How do you approach deck building?

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duducrash
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Post by duducrash » 3 years ago

I have two fat packs with "work in progress" decks, and when I mentioned this to a friend he was weirded our and wanted to know more. Then we got into the subject of how we build our decks.

He builds a list he likes, checking cool ideias from edhrec buys the majority of the cards and upgrade overtime with more expensive parts/tweaking the underperforming cards. His end result is similar to his final draft.

My process is kinda "It would be cool if I had an Alela constelation deck. Constelation was fun back in theros" so I grab a bunch of cards that would work together in that sense. And put them together. Every once in a while I'll add something I pick up. But from this idea until sleeving up its a whiiiile. I just keep the idea arround adding a card or two to the pile whenever I find it. Then when they are actually "ready" I have a overwhealming pile and end up having to cut a bunch and the deck is pretty bad most likely, so I will tune it up, then down until it gets to my taste.

And you? How do you approach building a new deck? How long does it take between the idea and sleeving it up/its final form. I'm super curious

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Post by void_nothing » 3 years ago

I don't think I have a consistent approach? But so often I find myself seeing cards that I own and thinking "I'd like to play these" and finding a commander who can use them.
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Post by RxPhantom » 3 years ago

I start accumulating ideas on a Word document so I don't forget anything. I do not use outside resources at first, though; I want the core ideas and strategies behind the deck to be mine, even if it's a 'practically builds itself' commander like Yarok, the Desecrated or Feather, the Redeemed . Like you, the time between initial brainstorming and actually sleeving the thing up is sometimes months. I've been slowly brewing a Kykar, Wind's Fury deck for what feels like forever. Anyway, after putting the first draft through a few games, I figure out what works and what didn't, and make the appropriate changes. I do the same for the second draft, and at that point I feel like the deck's configuration if stable, more or less, so then I'll check out EDHrec to see how other people approached the same commander.
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Post by pokken » 3 years ago

I usually build purely from my collection these days and if I find gaps or good new cards I don't own yet I get them later after the deck has proved itself interesting

My process is to get an idea then pull out all the cards that seem reasonable, build the deck by making piles of categories then laying everything out in curve piles and making cuts until it's right..

Sometimes if there's just a bunch of cards for an idea I don't own I will place an order of all the stuff I might conceivably play and add it to my collection then build. This is usually the way when I haven't built an archetype before or got rid of the overpriced pieces (e.g. doubling season and Mana reflection are cards I have ditched a few times)

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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

I always start with deciding on a deck concept. This usually begins with me choosing an archetype and finding a commander for it... or, alternatively, I have a shortlist of deck archetypes I think would be fun to build, and I wait for an appropriate commander to be printed.

From there, I'll look through my collection and throw together a rough first draft by physically laying out cards on a table. Cutting cards can take a while, and usually consists of me switching between organizing the deck by curve (and cutting anything too expensive) and grouping cards into different categories (and cutting the weakest card in each category). Next, I play a few games with with the deck. Initial draft usually has some significant holes in it, but it's still enough to have an idea of how things will function.

After I've tested out the rough draft, I put together a list of cards I don't own that I'm interested in testing out and order singles. From there, lots of iterating as I test the deck, cut cards that are underperforming, and add in cards that I haven't tested yet. As for where the list of cards to get comes from... generally a mix of me knowing some cards I want beforehand, actual research via scryfall/etc, and me making a note of cool cards during preview seasons, or if I just happen to encounter them. I usually try to avoid consulting EDHREC / actual decklists until after I've already played the deck a few times.

I'll note that a lot of my decks are built using another deck as a skeleton, either an actual precon or one of my other existing decks - getting a new set of lands + removal + ramp for every new deck is a pain, so I try to avoid it. I think the only decks I've build 100% from scratch are Tasigur and Animar. Sharuum, Thada, Mizzix, and Kess were built using the appropriately-colored precons. Teysa was built off the mono-white precon. Brago, Zedruu, and Samut utilized Thada, Sharuum, and Tasigur as skeletons, respectively.

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Post by toctheyounger » 3 years ago

I usually build top down with a commander that I think is interesting. Interesting I sort of define as something that doesn't have an obvious path, and has some scope for variation, in both archetypes and variation in price point for includes. I'll spend a little, but if the shell of the deck needs a ton I'm out, I don't have RL cards for the most part.

