The Tech Card

Oh where oh where could it be! Hey guys as the title implies I am going to have a discussion on the tech card, on to it!

The tech card has been a fundamental part of this game since the game began. It allowed you to make a deck that was highly played your own. In goat control format games were often won by the players tech card and who chose the better tech card. This trend continued all throughout the game's history. Perfect Circle(oh how I love that deck!) and etc. Gradually however cards were beginning to become so powerful that no "special tech" was needed instead the combos of the said deck were already so powerful that the tech was most likely going to get in the way. Imo tele-dad was the bane of the tech card. The deck was already so powerful and the complete and utter terrifying things it could pull off were something of a card game nightmare, it was not uncommon to be top 32 at a regional and look down at the other tables and see everyone playing the exact same deck. There was no reason not to play the deck(unless you couldn't afford it!) it was the absolute best deck of the format.

Tele-dad deck lists had very little if any variance at all in the deck. Like I said before there was no point in running a card that could just get in the way. I am not here to give you a history lesson though what I am here to tell you is this: the tech card is largely dead. Fast forward to today's meta where you have BLS, Hyperion and other ridiculous over powered cards(tengu, tour guide, the list goes on). Decks that special summon all the time, ridiculous effects that must be stopped, combine all of this and you have a ton of threats to deal with. In order to combat the rampant special summons you main Maxx C and in order to stop the over powered effects you run effect veiler. You want some more protection against all of these threats so you main bottomless and d-prsion. Then of course you add in the meat of your deck: the staples and the monsters. You now have a complete deck! But wait where are the tech cards? Gone you say! Yes unfortnatley that is what our game state is. With all of the overpowered cards you have to compensate for them and then some. Also when you have tour guide that can make ridiculous XYZ's and sangan can search out your combo pieces what is the point of running a now considered sub par card?

My point is this: Back when tele-dad was around people stopped playing techs because the cards were just so good, now days people stop playing techs because the cards are overpowered and you don't need a card that can be situational when you have a easy out and because with all of the stuff you must deal with, you must also have a answer for all of the situations you face. Sure the new definition of a tech card seems to be oh I teched in a D-prision or I teched in a effect veiler. Sorry to say but it is not teching when 80% of top tier decks play those cards. With all of the space that is consumed with staples(that tearm is very broad now and reaches across the board) there si no room for inovation. Konami is suffocating us and we all know it. Of course this all stems from the fact that they print over powered cards but that is for another time.

The >tier 1 decks have been hit especially hard by this troubling trend. Since they don't have the speed and power of a tier 1 deck they must make up for that by compensating with even more preventive cards like Maxx C , veiler, and/or more traps. The place where tech cards used to find solace is now a palce where they are non existent. Creativity and skill play go hand in hand. You used to have to playtest for days on end with different tech cards to see which ones were the best across the board. Now when you palytest you focus more on deck speed and strength and synergy than anything else. Maybe this is why Magic is so appealing( not saying I like the game of magic, just trying to prove a point) since you can add a card in the right deck and have it work(sorry if I sound like a magic moron, I don't know anything about the game!)

The one thing that I want you to realize from this post is that the tech card has fundamentally changed to the point of how many copies should I run instead of should I tech in 1 copy of this card. The former is not a true tech card which could explain why yugioh as a whole has seen better days.

Thanks for reading!
-Cameron