How To Build a Deck - A 10 Step Guide

Step 3 - Set A Theme

Now that all the ground work has been done in steps 1 and 2, we can now start to build our deck!

The first thing to do is to set a theme to the deck we want to build. The theme to a deck describes how the deck generally works to win the duel. There are three main themes a deck can adopt in Order and Chaos Duels:


Aggro Theme

Decks of this nature are aggressive. These decks aim to kill the enemy hero with as many minions, spells, weapons, enchantments and anything else that is available in the shortest amount of time. It relies on early board advantage and tempo gains throughout the duel. It also relies on hit point advantage late game to close the duel.

See Betoki's Basic Rush deck for an example of an aggro deck:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-246.html

Control Theme

Decks of this nature are reactive. These decks aim to counter threats with threats of its own. It relies on tempo gains throughout the duel and does not rely on board and hit point advantage as much as an aggro deck.

See Jeroen's Order Control deck for an example of a control deck:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-517.html

Mill Theme

Decks of this nature are defensive. These decks aim to outlast their opponent with cards that will help their hero survive. Like control themed decks, it relies on tempo gains throughout the duel and does not rely on board and hit point advantage as much as an aggro deck. Unlike control themed decks, it does not necessarily aim to produce threats of its own but rather aims to win mainly via their opponent running out of cards.

See Ebenezer's Fallen Lady Adavia for an example of a mill deck:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-606.html

---

Step 4 - Choose A Hero

Once you have chosen a theme, you will need to choose a suitable hero to enact that theme in the deck.


[align=center][/align]


Obviously, a hero with a defensive ability, i.e. Gaald Battlesage, will be more suited to a control or mill themed deck.

Whilst a hero with an aggressive ability, i.e. Ordin of the Plague, will be more suited to an aggro themed deck.

It is also possible to choose a hero first and to choose the theme of the deck second. The order in which these two decisions are made is not important.

---

Step 5 - Set Goals

Now that you have a hero and a theme to the deck, you will now need to set some goals for the deck to achieve. These goals can be different in nature, but the achievement of these goals all ultimately work together to help you win the duel.

We can divide these goals into three main categories. Namely, early game goals, late game goals and situational goals. Under early and late game goals, we shall divide the goals even further into general and specific goals.

This is whereby the general goal is a single goal which summaries the overall aim and specific goals can be numerous and describe of how the general goal is brought about.

Early Game Goals

Setting goals for early game means to set out what you want your deck to do early game.

Here are some examples of some possible early game goals for different decks:

Betoki's Basic Rush - Early Game Goals

General Goal: To focus on board advantage.

Specific Goals:

[*]To cast a 3 mana cost minion with 3 mana.
[*]To sacrifice Shadow Scythweaver and cast rush minion(s) with 4 mana.
[*]To sacrifice Shadow Scythweaver and cast a 3 mana minion and a Steed of War with 5 mana.
[*]To cast Shatterblast as much as possible.

Jeroen's Order Control - Early Game Goals

General Goal: To focus on damage reduction.

Specific Goals:

[*]To equip hero with Champion's Plate as early as possible.
[*]To cast attack reducing spells on enemy minions.
[*]To enchant a slot with Spirit Dragon.

Ebenezer's Fallen Lady Adavia - Early Game Goals

General Goal: To setup the mill.

Specific Goals:

[*]To equip Adavia with Cloth of Darkness.
[*]To cast Ankle Slash and Mystery Temple on the slot furthest to the right.
[*]To cast Stone-Wing Raiders to absorb damage.
[*]To cast Fallen Lord Esteros on the slot furthest to the right.

Late Game Goals

Setting goals for late game means to set out what you want your deck to do late game.

Here are some examples of some possible late game goals for different decks:

Betoki's Basic Rush - Late Game Goals

General Goal: To focus on hit point advantage.

Specific Goals:

[*]To kill minions blocking our own minions with Smite of God and any other means, so that our own minions can hit enemy hero.
[*]To cast rush minions to do direct damage to enemy hero.

