As I skipped out on CCGs a long time ago and just recently returned to the fold (via LCGs), this is a new concept to me. I'm curious, what do you think of netdecking?

Do you netdeck?

Would you play a deck you found online in a tournament? If so, would you give it proper credit?

Do you use decks posted online as inspiration for your own decks?

There are so few listings of decks, it is difficult to net-deck. But personally, whenever I see someone's deck listed, I think about the build and consider its strengths and weaknesses for my own deck building purposes. I've never copied anyone, though - that seems like it would remove half of the fun of the game to me.

Netdecking doesn't work so good if you don't understand the whole game. In every CCG/LCG sooner or later (usually quite soon) everybody will know what the strong decks are. But bad player is still a bad player even with a good netdeck. Netdecking should be used more to test your own deck against the known good netdecks. Everybody should netdeck also just to test those decks to understand the game better. Also in CCGs it is usually more important to understand what kind of decks you usually face and plan your deck according to those. The good netdeck might just work in some other playgroup but it might be terrible in your own playgroup.

I've used the netdecking idea for other LCGs (Game of Thrones, specifically) to get started with ideas. It makes for a great jumping off point, especially for those of us who are new to the games. As we play a deck, we'll figure out ways to tune it to our play style, and in time, it'll be a different deck, mostly our own.

Yipe said:

Yipe said:

I prefer not to net-deck when I can. When I'm behind and I need a quick catch-up for a local tournament I will.

However I think you lose something when you're not the one that crafted the deck. Its feel and subtlies tend to get lost when you're using someone elses deck.

As for inspiration, sure. If I end up seeing that someone else has discovered some awesome combo or unqiue use for a card(s) and it sparks those creative juices… its fun. Building your own decks and seeing them play out is a big part of playing card games so I'll often recommend that people should at least try and build their own.

Though its still comes down to personal preference. Some people just like piloting and have no interest in spending the time to develop. Meh. To each their own.

i know it makes me seem lame, but i have always netdecked and then tweaked as i come to understand more about a game and its cardpool. it's just how i learn. i also think some people are better pilots, some are better deckbuilders and a lucky few are both. i know where my weakness lies and try looking to experts to help me fill in those holes.

and for what its worth, i even have trouble with the small cardpools of a game like CoC (or ascension, even!), let alone something huge like magic. my mind just doesn't hold all the cards and then sort out possible interactions like that.

oh well. just wanted to throw up an alternate/insider's view of the subject…

I think that using posted decks as springboards for ideas is an okay thing. I did that with Magnus's championship deck from 2010 for my deck that won the Arkham Nights tournament that year. Of course, that's partially because I didn't have access to 8x Sledge Dogs at the time (and I don't like Furtive Zoogs; sorry Tom!) but also because I had my ideas to make it better, including using cards he didn't have available at the time (Intervention FTW).

I still look at decks that are posted. They give me ideas for what could possibly work. But I won't ever copy them verbatim. That takes away from the fun! My wife and I don't have a tournament that we can enter this year, so I'm happy to post decks that we've come up with to give other people ideas.

piszcadz said:

It doesn't seem lame, it's just a completely new concept to me which is why I created this thread. When I was playing Magic (or other CCGs) there weren't any online communities like there are now, so netdecking didn't exist. And now that I feel really old, I'll be taking my walker and heading out. Slowly. Oh so slowly…

Yipe said:

1) I think it is great for noobs, since FFG have published so little about the subject themselves and helps them get a feel for how card interactions work that can only be demonstrated through use.

2) I have, but never directly as a deck has to fit my style of play so it is never a direct copy even if the fundamental deck engine is similar.

3) I have, but as the Professor notes above, there are so few decks posted that credit given can be tenuous, and thus ultimately unnecessary.

4) I guess I answered that in #2, but I am one of the few people who actively does post their deck ideas. So I see it more as the sharing of ideas than the commonly used term that M:tG is known for which is known primarily as a a pejorative in that case.

AUCodeMonkey said:

Indeed. Intervention FTW. Literally.

Both of our decks at that tourney were "Netdecks", yet we brought our own manipulations to that deck to make them unique yet still competitive.

I would not credit the engine with anyone person online though, as I saw James Hata abusing the hell out of that engine (Or should I say abusing the hell out of me with that engine?) before tourney season that year.

Which is the pain with crediting decks. Lots of people come up with these combinations on their own, thousands of miles apart from one another. I see it happen all the time when checking out decks on Le Cenacle.

I find two uses for "Netdecking" that suit my style of play;

1)Inspiration: When I know in broad strokes the kind of deck I want to make, I can turn to deck lists online and look for common denominators and "must haves" to build the foundation around. Its a good way to make sure you're not missing an obvious card that makes the whole thing work, or work better.

For instance, for anyone that's ever played Star Wars CCG back in the day, when a new expansion came out with a new objective, you could check out decktech.net and see what people are saying about certain deck types, like weaknesses etc.

For CoC, maybe you're just curious to see what a MU rush deck should look like.

2)Quick Decks: When I need to make a couple of decks really quick, to let friends play when they don't own their own cards.

I'm not going to spend hours compiling, tweaking, etc, when I just need to slap something together for a couple of games, just to put it away again.

Either way, I prefer deck lists that come with some sort of explanation as to why certain cards are in there, and a general "how to" summary one what to expect with the deck.

So for CoC, is there a relatively ideal starting hand I should try and mulligan for if I don't draw it right away? What sort of combos am I trying to ultimately set up here, so I don't put a key card as a domain resource instead. Small bullet points like that are usually enough to tell you what you need to know to play it properly enough. The rest you can figure out by reading what all the cards do.

In the end, deck lists are really just about getting some information really quickly, without pouring over cards and analyzing a lot of different things. Obviously, with experience, you'll ultimately know a lot of these things, but every now and then, someone re-invents the wheel with a list and you can learn something from it.

well said cleardave…

I don't usually netdeck because making the deck is so much of the fun for me.

But I do value it as a way to come to grips with something substantially new. For instance, how does a Things in the Ground deck work? Oh look, I can grab an example and play a couple test games to better understand it. Or to get up to speed with Silver Twilight, or to try a 3-faction deck for the first time. It's great that you can find some examples when you want them and after you play it a little you can start tinkering with the deck to make it your own. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all.

when i first got the game (3 months ago) i didnt netdeck at all as i wanted to see how creative my own decks could be without being 'tainted' per se by seeing any others. after that i netdecked constantly to test my decks and gain inspiration for new decks.

like someone said, it was amazing to see that some of my decks were very close to others posted, proving that minds miles apart can concieve of similar ideas, so credit is really only due to yourself for any decks you create.