The Shortest MTG Deckbuilding Guide that is also the best one

Mana is for closers. Welcome to the surface level lesson on building your decks around concrete win conditions to avoid do nothing piles. There will be more to follow soon with a more fleshed out deckbuilding guide!
#mtg #magicthegathering #mtgcommunity #cardgame #mtgcommander

[@Jtblake]

I like that while you are putting on a funny voice and adding little jokes to the script, you're still answering the question in a thoughtful and helpful manner. I've been playing for a while now and the way you explain concepts like this shows me there's always more to learn even if I think I've learned everything. Thanks for the content Maldhound, it's always a pleasure to watch.

[@sethkappaccilli9509]

I know you arent a standard player but this is even helpful for that format. Great tips, also one more. DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO DECK LIST WHEN TILTED.

[@mattcotnoir9884]

Im guilty of this 😂

[@Sauvenil]

Needs more upvotes.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

"Why does this deck have so many outs to Artifacts?" "I need those for that ASSHAT"

[@Sauvenil]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 Outs for hexproof and protection and aggro for me. (AKA board wipes.)

[@bestthingeverbyjenn]

What is "tilted?"

[@Zettaizero]

Step one: isolate combo Step two: build deck around combo Step three: have combo ready to play on an open gamestate Step four: feel guilty about being so much better than the rest of the table you concede instead

[@MisterJackTheAttack]

I accidentally did this with my latest deck. I won a commander game by turn 4 or 5 several times in a row, and I felt so bad that I kicked my friends shit in so badly.

[@Zettaizero]

@@MisterJackTheAttack past two commander nights I've had my fave decks pop off in ways that cause me to have very complex very long game ending turns I have actually built decks down dumb as possible to try and stop this from happening now

[@oldbleezy9211]

Step 5. Yell syke!!

[@MisterJackTheAttack]

@@Zettaizero That was the first time I had played that deck, so I didn't know it was going to happen. I just built a deck that I thought was going to be fun, but it did the opposite of what I thought.

[@Zettaizero]

@@MisterJackTheAttack the classic commander experience

[@cr4zyhand581]

Regardless of how funny this video aims to be the concepts are actually very accurate to the core values of deck building. Having a win con and facilitating said win con are not the most important things but also they manifest their importance in different ways

[@Deliriumthemad]

This is actually a solid guide for breaking down common deck building (obviously there are outliers), well done. Day 4 of requesting a video for Xantcha, Friendship Ender.

[@Hashbrown1682]

HAIL BEST GIRL XANTCHA

[@ShinjiSixteen]

Strongly agree. There might be some "funny haha I'm being sassy" in the script, but this is all **super** solid advice and presently perfectly in terms of which concepts first and then how to act on them. Bravo!

[@MisterJackTheAttack]

Oh yay, we are requesting the same commander!

[@Deliriumthemad]

Day 5 of chasing Xantcha.

[@shoopy44]

closers are SO IMPORTANT. a lot of new players me included thought enough synergy could naturally equal a win but dedicated bombs are an absolute must for any consistency

[@Melons987]

Don't bomb too hard. Players don't mind you casting creature board wipes usually but cast a 'destroy all lands' and you drop a closer on your friendships.

[@JeffLionheart]

@@Melons987 Dude, that's what we're here to do. This guy has an entire series of video on 'how to destroy friendships in 60/99 cards or less.'

[@arthurhigginbotham8066]

i did the same thing. now I ask myself “is this wincon gonna make my friend not want to play another game?”

[@syrelian]

As someone who plays Yugioh, you learn very quickly that it doesn't matter how much you can pop off with a mad combo if your endboard consists of nothing, there has to be a way to close out, and a way to not die before you close, and playing 40 cards in one round is not inherently either of those Yugioh's design means that closing is usually going to involve an explosive round or two of going face, we don't have "grindy" combat too often anymore, but in the end, wiping a board and then swinging for lethal is the evergreen path nontheless, and getting there means you need an endboard, negates to restrain them from just building their board and breaking yours, and enough numbers to kill

[@MomirsLabTech]

Mald once again out here with very solid advice for new deckbuilders. Doing Magic God's work.

