I totally feel for ya, Des, because my LGS didn't have a Standard FNM for about 2 months because everyone just didn't want to play against Bant Company. By a stroke of a miracle, we had our first FNM with six people, and there was only one Bant Company which lost hard, 1-2. Felt good
You know, I actually have a fun story from Commander night at my local store. My friend Zach recently created a 5 color unhinged/unglued set thing that we allowed him to play. Unfortunately, he had put wild pair in as well, making it so he could get out Richard Garfield, PH.D. and win the game with a time vault out of a guildgate -_- Needless to say we told him that wasn't going to fly ever again, but he got his four packs out of it and one heck of a laugh
+Card Gamers Guild at my local modern tournaments (we have 2 a month the first and third Saturday) and I consistently get top 3 out of like 20 with my skred red deck here's the trick I have 5 different versions of it, it's never the same, that way they can't side against you I have one with Boros reckoner and demigod of revenge and another with wurncoil engine, thundermaw hellkite, and goblin dark dwellers, and another with monastery swiftspear abbot of keral keep, and chandras phoenix, etc
This happened to me shortly after Fate Reforged was released. Everybody started running Esper Control and 24 out of the 26 decks that were played at the FNM after Fate Reforged was released was Esper Control. The next week I was one of 8 players for that FNM the amount of players literally was cut by over half thanks to net decking.
As a diehard MTG fan (not a MTG pro, mind you), I went to a Game Day event for BfZ for my first FNM (played DotP 2014 on PS3 and Duels on PC) and that's all it was, Netdeckers. I literally played against the same deck three times out of the five matches (Siege Rhino Abzan), and the other two were CoCo elves, and GB aristocrats. I won one match. Tried to go again, and literally was thinking it'd be better to just play on Duels, and collect the physical cards for the f of it since I had a collection started. I did eventually start drafting (first Conspiracy set kicked ass) but even then I noticed that I didn't really like most of the people, considering I like to socialize and joke around with who I play with, but majority of the people I played with would look at me like "why are you trying to talk to me about anything but the game" also the salt and attitude of some of the people I would play with reminded me of an unmoderated youtube comment section, with the store employees not giving two shits. I still remember this lard ass complaining that he got land screwed in a match and just kept moaning and bitching the entire time, while the store owner coddled this dude, who was about my age acting like he was a child. I wouldn't deal with that shit, if I were the owner. Ultimately, I recognized that much of the MTG community was pretty terrible where I was going to FNM (however that kid that played CoCo elves stood out as a genuinely nice player, and was kind enough to pass on some tips, since that was my first FNM). I've moved on and have taught some friends how to play and we chill every weekend, smoke a little smoke and play a bit of Magic. I've basically created the meta, still working towards 20 different constructed decks that are balanced against each other (plus each fitting within a theme that is easily labeled and understood for each deck, with each deck having one planeswalker and a few legendary creatures so they don't feel like they are playing with low tier stuff, which it probably is XD). We roll to see which deck we get, and basically play it almost like some kind of Constructed Deck cube in a way. Either way, it's been a blast, and the matches have been incredibly fun. Ultimately, I say if your FNM experience sucks, make your own. Edit - terrible grammar
... and this is why modern is awesome. You have so many deck types that work at any given time, that no two people are showing up with the same deck. Not like standard, where there are only two or three good options
I live in Australia and travelling between FNM stores is quite along way to travel. Up to 1 hour drive each way to play so the atmosphere is so important. The things i notice which work for the stores and creating great fun environments is that the stores ran two pools of standard. 1 competitive and 1 casual pool. Both providing prizes for 1st through to 8. They also once a month run theme nights for players to create decks around these themes..... E.g most wins with triskaidekaphobia or vampire night for Vampire based decks with all creatures being vampires. Good wholesome fun! P.s Love your UA-cams Mr Magic
At my OLD old store, there was a Gentleman's agreement to not NetDeck in standard. Anyone who DID NetDeck wasn't allowed to play the next week at FNM. Needless to say, no one NetDecked. Of course, this was the only gaming store on an Air Force base in the middle of Texas, so there wasn't anywhere else to go to, but still, the principle is the same.
People should only use the internet for research or to learn how to play or build decks. I started playing magic in High School (before 8th edition) as something to do at Chess tournaments between matches ( yes I was that kind of nerd) but after high school i had to drop it. I just started playing again about 4-5 months ago since I convinced my brothers and several of their friends to play. I picked up an intro deck just to relearn mechanics and game play again since it changed so much. Then i decided I was going to build a deck around a theme. I picked wolves. I didnt have any wolf cards. So I went online and research cards. I came across Several cards that generated wolf tokens. So after several hours I created a Wolf-Briar Elemental & Parallel Lives Combo wolf token deck. I tossed in some Second harvests as well. Granted its not standard but the looks on peoples faces when I placed down 96 tokens in one game was priceless. Wining with a deck idea that you built and came up with feels so good.
Yeah, no, this was totally netdeckers and not just people waiting for rotation to play a new Standard. Nobody has ever sold off/traded away their Standard cards pre-rotation. /s
So my shop usually has about 3 bant CoCo/Humans, 4-5 Teemur Emurge, 2 B/W control, and then like 3 Homebrewers (of which I am prodly one). So I brought my version of Turbo Emerkul and only lost to Bant Humans (one mistake from the win). So basically I turned 5'd an Emerkul and made the guy playing the B/W control deck (that won an open) and he literally picked up and walked out the store. He comes every week with a new deck and I havnt lost to him yet xD. Ive only been going to the store for about 4 weeks and we have 3 standards a week xD.
My lgs is like a hybrid competitive and rogue lists which brings a lot of dynamics to how to approach either. Like I was basically running the Steve Rubin UG crush with like a couple changes to fight stuff at the store. It was a strategic choice and I thought the deck idea was very fun so I play tested for a couple hours a day for 2-3 days and decided to go to fnm with it over my outdated sultai seasons past deck that went 2-2 last time. Our lgs meta game is surprisingly healthy. You can find anything from home brewed mono-white humans and G/R werewolves, a rogue abzan evo-toolbox, and the netdeckers brought out B/G delirium, 4 color emerge, b/w and mardu control, u/r eldrazi and machine gun and more. At that store, you really needed to do your homework and copy/pasta just wasn't going to work. It was interesting to see that everyone was trying to find a list that worked with them and have the clash of ideas about how the game should play. I was surprised that no one brought any type of coco deck (for this week anyway). I went 4-0 without a game loss, mostly cause to my store U/G crush was essentially a rogue deck that no one was prepared to fight. To me, the worst part of net decking is that it creates a huge demand for specific cards and it pushes out people on a budget. I don't its as simple as "just run crap that isn't expensive" because it feels like wotc pushes certain cards too much in power when a card is rare or mythic. I feel that rare and mythic cards should be something that is interesting or does something crazy, not just be strictly better options then similar cards. Ideally, a deck should be mostly common and uncommon with a few rares and mythics to do specific things. If you actually get to the end of this Des, I just want to say I enjoy your videos and keep up the good fight against the cancerous cheating netdeckers.
