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:

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.

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!

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. 

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'.

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.

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.

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'

You can find a copy of the official banlist here:

http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/limited/

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"