Do I Smell Swiss? Comments by a Junior.

I recently discovered this site, and was excited to find that it included articles and decks involving juniors. Since then, my friend Jeff Miller and I have constantly sent in reports and decks from our experiences. However, when looking through the articles and decks, I discovered a very disturbing trend. Cheese decks.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of cheese, it is any card or card combination which makes your opponent lose force (eg, asteroid sanctuary) or deny them cards (eg, scanning crew) throught means other than battle or force draining. Decipher originally created most of these cards so newer players could have a chance on the tournament scene. But the veterans took these stratagies and abused them to no end, until cards that specifically counter these cards were made. Some of the most powerful strategies (eg, dark deal/shot in the dark) even had to have their effects' changed.

But to the point. Many of the articles and decks consist of these factors. While it is very true that these decks do win and winning is a very enjoyable thing, they remove the fun factor in the game. Now you may enjoy winning tourneys with these and getting packs, but are you truly having fun playing? Is your opponent having fun when he can do nothing but sit back and watch his opponent work his magic? Where are the battles that Star Wars is famous for in these decks? You originally began playing to have fun. There are now so many inexpensive stratagies that someone who can't spend a fortune on the game can still do well. Space, clouds, non-unique aliens just to name a few.

The three junior championships in our area were won by solid mains and toys decks, and cheese decks were still present. If you lose with a mains deck, at least you probably had fun playing. If you lose with a cheese deck, how do you feel? How do you feel when your opponent is deploying his characters and draining you and you are drawing massive amount to work your stratagy? And to add insult to injury, a monnok comes along just when you drew those sectors and sanctuaries? I am not saying that cheese decks should not be played, but I am saying they are not the best choice. They are needed to balance the tournaments. For all of you who are just interested in earning packs and prize, go right ahead and play them. But just think if you are going to play that cheese deck, are you really in it for the fun?