My local game shop does not have this problem, we do have to deal with net decks, but mostly all of us playing something entirely different. Initially I was playing something similar to your Mr.Nibbles, but I it was not as controlly, the main ones are the B/U spirits and Bant Comp. and now the guy who uses these is playing Superfriends/Titans. I got bored with Grixis Spirits, so I build Eldrazi Midrange in the same colors, which is better suited for me. Luckily my shop changes it up and we have Modern twice a month kicking out most net decks, except for 8-rack which is not too bad to deal with.
multi-location stores have to register each individual locations. also when you lose your status you have a 2 month suspension until you can apply again.
Dammit Desolator it's 8:17 In the morning while I'm watching this and I haven't eaten yet and your pasta sounds fucking fabulous. I came here for magic, not hunger cramps! Lol
Does it count as net decking if I play standard for the 1st time ever with my friends bant company deck? FYI I was blown and lost every almost every game lol.
+Cris Gale A strong deck that did good at a tournament so they decided to build it so they are a net decker. But when someone needs to use a deck and is given a netdeck, that doesn't necessarily mean they are a net decker.
Although my FNM went off the last couple of weeks and showed reasonable variations (admittedly almost all Netdecks) this Friday there was only 2-3 of us who showed up instead of 8-15 for Standard. Normally some ramp, some delirium, some W/B control, sometimes a vampires deck, sometimes 1-2 Bant. Pretty healthy mix but a lack of aggro lately.
I agree, I've rouged a r/g (or I didn't look up one so it might be an unintentional copy) deck and the only times it loses is against Life Stall, Control, or because I got mana screwed
What deck was he playing in the background I was trying to figure out what shenanigans were occurring but I couldn't figure out what it was is it a black devotion or something?
my LGS had 4 ppl attend game day for EMN and one of them had to buy a pre-release kit to play (well the store owner bought it) so yea. and modern isn't supported either, draft only. >_< I build decks so this is frustrating.
The first thing we need to do when we get new players is to tell them not to fall for that trap that is netdecking, seriously it's not good for the other players and for themselves. We need brewing classes for those type of player, so they learn to build their own deck instead of copying it. Most of my decks are brewed only one or two are netdecks with some tweaks and guess which of my decks I enjoy playing the most? The rest of my decks! The two decks I'm talking about are a Legacy Reanimator and a Modern Tron, the games end just in boring ways all the time.
In my own experience, I haven't been to an FNM in a while (last deck I played against was Bant Company), bored of standard atm and waiting for Kaladesh. I believe this is quite common just before rotation though.
I put it all up to bad luck but I went 0-4 two FNMs in a row with Mr. Nibbles. Deck failed on me every time the game counted, worked fine in between rounds. Is it because it wasn't "my" deck?
My LGS definitely has a few netdeckers (a lot of people play B-W control, an exact copy of each other), but even they are pretty friendly. Current deck I'm using is B-W allies. I used to play them a lot back in late BFZ and early Oath (even won a gameday), but ended up retiring them for vamps. In a way, it's like control, but I focus on using allies for life drain, and closing out games with March from the Tomb.
Did your deck used Captain claws? I've been playing b/w allies for like a year now and I found that card to be very good because its very resilient to removal. I also like using Zulaport cutthroat to suicide for the win.
I do like Captain's Claws, but against the meta there, they feel really weak. Mostly ended up making me waste mana I could use, and the creature would get killed before I could do much. If I was running my allies more aggressively.....or against less heavy control, I'd definitely be running 3 or 4 of them. But for now, I'd rather fill that spot with different cards.
stores should implement an "interesting deck" award. if you get blown out but your deck is the weirdest and coolest thing there, you get a bonus prize. it should be an equal prize to someone in let's say 3rd place.
at my lgs, standard almost NEVER fires. I asked why, and the guy at the counter said that it was because people got a bad taste in their mouth because of siege rhino and have not recovered.
some kid at FNM asked me "What deck are you playing" I didn't really pay attention since I was in game. He asked again after game one. my opponent responded "a magic deck." I asked a little less like a Dick "uh. green red white?" It took me a bit to realize I had to tell him I wasn't net decking. I build my decks for fun mostly? Kid looked at me like i was insane.
Totally agree modern is much more popular in my area but everyone in modern plays net decks. It's cost that destroys standard as the richer players can build the most successful decks
Yep, modern has taken over my area as well( i don't mind i play all formats but legacy/vintage). While there are a lot of net decker, there are a lot of viable modern decks...so even though there are alot of net decks we actually have a pretty big variety. When i ask people why they quit standard and focused purely on modern the response was basically the same......."i'd rather pay 500 dollars and play forever than pay 200 dollars for 6 months then have to start over every rotation" Though bant vs bant all day everyday didn't help much either XD
I miss FNM sometimes. I used to hammer out budget decks that would value between $5- $15 and do pretty well (average range top 10 to 3rd place) I love the looks on people's faces using Nicole's cards against top dollar decks.
I'm lucky if Standard even gets 4 people. I hardly even play at my LGS, and when I do, I either don't top because of tiebreakers or have to leave because my parents don't trust me to get myself home. I'm really considering going to a different LGS.
I remember going to an fnm at my local gaming store just two weeks after soi came out, there were only 4 people because there hadn't been any big tournaments yet and nobody had anything to net deck so they just waited it out
I play control in modern so I do "net deck" but it's mostly to find new ideas from other people having to deal with the hoard of race car style aggro that modern is atm. So I look at builds then change them into my versions. I play a differnt style every week grixis esper or jeskai. I find it fun to see other peoples takes.
happened the same way at my FNM location. 40 odd in the theros block down to a core of about 16 net deckers in curent eldrage moon. so yep. happen to my FNM too.
It could be that Kaladesh is coming out soon and that people are getting tired of the same match ups. If the new standard, post-rotation is good I'm sure it'l pick up again. My store has a lot of net-deckers but almost everyone puts their own spin on decks and we only have 1 guy out of 20-30 that plays bant company but ours have been dwindling a bit before rotation and always spikes after new sets.
