August 2007

Hello again, Fellow Duelists!

I've been hearing endless complaints of how the meta is bad, the meta sucks, this should be banned, that should be unbanned, Yugioh is a rich man's game, the game is dying , etc. "What is Konami/Upper Deck doing about it?" isn't the right question to ask. "What can we do about it?" is the real question. As a wise man once said, "...life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it." It is up to us to cope with this "undesirable" situation that UD has set before us.

One solution that comes easily to me is playing on a casual scale instead of dueling competitively. I personally do not attend any Yugioh event above a Sneak Preview or local tourneys. Playing casually lets you forget the intense competition and most importantly, enjoy the game and HAVE FUN. That is what Yugioh is intended for in the first place, simply to have a good time!

Casual dueling is like being in the "eye of the storm," the calmest part of the Yugioh TCG universe. You are not pressured to build the same deck as other people, giving you freedom to build any deck that you wish without being bashed and/or criticized. IMO, it feels a lot better to hang out in the local card shop, just chillin' with friends, instead of in an intimidating Convention Center full of shifty eyes seeking out the next sucker who's gonna lose his expensive deck (look, I'm not saying that competitive players steal, I'm saying that it happens frequently), or gawking in front of a computer on Metagame.com to frantically look up the top 16 decklists so that they can copy them in preparation of the next SJC or whatever.

It is true that Yugioh is definitely not what it used to be, but that most definitely does not mean that you can no longer have fun!

I know that this is a highly controversial subject to many, so again I will give you the opportunity to drop me a line by e-mail caranthir.oronar at gmail dot com. I have also built a small but growing website dedicated to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG at http://www.freewebs.com/ptothep/index.htm ; you might want to check it out and maybe sign the guest book. However, I ask that you do not flame/bash/spam me; CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is always welcome though.

p_p, signing off...