Theo-Ri-Oh! 101-The Devil’s Advocate

April 11, 2012

by Thai Bui

What’s good my fellow ARG readers? For those who aren’t familiar to who I am, my name is Thai Bui, but many of you know me as Thai McSwagger Bui from facebook , Mr. Carnage from Duelistgroundz, or KyoCarnage straight off YouTube. I have around 25+ regional tops and 1 Shonen Jump Championship top at Shonen Jump Edison New Jersey. I am also on a local team called Team Mast Fx which is made of Mark Velez(YCS Columbus Top 8 finisher), Adam Ginsberg, Sean McCabe(Multiple YCS/SJC Top finishes), Myself, yours truly Frazier Smith, and for the big time event traders, Xavier Swift. What I am bringing to ARG different ways to approach the game and how to do so, but today I am going to keep it simple.

Before I dive into this, I am not making an Al Pacino reference or anything of the latter. I am talking about The Devil’s Advocate. For centuries, the Catholic Church has used this theory or process during the course of ordaining saints. What this means is that they brought in a second, third, and sometimes a fourth party to provide their input of the person they would ordain in order to break group mentality and a linear way of thinking. These outside parties would sometimes involve their own to act as that party and basically provide any sort of counter argument as to why someone didn’t deserve sainthood.

Now, you are asking yourself, what all this translates into Yu-Gi-Oh! Gameplay and theory. The key importance of understand your deck’s interaction to combat the meta or where it places itself in the chain of tiers comes from this theory. The Devil’s Advocate was designed to see how far you could argue a stance, how well you understand your stance, and ultimately allow you to decide yourself which side of the fence you stood. This theory correlates directly to your deck choices, card choices both main and sided, and ultimately the overall creation and synergy of the deck, because in this game state, nothing is simply cut and dry outside of the obvious. Yet, this is can be the difference between your success and failure with the deck.

Here’s a simple example of this; Ryko The Lightsworn Hunter and Snowman Eater. Before I give you my subjective stance on this card, let’s give both of these a complete unbiased breakdown. Both cards are designed to take advantage of damage step mechanics to allow you to freely get one for one card exchanges on your opponent. These two cards in practical game play would automatically be sided against deck such as Hero Beat, Dino Rabbit, Evolzar, or any anti meta variant. They both deal with problematical cards such as Laggia, Thunder King, and any big and troublesome monster you can throw out there. But there are some obvious and subtle key differences in how these two cards are used. Snowman Eater’s defense can act like a plus one on destruction and defensive wall. In addition to that, he is a level 3 monster can be used to overlay for some of the games most powerful exceed monsters to create more plays. With Ryko, 9/10 times he will die in battle but nets you a card of your choice, not limiting to monsters only. For certain decks like Inzektor, Lightsworn, and Dark World; it accelerates the deck and places key monsters in the graveyard that is needed. Along with the little pup’s fancy destruction shenanigans, his effect can also generated optional effects to miss timing on their effects because his milling effect would be the last thing that would happen. The biggest to note is that Elemental Hero The Shining in this situation would miss it timing to grant you 2 Heroes that were removed from play.

Now with that said, I will subjectively say that Ryko is the better pick here. With certain deck like Dino Rabbit and Elemental Hero, there has been a huge raise in the need for Macro Cosmo. These decks on par can be arguably the most consistent decks in the format at the moment. Although for decks like Dino Rabbit, you are not able to play Ryko since your rabbit plays are key in the deck. Yet decks that are now gaining more popularity and momentum such as Inzektor, Heroes, Dark World, and various rogue decks, these decks can utilize the full potential to combat the meta curve and compete with the top tier decks. It’s a light for heroes, it’s a mill option for inzektors, and it’s an easy with to deal with The Shining and Evolzar Laggia and an extremely unexpected card when your opponent runs into it. On the trade off of lesser exceed plays, defense, and typically always a one for one trade off, its huge utility makes up for its lower stats.

Even thought my personal theory has been part of a larger debate and can be extremely subjective, you as a player must be as subjective, open minded, and have that clarity to dictate to yourself what is better for your build, act on it, and follow up with it with flawless plays. From a personal perspective and this is not coming from me as a player but as a person, that the gateway to success isn’t based your abilities alone, it is also how subjective you are in your mentality and ability to address said topics.

I hope this article inspire you guys to lay out your decks and ask yourself what has been working or not and invest the time to explore different perspectives and angles of the game. You will feel much more confident and happier not only as duelist, but a much more open minded person.

Until next time guys, play hard or go home. I’m Thai Bui and I’m out.