Once I've got a target in mind I'll mull it over as long as I need to to flesh out some general strategy and contingencies and start playtesting to tighten up the list. Most of my lists will come from the bones of other decks that have just run their course, but there's always some that I'm sentimental about, case in point Glissa, the Traitor and Dralnu, Lich Lord. Then there's new builds that just don't work out as interesting as I thought they would; case in point is Kalamax, the Stormsire - my first thought is it would be cool and fun, but having had a few games against him I'm not so sure, it was a lot like sitting there watching someone else play.
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Post by Crazy Monkey » 3 years ago

I usually start when I get a concept of some sort stuck in my head. Something like "Feather, the Redeemed all instants", "Rayami, First of the Fallen + sacrifice as a cost", or "mutate on ninjas". If I really like a commander, then it may just be a desire to play that commander. Occasionally it's a card that I want in the deck as a centerpiece, such as "Sunforger Control "or "Sphinx of the Chimes + 50 Persistent Petitioners".

Then I do a massive pile of gatherer/scyfall searches to look for viable cards in the theme/ playstyle. If I can't find enough supporting cards or the options end up too similar to a deck I already have built then either the new idea stays an idea to torment me or the previous deck might be disassembled. If I get stuck, I'll usually check some forums and/or brainstorm with my playgroup. Sometimes the idea changes drastically and ends up being an entirely different deck. My Ertai, the Corrupted deck started with wanting a wizard tribal deck, and planning for a more combo plan with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, but then Dawn Evangel pointed me at auras and now it's tribal wizard control: permanents only.

From there, I start acquiring the cards that I found, from collection then either by trade or LGS first (pre covid) or online orders. This usually continues until one of my thresholds is reached.

1. I already built it immediately, with whatever I have on hand. I built Sydri, Galvanic Genius with basically 40 lands and 60 mana rocks at 3am because I wanted to have "manarock tribal aggro". Yes, it was absolutely terrible.

2. If the idea won't get out of my head, I might cram in some secondary theme and have barely enough cards for the deck or just take the deck another route. When I built Chulane, Teller of Tales I built the deck immediately after I had Shrieking Drake and Whitemane Lion in the pile, threw in ~80 lands and started playing it with my only wincon being Rampaging Brontodon. It did the primary plan and that was it. I had a similar build when I first assembled Zada, Hedron Grinder though I had most cantrips from the LGS bulk commons that day, playing whatever decent creatures/token sources I could find in my collection.

3. The other threshold is when I've searched from my bulk, traded for or purchased 150-400 cards for a concept and finally get around to parsing it down to a deck. This usually has 2-4 extra themes or gameplans which were adjacent to the original concept and I have to cut at least half the cards. I still have a pile of 60 more instants and an entire side package of arcane spells in a pile from when I built Feather and a similar pile of Wizards and Auras from Ertai, the Corrupted.

In either case, the most overlooked section of my deck is usually the manabase. Because I keep all my decks built, as I get better lands I upgrade the manabase of decks, but this usually means that I have to make due with EtB tapped lands in the first draft and high basic land counts unless the theme dictates a certain speed/power and I get the lands as part of the pre-building process. I usually then played the deck immediately, because 75% of the time I've been working on the deck during/between a Commander game at the LGS.

Once I have my own deck built, I'll proactively look online to see if someone else built something similar and if I missed something. The deck then gets slowly tweaked/"upgraded" over time with a better manabase if it deserves it and new cards. This may mean that I'm adding entire new card packages to support specific cards, or just doing 1-for-1 swaps for new printings.

My approach is generally haphazard and I rarely adhere to the recommended density of cards (eg. draw, removal). I don't mind if my deck has massive weaknesses initially as long as it's on theme, and I generally upgrade within my themes unless I change how I think about that deck. This is partially because I have such a variety in decks that they would end up too similar without those limitations.
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Post by cryogen » 3 years ago

I'm more or less like pokken. When I have an idea for a deck I'll mull it over in my head, jotting down notes and cards on a notepad in my phone. Then when I actually sit down to build I pull everything from my collection that is either on theme (which is always the driving force behind a deck), or simply utility (e.g. mana fixing, removal, draw).

