Building my 1st deck

Okay I'm a new player to magic and would like to start building a deck for some Legacy/Standard play at a local shop. I was thinking of going with a Green/White Deck. I don't know alot about what cards and series can be put in what would be legal.

Reasons for Green/White I've seen alot of cards that you can get in play like Harrow and Greenweaver Druid that would allow me to get cards into play to really drop in some of the higher mana cost creatures.

Really just seeking pointers and suggestions for making my first deck.

you might want to back away from the idear of legacy. a deck that can compeat on the legacy stage costs about 500$+ and g/w decks that search lands to bring out big creatures are not playable at all.

So it would be better to stick with standard then I take it?

yes even though standard can be quite expensive at the moment too due to cards like fetchlands, lotus cobra and baneslayer angel.

do you want to build a deck that will have a good chance to win tournaments or just a deck that is standart legal ?

I would like to build a deck I can win with I pry won't attend any big tournaments to start I need a deck that I can use at the local shop here that is standard legal and has at least some chance of beating other people. I'm still fairly new to the game so it's more of a fun factor for me to get in and learn more before getting super competative.

Before I start getting into card selection do you mind giving my a ballpark on your budget? just because baneslayer is $40 each so I won't include her if you're trying to stay quasi cheap, conversely if money isn't an issue we can get real creative.

I wouldn't say I want to be cheap but I don't have 500-1500 cards so mostly I will have to buy all the cards. I'd say something cheap to start and then a deck to work towards. Starter Deck say 100-200? Dunno what can really be done I have seen 500-1500 decks and I don't want to be that competative yet I would rather work towards that.

hmm ... g/w is not the best combination of colors at the moment but i'll try to give you some tips on what i would try.

there are some websites that collect decklists that did well in tournaments. of the 500+ top 8 standard decks i saw only 5 were g/w. the currently most successful deck (jund - g/r/b with cascade and lots of cards that effectively play like more than one card -> card advantage) in comparrison has over 160 entries.

i looked at the 5 deck lists and non of them looked realy solid. i guess most of them cam from small tournaments where the general quality of decks was not that high.

that said i do have an idear for a green white deck that could be good. i have not build or tested it so it might be awful ^^.

the general idear would be green / white tokens.

now token decks tend to have two important parts to them:

1. something that gives you lots of tokens

2. something that turns small 1/1 tokens into something that will be more threatening.

currently in standard you have access to both so it might be worth a try.

if i understand you correctly you are building on a budget so i will not use cards that would be realy good but are probably too expensive ... e.g. baneslayer angel, lotus cobra, elspeth and day of judgment. pleas do not expect the deck to be awsome but i hope it will be fun and be also able to win some games on a lokal level.

so here i go with some card choices:

conqueror's pledge - 5 mana 5 tokens. with just a single effect to pump your tokens that is at least 10 power for 5 mana. on top you can kicker it lategame if the situation arrises.

martial coup - that can be a lot of tokens and it kills all other creature. since we dont want day of judgment because of budget this cards fits in real nicely.

ok now for some stuff to push them tokens:

ajani goldmane - he is realy good +1/+1 and vigilance. that way your tokens can attack and proteck him at the same time to allow him to pump next turn again.

honor of the pure - cheap, hard to remove plain good. a little expensive budged wise but i think its worth it.

ok but there is no green yet ? well, here goes:

sigil captain - drop him the turn befor you play the pledge and if they dont handle him right away you get 15 power for 5 mana yeah ;). also when you play the coup with x > 5 you will get the +1/+1 counters after all other creatures have been killed.

overrun - pledge into overrun = leathal damage sounds good.

ok now we need to flesh out the deck a little. first off we need speed. bird of paradise or noble hirarch would be nice but can be a little pricey. if you dont have them or dont want to spend too much you could just go with:

lanowar elf - can give you white mana and that could hur because pledge need 3 white mana. vastly infirior to bird and hirarch but still playable in this deck.

