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Total Votes : 5
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:54 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Follow this "journal" and learn about card evaluation, as well as deckbuilding technics in a never-before tried way!
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Ok, this month, I decided to follow The First’s advice, and try to write something entirely new (again). Now, this is going to be the longest article ever written and submitted on CC by far, however, it’s going to be one of the easier reads, if you keep tuned in. Why? Because although it’ll be HUGE, it’ll be quite small. Confused? Keep reading...
Last month, user dzejkej gave me his collection’s list to try and work something out of it. Instead of giving you a finished product, throughout this month I’ll giude you all through each step from making the first cuts (and explaining why) to deciding what colors to use, what strategy to follow, how to build the deck, and how to tweak it. Whenever I’m able to, I’ll post another bit of the article (which will be divided on a "Day X" basis) and see what criticism I’ll get from that bit, so I can answer questions more quickly, and also answer abigger number of questions, covering a lot more aspetcs. As soon as the article is finished, I’ll edit it posting a Table of Contents to depict how many days the whole process took, which will hopefully happen with som time to spare until the end of the month, so I can get a grading on it.
Now you understand why I said the article would be huge, but small, right? Just keep tuned in, and you’ll be able to read it in a day-by-day basis, making it easier to absorb all the concepts, explanations, ideas and criticism I’ll be posting here. Also, as I said before, as I’ll be able to dive into very specific details by using this format, questions will arise in an equally specific basis, so newer players will be able to learn an awful lot fom it! Finally, through watching the process we’ll be going through here, players will learn a good bit about Limited play, specially Sealed, since the evaluation and interaction parts are quite similar to building a deck like this.
With this introductory post, I’ll give you his entire card pool so you can all start to ponder what is worth trying to play, what’s not, and so on, so forth.
So, without further delay, and to get the ball moving, here is his the entire 346 card pool he sent me:

Aeon Chronicler 1
AEther Membrane 2
AEtherflame Wall 1
Amrou Scout 2
Anaba Shaman 1
Ancient Grudge 1
Angel of Mercy 3
Angel’s Feather 1
Aquamorph Entity 3
Archivist 1
Ashcoat Bear 1
Aven Fisher 1
Aven Windreader 1
Azure Drake 1
Ballista Squad 1
Basal Sliver 1
Battering Sliver 1
Bewilder 1
Big Game Hunter 1
Blanchwood Armor 3
Blightspeaker 1
Blood Knight 1
Bog Serpent 1
Boomerang 2
Bottle Gnomes 1
Brain Gorgers 1
Brute Force 3
Calciderm 1
Call to the Netherworld 1
Candles of Leng 1
Careful Consideration 1
Cautery Sliver 1
Cavalry Master 1
Citanul Woodreaders 2
Cloudchaser Kestrel 1
Confiscate 1
Consume Spirit 1
Contaminated Bond 1
Coral Eel 2
Coral Trickster 1
Craw Wurm 3
Crossbow Infantry 3
Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1
Dancing Scimitar 1
Dark Banishing 1
Dash Hopes 1
Dawn Charm 2
Dead/Gone 2
Deadly Grub 1
Deathgazer 1
Deathspore Thallid 1
Dementia Sliver 1
Demonic Collusion 1
Demon’s Horn 1
Detainment Spell 1
Dreamscape Artist 1
Drifter il-Dal 1
Drudge Skeletons 1
Durkwood Baloth 1
Dust Corona 1
Dust Elemental 1
Eager Cadet 1
Elvish Warrior 2
Emperor Crocodile 1
Enormous Baloth 2
Enslave 1
Errant Ephemeron 1
Erratic Mutation 3
Essence Warden 1
Eternity Snare 1
Evangelize 1
Evolution Charm 2
Fa’adiyah Seer 1
Faceless Devourer 2
Fathom Seer 1
Firefright Mage 1
Flamecore Elemental 1
Fledgling Mawcor 1
Flickering Spirit 1
Flowstone Channeler 2
Fool’s Demise 1
Foriysian Interceptor 2
Fortify 1
Foul Imp 2
Frenetic Sliver 1
Frozen AEther 1
Fugitive Wizard 1
Fury Charm 3
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Gaze of Justice 1
Gemhide Sliver 1
Ghost Tactician 2
Giant Dustwasp 2
Giant Octopus 3
Giant Spider 1
Glorious Anthem 1
Glory Seeker 4
Goblin Raider 2
Grapeshot 1
Gravedigger 2
Grizzly Bears 2
Gustcloak Cavalier 1
Hammerheim Deadeye 1
Harmonic Sliver 1
Healing Leaves 1
Hedge Troll 1
Herd Gnarr 1
Highway Robber 2
Hill Giant 2
Hollow Dogs 2
Holy Day 1
Honor Guard 1
Horned Turtle 3
Hunting Moa 1
Chastise 1
Children of Korlis 1
Chronatog Totem 1
Index 1
Infantry Veteran 1
Ivory Giant 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1
Jedit’s Dragoons 3
Jodah’s Avenger 1
Kavu Climber 1
Kavu Climber 1
Keldon Halberdier 1
Keldon Marauders 1
Kraken’s Eye 1
Lava Axe 2
Llanowar Elves 1
Locket of Yesterdays 1
Magus of the Bazaar 1
Magus of the Tabernacle 1
Mahamoti Djinn 1
Mana Leak 1
Mana Tithe 1
Master Decoy 2
Melancholy 1
Mending Hands 1
Merfolk Thaumaturgist 1
Midnight Charm 2
Might of Old Krosa 1
Mindlash Sliver 1
Mire Boa 1
Mirri the Cursed 1
Molder 1
Moorish Cavalry 1
Muck Drubb 1
Mystic Snake 1
Naturalize 2
Needlepeak Spider 2
Nekrataal 1
Nether Traitor 1
Nightmare 1
Norwood Ranger 4
Null Profusion 1
Ogre Taskmaster 1
Orcish Cannonade 1
Overgrowth 2
Pacifism 2
Phyrexian Gargantua 1
Phyrexian Hulk 1
Piracy Charm 2
Pongify 2
Poultice Sliver 2
Pouncing Wurm 1
Primal Forcemage 1
Psychotic Episode 2
Psychotrope Thallid 1
Puppeteer 1
Pyrohemia 1
Raise Dead 1
Rampant Growth 1
Rathi Trapper 2
Reality Acid 1
Reflex Sliver 2
Regeneration 1
Remove Soul 1
Revered Dead 3
Ridged Kusite 2
Righteousness 1
Rod of Ruin 2
Rough/Tumble 1
Sacred Nectar 2
Saltblast 1
Saltcrusted Steppe 1
Saltfield Recluse 1
Sangrophage 1
Scarwood Treefolk 2
Screeching Sliver 1
Seal of Primordium 4
Serpent Warrior 2
Serra Angel 1
Shade of Trokair 3
Shaper Parasite 1
Shivan Wumpus 1
Simian Spirit Guide 1
Sinew Sliver 2
Skyhunter Prowler 1
Sleight of Hand 1
Snapback 1
Spiketail Drakeling 1
Spined Wurm 1
Spinneret Sliver 1
Spitting Sliver 2
Sprout 2
Stingscourger 1
Stone Rain 1
Storm Crow 1
Strangling Soot 1
Subterranean Shambler 1
Suntail Hawk 2
Synchronous Sliver 3
Tanglebloom 1
Telepathy 2
Temporal Extortion 1
Thallid Germinator 1
Thallid Shell-Dweller 2
Thieving Magpie 1
Tolarian Sentinel 1
Trained Armodon 2
Treetop Bracers 1
Trespasser il-Vec 2
Uktabi Drake 3
Underworld Dreams 1
Unholy Strength 1
Urborg Syphon-Mage 1
Utopia Vow 2
Veiling Oddity 1
Venerable Monk 1
Vengeance 2
Venser’s Sliver 1
Verduran Enchantress 1
Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1
Veteran Cavalier 2
Vhati il-Dal 1
Vitaspore Thallid 2
Vizzerdrix 2
Volcanic Hammer 2
Walk the Aeons 1
Waning Wurm 1
Weatherseed Totem 1
Web 1
Whitemane Lion 2
Willbender 2
Wind Drake 3
Wistful Thinking 1
Wurm’s Tooth 1
Yavimaya Enchantress 1

Ok, so let’s get this show on the road, now:

INDEX
Day 1: The first cuts
Day 2: It’s not bad, but could be better
Day 3: Setting the stage
Day 4: Going aggro
Day 5: Sideboarding
Day 6: Going control
Day 7: Wrapping it up


Day 1: The first cuts
Ok, most Limited card pools are usually around 75-90 cards, when you take out basic lands (and you should, or do you waste your time looking at the art?!?), and cards are all in the same block, so they tend to have a synergy between them. Also, they tend to be almost equally divided among each color, and rarity is usually set (although due to the Timeshifted cards, numbers CAN vary a little nowadays). This gigantic pool is 4-5 times bigger than any limited pool, and has cards from different setsmixed in, so the FIRST thing we have to do is cut out cards that are either suboptimal, hard to build around on a budget, impossible to build around on a budget and/or that are just plain bad. With that in mind, here are the first applicants to take the boot, and the reason to do so (btw, this doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll never hear from them again, just that they’re not a good starting point):

