Magic: The Gathering deck types explained

Gameplay of the collectible card game is fueled by each player's deck of cards, which constitute the resources that player can call upon to battle their opponents in any given game. With more than 20,000 unique cards in the game, a considerable number of different decks can be constructed. Each card is designed to have certain strengths (and sometimes weaknesses) and therefore a significant part of the game is determined by which cards a player chooses to include in their deck. Broadly speaking, decks can be loosely classified based on their play style and mode of victory. The game's designers often explicitly create cards which are intended to fuel one or more of these given archetypes, in order to create competitive balance and diversity.^{[1] [2]}

While the deck types listed below are specific to Magic: The Gathering, these concepts also extend to other collectible card games.

Deck archetypes

Most classifications of decks begin from one of four major strategies: aggro, control, combo and midrange.^[3]

Aggro

Aggro (short for "aggressive") decks attempt to reduce their opponents from 20 life to 0 life as quickly as possible, rather than emphasize a long-term game plan.^[4] Aggro decks focus on converting their cards into damage; they prefer to engage in a race for tempo rather than a card advantage-based attrition war. Aggro generally relies upon creatures as its accumulative source of damage. Aggro decks can quickly overwhelm unprepared opponents and proceed to eke out the last bit of damage they need to end the game. Aggro decks also generally have access to disruptive elements, which can inhibit the opponent's attempts to respond.^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}

• Example cards:,,,,^{[9] [1]}
• Example decks:
  • White Weenie, which uses small, efficient creatures such as,, and ^[10]
  • Affinity, which uses the affinity mechanic and large numbers of artifacts to quickly play spells such as and, while efficiently dealing damage using and .^[11]
  • Zoo, which uses low-cost, high power creatures such as and to kill the opponent quickly.^[12]
  • Sligh, which utilizes its mana as efficiently as possible to kill the opponent quickly, using low-cost cards such as and .^[13]
  • Suicide Black, which uses efficient but dangerous cards that cost life such as,,, and . Suicide Black epitomizes Black's philosophy - win at all costs - and treats even its life total as an expendable resource.^[14]

Control

Control decks avoid racing. They attempt to slow the game down by executing an attrition plan. As the game progresses, control decks are able to take advantage of their slower, more powerful, cards.^[15] The primary strength of control decks is their ability to devalue the opponent's cards. They do this in four ways:^[16]

1. Answering threats at a reduced cost. Given the opportunity, Control decks can gain card advantage by answering multiple threats with one spell ("clearing"/"wiping" the board), stopping expensive threats with cheaper spells, and drawing multiple cards or forcing the opponent to discard multiple cards with one spell.
2. Not playing threats to be answered. By playing few proactive spells of their own, control decks gain virtual card advantage by reducing the usefulness of opposing removal cards.
3. Disrupting synergies. Even if control decks do not deal with every threat directly, they can leave out whichever ones stand poorly on their own; e.g., an enchantment which gives a bonus to creatures will never need attention if all enemy creatures are quickly neutralized.
4. Dragging the game out past opposing preparations. An opponent's faster, efficient cards will become less effective over time.

• Example cards:,,,,
• Example decks:
  • Tezzeret Control, which controls the game using counterspells such as, builds card advantage with cards such as, and ends the game using to find and activate it for infinite turns.^[17]
  • Mono Blue Control, which uses a heavy suite of counterspells alongside card-drawing such as, removal such as, and a win condition such as . This class of deck is nicknamed "Draw-Go," because most of its players' spells are instants designed to be played during his or her opponents' turns.
  • Blue-White Control, which is similar to Mono-Blue Control, but features more board-control cards such as, and .^[18]
  • , supplemented by card-drawing like and a number of disruptive spells.^[19]
  • Astral Slide, which uses large numbers of cards with cycling, including those with added benefits such as and, to power and .^[20]
  • Mono-Black Control, which uses removal spells such as and to control the board, and to kill the opponent with spells such as .^[21] It can also use cards like to put the opponent on a timer.
  • The Deck, which uses card drawing such as and deck searching cards such as to find powerful cards that are highly effective against particular strategies (such as,, and), alongside a Blue base of counterspells to control the game and obtain an insurmountable lead.^[22]

Combo

Combo decks use the interaction of two or more cards (a "combination") to create a powerful effect that either wins the game immediately or produces an overwhelming advantage. Combo decks value consistency, speed, and resilience: the deck should be reliable enough to produce the combo on a regular basis, the deck should be able to use the combo fast enough to win before the opponent, and the deck should be able to withstand disruption and still win.

