When I turned 18, there was a casino about 2 hours away on a reservation that I could get into. We'd get paid on Friday night, head to the gas station near us that would cash a paycheck, pile into my crappy little Ford, then make the drive. We'd get there a little before midnight and everyone had their own game.
The second time we went, one of my friends was hypnotized by the craps table. There were 16 players standing around this sea of green, and every minute or so, you could hear them screaming at the top of their lungs like they just won a million dollars. On the way home that night, I taught him everything I learned from books I'd read about the different bets. "Smart" bets where the house edge was only 1.4%, all the way down to the risky ones where the house edge was over 10% (meaning that for every $100 wagered, you should expect to lose $10).
The next time we went, we hung around the table, trying to figure out the right way to bet. It seemed a little complicated, so we tried other games. At the end of the night, I had the last $10 and he asked if he could borrow it to go place a bet. I handed it over, then went to the bathroom in preparation for the ride home. When I finally found him again, he had a stack of chips in front of him. He had been gone for about 5 minutes and already turned $10 into a few hundred. Well, if you can turn 10 into 100, you can turn 100 into 1,000 just as easily. We left empty handed that night, but I'll never forget the rush.
I loved blackjack. I learned how to play at an early age from my uncle, who would always cheat and take my money. He'd say "I just taught you a very valuable lesson." He actually taught me two: 1) if you play against a casino, you may have a good night and win thousands of dollars, but if you keep going back, you'll eventually have nothing left. 2) My uncle was a scumbag who continually cheated and took my money, then told the family I was a poor sport and they couldn't understand why I hated doing anything with him. One of my earliest memories at the casino was running $100 at the blackjack table into $3000, which is more than I made in a month of bussing tables. I went home, paid my rent and blew the rest on useless things I can't even remember.
What does any of this have to do with $GME? Well I'm still chasing the same high as I was when I was 18. I don't go to the casino anymore, but I've got something even better on my computer. I bought $2k worth of weeklies on Jan 25. Before everything crashed, they were worth over $100k, more than enough to fix most of the problems I've caused in my life. BUT, I was still standing around that craps table. The roller had just made his 30th point in a row, $GME was on fire and couldn't possibly roll a 7! I put my 2k back in my pocket and shoved the rest on the pass line. A few minutes later, the croupier inevitably yells "7 out!" and just like that, I'm back to nothing.
Now I do what every moron around the table does. You reach back into your pocket, pull out the 2k and make a deal with your maker. "Just let it happen one more time. I won't be greedy THIS time and I'll stop when I hit 50k." I stop looking at the smart bets and start eyeing the center of the table, where hard ways are paying 10:1. Yeah, that'll be how I get back to 50k. A couple of those in a row and I can put a down payment on a house. 5 minutes later, I'm on my way out to the car and I feel like I've been punched in the gut. Again.
Every one of you in this subreddit is another person sitting at the casino. Everyone has their game. The people holding $GME stonks right now? You're playing baccarat. If you've never heard of it, it's what James Bond plays in the old movies. It's about the most boring thing you can do. Two hands are dealt and you're betting on which one wins before anything happens. There's no actual skill and it's the same thing as betting heads or tails, while losing 1% of your bet every time.
The people who cashed out and picked something else like $AMC or $BB? Those are the slot players. You had a big hit and now you're going to switch machines because the other ones are "due". You're looking for the exact same magic, thinking there was something smart in your play, when it was really just dumb luck in timing.
The people saying "If Daddy Elon or Cowboy Cuban gets in, we can trigger a squeeze!" You're the guy who spent too much money in the first 20 minutes of the trip and now you're begging everyone else for a loan.
Tldr: Nothing is happening with $GME. Stop saying "tomorrow is the day." Billionaires are not coming to bail you out. If institutional investors come in, they're waiting for this constant downhill slide to end at where the stock belongs, probably around $20. You can't trigger shit by holding. The HFs will outlast you.
Edit: Screenshots from the worst 40 minutes of my financial life https://imgur.com/a/MlTRJmx
Edit 2: JFC, some of you are takin WSB way too seriously. You should not be using reddit for DD. Also, this is not financial advice. Don't take financial advice from someone who tells you stories about chasing highs at casinos.
Edit 3: This is WSB, my dudes. I'm glad most of you were entertained by my story. For the few of you who got that worked up by a random stranger on the internet telling you that he's a degenerate, you may actually have a problem. https://www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment/

Update Thank you for all the comments below. I've tried to include as many tips and fail safes you have mentioned, in this post. I do recommend people read the comments as I may have missed some.
Firstly, thank you to this excellent community my PC is now built and working (pics to come in another post). I thought here are some lessons I learnt in building the PC, researching and other bits I thought would be worth sharing, as a lot of this I never had even heard about. Some will be obvious and others less so. I should note, that I'm not a pro or someone who does this regularly, just someone who spent a while reading around, so feel free to correct/highlight any mistakes, and I'll try to update the post. The descriptions, aren't really meant to be a full lesson about each part and will be lacking a lot of detail, but are more a jumping board for further reading if anyone is interested. For full information on building a PC I highly recommend looking around on YouTube and other sources.
If I get anything wrong, please correct me and I'll update.
On Monitors:

1. If you are after 144Hz 1440p gaming, use a Display Port (DP) cable, not a HDMI, if you can. As you could be hampering your refresh rate, (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/features/displayport-vs-hdmi-better-for-gaming) Update Although you could be fine if you are using HDMI 2.1, see link for more details
2. Freesync vs Gsync. For simplicity, both these technologies aim to match performance on screen with your GPU. Freesync works with Radeon, GSync with NVidia (although some Freesync monitors will be GSync compatible, likewise for the otherway around). It's complicated and due to changes in the standards over the years it can vary from monitor to monitor. Make sure to do research on the specific monitor you're wanting to get/have. If you are buying a new monitor keep this in mind. https://www.viewsonic.com/library/entertainment/g-sync-vs-free-sync-explained UpdateAccording to comments freesync monitors will almost always work with Nvidia. As always, do read around about it.
3. Windows by default is set to have a refresh rate of 60Hz, if you have a higher spec monitor you can change this to match your monitor in "Advanced Display settings".

RAM (All except point 1 was completely new to me)

1. 2 Sticks of 8GB Ram will perform better than 1 stick of 16GB Ram (https://techguided.com/single-channel-vs-dual-channel-vs-quad-channel/). Also when installing them, put them in the correct channels, check your Motherboard for details.
2. Your motherboard will prefer your dual channel RAM to be in specific slots. I had an issue where I couldn't get the maximum performance of my RAM which I had placed in slots 1 and 3, but the moment I put them in 2 and 4 it worked perfectly. Check your motherboard manual.
3. Enable XMP in Bios (This might also be called DOCP or A-XMP). This will vary between motherboards, but if you don't your 3200MHz ram is likely running a lot slower. In my build, XMP wouldn't work till I put the RAM in the correct channels, hope this saves someone the hours I spent finding this out ;) Update You can use Task manager to verify you have done this correctly. 3b. Someone pointed this out XMP may void your CPU's processor (https://community.amd.com/t5/processors/xmp-profile-ram-3200-mhz-and-amd-warranty-policy-for-ryzen/td-p/145798) (https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/XMP-Warranty-void/td-p/1196241). If anyone knows any more, please message me directly so I can add the details. This was mentioned by someone in the comments and I would rather pass the information and ask you to do your own checking as well.
4. When picking RAM, frequency matters, but so does CAS Latency. You want high frequency but low CAS (CL) latency. I'd recommend doing more reading about it, if you want to know more I'd recommend doing some more reading, but the "true latency" can be calculated as TL = CL * 2000/Freq. E.g. CL 18 3600Mhz Ram has a TL of 10ns. Update Someone who actually knows what they are talking about found point (4) confusing if not perhaps misguided and I recommend you read their post here (https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/kis9r5/lessons_i_learnt_the_longhard_way_so_you_dont/ggtdudd?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
5. Ensure the speed of the RAM is compatible with the board you are looking to purchase (or visa versa).
6. Motherboards will have Qualified Vendor Lists, listing RAM they have tested and certified to work. This may be worth looking at. Just because your RAM isn't on the list doesn't mean it won't work, or won't overclock, it just means it hasn't been certified to, so do take this into consideration. (I found this in my build, while it was from Crucial and some Crucial RAM was on the QVL, mine wasn't. Thankfully it was fine.)

Motherboards

1. Newer processors (e.g. at time of writing many AMD motherboards require a bios update for the 5000 series AMD CPU) may require you to install a new BIOS before they can be detected. Not all motherboards can have their bios updated without a CPU installed. When shopping for your motherboard looking to see if it does USB Bios flashback should be considered. This was completely new to me and glad I learnt it in time.*Addition* Newer motherboards don't require bios updates and so won't need this feature, though you will have to check.
2. Different mother boards are compatible with different CPUs, pick your CPU first
3. CPU coolers may need different mountings depending on the CPU. When picking your cooler keep this in mind, you may need to ensure there is an adaptor. Additions from the comments
4. Not all mother boards have connectors for front IO USB-C. If this is important to you and part of your case, it's worth looking into.
5. Using an M.2 usually disables some of your SATA ports. If you are planning on using all your SATA ports, make sure to check to see if this happens and how it happens on your chosen mother board.
6. Some motherboards are built with Debug LEDs now that will help you diagnose problems.
7. If you are after RGB effects, ensure your motherboard is compatible with the effects you want to add. There are 5V and 12V headers, so make sure they match. I'd recommend looking into this more yourself, as I've likely vastly oversimplified. (https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?110272-What-do-5v-and-12v-RGB-cables-look-like-you-ask#:%7E:text=You%20can%20also%20see%20the,as%20shown%20on%20these%20photos)

CPU

1. Some CPU's have integrated graphics. If you don't want to buy a dedicated graphics card, you need to purchase one of these CPU's. You then plug your monitor into the motherboard.
2. CPU's have a Thermal Design Power, if you are not using the stock cooler read up on it (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/tdp-thermal-design-power-definition,5764.html)

Component compatibility

1. Make sure all your components are compatible. PC Part Picker (https://pcpartpicker.com/) is generally pretty good at this. If uncertain, this is a wonderful community to ask.

Power supply

1. PC Part Picker gives you a good idea as to how much power your system will need, if not check the graphics card you intend to buy. Not all machines need a 1000W behemoth. Picking the right one will save you money
2. Power supplies come with a rating standard e.g. Bronze+ etc..., this is basically their efficiency. (https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/what-80-plus-levels-mean,36721.html). I think it's safe to suggest people should at least go for Bronze.
3. Make sure your PSU fits in your case. I bought an ATX PSU, then decided on the 011 Dynamic Mini case, only realise it needed a SFX (smaller) PSU. I ended up going for a different case. Likewise an SFX PSU may not have the cable length you need or fit as snuggly in an ATX case (source: comments section)
4. Look into the build quality of the PSU. A faulty PSU can cause serious issues down the line, so it is worth taking time look at PSU Tier lists and review. (Link provided by several commenters https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/)

Tools (OP Note: I've only tried Ninite)

1. Ninite (https://ninite.com/) Is an easy way to download all the basic programs one tends to install onto a fresh Windows install, without having to go to 10-15 websites. E.g. you can select to install Chrome, Zoom, Steam, OpenOffice all from one installer. If you keep the install, it can also be re-run to update all the software in one swoop.
2. Patch My PC (https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/patch_my_pc.html) Patches software on your PC (Thank you to the sys admin in the comments for this.)
3. Chocolatey (https://chocolatey.org/) A powerful command line way to install and upgrade software.

Storage

1. M2 drives can be SATA or NVMe, NVMe is faster. (M2 drives are generally plugged directly into the mother board, for anyone who until recently was using a hard disk drive and considered SSDs "fancy")
2. I highly recommend reading this comment (https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/kis9r5/lessons_i_learnt_the_longhard_way_so_you_dont/ggtn00w/?context=3) as it contains stuff I was unaware of.

