Dimir Ninjas: How to Build a Winning Multi-Color Deck

So far, all the decks I’ve made for you have been multi color decks for a variety of reasons, and today I will go into detail about how a multi-color deck building works for me. Now some of you will say, “But you already wrote about how to build a deck.” And you would be correct, but this is more centered on how to build good multi color decks. How is that different? Simple, with a multi color deck you must have a set gimmick already in your brain before you begin construction. Like if I wanted a token shitting machine I know that blue does that well, but so does green and white and both green and white have better ways to beef things up than blue. Then I realize that green and white sync well together because I then immediately check out all the mixed mana cards, for their effects are normally insane. Then I build around those and work backwards. An example would be the mill deck I just spoke about. The mill deck uses rogues to do the milling, and a two cost card called Silver-Fur Master gives all rogues and ninjas a +1/+1. Pair that with Soaring Thought-Thief and once they have eight cards in their graveyard all rogues get a +2/+2. Now, it’s these cards I build decks and gimmicks around.

Common Pitfalls

One of the most common pitfalls in creating a multi deck is that people will lose sight of what they want to do and instead pack the deck with all they hope they can do. Sometimes, often times, there is beauty in simplicity. Do not over complicate things. Make the deck around your two or three gimmicks and then try it out. If it fails then maybe you will need something more, but often times people will ruin a deck before it plays out because they don’t realize that their plan was already perfect. Another common failure is that they try to pack the deck with every color. The gap between viability between a three color and two color deck is severe. My rule of the thumb is the less power you give the RNG gods, the better your playing will be. After all, imagine being at the mercy of your opponent and the game because the only lands you are pulling are for a different creature than you need to use.

Example Deck

So the deck I will use for an example in this one will be the gimmick I was just talking about, being the rogue/ninja deck. Key cards for this blue/black are as followed: Silver-Fur Master, Soaring thought thief, Faerie Vandal, Merfolk Windrobber, Reflections of Litajara, Screaming Swarm, Soulknife Spy, Prosperous Thief, Goldvein Pick.

mtgmalone-dimir-ninjas-neo

Now, a lot of these make sense for a mill rogue deck, except the last one. The last one is necessary because if you are running a rogue blue black you want no shortage of mana. You will be using mana as recklessly as the U.S. uses their defense budget and much like the U.S. it will be how you will win. Also stack cards that allow you to draw cards, for Faerie Vandal is amazing once you start drawing cards, which is something that comes naturally to a blue deck.

How It Wins And How This Happened In The Building Stage

Now, provided you have already sold your firstborn into slavery so that the RNG gods will look favorably on you, a deck doesn’t actually win while you are playing it. A deck wins as you are building it, for it is you who packs the deck with what it needs to win. If it fails to do so there are only three scapegoats; RNG, a bad match-up, or you. The first two happen from time to time, but if you lose five or six in a row, then somewhere in the building stage you either skipped a step or forgot to pack something crucial. Now this deck wins, from the building stage, because early on all your cards are guaranteed a +2/+1 and that can stack with every Silver Fur Master or Soaring Thought-Thiefthat you have on the board. Keep in mind we also have copy cards, so that you can have five of each on the board at once. And with everything being exceptionally low cost, you have nearly everything you need to maintain an advantage early on. Another strong plus to this game is many of these rogues are flying, making them hard to kill or block unless they have reach or counter cards. You can make this flying Rogue deck even stronger by adding Windstorm Drake which makes all flying cards have a +1/+1. That means, even in your worst scenario, if you have one of each on the board you are looking at a +3/+2 on all rogues that also mill one to two cards every time you attack.

All of this happens in the building stage. All these combos that will wreak havoc on the board start in your mind, so if you spend two to four hours tweaking a deck it’s usually because the idea is solid, but you just need to spend time going over options. Keep in mind, in a prior article I would say for whatever you want to do there are at least three cards that do it with varying degrees of success and cost. Play around with those cards because it is here, in your mind and deck building, that you will see all that the deck is capable of. Playing it will simply expose you to what it could be capable of.