How to Build a Better Magic Deck

[@wisp5570]

A big thing people at low to middle skill levels should learn, if a bit harsh, is “Reading the card explains the card”

[@revenantproxy9100]

Another thing that might help is knowing the rules of the game before you start playing. My brother and I played it kind of wrong when we started because I had played with one of my friends once a few years ago and I tried to explain it all from memory. Needless to say, the decks we had set up based on fuzzy memory rules didn't work very well in a real game.

[@zoobnash]

Have you tried.. reading the card? Reading the card.. *explains* the card.

[@davidthai2495]

Yep, and when there's an effect on there that isn't explained or confusing I just google it. Google is your friend.

[@NeroVingian40]

Reading the card doesn’t really explain the power level of the cards though. I mean, everyone can read, if we were to mention this problem, these are really problems for the lowest of the low skill levels.

[@We_Are_Borg_478]

The way I was taught to learn the rules, and I became a very skilled player in a few months, was to take the text of every card literally. Be completely literal. I would ask the guy that taught me "Am I allowed to do this" He would answer with "Does the card say you can?"

[@ryanrobot7975]

"Don't use two bad cards that are good together" I feel attack as a person

[@jacobtietjen2099]

Ryan Robot that’s what we call jank. Everyone loves jank

[@gabrielus123gabby]

But why? I dont get it

[@calvinrichardson9287]

it will take about as long to see those two cards together in a context where they'll even be good in that moment, as it took for you to get a reply to this comment

[@fishfingers40k]

My tip is to let your opponents look through your deck after games and ask them what they would put in it. Then ask why. Also ask them if they think you made any mistakes. Nothing will help you improve faster than other people's experience.

[@8628416]

That's also how I have learned the most! But careful... Sometimes you'll ask a person that won out of luck and doesn't know what he/she's talking about. So don't "overlisten" if that's a word...

[@SventFulgur]

@@8628416 Take all feedback with a grain of salt. Look at the context, I would consider myself a decently experienced player and I would still go over my sideboard decisions with my Opp to see what they thought and get feedback. Always try to learn something when you can! :D

[@8628416]

@@SventFulgur Damn right! :)

[@We_Are_Borg_478]

I'm the opposite. I don't want people stealing my trade secrets. I want them thinking I am completely stupid when I walk into a tournament. I pretend my lands are castable spells and sometimes even act like I'm debating if I want to "cast" the card. When my hand is superb, I pretend to be irritated and helpless at the threats my opponent throws down. I even outright lie and say I am getting land drowned. When I draw a card, I sigh like I'm depressed at what I drew. When the opponent casts a spell, I start pretending to counter it, then I just say "nahhhh, I'll save that card." My point is, I recommend you study people instead of decks. I have won many tournaments. About 60 percent of them, I bluffed my way to victory. You can't lie about serious things, like when you have to truthfully answer how many cards are in your hand. But there is no rule against talking or lying about unrelated topics during the game. People get irritated and distracted by my talking. One person even called a judge on me for it, and the judge had to admit I had not broken any rules. I say magic is a mix of chess and poker. You have to know how to play your chess pieces, but you also have to be able to read your opponent like the Sunday morning comics. More importantly, they should be completely baffled at your intentions, strategy, and mental state. Showing your decks to other players will make you appear weak, which they will capitalize on in the future. Like a shark, they sniff for the blood of weaker creatures. Most importantly, NEVER cast interruptable spells on your own turn.

[@8628416]

@@We_Are_Borg_478 Well, that's a very valid strategy, and would be a very good comment if this video was called "how to win more games in paper MTG tournaments (exclusively)". That's not the case though, and your strategy is actually really bad if you're trying to get better at deck building, which is the topic of this whole video. It has to be very interesting to play against you, though, props to you for your bluffing skills!

[@benweiderman446]

Big Tip: Do not just put all your Rares and Mythics into a deck because they are Rares or Mythics

[@holymsophy]

That moment when you have "Leyline of void" and you attack with "haunt of Hightower" and you notice haunt isn't getting any stronger because void is sucking up everything 😂😂😂😂

[@cassius6454]

Ugh my first orzhov deck ghost council, blood baron, teysa, etc etc

[@meownezz]

Me love big green creatures. Me love hitting people in face quick. Me made turn 3 attacking galtha deck for pioneer. Uga-uga-uga Happy birthday.