Many decks have smaller, combo-like interactions between their cards, which is better described as synergy.

• Example cards:,,,, .
• Example decks:
  • The Perfect Storm, which utilizes and artifact mana to draw cards and fuel a lethal, all the while disrupting the opponent with and .^[23]
  • Painter Combo, which uses and chooses Blue to permit to destroy any permanent or counter any spell, while also allowing to put the opponent's entire library into their graveyard.^[24]
  • Worldgorger Dragon Combo, which revolves around the infinite loop triggered when is animated from the graveyard using an enchantment such as . The loop generates mana and card drawing which is then used to end the game.^[25]
  • Belcher Combo, which uses free and efficient mana acceleration to play and activate, preferably on the first turn. Because the deck has two or fewer lands, one activation of will almost always kill the opponent.^[25]
  • Hulk-Flash, which is dedicated to casting and putting a into play and then into the graveyard, allowing the player to find a combination of creatures which will kill the opponent instantly. and are used to find the combo pieces, while and protect the combo.^[26]
  • Steel City Vault, which uses "Draw 7" spells such as to rapidly assemble the - combo for infinite turns. The deck also uses several cards such as and to efficiently deal with, the most effective answer to the Vault-Key combo.^[27]
  • Hexmage Depths, which uses to inexpensively remove the counters from and put a flying, indestructible 20/20 creature token into play as early as the first turn.^[28]

Midrange

A typical midrange deck has an early game plan of mana ramp and control, but begins to play threats once it reaches four to six mana. A midrange deck will often seek to play a reactive, attrition-based game against aggro decks and a more proactive, tempo-based game against control decks. Colloquially, this is referred to as "going bigger" than aggro and "getting in under" control.

• Example cards:, ^[29]
• Example decks:
  • Jund Midrange (BRG), a powerful and flexible deck with virtually zero bad matchups thanks to the access of the most powerful cards that each color can offer: black gives and powerful discard cards like and, red a reliable removal in and the green some of the best creatures like and .
  • Abzan Midrange (WBG), which is similar to Jund, but trades speed for powerful white based cards like, and .
  • Jeskai Midrange (UWR), which has more control elements, using to draw into a very large number of cards and to end up swarming the board with tokens.
  • Temur Emerge (GUR), which leverages the Emerge mechanic introduced in Eldritch Moon to efficiently use ramp creatures such as and for their land-smoothing abilities while sacrificing them to Emerge board-stalling threats such as as early as turn 4, also filling the graveyard to make playable on turn 7.^[30]
  • Tron, which tries to build the triplet of lands known as "Urzatron" (and) as quickly as possible and then uses the massive amount of mana to play powerful cards like and as early as turn 3.

Hybrid strategies

Aggro-Control

Aggro-control is a hybrid archetype that contains both aggressive creatures and control elements. These decks attempt to deploy quick threats while protecting them with light permission and disruption long enough to win. These are frequently referred to as "tempo" strategies, as they are built with a sense of timing. Tempo players look to control the game early and take advantage of a strong board state. Where purely control decks look to out class players with more quality in the later stages of the game, tempo looks to keep opponents off balance from the very start.

• Example cards:,,,,
• Example decks:
  • Blue-Green Madness, which uses cards like, and .^[31]
  • Naya Lightsaber, which uses powerful creatures like and removal like, many of which also provide card advantage.^[32]
  • RUG Delver, which uses cards like, and .^[33]
  • Fish, which uses mana denial such as and, alongside disruption such as,, and, to keep the opponent off-balance long enough that creatures such as and win the game.^{[25] [34]}
  • Bob/Gush, which draws enough cards using ("Bob") and to overwhelm the opponent with attacking creatures and disruption such as and .^[35]
  • Delver, which uses the efficient threat alongside disruption such as and .^[36]

Control-Combo

Control-Combo is a control deck with a combo finisher that it can spring quickly if need be. A notable subtype of Control-Combo is "prison," which institutes control through resource denial (usually via a combo).