Case

1. If your case has bottom intake or exhaust vents, don't put it directly on carpet, as it can block the air flow. (Yup....I did need to be told this ^_^, my previous computer just didn't have any bottom intake, hell it hardly had any intake).
2. Make sure your mother board, PSU, GPU and all your components fit in the case. This is particularly worth noting if you are going for a micro ATX or a ITX case. Worth noting is to remember to include fans + GPU length, any additional length caused by radiators (if you water cool), the size of your CPU cooler (if you air cool) Additions from the comments
3. When considering your case, if you are water cooling, "Room for 2x 140mm fans does not always mean room for a radiator as well". Make sure to double check the clearance. Measure twice buy once.

Advice on building (Notes and horror stories from the comments) 1. Many new coolers come with pre-applied thermal paste. If yours doesn't don't forget to apply it, to the CPU (See videos by people with more experience/knowledge than me on what to do). 2. Remember your mother board I/O shield (advice from the comments about making sure to put it in before you install the motherboard, mine came with it attached). 3. Make sure the CPU is correctly installed before you clasp it down. 4. If your motherboard has two slots to install a GPU. One of them (normally the top) will provide better performance. Make sure to use the correct one. 5. Make sure your CPU cooler doesn't block a RAM slot. In making my PC the AMD wraith has a notch on one side with the AMD logo, thankfully I put the RAM in first, so I swiftly learnt that I had to rotate the cooler 180 degrees to get it to fit. 6. If you can avoid it, do not build your computer on carpet (and do not stand on carpet when building) and be aware of static when building. If this is your first build, do some reading around this. Wear a static bracelet and attach it to something grounded. 7. Remember if you have a dedicated graphics card. Plug your monitor into the graphics card, not the motherboard. 8. If you are installing fans, make sure they are in the correct direction. 9. When playing the radiator of your AIO (if you are using one) make sure part of it is higher than the pump (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGomv195sk) 10. It's often worth the time to read the motherboard manual. 11. This may sound silly, but cables and the sockets on the PSU are often labelled. Be aware of this, it will help you in the build.
More subjective advice

1. I've been recommend by numerous people to go for Gold+ PSUs, with often being stated that while its more efficient, it will also be better made. Your budget may dictate otherwise. If you look through the comments you will frequently find the advice "don't cheap out on the PSU and go for at least Gold"
2. For most users if your CPU comes with a stock cooler. It will be good enough. You can always change it later. If your planning to overclock, you likely know more than me, so feel free to ignore. Update According to the comments, AMD stock coolers tend to be considered good enough, Intel, not so much.
3. A LOT of people below have said "Do not mix cables from different PSU manufacturers." as they are not universal. I don't know anything about this, so do some additional reading if you are considering doing so. Update From further comments this is something to take serious. Update from further comments, the word of advice is "Do your research before using cables not supplied with the PSU you are using."

Further notes from the comments: Below are points I've read in the comments that might be worth drawing to people attention. Please read around the topic if it applies to you. 1. One person has said XMP causes their Oculus Rift to do weird things.
Hope this helps some people. Addition I recommend reading the comments, as many people have put in their own tips/horror stories ;)
Take care all and Merry Christmas.

Firstly, just wanted to say that the 400 hours is me restarting the game...four times over? I've also not been following this game, I knew it was coming out but I put at the back of my mind, never gave into the hype and only bought the game when a guy from work was talking about it.
Gameplay TL;DR:
Game is broken. By level 50, enemies either did 1 damage or buffed me to do more damage. Some of the guns are insanely fun but break the game. It's fun, but if you want a challenging experience wait till some good addons come out.
Story TL;DR
Main story is quite short, it's not effected by any side quests you just get different endings that you can choose, one ending feels more finalised but open to a sequel/DLC the others either just end (which is intented) or just end on a "To be continued."
Romance quests are very good but the romance is just do quest, sleep with them, end of romance, apart from one character.
Some of the side quests are VERY VERY good however and the overall theme of Cyberpunk is in my opinion, excellent, it's just let down by the main plot.
Bugs/Glitches TL;DR:
No crash to desktop, main problems were only for those strange people like myself who play non lethal but some of the endings are bugged, one of the end cut-scenes is bugged.
Overall TL;DR:
I think if you really really want to play this game, play it. I had a lot of fun and got my moneys worth, though I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm not dissapointed with the end product. If you're on the fence and you're reading this to see if it's worth £40-50 then I would say don't get the game, wait till next year when the modding scene has expanded more and all the DLC has come out, get it on a sale.
When the ending cutscene is bugged and after what...3-4 patches and the lead dev has said how proud he is of the PC version, I would say that it's best to hold off.
​
Gameplay:
I played purely on Very Hard and tried a no kill playthrough which...I couldn't do all the way due to certain sections of the game but for majority of the game I didn't kill anyone. What I liked about the game is that it didn't say "Oh well, you best get used to the taser weapon or the stun gun, because that's all you get!" like so many other FPS RPGs that offer that, I was using shotguns, sniperrifles, assault rifles, SMGs...anything, really. That's good!
My build:
https://nukesdragons.com/cyberpunk-2077/character?v=1&a=if4ig&s=iiifff44iigg&p=h42h83hd1hg2hh1u11u41ua3uh1b13b32b42b72b83b93bc1bd2be2bf2a01a41a62a81a91ab3ah1ai2aj1ak1al2w01w11w31w63w72wa3wb2wc2n01n21n43n73n82na1nc2nf1nh2s51sc1sk1c01c11c42c61c72c82c93ca2cb1cc1cf2r32e62eb2eh2ei1 If/When I replay, it will either be:
https://nukesdragons.com/cyberpunk-2077/character?v=1&a=a9kck&s=111999kkcckk&p=p02p11p21p32p42p51p61p72p81p91pj1pa1pb1pc2pd2pe2pf2pg2ph1pi1q01q12q23q41q51q63q71q81q93qa3qb3qd2qe1qf3qi1aa1ab3af3s31sa1sb1se2sf1si2sj1c01c11c32c51c61c82c93cb1cc1cf2cg2ch1ci1eh2
I did make my gear and I put all epic armour increasing mods into the slots, then with my weapons all epic crit chance or if they had 100% crit by default, Crit damage. I used Qiant Sandevistan which would slow down time and lowered the CD on it so I could use it every 19 seconds.
To put this into perspective of how this was at level 50, the most damage done to me was the end boss and it was about...20-30 damage, other than that, everything was 1 damage. With Katana and Cold Blood I had about 14-15k armour, with just the Katana it was about 6k and with any other gun it was 5k armour. I got this by upgrading everything to as far as the game would allow which when you hit 50 is just one extra upgrade. My health thanks to the consumable perk and health perk was about 850 to 1k with all consumables. My Cyberware made me immune to bleeding, my perk made me immune to poision, if I took shock damage my armour would increase by 10% and I would take no damage and fire would increase my damage by 10%.
So...I took 1 damage with a 800+ health pool, I could kill everything very easily dealing about 24k damage on some enemies and I could slow down time and kill everything before they could even react. This is on VERY HARD.
"Why complain about it being broken if you broke it?"
Because I was told that the secret ending was very difficult and I was also told, by the game, that in very hard, you have to use EVERYTHING to survive. The problem is the game devs...for some reason...lets you out level all the mobs in the game, at level 50 the only "yellow" enemies were two mechs on the secret ending and the end boss, all of which died super quick anyway because the damage is broken.
The other problems I had and the other reason I hit 50 was I was told "Do the sidequests, they effect the ending." and with the Cyberpsycho being all about keeping them alive, I thought "There's gotta be a moment where she comes in and helps me or someone out." But...nope, you don't get anything other than money. Nothing happened when I did all the police side quests, nothing happened when I did all the races, the only quests that did matter were two side quest chains, Panam and Johnny...maybe the boxing ones.
"But you get tons of cash!"
If you go down the hacker route, it's kinda pointless because you get all your hacks via crafting or random drops from terminals.
"Ah! But you went guns blazing, all guns, must've cost a ton to get all your armour up, weapons and ammo!"
Afraid not. Once you get the epic grenade blueprints you can make your set for a lot of your upgrades, you just buy cans of soda from vending machines and take them apart which doesn't cost that much anyway. The legendaries are a bit difficult, granted and that's why I said the boxing quest chain is actually very useful if you want to play a non hacker route.
Outside of upgrades once you get any weapon mod and the perk that grants a 20% chance to get an extra item when you make gear, you're set as they all use the materials you get from soda cans or random junk items.
General view
I suppose when it's all said and done, I can't say I didn't enjoy the gameplay. I played 400 hours of it. It is to easy and if I wanted to do a "All guns blazing" build again, maybe just stick to epic gear. If we get a new game plus or some difficulty mods that would be perfect, something like enemies using tech weapons more to shoot through walls, more smart weapons hitting you behind cover, more netrunners hacking you all the time and having them stun/blind you or something, just anything other than setting you on fire...a cyberware mod makes them buff you for crying out loud.
One of the main reasons I went the gunner route was because I saw so many great guns I thought, at the time, I couldn't use so...I will say that with my build, all the guns I had, it was a lot of fun, I really really enjoyed it...it's just far far to easy, I wanted something to say "Ok, you think you got this, let's put it to the test!"
Story:
I didn't really know all that much about Cyberpunk coming in, I love Bladerunner and Ghost in the shell, distopian stories where it has a message and hopefully a nice ending.
Cyberpunks story was good, there are some side quests that I will remember, I won't say which ones but I will say that if you like story, it's good to pick them up. There aren't that many of them, a lot of side quest will be just "Kill the dude. Steal the thing. Hack the thing." with a text being sent to you on why you should care, most of the time I didn't really care all that much but those that did offer something a bit more, did make me pause and think about it, even think about them as I walked away from the game on what was the "best" option.
The romances are...ok. There is certainly more effort in Panam than the others, who, do have their own quest lines and they're the best quest lines in the game but Panam, as a romance story line does seem more fleshed out. The others are sadly very much a "Do my quests, then do me, ok see you at the end of the game!" Panam fights alongside you, you both go on a big character journey together and the fact she joins you in one of the best endings says a lot. A bit dissapointing for me, as I liked Judy and one of her endings was very nice but when I saw what Panam got...argh, was frustrating.
The main plot itself is unfinished. If you can be bothered (like I was) do all the side quests, everything, then do the main plot. Not only will you find that during your time the main plot is very short only about...10-15 quests? Of which none of the side quests you can do effect them, at all, no dialogue options that I could see, none of them alter the story a bit...nothing. The endings aren't effected by sidequests either, you get extra endings, two if you do two side quests but that's it.
I won't spoil what the endings contain, but I will say, for the sake of saving your time if you're reading this before doing them, that the secret ending is pointless and lazy. It's basically one of the endings but they removed the NPC's from the ending and just spawn some mechs, then after that you get the same boss fight you would get regardless of the ending and then you get a rehashed ending of another ending and an epilogue from another ending. Basically they just took apart the endings and stuck them together to get the "Secret" ending, you get about...a few bits of dialogue from a character but...it's not that great honestly.
The biggest problem is this is a "The ending will be in the DLC!" kinda game, where, even the main character points out how pointless the whole thing was. I HATE these kind of endings, the only saving grace is that...I HOPE, this is going to be in the free DLC they're doing this year.
Glitches and Bugs:
At this point in time, I came across TONS of bugs. Nothing that crashed me to desktop par once (which is a deal breaker for me if it happens to many times) the only issue I did come across was playing non lethal, where, if you grab a enemy and drop them during stealth...for some reason, they are more prone to glitching and exploding in a bloody mess. If you stand and drop them, make sure the ground is as flat as it can be, you might, MIGHT be ok. The other thing to do is enemies would show the death animation (no breathing) BUT if you pick them up, drop them, turn around, sometimes the animation will change to show they're still alive. If you hit them whilst they're on the ground, even if it's a stungrenade touching them, yes, touching, not exploding, you throw a grenade at them and it bounces off of them, they die.
Cars would smash into concrete, textures would take ages to load, sound would be to loud from time to time, some dialogue had the tech distorted effect some didn't, Tech guns randomly not charging up to shoot...all of which I could ignore as they either didn't effect me to much, I could fix by saving the game and reloading or were just funny.
When the endings are bugged, that to me is very different and that's what made me go from "This is one of the best games I've played!" to "They just stop caring."
So during the "Bad" ending, dialogue wouldn't play I just saw text, I had to reload a save to make it work. On the "Good" ending, during a quest I was told to drive a vehicle and then park it in a tent, the only problem is I couldn't do it because an invisible wall was blocking it and I would just flip over, I couldn't get out to continue the quest or fail it, but luckily you can skip it. Then on the "Good" ending, on the very last cutscene I drove into the sunset...literally into the sunset as the Vehicle was driving on the skybox.
When you haven't even tested the ending, worse, you say "We're proud of our PC version!" it's such a slap in the face, yes, I'm sure these will be fixed...I hope, but I don't want games in the future to be like this, I want a finished game, certainly if you're asking £40 for it. The free DLC better be something decent and not "Paint your car!" but either way, the damage has been done and it's a real real shame. This game deserved to be polished, it has so much potential and there's so much to like here it's just sad to see it be this...messy and uncared for.
Overall:
400 hours of gameplay, do I regret it? ...No? I mean, I've come away disappointed because of how bad some of the flaws are, more so with the lead dev saying how proud he is of the PC version but...I would be lying if I didn't say that if they brought out new game plus, there was some mods that made the game a lot harder...I wouldn't go back.
I will play Male V romancing Panam as I have a very strong feeling that's the "intended" storyline and though my choices won't matter in the end, there would be some things I would do differently. I did enjoy my playthrough, I like Judy as a character I just wished I could do more, like...something as simple as hang out on her couch and watch TV with her would've been fine, doesn't have to be grand and epic, just simple character interactions...which you get through quests with Panam.
Could I recommend this game to others though? Not really...If the glitches and bugs was just the odd here and there, ok, fine, it's an open world game with amazing graphics, sure, you will get some problems..but when your endings are bugged? Nah, it's not acceptable.
Maybe some people can look past it, I would like to but I just feel...like a chump. Here's hoping it gets better, they did say they were working on it more and didn't find it acceptable but...not sure if that's just console, we'll see.

