How Important is Deck Format...?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 11, 2011, 8:02 a.m. by ZaLiTHkA
Taking this in a social/casual play scenario, how important is the concept of deck formats?
I was only introduced to MTG less than a year back.. But the people I play with have never mentioned anything about deck formats. :/
The deck I put together recently (deck:white-aura-with-an-eldrazi-touch-concept) is listed as 'legacy', but I'm not actually sure how this relates to other decks...
So for the sake of keeping things fun and fair in a social game; should I perhaps rather build a deck in 'standard' format with a sideboard of cards that would make it a 'legacy' or 'extended' format?
I'd really appreciate any ideas or guidelines that you guys use to keep games fair.
Epochalyptik says... #3
I wouldn't say you need to match their format, since that's not really fair judgment. You should, however, play with decks that your friends don't have any major gripes about. I own a deck that's banned in every format because it runs 2x Fastbond (Terrageddon), but my playgroup doesn't really oppose it because it's not brokenly overpowered.
Most of my decks are standard or pretty close to modern. However, I play with s bunch of people with legacy decks, purely because they started playing a while ago. Those decks aren't better or worse because of the format, they're just different. Therefore, I would use the general enjoyment from the deck and consensus on what's fair or not as an indicator of what you should play. Format isn't really an accurate representation of power or fairness.
October 11, 2011 9:51 a.m.
true that, play to play. i used to play with some guys who started to winge if i didn't play standard even though my deck was not broken i suppose this is where my view on standard comes in. alot of people (in my area) wont play you if you deck is not standard in certain places which i agree is daft when as you say non standard does not mean broken. play for fun it is a game after all :-)
October 11, 2011 10 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #5
I typically bring a standard-legal deck to the stores/clubs I frequent, simply because I'm interested in testing it and that's what most other people seem to be interested in playing. However, most of my closer friends within those groups have no format preference, and several don't play standard at all.
October 11, 2011 10:03 a.m.
thats how my gaming has gone, i started with a boros precon then went to casual and drafting standard then just to casual now we all play EDH, i must EDH is by far the most fun, especialy to build the deck and playing a 6 player every man for himself game of EDH is just insane with guys like The Mimeoplasm knocking about lol, shits going crazy! i mean who doesn't want a T-rex for an arm barring Old Fogey of course!that would just be weird!
October 11, 2011 10:08 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
EDH is a pretty universal format. I've never failed to find an EDH player at any event or store. I do, however, notice that the fun EDH games depend greatly on the attitude of the players involved, moreso than other formats. Foreign cliques can hate out a newcomer with relative ease and leave them without the experience they played for. It's also the format where I find that the most "brokenness" happens purely due to the number and type of cards available and the various ways to abuse them using the format rules.
That being said, if you can find a friendly EDH group, it's a lot of fun.
October 11, 2011 10:20 a.m.
too true we banned things like Forbid and Capsize because they are just win in draw card blue and we don't overuse Insurrection or Reins of Power either. non of us has even tried to take extra turns either suprisingly. I know that counterspells in EDH make for boring games so i took most of them out so we could have fun. i agree that you could easily get hated out of an EDH which is really harsh, I welcome new players and even tend to go easier on them so tehy can get used to the game otehrwise whats the point in just battering them it will discourage them unfairly. i also prefer to have a laugh so i never target one person we usually attack on a dice roll or just share the love lol and spread the damage around that makes for a more fun and fair game to all
October 11, 2011 10:32 a.m.
Yeah, that's pretty logical really... I did get a few sideways looks when I put Eldrazi Conscription on a Soulcatcher , which suddenly became a flying 11/11 with annihilator 2 and trample, and obviously gained +1/+1 for each flying creature that died... O.o Didn't even attack with it that game, it was more just to see the reaction. :)
But once they realised that I had 4 Eldrazi Conscription s, 2 Hand of Emrakul s and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth all in the same deck..... Well, I wasn't too popular. :p
For the record, I have dumbed down that deck quite drastically since those two fateful games (deck:red-white-nameless-deck), and I may do so even more by removing card:Emrakul's Hatcher to keep Hand of Emrakul at bay for a bit longer..
October 11, 2011 10:34 a.m.
my mate runs an eldrazi deck with the classic Rapacious One and all that and its fun and not too bad top play against because one swift death spell and all is well so i dont think you should be making your deck worse because people are scared of eldrazi, they are cool but very pricey and very hard to stick, arguably Angelic Destiny could be nastier than Eldrazi Conscription because it keeps coming back for mroe unless you Naturalize it or something. ask the guys you play with what there opinion is of playing your deck, if they are hating on try to make your deck better and beat them anyway lol, i used to get teamed up on playing a 5 colour dragon deck with Dragon Arch so i made the deck more survivable with Damnation , [[seek], and Terminate so i can survive until dragons hit. maybe you could use a similar method?
October 11, 2011 10:41 a.m.
I wouldn't say I'm making it 'worse' as such, more a case of finding a better balance between interesting cards and overkill cards..
While Angelic Destiny can definitely be considered a bit more of a nasty card, I'm only using two of them, and for the most part I do have low-cost/low-attack creatures to start with.. At the end of the day, it's all about finding a good balance, not so? :)
I wouldn't say they hated me, but I could tell at least one of them was a bit scared of the potential power of some cards.. He really likes his magemarks, specifically card:Fencer's Magemark and card:Beastmaster's Magemark, and he loves destroying my Eldrazi Spawn (I forget which card, creature that deals 2 damage to target creature)...
But anyway, I'll see what happens next time I get to play. :) Hopefully I should have a chance to try against a solid black/green deck and a sneaky blue/green deck tomorrow night though... So I'll see what happens.
October 11, 2011 11:07 a.m.
rckclimber777 says... #12
Personally I love playing against decks that can beat my decks (and badly). My friend runs a recycling deck where he sends Junk Diver to the graveyard and returns another to his hand plays it for free most times, then sacs it and repeats the process. He does this all the while doing damage to me or putting our myr tokens for each creature entering the battlefield. It isn't even close to standard. He can typically get it going by turn 3 or so. I love the challenge of beating him with a standard control deck. If I can beat his deck with a control deck, then I can typically handle any aggro standard deck.
He actually has 3 of those decks right now all of which do something slightly different.
October 11, 2011 11:11 a.m.
i prefer a challenge too and if my deck isnt good enough i can improve it i never have sideboards for any deck barring my blue Isochron Scepter control deck that runs 4 Cunning Wish , i run this when someone needs destroying lol, or a deck needs a proper harsh challenge. nearly solod an archenemy deck with it once lol that was fun!
maiden77 says... #2
if your mates play standard you need to play standard or you could over power them with broken cards. i play EDH with my mates so we stick to those rules and some inhouse ones to keep the game fun like no Capsize or Forbid as they can break easily. apart from that i play casual. anyone can play whatever the hell they want as we can't afford power 9 so it doesn't really matter. ask your mates what they play or if they care, if not like the case is for me, just build a deck and play and have fun basically. if they havent mentioned non standard cards im guessing they dont care tbh?
October 11, 2011 8:06 a.m.