Friday, August 24, 2012

Building the Same Deck

I keep building the same deck over and over. It doesn't seem to matter what color or combination of colors I use, I'm always trying to accomplish a few specific things with "winning" being a distant contender.

I like "cheating" big creatures into play. I like having the card I need. And I like taking extra turns. I love incremental advantage, seeing all those little decisions add up to overwhelming superiority.

ZombifyDemonic TutorTime Warp

That's probably where the U/B Conundrum comes into play. That specific color combination seems to support my goals the best. But every once in a while I'll build a deck in another color combination and I find myself piling up cards that do the exact same things.
 
If it's green / white, I'll look at Lurking Predators and Hunting Grounds. Pretty soon, I'm cheating big creatures into play again.

Lurking PredatorsHunting Grounds

If it's blue, I'm looking at Show and Tell, Omniscience, and Dream Halls. Here we go big creatures.

Show and TellOmniscienceDream Halls

For white, I'm looking at Resurrection, Debtor's Knell, and Emeria.

ResurrectionDebtors' KnellEmeria, the Sky Ruin

Red? Sneak Attack.

Sneak Attack

Playing in the other colors always feels like playing a janky version of the deck I like. I'm not sure that I should keep fighting it. I was playing with someone recently who brought a few different decks to the table. After the first match, when he switched to his second deck, his entire mood changed. He said, "I don't know why I bothered with the other deck. This deck is cool!" His first deck was objectively stronger. But it wasn't the deck that worked for him.

So, maybe I'm not all in on black. Maybe I'm all in on black and blue. And I don't mean faeries or combo. Maybe I shouldn't be collecting cards for Grixis or G/W. I'm never happy to draw them anyway.

What are the themes you look for in a deck? When you read a spoiler list for the first time, what kinds of cards make you say, "Woah!"?

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