Not talking about packages like zerg or protoss where 15 cards are laid out. But something tribal like maybe dragon or murloc where you make your own. Or your own fatigue combo, otk etc.
Recently i’ve come to the conclusion that unfortunately it actually may take some sort of genius to build a competitive deck. I used to make decks for quests like “summon 15 beasts” and think wait, this deck is actually sick. It has supportive spells, damage, etc. but once i leave the collection log and put the deck into practice it sucks lol.
Even something like the old cycle rogue i would insist on adding my own flare (1) ONE card just ONE. Agency espionage. and it would never work how i wanted it to work. Just that card swapped for the netdeck favorited one would be the difference in most wins.
Also there was an etc card where you had to play exact mana or it would blow up and it would transfer players hands. I had actually for the first time had some success on a milling variant involving that card. Filling the opponents hand to 9 and giving them that card and hoping it would build up damage. Barely 50% but that was my most successful.
Even building a competetive zoo deck seems hard. I fear there are levels to dis ish.
The problem with build a deck is that It requires too many different skills and ALL of those skills at a atleast decent to high level.
It requires you to be a decent pilot of other decks so you can grasp what cards are strong.
It requires creativity so you can imagine lines of play that aren’t common with those cards.
It requires math skills because you’re dealing with card draw randoness.
Most people do that last one by simple intuition but it does not mean that math does not exist.
The most important to come with a “New competitive deck” is the artistic understanding that it always was there since the cards aren’t something you created.
People who struggle with that part Will never be good deckbuilders despite of how much effort they put.
Deckbuilders are not creators. Deckbuilders are researchers.
Take that phrase here to your hearth before starting to build a “New deck”.
This also means a sad truth that is that sometimes the deck you are looking for just does not exist in a competitive viable form.
In other words. As someone who already build New competitive viable decks before they were “netdecks”:
You can’t decide what you gonna build.
Do that would be the same as an archeologist deciding what they gonna find on a excavation.
As for an example of what i was involved with and you gonna have to take my word regarding that:
I was one of the first players to play silence Priest in the un’goro era by literally making legend viable lists of It on day 1 where everyone did still laugh at it.
The secret to that sucess was understanding that shadow visions was a really powerfull card for it’s time.
Enough to use it as the “glue” who made the deck work.
My most successful “deck” started with a Highlander Hunter deck for Wild that I got from a friend. I didn’t like several of his cards and swapped them out. Then I started playing it. As I saw that a certain card was too specific and rarely helpful, I would replace it with something else. Eventually, I built a version that I played to Legend for 6 months of 2024. Whenever something else wasn’t working, I would come back to it.
I did not do nearly as much research as minami is advocating, but I did prize synergy. When I started comparing it versus other Highlander Hunter decklists out there, mine usually varied by at least 10 cards. I know Highlander decks don’t get a lot of respect for creativity and always include specific power cards, but I enjoyed playing that deck.
i don’t think so, a lot of the expansions nowadays are very built around specific packages, most meta decks boil down to whatever good neutrals fit a strategy, and then just using that prebuilt package
sometimes you do see some crazy unique well-built decks, but it isn’t needed as much anymore
The current meta is the first in a LONG time that have decks playing cards outside of parasitic packages. It’s allowed for some interesting decks to exist using cards most players deem unusable.
Doesnt take a genius at all (since even I’ve been doing it for a long time now)… to build an aggro deck … how can I kill my opponent in 5 turns. Then you play some games and just sort of realize whats missing and add a few pieces here and there (missing card draw find some aggro thing that draws cards). The general blueprint for aggro these days is some sort of snowball 1 drop, some 2 drop buffs, some filler 3-4 mana damage minion cards, then a 5 mana finisher + some from hand burst for good measure.
‘Combo’ decks are just think of a combo… which is usually just a few cards and then put in supporting cards that either tutor the combo or allow you to survive to the combo turn. Mabye put in a backup plan if its a ‘one try’ combo like colifero.
Tribal decks are pretty mindless (think elementals)… you put in elementals.
Theres such a limited card pool that most people will come up with the same idea… mabye 30 people working together will come up with a more optimized version than the one guy working on his own… but its still the same idea.
Pretty sure that’s how it is for aggro players, but for control ones it’s the opposite, lol
If you don’t understand aggro or it doesn’t come naturally to you (like other types of decks don’t come naturally to me), you’ll have issues even realizing the recipe you just stated
But they will have their own recipe for other deck archetypes
No, it doesn’t take a genius, but it takes a lot of practice and maybe some luck
EDIT: Shaman is in its worst state in years, according to winrates across all the ranks, yet somehow, it’s still my best deck atm. I’ve been winning with your tribal Menagerie deck and with my own spin on Nebula shaman much more than any other deck, which should probably speak in favor of what I said about playstyles mattering.
It’s all about the playstyle vs player compatibility. If that isn’t satisfied, you have much more work to do to succeed than someone who plays a deck without thinking, instinctively, better than you. Since being a decent pilot is a must to build a decent deck, transitivity follows from playing to building decks.
I don’t know a lot of things anymore. But this has been consistent through all my 10 years of HS career. I just can’t pilot a slow deck, and if I can’t pilot it, sure as hell I can’t build it.
It not require 180IQ brain to build a deck. It require brave, curiosity and consistency.
I approved. I dump as sh!t, still brew my very own deck without meta knowledge. lol
I consider myself good at the game, constantly try to homebrew, and I’ve only managed to make a true meta breaker three times in 10 years that wasn’t just a singular card swap that made a deck better.
It’s very difficult to pull off a new deck idea, as it requires a deep understanding of a class’ strengths, weaknesses, and what you are likely to run into on the ladder.
And then you need to be good enough at piloting it to know if your card choices are helping or hurting. Plus you need to play a ton of games (or be a streamer where legions of people copy you) to get a true sense of the deck’s power.
For most, they are better off just pulling a tried and tested deck off of a data site. There’s no shame in it.