Article/Discussion: Deckbuildingtips according to me.

[BruiZar]

I do not believe that each card HAS to be strong on its self and have synergy with others per se. It is a proven, but shallow method of building a deck. Many people will talk badly about conditional cards. A conditional card is only bad when the condition is not met, but as the player of the deck you can create the condition. Among magic’s best cards are Yawgmoth’s Will and Goblin Welder which are both conditional.

In playing a deck with cards such as Accumulated Knowledge, Dark Ritual, Duress, Moxen, Tendrils, Burning Wish and Tinker Yawgmoth’s Will’s conditional state suddenly turned into a conditioned state where it will win you the match. The same can be said about Goblin Welder, who doesn’t love the guy that has put countless victims into slaver locks and has amazing synergy with thirst for knowledge? I know I do.

The one card that fits the same criteria but has not received this attention is Coretapper. Some might put this guy off as a metagame call, others might think he’s crap all together, in my fish build though, Coretapper is the most disruptive creature around, more so than Meddling Mage. Not only can he kill other creatures using his ability to add counters to Umezawa’s Jitte, he can add counters to Chalice of the Void. It is not uncommon to have a chalice for 0/1/2/3 on the table with Meddling Mages for the bigger spells and Force of Will backing me up. This little guy also pumps up early vials to 2 feeding my resources/turn. It also manages to disrupt my opponents vial by adding too much counters on them and making their own chalices work against them which makes every chalice that hits my opponents table, card advantage for me since I won’t have to waste a draw on it. It even resets by pushing the Engineered Explosives’ buttons. With all these aspects to the small 1/1 Coretapper, is this a conditional card or does he have amazing synergy to said artifacts? In retrospect, I believe it suffers from the Will & Welder effect. It is a conditional card that is otherwise quiet useless, but when played in a fine tuned deck it becomes a conditioned card that can make the difference in nearly every match.

This piece of text however isn’t made to promote Coretapper, it is to give a different view on deckbuilding and what important aspects are to me when designing a deck.
Next time you decide to build a deck, don’t start writing down your list with the auto include cards such as force of will and moxen, start with the crap cards that will add to the conditioning of the deck. They will make the difference in mechanics and unpredictability, not the auto-includes since everybody auto-includes them.

Pitch cards and other alternative CC cards

Back to resource management, this is a vital question to ask when designing your deck. How many pitch cards will you play? The 2 best known pitch cards are Force of Will and Misdirection but Contagion and Unmask are good as well.

Pitch cards are card disadvantageous, sometimes even disastrous for your hand. I do not think that Force of Will is that good of a card were it not for the need to have that free counter on hand in vintage magic. It seriously ruins your hand as; in a fine tuned deck, you will not want to pitch any card at all. The truth of the matter however, is that when choosing any pitch card, you have to evaluate how much card disadvantage or boardcontrol it will cost your opponent. It is very hard to evaluate which card you want to counter because you do not want to save up your Force of Will for that Tinker because if your opponent manages to get far enough to Tinker / Darksteel Colossus he will probably have a pitch counter on hand as well. Countering a Brainstorm can be enough to ensure your board position while you desperately try to gain more board control than your opponent. This is why I like cards like Spy Network, Field of Dreams, Revelation and Glasses of Urza and Extract. Information is power and the power to see what you have to counter and see how many counters your opponent has is incredibly valuable in any match.

The unpopularity of the Shoals is not much of a surprise to me. Shining Shoal and Blazing Shoal are probably the only cards that have potential, although I don’t see it happening soon. Shining Shoal loses a lot of its potential due to Swords to Plowshares and Balance being nearly the only cards played and they have minimal CC’s. One trick with Shining Shoal is by playing cards with morph such as Exalted Angel. This way you have a high CC card but still play it for its low alternative cost, but who plays Exalted Angel you might wonder. Blazing Shoal has some more potential on a first or second turn Boros Swiftblade; doubling its effectiveness. I could see someone pitch Pulverize for Blazing Shoal to deal 12damage to the player for “free�, when need be you could sacrifice 2 mountains to kill all artifacts. While Sickening Shoal seems like free removal, it only kills one target for two cards. Contagion can kill two cards for two cards which is so much better. As everyone knows Green has the least effective pitch cards. Nourishing Shoal and Bounty of the Hunt.
Cave-In, the ultimate fish-killer is underplayed aswell.

