The Doldrums

Doldrums [dohl-druhmz]
noun
1. a state of inactivity or stagnation
2. a dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits

So over the past few weeks it seems that there has been a big divide in the community - half seem to be taking a break or quitting for what ever reason, and the other are still going at it and enjoying the relatively balanced format. I find myself in both places; when it comes to blogging about Yugioh, I find it hard to talk about anything new or what's been going on in the meta, because it feels like not much has been going on. This almost seems contradictory since our newest set was just released. I've noticed this happen among fellow bloggers and various YouTubers. Perhaps Kris Perovic's article put things into perspective for people, with the self-understanding that things probably won't change on Konami's part. On the other side of things, as I prep for YCS Seattle, I am very motivated in tweaking my main, side, and extra to what I think is the best that I can, because I know there won't be a YCS in our area for the foreseeable future. I wish I could playtest more, but it's almost a daunting endeavor simply because you never know what you're gonna play against in such a large field with a brand new set just released. I could test for hours and hours against the popular decks, get my siding strategies down perfectly and whatnot, only to get blind sided by a "random" deck and then get sacked by a sacky deck, virtually eliminating me from the tourney. This factor became very apparent when Carl got 2nd at the Sneak Peek tourney with Six Sams. Not to take anything away from Carl, but when people think of "sacky" deck, the top 3 basically consist of Sam, Darkworld, and Lightsworn. It sucks to know that at any given time, regardless of skill level, you can get sacked. Such is Yugioh.

It just goes to show that regardless of the state of the game, it's impossible to please everyone. When they reprint something, some people will bitch and some people will praise. When something gets rarity-bumped, some people will bitch and some people (profiteers) will praise. I guess you just have to take the beast for what it is, and for God's sake (side rant) people need to open their eyes in regards to patterns. I still see people holding onto freshly pulled Sneak Peek cards because of hype or whatever, when it isn't doing them any good but they refuse to trade it to someone that's only missing that 1 card to finish their deck. The old "I'm not sure why this is good, but I'm going to hold onto it because everyone seems to want it" line. Go ahead and keep your card bro, cuz in a week or two it's value is gonna drop. Happens all the time. Remember Tour Bus? I offered $50 for one when it was new-ish, but they held onto it cuz it was "70 on eBay". What's it at now - 10 to 15? Looks like you plussed hard there. It's the same damn story for new stuff that comes out - if you're not gonna build the damn deck, learn to let it go for a fair value. And trust me, if all you got is that 1 card for the decktype, chances are you aren't actually gonna go all out and pick everything else up especially when it's rarity bumped to shit, just to build it, and still be shitty anyway. I love Sneak Peeks! lol.

Side rant aside, I believe this YCS will be a big factor, in one way or another, for a lot of people when it comes to sticking out the rest of the format or not.