Hey everyone, this is The_SynchroGuy, and I am here to talk about, well, my love for Yu-Gi-Oh! Which is kind of ironic since it’s almost Valentine’s day. (Lol.) If there’s one thing a lot of people know about me is that I love playing Yu-Gi-Oh. Now I don’t mention it a whole lot, like 24/7, to people that I know for a fact are not interested in it. But I’m not afraid to show off my love for Yu-Gi-Oh. I wear shirts, jackets, and a necklace that represents Yu-Gi-Oh. I just simply love Yu-Gi-Oh!
But, how much do I love Yu-Gi-Oh, exactly? Well, I guess you can say that if Yu-Gi-Oh has 1,000 true fans, you can consider me to be one of them. Like seriously, I love Yu-Gi-Oh to the point where I don’t really mind all the things that come from it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying if Konami wanted me to offer my soul just because they asked, I would offer it with no questions asked. I love Yu-Gi-Oh, but I have to look after myself too. And I’m not saying I love everything Konami makes or does. I still cringe whenever I look at War Rock.
What I mean is: I’ve reached a point where any time we get a meta that’s really challenging or frustrating, like how a bunch of decks are just doing the same thing a previous meta deck did, or all the deck does is just make something that stops us from playing the game (*cough* VFD *cough*), I genuinely do not mind all that much. Yeah it can be frustrating and/or boring, but to someone like me, I honestly don’t mind. In fact, I welcome it.
Now you might be thinking I’ve gone crazy. Maybe Konami did steal my soul and I developed a case of Stockholm syndrome. That could be the case, but if I had to make a guess, I’ve reached a point where I’m just done complaining. Like, I know Yu-Gi-Oh is not perfect. It’s not the most perfect game in the world, and it never will be.
Yu-Gi-Oh has a bunch of problems. Sometimes it’s the cards they created (either they’re too op, too gimmicky, or just don’t do anything), and sometimes it’s how they distribute those cards. Like short prints, they’re an issue that we hate having to deal with, or how we just want to get some of the structure decks from the OCG as just structure decks and not as part of any other product.
Or better yet, some of the sets we get are just terrible. Like, they hardly have anything that affects the current metagame, besides maybe a few cards. Sets like, for example, Ignition Assault or, more recently, Blazing Vortex.
And we’re not just hating. We know for a fact that Konami can make really amazing sets. Take a look at Duelist Alliance, that set was one of, if not the best set ever made in Yu-Gi-Oh’s history.
So yeah, these kinds of problems suck, and I do believe Konami should work on fixing them. But like I said, I’m at a point where I’m done complaining about them. While everyone goes off on a rampage about why nothing’s changed, something is too broken, or something is just not good enough, I try to see what possibilities there could be instead. I just take what we’re handed with and make the best out of it. Because we cannot control what Konami does or creates, but what we can control is how we respond to it.
Not to mention, when has getting upset over every single little thing ever done anything good for us? Point out problems? Sure, but does that mean it’s gonna get fixed straight away? Nope, not until the next banlist comes out. And even then, we don’t know if Konami is actually gonna do what we hope they will do. Why? Because they’re a business. One of the things a business has to do to stay afloat is make some money. It’s either that or we lose something that we treasure.
Okay, so what about all the stupid stuff that’s broken to point where our opponent just stops us from playing the game in general, sometimes having to play a game of solitaire on top of it. Well, to that I say, that’s the challenge. You think life is gonna take care of you and make things easy on you? No! If life did that for you, you would then come to a point where you’re bored, so you’ll start creating some trouble in order for there to be something exciting for once.
Taking on challenges and trying to beat them or solve them is what makes life exciting. That’s why life gives us these difficult things, so we can feel amazing once we overcome them. I still remember when I got over two copies of Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon, and it still feels amazing. Of course, we are not always going to be able to beat the challenge we’re presented with. Then again, we can’t always win.
One thing I’ve been comparing to Yu-Gi-Oh so much for the past year or so is life. To me, Yu-Gi-Oh is kind of like life. I’m not saying Yu-Gi-Oh is life, that’s exclusive to the anime and the anime only. I mean it in the sense of how life is unfair. When you are looking to be on top of some kind of pedestal, life isn’t going to be fair by giving it to you, it’s gonna throw challenges and hurdles at you to make you earn that spot.
And some of the time, it’s gonna be another person that wants that pedestal just as much as you do. Now you can say that the two of you will recognize that you both want that spot, so you will be respectful and play fairly amongst each other and say stuff like “may the best man win”, almost like it’s a way so the person who deserves it more gets it. That’s probably gonna be like, say, 99% of the people you face. But then there’s the 1%, the kind of person that is gonna play fair, but, at the same time, unfair.
That person is not looking to play a fair game, that person is looking to dominate. They don’t care about figuring out who deserves it more. To them, they are the one that deserves it more, and they’re gonna do what it takes to make sure they get that spot, so they’re gonna play cards/decks that are “unfair”, like VFD.
What’s gonna end up happening is that you’re gonna go in there and think, “I’m a good person, I play by the rules, I make things fun and exciting by playing fair”, and then the next thing you know, that person just ran you over. Sure, that person was a kind, perhaps one of the nicest people you have ever met, he/she played by the rules, but what that person didn’t do was, in your eyes, play fair. To that I say, “They are playing fair, you’re just not playing on their level. You should be playing some of those cards and doing something that he/she did”. “But that’s not the game I want to play,” you might say. And to that I’d say, “then don’t play the game”.
