Your Yu-Gi-Oh! Experience

[DonRoyale]

I thought it would be fun for us all to share in nostalgic bliss our experiences playing this game.

 

I started this game like anyone did: By looking at Toywiz after watching my first episode of the TV show.

 

My first pack of cards was like everyone else's: A 1st Edition Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

 

The first deck I built was totally unique: Beatdown.

 

My most memorable experience is totally unlike everyone else's; a bad one: My friend pulls Mirror Force. I offer him Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he goes and trades it for Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon.

 

For, real, though:

My experience was mostly through friends. I was certain this was my competitive calling (Card games always have been...), so I became ambitious. I'd see the potential every card had when I opened a pack of cards, or a starter deck. I'd analyze the strategies every card had, the uses every card had. However, no rookie duelist was without his flaws (Not running Premature/Call because I ran Reborn...which is massive nublulz now that I think about it.), so I always looked to others to improve.

 

Around 2003/2004, I'd been talking online with friends when I met a group of MSN duelists. Those guys really helped me go from rookie to intermediate, because I had really started to understand mechanics better, and had been using cards that had destruction effects or prevention effects even at the cost of 300 ATK. However, my interest in the game had begun to dwindle due to the fact that I was playing a lot of Phantasy Star Online at the time. Don't you hate that when your favorite game comes in between you and your Yugimonz?

 

In 2005, one of those friends had discussed with me some strategies, and coaxed me back into the game. (This was around the time of IOC's release...the best time to quit the game, I know. :P) He showed me a link to Pojo, and from that point, my skill as a duelist began to exponentially rise. By about November 2005, I had full understanding of game mechanics and what was considered "cookie cutter". I had knowledge of all the abbreviations, slang, and tricks and trades of the game. I had also begun trading online, which led to me ultimately possessing better cards.

 

In early 2006, I got my hands on a pocket scale. My stock continued to soar (I ended up getting 2 Cyber Dragons in 5 CRV packs, and the other holos were Power Bond and Cyber Twin. The other was a rare...stupid blisters, messing up my scale weights.), as I got better and better cards.

 

I decided to go to a Regionals being held not far from where I lived in July of 2006. I ran either Chaos (if it was legal) or Bazoo/Return control (if Chaos wasn't legal.)

I scrubbed. Bad.

I went 2-4, and my wins were against non-CC players; a total kid and a dude running Exodia.

 

My morale as a competitor was crushed.

Then, Phantasy Star Universe was released.

I decided to quit the game once again, and made what I now consider my stupidest move since starting this game: Selling my DB2 Mirror Force for $10. (I didn't sell any of my other cards. >.>)

 

By late 2007, I had completely lost interest in Phantasy Star altogether.

I had been in a group of close-knit friends in early 2007 who I played Phantasy Star Universe with for a really long time (for the bulk of '07), but as the year came to a close, I had 1 friend and 1 very large (and often full-partied) group of friends left.

I was getting bored of it.

 

The kicker was in 2008 when I caught wind that Schthack had released its PSOBB server to the public. (I'd been in it when it was private; EVERYONE spoke Japanese and it had FAR worse errors than it does now) I decided to reignite my flame for PSOBB, and decided to trade all my PSU items for really, REALLY uber PSOBB items.

 

So, I was feeling odd when I came back to PSO, because I'd only quit Yu-Gi-Oh! for Phantasy Star Universe, which I'd not only quit, but had no items for.

(I thought I'd share that PS tidbit with you all; best experience of any online game I've ever had. :D)

 

At the time, I'd been growing close with some people that played Yu-Gi-Oh!. One of those friends tipped me off about a local tournament. The tournament was five minutes away from where I lived, and the place was ran by two of my oldest and dearest friends (who WILL hire me this summer for a job...I KNOW IT!), who I'd met in 2002 when I went there with my best friend for a local tournament; the 1 Magic Ruler pack I got contained Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon. :P

 

When I went to the tournament, I'd gotten third place with a burn deck, which was impressive considering it was in my eyes incomplete.

