Alot of questions came up about March 1st banlist as to why Graceful
Charity was banned. People came up with theories and problems all at once;
What will I draw with? It was too good for Dark World with its new 'Dark
World Ealings;' It was completely luck-based!; "It was what the players
wanted."


At first, it was Dark World everybody thought of right off the bat. With
our new 'Dark World Dealings,' Dark World has just gained access to one of
the most powerful cards. Drawing a new card while special summoning a 2300
beat stick? Not bad at all. Not only does this card not lose you advantage
if you discard a Dark World or Night Assailant/Treeborn Frog, but it also
cycles your hand. Alot of players ask me to help or fix there Dark world
decks when really, the theme is just inconsistent. Alot of times, I lose to
Dark World because it swarms me to early because they end up drawing into
Graceful Charity, Dark World Lightning and Card Destruction all at the right
time. But it HAS to come at the right time. Even though Dark World can win
so easily, it takes a lot more work to not lose. I think with 3 new 'Dark
World Dealings' for every Dark World deck out there, UDE and Konami decided
that Dark World theme was gaining to many possibilities to become more
luck-based then it already is. Instead of limiting Dark World Dealings, why
not just ban Graceful Charity.


After all, that would solve most of the other problems professional players
and tournament duelists looked at. Some argue that Graceful Charity is a
card of skill. It takes both timing and strategic thinking as to when to
activate it. But the fact to the matter is, some duelists don't give it
strategically thinking. They win by the term called "over-extending" by
playing cards when they don't need to. They have no advantage with a face-up
Jinzo on the field, and your opponent has a face-down card to each zone. You
play Charity and draw into Goldd, let it special summon and tribute summon
for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch for the remaining life points needed to win.
See, if you and your opponent had no cards in hand, people would call this
luck, not over-extending. Maybe playing Graceful Charity was the good move
if you still had a bunch of outs in your deck and you are clearly were on
the verge of winning. But some other players might call this unnecessary to
activate Graceful Charity if you had 6 cards in your hand. Maybe you had
Mystic Swordsman LV2 or D. D. Warrior Lady to take care of what ever was
face-down, but no, instead you played Graceful Charity for no reason and won
because of it.


This type of reckless activation shouldn't reward players like these, it
should punish them. Using Charity when it isn't needed is what cheeses off
hardcore duelists and professional players the most. I'll admit that I get
mad when I lose to someone who made a bad decision and it payed off, but
it's because it shouldn't happen in the first place. Nobody should win the
duel by luck, but sadly, that can't be stopped. In every single card game
besides Yu-Gi-Oh!, there is always luck. Whether the game takes more skill
or better deck building, there is always luck that can't be stopped. But
with Yu-Gi-Oh!, they promote luck. Letting cards like Ring of Destruction
loose in the banlist when it can be easily called the best card in the game
right now. Keeping this card and bringing back Snatch Steal isn't the right
path to take. Instead of adding more luck into the game, we should be
banning these cards to stop "top-decking" and let players think strategies
through out the deck rather then "tech" cards that only can be played in 1
or 2 because of the staples in every deck.


Top 16 is an effort that didn't go un-noticed though. This is amazing! A lot
of players lose on the bubble and make the 9th to 16th place. Having
traveling to the event or not, it still sucked big time. But Top 16 made
all the difference. Allowing players with 2 losses under there belt made
them want to travel to an event again. Even my brother (Matt Peddle) and
Dale/Lazaro Bellido are know flying to Houston! From Canada to the bottom of
Houston because not only do they believe they can win the jump,, but they
have better odds of making the Top 16 cut-off if luck doesn't go there way.
Just like Jae Kim stated in his article, great players are coming back into
the game. Known players aren't going to blow off SJC's anymore, but go to
extreme lengths just to play in one because of the great odds.


UDE and Konami made the right decision of taking out alot of luck into the
game. Even with the addition of Snatch Steal and Ring of Destruction's
presence still lingers, if improvements like these keep coming, each SJC
might just be worth traveling long distances too.


As always, thanks for reading,
Ryan Peddle

E-Mail/MSN me at: imagination436@hotmail.com AIM me at: imageNation436