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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Deck building 201
August 20, 2008

Sometimes, my job is pretty easy.  Pull this, add that, fix your mana base, and you're out the door.  The only challenge is adding some witty one-liners to keep my fans entertained.

Sometimes, my job gets much harder than that.

Sometimes, card choice evaluation isn't enough.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am writing to say I've enjoyed your deck building articles for pojo.com.

I am a player who's been playing for more than 10 years.  Unfortunately, I've hit a wall. I can't seem to build decks that win consistently. It seems the only time I can win is when my opponent is mana-hosed.

I used to think it was all about the cards, i.e. if my opponent has spent more on better cards, he or she has the upper hand. But a couple years ago a group of friends and I have started playing a "sealed deck" format. We each bought a specific number of cards from a specific series. Everybody started with the same number of cards. 

Over the years we've expanded it several times in different ways, but the principle is the same. Level expansion to even the playing field.

Unfortunately, I still lose consistently. And because we always play for ante, I've seen my card pool diminish every time I lose.

Instead of asking you to help me build a deck or giving you a card list of my sealed deck cards, I was hoping you could either write or point me in the direction of an article which is geared toward players who know the game but can't seem to take their decks to the next level.

Thanks for your attention,

Bob

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sure Bob isn't the only reader to have this problem.  When everything you know about Magic isn't enough, how do you advance?  What can you do to break out from under a glass ceiling?   Is it true that you have to spend upwards of $20 on a single card because that card really is better than all the others?

Of course not.  You can always improve your game without pouring money into your deck.  After all, you can't buy skill.  But if you can't buy it, and you don't have it, where do you get it?

From someone who does have it, of course.

***On The Shoulders of Giants Other than Hamletback Goliath***

Everyone learns the game from someone.  Once you've mastered the rudiments, like how the stack works and the phases of a turn, your teacher usually becomes your opponent.  Over time, constantly playing against that person (or people) will normally build up your skill level up to the point where you can reliably beat them.  Then it's time to move up to the next level of competition-- usually Friday Night Magic tournaments hosted by your local game shop.  After that, it's PTQ's, and eventually the Pro Tour if you're one of the lucky ones.

The most normal means of getting better at Magic is to play against people who are better than you.  How do you know they're better than you? It's not hard to figure out: you lose to them.  A lot.  And not because of manascrew either.

But Bob here seems to already have found players that are better than him, and he's not learning how to beat them.  What can he (and others in his position) do?  Well, the reason that one normally grows in skill over time is because one learns more about the game and finds more ways to win.  If you're not learning, then you need to try harder at it.  When your opponent is sitting and thinking, you should be too.  Look at the board from his angle. (Though not literally, he may think you're peeking at his hand.)  Try to imagine what you're opponent's best move is.  You'll rarely be right, since you don't know what's in his hand and he doesn't know what's in yours, but you can usually see what options your opponent has on teh board.  And when he does something that strikes you as unusual, see if you can guess why.  What must he know that you don't that would make him attack into your army?  You may be able to catch when he's got a combat trick or a trump  card he's sitting on.  Then remember to ask him about it after the game.  If he's playing cards you don't think are very good, ask him about that too.  If you've got a playgroup, you've got a powerful resource at your fingertips.  Use it wisely.

***Worship the Ground you Walk On***

Part of being able to play skillfully is minimizing your deck's dependence on luck.  And there's no greater bad luck in Magic than manascrew-- so little has to happen for so much to go wrong.  A manascrewed player is barely a game at all, it's solitaire.  As such, it's worth putting the extra effort into making sure you have a stable land base for your deck.

Getting your land base right is a lot of counting up mana symbols and doing math-- tedious and boring work that many of us would rather not do.  But if you want to taste the sweet dessert of victory, then you have to swallow the vegetables and fiber of a complete balanced land base.

The first thing to consider is that lands should comprise 35% to 40% of your total deck-- about 24 lands in a 60-card deck and 17 in a 40-card deck.  Also consider if you're playing any cards that would encourage you to play more or less lands than that-- for example, Retrace rewards you for drawing extra lands you don't need to play.  X spells like Fireball reward you for drawing extra lands and playing them.  On the other hand, most aggro decks are full of cheap spells and probably will be disappointed to draw any land at all past the fourth or fifth one.

