I'm going to assume that if you entered this thread, you play Magic: The Gathering. Don't be ashamed, a lot of us do. Well, since you're here, let's talk about deck building.
Alright. Well, I play slightly more competitively than I used to and am at the point where I'm willing to actually go out and buy more expensive rares to put together a deck (I'm not, however, at the point where I'm going to buy a $200 card just yet) because I actually go to FNMs and have made a little bit of money off of them.
So what I want to know is what decks you guys have used/are using. How competitively do you play? How much did your deck cost? Why do you like it? And at the same time, we can point out the strengths and weaknesses in each others decks and make suggestions. Sound fun?
I highly recommend using MTGdeckbuilder.net [http://mtgdeckbuilder.net/] to show your deck.
This is the deck I'm building. [http://mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/102524] Right now, I'm missing some cards like Mental Misstep and the nonbasic lands, but as it stands it's a pretty killer deck. It's a red/green infect that's pretty much centered around pump spells. It's built for speed. The only problem is that if I get past turn 5 without winning, I lose. The thing is, it's a lot better than my black/green infect based around groundswell and adventuring gear. That deck was fast and I liked it a lot, but once New Phyrexia came out, I had to build something new.
I've always wanted to get into Magic, but my tutor played Slivers and wrecked my starter deck with it every single time while reminding me how much I suck.
My decks cost around $20-$30 if I want them to be good. My problem is that I can't stick to one deck idea. I'm Johnny/Timmy, so I always come up with crazy ideas for decks, so I have about 12 mediocre decks, and if I had put all the money I spent on all of those into 1 deck, I bet it'd be awesome.
I don't play competitively at all, though. In fact, most of the time it pisses me off when someone brings out a $200 deck with Jace's in it, cause it just makes the game not fun. I wish more of my friends played it so I could play against more casual people.
EDIT: I think my "Green does everything!" Deck cost around $35. It's my main deck, and it rocks socks, provided the opponent doesn't use a wrath of god.
I've always wanted to get into Magic, but my tutor played Slivers and wrecked my starter deck with it every single time while reminding me how much I suck.
Slivers wreck pretty much any deck. I remember playing Archenemy against this dude running Slivers and he didn't even need the Archenemy cards. He killed... I think it was 6 of us. It was insane watching him assign damage. He was like "Ok, that's... 25 damage to you, 23 to you, 26 to you..." in just one attack.
Souplex said:
My deck is modeled around an old-school Mirrodin equip deck, with some new cards thrown in.
That's not a bad deck. That would work really well in 2HG, actually. You're basically dropping and attaching equips for free. I personally think that you should go for less creatures and more equips because I feel like you'd run into times when you'd have potential to drop equips but you have no equips to drop... but then again, I haven't actually seen it played. Do you find it works well?
That's not a bad deck. That would work really well in 2HG, actually. You're basically dropping and attaching equips for free. I personally think that you should go for less creatures and more equips because I feel like you'd run into times when you'd have potential to drop equips but you have no equips to drop... but then again, I haven't actually seen it played. Do you find it works well?
2HG? (Is that two-headed giant?)
The reason I have the current creature/equipment balance is that the creatures are going to be destroyed a lot more easily than the equipment, and I have creatures that can help me get more equipments (Stoneforge lets me search, and Puresteel lets me draw whenever I play an equipment) Also; tons of creatures in the deck gain bonuses for the first equipment on them, but only Kemba and Punisher gain bonuses for additional equips.
I could use more of them, but there rares.
You can look up all the cards mentioned here:
http://magiccards.info/
I made this deck through trading and whatnot for under $30 without buying anything online
My brother used his excess cards to build me a deck (along with some starter decks). I originally played Red, but that ended badly, so my brother made me a new one that is, if I remember correctly, Red and Blue. I don't know what I have, as I haven't used it yet, but it is good enough that I should be able to kick my youngest brother's ass, even though I know my brother who set up the deck would still rape me in a stand up fight... No I take that back. I used it once, and I got lucky enough to knock him down to 2 HP before he pulled the magic health rejuvenation cards out of his deck and tear me a new asshole. (Alex is younger than me, but he is the one who seriously plays Magic and wins.)
Haha, I actually got wrecked by a deck like that last week. The Sword cards combined with Puresteel Paladin is just painful.
Anyway, the main two decks that aren't modified starter decks that I run are based around two things - one is an Aura lifegain deck that uses cards like Aura Gnarlid and Ajani's Pridemade to ramp up everything to be ridiculously powerful before you can do anything. The other is a deck based around Knowledge Pool: get knowledge pool out, and use Memnites and Ornithopters to cast my opponents cards for free. Most of the cards are artifacts, so I threw in Tezzeret for good measure because his ultimate comes in handy.
