Escalation

Change is one of those things that—depending on how it’s carried out—can trigger vastly different responses from people. If it comes like a bolt from the blue, apprehension towards it is only natural. But if it is something that’s built up over time you may not even become aware of how much it has affected you.

Power creep is a common element in many long-standing games. There will occasionally come a time where some newly-released content will render old content obsolete. In a game like Yu-Gi-Oh! where you have a card pool expanding well over a decade this is something that has occurred countless times and will likely continue in the foreseeable future.

Now I am not one to argue that power creep is inherently bad, far from it. Power creep is one of the ways a game can evolve itself. But ideally that is something that should be developed over time. If it’s introduced too quickly it enforces the notion that you can only be successful by spending money on newer, superior cards.

Make no mistake every gaming company aims to make a profit first and foremost, and Konami is no exception. But aggressively promoting power creep only alienates the player base. It widens the gap between those that play competitively and the casual player.

Even without looking all the way back to the beginning, the escalation of power creep the game has experienced within the last 3 years is staggering.

In 2013 Diamond Dire Wolf was introduced to the TCG in Cosmo Blazer. It was a revolutionary card at the time: the first Rank 4 Xyz Monster that could function as spot removal at the cost of destroying itself in the process.

About a year later in Legacy of the Valiant we got Number 101: Silent Honor ARK, a monster that not only could also neutralize opposing monsters, albeit to a more limited degree, but could also use them to protect itself from destruction.

And just a few months later Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer popped up in The Duelist Alliance. The card could eliminate any face-up threat without destroying them or triggering in-grave effects.

While no Rank 4 has yet to power creep Castel’s niche, the card has continued to influence future card design. It’s thanks to it that within the past year we’ve gotten cards like Kozmo Dark Destroyer, which can’t be targeted at all and floats off its destruction, and Erebus the Underworld Monarch, which can remove threats while completely bypassing all forms of protection a card could have outside of effect immunity.

It almost feels like the cards themselves are competing on how they can surpass each other.

Jim-Gordon

Jim Gordon: What about escalation?

Batman: Escalation?

Jim Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.

Batman Begins (2005)

I can’t even begin to fathom what direction the game will take from here on out. All I do know is that it’s far from slowing down.

Until next time. Turn end!

Maximizing Returns

Recently, YGOrganization (no relation) has posted up the latest OCG tournament results. And one of the biggest things that sticks out? Pot of Cupidity is starting to see play!

PotofCupidity-TDIL-JP-SR

Pot of Cupidity* (Normal Spell Card)
Banish 10 cards from the top of your Deck, face-down; draw 2 cards. You can only activate 1 “Pot of Cupidity” per turn.

While some have argued that the card is better suited for decks that aren’t so combo-based or rely on 1 card, the OCG is showing a different opinion—by running more than the 40 card minimum to accommodate 3 of this card.

The idea is that by maxing out cards you would normally run 1 or 2-of you’re decreasing the likelihood of Cupidity banishing multiples of your key cards.

If your deck plays any 1-of combo pieces, this card simply isn’t for you. In the opening phases of the duel, you’ll have about a 30% chance of banishing any 1-of with this card.

But assuming you play your needed cards in duplicates or triplicates:

Any 2-of card only has a about a 3% chance of both of them being banished by this card’s cost, or about 1 in 33 activations.

Any 3-of card only has about a 1.8% chance of all three being banished by this card’s cost or about 1 in 55 activations.

Even if you run a very combo-heavy deck, the +1 you get from Cupidity will very often outweigh the small chance of you losing needed cards. This is exactly why the card being seen in a lot of decks like D/D/D’s, which can get huge plays off of any combination of cards, or in some Blue-Eyes variants where that +1 gets you that extra card you need to get a play going.

Now many of the decks that did top still didn’t run any copies of Cupidity, so this may not last for too long if players still feel the card is too costly to play. In the largest tournament it was in 3/4 builds. Outside of that it was in 2/14.This is one week and we will see what happens, however the math has it in the 27%.

Make no mistake: the card’s effectiveness is highly dependent on the type of deck you choose to play, although adding more cards for the decks that do benefit more from it is a good way to decrease the risk of the card. It’s never going to be a surefire strategy, even for those decks. But some players might see the reward as too good to pass up.

What are your thoughts on this? Is Cupidity good enough to warrant the extra 5+ cards in your deck? Or is it still not worth it to clutter your deck with extra cards you feel are unnecessary?

Until next time. Turn end!

* = TCG name not yet confirmed.

Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Attacked

It’s a great feeling whenever a deck that you’re playing gets new support. But not so much when it takes an exceedingly long time to be able to use that support. And it’s downright depressing when, by the time you’re able to use your deck at full power, it’s been power-creeped into obscurity.

Such is the dilemma of Fire King players, who have had to wait over a year to be able to play Fire King Island. Now imagine their shock when another archetype is able to not only use their Field Spell, but use it more effectively than Fire King players ever could.

That deck is Kozmo.

Confused? Let’s read Fire King Island for a moment:

FireKingIsland-CROS-JP-C
Fire King Island (Field Spell Card)
If this face-up card in the Field Zone is sent to the Graveyard or banished: Destroy all monsters you control. You can only use 1 of the following effects of “Fire King Island” per turn, and only once that turn.
● During your Main Phase: You can destroy 1 monster in your hand or that you control, and if you do, add 1 “Fire King” monster from your Deck to your hand.
● If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon 1 FIRE Winged Beast-Type monster from your hand.

As luck would have it the card fixes the main issue Kozmo has as a deck; it completely removes your dependence on your Normal Summon to play the game. The key to all this is the effect which says:

You can destroy 1 monster in your hand or that you control.

All Kozmo ships, with the exception of Dark Eclipser and Dark Planet, say:

If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect and sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 Level X or lower “Kozmo” monster from your Deck.

Fire King Island destroys it inside of your hand and, in doing so, nets you a free monster. If you play it right you could have all of your bigger ships on the field (i.e Dark Destroyer and Forerunner) and then activate Kozmotown over your Fire King Island, or Summon Sliprider and pop it, because of the effect that states:

If this face-up card in the Field Zone is sent to the Graveyard or banished: Destroy all monsters you control.

Doing that lets you float some more, and could easily lead to a Turn 1 Cyber Dragon Infinity backed up with an equally impressive board presence.

Looks like Fire Kings just found themselves a new home in a galaxy far, far away.

Until next time. Turn end!

UPDATE: Fire King Island has been confirmed common in Shining Victories!