The Bullshit Scale

What I refer to as the Bullshit Scale, goes from 0 to 5, and is a measure of what a deck is willing to do to win the game and in the effort to do so makes the opposing players mutter Bullshit. It could be thought of as the degree to which the deck has been Spike-ed. There is nothing wrong with ruthlessly machining a deck to be the best possible version. The desire to win is inherent to people that play games. The danger comes from mismatching decks inside a playgroup. I usually phrase this as, "How fast are we going?", but what I mean is, "How much Bullshit are we allowing?"

0 is essentially reserved for first time creations, like the Karn player I once encountered whose mana base was nothing but basic lands. If you encounter a 0 player they likely need help more than anything. 0 is not really playable.

1's are generally things that have some kind of plan. These creations have some kind of direction but they aren't constructed very well. These might also be people that just stepped up from a 0 but have serious budget constraints. 1's can also be some outrageous idea just to see if it would work, like Snake Tribal. These decks have a theme and might even be somebodies baby, but the cards that they need to play to stay on theme makes the deck underpowered.

2 is where I put the unaltered pre-constructed decks. The description I would use for 2 is legitimate. They have solid themes and are built appropriately, but have not received enough machining and tuning to be up to the standard. The pre-cons are great for jumping a player stuck at 0 or 1 up to a 2. From there they can learn the process of deck construction to generate a 3.

3 is where most people build for. Decks at 3 have strong cards and are capable of winning the game. They can be fanciful creations like Zombie tribal but the deck has a good shot of winning the game without being oppressive. Most EDH players like to play at a 3. They want their decks to have some amount of Bullshit. They want the games to have grandiose plays. They just don't want things to be so explosive that the game is over before players have a chance to do anything. If you are going into an unknown playgroup playing a 3 is your best bet.

A 4 on the Bullshit Scale is when people start wanting to either avoid playing against the deck or change decks to something more competitive. 4's tend to win the game efficiently, and I actually classify these as being the more combo oriented decks that you run across. 4's have strong internal consistency, lots of tutors and will win the game in a relatively short amount of time. The problem with 4's is that they demand interaction. If you play against a combo deck and you don't happen to have a way of disrupting their combo due to color restriction or poor draws, you will cry Bullshit every time. The positive side is that 4's will win the game. They make the game be over so you can try again. They aren't oppressive.

5 on the Bullshit Scale is staggeringly full of shit, so only build a 5 if your playground is competitive in nature. These decks win the game, but it keeps going for a significant period of time afterward. These decks tend to have: Non-infinite extra turns, Stasis or other mass mana denial, lots of strong hate cards. Decks at 5 will do whatever they need to in order to win. There isn't anything wrong with a deck that's ruthlessly efficient but they tend to be 'fun-sapping'. We all know someone that plays a deck like Thalia or Hokori and doesn't get why people don't want to play against it. These sorts of decks are more fun for you to play than for the opponent to play against. They slowly squeeze the table and leave a bad taste in your mouth. More competitive players tend not to mind these games as much, so there is a place to play these sorts of decks, but never surprise a table with a 5.

So as a quick rundown/summary:
0 - Everyone is playing the game except me
1 - Everyone is playing the game, but I'm not doing much
2 - Everyone is playing the game and I get to do some cool stuff
3 - Everyone is playing the game
4 - I'm playing the game and most people can't
5 - No one else is playing the game

Over the next few days I'll be doing a retrospective of various decks that I have and where I put them on the Bullshit Scale.

Cheers!