Is running 61 cards really nonsense?
A player must play a minimum of 60 cards in a Constructed deck, and a minimum of 40 cards in Limited. This is one of the first things you learn when you’re taught Magic. Soon after, you’re actually told that you should stick to the minimum number of cards you have to play, as it will make your deck better.
It makes a lot of sense, and most experienced players will always respect that guideline. But is it always the right choice?
Restrictions concerning the minimum amount of cards a deck should contain, and on the number of copies of one card you can play, aim to do one thing: limit your chances to draw your best cards. Those elementary rules are a handicap. The more cards you play, the more of a disadvantage you have, which is the reason why you won’t, most of the time, play more cards than the minimum number allowed. However, there are exceptions, both in Constructed and in Limited.
Constructed
As you know, you’re lowering your chances to have regular draws by adding an extra card to your deck. Therefore, you need a certain number of factors to be present before you can even start considering to play 61 cards:
When You Play Control
The slower your deck, the less it is affected by the probability of mediocre draws in the first few turns.
To take a simple example, Aggro decks must draw their key cards (the cards they run as four-ofs) somewhere in the first 7 to 10 cards of their deck, while a control deck’s key card (usually a mass removal spell) has to be drawn in the first 10 to 12 cards. In other words, the odds to have a Figure of Destiny on turn 1 in a 60-card Boat Brew deck, for instance, are lower than the odds of having Wrath of God on turn 4 in a 61-card Quick n’ Toast deck. Also, a control deck usually plays draw spells, and the more cards you draw, the lower the chance that the 61st card handicaps your draw.
When You’re Playing in a Slow Environment
The more cards you draw, the less random your draw gets. Therefore, the longer the game is, the less you’ll feel the effect of a 61st card.
When You’re Playing a Specific-Number-More-Than-Sixty-Card Deck
Some decks just can’t work if they run the standard number of cards. This is the case with Battle of Wits, of course, but it’s also the same with an experimental deck that several pros ran at Pro Tour: Osaka.
Black/Blue Traumatize
Noah Boeken
3 Darkwater Catacombs
14 Island
18 Swamp
1 Tainted Isle
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Gloomdrifter
3 Ichorid
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Psychatog
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Aether Burst
2 Buried Alive
4 Chainer’s Edict
2 Circular Logic
1 Concentrate
2 Darkwater Egg
1 Diabolic Tutor
4 Insidious Dreams
2 Morgue Theft
2 Mutilate
4 Peek
1 Persuasion
4 Traumatize
2 Upheaval
As the format was pretty slow (UG Madness, the only creature deck, was more of an aggro-control strategy back then), Noah and some other pros decided to run an 88-card deck, as they had figured it was the correct number of cards for their Psychatog/Traumatize combo to be lethal. As a result, if my memory is correct, none of them made Day 2. I mean, 88 cards are a little too much, and it’s not such a big deal if Psychatog doesn’t kill in one blow anyway.
When You’re Using a Toolbox
But the best reason to run a 61st card is usually that you’re running a toolbox. In this case, the extra card you add in your deck could make you win more games than it will make you lose. For instance, you have playtested a Solution deck so much that there is not a single card you consider cutting, but you realize there is a card you can fetch with Enlightened Tutor which could make you win against a specific matchup even though it’s pretty bad against most of the field (such as Rule of Law, or Worship). Then it’s okay to add it to your deck as a 61st card. Of course, if you could think of something to cut, it would be for the best, but, even though running it will make you lose a game once in a while, it should make you win a little more often and therefore easily compensate. Also, if you’re having a hard time making your 16-card sideboard the perfect 15 before a tournament starts, and if your deck meets the above conditions, remember you always have the option to run one of them in your main deck.
It’s what I did in GP: Firenze, for instance. I was playing a super slow deck (Teachings) in a slow metagame (Time Spiral block), I had a toolbox, and the only deck Tier 1 deck I feared facing was the mirror match.
Not only was the matchup so slow that a one card difference would not be a handicap, but as the standard built of the deck had exactly 1 Detritivore, 1 Pull from Eternity, 1 Haunting Hymn, 1 Teferi, and 1 Pact of Negation (the matchup’s key cards), every addition to the deck could represent a great advantage. I had been testing the deck a lot, and when I say “a lot” I mean over 100 hours, but I couldn’t come up with a single card to cut. However, I had figured a second Pact of Negation would make the mirror a lot better, so I decided to run it and play 61 cards. Not only did it work pretty well (I finished 18th after throwing a match away because of jetlag) and help me win several games, it also gave me a new slot in the sideboard, in place of the Pact.
