Subject: Updated article for the Dojo Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 17:09:52 EST From: MMitch6121 To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com >Greetings and salutations, > > Being a neophyte in the MTG world I was wondering if anyone out >there can give a "newbie" some advice on building his first deck?? I >just getting into the game with my daughters and their friends and >would appreciate any advice. > >TIA John Long 1) First time out building a deck, you should stick to the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Silly. A basic, simple formula that tends to win a lot of games is creatures (40 - 45%), creature control (15%), and mana (40 - 45%). You can spice that up a little by including artifact and enchantment defense, if the people you're playing with like to use those cards. This is keeping with the generally good advice of not allowing the opponent to play his game unmolested. If you do, you'll likely lose.) 2) Since you're building a deck with a (presumed) limited card supply, you should try to follow basic advice given for sealed deck or booster draft play. Seek out solid, hard-hitting creatures with evasion abilities (such as flying, swampwalk, etc.). When selecting creatures, it's worth keeping a few things in mind: a) Try to use creatures with some sort of special ability, especially an ability that does something useful for you. (Some creatures have utterly useless special abilities, or abilites which don't help the deck you're playing them in.) They may cost a little more (if the ability is a benefit), or they may have reduced cost (if it's a drawback). Either way, you get something extra when you use these creatures. One caveat: If you use a creature that can hurt you (such as Lord of the Pit), make darn sure that you have a way to support it and a way to get rid of it if it becomes a liability. It really stinks to die to your own creature. :-) b) As a general rule, it's a good idea to avoid creatures that cost more than 4 mana total to get out (especially in constructed deck play), since you'll probably be dead before you can use them. You definitely don't want to load up your deck with 7 - 8 CC stuff. However, it's worth noting that games played with a limited pool of cards typically go longer than constructed deck games, because the cards aren't as well-tuned to each other. Ergo, it probably won't kill your deck to add 2 - 4 larger creatures. If you're lucky enough to get a Shivan Dragon, and you can afford the RR in the casting cost, throw it in. It won't kill you to have 1 expensive card in the deck, and, if it comes out, it'll be a game-breaker. The larger creatures will give your deck a little more stamina in the late game. c) There are toughness "breakpoints" to be aware of with creatures that affect their survivability. As a creature's toughness increases, there are fewer and fewer effects that can kill it. The 1-2 toughness breakpoint - gets past Prodigal Sorcerer (Tim, as he's popularly known), Granger Guildmage [Mirage], Tremor [Visions], and many other "deal one damage to target creature" effects. The 2-3 breakpoint - gets past Cursed Scroll [Tempest], Shock [Sronghold], Kindle [Tempest], Skull Catapult, 2-power weenies (lots of these). The 3-4 breakpoint - gets past Incinerate (the most common instant- speed direct damage spell nowadays) and Lightning Bolt (the previously most common instant-speed direct damage spell). The 4-5 breakpoint - This is where creatures become hard to kill. Gets past Fireblast [Visions], 4-power creatures (lots of these). If you can, try to exploit these breakpoints. Use a 3/4 creature instead of a 3/3. Use a 4/5 creature instead of a 4/4. But don't sacrifice special abilities to do it. For example, in the limited environment, Tim is great, even if he does have a toughness of 1. In days past, the 3-4 breakpoint was very important due to the prevalence of Lightning Bolt. With the Bolt gone from Standard play, and with the preponderence of 2-damage cards - and 2-toughness creatures - the 2-3 breakpoint is actually becoming more important (IMHO). 3) Creature control takes several forms in Magic. The most common type of creature control is direct damage (Fireball, Disintegrate, Incinerate, etc.). These spells have the advantage of being able to control creatures and also deal damage to your opponent. In a limited environment, they can be very powerful, but they do have the limitation of being one-shot in nature (see below) and typically mana-intensive (for the bigger stuff). Another common form of creature control is the point removal spell. Terror is a typical example. These spells simply remove the creature. They have the advantage that they don't require large amounts of mana to kill a large creature, but the disadvantage that they only work on creatures (i.e. they can't be used to damage your opponent). You also have cards like Flood, which don't kill creatures, but rather render them useless to your opponent. Such cards are generally thought of as inferior, since they don't permanently get rid of the creature, but they can find good use in a limited environment. And, finally, perhaps the best creature removal of all is the global destruction spells: Wrath of God and Jokulhaups are the flagships of this class, but there are others. Any card you have that will destroy more than one of the opponent's cards is a good card. Use it. 4) Mana is important. Without mana, you