I want to replace my wooden deck rail with aluminum or iron/steel. Do you know where I can get something like this?

https://i.postimg.cc/8PyrswM9/Screen-Shot-2019-04-29-at-3-22-46-PM.png

How to Brew a Magic Deck

Introduction

As I spend more time in the MagicDeckBuilding sub Reddit, I have noticed that the majority of the decks posted here seem to be from players new to constructed magic. While many of these decks show promise, they also share similar construction issues that, with a little deck building knowledge, could easily be avoided. Instead of trying to reply individually to each post, I have thrown together a quick guide to building decks that covers many of the common issues. While I am certainly not a professional magic player, and while some of these concepts might not be new, I hope that new and experienced players alike will be able to walk away from this article with a few pieces of useful information for deck building. And just like all the brewers who have posted their decks to the subreddit, I am happy to receive any suggestions for additions or changes to this guide.

Getting Started

Set a Goal. Before you start building, you have to decide what are you trying to do with your deck. Are you building a casual deck to play kitchen table magic against your friends? Are you going to a GP and trying to top 8? Do you want to play a fun combo deck at your local store's FNM? Are you building for a specific meta game or do you want a deck you can play for the whole season regardless of what is strong? Do you really like a card and just want to build around it?

Set a Budget. Once you have a goal, you have to figure out what means you have to build your deck. Do you want to build the deck out of your collection or are you willing to buy/trade for cards? How much are you willing to spend? Can you proxy cards and use those? Typically, the more you are willing to spend on your deck the better you can make it by buying expensive cards such as shock lands for mana consistency or strong mythic rares for their powerful effects.

Set a Strategy. Now that you have some idea of where you want to go and what you have to work with, now it is time to decide how you want to get there. In constructed there are three basic strategies:

*Aggro: This deck is trying to win by playing cheap aggressive creatures and spells that will overwhelm the opponent before they can put up a defense and stabilize. This is a good strategy for newer players because lines of play are usually pretty straight forward and the cards in the deck are usually less expensive and easier to obtain.

*Midrange: This deck is all about value. The deck wants creatures that have powerful enter the battlefield effects or abilities and are difficult to deal with once on board. It also likes engines like planeswalkers or manasinks that can generate pressure on an opponent by themselves. The decks also packs versatile removal spells to deal with any difficult threats. The midrange deck is simply trying to win by getting more value out of each card. These decks are usually the most expensive as they play the strongest cards that exist in the format.

*Control: The name says it all. This deck wants to stop the other deck from doing whatever they are trying to do to win and once they have that control, drop a large threat to close the game. Control is always looking to gain card advantage either through draw spells such as Sphinx's Revelation or using cards like Wrath of God to kill all the opponent's creatures. The deck also uses counter spells to stop resilient cards from hitting the battlefield were they would be harder to remove. This deck is much harder to play because you are not so much playing your own strategy as you are countering the opponent's. This requires you to predict how your opponent will play and how best to counteract his or her strategy.

While there are other strategies (such as combo), these three are the most basic. Similar to rock paper scissors, each one of these strategies has good matches and a bad matches. Generally, Aggro beats control, control beats midrange, and midrange beats aggro. So if a large number of people at your local gaming store play control, you might want to consider playing an aggro deck. However, if you really want to play a midrange deck even thought you expect to face a field full of control decks, you can still build you deck, and especially your sideboard, to improve your match up against those decks.

TIP! The most common mistake I see among the decks posted to the MagicDeckBuilding is inconsistency. A deck will have a hard time being both a control deck and an aggro deck. You cannot include slow eight mana spells alongside aggressive one drops. If you really like a new card, don't just jam it into any old deck, but try to build a deck that plays to that card's strengths. Make sure that all the cards you include in your list are working toward your chosen strategy.

Research

Why Do Research? At this point you have a goal for your deck, you have a general idea of what strategy you will employ, and you might even know some cards you plan to include. Now you could blindly rush on and try to build your deck, but before you start I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the deck you are trying to build is probably not as original as you think. However, that means that the good news is you can use other people's deck lists to get ideas and inspiration for your own deck.

