Bulding Decks = Building Skills

So I've decided I will blog a few times a week. I don't have time during the week to type much more than that. I believe I have useful information that will benefit all my readers, or at least the information will enlighten you. Today I want to discuss deck-building, and all of its benefits.

I'd like to start this with this quote: "The more decks you seriously build and playtest, the more your skills as a player will increase". This is a quote that I invented, and I believe it's true to every last point.

Most players tend to have an average of 3 decks built all the time. I have a friend that has 19 or 20 decks built. I currently have 30 complete decks. A lot of people will be flabbergasted when reading this, unless you already knew, because it's rare to find a person with this number of decks. By the way, that number will increase when I scavenge more sleeves. I always have deck ideas to go.

By having 30 decks, I'm able to playtest different strategies against different decks and observe specific results. I'll use this as an example. Let's say I'm testing my Ninjas against Heroes. My current Ninja build used 3 Anti-Spell Fragrance. Some other combos include Mist Valley Falcon + Safe Zone, and Anti-Spell Fragrance + Dark Simorgh. Against Heroes, if I have Anti-Spell Fragrance + Dark Simorgh active, I win because Heroes can't drop a boss monster to deal with the Simorgh unless they use a card like Miracle Fusion, and they can't use it due to my lock. Also, Super Transformation Art makes Shining miss it's timing, so that's always nice. Theoretically, Ninjas would have a dominate match-up against Heroes. Heroes would still likely win if they have instant answers to Anti-Spell Fragrance and Super Transformation Art.

Now say after a match or two between those decks I want to playtest Gallis Monster Mash against Ninjas. You would quickly observe that Anti-Spell Fragrance does nothing against this deck, however White Dragon Ninja + Safe Zone is practically impossible to overcome, or prevent. The only chance for victory at that point would be to resolve an effect of a card like Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, or OTK with burn damage with the Gallis + Birdman + Koaki Meiru Doom loop.You will also notice that Gallis will beat the crap out of Ninjas because of the amount of big monsters, unless they resolve a Safe Zone.

It's this type of playtesting that builds your skills, because you are learning the outcomes of certain cards against other cards. You are forcing yourself to strategically overcome challenges with the 40 cards at your disposal, which can take serious effort and planning.

As an aside, playing a sacky aggressive deck (like Heroes or Agents) barely increases your skill. This is something I always notice when constructing and experimenting with a deck like that. All the deck rewards you for is beating people down with big monsters. It's not an accomplishment, and if anything your skill level decreases, because all you know how to do is beat people with big monsters and you leech off the ability to be lucky. A not-so-skilled player can still win with a deck like this because it's simple and two-dimensional in terms of advanced strategy. A skilled player obviously will be better at the deck, even though it is simple, because skilled players usually have a better idea of when to drop the boss monsters, and use the most powerful cards at the correct times. This is a different post for a different day, though.

I enjoy having 30 decks built for multiple reasons. First and foremost, the playtesting and experimentation that occurs is amazing and quite useful. I can playtest at least 6 decks a day, and that's wholesome, beneficial practice. A lot of people can playtest their 3 constructed decks every day, but I believe my playtest is a lot more thorough. Secondly, I just like having 30 decks built to make me feel good about myself. Finally, it's better than having cards lying all over the place, serving no real purpose.

Building new decks is always a challenge because you want to make it as strong as possible. Using innovative tech cards that no one else really considers is definitely a bonus. Good deck building definitely increases your skill as a player, especially building a unique deck that has never really been heard of before (like I did with Frog Fairies 14 months ago). Who knows, you might build come up with a YCS winning deck (like I did with Chaos Dragons... just saying).

Hopefully you found this post enlightening and useful. My next post will likely be a tournament report for Saturday's Local tournament. I would like to come 1st for my 27th Local tournament in a row.