The Casual Planeswalker

Category: Guides

Long-form educational content covering deckbuilding, strategy, and MTG fundamentals.

  • How the MTG Stack Works: A Beginner’s Guide to Magic’s Most Important Rule

    How the MTG Stack Works: A Beginner’s Guide to Magic’s Most Important Rule

    You are three turns into your first game at Friday Night Magic. You tap out, slam your best creature on the table, and lean back — satisfied. Your opponent raises a finger. “In response…” they say, and suddenly your creature is dead before it ever got to attack. You stare at the board, trying to figure out what just happened.

    What happened was the stack — and it is the single most important rule in Magic: The Gathering that nobody explains clearly enough to new players.

    The stack governs how spells and abilities resolve in Magic. It determines who gets to respond to what, in which order things happen, and why “in response” are the two most powerful words in the game. Once you understand the stack, you stop being the player whose creatures keep dying and start being the player who says “in response” with a grin.

    This guide will walk you through everything: what the stack is, how it works, and how to use it to win games. We will use real card examples, visual diagrams, and plain language. No law degree required.

    Table of Contents

    What Is the Stack?

    Imagine a cafeteria tray dispenser — the kind where trays are stacked on top of each other, and you always take from the top. When someone adds a tray, it goes on top. When someone takes a tray, it comes off the top. The last tray placed on the stack is always the first one removed.

    That is exactly how Magic’s stack works. When you cast a spell, it goes on the stack. When your opponent responds with their own spell, theirs goes on top of yours. When it is time for things to resolve, the game starts from the top and works down. Your opponent’s spell resolves first because it was added last.

    Quick Definition: The stack is a game zone in Magic: The Gathering where spells and abilities wait to resolve. It is not a physical pile of cards on the table — it is a conceptual space that determines the order in which things happen. Think of it as a queue where the most recent addition gets processed first.

    The stack exists because Magic is fundamentally a game of interaction. Without it, you would cast a spell and it would just happen — no counterplay, no bluffing, no drama. The stack is what makes Magic feel like a conversation between two players rather than two people playing solitaire side by side. It creates the moments where you hold up mana, bluff having an answer, and punish opponents for tapping out at the wrong time.

    Every spell you cast (creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers, battles) goes on the stack. Most activated abilities go on the stack. Triggered abilities go on the stack. The stack is where the game’s most meaningful decisions happen.

    Why the Stack Matters

    Understanding the stack is not some niche rules trivia that only judges care about. It directly determines whether you win or lose games. Here is why:

    Combat tricks work because of the stack. When your opponent declares blockers, you can cast Surge of Salvation to give your creatures protection from the colors of their blockers — and because your spell goes on the stack after blockers are declared, the block is already locked in. Your creatures survive. Theirs don’t.

    Counterspells exist because of the stack. A counterspell like Make Disappear does not prevent your opponent from casting a spell — it removes that spell from the stack before it resolves. The timing matters: you can only counter something while it is sitting on the stack, waiting to resolve.

    Removal timing wins games because of the stack. Your opponent casts All That Glitters targeting their creature. If you wait for it to resolve, that creature could become enormous. But if you cast Go for the Throat on the creature while the Aura is still on the stack, the creature dies, the Aura has no legal target, and it goes to the graveyard without ever doing anything. You just two-for-one’d them using stack knowledge.

    Triggered abilities can be responded to. Your opponent’s Scute Swarm triggers when a land enters the battlefield. That trigger goes on the stack — and before it resolves, you can remove the Scute Swarm with instant-speed removal. The trigger still resolves (it is already on the stack, independent of its source), but understanding when and how to interact with triggers is the difference between losing to an army of insects and keeping the board under control.

    How Spells and Abilities Go On the Stack

    Casting a Spell

    When you cast a spell, it follows a specific sequence. Understanding this sequence helps you see exactly when opponents can (and cannot) interact:

    1. Announce the spell. Move the card from your hand to the stack. Choose targets, modes, and any other decisions the card asks for (like how much mana to pay for X spells).
    2. Pay costs. Tap your lands, pay life, sacrifice creatures — whatever the card requires. Once costs are paid, the spell is officially on the stack. You cannot be “interrupted” during this step.
    3. The spell sits on the stack. It does not resolve yet. It just waits there.
    4. Priority passes. Both players get a chance to respond. If neither player does anything, the spell resolves. If someone does respond, their response goes on top of the stack, and the cycle repeats.

    The key takeaway: there is a gap between when you cast a spell and when it actually does its thing. That gap is where all the interesting decisions in Magic happen.

    Triggered Abilities

    Triggered abilities are identified by the words “when,” “whenever,” or “at.” They go on the stack automatically when their trigger condition is met.

    When Mondrak, Glory Dominus is on the battlefield and you create a token, Mondrak’s replacement effect doubles it — but that is actually a replacement effect, not a triggered ability. Let’s use a cleaner example: Storm-Kiln Artist says “Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, create a Treasure token.” Every time you cast an eligible spell, that trigger goes on the stack on top of whatever you just cast.

    Important rule: triggered abilities exist independently of their source once they are on the stack. If your opponent kills Storm-Kiln Artist in response to the trigger, you still get your Treasure token. The ability is already on the stack — removing the creature that created it does not undo it.

    Activated Abilities

    Activated abilities are written in the format “[Cost]: [Effect]” — there is always a colon separating what you pay from what you get. Most activated abilities use the stack, just like spells.

    Quick Tip: The easiest way to identify an activated ability on any card is to look for the colon (:). If a card’s text has a colon separating a cost from an effect, it is an activated ability. “{T}: Add one mana of any color” and “{2}, Sacrifice this creature: Draw a card” are both activated abilities. Tap the permanent or pay the cost, and the ability goes on the stack.

    Just like triggered abilities, activated abilities are independent of their source once on the stack. If you activate an ability and your opponent destroys the source in response, the ability still resolves.

    Last In, First Out (LIFO)

    The LIFO Principle

    LIFO stands for Last In, First Out. It is the core rule that governs how the stack resolves. The last thing added to the stack is always the first thing to resolve.

    This might feel backwards at first, but it makes perfect sense once you think about it. If your opponent casts a creature and you respond with a counterspell, your counterspell needs to resolve before their creature does — otherwise, how would countering work? LIFO ensures that responses always resolve before the things they are responding to.

    Think of it like a conversation. Someone makes a statement (casts a spell). You interrupt them (cast in response). Your interruption is addressed first. Then the original statement resolves — or doesn’t, if your interruption changed things.

    Walk-Through 1: Lightning Bolt vs. Counterspell

    You cast Lightning Bolt targeting your opponent’s face for 3 damage. Your opponent casts Spell Pierce, paying one mana to counter your spell unless you pay two. You don’t have two mana open.

    Here is what the stack looks like before anything resolves:

    🔽 THE STACK (resolves top → bottom)

    TOP (resolves first) → Spell Pierce (targeting Lightning Bolt)

    BOTTOM → Lightning Bolt (targeting opponent)

    Resolution: Spell Pierce resolves first. You can’t pay the two mana, so Lightning Bolt is countered and goes to the graveyard. The stack is now empty. Your 3 damage never happens.

    Walk-Through 2: Combat Trick vs. Removal

    Your 3/3 creature attacks. Your opponent blocks with their 3/3. Before damage, you cast Unleash Fury to double your creature’s power to 6. In response, your opponent casts Go for the Throat targeting your creature.

    🔽 THE STACK (resolves top → bottom)

    TOP (resolves first) → Go for the Throat (targeting your 3/3)

    BOTTOM → Unleash Fury (targeting your 3/3)

    Resolution: Go for the Throat resolves first, destroying your creature. Then Unleash Fury tries to resolve, but its target is gone. It fizzles — the game removes it from the stack because it has no legal target. Your opponent traded their removal spell for your combat trick and your creature. You got blown out because of the stack.

    The lesson: casting a combat trick before your opponent has a chance to respond with removal can put you in a worse spot than just letting combat happen normally. Stack awareness is not just about knowing the rules — it is about making smarter decisions.

    Priority — Who Gets to Respond

    What Is Priority?

    Priority is the game’s way of determining who gets to act at any given moment. Think of it as a “permission slip” to cast spells or activate abilities. Only the player who holds priority can add something to the stack.

    The active player (the player whose turn it is) always receives priority first at the beginning of each step and phase. After they cast a spell or activate an ability, priority passes to the opponent. After the opponent acts or passes, priority goes back to the active player.

    How Priority Works

    Here is the priority cycle, step by step:

    1. The active player gets priority.
    2. They can cast a spell, activate an ability, or pass priority.
    3. If they act, their spell/ability goes on the stack, and they get priority again (they can respond to their own spell if they want).
    4. When they pass priority, the opponent gets priority.
    5. The opponent can act or pass.
    6. Only when both players pass priority in succession does the top item on the stack resolve.
    7. After an item resolves, the active player gets priority again.
    8. Steps 1-7 repeat until the stack is empty and both players pass on an empty stack, which moves the game to the next step or phase.

    This means nothing ever resolves “automatically.” Even if your opponent says “I cast this” and reaches for their graveyard, you always have the right to say “hold on, I want to respond.” In tournament play, this is a formal process. In casual games, players often shortcut by assuming no response — but the option is always there.

    Common Priority Mistakes

    Important: Spells and abilities do not resolve the instant they are cast. There is always a window for responses. New players often treat spells as if they resolve immediately — “I cast Sunfall, your creatures are dead.” But your opponent has priority after you cast Sunfall. They can respond with an instant like Surge of Salvation to give their creatures indestructible. Then Sunfall resolves — and their creatures survive.

    Another common mistake: trying to respond to something that has already resolved. If your opponent casts a creature and you say “okay” (passing priority), that creature resolves. You cannot then say “wait, I want to counter it.” Once both players pass, the top item resolves immediately. If you wanted to counter it, you needed to do it before you passed.

    In multiplayer formats like Commander, priority passes around the table in turn order starting from the active player. This means every player gets a chance to respond to every spell, which is part of why multiplayer games can have such dramatic stack interactions.

    Real Game Walk-Throughs

    Let’s look at some real scenarios that come up in actual games. These are the situations where stack knowledge separates experienced players from beginners.

    Counterspell Response Chain

    You cast Sunfall, a powerful five-mana board wipe. Your opponent casts Make Disappear, paying one mana to counter your Sunfall unless you pay two. You don’t want to pay, so instead you cast An Offer You Can’t Refuse — a one-mana counterspell that counters their Make Disappear (giving them two Treasure tokens, but saving your board wipe).

    🔽 THE STACK (resolves top → bottom)

    TOP (resolves 1st) → An Offer You Can’t Refuse (targeting Make Disappear)

    MIDDLE → Make Disappear (targeting Sunfall)

    BOTTOM (resolves last) → Sunfall

    Resolution:

    1. An Offer You Can’t Refuse resolves. Make Disappear is countered and goes to the graveyard. Your opponent gets two Treasure tokens.
    2. Make Disappear is gone — it was removed from the stack by the counterspell.
    3. Sunfall resolves. All creatures are exiled. You get an Incubator token with counters equal to the total power of exiled creatures.

    You spent one extra mana and gave your opponent two Treasures, but you resolved a game-changing board wipe. That’s a winning trade.

    Removal in Response to an Aura (Fizzling)

    Your opponent casts All That Glitters targeting their creature. All That Glitters is an Aura that gives a creature +1/+1 for each artifact and enchantment you control — it can make something enormous. But it is still on the stack. In response, you cast Go for the Throat targeting that creature.

    🔽 THE STACK (resolves top → bottom)

    TOP (resolves first) → Go for the Throat (targeting their creature)

    BOTTOM → All That Glitters (targeting their creature)

    Resolution: Go for the Throat resolves, destroying the creature. All That Glitters tries to resolve, but its target no longer exists. The Aura fizzles — it goes to the graveyard without ever entering the battlefield. Your opponent just lost two cards (a creature and an Aura) to your single removal spell. That is a brutal two-for-one, and it only happened because you understood when to fire your removal.

    The wrong play would have been waiting until All That Glitters resolved and then trying to kill the creature. By then, the creature would already have the Aura’s power boost — and if they had other artifacts and enchantments, it might be too big to deal with efficiently.

    Multiple Triggered Abilities (APNAP Order)

    In multiplayer games, multiple players might have abilities that trigger at the same time. Magic handles this with the APNAP rule: Active Player, Non-Active Player.

    The active player (whose turn it is) puts their triggered abilities on the stack first, in any order they choose. Then, going around the table in turn order, each non-active player adds their triggered abilities. Since the last abilities added resolve first (LIFO), the non-active players’ triggers resolve before the active player’s.

    APNAP Made Simple: If it is your turn and both you and an opponent have abilities that trigger at the same time, your opponent’s triggers resolve first. This matters in situations like simultaneous death triggers, beginning-of-upkeep effects, and “at the beginning of combat” abilities. When in doubt, remember: the active player’s stuff is always at the bottom of the stack.

    Things That DON’T Use the Stack

    Not everything in Magic uses the stack. Knowing what doesn’t use the stack is just as important as knowing what does, because you cannot respond to these actions.

    Mana Abilities

    Tapping a land for mana does not use the stack. Neither do mana abilities on permanents like Llanowar Elves (“{T}: Add {G}”). These resolve instantly and cannot be responded to. Your opponent cannot destroy your Llanowar Elves “in response” to you tapping it for mana — by the time they could respond, you already have the mana.

    Static Abilities

    Abilities that are always “on” — like “Creatures you control get +1/+1” — never go on the stack. They just exist as long as the permanent is on the battlefield. There is no point where a static ability is “resolving” that you could respond to.

    Special Actions

    Playing a land is a special action that does not use the stack. You cannot counter someone playing a land. Turning a face-down creature face-up (morph/manifest) is also a special action that does not use the stack — the creature flips instantly.

    Replacement Effects

    Effects that say “instead” or “as” — like Mondrak, Glory Dominus doubling tokens or a card entering the battlefield tapped — modify events as they happen rather than going on the stack separately. You cannot respond to a replacement effect because it modifies the original event rather than creating a new one.

    Quick Test: If you are unsure whether something uses the stack, ask yourself: “Can my opponent say ‘in response’ to this?” If the answer is no — it is a mana ability, a static ability, a special action, or a replacement effect — then it does not use the stack. If the answer is yes, it does.

    Common Stack Mistakes Beginners Make

    Even after you understand how the stack works in theory, these are the mistakes that trip up newer players in actual games:

    1. Treating spells as instant-effect. You cast a creature and immediately start using its abilities. But your opponent had priority and could have countered it. Always give opponents a chance to respond — and if you are the opponent, speak up before things resolve.
    2. Destroying a source to stop an ability. “I’ll kill your creature in response to its triggered ability!” Great — the creature dies. But the ability is already on the stack and still resolves. Removing the source of a triggered or activated ability does not remove that ability from the stack.
    3. Casting combat tricks too early. Casting Unleash Fury before your opponent has declared blockers gives them information and a chance to respond. Wait until blockers are declared, then pump. Better yet, wait until after they have used their own combat tricks.
    4. Not holding up mana for responses. Tapping out on your turn means you cannot respond to anything during your opponent’s turn. Even if you don’t have an instant in hand, representing open mana forces your opponent to play around the possibility.
    5. Scooping too early on the stack. Your opponent aims a lethal Lightning Bolt at your face. You concede before it resolves. In most casual games, this is fine. But in some situations (like when your opponent’s spell has other effects that require it to resolve, or when death triggers matter), scooping with spells on the stack can matter.
    6. Forgetting that the stack resolves one item at a time. After each item resolves, both players get priority again before the next item resolves. You can add new things to the stack between resolutions. This creates opportunities for complex multi-step plays that beginners often miss.

    Rules Change Alert: Before 2010, combat damage used the stack. This meant you could assign lethal damage, then sacrifice your creature for value before the damage resolved. That rule was removed with the Magic 2010 rules update. Today, combat damage happens instantly and does not use the stack. If someone tells you to put damage on the stack and then sacrifice your creature, they are remembering a rule that hasn’t existed for over fifteen years.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Can I respond to a land being played?

    No. Playing a land is a special action that does not use the stack. However, if playing a land triggers an ability (like landfall on Scute Swarm), that triggered ability does go on the stack and can be responded to.

    If I kill a creature, do its triggered abilities still resolve?

    Yes. Once a triggered ability is on the stack, it exists independently of its source. Destroying, exiling, or bouncing the permanent that created the trigger does not remove the trigger from the stack. The ability will still resolve.

    Can I counter an activated ability?

    Most counterspells only counter spells, not abilities. A regular Make Disappear cannot counter an activated ability. However, a few specific cards like Stifle and Disallow can counter triggered and activated abilities. These are relatively rare effects.

    What happens if a spell’s target becomes illegal?

    If a spell or ability has a single target and that target becomes illegal before it resolves (because it left the battlefield, gained protection, etc.), the spell or ability fizzles — it is removed from the stack without resolving. If a spell has multiple targets and only some become illegal, it still resolves against the remaining legal targets.

    Can I respond to my own spells?

    Yes. After you cast a spell, you retain priority before passing it. You can cast another spell or activate an ability on top of your own. This is how you can cast a creature and then immediately cast a spell to protect it before your opponent gets priority (though you must have an instant or flash card to do this).

    Does a creature’s enter-the-battlefield ability go on the stack?

    Yes. Enter-the-battlefield (ETB) abilities are triggered abilities. The creature enters the battlefield as the creature spell resolves, and then the ETB trigger goes on the stack. Players can respond to the ETB trigger — for example, by removing the creature before the trigger resolves (though the trigger will still resolve even if the creature is gone).

