Someone walked in and took a glance and the screen and thought I was watching an academical video. I just wanted you to know your level of sophistication.
Ok. I don’t play MTG or ever have for that matter. I have fallen down a deep rabbit hole. I watched one of your videos days ago and I have watched more everyday. Learning the basics or the game, building deck advise, buying items, or the general value of cards. This channel really does an amazing job of opening up a very large world to someone who has never been into Magic.
@@DylanCEdh Go to your local Magic store and ask around, they will know somebody who is down to play for cash. If you meet someone crazy enough they might even play you for cards... 🤣
"It's not about winning individual games of Magic. It's about getting better, win or lose" It's 2020, as a new player on Magic The Gathering, this channel helps me a lot in saving money, building my deck, and having fun! :) salute to you, Professor!!! - Dan from Philippines
My strategic reason to play only one copy of a card usually is: I only have one copy of the card xD (and it's an expensive one so i don't wanna buy more copies just for a fun deck)
I recently got into Magic with a group of friends and I love it. I feel that my reason is kind of silly though, I like playing out stories with my cards and imaging them in their own epic tales as I'm playing. I guess kind of like a flavour win.
Demon King Nobu: yes I always do that too. It all about imagination and fantasies. Me imagining: As I was walking through the forest (it was a traffic of cars) I saw a village (places like Starbucks, gas station and etc.). I saw a tavern (it a game store), I decided to enter. Then went to the bar (front desk/register) and ordered a drink (it a cards). As soon I turned around, I saw an old friend of mine (my friend) drawing his swords (deck of cards). I didn’t know what to do but my old friend (actually we met 2 yrs and still friends) look different (look the same different clothes). Then I decided to cast my spells (my deck) and fought. The tavern was torn apart when we battle (we were screaming and being too loud in the excitement way). It was tough but I managed to survived. But before I was about to end my old friend’s life and suffering, an evil witch took him away from me. I was soo close and one day will be able to finish it off (it wasn’t epic my friend had to go bc of his wife).
Same with me my golgari commander deck is about a 7 ish in power scale when it could be an 8 or 9 but i dont like running cards too out of theme for it i like the story and a coherent theme in my commander decks same with my krenko deck how can you not run goblin bomb? You gotta win 5 coin flips to make it go off but hey when it does boom 20 dmg to some1 who thought the card was a joke lol.
I host a Tabletop Gaming Club at the high school I teach at and we recently got an influx of new players who are all neophytes at the game. This video couldn't have come at a better time. Love your content as always.
I just want to say that your breakdown of how many copies of a card you play with examples just really opened my eyes not only to better general deck building but sideboarding as well. Thank you, Prof.
Whenever the professor tosses something in the air to then catch, he looks very awkward and if he does catch it, he then looks very surprised that he did.
As someone who doesn't play magic and originally found this channel a couple years ago for his card sleeves and accessories reviews, I just gotta say that I love that the way he explains everything makes it really easy to apply to deck building in other games.
Despite me playing since Rise of the Eldrazi, I always find videos like this helpful. Sometimes I get forgetful or lost and I need to refresh myself on deck building and synergy from time to time.
This was actually a video with REALLY GOOD advice. Playtesting can also be carried out on your own, with something like TappedOut and/or goldfishing. It is SO important. Ignore it at your peril.
For playtesting solo, it's actually kinda simple. You just go through doing a "normal" game, and by doing so you can see what you're drawing vs. what your playing. One time I decided to do 10 Turn 6 runs with my Dragon deck. Discovered it definitely needed to be reconfigured to make it work better. I was looking at how many lands was I getting, how many Mana dorks (the deck is Red Blue Green), how many spells to get me extra lands, etc. What I discovered is that the dorks could've been removed, the land search spells could be switched for making lands tap for any color, and I got better Dragons in the deck.
Deck building is pretty overwhelming to me, but building a cat deck for my wife relaly got me motivated. Even trying to keep every creature house cat ish (no beasts, leopards, elemental cats, etc.) and it turned out to be a pretty crazy +1/+1 and lifelink deck. Actually, a lot of how you described in the video, but I can proudly say I figured it out before watching videos or looking at forums.
These tips definitely applied when I was building my Mimeoplasm deck. I started off trying to make it an ooze tribal, but there weren't enough oozes that consistently tied together for a coherent strategy. I had to cut several ooze cards (RIP Necroplasm) and ended up with a clone deck instead. Big thanks to Mitch at Commander's Quarters!
I have a theory that the reason a lot of people enjoy magic so much is because they are able to dedicate so much time to deck building. The actual gameplay is where most of the enjoyment comes from, but the deckbuilding itself is where the initial self-challenging comes from. It’s a lot of complex, smart decision making, in and out of the game.
Honestly it's the worst part of the game for me. I don't have the patience to sit and make a deck, so I usually just have one deck that I make small changes to all the time. I usually won't switch decks until my cards get phased out of standard and I'm forced to start from scratch again. I only play on my phone though
Awesome intro to deck building! That part about playtesting seems to elude people who think you can just throw a deck together and have it work great right out of the gate. Testing against the current format meta and practicing playing the deck always seem to take the most time and effort.
