Hey guys. Welcome to a new segment here on Rogue Magic – Brewer’s Command. The idea behind this segment is to go over how brewing can work and what tips a player should look to when considering card choices, metagame analysis and above all – how to have fun while playing Magic! Here we’ll discuss scenarios and stories of how a deck grows from an idea to something that could go past the Kitchen Table and possibly become a fringe-competitive deck. Since Modern has been all the rage this first instalment will be focused there. Especially given the story for this particular article.
The idea for this article came after helping a friend of mine with a deck that he has been working on and tweaking. For months the frustrations of making the deck function how he wanted it to were palpable and it was hard watching him get down on himself for it. He asked me for help, and I had to look at a number of factors when helping him brew up the new deck. Those thoughts are what gave me the idea to write this article. These are the questions I always ask my self when I have found something I want to brew –
- What is this deck trying to accomplish?
- What cards are available to help here and how to make the most of them?
– What are the budget constaints?
– What helps the main idea of the deck? - The VACUUM HORIZON
- Analyzing the Deck
- Will the changes help to make it more competitive?
- Will it be fun?
GOAL:
This is always the first stop when creating a new deck. It’s easy to get wrapped up in net-decking – taking a deck from online, buying the cards and pilot. It is a different beast when you want to look at an archetype and build from it. There are so many out there and trying to figure out where the deck fits can be daunting. That’s okay! Take it one step at a time.
In this case, the deck we were working on was a “Mill Deck.” It is a deck that is designed to empty out a player’s library into their graveyard and cause them to lose resources and eventually the game if you mill them out. It seems straightforward as a starting hand leaves 53 cards in a player’s library right from the get-go. That is the basic concept. So how do you get there?
THE CARDS:
Most players will tell you Mill Decks aren’t very fun. Playing against them can be annoying and for the person piloting them it can get irritating when the deck doesn’t preform correctly. So Wizards very rarely releases breakout cards that make players jump up and say, “I want to Mill my opponent out!” They know players get annoyed with these decks, so they keep things in check.
However, when it comes to brewing a deck, most players look at a specific card and think, “This is something I can build around!” That’s the genesis of the deck. A card, or group of cards that get your brain thinking on what strategy helps get you to that endgame. That’s where the real brewing begins. You start from one card and you begin to look at other cards to help you build the deck around it. Good examples of these kinds of are cards Primeval Titan, Collective Company, Tarmogoyf, etc.
In my friend’s case, Mind Funeral was that card. For those that don’t know, Mind Funeral is a 3-drop that mills an opponent till they hit 4 lands. On average this is every 6 cards you should hit a land going by an average of 23 lands. Out of 60 cards, that represents 38% of the cards. It’s a lot of percentages as to what you should hit, but overal milling for 4 lands can be brutal. At 3 mana this is a 4-of in this deck.
Now, Wizards do release some cards that, in a limited format, aid in a win condition such as Mill. Cards like Mind Scult and Tome Scour are around for that purpose and just two of those cards amounts to 12 cards for 3 mana overall. So, what if you had full playsets of each? That’s 48 cards in all. Combined with the initial 7 that makes 55. That’s nearly the whole deck. So it’s viable. On paper.
So we have 3 cards that can potentially blow out the opponenets library at this point. Are there any others? Well yes, yes there are. Mind Grind was released in Gatecrash and is similar to Mind Funeral and even at 3 makes for another land milled. Sure it can whif and hit only one 1 card, but it scales from there. 2 should be fine for the deck.
There is also Balustrade Spy. Also from Gatecrash, this 4-drop 2/3 Flyer causes target player to mill for another land. It does see some Legacy play and was a Standard card for a brief moment during the Innistrad/Ravnica season. 3 for this deck should fit well without pushing to far.
That should be our “suite” for mill. At least for the maindeck. They are cheap on mana, easy to play out, and curve into each other. By turn 4 we could effectively mill 17 cards at minimum, or almost 1/3 of our opponent’s deck.
There are other considerations, and we can cover those in the sideboard. For now though, this is the effective unit we’ll be working with. It accomplishes our main goal. Which is the point of the card selection process. You find an idea, archetype, what-have-you and then push it. Look at what cards aid that goal, and take into account their cost and your curve on lands. You don’t want to cobble together a bunch of cards that accomplish the goal, but have no effective way of implementing the strategy.
THE VACUUM HORIZON:
There is a certain school of thought when it comes to brewing that to me is absolutely essential in Magic. DO NOT LOOK AT CARDS IN A VACUUM!
When you are pulling your deck together it is easy to get lost on how the deck will function in a vacuum. If there are no other factors involved, will this deck run wonderfully? That is the case with a lot of players when building. They see an idea, enjoy the concept and build to accomplish said idea. However, they completely ignore the consequences and the fact that they will be playing an opponent at the same time. This trap is what I call – the Vacuum Horizon.
