Mutant is a very special character to me.
If it weren't for him, I'm not sure what I'd be doing right now (after buying YOMIH during its Steam release month, I almost entirely dropped it. That is, until I saw mutant's announcement on the game's page. This single piece of information convinced me to download unstable and fight A_Trace).
I have been playing mutant since May 2024. I quickly fell in love with the character and its many intricacies. The combos, oki, and neutral game have all been equally fascinating to me. Since then, I have taken some time off here and there, but I have never stopped enjoying the character and following the people who are ready to carry the flame. I believe I am one of the best, if not *the* best mutant.
My name is GentleM.Carbage, but everybody calls me Carbage.
Why mutant?
Even when I was still mainly playing ninja, I had a sort of admiration for the character and those who play it. People like 05Mario made it very clear to me that there was something more to mutant that other people couldn't truly get. On top of that, very few people played it, so I figured that I at the very least could claim to be one of the best mutants (admittedly a very selfish and childish thought). I guess that part turned out fine.
Why this post?
I would like to clear up some common misconceptions and clear my good name. This is a recollection of my experiences playing YOMIH. Also I think written records of players mentals are a great ressource for anyone trying to play seriously, but much too embarassing to type out in public. This is a good alternative. It's like I'm shouting into a tinted window. The tinted window is meant to be you.
My general belief system that I would like to imagine is a consistent image of who I am as a person and especially as a player in competitive environments.
For starters, I am being very specific when I say player. I really mean it as a stand-in for actor.
There is no Competition without shame. To be Competitive is to be humiliated, humbled. To Compete is to contend against fate. For Competition, you must toil with death. Over and over. Again and again. In this sytem, luck doesn't exist. More on that later.
But, of course, I did not have any of this in mind when I clicked mutant for the very first time. To put it very bluntly: I wanted to win. More than anything. Any labbing, teching, improving, fighting, anything, I have ever done was to get a tournament result (although of course, it's always more complicated than that. I genuinely did enjoy the teching, the practicing, the losing! But it all felt... wasted). Looking back, I am not entirely sure where this idea came from. Does winning matter? I definitely don't think it does. Not that I can consult with old me. Back on track, naturally, the "just win" plan didn't work out (and even in a world where it would've, I am certain I wouldn't have truly been satisfied with YOMIH). This was around the time of the PROTOCOL Invitational. As silly as it may be to say, I truly did feel jealous towards oet247 for a few weeks; we were basically perfectly matched, why was there such a huge discrepency between our results (for context, he went out in 1st, and I got something like top 32. I played two matches, one of which was on ninja as I was too nervous to truly lock mutant in yet)? Around that time, I also felt extremely oppressed by robot's combos and neutral (this is a recurring theme, please keep it in mind. It is an endlessly shrinking spiral, and you are in it. It is turtles, all the way down). This was when I simply quit playing YOMIH... Again. It genuinely just is life in cycles. When it all became too much for me, I simply left. I am not entirely sure why I came back, to be honest. YOMIH is an extremely easy to play game that fills my time up. I boot it up when I want to turn my brain off for a moment. In that regard, it might honestly be the singular greatest game ever created.
As a fun side-story here is my last match of the PROTOCOL Invitational. At that time I believed this was it; about 2000 hours worth of my lifetime being reduced down to a single Kill Process.
When I came back,
All of the old guard was gone. Perhaps they were much too tired. Whatever the reason, it was extremely clear to me; they had all given up. The tech threads were as barren as I had left them (this is another very specific reason I had in mind to justify making this post, I need to clarify this: I deleted the old tech blogs because I do not like the players and thought it would be a great sendoff. To be fair, I certainly think it was! It's all backed up in YOMIL and STL anyways. Those who want it, will find it). It was right around this time that I noticed two things; a player named Aeriiser was winning. A lot. But by winning I really mean tournament top 8s and some wins off high tiers, no high profile tournament wins. Let's put him aside for now. The second thing was that I was beginning to see a genuinely insane amount of animosity towards the concept of mutant. Not as bad as peak Robot, but still quite bad. Of course, mutant still got hated lots, even before I left, but you need to understand my perspective. Every player I previously looked up to was gone. I was literally the only person even remotely interested in playing mutant (still putting Aeriiser aside here...). And yet, the hate continued to grow. Like a floodgate continuously building pressure. I wondered, would it blow up on me? What was I to do?
Aeriiser
I hated that man. I hated him more than anyone in STARLIGHT could even understand. Imagine a 4tran user making a clock post vs random transphobic dudes on Twitter. That is the kind of hate differential I am talking about. He was everything i stood against. But that's not even the half, or the third, or a quarter of it. HE HAD BETTER RESULTS THAN ME! By being completely opposite of me, he was getting results! How! Why! What kind of vile actions had I done in the past to deserve such treatment? It was then a few things in my brain clicked.
