Hey there peoples of mtgsalvation. I've been working on a Dune Brood Nephilim deck for the last couple of weeks here and I feel like it's getting closer and closer to completion but somehow I never feel like it's ready to buy. I always feel like there's some new card that's better than something I already run and I find new things everyday. At this rate I'll be goldfishing the deck forever and that's not fun! When do you feel a deck is complete enough to finally buy and sleeve up? Thanks for any and all opinions I look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Hey there peoples of mtgsalvation. I've been working on a Dune Brood Nephilim deck for the last couple of weeks here and I feel like it's getting closer and closer to completion but somehow I never feel like it's ready to buy. I always feel like there's some new card that's better than something I already run and I find new things everyday. At this rate I'll be goldfishing the deck forever and that's not fun! When do you feel a deck is complete enough to finally buy and sleeve up? Thanks for any and all opinions I look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Good question as I often feel the same way (keep finding more and more cards). Ultimately, I think this works itself out depending on the individual's deck building process, and with a little bit of discipline. Ultimately, I feel, for me, that I just need to "bite the bullet" if I actually get to a satisfactory 99 cards with enough combo or synergy that I think, theoretically, the deck should do the "thing" I envisioned it to do. I've found that the deck building process is never done, always continual, and there will always be cards I can go back and forth on and new cards that can replace others. That's actually what keeps building decks and playing them fun and refreshing for me. Also, I found it easier to build decks if I use certain rules to limit the card selection on myself. For example, I don't like to use more than just a few or a couple cards in multiple decks (e.g. I have a handful of decks with blue or mono-U, but only two of them have Cyclonic Rift). Or "tribal" restrictions if your meta is casual enough. For example, I built a "hand" tribal deck where every card in the art featured a hand or hands. Forces me to get creative (read: not just automatically include good-stuffs) and helps narrow down the card selection, which ultimately more likely leads to a satisfactory 99 without too much agony.
Maybe try sleeving up some proxies in a group that will let you test it out for a bit. That will help give you an idea if it is ready or not if possible. Otherwise, I agree with turlerock. Just "bite the bullet", and make changes as best you can going forward after being able to plpay it. Unfortunately, there isn't a great way to tell how a deck will play before actually testing it.
Generally speaking, you should put threads about decklists in the Decklist thread, so I won't do too much to comment on the deck itself. Also, if you do decide to create a thread in the appropriate location, please tag your general and give a bit more description of what you want the deck to do: Dune-Brood Nephilim.
To the question at hand: A deck is never truly finished so, at some point, you need to get the cards and play them in real games to see how they actually perform. My process when creating a new deck is to go through all the cards I can think of that the deck might want and add them in. This generally leaves me with a decklist of 100-120 cards (not including lands). Then, I slowly start removing cards I don't think the deck really wants. Either the mana cost is too high or the effect is too minimal. I keep track of the cards that are definitely in and those that are "maybes". I cut the ones I know for sure I don't want and just continue whittling it down.
Once I am at about 60-63 cards (depending on how many lands I want) I add the lands. This is usually pretty easy as it is just "all the duals, on color fetches, 5-25 basics (depending on colors) and a few utility lands". I invariably forgot a couple that I need to add in later, but that is easy to do.
At this point, the deck is "done". It takes me between 2-4 hours to get to this point and I actually don't give much more thought to it beyond this initial deck building process. So, any cards I don't already own, I go online and pick them up and proxy them up so I can play the deck he next time I go to the store while I am waiting for the cards to arrive.
I am pretty confident in my ability to build my decks so I don't obsess over the choices once I arrive at a final list. As I play the deck, I will make changes, but that is just the result of understanding the deck better. A good example of this recently is my Edgar Markov deck. I built it last week, posted it here, got a few suggestions and played a couple games with it that led me to cutting 8 cards in the span of 5 days. Had I waited to goldfish more and think more about the way the deck wanted to play, I may have come up with 5-6 of those before actually buying the cards. But then I wouldn't have been playing the deck and I think it is a fine trade off to end up with "extra" cards to allow me to play the deck sooner.
I have 2 solutions, both of which you probably won't like.
1) I just have 1 of everything and build what I like from there, so buying cards I end up removing from a specific decklist is fine. I just add it to the collection and maybe I'll use it later.
2) On the rare occasions that I'm building a permanent deck that isn't part of the collection, I usually just accept that I'm going to be making some revisions and will be losing some value on cards I no longer want. Usually I try to make sure that the value of the card is proportional to how sure I am that I'll be keeping it in the decklist - i.e. mana crypt is fairly expensive, but it's uniquely powerful and I guarantee I'll keep it in the deck forever (unless it gets banned), whereas grim tutor is also expensive while being pretty borderline and replaceable.
Above comments provide good insight which I also apply in my deckbuilding. I keep trying new cards to improve a certain deck and put in a EDH binder whichever cards have been removed so I can easily go back and swap them back if I feel they deserve another chance. This binder also contains cards which are on stand-by for the deck. This helps me make the whole process easier.
Hope this helped! Good luck.