If you are playing “ghost hands” to see what your first three draws are, that is fine. Yet trying to play games with yourself and juding how the deck fairs without any real input is like a one-sided thought experiment. Which is most of what brewing boils down to, a giant thought experiment that tests the ideal outcome of your deck in perfect conditions. While this is great in theory, relying solely on that type of thought experiment will eventually lead to frustration when the deck doesn’t perform adequately.
I’ve heard the phrase, “By turn 3 this deck already has X/Y/Z out and is awesome. This will do great!” Or variations that include that card X is brutal and if I add it, the deck will be so much fun.
Well yes. That may work on paper, or on MTG Tracker, but in reality the situation is different. What about your opponent? By their turn 3, where will they be? What will they have cast that you need to deal with? The Vacuum Horizon is a trap. Don’t fall into it. Once you know what your “god hand” should be, now it’s time to move to the next part.
REACTIVE VS. PROACTIVE:
Once you have a deck idea, or a card you want to build around, start looking at what you as a player will be doing during the match itself. What is your endgame and how do you get there?
Being proactive means you know your deck in and out. What it needs to be able to do as the turns go on in order to hit its endgame. Also, you need to know how you can interact with your opponent based on their deck and be able to play consistently a turn or two ahead. This makes the difference in a tournament or even at an FNM. Once you start thinking beyond the immediate board state you’ll begin to play better. When you realize that you are reacting to your opponent’s plays and hoping to simply “whether the storm,” you are playing from behind. This is never a good state to be in, especially mentally.
This goes into the brewing process. If you’ve got your main idea down, you need to start thinking about how to interact with your opponent. What helps clear the way for your end game?
In the case of this deck, we don’t really have a lot of threats in terms of creatures. Emptying that Library is the goal. So we’re vulnerable to getting blown-out by our opponents. So we need to have a way to deal with this. Counterspells a good way to handle this, as well as spot removal. Mana Leak, Remand, Spell Pierce and Spell Snare are exceptional here. Personally I feel Remand in the deck is great because it draws a card as well. Extra gas. All of these are excellent on paper.
However, let’s go back to a primary concern, budget. Remands are expensive for some, as are Spell Snares and Spell Pierce. So Mana Leak it is. Easy 4-of. Those are concessions you’ll have to make as you brew. What can you add right now that helps, but know that a better option might be out there for when the money comes in.
A second option, while it is expensive at 3 mana, can serve a dual purpose here. Perplex is a flat counterspell with an interesting couple of features. It can be negated if our opponent discards their entire hand. If your opponent is out of cards, it hits. If they choose to discard 1-2 cards, it leaves them behind. It may hit every once in a while, but it is the second part that is what we want. You can Transmute the card, allowing you to go find another card for the same mana-cost. This means you can go find your Mind Funerals. 4 for 4. While this does seem like a vacuum horizon analysis, it does play out in game often. If the point is to mill them out, and we need a Mind Funeral to get there, this is an easy tutor for it.
Also removal for creatures is needed. There are plenty of cheap, mana as well as price, removal spells out there at the moment. Murderous Cut, Dismember, Doom Blade, and even Bile Blights to handle tokens, smaller creatures and such (a mini-Maelstrom Pulse). Not the best removal suite in the world, but for budget reasons and for the interaction purposes, it does suffice.
Counterspells and Removal. Those are two ways to interact, but we also need creatures for threats. Jace’s Phantasm is great as a 1-drop. However, playing it after they already have 10 cards in their graveyard is key. A 5/5 with flying is solid. The Spy gets in the air and can survive a couple hits for being a 2/3. These worked in the deck, and were inexpensive to pick up.
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind was another card my friend wanted to be able to utilize. At 4 mana, he’s a big investment. However, the pay-off is solid when you hit any creature coming from a player’s library. It provides another threat, and creature on the board.
One last card type, Planeswalkers. Typically Planeswalkers are a mixed back when it comes to deck interaction. With this deck Jace, Memory Adept is the best fit. His 0 ability creates another Mind Sculpt effect that requires your opponent to answer him. It’s another threat and puts pressure on the opponent. However, being at 5-mana, it is truelly a 1-of. While he’s not terribly expensive, his cost prohibits running more than one.
DECK ANALYSIS – 1 2 3 4:
So we’ve got cards together and we’ve determined how many lands we want/need. The next step is to analyze it. Simply shuffling up the cards and going straight in to playing is fine, but take a extra few minutes to overlook the deck as it sits in front of you. The overview pattern I follow is relatively simple and was shown to me by a friend that has been palying Magic since 1997.
Split your deck into columns in front of you. Each column representing the mana costs of the cards in your deck. The frist column will be for 1 drops, then 2 drops, 3 drops, etc. For cards that contain an X in their cost, simply place them where their initial cost is. If it is X and 2, place it in the 2 column.
