Why is it bad to run a lot of 1 ofs?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 21, 2014, 3:45 p.m. by TrappedInLimbo
I know that it is deemed as bad in a deck when the deck has a lot of one of creatures or other spells. Why is this deemed as so bad?
Consistency.Consistency.Consistency.
Unless all the creatures do the same thing that are one ofs, the deck is going to run very differently every time, and generally that is going to make it a lot harder to play and win with consistently.
October 21, 2014 3:55 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
Because it affects your deck's consistency. In any given game, you're not very likely to draw a given copy of a card if there's only one in the entire deck. It's a lot harder to make a game plan if you have no idea what your deck is going to do from game to game.
There are times when it's a good idea to put a strategic one-of into a deck, usually an interesting card that you can craft a plan around but don't need every game and never want multiples. For example, I used to play a mono-Black control deck with one copy of Demonic Rising . If I drew it, I could start playing differently to take advantage of it, but drawing a second one during a game would be a total waste.
Now, there are good decks that do have multiple important one-ofs, but those decks also have a lot of draw effects, scry effects, and/or similar things. This means the player gets to look at a lot more cards in his deck during the average game, so the chance that a given card will appear is much higher. For example, the various Temples and 4x Prognostic Sphinx in my current Standard deck give me the flexibility to play with just 1, 2, or 3 copies of several other cards in the deck.
October 21, 2014 3:55 p.m.
aeonstoremyliver says... #5
In EDH, you have to... ;-)
It's ok if they're Legendary and you have tutors to pull them out. Legacy 12 Post runs 1x of each of the big Eldrazi, but we have Eye of Ugin
to tutor. It may also side in 1x of a 
critter to be fetched with Green Sun's Zenith
.
StoneBlade runs 1x Umezawa's Jitte and Batterskull , but Stoneforge Mystic (which is a 4x of...) fetches them. Otherwise, you need four copies of important cards to be consistent.
October 21, 2014 3:59 p.m.
Programmer_112 says... #6
Well, it's not necessarily bad, but unless you have a lot of ways to find different things, it hurts your consistency. For example, say you are playing Mono Red Aggro in Modern (AKA Red Deck Wins). Your best creature T1 is probably Goblin Guide (I don't actually know, because I don't play RDW, but T1 Guide scares me, so I think that this is probably a pretty good T1 play). If you only have 1 Goblin Guide , you will only get it about 12% of the time. However, if you have 4, you will get at least one about 40% of the time, which is a much better percentage.
However, take a look at modern Melira Pod. This deck runs no less than 17 one-ofs mainboard, and 9 more in the side. The reason for this is simple: they like Birthing Pod a lot. These are almost all utility creatures that aren't great in a vacuum, but are amazing in specific situations. The deck can fetch the creatures that will help it in whichever situation it is in. For example, if the opponent is playing Affinity and beating you down with Arcbound Ravager , fetch out Linvala, Keeper of Silence and win. In this specific deck, running one-ofs is beneficial, because you can get them when you need them.
October 21, 2014 4:12 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #7
It's not always bad. The same people who call a bunch of one-ofs bad look at a deck with all fours and threes and call it untuned. If you have tutor power, inevitability or just want access to a card but don't mind if you don't draw it, it's completely OK to play a one-of. Consistency is important, but having certain cards like a singleton Dispel or something in your maindeck makes people play around more things.
October 21, 2014 4:22 p.m.
Programmer_112 says... #8
Oh, yeah, GlistenerAgent makes a good point. I used to run an Azorius Control deck (casual), and I ran 1 Mana Tithe to screw with my friend's heads. It was great.
October 21, 2014 4:29 p.m.
TheRedDude says... #9
and also, it could just act as a 5th copy of another card
October 21, 2014 4:33 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #10
When building a deck, you ALWAYS need to be able to justify why you chose to put (X) copies of each card into your deck. You don't always need to be right, but you always need to have a defend-able reason.
ex:
"Why are you only running 2 copies of Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
?"
"Because he's bad in multiples, and I don't want him clogging up my hand at 5 mana."
ex:
"Why are you running 4 copies of Polukranos, World Eater
?"
