Pook's Place

The Biggest Loser, or How to Deal With a Slump
By Pook

            1.18.05  Most of you know how straightforward I am in my articles, so this week I decided to pull out all of the stops, and reveal a problem I was recently having – I’ve been in a slump.  Now don’t confuse this with lack of motivation to play – I’ve actually been dueling more regularly than ever recently.  No, my problem was that I just couldn’t win. 

            The term slump is usually tossed around in sports circles, when an athlete just cannot get out of a funk and isn’t playing to the best of his or her ability.  It happens to everyone.  Not surprisingly, it can happen to competitive gamers as well.  It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but there are ways to deal. 

            The first thing to do to deal with a losing streak is to recognize the problem.  Many times, people don’t take responsibility for their losses, placing blame on the opponent or the environmental factors, i.e. “This kid kept looking over my shoulder and it was distracting.  Plus, I think they were cheating.”  Get over it, pal.  If you lose, it’s your fault.  But it is not enough to just recognize the slump; you have to find a way to fix it. 

            My slump began at GenCon 2004.  I was playing (for fun) with my famous Fire/Burn deck.  I had made a few changes (adding 2 Ultimate Baseball Kids, a Raging Flame Sprite, and a Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch), and was anxious to test out the new additions.  For the most part, I faced Warrior/BLS decks, and I didn’t do so well.  At that point, I decided to disband my Traditional format deck (my Water deck) and instead have a second Advanced format deck.  So, I began to construct a new Spellcasters deck (I played Spellcasters last year, starting around the release of Magician’s Force and stopped playing it around last April or so).  I had made some major acquisitions to help my Spellcaster arsenal (for a complete deck list, just hang tight – I’ll be posting it in the next few weeks) and it was finally at a point where I could play it.  Well, as much fun as the deck was, the next weekend, I got owned, big time. 

            I was not about to give up.  The following weekend, I brought out the Spellcaster deck again, this time facing some new decks (again, mostly Warrior).  Once again, I got beat, real bad.  I was getting a little down on myself. 

            It was at that point that I realized that I was in a full-on slump.  So you know what I did?  I tried once again.  People tried to give me their two-cents as to how to change the deck, but I wouldn’t hear it, I really wanted this deck to be everything I’ve hoped for.  Naturally, I got beat.  Alright, that was it.  I began to think about the anime, and how no matter what, the good guys always win, one way or another.  I like to think of myself as a good guy, because I’m not dueling to win, and I’m not dueling with other intentions – the reason I duel is because Yu-Gi-Oh is fun, exceedingly fun.  I play for the fact that I like to play.  Sure, winning feels good, but it isn’t the reason one should play.  But then I realized that the good guys in the show always win because they have a higher motivation.  Yugi has dueled to save lives, Joey dueled for his sister, Ishizu for her brother, etc.  In the real world, the fate of people’s lives are not determined by dueling, but there is a higher meaning there.  People who play just to win are dueling for the wrong reasons.  Their reason is pretty shallow, if compared to the bigger scheme of things in the show – no, I’m not calling people who win shallow, it is a metaphor, people.  But I saw that I needed a better reason to win. 

            At the card shop I frequent, most of the regulars know that I write this column, and because of that, I am sometimes thought of as a go-to guy for answers, or I am looked upon as this fantastic duelist, just because I write.  The truth is that yes, I do lose, but I lose well, by learning from my mistakes, and fixing those mistakes in the future.  That is what my dueling is about.  I strive to be better through dedication and hard work, not by dishing out large sums of money to buy the best cards and make an unstoppable deck.  To use a sports metaphor, I’d rather exercise and work out rather than taking steroids.  And that’s how I got out of my slump – I found the reason I was looking for in order to win – my readers. 

            Like I said before, some people get the wrong idea of me just because I write for Pojo.  It isn’t a bad light that is being shown onto me; it’s just not always accurate.  I am a good duelist, but by no means the best.  But because people listen to what I have to say about random aspects of dueling, I want to be that duelist you all think I could be.  You were my motivation, my heart of the cards.  And guess what…it worked. 

            I went to my local shop this weekend, Fire/Burn deck in hand (thanks to the art contest finalists, everyone knows about my Fire/Burn deck, and it is what has been come to be associated with me), and I went in determined.  In the first round, I won 2-0.  Second round I wasn’t as lucky, getting defeated 0-2 (by a heck of a nice guy and an amazing duelist), but then I was back in round three with another 2-0 KO.  Sure, I didn’t make it into the finals, but this was the best I had done in weeks.  And I felt great.  Then, just for fun, I played the Spellcaster deck and won 2-0, a deck that up until now hadn’t really been pulling its weight.  But since my losing streak had been broken, I was as confident as ever.  Now, I’m back to where I once was, and I hope to continue to get even better. 

            So there you have it, folks, the way I got out of my slump.  Sure, this won’t work for everyone, but it worked for me.  It may seem corny, but having confidence in yourself really works.  Well, that’s enough from me, I’ve rambled on this week.  Until next week, happy dueling!