BDB Drafting and Limited Deck Building Guide

This has nothing to do with Budget Deck Builders or the products we offer, but drafting is simply too much fun not to talk about.  I've learned that the skills you develop while drafting can improve your play and deck building in other formats, making you a more well-rounded player.  My friend and coworker were interested in going to a draft and asked for a few pointers before heading to his first FNM.

1)  Theme/Strategy
- Do some homework.  What are the most powerful cards? What are the themes and synergies within the sets you will be drafting?  If you want a strong deck, you will probably want to settle into one of these themes to get extra value from your cards.  For example, WB Warriors, RG Formidable, or UB Exploit.
- Keep it simple.  Usually the simpler the game plan, the better.  Since you will rarely get more than 1-2 copies of a card in your deck, you can't count on drawing them every game and thus can't rely on combos to win you the game. You are probably just going to win by attacking with creatures, whether it's with a quick aggressive deck, or with a more defensive controlling deck.  Cards that require really strange scenarios to be good should probably be left out of your deck.

Art from Goblin Heelcutter by Jesper Ejsing

2) B.R.E.A.D.
- Prioritize your picks in this order.

B - Bombs: These are powerful rares or uncommons that will almost always win you the game if you get a chance to play them.  They have the power to end the game quickly or can pull you back from a losing position.  For example, Dragonlord Silumgar or Sunscorch Regent.

R - Removal: Quite simply, you need ways to deal with your opponent's bombs.  Whoever can play their bomb and keep it on the board is probably going to win.  Removal spells can also give you a favorable board state for attacking (quick aggro decks) or blocking (decks stalling for their bombs).

E - Evasion: Prioritize creatures that are hard to block, such as flying or intimidate. The battlefield will tend to get clogged up with creatures and evasion can allow you to keep dealing damage without having to attack into blockers.  Don't underestimate the threat of dealing 2-3 damage every turn.

A - Aggro: Most successful limited decks win with creatures.  You will need lots of them.  They will die in combat, die to removal, etc. and you don't want to run out before your opponent.  Make sure you fill out your mana curve with lots of creatures that can deal damage to your opponent.  Generally a 3/1 is better than 1/3 because it can trade with larger creatures and puts more pressure on your opponent to deal with it. It can possibly require a removal spell that would otherwise be used on your bomb.

D - Dud: This just means whatever is leftover.  If there is nothing in your pack that fits the other categories then I look for two possible things here; either good sideboard cards that are very powerful in specific situations, such as Plummet or Naturalize, or I look for cards that other players might want for their decks.  Maybe the pack has nothing playable for my White Green Bolster deck, but that Bathe in Dragonfire would sure be nasty in my opponent's deck. I'll take it just to keep it from being used against me.

3) Deckbuilding: 40 cards. The minimum deck size in limited is 40 cards.  Don't go over that.
- 17 lands is the proven, perfect number.  Don't bother trying to justify 16 or 18, just stick to 17.
-  6 best removal spells.  Consider insants vs. sorceries, mana cost, and how many types of threats it can deal with.  If you don't have 6 removal spells, consider substituting instant speed combat tricks that can help you take down threats when attacking or blocking.
- 17 creatures along a mana curve, which I'll talk about next.

4) Mana curve:  In limited you want to be casting a spell every turn, whether it's creatures on your turn or removal on your opponent's turn.  You can't afford to take turns off or you will fall behind.

- For your creatures, consider a distribution like this.
1 mana - 1-2
2 mana - 3-4
3 mana - 4-5
4 mana - 3-4
5 mana - 2
6 mana - 1-2

I won my first ever FNM draft with this deck!

5) Value: Look for cards with great value.  You get great value when your card is able to trade for two or more of your opponent's cards.  Examples of this are Ainok Survivalist (aggro creature with Naturalize stapled to him) and Pyrotechnics (capable of killing up to 4 creatures!).

Hope this helps!
- Patrick

Fun With Forced Assault

Fun With Forced Assault

Forced Assault is one of my “Johnny” decks. My favorite memory of playing with it is watching one of my friends cast a 13 damage meteor on his own creature! Though I only win the occasional game with the deck, it is worth it to me to witness those hilarious moments. I am still in the process of tuning the deck to have a higher win percentage.

