Jim plays Magic well over a year now. He defines himself as a pretty decent player. Even good, compared to his friends. This is why Jim has high expectations for the coming Nationals. He practices seriously for the Constructed part as he trusts his ability to evaluate cards correctly during the draft. It seems that all the practice beaes fruit and Jim passes the first three rounds of Standard without losing. Content, he turns to the draft table, where it seems that Lady Luck is with him again: He is almost the only person to be picking Green and White cards. When he turns to do the deck building, Jim knows he has exceptionally high quality cards: small aggressive creatures, quality mana acceleration and excellent defensive CTs (Combat Tricks). Full of confidenc,e he turns to game 1 and... a loss. Weird, maybe bad luck. Game 2... another loss... and then another. Highly disappointed and very confused, Jim collects his cards and leaves. Thinking it over and over, he tries to see where he went wrong. He knows he played well, and that every game victory was almost there, and yet after promising openings he found it hard to keep the pace and achieve victory. How could that be? He had great cards...

Why did Jim fail? To answer that you need to answer a deeper question: what considerations are to be made when choosing cards during a draft or building a Sealed deck? The quality of cards is a heavy factor, and hence the great importance of evaluating cards (a subject which was dealt with in chapters 1 and 2) but not the only factor. Many times you need to give up a strong card, sometimes very strong, because it's unfit for your deck. The most common example is when the spell's color is not in the colors you are already playing (the further you are in a draft, color considerations become more important). Occasionally, it is better to pick the weaker card which is more consistent with the rest of your deck. If so, how can you tell when to choose the weaker card in a specific case? The answer: you choose the weaker card when that card has more synergy with your deck.

Three Types of Synergy:

A synergistic effect is created when your cards "contribute" to each other so that the total is more than the sum of parts. The quality of the cards is less important for that matter. What is important is the effect created by the interaction between the different components. A good analogy: the interactions between the components of an engine and an energy source (fuel, coal). They combine to create a powerful effect that allows movement of large bodies at high speed. In Magic, three types of synergies can be identified:

Functional Synergy (FS): The way the different cards in your deck consolidate around one major strategy. An optimal scenario is when each card has a defined role in the global strategic plan. The cards were chosen for their unique characteristics, which make them efficient in fulfilling their role to the best.

Mechanical Synergy (MS): Every set in Magic (except for the core set) has its own mechanism (or mechanisms), which gives specific combinations a powerful synergistic effect. Examples are graveyard effects in Odyssey, tribal in Onslaught, affinity in Mirrodin, spirit craft and splice in Champions, transmute and convoke in Ravnica, and more. It's important to note that mechanical synergies must be accompanied by functional synergies. Dampen Thought and Promised Kannushi are not so good, unless you have a deck full of arcanes or spirits (respectively) that create a win condition — the mechanic has to fit into your deck.

Operational Synergy (OS): The correspondence between the means to create mana and the actual mana needed to cast the spells in the deck. It is very much like the oil in an engine. It has no part in creating the energy (think of a deck that has only mana generators) but without it the other parts would cease to work very quickly (think of a deck with no mana generators).

It may seem complicated, but it will be cleared up very soon. Let's have a look at each of these types of synergy in limited environment.

1. Functional Synergy (FS)

1.1 The Strategic Idea

The key to building a good deck is focusing on a strategic idea, that determines which cards are more suitable and which less so. The strategic idea is in fact the essence of the plan of action, aiming for victory.

In Constructed, decks are usually categorized into three types: Beatdown, Control, and Combo. Each one of these names is an essence of the strategic idea that consolidates the deck: Beatdown is aiming for fast victory using erupting pressure; Control is based on stalling the early game for a late victory; Combo is based on a combination of effects that will win the game when the proper cards are cast. Each of these strategic ideas is based on acquiring strategic synergy. In that way, Beatdown will have mostly small creatures, some not very exciting at all, which would be graded average or low in the evaluation tests in the previous chapter (for Limited). A card like Raging Goblin is a horrible creature to play with in Limited; however in a Constructed deck that wants nothing more than to kill you as fast as possible, you may want four copies! The joint effect of those fast tiny creatures is what propels you to kill your opponent before he brings in the heavy guns. A Combo deck includes many cards which are often almost useless, but with other cards become quite deadly.

A synergistic effect can be obtained in the Limited environment as well, although not as strong as in Constructed. The quality of the cards is still an important factor, but a pile of quality cards, with no idea built around it, will create an average deck at best. If so, what are the strategic ideas characterizing limited environment?

