With that in mind, I want to talk about something completely different from the norm today. This is going to require a secondary tab, so get ready. Now, go to yugioh at tcgplayer and look up the regionals, pick one, it doesn't matter. Now look at the deck list, now back to me. Back to the decklist, now back to me. Sadly, the decklist isn't me, in fact, the list of decks that win any given tournament is boring.
Sure, you just checked that list, what did you see? X-sabers? Twilight? A rogue frog deck perhaps? I know most of those things were there and I didn't even need to check.
This is my biggest pet peeve with Yu-Gi-Oh today, and today I'm going to talk about what cookie-cutter netdecking is, why it's stupid, and ways you can avoid it. Let's begin:
Cookie-Cutter: (adj.)- a deck in a CCG or TCG that follows all the rules of cards that are "deck staples" and, as a result, look the same as everyone else's deck.
Netdecking: (v)- the act of searching a deck idea on the internet, and copying it for one's own. Not inherently a problem, but when it combines with cookie-cutter builds, the problem begins to surface.
For many people, Yu-Gi-Oh is a money game. You invest a good deal of money in cards, especially good cards (I'm not even being sarcastic here, this game has a few terrible deals), so you want your deck to be the best that it can be. Now, I know that tournaments are serious business and that no one, absolutely no one would ever make the heinous mistake of playing a children's card game for fun, but is that single Pot of Duality really worth $124? To this point, I really can't complain. I have that exact card somewhere in my desk at home and fully intend to take advantage of people who "need" such cards for tournaments to make a good deal of money myself, or get cards that I actually want, but in doing this, I'm only perpetuating a really stupid problem: duelists lack originality. As soon as something interesting (Frognarch Obelisk decks, I'm looking at you) happens in a metagame [the tournament scene], everyone and their one-eyed, toothless granny jumps on the bandwagon.
Re:Lightsworn
Re:Gladiator Beasts
Re:X-Sabers
Seriously! It's insane. While it makes playing an anti-meta deck far simpler, since you have a smaller pool of deck types to worry about, it creates this horrible mentality that I've recently heard called "Tier-one or no fun." This basically means that, as a duelist, you suck if you're not playing a so-called "tier-one" deck. Tier-one basically meaning the deck type that's hot right now, at this moment, with cards that everyone has to have.
You know who really gets screwed? Casual players. Same for new players, or players who just want to have fun, even in tournaments. The lack of creativity of decks causes a card like Naturia Pineapple to cost over $20 per card. Don't get me wrong, pineapple is both adorable and a decent card, but is it worth $20? Not really. And new players who see the cute little naturia monsters and think "oh, that looks cool, I'd like to play that" get screwed if they don't want to shell out the money for a good card that would help their potential decks.
Alright, enough complaining, we need some ways to beat the boredom of the tourney scene, here are a few:
1.Play off-beat deck types:
By this, I don't mean some minor variation on a twilight deck, try something like a Geartown turbo deck. Or a Watt deck. or a Six Samurai deck. Or, take a look at the new Marik Structure deck and make a Gravekeeper deck.
These are just a few of the decks that my friends and I play when we're bored. Are they tournament ready? Maybe, I don't really know. Are they fun as heck to play and play against? Absolutely. If you're still stumped, here are a few ideas off the top of my head (I'm not linking, you'll have to go look for yourself, but that's half the fun):
Elemental Hero deck (with fusions)
Beast deck (Look into the unicorn synchro monsters)
Destiny Board Deck
Rock deck (there are plenty of OTKs that use rocks, if you absolutely must)
Aqua deck (legendary ocean or otherwise)
Earthbound Immortal deck (now there's a challenge)
Fairy deck (Herald, Counter or otherwise)
2.Substitute expensive cards for cheaper ones:
Look at your deck again. Back to me. Back to your deck. Back to me. Are these Old Spice jokes working for you? No? Too bad. Here's my point, do you really really need that Solemn Warning? No, the correct answer is that you really don't. Need to stop a special summon, or a specific monster? Divine Wrath. Is the cost a little higher? Yeah. Does it cost $40? No way.
Plenty of "deck staples" have cheaper, and sometimes more fun alternatives. Also, consider your deck style. Do you use a Prime Material Dragon? Then you might consider taking out those "necessary" Magic Cylinders, since they won't do much for you. I'm not opposed to playing to the banned list, which you should, if you're a tournament player. All I'm saying is to do so smartly, and don't play solely to the banned list, and be under the impression that a single card will make or break your deck.
All in all, just have fun. Isn't that the point? My ideas might not win a tournament for you, but isn't beating that $400 Gladiator Beast deck with a team of frogs just oh so satisfying?
-DS
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