By Ben Watkins

Welcome to another edition of the Llanowar Corner!  This is only the 5^th Edition of the Corner but this is my third attempt at this particular article.  Yes, I have written two other complete articles that I determined to be inferior and scrapped them completely.  The first was my picks for best cards in Eventide, but I think everyone else on the internet has pretty much that covered.  I then wrote a ten page article on how the new cards were going to impact Block and Standard.  After proof reading that article, I realized that it was just like the first.  I’m here now writing the Llanowar Corner #5 for the third time because I want to bring you something worth reading!

Friend of mine – “You could write about your new five color deck for standard.”

Me – “I’ve written a lot about standard over the last month, I want to bring something new!”

Friend of mine – “You could write about block and give some Decklists”

Me- “Everyone is writing about block!  I tried that approach in my last article and it just turned into an Eventide article.”

Friend of mine – “You could write about your experiences at the Pre-release.”

Me – “I went 3-1 in a flight and 2-2 in Two Headed Giant.  I played 3 Snakeform in each deck.  That hardly makes for an article worth reading.”

Friend of mine- “Well I’m out of ideas so you’re on your own.”

Me- “I could write about fun casual decks.”

Friend of mine- “No one wants to read about that.”

Me- “I could write about magic theory.”

Friend of mine- “What do you mean?”

Me- “I could write about things like card advantage, playing the board, and sideboard strategy, and about different aspects of the game that allow you to win more matches.”

Friend of mine- “I’d read an article that allowed me to win more games.”

Me- “I guess it’s settled then.  I’ll write about winning games.”

Well now that I know WHAT I’m writing about, I need a place to start.  I can’t encompass the game of magic in one article, so I think I’m going to make this a series.  Instead of me writing about what I think makes your game better, I think the future articles should be determined by the readers.  If there’s a particular part of the game you would like me to write about then e-mail me or leave comments.  I’ll tally up what the readers want me to write about the most, and I’ll bring you articles on that kind of strategy.  (I will subtitle these articles Win More, so when you see my articles with Win More in the subtitle; you will know what the article is about.)  Well let’s get started.

I want to begin my series on the basics of deck building.  Whether you’re a control player, combo player, or a hardcore aggro player, your decks always ask this question. 

60 or 61 cards?

This is something that has been debated as long as magic has been around.  Does the 61rst card really matter that much?  Well being an engineering student, I have taken quite a bit of math, so we will break it down to simple statistics. 

HYPGEOMDIST (N, Z, X, Y)

Where N is the number of cards you want

Z is the number of cards you draw

Y is how many cards are in the deck

And X is the number of copies you have

Let’s begin shall we.  If you have 60 cards with 4 of them being Terror and you want 1 Terror in your opening hand on the play; then you would type this in Excel:

HYPGEOMDIST (1, 7, 4, 60)

Your result would yield = 0.33628 which is 33.6% chance of drawing a Terror in our opening hand

Now lets do the same thing but on the draw. (We draw 8 cards instead of 7)

HYPGEOMDIST (1, 8, 4, 60)

Our result yields = 0.362566 which is 36.3% chance of drawing a Terror

Now let’s do the same with 61 cards in the deck.

On the play:   HYPGEOMDIST (1, 7, 4, 61) yields- 0.332713 which is 33.2%

As you can see there isn’t that much difference in the percentages, however we have a small sample size.  So let’s look at something larger like land.  You have more land than you do any other non-land card, we’ll use 24 lands for the example.  You generally want 3 lands in your opening hand, so let’s see the odds.

Now wait a minute!  Our percentage went down on the draw?  That doesn’t make any sense.  You’re more likely to get mana screwed on the draw than on the play?  If you want to draw ONLY 3 lands then your percentage goes down.  You are more likely to draw 4 lands on the draw than you are 3 lands.  So what does all this mean?  Your percentages boil down to how many lands and non-land cards you are running.  A 70 card deck works just as well as a 60 card deck as long as the 70 card deck runs more lands.  However, you’re able to up the number of non-land cards, but you can only run 4 of any one card.  The more cards that go in your deck, the less likely you are to see any one particular non-land card.  

Is there that big of difference between 60 and 61 cards?  The answer is not really.  Not enough for you to notice a difference in a big tournament.  As long as your lands correspond so you don’t get mana screwed.  However when you start to get more and more cards the odds become less in your favor.  My rule of thumb is 60 or 61 cards with 23 or 24 lands.  I don’t care how good your curve is or how efficient your spells are.  I run 23 lands in Ravager Affinity because I want at least 2 lands throughout the game and 23 lands give me that result 90% of the time.  The ideal set up is 60 cards, with 24 lands.

