I thought I would try my hand at something a little different for once. Sharing one of the decks I play. In this first post I share the backstory and what happened that lead me down this rabbit hole. I hope you will enjoy the story.
Storytime, the why behind the deck
As every good thing seems to have a story behind its inception, so does this one. But I will let you be the judge of whether it is a good one or the other type. I assume that you, like me, have played your fair share of games against Deception players. And I do not know about you, but I feel the very name Deception is a misnomer. As I feel the cards for the most are not very deceptive at all. They are way more mischievous than deceptive. At least in my games, I can literally hear the Deception player snickering as they mess me over is one of the numerous ways only they can. Whether it is making me overdraw or making all my creatures useless bags of hitpoints for them to kill at their own leisure.
This is the very type of game that is the origin of my deck. And just like how the Joker finally got to Batman in The Killing Joke. The everlasting snicker finally got to me and I cracked. In as much rage as frustration, I made my first iteration of the deck. In it, I picked every annoying card I could find, and I bought a few extra ones I did not have as well. I dubbed my new meta-breaking deck Messeption. The goal of the deck was to mess with every last one of my opponents, just like I had been messed with. Now we will see how the f-kers like it when the shoe is on the other foot.
Apparently, they liked my shoe very much. As I assume most people like to win their ranks games. What ensued was a hand full or games that left me even more frustrated than I already where. Out of the games, I think I managed to eke out a victory in one or two of them. But the vast majority of games were crushing defeats...
But I did not let the matter of a majority of crushing defeats stop me. As I was sure I was on to something revolutionary. Something so nefarious only my mind and a handful of other made-up characters had the brain power to think this deck into existence. And no I won't share the decklist, it is too powerful of a tool, what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands? The Gods Unchained Meta would never be the same again. I quickly made so changes and swapped some annoying cards for cards I found to be less annoying. I then went in and took a quick shower as I felt very dirty, having compromised with my original vision in this way. But dam it. The scientific process can't steer me wrong.
I quickly loaded up a game eagerly anticipating the forgone conclusion of the inevitable victory screen, after what surely would be the most annoying experience of this poor player's GU career...
*dramatic pause*
Sadly this version of the deck faired no better than the original one. And now you probably expect me to say I swapped some cards again and the third time is the charm. But no. Because in the immortal words of Sugar Pie DeSanto "Mama Didn't Raise No Fool".
Because I know better than to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. The stupid scientific method, tells me to do the same thing over and over. Instead, I pulled from my experience as a game designer. Ana that is to sometimes shelve a designer that you can't really make sense of. Let your subconscious work on the problems. Then take it down, dust it off, and take it for a spill further down the road. Just like my friend says: "You should never force love or a fart. Because it usually just turns into shit". And I think it applies to game- and deck design as well. If it doesn't work, stop trying to force it.
After about a month or so I got that itchy feeling back. You know the one where you just want to pay back everyone for all those annoying games you've been having lately. Exactly, that's the one I am talking about. I already know it had to be a deception deck, well because that's the only god that allows you to mess with other players' stuff.
I had a few core cards that I knew I wanted to have in the deck. At one point I even spun up a cheapo version of an Ecco Caster deck. Even entertaining the idea of entering it into the League Of Dreams, more on that in a future post. But as the Flip god power currently is bugged. *sigh* that quickly put a pin in those plans. But it also allowed me to circle back to the anoy deck. And I started to tinker with it again. As I said the core cards I already had in mind and then I filled out the deck with other annoying cards to fill the curve.
The general idea of the deck was there, but over a few games, I got a nagging feeling that while I did not loos every game. I was still far from winning a lot of them as well. So that feeling kept nagging me that things needed to change. And so I set out swapping out some cards for some others. And I did a few iterations, and no I know what your thinking. This is completely different from doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So don't you even go there...
While the weekend ranked the last two weeks have left a bit of a bitter taste, and a lot to be desired. I more or less sank faster than someone wearing those Italian cement slippers. It has allowed me to now more or less swap to the latest version of my mess with deck, my Inception Deception deck if you will. And it so far, is working fairly solid. I have beaten both agro- and control decks as well as one Anubian deck. And by my standard, that's pretty good. And that is ladies and gentlemen, my Inception Deception decks origin story.
In the next part, I will reveal the very decklist and try and break down the purpose of the different cards. As well as list a few alternative cards that could be swapped in or out depending on flavor or need. Hopefully, that post will satisfy those of you craving a decklist to look at and try. As this post once I started, it took on a life of its own. Sort of like those annoying Anubian or Zombie decks. And I felt it would do a disserves to this post as well as monopolize far too much of your precious reading time. Hopefully, you have made it this far, and with that, I will do as they say. Leave them wanting more, hopefully at least.
I would really like to hear what you think of this type of post, as it is not the type I normally do. Was it something you enjoyed, if so what did you enjoy? Or if you disliked it, please let me know what about it you did not like as well. As I am trying to get better at writing as well as making interesting posts for you to read. And fun for me to write as well. The comment section is yours to command.
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Picture provided by: Gods Unchained media