Magicians: How to Build Your Own Deck

All Magic players at some point or another have had to face the daunting process of creating your own deck, either for friendly or tournament play. To the novice magic player, this can seem an impossible task. What colors should I use? What type of cards should I select? Which sets can I use? These and more questions swirl about the mind as a new magic player looks at their cards spread out in front of them. Some will just resort to buying a pre-made deck. Warning to all players out there, old and new, a pre-made deck will be obliterated by a homemade deck almost every time. They do not stand a chance against a deck that some one has lovingly built to work for them.

So how do I build this deck of mine? There are 7 simple rules to keep in mind. Each one is of its own importance and while you might only follow some, you should at least think about them all before you get started. Deck building will become a second nature to you after time, and some of these will fall away as you get more advanced in your deck working.

Rule One: Decide what type of deck that you want.
There are many types of decks to be made. You can build using a theme, such as a beast or angel deck, or you can build a deck that solely destroys, counters, or does direct damage. At this early stage, you only need a general direction that you want to go. The specifics will come as you move through the process, but it is important to know what you are going for. If you don't know what type of deck you want, how can you figure out how to build it? My best suggestion for new players is a theme deck, because this gives you a concrete idea to work with and limits the amount of cards that you will have to wade through to find the right ones for your deck.

Rule Two: Limit your deck to only one or two colors.
While some advanced players will build decks using up to all five colors, for the first time deck builders out there, one to two colors is best to start with. Colors have their own characteristics and mechanics that make them unique, but you will find that some colors will share characteristics and work well together. For example, look at the colors white and blue. White and blue share the characteristic of flying creatures. This will work well for cards that give benefits to flying creatures, which blue and white both have. Also, because white has healing and blue has countering, you have a dangerous combination of staying alive while preventing your opponent from doing anything at all.

If you have decided to go with a theme, this will make color choice easier. A creature theme deck will limit you to one to two colors because only certain colors have certain types of creatures. For example, if you decide to build an Angel based deck, you will have a predominately white deck. There are angels that are multi-colored, which will allow you to add another color if you choose. Firemane Angel has a mana cost that requires white and red, and so does Razia, Boros Archangel. You could add red to your deck, which will open your opportunities for sorceries and instants that will be of benefit to you.

If you have decided to go with a deck that has a more general theme, like a destroy deck or a counter deck, this will also help limit your deck color. Destroy cards are most commonly seen in black and red. Depending whether your out to destroy your opponent or his/her creatures will figure into whether you lean more towards black or red. Black is notorious for destroying any creature that isn't black, with cards like Terror, Dark Banishing, and Fatal Blow. Red, however, is notorious for hurting your opponent and his permanents, with cards like Pyrohemia and Wild Fire. If countering is more to your liking, then your color will be blue, period. Except for Planar Chaos cards, your counter spells are going to be blue. A solid blue counter deck is truly dangerous, and any opponent will groan at the thought of facing one.

Rule Three: Hold to the 20-20-20 deck building rule.
While you can have more than 60 cards in a deck, it is not recommended. The best situation is a 20 land, 20 creature, and 20 sorceries, enchantments, instants, or artifacts combination. Good decks will always need creatures that defend the player to give you time to make your game. Also, some decks win on their creatures alone. You may decide to have more than 20 creatures, but make sure that you give your self room for other cards as well. Sorceries and enchantments are invaluable in game play, and you always need a few instants to keep things going your way. Artifacts are always useful, and I suggest at least having one or two in your deck. They are great to add life gainers to a deck, with cards like Fountain of Youth, Tanglebloom, and Angel Feather.

Rule Four: Limit which mechanics that you use.
Mechanics are truly a wonderful thing in game play, but don't hurt yourself by using too many or using ones that you are not familiar with. If you have a card with Shroud, but you don't know what Shroud is, either look up the mechanic or do not use it. Shroud happens to be a great mechanic; permanents with this ability cannot be the target of spells or abilities. If your deck is heavy on enchantments, however, shroud will be a severe disadvantage to you. You would not be able to enchant any creature with Shroud, rendering all of those lovely enchantments useless.