I started playing again when Oath came out and net decks are part of the reason I'm having a hard time justifying going to FNM anymore. I would usually go against a net deck in the first round then another one in the second round and then maybe possibly going against another one in the third round that would cause me to just drop. It's frustrating to lose three games in a row because you can't get the most expensive cards and you end up facing the same decks every week with no options against them. This combined with not having a car to try and go to other stores in my area really makes it hard for me to want to spend money on this game again.
I have a limited budget to build decks with so if I usually try to build a cheaper deck. By the time I could save up to buy those expensive cards they would be close to rotating.
KyubeetheEspurr Who said anything about them getting butthurt when they lose? I believe that studying and playing with successful decks is one way to learn how to build better homebrews. You can't just say every net decker is just playing to win and only to win. Sometimes they could just be learning the ropes.
I've been playing for nearly a decade. When I first started playing, I dove right into tournament play for Standard. This one prick kept telling my I couldn't counter his Oblivion Ring with my Offerings to Asha (it was 'counter target spell. I gain 4 life.). this was at Meta Games in Springfield, MO. This douchebag is Gary Glaser. Your story here literally describes those people and the store to a T. When I started, they, just as you said: ran about 50+ each week. Now, they have roughly 8 if they're lucky.
Desolator you are the most savage MTG player I've ever seen. Just saying it as it is. Also I would say that there is an advantage to other people netdecking, that being that your sideboard plan is often pretty simple.
Or it could be that standard is rotating in 3 weeks and people don't want to worry about spending money/putting effort into decks when there is a new set coming out. My LGS slows down the month before rotation.
I am a netdecker at the moment. I don't play competitive or anything, just fun, but here's the deal: I'm an old player (urza series) and getting back to the game. A lot has changed, and when I tried playing again I got stomped and lost every single game before turn 4 against hyper-aggressive decks (also copied by netdeckers, I assume). Matches are so quick that I rarely learn anything about my opponent's decks or about the meta. So I resort to copying decks that allow me to slow down aggro decks. Control, Nibbles, RallyFenza and Lantern Control raised my attention, though I fail miserably at the latter because cards that read "name a card: do something" are useless to me until game 2, due to my lack of knowledge about the current meta. Is there an alternative to netdecking that allows me to learn about the game's current state so that I can get to the point where I can build my own viable rogue deck? Honestly asking. I want to become a better player.
I see a contradiction in your statement at 5:05. You said that net deckers ruined standard for your gaming store and may put your store out of business. However, earlier you said that those players changed the decks around to suit their playstyle (since when was U/W spirits a control deck?). They ended up turning those normally agro(bant company) and tempo(most spirit variants) decks into more control type decks which to me says that there is a problem with your player base's overwhelming redundancy in playstyle rather than netdecking.
Yeah my shop has two guys that always get top 2 as g/r emrakul and bant company meanwhile I'm playing a colorless deck because I found it funny and it shocks players a lot which I find to be fun
this is beyond true. this is actually why I don't play standard completely. there's x amount of decks that cost too much money and are cookie cutter so I just don't play. I literally only play commander and I just recently made a modern deck and sadly modern is kinda the same. I'm playing like 100 dollar deck and I don't ever do well but the deck I play is fun to play even when I lose.
This vid says it all. Same thing is happening in my neck of the wood. The local stores cant even hold pre-releases anymore. A long time store owner told me its happening all over Canada. I warned my former lgs the small clique of competitive netdeckers were ruining it for all the other players a few months before they went out of business after the player base melted away. As I told him, I go to fnm to have fun, not to pay so the netdecker jerks ran all over newbies to have their promos and free packs. WotC is better to think about something fast. In the mean time, screw the idiots ruining the game as the others folks just organise commander and draft games home. Heck, last friday, I went to fnm with my friends, we took a table to ourselves, we just turn down the guys wanting us to join and played commander and modern among ourselves. I purpesoly do not build any standard deck, even if as a collector, I have most of the time a playset of all legal cards. It pisses the crap out of me to see some dude with a 700$ deck beat the crap of a kid with a 20$ homebrew and it got me even sicker when I did it to keep up with the insanity.
That's just silly. They could easily copy a different netdeck that is good in that meta game. The problem is that cards like coco are just way too good for standard.
+RainMasterXD Then they should play a different format or not play at all. People are not entitled to play this game, and it's just silly to shame people that do have the money to play.
+michaelkeha It's not shunning to say what I said. The fact is that the best cards are the most expensive cards. And meta gaming is an important part of magic, so you need access to multiple decks that play those cards if you want to win consistently.
+RainMasterXD They should either quit or just get used to not winning. There are casual formats for people who want to have fun without spending tons of money.
nope my store it's a mix of many decks and all the people there are great they help me out all the time and I the same I've been playing dents 1996 so its nice
Patrik NielsenAnd netdecks Can Be good in A single match where you and one of you friend find A deck you like make two Copies of it and Then only play it against Each other to test you luck and strategy With the exacpt same decks so there is no advantage BUT ONLY DO IT IF YOU AGREE WITH SOMEBODY ON USING NETDECKS
Every store in the city I live in had a steady decline in players since bant coco became a thing in standard. Mostly after SOI release, actually. Mos people I've talked to about it blame netdecking and he stale environment it creates and clam its worse now then it has been in years.
Its been like it for a while, but it has gotten worst recently. I remember my former gaming store not being able to hold on to new players who got fed up after 2-3 months of being flattened out every fnm by toptiers decks. Then more experienced players left saying screw this crap and lets play commander, cube or pauper at home. The small clique of competitive players controlling the game store never wanted for anything else than standard on fnm while other players wanted pauper and multiplayers formats. And then the store closed its doors.
I would like to see 2 different nights for FNM. one for Pros and one for fans. and if you played in the pro FNM you arent allowed to play at the fan night. also you can be asked to go from fan night to pro night if you top 3 or something along those lines. I got back in to magic for the 3rd time when Eldritch Moon came out and sure enough. 4 out of 7 people playing spirits. full play sets of Spell Queller everywhere. FNM after that at a different store... same decks I had already lost to.
Only thing I bought online that I couldn't get in my shop was Prized Amalgam, I have 4 cryptbreakers, 4 haunted dead and 4 prized amalgam (this is a combo I saw) but after that were cards I put together, 4 madness vampires (the sacrifice 3 creatures and transform), 2 gisa and geralf, 2 lilianas, 2 relentless dead, 4 diregraf colossus, 3 murders, 3 (return to hand and discard) in my deck and have 2 elder-deep fiend and 2 distended in side deck. I like twisting the deck to my convenience, but I don't like to copy a deck to other people's way of gaming since I play in a different way than everyone...
