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Okay, I realise there will be plenty of mistakes errors in this list, but it's literally what I've put together this morning. I am a new (well, returning) player so I haven't much of a collection yet (nor the skills or experience). Hopefully you seasoned vets will be able to point me in the right direction.

Here goes:

Lands[23]
- 23x Island
- 1x Reliquary Tower

Creatures[17]
- 1x Indigo Faerie
- 4x Mist Raven
- 1x Shreikgeist
- 1x Stormbound Geist
- 2x Harbor Serpent
- 2x Merrow Levitator
- 1x Stonybrook Banneret
- 1x Prismwake Merrow
- 1x Welkin Tern
- 1x Faerie Invaders
- 1x Stormtide Leviathan
- 1x Lone Revenant

Other[19]
- 1x Into the Void
- 1x Tormod's Crypt
- 1x Elixir of Immortality
- 1x Swiftfoot Boots
- 1x Negate
- 1x Tricks of the Trade
- 1x Index
- 1x Armillary Sphere
- 1x Encrust
- 1x Thought Scour
- 2x Divination
- 1x Unsummon
- 2x Frost Breath
- 2x Crippling Chill
- 1x Arcane Melee
- 1x Warden of the Wall

I know it's all haphazard, but I'd like to focus on and around Stormtide Leviathan, teaming up with creatures that have islandwalk and flying. Half the battle is knowing what is out there, and I really don't know what cards to look for, that will help and work together. Also a few of the choices I've made are simply because I like the card. Half the enjoyment for me is the artwork when it comes to magic!

I don't want a tournament roflstomp deck either, I want it to be fun, and since I'm playing with beginners too, I'd rather not have a WAAC deck.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

It looks decent.
First off, I think you should change the cards that don't do anything. Indigo Faerie and Prismwake merrow are the ones that jump out to me - Changing the color of permanents doesn't help you in any way.
Next would be to take out thought scour - It too doesn't help you accomplish anything. And Arcane Melee isn't worth it in this deck, the impact is too small. Also, Elixir of Life and Tormod's Crypt don't help you reach your winning goal.

I see most of your creatures do have flying or islandwalk, and that's great! My main gripe is that you have some with abilites that don't help you win the game (Prismwake Merrow, Indigo Faerie, Shreikgeist). You should change these to some more efficient creatures instead of paying for abilities that don't help.


I hope that makes sense!

I think you need to focus on a narrower selection of cards with a particular goal rather than having singles of many different things, you can't really focus around Stormtide Leviathan when you only have one in the deck. Also you will struggle to get enough land out to even cast it because you are mono-blue, if you were green-blue you would have access to mana ramp. There are ways to cheat the Leviathan onto without paying for it properly - Djinn of Wishes for example, which will work if you can manipulate the top of your library (which I'll describe later).

You have cards to mill your own deck (Though Scour) and to mill your opponent's deck (Shreikgeist or Thought Scour), but there isn't a clear way to benefit from this and you're otherwise better off using different cards in their place. If you want to force your opponent to run out of cards then you have to go all in, and build the entire deck around removing cards from their deck. If you use cards with the 'flashback' ability then you may want to mill your own deck. The other good reason to mill your own deck is if you use a lot of Skaabs, many of which require you to exile creatures from your graveyard as part of their cost when playing them. This seems a heavy cost but they are quite strong so it can work well.

So you could build a deck using self mill cards like Thought Scour along with Stitched Drake, Headless Skaab, Relentless Skaab, Skreeching Skaab, etc. I'd also suggest 'Alchemist's Apprentice' as he's a cheap way to block early in the game, and you can throw him away to draw a card and you'll fuel the Skaabs with him in the graveyard. All these cards are commons and uncommons so should be cheap. It's surprising how effective a deck made of commons and uncommons can be. I will avoid suggesting cards that are rares, as you can build well on a small budget.

For your main card list, and I'm working through this as much for my benefit as you knowing my thought processes...