Many mechanics work well only when there are multiple permanents with the mechanic. Flanking, for example, works best when you have several creatures with the ability. The same goes for Fire Breathing. While these mechanics will work for a single card, they pack a heavier punch when used with multiple permanents.

Also, make sure that your mechanics are going to work against most decks in general. For example, if you overload your deck with creatures with Shadow, while you will be able to grind your opponent into the ground if he/she is not playing with Shadow, you in turn will not be able to block either. Shadow is a very dangerous mechanic. Along these same lines are creatures with landwalk mechanics. Landwalk abilities are narrowed by the fact the most landwalk creatures will only have one type. This means is if you play an opponent whose deck is blue, cards with plainswalk or swampwalk are useless to you. I suggest landwalk cards for sideboard only, as you will know what you are facing before hand. Of all the landwalks, swampwalk is the most useful. There are cards, such as Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, that make all lands swamps in addition to their other types. This will ensure that your cards with swampwalk can use their abilities as all opponents will have swamps no matter what color that they are using.

Rule Five: Know your deck.
The most important rule in deck building is that you know what each and every one of your cards is capable of. Keep in mind how they will combo with other permanents when they are in play and what happens when they come into play or leave play. Use cards that you know will work well together and afford you advantages however you might decide to play them. Now having some specific combos in mind is great, but make sure that your cards are good on their own accord and in other combos as well. The chance of drawing a unique pair of cards that are only good together is rare. It will happen eventually, but no one likes to have useless cards in their hand. You may never get to draw that other card.

Rule Six: Keep Mana Cost in mind.
Having enough mana to play your cards will make or break your game. Don't overload with expensive cards, or you will not survive long enough to play them. When you are going through cards, make sure that you give some thought to the cards that only cost one or two mana to play. These cards are great early on in the game and ensure that you can have a running start. Always have at least three to five creatures that cost 3 or less to play. From there you can look at mid range cards, anything that costs 4 or 5 mana to play. You can add anywhere to six to eight mid range creatures, which will leave you room to add in seven creatures that cost 6 or more. This will give you a balance in the cards that you may draw.

You need to keep mana cost in mind for all other cards as well. Make sure that you know when in the game you will want to use particular cards, and if they are best used early, try and stay in the range of 1 to 4 mana. Most enchantments will be cheap, but there are some like Enslave and Confiscate, that are very expensive. Keep in mind that you always have a balance, and do not overload on either to many low level cheap cards, or too many mana draining cards.

Rule Seven: Make sure that you have enough Mana of the right colors.
Assuming that you are using the 20-20-20 rule, you have twenty mana to work with. If you are playing with a bicolor deck, do not make the mistake of just adding ten of each color. Take into account the number of color specific mana that your cards require. For example, is your are playing with a white and red deck, look at the cards to see how many mountains are required for your red cards, and how many plains required for the white. If you notice that you require more white mana than red, you should have 13 plains and only 7 mountains. If you notice that only 6 of your cards require 1 red mana, then you would lower to 5 mountains and 15 plains. An easy way to make sure that you have the correct balance of color is to count all the color specific mana symbols of all your cards. This way you will be able to see which number is higher and by how much.

These 7 simple rules will ensure that you have a playable deck. As you move along and acquire better deck building skills, you will add new rules of your own or change these. It's most important that you always go with what works best for you. Every Magic player will have their rules for deck building and they are usually specific to that player. These rules are just basics to get you started on your journey. Have fun investigating new sets as the come out and developing favorites of both new and old cards. New ideas and themes will come to you the more you play, and you will begin to see new strategies appear before your eyes in the middle of game play. Now sit down to that mountain of cards and begin the fun and satisfying experience of building your very own deck!