Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Stranger Waters

So battle packs and sealed have made all sorts of a splash in the TCG with mixed reactions to the format of sealed.

But what people dont realize is that Yugioh is trying to expand their formats as well.

Each shop runs not only standard events with advanced constructed decks, but "sub formats" supported by konami as well.

They havent been around for a whole while, and I have no idea about much of the reactions to it, but it is a start.

They all fall under the umbrella of "casual formats" where you have certain rules to apply to deck building/playing.

Now, I've played many card games in the past and for the most part, casual formats... usually arent that big a thing (Sans Commander for MTG.)

Why?
Because the game was not really designed to function in that format, bad format design, etc.
The casual format will only really grow if there is the community to grow it.

Even tag team duels, as seen in Yugioh and Vanguard, have to stretch their rules a bit. Its quite different, and hence, not very popular.

As for the formats Konami is experimenting with:
Most of my experience comes from watching these games at Konami Card game station, so yeah.

Sealed play, which everyone knows about.

Ante tournament, where each player starts with a certain amount of chips/points, and bet them in duels. At the end of the time, the players are ranked according to the number they have, with 1 game per match up, and cycling through many players.
Less a format than a tournament style, but blah.

All 1 Element deck
All 1 monster type decks
both of these are similar, I guess, falling under Tribal decks. I actually have no idea why Konami is pushing this format

Tag duel tournaments
Supporting the tag duel format more.


Duel Field Happenings
I personally think this format is 1: Named stupidly and 2: Is such a blatant rip off of MTG's Planechase its not even funny

During the duel, there is a separate deck for "Happenings", effects that will pop up and change at the end of each turn. This happens between the turns
Most cards tend to be continuous cards, like Spatial Collapse, which changes how many cards can be out on the field to 5 per player, Ground collapse, which knocks out monster zones
Or Wall of Revealing Light for 2500, or Skill drain and Soul Drain. or Summon Limiter.
In the deck are forbidden cards like Royal Oppression, Royal Order(Imperial Order?)(The thing that negates spells), and Card of Safe return, Temple of Kings, etc
Things you can activate while its around (Mass Driver)
There also are Field spells in the happening deck, which replace the field for one turn before disappearing, and things that dont actually do much, just be around, because you either dont interact with them or neither player has cards that do(That cont. spell that deals 300 damage more when you get burned)
Also included are one shot cards that happen and disappear, leaving you with no "happening" for the rest of the turn. Cards like Heavy Storm and Dark Hole, or Special Hurricane

They even include original cards, such as one that removes all exceed materials from the field, and an interesting card that CHANGES YOUR OPPONENT with the opponent playing on the same table next to you.
No I have no idea how that last one works.

This is actually an interesting concept to work with, and people 'could' go out and build "Happening decks"  Plane/Planar Event decks to use themselves.

Call the format Instability or something.
Or planechase.


And one of my favorites:

Add one forbidden card to the deck format.

Its exactly as it says, you may use up to one forbidden card in your deck.
It does open a lot of floodgates, but it is only one forbidden card.
Then again, it is just ONE forbidden card.

Some forbidden cards are much more overpowered than others, and some require specific cards to support it.

For instance, most people would think Pot of Greed would be a top choice, but what it does for the deck is give it an one shot 2 draw.
Compare to, say: Graceful Charity in darkworlds. Broke. As. Fuck.

What about Disk Commander? Some decks would play it over pot of greed because, well, the REST of the turbo deck isnt banned.

What about Trishula? Everyone hates trishula.
And Brionac. Live back your favorite infinite loop FTKs

Did I mention Dark Dive Bomber?
Who needs to draw into the =ONE= Forbidden card in your deck with luck when you can just synchro this guy out anytime?

What eventually happens is that people play in more combo-y forbidden cards than the ones with Sheer one sided power.
Like snatch steal. Nobody plays snatch steal in this format. Or Brain Control. Even Raigeki or Makyura has their arent even played. Because you can only play one forbidden card.

Also, for some reason the tournaments are only one game for 20 minuites. No idea why.


/sezuar

No comments:

Post a Comment