I would be curious to have a breakout of how much money made by wotc is due to standard players versus collectors, people who draft and EDH players. Because from what I observed, fnms are dying and standard players are rapidly becoming extinct. The netdeckers I knew would not even bother buying a booster box from the lgs. I doubt they are the ones making that much money to wotc.
Personally, I'd be completely ok if no one posted any of the top deck lists at pro tours and high level tournaments. If people don't know exactly what was in a deck that did well in a pro tour, they can't completely copy it unless they did extensive research. At the very least, it helps promote actual deck building and may even keep prices fairly stable and even.
man all your complaints about net deckers makes me feel better about playing draft mostly. (I started playing about a month ago now so I have just been playing draft to get eldrich moon cards and then waiting for Kaladesh to come out to play standard.) Then also a commander deck because it is not too hard finding 1 of's for a deck.
i dont know that net decks is really that much of a problem i rember duelist articles giving deck recipes from world champs with deck lists printed in magizine i also rember when you could buy the grandpre magic preconstructed decks based off the grand whinning deck desighns and have never ran into a deck someone made using am online deck that was any differnt than any decks i had built
To define a player who just copies decks from the internet as lazy or not creative omits a very important, precious type of MTG player: a complete beginner or, to some extend, a returning player. I am the latter and let me tell you: if I want a respectable deck for Commander or Modern, even on casual level, it is almost impossible to build it from scratch. How would you even go about it? I can't imagine a friend of mine -who I've successfully taught MTG just a month ago- going through Gatherer and building their own deck - even in Standard with smaller card pool. Heck, this guy still doesn't even know what the different MTG formats are so what other choice does he have then to copy (or let me advice him) and buy a deck that was published by some more respectable players? And since you are copying somebody's else work already you might as well copy a TOP 8 deck if you have money to do so; that is just natural consumer behaviour. I am not defending net decking -I have a rogue spirit, too- but it takes time to get there.
*everyone= mainly new players like me or very casual ones I agree, not everyone can do a spreadsheet to work out draw probabilities and so on. Not everyone can watch pro card by card reviews on utube for an upcoming set that takes like 15 hours! Not net decking means getting ASS RAPED every match, it means u gotta fend off people dropping two 4/4s on turn 2 and shit(happened to me). I mean losing is ok but getting annihilated every game isn't fun. The internet gives new people more accessibility to the game
Also, it seems as if as far as Desolatormagic is concerned, the only deck techs are pro level, when there is a host of intermediate, casual, and budget deck techs out there
I agree completely. Like, I have no problem with people getting ideas from decks that are doing well, but going card for card making the same deck is boring and unoriginal. How are you having fun copying everyone else? Sure winning is fun, but winning with a deck you made on your own is sweeter. I'm almost already completely done with my kaladesh standard deck. Just tweaking some things.
At my lgs we have about 4 netdeckers, they are all nice people, they only play on Fridays, I try to play when they don't play. (My grammer sucks), but I can't buy the cards I need for my homebrew!
I went 4-1 with some shitty mono blue brain in a jar deck. 2 wins against B/W control. 1 Against R/B Vampires. 1 Bant Company. The only one I lost to was a Humans Deck. Which I'm pretty sure I could have beat had I not gotten land screwed both games. I feel like if you have a deck with Decent Synergies and Efficient Spells, as long as you pilot it right, you should be just fine. Granted it's easier for me to say compared to a brand spanking new player. I learned the game by getting destroyed by these players and became a better player over the span of the, now only, Year and a half I've been playing. I'm just trying to say that sometimes the players aren't always winning because they net deck. Sometimes they're good players that have been playing since Kamigawa and know the in and outs of the game. It's not like every net deck is Caw Blade and a monkey could play and win with. There are different reasons people play magic from creation to competition. Granted, I wish they could keep competition away from FNM, but that's not something we can control.
my solution is that wizards should hide the top tier decks from the general public. it should be that the top 15 players of pro tour and other similar tournaments should not be allowed to share there deck lists with the public. it should be hidden from us. that would hem tremendously.
It's honestly the best idea out there. Yea some people would see the deck but if wizards said if you post a pro tour deck list you will be fined. Kinda like selling fake cards then so many people would be forced to actually play the game the way it's meant to be played. By being creative and not just be a damn mindless sheep.
net deck is just sharing ideas like you are doing in this video. you are dealing with the freedom of people to share bro. and yes, nowdays creativity lacks for a lot of people because being creative is not a good idea for surviving at their lives.
Its only partly true, I do know a few people who don't like the current standard environment because bant is way too good. But there are a lot of other factors, this is a tough time of year with people going back to school and so they can't come out as much and a new version of WOW just came out....so its a combination of things. Net decking really isn't the problem because its always been happening and it hasn't effected attendance.
I totally feel for ya, Des, because my LGS didn't have a Standard FNM for about 2 months because everyone just didn't want to play against Bant Company. By a stroke of a miracle, we had our first FNM with six people, and there was only one Bant Company which lost hard, 1-2. Felt good
You know, I actually have a fun story from Commander night at my local store. My friend Zach recently created a 5 color unhinged/unglued set thing that we allowed him to play. Unfortunately, he had put wild pair in as well, making it so he could get out Richard Garfield, PH.D. and win the game with a time vault out of a guildgate -_-
Needless to say we told him that wasn't going to fly ever again, but he got his four packs out of it and one heck of a laugh
I only play rogue decks. Its no fun to just copy a deck. Half the fun is building your own deck. It's more satisfying to win that way as well.
+Card Gamers Guild
at my local modern tournaments (we have 2 a month the first and third Saturday) and I consistently get top 3 out of like 20 with my skred red deck
here's the trick
I have 5 different versions of it, it's never the same, that way they can't side against you
I have one with Boros reckoner and demigod of revenge and another with wurncoil engine, thundermaw hellkite, and goblin dark dwellers, and another with monastery swiftspear abbot of keral keep, and chandras phoenix, etc
This happened to me shortly after Fate Reforged was released. Everybody started running Esper Control and 24 out of the 26 decks that were played at the FNM after Fate Reforged was released was Esper Control. The next week I was one of 8 players for that FNM the amount of players literally was cut by over half thanks to net decking.
As a diehard MTG fan (not a MTG pro, mind you), I went to a Game Day event for BfZ for my first FNM (played DotP 2014 on PS3 and Duels on PC) and that's all it was, Netdeckers. I literally played against the same deck three times out of the five matches (Siege Rhino Abzan), and the other two were CoCo elves, and GB aristocrats. I won one match. Tried to go again, and literally was thinking it'd be better to just play on Duels, and collect the physical cards for the f of it since I had a collection started.
