Magic: The Gathering deck types

The game Magic: The Gathering requires each player to have their own deck in order to play. There are over ten thousand unique cards which can be used for this purpose; thus a considerable number of different decks can be constructed. However, decks can usually be loosely classified based on their play style and mode of victory.

Basic Deck types

Most classifications of decks begin from one of three major types: aggro, control, and combo.

Aggro

Aggro (short for "aggressive") decks attempt to reduce their opponents from 20 life to 0 life as quickly as possible, rather than emphasize a long-term game plan. Aggro decks focus on converting their cards into damage; they prefer to engage in a tempo-based race rather than a card advantage-based attrition war. Aggro generally rely on creatures as a cumulative source of damage. While strategically simple, aggro decks can quickly overwhelm unprepared opponents and remain resilient in the late game as well. Aggro decks also generally have access to disruptive elements, which can inhibit the opponent's attempts to respond.

• Example cards: Savannah Lions, Bitterblossom, Lightning Bolt, Rogue Elephant, Incinerate
• Example decks:
  • Goblins, which uses cards like Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Ringleader and Siege-Gang Commander. It heavily employs the goblin creature type, a class of creatures that are typically cheap, fragile, and deal high damage.
  • White Weenie, which uses small, efficient creatures such as Savannah Lions, Icatian Javelineers, and Mother of Runes
  • Affinity, which uses the affinity mechanic and large numbers of artifacts to quickly play spells such as Thoughtcast and Frogmite, while efficiently dealing damage using Disciple of the Vault and Arcbound Ravager.
  • Red/Green Beatz, uses low-cost, high power creatures such as Tarmogoyf and Kird Ape to kill the opponent quickly. It also utilizes mana denial such as Magus of the Moon and Wasteland.
  • Sligh, which utilizes its mana as efficiently as possible to kill the opponent quickly, using low-cost cards such as Jackal Pup and Lightning Bolt.
  • Suicide Black, which uses efficient but dangerous cards that cost life such as Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, Grim Tutor, and Bitterblossom. Suicide Black epitomizes Black's philosophy—win at all costs—and treats even its life total as an expendable resource.

Control

Control decks avoid racing and attempt to slow the game down by executing an attrition plan. As the game progresses, control decks are able to take advantage of their slower, more powerful, cards. The primary strength of control decks is their ability to devalue the opponent’s cards. They do this in four ways:

1. Erasing threats at a reduced cost. Control decks given the opportunity can gain card advantage by answering multiple threats with one spell, stopping expensive threats with cheaper spells, and drawing multiple cards or forcing the opponent to discard multiple cards with one spell.
2. Not playing threats to be answered. By playing few proactive spells of their own, control decks gain virtual card advantage by reducing the usefulness of opposing removal cards.
3. Disrupting synergies. Even if control decks do not deal with every threat directly, they can leave out whichever ones stand poorly on their own; e.g., a creature enchantment which will never need attention if all enemy creatures are quickly removed.
4. Dragging the game out past opposing preparations. An opponent's faster, efficient cards will become less effective over time.

• Example cards: Force of Will, Duress, Wrath of God, Pernicious Deed, Void
• Example decks:
  • Tezzeret Control, which controls the game using counterspells such as Mana Drain, builds card advantage with cards such as Dark Confidant, and ends the game using Tezzeret the Seeker to find Time Vault and activate it for infinite turns.
  • Mono Blue Control, which uses a heavy suite of counterspells alongside card-drawing such as Thirst for Knowledge, removal such as Echoing Truth, and a win condition such as Tezzeret the Seeker. This class of deck is nicknamed "Draw-Go," because most of its players' spells are instants designed to be played during his or her opponents' turns.
  • Blue-White Control, which is similar to Mono-Blue Control, but features more board-control cards such as Wrath of God, and Pacifism.
  • Psychatog, supplemented by card-drawing like Fact or Fiction and a number of disruptive spells.
  • Astral Slide, which uses large numbers of cards with cycling, including those with added benefits such as Eternal Dragon and Slice and Dice, to power Astral Slide and Lightning Rift.
  • Mono-Black Control, which uses removal spells such as Innocent Blood and Barter in Blood to control the board, and Cabal Coffers to kill the opponent with spells such as Consume Spirit.
  • The Deck, which uses card drawing such as Fact or Fiction and deck searching cards such as Demonic Tutor to find powerful cards that are highly effective against particular strategies (such as The Abyss, Diabolic Edict, and Balance), alongside a Blue base of counterspells to control the game and obtain an insurmountable lead.

