End of the Year 2009

Yeah, I wasn't planning on doing this type of post, but I might as well.

So, I'm not sure exactly what to talk about. So much has happened this year.

I guess I might as well talk about the meta that was around for this year and what could happen next year. I suppose the most notable deck was Synchro Cat. It kinda forced the Limiting of both Summoner Monk and Rescue Cat. It also contributed to the ban of Dark Strike Fighter, though it had it coming.

The hole left by Synchro Cat was filled with Blackwings and Lightsworn, though mostly Blackwings. And, for some reason, they (Konami) saw it fit to bring Mezuki back to 2.

With the arrival of Brionac, Dragon (*cough* Sea Serpent) of the Ice Barrier, Zombies came into power. They were pretty good without Brionac, but it pushed them straight to the top.

Gorz, although played sometimes in some decks, was made into a staple. Obviously because Brionac could just send your field back to your hand and threaten an OTK. Tragoedia is now splashed into some decks just to help with that.

Zombies, although sometimes slow, are fairly consistent. Lots of searching, lots of floaters. Blackwings and Lightsworn probably won't last much longer. The Shonen Jump Championship in Los Angeles will probably be won by Zombies, but anything can happen.

Of course, with Absolute Powerforce coming out in February, Battle Fader will come to the TCG. Although it will be too late by then, since the new ban list will be coming less than a month afterward, it will definitely help ward off OTK's.

Hopefully the new ban list in March will help to fix the meta. Judgment Dragon is too good to even exist, Mezuki is too abusable, and Black Whirlwind turns Blackwings into feathered Gadgets with decent effects.

However, the threat of X-Sabers looms on the horizon. All of the new X-Saber support coming in Absolute Powerforce could make them a new top deck. Saber Hole is barely fair. It's like Vanquishing Light (Horn of Heaven for Lightsworn) without the cost. I don't think X-Saber decks need that when they can rip all of the cards out of your hand with ease.

Either way, we'll just have to wait and see what happens next year.

Chaos (Sorcerer)

Every time I've tried to make a new deck recently, I've wanted to make a Chaos deck.

I mean, you get to main stuff like Dimensional Alchemist and Thunder King Rai-Oh. In fact, Rai-Oh is so amazing this format that I'm basically going to main it in any competitive deck I play.

But really, you're not going to be drawing into Chaos Sorcerer that often. Even if you do, it's not even your win condition. It's just there. Sure, it's really nice, and I like it, but it's not really worth building a deck around. Usually, you'd just drop it to remove something; it would rarely do damage on its own.

Yes, it's good, which is why (French) Twilight exists. But it's not a win condition. It's just a nice piece of Special Summonable Monster removal. It might even get Unlimited next ban list, since it's not going to break the meta anytime soon.

On an unrelated note, I'm still trying to make a decent Fortune Lady deck without Future Visions. The only reason I really want to do this is to abuse Fortune's Future, since it has a cool name. Oh, and it's pretty good, too.

Tournament Report 12/27/09

I went to another tournament with Zombies. I was using the Emergency Teleport engine, but I also mained a couple of Thunder King Rai-Ohs, which helped a lot.

I was able to pick up a second Brionac, since it's not limited yet, and a couple Fortune's Futures. Yes, Fortune's Futures. I'm trying to make a Fortune Lady deck that doesn't rely on Future Visions, but that's a story for another day.

Round 1: vs Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode

This match made me consider siding Lava Golems...

-Duel 1: My opponent was able to summon SD/AM, and I couldn't do much to stop it.
-Duel 2: He drew counters to everything I had.

Round 2: vs Lightsworn Earthbound Immortals

This guy was running a Lightsworn engine, he used Magical Citadel of Endymion as his Field Spell, and had stuff like Dark Creator to revive his milled Earthbounds. He was also using a bunch of token cards.

-Duel 1: We sat there for a few turns, not doing much. After a while, though, I dropped Tragoedia and OTK'd him.
-Duel 2: I OTK'd him.

Round 3: vs Monarch Oppression

-Duel 1: I won.
-Duel 2: He misplayed, I won.

Round 4: vs Plants

-Duel 1: I used Black Rose Dragon to blow up the field. I won soon afterwards.
-Duel 2: Brain Control his X-Saber Urbellum and attack with two Rai-Ohs for game.

Round 5: vs Lightsworn

-Duel 1: He had to waste his Plaguespreader on a Goyo Guardian to get rid of my Rai-Oh. I had another one in hand, which I summoned the next turn. I basically won from there.
-Duel 2: Judgment Dragon is evil.
-Duel 3: His Ryko turned the game around, which was bad for me. After he used it to destroy my Catastor, I was top-decking. I drew Allure of Darkness and played it. I drew Mezuki first, and I hoped that I didn't draw a Dark. I ended up drawing Burial from a Different Dimension, which meant I had to send my hand to the Graveyard. Mezuki revived Spirit Reaper, but it was futile. He had Ehren in the Graveyard with Lumina on the field. But, he revived Plaguespreader Zombie and tuned it to Wulf for Flamvell Uruquizas. Either way, I lost.

So I went 3-2, which is okay, but not good. There are still no Turbo Packs, but Turbo Pack 2 comes out in a couple of weeks, so I'll just have to wait for those.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to come up with a competitive, yet creative deck for next week. I'm thinking Fortune Ladies or Junk and Debris, but I'm not sure.

Monarch's Dawn

As promised, I'm planning to rebuild the Monarch's Dawn deck, now that I have Charge of the Light Brigade. Hopefully the deck will be (slightly) more consistent. Either way, I'm still trying to figure out how exactly to make it.

Among other things, I pulled two Rinyan, Lightsworn Rogues from the Stardust Overdrive packs I got for the holidays. I was thinking about using those.

The Monarch's Dawn deck is all about the Celestia-Wulf combo. Rinyan would help with that, as well as giving the deck some "flip draw."

Well, I'll just try out different things and see how I can best make the deck.

...

Oh, by the way, in 5D's Episode 90, Kiryu met up with Yusei and Lotten/Rotten blew them up with dynamite. That's all that really happened.

Deep Sea Diva

Tried it, hate it.

Allow me to explain. The person whom I played against in Round 4 at the last tournament I went to had a nice idea. Use three Deep Sea Diva and two Spined Gillman. That makes it so that your Deep Sea Diva is almost never a dead card; you could use it for the normal shenanigans that it's famous for, or you could drop a Level 5 Synchro for free.

The concept behind it was amazing. It increased your chance of winning against Lightsworn (Catastor) as well as allowing you to draw the Diva more often.

As amazing as it seemed, I play tested the variant against some Lightsworn Junk and Debris deck I threw together because I was bored. The Diva Zombie deck lost. Three times. In a row.

It was terrible. If you draw a Spined Gillman, it's dead in your hand. That's tolerable, but the more annoying part was that Diva eats up your Normal Summon. You can't summon Goblin Zombie then Emergency Teleport for Krebons. You can't even just let Krebons sit on the field for a turn so that you can summon the Goblin Zombie later.

It may not be much of a problem in the mirror match, but with other match-ups, it's not worth it.

Tournament Report 12/20/09

I went to another tournament with my Telekinetic Zombies deck. I changed it a little more to make it a little more consistent. There are less dead draws in the deck now, well, one less dead draw. I want to say I'm not planning on using it again, but I'm not sure. I picked up some Deep Sea Divas, so I'm considering using them instead.

Anyways, I picked up a couple Aurkus and some Beckoning Lights for the Lightsworn variants I'm planning to make.

Round 1: vs Dragons

-Duel 1: Brain Control FHD for game.
-Duel 2: I didn't draw very well, so I lost.
-Duel 3: My opponent drew pretty badly. I was forced to push through to kill his Snipe Hunter, but then we were both sitting there for a few turns after he played Swords of Revealing Light. After two turns, I OTK'd him.

Round 2: vs Gadgets

I was not prepared for Gadgets at all, but some of the stuff I normally side helps against them anyways.

-Duel 1: He drew very little removal. I was basically able to kill every single one of his Gadgets with one Mezuki.
-Duel 2: I drew basically all of my Spell/Trap removal, but he still had counters to everything I had. He was able to take control and win.
-Duel 3: Same as Duel 2.

Round 3: vs (Newbie) Zombies

-Duel 1: He misplayed, which helped me win.
-Duel 2: He dropped me to 400 LP, but then I pushed back and dropped him to 1500 LP. I was able to get him down to 50 LP, but he set Spirit Reaper. I had used up all of my Tuners already, but the duel went to time and I won.

