The term “Netdecking” is a sensitive subject for some. It is often used and thought of in negative connotation to denote that someone is unoriginal, lacks creativity, or is a “try-hard”. In my opinion, most of the people who use it negatively and look down upon others for it, are in actuality the foolish ones. I’m not going to waste time and effort explaining why that they are handicapping themselves, when someone else has done a great job of doing that. The link is to Introducing the Scrub by Sirlin and it’s a very good read into a compelling subject and if you haven’t read it before, then I sincerely suggest that you take the time to. Moving on now, I want to talk about how to “Netdeck” properly as well as some of the pitfalls that happen when doing it.

Stage 1: Carbon Copying

Many a top player can skip Stage 1, but they would honestly need experience with similar builds or the cards in the current build. If you aren’t 100% sure that you can skip this stage, then don’t and even if you think you’re one of the competent ones that can, you probably shouldn’t skip it. Making a 100% copy of a list and getting testing in with it is one of the few ways to get an actual feel for how the deck operates and the thinking of the pilot. Another reason for the exact copy even if you aren’t going to play it in tournament is because you’ll be expected to see exact copies at upcoming events and you want to better understand what the opponent will be thinking about on the other side of the table if you pair up.

Once you have enough reps to understand how the deck operates, you want to dissect some of the decisions about the deck and see if you can narrow down what the “meta slots” were which were used for their area or that specific tournament to help against the playing field. Things like Deflect would be maindeck options in a heavy Ranged field, but would be meta slots against specific decks if the field only had small representations of Ranged (you would expect them to be at the top tables though). Was there a card or cards in the deck that just felt TERRIBLE usually?? Those are likely to actually be meta slot options or potentially mistakes and it is important to figure this out, so that is why making an exact copy was important. You need to figure out what those were and decide if they were right for the event you plan to use it at, especially if you play in a game with a constantly evolving meta. How useful is last week’s news???

Pitfall: We’ll usually be under the assumption that each card in the deck has a specific purpose and that the decision making was logical, but don’t always assume that it was correct, because maybe they forgot a card existed or didn’t have access to it. I remember there being an international tournament where someone who won or make top 2/4 had a singleton Vader’s Fist and that definitely wasn’t by choice (they commented that they only had 1 when I talked about it). If you are bringing back an old list to life, be sure to remember the overall game plan if you are going to skip Stage 1.

Stage 2: Amending

As humans, we’re seldom happy with what we have and always want more and in most situations there isn’t anything wrong with that. Now that we know what the deck plays out like, it is time to modify it to our personal tastes as well as whatever meta we are going to play at. Having an understanding of the expected meta is very important, but we have to be careful about the adjustments we make being good for the deck. What were the weaknesses, do we put in cards to help shore up those issues or do we just ignore them and go full throttle with our game plan? Some times I’ll make a deck and know that there is a glaring weakness to a certain deck or archetype, but I’ll just take lumps if I run into that deck but want to beat every other deck. At other times, I like to do the Turtenwald 45/55, which I can’t seem to google right now, but the gist of it is that you have no auto loss, but are just barely weaker than every deck and you use your skill differential to take that semi coin flip and win. Both of those really involve deck creation more than anything, but my point is that you can make adjustments to a deck to change percentages around against specific match-ups when you REALLY want to, but at what cost is the question.

Edit: Matthew Scott found the article where he talked about it. Thanks! 45% Zoo by Owen Turtenwald

If we find other combos that are in line with the deck or cards that synergize well with existing cards, then those are often the ones that we’ll fit in via modifications. There is usually a goal in the deck and accomplishing said goal is what you most want to do, so cards that fit that tend to make the most sense. After that are cards that just completely ruin certain decks that you are concerned about / expect at the event and then seeing how many you need / can fit in to the deck without messing stuff up. Some modifications won’t even be cards in the deck, but in the line up. Any one that was following what I played during this last format would know that I swapped from Rebel Traitor in Snoke Rainbow to Bala-Tik and that change had a ripple effect to adjust my mitigation as well as making sure that I ran 2x Handheld Cannon for any spicy Bala untaps (when I remembered them). Most decks can’t just make lineup adjustments like that all willy nilly, but it is definitely some thing that you don’t want to forget about.

Pitfall: Early on in a new formats, decks that win are often lacking the fine-tuning that we see near the end of a format, so keep in mind that there is a world of unknown early on and you have to be ready for all sorts of crazy stuff coming out of the wood works. If you live in the past, you might find out that things didn’t go well for you at your next event. Be careful that your modifications don’t spiral out of control and completely lose what the actual goal of the deck was (unless that was the point of your changes; going in a different direction).

Stage 3: The Test of Time

Finding the exact deck list to play is often the hardest part, but don’t sleep on constantly trying to perfect the deck and getting in testing to make sure that things haven’t changed. Most big events are spread out and there is a rather large difference in having to play a Regional in December vs playing one in March. Decks have become more fine-tuned as times goes on and they evolved event after event, so your “perfect” deck may not be so perfect any more and you’ll have to continually get games in to see if anything has changed. Did some one else come up with a new variation of the deck that operates better? Are there some things in there that you can use to adjust your list? Did people figure out how to attack the list and now it is much more brittle than it was before?? Constantly seek to grow and evolve or you’ll be left in the dust as other cross the finish line in front of you!

~HonestlySarcastc

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