Magic ccg

[Waffuru]

Expect to pay about $1 a piece

[Ashe]

Urge isn't bad, but not a big deal if you can't get them. They are occasionally in decks but not that often. If you really want to use this in FNM and try to do halfway well, without putting a lot of money in, I'd recommend one of two things. Either try to make a budget version of a Vampires deck or do a b/g landfall type theme with Gladehearts and stuff.

I'd get rid of the Regenerates, Savage Silhouette, and Druge Skeletons. You value regen WAY too much. Its got that occasional moment when it does something useful, but for the most part, people can get around it. Regen does absolutely nothing to -X/-X effects like Tomb Hex, Disfigure, Urge to Feed... And it does nothing to things like Smother (which you should get) or Terminate, all of which are played. It does nothing if you only have one guy on the board and they play Gatekeeper of Malakir and cause you to sac a creature (Get some of these guys too). You seem like you want a kinda "pauper" (used for an "all commons" format - I mean it as in even lower budget than budget deck in this context) deck that will still do well. Keep the removal, keep efficient creatures that actually effect the game. Get rid of the janky shit that isn't going to do anything more than sit in your hand as a blank or sit on the board with an opponent just working around it.

Another point in the auras are that they open you up to a 2 for 1, and that's the complete opposite of card advantage. If I see you casting that card, then the next game I'm going to wait until you go on your t5 to drop it on a creature while leaving regen mana up. I'm then going to kill your creature in response and watch your aura get countered and go to the yard. If you drop skeletons turn 2, I'm going to bolt it off before you get mana up. I'm going to smother it and know that it can't do a damn thing about it, knowing that you are clutching a fist full of Regenerate. I know you are hoping to save a guy by using Regenerate to counteract a Day of Judgment, but the creature quality isn't high enough for you to gain anything out of that.

Get some Vampire Hexmages. They are uncommon and their ability can basically say "Sacrifice: Kill target planeswalker" (walkers with zero counters are dead walkers) or "Sacrifice: Target Everflowing Chalice is now worthless and taps for no mana."

EDIT: I apologize if my tone comes off as harsh. Its not intended to be. I'm just trying to be realistic with what you are going to face. I've been helping a few friends of mine lately with starting up going to FNM, and I'm trying to beat the bad ideas out of them at the moment. They are starting to do much better and understand why I am telling them to get rid of certain things, and their decks are definitely becoming more consistent and they are getting a lot better. So I'm just trying to help.

[Kole T. Merr]

I don't know if you even looked at the updated version of my deck.

Half of the stuff you said to do was done already: No Drudge Skeletons, a couple hexmages, a gatekeeper of malakir.

I definitely don't plan on walking away with first or even second this weekend, but I also intend to have fun with it.

That said, I might lose the regenerates and put in a couple more giant growth/groundwells.

[Ashe]

I honestly didn't do much more than glance at it. I saw the regenerates and kinda went sadface. Like I said, I was giving mostly generic suggestions. If I was trying to think of some really cheap rares you might consider using, even if they aren't "competitive" just to let you have SOME kind of power to your deck, I'd say maybe Terra Stomper or Kalonian Behemoth or something. They are terrible cards, but they are "Timmy rares" and just big guys that pack a punch. I actually wouldn't recommend them, but still figured you might look at them. Maybe Overrun. Depending on how green you keep it, I mean. If you stay black green, try to get some Putrid Leeches.

[Kole T. Merr]

Well, my whole "theme" with the deck (if you can really call it that) is vampires and the way they interact with the green-ness of the land. It's basically mono black vampires with a splash of green support in there.

I don't know. It sounds stupid when I actually say it, but I like the feel of the deck not having any green creatures.

[Kole T. Merr]

Here's hoping that Waff checks this forum (or his phone).

FNM is tonight. I'm hoping to get a few games in with the deck beforehand.

[Kami]

How did it go?

[Kole T. Merr]

Awful. 34th place out of 36. And that was AFTER I made changes to the deck as Ashe suggested. Not that I'm trying to correlate the two, mind you.

Not sure if I'll be able to go this week, but next week I plan on taking my mono-white Kor deck...and a Sideboard.

[Kami]

Takes practice, like everything. Having a well built deck (that you know) doesn't hurt either

[Kole T. Merr]

On the plus side, though, I definitely felt like the coolest person in the room.

[Juno]

Some friends just got me into this, one of the local shops gives out free decks apparently, so I'm checking that out sometime this week.

I'm deciding what type of deck I'd like, so if someone could explain the different formats you can mold them into, that would be very helpful. My converters couldn't actually explain that very articulately.

[Kaden]

Without having a basic knowledge of the game mechanics, it is pretty hard to explain the game. Very, very basically, you can break down most of the colors like so:

Green: generally the best in terms of creatures. Lots of good creature enchantments. They also hate on other enchantments and artifacts a fair bit. In the latest expansions, Green's been all about pulling land, too.

Black: lots of creature destruction, lots of sacrificing your own creatures and life to do more (ideally) damage to your opponent. Black can do a pretty good job of pulling things back from the dead and also is pretty good at forcing players to discard cards from their hands.

White: Preventing damage and gaining life, definitely. Lots of creatures with high toughness, plenty of fliers. White's probably the best at adding "protection from" effects.

Red: lots of "direct damage" spells and effects that let you wipe out creatures or deal damage directly to the opposing player. Lots of the "haste" effect, which lets creatures attack and use certain abilities the same turn they're played.