Round 4: vs Diva Zombies

-Duel 1: He committed to the field after while, leaving no cards in his hand. I was going to bomb the field with Black Rose Dragon, but he flipped Book of Moon on my Gale. With his only Spell/Trap out of the way, I was able to OTK that turn.
-Duel 2: He started conservatively with one set Bottomless Trap Hole. I destroyed it with Mystical Space Typhoon, then ripped the other Bottomless from his hand with Spirit Reaper. After a little bit, he stopped my Dark Armed Dragon with Royal Oppression after he had Synchro Summoned Magical Android. It was pretty bad for me, but I was able to search Gale with Mystic Tomato. He couldn't do anything to stop me, and his Royal Oppression stopped him from making a comeback.

Round 5: vs French Twilight

-Duel 1: I was able to put a bunch of pressure on him with Dark Armed Dragon and some Synchro Monsters, even though he had milled amazingly. I was still able to win in the end.
-Duel 2: Again, I was able to put pressure on my opponent with a flurry of Synchro Monsters. He had to use up the rest of his cards to get rid of them, leaving me in control of the game. I just passed my next three turns, because there was no way he could win before decking out.

So I went 4-1, and I got a Hobby League Trap Hole. I'm planning on getting another one next time, so I can replace my Common ones with the Ultra Parallel Rare ones.

Charge of the Light Brigade

Well, as all of you should know, it was reprinted less than a week ago. Yay.

Although that doesn't affect anything on the Shonen Jump level, since most of the people who go to those would have the money for any deck that they want, but it could affect the Regional tournaments, and will definitely affect locals.

I don't plan on playing a Lightsworn deck competitively, since they're pretty inconsistent, but I am planning on making at least three different Lightsworn variants for fun. Why? Because Lightsworn is one of my favorite themes.

Until I get my set of Charge of the Light Brigade, which would hopefully be in less than a week, I'd probably just use some other new decks I've been making for no reason.

Oh yeah, Tempest Magician got reprinted, too. That's nice. It actually kind of is, since I have Arcanite Magician and pulled Explosive Magician. That probably means some sort of Spellcaster Synchro deck would be coming up soon...

5D's Episode 89

A good episode, well, at least until the end.

Yusei and Kiryu escaped from the mines while two children from the town brought Yusei's D-Wheel to him. Then, Yusei took his D-Wheel and dueled Lotten/Rotten while Kiryu ran off with the two children. That's basically the whole episode.

Notable things include:

Lotten/Rotten's Gattling Ogre OTK and his ability to draw it every duel.

Lotten/Rotten's Continuous Trap that prevents either player from having more than one Monster on the field at a time.

Yusei's Effect Veiler, which can be decent. It's a "drop hand" effect, at least.

Yusei's Return Marker Trap Card. It negates a Monster's effect if it causes damage or destroys card(s) and then gives the opponent damage equal to the ATK of the Monster. However, it doesn't destroy the Monster, so it's situational.

At the end, there's an annoying cliffhanger where if Lotten/Rotten draws a Speed Spell or Trap Card, then he'd win. Obviously he's gonna draw a Monster, but we'll have to wait for the next episode to see Yusei's vict-, I mean, the conclusion of the duel.

Telekinetic Power Well

It's that old Common from Crimson Crisis that no one uses. If you watched my videos around the time when Crimson Crisis came out, I miraculously pulled three of them at the Sneak Preview and put the card to use in the Bolt-Tune Monarchs deck.

What's so good about it? You can Special Summon multiple Level 2 or lower Psychics from your Graveyard, but you have to take damage equal to the total Levels x300.

However, the damage can be a good thing. Since taking damage is the last thing that occurs, your opponent can't flip Torrential Tribute to try and destroy all of the Psychics you just Special Summoned.

What caused me to use this is basically the same reasoning behind using Deep Sea Diva: You can Synchro Summon twice off of one card. You could also use Emergency Teleport to Special Summon a Tuner for a Synchro.

The upsides to using Telekinetic Power Well over Deep Sea Diva are that you don't have to waste your Normal Summon, it's okay if you draw multiples, and Krebons has better ATK and a better effect. Deep Sea Diva is just a one-shot deal.

However, Deep Sea Diva doesn't give you damage and you don't have to set up by placing Krebons in the Graveyard. These didn't seem like much of a problem to me when I was playing at my locals, but they can come up.

Deep Sea Diva will probably continue to be used. I mean, people were using it before the idea came up to put it in a Zombie deck. However, the use of Psychics (not necessarily with Telekinetic Power Well) in Zombie decks will probably rise as time goes on.

Tournament Report 12/13/09

In this broken meta, it's hard to win without playing a top tier deck. Some of the guys at the card shop were even relating this meta to the Tele-DAD days.

So, to have a chance at winning, I played a fairly uncreative Zombie variant, Telekinetic Zombies. It's basically just Zombie Synchro that uses Krebons, Emergency Teleport, and Telekinetic Power Well. Telekinetic Power Well can set up big plays by Special Summoning multiple Krebons from the Graveyard at the small cost of 600 LP per Krebons.

By the way, I bought a Mist Wurm. It was very useless during the tournament. Brionac is much better, but that should be obvious.

Round 1: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: My opponent had this game, but he misplayed, allowing me to drop Gorz, which won me the game.
-Duel 2: I basically had control for the entire duel and won.

Round 2: vs Blackwings

This guy was better than my last opponent, but he was pretty unlucky.

-Duel 1: He no Black Whirlwinds. That basically spells "scoop" for Blackwings.
-Duel 2: Again, he got no Black Whirlwinds. I kept drawing Trap Hole/Bottomless Trap Hole to get rid of all of his Monsters. I OTK'd him in the end, playing around a possible Gorz, which he told me afterward he didn't have.

Round 3: Diva Zombies

My opponent was a pretty cool guy. We joked around; I told him to side out one Deep Sea Diva, since drawing two is bad, and he told to not play Tragoedia.

-Duel 1: He went for an OTK, but I had Tragoedia. I was forced to go for an OTK, playing around a possible Tragoedia. He would've won if I didn't beat him that turn.
-Duel 2: I drew badly, and he was able to take control and win.
-Duel 3: We both drew badly. He dropped Gorz, and I was forced to suicide my Zombie Master into his Token so I could drop Dark Armed Dragon. He scooped when I started for an OTK the next turn.

Round 4: vs Lightsworn

-Duel 1: He barely milled any Lightsworn, but he did mill Plaguespreader Zombie. I summoned Zombie Master, discarded Mezuki, stole his Plaguespreader, and went for Doomkaiser Dragon. I stole his Plaguespreader again so I could Synchro for Stardust Dragon. I basically harassed him with his own Plaguespreader.
-Duel 2: He got a bunch of free cards, as Lightsworn sometimes do, and I was ready to give up. However, he misplayed, locking his own field with 5 Monsters. He didn't have Celestia, and decked out two turns later.

Round 5: vs Blackwings

I don't know why everyone is still playing Blackwings. They're just like Six Samurai with Black Whirlwind... Regardless, being in the Finals, we agreed to split. If I won, I'd get 12 packs. If I lost, I'd get 8 and a Hobby League card.

-Duel 1: I didn't draw well and couldn't do much. He was basically in control the entire duel.
-Duel 2: Double Black Whirlwind spells "scoop" for someone playing against Blackwings. Oh, and Trap Dustshoot is pretty broken, too.

So, I went 4-1, and got 2nd place, which is good. I pulled Explosive Magician (Ultimate), Reptilianne Hydra, and Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant (Ultra). More importantly, though, I pulled a third Gemini Spark! I also bought three Warrior's Strike Structure Decks, so expect to see a Gemini deck, eventually.

I'm not planning on playing this deck again. The plays take forever to think of and it draws dead too often. I want to go back to Junk and Debris, I just need to find a good build that can abuse Tragoedia...

Jar of Greed

Yes, Jar of Greed. That Trap Card that lets you draw 1 card, the one that no one uses. Yeah, well, someone is actually using it.

I saw a Zombie deck where this guy was actually playing Jar of Greed. It's actually not a bad idea. It helps with Tragoedia, and it essentially makes your deck smaller.

It seems like a nice idea, but it wouldn't work with just any deck. A Zombie deck is a good choice, though. They're normally pretty slow and just play conservatively. Jar of Greed can help get the more important cards (Burial from a Different Dimension, Heavy Storm, etc.) while also thinning the deck.

I can't think of many other decks that would use it, though. Maybe in some sort of Junk and Debris variant or in Monarchs. Probably not in Lightsworn or Gladiator Beasts, but someone may find use for it in Blackwings.

Obviously, Legacy of Yata Garasu is better. It also looks cooler and comes in Secret Rare. However, how many people play Spirit Monsters? Almost none, so it doesn't matter very much.

5D's Episode 88

An interesting episode. It actually added to the "plot," if you want to call it that.

The remainder of the duel between Yusei and Kiryu took less than 10 minutes, which means that it could have easily been put into the last episode. However, it appears as though the duel had to end in a new episode to effectively further the story.

It should be obvious who won the duel, but both Yusei and Kiryu, along with Ramon (leader of the family that Kiryu sided with), were taken to the mines where they would become slaves.