Jeroen's Order Control - Late Game Goals

General Goal: To focus on dominating lane(s) with Pyromancer Paitida.

Specific Goals:

[*]To cast Pyromancer Paitida on a slot enchanted by Spirit Dragon.
[*]To kill minions blocking Pyromancer Paitida with Smite of God and any other means, so that Pyromancer Paitida can hit enemy hero.

Ebenezer's Fallen Lady Adavia - Late Game Goals

General Goal: To maintain the mill.

[*]To cast another Fallen Lord Esteros and to heal them with Charge as needed.
[*]To replace any dead Fallen Lord Esteros.

Situational Goals

Setting goals for certain situations in the game means to set out what you want your deck to do in those situations.

Here are some examples of some possible situational goals for different decks:

[*]Betoki's Basic Rush deck: if the enemy hero equips Champion's Plate, then to use Serrated Scimitar to destroy it. Also to cast Fallen Lord Esteros if hit point disadvantaged in late game.
[*]Jeroen's Order Control Deck: if extra damage is needed rather than extra mana, then to use Bracers of Victory.
[*]Ebenezer's Fallen Lady Adavia: if the enemy hero uses Serrated Scimitar to destroy Cloth of Darkness, then to use Ice Blast to destroy the Setrated Scimitar. Also if the an enemy Fallen Lord Esteros is cast, then to use Puncturing Sword in order to damage enemy hero.

---

Always strive to keep your list of specific goals to a minimum. This is because you want the deck to focus on achieving its main goals.

A deck with too many goals lacks focus as it struggles to do too many things as once. And although the deck is set out to achieve all the goals, this lack of focus has made it vulnerable to not achieving any of its goals at all!

A deck with too many goals is like a handyman who sets out to do a numerous amount of home improvement projects, but never ends up completing any of them due to a lack of time, focus and resources.

---

Step 6 - Set Deck To The Minimum Size

For a deck to be competitive in multiplayer, it must be consistent in its ability to achieve its goals.

Setting your deck size to the minimum size improves the deck's chances of drawing the right cards at the right time; thus empowering it to achieve what it has set out to do.

Refer to the the probability tables for different deck sizes below:


[align=center][/align]


All tables reveal the different probabilities of drawing at least one certain card by a certain card draw - for different amounts of copies of that card in a deck.

As you can see, the more cards that are added to the minimum size, the less chance one has in drawing a certain card by a certain time.

For example, if your deck relied on drawing at least 1 out of 3 copies of Fallen Lord Esteros by the 10th draw card... it is clear that a 30 card deck will be more reliable as it will produce at least 1 Fallen Lord Esteros by the 10th card draw 72% of the time. This is as opposed to 59% of the time in a 40 card deck and 50% of the time in a 50 card deck (as highlighted in the tables).

Furthermore, because Order and Chaos Duels is a freemium game that does not allow you free and full access to all the best cards in the game... then you most likely do not to own all the best cards but only some of them.

Having only some of the best cards in the game then makes it even more imperative that you draw your best cards as often as possible. And so reducing your deck size to the minimum amount will give you the best chances of drawing your best cards more often.

Note well that we can increase the deck size later on as we review the deck's performance in the later steps of our 10 step process. And so setting the deck to the minimum size is not an end point, but rather a starting point from which we can build our deck.

For more information on the probability of drawing cards, click on the link below:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-813.html

---

Step 7 - Allocate Cards To Goals

In order to achieve your early game, late game and situational goals, you will need to allocate an appropriate amount of cards towards these goals.

Early Game Goals

Early game goals require the most amount of cards compared to other goals in order to achieve them.

In early game, only a small amount of cards have been drawn from the deck. Therefore in order to draw certain cards early game, you will need to allocate a large proportion of your deck towards these cards in order to consistently draw them early game!

For example, if one of your early game goals is to cast a 3 mana minion on your first turn at least 80% of the time in a 30 card deck... then according to the previous probability tables... you will need at least 8 copies of 3 mana minions in order to achieve this!