Blue: Blue's the most awkward to describe. Blue creatures are bad, first off. Their spells do all kinds of things that are commonly referred to as "control" effects. Returning creatures to an opponent's hand, discarding cards from an opponent's deck, countering spells, tapping creatures, all kinds of stuff that doesn't do damage, but can be incredibly potent.

Those are incredibly basic summaries of the colors, and there's always some kind of overlap. I'm sure someone else will want to make corrections or additions to what I've already said, but the jist is still the same. You'll find very little "haste" outside of Red, for example. It's there, but there's not too much of it.

Personally, I think Green is the easiest to start off with. Creatures are the primary form of dealing damage in most decks, so starting off with the color that does the most with them always seemed to make sense to me. Of course there are other things you can do with the color, but you want to make sure you know what you're doing first.

[Kole T. Merr]

I don't think I'll make it this week to FNM, but for next week, I'm going to try out my mono-white Kor deck, which consists of the following:

Land: 23
Plains......................18
Kabira Crossroads......3
Sejiri Steppe.............2

Creatures: 18
Armament Master........4
Kitesail Apprentice.......2
Kor Sanctifiers............2
Kor Aeronaut..............2
Kor Hookmaster...........3
Kor Outfitter...............2
Kor Duelist..................3

Artifact-Equipment: 11
Whispersilk Cloak..........2
Gorgon Flail.................1
Bone Saw...................2
Spidersilk Net...............3
Trusty Machete............2
Kitesail........................1

Other Spells: 16
Armored Ascension........4
Brave the Elements.......3
Conqueror's Pledge........1
Honor of the Pure..........1
Journey to Nowhere.......3
Pacifism.......................4

Total: 68

[Kaden]

I don't suppose you have any Stoneforge Mystics?

[Ashe]

I don't suppose you have any Stoneforge Mystics?

Or Basilisk Collars?

And about last Friday - I know we both understand this, but I was trying to give the best suggestions I could with the deck without stepping over the lines of the fact that it is YOUR deck and thus saying "Throw that away, build something else" is usually not the way to go. But sometimes the card quality just isn't there. However, I'd say most likely its currently less to do with the cards and more that you'll need to adjust to tournament play and mindsets and timing and rules and such. Anyone can take a pile of fantastic cards to a tourney and scrub out. I do it all the time, actually.

This most recent Friday, I (as usual) had to borrow a deck from someone. Ended up playing a Bant deck that was heavily influenced by the Boss Naya deck - Mystics, Collars, Baneslayers, etc. I didn't do terrible, but I just barely missed the cut to top 4 due to my breakers being lower than another guy. Basically I had a draw and a loss, and the person I lost to was guaranteed into the cut, but the person I drew with had time called (meaning they were likely to draw again. That would lower their win percentage just enough that the other guy would get in over me due to his opponents having better win percents). If that guy had WON his match, I'd be in for sure, but sadly they went to time and drew. That guy ended up taking first too, after cuts were made, which made me sad since he timed his opponents twice in the event playing Boss Naya.

Not sure if I'll play tomorrow and borrow a deck from someone or try to pick up work. I'm just a few cards short of U/W Control, at least enough to make it playable. I just need two more Glacial Fortress, two Martial Coup, and two Mind Spring for the main deck. The chance of me getting three Baneslayers for the board are extremely slim, so I'm not even going to bother to try, but I've got everything else for the deck.

[Kole T. Merr]

Unfortunately no Stoneforge Mystics, and only one Basilisk Collar, which is in another deck of mine. I do have a couple more Gorgon Flails, but I don't want to make the deck TOO oversaturated with equipment. I've tweaked this deck from what I've played it as before, by adding 3 more Armament Masters as well as the Armored Ascension and Brave the Elements. I also took out a few cards that weren't really helping the deck. I've also got kind of a sideboard set up with some cliff threaders, firewalkers, refraction traps and marsh threaders.

[Kaden]

Get rid of a Net for the Collar.

[Kole T. Merr]

Get rid of a Net for the Collar.

Done

[Juno]

I just bought the Kor Armory starter deck, as I've been trying out some different decks of my friends and found myself most contented with white magic. I edited it a bit with the Booster Pack I bought and the one that came with it, so here's what I've got so far. Bold is creature, italics is sorcery/enchantment, underline is equipment, and nothing is land.

Armament Master x1(Foil)
Conquerer's Pledge x1
Landbind Ritual x1
Windborne Charge x1
Divine Verdict x1
Narrow Escape x1
Pacifism x2
Trusty Machete x1
Explorer's Scope x1
Spidersilk Net x1
Serra Angel x1
Siege Mastodon x1
Caravan Hurda x1
Kor Cartographer x2
Kor Sanctifiers x2
Kor Hookmaster x2
Kor Aeronaut x2
Kor Skyfisher x2
Cliff Threader x1
Kor Duelist x1
Ornithopter x1
Kabira Crossroads x3
Plains x16

Total Land - 19
Total Creatures - 17
Total Equipment - 3
Total Spells/Enchantment - 7
Total - 46

I added the Siege Mastodon, the Ornithopter, and the Caravan Hurda to up my defense, and also added an extra Kabira Crossroads (that's foil!) and the Cliff Threader. Any suggestions? I have a basic idea of what I'm doing, but I'm not completely sure. I'm considering throwing in a Piranha Marsh and Jwar Isle Refuge as Land to add some swamps, so that then I can use Weakness and Unsummon.

Also, the Cliff Threader's description just says "mountainwalk." I'm guessing that has something to do with ther Mountain land cards, but I'm not sure, need some explanations.

[Ashe]

Landwalk = "This creature is unblockable as long as the defending player controls a land of this type."