Deck Building Tips

[CodeDomination]

Tip #1: Play good decks.

This seems fairly obvious right? Well play a game on quick match and you will see why this needs to be stated. You can easily find the worst decks you can possibly imaging on quick match, ranging from weaponless gwen to rogue control. If these people played tried and tested effective decks, then they would perform significantly better. The only time I this does not apply, is when trying out “bad” decks.

Tip #2: Try out “bad” decks

So you might be questioning my sanity now. I know I told you to play good deck, but this is the exception to the rule. The reason I put bad in quotes is that these decks are not necessarily bad. It is good to try out different decks in order to expand your knowledge of how they work. For example, if you have never played a mill deck, or have never even hear of milling (witch I could understand since it is not a very popular in deck type in Shadow Era), then you would have no idea how to deal with it. In the first unofficial tournament it was a Majiya deck that won. In the first official tourney, it was pretty much accepted that a Majiya deck was probably going to win it, but a Jericho deck is what ended up winning it. Majiya did not even make it to the finals match.


Tip #3: Test, Test, Test

This one also seems obvious, but again it is worth stating. I can not stress enough how important testing your deck thoroughly is. Test with as many people as you possibly can. You can join a guild to help your testing, or you can just hop on irc. Your deck might crush warriors (I’m looking it you Jericho), but might not hold up to a Gwen deck.

Another part of testing that might be less obvious is knowing your deck. It is invaluable to know every card in your deck. I do not want to be asking my self mid game how many of X card of have left, and not know the answer.


Tip #4: Don’t blame it all on bad luck

This tip is probably the favorite in the list. Never blame your loses on bad luck. You will never improve with this mindset. Shadow Era is a game that does have an element of luck, but good deck building beats luck 99% of the time. Learn to examine your loses and learn from them. If you find yourself consistently losing to Gwen decks, you should examine your strategy and deck. Doing the same thing and expecting difference results is the definition of insanity.

[Calmdown]

Im gonna throw a tip in here@

Play the metagame

Some decks are better against some decks and worse against others, right? When weapon-based Gwen and weapon-based Amber were super popular, I was playing ally-less weapon Gwen with 4 Snow Sapphires and 4 Dimension Rippers. This would be a horrible deck if I was trying to take on 'all comers', but knowing that most of the environment consisted of decks that were a) hosed by Snow Sapphire and b) contained cards that I could use effectively if I stole them made this deck very strong. In 1.25 when Zaladar ruled, playing creatureless decks was awesome as it made Mind Control and Energy Discharge into dead cards. And so on. If you notice yourself playing against similar decks over and over, making a deck to beat them is just smart, as long as it isnt bad vs everything else; it's often worth taking a hit in your effectiveness against a few decks to give yourself a big advantage against the majority of decks.

[Xen00b]

Im gonna throw a tip in here@

Play the metagame

Some decks are better against some decks and worse against others, right? When weapon-based Gwen and weapon-based Amber were super popular, I was playing ally-less weapon Gwen with 4 Snow Sapphires and 4 Dimension Rippers. This would be a horrible deck if I was trying to take on 'all comers', but knowing that most of the environment consisted of decks that were a) hosed by Snow Sapphire and b) contained cards that I could use effectively if I stole them made this deck very strong. In 1.25 when Zaladar ruled, playing creatureless decks was awesome as it made Mind Control and Energy Discharge into dead cards. And so on. If you notice yourself playing against similar decks over and over, making a deck to beat them is just smart, as long as it isnt bad vs everything else; it's often worth taking a hit in your effectiveness against a few decks to give yourself a big advantage against the majority of decks.

I thought 1.25 was mostly Elementalis/Majiya/Jericho? Lol..

