Netdecking Discussion [Why is everyone doing it?]

+
Why does everyone play with the same cards/decks?

Just as it says in the title, why does everyone always use the same card/deck/combos?

There are over 300 cars in the game but somehow 99% of the people use the same 50 +/-.
No one thinks about new combos, no one tries new stuff, every player is the same 3 or 4 decks...is so damn boring.

I have quit a few games because of this and Gwent might just be the next one i quit (and it hasnt even really started) :(
 
Oh gee. Don't get me started. If the games I've played against were my diet in rl, I'd be on the toilet right now with half a foot of turd out me arse dead. All I can add constructively is attempt to mess with those decks as much as possible and knock them off their rhythm or maybe even dismantle them and try and change the habits.
 
because ppl are lazy and want to get the rewards/ranks as fast as possible.
i just replied to this subject on another thread... so ill copy/paste my thoughts on this subject (because im lazy too :D )

hi!

im (relatively) new. But to me this has nothing to do with "get gud" or sth like that. I don´t know how its on the upper end of the ladder, but for new players the system is just demoralizing (as it is atm... i know i know beta and such..). over the last three days i made a list which decks i played against. Everybody is playing the same stupid monster deck. its 6:1. I face on average SIX times the same monster deck, before i play someone with a different deck (over the last three days!!! even worse on ranked, which i dont play anymore, because of that!). its worse than hearthstone with face face face decks. dont tell me that i have to adjust etc. - it´s simply boring to face the same deck over and over again - it has nothing to do with get gud.
i really do understand the OPs wish to avoid certain decks...
there will always be "the best deck".... and most ppl are going to play it, if the ranking/reward system stays like it is right now. so my suggestion would be for cd project to encourage ppl to play a variety of different decks.
suggestions:
a) if your deck contains the most commonly used cards you get less xp (cards in question could change weekly...)
b) you cant get all the dailies with the same deck
 
Ok i can understand people are lazy, but this is more about being dumb than something else.
How come no one can think for themselves anymore? This game is still in Beta and already saw a link on other thread, to a site with lists of ready to go decks!!!
Why the hell would anyone play a game if is not to have fun and think for themselves?
 
because all they want is to win... they enjoy winning... not playing the game or thinking or... to them its a good game when they win - and a bad game if they lose.
 
nukedawhales;n7825020 said:
because all they want is to win... they enjoy winning... not playing the game or thinking or... to them its a good game when they win - and a bad game if they lose.

I whip for humanity
 
Do you expect something different?
There's not a lot of cards in the game as it is and amoung them certain cards work really well together. People are obviously going to be using those cards that synergize well with each other hence you see a lot of the same decks.
I always make up my own decks and since I know what works and what doesn't, Most of my decks are familiar to the other "meta" decks. I do try out new epics/legendaries but cut them once I see they aren't worth it
 
Of course im expecting something different or else i wouldnt be complaining.

There are in total about 6x the number of cards that people are actually using.
You gonna tell me that the developers did 300 cards but in reality only 50 work?

I know is not a problem exclusive to Gwent, 15 years ago you would meet 10 people to play Magic and there would be 10 different decks, most of them made by the person himself. Now you go meet 10 people to play and there are 5 decks, all of which are copied from someone or somewhere, but for god sake we are in closed Beta here, is a time to play around and experiment but still, somehow people do the same shit.
If is already like this now, imagine when the game goes live and being on the top of the leader board will actually mean something... it is not a bright perspective.
 
I can see your point - Its not hard to see the reality. Sadly most of players just stick to one deck to climb the ladder. I admit I love to win, too. But I still try out nearly every 2 days a new combo/deck for just see how it works. I am frankly not sure how many do this - But if I look at gwentdb there are every day new decks and inspiring ideas to find. So - imo there is hope :D
 
I like to experiment with new things and try to find interesting combos. Sometimes they perform well, sometimes they tend to be utterly useless.

The thing is, I test them on ranked and often times against well-established decks experimental deck will not live long. And on testing I happen to lose a lot of ratings. To some people rating is important for their self-enhancement routine.

The sad thing is that the moment you find a really ladder-crushing deck...people will copy it too...turning it into a meta-deck. That is how people roll.

Consider it like invention of better weapons. People do not have to be great inventors or very clever to effectively kill people with that weapon. Same applies to card games. Some people are better at creating weapons and some people are better gunslingers. Rating lists will remember the gunslingers more.
 
I wouldn't be hating people for checking decks on gwentdb. Saying they're lazy or worse players it's not right.
People are not a problem, they just want to play better and win of course (but that's a point of a competitve game).

The problem are unbalanced cards.
Right now there are many cards which are just not as good as the others or even more important does not fit any strong strategies/ synergies.

For example: Nothern Realms.
There are 8 NR gold cards.
But only 3 of them are playable (Shani, Bloody Baron, Vernon Roche)
Maybe someone even don't know about this, but there's a card: JOHN NATALIS. For real.
And no-one plays it, because it's too weak. It's a dead card right now and it's not changing through many patches.

John Natalis and Triss: Butterfly Spell are not currently in use because they just giving points to other units.
And right now Gwent is totally NOT about strengthening your units just like that.
It's worthless because you barely always would lose playing against some combo, control or weather decks.
You can play bronze cards like Foglets and Nekkers and nowadays it brings you more points and possibility to recover those units easily.

