Subject: A Personal Essay on The State of Yu-Gi-Oh ~ Nerimon

Hey all, this is Nerimon here with my sixth Pojo tip (well, only four have been posted so far ... give it time, heh). Just before I start, I want to just say; please don't be put off by my use of the word 'essay'. I know, the word brings back memories of horrible long 1500 word boring ones you had to do at my age, and so therefore when you see the word 'essay' you automatically think it'll be boring - however, think of this as a personal article instead. I'm just going to write about everything happening in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh at the moment, with my personal views on the subject. It is quite long though, but worth reading *grins* And please be warned I'm speaking on behalf of the British here, so if I use any terms you don't understand (eg: Upper Deck are bloody plonkers) then just bear with me ^_^

OK so, I guess the big news at the moment would be Magician's Force - and maybe, for those people that have already bought all of the single cards they need from the new MFC set, the anticipation of Dark Crisis. Pojo has tantalised us all with a teaser poster found by FH Omega and Turel Darcloak, and I'm sure people will already be talking about the key cards from our 9th English expansion. However, before I get ahead of myself - back to Magician's Force. Now, as the title suggests, MFC has a strong theme of magic running through it - what with the cards that work with the Dark Magician, and all of the Spell Counter monsters that have been released. Of course, MFC also marks the release of the Black Paladin - a Fusion of Yugi's old favourite the Dark Magician, and the Buster Blader, and it comes complete with a pretty neat effect. Of course, I still don't think it'll be enough to persuade people to have Fusions in their Deck, since most people already think it isn't worth the trouble and it will take a monster like BEUD, Five God Dragon or that other Fusion one (um ... Master of Dragon Knight? I tink that's what it's called) to persuade them otherwise; even then, they may say it's too much work to get them out on the Field, and the usual argument is 'all you would need is a Raigeki'.

This brings me nicely to my next point - why do people shy away from putting cards in their Deck?? I have read several CoTD reports on Pojo where people say 'this Magic card isn't worth the tournament play at the moment, because m/t removal is rife in the metagame' (by the way, what does metagame mean?? I think it's just a fancy way of saying 'at the moment' - m/t removal is rife at the moment, for example'. Hmm, sla). They also say not many Traps are being used in Decks, because of the surge of people who use Jinzo. Well, my advice is this - why be afraid to put things in your Deck?? Sure, Jinzo means you can't use Traps - but there are plenty of Magic cards, and Monster Effect cards, that could get Jinzo off the Field and allow you to play your Traps again. Just because there is a card out there that could paralaze you (and you don't even know if you'll be duelling someone who has it), don't let it intimidate you. I know a lot of you have read my previous article on Psychology in the game; well, if I knew I was playing someone who was wary of Jinzo, I would be sure to tell them I had it, or make sure they see it as the bottom card of my Deck as I shuffle, or accidentally drop it from my hand - something like that. If they know I have Jinzo they're not gonna be as optimistic about using their Traps - and that'll tip the Duel in my favour. So, duellists of the world - don't fear Jinzo!!

Heh, I can't wait for Spellbreaker to come out, then things are really gonna get interesting ...

OK, on to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh gaming, and of course we have the release of The Sacred Cards just upon us. Here in the UK we've just had Duellists of the Roses released; we haven't got Eternal Duellist's Soul yet, so we're probably gonna have to wait years for the new game! However, I hope I can get my hands on Riryoku (that how you spell it? :-/) cos I think that's worth the trouble. Think of the power; say you have two Summoned Skulls on the Field, and your opponent has just Summoned ... I dunno, say they summoned The Masked Beast by using its Ritual Card. OK, you're gonna be thinking, 'no ....' but wait!!!! By activating this little treasure, Masked Beast goes down to 1600, and Summoned Skull goes up to 4100!! So you wipe out his monster, and take a hefty lot of his life too ... with this card, any monster can destroy any other, provided it has at least 1 ATK point. Think about it ... if you're taking half off of an opponent's monster and adding half to your own, all you need is for your monster to have just 1 ATK point more, and you will be able to take it down ... imagine having a Yata-Garasu destroy a Blue Eyes with its power! It might even mean that Injection Fairy Lily sees less gameplay, because Riryoku doesn't require you to pay 2000 Life Points to make it work - but if you think about it, IFL's effect is basically that it will be given the power to destroy almost any monster in one hit. So, we shall see how things pan out.

