: Plenty of synergy, has a 1/1 body and forces a discard, there may be better cards.
How do I know if a card is good enough for my deck?
Consider this: Abilities, Cost, Synergy, and Power. Cards with low costs that have great abilities and power are generally staples in every deck. You obviously want cards to have synergy with the rest of your deck. I am not saying that you don't want high-cost cards in your deck. But for a higher cost, expect a much better ability and power. Let's take a look at the only questionable card in the deck so far: Ravenous Rats.
Abilities: Forces a discard, and chump blocker.
Cost: 2, which is relatively low for what I'm getting.
Synergy: My deck wants to force discards, so yes.
Power: Moderate, it is relatively powerful in this deck, but nothing game changing.
So should I add Ravenous Rats? Yes! Its cost to abilities is very important in this deck.
What is synergy, and how do I know if a card has it?
Synergy is a characteristic a card has that means it works together with the other cards in your decks. A card has synergy if it works with the theme of your deck, works well in your deck, and can accomplish something that will help you win the game. Power does not mean synergy. Weakness does not mean a card has no synergy. If you are playing, let's say, black weenie or aggro, you more than likely shouldn't run Kagemaro, First to Suffer. Sure, he's a very powerful card, and can change a game, but he won't work very well with your deck. Not only should you empty your hand very fast, but he'll also ruin your board. It's simply common sense. Some other choices will be a bit harder, so thoroughly think each card in your deck. If you are playing a discard deck, then you should probably run cards like Megrim, Ravenous Rats, and many discard cards. Even though most of these cards are relatively weak, they have great synergy in the deck and will work together. More common sense, but just be careful.

Section 2
Support cards
Next we should cover cards you add that don't necessarily have perfect synergy in your deck, but that support the deck well. In the Megrim deck, you will probably run removal like Last Gasp. Does that card have synergy? No, not really, but it supports the deck. It kills creatures so you can live longer or push attacks through. Tutors are also considered support cards. You should probably run Dimir Machinations. Does that card have synergy with the rest of your deck? No, not really. What it does, though, is it allows you to tutor for several cards in your deck. You can get Hypnotic Specter, Megrim, etc. It also can rig your deck so you draw what needed, or rig your opponent's deck. There is just one important thing to remember: Always make sure that the support cards you use support your deck well, and are good against your metagame, not just random decks.

Section 3
Card amounts and land amounts
Alright, next we should discuss how much of a card and how much land to put in your deck. Let's start with mana fixers and acceleration. Mana acceleration is very important in decks, and any low cost mana fixers and accelerators should probably be 4x. It is very important to get these in the early game, so you want the max amount you can. Any legendary cards, unless VERY important, should be 2-3x. For instance, if you make a Shirei deck, you will probably want 4x of him, unless you run plenty of tutors. That brings us to the next part: Tutors. Tutors should generally be 2-3x. If your deck runs TONS of important cards that are tutorable by such a card, you can run 4x. Support cards depend on what kind of support they provide. Cards like Sensei's Divining Top should be 4x, because of its utility and low cost, wanting it early. Depending on your metagame, removal should be 3-4x. Generally speaking, 4x is optimal for early game removal or versatile removal. Putrefy often finds a 4x home because it takes out creatures, artifacts (Umezawa's Jitte), and it prevents regeneration (Ink-Eyes, Servant of the Oni). Cards like Final Judgment and Wildfire will probably find a 3x home, because they are late game cards.

What about creatures and other threats? Those depend on a couple of things: Importance and Cost. Aside from legends, addressed earlier, low cost threats should be 4x, especially if you really want to draw them early on. Cards like Hypnotic Specter should be 4x, because they are very important, and relatively low cost. If you run Gleancrawler in a beatdown deck, you'll probably want 3x. He is probably something you want something a lot later on just to finish up your opponent, and this takes away from his importance. Plus, he has a relatively high cost.

What about lands? Land amounts can vary from 18-28. I have seen few decks with land amounts 10-15, but they are decks that run many 1 mana accelerators, like in elf decks. This depends on your deck type and your mana curve. Your mana curve simply consists of all the mana costs in your deck and how many of each, starting with the least, ending with the most. In a weenie deck, I highly suggest running 18-20 lands, because you want lots of creatures and few lands. In a non-weenie aggro deck, I suggest 20-23 lands, because you want lands to play creatures, but not too many. In control decks, I suggest running 22-26 lands, because you will want lots of mana to play cards to hold your opponent and to play your big cards. In many colored decks, lands should be near the high end, but that depends. Cards like BoP (Birds of Paradise) and lands that produce more than 1 color can save you from having to run too many lands. Particularly, look at guildlands. Not only do they produce 2 colors of mana, but they also return a land to your hand, which allows you to continually play lands without drawing more. They can reduce your land count 2 or so lands. Next time you make a deck, consider the lowest and highest mana costs in your deck, and how many of each cards you have of that cost, and then add lands. Do this carefully, and usually after you make your deck, changing amounts of cards as needed. If you see most cards around 1-2 cost, run only 18-20, 3 cost, run only 20-22 lands, 5 cost 23-24, 6 cost and on, 25+, again depending on what types of lands you run and what colors you have in your deck.

