Deck Construction 101
Elad Sobol

Hello everyone and welcome. Let's get down to business. In this article, I will discuss the fundamentals of deck construction. If you are looking for advanced number-crunching analysis or the latest technology, you may as well skip out. For the rest of you, I will be providing some guidelines and strategies for making a workable, tuned, and focused deck.

The first and most important thing in making a deck is CONCEPT.

What does this mean? Concept means your deck has an idea, a direction. You cannot just throw together all your really powerful, cool cards that you like playing with, toss in some land and expect it to do very well. It may be fine against your peer group, but as soon as you face someone with a tight deck, chances are you won't win much. Not that winning is everything… you should have fun, too. But losing horribly isn't much fun either.

How do you even start on a concept? The concept can be anything. Often, it's a single card. You look at one card and an idea for a deck comes out of that. An example of this is the recent Judgment card Quiet Speculation (1U Sorcery. Search target player's library and put three cards with flashback into his/her graveyard, then that player shuffles his/her library.) Why can this start a concept? This card allows you to search for whatever spell you need at the moment, provided that spell can flashback. From this single spell we can make a deck that adapts to whatever it is playing against. Need to outdraw a control opponent? Fetch Deep Analysis (Torment: 3U Sorcery. Target player draws 2 cards. Flashback 1U, 3 life). Need to outrace and outmuscle your opponent? Fetch Roar of the Wurm (Torment: 6G Sorcery. Put a 6/6 Wurm token into play. Flashback 3G). Need to take out those nasty enchantments? Get Ray of Revelation (Judgment: 1W Instant. Destroy target enchantment. Flashback G). The list goes on. There are a number of good, often undercosted flashback cards out there that we can exploit with Quiet Speculation. If you know what kind of deck your opponent is playing, you can put the appropriate cards in your graveyard on the second turn and use them at your discretion.

Another way to approach a concept is a combo: two or more cards that work together with such tremendous effect that it leads to victory. That simple. For example, Squirrel Nest (Odyssey: GG1 Enchant Land. Tap this land: Put a 1/1 Squirrel token into play) and Earthcraft (Tempest: G1 Enchantment. Tap an untapped creature you control: Untap target land). As you (hopefully) can see, the squirrel you create with the nest untaps the nest through Earthcraft, creating a cycle where infinite squirrels can potentially be created.

A third way has to do with synergy. You want to make a creature heavy, aggressive deck. In order to do this you take cards that are cheap in mana cost, but are tough at the same time. Often the creature's power is more important than toughness. This is opposite what you may think. Sure, it's great when that Spiritmonger hits the board, but if that's all you are running, your opponent may take you down with faster, weaker creatures before you even manage to bring that fatty out. He may play a Basking Rootwalla on his first turn, then pump him the next few for 3 points a turn. By the time Spiritmonger comes out, you've already taken 12 points of damage from a 1/1 played on the first turn, and you're going to have to use your Spiritmonger to block that sad little beatstick just to survive. But I digress. As far as synergy goes, that means cards that work together with each other harmoniously to achieve some specific purpose. It isn't necessarily a combo because it doesn't create a "lock" or an automatic win. Wild Mongrel wouldn't be so good unless you used Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm, Anger, Roar of the Wurm, Fiery Temper, etc. because the mongrel provides you with a madness outlet that pressures your opponent not only by playing undercosted spells at instant speed, but also by damaging him more with the pump the mongrel gets for discarding. Every card in your deck should work with the other, and enhance the effects of the other. This is synergy.

The last way I am going to present to you is a bit more complicated. This is a style. There is really only control, and aggressive. Combo is usually control, and aggro/control is also a workable option. If you are playing control, and there are many paths, you need to look at what you are using and see what it is you are controlling, or think of what you want to control. You can control an opponent's hand, graveyard, library, creatures, mana, spells, and the board in general. Examples of cards that do this are, respectively, Duress, Krosan Reclamation, Millstone, Wrath of God, Mana Short, Counterspell, and Pernicious Deed. All these cards deny resources or the end result of the used resources. Typically, the control player is constantly working in order to deny his opponent any advantage while buying time until the late game where the more powerful spells can be played. In a bit, we'll examine the most popular control deck in type II now, Psychatog, and figure out what makes it tick.

So now you have a concept, some synergy, and style. Now what? Some basic rules for making a deck:

-Don't play with more than 60 cards.
Why not? 60 cards is the established minimum in constructed play (not draft). You play the minimum number of cards so as to have the maximum chance of drawing what you need. This is consistency. Unless you are playing with Battle of Wits, 60 is the way to go. Use only what is essential.