I’m just getting back into Magic after 20 years! This video’s giving me a much better understanding of what I should be doing as I explore building my decks! Thanks!
I took this video to heart, I used to think howling mine works in every non blue edh deck, then I realized that the group hug aspect doesn't work when your commander is non group hug, like my mono red commander, Heartless Hiritsugu! Thanks professor!!
"why play a murder or fiery intervention when you could play fatal push or lightning bolt" because those cards cost 2 dollars more. so adding 4 of them into my deck will cost 8 dollars more. i need to eat.
my first deck i wanted to all be the same card/art style so i bought more expensive versions of the cards so they all matched I dont think ive spend half as much on a deck since lmao
I got it, but as I’m using my husband’s 15 year old small collection I had never thought about the dollar cost of building a deck and how it can influence your game...
Thank you professor. i've been trying to build a Phyrexian deck on MTGA and i got frustrated for not being able to win in any way. but with your help, i've not only seen that i've been trying to build around 4 win conditions at once but also that i'd very much prefer a flavor win with Sheoldred beckoning the Breach of the Multiverse and a serious deck around Elesh norn. i am very very grateful. Addendum: My deck still doesn't win games, but i feel good now. being able to cast some of my favorite spells like Sheoldred, Platinum angel, almost winning against an aggro deck by 6 measly damage off, and seeing my opponent having to cast 2 portals to Phyrexia and a bounce to finish me off is truly majestic. TLDR: used to be frustrated playing a deck with 4 wincon and no consistency, this video made me create a fun deck that does cool and impressive stuff before losing the game.
I haven’t played MtG in over 15 years until recently downloading Arena. Somehow I found your channel while trying desperately to keep up with so many changes, and boy oh boy did it pay off. Great content!
My best deck so far has been my "Ob Nicolas deck" that was inspired by a nicol bolas and my brand new ob nixilis. It focuses on gaining life for my red, counter spells for blue, and using my life as a resource for black. Almost all my cards that aren't spells are devils and vampires, and the rest heavily boost my devils and vampires. It worked super well the first test because it was so focused, and in truth only 4 cards even have blue lol
I have a blue/black/green Scarab God zombie tribal I've put 2 years of effort in, way too many zombies, and my win condition is Grimgrin, Corpse Born with trample. This video encouraged me to look back thru it and I made some neat additions, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Keskit the Flesh Sculptor, and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa to name a few.
Total noob here. Have played 2 games of Magic in my life. Once in the late 90's at a friend's house when I was in highschool and just recently I played my experienced friend. My friend has been playing since near the beginning. After hearing him talk about it I decided "what the hell that actually sounds kinda fun." So I bought a premade deck of eBay... Then I bought some small essentials (a small box and sleeve's)... And then I bought a deck builders kit of Amazon lol. The kit will be here tomorrow and I am glad I stubbled across this video today. I already know it is going to be a daunting task, but at least you have given me a ray of light to help guide me. Great vid and hopefully I can employ what I have learned. I know it's definitely going to be a learning experience but I feel better going into it.
This really gives my deck building a whole new perspective, especially with the number of cards in the deck per importance. This information is worth more than any fancy deck box! Thanks professor!
I'm new to MTG and this video is a great help to me. I mostly play on Arena, but a friend of mine is helping me get a real collection going. My biggest issue right now is, like I'm sure a lot of people, building a good deck. MTG is so simple in concept, then expounds exponentially very quickly. I have built a mono Brawl deck which is easy, but now I'm working on a Standard blue/green which is not easy at all.
I love that decks evolve over time. I returned to Magic after a 5 year hiatus when Rise of the Eldrazi came out. Started with a precon. I have been perfecting that Eldrazi deck for 9-10 years. I recently restructured the deck and it no longer has any cards from that precon in it. Not even the lands.
17:30 It's the same in software engineering. Everyone wants tested software but people just love to skip that part while creating. Most think of a test as something invisible that they will never see recognition for and hence they just use handwaving to verify whatever is asked. It produces more reward with less effort. I'm sure most have a cooking recipe/selfmade drink/travel route that they have never compared to something similar but swear to their friends is the best there is. Thumbs up if you are one such person.
New to magic via playing mtg arena with my friends. I'm so glad to hear that themed decks are appropriate, because I'm finding coming up with theme concepts and creating decks based around them so fun!!
I’ve been hobby-jank-brewing for a few years, and can say this is a good video. I’ve been working on a unique modern storm deck for a couple of years now, and I actually completely remade its engine recently. The deck works by milking yourself repeatedly until you hit past in flames and storm off from your yard. The old engine was a playset of glimpse the unthinkable and breaking and entering. The change I made was adapting a similar discard engine to the crab-gak deck. I cut the breaking and entering a and now It now has 4 stitcher and 4 crabs, and 4 memory sulices. Recently I was even thinking of adding infernal plunges in place of something because of the synergy with supplier and mana acceleration.
Favorite flavor win I’ve been doing for years, playing cards that create tokens and pulling out little figurines or toys to put on the table. It always surprises people and I get a spark of joy everytime. Related flavor win, stupidly oversized dice. Flavor win I haven’t tried yet but want to, using snacks as food tokens and eating them when they’re sacrificed.
