Archetypes: What Does This Deck Do?

The most basic but most fundamental question for any Magic player is: What does this deck do?

It seems obvious, but it isn't.  It's easy to get caught up in nifty little themes -- everyone having deathtouch, or gaining a bunch of life, or whatnot -- that we forget that we need to, you know, win the game with this deck.  This is probably the most common issue with decks I see at work. Either they're diffuse and never get a plan throughout the game, or they're built around a concept that doesn't end up winning the game.

Much wiser individuals than myself addressed this issue by categorizing four deck archetypes: Aggro, Control, Midrange, and Combo.  A proper deck will recognize its archetype and embrace it, regardless of it color(s) or format.  As I tell many customers, if you're going to make a deck, make it all the way instead of halfway.

• Aggro: Aggro, or "aggressive" decks have a simple goal: Finish the game as soon as possible.  Aggro decks usually use low-cost, high-power creatures from the start of the game, even on the first turn, and want to crush the opponent before s/he can put up defenses and enact a plan. Typically, each turn that passes in the game makes an aggro deck less likely to win. Because it focuses so much on the early game, the deck "runs out of gas" in later turns and has no use for the mana it's accumulated.  Some variations of aggro decks flood the battlefield with creatures, whereas others rely on riding a few high-power cards to victory, but the same principle holds for all of them: You've got to go fast.

• Control: Control decks are the polar opposites of Aggro decks. They want to extend the game and stop the opponent in his/her tracks, eventually crushing the enemy with a devastating haymaker, often called a "win condition." Often these win conditions take only two or three slots of the sixty-card deck; the rest is dedicated to mana and spells that impede the opponent's progress. Unlike Aggro decks, the cards in a Control deck often scale well into the later turns of a game.  However, the biggest weakness of this archetype is that it needs to know the opponent's plan and draw the correct tools to halt it. As such, Control decks rely on knowledge of the local metagame more than other archetypes (something we'll cover in a later post).

• Midrange: Midrange decks are the hardest to quantify because their method of play varies from opponent to opponent.  In general, Midrange decks play like Aggro when they battle against Control and play like Control when they battle against Aggro. Cards in Midrange decks are used for their efficiency and ability to generate immediate advantage. As the name implies, Midrange decks exceed in the middle of the game, usually around turns 5 to 7 when they can "snowball" best. They want games to be neither too short, lest they be overwhelmed, nor too long, lest they run out of gas (though Midrange's gas lasts longer than the Aggro archetype).

• Combo: Combo decks rely on assembling a combination of cards (hence the name) that either wins the game immediately or causes insurmountable advantage.  Such combos are immensely powerful, and the strongest ones are often difficult to disrupt. However, Combo decks do have disadvantages.  Combo decks offer few ways to interact with opposing decks because most of the deck must dedicate itself to assembling the combo, so the speed of execution is a major concern. Additionally, cards in Combo decks are often underwhelming on their own, making the decks vulnerable if the combo fails. For these reasons, many Combo decks are also Control decks that use the combo as their main win condition, though plenty of pure Combo decks exist as well.

Of course, many decks do not fit squarely within one of these categories.   Blends and combinations of archetypes happen and often find success.  In addition, some decks must alter their play style's "archetype" based on their opponent. For example, at the time of this writing, Black/White Humans is clearly an Aggro deck, yet it must shift to a Midrange style when facing Mono-Red.

Still, if you're new to the tournament scene or Magic in general, I advise you to pick an archetype and stick with it for now. Don't hesitate to look at decks others have made on the Internet and copying the ones you like -- it's hard to build a good deck until you've played with a good deck.  And of course, ask the people around you at FNM or me here at Getting There.  The community remains your greatest resource.

I hope you enjoyed and found use from this overview of deck archetypes. Happy Planeswalking!

B-Tops