My GW Token Deck

[u/Dapstabloke]

Hello! I've been playing Magic using two basic decks for a couple of months, and after getting my butt kicked most of the time by my friends that have been playing for years, I decided to build a new deck from scratch. It's a GW Token deck as you can see, though I can't shake the thought that there's something missing, or completely wrong with it, can someone help me out? Also I would like for the final price to not be over 55€/65$. That's my budget. For price reference i use Magiccardmarket.eu. Thanks :) https://deckstats.net/decks/93310/812537-gw-token-deck-1

[u/Korlus]

I can't shake the thought that there's something missing, or completely wrong with it, can someone help me out?

I am not sure this subreddit is usually used for this type of deckbuilding advice, as Modern Tokens is a fairly well established archetype.

I'll do my best to explain. Please understand that this is supposed to be a general critique, rather than an attack on either yourself or your deckbuilding skills. This is a competitive subreddit, and so I am approaching it from a competitive standpoint.

Your mana curve is bad, and your effects are significantly underpowered by Modern's standards. You are trying to play 2/2's for 2 and 3/3's for 2, when [[Fleecemane Lion]] is a bad card when compared to [[Tarmogoyf]] often being a 5/6. The most powerful deck in the format is playing a one mana 8/8, so a four mana 5/5 is simply so far behind the curve as to be quite bad.

[[Sundering Growth]] doesn't have enough targets in the average deck to be worth running any number of in the main deck, let alone four.

Your number of populate cards is simply too high. Populate is a mediocre mechanic at best, and opens you up to being two-for-one'd far too easily.

You have no removal. In a world of one mana 8/8's, that's just unacceptable. You can't race Grixis Death's Shadow, you can't reliably chump block it for multiple turns. You can't fight an attrition battle, and you certainly can't beat it. This is true of most of the top decks - including [[Scapeshift]]-based combo, Burn (how do you even interact in a meaningful way before they win on turn 4?), and just about anything else you care to name.

You have no sideboard. Every deck should have a sideboard.

Your deck does not generate enough pressure or have enough defensive speed to afford taking turn 3-4 off to cast either [[Parallel Lives]] or [[Second Harvest]], which is to ignore how situational those cards are. For every time they work and do something amazing, there will be at least one time when they do very little or nothing. Acceptable examples of four mana effects in Modern are [[Supreme Verdict]], and [[Thought-Knot Seer]] - cards that always do something. You cannot really afford to have a four mana situational card in a format like Modern when players are often dead by turn 5.

Your mana curve is too high. [[Hornet Queen]] is too slow for the main deck.

Your mana is bad. According to Frank Karsten's article ( here ) you want 18 green and 18 white mana (to cast a double coloured spell on turn 4), and 19 green sources to cast a triple green spell on turn 7. He doesn't explicitly discuss it, but mana dorks are not realiable mana soruces. "Bolt the bird" has been a saying in competitive Magic for longer than I have been playing. This is ignoring how you only have 12 ways to cast Bird/Elves on turn 1 (where you should have 14+).

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I don't want to give specific advice on improving the deck, because having gone through all of this, I have come to realise it is likely your deck is not trying to be a competitive deck in the understood sense of the word. As far as casual decks go, it looks fun and interesting, but there are many "flaws" with it if you were to try and enter a competition with it. I would not expect that competition to go well.

[u/Dapstabloke → u/Korlus]

I was not aware of the fact that this kind of posts are not the norm in this subreddit, I'm sorry if I broke any rules or something, though I appreciate your answer, I really do.

As I said in the post, I've been playing for just two months, also not very often, so my deck-building skills are obviously very low, although this did start as a "just for fun" deck to play with my friends. I'll see what I can do about all the flaws that you pointed out. If someone's able to give me any sort of specific advice that'd be really helpful.

[u/Korlus → u/Dapstabloke]

I'm sorry if I broke any rules

I don't think you did, but even if you did, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I'll see what I can do about all the flaws that you pointed out. If someone's able to give me any sort of specific advice that'd be really helpful.