Seriously, I love Yu-Gi-Oh for all of this craziness; these moments of unfairness at times. To me, that’s a challenge I love to tackle. That’s the kind of game I want to play. But if it’s not the game that you don’t want to play, then don’t play it. Or better yet, I’m probably gonna get hated for this, you can just quit. I mean it. I honestly find it stupid when people are complaing about something they hate, but they’re still doing it anyway.
Now of course, sometimes you have to do things that you hate, and that’s unavoidable. But what’s not okay is doing something you hate and get no sense of enjoyment once you’re done with it. Say like you’re a football coach. You love being a coach, instructing your players, and coming up with ideas/strategies that could win you the next game. What you hate doing is having to do a bunch of paperwork, and dealing with a bunch of players that are not taking their position seriously. But you are willing to endure these things because the payoff is that once those problems are taken care of, you get to enjoy what you love to do. If that’s not the case with you right now, then you’re an idiot. And it’s honestly for the best, in my opinion, if you just quit from it.
Take for example, I have a best friend that I met only because we loved playing Yu-Gi-Oh. We had a bunch of fun times playing it. But as time went by, and new things got added to Yu-Gi-Oh, he was not enjoying any of it as much as he used to. He didn’t like having to deal with some of the new things he had to deal with. Like how he hated taking damage simply for drawing a card; he was getting punished just for playing the game.
And you know what he did? He quit. He stopped playing the game and shifted to another game. From what I’ve seen, ever since he switched games, he’s been happier. He likes this new game because, to him, that’s the game that he wants to play.
As for me, well, I still haven’t quit playing Yu-Gi-Oh, as you can tell. I still love Yu-Gi-Oh. Okay, but why? Well, because it makes me happy. Okay, so why does it make you happy? Because it gave me some of my most fun moments in life. Okay, so what were those moments? Well, for one thing, I’ve gotten to meet some cool and nice people, like my best friend, and I’m hoping to meet more. There’s also the time I came up with this insane strategy with my favorite deck and it managed to do well in the current game at the time.
There’s also the new stuff older decks have been getting recently. Sure, none of it is meta, but I’ve enjoyed seeing all the new stuff that they can do, even if it’s just for a moment. Especially the new Stardust support.
(So cute!!)
I love the lore that is hidden within the cards and learning about that story. It’s like watching another anime show, but just with cards.
But best of all, I enjoy taking on some of the most challenging boards/decks that make things unfair and overcoming them. There’s just nothing more satisfying than saying you took on one of the most difficult challenges there is and overcame it.
So yeah, that’s why I love Yu-Gi-Oh. It can do some things that make me cringe and such, but it doesn’t make me hate this game. In fact, the only thing that I hate is seeing people talking crap about it. Kind of like one of those situations where people can say whatever nasty thing they want about you, but when they start insulting your friends, partner or loved ones, that’s when you start getting pissed.
Well, that’s the case for me that I’ve developed. When people are complaining about this game, I sometimes have to beat it for the exit on stage left before things get worse. It’s not because what they say is true (chances are they’re complaining because they care about it), it’s how that’s all they want to say about this game. And I have to leave in those moments because if I stay, it’s gonna hurt me, almost to the point where I want to start complaining about how they’re complaining. I love this game, and I want to continue loving this game, no matter what. And being in a crowd that only does nothing but spews hatred towards this game doesn’t really help.
Overall, I love Yu-Gi-Oh for both its strengths and its faults. It may have its problems, and they suck, but I love it so much that I don’t want to complain about it, because it’s not gonna fix anything. Whatever kind of hand, or cards, we are given, I’m just gonna say, “okay” and figure out how to make the best out of it.
If there’s something that makes things unfair, that’s fine too, because it just means it’s gonna be more fun when I take it down. Sure it won’t be easy, and it’s probably gonna be painful (that’s what I’m expecting it to be), but that’s how life is. It throws challenges at us to overcome, because it knows that if it doesn’t, then things would be boring as hell. And sometimes the answer to these challenges lies in the domain that we deem to be unfair.
If this is not the type of game you want to play, then don’t play the game. Don’t do something you hate just to get nothing out of it in return. Follow my best friend’s footsteps and find the game that you want to play. You’ll know when you’ve found it when it’s something that you’re not complaining constantly about. You’ll only complain about it at times because you care about it. Yet, you’ll still play it and take on whatever challenges it throws at you. In turn, you may become that 1% that’s looking to dominate their opponents.
Why? Because you enjoy what the game offers you. Why? Because you know it makes you happy. Why do you care if it makes you happy or not? Because you love yourself. Learn to love yourself first before you give someone else that love, because no one else is gonna do that for you. For me, I love myself. I want to be happy, so to do that, I want to do the things I love. And one of the things I love is Yu-Gi-Oh!
If you come up with a thousand reasons why Yu-Gi-Oh sucks, and I’ll come up with a ten thousand reasons why Yu-Gi-Oh is amazing.
I’ll see you guys in the next one! Hope you have/had an awesome day today!