Play-wise I think the worst possible match up for this deck would be a red deck wins list, mainly because of tempo issues and the fact that RDW doesn’t count on creatures to deal damage. On the other hand this deck can be very good against current control decks as mass removal is not an issue. Finally I think the most interesting match up here would be against a boros standard deck mainly because of the heavy interaction between the 2.

Of course there are some general guidelines as the ones you are mentioning above regarding deckbuilding.

Lands are the base of each deck. New players tend to overlook this part of their decks and they uusally pay the consequences later…

The biggest mistake people make is that they get carried away by the “I want to include everything” fever. It is that feeling that makes you take out a land from your deck in order to put in the Jace you have just drafted. NEVER DO THIS LADS!!!! NEVER… I can’t emphasize enough how NEVER this is! Keep your land base as solid as you can. The average standar deck needs 22-23 lands as you have said (eventhough some decks work better with as low as 18 lands and as high as 25 lands) but this is the exception NOT the rule.

If you loose more than 1 every 7-8 games because you didn’t have enough mana then you probably need more lands in your deck. If you already have around 23 lands in there then you probably have a too “heavy” deck. This means that the non-land cards in your deck have a too high average of cost. There are too ways of fixing this: a) replacing some of the high costed cards with “lighter” ones b) using some mana acceleration. Mana acceleration, are spells that usually let you dig in your deck for lands and/or play more lands in your turn, speeding up in this way the time when you will be play your “big guy”. There are other forms of mana acceleration like ramp, and creatures with mana abilities (look for the cards “Semblance amvil” and “Birds of paradise” respectively, if you want to know what I mean) BUT if you are a new player I STRONGLY recommend that you just try to replace your expensive cards with cheaper ones. Mana tricks are for more experienced players as they need a better grasping of the rules and the total synergy if the cards in a deck.

One last piece of advice before I bore you to death here… adding more than 25 lands in a deck will NOT make your deck faster. You only get to play 1 land each turn normally so the thing you must keep in mind is just to be able to play 1 land in each one of your turns, especially your first 3-4 turns. If you can do most of the times you play then you are on a good road. Make small changes (e.g. add one land at a time) and playtest.

NObody has ever built a good deck from scratch without playtesting…

Danny

Thank you for your reply. I’m really on board with your idea of starting playing with a friend. I think it really is the best way to learn. I agree, the internet is a great place to learn new things and more in depth rulings; I’m still learning things about the game to this day.

I think for the most part your statement about players being friendly is correct, but some play venues can be a bit cliquey, though that is only a very very small amount.

I hope you keep reading my series, and thanks again,

Craig.

Nice article! I agree with your advice for the new players.

I have been playing Magic the gathering since 1996 (Mirage block) and I learned tha game (tha basic) practically myself using a portal starter pack. It wasn’t that easy back then to find people who were keen on the game you see…
Later I made a friend through the game. We are still friends today after 15 years. We learned the game together, made decks, played 2 vs 2 as a team or against each other… of course today after all those years we have many other things to talk about, but magic was the reason that made us stick together and it will always be a subject for chatting, teasing each other, arguing and having fun.
Why am I saying all these, maybe boring things? maybe I am getting old and nostalgic but the MAIN reason I say it is because I want to say to the new player that the whole experience of the game will improve as well as their play as soon as they manage to find someone who shares the same passion for the game. And today it is not that hard for this to happen.
On the other hand they shouldn’t be intimidated by the lack of deeper knowledge for the rules or the cost. The internet is a great tool in order to learn how to play. There are noumerous sites dedicated to magic the gathering and software that can me used to play online for free to begin with (cockatrice, magic workstation). But the experience of a real life game is irreplacable, of course. In addiiton, I have seldom come across players who will be unfriendly to a new player. Personally I think I am not… at least i try
All in all there is nothing to loose by playing magic the gathering, except some time daydreaming about what is the best card for your 4 mana slot in your new deck and possibly a lot to take. If you go to a fantasy shop and you see some chaps laughing (some times creepingly) around a bunch of cards they are probably magic players. Go and talk to them, they will do the rest