We should call Constructed the "Netdeck" game

Multiplayer Discussion
81

You know a lot of people don’t know, but a lot of games value “Netdecking”.

Image the game cost which would be needed to create new cards.
Than the cost to create and test various decks with new cards.

I believe a lot of company’s don’t do it.
Some companies might do it, but I think it would be close to impossible to test every single card interaction.

Does anyone know if hearthstone test cards?

I think a lot of card companies in general create cards.
They might do some testing, but I think in general they let the population do it.
The players in the game are probably the true testers!

Than they just sit back and monitor the progression of those games.
They might try to do emergency nerfs if necessarily, right?

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Also, I think a lot of games create Sale offers based on the decks players created.
I have seen it happen before in other games.

Hearthstone certainly does this!
Druid has been doing great for example and they released special deal which you can buy signature cards for it. Stuff like that right?

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Their is a lot of upsides to “Netdecking” for sure.
I use to play a game where the marketing/sales would create pre-made decks.

Honestly, I can’t remember if I have ever seen Hearthstone make pre-made decks.
Honestly, my memory is so bad I don’t even remember.

I feel like they did though because I have old school decks on my account.
Do you peeps remember IMP-Festation?

Than I had my little hotty Imp
I think she was called Succubus Imp.
I pretty sure game removed her because parents complained!
What bunch of whiners!

Than the Boss - Jumbo Imp!
Jumbo Imp use to bring home the “W’s”.
I wonder how that deck does in wild.

Than the Jailer!
Jailer is cool.
Not a lot of Boss monsters look as cool as the Jailer!
My Jailer deck has turned into dust it seems like.

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Is the OP a new player?
I feel like people who hate “Netdecking” are often newer players.

I think older hearthstone players don’t often feel same way.
A lot of them love it because “Netdecks” are like pictures or snap shots in time.

When you look back at some of the old “Netdecks”, it makes you remember the fun you use to have because you remember those decks from past.

Lets give the OP 5 more years.
Lets see what they think about “Netdecking” in 5 more hearthstone years.
Think the OP opinion on issue will change?

Oh, yeah!
I think it will!

Let some grumpiness & impatient work it’s way into OP bodies system!
We all know older you get more grumpy and impatient you will feel.
Lets see you trying to build an original deck at that point!

1 min - trying to build deck
Your going to be like I don’t have patience for this rubbish!

I just want to play right now!
Let me search up something real quick, fast, and in a hurry!

Let arthritis work it’s way into those finger tips of yours.
We will see how high and mighty you will be at that point!

82

It’s called Parasitic Deck design and Blizzard has been doing it for years. They put in the combos and synergistic cards to a set and make it extremely obvious you are supposed to play them together. It started shortly after Brode left and hasn’t really changed since.

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83

Yeah, A lot of games do it.
No one has really talked about it in this thread, but it does relate.

Netdecks & even very Popular Decks in general have an influence on Sales.
Some people may hate it.
Some people may like it.

I, personally, have always been in favor of it.
The reason why is because I think building a deck is extremely difficult.
It takes a lot of time and you use a lot of brain power thinking.

I been playing Hearthstone for long time and it still can take me over 1 hour to build a deck. All the stuff you got to think about for the deck can take time.

A lot of beginners will tell people building a deck from scratch can be an overwhelming task. It’s not easy.

Allowing Beginners and even players not so great in building have access or the means of being able to acquire good deck is important I think.

84

Yeah, a while back when I was working on my rogue wins, I swapped in sketchy stranger to thief rogue because I had seen some general stats that the card was standalone playable. It was only after doing so that I realized that the thing had crazy synergy with Maestra, gnoll, and Tess, and about a month later the card was a staple in the deck and hugely boosted it’s win rate.

Deck building is tough. I love doing it, but there’s so much that goes into it… Analyzing the meta, play testing, recognizing what cards are and are not working, what matchups are good or bad…

Then you ALSO need the piloting skills so that you can figure out if it’s the cards/deck/or you that’s the problem.

And sadly I’m not a content creator where what I’m building will be picked up by a hundred people and have useful meta stats tracked within a day.

Overall, for most, it just makes more sense to net deck, focus on the piloting skills, and not worry much about the deck building choices.

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85

this is a card game as far as i know ALL card games release synergistic cards

86

Synergistic, yes.

Not nearly as much of “you have to play all of these cards together, or not at all” designs though.

For example, zero of the DH relics were good on their own. You had to use all of them for their power to be worth it.

It’s the full package design that’s one of the larger problems with the sets. Either the package is good, and your class is playable, or it’s bad, and it’s a joke. It’s easy to see in both mage and hunter, where their packages just didn’t land this set, and because of package design, it isn’t super common for decks to be able to even use cards from the set if the package focus is weak.

A bunch of classes are just using their old decks with maybe 1 new class card mixed in (paladin and lock come to mind) because the class cards focused on trying to build a nonviable archetype.

It causes even more problems with the mini sets, as we often see a package fail to land, get buffed, then get a card that finishes the package and now it’s too strong.

Like what happened to pirate warrior, and sludge lock.