Balance, Gwent really needs balance. Between cards and (very important) between strategies/ cards synergies. That'll brings diversity to the meta.
 
people rely on better players to tell them how they should play, this is common in any kind of games nowadays, even in single-player games like The Witcher series

in Gwent in particular the reason of that is because it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to make a good deck, and chances are that the better players have already made the best possible deck for the patch anyway and all you can do is making a deck that will counter it

in other words your average Joe will save himself a lot of time and effort by copypasting a reliable deck than trying to create a working deck
 
Why are you saying "it's CB" as if it was shameful to netdeck in CB? You have to grasp that you have only so many resources and you can't waste them to "try new stuff". I'm not complaining at all about the ingame gain, it's really fine imho, but if you expect experimentation in CB, you should give all the cards to the players. Since they wanted to test collection and progression we are in a situation like open beta/full release, with resources to manage (unless you are a whale).
So yeah it's no wonder people netdeck the best decks to make the most out of their scraps, especially if you want a good starting at open beta with those keg rewards.
 
For me point of Gwent game is winning. So I had no idea why should I play some bad deck with crappy combos and terrible winrate when I could play good deck with OP combos and much better winrate. Sure, when new cards / patch comes out I test new cards / cards that get nerfed. But finding new best meta deck usually take just couple of days.
 
Dark_Spect3r;n7824950 said:
There are over 300 cars in the game but somehow 99% of the people use the same 50 +/-. No one thinks about new combos, no one tries new stuff, every player is the same 3 or 4 decks...is so damn boring.

everyone has thought about every combo with all the other 250 cards... but they're either bad or easy to counter, therefore, ineffective in pvp matches.

may i point out the irony of you being salty about how other people play the game? it's like complaining about people watching certain TV shows or listening to certain types of music because the ones you like are better...

PS: if you enjoy "experimenting and making your own decks" so much, why does it matter what other people are playing..? someone playing consume monsters doesn't affect your ability to make a skelliga discard deck in any way... unless, your self-made super original decks get stomped by their meta decks and it makes you frustrated, so you want people to play worse decks in order for your bad decks to be effective... invalidating the whole idea that playing original decks is fun...

PS²: every time you think of a possible deck, i guarantee you someone else has thought of it first... and the reason the deck didn't become popular is because it didn't work.
 
Last edited:
RickMelethron;n7827910 said:
everyone has thought about every combo with all the other 250 cards... but they're either bad or easy to counter, therefore, ineffective in pvp matches.

Not sure i believe that.

may i point out the irony of you being salty about how other people play the game? it's like complaining about people watching certain TV shows or listening to certain types of music because the ones you like are better...

Is not related at all, because on this case the way they play affects me. Is boring to keep playing against the same decks over and over again.

PS: if you enjoy "experimenting and making your own decks" so much, why does it matter what other people are playing..? someone playing consume monsters doesn't affect your ability to make a skelliga discard deck in any way... unless, your self-made super original decks get stomped by their meta decks and it makes you frustrated, so you want people to play worse decks in order for your bad decks to be effective... invalidating the whole idea that playing original decks is fun...

Same answer as above.

And i win some, lose some... Granted Monsters is overpowered but is not impossible to beat, so is nothing to do with that.

PS²: every time you think of a possible deck, i guarantee you someone else has thought of it first... and the reason the deck didn't become popular is because it didn't work.
[/quote]


Still, after hundreds of games one should have caught some people trying out thus new combos (even if they dont work) but that doesnt happen.
 
Casual mode is probably a better place for experimentation and encountering a larger variety of decks than ranked mode, where the goal is to win and where season rewards based on rank await. Someone who is not only skillful but also inventive will have a clear advantage in ranked mode, because they will come up with new decks before they become netdecks, so the reward for making one's own decks is definitely there, provided the decks work.

I don't feel it's lazy to copy successful designs or approaches. It's why we no longer live in trees and caves: we learn from others and copy when we see something that works well for them. It's human nature, and a trait that made us the successful (if reckless) species that we are.
 
Dark_Spect3r;n7828030 said:
Is not related at all, because on this case the way they play affects me. Is boring to keep playing against the same decks over and over again.

and the way you play affects them. what if they want to play against weather monsters and radovid control, but queue into someone playing whatever you play?

you don't get to complain about how other people play the game, the same way they don't get to complain about how you play. if you dislike that, feel free to find a single-player game...
 
RickMelethron;n7828420 said:
and the way you play affects them. what if they want to play against weather monsters and radovid control, but queue into someone playing whatever you play?
you don't get to complain about how other people play the game, the same way they don't get to complain about how you play. if you dislike that, feel free to find a single-player game...

Statements like this dont really help the discussion tbh...

Anyway I think OP has a valid point but the problem is that some cards are simply better than others. Just look at Skellige Golds. All of them except of Birna are too situational or need too much setup to be good. And usually you need good speed to win since CA is really important in this game.
On top of that most of the metadecks were created by well known streamers/pro players and were designed to counter other metadecks. In theory there are specific decks that counter each of those metadecks really hard but the problem is that those counterdecks are usually not as versatile and lose more often than winning.
And thats what mostly matters in ranked: winning, which is simply easier with the metadecks than with other decks (most of the metadecks are some sort of control-decks too so overall the control meta is a bit unbalanced imo). So if there needs to be more diversity with the matches the weaker archetypes simply need to be as good as the metadecks (which is not the case currently).
 
Strollin;n7828520 said:
Statements like this dont really help the discussion tbh...

like this one?

Dark_Spect3r;n7825010 said:
Ok i can understand people are lazy, but this is more about being dumb than something else. How come no one can think for themselves anymore? This game is still in Beta and already saw a link on other thread, to a site with lists of ready to go decks!!! Why the hell would anyone play a game if is not to have fun and think for themselves?
 
Top Bottom