If you have chosen an aggro themed deck and your general early game goal is to focus on board advantage, refer to the following post on how to allocate cards in your deck to achieve this goal:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-818.html

Situational Goals

Situational goals require the least amount of cards compared to other goals in order to achieve them.

Because these situations do not always occur as they are dependent on various factors, therefore cards are not always needed to deal with these situations.

For example, it may not always be the case that our enemy hero uses equipment. Therefore, we may not always need Serrated Scimitar to destroy them. Thus if we include just 1-2 copies of this card in our deck, this should be sufficient enough to help us deal with any enemy equipment when the situation arises.

Late Game Goals

Late game goals require less cards compared to early game goals in order to achieve them.

In late game, a large amount of cards have been drawn already from the deck. Therefore in order draw certain cards late game, you will not need to allocate a large proportion of your deck to these cards in order to consistently draw them late game!

If you have chosen an aggro themed deck, then your general late game goal would be to focus on hit point advantage. This would generally demand the use of spell cards.

If you allocate one third of your deck to spell cards, then this will help you achieve this general late game goal.

Allocating around one third of your deck to spells has been supported mathematically to be efficient in the post below:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-818.html

---

Step 8 - Support An Optimum Resource Curve

As you are allocating cards to support the goals you have set for your deck, you will also need to allocate cards in a way to support an optimum resource curve as well.

A resource curve is a line graph which depicts how your deck is made up in terms of the mana costs of the cards.

For example, if we had a deck that contained the following:

[*]4 cards that cost 1 mana
[*]5 cards that cost 2 mana
[*]5 cards that cost 3 mana
[*]5 cards that cost 4 mana
[*]5 cards that cost 5 mana
[*]4 cards that cost 6 mana
[*]2 cards that cost 7 mana

Then our resource curve should look like the following:


[align=center][/align]


Optimum Resource Curve

The optimum resource curve for a 30 card deck should look like the following:

[align=center][/align]


The peak of the curve must be either 2-3 because the use of 2 mana cost cards and 3 mana cost casts are most useful in casting a combination of cards to use up all available mana.

Casting a combination of cards to use up all available mana is more likely to help us gain tempo rather than single cards. This concept is explained in detail under the "Use Up All Your Mana" section under "Cast More Cards" under "Basic Winning Conditions" in the following guide:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-596.html

If we had a resource curve that looked like either of the following line graphs:


[align=center][/align]


Then either curve would not have been optimal. This is because with the peak being at a higher mana cost in both resource curves, this will make it extremely difficult for us to cast a combination of cards to use up all available mana.

Not being able to cast a combination of cards to use up all available mana will likely lead to a loss in tempo and this is what ultimately deems the curve to be not optimal.

In conclusion, make sure as your allocating cards to support goals that you make an effort to support a optimum resource curve as well.

Working Example

To illustrate steps 7 to 8 in particular, click on the link below for a working example:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/thread-886.html

---

Step 9 - Play And Take Notes

Now that you have built your deck, it is time now put your deck to the test in competitive play!

If you do not want to risk the loss of reputation points, then it is probably best to play in your deck in a custom game instead of a ranked game. This way you can get a feel of how the deck works and a loss will not result in a decrease in reputation points.

Play 5-10 games with your deck. After each game, take the time to review the game. Try to think back to how the game panned out. Now complete the following worksheet (some of the data may be easier to obtain during the duel rather than after):

Post Game Review Worksheet

Deck Data:

[*]Goals able and unable to achieve:
[*]Enemy threats able and unable to counter (i.e. unable to kill Fallen Lord Esteros with Mystery Temple):

Matchup Data:

[*]Duel result (i.e. win or loss):
[*]Enemy hero's name and health:
[*]Number of cards in enemy deck:
[*]Best term to describe enemy deck theme (i.e. aggro, control, mill, aggro/control):

Personal Performance Data:

[*]Good decisions made:
[*]Mistakes made:

---

Step 10 - Review Notes And Revise Deck

Having played the 5-10 games with your deck and completed a post game review worksheet after each game, now it is time to review the notes!