To clarify, this is not an incitation to hatred or whatever. I am simply describing my feelings while progressively playing the game. I am okay with Aeriiser's existence nowadays. But I do believe this is a pivtol moment to my story, and I do not think that taking it out entirely would've been adequate.
A package, delivered.
This is around the time my first real mental developement happened. The first time I was able to trick myself into believing I was playing for anything other than winning. First off, as a ground rule, I must not interact with unstable chat's mutant balance at all. Whatever happens, happens. I must stay in control through the turmoil (of course, I didn't truly have a reason to actively, actually talk in unstable chat at all. I cannot stand these people. I do not want to fight for peanuts. Playing to win is ghoulish, but typing to win is sadist for every party involved).
Second off, I would be to kill Aeriiser. My mind was dead focused on this for a week or two when I came back even if I eventually kinda soft gave up on it. I did actually end up accomplishing this! More info later.
Third off, I would be playing the way I want to play. No matter the outcome, my personal satisfaction must be prioritized. Otherwise, how could I go on playing?
There core rules helped me through some tough times. I was getting better, although still without really having a reason why. Everything just kinda happened... Until one day. I had hit a breaking point.
Learning to Burn
I was consistently top 8'ing. It wasn't much, but I was definitely getting closer to winning my way. The sick irony in all of this is that pretty much all of my improvements came from copying Aeriiser, sooner or later. I wasn't there quite yet in neutral, but even just taking inspiration from his combos was a huge help. If I truly wanted to play mutant my own way, it only makes sense that I would have to use his kit to the fullest no matter what. Shred? You got it. Slopdash? Absolutely. Anyways, as I was saying, I was getting lots of top 8's, but no wins. I had a few extremely close calls where I went second to Discordo and Ouriel respectively. These upset me quite badly back then but I feel comfortable about them now. The road less travelled is much more important.
Eclipse
Duh. You knew that one was coming. I am still extremely proud of this run, but I want to talk about my mindset a bit to contextualize this tournament.
I was tired. I felt that I had done enough with the game, and was genuinely ready to go. Eclipse was gonna be my last tournament, and I was sure of that. I told myself I'd be satisfied no matter what, even if I never actually won. It was also around this time that I started to develop my more modern ideas; to compete is to mock, and, more importantly, that to compete is to solve. Every situation has One answer that stands out from the rest, being the one and only best option. A player's ability to win is simply their ability to find this button, or to get close to it. Similarly, luck is also just the capacity to find this button, at random.
Outside of mental, I had a big issue. I simply couldn't beat ninjas (remember when I said this was a reoccuring theme?). Pull upper was way too deadly of a button to ever dare approach, and i was basically out of luck. My strategy was simply to try and get in when the hook expired, which was about once every 100 frames. On top of that, the timer was only 2500 frames, which meant any ninja savvy enough could simply just finish the game in one hit if they truly wanted to. If you're wondering how I got over robot, I simply did. I practiced the matchup and studied what I could. Homework pays off.
Onto the tournament. What a fucking banger it was. Pools was a breeze. Got two perfects to start day two, including Aeriiser. Could this be it..?
Then, it was just me and LyNAx. He was on ninja. I try not to be too much of a defeatist, but it was at this very moment that I understood I had gotten set up once again. It was all too easy. It simply just went too well. With a heavy heart, I played our first match in winners finals. Third wasn't too bad, right? It means I beat everyone other than two people.. And then, I won. Grand Finals. I lost. It all came down to the Reset. My stress was at an all-time high. In these three games, I very easily DI'd up on throw at least 5 times, it was awful, that cost me so much health. Eventually, I did end up winning, with what may very well be the singular most cash-money kick in the history of mutant, ever.
Post-Eclipse Phase
So, what now?
Well, I'm plenty satisfied with YOMIH as a Competition, I've already danced enough. I'm just playing to spend my time away from serious things. I'm also trying to farm replays for my YouTube channel and making mods to get better at coding. YOMIH is kind of cool and I'm kind of good at it, so why not?
