Top 10 Most Liked Decks

Wow. I actually commented on one at the time. #9.

Re: the forums, defunct since before my time, but rumored to be returning.

Where do these rumors come from?

The forums will be coming back, Gary and I just need to finish them off. They'll be integrated into the site, so no more dual accounts. :)

We try to post some updates to our Facebook page when we can, so like the page and check in there. :)

That will be great! Will old posts be there or not?

Yes, yes they will. Be we did shut the forums off a loooooong time ago, so there's a big gap. Also, all posts will be added to your profile (where we could match them up!).

Northy is good, no argument there, but some decks just grab your attention better. Excellent examples of this are combos like mine that people want to abuse in any way they can, or a deck that breaks color typing like mono black aggro like what surewhynot did. You can make decks all day long and not get a single like. There's no formula for making a good popular deck, but innovation and catchy names would be the best place to start

Innovation.. Catchy Names.... oooo let a name decide whether or not a deck is considered top 10 decks. lol just like turn 2 win? it's a question cause who knows if it's gonna be turn 2 or turn 10. Northy deserves a spot here. there should be no argument about it. is decks ALWAYS work. and don't take a >15% chance of doing so.

Again, all the love for northy. I like him. He's a great deck builder. Nothing against his decks either. And yes, sometimes that's all you need. I made this list because of an innovative combo I found. I've also seen other decks make the hot page because the name grabbed people's attention, and when they looked at it they find a well built deck. If you see a catchy deck name, you are more likely to look at it right? Obviously there's more to it than that, but like I said, it's a start to getting a deck noticed. Making the hot page is a community effort, and I've seen plenty of northy's decks make it there. He may not have one of the highest liked decks, but more of his decks have consistently been liked. Which would you rather have: 15 minutes of fame or a solid reputation that won't fade? Because I'll be the first to say that northernwarlord has one of the best reputations on the site. If you want the honest truth, then let it be from someone who it's actually on this list. I made a deck that was INSANELY popular for a straight two months at the top of the hot page, and guess what! It's only happened once. I've made a few others that have gone hot but they didn't last, meanwhile northy has almost controlled the ENTIRE hot page before. There is almost always a deck of his on it. It's rare to not see one up there. And while I've had one of those top decks, do you see people asking me to make decks for them? No, you don't. This list is for the decks that got their 15 minutes of fame. Meanwhile, northy is getting asked to make decks even now. Yeah some of these decks aren't consent, but hey, magic is all about the odds anyways.

Yeah, I have had the same problem. After my combined total of about an hour and a half of fame, no-one really talks to me about building them decks and I have had some terrific ideas that go by unnoticed! It's like; "Really, guys, really?" Yet joke decks and forum decks ran rampant for no apparent reason! (No offence to this deck!)

Has anyone else ever had this or noticed it too?

Sure, as I said before, the Hot Page is arbitrary and does not deserve the focus it gets. Once you are there you get hits and posts and because of that you stay on Hot page and because you are on hot page you get more posts - a never ending feedback loop.
And let's face it, people like random stuff and just flock to whatever is popular. Let's say Northy would post his new deck with an alternate account, I bet it would get next to zero attention.

About the question what you'd prefer: A few days of fame with a very popular decks and hundreds of likes or many decks with moderate likes: Definately the latter ... however, what I *actually* prefer is a few comments that point out the weaknesses and/or good suggestions or anything else that makes me think. I'll take that any day over a handful of likes.

Same here. Constructive criticism is always welcome, so long as you aren't trying to completely change the deck. Likes and such are nice, but I prefer it when I get suggestions on what I could improve. Although my friends might not, since it means they have to deal with that particular deck getting better. Que sera sera

Case in point: This "deck" here, which isn't even a deck and only up for a day has now as many likes as my old deckhelp "deck" http://www.mtgvault.com/puschkin/decks/puschkin-please-help-me/ in which I offered advice. I granted that help dozens of times and yet, somehow, a year's hard work and dedication is worth less likes than ... well, yeah.
This is just how people are rolling and why I can only recommend to not give a beeble about likes here on MTGVault :)

NorthenWarlord makes great "budget" decks, no argument there, but that's about it. I don't think I've seen him make an actual "tourney worthy" deck on here. Not to say he couldn't, but that might play a part in why he isn't top 10? Most ppl want to see competitive decks to get ideas, and to build from those ideas. Or at least that's my outlook on the matter. On the topic of the hot page; unfortunately it's usually overflowing with casual decks, or "forum decks" such as these, which makes it a bit rough to give deserving decks any kind of recognition.

Chose to remove my comments...still stand by what I said.

It probably wasn't the fact that you support them, it's more than likely the attitude you've been giving off about it. Being hateful, intentional or not, isn't going to catch a lot of positive attention. Just a thought. I personally don't really like their builds, but that's because I'm not a huge fan of casual. Nothing against them personally, just don't see the point in casual anymore ever since I've started playing competively.

