Play
MtG Blog
MicroProse's Magic: The Gathering PC game
Deck Building: How Many? #
This is the first in a series of articles I plan to write on deck construction. I would like to start asking for deck contributions for this site, but first I need to establish some guidelines.
First off, let me clear up a real basic one. Decks contain 60 cards. This rule can be hard to achieve, but all the rest of the guidelines are founded on it, so it cannot be broken or even bent. Your deck simply will not work. The mana distribution will be all wrong, you won't draw the right cards when you need them. Just trust me. 60 cards, no more no less.
The primary question this post will answer is, "How many of a given card should I include in a deck?" We're building with tournament rules, so decks have at least 60 cards, no more than 4 of a single card, and there is a restricted list (that I have yet to write up), with the cards on that list being limited to 1.
Here is the significance of including a given number of a certain card:
- One Card — Only include one copy of restricted cards. You'll rarely ever draw one, but they're powerful if you do. Other cards that you may only want to include one of are those that might be helpful late in the game, but you never want more than one. I'm thinking maybe Sylvan Library or Jayemdae Tome. But I'm having to theorize to come up with anything but a restricted card that you would only want to include 1 of in a deck. If you actually want to draw a card later in the game, and it's not restricted, go with 2.
- Two Cards — Include two copies of a card that you want to get you out of a bind later in the game. Examples include a "reset button" like Wrath of God, a tie breaker like Control Magic, or a large (5-6 mana) creature in an otherwise fast deck. You aren't likely to see one of these cards in your opening hand, you rarely ever draw two in a game, but in a medium to long duel you'll probably get one, and it could tip the scales and help you win the game.
- Three Cards — These are tricky. They are cards that are important to how the deck functions, but you don't necessarily want them in your starting hand. It might be useless to have more than one at once, or they might just cost too much. You might find that a card that you originally included 4 of works really well, but if you draw 2 or 3 your deck slows down too much. Or you might decide that you really need to add a block of 2 of a certain card, so you have to knock down a couple of your 4 blocks to 3. Try to avoid this last reason, as it dilutes the consistency of the deck.
- Four Cards — Here is where we get into the meat of the deck. These are cards that you want to see in your opening hand every game. Numerous blocks of 4 are what make tournament decks consistent.
One final type of block that's worth mentioning is a concept I've been playing with recently, having 3 of one card and 2 of another very similar card effectively making a block of 5. Do this when there are two cards that do nearly exactly the same thing, but one costs more and is slightly more powerful, so you include 3 of the lower cost version and 2 of the higher cost. One example I can think of is Island Sanctuary and Moat. They both do the same thing, stop all non-flying creatures from attacking, but Moat is much more expensive to cast, requiring 2 of the same color mana, and 4 altogether. Check out Killdraw to see this concept in practice.
0 Comments:
