I think you may be right. After all, FFG didn’t do this for World 2013 or 2014. If they had, those decks would have been completely legal for tournaments in the following year; this is the first year where that would not be the case. (Although, as mentioned before, the Val deck is legal, it just suffers an erratum to one of the cards.) This product feels more like a retrospective and a teaching experience than a competition aid.
And, like the core set, it doesn’t contain 3 of each card. Damn you, FFG, for making stuff that I want multiple copies of!
Isn’t that the entire point of these decks? To be a good starting point for newer players wanting to get into competitive play? Providing new players with an affordable way to get a tier one, tournament-viable deck is amazing. It help competitive play thrive even more than it already is doing.
Why should it be considered “dumb” that competitive Netrunner is more available even if people don’t want to take a plunge and buy every datapack released? The time investment will still be there, Netrunner is a game of skill, after all.
Shouldn’t it be a celebrated fact that these decks will help decrease the frankly massive paywall to get into competitive Netrunner, not an abhorred one? This doesn’t remove any skill from the game. Why should you need money as well as skill to win a tournament?
I’m a little miffed that the MWL makes the ETF deck not tournament legal, but thankfully you can still make a tournament legal deck from just those cards (albeit a suboptimal one) by removing 2 Caprice and Architect. Still, it makes for a very solid starting point (far, far better than any core set only deck) and for that reason I’m glad.
It significantly reduces the cost of entry for new players. They can buy 1x core set and these supplement it was a few data packs or a big box of their choice instead of needing everything.
I’m mostly just really annoyed that they’re released being described as tournament legal. I mean, pretty stuff is nice, but that is total bullshit given that one deck is only legal for two weeks and the other has been nerfed into the ground. Like, they’re really careful not to call them tournament legal decks, but even so, that’s a real dick move.
I would have agreed a month ago when Eli’s cost influence even in faction. I’m really worried about this creating confusion in the small tournament environments of places.
In a place like where I live, omaha, a “tournament deck” just sold for anyone to use would be such a godsend. You could get cross over from other game groups like magic or the other LCGs. The barrier for entry is suddenly quite low. But the fact that one of the decks isn’t tournament legal makes that option null and void. It just feels like a wasted opportunity.
I think it’s great. It’s an elegant way to make competitive Netrunner more accessible, since as well as doing that it provides incentive for players who are already very invested in the game to be excited for it. This means that shops will want to stock a lot, it means that the product appeals to the whole fanbase, and lastly, it doesn’t increase the price (which is data-pack price).
FFG didn’t need to make the packs have full-art, but that would create a disincentive shops from stocking them and make it a lot less common for experienced players to be excited for them. I think tournament winning decks are a great way to do this, and though it’s a shame that these decks might not be pillars of the metagame in a few months, I think the fact that these decks won Worlds makes them a little extra special, and they’d lose that spark if they were changed to be MWL legal (and would also probably sink in quality).
Let’s be honest, buying every Netrunner expansion costs a lot, and frankly it does keep people out of competitive play. I’m happy that they’ve found an elegant way to release this sort of thing.
Yeah, that part is annoying considering the MW list, agreed. I think that was more of a clarification that you could use the cards in tournament decks, abiding by normal deckbuilding rules.
To clarify, if this had been done for last years decks I’d have thought it was a gimmick and not for me, but w/e, nothing to be annoyed about, but the changes making these decks unplayable leave a really, really bad taste as FFG are trying to make money from them anyway.
It isn’t as oppressive and can’t win as easily without either A) Landing multiple Siphons, or B) Having a WNP on a Street Peddler to come in after they trash the first, but it hasn’t stopped me from winning with it. I’m not sure that people understand that the deck existed before WNP, it was just considered Fringe, because smart players would trash your stuff and that would be the end of it… With WNP as unique, it’s still playable because them trashing your stuff sets them back way more than it does you, to the tune of 4cr per Fall Guy at least. (Except SYNC)
Yeah you’re right. I was thinking in terms of I wish people would play more of their own decks, rather than just using other people’s. But that’s not the right mindset for newer players.
Missed opportunity. Should have been alt arts, with the new art being meatspace photos of Dan cosplaying and recreating the original art. NAPDan Contract. Dan Estavez. Daily Dans. Caprice D’Argenio. Dan 1.0. Dan Dealer. Accelerated Beta Dan.
