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Baneful's Column Confronting Nostalgia Bias (Back In The Day)
Contact:
banefulscolumn@gmail.com
This is the last article I'm penning for this first chapter
of Baneful's Column.
I'll certainly be doing more writing for Pojo, though
different kind of articles, geared more toward modern play
and less on nostalgic tradition.
But at the end of all of this, I just have to
reflect.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion.
Nostalgia is an ever-present emotion in the human mind.
All of us miss and long for the things we used to
have in our childhood.
Not for the merits of what we're longing for in
itself, but rather the memories we associate with it.
Lots of things bring back memories for us: a song we
listened to a lot in a crucial part of our lives, scent of a
perfume that reminds us of someone, a souvineer of a
vacation, a cartoon we used to watch when we were a kid or a
food we used to eat when we were younger.
This can also apply to Yu-Gi-Oh.
Nostalgia bias is common, especially in YGO.
There's a tendency to idealize the past whilst being
very critical of the present because it just doesn't live up
to those golden standards.
Remember when the banished pile actually meant the
card was gone, and not just that it was a second graveyard?
Remember when people only Special Summoned one
monster per turn instead of five?
Playing Past Formats
One thing I enjoy doing is dueling people casually in past
formats. A
friend and I each had Starter Deck Yugi and Kaiba
respectively and dueled each other with it.
These decks were in the good old simple days when
there were no mind-racking decisions on whether to Wiretap a
Bottomless Trap Hole or not.
Turns out that the game was horribly (and I mean
horribly) imbalanced.
By drawing La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp before
your opponent, you nearly guarenteed yourself a win.
Fissure, Dark Hole and Change of Heart can help you
but those are 3 out of 50 cards.
Your only other options were to set useless defense
monsters for La Jinn to destroy whilst your opponent can
summon a monster each turn and swarm you.
Without much Special Summoning, you didn't have the
ability to counter them much at all.
Life point changing cards like Dian Keto the Cure
Master and Ookazi really didn't help you when you were
getting attacked by two monsters, and single-tribute Normal
Monsters just sat in your hand.
With the early sets (LOB, MRD, and MRL) out, it was still
that basic beatdown format.
There was lots of easy removal, but it was mostly an
aggro format where you try to get two monsters on the board
and push for damage.
It was certainly fun but did not have much depth.
Let's also look at the famous Chaos Goat Control Era (2005).
Looking at it closely, it wasn't so impressive.
First, only Chaos decks really had a shot at being
competitive. If
you didn't run Chaos, you couldn't win.
If you didn't spend $50 on Black Luster Soldier –
Envoy of the Beginning, you probably weren't winning either.
There were a few Magical Scientist FTK's (which I
hardly would consider healthy for the game) that topped.
Most unique was a Beast deck which made use of
Enraged Battle Ox's ability to punish Scapegoat players, but
that was the exception and not the rule.
Second, much like the Metal Raiders era, there was still a
very simple formula for winning.
So, there were options to handle Chaos – just not
enough.
Non-Chaos wins were anomalies.
You either ran Chaos or you were a noob.
Or perhaps, you were one of the idealistic players
who had fun playing with your theme deck but had no chance
of winning tournaments.
There wasn't much variance amongst topping decks.
The Chaos decks were all of a very similar structure
; they all used 30 to 35 of the same cards.
That's because most of the proportionately few good cards in
that era didn't leave you much of a choice.
Today we have choices like Pot of Duality versus
Special Summoning.
Back then you just ran Graceful Charity because it
was really good, had no downsides and there weren't any
better options.
Your choice was whether you wanted to focus more on
Scapegoat combos or if you wanted to have a few more traps
instead. You got
to choose between Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Lightning
Vortex. You got
to choose between a wide assortment of like 3 or 4 LIGHT
monsters to feed BLS.
That's really where your choice begins and ends.
Third and final point on this matter, lots of broken cards
existed. For its
time, BLS was busted.
In a fun nostalgic reanactment duel, Delinquent Duo
is fun. Oh, no!
I got hit with a Deliquent Duo!
Haha! But
during the times where you actually paid money to enter
tournaments and you were counting on skill to win you games,
watching your opponent get the "holy trinity of card
advantage" while you got a pedestrian hand was frustrating,
and imbalanced.
The GX era was also bad because it was underpowered.