rampand growth - not as good as bird or hirarch but would do as a substitute

we also do most of our important plays between turn 3-5 so we need to make sure we're still standing at the time:

path to exile - best white removal at the moment

oblivion ring - very flexable but most of the time you only need it for creatures anyway. could make a sidebord slot to handle planeswalker.

journy to nowhere - ring but only for creatures. when you look at what i said about the ring it seems good if we need more than 4 removal.

so we have all the important bits the rest is utility to fill up with:

harms way - helps protect a sigal captain or even a lanowar or token and will often kill an opponents creature at the same time.

brave the elements - need to get past that horde of vampires for the win ? well here we go.

behemoth sledge - turns any token or lanowar into a threat.

garruk - speeds up mana, produces more tokens (they dont profit from sigil capatin or honro of the pure but they are 3/3 to begin with so thats ok) and can give you an overrun effect ... nice.

captain of the watch - 8 token produces might be a little slim. also he pumps all pther tokens at the same time :)

so what about the mana base? 4 sunpetal grove would be realy nice but they are also not that cheap. the g/w borderpost can ba taken as a substitute.

so here is a list i would give a try:

4 x conquoror's pledge
3 x martail coup
3 x captain of the watch

4 x honor of the pure
3 x sigil captain
2 x overrun
2 x ajani

4 x path to exile
2 x journy to nowhere

3 x lanowar elf
4 x rampand growth

2 x behemoth sledge

2 x garruk

4 x wildfield borderpost
11 x plain
7 x forest

------------------------------------------

sideboard

3 x great stable stag
3 x oblivion ring
3 x harm's way
3 x brave the elements
3 x quasari pride mage

the deck can be modified a lot. for instance you could move away from the token theam a little by playing ranger of eos and scuta mob but i think this is a pretty fund and cheap deck that can win some games.

g/w simply is not a force in current standard but deck like these suprise people because they dont know them from checking the lists on the internet. that works to your advantage because people can be a little unsure how to play against you because they dont know what to expect ^^.

i wish you luck with this. i hope you like it and will have at least some success with it.

if your still interested in legacy let me know and i can tell you a lot more about it. what decks can be cheaper, why so many decks are so expensive and what decks you can build in cheaper but still playable versions.

Thanks for the help Seba, if you have any suggestions on other decks I'm not firm on G/W just some of the stuff in there seemed good like I said still really new to this so the steps are small atm :)

in standard at the moment the top 3 decks are:

jund - red black green with great removal (destroy stuff) and very good creatures

vampires - mono black vampire deck. vampire nocturnous is the star here.

boros - red white weeny deck that is very fast and aggressive

there are a lot of other decks you can play. when your new to magic agro decks are probably they way to go. the three main strategies you can play in magic: agro control and combo (+combinations and variations of the three)

agro is very simple. attack until you win

combo is not that difficult to play since usualy you just have to pice your combo together to win but since it is not very interactive its usualy not that much fun to play. also sometimes combo needs you to understand the rules realy well.

control is perhaps the most difficult to play. you play very defensivly. to play control well you need to grasp a lot of diffrent game concepts, read your opponents well, know the most played decks by heart and evaluate the power of any given card in any given situation right. to me personaly it is the pinical of magic but that is a personal preferance.

in standard most successful decks at the moment are agro deck with a greater or smaller focus on aggressive play.

the problem with all three decks above is that they need a good amount of expensive cards. lets look at them one by one:

jund - here the mana base (the lands you play) are not that bad. you "only" play 4 fetchland (verdanat catercomb in this case) but that is already about 60$. the rest is cheaper but still summes up. upto 8 of the magic 2010 dual will be another 40-60$. on top of that you play some expensive spells too. maelstrom pulse is about 15$ each, garruk is still arround 5-8$, broodmate dragon arround 5-6$. also the commons and uncommons you play tend to have a small price tag: bloodbraid elf, lighting bolt, terminate etc. so all in all jund will still cost you arround 200$+

