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:

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.
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.
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:

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.
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.
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.

Tag: beginners