A Framework of Deck Themes

Hurloon Minotaur card art

"I've made this deck before." The thought ran through my mind recently as I was brewing. I've created hundreds (thousands?) of Magic decks in my life. And while designing a new deck is one delightful aspect of this game (as much fun as playing for some people), you can get a sense of déjà vu. There are over 31K cards, leading to nearly infinite deck options, but only so many deck themes. This post explores that and offers a framework.

I have explored deck types before. The basic types are aggressive (or aggro), control, midrange, or combo. But there are different ways (or themes) to implement each of these types, and I think the framework below covers most of them. I include some examples (of concepts or keywords), but they are not exhaustive. And deckbuilding constraints (like rarity restrictions in pauper) are not considered.

Deck Themes Framework

1. Spell color(s) matter 
• Mono-color
• Adamant, converge, sunburst, devotion
2. Spell cost matters (mana value, even/odd, X)
3. Spell types, casting, or quantities matter
• Specific type: creatures, instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers
• Broader categories (non-creature spells)
• Supertypes (legendary, snow) or subtypes (sagas, desert)
• Casting triggers
• Quantities of a given type on the battlefield
4. Lands matter
• Landfall
• Domain
5. Creature attributes matter
• Creature types (Kindred decks)
• Creature power/toughness 
• Keyword/ability word (flying, defender, deathtouch)
• Card state
• Face-down: Disguise, cloak, manifest, morph
• Double-sided: Transform
6. Combat matters
• Attacking, blocking, or damage triggers
7. Zone matters
• Hand (card draw, hand size)
• Graveyard (delirium)
• Exile
• Library (mill, cascade)
8. Transitions between zones matter
• Entering the battlefield, discard, dying/sacrifice, exile triggers
9. Life matters (gaining or losing)
10. Counters matter
• Proliferate
11. Tokens matter
• Creating
• Type/Quantity
• Populate
12. Win condition matters
• Poison counters
• Mill
• Specific card-based conditions: see this post on ways to win

Comments/Examples

Within the above framework, it is possible to have aggro, control, mid-range, or combo decks in nearly any category (though some lend themselves towards a specific type). And of course it is possible to have a given deck combine several themes. Let's look at some example cards and map them to themes.

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

Goreclaw is an example of theme 5 above—creature attributes matter. He makes creatures with power 4 or greater cheaper to cast and boosts them when he attacks. This theme could align well with an aggro deck.

All That Glitters  

All That Glitters aligns with theme 3 above—spell type matters. This card wants to be surrounded with artifacts and enchantments. That it relies on other cards in this way suggests is it could work in a combo deck.

Lord of the Nazgul

Lord of the Nazgul has two themes—5 (creature attributes matter) and 3 (casting instants or sorceries). That could lend itself to combo or aggro decks.

Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep

Kiora also has two themes—2 (spell cost, or mana value, matters) and 5 (creature attributes matter). She can work in several deck types.

Linden, Steadfast Queen

Linden has two themes—1 (spell color matters) and 6 (combat matters). She could slot into a life matters deck (theme 9), too. 

Pashalik Mons

Pashalik has three themes—5 (creature attributes matter), 8 (transition between zones matters), and 11 (tokens matter). That flexibility could encourage a wide number of deck types (aggro, midrange, combo).

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We could do this all day. I have already revised this framework once and will continue to do so as I find and address omissions.

I find this framework useful as I think about exploring the game. Having a representative deck of each theme is a nice way to enjoy the varied strategies of the game. And analyzing the decks you have made may indicate that you tend towards only a few of the above, giving you insight into your own playstyle, preferences, or areas you may want to focus on in the future.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Magic Gets (More) Legendary

Daredevil, a card from the latest set

The latest Magic set, Marvel Super Heroes, released days ago. The latest "Universes Beyond" set, it comes with a slew of new legendary creatures; this card type is the subject of today's post.

Introduction

In Magic, legendary is a supertype (printed before its card type(s)). Legendary cards of any kind (most are creatures, but there are also legendary artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and more) are subject to the "legend rule." From the comprehensive rules:

704.5j If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are controlled by the same player, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”

Basically, you can have only one legendary card with a given name on the battlefield at a time (you can still include four copies of it in your deck, if you are playing a non-singleton format).