[@chetasaur]

this is unironically very helpful info i just started playing like5~6 months ago and alot of my decks straight up just dont feel like they can win outside of whatever stupid combo 2-3 card combo i have decided to mindlessly jam into my pile of tribal synergies. i may have to start by ripping a deck or two apart and examining them with these criteria. thank you for an easy to follow guidelines!

[@arthurhigginbotham8066]

bro ive been playing mtg for about 5 years now and that’s exactly how I started too- tribal and wonky combos

[@0scarbrav0]

I was poor and homeless before this video and I applied this deck building guide to all aspects of my life and now I'm rich living in a huge house with lots of fancy cars and foreign women. Thanks for the life changing advice!

[@jacobd1984]

I actually prefer reducing a number to 1 over reducing a number to 0-my life total, because I used it to win.

[@angrydoge4038]

Kriik malone

[@TheNaturalnuke]

I appreciate the balls to assume your opponent can’t deal 2 damage to you in metas full of drain and plink 😂

[@Dalenthas]

You don't win by reducing yourself to 1. You're picking your facilitators before your closers.

[@pigg1619]

Near-death experience?

[@Not_Morgoth]

death’s shadow?

[@TurMoiL911]

1:26 "You can fill it with whatever random crap" I wasn't expecting this video to become Midrange 101.

[@professorpantherhardraad3921]

In my Mono Green Zopandrel I cannibalized the Naya Precon from March of The Machine for Conclave Sledge Captain and the Backup 3 Wurm that digs into the top of your deck and let me tell you going 36 cards deep to find something to turn "I can probably live this," into "Fuck your stupid single braincelled Green Stompy deck." Is glorious

[@tinkerermelon6599]

I understood maybe 40% of that, but if you're happy, I'm happy!

[@You-seem-sus.]

Simple and effective, one of the best guidelines for deckbuilding in my opinion.

[@T4N7]

I expected more jokes but this is actually just 100% good deck building advice

[@Wilebane]

Commander is less about the deck being built around the commander and more of the commander giving ways to reach a goal via color options and abilities. Thats why ramp/draw/tax fraud commanders are so good like korvold, chulane, animar, many others

[@qwormuli77]

Or just to have a combo capstone within easy reach.

[@Digital_Butterfly]

Depends on the deck. My Sythis deck, for example, doesn't need Sythis. But she's probably the single best Enchantress facilitator. Some decks really do build around their commander, like my Ruxa deck. Ruxa buffs up vanilla creatures and is also recursion, but without him in play, I'm literally playing 2 mana vanilla 2/2s.

[@otterfire4712]

In this case Rielle does both. Offering massive draw and a lethal cane to beat people with.

[@kevinwestermann1001]

Or Urza, High Lord Artificer. He doesn't draw - he snowballs everything you do into anything else.

[@Wilebane]

@@kevinwestermann1001 winota too

[@ericstrahler5767]

Genius presentation. Loved the fireplace poker pointer. The sibling go to weapon of choice for a home brawl.

[@rudyh721]

This is a good tutorial for new players and I’ve been building decks for a while but ngl still helpful

[@mandor7005]

Man, you are really funny, you have made my day! 😂 .. and also is the most clever point of view of the game than I had seen. I love the idea of the closers and facilitators and It helps to view the Big picture! Thanks!

[@williambowen8054]

Concise yet thorough.

[@josuelservin]

I really like this videos, short, useful and funny. Thanks for the entertainment and education,really appreciate it.

[@zatchimo5177]

This is a super good video. Never seen it so succinctly described

[@christopherdecock703]

Great video. I am going to force most of my play group to learn from this. Works not just for magic but almost any strategy game.

[@austinlange1410]

This is unironically very accurate and helpful.

[@Oooooof2024]

Genuinely a very helpful video. Thanks!

[@thisiskindabadass212]

Was expecting a meme, got a genuinely good guide with nice humor, good shit bro

[@terrynichols4509]

I want to see you make more videos like this one because you explain this really well

[@movezig5]

This is excellent advice, and my decks follow very little of it.