Section 4
Analyze your metagame and sideboard
The final step in making a deck is realizing what your metagame is. What is metagame? Metagame is the field of decks that your average opponents in your area use. If you plan on going to the worlds, however, plan for major netdecks. Let's go on. If you find MUC is very popular where you play, run anti-blue cards. Isao, Enlightened Bushi is an obvious choice here. Dredge cards are also great against MUC. If you find Aggro is heavy in your area, run removal in your sideboard, such as Wrath of God. If you find weenie is used a lot, use cards like Threads of Disloyalty or Reverence. If you plan for combo decks or decks revolving around a card, run Cranial Extraction. Other generally useful sideboard cards are: Naturalize, Pithing Needle, Seed Spark, Arashi, the Sky Asunder, Pyroclasm, Hearth Kami, Kami of Ancient Law, Faith's Fetters, Terashi's Grasp, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Ivory Mask, Shadow of Doubt, etc., etc., etc. Just make sure your sideboard isn't what generally is used, but what is good against your metagame.

In summary: Choose cards wisely, properly support your deck, put in card and lands amount as your deck requires, and set your sideboard to your metagame.

How to build a deck

Preface
If you just bought some packs of cards, have a few rares, a couple of uncommens and a dozen of commons and would like to learn how to build a well working deck, then this is an interesting article for you.

In this article I'll try to explain how to build an effective strong deck. Of course I can never explain here how pro's like Jon Finkel create their tournament winning decks, because they always use different strategies and there are so many aspects in Magic you have to keep on mind. But for the people, who just started playing Magic, I'll explain some basics of deckbuilding.

Deckbuilding Rules
Your deck needs to consist of at least 60 cards and it can't have more than 4 copies of the same card. Under the official rules, there isn't a maximum of cards you can use, but since you can only use 4 copies and you want it to be consistent, you'd better apply the minimum of 60 cards. That way you also have the best chances of drawing the best cards in your deck. So 60 cards it will be.

General Deckbuilding Advise
First of all, you have to think of what kind of deck you are going to make. If you make a creature-based deck, with many low-casting costs creatures you don't need that much land. But, if you are planning on building a control-based deck with many expensive cards, then you need more lands in your deck. Second thing is, if you build a mono-colored deck, then you have many lands that produce that color, but if it's a multicolored deck you want to draw lands of every color you need, so you might need some extra land in that situation, to be more certain to get it.

Usually decks run about 20-26 lands. In monocolored weenie decks like Sligh or White Weenie with mostly cheap creatures, you should use about 20 lands. Multicolored control decks like The Deck or a land destruction deck like Ponza use about 26 lands.

Deckchoice
From here I will explain how to build a standard Green/Red deck. This will be perfect starting point to get accustomed to some of the basic deckbuilding strategies of Magic, while still trying to keep it fun and it will be pretty good too!

I will also try to keep the deck cheap and use cards that are not too hard to get, so you can actually make it, without having to invest hundreds of dollars.

So it will be a 2 colored deck, using Green and Red.

It's not going to be a control deck, and its not going to be a weenie deck. So how many lands are we using? I am planning on making it a medium speed Fires deck. So it will run an average amount of lands: 23-24 probably. That leaves us room for about 36-37 spells (Creatures are also spells, but they become a creature when they resolve and come into play).

Kill Strategy

Let's see. The main goal: Killing your opponent. This can be done in 3 different ways:
Make sure he/she gets 10 Poison Counters
Make sure he/she wont be able to draw a card during the draw phase, this can be done by making him/her draw extremely many cards, by cards like Howling mine or Prosperity or using something like Millstone.
Make sure he/she is brought down to 0 life.

What's also important is that you focus on 1 of those strategies. If you some cards giving poison counters to your opponent, some cards that try to let the opponent run out of cards and some cards that deal damage, the result will be that you are doing a little bit of everything, but you are doing none of it good enough to win. So we'll need to focus.