Reliquary Tower - You don't need it, you have very little that makes you draw more cards, you're unlikely to find yourself with more than 7 cards in hand.
Indigo Faerie - I'm not sure what you intend to do with this, you're paying 2 mana for a 1/1 with an ability that doesn't seem to help you
Mist Raven - good common
Shriekgeist - 2 mana for a 1/1, the ability doesn't hurt your opponent unless your deck is dedicated to milling your opponent's deck
Stormbound Geist - Yeah, I'd have four
Harbor Serpent - I don't think it's that useful
Merrow Levitator - potentially has uses if your opponent lacks flying creatures
Stonybrook Banneret - 2 mana for a 1/1 and you haven't got the wizards and merfolk to benefit from it's ability
Prismwake Merrow - like the Indigo Faerie I can't see a use for it here
Welkin Tern - That's okay as it's flying
Faerie Invaders - Slightly expensive but if you want it in the deck use more
Stormtide Leviathan - Problem here is that it's costs nearly twice everything else in the deck, it'll just be dead weight in your hand for most of the game
Lone Revenant - This is a good one, being able to pick one of the next four cards in the deck gives huge advantage.

Into the Void - yup that's okay
Tormod's Crypt - you don't really need this unless your opponent intends to use his graveyard a lot. I don't think it's worth putting in.
Elixir of Immortality - I wouldn't
Swiftfoot Boots - these are ok
Negate - Only one? If you want to frustrate your opponent with counter spells pack more in
Tricks of the Trade - I think it's too expensive for what it does, the best thing you've got to put it on is the Lone Revenant
Index - Inferior to Ponder (I'll get onto that in a moment)
Armillary Sphere - I don't think you need this, you have 24 land and they're all blue. You won't be struggling for land of the right colour.
Encrust - that's okay for shutting down your opponent's creatures
Thought Scour - Yes if you want to exploit a deck milling you or your opponent
Divination - it's not good
Unsummon - maybe
Frostbreath - maybe
Crippling Chill - maybe
Arcane Melee - Oh no, many of your spells are too cheap to make use of this and it also applies to your opponent as well as yourself.
Warden of the Wall - it's ok


Okay so you like the Stormtide Leviathan and things with flying. I think the Leviathan will be difficult for you to use because everything else in the deck can be played much earlier on in the game. If you were to have a green-blue deck with lots of ways to generate extra mana, then I'd say go for it. That said, you could perhaps look into something like 'Caged Sun' or
'Gilded Lotus' to help with your mana (they're both rares, though the Caged Sun isn't particularly valuable and would work really well in a single colour deck).

Going with the fliers, you have real potential to make a deck with a theme. Mist Raven, Stormbound Geist, the Tern, Faeries, all flying though they are a little mana costly. Have a look around for some cheap fliers in blue, get more of these and drop the individual creatures that don't do much. But what would work really well in a deck with a lot of fliers is 'Favorable Winds', an enchantment that gives all your fliers +1/+1. Stick four of these in the deck and your flying creatures can get pretty big. If you like flying creatures what about things that make flying tokens? M13 has a few things that makes 2/2 blue Drakes like Talrand's Invocation or Talrand, Sky Summoner (a rare but he comes in one of the M13 starter packs). Cheaper creatures that will help you defend early in the game, until your bigger flying things arrive, are Fog Bank and Augur of Bolas, also in M13. The Fog Bank flies and the Augur is a 1/3 that lets you draw a card when he is played.

As for your other spells - you're playing blue, so make use of the deck manipulation and counterspells. M13 offers Negate and Essence Scatter which cost 2 mana to dispel creatures and non-creature spells. From other sets you can use Mana Leak, or Cancel. Between these four you have a good range of cards to frustrate your opponent when playing various things.

The other side to blue is being able to control your deck. I wouldn't use Divination, you have to throw away one card to draw two, it's not efficient for the mana cost IMO. You've chosen 'Index' which unfortunately is the bitch to 'Ponder'. Ponder is a gem in blue decks and is an absolute must - get four! Index just lets you order the top five cards, Ponder lets you look at the top three, and then put them back in any order or shuffle the deck, but then draw a card. This is massively beneficial compared to Index and very good in the opening turns of the game. Gitaxian Probe is also quite good in the early stages too.

Then you have the cards to mess up your opponent's creatures on the table. Unsummon can returns a single creature back to someone's hand, Into the Void returns two, which can be surprisingly awkward for your opponent. If you like Frost Breath which taps two creatures for 3 mana, try Sleep which taps all of them for 4 mana. This can end games. If you want to shut down creatures permanently for 3 Mana, maybe you should use Claustrophobia instead of Crippling Chill.