AEther Membrane - I’m just not that keen on auras, specially defensive ones. If you want to play an Aura, play one to pack a punch.
AEtherflame Wall - Just as I said about Auras, if you want to play a creature, play one that can swing. Mind you, for Limited play, sometimes, walls are most welcome, specially a versatile one as this, but as a general rules, don’t expect walls to make the first cut. Ever. They’re just not maindeck material unless you have absolutely nothing else to play.
Anaba Shaman - Prodigal Pyromancer is just better at doing the same thing, not worth it. And for the body, really, who cares for a 2/2 body in this situation? We care about the ability to ping!
Angel’s Feather - You’ll learn that, unless it’s the main focus of your deck or it comes with a really cool ability or perk (like in Faith’s Fetters or Loxodon Hierarch), lifegain is just not that useful, specially a limited one as this! This kind of card shouldn’t even make the sideboard in a constructed deck, and would VERY RARELY come in for a Limited match.
Aven Windreader - This creature COULD be argued as having a decent body for a flier, but really, for his mana cost, I’d rather just go and play Serra Sphinx. WAAAAAY much better. And let’s face it, unless you’re trying to run a crazy Booby Trap gizmo, his ability is just useless most of the time.
Bewilder - Wow, I’m impressed with how much this card sucks, no matter what scenario you try to put it into! Overcosted, most of the time a crappy ability, thank God AT LEAST it draws you a card. But no, certainly not what we’re looking for here.
Bog Serpent - Creatures that are land-dependant as this and Sea Serpent should be treated as walls, for purpose of evaluation (unless you’re playing 2HG Limited, where the possibility of seeing a swamp in play is HUGELY increased), and you know how I fell about walls, right?
Brain Gorgers - I don’t know, this is just... meh. It’ll never do what you want it to, since if you want it to kill a big monster, the opponent will let it come into play. If you desperately need a monster, THEN he’ll sac something, which he’ll probably be able to spare. Cards that give choices to the opponent are no usually that good, unlees it a substantial lose/lose choice like Browbeat (and even so, it must be used in the right decks, don’t expect to just randomly splash Browbeat in a red control deck and count it as a card-drawing spell, it’ll never be one in such build).
Candles of Leng - This is just one of the worst card-drawing tools I’ve ever seen, perhaps on the same level as Slate of Ancestry. However, in Limited, where you have a lot of one-ofs, it could be good to fill a slot, should you get a poor card pool.
Contaminated Bond - If you want to play an Aura on an opponent’s creature, make it permanent or make it hurt. Pacifism, Pillory of the Sleepless, Faith’s Fetters, Utopia Vow, Temporal Isolation, all of them are way better choices for defensive auras, as they act like removal. However, out of limited play, unless you want your Aura to play other roles (such as Temporal Isolation when you can sac it after declare blockers step is cleared and you want to play it on YOUR creatures), if you want a removal, then just play a removal, every color has some nowadays (for green, Utopia Vow is good).
Craw Wurm - Just splash a few mountains and/or Gruul signets and go with Streetbreaker Wurm, then!
Crossbow Infantry - The Ballista squad can deal X damage. Dealing one is just dull, just go with Quilled Sliver and a sliver subtheme, then.
Deadly Grub - Will never last long enough to be good in Constructed, not even in Limited, I might add.
Deathgazer - Situational, expensive, and a less-than-impressive body. Ditch it.
Dementia Sliver - Can I say "OUCH"?!? Costs too much, does too litle and it’s definitely NOT begginer-friendly, what with having to know all those card names by heart... Might as well bring a spoiler with you to the store!
Demonic Collusion - Seriously, it’s buyback cost is just obscene, so if you want a tutor, go with Diabolic Tutor. Cheaper, better, fits in with the Dimir House Guard transmute engine.
Demon’s Horn - Same as Angel’s Feather.
Detainment Spell - Detainment Spell is a tricky one. Surely, in theory, it may seem cool to be able to stop a turn one Birds of Paradise from producing mana, but if that’s what you want to do, better to play Sunlance. At least, it also nabs turn one Kird Ape played off of a Stomping Ground, something no other removal in Standard can do on the first turn.
Dust Corona - Can be good in Limited, but shares my hatred of auras.
Eager Cadet - I have no clue how Cobra can be sold out on those and have Sidewinder Sliver in stock...
Eternity Snare - See Contaminated Bond’s entry. Drawing a card does not justify the obscene increase in mana cost. Also, blue now has Pongify.
Fa’adiyah Seer - Only good in GB Dredge, and not even THAT good. From what I’ve seen of the list, GB Dredge is NOT an option, so, he’s out.
Faceless Devourer - Only good against Boros’ Soltari Priest, and might as well play Darkblast to get rid of it. Cheaper and more effective, much less situational.
Firefright Mage - Could be cool as a discard outlet, but for the same reasons, Flowstone Chaneller is superior.
Flickering Spirit - Not worth the cost, and he doesn’t even have a come-into-play ability. Unles you want to abuse Soul Warden, Essence Warden, Pandemonium, etc, he’s totally useless most of the time. And even if you DO want to abuse those, play something cheaper like Norin the Weary.
Fool’s Demise - There’s a reason Cobra has 23 copies of an uncommon card in stock, don’t you think? Not good. Not at all.
Foriysian Interceptor - Wall.
Fury Charm - In Constructed, you just can’t afford to have such poor combat tricks, and cards have to DO something impressive, you now. This charm sees a lot of play in Limited, but just doesn’t make the cut in Standard.
Gaze of Justice - Horrible horrible horrible removal.
Ghost Tactician - Costs too much, does too little.
Giant Spider - For the same converted cost, play Penumbra Spider. At least you get 2 spiders out of it. Btw, Penumbra Spider is a BEAST in Limited (just a bit of useful information, since Future Sight Pre-Release events will be taking place soon).
Hammerheim Deadeye - Decent in Limited for taking out those pesky Dragons and Angels, among others, although not good at all in constructed, since you can just pay his echo cost and play Tumble.
Harmonic Sliver - Limited and dangerous. Can find some room in sideboards, I believe, but for now, let’s ditch it.
Healing Leaves - What did I say about lifegaining?
Children of Korlis - Please, just play Martyr of Sands... SOOO much better...
Infantry Veteran - Too situational.
Jedit’s Dragoons - Outside of Limited, creatures BETTER be doing something other than this for this mana cost...
Jodah’s Avenger - Just not worth it’s cost, again. For all this mana, flip up a Slipstream Serpent to swing for 6 once and you’re good, and notice that I said before that creatures like the Serpent are awful...
Kavu Climber - Costs too much, does too little. Green can do much better body-wise.
Kraken’s Eye - See Angel’s Feather.
Locket of Yesterdays - I’ve only seen one deck playing it, and this pool wouldn’t comport building it.
Melancholy - You’re playing bnlack, for God’s sake, just kill the damn creature already.
Mending Hands - Now, Holy Day and Angel’s Grace are fine, they can buy you a whole turn of life! However, this one’s just not worth the deck space, you’re better off playing Sun’s Bounty (and you KNOW what I think about lifegaining).
Midnight Charm - Ok, THIS is the worst charm of the bunch, by far.
Molder - Naturalize is usually better.
Muck Drubb - Too situational to be good.
Null Profusion - This card is just too dangerous. Just imagine, you lay one of this down, pass the turn, they play Stupor. GG.
Pouncing Wurm - For seven mana, play Enormous Baloth. Period. For 4 (without the kicker), there’s a TON of better cards, including Emperor Crocodile.
Regeneration - I must say, this is a good aura. However, it still doesn’t make the cut in constructed, at least not for me. Id rather play Mire Boaover it, in the same slot.
Ridged Kusite - Not good for a one-drop, lousy ability. Plagued Rusalka and Festering Goblin are much better.
Righteousness - What did I say about defense? Swing for the win, fella! Drop the blocking!
Sacred Nectar - Life gaining... Yuck...
Scarwood Treefolk - If you’re playing this, THEN pouncing wurm looks much better. What good is a creature that comes into play tapped, and only swings for 3? For 4 mana, play Calciderm! Oh, you want green? Play Trained Armodon over it. Cheaper and better.
Skyhunter Prowler - Again, costs too much for doing too litle. For the smae cost, Aven Riftwatcher is superior in practically all aspects, specially with a few "rescue" creatures like Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker.
Spined Wurm - Yet again, splash red and go with Streetbreaker Wurm. Better in all aspects.
Spinneret Sliver - Why worrying about blocking? Swing FTW.
Storm Crow - Really suboptimal. I’d rather go with Snapping Drake for a solid flying beater.
Strangling Soot - Great in Limited, sucks in Constructed. Last Gasp outshines it by a landslide.
Tanglebloom - Do I need to say why?
Telepathy - Ok, this card’s art is great, and I’d love to have a foil one, but really, what good does it make?
Thieving Magpie - I’d rather play Ophidian Eye, even it being an Aura, over having to pay FOUR mana to deal ONE damage at an average of turn 5, to THEN start drawing some cards. With the Eye, you can play Looter il-Kor on turn 2, and then start drawing TWO cards a turn at turn 3.
Treetop Bracers - Suboptimal aura.
Web - Another suboptimal aura. Now, it’s not as a hate all auras, for instance, I like Unholy Strength very much (so much I didn’t cut it, yet).
Wurm’s Tooth - Same as Angel’s Feather.