vampires - this deck could be realy cheap. its mono black so usualy you would not need lots of expensive lands. thanks to the vampire nocturnous (arround 12$ a pice itselfe) the deck is a lot (seriously a lot) better with 8 fetchlands so thats about 170$ jsut for those 12 cards. the rest is pretty cheap. the good uncommons like vampire nighthawk, gatekeeper of malakir and vampire hexmage roll in at about 2$ each but you can sometimes get them a lot cheaper. the bloodghast will be another 8-10$ each. the rest is cheap. so your looking at about 100$ for the deck itselfe and 120$ for the lands that you can sadly not do without. so once again your over 200$

boros - ok this deck realy goes over the top. you play a 2-colored deck with 12 (yes 12) fetchlands. you play step lynx and plated geopead (both cost virtualy nothing) and hence need the fetchlands to maximise the landfall. the rest of the deck costs next to nothing. ranger of eos and goblin guide cost about 2-4 $, lightning bolt and path to exile 1-2$ the rest even less. i've seen some decks run a couple of elsbeth (probably 20$ each) but otheres dont. the deck itselve costs only 30-40$ but the fetchlands that the deck realy needs to be good come in at a whopping 180$ bringing you above 200$ yet again.

sadly not playing the proper lands in these decks realy hurts thier power a lot because they do more than just make sure you have the right mana (or in the case of jund you realy need the right mana because your playing 3 colors).

normaly i would ask what kind of style of play you like to get a better idear of what deck could appel to you. since you are new to magic you probably have not figgured that out yet ...

new players tend to love big creatures or tribals (decks that focus on a creature type like elves, goblins etc.)

big creatures in standard allmost forces you too play baneslayer angel (40$ each) and lotus cobra (~20$ each). why ? they are too good not to. seriously. if you cant afford them try a diffrent deck. you will be happier with it in the end.

tribals are doable at the moment. vampires have the above mentiond drawback. other tribles that are playable at the moment are:

goblins
soldiers
elves

if you can give me more info on what you like (colors, creature types, style of play, specific cards your a fan of etc.) i can give you better advice.

there are even some decks in legacy you can build with only 100-200$ but they are very specific decks. let me know if you want to know more about those.

I would have to say I'm not particular to a color and in my first few games I tended not to know to attack attack attack....... this mainly being unsure of what to do when now with that said by the time I had played three game rounds with three different people I was alot more comfortable.

Game 1 - Lost both rounds due to not attacking and being my first game.

Game 2 - Lost both but almost won second game just got mana robbed really bad with my draws and by the time my mana was built I didn't have enough to life to survive the next round.

Game 3 - Lose Win Win - I took both games due to being patient with Tanglesap and avoiding a player who pumped her 3 creatures to the hilt and lost it all to one card. Thus giving me the opportunity to attack her with only one defender for the kill.

This game I played was a Draft which I think was good because no one got a set deck and gave me a huge advantage being new and them not having the goods.

I played Green/Blue I picked these colors because that is one of the intro packs I bought (I also have White).

I like to play conservative/aggressive I like either style of play wait until I have everything pumped or get a few creatures out and kill the person moderately fast.

As far as color I don't think I could really be picky the cards I have seen are all cool looking, green seems to crutch me cause I can't get mana out fast enough to play the big stuff the white deck seems faster and I was told black will be hard to play with. Not seen alot of red other than ppl playing it in the local shop. (Note I have not played with a set deck yet) I'm really open to someone saying start here and learn with these and once I get the mechanics down move to this or talk to me when your more comfortable.

If I had to pick a color White Red or Black (maybe Green if I could get mana one the field fast enough to have fun with it.

i would realy sugest you play more games. once you feel comfetable with how the basics work you can think about takeing the step towards a tournament.

i think it could help to give you a very basic overviwe of what each color is good at. that way you can get a feeling for that color easyier.

green - mana acceleartion, big creatures and "pump" spells (stuff that makes creatures bigger)

white - small creatures, lifegain, damage prevention

blue - stealing stuff (gaining control), preventing spells from happening (counter), drawing cards

black - killing creatures, discard, returning creatures from graveyard

red - direct damage (aka burn), aggressive creatures, destroying lands.

now thats not all these colors do but i will do for an overview.

