- Banner ads have been placed on the blog. You are free to use AdBlock if you want, but just leaving them gets us a little bit of money (like pretty small amounts but it adds up). No obligation to view them at all!
- We have a new author in Luke "kd24" Miller! He plays on Dueling Network under the username Emblem. We respect him a lot over in #yugioh, so stay tuned for some of his posts!
- Mr. Dang will no longer play Yu-Gi-Oh! at a serious, competitive level due to studies and other factors - he's basically going to be me now.
- Some non-YGO posts will be made and we plan to expand the blog to a more pop culture-based one, including but not limited to games (with a focus on League of Legends), music, etc.
Friday 9 November 2012
Changes to the blog
Hello friends, we haven't posted in a while but here is an update of what's going on:
Thursday 12 July 2012
Don't Space Out
Apologies for the terrible pun, but this article is about our good friend MST.
Mystical Space Typhoon may be one of the most versatile Spells in the game. It's close to Book of Moon as most versatile, in my opinion. The ability to instantly pop a backrow cannot be underestimated, and for a long time Mystical Space Typhoon was Limited due to its power. Times have changed, however, and we saw MST go from 1, to 2, and finally at 3. Being able to play Mystical Space Typhoon at 3, however, opens up a certain phenomenon that Alex and myself refer to as the 'Backrow Paradox'. If you open with two backrows, say a Solemn Warning and a Mirror Force, do you set two and risk losing them to a Heavy Storm? Or do you set one and have no protection after your opponent plays Mystical Space Typhoon?
It's easy to say that you'd rather set two because there are three Mystical Space Typhoons in most decks compared to one Heavy Storm. But losing two backrows puts you at a severe early game disadvantage. I have spoken elsewhere about how having your opponent Heavy two cards on their first turn has its advantages for you, but speaking strictly in terms of card advantage, it's not desirable. This paradox exists because we are in a format where Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm coexist at their full strength.
However, we're seeing a move away from Mystical Space Typhoon. The winner of the European WCQ only ran 2 MSTs in his deck. The reason for this was because recently, many 'no-Trap' decks have risen to the forefront. Traps are powerful, for sure, but they are often slow and clutter the deck. It's easy to get carried away with power cards like Bottomless Trap Hole. Chaos Dragons and variants of Monster Mash choose to forgo Traps. For this reason, Mystical Space Typhoon has dropped in usage.
But the irony here is that as Card X, the counter to Card Y drops in usage, it's more viable to run Card Y. We can apply this to the metagame in general, such as the recent Wind-Up phenomenon.
Increase in Maxx C -> Decrease in Wind-Ups -> Decrease in Maxx C -> Increase in Wind-Ups -> Increase in Maxx C
The cyclical nature of the metagame means that I could just be speculating in an uncertain period. However, there's no denying that the introduction of Chaos Dragons as well as Monster Mash being played more often has led to the decrease in Mystical Space Typhoon usage, and that those decks are here to stay. But with the decrease in Mystical Space Typhoon, isn't it more viable to run Trap-heavy decks focused on control such as Rabbit Control Wind-Ups or Dino Rabbit or even Gravekeepers? It's an interesting question for sure, and with no major tournaments left for this format, it may be a question that goes unanswered.
So, next time you draw a Mystical Space Typhoon, think about the influence that that little green piece of cardboard has over the metagame. And appreciate what you have, because you never know, come September 2012, you could be searching for a new deck...
It's easy to say that you'd rather set two because there are three Mystical Space Typhoons in most decks compared to one Heavy Storm. But losing two backrows puts you at a severe early game disadvantage. I have spoken elsewhere about how having your opponent Heavy two cards on their first turn has its advantages for you, but speaking strictly in terms of card advantage, it's not desirable. This paradox exists because we are in a format where Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm coexist at their full strength.
However, we're seeing a move away from Mystical Space Typhoon. The winner of the European WCQ only ran 2 MSTs in his deck. The reason for this was because recently, many 'no-Trap' decks have risen to the forefront. Traps are powerful, for sure, but they are often slow and clutter the deck. It's easy to get carried away with power cards like Bottomless Trap Hole. Chaos Dragons and variants of Monster Mash choose to forgo Traps. For this reason, Mystical Space Typhoon has dropped in usage.
But the irony here is that as Card X, the counter to Card Y drops in usage, it's more viable to run Card Y. We can apply this to the metagame in general, such as the recent Wind-Up phenomenon.
Increase in Maxx C -> Decrease in Wind-Ups -> Decrease in Maxx C -> Increase in Wind-Ups -> Increase in Maxx C
The cyclical nature of the metagame means that I could just be speculating in an uncertain period. However, there's no denying that the introduction of Chaos Dragons as well as Monster Mash being played more often has led to the decrease in Mystical Space Typhoon usage, and that those decks are here to stay. But with the decrease in Mystical Space Typhoon, isn't it more viable to run Trap-heavy decks focused on control such as Rabbit Control Wind-Ups or Dino Rabbit or even Gravekeepers? It's an interesting question for sure, and with no major tournaments left for this format, it may be a question that goes unanswered.
So, next time you draw a Mystical Space Typhoon, think about the influence that that little green piece of cardboard has over the metagame. And appreciate what you have, because you never know, come September 2012, you could be searching for a new deck...
Friday 6 July 2012
On Wednesday I went to the tournament at Macarthur Square gametraders store and had a shot at winning their tournament. As always I spent the first half an hour scouting around to see what people would be playing and looking for any sweet trades or bargains. I managed to do some very good deals on Synchro monstrers that were no longer of any interest to me such as power tool dragon and ancient fairy dragon, for out-dated synchros like those I managed to get electric virus, tragoedia, sangan, super rare dust tornado and some other good staples. Also I got rid of an un-needed Shadow imprisoning mirror for a soul taker. Later on in the night I also happily picked up an ultimate rare glow-up bulb for $10 , I know what you're thinking, "But why?, Glow- up is banned anyway". Let's put it this way, glow-up bulb was $50 at it's prime and now it's a measly $10, after the amount of criticism konami received for banning glow-up bulb it is bound to come off the banlist sooner or later, especially since Synchro monsters are way past their use-by date. Let's say glow-up bulb came off the list 1 year later from now. I won't even remember the $10 I spent to get it, but what I will remember is the $50 I will be putting into my wallet when I sell it. That being said I also plan to pick up another 4-5 more copies of Glow-up bulb when I have the money to spare. Right now I actually have another set of cards that I'm keeping my eye on but I'd rather not reveal that publicly yet, those who know me personally should know what I'm on the lookout for and I have very good reasons too.
Anyways I got a bit off track there, time to report on the tournament.
Match 1: Rogue Synchro deck
round 1: I opened with a bad hand and had to grind my way through half my deck before I drew into an Inzektor Hornet. Luckily I main deck compulsory evacuation device and I'm able to exploit the weakness of many Synchro monsters (bouncing them back to the extra deck).
Did not side
round 2: My opening hand was much better and I'm able to combo off and finish this round quickly, I try to pick up his effect veiler after the game which I assumed was going to waste since he didn't even sleeve his cards. But he didn't want to part with it so that was a shame.
After reporting my win I went to scout out any more bargains and at the same time I couldn't help but feel tempted to buy the merchandise that the store was selling, such as a monster binder at $30 ($5 cheaper than usual and the orange pack of sleeves that I've been after for a long time now) but I'll get back to that later
Match 2: Lightsworns
round 1: The guy isn't very experienced and I just sit comfortably using Dragonfly and Hornet to take control of the game.
Did not side
round 2: I open with a really poor hand of 2 warning, monster reborn, dark hole and mystical space typhoon but he doesn't make any pushes so I eventually manage to draw Centipede and Hopper and use them to add Dragonfly to my hand and later Hornet to win the game.
Match 3: Dino Rabbit
round1: This was perhaps the hardest match of the night, it was my friend Jason and we had actually vsed the day before with me losing 2-0. I open with a pretty sub par hand including centipede and hopper and solemn judgment and 2 MST. I'm going first so I use centipede and hopper to fetch dragonfly and I set all my backrow and end. He summons rabbit and goes into Laggia which I negate with Solemn. He ends his turn with 2 backrow set and I MST both of them. I fetch Hornet with centipede and Hopper combo and attack directly. My memory of what happens next is hazy but all I know is I won this match because I veilered his Tour guide.
Side in:
2 Dust tornado (this is a must, you need to side in extra backrow destruction to handle macro cosmos/shadow imprisoning mirror)
3 electric virus (regret, they're horrible against the Rabbit match up, don't bother siding these guys in)
2 Bottomless trap hole (Amazing card in general, it might find it's way into my main deck, can kill both their Rabbit targets or even just destroy a lone dinosaur in general is good enough)
2 Snowman eater (A must against Rabbits)
Side out:
2 compulsory evacuation device (pointless to use against Rabbits, Laggia makes this card dead)
2 Threatening roar (You don't need to stall for an extra turn against Rabbits, one extra turn will do nothing for you if they're sitting on a Laggia with 3 backrow)
1 Inzektor lady bug (Cannot afford to have this guy being a dead draw and you don't need rank 5's in this match up)
2 Solemn Warning (I was going second you don't want to have warnings in your main deck if you're going second, it will just be dead once they stick the Evolzar to the field and in a match up like this you really can't afford to be throwing 2000 lps away.)
2 Effect veiler (Horrible against Rabbit, the only worthy target is Tour guide, no point veiler-ing the Rabbit they're just going to set 4 to protect it and then you'll be down a card anyway.)
round 2: I open with centipede and sword and Giga mantis and it's hard to get out of the situation. Eventually he has Macro cosmos established with 3 other backrow and Dolkka and I just can't fight through that, I scoop very shortly.
Side in:
2 Solemn Warning (I was going first so I was betting on having an established field with Warning to stop him from sticking any Evolzars to the field)
1 Compulsory evacuation device
Side out:
3 Electric Virus (I found out the hard way that this does nothing to Rabbits)
round 3: I open poorly and he managed to summon Dolkka and stick Macro cosmos to the field leaving me in a really bad position. He xyz summons Photon Papilloperative and switches my set veiler to attack mode and hits me with both for 4400 damage along with some other battle damage before for a total of 6100 damage. I'm able to nuke the field with dark hole and xyz summon leviathan dragon and swing at him for 2500 and again. During the last few stages of the match he had macro cosmos face up with 4 set and I had 5 cards set along with my 2500 leviathan dragon. He summoned Sabersaurus which signaled to me that he had some sort of attack altering card such as Forbidden lance so I used compulsory evacuation device. He negated that with Solemn Judgment and he was left with 1500lps. I feared that he had mirror force so all I did for my turn was detach one more material from leviathan dragon to pump it up to 3000 atk so that it would take more than just one lance to run it over. He drew and switched sabersaurus to defense mode and next turn I ran it over. He drew and ended, I drew and summoned hopper to attack directly, he smiled and we shook hands.
Match 4: Chaos dragons
round 1: The guy opens with a 'bad hand' but my friend says that he could have easily won with that hand has he known what to do. I just use dragonfly and hornet to pick apart his field and win the round
Did not side
round 2: I open with the dragonfly and sword combo to take this match.
So in the end I came first with my friend Jason placing second and some random guy placing third. The top 3 players received a playmat from the Battle pack epic dawn series which was amazing and as the winner I received $40 prize money to use in the store. Remember those sleeves and binder that I wanted?
This is a picture of the mat, I'm a little disappointed that it is only a half sized mat but at the end of the day a mat is a mat and I'm always proud of mats that I've personally won which to date is two. Oh and I also spent my last $4 on a battle pack epic dawn booster and pulled a pot of duality and starfoil rare heavy storm.
Anyways I got a bit off track there, time to report on the tournament.
Match 1: Rogue Synchro deck
round 1: I opened with a bad hand and had to grind my way through half my deck before I drew into an Inzektor Hornet. Luckily I main deck compulsory evacuation device and I'm able to exploit the weakness of many Synchro monsters (bouncing them back to the extra deck).
Did not side
round 2: My opening hand was much better and I'm able to combo off and finish this round quickly, I try to pick up his effect veiler after the game which I assumed was going to waste since he didn't even sleeve his cards. But he didn't want to part with it so that was a shame.
After reporting my win I went to scout out any more bargains and at the same time I couldn't help but feel tempted to buy the merchandise that the store was selling, such as a monster binder at $30 ($5 cheaper than usual and the orange pack of sleeves that I've been after for a long time now) but I'll get back to that later
Match 2: Lightsworns
round 1: The guy isn't very experienced and I just sit comfortably using Dragonfly and Hornet to take control of the game.
Did not side
round 2: I open with a really poor hand of 2 warning, monster reborn, dark hole and mystical space typhoon but he doesn't make any pushes so I eventually manage to draw Centipede and Hopper and use them to add Dragonfly to my hand and later Hornet to win the game.
