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Overly Complicated Bollocks 

Shooting for one flashy play just invites being crushed by several simpler plays.

One of the most common newbie traps I see are people trying to combine several cards together, usually involving riding at least THREE different types of Grade 3 just to try and kill the opponent in what they THINK is a useful gambit.

If, like me, you actually give at least one shit about consistency, then you should know that it’s a fuck-terrible idea. And yet, it’s idea prevalent enough to make write this in the hopes a newbie will find it and I can reduce the number of sucky players by at least one. An actually good player would simply be able to design their Grade 3 lineup in a way that allows them to at least have a useful fall-back in the event of failure.

Have you watched professional poker? Compared to amateurs, pros tend to fold a hell of a lot more at the beginning. That’s because they know they can’t normally improve a hand to anything decently good. Amateurs on the other hand are always open to the idea of possibilities and so they stick around, if they start with a hand that COULD trump everyone else’s even if it doesn’t currently, small as the odds are. The reality is however the low odds are still fucking low. Just don’t bother and expand on high odd plays. Why is that so hard to understand?

So without further ado, I shall now deconstruct why trying to be overly elaborate are for tryhards and newbs.

1.    The longer it takes to get anything done, the longer your opponent has to give you a good hard dicking.

I didn’t like the Limit Break era after Booster Set 9. Everything was just Limit Break rather tokenly for crap skills that weren’t even OP enough to warrant a restriction like it anyway. With Legion and Stride this isn’t much of an issue anymore, but my point is, decks that get their shit done faster tend to do better than those that wait (which is why basically no Crossride from Set 9 made me want to ditch my the End deck). Sometimes that can be the reason for people to run old aces that go live Mid Game in the event they go first and therefore Stride last. Trying to combine several Grade 3s together in a way that compliments neither all that well and requires bad deck choices to juggle them is just taking this a stage further by having more that can go wrong, and longer to gather what you need.

2.    Hoping that you can still hold onto those combo pieces turn after turn is completely ludicrous if you don’t want to die.

Some of those pieces may eventually have to be used to guard. This is especially prevalent at 4 damage when the guarding game changes completely. Even in decks where the aim is to only ride certain Grade 3s in some sort of order, perhaps they must be lost as costs for PGs, or the opponent could dick your field forcing you to call them as spare attackers. The problem is that people who try to do this usually don’t plan in the event of failure. I’ve a friend who’s been trying for the past week to actually use Phantom Blaster “Abyss” with Blaster Dragon Break Ride in the way people seem to be suggesting but so far almost everyone’s been able to cockblock it because they kill him before it happens, or they corner him enough that the pieces are lost Or he just fucks HIMSELF over because of the non-Revengers occupying his field in an awkward position. Including myself of course, since I can beat idiots.

3.    Usually, neither you nor your opponent would live to see the combo in full anyway if the first play can do it well enough.

Unless the first half of it can actually bring something halfway decent to the table as a first ride, then it’s better to simply let one boss or the other do the talking for you instead. In something like a Seeker deck with Alfred Exiv and Thing Saver in it, riding Alfred followed by Thing Saver is actually acceptable given that it genuinely fuels a good bollocking (6 total soul for 3 attacks) and even if it never appears, Alfred Exiv is a decent VG to sit on. Or hell, even Thing Saver since that can still get at least 1 other hit in. But most importantly, it doesn’t DEPEND on the perfect combo to win. If it happens it’s pretty incidental.

I’ve mentioned this before, but trying to do several things terribly will never beat any deck that does one thing horribly well. Next time you see something, just think about the simplest way to use it and it’s probably the right way. Like how Phantom Blaster Dragon was built for the express purpose of Blaster Overlord combos. It was fucking obvious, guys. Like the use of toilet paper after a bad case of sugar-free Gummy Bears, you’ll appreciate that less is more.

P.S I’d like to apologise for the error in time-reference in the last article regarding Amnesty Messiah. To be fair I sort of knew what I was going to say about it already. It’s not as though it’s stopped being mediocre.

P.P.S So a lot people didn’t appreciate my disdain for G-Link Joker. Look, I’m not saying it’s BAD. But its performance does not justify the price, especially if you want to whore out in rarity. It’s average. That’s all. It’s a “borrow-for-casuals” deck. I’ll tell you what. How about I make a new article about another popular deck? Then you can hate me for picking at ITS scabs instead!

Complain that all I run is stuff designed to SCREW overly complicated bollocks at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com