Hey there! I’m new to paper MTG and play Commander with my playgroup. We’ve been having a debate about whether the total value of a deck really indicates how strong it is. One of my friends argues that value doesn’t equal strength, but I can’t help but wonder when I keep losing to a deck with a higher price tag than mine.
I’ve been playing 1v1 games with my friend for a few months now, so I know their deck almost as well as mine. It can be frustrating when I can predict their moves but still can’t win with my basic deck. I understand the point that a couple of expensive cards in a deck won’t guarantee a win, but when a deck is upgraded with so many pricey cards, it feels like a whole different ball game.
For reference, we both started with precons, and both upgraded. I spent $20, they spent $120+. Inputing my deck list in a deck value calculator returns $103, which is lower than their upgrade alone lol
I don’t mind losing when the match is good. I hate losing when I’m always on the backfoot and can’t do much besides hoping to survive another turn
What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to hear different perspectives on the relationship between deck value and strength in the game.
edit: I received more responses than I expected, so I’ll need some time to go through them all and respond. Thank you in advance!
Here are a few different resources:
They’re all loosely similar and contain the same info. Understand what they’re trying to explain and you’ll be able to better evaluate your decks.
Money alone is a bad measure because it misses what the money is spent on. I have a precon that’s 3 or 4x base cost because I have some expensive basic lands in the deck. I could spend a ton of money and put a bunch of cash expensive Eldrazi in a deck but still get stomped before I can build a decent board state because everything is so mana expensive. It’s where the money goes that matters.
Additionally, you should really consider whether or not a 1v1 is a fair test of your deck. I have some solid upgraded precons that work really well in a pod and shit the bed in a duel. Precons are often geared toward at least 3 player play so if you’re improving the deck, you might be leaning into that. Some decks I play against do much better in duels than pod play. Some are great in both. And sometimes you just don’t have the heart of the cards no matter your deck.
I really appreciate your response!
It seems like you all have the same concern regarding my “price = power” statement, and that’s my fault since I haven’t specified it. Yes, spending a lot on better lands, foils, and full-arts doesn’t necessarily translate to more combat power in the game. In my case, I invested a bit in upgrading my lands to improve mana fixing, while my friend didn’t feel the need to do the same since their deck already had multiple ways to fix and ramp mana!
We both have decks that are heavy on creatures, so both upgrades went in that direction with some sorceries and instants thrown in to enhance the precons. Neither of us spent to min-max mana.
I used that power level calculator tool, which rated both precons as a 5. Surprisingly, my upgraded deck scored higher at 6, while theirs dropped to a 4. It makes me wonder if there are some limitations to how the tool scores decks, especially since our matches used to be more balanced before the upgrades, and now I find myself constantly getting crushed consistently lol
I think you might be onto something there! Keeping up with their deck is definitely a tough challenge, and I mostly find myself reacting to their moves instead of making my own. It did seem to go smoother when there were three of us playing, so perhaps you’re right!
I’m looking forward to checking out the other links you shared! It took me a bit longer than I thought to go through the deck lists and apply the upgrades manually, but thank you!
Re: deck lists: there are some really good tools to scan your cards and build the lists from scans. I use ManaBox at the paid tier. I have read that Delver Lens is great on Android. Reading threads, I would stick to these two. If you’re on iOS, ManaBox will be solid. The only thing you need to pay for is more digital boxes to organize things in; I like that because I have a ton of decks, a few binders, a giant dump collection, and I like to track new boxes/bundles/preleases separately as I scan.
No matter the app you choose, you should look for quick scanning and import/export capabilities. It makes stuff like that power level calculator trivial and simplifies sharing and comparing.
Wow, that’s really helpful! I probably should have looked into something like that sooner, haha. Luckily, I’m not totally clueless - I saved my deck in a text file that I can easily customize and bring with me wherever I go. Thanks!