I often hear that netdecking is strongly despised, but do most players actually blind-copy the top-tier deck? (Because this is what most people write about it mad about) Most often I myself only see it as a reference. I wonder how it really is?
edit: fixing a little grammar
edit: adding a poll, thanks LookingForOwls for the interesting suggestion!
Of course, people are thirsty for wins and high ranks. Creating a deck requires creativity and time, why not just use a deck that is known to have sucess?
Yes. Especially if they are new to card games in general. Not everyone does but I would guess it is the majority. When I first started playing Hearthstone, I immediately netdecked secret paladin with no concept of what the meta was or how brokeback that deck was. I just knew it was good and started playing it. Then I eventually started watching streamers play oil rogue and miracle. I went there and never looked back at easy to play aggro decks blizz keeps printing.
I never netdeck even the slightest. I personally consider deckbuilding to be half of the skill in the game.
This might work better as a poll
It's certainly a skill, but I think it's kind of silly for anybody who does this as a hobby to think they're capable of building a better deck than pros who spend 6+ hours a day playing. Most people will just never reach the sample size to determine how any alterations really affect their win percentage.
I love building decks in casual, but once I get high in ranked I'm certainly not going to handicap myself with a sub-optimal deck.
it depends. People are so damn afraid of dropping ranks for whatever reason that they'll only play the best decks outside of low ranks and rank floors. In my opinion if you don't reach legend your rank doesn't matter at all so there's no point in tryharding try something original for once...
1 of the biggest disadvantages of building your own deck is that you might invest quite a lot of dust into it just to realise that the deck does not happen to be good enough. That risk is way lower if you use an already existing deck.
With classes/archetypes that I have experience with I usually try to build my own decks, and after some time if it's not working well I take a look at some lists to learn from.
When I'm trying something that is new for me I usually look at a few lists as a guide to build my own, which sometimes is an exact copy of a list I liked, and then after some matches I can adapt it if I want to.
I don't think my friends who play have ever made their own decks (at least since they started way back in beta). They just play whatever new deck shows up, although it's not always the highest tier ones. I very rarely play top tier decks and if I do, I often have my own variations on them or tech different cards in. I think it's just based on personal preference. While others might find their enjoyment in just winning, for me, the thrill comes in designing a deck that I think will work, and they often do. They're never going to have higher win rates than T1 and T2 decks but the element of surprise and the ability to know your deck inside and out really helps, while swapping to whichever deck is top tier every two weeks allows for you to make mistakes and for your opponents to predict your moves.
I enjoy building decks far more than actually playing them. Making interesting decks work or making existing decks interesting is the real 'game' for me so naturally, I never netdeck. I usually only rank up beyond rank 5 if I created a deck unique and competitive enough to hold my attention while grinding there. All my Legend finishes are with decks I made myself even though some were small innovations like putting a moonfire/spellpower package in jade druid before Hoej or whoever made it popular a few weeks ago
I believe when people keep seeing tier 1 decks from rank 25 to 5 they also want to stand a chance against same decks that are played over and over again. Also apperantly success has more fun since you won't see any warlock despite how many people love it...
Of course, people are thirsty for wins and high ranks. Creating a deck requires creativity and time, why not just use a deck that is known to have sucess?
I used to think that if a player post Deck X, then that Deck X might only good for that player's environment (server, rank), and that would be irrelevant to me. that's why I didn't bother too much to netdeck something
As I am not worried about what rank I am so long as I reach rank 15 (only to avoid new players which sometimes don't feel like fair games), I have always made my own decks from scratch.
Of course that is not to say they are never influenced by what I see, but they always have my own spin and usually replace overpowered cards with lesser used ones to make things more interesting for me (and hopefully my opponent too). You do have to be okay with a lowered win rate for this approach however.
Well, netdecking has it's pros and cons, for example: if I am a new player, that never actually played such kind of games before, netdecking can help me to see which cards and card synegies are work better together in certain period of time for different heroes. And later I can create better decks (maybe even totally original decks) using the knowledge based on netdecking. But, in my opinion, if some average HS player becomes lengend using some decks like Pirate Warrior, Aggro or Jade Druid and never actually changed a deck even a slightest just because this deck was written in that way on HearthPwn, TempoStorm and etc. ... well, it's just not right and game shouldn't be played in that way. We have to try to be at least a little bit creative in deckbuilding. Otherwise what's the interest to play the game where the only thing YOU do is just copypasting the someone else's decks?
