Subject: Re:Stop Printing Decklists
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 09:30:33 -0700
From: Phillips <bphillips@pdt.net>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Would you please continue to print the decklists? As other replies have
already indicated, not everyone who sees a decklist wants to copy that
deck, to make their own and win, by proxy, a local tournament. I say by
proxy because this person, using the copy deck, is not playing for
himself (or herself), but is playing for the person who originated the
deck, allowing the deck's creator to win yet another tournament with a
very good deck. It's non-scientific cloning of creative genius, this
playing of someone else's deck.
        As already mentioned, I like seeing these decklists. More importantly,
I would like to see the PROBLEMS appearing along side of each decklist.
That's basically why I check the listings. Sure, there was a time I
tried to steal "The Deck" from Weissman, but now I employ the ideas
behind it, using Earthquakes and Hyptnotic Spectres instead of The Moat
or the Disrupting Sceptre. It took a lot of time and a ton of
playtesting, but this deck of mine could control the metagame better
than the original. Through evolution, it is only a continuance of
Weissman's style, no longer a cheaper copy of his deck.
        Please continue printing decklists. I've seen so many variants of Sligh
that I've built one to playtest against, which I swear on my life never
to use at any sort of tourney, but I'm not happy with a homegrown until
it can crush that Sligh. And all of my original decks will crush Sligh.
It's become a matter of principal for me, to beat what has already been
done. The 5C Reanimator that put me out of the last tournament? I was
proud to be beatten by that, because I'd never seen anything like it
before. It was a pretty good deck, something that, had I known it
existed, I could easily have beatten. But this was a new, "rogue" deck,
and the unknown is the most dangerous.
        You list the "Decks To Beat" and I try to beat them. Those I cannot
beat outright, my sideboard usually does. The rest, I pray not to see in
serious play. The complete decklists are important because they can show
the weakness. With only a basic idea, only the combo cards of a deck,
there's a good chance that I'll go into a secnario expecting to see on
Achilles heal, but having to look for another because I was wrong.
People who are so unimaginative as to copy the complete decklists don't
win in my area. They try; they tend to come in around 4th place or so,
usually lower.
        Yes, please print the complete decklistings. I like to read them , to
discover a new combo now and them. More importantly, I like to know
what's coming. It's only the unknown that I truly fear, for I can outdo
what I already know a vast majority of the time. It's simple Boy Scouts,
to always be prepared. Know your enemy and all of that. When you know
that you'll be facing Sligh, the 3 Grindstones in your sideboard really
can make a difference, unless you're play some variant, something new.
It happens. Besides, those who create the decks, the originators, can
beat their own. I doubt that they worry about the "Dojo Effect", but
more probably, they rely on it, hope for it. To be the creatore of
something so superior that it cannot be beat, that it must be joined,
this would be a great sign of power. Something all of us players who
create their own secretly hope for, to see our own decks being played by
an unimaginative cloner a few months down the line, and then kick their
tail for being stupid, for trying to kill the elephant with his own
flyswatter. Please print the decklists, so I know the sidestreets and
back alleys to victory over those who cannot be original.

                                Bob Phillips, Jr.
                                Driggs, Idaho