My Favorite Deck From Magic 2013 DotP

Magic 2013 Duels of the Planeswalkers - My Favorite Deck

Just the other day on Twitter, @formerruling requested that I "do some deck guides so we can see what ya run".  Well Anthony, I'm still in the process of working on unlocking all of the extra cards for the Magic 2014 release of the game, so I don't have any fully completed decks yet.  So I will take this opportunity to show you my top deck from the Magic 2013 Duels of the Planeswalkers for iPad.

You can also follow me on Twitter - @mtghelper

Reader Request For Deck Guides

My Top Magic 2013 Deck - Grim Procession

I absolutely love the versatility, speed, and harassing nature of the Grim Procession deck, which was added in the last deck expansion pack for Magic 2013.  The combination of flying creatures, lifelink, creature removal, and creatures that return to the board more than once was perfect for the aggressive style of play I prefer.  There are also plenty of opportunities for trickery and surprises, which I also really enjoy.

Magic 2013 Deck - Grim Procession

Grim Procession

63 Cards - Yes, I was still trying to find 2-3 more cards to remove from this deck to slim it down to the recommended minimum 60 card deck for constructed decks.  I love each and every one of these creatures, so I was still working on tweaking which ones to remove when Magic 2014 released.

Lands

• 11 Swamp
• 11 Plains
• 4 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures

• 3 Doomed Traveller
• 2 Mourning Thrull
• 2 Orzhov Guildmage
• 2 Restless Apparition
• 2 Vampire Nighthawk
• 3 Bloodhunter Bat
• 2 Falkenrath Noble
• 1 Ghost Council of Orzhova
• 1 Keening Banshee
• 2 Voracious Hatchling
• 1 Angel of Flight Alabaster
• 2 Bloodgift Demon
• 1 Deathbringer Liege
• 1 Divinity of Pride
• 1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

Spells

• 2 Zealous Persecution
• 4 Pillory of the Sleepless
• 4 Unmake
• 1 Vindicate

Notable Ommissions:

Stillmoon Cavalier

• Stillmoon Cavalier - While pretty nice and very versatile, I'm not going to run this in my deck because I only have the 2 Zealous Persecution to remove the Stillmoon Cavalier should it be controlled by an opponent.  And given the popularity of the Jace Milling decks, I saw plenty of Control Magic and Clone, as well as Rise from the Grave in black decks.  And I definately do NOT want a Stillmoon Cavalier to appear on my opponents side because it can really hurt this deck, so I left it out of mine.
• Damnation - With this deck, I am the aggressor.  I come out too fast and too strong for Damnation to be very useful.  It usually just sat in my hand and never got cast.
• Any of the 6+ converted casting cost cards - These are just far too large of a cost for the speed of the deck I was after.  My goal was to have you already dead or very near death before these would even be cast and useful.

Discussion

Which 3 cards would you remove from this Grim Procession deck in order to get it down to the 60 card deck minimum without sacrificing synergy or speed?

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MtG Deck Tech: How Many Cards Should I Use In My Deck?

MtG Deck Tech 

"How Many Cards Should You Use In A MtG Deck?"

One of the most basic necessities of Magic the Gathering is building your play deck.  Whether you are playing tabletop Magic, Magic 2014 Duels of The Planeswalkers, or Magic on iPad or another tablet, you still have to tweak and tune your play deck to make it competitive.  This starts with the first lesson on Deck Size.

There are 2 minimum deck requirements depending on what format of MtG you are choosing to play.

Constructed Format - In the Constructed format you build your deck from your card pool of cards you own, or in the case of Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers, from the base deck of cards and the cards you have unlocked for possible addition to your deck.  This format has a minimum requirement of 60 cards per deck.

Sealed / Draft Formats - In the Sealed and Draft formats you are only allowed to use cards from the provided packs allowed for the event.  In the Sealed deck format you only use what you open in your own packs. In draft format you open a pack, pick a single card out, then pass that pack to the player next to you and continue picking one card from each pack passed to you.  There is no Draft format in Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers, but the 2014 edition of the game did just add the Sealed format to the game.  In both Sealed and Draft formats you have a minimum requirement of 40 cards.

Choosing The Correct Amount Of Cards For Your Magic Deck

Regardless of which format you are playing in, you should always use the bare minimum of cards required to build your play deck.  That means no more than 60 cards for a normal Constructed deck and no more than 40 cards for a Sealed or Draft format deck.  

Why only use the bare minimum of cards for your deck?

You only want to use the bare minimum requirement for MtG deck size because of two simple concepts - Consistency & Probabilty  When building a deck to be competitive, you want the slimmest, most efficient, leanest deck possible so that it will perform consistently.  The more cards you add to a deck, the less efficient and less consistent it will become.  

Having a slim deck means that you have a better chance (or Probability) of drawing a nice opening hand, better chance to prevent getting mana screwed (not having enough lands to cast your spells), and a better chance at drawing what you need when you need it!  The more cards you add into your deck the less probability you will have of drawing what you need, thus your deck will suffer from what I like to call "Deck Bloat".  You deck is bloated when it has more cards than needed to run consistently as your deck probability suffers.

So remember when building or tweaking your deck - Run Slimmer & Run Stronger!

If you are playing on Magic 2013 or Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers, the game is set up to automatically bloat your deck!  As you unlock cards they are automatically added to your deck, so be aware and slim that deck back down to 60 as you unlock new cards.

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Check out The Magic the Gathering Store on Amazon where you can find boosters packs, individual cards, playmats, deck protectors, life counters, Magic clothing, and more!