Deck Building Methods: DoA’s Style

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Hey guys! I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately regarding just how to go about building a deck in Hearthstone and CCGs in general. The short answer is that there’s actually no “perfect” way to go about it. Everyone has their own style! Over the next few paragraphs I’ll outline the methods I’ve used in CCGs for the last 18-ish years. They’ve worked well for me and might help you develop your own deck building system. Enjoy!

Step 1: What looks cool?

This really is as simple as it sounds. To be quite honest, the first step in every deck I make is when a card, combo, or ability catches my eye and makes me want to build a deck around it. I usually don’t put much deep thought into the final product at this point or if I think it would win games. The first deck I built in Hearthstone was a Divine Shield Paladin deck. I saw the ability and thought it would be really strong in forcing a lot of unfavorable trades for my opponents and wanted to see if I could make it a focus for a deck. Another example would be the “Enrage Mage” deck I’ve been working on. I wanted to see if you could consistently combine the Mage’s Hero Ability with the Enrage mechanic. It’s important to keep in mind that in this initial step you don’t worry whether or not something will work! Any idea is legitimate if it looks fun! I just made a Warlock deck that uses no spells and 100% neutral minions yesterday!

Step 2: Build it!

[two_thirds]Now that you’ve got your concept you can start actually putting the deck together! I’m going to use my “Enrage Mage” deck as the example for the rest of the article. I’ve been working on it for a month or so off and on! During the building phase you want to consider what other cards in the game will help you achieve your goal of pulling off that combo you like or exploit the ability you think is strong. In this case I knew that I needed consistent ways to active the enrage ability in my minions while at the same time keeping them as safe as possible. I tried to do this through the use of Taunt and Freeze cards for safety while using other cards like Elven Archer and Mad Bomber to hit and activate my minion’s Enrage ability a bit more efficiently than my Hero power can. I also included Abusive Sergeant and Dark Iron Dwarf to make the deck a bit more explosive in potential damage. Throw in all the Enrage minions (aside from Angry Chicken of course) and you have the makings of an interesting deck!

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[tabs] [tab title=”1″]Mirror Image x2
Abusive Sergeant x2
Elven Archer x2
Goldshire Footman x2
[/tab] [tab title=”2″]Frost Nova x2
Amani Berserker x2
Mad Bomber
[/tab] [tab title=”3″]Arcane Intellect x2
Cone of Cold x2
Raging Worgen x2
Tauren Warrior x2
[/tab] [tab title=”4″]Fireball x2
Dark Iron Dwarf x2
[/tab] [tab title=”5″]Blizzard x2
Gurubashi Berserker x2
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Step 3: Playtest and Refine!

At this point you’ve got a finished deck and it’s time to take it to the ladder or a match against a friend! The most important thing to remember in this phase is that you’re not interested in winning games yet! Right now you’re interested in making your deck concept execute more consistently and efficiently, which in turn will lead to wins if it works! This is the most fun phase in my mind because even if your concept ends up being terrible it’s always entertaining to see it work once in a while!

Throughout this step you need to be feeling out what’s working and what’s not working. Never change more than 2 different cards at a time in your deck! If you go higher than this you’re going to be running the risk of altering your deck to the point where it’s tough to say which change really made a difference. You also run into the hazard of introducing new synergy problems that might not have existed otherwise, which can throw off your refining. If you find that you don’t like the concept, make a whole new deck! Don’t try to slam a new one into your existing card set. Over time with small alterations and a LOT of games played you’ll get a good sense of what’s working and what’s not. Unranked play is a great place to test your new decks! You can quit a game and start over as much as you like without worrying about it. Sometimes I’ll even concede and start over if I’m trying to test out a certain type of starting hand and don’t get it! You’re just playtesting, so who cares?

The refining phase is never really over for any CCG deck. A good player can have an 80% win ratio and should still be actively searching for small changes that can increase the deck’s power by even the slightest amount! Never get lazy!

In the End…

In the end, the deck building process is my absolute favorite part of CCGs. Taking a concept and turning it into something new and unique that destroys your opponents (and friends!) is one of the best feelings you can have in a game like Hearthstone. Don’t be afraid to try anything, no matter how silly the idea might seem! For every decent deck I make there are usually 5 concepts that get made and then discarded. Someday I’ll get that Angry Chicken deck to run smoothly…

P.S. Blizzard, can we have more deck slots?