Hello and welcome back to our class. For those who missed our previous article I am a high school teacher who opens his room up for students to play Magic after school. We will sometimes play true Tier 1 or 1.5 decks but mostly it is just casual play. Right now it’s still just me writing for you but soon students will be writing as well.

What I would like to talk about today is a concept that I try to show my students after they have a grasp of the Rule of Nine. Like the Rule of Nine, today’s concept is a "lead a horse to water" concept. I can show it to you now but I can’t really force you to use it. And in the case of some decks "their just not thirsty."

The concept is a Mana Curve. The Curve is rather simple to understand but since it’s so basic many writers have extrapolated their own definition only serving to confuse their readers.

I first learned about the Mana Curve when I read a piece written about how to build a “Sligh” deck. In today’s Magic world the word “Sligh” is rarely (if ever) used.

I don’t claim to be a Magic historian but I would argue that the Sligh deck was probably the first deck design that was built with the Curve as a foundation. What Sligh did that was unique is it didn’t build with a card or a specific deck style in mind. Instead it built with converted mana cost (CC) as a foundation. The first thing the deck builder, Paul Sligh, did was figure out how many cards of each CC he wanted. The number was figured by measuring the probability of having the desired CC in hand vs. having enough land to play the card. The math involved is rather immense and will require a future article on its own to be based on it. I do teach Math after all.

To elaborate a little I could build a deck with 56 cards that are 1 CC and 4 land but I probably wouldn’t get to play much since the chance of draw a land is pretty small. I could also put together a deck with 56 land and 4 of my favorite 1 CC. But then the chances of getting the card are also weak. The ideal would be too able to play a land and some spell every turn. Then hopefully that card has enough of an effect on that turn that I come out on top. I have never known anyone who was able to build a curve that so perfect that it consistently curved all the way through every CC. Mostly you just want to focus on 3 or 4 turns.

Sligh built with a focus on turns 1, 2, and 3. With such a low CC curve Sligh was able to go past the Rule of Nine and actually develop with 10 cards as a base (sometimes even 11, yikes). Sligh decks will leave out many “power” cards of the day to instead focus on smoothness of play. The fact they could consistently play all 40 non land cards made Sligh a force. For the educational purposes of this article we’ll stay in Red and use 20 mountains as our starting point.

Turn 1: Of our 10 cards at least 3 of them should be 1 drops (cards that have 1CC). That way we can be assured that we have a fairly high probability of have a play on turn 1. Please note that this is the Sligh plan we’re building from. You can build a deck with no 1CC spells and still have a good deck. Just not as fast as Sligh but probably with more powerful cards. More mana means more power as a general rule. I personally build around 2 CC, 3 CC, and 4 CC more often than anything else.

Strong Potential cards in this slot are:

• Figure of Destiny - Actually gives us a 3CC and a 6CC play for our curve as well.
• Flame Jab – Sligh sometimes just runs out of cards before it can win. The Retrace ability lets us convert extra land into damage.
• Magma Spray – Shock that deals with Persist types.
• Mogg Fanatic – A creature that can do its damage via combat and burn.
• Raging Goblin – Haste should never be underestimated.
• Shard Volley – 3 damage for 1CC may be worth the draw back.
• Shock – A classic. Magma Spray is better though and I don’t see using both.
• Spark Elemental – Can Burn alone do the job?
• Tarfire – Shock again?
• Tattermunge Maniac – The extra point of muscle may be worth the forced action of attacking every turn. Late game this is weak but who needs a late game plan? Not Sligh!

Turn 2: (A 2CC or two 1CCs) – With 20 lands in our deck we should consistently hit two lands in our opening 8 or 9 cards. Therefore we want to be equally assured of having a choice at the 2CC slot. Here is where some real tough choices have to be made. While you building think of your local Metagame.

• Ashling the Pilgrim - Early this card may be a little weaker than optimal but like Figure of Destiny it gives us some options to use our mana for later.
• Dragon Fodder - Two 1/1’s for two can be better than a 2/2 in some situations.
• Guerilla Tactics - Basically it’s Shock for 2CC. If facing a lot of discard it becomes a double Shock for free.
• Hellspark Elemental – Like it’s cousin the Spark Elemental our only question is can burn alone get us there? Doing it two times through Unearth may help our cause though.
• Hurly Burly – Hate those little pesky Fae? Useless against a ground based enemy though since most of our possible so far will die as well.
• Incinerate - 3 damage for 2 is a good balance. The non-regeneration clause can come into play as well.
• Lash Out – 3 for 2 again. It’s a little weaker since it’s just targets creatures. We can’t plan to win the clash very often.
• Stigma Lasher – In many games this is just going to be a 2/2 Creature for 2CC. One of the weak spots that any red deck has is an opponent with life gaining capabilities. At least this may help avoid that.
• Vexing Shusher – Another 2/2 for 2CC. Average stats at best but the ability to snub a Control Mage is always satisfying. Remember that you can pay the 1 after you opponent has countered the spell.

Turn 3: Now we back off the gas a little. Since 20 lands doesn’t always hit 3 land drops and even when it does playing a 1CC and a 2CC on the same turn isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Therefore we will choose 2 cards from the following.

• Ashenmoor Gouger - You can’t get much more aggressive than this guy. And if we built the 1 and 2’s right he should have plenty of leverage.
• Bloodrock Cyclops - Pretty much a softer Gouger.
• Boggart Ram Gang – If you don’t have leverage at the third turn the Haste factor can give it to you.
• Countryside Crusher – Just like Flame Jab above this card can help us past multiple dead draws when we are inevitably top decked.
• Everlasting Torment – Handles two of our biggest issues, life gain and prevention. Sideboard card though.
• Flame Javelin – 4 damage to any target for 3 mana is good.
• Hell’s Thunder – Hellspark Elemental only bigger and tougher.
• Puncture Blast – 3 damage for 3 is average but good enough to be listed.
• Resounding Thunder – Basically the same as Puncture Blast.
• Seismic Assault – One of the original ways to take care of extra land draws in the midgame. If we were to build with just the cards listed this on the table would make every Mountain after 3 a free Shock.
• Taurean Mauler – 2/2 for 3 is under our Power/ Toughness level but it can certainly grow to be much more.
• Threaten – Fun Trick.

Turn 4 and Beyond – This is where your deck becomes yours. If you’ve been keeping track and hopefully you have you should have selected 8 card slots by now. Three 1CC cards, three 2CC, and 2 3CC. The remaining two slots can be anything you wish. I’ve seen people slip in more low cost cards, game ending type spells, Huge creatures, and just keep up the basic formula with 1 slot at the 4CC and 1 at the 5CC.

Here is what the class picked.

1CC – Figure of Destiny, Mogg Fanatic, Magma Spray

2CC – Ashling the Pilgrim, Hellspark Elemental, Incinerate

3CC – Ashenmoor Gouger, Flame Javelin

Eckstein’s Choices – Boggart Ram Gang, Spiteful Visions.

20 Mountain

I’ll try to expand on The Curve in a future Article. The are many scenarios to build within and certain cards that let you (and sometimes force you) to have a hiccup in your Curve.

There’s the Bell. Got to Go.

[Editor's Suggestion for further reading: Famous Red Decks in Magic History by Alex Shvartsman]