My 10 Favorite Myachi Games

by Crazy Ivan

I did an entry the other day where I was discussing our favorite Myachi game and that prompted several readers to write in and ask what some of my other favorite Myachi games were.  Rather than answer each email, I figured I'd just put my answer here for all to see.

Now a word of warning: I'm only giving a brief overview here.  Over the next couple of months I'll do detailed explanations of all of these games (even the seemingly self-explanatory ones) complete with pictures and how-to videos.  But for now I'm just shooting for broad brush strokes.  Think of it as building suspense for the later blog entries.

I should note too that for the purposes of this blog I define the term "game" pretty loosely.  Not all of the games below are the kinds with winners and losers.  For my purpose here, I define a game as any remotely structured way of playing with a Myachi.

So without further ado, I present my personal 10 favorite games to play with a Myachi (at the moment):

 #10) Myachi Pong 

Pong is about as simple as a Myachi game can get.  The idea is that 2 or more players stand somewhere outdoors and start bouncing a Myachi back and forth using only Trampolines (T-shirt bounces).  The idea is to see how many consecutive bounces you can get.

It usually starts pretty mellow but one bad bounce gets things chaotic and before long you're running to catch it (which is why we play this game outdoors).  This is one of the games I was talking about without winners or losers.  The idea is to work together but you have to challenge each other.  After all, two moderately good players could keep a Myachi going on their shirts until their arms got tired.

 #9) Challenge 

Okay, so there's not really a name for this game, but it's something that we do at the House of Skills so often that I have to include it on my list.  Basically this is when two or more Myachi players are sitting around and one of them says something that starts with words like, "You know what would be awesome?"

This... this is what would be awesome.

So one of us comes up with some ridiculous combo (let's say Neo through a Musketeer into a Clipper Delay) and we just keep taking turns until one of us hits it.  Now clearly there is a winner (the person who gets it), but there's no loser because everybody else still gets to see this awesome move happen.

 #8) Carpet Bombing 

This is a weird one if you've never heard of it before, but it's basically a more complicated version of Myachi Golf.  The idea is that one player tosses a "target" Myachi and everyone else has to toss 4 Myachis and land them as close to that one as possible to earn points.

Sounds pretty easy until you get to the scoring system: 2 points if you touch the target sack, 1 point if you're within a Myachi away, 2 points if you land touching another Myachi that's within a Myachi away, 1 point if you're within a Myachi away from a Myachi that's within a Myachi away from the target Myachi and 1 additional point if you score on all 4 of your throws.

It sounds unnecessarily complicated, but once you start playing it's pretty easy and the weird scoring system allows for crazy challenges.  Sometimes you have throws that have to link together two earlier throws and sometimes you're trying to hit one Myachi and slide it toward the target.

Incidentally, this is the first game on my list that has a clear winner and loser.

 #7) Chaos 

This actually probably deserves a higher spot on the list but I'm sticking it here because this is a list of my favorite games, rather than the ones I play most often.

Chaos is as freeform as a game can get.  Basically you just have 3 or more people and 2 or more Myachis flying around a room and you're trying to all keep them in the air as long as possible.  The key is that it has to stay chaotic.  If everyone is throwing in a pattern it's a totally different type of challenge.

Okay, so they're not actually playing Chaos
in this picture, but tell me that doesn't look chaotic.

To stand a chance in this game, you've got to have a stellar catch and a fast eye, but there are few better ways to hone your Myachi skills.  There are also few accomplishments in the game that are as exhilarating as catching 2 Myachis coming at you from opposite directions and watching the jaws in the room drop.

 #6) Chain MYACH 

Alright, so it seems weird to mention this one before I actually talk about MYACH, but this is a variation on the more common game.  This is basically a game of combo building.  You start with something basic, say, Under the Leg.  Then the person next to you adds something, say a Wolverine.  Then the person after them adds something else, say a toe stall.

Now the combo has become an Under the Leg, Woverine to a Toe Stall.  The next player has to add an additional trick and they can put it wherever they want.  Let's say they add an Instep Kick between the Under the Leg and the Wolverine.  Now the next player (which is probably back around to the 1st player by now) has to add yet another trick.

As you can imagine, the combos get pretty intense pretty quickly.  Before long there's a 10 trick combo coming your way and you're supposed to add something to it.  Most of the truly incredible combos I've seen in my life came from this game.

