A new set’s coming out soon, and with it, everybody’s favorite time of the year. Alara block and M10 are rotating, taking with it any vestiges of a known format. The playing field will be level for a short while – with Friday Night Magic grinders and Level 8 Pros alike starting at the base of Mount Glory, waiting for the go-ahead to begin the long trek to the coveted peak of fame, prizes, and the ability to name the new Tier 1 decks something ridiculous. (“Frog in a Blender,” anyone?)
Every few months, most competitive Magic players come to the base of Mount Glory with their friends, exchanging encouraging remarks like, “This time we’ll get there,” and “They won’t have any idea what hit them!” in an effort to bolster their spirits. Because in the back of their minds, while they want to win, they know that they may lack what it really takes. The path is long and arduous and riddled with dead ends and pitfalls for the inexperienced.
When you don’t even have an outline of the traps that await you on your climb to the peak, doubt creeps into your consciousness. Remembering the failures of your previous attempts at traversing the mountain makes you feel discouraged, dismayed, and eventually despondent. You turn around and start towards home.
It’d be easier to just wait a few weeks and just take the helicopter provided for free from NetDeck Inc. and get to the top that way. Wishing your friends good luck, you head home to the safety of your computer chair.
This doesn’t have to happen to you! Read this guide, and you can reach the summit on your own two feet. Besides, everyone knows the fun is in the journey and not the goal.
Choosing a Linchpin
Every deck has a focus – some game plan that’s the quickest, most efficient path to victory. These plans usually involve linchpin cards: the cards that are much more powerful than the cards around them. These cards are so powerful, they generally spawn entire archetypes on their own and flood the metagame with their presence. Here are some examples:
Power level alone doesn’t dictate a linchpin, but it is the most common indicator. The most effective way to identify a linchpin is to see what price they exact on your deck (and I don’t mean dollars). Each requires other cogs to put into their machine to be able to operate at 100% efficiency.
-
Fauna Shaman – Massive amount of creatures cards, silver-bullet tutor targets
-
Steppe Lynx – Aggro deck with ways to put multiple lands into play at the same time
- Destructive Force – Mana ramp, win conditions that survive five damage
- Eldrazi Monument – Effects that generate multiple creatures per card
- Abyssal Persecutor– Multiple effects than can remove a 6/6
- Jace, the Mind Sculptor – Inordinate amount of cheap removal
- Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle – At least ten mountains
These are some that are
not
linchpin cards:
These cards are all powerful, but they don’t require you to play anything else to be truly effective.
One must be wary when dealing with linchpins, as their whirlpool-like capability to suck in more and more deck space with the justification of producing a bigger boom may be an Alluring Siren. This is particularly true of Fauna Shaman decks, which have the ability to play cards like Gaea’s
Revenge, Pelakka Wurm, and Mold Shambler to always have an answer to every situation. While each of these choices could be the
best possible card
in very limited scenarios, they’re
not worth the card slot in your deck
. Without Fauna Shaman to recycle and reuse blank creature cards, you have a lot of square pegs for the round holes that riddle the vast majority of your games.
In short, all decks have a linchpin. It’s the core in which everything else is built upon.
Identifying your Role, Plans, and Redundancy
Linchpins are your deck’s plan A. Every game, your goal is to get your linchpins working to their full potential. How you go about carrying out these plans depends on what type of deck you are: aggro or control.
An aggressive deck’s Plan A usually involves killing the opponent in short order with little to no resistance. These decks generally have multiple Plan As. They try to be redundant by running similar, interchangeable cards at each of their mana drops.
Example: Extended Doran. Treefolk Harbinger into Treefolk Harbinger into Doran is a plan A, as is Thoughtseize into Putrid Leech (or Tarmogoyf) into a Knight of the Reliquary.
Plan B (and beyond) for aggressive decks usually encompasses winning through various kinds of resistance, or by just having a sub-par draw.
A control deck’s Plan A involves
beating every other deck’s Plan A.