• Example cards:,,,,
• Example decks:
  • Stax, a prison deck which uses to destroy opposing permanents, to replay permanents to feed the, and and to tie up an opponent's mana and prevent them from ever playing spells.^[25]
  • Stasis, which uses and cards such as or .^[37]
  • Scepter-Chant, which uses and .
  • Trix, which gains life using and then uses to leave the opponent with the often deadly drawback.^[38]
  • Oath, uses and to quickly put a large creature such as or into play.^[39]
  • Control Slaver, which accelerates powerful, high casting cost artifacts such as into play using,, or .^[40]
  • Drain Tendrils, which controls the game using,, and while drawing cards with the + engine to set up a lethal .^[41]

Aggro-Combo

Aggro-combo decks employ aggressive creature strategies along with some combination of cards that can win in "combo" fashion with one big turn. For instance, Ravager Affinity decks that include Disciple of the Vault can win by attacking with creatures and also with a combo finish of sacrificing multiple artifacts to Arcbound Ravager and killing the opponent with Disciple triggers.

• Example cards:,,
• Example decks:
  • Fling Affinity, which uses or and along with .
  • Food Chain Goblins, which uses, and and .^[42]
  • Fires, which uses with and .^[43]
  • Dredge, which uses and cards with the dredge mechanic (such as and) to fill the player's own graveyard. This enables free creatures such as and, which can generate a large number of zombie tokens in conjunction with and .^{[44] [45]}

Aggro-Control-Combo

Aggro-control-combo decks combine efficient, creature-based damage, heavy disruption elements, and an ability to unleash an extremely powerful synergy that can end the game in "combo" fashion.^[1]

• Example cards:,,,
• Example decks:
  • Gro-A-Tog, which generally wins by playing and protecting it with disruption such as and as it "grows," but can also win by playing and chaining together and to draw many cards and instantly make lethal.^[46]
  • Tarmo-Twin, plays efficient hard-to-kill threats such as with backup from cheap counterspells like and to apply pressure. If the opponent manages to deal with these cards, they are usually left vulnerable to the / and / combo which creates infinite creatures with haste to win the game. The deck can also control the game with,, and in order to put itself in a position where it can play the / combo with counterspells as protection or keep a in play until it can kill the opponent.

In-depth Archetype Breakdown

Other than the traditional outlook grouping the decks into general buckets (aggro, control, midrange, combo), there are 2 modern outlooks breaking deck archetypes that are meant to more accurately describe how decks actually exploit different aspects of the game into winning conditions.

Aspect Analysis

Aspect analysis assigns very specific traits to 3 of the buckets and lists everything else as a combination of those; the 3 main buckets being aggro, control, and combo. Combinations, and their inverse combinations, may vary in the way they implement strategies and aspects, therefore are generally not grouped in the same category; a great example of this being control-aggro (aka midrange) vs aggro-control (tempo). From these buckets, different strategies are drawn depending on the type of actual implementation of the deck in question. However, the vast majority of MTG decks use one or a combination of the following aspects to win.

• Linear - Executes own gameplan without necessary interaction with an opponent.
• Non-Linear - Executes strategies according to opponents play with a high amount of interaction.
• Fair - Transfers card advantage into board state, pressure and tempo. All cards have a potential of trading 1 for 1 (e.g. fair trading).
• Unfair - Does not transfer card advantage into board state, and do not cause pressure or create tempo. Mostly improvises its own gameplan using utility cards and trying to trade in their favor.
• Early Game - Provides pressure against an opponent, and sets a clock. Benefits from playing their cards fast before an opponent has a chance to stabilize and execute their gameplan.
• Late Game - Attempts to survive to the late game to play powerful cards and synergies for maximum value.

The graphic listed in this section explains how the traditional archetypes use these different aspects of MTG.

Axes analysis

The strategic axes analysis groups the different types of decks (aggro, control, combo, aggro-control, control-aggro aka midrange, prison, gimmick, meta) into combinations of the axes listed below. Some of these may overlap with Aspect Analysis.

• Threats vs Answers - A Threat is a card that can win the game if left unchecked, sometimes it includes the idea of smaller threats that combine to form a bigger threat. An Answer is a card that deals with or removes a threat. There are no wrong threats, only wrong answers.
• Tempo Vs Inevitability - Does your deck have to win fast, or does it have to survive the game long enough to stabilize and close out?
• Redundant vs Essential - Does your deck have a lot of cards that basically do the same thing, or does it rely on a few important key pieces to function?

