Thursday 27 June 2019

Hating on Bandwagoners is stupid

Oh boy I'm finally doing this.  I've had some strong opinions to say on some of the most scrubby (extreme casuals that even casual players dislike) parts of the the Vanguard playerbase but never had the motivation to go through with it.  Then I saw this pop up in the Discord that I frequent;

Detonix still Tier 1?  During BT format?  Boy you crazy.

I hate this mentality as I find it to be utterly ridiculous and a sign of how ignorant someone is to the ways of card games.  Who is this guy to determine if someone is a real fan of a deck just because they didn't play it from the beginning and during the times it was the utter shits?  By taking this mentality all these type of people end up doing is coming off as elitist assholes and it only serves to sabotage the growth of the clan in question in the long run.  If anything these "veterans" should be welcoming people into their community but they're too fucking concerned with more people coming in, picking up the deck and either: being better with the deck then they are therefore they're no longer big fish in a small pond (and given that these very people are usually scrubs to begin with that's a real possibility) or causing their cute pet deck that not alot of people play to become popular and as a result they're no longer a special snowflake for playing a rogue strategy that is "unique", "creative" or "takes alot of skill to play" and that "only I know how to play it" (which are all signs of that person again being a scrub as scrubs tend to be the people that spout these often used lines from the Shit Player Bingo Sheet).

With that said let's go into why taking this mentality is so bad.  The big one is that it actively discourages people from picking up what could be a new deck that they could legitimately enjoy because that elitist asshole made them lose interest.  Not everyone will find a deck they like right away.  Granblue for instance is one of the 3 clans that I currently own and enjoy but did I pick up that deck in the beginning?  No.  Oh god no.  Granblue was terrible in the beginning and continued to be bad all the way into G!  I picked up the deck during the Nightrose hype and found that I actually enjoyed what I played and I wasn't alone.  Nightrose and 7cs brought in alot of new players into the Granblue community and a good number of them have stayed since.  In addition to that the people that hopped on the Granblue bandwagon then proceeded to find ways to innovate the deck which in turn led to it becoming the Meta powerhouse that it was from G-BT06 to G-BT11 and its massive presence in the OCG.  Do you think it was the OG "I played Granblue since the very first set and stuck with it ever since and I hate all these new people" players that discovered the Nightrose + Negrolilly + Cannoeer/Ghostie combo that took the deck to another level after G-BT08?  Hell no!  It was the newcomers that were already good players from playing other decks that discovered the combo.

This in turn leads to another thought I've had with the subject and that is this line of thinking is a direct contradition to something else these people will often screech about "why isn't my deck seeing more play!  It's really good!"

Well gee. Maybe it's because you turned away all of the people that had an interest in playing it!?  More people playing a clan at tournaments will improve its chances of topping.  This isn't the fucking anime where the one Megacolony player in the room is going to go on a tear and make their way to the finals of the big Vanguard Cup and defeat the big bad Kagero player that is said to be a top level player that may or may not be best friends (and more) with the Royal Paladin player.  The decks that top and win the most tournaments are often the most played ones.  The last 3 formats in which Bermuda Triangle have been out prove this.

Thus I hope you guys understand why this mentality baffles and frustrates me as these people are coming off as super cringe weebs that may turn away new players that may have actually enjoyed playing something different rather than sticking to their one deck that they may be getting bored of (which I call the Salamangreat effect).  Did I come across as too harsh?  Ehh probably but the people that are likely seeing red right now are the very same scrubs who think being an OG clan player since its first set release and never abandoning it is supposed to give them a fucking medal or something.  Well let me say that as someone who has played a clan since it's release all the way back in 2012 (and I even have a video of me opening Resonance of Thunder Dragon) all the way to now I can tell you that I no I don't have such a medal.  I do have the respect of some people who seem to think my opinions have some merits but that's less of me being a Narukami main and more of a telling it as it is without bullshitting.  I also don't have my head up my own ass when it comes to other people taking interest because I know that they're curious and while not everyone who hops aboard the Narukami hype train/bandwagon are gonna stay I also know that some of them will like how the deck plays and will stick with it.  A good example of this is popular Vanguardtuber DifferentFight who jumped on during G-BT12 and has been a fan of the deck since.

So with that said allow me to wrap this up by saying I as your Veteran Narukami "Guru" welcome any and all would be new players into the fold during this reveal season.  Ignore the assholes who are getting mad at you for hopping on the bandwagon.  You're probably better than them.

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