How to build a Magic: The Gathering tourny winning deck?

Question

I've watched many MTG games since I was a kid around '95, but I really never got into playing much at all mainly because I didn't have the financials to afford many expensive cards at the time and none of my friends were interested in the game at all.

It's been over a decade now, and I can afford pretty much anything (reasonable; i.e. I'm not going to buy an Alpha edition Black Lotus) I want because of my current paying job. I'm here to play, not to collect.

Anyway, I suck at thinking of building decks with the multitude of combinations possible of picking out from thousands of cards, but I can efficiently play any deck as long as I know exactly how it functions.

I've found a local comic shop that holds frequent tournaments for all sorts of games including MTG and I want to have the feeling of winning! This isn't a Pro Tour or World Championship or anything, but if I could build a deck that can play at that level, it would be nice.

Any suggestions on where I should start?

Answer 1

here is a basic recipe that has always helped me make a deck:

23 Lands

12 converted mana cost "1" cards

12 converted mand cost "2" cards

8 converted mana cost "3" cards

5 converted mana cost "4 or greater or X" cards

There are exceptions to that guideline, like if you produce mana by means other than land. Experiment to see what works.

1. Most decks that are very good are two color decks. This is because each individual color has a weakness, so running monocolor decks isn't that great. Running 3 or more colors isn't such a good idea either unless you only splash the other color in because the card is absolutely needed or green is one of the main colors and you can search out lands insanely fast. Anyway, you usually want to pick two colors that cover the other's weakness. Some examples are White/Red, White/Green, and Red/Green. Don't be afraid to try other combintions; they can be just as good, or better, than these 3 combinations.

2. Now you pick a theme. It could be a creature type, a color strategy, or any kind of strategy.

3. Then you search out cards that fit the theme.

4. After choosing cards, you might have a huge pile. Slowly eliminate cards that are less suited. Try to remember these points:

-converted mana cost

-whether it is a creature or not

-how well it fits the theme

-if it is a key card

-how easily you can find it

5. Keep eliminating cards until you have about 37, or however many you'll have in your deck. Also, try to have at least 20 creatures in your deck. If you have less, you might not have defenders blocking you from getting hit when you need them.

6. Now that you have your non-Land cards set, it's time to make your land base. First start off with the non-basic lands. Find some lands that will fit very well in the deck. In the end, you will probably have about 8 nonbasic lands.

7. Now, here is how you will figure out your basic land base. Go back to your nonland cards and count up all the white symbols, all the blue symbols, all the black symbols, all the red symbols, then all the green symbols. Put them in a ratio. If you have multicolor hybrid symbols (like ones that say "this can be paid with either W or B") and the two colors shown are the only 2 colors you have, don't count it. If you have a monocolor hybrid symbol (like "this can be paid with either 2 or G") then count it as the single color. Now, eliminate all the zeros from the ratio. It may look like 12:16 or 12:18 or something similar.

8. Now, add the two numbers in the ratio together and divide that number by the number of basic land spots you still have in the deck. Then divide each side of the ratio by that number. Then round, but make sure that if to need to round, the sum of the two ratio numbers adds up to the amount of basic land spots you have left.

9. Each mana symbol corresponds to a certain basic land. White is to Plains as Blue is to Island as to Black is to Swamp as Red is to Mountain as Green is to Forest. Now you add the basic lands to the deck as the ratio says. An example: let's say I have15 basic lands and my ratio of White:Green is 12:18. 12 + 18 = 30. 30/15 = 2. 12/2:18/2 = 6:9. This shows I should have 6 Plains and 9 Forests in my deck.

10. Now experiment with this deck. Adjust the deck when you need to.

If you want a deck now, here is probably "the best deck in time spiral block":

-7 Forest

-4 Gemstone Mine

-2 Island

-2 Mountain

-1 Swamp

-4 Terramorphic Expanse

-4 Wall of Roots

-4 Basal Sliver

-4 Dormant Sliver

-1 Darkheart Sliver

-1 Might Sliver

-1 Sedge Sliver

-4 Wild Pair

-2 Disintegrate

-3 Reflex Sliver

-4 Gemhide Sliver

-3 Prismatic Lens

-4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss

-3 Telekinetic Sliver

-2 Harmonize

The side deck can be whatever you want, but no White cards.

This deck is based on the following combo:

"-Wild Pair provides board advantage

-Dormant Sliver provides card advantage

-Gemhide and Basal Slivers provide mana advantage

-Reflex Sliver makes Gemhide's mana run faster"

-Also, if you have seven untapped Slivers, one is Gemhide Sliver, another is Reflex, and another is Basal Sliver, and a Disintegrate in your hand, you can tap them all for Gemhide mana, sacrifice them all for Basal mana, and hit the opponent with a 20-point Disintegrate.

-This deck also has a beatdown option. You can pump up your creatures with Sedge Sliver and Might Sliver and sacrifice the Dormant Slivers for Basal or Darkheart, but having Sedge or Might in play pretty shuts down your Wild Pair (except for a Wall of Roots search for another Wall of Roots). However, the video says that when you play Wall of Roots, you can respond to Wild Pair with Wall of Roots' ability to be able to search for a 2/2, meaning you can search out Sedge and Might easily. There are many other tricks in the deck. Search them out. This deck is amazing!

Slivers are, apparently, very cheap (moneywise) at this time, or at least before Future Sight they were.

Answer 2

If you want to build a good tourney deck, then "if you can't beat them, join them".

Faeries are doing really good right now.  Either build one yourself and play against the others or build one that will beat it.  Mostly because a lot of players are playing Black/Blue Faeries.

For playing to beat, put cards like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Choke, Gaea's Herald, and Eyes of the Wisest.

Teferi makes your opponent's instant/flash spells less dangerous.

Choke kills the blue lands.

Gaea's Herald makes it so that your creatures can't be countered.

Eyes of the Wisest makes them think twice about playing blue spells on your turn.

Answer 3

it all depends on what format you are playing

are we talking about standard format, where you bring a 60 card deck to pre-built to the tournament?

if so than i would suggest building a lorwyn, although not my favorite tribal the lorwyn elfs to very well in tournaments. they are simple to use and play, basically get lots of elfs in play, and beat opponents down. faeries are also doing very well. they are a little more complicated and rely on tricks (such as counter spells, creature control, and a slew of instant spells)

you could also take a look at the recent world championship deck designs at www.wizards.com.

if you are looking at the constructed format (like at the pre release) you will have limited time and a limited number of cards to build your deck. when doing this its important to make sure you have a good mana curve. never underestimate creature destruction and cards that allow you to draw more. in this format taking out a single key creature of your opponents can win you the game. mono color is good, 2 colors is best, 2 colors with a splash is OK (especially with cards that allow you to choose the mana color)

drafting is even more limited. i find the best way to build a competitive draft deck is to pick lots of small creatures with low costs and hope to overrun my opponents.