Match 3: Dino Rabbit
round1: This was perhaps the hardest match of the night, it was my friend Jason and we had actually vsed the day before with me losing 2-0. I open with a pretty sub par hand including centipede and hopper and solemn judgment and 2 MST. I'm going first so I use centipede and hopper to fetch dragonfly and I set all my backrow and end. He summons rabbit and goes into Laggia which I negate with Solemn. He ends his turn with 2 backrow set and I MST both of them. I fetch Hornet with centipede and Hopper combo and attack directly. My memory of what happens next is hazy but all I know is I won this match because I veilered his Tour guide.
Side in:
2 Dust tornado (this is a must, you need to side in extra backrow destruction to handle macro cosmos/shadow imprisoning mirror)
3 electric virus (regret, they're horrible against the Rabbit match up, don't bother siding these guys in)
2 Bottomless trap hole (Amazing card in general, it might find it's way into my main deck, can kill both their Rabbit targets or even just destroy a lone dinosaur in general is good enough)
2 Snowman eater (A must against Rabbits)
Side out:
2 compulsory evacuation device (pointless to use against Rabbits, Laggia makes this card dead)
2 Threatening roar (You don't need to stall for an extra turn against Rabbits, one extra turn will do nothing for you if they're sitting on a Laggia with 3 backrow)
1 Inzektor lady bug (Cannot afford to have this guy being a dead draw and you don't need rank 5's in this match up)
2 Solemn Warning (I was going second you don't want to have warnings in your main deck if you're going second, it will just be dead once they stick the Evolzar to the field and in a match up like this you really can't afford to be throwing 2000 lps away.)
2 Effect veiler (Horrible against Rabbit, the only worthy target is Tour guide, no point veiler-ing the Rabbit they're just going to set 4 to protect it and then you'll be down a card anyway.)
round 2: I open with centipede and sword and Giga mantis and it's hard to get out of the situation. Eventually he has Macro cosmos established with 3 other backrow and Dolkka and I just can't fight through that, I scoop very shortly.
Side in:
2 Solemn Warning (I was going first so I was betting on having an established field with Warning to stop him from sticking any Evolzars to the field)
1 Compulsory evacuation device
Side out:
3 Electric Virus (I found out the hard way that this does nothing to Rabbits)
round 3: I open poorly and he managed to summon Dolkka and stick Macro cosmos to the field leaving me in a really bad position. He xyz summons Photon Papilloperative and switches my set veiler to attack mode and hits me with both for 4400 damage along with some other battle damage before for a total of 6100 damage. I'm able to nuke the field with dark hole and xyz summon leviathan dragon and swing at him for 2500 and again. During the last few stages of the match he had macro cosmos face up with 4 set and I had 5 cards set along with my 2500 leviathan dragon. He summoned Sabersaurus which signaled to me that he had some sort of attack altering card such as Forbidden lance so I used compulsory evacuation device. He negated that with Solemn Judgment and he was left with 1500lps. I feared that he had mirror force so all I did for my turn was detach one more material from leviathan dragon to pump it up to 3000 atk so that it would take more than just one lance to run it over. He drew and switched sabersaurus to defense mode and next turn I ran it over. He drew and ended, I drew and summoned hopper to attack directly, he smiled and we shook hands.
Match 4: Chaos dragons
round 1: The guy opens with a 'bad hand' but my friend says that he could have easily won with that hand has he known what to do. I just use dragonfly and hornet to pick apart his field and win the round
Did not side
round 2: I open with the dragonfly and sword combo to take this match.
So in the end I came first with my friend Jason placing second and some random guy placing third. The top 3 players received a playmat from the Battle pack epic dawn series which was amazing and as the winner I received $40 prize money to use in the store. Remember those sleeves and binder that I wanted?
 |
This is a picture of the mat, I'm a little disappointed that it is only a half sized mat but at the end of the day a mat is a mat and I'm always proud of mats that I've personally won which to date is two. Oh and I also spent my last $4 on a battle pack epic dawn booster and pulled a pot of duality and starfoil rare heavy storm.
Thursday 28 June 2012
Deck profile: Evolsaurs
Hey guys, it's been a while since I've blogged but holidays is here and I'll kick things off with a deck profile of a theme that I personally enjoy playing. The Evolsaur/Evoltile archetype involves using reptiles and dinosaurs to xyz into the mighty Evolzar monsters Lggia and Dolkka. The theme is based on evolution with reptiles (Hence Evoltile a mixture of the words evolution and reptile) and Evolsaur (dinosaur + evolution). Some have compared the Evolsaur theme to the Gladiator Beast theme ( I shall soon be doing a deck profile of this deck too) in the sense that the Evolsaur monsters must be brought out by the effects of an Evoltile monster to gain their effect.
That is the first draft of my Evolsaur deck.
Evolsaur Cerato- A solid monster at 1900 attack points and a nice effect where if it was summoned by an evoltile it's attack goes up by 200 and every time it destroys a monster by battle you can search an evoltile to your hand. Sweet effect in my opinion.
Evolsaur Diplo- When this guy is summoned by an evoltile effect he destroys one spell/trap on the field. Useful for clearing the path for your Evolzar summons.
Evolsaur Vulcano- This is perhaps my favourite Evolsaur, when he's summoned by an Evoltiles' effect he can pull an Evolsaur from the graveyard. By summoning Vulcano you can instantly xyz into any rank 4 of your choice.
Evoltile Westlo- The recruiter of the deck and possibly the most solid opening move you can make in this deck is just setting Westlo and one other spell/trap. 1900 Defense makes this guy really solid and when he's flipped he brings out an Evolsaur monster for an instant +1
Evoltile Najasho- Najasho is perhaps the best and worst monster you can have. When combined with Enemy controller or Evo-force, Najasho becomes your best Evoltile monster but without those 2 spell cards he really is just a dead monster with a solid body at 2000 defense.
The only spell I'm really going to explain is Evo-force and Evo-Diversity since the rest are generic and you can tweak some spells/traps around if you find that they don't suit your playstyle.
Evo-force- A power card for this deck. When combined with Najasho this card can potentially be a +2 if used correctly, I'll explain a bit further down how this can happen. You can tribute any Evoltile monster for this card to bring out an Evolsaur but you'll most likely want to tribute Najasho if you can since Najasho will trigger and allow you to special summon another Evolsaur from the deck.
Evo-Diversity- This card adds so much consistency to a deck that lacks consistency. The general idea of yugioh themes is that any deck with their own spell search card is destined to do well. Well this deck has its own one too, Evo-diversity can search out any evolsaur or evoltile monster. The only drawback is that you can only activate one per turn but to me that's no big deal at all. You want most of your Evolsaur monsters in your deck unless you can guarantee an xyz summon and if you search an Evoltile you're most likely going to just set it anyway.
So as I said earlier the main function of this deck is to gain card advantage with the Evolsaur effects and using the Evoltile monsters to trigger those effects. You want to xyz into Evolzar Laggia or Dolkka as soon as possible to create pressure for your opponent to deal with it as soon as possible whilst drawing into more ways to make extra Evolzars to back your current Evolzar. Once you stick an Evolzar on the field you want to back it up with about 2-3 spells/traps. You don't need to fear petty cards like heavy storm as your laggia will keep you safe from it. And don't worry too much about your opponent using monster effects or trying to destroy your Laggia through battle because your back row will usually protect your Laggia. It's a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours situation. Once you summon Dolkka and Laggia and both of them have their effects it's usually game over for your opponent unless they have a crazy hand. Never be afraid to lose card presence to xyz into Laggia or Dolkka as they will usually make up for the -1 they cost you to summon with their negating abilities.
As I said earlier there is a combo to +2 with Evo-force and Najasho. Let's say you have two Evolsaur monsters in your graveyard.
-Summon Najasho and use Evo force (-2)
- Summon 1 Evolsaur Vulcano with Najashos ability and another Evolsaur Vulcano with Evo force's effect. (+/- 0)
-Use both Vulcanos' to bring back two Evolsaur monsters from your graveyard (+2)
From there you could attack but I highly recommend you don't as the monsters brought back with Evolsaur Vulcano cannot attack. The best option is to bring out Laggia and Dolkka or double Laggia if you think that's what the situation calls for. In any case you just turned 2 extremely redundant cards into 2 massive bosses. One that is known as the 'walking solemn judgment' (Laggia)
Anyways I hope I managed to convince you of the strength and potential that lies within Evolsaurs. The deck does have its awkward hands like every other deck but it is one of the more efficient ways of bringing out Laggia/Dolkka.
See you next time on Gladiator Beasts.
Evolsaur Cerato- A solid monster at 1900 attack points and a nice effect where if it was summoned by an evoltile it's attack goes up by 200 and every time it destroys a monster by battle you can search an evoltile to your hand. Sweet effect in my opinion.
Evolsaur Diplo- When this guy is summoned by an evoltile effect he destroys one spell/trap on the field. Useful for clearing the path for your Evolzar summons.
Evolsaur Vulcano- This is perhaps my favourite Evolsaur, when he's summoned by an Evoltiles' effect he can pull an Evolsaur from the graveyard. By summoning Vulcano you can instantly xyz into any rank 4 of your choice.
Evoltile Westlo- The recruiter of the deck and possibly the most solid opening move you can make in this deck is just setting Westlo and one other spell/trap. 1900 Defense makes this guy really solid and when he's flipped he brings out an Evolsaur monster for an instant +1
Evoltile Najasho- Najasho is perhaps the best and worst monster you can have. When combined with Enemy controller or Evo-force, Najasho becomes your best Evoltile monster but without those 2 spell cards he really is just a dead monster with a solid body at 2000 defense.
The only spell I'm really going to explain is Evo-force and Evo-Diversity since the rest are generic and you can tweak some spells/traps around if you find that they don't suit your playstyle.
Evo-force- A power card for this deck. When combined with Najasho this card can potentially be a +2 if used correctly, I'll explain a bit further down how this can happen. You can tribute any Evoltile monster for this card to bring out an Evolsaur but you'll most likely want to tribute Najasho if you can since Najasho will trigger and allow you to special summon another Evolsaur from the deck.
Evo-Diversity- This card adds so much consistency to a deck that lacks consistency. The general idea of yugioh themes is that any deck with their own spell search card is destined to do well. Well this deck has its own one too, Evo-diversity can search out any evolsaur or evoltile monster. The only drawback is that you can only activate one per turn but to me that's no big deal at all. You want most of your Evolsaur monsters in your deck unless you can guarantee an xyz summon and if you search an Evoltile you're most likely going to just set it anyway.
So as I said earlier the main function of this deck is to gain card advantage with the Evolsaur effects and using the Evoltile monsters to trigger those effects. You want to xyz into Evolzar Laggia or Dolkka as soon as possible to create pressure for your opponent to deal with it as soon as possible whilst drawing into more ways to make extra Evolzars to back your current Evolzar. Once you stick an Evolzar on the field you want to back it up with about 2-3 spells/traps. You don't need to fear petty cards like heavy storm as your laggia will keep you safe from it. And don't worry too much about your opponent using monster effects or trying to destroy your Laggia through battle because your back row will usually protect your Laggia. It's a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours situation. Once you summon Dolkka and Laggia and both of them have their effects it's usually game over for your opponent unless they have a crazy hand. Never be afraid to lose card presence to xyz into Laggia or Dolkka as they will usually make up for the -1 they cost you to summon with their negating abilities.
As I said earlier there is a combo to +2 with Evo-force and Najasho. Let's say you have two Evolsaur monsters in your graveyard.
-Summon Najasho and use Evo force (-2)
- Summon 1 Evolsaur Vulcano with Najashos ability and another Evolsaur Vulcano with Evo force's effect. (+/- 0)
-Use both Vulcanos' to bring back two Evolsaur monsters from your graveyard (+2)
From there you could attack but I highly recommend you don't as the monsters brought back with Evolsaur Vulcano cannot attack. The best option is to bring out Laggia and Dolkka or double Laggia if you think that's what the situation calls for. In any case you just turned 2 extremely redundant cards into 2 massive bosses. One that is known as the 'walking solemn judgment' (Laggia)
Anyways I hope I managed to convince you of the strength and potential that lies within Evolsaurs. The deck does have its awkward hands like every other deck but it is one of the more efficient ways of bringing out Laggia/Dolkka.
See you next time on Gladiator Beasts.
Tuesday 12 June 2012
Winning Games and Taking Names
Hey guys, how was your long weekend? Mine was pretty good. On Monday it started pouring in the morning and i honestly did not want to spend the day out in the cold so when my friend Jason told me that Parramatta would be holding an extra tournament for the long weekend I was like hell yeah. I showed up a bit early and did a bit of trading and pre tournament practicing. Finally everybody showed up and to my relief Wayne did not. Which meant that I had a legitimate attempt at first place today. I prepared myself mentally just like every other tournament I participate in. Then decided to go with Inzektors for the deck of my choice.
