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Editor: Damon Hill. Tuesday 5th October 2004.
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Exploring The Perfect Deck Theory.
This article is a follow up to my last article. (located here)
There was much hot debate over The Perfect Deck theory - people in general saying it wasn't the perfect deck, I used a bad example, didn't go into enough detail and so on. Hopefully I can clear some of that stuff up now.
I will admit - the deck I used was a very bad example. It happened to be the only deck I had constructed with the theory at the time, so I went with it. I've looked into some past decks I have built using the theory and I found this one - its a deck I was considering for the regionals that I dubbed 'Culling Bridge'.
Here is what I would run now for that deck as a starting point using The Perfect Deck theory now -
Pretty basic deck that does one thing and does it well - cheap efficient burn with Culling Scales to deal with Circle of Protection: Red and Story Circle. That should hold most pesky white players at bay.
The sideboard brings in heavy anti-artifact cards for taking on Ravager Affinity, and Mindslavers for dealing with control. Nothing overly fantastic there.
In this example it's a little clearer to see The Perfect Deck theory in practice. From here I would start tweaking the deck further by working out what should stay and what should go. I would also consider dropping a few spells to fewer copies or changing the land count from 20 to more or less.
Given some tweaking and playtesting I may end up running something like this -
The Perfect Deck theory is primarily a deck evolution tool but it doesn't have to be. Call me a dreamer but I would love to build a deck that ran the theory and could be competitive at a tier 1 level. In all my ten years of playing I haven't seen that deck yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't there or it won't come eventually.
People asked me about why I was running Conjurer's Baubles and other such 'Draw a card' cheap artifacts and spells. Ravager Affinity doesn't run all of them and if the deck is perfect why run them at all?
Some people refer to cards like these as deck thinners - it's exactly what they do. They draw through to your good stuff and theoretically reduce the size of your deck.
Does anyone remember a card called 'Urza's Bauble' from [I]Ice Age[/I]? This was the first 'does nothing but replaces itself' card. Imagine if you could build a deck of nothing but spells that when they resolve or come into play you draw a card... how nasty would that deck be?
The closest thing to that we have had recently is Skullclamp. I don't need to go into the details of why the card is now banned in all formats except for Vintage and Limited. Skullclamp virtually gave its player the 'draw a card for everything I play' ability.
Skullclamp is gone now so how can we replicate this ability in Standard deck construction?
In The Perfect Deck theory we break the ideal deck numbers down to 24 lands/9 spells, 20 land/10 spells or 16 land/11 spells. What if we could break those numbers down even further?
Consider these cards -
Spellbombs (5 different colours)
Each of these cards costs 1 mana to drop and has a card draw ability. Conjurer's Bauble is clearly the most superior as it only costs 1 mana total and a nifty ability but with Chromatic Sphere it draws a card and works as a mana fixer. The spellbombs you either use them for an effect or draw a card depending on the circumstances - this makes them more expensive to use and not necessarily a card we want for this exercise.
Lets assume I have made up a 20 land deck running The Perfect Deck theory and I have decided to run 4 Conjurer's Baubles and 4 Chromatic Sphere as part of the build. The breakdown of the deck can work like this -
20 basic land
8 game winning spells, each spell has 4 copies
8 cards that essentially do nothing but draw a card
This means a 60 card deck in theory only has 52 cards as 8 cards are devoted to drawing through to game winning cards. This increases the chances of drawing one or more of the 8 spells being run in the deck plus a deck of 52 cards with 20 land has a ratio of 20:32 - 5 lands for every 8 spells!
This is the secret that Ravager Affinity has run since its creation - running 4 Chromatic Spheres (at the least) plus Thoughtcast and Skullclamp. No wonder it wins so well - it can simply draw into the pieces it needs to win! Remember that the next time a 12 year old beats you playing Ravager Affinity with a 'lucky draw' - there's no luck about it, its just good deck design.
These cards can be amazing in a Limited environment. As it is, good cards are far and few between. If you can run some deck thinners in a 40 card deck, suddenly those good cards are a lot easier to get to.
I hope I have clarified things for the people who wanted to know more. As usual the discussion thread is open and awaiting your feedback and ideas.
Joe Tobin (Aytakk2)
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