Subject: Re: Boring Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 13:00:10 EDT From: Przemyslaw Kozlowski >> >>1) Most similar decks appearing these days aren't really pure copies or >> >>effects of the dojo, but are produced by the fact that there aren't enough >> >>tourney-viable cards around. >> >> I guess you're right. I wish, more people would try and make CREATIVE >> and tourney-viable decks, instead of taking someone's deck and changing >> around a few cards and saying "Look at my ORIGINAL deck". > >Sorry, Ryan, but this isn't really what I said. I meant that you can't >blame people for doing so, since they can either build a deck using the >same boring cards as everyone else does, or try to use other cards and get >a beating at the tournament. With your complaint, you have also hit me. As >I said, I had tried to build my own "full-defense" deck, and it finally >came around to be a copy of the Weissman/Nicoloff deck without me even >looking at that one before. And the reason is? There are so few really good >cards around that we all come to use them, and no one can really use >something else without getting punished for it. I have to completely agree with Karsten on this one. The problem faced here is that original is not always better. The archetype decks are the ones most widely used because they are consistent. They have been explored through and through and fine tuned to the extreme. There is only a slight leeway for modifications without making the deck weaker. This is very much like chess where various openings and strategies have been reserched and refined to almost perfection. You still have the choice of which one you use but to deviate from them can be fatal unless you are someone like Kasparov. I really hate when people complain that someone's deck is a Dojo ripoff. The main concepts of deck building are so widely known to even the less experienced players that someone with a gift for deckbuilding can build a deck similar to one of the Dojo decks all on his/her own. I build my first sligh deck with only rudimentary knowledge of the concepts (I started playing Magic 2 months before that). I knew about the mana curve but had no idea of which creatures should go into it. As I looked through my limited collection of cards some seemed more suited to the concept. My choices: Mogg Fanatics, Ironclaw Orcs, Fireslingers, Susquata Lancers. These cards belong in a sligh deck and even a total newbie should be able to figure it out. The card pool is limited enough that there can be only so many original ideas. After that the question is whether you can play your deck and metagame correctly. The next time you lose to a SRB deck, instead of complaining about the Dojo Effect, blame yourself for not being prepared to handle a red deck (Justice, Chill, Honorable Passages, ...) Przemyslaw Kozlowski ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com