    What is the difference between “in response” and “before that resolves”?

    They mean the same thing. “In response to your Lightning Bolt” and “before your Lightning Bolt resolves” both mean “I am adding something to the stack on top of your spell.” In casual play, either phrase works. In tournament play, both are understood to mean you are acting while you have priority.

    Can sorceries go on the stack?

    Yes — every spell goes on the stack when cast, including sorceries. The restriction on sorceries is when you can cast them (only during your main phase when the stack is empty), not whether they use the stack. Once cast, a sorcery sits on the stack like any other spell and can be responded to.

    Do tokens entering the battlefield use the stack?

    Creating a token does not use the stack — the token just appears. However, the spell or ability that creates the token was on the stack, and any triggered abilities that fire when the token enters (like ETB triggers or constellation effects) go on the stack and can be responded to.

    How does the stack work in multiplayer Commander?

    The same LIFO rules apply. The main difference is priority order: after the active player casts a spell, priority passes clockwise around the table. Every player must pass priority before the top item resolves. This means more players equals more chances for interaction — and more dramatic stack wars. Simultaneous triggers use the APNAP rule (Active Player, Non-Active Player) described above.

    Wrapping Up

    The stack is where Magic goes from a game of “play creatures, turn sideways” to a game of strategy, bluffing, and split-second decisions. Understanding it does not require memorizing hundreds of rules — it requires understanding one principle (LIFO), one concept (priority), and developing the instinct to ask “can I respond to this?” before anything resolves.

    Start small. Next time you play, consciously think about the stack during your games. When your opponent casts something, pause and consider your options before saying “okay.” When you have open mana, think about what you could be representing. When a triggered ability fires, remember that there is a window to respond.

    Before you know it, you will be the one saying “in response” — and watching your opponent’s face fall.

    Want to learn more about using stack interactions to your advantage? Check out our guides on Combo Decks 101, Control Decks 101, and Aggro Decks 101 for archetype-specific strategies.

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  • 10 More Quick Tricks for Better MTG Decks

    10 More Quick Tricks for Better MTG Decks

    You have built a few decks. You know the basics — run the right number of lands, keep your deck to 60 cards (or 100 in Commander), and pick a strategy. Good. You are past the starting line.

    But your decks still feel… inconsistent. Sometimes they pop off. Sometimes they do nothing for five turns while your opponent runs you over. That gap between “decent deck” and “deck that actually performs” is where these 10 tricks come in.

    This is the sequel to our 10 Quick Tricks for Better MTG Decks. If that post was about laying the foundation, this one is about tightening the bolts. These are the habits that separate a pile of good cards from a deck that wins games.

    Let’s get into it.

    1. Build in Redundancy

    Here is a mistake that bites every deckbuilder eventually: you build your entire strategy around one card, and when you do not draw it, the deck falls apart.

    The fix is redundancy. For every key effect your deck needs, include 2-3 cards that fill the same role. If your deck depends on a creature that draws cards when it deals combat damage, do not just run four copies of that one creature. Find other creatures that do something similar.

    Example: A deck that needs card draw from creatures might run Toski, Bearer of Secrets alongside Ohran Frostfang. They are not identical, but they both reward you for attacking. If one gets removed, you still have a backup plan.

    In Commander, where you are limited to single copies, redundancy is even more critical. You cannot run four copies of your favorite card, so you need to find three or four cards that accomplish the same thing.

    The rule of thumb: If your deck cannot function without a specific card, you need more cards that do what that card does.

    2. Respect the Mana Curve

    Your mana curve is the distribution of mana costs across your deck, and it is one of the best diagnostic tools you have. Every online deck builder — Moxfield, Archidekt, MTGGoldfish — will generate a visual curve for you. Use it.

    For most decks, you want a bell curve that peaks at 2-3 mana. That means the majority of your spells should cost 2 or 3 mana to cast, with fewer cards at 1 mana and progressively fewer as costs go up to 4, 5, and beyond.

    Why? Because in the early turns of the game, you have limited mana. If your hand is full of 5-drops and 6-drops, you are doing nothing while your opponent builds a board. On the flip side, if your curve is too low, you will run out of gas in the late game.

    A practical target for a 60-card deck:
    – 1-mana spells: 6-8
    – 2-mana spells: 8-12
    – 3-mana spells: 6-10
    – 4-mana spells: 4-6
    – 5+ mana spells: 2-4

    These numbers shift depending on your strategy — aggro decks lean lower, control decks lean higher — but the bell shape is almost always right.

    Commander players: Your curve will naturally be higher since the format is slower, but you still need cheap interaction and early plays. Do not fill your deck with nothing but 6-mana haymakers.

    3. Think in Packages

    Stop looking at your deck as 60 (or 100) individual cards. Start thinking in functional packages — groups of cards organized by what they do for your deck.

    Most decks need some combination of these packages:

    • Threats — Cards that win the game (creatures, planeswalkers, finishers)
    • Removal — Cards that deal with your opponent’s threats (destroy, exile, bounce, counter)
    • Card draw / selection — Cards that keep your hand full and find what you need
    • Mana base — Lands plus any ramp or mana fixing
    • Utility — Cards that support your strategy (protection, recursion, tutors)

    When you build this way, it becomes obvious when something is off. “I have 20 threats and 2 removal spells” is a red flag you can spot immediately. “My card draw package is one Divination” tells you exactly what to fix.

    For Commander decks, a classic starting framework is: 10 ramp, 10 card draw, 10 removal, 35-38 lands, and the rest in your theme. Adjust from there based on your commander and strategy.

    4. Sideboard with Purpose

    In formats with sideboards (Standard, Modern, Pioneer, Legacy), your 15 sideboard cards should not be an afterthought. Every card in your sideboard should have a specific matchup or problem it addresses.

    Before building your sideboard, ask yourself:
    – What decks will I face most often?
    – What cards or strategies give my deck the most trouble?
    – What do I bring in against aggro? Against control? Against combo?

    Bad sideboard: 15 cards you thought were cool but did not make the main deck.

    Good sideboard: 3 cards for aggressive matchups, 3 for control, 3 for graveyard strategies, 3 for artifacts/enchantments, and 3 flexible answers.

    Each sideboard card should be clearly better than something in your main deck for at least one matchup. If you cannot identify what you would take out to bring it in, it does not belong in your sideboard.

    Commander players: You do not have a traditional sideboard, but you can apply the same thinking with flex slots. Keep a short list of cards you swap in and out depending on your playgroup’s meta. If your group is heavy on graveyard strategies, keep that Bojuka Bog and Rest in Peace handy.

    5. Learn When to Mulligan

    A hand of seven cards that does nothing is worse than a hand of six cards with a plan.

    This sounds obvious, but so many players keep bad hands because they are afraid of going to six. Modern mulligan rules (the London Mulligan) are generous — you see seven cards every time and put one back on the bottom. Use them.

    Keep a hand when it has:
    – Lands (at least 2, usually not more than 4-5)
    – A play in the first two turns
    – A clear path toward your deck’s game plan

    Mulligan a hand when it has:
    – Zero or one land
    – Five or more lands
    – No plays before turn 3-4
    – Cards that do not work together (all removal but no threats, or all threats with no mana to cast them)

    The key is asking: “Can this hand win a game?” Not “Does this hand have some good cards?” A hand with two great cards and five blanks is still a bad hand.

    In Commander, the stakes are a bit different since the format is multiplayer and slower, but the principle holds. A hand that does nothing until turn 5 while three opponents are developing their boards is going to leave you behind.

    6. Don’t Fall in Love with Bad Cards

    We all have that card. The one with incredible art, or the one you pulled from your very first booster pack, or the one that won you that one memorable game three years ago. You keep putting it in decks even though it underperforms every time.

    Cut it.

    Ruthless editing is what separates decent decks from great ones. Every card in your deck needs to earn its slot. After each game, ask yourself: “Which card did I draw and wish was something else?” That card is a candidate for removal.

    A practical test: If a card sits in your hand doing nothing more than half the games you play, it is not pulling its weight. Replace it with something your deck actually needs.

    This does not mean you should strip every ounce of personality from your decks. Playing Magic is supposed to be fun, and pet cards are part of that. But be honest about the trade-off. If you are running Moonsilver Spear because you love the art, acknowledge that a different equipment or threat would probably win you more games.

    The best deckbuilders review their lists after every session and make small adjustments. Get in the habit of cutting one underperformer and testing one new card every time you revisit a deck.

    7. Balance Threats and Answers

    A deck full of threats and no answers will lose to the first opposing creature it cannot block. A deck full of answers and no threats will answer everything and then have no way to actually win.

    You need both, and finding the right ratio is one of the most important deckbuilding skills.

    Aggro decks lean toward threats (maybe 70/30 threats to answers), using speed to stay ahead of whatever the opponent is doing. The removal they run is usually cheap and efficient — Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push — to clear blockers.

    Control decks lean toward answers (maybe 30/70), with a few hard-to-deal-with finishers that close the game once they have stabilized. Think Hullbreaker Horror or Torrential Gearhulk.

    Midrange decks sit somewhere in between, with threats that double as answers. Cards like Bonecrusher Giant or Fury that kill a creature AND give you a body are premium in these strategies.

    If you find yourself consistently losing because you cannot close out games, you need more threats. If you are losing because your opponent’s board runs away from you, you need more answers.

    8. Use Card Advantage Engines

    One-shot card draw spells (like Divination or Read the Bones) are fine. Repeatable card advantage engines are significantly better.

    A card advantage engine is any card that draws you extra cards or generates extra value turn after turn without additional mana investment. Once it is on the battlefield, it just keeps working.

    Classic examples:
    – Phyrexian Arena — Draw an extra card every upkeep for just 1 life
    – Esper Sentinel — Taxes opponents or draws you cards in white, every turn
    – Welcoming Vampire — Free card every time a small creature enters under your control
    – Beast Whisperer — Draw a card every time you cast a creature spell
    – Bident of Thassa — Draw cards whenever your creatures deal combat damage
    – Smuggler’s Copter — Loots every time it attacks, smoothing your draws

    The difference between a one-shot draw spell and an engine is staggering over the course of a game. Divination draws you 2 cards once. Phyrexian Arena, left unchecked for five turns, draws you 5 extra cards. That is the kind of advantage that wins games.

    When building your card draw package, prioritize engines over one-shot effects. Include a mix — some cheap cantrips to smooth out early draws and 2-3 engines that take over the mid-to-late game.

    9. Respect Your Color Requirements

    Every color you add to your deck comes with a cost. One color is easy on your mana base. Two colors is manageable with good dual lands. Three colors requires real mana base construction. Four or five colors needs dedicated fixing or you will lose games to your own lands.

    The question to ask before adding a color: “Is this splash worth the consistency I am giving up?”

    Splashing a fourth color for a single card is almost never worth it. That card might be powerful, but you will draw it in maybe 40% of your games, and in some of those games you will not have the right mana to cast it. Meanwhile, your mana base now stumbles more often, making your other 59 cards worse.

    Practical guidelines:
    – Mono-color: All basics, maximum consistency, limited card pool
    – Two colors: 8-10 dual lands, very consistent, most formats’ sweet spot
    – Three colors: 12+ dual lands, needs careful construction, watch for double-pip costs (like casting a card that costs WW and another that costs BB in the same deck)
    – Four+ colors: You need a specific reason and a dedicated mana base (fetch lands, triomes, mana rocks/dorks)

    In Commander, five-color decks are popular, but they require significant investment in your mana base. If your land base is mostly basics and a few tap-lands, stick to one or two colors until you can upgrade your mana fixing.

    A final note on double pips: Cards that cost 1BB are harder to cast in a three-color deck than cards that cost 2B. When you are stretching your mana, pay attention to how many colored pips your spells require, not just their total mana cost.

    10. Study Winning Decks (But Understand Why)

    Copying a deck list is easy. Understanding why every card is in that list is what actually makes you a better deckbuilder.

    The best free resources for studying decks:
    – MTGGoldfish — Tournament results, metagame breakdowns, deck price tracking for Standard, Modern, Pioneer, and more
    – EDHREC — The definitive Commander resource. See what cards are most popular for any commander, and why
    – Moxfield — Public deck lists with detailed descriptions, tags, and community ratings

    When you look at a winning deck, do not just copy the 75 cards. Ask questions:

    • Why is this deck running 3 copies of this card instead of 4?
    • What role does each sideboard card fill?
    • How does this mana base support the deck’s color requirements?
    • What is the game plan on turns 1, 2, 3?
    • Why was one removal spell chosen over another?

    The answers to these questions teach you deckbuilding principles you can apply to every deck you build, not just the one you are looking at.

    A good exercise: Find a top-performing deck in your favorite format, read it card by card, and write one sentence about why each non-land card is included. If you cannot explain a card’s purpose, research it. This single exercise will teach you more about deckbuilding than a dozen games.

    Putting It All Together

    These 10 tricks are not one-time fixes. They are habits. The more you build decks with redundancy, respect the curve, think in packages, and study what works, the better your decks will get over time.

    If you missed the first post in this series, start with 10 Quick Tricks for Better MTG Decks for the foundational tips every player should know. And if you want to go even deeper, our Ultimate Guide to Building an MTG Deck covers everything from choosing your first card to tuning a finished list.

    The best deckbuilders are not the ones who memorize card lists. They are the ones who understand why cards belong in a deck and when to make changes. Keep tinkering, keep testing, keep cutting the cards that are not working.

    Your decks will thank you.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How many copies of a card should I run in a 60-card deck?

    It depends on how important the card is to your strategy. Run 4 copies of cards you want to see every game, 3 copies of cards that are good but not essential early, 2 copies of situational cards, and 1 copy of cards you only need in specific scenarios. In Commander, you are limited to 1 copy of each card (except basic lands).

    What is the ideal mana curve for a Commander deck?

    Commander curves tend to be higher than 60-card formats, but you still want most of your spells between 2-4 mana. A common guideline is an average mana value of 3.0-3.5 for a well-tuned Commander deck. Anything above 4.0 average means you are probably too top-heavy.

    How do I know if my deck needs more removal or more threats?

    Track your losses over several games. If you are dying to your opponent’s creatures or combos you cannot stop, you need more removal. If you find yourself stabilizing but never closing the game, you need more threats. Most decks want at least 6-8 removal spells in a 60-card list.

    Should I always follow the mana curve guidelines?

    No — the guidelines are a starting point. Aggro decks want an extremely low curve (peaking at 1-2 mana). Ramp decks can support more expensive spells because they accelerate their mana. Control decks need cheap interaction early and expensive finishers late. Your curve should match your strategy.

    How often should I update my deck?

    Review your deck after every 3-5 play sessions. Cut the worst-performing card and test a replacement. Small, incremental changes are better than overhauling the entire deck at once. Keep notes on which cards overperform and underperform so your changes are data-driven, not just gut feelings.

    What is the best way to study winning deck lists?

    Start at MTGGoldfish for competitive formats or EDHREC for Commander. Focus on understanding card choices rather than copying lists wholesale. Read articles that accompany deck lists, watch gameplay videos featuring the deck, and try to identify the role every card plays in the strategy.

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  • 10 Quick Deckbuilding Tricks Every Casual MTG Player Should Know

    10 Quick Deckbuilding Tricks Every Casual MTG Player Should Know

    You don’t need a $500 mana base or a pro tour pedigree to build a deck that wins. You just need to stop making the mistakes that most casual players make without realizing it.

    These 10 deckbuilding tricks are fast to learn and immediately actionable. Each one will make your next deck tighter, more consistent, and more fun to play. Whether you’re building a 60-card kitchen table brew or a Commander list, these fundamentals apply.

    Let’s get into it.

    1. Stick to 60 Cards (or 100 in Commander)

    Every card you add beyond the minimum deck size makes your best cards harder to draw. That’s not opinion — it’s math. In a 60-card deck, any single card has a 1-in-60 chance of being your next draw. Bump that to 70 cards and you’ve diluted every draw step by over 15%.

    The temptation to run 65 or 70 cards usually comes from not wanting to cut anything. But here’s the truth: if you can’t decide what to cut, that’s a sign your deck lacks focus, not that it needs more cards.

    Commander players: the same logic applies at 100 cards. Don’t run 105 because you couldn’t make the last few cuts. The singleton format is already inconsistent by design — don’t make it worse.

    The fix: After you finish building, force yourself to identify the 3 weakest cards and cut them. If you’re already at 60, great. If you’re at 63, those cuts just brought you to the minimum.

    2. Follow the Rule of 9

    This is the simplest deckbuilding framework that exists for 60-card decks: pick 9 cards you want to build around, run 4 copies of each, and add 24 lands. That’s 36 spells + 24 lands = 60 cards.

    The Rule of 9 forces consistency. Running 4 copies of a card means you’re far more likely to draw it in your opening hand or first few turns. One-ofs and two-ofs should be the exception, not the default.

    For Commander: You can’t run multiples (except basic lands), but the principle still applies. Instead of 4 copies, run 3-4 cards that fill the same role. Need card draw? Don’t run one draw spell — run Harmonize, Rishkar’s Expertise, Beast Whisperer, and Guardian Project. Functional redundancy is the Commander equivalent of running 4-ofs.

    The fix: Lay out your decklist in groups of 4. If any group has fewer than 3 copies (in 60-card) or fewer than 3 cards filling the same role (in Commander), ask yourself if that slot is earning its place.

    3. Build Your Mana Curve, Not Your Card Collection

    New players love splashy, expensive spells. But a deck full of 5-, 6-, and 7-mana bombs means you’re doing nothing for the first four turns while your opponent builds a board and attacks you.