1.2 Types of Cards and Color Characteristics

Just as a good chef knows that in order to be a master in the kitchen, he has to know the characteristics of every vegetable or spice he is using, you also need to know the characteristics of each color and the way they support each other. The following table presents the different colors and the main types of cards that are typical to each in limited (not every type of card is included):

Type of Card/Color	White	Blue	Black	Red	Green
Small Agressive Creatures	Average	Weak	Average	Average/Strong	Strong
Evasive Creatures	Average/Strong	Strong	Average	Weak	Weak
Defensive Creatures	Strong	Average/Strong	Weak	Weak	Average
Fat Creatures	Average/Weak	Weak	Average/Weak	Average	Strong
Removal Spells	Average	Average/Weak	Strong	Strong	Weak
Finishers	Weak	Average/Weak	Average/Strong	Strong	Weak
Combat Tricks	Strong	Average	Weak	Average/Weak	Strong
Mana Accelerators	Strong	Average	Weak	Average	Strong

Note: This data is only an estimated assessment of color characteristics in the game in general. Every set has its own unique characteristics and it's possible that a specific set is completely off the chart (so to speak), but there is a very clear trend towards those strengths and weaknesses.

(*Table clarifications — see appendix)

1.3 Five Typical Strategic Ideas for the Limited Environment

Limited is a narrower environment than Constructed. Constructed has many types of decks: anything from an all-creature deck to a creatureless deck, whereas Limited only has decks where creatures are the most abundant type of card (almost with no exceptions). This is not surprising: creatures constitute the most common type of card in every given set, and since the card pool at your disposal is Limited (hence the name) you are forced to use them. The fact that creatures constitute the main bulk of your deck has another reason; as we discussed in the previous chapter, creatures as a group have a wide variety of functions: pressuring your opponent, protecting you from your opponent's creatures, or using special abilities. As you have a limited number of cards to choose from, and a limited number of available slots in your deck (since you don't want to play with more than 40 cards), you want to have many creature cards that give your deck the versatility it needs.

Although decks in limited are more similar to one another than in Constructed, there are still different orientations of decks. Some of the decks base their strategy on fast momentum in the beginning, before the opponent can create an effective defense. These decks enjoy an advantage in the early parts of the game, but their situation turns to the worse the longer the game progresses. Other decks aim towards the mid game and base their advantage on their superior card quality (meaning absolute quality — one that is not related to mana cost). Here are five typical strategic ideas for limited categorized according to their orientation. There could be other ideas of course, but those will illustrate some of the basic ideas:

Early Orientation

Name: Kill and Destroy
Components: small aggressive creatures/removals/finishers
Typical color combinations: Red/Black
Game Plan:
Stage 1: cast small aggressive creatures during the first few turns and use removal to remove good blockers. Momentum is very important as you will need to deal enough damage early on to keep victory in reach. Ideally by the time your opponent is able to block effectively he is very low on life. The problem is that sometimes you will not have a sufficient amount of decent removal to neutralize your opponent's defenses for the required time. In these cases, the momentum will stop at some point, and your opponent will take the lead with his bigger creatures.
Stage 2: Use finishers to "finish the work," whether by direct damage to the players head (e.g. Lava Axe), disabling his defense for a final strike (e.g. Panic Attack) or making one of your creatures become deadly allowing a suicidal all-in attack to allow one of them to pass (ex: Enrage).

Name: On Earth and Wind
Components: small aggressive creatures/evasive creatures
Typical color combinations: Black/Blue, Black/White
Game Plan:
Stage 1: Much like the previous strategy, the idea is to gain momentum in the early stages of the game by casting small aggressive creatures, however, the lack of removal will allow your opponent to create ground defense.
Stage 2: At this point the pressure is continued through evasive creatures (usually with flying, which is most common, but also with other mechanics such as fear or unblockable). The ability of evasive creatures to keep the pressure going is critical, and this is why removal should only be used on creatures that can block them. The ground creatures, which lost their aggressive value at this stage, will be used to lower the counter-pressure until victory is at hand.

Late Orientation

Name: Hammer and Forge
Components: defensive creatures/evasive creatures
Typical color combinations: Blue/White, Blue/Green
Game Plan:
Stage 1+2: Using evasive creatures alone to attack, while defensive creatures delay the opponent enough to acquire the needed time to win. The order you play these creatures is dependant on your mana and your opponent's strategy. As opposed to the prior deck, evasive creatures here are not complementary but are the only victory condition. This is why this deck has to have a considerable amount of those — or else would be too slow and will fall behind (especially since this deck has few removal if not splashing them in Black/Red). The creatures intended to postpone your opponent on the ground are relatively few and so have to be defensive in their nature, meaning they can block without sacrificing themselves, and are durable to enemy removal (high toughness serves for both purposes).

