And what would happen if EVERY SINGLE PERSON in EVERY tournament requested their decklists withheld? Where would the format go from there? Then people stop innovating and stop posting. Then we are in 1997. I know that is a freaking huge exaggeration but it was just to get a point across.
Nobody is asking to have things handed to them on a silver platter. No one is like "I suck-give me a deck so I can copy it for the tournament." What some are saying is that after a deck wins it should be released.
The real issue seems to be a sense of entitlement here. Most people on teams seem to feel they should be able to get the TO to withhold their decklist if they want, as if the decklist is their copyright. Most people not on teams feel they are somehow entitled to said decklist, just because someone played it publicly at a tournament.
You're both right and wrong.
The fact is, in the beginning (BD/early TMD), this board served the functions that teams do now for most people - bouncing ideas, tuning decklists, debating sideboards, in addition to the more community functions such as general metagame discussions, tournament reporting/annoucing, etc. It wasn't hard for the small handful of BD/TMD people who were good with the global collaboration to do really well. Well, type 1 got more popular, with thousands of people joining TMD and attendance generally rising in just about every area.
Thus, since many people had now made a leap of deckbuilding (or netdecking) and understanding of the format, people had to take it to the next level to consistently win big tournaments - form teams. Teams spend a LOT of collective hours putting in time testing and building. So if they win one big tournament and there are several others within a month or two, many times they ask for their key information to be withheld for a little bit until the summer con season winds down. Does anyone think that after Gencon Saturday, teams like Meandeck and Shortbus won't spill the beans? No. But teams that won't be at Gencon, like many of the European players, probably will post on this site just like they always have cuz 99% won't be at Origins/SCG/Gencon due to being on the other side of the planet.
So in summary, this is my take:
- if you are a team member and you play a deck at a tournament, you can't feel entitled to be the prime source of your "tech" anymore, since you let it out into the public. However, if you can convince the TO to not post your decklist, more power to you.
- if you are not on that team (whether you were at that tournament or not), you have no right or entitlement to see that person's decklist. If the TO publishes them or someone else gets the info and pushes it out, that's their call.
Note that this says nothing about whether any of that is "healthy for the format" or not. If people constantly horded their deckbuilding/tuning ideas, obviously, there would be a huge gap between the have and have nots that would lead to a decline in popularity, not the increase we've seen.
The fact that many people on teams that do well still write articles and have excellent discussions (see articles by Steve M, JP, the Shortbus 7/10 thread, etc) seems to show that teams identify 1 or 2 tournaments a year that they "stock up" for, other than that, it's pretty much out in the open after a tournament or two...
Bill
PS I'm not part of any team.