However, Yusei, with his gangster skills, used a bent nail to open the shock collar that was put on him. His escape with Kiryu from the mines was foreshadowed that the end of the episode, but we'll have to see what happens...

Zombies

Recently, I've been messing with Zombies to try and find a build that I like.

First, it was Monarchs. The build was okay, and was pretty safe because I could drop Tragoedia to stop OTKs. However, it was a bit too inconsistent, as Monarch decks can be.

Next, it was Zombie Chaos. Didn't like it. I discussed this in an earlier post.

After that, I was trying to think up of a variant on the Zombie Synchro decks in the OCG. They aren't really suited to the TCG, though, so I gave up on that.

Now, I'm trying out a new "Zombie Synchro" deck, if you want to call it that. It's based on Synchro Monsters, but not the normal way of summoning them with Mezuki abuse, though it could work like that. I've also thrown Rykos and Chaos Sorcerers in there to see how it works. I think I'll drop the Chaos Sorcerers, but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll keep just one...

Anyways, if it works out, there will be a post going into more detail on the deck later.

Plaguespreader Zombie

It's actually one of the better-designed cards in the game. Well, it would be, if it weren't a Dark/Zombie.

It's a Level 2 Tuner, which everyone should know all too well. Its effect is actually quite good while not being broken. You can stall your own draw for a turn to Special Summon it from the Graveyard, which is a fair effect. It's a 1 for 1 and you can normally only use it once.

What makes Plaguespreader Zombie worth Limiting is the fact that it is a Dark/Zombie.

Being a Dark, it's easy to get into the Graveyard with Armageddon Knight and/or Dark Grepher. It also has the support of a bazillion other cards.

Being a Zombie, you can Special Summon it from the Graveyard practically as often as you want.

If it were some other Attribute/Type combination, it would be much more fair. Maybe not Fire/Pyro (Blaze Accelerator), but something like Wind/Dragon, Water/Aqua, or Earth/Beast-Warrior. Just not Dark or Zombie. Light or Fairy wouldn't be very good, either.

Chaos and Zombies

Since I was able to get a second Mezuki, I've been wanting to run Zombies. However, I really like the idea behind Chaos.

So, I wanted to try both of them in the same deck. It didn't do as well as I had hoped. It was very rare that you could use a Chaos Sorcerer and Zombies together, the deck functioned like one or the other. That wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the support for one is dead for the other.

Mezuki doesn't exactly help when you've got no Zombies in the Graveyard, and Chaos Sorcerer can't be summoned if you don't have a Light and Dark in the grave.

Because of this, I've decided to scrap the Chaos and go with Zombies. I'm trying to decide between a Monarch variant, a twist on Zombie Synchro, or a variant with Plants in it.

The thing with just plain Zombie Synchro is that you don't always get to your Zombie engine quickly enough to set up. You basically have to get to Goblin Zombie, which is only two cards in a 40-card deck.

This is why I'm leaning away from my Zombie Synchro variant, since there's no reliable way to search for Goblin Zombie. I'll see where it goes, though.

5D's Episode 87

An "eh" episode. It's just the duel between Yusei and Kiryu. It would have been much better if the duel had actually been completed in the episode. Of course, there's so much talking and so many flashbacks that the duel has to spill into the next episode.

Kiryu actually plays some decent cards. However, most of them are only good if you're top-decking.

He also plays a bunch of cards that empty his hand in one turn. What if he top-decked one of those cards? That would be really bad for him, but, of course, anime characters stack.

Yeah... Not much to talk about for this episode.

Monster to Spell/Trap Ratio

Generally, decks tend to have more Spell/Trap Cards than Monsters. This is mainly based on the reasoning that you can really only play one Monster from your hand per turn, and it's beneficial to get more cards that you can use (Spells/Traps).

A top tier deck that has (many) more Monsters than Spell/Trap Cards is Lightsworn. For one, some of the Monsters act as Spells/Traps, like Honest in the hand and Necro Garnda in the Graveyard. The more obvious reason is that Lightsworn players like to mill more Monsters than Spells/Traps, which should make sense.

For me, in most of my decks, I like to have slightly more Monsters than Spells/Traps. This is because my decks' engines are usually Monster-based and an all-Monster hand would be better than a no-Monster hand.

Of course, as shown, it depends on the deck. For instance, Gadgets obviously wouldn't want to play too many Monsters, since the Gadgets themselves almost guarantee that you won't run out of Monsters to play.

What does this have to do with anything? Not much. It's an interesting perspective on deck building, though.

Tournament Report 11/29/09

So, I decided to go to a tournament with my Zombie Monarchs deck. I changed it up a bit, adding stuff like Tragoedia and Mark of the Rose.

Before the tournament, I was able to buy a Brionac. I wasn't planning on getting one, but I decided to anyways. It ended up being somewhat helpful, so it's good that I got it.

Also, since they were running out of Turbo Packs, they gave them out at the beginning instead of at the end. I pulled Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, Hand Destruction, and Laquari. Not bad, but not amazing.

Round 1: vs (?)

It was the annoying lucky guy who barely knows the rules. I had no idea what deck he was playing, but I saw that he was running the Destiny Draw engine.

-Duel 1: I OTK'd him pretty easily.
-Duel 2: Royal Decree messed me up, and I couldn't do much.
-Duel 3: I drew poorly and he drew everything he needed. There was nothing I could do.

Round 2: vs (French) Twilight

I think it was the "French Twilight" variant that my opponent was playing. It's basically just a Lightsworn deck with Tragoedias for Darks, for those who don't know.

-Duel 1: All of his good cards (Judgment Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, etc.) were in the last 8 cards or so of his deck. I was able to bounce his set Honest with Brionac and attack for game in the end.
-Duel 2: He had Aurkus and three Honests. I couldn't target the Aurkus and I couldn't kill it in battle. My opponent basically won off of that Aurkus, since he could keep poking for 1200 damage and dropping Honest for 1200 damage.
-Duel 3: I went first, set one, and passed. He passed. I passed. He was forced to set a Trap or else he would've had to discard. That dead Beckoning Light saved me from him being able to play Gorz later in the duel. After he set the Trap, I was hesitant to attack with Goblin Zombie, since it might've milled something he wanted in the Graveyard. It milled Charge of the Light Brigade. That basically won me the game.

Round 3: vs Zombies

-Duel 1: I rushed him with Monarchs and was able to take the game. Mark of the Rose helped to destroy his Spirit Reaper.
-Duel 2: Basically the same as the first duel. I topped Raiza at the right time for game.

Round 4: vs Macro Monarchs

-Duel 1: I drew no low Level Monsters. I basically gave up.
-Duel 2: I drew the Mobius I sided in in my starting hand. It destroyed his Macro Cosmos, which essentially won me the game.
-Duel 3: Very close duel. Near the end, we were both at the point where either of us could lose at any moment. I was luckier than him, though, so I was able to win.

Round 5: vs Zombies

-Duel 1: I drew three Caius in my starting hand. It ended up being a good thing, since it allowed me to take control of the game and win.
-Duel 2: Royal Decree is evil.
-Duel 3: He removed a bunch of my Zombies, and I couldn't do much. He ended up winning.

During the tournament, the store owner let me know that he got a Mezuki, so I bought it. When I got home, I looked at it more closely and realized that it's German. I don't really have a problem with that, but I would've rather had an English one.

So it was a pretty good day. I'll probably change my deck to make it more efficient, though. I might just make a Zombie Synchro deck...

5D's Episode 86

A good episode. There were actually two duels in this episode, which hardly ever happens.

There's actually some supposedly relevant plot in this episode. Kiryu is suicidal, even though he's trying to kill himself through losing duels. He's failing, though, since it appears that he hasn't lost, yet.

So, Yusei is supposed to save him by beating him and bla, bla, bla. To accomplish this, Yusei has to join one of the "families." To do that, he had to duel his way in. Three people wanted to duel him, so, Yusei accepted a "Battle Royal" (really a three-on-one).

If you didn't believe that everyone in the show is a stacker, then you might want to watch this episode...


Yeah, all of Yusei's opponents stacked. However, so did Yusei, apparently. He pulled off this cool Nitro Warrior/Armory Arm "One Turn Three Kill."

His duel also introduced a new Synchron, which is, as far as I know, pretty useless. It may have more than one effect, so we'll have to wait and see.

Siding between Themes

I know that Gambitto did a similar post today, but I think it's an interesting topic.

So, I was thinking for a few days about how I could side between two Monarch variants that I'm trying, so that I could move between them during tournaments.

Obviously this wouldn't be helpful if the themes are extremely similar, with changes in only a few cards. However, of these two Monarch themes, one Special Summons a lot and the other not so much. One also relies on the Graveyard more than the other one.

Because of that, I can side between the two variants to mess with people. They might side in Royal Oppression while I sided out most of the cards that Special Summon. They might side in Dimensional Fissure while I sided to a variant which doesn't rely on the Graveyard that much.

