How do I become a better deck builder?

Taken out of context from a deck discussion wrote: How do I become a better deck builder?

ICL wrote: If I could, I'd rather help someone be better at building decks than be better at building a specific deck.

My personal responses and those of many historical players are here:
www.thelasombra.com/deck-building-theories.htm
( The Music Man , Head First Design Patterns , Evaluating a limited card pool )

How would you answer this question in 2012?

Azel - taken out of context wrote: The key to exploration is to still bring some threshold of viability to the table, otherwise you're wasting your time and everyone else's time (been there, done that, felt like a heel). Masochism isn't a commonly shared trait, so it's better to make our experiments meet a baseline strength.

Now, for me, it made sense when I asked myself what are the clear goals of VTES, now compare what are the clear (thematic, card specific, module) goals of my experiment. I can easily isolate the former: oust your preys for VP and profit, ftw! The latter I isolate as tight a block of experimentation I can, which would be the heart of why I'm playing. Then I look at the heart and ask where is it weak in: a) accomplishing my clear VTES goals, a.k.a. offense, and b) thwarting my predator's clear VTES goals, a.k.a. defense.

My experiment would obviously swing to one or the other. Thus the other remaining aspect needs more traditional support. And for that you use a more tried and true tight module to then complement.

From here you test vigorously through solo play ("goldfishing") to check crypt/deck flow. And then you test it against live opponents. From there you learn the strengths and weaknesses of your experiment. It'll give you data on whether an alternate tried and true complement -- or even new support to your experiment's goal -- would make your idea better.

Basically, long story short, you gotta be familiar with what the cards can do; small experiments build up to big experiments. Part of that is using a bit of the already beaten path, and then adding just enough of your own thing to be off of it. That'll give you confidence about how your experiment cards work in practice so you can then beat your own path to victory in the future.

Goldfish the hell out of new decks. 20 minutes of goldfishing easily gives a better idea of deck flow and correct card ratios than a month's worth of weekly games. Reading other people's deck building theories will teach you the what's and what not's, goldfishing will teach you the why's and how's.

Preferably copy a lot at the beginning. Every grand master in every art or technic copied an older master. Choose decks from acknoledged great players.
Do it, but using your brains and thinking why he has put x or y card, and how they work in together. Look at the simmilarities amd differences.
First and most important thing an unexperienced player has to pay great attention to the ratios of the card modules: Master, Action, Modifier etc.
after that look at the ratios of class, making difference with permanent and transient: Intercept, Stealth, Bleed, Damage, Combat-end hoser etc.
A deep understanding of the architecture of the differentn deck archetypes is the key begin to be a good deck builder.

I agree on Goldfishing, it can teach you some basic flaws of your deck. Maybe the hand cycles way too slow, or it takes too many turns to get your combo set up. Perhaps you get your vampires and masters out and find out you're left at 5 pool after all that spending. If the goldfishing goes bad even assuming perfect play conditions, it's gonna go much worse during a real game.

Knowing how to take cards out of your deck is a valuable skill, so you're able to play with just the essentials. It's not so much about 60 cards vs 90 cards, but rather getting the proper mentality -- you can take out some cards or even a module and feel okay about it. "I didn't really need that clutter. I'll find a way to win without it." This will carry over to your games as well, as you'll become better at using discard phase actions, without regret.
(I actually practice this by playing MahJong online)

If you like playing convoluted experimental combos, it helps to be able to judge if the combo produces a huge game-winning effect, or just some medium so-so effect that could be accomplished easier with another discipline.

Suoli wrote: Goldfish the hell out of new decks. 20 minutes of goldfishing easily gives a better idea of deck flow and correct card ratios than a month's worth of weekly games.

Lackey is great for Goldfishing, especially turbo decks. www.lackeyccg.com/vtes/

On that note, build and test decks digitally before building them in real life — but be realistic about cards, ie. Avoid 8+ summon histories, 4x cogs etc... Most decks I design and play online I can build in real life or I'll use cards that can be acquired at reasonable prices. I use ARDB — http://code.google.com/p/ardb/ which supports modules, happy families and probabilities...

www.thelasombra.com/decks/twd.htm is great for ideas and trends. www.secretlibrary.info is also useful if you want to see what other people have done with certain vamps or cards.

Finally, my play group (London) offers great advice and a wealth or information to draw from — I think dialogue and being open about your decks really can help them evolve.

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Trolling aside nothing helps more than just playing it in a game. So many ideas sound great on paper but fail to be as impressive in actual play even if they happen exactly like you wanted them to.