Observations · 9:52pm Feb 15th, 2021
So while working in front of the new XP-Pen 22R tablet on some art, I just realized a few glaring notions as to why Yu-Gi-Oh just doesn't work anymore as a right and proper game which ultimately killed my inspiration and through that EG:DM.
First off: Inconsistency with archetypes:
I've been getting into another collectible game (not actually playing it, not yet at least) that by extension is also a very long-running franchise: Warhammer 40 000, and by extension it's deceased cousin Warhammer Fantasy. I've been watching matches on YouTube and reading up on its massive scores of lore and, barring some very unsavory elements in its fanbase (Then again, what fanbase doesn't have those, including us people who like pastel-colored small horses?), I can see the appeal.
In Yu-Gi-Oh we've got scores of different archetypes and sets where cards are designed to work off each other to form combos. And singular cards with effects not necessarily tied to any particular archetype or set, but still work to give additional boosts or options. But then it gets absolutely ridiculous when people can just whilly-nilly take boss-grade, if not outright game-breaking, cards that tend to serve as the bosses of a certain archetype or set, like Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon, or the scores of Borrell dragons or Galaxy-Eyes, Knightmares, and Unchained. No, I'm not saying you can't mix and match, that'd beat the whole purpose, but so freely and with the most powerful cards. This not only defeats the purpose of an archetype, but also makes possibly every deck the exact same when you see everyone using the exact same ten cards to the point where it gets dull and uninteresting.
In Warhammer armies (one's assortment of units) can only be mixed and matched to a degree: One can for example use the massive Imperial Knights in an Adeptus Mechanicus, or Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) or even an Astartes (Space Marines) army. This works since all four factions are under the same alignment, the Imperium, in lore. Same goes with being able to use Astra Militarum with Astartes or Adeptus Mechanicus or maybe even all three at once, if one is able to collude them effectively. But one cannot combine, say, Astra Militarum with its vast variety of artillery with, Orks, or Tau or Eldar or Chaos (daemons, cultists, Chaos Astartes) or Tyranids. This is most evident since these factions are all at war with one another, so it would look absolutely ridiculous to see Imperial guardsmen fighting Eldar alongside horrific space bugs that want to consume all organic matter on a planet and leave it barren.
Now some might argue that you'd just be restrained to using a small group of very limited units in such a game: Not so; the various armies are teeming with variety: With Space Marines alone you have anything from the basic firstborn Space Marine combat units with their bolter guns and snarly-faced helmets, to scouts, to infiltrators, to assaulters (jump pack wearing marines), to centurions, to terminators, and the scores of Primaris (enhanced) with all their various specialized units. This is not even counting how once can customize units with different weapons, not just the generic bolter, but flamers, melta-guns, laser guns, plasma guns and all sorts of nasty melee.
You can build an army in so many different configurations, you just need to abide by the faction rules. Whatever tactics you're going for.
Secondly; something I like to call "shonen syndrome".
This is sadly something I thought was only limited to the screen with anime like Dragon Ball Z or Naruto or Bleach (which I absolutely loathe as someone who likes good storytelling instead of contrivances or deus ex machina) how only specific characters can remain powerful and relevant: If taken into context with Yu-Gi-Oh; it's the fact only certain archetypes and sets are viable, if even playable. Essentially the power creep angle:
In Yu-Gi-Oh 75% of the cards go unused; basically just wasted wood pulp since some seem to be deliberately made to suck. Hence entire archetypes like Lavals or Vylons or lswarm or Sylvans and who knows how many other neat looking monsters and spells and traps with their unique mechanics are just left to the wayside, because the company making them decided to put all the extremely powerful effects into choice archetypes or sets, usually bunched into one in a text box with a whole brochure's worth of reading.