[@jaksgaming0686]

Can you maybe make an episode about some old Sets like the Urza's Block or something like that.

[@samb9759]

JaksGaming06 boo

[@robertbrowning295]

Happy birthday! Seems a little backwards that WE get the gift but oh 🐳

[@DrunkenPilotVideos]

Then it must be Christmas!

[@isaacroberts3829]

Love the 🐳 pun

[@ruttokyrpa3472]

WotC release Secret Lair - Infect Due to recent events

[@Sephirothstrife-yk8en]

I’ve been playing magic for roughly 12 years, and I noticed very early on, that I was a fan of control strategies, and I noticed that my 10 year losing streak, was due to my lack of attention to the line that my father actually taught me about just like how you explained it, Ryan. He called it the deck-line and I was always trying to jump from one end to the other in the same deck. It has cost me multiple games and I went back and re-discovered my love of pure control when I built a deck around Aetherflux Reservoir, and began to slaughter my friends with it. Thank you for reminding me once again after I’d forgotten to keep mind of the deck-line. And happy birthday, Loremaster Ryan!

[@rosethorn_48]

*me a jank player*: what is this nonsense???

[@ntsmith2000]

If you have a regular play group where you communicate openly, recommend using proxies before buying expensive cards. No sense in wasting money if that card doesn't stay in the build.

[@exitioregem8466]

oooh, love the new logo in the intro :)

[@GezmeRR]

Great work on the new setup! And happy birthday!

[@cameronkasady9166]

Oh, btw have a great bday Ryan! My tip: if you like a tribe, e.g. dragons, do NOT just put those creatures in the deck and nothing more. You need to support the creatures with a few spells, either answers for a controlling deck or more threats for an aggressive deck.

[@jcayala4252]

I can tell you have a true passion for the game and it is evident by how you speak of the material. Thanks for the tips and quality content.

11:16 Case in point Mat from LoadingReadyRun was playing against Jamies having a total of 187 life to which James used Sorns second ability to make Mats life 10 and killed him in that turn. Happy Birthday by the way

[@timhenrickson9653]

Happy birthday! :) When I make decks, I start by pulling up 5+ deck lists online of the same archetype (i.e. M19 Sarkhan Dragons) and take note of all the cards that are the same across 3+ of those lists.

[@cameronkasady9166]

Hey! Black background, less echoes. NICE! As always, great video!

[@DanteInformal]

Hey Ryan! I just wanted to say thanks for this video. My future stepdaughter is 11 and told me that she wanted to learn how to play recently. Your template of "4 copies of your nine favorite cards + 24 lands" was exactly the lightbulb I needed to build her a GW Pioneer-ish Cats deck on the cheap. Thank you for helping make a little girl happy.

[@MagicArcanum]

Yessssss!

[@flameking1753]

2:48, Siege rhino is an aggressive card, yes, but when you think about it in the context of the standard it was in, it was all over the spectrum. There was Abzan Aggro, midrange, and Control

[@byotip]

Playing commander, my advice would be "If your going to win 25% of the time, make sure you'll have fun 100% of the time with the cards you put in your deck... That include a lot and a lot of card draw... Even if your cards does nothing, you wont have fun with an empty hand. If you could start your deck with 40 lands and 58 card draw spells, do it." And happy birth day!

[@mrgoncas71]

My tip is always to netdeck at first because, if you thought to build a deck, someone probably had that idea first. Look at it, what you like and what you don't like, and evolve through that because, chances are, there's a good skeleton there to build on Oh and happy birthday! if a bit late

[@bananamancer]

"Every deck exists somewhere on line..." Stop. Stop it there. Yes, that's how you make top-tier deck today. (Sorry, couldn't miss that low-hanging fruit)

[@bonielsen653]

I would like to add to the "mustache minute". Nothing can beat the feeling of actually winning (against both friends and foes) with one of the first decks you build yourself xD

[@Dracinard]

Really nice setup! Happy birthday, and here's to much more Magic Arcanum to come!