I remember the good old days.. running a goblin commander deck with Krenko as the commander and turn 7 with over a 100 goblins, and enchantment like "sacrifice a goblin and get 1 red mana" or "sacrifice a goblin, deal 1 damage to target creature or player" and much more. It was all over the place with different effects but it worked wonderfully.
The quote on it not being about winning or losing is definitely going to help in my mindset for Magic, I also appreciate this video as a whole the tips all make a lot of sense that i never thought about before
This was a very informative video. Amazing job! I wish there were more out there like this that actually give good tips on deck building. If you search deck building on youtube or pretty much anywhere all you get is videos and articles that say the same old crap. Put lands in your deck put creatures in your deck and throw some spells in there too. It's so annoying. You should make more guides like this talking more in-depth about different strategies to use for more advanced players. I know I for one am always looking for deck building tips. To me, it's one of the hardest things to master in MTG.
I just started playing and all your videos are immensely helpful, especially this one. A well spoken sharp dressed man using cats to teach me things is all I've ever wanted from educational material.
Just started getting into magic this year with my clients. This video helped me understand the game A LOT more, so thank you! Excited to retool my deck so I finally stand a chance against my kids!
I got this idea directly from Saffron Olive's excellent explanation of the same topic: One other reason you might want to run two copies of a card is if you want *more* than four copies of an effect in your deck, and are willing to branch out into an alternative. An example of this would be something like modern Jund. Jund really wants to play a hand distruption spell on turn 1, and considers 4 copies of the best option (Inquizition of Kozikek) not enough, so they run two copies of the next best option, Thoughtseize, but they don't run the full 4 because they don't want to draw too many of them in the late game.
me: *asks a good friend of mine to make me a cat deck for modern* Friend: *makes a decent deck* me: *orders the cat deck online* me: *excited to play with it* Tolarian Community College: *uploads a video about making a cat deck 3 days after I order the deck online* me: sAy SiKe RiGhT nOw.
This is why I wish there were better middle tier decks that were sold. But since the vs themed decks disappeared, we haven't had much for middle tier decks. Much of my own experience with what I like and dislike comes from these themed decks. They were rarely overpowered and they often did what they wanted to do fairly well. It was through these decks that I learned what I liked and what style that I wanted to play.
Prof I'd like to say thank you for this video. now THIS! This is the kind of video I wish I had years ago when I played Magic for a bit. everything you said in this video made me realize how much I need to just relax, have fun and build a deck without overthinking everything. I do want to get back into Magic and watching your videos has helped alot. hell I've already have a couple ideas for decks I'd like to build at some point. luckily I got my brother and his buddies who LOVE Magic so least I'm covered there
I'm struggling to build a reanimator 4fun deck, was trying to put a ramp engine (just cuz i always like to ramp); with a broken heart, i will try a variation without that engine, lets see how it goes :)
I'm glad the Prof emphasized "flavor wins". To me, deckbuilding is my favorite part of the game (weird playing isn't huh?) because of the creativity allowed when constructing a flavorful deck. I used to be all about winning, but as I've gotten older (35, been playing for nearly 25 years) the flavor aspect amongst my kitchen table group has been important. For example, at Halloween every year we draw from a jack-o'-lantern a Halloween related tribe. (This year I pulled zombies, thankfully). We then have a tourney battling each other with the aforementioned zombies, werewolves, vampires, spirits, basically everything from Innistrad. It has become our favorite event that we run and all year we keep in mind different brews. (I wish I could somehow shoehorn my favorite janky tribe, Minotaurs!). These flavor considerations for decks (and there are many beyond tribe) are very often over looked when winning is the beginning and end. I don't know about you, but if I crewed a vehicle from kaladesh with a grizzly bear, it would feel off. Ok, maybe not a grizzly bear because that would be amazing but you get the idea. Arming a Leviathan with a lightning greaves is maybe a better example. Winning is important, it is the goal after all. However, it should not come at the expense of the games feel, it's "je ne sais quoi".
That's not true. Thing in the Ice with Chasm Skulker and Brainstorm. Spellskite and Phyrexian Revoker are great cards. I play mono blue horrors. Docent of Perfection and Psychosis Crawler are solid top enders.
I'm not saying you cant I'm saying you cant make a horror tribal that's as good as humans, mer-folk or other top tear tribes I want more support for all tribal decks.
@@headshoutforthewinz Hot take= All Tribals are pretty narrow minded and not that great in the grand scheme of things. Long live Plague Engineer and Anger of the Gods!
My process when working and reworking a deck is to, after a few games, it is to ask myself “Am I excited whenever I draw this card?” and “How often do I pass up playing this card in favour of something else?” Depending on the answer to those questions I either remove the card or reduce the quantity in the deck.
Something that you're missing from this is talking about your mana curve. I know you've done this in other videos, but one big thing that determines the number of copies of cards in your deck is mana cost. If something is really hard to cast, you typically want less of them as you won't be able to cast it until later in the game. Meanwhile, you want a lot of low drops to ensure that you are "curving out" correctly. So, you would want more copies of 1-2 drops and less copies of 5-6 drops.
