Build a 40-card deck

Start at 40 cards and 17 lands

Draft and Sealed decks must contain at least 40 cards. Aim for exactly 40 so you draw your strongest cards and the pieces that work together more often. Unlike most constructed formats, Limited lets you play every copy you opened or drafted; there is no four-copy limit.

A useful first sketch is 17 lands, 16 creatures, and 7 other spells. That is a starting point, not a rule. A spell that makes creature tokens may fill a creature’s job. A very fast deck or one with many expensive plays may need a different balance.

Sealed Deck format · Checked Sep 26, 2026 ↗ · Comprehensive Rules — Limited deck construction, 100.2b and 100.4b · Sep 25, 2026 ↗ · Marshall Sutcliffe · How to Booster Draft · Apr 5, 2016 ↗

1. Sort for a complete deck, not just the best rare

Sort cards by color, putting lands and colorless cards aside. Within each color, separate cards you expect to play from cards that need a special reason. In Sealed, compare complete two-color combinations. During a draft, keep checking what your existing picks are missing.

A strong color offers several useful cards at different costs. One amazing expensive card surrounded by weak filler is a reason to investigate that color, not an instruction to play it.

• Early creatures: things you can play on turns two and three that attack, block, or develop your plan.
• Answers: spells that remove or neutralize opposing threats.
• Support: cards that make the conditions for your strategy happen.
• Rewards: cards that become strong when those conditions happen.
• Finishers: cards or combinations that can actually end the game.

Reid Duke · Sealed Deck · Sep 15, 2014 ↗ · Marshall Sutcliffe · How to Booster Draft · Apr 5, 2016 ↗

2. Say how this deck wins in one sentence

Try a specific sentence: “Play small creatures, improve them, and keep attacking”; “Trade creatures, then reuse my graveyard”; or “Survive with blockers and answers, then win with larger threats.” That sentence helps decide between two otherwise similar cards.

Synergy means cards helping one another do more than they would alone. An enabler supplies what another card needs; a payoff rewards it. Count both. Three cards that reward sacrificing creatures do very little if you lack creatures you can afford to sacrifice or a reliable way to sacrifice them.

Reid Duke · The Basics of Booster Draft · Nov 4, 2014 ↗

3. Lay the spells out by mana cost

Your mana curve is the spread of costs across your spells. Arrange them in columns costing one, two, three, four, five, and six or more. For a first deck, put plenty of useful plays in the two- and three-mana columns and only a few at the expensive end.

Look at when a card can really help. A cheap trick that needs a creature is not a replacement for that creature. A two-mana removal spell may answer an attacker, but it does not necessarily give you something to attack with afterward.

1. Count creatures you would be happy to cast by turn three.
2. Check whether your fourth and fifth turns improve the board instead of just setting up something later.
3. Trim expensive cards until you can imagine reasonable opening hands.
4. Keep a way to finish: enough attackers, hard-to-block creatures, repeatable advantages, or a strong late threat.

Marshall Sutcliffe · How to Booster Draft · Apr 5, 2016 ↗ · Reid Duke · The Basics of Mana · Aug 18, 2014 ↗

4. Make the mana support the cards

Two main colors are an approachable default. A nine-land/eight-land split can start the conversation, but count which colors you need early and which spells require two symbols of the same color. Those demands can change the split.

Fixing means lands or spells that help produce the colors you need. A splash is a small amount of an extra color. Favor a powerful card you can use later with a single extra colored symbol; an off-color two-drop with two colored symbols is much harder to support.

Adding one off-color land is not a promise that you will draw it on time. Check all your sources of that color and the cost to your main colors. A mana-producing creature also needs to be cast and survive; do not automatically replace a land with every one you include.

Reid Duke · The Basics of Mana · Aug 18, 2014 ↗ · Reid Duke · Building a Mana Base · Nov 24, 2014 ↗

5. Cut what the deck cannot support

When you have too many cards, protect the deck’s structure. Cutting lands just to fit more spells can leave all those spells stranded. Cutting every ordinary creature can leave your impressive support cards with nothing to support.

• Cut a narrow payoff if you did not find enough enablers.
• Cut an expensive card when the top of your curve is already crowded.
• Cut a situational answer from the starting deck if it will often have no useful target; keep it available for suitable opponents.
• Between two similar cards, favor the one that fills a job your deck lacks.

Reid Duke · Sealed Deck · Sep 15, 2014 ↗ · Reid Duke · The Basics of Booster Draft · Nov 4, 2014 ↗

6. Run a one-minute opening-hand test

Shuffle and look at several practice opening hands. This is a practical check, not a statistical proof. Imagine your first three turns, then shuffle everything back before the event starts.

A sideboard gives you options between games or when rebuilding your deck as the event allows. A best-of-one match has no between-game sideboarding step. You do not normally swap sideboard cards into your deck during a game.

1. Count the deck: normally 40, including the lands.
2. Can a typical hand cast an early spell in the right color?
3. If your opponent plays creatures on turns two and three, can you participate?
4. Can your reward cards turn on with cards already in this deck?
5. Do you have answers to a dangerous creature and a route to win after surviving?
6. Set unused cards aside as your sideboard. In Limited, it is your remaining eligible pool, not a fixed 15-card selection.

Comprehensive Rules — Limited deck construction, 100.2b and 100.4b · Sep 25, 2026 ↗ · Reid Duke · The Basics of Mana · Aug 18, 2014 ↗ · Magic Tournament Rules — sideboards and Limited construction · Feb 27, 2026 ↗