The Art of Playtesting

As any avid card gamer will tell you, the key to making a strong and succesful deck is playtesting. It is very rare for a player to simply get an idea, throw together a pile of 60 (or more) cards, and go to the next major tournament and win. As much as we’d all like to think we are capable of doing this, the truth is that it is extremely unlikely. The main reason is that, barring a miracle, any deck you throw together and play out of the gate at a tournament will be lacking a playtest, and playtesting is definitely the key to success.

But what is playtesting? New players may think it is simply playing a deck over and over again to see how it does. While this is certainly a major part of playtesting it is definitely not its only component. Playtesting encompasses a wide range of techinques that, when employed properly, will turn your mediocre decks into Top 8 decks.

Before I get started I must say that not all decks can be playtested to success. Sometimes, but hopefully not often, a deck you build will simply not perform well at all. This happens and you shouldn’t be discouraged. Sometimes a deck or combo simply won’t work the way you want it to and that is a part of deckbuilding; trial and error. The important thing to remember, though, is that every idea you have is valid and you may find yourself coming back to those ideas in later decks or coming back to a deck that didn’t work when new sets and cards are introduced.

Where Does Playtesting Begin?
Obviously it begins with building the deck itself. When you are buiilding the deck, unless you are throwing a random pile of cards together, you will be thinking about how you want the deck to work, what combos may be in it, and how it may handle other decks. This is all part of playtesting as you have already determined what you want to look out for when you play the deck for the first time. Remember these ideas as they will become integral to playtesting later.

Now that you have your deck you will probably want to dive right in and play some games. This is exactly what you want to do and I encourage you to play as many games as possible before you ever consider changing the deck. Play against every person at your local gaming store, play against your friends, let your friends borrow one of your decks and play against that. Play against a wide variety of opponents and deck types to get a complete scope of how your deck operates.

Once you have played a bunch of games you will come to your first playtesting hurdle. If the deck isn’t doing well you might consider taking it apart. I strongly urge against this as almost every deck can be fixed (but sadly not all). The key to playtesting is to not take decks apart quickly and build new ones but to play the same decks over and over and “tweak” them.

Tweaking
“Tweaking” is a term that originated from…I don’t know where. I heard it for the first time at my local gaming store over twelve years ago and it stuck. Everyone at my store says it and I have no idea where it came from but it is the key to playtesting and deckbuilding. To “tweak” a deck is to make a minor change, which could be as little as changing which quests you play to replacing four copies of one card with a completely new card.

The key to successful tweaking is to take notes regarding your deck, be it mentally or on paper. Did you find that you were drawing too many quests? Make a note of that. Did you realize that the kill card you are playing isn’t as effective as you thought? Remember that and keep it in mind when you look through your cards later. Every time you find yourself disappointed with how your deck is operating is an opportunity for the deck to be tweaked.

Once you have these notes, flip through your binders/boxes and begin pulling out cards that you think solve your problems. Sometimes a problem can be solved simply by increasing the number of one card you play and decreasing another. You may not realize it but a minor change can go a long way.

Always Look to Improve
Now that you made your changes your deck you may feel that it is done and ready to go to a major tournament. While I hope this might be true, the deck is far from done. As far as I’m concerned, a deck can always be perfected, always able to be tweaked or modified to handle any situation that may arise. While this is certainly harder to do in World of Warcraft than some other card games I have played, you should still have the same mentality when approaching your decks.

Even if you feel like your deck is running well there is still room for improvement. Keep taking notes and making changes whenever you feel you are encountering a serious problem.It is important to remember, though, that not all problems will be handled perfectly by tweaking. Sometimes the class you are running simply can not deal with a particular card or deck style. This does not mean switch classes or change the deck completely, it simply means do the best you can with what you have.

Playtest Often and Make Changes
Always be sure to playtest your deck as frequently as possible. It is certainly fun to build a plethora of decks and play a different one each game, but if you want a serious/competitive deck it is important to keep making changes to an existing deck. Like I said earlier, it is very rare to build a winning competitive deck right out of the gate so don’t be discouraged if your deck doesn’t do as well as you think it should.

I know this sounds like a long and arduous process but I promise you that it is effective. Although I hate citing my own experience, one of the decks I currently play in The Spoils is a modified and tweaked version of a deck I have had for years. I built the deck, originally, three days before the Gen-Con 13k event in 2007 and have been tweaking the deck ever since. I finished in 12^th place in that tournament (out of about 80 I believe) and since modified the deck with new cards that have been releaseed, elevating the deck to an entirely new level. There is no doubt in my mind that it is my strongest deck and I look forward to playing it in future tournaments.

The key to that deck, though, is that I have worked on it over and over again. Even during the “dead” period of The Spoils I was playing the deck and making changes, and now that I have new cards to work with I can not imagine how much more I will be working on it.

Letting Go and Pushing On
There is a time when you might have to abandon a deck and put it in the discard pile, so to speak, but that is up to you. As much as I’d like to say that I’ve figured out when to drop a deck and when to push it, I can’t. It’s really a matter of personal preference, playstyle, and the amount of time you can commit to gaming.

In the end, though, the key to playtesting and tweaking is persistence. This may be a concept that is foreign to most gamers as we, as a group, love when things are fast and exciting. To get through it you have to remind yourself that playtesting and tweaking are the necessary components to success in Constructed formats. It is very similar to learning a sport; aside from being a prodigy, learning how to throw a 95 mph fastball takes time and training. Card gaming, as odd as it may seem, is exactly the same. You will get as much out of your constructed decks as you put into them, so be sure to put as much work into them as possible.