After, this first clean up, here’s what we’re left with:

Aeon Chronicler 1
Amrou Scout 2
Ancient Grudge 1
Angel of Mercy 3
Aquamorph Entity 3
Archivist 1
Ashcoat Bear 1
Aven Fisher 1
Azure Drake 1
Ballista Squad 1
Basal Sliver 1
Battering Sliver 1
Big Game Hunter 1
Blanchwood Armor 3
Blightspeaker 1
Blood Knight 1
Boomerang 2
Bottle Gnomes 1
Brute Force 3
Calciderm 1
Call to the Netherworld 1
Careful Consideration 1
Cautery Sliver 1
Cavalry Master 1
Citanul Woodreaders 2
Cloudchaser Kestrel 1
Confiscate 1
Consume Spirit 1
Coral Eel 2
Coral Trickster 1
Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1
Dancing Scimitar 1
Dark Banishing 1
Dash Hopes 1
Dawn Charm 2
Dead/Gone 2
Deathspore Thallid 1
Dreamscape Artist 1
Drifter il-Dal 1
Drudge Skeletons 1
Durkwood Baloth 1
Dust Elemental 1
Elvish Warrior 2
Emperor Crocodile 1
Enormous Baloth 2
Enslave 1
Errant Ephemeron 1
Erratic Mutation 3
Essence Warden 1
Evangelize 1
Evolution Charm 2
Fathom Seer 1
Flamecore Elemental 1
Fledgling Mawcor 1
Flowstone Channeler 2
Fortify 1
Foul Imp 2
Frenetic Sliver 1
Frozen AEther 1
Fugitive Wizard 1
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Gemhide Sliver 1
Giant Dustwasp 2
Giant Octopus 3
Glorious Anthem 1
Glory Seeker 4
Goblin Raider 2
Grapeshot 1
Gravedigger 2
Grizzly Bears 2
Gustcloak Cavalier 1
Hedge Troll 1
Herd Gnarr 1
Highway Robber 2
Hill Giant 2
Hollow Dogs 2
Holy Day 1
Honor Guard 1
Horned Turtle 3
Hunting Moa 1
Chastise 1
Chronatog Totem 1
Index 1
Ivory Giant 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1
Keldon Halberdier 1
Keldon Marauders 1
Lava Axe 2
Llanowar Elves 1
Magus of the Bazaar 1
Magus of the Tabernacle 1
Mahamoti Djinn 1
Mana Leak 1
Mana Tithe 1
Master Decoy 2
Merfolk Thaumaturgist 1
Might of Old Krosa 1
Mindlash Sliver 1
Mire Boa 1
Mirri the Cursed 1
Moorish Cavalry 1
Mystic Snake 1
Naturalize 2
Needlepeak Spider 2
Nekrataal 1
Nether Traitor 1
Nightmare 1
Norwood Ranger 4
Ogre Taskmaster 1
Orcish Cannonade 1
Overgrowth 2
Pacifism 2
Phyrexian Gargantua 1
Phyrexian Hulk 1
Piracy Charm 2
Pongify 2
Poultice Sliver 2
Primal Forcemage 1
Psychotic Episode 2
Psychotrope Thallid 1
Puppeteer 1
Pyrohemia 1
Raise Dead 1
Rampant Growth 1
Rathi Trapper 2
Reality Acid 1
Reflex Sliver 2
Remove Soul 1
Revered Dead 3
Rod of Ruin 2
Rough/Tumble 1
Saltblast 1
Saltcrusted Steppe 1
Saltfield Recluse 1
Sangrophage 1
Screeching Sliver 1
Seal of Primordium 4
Serpent Warrior 2
Serra Angel 1
Shade of Trokair 3
Shaper Parasite 1
Shivan Wumpus 1
Simian Spirit Guide 1
Sinew Sliver 2
Sleight of Hand 1
Snapback 1
Spiketail Drakeling 1
Spitting Sliver 2
Sprout 2
Stingscourger 1
Stone Rain 1
Subterranean Shambler 1
Suntail Hawk 2
Synchronous Sliver 3
Temporal Extortion 1
Thallid Germinator 1
Thallid Shell-Dweller 2
Tolarian Sentinel 1
Trained Armodon 2
Trespasser il-Vec 2
Uktabi Drake 3
Underworld Dreams 1
Unholy Strength 1
Urborg Syphon-Mage 1
Utopia Vow 2
Veiling Oddity 1
Venerable Monk 1
Vengeance 2
Venser’s Sliver 1
Verduran Enchantress 1
Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1
Veteran Cavalier 2
Vhati il-Dal 1
Vitaspore Thallid 2
Vizzerdrix 2
Volcanic Hammer 2
Walk the Aeons 1
Waning Wurm 1
Weatherseed Totem 1
Whitemane Lion 2
Willbender 2
Wind Drake 3
Wistful Thinking 1
Yavimaya Enchantress 1
Total: 265 cards

Well, we didn’t get to cut even 100 cards so far, but that’s cool for our first-round cut. Next, we’ll take another sweep through the list, and cut cards that, even if we’d use them in a deck, we’d probably end up replacing them for better suited cards for the same task. So, for each card cut, I’ll state which card would be used in it’s place, unless, of course, the card that would replace it is a rare, in which case I’ll just skip it for now. I’ll only replace cards that would probably lose their space for commons or uncommons. So, stay tuned, for tomorrow we’ll be coming back for the second-round cut, so we can start working on the actual deckbuilding process as soon as possible! With this first cut, I wanted to illustrate points of view, usually missed by the newer, less experienced players.
1) The first one, of course, is that lifegaining alone is not a great way to win games, as winning life does not help you win, it just prevents you from losing quicker;
2) The second one is about auras. As I said before, I’m not saying that auras are all bad, not at all. For instance, I’m a huge fan of Moldervine Cloak. However, auras are VULNERABLE, and that’s my point. Auras to be played on an opponent’s permanent are a fine choice, since basically they’d have to waste a card to prevent the aura from targetting it. However, when you play them on YOUR creatures, they’ll spend a card and at least 2-for-1 you. That’s why I prefer cheaper auras, or auras which you can recur, or even auras with flash so you can catch them off guard.
3) The third, less obvious pointis the damage race aspect. As I said exhaustively, there’s no use defending yourself with all your cards, since that’ll only stall your loss. Be it in the aspect of playing defensive auras (or stuff like Holy Strength over Unholy Strength), or playing defensive creatures, that just represent you’re foregoing your ability to race for lethal damage to TRY and staunch the bleeding, and unless you’re playing control (which newer players tend not to, and Limited decks can’t usually afford to), that’s not very smart.
4) The last important lesson from this first cut (and that will continue on the next one) is about optimizing the mana curve. You’ve seen me cut expensive, good-for-nothing cards all day, and that’s exaclty what you should do when building a Constructed deck (for limited, for instance, Pouncing Wurm is a fairly decent card).
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this first tidbit, and that if you have any doubts so far concerning ANY aspect of what’s written here, be my guest and ask them right away! More will come tomorrow.

Day 2: It’s not bad, but could be better
Ok, so this time around, we’re gonna make the second round of cuts, with a small difference. Now, we’ll be leaving the grounds of Limited knowledge (where we evaluated cards by their raw power or synergy) and start delving into Constructed knowledge. Now, we’re gonna cut cards that, although being good, could definitely see some improvement, and still be in the real of our ficticious budget. For this, I’ll be cutting cards for which we could find a suitbale replacement, generally at the same rarity, or at a lower one. Of course, if a common does one thing and an uncommon does it in a MUCH better way, then it’s an acceptable cut, too, since our budget generally supports uncommons. I won’t, however, substitute any card for a timeshifted or rar card, so we can keep our experience as budget-friendly as possible.
So, without further ado, let’s start cutting loose those cards (after all, our pool is still huge, we’ve got to slim it down a bit so we can actually work on it):

