how do i build a deck and test it
Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 6, 2014, 3:55 p.m. by stuartm840
hi ive just started playing mtg and got a couple of deckbuilders toolkit but need help actually assembling a deck
Epochalyptik says... #4
We can't really help you until you give us more information. What kinds of decks do you think you'd like? What kinds of cards do you have?
January 6, 2014 6:46 p.m.
What I did when I started playing is open my toolkit, find the coolest rares I pulled, then build a deck that could abuse it. This isn't a great strategy, but I actually did make decent decks out of it.
January 6, 2014 7:04 p.m.
If you've at least played a few matches before with a preconstructed deck, then you have a good idea of what a deck should look like: a mix of land cards and spells. The spells are a mix of permanents (creatures, artifacts, etc.) and non-permanents (sorceries and instants).
A good first deck for a beginner to make is a mono-green creature deck.
Sort your collection into Rares / Uncommons / Commons, and within those piles into Nonbasic Land / White / Blue / Black / Red / Green / Colorless (Artifacts).
Start with the green rares and uncommons and choose about 20-30 creatures that look cool, make sure they span different mana costs - don't just pool all the 5cmc fatties. If there aren't that many in the rares and uncommons, fill the gaps with the commons.
Add in non-creature spells, especially ones that seem to match well with the kinds of creatures you have and their abilities. Again, include some that are low-, moderate-, and high-casting cost.
Altogether, you'll want 36-40 spells (38 for mono-color seems to work well). If you have any nonbasic land that make green mana and maybe do something else cool, put those in too. Add land (Forests if you're doing mono-green) until the total deck size is about 60 cards (61-65 is ok, but closer to 60 the better).
Shuffle it all really well and deal out 7 cards, does it look like you have something to do on the first two turns? Draw a couple more cards - are you getting about 2 lands for every 5 draws? Go through a few turns of playing lands and casting spells and see if you can cast out everything from your hand before turn 6.
Tweak it a little by swapping with other cards from your collection, duel someone else with it, tweak it some more and you'll quickly get a feel for what's good and what's not.
Later on you can research "mana curve" and "land base" and experiment with two- and three-color decks.
twospires says... #2
MTG Q&A is for rules questions. Epochalyptik can move it to the right forum for you.
January 6, 2014 3:56 p.m.