I want to talk about 60 card brewing, casual deckbuilding, and budget standard.
Iâve recently had several conversations with people contemplating getting into Standard again, especially with MtG Arena on the horizon. With Arenaâs current design, itâs unlikely the average player will be able to play top-tier known Standard decks at launch â old-school budget brewing techniques may come in handy as players build their collections.
My advice here isnât designed for someone who has never built any kind of deck before. This is the advice Iâd give to friends and students who started out in Commander and Sealed who wanted to move into Standard or Block constructed. Building a rogue constructed deck is kind of like building a sealed pool and kind of like building a commander deck. If youâve done either, you have transferrable skills.
First, gather up all the legal cards you own that fit the colors you want to build. Itâs better to have more cards at this stage than fewer: there may be an unimpressive-looking card that fills a hole in your deck. When youâre done with your âfirst draftâ build, put your spare cards aside but keep them handy. The first time you play the deck, make a note if there were specific cards or strategies that gave you trouble, and look for solutions in your collection when youâre done. My brother is an expert rogue deckbuilder and he makes heavy use of overlooked cards like Aether Meltdown and Doomfall to solve specific problems.
Sort your cards by casting cost, then lay out the foundation of a curve.
4-8 Â Â Â Â One CMC cards
8 Â Â Â Â Â Â Two CMC cards
8 Â Â Â Â Â Â Three CMC cards
4 Â Â Â Â Â Â Four CMC Cards
So now you have between 24 and 28 cards with CMC under 5, and you want to keep that part of your mana curve really robust. Many standard decks top out at 5 CMC. The exception is ramp decks that consistently get big cards out early and hard control decks focused on getting to specific bombs like Approach of the Second Sun or Bolas. Itâs extremely rare for even a ramp deck to play an eight-drop or above. Lots of memorable superstar bombs are in that sweet four CMC zone: Siege Rhino, Hazoret, Restoration Angel. etc. Outside of ramp and control itâs rare to play more than two copies of a card with CMC higher than four unless itâs truly exceptional â Titan or Gearhulk quality.
Bearing that in mind, add cards to your deck until you get to 34-38 nonland cards. Most recent sets are pretty creature-focused, so unless you have a specific plan otherwise make about two thirds of your cards creatures. Make sure you have some interaction, whether itâs in the form of counterspells, removal, or multi-purpose tricks like Blossoming Defense. Beyond that, add anything you like: bomb rares youâre excited to play, higher cost cards if youâre ramp or midrange, more low CMC cards if youâre aggro, removal, ramp, fixing, card draw, or whatever you want. Youâre writing a first draft, itâs OK if it sucks, and the foundation youâve built will help keep the deck playable. That said, when in doubt add cards at four CMC and below.
Look at what youâve got: are you aggro, midrange, or ramp? What are your deckâs value and synergistic cards? While maintaining your foundational curve, take out anything that doesnât match your deckâs pace and any cards that arenât either synergistic or incredibly powerful on their own (Glorybringer wasnât synergistic with an energy strategy but itâs a great card so it didnât matter. TirelessTracker was less synergistic than Rogue Refiner so it wasnât in the ideal mainboard, but it was a functional replacement when needed.)
The standard is 35-38 spells and 22-25 land. You have a lot of options for multi-colored land, and youâre going to want to leverage them pretty heavily, especially if your deck is three colors. Prioritize multi lands that come into play untapped and ones that synergize with your deck. If youâre playing more colors you usually want a higher land count, unless you have access to effects that let you search up land or otherwise fix your mana. Two color aggro decks with lower curves want fewer lands.
There is some nuance here as well. One-drops are much more important in 60 card constructed than any other format â cards like Thraben Inspector that are merely decent in limited form the backbone of standard. On the other hand, control decks often have weird curves, running a bunch of 3-5 cmc board wipes and then a cluster of cards in the 4-5 mana range to deploy after said board wipe.
If you happen to be aware of some of the bombs or dominant strategies in the format youâre playing, see if you have access to anything that counters them directly and put it in either your maindeck or your sideboard. In current standard, exile effects are valuable because they can get rid of Scarab God and other recursive threats. In go-wide formats, board-sweepers are good.
The temptation to include a lot of one-of cards to give yourself options is strong, but often incorrect. Look at all the cards you donât currently run four of that share a CMC and ask yourself âHow often would I rather have card A in hand than card B?â Make serious decisions based on that hypothetical, erring on the side of more copies of the same card.
If you canât decide what cards are better or you just want to try out a wide variety of cards thatâs fine. Just pay attention to that CMC comparison when you play. Whenever you have a one-of in your hand, ask yourself âwould I rather have a different card with a similar or lower CMC that isnât currently a four-of?â Â Take notes on how often youâd prefer each card. Donât make rash decisions based on single games, but pay attention to patterns.
Once youâve got your 60 card deck, shuffle it up, draw a few sample hands and play out your first four turns. Does it feel like youâre hitting your lands in the right colors? If youâre not a control deck, are you advancing the board at a comfortable pace? If things donât feel good after a dozen or so sample starts, edit a bit.
If you have someone to practice with casually, bring along all the cards you assembled but didnât use. As you play, try changing your deck composition in response to different problems youâre encountering. Be careful not to over-correct, but if youâre consistently having similar issues, make tweaks.
Thereâs more advanced advice for specific templates out there that are pretty easy to find, but this is a summary of the general advice I give to players of non-60-card formats who want to try Standard or Block.
