A New Myachi Game (with an old name)

by Crazy Ivan

I recently posted a video to give everyone an idea what we do during meeting nights at the House of Skills.  The video is a slight exaggeration (there's usually more on the checklist than "eat pizza" and "jam out"), but it essentially captures things.  We get together every other week, feast on some of New York's signature food and throw down a few games of MYACH, Golf, Pong, Fu or whatever comes to mind.  Of course, sometimes we spend some time going over sales figures, addressing employment concerns or, as was the case last night, promoting Bones and Noodles.

But the meetings are also the only times that the whole team gets together so there's usually a lot of time spent showing off new tricks, combos and variations and trying to come up with names for them (or harder versions of them).  It's also where we usually unveil new Myachi games.

Such was the case last night.  I'd come up with an idea for a game called "Tricktionary" the other day and I'd been waiting for meeting night to unveil it to everyone.  Bones, Noodles, Animal and I played a round last night and as it turns out, yes, there's yet another really fun thing you can do with a Myachi:

How to Play Tricktionary:

Like MYACH, this is a game of freestyle skills but unlike MYACH this game won't be won by the person who knows the toughest tricks, but rather by the person that knows the most tricks.  You can play with any number of players from 2 up, but it would probably be pretty impractical to play with more than 6 or 7... or at least it would get really hard to keep track of.

So here's how the game goes:

Players stand in a circle.  One player is randomly selected to go first and play then continues around the circle to that players left.

The first player to go must do 1 trick and it can be any trick they choose.  The next player must now do 2 tricks and they too can use any tricks they want with one exception: they can't use the trick the first player already did.

Once a trick is done in this game it is "crossed off the list" and nobody else can do that exact same move again.  The third player must do 3 tricks in a row but cannot use any of the tricks that the first two players did.  The fourth player has to do 4 tricks in a row and can't use any moves that have already been done.

As you can imagine, this starts pretty easy and gets tough quick.  Eventually the hardest part is just thinking of tricks that haven't been done already.

If you miss one of your tricks or do a trick that has already been done, you get a strike and the counter "resets" so the next player only has to do 1 trick (but still can't use any move that's already been done).  When a player gets three strikes, they're out.  The last player standing is the winner.

Keep in mind as you play this that one of the biggest challenges is coming up with moves that haven't been done yet.  Everyone will be trying to keep a running list in their head and there might end up being some disagreement between players.  We even saw this last night when somebody had done a 360 and someone else did a 1080 but then we couldn't remember if anyone had done a 720.  The only way to avoid this altogether is to keep a list of the tricks everyone does but that can be a pain so most often you'll just want to let the debates resolve themselves.

Strategy:

Obviously, the most important thing to have in this game is a huge repertoire of easy tricks.  The most fun part of this particular game is watching your opponent pull a tough 3 move combo (let's say a Clipper Delay, Fist Catch, Swordfish) and then following it up with a Cradle, a Halfpipe, a Hulk and a Lotus.

A couple of things to keep in mind along the way:

• This may seem obvious, but it's worth mentioning.  If you think of an easy move that hasn't been done, don't bring it up until your turn.
• Some moves will automatically suggest other moves.  If you get deep into a game and nobody has done a Pop Shove It, it might be best to wait until you have to put together a string of 5 or 6 tricks before pulling out it.  Why?  Because as soon as you do a Pop Shove It people will thinking of Skate-Style moves and someone else will take care of other easy moves like the Kick Flip, Heel Flip, Hard Flip and Back Flip.
• Don't forget about tough moves.  All the tricks count the same in this game so everyone gets really focused on thinking of easy tricks so sometimes when you're stumped the best thing to do is pull out a harder move that you're still pretty sure you'll hit.
• Learn more basics.  Most of us tend to focus on harder tricks when we're learning new stuff, but this game also rewards those who are thorough about learning all the basics.
• Remember what people drop on.  A move only gets scratched off the list if somebody hits it.  If someone tries and misses the move is still available but because it's been tried a lot of players might forget that it's still open.  Keeping track of the moves missed can mean the difference between winning and losing.
• Common combos help a ton in this game.  Having a 5 or 6 move combo that you do frequently (think all around the elbow) can be a huge advantage in the later stages of the game.

Pro-Level:

Even after one trial, we'd already come up with the more advanced version of the game.  It's played the same way with two big differences:

#1) All tricks must be done in combos.  In the simpler version if you chose to do a Spider Man, a Toe Stall and a Knee Pop you would be able to do one move, return the Myachi to the back of your hand and then do the next move.  In the Pro-Level version you would have to go directly from the Spiderman to the Toe and directly from the Toe to the Knee Pop.

Keep in mind that when you're playing Pro-Level Tricktionary the order in which you do the moves is going to make a huge difference on how tough they are.  Think about what order will make things easiest.

#2) All Combos must be done in less than one minute.  That's right, in the Pro-Level there's a time limit that makes things way tougher.  You have to plan your move(s) and execute it (them) within 60 seconds.  If the timer runs out on you before you complete your combo, you take a strike and the "count" goes back to one (meaning that the next player only has to do one trick rather than how ever many you had to do plus one).

To combat this timer you have to be thinking about your combo before it's your turn.  Obviously the player going before you might use one or more of the tricks you wanted to use so you'll also have to think about back up moves and substitute combos.