I did eventually start drafting (first Conspiracy set kicked ass) but even then I noticed that I didn't really like most of the people, considering I like to socialize and joke around with who I play with, but majority of the people I played with would look at me like "why are you trying to talk to me about anything but the game" also the salt and attitude of some of the people I would play with reminded me of an unmoderated youtube comment section, with the store employees not giving two shits.
I still remember this lard ass complaining that he got land screwed in a match and just kept moaning and bitching the entire time, while the store owner coddled this dude, who was about my age acting like he was a child. I wouldn't deal with that shit, if I were the owner. Ultimately, I recognized that much of the MTG community was pretty terrible where I was going to FNM (however that kid that played CoCo elves stood out as a genuinely nice player, and was kind enough to pass on some tips, since that was my first FNM).
I've moved on and have taught some friends how to play and we chill every weekend, smoke a little smoke and play a bit of Magic. I've basically created the meta, still working towards 20 different constructed decks that are balanced against each other (plus each fitting within a theme that is easily labeled and understood for each deck, with each deck having one planeswalker and a few legendary creatures so they don't feel like they are playing with low tier stuff, which it probably is XD). We roll to see which deck we get, and basically play it almost like some kind of Constructed Deck cube in a way. Either way, it's been a blast, and the matches have been incredibly fun. Ultimately, I say if your FNM experience sucks, make your own.
Edit - terrible grammar
Grammar is not that bad ;)
didnt help that the guy i called out was the owners brother lol
... and this is why modern is awesome. You have so many deck types that work at any given time, that no two people are showing up with the same deck. Not like standard, where there are only two or three good options
My LGS usually does standard on Tuesdays, but we haven't had enough people since the newest set came out to play standard.
Last night at FNM only me and 3 others showed up. We just drafted conspiracy instead since we all already made the commute.
I love the feeling when a deck I brewed becomes a tier 1 deck with a few tweaks from other people.
I live in Australia and travelling between FNM stores is quite along way to travel. Up to 1 hour drive each way to play so the atmosphere is so important. The things i notice which work for the stores and creating great fun environments is that the stores ran two pools of standard. 1 competitive and 1 casual pool. Both providing prizes for 1st through to 8. They also once a month run theme nights for players to create decks around these themes..... E.g most wins with triskaidekaphobia or vampire night for Vampire based decks with all creatures being vampires. Good wholesome fun!
P.s Love your UA-cams Mr Magic
At my OLD old store, there was a Gentleman's agreement to not NetDeck in standard. Anyone who DID NetDeck wasn't allowed to play the next week at FNM. Needless to say, no one NetDecked. Of course, this was the only gaming store on an Air Force base in the middle of Texas, so there wasn't anywhere else to go to, but still, the principle is the same.
Boo-Hoo did the sad little SJW get offended?
Only if they are straight up copying the deck from the tournament winners ect.
Highlight of the video, that pasta, damn sounds good. Any way for me to get that recipe?
I'm making a Trinisphere deck, any cards I should use?
I don't know if this would classify the same, but i like to use some decks as guides and add my own variance. (depending on what people are playing).
at my lgs only 1 person was running bant company and everyone else ran different decks. I still haven't placed at all though.
People should only use the internet for research or to learn how to play or build decks. I started playing magic in High School (before 8th edition) as something to do at Chess tournaments between matches ( yes I was that kind of nerd) but after high school i had to drop it. I just started playing again about 4-5 months ago since I convinced my brothers and several of their friends to play. I picked up an intro deck just to relearn mechanics and game play again since it changed so much. Then i decided I was going to build a deck around a theme. I picked wolves. I didnt have any wolf cards. So I went online and research cards. I came across Several cards that generated wolf tokens. So after several hours I created a Wolf-Briar Elemental & Parallel Lives Combo wolf token deck. I tossed in some Second harvests as well. Granted its not standard but the looks on peoples faces when I placed down 96 tokens in one game was priceless. Wining with a deck idea that you built and came up with feels so good.
Yeah, no, this was totally netdeckers and not just people waiting for rotation to play a new Standard. Nobody has ever sold off/traded away their Standard cards pre-rotation. /s
So my shop usually has about 3 bant CoCo/Humans, 4-5 Teemur Emurge, 2 B/W control, and then like 3 Homebrewers (of which I am prodly one). So I brought my version of Turbo Emerkul and only lost to Bant Humans (one mistake from the win). So basically I turned 5'd an Emerkul and made the guy playing the B/W control deck (that won an open) and he literally picked up and walked out the store. He comes every week with a new deck and I havnt lost to him yet xD. Ive only been going to the store for about 4 weeks and we have 3 standards a week xD.
i am eating pasta as i watch this and feel a tomato garlic connection with you des
My lgs is like a hybrid competitive and rogue lists which brings a lot of dynamics to how to approach either. Like I was basically running the Steve Rubin UG crush with like a couple changes to fight stuff at the store. It was a strategic choice and I thought the deck idea was very fun so I play tested for a couple hours a day for 2-3 days and decided to go to fnm with it over my outdated sultai seasons past deck that went 2-2 last time.
Our lgs meta game is surprisingly healthy. You can find anything from home brewed mono-white humans and G/R werewolves, a rogue abzan evo-toolbox, and the netdeckers brought out B/G delirium, 4 color emerge, b/w and mardu control, u/r eldrazi and machine gun and more. At that store, you really needed to do your homework and copy/pasta just wasn't going to work. It was interesting to see that everyone was trying to find a list that worked with them and have the clash of ideas about how the game should play. I was surprised that no one brought any type of coco deck (for this week anyway).
I went 4-0 without a game loss, mostly cause to my store U/G crush was essentially a rogue deck that no one was prepared to fight. To me, the worst part of net decking is that it creates a huge demand for specific cards and it pushes out people on a budget. I don't its as simple as "just run crap that isn't expensive" because it feels like wotc pushes certain cards too much in power when a card is rare or mythic. I feel that rare and mythic cards should be something that is interesting or does something crazy, not just be strictly better options then similar cards. Ideally, a deck should be mostly common and uncommon with a few rares and mythics to do specific things.
If you actually get to the end of this Des, I just want to say I enjoy your videos and keep up the good fight against the cancerous cheating netdeckers.
My LGS has great solution-our FNM is Commander!
