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First I like to thank Pojo for
putting this interview up for me.
Pojo Screen Name:
http://www.pojo.biz/board/member.php?u=12491
Ally:
First of all, I like to thank you
Ricky for taking a few minutes of your time to do
this interview with me. For my first question, can
you please tell the Pojo readers a little bit about
yourself?
Ricky:
I'm Ricky, known online as Nut.
I am 16 years old, and I've been playing Yu-Gi-Oh!
since traditional. I didn't start playing
competitively until the first banned list.
Ally:
I see. Since you played competitively
when the first banned list came out did you top
eight your first regional then?
Ricky:
Yeah actually the first event outside
of a local I ever went to was a regional in Alabama,
where I was able to earn an invite in Top 4 after
going 7-0 in swiss, winning the Top 8 match.
Ally:
What deck were you playing at that
time and 7-0 is really good for a first top eight,
because that doesn't happen too often.
Ricky:
Well, the night before I was going to
run this really cool teched out deck with no
Soldier, but my team mate wanted to run my D.D.
Assailant and he was Asian; so I figured he had a
better shot anyway, so I just ran chaos warrior.
Ally:
That’s cool! You mentioned your team
mate, so I see you’re on a team. Can you tell the
viewers a little about the team?
Ricky:
Yeah I'm on Team GG. We've been a
team for....a really long time. About as long as
Comic Odyssey, much longer than Nexus/Rampge/Hungerforce,
and the other entire notable teams these days. We
take pride in not being like a team just formed 3
months ago :].
Ricky: Shout outs to my team mates, I
love you.
Ally:
Now that we covered your team, have
ya'll had any team battles and if so with who?
Ricky:
No notable team battles. We've
technically have participated in one, which we won
relatively easily, but I don't count it since it was
really not a big deal. We don't travel nearly as
much as we would like to, so no team battles yet but
we're hoping to team battle Hpnotiq at Nationals,
because we're friends with most of those guys.
Ally:
Good luck with your team battle, and
I hope your team wins. Anyways, recently you topped
16 Shonen Jump Houston. How was that like?
Ricky:
It was nice. I felt good for
representing my team and stuff, and it was kinda
overdue since I got tired of doing so bad at jumps
(wouldn't believe my luck..). But on the other hand,
I know my team mate Duy Bui (Who made my SJC Houston
Top 16 deck BTW) was really looking forward to doing
well at the jump but got really unlucky that day,
but I know that he'll get his soon enough.
Ally:
Hopefully you both will top 8 a
Shonen Jump What deck were you running at the jump?
Ricky:
I was running a Blackburn deck.
Blackburn is a deck that was originally created by
Dale Bellido from Superfriendz. Dale ran his WAYYY
back I think all the way in traditional or the first
couple of banned list. It included Black Luster
Soldier and sometimes Strike Ninja(s). Duy remade
the deck for this format and it wrecked on 99% of
the decks at SJC Houston 07.
Ally:
Outside of the SJ Houston, how
consistent was it at other regionals, or was it just
built say like the night before so to speak?
Ricky:
It wasn't built the night before the
jump, Duy was testing it for weeks before the jump
(while I did absolutely nothing rofl), but we didn't
get to test it at a Regional or anything like that
because we were busy every weekend preceding the
jump. He strictly tested it online on YVD
Ally:
That’s cool! Ok on a different topic
now. What are your views on the current banned list?
Ricky:
Umm it’s a slower paced format
compared to the last few we've had, and I like that
a lot. I definitely think that Snatch Steal, Ring of
Destruction, and Confiscation should be banned
though. Confiscation is such a broken card; give a
pro a Confiscation opening hand, and he’s winning
that game 99% of the time. It’s too good; I run it
in almost all my decks. Ring of Destruction is a
really lame card for obvious reasons, and Snatch
Steal does virtually the same thing.
Ally:
I couldn't agree with you more there.
What’s more annoying to you, winning with a snatch
steal or winning with a Ring of Destruction?
Ricky:
Definitely Ring of Destructions. With
Snatch Steal you at least know you have a lot of
possible counters like Book of Moon, Mystical Space
Typhoon, Enemy Controller if they have a face up
Monster, Dust Tornado etc. with ring, you only
really have Book of Moon once you activate it.
Ally:
This is true and not many people will
main/side other cards that go against Ring 'cause
it's too risky like Barrel Behind The Door, but
there’s always the most popular trap negators like
Jinzo and Royal Decree. Hmmm what would you like to
see come off the banned list?
Ricky:
I feel bad for saying this because
its so cliché, but yes a format where Scapegoat is
back at three per deck would be really interesting.
