How do you choose which specs to put into your codex?

Do you just look through the different specs and find a card that you click with and look for other cards that have synergy with it? Or perhaps, you like the artwork on specs that you have chosen. Maybe you got victimized by a particular spec and now want to try it out? Perhaps you want to build a codex around a particular keyword.

At this point, I’m not convinced there is a right way to construct a viable codex or for that matter that not all codices are viable. I haven’t played enough where I can form an informed opinion.

I like the idea of playing random specs and having to adapt on the fly, but at the same time like to think about some of the nasty spec combinations that exist.

So what system do you use? As for me, I try to use a different system each time I go about selecting which specs I want to you.

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I don’t have the game experience to back this up, but I’ve examined all the specs, and from what I can tell they all seem fairly balanced. I think that the designers were right when they claimed that any spec combination at all is viable.

Perhaps some of the spec combinations work better together than others, but the trade off for prioritizing that tight synergy (and super tight synergy doesn’t look to be very feasible) is that you lose the versatility to defend from unfortunate matchups. One strength I see of this game’s design is that you are never painted into a corner - you never have the experience of having lost before you even start P1T1 due to the matchup.

So at least at first I will be choosing specs mainly based on what I think is fun to play. Truth is going to show up in my decks regularly, maybe Necromancy, some Finesse, maybe the purple specs will rotate through… I’m more excited to try out new things in this game than I ever was in Magic because I don’t feel like there’s a lot of time investment necessary to do so. Just decide “I think I’m going to see how this plays out” and do it.

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I’m still getting a feel for the different mono-colours. I have two multi-colour builds that I want to spend more time exploring, but atm it’s too much of a pain to take three mono-colour binders apart for a game or two, especially if I’m sharing my set with the people I’m playing with. Looking forward to trying out some stuff at this year’s FSX for sure tho, and playing some games over TableTopia.

I highly recommend trying the “randomly roll me a spec” feature on the online database. Very helpful and fun way to explore the space!

edit: added a link to the function - try it out! http://codexcarddb.com/deck/random

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I look at cards and spot some synergy and want to try them. Sometimes I just go completely random and it gives some fantastic result (like my Past/Anarchy/Necromancy, that I played the whole game at Tech 0 with a Heroes’s Hall and won it). Latetly I am trying monocolors to get a better feeling of the colors.

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The greatest mystery for me is still how to make sure that you have a viable plan against every possible enemy codex/strategy. The mono-colors have that baked in by design, but I think the danger is real that a multicolor codex has some weakness that is not immediately obvious. In general I try to make sure that I have multiple possible win conditions that are not only different in name but also different in style (so 2 different flavors of win with fliers does not really count as 2 win conditions). Similar to Wildhorn I think I have to play more monocolors to understand what exactly it is that makes them work in a variety of situations.

A lot of the popular codices floating around here are built around one specific game plan with a strong synergy but that leaves you open to the possibility of someone coming up with a counter in the future. That again leads to all kinds of meta-game shenanigans, but I don’t think there are established builds dominating the whole game (yet?) - even PPA is only played by two people in CAWS, not sure what the status of the different variants of Metamorphosis is.

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I know I am wrong about it but I only check the first turns versatility of a deck to build it !
I want to have answers to illusions, air units and Vandy rush.
There are only 6 Tech I cards in a deck, and IMO it’s one of the most important part of it ! The third turn is especially interesting because you can almost predict what your hand and what the board state will look like when deckbuilding !

But yeah as Eijolend say, the real most important part of a deck is how you plan to finish the game. Tech III is not always your best option here, developping your Tech II synergy and/or ultimate spells can be nice too !

Something else is that I hate Zane in Yomi, so I try as much as possible to avoid playing Anarchy :slight_smile:
But looks like he’s OP in every Sirlin Game lol ! Even if it’s more subjective in Puzzle Strike :wink:

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I dunno, I’m pretty sure Demonology/Finesse is dominating for those who play it.

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I try to have answers for a few things:

Hero strategies: Snapback, Origin Story, Doom Grasp, Free Speech
Lots of small things: Shuriken Hail, Thunderclap, Ember Sparks, Overpower/Sparkshot, DeGray (tokens)
Big things: Doom Grasp, Undo, Arrest, Chaos Mirror
Air: Anti-air or fliers of my own, Doom Grasp
Upgrades: If I can work it in, Nature Reclaims, Assimilate, or Versatile Style

And then I like to make sure I have win plans as many of those categories as well in case my opponents are weak to one.

This approach has made me very fond of Discipline. It brings a solid Hero, great Tech I’s, Versatile Style can answer a lot of edge strategies. Tech II has fliers, a Hero’s Monument hero strat, and Anti-targetting with Mind-Parry Monk. White starter gives me Snapback as well to counter hero strats. It covers several bases at once, plus I really like Grave thematically.

What Discipline lacks is big units and swarms, so I like to pair it with Necro, Blood, Feral, Demonology to cover the other bases.

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The way I choose specs is to pick up the purple binder and play whatever’s in it. Usually that’s Past/Present/Future, but sometimes it’s not!

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I choose specs for their sinergy into a startegy i want to test out.
Sadly most the times the plan is great in theory, and bad in reality.
Still I continue to test everything comes to my mind and steal good techs as soon as i see tehm :wink:

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