Archivist - Although his ability looks cool, his body is just too frail. For 4 mana that’ll draw me a card on turn 5, in average, I’d rather pay 5 mana and play Tidings. Or pay 3 for a COmpulsive Research.
Aven Fisher - Blue has enough card-drawing available at all rarities for you to be caring about his second ability. Thus, a 2/2 flier for 4 mana is just expensive. At the same cost, Snapping Drake is way much better.
Azure Drake - GOen for the same reason as Aven Fisher. I’d rather be swinging than defending, thus, a 3/2 is much better than a 2/4 for the same cost.
Call to the Netherworld - Really, I won’t even delve into the madness cost. Unless you’re playing monoblack, Raise Dead is strictly better, and Grim Harvest is superior than both at doing the same thing. However, if the idea is going aggro, I’d rather play Gravedigger at common, or Dread Return / Zombify at uncommon.
Cavalry Master - Really, double flanking is mainly overkill. Also, it won’t do squat for non-flanking creatures, so at the same cost and rarity, and for a similar effect, I’1d just go with Celestial Crusader, it having flash (meaning I don’t lock my mana), being uncounterable, helping ALL white creatures (there’s not that much flanking outside of white anyway) AND being a flier.
Coral Eel - If you want to beatdown, Coral Trickster is better (since you can actually play a bit with an opponent’s mind by morphing it, and even get something out of its ability). "Oh, but what if I already have 4 Tricksters?" you might ask. Did you know there’s a card named Drifter il-Dal? Wink
Dancing Scimitar - Ok, so it flies. And it can be played in any color. Serously, I’m SURE you can find beater beaters (and remember, evasion is about beating better, most of the time) for a lower cost (same, tops) in ANY color. To name a few: Foul Imp, Spiketail Drakeling, Uktabi Drake, Cloudchaser Kestrel and Ironclaw Buzzardiers (it’s pseudo-flying, but still better).
Dark Banishing - Last Gasp usually takes care of the most annoying creatures, costing less mana. Sudden Death, at the same mana cost, can deal with practically any beater in Standard nowadays, save for maybe Dragons.
Drudge Skeletons - As you probably have guessed by now, I don’t like being on the defensive all that much. And even if YOU do, then play Rimebound Dead. Cheaper, and you can spend virtually any mana (even colorless, provided it’s from a Snow Land) to regenerate it.
Enormous Baloth - By the time you get to 7 mana, you’ll probalby be dead, if this is your main win condition in Constructed. Either play Moldervine Cloak to make ANY beater bigger (and it’s a recurring aura!), or play Blanchwood Armor, one of the few expensive auras I’d play in a deck.
Enslave - Don’t take a creature, kill it.
Frozen AEther - I’m still up to seeing someone breaking this card. However, taking the most use out of it would probably require a multiplayer environment. In one-on-one Constructed, it’s usually better to Exhasution your opponent up when it’s worth it. Generally buys you a whole turn.
Fugitive Wizard - If you want to beatdown, try Drifter il-Dal. Heck, try Greyscaled Gharial, at least it’s got landwalking!
Glory Seeker - Hello, Benalish Cavalry! ’nough said.
Goblin Raider - Ok, it’s a step up, but Kird Ape is better. Blood KNight is better. Gruul Guildmage is better. Heck, Raging Goblin is better (at least it has haste and it’s cheaper, not to mention it can chump block, something useful now that we have Brute Force)!
Grapeshot - Storm decks tend to cost a lot to make, and abusing Grapeshot would require quite an expensive deck to make it worth it. Play Rough/Tumble or Pyroclasm if you want to target multiple creatures.
Grizzly Bears - I guess these guys will never make it. Every time there’s something straightout better, even if it’s not that impressive as well. Good-bye Grizzly Bears, hello, Ashcoat Bear!
Gustcloak Cavalier - Costs WAAAAY too much for a not-so-useful ability. You would’ve been fine with Cavalry Master, and you know what I think of it...
Highway Robber - Skulking Knight is more impressive, and it’s not that great.
Hill Giant - SUlfur Elemental outshines it by a LANDSLIDE! Who cares about that 1 more toughness? It’s much better to practically shut down Boros Deck Wins, one of the top deks in Standard!
Hollow Dogs - This just costs TOO MUCH for being so disruptable. Seriously, how many common spells can kill him in one shot? I can name, out of the top of my head, Giant Growth, Brute Force, Rift Bolt, Last Gasp, Sunlance and Volcanic Hammer.
Honor Guard - You know how I fell about defense, right? Play Shade of Trokair for the smae cost plus some turns waiting, it’s still better.
Horned Turtle - Horned Turtle was designed to serve as a defense. Now, in 9th Edition Limited, it’s a staple. However, in Constructed, that 1 point of damage it deals will rarely make that much of a difference, so I’d rather go with Drift of Phantasms, being able to stall a larger array of beaters, and also being transmutable for some pretty good spells (the real oomph in Constructed play is generally in the 3-4 cc slot).
Hunting Moa - I’d rather go with Mire Boa any day than this oversized, overcosted bird. That being said, mind you that there’s a 2-mana Goblin ( Wink ) that eliminates its Echo cost, and 3 mana for a 4/3 is pretty respectable.
Chronatog Totem - There are better totems out there. Not that useful at all.
Index - I’d be happier playing a Sleight of Hand, which actually nets me card advantage, or a Sage of Epityr, which looks at one less card, but at least throws himself on the way of a Llanowar Elves, Magus of the Scroll, Scorched Rusalka or Savannah Lions for a pretty good trade, IMO.
Lava Axe - I’m not fond of player-only burn, it makes it that less versatile. Unless you’re playing a full burn deck, go witht he cheaper spells (they’re quicker) like Volcanic Hammer. If you want to go big, play Blaze. It’ll be better than the Axe 99 out of 100 times.
Merfolk Thaumaturgist - Don’t try the Serendib Sorcerer (or Ovinize, or Saltfield Recluse) combo with this guy. Just not worth it.
Needlepeak Spider - For the same cost, Barbed Shocker is much cooler, in which it gets opponent’s red handed most of the time, and disrupts a quite decent amount of strategies, if one of these slip by the defending player’s guard. I side it in my Gruul builds a lot, as a hate against control, usually playing it after they wrath the board.
Nekrataal - Gone for the same reason as Dark Banishing, although Nekrataal is much better IMO, since you can make a lot of strategies to abuse him.
Norwood Ranger - Llanowar Elves and Boreal Druids are just better, since they accelerate. The 1 toughness is not worth giving it the 1-mana slot in a deck.
Orcish Cannonade - Too color-intensive for such a lame removal spell, although being a cantrip is kind of nice. However, I’d go with the versatility of Dead//Gone over this any day, any time.
Pacifism - Faith’s Fetters is all the way better.
Psychotic Episode - Just play Coercion or Mind Rot. Better, even considering the possibility to madness out an Episode.
Puppeteer - Who cares about one more toughness? Play Rimewind Taskmage with snow lands. Or, raise the bar a little, and play the ABSOLUTELY much better Icy Manipulator.
Raise Dead - Eventhough it’s better than Call to the Netherworld, Gravedigger outshines them both. Or splash green and play Reclaim.
Rathi Trapper - I understand the budget white player having to play Squall Drifter or something by that effect to tap attackers early on (until they can play Faith’s Fetters). I understand this guy being a beast in Limited, since Assassinate is part of the same environment. But I can NOT understand THIS being in a constructed deck in the same slot Last Gasp could be in.
Rod of Ruin - Any color nowadays can find a form of removal or sapping that’s just way better!
Screeching Sliver - Decking someone out of Limited with a sliver subtheme is just insane to try. Trying it with cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable is already hard enough.
Serpent Warrior - OUCH! I’d rather play Foul Imp, due to its evasion, or Skulking Knight.
Shade of Trokair - Ok, so being better than Honor Guard does not make this a staple after all... Costs too much, and white has enough weenie power not to bother playing this.
Spitting Sliver - They just cost too much for a sliver deck. For the same cost, try Might Sliver. You’ll thank me later.
Sprout - Outside of limited, you’re better off with Selesnya Guildmage, Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree or Scatter the Seeds to produce tokens. Heck, Icatian Crier is better!
Stingscourger - If you want to bounce something, play Dead//Gone. You can either bounce it, or kill it. More versatile.
Synchronous Sliver - Might Sliver, anyone? "Oh, but I can give’em +2/+2 AND vigilance!" Seriously, outside of limited, just go ahead and give’em +4/+4. You’ll thank me, again.
Temporal Extortion - Not abusable being a one-of in his list.
Thallid Germinator - Pallid Mycoderm is just better at doing what this does.
Tolarian Sentinel - Costs too much. If you want to bounce Reality Acid, play Dream Stalker.
Urborg Syphon-Mage - Outside of multiplayer and/or Limited, this guy’s just overcosted. Play Trespasser il-Vec and be happy with its "evasion".
Veiling Oddity - Blue beatdown? Well, if you’re beating down, than waiting this much for a final strike is just not worth it. Keep it for Limited (a BEAST in 2HG Limited, btw!).
Venerable Monk - Play Faith’s Fetters for the lifegain, or play Benalish Cavalry for the beating down. Anyway, you’ll be playing a better card.
Venser’s Sliver - Might Sliver.
Verduran Enchantress - Too hard to abuse without at least 5 "sisters".
Walk the Aeons - Another hard to abuse without more copies, pretty useless on it’s own.
Wind Drake - Spiketail Drakeling all the way!
Yavimaya Enchantress - I’m not that keen on auras, you know. Even though, I’d rather play Moldervine Cloak over this.

Ok, that leaves us with:
Aeon Chronicler 1
Amrou Scout 2
Ancient Grudge 1
Angel of Mercy 3
Aquamorph Entity 3
Ashcoat Bear 1
Ballista Squad 1
Basal Sliver 1
Battering Sliver 1
Big Game Hunter 1
Blanchwood Armor 3
Blightspeaker 1
Blood Knight 1
Boomerang 2
Bottle Gnomes 1
Brute Force 3
Calciderm 1
Careful Consideration 1
Cautery Sliver 1
Citanul Woodreaders 2
Cloudchaser Kestrel 1
Confiscate 1
Consume Spirit 1
Coral Trickster 1
Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1
Dash Hopes 1
Dawn Charm 2
Dead/Gone 2
Deathspore Thallid 1
Dreamscape Artist 1
Drifter il-Dal 1
Durkwood Baloth 1
Dust Elemental 1
Elvish Warrior 2
Emperor Crocodile 1
Errant Ephemeron 1
Erratic Mutation 3
Essence Warden 1
Evangelize 1
Evolution Charm 2
Fathom Seer 1
Flamecore Elemental 1
Fledgling Mawcor 1
Flowstone Channeler 2
Fortify 1
Foul Imp 2
Frenetic Sliver 1
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Gemhide Sliver 1
Giant Dustwasp 2
Giant Octopus 3
Glorious Anthem 1
Gravedigger 2
Hedge Troll 1
Herd Gnarr 1
Holy Day 1
Chastise 1
Ivory Giant 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1
Keldon Halberdier 1
Keldon Marauders 1
Lava Axe 2
Llanowar Elves 1
Magus of the Bazaar 1
Magus of the Tabernacle 1
Mahamoti Djinn 1
Mana Leak 1
Mana Tithe 1
Master Decoy 2
Might of Old Krosa 1
Mindlash Sliver 1
Mire Boa 1
Mirri the Cursed 1
Moorish Cavalry 1
Mystic Snake 1
Naturalize 2
Nether Traitor 1
Nightmare 1
Ogre Taskmaster 1
Overgrowth 2
Phyrexian Gargantua 1
Phyrexian Hulk 1
Piracy Charm 2
Pongify 2
Poultice Sliver 2
Primal Forcemage 1
Psychotrope Thallid 1
Pyrohemia 1
Rampant Growth 1
Reality Acid 1
Reflex Sliver 2
Remove Soul 1
Revered Dead 3
Rough/Tumble 1
Saltblast 1
Saltcrusted Steppe 1
Saltfield Recluse 1
Sangrophage 1
Seal of Primordium 4
Serra Angel 1
Shaper Parasite 1
Shivan Wumpus 1
Simian Spirit Guide 1
Sinew Sliver 2
Sleight of Hand 1
Snapback 1
Spiketail Drakeling 1
Stone Rain 1
Subterranean Shambler 1
Suntail Hawk 2
Synchronous Sliver 3
Thallid Shell-Dweller 2
Trained Armodon 2
Trespasser il-Vec 2
Uktabi Drake 3
Underworld Dreams 1
Unholy Strength 1
Utopia Vow 2
Vengeance 2
Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1
Veteran Cavalier 2
Vhati il-Dal 1
Vitaspore Thallid 2
Vizzerdrix 2
Volcanic Hammer 2
Waning Wurm 1
Weatherseed Totem 1
Whitemane Lion 2
Willbender 2
Wistful Thinking 1
Total: 183 cards