Me and my friends play casual and I have a simic deck that wrecks so bad I almost feel bad playing it. I use proliferation with tangle wire, saproling burst and cyclonic rift hahahahaha!!!
My modern GW angel tribal deck is almost 10 years old now and worth over $400, still constantly evolving. I kinda wish I found this video sooner some 7 or 8 years sooner, as I had to learn all of this the hard way.
Everybody has to start somewhere. Netdecking is the perfect place to start if you're a newbie and you're still getting the hang of how decks are constructed and you don't feel like having your opponents wipe the floor with you every single game in the meantime. Then, as you learn how to build your own, you can try experimenting with changing them up and seeing how that affects things.
Someone walked in and took a glance and the screen and thought I was watching an academical video. I just wanted you to know your level of sophistication.
This comment is under appreciated
@@chaoticpoodle3582 thank you
I gave you the 100th likes.. 👌🏻
@@Neoradtz thank you!
Well i mean it is
"Don't be a slave to your theme"
But... But goblins though.
Sperium3000 honestly this is me
*Hulk voice* But big monster
also angels
Elf's and slivers for me
Dragons or Eldrazi all the way
Ok.
I don’t play MTG or ever have for that matter. I have fallen down a deep rabbit hole. I watched one of your videos days ago and I have watched more everyday. Learning the basics or the game, building deck advise, buying items, or the general value of cards. This channel really does an amazing job of opening up a very large world to someone who has never been into Magic.
its a great game. its basically gwent but in real life. if you have a deck , you can play with anyone anywhere. even for money lol
Alex Domanovic where do we go to play for money?
@@DylanCEdh not sure,. might want to create a flyer for that , to get some action going
Dylan Church usually it’s during tournaments and wagers
@@DylanCEdh Go to your local Magic store and ask around, they will know somebody who is down to play for cash. If you meet someone crazy enough they might even play you for cards... 🤣
"It's not about winning individual games of Magic. It's about getting better, win or lose"
It's 2020, as a new player on Magic The Gathering, this channel helps me a lot in saving money, building my deck, and having fun! :)
salute to you, Professor!!!
- Dan from Philippines
"Just because you know how to play, doesn't mean you know how to play well."
I'm in this video and I don't like it.
You and me both brother
Yup
Bro same
You are not alone
everyone here including me
My strategic reason to play only one copy of a card usually is:
I only have one copy of the card xD
(and it's an expensive one so i don't wanna buy more copies just for a fun deck)
Main reason to play Commander : 1-ofs everywhere xD
Singleton is always an option as well. I understand the financial issue though. Still one copy of Chandra, Awakened Inferno. All I ever will have. 😂
Same. Except my reason is cause I'm still quite new, and I am 13 so I haven't got ANY money!😓😂
Bump it up to 100 cards including a commander and a descent amount of lands and you have a commander
My reason for playing only one copy of a card: It's restricted.
I recently got into Magic with a group of friends and I love it. I feel that my reason is kind of silly though, I like playing out stories with my cards and imaging them in their own epic tales as I'm playing. I guess kind of like a flavour win.
I do the same thing. Each match is an epic battle in our heads. That's why I love themed decks
As long as you are having fun then you are doing it right. Keep playing man.
Demon King Nobu: yes I always do that too. It all about imagination and fantasies.
Me imagining:
As I was walking through the forest (it was a traffic of cars) I saw a village (places like Starbucks, gas station and etc.). I saw a tavern (it a game store), I decided to enter. Then went to the bar (front desk/register) and ordered a drink (it a cards). As soon I turned around, I saw an old friend of mine (my friend) drawing his swords (deck of cards). I didn’t know what to do but my old friend (actually we met 2 yrs and still friends) look different (look the same different clothes). Then I decided to cast my spells (my deck) and fought. The tavern was torn apart when we battle (we were screaming and being too loud in the excitement way). It was tough but I managed to survived. But before I was about to end my old friend’s life and suffering, an evil witch took him away from me. I was soo close and one day will be able to finish it off (it wasn’t epic my friend had to go bc of his wife).
Emrys0211 Gamers this ^. This is what I do a lot 😂
Same with me my golgari commander deck is about a 7 ish in power scale when it could be an 8 or 9 but i dont like running cards too out of theme for it i like the story and a coherent theme in my commander decks same with my krenko deck how can you not run goblin bomb? You gotta win 5 coin flips to make it go off but hey when it does boom 20 dmg to some1 who thought the card was a joke lol.
I host a Tabletop Gaming Club at the high school I teach at and we recently got an influx of new players who are all neophytes at the game. This video couldn't have come at a better time. Love your content as always.
What's a neophyte
@@Savillozz someone who's relatively new and/or inexperienced in something
I just want to say that your breakdown of how many copies of a card you play with examples just really opened my eyes not only to better general deck building but sideboarding as well. Thank you, Prof.
Whenever the professor tosses something in the air to then catch, he looks very awkward and if he does catch it, he then looks very surprised that he did.
ManaJack 😂
ManaJack I’m homeschooled that’s why I thought it was funny
Lol
Lol
Lol
Girlfriend: "If you love your cards so much why dont you marry them"
Prof: "Don't marry your cards" .
