Building a Deck Is Easy, Tuning It Up Is The Harder Part

There’s a lot out there online about deck building, but I want to go out on a limb and say that deck building isn’t what’s really important.  (Pauses while collective gasp goes out from the masses).  It’s not deck building that makes a good deck, its deck tuning.  Let’s be honest, you could make a hundred decks, and in their very first form ninety-nine will probably suck, until they get tuned anyway.  Yes it’s important to build a deck with a solid strategy, a sense of tempo, an understanding of balance and the proper mana curve, but a new deck will always be just that, a new deck, one that it is untested and untried.  It’s what happens next that will determine whether that new deck becomes a good deck, or even a great one.

Allies – The Human Slivers

Okay, that headline is a bit of a misnomer since not all allies are human, but a large number are and the point is not to profile (and as comedian Ron White tells us, profiling is wrong) but rather to give an evocative description.  Anyone whose ever played a Sliver deck knows that Slivers in themselves are less than overwhelming creatures, until they get together for a Sliver party, then all hell breaks loose.  Allies are similar in a lot of ways.  Alone they seem weak and useless, but when they begin to feed off eachh other they can become more than the sum of their parts.  There are some important strategy tips to keep in mind though.

  

Breaking The Habit

People are creatures of habit.  We do what we know and we take a certain amount of comfort in the routine, relying on that routine to add a certain level of certainty to our lives.  When that lends to our comfort and ability to function in the world and deal with others in a beneficial and cooperative fashion its a good thing.  When it stifles our creativity and prevents us from enjoying and reveling in the unexpected it isn't  That's true whether its our careers, our relationships and even our games.  Breaking habits and trying new things can lead to unexpected pleasures, new outlooks, and a wider set of experiences.  That's true when we play MTG as well as in the other aspects of our lives.

But It Looked So Good On Paper!

How many times has this happened to you? A new set comes out and there’s a card in it that is beyond cool, beyond remarkable, beyond awesome, it has actually transcended to remarcoolsome. You barely even read the card, its very essence is already causing neurons in your brain to fire off like you just downed a crystal meth cocktail with a crack chaser. At that moment you’re not really thinking about whether the card is feasible to play, all you can see is just how freaking remacoolsome it is.