In Warhammer all the various armies are viable, be they the lowly Imperial Guard to all the scores upon scores of different Space Marines chapters and Chaos Legions who all have their strengths, weaknesses, unique abilities, perks, etc. All these armies can be played, be it casually or professionally and they can all stand an even chance based on the player's strategizing, and some luck of the rolls of the dice, which can also be affected based on aforementioned perks and even the units being utilized. No-one is left out and made to suck almost deliberately like in Yu-Gi-Oh's case. This is evident since models aren't cheap. But be it cardboard or assembled miniatures, waste is still waste.
Yu-Gi-Oh at this stage is best described as stagnant. Everyone uses the same dozen or so cards, the games end in one turn that might take ten minutes with all the abuse of Link monsters and the various game breaking cards. And if you do manage to take your turn, you're just going to be shut down by the dozen effects already out on the field, or get Ash Blossomed or Infinite Impermanence'd and there; done. You sat fifteen minutes doing nothing and didn't even get to show off any awesome monsters or moves. Immersion broken.
I think my pal DrakeyC put it best how it's just glorified solitaire where one is forced to watch someone flip cards.
I guess one shouldn't expect much from a game run by a company who decided to make the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater into a Pachinko exclusive. That is both outrageous and mental.
Oh, I didn't know you cancelled your YGO fics there..
A friend had me found your first one and I only read two chapters of it so far.
Was wondering if Spike would have gotten to duel there or not in those fics there..
5454783
It's been marked as cancelled since last year.
Also how would a dog even duel?
Is there no way to limit mix and matching in the rules? For example, Magic the Gathering has five different colour blocks, and you can technically use all five in a deck, doing so tends to mean you have great difficulty drawing the land cards (what you use for summoning other cards) to actually play any of the colours. Is there no similar system in YGO?
5454786
Oh, didn't know that.
Anyway.. I do hope you get your inspiration back eventually, was pretty interested in those fics.
While the game has gone crazy, doesn't mean you have to have those duels in your fics be like that.
Like you can just have the characters keep using the cards that is in-theme to them and not all ending up being "break my board/you are not allowed to play YGO or die" boards that is happening in the day's game.
Heck, I had fun imagining so many scenarios of characters performing certain combos and cards that would most likely not work irl(due to real-life factors such as actually drawing the cards at the right time).
The game might not be fun to play irl anymore but it is fun to imagine on how the duel goes in fiction stuff like in fanfics.
As for the dog bit, why not make Spike human?(I mean, we did see a dog duel in Zexal too)
After I read the first two chapters, I was planning on commenting that it was disappointing you kept the whole "Spike being a dog" issue EQG had instead of letting him being human(sadly like nearly almost every other author of a YGO/EQG crossover fic I encounter, they just kept Spike as a dog and it really screwed him over). Like.. its really not fair on how the EQG writers reduced him to a dog. And it sure screwed him over badly in the long-run of EQG and its fanworks.
Whats worse is most likely he isn't going to be bothered by the fact he's reduced to a pet or the fact he misses out on dueling, which is really bad. I mean, if I were in Spike's place, I would feel greatly upset that despite I am a SAPIENT being, I got reduced to a dog AND unable to play some cool card game that everyone else except me(due to being a dog) can play, I would feel like being excluded immensely there. There's no way Spike would be fine about that.
I held off from posting a comment about that disappointing bit due to my nervousness happening and I kept delaying and delaying.
It just hurts so much that there's so many MLPEQG/YGO crossover fics where Spike doesn't get to duel at all and misses out on everything due to he's stuck as a dog.
I know there are some fics out there where Spike does get to duel but sadly there's not that many, along with many of them he's ultimately in the shadows of others or the other fics ended up being unfinished for a long time.
In fact I think I only found one crossover fic where it takes place in actual Equestria Girls(as in not a humanized AU where its not like the actual show) where Spike got to duel but sadly that fic is left unfinished too.
Yeah.. sorry for the iffy comment..
5454795
Nope. It's all one set of rules, plus whatever cards Konami feels like illegalizing every month because someone came up with something clever. That or they ban an archetype specific card with a certain effect; but if it's a generic card with the same or similar effect or from a different archetype or set: Perfectly fine!
