Deck archetype

In Magic the Gathering 'deck archetypes' are a convenient way to describe how a given deck plays without having to list every card in it. There are 3 broad categories of archetypes, and countless smaller categories that fall within one (or more) of them. Which categories certain decks fall under is a major source of skub. Given Magic's popularity the vast majority of these terms are used in other card games even those that have little mechanically in common with Magic the Gathering. Just about the only TCG term that's widely used across multiple games and is not from Magic the Gathering or older non-collectable card games is calling any combination of cards that let you instantly win the game an "Exodia".

The Big 3

Aggro

Simple go-for-the-throat rushdown, best exemplified by Red. Red/Black, Red/White, Red/Green and any combination in between are all popular for this. Popular among new and casual players for the simplicity of piloting and the satisfaction of doing big damage fast and dropping lightning bolts on things. Typical ways to describe this strategy include terms such as "turning sideways" or SMORK.

Combo

Combo decks rely on one (rarely more) specific combinations of cards that have highly synergistic interactions, ex. Painter's Servant + Grindstone, to derive massive advantage or win the game in one fell stroke. While powerful, they are vulnerable to having their win conditions removed via, for example, Pithing Needle, and typically flounder when denied their combo. Combos exist in every color so there is no particular color archetype to combo decks.

Control

Typically Blue, often Blue/Black or Blue/White, Control seeks to deny the enemy the ability to make moves, whether by countering their spells, destroying their hand, stacking their deck or even eliminating their mana base. Control is often cited as the least fun archetype to play against, and is often the most oppressive in any extended format.

More detailed Archetypes

The Big 3 above are really broad can be further divided into more defined archetypes that cover decks that have the same aim while using different cards. For instance,"This is a Zoo deck." will say a lot more about your deck than "This is an Aggro deck."

Affinity

Originally, affinity decks used Affinity (a keyword that reduces the casting cost of your spell for each permenant of a certain kind you controlled on the field, be it a specific land or a type of permanent) and similar abilities to reduce the costs of their own cards and drop bombs early. In more recent years Affinity was the nickname for a deck using a plethora of cheap stupid murder robots artefact creatures like Arcbound Ravager to murder their opponent.

Zoo

Creature-based aggro to midrange decks using a lot of high value small animals like Kird Ape, Loam Lion, and Wild Nacatl for the more aggressive version, while bigger version would generally include a few creatures that produce mana (mana dorks) to get to 4,5 mana and cast big haymakers such as planeswalkers, dragons or whatever they fancy. If the creatures didn't do the job, a bunch of "burn spells" such a Lightning Bolt or Boros Charm were usually used to finish the job. Almost always RWG.

Suicide

Runs powerful black creatures with masochistic drawbacks (ex. Flesh Reaver and Phyrexian Negator), in the hope that they can kill the opponent before they kill you. Faster variants lean on bitterblossom and cheap creature removal.

Examples: Suicide Black

Burn

Burn aims to go directly for the enemy's face using direct damage spells and efficient creatures. Burn rarely plays the long game and looks to have an overwhelming advantage in the first few turns before its low-curve cards lose their potency and slower decks come online. Almost always viable whatever the time, being a solid budget option at worst and pretty much oppressive at best (Amonkhet-Ixalan period).

Examples: Red Deck Wins(some variants), Sleigh/Sly

Infect (Poison)

These decks win by placing 10 poison counters on the opposing player (instead of the usual 20 points of normal damage). There are very few ways to remove poison counters and many ways to place them. Poison decks completely bypass lifegain decks and provide a nearly unstoppable win condition. Though poison cards and cards that interact with them have been printed in many sets, poison decks rely almost exclusively on the overtuned Infect and Proliferate abilities from the Scars of Mirrodin block. Despite this limitation they can be incredibly oppressive, coming from behind to place 10+ poison counters in a single turn.

Lantern

Arguably the most brutal of all control decks. Lantern Control uses Lantern of Insight and Codex Shredder to deny the opponent the cards they need to win.

Milling

Named after the Millstone artifact, these decks take advantage of an otherwise rarely relevant rule that states you lose the game when you have to draw a card, and you have no more cards in your deck. Often Blue and Artifact focused, these decks use "milling" cards that force the opponent to move cards directly from their deck to their graveyard. Note that Painter's Servant and Grindstone combo above.

Dredge

A strategy where a player relies on cards that can either return to play from their graveyard or offer benefits for being there. Basically hard counters milling. It can be a powerful strategy even if not playing against an opponent using mill cards, and is basically why self-milling cards even exist, by virtue of giving the player an effective “hand” full of extra cards that can only be truly destroyed if the opponent has access to Exile rather than merely destruction or removal.

