Post 500

So apparently, this is the 500th post on this blog.  I didn't want it to be a generic Vanguard tournament report, so here's something different.

For those of you who don't know, Aki and I record videos for my YouTube channel in advance, then I upload them every so often (recently, it's been about three videos per week).  Aki and I won't be able to meet up to record this weekend, so I'll probably run out of videos to upload soon.  But that's not really the problem.  Even if we had the opportunity to make videos, what would we even record?

We're kind of done with Yu-Gi-Oh.  I got a third Duel Terminal Gem-Knight Amber from Fwazalaza, so aside from a Lavalval Chain, my Gem-Knight deck is done.  Other than that, we have no idea of what kinds of new decks we could make.  Aki wants to try a new HERO variant, but we've already made so many, and there isn't much else we could think of.  I would rather not spend any more money on Yu-Gi-Oh, given the direction the game is headed (becoming irreparably broken...).

So, aside from remaking old decks or using special rules, there's not much else we can do for Yu-Gi-Oh, and I'd really rather not do either of those things.  The reason for this is that the decks that were usually featured on my channel were creative decks that could actually stand a chance against the meta.  If we used outdated decks or special rules, that wouldn't be true anymore.  There'd be nothing significant about the duels, since they wouldn't really apply to the game as it is today.  Maybe a few people would enjoy them, but I'm not so sure.  I mean, most people don't go and watch really old duel videos, since they wouldn't really help them learn anything that would apply to the present.  I guess you could learn about how the game used to be (more skillful), but it seems a little pointless.

I feel like I'm being really pessimistic, but at the same time, I know I'm not.  This is basically what's happening, and because the majority of Yu-Gi-Oh players will continue to play regardless of how badly Konami treats them, Konami can make the game as broken and skillless as they want.  What's ironic is that some people leave Yu-Gi-Oh to play Vanguard, the latter of which takes even less skill, but I guess it also costs less money to play Vanguard...

That's part of why I started playing Vanguard.  I basically got my first deck for about $50, and it was good enough to win tournaments. With a sound strategy behind my deck, all it took was being luckier than my opponents to win.  That's all that Vanguard takes.  And that's why I don't really want to make Vanguard videos.  I guess some less-experienced players could learn (how to do basic math) from them, but it'd get really boring really quickly.

Anyways, Kaijudo is the card game that has the most promise.  I probably won't get to go to a Kaijudo Master Challenge (the closest one to me is a three-hour drive away...), but we can still go to Duel Days and make videos.  Even with the limited card pool, Aki and I could probably make a lot of different decks.  After all, we've been buying at least a box of each booster pack that has been released, so we have most of the cards.

The main problem, however, would be that it takes a lot of time to make a good Kaijudo deck.  You have to put a lot of thought into every single card you play.  I mean, we could probably throw together decks based on intuition, but even then, there's still a lot to consider.  When I made my Light/Water/Darkness Cobalt Control deck, even though I had seen EarthP0w3r's Cobalt Control profiles and was getting ideas from them, it took me a few days of just thinking through each card to finish it.  Even then, I ended up regretting some card choices (Dragon of Reflections...) and changing it soon afterwards.

It's much more difficult to make a good deck in Kaijudo than it is in a game like Vanguard. I mean, just two days ago, my friend who plays Vanguard and I talked through a Great Nature deck over the phone in a few minutes.  We only disagreed on one thing, and I quickly convinced him to use my idea.  And just like that, we made a Great Nature deck in like three minutes.  That's all Vanguard takes.

But yeah, for Kaijudo, it would take quite a while to make each new deck, and we really don't have that kind of time.  In fact, when I made my Cobalt Control deck, I was on spring break, so I had the time necessary to build the deck.  The point is that we wouldn't have the time to make new decks to feature in duels on my channel.  I mean, we generically make the decks we're going to use before we even meet, then record the duels.  We don't usually have enough time to make an entire deck immediately before recording videos.

So, since we basically don't have the time to make any new Kaijudo decks or the motivation to make any new Yu-Gi-Oh decks, I don't know what we're going to do for videos.  I'm sure that we'll eventually be able to make new Kaijudo decks and videos, but videos will be quite sparse.  But I suppose it's been like that for a while, now.  Oh well, we have busy lives, so it can't be helped.

To end on a somewhat happier note, I decided to import a Japanese Nintendo 3DS earlier this week.  It arrived two days ago, and I bought the new Vanguard video game on the eShop.  I haven't gotten very far into the game since I don't really have that much free time, but it's been fun so far.  I've been using Aqua Force because it's the only deck you can easily start with that requires thought.  It seems to confuse the AI a lot, too.  It's like they don't realize that Coral Assault gains +3k on the third attack or later, or that the Storm Riders switch places with the unit behind them after attacking.  It could be better, but the AI is actually more intelligent as the average Vanguard player, which is really sad.

Anyways, the main reason why I got the game is so that I wouldn't have to waste money on bad decks that I wanted to build for fun like Aqua Force, Magatsu ride chain Murakumo, or Musketeer Neo Nectar.  I may still build Aqua Force, though, since I've found a way to make it better than expected.  I just hope Basil and Paschal aren't too expensive...

As for tomorrow, I'll be taking Aki to locals.  He won't be able to participate in the Team League Qualifier that the usual card shop is holding because he won't be able to make it to the Team League Regional, so Riku will be the third member of our team.  So yeah, that's about it.