Blue is Me

Tag: magic gathering

  • Magic the Gathering: Building a deck

    Anyone can construct a Magic deck, but it takes strategy to win. A good deck has a good strategy to beat the opponent. Firstly, a primer on different tournament format, some cards may be banned or illegal in certain formats.

    Wizards of the Coast releases new sets every quarter so there are different formats in which you can build your deck in. Generally, a new block is released every year and a Core Set every two years. Be sure to check the Banned/Restricted list to know which cards you can play.

    Edit: I made an article showing a deck I constructed here.

    Constructed (Player makes the deck):
    Type II (Standard): Is the most popular tournament format. The deck must consist of cards from the most recent two blocks and the most recent Core Set.
    Type 1.x (Extended): The deck must consist of cards from the most recent eight blocks and the three most recent Core Sets.
    Type 1.5 (Legacy): The deck can consist of cards from any Magic set except the ones on the banned list.
    Type 1 (Vintage): The deck can consist of cards from any Magic set except the ones on the restricted list.

    Other:
    Two-headed: Magic for four players. Each team consists of two players who share 40 life each. Everything else is the same, but rules for turns/attacking may vary.
    Casual: Basically you can play any magic card you want and the rules vary according to the group of people you are playing with.
    Limited (Draft/Sealed): A format where each player gets three/six booster packs, opens them one at a time, picks a card and passes it to the next player. The process goes on until all the cards from the first pack runs out. Then the process repeats until every pack is gone. Then each player adds his/her lands and makes a deck with the cards they picked.

    The advice I can give about building a deck is based on Constructed mostly because Limited you have no control over who picks what cards.

    There are three main types of decks: Aggro, Control and Combo. Many decks boast a combination of these types. When you are playing a specific type of deck, it’s called an archetype. The variety of different archetypes in your playing environment is your metagame. You want to build the type of deck that fares best in your metagame. A general rule to follow is that, Aggro beats Control, Control beats Combo and Combo beats Aggro.

    Aggro:
    Aggro decks focus mainly on one strategy: Attack. They have lots of creatures and lots of direct damage. I recommend this type of deck for beginners because it’s simple to play: just reduce your opponent’s life to 20. Green and Red cards are especially suited for this type of deck.
    Some examples of the Aggro archetype below:

    Aggro cards:
    Green – Troll Ascetic, Tarmogoyf, Chameleon Colossus, Garruk Wildspeaker
    Red – Goblin Piledriver, Mogg Fanatic, Lightning Bolt, Browbeat, Goblin Guide
    White – Savannah Lions, Silver Knight, Baneslayer Angel
    Blue – Clone, Morphling
    Black – Nantuko Shade, Phyrexian Negator, Dark Confidant
    Multi – Spiritmonger, Broodmate Dragon, Sarkhan Vol
    Colorless – Aether Vial, Umezawa’s Jitte

    Aggro decks:
    Sligh (R)
    Affinity (Co)
    Blue Green Madness(U/G)
    The Rock(G/B)
    Fires of Yavimaya(G/R)

    Control:
    Control decks focus on disrupting the opponent and maintaining control. These decks usually take longer to win than other decks. They often include counterspells, discarding, creature kill and defensive cards. Black, White and Blue are especially suited for this type of deck. Some examples of the Control archetype below:

    Control cards:
    Green – Harmonize, Ohran Viper, Eternal Witness, Kitchen Finks
    Red – Earthquake, Wildfire
    White – Path to Exile, Wrath of God, Worship, Windborn Muse
    Blue –  Cryptic Command, Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm, Daze, Redirect
    Black – Thoughtseize, Duress, Diabolic Edict, Consume Spirit, Doom Blade
    Multi – Blightning, Terminate, Lightning Helix
    Colorless – Oblivion Stone, Mind’s Eye, Mindslaver, Batterskull

    Control decks:
    Blue White Control(U/W)
    Psychatog(B/U)
    Scepter Chant(U/W)
    Mono Black Control(B)
    Wake(G/W)

    Combo:
    Combo decks focus on getting a certain combination of cards to win the game, often very quickly. These decks often require specific cards that have a certain role in the deck, many tutors, card drawing and mana accelerating cards are used. There isn’t one color specifically suited for Combo, as it depends on the cards used. Some examples of Combo archetype below:

    Combo cards:
    Green – Doubling Season, Aluren, Earthcraft
    Red – Seething Song, Rite of Flame, Dragonstorm
    Blue – Mind’s Desire, Mind over Matter, Stroke of Genius, Mystical Tutor, Intruder Alarm
    White – Replenish, Enlightened Tutor, Academy Rector, Orim’s Chant
    Black – Vampiric Tutor, Dark Ritual, Yawgmoth’s Will, Necropotence, Tendrils of Agony
    Colorless – Lotus Petal, Grim Monolith, Helm of Awakening, Tolarian Academy, Metalworker