[@mikejh1604]

“Can you make a deck with 30 lands and 30 siege rhinos?No” saffron olive has some words for you

[@leonboyd2557]

Pro tip. If you're new and using commander, don't play pirates. You'll just get rofl stomped. Personal experience.

[@nathanaelrants]

I can second that...

[@t3cneo948]

It's not even good in a 1v1

[@baileyculbertson4007]

I fell into this trap too...

[@dinoasgard105]

Too true

[@scottgary6668]

My pirate deck is pretty good. The key is to steal other people’s stuff. Works well for me.

[@Rixtah]

I don't have a tip for deckbuilding, but all I can say is: Play a deck you feel good with. I played a aggro goblin deck once, but didn't liked it. I won, but it didn't feel ... as winning? It's like going to a knife fight and you bring a Mini-Gun - you won, but ... not the way you wanted it maybe. I made a Shrine-Deck. I loved the shrines when Kamigawa was released. I didn't had enough money for buying enough packs to build one those days, butnow with MTG Arena I could - and I did - I love my shrine deck. It feesl okey to lose, because it's fun to me to play my shrines

[@knoxcarter4852]

Great explanation on the kinds of decks! I’ll definitely be sharing this with my friends trying to learn MTG.

[@adamdenzinger576]

Happy birthday Ryan!! Thanks for all the great stories that make this wonderful game even more enjoyable!

[@RobAE]

Happy Bday...I never enjoyed aggro and quickly got to control, I enjoy long games, because I get to play the cards I gathere, currently finalizing my favorite Esper Doom as a Control Combo Deck in Standard, its not Meta but I love it

[@thaddeuspaulbrillantes2482]

Happy Birthyday, Ryan!

[@deathdealergaming2440]

My very first magic deck was all the way back in the days of mirrodin. I had a white wenie equip deck. It was more on the aggressive side but had some control aspects to it as well sadly I no longer have said deck. Magic is by far one of my favorite card games that I still play today but I haven't gotten into arena just yet so that will make things interesting when I do.

[@zephyrstrife4668]

My buddy helped me make a deck during the Amonkhet block... it was a minotaur deck that we lovingly called "The Pain Train Deck" it sadly didn't have any one or zero drops in it... but the moment a creature hit the field, the creatures would introduce their fists to the opponents' faces.

[@ThatJakers]

I hate to be the guy that likes things the old way, but the Magic Arcanum I fell in love with had a solid black background and good sound quality, thanks for bringing both back 🧡🧡🧡

[@Lyssaocoser]

The lore of the cards mostly impacts my decks there is some kind of joy for me knowing the story behind the card I'm using

[@jamesmoore1317]

Then you must like the flavor win videos!

[@Lyssaocoser]

@@jamesmoore1317 Heck yes I doo

[@jamesmoore1317]

@@Lyssaocoser Me too!!! :D

[@karinpeem210]

Love your new intro and new production!!!!

[@one_bad_mofo8658]

It's amazing that Jeskai is my favorite tri-color combo and yet it was the original control deck in terms of the first competitive decks.

[@НурсултанТалгатулы-ф6м]

i'm playing magic since Alara block , and instantly fell in love with control gameplay , but it's first time i see list of "the deck" and gosh it is beautiful... Perfecto

[@schnitzelbender1071]

Had a good chuckle! Very entertaining episode. Happy B-Day btw! My tip: learn how "the stack" works.

[@jamesmoore1317]

good tip, learning the stack is really important for instant card interactions, still working on that myself lol

[@magicbknight8024]

On the zombie tribal deck, I've had a mono-black zombie tribal deck I built back in the onslaught block and with only a few changes since the it is one of my best and most feared decks in my play group, and a great mid-range build at that

[@joshuatolbert5252]

I think one of the problems newer players might have is mana cost. I have an Angel deck and I found rather quickly it would take me awhile to even get one creature out. What I would recommend is add mana reduction cards: Starnheim Aspirant, Cloud Key, Oketra's monument, Semblance Anvil, Herald of War are just some examples to help.

[@rareroe305]

When building a deck, I usually pick the top of my curve, then build synergies with them. When tweaking a deck (because improvements are always needed) I try to do two things. I pick cards that are pretty good in most situations instead of really good in a few situations. And I try to patch any weaknesses that were exploited while I was playing with it (add removal, protection for my own cards, etc).