It was then I realized: "Should I come back?"

 

The next week, I'd gone to the local tournament again.

This time, I didn't settle for third place, and won the whole thing.

 

That victory reminded me that I need to be a part of this game.

Even now, my friends all come to me for advice on mechanics, deck builds, and other endeavors.

 

I plan to return to the large local scene as well, starting with the TDGS Sneak Preview in the coming weeks.

 

If I can pool some money, I'm going to scale my city's local stores for cards. Since cards actually have worth now, I can sell them for good value and make actual profit off of it.

 

I want to increase my collection for September, when the format changes. I'll wait until a couple SJC's pass, observe the game from the sidelines, and enter some regional tournaments after I feel I'm ready to take another shot at the grand competition scene.

 

Until then, I sit back and do what I do best.

Innovate.

It made me one of Pojo's most well-respected veterans, and it's earning me a small reputation here as well.

 

I hope sharing my experience with you people has...done something, at least.

 

What's your experience?

[iAmNateXero]

It was summer of 2002 i had just gotten my first pay check from the youth summit i was working at. I was 14 at the time and just though "hmm i wanna splurge my first check." I was heading home after stopping at the first union (yes that long ago) and something sparked my attention in the 7 eleven where i always buy my big gulp (yes it is a long running addiction) and i spotted the box of metal raiders, and at first thought i thought they were cool stickers, i wanted to decal my board. Come to my surprise they weren't stickers. Any way i held on to them and went home and turned on the idiot box. Guess what was playing... YUGIOH! YEAAAAHHHHHHZAAARRRRR! anyway guess who was dueling... THE PARODOX BROTHERS! OOOOOOOOH! and i looked through my cards and guess who i was holding in my hand..... KAZIJIN! i laughed.

 

about a week later im at the kmart, shopping for boxers and i go through the tow isle and i see the yugi and kaiba starter deck. i pick em up and said, "why not... i at least gave pokemon a try."

 

time skip forward a year latter, im in high school now (held back cuz i literately tried to bang my teacher before i left that middle school. Didn't work out so good... aw well.) And i bump into this arrogant guy and he drops his bag, and all these yugi cards hit the floor. Im no jerk, so i helped him pick em up. I than asked him if he played long, he said no, and ever since we duel for about an hour or so after school. fast forward another year or two. "Staples" as they were called hit the scene and gawd knows you just had to have em, and my team grew from 2 to about 5-6. Now we called ourself "Da Clan" .... we were unoriginal and couldn't agree on a team name. Its the Envoy phase and woot how crazy was that huh?! anybody remember? ANYWHOOO lets time skip forward about 1 year later. Now the introduction to the ban list reared its ugly head, and like most people (don't even say for a second this wasn't you.) Every body is iffy and used to their carefree dueling saying things like "WTH they mean there gonna ban cards in tournament play?! I aint doing that?! I payed for these cards so i can use em, not look at em!" Any remember those days? anybody?! Oh HI FIVE OVER THERE! YEAH! So about a day latter we removed the bans and chose to accept the fact that the game is changing. Now its about 2006 and i decided to step my game up a level and attend sneak peaks and regionals and jazz like that. Fun for a while, than i realized that everybody was playing with the same decks, at first i thought i was in the twilight zone, than i found out all about the internet and how it affected our "META" yeah back than i was like "WHOA! LOOK OUT NOW!"

 

And now im here and well, yeah... not much has changed accept i came to accept that people choose Copy over Creativeness.

[Static]

Haha, my friends been banned from pojo at least 6 times. Thinks Yugimanz are important enough to commit mail fraud for, because he's a minor and all the loopholes with the law that make it impossible to get charged if you do it right.

 

Heres my experience.

 

Way back when, when I was in 6th grade...ish... Played with my close by neighbors, we were complete idiots who thought Gate Guardian was the coolest thing ever, and ran the pieces of it we pulled from MRD packs. At this point, I ran an 80 card deck of random holos I had, Masked Beast, Magic Jammer, and we played that if you used all the cards in your hand, you draw another 5 cards.

