Deck Design

by Bruce Neiger

This article, presented in two parts, with an “intermission” and an afterword, describes the “Mostly Harmless” and Netherworld Return deck types. I have given the Tim Linden’s Netherworld Return deck, published on Stephan’s Shadowfist site, an “honorary” entry into this category as an “unrelated ancestor”. I hope he doesn’t mind.

The Mostly Harmless deck type has taken on several faces at this point, each inspired by the others. The core concept, however is to combine alternate power generation with large hitters and (almost always) with cheap recursion. All except the Netherworld Return deck also combine Red Bat with a large number of free or low cost events, quickly yielding very large Red Bats.

By now, probably everyone who reads articles on this site has heard of the Rule of 5 for deck building: 1/5 Feng Shui Sites ("FSS"), 1/5 foundation, 1/5 characters, 1/5 cheap stuff, and 1/5 everything else. (Check out Dave’s excellent article on the Chimpshack if you’re unfamiliar with this rule before you continue.)

The Rule of 5 is an excellent place to begin deck construction; most decks built strictly adhering to this rule will work well. However, the more decks you build, the more you will find that some decks just don’t work with this kind of resourcing. This article will take a closer look into choosing the right amount of foundation characters and Feng Shui Sites, which I will refer to as "resources" in general, early-game discard strategies, and which properties of your deck change the number of resources you will need.

The season of World- and National Championships is almost upon us, and many of us are honing their decks and playing skills to have a shot at The Title. I won’t be participating in either Championship (both Cons are just an itty bit too far from the West Coast), but that won’t stop me from dispensing advice.
Today, we’ll look into building that winning deck. Before you get your hopes up too high, let me say first of all that, unless you’re dueling, the deck alone won’t win you the game. It’s a multiplayer game: good players who read the board right and have good timing will beat a new player with a killer deck in most cases, regardless which deck they play. But that said, building a strong deck at least shifts the odds in your favor, just like a weak deck can hamstring you.