Ok, that looks much better! With this part, I wanted to teach some valuable lessons:
1) Constructed and Limited are different enviroments. A lot fo the cuts I made today would’ve been perfectly fine (or even great) for limited play, but do not have what it takes to make it into constructed.
2) Research is an important part of deckbuilding. After choosing the format, and what you want your cards to do (the role they’ll play in your deck), RESEACRH! CHeck out ALL the cards available to do that function you can find.
3) Do not "settle". This falls under the category above, but I can’t stress it enough. Just because Venerable Monk is doing a good job beating down Timmy’s deck, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t swap it for an EVEN BETTER beater, so when Bobby comes ’round, you’ll be able to beat HIM too, instead of just sit there, watching his Benalish Cavalry pound your monk.

Well, that’s it for today. Join me tomorrow, as we’ll sort the cards by color, and start choosing the path we’ll follow from now on!

Day 3: Setting the stage
Ok, time for another look at our experiment. So far, we’ve made a lot of cuts, and ended up with yet a ton of cards in our pool. So, this time around, I decided to take a shortcut to where we want to get to: choosing our archetype. In order to do that, let’s do what every budget (and Limited) player does when he looks at a big card pool: look at the rares! Why? ’cause rares are most likely the most expensive part of a deck anyway, so building around the ones you already have tends to be easier. Also, the rare slot gives the budget player some nice finishers (since they’ll usually have a scatter amount of any given one of them to actually make a deck fully relying on them to run), or back-breaking tricks against unaware opponents, specially in a casual/budget-ish group, since they’ll never know what to expect. So, let’s sort the rares in colors, and see where that leaves us (for purposes of budgetary sake, I’ll consider Tiem Spiral’s timeshifted cards as being rare, since a given TS is more difficult to open in a booster pack than a rare itself, mathematically):

White rares:
Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1
Dust Elemental 1
Glorious Anthem 1
Magus of the Tabernacle 1
Moorish Cavalry 1
Serra Angel 1

Blue rares:
Aeon Chronicler 1
Magus of the Bazaar 1
Mahamoti Djinn 1
Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1
Vizzerdrix 2
Willbender 2

Black rares:
Mirri the Cursed 1
Nether Traitor 1
Nightmare 1
Underworld Dreams 1

Red rares:
Shivan Wumpus 1

Green rares:
Emperor Crocodile 1
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1

Multicolored rares:
Mystic Snake 1
Vhati il-Dal 1

From this list, I kind of like what I see in white, green and blue. Black COULD have some potential, perhaps with green. Red is flat-out. From here, I think we could try a U/W control, or peraps a U/B. We could also try a W/G aggro, since we already have 2 Anthems anyway.
So, that’s settled, we’ll try two different approaches on the same pool, to better explore the rares we’ve already got, so we’ll be building a UB control deck, and a GW aggro. Also, notice that, if you read my article on budget decks last month, you know we don’t HAVE to start a deck with the rares, but let’s do that for a change. Also, budget players just LOVE to smash face with a freshly opened rare, and having only a few copies of them make them all that much special when they show up in any given game.
Well, I could work more on the subject, but for today, I’d like to leave you all with a question (and also, to know if someone is keeping up with this):
Which build should I start working first? Waiting on answers, and eventual questions that may have arose.

Day 4: Going aggro
Ok, by the vast majority of votes, we’re following through with the GW aggro build, to make better use of the rares we have at our disposal. As long as it’s possible, we’ll try to use the following cards:
Dust Elemental 1
Glorious Anthem 1
Serra Angel 1
Emperor Crocodile 1
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1 (might be dropped for being overcosted in colored mana, but we’ll start the build trying to use it).
So, let’s start today’s work with yet ANOTHER round of cutting! Wink FOr now, we’ll be cutting cards that are not aggro AND cards that could/should be replaced easily, all at once! So, the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll be finished and building, now won’t we?

So, let’s first take a look at what we have in each color:

Green cards:
Ashcoat Bear 1
Blanchwood Armor 3
Citanul Woodreaders 2
Durkwood Baloth 1
Elvish Warrior 2
Emperor Crocodile 1
Essence Warden 1
Evolution Charm 2
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Gemhide Sliver 1
Giant Dustwasp 2
Hedge Troll 1
Herd Gnarr 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1
Llanowar Elves 1
Might of Old Krosa 1
Mire Boa 1
Naturalize 2
Overgrowth 2
Primal Forcemage 1
Psychotrope Thallid 1
Rampant Growth 1
Reflex Sliver 2
Seal of Primordium 4
Thallid Shell-Dweller 2
Trained Armodon 2
Uktabi Drake 3
Utopia Vow 2
Vitaspore Thallid 2
Total: 47 cards

White cards:
Amrou Scout 2
Angel of Mercy 3
Ballista Squad 1
Calciderm 1
Cloudchaser Kestrel 1
Crovax, Ascendant Hero 1
Dawn Charm 2
Dust Elemental 1
Evangelize 1
Fortify 1
Glorious Anthem 1
Holy Day 1
Chastise 1
Ivory Giant 1
Magus of the Tabernacle 1
Mana Tithe 1
Master Decoy 2
Moorish Cavalry 1
Poultice Sliver 2
Revered Dead 3
Saltblast 1
Saltfield Recluse 1
Serra Angel 1
Sinew Sliver 2
Suntail Hawk 2
Vengeance 2
Veteran Cavalier 2
Whitemane Lion 2
Total: 50 cards

In addition, let’s take a look at what colorless cards we have available:

Colorless cards:
Bottle Gnomes 1
Phyrexian Hulk 1
Saltcrusted Steppe 1
Weatherseed Totem 1
Total: 4 cards

So, let’s "merge" the lists, and start cutting right away!