    Your mana curve — the distribution of mana costs across your deck — should be front-loaded. For most casual 60-card decks, aim for something like this:

    • 1-mana: 4-8 cards
    • 2-mana: 8-12 cards
    • 3-mana: 6-10 cards
    • 4-mana: 4-6 cards
    • 5+ mana: 2-4 cards

    Cards like Go for the Throat at 2 mana or Lightning Strike at 2 mana let you interact early. A top-end finisher like Etali, Primal Conqueror is great — but you only need one or two of those, not eight.

    The fix: After building your deck, sort it by mana cost. If your curve doesn’t look like a hill that peaks at 2-3 mana, you have work to do.

    4. Playtest Digitally Before Buying

    This trick alone will save you hundreds of dollars over your Magic career. Before you spend real money on cards, test the deck online for free.

    The original version of this advice from 2009 recommended programs like Apprentice and Magic Workstation. The tools have gotten dramatically better since then:

    • Moxfield — Build your deck and use the “Playtest” feature to goldfish (draw sample hands and play out turns solo). It’s free and the best deckbuilding tool available.
    • MTG Arena — Free-to-play and perfect for testing Standard and Explorer decks against real opponents.
    • Cockatrice — Free, open-source client where you can test any format against other players with no card restrictions.
    • Spelltable — For Commander, play with your webcam using your physical cards (or proxies) against real people online.

    Goldfish your deck at least 10 times before buying a single card. Draw your opening hand. Play out the first 5 turns. Ask yourself: Am I doing something meaningful by turn 3? If the answer is consistently no, redesign before you spend.

    The fix: Build your next deck on Moxfield first. Playtest 10 opening hands. Only buy the cards after you’re satisfied with how the deck flows.

    5. Use Budget Alternatives

    You don’t need Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to build a good black deck. For every $30+ staple, there’s usually a $1-3 card that does 80% of the same job.

    The key is learning how to search for alternatives. Scryfall is your best friend here. Use its advanced search syntax to find cards with similar effects:

    The original Quick Tricks guide compared Birds of Paradise to Gemhide Sliver. Today, Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, and Fyndhorn Elves are all under $1 and serve the same purpose.

    The fix: Before buying any card over $5, search Scryfall for a cheaper version of that effect. You’ll be surprised how often you find one.

    6. Read Your Metagame

    Your deck doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists in your playgroup. If your friend always plays a creature-heavy green stompy deck, you need removal. If someone runs heavy counterspells, you need cards that are hard to counter or that bait out responses.

    The “metagame” is just a fancy word for “what everyone at your table is playing.” Pay attention to it.

    Ask yourself three questions:
    1. Who plays what decks? Know the threats before you sit down.
    2. What cards consistently beat me? Build answers into your deck.
    3. What strategies am I weakest against? Shore up those gaps.

    If your group loves graveyard strategies, slot in Rest in Peace or Bojuka Bog. If artifacts are everywhere, Vandalblast or Bane of Progress can swing entire games.

    The fix: After your next game night, write down the 3 cards or strategies that beat you most. Next time you update your deck, add answers for at least one of them.

    7. Every Card Needs a Job

    Pick up any card in your deck. Can you explain why it’s there in one sentence? If you can’t, cut it.

    Every slot in your deck is precious real estate. Cards earn their spot by doing one of these jobs:

    • Advancing your game plan (threats, combo pieces, engines)
    • Protecting your game plan (counterspells, hexproof, indestructible)
    • Disrupting your opponent’s game plan (removal, discard, hate cards)
    • Enabling consistency (card draw, tutors, mana fixing)

    A card like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben does two jobs at once: she’s a 2/1 attacker AND she slows down spell-heavy opponents. That’s an efficient card slot. Meanwhile, a random 4/4 vanilla creature with no abilities? It’s just taking up space something better could fill.

    The fix: Go through your deck card by card. For each one, state its job in one sentence. Any card you hesitate on is a cut candidate.

    8. Include Interaction

    This is the biggest mistake casual deckbuilders make: building a deck that only does “its thing” and ignores the opponent entirely. If your deck is a creature deck with zero removal, you’ll fold the first time someone plays a single threat you can’t attack through.

    Every deck needs some amount of interaction. How much depends on your format and strategy, but here’s a starting point for 60-card decks:

    • 4-6 removal spells (creature removal, enchantment/artifact removal)
    • 2-4 protection pieces (counterspells, indestructible effects, or hexproof)

    Good, cheap interaction that fits almost any deck:

    Color Removal Protection
    White Swords to Plowshares, Generous Gift Flawless Maneuver
    Blue Counterspell, Reality Shift Negate
    Black Go for the Throat, Feed the Swarm Malakir Rebirth
    Red Lightning Bolt, Chaos Warp Tibalt’s Trickery
    Green Beast Within, Ram Through Heroic Intervention

    The fix: Count the number of cards in your deck that can interact with an opponent’s board or stack. If it’s fewer than 6 in a 60-card deck (or 10-12 in Commander), add more.

    9. Manage Your Mana Base

    Getting the right number of lands is only half the equation. Getting the right colors at the right time is the other half.

    For a two-color 60-card deck, roughly 24 lands is standard. But if all 24 are basics split evenly, you’ll get color-screwed regularly. Dual lands fix this:

    A common mistake is running too few lands. If your deck has a lot of 3- and 4-mana spells, 24 lands is the floor, not the ceiling. If you’re hitting land drops late, go to 25 or 26.

    Conversely, aggressive decks with a low mana curve (mostly 1- and 2-drops) can trim to 20-22 lands and use those extra slots for more threats.

    The fix: Use the Karsten mana base calculator or the Moxfield mana analysis tool to check if your color distribution matches your mana requirements.

    10. Iterate and Improve

    Your first draft of a deck is never the final version. The best decks evolve through dozens of small tweaks over many games. The trick is tracking those tweaks so you learn from them.

    After every game, ask yourself:

    • What cards sat dead in my hand? If a card consistently does nothing, cut it.
    • What did I sideboard in every game? If you always bring it in, it belongs in the main deck.
    • What did I wish I had drawn? That’s a signal to add more copies or similar effects.
    • Did I have too many/few lands? Adjust accordingly.

    Keep a simple log — even just a note on your phone. Over 5-10 games, patterns become obvious. Maybe that flashy 6-mana spell never resolves. Maybe you always need more card draw on turn 4. The data tells you what to change.

    The fix: After your next 5 games, make at least 2 card swaps based on what you observed. Then play 5 more. Repeat. This is how good decks become great decks.

    Bonus Trick: The 8-by-8 Method for Commander

    Since Commander is the most popular casual format, here’s a bonus trick specifically for 100-card decks. The 8-by-8 method is the Commander version of the Rule of 9:

    Pick 8 categories your deck needs (such as ramp, card draw, removal, board wipes, threats, protection, recursion, and utility). Fill each category with 8 cards. That gives you 64 nonland cards + 36 lands = 100 cards.

    This ensures you have a balanced deck with enough of everything. Too many Commander decks have 20 creatures, 3 removal spells, and no card draw. The 8-by-8 method prevents that imbalance before it starts.

    Adjust the numbers based on your commander and strategy — an aggro deck might have 12 threats and 4 board wipes, while a control deck reverses those numbers — but 8-by-8 is the starting point.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How many lands should I run in my MTG deck?

    For a standard 60-card deck, 24 lands is the default starting point. Aggressive decks with low mana curves (average mana value under 2.5) can go as low as 20-22. Control decks or decks with expensive spells may want 25-26. For Commander, 36-38 lands is typical, though decks with heavy ramp packages can sometimes get away with 33-35. Always adjust based on your playtesting — if you’re frequently mana-screwed, add lands; if you’re frequently flooded, cut one or two.

    What is the best free tool for building MTG decks online?

    Moxfield is the gold standard for online deckbuilding in 2026. It offers free deck creation, a built-in playtest/goldfish feature, mana curve visualization, price tracking, and community deck sharing. For actual gameplay testing, MTG Arena is free-to-play for Standard and Explorer formats, while Cockatrice lets you test any format with any card for free against real opponents.

    How do I know which cards to cut from my deck?

    Apply the “one sentence” test: if you can’t explain a card’s role in one sentence, it’s a cut candidate. Beyond that, track your games. Cards that consistently sit in your hand without being cast, cards that never impact the board when you play them, and cards that you always sideboard out are all signals. Replace them with cards that address weaknesses you’ve identified through playtesting. When in doubt, cut the most expensive (highest mana cost) card, as it likely contributes to curve problems.

    Keep Improving Your Deckbuilding

    These 10 tricks are the foundation, but deckbuilding is a skill you develop over hundreds of games and dozens of builds. If you want to go deeper, check out our Complete Guide to Deckbuilding in MTG — it covers advanced topics like card advantage theory, sideboard construction, and archetype-specific building strategies.

    Building a budget deck that punches above its weight? We have a guide for that too.

    Now go cut those extra 5 cards from your deck. You know which ones they are.

    Originally adapted from The Casual Planeswalker’s Quick Tricks guide (2009), fully modernized for today’s tools, formats, and card pool.

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  • MTG Basics: Essential Deckbuilding Rules for New Players

    MTG Basics: Essential Deckbuilding Rules for New Players

    You have played a few games of Magic: The Gathering. You know what lands do, you have cast some spells, and you have probably lost more games than you have won. Now you want to build your own deck instead of borrowing someone else’s — and you have no idea where to start.

    Good news: you do not need to spend hundreds of dollars or memorize thousands of cards. You just need a handful of simple rules that will make your first homebrew deck dramatically better than the pile of cards you were about to throw together.

    This guide covers the fundamentals. Think of it as your pre-flight checklist before you start sleeving up cards.

    Looking for the deep dive? This post covers the essentials. For advanced topics like mana curves, card ratios, and archetype breakdowns, check out our Complete Guide to MTG Deckbuilding.

    Set a Budget Before You Buy a Single Card

    Here is a mistake nearly every new player makes: they find a cool deck online, get excited, and start buying cards before they realize the mana base alone costs $200.

    Set a dollar limit before you start building. It does not matter if that number is $20 or $200 — having a ceiling keeps you from impulse-buying cards you will regret. You can always upgrade pieces later as you play more and figure out what the deck actually needs.

    How to Playtest Without Spending Anything

    The best way to avoid wasting money is to test your deck idea before you buy it. In 2009, this meant downloading clunky desktop programs. Today, you have much better options:

    • Moxfield — The most popular free deckbuilding tool. Build your deck, goldfish it (draw sample hands and play through turns solo), and share it with friends for feedback.
    • Archidekt — Another excellent free deckbuilder, especially popular with Commander players for its visual layout and category sorting.
    • MTG Arena — Wizards’ free-to-play digital client. Great for testing Standard and Explorer decks against real opponents before committing to paper cards.

    Build the deck digitally first. Draw a few sample opening hands. Play through five or six turns by yourself. Does the deck actually do what you want it to do, or does it stall out on turn three every time? You will save real money by catching problems early.

    Know Your Deck Size

    Every format in Magic has a minimum deck size, and the golden rule is simple: stick as close to the minimum as possible.

    Format Minimum Deck Size What to Aim For
    Standard, Modern, Pioneer, Pauper 60 cards Exactly 60
    Commander / EDH 100 cards (including your commander) Exactly 100
    Limited (Draft, Sealed) 40 cards Exactly 40

    Why Not Just Add More Cards?

    It comes down to consistency. Say you have a card in your deck that wins you the game when you draw it. In a 60-card deck, your odds of drawing that card are significantly higher than in an 80-card deck. Every card you add beyond the minimum makes it less likely you will draw the specific cards you need at the right time.

    There is also a practical side: a larger deck needs a more complex mana base, becomes harder to shuffle, and takes longer to tune. We have all seen someone show up with a 200-card deck. It is not a good deck — it is five mediocre decks shuffled together.

    The exception: Commander is a singleton format (one copy of each card, 100 cards total), so you are already at a higher card count by design. The format compensates for this with powerful tutoring effects and commanders that are always available. Do not go over 100.

    Use Proxy Cards to Test Expensive Cards

    A proxy is a stand-in for a card you do not own. The simplest version is a basic land with the card’s name and abilities written on it in marker, slipped into a sleeve in front of the land.

    Proxies are perfectly fine for:

    • Casual kitchen-table games — as long as your playgroup agrees
    • Testing before buying — figuring out if a $15 card is actually worth it for your deck
    • Commander nights — many playgroups allow proxies freely

    Proxies are not allowed in:

    • Sanctioned tournaments (FNM, Regionals, etc.)
    • Any event run under official Wizards of the Coast rules

    The community has generally become more accepting of proxies over the years, especially in Commander. The key is to be upfront with your playgroup about what you are proxying and why.

    Find Budget Alternatives with Scryfall

    You do not always need the most expensive version of an effect. Magic has printed thousands of cards over 30 years, and there is almost always a cheaper card that does something similar.

    The best tool for finding alternatives is Scryfall. Use its advanced search to look for cards by ability text, color, mana cost, and price. Here are some practical examples:

    Expensive Card Budget Alternative Why It Works
    Swords to Plowshares (~$3) Path to Exile (~$1) or Condemn (~$0.25) All remove a creature for one white mana
    Cyclonic Rift (~$30) Flood of Tears (~$0.50) or River’s Rebuke (~$0.50) Mass bounce effects at a fraction of the cost
    Rhystic Study (~$40) Mystic Remora (~$3) or Keep Watch (~$0.25) Card draw engines that punish opponents
    Damnation (~$25) Crux of Fate (~$1) or Languish (~$0.50) Board wipes that clear most creatures

    Scryfall Search Tips for New Players

    Try these searches to find budget cards for your deck:

    • o:"destroy target creature" c:b cmc<=3 usd<1 — Black removal under $1
    • o:"draw" o:"card" c:u t:enchantment usd<2 — Blue card draw enchantments under $2
    • t:land o:"add" ci:rg usd<1 — Red-green dual lands under $1

    For Commander specifically, EDHREC shows you the most popular cards for any commander, broken down by category (ramp, removal, draw, etc.). It also highlights budget options and common substitutions.

    Pick a Strategy and Commit to It

    The single most common mistake new deckbuilders make is trying to do too many things at once. Your deck wants to attack with small creatures AND control the board AND play big finishers AND mill the opponent? Pick one.

    Every card in your deck should answer the question: “Does this help my deck do its main thing?”

    Here is a simple framework for staying focused:

    1. Define your game plan in one sentence. “I want to play cheap creatures and attack before my opponent can set up.” That is aggro. “I want to survive the early game and win with one big spell.” That is control. If you cannot describe your plan in one sentence, your deck is not focused enough.

    2. Choose cards that support that plan. If your game plan is aggressive, every creature should be cheap and efficient. A seven-mana dragon does not belong in that deck, no matter how cool it looks.

    3. Cut cards that do not contribute. This is the hardest part. You will have cards you love that simply do not fit your strategy. Set them aside for a different deck — they will find a home eventually.

    Want to learn about the major deck strategies? Read our guides on aggro, control, midrange, and combo archetypes.

    Build a Mana Base That Works

    New players tend to overlook their lands, but your mana base is the engine that powers everything else. If your lands cannot produce the right colors on time, even the best spells in the world will sit dead in your hand.

    Budget Mana Base Staples

    You do not need fetch lands and shock lands to have a functional mana base. These affordable options work well for most casual and Commander decks:

    • Command Tower (~$0.25) — Produces any color in your commander’s identity. An auto-include in every Commander deck.
    • Exotic Orchard (~$0.25) — Taps for any color your opponents’ lands can produce. Almost always relevant in multiplayer.
    • Tri-lands (Seaside Citadel, Savage Lands, etc.) (~$0.25-$0.50) — Enter tapped but produce three colors.
    • Gain lands (Tranquil Cove, Blossoming Sands, etc.) (~$0.10) — Enter tapped, gain 1 life, produce two colors. Cheap and easy to find.
    • Pain lands (Yavimaya Coast, Caves of Koilos, etc.) (~$1-$3) — Enter untapped and tap for two colors at the cost of 1 life. A step up from gain lands.

    A general guideline for 60-card decks: run about 24 lands for midrange, 20-22 for aggro, and 26-27 for control. For Commander, 36-38 lands is a solid starting point.

    Read Your Metagame

    Your metagame (often shortened to “meta”) is simply the collection of decks your regular opponents play. This matters because deckbuilding does not happen in a vacuum — you are building a deck to beat specific people playing specific strategies.

    Ask yourself these three questions:

    1. What decks do my friends play? If everyone at your table plays creature-heavy decks, you want board wipes and removal. If someone always plays combo, you want ways to interact with their key pieces.

    2. What cards do I keep losing to? If one specific card ruins your game plan every time, build your deck with an answer to it.

    3. What is nobody prepared for? If everyone at your table is loading up on creature removal, a deck that wins with enchantments or artifacts might catch them off guard.

    You do not need to rebuild your deck from scratch every week. Small adjustments — swapping two or three cards in and out — can make a big difference against your local meta.

    Start with a Prebuilt Product

    If the idea of building from scratch still feels overwhelming, there is no shame in starting with a prebuilt deck and modifying it over time. In fact, it is one of the best ways to learn:

    • Commander preconstructed decks (~$40-$50) — Wizards releases these with every major set. They are playable out of the box and give you a solid foundation to upgrade. Pick a commander that excites you and start swapping in better cards over time.
    • Pauper — An officially supported format where every card must be common rarity. Competitive decks cost $20-$50 total. It is the best way to play Magic on a strict budget.
    • Challenger decks — Standard-legal preconstructed decks designed to be competitive at Friday Night Magic.