-The rule of 4
4 is the most you can play of any one card (except basic lands). If you want to make a deck using the Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest combo I mentioned previously, it would be a good idea to use 4 of each. In a 60 card deck, you have a 1 in 15 chance of drawing a card you are using 4 of. And if anything happens to the one you played, you have 3 more in your deck somewhere. This also ensures consistency. Don't play 4 of everything though, but if you have cards that are essential, it would be foolish not to take advantage of the 4 card rule and play them all. Squeeze the most power you can out of your deck.

-Balanced land
This takes a bit of experimentation, but you must use an amount of basic/nonbasic lands that will consistently produce both the amount of land your deck requires, and the color combinations. The pain lands (Adarkar Wastes, etc.) and Invasion block "tap" lands (Coastal Tower, etc.) are a must have for decks using two or more colors. City of Brass is also a viable option for 2 + color decks. At one point, ten lands was enough, but most type II decks these days run an average of 23 or so, even the ones using 4 Birds of Paradise and 4 Llanowar Elves. You lose less to a mana flood than a mana screw, simple as that.

Using the method I have outlined, we will examine the dominant deck in type II now: Psychatog.

This deck is one of the toughest control decks out there. It can match the fast aggressive decks, and if it can stabilize into the late game, the opponent has little chance as it establishes complete control over the board. The most unique thing about Psychatog, in comparison to past control decks, is its ability to use its control weapons as the final blow. Rather than gradually breaking through with a Morphling or Masticore, Psychatog wins the game in one shot, turning all its used up control cards into damage. Psychatog is a prime example of all the methods I described.

All the Psychatog player needs is one opportunity to punch through with an unblocked Psychatog in the late game and it is over. Therefore, the player must buy time into the late game when his/her hand and graveyard is filled. This leads into an important point: Every card in your deck must propel you towards the ultimate purpose.

So we have one card, Psychatog. This deck often uses a combo, too. If the board is swarmed and the player cannot break free, it can generally build up enough mana to cast Upheaval, and recast the Psychatog immediately after it resolves. The board is now empty except for one Psychatog. On the following turn, all the lands used thus far in the game are discarded and used to push through for the win.

The synergy in this deck is phenomenal. Every single card is essential, working together maintain control. In general, the board must be kept completely clear. Although Psychatog has about as many variations as it has players, there are some variables that are constant. As a generalization, all decks use:

4 Psychatog
4 Nightscape Familiar
4 Counterspell
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Upheaval

The familiars work as early blockers, they make nearly every spell in the deck cheaper to play, and they are used to whittle down an opponent's life when the board is clear. Fact or Fiction gives us cards at instant speed while putting more cards in the graveyard. Counterspell is the simplest and the best. Everything else is dependent on the player's taste, and his/her expectations of the opposition. In general, Psychatog is weak in the early game, so it needs to counter, bounce and draw its way into the late game. Our options include (but aren't limited to):

Creatures: Merfolk Looter, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Possessed Aven…
Counterspells: Force Spike, Memory Lapse, Circular Logic, Undermine…
Bounce: Repulse, Repel, Recoil, Aether Burst…
Removal: Chainer's Edict, Ghastly Demise, Dark Banishing…
Card drawing: Deep Analysis, Probe, Standstill, Predict, Opt, Concentrate…

Given a wide variety of options, we have to choose according to what we are expected to face, because Psychatog is a flexible deck that has changed (and will continue to change) depending on what its opponents play.

Psychatog is also very mana intensive, and as it needs to build up enough for an Upheaval and a Psychatog (that's 9 mana without familiars), you cannot afford to miss too many land drops. Our version will use 23 lands. In order to achieve the most even and consistent distribution, you have to look at how many spells are in each color. Since this deck is mostly blue, we will use more islands, but we cannot afford to miss a black source if we need it for an early familiar.

4 Salt Marsh
4 Underground River
4 Swamp
11 Island

In consideration of these 23 lands and the 18 essentials I mentioned, that leaves us with 19 more spaces to fill. That may sound like a lot of breathing room but it fills up quickly. As I said, Psychatog is weak in the early game and if you don't go first it may be over before you can do anything. The earliest counterspell available is Force Spike. We'll use 4 for now. Although a weak early counter, Circular Logic is an incredible late game counterspell, as the deck always has a plentiful graveyard. 4 would serve well. Another one of this deck's weaknesses is that it cannot get rid of anything once it is on the board except creatures. Recoil is the most flexible solution as it clears any threat from the board, forces a discard, and can even be used on lands in the early race. As this is important, we'll go ahead and use 4 of those too.

We now have 7 more slots. In order to be sure you have covered all areas, separate your spells into categories. In this case, we have…

12 Counterspells (Counterspell, Circular Logic, Force Spike)
8 Creatures (4 Psychatog, 4 Nightscape Familiar)
4 Bounce (4 Recoil)
4 Card Drawing (4 Fact or Fiction)
Other categories can include Direct Damage, Disruption, Recursion, Board Control, etc.

