Hello guys! NoUserName aka Bboyheritage coming to you with another article, and this one sparked a little flame and passion within me for writing all of a sudden so sit back, relax, and get ready for some information about a children's card game!
(For all intensive purposes, we'll only be referring to the TCG, which is less of a broader topic to be explaining in further detail to begin with.)
So lets start with what most of us professional Yu-Gi-Oh players like to call
The Meta......
The Meta (or the 'Meta-Game' or something else to that effect) consists basically of cards and decks that most players use in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh. Currently, your Meta-Game would look a little something like this.....
Meta Decks include.. (but are not limited to)Dino Rabbit
Practically anything with "Tour Guide of The Underworld" in it
Inzektors
Chaos Dragons (Lightsworn Build)
Elemental Heros
Hieratics
Wind-Ups
Six Samurai
Dark Worlds
Gladiator Beasts
Chain Burn(not in that SPECIFIC order, but close to it)
Now, recently, Konami has come out with plenty of booster series to improve on the Archetypes that are in the Meta, or release the archetypes that were announced for the TCG and played in the OCG. Also, Konami took it upon them to release structure decks that impacted the Meta. But, there is something Konami does that turns the stomachs of some people: Forgetting older archetypes.
Konami has this innate ability of releasing an archetype and then months after its release or immediately after a season of the Yu-Gi-Oh television series ends where the archetype was played around with and shown, they forget about it. For example, when was the last time you ever saw a Cloudian deck topping the YCS? Or a Nordic deck? Or, I'll go as far as asking when the last time you saw someone playing Blackwings. What about Lightsworns, who were so praised for their abilities and even feared in the Meta-Game not too long ago? Watts? Nowhere to be found guys. Konami makes some of the most pointless cards that people don't ever want to use in their decks. Why not make cards that benefit an Archetype that needs the support to at least stay competitive? Well the answer is simply because of business, and I'll explain this thoroughly.
Something Konami does a lot is print cards in a booster series that reveal a new archetype, but benefit other archetypes. For example, Dragunities were basically a deck focused on unleashing one extremely annoying but helpful and GOOD card: Stardust Dragon. A majority of Dragunity decks used the monster Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to support its cousin, Stardust and aid it in being brought back from the grave and abused for its effect. But recently, Red-Eyes has shown much more love to an archetype that is currently in the Meta-Game: Hieratics. These dragons abuse tributes to summon bigger dragons and Xyz Summoning for dragons like Hieratic Dragon King Atum, who can special summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal from the deck to abuse more loops and shenanigans. Because of the similarity in which Dragunities summon level 6 monsters for loops, they ALSO can abuse the dragon king Atum to also summon that dreaded Red-Eyes.
Young and naive little child says:
But wait! Isn't Red-Eyes used in Chaos Dragons? They didn't release that one too long ago either. Did they somehow know they were gonna top a YCS? Hmmmm..... I wonder what the connection is?See, you're actually connecting the dots here. Realize something; Dragons have been the bane of most of EVERY Yu-Gi-Oh player's existence at one point in time. There's always some kind of dragon Konami releases that makes all the fan-boys go nuts. Heck, even Dark Worlds have a "Dragon Lord"! They do this in the anime too, if one could properly assume. Kaiba has Blue-Eyes, Joey has Red-Eyes, Yugi has Slifer, Marik has Ra, Chad has Armed Dragon, Zane has Cyber Dragon, Yusei has Stardust, and Jack has Red Dragon. 4th gen even has Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon! In any case, Konami and 4Kids have always had this thing where they had to make some ridiculous dragon to piss people that actually play the game off because the dragon is actually good. They've done it in the past. And they will continue to, as long as Konami has the power to. Dragons have not died. In any way, shape, or form, they will continue to stay broken. Why? Because Konami makes money from Dragons. Dragons are honestly the ONLY archetype that are almost unaffected by the banlist, solely except for Future Fusion builds.
Let’s hop off of our dragon friends and go onto 3 words that'll prove the worth of my words.
Six.
Freaking.
Samurai.Now we all now back in the day, this archetype was beyond insane with 3 Shi Ens and 3 Gateways. Even Konami's money-hungry business couldn't withstand the stress they endured hearing people rage about it. So they nerf'd the warriors by hitting them in the banlist.
But there's one thing many people didn't notice......
Even after they're banlist hit, they continued to receive support. People made a demand! And knowing they'd get money for it, Konami semi'd the Six Samurai ROTA, Shien's Smoke Signal. But that's not the juicy part. Recently, Konami leaked that a new Six Samurai Structure Deck was being released! But, with every new structure deck, there's always a money card. Six Samurai's are now getting a Xyz monster. Yes, it may not be that broken, but realize that as long as they KNOW an archetype made them money before, even at the expense of banning or limiting, they'll release support for it.
Young and naive little child continues:
But what happened to Lightsworns??? They were good, heck, they ARE good. Why don't they get support?Let me answer that by saying this: Do you really think that a deck with a MAJOR drawback would go over so well in Konami's eyes? We have to consider game mechanics as well. Lightsworns had a bad taste for decking out. People didn't enjoy that much, but still, Judgement Dragon still makes the deck ridiculously strong. Regardless, the reason Six Sams would get more support that Lightsworns would be because they deck is much more consistent in game play. Although Six Sams had a problem against big beater decks like Chaos Dragons, which problem do you think is much easier to fix? It’s the same for Dragons. Dragons continue to receive support because any drawback they have is much easier to fix. As long as Dragons keep sales consistent and keep their deck likewise, Konami WILL "ride" them.
This is how we are 'controlled', so to speak. We spend money on what they promote, and if it's too strong they limit it to reduce complaints. If it was consistent in sales and popularity, they boost it afterwards. People who disagree continue to ask for support for other archetypes, and instead, Konami prints new, different archetypes. This is EXACTLY what happened to Rescue Cat decks. Rescue Cat was SO good, following a format or so after its release, they banned it. But knowing that Xyz cards would hit the scene soon, what did they print that was extremely similar to Rescue Cat? Its retarded counterpart: Rescue Rabbit. And to promote sales further, Konami keeps the card untouched in the banlist until the next format AFTER its release. Of course, this theory would be proven further if Konami decides to keep Rabbit untouched in the upcoming format change.
But the only thing that disproves this theory is one card that was Semi-limited immediately after its release: Reborn Tengu.
Tengu was an extremely overused card, but didn’t receive many complaints because the majority of players used it. Tengu was REALLY good. People enjoyed using it. But Konami decided, “We can’t let the game fall into a rut. Let’s semi this card, following the release of Xyz monsters, eh?”
And that’s what they did. Not only did Tengu got semi’d. BUT they also had it in their minds to put a hold on the synchro game as well to promote the sales of the Xyzs, by banning a card that was VITAL in the Meta-Game: Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.
So it’s obvious that Konami wants your money, plain and simple. Obviously controlling the Forbidden and Limited list and promoting sales of other archetypes over others is what they do to get their cash. It’s almost as if they force you into it. But, to enjoy this game, we have to hit them back somehow. I wouldn’t know what to do, but we technically control the Meta, and we choose what gets limited and banned. This does NOT apply to Trish, or Tengu, or Dustshoot. Some things in this game are just out of our control, and some things just don’t deserve to hit the list. But what else can we do beside adapt and try to enjoy what we can? We might as stick to what we still have, like our forgotten archetypes, and try to impact this game as best we can.
This is NoUserName/BboyHeritage, signing out~
but I'm a nab so I still expect that zombies will come back :S
