Deck descriptions on this site
TappedOut forum
Posted on Oct. 30, 2014, 8:36 p.m. by TurboFagoot
Ok so here's a trend I'm noticing.
In their deck descriptions people put a rationale or description for why every card is in the deck. It's come to the point where people just write things that are extremely obvious.
Example:"Hero's Downfall - This card is in here to kill creatures and planeswalkers""Anger of the Gods - For killing multiple small creatures"
Who is this for? What kind of idiot needs to be told this?
TurboFagoot says... #3
It just strikes me as insulting. Do people really think someone can't identify why a removal spell is in their deck.
Especially in standard (The bulk of this site), the cards are pretty "paint by numbers". It's just a silly phenomenon.
Or you have Lightning Bolt in your Modern deck? Oh wow. Please tell me why, I can't quite divine a reason.
October 30, 2014 8:50 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #4
Hold on, wait a minute. My popcorn isn't done yet.
October 30, 2014 8:53 p.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #5
It's mainly for new players. Some card choices are obvious, painfully so to experienced players, but descriptions are helpful to newbies or people not familiar with particular archetypes.
October 30, 2014 8:56 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #6
You have to read some of my in depth deck descriptions. When I do a card breakdown... I make sweet sweet word love to your eyes...
Then I go smoke a cigarette.
And I won't call you the next day!
October 30, 2014 8:57 p.m.
I can understand people explaining why they use certain cards over others like:
"I run Rout over Wrath of God because the one extra mana isn't really a problem and the utility of Rout is better for the meta I play in"
But the idea of having to explain:
"I use Rout to kill creatures"
and having a new line for each card in the deck usually makes descriptions long and tiresome. I also find that I'm less inclined to post comments on a deck that has an epicly long description.
October 30, 2014 8:58 p.m.
TurboFagoot says... #8
That's how I feel, it just makes everything cumbersome.
October 30, 2014 9:01 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #9
Cauterizer. the description here will fuck your shit up
October 30, 2014 9:08 p.m.
@Jonathannoob: I absolutely agree, and its usually a really good idea to include a few sentences about how the archtype works. But I have seen some descriptions that have something along the lines of:
"Forest - For green mana"
October 30, 2014 9:08 p.m.
JonathanSamurai says... #11
enpc I have not seen a description THAT bad yet lmao. I try to keep descriptions short. Some decks I've meant to do or complete descriptions for, I haven't.
October 30, 2014 9:12 p.m.
I don't think you can be so self important as to find someones description insulting, it's not like it was aimed directly at you. X)
I think they're fine, and can often be enjoying to read. Yeah, some cards are obvious, but some descriptions can be a bit more elaborate and explain the intricacies in the deck, or even provide insight on the deck creator's play style. I also like to explain some reasons why I chose particular cards.
There was a generalized tongue in cheek comment, like this thread, on one of my recent decks. I agree that some bits of my description wasn't necessary, but I definitely feel like it adds to it.
October 30, 2014 9:15 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #15
I honestly include shit like that because of the amount of times I've literally been asked why I'm running shit like downfall...
October 30, 2014 9:40 p.m.
@VampireArmy: I can understand why that would be annoying, but in some ways you're still better off not just laying out everything from the get go for a few reasons:
It forces people to actually ask the question. This is important because it not only gets people thinking about stuff more but also encourages user interaction. It also makes people work to learn things so they will learn it better.
It discourages net decking. (!WARNING - point of contention here!) Don't get me wrong, I appreciate with 60 (or 100) card slots and certain cards being better than others there will be a point where all decks look very similar. Thats fine, its how the world works. But the idea of just taking every card from a top 8 deck because "hey, it won" or whatever means that you don't learn about the deck. If you just layout what every card does like that it makes it too easy for people to pick up the deck and THINK they know how to play with it, even though they have never actually tested it.
A catch all statement like "good weenie removal" tells you what the card does sure, but its not a proper breakdown of when to play the card, when to hold back, sideboarding it, etc which is where a lot of questions actually come from. most of the time a RT(F)C can explain how the card works, but if you have people asking about it then even with your breakdown you'll have to re-explain yourself anyway.
TL;DR - learning is good and so is asking questions.
October 30, 2014 9:57 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #17
I really have no issue with teaching people but when it comes down to what does a card do when it's function is stated very plainly it does get bothersome also i can guarantee there is about 0 people net decking my brews...
October 30, 2014 10:12 p.m.
fluffybunnypants you must quote the bossman on "wat a plane walker?"
October 30, 2014 10:21 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #19
Dude my grammar has taken a fucking nose dive since I've given up writing
October 30, 2014 10:23 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #21
You bastard... Now I am going to be up all night watching YouTube. I hope you're happy...
Some dudes have to go to work.
Lol.
October 30, 2014 11:37 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #22
:c it's hard to do physical labor and type on a phone, yo
October 30, 2014 11:38 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #23
"Some dudes have to work."
Luckily, I am not one of them. Yet. I fear the day when my time is monopolized by work.
October 31, 2014 2:48 a.m.
@GoldGhost012: Eh, it's not that bad. you get used to it. On the plus side, theres usually a pay check that goes with that work, meaning more cards. And if you're not trying to juggle study and full time work you have your evenings/weekends free (depending on how much you like to do outside of work).
October 31, 2014 2:56 a.m.
enpc getting used to it is the scary part, not the work itself.
October 31, 2014 7:15 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #26
I wrote an (unsupported so it is in the forum not the feature) article a while back that involved a section on deck descriptions and I would like to make my point here again.
People are not very good at interpersonal communication anymore. Because of this, they are unsure of what to put in the description. This leads to either too little information or too much.
Most of the time in hobby discussions and other specialized forums you want to assume an intermediate level of competence of the audience. As such you don't want to explain "Removal removes stuff" but would want to explain "Grindstone +Painter's Servant combo works by Painter's Servant making all cards in their libraries a named color and activating Grindstone forcing them to mill until the revealed cards don't share a color".
This may sound curmudgeonly, but I blame technology for people not knowing how to communicate any more. It is so easy to publish an opinion where a few hundred people will see it that there is no consequences to not effectively communicating. This causes people to be lazy and just write things without thinking if it is effective communication instead of just words on a screen.
October 31, 2014 9:24 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #27
I do it to be thorough more than anything. People know why I'm playing Breeding Pool in my UG deck, but you can never be too careful. If you're insluted, skip that part. I don't understand why such a thing insluts you, though.
Jay says... #2
More often than not the breakdowns are useful, and if not is it really that bothersome?
October 30, 2014 8:44 p.m.