The traditional archetypes fit into the axes in the following manner:

• Aggro: Threats, Tempo, Redundant - Every card is a threat, and every threat does the same thing: deal damage. Aggro decks try to beat out the opponent before they can fight back, and generally, have very little late-game if the opponent is able to stabilize.
• Control: Answers, Inevitable, Redundant - Control tries to have a lot of cards that take away opposing threats in the form of Bounces, Spot Removal, Board Wipes, and Counterspells. Control tries to survive the early game until it can establish its own threat, which is used to close out the late game.
• Combo: Threats, Inevitable, Essential - Each combo piece is not a threat in and of itself, but there is a high degree of inevitability to a deck that can flat-out win the game if it gets all the pieces together. Not as much redundancy as an aggro deck due to each combo piece being essential with few-to-no possible replacements.
• Aggro-Control: Answers, Tempo, Redundant - The flip side of Aggro that trades threats for answers. Tempo decks try to answer as much as they can but are only able to hold off the opponent for just long enough to finish them off.
• Control-Aggro/Midrange: Threats, Inevitable, Redundant - The flip side of Control deck that trades answers for threats. Each threat in a midrange deck is usually a big bomby problematic card. Eventually, you'll draw into enough of them to overwhelm the opponent.
• Prison: Answers, Inevitable, Essential - The flip side to Combo that trades threats for answers. Instead of establishing an "instant win" condition, Prison decks establish an "inevitable never lose" condition by preventing attacks, or damage, or resource generation.
• Gimmick: Threats, Tempo, Essential - A gimmick deck burns all of its resources trying to force a specific interaction, but the interaction is not one that guarantees a win. A gimmick deck is a lot like a combo deck; capable of extremely strong and explosive plays when all the gears mesh, but either the window for capitalizing on these kinds of plays is extremely small, or the interaction is so vulnerable to disruption that the deck completely falls apart without it.
• Meta: Answers, Tempo, Essential - A meta deck is designed to shut down whatever dominant deck is ruling at the moment, at the cost of all other matchups. Usually, this is what your deck turns into when you're desperately side-boarding against an otherwise un-winnable matchup.

Recent (2012) design philosophy

Traditionally, Aggro was seen as advantaged over Control, Control advantaged over Combo, and Combo advantaged over Aggro.^[47] Wizards of the Coast has sought to make high casting-cost spells more powerful than in the early days of Magic, and have also wanted to play up creature combat more - an aggressive deck should have to worry about blocking and opposing creatures even from Control and Combo decks. To that end, R&D member Zac Hill described an ideal metagame structured such that:

• "Midrange" is advantaged over "Aggro"
• "Aggro" is advantaged over "Control" and "Disruptive Aggro"
• "Control" and "Disruptive Aggro" are advantaged over "Ramp" and "Combo"
• "Ramp" and "Combo" are advantaged over "Midrange"

Each of these 4 categories would ideally occupy around 25% of a given metagame. In Hill's definition, Aggro refers most specifically to the fastest creature decks built to punish slow starts, ponderous Control decks, and aggressive decks who've substituted out damage for disruption. Midrange decks in this definition are slower creature-based decks who trump the speed of fast aggro with better quality from their somewhat more expensive spells. (Both of these would likely be considered "Aggro" in the traditional definition.) "Ramp" and "Combo" are conceptually similar as noted above; while the combo deck might seek to set up a combination of 2 or 3 cards for a powerful, game-changing effect, the ramp deck instead focuses on building mana as fast as possible and then casting game-changing yet expensive spells, or taking advantage of certain interactions that require a large manabase. A midrange deck often doesn't have the sheer speed to stop ramp or combo from either casting a huge spell or "going off" with the combo. Control decks can counter or otherwise answer the single big threat ramp decks and combo decks provide while winning the long game. Similarly, "disruptive aggro" (equivalent to Aggro-Control in the classic archetypes above) can also stop the single threat Combo and Ramp offer while focusing on winning faster. These rules can change however as blocks cycle and meta shifts.

