Mana Curve

Mana Curve is a theory of deck construction based on the statistical curve of the Mana Costs in a players deck.

Details
When each card in the deck are gathered organized by cost, a curve can be created.

It is a concept used in consideration in all deck building and servers as a guide for deciding the balance of the costs and number of cards used in a deck.

In most decks, a deck is usually constructed by using multiple lightweight cards, with the numbers decreasing as the cost becomes heavier.

When there are a majority of cards at a low cost (such as 2 or 3) and a smaller amount of higher costs, the graph draws a balanced curve. If there is a large number of cards with a heavy cost in the deck, it's statistically likely that they will be drawn too often in the early turns of the game before they can be used.

However if there a too many light cards, the card power of the deck will be lower, with little finisher options.


 * Even top-ranking decks in the metagame have a high-cost weighted curve. This can be seen in Drama decks where more than half of the deck are Dragon creatures that cost 6 mana or more including Magmadragon Balga Geyser. Various deck types are not always bound by the Mana Curve.
 * Even in rush decks, various defensive cards with "shield trigger" such as Terror Pit or Hell's Scrapper are used for a countermeasure against the mirror match. These cards can be put into the mana zone rather than being cast for their actual cost.
 * The Mana Curve of a deck can differ slightly when using Mana Acceleration cards. For example, if a Mana Acceleration card that costs 2 is used, you can use a cost 4 on your third turn, and if another is used, you can use a 6 cost card on the fourth turn. This flow of "2 > 4 > 6" is known as a "Progression" and is a plan used by control deck types to gain Tempo Advantage.
 * In the case of deck construction based on this progression in the example above, the cards with a cost of 3 or 5 mana cards aren't used, so are only used in low amounts. While the curve may look slightly uneven, if enough lower cost cards are still used, this curve will stay stable.
 * Cost Reduction cards such as Cocco Lupia could be used that allow the usage of 6 cost cards on the turn after it, but as it can be destroyed by removal, other cards with a cost of 4 or 5 are still used.
 * Shobu Kirifuda mentioned this concept when he built a deck using Bolmeteus Steel Dragon.