These decks are redundant in that they run versatile answers (usually counterspells) to be able respond to any onslaught and come out alive. If your control deck has no hope of beating an aggro deck’s best possible draw, then you need to start playing some cards that do.
Plan B for control decks involves the deck’s linchpin. If you don’t have enough answers for your opponent’s threats in Plan A, then you need to be able to play your linchpin to bail you out or overpower the opponent (Cruel Ultimatum, Grave Titan, etc.).
Synergy
Now that your deck has a linchpin and solid Plans A and B, you need a supporting cast to fill out the remaining slots in your masterpiece. A lot of people are confused on the meaning of synergy, or don’t even know what it means. To assist, here are the two definitions I’ve come up with:
1.Two or more cards that together are greater than the sum of their parts.
Examples:
This is the most generally accepted definition that everyone can easily understand and apply. There is, however, another more subtle application of the term that’s overlooked.
2.Cards that fully take advantage of what you’re already doing.
Examples:
- Manlands + Knight of the Reliquary.
These examples show that the first definition doesn’t apply to them, yet are still examples of synergy at work. Each card combination functions exactly as the printed text would indicate, yet are just more elegant when put together. This sort of synergy usually involves cheap effects that allow each game to progress smoothly despite inevitable potholes your opponent will make on your road to victory.
Like all good things, synergy too has an evil, goateed alter ego. His name’s Nonbo (short for Not a Combo). Different from cards that simply lack synergy, these cards, when put together, are
worse
than the sum of their parts. Some examples are:
- Pyroclasm + your Fauna Shaman
- Relic of Progenitus + your Sun Titan
Applying synergy to deck construction is easy. Every single card that doesn’t interact with your plans or disrupt the opponent must have synergy, or
it shouldn’t be in your deck
.
The Numbers
How many copies of each card do you run in your deck? This is an extremely difficult question to answer in a vacuum, as each deck and circumstance demands a different answer. Most people can agree on some general guidelines - but each is tinged with their individual deckbuilding personality. However, there’s a set of guidelines that’ll work for the vast majority of decks that you’ll be brewing.
Conditions of a four-of:
1. Cards that you’ll take as many as you can draw every game. More specifically, I’ve found you shouldn’t be complaining if you draw three in a single game. (Bloodbraid Elf, Cryptic Command)
2. Linchpins are a four-of unless you have some tutoring or a lot of card drawing.
3. Cards that get better in multiples. (Squadron Hawk, Goblin Guide, Overgrown Battlement)
4. Mana fixing that has little cost. (Manlands, fetchlands)
Conditions of a three-of:
1. Gets worse in multiples. This is true for most planeswalkers and legendary permanents. (Oracle of Mul Daya, Eldrazi Monument, Day of Judgment)
2. Generally these are the dedicated kill conditions in a control deck.
3. You want to draw exactly one every game. (Cruel Ultimatum)
Conditions of a two-of:
1. Cards you want to see every other game.
2. Usually removal or other answers to situations that you may not have thought of or that your strategy is especially weak to. (Into the Roil, Oblivion Ring, Spell Pierce)
Conditions of a one-of:
1. Tutor target.
2. A card that gets
significantly
worse in multiples; this usually applies to colorless lands or high-casting-cost spells. (Gargoyle Castle, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn)
3. Miser cards that you love to play with but can’t justify. People hate having no answer in their deck to a single card. They can usually play one answer, so that they can hope to draw it.
4. A card that attacks from an angle that’s normally not played around. It functions as a fourth or fifth copy of an effect you already have but is a complete blowout if it works in some narrow fashion. (Spawning Breath, Slaughter Pact, Grave Titan in a nearly creatureless deck post-sideboard)
5. Win condition in combo decks.
Applying These Concepts to Building a Deck
This can be a lot to take in, and I hate all-theory articles and no practice. Here’s a walkthrough in building a deck from start to finish.
I have a deck idea. I feel that in the new Standard there’ll be a lot of poorly tuned decks as people try new deck ideas and cards out. To take advantage of their lack of focus and disruption (as well as their untuned sideboards), I want to build a deck around powerful effects that’ll allow me to easily win. I believe Destructive Force provides what I’m looking for.