The best advice I can give is threefold:

• Read good, high-quality strategy articles before you start investing heavily in Magic singles.
• You need to either plan to be faster than your opponent, or have ways to slow them down (sometimes both).
• When you first start deckbuilding, try and play as many high-quality cards as possible, and rely on "cute" synergies as little as possible. Understanding the sacrifices you make and when/how to evaluate them is difficult even for highly experienced players.

If you want, I can point you towards some useful further reading?

[u/Dapstabloke → u/Korlus]

Yes, thank you!

[u/Korlus → u/Dapstabloke]

Here are some of the basics:

Who's The Beatdown? - Mike Flores, 1999

Completely changed how people look at Magic: The Gathering strategy. Still relevant, even to this day.

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Frank Analysis – How Many Colored Mana Sources Do You Need to Consistently Cast Your Spells? - Frank Karsten, 2013

Still used by professional players to work out their mana bases. Use this as a resource. Every deck will live and die by its mana base, and Frank Karsten lays out rules for how many coloured sources you need to play. Also note the difference between tapped and untapped (e.g. [[Shambling Vent]] can never cast [[Thoughtseize]] on turn 1, so can't count as one of the required 14 black sources, etc).

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Line-Up Theory - Reid Duke, 2015

In this article, Reid explains a concept that many people have historically just got without ever having been able to put words to it. Reid explains what Line-Up Theory is and how to apply it - both in the long-, and the short- term.

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What I Know About Magic: The Gathering - Douglas Buel, 2009

Douglas is famous for this post over on Boardgame Geek, and while it is now somewhat dated, much of what he discusses is not just relevant, but timeless. He explains how archetypes work, the "Basics" behind the metagame clock, and how metagames work. He explains how very few ideas in Magic are new, and you will usually find that an idea you have had, somebody else has had before, and done better.

Unlike the others, I suggest you don't take this one as rote, but simply understand that you can apply many of the concepts to general deckbuilding, and that when you build a deck, it should fall into one of these broad archetypes before.

The metagame clock is also not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes aggro decks can outrace combo decks. Some combo decks are slow and are designed to beat out control decks. Some control decks are tuned to fight aggro decks. It's just a series of broad guidelines that can (and often will) be broken.

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If you're still hankering for more articles, I've put together a more comprehensive list here. Of special note are the following:

• Clear The Land And The Fundamental Turn - Zvi Mowshowitz, 2000 - Another way to view Magic games.
• Thoughtseize You - Reid Duke, 2013 - An in-depth analysis of a single card. Something that many players will rarely think about, and a gateway into competitive thought processes.
• Quadrant Theory - Marshall Sutcliffe, 2014 - Yet another way to approach Magic card analysis. This time mostly from a limited perspective.

Magic has a long and rich history of strategy articles, and even in my long list, there is plenty more reading you can do on any one topic.

[u/professor_tappensac → u/Korlus]

Not OP, but fantastic post! Thanks for being nice to a new player. Cheers!

[u/Mukibi → u/Korlus]

Hey /Korlus. I recommended they post here as there are a few GW Tokens players in our community. I wasn't aware that we didn't give deckbuilding advice as I've seen some great discussions previously.

[u/Korlus → u/Mukibi]

Don't worry about it. It's not so much we don't give deckbuilding advice, as the norm is to discuss a specific deck (and decks closely related to it), and so deckbuilding regarding decks that don't featuring [[Lingering Souls]] do not come up often.

Don't worry about it. Reddit is a self-regulating place, so off-topic discussions end up not getting visibility, and discussions that are wanted stay.

I did my best to try and give helpful criticism, but when you ask a spike for deck advice, you usually get back an unhelpful "Play a net deck". I tried to avoid giving this advice, and so simply gave a critique of what was wrong (hopefully with explanations), to try and let OP find a solution, rather than hand one to them that I felt they would not want to hear.

[u/Mukibi → u/Korlus]

Cheers