The shortcomings of a deck are generally resulting from the shortcomings of the sideboard.  I don’t care how well tuned your main deck is, your sideboard should be tuned twice as good!  Pro-tours are won on the backs of a solid sideboard.  I generally try to avoid 4 copies of a card in my sideboard.  On the same note I try to avoid 3 copies of 5 different cards in my sideboard.   1 and 2 ofs generally work well because you do not want to see multiple sideboard cards.  I do run 4 copies in a sideboard if it is something you absolutely must see in order to even win.  A prime example is 4 Leyline of the Void in extended.  If you cannot cast the card then you absolutely must have it in your opening hand for it to even be effective. 

Another strategy that many people overlook is whether you are on the play or on the draw.  Cards like Garruk are much better on the play than they are on the draw.  On the play you can untap the turn he comes into play rather than making a beast token, because you have more creatures than the opponent.  On the draw your opponent likely has more creatures and you will be forced to pay 4 mana for a 3/3 beast just so you can protect Garruk.  I generally sideboard down to 2 copies on the draw, because I want him late game instead of turn 4.  I replace him with cards like Incremental Blight because that card will help me catch up and eventually overtake my opponent.  Cards like Razormane Masitcore are amazing on the draw because you can use the extra card you have drawn for his ability rather than breaking even with him on the play. 

My final thought on sideboards is that you must have a game plan.  Lay out your deck and think about the different match ups you will see.  Know what you will take out on the play and on the draw and what you will put in.  Having a plan works a lot better than just arbitrarily removing one copy of each card in your deck to make room for 6 cards you “think” will be better.  If you believe your opponent is boarding in Teferi’s Moat against your elf deck, then take out terror for Krosan Grip.  Don’t board out a Perfect, a Terror, and a Vanquisher just because you don’t know what to take out. 

Take note of your opponent, watch how he reacts when he makes a good play, and notice his reactions when he draws a card.  Always watch for his land drops.  If your opponent sits up after he draws a card and then makes a good play, you now know how he reacts when he makes a good top deck.  On the flip side, don’t give away too much yourself.  Don’t play land if you don’t need it; use cards in your hand to bluff.  If you top deck a land, then smile and pass the turn.  Instead of letting your opponent know you drew a dead card, he might think you drew an instant that will totally wreck him if he gets too greedy.  When your opponent doesn’t know what you’re doing, but you know what he’s doing, even a bad match up can be swung in your favor simply because you’re inside his head.  If you are in a bad match up and lose game 1 just smile and say, “Man do I have a sideboard for you!”  Then proceed to throw your whole board into your deck and pick out 15 cards regardless if you are actually boarding anything in.  I’ll give you an example of this.  I was playing Spire Blue this past extended season, and my deck just hated to be paired against Affinity.  I had Hurkyl’s Recall in my board, but I took it out last minute for more dredge beating cards because I expected more dredge than Affinity.  Round one I’m paired up with none other than Affinity.  My opponent rolls me game 1 and I say, “Man do I have sideboard for you!”  I throw the whole thing into my deck and pull the same 15 cards right back out.  He looks at me with wide eyes and boards in 8 cards.  I laugh to myself and I know that he’s boarded in Spell Snare and Cabal Therapy.  I tutor my first land as a Hallowed Fountain and lay an Island passing the turn.  I have 2 mana up so he pegs me on Hurkyl’s Recall.  “Cabal Therapy naming Recall,” he said with a smile on his face.  There was no Recall in my hand.  I few turns later I use Thirst for knowledge at the end of turn and shout, “There we go!”  He Cabal Therapies again and I reveal that I have nothing.  He gets frustrated and has committed nothing to the board.  He plays more dudes until I get engineered explosives and wipe him out, and I proceed to win with Meloku.  I did much of the same thing to him game 2 except I used Threads of Disloyalty to wreck him because he boarded in Ancient Grudge as well for Vedalken Shackles.  After the match he asks what I brought in against him.  I told him not a thing, and he walks off frustrated that he just punted a good match up in the first round.  Getting in your opponents head can be one of the best things you can do because once frustration sets in your opponent is going to misplay. 

Related to: Magic: the Gathering

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