This article or should I say post is about netdecking. Yes, the taboo word that all gamers strive to avoid. You never ever want to hear someone saying that you netdecked. But is it really that bad? Or is it just the way it is?

Netdeck is a situation where someone stumbles upon the holy grail of a deck theme (not a broken deck) complete with deck list. The person then builds the exact same build and therefore it is claimed that he netdecked. Pardon me if i even got this part wrong as the rest of the article will then be nullified and you can stop reading. But if you have read so far, why not continue somemore? ;)

But is it that wrong to netdeck? Is it wrong to build the same exact deck that has been tested and proven to be solid. Why reinvent the wheel when the existing wheel can be used?

If i make IQ's Fearsome Five/Doom deck and then play it, most of the people will say..stop netdecking! But why can't I build the same exact thing? What is the reasoning behind it?

Originality? Are you going to replace a card that you know works so well with the deck to avoid being labelled a netdecker?

Effort? Do people who netdeck lack the effort to build a deck? Come on, the person probably browse through dozens of deck list to find one with enough reasoning and justification that it is the best build.

So rant if you like, bash me if you like (not physically of course), or just offer your point of view. After all, this is an open discussion.

ps: I do not netdeck but I find themes or ideas in the deck garage and i attempt to build a similar version. Not because I think that I cannot netdeck but because I just dont have the cards they have so i always look for a cheaper alternative :p

I think it is a matter of choice, some people think that unless you build your own deck your a cheater.
I build my own decks and i do not care how people build there decks.
Maybe they do not think they can defeat it?
All decks have weaksnesses even the winning decks it is just a matter of finding that weakness and takeing advantage of it.

DO what you want to do and how you want to do it.
Just enjoy the game.

I think that you should always try and be creative and make decks yourself, but when competing for cash prizes, use what works. This game is more about the player than the cards. I have beaten far better decks than my own because I was a far better player than my opponent. I even beat people with my "no rares" theme deck (not a single rare in the entire deck).

The real issue is that people try to pawn off netdecks as their own idea. If you just give the appropriate acknowledgement to the decks origin, nobody should give you a hard time.

When you play baseball, you use the same baseball as everyone does.

When you play football, everyone on your team uses the same football.

Who cares what kind of deck you play as long as it's a legal deck?

Personally, I've never looked up a deck online and built a deck from it. There are deck ideas I have heard, and made my own version of that deck based on this knowledge.

Personally, I get aggravated when someone asks to see my deck, and they write it down and come back in a few weeks with a clone of my deck.

But I guess I should be happy.

Actually I have played a person who had my old PCQ deck. It was easy to take it out because the metagame moved on and the deck I used to run is not viable any more. VS meta moves extremely fast due to it being a relatively new TCG so I do not see net decks as being a problem.


Any one who still gets beaten by the old Brotherhood decks is ether really unlucky or really unskilled

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I am actually happy when people copy my decks or make decks based on decks they see me play.

For the casual or serious/non-PCQ type player, Netdecking can be a good starting point to explore ideas and understanding successful card mechinics. However, this is dependent on studying and experimenting with the decks possiblities aggainst other decks. If you enjoy the game but cannot devote the time that a serious PCQ/ Pro player does, then short cuts are a good way to speed up the discovery process. I would say that if you just copy a deck and never bother to learn how to play it or what its strengths and weaknesses are than it won't matter. A great Doom deck in the hands of someone who does not understand how the deck works or why it works is going to be in serious trouble. He or she will fail. Good Decks don't just play themselves. If you are going to become a true contender in the PCQ arena as a Pro then you will not care about Netdecking. You will however be attempting to cope with the current Meta and develop a successful way to deal with it. Watching the decks that succeed will be part of that, but you would not copy their decks, you would counter them with new decks. So I see Netdecking not as a threat or insult but as a way for casual or non-PCQ/Pro players to enjoy the game without the requirement of so much time and play-test teams, which can be quite consuming. Pro players will not care. Casual players will have more fun, and copicats who do nothing but copy with no real attempt to understand will fail.
Thats my 2 cents.

I don't enjoy seeing netdecking in tournaments, mostly because it's a sign they really don't put much interest in this game.

I've seen it out of tournaments though, which I can't condemn. It's mainly done to understand the deck and to see why/how it won/did well in a tournament. Then the supposed netdecker could work on a counter to that if it's big in the metagame, or improve on that build to make it stronger. This is actually a useful tool.

I'd love to see people netdeck my decks though. Since they just started playing it, beating it shouldn't be that hard at all since you know all its tricks. =P

I don't often Netdeck, but I actually netdecked the F5/Doom deck because it was fasincating to me for a number of reasons. I've been messing around trying to get a good AI/SS deck going, but find that there's just that slight excess requirement of luck in there - I don't have any way to fix bad luck, to find what I need in characters/pts.

The awesome thing about IQ's deck is that if you fire off your teamup, you can search for characters and pts. I wanted to play it to see how it worked for comparison to my deck which does neither (though I hope WoSM will provide some solution to that).

Honestly the deck is quite boring to play, but I think that... ultimately I could see taking that to a tournament (though probably altered slightly to try and counter a mirror perhaps) if I didn't have anything more interesting/solid to play. For casual play, I'll probably be sticking with messing around with whatever teams strike my fancy.

Incidentally if this comes across as some sort of defense for netdecking, it's not. It's just my reasoning behind it in a sense - netdecking is an incredibly valuable learning tool, and lets you see how types of decks work as well as underestimated teams really perform.

The only reason you'd want to netdeck is because you want to win at any cost. Considering that most players are in tourneys for that exact reason, I don't see where they can come off complaining about netdecking.

I personally feel that "netdecking" is an unavoidable part of the metagame.

To go even further, I feel it is actually *beneficial* to the metagame because it makes it evolve faster and forces players to be more innovative in their deck strategies. If you had an "unbeatable" deck that no one knew about... the metagame would stall because people would not be able to devise strategies to counter it.

Netdecking brings out the skills of the players... anyone can copy a deck... but not everyone can steer that same deck successfully.

I use netdecking extensively for playtesting my own decks, and some times I have chosen to play a 'netdeck' in a tournament, basically because I was unable to create a deck that could consistently beat it.

But, to be honest, I came away from that experience feeling a bit 'hollow', because I wasn't playing 'my' deck.

From now on, I'll still use netdecks to playtest, but I'll run with my own deck, no matter how bad it is ;)

I don't think netdecking evolves the game, if fact, I think it Stagnates teh game. How can you even think of a new idea if you're continually working on the same deck?? At that rate, it would take months or years of refining before something else changed your deck.

it helps refine, becuase now people can playtest the decks and see what beats it, so it will not remain the best deck for long.