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!

  • LovesTha🦒@mtgjudge.social
    1·
    8 months ago

    @bec A lot of decks are expensive due to their manabase. When trying to compete on a budget stick to decks with fewer colours (but 1 is better than 0 for cost). An all islands manabase is ~free and pretty good, where the ideal 4 colour manabase will be 24 $10~50 cards (or $500 if looking are revised duals).

    • bec@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      11·
      8 months ago

      Yeah, you make a good point! Having more colors does tend to mean pricier lands that come into play untapped, among other things.

      I’m not necessarily trying to keep up with them in terms of budget, but it’s clear they have more to spend on their deck than I do. And it sounds like they’re planning on taking it even further! I have no idea what improvements they have in mind, but I might have to rethink our 1vs1 games. Maybe I’ll need to build a new deck specifically to counter theirs, or perhaps suggest they splurge on upgrading their second deck instead (although I highly doubt they’ll go for that option)! Otherwise I’ll have to refuse their challenges, since being always on the losing end and being stomped isn’t much fun