The obvious gaps need to be filled. Type II is so filled with tokens that playing more bounce is almost as good as playing removal, as a Call of the Herd token dies to any spell that returns it to the owner's hand. Recoil even kills the token AND forces a discard. Because of this, we will use 3 Repulse, as it puts us ahead of the game. Drawing a card in addition to returning a threat typically places us 2 steps ahead of the opponent. When the Force Spikes are no longer useful in the late game, we need to be able to change them. It is also important that we always have more cards in hand than our opponents. Probe is an excellent spell to fit this spot, as it fulfills both these roles efficiently. Since cards are still lacking and are important, we need to fill our last 2 slots with something we can trade for more options. We will use Deep Analysis, as it delivers cards in short bursts, unlike the flood of cards like Opportunity or Concentrate, and it flashes back.

Why these and not others?

You don't want to use cards that will just sit in your hand and rot if they don't work well against certain decks. You want to be flexible. At one point, Standstill was very popular in Psychatog builds, but as it rarely has enough board advantage to make the most of Standstill, it is often a dead card. Undermine is a cool and powerful counterspell, but it is unnecessary. Psychatog is able to kill its opponents in one shot even if they have not been damaged the entire game. Because we are using Nightscape Familiars, it is better to use spells that can be played for less than their regular cost, and Undermine simply cannot compare to the cheaper, more efficient counterspells. Memory Lapse is a viable option as it can set your opponent back at the worst of times and is played for one blue mana with a familiar, but in our version we want to counter things for good. Repel is too much mana and can be a dead card against decks light in creatures. At the least, Repulse can be used on your own creatures to save them from the likes of Chainer's Edict and Wrath of God, and therefore it is almost never a dead card. Although adding other creatures is possible, you must consider that in order to add one thing you must use less of another. As this is not an aggressive deck, pressuring your opponent is not the goal. We must keep the board clear and maintain control until the right time. This deck also favors keeping things off the board through counterspells as opposed to removal. Chainer's Edict and other such cards don't fit very well into that concept. Often Recoil can "kill" something if your opponent feels the other cards in his/her hand are more important, or if his/her hand is empty. Remember, anything bounced must be recast, and can be countered when it comes back out.

So we are now using 7 bounce (4 Recoil, 3 Repulse)
And 8 Card drawing spells (4 Fact or Fiction, 2 Probe, 2 Deep Analysis)

Our deck now looks something like this:

4 Psychatog
4 Nightscape Familiar

4 Counterspell
4 Circular Logic
4 Force Spike

4 Recoil
3 Repulse

4 Fact or Fiction
2 Deep Analysis
2 Probe

2 Upheaval

4 Salt Marsh
4 Swamp
4 Underground River
11 Island

Note that many of these can be played even earlier because the familiar allows us to play those spells for less. We are playing 22 blue spells, 4 black spells, and 10 black/blue spells. Our lands allow us access to 19 blue sources and 12 black sources. Not only does this deck have synergy in its ability to play most of its spells for much less than usual cost through the familiars (Upheaval, Recoil, Repulse, Fact or Fiction, Circular Logic, Psychatog, Deep Analysis, Probe can all be played for less), it also has a smooth MANA CURVE.

Good mana curves typically look like an arch on a graph (parabola), with fewer spells in the beginning, peaking in the middle, and lessening towards the end. Having a curve like this ensures that you have something to play EVERY TURN. Sure, waiting 8 turns and casting some insanely large creature seems good, but a good deck can outrun you or stabilize and simply negate every threat you present. Having a spell to play every turn ensures you keep up with or are ahead of your opponent.

4 spells cost one mana. Those are our Force Spikes. One could argue that Circular Logic fits here, as it is often played for madness cost, but this is not a spell you can play early.
8 spells cost 2. 4 Nightscape Familiar, 4 Counterspell
17 spells cost 3. 4 Recoil, 4 Psychatog, 3 Repulse, 2 Probe, 4 Circular Logic
6 Spells cost 4. 4 Fact or Fiction, 2 Deep Analysis
Only 2 spells cost 6 and those are the 2 Upheavals.

A great strategy is to lay out all the cards in your deck on the floor in piles by spell name. This helps you see the big picture, and edit/count the cards easily. You can also look at the mana curve this way by placing all the cards with the same converted casting cost together in ascending order.

So, now that we are done with our deck, it's time to go out and play it. Make sure you enjoy what you are playing and make sure you cover all aspects of the game and know what you are up against. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at Wholeladoflove@yahoo.com.

Have fun…
-Elad