Ugh. I really didn't put up a list in the hopes of determining if I'm a better deck builder (I'm questionable at best) and didn't really see the idea in that way. I thought it more of a fun process where each challenge has a most popular version. 'Better deck building'; to me at least, should cover stats and incorporate a gauntlet of testing against defined criteria to measure which is in fact the better take. That would eliminate a lot of the personal factors like - I like DJ. He smells like lilac. I'm going to vote for him! Or even things like Barney punting several games . People voting for what they enjoyed and/or liked the best; how ever they decide to come to that conclusion, also is a lot quicker in the long run (which will help keep interest). So regardless of how others are approaching this, I'm not looking to prove myself or infer I'm better than anyone else. There are definitely better builders on these boards (and in this round) and I know it. If I happen to put together a popular deck one week, sweet! If I continue to pump out flying garbage trucks, sweet! I'm fine either way.



elk

How about posting deck 1, deck 2 and telling the author at the end of testing as winner?:-)

For the record, I like Elk... I'm now naming all of my childrens after him. Obviously he gets my votes.

If I didn't have four builders I liked so much in the last contest, i would have just voted for the 2 I like best. So I'm really happy so many of you participated cuz it FORCED (caps for Vert) me to playtest the decks. And as much as I was rooting against Gem and Maggit's deck to win, i had a responsibility to judge the decks properly. So yeah Elk, keep posting garbage trucks and I will r00t for them to do well.

The emotions of playing these decks was so huge too. Cuz I knew Elk wanted his pile to do well (as did I). So moments like when I lost early with Vert's deck, I was super sad. Or when DJ's deck got a turn 0 concession win, I was super happy.

hope to do more of these.

as a debrief, were my write-ups and "live-blogging'" interesting at all for the deck builders? It was more for you guys. I didn't want to just play 20-30 games and write one post on the results.

I know the revolt thread isn't meant to finish until Friday, but is it worth starting the next idea now?

I say this because the Fight Club/Showdown start next week and Kryder will be releasing deck lists on Sunday and I imagine people will want to concentrate on their matchups and start evaluating the field. At least we'd get a few decent days of testing if we got going a bit early?

Yeah, PMs of lists to the Judge who posts all lists anonymously is fine with me. Of course, the implication that biases affect decisions for a simple challenge game with literally zero reward is a pretty large indictment of the community.

So what's the deal then, what is the next deck we are going to try to make and are we gonna create a separate deck thread to make it easier to follow?

I was entertained.

WHAT?! Because these things have literally zero importance, isn't it completely understandable that bias will affect all decisions. not everyone is as fair and balanced as me



I realize that not putting authors makes the voting more fair, but it also makes it very uninteresting. i really liked interacting with SleepHumper on how best to pilot his deck, or making fun of Secret of TIMH and stuff. I think it will be Chicken Blandoori if we don't put authors. How about not opening up the voting until the very end? Or maybe don't open the voting to the public and instead do voting/election of a Supreme Court of Chief Magic Justices that will be responsible for voting (none of the participants can be on the committee)?


Also, we have Fight Club about to start, it's probably not the best time to launch another one of these right away cuz all of our attention will be on that for the next week or two, no?

...also, i kind of want to start playing Resident Evil 4 again...

Things don't kick off until Tuesday, I'm sure we can sneak one more idea in. Haven't most people opted for flicker? Do we just carry on using this thread for our ideas and after a day or two make a new voting thread for said ideas?

New threads is better imo. Put the decks and the polls in the same thread. Maybe index them somewhere easy to find.

I'm still of the opinion that without color costraint there is not much way to compare them. Also, taking "energy" again as example, let's say that only one person builds a RG aggro energy deck and that this is the best idea from testing. Anyone could agree about that, but maybe we have seen only a raw decklist and not an optimized one, that won because even if it was not optimized it was better than the others or it was better for the actual meta rather than the others. I would prefer an optimized constrained concept rather than just explore the surface of a particular idea and then move on. The constructed subforum is plenty of these ideas, some of them is more discussed than others, but i'm not sure that they are optimized. That's why i treated it as a contest, to make people optimize a concept.
But mine is a lonely opinion, let's make people enjoy the way the want to. I had no idea for the next theme, but everyone is already thinking about flicker, even without constraints i think we won't see a rakdos deck.
I thought it was better to wait a week or two before the next one, so that people could finish to test things for the tourneys and maybe test some matchups when the decklists will be open. But since my original idea was not "optimized" and people wanna more about it, i can only say post your opinions here about how and when to do it and then we will see.

Edit: nvm, seems there is no more need of this.

ahem....thread derailment. We were busy talking about how fantastic this elk guy is and you all have to go ruin it with your deck builder discussions and ideas. Sheesh!





elk

Yeah, sorry to usurp you Giocher - it's just time is against us this coming week. I trust you'll take the reigns again for future weeks.

I can't wait to repeatedly post and complain, "Joker does this stuff better!!" in the new thread


on topic: Elk is as brave as he is handsome

I like anonymous builders idea. Eliminating the potential for bias seems wise, and may make it more attractive for less established members of the community to participate. Maybe also less embarrassing for me when I'm the only one who gets 0 votes again... although I see no reason not to reveal builders once votes have all been cast - then Barney can still clown on me.

I said on page 1 that I think it makes way more sense to post these individual contests in the subforum rather than have one insanely long thread that includes all of them. I still believe that's the better option. More elegant formatting, and easier to find the starting page for whatever the current contest is.

I also think it's best to take the next week off. Competing for attention the same week tournaments begin seems like begging for inaction on this one. 2 weeks from now things may have settled enough that people can devote more time to this contest, but I think next week all the tourney participants are going to want to focus on evaluating their meta and testing against things in their field.

Lastly, I would love for testers to record matches if possible. Written recaps are alright, but video is better and gives me something to watch while doing chores around the house

but I play much worse when I stream!

Actually this anonymous builder thing could be more fun. Cuz people won't be shy about p00p-talking the bad builds. Like if everyone really piles on how bad one of the decks is, it's going to be hilarious when the person is revealed who it is. If it's someone everyone likes, say SquiderDragon, then we all feel super bad. Could be fun.

I realy think this was bad form. It takes away from the current 'contest' that doesn't end until Friday and; as others have stated, will run into the tournament if handled correctly. There needs to be time to build and test the submission before posting. Once that deadline is up, you'll need ample time to allow for members to test and discuss. I don't see how it can be crammed in before the tournament without a few short cuts. I think this is Giocher's baby and he should be steering the ship/ making these sorts of decisions.

Anyway, if it wasn't apparent, I'm with the other votes to postpone this idea until folks have a better chance to focus on it (both builders and testers)


elk

I agree. i haven't voted yet in the current contest because I haven't been able to play them all. It's way too soon and has it been decided the next focus is flicker? Jumping over Giocher the second contest ouch.
I know what I would be saying...

I preferred going to sleep yesterday rather than starting a discussion about this (i slept like a baby, thx for the question). What i can say is that i haven't appreciated the improvised round 2 contest (without an improvise theme at least), but as for Kryder's tourneys anyone can make their own tournament.
The reasons are that the poll about the first one is still open and there is people that haven't tested all of them yet and want to vote and leave a comment. Also i think there is people that still haven't posted a decklist for the tourneys (i did it yesterday).
Another reason is that this was only an experiment and some of its features were discussed in order to be improved. So i thought to make another poll at the beginning of next week to let people choose, about color constraints, anonymous decklists and other things that were discussed.
Anyway anyone is free to join the flicker contest, i will probably make this poll next week and i will start the official round 2 contest around 20 Feb, that could be good with the upcoming tourneys.