A Very Plain Deck

by maskedmakrel on 18 May 2013

Main Deck (60 cards)

Instants (4)


Artifacts (1)


Enchantments (12)


Land (23)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Instants (4)


Artifacts (3)

Enchantments (8)

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Deck Description

This is a very plain deck. This deck is a no frills budget deck that is meant to showcase some of my basic design practices.

Removal.

Removal is very useful in most decks. This deck has two basic forms of removal.

The first type is the traditional removal option like Smite which destroys an opponent's creature. Smite means even a somewhat questionable card like Angelic Wall is suddenly a lethal threat.

The second type of removal leaves the creature uselessly on the battlefield. Both Pacifism and Arrest are great removal options for hard to remove targets like Thragtusk, Boros Reckoner, or indestructibles. Arrest also eliminates activation abilities.

Oblivion Ring provides some measure of permanent control, such as plainswalkers or enchantments.

Evasion

Evasion is a very useful card feature in most decks. Spectral Rider comes with intimidate and Serra Avenger has flying. Sometimes, I include a few (2) Rogue's Passages in a deck, but in this deck, I will keep it simple. You usually need some way to get through and do damage.

Mana

This is the most important design element. It does not matter how good a card is if you cannot cast it. I have placed careful emphasis on trying to utilize cards that have a 3 CMC or less cost in my deck. My preference is for using cards that are 3 CMC or less whenever possible. A few high mana cards can be used in a deck (such as the sideboarded Sphere of Safety), but the emphasis is on a few. Because I do not have expensive dual and shock lands, I have opted to stick with a mono-colored deck.

Conclusion

As you can see, the deck is very simple and straightforward. By not overspending on cards and decks, I can avoid the pitfalls of playing MTG in a way that would prevent me from going to movies, attending conventions, buying and reading books, purchasing other video games and other pen and paper games, and investing in productivity software and design.

If you watch pro-tour events, you will see plenty of experienced players playing the “top” decks with the so-called must-have cards and still losing. The easiest way to “lose” in MTG is to spend too much money on overpriced cards and decks in an attempt to win.

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

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Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

480000

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

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