Locations
Again this article has been held in limbo due to my crazy schedule for the past few weeks, he sent this to me the week following episode 68 where we discussed my Sealed deck pool. -- Trick
For today’s classroom I am going to break down a different approach to building a limited deck. It has truly served me well and I think you’ll like it also. It may be more valuable now more than ever considering the high ratio of Gold cards and the also high number of mana fixing tools available.
I haven’t really cleared it with Trick yet but I am going to use his list from the Prerelease so you can compare my build to his and Lee’s.
If you missed his list you can check it out here, as well as the cardpool, on the forums.
First a little background. When I first started playing I played in a limited PTQ during Onslaught Block. Prior to that I had only played with cards from a fellow teacher’s shoebox collection (You know, the cards that we consider junk but still hold onto). At the tournament a player sitting across from me mentioned his mnemonic device for building. I used it as well and went undefeated until the last round where I took an intentional draw.
I was such a noob that I had to be explained how 'IDing' worked. The Finals of course where Draft. I lost first round to the eventual 2nd place finisher which I was happy with since I had never drafted before. That’s right my first draft EVER was at a PTQ. I walked out with a lot more cards than I owned at the time. In fact, I probably gained more Rare cards that day than I had total cards before.
What is this tool that helped a total novice win out the day? That’s today’s lesson but first a brief quote from Wikipedia.
A mnemonic device (pronounced "neh-mon-ik") is a memory and/or learning aid. Commonly met mnemonics are often verbal, something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something, particularly lists, but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered. This is based on the principle that the human mind much more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, sexual or humorous or otherwise meaningful information than arbitrary sequences.
The mnemonic device we’ll use today is B.R.U.S.H. Each letter stands for a specific type of card. I illustrate each letter and what it stands for as I pick out cards in Tricks pool that I felt fit. Understand that I am going to try to make these judgments quickly so my time is comparable to what Trick had for his build. Also, while some cards fall into multiple categories you have to chose the best fit.
B
The first letter is B and it needs to be a capital B. It stands for Bombs. These are cards that can radically change the results of a game. It is important to understand that a Limited Bomb is radically different from a Constructed Bomb. For an example let’s look at Nemesis of Reason. I haven’t seen a deck in constructed that would even consider using this card. Yet many experts have voiced that it’s a game winner in Limited. It has a big butt and wins the game in about 3 turns.
From Trick's list I would put the following as bombs.
R
The R in BRUSH is classic. Many of you probably already know where I’m going with this. REMOVAL is a must have for any deck. Now removal can come in many forms. You have you classic “destroy” type of cards like Terminate. Or you can make something ineffective with Crystallization. You can force a discard with Blightning or chose a discard with Tidehollow Sculler. You can see this list can be pretty long.
From Tricks list I placed:
- Blightning
- Brainbite
- Branching Bolt
- Naturalize
- Naya Battlemage
- Resounding Scream
- Resounding Silence
- Sanity Gnawers
- Terminate
- Vectis Dominator
U
The U in BRUSH is probably the hardest to pick cards for. This and H overlap a lot in my mind at that what makes them hard to discern. The U stands for Utility or Usefulness. Cards that have multiple applications or apply themselves to make other cards better. The Exalted mechanic falls in this section. Many of the Exalted cards aren’t playable on their own but when amassed together they are imposing.
Here I listed:
- Akrasan Squire
- Angelic Benediction
- Ardent Plea
- Bloodthorn Taunter
- Ethercaste Knight
- Etherium Sculptor
- Godtoucher
- Mayael’s Aria
- Outrider of Jhess
- Sight-caste Sorcerer
S
The S cards win the majority of games in limited. While not Bombs they are just as likely to win a game. S stands for Strength. Meaning the Power to Cost ratio of a card (or Toughness to Cost) is favorable. Wooly Thoctar is a prime example of this. 5 power for 3 mana is substantially Strong. This category isn’t just for creatures. Might of Alara is a Strong type card as well since most Limited decks are multi-colored. Also cards that have abilities like Flying or Trample add to its potential Strength.
This stack would include:
- Bant Sureblade
- Cerodon Yearling
- Colossal Might
- Glassdust Hulk
- Gloryscale Viashino
- Goblin Deathraiders
- Grixis Grimblade
- Grixis Sojourners
- Grizzled Leotau
- Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
- Kathari Bomber
- Knight of the White Orchid
- Madrush Cyclops
- Naya Sojourners
- Putrid Leach
- Rhox Charger
- Rhox War Monk
- Spearbreaker Behemoth
- Topan Ascetic
- Windwright Mage
H
H is kind of a catch all. Items in the H stack are cards that help a deck to operate. Whether its card draw or mana cycling or tutoring they all help. This list is long and many cards in it will get cut. When I start building I almost never base a decision on any of these cards. All Cascade mechanic cards can fall in this category since the play a secondary card as well as thin your deck.
