New Goatformat.com Deck Pages!

Good morning and happy GFC15 to you all! Spooky here, excited to announce the new and improved Goatformat.com deck pages! After more than 200 hours of work (not counting time spent discussing and planning) it's finally time. So, what exactly has changed, and why were these changes made? Dive into this article to find out! 

​Overview

The purpose of these new deck pages is to further solidify Goatformat.com as the primary hub for all things Goat Format. When I first made my way into the community, I created the Goatformat.weebly.com website as a place to help introduce players to the world of goats. I provided many of the same things there that you can find here on Goatmformat.com, including pages dedicated to explaining rules, the banlist, the general history of the format, and more. Something my Weebly page included that Goatformat.com did not, however, ​was my collection of pages dedicated to many of the most popular decks that could be played, regardless of competitiveness. 

A lot has changed since then, though. As my partnership with Goatformat.com has grown, so too has the community and its needs, as well as our vision for Goatformat.com and it's future. Skully, myself, and the rest of our admin team decided it was time to update the site. One of the ways we wanted to do this was to update our deck pages. We talked for a long time, and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to better realize the vision I had when I first created my Weebly all those years ago. So, I set out to create a comprehensive catalogue of every deck one might see while playing this format that we all love, hopefully putting my previous website and deck pages to shame in the process. 

It has become increasingly clear that there are two sides to this community: the competitive players, and the casual players. If we want to be the number-one resource for everything related to this format, we need to respect and cater to both. So, all decks were considered equal in our eyes as I constructed these pages, regardless of how competitive the community as a whole might perceive them to be. 

This was not a solo endeavor by any stretch of the imagination. Though I authored the vast majority of the pages themselves, both by creating the pages on the website and writing the content contained therein, Many people have contributed in many ways. There are likely too many to remember, let alone mention, but Kris Perovic, Skully, Mascis, MMF, T33ling, TKGriffiths, and Puy have all helped in some form or another, and their hard work (along with anyone else's who I might be forgetting) in much appreciated! 

What's New?

The Hub

The first major difference that you may notice is visible right from the main page! The function of the Decks button in our primary navigation bar has been changed! Once a populated drop-down menu, this button will now show only two options: Our tier list, and our Decks hub page. 

The Decks hub page breaks down over 100 unique decks into four categories: Lockdown, Control, Aggro, and Combo. These categories are defined for an easier understanding of how the decks within them might function. The decks themselves are listed in alphabetical order within their parent archetypal category. Simply clicking the name of the deck will take you to its very own page! ​

The Pages

Each deck page will contain the same primary categories and information. First, there is an overview of the deck. This overview serves as an introduction to the deck and its strategy, touching on the basics of what the deck is trying to accomplish, and what cards it might use to do so. 

An example deck list will be shown to further illustrate this. ​

Next, any existing variants of the deck will be shown. Basic information about the variants will be included alongside deck lists.​

This is followed by a list of cards potentially seen in the deck that have not yet been mentioned. there will also be a brief explanation of some of the more popular choices. ​

Finally, there is the Articles and Reports section, which includes links to any relevant articles or tournament reports for the deck, both past and present. ​

The Future

Where are the Rest of the Pages?

Being such a large project, it would be a waste to release everything all at once! Instead, we'll be releasing all of the decks in each category on a weekly basis up until the final set, which will be unveiled just in time for the Goat Format World Championship 2021! 

Accompanying each release will be a live stream event. During these streams members of the community can request to see any of decks released for that week in action! Be sure to tune in so that you can see your favorite decks, meta or otherwise, piloted live! 

Additional Updates

Though these pages are considered ready for the public eye, it's best to think of this as a sort of "beta" release. There's a lot of work still to be done, including adding hyperlinks, additional articles, videos, additional decks, and more!

This is where you come in! As you enjoy these new pages, feel free to send us content you think might be fitting for the pages. We're always on the lookout for articles related to the format, but we only have so many eyes and ears. Let us know what we might be missing! In this same vein, if you see any mistakes on a deck page, please do not hesitate to let us know so that they can be fixed! The #suggestions_and_feedback channel in the discord is the best place to communicate any of this, so join the Discord if you haven't already! 

Goatformat.Weebly.com

With all of this said, it should be noted that my previous website, Goatformat.weebly.com, will be shut down. The information on the website is, by this point, incredibly dated. Additionally, the release of these deck pages means there is little reason to keep the site up and running, as it would only distract users from a much more comprehensive and valuable resource. It is sad, in a way, to see it go, but with every door that closes, another opens. So, what are you waiting for? Go check out our new deck pages!