Match 1: Dino Rabbit
I was rather excited about this round as I had never versed Dino rabbits in real life before. Sadly the guy ran a really sub-par build and this is how it went.
Round 1:
He drew no monsters for the first few rounds so I beat him down with inzektor monsters while gaining card advantage. By the time he drew a monster I solemn warning-ed it for game.
Round 2:
This one wasn't too hard either, he summoned Cardcar D and drew two cards off it's effect and then from there i just beat him down with inzektors until he drew rescue rabbit which I solemn warning-ed
Match 2: Chaos dragons
The kid was talking about how he beat me yesterday (I joined a tournament on Sunday too) and how this is my chance to get revenge which I honestly did not care about lol.
Anyways onto business.
Round 1:
He hit me pretty hard early in the game with a REDMD and lightpulsar but I conserved my cards and began to combo off for the One Turn Kill. Sadly I misplayed and left him on 100lps. He did manage to recover a little but a simple swing with my Leviathan dragon next turn easily clinched the game.
Round 2:
After some intense thinking about what to side in and out, we started round 2. I managed to open up with some nice side deck cards such as Dimensional prison and my threatening roar (I main deck 2 though 3 is just for Chaos dragons which rely heavily on blasting out over 5000 point worth of damage in one go). A nice lock down with dimensional prison combined with multiple copies of threatening roar made round 2 rather simple for me.
The good thing about Chaos dragons is that they don't main deck traps so you'll be safe in that area and most builds won't run mystical space typhoon so feel free to set 2 traps or more if you're daring. In game 1 I like to trigger cards like threatening roar and compulsory evacuation device so that my opponent gets the impression that my traps are chainable. That way in round 2 I can side in continuous spells/traps such as dimensional prison or rivalry of the warlords. By the time they realise they need their MST's I would have already combo-ed off for game or assembled enough cards to play smoothly.
Match 3: Chaos dragons (again)
Round 1:
He over powered me with dragons and his in-hand effect veiler and D.D crow was too much for me to push through. He eventually just beat me down to 0Lps
Round 2:
This duel went on FOREVER. I drew some nice side deck cards such as fossil dyna, and my other copy of threatening roar, my dimensional fissure. Eventually he had a set monster, Lightpulsar, REDMD, Photon Strike Bounzer on the field staring me down. I managed to fend off two potential deaths with threatening roars and flipped Fossil Dyna to destroy all his monsters and swing for game.
Round 3:
This one was interesting for me because time ran out. Which meant that we had 5 turns before the winner was decided. Whoever had the least life points by 5 turns lost. I was freaked out because Chaos Dragons are notorious for dropping heaps of damage without notice. Thankfully for me dimensional prison kept him at bay and he drew no good cards. I attacked with centipede which he responded to with a Gorz drop. I used Dark hole and from there he forfeited due to bad draws. Close call !
Match 4: Lightsworn/Lightrays (Finals)
I had beaten this kid before so I didn't get too worked up about this match up
Round 1:
The guy summone Lyla on turn 1 and I set sangan with no s/t as I didn't want to lose any to Lyla. Little did I know that was HUGE mistake as he took advantage of that next turn and killed me.
Round 2:
Some serious siding in went down on my part but he chose not to. I started an easy lock down with Dimensional Prison and Fossil Dyna which caused him to have nothing to do since he couldn't special summon or mill cards. His deck was in perfect lock down from where I sat. When the pieces were assembled I combo-ed off and killed him quickly.
Round 3:
He milled really fast, like over 1/3 of his deck was gone by his second turn. Luckily for me he decided to hold out on any big plays so I took advantage of that and combo-ed off for game.
So there you have it, I piloted Inzektors to first place and claimed my $20 prize money. I'm happy to win of course as I profited some money but I didn't beat Wayne which probably won't happen for a while. All in all it was a good day, I brought some cards at very reasonable prices and even received a few goodies off my friends.
Match 1: Dino Rabbit
I was rather excited about this round as I had never versed Dino rabbits in real life before. Sadly the guy ran a really sub-par build and this is how it went.
Round 1:
He drew no monsters for the first few rounds so I beat him down with inzektor monsters while gaining card advantage. By the time he drew a monster I solemn warning-ed it for game.
Round 2:
This one wasn't too hard either, he summoned Cardcar D and drew two cards off it's effect and then from there i just beat him down with inzektors until he drew rescue rabbit which I solemn warning-ed
Match 2: Chaos dragons
The kid was talking about how he beat me yesterday (I joined a tournament on Sunday too) and how this is my chance to get revenge which I honestly did not care about lol.
Anyways onto business.
Round 1:
He hit me pretty hard early in the game with a REDMD and lightpulsar but I conserved my cards and began to combo off for the One Turn Kill. Sadly I misplayed and left him on 100lps. He did manage to recover a little but a simple swing with my Leviathan dragon next turn easily clinched the game.
Round 2:
After some intense thinking about what to side in and out, we started round 2. I managed to open up with some nice side deck cards such as Dimensional prison and my threatening roar (I main deck 2 though 3 is just for Chaos dragons which rely heavily on blasting out over 5000 point worth of damage in one go). A nice lock down with dimensional prison combined with multiple copies of threatening roar made round 2 rather simple for me.
The good thing about Chaos dragons is that they don't main deck traps so you'll be safe in that area and most builds won't run mystical space typhoon so feel free to set 2 traps or more if you're daring. In game 1 I like to trigger cards like threatening roar and compulsory evacuation device so that my opponent gets the impression that my traps are chainable. That way in round 2 I can side in continuous spells/traps such as dimensional prison or rivalry of the warlords. By the time they realise they need their MST's I would have already combo-ed off for game or assembled enough cards to play smoothly.
Match 3: Chaos dragons (again)
Round 1:
He over powered me with dragons and his in-hand effect veiler and D.D crow was too much for me to push through. He eventually just beat me down to 0Lps
Round 2:
This duel went on FOREVER. I drew some nice side deck cards such as fossil dyna, and my other copy of threatening roar, my dimensional fissure. Eventually he had a set monster, Lightpulsar, REDMD, Photon Strike Bounzer on the field staring me down. I managed to fend off two potential deaths with threatening roars and flipped Fossil Dyna to destroy all his monsters and swing for game.
Round 3:
This one was interesting for me because time ran out. Which meant that we had 5 turns before the winner was decided. Whoever had the least life points by 5 turns lost. I was freaked out because Chaos Dragons are notorious for dropping heaps of damage without notice. Thankfully for me dimensional prison kept him at bay and he drew no good cards. I attacked with centipede which he responded to with a Gorz drop. I used Dark hole and from there he forfeited due to bad draws. Close call !
Match 4: Lightsworn/Lightrays (Finals)
I had beaten this kid before so I didn't get too worked up about this match up
Round 1:
The guy summone Lyla on turn 1 and I set sangan with no s/t as I didn't want to lose any to Lyla. Little did I know that was HUGE mistake as he took advantage of that next turn and killed me.
Round 2:
Some serious siding in went down on my part but he chose not to. I started an easy lock down with Dimensional Prison and Fossil Dyna which caused him to have nothing to do since he couldn't special summon or mill cards. His deck was in perfect lock down from where I sat. When the pieces were assembled I combo-ed off and killed him quickly.
Round 3:
He milled really fast, like over 1/3 of his deck was gone by his second turn. Luckily for me he decided to hold out on any big plays so I took advantage of that and combo-ed off for game.
So there you have it, I piloted Inzektors to first place and claimed my $20 prize money. I'm happy to win of course as I profited some money but I didn't beat Wayne which probably won't happen for a while. All in all it was a good day, I brought some cards at very reasonable prices and even received a few goodies off my friends.
Monday 11 June 2012
Tournament Report - 10th June 2012
Alex and I went to Good Games in the city to participate in a tournament, with a $15 buy in. He was running Inzektors, and I was running a Chaos Dragons build incorporating Lightsworns and Judgment Dragon that we built on the train. Both of us ended up 2-2, pretty disappointing results overall for the both of us. Even for my first live event, I feel like I underperformed considering I did make a few misplays which I was able to pick out.
The tournament was in Swiss format, with the best 4 out of 10 participants moving onto the finals.
Match 1 - vs Nathan (Dino Rabbit)
Game 1: I don't remember if I won the diceroll or not, but he opened with Rabbit and Lance and I had no real mill outlets in my hand so his Laggia controlled the board pretty hard. I managed to mount a small comeback with a well timed Red Eyes, sweeping his monsters by baiting Laggia's negation with a Monster Reborn I didn't care about anyway, but he topdecked a Tour Guide into Leviair into Rabbit, and then the game was over.
Game 2: Once again I opened poorly (despite siding in three Mystical Space Typhoons, two Spirit Reapers and two Soul Takers), but going first allowed me to stall a little with Ryko. At one point I was ready to push for game with Red Eyes and Lightpulsar after baiting Laggia negations and reading his backrows correctly. However, when I went for game, I started out with Heavy Storm on his two backrows, straight into a Starlight Road. I lost Red Eyes on the next turn and the game was over quickly. I never saw any of my side decked cards.
Match 2 - vs Connor (Chaos Dragons)
Game 1: I lost the diceroll and he opened with Tour Guide into Zenmaines. I played Ehren, but he Veilered it and I lost Ehren on the next turn. I managed to push through Zenmaines by making it use its effect on itself, and had established presence with Lightpulsar, but he took it out while I had no Red Eyes in the yard and rolled me with his Red Eyes.
Game 2: I went first, and we went blow for blow. He had sided in three Electric Viruses and two Victorias, two of the Viruses were milled by he still hit me pretty hard with the Victorias. Eventually, a timely Chaos Sorcerer drop finally banished his Lightpulsar and I pushed for game.
Game 3: At one point I had an Eclipse Wyvern on the field with Honest in hand and Lance set. He had Lightpulsar, Zenmaines and Red Eyes on the field, and attacked my Wyvern. I made a misplay here - I should have used Honest, but instead I let it fall and every time I tried to come back, his Electric Viruses and Victorias shut me down.
Match 3 - vs Lucas (Blackwings)
Game 1: This guy was a kid and probably not very good at the game, but I decided I wouldn't take him easy. He had a pumped up Sirocco on the field at one point, and even managed to Dark Hole my field of Lightpulsar and Wyvern with no Darkflare or Red Eyes in the yard. I was dangerously low on Life Points at one point, but I dropped BLS and swung for game.
Game 2: He had stalled me for at least 5 turns with a Marshmallon. Instead of waiting for a good topdeck, however, he Tributed the Marshmallon for Sirocco to end the game by swinging at my field. However, I had Honest in hand and won.
Match 4 - vs Roman (Citadel Spellcasters)
Game 1: I won the diceroll and opened strongly, milling Wyvern on the first turn (and Gorz too...). He managed to use Arcane Barrier (or whatever the card is) to draw 4 cards, and nearly gamed me with a souped-up Arcanite Magician, but I just banished it with Chaos Sorcerer and he couldn't come back.
Game 2: I dispatched of his Citadel and Defender pretty early, and I constantly applied pressure with Lightpulsar. I had about 3000 points left from going blow for blow with him. A few turns in, he said "time to try something new..." and he ended up stacking about 4 Spell Counters in one turn on his Arcanite Magician and swinging for 3400 at my points. I was dumbstruck as I reached for my Side Deck.
Game 3: He had little outs to an early Jain, which managed to get some good enough mills that I was able to play beatstick after beatstick whenever he got rid of them and I eventually pushed for game and ended the day 2-2.
I was aware of my misplays in the four matches and I'm working towards rectifying them. I think live practice is very important - there's stuff you can't pick up on in Dueling Network (the wince on the other player's face when he gets poor mills, or the subtle encouragement of attacking into a Mirror Force - 'do you still want to attack?') that you can pick up on in real life. Overall it was a pretty good day and I did manage to get some more experience with Chaos Dragons, though I won't be using the Lightsworn build again probably.
The tournament was in Swiss format, with the best 4 out of 10 participants moving onto the finals.
Match 1 - vs Nathan (Dino Rabbit)
Game 1: I don't remember if I won the diceroll or not, but he opened with Rabbit and Lance and I had no real mill outlets in my hand so his Laggia controlled the board pretty hard. I managed to mount a small comeback with a well timed Red Eyes, sweeping his monsters by baiting Laggia's negation with a Monster Reborn I didn't care about anyway, but he topdecked a Tour Guide into Leviair into Rabbit, and then the game was over.
Game 2: Once again I opened poorly (despite siding in three Mystical Space Typhoons, two Spirit Reapers and two Soul Takers), but going first allowed me to stall a little with Ryko. At one point I was ready to push for game with Red Eyes and Lightpulsar after baiting Laggia negations and reading his backrows correctly. However, when I went for game, I started out with Heavy Storm on his two backrows, straight into a Starlight Road. I lost Red Eyes on the next turn and the game was over quickly. I never saw any of my side decked cards.
