but if the NE player picks the Florida player's decklist off the internet, theres the problem. Good players lose the biggest advantage they have.
But the good players in the NE didn't come up with the deck so they didn't have the decklist either. Or are you saying that they did have it because they have "connections" and they are losing their advantage because everyone has the list now? Oh boo, hoo. Get over it. Those people are good players because of their skill, not their list. If they can't beat people because others have the "good" list, then they don't deserve to be called a good player. I put the word "good" in parenthesis because how good a list is based on opinion.
For example, people adore the TRUK engine right now, but I have my doubts it's as good as people crack it up to be. I feel it's just a consistent engine (among many others) being used by great players, and it's doing well not just because it's the TRUK engine but primarily because it's being played by good players.
Although they may lose games because of misplays, what stops them from beating someone good when the deck sets up properly, when someone playing a bad list wouldn't set up properly in that situation? It's not about them being successful, its about them beating you in that ONE game where you have to face them.
D00d, anyone can beat anyone in a game if they get GOD luck and the other one gets...whatever the opposite of GOD luck is. It's going to happen...a lot. Good players are going to lose to lower skilled players when their deck doesn't setup and their opponent gets lucky enough to get their deck setup. You cry over the fact that someone could have the "good" list and get the deck set up and beat the better player, but the better player is better for a reason, and if they haven't prepared their deck for the chance of their opponent getting setup, then they haven't played enough against that deck.
It's not black and white. It's not you either have the "good" list or you have the "bad" list. There are endless shades of gray in this game. That's why people can still do well with Kricketune without running any Time-Space Distortion. That's why people did well with LBS without running Lati@s*. Because in this game, you can still do well with a deck even if you don't have the worshiped "good" list. IF there is a "good" list is another subject.
If you get drawn against this novice round 1, and lose because of the deck they got, it doesn't matter if they go 0-X the rest of the way, you just got screwed because they got a good list.
And that is when you say, "Oh well," and life continues on. Too many players are too concerned with now. They must win THIS tournament NOW. They can't accept a loss, and a few are very poor losers when they lose a game to someone they feel isn't as "good" as them. If you lose, try harder next time. Everyone wants to win a tournament, and only 1 person will win (in each age group), so those other people just have to be content with their "loss" and try again next time. But it's ideas like the above that warrant secretiveness.
I helped out a player thought of by many to be a joke here, who usually does bad at tournaments. With a variation of my Ramen TRUK deck (not even close to the real list as I'm not allowed to give that out, but alot better than almost all decks here), the guy went 4-0 in swiss, beating players he wouldn't normally beat, simply because the deck is good. Although he did lose t4 to a misplay, he knocked people out of T4 who would normally be in there on the deck's strength alone, although he is getting a little better at the game learning from me.
And? Pat yourself on the back since you helped spread the idea of a deck onto someone who wanted to learn about it? Why whine that he knocked out people that "deserved" to be in the top cut? The whole idea of someone "deserving" a trip to worlds or someone "deserving" to be in the top cut is ridiculous. They play the same game as everyone else. If they can't get the trip to worlds or make it into the top cut, then maybe it wasn't everyone else's fault.
How do you know the skill of the player you helped out? How do you know that the kid didn't play games at home a lot and get to know the deck very well? How do you know the kid wasn't a good player but held back by his lack of cards or poor ideas? I bet you didn't win your first tournament. I bet you didn't start doing well consistently until a group of people started helping you. Guess what? Everyone needs help, and don't complain when you help someone and they beat you in a game because that makes you look lame. You don't help someone because you know they won't amount to anything. You help someone to push them in the direction of becoming a great player. I'm sorry you didn't like that player doing well at the tournament, but it's only your fault.
Go ahead, help less people. You'll win more tournaments! :/