#(8-15-23) How do you optimize a deck for fun rather than power?

39 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

eternal wind
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And what does fun mean for you?

thin root
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The big thing for me is a variable game experience.
So tutors, stax that prevent a lot of actions as well as that, my decks operate as much as possible where if a card is in one deck, it can't be in another so different decks are forced into different gameplay niches and format staples are spread across my decks rather than every deck having the same 15 or so cards

regal portal
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I have a strict limit on the value of my mana bases, and I try to make my decks have a budget of under $500. I typically build on Cockatrice, but my group still tries to adhere to a similar budget.

robust eagle
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Run stuff that interacts with the table in a way that’s more than removal

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Monarch, Initiative, (Tasteful) Goad, mini games that give opponents choice, even as simple as a Fact or Fiction

tropic palm
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For me, it's setting a max number of non-land tutors, taking out things that I know can cause high frustration (e.g. repeated mindslaver effects), and sometimes running subotimal cards in the name of theme and flavor

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Sometimes I remove som ething cuz I realise that it creates a near-total lockout of other players

urban condor
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Big flex board to fit with different pods and to fill various play styles

glass sandal
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It's a matter of thinking about how I intend to solve problems, and how I intend to cause problems.

I'm uninterested in lock pieces and stax pieces that shut off an avenue of play, and instead prefer more surgical tools. Rest in Peace creates a less interesting game state than Lion Sash. Magnetic Mine is way cooler than Null Rod.

My wins should be seen coming, and a sorcery should be able to stall or stop them. "Surprise you're dead" feels anticlimactic to me, lacks drama.

Then it's just a matter of matching power level. Don't bring a Necropotence to a Phyrexian Arena fight, and, vice versa.

tepid pendant
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Think hard about the time you take playing. Aim to be taking actions for less than 1/4 of the total game time.
Think about what your opponent's want to do. Don't stop them doing it, just stop them winning because of it.
Think about how the game will end. Games should end the same way they played. If you expect the game to be mostly creatures attacking that's how it should end too.
There are more, but these are a start

peak plover
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I want that back and forth in gameplay for that sense of “fun”. When optimizing that, look at things that can lead to winning and rank them by how directly they go for a win. Since the game is about winning and having fun, pick how indirect you want to be and focus on that. Avoid “doing nothing” but also avoid accidentally being overpowered.

onyx lichen
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Stick to your own theme and creative vision for a deck and make it wurk.

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That's how you can make a deck fun and spicy and cool!

lapis bramble
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Fun to me is playing cards that are in theme and sweet. Mana cost be damned

azure rock
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for me the deck has to work well to be fun, first off - playing some unoptimized jank that includes cards I think are cool isn't fun to me if the deck isn't able to play the game

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for me it's all about feel, and frankly decks I find fun usually also end up being rather powerful

fossil night
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I try to have my opponents in mind when building new decks. I had a phase, where every deck I built was essentially a storm deck and it took me some time to realise, that I had less and less fun, because no one was enjoying my deck. Now I try to build decks, that don´t use too much time at once. And I try to build things people where not expecting. Like The Raven Man as a Cycling Deck 🙂 I rather people say my deck is "cool" than "powerful" 🙂

tepid pendant
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Yes! Someone told me a couple of weeks ago that they love games with me because my decks are always really cool to see, it was honestly a huge compliment.

tropic palm
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I love getting complements like that. Nothing feels quite like a success in magic to me like having people request to see if that I built again and again

fiery delta
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One other thing I’ve been really conscious of is a card that consistently wins from a low or middling board state, or A+B combos. I don’t want a card that will frequently win me the game as soon as I draw it

bleak pond
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No two card combos, no tutors, lots of non-removal interaction (warp world, wheels, voting cards, etc), lots of combos that are 3-6 cards and completely unexpected for the deck (for example, mono-white with kormus bell, urborg, and elesh norn).

So like a lot of other people have said, variability and unpredictability. That and sticking to a very cohesive theme. Outside of cEDH decks, there's never a card that goes in just because it's 'good'. Expropriate is not going into my wheels deck just because its a blue bomb/wincon, it's going in my budget Edric extra turns because it fits the flavor.

urban condor
# tepid pendant Yes! Someone told me a couple of weeks ago that they love games with me because ...

Thats like how I love the random compliments I get over my deck design decisions that offer a tight theme and story telling built into them... Like Orah it's a pilgrimage with sacred temples and altars, with Tergrid it's her desire for friends creating creatures that bring them to her, Sen Triplets fully commits to not having its own win cons and helping get them for the opponents to use myself, even Jaya is disregarding (and discarding) everything in a constant blaze of glory

sweet gulch
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My most recent deck actually did this. I built Ivy gleeful spellthief, and it’s a departure from how I normally build decks. This deck has no removal and almost no way to interact with the board. The goal, or the fun for me, of this deck is trying to mutate as many things onto Ivy as possible and make as many copies of the mutated Ivy. This way I just do my shenanigans and let everyone else do theirs. I’m not trying to interrupt anyone’s game plan. As a friend put it, “ignore the problem, grow”

nocturne mesa
bleak pond
# nocturne mesa how does one make a budget extra turns deck

Super easy, barely an inconvenience, with Edric specifically. You load it up with all the cheapest extra turns spells, which there's more than you need in the $1-10 range. All the creatrues are mostly 1-2 cmc commons and uncommons with some kind of evasion. Toss in a good amount of counterspells and removal, maybe and Beastmaster Ascenion and Triumph of the hordes for wincons, and ther ya go. Hell, I put Aluren in mine and it's still under $150 total.

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If I were to put in an expropriate, that'd bump it up to what, $165? In the current market that's still a solidly "budget" deck.

fossil night
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I don´t think I have more than two Decks that cost more than 150 € 😄 Budget seams to be a very loose term. I like to brew my decks in the 50-100 € range and that feels kind of right to me 🙂

robust eagle
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Past that my decks are like...200-300?

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If my deck theme is going to be bad I'm not going to suffer further by also making my landbase bad

robust eagle
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[[Rigo, streetwise]]

crystal wrenBOT
fossil night
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That is very reasonalbe, I use to play a lot of proxys in my landbase aswell. But I tend to brew Mono colore Decks more often than not these days and thats where you use the Basics for fun 😄

robust eagle
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That's where you get to run all the cool nonbasics!

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Especially Nykthos

fossil night
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Them aswell. But when you play 40+ Lands in every Deck there is a lot of room for basics aswell

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I don't run Nykthos, because it paints to big of a Target on my back 😅

robust eagle
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Naaahhhhhh it's just bonus value