Match 2 - vs Connor (Chaos Dragons)
Game 1: I lost the diceroll and he opened with Tour Guide into Zenmaines. I played Ehren, but he Veilered it and I lost Ehren on the next turn. I managed to push through Zenmaines by making it use its effect on itself, and had established presence with Lightpulsar, but he took it out while I had no Red Eyes in the yard and rolled me with his Red Eyes.
Game 2: I went first, and we went blow for blow. He had sided in three Electric Viruses and two Victorias, two of the Viruses were milled by he still hit me pretty hard with the Victorias. Eventually, a timely Chaos Sorcerer drop finally banished his Lightpulsar and I pushed for game.
Game 3: At one point I had an Eclipse Wyvern on the field with Honest in hand and Lance set. He had Lightpulsar, Zenmaines and Red Eyes on the field, and attacked my Wyvern. I made a misplay here - I should have used Honest, but instead I let it fall and every time I tried to come back, his Electric Viruses and Victorias shut me down.
Match 3 - vs Lucas (Blackwings)
Game 1: This guy was a kid and probably not very good at the game, but I decided I wouldn't take him easy. He had a pumped up Sirocco on the field at one point, and even managed to Dark Hole my field of Lightpulsar and Wyvern with no Darkflare or Red Eyes in the yard. I was dangerously low on Life Points at one point, but I dropped BLS and swung for game.
Game 2: He had stalled me for at least 5 turns with a Marshmallon. Instead of waiting for a good topdeck, however, he Tributed the Marshmallon for Sirocco to end the game by swinging at my field. However, I had Honest in hand and won.
Match 4 - vs Roman (Citadel Spellcasters)
Game 1: I won the diceroll and opened strongly, milling Wyvern on the first turn (and Gorz too...). He managed to use Arcane Barrier (or whatever the card is) to draw 4 cards, and nearly gamed me with a souped-up Arcanite Magician, but I just banished it with Chaos Sorcerer and he couldn't come back.
Game 2: I dispatched of his Citadel and Defender pretty early, and I constantly applied pressure with Lightpulsar. I had about 3000 points left from going blow for blow with him. A few turns in, he said "time to try something new..." and he ended up stacking about 4 Spell Counters in one turn on his Arcanite Magician and swinging for 3400 at my points. I was dumbstruck as I reached for my Side Deck.
Game 3: He had little outs to an early Jain, which managed to get some good enough mills that I was able to play beatstick after beatstick whenever he got rid of them and I eventually pushed for game and ended the day 2-2.
I was aware of my misplays in the four matches and I'm working towards rectifying them. I think live practice is very important - there's stuff you can't pick up on in Dueling Network (the wince on the other player's face when he gets poor mills, or the subtle encouragement of attacking into a Mirror Force - 'do you still want to attack?') that you can pick up on in real life. Overall it was a pretty good day and I did manage to get some more experience with Chaos Dragons, though I won't be using the Lightsworn build again probably.
Thursday 7 June 2012
A new addition to the blog - League of Legends and guides to improving
Hello, due to the request of some of my friends I have decided to expand this blog into a more of an overall gaming blog. There are countless of these on the Internet, but this just gives me the opportunity to keep my thoughts written down for reference. League of Legends, for those who don't know, is basically a DotA clone with a large emphasis on teamwork and decision making rather than mechanical ability. It's one of the most popular games in the world, and currently the most popular game in Korea (bigger than Starcraft). I won't go too much into it, because the best way to find out is to just play it yourself.
The following series of posts assumes that you understand how the game works, what all the champions do as well as the current metagame. It also assumes that you have a reasonable level of mechanical skill (and why wouldn't you, the game is easy) and are just looking to improve on aspects of play outside of your mechanical skill.
The first thing I wanted to talk about was analysing the game state. This is easier than it sounds because most players will already make decisions based on the state of the game without realising. Some of the core factors to consider when you analyse the game state follow:
The play follows:
So, next time you have an advantage, take a moment to think about the game state. How can you turn an advantage into a snowball? If you're behind, how can you take advantage of the opponent's desire to snowball? If I saw that this MIA gambit was being used against me, (through a ward) I would tell my jungler to position himself near the roaming mid laner to sandwich him in a 2v1. I could also waste his time by appearing indecisive as to whether I should farm or roam. In the end though, every player is different. Some will outthink you. This is inevitable - it's only through practice that you can learn to win the game of wits that underlies League of Legends.
However, if your mechanics aren't up to par - say you lose lane every game and your CS sucks, you should just try to improve them. You need to learn how to run laps before you can run a marathon, or run in the Olympics. You need to understand and play Yu-Gi-Oh! at a comprehensive level before you attend a YCS. Mechanical skill is utterly important and will carry you further than metagaming or thinking will.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you look forward to more articles. I'm manisier on the NA server, and I'll be updating this as I give lessons to some players.
The following series of posts assumes that you understand how the game works, what all the champions do as well as the current metagame. It also assumes that you have a reasonable level of mechanical skill (and why wouldn't you, the game is easy) and are just looking to improve on aspects of play outside of your mechanical skill.
The first thing I wanted to talk about was analysing the game state. This is easier than it sounds because most players will already make decisions based on the state of the game without realising. Some of the core factors to consider when you analyse the game state follow:
- Cooldowns (regular and summoner spells)
- Timers (buffs, camps, wards)
- Positioning (both in lane and overall)
- MIAs (estimated location, ganking style, ganking ability)
- Lane advantage (items, health, tower)
- Vision (yours and the other team's)
The play follows:
- Ward any places that you are likely to be ganked from.
- Push your wave to the enemy tower.
- Go MIA, ensuring the enemy laner can see where you have disappeared into the fog from.
- Find a brush and wait.
- Follow you into the fog to prevent a gank.
- Stay in lane and use the reprieve to get some CS.
- Recall to buy items or heal.
- Ambush them in the fog and pick up an easy kill.
- Run behind them in lane as they push forward and kill or force them out of lane.
- Gank a lane, or take dragon.
So, next time you have an advantage, take a moment to think about the game state. How can you turn an advantage into a snowball? If you're behind, how can you take advantage of the opponent's desire to snowball? If I saw that this MIA gambit was being used against me, (through a ward) I would tell my jungler to position himself near the roaming mid laner to sandwich him in a 2v1. I could also waste his time by appearing indecisive as to whether I should farm or roam. In the end though, every player is different. Some will outthink you. This is inevitable - it's only through practice that you can learn to win the game of wits that underlies League of Legends.
However, if your mechanics aren't up to par - say you lose lane every game and your CS sucks, you should just try to improve them. You need to learn how to run laps before you can run a marathon, or run in the Olympics. You need to understand and play Yu-Gi-Oh! at a comprehensive level before you attend a YCS. Mechanical skill is utterly important and will carry you further than metagaming or thinking will.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you look forward to more articles. I'm manisier on the NA server, and I'll be updating this as I give lessons to some players.
Saturday 26 May 2012
A guide to winning with subpar decks
So today I went to
Paramatta with my girlfriend and we participated in the Sealed pack play that I
talked about in my previous post. We both paid our $40 entry fee and received
our 9 booster packs. I was rather disappointed with each pack I opened as I
didn't get any extremely broken cards like Raigeki or Haripe's Feather Duster.
But nevertheless I did pull good cards like Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness and
Pot of Duality. My girlfriend (Jenny) pulled some pretty amazing cards such as
Utopia, Raigeki, Soul exchange, Beast King Barboras, Forbidden lance, Fiendish
chain. When I saw her cards I actually did lost a bit of hope of winning the
tournament and felt like giving up but I built my deck in the end and even
built hers for her.
This is the deck I ended up using in my tournament for sealed pack
play.
If you recognise my cards you'll also realise it's not
the best deck considering how many other cards were in the pack that I could've
gotten. But like I said, this is a guide to winning. I cannot stress how important it
is to maintain your composure and stay positive even while using a bad deck.
Sadly this was not the case for me and I went into the tournament thinking,
just ease up you'll never win with these kind of cards.
In my first round I actually lost my fist game then
won 2 games straight by beating my opponent down with my level 4 monsters. My
Caius the Shadow monarch actually managed to win the game for me.
After winning round 1, I was exhilarated and shocked.
The guy had so many good cards and had a few chances to win the duel, but I
guess I managed to time key cards like dark bribe at the right time.
Second round was a shocker. Despite winning I was
paired with a person who lost their first round, even more surprising, it was
Jenny. Nothing really special about this match it was a quick 2-0 win for me.
But there was one rather good play on behalf where I was going to blast sphere
her Mobius equipped with a united we stand for 4000 damage. But she used
Darkworld shackles to lower her monster to 100 attack points and save herself
for a while.
Going into round 3 I was definitely worried, the guy
had amazingly broken cards like Pot of Greed and Gorz and Lance. After copping
a quick beating in round 1, I was convinced my hopes of winning were crushed.
But after some really intense clutch plays, I managed to win the duel. One
crucial misplay on my opponents part cost him the match. This is an important
part to the game, being able to see your opponents misplays and capitalise on
them.
This was it, final round, the bubble. I was secretly
mentally preparing myself for the finals but a part of me just couldn't help
but feel like the first 3 rounds were all luck and luck can only get you so
far. My friend Wayne showed up and we talked a bit about my deck and he thought
I had a fighting chance considering the sort of players in the area. The finals
began and Wayne was judging. My opponent managed to win a very intense game 1
with a well resolved Raigeki. Despite several misplays on both our behalves
(which Wayne was only too happy to point out each time) we managed to get to a
1-1 state where the third game would decide it all. After many swings in
momentum the game eventually settled down to me having a 2400 attack monster
and the opponent having 2 monsters weaker than it. Unfortunately he drew an
Offerings to the doom spell card and sealed the game with that.
So there you have it, my road to second place with an
incredibly subpar deck. I don't regret too much because I'm simply so grateful
that I managed to utilise my experience in Yu-Gi-Oh to carry a deck so far.
This could have just been a test to see how well I can duel under such
circumstances. Jenny went 2-2 if you were curious, she lost 2 then won 2.
I won $15 prize money and used it to buy 2 packs of sleeves for my cards. This
post wasn't intended to boast about myself but to inspire those who have bad
luck with pulls at sneak peeks and sealed plays, I know I have really bad luck
at these sort of events so today was rather special for me.
Thursday 24 May 2012
Battle pack: Epic Dawn
To
be honest, when I first read about this 'Battle Pack: Epic Dawn" I was
like it sounds crap. Then I heard that Tour Guide from the Underworld was going
to be re-printed in it, I was like okay change of heart. (See what I did
there?) Anyways, for those who are wondering what's so amazing about this pack,
it's a pure reprint pack. A reprint is basically a card from a previous pack
which has been printed again to make it easier to get. For the full list of
cards in Battle Pack: Epic Dawn click on the link below
If you look
through most of these cards you'll notice some familiar names and perhaps some
you've never heard of. As a Yu-Gi-Oh veteran I didn't even recognise every card
I saw. Obvious highlights of this pack would be stuff like Tour Guide from the
Underworld, Gorz the Emissary of darkness, Fiendish chain, forbidden chalice
and forbidden lance and a whole bunch of other goodies you might see fit for
your current deck. This pack also brings with it a new interesting twist of its
own. A whole new way to play called sealed pack play. What is this you might
ask. Basically, the most simplest way to do this is buy an entire box of Battle
Pack: Epic Dawn and split the packs amongst 2 other friends. What happens is
each player opens a pack and selects a card then passes on the rest of the
cards for the opponent to choose one. This happens until you have opened all
the packs and everybody has their pool of cards. You can either choose to play
with 40 cards per deck or 20. Sealed draft play is a new concept in Yu-Gi-Oh so
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on it since I have as much experience
as any other person out there: 0. All I know is that it brings about a whole
new exciting and fun way to play Yu-Gi-Oh.
There is
also a new type of rarity in this set called the 'Starfoil rare'. This new
rarity is inspired by Japan because they have their own version of this called
'Duel Terminal rare'. I took the liberty of buying a few of these packs myself
the other day to share with you guys what the starfoil rare looks like. So here
it is:
Monday 21 May 2012
Big things coming!
I don't want to have to apologise for our recent delay in getting posts up, but the workload of the HSC is starting to get to me. However, Alex and myself are currently putting together two decks - a Lightray/Lightsworn hybrid, and a Chaos Dragons deck. We expect to be able to use these decks at a competitive level eventually, attending local tournaments and such.
I'll briefly talk about the merits of both decks: the first is, obviously, based around the Lightray archetype. The Lightray monsters, for those who are unaware, can be Special Summoned when enough Light monsters are banished. They have powerful effects and are strong beaters too. Their ease of use definitely reminds me of Chaos monsters in a way.