On to alternative cost cards, I will state my favorite ones.
Land Grant, Lava Dart, Gush, Crash, Pulverize and Thunderclap. These alternate CC cards all have to do with your lands (Besides Land Grant, which will give you a land� ). You should leave no resource spared unless it will damage your mana curve. If you peak out, start eating away at your mana base. This is why I keep my curve as low as possible. I will peak out quicker than my opponent and get to cast ‘free’ spells.
Gush is one of the best draw spells in magic, this is a known card so I don’t feel like highlighting it too much. Crash is one of my personal favorites. It can nearly always shut down a mox so it becomes a 1 vs 1 trade off in mana curve but it can also shoot down business artifacts such as Tanglewire (even when your mountain is tapped!) or to shoot down a Sundering Titan forcing your opponent to sacrifice his mountain because you just sacked your last one for Crash. As for Thunderclap. It’s a beautiful finisher and a free lightning bolt when your dualland gets stripped. Pulverize is the last card I want to mention. This card is superb. It costs two mountains but a single Sol Ring or Mana Crypt evens out with it. All other mana or business artifacts that die in the process will be card advantage for you. The last (really) alternative CC card I want to mention is Mogg Salvage. It is extremely good but relies too much on your opponent (Unless you give him islands; in my casual UR-Merfolk deck my merfolks can change his lands into islands and my Quicksilver Fountain turns opponents land into islands permanently so I can play my Mogg Salvage for free on his artifacts or my Quicksilver Fountain so the counters remain on opposing lands and get to islandwalk and mana screw the opponent. This is another example of turning a conditional card into a conditioned card).

In my opinion to make a successful deck you need to be able to play a few free spells. It adds to your unpredictability and can make a single basic mountain look like a threat as I’ve just showed. Always try to put your game in a position where you can respond to anything while not having to trade for half empty mana pools. The sole reason why Mana Drain is played is because of the principal that Mana Drain will add to your curve while being card disadvantageous for your opponent since he loses a business spell. The problem with Mana Drain however, is that you have to stay untapped which means you lose two blue mana each turn your opponent doesn’t play anything worth countering with Drain (Such as Brainstorm, which can be a match deciding card).

I hope this article helps people to try and be a little more innovative when designing a deck without disregarding crap until they are proven tournament worthy. Please feel free to comments to this article in any way, since the purpose is to get a discussion going on the topic.

[Moxlotus]

In playing a deck with cards such as Accumulated Knowledge, Dark Ritual, Duress, Moxen, Tendrils, Burning Wish and Tinker Yawgmoth’s Will’s conditional state suddenly turned into a conditioned state where it will win you the match. The same can be said about Goblin Welder, who doesn’t love the guy that has put countless victims into slaver locks and has amazing synergy with thirst for knowledge? I know I do.
 

I would say that a number of these cards aren't that conditional.  Dark ritual is conditional on you having cards in your hand.  Duress is conditional on your opponent having cards in their hand.  Wish is conditional on having good cards removed form the game or in your SB.  Tinker is conditoinal that you have a good artifact in your deck.  Will is conditional on you having a graveyeard.  All of these conditions are extremely simple to fulfill.

[Marton]

you try to make an article, yet you fill it up with personal opinions.

he sole reason why Mana Drain is played is because of the principal that Mana Drain will add to your curve while being card disadvantageous for your opponent since he loses a business spell. The problem with Mana Drain however, is that you have to stay untapped which means you lose two blue mana each turn your opponent doesn’t play anything worth countering with Drain (Such as Brainstorm, which can be a match deciding card).

mana drain is not really conditional since it will almost never happen that your opponent will not cast spells. it is also very likely to be a 'mana advantage' in the sense that you pay UU to counter a spell that costs more than 2 mana, then you also get additional mana on your next main phase.
If you don't like playing decks that don't tap out, then you might reconsider playing instants. Playing instants rather than sorceries 'nullifies' the UU untapped problem.
Additionally, you seem to misunderstand that depending on the deck, mana drain can be played as a mana accelerant, and doesn't really care about what spell you counter, as long as it gives you mana on the following main phase. The 'countering' is just added sugar under that scenario. But also, depending on the deck, it could also be the mana that's the added sugar.
In almost every conceivable way mana drain is broken. There is almost no reason not to play it, unless your metagame has tons of fish and/or stax.


You seem to misunderstand the role of 'conditional' cards, and to apply the concept too broadly. By today' standards, goblin welder is hardly conditional. Assuming that you play goblin welder with TFK, it is almost never a dead card, or something you are unhappy to have, or that you could be replaced by something better. If your deck only used goblin welder as a way to 'screw' opposing welders and tinker, then yes, in that case, it would be narrow.
Yawgmoth's will is hardly conditional because your ENTIRE DECK just happens to couple well with it if you run one of the established skeletons. Replaying time walks, moxen, recalls, brainstorms, demonics, etc. is soo powerful that it is absurd by itself. You see, if you run an established skeleton, yawgmoth's will will not be conditional for the simple reason that all the other cards in the deck just-so-happens to work wonderfully with yawgmoth's will, rendering it hardly conditional.

