Part Three, creating a strategy/theme

Building a deck - Part Three, creating a strategy/theme.

This is the third article in a series intended to help players build better decks. References may be made to the previous articles posted. The planned blocks are:

Part One, the basic structure. – posted
Part Two, choosing a region. – posted
Part Three, creating a strategy/theme. – current
Part Four, going for efficiency.
Part Five, countering the opposition.

While choosing a region and building a deck using the guidelines in Part One is a good start, it won’t win tournaments/games by itself. If am going to write about building decks, then I am going to try and cover more than just the basic structure or how to choose a region. I admit that there are hints in the first two articles at some of the elements that can lead to victory. Many of us, myself included, aren’t the greatest at taking hints, so I will try explain how to create a deck around the strategy or theme you will choose.

Choosing a strategy or theme is very important. It is up to you to chose a strategy or theme for your deck (I will not choose it for you). However, most of the good decks will choose one or two strategies and focus on accomplishing these things until they achieve victory. Theme decks are very similar in this respect, and good themes decks will stick as close as they can to one central theme. I want to emphasize that building a deck around limited themes/strategies goes a long way in creating successful decks.

So, with this in mind, what is your central theme, strategy, or goal? Do you wish to create a swarm? Discard energy? Discard their hand? Add energy to your creatures or magi? Are you going to specialize in a certain creature type? Take control of opposing creatures? The list of questions could go on and on. Each region has its own strength and weaknesses (for a basic summary of the different regions, see the previous article). Look at your cards and choose something that you would like to do.

It can help to divide your cards into groups according to what they do. This also helps you choose cards that will work well to achieve your goal. Here’s a few ways you can classify your cards as you begin to create your deck, and most of these categories reflect common strategies as well.

Attack– these cards give you some sort of advantage when attacking.
Defense– these cards give you an advantage when defending in attacks.
Stall– these cards slow down the opposition, but offer no immediate advantage.
Protection– these cards can protect against spells/powers/effects.
Removal– these cards remove other cards from play.
Card advantage– these cards alter the cards in a player’s hand, usually drawing more.
Discard energy– these cards discard energy from opposing cards.
Add energy– these cards add energy to creatures or magi.
Control– these cards alter the control of cards in some way.
Combo– these cards have no value by themselves until used with another card.

If you did not have a chosen theme or strategy before, then separating your cards into like groups may help you find something to start with. Several of my decks have started that way, where I chose a region and then began sorting the cards to see what the region might be good at, or what it had to offer. It’s generally a good idea to try and use a strategy or theme that your chosen region excels in, or at least utilize it in some way.

Even within the broad categories I’ve listed, you could further separate your cards. As an example, you could separate add energy according to what they do or how they do it. Some cards add energy to the magi. Other cards add energy to creatures. Adding energy could also be sorted according to whether it is effects, spells, or powers. It could even be that you are adding energy by saving on energy spent. By subdividing the categories like this, you may find ways to specialize your deck even further.

Now, it is a good idea to have an additional theme or strategy built into your deck. Your primary theme may not be sufficient to win the game, and a balanced deck will do better. Focus on only a limited number of themes/strategies. If you try to do a little of everything, you may find that you accomplish a whole lot of nothing. Doing a whole lot of nothing may be your goal, in which case, you can ignore most of this article. Otherwise, you should have your deck specialize in only a few things.

There are many ways that themes and strategies can be combined. You can combine card advantage with add energy. Or, add energy with discard energy. Removal could be combined with Attack. Defense and Stall could work together. These are just a few possible combinations. Some combinations are common and are relatively easy to create and use, while others will take more effort. Having sorted your cards, it should be easier to see what combinations of these strategies, or themes, could work for you.

Once you’ve chosen a central theme or strategy, and usually an additional supporting theme, you should begin building your deck around it. Here are a couple examples of how various strategies or themes can be combined to create a working deck.

Arderial xyx theme deck.
With the theme covered by using xyx for most, or all, of the creatures, the deck might use a couple copies of Cry of Thunder, a spell that likes the xyx creature type. It is an attack spell, so an Arderial version of this deck may complement it with the Storm Ring which also adds energy when the creatures attack, and maybe a Solar Flare or two. While this builds the core of the deck, some card draw may be added to bring the central theme into play faster and more consistently. Tranquility can protect the brittle Bubble Xyx some, and both of these cards offer card advantage. With this, the heart of the deck is ready. The last few slots might be filled with cards to setup the attack a bit, such as Storm Cloud (we want it still in play so it can be attacked, so fewer creatures are discarded from the downside of Cry of Thunder) and Alaban Gloves (similar to Storm Cloud, but now it’s the magi that get). In summary, this deck can be represented with: xyx-attack-card advantage. The final options are merely splashed in to complement the xyx-attack and take up only a few of the precious card slots.