can't cast anything, causing you to sit there helplessly while your opponent pounds you into fertilizer. (A phenomenon known as "mana screw". We've all been there...) :-) A general rule is 40 - 45% mana-producing cards. That doesn't necessarily mean lands, although it is important to have lands. You can also use mana-producing artifacts (the Diamonds from Mirage are a good example) or creatures such as Llanowar Elves. Black has good expendable mana sources, the key card being Dark Ritual. An advantage to the alternative mana sources is that they can build your mana up faster than the one-land-per-turn limit. They also help you against land deprivation strategies (such as Winter Orb or Armageddon). The disadvantage is that they take up space in your deck, and can mess up late-game draws (do you _really_ need a Llanowar Elves on turn 15?). The 40 - 45% rule can be adjusted based on the casting cost of your deck (it's based on an average CC of 4) and by the number of colors you plan to play (more colors, more mana sources). 5) Speaking of colors, what colors to play? Without being _too_ long-winded, here's a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the 5 colors: Green - The best color for building fast, permanent mana. Green creatures have the best power/toughness - casting cost ratio in the game. Decent artifact control and very good enchantment control. Virtually no creature control capability, and this is a critical weakness. White - Typified by small creatures with special abilities that excel in groups. Excellent defenses against virtually everything that can damage you. Outstanding artifact and enchantment control. (In fact, many decks will splash white just to gain the enchantment/artifact control.) Decent creature control capabilities (Wrath of God, Afterlife [Mirage]). No direct damage capability. Very few decent large creatures. No fast mana capability. Blue - Characterized by the ability to screw with the opponent. Large, flying creatures. Counterspelling capability is its primary strength, but may be too complex until you've mastered the basic rules. Very weak on enchantment and artifact defense aside from taxing or theft. Creature control is also weak, except for its effective (and highly disconcerting...to the opponent) theft capability (Binding Grasp, Mind Harness [Mirage]). Most critical weakness is in mana production - blue is a mana-intensive color, and has no fast mana ability of its own to speak of. Black - Has both small, quick creatures (Black Knight, Fallen Askari [Visions]) and good medium level creatures (Derelor, Fallen Angel). Can generate large amounts of fast, disposable mana. Excellent creature removal capabilities (Terror, Pestilence, Crypt Rats [Visions], Enfeeblement [Mirage], Dark Banishing [Mirage, Tempest], Diabolic Edict [Tempest]), although some of the cards are weak against black creatures. Very good at recovering creatures from the graveyard; in fact, Disturbed Burial [Tempest] is one of the "chase cards" in Tempest limited play (sealed, deck, booster draft). Limited direct damage ability (Drain Life). Has decent land destruction capability (probably not appropriate for a limited environment). This is the primary hand destruction (i.e. discard) color; most discard decks are built around black (but again, probably not appropriate for the limited environment). Extremely weak on artifact and enchantment control. Red - BOOM!!! :-) Probably the most outright destructive color. Most direct damage spells are red. Has decent big creatures (Shivan Dragon), but red's creatures are often inferior to other colors' of the same casting cost. Lots of artifact and land destruction, but no enchantment control. Lots of global destruction spells (Earthquake, Jokulhaups, Shatterstorm). No fast mana ability, and can be very mana-intensive, similar to blue. It's usually best to stick to 2 colors. That way, you can cover all the bases, but you're less likely to suffer from being color-screwed (can't get the right color mana to cast things). 3 colors is possible, as is 1, but these are difficult to manage with a limited card pool. 6) It's often worthwhile to include some method for drawing extra cards or for searching your deck for a particular card. This will give you an edge over opponents who don't do the same. Some cards that can accomplish this are Portent, Impulse [Visions], the Tutors from Mirage, Jalum Tome, Jayemdae Tome, and others. If you get one or more of these cards, strongly consider putting them in. 7) As a loose rule of thumb, any card that sticks around when used (i.e. a permanent) is usually a better choice than a one-shot (instant, sorcery) card that performs the same function. This is because you get to use a permanent over and over, versus only once for the instants and sorceries. Don't let that blind you to using the one-shots, though, as they are often substantially more powerful than their permanent cousins to compensate for their "just once" nature. A general recommendation for new players is to try a green/red creature/direct damage deck. These are simple to play, and will get you well into the game mechanics. The green/red mix pretty much covers all the bases: good mana, good creatures, direct damage, artifact and enchantment defense. You have global destruction with Jokulhaups (if you have any) and Tranquility (for enchantments). Sorry for the long-winded post. Hope it helps. Welcome to a fascinating hobby! Mike Mitchell