I'm so conflicted
Its called a side deck xD
DeemedTV this pun is the pun to end all puns
@@cybersloth-mtg7296 lmao xD
@@Sin_6R Nice lol
Listen to the Professor here
"How to be better at card game. Step 1: Know what you're doing"
Me: Well, there's my problem
MeagenImage 😂😂😂😂😂
Lmfaooo Meeeee
Bro thats me.
Lol me as well
Helps to finally be told why you would run 1-4 copies of a card. Hells connect so many dots.
As someone who doesn't play magic and originally found this channel a couple years ago for his card sleeves and accessories reviews, I just gotta say that I love that the way he explains everything makes it really easy to apply to deck building in other games.
Despite me playing since Rise of the Eldrazi, I always find videos like this helpful. Sometimes I get forgetful or lost and I need to refresh myself on deck building and synergy from time to time.
This was actually a video with REALLY GOOD advice.
Playtesting can also be carried out on your own, with something like TappedOut and/or goldfishing. It is SO important. Ignore it at your peril.
For playtesting solo, it's actually kinda simple. You just go through doing a "normal" game, and by doing so you can see what you're drawing vs. what your playing. One time I decided to do 10 Turn 6 runs with my Dragon deck. Discovered it definitely needed to be reconfigured to make it work better. I was looking at how many lands was I getting, how many Mana dorks (the deck is Red Blue Green), how many spells to get me extra lands, etc. What I discovered is that the dorks could've been removed, the land search spells could be switched for making lands tap for any color, and I got better Dragons in the deck.
Using MTG Arena for playtesting is extremely helpful before buying specific cards.
Deck building is pretty overwhelming to me, but building a cat deck for my wife relaly got me motivated. Even trying to keep every creature house cat ish (no beasts, leopards, elemental cats, etc.) and it turned out to be a pretty crazy +1/+1 and lifelink deck. Actually, a lot of how you described in the video, but I can proudly say I figured it out before watching videos or looking at forums.
These tips definitely applied when I was building my Mimeoplasm deck. I started off trying to make it an ooze tribal, but there weren't enough oozes that consistently tied together for a coherent strategy. I had to cut several ooze cards (RIP Necroplasm) and ended up with a clone deck instead. Big thanks to Mitch at Commander's Quarters!
I have a theory that the reason a lot of people enjoy magic so much is because they are able to dedicate so much time to deck building. The actual gameplay is where most of the enjoyment comes from, but the deckbuilding itself is where the initial self-challenging comes from. It’s a lot of complex, smart decision making, in and out of the game.
Honestly it's the worst part of the game for me. I don't have the patience to sit and make a deck, so I usually just have one deck that I make small changes to all the time. I usually won't switch decks until my cards get phased out of standard and I'm forced to start from scratch again. I only play on my phone though
Awesome intro to deck building! That part about playtesting seems to elude people who think you can just throw a deck together and have it work great right out of the gate. Testing against the current format meta and practicing playing the deck always seem to take the most time and effort.
It's easy to build better decks: just add Benjamins and Grants.
I built my first Vampire Deck, for $5, but I feel your pain.
I see that thumbnail as the legendary sorcery "The Professor's Deck Sundering".
I’m just getting back into Magic after 20 years! This video’s giving me a much better understanding of what I should be doing as I explore building my decks! Thanks!
My elves-deck generates so much combo-green mana that I could replenish the entire rain forest.
(yes, I have a use for it too =P)
This video is indicative of how well-versed TA is in home-brewing. Thank you guys for this awesome video.
I took this video to heart, I used to think howling mine works in every non blue edh deck, then I realized that the group hug aspect doesn't work when your commander is non group hug, like my mono red commander, Heartless Hiritsugu! Thanks professor!!
“Don’t be a slave to your theme”
*looks at my three decks with eldrazi*
*looks at my four decks with flying*
*looks at my elemental tribal temur and realizes that I'd just ruin it if I didn't enslave myself to one theme*
I feel called out by the eldrazi
Looks at my 4 mill decks. Looks at my 3 land destruction decks. Looks at my 5 OTK decks.
@chill, cringe. Just stop
*Looks at my at least 5 decks with mutate as he's planning another mutate deck.*
great video, never thought about this kind of reasoning for 4, 3, 2, or 1 copies of a card.
Prof, chandra's defeat can't touch hazoret. It has indestructible
How to get better at deckbuilding:
Step 1.) Don't listen to the prof
(sorry prof, love ya anyway)
It can indeed touch it. It just doesn't do anything useful.
I came here to state the same.
But Hour of Devastation can
How to get better at deck building:
1) Read the cards
"why play a murder or fiery intervention when you could play fatal push or lightning bolt"
because those cards cost 2 dollars more.
so adding 4 of them into my deck will cost 8 dollars more.
i need to eat.
my first deck i wanted to all be the same card/art style so i bought more expensive versions of the cards so they all matched I dont think ive spend half as much on a deck since lmao
You are saying that besides the mana cost, there is a money cost for casting a spell?
