I'm a fairly new player. I have played Standard a bit, but have always been a net decker. Deck building is something that I would really like to be great at, whether it's creating my own deck, or just modifying a net deck to work for my meta. And how do you decide what decks are good, what cards are good, etc? This is definitely a skill I need even if I strictly net deck because I need to know how to side board for each match.
Is there like a process or formula you go through to help form and perfect each deck you're working on?
Deck building is becoming a lost art. I believe Pat Chapin wrote a book about deck building years ago. There are many variables that need to be understood to build a competitive deck. Thats why most wait for the pros (or those that are good at deck building) to play in an event and copy what they play.
If you want to get better at deck building, play limited events. Drafting teaches you how to evaluate cards and in turn how to construct a deck. But dont expect to be good at it right away. It takes time. You can watch videos on YouTube but I have found doing it makes you learn quicker.
The most important part in building a great deck is playtesting. Lots and lots of playtesting, with some tuning thrown in, and then even more playtesting. Few people, even among experienced deck builders, can put together a good deck from scratch. And no one can build a great deck from scratch. The best decks you find on the net have undergone unbelievable amounts of playtesting, done by hundreds of players, who tweaked them towards their own preferences and metas. So don't think to much about building something good, but rather building something that works well enough to start testing and tinkering. Of course, a good understanding of the rules, your meta, the basic archetypes' structures, mana curve, card advantage, and other game concepts, as well as your own experience, will help you to shortcut the way to a final good (great?) deck.
Once you have a starting point, do a few goldfishes (=playing against an opponent that does nothing), to determine the roughest flaws in your deck, like wrong land count, wrong land ratio, holes in the mana curve, and general clunkiness. Those are the things you want to smooth out right away. Then maybe do some test plays against some established decks, playing both of them yourself. Or junp right into real games by having a friend pilot an estblished deck. You want to test your fledgling deck against a large variety of decks to find out subtler flaws in your deck's design as well as what kind of cards you'll need answers for. And wether those answers can remain in the sideboard or should be run main. Adjust to your meta as needed, some cards do great in one meta, but are pretty much useless in another. Look for the answers you need.
As you get more experience, you will be able to evaluate cards better from the get go by comparing them to previous cards of the same nature and wether those did good in their time or not. The same is then probably true for the new cards as well. As for cards that are unique in the game's history, try some theorycrafting for what you could accomplish with them if things go right in a game. Then take a guess as to how probable achieving this would be in a real game, and if that seems good enough, try building a deck around such a card. Only in playing those cards will you really be able to tell their power. Necropotence was once seen as a crap rare, until someone build a deck with it and crashed the tournament scene. Turn to experienced deckbuilders for advice, but do keep an open mind. Who knows, you could have found a gem everyone else overlooked.
So in essence, to become a good deckbuilder you have to build your own decks. And test them, and maybe have others test them as well. Tweak them, test some more. And so on. And even if your own creations aren't tournament material in the end, they will always be dear to you, because they are a piece of art you yourself created. Give them a spin an a casual game now and then, where nothing is at stake, and simply enjoy your own work and show it to others.
I'm a fairly new player. I have played Standard a bit, but have always been a net decker. Deck building is something that I would really like to be great at, whether it's creating my own deck, or just modifying a net deck to work for my meta. And how do you decide what decks are good, what cards are good, etc? This is definitely a skill I need even if I strictly net deck because I need to know how to side board for each match.
Is there like a process or formula you go through to help form and perfect each deck you're working on?
If you want to get better at deck building, play limited events. Drafting teaches you how to evaluate cards and in turn how to construct a deck. But dont expect to be good at it right away. It takes time. You can watch videos on YouTube but I have found doing it makes you learn quicker.
Once you have a starting point, do a few goldfishes (=playing against an opponent that does nothing), to determine the roughest flaws in your deck, like wrong land count, wrong land ratio, holes in the mana curve, and general clunkiness. Those are the things you want to smooth out right away. Then maybe do some test plays against some established decks, playing both of them yourself. Or junp right into real games by having a friend pilot an estblished deck. You want to test your fledgling deck against a large variety of decks to find out subtler flaws in your deck's design as well as what kind of cards you'll need answers for. And wether those answers can remain in the sideboard or should be run main. Adjust to your meta as needed, some cards do great in one meta, but are pretty much useless in another. Look for the answers you need.
As you get more experience, you will be able to evaluate cards better from the get go by comparing them to previous cards of the same nature and wether those did good in their time or not. The same is then probably true for the new cards as well. As for cards that are unique in the game's history, try some theorycrafting for what you could accomplish with them if things go right in a game. Then take a guess as to how probable achieving this would be in a real game, and if that seems good enough, try building a deck around such a card. Only in playing those cards will you really be able to tell their power. Necropotence was once seen as a crap rare, until someone build a deck with it and crashed the tournament scene. Turn to experienced deckbuilders for advice, but do keep an open mind. Who knows, you could have found a gem everyone else overlooked.
So in essence, to become a good deckbuilder you have to build your own decks. And test them, and maybe have others test them as well. Tweak them, test some more. And so on. And even if your own creations aren't tournament material in the end, they will always be dear to you, because they are a piece of art you yourself created. Give them a spin an a casual game now and then, where nothing is at stake, and simply enjoy your own work and show it to others.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)