Assumptions

Consistency

Cards that are considerably more powerful than the rest of your deck are considered “power level outliers”. Including such cards (especially in low quantities) doesn’t make a deck “higher power”, but rather, makes it inconsistent.

We believe that a good deck is a consistent deck. Not a deck that can win consistently, but a deck that consistently performs at its intended power level. As such, we start evaluating power levels during deckbuilding and try to avoid “power level outliers” (any card that falls outside of your intended power level).

Vegetables

To ensure that a deck can consistently perform at its intended power level, it is also important that the deck doesn’t regularly underperform. We have found that decks most often underperform if they are not “eating their vegetables”.

We separate vegetables into 3 categories:

• Card Advantage: cards that allow you to see more cards and refill your hand
• Interaction: cards that protect your game plan and disrupt others’
• Ramp: cards you play early in the game that gain you mana and accelerate your gameplan

Vegetables are the building blocks of a deck, and though they aren’t always part of your main strategy, they enable you to execute that strategy. The quality of your vegetables is a major contributor to the power level of your deck. At lower power levels vegetables are often thematic and relatively inefficient, whereas at higher powers, decks often include the most powerful effects in each category.

NOTE

Interaction somewhat breaks this rule, as we have found that the density of interaction generally increases with power level.