What's also cool is that all the cards are essentially corrupted, Light versions of other cards. We have Gearfried, Chaos Sorcerer, and even our old friend Daedalus with Lightray counterparts. Sort of like the Verz monsters, but more awesome.
The Lightsworn engine is used primarily to get Light monsters banished through use of Macro Cosmos and milling. I'm sure more alternatives will open up to us, but at the moment Lightrays look like a very promising casual deck, maybe even with some competitive potential.
Chaos Dragons, on the other hand, are also an inexpensive build, however they have had massive success at recent YCS tournaments. TCGPlayer and Alter Reality Games have some articles on this deck, so I won't go too much in detail. The key points to note about this deck are basically that it's the cheapest competitive deck available right now, and it wins by applying pressure through sustained use of beatsticks. Everyone loves a beatstick.
Decklists will be posted later when we finish the decks. Until then, take care!
I'll briefly talk about the merits of both decks: the first is, obviously, based around the Lightray archetype. The Lightray monsters, for those who are unaware, can be Special Summoned when enough Light monsters are banished. They have powerful effects and are strong beaters too. Their ease of use definitely reminds me of Chaos monsters in a way.
The Lightsworn engine is used primarily to get Light monsters banished through use of Macro Cosmos and milling. I'm sure more alternatives will open up to us, but at the moment Lightrays look like a very promising casual deck, maybe even with some competitive potential.
Chaos Dragons, on the other hand, are also an inexpensive build, however they have had massive success at recent YCS tournaments. TCGPlayer and Alter Reality Games have some articles on this deck, so I won't go too much in detail. The key points to note about this deck are basically that it's the cheapest competitive deck available right now, and it wins by applying pressure through sustained use of beatsticks. Everyone loves a beatstick.
Decklists will be posted later when we finish the decks. Until then, take care!
Tuesday 10 April 2012
Expanding your horizons
My point is, in Yu-Gi-Oh those with perspectives have an advantage over those who focus on that one deck they like. By using decks you like and dislike, you will find out the strengths and weaknesses of each deck and how to adapt your strategy to best counter that deck. So next time a deck annoys you or you just dislike the way it functions. Do some research on it, see the playstyle is has and find out the weak points you can abuse. I shall capitalise on this post by discussing the top decks right now both tier 1 and tier 1.5 and how you should adapt your strategy to take them down! Until then, keep this quote in mind
"Good players play the format, great players define the format"
Friday 30 March 2012
Understanding Dark bribe
It's Confucius :D
Dark bribe is a love hate card. You either love what it does or you hate what it does. It's simple enough to understand, negate an activation of your opponent's spell or trap and destroy it. Then they draw one card. In a straight forward situation and scenario this is a plus 1 for your opponent. This is exactly why Dark bribe is a love-hate card. Some people hate the plus1 it gives your opponent but others can appreciate what it does. I'm here to explain why I'm considering this card in some of my future deck builds.
In my experience Dark bribe is a card best played in the dying stages of the game. Meaning, play this card when the game is simplified to the point where you and your opponent are down to 1-3 cards each. A late game scenario typically looks like this:
As you can see the opponent activated mirror force to which I chained Dark Bribe. Dark Bribe would then fetch my opponent an extra card but in return my Barboras is safe and his attack hits Laggia for 600 Life points. Which, as you can see at this point of the game is quite a big deal. The opponent then starts his/her turn with 3 cards in hand but has to face skill drain along with a 3k Beast.
Now let's explain how this scenario COULD'VE turned out if I didn't have a dark bribe set. I would have lost my Beast and be quite vulnerable to a counter attack the next move which would have finished me. In my opinion, Dark bribe works just like Solemn Judgment. The general notion is to play it late in the game where it's quite worth the cost. You wouldn't solemn judgment the very first card your opponent played when they have another 5 more in hand to back it up would you? Same thing with Dark bribe. You don't use it when your opponent has a plentiful amount of resources at their disposal. You use it late game where the effect is detrimental.
Yes, Dark bribe does give your opponent an extra card but think of it this way. You can only have one copy of heavy storm, monster reborn or Dark hole. Let's say you negated that with dark bribe, no matter what your opponent draws, it can't be one of those again. I won't deny that Solemn Judgment is a powerful card but there just aren't enough cards that can negate spells or traps. Especially in a format like this where spells and traps are so dominant. The key to dark bribe is just like solemn judgment.
In my experience Dark bribe is a card best played in the dying stages of the game. Meaning, play this card when the game is simplified to the point where you and your opponent are down to 1-3 cards each. A late game scenario typically looks like this:
The following scenario is not a very uncommon one these days. It's skill drain heros vs Dino rabbit. Skill drain puts Beast King Barboras at 3000atk and makes Laggia a simple 2400atk with no effect. Walking solemn? I don't think so. Now I (SynchroKnight) declares an attack on Evolzar Laggia and let's see how it plays out.
As you can see the opponent activated mirror force to which I chained Dark Bribe. Dark Bribe would then fetch my opponent an extra card but in return my Barboras is safe and his attack hits Laggia for 600 Life points. Which, as you can see at this point of the game is quite a big deal. The opponent then starts his/her turn with 3 cards in hand but has to face skill drain along with a 3k Beast.
Now let's explain how this scenario COULD'VE turned out if I didn't have a dark bribe set. I would have lost my Beast and be quite vulnerable to a counter attack the next move which would have finished me. In my opinion, Dark bribe works just like Solemn Judgment. The general notion is to play it late in the game where it's quite worth the cost. You wouldn't solemn judgment the very first card your opponent played when they have another 5 more in hand to back it up would you? Same thing with Dark bribe. You don't use it when your opponent has a plentiful amount of resources at their disposal. You use it late game where the effect is detrimental.
Yes, Dark bribe does give your opponent an extra card but think of it this way. You can only have one copy of heavy storm, monster reborn or Dark hole. Let's say you negated that with dark bribe, no matter what your opponent draws, it can't be one of those again. I won't deny that Solemn Judgment is a powerful card but there just aren't enough cards that can negate spells or traps. Especially in a format like this where spells and traps are so dominant. The key to dark bribe is just like solemn judgment.
KNOW WHEN TO ACTIVATE IT.
To conclude, dark bribe is an advanced card that I personally think is only as good as the player. It all comes down to experience, ability to read and analyse the field and finally, a bit of luck. Why not try a copy or two of dark bribe in your next deck? Practice using it, when to time it and finally, what to negate with it. Perhaps with some luck, you will come to find (as I have) that it is a game changing card that hits opponents harder than they think.
Monday 26 March 2012
March Musings
Sorry for not being very active lately guys, I've been busy with Year 12, but I promise to put out some posts during the school holidays, possibly concluding the Introduction to Yu-Gi-Oh! series. A lot has happened since my last post - we saw Six Samurais win Guadalajara, Dino Rabbit take out Leipzig, and now Dark World winning the 100th YCS in Long Beach. I'm going to do a metagame analysis as my next post near the start of the holidays, as I saw some very interesting things in the Long Beach reports.
The main deck I've been playing is Dino Rabbit. It's too good. It has no negative matchups, and any deck that goes out of its way to stop Dino Rabbit is going to be crushed by the Rabbit sideboard. The recent practice of running Forbidden Lance at 3 has really limited the options players have at stopping the Rabbit. We've also seen Kaiser Colosseum being sided in to Dino Rabbit - a first turn Laggia and Kaiser Colosseum not only stops the Six Samurais, Dark Worlds and other swarm-happy decks, but it also gives the Rabbit mirror a good kick in the balls. Of course, you always run the risk of it being Typhooned, but most of your set cards will cry to MST like Starlight Road, Warning and Torrential anyway.
I've also looked into Chaos Dragons. It's a tier 2 deck at best, but there are some fun lockdowns and it's very explosive. It's my favourite deck to play with by far, though I will admit it is inconsistent at times and gets hit hard by the Inzektor matchup.
I think Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler are still important cards. I would still run three of each (between your main deck and your sideboard), maybe 1 or 2 Veilers at most if your deck isn't worried about Inzektors or anything. Veiler is still really versatile. Maxx "C" stops you from getting looped by Wind-Ups, and is a good tech against the surging Six Samurais and Dark World decks.
Another cool deck is Hero Beat, which is back for the new format. It's now incorporating Skill Drain, which hits a lot of decks very hard, as always. I don't think we'll ever see a meta in which Skill Drain isn't effective. The high ATK of Stratos, Neos Alius, Rai-Oh and Beast King Barbaros just applies constant pressure. It's also fairly consistent, as the deck runs Skill Drain at 3 and there are five ways to search out a Neos Alius. Miracle Fusion antics are great as always, and Super Polymerization gets around the undisputed king of this format, Evolzar Laggia.
I'll just leave you with a picture I found rather humorous. I think it was taken at Long Beach. Thanks for your patience, we promise more to come!
The main deck I've been playing is Dino Rabbit. It's too good. It has no negative matchups, and any deck that goes out of its way to stop Dino Rabbit is going to be crushed by the Rabbit sideboard. The recent practice of running Forbidden Lance at 3 has really limited the options players have at stopping the Rabbit. We've also seen Kaiser Colosseum being sided in to Dino Rabbit - a first turn Laggia and Kaiser Colosseum not only stops the Six Samurais, Dark Worlds and other swarm-happy decks, but it also gives the Rabbit mirror a good kick in the balls. Of course, you always run the risk of it being Typhooned, but most of your set cards will cry to MST like Starlight Road, Warning and Torrential anyway.
I've also looked into Chaos Dragons. It's a tier 2 deck at best, but there are some fun lockdowns and it's very explosive. It's my favourite deck to play with by far, though I will admit it is inconsistent at times and gets hit hard by the Inzektor matchup.
I think Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler are still important cards. I would still run three of each (between your main deck and your sideboard), maybe 1 or 2 Veilers at most if your deck isn't worried about Inzektors or anything. Veiler is still really versatile. Maxx "C" stops you from getting looped by Wind-Ups, and is a good tech against the surging Six Samurais and Dark World decks.
Another cool deck is Hero Beat, which is back for the new format. It's now incorporating Skill Drain, which hits a lot of decks very hard, as always. I don't think we'll ever see a meta in which Skill Drain isn't effective. The high ATK of Stratos, Neos Alius, Rai-Oh and Beast King Barbaros just applies constant pressure. It's also fairly consistent, as the deck runs Skill Drain at 3 and there are five ways to search out a Neos Alius. Miracle Fusion antics are great as always, and Super Polymerization gets around the undisputed king of this format, Evolzar Laggia.
I'll just leave you with a picture I found rather humorous. I think it was taken at Long Beach. Thanks for your patience, we promise more to come!
Thursday 15 March 2012
Don't stay in the friend zone, Stay in the Safe zone
Today I'm here to talk about a very versatile trap card known as Safe zone
No fear Mirror force!!!
First of all let's do the usual thing with every card we talk about: Deconstruct it.
Activate by selecting 1 face-up Attack Position monster. That monster cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects, or be destroyed by battle. It cannot attack your opponent directly. When this card is removed from the field, destroy that monster. When that monster is removed from the field, destroy this card.
Activate by selecting 1 face-up Attack position monster. This seems simple enough does it not? Activate and target, done. WRONG! Does that line specify which monster to target? Does it say target one face-up monster on YOUR side of the field? No it does not. That means you can hook your opponent's monster up with this card. You may be wondering why you would want to help your opponent out with a card as powerful as this but I shall clear that up for you as the post progresses.
That card cannot be targeted or destroyed by your opponent's card effects, or be destroyed by battle. Now how great is that? A monster that is practically invincible and you no longer have to fear spells or traps that would normally blow up your monster. The question from above still lingers though, why would you want to give your opponent such an advantage? I have yet to answer this question but fear not I will. Please note that your monster is not completely invincible, hence why I said practically invincible. The opponent can still use cards such as Caius the shadow monarch or Trishula, dragon of the Ice barrier or Brionac, Dragon of the ice barrier.
It cannot attack your opponent directly, sounds like a reasonable cost for making a monster near indestructible.
When this card is removed from the field, destroy that monster. When that monster is removed from the field, destroy this card. Seems simple enough, odds are the trap 'Safe Zone' is more likely to be destroyed than the monster that it's used on.
Okay time to explain why this card can work as a two way weapon.
Suppose your opponent activated Heavy storm to clear your back row, you could chain it to their monster and since safe-zone would be destroyed, so would their monster. Awesome right? Let's say your opponent just summoned their Black luster Soldier- Envoy of the beginning and is about to swing at you for 3k damage. You safe-zone their BLS and it can't scratch you. Next turn you can just use MST on safe zone and goodbye BLS.
There are many more ways to manipulate safe-zone but I haven't used it enough to experience all the different scenarios it can be used in.
It cannot attack your opponent directly, sounds like a reasonable cost for making a monster near indestructible.
