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[QUOTE=myoders214]Hello everyone, the question i am about to ask will make me sound like a new but to tell you the truth i am not new to the game i have been playing off and on for over 10 years now. But for some reason i can not make a deck on my own i always need help and it is nerve wrecking. I would be so greatful if i can get some help on learning on how to make a good deck and where to start.:manaw::manau::manab::manag::manar:[/QUOTE]

There are three general deck archtypes: aggro, control, and combo.


Aggro - Aggressive decks that try to win quickly through a strong early game. They value threats and disruption that are cheap and efficient. Classic examples are Goblin decks and "white weenie," which use lots of inexpensive creatures so that they can always start attacking aggressively from the get-go.

Most casual creature-based decks are aggro decks, often clogged up by flashy expensive Timmy cards.

Some aggro decks can get away with expensive creatures if they have some trick to get them out quickly, such as green magic's efficient mana acceleration or black magic's reanimation techniques.

Green and white are good at this because of efficient creatures. Black has some great all-purpose disruption like discard effects along with high-risk aggressive creatures like Carnophage and Phyrexian Negator. Aggression is very much in color for red and it has some great Goblins and cheap burn (to do away with blockers) to back it up. Blue's pretty bad at it.


Control - These decks take a longer view, and seek to shape and stabilize board positions to their advantage. They favor versatile and efficient removal and disruption, seeking to keep their opponent suppressed until they can win with a "finisher."

Blue is a good color for this, since things like Counterspell and Boomerang are so versatile and blue is good at accruing card advantage over the long term. White is good at it too, with its wide range of quality removal spells and board-shaping things like Wrath of God. Black's discard effects and creature removal, and red's burn spells get them a place at the table (though usually not by themselves), but green is pretty bad at it.


Combo - These decks are focused on bringing about a certain configuration of cards that will grant them an overwhelming advantage at any point in the game and whatever the board looks like. They favor tutoring (as in Demonic Tutor) and card-filtering effects. They are exactly as good as they are fast and consistent.

This one is all over the map, colorwise, though I like blue for it because Force of Will is about the best defense for your combo you can get.


So, a good basic deck building method is to choose one of these strategies and try to pull it off.

These are very general forms, and you by no means have to be constricted by them, but focus is a key quality of good decks and these archtypes are well-tested and good conceptual starting points.

my advice is first determine what type of player you are. do you like synergy? (how cards interact w/ each other) or do you play because you just want to cast that 1 card that you got on a booster that's awesome (like blightsteel colossus for example) or do you play to win? once you determine this then pick a color. choosing color, for me is based on your personality.(see advice 1). then get a card from that color (perferably an uncommon, rare or mythic rare card) then build a deck around it. you could bulid a deck based on abilities (like infect or battle cry) or you could build a deck because you want to win against a deck that is popular at that time where no one can beat it ( a good example of this was back in the 90's where necropotence deck was THE DECK to beat and someone from finland built a STASIS deck that specifically targets and beat a necro decks). just make sure to play test it to find it's strengths and weakness. also a good deck buiding exercize is the draft simulator at daily mtg. you can access it there and you can build decks by just picking what you have in the boosters. after you've done the simulation post it in the forums so that you can get comments and suggestions to improve your deck building skills. you should also check out on of the subjects in this website for deck building.