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Article 38: Fixing the Game Part One: Betrayers of Yu-Gi-Oh!
July 28, 2005

To those who have read my column regularly, it comes as no surprise that my skill and expertise at the game stem from my immense love for it. I’m constantly poring through bins of commons, rares, and other holos that have gone unused from previous sets, looking for original ways to exploit the metagame. So it may come as a surprise to some that this article will seek a Pyrrhic victory, so to speak.

There are plenty out there who love the game the same way that I do, but turn a blind eye to its flaws. However, I feel that Yu-Gi-Oh! is currently falling towards its decline as a legitimate card game, and so I must point out each and every one of its failings to hopefully expose everyone else to the truth. Only by realizing and accepting its flaws can we work to fix this broken system. Onward then, to the Betrayers of the game Yu-Gi-Oh! 

Problem 1: All-Too-Easy Access to Disruption 

            Yu-Gi-Oh! features an inherently broken system where you can disable your opponents resources at will. Heavy Storm will clear their entire backfield, Torrential will clear their entire front line, Delinquent Duo will cut their power by a third, and so on.

            Compare this to other games. VS lets you recover a character each turn, and lets you use Plot Twists to avoid your characters being injured. MTG, on the other hand, lets you take each attack directly to your life points, preserving your monsters. In these games, it’s more difficult to FORCE your opponent to lose resources; with the exception of cards like Plow Under and Apocalypse, from MTG and VS respectively, your resources exist separately in a closed container from your opponent’s. 

Problem 2: Resource Costs 

            Other games have costs to the resources that are played. For example, Upper Deck Entertainment’s other game, VS System, has a threshold cost for each resource that is played. You can’t simply drop Magneto, Master of Magnetism on turn one and force your opponent to cower. The game sets up a system where the best cards are played as the turns go on, ending up in thrilling finishes.

            The godfather, Magic, also has a balanced resource system. Cards that truly devastate your opponents require the build-up of resources, or land, to function properly. In this case, draw power is less effective because it still requires a basic land set-up. You can summon one resource point per turn (with more through mana acceleration), so players must bide their time before unleashing their strategies.

            Compare this with a game like Yu-Gi-Oh! In this game, the only resources are life points and cards. In a certain sense, the only resource in the game is cards. The established value of a card of advantage is greater than 1000 life points, and probably greater than 1700 life points, since nobody main-decks Reflect Bounder, and everyone

uses Delinquent Duo. Life points don’t truly matter until players go below 1000 or 800 life points, where cards like Delinquent Duo and Premature Burial become dead in hand.

            Cards like Pot of Greed, Delinquent Duo, and such have no barriers to them, except for the question of whoever drives them first. The resource management system of Yu-Gi-Oh! is inherently broken. 

Problem 3: Consistency of Deck Themes 

            Again, other games have done far more with themes than Yu-Gi-Oh! has. VS System includes reinforcement and team-ups between teammates as BASIC play mechanics, with additional team-related support cards and drops to augment the system. MTG, on the other hand, COMPLETELY revolves around colors, which form the basis of the themes.

            Yu-Gi-Oh!, on the other hand, doubles the field with both Subtypes and TYPE. Sadly enough, subtypes are pathetically supported and TYPE is worthless outside of a few support cards. Isn’t it pathetic how the best TYPE supporters came out in the third Yu-Gi-Oh! set, Spell Ruler? That’s right, the elemental searchers (Tomato, Rat, etc) and the elemental field spells (Molten Destruction, Luminous Spark etc) have been the best TYPE support yet.

            Subtypes are even more poorly represented. Currently, as it stands, the player gets only 1-2 cards of support for a subtype they choose. Fiends generate NO bonus for running them, except for Dark Necrofear which is a monster! Incredible! Spellcasters generate literally ZERO themed support despite the fact their numbers are some of the largest in the GAME! Beasts currently receive ONE card of support, another monster (Enraged Battle Ox)! Meanwhile, the three biggest subtypes in the game in terms of numbers (Warriors, Fiends, Spellcasters) single-handedly outnumber the next SEVENTEEN.

