Deck strategies in Magic the Gathering

Usually a deck in Magic the Gathering plays on a certain strategy, i.e. a type of card/creature, or generally a certain card with which the player wants to end the round or greatly improve his chances. Below is a list of strategies that are very common in Magic the Gathering. The list is not exhaustive. The game is so complex and versatile that you can do anything that comes to mind. The extremes are listed here.

Aggro

– In terms of statistics, this is probably one of the best deck types. In pretty much every tournament, red aggro decks are in the top 10 (red is actually mandatory here, after that white is best).

Burn

Burn decks play with direct damage, mainly distributed by sorceries or spontaneous spells. The main color for this is red.

Wheenie

The Wheenie strategy plays on many inexpensive creatures with a good price-performance ratio. The best known of these is probably White Wheenie.

Rush

Rush decks are a mixture of Wheenie and Burn. Lots of cheap and efficient creatures paired with direct damage.

Tokens Often played by the Selesnya guild from the Ravnica expansions, tokens are a strategy that is played on mass. The aim is to fill the board with tokens as quickly as possible and simply overrun the opponent. It can also easily be built in a non-rush style.

Raffinity

A very aggressive deck that plays with artifacts and the affinity ability. Rather an older strategy, from the artifact heyday of Mirrodin.

Control

Control plays, as the name suggests, on control. Optionally via library, hand or playing field. Control strategies are usually hated by the opponent. Usually played with blue and or black).

Discard

You attack your opponent’s hand directly and force them to discard their good cards. Mono BlackTakes special action against your opponent’s creatures on the field and in your hand. It is usually ended by a single, strong creature.

Mono blue

Usually plays against everything the opponent has. The opponent is driven mad by counter spells in particular.

Mill

Decks of this type ensure that the opponent has to discard cards directly from the library and loses the game due to deck death. Since the library in Magic is the memory of the opposing wizard, you literally drive him mad.

Land destruction

As the name suggests, the opponent’s lands are destroyed here. Untypically for Control, red, green and black are the driving colors.

Fog (mist)

It’s actually a variation of Mill, where you let your opponent die of covert death and hide behind spells like “fog” that negate your opponent’s attacks. Combo

Very often in the world of Magic, certain combos of cards are played that allow you to win directly or indirectly. If several specific cards are combined, you win immediately or have a clear advantage for the rest of the game.

Other strategies:

Planeswalker

It’s now possible to build decks that play almost exclusively Planeswalkers, supported only by a few mana donors like Birds of Paradise.

Reanimator

This strategy relies on playing cards from the graveyard. Cards from the hand or library are specifically placed in the graveyard to make it easier to get them onto the field from there using spells. The whole thing is often combined with good “comes into play” effects.

MonoG Ramp/Stompie

The aim is to get as fat creatures onto the field as quickly as possible. These then crush the opponent.

Lifegain

You can also win the game with certain cards as soon as you have collected enough life points – or you can destroy your opponent with your lifelink creatures.

Tribals

There are many different races and races in the world of Magic the Gathering. They each have a synergy with each other. For example, zombies, which like to come back from the graveyard, or vampires, which become stronger when they inflict damage on the opponent.