Editing Magic Formats (section)

==Comparison (AKA Which Format is the Best/Should I Play?)==
'''A note about pricing''': Legal decks for every format can be built for about $10. Just don't expect them to be capable of ever winning a game or even remotely fun to play. Plan on spending at least $20 if you want to have fun. Pretty playable sub $30 decks can be found on various deck websites, but they are locked into a pretty limited number of themes and pretty difficult to build without netdecking.

'''A note about competitiveness''': Top-tier tournament worthy decks tend to be expensive. This doesn't mean that cheap(er) decks can't win kitchen table, FNM or even take a small tournament by pure chance; but they will not hold up at the pro level. When deciding on how much you feel comfortable spending, keep your intended play environment in mind. If you aren't going to attend a grand prix, you don't need a $1000 grand prix winning deck.

====Standard====
'''+''' Well supported (Wizards caters heavily to Standard and releases new sets constantly. R&D actually play-tests Standard. They also hold numerous tournaments for the format.)
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'''+''' Cheap(er) than other formats in the short term.
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'''+/-''' Slower game.
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'''+/-''' Smaller card pool.
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'''+/-''' The current meta-game and card-pool favor decks that run expensive mythics.
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'''-''' Less cheap in the long term (as sets rotate out, you will need to buy new cards to fill the holes in your deck).
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'''Tournament Deck:''' Ramunap Red - $230
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'''Budget Deck:''' Crocpatra - $80

====Modern====
'''+''' Many different decks and strategies are viable. 
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'''+/-''' Fairly fast game.
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'''+/-''' Large cardpool.
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'''+/-''' The cards you use never rotate out (but the cards that you hate playing against don't rotate out either).
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'''-''' Sort of receives support from Wizards, but not nearly as much as Standard.
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'''Tournament Deck:''' Mardu Pyromancer - ~$1,050
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'''Budget Deck:''' 8 Whack - ~$100

====Legacy====
'''+''' Many different decks and strategies are viable.
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'''+/-''' Fast game.
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'''+/-''' Larger cardpool.
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'''+/-''' The cards you use never rotate out (but the cards that you hate playing against don't rotate out either).
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'''-''' Receives almost no support from Wizards.
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'''Tournament Deck:''' Grixis Delver - $3000

====Vintage====
'''+/-''' Extremely fast game.
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'''+/-''' Largest cardpool.
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'''+/-''' The cards you use never rotate out (but the cards that you hate playing against don't rotate out either).
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'''-''' Receives almost no support from Wizards.
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'''-''' INCREDIBLY expensive to create viable decks.
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'''Tournament Deck:''' Ravager Shops - [[What|$20,000]]

====[[Commander]]====
'''+''' VERY Well supported and allows usage of all black and white bordered cards with the exception of a banlist (also recieves yearly set of preconstructed decks featuring new format exclusive cards.)
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'''+''' decks can be built for less than $50
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'''+/-''' Can be a Slower game.
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'''+/-''' VERY LARGE cardpool.
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'''+/-''' practically anything goes depending on you allow in your playgroup or area (this means that very powerful decks exist that can potentially ruin games due to their back breaking strength.)
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'''-''' while no commander is "the best", their are a lot of strictly better commanders in the format. a lot of them have a MUCH higher power level than most.
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'''-''' Powerful decks tend to be VERY expensive (1000 and up)
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'''+''' cards hardly ever get banned.
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'''+/-''' a VERY political experience and plays out very differently than any other format, can be considered quite unique.
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'''+''' Made for and by casual players.
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'''-''' Has a <s>Singleton [[Legacy]]</s> Competitive Variant.
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'''+/-''' The products wizards make for commander are Preconstructed decks that can be played right out of the box.
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'''+/-''' Certain preconstructed decks are strictly better than others.
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'''Tournament Deck:''' Food Chain Prossh - $1500
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'''Budget Deck:''' Sygg, River guide - $80

==== Pauper ====
'''+''' Budget: As you might expect from a format of mostly commons, most decks are rather cheap. Even so, some cards are still simply low supply, so getting a play-set of oubliettes for mono-black control could cost a pretty penny for people that are on a tight budget.
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'''+/-''' Legacy lite. Despite being only commons, Pauper has its share of powerful cards. Like the artifact lands that are Banned in Modern. There are less combo decks than legacy, but the format is not entirely without combo. LSV actually considers its power level to be in between standard and modern.
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'''+/-'''  "Eternal". Cards don't rotate out.

[[Category:Magic: The Gathering]]
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