    Starting with a prebuilt product teaches you how a well-constructed deck is put together before you try building one entirely on your own.

    Quick Start Checklist

    Use this checklist every time you sit down to build a new deck:

    • [ ] Set a budget — Decide your spending limit before browsing cards
    • [ ] Pick a format — Standard, Commander, Pauper, or casual kitchen table
    • [ ] Define your strategy in one sentence — “This deck wants to ____”
    • [ ] Build digitally first — Use Moxfield or Archidekt to draft your list
    • [ ] Stick to the minimum deck size — 60 cards for constructed, 100 for Commander
    • [ ] Test before you buy — Goldfish your deck and play sample hands
    • [ ] Check your mana base — Right number of lands, right color sources
    • [ ] Cut cards that do not fit your plan — Be ruthless
    • [ ] Consider your metagame — Include answers to what your friends play
    • [ ] Iterate — Your first version will not be perfect, and that is fine

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How much should I spend on my first MTG deck?

    There is no wrong answer, but $25-$50 is a comfortable range for a first casual or Commander deck. Pauper decks can be built for under $30. Commander precons run about $40-$50 and are playable immediately. Start small, learn what you enjoy, and upgrade over time rather than spending $200 on a deck you might not end up liking.

    Can I have more than 60 cards in my deck?

    Technically, yes. The rules set a minimum, not a maximum (except for Commander, which is exactly 100). But you should almost always stick to the minimum. Every card beyond 60 reduces your consistency — the chance of drawing the specific card you need when you need it goes down. Treat the minimum as your target.

    What is the best format for beginners on a budget?

    Commander and Pauper are both excellent choices. Commander is the most popular casual format, preconstructed decks are affordable and immediately playable, and the social multiplayer nature of the format is forgiving for new players. Pauper restricts decks to common-rarity cards only, which keeps costs extremely low while still offering deep strategy. Either format lets you build a competitive deck without breaking the bank.

    This guide is a modernized version of “The Basics” from The Casual Planeswalker’s 2009 Ultimate Guide to Deckbuilding. The core principles have not changed — but the tools, formats, and card options available to new players have never been better.

    Have questions about building your first deck? Drop a comment below or check out our Complete Guide to MTG Deckbuilding for the full deep dive.

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  • MTG Deck Checklist: Everything to Review Before You Play

    MTG Deck Checklist: Everything to Review Before You Play

    You finished building your deck. Now what?

    Before you shuffle up, run through this checklist. It catches the mistakes that lose games — the ones you only notice three turns in when you’re stuck on two lands or realize you have no way to deal with your opponent’s biggest threat.

    This checklist works for 60-card formats (Standard, Modern, Pioneer) and Commander. Use it every time you build a new deck or make significant changes to an existing one.

    Tip: Bookmark this page or print it out. Keep it next to your deckbuilding space.

    60-Card Format Checklist

    Use this section for Standard, Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, or any 60-card constructed format.

    Deck Construction

    • [ ] Deck size: Exactly 60 cards.
      Resist the temptation to run 61 or 62. Every card above 60 reduces your chances of drawing your best cards. If you can’t decide what to cut, that’s a deckbuilding problem — solve it, don’t dodge it.

    • [ ] Land count: 22-26 lands.
      Aggro decks lean toward 22-23. Midrange decks want 24-25. Control decks and decks with high mana curves need 25-26. If your average mana value is above 3.0, you probably need more land than you think.

    • [ ] Mana curve: Does it match your strategy?
      Lay your nonland cards out by mana cost. Aggro decks should peak at 1-2 mana. Midrange peaks at 2-3. Control can afford a higher curve but still needs cheap interaction. If your curve looks flat or back-loaded, something is off.

    • [ ] Color fixing: Enough sources of each color?
      Follow Frank Karsten’s widely-cited mana base guidelines. To reliably cast a one-drop that costs a single colored mana, you need roughly 14 sources of that color. A two-drop with two colored pips needs around 18-19 sources. Don’t just count lands — include mana dorks, treasures, and other fixing.

    Strategy & Game Plan

    • [ ] Win condition: Can you name how this deck wins?
      Say it out loud. “I win by attacking with efficient creatures and burning the opponent out.” If you can’t clearly describe your path to victory, your deck lacks focus.

    • [ ] Interaction: At least 6-8 removal or interaction spells.
      Removal, counterspells, discard — whatever fits your colors and strategy. A deck with zero interaction is a goldfish deck. Your opponents will have threats you need to answer.

    • [ ] Focus test: Does every card support your gameplan?
      Read each card in your deck and ask: “Does this help me win the way I described above?” If a card is cool but doesn’t serve the plan, cut it. Deck coherence wins more games than individual card power.

    Metagame & Preparation

    • [ ] Metagame check: Do you have answers to common threats?
      Look at what decks you expect to face. Do you have answers for them? At a minimum, think about how you handle aggressive starts, large creatures, enchantments, and planeswalkers.

    • [ ] Sideboard: 15 cards of targeted answers.
      Your sideboard is not a pile of cards that almost made the main deck. Each card should come in against specific matchups. Know your sideboard plan before you sit down — which cards come in and which come out for each common opponent.

    Testing

    • [ ] Playtest: Goldfished at least 10 opening hands.
      Shuffle up and draw 10 sample hands. How many are keepable? Can you consistently execute your plan by turn 4-5? If more than 2-3 hands are unplayable, your mana base or curve needs work.

    • [ ] Budget check: Does the total cost fit your budget?
      Price out your deck before you buy. Use a site like Moxfield, Archidekt, or TCGPlayer to check current prices. There’s almost always a budget-friendly alternative for expensive staples — especially at the casual level.

    Commander Checklist

    Commander deckbuilding follows many of the same principles, but the singleton format and 100-card deck size change the numbers. Use this section alongside the strategy checks above.

    Deck Construction

    • [ ] Deck size: Exactly 100 cards (including your commander).
      No more, no less. Every card above 100 dilutes your strategy more than it does in 60-card formats because you already can’t run duplicates.

    • [ ] Land count: 35-38 lands.
      Lower-curve decks with heavy ramp packages can get away with 35. Most decks want 36-37. Landfall decks or decks with mana-hungry commanders should run 37-38.

    • [ ] Mana curve: Weighted toward 2-4 mana.
      Commander games go longer, but you still need to develop your board in the early turns. A pile of 6-drops will leave you doing nothing while three opponents build their positions.

    • [ ] Color fixing: Enough sources for each color in your identity.
      Multi-color Commander decks need serious fixing. Command Tower and your mana rocks help, but count your sources carefully. Two-color decks are forgiving. Four and five-color decks need dedicated attention to the mana base.

    Commander-Specific Checks

    • [ ] Card draw: At least 10 sources of card advantage.
      This is the number one mistake in Commander deckbuilding. You will run out of cards. Include draw spells, engines, and your commander’s own card advantage abilities (if any). Ten is the floor — twelve or more is better.

    • [ ] Ramp: At least 10 sources of mana acceleration.
      Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Cultivate, mana dorks — whatever fits your colors. Falling behind on mana in a multiplayer game is painful because three opponents are all progressing faster than you.

    • [ ] Interaction: At least 10 removal and interaction pieces.
      Board wipes, targeted removal, counterspells, and graveyard hate. Commander games produce massive threats. If you can’t interact, you’re at the mercy of whoever has the biggest board.

    • [ ] Win condition: Can you close out a game?
      Commander games need to end. Include at least 2-3 ways to actually win, whether that’s combat damage, combo, or commander damage. “Eventually attacking with creatures” is not a plan when three opponents have blockers.

    Testing & Budget

    • [ ] Playtest: Goldfished at least 10 opening hands.
      Same rule as 60-card. Draw your hands, play out the first few turns in your head. Can you cast your commander on curve? Are you doing something meaningful by turn 4?

    • [ ] Budget check: Set a budget before you start.
      Commander decks can spiral in cost fast. Decide on a budget up front and stick to it. A $50 deck with a tight game plan beats a $500 pile of individually powerful cards that don’t work together.

    Quick Reference: The Numbers

    Category 60-Card Commander
    Deck size 60 100
    Lands 22-26 35-38
    Removal / Interaction 6-8 10+
    Card draw sources 4-6 10+
    Ramp sources Varies 10+
    Sideboard 15 N/A

    FAQ

    How often should I use this checklist?

    Every time you build a new deck, and again after any major update (swapping 5+ cards). Over time, you’ll internalize these checks and run through them automatically. Until then, use the list.

    My deck passes every check but still loses. What now?

    The checklist catches construction errors, not strategic ones. If your deck is well-built but still underperforming, the issue is likely your matchup knowledge, play decisions, or metagame read. Ask someone in your playgroup to review your games, or record yourself playing and watch it back.

    Can I use this for Limited (Draft/Sealed)?

    Partially. Deck size (40 cards), land count (17), and mana curve checks all apply in Limited. Interaction and card draw checks apply too, but the numbers will be lower. Sideboard construction is different in Limited since your sideboard is your entire card pool.

    Print This Checklist

    Want a quick-reference version? Copy the checkbox lines from this post into a note on your phone or print this page. Use it every time you sleeve up a new deck. The five minutes it takes to run through these checks will save you from frustrating games where the problem wasn’t your opponent — it was your deck.

    Series Wrap-Up

    This checklist is the final installment in our modernized Ultimate Guide to Deckbuilding series, originally published by The Casual Planeswalker in 2009. Here is the complete series:

    1. How to Build a Magic: The Gathering Deck (Beginner’s Guide) — Foundations of deckbuilding from the ground up.
    2. MTG Mana Curve Guide: Build a Better Deck — Understanding and optimizing your mana curve.
    3. MTG Mana Base Guide: How Many Lands Should You Run? — Land counts, color fixing, and mana source math.
    4. How to Choose the Best Cards for Your MTG Deck — Card evaluation, synergy, and building a focused 60.
    5. How to Build a Commander Deck (EDH Guide for Beginners) — The complete guide to 100-card singleton deckbuilding.
    6. MTG Deck Checklist: Everything to Review Before You Play — You are here.

    Each post stands alone, but together they walk you from zero to a well-built, well-tested deck. Start from the beginning if you’re new, or jump to whichever topic you need right now.

    Happy brewing.

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  • The Complete Guide to Casual MTG Deckbuilding

    The Complete Guide to Casual MTG Deckbuilding

    Building your own Magic: The Gathering deck is one of the most rewarding parts of the game. There is nothing quite like sitting down across from a friend, shuffling up sixty cards you chose yourself, and watching your plan come together. But if you have ever stared at a pile of cards and thought, “Where do I even start?” — you are not alone.

    This guide walks you through everything you need to build a casual MTG deck that actually works. Whether you are constructing your first 60-card kitchen table deck or assembling a Commander list for your Friday night group, the fundamentals here will help you build something focused, fun, and competitive enough to hold its own.

    Why Deck Size Matters More Than You Think

    Here is the single most important rule in deckbuilding, and the one that new players break most often: stick to the minimum deck size.

    For most constructed formats, that means 60 cards. For Commander (EDH), it means exactly 100 cards (99 cards plus your commander). You might feel tempted to squeeze in a few extra cards because they all seem good. Resist that urge.

    The math is straightforward. If you have a key card in your deck and you are running 60 cards with four copies, you have roughly a 40% chance of seeing it in your opening hand. Bump the deck to 75 cards and that probability drops to about 33%. At 90 cards, you are below 28%. Every card you add above the minimum makes your best cards harder to find.

    This is not just about probability — it affects your entire game plan:

    • Consistency drops. You draw the right card at the right time less often.
    • Mana ratios get blurry. A good deck needs a precise balance of lands to spells, and extra cards throw that ratio off.
    • Games take longer. Oversized decks are harder to shuffle, slower to execute their plan, and more frustrating to pilot.

    If you find yourself unable to cut down to the minimum, that is usually a sign your deck is trying to do too many things at once. Which brings us to the next point.

    Start With a Central Idea

    Every good deck starts with a question: What is this deck trying to do?

    Maybe your answer is “attack with a swarm of small creatures before the opponent stabilizes.” Maybe it is “control the board until I can land a massive game-ending threat.” Maybe it is “assemble a two-card combo and win on the spot.” All of those are valid answers — the key is picking one and committing to it.

    New deckbuilders often fall into the trap of building what experienced players call a “good stuff pile.” You open your collection, pull out every powerful card in your colors, and shuffle them together. The problem is that a deck full of individually strong cards with no shared purpose will lose to a focused deck with a clear plan almost every time. Synergy beats raw power.

    How to Find Your Focus

    1. Pick your win condition. How does this deck actually win the game? Name it specifically.
    2. Choose cards that support that plan. Every card in your deck should either advance your win condition, protect it, or buy you time to execute it.
    3. Ask the hard question for every card. Before including something, ask: “Does this help my deck do what it wants to do?” If the answer is no — even if the card is powerful — leave it out.

    Here is a practical example. Say you are building a green-white deck around the idea of going wide with creature tokens. Cards like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Raise the Alarm, and Intangible Virtue all support that plan directly. But if you also jam in a copy of Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider just because it is a big green creature you own, you are diluting your strategy. That card costs seven mana in a deck that wants to win before turn seven, and it does not create or buff tokens.

    Every card earns its slot, or it does not make the cut.

    Staying Focused in Commander

    Commander adds a unique challenge because you are working with 100 singleton cards instead of 60 cards with up to four copies each. Maintaining focus in a 100-card deck requires extra discipline.

    A popular method is the Rule of 8s (sometimes called the “8×8 method”). The idea is simple:

    1. Identify 8 categories your deck needs (such as ramp, card draw, removal, win conditions, protection, and so on).
    2. Assign roughly 8 cards to each category.
    3. That accounts for 64 cards. Add 36 lands, and you have your 100.

    This is not a rigid formula — some categories might get 6 cards while others get 10 — but it provides a solid skeleton that keeps your deck from drifting into unfocused territory. You can always tune the numbers after playtesting.

    For a deeper dive into aggressive strategies, check out How to Build an Aggro Deck. If you are more interested in reactive strategies, we also have a guide on Building Your First Control Deck.

    Building on a Budget

    Not everyone wants to drop hundreds of dollars on a deck, and you absolutely do not have to. Some of the most fun casual games happen with budget brews that cost less than a single chase mythic rare.

    Set a Budget Before You Start

    Before you start shopping for singles, decide how much you are willing to spend. Having a hard number in mind — whether that is $25, $50, or $100 — prevents you from rationalizing “just one more expensive card” over and over until you have accidentally spent far more than you planned.

    A few budget-friendly approaches:

    • Set a per-card ceiling. Decide that no single card in the deck will cost more than $2 (or $5, or whatever your threshold is). This forces creative card choices and often leads to more interesting decks.
    • Build the deck first, buy second. Assemble the full list on a free tool like Moxfield or Archidekt and check the total price before purchasing anything.
    • Upgrade over time. Start with budget versions and swap in pricier cards as you go. You do not need the perfect version on day one.

    Finding Budget Card Alternatives

    One of the best deckbuilding skills you can develop is finding cheaper cards that do a similar job to expensive staples. The effect will not always be identical — budget alternatives usually come with a slightly higher mana cost, a smaller body, or some other drawback — but they often get the job done well enough for casual play.

    Here are some examples of expensive cards and their budget-friendly substitutes:

    Expensive Card Budget Alternative Notes
    Swords to Plowshares (~$3-5) Path of Peril, Condemn, or Declaration in Stone Swords is still affordable compared to many staples, but these alternatives work well in casual
    Farewell (~$8-12) Austere Command, Cleansing Nova, or Doomskar Board wipes at different price points and flexibility levels
    Ignoble Hierarch (~$8) Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, or Elves of the Navel One-mana dorks are plentiful and most cost pennies
    Shock Lands (~$10-15 each) Gain lands, campuses, or basic lands A mana base of basics and budget duals works fine at the kitchen table
    Rhystic Study (~$30-40) Curiosity Crafter, Reconnaissance Mission, or Keep Watch Commander staple with plenty of cheaper card-draw options available

    The best tool for finding alternatives is Scryfall. Use its advanced search syntax to find cards with similar abilities. For example, searching o:"destroy all creatures" cmc<=5 usd<1 shows you every budget board wipe in the game. Scryfall’s syntax takes some learning, but it is the single most powerful card search engine available and it is completely free.

    Use Proxies to Playtest

    Before spending real money, proxy your deck. A proxy is simply a stand-in for a card you do not own — you can write the card name and key abilities on a basic land with a marker, print paper proxies to slip in front of bulk commons in sleeves, or use a service like MakePlayingCards for higher-quality test prints.

    Proxies let you answer the most important question before you buy: “Is this deck actually fun to play?”

    Most casual playgroups are fine with proxies, especially during the testing phase. Just communicate with your group about it. The goal is to make sure you enjoy the deck before investing in it.

    Playtesting: Test Before You Invest

    Playtesting is not just for competitive players grinding tournament lists. Even casual deckbuilders benefit enormously from running their deck through a few games before committing to a final version. It shows you what works, what sits dead in your hand, and where the gaps are.

    Digital Playtesting Tools

    You have more free playtesting options in 2026 than ever before:

    • MTG Arena — The official free-to-play digital client. Great for testing Standard and Explorer-legal decks. The matchmaking system means you will face real opponents with real decks.
    • Cockatrice — A free, open-source client where you can build any deck with any card and play against others online. No card restrictions and no cost. The interface is not flashy, but it gets the job done and supports every format.
    • Tabletop Simulator — A paid app on Steam with community-made MTG modules. Feels closest to paper play. Good for testing Commander games with your actual playgroup remotely.
    • Moxfield — While primarily a deck builder, Moxfield has a playtest feature that lets you goldfish (play solo against no opponent) to test your mana curve, opening hands, and draw sequences. It also calculates deck price automatically and shows you mana distribution charts.
    • Archidekt — Another excellent deck builder with a built-in playtester, card recommendations, and Commander-specific analytics like color pip distribution and EDHREC synergy scores.