Spot Patterns

Have your notes spread out over a large table. Review each one carefully.

Now make notes of any patterns you have noticed in each data series: matchup data, personal performance data and deck data. Patterns such as:

Deck Data

[*]Which goals is the deck consistently achieving and not achieving?
[*]What enemy threats is the deck consistently able and not able to counter?

Matchup Data

[*]Has the deck consistently performed well or poorly against certain heroes with certain themed decks?
[*]Has the deck consistently performed well or poorly against enemy heroes with lower or higher health?

Personal Performance Data

[*]Have there been any recurrent and critical decisions made in certain situations that have worked in my favour?
[*]Have there been any recurrent and critical mistakes made in certain situations that have worked against me?

Analyse Patterns

Now that you identified patterns in each of the data series, we can now analyse and respond to each pattern appropriately:

Deck Data

If the data is telling us that the deck is not achieving its goals, then we will need to consider the following:

[*]Are the goals realistic? If not, then we may need to amend them to be more realistic and achievable.
[*]Are the specific goals supporting the general goal? If not then we may need to amend the specific goals to support the general one.
[*]Are the goals being supported with enough cards? If not then we may need to allocate more cards to support these goals.
[*]Are the goals being supported with the right cards? If not then we may need to reallocate the right cards to support the goals.
[*]Which are goals when achieved correlate to wins more often? Could these goals be more essential than others? Are these essential goals being supported adequately?

If the data is telling us that the deck is not being able to consistently counter the same enemy threats, then we will need to formulate a way to overcome this:

[*]Can we overcome this threat with our existing cards with a new strategy?
[*]If we cannot do this, what are the cards that are available to us that would be needed to counter these threats?
[*]Should we include these cards into our deck? Will these cards support our existing goals? Will we need to use these cards to support a new situational goal? How many copies of these cards will we need to adequately support this goal?

Matchup Data

If the data is telling us that the deck is not fairing well against certain heroes with certain themes decks or with superior health, then we will need to consider the following:

[*]Can we overcome this bad matchup with our existing cards with a new strategy?
[*]If we cannot do this, what are the cards that are available to us that would be needed to counter this bad matchup?
[*]Should we include these cards into our deck? Will these cards support our existing goals? Will we need to use these cards to support a new situational goal? How many copies of these cards will we need to adequately support this goal?

Personal Performance Data

If the data is telling us that our decision making processes is what is winning or losing us games, then we would need to consider the following:

[*]Have there been any recurrent and critical decisions made in certain situations that have worked in my favour? How and in what situations can I repeat these decisions?
[*]Have there been any recurrent and critical mistakes made in certain situations that have worked against me? How and in what situations can I avoid making the same mistakes?

Revise Deck

Having analysed the data, it is now time to makes changes to the deck accordingly.

Personal Performance Data

Changes do not need to be made from the analysis of the personal performance data. This is because making changes to the deck does not improve our personal performance; the only thing that can improve our personal performance is ourselves!

And so the recording and analysis of the personal performance data is done to purely to improve our own decision making skills - not for deck building.

It allows us to recognise what decisions are unfavourable so that we can avoid them in the future; and recognise what decisions are favourable so that we can repeat them in the future!

Matchup and Deck Data

Once you have analysed the matchup and deck data and come to the conclusion that changes could be made to the deck, work out which change (out of all the changes proposed) would result in the greatest improvement in your deck.

Then make that change to the deck and repeat step 9 in the deck building process - "Play And Take Notes".

We want to make one significant change at a time so that it will make it easier for us to determine and evaluate the effect of that change.

If we make several significant changes at a time, then it will be difficult for us to determine which change had what effect on our deck.

Should I Increase The Deck Size?

If you feel that there is a need to increase the deck size beyond the minimum size, then here are some common misconceptions that you should avoid beforehand!

I Need More Of My Good Cards To Be More Effective

Many new players think that the more good cards they include in their deck... the better it will be! But this is simply not the case!

