Duplicating cards across decks?

[WWolfe]

So, recently I'm getting back to something I use to do which trying not to have a card in more than one deck outside of lands, signets, talismans, or Sol Ring. At the moment, I think there are only a handful of cards that I have in multiple decks (Vandalblast in Slivers & OG Purphoros; Cyclonic Rift in Sidisi, & Varina; Eternal Witness in Skullbriar & Sidisi- may go with Timeless Witness in Sidisi to eliminate this one; Havengul Lich & Sidisi, Undead Vizier in Sidisi & Varina; Assassin's Trophy in Sidisi & Skullbriar).

Does anyone else try to do this or am I just an oddball?

[Landale]

I don't necessarily go out of my way to avoid it, so much as I tend to make sure my decks just have different themes to them. For example Killian and Meren share black, but since Killian wants auras and removal while Meren wants sacrifices and reanimation there's not much overlap for them.

[robort]

I do my best to try not overlap cards. I like all my decks trying to at least do something different then each other. I just don't want to feel like I am playing the same cards over and over.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I don't duplicate cards across decks. 


I have a list of exceptions.  Since I always buy all the Commander decks, this list is cards that have been printed at least 4 times within the Commander decks.

[jlutzxinc]

Most of my lists here are theorycrafting rather than paper, so I don't worry if the same card shows up twice.  I do try to be aware of which cards are in each Deck and rarely, if ever, mark any two Decks sharing the same EXPENSIVE card(s) as "Active"; inexpensive cards I can simply buy two of so I don't care as much, and for the rest I justify changing the same copy around between secondary Decks and the "Active" one.

[WizardSpartan]

I will occasionally share cards between decks (especially if they share similar strategies, like aristocrats or tribal), but never more expensive cards (more than $10 for me). I do try to make my decks as different as possible, but I am willing to buy multiple copies of more inexpensive all-star cards.

For reference, I share 17 cards between my 2 most similar decks (Meren & Alesha), 3 of which are Sol Ring, Command Tower, and Arcane Signet. I'm surprised by that number, though, as they don't play similarly at all.

I'm just too inherently competitive to truly bar myself from including cards in different decks, but I do what I can to keep my new decks fresh.

[The Golgari Guy]

There are cards that I play in multiple decks, especially staples.
For example, Beast Within is going to show up in every green deck of mine.

Another type of cards that I share between decks is lands. I have 3 Golgari decks and 1 Abzan deck, and I just don't want to buy 4x Overgrown Tomb, 4x Undergrowth Stadium etc.

What I usually do with lands above ~5$ is that I buy one, keep it in one deck, and proxy it in the other decks. I could play sub-optimal lands, but having a bad manabase is the worst feeling ever so I prefer to proxy.

Regarding more expensive staples, I usually avoid proxying. For example I only own a single Assassin's Trophy, and I would include it in every single Golgari deck I have if I had more copies. However, I prefer to play it in one of my stronger decks (in this case, Meren) and play worse cards in my other decks (e.g. Putrefy).

This will mean that some of my decks will get the more expensive staples and be stronger as a results, while other decks will get the sub-optimal cards and be weaker. However, I'm perfectly fine with this, as this will just mean that I'll have an arsenal of decks with different power levels, which is ideal if you want to play with different people/playgroups.

[WWolfe]

It's been interesting reading everyone's replies. I do it more out of trying to have each deck feel different, the one exception I really notice seems to be removal for the most part (Vandalblast, Assassin's Trophy, & Cyclonic Rift all being in multiple decks- and I just thought about it, I also have Damn in both Karador & Varina). Overall, most of my decks are designed to do different things- Sidisi self mills and has GY shenanigans', Karador is built around Shadowborn Apostle and bringing demons out, Varina is zombie tribal, Purphoros is burn through his trigger & damage multipliers, Skullbriar is +1/+1 counters and combat tricks, etc..

I guess what it comes down to for me is trying to force myself to play cards I may not play otherwise. For instance, I've been considering replacing Cyclonic Rift in one of the decks for River's Rebuke but man, the difference in the two is too big not to notice. 

[Aetherium Slinky]

My personal opinion is that I will buy cards that are reasonable in price (~30€) for each deck but will proxy all the more expensive cards. I like owning real cards but obviously I can't throw money at this game forever.

[The Golgari Guy]

My personal opinion is that I will buy cards that are reasonable in price (~30€) for each deck but will proxy all the more expensive cards. I like owning real cards but obviously I can't throw money at this game forever.

We basically think the same way, but for me the limit is more around 5€ 

[fluffyp]

I will definitely re-run cards in multiple decks if they are that good, but I don't make a point of it and I prefer different decks.  I dislike the notion of go-to cards in certain colours, as I find that makes less interesting decks.  Why make more than one deck if it has all the same cards as another?  I also, to a fault, love building around a theme and I will deliberately hobble decks to keep things on theme.  My pirate deck, for instance, will have clunky and high-costed spells just because they are pirate themed, rather than because they are good removal/counter/ramp etc spells, and this helps keep duplication down.  I also love surprising my group with cards that none of them have heard of, so that helps me go hunting for alternatives to the usual staples and keeps the deck-building interesting.  Limitations do, after all, breed creativity.

[Caveman Clay]

I try and save at least one card of each I get in life,  all my decks use the same sleeves. When i go out to game night I run with 4 decks. I do have word proxies for some cards. If any one in the group has a problem with that I'll take the non proxy from a deck an move it over.  Some of these cards are crazy prices and owning more then one is sometime not a option in my life.