Hey there! I'm new to paper MTG and play Commander with my playgroup. We've been having a debate about whether the total value of a deck really indicates how strong it is. One of my friends argues that value doesn't equal strength, but I can't help but wonder when I keep losing to a deck with a higher price tag than mine.
I've been playing 1v1 games with my friend for a few months now, so I know their deck almost as well as mine. It can be frustrating when I can predict their moves but still can't win with my basic deck. I understand the point that a couple of expensive cards in a deck won't guarantee a win, but when a deck is upgraded with so many pricey cards, it feels like a whole different ball game.
For reference, we both started with precons, and both upgraded. I spent $20, they spent $120+. Inputing my deck list in a deck value calculator returns $103, which is lower than their upgrade alone lol
I don't mind losing when the match is good. I hate losing when I'm always on the backfoot and can't do much besides hoping to survive another turn
What are your thoughts on this? I'd love to hear different perspectives on the relationship between deck value and strength in the game.
edit: I received more responses than I expected, so I'll need some time to go through them all and respond. Thank you in advance!
Re: deck lists: there are some really good tools to scan your cards and build the lists from scans. I use ManaBox at the paid tier. I have read that Delver Lens is great on Android. Reading threads, I would stick to these two. If you’re on iOS, ManaBox will be solid. The only thing you need to pay for is more digital boxes to organize things in; I like that because I have a ton of decks, a few binders, a giant dump collection, and I like to track new boxes/bundles/preleases separately as I scan.
No matter the app you choose, you should look for quick scanning and import/export capabilities. It makes stuff like that power level calculator trivial and simplifies sharing and comparing.
Wow, that's really helpful! I probably should have looked into something like that sooner, haha. Luckily, I'm not totally clueless - I saved my deck in a text file that I can easily customize and bring with me wherever I go. Thanks!