Looking at Decks on the Net. There are many ways to find different decks out there on the internet. One of my personal favorite sites is MTGtop8.com. They have a great interface for searching and are pretty quick to post the most recent lists from major events. They also include fringe deck builds that perform well in small events or on Magic the Gathering Online. MTGGoldFish.com is also very good at taking the best cards and decks in the format and laying them out. If you are someone on a budget, many MTG sites, like GatheringMagic.com, post "Budget Brews" that are decks that can perform well in their respective formats for a significantly smaller price than average. You can also find individual cards to fill certain slots in your deck on Gatherer.com by putting in search parameters such as format, mana cost, color, and card type.

By looking through decks online you can get a very clear idea of what decks are strong and which cards are important for each deck type or color combination. This information is useful in two ways: you now know what cards you should probably consider including if you want to build a similar deck and you now know what cards and decks you will probably have to play against.

Construction

You have done your research. You know the goal of your deck, the strategy you want to use, and most of the cards you will play to get you there. Now you have to put it all together.

Basic Deck Requirements. First off, constructed decks must be have a minimum of 60 cards with a maximum sideboard of 15 cards and cannot have more than 4 of any one card other than basic lands. You can only include cards legal to the format you intend to play in. You can check which cards you can use in which formats here. As a rule, you always want to play exactly 60 cards in your main deck. The reason behind this is that you want your deck to be as consistent as possible, drawing your best cards each game, and by having the smallest allowable deck size this increases the probability you will do that.

Mana Base. Now you want to know how many lands and spells you should include in your deck. Aggressive decks with low curves can play as few as 20 or 22 land cards, midrange usually plays 23 or 25, and control decks can play as many as 25 or 27. Basically, the lower the curve of your deck or the lower the casting cost of your spells, the fewer number of lands you can include. Aggro decks don't need to hit their fourth land drop on turn four to win games, while if control decks don't hit their turn four land drop they are at a huge disadvantage. If you are playing multiple colors in your deck, your mana base needs to support those colors. Cool cards aren't worth anything if you can't get them out of your hand. As a good rule of thumb, if you are playing a color you need at least 17 sources for that color in your deck. Playing duel lands is a great way to strengthen your mana base as they count as a source for both colors. You can also count mana dorks that make multiple colors of mana such as Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise as sources.

There are also a few other small things you should take into consideration when building your manabase. If you are playing an aggressive deck, you want to stay away from lots of scry lands and guildgates as it will be harder to play your creatures on curve. If you are playing in a format where people like to play cards like Burning Earth or Blood Moon you should include basics lands in your deck. Don't disregard utility lands such as Mutavault or Wasteland. Lands that can act as creatures and spells are usually very strong.

Curve. The next thing you should consider is your deck's curve or the number of spells in each converted mana cost slot. Aggro decks can have up to 16 creature cards in the one drop slot alone with the rest of the cards filling out the two and three drop slots. Midrange usually has a bulk of cards between the three and five drop slots, and control usually has a even distribution with a few bombs in the six or even seven drop slot. The purpose of a good curve is to have something to do every turn of the game and to use the mana to the greatest effect possible. It is important when you are building your deck not to have too many holes in your curve.

Deck Balance. Last thing you need to consider when building is what I am going to call deck balance. You cannot play a deck with a bunch of creature enchantments and no creatures or a bunch of defensive spells but no win conditions. The balance of cards is different for each deck and is usually something you will have to figure out by play testing you deck. As a starting point, I would suggest you have close to a 2:1 ratio of creatures to non-creature spells, although aggro decks usually play more creatures, and control decks play fewer (or sometimes even none!).

Rule of Nine. If you are new to deck building, the best way to start a new deck is to pick nine cards that you want to base your deck around that are consistent with the rules I have just listed. If you play a playset of each card (four of each) then you will have 36 spells. Put that into a deck with 24 lands and you have the basic construction of your deck. While this may seems limiting, it will ensure that each one of these cards works well together and deserves a slot in your deck. Once you have play tests a few games with the deck you can then start bringing in more cards and cutting others to find your ideal list.

The rest is the in comments

Edit: Formatting and Grammar

Hello! First of all, I'd like to thank the mods for allowing me to create this post.  

I built a new MTG Deck Builder website.