I would estimate the Knowledge Pool deck being worth forty to fifty dollars, and the Aura one maybe thirty to thirty-five.
Personally I have 20+ standard decks most of them 200+ dollars, but there is one catch. I only play using Magic workstation so I essentially have every card for free.
My favorite deck at the moment is an Esper tapout control deck.
Here is the link to the non-updated or pre NPH version.
The thing I like about tapout control is it focuses on surviving the early game while hitting land drops, and lategame it plays spells which can singlehandedly win you the game.
A grave Titan drops 10p/t on the 5th turn with 4 more each turn. A pretty nice follow up to a day of judgement.
Anyways if your looking to get into serious T2 play, stoneforge mystic basically owns the format. Sad but true.
If your looking for cheap/budget decks I made a list of a couple as a favor to a friend. The budget was 20 dollars or less, the goal was to have a 3/5 star deck or better. I think I did fairly well.
PS: I'd replace unnatural predation with something else. Perhaps a cheap equipment, another cheap infect creature, or a better pump. Not trying to be mean or appear arrogant. I just like to build decks and help tweak others. I love advise on my own as well.
The decks I build are usually just ones that I think might work out well (and to my credit, they usually do). They might not be original, I suppose, but they work really well. One of the first decks I ever made was my fast beast deck. I focused on getting 6/6+ creatures out as fast as possible. If I get a good starting hand, I can usually start throwing the heavy beasts around after 4 turns.
Another of my decks, again not all that original, is a controller cleric deck. The people I play with all hate that deck so it's good fun to pull it out in a 3+ person free-for-all and troll everyone. I quite enjoy my artifact deck that has a life battery built in around Atog, Dross Scorpion, and some other creature that I can't remember but gives 3 life when it enters the graveyard from play. Also, Predator Flagship is so much fun.
Don't have my cards on me so I can't list them for anyone wanting a reference.
Brainburst.com is a great MTG site for anyone interested. Its name is changed now but typing that in will still lead to the site.
I'm reasonably heavily invested into standard cards at the moment. The store that I play FNM at has a fair few very skilled players some of which attend the pro-tours. It's not uncommon for me to play against decks easily worth over 1,000$ USD (full foil playsets of Jace TMS, ect).
I personally stick to the faster deck archetypes. Currently I'm running landfall Boros.
ProfessorLayton said:
This is the deck I'm building. [http://mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/102524] Right now, I'm missing some cards like Mental Misstep and the nonbasic lands, but as it stands it's a pretty killer deck. It's a red/green infect that's pretty much centered around pump spells. It's built for speed. The only problem is that if I get past turn 5 without winning, I lose. The thing is, it's a lot better than my black/green infect based around groundswell and adventuring gear. That deck was fast and I liked it a lot, but once New Phyrexia came out, I had to build something new.
Honestly, I'd say you need more creatures. I'd also personally drop Red completely and go for Black instead.
Things I'd add in:
* Inkmoth Nexus: fairly obvious, animate it and swing at the opponent.
* Plague Stinger, still one of the best Infect creatures they've printed. This is great as it has flying.
* Vampire's Bite: +3/+0 and you can kick it (for B+2) for Lifelink.
* 1-2 Phyrexian Crusader, it gives you a bit more of a leg to stand on mid-game.
* Blight Mamba: one of the better Green infect creatures
Things I'd remove:
* Mental Misstep: I'd throw this into the sideboard. Most of the match-ups you'll struggle with (i.e; Caw-Blade, ect) don't run that many threatening 1-drop cards.
Other cards to consider:
* Livewire Lash: as the creature is doing the damage, if it has infect, it deals it as Poison Counters to an opponent.
* Hand of the Praetors: Gives you a good finisher.
* Phyrexian Vatmother: this card can be hilariously difficult for your opponent to deal with if you get it out turn 4. The drawback is pretty ignorable even if you're up against another Infect deck.
I recently threw together some odd decks of varying colours until I grasp the game again, its been years since I last played so I don't see them being very good. I do have plans to make a sliver deck though
I'm reasonably heavily invested into standard cards at the moment. The store that I play FNM at has a fair few very skilled players some of which attend the pro-tours. It's not uncommon for me to play against decks easily worth over 1,000$ USD (full foil playsets of Jace TMS, ect).
I personally stick to the faster deck archetypes. Currently I'm running landfall Boros.