"Because, even though he's legendary, I want to see him every game. It doesn't matter if he clogs up my hand because if they can't deal with the first one I win."
October 21, 2014 4:53 p.m.
FilePiranha says... #11
From all the above posts and as a vet from playing years ago before there was really fetch like there is now a days. Consistency is what you want to go for. That way you can get comfortable with the deck you play. I can't even remember how many times I sat across from the dude that slapped all kinds cards into his deck because they looked like they worked... But couldn't pull anything off because of looking like a squirrel on crack drinking expresso with A.D.D trying to figure out his next move. Unless all the one offs have a synergy that pulls the deck together into a cohesive unit, I run 4x of everything till I see trends of what I'm stuck holding and then trim and retool till the deck performs the way I want.
October 21, 2014 4:55 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #12
Following that logic, it is often hard to justify having too many one-ofs. Having a silver bullet or a situational card in your deck isn't always terrible, but having too many of them will almost always lead to problems.
Pick one thing you want your deck to do, and make sure it does it well. It's important to understand that no deck can be good at/against everything at once.
October 21, 2014 4:56 p.m.
MattTheNinja says... #13
Because of consistency issues that can come with it. Although, some decks like Gifts Control and Melira Pod are very successful with decks full of 1-ofs.
October 21, 2014 5:15 p.m.
HorrorAvengers says... #15
I like having one-ofs, if those one-ofs do the same thing, and variety is good. for instance, If I want 4 of an effect that is found on 4 different legendary creatures/walkers, I'll use one of each, or if each version is slightly different, like how I run 2 doom blade, 1 terror, 1 go for the throat, and 1 smother, cause I don't wanna be hosed because I'm playing mono black with doom blade, affinity with go for the throat, or kiki pod with smother. However, I'. not gonna run 1 lightning bolt, 1 spark jolt, 1 searing spear, ect. 3 damage is 3 damage, burn is burn. The cheaper, the better.
October 21, 2014 7:59 p.m.
having 1x of a card generally means your trying to do too many things at once, which is the biggest problem a lot of magic players run into during deck building.
This aside from the consistency problem that has been beat to death at this point.
October 21, 2014 8:08 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #17
Some decks are good with 1 offs, but those are generally toolbox builds.
Run 4 of each when you are trying to learn to deck build. Then you will learn how to adjust as you get better.
October 21, 2014 9:04 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #18
Oh yeah, forgot to mention the Rule of 9.
When you start deckbuilding, try to stick to playing 24 lands, then 9 four-ofs. This helps you develop the skill of choosing the best cards and eliminating the ones that are more cute/gimmicky than actually powerful. As you gain experience, you can develop the skill of tuning, which is all about trying one-ofs and two-ofs until you find the mix that feels the best.
October 21, 2014 9:22 p.m.
HorrorAvengers says... #19
Pretty much this. An example was my mono blue devotion deck, when I first built it, it was 24 land, 4 judge's familiar, 4 cloudfin raptor, 4 frostburn weird, 4 tidebinder mage, 4 nightveil spectre, 4 thasa, and 4 master of waves. Eventually it became 19 island, 2 mutavault, 1 nykthos, 3 familiar, 4 raptor, 4 frostburn, 4 tidebinder, 1 Mindreaver, 4 spectre, 3 thassa, 4 master, bident, and cyclonic.
October 22, 2014 12:06 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #20
Unless you build your deck around that sort of thing, with the ability to consistently find them, like Pod, or you're just playing EDH, it ruins the consistency of your deck a LOT. There are certain decks which benefit from this inconsistency, but your generally want to keep a deck as consistent as possible, especially if you're new to Magic.
Souljacker says... #2
Because your deck will be very inconsistent, you want as reliable a deck as possible so you can let your skill win the game, instead of depending on what to draw.
More specifically, in a certain deck, say Mono Red Aggro, there are a few best cards for each slot, and you want the best of those and not 1 of the best and a few lesser.
October 21, 2014 3:54 p.m.