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1x Blood Crypt
1x Canopy Vista
1x Canyon Slough
1x Cinder Glade
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Exotic Orchard
9x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
1x Jungle Shrine
1x Mana Confluence
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Mountain
1x Overgrown Tomb
2x Plains
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Savage Lands
1x Scattered Groves
1x Sheltered Thicket
1x Smoldering Marsh
1x Stomping Ground
1x Strip Mine
1x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Avenger of Zendikar
1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Dragonlord Dromoka
1x Dragonmaster Outcast
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Essence of the Wild
1x Eternal Witness
1x Lotus Cobra
1x Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
1x Rampaging Baloths
1x Ramunap Excavator
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
1x The Gitrog Monster
1x Tireless Tracker
1x Titania, Protector of Argoth
1x Yavimaya Elder
Instants
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Beast Within
1x Constant Mists
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Krosan Grip
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Utter End
1x Collective Unconscious
1x Cultivate
1x Farseek
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Merciless Eviction
1x Shamanic Revelation
1x Skyshroud Claim
Enchantments
1x Anointed Procession
1x Aura Shards
1x Beastmaster Ascension
1x Burgeoning
1x Cathars' Crusade
1x Evolutionary Leap
1x Glare of Subdual
1x Goblin Bombardment
1x Ground Seal
1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1x Parallel Lives
1x Shared Animosity
Artifacts
1x Birthing Pod
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Eldrazi Monument
1x Horn of Greed
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
Planeswalker
1x Nissa, Vital Force
The deck list in case someone wants to suggest a card.
Good question as I often feel the same way (keep finding more and more cards). Ultimately, I think this works itself out depending on the individual's deck building process, and with a little bit of discipline. Ultimately, I feel, for me, that I just need to "bite the bullet" if I actually get to a satisfactory 99 cards with enough combo or synergy that I think, theoretically, the deck should do the "thing" I envisioned it to do. I've found that the deck building process is never done, always continual, and there will always be cards I can go back and forth on and new cards that can replace others. That's actually what keeps building decks and playing them fun and refreshing for me. Also, I found it easier to build decks if I use certain rules to limit the card selection on myself. For example, I don't like to use more than just a few or a couple cards in multiple decks (e.g. I have a handful of decks with blue or mono-U, but only two of them have Cyclonic Rift). Or "tribal" restrictions if your meta is casual enough. For example, I built a "hand" tribal deck where every card in the art featured a hand or hands. Forces me to get creative (read: not just automatically include good-stuffs) and helps narrow down the card selection, which ultimately more likely leads to a satisfactory 99 without too much agony.
Current EDH
UThassa, God of the Sea devotion control
WRGTana, the Bloodsower & Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa partners weenie tokens
UUnesh, Criosphinx Sovereign Sphinx tribal
WUTaigam, Ojutai Master tokens on the rebound spellslinger
GRhonas the Indomitable green creature beats
UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ETB tribal
Retired EDH
WURGKynaios and Tiro of Meletis group hug
URThe Locust God draw swarm
UTalrand, Sky Summoner funsies blue spells
WBObzedat, Ghost Council life gain/drain
To the question at hand: A deck is never truly finished so, at some point, you need to get the cards and play them in real games to see how they actually perform. My process when creating a new deck is to go through all the cards I can think of that the deck might want and add them in. This generally leaves me with a decklist of 100-120 cards (not including lands). Then, I slowly start removing cards I don't think the deck really wants. Either the mana cost is too high or the effect is too minimal. I keep track of the cards that are definitely in and those that are "maybes". I cut the ones I know for sure I don't want and just continue whittling it down.
Once I am at about 60-63 cards (depending on how many lands I want) I add the lands. This is usually pretty easy as it is just "all the duals, on color fetches, 5-25 basics (depending on colors) and a few utility lands". I invariably forgot a couple that I need to add in later, but that is easy to do.
At this point, the deck is "done". It takes me between 2-4 hours to get to this point and I actually don't give much more thought to it beyond this initial deck building process. So, any cards I don't already own, I go online and pick them up and proxy them up so I can play the deck he next time I go to the store while I am waiting for the cards to arrive.
I am pretty confident in my ability to build my decks so I don't obsess over the choices once I arrive at a final list. As I play the deck, I will make changes, but that is just the result of understanding the deck better. A good example of this recently is my Edgar Markov deck. I built it last week, posted it here, got a few suggestions and played a couple games with it that led me to cutting 8 cards in the span of 5 days. Had I waited to goldfish more and think more about the way the deck wanted to play, I may have come up with 5-6 of those before actually buying the cards. But then I wouldn't have been playing the deck and I think it is a fine trade off to end up with "extra" cards to allow me to play the deck sooner.
1) I just have 1 of everything and build what I like from there, so buying cards I end up removing from a specific decklist is fine. I just add it to the collection and maybe I'll use it later.
2) On the rare occasions that I'm building a permanent deck that isn't part of the collection, I usually just accept that I'm going to be making some revisions and will be losing some value on cards I no longer want. Usually I try to make sure that the value of the card is proportional to how sure I am that I'll be keeping it in the decklist - i.e. mana crypt is fairly expensive, but it's uniquely powerful and I guarantee I'll keep it in the deck forever (unless it gets banned), whereas grim tutor is also expensive while being pretty borderline and replaceable.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Hope this helped! Good luck.