Subject: RANT on 3 commonly heard things in Yu-Gi-OH - eViLfRoStY I've been around Pojo a while, but I think this is only my 2nd or 3rd tip posted. Anyway here Im going to state three of the most commonly heard negative phrases towards Yu-Gi-Oh, most of them on Pojo, and reply to them. 1. "The only way you can have a good deck is to be some rich kid whose parents buy them like 5 boxes of each set" Heard almost in every rant, but at least recently some people are beginning to argue against that. You do NOT have to be "rich" to be good. My parents would never spend their money on cards for me, so every card I own was bought by myself. I get $50 a month for allowance, plus $5 an hour babysitting whenever I can. I have opened about 6 packs since I began playing over a year ago. Packs are dumb. Packs and boxes are a waste. If your looking to start a collection, then they're OK. If you're looking to duel, get singles. Much cheaper. Lets say you need a Mirror Force now to improve your deck. You just got $20 allowance. Would you rather go to the store and get 4 Metal Raiders packs and hope you get one or something you could trade, or just buy one of ebay or a trade forum like Pojo? Youd be surprised how much money you can save and how good a deck you can have if you stopped buying packs. Also the little rich kids need SOMEONE to buy them something, since they normally arent able to handle finances and get a job. And if parents would spend that much money on cards, then thats their choice, even though most would agree that they have some problems. 2. "Theres no originality everyone just plays beatdown" True, mostly because it doesnt take much strategy to play, which is great for preteenagers, who make up most of the players, and is really good and hard to counter. Its all a matter of how you like to play. Do you like being able to summon a powerful monster and then equip it to increase the strength even more and get a high overkill, or play a nice little game of chess and slowly win with mind over muscle. It all depends on which makes the game more FUN. I normally play a beatdown, but also have a B. Skull Dragon deck and Exodia, which are both more fun to play to me. If people just want to win most of the time then they can play beatdown if they want. But if you like the thrill of pulling off a special combo or certain deck type, than more power to you. By the way I would like to point out that it was a CONTROL deck that won the World Championships... 3. "Upper Deck keeps putting good cards in starter decks and tins so that anyone can get them" From a business perspective, this is a perfect move. If you make cards available to everyone, then more people will see that they can be competitive at once and buy the starter set. They will then begin to buy packs and/or singles to keep improving their deck so they can win. After all, Upperdeck is a BUSINESS. A businesses number one priority is to MAKE MONEY. Everything else, such as keeping people happy, making a great product, is important, but is secondary to the most important thing to every business. Businesses are created to make money. You can please all of your clients, but if you dont take in enough money to pay rent, bills, employees, and for the making of your product, then youll have to close up shop. Just think, Upperdeck will be perfectly happy if for every person that quit Yu-Gi-Oh because they didnt like how UD was managing it, 2 more joined because they can get cards easier. eViLfRoStY dkgojackets@carolina.rr.com