I would say what the variants are, but I'm going to be using them in tournaments, so I don't think that I should. What I can say is that the difference between the two decks is 9 cards. In reality, it's only 7, since the last two are really unnecessary. That leaves 6 cards for meta-hate.

Something somewhat random: I heard that you can now side cards for your Extra Deck. It seems cool, but mostly impractical. I can see how this could help Synchro-based decks, like Zombies and Junk and Debris, but otherwise, there's plenty of space in the Extra Deck.

Some may say that this should have been done before (like when Synchro Monsters were created), and I have to agree, not that I would have sided Synchros. It's still a nice idea, though.

Vayunity

(It's a mix between the words, "Vayu" (duh) and "Dragunity.")

So, tomorrow, a video featuring my Vayunity deck will be posted. It's basically a Blackwing deck that has Fane. With Fane, I can use Debris Dragon to Synchro Summon for one of two Dragunity Knights, Gajearg or Gaebolg.

Here is the deck list for the Vayunity deck:

Monsters: (21)

Blackwing - Sirocco x3
Blackwing - Shura x2
Blackwing - Bora x2
Blackwing - Kalut x3
Blackwing - Gale
Blackwing - Blizzard
Blackwing - Vayu x2
Blackwing - Fane x2
Dark Armed Dragon
Debris Dragon x3
Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells: (13)

Black Whirlwind x3
Mystical Space Typhoon
Heavy Storm
Giant Trunade
Brain Control
Allure of Darkness x2
Pot of Avarice
Foolish Burial
Burial from a Different Dimension x2

Traps: (8)

Mirror Force
Torrential Tribute
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Call of the Haunted
Icarus Attack x2
Raigeki Break

Extra Deck: (15)

Trident Dragion
Red Dragon Archfiend
Colossal Fighter
Dark End Dragon
Stardust Dragon
Blackwing Armor Master
Black Rose Dragon
Goyo Guardian
Dragunity Knight - Gajearg x2
Blackwing Armed Wing x2
Dragunity Knight - Gaebolg
Magical Android
Ally of Justice Catastor

It's nowhere near perfected. It could probably work better if I put it through testing and look at what I need to change, but, for now, it's okay.

The main reasoning behind the deck is that I can use Gajearg to search for Blackwings or Debris Dragon, then discard the Blackwings that I want in the Graveyard, like Vayu or Sirocco. The deck then sets up some free Blackwing Synchro Monsters through Vayu.

This deck can also use Gajearg to set up Trident Dragion by searching for a Debris Dragon. Situational, but good.

The Gaebolg is in the deck because it can basically take anything on in battle. I'd most likely have some sort of Blackwing like Shura or Kalut in the Graveyard for its effect.

The deck is pretty self-explanatory except for those cards. It usually runs like a normal Blackwing deck, but it can pull off some tricks that other Blackwing decks can't. It's not exactly a new idea to use Dragunity Knights with Blackwings, but it's definitely a cool one.

Thunder King Rai-Oh

When this card was released, I bought a playset. Surprisingly, it's more expensive now than it was then.

Well, this card can be amazing. It stops all searches, so Zombies don't get their Goblin Zombie, Lightsworn don't get their Charge of the Light Brigade, etc. Since many decks rely on stuff like that, Rai-Oh can mess up your opponent's plans.

Its other effect is pretty awesome, too. It negates Inherent Special Summons, the most notable of which are Dark Armed Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, Judgment Dragon, and all Synchro Summons.

With 1900 ATK, it's hard to get over in battle. Being a Light Monster opens the possibility of protecting it with Honest.

All of what I've said is pretty obvious, I have to admit. But, I just like the card. I've been trying to throw it into various decks that I'm trying out, but it doesn't seem to work well except in Chaos, Light, or anti-meta decks.

Speaking of which, I'm trying to try out Chaos Monarchs, so I'll see how that goes...

5D's Episode 85

Okayish episode. Crow dueled a random new character named Leo. Probably has no significance to the plot.

However, Crow got a new Blackwing Monster. It's actually decent, and probably has low ATK so that it can be searched with Black Whirlwind.

Crow lost, by the way. He had a set Mirror Force, which is surprising, but he didn't use it to help Leo's self esteem or whatever.

As usual, there's not much to talk about with the episode, since it's just a random episode used to fill up space.

Tournament Report 11/15/09

Okay, so I wasn't supposed to go to a tournament today, but "stuff happened," and I decided to go anyways. I took my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris deck, probably for the last time.

This time, they DID have Swallow Flips! But, I wasted all of my money on Hidden Arsenal packs, so I couldn't get one. The terrible part is that I didn't pull anything good from the packs...

Round 1: vs Newbie Six Samurai

-Duel 1: I won.
-Duel 2: He overextended like crazy on his first turn. Black Rose Dragon destroyed the field. Unfortunately, I drew really badly afterward, so I couldn't do much.
-Duel 3: He dumps two Six Samurai and Great Shogun Shien onto the field. Trident Dragion cleared his field and helped me win.

Round 2: vs Vayu Turbo (?)

-Duel 1: His deck looked like Vayu Turbo from this duel, when he ditched Vayu with Armageddon Knight. I forgot how I lost.
-Duel 2: I dropped Dark Armed Dragon and Stardust Dragon. He scooped.
-Duel 3: Royal Oppression is annoying. I couldn't do much about it, and he beat me down.

Round 3: vs Newbie Deck

I won both duels, it's kind of obvious...

Round 4: vs Anti-Meta

-Duel 1: He took control and beat me down with Rai-Oh.
-Duel 2: Neither of us could do anything for a while. I had the cards for a Trident Dragion OTK, but I wanted to play it safe. I let him summon his Neos Alius after a bunch of turns of waiting, even though I had Trap Hole set. I knew I could Dust Tornado his set card, Mind Control the Alius, and drop Debris Dragon (Special Summon Plaguespreader from the grave) for the OTK. Fortunately, he didn't set any additional cards, and that's exactly what I did.
-Duel 3: I am so glad that Debris Dragon has 2000 DEF. It held off his attackers for a long while. After I Gold Sarc'ed for Heavy Storm, he played his Heavy Storm (we both had three S/T Cards). But then he couldn't get over my Debris Dragons. He had two Rai-Ohs, so I had to get him to waste them. Black Rose Dragon got negated, Dark Armed Dragon was negated, but I was able to pull through a Magical Android. He had multiple Honests, though, and there was nothing I could do.

Round 5: vs Royal Oppression

-Duel 1: This guy dropped a Caius and was playing Gravekeepers, which made me think he was playing Monarchs. He wasn't though, and I pulled off a Trident Dragion OTK, with the help of Dark Armed Dragon.
-Duel 2: He had control of the game, but I top decked Dark Armed Dragon with three Darks in the Graveyard. It was hardly fair, but I won.

Turbo Pack was garbage. Another Satellite Cannon, Ryko, and Laquari.

It was an okay day, I guess. I had fun at the tournament, but Dark Reverse isn't doing as well as it used to. I'm probably going to retire the deck, and go back to Monarchs.

By the way, I'm still trying to put together a Koa'ki Meiru deck and a Volcanic Gemini deck, but the card shop had none of the cards I needed for either deck. Hopefully I'll be able to get the cards, eventually.

More New Decks

So, I basically gave up on making a competitive Koa'ki Meiru deck. I'm still going to make one, since I like the theme, but making a competitive one is pretty impossible. I figured that the most advantageous opening would still be losing me some card advantage too quickly. Oh well.

I did come up with another idea, though, for a Gemini deck. I figured that I could combine it with Volcanics for a beat down deck that gets control from having Geminis for stuff like Gemini Counter. I'm going to try and make it tomorrow and see how it goes.

Oh yeah, my Dragunity Knight cards arrived. So I can make the Vayunity deck I was planning on. I just added the finishing touches today, after not touching it for like a month. For some reason, I did so while watching Neuxcharge's latest video. I donno, maybe it reminded me that I should fix up the deck, since he profiled his Blackwing deck and the Vayunity deck (obviously) has Blackwings.

Of course, I'm still working on the Tomato Monarchs deck to make it competitive. I changed it into more of a Soul Control build, which helps me mess with Zombie Synchro after they overextend and drop Stardust to protect their field.

I still have my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris deck, which I may continue to use. The only reason I'm thinking about retiring it is because it's weak to Zombie Synchro. It owns Blackwings, which was the big deck. Now, with Zombie Synchro running around, it's made me shift back to Monarchs, which can hurt Zombie Synchro.

Basically, Dark Reverse is great against Blackwings but bad against Zombie Synchro. Past Monarch decks that I've made were bad against Blackwings, but good against Zombies. Lightsworn decks are luck-based, so I'm not really concentrating on that match-up, and Gladiator Beasts have gone downhill. No one at my locals plays straight Vayu Turbo, so I don't worry about that match-up, but some of the stuff I side can help against it anyway.