This is why I build decks based on my collection with a few cards I've been pointed at to improve power level :P
My local game shop does not have this problem, we do have to deal with net decks, but mostly all of us playing something entirely different. Initially I was playing something similar to your Mr.Nibbles, but I it was not as controlly, the main ones are the B/U spirits and Bant Comp. and now the guy who uses these is playing Superfriends/Titans. I got bored with Grixis Spirits, so I build Eldrazi Midrange in the same colors, which is better suited for me. Luckily my shop changes it up and we have Modern twice a month kicking out most net decks, except for 8-rack which is not too bad to deal with.
multi-location stores have to register each individual locations. also when you lose your status you have a 2 month suspension until you can apply again.
Dammit Desolator it's 8:17 In the morning while I'm watching this and I haven't eaten yet and your pasta sounds fucking fabulous. I came here for magic, not hunger cramps! Lol
Does it count as net decking if I play standard for the 1st time ever with my friends bant company deck? FYI I was blown and lost every almost every game lol.
+Cris Gale A strong deck that did good at a tournament so they decided to build it so they are a net decker. But when someone needs to use a deck and is given a netdeck, that doesn't necessarily mean they are a net decker.
Although my FNM went off the last couple of weeks and showed reasonable variations (admittedly almost all Netdecks) this Friday there was only 2-3 of us who showed up instead of 8-15 for Standard.
Normally some ramp, some delirium, some W/B control, sometimes a vampires deck, sometimes 1-2 Bant. Pretty healthy mix but a lack of aggro lately.
I agree, I've rouged a r/g (or I didn't look up one so it might be an unintentional copy) deck and the only times it loses is against Life Stall, Control, or because I got mana screwed
What deck was he playing in the background I was trying to figure out what shenanigans were occurring but I couldn't figure out what it was is it a black devotion or something?
my LGS had 4 ppl attend game day for EMN and one of them had to buy a pre-release kit to play (well the store owner bought it)
so yea. and modern isn't supported either, draft only. >_< I build decks so this is frustrating.
In the beginning, it sounds like you were talking about Meta Games Unlimited.
What about drafting?
This exact thing happened to my favorite lgs. Haven't held standard in 3 weeks.
The first thing we need to do when we get new players is to tell them not to fall for that trap that is netdecking, seriously it's not good for the other players and for themselves. We need brewing classes for those type of player, so they learn to build their own deck instead of copying it. Most of my decks are brewed only one or two are netdecks with some tweaks and guess which of my decks I enjoy playing the most? The rest of my decks! The two decks I'm talking about are a Legacy Reanimator and a Modern Tron, the games end just in boring ways all the time.
In my own experience, I haven't been to an FNM in a while (last deck I played against was Bant Company), bored of standard atm and waiting for Kaladesh. I believe this is quite common just before rotation though.
I put it all up to bad luck but I went 0-4 two FNMs in a row with Mr. Nibbles. Deck failed on me every time the game counted, worked fine in between rounds. Is it because it wasn't "my" deck?
My LGS definitely has a few netdeckers (a lot of people play B-W control, an exact copy of each other), but even they are pretty friendly. Current deck I'm using is B-W allies. I used to play them a lot back in late BFZ and early Oath (even won a gameday), but ended up retiring them for vamps. In a way, it's like control, but I focus on using allies for life drain, and closing out games with March from the Tomb.
Did your deck used Captain claws? I've been playing b/w allies for like a year now and I found that card to be very good because its very resilient to removal. I also like using Zulaport cutthroat to suicide for the win.
I do like Captain's Claws, but against the meta there, they feel really weak. Mostly ended up making me waste mana I could use, and the creature would get killed before I could do much. If I was running my allies more aggressively.....or against less heavy control, I'd definitely be running 3 or 4 of them. But for now, I'd rather fill that spot with different cards.
stores should implement an "interesting deck" award. if you get blown out but your deck is the weirdest and coolest thing there, you get a bonus prize. it should be an equal prize to someone in let's say 3rd place.
at my lgs, standard almost NEVER fires. I asked why, and the guy at the counter said that it was because people got a bad taste in their mouth because of siege rhino and have not recovered.
"oooo my pastas ready!" had me on my ass omg lmfao
some kid at FNM asked me "What deck are you playing" I didn't really pay attention since I was in game. He asked again after game one. my opponent responded "a magic deck." I asked a little less like a Dick "uh. green red white?"
It took me a bit to realize I had to tell him I wasn't net decking. I build my decks for fun mostly?
Kid looked at me like i was insane.
I just versed a net decker last night ughhhh
hey i started xmage. how do you get the set up u have, meaning seeing ur whole hand.
You need a higher resolution screen. On a PC just buy one but on a laptop you're kinda stuck if it's 1366x768, which is nowhere near large enough.
It's not net decking.....its 6 month rotation causing standard to become a lot more expensive.
Totally agree modern is much more popular in my area but everyone in modern plays net decks.
It's cost that destroys standard as the richer players can build the most successful decks
Yep, modern has taken over my area as well( i don't mind i play all formats but legacy/vintage). While there are a lot of net decker, there are a lot of viable modern decks...so even though there are alot of net decks we actually have a pretty big variety.
When i ask people why they quit standard and focused purely on modern the response was basically the same......."i'd rather pay 500 dollars and play forever than pay 200 dollars for 6 months then have to start over every rotation"
Though bant vs bant all day everyday didn't help much either XD
at my LGS we pretty much only play limited to avoid net deck problems like that
I miss FNM sometimes. I used to hammer out budget decks that would value between $5- $15 and do pretty well (average range top 10 to 3rd place) I love the looks on people's faces using Nicole's cards against top dollar decks.
I'm lucky if Standard even gets 4 people. I hardly even play at my LGS, and when I do, I either don't top because of tiebreakers or have to leave because my parents don't trust me to get myself home. I'm really considering going to a different LGS.
I remember going to an fnm at my local gaming store just two weeks after soi came out, there were only 4 people because there hadn't been any big tournaments yet and nobody had anything to net deck so they just waited it out
Funny you say that. It's like my store only about 3 people go and the rest don't show up after a week.
I play control in modern so I do "net deck" but it's mostly to find new ideas from other people having to deal with the hoard of race car style aggro that modern is atm. So I look at builds then change them into my versions. I play a differnt style every week grixis esper or jeskai. I find it fun to see other peoples takes.
happened the same way at my FNM location. 40 odd in the theros block down to a core of about 16 net deckers in curent eldrage moon. so yep. happen to my FNM too.
