Shriek Flame Wars

The deal
After our Monthly held on 21 November, a fellow duelist, William, from the Philippines has managed to convince Shriek to post the Philippines' deck list in his website. Everything proceed smoothly and the decklists then were posted.

I was actually expecting people would flame and argue over how the Filipinos build and run their decks. After reading both sides, I came about to a conclusion. Flaming was already given and was always a trend over at Shriek anyways.

The link to the website and article is here.

For those people who are actually too lazy to browse and read the whole flame war, in a nutshell, people are arguing that builds were bad and were as they think they were-scrubs. This was to be expected.

The facts
Let us dissect the two parties arguing and narrate their key points.

My fellow duelists were arguing that the decks were made because they think that 'netdecking' is unoriginal and boring, and they would not want to spend over $200 for a simple kid's game. They also argue that they were just playing for the fun of it.

While some people posted that the decks were indeed creative and was a new fresh breeze in the card game, some posters pointed that 'netdecking' is actually going to the most efficient build, and people from the Philippines cannot afford the cards and that is basically the reason, if anything else, why the decks were made as that. They also argued that people can have fun and win at the same time. They then prove their point by comparing them to the SJC builds and compare how original decks were made there. Finally, they also argued that original does not always mean better, or good.

The things to keep in mind

• While it is somewhat true that people have limited access to cards, this can and cannot be the reason at the same time. As this is a major event here in the Philippines, most of the 'incomplete' decks do not participate in here. Simply put, most of the decks in this list are considered to be complete by their owner's standards.
• The reason why Lightsworns are nonexistent in the top 8 is because the cards are way too impossible to acquire. Needless to say, they are also expensive. As mentioned by one of the posters there, there are only 4 complete Lightsworn decks and only 1 was able to join the event.
• I also participated in the event with a decent SJC-inspired Blackwings(Togores) and was cut in the top 8 by the guy who had Priestess of Ohm in his Blackwing deck. Call this chance but a win is a win.
• The country is playing a hybrid format, which means that we can access both the TCG and OCG cardpools both at the same time.
• Gladiator Beasts are still doing great in our meta.

The verdict
While I do not agree that netdecking is a very unethical decision in deck building, as I netdeck myself, I believe that arguments should be unbiased for both parties. You cannot expect your original decks would automatically better than SJC proven ones and vice versa. It is also very unprofessional to criticize one deck just because you have not yet encountered one in your metagame. The problem with the elitist attitude in some duelists are what changes the game from casual fun to Serious Business.



Although to give wowowee a point, the reason why the Filipinos attempted to post their decklists to Shriek and the fact that they spend a lot of money in the card game means that they are not just 'playing for fun'.

The Conclusion

• If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.
  
• Netdecking is not a bad practice.
• People can win and have fun at the same time.
• What works for one meta does not always mean it works for another.
• Don't criticize the deck before actually testing them yourself.
• Original and innovative decks does not always mean they're better than time tested ones.