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Sean From New
York's
Deck
Garage
Today our writer is a beginner at Magic who wants some advice about fixing his deck. This is probably a good article for anyone relatively new to the game to read because it addresses some of the fundamentals of deck building as well as providing you with a little more information on what it takes for me to “fix” a deck!
Hi Sean, i really need your help on this deck. I'm like a starter and doesn't know how to improve this deck. I want this deck to be able to kill your opponent fast with strong backups just in case big monsters comes into play. This deck have a lot of monsters that can't be blocked easily and some creatures destroying spell. But i feel like is not enough, especially when it faces decks with strong creatures or defense like a green deck. Is hard to attack with strong monsters blocking. so what kind of cards should i take out and what kind of cards should i add. I want some combos also especially with Braids, Cabal Minion. Thanks for reading this.
Lands: 28
1 Molten Slagheap
9 Mountains
14 Swamps
2 Cabal Pit
1 Ravaged highlands
1 Bog Wreckage
Creatures:24
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Sabertooth Alley Cat
1 Goblin Skycutter
1 Childhood horror
1 halberdier
1 Two-Headed Silver
1 Bloodfire Kavu
1 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Pardic Firecat
2 Barbarian Lunatic
1 Wall of Stone
1 Pardic Dragon
1 Famished Ghoul
1 Coal Stoker
1 Chainflinger
1 Frightcrawler
1 Dwarven Strike Force
1 Repentant Vampire
1 Face of Fear
1 Pit Keeper
Spells and Instants and Enchantments: 21
1 Void
4 Flame Burst
1 Thermal Blast
1 Swelter
2 Ghastly Demise
1 Essence Drain
1 Reckless Charge
1 Sudden Death
2 Firebolt
1 Spitting Earth
1 Morbid Hunger
2 Morgue Theft
1 Fallen Ideal
1 Panic Attack
1 Liquid Fire
Artifacts: 3
2 Shadowblood Egg
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
Please Help
It’s always good to see someone who’s starting out in Magic to not be afraid to ask for help. However, despite the fact that I, Bmoor, and countless other deck garage mechanics and many professional Magic authors have said what I am about to say, many people out there never quite seem to get it. The biggest problem most new players face when the build a deck is “one –of’s”. If you have 1 of a card in your deck, it should either be a card whose sheer power and merit functions as a “win more” card, i.e. a card that you don’t necessarily need to win, but functions as a win condition on it’s own. The other option is if you have a great deal of “tutoring” effect s and can quickly call the desired card to your hand. What we have here is neither a control deck, nor a combo deck in and of itself, but a aggro deck, that is, a deck whose sole aim at winning is beating your opponent to death with quick beaters, followed by big beaters backed up by combat tricks and burn/removal spells. If I can recommend anything to our anonymous deck builder here and to many new players out there, it is to purchase Magic Pre-constructed Decks. This is not a sales pitch for Wizards, but honestly, if you look at the decks and see one you like, buy two of it, that way you have twice the amount of cards to work with, and plenty of land. Gathering up a miss-mash of cards can provide you with variety, but unless you’re playing the Singleton format, then it only hurts you.
I see a lot of Odyssey cards here, and the fact that you have only 1 or 2 of each with a smattering of more recent cards leads me to believe you either collected the cards once upon a time, or more likely received them from a friend. Let’s take a look at your creatures too see what should go and what should stay. To save time, I’ll giv
 e you my opinion as to what you should keep, everything I don’t mention is just not worth it, particularly with just one of them. Pit Keeper could be useful as just a body with a relevant effect later In the game to allow you to re-play your suicidal creatures, but you’d need to get four of him. Frightcrawler is useful for his evasion ability (fear), but you’d need to get 4 of it as well. Barbarian Lunatic isn’t half bad (but you could do better) and the same applies to Sabertooth Alley Cat. Dimir House Guard’s transmute ability is useful for fetching out creatures that have the same converted mana cost as itself (4), but it’s a so-so creature in my opinion. Childhood Horror is fine for what it’s trying to do, but only if you can achieve Threshold. You’ve got the right idea with the four Pardic Firecats and Flame Burst’s (but we’ll get to that in a minute). Coal Stoker is a nice body coupled with a decent ability, and if you were going to need a lot of red mana then he’s definitely a good member of the team, but once again you’d need either three or four of him. Braid, Cabal Minion is a very interesting card with a unique, symmetrical ability. Her time, however, has come to end these days with cards far surpassing her in power now commonly in circulation. She’s more for a Madness/Threshold control deck anyway. I see you have a lone copy of Bloodfire Kavu, that really would be better off becoming the far more useful Pyroclasm – a 1R sorcery that does the same thing as the Kavu. Repentant Vampire and Pardic Dragon are nice fat creatures with useful abilities (don’t ever suspend the Dragon though, 9 out of 10 he’ll never see play).
As for your non-creature spells, I see a lot of subpar removal and combat tricks. Red has access to things like Shock, although Firebolt is fine, particularly if you can get 2 more copies (don’t stress it though, that set came out a while ago and all it’s cards are tricky to find). Flame Burst is a decent removal spell and it works well with Pardic Firecat (see, I told you I’d get to it). Void is a nice board-clearing effect, though just the one makes it less useful.
Overall, I’d strongly recommend that you purchase a couple starter decks from Tenth Addition and build your deck up from there. Lorwyn will be released very soon, and you’ll be able to get a slew of new cards to make a deck. Just remember these basic principles: (1) Try to go with four copies of a card; you’ll see it more often. (2) Realistically the most you’d ever need for land is 24 or 23. (3) Keep your mana curve relatively consistent, that is, make sure that all the mana costs in your deck curve up gradually, with more expensive (3, 4, and 5 casting cost) creatures and spells, a decent number of low cost spells/creatures, and a few powerful, expensive cards to round things off. (4) Ask yourself when you look at a card, am I getting an effect from this card that’s worth the mana I’m putting into it? (5) Make your deck synergistic or at least consistent – stick with cards that support one another or all have the same general theme – White has cheap, quick beaters (weenies), Blue has counter magic and evasive creatures, Green has FAT creatures and power/toughness enhancing abilities, Red has fast but suicidal creatures and powerful direct damage and removal spells, and Black which has even more powerful removal spells, life gain through stealing your opponent’s life, creatures that can regenerate and survive combat and ways to manipulate the graveyard and attack your opponent’s hand.
Unfortunately there really wasn’t too much of an actual deck for me to deconstruct and rebuild here. Your best bet is to go out and pick up some starter decks, familiarize yourself with how the deck is supposed to run, and then improve it from there! Until next time, may all your deck building experiences be learning experiences!
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