Ramp

A hyper-focused combo deck designed to do something ahead of curve when an opponent won't be ready for it. Ramp decks tend to rely on either dark rituals, mana elves, or zero cost artifacts and abilities that can use them in some way (improvise from Aether Revolt for example). But as the name implies, these decks are aiming to jump off a ramp and if they don't stick the landing with a good opening hand then they're gonna have problems. Differentiated from the tron deck below by the absence of the Urza's lands.

Tribal

These decks use creatures of the same creature type, along with cards that buff that type. Slivers are the most explicitly tribal design in the game. Tribal decks are popular among the more experienced casual players for their high level of flavor, but many are entirely capable of being competitive. "Lord" creatures and Coat of Arms are staples in tribal archetype decks.

Examples: Elves, Goblins, Merfolk, Slivers.

Tron

Named after Voltron, these decks use the 3 Urza Lands (collectively called Uzratron) to summon powerful creatures (Wurmcoil) or Planeswalkers (Karn and/or Ugin) much faster then would normally be possible. Variants exist using lands like Versuva and Cloudpost, although they achieve the same effect.

Birthing Pod

Uses a variety of utility creatures to assemble quick combos or toolbox fix creatures. Birthing Pod itself allows for quick creature rotation and tutoring. After Pod was banned, the deck picked up Cord of Calling and Collected Company to fill the gap.

Two Color Combos

The ten two color combos are named after the guilds of Ravnica, where two color combos were a core theme.

Azorius: White & Blue

Boring. Azorius decks are rather straightforward, winning the creature game by using blue to tutor and deny the opponent's efforts to mess with the creature game. Gets lots of lore-love from the developers but usually an under-performer unless it gets something like Reflector Mage that lets it dominate the mid-game. White's removal generally relies on bouncing things back to hand, which is more useful for picking off important targets when combined with blue's countering tools.

Boros: White & Red

Boros decks tend to be focused around winning the creature game with some strong spell support to clear the way. On its own, white's creature game is slow to develop and lacking in options to remove threats, while red's creature game bring lots of power for their cost (often with haste) but often lacking in toughness. Boros gains from red's ability to speed up the game and remove enemy threats, and white's staying power (both in the creature game and overall).

Dimir: Blue & Black

Just plain evil. Dimir uses blue's tutoring and countering to lean into black's deep pool of big bads (both spells and creatures) that make for an excellent closer. Basically, Dimir decks tend to sit in a passive, control attitude until they have the mana base to start throwing down, whereupon they switch to aggro. Letting Dimir reach endgame tends to end very badly. However it can also play into fast flying aggro with some success (especially with faeries).

Izzet: Blue & Red

Red but less swingy. Izzet isn't all that common since blue is usually quite strong on its own, while adding blue into red just slows red down. But the developers like izzet as a "steampunk" theme and have lavished it with dual colors that typically do things with artifacts.

Golgari: Black & Green

Consistently good for inconsistent reasons. Black benefits from green's ability to speed up mana (and thus creature) production, while green "benefits" from black's ability to sacrifice creatures for useful reasons. Green deliberately lacks good removal, while black swims in removal.

Gruul: Red & Green

Big stompy dinosaurs. Gruul is the combo for creature SUPREMACY, the apotheosis of the Timmy-game. The creatures will be expensive, they will come out fast, and they will hit hard... if they land and if they hit. Gruul decks aim to win early and if they haven't established clear dominance by turn 4 or so they're gonna have problems.

Orzhov: White & Black

Grimdark. When white and black come together it usually means token creatures. Lots and lots of token creatures, and occasionally lots of sacrificing token creatures. Usually aims for a passive midgame building to an explosive end with some big closer, or a midgame wipe and then ruling over the ashes.

Rakdos: Black & Red

Fine but not great. Rakdos decks are usually a hard-counter to the Timmy player, as they pour molten hate on creatures. But Rakdos doesn't really have an answer to mono-blue combo and control decks.

Selenya: Green & White

Probably the weakest of the two colors. Green's ability to speed up the mana game is only of modest help to white since manadorks are competing with white's better cheap drops. Tends to fare poorly because it still has no control.

Simic: Green & Blue

Blue, but faster. Simic decks almost always lean into using green's manadorks and land tutoring to speed up blue's game, which will typically involve big honking artifacts that build some sort of voltron win condition.