    Combo decks:
    Oath of Druids(G/U)
    TEPS(R/B/Co)
    Tinker(U/Co)
    Dragonstorm(U/R)
    Manaless Ichorid(B)

    Here’s the Enduring Ideal combo deck in action (my demonstration of a turn 4 kill):
    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O8n-QSX_KE

    …and the Hulk Flash combo deck in action (a turn 1!!! kill):
    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6P1XexTngY

  • How to play Magic the Gathering pt 2

    Continued from the previous post…Here are some more advanced terms:

    Tokens: Tokens are creatures that are not represented by a card but they are still creatures. The only difference is that when they die and/or returned to your hand, they are exiled instead.

    Exile: Exile a permanent means they are removed from the game (as opposed to putting it in your graveyard like a normal permanent).

    A counterspell
    A counterspell

    Counters: Usually a blue card that says counter target spell means that the spell that is countered does nothing, has no effect and is put into the graveyard.

    Sacrifice: A card, usually black, that says sacrifice a creature means that a creature of its owner’s choice must be put into the graveyard. Sacrifice does not destroy nor does it target so it can kill creatures with Shroud and Indestructible.

    This tribal card helps Soldiers and Bird types
    This tribal card helps Soldiers and Bird types

    Creature types: The creature type is on the card shown as Creature – type. Many cards interact with different creature types. ‘Goblins get +1/+1’ would be an example of such a card. Cards that interact with creatures are known as tribal cards.

    A Legendary Creature
    A Legendary Creature

    Legendary: Some permanents can be legendary. This is shown in the card type. That means there can only be one of that card with the same name on the battlefield. Planeswalkers are inherently legendary. If two Legendary permanents of the same name are in the battlefield, they both automatically go to the graveyard.

    Card Abilities:

    A creature with a triggered ability
    A creature with a triggered ability

    There are two different types of card abilities in Magic. Activated and tap abilities may be indicated with a mana cost and/or tap symbol and you have to use that much mana to use it / tap to use it. They can be used at any time. Any permanent may have activated/tap abilities, but creatures have to wait a turn before you can use their abilities. Triggered abilities have an effect depending on other conditions. ‘when
    comes into the battlefield’ and ‘whenever

    is tapped’ are examples of triggered abilities that only happens when the conditions are satisfied. Creatures don’t have to wait a turn to use triggered abilities, they just happen automatically.

    A legendary creature with alot of abilities
    A legendary creature with alot of abilities

    Creature abilities:
    Alot of creatures have different abilities, tap and activated abilities, but here are some common keyworded abilities that may not have been explained on the card.
    Flying: Flying means this creature can’t be blocked except by other creatures with flying.
    Trample: Trample means this creature deals any leftover combat damage when blocked to the player. That means, if it has more power than the blocking creature’s toughness, the rest of the damage goes to the player.
    Shroud: Shroud means the creature can’t be targeted by spells or abilities. Any spells or abilities that say ‘target creature’ cannot be used on the creature.
    Indestructible: The creature cannot be destroyed by any card effects or by combat damage.
    First Strike: First Strike means the creature deals combat damage before a creature without First Strike. Normally creatures deal combat damage at same time.
    Island/Plains/Forest/Swamp/Mountain-walk: Any of these basic land walks means the creature is unblockable if the defending player controls a basic land of that type.
    Lifelink: Lifelink means whenever the creature deals damage, the controller gains that much life.
    Vigilance: Attacking doesn’t cause a creature with Vigilance to tap.
    Haste: A creature with haste can attack and use abilities the turn they are played. Normally creatures have to wait a turn to attack and use abilities.
    Regeneration: Regeneration usually comes with a mana cost. That means the controller can pay that mana cost so that the creature does not receive combat damage and becomes tapped instead.
    Reach: Creatures with Reach can block flying creatures. This doesn’t mean that the creature has flying.
    Deathtouch: Creatures with this ability destroys any creature it deals damage to.
    Protection from Black/Blue/Green/Red/White: Protection from a color means that the creature cannot be enchanted by, blocked by, targeted by, or dealt damage by any spells/permanents of that color.

    Block Mechanic:

    A Sorcery using the block mechanic Entwine
    A Sorcery using the block mechanic Entwine

    There’s also ‘block’ mechanics. Allow me to explain. Every few months, Wizards of the coast releases a new Magic expansion and each ‘story arc’ comprises three sets/expansions usually and is called a ‘block’. Along with a block comes different card abilities that are only in that block. These include Imprint, Storm, Replicate, Kicker, Landfall, Entwine, Exalted, Flashback, Madness, Suspend, Cycling, Evoke, Fading, Echo, Buyback, Conspire, and many others.
    These usually don’t need to be explained because their explanation comes on the card.

    Videos: