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Editor: Damon Hill. Friday 3rd September 2004.
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The Perfect Deck.
'The Perfect Deck' is a deck construction theory I have been working on for years. I came up with the idea pretty soon after I first started playing. I shall try to explain how it works.
Statistically speaking a deck would get the most consistant draw if you build on the following principle - Any spell you play must have 4 copies (Except for basic land) and the deck will run 9-11 spells that work in combination with each other to give the deck a strong performance against anything it pairs up against.
9 spells means you will be running 24 land.
10 spells means you will be running 20 land.
11 spells means you will be running 16 land.
For a deck to be statistically perfect it would need to be one colour, run 20 lands and have some cheap mana acceleration/card draw to run efficiently. The deck would also need to be incredibly focused with the sideboard geared to bring in answers to potential disruption that the main deck cannot handle.
I'm sure you are all saying 'Thats all well and good but a sideboard has 15 cards! You can't run four lots of four different cards!'
For the sideboard you have to ignore the perfect deck theory to some degree. While it's possible to go 4,4,4,3 it may not be the best option. I find it's sometimes better to go 3,3,3,3,3 in the sideboard to maximise the types of cards you can run to protect your deck, or disrupt your opponent's.
In building 'The Perfect Deck', you also need to take tempo and synergy into account. You don't want a deck that contains nothing but 4 cost or higher spells that barely work together and nothing else. It may work with 9 spells/24 land but its less likely to succeed if your opponent can take control of the game early on. In the current type 2 environment this is highly likely, as speed does mean everything with decks like Ravager Affinity being popular.
The deck I shall use as an example is an affinity deck I have built that follows 'The Perfect Deck' theory.
In the past I have used this Theory in constructing Mono-Green Elves, Mono-Blue counter/control and Mono-Black Control, amongst others. This time I shall apply "The Perfect Deck' theory to an affinity deck.
In this case I'm not sticking to one colour, but playing three, with sideboard potential for a fourth. While the perfection of the land base can't necessarily be attained, the land base synergy with the deck as a whole is definately worth it.
I looked at affinity decks that are currently available. I worked out which are the key cards that win games, keep the deck moving, or handle disruption well. For this deck it worked out to be 10 spells and 20 land.
Here's the deck list -
I don't have access to Arcbound Ravagers so I haven't run any. The beauty of this sideboard is there are expendable cards in the deck. Conjurer's Bauble is a deck thinner so it can easily be sided out. A lot of cards can do just as well with only 3 copies (such as Cranial Plating and Myr Retriever). This allows for maximum sideboard potential without heavily disrupting the flow of the deck.
By no means is this deck perfect and unbeatable - no deck is. This deck is an example of how 'The Perfect Deck' theory can be put into practice.
I have a deck that can playtest well and evolve past the theory (reducing certain cards to 2-3 copies and adding others) if need be. It's also a solid first game deck that has plenty of sideboard synergy for games two and three in a tournament round.
I've found 'The Perfect Deck' theory to be very useful in deck construction, as well as a Holy Grail that any 'Johnny' player would find is worth striving for.
Joe Tobin (Aytakk2)
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