Games Myachi Masters Play

by Crazy Ivan

The other day, Lucky and I were playing a little Myachi in the living room at the House of Skills and, as often happens in such situations, a new Myachi game emerged.  We started off just tossing back and forth and, because Lucky is still recovering from a broken leg, we had to do it seated.  Before long we started playing a variation of a game Butter and I used to play.  It's a simple back and forth game where I'm trying to land a Myachi on your seat and you're trying to land it on mine.  A lot of fakes, high tosses and crazy spins.

Of course, when Myachi Masters play, games evolve pretty quickly and before long we were playing an entirely different game.  We were having so much fun with it that I immediately thought "I should write about this on the blog".  After all, that's what I usually do when a new game emerges.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the game was really worth sharing.  It's a game that Lucky and I had a bunch of fun with and Monk, Kid and I had a bunch of fun with it later in the evening, but it occurs to me that this game really might only be fun for a Myachi Master.

I debated with myself for a bit on whether the game was blog-worthy, and obviously I eventually decided that it was.  It's a pretty simple game that requires two or more people and at least three Myachis.  I should note that in our limited experience, the more Myachis you use, the better... though I have to assume that at a certain point you pass the optimum number.

Here's how the game works:

Each player stands in a circle (or across from one another in a two player game).  One player starts with all 3 (or 4 or 5 or 6) Myachis.  You select one of the Myachis to be the "Target Sack".  It should be one that is brightly colored or at least one that looks a lot different than the others.  You'll see why in the next paragraph.

The first player now throws all the Myachis to the next player.  They can all be thrown at once or they can be thrown one at a time or they can be thrown in groups of two.  The thrower can throw however they want.  Now here's the twist: The player they're being thrown to doesn't have to catch all the Myachis.  They only have to catch the target sack.  In fact, they're only allowed to catch the Target Sack.  If you catch any Myachi other than the Target Sack, your opponent gets a point.  If you fail to catch the Target sack, the opponent gets a point.

Now this player gathers up the Myachis and tosses them back (or to the next player in the circle) and the game keeps going until one player has 7 points.

You can probably see how this gets challenging right away.  If the Myachis are thrown in a cluster, it's often very difficult to catch one without accidentally catching another.  We were allowing for a single strike before the catch to break up tightly clustered throws, but even then it can be really tough to pick out just the one we were supposed to catch.

But I had to wonder if this would be anywhere near as fun to the average Myachi player.  It's not that the game is too difficult, but rather, it might be too easy.  As a Myachi Master, you catch Myachis for at least 40 hours a week, but more often 50, 60 or more.  It gets to the point where anything someone tosses to you winds up on the back of your hand.  So for a Myachi Master, you have to really work not to catch all the Myachis that are coming your way.  You have to consciously tell yourself that they all have to land on the ground.  Even if you could make a really cool foot save that would allow you to catch all 3 (of 4 or 5 or 6).  When Lucky and I played, I won because he eventually just accidentally caught one that was near his left hand (he was catching the Target Sack with his right).  It's an instinct and it's tough to suppress.

So my hope is that a few Myachi Maniacs will read this, try the game out and report back to me.  If you decide to help me in this experiment, please leave your results in the comment section below.  Also, we're trying to think of a name for this one, so if you have any thoughts there, you can leave them in the comments section as well.