April 2008
 

Times have changed
 
Originally I had intended to do the second part of my Blast from the past series on spell cards, and then (as you may have predicted) a third instalment on Trap cards. The general idea was to bring up 3 old cards of each classification which may find good use in a modern context, but it appears that that kind of article is not what grabs you, as a reader’s attention so I have decided to go ahead with this article instead. In the interests of being concise, I’ll just drop a list of the spell’s & traps I would have mentioned this time round :
Lightning Vortex Scapegoat Swords of Revealing Light
Old classics such as Swords and Scapegoat that would help you stall, and lightning vortex which I still find has it’s uses with the mass swarm that we’re all seeing.
Waboku Magic Cylinder Transmigration Prophecy
Waboku is a great card that’s been overlooked for a while now but the fact is it’s chainable, a life-saver and can give you that extra turn virtually every time.
With Dimension Fusion on everyone’s hate list at the moment, Magic Cylinder could be a great way to pop a chunk of opposing LP away as well as save a monster.
With the loss of MoF I’ve found this card to be a great way to retrieve vital spell cards back that would otherwise be lost forever. TP is a great chainable trap that can be a little slow, but can set up for a match winner every time.
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s get on with this.
As a duellist, I’ve been there since the beginning, and lived through it all. Beat down, Control, Soul Control, Chaos even Goat control, I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, and I’ve survived through it.
It seems that every other format there has been a deck type emerge that would spell “the end of the game” , one that was “just too good” and was “broken”. Quite often cards that hadn’t been played for literal years would come back revamped and every naïve and blind person unable to think of a counter for it would label the card “broken”. This, a card that’s been lurking around in people’s back -catalogue of trade binders for ages without even a mention of it’s name, is now the sole cause of all wrong doing in the game. This title has recently fallen upon DMoC, and even though he must have been out for what, 3 or 4 years now? He’s suddenly an unstoppable and diabolical force. Hardly.
I can’t wait for the day when Dragons become something to be feared and then Buster Blader steps up and takes DMoC’s current mantle. Until then I guess we’ll all just have to hear about DMoC won’t we. Give it time buster.
Something’s never change. Mass-hysteria is one of them. Remember Dark World? Remember how huge Macro was going to be? I do.
Now I’m not saying that the new Dark monsters released are weak. Truth be told I think quite the opposite. The Dark monsters collectively are the most powerful monsters ever released in terms of theme-specific monster support. I think that’s undeniable. But separately , on their own they aren’t very powerful at all.
There’s only one monster in the set that gives the deck any real oomph, and I think we all know who that is. Apart from him, the other’s aren’t really anything special. Sure the Dark Creator is rather fun, and I personally LOVE Zerato, but Nephthys? Truth be told I much prefer the original, but that’s just me. (Either way both are essentially useless as we are now living in the age of RFG decks, and we’re feeling the full-force of their potential. Something previously tapped into , but never before has RFG been such a potent and accessible strategy. )
The point is, DaD is by a long way the only driving force in the Dark Deck’s success, so let’s take a look at him in a bit more detail shall we? I think it’s about time I put my own view on this big-bad-beastie out there for you all to take note of.
Ok, first I think we should cut the crap about people not liking DaD because of “his effect on the meta” as their main reason for disliking the card. What it REALLY all boils down to is money.
Regardless of what they say, the vast majority of players are pissed of with DaD mainly because he’s so damned hard to get hold of, and of course that’s all down to “money-hungry UDE”.
When DaD was due for release, UDE had a choice. Either they’d let DaD be released as a normal rare, as Konami had originally intended , or do something to slow it down. Looking at Japan, people had already realised that DaD was a major hitter in the YGO scene, and he’d only been out for a month.
UDE decided to take action. By making DaD a short-print secret rare they restricted it’s use immeasurably , mainly as a measurement to prevent a full-blown Dark invasion. I realise right now that you all think I’m talking crap, but think about it. How much worse would the Dark situation be right now had UDE allowed DaD to be mass-available? I think it’s impossible to tell, but can you honestly say that it would be any better than it is now?
DaD’s would still go for obscene amounts of money on the secondary market, undoubtedly for a lot less than these uber-rare variants , but I think we’re still in the region of $100 a piece. By cutting the number of DaD’s, first and foremost UDE cut the number of DaD’s available to be set loose on the meta.
Now, a great knock-on affect on UDE’s behalf is the boost in sales of Phantom Darkness from people desperate for their dragon. They must have raked in loads off of this idea, that’s undeniable. Still, had DaD been a rare, the sales of this pack would still be obscenely high simply because people would be enticed by the prospect of obtaining and very powerful monster at a very reasonable price.