Sets came out with only 2 or 3 quality cards while
already-existing powerful cards were banned.
It basically just LOB-IOC beatdown format 2.0, except
a little weaker.
It was the 5D's Synchro format that boosted the energy and
speed of the game again.
Yes, there were some obnoxiously broken months, but
now things are different.
Due to all of the releases that are out, no matter
what changes are made to the format, we will find a way to
adapt. Back in
the beginning of the Synchro era, there were not many
powerful cards to stop some of the more broken Synchro
plays, because the GX cards were bad and the original series
was really dated.
Now, in the Zexal era, on to the Arc V era, we are
resource-rich and there's much more room to accomodate a
wider variety of playstyles.
The Beauty of Current Meta
We can always hate on the current meta due to our warm
nostalgic memories, but in many ways it's been a good meta.
Let's even look at last format.
The top decks were HAT, Geargia, Bujin, Madolches,
Fire Fists.
Evilswarms and Fire Kings werent too far around the corner.
Even decks like Chain Beat could win tournaments.
Yes, there was the unruly Dragon Ruler format (which
was really no more dominant than cookie cutter chaos was in
its time), but overall, there's been more diversity than
ever. Even
today, the top deck may very well be Shaddolls but Burning
Abyss and Satellarknights aren't too far behind.
In a resource-rich environment with plenty of tech cards
available, no matter how strong a new threat is (within
reason of course), there's always plenty of resources to
handle them, which we will discover.
Vanity's Emptiness, for example, the notorious $40
common, was practically unknown until Special Summoning
(especially via Soul Charge) became extra popular.
Also, the Extra Deck is another improvement to the
game. At a fair
-1 cost, you can get out a monster that will break you even
or even plus with skillful play.
It takes luck out of the equation.
If you decide to over-extend and play 4 spell/trap cards,
it's not a matter of maybe the opponent might get lucky and
draw Heavy Storm.
Its a matter of the opponent having Evilswarm Exciton
Knight and choosing to use it if they wish.
Almost none of the big powerful Special Summoned
monsters like (Beezle) is a problem, because there are ways
around it such as Silent Honor ARK.
The fact that these cards don't exist in the main
deck takes the probability and luck out of the equation.
You can get it out early game but you don't draw into
it or brick your hand if you don't need it for the
situation.
In this game, there's not really a trump card that can beat
everything anymore.
Every card has an answer that's accessible with a
fair cost.
There's just so many factors you have to consider when
building a deck and entering a tournament because there's so
many more options to succeed.
Which archetype will you play and thoroughly master?
What are your good matchups and bad matchups?
How will you gear your Extra Deck, for toolboxing or
punishing the opponent?
Which of the many viable cards out there will be a
part of your 15 card Side Deck?
There's just so many questions out there, and while
the game may still have some flaws, its much more deep and
complex than it ever was.
Ten years it had taken Baneful.
Oh, cruel needless misunderstanding.
The struggle is finished.
I have won victory over myself.
I love the modern meta.
The Story
I didn't just come here to write some random articles.
I came here to paint a portait and tell story, from
the beginning, to the middle, all the way to today.
From youth, to mid-age to sunset.
From a stereotypical n00b, to semi-good player having
fun, to someone winning tournaments, to some sort of an
elder statesman like me who enjoys the game but is winding
down and reflecting on it.
My goal was to make a timeless column; not just a bunch of
articles that will be irrelevent once a new banlist hits or
a new set comes out.
I wanted to talk about ideas that people could still
discuss and relate to years down the road.
If you are reading this in 2019, I hope most of what
I wrote in this column is still relevant
I didn't just want to say "here's how you win duels" and
"here's how you build a Warrior deck".
You can go on the forums for that, and by now (it's
been so long in the game) you should know that stuff.
I wanted to not only ask the "how", but the "why".
Why is YGO fun?
What do we like about it, specifically?
How has it changed and evolve?
What greater meaning does it have and what does it
say about us? I
hope I achieved that.
Granted, this column so far has assumed the reader to be as
reverant of Pojo as I am.
For those who remember reading all of the featured
writing on Pojo 10 years ago, just as I did, I hope this
column has been a nostalgic buzz for you.
But as I look forward, I plan to expand and take on
entirely new subjects.