Yes. I don't blame them though and there's 2 reasons for that:
1. Creating a new (unknown) deck and refining it is fairly difficult for the average player. It requires a lot of time and insight into the deck and meta to see what needs to be changed. A month or two after an expansion is out, it becomes more difficult (if impossible) to be creative since most promising decks have already been tried out. You might think there's a vast unexplored space for new decks but in reality, most have been tried but failed the meta test. Case in point: Jade rogue was a deck before caverns nerf but is just now starting to see some slight play because it lost a terrible matchup and mage is slightly weaker. It was a known deck before the nerf, it wasn't discovered just now, it just got slightly better. Same goes for many other decks. It's really rare to discover a good deck late in the meta but it can happen (worgen otk warrior in old gods).
2. This is an expensive game if you wanna try out and play ALL the decks. It's not unreasonable to first craft all of the stuff that's confirmed good and then MAYBE craft some experimental stuff if you have leftover dust but I think most people, even if they have extra dust, just save it for the next expansion's must haves.
most rank 25 -15 players are "purely original" (which is a huge amount of the player base) most 15-5 players: pure netdecking most 5-legend players: in between
Of course in all ranks are all types of players. You allways have to consider that people who care enough about the game to visit forums are probably also more likely to tinker on their own decks -> This poll may be very interesting but won't represent the ingame hearthstone community.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Who can take your trash out? Stomp it down for you? Shake the plastic bag and do the twisty thingy, too?
Well, as F2P, it's definitely harder to create your own deck as you will likely first craft the cards that are confirmed to be good rather than some cards you want for your theorycrafted meme dec. I myself do both, I netdeck when I want to try some deck or archtype (I just know that I probably won't create better deck than some pro players), sometimes I make my own decks (recently created Dragon Warlock for quests with friend, but it ended up half-decent). Sometimes I make a deck by some concept, but not netdeck directly (when decklists avaliable just does not seem optimal for me).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I often hear that netdecking is strongly despised, but do most players actually blind-copy the top-tier deck? (Because this is what most people write about it mad about) Most often I myself only see it as a reference. I wonder how it really is?
edit: fixing a little grammar
edit: adding a poll, thanks LookingForOwls for the interesting suggestion!
I never netdeck even the slightest. I personally consider deckbuilding to be half of the skill in the game.
This might work better as a poll
Of course, people are thirsty for wins and high ranks. Creating a deck requires creativity and time, why not just use a deck that is known to have sucess?
Die, insect! Live, insect!
Yes. Especially if they are new to card games in general. Not everyone does but I would guess it is the majority. When I first started playing Hearthstone, I immediately netdecked secret paladin with no concept of what the meta was or how brokeback that deck was. I just knew it was good and started playing it. Then I eventually started watching streamers play oil rogue and miracle. I went there and never looked back at easy to play aggro decks blizz keeps printing.
it depends. People are so damn afraid of dropping ranks for whatever reason that they'll only play the best decks outside of low ranks and rank floors. In my opinion if you don't reach legend your rank doesn't matter at all so there's no point in tryharding try something original for once...
1 of the biggest disadvantages of building your own deck is that you might invest quite a lot of dust into it just to realise that the deck does not happen to be good enough. That risk is way lower if you use an already existing deck.
With classes/archetypes that I have experience with I usually try to build my own decks, and after some time if it's not working well I take a look at some lists to learn from.
When I'm trying something that is new for me I usually look at a few lists as a guide to build my own, which sometimes is an exact copy of a list I liked, and then after some matches I can adapt it if I want to.
I don't think my friends who play have ever made their own decks (at least since they started way back in beta). They just play whatever new deck shows up, although it's not always the highest tier ones. I very rarely play top tier decks and if I do, I often have my own variations on them or tech different cards in. I think it's just based on personal preference. While others might find their enjoyment in just winning, for me, the thrill comes in designing a deck that I think will work, and they often do. They're never going to have higher win rates than T1 and T2 decks but the element of surprise and the ability to know your deck inside and out really helps, while swapping to whichever deck is top tier every two weeks allows for you to make mistakes and for your opponents to predict your moves.
