Construction of a Modern deck begins with asking yourself a few easy questions. The two most basic questions are interrelated: 1. What style of play appeals to me the most? (Aggressive, Midrange, Control, Combo?) and, 2. Which colours or color combinations appeal to me the most?

These two questions lead on nicely from each other because each colour has its strengths and weaknesses in terms of the strategies they support. For example, red on its own is a very strong colour for aggression, but lacks certain key capabilities for control, such as card draw. Similarly, if you wanted to play large efficient creatures then you would gravitate towards green. It is important at the first stage to have a plan about what you want your deck to do, and then consider the strengths and weaknesses of each colour and how they could support your plan. If you have a plan about what you want to do but dont know which colours to do it in – don’t worry. You can research your local meta for ideas about strategies and how to build them, and below you will find a section about the common archetypes and which cards are often seen. Furthermore, we have compiled a nearly exhaustive list of the commonly played decks in Modern from which you can take inspiration.

A follow on question for many people may be – how expensive are the cards I’ll need to achieve my goal? Unfortunately the answer to this may be ‘very expensive’. However, do not fret! The first thing to remember is that Modern is a non-rotating format, unlike Standard, so once you have your deck built you’ll be able to use it forever (barring the banning of any cards). The second thing to remember is that there will probably be budget-friendly replacements, which we will highlight later on in this section. You can easily begin building with whatever you have in your collection and work your way into a more powerful and expensive version of the deck over time. Naturally, prices do fluctuate, but Wizards have repeatedly promised to support Modern with an aggressive reprint policy. It is hoped that this will help greatly in keeping the cost of the format low. Remember that if you have any questions about budget replacements for expensive cards then you can always ask a knowledgeable member of the community for help!

Finally, once you have decided what you want to build remember the “Turn 4” speed rule and the guide on interactivity. The trick to modern is to build sensibly (lots of interaction and low mana options) but to also build freely because any other cards aside from those “sensible choices” are probably ok! As long as you have a focused game-plan that realistically factors in what the opponent is capable of doing, you will be fine.