 #5) Myachi Golf 

Golf is one of the most widely played games in all of Myachidom and I've probably participated in more Myachi Golf games than any other game on this list.  I say "participate" because I'm not usually playing, but rather I'm hosting the game for a group of competitors.

See, Myachi Golf is the game that we most often play when we're out spreading the word.  You don't really have to know how to play Myachi to have a chance in the game so pretty much anyone can step in off the street and get into a Golf tournament.

Pictured above: merciless competitors

This is Myachi in it's simplest form.  You have a target like a bowl or a bucket or a hat and you stand a little way away from it.  Take as many tries to land a Myachi in the target as you like.  The number of tries is your score and you play as many holes as you and your friends care to play.  At the end, whoever has the lowest score wins.

When we play at stores and amusement parks we usually do a simpler form where you have 3 chances to sink one and everyone who hits it goes on to another round.  Then we keep doing more and more rounds until there's only one player left.

What's so cool about this game is that even a veteran Myachi Master can still be challenged by it... especially if they have to play against Kid Myach.

 #4) Myachi Fu 

Now we're getting to the really good stuff.  This is the only real "contact sport" in Myachi and even then it's all palm to palm contact.  That being said, this game is like any other game that involves physical contact: you should be careful and exercise caution when playing.  I've accidentally knocked Animal out of one too many windows while playing this game to leave that warning out.

In this game 2 players (or if you're completely insane, 3 or more) each start with a Myachi on the back of their hand.  The object is to knock the Myachi off the opponents hand by slapping their palm.  At the same time, of course, you're trying not to let them knock your Myachi off.

There are a couple of important rules to keep in mind on this one.  Contact should only be palm to palm: no matter what you see Animal and I doing in YouTube videos, the rule in this game is that the only legal strike is palm to palm.  Hitting too hard is also against the rules and I'll leave it to you to decide what a reasonable "too hard" would be.

Also, Trap Moves are not allowed: No doing a Hulk or a Lotus or a deep Slingshot so that your opponent can't knock your Myachi off.  That kind of defeats the purpose of the game.  The idea is to use Centrifugals, Aerials and well times tosses to defend and then look for a weak spot in your opponents defense.

If I could talk the guys into playing more often, this game could easily move up the list to #2 at least.

 #3) MYACH 

Let's just assume that you already know that MYACH is the Myachi version of HORSE in basketball.  We'll assume that if you're reading this blog you know enough to know that MYACH is a the game where one player challenges the other by setting a trick and then forcing the other player(s) to hit the same trick or risk being penalized a letter.  Since you already know that a player is out when they spell MYACH, I won't have to explain it to you.

Commutes are only boring if you don't play Myachi.

The best thing about this game is that you can play against people who are miles away.  We actually do this every Wednesday night with maniacs from all over the country (maniacs as in Myachi maniacs, not just crazy people on the internet).  It's also where the coolest new tricks always seem to come from.

 #2) Street Surfing 

This is another one of those freeform types of winnerless and loserless games.  Street surfing is what we call it any time you use the environment around you to pull off a trick.  It's essentially the Myachi equivalent of parkour.

In it's simplest form, this might involve bouncing a Myachi off of a wall when you pass it to your buddy.  In cooler circumstances, it might involve bouncing off of an awning and into a banner so that the Myachi slides down and drops right to your buddy.

We play this game everywhere we go and though you do tend to lose Myachis by playing it, we're never dissuaded.  It doesn't matter how many gutter's gobble our favorite sacks, we'll keep playing because the really cool throws and catches far outweigh the depression of losing a broken in Myachi*.

*Of course, I'd never use one of my really broken in Myachis... or a rare one... or one that had sentimental value... or trade value...

 #1) Toss and Catch 

Since I did a whole blog entry about this a couple of days ago, I'm not gonna bother going into too much detail about the game of toss and catch.  I'm just going to point out the fact that there's an element of it in every game above.  You can literally improve your skills in all of the other 9 games I listed (and the dozens I didn't) just by tossing a Myachi around when you're watching TV or standing in line.

... or hanging out on the steps waiting for a train while people from
the New York times snap pictures of you trying to look casual.

And don't give me that "I don't have anybody to play toss and catch with" line.  My job is to stand around and play toss and catch with random strangers and I never have any problem finding people to play with...