Notes and References

1. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-academy/aggro-combo-and-control-2007-01-27 Aggro, Combo, and Control
2. Pojos Unofficial Total Magic: The Gathering
3. https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/next-level-deckbuilding-sneak-peek-the-sixteen-archetypes-of-magic/ Next Level Deckbuilding Sneak Peek: The Sixteen Archetypes Of Magic
4. Web site: TCGplayer Infinite.
5. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-academy/playing-against-aggro-2007-06-09 Playing Against Aggro
6. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/extended/15333_Arcane_Teachings_Project_Hollywood_Week_3_So_Close_and_Yet_So_Far.html Arcane Teachings - Project Hollywood
7. http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=13921 Deconstructing Constructed: Processing the Process
8. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-academy/your-first-aggro-deck-2007-03-24 Your First Aggro Deck
9. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/we%E2%80%99ve-got-beatdown-2005-06-27 We've Got the Beatdown
10. http://www.starcitygames.com/article/5764_Playing-White-Weenie-In-Vintage.html Playing White Weenie In Vintage
11. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/8437_The_Daffinitive_Affinity_Guide.html The Daffinitive Affinity Guide
12. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/top-decks/return-wild-nacatl-2015-11-06 The Return of Wild Nacatl
13. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/famous-red-decks-magic-history-2004-07-22 Famous Red Decks in Magic History
14. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/16819_So_Many_Insane_Plays_Vintage_On_A_Budget_Suicide_Black_2K9.html Vintage on a Budget: Suicide Black 2K9
15. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-academy/playing-against-control-2007-06-02 Playing Against Control
16. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-academy/your-first-control-deck-2007-03-17 Your First Control Deck
17. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17071_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Anatomy_of_Vintage_Tezzeret.html The Anatomy of Vintage Tezzeret
18. https://web.archive.org/web/20010407063330/http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?x=sb20010130a Chicago-Style U/W Control
19. https://web.archive.org/web/20030430144621/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/strategy/20030425a Giant-Sized Regionals Primer: Psychatog
20. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/astral-slide-new-standard-2004-03-22 Astral Slide in the New Standard
21. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/serious-fun/power-dark-side-2007-08-28 The Power of the Dark Side
22. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/2253_You_CAN_Play_Type_I_17_The_Control_Players_Bible_Part_I.html You CAN Play Type I #17: The Control Player's Bible, Part I
23. http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?Article=16270 The Perfect Storm
24. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/daily-deck/jack-kitchens-painter-scg-premier-iq%E2%80%94baltimore-2015-03-02 Jack Kitchen's Painter SCG Premier IQ -Baltimore
25. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/18487_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_2010_Guide_to_Vintage.html The 2010 Guide to Vintage
26. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/15567_So_Many_Insane_Plays_The_Ultimate_Vintage_Primer.html The Ultimate Vintage Primer
27. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/17922_Feature_Article_The_Steel_City_Vault_Deck_Unleashed.html The Steel City Vault Deck Unleashed
28. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/legacy/18112_Legacys_Allure_Busting_Cthulhu_Out_of_Dark_Depths.html Busting Cthulhu Out of Dark Depths
29. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/midrange-archetype-2007-03-26 The Midrange Archetype
30. http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/deck-of-the-day-temur-emerge-deck-guide/ Deck of the Day – Temur Emerge Deck Guide By Eric Froehlich
31. https://web.archive.org/web/20030430121303/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/strategy/20030423b Giant Sized Regionals Primer: Blue-Green Madness!
32. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/naya-lightsaber-2009-11-30 Naya Lightsaber
33. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/top-decks/rugs-not-all-delvers-2012-07-03 RUGs (But Not All Delvers)
34. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/23257_The_Guide_To_Vintages_Landscape_Attacking_The_Red_Zone.html The Guide To Vintage’s Landscape – Attacking The Red Zone
35. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/23221_The_Guide_To_Vintages_Landscape_All_Things_That_Gush.html The Guide To Vintage’s Landscape – All Things that Gush
36. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/24191_Building_The_Best_Delver_Of_Secrets.html Building The Best Delver Of Secrets
37. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/deconstructing-stasis-2006-11-28 Deconstructing Stasis
38. https://web.archive.org/web/20150910185937/http://archive.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?x=PTNOR01%5C730illusions Illusions-Donate
39. Web site: Magic the Gathering Vintage Oath Decks. mtgdecks.net. 24 April 2017.
40. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/10479_How_to_Play_Control_Slaver_Now.html How to Play Control Slaver Now
41. http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36351.0 Drain Tendrils: Staying Ahead of the Curve
42. https://web.archive.org/web/20031228212147/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/ptno03/article1 Chaining Goblins
43. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/deconstructing-fires-2002-07-30 Deconstructing Fires
44. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/13443_Crushing_Vintage_Without_Power_Nine_The_Manaless_Ichorid_Primer.html Crushing Vintage Without Power Nine: The Manaless Ichorid Primer
45. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/22801_Picking_Brains_The_Past_Present_And_Future_Of_Zombie_Nation.html Picking Brains – The Past, Present, And Future Of Zombie Nation
46. http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/4552_Gardening_In_Vintage_How_To_GroATog_And_Clip_A_Lotus.html Gardening In Vintage: How To Gro-A-Tog And Clip A Lotus
47. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/ah-yes-very-standard-2012-08-10 Ah Yes. Very Standard.