When this card is removed from the field, destroy that monster. When that monster is removed from the field, destroy this card. Seems simple enough, odds are the trap 'Safe Zone' is more likely to be destroyed than the monster that it's used on.
Okay time to explain why this card can work as a two way weapon.
Suppose your opponent activated Heavy storm to clear your back row, you could chain it to their monster and since safe-zone would be destroyed, so would their monster. Awesome right? Let's say your opponent just summoned their Black luster Soldier- Envoy of the beginning and is about to swing at you for 3k damage. You safe-zone their BLS and it can't scratch you. Next turn you can just use MST on safe zone and goodbye BLS.
There are many more ways to manipulate safe-zone but I haven't used it enough to experience all the different scenarios it can be used in.
Hey guys sorry it's been a while, Alex and I (Alex) are both senior students and obviously the work load is killing us. Anyways the 100th YCS is coming up and I sincerely wish every duelist out there (yes, even chain burn duelists) the best of luck. The expected turn out is 2000 + duelists!! That's definitely the biggest turn out in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh. Anyways onto my topic. Sorry to contradict you Manisier but I think the need to run triple maxx c is gone now. Let's look at why I would say such a ridiculous thing. You might be asking yourself NO TRIPLE MAXX C?! HOW AM I GOING TO STOP THE WIND-UP COMBO ?! HOW DO I PLUS OFF TOUR GUIDE AND RABBIT PLAYS?!
The big 3:
Everyone knows the top 3 decks dominating the format has to be Rabbits, Inzektors and Wind-ups. Firstly let's look at Inzektors:
Their signature combo allows them to plus 4 but how many special summons do they do? Dragonfly brings out 1 centipede and from there that just makes your maxx c a 1 for 1. At best they're going to XYZ into zenmaines or something and you get a +1.
BUT
The Inzektor combo has the potential to plus 4, even if you plus 1 off their combo it's still a +2 for them at the end of the day. Now let's imagine you dropped effect veiler instead of Maxx c. Sure that's essentially a minus 1 for you but at least you're not going to let your opponent have a +4.
Wind-ups:
Yes it is devastating to lose your entire hand to the loop but more often than not Maxx c will only save you for one turn and you're only going to get a plus 1 off it at best, unless you have an idiot for an opponent. In my opinion Maxx c can be sided in for this deck but Maxx c isn't really worth maining anymore because most players have written off Wind-ups as both overpriced and easily beaten.
Rabbits:
Now this is the deck everyone wants to know how to beat. To be honest I don't even know the most consistent way to take down this deck. The best you can do is hope fiendish chains, snowman eaters and huge beaters will do the trick for you. Now, let's say you just met your opponent at YCS you realise he's running rabbits. If he starts his turn with a tour guide, odds are you will chain maxx c, he will bring out sangan and leave it at that. To you, that's a 1 for 1, but for him that's a +1.
If you chain maxx c to rabbit sure you will get the plus 1 but are you sure the two cards you draw can take down a Laggia? Now, suppose you had played a card like bottomless trap hole (a very underrated card against Rabbits) not only would you eliminate both their dinosaurs, you wouldn't even have to face Laggia at all !
I understand the urge to run triple maxx c and stop the opponent from doing mass special summons. But the Synchro era is over (sadly) and the only deck that spams special summons now are Wind-ups and like I said, they're not big deal. It's time to stop spending $330 on a playset of Maxx c and look at other cards which better suit a match up with the 'Big 3'.
The big 3:
Everyone knows the top 3 decks dominating the format has to be Rabbits, Inzektors and Wind-ups. Firstly let's look at Inzektors:
Their signature combo allows them to plus 4 but how many special summons do they do? Dragonfly brings out 1 centipede and from there that just makes your maxx c a 1 for 1. At best they're going to XYZ into zenmaines or something and you get a +1.
BUT
The Inzektor combo has the potential to plus 4, even if you plus 1 off their combo it's still a +2 for them at the end of the day. Now let's imagine you dropped effect veiler instead of Maxx c. Sure that's essentially a minus 1 for you but at least you're not going to let your opponent have a +4.
Wind-ups:
Yes it is devastating to lose your entire hand to the loop but more often than not Maxx c will only save you for one turn and you're only going to get a plus 1 off it at best, unless you have an idiot for an opponent. In my opinion Maxx c can be sided in for this deck but Maxx c isn't really worth maining anymore because most players have written off Wind-ups as both overpriced and easily beaten.
Rabbits:
Now this is the deck everyone wants to know how to beat. To be honest I don't even know the most consistent way to take down this deck. The best you can do is hope fiendish chains, snowman eaters and huge beaters will do the trick for you. Now, let's say you just met your opponent at YCS you realise he's running rabbits. If he starts his turn with a tour guide, odds are you will chain maxx c, he will bring out sangan and leave it at that. To you, that's a 1 for 1, but for him that's a +1.
If you chain maxx c to rabbit sure you will get the plus 1 but are you sure the two cards you draw can take down a Laggia? Now, suppose you had played a card like bottomless trap hole (a very underrated card against Rabbits) not only would you eliminate both their dinosaurs, you wouldn't even have to face Laggia at all !
I understand the urge to run triple maxx c and stop the opponent from doing mass special summons. But the Synchro era is over (sadly) and the only deck that spams special summons now are Wind-ups and like I said, they're not big deal. It's time to stop spending $330 on a playset of Maxx c and look at other cards which better suit a match up with the 'Big 3'.
Friday 10 February 2012
Time to Reminisce
Hey, sorry about the long delay between posts, I've been caught up playing the newly released Final Fantasy 13-2. Just a quick note on that, I highly recommend it to anyone. I even managed to convince my history teacher to buy it and he never even played Final Fantasy 13. He enjoys it a lot and we're competing to see who will finish the game first.Anyways on a Yu-Gi-Oh note. It's time to reminisce, the September 2011 format is in the final moments of it's reign and with that March 2012 will take it's place with a whole new banlist, a whole new format. A whole new game. So let's just go back 6 months and take a look at the impact of September's banlist shall we? (Talking about travelling through time is weird after you've played ff13-2)
When the September banlist first hit, Six Samurais were destroyed immediately, they still had a chance but it was nothing in comparison to when gateway was at 3. Synchrocentric took a devastating yet expected hit, T.G. Hyper Librarian going to 1 and Formula Synchron going to 1 as well. Yet Synchrocentric still proved to be able to stand after being hit by the banlist so many times. I think the wonderful thing about Synchrocentric is that it can adapt to pretty much any banlist. Not to mention that despite not being the best deck out there, it takes the most skill to pilot this deck. Anyone can just pick up an inzektor deck and plus 4 off it. But knowing how to use Synchrocentric is a whole new story.
Mystical space typhoon was released to 3 and heavy storm was also forbidden but released to 1 again so spell/trap destruction was heavy. This forced players to consider how many cards they should set at any one time. Should I set 1 card and risk losing it to Mystical Space typhoon or set a lot and risk losing it all to heavy storm.
This era also holds what I refer to as the 'God spells'. It's my fancy little way of naming them because Dark hole, Heavy storm and Monster reborn can single handed-ly turn the tides of any game. Heavy storm isn't as great but it's always good when you feel safe about your opponent's backrow.
Tour Guide from the Underworld and maxx 'c' were seeing an instant soar in their prices because of how popular they suddenly became after Billy Brake carried them to the top spot in YCS. Maxx 'c' has now become a staple in just about any deck with the ability to power through the deck and also stop an opponent in their tracks.
To be honest I was drifting away from the game so I don't remember too much about how it felt to be in the September era. But that's how much I know about it.
A sign of things to come - YCS Atlanta
Hi guys, YCS Atlanta is imminent with YCS Guadalajara finishing recently. The winner of the Mexican tournament was Oscar Zavala, piloting what many duelists now consider to be a weak deck - Six Samurai. I cannot say for sure why Six Samurais won in a format where Wind-Ups, Inzektors and Dino Rabbit are not hindered by the banlist, but I can probably hazard a guess and say that it's because Mexico doesn't have a hold of all the powerful, rare cards needed for the top decks. That's not to say that Six Samurai is a weak deck though, even with Gateway being limited, the Samurais have gained support in Asceticism of the Six Samurai that still pumps out the early Shi Ens. But this post is not about Six Samurais, rather what we can expect at YCS Atlanta.
We have talked about Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler already. I expect every meta deck that tops YCS Atlanta to run both, probably three copies of Maxx "C" and at least one Effect Veiler. The reason for this is Maxx "C" stops the Wind-Up loop cold, as it allows you to draw more cards than the Wind-Up player can mill from your hand. Veiler also prevents their Ignition effects from being used. Veiler also stops Inzektors, the other strong archetype of this format, as well as Dino Rabbit. Keep an eye out for the kind of plays that the top players initiate with these hand traps - the ubiquity of the cards means that some interesting counterplays will be seen too. One of my favourite plays to force out Maxx C is to Summon Tour Guide into Sangan, and simply set back row. I'll leave with my +1 while my opponent has dropped Maxx C just to draw another.
It was interesting to see that in Top 16 at Guadalajara, 5, or just over a quarter of the decks were of the Wind-Up archetype. This was consistent with the 9 pure Wind-Up decks found in the top 32. However, no Wind-Up decks were found in the top 4, instead Inzektors represented two of the Top 4 decks, with one falling to Zavala and his Samurais in the final. I expect Wind-Ups to top Atlanta, however, as I feel that the North American Yu-Gi-Oh! community is much more aware of the power of the Wind-Ups.
Agents have always been the dark horse - people are aware of their power, and they are expected to be hit by the banlist due to the power of their boss monsters. However, the solitary Agent deck at Guadalajara was a Fairy-based one, as opposed to Chaos Agents or T.G. Agents. I think the Chaos variant will top Atlanta, since it does not care too much about the Wind-Up matchup. While Hunter is capable of killing 4 cards in hand (until Daigusto Emeral is released in the TCG), Chaos Agents are capable of topdecking strong cards like Tour Guide from the Underworld, Chaos Sorcerer, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Archlord Kristya and Master Hyperion, all of which can turn a duel around even with card disadvantage.
I am looking forward to the performance of Ninjas and Karakuris, considered to be second-tier decks. I feel that the Ninja engine hasn't been fully fleshed out yet, the fact that they have 3 Stratos equivalents in every deck should be enough to have them considered viable in competitive play.
It's hard to deny that with the release of Wind-Ups, the game is becoming a diceroll. However, smart players will be able to play around them, as seen at Guadalajara. I am very excited for YCS Atlanta, and as it is the last YCS in which Wind-Ups, Inzektors, Dino Rabbit and Agents are untouched, we should see what may be the last, most refined variants of those deck types. A lot of players couldn't find a way to improve Dino Rabbit after Ping Xiao's performance at Brighton, for example. However, the North American community should be able to build upon the knowledge they gained from Brighton and Guadalajara to give us a good show.
We have talked about Maxx "C" and Effect Veiler already. I expect every meta deck that tops YCS Atlanta to run both, probably three copies of Maxx "C" and at least one Effect Veiler. The reason for this is Maxx "C" stops the Wind-Up loop cold, as it allows you to draw more cards than the Wind-Up player can mill from your hand. Veiler also prevents their Ignition effects from being used. Veiler also stops Inzektors, the other strong archetype of this format, as well as Dino Rabbit. Keep an eye out for the kind of plays that the top players initiate with these hand traps - the ubiquity of the cards means that some interesting counterplays will be seen too. One of my favourite plays to force out Maxx C is to Summon Tour Guide into Sangan, and simply set back row. I'll leave with my +1 while my opponent has dropped Maxx C just to draw another.
 |
| One of the most powerful cards of the format |
It was interesting to see that in Top 16 at Guadalajara, 5, or just over a quarter of the decks were of the Wind-Up archetype. This was consistent with the 9 pure Wind-Up decks found in the top 32. However, no Wind-Up decks were found in the top 4, instead Inzektors represented two of the Top 4 decks, with one falling to Zavala and his Samurais in the final. I expect Wind-Ups to top Atlanta, however, as I feel that the North American Yu-Gi-Oh! community is much more aware of the power of the Wind-Ups.
Agents have always been the dark horse - people are aware of their power, and they are expected to be hit by the banlist due to the power of their boss monsters. However, the solitary Agent deck at Guadalajara was a Fairy-based one, as opposed to Chaos Agents or T.G. Agents. I think the Chaos variant will top Atlanta, since it does not care too much about the Wind-Up matchup. While Hunter is capable of killing 4 cards in hand (until Daigusto Emeral is released in the TCG), Chaos Agents are capable of topdecking strong cards like Tour Guide from the Underworld, Chaos Sorcerer, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, Archlord Kristya and Master Hyperion, all of which can turn a duel around even with card disadvantage.
