A New Take on Basic Deck Design for Magic: The Gathering

Contrary to what many players think, deck design in Magic: the Gathering starts first with research, not with looking at what you have to work with. From my experience, everyone who goes to a tournament has enough cards to build any kind of deck. In making a deck for a tournament, the objective you need to keep in mind is that the deck needs to try to win as much as possible, which is not necessarily the same thing as being as "good" as it can be.

In order to start, you need to consider the format you're playing in. Extended rarely changes, and is often dominated by one aggressive deck, one control deck, and one or more combo decks. Type II changes weekly, and is typically overrun with flavor-of-the-week type decks which are popular for a very short time, but die in popularity once people realize that they are not top tier decks. In order to be successful with your design, you should focus on the types of decks which are winning now. If you have an idea that you think will beat the majority of these types of decks, there's a start, otherwise, focus on strategies that you would want to use to beat those decks. Remember, you should focus on winning each match, not on doing as good as you can.

Understanding how the current decks work is critical to this process. Essentially, there are three different types of decks in Magic: Combo, control and aggro. Your deck, and the decks you're trying to beat, should fit nicely in one of these strategies. Each has it's own distinct advantages and disadvantages. In building a new deck, let yourself be guided by the kinds of strategies you commonly win with, and which strategies you feel will beat your targeted decks.