|
Deck Tech &endash; Deckbuilding 101
By Lion Wilson &endash; March 15, 2004
Everyone be seated, school is now in session! Welcome to Deck
Tech, the place you need to go to fix your deck and give it that
extra "oomph!" Because this is the first article, and I haven't
received any decks to tweak yet, I'm going to present a brief and
easy guide to getting started with building Duel Masters decks. I
know you're probably thinking, "I know how to build a deck, Mr.
Know-It-All!" Well, you may be right, but I think if you follow my
steps you may find you can streamline the process and make it much
better.
Getting Started
If you sit down and look at any good deck for any card game,
whether it is casual or tournament-caliber, you might wonder how the
deck started out. Well, to be honest, there is no one definitive way
to start a deck, but we'll look at a few approaches here.
1. Civilization &endash; One of the easiest ways to get yourself a
deck is to simply pick a civilization or two based on what you want
to do to win. Duel Masters has an advantage of having everything be
clear-cut, and yet be customizable as well. Although some
civilizations work better together than others, generally anything
you can dream up can work relatively well if you put some work into
it.
2. Function &endash; This technique is probably considered to be
somewhat more advanced, but building a deck around one specific means
of winning is one of the most focused methods around. This is how
tournament-quality decks are created probably 90% of the time.
Although it can be harder to develop and assemble, building a deck
around a certain function can also be the most efficient.
3. Flavor &endash; Even though most people play card games to win,
some like to have a little fun while they're doing it. Building a
deck around flavor may be having a deck with just dragons, or having
a deck that consists entirely of creatures. This is probably the most
difficult way to win matches, but you can achieve fun on the way.
Just to make sure everyone is following me, I'll build a deck
along with you. I like the civilizations of Fire and Water, so I'll
build one along those lines. As soon as you have your basic deck idea
figured out, move on.
Further Development
Now that you know basically what you want to accomplish with your
deck, you can further examine what you want to do. If you're building
by civilizations, look within them to see what they have that
complements each other and what just won't work. Functionalists will
probably already have their core combo(s) figured out, so they will
just need to decide what to build on top of them. Flavor players will
have it easy, just picking whatever fits their theme.
One way I like to go on this step is to gather up all my cards,
sit at a flat surface, and lay out every card that could be useful,
grouping them into categories based on function, civilization, mana
cost, attack power, and so on. You don't have to get this analytical
yourself, but I recommend you make some sort of method for yourself
so that you don't just throw together a bunch of cards you think
might work.
For my deck, I think I'm going to go with Fire's cheap and
efficient attackers and Water's blockers. I also like the board
control aspects of Fire and Water spells.
The Core Decklist
You've got the cards you want to put in the deck, so now we need
to develop the actual decklist itself. This is probably the most
important stage of deck building after you actually figure out what
you want to do. The main idea of this step is to figure out how many
of each card you have and how many you want to put in the deck.
Now, here is where many people run into real problems. You have to
decide what you need more chance of drawing and what you can give a
little leeway on. Some decide to just throw in one of a certain
really powerful card since once you use one of them you will probably
be on the road to victory. This is, in fact, the exact opposite of
what you want to do. If a certain card is important to your winning
plan, put more in so you have a better chance of getting it. This is
especially true for Duel Masters, as there is a chance your key card
could end up underneath your shields. Many times you may find you
have to sacrifice some card slots in order to put in more important
cards, but as long as what you put in is inherently useful, it
shouldn't matter too much.
Well, my Fire/Water quick attack/control deck is coming along
nicely. Here's what I have so far:
Bubblebath Xylophone v0.1
Fire
4x Brawler Zyler
4x Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4x Immortal Baron, Vorg
3x Onslaughter Triceps
3x Crimson Hammer
3x Magma Gazer
Water
3x Candy Drop
3x Marine Flower
3x Brain Serum
3x Spiral Gate
3x Teleportation
3x Virtual Tripwire
Oh, I forgot to tell everyone, I always give my decks crazy names,
so watch out! Alright, now that we have the basic plan of attack
sketched out, let's perfect it.
Updating Your Roster
The rest of the steps are rather simple, and they begin with this
one. Before you ever play with your deck, you should look it over
once more, thinking about how all the final cards you picked work
together, and fixing any errors you made in the development process.
Again, you might have to drop some of your beloved cards, but if it
makes the deck better overall, just go for it.
Well, as for my deck, I see I made a counting error, and it only
has 39 cards. Hey, everybody makes mistakes. So I decide that in
order to better my deck, I not only add a card, I cut out a few
unneeded ones altogether, making room for stuff that makes more
sense. Here's the new list:
Bubblebath Xylophone v0.2
Fire
4x Brawler Zyler
4x Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
4x Immortal Baron, Vorg
3x Crimson Hammer
3x Magma Gazer
2x Rothus, the Traveler
Water
4x Brain Serum
4x Candy Drop
4x Marine Flower
3x Spiral Gate
3x Teleportation
2x King Depthcon
Now that we've cut out all the fat and left only the meaty
goodness of the deck, let's give it a good test.
Playtesting
Quite possibly the most important step, you must playtest your
deck before you try to use it to win big games. Only in very rare
instances should you just go at it with what you have. Playtesting
isn't that hard, though &endash; just get together some friends with
different types of decks, and see how yours does against them. You'll
obviously see what works and what doesn't, and you can make changes
as you learn.
I went and playtested a little myself. I found that a few of my
higher-cost cards weren't really worth the wait, considering there
are cards that do a smaller, more efficient version of what I need
for a lot cheaper. Also, almost my entire Water section was a little
off, and I had to replace creatures to make it better. Here's the new
deck:
Bubblebath Xylophone v0.3
Fire
4x Brawler Zyler
3x Immortal Baron, Vorg
3x Rothus, the Traveler
3x Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
3x Crimson Hammer
3x Burning Power
Water
4x Hunter Fish
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Spiral Gate
3x Teleportation
3x Brain Serum
3x King Depthcon
I think my deck is actually quite good now, and if you followed my
steps, yours should be too, but remember, just because your deck has
won a few matches doesn't mean it's perfect. There will be times that
you get beaten, and there will be times when you get outright
destroyed. Treat your losses as lessons, and keep your deck changing.
Keep to heart the Kaijudo code: "I have no enemies. My opponent is my
teacher." That's one reason I use version numbers. I like that even
through all my losses and troubles, I can see how far I've come.
Contact Me
Okay, Deck Tech is only going to continue if all of you send me
decks to critique. You can drop me a line at lionwilson404@yahoo.com
with the subject line "Deck Tech." Please understand that I try to
respond to every email I get, but if the popularity of this site and
column picks up, you may have to fight to get your deck in. I'll try
to get in at least 2 decks a week, but I can't promise that all the
time.
|
