Starting this since someone from the Modern General suggested it.
Let's be shitte and try to git gud, judge etc...
Any experienced players are more than welcome.
Just learnt to play 2 days ago, played half a dozen games with one of the store's deck against the owners and a old guy who says has been playing for 18 years only with the objective to learn (they were actually pretty nice to me, took a considerable amount of their time and had a lot of patience) though ofc they still won easily without trying, then they let me chose (oldguy helped me choose) a beginners deck (those with 30 cards in them of which 13 are lands) and sold me some cards from their common box to compliment it, told me to go and play whenever i want since there is always someone to play with and if i want to, get into the free beginner's tournaments they organize almost every day.
Pic related what i bought, costed me 9USD.
I chose all the cards except 7 the oldguy gave me for free as a gift.
Im looking for suggestions on how to play, what to get and which cards to discard to get a 60 cards deck and anything else anyone may say since probably everything is going to help me in one way or the other.
Gonna organize a 60 card deck from the ones i bought and see what happens playing a couple casual games tomorrow.
I've learned how to play a few months go, but I don't get to play often. I'd say I've only played about 2 dozen matches thus far. Haven't one a single one yet. One of the friends who got into it the same time as me is already a master at it, he was big into other card games in his youth, and he's also an asshole when it comes to playing them. For weeks now I've been trying to counter his black zombie deck with a splash of white for healing. I think I got the right idea with my white green deck but it's still missing something. Any ideas?
>>46828696
I'm no expert, and I'm out of date with a lot of my knowledge, but I've been playing for over a decade now. I'll give some general advice.
First, land. 22 is a good number for a beginner I thing. I run 20-22, but generally play casually. Most people (and statistics) recommend 23-26 for the average deck, but those include fetches, utility, etc.
In general, cards that cost too much aren't worth it. If it costs seven or more mana and doesn't immediately win the game, or you're not ramping mana, don't use it. That being said, I'm basing that solely on speed and efficiency. If you want to play something, put it in. Any data you find online on mana curves should be taken with a slight grain of salt. They're probably right, but in a calculated vacuum.
Look into cards like Duress, Distress, and Despise. These are cheap ($) black cards that let you look at your opponent's hand and get rid of things you don't like. Black can't deal with enchantments and artifacts easily, so these can help.
Dead Weight is fine for casual play. Removal that does -3/-3 or -4/-4 for one or two mana is better, but if you're not looking to win money or local events yet then don't spend $5 a card on a single piece of paper.
Lightning Round!
Don't bother with kill spells that cost more than three mana.
Deathtouch creatures for two or less mana are your friends (offensive and defensive).
Defender is dumb unless you have a deck based around it.
Cards like Read The Bones and Sign In Blood are great for black.
Creatures that cost two mana are your friends.
Look up the rules for regenerate.
Play different cards and see what you like.
>>46831868
Will try putting into practice what you suggested together with the other ideas i have been thinking for later today when i go to play a while.
Going to test everything, will try to lower the cost of creatures as low as possible and as a more expensive creature to have a bit of hitting power at some point gonna use Nightmare for when i manage to get 10 or 12 Lands on the table.
Thank you, gonna experiment how my deck reacts with everything you said.
The only ones that are for sure going into the deck are the Rats which cost 1mana and all have death touch
>>46830091
What's the problem against his deck? Too many zombies? Too much removal?
I'm a much older player who took some time off and has recently come back.
How to heck do you deal with Planeswalker cards?
>>46832438
You can attack them directly. Or you can redirect any noncombat damage that would be dealt to that opponent to his planeswalker instead.
Also, cards like hero's downfall.
Failing that, there's always lightning bolt and such.
>>46832438
If you're playing standard, shell out for the anti-planeswalker black cards. The one from SOI is pretty cheap, but your deck needs to make it function.
In general though, removal. White can nuke permanents of any type pretty easily now, blue has fliers and bounce and counters and unblockable, red has direct damage, and black has spells that simply destroy walkers. Green is fucked if you're not using own of their new "destroy target noncreature", but no one is playing monocolored decks now anyways.
They're the worst in control decks to be honest. When an opponent already has an advantage and now there's just a bomb ticking away.
>>46832543
>>46832572
So If I attack with a bunch of creatures they can't block, I can just assign damage to the planeswalker?
>>46828683
>BUWGR
>>46832588
Close. When you attack a player you have to declare, for each of your creatures, if that creatures attacks the opponent or his planeswalker. This is done before the declare blockers step, so he or she will know whether your attacking the planeswalkers or not, when choosing blockers.
Non-combat damage can be redirected from the player to the planeswalker. So if you cast a lightning bolt (which can only target creatures or players) you can target your opponent, and then when the spell resolves redirect the damage to the walker.