As discussed before, your deck needs to he able to draw your best cards at the right time. Having a large deck will only make it more difficult to draw your best cards at the right time, which will then make it difficult for your deck to achieve its goals and win in duels.

So it is important to realise that what makes a good deck is not the cumulative strength of all the cards within the deck... no... what makes a good deck is its ability to achieve its goals.

I Ran Out Of Cards!

When you run out of cards and lose in a duel, it is only natural to think that the primary reason you lost is because you did not have enough cards in your deck.

Although this may be true in some rare instances, often this is false!

The primary reason you ran out of cards and lost is most likely because your deck was not effective enough in achieving its goals!

If your deck was able to achieve its goals, then it follows that you would not have run out of cards and you would have won the duel.

Adding more cards to your deck will only make it more difficult to draw your best cards at the right time, which will then make it difficult for your deck to achieve its goals and win in duels.

In short, if you add more cards then it is true that you may not run out of cards... but you will still lose due to your inability to draw the right cards at the right time.

---

And so there really is only one legitimate reason to increase your deck size beyond the minimum size; and that is because you want to...

Add more cards to achieve more goals

Only when your deck has a large number of goals to achieve, then can you justify a deck size that is larger than the minimum.

If the deck has a lot of early and late game goals, then the deck has a lot to do and achieve. Therefore these many goals will need the support of many cards in order for them to be achieved.

If the deck has many situational goals, then again the deck will need many cards to support these goals. It also means that the deck is more versatile and able to respond to a variety of different situations.

But remember... the more goals you have... the less focus your deck will have as discussed earlier in Step 5 - Set Goals. So always strive to keep the number of goals you have to a minimum.

In conclusion, add more cards to achieve more goals and do not add more cards to achieve less or existing goals; and bear in mind that this is all at the expense of focus.

---

Discussion

Netdecking

If you do not think that you have the time nor the expertise to build a deck on your own, then you can always take the easy way out and "netdeck" someone else's deck.

To netdeck means to copy someone else's deck who has had much success with it.

Many of our forum members have submitted decks on this forum. If you are interested in netdecking one of them, then click on the link below to see what is available:

orderandchaosduelsforum.com/forum-13.html

But bear in mind, the satisfaction you get from building you own deck is definitely well worth all the effort! So netdeck if you wish but you must give deck building a try!

Deck Building For The Metagame

The metagame is a term to used to describe a collection of deck types that are currently popular and widely used in the game.

For example, in the 1.0.4 version of the game... everyone was using "rush" decks! Therefore you could say that the metagame in 1.0.4 was dominated by rush decks.

The knowledge of metagame trends can give you an advantage as it allows you to recognise deck types and more importantly predict what cards and moves your opponent is likely to play. It also enables you to build decks that are likely to perform well against metagame decks - usually at the expense of performance against non-metagame decks.

Because deck building for the metagame is quite an involved topic, it has not been covered in this guide. It has however been covered in another guide which can be accessed in the link below:

Link to be provided at a later stage

Being Unconventional

[align=center]"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War[/align]

Being able to surprise your opponent can often put your opponent off guard and this can work to your advantage.

Hence, if you build a deck that is unconventional, you might just be able to achieve this sort of surprise factor!

So get creative with your deck building! Use cards that others neglect! Experiment with different card combinations! Go against the metagame! You never know... you might just discover the next best powerful deck that no one has ever seen!

---

Conclusion

Deck building is a involved process in which cards are selected and compiled into a deck to support specific goals when used in a duel.

Over the course of this guide, we have discovered that one way to build a deck is to follow a 10 step process:

[*]Conduct a card audit
[*]Note synergies in card collection
[*]Set a theme
[*]Choose a hero
[*]Set goals
[*]Set deck to minimum size
[*]Allocate cards to goals
[*]Support an optimum resource curve
[*]Play and take notes
[*]Review and revise deck

Hopefully, with a solid understanding of each of the steps explored, we can all be a little better at deck building to build a variety of decks for us to be competitive with and enjoy!

Sincerely,

Ebenezer