The Way Things Were

Legendary creatures have been around since 1994 (appropriately, they were introduced in the Legends set). Though Legends had a lot of them (55), legendary creatures were less than 10% of most sets released thereafter. And that's intuitive . . . "legend" implies scarcity (if everyone is legendary . . . nobody is). Plus, if you could have only one card on the battlefield at a time . . . why pump your deck full of potentially unplayable cards?

The Way Things Are

Two things have put the spotlight on legendary creatures in recent years: 1) Commander, and 2) Universes Beyond sets.

Commander, Magic's most popular multiplayer format, is singleton—you can have only one copy of a given non-basic-land card in your deck, so the normal drawback of legendary creatures doesn't impact deckbuilding here. And your commander must be a legendary creature, so pumping out lots of those expands options.

Universes Beyond (UB) sets, about which I have blogged at length, have increasingly dominated Magic's release plans. What do players want to see within a given UB set? Their favorite characters. Look at the below table covering the past 15 "normal" expansion releases. It is no surprise that the UB sets (in red below) produced in the last three years have 36% legendary creatures on average . . . whereas the "in-universe" sets produced in that same time have 8.2% of that card type. In Marvel Super Heroes, legendary creatures are almost 50% of the set . . . wow.

The Way Things Will Be

Commander will likely remain most popular multiplayer format, and UB sets are here to stay. I expect legendary creatures to continue to be produced at an astonishing clip. Consider how many legendary creatures were printed up to and including the following years:

2010: 444 unique legendary creatures

2015: 611 unique legendary creatures

2020: 1084 unique legendary creatures

2021: 1276 unique legendary creatures

2022: 1623 unique legendary creatures

2023: 2026 unique legendary creatures

2024: 2348 unique legendary creatures

2025: 2827 unique legendary creatures

2026: 3354 unique legendary creatures (and we're only halfway through!)

It took 27 years (1993-2020) to get to 1000 unique legendary creatures . . . then just 3 years to get the next thousand, and things keep accelerating.

Is this good or bad? I cannot say. It is certainly different . . . and makes me wonder if the preponderance of legendary creatures will eventually alter how the game is played. If it hasn't already.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 28

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Crimson Acolyte—a common creature from Invasion.

Crimson Acolyte has Protection from red (and can grant this to other creatures). "Protection from _____" can be a tricky concept. From the official rules, section 702.16:

702.16b A permanent or player with protection can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.

702.16c A permanent or player with protection can’t be enchanted by Auras that have the stated quality. Such Auras attached to the permanent or player with protection will be put into their owners’ graveyards as a state-based action. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

702.16d A permanent with protection can’t be equipped by Equipment that have the stated quality or fortified by Fortifications that have the stated quality. Such Equipment or Fortifications

become unattached from that permanent as a state-based action, but remain on the battlefield. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

702.16e Any damage that would be dealt by sources that have the stated quality to a permanent or player with protection is prevented.

702.16f Attacking creatures with protection can’t be blocked by creatures that have the stated quality.

That is wordy . . . some cards summarize, like the text on Apostle of Purifying Light below.

Genericizing: Protection from [color] means "This creature can’t be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted, or equipped by anything [color]." A helpful mnemonic: if you rearrange the words you get DEBT (Damaged, Enchanted/Equipped, Blocked, Targeted); this website has more.

Protection is often from a color, but sometimes from other things (which is why the 702.16 sections quoted above talks about "stated quality"). Some cards even have Protection from a player or Protection from everything. 

Invasion was an expansion released in 2000; it is headliner set of the block of the same name. One of its themes was 'color matters,' which is why Protection from [color] showed up on several cards in this set.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 27

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Rampant Growth—a common sorcery from 7th Edition. In a foil treatment!

7th Edition was a core set released in 2001. Its normal cards are white-bordered . . . but this was the first core set to have foils, and they chose to give those black borders. Wizards used to denote the foils with a shooting star in addition to the foil treatment itself . . . that lasted from 1999-2003. They also used to print foils a lot more sparingly . . . back then, it was one foil per 6-7 packs. (Now, it is one per pack.)

Rampant Growth is a staple card; it first appeared in the 1996 Mirage set and has been reprinted 53 times. The ability to get any basic land from your library and put it onto the battlefield tapped is a 'ramp' effect that is invaluable in most games, granting access to more (or different) mana in future turns.