Linchpin: Destructive Force
What does Destructive Force want me to do to make it work?
1. Some way to cast it before turn 7.
2. As the spell requires seven mana, cards that can produce multiple mana or draw multiple cards will be required to be able to consistently cast it when I want, despite mulliganing or the opponent’s disruption (such as Tectonic Edge).
3. A win condition that survives five damage.
These three seem to point me to green as the second color, so I’ll look into seeing what I can play. A cursory glance shows the following acceleration available:
A host of other creature-based mana (like Elves) that we’ll not be utilizing because they’re a Nonbo with Destructive Force in general. (Who wants to lose all their permanents along with the opponent’s?)
Here’s where being an experienced deck builder pays off. I know that mana-ramp decks, in general, want between twelve to sixteen ramp cards. This number comes from having played and built similar decks in the past, and such intuition only comes with practice. If you didn’t know this number or had no idea where to begin, a good idea is to look at successful decks and see how many slots they’re dedicating. This is
not
the much maligned free trip from NetDeck Inc. - it’s research to find the best starting framework.
For this example, a good deck to look at is
Eric Froehlich’s deck from US Nationals
. His list contains eleven dedicated ramp cards, with an additional eleven cards that could also be acceleration (but that’s not their primary purpose).
From this list, we can be assured that we’re playing Cultivate, that Ondu Giant’s a less powerful Oracle of Mul Daya, and that we’ll not be utilizing the token generation of Awakening Zone or Growth Spasm to its full potential - so we should be using alternatives. I don’t, as of yet, predict a field full of mana Elves, Steppe Lynxes, Plated Geopedes, Lotus Cobras, Goblin Ruinblasters, and Cunning Sparkmages, but if there were (as there was in Zendikar Block Constructed), I’d expect to play at least one, if not two, Spawning Breaths. Primeval Titan also doubles as a win condition, so we’re definitely playing him.
We’re now left with a list of cards that we need to trim for the last eight to twelve slots. I have an affinity for the synergy between Explore/Cultivate/Oracle of Mul Daya, so we’ll go that route. (Oracle of Mul Daya is my favorite card in Magic by a very wide margin.)
The list so far:
4 Destructive Force
4 Primeval Titan
4 Explore
4 Cultivate
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
We’re a little light on win conditions still, so we need to add some more of those. I’d like to add at least four more to be safe.
Koth and Garruk are both win conditions and acceleration, so we should include some copies of them. Between the two, Koth is the superior choice. I can imagine a nut draw (Plan A) for the deck involving a turn 2 Explore, turn 3 Koth, turn 4 Destructive Force (and perhaps even play a land afterwards!). I also like how Koth has synergy with the Lightning Bolts that we’ll be undoubtedly playing, and the ability to turn all of our mana ramp into a win condition with his ultimate, something Garruk’s ultimate doesn’t really do. The deck also has a weakness to planeswalkers, being a permanent that Destructive Force doesn’t remove. Koth also addresses that problem.
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Koth of the Hammer
The deck seems rather slow, so I need to put some more early removal in. My choices being fairly limited, they are:
Of these, Burst Lightning, Flame Slash, and Pyroclasm all seem promising. I feel like the deck has a weakness to fast aggro decks (Goblin Guide, Steppe Lynx), Fauna Shaman decks (if they have Lodestone Golem), and planeswalkers. Each of these three choices is good for different reasons against these decks, so it’s entirely possible we can play a few of each. In Zendikar Block Constructed, Flame Slash was significantly better than Burst Lightning, so let’s go with that.
2 Pyroclasm
3 Flame Slash
With our deck nearly complete, let’s review what our plans are.
Plan A: Cast a turn 5 Destructive Force, or a turn 6 one with a win condition in play.
Plan B: Produce an overwhelming advantage with a turn 3 Koth or Oracle of Mul Daya, or a turn 4 Primeval Titan.
Plan C: Ultimate Koth.
