Deck Building Tips for the Novice Magic: The Gathering Player

I have been playing Magic: the gathering for 10 years now, so I thought I would like to give some tips to the beginning player on how to build some decks that would help them out.

First thing that might help is that you start out building mono-color deck (single color). The reason for this is as a beginner you want to learn about playing the game and understanding card text and overall rules for the game. It is much easier to do this only having to worry about having the correct amount of mana to cast a spell or creature card. If you have more than one color in your deck that can make it hard for the beginner to understand and frustrating at the same time, which might discourage the new player.

The second thing that I would recommend is having no more than 60 cards in your deck. Too many cards in your deck can cause it take longer for cards that are I your deck to show up in your hand. I generally play with 20 land cards, 20 creature cards, and 20 other spell type cards (enchantments, instants, and sorceries).

The third thing would be spacing out your mana cost. Granted the best cards usually have a higher mana cost, but if you have a deck full of high casting cost cards then all your doing is waiting for your mana pool to build up to play those cards while your opponent wails on your life total. That's not to say don't put any good cards in your deck, just put cards with lower casting cost so that you may cast spells in your defense. Some of the best decks are called "weenie decks" because they are compiled of many 1-3 casting cost cards. This lets you get cards on the table so that you can strike early and build up your army of creatures quickly then overwhelm your opponent with a massive attack phase.

Another thing you might want to consider is to throw in some life gaining cards. Cards that replenish life lost from opponent attacks or direct damage spells. These types of cards can make all the difference in a game and surprise your opponent just when they thought they won.