>>46832693
This is very helpful. More helpful than the fucking Wizards website. Thanks!
>>46832588
Correct. Basically, you treat a planeswalker, at least in combat situation, as a separate party (with life and all, or "loyalty counters" as they call it) that you can attack into or assign any damage that would otherwise goes to that planeswalker's controller(but not life loss). So, if your opponent plays an Ob Nixilis Reignited and uptick him to 6 loyalty counters, you can assign enough attackers to deal 6 damage and, if your attackers are unblocked, kill him (note that you have to declare first that you're specifically attacking Ob), or you can attack for 3, then bolt him, as suggested by the anons above. Any damage, really.
Or you can simply cast something with the "destroy target planeswalker" clause. I think quite a few black cards in Standard are in this category
New player here. After doing some research, I've written up my first deck, a mono-red burn deck.
How does this look?
Instant (16)
4x Fireblast
4x Incinerate
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Searing Blaze
Sorcery (12)
4x Forked Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
Enchantment (4)
4x Curse of the Pierced Heart
Creature (8)
4x Goblin Fireslinger
4x Goblin Arsonist
Land (20)
20x Mountain
>>46832753
Why the curse? Reverberate works well on turn three, or on the turn Rift Bolt comes into play.
Fireslinger is fine, but Swiftspear (the 1/2 haste prowess monk) would hit harder overall I think. With this deck you want to hit as hard as you can as quickly as you can.
Reverberate is cheap. The monk less so. Not sure what your budget is.
>>46832753
You might want to look at Mizzium Mortars or Electrickery as sideboard options to help keep the field clear of enemy attackers and utility weenies.
>be chess player trying to get into MtG
>get hyped when I learn there's a vast amount of writing on the theory of the game
>look up the best Magic theory articles of all time
>it's nothing but self aggrandizing nerds with stupid nicknames acting as if they've solved the mysteries of the universe
>THE GRAND UNIFIED THEORY OF ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IN LIFE AND MAGIC
>drawing cards is good guys
>you lose the game at 0 guys, use your life wisely
>getting ahead on board is good guys
Why did it take these idiots 20 years to discover these simplistic gaming concepts? Marshall Sutcliffe is the only guy I've read that's conveyed some useful ideas, and he's a casual player who does commentary on Magic events.
>>46833367
Because MtG is a simple card game for children and teens that "has to have a deeper inner meaning" for grown up nerds to keep playing without feeling ashamed of themselves.
I love Magic and have played it for decades at multiple levels. It's fun, but call a spade a spade. Magic Theory is synonymous with Lego Theory.
>>46833367
Seriously. Look at >>46832753 or any other given Burn deck.
It's strategy is "Do more damage to the opponent than they can ASAP". Yet it's an effective strategy.
Magic isn't deep.
>>46830091
What's the issue with his deck? How does he win so frequently?
What do you run in your Green/White?
>>46833441
That's a really simplistic view of burn strategies anon. Any gameplan can be spun to seem like it's primitive. "Stall the board and spam counterspells until you can cast your huge expensive flyer"
Magic may not be deep but the best players are consistently the best players so there must be something there
What's better for a new player, mono-red Burn or mono-green infect?
>>46833621
Burn crumbles to some life gain or Negate. A well placed counter or regained 3-4 life sets shit back. Infect goes from aggro to a careful game against removal. You end up using your hexproof spells like counters and pray board wipe away. In my experience at least.
>>46833367
>>46833412
>>46833441
I feel like deep isn't the right word. People who claim it has a certain depth are on the same level as the people who claim it's too complicated.
Does it have depth? Yes. Is that depth more complicated than a few probability equations and a backup strategy to the meta? No.
Is Magic complicated? Are you easily annoyed, confused, and unable to comprehend entry level first-in-last-out practice? No? Then no.
I'd call Magic technical. Reading the situation, planning for the worst, enjoying the probability train, making the right move.
>>46832438
Haste is pretty great against most of the non-white ones. Bloodbraid Elf is a killer
>>46832753
looks fine
>>46833621
infect pisses off everyone so go with that.
All of my decks are either tempo or control. Are there any interesting decks that are less control oriented but still have a lot of interaction? I already have a sort-of burn deck.
>>46832438
You will often have to attack into them (and reduce their loyalty to 0) or dedicate removal for them. Yea I know they are powerful cards but they aren't impossible to kill.
>>46835179
Midrange. Here is a sample decklist of Jund: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11998&d=268783&f=LE. I do not recommend building this deck because it is very expensive, but you should use it as a reference for what midrange decks tend to look like.
>>46834183
>Burn crumbles to negate
What are you talking about? Burn is a strong strategy against counterspells, because you can cast more spells than they can counter every turn, and if they're going card for card against you you're winning. Control doesn't beat burn by countering all their burn spells.