At that point I whittle it down to a 100 card first draft and make a new list of cards I am missing, either from memory or a Gatherer search, ordering the cheaper cards and putting the more expensive ones on a wishlist. By the time those cards arrive I've hopefully played at least one or two games with it and scrapped the deck or know what to cut. Usually, of the dozen cards I ordered at least one or two make it into the deck and the rest go into an ever-growing pile of cards to sort back into my collection 🤣
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Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

I'm a very top down builder. I start with a legend that I find interesting, preferably one in wrong colours for what it does and/or offering something unique when built around. And then I jam in stuff that works with this angle. I don't shy away from EDHREC, even at early stages of a deck's life, but these days I typically hop on freshly spoiled ones once something nice pops up. As such, I usually get building before EDHREC even knows of the legend. I spend more time on Scryfall though, querying oracle text based on elements of cards I know I want to run to find similar stuff. The important part isn't the initial build though - all that can get shuffled around. The important part is copious testing, seeing what stuff works, trying to reinforce it. I also often shunt my lists at knowledgeable friends, whose opinions I don't always follow but whose perspective I greatly value. Sometimes they turn me onto juicy secret tech I didn't know existed, sometimes they help me see that a certain aspect I'm pursuing is not worth it. At some point the list clears the paper hurdle, once it runs smoothly, does what I want it to, and my playgroup does not disapprove of it.
 
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Post by Hawk » 3 years ago

I'm a lot like pokken. I usually start by writing a list in a Word Document, using EDHRECs to make sure I'm nabbing "must plays" or having a good reason (budget, availability, a different direction than normal, local meta) for not. If it's a really weird theme, like "Saskia Curses", I'll google other lists for inspiration as well.

Then I promptly ignore that and flip through my rare binders, searching for stuff I knew I wrote down and nabbing stuff that seems interesting.

Then I go through all my boxes for stuff I wrote down that are common/uncommon staples, often nabbing more interesting cards along the way.

At this point I have a pile of ~200 cards, enough for 2-3 decks. I start dividing that pile into general domains, with a goal of following a basic principle nowadays that "50% of your deck should be dedicated to keeping your engine running - draw, ramp, interaction - keeping that stuff as interactive as possible with the deck's theme".

So I'll winnow down a little pile of 8-16 ramp cards (depending on CMC of Commander and deck gameplan), 8-16 interaction cards, and 8-16 draw/tutor/scry/recursion cards, around 35 total.

Then I start filling in with the fun stuff. I usually get up to 58-60 cards and now it's the agony of what I want and what to cut to fill those last 2-7 slots. I'll flip through the pile I've built to start checking curve (I like to have 15-20 proactive 1 and 2 mana plays, assuming my Commander itself isn't 1 or 2 mana) and theme (when building Arcades a few weeks ago, for instance, I wanted to make sure I was at least at 30 defenders). Tiebreakers will go to the stuff that looks the most fun, obscure, or durdly.

The pile of ~140 spare cards stays out as a massive maybeboard in a fatpack box for a few days/weeks/months, so that cards that just missed the cut are easily on-hand as I playtest and tweak. Eventually, I arrive on a solid deck and that stuff gets sorted back into the collection.

If a deck feels like it really doesn't work without a key piece, I'll buy or order it (this happens more often for my wife, who wants decks "done to start"); for instance I knew Arcades really wanted Stalwart Shield-Bearers, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, and Orator of Ojutai and we didn't own any so the deck wasn't built until we acquired them. More often, I play as is and keep my wishlist in the back of my head - for instance, Samut would like to be running Kogla, Etali, and Elder Gargaroth on its top-end instead of Saproling Burst and stuff, but I didn't want to have to go buy those cards even though Kogla is a buck, so I'm just rolling with alternates for now.

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Post by Sinis » 3 years ago

I'm usually inspired by a general or theme, and then run with it. My knowledge of cards is somewhat encyclopedic (supplemented by scryfall) and my collection is so close to complete that I will do some combination of a) writing down key pieces I think of on my phone for retrieval later, and b) browsing through my collection for things that would fit or otherwise be exciting.

I often want my first drafts to be as perfect as possible, so my deckbuilding goes at a glacial pace. I still make tons of modifications after the first few games, though.

