Subject: Re: Stop Printing Decklists!
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:47:46 -0500
From: "Ken Moore" <squirrel@pcpartner.net>
To: <fkusumot@ix.netcom.com>

Frank,

   I'd like to agree with everything Dorian Anders wrote about whether
or not to print deck lists.  This practice is not only scaring players
away from the Pro Tour, but it is ruining the game in general.

   I've felt for years that ninety percent of the deck lists that are
printed in various magazines and on the net should be stopped.  How
much of a challenge is it to create a deck these days?  It's not a
challenge at all!  It's just a matter of determining which of the decks
you see is the best.  You maybe change a couple of cards so that it's
not the same thing, but it's still the same deck.  Where's the skill in
it all?

   Sure, a few people create a couple of decks every now and then.  But
then that deck just gets posted and everybody copies it.  Now we're
even seeing deck copying being defended in magazines like The Duelist.
These people say that copying helps the little guy, and that it's
actually good for the game.  This is the defense of a person who either
doesn't put in the effort to make new decks or hopes everybody else
will copy them so he can build his decks against them.  That's not good
for the game, it's just getting off easy.

   Who among us couldn't get an idea for a good deck from just a
general description?  An article with a few card ideas, sketch of how
the deck works, and so forth would be greatly beneficial to anybody who
wanted to actually build a deck.  The best part is, everybody who
"copied" that deck would end up with somewhat differing decks, not just
a carbon copy.

   Around my community, The Dojo has a bad name.  People who build
nothing but "Dojo Decks" can be spotted easily, and nobody wants to
play against them.  Why?  Not just because they have good decks, but
because they try to act like it was their own idea!  In fact, these
people try as hard as they can to hide the fact that they copied the
decks from The Dojo so they can claim that they're actually good
deck-builders.  This removes a huge amount of the skill from the game,
because less people practice deck-building.  After all, isn't
deck-building half of the strategy of the game?

   I urge everybody to stop submitting entire deck lists to The Dojo,
or anywhere else.  And Frank, I urge you to stop printing full lists.
I, and others, believe this would greatly increase the fun and skill
level of the great game of Magic.
--
Ken Moore
squirrel@pcpartner.net