Combo

Combo decks utilize the interaction of two or more cards (a "combination") to create a powerful effect that either wins the game immediately or creates a situation that subsequently leads to a win. The term "combo" can also describe a deck built around resolving a single powerful spell such as Tooth and Nail to create the same kind of insurmountable advantage. Combo decks value power, consistency, and speed: the combo should be strong enough to win, the deck should be reliable enough to produce the combo on a regular basis, and the deck should be able to use the combo fast enough to win before the opponent.

Many decks have smaller, combo-like interactions between their cards, which is better described as synergy.

• Example cards: Flash, Tendrils of Agony, Empty the Warrens, Aluren, Painter's Servant.
• Example decks:
  • The Perfect Storm, which utilizes Dark Ritual and artifact mana to draw cards and fuel a lethal Tendrils of Agony, all the while disrupting the opponent with Duress and Force of Will.
  • Painter Combo, which uses Painter's Servant and chooses Blue to permit Red Elemental Blast to destroy any permanent or counter any spell, while also allowing Grindstone to put the opponent's entire library into their graveyard.
  • Worldgorger Dragon Combo, which revolves around the infinite loop triggered when Worldgorger Dragon is animated from the graveyard using an enchantment such as Animate Dead. The loop generates mana and card drawing which is then used to end the game.
  • Belcher Combo, which uses free and efficient mana acceleration to play and activate Goblin Charbelcher, preferably on the first turn. Because the deck has two or fewer lands, one activation of Goblin Charbelcher will almost always kill the opponent.
  • Flash, which is dedicated to casting Flash and putting a Protean Hulk into play and then into the graveyard, allowing the player to find a combination of creatures which will kill the opponent instantly. Summoner's Pact and Merchant Scroll are used to find the combo pieces, while Force of Will and Pact of Negation protect the combo.
  • Steel City Vault, which uses "Draw 7" spells such as Timetwister to rapidly assemble the Time Vault-Voltaic Key combo for infinite turns. The deck also uses several cards such as Force of Will and Ancient Grudge to efficiently deal with Null Rod, the most effective answer to the Vault-Key combo.
  • Hexmage Depths, which uses Vampire Hexmage to inexpensively remove the counters from Dark Depths and put a flying, indestructible 20/20 creature token into play as early as the first turn.
  • A Fork in the Channel, red/green combo, after casting Disintegrate or Fireball use Channel for the X damage and then fork the Disintegrate or Fireball. Victory is achieved when player has 10 or more life.

Hybrid strategies

Aggro-Control

Aggro-control is a hybrid archetype that contains both aggressive creatures and control elements. These decks attempt to deploy quick threats while protecting them with light permission and disruption long enough to win. These are frequently referred to as "tempo" strategies, as their control elements are often more temporary; for instance, they may return opposing creatures to their owners' hands rather than remove them entirely.

• Example cards: Aven Mindcensor, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Dark Confidant, Magus of the Moon, Ohran Viper
• Example decks:
  • Blue-Green Madness, which uses cards like Wild Mongrel, Careful Study and Circular Logic.^{[citation needed]}
  • Naya Lightsaber, which uses powerful creatures like Ranger of Eos and removal like Ajani Vengeant, many of which also provide card advantage.
  • Threshold, which uses cards like Tarmogoyf, Daze and Brainstorm.^{[citation needed]}
  • Landstill, which uses creature lands such as Mishra's Factory, and Standstill to ensure that attempts to defend against them will result in the player drawing more creature lands, counterspells such as Force of Will, or removal such as "Fire // Ice".
  • Fish, which uses mana denial such as Wasteland and Null Rod, alongside disruption such as Daze, Force of Will, and Thoughtseize, to keep the opponent off-balance long enough that creatures such as Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant win the game.
  • Bob/Gush, which draws enough cards using Dark Confidant ("Bob") and Gush to overwhelm the opponent with attacking creatures and disruption such as Force of Will and Spell Pierce.
  • Delver, which uses the efficient threat Delver of Secrets alongside disruption such as Mana Leak and Vapor Snag, various red direct damage spells (Incinerate, Geistflame, Brimstone Volley), card drawing and filtering (Ponder, Faithless Looting), and other cheap, efficient creatures (Snapcaster Mage, Chandra's Phoenix). Snapcaster Mage in particular allows keys spells to be reused from the graveyard, allowing for great flexibility.

