About This Section

Upon discovery of a cool new magic card, the casual player may think about using it in a deck.

Good deckbuilding, though, is more than just putting cool cards together. There are many choices to make, each affecting how the deck performs.

This section will present some fundamental game mathematics behind good deckbuilding, which like most card games, are firmly rooted in statistics.

The page on Card Evaluation will show how to choose stronger, more playable cards.

The Mana Curve page will present some of the statistical basis for card selection when deck building.

The page on play testing a newly built deck is a quick way to see how the cards fit together.

The Sealed-Deck simulator page provides a 6-booster pack card pool to practice deck building skills

Topics to Consider

• Creatures, big ones are hard to remove, but are expensive to cast, little ones with good abilities are easy to remove (Counterspell, Shock).
• Spells, will you include defensive measures to protect (Regenerate) your cards in play? What about offensive measures to disrupt (cancel) your opponent's plans, or both?
• Lands, put in too many and that's all you'll draw when you need something else.
• Mana Curve, too steep and you'll lose with lots of powerful, and unplayable, tech in your hand; too shallow and you won't last beyond the first few turns.

Build for the Format and Deck Type

Each play format presents unique challenges to deckbuilding.   A deck that does well in one format may do poorly in a different format.   A deck may dominate in 1-on-1 play but be a dud in multiplayer.   Multiplayer FFA and Team formats have very different design considerations. Deck style choice (aggro, control, midrange, etc) also influences card selection.   Read Wizards of the Coast's pages on deck styles and game formats.

Stay at the Minimum Deck Size

A deck that has only the minimum number of cards provides the highest chance of getting needed cards during play.

With a four card max for any given card name, and a sixty card deck the chance of getting that card is one in fifteen ( 1:15 ).

Adding just four more cards to the deck reduces the odds to 1:16, meaning on average, you'd need to draw an additional card draw beyond fifteen to get what's needed,
if your life total lasts that long . . .

Have a Plan; Use Only Cards That Fit

Most constructed decks use four copies of a limited number of cards that accomplish the deck's win condition.

By incuding cards that add tech, just for tech sake, dilutes the cards needed for the win condition (see the previous guideline).

Some utility cards can be helpful, such as Doom Blade for creature removal or Deep Analysis for card drawing may be helpful.

Carefully Determine the Deck's Mana Base

The selection of a mana base is made last.   Once the creatures and other spells have been selected, Lands must be matched to the casting costs of those cards.   This can be a rather complex topic and is further addressed in the deckbuilding page called "The Mana Curve".