Subject: re: Stop Publishing Deck Lists!
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 15:01:33 PDT
From: "Dominick Riesland" <driesland@hotmail.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Dorian Anders has suggested that the Dojo stop publishing actual
decklists, and instead let people publish the theory and the
important combos, letting the reader find the mix for him or herself.
I would beg to differ with this approach for the following reasons:

1) Part of understanding how something works is to see it in a format
in which it is actually working.  If I had learned about TurboZvi
simply from attempting to decipher it from the combos, I would still
be confused about it.  Having two functional decklists allowed for me
not only to learn it, but to demonstrate it among the locals.  This
leads into the second point.

2) The presence of decklists does not diminish creativity.  In almost
any deck, there are elements which are built-in solely to deal with
the local metagame.  Take the sideboard for "Two Pints. . ." as an
example.  That sideboard was built almost exclusively to stop Stupid
Red Burn, which is fine for that environment.  When I tried it, I had
to face more of the Living Death and Donais 5cU threat, and therefore
had to play with less abandon and play Winter Orbs standard.  The
fact that the decklist did not mention Winter Orbs did not prevent me
from playing them.

3) One can tell the degree of a player's sophistication by how much
variation there is between the published decklist and the actual
deck.  You may have played against Gypsy Pox for the last two weeks,
but have you played against *this* version before?  If I know what's
in your deck, I know how to beat it.  Throw me a curve or three and
you now have an advantage.

4) To be perfectly honest, most people want the decklists, and if
they can't get them here, they will get them from a site that *will*
publish them.  To refrain on the grounds of morality is noble, but
won't score as many website hits in this case.

In short, the last thing the Dojo should do is adopt this (IMNSHO)
silly restriction.

Dominick Riesland,
"The TURNABOUT Guy"
Somewhat Official Milwaukee Rules Guru
DCI Level I Judge (and climbing)
========================
"Contrary to popular opinion, I _do_not_ know everything."

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