I first want to mention that I have added the first 2 events for September (see the "Upcoming Events" information box on the top right of the page). I want to remind you that you must sign-up for the Rise of the Eldrazi Draft, as I only have space for 12 players (and there are already 4 or 5 signed up). Let me know ASAP if you want to come! Events for the rest of September will be announced fairly soon.
A few people have mentioned that they've been struggling to make their decks for $6 Standard this weekend (Sunday at 1:30 PM), so I thought I would try to post some useful information and some strategies that I've seen be successful at Friday Night Magic events I've been to in Florida and South Carolina.
The first place to start in constructed deckbuilding is to know your available card pool and deckbuilding constraints. Remember that constructed decks must contain no fewer than 60 cards and that the sideboard must be exactly 15 cards. The following sets are currently Standard legal:
- Alara Block: Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn
- Zendikar Block: Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi
- Legal Core Sets: Magic 2010 and Magic 2011
Let me emphasize that M10 and M11 are both Standard legal right now. This is a change from previous Standard seasons, where each core set rotated when the new one came in. For example, when M10 was released, 10th Edition rotated the same day. But now, core sets rotate when the expansion blocks do, so M10 and Alara block will rotate out at the same time (in October when Scars of Mirrodin is released). This makes for some interesting deckbuilding possibilities that haven't existed previously.
The best place to start deckbuilding is to take one card you really like (or maybe a couple cards that work well together) and see what you can do with them. For example, a few months ago when Worldwake was released, Krystal wanted me to help her make a deck based around Wolfbriar Elemental. So I started by looking at available wolf cards. Master of the Wild Hunt can generate wolves and use them to destroy opposing creatures. Howl of the Night Pack made for a great win condition if you have lots of mana, as does the Wolfbriar. Since we need lots of mana to do this, I also played some cards that accelerate mana, such as Llanowar Elves, Explore, and Borderland Ranger. I don't remember the exact list, but you can see that with just a little thinking I'm on the way to making a solid green deck. A little pump and removal-type spells (cards like Vines of Vastwood, Entangling Vines, and Overrun), some land (don't play too little, most decks need 22-25 lands!) and you have something to test. Obviously, the first iteration of a deck isn't going to be perfect, but it's not that hard to find something to start working with.
Sideboards should mostly be used to address areas your deck is weak against or cannot deal with in your main 60 cards. For this green deck, cards like Naturalize and Windstorm help me deal with artifacts, enchantments, and flying creatures, which are some areas that my main deck cannot effectively address in game 1. It's also good to play cards that supplement weak matchups. For example, mana ramp decks usually struggle against decks that burn their creatures or against well-timed discard spells that hit their big threats before they can be played. This weakness can be addressed by playing a card like Obstinate Baloth, which is great against discard effects and also gains 4 life and is hard to burn with one spell, making it desirable against red decks and maybe some other aggressive decks.
If you feel like you need more guidance in the process, I'll be available in the SUB this Friday, August 27, from 2-5 PM for a deckbuilding session if anybody wants it. I did it last year for a couple people and we dramatically improved what they started out with. Let me know if you're interested so that I can try to schedule different people at different times.
Before I go, let me give you a few strategies that are well-known to be pretty good in the current standard format. You can obviously play something other than these, but if you're struggling to find ideas, this list might help you find something online to play and develop:
- Shard decks: Jund (RGB), Naya (RGW), and Bant (GWU) have been the most successful, but Esper (BUW) and Grixis (RBU) are also playable
- Burn decks: Mono-Red burn is commonly played, as are some aggressive red/black decks.
- Black decks: Vampire themes and mono-black control decks
- Green decks: Token swarms or lots of fatties (ya gotta love the fatties :P)
- Mana ramp: Red/Green acceleration into Eldrazi or Titans
- Control decks: Blue/White with Day of Judgment is most common, but UWR planeswalkers, Esper, and Grixis control have all seen play
- Mono-white: Both aggressive ("white weenie") and control variants exist
- Turboland: These decks feature mana ramp, Oracle of Mul Daya and library manipulation to get tons of land, then play huge fatties like Avenger of Zendikar and Rampaging Baloths to win the game
- Combo decks: If you're a gambler, look up decks like Time Sieve, Dredgevine, and Pyromancer Ascension combo. All are pretty complicated but can be quite ridiculous if played well.
Let me know if you need any more info about standard. I hope to see lots of you on Sunday!
- Dom
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