…standards and curves

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Sitromis

5 August 2009

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I’d originally planned crafting this to the meta-gamers’ I roll with, but as I began to lay out my own flavor of tactical diatribe, it slowly became a little more worthy of a larger audience. Where it ended up however, I’ll just let you decide

Like my last edition to this site, solutions are a big part of a successful game. Any mage worth his salt, to use a Romanian term, hast to have solutions; mainboard or otherwise something up the sleeve, in the sideboard. I’ll not go into the threat incursions and anticipatory actions you should be aware of, though you’re welcome to read my former article for such input. What I’d rather like to discuss is the Mana Curve of competitive play. When I say “Mana Curve” I’m not only considering spell costs, but also your Mana Base in general.

There is one known as garrisod here who is also among our current meta-game. He’s said on occasion that “ if you manage to cast something for 5 Mana, you should win!” Roughly paraphrased anyway, maybe you’ve heard something similar? This largely refers to the competitive scene of Extended play, most games ending in that format rather quickly; yet I’d relate that same philosophy to the Standard competitive format as well. Why? Speed kills and if you are playing a slow deck with high-casting cost spells, on average, you will lose games to those who outpace you. The mage that can cast a spell (or more) every turn is simply greater than the one who cannot. That is the face of Standard competitive play. As such, the Mana Curve of deck construction is a great place to start when building a deck capable of holding its ground in this format.

Take a holistic approach and think of your game spread out before you in the future. Think about each turn and what your optimally desired actions would be. Turn one what are you doing? Drop a land obviously, but what are you casting? Consider heavily your one Mana casting options, or “1 drop” options as I like to call them. These are very important when building a competitive deck, especially for those times you find yourself making the first play. This stands to set the pace of your assault, and each color has a few solid 1 drop options. Let’s take a look at a few-

Creature

White has plenty of options but the one that stands heads above of the rest happens to be the same creature that red boasts, the Figure of Destiny. Probably the best 1 drop creature Standard has to offer. Black has a few options, but nothing quite so potent as the one above. Deathgreeter, Prickly Boggart, Kederekt Parasite or possibly the Nip Gwyllion would make-up your Black 1 drop picks, many of which are situational options and not necessarily considered to be competitive. Generally speaking, Blue is not a dependable source of 1 drop creatures either, not in current Standard anyway. Arguably the Zephyr Sprite would be the winner simply for the fact that it flies. Finally we lean on Green for Mana production, and those choices are between Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise, depending on theme and color. If you are playing a themed deck, there are probably a few more considerations for the Green mage, but I’m taking the macro approach here and would prefer to not drill down to that level.

Other Spells

If you’re not looking for a 1 drop creature, then I’d suggest you consider a 1 drop solution. Not necessarily for turn 1, but to keep your Mana Curve consistent. Your options for White here are generally Path to Exile, though for those interesting in PTQ’s and the online scene, both Silence and Harm's Way are beginning to see some competitive tournament action as well. Blue is not strong in the 1 drop non-creature arena, but it has a few options like Unsummon or possibly Ponder for a slow cast, albeit solid decking mechanic in the Standard environment. Black remains strong with Thoughtseize or Duress as a less powerful and less expensive option; there are a lot of good players having their plans removed from hand by Thoughtseize in nearly any Standard tournament you join, observe, or hear about. I think the Red option has become fairly obvious with the release of M10, and that is of course Lightning Bolt. Green has perhaps the same issue as Blue, though Fog and Giant Growth can sometimes be a valued solution. The strength from Green truly remains with its Mana production for 1 drop casting.

Keeping the turn base pace up, we move on to the two (2) Mana cost options, of which there are many! I’m trying to keep the size of this article to an acceptable and digestible medium, and covering all the 2 drop options would not allow me to do so. Suffice to say, you should compare and contrast spells and you should do so frequently; especially as they relate to each deck you build, it’s theme, spell cost, expense and certainly how they affect your Mana Curve overall. Take Terminate vs. Nameless Inversion as a quick example. Terminate is obviously the stronger option, but a little more complex to cast. However, if you were playing a deck capable of “fetching” Goblin cards, Nameless Inversion suddenly holds a substantial advantage over Terminate. There are plenty more comparisons to be made, and as such, we rely on each other to sharpen our wits via sites like the one you’re frequenting now. So when you’re satisfied with your 2 drop/casting cost options it’s time to move on towards your third turn casts. As you do, take a little more care with selection each time you up the cost. Higher casting cost generally equates to more power, and if all those comic book films have taught us anything at all, it’s with more power comes greater responsibility!

As you reach a cost of four (4) Mana, pause a bit here to look back over how you’re expecting the deck to play. There are not too many decks in the Standard competitive setting that play slowly, or pack extreme casting cost spells. Control Decks (notably 5cc (not an engine for all you car buffs)) are exceptions to this, but will stall you to a point that allows them to be said exception. My point being, as you add the more powerful spells to your deck consisting of four (4) or more Mana, do so with extreme discretion and make them count. Acknowledgement to a well maintained Mana Curve is going to allow you to readily cast something on turn 4, so it should be something of great substance. As an example, a Chameleons Colossus would be a very potent turn four cast, while a Diabolic Tutor is not. Unless of course the spell you tutored for reads “I win, you lose.” That would be a solid 5 drop for sure; I have three of those in my deck. Only three due to their high casting cost and late game playability. Respect the Curve!

Like everything, it comes down to the math and you don’t want to be a math refugee do you?! Too many “fast cast” options and you require card advantage to feed your hand. On the other hand if you have too few low casting cost options, you’re likely to encounter a stall and your opponent will begins to outpace you. As an example, consider the Standard “Burn” decks you see now. They empty their hands very quickly, which would normally be a red dot on the Mana Curve radar screen; but today’s competitive Burn decks compensate for having no options in-hand by utilizing the “Unearth” mechanic very effectively.

Probably the best means to studying your Mana Curve is to use a site like Tappedout.net, as an example. Other options include Wizard’s own downloadable Magic the Gathering Online Deck Editor or possibly a 3rd party application such as MTG Studio. All of these are great options to study how your Mana Curve looks under duress of construction and pre-play, some of which allow for either statistical averages via pie charts, bar graphs and/or hand draw simulations. Once you begin this type of study, you’ll notice that the decks already involved in competitive play generally bare strong similarities to each other. Understanding this, and gravitating towards this type of theory crafting can insure that your able to cast the spells you want, when you need them; this is the pith of understanding regarding your Mana Curve, and utilizing it properly.

As always, thanks for your time.