On Role-players

Every single card in every single deck must justify its slot. When deciding "how many of this card should I play?" the most common response should be zero. Let's take a further look at some basic deck construction theory regarding card selection.

There are, in general, three overarching roles cards can play within your deck:

Completely uncuttable, generally good/useful, metagamed

The Basics of Deck Design, and why Planeswalkers don't fit in Mythic

Welcome to the inaugural post of Careful Study, a blog that will focus on the study of MTG Theory, with practical applications to existing formats and decks.

Everyone who plays magic builds decks, but very few people take the time to actually think about what they are doing when they search through the voluminous lists in gatherer, trying to find that perfect card for their deck. Each card within a deck serves a larger purpose, and by understanding that larger purpose, a player is better equipped to analyze the deck and make beneficial changes. This post will discuss what I think are the basic tenets of deck construction.

Navigating the Card Pool: A Deckbuilder’s Compass

What is the plan of a deck? Every Magic player that has ever built a deck is able to answer this question. Is your plan to put a bunch of enchantments in your graveyard and cast Replenish? Is your plan to stick a big giant fattie in the graveyard and reanimate it? Is your plan to beat your opponent really hard with one giant man? These are generally fairly easy questions to answer.

What is important to realize is that each given game-plan can be executed in a variety of manners, and the methodology behind this execution is as important to the success of a deck as solidity of the game-plan itself. It is this methodology that most players fail to consider. Understanding this methodology provides a framework for understanding card choices, and thus gives the player the ability to improve upon the deck by finding cards that fulfill the appropriate methodology better.

Decks are constructed on essentially two axes - Power vs. Consistency and Explosiveness vs. Resiliency.