What I'm thinking about doing next week (I'm not going to a tournament tomorrow) is bringing both my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris and Tomato Monarchs decks and scoping out the competition to see which one I should use. I may just bring my Volcanic Gemini deck if I can put it together and it works well.

However, the result of the Shonen Jump Championship tomorrow will influence what a good amount of people play...

Koa'ki Meiru Variants

So, I've been trying to figure out the best type of Koa'ki Meiru deck I can make. I gave up on a Gladiator Beast hybrid, since the themes conflict.

I'm stuck between three different variants, though I would use Rocks in all three.

The Drago variant. It seems good, since you can prevent Special Summons of Lights and Darks. Seems like the best against the current meta, but I don't know if I'll be able to get three Drago, so I'm unsure. I'm also unsure of what other Dragon-types I'd play. I'm thinking either running Toon Table of Contents and Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon and/or maybe a Trade-In engine.

The Crusader variant. This is the one I was planning on making from the beginning, but it seems like the Drago one would be better. There aren't that many Koa'ki Meiru cards I would need to recycle, but it can help. For Beast-Warriors, I could use Barbaros or Winged Rhynos. Yes, Winged Rhynos.

The Powerhand variant. I like the idea behind this one, since I can run less Monsters and more Traps, but Powerhand's effect doesn't work against much. Ryko and D.D. Warrior Lady are the only cards I can think of off of the top of my head, and they aren't used much. I would probably resort to this if I can't make either of the other two builds.

In complete desperation, I might make a Sea Panther variant. Sea Panther's effect isn't that great, but if I use Hydro Barrier along with it, it could allow for a good Core Compression draw engine. But, like I said, only in complete desperation.

I'm hoping I can get the three Drago, though I'm not sure how I would support them. Blizzard Dragon, Dragon Ice, and Exploder Dragon seem to have the most utility, but aren't amazing. Exploder Dragon could at least help with removal.

And, of course, I could side between two of the variants to mess with people... Well, more. Playing Koa'ki Meirus inherently allows you to mess with people.

Differences between TCG and OCG - Zombie Synchro

Zombie Synchro. It's become more popular now that Brionac has been released in the TCG. There are some key differences which may make the TCG builds more of a hassle to deal with.

OCG builds usually just wait until they draw into their OTK, then proceed to win. There's not much else to discuss with that.

As opposed to the OCG, though, many Zombie Synchro decks I've seen have the Destiny Draw engine in them. That gives them more draw power.

The use of Malicious allows for easy access to Stardust Dragon, which allows them to protect their big plays. Since many people are conservative about their back row (or just don't have enough cards to deal with a Stardust and a flurry of Synchro Summons), it seems to be quite an effective strategy.

What I'm looking at to combat TCG Zombie Synchro decks is either making your big plays first or having a way to deal with Stardust Dragon and an established field, if you survive the turn.

Making your big plays first can be very possible with Lightsworn decks. Blackwing decks have the potential to do this, but it seems that recent builds have become control decks that rely on Black Whirlwind for their Monsters.

For Gladiator Beasts, they'll have to make preemptive plays. If they can draw into a bunch of control cards and a Gladiator Beast to control the game, it seems simple. However, Gladiator Beasts lose card advantage quite quickly, the way they're being played.

In a mirror match, it's whoever can take control of the game first. If you've got your Stardust Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, and Solemn Judgment down, you've basically won. Hmm, maybe that's why Solemn Judgment was Limited...

So, how can you mess up a Zombie Synchro player's well-established field? I can't think of anything realistic for most decks. There's always the double Judgment Dragon thing for Lightsworn, but not much else for other decks.

The thing is that that was how it was BEFORE Brionac. Newer builds may change to be more OTK-oriented now that Brionac has been released. By the way, word is that Brionac isn't going to be Limited right away, unlike Gorz.

So, it appears to me that Zombie Synchro might become the dominant deck of the new meta. It seems to be pretty consistent, too. For those of you rich enough to blow hundreds of dollars on a Zombie Synchro deck, feel free to do so. For those of you, like me, who aren't, let's wait for the next ban list.

Now that I think about it, Mezuki getting Limited (again) may not have that much of an impact on TCG Zombie Synchro decks. It may, if TCG builds become more OTK-oriented and reliant on Mezuki. Only time (and maybe the upcoming Shonen Jump Championship) will tell...

Koa'ki Meirus

Currently, I'm trying to figure out a working Koa'ki Meiru build. The archetype as a whole was badly executed, but they are given so many negation cards, so I think it's worth trying.

I just want to run one Iron Core so that I can take advantage of Iron Core Luster and Nega-Ton Corepanel, and maybe even some other cards like Automatic Laser, Reckoned Power, and even Sea Panther.

A Rock-based build is the way to go. I mean, Guardian and Boulder are Rocks, and they are some of the best Koa'ki Meiru cards. I was thinking of also using Waters, like Sea Panther and Hydro Barrier, though Hydro Barrier is kind of bad. If I went that way, then I'd run more than one Iron Core and some Core Compressions.

I'm just trying to figure out a way to make Koa'ki Meirus work, since I like the archetype. I've tried to make it work even since before they came out in Japan. I'm hopeful, but we'll see.

Maybe they'll work with Gladiator Beasts...

Hoplomus is a Rock, Murmillo and Retiari are Waters, and Laquari and Darius are Beast-Warriors. Hmm...

Vayu, Malicious, and Mezuki

They're all similar cards. Each of them has decks built around them because they give you free cards.

Vayu. You can remove it along with Sirocco, Elphin, Armed Wing, or Armor Master to get a free, effect-less Blackwing Synchro Monster. Easily abused with Burial from a Different Dimension, can be searched by Black Whirlwind, and can be dumped by Armageddon Knight or Dark Grepher. (Unlimited.)

Malicious. You can remove it to get the other copy from your deck. Can be searched with Stratos and dumped with Armageddon Knight or Dark Grepher. It's also a Destiny Hero, which gives it a mess load of support. (Semi-Limited.)

Mezuki. You can remove it to revive any Zombie in your Graveyard. Can be searched with Goblin Zombie, which it can revive for more free cards. (Semi-Limited.)

Vayu is a nice piece of support for its theme. It's not extremely broken, but it's good. Malicious is somewhat better, and definitely more splashable. However, it can normally only be used once.

Mezuki is just broken at 2. If it were Limited, then it would most likely only be used twice per game, three times at the most. At 2, it can be abused like crazy. It can get you a Tuner (Plaguespreader Zombie), which neither Vayu nor Malicious can do. It can also get you Goblin Zombie, which is basically the Zombie version of Sangan.

Not to mention its splashability. People can throw two of them, a Goblin Zombie or two, and Plaguespreader Zombie into a deck and make it work, much like how people use the Destiny Draw engine. What's worse is that it gets more free cards.

Mezuki revive Goblin Zombie (+1). Tribute Goblin Zombie for Caius and search Mezuki (+1). Proceed to get the Mezuki into the Graveyard somehow for another +2. Not even the Destiny Draw engine is that bad.

I'm tempted to say that I'd rather face a Judgment Dragon than Mezuki. Both are probably going to 1 with the next ban list, anyway. I mean, they Limited Black Rose Dragon while they Semi-Limited Mezuki and left Judgment Dragon at 2. Who does that?

Tournament Report 11/7/09

I decided to go with my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris deck this time. I'm not sure that I'll be using it in the future, though... I did change it a little bit since last time, adding two Dust Tornadoes to the Main Deck, which helped a lot.

Again, no Swallow Flips.

Round 1: vs Blackwings

This guy was kind of newbish, but not really.

-Duel 1: I didn't have much to do in the beginning of the duel. My opponent didn't do much, either, which was good. He dropped his Dark Armed Dragon to destroy my field, but then I dropped mine to destroy his.
"Can I OTK you this turn?" I said to him. I discarded Cyber Ouroboros for D.D.R. on Armageddon Knight, which I used to dump Plaguespreader Zombie. Then I summoned Junk Synchron, reviving the Ouroboros, to Synchro for Magical Android. I revived Plaguespreader Zombie with its own effect, and tuned it to Armageddon Knight for Goyo Guardian. Exactly 8000 damage.
-Duel 2: I took control of the game with Black Rose Dragon. In the next turn, I did 7600 damage with Magical Android, Black Rose Dragon (Call of the Haunted), and Dark Armed Dragon. He scooped after seeing his next draw.

Round 2: vs Zombie Synchro

My deck just has a huge weakness to Zombie Synchro or something.

-Duel 1: He Synchro swarmed to lock me down. I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 2: He summoned D-Hero Plasma. I made a desperate play, wasting almost all of my cards to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter to stall. He had a Caius.

Round 3: vs some Dark deck

I had to duel against the annoying lucky guy who barely knows the rules.