I can only suggest that you revisit your previous comment, which was dismissive of both Northy in particular, & casual players in general. While a KT player myself, I still greatly enjoy (& upvote & comment on) competitive decks...apparently in contrast to yourself, who states that having become competitive, you now see no point in casual play. What you seem to fail to appreciate is that for the majority of players, casual play IS the point...which is why I found your reference to "deserving decks" offensive. In my previous comments, I (a) asked if the people using this page to complain about the HP would like some cheese w/ their whine, & (b) expressed my opinion that decks hit the HP because they strike a common chord, period. I see nothing hateful in either comment, so...??? As for attitude, if you mean my growing exasperation w/ people complaining so much, I don't see that as in any way negative, though I concede that the people doing the complaining might have a different point of view. Again, best wishes for the day, & thank you for your kind words in return.

That's the point, though, these decks don't "strike a chord" any more or less than dozens of other decks that pass by unnoticed.

Moreover, while casual is important, a lot of people confuse "casual" with "bad". "Deserving" doesn't directly relate to deck power, it's about how well built and thought through a deck is - withing it's limitations. A competitive deck uses only the best strategies and cards there are. A casual deck aims for cards, mechanics and concepts that are too weak for competitive play and might add elements like a theme, however, decks can still vary in quality within this setting!
For example you might want to build an ooze deck which would clearly be casual. However, a bad one would just lump together creatures of the type "ooze", add some removal and mana and call it a day. Avoid expensive cards and also slam a "budget" to the title and submit. If you are Joe Average, it will go by unnoticed. If your name is Northern Warlord, it will get praised for it's ingenuity. People will point out flaws of the deck like Necroplasm having bad synergy with Experiment One and Consumptive Goo but that won't make a dent in the deckbuilder's fame, no, instead it will add comments and therefore prolonged stay in active/hot page.
However, you can do better, even when constructing an Ooze deck. You can apply the same things that work in competitive, just on a lower level and within the deck's theme and limitations. Give it direction, for example center it around Bloodhall Ooze. Pay attention to the mana curve. Smooth the deck out with mana ramp/fixers that fit the deck. Add Acidic Slime because it's removal within the theme. Add cards like Miming Slime that fit both thematically and into your deck structure and abilities. Identify the biggest weaknesses and fix those (for example there are no flyers among Oozes). Give the deck a proper description! THEN it's a deck that deserves some attention.

However, many decks that people love to flock to lack this quality while a huge amount of decks that do go by unnoticed. This is what people complain about and platitudes like "want some cheese for your whine?" don't help and frustrate people just more.

You do realize the amount of decks that are often made in a single day? Not all of them are going to be looked at. I don't look at every deck I see on the new page. I usually check out the ones that have a like or comment on them already, though nowadays it's often from the poster. After that I look at decks with interesting sounding names or have a strange color grouping for the particular named theme, for example a GW mill deck. That will catch my attention just because it's different. Other things I look at before even giving the deck a glance are if there are tags. I'm more likely to look at a deck that has tags than one without. Then once I do look at a deck I check the How to Play and Deck Description to see what they wrote. If they don't have anything and say there's an "infinite combo" tag, I might question what it is if it's not immediately apparent from looking at the cards. If the deck looks good to me, I'll drop a comment and maybe a like if I think it deserves one. And that's just me personally. Not everyone is like that. Done people won't look at decks for any number of reasons, or they might look but don't comment or like. Maybe look at your views too. That will show you if you're actually being looked at or not. Also, the only person I hear complaining about anything are people that haven't been on the site that long or barely even contribute as far ad commenting and such. I've only been on vault for a little under two years and I've racked up not only rep (which doesn't amount to much anyways) but comments. Puschkin has been here for roughly the same time I believe. And you know what? If you drop a comment on one of our decks asking for help or advice, we'll give the deck a look. We aren't the only ones either. Just drop a line, but don't spam like fifty decks. That's just rude and often gets you ignored, and please don't do it for every deck you make.