in standard blue is quite week at the moment. wizards probably did this to somewhat balance the fact that blue used to be the color that got the most broken (slang for insanly good) cards of all colors. hence legacy (where you can play cards from all sets ever made is very dominated by blue.

if you want to see if your up to the complexety of legacy yet take a look at these cards and try to figure out for yourself why they are very, very good. if you realsie it for your selfe then you are at a point where playing legacy would no longer be frustrating but challengeing and fun:

Force of Will

Daze

Wasteland

Swords to Plowshare

Tarmogoyf

also you should be able to answer why Tundra is better than Glacial Fortess by a very large margain.

if all of this puzzels you at the moment do not despaire. legacy is very complex.

i will take a look at that u/g starter deck (from zendikar right?). may be you can build a fun deck from that, that you can build on a very small budget so you can try playing tournaments without spending a lot. that way you can test if the competative stage is even to your likeing. some players prefer to just play casual.

whenever I have taught Magic to someone new I always started them on a red deck. small fast creatures, direct damage, spot removal, haste. It lets you learn to be aggressive in the attacks, teaches spells versus creatures and for spells teaches sorcery versus instant.

Once a person has learned red I tend to take them to white to learn about flying, blocking, life gain and the beginnings of control.

Third stop is to black for more control and learning sacrifice, discard and graveyard as a resource.

Last I take them to blue for draw, mill and the easiest to play but hardest to master form of control... counters.

You'll note I never really introduce them to green. The reason is this... green really only brings 2 unique things to the table. Mana ramp which is important to get a handle on once making the transition from beginner to expert but not until then and Fatty creatures which often prove the downfall of many new players. They see a huge creature and think WOW he's GRRRRREAT!!!. More often than not, no he isn't. I consider starting a player or green the same as setting them up to fail. All too often they fall in love with big creatures and fast mana only to become pissed with the game that they often lose and eventually quit playing thinking the game is stupid.

very solid aproch ... i like it a lot.

it is true green seems a good choice to learn the game because it is very simple but it does set new players on a route that looks good but isnt.

red is very easy to master. also a simple mono red all out aggresive deck is not only easy to play it can also win tournaments on a very small budged.

The problem I run into is that I can't really play with anyone at the local places because they all have standard decks and I really decided on my own to get into the game and gain a few new friends that could help me on the way. Here I'm looking for a starter standard deck that will help me get in a game and begin to learn rules and procedures that I may not know.

I figured coming to a forum was pry a faster way to get help considering there will be a bigger following online than at my local shop (lots of players just very sparce at times when I'm there for fun or a player is there and only has a standard deck :P).

I bought the U/G and White deck just for somewhere to start and I have played with a few people with those decks and I can tell that white intro deck is killing me when I play U/G because of mana costs.

Zendikar is intro I bought Seba.

Im not against having to buy a different intro/some cards to get me a standard deck to start playing with.

And your right Seba I don't fully understand some of the cards you listed for Legacy so I should pry mill around in standard for a bit first.

Thanks also for all the help you guys are giving me.

ok that gives me a much better picture of your situation.

tournament decks (like standard decks) exist in a fairly sealed vacuum from the rest of magic. there is a pretty big gap between what you can play on tournament level and what you can play outside of that.

sometimes someone will come up with a real innovation that no one had seen that totaly shakes up things. more often however there will be a set of playable decks + a few otheres that are not that good but still playable. with standard this list of deck usualy change a lot when a big set comes out (more precicely the first in a new block) because at that time a lot of cards are no longer playable in standard.

legacy usually has a much greater diversety of decks that are playable but it changes also a lot slower. that can be good or bad depending on your point of view. for instance it is more expensive to buy a legacy deck but you can play successfully with it for a much longer time. on rare occasions there is a card that shakes up even legacy. Tarmogoyf is such an example. now 70-80% of all decks play that card and several older decks are not viable any more because of it.

so when you are in a situation where you are new to the game and more or less only have tournament players to play with, starting off with a propper tournament deck that will serve you beyond your learning phase could be a good idear.

