Importance of the Game Mat?

T

Tkwiget

Da Twiggy Man!
Note: I originally started this discussion on pojo.
Source Link: http://www.pojo.biz/board//threads/363544

With the up coming set of Cyberdark Impact, would the actual field zones in the correct locations need to be visually seen in order to eliminate confusion?

CDIP-JP032
Storm Shooter
Wind/Bird/7/2300/500
Once during your turn, you can choose one of the following effects and activate it.
- Move this to the adjacent unused monster card zone.
- Return an opponent's monster, Magic, or Trap in front of this card to its owner's hand.
Super/Ultimate Rare

CDIP-JP033
Alien Vader
Earth/Reptile/2/800/500
Once during your turn, this card can move to the adjacent unused monster zone. When there's not opponent's
monster, Magic, or Trap card in front of this card, this card can attack opponent directly.

CDIP-JP048
Position Change
Magic - Continuous
The place of a monster on your field can be move to the adjacent unused monster card zone. This effect can
be activate once per turn.

CDIP-JP049
Tripwire
Trap - Normal
This card can be activate when the column this card is set have cards on all of yours and opponent's
field. Destroy all cards in that column.
Rare

There might not be that many of these cards in that set, however, from my experiences at judging at events I'm pretty sure players will ignore this factor and not use game mats. Without the use of game mats increases the chances of cheating to be involved with these cards -- whether they get commonly used or not is beside the point.

Shouldn't it be our job as judges to try and assess this problem before it even begins? Isn't proper game play one of the things we're suppose to educate our players on exercising? I can understand not declaring each of your game phases but if more of these cards are released and players exercise sloppy game play and not use a game mat, cheating is bound to occur.
In official tournaments a game mat of some kind would be necessary to determine how the effect is going to function in specific situations. We already have a card similar to those Cyberdark Impact cards already: Needle Wall.

Needle Wall said:
During your Standby Phase, roll a six-sided die once. Treat your opponent's Monster Card Zones as #'s 1-5, counting from your right. Destroy the monster that is in the same Monster Card Zone as the die result. If the result is 6, roll again.
Click to expand...

On top of all of this, it makes cards like Ground Collapse more complex when thrown into certain situations with these specific type of cards.

Ground Collapse said:
Select 2 Monster Card Zones on the field. Neither player can use the selected zones. You cannot select a zone that is occupied by a Monster Card.
Click to expand...

I agree that neither UDE or Konami can mandate the mandatory use of game mats in this game for unofficial tournaments. I'm feeling that because of this we, the judges, need to step up (even some of the players) and encourage players to use game mats in order to determine the location cards have on the field for these specific effects.

I'm wondering what you guys think about this potential problem and if any of you have a viable solution to eliminate something like this from getting out of hand.
 
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I get this all the time (especially with equip cards, or Call being played, then shifted when a position right under the card becomes available) and I have always tired to call people on it (you are not supposed to reposition the card once it is played). I've also often been chided for it. But now we must insist on it (only wish it had from the beginning, because there will be a lot of unlearning of bad habits now). I, personally have about seven (so far) paper mats that I will be bringing for those who have "difficulty" keeping their cards in one place. It will be interesting to see how my head judge wants to do it this Saturday **cough...Simon?...cough**
 
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If I had my druthers all players would use a playmat with the field marked. When we started running tournaments locally it was mandatory and was for about 3 years. This trained people to put things in proper locations to begin with.

Just about everyone has a half dozen paper mats, even beginning players usually have a couple. We used to ask people to donate their extras and just kept them in a box and put them out on the tables.

Basic field set-up is part of the game. It's not so difficult at a local tournament of 30 or less but when you get to a regional / SJC / nationals, etc. it's a time waster for judges to walk by and have to stop constantly and assess the field to figure out what is even going on....which only cheats players of when they really need judges and judges spending their time trying to insure fair play.

It's not too much to ask of players to carry a playmat and use it.
 
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I know what you mean John. However, some of the arguments in that pojo thread I made about this has me believing players aren't going to "get it" until they start getting unnecessary penalties like Game Losses for something that's easily preventable. It's easier just to make using play mats mandatory for players to use. Those play mats aren't just to eliminate confusion between players, but it also helps judges they call on make more speedy and accurate rulings in general.

