#netdecking

Alright it’s no secret I’ve been playing Magic lately. In fact, I haven’t even seen my favorite splash screen in months. Those delightful red letters all connected, knowing you are getting a fucking hell of a game in a few minutes. I love SSI.

But, I’ve also played Hearthstone lately, and I’ve played Yugioh! in years prior. Not to say anything of Pokemon, Duel Monsters, and whatever nonsense my little brother comes home with. I say this because I want people to know I play a lot of TCGs. And something I’ve thought about a lot over the years is Netdecking. Which is the act of building a deck based on a list you found on the internet, or a magazine way back when but I digress. And I lied, it’s been a while since I’ve thought about it. Why? Because I started doing it. And it’s made me a better player.

I want to tell every new player to shut up, sit down, find a deck they think is awesome and proxy it out. I know, half the fun is building a deck out of your collection. So I won’t tell every new player to do this. I will first ask them what they want. If they tell me they just want to piss around and have some casual fun, then I’ll tell them go right ahead. But if you tell me you wanna win, or if you’re strange you tell me you wanna dig into the intricacies of the game. Then I tell you to find a deck list on the internet, like find a card you like and find a deck that uses it. 

Now go back to “...you’re strange...”. Because that was where I became sold on the idea of net decking. Because I had played Magic on and off for years, and had mostly given up on it by the time I discovered my LGS. Mostly, because I was getting my ass kicked in at FNMs. Did I complain about netdecking then? No. I did for Yugioh! however. Because I’ve never gone into an event where there wasn’t just mostly one deck going around. But you know what? I just quit Yugioh! events. But Magic was interesting. And when I found this new shop, I was just playing DnD. However this was primarily a Magic shop, and before DnD started there were often people playing Magic there. So I’d watch. And the things they did were unimaginable. Strategies that were completely alien and backwards to me. Thoughtsieze for example is a card that you pay 2 life to make your opponent discard a card of your choice. A card I dismissed, because are you kidding me 2 life? I could lose the game!

So, a guy sat with me and I grabbed my old deck and we played. And I lost. I lost hard. I lost disgracefully. I was drawn and quartered. He stripped my hand of every useful card. He played at times I didn’t expect him. He had mana coming faster then I could’ve ever dreamed. He was never at a lack of things to do, while I often passed the turn, not having a card that was remotely relevant to the board state. I lost.

We get up. And he’s like give me one sec and $10 for sleeves. And he comes back in a little bit and tells me “I saw what you like to do. Here try this deck.” And he comes back with a proxied deck. And we play again. And I lost. But it was closer. It was actually close. And each game I understand better. I have cards with versatility. I have a deck that can do things. 

But I get bored with it. And try Elves. I print out that deck. And begin building it. And eventually I win an FNM. No match losses. But you know what? It wasn’t with the list I printed out. Close. Elves is a sort of combo deck, that needs a lot of cards in it to always be there. Cards I’d have never understood unless if I thought “I like Elves. I wonder what an Elves Magic deck looks like”. Because my old way of thinking would’ve been buy all the Elves I see and cobble together 60 cards. And it would have lost. But I saw this list and I taught myself the mechanics that it used. Like Heritage Druid’s ability to tap 3 Elves for 3 Green Mana. A card I owned forever, but I thought was bad, because I needed elves which already usually tapped for mana. But, it’s usage in a pro-level deck made me ask why. And I learned that that ignored summoning sickness. So if I had 3 elves on the table I could tap them for mana whenever I wanted. I could use my 3 lands to make 3 elves and then use those make three more elves. And then if I had 3 more elves I could summon them now. And I learned why no one would attack when I had 3 elves untapped, because I had a card that said for a green mana, I could regenerate an elf. Because blocking didn’t require me to tap. A simple rule I never thought about in that regard. I always took it to mean I couldn’t block with a tapped creature. Not that I could block and tap for an ability. All interactions I’d never have even thought anything of.

And going to the old creativity question. It’s nonsense. I always tweak decks I pull from the net. And I can do comfortably now that I have practice. Now that I know how good decks work and feel and look. But also, because I know what I’m comfortable with. My original list lacked a card that I still don’t know why. A card called Dwynen’s Elite. This card puts an elf token onto the field if I had an elf on the field already. So for one card I have two elves. And I can play it turn two. And let’s just say turn one I played Heritage Druid, that card that let’s me tap elves for mana, even after they’ve just hit the board. Well that’s an elf. Which means Dwynen’s Elite comes down as two elves. Which now means I have three elves. Hey, I now have three mana. Why I think I’m going to play this Elf that costs three mana that taps for X mana where X is the elves I control. Which if you’re keeping count is now 4. And he makes my elves better. Which means I now have a field of decent sized creatures and 6 mana if I don’t even use Heritage Druid.