since tournament play classicly is pretty advanced play this narrows the decks i would sudgest to you down quite a bit. i'd go with a deck that is easy enough to play so you can learn with it but also good and fun enough to use once you've got past the learning part.

a method that might work well is to go with the basics for a tournement deck but replace the expensive stuff with cheap stuff. when you become more expirianced you can then "upgrade" your deck so that it has more ground at tournaments.

with that method you can basicly use any deck you like. i dont know how nice the people at your store are but there will usualy be some old time gamer with a heart of gold. try finding one and ask him if you could try out some of his standard decks to see how they play and what you like and dislike. these kind of people are usualy also the ones that will give you solid advice on buying, trading and higher levels of trading. as long as you ask nicely and are polite you should find someone who fits the description.

if you have the chance try to play some games with the following deck since they make up a big part of standard at the moment:

jund
vampires
boros or bushwacker or boros bushwacker

naya agro
crule control
bant agro
mono red agro
white weeny

here are some decks that i personaly think are very interesting but that are not played as much as the above:

mono white control
crypt combo
elves
mana ramp
time sive combo
turbo fog

the deck content that any player arround the world would give you when you ask him for a standard deck by one of those names will be shockingly close to one another. many people just copy decks from the internet. fact is however that there are so many magic players arround the world that after a few weeks the best decks have been found and tested and most of the time the lists dont change much.

when you are past the learning part and past the playing tournaments part you can start getting into the innovation part. in your situation trying to be innovative befor you have expirianced what already does work and why would most likely end in much frustration. im not saying you should not get creative your selfe, im just saying in your situation you should give that some time. i recon on the whole you will have more fun that way.

i hope you find someone who is willing to show you some decks and you find one that you realy like. then i can give you some tips how to change them from the "real" list to make it more budget for the start. you will win less games with a budget list in total but you will still win games. also facing stronger decks means you have to play better to beat them. that will speed up your learning. its like when you want to train running straping weights onto you ^^.

i can also help you work out a step by step plan how and what to upgrade in what order, how much you should spend on that max. etc.

Thanks for the information I went to our local shop tonight and a guy I played against in the draft asked me if I was going to play standard friday night I said I couldn't because I didn't have a deck and told him I wanted to try something like a red "burn" deck he replied with "Come up friday and I will build you a deck to play with" !

I'll let you know how it goes and thanks again for helping me :)

Edit: for one last question How does standard work with the expansions rotating just curious and didn't ask tonight before I left.

first off good luck for frieday. burn is very aggressive so try putting your opponent from 20 to 0 as fast as possible.

magic has 2 organisational systems for editions. blocks and coresets. standard consists of the current 2 blocks and the current core set.

a block usually consists of a stand-alone and two expansions. a stand alone is a large set that usually is follwed by two smaller expansion sets.

shards of alara is a stand-alone with conflux and alara reborn being its expansions. together the make up the alara block. zendikar is a stand-alone. its expansions have not been realeased yet. the first (worldwake) will be released in febuary.

sometimes a block does not follow the standard build up. shadowmoor / lorwin (not standard any more) was made up of large set - small set - large set - small set (lorwin - morning tide - shadowmoore - evening tide). zendikar will look like this large set - small set - large set.

when the first set of a new block is released the compleat oldest block in standard rotates out. so when zendikar was released all of lorwin/shadowmoore left standard.

the current core set is Magic 2010. when a new core set is released (the next one will be Magic 2011) the old one rotates out.

currently standard is made up of the following sets:

shards of alara
conflux
alara reborn

zendikar

magic 2010

any other question ?

Okay so just to make sure I completely understand this atm if I'm using Zendikar cards available for it are.

