Truths and Myths About Deck Selection

A while ago, I made a Tweet about deck selection that was, at least to me, apparently simple. It spawned a series of comments ranging from “jeez so you’re saying good decks win more than bad decks, thank you captain obvious” to “actually this is all wrong, in fact I won a ptq in 1998 with the opposite strategy. In this essay I will…”.

Now that local qualifiers are happening, this is the biggest piece of advice I can give:

When it comes to deck selection, It is MUCH more important to avert disaster than it is to hit the jackpot. Don't try to reinvent the wheel, just do the bread and butter as well as possible.

— [Tempo] PVDDR (@PVDDR) July 18, 2022

Given that, I felt it was worth elaborating on what I consider to be the important deck selection points a little bit more. In...