A mana curve represents the distribution of cards by their casting cost. A good mix of low- and high-cost cards ensures you have playable cards at each stage of the game. Tools like KrakenTheMeta’s deck composition analysis can provide insights into optimizing your deck’s mana curve. Every deck should have a mission statement—some kind of game plan that guides your deck-building decisions.
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Combo decks may also have more removal threats as long as you have enough space after your searchers and combo pieces. That tells me, for example, that I don’t want to be playing the most efficient aggressive black creatures in the format, because I expect games to go longer and win by card quality. The standard 60 cards is generally a good number to stick with if you are a newer player because it should give you a consistent play-through of the deck each time you play it. When making a deck, I tend to stick to about lands per deck. Having a third of the deck as land will give you a better chance of getting the right amount of land cards to be able to play the spells you need to. That amount also makes it easy when building multi-color decks because its easy to split it for two or even three colors without risking not getting the land you need.
Ideally, you want to have the cost of Mana represent a curve hence the name. The key is to have a balance of card cost, so you always have cards to play and avoid finding yourself in a situation with a handful of high-costing cards early on in a game. Besides your main deck, you are also allowed a Sideboard, which enables you to add and remove cards between games of a match. The Sideboard is essential, and it should have cards that mitigate weakness and complement your strategy. The Sideboard is part of your main deck, so you cannot add extra copies of cards that would put you past the limit.
Unlike auras, you cast equipment for their mana cost, and then pay a seperate “equip cost” to put them onto a creature. If an equipped creature is destroyed, the equipment stays on the field and can be put onto another creature by paying the equipment cost again. It’s important to remember that you have to have the available mana to pay for your spell, just like you would if you’d cast it on your turn.
Instead, figure out the essential cards of the pauper decks strategy and build the deck to your liking. Budget considerations may also force you to use cheaper alternatives of more expensive cards. By paying attention to your mana curve, you can increase the likelihood of having playable cards at every stage of the game, leading to a more effective and enjoyable deck.
There are also some colorless cards, but for now, let’s focus on the five colors. Each color has corresponding lands that produce that given color of “mana,” which is the game’s resource for playing your cards. Once you have that down, you can start considering every card in that light. Just following this simple guide gives you two templates to use when building decks that gives you an almost unlimited amount of decks you can build. Give it a shot the next time you want to make a deck and you should find that you’ve built a deck that should give you a consistent play-through of the deck every time. As you build your deck, consider the cost of Mana of your cards.
After the first and second games, you’ll have gathered information on the deck your opponent is playing. Once you figure out your nine cards and get all four copies of each card. Just remember you’re still limited to 4 copies of non-basic lands. Consider how many spells of each color you’re using in determining how many mono-color lands you use. In Magic, with the exception of basic land cards, you’re allowed up to four copies of each card, unless the card itself states otherwise. As a starting point, you want to reserve 24 cards for lands, 40% of your 60-card deck.
While a deck focused mainly on buffing creatures would be built slightly different. For two-color decks, running a mix of basic lands is okay, but lands that tap for two colors will go a long way in improving consistency. Imagine you’re playing a blue-red deck and you have all red creatures in your hand, but you only draw blue lands! Having lots of lands that can produce two or more colors will help avoid these types of scenarios. There are also a few other small things you should take into consideration when building your manabase.
Core Set Constructed
Blue and black aggro decks have existed in the past, but these are less common. There are many ways to find different decks out there on the internet. 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. 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.
As a starting point, you focus on nine unique non-land cards. All other cards in your deck will either be copies of those nine cards or land cards. This should help you focus your deck on the key cards to get your cards on the board. Play with different decks, participate in events, and learn from each game.
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. In a best-of-3 round, you have to win 2 games to secure the round.
Step 3: Balance Your Deck
We’ve mentioned lands and briefly mentioned other permanents like artifacts, enchantments, and Planeswalkers. Now, let’s go over them in more detail and talk about the non-permanent cards as well. Classic Tribal Wars was renamed Legacy Tribal Wars, which will allow all cards in Legacy, except for those cards on the banned list. Standard Tribal Wars was also created and follows the same ruleset, except the legal cardpool includes only what is legal in Standard.
For this reason, it’s generally a good idea to mostly include creatures that cost one, two, or three mana, that way you can start attacking with them early on in the game. 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.