On to the other two promo cards ... Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth isn't worth the time. I know it could be done - if you used Swords of Revealing Light, and then had a Waboku/Mirror Force/Magic Cylinder ready for the attack when SoRL was destroyed, then you flipped a Magician of Faith and got it back ... still, the chances of you having all of those is still really unlikely. It'd be easier to summon Gate Guardian!!

Wait ... no, it wouldn't .... Gate Guardian is just silly. I'd love to know how the Paradox Brothers did it, they must have made world duellist news for being able to draw all 3 GG pieces at once. Either that, or they rig-shuffled the deck.

And as for Negate Attack ... I think this will see some play for the people that haven't got Mirror Force (it's a useful alternative) but I think Mirror Force is still the better card ... it doesn't have an 'end the Battle Phase' on it, but if it destroys all of your opponent's ATK monsters, it's pretty much the same thing.

So, on to deck types ... currently, of course, Beatdown is still a popular deck amongst many duellists. I run two decks, one of which is a beatdown, and I find it more fun than my Exodia deck; with Exodia, you are playing to a set strategy, but with Beatdown, there are a variety of ways my deck can go; it can use powerful monsters to run down your LP; it can lock you out of your deck with my Yata-Garasu; I can destroy all of your field cards with removal cards like Heavy Storm, Harpie's Feather Duster, Man-Eater Bug and Swarm of Scarabs; I can stop you using your cards with Jinzo and Imperial Order; and if all else fails, I have my Fiber Jar to reset the duel. So, I like the variety it gives me. However, recently, I have noticed that Beatdown decks do need what I refer to as a 'side-strategy'. I think Beatdown on its own isn't working too well - the simple method of getting monsters out and dealing as much damage as possible can be very effective if your opponent can't counter it, but usually they can. I never used to have a Waboku in my deck but with the release of Magic Cylinder, Ring of Destruction and other cards, I added it in - and it has already helped me a few times in the short time I've had it. It makes me wonder how many other cards from early sets will come to be very helpful in the future ... anyways, I'm sidetracking. My point is, if your opponent can counter your attack, you're pretty much stuck, so I recommend a side-strategy - and I mean something more than just throwing in the 5 pieces of The Forbidden One, or the 5 Spirit Messages. You should develop a system that doesn't run the Beatdown method you use, but gives you something to fall back on in times of need. For example, you could have a beatdown/removal deck. It could include cards like Jinzo, magic removal cards like Heavy Storm, MST etc, and a lot of monsters like MEB to get rid of your opponent's monsters. You don't need to overload your deck with it, but just put some cards in to support your side-strategy, you could even merge the two into one. 'I use powerful removal cards to clear my opponent's field, then I use powerful beatdown monsters to attack for the win!!' I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this idea, but I don't like it when people just say 'oh, you're deck's a beatdown' or something similar - why make decks that just slip into one category? Be original!!

Oh, yeah - incase you haven't noticed, I am still referring to Magic cards as Magic cards, and not 'Spell' cards. I don't know whose stupid idea this was, but they should be slapped about the face with a wet fish, in my opinion. Upper Deck said it was so people could continue to enjoy it, and to retain consistency - what consistency??? Consistent means it follows with everything else - and there is nothing else in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh that has ever referred to these cards as Spell cards. If the show had called them Spell Cards, or the games, then I'd understand - they would be trying to keep a 'constistency' with these things. But they don't!!!! So, what was the point? Most people I know still call them Magic cards anyway, cos it's what they're used to - I had an online duel yesterday and I tried saying 'I play one S/T face-down'. It just didn't work.

Well, this brings me to the end of my article on the state of Yu-Gi-Oh (or, the state of the 'metagame' *rolls eyes*). I hope you've all enjoyed it, and so on - and I look forward to writing my next Pojo article soon!

Please send me your comments, flame and suggestions to alexd@pro-net.co.uk. Flames will not be read, but it'll give me a good laugh. However, if you have something constructive to say, I will always take everything on board and do my best to reply as quickly as possible.

Nerimon, UK, 14