    What to Look for When Playtesting

    Run through at least 10-15 sample games (or goldfish sessions) and pay attention to:

    • Opening hands. Are you consistently getting a playable mix of lands and spells? If you are mulliganing more than 30% of the time, your ratios are off.
    • Mana curve. Do you have something to do on turns one through four? Or are you sitting idle until turn five? A common mistake in casual decks is loading up on expensive spells and having nothing to do early.
    • Dead draws. Are there cards that consistently sit in your hand doing nothing? That is a sign they do not belong.
    • Win condition access. Can you reliably find or draw into your win condition? If not, you may need more card draw, tutors, or redundant copies of similar effects.

    Playtesting saves money. There is no worse feeling than buying a full deck of singles, shuffling up, and realizing after three games that it does not work. Test first, buy second.

    Building Your Mana Base

    Your mana base is the engine of your deck. Even the most brilliant strategy falls apart if you cannot cast your spells on time. New deckbuilders tend to underthink their lands, but this is one of the areas where a little attention pays off the most.

    Land Count Guidelines

    As a starting point:

    Format Typical Land Count Notes
    60-card aggro 20-22 lands Low curve, wants to spend mana on spells every turn
    60-card midrange 23-25 lands Needs to hit land drops through turn 4-5
    60-card control 25-27 lands Wants to hit every land drop, often runs expensive spells
    Commander 35-38 lands Plus 8-12 pieces of ramp (mana rocks, mana dorks, land ramp)

    These are guidelines, not rules. A deck packed with cheap one-mana and two-mana spells can afford fewer lands. A deck with multiple six-drops needs more.

    Choosing the Right Lands

    If you are playing more than one color, you need lands that produce multiple colors of mana. Here is a quick rundown of the major options from least to most expensive:

    • Basic lands — Free, reliable, and never enter tapped. Do not underestimate a mana base that is mostly basics.
    • Gain lands / life lands — Enter tapped but gain you 1 life. Available for every color pair and cost pennies. Fine for casual play.
    • Slow lands (Haunted Ridge, Dreamroot Cascade, etc.) — Enter untapped if you control two or more other lands. Excellent for mid-game and very affordable.
    • Pain lands (Yavimaya Coast, Caves of Koilos, etc.) — Tap for colorless freely, or pay 1 life for a color. Untapped and budget-friendly. A classic that has aged well.
    • Pathway lands (Branchloft Pathway, Clearwater Pathway, etc.) — Modal double-faced lands that you choose a side for when you play them. Always enter untapped.
    • Shock lands (Breeding Pool, Blood Crypt, etc.) — Enter untapped if you pay 2 life. The gold standard for multicolor mana bases, searchable with fetch effects, but they run $10-15 each.
    • Surveil lands (Underground Mortuary, Thundering Falls, etc.) — The newest dual land cycle. Enter tapped unless you pay 3 life, and let you surveil 1 when they enter. A strong budget-to-mid option.

    For casual play, a mix of basics, pain lands, and slow lands gives you a smooth, affordable mana base. You do not need fetch lands and shock lands to have fun at the kitchen table.

    For a more detailed breakdown, check out our Guide to Building a Mana Base.

    Know Your Metagame

    Deckbuilding does not happen in a vacuum. The best casual deck in the world is the one that is tuned to beat the decks you actually play against.

    Your metagame — often shortened to “the meta” — is the collection of decks and strategies you regularly face. In competitive Magic, the meta is defined by tournament results and online data. In casual Magic, it is defined by your playgroup.

    Questions to Ask About Your Meta

    • What decks do your friends play? Does your group lean toward creature-heavy strategies, combo decks, or control?
    • What cards give you the most trouble? If one friend’s Atraxa deck takes over every game, your deck needs a plan for that.
    • What do you consistently lose to? Identifying patterns in your losses is the fastest way to improve your deckbuilding.

    Adapting Without Losing Focus

    The key to metagame adjustment is making targeted changes without gutting your core strategy. A few examples:

    • If your group plays lots of creatures, include efficient removal like Go for the Throat, Swords to Plowshares, or Path to Exile.
    • If someone always resolves a game-ending enchantment, make sure you have answers like Nature’s Claim, Boseiju, Who Endures, or Farewell.
    • If graveyard strategies are common, slot in Unlicensed Hearse, Rest in Peace, or Soul-Guide Lantern.
    • If artifacts are everywhere, Collector’s Vault, Vandalblast, or Brotherhood’s End can clean up the board.

    In Commander specifically, you can use EDHREC to look up any commander and see the most commonly played cards. This helps you anticipate what your opponents might be running and plan accordingly.

    The goal is not to turn your deck into a pile of answers — it is to make smart, surgical swaps that shore up your weaknesses while keeping your main plan intact.

    Putting It All Together: The Deckbuilding Checklist

    Before you sleeve up and shuffle, run through this checklist:

    1. Stick to the minimum deck size. 60 cards for constructed, 100 for Commander. No exceptions.
    2. Define your win condition. You should be able to explain in one sentence how this deck wins.
    3. Every card earns its slot. If a card does not advance your plan, protect it, or buy time, cut it.
    4. Check your mana base. Make sure your land count and color distribution support your curve.
    5. Playtest before you buy. Use Moxfield, Cockatrice, or paper proxies to test the deck first.
    6. Adapt to your playgroup. Tune your removal, answers, and interaction based on what you actually face.

    These fundamentals apply whether you are building a $20 budget brew or a $500 optimized Commander deck. The principles do not change — only the card quality does.

    Recommended Deckbuilding Resources

    If you want to go deeper, here are the tools and sites worth bookmarking:

    • Scryfall — The best card search engine. Learn the advanced syntax and you can find any card for any situation.
    • EDHREC — The definitive Commander resource. Shows you the most popular cards for any commander, plus budget filters and theme pages.
    • Moxfield — Clean deck builder with playtesting, price tracking, and community deck sharing.
    • Archidekt — Feature-rich deck builder with Commander-focused analytics and recommendations.
    • MTG Goldfish — Deck lists, metagame data, budget deck series, and price tracking across formats.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How many lands should I put in a 60-card deck?

    Most 60-card decks run between 22 and 26 lands, depending on the average mana cost of your spells. Aggressive decks with low curves (lots of one-drops and two-drops) can get away with 20-22. Midrange and control decks that need to hit land drops consistently should run 24-26. Use the Frank Karsten mana base article as a reference for precise numbers.

    How many lands do I need in a Commander deck?

    A typical Commander deck runs 35-38 lands, supplemented by 8-12 ramp sources (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Cultivate, mana dorks, and similar effects). Lower-curve decks can go down to 33-34 lands with heavy ramp packages, while higher-curve decks should lean toward 37-38. The Rule of 8s framework from earlier in this guide is a good starting point.

    Is it okay to use proxies in casual play?

    Yes, and you should — especially during the playtesting phase. Most casual playgroups welcome proxies as long as you communicate openly about it. Proxies let you test a deck before spending money, try out expensive cards you are considering purchasing, and keep power levels balanced in your group. Just ask your playgroup what their policy is before showing up with a fully proxied deck.

    What is the best format for a new player to start deckbuilding in?

    Commander is the most popular casual format and has the widest card pool, but that can be overwhelming for a brand-new deckbuilder. If you are just starting out, consider building a simple 60-card casual deck first to learn the fundamentals — land ratios, mana curves, and card selection. Once you are comfortable with those basics, Commander is an excellent next step. Preconstructed Commander decks are also a fantastic entry point that you can customize over time.

    This post is part of The Ultimate Guide to Deckbuilding series, a modernized version of The Casual Planeswalker’s original guide. Check out the other posts in this series:

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  • Combo Decks 101: How to Build and Play Combos in MTG

    Combo Decks 101: How to Build and Play Combos in MTG

    There is nothing quite like it. You untap, draw your card, and realize you have every piece. Your opponents are tapped out. The table has no idea what is about to happen. You play your cards in sequence, the interaction resolves, and just like that — the game is over.

    That rush is why combo decks exist. They are the most thrilling archetype in Magic: The Gathering, built around specific card interactions that create overwhelming advantage or end the game on the spot. Whether you are assembling a two-card instant win in Commander or chaining spells together for a lethal Storm count in Modern, combo decks reward creativity, patience, and precise deckbuilding.

    In our guide to MTG deck types, we introduced the three pillars of Magic strategy: aggro, control, and combo. This article goes deep on the third pillar. If you have ever wanted to build a combo deck that actually works — one that fires consistently and does not fold to a single piece of removal — this is your guide.

    What Is a Combo Deck?

    A combo deck revolves around a specific combination of cards that, when assembled together, produce an effect far greater than the sum of their parts. That effect might be infinite damage, infinite mana, drawing your entire library, or simply a game-winning board state that your opponents cannot answer.

    Unlike aggro decks that win through sustained pressure or control decks that grind opponents out of resources, combo decks aim to assemble their win condition and end the game in a decisive moment. Every card in the deck is chosen to either be part of the combo, find the combo, or keep you alive long enough to execute it.

    Mark Rosewater’s classic player psychographic profiles describe the “Johnny/Jenny” player as someone who finds joy in discovering creative card interactions and proving that their unique combinations work. If you have ever looked at two cards and thought, “Wait, these go infinite together” — you are a combo player at heart.

    But here is the thing that separates good combo decks from bad ones: a combo deck is not just the combo itself. It is the entire shell built around it — the card draw, the tutors, the protection, and the backup plan. A combo that needs four specific cards to function is a pipe dream. A combo that needs two cards, with eight ways to find each piece, is a strategy.

    Types of Combos

    Not all combos are created equal. Understanding the different categories will help you evaluate which combos are worth building around and which are better left as thought experiments.

    Infinite Damage

    These combos deal unlimited damage to all opponents, ending the game immediately. They are the most straightforward win conditions in Magic.

    • Thassa’s Oracle + Demonic Consultation — Cast Demonic Consultation naming a card not in your deck, exiling your entire library. Then cast Thassa’s Oracle with an empty library to win the game. This two-card combo costs only three mana total and is one of the most efficient win conditions ever printed. It dominates competitive Commander (cEDH) for good reason.
    • Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista — Walking Ballista enters with at least two +1/+1 counters. Remove a counter to deal one damage. Heliod’s lifelink trigger gains you one life, which puts a +1/+1 counter back on Ballista. Repeat for infinite damage. This combo saw heavy play in Pioneer before Walking Ballista was eventually banned from the format.
    • Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts — Kiki-Jiki copies Zealous Conscripts, which untaps Kiki-Jiki when it enters the battlefield. Repeat to make infinite hasty copies and attack for lethal. This combo has been a Modern and Commander staple for over a decade.

    Infinite Mana

    Generating unlimited mana lets you fuel enormous spells, activate abilities endlessly, or dump your deck onto the battlefield.

    • Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter — Imprint Dramatic Reversal on Isochron Scepter. With mana rocks producing at least three total mana, activate the Scepter to untap all nonland permanents (including the rocks and the Scepter itself). This generates infinite mana and infinite untaps. A Commander powerhouse that slots into virtually any blue deck.
    • Food Chain + Prossh, Skyraider of Kher — Cast Prossh from the command zone to create Kobold tokens. Sacrifice Prossh to Food Chain to generate mana that can only be spent on creature spells. Recast Prossh from the command zone (commander tax included, paid by Food Chain mana), making even more tokens each time. Infinite tokens, infinite mana, infinite enters-the-battlefield triggers.
    • Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth — Tap Basalt Monolith for three colorless mana. Pay three to untap it, then pay two to copy the untap ability with Rings of Brighthearth. The copy resolves first, untapping Monolith. Tap it again for three mana before the original untap resolves. Net one colorless mana each loop. Infinite colorless mana with two artifacts.

    Instant Win Conditions

    Some combos bypass the damage step entirely and simply declare that you win.

    • Thassa’s Oracle + Tainted Pact (in a singleton deck) — Tainted Pact exiles cards from the top of your library one at a time. In a deck with all unique card names (like Commander), you can exile your entire library. Then Thassa’s Oracle’s enter-the-battlefield trigger checks your devotion to blue against your library size — zero cards left means you win.
    • Laboratory Maniac + any “draw your deck” engine — An older but still functional approach. Empty your library, then draw a card with Laboratory Maniac in play to win the game instead of losing.

    Value Engines

    Not every combo wins the game instantly. Some create such an enormous advantage that victory becomes inevitable, even if it takes a few more turns.

    • Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest — Enchant a basic land with Squirrel Nest. Tap the land to make a Squirrel token. Tap the Squirrel with Earthcraft to untap the enchanted land. Repeat for infinite Squirrel tokens. You still need to wait a turn to attack (unless you have haste), but a million squirrels tends to get the job done.
    • Sensei’s Divining Top + Bolas’s Citadel + Aetherflux Reservoir — Tap Sensei’s Divining Top to draw a card, putting Top on top of your library. Cast it from the top for one life using Bolas’s Citadel. Each cast triggers Aetherflux Reservoir, gaining you increasing amounts of life. Loop until you have 50+ life, then pay 50 life to blast an opponent with Aetherflux Reservoir.

    Building Around Your Combo

    Discovering a cool combo is the easy part. Building a deck that consistently assembles it, protects it, and survives long enough to execute it — that is where real deckbuilding skill comes in.

    Keep It Simple: The 2-Card Rule

    Our original 2009 deckbuilding guide put it bluntly: stick to combos that use only two to three pieces. If you go any higher, you risk inconsistency. That advice has only become more relevant as the game has gotten faster and interaction has gotten better.

    A 2-card combo with 4 copies of each piece in a 60-card deck gives you reasonable odds of drawing both halves by the mid-game. A 4-card combo is nearly impossible to assemble naturally. In Commander, where you only run single copies, the math shifts — which is why tutors become essential.

    Tutors: Finding Your Pieces

    Tutors are cards that search your library for specific cards, and they are the backbone of any consistent combo deck. The best combo decks treat tutors as additional copies of their combo pieces.

    Black tutors are the gold standard:
    – Demonic Tutor — Two mana, find anything. The best tutor ever printed.
    – Vampiric Tutor — One mana at instant speed, puts it on top of your library. The speed makes up for not putting the card directly in hand.
    – Imperial Seal — Vampiric Tutor’s sorcery-speed cousin.

    Other colors have options too:
    – Enlightened Tutor (white) — Finds artifacts and enchantments at instant speed.
    – Mystical Tutor (blue) — Finds instants and sorceries.
    – Worldly Tutor (green) — Finds creatures.
    – Gamble (red) — Finds anything but forces a random discard. High risk, high reward, and very on-brand for red.

    Card Selection: Digging for Answers

    Beyond tutors, card draw and card selection help you see more of your deck, increasing the odds of finding your pieces naturally.

    • Brainstorm — The most powerful card selection spell in Magic. See three fresh cards and put back two you don’t need.
    • Ponder and Preordain — One-mana cantrips that smooth your draws and set up your next turns.
    • Sylvan Library — In green decks, seeing three cards per draw step is invaluable for a combo player willing to pay some life.

    The goal is redundancy. You want multiple paths to your combo. If your primary tutor gets countered, you need a backup. If one combo piece gets exiled, you want an alternative line.

    The Backup Plan

    This was true in 2009 and it is true now: a combo deck that can only win through its combo is a fragile deck. There should always be a Plan B.

    The best combo decks are built so that their non-combo cards are still functional on their own. A control shell that happens to contain a combo finish is far more resilient than an all-in combo deck that folds the moment a key piece is removed. This is the difference between combo-control and all-in combo:

    • Combo-control plays a normal control game — answering threats, drawing cards, managing the board — and eventually transitions into its combo finish when the coast is clear. Think of decks like Splinter Twin in old Modern: it played a solid tempo-control game and threatened the combo at any moment, forcing opponents to respect both angles.
    • All-in combo dedicates almost every card slot to finding and executing the combo as quickly as possible. These decks are glass cannons — devastatingly fast but extremely vulnerable to disruption. Storm decks often fall into this category.

    For casual and Commander play, combo-control is almost always the better approach. It makes for more interactive, more enjoyable games — and it gives you a fighting chance when things do not go according to plan.

    Protecting Your Combo

    Assembling your combo is only half the battle. Resolving it against opponents who are trying to stop you is the other half.

    Hold Up Protection

    The worst feeling in combo Magic is tapping out to go for the win, only to have your key spell countered. Smart combo players wait until they have both their combo pieces and protection in hand before going for it.

    • Free counterspells like Force of Will, Fierce Guardianship, and Pact of Negation protect your combo without requiring you to hold up mana.
    • Cheap interaction like Dispel, Swan Song, or Flusterstorm is perfect for combo turns where every mana counts.
    • Silence effects like Silence, Orim’s Chant, or Grand Abolisher can proactively shut down opponents’ responses before you even start.

    Read the Table

    In multiplayer Commander, timing is everything. Going for your combo when the blue player has five mana open and cards in hand is asking to get countered. Wait for the right moment:

    • Go for it when opponents are tapped out after their own turns.
    • Bait out counterspells with less critical threats before committing to the combo.
    • Pay attention to how many cards opponents have in hand — empty hands mean less interaction.
    • If possible, assemble your combo at instant speed during an end step before your turn.