Creating a “Johnny” Deck

My “Johnny” decks usually begin with a single card that screams at me to try to exploit it or a few cards that seem to combo well together. Then, I typically spend hours searching Gatherer for cards that fit with the theme. I usually stick to the Modern format for these types of decks as that gives a wide variety of sets to choose from as well as keeping it...well...modern.

Forced Assault was born when I noticed the synergy between Hissing Miasma from the Guildpact set and Nettling Curse from the Dissension set. Two cards that made my opponent lose life when they attack me….hmm….interesting.

A quick Gatherer search found Contaminated Bond that fit extremely well with the theme. Then the thought came, “You’re crazy! Why would you want your opponent to attack you? You’ll be taking a ton of damage. Besides, if you put Contaminated Bond on your opponent’s creature, he’ll just stop attacking with that creature, and then you’ll be totally vulnerable to his other creatures.” 

“But if your opponent is losing life faster than you are taking damage, it works. Plus, your opponent loses the life when he attacks, which is before you take damage! Also, if you want your opponent to keep attacking with the contaminated creature, you just have to force the attack,” Johnny replied. I looked at Nettling Curse again: “1R: Enchanted creature attacks this turn if able.” There it was! Another piece to the puzzle! I searched Gatherer and found Into the Fray, Rage Nimbus, and Uncontrollable Anger. Uncontrollable Anger also gave the creature +2/+2, which would make it harder for me to win the life race. Rage Nimbus could make a creature attack each turn, and gave me a blocker with 5 power to sacrifice if needed. Into the Fray was cheap, but only usable once….unless I could splice it onto an arcane spell! My friends and I had drafted Champions of Kamigawa together in our first draft ever, so I already knew what arcane spells I was going to use. The deadly combo of Lava Spike and Glacial Ray fit perfectly with my goal of winning the life race. Lava Spike was 3 damage to my opponent for 1 mana, and Glacial Ray could be used as removal on my opponent’s other creatures or be another 2 damage to my opponent. Both are arcane spells, so Into the Fray can be spliced onto either of them. 

I like putting play sets of cards in decks whenever possible to keep the deck consistent, so my list at this point looked something like:

Creatures

Rage Nimbus x4

Spells

Nettling Curse x4

Contaminated Bond x4

Into the Fray x4

Lava Spike x4

Glacial Ray x4

I didn’t want to play too many creatures in my deck to effectively counter my opponent’s removal spells, but with no creatures, I had to keep my opponent’s bigger creatures at bay somehow. I also wanted all my cards to be usable in different situations. Lightning Bolt is a prime removal spell or direct damage to my opponent if needed. I realized my Contaminated Bond and Nettling Curse would be “dead in hand” cards if my opponent didn’t have creatures. That’s when I discovered Forbidden Orchard. Mana fixing that gives my opponent a 1/1 colorless spirit creature token? Usually, giving my opponent a creature just for mana fixing would be a questionable idea, but in this case Johnny was almost hysterical, “Mana fixing, giving my opponent a creature to cast Contaminated Bond on, and turning the drawback of a card into a combo?!?!? Amazing!” With that the list looked something like:

Creatures (4)

Rage Nimbus x4

Spells (24)

Nettling Curse x4

Contaminated Bond x4

Into the Fray x4

Lava Spike x4

Glacial Ray x4

Lightning Bolt x4

Land (20)

Forbidden Orchard x4

Mountain x8

Swamp x8

Some of you are probably thinking, “Only 20 lands? What a newbie!” Well, that’s exactly what I was back then, a newbie MTG player who thought that 20 lands was plenty for any deck because I wanted to fit as many fun, juicy cards into the deck as possible. This was during the era when I used Kodama’s Reach in about 90% of my decks, and my friends knew what I was casting on turn 3 almost every time. Believe me, I thought about trying to fit Kodama's Reach into Forced Assault for mana fixing and ramp, but since that was the only green card I would use, I painfully abstained from using it. I don’t remember exactly how I filled the rest of Forced Assault in its earlier years, but I will always remember watching my friend kill his own creature with his own meteor to keep himself alive for one more turn!

Continued Modifications

Another important part of deck design, is continuing to look for cards from newer sets that fit your theme and, in some cases, are just strictly better than cards you already have in your deck. Over the years I was taking a break from physical MTG, I continued to upgrade Forced Assault. I remember trying Sleeper Agent, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Lust for War, and Bloodshed Fever. Sleeper Agent was another creature I could give to my opponent, then cast Contaminated Bond on to make my opponent stop attacking with it, only Sleeper Agent dealt damage to my opponent every turn whether they attacked with it or not. Lust for War is strictly better than Nettling Curse, because for the same mana cost, it already has the “attacks each turn” clause, and it doesn’t have to attack to deal damage, just tap. Now, if my opponent had some way to tap his creature every turn to keep it from attacking, he would still take 3 damage.

