One of the most disheartening things to see as a reporter is the huge number of people who come to me with new and interesting decks that then proceed to scrub out of the tournament in the first few rounds. It’s a shame to see all that creativity go to waste, especially considering that the very next thing to happen after such an event is that the decks are disassembled, never to be seen again without so much as a second glance taken at the causes for their failures. Normally, this would be the point in the event where I would try to profile something new or interesting, but today I’m going to talk about some of the most common reasons why decks that scream, “Cover me!” don’t perform when it comes time for the event and I’ll make some suggestions regarding how to avoid these pitfalls.

Don’t Do Things That Make No Sense

Before each Shonen Jump Championship I normally put a call out to the various internet communities for interesting or unique decks that they plan on playing at the SJC as a way to compile a list of decks that I might be interested in profiling throughout the day. One of the things that I ask these people to do once they make it to the event is to confirm that they’re playing the deck and inform me of any changes they’ve made. More often than not, there are some changes between the first version I see and the version I’m presented with, but the problem with this lies in the fact that sometimes the changes just don’t make sense. For example, I received a decklist for a neat Anti-Spell Fragrance deck that looked like it had a good shot to go far today. When the player got here, however, he informed me of a change that he had made. He had put in a Smashing Ground in place of Exiled Force! Click on the link for Anti-Spell Fragrance and tell me why that makes no sense whatsoever. There’s no reason in the world to drop the most versatile removal monster in the game for a spell that can only hit face up monsters in a deck that constricts and restrains the use of spells! If you have a rogue deck, you’re doing it because it offers something that all the rest of the decks in the metagame can’t offer you. Making deckbuilding choices that turn your own advantage against you is not the way to make your deck work.

If You Don’t Know What You’re Doing, Don’t Do It at All

Rogue decks are something that you really need to build for yourself if you plan on running them successfully. Building an unorthodox deck and then handing it to your friend and saying, “Play this, it’s really good!” is equivalent to sabotaging your friend’s chances of doing well at the event. Why? It’s because he or she doesn’t know how to play your deck. I had a case today where some players came up, and one of them showed me a really cool deck. I asked him how long he’d been playing it, and the response was, “I just got it this morning. My friend wanted to play it, but he couldn’t get here. I’m playing it instead.” At that point I knew he was going 0-2 drop, and, judging by the fact that he’s no longer in the standings after 2 rounds, I think we can safely assume that my prediction was correct. Don’t play a deck just because your friends say it’s good, and especially don’t play it if you haven’t had any sort of a hand in building or testing it. That’s just asking to scrub out.

Don’t Build Decks around Non-Bos

A non-bo is a combo that isn’t real or doesn’t work. Woodland Sprite infinite damage combos are non-bos. Expecting Dark Room of Nightmare to make your Secret Barrel deal 500 points of damage per card is a non-bo. If you’re going to build a rogue deck, please, please, please, know the rulings on the cards that you use. You can find them on the official website, and, if you still aren’t sure, you can always send email to someone who does know. There’s just no excuse for building a deck around something that doesn’t work at all.

These are the three biggest ways that you can contribute to the success of your own unorthodox or rogue deck. Also recommended is a lot of playtest time well before the event and plenty of sleep the night prior. Just remember to always have a couple standard decks on hand in case it looks like your deck isn’t going to be compatible with the environment, and you’ll be alright. Hopefully, you won’t join the ranks of the 0-2 droppers.