I’ve resolved to stop thrashing against the general “regression” of the game. Numerous people constantly complain and gripe about the current environment while ignoring the fact that Shonen Jump Championships are receiving record turn-outs and the game appears to be booming. I’ve attended the past four out of five Shonen Jump Championships in all sorts of different states to compile research and gather experience as a competitive player once again. You may have seen me flirting with the top tables at Hamilton, Indy, and Anaheim before encountering HEARTBREAK and WOE (not really). As always, I’ve learned even more from the experience.

I think it’s been proven quite clear by now that Upper Deck Entertainment knows how to run a successful trading card game. This new stance of mine is clearly born from more maturity and experience; after all, I was highly upset with the company’s handling of the previous two Forbidden lists. However, my work with Metagame, the experiences I’ve had talking with all of the different, passionate judges and UDE support staff have shown me that the American side of the game isn’t the problem. Look at the way VS System and the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game are being handled, and you can see a company with a clear plan for card success.

The fact that the braintrusts of the YGO card game brickwall the U.S. company at every turn with ridiculous notions of a “game for the masses” that is intentionally unbalanced and under funded on the prize-support level is not a fault of Mr. Kevin Tewart, or Upper Deck, or even Konami itself. I think it’s quite clear that UDE would love to fatten up the Yu-Gi-Oh! SJC series with VS system level prizes. Since they don’t own the game, however, it would be foolish to assign blame.

Now I’d like to assume that my opinions hold weight with those who care about Yu-Gi-Oh as a competitive enterprise. I try to explore many of the mechanics such as floaters, forced simplification, and misinformation that other novice, intermediate, and experts have not experienced yet. I also think that much of the coverage featuring turn by turn plays by the top professionals in the game has contributed greatly to the decrease in skill gap between the expert YGO player and the beginner or novice.

When I pointed out the insane powers of Spirit Reaper, a card that experts feared at every level back in the unbalanced “Widespread Ruin” format, it opened the eyes of many a duelist. Same with Chaos Sorcerer, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Exiled Force, and such. My articles actually took the time to explain the “floater” mechanic (where a monster already pays for its own resource cost) and then took the detail to reveal what runs through an expert’s head when they see such cards. I remember watching Mr. Tewart discuss the banning of TIV, speaking of how it would allow subtype-themed decks to flourish and nodding my head in unison at the wisdom of the bearded one. And I remember the uproar, hooplah, and general boo-hooing when I suggested Exiled Force should be unrestricted. It’s not so bad while semi-limited now, is it? After all, such ideas were first put forth on the pages of this site!

Many of you began like me with Pojo.com. I became a feature writer before tasting the fruits of tournament success. I was a beginner when Sandtrap and f00b and sheckii were Pojo icons. But after the summer of SJC Seattle where I made two consecutive top four finishes and a spot at Metagame, became the third player in the world after Ryan Hayakawa and Wilson Luc to top 4 two in a row, and failed miserably at Nationals which housed my only remaining Yu-Gi-Oh goal, I wanted to take a break for a year from competitive play. SJC Indy was the Dark Magician deck tribute, then came three SJC’s with casual decks over the entire next year. I chose to simply observe from afar and translate my opinions to Metagame.com.

Finding Your Way Back to Pojo Again

I hate to continually stress out the benefits of Pojo.com, but people have tended to forget about its impact on the game. While pioneering the first Card of the Day system, the first major featured writers on the game, the first Yu-Gi-Oh related books as well, Bill Gill gave us the chance to make a mark in a number of other ways. I firmly believe the entire team revolution began with the Odyssey versus Savage battle right here on these pages. I’m not saying we invented the Yu-Gi-Oh team, but it gave players a goal to aspire to. I remember attending the first SJC ever in Anaheim and seeing only two teams: Naruto and Comic Odyssey. By the time we reached SJC Houston after the Savage-Odyssey war, there were twenty or more in attendance, all asking for autographs and pictures. Pojo.com made it cool to create a Yu-Gi-Oh team, stamp some shirts, and vamp it up for Metagame coverage.

The site also invented the concept of the celebrity player. When Evan “Sandtrap” Vargas got the first ever deck profile at Gencon Anaheim by Julia Hedberg, nobody doubted he was the single biggest name in Yu-Gi-Oh at the time. Before the game had gone national (thanks to the expert SJC tournament structure introduced by UDE), there were only regional superheroes such as Evan Vargas, Hugo Adame, and local store champions. During my work as hype man for Team Savage, we invented the celebrity Yu-Gi-Oh player. Autographs, signed mats, handshakes pictures and hugs did not begin until Odyssey and Savage began touring. In fact, the single undisputed number one team at the time, Overdose, was originally a coalition of the East’s very best (Mike Pianka from Connecticut, BAR from New Jersey/New York, etc) to band up against Savage and Odyssey.

Pojo also introduced the Canadian superstar to the American masses. Long before Dale Bellido, Lazaro Bellido, Kyle Duncan, and Matt Peddle began dominating SJC events with pure skill and steely determination, it was the USA vs Canada team war that stunned American fans. I remember all of the bad-mouthing going on between America and Canada as everybody wrote the Canadians off. I remember recruiting Conspire and Supertrunks over dinner and holding them up as equals or betters to the majority of the American elite. It was a stunning series of months for the Super Friends, and now they sit as one of the top two teams on the continent.

And that team battle was the first recorded instance of Yu-Gi-Oh history where any player, pro or not, could witness play by play synopses of the very best. Heavy Storm bluffs, pushing for correct advantage, proper side-decking and all the trimmings could be experienced through the coverage. My my my, it astounds me how great Pojo has been to both myself and to the Yu-Gi-Oh community. I’ll never forget it, never forget answering thousands of good, unusual, and hate mail over the years I’ve been working here. It’s quite a snuggly feeling.

Of course it takes away from the warmth when unqualified, loose-cannon writers with no credentials in any competitive venue whatsoever who began their work by begging me for job help and deck fixes start going off publicly on me who paved the way… but we can’t win them all can we? I’ve personally housed Sandtrap, Someguy, Sheckii, and f00b at events! And if Nickwhiz1 or DM7FGD needed a place to stay, I’d give them one as well! *Round of applause for those who started it all*

Well I’m back. Expect a few articles in the coming week as I get back in touch with the culture of Pojo.com. You all are the greatest bunch of fans (and even haters) I have ever seen, and I look forward to discussing the past year with much of you. E-mails to JAELOVE@gmail.com. I’m deleting all the spam and starting at ground zero, Back to Square One if you will.

Upcoming Article 1: The Best Players to Ever Play the Game

Upcoming Article 2: Advanced Mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh to Explore

Upcoming Article 3: The Current Problems with the Game (I love it, nothing wrong with it, just an honest evaluation).

That’s a rough general outline.