[@GeekTalkwithMerg]

This is a great video. Very well done.

[@AMassiveHeadache]

that is really helpful and identified why a lot of my decks suck. well. thank you very much

[@erikwilliams1562]

No lie, this is one of the best guides ive seen

[@ISoldTheWorld97]

Legit this is the most helpful advice I've gotten for deck building

[@kennethmiller2550]

Father mald has given us yet another glorious gift!

[@1000Tomatoes]

Very helpful, thanks

[@JaredJuetten]

Simply said. Love it.

[@darkdjinniumbrage7798]

This is very helpful, thank you Maldhound

[@maldhound]

Thank you I’m glad it’s helpful 🙏

[@Tuckerm50]

I’m saving this for teaching purposes thank you

[@TheGameRogue]

not clickbait. is actually the best one ive seen

[@nathanb7733]

This video just gave me an idea for Training Grounds.

[@sagecho4510]

Card games are my main Genre , and I can say these tips work for alot of them , I sent this to all my card game playing friends even those who don't okay mtg

[@t1aoDC]

product review: did what the description said it would do. 10/10 , will recommend to others. 👍

[@davidpalacios6705]

This. Is. Brilliant.

[@davidhower7095]

Wow, that’s some very good advice. I should go put those Blood Artists in

[@Darkilikill]

I just started playing MTGA in historic brawl. I built myself a Rivaz deck, so I'm going to apply these tips next time l modify it. Thanks!

[@TaosoftheVoid]

This is generally how I've learned to build decks over the years. It's the most important question I ask my brother or friends when they show me their deck: what's the wincon? I generally tell them to not neglect doing damage with combat, even if it's only a backup strategy. You never know when you'll need to close the game by beating someone with creatures. This also reminded me of the Rigo deck I'm gonna make. Still deciding on a wincon exactly but my current idea is poison counters, having a way to generate mites so Rigo can get me more resources if need be. If I can find a Falco Spara card at my lgs then I'll switch to him with a counters strategy mostly

[@bradsimpson8724]

The advamtage of the Commander format is that Commander damage is always an alternate win-con. Maybe it's because of my unending love of Voltron decks, but mo matter how I intend to win, I always slip in some equipment/pocket 'roids/unblockable tricks so that I can eke out a kill via Commander damage. This has become more viable at our table thanks to our new love of Treasure Cruise as a format.

[@ThatGuyNamedMatthew]

I think a very important but often missed number that people try to turn to 0 to win (at least conceptually, lots of people play these decks but don't think of it this way) is the resources their opponents have. Resources could be lands, but every card is a resource in this sense and the most common way to go about this is to exhaust your opponent of cards in hand and resources on the battlefield using control spells. Once your opponent can't keep a single card in play because their resources have been overwhelmed in one way or another (usually because whatever they play gets killed or countered because you're drawing a bunch and they're drawing just one per turn) you can win with literally anything else so the final piece of the puzzle is finding ways to win. The last suggestion is finding a way to win outright that isn't useless when you're still in the resource building/trading part of the game. Often this can just be creature lands but other examples include blue sun's zenith to build card advantage midgame but also forces them to draw their deck late game, hero teferi can interact and draw but he also can tuck himself in your deck ensuring you'll never run out of cards once his ultimate has painstakingly exiled their lands away. The "find a wincon that isn't dead when you aren't winning" is even true with some combo decks that aren't aiming to win the resource game such as krark clan ironworks when it was legal where players chose recycling pyrite spellbomb as a wincon as part of an infinite mana loop instead of just casting emrakul because pyrite spellbomb wasn't a dead card in the turns before the combo was executed.

[@Dragonmaster600]

My first question when looking at a deck is "How does it win?" Great advice!

[@kingofplasticine6217]

Honestly that's actually good advice

[@FlameLord050]

I personally like picking a thing and then doing that thing and only that thing and then I somehow win. Example play dragons, or play cards from graveyard, or play robots, or play elementals. If I just do that thing I typically end up winning and if I don't win I won in my heart because I did the thing.