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Post by ISBPathfinder » 3 years ago

I generally speaking start with one of two directions:
  • I see a commander I think is interesting and I start asking myself what synergy and direction I could go with that commander. Building from the ground up around the commander while looking for synergy to go with the commander.
  • I start with a concept and try to fit a commander to the concept. As an example it could be Boonweaver Giant + Pattern of Rebirth + Gift of Immortality and so from there I would look for GWX commanders to make enchantress auras sort of a thing.
More often than not I build around a specific commander but sometimes when a concept requires more of specific colors than a specific commander I sometimes get into the other form of building. I would say 95% of lists I make come from self inspiration but every now and then I see someone else's commander and decide to use that commander or rough concept.
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Post by Dunharrow » 3 years ago

My process is similar to yours.

I see a general I really like or I have a concept I want to build around (Panharmonicon triggers when your opponents' creatures entering the battlefield triggers your permanents. My next step is to go through my collection and see what fits into the idea I have. Generally, my goal is to maximize the effectiveness of my idea. My Kefnet the Mindful deck is about maximizing its activated ability. My Scarab God deck is mostly about maximizing the effect of turning creatures into 4/4s. I know I could make both decks better but I like building around the thing I have in mind.

I usually end up with 200 cards in a pile, at which point I start making cuts. Usually I will get down to about 70 cards, throw in some lands, and goldfish a little to see how it handles. This will usually lead to more cuts as I find nonbos. And eventually, finalized list.

I may, at any point in the process, look online for ideas and buy some singles for the deck. I remember how thrilled I was to get a Magmasaur for Marchesa, the Black Rose.

I became well-known in my LGS for picking up orders of singles and having to guess why I bought them.


The worst part of this method of deckbuilding is that my decks tend to fall apart when the main thing I am building around is not in play. My Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck falls apart if you keep killing my rakdos. But... I just don't want a backup plan.
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Post by Cyberium » 3 years ago

I put my commander on the floor/table, then surround it with piles of cards base on core functions, forming a circle around it. For example, Assassin's Trophy would belong to the removal pile, and Necropotence would go to the card-draw pile. I'd also have pile(s) that'd tie strongly with my commander, such as discard/elf piles with Nath of the Gilt-Leaf.

At this point, I'd have piles of core functions, and here is where I add hybrid function piles between them, cards that serve more than one purpose. For example, let's say I have a pile for removal, a pile for offensive creature, then Shriekmaw would likely fall between the two piles since it functions as both. I continue until I fill up the gaps between each core function pile with hybrid piles, try to complete the circle. This process allows me to realize which cards are less useful and needs to be excluded, or cards that are too useful where I should never exclude, those would be piled right next to my commander.

Lastly, I add flavorful/enjoyable cards that I find fun to play with. Think of this as an alchemical circle and you're gathering ingredient to form a deck. This process gives me a good understanding on what functions I have and which function needs to be empowered. If the removal pile is low compare to card-draw, I add more removal cards. Outside of winconw, it's usually a good idea to have an evenly spread out functions so you know you can handle any situation at least moderately. This of course could be modified according to your meta.

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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

With the prevalence of digital tools, I'm surprised so many folks are saying they go through their collection and lay cards out as they build. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, I'm just surprised by it. I do all my brewing digitally in the testing area here and on scryfall. Many of the same or similar processes, just on a screen instead of a table.

I usually start with a commander, a single card, or a combo/concept I want to build around. I used to start with a commander most of the time, but now I tend to start with a combo/concept and work from there - new legendaries being the exception. I find that my personal bent is to pigeon hole myself and build less fun and spicy decks if I start with the commander rather than a wacky or powerful idea. One solution I found to that was to start with an unconventional commander and still try to build around them in an unorthodox fashion.

Commander is about fun, unique, and ridiculous Magic gameplay for me, so just building a straight-forward and optimized goodstuff deck doesn't pique my interest.
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Post by DirkGently » 3 years ago

After all the decks I've built, I've got it down to a science. Or maybe more like a sweatshop.

Step 1: Pick a commander. Occasionally I'll start from a plan independent of the commander, but usually it's imagining possibilities from a commander that gets me going initially. I see the commander and build a mental gameplan around it. For example, with Athreos, Shroud-Veiled my plan was "lets play a bunch of board wipes to steal enemy creatures while maintaining control, with a few strong etb/dies creatures in case my opponents don't have good targets"

Step 2 (optional): Research. Sometimes I'll check out the top EDHrec cards, maybe do a search or two on scryfall to see what cards fit into a particular niche, to decide if the deck is worth building. For example, with Chisei, Heart of Oceans I wasn't sure there were enough good targets for its ability. If I'm confident that the idea will succeed - Athreos I knew would have no trouble finding enough wipes and etb - then I may skip this step.