Recent Resurrection

During my break from physical MTG, I sold almost my entire collection to buy other strategy board games. Recently, I resurrected Forced Assault and another of my old decks as my “blast from the past” decks to remind me of all the good, old memories from my early MTG era. I have tried many of the same cards I used to use, but also new cards. My current iteration that has not been tested much yet is:

BR Forced Assault

Main Deck (60)

Creatures (4)

Sleeper Agent x4

Spells (33)

Koth of the Hammer x1

Liliana of the Dark Realms x1

Rakdos’s Return x1

Red Sun’s Zenith x1

War’s toll x3

Blood Reckoning x4

Hissing Miasma x4

Lust for War x4

Contaminated Bond x3

Terminate x4

Blightning x3

Contaminated Ground x4

Land (23)

Forbidden Orchard x4

Blood Crypt x4

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth x2

Swamp x8

Mountain x5

A slight variation of this list has been one turn away from beating Patrick’s Temur Aggro deck multiple times; so, I hope these recent modifications get me over that hump. I may have to add some board wipes like Crux of Fate or Mutilate, but I do want my opponent to have creatures to attack with, just not big ones.

Conclusions

A true “Johnny” player doesn’t care how many times he loses with his deck. He’ll keep playing with it for the few times it actually works. I’ll keep playing with this deck for the memories of my friends making strange plays and doing unusual things as they try to win in spite of the Forced Assault on their minds and creatures! Do not be afraid to let “Johnny” speak to you too!

• Nathan

Fan Submission - Simic Combo Deck

Rick M. shared this Simic Combo deck with us after seeing our previous blog post about my own Green Devotion Hydra deck. While this deck isn't standard legal, it uses many of the same pieces to create a truly epic kitchen table combo deck.  Let's take a look at his deck list.

---Creatures (34)
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Kiora's Follower
3 Elvish Mystic
1 Hydra Broodmaster
2 Progenitor Mimic
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
3 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Mistcutter Hydra
3 Zameck Guildmage 
1 Genesis Hydra
3 Fathom Mage
3 Vorel of the Hull Clade
2 Gyre Sage
1 Kruphix, God of Horizons 
1 Azor's Elocutors 
1 Laboratory Maniac 
---Spells (6)
1 Dictate of Karametra
2 Plasm Capture 
2 Polymorphous Rush 
1 Cyclonic Rift
---Land (24)
7 Forest 
7 Island 
3 Temple of Mystery 
4 Simic Guildgate
2 Yavimaya Coast 
1 Thornwood Falls


Alright, I see a few familiar faces, but quite a few new ones too.  Tell me what's going on here.

"Originally the deck was a Biovisionary deck (i.e., Polymorphous Rush) but I've since changed it to what you see now. After the interaction between Vorel and Fathom Mage became a real threat, I realized I could Laboratory Maniac for the win, and Azor's Elocutors could win also because Vorel doubles the filibuster counters.

Plus being a something something black player it was a good change of pace for me to build way out of my color spectrum."

What inspired the deck? How did you decide on the cards in the deck?

"Honestly I decided on the deck when I pulled my third Temple of Mystery and second Yavimaya Coast. I had just way too many blue green cards in my binder and they never saw play so I thought I I'd just throw them together and see what happens. There were a lot of cards that got cut after a while like Unexpected Results and Biovisionary. So you could say I began by seeing the spare cards laying around and built off that."

Walk me through the mana curve. What does the deck do early, mid, and late game?

"The mana curve is designed with green in mind, so early on you have the Elvish Mystics, Sylvan Caryatids, and Kiora's Followers. As long as you have two mana and one is green then your mana should be safe. The 3-drop creatures are Vorel and Yisan. Vorel is the driving engine in the deck and being a 3-drop with 4 toughness is really nice or if I can't find him, Yisan can start doing his thing and putting out my creatures in increasing order. Fathom Mage is my 4-drop and is the super draw in the deck. Once she gets a single evolve trigger, off she is going. Vorel will double the counters on her, and Prophet of Kruphix lets me do it every turn. Kruphix and Gyre Sage are there for the hydras."

