I haven't even been working on your decks for 2 months yet, but that has been long enough for me to start seeing some trends in the decks that are submitted. Time does not permit me to give every deck I am sent the attention it deserves. Because of that, I'd like to use this article to help you learn how to take the next step in better

deckbuilding:

1) Your deck should be 60 cards.

Not 61, not 85, and certainly not 197. The only time your deck should be more than 60 is if you are playing Battle of Wits or your deck is in Highlander format. Believe me, I know how hard it can be to thin your deck down when you've got it loaded with good cards, but if you've ever looked at tournament players' decklists, you'll notice that almost without exception, they are 60 cards.

Consider football - you may have heard it described as a 'game of inches'. To the casual observer, it may seem silly when players are arguing over a couple inches on a football field, but any savvy fan knows that a couple inches can make or break the game. In the same way that every inch counts in football, every card you draw in a game of Magic has the potential to make or break the game. A 1 in 60 chance to draw the perfect card for your situation is always better than a 1 in

61 chance. Leaving in that good card that you just can't take out makes it that much less likely you're going to draw that even better card that's now 1 card deeper in your library.

This doesn't mean your 80 card deck isn't good. It just means that your 80 card deck would be that much better if it were a 60 card deck.

2) Your deck needs more than 20 lands.

This is not as much of a hard and fast principle, but it seems that somewhere along the line, people have gotten the idea that your deck should be 1/3 land. In my experience, that is usually not quite enough. When I build decks, I start with 22 land, often adding one or two by the time I am done. If you don't have enough land, it doesn't matter how good the cards in your hand are - you'll lose every time.

Always err on the side of too much land instead of not enough. Mana screw is worse than mana flood. If you're playing and you have nothing but land, at least you'll be able to play whatever you draw when you finally get some spells. If you're mana screwed, you've got to have multiple land draws to be able to play the expensive spells you have in your hand.

3) Life gain by itself is not a good method of defense.

Probably more than half of the decks I get that mention a specific problem say that their deck is too slow. Of those, many utilize life gain as a way to stall until they can get their fat creatures or fancy combo into play. Why this doesn't work is simple: unless your opponent is playing a slow deck as well (in which case you don't need to stall), they are going to be able to do as much if not more damage to you per turn than you are going to be able to gain/prevent. Let's say your opponent has a 2/2 creature in play. He hits you with it, and you gain 3 life with a Healing Salve, coming out one life ahead, right?

True, but what happens next turn? He still has his 2/2 (and maybe a

3/3 to go with it now), and is going to hit you again - this time for 5. Simply, your life gain is a one turn solution, while his damage keeps coming. You are much better served either killing their creatures, putting up good blockers, playing mana accelerators, or simply playing cheaper spells.

4) If a card is good enough to play, it is good enough to play multiple copies.

A bunch of one-of-a-kind cards in a deck make for a very unpredictable game. If that's what you're going for - have fun and keep those one-ofs. If you're going for a strong, consistent deck, find the best cards, and use multiples of each. More often than not, you're going to want to run the maximum 4. There are several reasons you might not want 4 (legendary creatures, and high casting cost cards are a couple), but your odds are better of drawing a particular card if you have 4 copies than if you have 1.

5) Know your deck's strategy.

"I'm building a green-red deck" is not a strategy. "I'm building a Gruul Beatdown deck" is a strategy. Know what your deck is trying to do. To do this, you can ask yourself three questions:

1) How does this deck win? This could be to overwhelm your opponent with quick creatures, or beat them down with a few big tramplers, or to mill their deck away, or any number of other things, but your deck must have a specific game plan for winning. If it doesn't don't be surprised if you lose a lot.

2) How does this deck stop my opponent from winning? In some decks, this might be as simple as making your deck so quick that your opponent doesn't have time or resources to stop you. Other decks might load up on counterspells or creature kill to stop their opponents.

Don't forget: your opponent is working just as hard to try to beat you as you are trying to beat them.

3) Is this REALLY going to work? This is the hardest question.

Sometimes, you have to admit that your deck idea just isn't going to be strong enough to win on a consistent basis. Don't be afraid to scrap your deck and start over again with a new idea. It's not failing

- it's learning.

After you ask yourself these questions, take out any cards that don't fit your strategy, and add in cards that work well with cards you already have. Keep a lookout for cards that conflict each other. For

example: Pyroclasm is not a good card to play in a weenie deck. As good as Pyroclasm is, it just doesn't fit. Play something else instead.

I'll be the first to admit that none of this information is going to be a revelation to anyone who reads Magic articles on a regular basis, but hopefully these pointers will help a few of you who are just starting in the art of deckbuilding. I'll come back with more from time to time as I notice trends that I think should be able to help.

Try these things, and if you still need some help, I'll be glad to take a look at your deck next time in my deck garage!

- mattedesa

P.S. - I'd value any feedback on this column to know if it helped anyone out there. Write me at mattedesa@gmail.com to let me know what you think.