SWCCG vs. SWTCG

Usually what I do is come up with an idea for a deck (such as lightside space drains, suicide droid bombers, jawas & creatures, etc) or select an objective or deck type (Lightsaber combat, EBO, Walker garrison, etc) and then figure out what basics i will need (ie: what effects can i start out with to make the deck work best?, what characters or vehicles will get the best bonuses or give the best bonuses to this deck type? how can i make other characters give bonuses to this deck?), from there, I typically then search through my cards to see what might work best to fill in the rest (I prefer to use http://www.jandatonline.com/work/swccg/swccg_search.html since it makes it easier to search for key phrases or words that affect my deck type). From there I'll usually then take a look at other decks of a similar type that have been posted online either at decipher's site, here or at decktech.net to get ideas for any revisions i might want to make. Sometimes, if one is stuck for what basics to use, I'll jump to this step to get a jumpstart on some ideas first. After that I usually post the deck to here and/or decipher's site to get comments, suggestions and feedback that might point out any particular weakenesses.

From there the final step is playtesting and see what works and what doesn't work against some other deck types.

Alot of times it comes down to figuring out what is needed and what isn't. Sure, you might be playing an Echo Base Operations deck, but you really don't need Hoth troopers or snowspeeders to make the deck work (although there are ways you could include those if you just feel like it).

Hope that helps...I agree that understanding the nature of deck designing for this game is a difficult concept to grasp at first, but you usually get the hang of things after you make 2 or 3 solid decks and begin to understand how to judge the benefits and worth of a card in your deck.