Interaction

Overview

There are 4 main types of cards that we would consider to be “interaction” in deckbuilding:

1. Reactive Protection: Effects that can reactively protect your board state and help you maintain the advantages that you have built.
2. Board Wipes: Effects that remove threats en masse and help you come back when you are behind on the board.
3. Targeted Removal: Effects that get rid of major threats and can deal with many kinds of permanents.
4. Stack Interaction: Effects (mostly available in Blue) that help you play proactively to keep threats from hitting the board, and reactively to protect your things from being removed.

Density

The amount of interaction that you’ll want to include in your deck will increase as you scale in power level. This allows you to be more prepared to handle threats present at higher power levels.

• Low-power decks will generally want to include 8-12 pieces of interaction.
• Mid-power decks will generally want to include 12-16 pieces of interaction.
• High-power decks will generally want to include 16-20 pieces of interaction.

Quality

The quality of your interaction will also shift as your power level changes. As you increase in power level you will play more efficient interaction over thematic or synergistic pieces. It is also much more important to be able to interact with the stack at higher power levels.

Here are some signposts to consider at different power levels:

• Low-power decks may include interaction that is mana-intensive, narrow, or sorcery-speed.
• Mid-power decks may include interaction that is relatively cheap (1-3 mana), flexible, or instant-speed.
• High-power decks may include many of the most efficient effects in the game, including interaction that is free, repeatable, or one-sided.