-Duel 1: Plasma is annoying.
-Duel 2: There was a ruling dispute over his Dimensional Alchemist missing the timing. He summoned Dark Grepher while it was on the field and used Dark Grepher's effect with priority. I used Torrential Tribute, to destroy his monsters and to cause his Alchemist to miss the timing for its Optional Trigger. He thought that it didn't miss the timing, asked two other people, and they agreed with him. Fortunately, there were people who actually knew the rules who told him otherwise.
He tried to drop Dark Armed Dragon, but I had Black Horn of Heaven. Then he tried to drop Chaos Sorcerer; I had Bottomless Trap Hole. From there, I took control and won.
-Duel 3: Starting hand: Spirit Reaper, Armageddon Knight, Cyber Ouroboros, two Necro Gardnas. Absolutely terrible. I drew Mind Control, but it didn't help that much. I was able to stall for a very, very long time, but I eventually lost. The only two non-Monster cards I drew were Mind Control and Bottomless Trap Hole.

Round 4: vs Newbie Iron Chains

-Duel 1: He got me down to 1000 LP with Paralyzing Chain, but I was able to beat him.
-Duel 2: I won.

I did okay, but I feel that I could have done better if I had not gotten so unlucky in Round 3.

For once, I didn't get a Bestiari from the Turbo Pack. I got Armageddon Knight, D.D.R., and Murmillo.

After seeing how badly my deck does against Zombie Synchro, for the third time, I think that I should use a different deck for the next tournament.

Pokethletes

I can't figure out what Pokemon to use as Pokethletes for the Pokethlon. I've decided on the following, so far:

Rotom
Gallade
Swampert
Pidgeot
Feraligatr

However, I want to be able to make good teams for each of the ten sports with as few Pokemon as possible. What I don't want to do is just use three Ditto (or Sunkern...) as my Pokethletes, since that's lame, even if they have a maximum of 5 stars in each stat.

Maybe those five are good enough? It's not like I need a team full of Pokemon that are maxed out in each stat. I'm going to use Rotom and Gallade no matter what, since they're awesome, but we'll see.

But seriously, Sunkern? It's on par with ARCEUS in the Pokethlon. Speaking of Arceus, there's supposed to be an event at Toys 'R' Us that gives out event Arceus. I'm not planning on going, though...

5D's Episode 83

A very interesting episode. It introduced the new threat and further emphasized Jack's... lack of intelligence.

I actually watched the subbed episode, though I usually don't. I wasn't able to watch the episode at the time I usually do, and by the time I was able to, the subbed version was already up. So, I decided to watch it.

I don't want to spoil too much, but Jack becomes a subject in a criminal investigation due to the activities of the evil-doers, supposedly. He was arrested for Riding Dueling violently, because apparently that's illegal.

Another notable fact about the episode was that they fit a whole duel in the episode. That usually doesn't happen, so it's cool when it does.

Random notes:

I found out how the Pokemon encounters and Item finding changes on the PokeWalker as the amount of steps you have taken increase. I also found out that you can get freaky Flying Pikachu in the Yellow Forest. The PokeWalker seems to have been very well thought out and have a huge amount of replay value, for lack of a better term.

Still working on adapting Dark Reverse Junk and Debris for the new meta. I went back to Vengeful Shinobi before realizing that Cyber Ouroboros is so much better. The thing is that the Cyber Ouroboros engine takes four cards (2 Ouroboros and 2 Gold Sarcophagus) while Vengeful Shinobi only takes, well, (two) Vengeful Shinobi.

Trap Hole and Dust Tornado

Two good Traps with great effects. Why are very few people playing them? Bottomless Trap Hole and Mystical Space Typhoon/Malevolent Catastophe.

With the Fortune Lady, Gemini, and Monarch support that was recently released, these Traps may be useful.

Trap Hole can mess up Geminis, since they would usually rely on Normal Summons (Normal Summon then Supervise, or Special Summon then Gemini Summon). It is also great against Monarchs. Mess them up when they're Tribute Summoned and they usually won't be able to follow up.

Of course, it has an impact on the current meta, as well. Blackwings will always lose their search with Black Whirlwind (unless they Normal Summon Vayu/Fain for Fain/Mistral). Lightsworns lose their Normal Summon (Lumina, Ehren, Lyla, Garoth, Celestia, etc.) unless Aurkus is on the field. Gladiator Beasts would lose almost anything they Normal Summon, though they do often run My Body as a Shield. It can take the Dark Grepher or Armageddon Knight away from Vayu Turbo, but doesn't do much against Zombie Synchro. Zombie Master is probably the only target you'd want to use it on.

Dust Tornado is just an all-around great card. It lets you destroy your opponent's Spells and Traps and even set your own Traps during your opponent's turn for use on the next turn.

It can destroy Black Whirlwind to prevent searches and a Gladiator Beast player's pesky back row. It doesn't do much against Lightsworn, since they run few Traps you'd want to hit. With Zombie Synchro and Vayu Turbo, it depends on the build. If they run more Traps (Skill Drain/Royal Oppression), it helps. Otherwise, it usually won't be as useful.

Against the upcoming decks, it can mess up the opponent's Future Visions. If their Monster was already removed, you can destroy Future Visions to prevent it from coming back. Dust Tornado can be useful against certain Gemini builds. It can mess up those reliant on Equip Spells or Traps, but if all they use is Supervis, then it won't be as useful. With Monarchs, it depends. If they're running stuff like Metal Reflect Slime to abuse Level Eater, then it can mess up their plans. If they are running a Zombie or Destiny Hero variant with few Traps, it's not as useful.

I'm planning on Main Decking both in the deck I'm taking to the next tournament. Hopefully it will work out, because the tournaments I go to are usually very diverse, so I have to prepare for all kinds of decks, instead of just a few.

Geminis

So, Aki and I were able to go to the Stardust Overdrive Sneak Preview, and it was pretty cool. We didn't win anything, though.

However, while there, I was able to watch people duel using new decks like Level Monarchs and Geminis. That made me want to make a Gemini deck (and a Level Monarch deck, which of course I have already made), but there's a problem.

Do I want an Equip Spell-based Gemini deck, a Trap-based one, or a Junk and Debris build?

I wanted a Junk and Debris one at first, thinking that I could use Card Trooper as a Level 3 Debris Dragon target. However, I noticed that Featherizer is a Spellcaster...

That led to using Apprentice Magician to help search for it. Then I was still torn between Equip Spell-based or Trap-based. I'm trying to find a mix of both, but it doesn't seem like there's enough room.

My reasoning is that Geminis are defenseless during the opponent's turn, and I want to use Traps to help them. I'm still unsure, though. Suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm also still trying to figure out a way to remake Dark Reverse Junk and Debris so I can counter the meta more easily. Basically, I'm trying to main Dust Tornadoes.

Rotom Cards and Zombie Synchro

I bought five Rotom cards today! I bought four of them for a deck, and one just because it looks awesome.

So yeah. I also tried out Zombie Synchro.

It worked well enough, but I don't think that I've played it enough to get the hang of it. I'm usually able to play any deck, but Zombie Synchro is kind of weird, to me, anyways.

I suppose that the deck is too different from my usual play style. I like to control the game and gain advantage. Zombie Synchro just sits there and waits, and waits, and waits, until it draws into its OTK.

There's nothing wrong with Zombie Synchro, I just don't like it. Fortunately, it's also not as fast as I thought it was. I won't have to worry as much when I play against it, now.

It gives me an idea for two decks. The first is a Zombie deck that uses a bunch of 1-for-1 cards to gain advantage, while gaining free cards from Mezuki and Goblin Zombie. The second is a Junk and Debris deck that stops OTK's with Gorz/Tragoedia, then punishes the overextension with Black Rose Dragon. It seems like it could work against Zombie Synchro...

Random note: Aki and I are going to the Stardust Overdrive Sneak Preview tomorrow. Riku and one of his friends are also going. I'm planning on taking videos after we get back, so expect to see new videos starting Monday.

5D's Episode 82 + New Decks

Yusei beat the Duel Robot. What a surprise.

The card he used to win (Panic Wave) was pretty cool, though. The cost is kind of steep, but it's like a one-sided Skill Drain, Imperial Order, and Royal Decree, all in one. It would be very interesting and might see play if it came out.

So, for the new meta that will arise after Stardust Overdrive and Hidden Arsenal are released, I was thinking about making a new deck.

First, I wanted to just remake my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris deck. In trying to change it, I realized that it's so fine-tuned that I wouldn't be able to change it without completely overhauling the deck. Can't do much with that. I could still play it after the new Synchro Monsters come out, though.

Next, I was thinking about using an Imperial Iron Wall deck to counter the meta. It could stop Vayu Turbo and Zombie Synchro, and to a certain extent Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts. Sounds cool, right? Well, it seems to be too inconsistent, since it's based around such a fragile Continuous Trap. So that idea was scrapped.

