Your Opinion on Net Decks

[SparkyElf-2852]

I could probably dig up a bunch of my old posts, as is often my wont… Or perhaps I could just write a quick summary (although I confess to having started a search in my profile ).

Generally, I’m ruthless towards this kind of ‘playahs’, likening them to sheep and those who (warning, not a nice comparison ahead) pick up food… someone else has already digested before them. However, I generally make an exception for new or returning players on a limited budget with questions like ‘what to craft’, or, to a large extent, just budget players in general, I suppose — since options for experimenting are limited in this case, it’s a much safer choice to craft something ‘tried and true’ than risk blowing all the resources available on a potential failure. PS Hey, I’ve even done it myself quite openly, e.g.: Returning to Standard now? (alright, so I am digging up my old writings again after all), Just went 6-0 in brawl - #44 by SparkyElf-2852 etc.

@Zee-1630

The best time for homebrewers and players who enjoy experimenting with deck-building is right after a large amount of new cards have been added to the card pool, which creates an unsolved meta.

Ugh, it’s probably one of the worst in general to me:

@SparkyElf-2852

I’ve never liked that much, as haven’t I playing at lower ranks during the beginning of a season, since it’s unpredictable and you never know what surprise that undoubtedly creative person is gonna present you with: for instance, in case of lower ranks, a ‘troll’ deck that is generally horrible, so you wouldn’t even generally meet it in ranked play since it doesn’t climb, but might pull off that one-in-a-thousand-times combo-wombo just for you. Regarding a release of a new set — dunno, if you do some deck-building yourself (some people see fun in this — imagine that…), rather than just copy like a hamster, then it might be quite a toil in such an unstable environment. Hey, at least those netdeckuhs are predictable…

I suppose I’ll add another related passage, also elaborating on those ‘Timmy’, ‘Jimmy’ or whatever they are characters mentioned above:

@SparkyElf-2852

Ha, the ‘low brackets’ have been the most dreaded for me since I built up some kind of competitive collection, more or less, for this reason. If you go higher, it’s mostly predictable netdeckers, but there, in the lower ranks, you’re bound to eventually meet that one ‘creative’… entertainer who’s prepared to keep losing and is generally a ‘no-one’ in the game, but the whole purpose of their existence is apparently just to ruin your win streak, if not your fun, by pulling off that one-in-a-lifetime combo-wombo. I mean… it’s like someone who lives on a dung pile and so on, and the pinnacle of their life and their proudest achievement is to jump on an unaware and somwhat unlucky decent citizen and smudge their clean and stylish attire with their filth — that’s what those who choose to play ‘troll decks’ look like to me.

To me, this ‘Timmy’, ‘Jimmy’ or whatever they are clowns with the “I’m the dung pile that smudged your boots once in a lifetime, ha-ha!” mentality are as deplorable as… this forum’s ‘core’ audience (speaking of resident ‘trolls’, of course — you know the type, popping up in seemingly every topic with their typical stuff), I suppose: prepared to generally suck, sacrificing their own possibility of having a life (re trolls), good performance in the game etc, for the very questionable ‘benefit’ of occasionally ruining someone else’s fun, instead of just having their own by improving their game (and thus probably win more, provided, of course, skill does have an impact, which I’m not so certain about), their life in general or something like it.

At this juncture, I don’t even know what’s worse — them or netdeckers. Even though I’ve never been a fan of the latter, to put it mildly, I’ll probably be much more indulgent to one on a budget than the former ‘creative’ type.

UPD: Oops, another self-repetition:

@SparkyElf-2852

However, there’s apparently a niche among players for such cards — all those people with the “I’m the dung pile that smudged the boots of someone” mentality (same for resident forum trolls, by the way). There’s also the extreme ‘Jimmy’ (or was it ‘Johnny’?) mentality, as MTG players call it.

Ugh, I’m doing it again.

@Zee-1630

This is why I dislike events which showcase pro’s building and playing decks just before the new cards are released, because it speeds up the solving of a new meta and the rate at which good net decks get posted.

You’re assuming these ‘pros’ — who annointed (sic) them, anyway? — have some exceptional skill at doing that. It’s a… strong assumption. PS By the way, there’s less sarcasm than it seems here: even if a few good players gather at such an event for a few games with the decks they prepared at home (often with a requirement to use enough new cards in order to showcase a new set, rather than play with old ones, btw), it’d objectively be tremendously hard for them to foresee the whole future ‘meta’.

I’d rather presume that they influence, if not create or shape, the early ‘meta’ — just like ‘deck trackers’, btw, which are producing more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than an unbiased analysis (see, for example: Miracle Rogue.....finds a way - #50 by SparkyElf-2852, This game is rigged as hell - #213 by SparkyElf-2852), eventually do — the herd just copying their initial findings.

@Zee-1630

If possible, a good player and deck builder will attempt to improve a net deck until making changes only seems to weaken the deck, rather than optimize its performance.

You’re implicitly assuming that there exists something like “the deck’s performance in vacuum”. That’s not how it works. Many of such adjustments are related to the ‘meta’… And if we let this discussion run its course, it’ll eventually come to the point of (rigged) matchmaking and such.