"If I can't keep out my Fathom Mage and all I have left is Gyre Sage, don't doubt the power of a mana-ramper whom will tap to add say.....128 green mana at a time. Kruphix also is needed if I am using and abusing Fathom Mage as I don't have a max hand size and is fetch-able with Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. Hydras are there for the smashing and possible counter removal from the Zamek Guildmages. They can function for draw possibilities as well. The Progenitor Mimics are needed for anti-fliers and if possible, I have done this a few times: Progenitor Mimic, Hydra Broodmaster, opponent's turn, monstrous hydra with the fat Gyre Sage, get a bunch of hydra tokens, swing for game! Oh and I got new Hydra Broodmasters to keep monstrifying."

"The instants are for emergencies only. Cyclonic Rift is for when my opponent is nearing completion for swinging for victory, countering spells. Also I keep the Polymorphous rushes in case of flash entrances. I had an opponent flash in Emrakrul and I rushed my Fathom Mage with five +1/+1 counters on it while she swung. Yes I missed the Emrakrul trigger but I did keep the counters, so Fathom Mage took down Emrakrul. In terms of play-style, unless there isn't any other option but to attack, I will sit there and keep building up my board-state and watch my opponent be baffled why I don't swing with a 33/33 Fathom Mage. It's usually safer and consistent to win with the key Laboratory Maniac and Azor's Elocutors. I keep them in hand and flash them in when I need them for victory thanks to Prophet of Kruphix."

"Thanks for being interested. I honestly never designed a sideboard as this is supposed to be fun. I mean, when you lose to Azor's Elocutors, how mad can you be as you're laughing your butt off."

I hope you enjoyed this in-depth look at Rick's Simic Combo deck.  It uses the same ramp/untapping engine of Kiora's Follower and Prophet of Kruphix, but instead of focusing on huge hydras, this deck aims to abuse the counter-adding ability of Vorel and the alternate win conditions of Azor's Elocutors and Laboratory Maniac.  While I cringe at the use of 64 cards instead of 60, Rick and his friends have carefully tweaked this deck for maximum fun at the kitchen table, and each card choice brings more and more combo fun to the deck.

Patrick

Budget Deck - Black Green Toughness Deck

"Even if I don't learn anything new as an experience player, it is nice to read and get reminders from others and new perspectives. It would be great to hear from you about the goals behind the decks you build and why you built them like that. maybe also suggested upgrades."
- Paul G.

I was going to type up a big disclaimer about what a budget deck is NOT, but hopefully nobody expects a budget deck to contain all the all-star rares and mythics that you see winning championships. I'll just jump right into our goals for a true BDB budget deck.  These goals typically apply to any deck in our store that falls between $10 and $40.

Goals for a BDB Deck:

• Be budget friendly! The deck is usually built around commons/uncommons, and a few rares are sprinkled on top.
• Be fun to play!  The deck should have an easily recognizable theme or strategy that provides some satisfaction when played correctly.
• Be able to compete!  While you probably won’t win the Pro Tour with it, the deck should still have the ability to win games against your friends, or make a run at Friday Night Magic.
• Be consistent!  We crunch all the numbers to make sure it has a good mana curve, the right number of lands, and balance between creatures and spells so that it can perform well consistently.
• Be creative! We try to give every card a chance. Cards that are often overlooked can be pretty good if put into the right deck.
• Be inspiring! We want our decks to be fun right out of the package, but we also hope that the deck inspires you to upgrade or tweak it to your play style. Maybe you have some cards in your collection that would make the deck better, go for it!

Why our decks are built the way they are:

First, I want to quickly revisit our guidelines from our last post.  Our team has quite a bit of Magic experience from casual play, Friday Night Magic, MTGO, reading articles, forums, blogs, listening to podcasts and watching the pros play on Twitch or YouTube.  We have also been building and selling decks on eBay since 2012.  The culmination of all this experience has led to these guidelines that greatly reduce the time spent designing a deck.

1. Keep the deck to 60 cards.  Don't "water down" the best cards.
2. Start with 23 lands, +/-1 depending on the speed and mana requirements of the deck.
• 20-30 Creatures
• 7-17 Spells
3. Follow the mana curve, have something at each mana cost if possible, with the majority of the deck between 2 and 4.
4. Include a few instants to be able to react to the opponent and avoid being too predictable.
5. Have a clear plan for winning.  Know what cards will win the game and how the rest will support them.