ProfessorLayton said:
This is the deck I'm building. [http://mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/102524] Right now, I'm missing some cards like Mental Misstep and the nonbasic lands, but as it stands it's a pretty killer deck. It's a red/green infect that's pretty much centered around pump spells. It's built for speed. The only problem is that if I get past turn 5 without winning, I lose. The thing is, it's a lot better than my black/green infect based around groundswell and adventuring gear. That deck was fast and I liked it a lot, but once New Phyrexia came out, I had to build something new.
Honestly, I'd say you need more creatures. I'd also personally drop Red completely and go for Black instead.
Things I'd add in:
* Inkmoth Nexus: fairly obvious, animate it and swing at the opponent.
* Plague Stinger, still one of the best Infect creatures they've printed. This is great as it has flying.
* Vampire's Bite: +3/+0 and you can kick it (for B+2) for Lifelink.
* 1-2 Phyrexian Crusader, it gives you a bit more of a leg to stand on mid-game.
* Blight Mamba: one of the better Green infect creatures
Things I'd remove:
* Mental Misstep: I'd throw this into the sideboard. Most of the match-ups you'll struggle with (i.e; Caw-Blade, ect) don't run that many threatening 1-drop cards.
Other cards to consider:
* Livewire Lash: as the creature is doing the damage, if it has infect, it deals it as Poison Counters to an opponent.
* Hand of the Praetors: Gives you a good finisher.
* Phyrexian Vatmother: this card can be hilariously difficult for your opponent to deal with if you get it out turn 4. The drawback is pretty ignorable even if you're up against another Infect deck.
Heh... funny thing is, I took apart my black green infect to make this one. In fact, I took out Plague Stinger, Livewire Lash, Phyrexian Crusader, Blight Mamba, and Hand of the Praetors. While it sounds like the red is useless right now, the double-strike makes this deck what it is. What I'm hoping for is a game that runs like this:
Turn one: Forest or Copperline Gorge, Glistener Elf. Turn two: Mountain or Copperline Corge, Assault Strobe, Groundswell.
That's a win right there. I'm not counting on going much further past that. That's why I have the mental missteps in the main because if I actually get that perfect hand and start running with it, I can either counter their turn one blocker or counter their counter if they decide to counter assault strobe or something. A lot of people will be running mental misstep in their mainboard and even more people will sideboard it in once they know what deck I'm playing. I actually played against a guy who duressed me and then played surgical extraction to remove all of my groundswells. If I had even one misstep I could have prevented that. And either way, it can easily be exchanged with Gitaxian Probe which is probably way too good to be a common. I mean, I can see if they were planning on surprising me and I get to draw a card. I'll probably end up mainboarding Gitaxian Probe and sideboarding Mental Misstep in order to thin out my deck and raise the chances of me grabbing another pump.
I had more creatures in the deck and ended up with times when I had a hand full of creatures and no pump spells. Swinging one infect per turn doesn't really help. While Blight Mamba was a good creature to have, 2 mana to regenerate is kind of expensive, especially when you're swinging two creatures. I would have to choose whether to pump up a creature that's not blocked or save the mana to regenerate him.
And as for flying, that's why I put in some soaring seacliffs. They're a landfall and flying and they saved me a couple times when playtesting it. They would put out a blocker, but then bam!, soaring seacliffs, bam!, assault strobe, bam!, groundswell. You're talking a 5/5 infect with double-strike in the air. While Plague Stinger did that with the deck I was running, the chances of me actually getting a hand that would let me do that was a lot less likely. Assault Strobe is a lot better to have in my deck than any black creatures. I'm making sure nothing in my deck costs more than 2 mana. And inkmoth nexus is kind of a waste of a land to me. I need all the colored mana I can get and soaring seacliffs already stops me from playing any one mana pumps.
ravensheart18 said:
Whats the point of a game where you win based on your wallet not your skill?
It's not completely. You could have the most expensive deck in the world but if you don't know how to play it, you'll still lose games. You can also take on some tougher decks with cheap decks if you know how to play them. And everyone has a different playing style. But you're right, a lot of it comes down to how much you're willing to spend on cards. The thing is, if you're really wanting to spend that much money on cards, you'll probably be willing to play in tournaments where you'll win your money back.
godofallu said:
Ah so OP you run a gimmick infect deck.
Personally I have 20+ standard decks most of them 200+ dollars, but there is one catch. I only play using Magic workstation so I essentially have every card for free.
My favorite deck at the moment is an Esper tapout control deck.
Here is the link to the non-updated or pre NPH version.
The thing I like about tapout control is it focuses on surviving the early game while hitting land drops, and lategame it plays spells which can singlehandedly win you the game.
A grave Titan drops 10p/t on the 5th turn with 4 more each turn. A pretty nice follow up to a day of judgement.
