What is the Hardest Trick in Myachi?

by Crazy Ivan

The most common questions we get in Myachi are (a) who is the best (b) which Myachi is the rarest and (c) what trick is the hardest.

I've tackled the first question on the blog before and I'll get to the second one eventually as well, but today we're going to focus in on that third one.  Which Myachi trick is the touhgest?

Like many of the simple questions I posit on this blog, there is no simple answer to this one.  There's no generally accepted measurement for "toughness" when it comes to tricks so while I can say with certainty that, for example, a Toe 360 is harder than a Cold Fusion and a Trampoline is easier than a Daredevil, I can't say how much easier or harder one move is than another.

One way to measure toughness in a trick is by how long it typically takes a person to learn that trick.  Obviously this won't be the same for everyone but if you looked at enough people you could come up with an average.  Let's say (and I'm just making numbers up here) that it takes the typical person 2 weeks to learn the Daredevil and 3 weeks to learn a Toe 360.  You could say that a Toe 360 is about "one week" harder to learn than a Daredevil.

Even harder is making it all the way
through this stupid movie...

Even though this might be true on the average, it could also be that for some people the Daredevil is much harder to learn.  If you're already a soccer player or a footbagger or if you have some other reason to have mad control of your leg muscles, the Toe 360 won't be as challenging to you as it is to the average person.

Likewise if you're a juggler or a flair bartender you might have a lot of experience doing "shadow passes", which are a lot like Daredevils.  This might make it far easier for you to learn the Daredevil than it is for the average person.

All that being said, the exceptions don't move the needle all that much.  There are some quibbles here and there, but I think we could present a pretty universally acceptable list of the 200 most common Myachi tricks from easiest to hardest.

But once you get outside the more common tricks things get pretty hairy.  See, there are many moves where you couldn't really say how long it takes people to learn them on average.  A move like the 4 Myachi Juggle and the Hyper-Yoga have only been mastered by one person so there aren't enough data to make for a meaningful average.

What's more is that when you move into really tough moves, it's not like you're learning them from scratch.  Take the Duck N Dive as an example.  Before you learn the Duck N Dive, you'll have to learn the Butterfly Stall.  Before you can learn the Butterfly Stall you'll have to learn the Clipper Delay.  Before you can learn the Clipper Delay you'll have to learn the Instep Stall.

Pictured above: Not the Duck N Dive.

So how long does it take to learn a Duck N Dive?  Do you add in all the time you spent learning all those constituent moves?  Do you start counting the day a person first learns Myachi?  Do you only count the time spent practicing that one move?  If so, how do you average it out between a person who already learned all the pieces of the move and somebody who tries to jump straight from the Clipper Delay to the Duck N Dive?

So now that I've spent a few paragraphs explaining why I can't actually answer that question, let me spend a few more paragraphs answering it.

There are a number of tricks in Myachi that have only been mastered by one person and almost all of those deserve some consideration when it comes to the toughest move.  I say "almost all" because some of these moves are just really weird variations that only one person ever really tried.  If I spend all my time learning to do one crazy Bodyguard variation that nobody else can do, that doesn't make it the hardest move; it just means that it wasn't a cool enough trick for other people to spend the time on.

To be considered the "toughest trick" in the game, a trick really has to have two qualities: (a) a very small number of people who can actually do it right and (b) a very large number of people who want to learn it and/or have tried it.

All I'm saying is that if someone does something nobody's
ever done before, it might be that they're more talented.
Of course, it could also be that they're dumber...

When you break it down like that, there are really two major contenders.  One is a lower body move, the other is an upperbody move.

The lower body move is the Crypto-Nite.  It's essentially a Crypto > Duck > Leg Over > Clipper Delay weak side.  Thus far only Maverick can hit this trick despite a bunch of eager Myachi players trying desperatley to bring their Crypto under control.

This is a pretty legit heir to the throne of the toughest move.  Years ago the Duck N Dive was considered the hardest move in the game but eventually it became slightly too commonplace to hold that title.  It is still a super-advanced move, but there were far too many people doing it for anyone to consider it the toughest trick any more.  Then Maverick came along and showed us the Crypto-Nite.  It's essentially a Duck N Dive except that it starts with a Crypto instead of a Clipper Delay, a change that at least doubles the difficulty.

Many people will contend that no strictly foot move can be considered the toughest Myachi trick.  Many footbaggers who are unfamiliar with Myachi are good enough with their feet to pull of a Crypto-Nite with only a few tries to get used to the Myachi's shape.  Since this trick already exists in footbag and isn't unique to Myachi, many people shy away from considering the de facto "hardest Myachi trick".

Still others reject that move simply
because of its name.

The other major contender is the "Matrix Unleashed".  This is definitely a uniquely Myachi move.  It uses nothing but the back of the hands and has no counterpart in any other skill toy.  While virtually every veteran player is trying to master this trick, only Animal has really reached that point.

Unlike the Crypto-Nite, there are quite a few people who can "pretty much" do the Matrix Unleashed.  A Matrix reloaded is basically a miniature Matrix Unleashed so a lot of people are darn close.  The Matrix Unleashed is essentially an infinite Matrix so it's hard to say when a long run on a Matrix reloaded becomes a Matrix unleashed.

Many people can do 3, 4 or even 5 Matrices back to back and this could be considered the Matrix Unleashed.  Animal holds the record (and has 2nd through 64th place, I believe) on this one and nobody else has even gotten close.  What's more is that the few people who have pulled off 8xMatrix or more have yet to do it with the clean, crisp look that Animal gives it.

So one could say that with the Matrix Unleashed that many people have learned to do it poorly but only one has mastered it.  That's actually a point on the Crypto-Nite's side since nobody in Myachi is really close to hitting that trick.  Noodles flirts with it now and again, but nobody's presently threatening to master it.

There are other legitimate contenders for the title of the toughest trick.  One intrepid blogger is nearing a 5 Myachi juggle and has pulled off a couple of single exchange rotations on that so some might say that's the hardest move in the game.  Bones is constantly redefining the boundaries of foot tricks, portals and aerial combos and many of his moves might one day morph into the toughest in the game.  Monk's unfathomable control and symmetry could easily lead to a new combo that nobody else in the world can do.  Mantis has pushed the 4 Myachi Juggle so far that he's about to start adding tricks within it and those will all be legit contenders for the title as well.

Pictured Above: An intrepid blogger.

In summary, there is certainly a "hardest trick" out there somewhere, but I don't think we've gotten that far yet.  I can remember a time when moves like the Toe 360, the Daring Ninja and the Matrix were the marks of masters.  Now they're considered pretty commonplace.  I remember a time when the Duck N Dive and the Super Yoga were elevated to a near super-human level but now they're just really hard tricks.

The highest echelon of tricks now will be tommorow's basics.  As the game grows and more and more creative and talented people get in, they will continue to push the boundaries.  I hesitate to say anything is the "hardest" trick now for fear that it will be laughed at by the Myachi players of 2015.

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Did I miss a trick that should have been mentioned?  Do you have a trick you've invented that you think deserves consideration?  If so, let us know in the comment section below.