Jammer or Trickster?

by Crazy Ivan

I had a conversation with Mantis the other day during the Wednesday Night Brawl on this topic.  Last night I had a conversation with Monk on the same topic, referring back to the conversation I'd had with Mantis.  Earlier tonight I had yet another conversation on the same topic with Maverick.  At this point I realized this was probably something I should tackle on the blog.

So are you a Jammer or a Trickster?

The truth is almost certainly something in between, but before you choose sides here, let me give you an explanation of what I mean by the two terms.

Jammer: This is a person who spends most of their Myachi time jamming and focuses on linking tricks together.  They are more prone to try novel moves on the spur of the moment and they usually practice new tricks by adding them to their regular shreds.  They tend to favor a few specific long combos of 10 or more moves.

Trickster: This is a person who spends most of their Myachi time learning new stuff and focus on finding new variations.  Their new moves usually come from finding ways to make existing moves more impressive or more difficult.  They tend to favor huge tricks or radically complex combos of only a few moves.

So the first and most obvious question is, which are you.  The second question, of course, is why does it matter?

Obviously I can't answer the first one so I'll tackle the second one and I'll do so by recalling the context in which it was brought up three times in the last 3 days.  It's all about the game of MYACH.

The question was about Monk and Maverick.  Both of these guys are incredible Myachi players.  If you're doing the math fairly, they are probably the #1 and #2 players in the world, though I'd be hard pressed to say which person gets which rank.

Maverick has the most impressive shreds in the game and hits all the biggest combos.  He owns a dozen moves that nobody else has ever pulled off and if you just make up some crazy combo he's never tried and challenge him to do it, he's as likely to hit it as anyone in the solar system.

But Monk consistently beats him at MYACH.

Monk is in many ways the opposite of Mav when he shreds.  His moves are so clean, precise and balanced that he makes the toughest moves look effortless.  He's so good that his chief fault when he shreds is that he forgets to make it look hard.  Monk is like the "Mario" of Myachi in that he is balanced in every field of the game.

I'm willing to bet my best Blue Dragon that if 100 random people were asked who was better at the game after watching Monk and Mav shred, at least 95 of them would pick Mav.  On the other side of that coin, I'd bet the same sack that if Monk and Mav played 100 games of MYACH, Monk would win at least 95 of them.

The problem with offering a straight forward ranking is that Mav is the world's best Jammer, but Monk is the world's best Trickster.  The question of which means most to you personally is going to determine who goes where in the overall ranks.  The fact is that if you want a trick hit right now, on demand, Monk is your guy.  If you want a jam that will knock your socks off, Mav's the best choice.

So where do you fit in?  Well, knowing whether you're a Jammer or a Trickster can help you as you progress in the game.  It frustrates Jammer's who know that they're good when they lose at MYACH.  Could be that you're just going up against a Trickster who has that natural edge.

Similarly, a Trickster might know that he or she is the better player, but somebody else manages to draw the crowds using only basic tricks.  They're gawking over some dude's Flow to a Fu and meanwhile you're doing Matrix variations to a bunch of tumbleweeds.  Don't sweat it.  Could be that the other person is a Jammer and they go into it with that natural edge on them.

In case you're curious, I fall somewhere toward the middle, but definitely on the "Jammer" side of the center point.  If you can't decide which one best describes you, fear not.  I'll be following up on this subject on Wednesday with the newest Facebook quiz (which will also be posted here).