Welcome, Planeswalker! 🎴
If you're new to Magic: The Gathering, this guide will help you understand the basics of building a fun and effective deck.
1. Choose Your Format
Magic: The Gathering offers a variety of formats, broadly categorized as Constructed and Limited. Constructed formats like Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage involve pre-built decks following specific rules about card legality. We recommend starting with Commander—a casual, fun, multiplayer format that emphasizes creativity.
Constructed Formats
In Constructed formats, players build decks from their personal collection of Magic cards, following the specific legal card restrictions of the format.
- Standard: Uses the most recent card sets, typically from the last 2 years of releases.
- Modern: Allows cards from more recent sets, starting from 8th Edition and Mirrodin onward.
- Legacy: A larger pool of cards, including almost all Magic cards ever printed (with a few banned).
- Vintage: The most expansive format, allowing nearly every card ever printed, but with a very limited number of copies for certain powerful cards.
Limited Formats
Limited formats involve constructing a deck from a limited pool of cards, usually obtained from booster packs. This tests players' skills in card evaluation and deck building on the fly.
- Sealed: Players open six booster packs and construct a deck from only those cards.
- Draft: Players take turns selecting cards from booster packs to build a deck, creating a unique challenge each time.
2. Pick a Commander or Theme
Build your deck around a legendary creature or a mechanic like "lifegain" or "tokens".
3. Balance Your Cards
In Magic: The Gathering, a good rule of thumb for balancing your cards is to aim for a balanced color distribution, a well-defined mana curve, and a strategy-appropriate mix of card types. This involves having a relatively equal number of cards in each color, ensuring your mana curve is smooth, and your deck's card types (creatures, instants, sorceries, etc.) support your overall strategy.
- 35–38 Lands
- 10 Ramp Spells
- 10–12 Card Draw Spells
- 5–10 Removal Spells
- Lots of fun win conditions!