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Mofox's Journey

Mofox’s journey from Newbie to the
UK National Tournament - Part 4
March 2, 2006

Pojo Message Board

3^rd May 2005 and I decided it was time to become a member of the Pojo Message Boards.  The registry process was extremely easy to do and also had the added bonus of being completely FREE!

Over a month after I had become a member I posted my first thread.  Even though I was now a member I was still reluctant to post and was expecting a backlash from other members over any of my views.  It was after receiving a new card Curse of Anubis, my first non-starter deck ultra rare card, that I had something to start a thread about, asking about the potential of this card.  At the time Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning was running rampant in all decks and although I wasn’t duelling I was looking for ways to create a deck that would play against these decks.  In addition my affinity to trample monsters and trample decks I was immediately drawn to this card.  For those who don’t know what it does here is a description:

Curse of Anubis

Normal Trap 

All face-up effect monsters on the field are changed to defense position.  During the turn this card is activated, the original def of those effect monsters become 0 and their battle positions cannot be changed.

My initial reaction on pulling this card was the thought of being able to put that Black Luster Soldier in Def, making that Def value 0 and either taking him out with whatever monster I wanted or trampling the overpowered warrior.

I therefore decided to ask the other Pojo users on their opinion on the card and any advice on how to make a deck to fully utilise its potential.  In initially deciding where to post I decided to go for the Newbies section.  The section really appealed to me.  It seemed the least threatening area on the boards.  Other threads in this section were treated with respect and most who posted here were positive and constructive in their comments.  This was how my first post went:

Hi,

I've not been playing YGO that long and have recently acquired a Curse of Anubis card. I was wondering how useful it was. Could it be used effectively in a trample deck? If I combo'd it with other trample m/t's like Big Bang Shot and Meteorain as well as Enraged Battle Ox and Airknight Parshath would it be a worthwhile deck to make?

Any help on a deck using this card or any advice on its uses/combos would be appreciated.

or if its useless then please tell me so I can sell/trade it.

I received a healthy 11 replies to my thread 1 from a featured writer on Pojo.  All replies except 1 were helpful.  They helped to highlight the positives and negatives of this card.  1 major negative being that it affects my own monsters when activated putting them all in def position as well.  Someone highlighted the possible benefits of using Asura Priest in conjunction with Big Bang Shot allowing a possible One Turn Kill if the opponent had enough monsters on their side, which can be easily achieved using Ojama Trio or waiting till the opponent activates their Scapegoat (which wasn’t restricted at the time).

The success of my first thread gave me the encouragement I needed to give my views in other areas of the board.  Now at the time my wedding preparations were in full swing and I was spending less time looking at the boards but during August 2005 I made my second post.  Obviously buoyed by my success on my first thread I entered into the Banlist discussion section of Pojo.  People were debating heatedly about the cards likely to be included on the banned and restricted sections of the list.  Most were about the possibility of banning the dreaded Black Luster Soldier mentioned above.  I decided to jump in at the deep end and picked up a highly replied to thread and decided to post my opinion.  This was my next post:

I personally think it will be banned. The card will only become even more powerful with its morphability into Cyber Twin Dragon.

In addition I think that limiter removal will be banned as well. The possibilities of bumping up those new cyber dragon fusions to wild ATK's will warrant a ban otherwise Cyber End Dragon will just trample over everything.

The other possibility is that they decide to ban metamorphasis and prevent the goat/morph decks and at the same time stop you getting those fusions a lot easier. There are some indications that they will do this. Increasing the number of fusions you can have and also creating new alternatives to polymerisation.

Just a thought.

The addition of “just a thought” at the end of the post was to allow me to back out of my opinion in case it was disputed heavily.  Luckily for me, my prediction wasn’t too inaccurate.  The message board was still quite a scary place, so many people were disrespectful to others and at times there were some horrendous insults to others.  I continued to take a back seat and then after reading a deck fix on Metagame I came up with an extreme take on the popular soul control deck.  I wanted to post the deck and see what response it would get.  I decided as it was my first deck and very much against the normal theory of deck construction (it ran 12 tribute monsters but still worked quite well) I would post it in the Newbie Section again.  The idea was that all the tribute monsters only required one tribute but also 7 of the 12 monsters could be special summoned without tribute.  The deck received pretty much a thumbs down, too tribute heavy and promoted bad hands.  However inside I felt like I had overcome a big hurdle.  I had finally put one of my own decks into the public forum.  Even though it had been shot down somewhat I still felt great that I had taken that next step.  I continued to post selectively on the message board racking up 28 posts by the end of 2005.  However I was beginning to get stronger and stronger urges to actually duel.  One area on the Pojo Message Boards kept leaping out at me whenever I was browsing, the Duel Request Lounge.  It was time to take the next step.

To those newbies who read these articles and have never ventured onto the message boards or even know where they are.  In the top right hand corner of your browser window you will see the words MESSAGE BOARDS with a flashing green square next to it.  Place your cursor over these words and press your left mouse button.  You will then be transported to one of the most active discussion areas about Yu-Gi-Oh! and many other trading card games.

I would recommend having a browse around before becoming a member.  Guests are welcome to read anything that is posted, you just can’t post anything.  Spend some time familiarising yourself with all the different areas and always read the sticky sections on the very first page you come to.  In fact all newbies I recommend your first port of call should be the sticky at the top of the Newbie Section.  It describes everything you need to know about the boards.  Here is a link to get there, just click on it:

www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=100799

The newbie section in general is well managed and you will, for the majority of the time, get nice positive, constructive criticism and plenty of help.  Whenever you are ready become a member, it is really easy to do and costs nothing.

The board has many tips for using the Message Boards but here are some of mine:

• Read before you post anything.  Many problems and arguments on the boards come about from people not reading things properly.

• It is difficult to convey emotions on the message boards.  Sarcasm in particular is difficult to put across without offending someone.  My advice is leave it alone or make it VERY CLEAR you are being sarcastic.

• Follow all the rules on the boards.  The moderators of the site are SAS style trained to weed out all those that break the rules.  Trust me when I say you won’t get away with much.

• Don’t swear.  Its not difficult and it will stop you from being banned.

This is the most important one:

• RESPECT OTHER’S OPINIONS.  Everyone is entitled to his or her opinions including you.  If everyone in the world agreed on everything then there would never be any diversity.  No one is right or wrong but that doesn’t mean you have to agree with someone.  It is okay to have a different opinion and you shouldn’t be criticised for that.  In the same vein though you should not do the same to others who have a different opinion.  Remember this and your life on the boards will be a lot smoother.

My email address is mofox9@hotmail.co.uk email me for any help or advice or even your opinions on my articles.  I would love to hear your opinions and if you have any suggestions to improve them then let me know.  I will reply to all emails that are sent to me.  Remember newbies no questions are stupid questions.

Until next time fellow duellists!