Orothe control deck.
Both River Abaquist and Abaquist have the power to steal the control of opposing creatures, and Curse of the Abaquist can give this power to another creature. However, all three of these cards need combos to work. To setup the River Abaquist you’ll need a number of relics and creatures. It’s still good to try and stay close to the guidelines of a maximum of nine relics (see Part One), so the player might pick a variety of useful relics and use only one of each to expand as wide as possible. Card advantage is very helpful in a control deck, so at least one copy of Karak Necklace amongst the relics. A couple Crushing Surf gives some relic control, and borrows relics from the opponent to setup that River Abaquist. There are a lot of combination cards, so much of the deck will focus on card draw. Several Deep Barls and Sea Barls can fill this in, plus add some creatures for the River Abaquist. Also, it is necessary to add energy to the Abaquist. A few add energy spells and a copy of the Orothean Belt will help. For Curse of the Abaquist, it’ll need a good sized creature. Either it will start large, or the deck will use one that can grow. Coral Hyren grows whenever the controller plays an Orothe spell, so loading up on a few spells couldn’t hurt (both the Curse of the Abaquist and Submerge qualify). This can then be represented with: control-card advantage-add energy. In this case, the primary strategy relies heavily on the secondary and tertiary.

In the first example, there were cards splashed in, or added, a that were not directly related to the central theme(s). While this can be good, keep these cards to a minimum. The last section in this series of articles will discuss more on how to choose these cards. For now, I will recommend to keep the splashed cards to around six to nine cards out of your forty card deck. Whatever you splash, I will recommend that you try and have it complement, or aid, the central theme(s) of your deck whenever possible.

As you are building the central deck, keep in mind that you want to increase your chances of using those key cards. By focusing on a central strategy/theme, you should find it easier to put two or three copies of cards that are needed to make it work. More copies of key cards in a deck increases the chances you’ll get those key cards, and reduces the randomness of your deck. In other words, it will improve the chances of achieving your desired goal for the deck.

While some decks are built to work well despite the magi, the choice of your magi should complement or work with your central theme or strategy.

It should be no surprise that many magi can be separated into the same categories as the creatures, spells, and relics. Some magi offer powers/effects directly related to one or two central themes, while other magi are combo magi–they don’t offer much in and of themselves but can create powerful results when combined with the right creatures, spells, or relics.

Another thing I look at when choosing a magi is their starting cards. A magi that pulls key cards for a combo you are using may make a great choice for your deck. Usually, such a magi is best suited for a second or third magi. A common exception to this is a magi that starts with a card draw combo, such as Eryss (Gremble and Fog Hyren). Since I often add card advantage in my decks, such a magi can make a great first magi on the stack. Also, some of the combo magi actually start with one or more of the cards that combine with their own powers or effects, and others can easily acquire them (ex: O’qua).

You can also sort magi by their starting energy and energize rate. When doing this, it may be helpful to add the starting energy to the energize rate to create a total, or an energy index (Magi-Nation: Prima’s Official Strategy Guide). My first “working” decks relied on this very heavily until I began to create decks that utilized more focused and successful strategies. When doing this, you will usually add these totals together. When using this method, it is recommended to have an energy index of fifty-five or higher for your deck.

Finally, the region of the magi is very important. As much as possible, keep your deck away from excessive regional penalties and choose the most suitable magi from the dominant region. If two magi seem equally suited to the deck, but one is from the dominant region while the other would be coming from outside, then I suggest you take the magi without the penalties. Games can be decided by those extnalties.

Finding the best magi order may be a matter of experimentation. And though many decks use the first two magi to setup the third, this can be very risky. My preference is for all three of my magi to perform well in the deck. At the minimum, my second magi is the powerhouse most suited to the deck’s central theme or strategy while the third magi is the second best magi I could find for the deck. Basically, I want it take everything my opponent has got to get past my second magi, so that my third magi only needs to clean up what is left. Or, it could be, that the third magi allows the same deck to alter some underlying tactic in an attempt to throw the opponent off. Anyway you choose to go about it, I recommend the first magi set something up for the next two by either buying time with their efficiency (ex: Tryn), stall tactics (ex: Myka), or card advantage (ex: Delia).

Some decks are built in a reverse of this process. A magi is chosen for their power/effect/starting cards and then the deck is built from there. In these cases, I suggest examining what theme(s) is best suited to the magi and build the deck around that. Afterwards, return to selecting the last one or two magi to work with that strategy/theme. In other words, choose something that will work with that magi, or combination of cards, and build the rest of the deck as normal.

Once the magi have been chosen, you may want to add one or more of their starting cards. Usually, if the starting cards serve no purpose to the theme, chosen strategy, or run counter to the deck, I will not add them and take my chances that way. Also, unless the rules have changed, you are not required to get a magi’s starting cards. This can be helpful with the first magi if you need a better chance at one or more other cards that the magi doesn’t start with (ex: Sorreah could often use a better chance at creatures when used as a first magi).

Most decks will normally have a weakness of one form or another. By focusing on your central theme or strategy, the deck will at least be strong in one or two areas. Also, by acknowledging this weakness, it may be possible to turn it into a strength. This is what the last two articles in this series will attempt to address.

While picking a region and knowing the basic structure of a good deck will make a great start, you should now have some idea on how to create the actual deck. The strategy I presented here has been the core method I use in building most of my decks. Whether it be a deck just for the fun of it, or one to win a tournament with, I strongly recommend building the deck around a central theme/strategy.

Note:
I have seen players abuse their opponents by only attacking with just less than what is needed to defeat the magi. This leaves the opposing player unable to do much beyond their energize rate, while the player in control builds up more energy on their magi or creatures in play. It is for this reason, among others, that it is recommended to have a selection of cards that add up to one more than your magi’s energize rate. Eliminating all energy from your magi can make this a more difficult tactic to use against you. In other words, you can arrange for your magi to be defeated (perhaps on your own turn) so that you’ll come in with a fresh magi and plenty of energy before things get further out of control.