Blanchwood Armor - NOw don’t get me wrong, this is a SUPERB card, specially for an aura. However, it counts FORESTS, and in a double-colored deck with a lot of early drops costing double-white we’ll be having at least as many white sources as green ones, so I’d rather stick with Moldervine Cloak (also, has some synergy with the Totems, since I can dredge it back to swing with a Cloaked totem the following turn again and again).
Citanul Woodreaders - While it’s a viable option for drawing some cards, aggro is about redundancy. We want to have creatures flowing in a steadly but certain pace, rather than a swarm of them. Also, to actually draw us some cards, Woodreaders come at a ridiculously expensive cost. Then, I’m not interested in solid defenders (it’s a 1/4 after all), but rather solid beaters.
Durkwood Baloth - While this card is perfectly fine for, say, a budgetary Gruul build (my friend uses 4 of these guys, they make a MESS against LD decks), it’s now really fit for a Selesnya (GW) build, since it has much more solid early beaters. Supending this guy on turn 1 means I’m missing on playing a one-drop to start beating or to accelerate into a second-turn three drop, and later in the game it’s useless to suspend him, and too expensive to hardcast him.
Essence Warden - Aggro is about beating. With this in mind, I don’t intend to have lifegaining as a strategy, not even a side one. Then again, taking into account that we might be using Jedit (which puts quite some creatures into play) and that the Warden is a one-drop (a rather deficient spot for this build, considering C and U), I set it aside for now, making a mental note that we have it available.
Evolution Charm - We don’t need that much color fixing, flying is not that necessary (we win by playing threat after threat, not by relying in one-shot attacks) and we don’t have a creature that is more important than any other, that we might need to bring back, so this one is flat out.
Gemhide Sliver - I’m not that keen on Slivers, yet, so let’s leave the thematic out for now. Also, GW slivers only does not qualify as a fast deck, nor as a powerful deck, and does not have that many resources available, making it too frail (with the exception of Sidewinder Sliver, a perfectly good one-drop).
Giant Dustwasp - In monogreen this could be thought of, having a little flying force. When we also have white at our disposal, this just becomes an expensive flier.
Herd Gnarr - A beast in Thallid decks, suboptimal in this one. Thallids is aggro/control, generally, and I want to focus on our goal for now.
Might of Old Krosa - I do not expect pumps to make it into the deck, unless it’s a group pump like Fortify or a trick like Bathe in Light.
Overgrowth - Our creatures will be usually cheap, and the deck will have a smooth curve, so ramping up mana development is not that necessary. Don’t get me wrong, Llanowar Elves are great for the deck, but they’re a creature, and a one-drop. As a three-drop, I’d rather use Hedge Troll.
Primal Forcemage - Not that many good creatures with haste, and I won’t focus on blocking, as I said before. This one would go right into a Sliver build, though, with Reflex Sliver.
Psychotrope Thallid - Same with Slivers, thallids are not making the cut this time. They could be, but for now, let’s leave them out (with perhaps the exception of Thallid Shell-Dweller, against stronger decks).
Rampant Growth - Out for the same reason as Overgrowth.
Reflex Sliver - Bye bye slivers.
Seal of Primordium - We already have Naturalize as a sideboard tool, and I like it better than Seal since we’ll be mostly playing cheap creatures.
Uktabi Drake - I do not intend to pay echo. I’d rather play a 1/1 on it’s place and have it stick around, ALSO having free mana to play a 2/2 the following turn.
Utopia Vow - If we REALLY need removal, we’ll turn to Sunlance and/or Temporal Isolation.
Vitaspore Thallid - Thallids are out.
Amrou Scout - If we’re not going with GW Thallids nor Slivers, we’re DEFINITELY not going with Rebels, since Rebels are at best in BW, and this guy is just a poor beater on his own.
Angel of Mercy - VCosts too much. For expensive creatures, we already have Serra Angel (way much better), Calciderm (ditto) and Jedit, which might get cut.
Ballista Squad - We’re playing offense, not defense.
Cloudchaser Kestrel - For blowing up enchantments, I’d rather have Ronom Unicorn around. Less heavy on the color requirements.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero - Hoses us as much as helps us. Costs too much for killing our own Elves and Boas.
Dawn Charm - I’d rather just use Bathe in Light to protect creatures, or Holy Day to survive another turn.
Holy Day - But then again, I won’t be playing defense, as I said before.
Chastise - Great tool for control, but not suited for aggro.
Ivory Giant - I expect to have at least as much green creatures as white ones, so his ability will punish us as much as help us. Also, has the same problems of Durkwood Baloth.
Magus of the Tabernacle - Problematic for an aggro build, great tool for control.
Master Decoy - Defensive tool.
Moorish Cavalry - Costs too much for what it does, we already have Calciderm at the same cost, which is much better.
Poultice Sliver - No slivers for now.
Revered Dead - Defensive as well.
Saltfield Recluse - Defensive, again.
Sinew Sliver - Solid creature, but if we’re not focusing in slivers, might as well drop it to avoid helping the opposition.
Vengeance - Defensive tool, again. I’m not saying that aggro decks can’t play removal (Last Gasp makes it into any black deck I build nowadays, including aggro), but they should pack more impressive forms of removal, and only as needed. Thus, I’ve let Saltblast stay for now, since it kills troublesome lands, Fortune Thief (TERRIBLE for us), Artifacts, etc.
Bottle Gnomes - Suboptimal as a beater, more of a control tool, but helps against decks like Dragonstorm, so while setting it aside, I make another mental note that I have it available (yep, it also works well in conjunction with Essence Warden for a whole lifegaining subtheme).
Phyrexian Hulk - Costs too much.
Saltcrusted Steppe - I do not expect to need a bunch of mana, we don’t have that many expensive spells anyway, and no outlet to sink all this mana into.

Ok, so let’s see where we’re at, so far:
Ashcoat Bear 1
Elvish Warrior 2
Emperor Crocodile 1
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Hedge Troll 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1
Llanowar Elves 1
Mire Boa 1
Naturalize 2
Thallid Shell-Dweller 2
Trained Armodon 2
Calciderm 1
Dust Elemental 1
Evangelize 1
Fortify 1
Glorious Anthem 1
Mana Tithe 1
Saltblast 1
Serra Angel 1
Suntail Hawk 2
Veteran Cavalier 2
Whitemane Lion 2
Weatherseed Totem 1
Total: 30 cards

NOW we’re talking! Let’s see what our deck would look like, at first glance:

GW Aggro

22 Lands:
11 Forest
11 Plains

18 Creatures:
Ashcoat Bear 1
Elvish Warrior 2
Emperor Crocodile 1
Hedge Troll 1
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1
Llanowar Elves 1
Mire Boa 1
Trained Armodon 2
Calciderm 1
Serra Angel 1
Suntail Hawk 2
Veteran Cavalier 2
Whitemane Lion 2

1 Instant:
Fortify 1

2 Enchantments:
Gaea’s Anthem 1
Glorious Anthem 1

8 Sideboard cards:
Naturalize 2
Thallid Shell-Dweller 2
Mana Tithe 1
Saltblast 1
Weatherseed Totem 1
Evangelize 1
Dust Elemental 1

Ok, so let’s ditch the sideboard completly, for now, to start working on the main build. Let’s start by taking a look at how many drops we have at each cc (converted mana cost):

1cc - 3
2cc - 8
3cc - 6
4cc - 2
5cc - 1
6cc - 1

Ok, it’s official. Let’s drop Jedit (too expensive, and we don’t have that much utility for all the tokens it’ll put into play). Also, let’s move Emperor Crocodile to the sideboard, for now. It’s a good creature, but I’d rather play Calciderm over it. However, against Boros and/or Gruul, and other weenies, having bigger creatures is the key to success, so we’ll keep it at the SB as a 5th copy of a fatty. Now, we’re going to start working our 30-dollar budget. For now, let’s see stuff that we’ll want around.

Sidewinder Sliver - I still think Sidewinder Sliver is a superior 1-drop to Suntail Hawk, although they both have their value, so let’s keep the Hawks and add in Sidewinder Slivers to have more one-drops.
Benalish Cavalry - The best common two-drop in Time Spiral, and perhaps the second best in Standard (behind Scab-Clan Mauler), being easily splashable due to easier color requirements, making our Ashcoat Bear kick the bucket, being obsolete.
Knight of the Holy Nimbus - Amazing two-drop. However, a bit heavier on the colors, as is Elvish Warrior. Since we already have Veteran Cavalier, Selesnya Guildmage, Watchwolf, Elvish Warrior and Mire Boa at the 2-drop slot, let’s lose it for now.
Selesnya Guildmage - A lot easier on the colors, and really cool abilities in a respectable body. What’s not to love?
Watchwolf - Best available 2-drop for the color combination in Standard, perhaps even in Extended. Really good beater.

Ok, so let’s add in 2 Sidewinder Sliver (0.10 each), 2 Benalish Cavalry (0.10 each), 3 Selesnya Guildmage (0.50 each) and 4 Watchwolf (1.00 each) for now. Also, let’s add in 3 Llanowar Elves (at 0.50 each), 3 Mire Boa (at 0.10 each), 2 Calciderm (our greatest finisher, at 0.75 each) and 2 Hedge Troll (at 0.50 each), for a grand total of 10.20 spent, so far. Let’s also ditch the Whitemane Lions to the sideboard, for now, to see if we’ll even need rescue creatures with the thematic I’m thinking of. Trained Armodon is also going, as is Fortify (we won’t need a creature rush after all) since it’s heavy on colors for a not-so-great body after all. So, this is what the deck is looking like right now:

20 Lands:
10 Forest
10 Plains

32 Creatures:
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Suntail Hawk
2 Sidewinder Sliver
2 Benalish Cavalry
3 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Watchwolf
2 Veteran Cavalier
2 Elvish Warrior
4 Mire Boa
3 Hedge Troll
3 Calciderm
1 Serra Angel

2 Enchantments:
1 Gaea’s Anthem
1 Glorious Anthem

Between Serra Angel, Veteran Cavalier, Mire Boa, Hedge Troll and Selesnya Guildmage (generating tokens), we have defense as well as offense (and we didn’t even want that! cool, huh?). Now, I want to take full advantage on our budget by exploring the thematic that brought my attention to GW aggro at the first place: Anthems. They make anything you play out a threat, they’re harder to get rid of, and you can recover from a wrath-like effect with 2-3 creatures. So, let’s add in 3 Gaea’s Anthem (the cheaper one, selling here for 4.50 each, not to mention it has synergy with our Llanowar Elves), and our secret tech: Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree! With Vitu-Ghazi, you can generate tokens like crazy, it’s hard as hell to stop (since it comes form a land), and any token will be a force to be reckoned with, due to the Anthems. I add in 4 Vitu-Ghazi (for 0.25 each), to reach the total amount of 24.70 spent, and a deck that looks like this:

24 Lands:
10 Forest
10 Plains
4 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

32 Creatures:
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Suntail Hawk
2 Sidewinder Sliver
2 Benalish Cavalry
3 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Watchwolf
2 Veteran Cavalier
2 Elvish Warrior
4 Mire Boa
3 Hedge Troll
3 Calciderm
1 Serra Angel

4 Enchantments:
3 Gaea’s Anthem
1 Glorious Anthem

Sideboard (cards we’re not using right now, not a real sideboard, just a reminder of our options):
2 Naturalize
2 Thallid Shell-Dweller
1 Mana Tithe
1 Saltblast
1 Weatherseed Totem
1 Evangelize
1 Dust Elemental
1 Emperor Crocodile
1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
1 Ashcoat Bear
1 Fortify
2 Trained Armodon
2 Whitemane Lion

That’s it for today. NOW I expect a bunch of questions to arise, so feel free to ask’em, I’ll answer them to the best of my abilities. Join me tomorrow, as we start tweaking our deck to make a strongest main deck, and to start assembling our sideboard. Also, notice that since we’ll still tweak the deck, we might drop cards that we "bought", so don’t just go buying cards right away, until we’re finished with the deck.