Our little helpers include:
- Bant Sojourners
- Bloodbraid Elf
- Captured Sunlight
- Ethersworn Shieldmage
- Grixis Panorama
- Jhessian Zombies
- Jungle Shrine
- Leonin Armorguard
- Messenger Falcons
- Mistvein Borderpost
- Pale Recluse
- Sanctum Plowbeast
- Steward of Valeron
- Trace of Abundance
- Valley Rannet
- Violent Outburst
- Welkin Guide
- Wildfield Borderpost
Next I make a mana table. For each letter I count the number of Mana symbols used. Here is mine so far.
| G | W | U | B | R | |
| B | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| R | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| U | 2 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| S | 13 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| H | 9 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 4 |
This gives me an overview of the color and their possible strengths. Meaning that 5 Green symbols are in my Bombs and 13 are in my Strong stack.
From this table I can get a feel for my deck. While I have way too many cards right now I can already tell where my focus needs to be. The numbers bear out that I am a creature strong deck with few bombs and descent removal.
My obvious colors are Green and White but all of the others have to prove themselves. In the H category I do have a lot of mana help so I can bring in more than two colors easily but I don’t think I can reach all 5. Having no Conflux packs really weighs against going for 5.
I decide to focus on my S stack for colors. The only real regret that I would have in dropping Blue is Rhox War Monk while both Red and Black have some playable cards, most notably Terminate. So I decide to drop the Islands and keep the rest. That thins my stacks down to 42 nonland and non borderpost cards. Regrettably, I lost many of my Helper cards.
Now I whittle down based on what I feel is right. I don’t have a high number of 5+ power creatures so cards like Godtoucher hit the streets. I also cut the Vectis Dominator type of removal cards. Sure tapping something every turn is “like” removal but it doesn’t work very well for me personally.
After obvious cuts I put in obvious keeps. Bombs and critters where my primary focus. Finally I have this list from which I need to fill the final 4 slots.
- Akrasan Squire
- Bant Sojourners
- Gloryscale Viashino
- Goblin Deathraiders
- Grixis Sojourners
- Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
- Kathari Bomber
- Knight of the White Orchid
- Leonin Armorgaurd
- Naya Sojourners
- Naturalize
- Rhox Charger
- Sanity Gnawers
- Spearbreaker Behemoth
- Steward of Valeron
- Topan Ascetic
- Violent Outburst
- Welkin Guide
Pick four from these 18. That’s the hardest part. I went with:
Now I have to decide the balance of Basic land I’ll need. Once again I count the mana symbols for all non-Borderpost spells. (I count Borderposts like CIPT lands). I come out with 20 G, 11 W, 6 B, and 13 R for a total of 50 symbols. (That made the math easy).
Now I take a ratio of each color over the total and set it equal to x over 14. (14 basic lands). For example in Green I have 20/50 = x/14 which solves to x = 5.6. That means I need about 5.6 Forests in my final build. White=3.08, Black = 1.68, and Red = 3.64.
Of course you can’t have .68 of a land and I’m not counting Jungle Shrine, Panorama’s, or Borderposts. They’re my wiggle room. When I look at my mana helpers I have a lot of help in Green and almost none in Black so I make some adjustments and end up with. 5 Forests, 3 Plains, 3 Mountains, and 3 Swamp.
So My Final Build looks like this
Lands (17)
5x Forests
3x Mountains
3x Swamps
3x Plains
Spells (10)
1x Blightning
1x Necrogenesis
1x Terminate
Creatures (13)
1x Pale Recluse
1x Putrid Leach
1x Rhox Charger
So that’s how I go through building a deck for Limited. Feel free to post on the forums. I love ALL feedback positive and negative and I try to respond promptly to any comments.
As an aside I am currently looking for shoebox material. The last couple of years I have only purchased singles for decks and my box is getting thin. I let the kids in school take cards from the box and build their own decks. Some donate back but many do not. It is a really good tool for recruiting new freshmen and soften the cost of starting the game. If you would like to donate just email me at daneckstein@hotmail.com.
Class is dismissed.