            As a result of this pathetic subtype/TYPE support, every monster, spell and trap in the game is unthemed. Cards like Ring of Destruction, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Mirror Force, Premature Burial, and others are splashed into EVERY SINGLE DECK. It’s even funnier (and sadder) when cards that the designers intended for as themed monsters are splashed into every deck because of their broken nature. For example, Yata-Garasu was intended to support Spirits, while Breaker was intended to support the Spell Counter mechanic. DIDN’T work out that way, did it? No sirree!

            Throw in the fact that the designers are creating ridiculous gimmicks like LV monsters, Unions, Spirits, and such instead of supporting the original SUBTYPE/TYPE they were SUPPOSED to be working on, and the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! is a game of tragic, lost opportunities. Let’s extrapolate some data, shall we? 

Success Rate: The percentage of cards in a set that can be said to conceivably show up in a Shonen Jump Championship or Regional’s Top 8 maindeck or sideboard. 

The Lost Millenium Success Rate: 3/60, or 5% (Brain Control, Des Wombat, D.D Survivor).                     

Flaming Eternity Success Rate: 10/60, or 16.6%

Rise of Destiny Success Rate: 2/60, or 3.3% (I’m being VERY generous in granting the RDS picks.)

Soul of Duelist Success Rate: 3/60, or 5% (Again, VERY generous). 

            Yes, the sets are pathetic. Each and every new set contains 95% filler, and 5% decent cards of support. Gloomy indeed.           

Problem 4: Unlike other card games, there are zero advantages to going second. Every advantage goes to the player who wins the coin flip.

Pure math is often better than emotions because it never lies. Here are the facts. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, each player begins with five cards. The turn player draws one card, and then gets to place his key resources onto the board. Stop, hold your horses. Let’s analyze the two distinct problems with that.

1. Drawing that sixth card constitutes a net gain of 16% efficacy. The good players are able to use their resource advantages to FORCE simplification. Let me offer an example of what forced simplification is.

Forced Simplificaton: Imagine that I have five Smashing Grounds (I cheat, sue me) and a Mystic Tomato. You have five monsters on the field. I currently have a resource edge of one. A good player, seeking to exploit his resource advantage, will FORCE the simplification of the board. In this rather simple example, I will play five Smashing Grounds, and then summon Mystic Tomato to cause 1400 life points of damage. At the end of the turn, the onus is now on you to draw a monster to stymie the Tomato’s efforts.

            Let’s use a more complicated example. I have a set Mirror Force, a set Scapegoat, a Heavy Storm, and a Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning. You have two set Spell/Traps and a face down flip effect. Now in most cases, the good player will save his Heavy Storm, refusing to waste it on a 3 for 2 trade (my Scapegoat, my Force, my Heavy for your two Spell/Traps). This case is special, however. The correct play would be to play the Heavy Storm, then summon the Soldier to remove the monster from game. This leaves you with the dominating position of a Black Luster Soldier with your opponent top-decking.

            Any resource advantage in the early game should be used to further the edge. A Pot/Delinquent combination in the first turn should cause far more long term damage than a Pot/Delinquent in the mid to late game, because a good player will use that early +2 advantage to create more chances at FORCED SIMPLIFICATION.

Now going back to the thought. Because the turn player has the chance to draw an extra card, he’ll always have, at worst, a 16% advantage on his opponent. Now imagine both players are topdecking. The player who draws his second card has, at his turn, a 100% ADVANTAGE over his opponent. Each turn that the opponent draws is simply trying to KEEP UP!

Imagine if I have three cards in hand and you have three. When I draw my fourth card, I am now TWENTY FIVE PERCENT more powerful than you during the turn, ALL because of a coin flip.

2. Cards like Dust Tornado, Royal Decree, Imperial Order, Delinquent Duo, and even Scapegoat are far better when going first.

Here’s a simple example; if I set Scapegoat and end my turn, your Dust Tornado can no longer pre-emptively negate it. All because I got to go first and place first! Whee!

Clearly the coin flip mechanic to decide who goes first is quite broken, leading to even more of a coin flip. /Depressing Rant.

Now if you’re like me and have just read this article, you must be feeling depressed and want to quit. “JAELOVE”, you say, “the game is broken and I want to give it up!”

Well don’t give up on me yet buddy! There are ways to wriggle out of these ridiculous game problems; even better, hopefully a higher up at Konami will read this and fix many of our problems :D.

I’ll be back in a week with an article on how to FIX these crippling issues. E-mail me at JAELOVE@gmail.com for agreements/disagreements.