obnysalt wrote:I see now that I am a Johnny among Spikes here.
There's a difference between being johnny and being bad at making a deck. Sure, anyone can throw a bunch of cards together, find a central theme, and call themselves a johnny, but in reality, a johnny is someone who knows what they're going to be up against, knows how to beat it, and does it with flare.
Take, for example, Kentarou Yamamoto; creator of the original Mono Black Devotion list. This guy is a real Johnny. He made something that was both very innovative, something that no one had ever heard of, and made it to the top 8 of the pro tour. His deck wasn't just a mish-mosh of cards with similar abilities, it was carefully planned out according to what he expected to be facing at his tournament. Now, this deck is bigger than MTGJesus.
If you want to be a real johnny, you need to take a step back and observe your metagame. Look at what the people are playing, and find out how their decks can lose. Then, take that information into account when you are making your deck. If you are going for the Theme deck - as you are here with the BG Graveyard Shenanigans -, you're going to want to shoot for a mix of about 50% Theme, 50% Kill them.
The first thing that you should do is find cards in your colors or theme that also act as a Kill Them card. Varolz is an awesome example here, as he works with your graveyard to match your theme, and can act as a major contender in the Kill Them category (With the right partnership of other cards, of course).
Once you have a few Theme cards, you're going to want cards that do one of two things. You're looking for something that either interacts, or synergizes, with your stuff extremely well, or disrupts your opponent's game plan. Reaper of the wilds and Abrupt Decay come to mind on this one. The Reaper is very awesome in pretty much every way for this sort of deck. On its own, it's a power house that will cause your opponent to struggle to get it off the field. Combined with Varolz, or other scavenge cards, it can become your main beat stick that you can use to win the game. Abrupt Decay is probably the best option you have when it comes to disrupting the opponent, because it will get rid of just about everything that is giving you a hard time. Detention sphere, Spear of Heliod and all of it's minions, Nightveil specter, Sedge scorpion...
When guys like El Pablo and TyWoo suggest these cards to you, it's not because "They're the best cards", or "They're the most expensive cards", it's because these cards have been proven to do work in the Kill Them category, and really make or break a deck. So what you should be doing is taking into consideration all of their suggestions and try to shape your deck around the shell that they're trying to create for you. If you don't you're going to end up with a giant mish-mosh of cards with slightly similar abilities with a nametag that says "Hi, My name is... JoHny" Scribbled in crayon on it. They are giving you the part of your deck that will let your deck win games. Once you have that, it's up to you to shape that winning deck into one that has your personal flare in it. That's what being a Johnny really means.