Then, I thought about a deck abusing Hidden Armory and Supervise. If you watch Neuxcharge's videos, you'll know what I'm getting at. *cough* Power Tool Plant *cough* I want to make a faster build, though. I'm still in the process of making the deck, so we'll see what happens.

Most recently, I thought about some sort of burn deck that keeps card advantage. Volcanics come to mind. I was thinking about some sort of Volcanic Junk and Debris (I know that it's been done before), but I decided that the themes conflict too much (the way I would play it, anyways).

So, I'm still trying to come up with new ideas. I'll probably just stick to Dark Reverse Junk and Debris until I can come up with a working Power Tool Plant variant.

New Lightsworn Support and Open Dueling

The new Lightsworn Monsters aren't that great. That's good or bad, depending on how you see it.

Neither Shire nor Rinyan have a place in current Lightsworn builds. Rinyan doesn't even mill, it provides theme-specific flip draw. Maybe in a more controlling Lightsworn build Rinyan could work, but I don't see Shire being used outside of some sort of Lightsworn Junk and Debris deck, *cough*.

As for Open Dueling, what's the point? No one gets extra packs for dueling, and prizes are all random. I'd probably just go, get my packs, hope for the mat, and duel people for fun with a real deck. If I get my Dragunity Knights, then I could surprise people with my Vayunity deck...

Tournament Report 10/25/09

This was the last tournament for me before the Warrior's Strike Structure Deck and Stardust Overdrive are released, so it may be the last time I use my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris deck in a tournament.

I was able to get a Turbo Rocket before the tournament, not that I ever drew it. Again, no Swallow Flips. However, after scoping out the types of decks in the tournament, and seeing a bunch of people playing Zombie Synchro (no doubt waiting for the arrival of Brionac), I switched two cards in my Side Deck. I took out my Pulling the Rugs for Black Horn of Heavens, since I saw no Monarchs or Gadgets.

Round 1: vs Newbie RFP

-Duel 1: Seeing Dimensional Fissure scared me a bit, but Black Rose Dragon took care of his field.
-Duel 2: I won.

Round 2: vs Blackwings

I was playing against the annoying guy who barely knows the rules, but has enough money and luck to do somewhat well. Aki and I mentioned him in a video a while ago.

-Duel 1: I drew brokenly, setting up everything on turn 1. I stole his Bora and Shura with Brain Control and Mind Control, dropped Dark Armed Dragon, and Synchro Summoned with his monsters. He couldn't do anything.
-Duel 2: I won.

Round 3: vs Blackwings

This guy actually knew what Junk and Debris was, no doubt from Shonen Jump Orlando.

-Duel 1: I got my Gold Sarcophagus for Ouroboros/Allure of Darkness combo for lots of drawing. I took control with Black Rose and won.
-Duel 2: I blasted the field with Black Rose Dragon, but we had the same amount of cards in hand (freakin' Black Whirlwind). He was able to make a comeback.
-Duel 3: I desperately went for Goyo to steal his Gale. He stole Goyo Guardian with Brain Control in an attempt to steal back his Gale, but forgot about my Necro Gardna. He Synchro Summons for Colossal Fighter with my Goyo after summoning his Blizzard. I drew Allure of Darkness, with my only Dark in hand being Dark Armed Dragon. I took a risk and played it, drawing into Armageddon Knight and Necro Gardna. Remove Gardna, summon Armageddon Knight, dumping Necro Gardna. Tune Gale to Armageddon Knight and I've got three Darks in the Graveyard. He scooped after seeing his next draw.

Before Round 4, there were four undefeated people, including me. We agreed to split the box of Ancient Prophecy Special Editions, with the two finalists getting three each and the two who lost this round getting two each.

Round 4: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: He goes first and sets Trap Dustshoot. My hand was Debris Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Burial from a Different Dimension, D.D.R., Mystical Space Typhoon, and Heavy Storm. He sent back Debris Dragon after a lot of thought, explaining that it would take me a while to set up for Dark Armed. He regretted his choice when I OTK'd him a few turns later with Dark Armed Dragon.
-Duel 2: He annoyed me with Kycoo. I dumped Cyber Ouroboros with Armageddon Knight, forcing him to make a tough choice with Kycoo's effect. He decided to remove the Ouroboros, allowing me to set up by sending Dandylion to the Graveyard. He was able to win, though, since I wasted so many cards getting rid of Kycoo.
-Duel 3: I stole his Sirocco (Brain Control) with Armageddon Knight on the field. Summoned Junk Synchron to Special Summon Plaguespreader Zombie. Tuned my Zombie to his Sirocco for X-Saber Urbellum. His field was empty with 4 cards in hand. I attacked with everything and Synchro Summoned Ancient Fairy Dragon in DEF in Main Phase 2. He dropped Dark Creator, Special Summoned two Armor Masters with Vayu and Burial from a Different Dimension. Then he used The Dark Creator to remove one Sirocco to Special Summon another Sirocco. He boosted an Armor Master with Sirocco, attacked over Urbellum with that Armor Master and dropped Kalut. He didn't need the Kalut for game, but he wanted revenge from our first duel.

Round 5: vs Gladiator Beasts

My first duel against Gladiator Beasts with Dark Reverse Junk and Debris. I side somewhat heavily for this match-up, and it payed off.

-Duel 1: I used Gold Sarcophagus to remove Cyber Ouroboros to drop the second Ouroboros from my hand to draw. MST'd his set War Chariot, which was great. Junk Synchron into Magical Android to kill his Laquari. He double Test Tiger'd next turn, but I just summoned another Junk Synchron to beat up his Gladiators.
-Duel 2: In this duel, I drew every card I sided in. And, because of that, I won, even though I just blew up one Mirror of Oaths and one Swallow Flip with Black Rose Dragon. I ended up going for exactly game with Armory Arm, Spirit Reaper, his Hoplomus that I stole with Brain Control, and a Necro Gardna I revived with D.D.R.

So, I went 4-1, which was good. I got two Ancient Prophecy Special Editions, thanks to the split I agreed to before Round 4. I pulled two Red-Eyes Wyverns and a XX-Saber Faultroll, which is good (the Faultroll, not the Wyverns). I also got a Hobby League Call of the Haunted, since there wasn't much else to get.

All in all, it was a pretty good tournament.

Trident Dragion in Lightsworn

It could work, right?

Drop Judgment Dragon and (brokenly) destroy the field. Then, revive your Plaguespreader Zombie, set that Solar Recharge/Foolish Burial/whatever. Summon Magna Drago, tune it to Judgment Dragon, Synchro Summon Trident Dragion, destroy two cards, and attack three times for game.

Sounds great, right? What? It doesn't? Lightsworn decks don't need Trident Dragion to OTK? They can just Special Summon two Judgment Dragons?

Yeah, Lightsworn decks have enough broken Dragons to OTK with.

At least they've finally won a big tournament in the US. That along with the release of the formerly-TCG exclusive Lightsworn cards to the OCG may cause Lightsworn decks to get hit by the ban lists. And they're getting new TCG exclusive Monsters in a week, so hopefully that won't give them too much power.

Or maybe we want the new exclusives to overpower the theme even further. It could force an emergency ban...

Anti-Spell Fragrance in J&D and the PokeWalker

It seemed like a good idea, in theory. So far, it doesn't seem to be going that well.

I just threw three Anti-Spell Fragrances, three Breakers, and three Dust Tornadoes into my Dark Reverse Junk and Debris build, and it hasn't done that well, so far.

I like the Dust Tornadoes, since I like Dust Tornado, but the Anti-Spell Fragrances aren't very useful and Breaker is only somewhat useful. I suppose that using Breaker gives access to Arcanite Magician, but it hasn't been that helpful.

In my experience, Junk and Debris needs to have a relatively high Monster count (at least half of the deck), and the Anti-Spell Fragrances took away from that. Maybe Anti-Spell Fragrance needs its own deck, but I don't like that idea, either...

In other news, the PokeWalker is awesome! It's so cool how you can get free items with the Dowsing function, and even catch Pokemon in a simplistic battle system. The first (and so far only) Pokemon I caught was a Nidoran (female).

I put a Rotom that I bred but never used into the PokeWalker for two reasons. The first is that Rotom is my favorite Pokemon. The second is that Rotom is an Electric/Ghost that possesses electronics, so I can say that a Rotom infected my PokeWalker, or something to that effect.

I don't quite get how the EXP gain works, as my Rotom only gained one level after one day. Maybe it's based on days as opposed to amount of steps? I mean, how many steps can 8 EXP take?

5D's Episode 81 + Other Stuff

Episode 81 was better than the last one. There was actually some dueling. It wasn't extremely exciting, though. It does show that Bruno is overly compulsive with machinery and the like.

I would find a picture to put here, but it's not really worth it.

In other news, my Totodile evolved to a Croconaw. Yay! That allowed me to teach it Rock Smash so I can... smash rocks. I'm sort of lost on where to go next, but I'll figure something out (freaking Sudowoodo...).

