best cards for magic tournament deck

[Urza]

I'm thinking of building a tournament deck in magic

what are the best cards to use?

[Twanos]

The short answer is there is no such thing.

The far mor complicated answer is below...

Most tournaments are "Standard" which limits the cards you can play with to the 2most current blocks and the 1 most current core set.

But even in this limited environment there are always multiple decks which are common at the events. This slate of 3-5 decks (normally only 3-5) is what is known as the meta environment or metagame.

At any give tourny especially ones of size (100+ players) 80% of all of the players will be playing one of these decks with very little alteration between them. Roughly 5% will be playing random junk. 5% will be playing some really cool combo deck that rarely works but when it does it's got a high "WHOA", "WOW", "COOL" rating. And 10% will be decks that have been very well tested and were design specifically to take on what the player feels will be the top 2-3 decks in the metagame.

The 80% are normally moderate to good players but because they copied the deck from a list on the internet and didn't design it themselves tend to make tiny errors in it's play. Their other major weakness is that after the first or second turn of the first game you know most of what is in their deck if you studied the metagame too so you know how to play against them. Their greatest strength is the fact it's already a very good and proven deck, that's why it's a major part of the metagame to begin with.

The 5% that play junk are normally new to the tourny and are just learing the ropes. They tend to be easy prey for the more experienced players but they have a great time and are the greats of tomorrow so treat them well.

The 5% playing combo are normally casual players who enter the tourny more for the social aspect than trying to win. They are often not the best players but are very often great deck designers because the think outside the norm. I normally try to get several to take a look at my "work in progress" decks that I hope to craft into the next metagame blockbuster.

The Final 10% are often very good players who play with precision. They are very dangerous because they are playing a deck you don't already know so you have to react as the game unfolds and because they have crafted the deck and spent a huge amount of time testing it they tend to not make any mistakes. Their bigest weakness ironically is if they run into a combo or junk player as their deck was designed to hurt the metagame and randomness caan greatly unhinge it.

So going back to your original question of "what are the best cards to use?" The better question is what kind of player do you want to be. Then pick/design a deck that fits your style. No matter what you choose though remember to have fun, it tends to get lost on the tourney scene.

[seba1983]

first off great reply ... i read it and it inspired me to join this forum ^^.

i totaly agree with all of the above but i think there are some more things to be said.

the biggest question is what kind of tournament are we talking about here. there are diffrent kinds of tournaments that allow diffrent cards you can use to build decks.

standart (formaly know as [fka] type 2): the last two blocks and the current coreset allowed. currently that is lorwin, morningtide, shadowmore, eventide, shards of alara, conflux, alara reborn and magic2010. when zendikar is released the complet first block can no longer be used hence it will be: soa, cfx, alr, magic2010 and zendikar.

extendet (fka type 1.X): the last 7 blocks and the last 3 coresets.

legacy (fka type 1.5): all cards ever printed allowed exepet several that are banned.

vintage (fka type 1): all cards allowed execpt for ante cards (if you dont know what they are just ignore them they are not important ... any more) sherazad, falling star and chaos orb. several cards are limited to beeing included only once in a deck, so called restricted cards.

there are several other formats such as block, singelton, 2-headed giant, pauper, pesant tribal, prismatic and so forth. most of these formats however are not very relavant. block constructed propbably is the most relavant as it sees some support from wizards.

there are also limited formats but you dont build a deck for them so i'll not go into that now.

so once you know what format your playing a decent next step is identifying what style of play you prefer. here are the most common styls of play:

agro: very agressiv play from 20 to 0 in an as short time as possible most of the time by attaking with creatures.

control: kind off the opposite of agro. you attemt to gain control of the game. there are several ways to achive this and each spawnes a diffrent kind of control deck. what all control deck have in common is that they kill rather slowly but have answers to a much greater variaty of situations than agro does.

combo: a series of cards that when assambled spell out i win. these decks can be extreemly fast winning sometimes as soon as turn 1. they are however also most prone to disruptions the opponent plays.

from these basics a great number of divers archetyps derrive. combinations like agro-control or control-combo are not uncommon and often the lines blure.

once you know what format your playing and what typ of play style you like you can take a look at what decks of your playstyle are already beeing played in that format and are tryed and tested. the first tournaments are challangeing enough as it is so playing something tryed and tested sometimes helps giveing you some reasurence. that might however not be true for everyone so take a look at Twanos great post once you know what format and what playstyle and take it from there.