CMC control
Deck Help forum
Posted on June 3, 2018, 5:18 p.m. by FoofyDaWerewolf
Whats the easiest way to manage my overall deck cmc?
jordybear2002 says... #3
Also if you don't have ramp try to avoid 7+ CMC. But if you have a lot of ramp feel free to go to around 9 CMC.
June 3, 2018 5:28 p.m.
Ramp. I usually add 10+ ramp spells to every edh deck no matter what. Just look at the decks on my profile. It's really available for all decks because you can just use artifacts if you aren't in green.
June 3, 2018 10:08 p.m.
Find cards you like, go onto Gatherer, and search in the same color and card type and see if there is a cheaper version of the card that does less. Other than that find cards with lower CMC that can curve nicely into the more expensive cards you consider essential for the deck you want to make. There are also a ton of artifacts and ramp cards that can allow you to have higher CMC cards in the deck.
June 4, 2018 1:15 a.m.
Maybe instead of Mana Leak, you're okay with a Spell Pierce or a Negate? That type of thing.
June 4, 2018 1:17 a.m.
It comes down to discipline and making concessions. To give yourself a real treat, go look at some competitive EDH decks. See how low their curve is and just how many sources of ramp they run. Look at this list, for example.
I'm not saying you need to go to these extremes, but it helps if you think about your CMC. Also, make sure your ramp can be played early. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are common noob traps.
As for keeping your CMC low, when thinking about card choices, try to crystallize why you want a certain effect and then see if you can shave off cost. Take Cryptic Command for example. Very costly to cast while often being used as a simple counter. If the primary reason you want to run the card is to counter stuff, run the leanest possible unconditional counter you can find. It's ok if they have a drawback as long as they're ultra efficient. Think Arcane Denial, for instance. On the other hand, lets say you want one of your big draw spells to have some versatility to it. It's ok to run Mystic Confluence. Just think about why you want certain cards in your deck and what purpose they're supposed to serve.
Finally, don't get completely hung up on optimizing stuff to the point where you struggle to include pet cards and stuff you really love. If you end up having a better time because you just had to have Epic Experiment in your deck even though it's probably not the optimal choice, that's still fine.
jordybear2002 says... #2
When ever you find a card you like so lets say Dictate of Erebos and you want it to cost less. Try to find cards that are similar like Grave Pact. It only affects the CMC cost but not the pricing sometimes so watch out for that if you are on a budget for a deck.
June 3, 2018 5:26 p.m.