I am looking forward to the performance of Ninjas and Karakuris, considered to be second-tier decks. I feel that the Ninja engine hasn't been fully fleshed out yet, the fact that they have 3 Stratos equivalents in every deck should be enough to have them considered viable in competitive play.
It's hard to deny that with the release of Wind-Ups, the game is becoming a diceroll. However, smart players will be able to play around them, as seen at Guadalajara. I am very excited for YCS Atlanta, and as it is the last YCS in which Wind-Ups, Inzektors, Dino Rabbit and Agents are untouched, we should see what may be the last, most refined variants of those deck types. A lot of players couldn't find a way to improve Dino Rabbit after Ping Xiao's performance at Brighton, for example. However, the North American community should be able to build upon the knowledge they gained from Brighton and Guadalajara to give us a good show.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Up coming banlist discussion
This segment will probably only be help once every 6 months or so because in the Yu-Gi-Oh world has a list called the 'Banlist' which tells players cards which can be played at:
3 (maximum copy of any card)
2 (known as semi-limited)
1 (known as limited)
Forbidden (no copies allowed)
As new packs are released into the game, players tend to have strategies formulated which are over powered or ridiculously game breaking in a way in which the opponent cannot put up a fair fight. These banlists change every March and September. Hence why they are named the 'March banlist' and 'September banlist'
3 (maximum copy of any card)
2 (known as semi-limited)
1 (known as limited)
Forbidden (no copies allowed)
As new packs are released into the game, players tend to have strategies formulated which are over powered or ridiculously game breaking in a way in which the opponent cannot put up a fair fight. These banlists change every March and September. Hence why they are named the 'March banlist' and 'September banlist'
You can find a copy of the official banlist here:
My theory for the upcoming banlist is that Wind-ups, Inzektors, Rabbit decks, Agents and Synchrocentric will be hit in some way or another. I don't think they will hit Wind-ups and Inzektors too hard because the set just came out and Konami would obviously want to make money out of them. But at the same time they can't just leave them untouched because the game would just be so one sided and the winner would basically be decided by the roll of the dice. So overall, Wind ups and Inzektors will be hit, but only enough to stop them from being over over-powered.
Rabbit decks are yet to have their future decided by the up-coming YCS, though everyone believes they're the most likely deck from the current meta to survive once Inzektors/Wind-ups wreak havoc on the field. In my opinion rescue rabbit will be cut down to 1 or 2 but definitely not forbidden.
Agents...They're not completely broken but I admit they do have cards that make them really formidable. Master Hyperion and Archlord Kristya are the two main examples. Master Hyperion is no doubt, one of the most broken boss monsters to have ever hit the game. It requires a single Agent in either hand/field/grave in order to special summon itself and when it does, it usually blows up cards or destroys them through battle with it's massive 2700atk. Archlord Kristya requires exactly 4 fairies in the graveyard to special summon itself and add another fairy to the hand. I have a feeling Agent-Venus might get hit, it really is the card that gives Agents such a advantageous start.
I can't really see Synchrocentric being hit too hard as they aren't expected to survive the changes. But if they were to be hit it would only be cards like Junk Synchron or possibly spore/glow-up bulb. The deck is barely managing to stay alive as it is so any further reductions to certain cards and the deck might die out for good.
Synchro monsters/ XYZ monsters... No synchro monsters are proving to be too much of a threat at this era as only the best of the best synchros have passed the test of the xyz. In terms of xyz monsters, Wind-Up Zenmaighty will definitely be hit by the banlist unless Konami wants to make life hell for the next 6 months.
I'm sad to say this but I think it's about time Black luster soldier- Envoy of the beginning laid down his sword for at least another 6 months. He has left his mark on the dueling society forever. But in all seriousness, dropping a 3000atk monster which can potentially attack twice or instantly removea card from play regardless of position is too great.
Heavy storm, dark hole and monster reborn are all powerful spells which can change the tides of any game if they go through. I have a feeling at least one of these three spells will be hit in some way. Heavy storm is probably the least threatening card although it does force the opponent to set only about 1 or 2 cards unless they have starlight road. Dark hole and monster reborn are extremely game breaking in the sense that you can easily set up combos with monster reborn or just bring back a huge beater like Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the beginning.
That's about all I can think about for now, the list is due in roughly 3 weeks so brace your decks and subject them to the necessary changes. Now that school has officially started for both Manisier and myself, posts will become less regular but I will definitely have some ideas to bring up post March banlist.
Until then good luck dueling!
Quote: "Play hard or go home"
Rabbit decks are yet to have their future decided by the up-coming YCS, though everyone believes they're the most likely deck from the current meta to survive once Inzektors/Wind-ups wreak havoc on the field. In my opinion rescue rabbit will be cut down to 1 or 2 but definitely not forbidden.
Agents...They're not completely broken but I admit they do have cards that make them really formidable. Master Hyperion and Archlord Kristya are the two main examples. Master Hyperion is no doubt, one of the most broken boss monsters to have ever hit the game. It requires a single Agent in either hand/field/grave in order to special summon itself and when it does, it usually blows up cards or destroys them through battle with it's massive 2700atk. Archlord Kristya requires exactly 4 fairies in the graveyard to special summon itself and add another fairy to the hand. I have a feeling Agent-Venus might get hit, it really is the card that gives Agents such a advantageous start.
I can't really see Synchrocentric being hit too hard as they aren't expected to survive the changes. But if they were to be hit it would only be cards like Junk Synchron or possibly spore/glow-up bulb. The deck is barely managing to stay alive as it is so any further reductions to certain cards and the deck might die out for good.
Synchro monsters/ XYZ monsters... No synchro monsters are proving to be too much of a threat at this era as only the best of the best synchros have passed the test of the xyz. In terms of xyz monsters, Wind-Up Zenmaighty will definitely be hit by the banlist unless Konami wants to make life hell for the next 6 months.
I'm sad to say this but I think it's about time Black luster soldier- Envoy of the beginning laid down his sword for at least another 6 months. He has left his mark on the dueling society forever. But in all seriousness, dropping a 3000atk monster which can potentially attack twice or instantly removea card from play regardless of position is too great.
Heavy storm, dark hole and monster reborn are all powerful spells which can change the tides of any game if they go through. I have a feeling at least one of these three spells will be hit in some way. Heavy storm is probably the least threatening card although it does force the opponent to set only about 1 or 2 cards unless they have starlight road. Dark hole and monster reborn are extremely game breaking in the sense that you can easily set up combos with monster reborn or just bring back a huge beater like Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the beginning.
That's about all I can think about for now, the list is due in roughly 3 weeks so brace your decks and subject them to the necessary changes. Now that school has officially started for both Manisier and myself, posts will become less regular but I will definitely have some ideas to bring up post March banlist.
Until then good luck dueling!
Quote: "Play hard or go home"
Sunday 29 January 2012
Introduction to Yu-Gi-Oh! Briefer
Hello, and welcome to another post in the Introduction to Yu-Gi-Oh! series. In this post we will be covering some common misunderstandings about our favourite card game on blimps motorcycles. When picking up the game for the first time, you may be attracted to cards that have shiny effects, or high stats. However, winning in Yu-Gi-Oh! is not about having better cards than your opponent, but rather about being able to execute your own strategy to win.
Misconception - Monsters with high ATK scores are always better
While it may seem tempting to put cards like Gene-Warped Warwolf and Chainsaw Insect in your deck, in most situations it is not a good idea. Though these cards are easy to Normal Summon, with high ATK to boot, in most situations they will let you down since they have no real positive effect - Chainsaw Insect even lets your opponent draw a card whenever it attacks, which just allows them to make plays faster.
In the end, you won't win just by having cards that can overpower your opponent in battle. For example, one incredibly strong card in the metagame right now is Sangan - with a low 1000 ATK and 600 DEF, Sangan is one of the few cards rumoured to be Forbidden in the March 2012 banlist. Sangan is great because of its effect, which allows you to maintain advantage and hasten plays, which will be covered later.
However, just because a card has high combat stats doesn't mean you should shy away from it. Many cards have high ATK scores while also having very powerful effects, like the famous Thunder King Rai-Oh, who finds his place in many decks due to his powerful search lockdown, as well as being able to negate an inherent Special Summon. Cards like Thunder King Rai-Oh find themselves at the core of anti-metagame decks, as they can run over common low-ATK threats in the metagame such as Inzektor Dragonfly while still being able to stop plays.
Misconception - Card Advantage
Card advantage is a term used to refer to how many cards one duelist has compared to his or her opponent. It is called advantage because if you have more cards than your opponent, you have more plays available to you and thus you are at an advantage. While there are cards with powerful effects, often they will come with a drawback, and that drawback is most likely to be a loss in advantage.
Lightning Vortex, on the surface, seems to be a good card. It can destroy all face-up monsters your opponent controls, but at the cost of discarding one card. Depleting your hand like that, trading two cards in your hand for what may only be one monster on your opponent's side of the field. Tribute to the Doomed is even worse, only taking out one monster. A quick outline on card advantage follows:
And now, some common misconceptions made by new players related to card advantage:
Foolish Burial is another card that is a -1, but can turn into a plus, such as with the recently released Inzektors, which turn a -1 into a +3 in the same turn, and a +4 every turn onwards.
Bottom line - whenever you play a card, think of how many cards you lose from your field and hand when you play it, and how many cards your opponent will lose. If it's less than a +0, consider using different cards. Deliberate minusing is an advanced tactic and should be avoided by beginners. Good cards to substitute for supposedly powerful cards like Raigeki Break, Magic Jammer and Lightning Vortex would be Smashing Ground, Mystical Space Typhoon, Solemn Judgment, Torrential Tribute, Bottomless Trap Hole, etc.
Misconception - The more cards in my deck, the better
Most competitive decks run 40 cards. Some run 41. Fewer run 42. Only very rarely will you see a deck with 43 cards. Decks with over 43 cards are unheard of. The reason Duelists try to stick to the minimum of 40 is because every deck has a strategy they are trying to execute. If you can't draw into key cards, it's because your deck is bloated. 60 card decks will never win against competitive decks.
For example, say you are running a Dark World deck. It's a standard Dark World deck, except you've bloated it with cards like Brron, Mad King of Dark World, or you've crammed your Trap lineup with 'powerful' one-for-ones like Dimensional Prison. Even worse, you've added draw power in Into the Void and Pot of Duality.
Draw power is needed to thin a 40 card deck with little search options. Why would you want to draw one card if you could just take that card out and increase your chances of drawing key cards like Grapha or Snoww? What if your hand is clogged up with Spells and Traps, with no Monsters? 20 Spells are still 20 Spells, it doesn't matter what percentage of your deck that they represent.
If any of you have trouble getting your deck down to 40 cards, I advise building with the following formula:
Happy Dueling, and good luck!
Misconception - Monsters with high ATK scores are always better
While it may seem tempting to put cards like Gene-Warped Warwolf and Chainsaw Insect in your deck, in most situations it is not a good idea. Though these cards are easy to Normal Summon, with high ATK to boot, in most situations they will let you down since they have no real positive effect - Chainsaw Insect even lets your opponent draw a card whenever it attacks, which just allows them to make plays faster.
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| Not as good as it looks |
In the end, you won't win just by having cards that can overpower your opponent in battle. For example, one incredibly strong card in the metagame right now is Sangan - with a low 1000 ATK and 600 DEF, Sangan is one of the few cards rumoured to be Forbidden in the March 2012 banlist. Sangan is great because of its effect, which allows you to maintain advantage and hasten plays, which will be covered later.
However, just because a card has high combat stats doesn't mean you should shy away from it. Many cards have high ATK scores while also having very powerful effects, like the famous Thunder King Rai-Oh, who finds his place in many decks due to his powerful search lockdown, as well as being able to negate an inherent Special Summon. Cards like Thunder King Rai-Oh find themselves at the core of anti-metagame decks, as they can run over common low-ATK threats in the metagame such as Inzektor Dragonfly while still being able to stop plays.
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| A high-ATK threat |
Card advantage is a term used to refer to how many cards one duelist has compared to his or her opponent. It is called advantage because if you have more cards than your opponent, you have more plays available to you and thus you are at an advantage. While there are cards with powerful effects, often they will come with a drawback, and that drawback is most likely to be a loss in advantage.
 | ||
| Raigeki's retarded little brother |
- When you or your opponent execute an action that would result in your opponent losing one card, or your gaining one card, it is said to be a +1 in card advantage, or a plus. The term "plussing" is used to describe a player who is rapidly gaining card advantage. An example of a plus is destroying a card in battle, such as Thunder King Rai-Oh destroying a Wind-Up Hunter in battle.
- When you or your opponent execute an action that would result in your opponent gaining one card, or your losing one card, it is said to be a -1 in card advantage, or a minus. The term "minusing" is used to describe a player who is rapidly losing card advantage. An example of a minus is having one of your cards be destroyed in battle, such as Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer destroying your Junk Synchron in battle.
