Welcome to another edition of . . . wait a minute, I don’t have a column title. Hmm, I guess I should work on getting one of those. Perhaps that can be the challenge for this week—finding a good title for this article. Imagine the possibilities: Incredibly Intelligent Information by Ian, IE’s OpEd, or Da Yujjioh. Weren’t those amazing? Actually, they were pretty bad. That's why I don’t write titles, so maybe you good people out there in cyberspace could lend a man a hand with one. We can get to that a little later since I'm fairly certain you aren’t reading this column for its cutting edge title, but rather for the incredible good looks of the author. *sound of crickets chirping in the background*

Moving right along . . .

As many people who know me are aware, I'm a huge proponent of variation in Yu-Gi-Oh!, especially in the Constructed scene. I am always hoping for the next set that will spice things up and provide some much needed diversity in the tournament scene. Until recently, the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! has known Constructed tournaments and more Constructed tournaments. Right now we have drafting available to us, (cheap plug alert) which Curtis Schultz does an excellent job of covering in his articles on this site. But what about other formats for Yu-Gi-Oh!—how are they going to fit into the picture? More aptly, what are some other formats that Yu-Gi-Oh! can support? With all of the large-scale Yu-Gi-Oh! events that are coming up, there looks to be the opportunity to support many new formats and try out some cool new ideas. I can’t say for certain what Upper Deck Entertainment (UDE) and Konami will put into place in the future, but here are some ideas and fantasies that I have for future variations on the Yu-Gi-Oh! theme.

Packs designed specifically for drafting

Most everyone reading this should be familiar with drafting and how that format operates. In normal Booster Draft, you get three boosters from a particular set or sets, crack ‘em open, pass, and then make the best deck you can. One thing that I love about drafting is using cards that would almost never get to see the light of day in Constructed play. But sometimes in a normal draft you end up with a few cards that just do you absolutely no good, or are overpowered and not balanced for draft (think Wave-Motion Cannon). What if we had a format that eliminated some of the chaff cards and removed some of the uber-powerful cards? You would have balanced packs that would retain some of the luck properties of normal draft, but your success would be far more dependent on deckbuilding skill. That sounds right up my alley.

I would love to see a set of maybe 200–300 cards that have been chosen for their balance and draftability (I'm fairly certain that isn’t a word, but work with me here). This card set would be composed of cards from every Yu-Gi-Oh! set and could very easily be updated with each new release. This set would avoid extremely broken cards like Raigeki, Change of Heart, Jinzo, Mirror Force, and Tribe-Infecting Virus to name a few, and add in their place cards like Raigeki Break, Autonomous Action Unit, and Giant Germ. With these draft packs, you wouldn’t have to worry about pulling a card like Basic Insect, nor would your opponent have to worry about you pulling something ridiculous like Snatch Steal or Magic Cylinder. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be any ultra or super rare cards in this set. I think cards like Exiled Force, Trap Hole (and I would expect no less than the Exiled Force vs. Trap Hole scenario to occur at least once per draft ), and Cost-Down are phenomenal draft cards. It would just be a matter of finding cards that are balanced and aren’t instantaneous “everyone needs to play one” cards.

There are some cards that are very powerful but are also borderline additions to a draft set. Cards like Dark Hole and Torrential Tribute are immensely powerful, but with the drawback that you may end up destroying your own monsters in the process. Do those cards make my cut into a draft set? Dark Hole probably would not because it is too easy to use as another Raigeki. Torrential Tribute I am a little more willing to accept since it is most often used defensively, but it's still a nasty card to hit your opponent with. For those of you who are used to running five pieces of spell and trap removal, in my ideal draft packs there would be no Mystical Space Typhoon, no Heavy Storm, and most certainly no Harpie’s Feather Duster. There are absolutely zero drawbacks to running those cards, and that makes them hyper-unbalanced (man, I am on a tear with making up words and phrases today). Spell and trap removal in my draft packs would take form in Swarm of Locusts, Armed Ninja, and Trap Master. Think outside the box, baby!

Obviously what cards make the cut to the draft packs would be subject to great amounts of debate and scrutiny, but that's what the Yu-Gi-Oh! development team is for. I would love to see this format implemented very soon; I would be one of the first people in line to participate in tournaments using it. With a great chance at pulling a card that will work great in your deck, these packs are perfect for people who understand how the card mechanics work and are highly creative deck builders. I am a huge proponent of balanced sets and decks and this format seems like a great way to put everyone playing it on an even field. May the best deckbuilder win.

