deck builds and there names and meanings
General forum
Posted on May 20, 2013, 1:45 p.m. by the1R1SHCARBOMB
I am new to magic I have been playing for about four months. I have seen all the names for deck builds and some of them I get and some I dont. What do the different names refer to I.e bant, esper, pod and so f forth. What r the goals of the decks and what do they do. Thanks for the help guys.
Bant and Esper refer to color combinations (GWU and WUB, to be specific). Pod decks refer to Birthing Pod .
May 20, 2013 1:52 p.m.
Some reading that might help would be Googling for 'Shards of Alara', and something along the lines of 'Guilds of Ravnica' as well. That will cover a huge number of naming bases. As for Pod, that is from this little gem right here: Birthing Pod .
May 20, 2013 1:55 p.m.
Esper/Grixis/Jund/Naya/Bant all refer to tri-colour combinations found from the plane shards in the Alara block. The same holds true for dual colours that are aligned to the different Guilds of Ravnica ie Izzet is U/R Boros R/W etc.
Pod means the deck focuses its win con on using Birthing Pod effectively.
Then there are other names like Flash. Those deck focus on a specific mechanic. Ie Flash deck tend to reserve all their plays for during your turn or at End of Turn.
Then there are decks that are focused just one a single mechanic like Affinity (My absolute personal favourite) Artifact heavy decks that get loads of cheap-free things out and hit hard.
And of course Tribal decks that just work on a single creature type.
If you ever are curious about a specific build peruse the hubs and decks here on T/O or just do a google search on those archetypes.
May 20, 2013 2:07 p.m.
GreatSword says... #6
A "Junk" deck uses Black, White, and Green. Don't ask me why. Probly because it sounds like "Jund" which is BRG, while Junk is BWG.
May 20, 2013 2:38 p.m.
if i remember from another article on here, "junk" was created when some guy put a lot of the good black, white, green cards into a deck and called it "junk." you may want to double check that though
May 20, 2013 3:14 p.m.
There's four main archetypes in Magic: aggro, combo, control, and midrange. From there, they break down into decks based on format pillars and/or colors.
Aggro: Aggro is short for "aggressive" and tries to win the game by getting an opponent from 20 to zero as fast as possible, usually through creatures and burn spells. Aggro decks play low casting cost cards so they can beat the opponent before they have a chance to take over the game. Examples of aggro decks include: white weenie (mono-white with lots of small creatures), burn, and zombies.
Control: Control isn't so much about winning the game as it is making the opponent lose. Control decks stall long enough for them to generate large amounts of card advantage (by drawing cards or trading resources) before putting themselves in a position where it's impossible for the opponent to win. Once they've secured victory through countermagic, creature destruction, etc. they win the game. Examples include: Brian Weissman's The Deck (the first deck to win the world championship), Mega-Permission (a deck that uses around 20 lands, 39 Counterspell s, and a single creature), land destruction, and American Flash.
Midrange: Midrange uses creatures to win the game, but unlike aggro, its creatures are large and powerful. Early game, it ramps up its spells with cards like Mishra's Workshop or Farseek , while stalling its opponent with removal. Once it has mana set up, it plays large creatures that are difficult to deal with, like Thragtusk or Terastodon . Examples of Midrange include: MUD (a deck named for playing lots of artifacts), Urzatron (uses Urza's Mine , Urza's Power Plant , and Urza's Tower to ramp into huge creatures by turn three or four), and Jund Midrange.
Combo: Combo decks seek to abuse an interaction between two or more specific cards to win the game, then do everything they can to play those specific cards while protecting them. One of the most well-known combos is Channel + Fireball , which could kill a person on turn one. The first combo deck was Mike Long's Prosperous Bloom (I used to own a Legacy version). Combo decks can win out of nowhere once they've assembled all of their pieces, and the combo itself can be difficult to stop. Examples include: Human Reanimator (uses Angel of Glory's Rise with Unburial Rites to dump a bunch of humans into play for free), Pyromancer Ascension , and One/Two-land Goblin Charbelcher .
Each format (Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Pauper, Draft, Sealed) has what's known as "pillars." These are said to be the most powerful cards in their respective format. Each competitive deck is usually built around a pillar. Some example pillars from Standard are Sphinx's Revelation , Unburial Rites , and Huntmaster of the Fells Flip . Decks built around a pillar can fall into different categories. One person's deck built around Unburial Rites may be more of a midrange/control deck, while another person's is more of a combo deck.
Decks are usually named based on their pillar, archetype, or their colors (Bant Hexproof, Jund Midrange, etc.)
the1R1SHCARBOMB says... #2
I know about rdw and agro and mill but those r the only builds I understand.
May 20, 2013 1:46 p.m.