Hello and welcome to Creator spotlight - a series of short interview style articles giving some attention to our community's many great content creators, both big and small, and giving them the opportunity to tell you all about themselves, and also provide a little insight into some of their favourite decks. I'm Brexx, and I'll be your host in these interviews! 
If there's any Yugitubers, streamers, or general personalities in Yu-Gi-Oh! you'd like to see us at YGOProDeck talk to, please comment below, and we will try our best to do so!

Today I had the opportunity to have a chat with MonoBlueTron (Also known as MBT - Not to be confused with Marincess Blue Tang). MBT has been a mainstay in the yugioh scene for many years as part of the Yugitubing community, putting out high quality content on a regular basis.

Brexx: Can you introduce yourself for anyone who might not be familiar - and what do you do?

MBT: My name is Joseph Rothschild! I make Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! adjacent content on YouTube and Twitch as MBT YuGiOh. You may know me from my own series - Ten Minute Testing, Dueltaining, or those videos where I just read Twitter, or you may know me from my work with Cimoooooooo on the "History of Yu-Gi-Oh!", Dzeeff on "Master Roulette", or the Elestriad.

Pictured: MBT's channel profile picture/mascot.

Brexx: When did you start playing Yu-Gi-Oh! and why?

MBT: 2002, baby! I was a kid with too much free time, and my brother and I LOVED card games.

Brexx: When did you start playing Yu-Gi-Oh! competitively, what decks have you piloted, and what have you achieved competitively?

MBT: While I PLAYED the entire time, I didn't start taking the game super seriously until about 2014. Prior to that, I was usually tooling around with Chaos monsters, then Dark World, then just general jank nonsense. Competitively, my hits are Ritual Beast in 2014, Burning abyss during 2015 (and 2016, admittedly), Masked HERO in 2016, Trickstar in 2018, Synchro Eldlich in 2020, Tearlament in 2022, and these days, Snake-Eye. I've played pretty much everything ove rthe years, but tend to gravitate towards jankier strategies.
 
Brexx: What is your favourite deck and why?

MBT: Probably has to be HERO. I've played for so long, it's awesome that there's a strategy that's still capable in the modern era that plays cards first released in 2007. Even the setup combo weaves through about 20 years of history. 

Brexx: Are there any historical versions of your favourite deck you'd like to talk about?

MBT: Yeah! HERO's been around forever, of course - Blue Gadget, Airblade, DDT, Diva Hero, HERO beat, Bubble Beat, Masked HERO, Toad HERO, Omni HERO, etc. In 2019, however, I was brewing something that thankfully didn't see the light of day with siberianrabbit - A deck lovingly called "4 HERO". This was dreamed up around the time of Nibiru's release, and aimed to make a Trap-Equipped TIme Thief Redoer and Dark Law in 4 summons (Mask change during an opponent's draw phase) to play around what was otherwise an automatic win from the opponent. It was an extremely cool deck, but a little too low ceiling for the 2019 format.

Brexx: Do you have a sample decklist for how you would optimally build your favourite deck currently?

MBT:

MBT Yu-Gi-Oh!'s HERO uploaded by Brexx

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Brexx: For those who aren't aware, could you provide a brief explanation as to how your deck plays, and any tips or tricks on how to play the deck?

MBT: I think a lot of people just sort of assume that HERO is a deck that can be beaten by almost exactly Nibiru. In recent years, however, the deck can play through almost anything. The new NEOS fusion (Elemental HERO Shining Neos Wingman) gives it layered interaction, Wake Up Your Elemental HERO gives you rock insurance, and almost every hand gets to Masked HERO Dark Law and Destiny HERO - Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer at a minimum.

Brexx: Can you talk a little about your career as a Yugituber? What's your journey been like?

MBT: Rocky! My "career" as a Yugituber was a way to kill time between auditions while trying to act in New York City. It was something I could put time into at odd hours and for differing amounts, which made it perfect for my lifestyle in my 20's. I DID keep at it, uploading consistently from about 2017-18, until I caught the eye of Alex Cimo who threw me into the Yugituber Grand Championship. The rest is history!

Brexx: Is there anyone you would like to give a shoutout to?

MBT: Sure! All my colleagues in the Yu-Gi-Oh! space, without whom I wouldn't be able to give you a writeup about the twentieth best deck in 2019.

Brexx: Lastly, is there anything you'd like to say to any fans or aspiring Yugitubers reading this?

MBT: To aspiring Yugitubers: You can do it! The bar for quality content in Yu-Gi-Oh! is so unbelievably low - with a minimum amount of knowledge and even less equipment, you can make your mark on the space. To the fans - Stay the hell out of my comments section!

A huge thanks again to Joseph for engaging with us in this article - It's always great to see content creators do so well within the Yu-Gi-Oh! scene, and we really appreciate him taking the time out of his busy schedule to come talk to us like this. You can find his Youtube Channel here.