At this point I'm locked in, time to build the deck.

Step 3: Gather cards. My collection has *nearly* every card I could ever want to play in commander, organized by color. So I look through them, keeping in mind my plan and picking out cards that fit within that plan. Sometimes cards will cause me to revise my plan if something good that I didn't think of comes up. This step can take a very long time since I've got so many cards to sort through, but it does ensure that I am nearly unrestricted in terms of what I can build.

For anyone trying to follow along at home without a obscenely expensive and painfully curated collection, I'd combine this step with steps 4 and 5 before ordering anything, and lean on scryfall and edhrec instead of trying to leaf through every card in existence. Imo it's way faster to scan through physical cards than digital ones.

Step 4: Sort. I identify the core functions of the deck (board wipes, etb creatures, ramp, and lands for athreos) and sort all my cards into those categories, adding more categories or splitting categories as necessary. Some cards might get cut at this stage now that I have a better idea of what I'm working with.

Step 5: Cut. First cuts are easy, I just look through each pile and rip out the stuff that's clearly subpar. This usually brings me down to ~100-150 nonland cards (I usually do lands last) but sometimes more if the deck is open-ended. I cut and I refine my idea of what the deck is supposed to do, and I consider each card within that evolving context, until I'm down to the number of cards I want. One trick I'll use if I'm having difficulty is to list out each core function, and decide how many cards should be dedicated to that function without looking at the individual piles. 10 removal spells? Alright, #11, sorry, I love you too, but the list says 10 and these 10 are better than you. Back to the box with you.

Step 6: Test. Take it to the LGS and jam with it. Always play as best I can, and just see how the deck plays naturally without trying to force "what I want it to do". If it's miserable to play against, then I don't hold back while playing it - but I give it up quickly to revamp or, much more likely, play something else. If it's great, I might play it for a few weeks. Less popular decks might only get a few games.

Step 7: Revise (rare). If I want to tweak some things about the deck, maybe put back in some cards that were painful cuts, I fish them out of the box and make the appropriate swaps. Usually this doesn't happen, but it might if I'm enjoying a deck and don't have any other decks I'm in a hurry to build.

Step 8: Dismantle. Put the cards back where they go in the box. Or, more commonly, let it sit on my console until I'm building another deck that needs some cards from it, then remember I never disassembled it and begrudgingly do it.

Step 9 (extraordinarily rare): Perm. If I have a deck I truly, deeply love, then after several iterations I might decide that it's a deck I want to be able to play regularly. Mazel tov! It's a match. I then keep that list together and keep my eye out for trades, or get lazy and buy them all on tcgplayer/cardmarket/etc. Often it will be in a semi-budget state while I accumulate cards and as I continue to iron out the decklist, but I know it's a good list because of all the work that went in ahead of time.

Step 10: Go outside.
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Post by Krishnath » 3 years ago

I primarily start with a rough idea that I think sounds fun or a commander I think would be fun to build around. Then I scour my entire collection for cards that would work well with that idea or commander, this process can take weeks since I've been playing MTG for a *very* long time. Once the initial collection of cards have been collected, I start my first culling pass, removing the weakest cards, or cards I don't think would be fun to play, this removes roughly half the prior selected cards. I then go into the aggressive culling phase, which can take a few days, where I remove and add cards until I end up with the roughly 40-50 cards that works best with my chosen idea or commander. I then add mana, ramp, and general utility cards until I have a 100 card deck. After that, I continue to tweak the deck as I use it and learn what works well and what doesn't. I live by the philosophy that a good commander deck is never truly finished, and I keep tweaking them for as long as I have the deck. Only a handful of my decks I've kept since I built them, of course tweaking them as the years progress, but still.

