Answers to common deckbuilding questions — mana bases, deck ratios, sideboard strategy, and card selection. — 11 questions answered.
It depends on your strategy. Aggro decks run 25-30 creatures. Midrange decks run 15-22. Control decks run 4-10 (or fewer with win conditions like planeswalkers). Commander creature counts are typically 25-35 out of 100 cards. The key is matching creature count to your game plan.
The mana curve is the distribution of mana costs across your deck. A good curve means you can play something every turn — cheap spells early, expensive finishers late. Plot your deck's costs on a graph: most competitive decks peak at 2-3 mana. Commander curves are higher, often peaking at 3-4.
Staple cards are must-include cards that appear in a large percentage of decks in a given format. In Commander, Sol Ring and Command Tower are in nearly every deck. In Modern, fetch lands and Ragavan are format staples. Staples are typically versatile, efficient, and format-defining.
Start with the right land count (22-26 for 60-card, 35-38 for Commander). Match your color sources to your color requirements — if 40% of your spells are blue, ~40% of your mana should produce blue. Use dual lands, fetch lands, and mana-fixing artifacts. Avoid too many enters-tapped lands in competitive builds.
A sideboard is a set of 15 cards you can swap into your deck between games in a match (best of 3). Sideboards contain answers to specific strategies: artifact removal for artifact decks, graveyard hate for graveyard decks, etc. Commander doesn't use sideboards. Limited sideboards are your remaining drafted cards.
In most formats, you can have up to 4 copies of any card (except basic lands, which are unlimited). Commander is a singleton format — only 1 copy of each card. Some cards explicitly override this rule (like Relentless Rats or Dragon's Approach which say you can have any number).
Budget depends on format. In Standard, mono-red aggro is consistently cheap ($20-50). In Commander, preconstructed decks ($40-50) are great starting points. In Pioneer, mono-red or mono-blue tempo are budget-friendly. In Pauper, every deck is budget by design ($30-80). Check our budget alternatives pages for specific card swaps.
Ramp means accelerating your mana production so you can cast expensive spells earlier than normal. Green is the best ramp color with cards like Cultivate and Rampant Growth. Mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet) are colorless ramp available to all decks. Ramp is essential in Commander where games go longer.
Fetch lands are lands that sacrifice themselves to search your library for another land. The original cycle (Scalding Tarn, Misty Rainforest, etc.) fetch any land with a basic land type — including dual lands like shock lands. Fetch lands fix your colors, thin your deck, and fill your graveyard. They're staples in Modern, Legacy, and Commander.
Shock lands (like Steam Vents, Stomping Ground) are dual lands that enter tapped unless you pay 2 life. They have basic land types (e.g., 'Island Mountain'), which makes them fetchable by fetch lands. The 10 shock lands cover all two-color pairs and are format staples in Modern, Pioneer, and Commander.
Card advantage means having access to more cards than your opponent. Drawing extra cards (Divination), destroying multiple cards with one (board wipes), and creating tokens all generate card advantage. The player with more cards has more options and usually wins. Card advantage is one of the most important concepts in competitive Magic.