DT#6 is the first in the "new" DT series. The first five are to get you started, and while I'll be revisiting some of those same ideas, and revising earlier articles, from now on DT will be in-depth articles about specific aspects of custom deck creation. The series re-launches with a Rich Pizor treatise on your new deck idea, and good reasons for why your deck should get built - or get tossed.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: this is in no way an admonition for people to stop making decks. To the contrary, I love to see the creativity this community brings about, and I believe very strongly that introducing new characters and new ideas into the Epic Duels mix is a vital part of keeping the game alive. But if nothing in the ED world makes me happier than seeing a cool new deck, nothing makes me more frustrated than seeing someone spend hours on a deck that just isn’t any good – or, even worse, would be great EXCEPT for one or two annoying details. There are still a number of good decks out there to be made. The purpose of this essay is to help those decks come out.

The articles in this series are going to tell you everything you need to know to build your own Star Wars Epic Duels deck. There's a lot of good instruction to be found, both on the theory of what makes a solid, playable deck, and on the technical steps necessary to take your deck from concept, to blueprint, to something you can play with. This is a wonderful thing, but all of these articles begin with one critical assumption: that your deck is one the world needs.

This seems like a simple thing to assume, but the sad truth is that it's not. The Epic Duels universe currently featuring decks for over 100 different characters, from champions of the Extended Universe to bit-player Jedi who were only on screen for a few seconds to personalities you never thought you'd even see in combat. And yet every season, when we call for nominations for the EDOL, very few decks are put forward.

Why is this?


Certainly some of this is a matter of personal taste; not everyone agrees with me, for example, that Talon Karrde is a cool character and important enough to be worthy of inclusion. Others feel that the tournament situation should remain pure to Hasbro's original vision, and that to extend it at all is to miss the point entirely. I'm not here to say any of this is wrong. What I am here to say, however, is that no small part of the paucity of nominations, I believe, is the number of decks on the Wiki that only please their authors.

I won't name names, partly because it would be rude but mostly because I don't have to (and I'm not exempting my own designs either; lord knows the Dark Troopers, at the very least, belong on the list). Instead I’m going to don my hat as Official Community Asshole Pontificator and talk for a brief minute about a topic that never gets discussed because there’s no polite way to bring it up: why you should (or shouldn’t) design a new deck.

Since we’re already on the negativity vibe, let’s go ahead and get this out of the way up front: what are some of the reasons you shouldn’t design a new deck? Here’s a few of the reasons:

The deck is being made only to correct a perceived under/overrepresentation. The Star Wars universe is larger than life and littered with distinct personalities of great power. As such, it’s at best unlikely that a single deck will ever perfectly represent a character to every ED player – but even the “obvious” problems aren’t even obvious. The Vader Debate is proof enough that, while most people are unhappy with his deck, not everyone agrees that he’s too weak, nor does everyone agree on exactly what needs to change. (Besides, there’s at least 3 Let’s Make Vader Better decks out there already; see the next point below.) While the designers have stated that it was okay with them if the decks didn’t exactly stack up, there is a balance of power within the original twelve decks, and decks that wind up too far over or under that range can sap the fun right out of the game.

There are already a number of decks for the character. Certainly everyone’s take on a character is unique. I’m not arguing that the Hasbro decks should be considered indisputable canon, or that any of the given decks currently in circulation is perfect. That said, what new can come to the table by building yet another Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan deck? Tweak, remix, and discuss to your heart’s content – but if you aren’t 100% sure that you’ve come up with The Definitive Version™, why not bring something new to the table instead?

The deck, by design, is too strong/weak. Some characters just need to be stronger or weaker than the rest of the ED universe. That’s fine, but it may well result in a deck that no one wants to play as (if it's too weak) or against (if it's too strong). Then you spend hours designing, building, and tweaking your creation…only to have it sit in a box or directory somewhere and never get used outside of your playtesting, because no one wants it in the game.

The deck is just too weird. The Jawa Clan? The Dianoga? Coruscanti Drug Dealers? The Federation Droid Army? Sure, go for it, try ‘em out, have fun with it. Just be prepared to accept that some decks can’t be made to work, and that’s just the way it is. That doesn’t mean don’t try – rather, it means know when you’re hitting your head against the wall, and be prepared to accept it.

With all those admonishments, it may sound like we shouldn’t be making new decks at all. Quite the contrary! There are more than a few good reasons to make new decks:

Your favorite character isn’t represented. Some people may think this isn’t possible at this stage of the game; nothing could be further from the truth. There are all sorts of interesting Imperial leaders from the novels and comic books that have yet to be explored. There are many characters from the Old Republic era that aren’t even conceived of in Epic Duels (basically any that weren’t in the first video game). There are young Jedi in the New Republic era we’ve never heard from, such as the Solo children. There are heroes of the Yuuzhong Vong war, on both sides, that exist only as text on a page.

Realize, as you do this, that the further you get from the movies, the less eager some people will be about the deck; you may have to be willing to expect no one outside of your immediate play group will enjoy the deck in that case. But there’s still a ton of fertile ground to plow before resorting to Episode II Coruscanti Bar Patron #2 (who, in all likelihood, falls under the “just too weird” admonition above anyway).

You wish to add a new element to gameplay. While there are certainly tried and true cards and effects that get used over and over again (A7/Draw a Card, anyone?) a creative designer will seek out new life and new civilizations when it comes to affecting how the game is played. There’s already a long list of examples from decks that already exist, such as:

• cards that interact with the board
• cards that add reinforcement characters to your team
• cards that redirect an attack to a new target
• conditional cards with variable damage
• defense cards that temporarily remove a figure from the board

The list goes on, and there’s still things no one has tried. No one has represented using the Force to manipulate objects on the battlefield (as separate from simply hurling them at your opponent, ala Vader’s Throw Debris). Shields and regeneration abilities have been represented multiple ways, and the jury is still out on the best way to do it. Grappling cables for climbing? Never seen. And there's a whole list of Force powers from the video games that have yet to see the light of day. There's still, in short, a wealth of new material that's just itching to arrive in an ED deck.

Representing a specific stage of a character’s career. This may sound crazy after I just pointed out that the world doesn’t need another Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan deck, so please don’t misconstrue. There's a difference between doing Yet Another Deck For Character X and with focusing on a specific stage in that character's development. Luke Skywalker, teenager on Tatooine, has a very different skillset from Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (and is well-represented by the numerous Young Luke/Old Ben decks out there, I hasten to add). While simply amping a character up or down doesn’t serve much purpose, representing a focused, specific take on a character may be useful.

Why even take these considerations into account? It's because of something that I call the Natural Law of Decks. The Hasbro decks, however popular or unpopular, will never be considered “inappropriate” for gameplay, because they're what came in the box. ANY custom deck, no matter how central a character, is going to need the approval of a given play group to be introduced into the game. As a result, to be successful, ALL CUSTOM DECKS MUST BE BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL TWELVE. You simply can't say something like “well, this deck is no more unbalanced than Obi-Wan” – because Obi-Wan has the designer's blessing, and your deck does not. That means your decks, if you wish to get them into wider circulation, will need to measure up to a higher standard than what came before. Is it fair? Probably not. But it's the way things are. Making a deck that hits those standards is a long, difficult process – just like almost anything worth having in life. So enjoy Design This! And get set to design some of the best decks we've seen yet.

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