Gerry T and Patrick Chapin have recently written articles bemoaning the decline of deckbuilding as a skill. While I do not agree completely with them, I do believe that the focus of the competitive environment has shifted far more toward an empirical, tuning-based approach than a deckbuilding one, largely due to the availability of certain resources, specifically MTGO. But that doesn't mean deckbuilding is dead, or even no longer as necessary, it just means it's faded into the background. Why is this the case? Probably because deckbuilding is, in general, an intuitive process.

The aim of my next series of articles (of which this is the first), will be to lay out some of the basic principles of deck construction that many people unconsciously understand, but perhaps are unable to put into words. In doing so, I hope that you will begin to think about deckbuilding in a more critical manner, and thus do it more frequently. This series of articles is not designed to provide you with tournament-competitive decklists, but to teach you how to make those yourself. It is aimed at helping you understand what people like Chapin, Conley Woods, Saito, and Gerry T all know (but may be unable to vocalize) – how to build a good deck. Remember though, this is just the basics. In other words, what I have to say here will not always be true, but it will be true frequently, and it will give you a methodology to approach deck construction, which is better than having no methodology at all.

So why is deck construction such an important skill? What advantages can you gain by learning how to build decks? There are two main advantages. The first is obvious – by having a new build of an existing deck or a completely new deck opposing players will be unprepared for what you are playing. The second is one of the most often neglected portions of tournament play – sideboarding.

Sideboarding is deck construction. Every time you shuffle up for game 2 you are presented the opportunity to alter the construction of your deck to better suit the opponent you are playing against. In effect, you are allowed to re-construct your deck using the cards in your sideboard. To maximize this you not only need to understand what your goals were in building the deck in the first place, but what your goal in re-building it is.

Frameworks are perhaps the most basic element of deck construction and important to keep in mind whenever you are building a deck. Each deck has two frameworks – a conceptual framework and a practical framework. The conceptual framework of a deck is the basic idea or strategy behind the deck. The practical framework is the series of legal cards best suited toward the execution of that fundamental strategy or idea. Let's take a look at a practical example: Jund.

This is Jund's conceptual framework:

This is Jund's practical framework: 4x Bloodbraid Elf, 4x Sprouting Thrinax, 4x Maelstrom Pulse, 4x Blightning

Let's examine the reasoning behind these two frameworks. Jund is a variant of The Rock. The basic principle is to play a string of high "value" cards (many of them two for ones) to beat an opponent by generating small, incremental advantages. This is in contrast to, for example, a deck like 5cc that seeks to trade one for one and stay alive, then blow you out by playing various big spells (eg. Cruel Ultimatum). Given this strategy, Jund does not need any specific card to execute it. However, we don't live in just a conceptual world. We play real formats with card pools and within a card pool there is frequently a card that is the most efficient at a role (eg. for a while, Path to Exile was the most efficient piece of spot removal in T2 by a mile). The practical framework exists because there are specific cards that are very well suited toward the execution of Jund's strategy in T2.

Why are frameworks important? They're good at getting to the underlying principles of a deck, and therefore understanding what you can and can't change from version to version. Cutting cards in a deck's framework results in an efficiency change, which will be larger if you cut cards in the conceptual framework. As an illustration, let's take a look at a different deck – Pyromancer Ascension.

Conceptual Framework – 4x Pyromancer Ascension

Practical Framework –4x Preordain, 4x Ponder, 4x See Beyond, 4x Time Warp

As a deckbuilder, it's crucial to remember that the majority of cards in your deck are going to be role-players. They are going to fulfill certain secondary functions that push you toward your end goal. This means that they are also cuttable. People frequently get attached to "sacred cows" in decklists. Most of the time, these cards aren't actually uncuttable, since most of the time the function of a card can be fulfilled in other manners. It doesn't matter how efficient a card is, sometimes you don't want it.

Let's take a look at two examples. First up is Path to Exile.

Path to Exile is the most efficient spot removal spell in T2 (Condemn is second). Ninety-nine percent of the time there is going to be Path to Exile in your white deck, probably 4, but that other 1% is important. If you just go throwing 4x Path to Exile in every white deck you make just because it's a "good card" you will be right 99% of the time, but that 1% is important. Guess what happens in that 1%? Mythic.

Sometimes a deck doesn't want dedicated creature removal. That means no Path to Exile. Doesn't matter how efficient it is, sometimes the function isn't desired at all.