[@berndb3141]

Use a Hypergeometric Calculator programm to see how many colered mana sources you need in your deck to cast your spells on curve

[@ginatruiolo]

Happy birthday to you for the whole month!!!!!!! Woohoo 🥳

[@heingriesel4745]

Happy bday

[@holymsophy]

Happy Belated birthday Ryan! Saw this when it was up, one thing led to another and never got to check it out till now. I think one big thing to point out is that there is no deck with 100% ratio. You're gonna lose some and win some (though you wanna win more than lose), and sometimes that element of randomness can just suck (especially in arena). I have a mid-range deck that can combo to wins, my star cards are Nightveil predator Sorin, vampire lord planeswalker Heliod, sun-crowned And 2 revenge of ravens If game goes too long, I have Ashiok Nightmare Muse and a faerie that opens sideboard to bring in Liliana dreadhorde necromancer

[@Astrael00]

Hey Ryan, happy birthday hope you had a good day and, as always, a joy watching your content! Big hug!

[@Jaebird88]

First off, happy birthday fellow March birthday-er. Secondly, the one thing I like to do nowadays is try to find out what synergizes with such and such card. Now, for as time consuming as it is, I use Deckbox(dot)org to catalog my collection so that way I can easily search for specific rule wordings or keywords or card types to better narrow down what I have on hand. E.g.: If I have a creature that benefits itself or me from drawing cards, I look for ways to do just that, and come across others that have their own little bonus in addition to it.

[@yurianonio9410]

Happy birthday Brian! You and Nicole are both awesome! (Nice video btw, it helped a lot by allowing me to better mesure my knowledge of how deckmaking works)

[@jacobanderson4511]

Man I wish i saw this when it was posted. Happy late birthday!

[@geekygengar5467]

My first actually good deck was a mono black vampire deck during the original Zendikar block. Vampire Nighthawk was my bread and butter along with Vampire Nocturnus and other beautifully aggressive cards. I miss that deck.

[@MCKejml]

Sorry for the shameless plug, but if you're a fan of MtG and also watch movies sometimes, then I encourage you to view TAP: Max's game one day. The main antagonist plays this vampires deck you mention.

[@AspelShuyin]

I mostly do well at Commander, but my best deckbuilding advice is to focus on synergies. Every card in your deck should work well with *most* of your other cards. For Standard I currently have a deck that's focused on Undergrowth, particularly from Izoni. To that end, I've got small defensive threats like Glowspore Shaman and Mire Triton that let me fill up my library quickly. Since I'm a more midrange deck, I've also got Skola Grovedancer at the two drop, to help me fill the yard and incrementally gain life. Going up the curve, I use Gorging Vulture to pitch four cards and gain a bit of life. Even more with Grovedancer. There's Plaguecrafter as well, which can take out creatures in less aggressive decks, or peel off cards and Teferis from the control decks that give me so much trouble. And it puts a creature into my graveyard. I also have Ayara, First of Locthwain in the three drop spot, who can often win the game if she's on the field when Izoni comes onto the field. If not, she gives incremental lifegain, and card draw, and can put things in the graveyard. Four drop is a bit sparse, reserved for four copies of Blood for Bones, which will allow me to return key creatures from my graveyard, often getting triggers again. Five drop is split between Cavalier of Night and Cavalier of Thorns, with a one of Cauldron's Gift. The Cavaliers are large threats that have to be answered, and each one has a valuable trigger on entering the battlefield or dying (though I usually save Cavalier of Thorns' dies trigger for Blood for Bones). Only three copies of izoni are in my six drop slot, and seven is reserved for a Lotleth Giant in the sideboard. While my deck isn't the strongest, I have been able to do well with it, and that's no doubt due to just how much synergy there is.

[@cezaryjanicki9708]

Damn man that some really nice setup you got there. Looks great!

[@brycebledsoe3870]

Tbh I just started last week and I didnt understand why I've been losing all the time when I realized that I'm using a mono blue jace deck to be very aggressive and attack without controlling and saving my mana for instants, so honestly that's already made me a better player thinking about it

[@lancemadigan6428]

I saw this 2 days after it had come out. Happy Birthday, belated!

