How to Tell If You're Bad at Card Games
I tried to give up, but I couldn't, and thus I'm still playing Yu-Gi-Oh. Yes, the game has a lot of problems but I still try to enjoy it for what it is. Still, there IS one thing that really gets on my nerves about this game: bad players. I'm not talking players that are new and don't know better--that's just a lack of experience. And I'm not talking about players that seem to lose frequently either--sometimes it just works that way. No, I'm talking about players who are outright BAD, and at the behest of a friend, I'm going to explain exactly how you can tell if you're bad at card games, specifically Yu-Gi-Oh but most of these can be applied to pretty much any card game.
1.) You Don't Like Staples: Staple cards earn their title for a reason: because that card does a particular job so well that regardless of your deck, it's the best option to accomplish a specific task. These cards may not exist in every game, but in Yu-Gi-Oh it generally breaks down to the power spells and traps: Mystical Space Typhoon. Monster Reborn. Heavy Storm. Dark Hole. Torrential Tribute. Mind Control. Solemn Judgment. Solemn Warning. Bottom line, if a card existed that did the job ANY of these cards did better and was also legal to put in your deck, people would be using it. But they don't.
Take Mystical Space Typhoon: There are a lot of pretenders to the throne for that card--Dust Tornado, Night Beam, and Twister just to name a few--but none of them have everything going for it that MST does: It's a quick-play spell, which means it can be played the turn you get it, or you can activate it later during your opponent's turn for an end-phase chain. It can hit both face downs and face-ups, and that combined with it's spell speed makes it quick and effective. It's the same with all the other cards I mentioned: There's a reason everyone uses them, and if you don't in an effort to be original, you deserve every loss you get.
2.) You Complain About Meta Decks...That Aren't Meta: Let's get something straight. If you're a competitive Yu-Gi-Oh player, one of the first things you learn about are Tiers. Tiers are how you differentiate the levels of power between different decks. There's Tier 1 (the best of the best), Tier 2 (decks that have been hit by the banlist or aren't quite consistent and fast enough to compete with Tier 1), and Tier 3 (EVERYTHING ELSE).
Understand this: Tier 1 decks can and DO lose to Tier 2 decks, but that's got more to do with the pilot of each deck and the luck of the draw. Statistically, if two players of equal skill sit down to duel for a full match (that part's important) and one's using a T1 deck and the other's using a T2, the Tier 1 player is more likely to win. Which is why the only thing a competitive players should consider "meta" are Tier 1 decks. ONLY Tier 1 decks. And there's nothing worse than a sore loser insisting to me I'm using a meta deck with Blackwings, when the deck is just barely Tier 2.
Come on fam, you're not an anime character. I don't care that you're trying to get out a monster that requires four tributes, one of them has to be a synchro and the rest have to be normals and it can't ever be special summoned. If that's the deck you want to make, then cool. I DO care that you're complaining about meta decks when you lose...and the deck that beat you was like, Blackwings with only 1 Kalut. A deck isn't meta just because you lost to it, that's not how this works. I had one person tell me once "I don't play decks that are meta" and I asked what was meta and they refused to answer. So I brought up decks that very much AREN'T meta like Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworn and they responded, "Yeah, like those."
3.) Not Understanding the Difference Between a Good Card and a Bad Card...and not Wanting to Learn: This is slightly different between an insistence of avoiding meta cards. This is when you start calling bad cards good and good cards bad. Take Pot of Duality, for instance. Staple card that for quite some time was VERY expensive because it was a secret and EVERY tournament player ran at least 2. I explained to you the problem with having a deck that runs over the minimum legal limit before, but to recap: basically, outside of specific instances, you really only have access to the top card of your deck, so you want to run as few cards as possible so that you're more likely to draw what you need each turn.
Pot of Duality is one of those specific instances where you can basically ignore the rules (for a decent cost), and skip up to three turns of top cards and choose whatever the best card for your current situation is. If you're a bad player then you ignore the added consistency in favor of your deck in favor of the fact that you can't special summon for the turn, which is a sucker's move.
On the flip side, you have a card like Double Summon, which looks like a great card when you first begin playing the game (I know I thought it was), until you learn about the importance of hand advantage and how the person with the best field isn't always the victor. Double Summon grants you an extra normal summon sure, but it can only ever be a -1 at best, usually a -2. Special summoning from the hand isn't a great strategy because your hand is limited, and using a card to grant you an extra Normal Summon means unless one of those monsters added a card to your hand, you actually lost three cards: the two monsters you summoned and the spell you activated to let you do that.
Now if someone explains this to you, and you go, "...Damn. Double Summon IS a bad card. Thank you." then guess what? You're a good player, or at least trying to get better. On the other hand, if you start on a speech about how Double Summon makes your deck better, and how the player giving you the advice doesn't know everything and doesn't want to "innovate", then you suck and again you deserve every loss you get.