Day 5: Sideboarding
Ok, after a few matches with the deck above, the first thing is a MAIN DECK change, of adding in another Selesnya Guildmage and dropping a Forest (U$ 25.20 so far). Guildmage is amazingly versatile for our colored mana, and really good to havea round later on, when you have 1-2 Anthems down, since he can basically copycat himself (we care more about the 2/2 body anyway) each turn, with 4 mana up. Also, we’ll CUT one Vitu-Ghazi, as the colorless mana HAS stood in my way before, and we don’t really need to have a bunch of them out, but actually just one (which knocks us back down to U$ 24.95 spent so far).
NOW, it’s time to talk about weaknesses. One of the biggest threats someone could lay down against me was Worship. I could only roll over and die when I saw one, same thing happening with stuff like Faith’s Fetters, Moldervine Cloak and etc. I wanted to have an answer against it, so I first thought about Seal of Primordium or Naturalize. However, this being a creature deck, and also because of the fact that both Benalish Cavalry AND Veteran Cavalier have not been impressive 2-drops, I decided to drop the Cavalry (I’d usually drop the Cavalier, but we already have him in our pool, and had to buy the other one, so I just went with the cheaper option) for 3 Ronom Unicorn (we did cut one Vitu-Ghazi, remember?). It’s as good as a beater as Cavalry (seriously, flanking didn’t make quite much of a difference in match-ups against other casual decks), AND gives me a main deck option against enchantments WHILE opening up room in the sideboard! So far, U$ 25.05 spent.
I liked playing with the rescue creatures, also. They provide a nice defensive tool against wrath-like effects and such (saving, say a Guildmage to let us rebuild), and also help me ensure I’ll almost always be getting the better end of the deal on combats. So, I decided to keep the Dust Elemental at the SB (it’s also a great finisher if I need to FORCE damage through, since we can’t really afford Soltari Priests, not to mention he’s HUGE for our parameters!), and the Whitemane Lions. I also added in 2 Stonecloakers (0.25 each), since they’re both good at hosing down graveyard based decks (you can play him end of turn, bouncing himself back to your hand, thus removing a card from their graveyard each turn) AND a good option if your opponent is playing white’s new menace: Sulfur Elemental! Drop Suntail Hawks, add those in. You lose tempo, but gain advantage on the damage race. The final addition I made right away was a card to both let us "recycle" our deck (it’s not recycling because we have no ways to shuffle it, but it DOES get us back our cards) AND hose down graveyard based decks, not to mention it’s a fairly solid beater on and of itself: Jotun Grunt! I go ahead and add in 2 (it’s dangerous to have more, since he might end up dead in your hand, since you’re not packing Momentary Blink to "reset" his upkeep, nor heavy Dredge Cards), for 50 cents.
Then, I had some trouble against pesky permanents I could do nothing about (namely, Scrying Sheets, Serrated Arrows, pingers in general and Jaya Ballard, Task Mage), so I decided to let in 3 Faith’s Fetters, for a grand total of 1.50 dollars.
Then, I decided to also keep the Thallid Sehll-Dwellers as cheaper versions of Carven Caryatid, who also happen to have a little synergy with our anthems, and Weatherseed Totem, as an after-wrath utility card. Finally, I thought about adding in Bathe in Light, to protect our creatures, but went in with Rebuff the Wicked instead, since it also protects our Anthems! So, in go 3 Rebuff the wicked (2.25 total), out goes Emperor Crocodile and 1 Whitemane Lion. I was torn about dropping the Lion or the Totem, but kept the totem as a bigger beater with trample, and ALSO because I can protect both equally with Rebuff the Wicked, not to mention, it’s a little "heavy" to have Dust Elemental, Stonecloaker AND Whitemane lion around...
So, after all this work, here’s wht our deck will look like:

GW Anthem Evolution (60 cards, 15 sideboard cards, U$ 28.80 dollars spent)

22 Lands:
9 Forest
10 Plains
3 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

34 Creatures:
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Suntail Hawk
2 Sidewinder Sliver
3 Ronom Unicorn
4 Selesnya Guildmage
4 Watchwolf
2 Veteran Cavalier
2 Elvish Warrior
4 Mire Boa
3 Hedge Troll
3 Calciderm
1 Serra Angel

4 Enchantments:
3 Gaea’s Anthem
1 Glorious Anthem

15 Sideboard cards:
2 Thallid Shell-Dweller
1 Weatherseed Totem
1 Dust Elemental
3 Rebuff the Wicked
3 Faith’s Fetters
2 Jotun Grunt
2 Stonecloaker
1 Whitemane Lion

Now, I won’t go into how this deck could be made better, because you could just go through my "Breaking Planar Chaos" article and check my GW builds there. For now, let’s say I’m satisfied with our experiment so far, and that I hope you all learned valuable lessons on evaluation, building, "forcing" a card into our build, knowing when to let one go, searching for options and focusing on our goal. So, I’ll take a small break to let the readers digest the whole thing ’till now, and when I get back (probably on friday), we’ll start the process into building a UB CONTROL build! Yep, that’s right, newer players and budget players will be taught how to play control, a very fun deck archetype to play in casual, since people tend not to be expecting it, but rather a control/aggro build, at most. Questions, opinions and criticism, flow in!

Day 6: Going control
Ok, guys, now it’s time to go control! Since no questions were asked, I’ll assume everyone who didn’t know yet now know the basics of card choices, so i’ll just go ahead and proceed to cut what’s not control and what could be replaced for better cards, ending up with an already control-like UB list.

Aquamorph Entity - Will generaly be used to swing for 5, and then die to take out a fattie. Not really control-ish in my book.
Basal Sliver - This guy goes into a funny infinite loop combo I’ve been working on, but not meant for this deck, as Sliver control is not a good theme, since they’re all creatures.
Big Game Hunter - Too situational removal, could go into an aggro deck with some discard outlet, but not this one.
Blightspeaker - Rebels are also better suited for aggro.
Coral Trickster - Aggro creature by nature, one of the most cost-efficient blue beaters around.
Dash Hopes - A little bit color-intensive. Also, I’d rather play a hard-counter, since my opponent won’t care about losing 5 life to resolve a crucial spell against a slower control deck. This card looks better in aggro, as weird as that may sound.
Deathspore Thallid - Could gointo a control build, due to it’s ability, but it’s better in a GB one, with Vathil il-Dal (notice it IS possible to try tuis build with our pool, Thallids are rather cheap and we arleady have Vathil, another cheap rare.)
Dreamscape Artist - I donot intend to play more than 2 colors. That being said, this guy is a BOMB in limited, since it thins your deck of lands, WHILE helping you get the colors you need.
Drifter il-Dal - Aggro tool.
Fledgling Mawcor - Pingers are not that great in control decks. In fact, they’re not even that great in aggro decks. Pingers are at their best in Limited, with the exception of Gelectrode, which is a pretty good pinger.
Foul Imp - More aggro oriented, not really good.
Giant Octopus - Another cool tool for an attempt at a casual blue aggro, but not that hot on control.
Gravedigger - COULD fit a control deck’s purpose, since he gives me some meat to work with, and can get me a discarded creature backform the graveyard, but I like him better as an aggro tool, or at least for aggro-control, which is not our goal. If we’re to stress out the points in making a control deck for you to learn, might sa well make it pure control.
Mindlash Sliver - Good for sliver builds as a one-drop, and could even fit a monoblack aggro 1-drop slot, alongside perhaps Festering Goblin. But that’s it.
Nether Traitor - It’s a pretty good rare. However, I find it better in aggro decks (creatures will be hitting the bin more often), and in a larger quantity.
Phyrexian Hulk - We already have better finishers.
Reality Acid - It’s a cool card, but goes into a whole different deck. Mostly UW, with Temporal Isolation and Cloudstone Curio. Also, use Drift of Phantasms to transmute for the Curio and then stalemate the game. Pretty fun to work with!
Sangrophage - All-out aggro.
Shaper Parasite - A beast in Limited, and COULD fit a monoblue aggro. But for control, it’s just... meh.
Snapback - I’d rather just go with Boomerang. In fact, I did.
Spiketail Drakeling - Aggro beater!
Synchronous Sliver - No slivers this time, sorry!
Trespasser il-Vec - VERY cool for the aggro-discard thematic, but that’s as good as it gets.
Underworld Dreams - For a budget-ish, two color build this card is WAAAY too color-heavy. Also, I have no intention of building our deck about making an opponent draw cards (and so, options). Looks like fun with Megrim and cards like Careful Consideration and Wistful Thinking, but that’s it.
Unholy Strength - Won’t look good in a control deck, with less creatures by definition.
Vizzerdrix - What can I say? We already have better finishers in Mirri, Mahamoti Djinn and Aeon Chronicler. Considering I’m still looking at Nightmare, too, it’s just too much expensive fatties.
Waning Wurm - I sincerely doubt I’d play this out of BW aggro with rescue creatures. And Limited format, of course!

Now, let’s look at what we’re left with.

Aeon Chronicler 1
Boomerang 2
Careful Consideration 1
Confiscate 1
Consume Spirit 1
Errant Ephemeron 1
Erratic Mutation 3
Fathom Seer 1
Magus of the Bazaar 1
Mahamoti Djinn 1
Mana Leak 1
Mirri the Cursed 1
Nightmare 1
Phyrexian Gargantua 1
Piracy Charm 2
Pongify 2
Remove Soul 1
Sleight of Hand 1
Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1
Willbender 2
Wistful Thinking 1
Total: 27 cards

Ok, so, what will our control be focused in? It can be massive creature killing, discarding, countering or locking. From our pool, since Wizards of the Coast already has a really good discard/control build in our colors, I decided to go with a hybrid of creature killing (we have some good pieces of removal, and casual decks are mostly about creatures and burn anyway) and countering, with a pinch of card-drawing. With this in mind, let’s see what does not make the cut:

Boomerang - Bouncing won’t be our main focus, since we ditched discard.
Confiscate - Costs too much and does too litle for us.
Phyrexian Gargantua - The card-drawing effect is nice, and he has a respectable body, but I hope to be doing better things at 6 mana, like suspending a Chronicler.
Wistful Thinking - Discards more than it draws, hurts too much. Better used against opponents, perhaps in that Megrim / Underworld Dreams deck...