I struggle with the cowboy matchup a lot (recurring, remember?). My most fun way of playing isn't really effective, although I do avoid getting shot more often than not. I can't remember the last time I was in -3. I fall asleep vs mid-tier cowboys and when I wake back up I am either being shot or taking an 8k because they did the dumbest fucking plays imaginable and gun is the most rewarding bad-play move ever and it's not even really close. You have a homing bullet for 2 meter that literally does not have counterplay, for fuck's sake! Get goddamn real! For anyone curious now I play the ninja matchup by going in and forcing RPS, kind of like a shitty Aeriiser. It's actually working out very great. AAL ED likes it. I'm mixed on it but I think it is pretty fun to just run in and guess VS hook. Also I always try to cross ninja up so that hook is behind them. That makes RPS a lot more managable. 3000 frame timer also really helps. Generally not a matchup I'd consider an issue nowadays.
My biggest gripe with the game now has nothing to do with the game itself, but rather, the community. It has legitimately gotten abysmal. More than anything, just completely sad. All people do is complain, and I do realize how much of a hypocrite I'm being by saying that. There is a belief held by some, most, actually, that mutant is this great, unbeatable evil. And, I think, what frustrates me the most, is that I've been in this situation! Three different times over the course of my YOMIH gameplay! Without fail, every single time, I have been able to find a solution! If not to outright fix my problems, at least make them slightly less of a problem, progressively, until I was able to build towards a workable solution. When people complain about mutant, all I really hear is a bunch of whining. People refusing to learn and to improve in a game they're apparently passionate about. So many characters can do the fucking running in shtick! I genuinely believe ninja is better at doing the running in, if you're going strategist. You can play as cowboy, Teleport from fullscreen, and make people guess! You can make them guess from fullscreen with bullet! You can be wizard, toggle spark, and shoot yourself with a ninja 10 boost for essentially 200 frames! And if you want to argue these aren't an issue, I would completely agree with you! People have been able to deal with this kind of gameplay for ages and have developed solid gameplay against it! Why can't the same be true for mutant? If the rest of the game is easily learnable, approachable, and most importantly, respondable, why can't the same be true for mutant?? How does the rethoric of hating mutant even make sense in the logical framework of a yomih game? What has he done, to be so offensively, absolutely certainly, a great evil of some kind? Does his moveset, or gimmick, make him an outlier? Can you genuinely argue against him when you've never, ever, tried to argue for him?
I could also argue the exact same for the other characters and people who complain against them. When there are no unstable patches to upset the natural order of things, you alone are in control of what happens to you and your matches. I don't think blaming an external factor is beneficial to anyone, and especially not you.
Bonus: Blestanus
I was a bit hesistant about writing this one. Take it as a bonus.
Blestanus was a player who became really active around Burst! 1 and 2, and he is one of the players I look up to the most. I am being so fucking serious when I'm telling you he is YOMIH Jesus.
He played mutant during the 1.9 patches and unstable, which was around the time mutant had the tools that people still try to tell horror stories about today. Here is a slightly exhaustive list for people interested: flip pounce/insane backwards movement, great to safely escape//15 IASA caustic spike/extremely easy to spam, extremely long range, huge projectile/unprorated envenom//do not believe anyone who will try to tell you about guaranteed 10ks on 1.9 envenom that is simply not true. it is true that it was quite good in general though.//leap slash/we're playing with the nerfed version, nowadays. the old one had about 25% more reach and did more damage. it was quite great!
Essentially, all he did was spam insane APM moves in succession, which 1. already puts him in goat excellent status in my mind, and 2. he was still beaten by top level players. His crowning achievement is being #1 on the Burst point rankings, which he did without winning a single tournament. The most striking part of Blestanus' story to me is that, at his absolute best, in his absolute most prime form, he was outclassed by people who tried their absolute hardest. Sure, he may have not had the best combos, or the absolute best neutral, but when the best mutant was hypothetically on his absolute best patch, he still would've had to put in a significant amount of effort and time into practicing mutant to be able to beat everyone (which is definitely more than you can say about other chars who had a definite, community-agreed patch where one specific character simply outranked the others). If that's not a story about motherfucking hope, I don't know what is.
What's even crazier is what happens **after** this. Aebigale, our Judas (her actions are more relevant than her character which is why I didn't bring her up earlier. She has been around for basically all of mutant's inception, and won mutant's very first protocol. She never does anything relevant ever again after that, though. It's all just whining and whining.), donated $100 to the TOs to DQ Blestanus out of Bad Things (basically an Anything-Goes tournament. He was fighting people on YOMIH as ninja). Like, what? Judas the goddamn betrayer goes ahead and crucifies Blestanus. Not to mention the general community sentiment around Blestanus during his time. People fucking hated him. If he was to wear a crown of thorns, it would be made out of thousands of Discord messages. Anyways, back to Blestanus, he gets crucified and is never seen again. No resurrection for our Jesus.
(I'm Meulin and Blestanus is Kankri.)