Pojo impacted me indescribably when I was a 13 year old kid.
Now, as I'm approaching 23.
For a site that impacted me so much as a kid, it hurt
me to see it in decline.
So, I wanted to come back, revive the site, and give
back to the site what it gave to me.
I wanted to make readers of Pojo today feel exactly
how Jaelove and Pook made me feel back then.
Full circle.
Thank You
Anyway I thank you for reading my column, and especially
getting this far.
I know the readership of this website is not nearly
as big as it once was, but I'm still grateful for every view
that I get. I
didn't get a ton of emails like my predecessors did, but I
still appreciate every single letter I got.
It's been a great first chapter.
In the end, as things wind down, I reflect.
Not just my experience at Pojo, but my whole YGO
journey that has accompanied literally half of my life.
And, don't worry.
You'll be seeing more of me in the future.
For now, though, I'm stepping away from my column for
a little bit, at least until I figure out what's next for
it. Until then,
enjoy.
- Baneful
(P.S. ; a poem/song to conclude things)
...
...
...
Back in the Day (Duel Monsters) by Baneful
Chorus
I
remember back in the day
We used
to play in the shade
Tribute
two; summon Blue-Eyes
What an
amazing play!
In the
backs of our yards
With no
covers on our cards
No meta
game to follow
We all
dueled with our hearts
Duel
monsters!!
Verse 1
I
remember back in the day we used to play in the shade
Outdoors, we held our cards so they didn't blow away
We took
our decks everywhere - even buffets
No need
to tribute for Blue-Eyes 'cause that was okay
Malevolent Nuzzler was a game-winning play
And
cards like Hane-Hane were main-stays
One
time I got 3 packs 'cause it was pay-day
I
pulled Relinquished ; What an amazing day!
Though
today Ritual Monsters are just child's play
And who
cares now? It's a common anyway
Remember BLS? What an era! That's all I'll say
Then it
got banned and things were not okay
Next,
the Exceed's and Synchro's entered the fray
Some
duelists decided to leave ; Others wanted to stay
I used
to say I'll quit (never did) ; Though someday I may
Won't
be surprised if I still play when I'm old and gray
Chorus
I
remember back in the day
We used
to play in the shade
Tribute
two; summon Blue-Eyes
What an
amazing play!
In the
backs of our yards
With no
covers on our cards
No meta
game to follow
We all
dueled with our hearts
Duel
monsters!!
Verse 2
Verse 2
is about to drop.
Witch
targets, I got a lot.
Warrior
Lady. Sangan, maybe.
What
about a Yata lock?
If I
set card face down,
Heavy
Storm gonna rain down.
I'll
lose my cards and get swarmed.
So what
should I play now?
No
field advantage.
Only 2
cards in my hand
But I
look at my graveyard.
I got
something planned .
Remove
a DARK and a LIGHT.
BLS
continues the fight.
Pop.
Pop. Double strike.
Decisive win tonight.
Then,
cookie-cutter got stale,
So I
played Water and Beasts
The
more creative I got,
The
more I strayed from my peak
Out of
touch with the meta.
But
even in my losing streak
I
always looked forward to compete
In the
tourney at the end of the week
Chorus
I
remember back in the day
We used
to play in the shade
Tribute
two; summon Blue-Eyes
What an
amazing play!
In the
backs of our yards
With no
covers on our cards
No meta
game to follow
We all
dueled with our hearts
Duel
monsters!!
Verse 3
Building decks in my head
Because
I needed the practice
Was
daydreaming in class
While I
was planning my tactics
When
bullies harassed
And
things weren't perfect at home
The
comic shop was my safe haven
There I
was never alone
Things
are better ; I shaped my life
We've
all grown
From
keeping decks in our pockets
To
rockin' I-Phones
From
Instant Message, to Myspace
And now
it's Facebook
From
Photobucket, to Instagram, and Twitter
We're
hooked
From
dueling tournaments
To
shopping malls and Starbucks
From
Dark Magician and Blue Eyes
To
Utopia and Stardust
Cycles
and patterns repeat
Some
things never change
But
people do
Yet
duel monsters stays the same
From
start to finish
From
cradle to grave
From
beginning to end
The
story remains
Full
circle.
We all
won.
Good
game.
Well
played
Like
the duels we had...
As I
remembered them back in the day.
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