Hey guys! I hope you all had a good Christmas, and are ready to take on the new year in both yugioh and life! I personally had a great Christmas and am getting some restful sleep on my time off from school. The topic of the post today is netdecking.
Netdecking has a bad rap. Many people categorize the netdeckers as unimaginative and mindless drones that don't have any creativity. But imo if netdecking is done correctly it can be very beneficial to the player doing the netdecking. I was always the kind of person that when I read a complicated sereis f card texts( ex. inzektors) I didn't see the combos right away, in all honesty it looked like a shit ton of words to me all of which I didn't see how they worked together. Some may call that the sign of a bad player if you can't theoretically "put the puzzle together", but I think it is just the opposite. Some people learn better by doing rather than someone just telling them and that is exactly what netdecking is about: thinking and interacting.
For the purpose of this post the deck that I will use as my netdeck example is wind up inzectors or as I like to call them "winzektors" quite frankly because that is what they do: win(more on that another day). So the first thing I did was go to tcg player and netdeck from Jason Grabher-Meyer's build of winzektors. Then I went to DN and proceded to play games with it. I wasn't playing so that if I obtain the deck that I would know what to do with it, instead I was paying the deck so that way I knew what it was capable of. Knowledge is power and especially in the game of yugioh knowing is half the battle, this knowledge then moves on to your other matches, and once you know how a deck operates side decking becomes a less daunting proposition. Sure I could have a theory-oh(however you spell that) session in order to hash out some good tech picks and card choices but instead I went with the netdecking route and here I say that the netdecking route is better why?
Theroy-oh is useful when you are preparing for a major event and need to hash out the details of what cards are good and bad. In the netdecking example the work was done for me and I was all ready to go. In many people's eyes I took the lazy route. In my eyes I took the realist route. Most of us are not the trailblazers and the mavericks that come up with these strategies, if I added a tech it would just screw up the deck and make it work less, in all of my games that I played the orignal deck I won, sure you can make a one card change, I added a dustshoot but that card is proven to be good. I realized that all of this careful planning had gone into this deck so why should I tinker with it. The people who netdeck are not unimaginative and mindless zombies they are realists. They realize that their little tech is not good, they realized that there synchro version of TG is subpar compared to the stun version, they realized that their inferinty deck doesn't hold a candle to the awesome power of tengu/tour guide decks, They want to win and get better at this game so they netdeck and I guarantee they learn twice the knowledge than if they would have been "creative". Oh but they only realize all of this if they netdeck correctly.
How do you netdeck correctly? Allow me to use a real world example, in school you are taught to use your critical thinking skills and not just think about what is in front of you. If you netdeck a tier 1 deck that deck is tier 1 for a reason. A example would be the infamous tengu.tour guide decks. Those decks are not very skillful but they do have a enormous amount of combos that you must know about. Also with Maxx C being such a driving force in the game(or hand traps in general) you must know correctly when to drop the hand traps. I remember Robert Boyajian talking in his article on arg fresh off of his win in YCS indy and he said that in one of his games he "pulled off a devastating combo with a debris dragon a dandylion and a one for one that allowed me to make a TG Hyper librarian and a stardust that allowed me to draw 5 cards" at the end he added that he didn't even know that combo existed until he pulled it off. To the normal player that really doesn't seem important as what are the chances of you getting all of those cards in your hand, I used to think that way to a few years back but that is what amkes all of the puzzle pieces fit in your head, Jeff Jones also quoted on arg said that he never has to think about what cards go with what and that it all comes together in his head. I wanted to play like that and am still trying to achive that level of play but i must say with me netdecking all of the tier 1 decks I have become a better player not a worse one because I wasn't creative, Netdecking requires critical thinking on your part as you are thrown into a unknown environment but this allows for interaction and critical thinking which in turn makes us all better players. I learned that you have to be able to justify your every move over another and realize why you can't in some situations(misplay!) While netdecking I analyze every move and interact with the game immensely. I try and set up for future plays. All of this is critical thinking/analyzing.
I do realize that many people(myself included) so not have the money to take these netdecks away from DN and transfer them to the competitive scene. That is okay with all of this knowledge you can than transfer that to another deck, I guarntee you will see flaws that you didn't think existed. Also netdecking has one other big plus one that I have benefited most from. When you netdeck you realize why things work and what cards are good instead of just saying "well the pros made that move" or "well the pros played it so I am to" its okay to question some card choices while netdecking if you cut them you will realize you will miss them and found out why they are good or you won't miss them and think about what cards are good in that slot. So while I do say that you shouldn't add all of your little techs into the netdeck, you should question them and ask yourself why. You aren't just accepting a known fact. Getting back to the benefiting part, when you netdeck you play with the best cards the format has to offer and in turn realize what makes a good card good and a broken card broken. When your guide was only $45 I picked up 2 and when it s price skyrocketed I sold and got some nice cash!
In conclusion netdecking is not a bad thing is done properly, you ask questions, relaize your misplays and analyze the game, even if you can't take that netdeck off of DN you realize what game mechanics are good and what makes them good. I still have much to learn and I am in no way a "pro" I can give people a good game though(when I get some sleep first!) I made this blog to share what works for me in regards to becoming a better player, i want to get better at this game and I want to grow as a player and I believe netdecking done the healthy way is a nice place to start. Using my knowledge I have gained from net decking I have made plenty of innovative decks that are quite good imo, I am using sabers which I try to make to the best of my ability, and currently I am testing out a deck that I have a "history" with so you can say I have a bit of nostalgia(thats for a later time though). I hope this post was a good read.
SIDE NOTE: Woot! 8700+ page views my readers are awesome!
-Cameron