Note: Many of the links are to the Amity Arena Library, a website devoted to the game which includes tracking the history of it through patchnotes and a running history of what cards entered and left the meta. Their website was a valuable resource for this post.

Mobile gaming has taken off like a wildfire since the advent of the smartphone boosted the average processing power a phone could carry. Initially it took the form of crossing over older, more easily runnable games onto the mobile market to... mixed success, but in recent years we've seen both the West and East use mobile gaming to replace the old fashioned movie tie in game. It's easily accessable, has a much wider reach than consoles or PC, you can take it on the go and standards are inherently lower for mobile games than they are a full 60 dollar game.
Since the 2010s, mobile gaming has shifted to what's called the "Freemium" module. The game itself is free to download and start playing, but is insideously designed with obnoxious paywalls or artificial limiters put in place to limit how much you can play each day. If the game is part of a pre-existing franchise, additional money can be made through a premium currency or a chance to obtain high-powered units by rolling a slot machine random chance mechanic. And thus, gacha gaming was born. This sub has had several threads in the past on high profile gacha games, such as the monolithic Fate Grand/Order, Pokemon Go or Genshin Impact. One of the more popular things to roll for in gachas as a consequence is wallpapers for your homescreen, especially for high-grade units as they're usually animated to move a little bit on the homescreen. Today we're looking a low to mid-tier gacha game that rose and fell with the advent of one catgirl. Let's talk RWBY.
RWBY is an online web anime made by Rooster Teeth focusing on four prospective monster hunters who get embroiled in a world-spanning shadow war. It's of debatable quality in matters of animation, combat, voice acting, story, worldbuilding, romance, and it's kind of a little racist if I'm being honest, but one of the major positives of RWBY is that the series tends to have good character design. Series creator Monty Oum set in the guidelines for the show while making it that most if not every design should be made to be cosplay friendly, hence why most of the outfits have things most costume designers haven't heard of like... pockets. And Rooster Teeth, above all else, likes making money. So they know people like RWBY's character designs, enough so that in 2017 plans were made to release a gacha game themed around RWBY called Amity Arena, which would be developed by Korean company NHN Entertainment.
Amity Arena is a PvP tower defense game. Each player controls two turrets and a tower and has three minutes to use units themed from the show to destroy the other player's structures. Whoever took out more wins, destroying a tower is an instant victory. When the game launched, it had three tiers for units- Common (generally held for mooks or low-tier characters in the show), Rare (roughly protagonist-level or elite mooks go here) and Epic (High tier characters usually with an active ability that did lots of damage or stopped enemies in their tracks). The game launched in October 2018 to generally positive reviews from both mobile game players and RWBY fans alike. Fans were happy to get a lot of new official art for the characters in the game and the base gameplay loop was fun. Criticism at the time was largely themed around the lack of content besides PVP matches and some issues with the meta but overall, the launch went well. Each month, the developers would add new units, including popular characters like Neopolitian, Cinder Fall, Zwei the dog, and more.
But everything changed with February 20th 2019, which introduced Neon Katt, the titular catgirl (RWBY characters are themed around fairytales, except for Neon, who is themed around Nyan Cat, and her partner Flynt Coal, who is themed off a potentially racist joke made by Rooster Teeth).
Neon is a character from RWBY Volume 3 who's part of a team that RWBY face during a tournament arc. Her partner, Flynt Coal, was part of the game at launch, and Neon would join him a few months later. Neon in the show is a cocky fighter who taunts the heroes and zips around on rollarskates, which in-game is represented by Neon skating towards the nearest enemy structure to her and hitting it, while all units within a radius of Neon are taunted and provoked into attacking her above all other targets unless they-selves are coded to hit structures. On its own, not a bad idea for a unit, but Neon came with four big caveats:

• Neon was the fourth corner of the square that became known as the Artillery Arena meta, which saw Neon, Cinder (who had an AOE ability she could use which was wide enough to hit a turret and tower and single-handedly killed the entire launch meta of using fragile swarm units), Zwei (an on-summon high damage AOE on any part of the map) and Penny (another AOE ability that instead did chip damage and locked a location down) turn the game's meta into a chip game. Every player ran at least one of the above cards, if only to counter the others. Neon was the universal counter in being anti-swarm and the hardest to stop, especially at launch where her taunt range was so large, it could grab units from the other lane.
  
• Neon launched with a unit weight of "Heavy", which meant that if she was behind a unit she could push it on her way to the turret. This launched a sub-meta where Neon was placed behind a larger unit such as the Ursa (which like Neon was a unit that focused on structures but was made slow to cover its tankiness), to push them towards the turret faster. This was called Disco Bear. They eventually patched this so Neon phased through units by making her a lightweight.
  
• Neon couldn't die. She was invincible until she hit a structure, which combined with her taunt meant that Neon was very annoying to fight and could lock down an entire lane of the battlefield by being placed well and taunting enemies to let you prepare a counter.
  
• Neon was a very cheap unit to summon. Amity Arena uses a mechanic called "Aura" where all units cost a certain amount and it recharges over the match- for instance, protagonist Ruby Rose has a Rare card that costs four Aura to summon, while Weiss Schnee has two rares that cost three and five. Neo only cost two Aura, which made her one of the cheapest units of the game and thus disproportionately powerful for her cost and easy to cycle through your deck so you could spam her.
  

From the word go, Neon is an unpopular unit; she's clearly overbalanced and elements such as the Disco Bear glitch have players thinking she'll have to get knocked down in a nerf- she'll either be made slower, more expensive, or able to die pre-hitting a structure, right?
Neon doesn't show up in the next patch. Instead, before she's fixed, an entire new class of units called Legendaries are introduced, and this is where the game goes full gacha. Legendaries were meant to represent the highest tier characters in the game, the ones who were either the most popular characters or the highest-tier fighters in the show. Or in some cases, the popular ships such as combo cards for White Rose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumblebee (Blake/Yang) and Flower Power (Ren/Nora). Legendaries, representing their value, were impossibly rare and had an infinitely small chance of actually appearing (The most reliable method was to buy the premium chests and hope you'd roll a Legendary, which often cost tons of money), and if you did get one, there was no way to guess which Legendary you'd actually get. Some such as White Rose and Adam were high tier units, others like Hazel or Checkmate were... kinda broken at launch. The playerbase isn't happy at this, especially as free to play players are left out in the cold and reliant on the game giving them high tier units effectively out of pity.
Neon would get a small nerf in the April patch which lessened her taunt range and killed the Disco Bear meta, but her invincibility would be left untouched, even as players submitted feedback regarding how to make it more efficient. The official Amity Arena discord has a weekly feedback section on Tuesdays where players could submit up to four suggestions on how to nerf/buff units and general requests for quality of life such as "Can this character get a new skin from this part of the show," or "Can we have an option to lower music volume that's not just muting all music?" (they never did add that second request) Neon would then remain in this state until the November patch, despite constant weekly requests for a Neon rework, and all it would do is make Neon functionally mortal, in that she had a flat shield bar of 20 that would be lowered by one for each attack before the next hit would kill her. Neon could now die... but your chances of actually doing enough damage to stop her were slim, and regardless, you were now at a serious Aura defecit.
It took seven months for this one unit to get a substantial nerf, all while the game added new units every week and the number of units being affected by patches each month began to gradually sink. To round up some of the major issues people had with Amity that developed throughout 2019 alongside Neon's general existance making life hell:

• Common units were meant to be chump fodder, but could level up the most amount of times with a level cap at 13. This meant longer-term units that had a long time to level such as the Xiong Family card, the AK-130s the Beowolf Pack, or the White Fang gunners, could become shockingly strong if players grinded the money up to reach max level.
  
• A pre-existing divide between free players and players willing to burn money IRL to get access to premium currencies led to a huge disparity in play. Free players have long complained about how hard it is to scrounge money together to level up units at higher costs as even the basic currency of Lien is hard to get large quantities of (you get a certain amount every match win but otherwise you need to burn the Schnee Premium Dust currency for the highest payouts, but SPD is also needed for shop resets, buying crates or unlocking cosmetics). The developers used to do frequent double weekends where all gains were doubled for a weekend, but these became less and less frequent as time went on. Legendaries only added to the divide, as their rarity was bad enough for players willing to spend money (one player, known as one of the largest whales in the community, in trying to get Sienna Khan, reported burning nearly nine hundred dollars on her, while taking nearly six hundred to get the Ice Flower card).
  
• One actual counter was born to fight Neon in the Argus Shield, a stationary unit that existed solely to stall units and take damage. At 2 Aura, it was the first structure to counter Neon, which allevated one of the primary problems with Neon in that no way to counter her was cost-efficient for an enemy player. They buffed the Wall to 3 Aura eventually which killed that hope, and all this happened before Neon's November nerf.
  
• The Summer of 2019 saw a large number of defensive units released; alongside the Argus Shield, several different units were released themed around turrets for the technological kingdom of Atlas, such as the Beam Turret. The Atlesian Burrow Gun was the straw that broke the camel's back and made for a miserable meta as the Burrow Gun would only appear (and be available to take damage) when a unit entered its range. These three units together were all very overpowered on launch and led to a large exodus of players sick of defensive and chip-based metas, especially as what few offensive units that were good enough to counter these metas (such as Professor Port and Adam Taurus) were often nerfed into the ground within a month of release.
  
• Also around this time it became apparent that the developers were unable to meet the quotas that Rooster Teeth was forcing on them. The social media team admitted that a certain number of units needed to be in the game in time for Winter 2019 when Volume 7 was set to start, and as the year went on more and more game-breaking bugs were being found in units, or they were at best horrifically undertuned or overpowered. The Apathy was perhaps the largest case of this, as an unfound bug pre-release meant that the Apathy (who have a passive ability that let them self-duplicate) had no cap on their power, meaning that they could immediately overwhelm defenses and in the case of some phones, be such a resource hog the phone would crash. Many Legendary units were especially guilty of being under-tuned due to low Legendary availability meaning they were simply weren't powerful enough to compare with high-levelled units. Checkmate's ability simply didn't work at launch, and Neon made several more such as Hazel Rainart a joke. May Marigold's invisibility bubble would have been an interesting game changer... were it not for a bug that made it that units placed in the bubble still played their sound lines, meaning players knew what to expect. Things were so bad that when Flower Power launched and wasn't broken or needed an emergency patch, the playerbase were shocked.
  