So all in all, I'd suggest building a deck using some combination of the following creatures...
Mist Raven
Stormbound Geist
Faerie Invaders
Welkin Tern
Wind Drake
Fog Bank
and maybe a Talrand, Sky Summoner

And spells...
Ponder
Unsummon
Into the Void
Sleep
Claustrophobia
Negate
Essence Scatter
Mana Leak
Cancel
Talrand's Invocation
Favorable Winds


Hope that helps, come back with an update!

Wow! I can see you've put a lot of effort into this - for that I am grateful! I'll give it a thorough read when I get back from work.

Thanks guys!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just read through it, thanks! I'll look into all the cards you mentioned, and I really appreciate your help. Since you mentioned a green/blue deck I did a quick search through my green cards and picked out anything that helped with mana.

I found the following:
- 1x Fertilid
- 1x Ranger's Path
- 1x Borderland Ranger
- 2x Dawntreader Elk

What are your thoughts on these?

And I understand what you mean about indigo faerie, I just tried to grab a few cheaper creatures with flying.

I'll have another search through my cards and see if I find anything similar to what you mentioned. I also found the Depths of Power starter deck. Do you think this would be worthwhile to pick up?

Once again, thanks!

I should say there are different formats with which you can play. 'Standard' only covers the more recent sets which is where all my knowledge lies. As many people play Standard and it's a jumping on point for newer players, I've only suggested cards that are legal in standard. Though Ponder and a few others are in the 2012 set which will no longer be standard legal when the new Ravnica set is released at the end of September.

The point is that all the cards I have suggested are in standard, and most will remain so for some time. When you use some of the older cards you have suggested, you are playing the 'modern' format which covers about 10 years worth of cards. You say that you're only playing casually, but it's worth noting that even casual decks that select cards from 10 years of releases can be fairly potent, and you might find that trying to collect a handful of each card that you want quite tricky as they are out of print. I do play Commander/EDH which uses decks with 100 cards that are all different. This is great fun for a casual format and means you can use odds and ends of older single cards.

Of the four you suggest Fertilid is the only not standard legal, it is a good card, especially as you can get cards that increase the counters on other cards, meaning you could fuel this for quite a while. See cards that have the 'proliferate' effect if you're keen on this.

Ranger's Path, Borderland Ranger and Dawntreader Elk are all idea for pulling up extra lands. Also there's Farseek now in M13. Don't forget with the Elk you can use it to block an attack, but before damage is resolved to either creature you can pay the single green and sacrifice it to get the land. Thus it acts to block damage and you get the land out of it. Something like Borderland Ranger works as the land acquisition is an effect that occurs when it enters the battlefield, so cards like the blue 'into the void' can be used to return him to your hand for a second go.

You could also try creatures that make mana themselves. Llanowar Elf and Arbor Elf which are also common cards. Using these two alone you can be in a position to generate 5 mana in the third turn. There's also Scorned Villager for generating mana (it's a card that can flip over and the reverse side is more powerful and generates even more mana) which is a common. Birds of Paradise and Elvish Archdruid are rares and these are more powerful at generating mana. It's for these reason that green can ramp mana very quickly allowing you to generate far more mana than your opponent early in the game.

There are drawbacks to this though, you will run out of cards and find you have nothing to do with all the mana. That's why you need a way to restock your hand. There are lots of ways to do this in blue, simply paying to draw more cards. Some creatures like Elvish Visionary let you draw a card when they enter the battlefield. Others let you draw a card when you damage an opponent. If you have a lot of creatures in your deck, you could use something like 'Lead the Stampede' (an uncommon) which lets you look through the top five cards of your deck and take any creatures into your hand. This doesn't work well in decks with few creatures as you'll draw mostly land and sorceries, but with a high creature content it can be very effective.

'Abundant Growth' is another option, it is an enchantment for lands, which allows them to make mana of any colour. So now your forest or island can now make any colour of mana which gives a lot more flexibility. And when this card is played, you also get to draw a card. For only one green mana it's a bargain, and it's common.

And with green you should look at cards like Overrun (or it's more recently weaker cousin 'Predatory Rampage'), which for five mana gives your creatures +3/+3 and trample. This is easy to do if you're playing a deck that quickly generates a lot of mana and often you can end the game without even playing a big creature, the elves and birds and other tiny things will do it all themselves.

