I just found this to be a little confusing. If there is one deck everyone using why doesn't everyone use it. Doesn't this mean if I put another deck up against the current most popular deck that pretty much has no chance if players are around the same skill level?
I'm not sure what you're asking, are you asking why everyone doesn't just play the best deck?
Like with any other competitive game out there, there are tiers to decks/characters/etc. In higher level tournaments (even FNMs too) people will tend to gravitate to the stronger decks for the highest percentage of winning. Depending on the balance level they could be way over powered with no weaknesses or just minor ones. A healthy meta would have a rock/paper/scissor system where Deck A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A.
Why doesn't everyone just play the best decks? Well there are many reasons.
- Maybe there are many other good decks.
- They expected too many of Deck A so they play Deck B instead.
- They are more use to playing another deck/style.
- It's boring.
A majority of the time top tier decks will have some sort of weakness and someone will build a deck to counter it. However, it's not always ideal if it's weak to anything else out there.
If a deck becomes way too good they try to ban something in it, but that's a whole other can of worms to talk about.
I think Tbuzz sums it up nicely if your question is: "Why would someone choose to play anything other than the best deck?" I might overlap a little here with him, but I just would add a few points.
The picking of a deck for a tournament is a game in and of itself. It is a bit of a game that occurs outside of the magic rule book, and involves predicting trends among groups of players and other aspects that may only be indirectly related to actually playing magic--a metagame as it were. The game essentially boils down to "what deck gives me the best changes of accomplishing X". X can be winning the tournament; X could be doing good enough to get a pro point; X could merely mean getting Day 2 with a brew. It depends on the player. All of these differing goals will influence the profile of a tournament field and will in turn influence the kind of deck choice decisions that are presented to players with these goals. Even assuming that a player is just trying to win the tournament, there are things that can influence choosing something other than the best deck.
The best deck might not actually be the best deck. Information is imperfect and there can sometimes element of group think when it comes to these sorts of things when there isn't a clearly dominate archetype. Furthermore, in healthy metagames where viable competitive decks are diverse, the advantage to playing the best deck is only very slight, and so preferences of archetype and deck familiarity tend to be more important.
Metagames shift and evolve over time. As Tbuzz mentions, healthy metagames often involve a rock-paper-scissors aspect. This is true especially early on in formats where the metagame hasn't fully shaken out. The "best deck" one week becomes the target next. Only after players adjust their gameplans and their 75s do we really see how resilient the best decks is in holding that title.
The best deck might have exploitable weaknesses. This contributes to a shifting meta, but can also include decks that are designed specifically to target the weaknesses in the best deck's game plan. Players may play these decks in the hopes of spiking a tournament. The idea is that playing the best deck leaves you with playing a lot of mirrors late in the tournament, in which between equally skilled players it is more or less a coin flip. Playing a deck that targets the best deck puts the gamble at the start of the tournament, the hope being that some amount of luck will carry the deck through to the later parts of the tournament where the matchups will be stacked in its favour.
Rogue decks have the element of surprise. Between skilled players, information is very important. A player on a rogue deck knows generally what to expect out of the more conventional known deck, whereas their opponent will not have the same information about the rogue deck. In games between highly skilled players, an information gap like this can be leveraged into a significant advantage, even if on paper the rogue deck is at a disadvantage.
Like with any other competitive game out there, there are tiers to decks/characters/etc. In higher level tournaments (even FNMs too) people will tend to gravitate to the stronger decks for the highest percentage of winning. Depending on the balance level they could be way over powered with no weaknesses or just minor ones. A healthy meta would have a rock/paper/scissor system where Deck A beats B, B beats C, and C beats A.
Why doesn't everyone just play the best decks? Well there are many reasons.
- Maybe there are many other good decks.
- They expected too many of Deck A so they play Deck B instead.
- They are more use to playing another deck/style.
- It's boring.
A majority of the time top tier decks will have some sort of weakness and someone will build a deck to counter it. However, it's not always ideal if it's weak to anything else out there.
If a deck becomes way too good they try to ban something in it, but that's a whole other can of worms to talk about.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
The picking of a deck for a tournament is a game in and of itself. It is a bit of a game that occurs outside of the magic rule book, and involves predicting trends among groups of players and other aspects that may only be indirectly related to actually playing magic--a metagame as it were. The game essentially boils down to "what deck gives me the best changes of accomplishing X". X can be winning the tournament; X could be doing good enough to get a pro point; X could merely mean getting Day 2 with a brew. It depends on the player. All of these differing goals will influence the profile of a tournament field and will in turn influence the kind of deck choice decisions that are presented to players with these goals. Even assuming that a player is just trying to win the tournament, there are things that can influence choosing something other than the best deck.
The best deck might not actually be the best deck. Information is imperfect and there can sometimes element of group think when it comes to these sorts of things when there isn't a clearly dominate archetype. Furthermore, in healthy metagames where viable competitive decks are diverse, the advantage to playing the best deck is only very slight, and so preferences of archetype and deck familiarity tend to be more important.
Metagames shift and evolve over time. As Tbuzz mentions, healthy metagames often involve a rock-paper-scissors aspect. This is true especially early on in formats where the metagame hasn't fully shaken out. The "best deck" one week becomes the target next. Only after players adjust their gameplans and their 75s do we really see how resilient the best decks is in holding that title.
The best deck might have exploitable weaknesses. This contributes to a shifting meta, but can also include decks that are designed specifically to target the weaknesses in the best deck's game plan. Players may play these decks in the hopes of spiking a tournament. The idea is that playing the best deck leaves you with playing a lot of mirrors late in the tournament, in which between equally skilled players it is more or less a coin flip. Playing a deck that targets the best deck puts the gamble at the start of the tournament, the hope being that some amount of luck will carry the deck through to the later parts of the tournament where the matchups will be stacked in its favour.
Rogue decks have the element of surprise. Between skilled players, information is very important. A player on a rogue deck knows generally what to expect out of the more conventional known deck, whereas their opponent will not have the same information about the rogue deck. In games between highly skilled players, an information gap like this can be leveraged into a significant advantage, even if on paper the rogue deck is at a disadvantage.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)