87

AND a lot of games with each iteration, to minimize the influence of RNG on winrate

Basically, gotta know the game, gotta have ideas, gotta have patience to test each iteration on a proper sample and finally, gotta have some luck, because what you’re trying to do is literally to EVOLVE a complex system into a better one, and there is NO known formula, method or analysis you can do to help you. You literally have to get lucky by assuming something and then being proven wrong, but serendipitiously wrong.

That’s also where pros and streamers have much bigger advantage - their versions of the deck quickly get picked up and tested by many, some of them other pros and streamers, some of them by their chat, and new iterations get tested exponentially fast.

So, not only do they do this for a living, but they also have a support system helping them do it better, which none of us can even dream about.

There is just no point in trying to compete with that (but yeah, building decks for fun is always good).

88

Yep, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve built something, been like “oh my God this is the best thing ever!” Because I go 12-1 with it, only to go 2-20 the next day and am like "ok, I was just lucky.

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89

Most netdecks we see every single patch are purely “legacy decks with some tweaks”. E.g. a miniset drops and veterans dust a deck from Badlands and then add it 2 cards from the miniset to make it a lot better than it was.

It’s extremely rare to see a “purely original deck”; maybe most people are just bad to build those in the first patch; e.g. the Devs appear to imply Warriors can now build a Sandwich deck but none exists even at ~50% win rate.

90

What your suggesting goes against the Gold Rule of Hearthstone!

When I was a beginner Veteran player use to teach players, the gold rules or hidden rules of the game. It seems to me like no one has told you.

Gold Rule #5 - If you can win with same deck, you take the opportunity your given.

What does the above mean?
Let me give an example:

Lets say you play Druid and reach high rank with it or even did well with it.
Next expansion comes and you play your Druid again and win again!
The above is a win for you!

Same deck doing well in different seasons is a victory.
You save gold, dust, and/or money.

This is the Golden Rule #5.
This is why the game does nerfs to prevent players from playing same stuff forever!

If you absolutely need to make changes, Golden Rule #5A states:
Try to make minor adjustments over major adjustments!

No one any where has ever recommended for a person to shred or dust an entire deck in order to try a completely new deck with hopes it might be good.

Why should a person take a chance? For no reason?
Unless, the person is massive spender.
The average person isn’t going to do it.

It’s not even reasonable to suggest such a thing.

91

from raw statistical data, Sandwich Warrior actually dropped in winrate percentage post patch (most likely due to the fact that more people were playing a bad deck, and the few souls playing it before couldn’t jumpscare the rest)

92

I wish I could downvote threads

3 Likes
93

Keep telling yourself that…won’t make it true but at least you can keep telling yourself that.

94

Keep telling myself my own preferences? I think I will, thanks. It’s important to know what you want

1 Like
95

How many people do you know that got to legendary without netdecking? I’ll wait…I can tell you net deck since I struck a nerve. If you only want to win then why not play an easier game? Seems kinda ridiculous that you picked this game if all you want to do is win right?

96

That is true but when you blatantly make cards and put them together in the same set and class and show them off being used together that’s a different ball game. You are supposed to find combos from different cards that work together or that will make older decks better if you try them in those.

There’s of course a reaosn for them doing this. It’s easier to sell the deck as a package inside of a single printed set to the mobile players so they can just click the “buy” button and have the deck instead of needing to collect it or work to build it.

97

Homebrew decks thrive the greatest in the climb back to legend. It’s usually a longer process but it’s far more forgiving in those ranks then doing it at high legend. There are many players on here who can and do make the climb each month with off meta or completely original decks.

98

None personally. I’d rather assume “some” portion of the population at large have done it, though I confess to never having studied or researched any data on this.

Also, I’m not really inclined to care, so there’s that.

I do netdeck, and there’s literally nothing I can say about that ad hominem that you wouldn’t twist around to suit your narrative, so I’m going to simply ignore your attitude.

Can you quote me, in context, literally anywhere in this entire forum, to say nothing of this thread, where I claimed to “only want to win?”

I like getting to Legend each month because it gets me free stuff. Other than that, I mainly just play for fun. I like the RNG and weird, wild, wacky stuff that can happen.

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99

This is a very accurate description of the final and most prominent stage of the netdeck distribution system. However, my experience with high level Magic the Gathering — experience that is, admittedly, over a decade old at this point — is that the top pilots often make the acquaintance of top deck builders, and they get their deck lists from people who, while at least familiar with the top piloting scene, are usually not top pilots themselves. This process operates outside of the public eye, so there can be the illusion that the top pilots authored the decks, when usually they didn’t.

But perhaps times have changed.

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100

From my own experience in MTG playing with some of the best players ever at the game i can tell you this is 100% TRUE. I was first and foremost a deck builder with loads of deck ideas. I was usually better at playing decks than the average person but the top players were just flat out better pilots of decks than i could ever be.

Nothing wrong with that though because i took pride in watching a skilled player take my idea and run all the way to the top with it. Those players in turn held the builders in their own regard for coming up with an idea they would have never thought of.

I think the process still remains but it’s on a larger scale now with how connected we all are. Back then players played VASTLY different decks on the coasts. Not to mention card distribution back in those days was wonky.

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