It's ad-free, fast, usable on tablet, with a modern UI, shortcuts and discord notifications.

You can filter cards quickly, drag cards around on a virtual table, and follow authors you like.

If you want a more detailed tour of all the features, read this twitter thread.

MTG Builders is live at https://mtg.builders/

Being the only person behind this project isn't an excuse to deliver a poor product.

This means that every bit of feedback you feel like sharing is highly valuable to me.

AMA. Ciao!

Congrats on finding the cardboard equivalent of hard drugs, we're glad to have you! Depending on how you've been introduced to Magic, you might find that you are interesting in crafting your own deck, as a lot of times that is 50% of the fun! Here are a few guidelines on how to do that effectively in simple terms that doesn't get bogged down with complicated stuff. If you know what "Jund" is, this guide isn't for you.  

What is a Magic Deck?

Traditionally, a Magic deck consists of 60 cards that is some combination of land, creatures, and spells in order to defeat your opponent. You can have 4 copies on any individual card you want and you can have as much basic land cards as you need in your deck.

You CAN have more than 60 cards, but keep in mind that the more cards you stuff into your deck, the less likely you are to draw them in the game (since you likely won't draw your whole deck in a single match). Sticking at 60 is a good place to start.  

What kinds of decks are in Magic?  

So by now you might've seen that Magic has multiple colors, each color is generally associated with a certain style of play and are as follows:  

Red - aggressive, I want to play creatures/spells quickly and cheaply so I kill my opponent before they have a chance to build up  

Blue - control, I want to control what my opponents do, counter their spells at the right time in order to thwart their plans  

Green - big, I want to attack with big creatures and completely dominate the creature side of the board  

White - life gain, I want to gain life so I don't have to worry about being attacked  

Black - I want to make my opponents lose life and utilize the cards in my graveyard that I've already spent  

These are generalities and they each break their own rules on occassion, but this is a good way to think about the colors. As a brand new player, I recommend looking at a color that interests you and basing your deck off that. You might've seen decks with multiple colors, don't worry about that right now (you can always build up to that later). I'm going to go with green for this example.  

So, you've decided on a color that looks cool that you might want to use. Great! Believe it or not that's a hard decision because it sets you down a certain path in terms of designing your deck.  

Now that you've decided on a color, you should look at the cards you have and determine what sort of theme you want to use for your deck. If someone were to ask you "What does your deck do?", this is where you answer that question. Look at cards that you have, see what sounds cool to use, and see if you can find other cards that go along with that.  

As an example, I chose green earlier and I know green cares about big creatures. I'm looking through my cards and I see that I have [[Worldspine Wurm]] which looks honestly pretty sick. A 15/15!? However, it costs a LOT of mana to use. If I put a few of these in my deck, I need the mana to cast it. Put that to the side for now and I now search for cards that seem to give me mana. I see that I have a card called [[Elvish Mystic]] which gives me mana, definitly including that. There's actually another elf I have that does the same thing...holy crap. I can have a bunch of elves that give me mana, and then use that to cast my big creatures.  

Congrats, you've just discovered "intentional game design". Different cards that are seemingly unrelated can work together really well. So in my example, if someone were to ask "What does your deck do?" I can now say, "it gives me mana with elves so I can cast my big creatures like Worldspine Wurm"  

Of course, if you fill your decks with a bunch of these creatures with nothing to support them, it's not going to be effective. After all, you have an opponent that is very much in the field of not letting you win. What if they destroy your elves? What if they get rid of your big creatures? You should plan for that.  

Your next question should be: How do I ensure my strategy will work?  

This question can be answered in a lot of ways, but it basically amounts to 2 things: a) what cards can support my main strategy (big numbers go brr) and b) what happens when my opponent disrupts my plans (lame)? You should be looking for cards to add to your deck that answer those questions.

In my green deck example, cards that support my strategy might be getting me more mana (outside of my elves) and protecting the creatures I have so they can't die. I see that I have cards like [[Rampent Growth]] which give me more land, that might be useful if I don't draw my elves. and I have this [[Withstand Death]] card that gives a creature I have industructible until the end of turn. Certainly I can use that if my big bois run into trouble.  

