If you clicked this link, chances are there have been times you wondered why your deck just isn't performing as well as you think it should. Or perhaps you're happy with your deck but you just wonder if there's room to improve. Maybe someone out there knows something you don't.
The vast majority of decks out there ARE underperforming. Sometimes, it's because the core strategy just isn't an efficient one. Sometimes it's because the card choices are off. But the vast majority of the time, it largely comes down to deck design.
Think of your deck as a beautiful structure. Perhaps it's a tall proud skyscraper. Perhaps it's a sprawling museum. Perhaps it's a giant statue. Whatever the case, it needs the support of a solid foundation. Most players I've played with/against online, and most decks I've seen posted here on the forums skimp on the foundation, and the deck underperforms as a result. And when I say 'most', I mean the vast majority. Like 90% of you.
Yes, even you, guy-who-thinks-he's-got-it-all-figured-out, are most likely choking your decks' efficiency by making it top-heavy.
So what is this foundation I speak of? It comes down to escaping the game's 2 core limitations: 1) the 1 land per turn limit 2) the 1 card drawn per turn limit
It really doesn't matter what your deck is trying to do. Perhaps you're trying to build up an overwhelming token swarm. Perhaps you're trying to voltron your general to epic proportions. Perhaps you're trying to assemble some sort of combo. Or perhaps you're trying to run everyone else out of gas and then clean up with the most hilarious of finishers. It doesn't matter. Regardless of its aim, your deck will accomplish its strategy more effectively with more mana available and more cards to play.
Ramp & draw is not just a 'strategy' that only applies to certain decks. EVERY strategy benefits from being supplemented by the ability transcend the 2 fundamental limitations of a turn.
Consider the following extremely simplified example:
I chose concentrate because 4 mana is a pretty standardized cost for a draw-3. Yes, there are more efficient (and more inefficient) ways to draw extra cards, but concentrate is common and cheap and accessible to everyone, and there are enough 3-for-4 analogs (eg: ambition's cost , harmonize ) to consider it a standardized 'fair' price for its effect.
Given a perfectly even shuffling distribution, goldfishing would look something like this:
By 'perfectly even' I mean that since deck A is 3/5ths action and 2/5ths land, its draws would look like: action, land, action, land, action, action, land, action, land, action, action, land, action, land, action, etc - 2 lands for every 3 action cards
Deck A opening hand: 3 land, 4 action Turn 1: draw action, play land(1 in play, 2 left in hand), 1 action mana available, 5 actions 2: draw land, play land(2,2), 3 am, 5a 3: draw action, play land(3,1), 6 am, 6a 4: draw action, play land(4,0), 10 am, 7a 5: draw land, play land(5,0), 15 am, 7a 6: draw action, miss land(5,0), 20 am, 8a 7: draw land, play land(6,0), 26 am, 8a 8: draw action, miss land(6,0), 32 am, 9a 9: draw action, miss land(6,0), 38 am, 10a 10: draw land, play land(7,0), 45 am, 10a
At the end of 10 turns, deck A has 7 lands in play, has drawn 10 action cards, and has had 45 mana over the course of those 10 turns that could have been spent playing action cards.
and deck B's perfect shuffle would leave the library stacked thusly before drawing the opener: Action land concentrate signet land Action action Land Action Concentrate Land Action Signet Land Action Concentrate Land Action Action Land Action Signet Land Concentrate Action land action action land signet Concentrate, etc...
Deck B opening hand: 2 land, 3 action, concentrate, signet
1: draw land(3), play land(1,2), 1am, 3a 2: draw action, play land (2,1), play signet, 1am, 4a 3: draw concentrate, play land (3,0), play concentrate (land(1), action, signet), 1am, 5a 4: draw land(2), play land(4,1), play signet, play concentrate (action, concentrate, land(2)), 1am, 6a 5: draw action, play land(5,1), play concentrate (action, land(2), action), 4am, 8a 6: draw signet, play land(6,1), play signet, 11am, 8a 7: draw land(2), play land (7,1), 21am, 8a 8: draw concentrate, play land(8,0), play concentrate (action, land(1), action), 28am, 10a 9: draw action, play land (9,0), 40am, 11a 10: draw land(1), play land (10,0), 53am, 11
At the end of 10 turns, deck B has 10 lands in play, and 3 signets, for a total of 13 available mana. It has drawn 11 action cards, and has had 53 mana over the course of those 10 turns that could have been spent playing action cards.
To summarize:
Deck B ran fewer lands than deck A (33 vs 40), yet deck A missed its turn 6 land drop while deck B made every drop up to turn 10.
Deck B ran fewer action cards in total than deck A (45 vs 59), yet drew more of them over the course of 10 turns (11 vs 10)
Deck B continuously dumped mana into ramp spells and card draw spells, yet had more leftover mana to put towards action cards than deck A had mana the entire course of those 10 turns (53 vs 45)
So basically, deck B outperformed deck A in every way.
Let's talk about that.
It's pretty easy to see that card draw played a huge role. How else does the deck with fewer lands in it draw more lands, and the deck with fewer action spells draw more action? It's easy to see the value provided by playing card draw effects. If you aren't playing cards that draw extra cards, you're choking your deck's performance by obeying the 1-card-per-turn limit.
What most newer players underestimate is the value of the ramp. Drawing extra cards costs mana. If you're spending mana to cheat on the 1-card-per-turn limit, but are still obeying the 1-land-per-turn limit, you're choking yourself in a different way: you now have more cards to play, but even less mana to play it with!
These 2 effects feed off each other. Ramp helps you play your cards faster. Draw gives you more cards to play. The more ramp your deck has, the more powerful card-draw effects become. And the more card-drawing-power your deck has, the more powerful ramp effects become.
Again, remember that this is just structural integrity we're discussing. I'm not telling you to change your decks' gameplan. I'm telling you to tighten it up a little and make room for the draw+ramp turbo-charge it needs to really fly.
A good card drawing engine is also a bad ramp engine.
Oddly and counterintuitively, cheap cantrips can be great EDH cards. Flare is a waste of space at 3 mana. Ponder and Thought Scour are great at 1 mana.
I take exception to labeling concentrate as something other than an action spell.
I agree with the principle though. I've said as much before.
When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself: "Is this card better than Rings ?" If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists.
So what about non-blue monocolour decks, where there really isn't much card draw available, especially of the Concentrate variety (especially in mono-red)?
Concentrate doesn't interact with the board in any way. It's resource development/investment.
Mono-color decks still have options. Black is easy: tutor for necropotence , done! For red, use artifacts like mind's eye and staff of nin , and if your build can unload its hand quickly, use plenty of wheel of fortune effects.
Red is probably the hardest to draw cards in repeatedly. Especially in the early stages of the game. Mana ramp that isn't land fetching is also more dangerous now because of cards like vandalblast.
Which is probably why blue black and green are such popular colors, and red is relegated to a support color in most cases.
I still take exception to not calling card draw action. Drawing cards and producing mana are the two actions that most directly influence who wins the game (in general). Yeah, its a bit semantic, I get that you're parsing between the different kinds of cards played... but it just feels so good to draw cards how can that not be action?!
When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself: "Is this card better than Rings ?" If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists.
Because "action" cards do something to the board/gamestate. Drawing cards doesn't actually do anything until you start casting those extra cards. It doesn't mean that drawing cards is bad, just that they fit into a different category.
I get what niheloim is saying. When your hand is weak and you're in a bad state and you're thinking "man I need to draw something good soon!", you're pretty happy to rip concentrate.
But still. It's a support card that helps your deck do its thing (better).