@@lucieciepka1031 no he just means that the cost of some cards in the real world may cost a hefty ammount of money.
I got it, but as I’m using my husband’s 15 year old small collection I had never thought about the dollar cost of building a deck and how it can influence your game...
Eating is fun...
But Magic is more fun
I love how you approach everything with strategy/technique. My Respects to you, Professor. Thank You.
Finally found this channel again..Getting back into magic after some years and this guy always explained things very well
Thank you professor. i've been trying to build a Phyrexian deck on MTGA and i got frustrated for not being able to win in any way.
but with your help, i've not only seen that i've been trying to build around 4 win conditions at once
but also that i'd very much prefer a flavor win with Sheoldred beckoning the Breach of the Multiverse and a serious deck around Elesh norn.
i am very very grateful.
Addendum:
My deck still doesn't win games, but i feel good now. being able to cast some of my favorite spells like Sheoldred, Platinum angel, almost winning against an aggro deck by 6 measly damage off, and seeing my opponent having to cast 2 portals to Phyrexia and a bounce to finish me off is truly majestic.
TLDR: used to be frustrated playing a deck with 4 wincon and no consistency, this video made me create a fun deck that does cool and impressive stuff before losing the game.
"Did you read the card?" Is literally what I say to a lot of my opponents lol
You must not have many friends
Necromancy For Kids not wrong
I'm in this image and I don't like it
I haven’t played MtG in over 15 years until recently downloading Arena. Somehow I found your channel while trying desperately to keep up with so many changes, and boy oh boy did it pay off. Great content!
I needed this as someone whos been struggling to create a good orzhov control deck
You're not alone ;)
My best deck so far has been my "Ob Nicolas deck" that was inspired by a nicol bolas and my brand new ob nixilis. It focuses on gaining life for my red, counter spells for blue, and using my life as a resource for black. Almost all my cards that aren't spells are devils and vampires, and the rest heavily boost my devils and vampires. It worked super well the first test because it was so focused, and in truth only 4 cards even have blue lol
"What is your inspiration?"
Stax players: "No fun."
Umbra IMO solitaire.
LMAO
I have a blue/black/green Scarab God zombie tribal I've put 2 years of effort in, way too many zombies, and my win condition is Grimgrin, Corpse Born with trample. This video encouraged me to look back thru it and I made some neat additions, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Keskit the Flesh Sculptor, and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa to name a few.
"A *fun* synergy" [*shows boros charm and armageddon*] d-did cube april choose the graphics?
Total noob here. Have played 2 games of Magic in my life. Once in the late 90's at a friend's house when I was in highschool and just recently I played my experienced friend. My friend has been playing since near the beginning. After hearing him talk about it I decided "what the hell that actually sounds kinda fun." So I bought a premade deck of eBay... Then I bought some small essentials (a small box and sleeve's)... And then I bought a deck builders kit of Amazon lol. The kit will be here tomorrow and I am glad I stubbled across this video today. I already know it is going to be a daunting task, but at least you have given me a ray of light to help guide me. Great vid and hopefully I can employ what I have learned. I know it's definitely going to be a learning experience but I feel better going into it.
"Remember to have a goal, what type of deck are you building?"
Me: I just want to be a jackass 🤣
That's why I have a cheap to play, agro mono Black deck. Ankle biters early round, and they bite hard! Hahaha
Dude, my old swamp decks would literally just turn off games pretty much.
Play red or build a mill deck
So you play blue then.
This really gives my deck building a whole new perspective, especially with the number of cards in the deck per importance. This information is worth more than any fancy deck box! Thanks professor!
This video has answers to questions that I had since a long time ago. Thank you so much for this guide !!!
I'm new to MTG and this video is a great help to me. I mostly play on Arena, but a friend of mine is helping me get a real collection going.
My biggest issue right now is, like I'm sure a lot of people, building a good deck. MTG is so simple in concept, then expounds exponentially very quickly. I have built a mono Brawl deck which is easy, but now I'm working on a Standard blue/green which is not easy at all.
Make sure to LIKE the video and share it too! Every little bit helps :D
I love that decks evolve over time. I returned to Magic after a 5 year hiatus when Rise of the Eldrazi came out. Started with a precon. I have been perfecting that Eldrazi deck for 9-10 years. I recently restructured the deck and it no longer has any cards from that precon in it. Not even the lands.
17:30 It's the same in software engineering. Everyone wants tested software but people just love to skip that part while creating.
Most think of a test as something invisible that they will never see recognition for and hence they just use handwaving to verify whatever is asked. It produces more reward with less effort.
I'm sure most have a cooking recipe/selfmade drink/travel route that they have never compared to something similar but swear to their friends is the best there is. Thumbs up if you are one such person.
New to magic via playing mtg arena with my friends. I'm so glad to hear that themed decks are appropriate, because I'm finding coming up with theme concepts and creating decks based around them so fun!!
"...AND ALL THE CARDS NEED REBECCA GUAY ART!"
Challenge accepted.