[@ArclinusCastoral]

This is the most consise and utilitarian deck building guide I've ever seen and I've been in this game literally over 20 years. :V

[@CavemanZerron]

I think this really helped me actually, too many facilitators, not enough closers, thank you

[@dylanboling7512]

Great method, I used a similar one to make my azorius deck recently

[@HokaMagic]

You're forgetting the option of making your opponent(s) so miserable that they inevitably scoop. One of my favorite strategies!

[@renethomsen6636]

This is actually an insanely good guide 😂

[@Mtgreenftw]

Closers just gotta follow my ABH's always be bringin hydras

[@ramenofshadows]

Ya know its time for day 5 of asking for Yuriko :p (good shit my man always a banger)

[@42grath]

I like counting to 10 instead of doing subtraction. (Joking aside, this is a really great breakdown)

[@wafflesonfire9716]

Ive built a lot of decks and build around closers is something i should do more. My brain just likes to see the wheels spin.

[@lucaselvis01]

Surprising good

[@joltaikv2340]

this 2 minute video is better than most deck building advice I've seen online tbh. Remember one thing everyone, try to make the game fun for all the players unless you know its going to be competitive. Nobody likes dudes who play demonic consultation into thassas oracle against precons

[@prestonknudsen3111]

Woah, good advice being given straight without any jokes or asides… what have you done with Maldhound?!

[@deathcore1097]

Funny I deal with triggers, beat face AND instant/sorceries. Vito, exquisite blood archangel of thune and nexus of fate I'm looking at you!!

[@teejaygibson4315]

Helpful

[@keremmadran]

Damn, didn't expect the title to be accurate.

[@Whitewingdevil]

Obviously this is a joke but goddamn that was the best, most concise deckbuilding advice I have ever seen.

[@milohobo9186]

This is really good deckbuilding advice! I came here for the dickbutt memes and learned something along the way!

[@jasoncurtis4528]

My dude I need you to do a kaervek the merciless roast. PLEASE I AM BEGGING😂

[@robertprueter3292]

Jokes aside, this is really solid advice

[@The_Dying_Rose]

Day 20 of hoping for a nekusar vid, keep up the good work!

[@shawnheath22]

For all the jokes he normally makes this is actually pretty good advice lol

[@zpauga]

I did not expect this level of education when clicking the video lol

[@user-cz7yl7fp6x]

Pretty sound advice. Another piece of advice for playing competitive, look at the meta and figure out what's winning. Next, figure out what beats that and how. Then figure out what beats that and play that one. Most people stopped at step 2 so if you want to win against them go to step 3. Got that out of some book, but I don't remember which.

[@jakeszig]

Requesting the trial and roast of Umbris fear manifest. The commander who makes you wish you were against mill.

[@ralonnetaph6450]

short and simple. Choose an endgoal, choose a path to that endgoal, consider a backup option to the endgoal, do not overfill with unrelated ideas tangentially related to the endgoal. Just gotta slap a color on at the end there and pick a favorite card so that you never draw it when needed dspite having 4 copies, and kick your local green player in the shins.

[@smileygoldfish]

A wise man always has a win-con, I pick Teferi, Hero of Dominaria.

[@joshprice4855]

I'm gonna try this next deck I build, I usually start with a theme, but my decks always fizzle out with no way to really close out the game save for Korvold and Atarka Oh, hey speaking of Atarka, World render I again request you do a vid on that gal.

[@lelanddyke8386]

Laughs in lantern control

[@DxSkeith]

Any thoughts on doing a Timmy vs. Johnny vs. Spike PSA like those old-school safety videos? I could see it being really funny! Cheers

[@halfpintrr]

I have a Lazav deck that has 2 of the 3 win cons. It can win with Commander damage, or the Thasa combo.

[@charlessandison5740]

0:38 Izzet wizard money gang, we love casting spells

[@ZackofSpades]

This works for many games. You gotta pick your signatures. The ones where the audience watching your anime sit up and go "aw here it comes." Who is your Dark Magician?