Name: Delay and Crush
Components: Means of Blocking (defensive creatures, cheap removals)/fat creatures/mana acceleration
Typical color combinations: Green/X
Game Plan:
Stage 1: Use mana acceleration alongside defensive creatures. Green lacks the ability to deal with evasive creatures, so a supporting color is used during this stage mainly to deal with those - Blue/White to block flyers; Black/Red — removals. Removals are usually not saved, but rather used fast to get rid of attacking creatures which are pressuring you (depending on the amount of pressure).
Stage 2: Cast fatties for the win. Basically, the further the game progresses, spell costs becomes secondary while their objective power becomes dominant. In a stage where you can produce a lot of mana, you would rather have an expensive creature in your hand than a cheaper weaker creature, and so a higher ratio of fat creatures ensures a greater advantage at the later stages of the game... providing you reached that stage.

Combined Orientation

Name: Continuous Beatdown
Components: small aggressive creatures/fat creatures/combat tricks
Typical color combinations: Red/Green
Stages 1+2: An intermediate strategy between “Kill and Destroy” and 'Delay and Crush'. The deck has almost solely creatures in it (usually 17-18), a few CTs and a few removal. The goal is to create an ongoing mass of creatures that would be hard for late orientation decks to block, and hard for early orientation decks to pass for damage. The creatures at the start of the game are not intended to win on their own (like in “Kill and Destroy,”), but rather to deal as much damage as possible to your opponent, so that your bigger creatures will be more threatening and your opponent will be forced to block them. This deck is less interested in a second turn drop of a mana source (which is an important factor in “Delay and Crush”) and would rather play a 2/2 creature for the same price. Therefore, this deck would have fewer fatties.

1.4 Jim's Case

Let's go back to Jim. Why were his achievements so low when he had such good quality cards in his deck? The answer is that Jim's deck didn't focus on any strategic idea and was just a pile of good cards — nothing more. Jim built a Green/White deck (a combination that occasionally makes it hard to get a synergistic effect) and used for that: small aggressive creatures, mana accelerators and defensive tricks. Notice how these three factors are not serving each other very well. Mana accelerators are supposed to reduce the waiting time until you can use your expensive spells, and therefore are considered card disadvantage in most cases (as they can usually be considered non-spells in the spells/non-spells ratio, unless they also have other functions). If you have little or no expensive cards to play in your deck, then mana accelerators will usually end up being "off cards". This is especially true when the acceleration cards cost as much as most of your creatures, leaving you with the choice between casting a creature or mana acceleration. As was said, many small aggressive creatures don't usually win the game on their own. At some point the momentum is lost, and another means is required to "finish the job." Defensive CTs obviously can't fill that need — those are used to take the sting out of the opponent's attack and buy time... but Jim does not need time, he needs pressure. Jim's case illustrates the importance of card synergy. It's obvious that it was better for him to compromise on lower quality cards that work well together. However, card quality is definitely important. Sometimes players build "interesting" and "original" decks that evolve around a strategic idea and are compromised of cards that are considered low quality, or even unplayable. You have to admire such decks and the original thought that lead to them, but for every "original" deck that strikes gold, there are nine others that end up with little to no success. In an environment that is characterized by the word "limited", synergy can take you only so far.

1. Mechanical Synergy (MS)
MS is created between cards that share a mechanism or are correlated to the same mechanism. This correlation is not important of its own accord, but rather when it serves a strategic purpose — meaning is accompanied by Functional Synergy (FS). Usually, MS constitutes an effective tool, which provides a powerful FS effect. It can be easily spotted: the mechanism or mechanisms are at the base of each set and usually turn to be the major axis around which the popular decks are built, both in Limited and in Constructed. In Odyssey block for example, the major decks were Psychatog, U/G Threshold, and U/G Madness: three decks with different strategic ideas, but all based on the same mechanic synergism. This phenomenon is easily explained, since these mechanisms were initially created for the purpose of FS, but they shouldn't be confused: MS is an amplification of a specific mechanism and can't contribute to victory on its own, unless it is part of a strategic idea. In that way, it has to include a win condition. In the Limited environment, it is often hard to obtain FS from MS when compared with the typical strategic decks mentioned earlier. The reason for that is that this type of synergy is much more demanding, in the sense that you can't replace the necessary synergistic cards with others, without losing much of the synergistic effect. If you decided to include a number of non-artifact cards in an affinity deck, drawing those cards at the beginning of the game could literally obliterate your board development. "Normal" FS is more "forgiving," and allows inclusion of less-fitting cards without such a devastating effect. As MS is more demanding, using it should be considered by critically examining your card pool. This is why MS is more common in drafts rather than in sealed (more on that in the next chapter).