Now sit back. Look at where your curve is. Do you have more 4 drops than 3? How likely are you to pull a turn 1 or turn 2 card in your opening hand?
If your deck shows a strong leaning to giving you plays in the first 1-3 turns, you’re probably in pretty good shape in terms of your curve. Hitting your land drops and having cards to play at all stages of the game is great, but a consistently strong start is what you’re looking for.
If you’re satisfied with where your mana-curve is, the next thing is to focus on how many times a certain color comes up. If you’re playing a mono-colored deck this isn’t an issue. If you are going for 2 or even 3 color decks. You need to make sure that the dominant color is sufficiently represented and then on down the list. Plan your mana base accordingly.
While dual lands can get expensive (hello there Fetch-Lands), there are plenty that aren’t. Make the most of them if you can get your hands on them.
Now that you’ve analyzed your deck in terms of numbers and mana needs. Sleeve em up and get into the next mindset!
COMPETITION DREAMS:
Alright, so you have your deck ready. You’ve analyzed the cards in it and why you chose them. Now you’re wondering if it will match-up well and have a chance at winning consistently. The key to winning is simply by making the deck function better, work better, and enable it to flow. Does it perform it’s goal? Yes. Does it interact with out opponents’ threats? Yes. Time for round 3 – competition.
Is your deck competitive? Honestly, that’s a tricky question. In the Vacuum Horizon, everything is viable. It’s why we brew right? This deck seems viable on paper so it should do well in reality. This isn’t how it always goes though. Also, competitive thinking doesn’t mean “Pro thinking.”
Looking at match-ups, recent GP, PT, MTGO and SCGO results is a good way to figure out what the metagame looks like. That way you can determine what sideboard to prepare for certain match-ups. Play-testing is next after that. See how the deck does against other friends that are in the mindset of a tournement situation. See if the deck stacks up there.
In the case of this particular deck, no. This deck is not a “competitive” deck. It is built on a budget and has an endgame that is difficult to achieve even in the best of situations. However, if you build it with the mindset of being competitive it can increase the deck’s potential, even at the kitchen table.
Competitive thinking means making choices on cutting and slimming the deck down so it’s faster, quicker to respond and gets to your objective faster. High mana cost cards may look great, and have neat effects, but if you’re constantly finding them dead in your hand? They need to go. If there’s a cheaper, lower mana-cost, card that helps the deck? Snag it up, with budget in mind of course.
Playing competitively doesn’t mean the deck will sweep an FNM or a GP. It means your mindset is focused on being the best your deck can be while still accomplishing the same goal. Having the mindset, even at the kitchen table, means that if you want to make the jump to FNM, GP, PT, etc you’re already there mentally. Cost is a prohibition that isn’t easily overcome, but the “make do with what you have,” isn’t one in terms of your mind set. Find alternatives. There is a Pauper format for a reason as well. Look there for ideas.
While some don’t have that “competitive spirit,” it doesn’t mean you like to lose either. It just means you’re not worrying about always winning. This is fine, and it’s why there are plenty of casual players out there. Yet, having the mindset of being competitive with your deck has other applications too – real life ones. Focusing on your objective and scultping it to be the best there it can be is exactly what you do in your career. I’m not suggesting your hobby become your career, although it can if you let it. It’s about using your hobby to hone and fine-tune life skills. A competitive mindest doesn’t make you a jerk. It simply means gaining a level of confidence in that you know why you made the choices you did, how you live with them, and that you put your best out there at all times. That’s the bigget postitive thing you can take away from having competition dreams.
THE FUN FACTOR:
Above all though. Brewing is about having fun. Taking an idea from start to finish is great, but if you feel bogged down, defeated or otherwise bereft of enjoyment – STOP FORCING IT! Don’t continue to make yourself feel worse if the idea doesn’t come together the way you want. If you want to win, go back to your competitive mindset, and backtrack through the deck. Find where the holes are, and be more proactive with it.
If you realize that you’ve slipped into the Vacuum Horizon and keep saying how awesome this deck does away from the table, yet keeps failing in actual games, pull yourself out. Pull it apart and analyze it.
If after all of this and you’re still not happy with the turnout, drop it. Come back to it later when you feel more refreshed on it. Don’t give up, but recognize when you’re exhausting yourself and draining yourself emotionally. Forcing something is never a good idea, and in the process you might miss out on the fact that something in your deck that did work, and could become the focus of an even better idea to brew with.
WRAP-UP:
That just about covers everything for this instalment! Remember, we brew because it’s fun and challenging. This article only exists as a guidline for how to better your brewing skills. As we go along I’d like to add to this segment as well. Ideas for future instalments can take an in depth look at certain cards, and why we brew with them. How you build a deck around a certain card and other deeper looks into the mindset of brewing. For now though, I hope you enjoyed this. Until next time guys, keep em sideways!
ROGUE MAGIC 