It could be that Kaladesh is coming out soon and that people are getting tired of the same match ups. If the new standard, post-rotation is good I'm sure it'l pick up again. My store has a lot of net-deckers but almost everyone puts their own spin on decks and we only have 1 guy out of 20-30 that plays bant company but ours have been dwindling a bit before rotation and always spikes after new sets.
wtf that thumbnail des.
you're awesome
I started playing again when Oath came out and net decks are part of the reason I'm having a hard time justifying going to FNM anymore. I would usually go against a net deck in the first round then another one in the second round and then maybe possibly going against another one in the third round that would cause me to just drop. It's frustrating to lose three games in a row because you can't get the most expensive cards and you end up facing the same decks every week with no options against them. This combined with not having a car to try and go to other stores in my area really makes it hard for me to want to spend money on this game again.
I have a limited budget to build decks with so if I usually try to build a cheaper deck. By the time I could save up to buy those expensive cards they would be close to rotating.
I play green white Corrupted Angels and i always end up on top 4. the only decks that I lose from at my card store is from QuadWalkers. ._.
this was out at 1 am?
How dare anybody play a deck they like
its not that they play a deck they like. Its that they play a deck a pro played, solely to win, and get butthurt when they dont.
KyubeetheEspurr Who said anything about them getting butthurt when they lose? I believe that studying and playing with successful decks is one way to learn how to build better homebrews. You can't just say every net decker is just playing to win and only to win. Sometimes they could just be learning the ropes.
I've been playing for nearly a decade. When I first started playing, I dove right into tournament play for Standard. This one prick kept telling my I couldn't counter his Oblivion Ring with my Offerings to Asha (it was 'counter target spell. I gain 4 life.). this was at Meta Games in Springfield, MO. This douchebag is Gary Glaser. Your story here literally describes those people and the store to a T. When I started, they, just as you said: ran about 50+ each week. Now, they have roughly 8 if they're lucky.
Desolator you are the most savage MTG player I've ever seen. Just saying it as it is.
Also I would say that there is an advantage to other people netdecking, that being that your sideboard plan is often pretty simple.
Or it could be that standard is rotating in 3 weeks and people don't want to worry about spending money/putting effort into decks when there is a new set coming out. My LGS slows down the month before rotation.
What's that magic game that's being played in the video? can you play it on a tablet?
Xmage and no
I am a netdecker at the moment. I don't play competitive or anything, just fun, but here's the deal:
I'm an old player (urza series) and getting back to the game. A lot has changed, and when I tried playing again I got stomped and lost every single game before turn 4 against hyper-aggressive decks (also copied by netdeckers, I assume). Matches are so quick that I rarely learn anything about my opponent's decks or about the meta.
So I resort to copying decks that allow me to slow down aggro decks. Control, Nibbles, RallyFenza and Lantern Control raised my attention, though I fail miserably at the latter because cards that read "name a card: do something" are useless to me until game 2, due to my lack of knowledge about the current meta.
Is there an alternative to netdecking that allows me to learn about the game's current state so that I can get to the point where I can build my own viable rogue deck? Honestly asking. I want to become a better player.
I see a contradiction in your statement at 5:05. You said that net deckers ruined standard for your gaming store and may put your store out of business. However, earlier you said that those players changed the decks around to suit their playstyle (since when was U/W spirits a control deck?). They ended up turning those normally agro(bant company) and tempo(most spirit variants) decks into more control type decks which to me says that there is a problem with your player base's overwhelming redundancy in playstyle rather than netdecking.
Yeah my shop has two guys that always get top 2 as g/r emrakul and bant company meanwhile I'm playing a colorless deck because I found it funny and it shocks players a lot which I find to be fun
What program is that? :D
this is beyond true. this is actually why I don't play standard completely. there's x amount of decks that cost too much money and are cookie cutter so I just don't play. I literally only play commander and I just recently made a modern deck and sadly modern is kinda the same. I'm playing like 100 dollar deck and I don't ever do well but the deck I play is fun to play even when I lose.
Every time someone net decks a puppy dies!
My lgs never had an influx of spirits decks I think maybe one person used it
This vid says it all. Same thing is happening in my neck of the wood. The local stores cant even hold pre-releases anymore. A long time store owner told me its happening all over Canada. I warned my former lgs the small clique of competitive netdeckers were ruining it for all the other players a few months before they went out of business after the player base melted away. As I told him, I go to fnm to have fun, not to pay so the netdecker jerks ran all over newbies to have their promos and free packs. WotC is better to think about something fast. In the mean time, screw the idiots ruining the game as the others folks just organise commander and draft games home. Heck, last friday, I went to fnm with my friends, we took a table to ourselves, we just turn down the guys wanting us to join and played commander and modern among ourselves. I purpesoly do not build any standard deck, even if as a collector, I have most of the time a playset of all legal cards. It pisses the crap out of me to see some dude with a 700$ deck beat the crap of a kid with a 20$ homebrew and it got me even sicker when I did it to keep up with the insanity.
That's just silly. They could easily copy a different netdeck that is good in that meta game. The problem is that cards like coco are just way too good for standard.
Either that or they are just to stupid to know how to meta game. Either way, I wouldn't want to play with those people, net decks or not.
+RainMasterXD Then they should play a different format or not play at all. People are not entitled to play this game, and it's just silly to shame people that do have the money to play.
+RainMasterXD And I say this as a person who can't afford paper magic.
+michaelkeha It's not shunning to say what I said. The fact is that the best cards are the most expensive cards. And meta gaming is an important part of magic, so you need access to multiple decks that play those cards if you want to win consistently.
+RainMasterXD They should either quit or just get used to not winning. There are casual formats for people who want to have fun without spending tons of money.
your pc has thumbs?
:p
was thinking about creating a blue white deck :( I changed idea
Why'd you rollback just because you misplayed
Totally agree! Have never net decked, almost always dead last. haha
i dont follow the pro scene a lot but i saw the eldritch moon finals and lucas blohans deck seemed really good
At my LGS everyone plays Standard and almost no one plays Modern. Then they all play Draft after the tournament.
nope my store it's a mix of many decks and all the people there are great they help me out all the time and I the same I've been playing dents 1996 so its nice
this is what happened at my lgs
same thing happened at my lgs I was the only one there for standard
Patrik NielsenAnd netdecks Can Be good in A single match where you and one of you friend find A deck you like make two Copies of it and Then only play it against Each other to test you luck and strategy With the exacpt same decks so there is no advantage BUT ONLY DO IT IF YOU AGREE WITH SOMEBODY ON USING NETDECKS
Every store in the city I live in had a steady decline in players since bant coco became a thing in standard. Mostly after SOI release, actually. Mos people I've talked to about it blame netdecking and he stale environment it creates and clam its worse now then it has been in years.
