Netdecking 101: Basics of Netdecking

 

Author - Puffin on: Twitter | TwitchTV

So you’ve been playing Hearthstone for a while and have been tinkering with your own decks and they just seem to not be cutting it anymore in the current metagame; or you’re a newer player looking for a good place to start to learn how to build better decks; or you’re a veteran player looking for as much of a competitive edge as possible. Where do you turn? The term “netdecking” refers to the act of taking an established published decklist (generally from a tournament result, on a community website, or players streaming online), copying the list card for card as much as you can and using it to compete on in constructed play or in a tournament. There’s a bit of a stigma behind netdecking and it can sometimes be viewed as negative for it’s lack of originality and innovation, but this article will be focusing on how to properly use netdecking as a tool to improve your constructed gameplay experience.

Where do I find these decks to netdeck?

Popular community websites, such as ihearthu, liquidhearth, and hearthpwn, are great resources to find popular decklists that have achieved successful results. They will often feature decklists from recent tournaments sometimes with interviews with the deck creators They also showcase decks with guides from popular and successful players with in-depth analysis of how to properly play their decks. Popular forums on the websites above as well as on reddit give a place for players to post new decklists they’ve been working on to request feedback or to share decklists that they’ve had success with on the ladder. Streamers on twitch will also often share their decklists in their channel or on their stream and you can ask them questions about how the deck works and why certain cards are included. Beyond these online resources you can also share decklists with friends you meet in game or other players you talk to out of game, but this is an article about netdecking and those resources above are the main ones where decklists are published.

So I have a decklist, now how do I win with it?

There is the tendency to think that a good decklist will play itself and should not require much input for it to be able to be successful. This is very far from the case. There are a lot of types of decks with varying difficulties and some of the more advanced decks take a long time to learn and be effective with. Additionally, you may not always have all of the cards to properly use a particular deck and if you’re lacking key cards you may not be able to run that particular deck as it was intended. Just having a decklist isn’t good enough if you don’t know what to do with it. The best way to learn how to use a deck that you found online, is to learn as much about the deck as possible, test it, and tweak it to suit your playstyle, or determine that it’s simply not the type of deck for you.

Learning about your new deck

The best way to learn about a deck you’re attempting to netdeck is to try to find the source. If you found it on one of the popular community sites, take the time to read through any interviews, or guides, or comments from the deck’s creator to get a gauge on what the deck is intended to do and how to properly play it. On the forums, ask questions and try to interact with people that have used the deck to see if you’re playing it properly if you’re not achieving the results with the deck as you would hope. On streams, watch the streamer use the deck and see if you would have made the same choices, and if not, ask them why they played it a certain way to get a better feel for how to properly pilot the deck. Ultimately though, if you can’t seem to achieve results with a particular deck, it may just not suit your playstyle and you may have to try a new deck or modify the current deck to make it more playable for you.

Refining your new deck

The metagame on the Hearthstone ladder changes constantly, and you may have to adjust your deck to accommodate the decks you are currently facing and your level. If you are facing a lot of aggro decks you may have to modify your deck to be faster to have more answers for these types of decks. If you’re seeing a lot of control decks you may need to either speed up or slow down your deck to accommodate and have better answers for their big game threats or kill them before they can get to their late game. There’s a lot to be said about how to properly tune a deck and I’ll save that for a different article, but the most important thing to do when you find a new deck online that you want to use is to test it thoroughly before giving up on it. Play it on casual a few times, play it against a friend, then when you feel comfortable with it, try it out on the ladder to see if it will work for you. If a deck doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad deck, it just might not be the deck for you, or the metagame has shifted so that the deck isn’t viable anymore.

How to get the most out of netdecking

Creating a good deck is difficult and is a skill that some players excel at while others have difficulty with. Finding the perfect balance of draw, answers, threats, pressure, all in a single deck is something that takes a lot of time and testing to be able to achieve. You should consider netdecking as a tool that lets you reap the benefits of all the hard work that deck creators put into making them. You get to play with their finished product and make modifications on it to suit your own playstyle. It’s important to understand that it is simply one of many tools to help you become a better player and make your experience in Hearthstone more enjoyable. It’s a game, have fun. Use netdecking, but don’t abuse it. Creating new decks is fun and if you have a crazy idea that you think might work, test it out, and learn from all of the decks that you see online to draw ideas from to incorporate in your decks. Netdecking as a tool can help evolve the metagame by giving players a shortcut to the end product that the deck creators have poured into testing a deck, and give players insight on new techniques and strategies that they can use to incorporate into their own deck creations.