Goat format was the coolest.
Ally:
Goat format was cool, but really
annoying @_@. Do you have any set goals this year
pertaining to YGO?
Ricky:
Goals for Yu-Gi-Oh!? Uh not really, I
guess as usual I look forward to traveling with my
friends and having a lot of fun. If I didn't love
hanging out with my Yu-Gi-Oh! friends so much I
probably wouldn't be playing right now. I guess it'd
be nice to Top 16 another Jump, we'll see how it
pans out.
Ally:
Again, hopefully you do more then top
16 like top 8 and win ^_^. Your also a feature
writer for Pojo as well (well for me more like a
feature interviewer) what do you usually write
about?
Ricky:
Now a days I just write the Card of
the Days and articles about general Yu-Gi-Oh!
strategy.
Ally:
I see. Well back to little basics,
what made you want to play Yu-Gi-Oh!?
Ricky:
My cousin. Back when the starter
decks came out he learned how to play with our
friend (who still plays, but he’s not as good as us
;P) and they lent me one of their decks to play --
I was hooked pretty much. I stopped enjoying the
game after Goat Format though.
Ally:
Yeah, a lot of people stopped
enjoying the game :<. Well, I have a few more
questions left for you then you can add whatever
closing statement you want. Since you win a lot of
regionals and topped 16 a SJ do you feel like you
can do more in Yu-Gi-Oh! after all those
accomplishments?
Ricky:
Oh absolutely. Well, its certainly
POSSIBLE. My credentials are nothing compared to
T's, Wilson's, Peddle's, Jae's etc. Am I CAPABLE of
doing better? Winning Jumps / Nationals and being a
consistent player in the game like the above
players? Definitely, but I honestly don't have the
drive to do so.
Ricky: In order to get better at the
game and excel at the game you have to have that
desire.
Ricky: All I really wanna do is
having fun.
Ally:
That’s good that you’re having fun
and not be taken too seriously all the time. The
game is about having fun and doing your best but
winning is nice too lol. What is some advice you can
give to all the new players out there that read
this?
Ricky:
Above all else just have fun. I know
this sounds like something your mom would say, but
its really the truth. If you aren't having fun
you're wasting your time. Nobody should take
Yu-Gi-Oh! that serious to the point where they're
just playing to win, because unless you're cheating,
there’s no way to consistently win in a game as luck
based as Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Ally:
Cheating is bad. Don't do it to the
people that read this ;). Speaking of cheating, when
you were playing a game did you ever have that
suspicion that your opponent was cheating you?
Ricky:
Absolutely. Both of my matches that I
lost at SJC Austin were realllllly shady. Round One
I almost got cheated with Life Points, since I had a
calculator and my opponent had paper. However, the
head judge Simon Key sided with me, but my opponent
still got no penalty for trying to cheat. Later on
the judges let my opponent cheat me involving the
activation of a card after he chose not to respond.
Theres a local player here in Louisiana, hes not
very good and I've beat him every time I've ever
played him (Once at SJCs, twice at Regionals) but he
is a known cheater around here and has almost been
banned from UDE like twice I think.
Ally:
Wow, hopefully some kind of
punishment will be handed out if he gets caught
again. That stinks though you got cheated out of
that duel. Well I have two more questions for you;
what is your favorite card and why?
Ricky:
My favorite card is Return from the
Different Dimension. It was my favorite card before
it was popular. Back in Goat Format I ran a deck
that was made by me with help from Wilson Luc that
ran Dark Magician of Chaos, Black Luster Soldier,
and Return. It was like...my favorite deck and
Return was such a cool card for the time -- nobody
ran it basically.
Ally:
Yeah back then RFTDD saw no play
whatsoever. Well as for my last question do you have
any role models that look up to you in the game? I
know your team does, but who else?
Ricky:
Wilson Luc has helped me so much.
Back in early-mid Goat Format we met at SJC Houston
05 and started talking online ALOT. I played him on
YVD almost every day for a pretty long time and
without him I wouldn't be half as good of a player
as I am today. He is a very kind person and he
doesn't play Yu-Gi-Oh! anymore, which is a shame
because he was easily one of the best and most
influential players to EVER play this game.
Ally:
That’s cool ^^. Well our interview is
over Ricky :<. Can you please give the Pojo readers
a closing statement?
Ricky:
Well I guess thanks for reading J.
My team mate Ray is over at my house and is
demanding I give him a shout out, so I guess
shutouts to Ray as well as my other team mates,
WangPirate, friends from the forums and all that
stuff. Finally thanks to Ally for taking all of this
time to interview me.
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