Discussion Forum

I have a better idea, throw together a cube of good modern cards and draft 3 decks. There are draft methods for 2 people like Winston Draft but they can probably be made to work for 3 people as well. Just try it out.

here's and article on draft formats

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af59


You'll have far more fun drafting new decks then trying to balance out 3 fixed decks that are going to get boring real fast and require a lot of playtesting to balance out.

Decks are really only balanced against eachother if everyone playing them knows them inside and out. It's also not really viable to expect certain decks to have ALL card types within the deck.

I think it would be better to start off with a plan for the deck rather than a color set. Like Aggro/burn vs Midrange vs Control/combo.

On top of that, the decks would be balanced on the grand scale but not vs eachother specifically since the game by default is a game of counters like rock/paper/scissors so one deck will be weak to one but strong vs the other.

I would probably go along with Seth's idea but that might not be doable for less than $150 unless you do it seriously toned down.

[QUOTE=_Epsilon_]I would probably go along with Seth's idea but that might not be doable for less than $150 unless you do it seriously toned down.[/QUOTE]

yeah there is that but I was assuming the guy already has a bunch of cards he can throw into the cube (like borrowing cards to the cube for as long as needed). At the place I FNM they have an all commons/uncommons legacy cube that is brilliant and great fun to play, and cheap. Not that I suggest to play only commons and uncommons. There are many great cheap rares that improve such a cube a lot. Sweepers for instance are a problem in common/uncommon cubes.


The only really balanced decks I've seen are established legacy decks and even there you have the rock/paper/scissors effect to some extend. The reason the decks are balanced is because they have seen so much play for so long by so many high level players that each deck is just the best possible version of a given strategy. It's impossible to get to such optimization on a casual level. Also once the decks are balanced the ability to pilot the deck kicks in. I know legacy players that no matter what deck they play and no matter how hard they try I will beat them 99% of the time whatever Tier 1 deck we test. Then there are players that I can only hope for 50/50 percent chance of beating them no matter how well I play. And against such players at tournaments it's always the ones who perform best under stress and fatigue (9 rounds of magic) who come out on top and it's usually where I myself fail as I don't do so well after several rounds as my concentration drops.

I've tried to do what you want to do for friends who started out playing magic and even for my own, still very young daughters but it's really hard to establish such decks and the truth is they get boring real fast.
Multiplayer Commander (3 way multiplayer works fine) is a good place to start with new players who show a knack for the game. Draft is also a good place to start as I suggested before. I would even say each buying a booster box of the same set and have them create decks from that pool and constantly pressure them to improve their decks from that same pool is a good place to start.

I just want a 1v1v1 duel deck. Like Izzet vs Golgari except it's Azorius vs Selesnya vs Rakdos. I know it's gonna be hard, but I really wanna do this for these guys. I just need the formula for the balancing of duel decks or something. That's all. Or for someone to say "oh yeah, here's all 3!" Either is fine.

here's the formula

- create 3 decks each in the appropriate colors
- get together with a team of playtesters and test the decks for a few months while tweaking them, testing them, tweaking them, testing them...

No player however good he is makes 3 balanced decks, just like that, it doesn't happen

If you stick within a similar level of rares as the duel decks and also limit it to certain blocks it will be a bit easier since they've essentially already balanced the blocks for limited.

...but as Seth said, it will take months of playtesting and tweaking to verify that they're actually on a reasonably similar power level.

It's also a lot to expect them to play against you and your friends with their beginner untested decks that they didn't make. What if the lose game after game? They will blame you for making bad decks. And then you will say, invest more money, then they will say in what, but no matter what they invest they will keep on losing because magic has a very steep learning curve.

Have you ever played the duel decks against homebrew decks in 1vs1? They might be somewhat balanced against eachother but once you start playing them against other decks they are crap. Most duel decks aren't even balanced. I clearly remember Garruk vs Liliana, Garruk was much stronger.

Your problem is nothing new, it's the same for every group and every new player

I don't need them tournament ready, in fact, I don't need them to be good. I'll build a crappy budget deck to play against them and all that jazz. They only have each other to play against. I don't really care if it stands up to other decks I just need them to stand a chance against each other.

Basically, I don't want any 1 deck to OBVIOUSLY beat another.

Read through all the Building on a buget articles and take 3 decks

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/archive.aspx?tag=building%20on%20a%20budget&description=building%20on%20a%20budget

They are usually fairly balanced and pretty cheap (at least at the time they were written). He also tests them against other decks. It's a good starting point.

Select 3 decks you think are good starting points and post them here. at least then we have something to start from.

Easy mode. I do it tomorrow. They'll be newer cards as I haven't been playing. Believe me the job will be met. And most of all the decks will be super fun to play and strong enough where they wont be embarrassed to play them in public.

[QUOTE=vines]Easy mode. I do it tomorrow. They'll be newer cards as I haven't been playing. Believe me the job will be met. And most of all the decks will be super fun to play and strong enough where they wont be embarrassed to play them in public.[/QUOTE]

well, where are they?