Its been like it for a while, but it has gotten worst recently. I remember my former gaming store not being able to hold on to new players who got fed up after 2-3 months of being flattened out every fnm by toptiers decks. Then more experienced players left saying screw this crap and lets play commander, cube or pauper at home. The small clique of competitive players controlling the game store never wanted for anything else than standard on fnm while other players wanted pauper and multiplayers formats. And then the store closed its doors.
I would like to see 2 different nights for FNM. one for Pros and one for fans. and if you played in the pro FNM you arent allowed to play at the fan night. also you can be asked to go from fan night to pro night if you top 3 or something along those lines.
I got back in to magic for the 3rd time when Eldritch Moon came out and sure enough. 4 out of 7 people playing spirits. full play sets of Spell Queller everywhere. FNM after that at a different store... same decks I had already lost to.
Wow... same happened to me, this Friday NOBODY showed up... really got me mad :(
Only thing I bought online that I couldn't get in my shop was Prized Amalgam, I have 4 cryptbreakers, 4 haunted dead and 4 prized amalgam (this is a combo I saw) but after that were cards I put together, 4 madness vampires (the sacrifice 3 creatures and transform), 2 gisa and geralf, 2 lilianas, 2 relentless dead, 4 diregraf colossus, 3 murders, 3 (return to hand and discard) in my deck and have 2 elder-deep fiend and 2 distended in side deck. I like twisting the deck to my convenience, but I don't like to copy a deck to other people's way of gaming since I play in a different way than everyone...
I would be curious to have a breakout of how much money made by wotc is due to standard players versus collectors, people who draft and EDH players. Because from what I observed, fnms are dying and standard players are rapidly becoming extinct. The netdeckers I knew would not even bother buying a booster box from the lgs. I doubt they are the ones making that much money to wotc.
Des can you make me some of that pasta please?
Personally, I'd be completely ok if no one posted any of the top deck lists at pro tours and high level tournaments. If people don't know exactly what was in a deck that did well in a pro tour, they can't completely copy it unless they did extensive research. At the very least, it helps promote actual deck building and may even keep prices fairly stable and even.
harambe is a gaming store because of net decking
man all your complaints about net deckers makes me feel better about playing draft mostly. (I started playing about a month ago now so I have just been playing draft to get eldrich moon cards and then waiting for Kaladesh to come out to play standard.) Then also a commander deck because it is not too hard finding 1 of's for a deck.
i dont know that net decks is really that much of a problem i rember duelist articles giving deck recipes from world champs with deck lists printed in magizine i also rember when you could buy the grandpre magic preconstructed decks based off the grand whinning deck desighns and have never ran into a deck someone made using am online deck that was any differnt than any decks i had built
To define a player who just copies decks from the internet as lazy or not creative omits a very important, precious type of MTG player: a complete beginner or, to some extend, a returning player.
I am the latter and let me tell you: if I want a respectable deck for Commander or Modern, even on casual level, it is almost impossible to build it from scratch. How would you even go about it? I can't imagine a friend of mine -who I've successfully taught MTG just a month ago- going through Gatherer and building their own deck - even in Standard with smaller card pool. Heck, this guy still doesn't even know what the different MTG formats are so what other choice does he have then to copy (or let me advice him) and buy a deck that was published by some more respectable players?
And since you are copying somebody's else work already you might as well copy a TOP 8 deck if you have money to do so; that is just natural consumer behaviour.
I am not defending net decking -I have a rogue spirit, too- but it takes time to get there.
Or players that don't care about deck building and just want to play the game.
*everyone= mainly new players like me or very casual ones
I agree, not everyone can do a spreadsheet to work out draw probabilities and so on. Not everyone can watch pro card by card reviews on utube for an upcoming set that takes like 15 hours! Not net decking means getting ASS RAPED every match, it means u gotta fend off people dropping two 4/4s on turn 2 and shit(happened to me). I mean losing is ok but getting annihilated every game isn't fun. The internet gives new people more accessibility to the game
Also, it seems as if as far as Desolatormagic is concerned, the only deck techs are pro level, when there is a host of intermediate, casual, and budget deck techs out there
Also could just be that rotation is coming and nobody wants to spend money on standard.
I agree completely. Like, I have no problem with people getting ideas from decks that are doing well, but going card for card making the same deck is boring and unoriginal. How are you having fun copying everyone else? Sure winning is fun, but winning with a deck you made on your own is sweeter. I'm almost already completely done with my kaladesh standard deck. Just tweaking some things.
At my lgs we have about 4 netdeckers, they are all nice people, they only play on Fridays, I try to play when they don't play. (My grammer sucks), but I can't buy the cards I need for my homebrew!
i started to only do drafts because of netdecking
I went 4-1 with some shitty mono blue brain in a jar deck. 2 wins against B/W control. 1 Against R/B Vampires. 1 Bant Company. The only one I lost to was a Humans Deck. Which I'm pretty sure I could have beat had I not gotten land screwed both games.
I feel like if you have a deck with Decent Synergies and Efficient Spells, as long as you pilot it right, you should be just fine. Granted it's easier for me to say compared to a brand spanking new player. I learned the game by getting destroyed by these players and became a better player over the span of the, now only, Year and a half I've been playing.
I'm just trying to say that sometimes the players aren't always winning because they net deck. Sometimes they're good players that have been playing since Kamigawa and know the in and outs of the game. It's not like every net deck is Caw Blade and a monkey could play and win with. There are different reasons people play magic from creation to competition. Granted, I wish they could keep competition away from FNM, but that's not something we can control.
my solution is that wizards should hide the top tier decks from the general public. it should be that the top 15 players of pro tour and other similar tournaments should not be allowed to share there deck lists with the public. it should be hidden from us. that would hem tremendously.
It's honestly the best idea out there. Yea some people would see the deck but if wizards said if you post a pro tour deck list you will be fined. Kinda like selling fake cards then so many people would be forced to actually play the game the way it's meant to be played. By being creative and not just be a damn mindless sheep.
net deck is just sharing ideas like you are doing in this video. you are dealing with the freedom of people to share bro. and yes, nowdays creativity lacks for a lot of people because being creative is not a good idea for surviving at their lives.
yea 4 colour superfriends! with call of the gatewatch :P 20 planeswalkers wooooo
Its only partly true, I do know a few people who don't like the current standard environment because bant is way too good. But there are a lot of other factors, this is a tough time of year with people going back to school and so they can't come out as much and a new version of WOW just came out....so its a combination of things. Net decking really isn't the problem because its always been happening and it hasn't effected attendance.
m y p a s t a ' s d o n e