Method of Killing Strategy
The deck we are gonna make will use the 3rd method, dealing 20 damage. But this still can be done in different ways:
You can use very cheap creatures combined with some burn and/or creature enhancing effects like "+3/+3", also known as pumpers. This way you can do 20 damage really fast, before your opponent will be able to cast his/her expensive spells.
You can try to get big fat creatures on the board as early as possible and have them dominate the play field and win with them. To prevent losing vs fast creatures, this deck can run some cards to destroy some small creatures to prevent being killed before the big creatures take over.
You can control the board, counter spells and/or remove cards from the play field, use card-drawing cards to have more answers to your opponent's threats, make the opponent discard a lot of cards from his hand or destoying land, making sure the opponent can't play his good expensive spells. And once the play field (board) is clean and you have more cards in hand than the opponent, then you play one of the few cards that can kill the opponent. Those kill cards must either be hard to remove, resurrecting from death or kill very fast, and preferably be protected by counters.

Again it's usually best to focus on 1 of those 3 (sub-)strategies. There are also a lot of mixtures, which can work fine too, but I'm keeping it simple and basic here, which is the best starting point.

The first strategy is a bit simple: Just play a lot of small creatures early on, use some spells to clear the path or pump them up and win. The 3rd strategy is a bit boring since it takes long to win and you sometimes have opponents conceding before you actually killed them, because they see you are gaining control. The 2nd strategy will probably be the most attractive, since you can play with cool big creatures! So that's what we will work on.

The Big Creatures
Now, that was enough theory, let's start with looking for some big cool creatures then!

Some big creatures green has to offer:
Phantom Centaur, Erhnam Djinn - Spined Wurm - Ancient Silverback - Call of the Herd, Springing Tiger - Ivy Elemental, Giant Warthog, Tunneler Wurm.

You want the most effecient creature you can get, meaning as much power as possible for the lowest cost. This list is order of strength, so I'm rating Phantom Centaur as the best option, since it has 5 power for 4 mana (1 power more than cost). I should note that you can also use Roar of the Wurm's Flashback to get a whopping 6/6 for 4 mana, but you'd have to build your deck in a way it can discard cards most of the time and this is a typical Green/Blue strategy. So Phantom Centaur it will be.

From Red we can use creatures like:
Fire Elemental - Ogre Taskmaster - Shivan Dragon - Worldgorger Dragon - Savage Firecat - Jeska Warrior Adept - Pardic Arsonist.

Savage Firecat, Ogre Taskmaster and Worldgorger dragon are pretty efficient when comparing cost and power, but they have some downsides. I think Fire Elemental will be the best overall choice and it's Uncommon, meaning it's a bit easier to get. But you can choose about any creature here, since it more a matter of preference than saying one is the best.

So now we have:
4 Phantom Centaur
4 Fire Elemental

Mana Curve
The first problem that a lot of starting Magic players have, is that they forget about a golden rule: mana curve. Many starting Magic players think:

Hey, Phantom Centaur kicks ass, Fire Elemental, Shivan Dragon kicks ass, etc. And then put all their high powered creatures with big costs in their deck and think they are done. They think they have made a killer deck! And when they play to a player that is playing a weenie deck, and they get killed just before they could play their second big creature they say:

"If I could only have casted this second Dragon, or second Elemental, you would have been wasted! Its way bigger than those creatures you have!"

True, it is.. But Magic isn't about who has the biggest creatures, it's about which player can bring the other to 0 life first. And a weenie deck will always beat a deck thats starts with cards of 4 mana or more. So having about 8 big creatures should be enough. with 8 in your deck your odds are very good, that you draw about 2 each game. Just enough, while still leaving some room for other good cards.

So I said a golden rule is the mana curve. I'll explain that a bit more. The most efficient way of using your cards is making sure you can cast them all. When the game is over you want to have used all your cards efficiently. Efficient also means: not letting your resources (lands) be useless. So we want to use all our lands every turn. Of course, you can't always realize this, but there is a certain way of deckbuilding to make sure it happens most of the time:

I will explain it like this: On turn 1 you have 7 or 8 cards in your hand. You play a land, and as we said, you want to use it. So in general 1 out of seven cards needs to be able to be played on turn 1. To really make sure we realize this, we'll have 10 out of 60 cards costing 1 mana. On turn 2, you have had 8 or 9 cards at your disposal, so you want about 8 cards that cost 2 mana. On turn 3, you can guess, we had 9 or 10 cards at our disposal so we want about 7 cards that cost 3 mana. There's only one disadvantage to this: sometimes you only draw the 3 mana cards and no cards to play early on and you haven't used your land effeciently! That's why we are gonna add even more 2 mana and 1 mana-cards, since you can also just play a 2 mana-card and a 1 mana-card together on turn 3 and you still use your lands efficiently. See what I mean? So about optimal will be:
12 cards of 1 mana.
8 cards of 2 mana.
6 cards of 3 mana.
4 cards of 4 mana.
This adds up to 30 cards, and usually you can have some more, but the remaining cards will be cards to deal with opponent's cards, like Disenchant, Shock or Chainer's Edict. You usually want those cards to be as cheap as possible, so you can play a creature next to it, to keep the pressure on your opponent.