    Redundancy as Protection

    Sometimes the best protection is simply having multiple ways to win. If your Thassa’s Oracle gets exiled, can you still win with Laboratory Maniac? If your Kiki-Jiki is destroyed, does your deck have Splinter Twin or Zealous Conscripts as alternative pieces? Building overlapping combo lines means your opponents have to answer all of them, not just one.

    Combos and the Social Contract

    Here is where we need to talk about the elephant in the room — particularly for Commander players.

    Rule 0 and Infinite Combos

    Commander is a social format, and different playgroups have very different feelings about combo wins. Some tables celebrate the creativity of assembling a complex combo. Others feel that instant wins undermine the spirit of a multiplayer game where everyone should get to play.

    This is what the Commander community calls Rule 0 — the pre-game conversation where players discuss expectations, power levels, and what kind of game everyone wants to have. If you are bringing a combo deck to a new group, mention it before the game starts. A simple “my deck runs a couple of combos as win conditions, is everyone cool with that?” goes a long way.

    Fair Combos vs. Unfair Combos

    The community generally draws an informal line between combos that feel “fair” and those that feel “unfair”:

    • Fair combos require setup, are telegraphed in advance, or use enough mana that opponents have time to respond. Something like Kiki-Jiki + Zealous Conscripts costs nine mana across two turns and uses creatures that can be removed. Most players consider this reasonable.
    • Unfair combos win out of nowhere with minimal mana investment and little opportunity for interaction. Thassa’s Oracle + Demonic Consultation on turn two in a cEDH pod is considered strong but appropriate for that power level. At a casual table, it would feel deeply unsatisfying for everyone else.

    Neither type is inherently wrong — it is about matching your deck to the table. A competitive combo is perfectly fine at a competitive table. The key is communication.

    A Middle Ground

    If you love combos but want to keep things casual-friendly, consider these approaches:

    • Run combos that require three or more pieces, giving opponents more time to respond.
    • Use combos that win through combat (like creating infinite tokens that still need to attack) rather than instant “I win” effects.
    • Include the combo as one of several possible win conditions, not the deck’s sole purpose.
    • Avoid tutoring for combo pieces every single game — let the deck play out differently each time.

    Quick-Start Checklist: Building Your First Combo Deck

    Ready to build? Follow these steps:

    1. Choose your combo. Start with a proven 2-card combo that fits your format and budget.
    2. Pick your shell. Decide whether you want combo-control (safer, more interactive) or all-in combo (faster, riskier).
    3. Add tutors. Run every tutor you can afford that finds your combo pieces. Aim for 4-6 tutors in a Commander deck, or 8-12 ways to find each piece in a 60-card format.
    4. Include card draw and selection. Cantrips and draw spells increase consistency. Every card you see is another chance to find what you need.
    5. Build in protection. Free counterspells, Silence effects, or cards like Veil of Summer keep your combo safe on the critical turn.
    6. Do not forget the backup plan. Your deck should be able to function even if the combo gets disrupted. Include a secondary win condition or a control shell that can grind out value.
    7. Test and iterate. Goldfish your deck (play it solo against an imaginary opponent) to see how quickly and consistently you can assemble the combo. If it takes too long, add more tutors or card draw. If it is too fragile, add more protection.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the easiest combo to build around for beginners?

    For Commander, Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter is a great starting combo. Both pieces are affordable, the combo slots into any blue deck with mana rocks, and infinite mana gives you a flexible win condition rather than requiring a specific payoff card. For 60-card formats, look into creature-based combos like Heliod + Walking Ballista where the pieces are useful on their own.

    Are infinite combos legal in Commander?

    Yes, infinite combos are fully legal in Commander. There are no rules against them. However, different playgroups have different expectations about power level, so always have a Rule 0 conversation before the game.

    How many combo pieces should I run?

    Stick to 2-card combos whenever possible. For each piece, include redundant alternatives and 4-6 tutors that can find them. In a 60-card deck, run full playsets (4 copies) of each combo piece if the format allows. In Commander, compensate for the singleton restriction with more tutors and card draw.

    What is the difference between synergy and a combo?

    Synergy is when cards enhance each other to produce incremental value — like an Elf lord making all your other Elves bigger. A combo is when specific cards interact to produce a dramatic, often game-ending effect. Synergy is the foundation of every good deck. Combo is synergy taken to its logical extreme.

    How do I stop combo decks?

    Interaction is key. Counterspells, removal for key pieces, hand disruption (Thoughtseize, Duress), and stax effects that slow down searching or casting (like Rule of Law or Aven Mindcensor) are all effective against combo strategies. In Commander, politics also matter — if one player is clearly assembling a combo, the table should coordinate to stop it.

    This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to Deckbuilding series, modernized from The Casual Planeswalker’s original 2009 guide. Next up: The Basics of Casual Deckbuilding — mana curves, deck focus, and building on a budget.

    Series Navigation:
    – Part 1: Who Are You? MTG Player Types Explained
    – Part 2: Aggro Decks 101
    – Part 3: Control Decks 101
    – Part 4: Combo Decks 101 (You are here)
    – Part 5: The Basics of Casual Deckbuilding

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  • How to Build a Control Deck: A Casual Player’s Guide

    How to Build a Control Deck: A Casual Player’s Guide

    If aggro is the sprinter, control is the chess player. Where aggressive decks aim to end the game as quickly as possible, control decks take the opposite approach: survive the early game, neutralize every threat your opponents present, and then close out the game on your own terms once you have total command of the battlefield.

    There is something deeply satisfying about playing control. Every counterspell, every board wipe, every carefully timed removal spell is a decision point — a moment where your understanding of the game determines the outcome. Control does not reward impatience. It rewards the player who waits, watches, and strikes at exactly the right moment.

    This guide will walk you through every piece of a well-constructed control deck, from the essential card categories you need to the common mistakes that trip up new control players. Whether you are building for Standard, Modern, or Commander, the fundamentals remain the same.

    What Makes a Deck “Control”?

    At its core, a control deck is built around one principle: deny your opponent’s game plan while advancing your own. Rather than racing to deal 20 damage before your opponent can respond, a control deck methodically dismantles the opponent’s strategy. Counterspells stop their key cards from ever reaching the battlefield. Removal handles whatever slips through. Board wipes reset the game when things get out of hand. And card draw ensures you always have more answers than they have threats.

    The original Casual Planeswalker’s deckbuilding guide put it this way: the control deck prefers to “clear the board, extinguish its opponent’s resources, and establish a dominant board position before doing much else.” That description holds just as true in 2026 as it did in 2009.

    Control colors tend to sit on the opposite side of the color pie from aggro. While red, green, and white dominate aggressive strategies, blue, black, and white form the backbone of most control decks. Blue brings counterspells and card draw. Black offers discard and creature removal. White contributes board wipes and exile-based removal. When these colors combine, the results can be devastating.

    The “Draw-Go” Playstyle

    You will hear experienced players reference “draw-go” when discussing control. The name describes exactly how a control player’s turn often looks: draw a card for the turn, play a land, and say “go” — passing priority to the opponent without casting a single spell.

    This is not laziness. It is strategy. By leaving your mana untapped on your own turn, you keep your opponent guessing. Do you have a Counterspell? A removal spell? A combat trick? As the flavor text of Browbeat reminds us: “Even the threat of power has power.”

    Your opponent might hesitate to play their best creature, worried you will counter it. They might hold back an important spell for a turn when they think you are tapped out. This psychological pressure — the threat of what you could do — is one of control’s greatest weapons. You are controlling the game not just with the cards in your hand, but with the cards your opponent thinks are in your hand.

    Modern draw-go control has evolved considerably. You no longer have to sit there doing nothing on your turn. Cards with flash, instant-speed abilities, and activated abilities on lands mean you can advance your game plan entirely on your opponent’s end step, keeping your mana open for responses during their turn.

    The Control Player’s Toolkit

    Every control deck needs cards from several key categories. The balance between them will shift depending on your format and metagame, but a well-built control deck touches all of these areas.

    Counterspells: The Permission Suite

    Counterspells are the signature tool of the control player. Nothing demoralizes an opponent quite like watching their best spell fizzle on the stack. The goal is not to counter everything — that is impossible — but to stop the spells that matter most.

    Here is the good news for modern control players: Counterspell itself is legal in Modern again, giving the format access to the clean, efficient two-mana counter that defined the archetype for decades. Beyond the classic, you have a range of options depending on your format:

    • Counterspell — The original and still one of the best. Two blue mana to stop anything. Simple and powerful.
    • Archmage’s Charm — Three mana is steep, but the flexibility to counter a spell, draw two cards, or steal a small permanent makes it a Modern staple.
    • Make Disappear — A two-mana soft counter that casualty can enhance. Great in Standard builds.
    • No More Lies — An Azorius counter that exiles and taxes. Efficient at two mana.
    • Spell Pierce — One blue mana to counter a noncreature spell unless they pay two. Devastating in the early game when opponents are tapping out for planeswalkers or enchantments.
    • Force of Will — The gold standard in Legacy and Vintage. Exiling a blue card from your hand and paying one life lets you counter a spell even when you are completely tapped out. If your casual group plays with older cards, this one changes everything.
    • An Offer You Can’t Refuse — One mana to counter any noncreature spell, though your opponent gets two Treasure tokens. Sometimes the trade is worth it.

    The key to running counterspells well is understanding what to counter and what to let resolve. New control players often burn their counters on the first spell they see. The experienced control player saves them for the threats that actually matter. That six-mana creature might be scary, but it is the four-mana planeswalker that will grind you out of the game.

    Removal: Dealing With What Gets Through

    No counter suite is perfect. Threats will hit the battlefield, and you need efficient ways to handle them. Targeted removal fills the gaps your counterspells leave behind.

    Spot removal deals with individual threats:

    • Swords to Plowshares — One white mana to exile any creature. The life gain for your opponent is rarely relevant when you are playing the long game.
    • Fatal Push — Black’s premium one-mana removal for smaller creatures, and with revolt it handles four-mana threats too.
    • Prismatic Ending — A flexible exile-based answer that scales with the number of colors you can converge.
    • March of Otherworldly Light — Instant-speed exile removal from white that can pitch cards to reduce its cost.
    • Go for the Throat — Two mana to destroy most creatures. Clean and efficient.

    The best control decks diversify their removal to handle different threat types. A creature-only removal spell will not save you from an enchantment that is winning the game. This is where the toolkit approach from the original deckbuilding guide comes in: include answers for different problems, and use card draw to find the right answer at the right time.

    Board Wipes: The Reset Button

    Board wipes are what separate control from midrange. When your opponent spends the first four turns developing a board full of creatures, one well-timed board wipe can undo all of that work in a single card. This is card advantage at its most dramatic — trading one of your cards for three, four, or even more of theirs.

    The best board wipes available today:

    • Sunfall — Five mana to exile all creatures and leave behind an Incubator token that grows based on the number of creatures removed. You wipe the board and get a threat. A Standard all-star.
    • Supreme Verdict — Four mana, cannot be countered. The gold standard for Azorius Control in Modern. Your opponent cannot even stop it.
    • Farewell — Six mana, but you choose which card types to exile: creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and/or graveyards. The flexibility is unmatched.
    • Toxic Deluge — Three mana and some life to give all creatures -X/-X. The efficiency makes it a Commander powerhouse. It even gets around indestructible.
    • Cyclonic Rift — The most feared card in Commander, and for good reason. At seven mana, overloaded, it bounces every nonland permanent your opponents control back to their hands. You keep everything. They keep nothing.
    • Wrath of God / Day of Judgment — The classics. Four mana to destroy all creatures. Still perfectly playable at casual tables.

    Timing your board wipes is one of the most important skills a control player can develop. Wipe too early and you only catch one or two creatures — your opponent rebuilds easily. Wait too long and you might be dead before you get to cast it. The sweet spot is when your opponent has committed enough resources to the board that the wipe is truly devastating, but before those resources have dealt enough damage to put you out of the game.

    Card Draw: Keeping the Engine Running

    Control decks live and die by card advantage. You need to see more cards than your opponent so you always have the right answer available. Running out of cards as a control player means running out of answers, and running out of answers means losing.

    Card draw is what separates a control deck that sputters out from one that maintains its grip on the game from start to finish:

    • Consider — One mana to surveil 1, then draw a card. Instant speed means you can cast it on your opponent’s end step after deciding you did not need to counter anything.
    • Memory Deluge — Four mana to look at the top four cards and take two. Later in the game, you can flash it back for seven mana to look at seven and take two. Outstanding card selection.
    • Dig Through Time — Delve makes this much cheaper than its printed eight mana. Looking at seven cards and taking two is incredibly powerful card selection.
    • Rhystic Study — The Commander card draw engine. Every spell your opponents cast either costs one more or draws you a card. In a four-player game, this card is absurd.
    • Mystic Remora — One blue mana for a card draw engine that punishes opponents for casting noncreature spells. A Commander staple that can draw you a fistful of cards in the early game.

    The pattern here is important: most of these cards are instants, or can be activated at instant speed. Control players want to draw cards on their opponent’s turn, after they have decided they do not need to use their mana for a counterspell or removal spell. This is the draw-go rhythm in action — pass the turn, react if necessary, draw cards if not.

    Win Conditions: Closing Out the Game

    Here is the part that new control players often neglect: you still need to win the game. It is not enough to stop everything your opponent does. Eventually, you need a way to actually reduce their life total to zero (or achieve some other win condition).

    Control win conditions tend to share certain qualities. They are resilient, difficult to interact with, and often do double duty as both a threat and a source of value:

    • Shark Typhoon — Possibly the most elegant control win condition ever printed. Cycle it for any amount to create a flying Shark token at instant speed and draw a card. Or cast it as an enchantment that makes Sharks every time you cast a noncreature spell. It never costs you a card, and it wins the game on your opponent’s end step.
    • Hall of Storm Giants — A land that becomes a 7/7 creature with ward 3. Because it is a land, it takes up no spell slots in your deck and cannot be countered. Man-lands are a control player’s best friend.
    • Celestial Colonnade — Another classic man-land. Four mana to activate into a 4/4 flyer with vigilance. Attacks and stays up for blocking.
    • The Wandering Emperor — Flash means she comes down at instant speed. She can exile attacking creatures, create blockers, or start growing threats. One of the best planeswalkers control has ever had access to.
    • Teferi, Hero of Dominaria — The five-mana planeswalker that untaps two lands when he enters, effectively costing three mana while leaving up protection. His ultimate tucks permanents into your opponent’s library. A proven game-ender.
    • Hullbreaker Horror — A 7/8 with flash that cannot be countered. Every spell you cast bounces something. It comes down on your opponent’s end step and immediately starts dismantling their board.
    • Restless Anchorage — A newer man-land that creates map tokens when it attacks, fueling card selection alongside its threat.

    The best control win conditions share one trait: they are difficult to interact with. Man-lands dodge sorcery-speed removal because they are only creatures when you want them to be. Flash creatures come down when your opponent has already used their mana. Planeswalkers demand an immediate answer or they take over the game.

    Popular Control Archetypes

    Control decks across formats tend to settle into recognizable patterns. Here are the archetypes you are most likely to encounter or want to build.

    Azorius (White-Blue) Control

    The quintessential control deck. White provides board wipes (Supreme Verdict, Farewell) and removal (Swords to Plowshares, March of Otherworldly Light), while blue handles counterspells and card draw. Azorius Control has been a top-tier strategy in Standard, Modern, and Pioneer for years. If you are building your first control deck, Azorius is the most natural starting point.

    Esper (White-Blue-Black) Control

    Adding black to Azorius gives you access to hand disruption (Thoughtseize, Duress), premium creature removal (Fatal Push, Go for the Throat), and powerful threats. The trade-off is a more demanding mana base — you need all three colors reliably, which means investing in dual lands and fetch lands.

    Dimir (Blue-Black) Control

    Blue-black trades white’s board wipes for black’s hand attack and creature removal. Dimir Control tends to play a grindier game, relying on discard to strip the opponent’s hand while using counterspells as a backup plan. Cards like Thoughtseize on turn one into Counterspell on turn two is a classic Dimir opening.

    Control in Commander

    Commander presents unique challenges and opportunities for control players. With three opponents instead of one, you have three times as many threats to deal with — but you also have three opponents who can help keep each other in check.

    Why Control Works Differently in Commander

    In a 1v1 game, a board wipe trades your one card for your opponent’s several creatures. In a four-player Commander game, that same board wipe might trade for a dozen creatures across three opponents. The card advantage math gets dramatically better.

    However, counterspells get worse. You have one Counterspell in your deck. You have three opponents each casting multiple spells per turn cycle. You cannot counter everything. Commander control players learn to be extremely selective, saving their interaction for the threats that actually put them out of the game.

    Top Control Commanders

    • Baral, Chief of Compliance — Reduces your instant and sorcery spells by one mana and lets you loot whenever you counter a spell. Mono-blue control at its most efficient.
    • Grand Arbiter Augustin IV — Taxes your opponents’ spells while reducing the cost of your own. The Azorius control dream in the command zone.
    • Talrand, Sky Summoner — Every instant or sorcery you cast makes a 2/2 Drake. Your counterspells and card draw naturally build a board presence.
    • Tasigur, the Golden Fang — Sultai (black-green-blue) gives you access to the best removal, counters, and card advantage in the format. His activated ability lets opponents give you back spells from your graveyard, creating interesting political dynamics.

    Commander Control Staples

    Beyond the format staples mentioned throughout this guide, Commander control decks lean heavily on:

    • Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora for card draw
    • Cyclonic Rift as the premier board reset
    • Toxic Deluge for efficient creature removal
    • Swan Song and Fierce Guardianship for low-cost counterspells
    • Smothering Tithe for mana acceleration that also pressures opponents

    The politics of Commander also work in control’s favor. You can negotiate — “I will not counter that if you agree to swing at someone else.” Control players in Commander often become kingmakers, and that political leverage is part of the strategy.