Using conditional spells is very much ill-advised, since by doing so you open up the possibility of making your conditions never happen. Or worse, you open up yourself too much to getting your 'combo' disrupted, or open up the possibility of giving a 2-for-1 to your opponent if he counters one of the parts, making the other useless. For example, if your opponent counters your chalice, then your coretapper turns into ass. You will probably try and get me to admit that it pumps out aether vials, but I wont. It might, but then it just illustrates the fallacy of the card. You play turn 1 vial. turn 2, coretapper. At this point, your coretapper should be useless. You likely don't run creatures costing much more than 2, because your vials wouldnt be that good, and your creatures would be crap if you didnt drew your aether vial, so essentially, if you were to do so, your CREATURES would be conditional to your aether vials + coretapper combo, because no weenie/fish deck would be able to pump 3cc/4cc creatures. But then, since we'll assume that you don't run much 3/4cc creatures, that means you have 2cc creatures for the most part (which should come as no surprise). If you consider that scenario, and that you laid a first turn vial, 2nd turn coretapper, your coretapper is essentially useless, since your vial is already at 2. Your coretapper is only really good if you manage to get a chalice into play. In other words, if your opponent counters your chalices, then your coretapper become junk.

In my opinion to make a successful deck you need to be able to play a few free spells.

That depends on your gameplan. Many decks try to ignore the opponent as much as possible, and go for the goldfish (ie: combo). Your vision of deckbuilding seems to ignore the different playstyles/gameplans that exists, and seems to assume the only existing decks are all aggro/control. Combo does not wants to deal with the opponent's cards, and thus, is under no need to have a free spell.

[rakso]

Among magic’s best cards are Yawgmoth’s Will and Goblin Welder which are both conditional.

Flametongues are a very powerful card. But what all the pros fail to realize are that its only good vs. Decks with creatures.

Fixed.
-Jacob

[BruiZar]

@ Marton:

I completely understand that Mana Draining a Force of Will nets you 5 colorless mana PLUS the mana you have untapped next turn(edit: Next phase which can make it better or worst depending on the game situation)
I know that is a whole lot. I´m not saying Mana Drain is bad at all, however it IS conditional to your opponent casting expensive spells, because you simply dont want to waste a drain on something where you just cant reach the amount of mana you needed to cast what you wanted to cast.

Say I have an island and a mox sapphire and I want to cast gifts ungiven with my drain mana and my opponent casts a recall. I don't want to waste my drain for something that doesnt allow me to cast the gifts, but then again i cant let him draw 3 cards either. So I have to counter his 1 mana spell and hope for a land.

About the coretapper thing, it really wasnt used to proof anything other than the point i was trying to make with deck conditioning.

Goblin Welder needs artifacts in the graveyard to perform
Coretapper needs artifacts that use charge counters to perform

I don´t see how the requirements of that are so hard since atleast 2 strong artifacts have a casting cost of X (and XX).

The point is, if you're not conditioning your deck, you will be outperformed by your opponent, or rather out teched. What you are saying is that Will is insane (which is true) and Goblin Welder is as good as unconditional(which is true), but the reason WHY will is insane and welder is unconditional is because the decks that use them make them become insane each time you draw one, the cards are carefully evaluated and picked to assist the gameplan. You can dislike coretapper all you want, he was just used to set an example; but the truth remains that when you design your decklist to follow a certain plan, it can make otherwise crapcards that do nothing on their own, aid more than half your deck. A good example on this is Krosan Reclamation that Randy Bhueler used in Meandeck Gifts/Oath.


About freespells, look at Land Grant next to GrimLong or other Tendril versions. I think alternate CC spells are underplayed right now which is a shame cause, specifically crash, is a crazy good card.

[lordmayhem]

Yawgmoth's will is broken in half whether you have designed a deck to abuse of it or not. Yawg Will gives you a secondary hand, which is your graveyard. That's the only condition you have to meet.

Coretapper CAN be good.

[Marton]

@ Marton:

I completely understand that Mana Draining a Force of Will nets you 5 colorless mana PLUS the mana you have untapped next turn(edit: Next phase which can make it better or worst depending on the game situation)
I know that is a whole lot. I´m not saying Mana Drain is bad at all, however it IS conditional to your opponent casting expensive spells, because you simply dont want to waste a drain on something where you just cant reach the amount of mana you needed to cast what you wanted to cast.

Say I have an island and a mox sapphire and I want to cast gifts ungiven with my drain mana and my opponent casts a recall. I don't want to waste my drain for something that doesnt allow me to cast the gifts, but then again i cant let him draw 3 cards either. So I have to counter his 1 mana spell and hope for a land.