4.) Wanting Decent Cards Banned: At some time or another, we all get a little tired of being sacked by this or that card, and we desire a what's called, a meta nuke. (In other words: Hit ALL the powerful cards.) I've wanted it, and if you've played Yu-Gi-Oh often enough, you've wanted it too. Sometimes, we're correct and a certain card needs to be banned. Dark Armed Dragon. Judgment Dragon. Monster Reborn. Dark Hole. Mind Control. These are all cards that add nothing to the game except a feeling of sackiness that makes you feel cheated when you lose a game because of them. They're costless and the only people who ask to keep them around are bad players who hide behind the "they add come-from-behind victory possibilities" reason. Fuck that: If you've been outplayed you've been outplayed--that's called skill.
Still sometimes, people ask for stupid hits because they aren't any good at this game. I've seen people argue about banning T.G. Hyper Librarian because he is "uncapped draw engine", and that's a cute reason to ban him because it's essentially accurate, but it's also making the mistake of judging the card in a vacuum. The reason that particular card was a problem when it was first released was that Konami had released a flurry of cards that made him easy to abuse. He was apart of an engine that generated endless advantage ridiculously easily, but that went away and he is no longer the threat he once was. The decrease both in usage and in price of a card that has the same effect and is just as rare as it used to be is proof of this. At this point it's on personal player abilities, and you can't get the ban list to fix *everything* for you.
Now I would never call a player bad who's constantly trying to improve. I won't call a player bad for not wanting to use archetypes (so long as he doesn't judge other people for using them), or for losing more often than they win. But when you're ignoring advice, or doing what amounts to actively trying to suck at this, that's that shit *I* don't like. I can't take another player telling me, "Well I just don't like Effect Veiler because he can't attack". I mean that's nice and all but Inzektor Hornet just obliterated your field. So please, from the Players Consistently Trying To Improve Foundation:
Cut That Shit Out.
Thank You.
1.) You Don't Like Staples: Staple cards earn their title for a reason: because that card does a particular job so well that regardless of your deck, it's the best option to accomplish a specific task. These cards may not exist in every game, but in Yu-Gi-Oh it generally breaks down to the power spells and traps: Mystical Space Typhoon. Monster Reborn. Heavy Storm. Dark Hole. Torrential Tribute. Mind Control. Solemn Judgment. Solemn Warning. Bottom line, if a card existed that did the job ANY of these cards did better and was also legal to put in your deck, people would be using it. But they don't.
Take Mystical Space Typhoon: There are a lot of pretenders to the throne for that card--Dust Tornado, Night Beam, and Twister just to name a few--but none of them have everything going for it that MST does: It's a quick-play spell, which means it can be played the turn you get it, or you can activate it later during your opponent's turn for an end-phase chain. It can hit both face downs and face-ups, and that combined with it's spell speed makes it quick and effective. It's the same with all the other cards I mentioned: There's a reason everyone uses them, and if you don't in an effort to be original, you deserve every loss you get.
2.) You Complain About Meta Decks...That Aren't Meta: Let's get something straight. If you're a competitive Yu-Gi-Oh player, one of the first things you learn about are Tiers. Tiers are how you differentiate the levels of power between different decks. There's Tier 1 (the best of the best), Tier 2 (decks that have been hit by the banlist or aren't quite consistent and fast enough to compete with Tier 1), and Tier 3 (EVERYTHING ELSE).
Understand this: Tier 1 decks can and DO lose to Tier 2 decks, but that's got more to do with the pilot of each deck and the luck of the draw. Statistically, if two players of equal skill sit down to duel for a full match (that part's important) and one's using a T1 deck and the other's using a T2, the Tier 1 player is more likely to win. Which is why the only thing a competitive players should consider "meta" are Tier 1 decks. ONLY Tier 1 decks. And there's nothing worse than a sore loser insisting to me I'm using a meta deck with Blackwings, when the deck is just barely Tier 2.
Come on fam, you're not an anime character. I don't care that you're trying to get out a monster that requires four tributes, one of them has to be a synchro and the rest have to be normals and it can't ever be special summoned. If that's the deck you want to make, then cool. I DO care that you're complaining about meta decks when you lose...and the deck that beat you was like, Blackwings with only 1 Kalut. A deck isn't meta just because you lost to it, that's not how this works. I had one person tell me once "I don't play decks that are meta" and I asked what was meta and they refused to answer. So I brought up decks that very much AREN'T meta like Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworn and they responded, "Yeah, like those."