I’ve been hobby-jank-brewing for a few years, and can say this is a good video. I’ve been working on a unique modern storm deck for a couple of years now, and I actually completely remade its engine recently. The deck works by milking yourself repeatedly until you hit past in flames and storm off from your yard. The old engine was a playset of glimpse the unthinkable and breaking and entering. The change I made was adapting a similar discard engine to the crab-gak deck. I cut the breaking and entering a and now It now has 4 stitcher and 4 crabs, and 4 memory sulices. Recently I was even thinking of adding infernal plunges in place of something because of the synergy with supplier and mana acceleration.
Solid stuff, Prof. You're churning out vids like a mad man! Keep it up and dont burn out. Go see a play or something.
Favorite flavor win I’ve been doing for years, playing cards that create tokens and pulling out little figurines or toys to put on the table. It always surprises people and I get a spark of joy everytime. Related flavor win, stupidly oversized dice. Flavor win I haven’t tried yet but want to, using snacks as food tokens and eating them when they’re sacrificed.
Yes! The video I have been waiting for!
I remember the good old days.. running a goblin commander deck with Krenko as the commander and turn 7 with over a 100 goblins, and enchantment like "sacrifice a goblin and get 1 red mana" or "sacrifice a goblin, deal 1 damage to target creature or player" and much more. It was all over the place with different effects but it worked wonderfully.
Me: *Makes a mono-black discard deck*
Also me: *Puts three Phyrexian Obliterators in it*
That card just works in every mono black haha
@@Origamiiiiiiiiiiii Till some cornball Justice Strikes or Kiku's Shadows it lmao
@@schlockfather honestly I didnt know of those cards. Time to go ruin my cousins day next time we play lmao
The quote on it not being about winning or losing is definitely going to help in my mindset for Magic, I also appreciate this video as a whole the tips all make a lot of sense that i never thought about before
My passion with cat tribal always get crushed by my opponent passion to always countering my spells.
Honestly, a lot of these rules can apply to deck building in any game. Thanks!
"Dont be a slave to your theme"
Damn, but.. I wont even put a card in my deck if the art doesnt line up
This was a very informative video. Amazing job! I wish there were more out there like this that actually give good tips on deck building. If you search deck building on youtube or pretty much anywhere all you get is videos and articles that say the same old crap. Put lands in your deck put creatures in your deck and throw some spells in there too. It's so annoying. You should make more guides like this talking more in-depth about different strategies to use for more advanced players. I know I for one am always looking for deck building tips. To me, it's one of the hardest things to master in MTG.
Wow Professor, you and I build Magic decks exactly backwards!
It's very fitting. I started watching the Tolarian Tutor series this week, and you come out with this vid!
I WILL ALWAY BE A SLAVE TO MY THEME, END OF DISCUSSION.
I agree. What's the point of winning, if I can't do so with a beautiful deck?
My Zombies are my Zombies. For ever!
Newbie from Sweden here. Just wanna drop in and say that I really enjoy this channel and find the content very wholesome.
Wow, that Rebecca Guay themed deck remark hit so close to home. I tried!
I just started playing and all your videos are immensely helpful, especially this one. A well spoken sharp dressed man using cats to teach me things is all I've ever wanted from educational material.
Prof:”Don’t get married to your cards.”
Power 9:”Am I a joke to you?!”
Just started getting into magic this year with my clients. This video helped me understand the game A LOT more, so thank you! Excited to retool my deck so I finally stand a chance against my kids!
The basic understanding of my deck:
Ajani, Inspiring Leader + Ajani's Pridemate
(Once I got Ajani's Pridemate to be a 13/13 in a real match!)
I've seen a 47/47 in mtg arena
@@mes6002seq Flexer lol
Mine is azors gateway into sanguine sacrament into debt to the deathless. 886 life in one game is my current record
I got this idea directly from Saffron Olive's excellent explanation of the same topic: One other reason you might want to run two copies of a card is if you want *more* than four copies of an effect in your deck, and are willing to branch out into an alternative. An example of this would be something like modern Jund. Jund really wants to play a hand distruption spell on turn 1, and considers 4 copies of the best option (Inquizition of Kozikek) not enough, so they run two copies of the next best option, Thoughtseize, but they don't run the full 4 because they don't want to draw too many of them in the late game.
Thanks for your videos. I watched you a while ago and you inspired me to start playing again and I have forgotten how much I missed janky deck builds.
I’m in my first month of playing magic, and this video is a GAME CHANGER. Thank you so much!!
me: *asks a good friend of mine to make me a cat deck for modern*
Friend: *makes a decent deck*
me: *orders the cat deck online*
me: *excited to play with it*
Tolarian Community College: *uploads a video about making a cat deck 3 days after I order the deck online*
me: sAy SiKe RiGhT nOw.
F
F
F
This is why I wish there were better middle tier decks that were sold. But since the vs themed decks disappeared, we haven't had much for middle tier decks. Much of my own experience with what I like and dislike comes from these themed decks. They were rarely overpowered and they often did what they wanted to do fairly well. It was through these decks that I learned what I liked and what style that I wanted to play.
"dont be a slave to your theme."
Me: but... But God tribal though...
I go back to your videos anytime my decks aren't performing ideally! Thanks for the amazing and thoughtful information!