    Building Your First Control Deck: A Step-by-Step Approach

    If you are ready to build your first control deck, here is a practical framework. These numbers work well for a 60-card constructed deck. For Commander, scale up proportionally to 100 cards and adjust based on your specific commander and playgroup.

    1. Start With Your Mana Base (24-27 Lands)

    Control decks run more lands than aggro decks because they need to hit land drops consistently for the first five or six turns. Missing a land drop as a control player is often fatal — you cannot cast your four-mana board wipe on turn four if you only have three lands.

    For a two-color control deck, aim for 26 lands. Include a couple of man-lands as win conditions and make sure your mana base can consistently produce both colors by turn two.

    2. Choose Your Counterspells (4-8 Cards)

    Do not overload on counters. Four to eight is the sweet spot for most 60-card decks. Include a mix of cheap conditional counters (Spell Pierce, Make Disappear) and more expensive unconditional ones (Counterspell, Absorb).

    3. Select Your Removal (4-8 Cards)

    A mix of spot removal and board wipes. Three to four spot removal spells for early threats, plus three to four board wipes to handle go-wide strategies. Make sure your removal can handle different permanent types, not just creatures.

    4. Add Your Card Draw (4-6 Cards)

    This is what separates control from a pile of reactive cards. Consistent card draw ensures you find your answers and your win conditions. Prioritize instant-speed options to stay on the draw-go plan.

    5. Lock In Your Win Conditions (3-5 Cards)

    Two to three dedicated finishers plus a couple of man-lands. You do not need many — you just need to find one and protect it. Card draw will help you get there.

    6. Fill the Remaining Slots

    Use the remaining slots for additional interaction, card selection (like Consider or Opt), or flexible cards that serve multiple purposes.

    Common Control Mistakes

    Countering the Wrong Spells

    New control players tend to counter the first threatening thing they see. A more experienced approach is to evaluate: “Can I handle this if it resolves?” If you have a board wipe in hand, letting that creature resolve is fine — you will deal with it later. Save your counterspell for the planeswalker or enchantment that your removal cannot touch.

    Not Running Enough Win Conditions

    A control deck with two win conditions in 60 cards is asking for trouble. If both get answered, you literally cannot win. Run at least three to five, and make sure some of them are resilient (man-lands, flash creatures, uncounterable threats).

    Tapping Out at the Wrong Time

    The moment you tap out on your own turn, you lose access to all your instant-speed interaction. Sometimes tapping out is correct — you need to cast that Teferi or resolve that board wipe. But do it at the wrong time and you leave yourself exposed. Always ask: “What happens if my opponent has something I need to answer right now?”

    Wasting Board Wipes

    Do not use a four-mana board wipe to kill one creature. That is what your spot removal is for. Board wipes should generate significant card advantage. If you are only catching one or two creatures, consider whether a targeted removal spell would have been better.

    Ignoring Your Life Total

    Your life total is a resource, not a score. Taking some early damage is fine — expected, even. Control decks often fall to 10 or lower before stabilizing. The only life point that matters is the last one. Do not panic and waste resources trying to stay at 20 when staying at 12 and keeping your cards would put you in a better position.

    Forgetting to Actually Win

    This sounds obvious, but it happens. Control players sometimes get so focused on answering threats that they never transition to winning the game. At some point, you need to deploy a win condition and start closing things out. Recognize when you have control of the game and shift from reactive to proactive.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the best color combination for a control deck?

    White-blue (Azorius) is the most popular and well-supported control color pair across almost every format. Blue provides counterspells and card draw, while white brings board wipes and versatile removal. Adding black for Esper gives you even more options, but the two-color Azorius base is the easiest place to start.

    Is control viable on a budget?

    Absolutely. The core of a control deck — counterspells, removal, board wipes, and card draw — includes many affordable options. Counterspell, Negate, Spell Pierce, Swords to Plowshares, Day of Judgment, and Fact or Fiction are all inexpensive. The cards that drive up cost are typically the mana base (dual lands, fetch lands) and specific win conditions. Start with a solid mono-blue or Azorius base using affordable staples and upgrade over time.

    How many counterspells should I run?

    For a 60-card deck, four to eight counterspells is typical. Too few and you will not reliably have one when you need it. Too many and you will have hands full of reactive cards with nothing proactive to do. For Commander (100 cards), eight to twelve is a reasonable range, though you should lean more on board wipes and removal since you have three opponents.

    What is the difference between control and midrange?

    Midrange decks play efficient threats and removal but do not typically run counterspells or try to control the entire game. They play powerful cards at every point on the mana curve and win through card quality. Control decks run fewer threats, more answers, and aim to dominate the late game. The simplest test: if your deck wants the game to go long and relies primarily on reactive spells, it is control. If it wants to curve efficient threats backed by some disruption, it is midrange.

    How do I beat aggro decks with control?

    Aggro is control’s classic challenge. Prioritize early removal and board wipes. Cards like Spell Pierce and cheap spot removal buy time until you can cast a board wipe on turn four or five. Once you stabilize, aggro decks typically run out of gas while your card draw keeps your hand full. The key is surviving the first five turns — after that, the game swings heavily in your favor.

    Why does everyone hate playing against control?

    Let’s be honest — not everyone enjoys watching their spells get countered. Control can make opponents feel like they are not getting to play the game. In casual settings, be mindful of your playgroup’s experience level and how much interaction feels fun versus frustrating. You can build control decks that focus more on board wipes and removal than counterspells, which tends to feel less oppressive at casual tables while still giving you that strategic, long-game playstyle.

    This guide is part of our Ultimate Guide to Deckbuilding series, modernized from The Casual Planeswalker’s original 2009 guide for today’s game. If you have not already, check out our guide on building aggro decks to understand the other side of the coin — and why control exists to keep those aggressive strategies honest.

    Next up in the series: How to Build a Combo Deck — where we explore the wildest, most creative strategies in Magic.

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  • How to Build an Aggro Deck in Magic: The Gathering

    How to Build an Aggro Deck in Magic: The Gathering

    Your opponent mulligans to six and keeps a slow hand. You drop a one-drop on turn one, a two-drop on turn two, and swing for five on turn three before they’ve cast their first meaningful spell. By the time they stabilize, they’re at four life and staring down a Lightning Bolt. Game over.

    That’s aggro. It’s fast, it’s direct, and when built correctly, it’s one of the most consistently powerful strategies in Magic: The Gathering.

    Whether you’re grinding Friday Night Magic, climbing the Arena ladder, or turning sideways in Commander, this guide will teach you how to build an aggro deck that hits hard and finishes games before your opponents get comfortable. This is Part 2 of our Complete Guide to Deckbuilding in Magic: The Gathering series, where we break down each major archetype so you can master them all.

    What Is an Aggro Deck?

    An aggro (short for “aggressive”) deck has one mission: reduce your opponent’s life total to zero as fast as possible. Every card in your deck should either deal damage, enable damage, or protect the creatures that deal damage. That’s it.

    Aggro decks thrive on tempo — the idea that if you’re deploying threats faster than your opponent can answer them, you’re winning. You don’t need to out-think a control player’s endgame or assemble a combo. You just need to be faster.

    The philosophy is beautifully simple: if you’re attacking every turn, your opponent is the one who has to find answers. You set the pace. They react. And if their answers come one turn too late, they lose.

    The Three Flavors of Aggro

    Not all aggro decks hit the same way. Understanding the subtypes helps you pick the right build for your playstyle and your metagame.

    Burn

    Burn decks deal damage directly — often bypassing creatures entirely. Lightning Bolt, Lava Spike, and Rift Bolt don’t care how many blockers your opponent has. The classic Burn strategy aims to deal 20 damage using roughly seven spells, leaning on efficient one- and two-mana instants and sorceries.

    Key cards: Lightning Bolt (still the king after 30+ years), Play with Fire, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Roiling Vortex, Skullcrack, Goblin Guide

    Best for: Players who like doing math, racing, and pointing spells at faces.

    Weenie (Go-Wide)

    Weenie decks flood the board with small, efficient creatures and overwhelm through sheer numbers. One 1/1 is easy to block. Eight of them? Not so much. These decks often include anthem effects (cards that pump your whole team) and token generators to build an unstoppable army.

    Key cards: Thalia’s Lieutenant, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Coppercoat Vanguard, Isamaru Hound of Konda, Venerated Loxodon, Brave the Elements

    Best for: Players who love the phrase “attack with everything.”

    Beats (Midrange-Aggro)

    Beats decks play slightly larger, more efficient creatures — often in the two-to-four mana range — that trade raw speed for resilience. Where weenie decks go wide, beats decks go tall with creatures that are hard to block profitably.

    Key cards: Questing Beast, Steel Leaf Champion, Tarmogoyf, Werewolf Pack Leader, Old-Growth Troll, Surging Stampede

    Best for: Players who want the aggro speed but with creatures that don’t fold to a single removal spell.

    Aggro’s Best Colors (and Why)

    Historically, three colors have carried the aggro banner. But in modern Magic, every color has viable aggro tools.

    Red — The Default Aggro Color

    Red has haste, burn spells, and the most efficient aggressive creatures in the game. Monastery Swiftspear is arguably the best one-drop ever printed for aggro, and red’s burn spells double as removal and reach (damage to finish off an opponent).

    White — The Army Builder

    White excels at efficient small creatures, anthem effects, and protective spells. Mono-White Humans has been a competitive staple for years. White also brings first strike and lifelink, making combat math a nightmare for opponents.

    Green — The Trampler

    Green brings the biggest bodies per mana spent. Steel Leaf Champion is a 5/4 for three mana. Pair that with trample and fight effects, and green aggro simply runs over blockers that would stall other colors.

    Multi-Color Aggro

    Some of the best aggro decks blend colors: Boros (Red-White) for burn plus efficient creatures, Gruul (Red-Green) for haste plus trample, and Rakdos (Red-Black) for reach plus hand disruption. The mana base gets slightly worse, but the power ceiling goes up.

    The Aggro Mana Curve: Your Most Important Tool

    Here’s the number one mistake new aggro builders make: their curve is too high. If your average mana cost is above 2.5, you’re not playing aggro — you’re playing a bad midrange deck.

    The aggro mana curve is front-loaded. You want the majority of your spells at one and two mana, a handful at three, and almost nothing above that.

    Ideal 60-Card Aggro Curve

    CMC Card Count Role
    1 mana 12-16 cards One-drop creatures, burn spells
    2 mana 10-14 cards Efficient beaters, key removal/tricks
    3 mana 4-8 cards Top-end threats, finishers
    4+ mana 0-4 cards Only if they win the game on the spot
    Lands 20-22 Lower than other archetypes

    Notice the land count: 20-22 lands for a 60-card deck. Aggro decks run fewer lands because they rarely need more than three mana to operate. Every land you draw in the mid-to-late game is a dead draw — you’d rather have another threat. Some Burn lists go as low as 19.

    The one-drop slot is sacred. If you aren’t deploying a threat on turn one, you’ve wasted an entire turn — and aggro can’t afford that.

    Sample Aggro Deck Skeleton (60 Cards)

    Here’s a template you can adapt for any format. Fill in the specific cards based on what’s legal and available to you.

    CREATURES (24-28)
  8-12x  One-drop creatures (1 mana)
  8-10x  Two-drop creatures (2 mana)
  4-6x   Three-drop creatures or hasty finishers (3 mana)
  0-2x   Top-end (4 mana, only if game-ending)

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (10-14)
  4x     Burn/removal (Lightning Bolt, Play with Fire, etc.)
  2-4x   Combat tricks or pump spells
  2-4x   Equipment or enchantments (Embercleave, etc.)
  0-2x   Protection (Slip Out the Back, Tyvar's Stand)

LANDS (20-22)
  16-18x Basic lands or untapped duals
  2-4x   Utility lands (creature-lands, Castle Embereth, etc.)

    Example: Modern Mono-Red Aggro

    4x  Monastery Swiftspear
4x  Goblin Guide
4x  Soul-Scar Mage
4x  Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x  Bloodthirsty Adversary
2x  Kumano Faces Kakkazan

4x  Lightning Bolt
4x  Lava Spike
4x  Rift Bolt
2x  Searing Blaze
2x  Skullcrack
2x  Light Up the Stage

20x Mountain

    This list puts 12 one-drop creatures on the table, backs them up with efficient burn, and runs a lean 20 lands. Every card either attacks or goes to the face. No fluff.

    Equipment and Pump: Making Small Creatures Lethal

    One of aggro’s secret weapons is equipment. A 1/1 creature is easy to ignore. A 1/1 wearing the right gear demands an answer.

    Top Aggro Equipment (2026)

    • Embercleave — The aggro finisher. Flash, double strike, trample, and it costs less the more creatures you attack with. Turns any board state into lethal out of nowhere. A modern classic that replaced the old-school Loxodon Warhammer as aggro’s best friend.
    • Shadowspear — One mana, +1/+1, trample, lifelink. Cheap to cast, cheap to equip, and the anti-hexproof ability is relevant against protection-heavy decks.
    • Sword of Forge and Frontier (or any Sword cycle card) — Protection from two colors, bonus effects on combat damage. The Swords turn any creature into a must-answer threat.
    • Mace of the Valiant — In go-wide strategies, this equipment grows every time a creature enters, turning a small token into a massive beater.

    The key with equipment in aggro: keep equip costs low. You can’t spend three mana equipping when you should be casting more threats. One- and two-mana equip costs keep your tempo up.

    Combat Tricks and Forcing Bad Blocks

    Aggro decks win combat by making blocking painful. Your opponent faces a lose-lose choice: take the damage, or block and risk losing their creature to a combat trick.

    Effective aggro combat tricks include:

    • Pump spells like Monstrous Rage or Giant Growth that let a small attacker trade up with a blocker
    • Trample enablers that push damage through chump blockers
    • Protection spells like Gods Willing or Slip Out the Back that make a creature unblockable against specific colors
    • First strike granters that let your creature kill a blocker before it deals damage back

    The rule of thumb: run 2-4 combat tricks maximum. You don’t want to draw them when you have no creatures, and you never want to be holding tricks instead of threats.

    Commander Aggro: Turning Sideways in a 40-Life Format

    Aggro in Commander sounds contradictory — you need to deal 120 total damage across three opponents. But several commanders make it work by generating exponential value from attacking.

    Top Aggro Commanders

    • Krenko, Mob Boss — Doubles your Goblin count every turn. What starts as three Goblins becomes six, then twelve, then twenty-four. Pair with haste enablers and the game ends fast.
    • Najeela, the Blade-Blossom — Creates Warrior tokens on attack and can grant extra combat steps. Five-color identity means you have access to every aggressive tool in Magic.
    • Winota, Joiner of Forces — Attacks with non-Human tokens, cheats Humans onto the battlefield. Builds boards at a terrifying pace.
    • Isshin, Two Heavens as One — Doubles attack triggers. Every “whenever this creature attacks” ability fires twice.

    In Commander aggro, your mana curve can stretch slightly higher (topping out at 4-5 mana), but the principle stays the same: deploy threats early, attack relentlessly, and use your commander to amplify the damage.

    The Golden Rules of Aggro Deckbuilding

    These principles apply whether you’re building for Standard, Modern, Pioneer, or Commander.

    1. Every Card Must Advance Your Gameplan

    If a card doesn’t deal damage, enable damage, or protect a damage-dealer, cut it. Aggro decks cannot afford “cute” inclusions. That clever combo piece? Cut it. That situational counterspell? Cut it. Stay focused.

    2. Don’t Overload on Removal

    This is the classic trap. You add four removal spells, then four more “just in case,” and suddenly your deck is half removal and half threats. Aggro replaces fallen creatures from hand. If one threat dies, you play another. You don’t need to protect every creature — you need to keep the pressure on.

    Limit yourself to 4-6 removal/interaction spells in a 60-card deck.

    3. Respect the Curve

    If your opening hand can’t deploy a creature by turn two at the latest, mulligan. A hand full of three-drops is a losing hand for aggro. Build your deck so that the vast majority of opening hands are keepable, which means front-loading your curve.

    4. Know Your Role: You’re the Beatdown

    Aggro decks almost never shift to a defensive posture. If you find yourself holding back creatures to block, something has gone wrong. Your plan is to race. Keep attacking, keep deploying, keep the pressure relentless.

    5. Sideboard for Your Bad Matchups

    Your main deck is a focused kill machine. Your sideboard is where you adapt. Graveyard hate for Dredge, enchantment removal for Leyline of Sanctity, and extra burn for control matchups that try to stabilize behind sweepers.

    Pros and Cons of Aggro

    Pros

    • Fast games — You’ll finish rounds quickly, which matters in timed tournaments
    • Consistent — Simple gameplans are harder to disrupt than complex ones
    • Punishes stumbles — Opponents who miss land drops or mulligan poorly just lose
    • Budget-friendly — Many top aggro decks are among the cheapest competitive options
    • Easy to learn — The “attack every turn” strategy has a low floor to play competently

    Cons

    • Weak to sweepers — A well-timed Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict can end your game
    • Runs out of gas — If the game goes long, you’ll top-deck lands while your opponent draws haymakers
    • Lifegain is rough — Opponents gaining large chunks of life can erase multiple turns of work
    • Predictable — Experienced opponents know exactly what you’re trying to do
    • Mulligans hurt more — Starting with fewer cards is devastating when every card matters

    When to Play Aggro

    Aggro is the right choice when:

    • The metagame is slow. If everyone is playing four-color goodstuff, combo, or greedy mana bases, aggro punishes them before they get online.
    • You’re on a budget. Mono-Red Burn and Mono-White Humans are perennial budget options that still win tournaments.
    • You want fast rounds. In a long tournament day, finishing in 15 minutes instead of 45 saves mental energy.
    • You’re new to competitive play. Aggro teaches you the fundamentals — mana efficiency, combat math, sequencing — without requiring encyclopedic format knowledge.
    • The format just rotated. When everyone is experimenting with unrefined decks, aggro’s consistency shines.