Limited
The extra card, in this case the 41st, is a thing you will see a lot more often in Limited. Indeed, when you play mostly (if not entirely) singletons, your draws are already random enough for some to think one card more won’t change much. However, it is not true most of the time and, just as in Constructed, some conditions must be checked before you run an extra card:
When You’re Playing No Bombs
If you run a Broodmate Dragon, do you really want to lower your chance to cast it because you decided to add the last-minute Forest or Canyon Minotaur? Taking a little longer to draw a good creature or an early drop isn’t that bad, but when you have a game breaker, your main goal should be to give yourself the best chance of drawing it, by playing cards that draw more cards (for instance), and, obviously, by sticking to 40 cards.
When You’re Not Playing Aggro
A very aggressive deck (such as UW or UG in Shards of Alara Block) must absolutely have a creature to play from turns 2 to 3 to put the opponent under pressure. Any card you would add would lower your chances to achieve this. What if Card #41 is a two- or three-drop? Then it will slightly improve these chances, but not as much as running this two- or three-drop over one of your four-or-more-drops. And it is not only about the creatures. While a control or aggro-control deck can afford the luxury of not having all of his colors immediately, an aggro deck can’t afford this at all. When a WG mage eventually draws his Forest on turn 4, he will often play two- or three-drops, which impact the game in a far less influential way.
However, a control deck, in the same situation, will buy time with removal or cheap blockers (Tidehollow Strix, Wall of Denial, Metallurgeon) or fixers (Armillary Sphere, Landcyclers, or even Courier’s Capsule). And when he will eventually have the mana he needs, he will be able to play bigger guys and removal, and therefore compensate more easily for the time he took to obtain the mana he needed.
When You’re Facing Special Decks
There are also very specific archetypes, once in a while, against which you want to play more cards. For instance, in Kamigawa Block, the Dampen Thought draft archetype was troublesome, but usually wouldn’t be able to win if you boarded in 30 lands and all of your sideboard, as decking was the strategy’s only winning plan, and thus it wouldn’t have enough fuel to exhaust your library.
In 7-7-7 draft, Circles of Protection were common, and it was often absolutely impossible to kill your White-deck opponents after boarding. The best choice open to you — either as the COP user, his opponent, or both — was to sideboard in a couple of cards to make sure you’d win if the game came down to decking.
I often happen to play 41 cards in Limited. You may have noticed it if you count the number of cards in the decklists from my draft column. And there are several reasons for that.
When You Want to Run 17.5 Lands
“How many lands does that deck need”? This is a question we ask ourselves very often. And it often appears that either 16 or 17, or 17 or 18 would be alright. How, then, do I choose which number to go for? In the spell versus land contest, it is first important to see how good the spell is. If it is clearly less good than the average spell in the deck, I’ll run the land without a doubt. If it is a good card, however, and if I consider the deck stable, I will often choose to play both. If you think about it, when you trust in your deck’s stability, will it be more of a disadvantage to run 41 cards, or more of an advantage to draw one more spell every two or three games?
If the deck could use either 17 or 18 lands, and I consider the right amount is in between, it actually won’t make the deck less stable to run 18 and 23 spells.
When You’re Up Against the Time Limit
Either in a sanctioned event or on Magic: Online, you have a limited time to built and register your deck. Therefore, when you’re running out of time and you can’t think of a card to cut, it may be more of a risk to pick one half at random than to decide to run them all. Then, when you’ve made up your mind after a game, a match, or just by thinking a little more about it before your first round starts, you will be still be allowed to cut one for game 2.
Playtesting
In playtesting, I often run 61-card decks. It is a way for me to test a few more cards at the same time without affecting my draws too badly. Of course, it makes most decks a little less good, so it is important not to do it against a friend who is playing the deck he intends on playing in the upcoming tournament. Otherwise, it may give him a wrong impression on his deck’s true value. If he goes 6-4 when the games would have gone 5-5 with a standard build, for instance, he will consider the matchup in his favor when it shouldn’t have been.
That’s why it’s something I do on Magic: Online only. If you face me there, and I am running “only” 60 cards, beware… I’m probably playing an optimized deck for once.
Never 42 or 62
In conclusion, while I think it is better to stick to the minimum quantity of cards allowed, it can definitely make sense once in a while to run an extra one. However, playing 42 or 62 cards is definitely nonsense. Why so, when after all it doesn’t make that much difference compared to a 41- or 61-card deck? Because the extra first card is usually a spell, and if you decide to add another spell, you won’t have the right number of lands anymore so you will have to add one. And when an extra card means you’re running +2.5% cards in Limited and +1.7 in Constructed, a three-card addition would represent a raise of 7.5% in Limited and 5% in Constructed, two totals only a statistical idiot could ignore.
Oli