3.) Not Understanding the Difference Between a Good Card and a Bad Card...and not Wanting to Learn: This is slightly different between an insistence of avoiding meta cards. This is when you start calling bad cards good and good cards bad. Take Pot of Duality, for instance. Staple card that for quite some time was VERY expensive because it was a secret and EVERY tournament player ran at least 2. I explained to you the problem with having a deck that runs over the minimum legal limit before, but to recap: basically, outside of specific instances, you really only have access to the top card of your deck, so you want to run as few cards as possible so that you're more likely to draw what you need each turn.
Pot of Duality is one of those specific instances where you can basically ignore the rules (for a decent cost), and skip up to three turns of top cards and choose whatever the best card for your current situation is. If you're a bad player then you ignore the added consistency in favor of your deck in favor of the fact that you can't special summon for the turn, which is a sucker's move.
On the flip side, you have a card like Double Summon, which looks like a great card when you first begin playing the game (I know I thought it was), until you learn about the importance of hand advantage and how the person with the best field isn't always the victor. Double Summon grants you an extra normal summon sure, but it can only ever be a -1 at best, usually a -2. Special summoning from the hand isn't a great strategy because your hand is limited, and using a card to grant you an extra Normal Summon means unless one of those monsters added a card to your hand, you actually lost three cards: the two monsters you summoned and the spell you activated to let you do that.
Now if someone explains this to you, and you go, "...Damn. Double Summon IS a bad card. Thank you." then guess what? You're a good player, or at least trying to get better. On the other hand, if you start on a speech about how Double Summon makes your deck better, and how the player giving you the advice doesn't know everything and doesn't want to "innovate", then you suck and again you deserve every loss you get.
4.) Wanting Decent Cards Banned: At some time or another, we all get a little tired of being sacked by this or that card, and we desire a what's called, a meta nuke. (In other words: Hit ALL the powerful cards.) I've wanted it, and if you've played Yu-Gi-Oh often enough, you've wanted it too. Sometimes, we're correct and a certain card needs to be banned. Dark Armed Dragon. Judgment Dragon. Monster Reborn. Dark Hole. Mind Control. These are all cards that add nothing to the game except a feeling of sackiness that makes you feel cheated when you lose a game because of them. They're costless and the only people who ask to keep them around are bad players who hide behind the "they add come-from-behind victory possibilities" reason. Fuck that: If you've been outplayed you've been outplayed--that's called skill.
Still sometimes, people ask for stupid hits because they aren't any good at this game. I've seen people argue about banning T.G. Hyper Librarian because he is "uncapped draw engine", and that's a cute reason to ban him because it's essentially accurate, but it's also making the mistake of judging the card in a vacuum. The reason that particular card was a problem when it was first released was that Konami had released a flurry of cards that made him easy to abuse. He was apart of an engine that generated endless advantage ridiculously easily, but that went away and he is no longer the threat he once was. The decrease both in usage and in price of a card that has the same effect and is just as rare as it used to be is proof of this. At this point it's on personal player abilities, and you can't get the ban list to fix *everything* for you.
Now I would never call a player bad who's constantly trying to improve. I won't call a player bad for not wanting to use archetypes (so long as he doesn't judge other people for using them), or for losing more often than they win. But when you're ignoring advice, or doing what amounts to actively trying to suck at this, that's that shit *I* don't like. I can't take another player telling me, "Well I just don't like Effect Veiler because he can't attack". I mean that's nice and all but Inzektor Hornet just obliterated your field. So please, from the Players Consistently Trying To Improve Foundation:
Cut That Shit Out.
Thank You.
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Umm........Effect Veiler is female, sir!
ReplyDeleteI get ur stanza on the point of the whyners, but... BRO NETDECKERS ARE FUCKING STUPID! they are usually acustomed to the same cards they see everyday and barely know their rulings but... when they see a different card they be like: ''whats that shit doo?'' and some douche bags dont even bother reading and dont fucking get me started on the ''that misses timing,duuh'' throwing that shit around like its a fucking footbal! and the thing that pisses me off the most its that thanks to netdecking every dumb kid on the internet makes a deck and cant even understand their simple rulings because they dont know anything since they didnt make it themselves! but the worse part of all is that meta game makes Yugioh boooooring... (I get it, im whinning) but the thing is, whats there different to see? for instance EVERYBODY should know that Madolche Owl + Cat = 1 rank 3 monster and tiramisu or similar, ect... Darkworld, discard, grapha, revive, repeat... the same things happen over and over again, I stopped watching nationals because its EXACTLY the same as watching a duel on Devpro or DN except u can see fat chinesse guys win... STOP NETDECKING! OR AT LEAST HAVE BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE GAME! it doesnt come down to skill when ur playing meta since the same is always gonna happen, it comes down to luck, thats not a game, thats not Yugioh!