As I've mentioned in another post somewhere, the majority of decks published on this site go by virtually unnoticed, regardless of caliber, or whether they're casual, competitive, or whatever. This is due (imo) to the phenomena I refer to as "the deckslide", which is to say, the simple fact that there are so many decks published on this site daily. It's my understanding that a deck must accrue a certain # of likes/comments w/i a certain window of time in order to go "hot", hence my reference to striking a common chord...in a sense, it's also a "luck of the draw" kind of thing. The bottom line, I suppose, is that we each respond to decks positively when they resonate w/ us, for whatever reason. My initial objection to (some of) the comments I was reading was to the idea that anyone should try to dictate the criteria for whether a deck "deserves some attention". We all have our own tastes, opinions, likes & dislikes, & so on, & so to each their own...I enjoy a broad variety of "deck types", hence my enjoyment of this site. As for what people flock to, I personally would like to see either the "Unloved" or "New" page set as the default, but even then, I imagine the HP would garner a disproportionate amount of attention. Regarding frustration, I can well imagine the frustration of a clever brewer seeing decks they shrink from receiving attention if their own decks don't, but it's a frustration shared by many perhaps less clever brewers as well, & I personally don't see their frustration as being any less valid. When a person publishes a deck here, unless they do so specifically for the purpose of receiving guidance (or as an obvious joke, etc.), I tend to assume it's because they've created something they feel proud enough of to want to share it w/ the community here. I imagine that we all take equal pride & pleasure in our aspirations, & feel equally frustrated if they appear not to be well received (by going unnoticed). Unfortunately, one of the "pros" of this site (the sheer volume of new decks being published daily) also inadvertently becomes a "con" (many decks get buried, having received zero-to-little love).

And what Drake says is true, I've at times appealed to both him & Puschkin to help someone out, & they have always graciously done so...many others, as well.

Looks like puca and I both had similar thoughts on the matter, as well as points.

Okay? I began my comment, then got sidetracked by something else for about a half hour...by the time I got back to it & posted, your comment was up, & I was like, "Yeah...what he said." ;)

All good. Just shows that we both had a similar thought process on this without being all plagiarized

Hot page is kind of rubbish, it's served its purpose, but I think now it's just not that usable. We ideally want to make it so you can set your own homepage, so you can set it to say the format you're interested in, so it's more personal.

TappedOut have it good with the deck cycling, where you can make your deck appear in a focussed list on the homepage, but we don't want to copy them. (Although it would be good!)

These are all just ideas though!

I'll make some suggestions once the forum is up regarding this.
Also, consider some standardized deck tags for format, casual/competitive and 1on-1/multiplayer and maybe budget/non-budget! These are tremendously important but if I use these as my custom tags, then I can't add any actual tag anymore (since I can only add 4). Also, if they are standardized tags, you can include these as deck search parameters more easily.

Oh wow, I guess it's been a good month since I've been on, and I actually forgot I posted this.
I'm glad for the discussion stirred by my comment, and the many intelligent arguments given.
I'm so pleased to hear that I'll finally get to experience the mythical forums I've heard so much about after nearly 3 years on the vault!
I appreciate what this site has helped me do for my enjoyment of the game, and am always glad to see it improved!

Wow.

I'm away from the site for a few months, and yet there are still arguments going on between KT and Tourney. It's almost comforting to know this site never changes.. almost..

If you honestly care about how many likes your decks get you need a fucking job.

Well, most do. Why do you think is "social media" such a big thing? Everybody is craving for attention and recognition.

I only care about likes because it shows me that I made a good deck that people appreciate. Beyond that I'm not competing for anything

I don't think likes on decks are wirth much here (because most people can't recognize good decks and like all sorts of things, maybe your deck features his favourite card or he thinks the deck name is funny etc.). The only likes I care for are likes on comments when I help someone out with his deck. It's a sign of appreciation and gratefulness. I mean, most people here want comments on their decks but only very few are willing to comment themselves. At the very least they could give a like when they get what they want.

I know, right?

I know right? Can't believe mine's only a year old myself. Feels so much longer than that to me

Nah, surewhynot, you're not that old.
You still make decks that are young, fresh and vigorous.

And heck, I found a deck dating back to 2006.
Kirin Deck
by Gen - Created on Saturday, 29 July 2006

Now that's old.... but still not as old as when I started Magic way back in November 1994 and Fallen Empires.

You are old, Surewhynot. I remember you when people still called standard type 2 and I didn't know what format was what number.

Damn. I'm not there .......
You should make a new one for "Honourable Mentions"

Looks you've got work to do then bro. I'm rooting for you!

I learned how to read playing Aplha at the age of 4, so yes, I'm old. Or at the very least...I've been playing for a long god damn time.

wow, surewhynot, I could not pull that off at that age.

surewhynot over here talking about fruity pebbles in 1st grade and the other kids think he means cereal rofl!

I was already 16 or so when I picked up Magic, starting with Revised and Fallen Empires ... that makes me an even older fart than surewhynot

Now, why doesn't that surprise me? ;)

Because you also remember Max Headroom, pen&paper RPGs, and the Atari vs Amiga wars. I have seen The Goonies and Ghostbusters in the cinema when they were released :) And I bet that you also sat in front of your radio, waited for your song to record it on cassette tape (and prayed the radio jockey wouldn't start talking before the song ends)!

DAMN SKIPPY!!!

Thats cool.

You can search for decks with an amount of likes in the Deck Search area of the site.

Erm --- yes? Deck search and filter for most likes, doh.