I Got to Play YU-GI-OH! with NFL Super Bowl Champion Ryan Hunter

I was lucky enough to attend the first day of the Team YCS Las Vegas Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament this past weekend and it was a blast. The biggest surprise came when I found out NFL Super Bowl Champion Ryan Hunter of the Kansas City Chiefs was there. He was kind enough to talk with some of us from the media about the game and he was even up for dueling me. This was crazy. I run a budget Shaddoll deck, so I knew it would be hard to stand up to him, but his SPYRAL Kali Yuga deck demolished me on turn two. It was hard to imagine that he and his team weren’t making it far into the tournament, but when you can’t draw the right cards, it can make your duels a lot harder.

It turns out that like many of us, Hunter’s journey with Yu-Gi-Oh! began when he was younger (between 5-10). He collected the cards and played a little bit with his brother, but then he just left the game. Later, he was cleaning out some of his old stuff during a Christmas break in college and came across his old cards. This sparked a curiosity that led to him getting back into the game and now he spends whatever free time he can (typically in the off-season) fine-tuning his dueling skills.

While he mostly plays at events during the off-season, he does try to get out at least to local tournaments and events during the football season if his schedule permits. He told us that he constantly is doing his best to stay on top of the latest cards and ban-list including a story of when the new ban-list dropped in January and his group messages were blowing up as he was starting practice. He couldn’t actually check the list until after practice, but the whole practice he was wondering what happened and then he saw how crazy that update was.

To get back into the game, Hunter turned to YouTube and started attending local tournaments. When I got to ask him for his advice for new players or returning players he told us that there’s no reason not to join the game. He points to local game stores who typically have people who are more than happy to help out new or returning players. If you are thinking about maybe trying to play Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hunter recommends it and even points out that the idea and concept of the game are simple. You summon monsters to deal damage to your opponent. It’s the players and cards that make it complicated. If you just want to try out the game, find simpler decks that aren’t as combo heavy, but be ready to really do your homework if you want to get really good at the game. He even points to Structure Decks as great ways to enter the game.

Talking about the 3v3 format of Team YCS, Hunter was very positive. He loved the team aspect and how even if one person struggled in a round their teammates could still help carry the team to victory. Hunter’s team’s record was 0-1-3. Oof, that’s a tough break.

Hunter believes that Yu-Gi-Oh! is able to stick around because they appeal to people of all ages. Older players typically played as kids and like to collect old stuff, young adults are able to compete more in the various tournaments, and then kids like the artwork and it’s easy and cheap to get into. Plus, there are now formats like Speed Duels or there’s more accessibility with Duel Links and Link Evolution.

As I already mentioned, Hunter runs a Kali Yuga variant of a SPYRAL deck. When I got to ask him why he chose that particular deck instead of something like the newly favored Invoked Shaddoll, he said he liked the big chain combos that his deck affords him. It’s also a matter of it being very hard for opponents to overcome his deck as Kali Yuga negates effects and can be hard to counter. He spends hours going over deck possibilities in his free time as he tries to find some of the best fits.

Interestingly enough, Hunter isn’t into the digital scene. He knows about Duel Links and said even one of his teammates plays that, but he prefers the physical face-to-face card game. If your curious about how open Hunter is about being a Yu-Gi-Oh! player, he told us that he doesn’t hide it from anyone, but it’s not normally something that he goes around telling people.

Finally, Hunter said that he would be open to being a personality to help promote the game. Dear Konami, take him up on this!