Deck

A deck is the collection of cards that a player plays with; it becomes that player’s library.

Description and history
A regular deck needs a minimum of 60 cards and there is no maximum number of cards of a deck. When Magic first began, the rules dictated a 40-card deck, and there was no restriction for the number of copies of each card. Constructed and Limited had the same deck size. It quickly became apparent that 40 was too small for Constructed as it both made the game too repetitive and made it too easy to pull off key combos. There is a maximum of 4 cards with the same name in each deck.

The only exceptions of this rule are the basic lands or if a card's text contradicts this rule (such as Relentless Rats). The four-of limit was not originally part of the game. In fact, that rule didn't roll around until WotC started pushing organized play more than half a year after the release of Alpha.

Rules
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Minimum deck size
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Starting deck
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Planar deck
The planar deck is separated deck utilized in Planechase containing oversized Plane and Phenomenon cards. undefined

Parts of a deck
A deck can be commonly organized in two fashions:
 * By card types
 * By purpose of the cards

This section will deal with the latter. The former is often employed on websites as a uniform way because not all of the following categories are featured in all decks. Cards within categories are usually listed alphabetically or from lowest to highest converted mana cost.

Mana base
The Mana base are all cards, which can either produce mana or give access to cards that do without requiring a mana cost to be paid. While a mana base is necessary for all decks, there is a multitude of ways to achieve it dependent on the environment of the deck, but in almost all cases Lands are used.

A subcategory that may be included here is mana acceleration with cards that do cost mana themselves but yield an amount of mana as their effect.

Win condition
The Win condition is simply the way the deck plans to win the game it participates in. Since there are multiple ways to force an opponent to lose a deck is usually trimmed to achieve just one of them. The most common win condition is dealing more damage to an opponent than his starting life total. However, combo decks or prison decks may target the opponents library instead and attempt to force him to draw more cards than his library contains. There are also cards which provide an alternate win condition which a deck may employ.

Protection
The third large portion of a deck is usually used to either shield oneself from attempts by the opponent to halt the own game plan, or cards that do so to the opponent.
 * Counters are predominantly blue and prevent a spell by the opponent from resolving and usually have the card representing the spell be put in the graveyard.
 * Discard is usually black and a proactive way to stop the opponent by removing cards out of his hand.
 * Removal is used to put a permanent on the Battlefield into a different zone. This includes direct damage spells which can target creatures, though they may also be used as a win condition.

Card advantage
This category is for cards which simply make other cards accessible either by putting additional cards in hand or manipulating the library. This may include Tutors, cards such as Ponder to alter what cards will be drawn next, or card draw such as Divination.

Utility
Utility cards are cards that may serve more than one function in a deck. A utility category may be named if categories such as Protection or Card advantage do not include enough cards to warrant a distinction in any one given deck.

Deckbuilding
Deckbuilding is creating a deck.


 * A little more than 1/3 of your deck should be mana. In a 60 card deck, 24 mana will suffice.
 * If you have too many different colors in your deck, the chance that you'll draw the right color reduces. Therefore, it is better to create a deck with 1, 2 or maybe 3 different colors. Artifacts and multicolor spells reduces the danger of mana screw.
 * Most people have more creatures than other spells in their deck.

Decklist
A decklist is the written version of a deck.

Deck description
There are no hard and fast rules to deck naming, popular decks get their own unique nickname, but decks are usually described by color, archetype and format. The colors being, Black, Blue, White, Green and Red (artifacts can be included). The archetypes being Aggro, Combo and Control (however, Combo decks are usually described by shorthanding the cards that form the actual combo). The formats are varied, but the most popular sanctioned formats are Vintage, Legacy, Standard, Modern, Block and Limited. If the deck uses only one color, it is referred to as mono. For example "My standard deck is mono blue Eye of the Storm combo", "It's an extended green blue aggro control deck".