Much like tabletop Magic: the Gathering, building an effective deck in Magic: Puzzle Quest is an important aspect to emerging victorious in your battles. Here are some of the factors you'll want to consider when building a deck:
  • Planeswalker
  • Standard vs. Legacy
  • Choosing The Right Cards
    • Creatures
    • Spells
    • Supports

There are two different ways you can approach the theme of your deck: building around your Planeswalker and their abilities, or around a specific card/card type (for example, Zombies or Vampires). How you decide to build your deck will determine the order in which you approach the following aspects.

Planeswalker

Each Planeswalker has unique stats and abilities, and choosing the right one can significantly bolster the capabilities of your deck.
  • White: Armies and Defense
    • Focuses on growing a large army out of smaller creatures and protecting life total with life gain and damage prevention
  • Blue: Knowledge and Manipulation
    • Focuses on controlling the flow of battle through card draw, counterspells, and restricting opponents' available battle options.
  • Black: Death and Sacrifice
    • Focuses on creature destruction and resurrecting fallen comrades to fight again as the undead.
  • Red: Fire and Passion
    • Focuses on direct damage abilities, powerful spell cards, and/or quick-hitting creatures.
  • Green: Nature and Creatures
    • Focuses on raising large, powerful creatures and accelerating their growth through mana ramp spells and abilities.
(If you want to learn more, check out Magic the Gathering's website for more details: New to Magic)

So for example, if you just want to hit your opponent in the face with a devastating fireball blast, then you might want to choose Chandra, Roaring Flame. If raising an army of the undead is more your style, then consider choosing Liliana, The Last Hope.

In addition, you'll want to consider the Creature, Spell, and Support max limits that Planeswalkers have. Some Planeswalkers, like Chandra, Roaring Flame, allow you to add a lot of creatures into your deck. Other Planeswalkers though, like Tezzeret the Seeker, have a much larger cap on the number of Supports you can add to your deck instead.

Picking the right Planeswalker that fits both your style of play and your win condition will set up a solid foundation on which the rest of your deck is constructed.

Standard vs. Legacy

Events are separated into two different formats: Standard and Legacy. Standard restricts the card sets allowed in your deck, whereas Legacy allows for all card sets to be used. If you're just starting out, then we recommend trying a Standard event first, as it will limit the number of cards and combinations you need to take into consideration. In addition, Standard decks can be used in both Standard and Legacy events.

Choosing The Right Cards

Time for deck construction! Each deck contains only 10 cards, but don't worry about getting milled! You can't run out of cards during a battle, because we'll continuously deal you random copies of those 10 cards.

There are 3 different types of cards you can choose from:

Now this is where the card filter really shines. If you don't know how to use the card filter yet, we recommend taking a look at this article first: How do you use the Card Filter?

You'll want to consider your approach to deck building at this point. If you're focusing on highlighting the Planeswalker and their abilities in this deck, then you'll want to choose cards that accent those qualities.

For example, if you chose Ob Nixilis as your Planeswalker, you might choose cards like Altar's Reap or Lost Legacy to take advantage of his 3rd ability, Forbidden Knowledge.

(Click image to enlarge)

If you're focusing on highlighting a specific card, then you'll want to choose cards that complement it or triggers an ability that card may have. For example, if your deck focus is on taking advantage of the Energize gems that Aethertide Whale creates, then you'll want cards that have powerful Overload effects, such as Arborback Stomper and Oath of Ajani. (This combo assumes you are playing as a Blue/Green Planeswalker)

(Click image to enlarge)

Conclusion

If you focus on the above listed aspects, then you should have a good foundation for beginning your deck-building journey!

Building the deck is one of the most important things in the game and it takes some time depending on your strategy. But it can pay back with some exciting wins!
Building a good deck takes mental effort for some players, while others are just trying to experiment different cards and combinations.
Here we have the Deck Editing screen:
- On the top of the screen we have:
  • Trash: The trash icon empties your deck so you can start from zero.
  • Creatures, Spells and Supports: Here you can see which is the maximum number of each card type you can have in your deck. This number changes according to the Planeswalker and its level.
  • Close/Confirm.
- The first tab (DECK) is the current card selection for your 10-card deck.

- On the bottom of the screen you have:
  • Planeswalker’s abilities: It's a smart move to make the most of your Planeswalker's skills with the help of cards, and vice versa. So check the Planeswalker's abilities as much as you want while building the deck.
  • Auto Fill: Another way of creating a deck is by using the AUTO-FILL feature on the bottom of the screen.
  • View Mode: You can choose between Icon (the image above) or List (the following image):
- The second tab (CARD POOL) consists of all the cards from your inventory that are allowed with that Planeswalker. You can scroll to the side to see more card pages.
On the bottom of the screen you can find the Card Filter, the “Show all cards” selection box, and again the View Mode.