Unfortunately, the Novemember patch did little to stop the problems with Neon, and a new problem would rear its head for Christmas: Jinn. This unit embodied many of the problems players had: She was a Legendary so it would be hard for free players to get her, and only added to the sheer number of Legendaries that were out there. She was another structure card, and she was horrifically broken. Stopping time for seven seconds in an area around any friendly units, Jinn broke the game overnight, with players horrified at how little playtesting she'd clearly had. Most chip units now couldn't damage structures as Jinn simply could stop time and freeze the turret for the duration of the attack. And to make matters worse? She cost two Aura, meaning it was very easy to cycle a deck and start Jinn spamming.
And yet at two aura she was still one of the only cost-efficient Neon counters... until they patched her to be worth three Aura instead. Talking of the feline menace, January saw Neon get a HP nerf that set her shield at 14. Finally, Neon could be realistically be taken out, still at an Aura defecit but at least it can be countered and now they just have to raise her Aura- why are you buffing her game?
Less than a month later, Neon got, of all things, a buff. Her HP shield was set at 20, and her attacks now did double damage. This is around the point where a lot of players begin to suspect the developers aren't listening to feedback and more long-term players dip out or drop the game. Neon got touched one more time in April, which slowed her down (which itself was a problem as Neon's lessened speed on spawn simply made her better at generating aggro), she dealt 10% less damage and made it somewhat easier to hit her enough to kill her, but a new problem was on the horizon. Because Neon was now no longer the game's White Whale for patches.
Meet the White Fang Gunner Barracks. Added in September 2019, the Barracks fell under many player's radar simply because they were horrifically undertuned. Their gimmick was that every few seconds, a White Fang Gunner would spawn, with three spawning on death. In April, as Neon got her last appearance in the patches, the Barracks got a huge buff and became the centerpiece of the meta; they now spawned two Gunners, which made them immensely valuable for just five Aura. You could overwhelm many anti-swarm units before they had a chance, and shred your way through turrets.
The Barracks would then go six months before this overtuning was rectified, barring one nerf in August that lowered their health to try and stem the tide of units. To sum up every other thing that went wrong during the year meta-wise:

• The playercount was getting so low that players were able to make lists of the AI bots the developers had in place so lower-level players had a challenge (Amity breaks up players by a trophy system where you gain trophies with every win, and by this point most of the active players were in the 2500 to 3500 range. This also meant new players steamrolled through the lower levels only to hit a brick wall in the 3000 range, with the only reliable solution being to willingly lose matches until you were in your optimal range and grind victories until you reached a certain level.
  
• The patches became more and more threadbare, going from 8+ units getting changed each month in early 2019 to three units at most getting changed in 2020 patches outside of the anniversary patch going back to the golden days of eight. The only area where they didn't get more threadbare was in the cosmetics and emotes that the developers were cranking out, all of which were only available through hours of grinding or premium currencies. This was despite the fact that the units were being released slower, going from once a week to once a fortnite.
  
• The majority of units added in 2020 were Epic or Legendary tier, which were the hardest to get for free players unless they got lucky and they were added to the store (and if they had the lien as a Legendary in the store costs a flat 40,000 Lien). One Common and four Epics were released compared to twelve Epics and seven Legendaries. The release of Moonslice Adam especially was annoying for this regard, as Adam already had a Legendary released (at least for Team RWBY, each of them headlined a Legendary when it came to the team attack cards), and this was clearly done to pander to Adam's fans again as his first unit saw a spike in interest in the game. The math was done and showed how artifically scarce Legendaries were made.
  
• The undeovertuning was still in play. Colossus is seen as one of the worst cards in the entire game because of its gimmick. I have literally never seen anyone play it. Flynt became overtuned and now he's a staple thanks to his trumpet's AOE attack being able to hurt turrets and shred most units. Launcher Nora was an especially overtuned unit thanks to her high-damage constant AOE barrage and long range meaning she could annhilate most anything if given enough cover. Even after patches she's still dangerous. September saw the White Fang Dropship Formation added, which was widely seen as a terrible unit and done as an emergency addition because the planned unit for September in the Grimm Seer had to be cut last minute for technical reasons.
  
• The game has barely had significant content added since launch, with the primary gameplay still just being PVP. Barring Battle of Beacon (a mode where you can play as Ruby and Weiss and fend off Grimm which most players just use to grind chests, and no, they still haven't added Blake or Yang) and Plaza (a lobby where you can dress up as a character and run around Beacon), the game has added no new features and quality of life content players have requested since launch (rerolling in the shop, Superior Crates having guaranteed Legendary spawn rates) have been released at a snail's pace (you still can't reroll Legendaries if you're looking for a specific unit). Academies where players can unite to trade units and chat still lacks features that have been requested for years such as the ability to delete messages. And Plaza immediately went to hell because players were doing erotic role play in the chats and after people came forward with proof that minors were being sexually harassed in the Plaza or being coerced into side-channels, the dev response was to... just turn off the chat entirely instead of banning the accounts or implementing moderation. This also removed the chatlog which deleted a lot of the evidence of said harassment.
  

As OctobeNovember comes in, the players are getting more and more furious. The weekly feedback includes a near constant demand for an acknowledgement from the developers given how often it feels like the feedback is being ignored. The social media team get caught several times hyping up how the coming patch would address player concerns, only for said patch to lack those units. The meta has been locked down to the Xiong Family, Flynt, Launcher Nora, Spider-Mines and the hell-cat herself in Neon. Everyone runs at least one of these, people run meta decks not because they want to, but because it's the only way to have a chance of victory.
And then in December, things implode. The patch for the month was set to launch on December 10th with the monthly event missions. But when the clock rolls around, the event missions (which usually take about two weeks to do if you're doing as many as you can a day)... has a six day timer. And the update doesn't come out. The art team doesn't release new unit art. The shop has no special timed bundles. There's no patch notes. And then the Twitter team who've been hard carrying the game through... actually talking to the players and acknowledging the grievances they have... admitted that they don't know what's going on either. The best guess is that the devs have come down with Covid, but no statements to confirm or deny this leave it as guesswork. The timer eventually got reset and people could do the event, but then on Christmas itself, another issue.
Ruby has appeared in the plaza on Halloween (her canonical birthday) and Christmas, and if you go talk to her you get free stuff. But on Christmas people, people discovered that Ruby was talking as if you'd already talked to her. Because they hadn't updated Ruby yet for 2020. She still thought it was 2019 so if you'd talked to her then for goodies, she had none now. They patched it eventually but a lot of people didn't see this fix before the timer ran out to get the free stuff.
Some have resorted to memes to cope with the fact that the game just seems to have died out of the blue. Others have been trying to desperately rally the players and find a way to save it. Some resorted to friendly mockery of the whales who'd spent thousands on a game that seems to be dying (seriously though gacha games need to curb this shit but they won't because whales are godsends for their bank balances).
If the game doesn't get an update in January then two months without new content will mark the end, and the already significant playercount drops will only increase. And it's hard to say if any one thing could have turned Amity Arena's fate around beyond just "Have a better balancing team who can respond better to feedback." Neon began the time of death, but by the time December rolled around the meta was in a horrifically toxic place where if you wanted to make any progession, you had to get down and dirty with the pigs. The team just constantly failed to balance problem units outside of their emergency hotfixes of Jinn, and more often then not they went after units and buffed or nerfed them at random going off playcounts to determine what needed fixing instead of the actual written feedback they were getting. It's clear from the references to the show and some of the attempts to reach out to the community that at least one person in the team genuinely wanted to make the good appealing to RWBY fans, but somewhere during the game's lifespan, they lost their way. Less focus needed to be put on how to milk the players, and instead focusing on making a game sustainable and enjoyable enough to warrant the cosmetics and emotes. The game's failure ultimately isn't on the playerbase. It's on the people who were actually making the game who chose to slack off because they thought it acceptable to do so.
Thanks for reading.
EDIT: HOT OFF THE PRESSES, I JUMPED THE GUN
Had I waited one more day, my story would have had a far more sudden ending, as the game just announced its shutdown for January.
RIP.

Intro:
(I want to start by saying I was inspired to do this by u/quixotikdylusion)
What a year 2020 was for this team, it had plenty of bad but there was a lot of good and a lot of progress that was made. I think the biggest thing is that we have a good coaching staff, especially on defense, that can cover up some of the flaws on this team. Besides that, we have a good core and some good depth as well. However, there are still areas that need to be addressed and fixed for this team to take the next step.
Offense:
First, the most important position: the QB position. When it comes to QB I view it as either you have a top 12 QB or you have no QB. This is why losing out on Stafford changes things. In my opinion, the only guys left that are worth going for are Dak, Carr, and Watson. I would much rather start the year with Heinicke and Allen than:

1. Trade a first or second for Mariota/ Wentz/Darnold (if you want a reclamation project you already have two in Heinicke and Allen and you don't have to give up any high picks for them)
   
2. Overdraft Jones/Trask (there are too many good players at 19 and you have too many holes besides QB)
   

If we can't get one of those guys I would rather go into the year with Heinicke, Allen, Montez, and a veteran QB. If Heinicke turns into a star you have your QB of the future, if he burns out then
Second, this team needs WR help. Terry McLaurin is a star and is a great X receiver but besides him, there is no one on this team that scares you. This team could use a Z receiver and a Slot receiver. Cam Sims was the Z last year but I view him as a WR4 rather than a WR2. Steven Sims was the Slot last year and I would be annoyed if he's the starting Slot in 2021; I would either cut him or have him as a WR6 behind Harmon and Cam Sims.
Third, this team needs a TE #2. Logan Thomas had a good year and looked to be a good starting TE option for the next couple of years. However, there is no depth at the position. Jeremy Sprinkle is a terrible TE and every time he is on the field bad things happen, Baugh and Hemingway would be out of the league if WFT didn't pick them up. This team desperately needs someone to backup Thomas.
Lastly, the team could use some depth at OL and RB. At OL, we could use a backup guard because Wes Martin is terrible. At the tackle spots, we could pick up a developmental player since both Moses and Lucas are going into their age 30 seasons next year. At RB you don't really need anyone but I would look to upgrade over Peyton Barber and to do so I would add a young bowling ball style power back who can help you in those short-yardage situations.
Defense:
On defense, the priority should be to bring in two new LBs. In the 4-3, you need three LBs (WILL, MIKE, and SAM) and right now you only have one in Cole Holcomb. Holcomb is more of a WILL backer but because of how poorly the others played he was asked to play the SAM. This offseason you need to get a MIKE and preferably a SAM because Bostic and KPL are not good enough.
The second priority should be to add a true centerfielder FS. Del Rio likes to run cover 1 and cover 3 and in both of those coverages, you need to have a deep middle safety. Apke last year was the first one who played this role and he was terrible at it, Reaves was next and he played better but you can still upgrade the position.
Lastly, you can get depth at positions like CB and Edge. If you let Darby go you have a real need at corner and it becomes your main priority but he likes the staff and the staff likes him so he probably gets resigned. However you still need depth at the position, Moreau is not going to get resigned and Stroman/Johnson as your CB 4 and 5 is a recipe for disaster if a starter gets hurt.
When it comes to Edge you need replacements for Kerrigan and Anderson. To replace Kerrigan, you should bring in a rotational pass rusher. When it comes to Anderson, the loss might be shrugged off as who cares but it’s lowkey a bigger deal because you lose a rotational run defender and the guys on this team that are supposed to replace him, like Toohill, are not good enough.
Offseason
I used OverTheCap for Free Agency and The Draft Network for the Draft
Before Free Agency
Cut Alex Smith: It was a great story and is an inspiration but you cannot pay $23 Mil for below-average QB play. I hope he retires and we don't have to cut him but he probably won't retire so I would cut him and save $14.7 Mil.
Free Agency
Each player will be listed in this format:
Name, Position, Contract Length Full Salary (includes signing bonus), Signing Bonus, Total Guarantees
2021: Cap Hit, Guaranteed Money for that season. 2022: Cap Hit, Guaranteed Money for that season. (So on if applicable)
Description about the signing.
Resigned
Brandon Scherff, OG, 4 years $60 Mil, $15 Mil, $35 Mil
2021: $12.75 Mil, $8.75 Mil. 2022: $14.75 Mil, Fully Guaranteed. 2023: $14.75, $7.75 Mil. 2024 $17.75 Mil, $3.75 Mil
This is a really tough decision because Scherff is often injured and he is a guard. However, this team has been devoid of top talent so when you have a guy that's as talented as Scherff you should look to keep him. Also, he did just make 1st team all pro and this OL looked way better when he was in the lineup. So all in all I think you have to pay him and this contract is a 3 year deal with an out in 2024 and that isn’t a bad deal for either side.
Ronald Darby, CB, 4 Years $40 Mil, $10 Mil, $20 Mil
2021: $9.5 Mil, $7.5 Mil. 2022: $8.5 Mil, $7.5 Mil. 2023: $10.5 Mil, $2.5 Mil. 2024 $11.5 Mil, $2.5 Mil
Darby played solid last year and so he gets rewarded with a new contract. Good corners are really hard to find so if you find one it's best practice to keep them in town. This contract is about the same as the Kendall Fuller contract and I think that is what Darby’s market value will be. Now there are injury concerns with Darby and so that's why this deal is structured to give you an out in 2023, so if he regresses/gets injured all the time you can easily cut him.
Taylor Heinicke, QB, 2 Years $13 Mil, $2 Mil, $6 Mil
2021: $5 Mil, Fully Guaranteed. 2022: $7 Mil, $1 Mil.
The legend of Heinicke is coming back. As I said above, in my opinion, the best realistic option is to bring back Heinicke and see if he's the real deal or not. If he is, you just got yourself a franchise QB but if he is not you move on after this year. This contract is structured to give you 3 options:

