Kongai: Deck Construction Guide

The Bruce mentioned a few of the heavy hitters in the fledgling Kongai community but one of the ones he left out (Presumably because he's on an early time schedule that leaves him not playing when most of the real sharks come out and certainly well before the Down Under folk show up to play.) is Rhine. Who's a solid player with a lot of games under his belt and a sterling win/loss ratio.

Not that it really means much right now. According to the latest (And possibly first) Kongregate newsletter, a mere 2k have managed to even play in Kongai's beta to date. Figure only a percentage of those have managed to stick around and only an even smaller percentage of that actually know what they're doing and the pool of fierce competitors is vanishingly small. Throw in differences in timezones and the shifting nature of the game's balance and, well, I'd argue that no one's very much good just yet. They can only fool themselves into thinking they are - and, trust me, I speak from personal experience on this. What the game will look like and the way the best players will play is likely going to be quite different at release and all players like Rhine and Mario (And not myself, really, since I just don't have the time to get a lot of matches in - although I am creeping up on 100 played with a majority of those going in the win column. Which is pretty good considering I play with completely random decks.) are doing is familiarizing themselves with the game's systems and putting themselves in a better position to excel on the day of release - it's the players who can adapt to the game as it evolves who'll go on to continued success.

Which is not to say that Rhine - or anyone else, for that matter - isn't a good player. He's certainly kicked my butt around more than once. I just think it's important to deflate heads and tamp down the pernicious forces of elitism. I gnash my teeth when people start going "Oh, well, you've only played so and so many games, so your opinion doesn't count." Or, "Well, Mario says this and he's the best player around, I must automatically submit to his opinion as if it's gospel truth." Since they're not only appeals to authority but appeals to a false authority. It's maddening, especially at a time when the game needs to welcome as many players and the developers need to listen to as many opinions as possible.

Rhine is, in fact, a good player who has a very good understanding of the game. And, much to my delight he's one of those rare specimens who doesn't mind sharing his insights. He's posted up a guide to deck construction. It's, unfortunately, buried well and deep within an already lengthy thread, but it's well worth a look.

I don't necessarily agree with all his conclusions, I might take issue with the framework he uses to consider his options (I think, for one, he completely ignores the incredibly important ramifications of item selection and how it can send certain characters through the roof.), but I won't quibble - at least not here - because I'd certainly like to see more. Besides, it's not like I know any better.