Hmm. In no particular order as I think of them.
Building:
1.) I'm rather Tammy/Jenny player at heart. I objectively suck at playing control. Why play counterspells when I can create 22 22/22 hydras and watch people squirm? (Did that last week with
Hydra Broodmaster, heh.)
2.) Incremental advantage synergistic snowballs is the name of the game.
2b.) I rarely have much of a plan B. I'm fine with my decks having their achilles' heels.
3.) Commander relates to the theme as much as possible, or is the reason I build the deck in the first place. This varies.
Estrid the Masked is my Bant commander because she's the current best for land-animator in the colors. On the other hand,
Polukranos, Unchained exists because That Hydra Is Cool and creates a very different approach to your typical grave-Golgari.
4.) Having enough removal is usually the category I fail at the most as I focus on my own gameplan and while deckbuilding forget that other people have plans too...
5.) I enjoy my randomness, generally avoid topdeck manipulation-needing decks and just preferring to draw more cards.
5b.) I need a very good reason to play tutors and generally only play narrow ones that can get to specific few cards, if I play any at all.
6.) If a card doesn't in some way relate to the deck's goal (say, as many
Omnath, Locus of the Roil etb triggers as possible), I question its' necessity a lot faster. Card's relative strenght has nothing on it's usability to improve whatever odd plan I have.
7.) At least in theory, the deck can both win without commander, and win in different ways depending what I draw. Varies by deck and idea, but that's the goal.
8.) I don't infinite combo except by accident.
9.) I
have to have all the tokens my deck makes (excepting copy tokens and really obscure/rarely occurring things that lack a card printed for it), and it makes me frown a bit when you don't have saproling/soldier/goblin tokens for your deck.
10.) Trying to find new ways to build stuff excites me. Themes in colors they don't get an abundance of (monowhite etb blink/resurrection, Boros enchantress, monored pillowfort...) makes me find all kinds of cool and obscure stuff.
11.) I am physically unable to make a goodstuff deck. I need my theme and synergy to locate and build around.
12.) Azorius is the bane of my (chromatic challenge) deckbuilding existence. Somehow that's the one color combo where nothing I try sticks enough to be fun to play.
13.)
Possibility Storm is a pet card of mine, which is pretty telling of how I build my decks. I don't know what I'm getting, but it's probably good anyway.
Playing:
1.) I swear by playing as fast as I reasonably can. I
loathe people taking forever with their turns, and I'd rather do mistakes quickly than play 'correctly' and waste time. I only have so many hours in a week I'm at the game store.
1b.) I don't allow any take-backsies for myself. If I make a stupid mistake or walk into an onboard trick, I grumble, learn from it and continue.
2.) I'm more often the threat for people to react to, than anything else. I don't mind ending the archenemy after I've gotten to 'do my thing'. My quest for making aggro approaches viable continues.
3.) I play creature-centric enough almost regardless of deck that boardwipes make me grumble.
, then the game was entirely worth it!
Happy wife, happy life though.