5454797
I'm going to make this perfectly clear: EG:DM is dead. It's done. Gone. Yu-Gi-Oh has turned awful, both in-game and in-series, I feel like I wasted a year of my life on the first arc as a result and I'm still dealing with the anxiety over it.
5454795
No there is not but you also have to factor in your decks consistency. The thing is on the other side of this argument. The games in an absolutely healthy state right now. From a casual aspect, yeah the games look really impossible to play through because your facing a meta strategy VS a casual one. Of course it's gonna be lopsided. The entire point of a ranked game is too be a COMPETITIVELY challenging game.
Also for the "75 percent of the cards are useless." Bit. Anh game, no matter what it is, is gonna have a form of power creep. I know a bunch of causal fans that play still and enjoy the game even from the competitive side, considering the only unfair thing right now is is True King of all Calamites. Which has a massive target on its back now.
As for the banlist argument. Playing in a tier 0 format is never fun. If anyone else remembers when gouki extra link was meta. Nobody had fun. The point of a banlist is to try and balance the game in someways. If one were to imagine no banlist right now. I could name 6-10 one card FTK's right off the top of my head.
Another thing, what link monsters are currently being abused? Cuz last time I checked almost everyone dropped link summoning (barring a few really good ones) in favor to having their strategies be more focused overall.
I feel like this entire comment was painting the game in the wrong light (especially when your talking ranked games) the game isn't "dying or dead" heck it's actually looking up for players that just put in the time to survive. Adapt. And overcome. And not learning how to distinguish casual or competitve games differently I don't know about any of you but I wouldn't take a Laval deck to a regional that's just suicide.
I do agree the generic cards problem is a thing tho. It limits GOOD card design. Which is slowly getting fixed. I'm not writing this to slam Night-Quill I'm just saying how I see it as both a casual AND a competitive player.
Mild edit; archtypes do have lore; look at the duel terminal or world legacy cards. Warhammer lore; compared too yu-gi-oh lore is like comparing a Steven King novel and magic tree house.
5454866
My point being: Why make something, only for it to be useless, thus not worth making? I would love to see something where the more obscure archetypes like Laval or Vylon or Sylvans were designed to actually function proper like all the popular stuff people only use due to poor management and design ideas.
Games Workshop actually takes the time and effort when designing new units like the recent, lukewarmly received Primaris Space Marines (mostly with people fearing they would replace the firstborn Marines, which is not true; they're just a new unit for Imperium forces, and take more points in an army, and can't be used like firstborns, such as dropped into battle from vehicles or pods). If GW had indeed decided "Oh bee-tee-dubs, all your space super soldiers are worthless now", there'd been torches and pitchforks from the player community.
I don't watch much anime at all, so I needed some other way of getting ideas, hence I write a lot of my stuff based on immersion, such as gaming or roleplaying. With Yu-Gi-Oh since even the casuals are doing the exact same stuff as the "pros" (and the less said about them, the better), it really does just stagnate.
5454891
What are casual players doing? Cuz in a single day on ygopro or even dueling fool I see plenty of unique strategies, where are you playing that has "these same things." Your going on about. Also at one point Laval WAS meta because of how good the deck was for synchro summoning.
And (the less we said about them, the better) bit... Why is this a bad thing. Meeting players that have won championship's would be an interesting conversation to have. The only bad players are the ones that get toxic intentionally for clout. Wherever you've been playing must have a bunch of toxic players.
Also! If you listen to parts of the yugioh community. People do have those pitchfork and riot mentality. Because cards that don't need to be banned anymore
5454908
Same things: People just take their time making sure the whole field is completely shut down: Stopping spells and monster effects from going off because of cards like Toadally Awesome (stupidest name I've ever heard), that space dragon mech, whatever its name was that negates spells and steals them as Xyz material and that one Link that negates everything by lowering attack points based on how many dozen monsters were used on it. Link monsters basically took everything good the Arc-V Pendulum era did and and shot it behind the barn. Oh and if you manage to even get a single monster out; out pops a Raigeki or the dozen or so variants of Solemn Judgement. I've played on both YGOPro and EDOPro and both games are full of the same tryhards who seem to treat the game like something you have to end immediately, no fun, no interesting strategies, just the same dozen cards used verbatim.
