I ran some errands today, which of course means my gaming shop somehow makes it on the list. As I was walking around, the clerk was talking to a guy in front of a glass case full of Magic cards. From what I eventually picked up on, she was trying to help him build an angel deck, but neither was too sure what to put in it. I briefly considered dashing away from the Magic products I was looking at, hoping they wouldn't try to bring me in to the conversation.
It's not that I didn't want to help. When I first walked in he was holding his newborn and talking "baby talk" to her - how can I not want to help out a fellow gamer-dad? And while I love tribal decks (decks built around a type of creature like Angels or Goblins), and I love the theory of deck building... I have absolutely no idea what the heck I'm doing when it comes to building them.
This is nothing new for me. Back during my YuGiOh days, I was determined to be active on a popular deck-building forum. I'd read through other people's deck and offer suggestions, I'd post my own decks and ask for advice, but it became readily apparent that I was in over my head. My suggestions were ignored on a good day and laughed at on an average day. On a bad day someone would actually take the advice and return later to let me know how horrible my advice was - fortunately I only had 1 or 2 bad days, but it was enough to make me take note. For my decks, the general advice would be "Er, uh... just use these completely different deck here that barely uses any of the cards in your current deck."
My problem was that I had an idea of what I wanted, but the mental ability to see how a card would play out alongside 39 other cards was beyond me. I could set up off-the-wall combos, but putting other cards in the deck to support it left me flopping about until I made an incohesive mess. I can dream it up, and I can play it if I have it, but the actual creation of a deck has always left me a bit nonplussed.
Fast forward to the present, and nothing has changed. Despite years of watching videos, studying guides, looking at winning Magic decks... it's all beyond me. And it's not just card games - any game with enough freedom to let you truly play how you want leaves me stuck in the build phase - nestled snuggly between the dream and execution phases.
This was never more evident than a recent game of Warmachine I played. I've been mulling over the idea of taking my Khador, an army that grossly excels in melee, and turning it in to a shooting list. I had all the parts, and I knew how I wanted it to play out, but building the actual list had me lost for "filler" pieces. I ran out of time so I yelled "Uh... add more shooting!" which turned out to be a terrible idea because I had no meat shield to hold my opponent back. After playing a friend of mine who is a list-building genius, he gave me a couple suggestions that seem obvious in hind sight, but they had completely eluded me.
I wish I could fix that part of my gamer personality. I mean without the skills to actually build a deck or army list, I'm left with three options:
- Give my ideas to others and ask them to help tweak it, or bribe them to build my list using food, cards or painted miniatures
- Take built decks off the internet that may or may not do what I want them to do
- Dream it, build it, play it, lose.
Number 3 has always been the preferable one, but it stinks to have your deck lose wonder "Okay is the idea bad, or just the current iteration of it?" With Magic that's easier to fix with a dedicated day of testing. With something like Warmachine where a single game with a friend can take 2 hours, that baby goes right out with the bath water because it's hard to wait a week or two to test out one minuscule tweak, only to discover that the idea was indeed a stinker.
For you guys who can take an idea and brew up something awesome, stand up and strike a super hero pose. Even if you're a terrible player, being able to make something that's powerful is something to be proud of. I can dream up an idea, and I can take a built idea and play it pretty well. But actually rolling up my sleeves, setting up all the cogs and springs to work toward a single, cohesive goal... I just can't make it happen!
What about you guys? Do you struggle or excel at dreaming, building, or playing? How do you compensate for your less powerful area? How do you make your strength work for you?
What about you guys? Do you struggle or excel at dreaming, building, or playing? How do you compensate for your less powerful area? How do you make your strength work for you?
See you tomorrow!
I like to think of myself as a "play tester" when it comes to Magic decks, army lists and what not.
ReplyDeleteWith Magic I think of a couple sets of cards that can have some synergy together put a list together and ask myself how it would perform. Is it too slow so you get stomped against fast moving decks? Does it lack control cards or a way to defend myself if I don't have meat shield creatures? So when it all boils down I try to answer the 3 following questions for deck building:
Do I have a kill shot in this deck or a way to win?
Do I have enough of a defensive plan to stay alive long enough to deliver the win?
Does my deck have a plan that I am capable of realistically pulling off?
If I get through those ideas it simply comes down to play testing.
For army lists like Warmachine / 40K it depends on how forgiving the game is. I will usually dedicate a certain number of points to the solid plan that I know want to pull off. If there is something else I want to try I will usually give it a go and hope for the best. This allows me to see the unit perform on the table and lets me get some real world experience with it before I say a certain piece sucks or not. Normally most things in table top war games have a place but they are just often being used in an ineffective way.
So apart from avoiding hooking 2 things together that have absolutely no synergy, play testing is the best way I can think of to see which units work best in certain situations.