Auto-pilot ENGAGE

A few of my friends on Facebook were talking about Yugioh. One of them had recently gotten out of the game and was beginning to miss playing. A summation of the conversation is as followed:
Yugi: "Man, I wish I could play Yugioh right now but I don't have any cards."
Kaiba: "What happened to all your good stuff?"
Yugi: "I sold it. So I'll have to get on some of these new decks."
Kaiba: "Don't bother. The game is so autopilot right now; you can't win."
Kaiba: "All these tcg exclusives broke the game."
Yugi: "I thought that Tour Guide was the last broken card."
Kaiba: "There's more. It's all 'herpderp' do the same move all the time and win"
Yugi: "Lol."

I'm sure you guys have heard this a lot. The internet is full of forums and blogs where people are upset about the game-state. One of the biggest trends, which started up way back at Storm of Ragnarok release, is that any simpleton can play a tier 1 deck and win. As long as you follow the step-by-step procedure of your theme, you should win. This is becoming more and more true with new themes such as Dino Rabbits, Wind-ups, Inzector, New-Chaos Dragons, and Hidden Arsenal sets like Lavals and Gishki. According to many users, these decks auto-pilot you to success, and so long as you don't "misplay" then you are golden.

So what makes these decks auto-pilot decks and why is this so bad? Well let's look at the one deck that PROBABLY is not an auto-pilot deck.

Tengu Plants, in my opinion is not auto-pilot at all. Sure there are optimum plays, but the fact that it uses single copies of so many cards, and that 15 monster Extra Deck, gives it incredible options. For example, a hand of Reborn Tengu and One-for-one will probably result in a Librarian and Catastor to draw 1 card. However, depending on your hand, it could be so much more. Dandylion, Doppelwarrior, BLS, Debris Dragon, Caius, Monster Reborn, and so many more cards can influence the direction that 1 Tengu and One-for-one goes. That Extra deck toolbox is a key component to making this deck "skill-driven"(even if you have a 50% chance of choosing the correct synchro monster). Tengu Plants also suffer from relatively weak first-turn plays. Especially if they get the first turn, all you may see if a set Sangan or normal summoned Reborn Tengu. On rare occasions, the player may spend 2-3 cards to drop Trishula on the first turn and -1 the opponent. It can be said that "Always setting Sangan on the first turn is an auto-pilot move", but in most cases, that Tengu Plant player had other cards they could have played.

Auto-pilot usually goes as follows:
Start with your best opening monster - Laggia, Hamster, Darksoul, Tomato, Stratos, Laquari, Armageddon Knight(Inzector), Stardust(Dragunity), Shi En, Swap Frog, etc.
Set the desired backrow - Solemn Warning, Starlight Road, Forbidden Lance, Solemn Judgment, Dimensional Prison, etc.
Pass and attempt to control the game from there.

A big part of these "auto-pilot" decks is that they all have very powerful field presence on turn 1 or turn 2. This is usually because their deck has a fairly consistent win condition, and the sooner you can pull it off, the better. Decks that do not have powerful, first-turn field presence usually have 1-2 card combos that can create field presence from generally nothing. These combos aren't seen as "auto-pilot" for whatever reason.
Auto-pilot: Mystical Space Typhoon on the set Solemn Warning. Summon Rescue Rabbit. Summon 2 Sabersaurus. Overlay for Laggia. Attack the face-down Sangan. Set 1.
Skillful: Space Typhoon their set Warning, baiting Laggia. RotA for Junk Synchron or Doppelwarrior(whichever is applicable), baiting Laggia. Normal Junk synchron, losing it or your synchro to Laggia. Activate Spore for Doppel, BLS, One-for-one, Chaos Sorc, Monster Reborn, etc.

I think we can all agree that a deck with strong, easy to summon monsters is less likely to "misplay" than a deck that relies on synergy between its cards to win. Does this make the simpler deck worse? Of course not. Does it ruin the game? No, that's what the side deck is for. Perhaps calling a deck auto-pilot is the wrong term, as its pretty subjective. Combo-centric decks and simple decks may be more accurate. A simple deck can still "misplay."

My opinion on the matter of auto-pilot decks and skilled decks? If you can make your deck consistent enough to perform the same, powerful plays each game, then good for you. Skill and luck will always come into play. Don't believe me? Run sets of 5 with a hardcore player or a more-casual player, using the same deck, and see if auto-pilot is the only deciding factor of the duel.