M10
Zendikar
Worldwake (in February)

When Magic 2011 is released it will be

2011
Zendikar
Worldwake

And the first expansion for 2011 will move Zendikar out of the grouping correct?

not quite. magic 2010 is a core set. as such it is not part of any block but is included alongside the current 2 blocks in addition:

block 1:

shards of alara
conflux
alara reborn

block 2:

zendikar
worldwake
xy

coreset:

magic 2010

now when the set after xy comes out it will be the first in a new block (not sure when the next core set is released so that might come out befor then but dont worry about that now). once the first set of the new block is out standard will look like this:

block 1:

zendikar
worldwake
xy

block 2:

abc

coreset:

magic 2010

when the next coreset is released it will replace the old coreset. it wont change any of the block cards only replace the last coreset. so when magic 2011 comes out the above standard would change to:

block 1:

zendikar
worldwake
xy

block 2:

abc

coreset:

magic 2011.

Completly understand now Thanks Seba

Feel like such a noob!

dont worry about that. when your new to something its your privalage not to understand stuff ^^. also its your privalage to ask when you dont ;).

i remember when i first started ... ohh my were my deck awful.

magic is one of the more complex trading card games. there are a few that are even mroe complicated when you get started but not very many ... i would say magic is in the top 5. especialy since there are many layers of complicated. you will discover new stuff to learn all the time. even i still find new angels from wich to see things both on the rules and the strategie level and i have been playing for 14 years. dont let that worry you though. you dont need to know everything and being able to uncover new layers even after years is one of the big strong points of magic. makes sure it never gets boring :)

Ok leaning towards a R/W deck I think now depending on what planeswalkers are available.......... Or would like Red Black need something that has removal in it......R/W/G was fun I think I just needed to be more aggressive with it maybe.

I played a R/W/G Deck tonight was fun I played 4 rounds lost 3 and won 1

All matches where 2-1 except for the last game which was a mill deck and I just sat and cried.....

First card Arid Mesa HELLO to Archive Trap boom to a Twin Cast and bye bye 26 cards in my deck QQ go home and cry.

I also have a question Arid Mesa when you serch for a land it dosn't say Basic so is it possible to get another fetch (I know you wouldn't want in certain situations) or non-basic land card?

nice to hear that you actualy won a match in your first tournament. many new players dont ^^

as for your question. arid mesa does not need you to fetch a basic land. it does however needs the land you fetch to be a plains or mountain card. in standard only basic lands fullfill this requirement. in extended you have Sacred Foundry and in legacy you have Plateau. there are a few other lands that have basic land types but most are not that good. a basic land type is plains, island, swamp, mountain or forest. non-basic lands can have basic land types. this does not make them basic lands however.

as for the decks your interested in R/W is the most successful of the three you mentioned if your talking about an agro build. there also is a r/w control build. r/w/g is the next most successful of the three. pure r/b is not being played a lot despite numerous fantastic cards such as terminate, blightning, bituminus blast and lightning bolt. the reason i think is that the amazing quality of cards for r/b pretty much ends there. there are several very good cards like hypnotic specter but non that can match the additional options you have when you add green to the r/b. bloodbraid elf, sprouting thrinax, mealstrom pulse, broodmate dragon putrid leach and garruk stand in no comparrision to the choices you have in a deck that is only r/b. on the other hand what you end up with by adding green is the currently most successful dekc of them all jund.

you said you want removal ? jund has removal against just about anything ^^. terminate, lightning bolt, bitumnus blast for creatures and maelstrom pulse for anything else includeing creatures and even planeswalker.

also i think the deck is fun to play. cascade is good fun, creature tokens from the dragon, thrinax and garruk is fun. bligtning is a card that any opponent hates to see. just an all round very good deck.

mealstrom pulse are pretty expensive but they are also very very good. the mana base can be pretty costy with maigc 2010 duals and zendikar fetches but you dont need all of them to begin with and can easyly upgrade in steps here. also you can start off by playing only 2 pulse and still have a very solid deck.

Just out of curiousness when M2011 comes out is the entire coreset of M10 gone? All cards or just certain ones. I ask because building a deck may be pricey so I wouldn't want to blow alot of cash if I'm only going to use the cards a few months and then need to find new 15 dollar cards.

I guess what Im getting at are there any cards I should avoid because they will be un-playable in standard soon?