 

In other words, we were bad. I met some other kids that played, traded, got what I wanted, and started collecting MRD, getting all but a few cards before I finally quit because I decided superficially that it was "too nerdy."

 

Winter of last year, my friend got me back into it with the idea that we could fix our collections by stealing packs. I will not give exact numbers on how much we ended up stealing, or I'd be at risk of Federal Incarceration if every store that could prove we did it testified against us. Got caught, got paranoid, stopped that. Then the idea of "Ripping" on the internet came across us. This was around the time Gist came into the mi[d]st (get the pun :P), and again, I didn't like the idea too much, the paranoia from stealing made me not to cool with this, but I decided to do it a couple times. Gist and Chaoserver exceeded me at this subject, their estimates will not be released, but mine must've been less than $200 worth taken, though the one that I did on TCGplayer was an epic $70-80 rip from ONE GUY. I gave the 1/e mint (and I mean no flaws at all) PSV Jinzo that I got from that to a friend as a Hanukah present.

 

Man, and then Eric got into it. Pre releases were a regular thing, we went tri-monthly, and I went to my last in May. Gist quit around Feb, he really quit earlier, but officially once ARA went to 1 and decided it was the best way to actually quit. Sucks for Eric, I'm getting cash for his Solar Recharges that I have in my possession.

 

As of right now, I am on the verge of quitting, I just need a way of getting rid of my junk. I will say I have quit YGO, playing it for a hobby, not because I see it as making me a loser or any of that type of mentality, but because its really just a game, something unimportant that I, and I Take Don Royales words as my own, because the experiences are in essence, the same, that I really only got into it because of friends, and I have realized, like Gist, that I do not care for it as much as I thought I did.

[Sixty]

Hmm... it's been about 7 years since I started Yu-Gi-Oh...

 

Chapter I

 

I heard of yugioh when my friend started playing. I watched the anime alot, and actually drew and made anime cards. 2 weeks after that, My mom walked in with my first Structure Deck, Starter Deck Joey. I was very estatic. I took my deck to my friend's house whenever I went. After he teached me everything about the game, we had our first offical duel. My friend won, of course, but I wasn't giving up. A year later, Duel Disks came out. My deck was powered up with packs, and I got one. Little did I know that my friend also got one. I went to his house and found this out, and challenged him. After a well fought battle, he won with his Blue-Eyes deck. That's all I can remember of my Yugioh time with my friend.

 

 

Chapter II

 

Soon after I parted ways with my friend, which was 4 years ago at this time, I choose a new Yugioh partner after I moved into a new town. His name started with T, so I'll refer to him as "T". T and I dueled almost every day, and improved greatly. My deck at the time was pretty much anything I could come up with. Whenever I made a new deck, I would go straight to T's house. A year later, T had to move. So then my dueling skills declined greatly.

 

 

Chapter III

 

A year ago from now, 10 months after T moved, a card shop opened in my town. I was almost as estatic as I was when I got my first deck. I made a new deck that day to take to the opening tourny, and it didn't do so well. I went to the card shop every day, dueling in Yugioh alot. Soon after, in my latest Yugioh magazine at the time, dropped a Magic the Gathering demo disk. I was curious of this game and popped it in my computer. Soon I learned how to play MTG. Late last year, I played Magic alot. For 4 months I played it, then the card shop was closed for a week, becuase the family was on vacation.

 

 

Final Chapter

 

I was bored during that long week, and decided to check the YCM during the whole time period. I was checking the TCG and Deck sections alot. This got me back into playing YGO (and even to this day, I only come here to check the TCG and Deck sections.) When the shop opened again, more YGO players actually came instead of the Magic players that came two weeks before. I soon made the GigaSwarm Deck and play YGO alot more than Magic, which I still occasionally play.

 

This is a brief summary of my YGO Experience.