So, that leaves us with:

Aeon Chronicler 1
Careful Consideration 1
Consume Spirit 1
Errant Ephemeron 1
Erratic Mutation 3
Fathom Seer 1
Magus of the Bazaar 1
Mahamoti Djinn 1
Mana Leak 1
Mirri the Cursed 1
Nightmare 1
Piracy Charm 2
Pongify 2
Remove Soul 1
Sleight of Hand 1
Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1
Willbender 2

Total: 21 cards

Since discarding is not our main strategy, Piracy Charm plays a very small removal role, although a good one, since there’s not that much playable creatures with protection from blue anyway. However, it’s right out on the sideboard. Pongify can go the same way, for now, since we don’t ahve that much creatures to ’pong, although that could be altered later. As for Nightmare and Consume Spirit, they both require too many black swamps to be good, so FOR NOW, they’ll be relegated to the sideboard. That being said, we’re left with:

UB Control (0 dollars spent, 30 dollars to spend)

22 Lands:
11 Swamp
11 Island

9 Creatures:
1 Aeon Chronicler
1 Errant Ephemeron
1 Fathom Seer
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Mahamoti Djinn
1 Mirri the Cursed
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
2 Willbender

7 Other Spells:
1 Careful Consideration
3 Erratic Mutation
1 Mana Leak
1 Remove Soul
1 Sleight of Hand

6 Sideboard cards:
1 Consume Spirit
1 Nightmare
2 Piracy Charm
2 Pongify

Now, notice the interaction with the Vesuvan Shapeshifter and both Willbender and Fathom Seer. You can either keep deflecting spells (even Split Second ones!) or drawing more and mroe cards, so more Fathom Seers are in order. However, he sets us back in mana development, and I don’t want to focus the entire deck on Shapeshifter and Seer interaction, so I’ll resort to other card-drawing spells, and add just one more Seer (as he can at least block some aerly beaters in case I need him to).
Also, Mana Leak is a pretty good counterspell, and a cheap one, as is Rune Snag. Although Remand is pretty cheap around here, it’s been hard to get one of those for quite some time now, so let’s assume we can’t get our hands on it easily, and go with the ones available. That means Rune Snag AND Mana Leak are being added, as is ONE more Remove Soul (situational, but still good).
Sleight of Hand is a terrific turn-one play, so we’ll get a full set of it, and although careful consideration is a good card-drawing spell, I’ve found Compulsive Research to be better. So, let’s keep our sole consideration, and add in a set of these. We also need some turn 2 plays in the control VS. control match (against aggro, it’s usually better to just save mana to counter a potential threat, and suspending Errant Ephemeron is a terrific play. So, for now, let’s add in 1 more Ephemeron. So, with our addings, we’ve "spent" U$ 4.25 (remember, only consider spending on the build AFTER the deck’s been finished) , and we’re left with:
Since Fathom Seer bounces lands, I’ve decided to add in 4 Dimir signets, so we cankeep our mana development even when bouncing a few lands back to our hand. Also, I added in 3 Dimir Aqueduct in place of 2 Swamps (thus adding in another land), for a grand total of 5.30 spent.

UB Control (U$ 24.70 still left)

22 Lands:
9 Swamp
11 Island
3 Dimir Aqueduct

11 Creatures:
1 Aeon Chronicler
2 Errant Ephemeron
2 Fathom Seer
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Mahamoti Djinn
1 Mirri the Cursed
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
2 Willbender

22 Other Spells:
1 Careful Consideration
4 Compulsive Research
3 Erratic Mutation
4 Mana Leak
4 Rune Snag
2 Remove Soul
4 Sleight of Hand

4 Artifacts:
4 Dimir Signet

6 Sideboard cards:
1 Consume Spirit
1 Nightmare
2 Piracy Charm
2 Pongify

I decided to add in 3 Diabolic Tutors, to find whatever suits our needs (like the Shapeshifter to draw a ton of cards). And since we can now find whatever we may want, I add back in Nightmare and Consume Spirit, and a sole copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in place of another swamp. I also dropped the idea of Remove Soul, I already have EIGHT counters, AND 3 removals maindecked. what I DID add, was a pair of Sudden Death, best budget-ish removal available right now. So, let’s look at what we have. I dropped Careful Consideration (too much card-drawing), and Erratic Mutation got shifted to the sideboard, since it’s not a very reliable removal spell. For the sideboard, I went with another copy of Consume Spirit (for those games that reach a stalemate), 3 copies of Boomerang, to make 4 with the one we already had, as an answer to artifacts and enchantments, to which we have none. (as I said, you never know what card you couldv’e overlooked). Since we still have more than 10 dollars left to spend, I added a copy of both Vesuvan Shapeshifter, and two copies of Brine Elemental. I then proceeded to move Vesuvan to the maindeck, and Mirri to the sideboard. This way, the deck can play a lot of different ways, with Shapeshifter making for protection and card drawing, Chronicler coming in when we need another BIG beater, Mirri coming in when you need a faster beater, and brine Elemental coming in against other control decks, or slower aggro decks, to make a pickles combo, locking the opponent forever. So, this is what we came to, in the end:

UB Control (U$ 9.15 still left)

23 Lands:
8 Swamp
11 Island
3 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

11 Creatures:
2 Errant Ephemeron
2 Fathom Seer
1 Magus of the Bazaar
1 Mahamoti Djinn
2 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
2 Willbender
1 Nightmare

22 Other Spells:
3 Diabolic Tutor
4 Compulsive Research
4 Mana Leak
4 Rune Snag
4 Sleight of Hand
1 Consume Spirit
2 Sudden Death

4 Artifacts:
4 Dimir Signet

15 Sideboard cards:
2 Piracy Charm
2 Pongify
1 Aeon Chronicler
3 Erratic Mutation
1 Consume Spirit
3 Boomerang
1 Mirri the Cursed
2 Brine Elemental

AND, look at this, we still have NINE WHOLE DOLLARS left! Pretty cool, huh? I’ll be back tomorrow with some match results analysis, to see where this deck could be better.

Day 7: Wrapping it up

Ok, so, it’s time to have closure. After playtesting both decks, I corrected the weaknesses of the first one, and that helped me plan ahead better with the second one, as to not have trouble against certain permanents that kept showing up. These are still budgetary decks, and "for-fun" ones, using a given pool, buit they’re still good for, say, the Casual Room of Magic Online. Also, throughout this huge walkthrough you all learnedsome valuable lessons on deckbuilding in general. So, from now on, when your friend comes running at your door to show you the big shoe box full of cards he just purchased, or when you open a Sealed pool, remember:

1) Look at your power cards;
2) Check what you have available for the colors;
3) Check if it’s a viable strategy;
4) Look for redundancy, to better make your strategy stick;
5) Research the cards you could use, in search of better suited ones for the task;
6) Think ahead what troubles you might face, and prepare accordingly;
7) Playtest your build as to find weak spots;
Cool Don’t be afraid to let go of a certain card or strategy, if you think it’s not working accordingly.
PS: And, of course, keep in mind the format you’re playing in.

Ok folks, thanks for all of you who took the time to read this, as usual, and stay tuned, for next month, a whole new article of my "Breaking" series will be up, and this time, we’ll be really seeing into the FUTURE! Wink
Applause Homage Applause
Last edited by Felipe Musco on Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:41 pm; edited 11 times in totalI don't like YOU.
corvus
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:58 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 1696 Location: Roaming, but dangerous!!!
Seems fascinating. Get it running! Very Happy
Last edited by corvus on Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:05 am; edited 1 time in totalClick here if you want to trade some foils away Wink
Far, Far beyond the island we dwelt in shapes of twilight
Through draught and weary days
Through grief and endless pain
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:56 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Thanks, corvus, working on a college paper, but as soon as that’s over, I’ll get to work on Day 1.
I don't like YOU.
bandfreak9
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:09 pm
Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 84 Location: Virginia
any idea when the next day will be posted I’m assumind tomorrow but if not come up with some sort ummm...
schedule

that way its like following a tv show I know its coming blank day so I have to have read the one before it before the new one is posted

I hope my English paper sounds better than this
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:31 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Laughing Yeah, the main idea is to post it on a day-by-day basis, so day 1 will probably be tomorrow. However, I’ll be away for Easter, so there will be no updates on friday and saturday, and possibly on sunday, too. But aside from that, yeah, you can expect a post a day (althought sometimes I might have to skip one, it’s good to keep the mistery).
I don't like YOU.
bandfreak9
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:50 pm
Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 84 Location: Virginia
ok cool
Felipe Musco
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:40 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Updated.
I don't like YOU.
Andre
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:51 pm
Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 3 Location:
Cool
Eager to see what you gonna make with these cards Razz
Felipe Musco
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:38 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
All I can say is: "so am I". Laughing
But seriously, I have no idea where this is going to take me... However, I DO know that I decidesd to do things a bit differently tomorrow, since our pool is still too big. But you’ll have to wait ’till tomorrow to see it! Wink
I don't like YOU.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 4:15 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Updated, informal poll is now open! Post your choice below, and state the resons that lead you to it!
I don't like YOU.

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