    Aggro is the wrong choice when:

    • The metagame is full of sweepers and lifegain. If everyone is packing boardwipes and Heliod combos, you’ll struggle.
    • You hate losing to variance. Aggro’s slim margins mean a bad draw or two can cost you a game you were winning.

    FAQ

    How many lands should an aggro deck run?

    For a 60-card deck, 20-22 lands is the sweet spot. Burn decks can go as low as 19. In Commander (99 cards), aim for 30-33 lands plus mana-producing creatures or artifacts that cost one mana.

    What’s the best color for aggro in MTG?

    Red is the most consistently powerful aggro color across all formats. It has the best burn spells (Lightning Bolt), the best hasty creatures (Monastery Swiftspear, Goblin Guide), and the deepest card pool for aggressive strategies. That said, White and Green are close behind, and multicolor aggro decks often outperform mono-color builds.

    Can aggro work in Commander?

    Absolutely. Commanders like Krenko, Najeela, and Winota can close out games surprisingly fast even in a 40-life, multiplayer format. The key is generating exponential value — not just linear damage — through token doublers, extra combats, and attack triggers.

    How do I beat aggro?

    Lifegain, board sweepers, and efficient blockers. Cards like Wrath of God, Timely Reinforcements, and creatures with high toughness all slow aggro down. Forcing the game past turn five is usually enough to gain the upper hand.

    Is aggro good for beginners?

    Yes. Aggro decks have straightforward game plans, teach fundamental skills like mana curve and combat math, and are often the cheapest competitive archetypes to build. Start with Mono-Red Burn or Mono-White Aggro and learn the format from there.

    What’s Next in the Series

    This post is Part 2 of our Complete Guide to Deckbuilding in Magic: The Gathering. Now that you know how to build aggro, check out the rest of the archetype series:

    Originally inspired by The Casual Planeswalker’s “Ultimate Guide to Deck Building” (2009). Fully rewritten and modernized for 2026.

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  • What Kind of MTG Player Are You? Timmy, Johnny & Spike Explained

    What Kind of MTG Player Are You? Timmy, Johnny & Spike Explained

    You shuffle up, draw your opening seven, and scan the table. One player is grinning at their hand like they just opened a booster pack with a foil mythic. Another is quietly counting cards in their head, running through the probability of a turn-four win. And the third? They’re already scheming about some unholy three-card engine that technically works.

    Welcome to the world of Magic: The Gathering player types — a framework that’s been shaping how we think about the game for over two decades.

    Whether you’ve been slinging cardboard since Urza’s Saga or you just cracked your first Play Booster last Friday, understanding your player type is one of the most useful things you can do as a deckbuilder. It explains why certain decks feel amazing to pilot (and why that “top tier” list your friend lent you felt like wearing someone else’s shoes).

    Back in 2002, Mark Rosewater — Magic’s Head Designer and the guy who’s been writing his “Making Magic” column since before some current players were born — introduced three psychographic profiles that Wizards of the Coast uses internally to design cards. He called them Timmy, Johnny, and Spike.

    These aren’t rigid boxes. Think of them more like sliders on a mixing board. Most players are a blend, but everyone leans harder in one direction. Let’s break them down.

    Timmy/Tammy: The Power Gamer

    The motto: “Go big or go home.”

    Timmy plays Magic to experience something awesome. The bigger, the splashier, the more ridiculous — the better. This is the player who will happily lose nine games in a row if that tenth game ends with a Blightsteel Colossus connecting for 11 infect damage while the table erupts.

    For Timmy, the story of the game matters more than the outcome. They want to leave the table with a tale worth telling. “I was at three life, topdecked Etali, Primal Conqueror, flipped it into a 7/7 trampler, then monstrous’d it into a 12/12 that just ate the board.” That’s the stuff Timmy lives for.

    What Timmy Builds

    Timmy gravitates toward decks loaded with haymakers — cards that make the table sit up and pay attention:

    • Tribal decks that snowball into overwhelming board states. Dragons are the quintessential Timmy tribe. Cards like Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm that double every dragon you cast? That’s Timmy paradise. Ancient Copper Dragon rolling a d20 for treasure? Pure Timmy dopamine.
    • Big creature decks stuffed with the fattest stats available. Atraxa, Grand Unifier drawing seven cards on entry. Omnath, Locus of Creation cascading through landfall triggers. Elder Brain stealing cards right out of opponents’ hands.
    • Stompy and ramp strategies that cheat mana costs and drop threats way ahead of schedule. Timmy doesn’t want to play fair — they want to slam a creature that costs more mana than their opponent has lands.

    And yes, Timmy has an unironic love for Colossal Dreadmaw. A 6/6 with trample for six mana isn’t “efficient” by competitive standards, but there’s a reason it became the most beloved meme in Magic. It’s the Timmy card distilled to its purest form.

    Timmy’s Deckbuilding Pitfall

    The trap for Timmy is building a deck that’s all haymakers and no setup. A hand full of seven-drops and no way to cast them is a recipe for frustration. The best Timmy decks pair those game-ending threats with enough ramp, card draw, and early interaction to actually survive long enough to deploy them.

    If you’re a Timmy, your deckbuilding homework is simple: for every splashy bomb you add, ask yourself “How am I getting to the mana to cast this?” Your dragons need a runway.

    Johnny/Jenny: The Combo Player

    The motto: “Hold on, I have a thing for this.”

    Johnny doesn’t play Magic to win. Johnny doesn’t play Magic to lose, either. Johnny plays Magic to express themselves. The game is a giant puzzle made of 28,000+ unique pieces, and Johnny’s mission is to find combinations that nobody else has thought of.

    Where Timmy asks “What’s the biggest thing I can do?”, Johnny asks “What’s the cleverest thing I can do?” The thrill isn’t in the destination — it’s in the Rube Goldberg machine that gets you there.

    A Johnny player will spend hours on Scryfall searching obscure card text, build a deck around an interaction that requires four specific cards on the battlefield simultaneously, and consider it a complete success if the combo fires once — even if they lost every other game that night.

    What Johnny Builds

    Johnny’s decks are engines, puzzles, and sometimes beautiful disasters:

    • Two-card combos that end games on the spot. Thassa’s Oracle plus Demonic Consultation is the gold standard of modern Johnny efficiency — name a card not in your deck, exile your library, and win the game with Oracle’s trigger. Clean. Elegant. Chef’s kiss.
    • Synergy-driven engines where every card feeds into the next. Feather, the Redeemed plus a pile of one-mana cantrips like Defiant Strike creates a draw engine that returns every spell to your hand each turn. The deck practically plays itself once the engine is online.
    • “Can I make this work?” projects built around cards that everyone else considers unplayable. Johnny is the player who sees a bulk rare that says “whenever you do X” and immediately thinks “But what if I did X forty times in one turn?”
    • Splinter Twin-style combos — decks built around copying creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects to create infinite loops. The original Splinter Twin is banned in Modern, but the spirit lives on in countless variations across formats.

    Johnny’s Deckbuilding Pitfall

    The classic Johnny trap is overcomplicating things. A two-card combo that wins the game is a deck. A five-card combo that requires a specific board state, exactly the right mana, and your opponent to not be holding interaction? That’s a dream, not a strategy.

    The best Johnny decks have a Plan B. If your primary combo gets disrupted, you need a way to still compete. Maybe that means including a fair beatdown plan alongside the combo, or building in enough redundancy that you can assemble a different winning combination from whatever pieces survive.

    As we wrote back in our original deckbuilding guide: “If your deck has only one way to win and that is through a complex combination of cards, you will most likely have a hard time achieving victory.” That advice is just as true in 2026 as it was in 2009.

    Spike: The Tournament Player

    The motto: “What’s the win rate on that?”

    Spike plays Magic to prove something. Specifically, to prove that they’re good at it. Winning is the point — not as ego, but as validation. Every victory confirms that Spike’s preparation, card choices, and in-game decisions were correct. Every loss is data for improvement.

    Where Timmy measures a game by its spectacle and Johnny measures it by creativity, Spike measures it by the final result. Did you win? Then the game was good. Did you lose? Then something needs fixing.

    This doesn’t mean Spike is a joyless robot. The satisfaction Spike gets from perfectly sequencing a turn, reading their opponent’s bluff, or making the optimal mulligan decision is genuine and deep. It’s just a different kind of fun — the fun of mastery.

    What Spike Builds

    Spike plays whatever wins. Full stop. That might mean:

    • The top-performing meta deck from the latest tournament results. If the data says Azorius Control has a 58% win rate in the current Standard format, Spike is already ordering the singles.
    • A finely-tuned midrange deck that has game against the entire field. Spike values consistency and adaptability over raw power. They’d rather play a deck that wins 60% of its games than one that wins 80% when it works but bricks 40% of the time.
    • Whatever the format demands. Spike doesn’t have format loyalty. If Pioneer is the competitive scene right now, Spike plays Pioneer. If the local store’s Commander nights are the most competitive games available, Spike is bringing a cEDH list.

    The interesting thing about Spike is that they’ll naturally drift into Timmy or Johnny territory when it’s correct to do so. If the best deck in the format happens to be a big-creature ramp strategy, Spike will happily play it. If a combo deck is dominating the meta, Spike will learn every line. The method doesn’t matter — only the results.

    Spike’s Deckbuilding Pitfall

    Spike’s biggest trap is net decking without understanding. Net decking — copying a proven decklist from sites like MTGGoldfish, Moxfield, or MTGTop8 — is a perfectly valid strategy. The best players in the world reference tournament results when building their decks. That’s not the problem.

    The problem is copying a list card-for-card without understanding why each card is there. A tournament-winning deck was built for a specific metagame. If your local meta is different (and it almost certainly is), you need to understand the deck well enough to adapt it.

    The best Spikes don’t just copy lists — they study them. They learn the sideboard plans, understand the flex slots, and make informed adjustments based on what they’re actually playing against. That’s the difference between borrowing someone’s homework and actually learning the material.

    Beyond the Big Three: Vorthos and Mel

    After introducing Timmy, Johnny, and Spike, Mark Rosewater eventually added two more profiles that describe how players engage with Magic’s design, rather than why they play:

    Vorthos: The Flavor Player

    Vorthos cares about the story. The lore, the art, the world-building — that’s what makes Magic special to them. A Vorthos player builds their Phyrexian-themed Commander deck not because it’s optimal but because the flavor of Phyrexian corruption across every card tells a story at the table.

    Vorthos reads every piece of flavor text. Vorthos has opinions about which planeswalker’s story arc was handled best. Vorthos will play a strictly worse card if the alternate version has better art.

    Mel: The Mechanics Player

    Mel is the mirror image of Vorthos — they appreciate Magic through the lens of game design. Mel notices when a mechanic is elegantly designed, when a card’s rules text does something that feels “clean” within the game’s framework, and when Wizards solves a design problem in a clever way.

    Mel gets excited about a card not because of its power level or its art, but because of how well it’s designed. Double-faced cards, the “Partner” mechanic, the way Adventures staple two cards onto one — Mel appreciates the craft behind these innovations.

    You can be any combination of Timmy/Johnny/Spike and Vorthos or Mel. They’re separate axes entirely.

    A note on names: Wizards of the Coast updated the original names to be gender-inclusive. Timmy is also Tammy, and Johnny is also Jenny. These aren’t separate profiles — just acknowledgment that power gamers, combo players, and competitive players come in all forms. You’ll see both versions used interchangeably in the community.

    Where All Types Thrive: Commander

    If there’s one format that proves these player types aren’t just theory, it’s Commander (EDH). The most popular way to play Magic in 2026 is basically a playground designed for every psychographic:

    • Timmy gets to play all their giant creatures and splashy spells in a 40-life, multiplayer format where games go long enough to cast them.
    • Johnny has access to the entire card pool of Magic’s history — nearly 30 years of cards to combine in weird and wonderful ways.
    • Spike has cEDH (competitive Elder Dragon Highlander), where the singleton format creates an entirely different optimization puzzle.
    • Vorthos can build thematic decks around their favorite characters, planes, and story arcs with 100-card singleton giving them plenty of room for flavor.
    • Mel gets to appreciate the design challenges of a format that’s constantly evolving and breaking conventional Magic design rules.

    Commander is where player types stop being abstract categories and become the actual fabric of the game. Your playgroup probably has a mix — and that tension between different motivations is what makes the format great.

    Quick Quiz: Which Player Type Are You?

    Answer these five questions and keep track of your letters.

    1. You just opened a booster and pulled a mythic rare. Your first reaction:
    – (A) “How much damage does this thing deal?” — you flip it over to check the stats.
    – (B) “What does this combo with?” — you’re already thinking about interactions.
    – (C) “Is this playable in the current meta?” — you check its tournament results.

    2. Your ideal game of Magic ends with:
    – (A) You swinging with a board full of massive creatures for way more damage than necessary.
    – (B) A sequence of plays so clever that your opponent says “Wait, that works?”
    – (C) You winning a tight, skill-intensive game where every decision mattered.

    3. When building a new deck, you start by:
    – (A) Picking the coolest creature or tribe and building around it.
    – (B) Finding two cards that interact in an interesting way and seeing how far you can push it.
    – (C) Checking what’s winning tournaments and figuring out what’s best positioned.

    4. You lost three games in a row. Your reaction:
    – (A) “Yeah, but remember that one turn where I played three dragons? That was sick.”
    – (B) “The combo almost went off in game two. I just need to tweak the ratios.”
    – (C) “I need to review my sideboard plan against that matchup.”

    5. Someone asks to see your deck collection. They’d notice:
    – (A) A lot of big creatures and tribal themes.
    – (B) A lot of weird cards nobody else plays.
    – (C) A lot of decks that look like tournament lists.

    Mostly A’s: You’re a Timmy/Tammy. You play for the experience and the spectacle. Lean into it — just make sure your decks can actually cast those giant spells.

    Mostly B’s: You’re a Johnny/Jenny. You play to create and express yourself. Keep innovating — just remember to include a backup plan.

    Mostly C’s: You’re a Spike. You play to win and to prove your skill. Keep optimizing — just make sure you understand why your deck works, not just that it works.

    A mix of everything? That’s the most common result. Most players are a blend, and your profile can shift depending on the format, the playgroup, and your mood. That’s completely normal.

    Why This Matters for Deckbuilding

    Understanding your player type isn’t just a fun personality quiz — it’s genuinely useful for building better decks. Here’s why:

    1. It explains your instincts. When you keep adding six-drops to a deck that should top out at four, that’s your inner Timmy talking. Recognizing that helps you course-correct.

    2. It helps you evaluate advice. When a Spike tells you to cut your favorite card because “it’s suboptimal,” you can weigh that against your actual goals. If you’re a Johnny and that card is your combo piece, their advice might not apply.

    3. It improves your playgroup dynamics. Understanding that your friend isn’t trying to be annoying when they combo off on turn four — they’re just a Johnny doing Johnny things — goes a long way toward keeping game nights fun for everyone.

    4. It makes you a more versatile player. The best players can tap into all three profiles. Sometimes you need to channel your inner Spike during a tournament. Sometimes you need to let your inner Timmy loose at a casual Commander night. Knowing the difference is a superpower.

    This is the first step in becoming a better deckbuilder: knowing who you are at the table. Everything else — mana curves, card ratios, archetype theory — builds on that foundation.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who created the Timmy, Johnny, Spike framework?

    Mark Rosewater, Magic: The Gathering’s Head Designer, introduced the player psychographics in his “Making Magic” column on the official Wizards of the Coast website. He first detailed the profiles in his 2002 article “Timmy, Johnny, and Spike” and has revisited and expanded them multiple times over the years, adding Vorthos and Mel as aesthetic profiles.

    Are Timmy, Johnny, and Spike official terms?

    Yes. Wizards of the Coast uses these psychographic profiles internally when designing Magic cards. Each set includes cards intentionally designed to appeal to each player type. When you see a giant mythic creature that seems overcosted but incredibly cool, that’s a “Timmy card.” When you see a quirky rare that does nothing obvious but enables strange combos, that’s a “Johnny card.” And when you see a efficiently-costed card with competitive stats, that’s a “Spike card.”

    Can you be more than one player type?

    Absolutely — in fact, most players are. The profiles work more like a spectrum than rigid categories. You might be a “Timmy-Johnny” who loves building creative decks around big creatures, or a “Johnny-Spike” who enjoys finding the most efficient combo to win tournaments. Your profile can even shift between formats: Spike at Friday Night Magic, Timmy at your casual Commander table.

    What’s the difference between Timmy/Tammy and Johnny/Jenny?

    There’s no gameplay difference — these are gender-inclusive alternatives for the same profiles. Wizards updated the names to reflect that all types of players exist across all demographics. Timmy and Tammy are both power gamers. Johnny and Jenny are both combo/creative players. You’ll see both versions used in the community.

    This is Part 1 of our Ultimate Deckbuilding Guide series, modernized from The Casual Planeswalker’s original 2009 guide. Next up: understanding deck archetypes — aggro, control, combo, and midrange — and how your player type shapes which archetype fits you best.



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