Midrange

Midrange strategies seek to control the game's first few turns and then win in the middle turns with large, yet highly efficient, threats. The black-green "Rock" deck is one of the most common decks to execute this strategy: it uses cheap creature removal and discard in the early turns to disrupt aggro and combo decks, and then starts playing large creatures in the middle turns that are, if not removed, capable of ending the game quickly after hitting play.

• Example Cards: Pernicious Deed, Spiritmonger, Hymn to Tourach, Troll Ascetic, Ravenous Baloth
• Example Decks
  • The Rock, which uses cards such as Genesis, Eternal Witness, Living Wish and Pernicious Deed.^{[citation needed]}
  • Ghost Dad, which utilizes Ghost Council of Orzhova, Dark Confidant, and Pillory of the Sleepless, for efficient creatures, card draw, and lifegain.^{[citation needed]}
  • Pod, which uses Birthing Pod to search up and directly play a variety of creatures with useful abilities that can answer specific board positions.

Control-Combo

Control-Combo is a control deck with a combo finisher that it can spring quickly if need be. A notable subtype of Control-Combo is "prison," which institutes control through resource denial (usually via a combo).

• Example cards: Orim's Chant, Mana Drain, Goblin Welder, Oath of Druids, Smokestack
• Example decks:
  • Stax, a prison deck which uses Smokestack to destroy opposing permanents, Crucible of Worlds to replay permanents to feed the Smokestack, and Sphere of Resistance and Tangle Wire to tie up an opponent's mana and prevent them from ever playing spells.
  • Stasis, which uses Stasis and cards such as Forsaken City or Boomerang.
  • Scepter-Chant, which uses Isochron Scepter and Orim's Chant.^{[citation needed]}
  • Trix, which gains life using Illusions of Grandeur and then uses Donate to leave the opponent with the often deadly drawback.^{[citation needed]}
  • Oath, uses Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchard to quickly put a large creature such as Tidespout Tyrant or Hellkite Overlord into play.^{[citation needed]}
  • Control Slaver, which accelerates powerful, high casting cost artifacts such as Mindslaver into play using Goblin Welder, Tinker, or Mana Drain.
  • Drain Tendrils, which controls the game using Mana Drain, Force of Will, and Duress while drawing cards with the Intuition + Accumulated Knowledge engine to set up a lethal Tendrils of Agony.

Aggro-Combo

Aggro-combo decks employ aggressive creature strategies along with some combination of cards that can win in "combo" fashion with one big turn. For instance, Ravager Affinity decks that include Disciple of the Vault can win by attacking with creatures and also with a combo finish of sacrificing multiple artifacts to Arcbound Ravager and killing the opponent with Disciple triggers.

• Example cards: Berserk, Food Chain, Hatred
• Example decks:
  • Fling Affinity, which uses Arcbound Ravager or Atog and Fling along with Disciple of the Vault.
  • Food Chain Goblins, which uses Food Chain, and Goblin Recruiter and Goblin Ringleader.
  • Fires, which uses Fires of Yavimaya with Saproling Burst and Blastoderm.
  • Dredge, which uses Bazaar of Baghdad and cards with the dredge mechanic (such as Golgari Grave-Troll and Stinkweed Imp) to fill the player's own graveyard. This enables free creatures such as Bloodghast and Narcomoeba, which can generate a large number of zombie tokens in conjunction with Cabal Therapy and Bridge from Below .

Aggro-Control-Combo

Aggro-control-combo decks combine efficient, creature-based damage, heavy disruption elements, and an ability to unleash an extremely powerful synergy that can end the game in "combo" fashion.

• Example cards: Tinker, Survival of the Fittest, Cunning Wish, Necropotence
• Example decks:
  • Gro-A-Tog, which generally wins by playing Quirion Dryad and protecting it with disruption such as Force of Will and Duress as it "grows," but can also win by playing Fastbond and chaining together Gush and Merchant Scroll to draw many cards and instantly make Quirion Dryad lethal.

See also

• Magic: The Gathering preconstructed theme decks