Place: an eatery in a mall in Jerusalem crammed and crowded fully. The owners, out of compassion and a strong sense of moral commitment, decided to shelter the lost souls who were haunting this world for a draft.
Time: a chilly spring evening, a few weeks after the set “Champions of Kamigawa” was released.
Players: A player named Idag (whom the writer denies any connection to) and another anonymous player.

Idag: ...You have to understand. Any deck in Limited must include a considerable amount of the most stable components of the game: creatures and removal. The high level of synergy typical in Constructed, which allows avoiding this rul,e could never work in Limited, never.
Anonymous: Are you certain?
Idaq: I'm willing to wager on my foil BOP, so help me god.

2. Operational Synergy (OS)
Imagine the following experiment: put a man that never played Magic in his life into a room, filled with thousands of cards of all sets along with a rulebook to Magic. The man is asked to thoroughly read the rules and then to prepare a deck. If you are curious to know the results, let me satisfy your curiosity. Nine out of ten people will come out of this room, with a deck including some two hundred cards, in five colors, and with a ridiculously low number of lands. This is not a prediction, but a simple observation. I used to teach Magic and it gave me the opportunity to observe similar patterns characterizing people new to the game. A possible explanation to this behavior is that new players are not aware of the importance of the correspondence between the means to generate mana and the number of spells in the deck (and their price (in mana)). They tend to over-focus on what the spells do, and less on the time it would take for them to actually utilize them.

OS is made out of two dimensions:

What degree of correspondence is there between the types of mana generators (lands in most cases) and the types of mana required to cast spells in your deck.
What degree of correspondence is there between the quantity of mana generators and the quantity of mana required to cast spells in your deck.

In fact, there is a tight connection between these dimensions, but to simplify we will relate to them as separate questions.

3.1 The correspondence between the types of mana generated to the types required:
In principle, the more your array of spells is wider, the easier it is to create a higher quality deck, both in regards to the raw quality of the cards, and in regards to the FS that could be evoked. The fact that spells are divided between five colors, which require different kinds of mana, interferes with the ability to use the entire cardpool at your disposal. This creates tension between your wish to build a deck that is as coherent as possible (FS), and the need to ensure that the deck will work consistently, meaning that you could cast the spells as fast as possible with no delays (OS). This conflict has two accepted solutions.

1. Sacrifice on FS (and usually on quality as well) by reducing the number of colors in your deck. This adds to the consistency with which you can cast spells, while narrowing the pool from which you get to choose spells for the deck (bigger OS).
2. Sacrifice on OS in favor of FS, by playing more colors, with the price of possible problems of casting your spells.

In Constructed, the enormous pool of cards at your disposal allows radical solutions on both ends: you can play mono-colored decks, since one color has enough cards which allow a powerful FS effect (White Weenie, Red Deck Wins, Black Aggro etc.). On the other hand, you can play a five-color deck, since you have at your disposal means that significantly reduce the danger of mana inconsistency (mana fixers and possible card draw). That is, of course, not the case in Limited. One color will rarely be sufficient, as it does not allow a cardpool big enough to have cards with minimal quality — not to mention FS (of course, if you are the only one drafting Black in the table that's something else...). In contrast, there are usually not enough means to support many colors without losing a lot of the FS. This is why the usual dilemma in Limited is narrowed to whether to play two colors, or two colors plus a splash color. This does not mean that this issue is not important, as wrong decisions could hamper the OS and damage the deck's chances to win significantly.

3.2 The correspondence between the quantity of mana generated to the quantity required:
Acquiring OS requires a proper balance between them. If the ratio of “Total Mana Generated” over “Total Mana Required” is too small, you risk not being able to use the spells in your deck — giving your opponent an effective card advantage. If the ratio is too big, you risk being flooded with useless cards, while desperately waiting for the tools you need for victory. Both these issues are notoriously known as “mana screw” and “mana flood” respectively, and often arise from lack of OS in your deck (although statistically happen even in decks which have very high OS — but less, of course).

Appendix

Chart Explanation

Only creature types are mentioned broadly, as the rest of the spells were covered in detail in the previous chapters.

