Subject: [COMMENTARY] An Opinion on Deck Copying Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 13:54:08 -0400 From: Dave Matteson To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com 'lo everybody, i felt i would write a post to give a builder's perspective on copying decks off the dojo. i personally do so to playtest and for fun. i try to enter into "serious" tournaments with decks of my own design, mainly to see how they hold up -- not for any type of personal righteousness. a lot of people condemn players who copy decks of the dojo; this criticism has reached an apogee recently. my own thinking as to why they do this is mixed. mainly i think it is because they feel the frustration that i and many others are familiar with; trying to be original and flopping face-first into the land of the scrubs. it's much easier to copy a deck, practise with it, adjust the sideboard for your local metagame and then go kick some butt than to actually spend months playtesting and refining a deck of your own. especially when all that work comes to mean zip. however, i don't think that people should be persecuted for taking the "easy" road. it is open to everyone, and if you choose to take the harder one; that is your own perogative. those who argue that it is not in the spirit of the game are selectively ignorant. the original intention of the game (as i understood it at the time of magic's dawning) was for each person to buy a deck or two and play with the cards found there-in. i don't think that richard garfield or the other designers ever forsaw people buying as many boxes as they do now, and tracking down the fourth copy of every card they need. it has become so common place now, though, that we take it as part of the game. this wasn't the main thing i wanted to write about, though. what really sparked me to write was reading some reports. a lot of them, when the person is listing their deck they feel necessary to qualify it by saying "this is my own modified version ." you rarely see tourney reports where the author either does or admits to doing the most heinous of acts; copying a deck directly off the dojo. they feel dirty when they do it, and why? because they know that a lot of people will moan and say "what a scrub! what a loser! why can't (s)he be original?!" what i wanted to point out is that in a lot of cases, these people would be better off if they had actually copied it directly. this is most obvious in the cases of Donais U5C and TurboZvi. both of these decks have been refined to a fine, fine point. you, as Joe Q. Scrub out there cannot modify the deck to "work better." you may not see how it works the way it is, but let me tell you, they work best the way they are. of course you want to adjust the sideboard to the decks that will be most popular in your area, but modifying the main-deck is almost always a mistake. why is this? because these decks have been built to handle a wide, wide array of opponents. if you fiddle with things, you will wreck the balance and symmetry of the deck. for instance; i see a lot of people dropping 2 of the whispers, and maybe some of the impulses in donais u5c for things like *bottle gnomes* (!?!?!). why in bloody hell would you put bottle gnomes in donais? you have gerrard's wisdom! the most broken, efficient, insane life-gaining card ever printed (maybe other than zuran orb and even then, i have my doubts.) you don't need more blockers, you have walls of blossoms and the sex monkeys. there is *no reason* to put bottle gnomes into this deck. you *need* those whispers and impulses, the deck will break if you lower the amount or remove them altogether. why? well let me explain what those cards do specifically in that deck; impulse lets you get what you want right away. as far as donais is concerned, it is a tutor. an instant tutor at that. the deck is homogenous enough that you will almost always get what you need when you impulse -- at the very least you will get another impulse or a whispers if you don't see what you want (thus enabling you to continue your search if you are in dire straits.) the whispers are perhaps a main key to actually winning with this deck. they are your means for "re-filling" your hand. this deck wins by pure card advantage, plain and simple. whispers is your card advantage source later in the game. if your opponent has not conceded, and you have emptied your hand down to 2-3 cards from countering and wrathing a lot, you are going to need to start doing whispers with buyback to fill your hand back up so those wisdoms do you some good and so you can stock up on counters again. true you can hold onto one per turn, but that is way too slow. in turbozvi, you see people swapping out lobotomy for things like lightning blast. these people have no clue as to how the deck actually wins. it doesn't matter if they get you to -125071250, you will deck them and they will die immediately, whereas you would not die until the end of the turn. therefore, you win. sucks doesn't it? but that's how it is. you do not need to go throwing in damage sources, or abeyances, or what-have-you. you only need what zvi has already given you; a deck that is perfect at what it does. (even though it does it too unreliably and slowly for tournament play.) as a deck builder, i really enjoy it when people give me ideas on improving my deck. sometimes they turn out to be great, and i end up taking them into the deck and better off because of it. most of the time, however, people don't think about how swapping card (a) for card (c) will effect the deck. they just think "hey i like this card better!" that really isn't justification for changing a deck that has been playtested and refined over a period of months. basically, what i'm trying to say is; when copying decks of the dojo, first try an *exact* copy. play it a lot, get a feel for it. don't assume the deck has flaws; first look at how you are playing it. you may be playing it wrong (as is usually the case with complex control decks.) then, when you really know the deck and can play it very well, only then start thinking about how you can improve it. usually, consulting the original author is a good idea; (s)he may be able to give you insights into what some of the cards are there for that you hadn't realized on your own. have fun, ...dave