In 1926, an advertising executive named Harry Scherman reportedly stated that "people would read more, if only it didn't involve deciding what to read."-- he parlayed his understanding of the American middle class into a multi million dollar venture-- the now reviled "book of the month club" This club catered to the anxieties of an unimaginative middlebrow demographic. They loved the fact that that they could read "what all the inteligencia are reading" without having to figure out why it was good, why it was worthy and what raised it above pulp (not unlike Ophrah's book club.) Now we're starting to see the same trend in card games. Every little twit crawls out of the woodwork and builds a copy of the latest hot deck from the dojo.com, from WNOHGB or from Decipher's BBS without understanding what makes it run, how to play it or how to adapt it to their metagame and without reading the cards that they are playing. Some of the least imaginative, worst players belong to the "deck of the month club." You can almost always spot them at a glance-- they have five or more binders with them, trading last month's hot card for this month's-- replacing their GoF deck with DQSS personnel. Many of them carry around printouts of decks that they are in the process of cloning.

This is not to say that decklists aren't invaluable to the more refined players, but it sometimes is frustrating when a marginally average player rips off Brad's latest oeuvre and gets an inflated ego because he comes in second with it (people who do this rarely get first-- Brad would place first with it, because he knows how to play it.) It's even more frustrating to play against someone like that and have to explain "that's not a valid response." or "Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow can not play while I am in the middle of towing it"

So build your own damn deck! Don't copy one off this website. Here's four handy tips for non-formulaic, but still effective deckbuilding:

1) Don't ever limit yourself to one affiliation.

Too many people define themselves by an affiliation.-- this is known as classic "I'm a Borg Player" syndrome. If you aren't willing to try out new ideas with other affiliations, then you aren't much of a player.

2) Don't limit yourself to drawing engines.

Players who come from a Magic the Gathering background often confuse "drawing cards" with winning. Remember to aim for a mission solving engine. This can take many forms, either through massive draws and massive personnel reports (like Devidian Dooby), by having the right personnel when you need them (like AMS), or simply by avoiding the opponent's dilemmas (like the now defunct Q-bypass)

3) Make your own judgement of what is a good card.

I recently lost a tournament. Badly. I was prepared for every deck that had been posted on WNOHGB in the last two months, but was shut down by a card (specifically "wrong door") that I had thought was binder fodder because I hadn't read it. My own fault. This tip basically comes down to: "Read the damn cards-- all of them!" (especially the verb cards). I'm more impressed with a player who tries out new things, has original thoughts and has fun that with one who just wins. Trust me, you will be wrong and not understand the cards a lot of the time-- I know I am mistaken a lot, but at the same time, It's OK to make mistakes.

4) Be willing to lose.

If you aren't willing to lose, you aren't willing to learn. Be willing to try new stuff and be willing to make mistakes. I'm playing in the Vancouver opens this weekend with a new deck-- and I have grave doubts as to its effectiveness. What I don't doubt is that it will catch people off guard. Remember-- the first person to painstick Brunt probably won-- because he was willing to take a chance and loose to the writ.