[bicin]

Im gonna throw a tip in here@

Play the metagame

Some decks are better against some decks and worse against others, right? When weapon-based Gwen and weapon-based Amber were super popular, I was playing ally-less weapon Gwen with 4 Snow Sapphires and 4 Dimension Rippers. This would be a horrible deck if I was trying to take on 'all comers', but knowing that most of the environment consisted of decks that were a) hosed by Snow Sapphire and b) contained cards that I could use effectively if I stole them made this deck very strong. In 1.25 when Zaladar ruled, playing creatureless decks was awesome as it made Mind Control and Energy Discharge into dead cards. And so on. If you notice yourself playing against similar decks over and over, making a deck to beat them is just smart, as long as it isnt bad vs everything else; it's often worth taking a hit in your effectiveness against a few decks to give yourself a big advantage against the majority of decks.

aren't ther just decks that are great against any dekcs? i thought that a well tuned jericho deck could win against anything and the only thing that needs tweaks are the playing strategies (playing differently against different opponents while still using the same exact deck build)

or could it? hehe..

[jjsia]

Maybe the version that Calmdown meant was 1.24.

[Warr Byrd]

aren't ther just decks that are great against any dekcs? i thought that a well tuned jericho deck could win against anything and the only thing that needs tweaks are the playing strategies (playing differently against different opponents while still using the same exact deck build)

Every deck has some weakness; the only way to be completely invulnerable is to have a method for dealing with any situation. But in Shadow Era, that means you have to rely on luck and card draw to get the cards you need at the time you need them. As such, decks that can deal with anything can be beaten by a well tuned rush. But then a rush can be beaten by a control deck with sufficient stall cards in the early game. But then a stalling control deck can be beaten by something that can target around stalls like spells or item destruction (neither of which is found in most successful rush decks). The trick is making a deck that is flexible enough to beat weaker players of strategies that are effective against the main strategy of your deck.

[CodeDomination]

Every deck has some weakness

This is true, every deck does have its weakness. We can't have decks that have "no" weakness until we can get the ability to sideboard cards. If we get the ability to have a side board then we can tune more directly for a certain match up. For example in a priest deck, you could sideboard in and out item destruction depending if you are facing a deck using weapons and armors.

[Harakhte]

Another tip I was given for a different game but that applies to Shadow Era (and any other competitive game/sport really):

Don't fight your playstyle! If you go into a game with an aggressive mindset, aiming to take it to your opponent as quickly as you can, then playing a deck that requires patient build-up or aims at indirectly winning (milling, for example, though it doesn't yet have a large-range application in SE) will simply be frustrating and stressful. Adding more stress, frustration, pressure and/or distractions to any comoetitive situation will result in below average playing skill, as well as inducing more mistakes and missed opportunities. The reverse is also true, in that being too relaxed or simply not caring about the outcome, means you won't have that competitive "edge" the right.mix of pressure and intensity creates in competitive play.

Part of the OP's point is familiarity, both with the various facets of the game and with yourself. Knowing how many TDs or Plasma Behemoths you have left in your deck and knowing how you'll respond to the sudden reversals (swings) in the flow of a game is all part of becoming a better player. Your skill can improve with practice and your knowledge with study, but your personal style, that part of you that favors one method over another simply because it feels more 'right' can only evolve slowly over time, so don't try to rush changing it. Instead embrace it and accept it, and you'll find that paired with a well-tuned deck, you can accomplish quite a bit.

Cheers,
-Harakhte

[sweetgab]

Nice points, CodeDomination. On point #3, barring the most obvious facts (e.g. don't play a Gwen deck with no weapon), it's quite hard to know how a deck would perform before you test it for a few games. Coming from MTG, I assumed that one-drops into Bloodlust would be a strong strategy, which turned out to be anything but true; I was equally as surprised when Keldor outperformed Infernal Gargoyle in my Banebow deck, for quite a while I thought the Gargoyle was all-powerful and Keldor was subpar. You can choose to run ally-light or ally-heavy builds with almost every hero, and there's no telling which one's gonna be better.

On personal playstyle, I fully agree that it affects your strategy significantly. Each one of us values Bazaar, Belladonna and Aeon vastly differently, and we might all be correct. I can't ever seem to find the right time to play Belladonna, but that might just be how I build my decks and/or play out my cards; she might be a role player in someone else's strategy.

[Gondorian]

Another nice article. Fits in well with your article on willpower, so maybe the two could be merged. As part of the commitment to getting better, you need to be playing against good decks and "bad" decks and testing, and as part of losing your ego, you can stop blaming bad luck.