1. If he is good, you have your QB and a bonus is that you don't have to pay him a lot in 2022, that is important because A. That buys you time to negotiate the deal so you don't have to do a Kirk Cousins 2.0 with the franchise tag B. Gives you plenty of flexibility to make a splash in Free Agency
   
2. If he is decent but not good enough to be the starter, you can still keep him around since the contract is relatively cheap for a backup QB. (Go after Dak)
   
3. If he is terrible, you can easily release him and save $6 mil. Then either you draft a QB or you go after Dak Prescott who would inevitably be coming off the second franchise tag
   

(Edit: As I was writing this, Taylor got signed by the team for 2 years $8.75 Mil. However, I will still be counting the contract I gave him instead of his IRL contract when it comes to the salary cap)
Nick Sundberg, LS, 4 years $5.57 Mil, $1 Mil, $1 Mil
2021: $1.325 Mil, $250k. 2022: $1.370 Mil, $250k. 2023: $1.415 Mil, $250k. 2024: $1.460 Mil, $250k
Yeah, Sundberg is not leaving Ashburn. He has been great on the field and off the field in the community. (Should've won WPMOY last year) He gets a nice pay raise and the team is set at LS for the next 4 years.
Dustin Hopkins, K, 1 year $1.07 Mil, $0 Mil, $500k
This is a one year prove-it deal for Hopkins. He was terrible last year and cost the team many wins so I thought about letting him walk. However, it was just one year, and he’s been good every other year so I would try and see if he can get back to old Hop. That being said there is no chance I would pay him more than $1 mil, if he wants anything more I am happy letting him walk out of the building
Kevin Pierre Louis, 1 year $2 Mil, $500k, $1 Mil
KPL is coming back but in a reduced role. I don't think you should be actively starting him but he is an above-average backup and I would bring him back at $2 Mil.
Cam Sims, WR, 1 year $2.24 Mil RFA Tender, 0, $2.24 mil
Kyle Allen, QB, 1 year $850k RFA Tender, 0, $850k
I would pick up both options, both are cheap and both are above average for a WR4 and a QB2.
Free Agency
Corey Davis, WR, 4 years $47 Mil, $12 Mil, $25 Mil
2021: $11 Mil, Fully Guaranteed. 2022: $11.5 Mil, $8 Mil. 2023: $12 Mil, $3 Mil. 2024 $12.5 Mil, $3 Mil.
The big splash in Free Agency is to bring in the former Titans receiver. Davis is a former top 5 pick who had a breakout year in 2020 and is just entering his prime (he is 26 years old). I think Davis is a great option in free agency cause I think you are getting a guy who is going to get even better over the next couple of years for relatively cheap. He also is a guy who fits the profile of what you need at WR, this team desperately needs a big body Z receiver and Davis fits that since he A. played the Z in Tennessee and B. is 6’3. Now if Davis doesn't live up to expectations, you can cut him at the end of 2022.
Denzel Perryman, ILB, 2 years $13 Mil, $4 Mil, $6 Mil
2021: $6.5 Mil, $4 Mil. 2022: $6.5 Mil, $2 Mil.
At times last year, this team's run defense was poor and that was mainly because of how bad the LBs were in run defense. Enter Denzel Perryman to change that. Perryman got an 86.3 grade against the run by PFF, now PFF isn't always the greatest site but the grade shows that he is really good against the run. Perryman is also a true MIKE and that is also something this team desperately needs. You cannot have Jon Bostic be your MIKE if you want to have a good LB core. The best part about this deal is that Perryman fills the needs of this team at a cheap price.
Trey Burton, TE, 2 years $8 Mil, $2 Mil, $4 Mil
2021: $4 Mil, $3 Mil. 2022: $4 Mil, $1 Mil.
As I talked about above, you needed to get depth at TE and that's exactly what you get in Trey Burton. Immediate upgrade at the TE 2 spot and a guy who can do everything you want from a TE 2. Burton was graded as the best blocking TE in 2018 by PFF and in 2020 he was an above average blocker. Burton can also be a decent pass-catching option if you need to start him.
Demarcus Walker, Edge, 2 years $5 Mil, $2 Mil, $3.5 Mil
2021: $2.5 Mil, $2 Mil. 2022: $2.5 Mil, $1.5 Mil.
Demarcus Walker came into the league as a second-round Edge rusher who was picked by the Broncos, but he did not live up to expectations in Denver. However, that is because he was playing as a 3-4 outside LB and that was not his natural position. Once the Broncos moved him down from outside LB to the DL he started producing. In Washington, he could be a good rotational Edge rusher in the 4-3. He is still a guy with untapped potential so some growth could happen.
Jourdan Lewis, CB, 1 year $2 Mil, $500k, $1 Mil
This team needs depth at CB, especially NCB, and Lewis gives you depth. Lewis gives you depth because of his versatility, he can play both slot and boundary corner. Lewis is coming off of a really bad year but it is only 1 year and from 2017 to 2019, he was a solid corner. Because of this I would be willing to take a chance on Lewis, after all, he would be your CB4 at best and it's only a 1-year deal.
Blake Bortles, QB, 1 Year $1.075 Mil, 0, $500k
Backup QB who should be your QB 3 at best. I decided to bring Blake in instead of a guy like Alex Smith because Bortles doesn't have the injury concerns Smith has. Bortles is a decent option if both Heinicke and Allen get injured.
Alex Redmond, OG, 1 year $1.090 Mil, $0, $900k
Starting OG for the Bengals who wasn't anything special so you bring him in on a cheap deal to be a backup guard. He is better than Wes Martin and that's all that matters when it comes to this signing.
NFL Draft
Each player will be listed in this format:
Name, Position, College, Height, and Weight
Description about player
Round 1: Zaven Collins, LB, Tulsa, 6’4 260 lbs
The Bronko Nagurski Trophy winner is coming to DC. Zaven Collins is a great pick in many ways. First, as a player he is instinctive and that allows him to be good in both run and pass defense. In run defense, he will fill gaps nicely and in pass defense, he has great ball skills that allow him to cover most running back/tight ends. Second, he fills a position of need since he is a SAM LB and this team does not have one, right now Holcomb plays the SAM but this move allows him to move to his natural WILL position. The main concern with Collins is that he has mediocre speed, however, he has other tools that can make up for his speed and besides speed, he has good athleticism.
Round 2: Alex Leatherwood, OT, Alabama, 6’5 312 lbs
As discussed above, you have two good tackles on this team but they are both turning 30. So here in the second round, you take a good tackle prospect who with development could turn into your franchise LT. Alex Leatherwood is a tackle who is good against first moves in pass protection and he is also good as a run blocker. His main weakness is that he tends to get beat when guys use counter moves on him in pass pro. The good news is that good coaching can clean that up. This is a pick that may not help you this year but will help you in a couple of years.
Round 3: Andre Cisco, S, Syracuse, 6’0 203 lbs
This team desperately needs a center fielder FS and that's the guy you're getting in Andre Cisco. I talked about how JDR likes to call cover 1 and cover 3 and how there is no one on this team to play that deep center safety role, well Cisco thrives in the deep center role. Cisco is a ballhawk who plays really good coverage. Now you might be wondering how he fell, well he fell for two reasons: 1. He is a bad tackler and 2. He freelances sometimes. Now problem number one isn't a big deal for this team, you have 10 other guys who are good tacklers especially if you bring in Zaven Collins and Denzel Perryman. Number two is concerning but I trust JDR to reel him in and teach him how to play within the confines of the defense. While there are some problems to his game, the talent is there and it is just too good to pass up.
Round 3: Brevin Jordan, TE, Miami, 6’3 245 lbs
Now I know I have the team signing Trey Burton in free agency and I know that this team doesn't need 3 TEs but Brevin Jordan is just too good to pass up. Jordan is a player that can play all over the field and is a dynamic weapon that can be used creatively on this team. Jordan is an athletic player with good size and speed. He has good ball skills and hands as well. When it comes to route running, he is solid but still needs some development. The same can be said about his blocking. Sitting behind both Logan Thomas and Trey Burton would be beneficial for a guy who in the (near) future could become your TE1.
Round 4: Dazz Newsome, WR, North Carolina, 5’11 190 lbs
Dazz Newsome, starting slot receiver for the Washington Football Team in 2021. You finally find a good slot receiver. Newsome is the final piece to this top 10 receiver core of Mclaurin, Davis, and Newsome. Newsome is fast and shifty, when it comes to route running he runs crisp routes, and most importantly he has good hands. Newsome could add more routes to his game but besides that, there are no major weaknesses in his game. Newsome is also a punt returner so next year you don't have to worry about Steven Sims muffing any punts.
Round 5: Rashad Weaver, Edge, Pittsburg, 6’4 265 lbs
This may seem strange to take an edge rusher but you do need a couple of guys there to make up for the loss of Kerrigan and Anderson. The Kerrigan replacement was signed and Rashad Weaver is your Anderson replacement. Weaver is a good run stuffer and is a guy that you could rotate in on 1st and 2nd down. When it comes to pass rush, Weaver has all the rushes and tools in the bag but he lacks the bend and athleticism that you need. Weaver may not have the upside when it comes to pass rush but that's not what you are drafting him for, you're drafting him so that he can occasionally stop the run and that is something he can do.
Round 7: Thomas Graham Jr, CB, Oregon, 5’11 197 lbs
You always need depth at corner and that is what this pick is about. Thomas Graham Jr can come in and be a decent CB5 on this team. Graham Jr is a guy that has good technique, good timing, and good ball skills but he is not fast or agile. His athleticism lowers his ceiling but his traits raise his floor. A high floor player is what you should look for in a CB5 and Graham Jr offers you that.
Round 7: Spencer Brown, RB, UAB, 6’0 235 lbs
This man is built like a bowling ball and that's exactly why I am drafting him. Brown isn’t athletic and he can't catch. However, he has good vision, he is big and he can run between the tackles. Brown sounds exactly like a prototypical short-yardage back because he is one. Brown would be a younger, bigger version of Peyton Barber in this offense.
Post Draft Cuts:
Geron Christian, Peyton Barber, Jon Bostic, and Wes Martin were cut to save $2 mil. These players were expendable because replacements for them were either signed or drafted. Plus, $2 mil was needed to sign draft picks and leave some money over for UDFAs.
Final Salary Cap Numbers (Before signing draft picks and UDFAs but after all the cuts)
2021: $9,422,545
2022: $72,777,075
2023: $138,468,706
2024: $181,130,000
That concludes my offseason. Thank you for reading this post, I really appreciate it.
TL;DR
(Main guys)
Resigned: Scherff, Darby and Heinicke
Signed: Corey Davis and Denzel Perryman
Drafted: Zaven Collins, Alex Leatherwood, and Brevin Jordan

In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1
Fun House/Play Time Arcade - 2820 Guadalupe
June 15, 1975

ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.