Second, we are guided by the sets of cards we are working with. You may notice when you dissect a set like Khans of Tarkir, there are clear themes.  Set designers build these themes into sets, spread across many of the commons, uncommons, and rares. While Khans has the obvious five clans: Abzan, Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai, and Temur, if you look closer, there are also five more enemy-color themes: White/Black Warriors, Black/Green Toughness, Blue/Green Morph, Blue/Red Spells, and White/Red Monks.  It’s very easy to  build a deck around these themes because the set designers make sure that each color gets a good balance of creatures and spells across the mana curve and that they work nicely together. 

Let's take a look at our Black/Green Toughness deck.  

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MTG-Black-Green-Toughness-Deck-Rakshasa-Deathdealer-Standard-Legal-Magic-Khans-/251797634047

Kin-Tree Invocation by Ryan Alexander Lee

As I'm flipping through a box of Khans of Tarkir, Kin-Tree Invocation immediately catches my eye.  It begs to be exploited by having a high toughness creature in play. I then start to notice other creatures in black and green that mention toughness, like Sultai Flayer and Kheru Bloodsucker. These cards also want me to sacrifice my creatures for full effect.  I’ve found a theme!  I start to look through all my black and green cards for anything with high toughness or that benefits from sacrificing.  I come across Disowned Ancestor as my 1-drop.  Grim Haruspex will let me draw cards when I sacrifice my creatures, and Swarm of Bloodflies will get +1/+1 counters.  So I’ve got a pretty good spread of creatures that work well together across my mana curve. I just need to throw in a few spells to glue it all together.  I think every deck should have removal, and Murderous Cut looks perfect.  It’s one of the set's strongest removal spells, and I’ll be sacrificing creatures any way to help with delve.  I also find Scout the Borders will fit nicely, fetching me a creature or land and fueling delve. This also looks like a perfect opportunity to use Meandering Towershell with toughness 9. Now I just throw in some lands and I have a theme deck on a budget!

--- Main Deck 60

2 Rakshasa Deathdealer

2 Grim Haruspex

3 Meandering Towershell

4 Disowned Ancestor

4 Kheru Bloodsucker

4 Sultai Flayer

4 Swarm of Bloodflies

4 Kin-Tree Invocation

4 Scout the Borders

4 Murderous Cut

2 Death Frenzy

2 Jungle Hollow

11 Swamp

10 Forest

--- Sideboard 15

3 Kheru Dreadmaw

4 Rotting Mastodon

4 Dutiful Return

2 Bitter Revelation

2 Death Frenzy

The mana curve looks a little funky due to the high cost of Murderous Cut, but using delve should give you a discount.

Suggested Upgrades:

We did a series of Facebook posts about upgrading BDB decks, so some of this may look familiar.

• Lands: I would swap in 2 more Jungle Hollows and 4 Evolving Wilds. This will improve the mana base and help with delve. Llanowar Wastes works here too if you want to spend a few extra bucks.

• Fill in the Gaps: I'm pretty happy with how this deck turned out and don't see any obvious gaps. It has creatures across the mana curve with Swarm of Bloodflies or Meandering Towershell up top to finish the game. I think Archer's Parapet is another great, cheap, high toughness option but might be a bit redundant with Disowned Ancestor. The deck has good removal with Murderous Cut and a very effective sweeper in Death Frenzy. The high toughness should hold up well against aggro decks. Identifying the gaps will require some more playtesting.

• Better cards: As fun as Meandering Towershell is here... it should probably come out for a stronger rare that will finish the game quicker, something with flying like a demon, or even Tasigur would work nicely with the graveyard games. Drown in Sorrow is probably a better version of Death Frenzy.

• New Sets: At the writing of this article, I don't have a ton of experience with Fate Reforged, but they have continued the toughness theme with cards like Grim Contest and Sibsig Muckdraggers. These cards might not find a home in this deck, but it's fun to see all the new options each time a new set is released.

Well, I hope this shed a little light on how we come up with our budget decks at BDB. Really, what it boils down to, is maximizing your fun per dollar. We know as well as anybody that Magic can be a very expensive hobby, especially if you buy booster packs trying to find the cards you want. These decks get you into the action quickly and affordably. Until next time...

Patrick