New magic player questions

Deck Help forum

Posted on March 2, 2012, 11:32 p.m. by Romoseel

To be honest with anyone who may read this, I just started getting into magic about two weeks ago. I have no physical cards of my own, and I am refraining to do that until I know which intro pack to make a base for my deck with. After that decision, all hell will break loose, and I will be a card buying machine. I have a very good idea of how the game works for someone with such limited experience. I play daily against my cousin over Skype (memorizing/writing down what each other play) so testing my decks are actually enjoyable.

At the moment, I am playing around with which colors and combinations fit me as a person. I would prefer to play a deck that holds true to my characteristics rather than one straight from the pro tourney or the like.

I am a generally very aggressive person, and I do not really enjoy the idea of a deck based around tokens instead of actual creatures. I have recently started to think that making a black/red deck would make more sense because, to me, it seems that black would give the deck more control and survivablity rather than the white that I am mainly using now.

The red/white deck, deck:burning-marshmellows, seems to do very well if I get a good hand off the bat. I first began to think of tearing out the white for a different color when this started becoming a problem about every other game. If I cannot knock the other person out by around turn 6-7 ish, I lost. This bothers me because I ultimately do not want to just put all of my eggs in the same basket. It would make more sense to me if I had consistent strength rather than relying on the other player being slow out of the gate. Also, I always seem to have too much land. I am somewhat afraid of dropping land and then having the problem of not having enough. To me, it seems like having land, even if it is too much, is better than having all of the cards that you need in your hand without any mana to use them with.

Perfect Insanity is a red/black deck that I just recently made after some research is very raw in that it has not been play tested a whole lot. I enjoyed the offense and defense that the Go for the Throat, Tragic Slip, Tribute to Hunger, and Incinerate provide. They help keep the enemy's field empty in case I do not have a Ruthless Invasion in hand.

Finally, I would greatly appreciate any constructive advice concerning these decks or maybe even a deck that may make more sense for me to run. Thanks for reading.

2austin5 says... #2

well if you want an aggressive black red deck you can look into vampires, right now they are solid in innistrad and dark ascension, and also in the zendikar block black vampires have some really good cards. you can also look into lorwyn which has some pretty good red/black multicolor cards, the same goes for cards in the Ravnica block from the Rakdos guild. Also, if you want to make the deck with a good mana base so you don't get mana screwed, add fetch lands like Bloodstained Mire, Marsh Flats, and Scalding Tarn. The 1 life is well worth the mana plus it will thin your deck out, increasing the chances of getting a good top deck card, This may not mean much to you being rather new to the game but I really hope it helps!

March 2, 2012 11:55 p.m.

shadows1091 says... #3

also the alara block has some really good black and red cards such as Blightning and Bituminous Blast. But I agree of the r/b vampires idea, they are aggressive and from what I've seen can survive longer games then most other red decks.

March 3, 2012 1:17 a.m.

Alphawolf626 says... #4

I agree with Vampires...My buddy has a B/R Vampire deck and its NASTY!! I'll try to get the card list and post it to see what you think, but Vampires are great for B/R. Personally I run G/W Tokens and Swords, so If you want a different color, I recommend check out my deck:token-it-up-and-beat-them-down deck :)

March 3, 2012 1:47 a.m.

Minousmancer says... #5

I've noticed that most 'New Players' that like to play aggressively tend to go for, Black/Red or Red/Green, I would suggest a Black/Green deck, cheap big creatures in Green with removal, then on the Black side you have removal and aggressive creatures. Plus there can be lots of synergy between the two colors that just happens and it wasn't intended to be there.

March 3, 2012 4:03 p.m.

Romoseel says... #6

It means a lot to me that you all responded with your own opinions. I am looking to run standard, so only the last two comments apply although I do appreciate the first two responses.

I am enjoying the black/red deck a lot more than my previous white/red one. As I stated in my original post, I do not enjoy token decks although if my opinion of them changes in the future I will make sure to come back to look at your deck, Alphawolf626.

Minousmancer, your opinion of a black/green deck seems very intriguing. I will look into that combination to eventually replace my white/red deck entirely as my secondary deck, and depending on how it turns out it may become my primary deck.

March 4, 2012 5:36 p.m.

Minousmancer says... #7

Here are three decks with Green to show you what I mean, the first is Black/Green Standard, the second is Green/White Standard, the third is all Green and legal in Extended.

1. The first Ghoultree Deck
2. deck:dont-essence-me-bro
3. Fangorn's Revenge

Here's a Standard Black deck so you can see it's power as well: deck:evil-day-moon

March 4, 2012 6:05 p.m.

Romoseel says... #8

I tested out a Ghoultree Deck of my own last night. I made mine VERY similar to yours, as well. I was only able to play with it once, but its potential seems killer if your Ghoultree isn't at the bottom of your library along with Increasing Ambition. I think I also started sacrificing my creatures a little too soon for lands that I really had no use for.

March 5, 2012 5:29 p.m.

Minousmancer says... #9

Tempo, yes, you want Ghoultree to be able to come out right away, but when you are ready. That is why you have the Black Cats & Typhoid Rats to keep people from attacking you until you are ready.

March 5, 2012 8:28 p.m.