The Return

Hey everyone, my-oh-my it has been such a long time since I last posted, and I must say it has been way too long! First of all I wanted to apologize to everyone that read this blog for my continual decline of posts and eventual sudden departure to blogging. Admittedly for me it got to the point where blogging felt more like a job, rather than something I wanted to do as a thing where I just wanted to help the community, provide news and updates, banlist leaks, YCS decklists, that kinda thing. I felt a strong sense of self-induced writer's block because I didn't want to post just to post, and felt like I was really running out of things to say, especially toward the end of last format as the game had become rather stale. I also had to deal with a lot of personal issues in my life, including going to the ER as I went into organ failure due to being diabetic (obviously didn't know I was or had become one until it hit me), my father passing away, house landscaping projects, my dog having to get minor surgery done, and the regular stuff like school, work, on-the-side work, keeping up with the format, playing, etc. I think blogging just became my lowest priority and so I cut it, but I do feel bad I didn't even make a post saying I'd be going on hiatus. I guess I just didn't want to admit that I was going to do so, again I really apologize and hopefully I can regain the loyal readers I had but either way I'm intending to come back strong.

As for catching up with the local scene, well we've had a few new team members join and some have left, with a few potential people we may want to ask to join. I dunno I think it's a lower priority right now as a lot of our players are on the end-of-the-format break or their work schedules don't allow them to regularly play at the moment. Coupled with some people hating the format (though I personally love it), some people hating Team O, some people hating just to hate, our biggest tourney has come down a bit in attendance. We'll probably ride out this format as is and go hard once again when September hits. One of our members, Drew "The Boy Toy" Davis earned a top 8 spot with Mermails, I don't remember what month it was but it was Mermail format in Seattle when it was the Fire Fist mat. We're very proud of his accomplishment and he is yet another player that went from barely topping locals to topping a regional, with the guidance of Team O. Danny finished 9th at one of the Seattle regionals as well (Christ I'm bad with memory lol) though not at the same one, only losing to Jonathan Weigle and Harold (don't know his last name but he's fairly known in the northwest) who got very lucky with a top-decked Lightpulsar or something like that. This was when Wind-Up was still a deck. He also top 8'd a Magic Star City Qualifier (or whatever it's officially called), which is very impressive in his short Magic career. Roy Norman finished 13th with Dino Rabbit, this was at the most recent Seattle regional and also recently top 8'd a Magic PTQ. Unfortunately I haven't played in any premier events but I did get 1st at my first FNM after leaving the game for several years, I was stoked about that and even more stoked that they all knew I primarily played Yugioh and it was my first FNM back. Dat salt. I have recently left the game again and am awaiting rotation to occur and go from there. As someone that doesn't have an interest in Modern, I refuse to just hold onto cards that I know will just become worthless.

For the past few weeks I have started what I call the "Ruling Roundup" on our local YuGiOh Facebook group, I intend to start posting those on the blog as well. It's mostly to help clear up ruling issues that either come up regularly and go unresolved or people leave the tourney and aren't sure if they got the correct ruling or not on, stuff that came up during that week, or explanations of game mechanics that sometimes people aren't aware of or they come up so infrequently that people don't even think about it. I've always felt that one of the easier ways at getting better at the game is understanding some of the slightly more advanced rulings/card interactions in the game, which is what I strive for through the Ruling Roundup.

Recently Danny has started up his YouTube channel, PuertoRicanFace Mendoza, and this is probably one of the bigger reasons for me to get back into blogging. I'd like to produce content in tandem with the channel so we as a team have both a blog and a YouTube channel where consistent content is put out for people to enjoy. Danny has put in a lot of effort to put out meaningful content so please like, subscribe, comment, that whole jazz as I know as something as small as seeing 1 more subscriber or getting views can provide a lot of motivation to continually put out content. You can find interviews, matches, news announcements, local randomness, and the creature known as Shiggs, on the channel. Naturally it's still a learning process but when you start at the bottom you can only go up :) I'd also like to put out content from time to time just as he and others have posted articles on the blog. I did an impromptu video last night posting Pat Hoban's 1st place decklist which can be found here. I also tend to keep a sharp eye on product releases (like reprints), and these kinds of things will get posted asap on the channel, sometimes sooner than even the likes of Vexacus, CyberKnight, mkohl, etc, so again please check the channel out and subscribe. Sometimes that extra 30 minutes is all it takes in you being able to sell, or not sell, your card that's just about to get reprinted. Anyone that has read the blog before can attest to me putting out these kinds of things as soon as I see them, sometimes sooner than they reach the channels of the big-name YouTubers. Seeing content from multiple different team members who all have differing views on the game is important I believe since no two players are ever the exact same in their philosophies. Naturally one viewer/reader may be more inclined to have similar views as a different team member, so we're potentially reaching a larger target audience to a certain extent.

I'll probably post a separate post talking about the game specifically, but I have been playing Dragons this format and have loved and hated every minute of it all at the same time lol. I guess the thing I hate most is how I can draw into 2 Gold Sarc (of which I run 2) before ever drawing into one of the deck's 3 Super Rejuv's. Like mathematically that makes no sense at all but it happens fairly often sadly enough. This is why I think that even if Super Rejuv was banned, I honestly wouldn't even care that much as I win often enough without it. Who knows what next format will bring though but again all that will be talked about at a later time.

It's nice to be back, I have missed it, hopefully I can continue a consistent run once again!