Anyways if your looking to get into serious T2 play, stoneforge mystic basically owns the format. Sad but true.
If your looking for cheap/budget decks I made a list of a couple as a favor to a friend. The budget was 20 dollars or less, the goal was to have a 3/5 star deck or better. I think I did fairly well.
PS: I'd replace unnatural predation with something else. Perhaps a cheap equipment, another cheap infect creature, or a better pump. Not trying to be mean or appear arrogant. I just like to build decks and help tweak others. I love advise on my own as well.
Yes, yes I do... my first real deck was an infect deck so it kind of stuck with me. I know it's not anything really creative or anything but it seems to get the job done for right now. My plan is to rock some small FNMs for a little while and then save up some money for a real deck that can take on the big guys.
And I'm telling you, Unnatural Predation looks like crap right now, but that trample saved me on more than one occasion. When you play an assault strobe, a groundswell, mutagenic growth and an unnatural predation, it can tear right through any blocker they might have. If unnatural predation doesn't turn out to be worth it, though, what would you replace it with? I'm not really planning on playing equips and I can't think of many better pumps other than Mirran Mettle but I'm not playing enough artifacts for that.
Also... you said "here is the link" but never put a link... and what was the list of other cheap decks?
Souplex said:
ProfessorLayton said:
Souplex said:
My deck is modeled around an old-school Mirrodin equip deck, with some new cards thrown in.
That's not a bad deck. That would work really well in 2HG, actually. You're basically dropping and attaching equips for free. I personally think that you should go for less creatures and more equips because I feel like you'd run into times when you'd have potential to drop equips but you have no equips to drop... but then again, I haven't actually seen it played. Do you find it works well?
2HG? (Is that two-headed giant?)
The reason I have the current creature/equipment balance is that the creatures are going to be destroyed a lot more easily than the equipment, and I have creatures that can help me get more equipments (Stoneforge lets me search, and Puresteel lets me draw whenever I play an equipment) Also; tons of creatures in the deck gain bonuses for the first equipment on them, but only Kemba and Punisher gain bonuses for additional equips.
I could use more of them, but there rares.
You can look up all the cards mentioned here:
http://magiccards.info/
I made this deck through trading and whatnot for under $30 without buying anything online
Yes, it's two-headed giant. I find that decks like that work really well in multiplayer games for some reason. There was another card that let you put an angle into play if you don't take combat damage... you actually might have it and I just don't remember the name.
And I've still yet to buy any card online, though I might have to for this new deck and honestly it might be the better option considering that not everyone will have the cards you need.
But it's still a really cool deck and I wish I could play against you somehow. I might actually steal your idea and build a similar deck.
Mine is a green deck. It's got a few infect creatures including Phyrexian Hydra (7,7 infect creature), but mostly revolves around powerful green creatures, and cheap green creatures capable of getting more of my 26 lands out quickly, technically i can play 3 creatures in my 1st turn with just 1 land card thanks to effects. I also have a number of cards to buff my creatures and raise my life.
Overall i think my deck is okay.
Yeah sorry I never put the links! Heh here you guys go.
Esper Tapout Control http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=824443
Link to my 20 dollars or less decks http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck_search_result.asp?MDA=1
Both of those are pre NPH and I don't really see updating them on that site to be worth my time.
PS: When I said gimmick infect I wasn't attempting to call you inferior or mock your deck. It's just what people call pump infect in my area.
As to what card could replace unnatural predation, i'm not sure. Off the top of my head i'm thinking you really need removal to remove their early blocker and get the damage through. Volt charge or L bolt stick out to me the most.
At the moment Im using a nice mono green rush deck- simple and easy to pilot although countering it pretty much just requires you to be a half competent control player.
I really want to build a Kuldotha Red but the price is silly (£80 for 8 cards, fuck that id rather go ut and get pissed).
Im currently waiting for Zen and M11 to cycle out, wanna see what comes in after.
I've always wanted to get into Magic, but my tutor played Slivers and wrecked my starter deck with it every single time while reminding me how much I suck.
Heh. I'm in the process of selling all my cards, Magic and Yu-gi-oh included. I sold all my Magic cards at once, since they were too old to be of any use to anyone (I stopped playing back when the Artifact Creatures/Decks started coming out into force. Mirridon I think?).
However, the $800 Yu-gi-decks are no joke. Even I had a ridiculously expensive one at one point; and just trying to sell individual cards is hard, since they run almost $20-$30 for some. I've even got some cards worth $60-$80 by themselves (EX: Chaos Dragon: Envoy of the End, Metal Raiders Mirror Force)
However, I can't find anyone to buy my Pokemon cards for a decent price.......
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