Then, get your colors balanced.  A good rule of thumb is to count the number of mana symbols of each color in your deck.  A card with one colored mana symbol counts as one, a card with two counts as one and a half.  Three or more colored mana symbols on a single card should make you think twice about playing it in a multicolored deck.  And any card that costs seven or more doesn't count at all-- by the time you get seven lands, you should have your colors squared away. Also give extra weight to a card that needs to be played early to have a decent effect.  A prime example is Llanowar Elves-- if you want to drop that on turn one, you'll need a higher proportion of Forests to ensure you'll have one in your opening hand.  Once you get your total, apply that ratio to the number of open slots you have for lands.  If you have dual lands, count them as half of each color they provide.  A five-color land should be added in before you apply the ratio.  Also think  about what kinds of mana costs you'll want to be able to pay on each of your first few turns.  If you've got Grave Pact and Juniper Order Ranger in the same deck, how are you affording [1BBB] on turn four and [3GW] the very next turn?  Just as important as knowing how to build a good mana base is knowing when including a certain card in your deck will ruin your chances of having a good mana base.

Of course, a monocolor deck has no such worries.

***That One Track Leads Down The Mine Shaft***

Monocolor decks have their own pitfalls, however.  Each color has its strengths and weaknesses.  That's why most players have a favorite color or two.

However, a mistake that a lot of people make when presented with a limited card pool, be it a Sealed Deck or a friend's shoebox, is to build a deck in their favorite color(s) without even considering the others.  Heck, that's how I did so mediocre at the Tenth Edition Release-- I went 2-2 with a red/green deck, only to get home, look through my cards again, and realize that I could've built a much stronger blue/white deck.  Having a favorite color is fine, but you can't let it blind you to the other four.  No one color is stronger than all the others, but each can do something the others can't.  If you usually play the same color, it's time to look at what the other four can do.

This can be a lot more powerful than it sounds.  Each color has its own style of play, and it tends to do its best work in a different area of the game.  Green plays its best game in the combat step.  Red owns your opponent's life total directly.  Blue does its best work "in response".  Black brings its A-game straight to your opponent's hand and to every player's graveyard.  And wherever your opponent chooses to play the game, you have to be ready to take the fight to them, or at least to put enough pressure on them to bring the fight to you.  If you're only way to win is to play creatures, and your opponent is killing them all and putting them into play out of your graveyard, you've got problems.  Now if you could counter his kill spells, on the other hand, you might be able to deny him the resource he thought he'd have in your graveyard, forcing him to scramble to deal with your still-alive creatures attacking him.  Alternatively, if you're the Red  mage throwing burn spells around wantonly, you may have some difficulty when your opponent makes you discard cards from your hand and you have no ways to draw extra cards.

In Limited, frequently you can expect games to be won or lost on the back of creatures.  But in Constructed, there are plenty of other venues to fight on and you have to be ready to fight in, or at least protect, all of them.

We will fight them in the graveyards.  We will fight them in the libraries.  We will never surrender.

***Research Grant***

Your final avenue of improvement is one that, if you're reading this, you've already explored: searching for strategy advice on the Internet, or wherever you can find it.  Pojo.com is a fine place to look, as are MTGSalvation and StarCityGames.  And I'm not betraying Pojo by suggesting other websites, because you need to learn from as many sources as you possibly can.  And when you have questions, ask them!  Just like I said earlier that you can learn from the people who play against you, you can learn from people who play half a world away and are looking for more people to talk Magic with.  The Internet truly is the global playgroup.

There are plenty more articles about ways to improve your play.  Magicthegathering.com has a series on playing in Limited, one on building decks on a budget, and one on building decks in general.  The forums over at MTGSalvation are usually chock full of threads about any format of Magic you can think of.  And it's to those places that I'll have to send you now, because I'm out of ideas.  All I can tell you now is, practice, practice, practice!

And good luck!

~BMoor