Deck building for Dummies (Me!)

When it comes to building decks, there are so many ways to go about it. Deck inspiration, at least for me, can come from just about anything: from seeing your friend smash you with his deck and wanting to build one just to beat it, or opening a sweet rare and wanting to exploit it and see it do something cool, to hearing about a cool deck or card combo and looking it up online to see how people have put it together. I am guilty of all of these.

For instance, I like to play Standard. When I do get to go to tournaments, it's the most popular format locally here in Salt Lake, and it's not even close. When I hang out with my friends, things are much more casual, but most of us do keep up a Standard deck as well. This last little while, my Standard deck has been Boros Burn, or Red-White Burn. For me this was because of a single card: Warleader's Helix. I thought the art was great, the gameplay was great, and I just wanted to hit those big creatures with it. The problem was that it was just a little too expensive. Mizzium Mortars did the same damage for two mana, and I'd always get stuck with Helix in my hand while I was casting my own creatures. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be.

I wanted to do this, but I couldn't figure out how.
So I "cheated".

Then I was reading coverage for a Grand Prix, and I came across a player I'd never heard of, James Fazzolari, and he beat his opponents with Warleader's Helix. I read the match report, and I knew that this was the deck I was looking for. And because I'd been trying to make the deck for a while, (and I'm very not secretly a red mage at heart) I already had most of the pieces. And it turns out the key to making the card work was to not target my opponents' creatures, but to point it at their faces!

Face burn it is! I know this card can do three things,
but I really like the first one. Like, a lot!

Basically the deck works like this; You pair a bunch of cheap burn spells with hasty creatures that keep coming back and don't care about your own life total, because you'll be keeping them too busy to hit you while you burn their face off. This sounds like quintessential Red burn, but White was important for two reasons: Boros Charm and Chained to the Rocks. Two mana for 4 damage, and 1 mana to get rid of anything that was distracting you from killing your opponent quickly. And then Warleader's Helix was the beautiful cap on the top; Burning your opponent's life away as yours keeps dancing further out of reach. I had a lot of fun and tournament success with this deck, and in about a month half of it leaves Standard so this is kind of my fond farewell to it.

I know this card forces you to play Red-White.
But when you're already playing Red-White...

Now, I did something here that not many people care for, which is basically end up playing a deck that I found online. Net-decking, as people call it, is almost a dirty word for some players. And I completely respect people wanting to have success with a deck that they designed by themselves, with no input from others. Something that they discovered themselves. And the fact is, I tried that. I've had some home-brewed decks that worked out really well, like an Illusion tribal deck or Human Aggro deck that I've played with in the past, but finding this deck was like a key to unlock that card that I could never quite get to work.

Basically my point is to never discard an idea until you've tried it out. If you want to make that crazy card everyone else hates the center of your deck, then do it. If you watch a game and a pro has a deck that looks like a lot of fun, try it out! No one can tell you how to enjoy your Magic. There's enough to go around, trust me.

Even this card's effect can be the focus of your deck.
Your friends may not like it very much,
but they'll get over it, right?

I am going to keep talking about the decks I play, whether I designed them myself or not, and hopefully I'll get to keep playing and writing for a while. I know I've been busy and not updating for the last few weeks, but now my daughter is starting Kindergarten, my work schedule is changing, and summer's crazy renovating project is finally wrapping up. You can expect more regular updates now. The next one will probably be about whatever Mark Rosewater has been teasing since his last article. Sounds like something big. If you ever want to read more articles on Magic, I'd start with the weekly entries from the game's Head Designer. Mark Rosewater not only makes Magic, but he chronicles it every Monday, and it's definitely worth your time. Talk to you soon!