[@StarshadowMelody]

I like the idea of combining creature overrun with _Shoot Them In The God Damn Face._

[@mightyone3737]

I had a deck that I loved, it was fun to play but GOOD GOD was it bad at closing games, it was so bad that I literally added Protean Hulk and had no way to win that turn off of a pile, it was insane how I managed to 'almost' get the deck to work. I think it was the game I TWICE had to tutor for another (slightly better) tutor, at which point I STILL couldn't win that revealed the deck's issue. I also cut lands from it when I was angry because I kept flooding, now it's down to 28, but it runs so much ramp that it really only needs to hit 2 or 3 land drops most games. After some retooling the deck can finally win on the spot, and I don't need to spend 20 minutes figuring out 'nope, I can't win this turn' and pass into the inevitable wipe. That's fine once in awhile, but unless you're trying to build a deck for online content you really need to figure out how your deck wins from the get go, if not that then you need to figure it out very early in the process. I think the deck was perfect for what it was (an unfun to play against 7), but if you're trying to sell a deck as a High Power list it actually needs to win in a reasonable time frame; you can't win by just taking away people's toys, just like it's very hard to win a race by spending your time trying to trip people instead of actually running said race!

[@kylemarullo9552]

I know that his content is focuses around mtg but i feel like this can be applied to most games that require deck building (i say most because i am sure someone can point out games that this doesnt apply to)

[@MisterJackTheAttack]

Yes and no. Closers are important to any game, but not every game has resource cards. Basic ideas are there though.

[@kylemarullo9552]

@@MisterJackTheAttack true but most other games do still have interaction and facilitators. They likely function differently but do still exist.

[@metalhev3989]

ABC: always be countering

[@itachi3907]

I admit as someone that dislikes blue I had that just splash blue thought pop up a lot so now if I have to put blue in anything its just counter spells and maybe 1 or 2 blue creatures.

[@adeadlybeastkiller]

True

[@Arenuphis]

Only exception I can think of is Control whose Closer is often "Oh you're out of gas and can't stop my minor repeated number reduction, guess I win" So for them the Fascilitators often become more important to get right I think

[@ZackofSpades]

Those still need a closer. "Control" isn't the win condition, it's the theme. The closer would be something like a Planeswalker you've cleared the way for or a big beast like classic Nicol Bolas.

[@andrewsullivan2650]

Power building life gain to win😊😊😊

[@ryancarter3303]

1 closer, 20 tutors

[@RecordsoftheDeepFolk]

Day 2 of Baru, Wurmspeaker please! WWUURRMM

[@AngrilyWetButtBelch]

Another video, another request for Feldon of the Third Path.

[@skylarken1184]

I respect the spellslingers out there wanting to bamboozle and shove a shotgun blast of cantrip spells down there but I've been completely enraptured by the Ghruul mindset of tokyo drifting King Kong directly into your skull by turn 4 and it has become a problem please help.

[@OsvaldoChannel1]

2:09 alternatively to Blue, if you dont want to make your opponents immediately recognize that you are going to be incredibly annoying or are in your edge teen phase, you can splash black instead. That has the additional benefit of being the current favorite child of WotC, so you have no shortage of rage inducing broken stuff (fuckin Sheoldred the Apocalypse....)

[@TheDarkWing123]

Wasitora, I beg of thee

[@johnsmith-mp4pr]

delver of secrets

[@gromigur]

I build a mono green omnath locust of mana deck and boy oh boy did I do this intuitivly right. Only problem are waves of boardclears and the table getting antsy when suddenly on turn four 14 14/14 Oozes apear on my side.

[@trishasaoirse1511]

For those playing commander, your general DOES NOT need to be your closer, but if it isn't and it doesn't facilitate you getting your closer then it will not be an effective deck. You got 100 cards and only one of them is garanteed, so that better be a 100% satisfaction or your mana back garantee or you will get bodied every time.

[@Shadrider]

Norin the Wary

[@envoy2500]

I miss the standard format when my closers were roughly 28 copies of Siege Rhino lol

[@kendrickvickers2610]

i got a passive deck that grants the enemys theoretically 17 cards drawn each turn