I enjoy building decks far more than actually playing them. Making interesting decks work or making existing decks interesting is the real 'game' for me so naturally, I never netdeck. I usually only rank up beyond rank 5 if I created a deck unique and competitive enough to hold my attention while grinding there. All my Legend finishes are with decks I made myself even though some were small innovations like putting a moonfire/spellpower package in jade druid before Hoej or whoever made it popular a few weeks ago
Legend with : S65 Freeze Mage, S57 Maly Gonk Druid, S57 "Okay" Shaman, S53 Boom-zooka Hunter, S53 Maly Tog Druid, S52 Wild Tog Druid ft.Blingtron, S50 Quest Rogue, S49 Dead Man's Warrior, S41 Wild Clown Fiesta Druid, S41 Hadronox Jade Druid, S40 Wild OTK Dragon Druid, S35 SMOrc Shaman, S33 Jade Druid, S22 Control Priest, S19 Control Priest
Adding the poll. Really interested in how you guys thought of deck building!
I believe when people keep seeing tier 1 decks from rank 25 to 5 they also want to stand a chance against same decks that are played over and over again. Also apperantly success has more fun since you won't see any warlock despite how many people love it...
I only have one netdeck, but I don't even remember the last time I played it.
I am sure my Quest Mage is similar to a lot of netdecks, but I didn't actively look them up. Must be why I don't bother with Ranked. :p
As I am not worried about what rank I am so long as I reach rank 15 (only to avoid new players which sometimes don't feel like fair games), I have always made my own decks from scratch.
Of course that is not to say they are never influenced by what I see, but they always have my own spin and usually replace overpowered cards with lesser used ones to make things more interesting for me (and hopefully my opponent too). You do have to be okay with a lowered win rate for this approach however.
I am playing Dragon Druid in standard and it's not net decked. But yes, most players do copy card for card from sites.
Well, netdecking has it's pros and cons, for example: if I am a new player, that never actually played such kind of games before, netdecking can help me to see which cards and card synegies are work better together in certain period of time for different heroes. And later I can create better decks (maybe even totally original decks) using the knowledge based on netdecking. But, in my opinion, if some average HS player becomes lengend using some decks like Pirate Warrior, Aggro or Jade Druid and never actually changed a deck even a slightest just because this deck was written in that way on HearthPwn, TempoStorm and etc. ... well, it's just not right and game shouldn't be played in that way. We have to try to be at least a little bit creative in deckbuilding. Otherwise what's the interest to play the game where the only thing YOU do is just copypasting the someone else's decks?
Live, insect!
Yes. I don't blame them though and there's 2 reasons for that:
1. Creating a new (unknown) deck and refining it is fairly difficult for the average player. It requires a lot of time and insight into the deck and meta to see what needs to be changed. A month or two after an expansion is out, it becomes more difficult (if impossible) to be creative since most promising decks have already been tried out. You might think there's a vast unexplored space for new decks but in reality, most have been tried but failed the meta test. Case in point: Jade rogue was a deck before caverns nerf but is just now starting to see some slight play because it lost a terrible matchup and mage is slightly weaker. It was a known deck before the nerf, it wasn't discovered just now, it just got slightly better. Same goes for many other decks. It's really rare to discover a good deck late in the meta but it can happen (worgen otk warrior in old gods).
2. This is an expensive game if you wanna try out and play ALL the decks. It's not unreasonable to first craft all of the stuff that's confirmed good and then MAYBE craft some experimental stuff if you have leftover dust but I think most people, even if they have extra dust, just save it for the next expansion's must haves.
My guess is (based on the end of the season):
most rank 25 -15 players are "purely original" (which is a huge amount of the player base)
most 15-5 players: pure netdecking
most 5-legend players: in between
Of course in all ranks are all types of players. You allways have to consider that people who care enough about the game to visit forums are probably also more likely to tinker on their own decks -> This poll may be very interesting but won't represent the ingame hearthstone community.
Who can take your trash out?
Stomp it down for you?
Shake the plastic bag
and do the twisty thingy, too?
Well, as F2P, it's definitely harder to create your own deck as you will likely first craft the cards that are confirmed to be good rather than some cards you want for your theorycrafted meme dec. I myself do both, I netdeck when I want to try some deck or archtype (I just know that I probably won't create better deck than some pro players), sometimes I make my own decks (recently created Dragon Warlock for quests with friend, but it ended up half-decent). Sometimes I make a deck by some concept, but not netdeck directly (when decklists avaliable just does not seem optimal for me).