ReplyDeleteThe article above was written to you, sir.
DeleteI agree with almost all of it but a few things.... one most cards shouldn't be just simply labeled as good or bad it depends on the fit in the engine of the deck (double summon would work good in gadgets) but it only makes it good in that particular example though i'm not fighting for that card just saying that cards should be labeled as a good fit or a bad fit.... difference is the card is not all around bad its just not the right fit in a particular deck. finally your outplaying "saying" is off......"if you've been outplayed you've outplayed--its skill' . Wrong its not always skill sometimes its the horsepower of the engine some engines of the highest caliber only need you to move the cards around the field, the plays practically play themselves your skill didn't create the foundation framework of the deck you may have tweaked the deck but that wasn't skill nor did it get you the win from the skill most likely it was the engine of set combos in a cascading effect with more options that gave you the win, hell it could even be pure dumb luck. Skill is not choosing a particular option of many options than that of your adversary. skill by definition is the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well. you might have a certain skill with one deck and not another.... getting a win is not from skill alone there are many factors.I have personally seen players with high grade engines ergo meta's that yes had skill in the deck but no skill in the rulings, or cards of other decks, or even no skill in the meta deck at all and still won. Certain cards should be limited or banned depending again on certain factors that be, this causes an effect to players to change and try new things and for everyone to not run the same exact thing or type of deck. Finally if a player is bad its not because he sucks its because he hasnt expanded his knowledge enough of the cards, deck formations, rulings ect. these people just need to keep practicing to hone such skills of knowledge a bad player is someone who has a terrible attitude toward other players, or their ideas of cards and a good player is someone who is teacher of the craft who is highly skilled. To be a noob is to be a noob not a bad player just someone inexperienced..... to be a rule shark, or a jerk, or a thief of cards, a cheater, etc. are examples of bad players. To change this we must all realize there is something we can learn with every experience. To believe everyone should know everything or if a person believes he knows everything is of folly thinking that poisons the minds of others leading to pride and arrogance.
ReplyDeleteyou want us to remove the cards that can stand against t1 decks? those cards you meantioned dark hole dark armed makes your deck balanced and solid those cards only make your consistency those cards are not even broken, those are the reason yugioh is balanced im sorry but that was a bigg cross wrong :X removing those cards make all tier one decks un beatible i will tell you this if meta decks are to over whelming game will have powerfull staples if meta is slow all the good staples are gone konamui can choice whatever to make meta extreme if they do they make powerful staples konami is going extreme whith pendulums meaning powerful anto counter cards will be realeased why do you think all cards are avaible? cause the meta would be to over whelming if those did not exist, second point Game could very mutch whithout them have ftk decks cause when you get your combo its gg for those who dont play t1. how can you be skilled and do shiit when oponent swarm field and lock you down? for instance take the pendulums if pendulms would not count as spells pendulum would destroy meta i understand that t1 decks can make new heavy combos, archtypes are more skill based qli and satellars are noob decks byrning abyss are not that far away eathier, shaddols are the only skilled ones you have one point thats going to be made konami is trying whith pin point meta all cards are extreme the deflection is un real whith all those cards it is you are right should be be haerd for it, konami dont know what they are doing.. they just want yugioh extreme.. chaos empereor will be un baned if they keeps long :I
ReplyDeletenow you have heard my thoughts and i yours :) hope our ophions cross ways
you want us to remove the cards that can stand against t1 decks? those cards you meantioned dark hole dark armed makes your deck balanced and solid those cards only make your consistency those cards are not even broken, those are the reason yugioh is balanced im sorry but that was a bigg cross wrong :X removing those cards make all tier one decks un beatible i will tell you this if meta decks are to over whelming game will have powerfull staples if meta is slow all the good staples are gone konamui can choice whatever to make meta extreme if they do they make powerful staples konami is going extreme whith pendulums meaning powerful anto counter cards will be realeased why do you think all cards are avaible? cause the meta would be to over whelming if those did not exist, second point Game could very mutch whithout them have ftk decks cause when you get your combo its gg for those who dont play t1. how can you be skilled and do shiit when oponent swarm field and lock you down? for instance take the pendulums if pendulms would not count as spells pendulum would destroy meta i understand that t1 decks can make new heavy combos, archtypes are more skill based qli and satellars are noob decks byrning abyss are not that far away eathier, shaddols are the only skilled ones you have one point thats going to be made konami is trying whith pin point meta all cards are extreme the deflection is un real whith all those cards it is you are right should be be haerd for it, konami dont know what they are doing.. they just want yugioh extreme.. chaos empereor will be un baned if they keeps long :I
ReplyDeletenow you have heard my thoughts and i yours :) hope our ophions cross ways