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From: Joseph King [mailto:thejoepage@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 5:21 PM

Subject: Some comments on the current state of the game -- Joe K.

To start off, I'd like to say that I've not been playing Yu-Gi-Oh for awhile, but I've still been keeping up with the releases and some of the tournaments in order to get a feel for where the game is headed from somewhat of a design-oriented perspective. Following is my take on the state of the game since the 10/1/05 Forbidden/Restricted List.

--The Good--

Well, the card pool certainly seems to be opening up in the Top-8s at the Shonen Jump tourneys. Bazoo/RFG, Soul Control, Merchant/Dekoichi Flip Flop and recently even burn have managed to work their way into those magical 8 slots. Seeing this kind of innovation is refreshing, although I will concur with the opinions of others that in some cases the average control/beatdown built looks a bit disorganized.

I feel that Rock decks have stronger potential than many people may imagine. Rising from a smattering of average-to-below-average monsters to a potential remove-from-game powerhouse, the advance of Rock decks is, I feel, one of Konami's strongest shows of competency in recent times. Coupled with the new cards from the Earth Structure Deck and the Shadow of Infinity card Sandmoth (which, is easily one of my top ten fav cards ever) rock/rfg really ought to be a sleeper hit somewhere.

The cash curve on this game seems to be taking a dip, which is good. Plenty of reprints (thanks to whoever stopped us from recieving that ridiculous Expert Edition 3!!) and strong Structure decks make formerly tough-to-get cards more readily available at a decent price. Also, mad props to UDE/whomever for Nightmare Steelcage, Mystic Box, and Magical Dimension in Spellcaster's Judgment!


--The Bad--

I don't follow the regional/local competition lists much, but at Shonen Jump, the hopes for attribute- and type-based decks to make it have not really been showing a great deal of promise. Control and beatdown hybrids still about, no matter what kind of label you'll tag on them. The abscence of Tribe-Infecting Virus may not be as significant in the TCG Advanced Format as previously expected, and even if it was still around it would still add to the raining down of 1-for-1 removal present in the format. The games seem more and more to be about counting beans, and it would seem to me that they can be broken down into just putting 1 card into the graveyard at a time.

Shadow of Infinity has several insect-type cards, which many people hail as "Insect support, yippee!!", but I beg to differ. Chainsaw Insect is presently the highest-atk splashable 4-star monster, but since Insects are about lockdown and control (Insect Princess, Insect Barrier, Pinch Hopper, Multiplication of Ants, etc) I don't feel that the stats or the mechanic of Chainsaw Insect do a great deal to help an Insect deck's strategy. Devildozer provides some control by discarding off the deck and generally being fat, but I feel that deck destruction is better left to the zombie deck. Giant Ant-Eater Eating Ant has a good effect for its cost, but the Insect duelist will want to wager how much they need their support cards in the backrow to make use of this effect. And Saber Beetle just made me ill in general.

--The Ugly--

The continuation of Elemental Hero-themed cards make me sick. Elemental Heros have average-to-abyssmal name-specific cards; a really bad version of Negate Attack; and they offer very little field control. The best things they got for them are Hero Signal and maybe THunder Giant and Wildheart, but that alone cannot hold the decktype aloft. Sure, you can argue that they have Normal Monster support and Fusion support, but it doesn't help considering that the monsters don't really accomplish a whole lot. The fusions have mostly attack-based abilities (which, as we've all learned form this format, is a good idea only about 40% of the time) and do not do a great deal to maintain their presence. The Destiny-Hero cards seem mildly interesting, but the fact that we're getting more heros at all rather than support for decktypes or interesting, cohesive mechanics really disppoints me.

THere has been a lot of haggle recently over what do to with the next Forbidden/Restricted list come April. There has been suggested forbidding/restricting cards like Cyber Dragon, DD Assailant, and even going so far as to mass-scale-restrict/forbid just about every 1-for-1 card in existence. I see three possible solutions to these issues:

1. The players should use their brains a bit and make good use of game mechanics (like Thunder Dragons, remove-from-game, and the like) that have better long-term pay-off than the average 1-for-1 card

2. Konami should work to make cards specific for mechanics, types, or attributes that provide better benefit than the usual 1-for-1 card

3. Massive forbidding/restriction



The last option I definitely would not want to see, since that's a cheap and easy way out. What this game needs is better card design and perhaps a tweaking down of the learning curve to help players better understand rules and mechanics and use them to their advantage.





I have been in very little actual play because despite a few glimmers of hope, this game does not provide enough benefit for potentially powerful game mechanics and, to an innovative person such as myself, does not offer enough in the end. I don't mind trying out unique strategies and techniques, but I also like to see them win, because that is why I play. I can't stand running a hodge-podge beatdown/control outfit and seeing a result I expect. Once Konami brings out some more rewarding strategies for under-done concepts like trap decks and Agents (and maybe providing a little bit of tamed help to the almost-defunct archetype of pure hand control), then I would be more than happy to give them my dollar. In the meantime however, I shall wait.





Questions? Comments? Sent them to Joe at thejoepage@hotmail.com