That leaves us with twenty-eight cards, of which I want at least twenty-six lands; I’d prefer twenty-seven. Looking at the list, I’m saddened with how few methods we have of achieving our plans: casting Destructive Force turn 5, or casting a turn 3 Koth or Oracle, as our nut draws all involve Explore. For redundancy, we need to have some more mana ramp. That means we have Khalni Heart and Everflowing Chalice to choose from.
I’m not happy with Everflowing Chalice’s lack of synergy with Koth (it’s not a Mountain like Rampant Growth would be), and that it’s not a shuffle effect for Oracle of Mul Daya (something Rampant Growth would also have done). It does have a small amount of synergy at four mana, as it’d allow a turn 5 Destructive Force or Primeval Titan (if we’re land-light). However, if we wanted a card that did that, we’d just run Khalni Heart Expedition instead, right? Khalni Heart also casts a turn 4 Titan or a turn 5 Force, but is also a shuffle effect for Oracle and two Mountains for Koth.
As for lands to tutor up with Primeval Titan, Tectonic Edge and Raging Ravine should be enough. Bojuka Bog could be in the board, and Khalni Garden (being only good against Gatekeeper of Malakir and Consuming Vapors) should stay in the sidelines.
4 Raging Ravine
3 Tectonic Edge
Oracle of Mul Daya and Khalni Heart Expedition all love fetchlands, so we’d like to fit in a lot of those if possible.
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Evolving Wilds
Koth requires us to play some Mountains…
6 Mountain
…And some forests to cast our green cards, as well as some more dual lands.
4 Forest
2 Rootbound Crag
Brew list v0.1:
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Primeval Titan
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Explore
4 Cultivate
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Pyroclasm
3 Flame Slash
4 Destructive Force
4 Raging Ravine
3 Tectonic Edge
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Evolving Wilds
6 Mountain
4 Forest
2 Rootbound Crag
Uh oh – we’re at sixty-one cards! Also, the deck has a lot of copies of cards that don’t fit the numbers guide I outlined above. Now that you’ve thought about your deck and see the entire picture, you can begin trimming cards.
I’m dissatisfied with the lack of synergy with the deck and Oracle of Mul Daya. With just four cantrips and a mere nine shuffle effects (not counting Titan), and its being a Nonbo with both Pyroclasm and Destructive Force, I believe it needs to get the boot for the more consistent Garruk Wildspeaker.
With Oracle of Mul Daya gone, the need for shuffle effects is removed entirely. Oracle also helped Khalni Heart Expedition add the final counter even when not played on turn 2. With this in mind, there’s not much reason to play Khalni Heart Expedition. This makes me believe we need to cut Khalni Heart and play our only other option, Everflowing Chalice.
Koth and Garruk both get worse in multiples, so we can remove one of each. I’d also like to play one more land, so one more Rootbound Crag goes in. Flame Slash also does not really mesh with our game plans fully, as we just cut two cards it had synergy with, so we can cut one for a Chandra Nalaar to kill opposing Titans and to have another permanent that survives our linchpin, Destructive Force.
We can now also cut the fetchlands, as they no longer have any synergy in the deck. Evolving Wilds is a notable exception, as it allows us to play more duals and still keep up our Mountain count for Koth.
Final brew list:
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (7)
Lands (27)
Spells (22)
Sorry, no sideboard this week. With the spoiler not out yet, anything I put there would be ridiculous anyways.
To summarize what we just did, here’s the point by point.
1. Chose a linchpin, something to build a deck around.
2. Determined the best plans involved in making our inchpin successful.
3. Added four of each of all the cards that complete our best draws.
4. Seeing how many slots were left, added removal and interactive cards that fit in the curve we had available.
5. Completed a rough sketch of a workable mana base.
6. Reviewed the list so far, cut to sixty cards according to the numbers guideline.
7. Retuned our deck to have the most redundancy (and the least amount of Nonbos).
Next time we’ll go over another important part of deckbuilding,
playtesting
, and some more Standard decks to define the format.
DarkestMage