• Pojo Home Page
  
• Message Board
  
• Contact Staff
  

Chaos Defined and Yet Another Take on Originality - Phoenix

From: "Mark J. Kuntz" <mkuntz@state.nd.us>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:19:06 -0500

WHAT FOLLOWS:
The definition of chaos, and a discussion of what makes "The Best Deck", with consideration for the current forbidden/restricted list, metagame, and U.S. Nationals results.


I know I'll get a ton of hate mail for what follows. But considering that I don't get much e-mail anyway, I don't suppose it could hurt.

"WHAT IS THE CHAOS?"
What defines Chaos? Can we agree that it is, in essence, using the mechanic of having light monsters and dark monsters in your graveyard to fuel the summoning of one of the Envoy monsters? Or any chaos monster for that matter: that is, to include monsters such as Chaos Sorcerer? So, is any deck that uses light and dark monsters in it in order to give itself a way to summon Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning considered a chaos deck?

I think not. The chaos mechanic is much deeper than this. The most literal application of the chaos mechanic goes so far as to use the graveyard and removed-from-game pile as resources. Cards such as Dimension Fusion, Skull Lair, and others can be considered for usage in a "chaos" deck. They should include Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, but not necessarily. Decks that aren't devoted to using their graveyard and removed-from-game pile as resources that also happen to have Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning are just that: decks with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning in them. Just about every deck at U.S.
Nationals this year had it in there. Why? Can it be considered the best card (not even just the best monster) in the current game? With 100% confidence, we can assume so.

A FORMAT DEFINED
When there's one card in the format, just one card, that divides the format into "decks without card X" and "decks with card X", the card is too powerful. However, consider not that Envoy of the Beginning should be banned. Consider instead, what is in the deck in addition to the Soldier.
To that end, consider what is in most decks in addition to everything else.

Pot of Greed. Graceful Charity. Delinquent Duo. Torrential Tribute.
Tribe-Infecting Virus. Heavy Storm. The list can go on and on. Just glance at the Restricted list, and you can basically construct the spell and trap components of your deck. Beyond that, you can construct most of your monster component as well. After you do that, you could take the deck to a tournament, and if all you know is that cards do what the text says they do, not even how to play, you can do well. The game has no finesse, and very little skill when it comes to how to play. And it is a direct result of the perpetually abused power cards.

"NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT!"
I don't suggest a call for the banning of all cards on the restricted list. certainly not. I also do not applaud anyone who seeks to reject playing the "best deck" in order to save some "credibility" and proclaim their "originality". Originality has the greatest deal to do with how you approach the game, not what deck you play. Originality seeks a balance with desire to win. It's a proportion: the higher your desire to win, the narrower your choice of deck to play becomes, and, I suppose, the less "original" you can claim your deck to be. Likewise, the lower your desire to win, the more "originality" you can claim by using a deck that uses less of the most commonly used cards.

What you should ask yourself is, "do I play this game to have fun, or do I play this game to win, and how much do I value each one? Furthermore, which one do I value more, or which one do I value the most?" Consulting your own opinion on these two factors of the approach to the game will begin to help you realize your own style of play. When you know your style of play well, you're original no matter if you're playing the "best deck"
or not.

WHAT I REALLY MEANT TO SAY...
Lastly, I want to stress that Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning is not unbeatable. It is the best card in the advanced format, but every card can be beaten by a deck built around a specific strategy. I suppose you could call it the "Card-to-'Anti-Card Deck'" principle. While I haven't tested any single strategy for beating the Envoy extensively, I am confident that one exists. It reiterates what I said before: the advanced format has turned the metagame into a field where there are two kinds of decks, decks with the "best card" and decks without. The decks without seek a method for dealing with the best card, but the best deck in the field will be the deck with the "best card" in it AND a way to deal with playing against it.


May prosperity reign upon all your endeavors.

Phoenix - M. Kuntz

mark.j.kuntz@gmail.com - In case you decide to hate me.