Magic the Gathering: Decks and Deck Help

[Stewie521]

So here I am again, god I wish I could stay more focused on certain sites... Anyway back on topic, I have been playing MTG for a couple months now, spent more than I should have, like any game, and have a more or less decent understanding of the rules (no I don't just mean how to play rules, I mean rules rules). Anywho, with my decent load of cards, I have been practicing building good or at least half decent decks. My last two built decks (Rakdos and Dimir) have been a huge success, under the circumstances. Unfortunately I have not been playing for years, so I don't have the years worth of cards collected, ready to be used freely like most people, so the decks have been somewhat short of their full potential.

However one of my friends really liked my Dimir deck (Black and Blue, Mill Deck. Don't hate) and wanted to buy it off of me. I too, loved that deck, and was flattered that someone thought it was that good as well. Sadly I didn't want to see it depart, but I ended up selling it to build the [hopefully] better and ideal version of that deck. Oh yea, and I also wanted it to be complete foil, every last card. So, as you can imagine, there is zer0, zip, nada, NO room for error.

So if you skipped over my backstorytelling (like Dr. Doofenshmirtz) I need any possible advice on this deck I built, I will link you to a website titled Tappedout.net which features a deck builder, where I digitally built the deck. It will show all the details on the card, and how many of the card there is. I would ask the actually website, but there are way too many decks posted on the home page to get noticed and get "helpful" feedback.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/dimir-foil/

Thanks for any help and criticism given!

[Lazybones]

Sorry, can't help you there. Can't recall if anyone in the forums actually plays.

[Mr. Analog]

Man, I haven't thought about MtG for ages! I used to play a fair bit back in the 90s (I still have all my cards somewhere).

The key basics as I remember was deck balance, choosing a play style and knowing what your opponents were packing. The main part of the deck was the workhorse, 45 cards that made up your core, then you had different 15 card sideboards that you could swap in and out of a deck as the need arose (these cards were selected with special abilities targeting an opponents deck weaknesses or defending their strengths). It sounds like you're past these basics though and getting into the next level of which colours boost each other, what abilities can be combo'd, etc.

DISCLAIMER! I used to play theme decks for fun, but when I did get serious about it I went with Black/Blue to get that nice combination of direct or ongoing damage and abilities and being able to take advantage of the discard pile of Black combined with the control aspects of Blue. I also loved weenie decks and would put together White/Green or White/Red and just start swarming my opponent. I wasn't a bad player, but I wasn't great either, sometimes I just like seeing what would happen if certain combos would stack, but the tricky thing about that is sometimes the setup requirements for some combos is nigh impossible, getting your head around probability is going to help, hitting one of two cards in a 60 card deck may never happen, and if they are the key to a combo you can't bank on it, so take care in how many cards are needed to set that combo up. I've had devastating combos ready to roll and then just never drew the right card. Unfortunately this was all my fault, I had a tendency not to look for the weak links.

So as it's been something like 15 years I don't know if I can give any good advice other than find a large group of regulars (like at a comic shop) to play against, get into tournament or league play and take notes about your own wins and losses.

Back when I was playing the main source of sample decks were magazines like The Duelist or InQuest and then later, the world wide web (y'know, once it was invented... *cough*). Seeing tournament winning decks was VERY enticing, however it has to be said that those decks usually only worked within the limitations and restrictions of the tournaments they won in, so when you see a successful deck build try to remember the context they excelled in.

The next level is to go beyond deck build and get into the meta-game, someone may have a powerful deck but don't play it to its full potential, if you know this you have power. So it's very very important to learn as much as you can about the other colours, how they play, how players play them, what cards are keys to combos, what cards you can ignore, etc.

Knowing your enemy is more powerful than the deck you build, every time.

[Darren Dirt]

Man, I haven't thought about MtG for ages! I used to play a fair bit back in the 90s (I still have all my cards somewhere).

The key basics as I remember was deck balance, choosing a play style and knowing what your opponents were packing.

...get into the meta-game, someone may have a powerful deck but don't play it to its full potential, if you know this you have power. So it's very very important to learn as much as you can about the other colours, how they play, how players play them, what cards are keys to combos, what cards you can ignore, etc.

Knowing your enemy is more powerful than the deck you build, every time.

I guess there's a good reason why in the early 2000s so many solid poker players (especially those who crushed tournaments) got their start in competitive M:TG gaming.

[Mr. Analog]

Oddly enough the base concepts are very similar, the only difference is there are more variables and the ability to stack the deck in your favour (which is a key part of the strategy). But yeah, overall the same rules apply, know what works and how your opponents play and you are ahead of the game.

The game mechanic itself is fairly solid, easy to get into, tough to master (like any good game.)

It has to be said though, a big part of it was getting the right cards (i.e. the collectible part of "CCG"), except when you get into the competitive scene you'd buy boxes to get the majority of a set so you could build your perfect decks (or at least have options). That's where the downside of Magic starts to show itself, it IS an investment and you really do have to pay-to-win with some sets. Long term value drops as well, out of cycle cards deteriorate in value rapidly and really unless something is rare it's not going to keep its value.

I kept all my CCGs from the 90s, I haven't looked at prices in a while but most of them are of limited value as simply collectors items, but since so many runs were made during the CCG craze many sets are still in abundance, so it's not even worth selling them at this point.

[Stewie521]

So I've placed the order (well most of it, Star City games doesn't like prepayed credit cards) and the first two playsets arrived!

• Dream Twist
• Psychic Strike

I have to say, I got so excited over the fact that 8 trading cards arrived in the mail... Maybe I need to buy a social life. But I can't wait until the rest of my order(s) arrive, then it's testing time (although I have a feel of what it should be like from my previous deck.)

[Mr. Analog]

Nice!

Well, at least MtG is a social game

[Lazybones]

You might want to check out the following Facebook group

☽OFFICIAL☾ MTG EDMONTON ☄

Saw it in another friends Facebook feed. Sounds like warp has a bunch of complete sets in binders made up recently.

[Mr. Analog]

They play regular games at both Warp 1 & 2 from what I remember, worth checking out