Well, in that case mana drain is 'sub-par', but you must keep in mind that there's hardly another card that is going to get the job better done than mana drain. Misdirection would, but that card has high probability of being useless in a good number of matchup. Even then, it is less likely that you have an extra blue card in your hand than the likelyness you have UU open. I would say that the best way to interpret that scenario is that mana drain would be optimal if it would counter a 2cc+ spell. But in this case it's still very good to have the ability to deny the opponent from drawing 3 cards. Plus, you might draw into a mana source on the next turn, so that 1 mana could allow you to cast your gifts ungiven. This is also why mana drain is soo good; since you don't want your opponent to abuse it, your own spells will tend to be in the 2-3cc range, with some 4cc. If you analyse the curve you quickly realize that it becomes very easy to make use of the mana that mana drain grants you, 'whatever the amount'. Now take that into consideration, and compare it to this:

[...]however it IS conditional to your opponent casting expensive spells,

. I have explained why I do not agree with that statement.

Goblin Welder needs artifacts in the graveyard to perform

Correct. But even just having one black lotus can turn welder into something really broken. The 'setup' required to make goblin welder is very minimal, and it IS a 1cc threat. What you need to keep in mind is that it is 'conditional', but the cost of the card itself is so low, that even if it is conditional, it is still worth running. It can be used to return the artifacts you got countered, and can be used to mess with the opponent cards (ie: welder/shaman to destroy null rods, etc). The number of cases where this card is dead is rather minimal to really consider the card much conditional.

Coretapper needs artifacts that use charge counters to perform

That is exactly why coretapper isn't much played. It is better to counter the artifact than the coretapper. Which means in fact that we don't really care as much about the coretapper, since it is hardly a threat by itself.

The point is, if you're not conditioning your deck, you will be outperformed by your opponent, or rather out teched.

You have yet to prove that point.

What you are saying is that Will is insane (which is true) and Goblin Welder is as good as unconditional(which is true), but the reason WHY will is insane and welder is unconditional is because the decks that use them make them become insane each time you draw one, the cards are carefully evaluated and picked to assist the gameplan. You can dislike coretapper all you want, he was just used to set an example; but the truth remains that when you design your decklist to follow a certain plan, it can make otherwise crapcards that do nothing on their own, aid more than half your deck. A good example on this is Krosan Reclamation that Randy Bhueler used in Meandeck Gifts/Oath.

I fully agree that otherwise crap cards can turn into good cards when the interaction is found. Recoup has long been ignored, until gifts started getting more play. I even believe it was used with intuition at the beginning, but anyway, it's not relevant to the conversation. Tormod's crypt was long crap, until the metagames changed / new cards appeared. However, the interaction must be really strong to make the card playable. Which brings me to the next point.

If you take a look backwards at the evolution of decks, you will notice that almost all of them evoluate in a way that they abuse and revolve around the most powerful cards around, the rest being just more-or-less fillers. Yawgmoth's will, being invariably the most powerfull spell, is the card that all decks try to abuse as much as possible. If you take a look at the last 2 years of deck evolution, it has been a race towards decks that abuses the most yawgmoth's will. One example would be the suicide-virus deck, by mike long (I believe). The sole purpose of the deck is to play yawgmoth's will. Even the 'article'/email that unleashed the deck very much squarely said that the best decks should be built around the best cards. While the suicide-virus decklist is arguably crap, it is still designed by someone who (should) know what hes talking about. This leads me to my point: the 'crap' cards cropping up tends to be played only because they revolve around the best cards on your deck. The only way you can play a conditional card is because it has a strong interaction with the best cards of your deck. Recoup (and arguably burning wish) are very-much-so exactly that. Conditional cards are played when the delta (difference) is high between the lost tempo of when you cant use them (due to their conditiality) and the tempo gained from when they are actually good (condition met). In other words, the benefits must justify their conditionality. The only way you get a benefit worth mentioning is when your 'crap' card interacts with your best cards. The only other case I can think of to use a conditional card would be one that is gives you a lot of tempo, but is very narrow (ie: rack and ruin). But that is a different discussion since narrow cards and conditional cards arent the same thing.

About freespells, look at Land Grant next to GrimLong or other Tendril versions. I think alternate CC spells are underplayed right now which is a shame cause, specifically crash, is a crazy good card.

You don't play freespells in a deck because you can. You play the cards that best matches your game plan and that improves the most your worst matchups. Alternatively, if you make a hate deck (which by definition is crap, and rarely wins big tournaments), then you will ignore your bad matchups and keep playing more cards towards hating decks x and z. In both cases, it is not indicative towards just 'playing free spells'. Play the cards that gives you the most tempo, not the ones that costs you the less tempo.