Modified Constructed

How many times has this happened to you? “Heavy Storm, Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, Monster Reborn, good game.” If that hasn’t happened to you, you probably haven’t played a whole lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! Let me tell you, when that happens to you, that is about as close as you can get to wanting to pick up your deck (or the nearest object) and wing it at your opponent. (I wonder if that's a game loss penalty or a match loss . . .) Not that I would ever condone pummeling your opponent after he or she pulls that stunt, but that scenario does get the old blood a-boilin’. So, how to remedy a situation that has cost duelists tons of games? What about . . . removing the first four sets from play?

Offer Constructed tournaments where only cards printed in Labyrinth of Nightmare and more recent sets are legal. No Raigeki, Heavy Storm, Mirror Force, Delinquent Duo, Imperial Order, Jinzo, or Snatch Steal. Think of all the new decks that would be made—it would be like the Renaissance, only not with art and philosophy, and not in Europe. Hmm, maybe not so much like the Renaissance, but revitalization of Yu-Gi-Oh! Either way, it would be cool. There would certainly still be some very powerful cards from the later sets that would be included in many decks: Breaker the Magical Warrior, Ring of Destruction, Yata-Garasu, Magic Cylinder, and Vampire Lord to name a few. But what this format would do is eliminate the 15–20 cards that are almost automatically put in every deck. About 95 percent of the decks that I see have the following cards in them before they add any other cards:

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Raigeki

1 Dark Hole

1 Change of Heart

1 Snatch Steal

1 Pot of Greed

1 Heavy Storm

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

1 Jinzo

1 Witch of the Black Forest

1 Sangan

1 Monster Reborn

1 Premature Burial

1 Graceful Charity

Those are seventeen cards that are instinctively included in just about every tournament deck that is seeing play now. The modified format would eliminate those cards from play, and duelists would have to find alternate methods of monster, spell, and trap removal; searching; and recursion. Here is just a partial list of cards that could not be played in this format:

Mystical Space Typhoon, Raigeki, Dark Hole, Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, Pot of Greed, Heavy Storm, Call of the Haunted, Mirror Force, Jinzo, Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan, Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, Waboku, Last Will, Card Destruction, Swords of Revealing Light, Tribute to the Doomed, Kuriboh, Solemn Judgment, Magic Jammer, Delinquent Duo, Confiscation, The Forceful Sentry, Spear Cretin, Nimble Momonga, Mystic Tomato, Messenger of Peace, Gravity Bind, Time Seal, Ceasefire, Nobleman of Crossout, Limiter Removal, Goblin Attack Force, Gearfried the Iron Knight, and The Fiend Megacyber.

Did you see a few cards that are seeing Constructed play on that list? I know there are many duelists out there that would have a hard time building decks without many of the cards on that list, but this new format would be a great chance for those duelists to improve their deckbuilding skills. This format would be a low-risk, low-pressure way for people to try out their deck ideas and play with cards that I know they have never considered. A case could be made that Dark Hole, Change of Heart, and other cards could be allowed since they are in various versions of Starter Decks. That seems reasonable, so what about having two types, Type A and Type B, where one includes the Starter Deck cards that people are going be more than happy to play. These two formats would give people slightly more flexibility when designing their decks while letting them fall back on a few staple cards when their creative juices have stopped flowing.

Using these Type A and B formats, duelists would be forced to throw all preconceived notions of deckbuilding out the window and start anew. I think that these formats would help bring new players in as it would level the playing field some and give everyone a chance to really show off their stuff. It's very hard to go to a local tournament with anything but a modified Control–Beatdown deck and win. Sure, there are some great Gravekeeper, Zombie, and Machine decks, but the majority is just cookie-cutter. How cool and fun would it be to go to tournament with your Destiny Board deck (which would be sick in this format) and know you would be competitive? Or your Gradius’ Option deck—come on, how sweet would it be to win with Gradius’ Option?!

Wrap-Up and Challenge

These two variations would be a great chance to show off the variety that Yu-Gi-Oh! has built into it, and I think they would help diversify the current playing environment. People who have been around this game for a few years would like to see new cards introduced and new deck types that can be tournament viable. I would be ecstatic if Destiny Board, Burn, Amazoness, Union, Dark Scorpion Gang, and Guardian decks became tournament viable as opposed to being extremely fun but not quite there decks. I have seen so many incredibly cool decks out there that people are afraid to run in tournaments, and that needs to change. Diversity is the key to success in many walks of life, and to keep the tournament scene alive and healthy, we need a diversity and creativity influx. That transitions nicely into our challenges for this week.

Challenge #1: Figure out a title for this poor writer’s column. If you submit the title that I end up choosing, you will win one of the toys that currently reside on the top of my computer monitor.

Challenge #2: Send in your best Type A (no Starter Deck cards) modified deck. Send in the card list and a short two- to three-sentence explanation behind the theme and strategy of your deck. Winning picks receive randomness from my desk. Send to metagamechallenge@yahoo.com