One thing I find is fun, at least for me, when it comes to deckbuilding is that I take one of the Commander precons, cut ten cards for others from my collection, play it a couple of time, cut another ten cards for others, and so on until I get a deck that I find fun to play, trying to keep the theme of the deck going of course. It's pretty fun, and a good way for newer commander players to learn basic deckbuilding.
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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 3 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
3 years ago
With the prevalence of digital tools, I'm surprised so many folks are saying they go through their collection and lay cards out as they build. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, I'm just surprised by it. I do all my brewing digitally in the testing area here and on scryfall. Many of the same or similar processes, just on a screen instead of a table.
A lot of my decks start with me trawling through boxes and my trade binder to find cards I already own that I'm interested in running. At that point, it's way more convenient to make changes in paper than to type up a list of 200+ cards and cut them digitally. Actually recording a list is usually the last thing that happens in my process.

If I were approaching things from the opposite direction - create the perfect list, then order the cards I'm missing - then doing things digitally would probably make more sense. However, one of my goals when making a new deck is to make use of cards in my trade binder that I haven't been able to fit in another deck, and starting with cards I already own is the best way to accomplish that goal.

Also, when cutting cards, I usually do so by arranging cards into clusters / categories and stack ranking the individual cards by, well, stacking them on top of each other. Feels more natural to do that with physical cards.

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Post by 3drinks » 3 years ago

Honestly? It's as simple as "How come nobody does this, I bet I can totally do this." This was the Kaalia approach. Other times it's "I'm tired of six+ mana haymakers, I bet I can aggro the hell outta people while they're durdling around the first four turns." That was the Kari Zev approach. Both took me to the MLD tribal side because I can rebuild faster or win sooner than you can recover, and it was only then the light bulb clicked with a "dummy, no one wants to play with you because they don't like when you blow up their lands". I'm still there, and I have to consciously decide if I'm gonna keep coming to that location anyway and hope they learned the first turns matter, or if I'm gonna skulk away after getting ostracized by whomever is the loudest (usually the one most apprehensive to changing their deck from the stack of twenty six drops they're running).

Sometimes, it's a challenge, such as the numerous "white border only" decks I've designed, and the pre-modern Silvar/Trynn. Then it becomes both an exercise in researching and tracking down the cards, and then deciphering how to play them in the modern meta we have today.

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RTorbran, Thane of Red Fell (Red Deck Wins)
WBRAlesha, Who Smiles at Death (Slivers)
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Post by Myllior » 3 years ago

I took the time to put my lists and the EDH-relevant parts of my collection onto Archidekt a while ago, so I do all my deck building online using that. Once a deck passes the pre-build phase, where I'm just generally keeping an eye out for posts, articles and lists relevant to my considered commander or theme, it takes about two weeks to go through the full building process.

For the build, I start by collating an exhaustive list of relevant cards on Archidekt. I'll include every remotely relevant card from my collection, individual cards I encountered during the pre-build phase and make extensive reference to any relevant lists I found. (In my recent experience, TappedOut is easily my #1 resource for lists). After this, I'll sort cards by their function and purpose in the deck. If I've found any really good reference lists (e.g. primers) then I'll copy those into Archidekt and sort them as well, to better help me understand why that deck has been put together the way it has. If I haven't found any such lists, I'll sit on my sorted list for a few more days, in case I come across extra cards in the meantime.

Once I'm reasonably certain I've found all the relevant cards, I'll make a copy of the list and start the cutting process. Based on the style of deck I'm trying to build, I'll have targets for the amount of ramp, card draw, removal, counterspells, etc. to include and this will give me an idea of how many slots I can reasonably dedicate to the theme(s) of the deck. I'll progressively whittle down each category based on an evolving set of factors. Do I own the card already? How effective is the card for its CMC? Is the card powerful enough to justify its price tag? Can the card stand on its own merit, or is it reliant on other cards to function? How essential is the card to the deck's theme? How many cards do I want with similar effects of particular types (e.g. wheels)? As I cut each category down and the form of the deck comes into focus, certain cards may be recategorised or previous cuts may be reintroduced. (For this reason I 'cut' to the Maybeboard; cards are never fully deleted from the list until the deck is built or if it's apparent the card never should have been considered in the first place).

Once I've cut down to size, I'll put in the lands, considering cards I own, colour balance and cost, then order the deck. So I go all the way from deck conception to ordering without needing to touch a physical card, which I love to be honest. Another positive I've found to building online is that you have constant access to your average CMC, mana curve and numbers of card types and functions, which helps immensely with the cutting process.
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Post by Magiqmaster » 3 years ago

A good building tool that works well for me is by using Deckbox, where I have my entire card collection stored. This took a while for me to do, but I now reap the benefits because this helps speed-up the process as I don't have to go through my binders. I can also use this site when I am not home, which is practical when an idea pops in my mind.

