I haven't played Pokemon in a while, so this question may not actually be valid anymore, but I'll go ahead and ask anyway.
I have played both Pokemon and Magic: the Gathering competitively, which are similar games in that both are strategy games that require you to customize your toolset (team or deck) beforehand. However, I have noticed an interesting difference between the Pokemon and MTG communities. Namely, the former (at least when I last played) looks down on "net-teaming" (copying a team from someone else, essentially) while the latter fully embraces netdecking. I remember reading plenty of posts by Smogonites that shame net-teaming -- for instance, anyone that remembers ObiStall from Gen IV should also remember all the flak given to the number of people who copied Obi's team. Whereas in MTG, original decks are few and far between -- indeed, in any large-scale tournament, each represented deck will have a number of pilots (possibly with very minor tweaks) with only a few rogue decks present. And anyone who tries to complain about netdecking on the Wizards forums is promptly met with widespread criticism.
So yeah, I was curious if anyone had any insight into why this philosophical difference exists between these communities. My immediate guess is that Magic tournaments have more of a monetary incentive and thus winning at all costs is considered more important than originality, but I'm not very convinced that fully explains it.
P.S. Perhaps this is not the best place for this thread because it is Pokemon-related, but it seemed to general for anywhere else... sorry if this needs to be moved.
I have played both Pokemon and Magic: the Gathering competitively, which are similar games in that both are strategy games that require you to customize your toolset (team or deck) beforehand. However, I have noticed an interesting difference between the Pokemon and MTG communities. Namely, the former (at least when I last played) looks down on "net-teaming" (copying a team from someone else, essentially) while the latter fully embraces netdecking. I remember reading plenty of posts by Smogonites that shame net-teaming -- for instance, anyone that remembers ObiStall from Gen IV should also remember all the flak given to the number of people who copied Obi's team. Whereas in MTG, original decks are few and far between -- indeed, in any large-scale tournament, each represented deck will have a number of pilots (possibly with very minor tweaks) with only a few rogue decks present. And anyone who tries to complain about netdecking on the Wizards forums is promptly met with widespread criticism.
So yeah, I was curious if anyone had any insight into why this philosophical difference exists between these communities. My immediate guess is that Magic tournaments have more of a monetary incentive and thus winning at all costs is considered more important than originality, but I'm not very convinced that fully explains it.
P.S. Perhaps this is not the best place for this thread because it is Pokemon-related, but it seemed to general for anywhere else... sorry if this needs to be moved.