Okay... we got some cards now and a strategy to win. But combining them all together into a viable deck is actually the trickiest part. How many of each spell should I include if I can include 4 of the same card? How many creatures vs spells should I include? And land, fuck I forgot about land, how many of those? Calm down. CALM DOWN. There are some general guidelines that can help.  

First, let's handle land. In general, you want to start with 24 lands in your deck. This seems high, but it's a good starting point to work from. If you play it and you think your drawing too much lands, cut one of them out and replace it with a card. If you know you have ways to get additional lands from your deck, maybe start with 23 or 22.  

That leaves about 36 slots for all the other cards in your deck. A good general rule is the "Rule of 9", you need 9 cards that give a certain strategy for it to be realiable in your deck. If you only have one card that destroys an opponents creature, you will likley not draw it every game.  

In terms of creatures vs spells, this depends on the deck (crappy answer, I know). If your deck is very creature heavy, then feel free to load it up with a TON of creatures. If your more spell focused, do the opposite. A good "general" rule is about 15-18 to start with, and the rest can be other spells. You can then scale this up or down depending on how you like your deck.  

Last thing I'll talk about is "how many" of each card to put in the deck? Shouldn't I just put 4 copies of every card I want in there? Maybe. That would certainly be more consistent when playing, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. If I put 4 Elvish Mystics in my deck and I already have all the mana I need, there's not much need for it is there?  

Here's a good general rule for it  

4 - I want to make sure this card is in my opening hand or see it every game, no matter what

3 - I want to see this card at least once every game

2 - A nice to have, but it's not crucial

1 - Fun card, an "oh crap" card, a situational card  

At this point you should have most of a deck together, now go have fun and play it! And make sure you think about what went well with it so you can make changes for next time!  

EDIT: I've made a follow-up on more topics, go check it out!!

EDIT 2: Part 3 is out!

Hello everyone! Kinda of a long shot but I thought I would put some feelers out there and see if anyone wants to help a girl out.

My boyfriend just pulled out all his Magic the gathering cards and organized them into all sorts of piles. He says he wants to teach me to play so we have another thing to do during quarantine. After he organized all these piles he said he was leaving for a couple hours and told me to “research” some deck building strategies and how the game actually works.

Does anyone have some spare time to give me a simple walk through and maybe some tips for a deck? I want to surprisingly be good at this hahah.

I am not asking for someone to build me a deck, just honestly looking for general advice! Sorry if I’m breaking any rules.

Feel free to DM me! Thanks pals!! 🌿🌻

Search any card and it ranks every card ever printed by how functionally close each ability is. It compares meaning, so "you may draw a card unless that player pays {4}" finds "they may pay {1}. If the player does, they draw a card." Every result shows the exact line that matched and how close the match is.

It's built for finding budget stand-ins for expensive staples. Click the oracle-line you care about, set your deck's colors and a price cap, then sort by price.

Why not just use Scryfall?

To be clear, this is a CONVENIENCE tool. If you're comfortable with Scryfall syntax and Scryfall Tagger, a lot of this you can already do. I'm not trying to replace it. The difference is that my program makes a time save on knowing which tags you need to use to get the results you want - Each oracle line has tags associated with it, they get filtered out (or you can manually select them) when you select a line you want similar cards from.

The unique cards page

The part I'd point you at even if you already love Scryfall. You get a random card (can be assisted with filters) that is meant to represent a very specific niche of Magic. It works by isolating cards that don't have any close matches, something Scryfall cannot do. As an example one of my friends has used it to find [[Blue, Loyal Raptor]] and [[Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer]] to build their dino deck around.

How it works

The matching runs on an embedding model I fine tuned specifically on Magic rules text and the tags from Scryfall. Card data comes from Scryfall's bulk data, tags from a daily mirror of Scryfall Tagger. Here are some features the website comes with:

• Free, no account, and it updates itself when new sets drop.

• Sort by best match, by price in dollars or euros (refreshed daily), by how much a card actually gets played, or by release date.

• Click any line of rules text to search just that ability, or combine several. The URL stays shareable.

• COMING SOON - I want to release a deckbuilding lens that can give you insights on your deck as well as a cheap alternative to the more outrageously priced cards.

Code: https://github.com/Ballchinian/Delvefall