Now, this is called the mana curve, but it is moslty used like this by by the weenie decks. Our deck is gonna be a little different, but it's always wise trying to follow these rules of the mana curve as good as you can. Our deck will have more high mana cost cards, because we think they will be very powerful. But we need to use our mana every turn to use our lands effeciently. So what we will do is use some early accelerators to be able to play our fatties a turn earlier. Also, we will add some cheap cards to destroy a couple of weenies, to prevent being completely overrun if we don't get a blocker fast enough. These will be mostly 1 and 2 mana cards. For 3 mana we could use an efficient creature or some better burn. And from turn 4 and 5 we will be casting our beloved fatties!

Card Options of 1 Mana
So, it's time to look for some cards to fill in those ideas. Cards that cost 1:

Accelerators:
Wild Growth
Llanowar Elves
Diligent Farmhand
Birds of Paradise

Creature kill:
Firebolt
Shock

I would say we should use around 6-10 of the acceleration cards and about 0-5 creature kill. The accelerators are more important for us, since we want to cast our fatties early.

Card Options of 2 Mana
Acceleration:
Fertile Ground
Werebear
Rampant Growth

Defense / Creature Kill:
Wild Mongrel
Volcanic Hammer
Flame Burst

How many cards you run here depends on the amount of accelerators you have in the 1 mana slots. If you use like 10 accelerators you can expect to cast something of 3 mana on turn 2 and you can bypass the need of 2 mana cards. If you have few accelerators, you can run some more 2 mana cards. Wild Mongrel is there, well, because it is just an amazing good creature. Just the threat of it becoming bigger will scare a lot of people off and it will keep other weenies from attacking, which is exactly what you want, since you want to survive until you can let the fatties dominate. But if you use much 1 mana acceleration, you can not play it. You could use the creature kill listed here but I would rather choose for the firebolt, since you can also flashback it later on, when you have 5 mana for 2 extra damage. Conclusion: Don't play too many of 2 mana cards, unless you chose to play few 1 mana cards. I would use around 4-8 cards of 2 mana.

Card Options of 3 Mana
3 mana cards should be a lot more interesting, since you can cast them on turn 2 if you had a Llanowar Elf or a Wild Growth. Options:

Creatures:
Call of the Herd
Trained Armodon
Squirrel Nest

For creature kill I couldn't find much, but Blaze would suit fine here, since it can also be used later on. Blaze can be used on turn 3 or 2, killing a cheap weenie, or it can be used at the end of the game dealing like 5 damage to the opponent. This is also a nice fix a deck wants to be sure you can use your mana, since it can be cast every turn after the first. By the way, don't use it on turn 2 for 1 damage on your opponent. Saving it for later to deal more is almost always better and you might wanna kill a big creature they play later on.

So we are a bit disappointed looking at the power of these 3 mana cost cards. Call of the Herd is very good though, but it is VERY hard to get. Trained Armodon should be pretty reasonable and Squirrel Nest takes a while to become threatening, but once it's on the table for a few turns, it starts becoming pretty good, so it could be included. I would use around 0-4 of those three mana cards and some Blazes.

Card Options of 4+ Mana
Like we discussed before we said we would use 4 Fire Elemental and 4 Phantom Centaur. But I think we would have some spots left for some more fat and looking at the acceleration we were planning on using, I think we can afford it. I would use 3 Shivan Dragon and 3 Erhnam Djinn, I think.

The Decklist
So here's the deck:

3 Shivan Dragon
4 Fire Elemental
3 Erhnam Djinn
4 Phantom Centaur
3 Call of the Herd
4 Wild Mongrel

3 Rampant Growth
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Birds of Paradise

3 Blaze
4 Firebolt

11 Forest
7 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest

Ok, this deck uses some quite expensive cards, but if you want it to be cheaper you can play it like this:

2 Fire Elemental
4 Spined Wurm
4 Phantom Centaur
4 Trained Armodon
4 Wild Mongrel

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Wild Growth
2 Fertile Ground
4 Rampant Growth

3 Blaze
4 Firebolt

14 Forest
9 Mountain