I start by adding all the cards that I am pretty confident about in the main deck, and the runner-ups in the sideboard. I then go back and forth, swapping cards as I fine-tune the deck, or adding/deleting as necessary.

Another bonus is that through Deckbox, I can search via various keywords / color / card types / etc. thus allowing me to use what I already own. During the stages of deckbuilding, I sort the cards based on their CMC, which gives me a good idea if my mana curve makes sense and what card(s) should be cut or replaced for a cheaper version to play. Furthermore, since the deck allows you to track in which deck a card is currently used, I sometimes swap cards around when I realize that they are sub-optimal in another commander deck and would make much more sense in the deck I am currently building.

Finally, when I think I need to add cards I don't own, I also enter them in the sideboard, with their current market price appearing which gives me an idea if I should really spend the $$$ for them or not. I always try to use the cheapest cards with the greatest function and mana cost.

After some playtesting, I adjust the deck as needed. The whole process is quite fun and efficient!

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Post by ZenN » 3 years ago

Usually, I will either see a specific legend I want to build for, or decide I want to build a specific deck theme and figure out which commander I want to use for it.

Then I open up a new DeckStats tab and write down basically every card off the top of my head I might even remotely want in that deck
Then I go to EDHREC and look at similar decks to skim for anything I might have missed/forgotten about and add more to the list.
Then I go to either Gatherer or Scryfall and start searching for specific words or phrases relevant to what I'm trying to do, and prioritize by sorting by rarity descending and CMC ascending, and add even more to the list.

That process usually leaves me with like 150ish cards (+/- 20, depending on colours, theme, etc).
I then start making large high pass cuts, usually of things that are worse versions of other things, or things that serve the same function that I've got too many of, or things that just aren't great upon review.
During these rounds of cuts I usually figure out how I'm going to synergize and specialize, based on what I'm cutting and keeping.

After this process, I'm usually left with 100-110 cards representing a basically playable list.
I'll then draw a few hands to see how things feel, and start to tweak and tune, and repeat.
At this point I've generally got a list I'm willing to try out at my next gaming session with my group, after which point the table will generally have a discussion about the deck, and I will either decide I like it enough to keep improving it, or else I'll decide it's not worth it and that'll be that.
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Golos, ETB Pilgrim - Value Town
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Post by BaronCappuccino » 3 years ago

Disregarding a yearlong stint attempting to be a casual player, the first thing I do is come up with a strategy that wouldn't want and/or couldn't use cards I can't afford. For example, if I decided to build wheels as my strategy, I wouldn't build Nekusar, because Timetwister is out of my reach. I will never play a deck that could be better if I had more money, so I limit myself to decks that I can afford to take to 100%. My only handicaps in a game of Magic will be my own skill, and the strategy I chose. So, in my current case, I chose Rakdos colors for an Apostles strategy because, when I put it together, there were no cards over $500.00 (my soft cap on what I'll spend on a single card for a deck). Oddly, there's been a run on Mox Diamond it looks like, and it's tripled in price at least and isn't stopping, so I might have lucked out.

Once I determine that I can do anything I want with a particular card pool, I can instantly slot in upwards of 75 cards, thought-free, from the categories of land, rocks, removal, tutors and card draw, as those are personal templates that are thought-free, color by numbers based on the deck colors. I don't get creative there. If my core strategy is one of those categories, then I'll adjust accordingly, of course, for example, my core strategy with Shadowborn Apostle is all tutoring, and I never want my core strategy being usurped with generic good stuff, so my tutors were apostles and demons, allowing me to sideline the predictable stuff in that area.

Lastly, I try and figure out how I can make the deck idea my own with the cards remaining. In my case, not going Orzhov or Golgari already took the apostles idea in a new direction - Judith, the Scourge Diva is a less subtle take on Athreos, God of Passage. I wanted her to take a majority role in terms of my removal, so I trimmed a lot of the instants and sorceries in that area. I had a lot of room for creativity in the creatures, where I filled it to the brim with the fun-to-me win-more cards and flashy stuff, like Sire of Insanity.

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