Brand new player deck check
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on March 24, 2019, 4:08 a.m. by spitfire_9913
Hi guys, First time player here, have only played Magic Duels and against myself a few times. I've created a red and green Dinosaur themed deck out of what cards I have and want to see if it would be worth taking to my first modern FNM or will I get destroyed? Any input welcome. Dinosaur War RG
It will.
Magic Duels games are much closer to draft gameplay than to most constructed formats.
Constructed formats have access to ways to deploy threats early - for example
Awoken Horror
and/or multiple
Arclight Phoenix
by turn 3/4/5.
These formats also have answers to deal with such threats, like
Path to Exile
.
Playing large creatures like Aggressive Mammoth that do very little, is a bad choice if you can play cards like Inferno Titan . Such decks also play cheap distruption and a miriad of cards that allow them to reach high mana productions early on.
March 24, 2019 10:23 a.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #4
You'll get obliterated. But so did I for my first few months of FNMs.
You might want to consider changing your deck to be a commander deck. Commander is a much more casual format and probably a better fit. The games can get really complicated, but if you play with the right people then you can play almost any deck on any budget and have a lot of fun. It's a much better home for dinosaurs than modern. But playing commander also requires a playgroup. My LGS has a night each week for commander open play and most places do something similar, but if your LGS doesn't offer such a thing then it will be hard to connect with other players.
March 24, 2019 11:33 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #5
I started with Modern as my first format. My deck list was a lot like yours, huge CMC creatures and tons of 1 ofs.
So a good place to start is to ask yourself, how do I want my deck to win? Once you figure out what the main way(s) your deck will win, then you can focus your game plan on making that happen.
You really want consistency in your deck. Try picking cards as 4 ofs instead of singletons. If you wouldn't want 4 copies of a card in your deck then it probably isn't worth running at all. (Please note this is only a beginner strategy to get you started and later in your career of magic this logic will no longer imply.) So to give yo a real world example: because you have a lot of big converted cost dinos, a card like Llanowar Elves is a card you would want 4 of. It helps your strategy by enabling ramp for big Dinos to come into play earlier.
So lets start there.
Pick your wincon. In your case Charging Monstrosaur or Demanding Dragon might be a good choice. I could see Aggressive Mammoth working as well.
So once you have how you're going to win, you need to pick cards that will help you enact that game plan. So if you picked Charging Monstrosaur then a play set of Otepec Huntmaster could be in order.
Lastly you'll need some form of interaction. Almost every deck in modern will have some form of interaction. You don't have to completely stop the opponent, just slow their plans enough for your plan to happen. A good choice for your deck would be Lightning Bolt but in your case Lightning Strike could work as a budget replacement. At high levels the difference in mana cost is huge but as someone new, it'll do just fine.
March 24, 2019 2:37 p.m.
captainamerica says... #7
You could also play the combo deck found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv9pfaMAexE
March 24, 2019 8:30 p.m.
spitfire_9913 says... #8
Thanks so much for all the advice guys! At this stage I'll keep testing what I like and don't like at home and also try and decide what format I want to play. A lot of your suggestions make sense the more I find out about MTG, at first it's hard to realize just how competitive the games can be! I'm in Brisbane, Aus, so I'll have a look around at what is played on which nights and even head down to an event so I can have a look.
Thanks again
March 25, 2019 5:45 a.m.
MontaukMonster says... #9
Play. Get obliterated, but play anyway; you'll gain experience and make new friends as well.
Here's a word on mana for the noob: Decide how many turns you want to go before you can afford to miss a land drop, add that number to six, and then that gives you the ideal ratio for your deck.
For example (going old school) in Rebels, you want to be able to fetch Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero through Defiant Falcon by turn four. Additionally, you have Wrath of God and Parallax Wave , both of which cost four. So the deck can live off four mana just fine. Less than that and you run into problems.
So, four mana in four turns. Starting with your initial seven, then over turns 2, 3, and 4 you draw one card each, making a total of ten cards, four or which need to be land. 4/10 = 40%. 40% of 60 is 24 land. This is how they arrived at that number.
So look at what you want your deck to do, decide how many turns you want to go before you can afford to miss a land drop, and apply that ratio to the whole deck.
March 25, 2019 6:55 a.m.
It's worth mentioning that MtG Arena is free and has all of Standard available as a format. I'd recommend playing Standard there and then play Modern on paper.
SeekerofSecrets says... #2
Let me start by saying welcome to magic and welcome to the site!
I unfortunately would not start with modern as your first format. Modern is a highly competitive and brutal format. The games are normally decided around turn 3/4. I would instead start with standard, it's much a much more forgiving format, still competitive but friendlier to newer players.
I'm not up to date with current standard decks but if I were you I would start by going to mtg goldfish and picking up a budget deck or one of the new challenger decks.
Good luck!
March 24, 2019 10:23 a.m.