what are the themes that can be used to build decks?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 30, 2012, 9:53 a.m. by curious_geo90
i am new to magic and am trying to build my own decks. i was just curious as to what are the themes that can be used to make decks and what they mean? such as delver , infect, control, aggro, ETC. thanx.
GreatSword says... #3
Classically there are 3 kinds of Magic decks: Aggro, Control, and Combo.
Aggro tries to beat its opponent down quickly and efficiently, with cheap powerful creatures and burn spells. It's often countered by a Control deck able to stifle its advance in the early game.
Control tries to go the long game, playing counter spells, spells that hold creatures from attacking, and high toughness creatures able to block. Combo decks often find a way around these.
Combo tries to find a set of powerful spells in its deck to outright win the game, like making infiinite copies of creatures, recasting a damage spell a dozen times, or outright winning a game with something like Battle of Wits . Aggro can crush it before it gets those spells.
"Infect" is an aggro deck that plays creatures with Infect, and lots of cheap pump spells. It takes only 10 points of infect damage to kill a player. It's effectively an aggro/ combo deck.
"Delver" is a Control/Aggro deck that plays Delver of Secrets Flip and lots of cheap control spells like Vapor Snag and Mana Leak .
October 30, 2012 10:15 a.m.
hollandboys says... #4
Oh ya I forgot about combo, how could I possible to that with all the reanimator decks floating around? Generally I'd recommend starting with an aggro deck to get your feet wet, as they are probably the easiest to play. At least that's what I did when I started 5 months ago
October 30, 2012 10:18 a.m.
GreatSword says... #5
Right now is an excellent time to start out, with Return to Ravnica out. Pick a guild that appeals to you, get some cards, and play. Don't worry about trying to win a lot, just learn the rules and what each color does well.
(Also, this forum isn't really for this kind of question; it's for weird rules questions. Don't feel bad. Try the general forums, hopeful a good mod will move this topic for you.)
October 30, 2012 10:26 a.m.
curious_geo90 says... #6
thank you both for the help. both of you answered my question.
October 30, 2012 10:41 a.m.
There is also Mid-range which is a deck that likes to stabilize board-presence around turn 4 or 5, and remain consistent on offense from then on. A popular deck in Standard right now is Selesnya (GW) Mid-range that starts beating their opponent around turn 4, using cards like Silverblade Paladin and Sublime Archangel .
October 30, 2012 2:25 p.m.
snowdrifts says... #8
However, I'd say that everything above is all the same theme: mechanics/playstyle.
You can also build a "Tribal" deck - that is, a deck that consists of only elves, or merfolk, or gargoyles, and spells that support them. Or instead of picking a tribe, a mechanic, or a playstyle, you could build a deck around a type of card. Artifacts or enchantments, for example.
Alternatively you could build a deck purely out of cards that have the same "character" to them, such as the Guilds of Ravnica mentioned above, or other factions throughout Magic.
Decks like the ones you asked about are all probably more likely to win than, say, a tribal Imp deck, but they aren't necessarily the most flavourful or thematic possible builds.
October 30, 2012 2:58 p.m.
The theme for a deck can be anything you want. A friend of mine once made a "Cleavage Deck" which consisted of only cards with artwork that included a cleavage shot somewhere.
hollandboys says... #2
There are many different themes that can be used. Generally there is aggro, and control which describes how fast you plan to win the game. Aggro means aggressive and describes a fast win condition and control generally means that you win late game (more turns). Delver is a deck that "revolves" around the card Delver of Secrets Flip , usually including many sorceries and instants with Snapcaster Mage and occasionally card:Runechanter's Pike. Infect is a win condition where you cause your opponent to gain 10 poison counters, as opposed to losing 20 life. There are many other deck archetypes but the best way to learn would be to navigate the site and observe the combos others use. I hope this helped.
October 30, 2012 10:11 a.m.