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I posted this as its own thread but Ill post it here too

This post is a response to a post from Jan 13, 2013 -- 8:47AM, Disturbed185 wrote:

Can your next thread please be about when to switch the core strategy? I find that to be a bigger problem.

I know I have fallen victim to this conundrum many times when building and EDH deck.  I look at a general and see so much that I could do with that card, and then I start deck building and I end up with a big card pool and narrow it down to a deck.  This can lead to a deck that lacks focus and win-conditions.  I think a lot of problems with deck building come from not knowing what you are going to do with a deck.  So here is a list the main deck types that I see out there and what they generally include.  To help determine what type of “core strategy” you are trying to play and how to best build to them.  All of these strategies will benefit from the previously mentioned ramp- draw strategy

1.  Combo:  This is fairly straight forward. Assemble my combo and I will win, and I want to assemble my combo faster then my opponent.  Using lots of tutoring effects and board disruption lead to a game state that is advantageous to the combo player.  OF course combo weakness is disruption and removal so having a back up plan is important, especially in a singleton format. 
2. Control:  Controlling the board state is the name of the game here, keeping what you have on the board and taking away what your opponents have.  This can be done by permission IE counters, resource denial, IE discard, land destruction, or removal the best example I have ever seen of this is a Braids deck before she got the ban hammer. 
3. Agro:  These decks are simple and effective, play big creatures and smash a lot of face with them.  They are what classic EDH table top magic was meant to be. 
4. Tempo:  These are decks that pair cards together that have a lot of synergy and work well together.   Better examples of these decks are usually seen in type 2 play but are possible to run in EDH. 
5. Voltron:  Again as the name implies it’s a deck that roles along and kind of plays defense and doesn’t look all that threatening until in assembles in a flashing light display that should have given us all a seizer when we all kids and wins that way.  See ZUR.  (you know who you are) 
6. Reanimate.  I kill your stuff, I kill my stuff, my things come back and yours stay dead.  These decks find ways to get stuff into their yard and get it back cheap, it’s a principal that’s as old as magic, bin expensive creature and get it in to play cheap. Except back in the day we were animating a   Mahamoti Djinn LOL. 
7. Mill:  Also a concept as old as magic.  I can run you out of cards I win the game.  Now anyone who has tried building a group mill deck knows it is not that easy to do but it can be done and is a fun deck to play.
8. Tribal:  Sliver players unite.  Playing a lot of creatures of the same type that benefit each other and have a nice theme to the deck.  Again a great table top stable of magic.
9. Good stuff decks:  As the name implies good stuff decks consist of the best and most powerful cards and usually win by out gunning other decks.  They have no real theme they just win by playing awesome cards. 
10. Other:  There are those people out there on that build decks that do not fall into these categories and these are the decks that are weird for weird sake.  You might have someone like this in your play group who is always showing up with some off the wall idea or creation that only works one in 20 times. 

Now I know the examples that I have given above are very simplistic and rudimentary strategy list of deck building ideas.  I also may have left a few of them out but they were the ones I could think of off the top of my head. 

Now the reason I bring these up is to help focus a deck.  I find that if I try to build in more then three of these ideas into a deck things will always end up going to Hell.  So for EDH I think that 2-3 is a perfect number when building a fun multiplayer deck.  Now as far as competitive 1 v 1 decks the more focused you are on one of these strategies the better your deck will perform.  I find that building a deck that is so focused on one aspect of the game is bad in group because your deck is not prepared to deal with the chaotic nature of group magic and you end up not having fun.  (It’s like playing a great 1 v 1 deck in a group game)  Sure you might kill one person but the table turns on you and you die quickly.  So to answer the question, find your general find two things you want to do with that general and build accordingly.  I see a lot of decks on here that people are asking for help with that have no idea what they are trying to do with the deck.  So I think it is not a matter of “switching the core strategy but focusing on one or two you already have in the deck and removing the cards that are not working toward that cause.

I hope this was moderately helpful in answering your question and helping people on this board build better decks, as usual discussion and ridicule are always welcome.

Jan 14, 2013 -- 1:38PM, RxPhantom wrote:

I'm actually looking for more non-green land ramp in the vein of Terrain Generator , Walking Atlas , Expedition Map and Solemn Simulacrum .  I do rely on rocks in non-green decks, perhaps more than I should.  Thawing Glaciers is a bit overpriced for me at the moment as well, and both of mine are already spoken for.

Not nearly enough people run Explorascope ...