^^ this is, for me personaly, the elemental flaw of standart. yes the entire core set rotates. the M10 duals will probably not be in M11 also but we can say yet. also the planeswalker from M10 might not be reprinted.

if your afraid that a lot of cards could rotate out of your deck too soon, jund is probably not a good choice. the only rares jund plays that are from zendikar are g/b-fetch and oran-rief, the vastwood. boordmate and pulse are from alara so they rotate out some time endo of next year the rest is from M10 ...

the aggressive R/W deck on the other hand could be a much better choice. the only rare that about every deck runs that is not from zendikar is ranger of eos (alara) and they dont cost that much. after rotation the R/W deck might not be so good any more because of new decks that emerge etc. but the rares, especialy the fetchlands will still be very good in any deck that runs the colors.

the fetchlands are a well worth investment anyhow. they will not drop in price even when they move out of standard because they will be played in all other formats including legacy.

the rotation thing is also what i like about legacy. decks cost more to begin with but they dont rotate because legacy does not have a rotation just new sets that are added.

with the R/W deck you will need 12 fetches eventualy. that is also a good start to any deck playing any of the colors for legacy. so by the time zendikar leaves standard you could move into legacy. sure you will still need the old dual lands, force of will and tarmogoyf perhaps but fetches are always a good start.

also once you have the old duals, fetches, force and tarmogoyf you can build most legacy decks on a very small budget ... its pretty much a one-time investment.

I've looked for a few R/W decks but all seem to be Jund R/W/G I don't mind droping a few bucks on fetch lands since I can always trade them off or as you said start legacy later.

Any helpful advice on a R/W deck is appriciated.

I found this (what is a good substitute for Baneslayers) and would you put some Blightning into this deck? And is there a better sub for Marsh Flats maybe a W/R fetch instead of a W/B?

Land - 24
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
3 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Teetering Peaks

Creature - 25
3 Elite Vanguard
2 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Guide
1 Hellspark Elemental
3 Kor Skyfisher
4 Plated Geopede
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Steppe Lynx

Spell - 11
3 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile

Sideboard - 15
3 Baneslayer Angel
3 Celestial Purge
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Harm's Way
3 Manabarbs

the marsh flats are only in there because of the landfall ... the deck also plays the arid mesa already ^^

as for the baneslayer ... not realy nothing compares to it at the moment but when on a budged you can just replace him with other sidebord stuff ... oblivion ring vs planeswalker etc. for instance.

also the numbers on the creatures can be adjusted a little here and there to suite your taste.

here is a link to several list so you can get a better overwie of what ou can change arround:

R/W Aggro Decks | DeckCheck.net - Providing 'outside assistance' since 2004

Okay this is the build I decided on made a few changes to get a few Planeswalkers in the deck now the decision is I can get 4 Planeswalkers in but which ones should I use (need advice) Ajani Vengeant/Goldmane or Chandra Ablaze/Nalaar? Also some advice on side board cards too.


3 Elite Vanguard
4 Goblin Guide
3 Kor Skyfisher
4 Plated Geopede
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Steppe Lynx

4 Path to Exile
2 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt

4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Teetering Peaks

if you realy want to run a planeswalker Ajani Vengeant is awsome. elsbeth is also quite good with its constant stream of creatures pieling onto your board. i dont relay like either chandra feeling they are both too slow and cumbersom but that might be a personal preferance. goldmane might be ok since you playing a pretty weeny deck and he was good in white weeny an tokens decks befor ... at the end of the day i personaly would go with Ajani Vengeant all of his abiilitys are awsome and all work well against a diffrent spread of decks so i feel hes the most flexible one and that is something i cherrish.

I was looking at Chandra because she came in with only two rounds to get to her best abilities.

Chandra Ablaze by the time you get her into the game hopefully you have used some red spells and then you can dig them out in two turns and hopefully bring your opponent down quicker or at least that was my thinking behind it :)

So I decided to go with 2 of each of the Ajani's that way I would either be destroying land or putting up a decent sized creature and with Landfall that is in the deck hopefully killing them quickly.

Chandra was a second pick I may sideboard her and sub it in to see if it's useful.

Only draw back is I'm just getting into the game and it's pretty expensive for a first deck :(