- When you or your opponent execute an action that would result in both players gaining or losing the exact same amount of cards, it is said to be a "trade". There are cards in the game that usually remove one of your opponent's cards from the field. Such a card is Smashing Ground, which destroys one face-up monster your opponent controls with the highest DEF.
 |
| One of the simplest one-for-ones |
- Committing too many resources to taking down monsters - the biggest offender is Lightning Vortex. When you play a card to destroy a card, it is a one-for-one trade. If that card has a discard cost, you actually pay two cards to destroy one card, so you end up minusing yourself. This leaves you with less options to threaten your opponent with, an uncomfortable situation should they draw into something good.
- Playing Ritual monsters that aren't Gishki or Herald of Perfection, and even then those archetypes are pretty shaky. Rituals like the regular Black Luster Soldier are just unnecessary minuses.
- Playing Tribute monsters outside of Frog decks, or Caius the Shadow Monarch in Chaos decks. They are bad, and cause minuses. Additionally, none of them can really protect themselves.
- Using Polymerization - the only viable Fusion deck right now is probably Gemini HERO or HERO Gate, both of which have ways of plussing and avoiding the minuses by using other Fusion cards.
- Setting non-Quickplay Spell cards as a bluff. It is a desperation play, and should only be done as such, else you leave your backrow vulnerable to Heavy Storm.
- Overcommitting to the field - things like Summoning another monster when your opponent is already have trouble with what you have on the field leaves you open to cards like Torrential Tribute. Why use that Spirit Reaper to Xyz if your opponent can't take it down anyway?
- Valuing Life Points over card advantage. Life Points, with the banning of Cold Wave, in the grand scheme of things, are irrelevant. The 'Solemn Brigade', consisting of three very powerful Trap cards with high Life Point costs are run in almost every standard deck.
Foolish Burial is another card that is a -1, but can turn into a plus, such as with the recently released Inzektors, which turn a -1 into a +3 in the same turn, and a +4 every turn onwards.
Bottom line - whenever you play a card, think of how many cards you lose from your field and hand when you play it, and how many cards your opponent will lose. If it's less than a +0, consider using different cards. Deliberate minusing is an advanced tactic and should be avoided by beginners. Good cards to substitute for supposedly powerful cards like Raigeki Break, Magic Jammer and Lightning Vortex would be Smashing Ground, Mystical Space Typhoon, Solemn Judgment, Torrential Tribute, Bottomless Trap Hole, etc.
Misconception - The more cards in my deck, the better
Most competitive decks run 40 cards. Some run 41. Fewer run 42. Only very rarely will you see a deck with 43 cards. Decks with over 43 cards are unheard of. The reason Duelists try to stick to the minimum of 40 is because every deck has a strategy they are trying to execute. If you can't draw into key cards, it's because your deck is bloated. 60 card decks will never win against competitive decks.
For example, say you are running a Dark World deck. It's a standard Dark World deck, except you've bloated it with cards like Brron, Mad King of Dark World, or you've crammed your Trap lineup with 'powerful' one-for-ones like Dimensional Prison. Even worse, you've added draw power in Into the Void and Pot of Duality.
Draw power is needed to thin a 40 card deck with little search options. Why would you want to draw one card if you could just take that card out and increase your chances of drawing key cards like Grapha or Snoww? What if your hand is clogged up with Spells and Traps, with no Monsters? 20 Spells are still 20 Spells, it doesn't matter what percentage of your deck that they represent.
If any of you have trouble getting your deck down to 40 cards, I advise building with the following formula:
- Decide what archetype you want to run, and add key cards for that archetype. An example is the core 3 Venus/Earth/Shine Ball, 2 Hyperion/Kristya and Honest as the core of an Agent deck.
- Add staple cards. These include Effect Veiler, Maxx "C", Spells like Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, Book of Moon and Heavy Storm, and Trap Dustshoot.
- Flesh out the rest of the deck, making sure to cover threats and keep your card balance well.
Happy Dueling, and good luck!
Friday 27 January 2012
Tournament report:
Hey ! So most of our blog posts have been theory or discussion based, because of that there isn't much variety in the blog is there? Well I recently entered a tournament at the local store (in Australia 'local' means one hour away) and participated in a casual ladder based tournament. Though it is a local and small tournament it is still official and my results were stored in the Konami data base and ranks me on a worldwide scale. Anyways only 8 people participated so there were 3 matches. Top 4 people receive the new pack 'Order of Chaos' and a turbo pack 7 each. The higher you rank, the more packs you get obviously. The bottom 4 get a duelist league hobby card each. Not bad considering all you had to do was pay $6 yeah?
Play by Play:
Match 1: Agents vs Six samurai
I got off to a shaky start with a bad opening hand but thankfully my opponent also had a bad hand ( I knew this because I did a 'dust crush' play on him). Eventually the duel started to progress as we drew into our monsters. I managed to swing for game before he could establish a field though.
Result: 1-0
My opponent had a much better opening this time and I had a not so bad opening myself. He threw out a lot of Six samurais such as Legendary six samurai- Shi En and a lot of Kizans and Grandmaster of the Six samurai. A well played smashing ground and dark hole combo helped me to clear his field and drop my boss monsters to dish out some major damage. My opponent managed to bring out Naturia beast and Naturia darkion and a Shi En so I was in a tough spot. Luckily Master Hyperion worked his magic for me and I managed to tear his field apart.
Result: 2-0 , My win
Match 2: Agents vs Dragons
TERRIBLE OPENING! One thing an Agent deck never wants to see is a hand loaded up with boss monsters in the early game. That's exactly the hand I opened with. So needless to say my opponent piled on the pressure and took me down quite quickly in round 1.
Result: 0-1
By this point I was rather nervous, I had lost to this guy before and it was also because I opened poorly and I wanted to prove to him that I could win. My opening hand was a little better this time as it contained some Agents but it was all monsters so I was left very vulnerable. My opponent activated Trap dust shoot for the second time this match and sent my Agent-Venus straight back to my deck and I summoned Earth only for it to get Solemn Judgment-ed. He started to apply pressure by summoning dragons that limit my summoning potential. With bad draws and overwhelming disadvantage, the round went to my opponent.
Result: 0-2 My loss
Match 3: Agents vs Six Samurai
I knew exactly what to expect and exactly how to fight back. Six samurai was all about fast and furious assaults in the early game, once you pick apart their monsters and disrupt their traps you were on the road to victory. A lucky turn 1 dustshoot for me allowed me to see my opponents' hand which only had one six samurai monster so I dusted it into his deck. My opponent then did a common misplay of using Reinforcements of the Army. A spell card that allows you to add a level 4 or lower warrior into your hand. Why was it a misplay? Because I had Thunder King Rai-Oh on the field who has the passive ability to stop searches.
By mid game I was in the preferred position for a match up against Six Samurais. I had taken some hits while stocking up cards for a come back. But my plays kept getting disrupted by my opponent's trap cards and I actually lost round 1.
Result: 0-1
By now I was losing confidence in my ability but I continued to play anyway. As always a flurry of synchro summons and special summons cost me over half my life points but I was in control this time. A well timed Agent of creation- Venus and Gachi Gachi play allowed me to stall for more time while destroying the opponent's field. Then in one turn I dropped Master Hyperion and Archlord kristya to swing for game.
Result: 1-1
This was it, the final round to decide where I placed in this tournament. I was satisfied with my opening hand which contained Effect Veiler (refer to 'Where'd my effect go?!) and two Thunder King Rai-Oh's which I knew would come in handy if I wanted to give my opponent hell. And indeed I was right, a turn 1 Rai-Oh shut down my opponent's search cards and pressured him into synchro summoning to force the ability of Rai-oh. It was looking great for me, my opponent had wasted materials to take down Thunder King Rai-Oh and here I was with another one chilling in my hand. The look on my opponent's face when I dropped my second Rai-Oh was priceless and with the assistance of my Master Hyperion, I went on to swing for game.
Result: 2-1 My win
At the end of the day:
In the end I ranked third place out of 8 people and to be honest I was quite satisfied but couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that I did not win against the Dragons player, it was an easy tournament that I should've come first for. My prize was one 'Order of Chaos' pack and a Turbo pack 7. Interesting thing about turbo packs. You can only win these from tournaments, it is forbidden by Konami to sell these over the counter. As I went back to my table with two packs ready to be opened I had a feeling I'd pull some fine cards and boy was I right.
So as you can see both my packs contained something worth collecting or useful to me. Number 96: Dark Mist is worth approximately $7 and Horn of the Phantom beast is Super rare and since it is from Turbo pack 7( making it extremely hard to get) is valued at $21. I checked these prices myself on E-bay which means total value I got was $28.
Play by Play:
Match 1: Agents vs Six samurai
I got off to a shaky start with a bad opening hand but thankfully my opponent also had a bad hand ( I knew this because I did a 'dust crush' play on him). Eventually the duel started to progress as we drew into our monsters. I managed to swing for game before he could establish a field though.
Result: 1-0
My opponent had a much better opening this time and I had a not so bad opening myself. He threw out a lot of Six samurais such as Legendary six samurai- Shi En and a lot of Kizans and Grandmaster of the Six samurai. A well played smashing ground and dark hole combo helped me to clear his field and drop my boss monsters to dish out some major damage. My opponent managed to bring out Naturia beast and Naturia darkion and a Shi En so I was in a tough spot. Luckily Master Hyperion worked his magic for me and I managed to tear his field apart.
Result: 2-0 , My win
Match 2: Agents vs Dragons
TERRIBLE OPENING! One thing an Agent deck never wants to see is a hand loaded up with boss monsters in the early game. That's exactly the hand I opened with. So needless to say my opponent piled on the pressure and took me down quite quickly in round 1.
Result: 0-1
By this point I was rather nervous, I had lost to this guy before and it was also because I opened poorly and I wanted to prove to him that I could win. My opening hand was a little better this time as it contained some Agents but it was all monsters so I was left very vulnerable. My opponent activated Trap dust shoot for the second time this match and sent my Agent-Venus straight back to my deck and I summoned Earth only for it to get Solemn Judgment-ed. He started to apply pressure by summoning dragons that limit my summoning potential. With bad draws and overwhelming disadvantage, the round went to my opponent.
Result: 0-2 My loss
Match 3: Agents vs Six Samurai
I knew exactly what to expect and exactly how to fight back. Six samurai was all about fast and furious assaults in the early game, once you pick apart their monsters and disrupt their traps you were on the road to victory. A lucky turn 1 dustshoot for me allowed me to see my opponents' hand which only had one six samurai monster so I dusted it into his deck. My opponent then did a common misplay of using Reinforcements of the Army. A spell card that allows you to add a level 4 or lower warrior into your hand. Why was it a misplay? Because I had Thunder King Rai-Oh on the field who has the passive ability to stop searches.
By mid game I was in the preferred position for a match up against Six Samurais. I had taken some hits while stocking up cards for a come back. But my plays kept getting disrupted by my opponent's trap cards and I actually lost round 1.
Result: 0-1
By now I was losing confidence in my ability but I continued to play anyway. As always a flurry of synchro summons and special summons cost me over half my life points but I was in control this time. A well timed Agent of creation- Venus and Gachi Gachi play allowed me to stall for more time while destroying the opponent's field. Then in one turn I dropped Master Hyperion and Archlord kristya to swing for game.
Result: 1-1
This was it, the final round to decide where I placed in this tournament. I was satisfied with my opening hand which contained Effect Veiler (refer to 'Where'd my effect go?!) and two Thunder King Rai-Oh's which I knew would come in handy if I wanted to give my opponent hell. And indeed I was right, a turn 1 Rai-Oh shut down my opponent's search cards and pressured him into synchro summoning to force the ability of Rai-oh. It was looking great for me, my opponent had wasted materials to take down Thunder King Rai-Oh and here I was with another one chilling in my hand. The look on my opponent's face when I dropped my second Rai-Oh was priceless and with the assistance of my Master Hyperion, I went on to swing for game.
Result: 2-1 My win
At the end of the day:
In the end I ranked third place out of 8 people and to be honest I was quite satisfied but couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that I did not win against the Dragons player, it was an easy tournament that I should've come first for. My prize was one 'Order of Chaos' pack and a Turbo pack 7. Interesting thing about turbo packs. You can only win these from tournaments, it is forbidden by Konami to sell these over the counter. As I went back to my table with two packs ready to be opened I had a feeling I'd pull some fine cards and boy was I right.
 |
| The prize packs I got |
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| The notable cards I got |
Let's recap, I spent $6 to join a tournament and won $28 worth of cards just from participating and having fun. So 28-6 = $22 , therefore I made almost four times the money i paid to play. Quite a good profit don't you think?
On Sunday I shall be attending a sneak peek for the new set 'Order of Chaos' I shall also be giving a report on that and may film a video of what we (my friends and I) got, if not, just a photo of the notable cards.
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