When multiple cards get released that specifically functioned based on position location on the field, then we need a visual representation of the field during game play. The visual aid simply reduces confusion for these type of effects down to game mechanics. No judge that I've met likes dealing with "he said/she said" scenarios during an official tournament when players have limited time to finish their games.

I, for one, am going to emphasis more on the use of game mats that have the field zone layout for the game. Whether it be a paper play mat, regional, judge, or custom play mat, I would encourage the use of one with the field zone layout over all others.
 
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I have to admit, Im guilty of that all up and down. I dont even own a paper playmat anymore. I got rid off all those things along with the old rulebooks, once I started getting a mental grasp of the game. I suppose if I could get a nicer, padded playmat, I might be encouraged to use it. But the paper ones just were an inconvenience for some reason.

Still that's no excuse. If the playmats were required, sure, I would use it. And these new effects do kind of make it a point, don't they?
 
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You can a get a brand new paper mat in the Dino Structure. ;) My son got one Sunday w/ FHD in it. Unfortunately, he cheesed off Mom and she is holding it as punishment. She let me see it, though. :D
 
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Lol, I seem to have a couple dozen of the paper play mats for some reason. Don't even know how I got them all cause I didn't buy that many of the Starter deck dealies..
 
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Yikes, DJ. My wife is getting pretty irate that YGO seems to have almost entirely taken over a bookcase in our house. It is bad enough with all the cards, many rulebook versions, placemats (my son loves the Zombie Structure mat), sleeves, deck boxes, tins, etc, etc, etc.....

But I never have to worry about having a mat handy....

Note to self: Clean bookshelves before wife just chucks everything. :p


Hey, DJ! I think the girl in your sig just winked at me! :D
 
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I made it very clear to my wife when we first met, that my collection was not an optional inclusion in any matrimonial deals. I'm a collector. That's what I do. Too many of my friends who'd all married before me, all got rid of their entire collections (which were minuscule compared to one corner of my bedroom) after they got hitched. I could see the light slowly dying their eyes.

I don't mind packaging my stuff up to make room for my daughter's stuff. But get rid of it? <Joker laugh>
 
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I didn't start until my son picked up YGO in August of last year. We have made up ground since then, but need a better place to store the stuff. She puts up with my hobbies so I can't complain too much, especially since I am also big into fantasy sports (baseball and football, particularly)


My wife likes to say she has 3 boys at home. I am not sure what she means because we only have 2 sons. :p
 
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The problem with the regular Konami Playmats are, they're cheesey, and with constant use, because they are paper, they aren't going to last long, so unless UDE is prepared to pass them out instead of passing out the Official Konami "Count your life points" Pad, then it won't be used, will never be mandatory, and even I wouldnt enforce its use until it was given out in the manner I described above.

Not everyone can Top 8 to get the fancier ones, or even have the desire to go out and buy the material to have one made. I have a few of the nice ones, but it's one thing I'd rather not have to keep up with at a Tournament. I prefer to just lug around my Deck Box and keep it simple.

Having to worry about a Playmat is just not a priority, especially since the game has pretty much made it unnecessary to use. Even without the playmats, there should only need to be an announcement that all cards placed on the "imaginary field" will be placed either from Left to right, or, right to left from your Deck, as a standard. If someone is going to move cards they will move them regardless of a Playmat Zone. That is going to be the hardest thing to enforce, and will be the result of many game warnings as well as game losses, from opponents calling Judges to the Table for "card shifting" side to side, rather than a actual manipulation of the card on the field.

This set is going to be a headache.
 
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to me, the polypropolyene mats are nice because of the protection they help provide against sticky tables, dirt, ect. A paper one is inefficient for that.

But I agree that this set will cause potential headaches. Dealing with zone shifting is a he said/she said kind of thing. Its one person's word vs another. Judges are going to have to keep a sharp eye out for people with a pattern, who are trying to abuse the mechanic either denying they shifted, or lying to try and shark someone.
 
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You know, VS has used adjacency sine the beginning, and even more so with introduction of the Leader ability starting with Avengers (where characters adjacent to other characters gain bonuses/abilities). And so far, there not been a problem with it. There's not even a zone for cards, even though adjacency is so crucial. Then again, VS doesn't have as many kids and odd fellows playing the game as we do. Time will tell on this one. I can see it going either way. I think it will be entirely dependant on the popularity of cards that utilize this function.
 
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