Speaking of reprints, Rampant Growth is one of these most reprinted cards in the game. In 2020 (the date of my reprint post linked in the preceding sentence), it had been reprinted 24 times. Since then, its reprints have doubled, largely due to Commander deck printings.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 26

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

You Find the Villains' Lair—a common instant from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

The first thing I notice here is grammar (the apostrophe in Villains' Lair). In modern times we've gotten sloppy grammatically, but Wizards does a good job with the grammar on Magic cards (and sometimes, such precision aids in rules clarity).

This card has a modal ability. From the official rules, 

700.2. A spell or ability is modal if it has two or more options in a bulleted list preceded by instructions for a player to choose a number of those options, such as “Choose one —.” Each of those options is a mode. Modal cards printed prior to the Khans of Tarkir™ set didn’t use bulleted lists for the modes; these cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference so the modes do appear in a bulleted list. 

Modal cards are powerful because they give options. Here, you can either counter target spell or draw two cards, then discard two cards. Most games will have situations where one (or both) is desired, making this a useful spell indeed. Sometimes, such flexibility results in a higher mana value, but here, three mana is perfectly reasonable for either mode.

This card also has flavor words (Foil Their Scheme and Learn Their Secrets).

207.2d Similar to ability words, flavor words appear in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Flavor words provide a flavorful description of abilities, but they have no special rules meaning and are not listed in the Comprehensive Rules. While an ability word ties together several abilities with similar functionality, each flavor word is tailored to the specific ability it appears with. 

Flavor words featured heavily on cards in this set. Speaking of . . . Adventures in the Forgotten Realms was released in July 2021 and a foray into the Dungeons & Dragons world, making it one of Wizards' earlier Universes Beyond sets. I really enjoyed both the flavor and mechanics of this release, and I missed it when it rotated out of Standard.

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Card Talk 25

Cactuar card art

Time for Card Talk! Reminder how this works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game.

Today's card is . . .

Island Sanctuary—a rare enchantment from Fourth Edition Foreign Black-Bordered.

Intriguingly, scryfall didn't have the image of the foreign card (hence the banner in the image above). The actual card is in Spanish; below is the Fourth Edition English equivalent

The first thing I notice about Island Sanctuary is the wording. Oracle is the official Magic database for the most recent wording (Wizards regularly tweaks official card wording for clarity and simplicity; the Oracle wording takes precedence over what is written on the card). If this card was released today, it would read:

If you would draw a card during your draw step, instead you may skip that draw. If you do, until your next turn, you can’t be attacked except by creatures with flying and/or islandwalk.

This is an unusual ability; they don't make many cards with an optional/ongoing cost of skipping your draw. Card advantage is important in this game, so anything that minimizes that needs to be really powerful. I'm not sure Island Sanctuary hits the mark; it would be great against certain decks, but any deck featuring flyers would render this card useless.

I love the art here; the game's early years featured generally softer painting styles that evoked a feeling of escape, fun, and fantasy. The modern style is more realistic and often darker.

On the set: Fourth Edition Foreign Black-Bordered speaks to the game's increasingly worldwide appeal from the onset. Magic came out in 1993 but in English only; they started producing sets in other languages in 1994. Revised (AKA Third Edition) was released then in French, German, and Italian. From here, "The original release of a Core Set in a new language was usually black bordered, and is thus easily identifiable." So those cards had black borders though the English equivalents had white. Wizards expanded again for Fourth Edition, adding Chinese (traditional), Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish and following the same approach (black-bordered for those languages, white-bordered for everything else).

The languages Magic cards are printed in is evolving. There were 11 at its height (the above plus Russian and Chinese (simplified)), but have since contracted to six: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. And even then, not every product gets printed in every language; these sites are good references to show what is available for releases from 1993-2010 and 2011-present, respectively.

Fourth Edition (in English) is one of my fondest early Magic memories, as I discuss more here. 

Until next time . . . keep exploring.

Budget Commander Staples: Simic

Closing out this month's series looking at budget Commander staples, today I focus on Simic colors (green/blue). I focus on four categories: ramp, card draw, targeted removal, and board wipe. And this is budget, so cards cost under $2.

Ramp

Ramp is about accelerating land deployment and/or mana access. Simic shines here, often adding card draw to the mix.

Card draw

Card draw in Simic colors often involves playing a creature with card draw ability.

Targeted removal

Removal in Simic colors is often about countering a spell and/or returning a permanent to its owner's hand.

Board wipe 

There are no board wipes in exactly Simic colors.

Conclusion

The 22 cards shown above are worth considering for any Simic Commander deck, and won't break your bank to include.