High Rolls and Safety Nets explores two core deckbuilding mindsets. The Optimist and the Pessimist. By comparing these philosophies, the piece highlights how personality and risk tolerance shape not just decks, but the way players approach the game itself.

Keenan Meadows is making his debut on Coping with Cardboard, coffee in hand, to call out one of the sneakiest problems in deck building right now. Sweeping Daggers is quietly punishing risk taking players, stifling creative builds, and making low check strategies harder to justify. With sharp humor and pointed examples, Keenan argues for a simple errata that could bring the thrill of bad checks back into the game.

In between Regionals and serious testing, there is a perfect window for chaos. That is when the brews come out, not to break the format but to break the routine. I brought Mina III to locals on Death, slapped together a janky ranged build, and immediately regretted my decisions. But that is the point. Locals are where you get weird, fail loudly, and maybe, just maybe, find something worth keeping. This blog is a love letter to those beautiful disasters and the lessons they leave behind.

Life is tough for a competitive CCG player when you don’t have enough time to test. Join me as I take you through my character selection and deck list refinement as I prepare for Louisville with very limited play time!