March 3, 1976

ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.

First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2
Green Goth - 1121 Springdale Road
May 15, 1984

A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.

I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4
Games, Etc. - 1302 S. First St
Muther's Arcade - 2532 Guadalupe St
August 23, 1983

Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."

Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with "Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era. Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7
Computer Madness - 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Electronic Encounters - 1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center - 1409 W. Oltorf
March 4, 1982

'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."

Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8
Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway
February 25, 1982

Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.

This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were. This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated February 11, 1994. Some highlights:

Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.

The gameplay looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons" (Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade" (truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003

What will Disney do?
Whatever they think will make them the most money in the end.
Let's look at their history.
We can point to two big mistakes they've made: setting the parks in the sequel era and the choice to make a soft reboot trilogy that negates the Lucas stories instead of a true sequel.
But both of those cases are miscalculations or bad executions that steered them into break-even territory rather than the astronomical profits they had hoped for. The strategy behind those choices was driven by corporate thinking (Synergize with the new sequel era property that they expected to become popular and appeal to international markets with a remake of ANH)
Neither move was a financial disaster. Despite the loss for Solo (which CAN be traced to TLJ taking the air out of the franchise) and the relatively poor RoS earnings, the sequel era has its fans and proved that even poorly made Star Wars content can earn money because of the strength of the brand name.
Disney sees no radical urgent need for change to the storyline.
They know they screwed up the sequels but they have no pressing need to fix the First Order era in order to write the next chapter after Rey because they can just do stories in other eras that are/might be better received like Mando, KOTOR, High Republic etc.
Or they can do smaller stories set after the DT, like Rogue Squadron.
Disney will consider the long term profitability impact of any move they make to the storyverse of Star Wars very carefully.
Long Term.
They are not in a hurry and they would not want to axe the sequel era now only to find out in ten years that it might have developed into a cash cow because the teens who like Rey (however few they may be) grew up to have have disposable income they would've spend on Rey and Kylo merch.
Disney has three options with various positive and negative outcomes to each and cancelling the sequels has the fewest pluses AND the most minuses.
A) Push the sequel era.
Positives: If it's executed well, it will still make money and might even become a hit.
It will signal support for Disney's first major female character, Rey, and earn them some good PR among the blue checkmarks of culture.
Most fans who hate the sequels will still continue to buy products set in different eras, such as Mando or KOTOR or Fallen Order or Lego Star Wars, so profitability from those sectors will generally be unaffected. (Heck, there are people who would happily filet Rian Johnson in the courtyard of Lucasfilm's headquarters who still bought the TLJ Blu Ray and hate-watch it.)
Negatives: A big minority of fans don't spend money on the sequel era so the profits from pushing the DT right now are limited. (Limited, not unattainable). This is a really big negative. This is the reason they are slowing movie releases and exploring other eras. They know the DT is a tainted era.
It takes away attention/investment from more profitable areas of Star Wars that have opened up, such as the Mandoverse.
B) Cancel the sequel era.
Positives: A large minority of fans who are DT-haters will become happy with the company and criticism of the sequels will fade rapidly, ending one PR problem Disney has.
There will be a very small uptick in profits from fans who are now willing to buy into Star Wars again after being disillusioned.
Negatives: Public image will take a severe whacking over the perceived sidelining of Rey and other minority characters. Even if they bring back Rey and company in a more palatable form, it will make Disney look weak and too eager to please supposedly misogynistic fanboys. (The truth of the situation won't matter. The 'whiny manchild' narrative will be set by outlets with the money to drive that image and Disney is aware of this.)
If the sequel era ever becomes popular in the future, it will not be there for Disney to tap into. THIS is the major reason that the sequel trilogy will never be decanonized. The profit upside to keeping it is potentially huge going forward. Again, think LONG TERM, as Disney will. Lucas was making money off ANH 40 years after releasinging it. Disney will act based on a profit outlook that extends past the time most of us are dead.
They would have to build something to replace the sequel era and the new continuity might end up being hated just as much as what they already have or even worse. So why risk it? They know that Luke, Han and Leia are touchy subjects and they KNOW they don't really understand the fans. YOU or I could probably guide them, but these people have no internal way to evaluate any advice they get on how to tell the second half of the OT characters' story. They are sitting around right now thinking, "But what do they want from us?" and coming up with no answers because they are not really creative people. They know algorithms. They know that Orange And Blue on a poster sells. They know the Chinese market doesn't tolerate ghosts. But they don't really understand how to fine tune a story for these three characters that will satisfy the old fanbase while being marketable to new fans. The reaction to the sequels has them running too scared to try it again. They would rather choose to deal with the ugly child they have than risk a stillbirth replacement.
Building something to replace the sequels will take away investment in more profitable (or potentially profitable) projects like Mandoverse/Thrawn, High Republic etc.
C) Ignore the sequel era for 5 to 10 years before considering a return to it.
Positives: The people who hate the sequels will continue to spend money on non-sequel stuff like Mando and Fallen Order so there is no need to push for an outright decanonization.
The criticism of the sequels will die down as it fades from prominence, achieving close to the same effect as a decanonization.
They can invest in more profitable areas of Star Wars like Mando and Old Republic and explore other areas that may become more profitable like High Republic. This will make shareholders happy with short term profits while the long term profit potential of the sequels remains high.
Young sequel fans may grow up to spend money on sequel merch at a later date.
They can help create a sense of acceptance about the sequel era through other products like Mando by using them as a bridge in the story that people will buy into, thus returning the sequels to respectability in the eyes of new fans and also returning them to profitability.
Current OT and PT fans who talk about the sequels negating the OT or the Chosen One prophecy will die out. Remember, under copyright law that Disney itself pushed through Congress, they own Rey and company for a hundred years. They've been profiting off Mickey for a century and they will be happy to have Disney Princess Rey working for them in 2112 even if it's in a minor sideshow booth.
Negatives: Some criticism of the sequels will always remain. But it will fade over time. Remember, think LONG TERM here. 5, 10, 15 years is the minimum Disney is looking at.
A very small minority of sequel haters will outright refuse to buy ANY Star Wars merch in any era. These people will make no difference to the Star Wars fandom and profitability.
Small attempts to backdoor the sequels into acceptance through more well-liked properties like Mando might backfire into those properties being disliked as well. But the risk is small since they will add the references incrementally (Canto Bight slot machine) and can always back away if they get pushback.
Plus they can use standalone projects peripheral to the DT to make the era more appealing, e.g. the new Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron movie seems to be a post DT story.
The equation is in Disney's favor the longer they hold on to a dormant sequel era.
The sequels may NEVER become well liked, but Disney achieves almost the same benefit from ignoring it as they do from actively cancelling it while the potential earnings if the sequels ever emerge from the shadow of the OT and the current fan reaction is huge.

i'm starting to feel like modern Yugioh is a clown car, and every time the banlist apprehends the first few clowns that lead the format, 4-5 more step out to take their place. we didn't even have Linkross in handcuffs yet before VFD took the wheel and Vanity's Ruler got into the passenger seat. happy new year
 
This post will give recommendations for decks that can generally do well while generally remaining in the $50 to $150 price range.

• Estimated pricing includes a sample completed main deck and some or all of an extra deck, but no side.
• Pricing is based mainly on singles and you can easily save a lot of money by buying cores for most of these lists all at once.
• Decks were chosen usually based on having some degree of success in recent TCG formats.
  • These deck choices and rankings are heavily based on online tournaments such as Konami's Remote Duel Invitationals, LCS, and other assorted online events.
  • Performance on DuelingBook's ranked ladder also slightly factors in to the placement of these decks, with data taken from Ygoscope.
• Many decklists will include some middle-range power cards that might drive the price point up, which can be cut for players on an extreme budget. For instance, a set of Ash is $25-30 currently, but Ash is included in many of these lists as a generic staple that players might already own.
• Conversely, decklists are oftentimes easily upgraded by adding power cards such as Forbidden Droplet and Triple Tactics Talent.

Decks are grouped into four "tiers" and listed alphabetically by tier. Decklists are built prioritizing simplicity and effectiveness on a budget. Not all of them are perfect, but this post is not an F. Unless there is a particularly offensive deckbuilding error that you want to point out, please don't use this thread to nitpick at the sample decklists. Don't feel obligated to stick to the sample lists either; you should experiment and play cards that feel comfortable and/or optimal to you.
Feel free to leave suggestions for budget players, whether it's a budget tech choice for one of the decks on this list or whether it's a different deck that you think can compete in the coming months.
[Last updated: 23 Jan 2021]
Previous version: October 2020 Post
 

S Tier

The best bang for your buck. Decks in this category have the capacity to top premier events, though they're almost always supplemented with expensive power cards.
 

Drytron

Price: $100 Imgur | DuelingBook

• New Ritual-based combo deck from Genesis Impact that has a lot of recursion from the Graveyard, boasting a strong grind game as well as potent turn 1 boards that can win the game outright.
• The level 1 Drytron cards tribute other Drytron cards or Ritual cards in hand/field, so this deck abuses Cyber Angel Benten's lack of a once per turn clause to gain a ton of resources and search a lot of power LIGHT Fairy cards, such as Herald of Orange Light and Vanity's Ruler.
• Drytron Nova is an automatic 3-of inclusion in every competitive version of this deck, but also currently sits at around $40 each in NA. Novas are a massive boost in consistency, though the deck is honestly still playable without it, and is quite cheap otherwise. With even one copy of Nova, you should look to also include three copies of Drytron Fafnir (their Field Spell) which can search Nova as well.
• The absence of Nova + Fafnir from the main leaves a lot of space to be filled. There are many ways you can go about this.
  • The sample list plays a small Pre-Prep engine with Herald of Perfection. It's very simple to play, especially if you're unfamiliar with the deck, and helps raise your overall ceiling - athough optimized competitive builds have generally moved away from Pre-Prep.
  • Another viable Ritual engine is the Megalith engine, which provides numerous options. These variants generally also suffer from consistency issues, made worse by the lack of Novas in the budget version. Less consistent access to Alpha means less consistent usage of extra Ritual monsters.
  • You could play cards that search Drytron monsters in an attempt to patch up consistency. Examples include Where Arf Thou, or normal summons that fetch Drytrons such as Cyber Dragon Core (getting Emergency) and Mathematician. Also viable is Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin, which is an interesting tech in Drytron that helps you beat handtraps like Droll & Lock Bird.
  • Finally, you can always just play more handtraps or generic power cards.
• This deck is a relatively new deck, and is getting support in Lightning Overdrive, which might indicate that it's relatively safe from the next banlist. However, there's no telling what Konami will do, so don't take my word as gospel.

 

Virtual World

Price: $150 Imgur | DuelingBook

• Combo deck with an extra deck toolbox, using Synchro and Xyz monsters to break boards or to win the game with True King of All Calamities and their recurring boss monster, Shenshen. The Virtual World monsters have a shared restriction which means that Link monsters are usually not played in this deck at all.
• Most of the main deck VW monsters can dump other VW cards from Deck to GY, and their continuous spell Qinglong is a searcher in the GY. Combined with Virtual World Mai-Hime - Lulu's ability to search for VW cards as well, the deck is consistent at doing the same combos and executing its gameplan almost every game, as most combinations of 2 Virtual World cards result in some type of combo.
• Despite being one of the top decks in the format, this deck is also quite cheap. Staples aside, the most pricey card in the main is Lulu at around $18-20 each. Can you get away with fewer copies of her? Probably, but you really want to get 3 due to Desires, and her being one of the best cards in your deck.
• Saw success immediately after PHRA release, even in the previous combo-infested format where Virtual World took the most representation and top cut spots at LCS 8, eventually winning the entire tournament. Post-banlist, they also took the most top cut spots and then won LCS 9, versus an entirely different playing field full of Zoodiac, Drytron, and Eldlich variants.
• Recent combos using Chaofeng, Phantom of the Yang Zing to search either one of the Virtual World tuners (Lulu or Laolao) have opened up some new combo routes that make Foolish Burial Goods a lot more forgiving to play, allowing you to still end on impressive boards despite using Qinglong somewhat suboptimally. On the other hand, Chaofeng's price also spiked quite heavily after LCS 9, so you may not want to play it.
• Non-budget players will first and foremost want to add Zeus to the Extra Deck, as it helps greatly with going second and also dealing with threats like Dragoon. Another common inclusion is Triple Tactics Talents, though this card is by no means mandatory in the deck, and has also seen a decline in popularity lately.

