Why duel ?
It’s a question that has plagued my mind for some
time now, and through this article I hope to find an
answer to this most perplexing query. I know that I
do duel, and I know that I’m good at it, but why?
To find the answer to any question of this sought,
you must trace all the information involving it back
to it’s source, so that’s where we are going, to the
very origins of not only the card game, but gaming
itself.
Gaming has been around forever. Since the dawn of
time, since the birth of life, children, and adults
alike have experienced the thrill of being the
victor , or the humility of losing. Over many , many
years, games have escalated and advanced from child
like chases and play fighting, into strategy games
such as chess , or games of blood thirsty rivalry,
like the Gladiator conquests, often with stakes
where you couldn’t afford to lose. No matter how
barbaric, or strategic though, games moved on,
evolving and becoming more complex and have carried
on throughout the centuries to the present, and now
games are getting even better.
Games are good, they teach us, we learn from
experience, and develop into more strategically
advanced people. We obtain new logic, and so pick up
new games even quicker than we did the last,
eventually reaching universal gaming greatness.
Yu-Gi-Oh is a game inspired by first a Manga, then a
TV show. It is a very complicated game by anyone’s
measures , with all the intricate rulings and wide
variety of cards, memorised by the elite Duelists,
but , to put it simply, it’s a game of monsters ,
spells and traps, controlling the situation and
using the skills you pick up from other games to
trick the opponent, control their own actions and
eventually obliterate them. This War game attracts
people in the thousands worldwide, of course they
may not realise why.
So that brings us up to date, we know the brief
history of the benefits of gaming, and how the game
in question relates to that matter. Now we need to
find what draws us to gaming, and more specifically
, what draws us to Yu-Gi-Oh.
Yu-Gi-Oh is a game that attracts a wide variety of
audiences, because of it’s diversity. Some people
are drawn to the game because of their competitive
instinct , their burning passion to best the best.
Some join for the thrill of competing , and thinking
on their feet . Some people are gamers at heart ,
and just want to add the game to their list of
conquests. Others play out of desire to be like
their idols of the TV show, and I know that’s a
reason many people play this particular game.
Players may also duel because of emotional
attachments such as revenge , or even love , but
every duelist in the entire world, every gamer for
that matter plays for one reason above all else -
They begin playing because they enjoy the game.
That is the reason that people play Yu-Gi-Oh, for
fun, it’s not because they have to, it’s not to
prove something to someone else, it’s for fun, and
there’s no point playing if your not enjoying
yourself.
That’s where the true point of this article comes
into play.
Of late, duelist’s have been playing for glory ,
respect and power in their dueling societies. All of
those traits are admirable, but the cost at which
these rewards come is dire.
Duelists no longer duel for the sprit of the game,
so it is dieing .
When Duelists play the game, they used to put their
soul into the game, choosing their cards for
themselves . That was when the game was fresh, and
new. With the introduction of the Chaos monsters,
things changed. Duelists went deeper and deeper into
the burrowing madness that was power, they were not
ready for it, and it nearly killed the game
completely.
But, all was not lost . The introduction of the ban
list forced Duelists to think on their feet a
little, opening their eyes to the light of the
pureness of the cards that had been underneath their
noses the entire time. Dueling took a massive
increase in level, and the duels were better because
of it.
Unfortunately, a new breed of cards were going into
construction, cards that no one could have foreseen
being any kind of threat to originality ,not even
their creators, in fact these cards had more
potential for originality than many others before
them. It could never have happened, but eventually
it did.
The release of Cyber Dragons into the duel stream
was a mistake. Cyber Dragons were obviously supposed
to be a GX version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon ,
so they were released at a similar time to the
series as a Fan Devotee deck. Unfortunately, this
single ‘original card’ transformed the game in a way
that no one could have imagined.
Cyber Dragons have to be singularly the most
uselessly splashed cards in the entire game. They
have mutated every deck they infected into , into
something un pure. Now, I have no problems with the
card Cyber Dragon, it’s a good card I know, but
people have over reacted and exploited this card’s
potential to the extreme, and are now putting it in
decks where it has no business whatsoever. But this
card is not alone.
Over the past few months, many cards have found
their way into the limelight:
Smashing ground, Royal Decree, Brain Control,
Morbius the Frost monarch , Sakutsu Armour ,
widespread ruin, and DD Assailant have all been
splashed into virtually every deck.
These may be the ‘Winning cards’’ but at what
expense are they being used ? Now I have no problems
with these cards singularly, I even run a few
myself, but where is the fun in packing every single
one of them into your deck 3 times?
The Yu-Gi-Oh ban list saved the game, but now it may
be the reason it’s about to unravel.
A Duelists soul is measured on the cards they use .
It’s a flame representing their originality and fun
with the game, their faith in their cards and their
determination to succeed. The addiction to these
cards will drive their deck apart, I’ve told you
this. Cards only work in certain decks, they wont
work in others, nor will using them give you the
same success rate as another person who’s using
them.
So you have to ask yourself one question Duelists
out there, and this is what it all comes down to.
I’m going to make you think like you never have
before , and probably never will again. This is the
million dollar question, so take it in and think.
When you’ve collected all your cards that guarantee
‘advantage’, and are sure fire ways of winning your
next tournament, and if you fail then they are a
waste of space , when you’ve won the tournament ,
lost some friends , blew up their card after they
blew up yours, and generally repeated the same
monotonous duel over and over again, with the same
card appearing at different intervals, are you
enjoying yourself? Are you having as much fun as the
guy across the table with old deck sleeves and his
trusty Blue Eyes deck, who’s finally summoned his
beloved creature and is pounding on the opponent
who’s DDA’s are all removed, and Smashing Grounds
used up? Are you even having fun with the game AT
ALL??? Or are you just going on a self righteous
dueling journey , to try and become the best with
the cards everyone else uses, carefully planning
every move and bringing yourself to a nervous
breakdown when you cant draw your ‘Advantage’ cards?
How do you feel when the Blue Eyes is there on the
field, un surpass able because the highest attack
monster you have is a 2400 - used -his -effect and
one way of reviving him, with no way of increasing
his attack power? At the end of the day, if you lose
the duel, are you any better off than the people who
lost in the same round, but had some fun doing it?
The reality is, that for the moment , the
statistical Duelists of today have the advantage,
but they are stuck in their ways. The Soul Duelists
are learning and adapting, which is something the
Advantage Duelists cant. The more they try to
perfect their deck , the more robotic it will
become. The important thing about a Duelists soul is
that there is no back up copy. Once it’s gone, it’s
gone, so you can either let it extinguish, and be
trapped in the metallic prison that is the CC, or
you can think out of the box, expand, and flourish
in a burning blaze of originality.
You need to ask yourself, ‘Am I having fun with
this?’, I mean, I know I am, but are you ? Are you
enjoying the game to its full potential?
Yeah, thought not…..
That’s all from me this week guys, Merry Christmas,
hope it’s a good one.
Toddyhole@aol.com
|
