Note: playing your own deck, as opposed to netdecking, is called “going rogue” and an original, unexpected deck is a “rogue” deck.
The advantage to going rogue is that your opponent will not be prepared to play against your strategy. As a result, he will be more likely to make mistakes when playing against you, and his deck will not be optimized for beating yours. (Plus, as designing an effective deck that hasn’t been discovered already is extremely difficult, winning with a rogue deck is very impressive.) The downside is that rogue decks tend to be weaker than netdecks, because, well, you and your friends aren’t smarter than the entire rest of the Magic playing world.
That’s funny. I haven’t played Magic seriously since pre-Google, and not building one’s own deck from scratch was commonly known as ‘cheating’.
ETA: this is because deck construction was considered most of the game, so playing someone else’s deck is like having a more experienced player play the game for you
I started playing very early (around Legends) and quit around Ice Age; this was the standard belief at that time too.
Of course, we didn’t really have the internet anyway. Winning decks occasionally got published in magazines, but the resources simply weren’t there for netdecking to be an issue. I suspect as it became easier and easier it moved from taboo to the norm.
When I initially played, I never would have thought of buying a premade deck; now I can pick up any of the ones that are sold and have a fun game with them, without any of the commitment that caused me to quit, and the deck will be better than one I could make myself.
Note: playing your own deck, as opposed to netdecking, is called “going rogue” and an original, unexpected deck is a “rogue” deck.
The advantage to going rogue is that your opponent will not be prepared to play against your strategy. As a result, he will be more likely to make mistakes when playing against you, and his deck will not be optimized for beating yours. (Plus, as designing an effective deck that hasn’t been discovered already is extremely difficult, winning with a rogue deck is very impressive.) The downside is that rogue decks tend to be weaker than netdecks, because, well, you and your friends aren’t smarter than the entire rest of the Magic playing world.
That’s funny. I haven’t played Magic seriously since pre-Google, and not building one’s own deck from scratch was commonly known as ‘cheating’.
ETA: this is because deck construction was considered most of the game, so playing someone else’s deck is like having a more experienced player play the game for you
Same here—there might have been a few people around playing decks from the web or magazines, but they were a minority and not very highly considered.
But then I never took part in competitions, and don’t know anybody who did, that probably explains.
That’s something I’ve never heard, oddly enough.
I started playing very early (around Legends) and quit around Ice Age; this was the standard belief at that time too. Of course, we didn’t really have the internet anyway. Winning decks occasionally got published in magazines, but the resources simply weren’t there for netdecking to be an issue. I suspect as it became easier and easier it moved from taboo to the norm. When I initially played, I never would have thought of buying a premade deck; now I can pick up any of the ones that are sold and have a fun game with them, without any of the commitment that caused me to quit, and the deck will be better than one I could make myself.