The second example is Spreading Seas.

What is the function of Spreading Seas? It's twofold – to disrupt manabases (Jund's in particular) and to "kill" lands with abilities (generally manlands). Both of these functions are good in UW. Spreading Seas was an excellent card for the deck a while back due to Jund being a very popular deck, so it served both functions. With the rise of other blue decks and especially with the printing of Condemn, the card has become less necessary in the main of UW decks.

The first of Spreading Seas's two functions is outmoded. Jund is less popular and many of the other decks aren't hurt that much by a random Island. That leaves us with just the second function, which Spreading Seas isn't necessary for. Between Condemn, Path, and Tectonic Edge man-lands are not a problem. If you run 4x Condemn, 4x Path to Exile, 4x Tectonic Edge, and 4x Day of Judgment (to deal with other creatures), I guarantee you that man-lands will not be an issue. Spreading Seas is not only more narrow than the aforementioned cards, it is also more expensive, so it is usually better just to not have it around.

Of course, the story doesn't end there. There's a whole other group of lands that got a shot in the arm with the rise of M11 – Eldrazi Temple, Eye of Ugin, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. These lands don't attack, so Condemn and Path don't deal with them. Spreading Seas does, so the card still serves a necessary function in some match-ups.

No matter the level of efficiency of a role-player it is important to remember that it is just that, a role-player. Even if it makes your deck 99% of the time, do not reflexively include it in every deck you make. You might hit that 1%.

The main applicability of this concept comes with new sets though. Tournaments right after the release of new sets are an excellent opportunity to produce great results, especially if you can build solid versions of decks quickly. Frameworks allow you to do this. When I look at a new set, I mentally divide the cards into four categories.

1 – Completely unplayable

2 – Role-player (this is the vast majority of cards)

3 – Fits into an existing framework

4 – Creates a new framework.

There is sometimes overlap between the categories. Vengevine is a good example of a "4" card, whereas Fauna Shaman is a good example of a "3" card. Sun Titan is an example of a card that is both a 3 and a 4.

As an example, let me show you the first draft of a deck that I made a couple days after the official M11 spoiler was released:

[cardlist]

[Lands]

4 Eldrazi Temple

4 Halimar Depths

4 Khalni Garden

7 Forest

4 Island

4 Misty Rainforest

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

4 Fauna Shaman

3 Lotus Cobra

4 Oracle of Mul Daya

2 Avenger of Zendikar

2 Primeval Titan

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

3 Explore

4 Rampant Growth

3 Mana Leak

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[/Spells]

[/cardlist]

The only card in the sideboard is 4x Obstinate Baloth. I wasn't really sure what the metagame would be. It's fairly easy to see the origins of the deck, but grafting Fauna Shaman and Primeval Titan onto the Turboland shell allows for the inclusion of Eldrazi. I was actually sad to see the results of the Japanese PTQ, since that effectively let the UG Eldrazi Ramp deck out of the bag. Since my pre-ordered Primeval Titans didn't come in, I shelved the deck and went back to playing UW. Still, the deck is good. Fauna Shaman does a good job.

It's not perfect*, but if I had taken this to a PTQ on release weekend, I am willing to bet that the vast majority of the room would be completely unprepared for it. I'm still kind of surprised that I haven't seen something like this show up consistently yet, although that's probably because Vengevine Naya can be a real problematic match-up. This deck was created because I correctly did two things – I identified Fauna Shaman as a "3" card when looking at the spoiler and identified that Turboland would be an interesting place to include it. The rest after that was fairly simple. I played the deck a bit between the prerelease and release weekends and it performed well. It's still a decent deck, and had I been able to find Obstinate Baloths I would've played it at M11 Game Day. If you like this kind of thing, you should give it a shot.

Being able to get reasonably close to a tuned decklist on your first draft is a huge advantage, especially right around the release of a set. For those of you interested in testing the approach, Scars is right around the corner. It will serve as an excellent opportunity because it is also a rotation, which means that there will be more cards in the "4" category since a bunch of existing frameworks will be gutted. This approach has been pretty successful over the years for me, and I urge you to try it out.

Chingsung Chang

Conelead almost everywhere and on MTGO

Khan32k5@gmail.com

* = I've since gone -1 Forest, +1 Eye of Ugin and among other potential changes -1 Jace, +1 Primeval Titan is probably correct.