Even archetypes I used to love, like Red Demon's Dragon, now has some maxi-extreme version that is pretty much impossible to get rid of unless you use some major game-breaker, that someone can summon on their first turn. Essentially, because of how poorly the power creep was "maintained", as in not at all; everything just became insane. First time EG:DM Arc 2 was cancelled was due to the Endymion archetype being too powerful to use in a narrative sense.
Honestly, anything with the Konami logo, is better left untouched and ignored.
5454921
Firstly the two monsters your talking about are hope harbinger and apollousa. Toadally awesome was ment too be a terrible pun. Apollousa doesn't "negate everything" only monster effects. Also the point of link summoning was too curb the pendulum domination that was actually becoming a problem. And it did for a hot minute until electrumite happened.
Also full of try hards? I've seen your deck building I'm starting to suspect it's not the game that needs to reconsider their deck choice. If you remember correctly I was going to help you make endymion an actually decent deck for Sunset. Which btw the way. As I said before the deck kinda dies too anything or anyone competent enough too stop it. And btw. The only decks that USE solemns... Are trap decks or Stun. why would you not use something that makes your deck have an inherent advantage. It's strategy 101
As for the red dragons archfiend retrain. People wanted jack to have a busted card. Konami delivered and now people complain that it's busted. How exactly is that fair?
5454926
No offense, but I get the distinct feeling this Endymion deck would involve game logic, which in a narrative is something to avoid like the plague. And yes, I know how to defeat Pendulums; I've done so quite often where you either try to keep the opponent from setting the scales or use a lot of mass destruction cards like Dust Flame Blast. Or there's summoning Antique Gear Chaos Giant which just wipes the field. Hence I hated using it since it's way too easy to summon and is an almost guaranteed OTK. OTKs are the worst for someone who's in it more for the spectacle. (And managing to make someone hate their favorite archetype is a feat.)
Point is; there was nothing to help with ideas since the game is so stagnant that nothing genuinely neat happens, and I don't feel like having to watch and anime for ideas, let alone one I can't enjoy in the background since I don't speak Japanese, so I can watch and draw at the same time. And no, I'm not watching the dubs.
5454939
I never said anything about beating pends I was saying it was a problem...
And as I said "you can build a competent deck but still weave a good narrative. And in a dueling story it would be a much better challenge cuz your opponents decks have to outpace yours.
And last time I checked playing endymion in a control variant was okay. It wasn't going to be intensly strong but comoetant.
Also imagine right now thinking ancient gear chaos giant is overpowered. Like for real?! From what I'm picking up you want this game to slow down to a point a single game lasts 40+ minutes. Which to too long and drug out. That's just boring. Plus why do that when mystic mine exists.
And for context I do play control and combo from adamancipator too z world control. I've done both sides of this coin.
5454956
At this point what does this even matter? EG:DM is dead, it was a dumb idea, I get constant anxiety from the realization I wasted a year of my life on that stupid thing and I want to write fantasy again.
5454939
Gonna have to object to that bit about nothing interesting ever happening in Yu-Gi-Oh anymore. I mean, I managed to win a duel recently with just Elemental Hero Sparkman, Fairy Meteor Crush, and Fusion Sword Murasame Blade. How often does something like that happen?
5454979
Like 3 really random cards to win with but hey you do you.
5454992
My wins honestly boil down to luck. I currently play an Elemental Hero/Blue-Eyes Warrior deck that focuses on Fusion and getting as many Monsters on the field as possible while minimizing Tribute Summons with cards like Kaiser Sea Horse (for summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Elemental Hero Neos), Double Coston (for summoning Dark Magician or Red-Eyes B. Dragon), Paladin of White Dragon (for summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragon), Lord of D. and Flute of Summoning Dragon (for summoning Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Red-Eyes B. Dragon), and Mausoleum of the Emperor.