>>46835439
Maybe it's just the burn deck my friend uses. It peters out if it doesn't land it's turn three or four kill. At least, by then I'm also capable of killing him.
>>46835362
Midrange is pretty similar to one of my other decks though, minus the ramp. I'm kind of looking for something less well known and more specific, sorta like madness. Something with a good amount of interaction that doesn't revolve around controlling the board state too much since all of my other decks already do that. Thank you though. Sorry to be so picky; I've been playing for several years, so I've already tried a decent amount of the more obvious strategies.
>>46828683
Reposting my Standard casual / kitchentable deck to look for improvements.
Oaths.dec
Creatures: 10
>Whirler Rogue x4
>Hangarback Walker x4
>Gladehart Cavalry x2
Planeswalkers: 8
>Nissa, Voice of Zendikar x3
>Nahiri, the Harbinger x2
>Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x3
Enchantments: 18
>Cryptolith Rite x3
>Oath of Nissa x4
>Oath of Gideon x3
>Oath of Jace x2
>Starfield of Nyx x3
>Sigil of the Empty Throne x3
Lands: 24
>Port Town x4
>Fortified Town x4
>Plains x3
>Island x3
>Forest x3
>Westvale Abbey x3
The deck has 3 cores, first token generators (Whirler Rogue, Hangarback Walker, Westvale Abbey), then Planeswalkers to create more tokens or buff preexistent ones supported by an Oath recursion engine abusing Starfield of Nyx + legendary rule to get tokens or draw while buffing your walkers.
Sigil of the Empty Throne is there to capitalize in the ammount of enchantments in this token-themed deck and Cryptolith Rite to make it possible to ramp up to 7 t4-t5 and cast Gladehart Cavalry to buff all your tokens as a finisher.
Nahiri also works great with Cavalry because her ultimate essentially allows you to Support 6 twice. She's also a solid answer to a wide variety of threats and filters your hand.
How could I improve this any further?, Keep in mind that the card pool's limited to Standard.
>>46836513
You've got some good ideas, but it's really all over the place. If you want to go enchantments, I say add silkwrap and stasis snares. If you want a heavier token/going wide theme, sigil and starfield slow you down. You also drop near instantly to anything from a burning oil to a languish
Anyone have a list for a flash deck, or some good cards that I won't immediately find looking through mtginfo?
>>46837484
How's this? http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11923&d=268252&f=MO. It is expensive, though.
I'm quite new to deckbuilding, so I would like to get some advice on my two decks:
http://deckstats.net/decks/37581/459571-bg-eldrazi-crap
http://deckstats.net/decks/37581/471258-wg-humans-werewolves
Thanks in advance.
>>46834183
>Burn crumbles to some life gain or Negate.
Not really. Only if they continually gain life, or get countermagic online each turn.
>>46832753
Your deck seems focused and should play just fine lad. However, may I suggest a few cards for thought.
Cinder pyromancer
Fanatic of mogis
Harness the storm
Skull Crack
Krenko's Command / Dragon Fodder
Browbeat
Tormenting voice
These cards are good in mono-red and fairly budget to my knowledge.
(note: some may not be perfect for your current build.)good luck
>>46841279
>Browbeat
>good
>>46841844
let me draw 3 or take 5 dmg
3 cards in burn probably equals 5 dmg or more
may as well mention reforge "the soul" then
>>46836887
I can't remove Starfield of Nix. It's the lodestone of the deck and it'd fall apart without it. It allows me to recur Oath of Gideon for free tokens and Jace's for draw, turns enchantments into creatures to really exploit Gideon's ultimate and allows me to deal with enchantment hate that much better. It also works well with itself, allowing for several Oaths to be recurred each turn.
Sigil of the Empty Throne I'd be willing to take out, but it doesn't slow me down that much, by the time it hits the field (which with Cryptolith Rite + Oath of Gideon can be as soon as T4 and still leave you enough mana to cast an Oath of Nissa and put a 4/4 flier on the field) if Starfield is down it can come in as a 5/5 creature that shits out 4/4s and completely wrecks board balance letting you get your board way ahead of your opponent. Sigil doesn't benefit from the Oath-Starfield interaction, but it does reward you a lot for casting otherwise dead cards like the second and third Cryptolith Rites and further Oath spells (which you have to cast anyways to send a copy to the yard and get the Starfield value train going). Oath of Gideon alone puts down two 1/1s, a 3/3 and a 4/4 flier.
But yeah, it IS too slow and lacks a way to really have early game presence, even if it can flood the board like no one's business lategame. So yeah, removing Sigil is a possibility if it helps fix that.
Maybe I should try making it a modern deck?, better, more fitting planeswalkers would really help but I don't know where to begin.