You don't see green-blue mixed as often as other colours, (green often pairs with white or red) but it's still very effective. With a deck built to generate mana much faster you probably don't want so many blue counter spells, but you will want to draw more cards and manipulate the top of your deck to find the stuff you want. If in green and blue you want to prevent your opponent doing any damage while you amass your mana and bigger creatures there's a wide selection, even in Standard. For green try cards like Fog, Blunt the Assault, Clinging Mists or Terrifying Presence. In blue return their creatures to their hand using Into the Void, tap their creatures before combat with Sleep or Frost Breath, or simply reduce their power so they can't do any damage to you or your defenders with things like Hysterical Blindness.

The Depths of Power pack is probably s good place to start, I'm more keen on Wild Rush or Path to Victory myself, but all are decent enough. More powerful decks of cards are the 'Event Decks', these are about twice the cost of the normal starter packs, but usually you get some really good stuff from them. Often the cards in them are good enough that people break them up and sell their contents individually for more than the RRP.

Once again, thanks for your help mate! I've completely gone back to the drawing board and used your advice to construct themed decks.

I've played around with a few ideas, the thing that holds me back though is lack of knowledge and resources! I guess that comes with practice and money haha.

I actually went down to a local pub where they play on a tuesday evening, it was pretty good fun actually. Played about 10 games along with a few 2HG games (all but 2 or 3 I got destroyed in) and my friend enjoyed it too (now to rope in some more!).

When first starting out, I'd actually suggest you do drafts.

This completely solves the problem of having to go buy all the cards you need, and once you learn the set, the playfield is rather even.

Forgive me, what is a draft in terms of magic?

NoBaconz4You wrote:Forgive me, what is a draft in terms of magic?

Everyone starts with a pack of unopened cards. You then open them, pick one to keep, and pass the rest. You get the remaining cards from the person next to you, pick one, pass the rest. Repeat until the pack is empty.

Repeat the above for 3 packs.

Now, everyone has 45 cards to make a deck with. You can add as many basic lands as you want. And, you only need to make a deck of 40 cards.

Then, everyone plays a tournament with their drafted decks.

And, best of all, at the end of the night, you get to keep all the cards you drafted!

Beware of Rare Drafts when though. It's a draft just like Grakmar explain, except that at the end all players pool their rare, mythic rare, (gold and red set symbol) and foil lands together to form the prize pool. The player that won picks first and on down the line with the last place finisher picking two before the cycle moves on up. If you're starting out, not being able to keep the good cards you pull can really hamper you moving on in the game.

 m14 wrote:
Beware of Rare Drafts when though. It's a draft just like Grakmar explain, except that at the end all players pool their rare, mythic rare, (gold and red set symbol) and foil lands together to form the prize pool. The player that won picks first and on down the line with the last place finisher picking two before the cycle moves on up. If you're starting out, not being able to keep the good cards you pull can really hamper you moving on in the game.

I have never heard of this kind of draft! Id probably pack all my stuff and bolt if i found out halfway threw the draft that it was a "rare draft" even if i was on top of the scoreboards!

Most people starting a draft will say whether or not it's a rare draft before it starts. They're not fun as no matter what you get, unless you you don't care about your cards...

 m14 wrote:
Most people starting a draft will say whether or not it's a rare draft before it starts. They're not fun as no matter what you get, unless you you don't care about your cards...

Meh, it depends on your perspective. If you've already got a set Standard deck, rare drafts are nice cuz you can focus on actually drafting and you aren't tempted to take that $30 foil when it won't fit into your draft deck.

But, yes, for people trying to use drafts as a way to establish a Standard deck, its not as nice.

I think rare drafts are better than draft-and-keep, because if you really want that expensive card, you can still get it. All you have to do is use all of your skills to win the draft and take it.
And I like when you use skill to make the best deck possible as opposed to make an inferior deck only to get the shinies.

Simple, you build your deck around the rares you get, unless everything you have doesn't support them, then it'll be side-boarded. Drafts are fun though and I encourage you play in them.

Or you could you know....just go buy a box or singles? If you're going to draft do it because you like the format as overall it's a pretty terrible way to acquire cards for standard deck.

Before you really start getting into deck building and buying cards you may want to do some additional reading so you don't have to ask super basic stuff.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/3