i was planning on writing this a long time ago.

there are basically five deck archetypes in Magic: the Gathering that are universally acknowledged. these five deck types are separated into 3 major and 2 minor “hybrid” types all of which have subtypes as well.

Major deck archetypes:

Aggro: aggressive or aggro decks typically use highly efficient creatures and spells as early and with as much deadly intent as possible. this deck reaches critical mass in the early turns and will normally run out of steam the longer the game progresses.

Combo: combination or combo decks for short are built on card interactions, putting together a string of spells to kill the opponent. all it needs is one turn where it gets to use the spells (so it needs the cards in hand and the mana to use them) and the game is over. some of the most feared and fearsome decks were combo decks.

Control: exactly what its name says, this archetype attempts to exert control over the game. extremely powerful in the late game once it has already established itself. will utilize hard and soft control spells to achieve better position while building up strength. will tend to utilize an enduring threat, either extremely difficult to remove or one that returns, as a finisher.

Minor “hybrid” deck archetypes:

Aggro-Control: you would think that a mix of aggro and control would be counter-intuitive but the idea is actually very elegant. the idea being to resolve a high quality threat in the early game and protect that threat with counter-magic or disruption while it kills the opponent.

Midrange: another mix of aggro and control that plays very differently from its hybrid “brother”. midrange tries to bring in credible threats while negating the opponent’s advantages using board clearers, removal or soft control.

I will actually try to go deeper into each deck type and how I view them.