I only wanted to build a deck.

A hospital visit cleared my calendar.

Personally, I would have tried taking an afternoon off first, but nobody had asked me. Now I was in hospital and, for once, had some time. So I wanted to build a deck for Coconut, the new multiplayer format for Disney Lorcana.

Two hours later, I had gathered roughly 150 interesting cards.

My deck was somewhere among them. It was simply keeping a low profile.

Before anyone gets the wrong impression: I love building decks. My trading card journey began with Magic in 1997. Since getting into Commander alone, I must have built 30 or 40 decks — and bought the cards for them, of course.

My wallet would explicitly like to be acknowledged as a victim here.

Then there are many, many more decklists I have worked out that never made it into my Cardmarket basket. Not every good idea needs to be ordered straight away. A sensible principle that I occasionally even follow.

Discovering new combinations, pursuing an idea that seems odd at first and finding out whether it actually works — that can keep me happily occupied for hours.

Those hours do have to come from somewhere, though.

I'm Björn, the founder of CocoDex. Between family, my startup and football, my free time is usually well hidden. When I find it, I want to spend as much of it as possible doing what I enjoy.

Now, in hospital, I realised: I wanted a shortcut to the right cards. Not a shortcut past deckbuilding.

I would also have liked to take a closer look at a few other decks. What kinds of strategies were out there? What might appeal to me? Perhaps something I hadn't even considered. I didn't have to fall in love with my first idea straight away. Surely I was allowed to look around a little.

With Magic, EDHREC had often helped me do that. For Coconut, I wanted something similar: discover different deck ideas, find suitable cards and make something of my own. I looked at existing options, tried a few things — and eventually began building CocoDex.

My own platform, to save time on my hobby.

The person in charge of common sense was apparently unavailable.

I don't need to have invented every combination myself. Sometimes someone else's idea sparks one of my own. Perhaps it will even work. Perhaps I'll discover something completely new. Perhaps I'll simply learn, very thoroughly, why nobody has played it that way before.

I still want to try.

I want my children to share that curiosity. My son is eight and plays Lorcana; my five-year-old daughter loves her Elsa deck. That's why CocoDex should be accessible enough to help them find suitable cards and try out their own deck ideas too.

They shouldn't just play whatever Dad has put together. They're welcome to come up with something that causes Dad problems afterwards.

From an educational point of view, that would be excellent, of course. During my defeat, I might need a brief reminder.

That's exactly why I'm making CocoDex: for our own ideas, evenings playing together and the joy of seeing a plan come together. Sometimes someone else's plan, too.

Here, I want to tell you how I got to this point — including detours and decisions that, looking back, don't all deserve an award.

I'm glad you're here at the beginning.

Although the real beginning was in 1997. A friend came back from France and brought Magic cards with him.

My pocket money never quite recovered.

Learn more about deckbuilding and your first game of Coconut in my beginner guide.