旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 쿞ome deck-building and program usage tips by Alex Schonfeld 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 Start to think about some good card combinations. What casting cost will these cards require? Do I have to get them together? An example might be Manabarbs and Drain Power. This would require a red and blue deck, and also require the game to have progressed for some time and that you still be alive. There are a few important elements to think about: 1) What kind of deck am I building? Defensive or offensive? How does it progress as playing continues? Take for an example a red speed destruction deck. If someone pops out a red Circle of Protection and they are at 2 life you are in trouble. Not only because of the Circle, but because a red speed deck will not have the cards necessary to kill a Serra Angel without using say two Lightning Bolts. This brings us to point 2. 2) You have to think about progression. As time goes along does your deck build in strength at an adequate rate? Usually think of a pyramid. Lots of low casting cost cards at the bottom, moving up to higher casting costs at the top. You usually want a few high casting cost cards at the top. By changing the amount of land in your deck you might adjust so that getting to higher costs is easier. Or play alternate mana supplies such as creatures that produce mana, artifacts, etc. This can allow you to get a lot more mana early in the game. You would thus be able to bring out high casting cost creatures early or do massive damage. Don't make the mistake of assuming you will have the mana to cast a Juggernaut early in the game. The main point is that as the game progresses you want to use all your mana supply. Thus, later in the game you should be doing MORE damage with FEWER cards. This is not always true if you are playing around certain combos or playing a defensive deck, however. 3) What matters in this game? There are a few things: TURNS, CARDS and your OPPONENT'S LIFE. What you want to do is decrease your opponent's life to 0 using the least number of cards in the least number of turns. You want to maximize your deck around these concepts. If you find yourself using 3 cards to destroy one of your opponents cards you are in trouble. If you see your opponent always disenchanting your Ornithopter with 2 Giant Strengths on it you are in trouble. The problem is they are using one card to destroy 3 of yours. As far as turns, games tend to get very nasty after about 10 turns. Combination moves start to become all too common. Your 20 life is in jeopardy. Think, am I not getting a creature out early in the game? Is that why his first turn Juzam Djinn is killing me? This rule does not only apply to creatures. Your deck might include Counterspells or maybe some Swords to Plowhares doing the job just as well or better. These work as well as any low casting cost creature. Your deck should be able to kill before you are killed in a reasonable amount of turns. There are a few ways to do this. Plan around the different card types. They all do damage. Think, can you defend against all types of spells? The types include: enchantments, instants, interrupts, sorceries, summons and artifacts. Permissions or "Counterspell Decks" can be good because of their ability to shut down any type of deck. Their fatal flaws are that they do not do enough damage, sometimes take more mana to stop cards than the casting cost and take on a defensive posture. There are of course ways to make these types as deadly as any other. One other way is to not worry about defense and take a totally offensive posture. Usually a deck should only have minimal defenses for things like Vises and Manabarbs. Four Disenchants is what I call adequate. Then think about what you are going to do to kill them. How does my deck do damage? Does it do it quickly, or long term? How long do I have to stay alive to kill them? Are there any cards that can shut my deck down? A red Circle can shut down almost any red destruction deck. Do I have a similar problem? 4) Remember combination is the key. Almost no game can be won by all cards being used individually. Clever combinations are the best way to fool an opponent into death. But make sure your whole plan doesn't hinge around one card. Using multiple combinations can be very useful. Say you want the power of Goblin Grenades, but don't want your goblins sitting around waiting to die. Put in some Blood Lusts and Forks to give the goblins something else to do. Leading us to 5. 5) Never become DEPENDENT on combinations. Or at least have combinations which can slowly make themselves evident. For example you may put down a Winter Orb and then 5 turns later find your Black Vise with relative ease. Don't make it so cards REQUIRE each other unless you have lots of them (ie. 12 goblins for your Goblin Grenades). Don't make it so your cards require your opponent to have certain cards unless they are sidebar and color/land/etc... specific and you KNOW they have them. 6) Total number of cards. NEVER go above 60. There is no reason to and it may decrease your odds of drawing the most important cards in your deck. You want to maximize your odds of drawing your most important cards (such as a Black Vise) first turn. 7) You should either have low casting cost defenses or some way to get cards and mana quickly into play. 30 percent mana is adequate for a deck with only a few cards at a casting cost of 3 mana. If you shuffle it in it can be adequate for higher costs. Watch out for land destruction! 8) Shuffling is another key point. Usually before a tournament I will do a round robin on all my cards in nice stacks of type. Then lastly shuffle the land in evenly. You might want to do this before each game as well. Sort out your land and then shuffle it in. Then shuffle it in few more times to make your opponent reassured. If you notice your opponent doing this make sure they shuffle at least as much as you did. 3 times is usually fair for both players. 9) Sidebars should contain a good mix of cards that target other colors specifically. Maybe target the color you are weakest against. Be careful of falling into traps which expect you to cast certain offensive cards. If you have space left over, put in some land for land destruction. Make sure you have cards in your deck that you would be willing to take out. If you are playing an all red deck with your blue and white deck you might want to replace Counterspells with Elemental Blasts. 10) When playing semi-intelligent people, with good decks, its mostly luck anyway! --- UltraDeck's main function is to create real play decks. The best way to do this is to start adding cards you've decided are useful. You might first want to do some planning by using to display all cards in the list window. Get an idea of the kinds of cards out there. Once you come up with a general strategy sort to find the ones that fit that strategy. Tag all the cards you want to include and then at the end toggle (ALT-O) all the tags and delete the rest. Another option is to manually enter all the cards you want by pressing Insert. Adjust the card counts as needed. Look at the casting costs, do they form a pyramid? Can it do damage quickly? If not, are there some defenses? Can you say every card serves a purpose or better yet, many purposes? Is the deck exactly 60 cards? Are there any better ways of doing the things your cards are doing -- more efficient ways? You should check that you have 60-65 cards in the deck. Then check that your mana setup is near 30% with the Mana function. Name (ALT-F) and save (ALT-S), then start DRAWing (ALT-A) a few random hands. Look at the cards. Are you getting combinations? Is there some defense? Try to continue drawing: do you find your deck losing momentum? Remember that in UltraDeck, the draws are completely random. In the real world, different types of shuffling can do different things to increase your odds of drawing land and such. Look at the info grid charts. Can you cut casting costs and still do damage? Think of the # chart as the weight of your deck. You don't want it to be too skinny or too fat. Try and cut down as much as you can without decreasing damage or effectiveness or diversity. Good luck! Are you dependent on one type of card? Is 20% of your deck enchantments, artifacts? Will a Shatterstorm kill you? Is your deck all creatures? What happens when they cast Wrath of God or Drop of Honey? Do you have the most mana for you highest percentage of casting cost totals? Is there one card which will kill you? Is your deck totally reactionary? Last, but not least, can you afford to buy the cards in this deck? Do you want to find those four Ydwen Efreets? Look at the dollar values. Usually these are relatively high, and with a little shopping lower values can be found. Trading is also an option, of course.