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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 4:18PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Sep 27, 2011
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ive been playing magic for a while and im formitable foe until recently. I went to fnm and im one of the best at my store. A random stranger walks in wanting to play so i played him. I NEVER really get mana screwed, so he beats me because he was playing a card every turn and me every other. He tells me that i have a good deck but i need to fix the mana curve. ???? Icant figure it out can someone please help me before i screw myself in the SD PT qualifier.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 4:53PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2010
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mana curve basically means "lots of cheap spells, few expensive spells"
proud member of the 2011 community team
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 5:08PM
#3
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A mana curve is the distribution of the casting costs of the spells in your deck on a graph.
The objective, as you've so plainly stated in the opening post is to have stuff you can cast. If you spend a turn doing nothing and your opponent doesnt, then you are at a distinct disadvantage. If you have a bunch of 3 mana cards, but very few or not any 2 mana cards, you dont have an even curve and you might end up wasting your second turn.
If you have a bunch of high cost spells, your curve is top heavy. If you only have really low cost spells your curve can sometimes be too small.
Certain types of decks want different types of curves. A burn deck generally has a very low curve, while a control deck is likely to have higher curve because it intends the game to last longer.
My decks
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Comments or suggestions are always welcome
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Modern
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 5:34PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Sep 27, 2011
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okay so pretty much if you have a bunch os cmc1-3 your curve would be smaller therefore less mana? if your running a semi burn/green mana accel. you would need a small balanced amount of BL?
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 5:50PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2010
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you need to optimize your draws
for example if you have lots of cards with cmc >=6 and you draw them in the first 5 turns they are dead cards
you could have drawn something useful instead
so cut down the expensive cards to maximize the chance to draw the cheaper cards
proud member of the 2011 community team
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 6:29PM
#6
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4 months ago ::
Feb 11, 2013 - 7:55PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2007
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All it means is that you have to have something to do with your mana each turn.
You want to run out of cards and mana at the same time.
You really cannot break it down much farther then this because so many factors change your normal curve. Accelleration, come into play tapped land, land that returns other land to your hand, all have an effect on your curve.
For instance if you run 2 playsets of mana critters at the 1cmc slot your curve suddenly becomes 1-3 instead of 1-2. This means you do not need the 2 cmc slot necessarily filled. If you run 2 playsets of come into play tapped land your curve is 0-2. If you play play one of the many 2 mana artifacts in the 3cmc slot your curve can very easily be 1-2-3-6.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 12, 2013 - 2:37PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2010
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Basically, it's this: Assuming you have 24 lands, no accel, and you get sufficient card draw... On any turn, you can play Memnite  , Ornithopter  , &c. for free. On turn 1, you can play 1 one-drop. On turn 2, you can play 2 one-drops or 1 two-drop. On turn 3, you can play 3 one-drops or 1 two-drop and 1 one-dorp or 1 three-drop. On turn 4, you can play 4 one-drops or 2 two-drops or 1 three-drop and 1 one-drop or 1 four-drop. After that, you have an increasing likelihood to start missing lands. This is also why removal tends to cost three mana or less, so you can play them and something else. As such, it's best to play lower-cost cards and fewer colors (which can affect your tempo by "I have a mountain, an island, and a swamp, so why can't I Hippy  yet?" syndrome). Monored defines the curve, with decks like Sligh and red deck wins consistently winning on turn 5 or sometimes earlier...or not winning at all. Notable exceptions in Magic history
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Dark Ritual  . No mana accelerant in the game is more feared (save things with "mox" or "lotus" in their name, a few  colorless  rocks  , and legendary Urza block lands  ). Turn 1 first striker  that puts the opponent on a five-turn clock  ? Awesome. Turn 1 lol you're out of cards control ? Don't mind if I do. Turn 1 insane card draw that's broken at any cost  ? Okay, that's a little bit ridiculous.
Alternate costs and free spells. Alt costs are "You may do this and this instead of paying the mana cost." Usually they're for removal spells, counterspells, and the like. Free spells tend to refer to a number of mechanics, but most relevant here (since cascade requires you have 1 more mana anyway, and "untap X lands"  requires you have X mana) is affinity, which reduces a cost by  . Free spells are generally something most players are wary of because, oh yeah, all three of the aforementioned free mechanics are seriously, seriously busted.
Phyrexian mana cards are generally calculated assuming you pay 2 life, because life (usually) doesn't matter until you're at 0 or less. So Porcelain Legionnaire  is a two-drop. I had a Phyrexian mana Tempered Steel  deck that won a lot of games off this fact: t1 Vault Skirge  , t2 Porcelain Legionnaire , t3 Steel, and I've gained back the life I paid casting Steel.
Monocolored hybrid cards like Beseech the Queen  are calculated somewhere in-between. In nonblack decks, it's a six. In monoblack decks, it's a three, maybe a four if you use lots of colorless mana. In multicolored decks that use black, it's easily a four or a five.
If you're playing it more for the kicker, count the kicker.
A few mechanics (Time Spiral suspend, Zendikar quests and level up) use time (in a manner of speaking) as an alternate cost. Suspend used literal time. Quests used achievements like playing lands  , playing creatures  , or playing aggressively  as a stand-in for time. Level up used paying mana as a stand-in for time. The mana curve is an important part of the game, balance-wise. In chess, non-queen pieces matter because queens are restricted until most of them are taken, but if given a choice, most of us would play 15 queens and 1 king anyway. In Magic, mana cost functions like your king, queen's bishop, and the three pawns in front of the above pieces.
Clever deduction Watson! Maybe you can explain why Supergirl is trying to kill me.
----
Autocard is your friend.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] = Lightning Bolt 
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4 months ago ::
Feb 12, 2013 - 3:19PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2007
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With accelleration you can do weird things. I like hard casting lavaball trap  on the third turn for instance. In red/green T1 taiga  , arbor elf  T2 stomping ground  , overgrowth  on stomping ground. T3 tap ground for 3. float mana, untap ground tap for 3 tap 2 land. Play lavaball trap In just red. T1 mountain  , voltaic key  T2 mountain , grim monolith  , fire diamond  and untap the monolith with key T3 mountain , lavaball trap Similar mechanics exist for many other types of obnoxious large casting cost thingies. Both tooth and nail  and dragonstorm  spawned decks this way.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 12, 2013 - 4:31PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Oct 12, 2010
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Tell me about it. Most MTGS "X is broken" Commander threads relate to "you can draw Mana Vault , Mana Crypt , Sol Ring , Gilded Lotus  , and X by turn 3." Latest is Sylvan Primordial  , when, honestly, I'd say Diluvian or Sepulchral is more broken in the format. I mean, really?
Clever deduction Watson! Maybe you can explain why Supergirl is trying to kill me.
----
Autocard is your friend.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] = Lightning Bolt
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