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FanatikMonk on Yu-Gi-Oh!
A Very Late Introduction
August 15, 2006

This isn’t about anything in particular, I’m mainly just killing time. I’ve realized a lot of you don’t know who I am, so I figure I should introduce myself to give you a bit more information on my perspective and goals as a writer.

My name is Clayton Nelson and I live in Northern New Jersey. I haven’t been dueling since the LOB days, in fact, my emergence into YGO was incredibly accidental. I’m a camp counselor during the summers (I’m actually at camp right now outside my cabin) and as is tradition here, we take the campers to the state fair every summer. To mock some of my Yu-Gi-Oh crazed kids, I bought a single pack of MFC and ended up pulling a Dark Magician Girl. I sold it back to the vendor for more packs and ended up pulling 7 more foils that day. For only $4, I had almost 80 cards.

It was a pretty quick addiction from there on. I’d play campers for their cards, make trades and learn everything I could. Soon, I was better than all of the other kids and armed with only an amazoness deck (packed to the gills with pineapple blast, mind you), I thought I was invincible. My fall from grace came after dueling my co-counselor, Grant, who was running a pretty nasty control deck and loved to smack me around with Painful Choice, Raigeki and scientist. I learned as much as I lost and I did a lot of losing.

Once home I listed cards I had come across that I needed/wanted to build a control deck like the one I saw, but was soon confronted by the new ban list. With all hopes flushed I built my first real deck. It was a spellcaster deck featuring Sorcerer of Dark Magic and Dark Paladin. I must’ve been called a n00b a thousand times online before I decided to switch things up. After that I went to warriors, water, reversal quiz, earth, warrior again, chaos, wind and a lot of other ideas. I read a lot of sites on a daily basis just to learn and would copy decks, improve them and then twist them. It was an awkward way of getting to know the game but effective none the less.

I never considered myself a veteran, nor do I now. I think that means you’ve learned enough, or that you’re exempt from making errors or losses. I enjoy being beaten by good decks with new or innovative ideas and I love putting new spins on old cards. I don’t really think of myself as a serious duelist, but I do consider myself an expert deck builder. When people told me I couldn’t make a Kuriboh control deck, I took their challenge. When people said fairies could never be competitive, I proved them wrong. When people told me that their deck was incapable of winning, I bought their deck of them and swept at tournaments by only making minor changes.
In the early days I did a lot of hustling. I’d play kids at my high school for cards until my reputation grew. I’d make ridiculously one sided trades and really force people out of their cards for basic junk. I sold cards, deck lists and insulted n00bs before trading with them just to get more from them. Looking back I was a real jerk, that’s probably why I do this now.

It’s not easy coming into a new game. People need help. There is no criteria for being successful at this game, nor is there any true indicator of a player’s worth, so a lot of dueling is based in personal self-esteem. My first big tournament was Shonen Jump NJ. I wasn’t ready. I built my side deck in line and my main deck was more cards that made me happy than stuff I expected to win. Dark Magician of Chaos, Airknight and Jinzo were superstars in my mind but couldn’t keep up with Cosmic Odyssey’s Goat Control. I left after my second match because I had a graduation rehearsal. After suffering a match 2 loss, I often wonder how far I would’ve gone and if I’d be a different person had I stayed.

I don’t compete in regionals or big tourneys mainly because of a lack of time. I go to an ivy-league school and play ultimate frisbee through most of my days. I’d love to go to some big events, but right now that’s just not going to work out. This fall I’m looking forward to heading out to a few Boston regionals and showing off some new decks.

What I like least about this game is the pessimism and lack of personality. Many players get caught up in what is successful and what isn’t and lock bad ideas into their heads. Many feel that there is an entire unachievable level for them to reach. I don’t like the fact that the game isn’t taken seriously; while that is the fault of a mixture of elements, including the age of a large amount of the dueling community. I don’t like that most new sets contain very few good cards and that this game requires so much money to be good at ( Cyber Dragons!).

I do like the potential for originality and that the game is friendly to so many ages. I love that the game has such a great ability to reflect a person’s traits and interests. I love the fact that things are always changing and that new ideas are born from dust every day.

So I guess the only way to finish this is to say that I’m a deck builder, not a duelist. I love ingenuity. I don’t need competition. I don’t want to teach you all how to beat your friends. I just want everyone to look at things from all sides possible and appreciate a game that has so much to offer. Anyway, Happy Dueling!

~FanatikMonk
Clayton_Nelson@Brown.edu