A common misconception is that UDE are selling DaD’s for $300. They’re not, duellists such as yourselves are, and the only reason they are able to sell them for that price is because duellists such as yourselves are willing to pay these prices.
With the money issue well and truly covered, let’s examine the actual effect of DaD on the meta.
Quite recently there was a thread on the boards showing COMPLETE DISGUST at the 14 decks of the top 16 that ran DaD’s in !!! Ahh, this old story again.
I imagine, if these decks had actually been examined they would have noticed several other cards turn up in ALL of the decks that broke into the top 16 that would have gone right under the radar. Cards such as Monster Reborn and Mirror force. But no, that’s ok if they are commonly used, they’re quite easy to get hold of.
The point I’m trying to make is that I’m still confused as to why people are still perplexed as to why the best players are able to use the best cards available effectively? It’s seems obvious to me that the best players are the ones who have and use well the best cards available. That’s a no-brainer, so why do no-brainers constantly act surprised that these cards make an appearance?
The fact that DaD turned up as frequently as it did in the top 16 no t nearly as surprising as the fact that of the hundreds of people entering that big tourney with DaD’s up and rearing to go only 14 of them made it into the top 16. But Dad’s invincible right? Erm no, not really.
It’s somewhat refreshing to see that after years of unprecedented authority on the Yugioh scene , there is finally a card on the market that could stake a claim to CED’s throne as the most powerful dragon of all time.
Unfortunately for DaD it’s about a close to usurping CED of it’s thrown as I am to winning the world championship.
CED is by far the greatest monster ever released, closely seconded by BLS. In terms of being a dragon , CED has no challengers , with both DaD and LaDD falling way short of the mark.
If you put them side by side to compare, there is no grey area as to who is the best.
CED has higher attack, considerably more defence, is easier to summon, can be summoned at any time and has a far, FAR more destructive effect than DaD even if there were 3 of them on the field. CED is , undeniably better in every possible aspect, and I think Konami or UDE will be hard pushed to ever think of a monster more powerful that it that could ever sanely be released.
The key to DaD’s power is strength in numbers, something that the chaos monsters were never allowed previously. 3 Dad’s means that you a 3 times more likely to pick on up, and are able to bring it out an extra 2 times after that. That’s how DaD has surged so much in popularity. Were DaD restricted to one I believe that it’s hold over the meta would greatly diminish.
The chaos monsters were so deadly because people ran light’s and darks anyway, there was no harm in just sticking them in. The thing with Dark monsters is that that just can’t happen anymore. It’s either Dark, or not in the deck.
This brings me to the main focus of the article, just how different things are these days.
It’s a fair comment to say that my style of duellist is old - fashioned, but I make no apologies for that. The game hasn’t changed, people’s values have.
A lot of card’s that were once absolute staples are now being seen as “interesting tech” . Cards like heavy storm and torrential tribute that once would have been a dire necessity for a deck are now being phased out in place of others.
If I’m honest, that’s a good thing. It shows the depth in the decks we have now, and the fact that we don’t need staples anymore is just a sign that the game has grown up and moved on. That we’ve diversified and that we know how to handle ourselves.
Duellists such as myself are slowly becoming more and more obsolete. The game’s moved on. The annoying 12 year olds that were playing when we just started have inherited the game now, and they’re behind the driving seat. That’s REALLY annoying.
With youth comes inexperience. Players that started last year won’t know much about the pioneers of the past who shaped our game to be what it is today. True duelling greats, not the self-proclaimed “duelling superstars” that fart around the place like they’re god’s gift, and those that deem DaD absolutely unstoppable because they, the “super-duellists!” have yet thought of a way to stop it.
I hate any player that would deem another unworthy even if they lost in a duel to them, just because of what cards they lost to. Like if I beat the world champ with my 3-nix (3 phoenix) deck I’d still be his lesser for it. As if.
The fact is if a “superstar duellist” as good as he thought he was he wouldn’t have had “a bad hand” in the first place. The main idea behind deck building when the game first started was to minimise the chances of this happening. It seems with the progression of the game, players have opted for more risky strategies such as more high level monsters and trap cards. It used to be that you never ran more than 4 high level monsters, and even then they were only allowed to be high attack level 6’s. None of this level 8 funny business. And people ran at most 5 trap cards, and they’d need to be chainable. Not anymore.
Searcher monsters were all the rage, and an absolute necessity for any competitive duellist.
Perhaps I’m showing my age in this aging game, but I don’t really care too much. I understand the changes in the attitudes and the decks used, they just change with the times, but I do know this.
DaD will not be the end of Yugioh. Just because the so-called elite are yet to think of a workable solution it doesn’t mean there isn’t one out there. This game’s been through far worse and come out far stronger for it, and the same will be true this time. Some things never change.
 
the_doctor_@live.co.uk