Building a Teaching DeckIf you're an experienced player who doesn't hide the fact that you playing, from time to time you will be asked to teach someone how to play. However, this isn't always as easy as it sounds. ComplexityMost of your decks will not be suitable for teaching. For example, they will be laden with complex game mechanics, or with special tricks, or with specific cards that are not obvious how to use. In many ways, if you have a deck that is suitable for teaching, then you need to learn to make better decks. However, all is not lost. Teaching decks are simple decks. They should have an introduction to ideas, but not too many of them. Block-specific game mechanics, such as suspend, affinity or echo, should be avoided altogether. Most cards should only do one thing, to avoid confusion. While your cards might work together, it's not too important that they do in a teaching deck - you're trying to show the very basics of the game. So, should you need a teaching deck, they can be built. Now, from the paragraph above, something becomes apparent: The cards that you need for a teaching deck are all the cards you'd really not want in a proper deck. This is ideal! Finally you've got a use for that Eager Cadet or Coral Eel that's been sitting at the back of your collection for years. All those cards that you would never use because you've got a better card - they're perfect cards. So, you're ready to start building a teaching deck. SimplicitySimplicity is the order of the day. Ideal cards are creatures that have no abilities. They don't have to be good, or worth the mana; that's not the point of a teaching deck. Put some variety in, though - try to fit a bigger creature or two in. Avoid creatures with abilities that are complex, but simple abilities like the Goblin Raider are good. Bear in mind that while you're trying to teach, you're also trying to show the range of cards, so include something with flying, for example, or first strike. But keep the numbers down, you don't want to overwhelm. Given that you're also trying to give a feeling of what sort of things to expect, include variety - four copies of one card is boring - but a Suntail Hawk and Diving Griffin give a feel for the variations on a theme. Also make sure you've got more than just creatures; add an enchantment or two, and a few instants or sorceries. Try not to laden the game with them, though, since they require more skill to use. For a teaching deck, there's no reason why it needs to be 60 cards; 40 is perfectly reasonable (16 land, 24 non-land). After all, since we're not building a deck to win, there's no real worry about breaking the deck-building rules. Playing the gameIt's not really enough to have just one teaching deck. Sure, you could play with one of your existing decks when teaching someone, but not only will you win easily, you also will confuse them with the extra rules that you're using. So make sure you have two decks. Simply by being not all that exciting, they'll probably be fairly evenly matched, so you should be able to have a reasonably interesting game with them. Try not to rush the game too much, and don't worry about winning!
Written on 20th July 2008 by Sneeze (email) |