Nice explanation about deck building. Will help a lot of players. Good job 👍
Prof I'd like to say thank you for this video. now THIS! This is the kind of video I wish I had years ago when I played Magic for a bit. everything you said in this video made me realize how much I need to just relax, have fun and build a deck without overthinking everything. I do want to get back into Magic and watching your videos has helped alot. hell I've already have a couple ideas for decks I'd like to build at some point. luckily I got my brother and his buddies who LOVE Magic so least I'm covered there
I'm struggling to build a reanimator 4fun deck, was trying to put a ramp engine (just cuz i always like to ramp); with a broken heart, i will try a variation without that engine, lets see how it goes :)
4 copies of Dark Ritual counts as a ramp engine, doesn't it?
Professor: Cats cats cats cats cats cats
Credits: Michelle Rapp
Me: Checks out
I've been playing for a long time, but I found the segment on how many cards to include very informative. Thanks!
I needed this vid. thanks, Prof.
You commented this 6 minutes ago-the video is 19 minutes long. You haven’t finished the video yet
Professor, you just read my mind. Not only did I struggle with Deck building lately, I was just working on a Cat deck!
Finally a cat video, the classic of RUclips
I'm glad the Prof emphasized "flavor wins". To me, deckbuilding is my favorite part of the game (weird playing isn't huh?) because of the creativity allowed when constructing a flavorful deck. I used to be all about winning, but as I've gotten older (35, been playing for nearly 25 years) the flavor aspect amongst my kitchen table group has been important. For example, at Halloween every year we draw from a jack-o'-lantern a Halloween related tribe. (This year I pulled zombies, thankfully). We then have a tourney battling each other with the aforementioned zombies, werewolves, vampires, spirits, basically everything from Innistrad. It has become our favorite event that we run and all year we keep in mind different brews.
(I wish I could somehow shoehorn my favorite janky tribe, Minotaurs!). These flavor considerations for decks (and there are many beyond tribe) are very often over looked when winning is the beginning and end. I don't know about you, but if I crewed a vehicle from kaladesh with a grizzly bear, it would feel off. Ok, maybe not a grizzly bear because that would be amazing but you get the idea. Arming a Leviathan with a lightning greaves is maybe a better example. Winning is important, it is the goal after all. However, it should not come at the expense of the games feel, it's "je ne sais quoi".
I've wanted to build a horror tribal deck but there is not enough support for it. :(
Phyrexia is calling, they would like a word with you.
That's not true. Thing in the Ice with Chasm Skulker and Brainstorm. Spellskite and Phyrexian Revoker are great cards. I play mono blue horrors. Docent of Perfection and Psychosis Crawler are solid top enders.
I'm not saying you cant I'm saying you cant make a horror tribal that's as good as humans, mer-folk or other top tear tribes I want more support for all tribal decks.
@@headshoutforthewinz Hot take= All Tribals are pretty narrow minded and not that great in the grand scheme of things. Long live Plague Engineer and Anger of the Gods!
@@schlockfather bored wipes are the bane of all tribal decks cant wait so go back to slivers.
My process when working and reworking a deck is to, after a few games, it is to ask myself “Am I excited whenever I draw this card?” and “How often do I pass up playing this card in favour of something else?” Depending on the answer to those questions I either remove the card or reduce the quantity in the deck.
I can't believe he did my man hawkeye dirty like that
This was helpful. I sometimes catch myself finding those pitfalls like loving a card so much i put it in everything lol
prof, I love how your outfit matches with the unstable swamp behind you in the thumbnail. was that planned?
Something that you're missing from this is talking about your mana curve. I know you've done this in other videos, but one big thing that determines the number of copies of cards in your deck is mana cost. If something is really hard to cast, you typically want less of them as you won't be able to cast it until later in the game. Meanwhile, you want a lot of low drops to ensure that you are "curving out" correctly. So, you would want more copies of 1-2 drops and less copies of 5-6 drops.
Me and my friends play casual and I have a simic deck that wrecks so bad I almost feel bad playing it. I use proliferation with tangle wire, saproling burst and cyclonic rift hahahahaha!!!
My modern GW angel tribal deck is almost 10 years old now and worth over $400, still constantly evolving. I kinda wish I found this video sooner some 7 or 8 years sooner, as I had to learn all of this the hard way.
Yo, why the Hawkeye dig though?
Low blow, man. Low blow.
Currently building my own deck for some games with friends. Super helpful video thank you!!
"How To Build Better Magic: The Gathering Decks" - Me looking at my net decks on my table...
Net decks are nothing bad. Plus, you can always look to improve and innovate on what is there.
@@gulmunthos i agree! I like net decks, and adapting to my play style ^^
Everybody has to start somewhere. Netdecking is the perfect place to start if you're a newbie and you're still getting the hang of how decks are constructed and you don't feel like having your opponents wipe the floor with you every single game in the meantime. Then, as you learn how to build your own, you can try experimenting with changing them up and seeing how that affects things.
This is one of the best videos I've seen on MTG. Thank you. It was helpful, detailed, and professionally done. Have to say this is great.
Feeding the algorithm
I appreciate the videos. Been playing for over 20 years. Took a long break and been getting back into it with my kids now. Thanks for the advice!