Small Aggressive Creatures: We'll define those as creatures with mana cost of three or less that have high power. A one-mana or two-mana creature has to have a power of at least two to be considered aggressive. A three-mana creature has to have a power of three at least, unless he enjoys some aggressive benefit, which would make its power more effective. Haste would allow its power to be expressed earlier, First Strike or Bushido could prevent non-defensive creatures from blocking and trading. So a 2/2 creature for three mana with either First Strike, Bushido, or Haste will be considered aggressive. In contrast, a 1/1 creature for two mana - with one of those abilities - is not aggressive, since his power is too low for the abilities to be expressed. Even if it cost only one mana, it will still lack strength to be in an aggressive deck, as he is easily blocked with your opponent's first creature, usually without trading for it either. Raging Goblin may work in some Constructed decks, but he is a bad idea in your Limited deck, regardless of how aggressive you think your deck is. A 2/2 creature for two mana is probably the prototype of the group of aggressive creatures (also known as a “Bear” after the almighty ancient Grizzly Bears).

Evasive Creatures: A creature that enjoys a benefit that reduces, or abolishes altogether, the ability of opponent's creatures to block it. Examples are: flying, fear, landwalk, unblockable, protection from color etc. Since many times the evasive ability is conditional, it can be scaled according to how often it works. Unblockable is the best evasive ability as it is always relevant. Flying is probably second best, as the number of flyers which could potentially block your flyers are relatively few (depending on the set), and are usually only available in Blue and White. Fear is more complicated to analyze. The effectiveness of fear is dependant on the chances that your opponent is not playing Black creatures, a chance which is about 60%. But even in the 40% chance that he is playing Black (as a main color, not just to splash removal), fear would still mean that about half of his creatures can't block it. Artifact creatures outside Mirrodin block are rare, so are ignored in this calculation, but to balance that we also ignore the fact that Black creatures rarely serve as good defenders. The chances that Landwalk would give a creature evasion are even lower and stand on about 40%. Protection from color is even more problematic as an evasive ability, since it also has a 40% chance of being relevant (the chance that your opponent is playing the relevant color). But in this case, the evasiveness of the creature requires the lack of creatures of the other color played by your opponent - so if you are lucky to play against the color your creature has protection from (40%), this creature will enjoy the same benefits a creature with fear has against Black/X deck. This is why landwalk and protection should be considered as semi-evasive abilities. Another example for a semi evasive ability is trample, where the evasiveness is dependant on the creature's power. From a functional aspect, semi-evasive abilities serve the offensive side. They could be seen as an aggressive quality, just like haste, and this makes the power of the creature important to make this quality express. A 1/4 creature with flying is not an evasive creature; it's a very good defensive creature due to its ability to block flyers.

Defensive Creatures: Defensive creatures have high toughness or have defensive qualities such as protection and first strike. Their most important feature is their ability to block creatures without dying themselves (even if they don't actually kill the creature they blocked) and relative durability to removal. With no added defensive quality defensive creatures need to have a toughness of four at least, except for two-mana creatures, which will be considered defensive with toughness of three. The measure of "defensiveness" of a creature with first strike would be correlated to its power and not to its toughness. Although first strike does make creatures more aggressive by making them harder to block, it is first and foremost a primary defensive quality. The reason for that is that first strike works best in cases of one on one (the creature with the first strike against a single creature of your opponent) and this is easier to guarantee when defending.

Fat Creatures: these creatures are supposed to give you an advantage at any situation on the action axis of the game (offence, defense, race and standstill). They force your opponent to invest a number of cards to "deal" with them, and in that way contribute to a positive balance of cards.

Removal: removal spells are cards that disable opponent's creatures or other permanents for good, or until another card cancels this effect. This is why, in theory, Pacifism is removal while Unsummon is not. But there is a tendency to view Blue bouncers as temporary removal, although they are in essence more of a CT. Black and Red removal spells tend to move creatures to the graveyard; White disables creatures or remove from the game; while Blue tends to play on the “keeping them tapped” aspect.

Finishers: cards that make the final blow. In Red it's direct damage to your opponent, preventing creatures from blocking or making a one creature lethal; in Black it's life-reducing spells (e.g. Final Punishment); and in Green it's mass pumping of all your creatures (e.g. Overrun).

CTs: Instants that target creatures and serve as both removals, finishers and countermagic for enemy removal. White prevents damage, adds toughness, and gives protection; Green adds power/toughness and regenerates; Blue uses bounce (reminder: can be used after combat damage is on the stack to save your creature and let opponent's creature die); while Reds add to the creature's power.

Mana Accelerators: good mana accelerators are currently only available in Green and Artifacts.

[Editor's Note: Join us tomorrow for Chapter 4 of The Guide: An in-depth guide to the Sealed format.]