magic the gathering rules of thumb

[Warrior]

what are some magic rules of thumb?

like for example:

decks should have 60 cards
you should have around 22-24 lands
and so on

[wildcantor4win]

generally 2/3 non-land 1/3 land. Multicolored decks should have lands or cards that allow you to prevent being mana-short. terramorphic expanses are good for multicolored. Read the cards abilities and see any cards are good with that card and so on. After every game or after you build a new deck, i like to arrange the cards like creature than non-creature than land than shuffle it all up one the deck is all together. It helps prevent mana pockets. If your deck has big creatures in it with big manacosts, add stuff that lets you get an early mana-advantage. For example my beatdown deck has four Wild Growths that you tap 1 forest and enchant it and when that land is taped next, it adds and additional forest so by turn to i have 3 mana availible(when you play your second land). Than i can use overgrowth(same thing as wild growth but cost three and adds two forest when enchanted land is tapped) on my 2nd forest i play so by turn 3 i have six mana and play primalcrux which becomes a 8/8 trample. Pretty nifty 3rd turn.

[seba1983]

dont agree with the 2/3 non-land 1/3 land. the 22-24 land from the original post are a much better rule of thumb since you should try and stick to no more than 60 cards anyway.

terramorphic is awful in any format where you could play "real" fetchlands. sometimes its a budget question especialy in casual but appart from that ...

ramp (what you explained longer then neccacery) is not something you need in a deck with high cc (casting cost) cards. it is merely one way to undo the disadvanteg of the high cost. alternate ways to get cards into play (e.g. reanimation) can also be used. also some decks dont want to play thier 6-9 cc spells early because thats not what the deck does. curel ultimatum is a good example. it can be played in ramp on turn 3 or in 5-color control and will probably not be played befor turn 10 or even later.

ohh btw. unless you are playing a deck where you either gain benefits from useing enchantments (e.g. legacy deck enchantress) or can untap your lands (e.g. garruk) useing enchant land cards to ramp is not good because land destruction will hurt you twice as much. so will permanent bounce and enchantment removal is bad news too ... rampand growth or harrow etc. are usually better.

and as for pretty nifty turn 3 ... you have six mana and nothing better to play than an 8/8 that gets counterd or dies to removal ?

[wildcantor4win]

dont agree with the 2/3 non-land 1/3 land. the 22-24 land from the original post are a much better rule of thumb since you should try and stick to no more than 60 cards anyway.

terramorphic is awful in any format where you could play "real" fetchlands. sometimes its a budget question especialy in casual but appart from that ...

ramp (what you explained longer then neccacery) is not something you need in a deck with high cc (casting cost) cards. it is merely one way to undo the disadvanteg of the high cost. alternate ways to get cards into play (e.g. reanimation) can also be used. also some decks dont want to play thier 6-9 cc spells early because thats not what the deck does. curel ultimatum is a good example. it can be played in ramp on turn 3 or in 5-color control and will probably not be played befor turn 10 or even later.

ohh btw. unless you are playing a deck where you either gain benefits from useing enchantments (e.g. legacy deck enchantress) or can untap your lands (e.g. garruk) useing enchant land cards to ramp is not good because land destruction will hurt you twice as much. so will permanent bounce and enchantment removal is bad news too ... rampand growth or harrow etc. are usually better.

and as for pretty nifty turn 3 ... you have six mana and nothing better to play than an 8/8 that gets counterd or dies to removal ?

By the way, primalcrux was only an example. that wasn't the best turn 3, and i can have a 20/20 flying industructable, unblockable 1st turn in another one of my decks. (i just got garruk so i do plan on putting him in there.)

I do not play in tourneys or anything. The rule changes are stupid and quite honestly, i like playing with people i know more than strangers who i can't trust thus answering the terramorphic expanses. Anyways, you don't have to pay life or tap any other mana for terramorphic expanses. Helps out a lot first turn when in your two color deck you only have two lands and the other land is a black when the cards in your hand you need is blue. but that terramorphic expanse helps you. I guess its luck of the draw or rather unluck of the draw if you get mana screwed. And yes, budget right now for me is thin.

last but not least yes, some decks are needed to run a little slower, but some decks need an extra boost you can say to speed up. There are many varieties, its up to the person to find them. thus for this post, it depends on what or how you want your deck to run. 60 cards or around there will work too. You can build a deck as big or small or have as much land or creatures/noncreatures you want in it. What ever is confortable for you.