For everyone who net decks...

[e-dood]

I only have one thing to say to you:

It's cool. It can help you understand how a deck is often built and you can experiment after you practice the deck.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

[Hoshi]

The entire concept of "netdecking" is silly. Like, even if it weren't for MDM, you realize you could just check your opponent's deck after a match, right?

Besides, I can't speak for others, but I usually check MDM to read about Jay in 4k's latest Labrynth abomination, or to get ideas for my own stupid sub-optimal decks from the other 5 players on Bystial/Chaos dragon slop, or to gauge the viability of a control deck by how many counter-trap omnis it's forced to run to survive.

[Papa Shekels]

Originally posted by Hoshi:

The entire concept of "netdecking" is silly. Like, even if it weren't for MDM, you realize you could just check your opponent's deck after a match, right?

It's even more obvious than that. Not only is it possible to absorb such information from others through osmosis without netdecking, it's physically impossible not to. Anybody who plays the game long enough, while paying any amount of attention to the cards being played against them, WILL inevitably start piecing together how they work and how the cards interact. You can not learn to properly counter a deck without learning how it works and where the choke points are - thus you necessarily have to learn things like techs, ratios, etc. in order to improve at the game. On the flip side, it is physically impossible to avoid leaking any "secret" innovations due to the nature of the game being a 1v1 pvp experience. As soon as you play a card, your opponent can see it, and due to the previously stated fact they are then able to learn the interaction and use that knowledge moving forward.

I always wondered why so many people are willing to take up some aggressive stance against netdecking publicly. It's a self-report to the fact that they either don't play the game enough to ever learn or improve at it, or that they play some kind of solitaire deck like exodia that has zero interaction with the opponent and never learn what any cards do except their own. The idea of "creative" and "unique" decks being the norm where nobody shares the same two ideas is something that only exists on the playground with a severely limited card pool and knowledge. Anywhere else in the real world, you quickly find out why this isn't possible

[e-dood]

Originally posted by Papa Shekels:

Originally posted by Hoshi:

The entire concept of "netdecking" is silly. Like, even if it weren't for MDM, you realize you could just check your opponent's deck after a match, right?

It's even more obvious than that. Not only is it possible to absorb such information from others through osmosis without netdecking, it's physically impossible not to. Anybody who plays the game long enough, while paying any amount of attention to the cards being played against them, WILL inevitably start piecing together how they work and how the cards interact. You can not learn to properly counter a deck without learning how it works and where the choke points are - thus you necessarily have to learn things like techs, ratios, etc. in order to improve at the game. On the flip side, it is physically impossible to avoid leaking any "secret" innovations due to the nature of the game being a 1v1 pvp experience. As soon as you play a card, your opponent can see it, and due to the previously stated fact they are then able to learn the interaction and use that knowledge moving forward.

I always wondered why so many people are willing to take up some aggressive stance against netdecking publicly. It's a self-report to the fact that they either don't play the game enough to ever learn or improve at it, or that they play some kind of solitaire deck like exodia that has zero interaction with the opponent and never learn what any cards do except their own. The idea of "creative" and "unique" decks being the norm where nobody shares the same two ideas is something that only exists on the playground with a severely limited card pool and knowledge. Anywhere else in the real world, you quickly find out why this isn't possible

Yeah, the people who complain about netdecking are pretty silly.

Makes it seem like they don't really pay attention to the game.

[G3]

Back in my day. You had to pay $15 for a Beckett Magazine. And, hope it was one with decklists from an event in a place you never heard of. Then, you had to save up allowances to buy the singles at the flea market to build it.

[e-dood]

Originally posted by G3:

Back in my day. You had to pay $15 for a Beckett Magazine. And, hope it was one with decklists from an event in a place you never heard of. Then, you had to save up allowances to buy the singles at the flea market to build it.

Then you had to worry about if they were real or not.

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by G3:

Back in my day. You had to pay $15 for a Beckett Magazine. And, hope it was one with decklists from an event in a place you never heard of. Then, you had to save up allowances to buy the singles at the flea market to build it.

And you still did it, because Beckett stayed in business for a pretty long time.

[AwayStrawberry]

I have been playing the same aquaactress deck for years, and still can watch people get confused and frustrated as they slowly get beat with pretty fish.

[Ratty]

Originally posted by Hoshi:

The entire concept of "netdecking" is silly.

Blame salty Magic the Gathering players in the 90s, when the concept of looking things up online was new and most websites were just text with low quality jpegs and animated gifs that still took 2 to 5 minutes to load while you paid per-minute.

Building janky decks out of the cards you happen to have is fine and fun for "Kitchen Table Magic" / "Playground Yu-Gi-Oh" but trying to do it in any kind of competitive environment is asking for frustration. It's refusing to build off of lessons others have learned and then getting mad other players utilize advantages you arbitrarily refuse to.

[Hoshi]

Originally posted by Ratty:

Originally posted by Hoshi:

The entire concept of "netdecking" is silly.

Blame salty Magic the Gathering players in the 90s, when the concept of looking things up online was new and most websites were just text with low quality jpegs and animated gifs that still took 2 to 5 minutes to load while you paid per-minute.

Building janky decks out of the cards you happen to have is fine and fun for "Kitchen Table Magic" / "Playground Yu-Gi-Oh" but trying to do it in any kind of competitive environment is asking for frustration. It's refusing to build off of lessons others have learned and then getting mad other players utilize advantages you arbitrarily refuse to.

Yeah, all you've gotta do is look at any of the older Yu-Gi-Oh formats to understand perfectly what people mean by a deck being "solved." At some point a deck is literally functioning at peak efficiency for the current format and it shows.

If anything, it's an opportunity to learn. I don't really get the imaginary strawman of "the player who just wants to win so they netdeck." Like, what? They've still gotta learn the deck, and if they haven't, they're probably still in the process of doing so, because they bothered to build it, so... what exactly is the issue? That they want to win?

Silly. It's silly. It's a real boomer mentality. "I had to build my Cyber Dragon deck from scratch, so you should have to do that, too!"

... No offense to Cyber Dragon players, of course, I love you guys, it was just the first older deck that came to mind.

[Merilirem]

Its fine, but I would urge people to try and build their own decks or alter the formula. The top players don't just play the same deck. They create those decks. Often the best decks in a format aren't discovered until later.

[brago90]

I usually look at a lot of decks online mostly because my memory is mostly visual and I don't know the card names.

[Soji]

It's just ego and people with control issues, trying to dictate how others should engage with a hobby. Or a superiority complex maybe.

[e-dood]

Originally posted by Merilirem:

Its fine, but I would urge people to try and build their own decks or alter the formula. The top players don't just play the same deck. They create those decks. Often the best decks in a format aren't discovered until later.

True, there is something fun about making a functional deck that is fun to play.

I just think that looking up decks first is a good starting point.

Originally posted by Soji:

It's just ego and people with control issues, trying to dictate how others should engage with a hobby. Or a superiority complex maybe.

A big part is ego no doubt.

[Kaulu]

Originally posted by e-dood:

Originally posted by G3:

Back in my day. You had to pay $15 for a Beckett Magazine. And, hope it was one with decklists from an event in a place you never heard of. Then, you had to save up allowances to buy the singles at the flea market to build it.

Then you had to worry about if they were real or not.

Don't go talking smack about the Darkly Big Rabbi.

[Yerc2]

Looking at other peoples' decks, and seeing what cards they use is half the fun of the game.
The other half is making your own decks.

Huh, this made me come to the conclusion that deck building is more fun than actually playing the game.