[@onionmonkey2246]

Just got notified you uploaded! Excited to watch the rest at home. Love the new intro logo!

[@diojoestar9646]

Glad to see you cranking out good content - Vampiroser

[@lucasberard]

I really enjoy these videos. I'm a new player, and feel pretty lost in the sauce virtually all the time. Your humor and energy translate well to the camera. Great job to both you and Nicole (hopefully spelled that right). Happy belated birthmas.

[@s1luman]

Thank you Ryan and happy birthday

[@Chloe_Athey]

From a casual standpoint, I'd say find a mechanic you like to play as. Such as making tokens, adding a bunch of +1/+1 counters, death touch/toxic. etc. etc. and build a deck around the mechanic you like to play. It's easy to just shell out the money and buy the deck list of whatever is the latest winning meta atm but if you don't enjoy playing it then what's the point? I'd say that the point is to enjoy the game, win or lose, and to always learn something each game.

[@samhaskins127]

Thanks for another useful aaaand fun vid! Really appreciate all you do! Happy birthday! 🎂

[@forceofwill8012]

Happy Birthday! I hope you'll get sponsored, because your content is great!

[@ovi2wise]

Happy birthday Ryan, I am a fan, keep up the good work dude.

[@treyconover4107]

Happy birthday! Thank you for the consistently great content.

[@thefinaladmin7589]

Happy birthday hope u have fun also love the set up and thank you so much for all the stuff u do on this channel and take care

[@ikewhaite4233]

Happy birthday, birthday-month twin! Great vid!

[@mirkocipriani1682]

Happy birthday from Italy. I like the ending soundtrack and all your videos

[@MetPhD]

Ohhh white mana shirt... that’s because it’s the best color for new commander players 😁. Love the “if I had a sponsor...” LOL

[@asuperllama6019]

Don't be afraid to ask other player questions, advice, or opinions. They could have some information about cards or how different interactions work between cards

[@nocturnalemotions]

Happy Birthday! 💕

[@Zarkonem]

Been playing magic for around 20 or so years. When I build a deck I tend to look at what sort of mechanic I want to build around, and then put in cards that synergies well with it or enhance or enable that effect. Example, I have a beastly mono green trample deck that I almost always win with on Arena. I put in a fair share of trample creatures of course, things like Voracious Hydra and Gnarlback Rhino. But I also put in some things like paradise druids for mana ramping to get those creatures out faster as well as killer enchantments to make those trample creatures much meaner like Hydra Growth. Then to make sure I don't run out of steam if my opponent answers my beefed up monster, I put in things like The Great Henge so that I draw more things to keep the pressure of my onslaught going. Add a pinch of Rabid Bite and Sedge Scorpion to answer problematic threats on their end and you have a very tasty batch of Pulverized Opponent Pie. Another Example if you care to continue reading my long winded and overly thought out process, is my blue and black milling deck. The object of the deck is to win by making my opponent not have a deck anymore by putting their library straight into their graveyard. This takes time of course, which means that I need to be able to survive long enough to do so. Aside from obvious milling cards like Drowned Secrets and Overwhelmed Apprentice, I also put in things to stop and block my opponent from being able to hit me like Dungeon Geists and Wall of Lost Thoughts, the latter of which just so happens to ALSO mill my opponent and synergies well with Drowned Secrets. I like to go online and see what kind of decks people are using and get ideas for mechanics and build my own deck based on them.

[@presenceofthemastermtg5962]

Lovin' the new intro! Happy Birthday!

[@viiy9429]

Recommendation: if you don't know ot play it. I found it to be pretty difficult to warm up to green at first because that play style and the cards I had seemed cool but not really intuitive to play for me. Than I build a mono green deck, toom some creatures I found to look fun and rolled with it. Gave me a way better understandament of my cards and the green archetype. (I still live for white/blue decks)

[@WarriorX9000]

Happiest Birthday Ryan!! :D

[@Kwickstryke]

Happy (early or late) birthday Ryan!

[@Darklord-uo3re]

Happy 2 years late birthday, this vid helped. Thanks!

[@8628416]

11:10 Well Played! I'm new to your channel. Sometimes your sense of humor can be cringy, but I think you're an awesome gentle smart guy. I wish a bright and good future to both Nicole and yourself! I hope you find your sponsor. They would be making a good investment! Here's your comment and your like.