5454997
Like all in 1 deck...... Please say no.... Please cuz that deck description killed me on the inside
5454999
Much as I want this discussion to end; that just sounded pretty elitist.
5454999
It's all 1 deck. I'm very much a casual player, so mind telling me what's wrong with it?
5455001
As someone who takes a lot of time on deck building it killed me on the inside considering the deck has 5 different playstyles. If it's elitist to question odd deck deck building, then call me as such.
5455004
The thing is about what your doing. I get WHAT your trying to accomplish with Kaiser and double coston. Those are good tech choices but I feel like you could split the boss monsters and make decks with focus on each one. Compiling it all together would bet you more dead hands then playable ones. Or if you do play your going to get blown out more then anything else. Plus the the costs of the summons would take a toll on your life total especially when DM and BEWD actually do have full decks that can do things. Red eyes still crying in the corner. Since his support was thrashed.
5455018
Believe it or not, Dark Magician and Red-Eyes B. Dragon are outliers in my deck. The Elemental Heroes are the primary archetype of my deck, what with 14 of my Fusions being Elemental Heroes. It just so happens that I had enough support for Blue-Eyes White Dragon that it became my deck's secondary archetype.
Now if you want the definition of odd deck building choices, look no further than Lady Ninja Yae. Her effect allows me to return my opponent's Spell and Trap cards to their hand if I discard a WIND monster from my hand like Elemental Hero Avian, the only other WIND monster in my deck.
5455001
Tis fine. I've admittedly been on and off with Yu-Gi-Oh because of how complicated it's gotten. My current deck isn't going to be winning any tournaments any time soon, but I'm more interested in having fun than winning tournaments.
5455032
I can respect that I just think running
Neos
Bewd
Dm
Rebd
All in one deck would be a nightmare to pilot but if your seeing success good on you. When each of these boss monsters have tribal cards that help make the monsters stronger. It's just my deck building brain questioning it. Don't take it as an insult. Would love to duel you sometime tho.
5455038
Oh, Elemental Hero Neos is only in my deck because of his ATK points. I don't actually own any of the Neo-Spacians he can fuse with, making Elemental Hero Neos an outlier among the Elemental Heroes in my deck. Same goes for Red-Eyes B. Dragon, who's only in my deck because of his ATK and my nostalgia. Dark Magician at least has Dark Magician Girl and Book Of Secret Arts for support.
5455045
So their all one ofs? That makes more sense
5455048
Pretty much. Like I said earlier, my deck is an Elemental Hero/Blue-Eyes Warrior deck. Cards like Dark Magician and Red-Eyes B. Dragon are simply outliers.
5455054
Yeah I get that just not seeing the synergy as a whole. At that point why not just play Hero's They got a lot of good support now that makes the deck actually scary too face.
Also if your using red eyes and DM why not throw in dragoon too? It's a really good card and would make your decks power level spike.
5455113
Honestly? It all boils down to my deck being built with the cards I was lucky enough to get my hands on. That's the hard part of deck construction; tracking down the cards you need to make your ideal deck.
5455160
Do you not have access to any online sites cuz hero stuff is dirt cheap (barring a few outliers) same with bewd
5455183
I do have access to online shopping sites, but I need my parents to do the actual shopping for me. There's also the 60-card Deck limit and 15-card Extra Deck limit making it harder to construct a perfect Deck, whether it be Elemental Heroes or Blue-Eyes.
5455532
Bruv, I can help you make both. What about online simulators? Even if you can't buy the decks you can always play them that way.
Also with how the decks are built now you can fit all the hero stuff in one deck (hell use the side deck to change your variants)
And bewd has multiple pathways to be built.
Ritual, Fusion, synchro, Dragon link. Rank 8 spam. Just gotta find out what you'd want too play
5454826
I am just saying I hope someday it it might come back.
You don't have to slam it down on me with "Its dead, never coming back" like that..
I hope your anxiety gets better too as well.
Sorry...