 

A Tier

Strong decks, but limited either by a lack of access to powerful staples or by the natural ceiling of the deck. You could still top a regional with one of these decks on a good day.
 

Altergeist

Price: $75+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Control + backrow deck with incredible recursion and the ability to come back from almost no resources
• Altergeist have seen sparse success ever since FLOD, and are a respectable budget contender. They've have had a fairly modest showing online, and saw recent success with a top 8 finish at LCS 9. That deck was a Dogmatika variant piloted by Lars Junginger, playing the recently released Artemis, the Magistus Moon Maiden to make it slightly easier to summon Ecclesia in some hands.
• The Dogmatika engine is viable even on a modest budget. It's possible to simply play Dogmatika Punishment as a powerful trap capable of utilizing your extra deck, and even a single copy of Ecclesia (around $20 each right now) goes a long way for improving the power of this package. Of course, the deck is also perfectly playable as pure Altergeist.
• Budget players are most hurt by a lack of Pot of Extravagance, Infinite Impermanence, and Evenly Matched. The first three of these cards have reprints, but none are quite cheap enough yet to be easily accessible on a budget.
• The extra deck is extremely flexible (as Altergeist are typically played with Extravagance, anyway) and several options are simply tech cards, such as Elder Entity N'tss.
• Main deck trap choices are also extremely flexible. Torrential is quite powerful against Virtual World, but this could easily be swapped out for many other cards depending on your budget, available card pool, and locals demographics.
• The release of Blazing Vortex in early February also brings along an incredibly powerful staple card in Pot of Prosperity. Altergeist, along with virtually every other deck that enjoys running Pot of Extravagance currently, will appreciate Prosperity as well. Many OCG decks are choosing to play both Extrav + Prosperity in their decklists. Of course, Prosperity is also a Secret Rare, and is virtually guaranteed to be around $100, so this is not applicable on a budget.

 

Prank-Kids

Price: $150 Imgur | DuelingBook

• Floaty combo/control deck with 4 maindeck Prank-Kids that all float into any other Prank-Kid when used for a Link or Fusion summon
• Got a great boost in Phantom Rage with Prank-Kids Meow-Meow-Mu, a Link 1 Prank-Kid monster that makes this deck incredibly consistent and turns any single Prank monster into full combo.
• Prank-Kids Place is a little pricey, currently sitting at around $17 per copy in NA. While it contributes to your overall consistency (as it's equivalent to any Prank name), you can definitely get away with cutting copies of Place if your budget is tight.
• Notably took 1st place at the Canadian Remote Duel Invitational in mid-January, piloted by Hanko Chow.
• This deck appreciates the inclusion of Predaplant Verte Anaconda (currently over $30 apiece in NA) which can dump Thunder Dragon Fusion to help field Battle Butler, your main win condition. It was dropped from the provided list for budget reasons, but it's a great inclusion if you have a copy already. In conjunction with cards like Link Spider, it also improves your ability to play through disruption and through Nibiru.
• This deck has many characteristics of a great deck, but suffers from similar problems as Zoodiac in that it struggles to play through disruption on your normal summon, or cards like Ash negating your first Prank-Kid effect. The inclusion of Polymerization in the main deck helps to combat this, but also popular are builds that don't play Poly at all and instead just load the main deck with handtraps and powerful staples like Forbidden Droplet.
• Pot of Desires is included in this example main deck to help boost consistency and overall power, but some players opt not to run it.

 

Salamangreat

Price: $50+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Link-based midrange deck with a lot of recursion and a special in-archetype technique, where 1 Link Monster is used as the entire Link material to summon another copy of that monster, granting bonus effects
• The deck is somewhat halfway between control and combo, establishing respectable boards turn 1 with a fairly compact engine, allowing many handtraps to be played. Their real strength comes in turn 3 and beyond, where their arsenal of free summons from the GY, coupled with their stellar resource recycling, easily overwhelm the opponent.
• The majority of the deck is dirt cheap and is mostly able to be built with commons from SOFU+SAST supplementing 3 copies of Structure Deck: Soulburner.
• Accesscode Talker is a huge part of this deck's success, able to steal games easily with the help of Update Jammer. Accesscode is not at all affordable on a budget, so the sample list plays Zeroboros instead. Owning one copy of Accesscode is a tremendous improvement to this deck's strength.
• Salamangreat has found little competitive success in bigger online tournaments this format, but still regularly performs well in smaller events, remote duel locals, and the like. It's also a fairly safe choice, as it's somewhat unlikely we see further Salamangreat hits on the next banlist.
• The provided list plays Rivalry + Strike, a potent option allowing you to sometimes win games even into established boards. Strike is quite solid in the current format, as even the combo decks don't usually end on ways to punish a lot of set backrow.
• Parallel eXceed is an optional card, and can be cut in favor of more backrow or handtraps. On one hand, it allows you to more easily link climb when going second, and can easily add a Dweller or Bagooska to your board going first (Dweller is very good right now, as well). On the other hand, players may prefer to run more defensive cards instead of eXceed.

 

Subterror

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Subterrors are a control deck with a focus on flipping monsters face-down and generating constant advantage with Subterror Guru.
• Pure Guru control is the most played variant, and is more or less a stun deck that tries to abuse Guru as much as possible. While most Guru lists online are Numeron and/or Dragoon hybrids, the pure version saw some success earlier this format at the Benelux Remote Duel Extravaganza, finishing top 4. You can watch that deck profile here, and the sample list is generally based off of that list.
  • While Dragoon isn't budget-friendly, the Numeron engine is very accessible for little cost, and is a viable variant of this deck as well. Numeron cards aim to make Number S0: Utopic ZEXAL going first or simply OTK going second. S0 is an extremely powerful card that can prevent the opponent from playing the game entirely if it resolves. If you are interested in this version, you can check the Subterror list on the previous budget post.
• The sample list doesn't have a complete extra deck, mainly because it doesn't play Extravagance and you barely go into the Extra Deck to begin with. Relinquished Anima is a decent option if you can shell out the $7-8 for it, since sometimes you can turn Fiendess into Anima. Apart from that, provided Extra Deck options include anti-Maximus cards for the Dogmatika matchup, and Aussa + Zoodiac Drident in case you face a Zoodiac player. Taking their Zoo monster and then slapping your Drident on top can be potent.
• This deck usually plays Extravagance over Desires, but Desires is quite a serviceable replacement. Similarly to Altergeist, this deck also enjoys Pot of Prosperity post-BLVO.

 

B Tier

Like the above category, but generally weaker, less consistent, and/or impacted harder by a lack of access to a certain card(s).
 

Dinosaurs

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Dinosaurs are an aggressive deck with consistent access to Evolzar Laggia/Dolkka and Ultimate Conductor Tyranno, a formidable boss monster with incredible OTK power and disruption.
• Dinosaur's strength tends to be largely meta-dependent, particularly how well it can counter the existing top decks. During the previous two combo-infested formats with decks like Dragon Link and Adamancipator running around, Dinos had several extremely impressive showing at events, such as TeamSamuraiX1's win at the first NA Remote Duel Invitational, as well as all three first-place players at LCS 7 (a 3v3 event) playing Dino.
• In the current format, Dinosaurs are struggling. The Virtual World matchup is difficult, and it's hard for Dinosaur to build to beat all of VW, Drytron, Eldlich variants, and the plethora of rogue decks running around. Additionally, Mystic Mine is not very potent this format as both Virtual World and Eldlich have in-engine outs to the card, which is another blow to the Dinosaur strategy. Finally, the popularity of handtraps like Skull Meister and Artifact Lancea in the side or even the main deck are also reasons this deck has declined.
• The provided variant still plays Mine, as it has utility breaking boards. Deckout is a much less reliable strategy against VW and Eldlich, but you can still stall for some turns until you can make a push for game. The addition of Cosmic Cyclone is also an attempt at neutering cards like Chuche and Conquistador.
• If you wanted to build this deck without Mines, you would have to find replacements for quite a few cards (and frankly, Dinosaur does not have very many good ones). Most power staples are not budget, such as Lightning Storm, Talents, Droplet, etc. This deck also really appreciates Pot of Extravagance, which still sits barely out of budget range at around $25 each in NA.
• Budget Dino must also deal with the lack of Animadorned Archosaur, an extremely powerful addition to the deck that opens up many new combos. However, sitting at around $60 per copy, the card is inaccessible on a budget.
• The provided list plays the Simorgh combo, bringing out the WIND barrier statue on turn 1 to steal games. Though a full extra deck is provided, very few cards are actually needed, as the deck typically plays Extravagance anyway.

 

Dragon Link

Price: $100-150+ (depending on Extra Deck) Imgur | DuelingBook

• Dragon Link is a Link-centric combo deck that was a dominant force in the meta for about half a year, but lost a lot of resilience and power with the recent bans to Linkross and Dragon Buster Destruction Sword.
• The provided budget version of this deck actually has a ton of extra deck flexibility due to not needing to play Synchro/Link cards related to the Halq/Kross package, meaning that you can play Knightmares, anti-Dogmatika cards, etc. This also means that the budget version doesn't actually care about the Linkross ban at all.
• This deck has seen a great deal of variation online, playing a variety of different engines and tech cards. A few of these include Vylon Cube + Smoke Grenade, the Rose Dragons, several different Dragonmaid cards, and even an FTK variant involving Earthbound Immortal Aslla piscu. However, few of these are viable for budget players, especially if you do not own a copy of Halqifibrax.
• An interesting option the deck has is to use Union Carrier to equip handtraps such as Artifact Lancea. On the opponent's turn, Hieratic Seal can be used to return the handtrap to your hand, making it live immediately. This is something you may want to consider in the main deck if you frequently have to deal with decks like Virtual World and Dinosaur. Another option is to equip Ally of Justice Cycle Reader to Carrier (they're both machines) and then bounce it to hand, as a weapon against Drytron. Carrier isn't in the example list, but this is a really interesting option to consider.
• With Linkross out of the picture, playing Fibrax alone is an option if you either already own a copy or can afford the $20 needed to obtain one. You may have to retool your combos to incorporate Fiber, but the card can definitely add flexibility and resilience to your deck if you use it well.

 

Paleozoic Frogs

Price: $50+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Backrow-heavy control deck that summons its Traps to the field as monsters and pressures the opponent with Toadally Awesome
• After being absent from the budget post for about a year, Paleo makes its triumphant return as its boss monster, Toad, returns to 3. Toad's reprint in Maximum Gold also brought this card down from $20 each to just a few bucks, making the entire deck extremely cheap.
• As a control deck, Paleo suffers from more weaknesses compared to Eldlich, Altergeist, and Subterror. Notably, the engine tends to bleed advantage unless you've managed to maintain access to Swap Frog, and you can be quickly outpaced by stronger decks. However, in games where you can establish a Toad early, or where you can maintain control with your backrow, you can do quite well.
• Paleo saw a surprising amount of success in various remote duel events this format, though some of that success is likely due to the format being unexplored and some sort of "new toy syndrome" as Toad recently went from 2 to 3.
• Paleo struggles to out Dragoon, especially without access to Ice Dragon's Prison, a $40 card. An interesting option catching on in the meta lately is the use of Mirror Force cards, particularly Quaking and Storming, as they both pressure Dragoon. Still, the card puts quite a lot of pressure on this deck.
• Speaking of Dragoon, some Paleo players opt to play that package in this deck as well. Swap Frog is a one card Dragoon as you can simply dump Ronin, turn Swap into Almiraj, and then revive Ronin to make Verte from there.
• Fiend Griefing is presented as an interesting option which is very decent in the current meta, particularly vs Drytron. Combining it with Absolute King Back Jack is a classic combo that Paleo played a long time ago in 2017, during early Zoo formats.

