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Magic
This Space |
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Baneful's Column
I think we all can remember a
few of the younger kids who played. You know, that young kid
wearing the Blue-Eyes White Dragon t-shirt, donning a Duel
Disk and shouting out quotes from the television series. He
had a deck full of different themes. Elemental Heroes, Gate
Guardians, Harpies, Amazon, Fish and Spellcasters all in the
same deck. And that deck was like 90 cards big before Konami
rightfully imposed a 60-card restriction.
Granted, decks like his are
really impractical and won't win games against decent
players at all, but that kid with the multi-themed deck had
a vision where he could truly pick a variety of cards he
liked and duel with them. There's no deck out there that's
quite like his Hero-Harpie-Fish-Amazon-Spellcaster-GateGuardian
deck.
Too bad it can't win! Too bad
he has to use a specific theme, and not just run it the way
he wants it to, but instead within the specific confines of
what the archetype demands.
An Unfortunate History
One of the greatest aspects of
dueling was the idea that you could build your own deck. No
other deck would be like yours. At first, we did have the
freedom to tinker with our decks beyond limited guidelines,
but we didn't have a very large card pool to do so. Now, we
have a gigantic card pool, and while we could theoretically
run a deck that does have combos and synergy, it won't
succeed due to how powerful archetypes have become.
Archetypes have become like a nuclear arms race. The way
that one overpowered archetype is balanced is by introducing
an equally (or even more) powerful archetype. Gladiators are
too powerful? Let's make Blackwings.
Early in the lifespan of
Yu-Gi-Oh!, there was a problem that there weren't enough
themed decks and the ones that did exist didn't have enough
support. There was basically your standard cookie cutter
beatdown deck (which became Chaos Goat Control at it's more
unoriginal) and that's it. But at least in your
cookie-cutter chaos, you had some degree of real choice on
which LIGHTs and DARKs you wanted to use.
Yes, there were a handful of
Exodia decks and burn decks, but they lacked meaningful
support, couldn't win games consistently and their slow
nature was alien to the kind of game most of us wanted to
play. We wanted new themes and archetypes. We got them. They
started out weak and modest, but over time there were more
and more of them to the point where it got to be too much.
This issue has been cooking up since 2008, but has only
gotten worse over the years.
Archetypes, originally thought
to be empowering, as well as conducive to freedom and
expression of individuality, are now harmful to the game!
Lack of Choices
Most archetypes (like
Lightsworn, Six Samurai, or Fire Kings) are based on one or
two really powerful cards and the rest of the cards serve to
fuel that engine. Cards are no longer self-sufficient. Being
able to combine cards to make powerful combos is always a
good thing, but the fact that you need card Y and card Z in
order for card X to be playable, truly destroys our deck
building freedom.
The game forces specific themes
on you and that gives you less of your own room to make your
own. For example, if I wanted to make a deck based on
flipping my opponent's monsters face-down and using cards
like Lightsworn Ehren or Nobleman of Crossout to capitalize
on that, it would still pale in comparison to deck like Dark
Worlds that could search themselves out with such speed.
A format where X beats Y, Y
beats Z and Z beats X is not good. While, yes, it's not
quite as monochromatic as having one deck model beat them
all, it's still Rock-Paper-Scissors. It may be a balanced
system to ensure more color into the game, but it doesn't
make the game any more skillful. It just makes outcomes more
pre-determined.
So Predictable!
Google a deck list of almost
any popular archetype nowadays. I'd be willing to bet that
most of the decks are around 70-80% the same. The only
choices that seem to matter are little ones such as "Do I
want to use Enemy Controller or Book of Moon" or "Do I want
to use Mirror Force or Dimension Prison". But the set of
monsters you use generally has to contain the names, if you
want the support and searchability. You can't just splash
monsters like D.D. Warrior Lady, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
or Breaker the Magical Warrior any more, like you used to be
able to.
Archetype decks are so
predictable! When Elemental Dragons were the big thing,
months ago, most of the decks were entirely the same. You
just used 3 of each of the Elemental Dragons, 3 Super
Rejuvinations, 3 Seven Star Swords, some staples. You
only have real choice on whether you want to use Effect
Veilers or Breakthrough Skills.
Or Lightsworns. There are good
Lightsworn monsters you should use (like Lyla, Ryko and Wulf)
and there's bad Lightsworn monsters you shouldn't use (like
Rinyan and Jenis). You then skip all the Lightsworn
spell/trap support except Solar Recharge and Charge of the
Light Brigade. You use 3 Judgment Dragon (maybe a Lightray
too) and use it as your main win condition. Want to
capitalize on Gragonith's piercing ability? Too bad. So many
archetypes follow this example, unfortunately. And once you
face one archetype, it feels like you faced all decks of
that archetype.
3 Grapha, 3 Broww and 3 Snoww.
1 Beige. 2 Tour Guide. 2 Trance Archfiend. 3 Dark World
Dealings. 3 Gates of the Darkworld. 3 Dragged Down from the
Grave. Did I guess your Dark World deck correctly? Chances
are I did because there is no other practical way to run
them.
New Vision?
A proposed solution I have for
this problem is for a new Highlander format to be created
alongside Traditional and Advanced. It would get its own
tailored Forbidden list, but all cards Unlimited (at 3)
would be Limited (to 1). This essentially would destroy
archetypes, as well as open play for much forgotten cards.
Goblin Attack Force, Slate Warrior and Spear Dragon (for
example) would all become viable cards overnight. And which
one you want to use depends on whether you want raw attack
strength, some control, or quick damage, respectively.
Cards would be sufficient on
their own, but conducive to combos too. You don't need a
Banish Deck to run D.D. Assailant, but it's an effective
card on it's own (only weak today due to the fact that it
doesn't have an archetype to search it or quickly summon it)
that could be a part of a Banish theme if you want it to.
Conclusion
Instead of more options freeing
us, they (Konami) are restricting us into an auto-pilot mode
of play. Ridicule that young enthusiastic kid with the giant
random mish-mash deck if you want to, but he had a vision
that the metagame (over the past few years) has failed to
deliver. Not only could we have had true freedom in
deckbuilding, but it would also add an element of surprise
and remove the match-up predictability from the game. And
the unpredictability would be balanced by the fact that you
couldn't Special Summon 8 monsters in a row or plow (draw
and mill) through a third of your deck in one turn.
We can imagine what the game
could become, but there's no denying what it is now.
Yu-Gi-Oh! has essentially gone from "build your own team" to
"pick a team uniform". This unfortunate domination of
archetypes destroys the merits of choice and freedom that
drew us into the game in the first place. This is
undoubtedly a low point for such and established card game
franchise.
Contact:
banefulscolumn@gmail.com
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