Magic: The Gathering Deck Types: Black Discard

Magic: The Gathering, more commonly known as simply Magic, is the first collectible trading card game.  It was released by Wizards of the Coast in 1993.  A player can create his own deck using cards he obtains through booster packs, etc.  He is then able to play against other players, who will have a deck of their own.  This is what makes a trading card game so interesting.  It allows for each player to customize their own deck to suit their play style or utilize the cards they have in the best possible way.

In a game, each player has a deck of at least 60 cards.  There can be more than 60 in a deck but 60 is recommended as it helps you to draw your best cards.  One cool thing about Magic cards is that they are made to work together, unlike Yu-gi-oh, which focuses on the power of individual cards.  Each cards requires mana to cast, which is obtained mainly from land cards.  Each land card has a specific color, which can only be used to summon certain cards.  This means that you will need to fill your deck with cards that can use that color.  This is a direct cause of themed decks, which are much more interesting than packing a deck with as much power as you can manage.

On deck type is known as black discard.  This deck focuses less on playing creatures and more on preventing the opponent from doing so.  The black discard deck doesn’t attempt to run the opponent out of cards.  Instead it simply attempts to make the opponent helpless as all of the cards in their hand are sent to the discard pile.  Black discard decks run cards like mind rot, duress, and mind sludge, that cause the enemy to discard their cards.  Another useful card is Liliana’s caress, which causes a player who discards a card to lose 2 life.  Then, without any cards to play, the other player won’t have any real options against the creatures you play.

The problems that a black discard deck can encounter is that the opponent uses all of their cards before you can make them discard those cards.  This can be problematic.  Once a card is actually played it is a lot harder for the black discard deck to deal with it.  Be sure to run cards like doom blade and grasp of darkness that can destroy enemy creatures.  A lot of the big cards that this deck can use to great effect like corrupt and mind sludge require a lot of swamps, so be careful when putting other colors into this deck type.  It’s a simple formula that will either work wonders or you will have a hard time pulling out a win.

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