 

Shaddoll (Magistus)

Price: $100+, can be closer to $50 with fewer copies of Schism Imgur | DuelingBook

• Classic Fusion-based archetype from 2014, debuting in Duelist Alliance. Somewhat of a midrange combo deck that can slow the game down with El Shaddoll Winda or be very aggressive with El Shaddoll Construct
• Winda is a troublesome floodgate that many decks struggle to out, especially combo decks such as Drytron. Shaddoll cards are currently played in several Dogmatika variants due to the sheer power of Winda and the utility of Shaddoll Schism.
• The current meta is favorable for Shaddoll not only due to Winda being effective vs Drytron, but also due to Ariel being very strong against a large chunk of the format, including Eldlich variants. Her ability to banish 3 cards from the GY is so strong that some decks are splashing in Sinister Shadow Games + Ariel just for that option, which we saw played in some of the 60-card Eldlich decks at LCS 9.
  • The growing popularity of Shaddoll cards has also caused Shaddoll Schism to go up in price substantially. Currently, it's around $17, but it may continue to rise.
• The deck's biggest problem has always been its inability to consistently resolve a fusion spell on turn 1. Invoked Shaddoll was a popular hybrid in earlier formats, but with the release of the Magistus archetype in GEIM, Shaddolls got access to Rilliona and Magistus Invocation. This is an improvement since Magistus Invocation can fuse from hand and field whereas the regular Invocation can only fuse from hand when summoning Shaddolls. Additionally, Artemis provides a super convenient way for the deck to turn any Shaddoll into a LIGHT monster, which is important for summoning Construct.
• While the full Dogmatika package is very expensive due to Nadir Servant being a $75 card, one option is to play just one copy of Ecclesia (around $20) along with Maximus and a playset of Dogmatika Punishment. Maximus and Punishment have a ton of synergy in the Shaddoll deck in conjunction with Apkallone's GY effect, and this combination is deadly even on a budget.
• Other normal summons such as Mathematician and even Gale Dogra are potent on this deck, and can be played in addition to Rilliona or as a replacement for her. Yet another option is to run 1 copy of the now-cheap Eldlich the Golden Lord as a LIGHT monster for Shaddoll Fusion that can easily revive itself.
• Another popular variant is a very trap-heavy list, sometimes cutting the Magistus cards entirely. PAK and SirEmanon's YouTube channels both have their own takes on this, if you're interested.

 

Unchained

Price: $50+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Floaty destruction-based archetype that generates advantage when its cards are destroyed, enabling its gimmick of using your opponent's monsters to Link Summon.
• Can be built to go first or to go second quite effectively. Since going second is very difficult this format, the provided list aims to go first, playing a bunch of trap cards.
• Fairly modest online performance, doing alright at smaller events and more recently finishing top 8 at the second YuGiJoe online series as well as occasional Luxury events. After the December banlist, Unchained has rapidly gained popularity in online remote duel events, and is one of the more prominent rogue decks this format. This success could be because the format is generally slower compared to previous ones, and many destruction-based cards such as Torrential Tribute are very popular currently, which this deck enjoys.
• Mega-Tin reprints of Abomination's Prison as well as their Link 2 have helped make this deck a great deal more affordable. I:P Masquerena being more affordable is also a nice boost, though it's by no means essential in this deck.
• This deck's best weapon is its opponents being unprepared for it. Playing improperly into backrow or Unchained floats can very quickly be fatal. It also matches up decently into some backrow decks as well as Dogmatika variants, which rely on destruction-based removal from Dogmatika Punishment and Elder Entity N'tss.

 

C Tier

Decks in this category have the capability to be just as good as the ones above at times, but often tend to suffer from multiple problems including consistency and power.
 

Burning Abyss

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Versatile control-based Graveyard toolbox deck that has been swinging in and out of meta relevance since its release way back in 2014.
• Gradually got more and more cards back from the banlist, with Cir and Graff being unlimited on the December 2020 list. The deck is now more or less "full power" with the exception of Beatrice, who is still limited.
• The deck aims to establish Beatrice on turn 1 backed up with trap cards. The BA cards as well as Beatrice are extremely floaty, so this deck can put up quite a fight in grind games. Fiend Griefing is a solid card in the current meta, and is excellent in the Burning Abyss deck as you can send Farfa for further disruption, Graff/Scarm for followup, or Back Jack for more traps.
• This deck was frequently mixed with Phantom Knight cards back in 2016 (often called PK Fire). Nowadays, Phantom Knight decks are typically either built pure or with an extremely compact BA engine. While it's possible to play a more dedicated hybrid build, the release of PK Torn Scales combined with most key BA cards being unlimited means that it's just better to focus on one or the other.
• Many other options are playable - Desires for draw power, playing more traps, more handtraps, etc. Consider Needle Ceiling over Torrential as it can be harder to pull off, but combos better with Trap Trick. Players with access to Ice Dragon's Prison should play it, and adventurous duelists can even opt to play Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss.
• As a deck easily capable of churning out Rank 3 Xyzs, you also have easy access to Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS Sky Thunder, one of the most powerful extra deck cards in the format. If this is an accessible option, it should be played.

 

Sky Striker

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Spell-heavy control deck that usually maintains only one monster on the field at a time, in the extra monster zone.
• Formerly an extremely dominant control deck, modern-day Striker no longer accrues infinite resources through resolving Engage multiple times, but instead is easily able to kill you with an Accesscode Talker push after whittling down your LP and resources for a turn or two. The standard combo involves laddering from Halqifibrax -> Selene -> Accesscode and then dismantling your opponent's board before swinging for game.
• You may have noticed a problem: if you're on a budget, you can't use Accesscode. This is a pretty big blow to the deck's overall strength. Some players opt for alternatives such as the Utopia Double package, which Zoé Weber played in the second EU Remote Duel Invitational last format. Another option is to simply not run it at all, and close games the old-fashioned way.
• In previous formats, this deck was oftentimes played like an anti-meta going second deck, packing tons of removal cards and usually 3 copies of Mystic Mine in the main deck. In the current format, this strategy is a lot more difficult due to several factors - it's very hard to go second this format in general, and Mine is a lot less effective vs the top decks right now.
• Instead, the sample list plays a going-first strategy with powerful trap cards like There Can Be Only One and Solemn Strike. It's possible to build this deck to go second, but you'd probably want to play board breakers instead of trap cards, and potentially also maindeck PSY-Framegear Gamma.
• Yet another way to play this deck involves (surprise) Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon and multiple copies of Red-Eyes Fusion. Instead of using cards like Widow Anchor and Afterburners to muscle through disruption and stick a Mystic Mine on the field, you use them to get to your Dragoon and either win the game immediately or put yourself in a position where your opponent can't play through the Dragoon disrupt.
• Roze is the most expensive card in this list. If your budget is tight, you can definitely cut her down to 1.

 

Zoodiac

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Xyz-focused deck with a gimmick allowing you to use any one Zoodiac as the entire Xyz material requirement for another Zoodiac. This lets you stack Zoo Xyz monsters on top of each other, making use of their effects.
• Plays a compact engine combined with around 20 slots dedicated to handtraps, traps, and draw power. This deck is also commonly played as a hybrid deck, oftentimes with Eldlich and sometimes with Dogmatika cards. Both of these options are quite expensive, so they are not shown.
• The deck's strength in competitive play comes almost entirely from Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS Sky Thunder, an extremely powerful Xyz monster that Zoodiac can effortlessly make due to Zoodiac Boarbow. Zoo is also easily able to summon Zeus with many materials, allowing it to repeatedly nuke the board.
• Budget Zoo without Zeus is extremely weak by comparison. Relying solely on Drident + handtraps is not a reliable win condition, so cards like Parallel eXceed and Pot of Avarice are included in the sample list to give this deck a boost. While Megaclops is a troublesome boss monster in some matchups, the big three decks (Drytron, Virtual World, and Eldlich) generally don't have much trouble dealing with it.
• Even with Zeus, the deck has been struggling in the current competitive meta. Noteworthy is its performance at LCS 9, where out of a whopping 51 Zoodiac variants that entered the tournament, only 1 survived until top 16.

 

Up-And-Coming

Decks to watch out for, oftentimes due to recent online success or new support being announced. Some might also be decks that could potentially be on the main body of the post, but need a little more time to prove themselves.
 

Tri-Brigade

Price: $100 (for now) Imgur | DuelingBook

• Link-focused deck that plays a variety of Beast, Beast-Warrior, and Winged Beast monsters. The maindeck Tri-Brigades cheat out powerful Link monsters, provided your GY is set up. This deck also trivially access the Simorgh link, which can sometimes seal games on its own through the WIND Barrier Statue.
• In the current format, Tri-Brigade has seen fairly sparse success, usually mixed with Zoodiac. However, BLVO gives us Tri-Brigade Kitt, a great boost to this deck and a fantastic combo piece.
• Further support in LIOV and beyond is also very promising, making this deck a potentially solid investment for the future.
• The Tri-Brigade core is currently quite cheap, but this could change in the future depending on hype and the market.
• owo

 

Traptrix

Price: $100-150 Imgur | DuelingBook

• Control deck with an extremely powerful Link 1 monster, Traptrix Sera, that pumps out constant advantage.
• The sample list incorporates a very small Dogmatika engine. Dogmatika Punishment itself is very cheap, and is one of the best generic traps in the game right now. Just 1 copy of Ecclesia (around $20) provides a substantial power boost to this mini-engine, as dumping one copy of Titaniklad with Punishment and grabbing an Ecclesia for next turn is extremely powerful. Another option is to dump El Shaddoll Apkallone, then adding and discarding Ariel in order to trigger her effect and banish 3 cards, which is insane value.
• If you can't get Ecclesia, you could simply play just Punishment as a generic trap. Another option is to play pure Traptrix, incorporating more power traps/handtraps, and quite frequently the Utopia Double package as well.
• This deck is definitely still getting support, as LIOV brings a new Link 2 and main deck monster.

 

Plunder Patroll

Price: $100+ Imgur | DuelingBook

• Pirate archetype with ridiculous recursion and a unique tag-out and equip mechanic based on Attributes being used in the game.
• The pirates become equips for one of (currently) three Patrollships, extra deck monsters that can all discard Plunder Patroll cards in hand to fuel powerful effects. The ships become stronger when manned (equipped with) a Plunder card, with bonuses such as ignition effects becoming quick effects, or being able to replace the discarded card with a new one from the deck.
• Many Plunder lists play Forbidden Droplet, as it has great synergy with the cards. Without Droplet, you could fill the space with several different options. This deck chooses to play the Undine package, but you can also go for cards like Foolish Burial Goods, Salvage, Silent Angler, Tenyi Spirit - Shthana, Toadally Awesome + Bahamut Shark, or just more generic staples.
• This deck is getting at least one more support card in LIOV, that being Ravenwing. Many people speculate that they'll also get another Patrollship of a new attribute, which would be a huge buff to the deck.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Megalith, Madolche, Pendulum decks, Cyber Dragon, Orcust, Mermail Atlantean, Magical Musketeers, Crusadia (Guardragon), ABC, D/D, Generaider, and more - Decks that are fairly decent but have been left off of the post to make room for other decks that have seen more recent success or have fewer budget resources online.
• Dragonmaid, Eldlich, Infernoid, Invoked variants, HERO, etc - Decks that are pretty good but are sorta in limbo due to some expensive individual cards, such as Chamber Dragonmaid, Cursed Eldland, Invocation, etc.
• Cubics, Phantasm, Chain Burn, Evilswarm, Yosenju, Dinomist, and much, much more - Unfortunately, there is not enough room to cover every single decent, super-cheap deck.

 
 
I hope to keep this post updated for the foreseeable future. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions.