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Creating your first deck inMagic: The Gatheringis a fun and rewarding task but can be a bit extensive. In the game’sModern Format, you will have a large selection of cards to create your personalized deck.
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There are a lot of factors that go into building a deck. Having a good strategy is vital to success. You will also need to ensure you have the right cards to respond to any situation while having the appropriate amount of Mana to play such cards. Once you find that balance, you may build any deck that fits your play style.
What Is Modern Format
Modern Format isconstructed, meaning you build your deckusing cards from Magics' extensive history of cards from the Eighth edition and forward.This makes the format arguably cheaper because your cards will not eventually be removed from the game, unlike Standard Format.
The easiest way to know if a card is legal for Modern Format is the card frame.The format has aminimum of 60 cards, but there is no limit to the number of cards you can have as long as you can shuffle your deck. The rules also allow for having a Sideboard.
Finding Inspiration
The first goal in creating your first deck is finding your inspiration. Magic: The Gathering, especially Modern Format, hasan extensive library of cards to discover and play around with. You will have tons of options and maybe too many options.
The thing that stands out the most is theColorsof the cards. There are five Colors in Magic: The Gathering, each with its unique gameplay style:White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green.If you discover the play style of two Colors that interest you, you can craft a deck with a unique blend of the different styles.Generally, these are what the Colors are best at:
You can also find inspiration by exploring the differentTribesin Magic. Tribes are the game’s way of describing archetypes, cards with particular abilities generally supporting cards in the same group. For Tribes, you have popular ones likeElves, Goblin, and Dragons, but many unique ones likeShapeshifters, Pirates, and even Squirrels.
Description
Aggro
An aggressive deck style with a simple game plan of attacking your opponent with consistent damage by low-cost Creatures and Spells
Midrange
A versatile deck style with cards to play aggressively in the early and late games.
Control
A deck designed to control the game’s pace, to remove your opponent’s win condition, making it easier for you to win.
Combo
Designed to win the game by having a unique set of cards to create a winning strategy. The deck aims to play the combo as soon as possible to win the game.
Once you find cards that interest you,you must develop a winning strategy.This is essential to building a deck and can take some time. You want your deck focused on one win condition,whether rushing your opponent with weak low-cost monsters and spells or slowing the game’s pace to make it harder for your opponent to pull out their powerful combos.
You will likely not achieve this goal in your deck’s first iteration, soalways be open to trying out new cards,even if they may not truly fit the theme you are going for.The ability to consistently pull off your deck’s strategy is the goal you should reach for.
Constructing Your Deck
When building your deck, the rules allow for four copies of a card in your deck.The number of card copies is an essential aspect of deck building.
Besides your main deck, you are also allowed aSideboard, which enables you to add and remove cards between games of a match.The Sideboard is essential, and it should have cards that mitigate weakness and complement your strategy.The Sideboard is part of your main deck, so you cannot add extra copies of cards that would put you past the limit.
Understanding The Mana Curve
As you build your deck, consider the cost of Mana of your cards.Ideally, you want to have the cost of Mana represent a curve hence the name.The key is to have a balance of card cost, so you always have cards to play andavoid finding yourself in a situation with a handful of high-costing cards early on in a game.
Cards that costtwo or three Mana are criticalfor your deck. Whether you have a late-game deck or an early one.
Lands are an important aspect of building a deck since you need them to pay for the cost of cards.Depending on the style of deck you are creating could change the average amount of Lands you need.A basic baseline is 24 Lands,but an Aggro deck can work with less, and a Control deck will most likely need more.Constructing a Combo deck can vary ultimately depending on the combo you are trying to achieve.
When constructing decks with two or more colors, you need to pay attention to the amount of Mana each color card needs to be viable to play.The amount of Mana you need can be more complex, depending on how you split your Colors, but the game has cards that give Mana for more than one color.The general recommendation of Lands for a dual Color deck is 16.
The Cards To Success
When constructing a deck other than Lands and Creatures, you need utility.You will want cards that can provide:Ramp, Drawing, Removal, and Board wipes.