[@nappingpillow5724]

Happy birthday and thank you for the deck building advice.

[@PestOnYT]

Happy Birthday. Thanks for the video!

[@knodalishell5636]

where would you place a combo deck that waits until late game to win? like a lot of modern decks or a standard deck like tenue reclaimation

[@knodalishell5636]

temur*** oops

[@MagicArcanum]

To me it doesn't really matter at what stage the combo deck tries to win - it is still an aggressive deck. Aggro vs Control is not necessarily about the speed in which you try to win, so much as about how much of your deck is devoted to threats vs answers. Even a slower combo deck like Temur Reclamation would still be aggressive, because the deck devotes more cards to "going off" than it does to "stopping its opponent's plan."

[@HexproofAnarchist]

Happy Birthday Ryan!

[@noahwolff5455]

At my table we have a fun little rule we call immortality. If you gain 100 life over your starting total . (Meaning you reach 120 life or 140 life in commander) you cannot be killed by dropping to 0 life. It hasn't actually extended any of our games play times but it has added a kind of flavourful side goal.

[@buraddorun3043]

Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great one. Thanks for the vid!

[@mattman8436]

Happy Birthday!

[@Happy_Tunafish]

In all my experience with "casual tabletop modern" I feel like what makes a "good" magic deck is really interesting to define. For instance, I love tribal decks, and even if they aren't guaranteed to win when we're next sitting around the kitchen table, I'll spend dozens of hours on a deck on tapped out, to make it as flavorful, and good as it can be, without being busted or too pricey. One of my other friends though, browses through netdecks, and buys ton's of really busted cards. While his decks might be "better" they're simply not fun to play with or against. If my Wurms or Dragons lose to Mini Teferi Control, or Eerie Interlude one more time, I might lose it. because of this, nobody wants to play against him, and he's generally bummed at game night, and asking to use other people's decks. For this reason, I'd say its extremely important to answer this question: "What is this deck for?" If you want to take a deck to some FNM, or some tournament, then yeah, make it busted and as pricey as you can manage, cause nobody there is going to pull their punches either. But, if its for fun around the kitchen table with friends, or to play with people new to magic, then make a deck you really like, something with wacky combos, "bad" cards, and you don't need that Sylvan library. I'm 100% in the second type, and while I make decks that I wan't to win, I never put the winning in front of goofy combos, or some other way to make my friends laugh as either win or lose with it. For example, I spent almost all of today working on a Flameshadow Conjuring Dragon Tribal deck. Its still not there, but that doesn't mean I'm about to throw in a few steamkin, yah dig?

[@World_Reaper]

Happy Birthday. Still it was more a present to us...thx

[@julianlastname5730]

There is of course the Aggro-control spectrum, defined quite well in the video, but in my opinion there is another that is similarly important to have in mind while deck building That is the synergy vs raw power spectrum. Synergistic decks want more resources for both players because their ten cards can beat a raw power decks ten cards pretty easily. Raw power decks want fewer resources in play, because one of their cards is much better than one of the cards in a synergy based deck.

[@MagicArcanum]

This is true, and I've seen it expressed as "fair vs unfair" as well. It was a bit much to get into for a video aimed at beginners, but I agree there are several ways you can define a deck outside of aggressive vs control.

[@johnfingkennedy1091]

Happy birthday my guy

[@danielbakergill]

Happy birthday dude.

[@jinthad]

Happy birthday!

[@robertbrinker1769]

Best deck building tip: if you are trying to improve a deck, after a match ask your opponent if you can pick their brain on your sideboard choices, even just specifically for the deck they were playing. It will give you an idea of what things different decks are most weak to.

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

*HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!*

[@Blockrates]

Happy birthday Ryan!

[@cloudyboi13]

Happy birthday! Thanks for the tips! 🥳🥳🥳

[@Sinspinner]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎈

[@Rakoon666]

Happy birthday =)

[@Luthier_AndresAlvarez]

Happy Birthday, man!

[@icedoutjedi2222]

Happy late birthday hope everything is well, thanks so much for advise very helpful

[@dendostar5436]

Happy Birthday. My best tip? Cycling lands!