Blogger Interviews: Day 3

Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the next of a series of interviews with some Yuigoh-bloggers around the world.

Today I will be interviewing PJ Tierny, the man we all know as "The Irish Duelist".

You can find his blog at http://theirishduelist.blogspot.com/ .

And now, on with the interview!

Rauzes:
Hi PJ

PJ:
Hey Rau.

Rauzes:
First off, is this your first interview?

PJ:
No, I've been interviewed before. After the 2008 European Championship I was interviewed by 'Czech Cloud' for his website: http://theirishduelist.blogspot.com/2008/09/european-championship-interview.html
I had done fairly well at the event and it was nice to see that get recognized.

Rauzes:
Can you give a brief introduction to yourself, and state some of your Yugioh background
and name a few events you’ve topped

PJ:
Sure. I'm 23, from Limerick in Ireland, and currently studying Sculpture & Combined Media at Limerick School of Art and Design. I started playing YGO casually when it first came over to Europe, but secondary school (Irish version of high school) got in the way. Once I went to LSAD though, I found a local comic shop called The Gathering, and started playing in locals.
My full history is quite long (it's on my blog at the very start), but of note I was ranked #1 in Ireland back when Upper Deck controlled the TCG, finished Top 16 at the UK/Ireland Pharaoh Tour Finals in Manchester, went undefeated Day 1 of Euros 2008, and have done very well on the local scene. I also write articles for Konami's new strategy site, which went online last night.

Rauzes:
Interesting
How much time do you spend playing?
Including the DS/PSP games, if you play those

PJ:
I spend a lot of time around YGO forums, but with college and everything I only get to play at weekends. My locals are every Saturday at The Gathering and I occasionally travel to Cork and Galway for locals if they're on. I don't have a DS/PSP, but I have played some of the World Championship games before.

Rauzes:
Most people find it hard to maintain good technique and playing if they don’t play often
yet you can keep up a high win rate
with little time playing. Cool.

Another thing that contributes to winning is of course, the deck.
What, in your opinion, makes a tier one deck a tier one deck, and not just a tier 2 deck which has its share of combos and synergy?

PJ:
A deck needs the right support; some draw power, a way to search its key cards easily, and that 'x factor' or big combo that can change the game at any time. Lightsworn is the best example of this as they have everything; speed, draw power, boss monsters, protection. Lightsworn is the finest example of how a Tier 1 archetype should be designed.

Rauzes:
Okey. Let’s move onto blogging then

PJ:
It started out as a project for LSAD, but I just feel that I have something to say, and people will usually take notice. Long before I started blogging people knew me online, and always seemed to like what I had to say. I remember Jae Kim saying that my Tournament Reports (which are usually very long and detailed) were the best he's ever seen and a fine example of good YGO writing. The blog has kind of changed somewhat in the past few months. it started out with me writing simple articles on cards and so-on, but that takes up a lot of time. It then moved on to just personal thoughts and so-on, but I felt that it was boring. Now, I just post stuff that I find interesting, or material that I know people want to read, like the recent interview I did with Vincent Ralambomiadana, the recent SJC Champion.

Rauzes:
Okey cool
so you could say that unlike other blogs, which write what they want to say, you write for what people want to hear

PJ:
I think that works better. You've seen from the average Twitter page the people post all sorts of crap like "I went to the shops today". Nobody wants to read that, you're just posting for the sake of it. Blogs are meant to be a form of media like newspapers etc., where people will take the time to read a good article. You can see that that's all I want to really do, since I don't have any Google Ads on my site, even though I could generate a bit of income from it. People like what I write, and the mat designs I post up, along with the things I find elsewhere and post up, so I'm gonna continue down that route.

Rauzes:
Okey.
A lot of bloggers tend to post their new ideas or concepts for decks
and tend to spend some time developing these new concepts
do you spend any time at all developing and discovering new concepts or decks?

PJ:
I don't really have the time these days to do so, so I usually keep my ear to the ground and see what's doing well at events and such. Luckily I've made enough money from trades etc. to build whatever type of deck I want so I have a wide range of options available. However, if there's a big event on the horizon I'll find a deck I like and stick to it for a month or two. I did that with GB for Nats this year and finished 11th, and with LS ever since July. When I'm 'done' with a deck/variant I'll usually write about it, like I did with the LS deck a few weeks ago.

Rauzes:
Oh so you’ve "moved on" from LS?

PJ:
I love playing LS, and it's always there for me if I don't feel safe enough with any other deck. In the past month I've run Dragons, BW and tried out a few other ideas since playing LS for 4 months straight gets boring.

Rauzes:
Playing a single deck gets really boring.
Most other players have around three to four decks, whilst others have upwards ten or so
How many intact decks do you have right now?

PJ:
Outside of moving Synchros and staples like Mirror Force around, I've got 2 decks that I can consider 'complete' right now; Blackwings and Lightsworn. I haven't run BW since RGBT came out in the TCG, so I'm quite rusty with it and trying to make the most use of those Vayus.

Rauzes:
Okey. I guess that kinda answered the next question too, how many decks you own that are "just for fun"

PJ:
My Dragon deck was a fun deck to play with. I got a lot of help from Rich Clarke, who runs nothing but Dragons and has done well with them in big events in the US.

Rauzes:
Just curious, in your opinion, what is the number one reason you still play Yugioh?

PJ:
I'm hooked, simple as. It's a fun game, you get to meet a lot of cool people, and if you know what you're doing it's a hobby you can make some money from.
The only reason I stopped playing the first time was because I didn't know that tournaments existed in Ireland and everybody nearby had stopped too.

Rauzes:
As you know, this interview is part of a series of interviews
is there any particular place you want to be posted in?

PJ:
Like an order? It doesn't really matter to me so long as it's 'out there'. I'll be posting it on my blog anyways, and most likely on Pojo too. DGZ has an interviews section if you want to post it there.

Rauzes:
Final question: What is your favorite card of all time, and why?

PJ:
Brain Control: it wins games!
(props to Stephen Lynam, for the phrase)

Rauzes:
Okey. That’s it for the interview
any closing comments?

PJ:
Everything has been pretty much said already, but if anybody's interested in more, head on over to my blog at http://theirishduelist.blgospot.com You'll also find me modding the Pojo.biz and UkayPro.co.uk forums. Till then, goodbye.

Rauzes:
Okey, well thanks for coming to the interview today.

PJ:
Cheers, any time.

Rauzes:
Ladies and gentlemen, just remember, if you want to ask him anything, just call our operator, and he'll patch us through
Tune in tomorrow to 77.7288FM for an interview with another blogger.
Until next time,
RIDING DUEL! ACCELERATION!
You say it too.
XD

PJ:
RIDING DUEL.......... ACCELERATION!