About the Anti-Spell Fragrance deck, I think that it's too dependent on drawing specific combos to work. I'll keep working on it, but I'm going to try incorporating Anti-Spell Fragrance into other decks, like Junk and Debris.

The way I play Junk and Debris is all about gaining advantage, so forcing the opponent to set their Spells so that they're vulnerable is quite helpful.

Anti-Spell Fragrance

So, I saw a Blackwing player using this card at the last tournament I went to. Combining it with Delta Crow - Anti-Reverse is a great idea, slowing down your opponent, then destroying all of their set cards before they can use them. Anti-Spell Fragrance by itself prevents your opponent from using Heavy Storm to destroy your back row on the first turn.

So, I was thinking about making a deck based around it, in a way. It can go well with Monarchs, getting rid of a bunch of your opponent's Spells before they can use them. However, I was thinking about something more consistent, like Breaker and Lyla. Of course, the idea to use Lyla gave me the idea to use a Lightsworn engine.

I always try to throw a Lightsworn engine into everything. It probably wouldn't work too well in this type of deck, although Ryko, Lyla, and maybe Celestia would work in the deck. If you use Lightsworn cards, then Mask of Darkness is something to consider, for obvious reasons.

Now, to protect Anti-Spell Fragrance, maybe Imperial Custom or Fake Trap. Imperial Custom works well with Trap Monsters, since it protects them from being destroyed in any way. Yeah, they're safe from battle AND effects.

Of course I would include a set of Dust Tornadoes in this deck. It can destroy your opponent's set Spells/Traps and allow you to set your Spells during your opponent's End Phase, letting you use them on your turn.

The deck could also use a Magic Planter draw engine if you decide to use a bunch of Continuous Traps. Then Royal Oppression could be main decked, and even Skill Drain if you want.

If you're desperate enough for Spell/Trap destruction, then De-Spell and/or Bait Doll can be used. When's the last time someone told you that you could consider De-Spell for your deck? Probably before Mystical Space Typhoon came out.

Regardless, it seems like the deck could work, in theory. I'm going to try putting something together, so I'll see how it works out.

ポケモン ソウルシルバー

Pokemon SoulSilver

It arrived today! After I start the upload for today's duel, I'm going to start playing it.

I'm going to get Totodile, since it's awesome. I think I'll trade over a Rotom from my Platinum. As for a Fire Pokemon, I've got a Typhlosion in my Platinum that I trained, but am not using, and a bunch of Growlithe that I bred for, which I should not have released, yet. I should also send over a Trapinch with Earthquake, and maybe a Beldum and/or a Turtwig...

Any other Pokemon I should trade over? I want to get an Event Arceus to get a Metal Burst Dialga. Eh, I'll think of more eventually.

Tournament Report 10/17/09

I was running Dark Reverse Junk and Debris, again. I changed it a little bit, though. I took out Vengeful Shinobi and am using Cyber Ouroboros as the Junk/Debris target.

The types of decks being run was much more diverse, though there were quite a few newbs there. Again, no Swallow Flips, but I was able to get a Trident Dragion.

Round 1: vs Newbie Synchro

-Duel 1: I beat him to death with Dark Armed Dragon.
-Duel 2: I won. He complained a lot when I Bottomless Trap Holed his Junk Warrior.

Round 2: vs Zombie Synchro

-Duel 1: He topped Dark Armed Dragon with three Darks in his Graveyard.
-Duel 2: I'm in control, but then he pulls out Stardust Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon. I couldn't do anything against that.

Round 3: vs Exodia

Yes, Exodia. I saw this guy playing earlier and knew how his deck worked.

-Duel 1: Trident Dragion! Wasn't an OTK, though. I forced all of his Necro Gardnas, then beat him to death.
-Duel 2: I removed the Left Arm of Exodia with Kycoo, so he was basically trying to deck me out. I was able to beat him before that happened, though.

Round 4: vs Gadgets

This guy was kind of newbish, but his deck was pretty good. He ran Dark Dust Spirit and Ultimate Offering.

-Duel 1: A long stall/advantage war. I was able to force him to topdeck, which is pretty hard against Gadgets. I eventually beat him down with Synchros.
-Duel 2: I was able to finish him with Dark Armed Dragon and Stardust Dragon.

Round 5: vs Dark Gaia

-Duel 1: My draw engine worked very well. I forced him to Solemn my Black Rose Dragon at 8000 LP after he committed to the field, which helped me beat him.
-Duel 2: We both misplayed. I dropped Black Rose when he had Koa'ki Meiru Guardian on the field. He forgot that he had the Guardian. It didn't matter though. In the end, he pulled out two Evil Hero Dark Gaias with 5000 ATK each to finish me off.
-Duel 3: I took control of the game and proceeded to beat him down with Magical Android. When he was at 800 LP, I returned Black Rose Dragon to my Extra Deck with Pot of Avarice, revived Plaguespreader, tuned it to Magical Android, and destroyed the field with Black Rose. Since I hadn't Normal Summoned, I could drop Junk Synchron for game.

I went 4-1 and got 6th place, which I'd say is pretty good. Again, I pulled nothing from the Turbo Pack. Ryko (decent), Armageddon Knight (again), and Bestiari (AGAIN!).

I bought Turbo Cannon, since I'm planning on using it. I also bought the Revived King Ha Des that was there, since I know that Zombie Synchro is going to come into power when Brionac comes out. I also got a set of Miracle Fusion, since I know people will want to get Absolute Zero when it comes out next year.

Fortune Ladies

People think that they have potential to be a top tier deck (certainly more than the new Ritual support, which I'm optimistic about). I have to agree.

They have a good draw engine with TWO themed draw cards (Fortune Lady Water and Fortune Future). In fact, they're both +1's. How is this fair?

They're somewhat situational. For Water, you need another Fortune Lady on the field when it's Special Summoned. Fortune Future needs one of your Fortune Ladies to be removed from play. If you use Future Visions to accomplish that, then it's a 2 for 2.

What I think is that people will mess around with Future Vision builds, but realize that they're too dependent on it, and move to make different builds.

I do think that Future Vision is a great card, setting back most decks by one turn for Normal Summons. I see the potential with Zeta Reticulant, and also its ability to prevent many of the first turn plays that Lightsworn and Gladiator Beast players like to make.

However, making a deck around a Field Spell isn't a good idea, in my opinion. I'm sure that there are ways to do it, but it would be inconsistent, since you'd need the Field Spell out for the deck to work. Running an excessive amount of Terraformings could help, but it would add quite a few dead draws to the deck.

Perhaps someone will figure out some sort of Future Visions deck that actually works. I'm trying to get the cards for a Zeta Reticulant-based Monarch build, myself.

Japanese Cards

So, Aki and I decided to get some Japanese cards off of the Internet.

First, we looked to Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Boundary, seeing its abilities with Debris Dragon (and King of the Swamp).

I looked at the Dragunity Knights, since they're awesome like that. They also have amazing applications with Debris Dragon.

Then, I remembered Ally of Justice Decisive Arms, since it's cool. In the end, I decided not to get it, since it wouldn't be that useful.

Aki and I had looked through the Fiend Roar Dieties earlier, so I looked for some of the better ones. Unfortunately, they didn't have half of the ones I wanted, so I scrapped that.

I turned to Jurak Velhipto, due to its effect and ability to be Special Summoned by Junk Synchron when combined with Jurak Staurico. They didn't have Jurak Staurico, so I gave up on that.

I looked through the Synchro Monsters in the OCG. Aki brought up Naturia Balkion. If it didn't demand an Earth Tuner, I would have gotten it. I looked at Ally of Justice Field Marshall. It's awesome, but they didn't have any.

So, I just got Dragunity Knight - Gaeborg and two Dragunity Knight - Gajearg. Aki decided on Gungnir and a box of Duelist Pack 9: Yusei Fudo 2 (mainly to get Debris Dragons, but some of the other cards in there are decent).

What does this have to do with you? Well, you can expect to see these new cards in my videos within a month, since that's probably when we'll get them.

5D's Episode 80

It was a silly filler episode. Honestly, they could have started with the whole mystery at the end and figured it out by the first commercial break in order to start stalking their target, which will take place in the next episode.

Jack: "Despite the fact that I KNOW that my opponent's set card is Mirror Force, let's equip Axe of Despair to Tragoedia and attack!"

Seriously. Jack is an idiot, not that I needed to say that.

Oh yeah, a new character was introduced. He'll probably be important, eventually. Actually, he might only be as important as he is for a little while, then become a random minor character, like Ushio. At least he could do the duel puzzle... But, on the other hand, Yusei probably could have solved it if Bruno (yes, that's the new character's name...) wasn't there.

It was neat seeing Tragoedia, though. I was not expecting it at all. The whole duel puzzle revolving around (Equip) Spells was interesting, too, although I doubt that a duel puzzle is a practical security lock.

Unfortunately, 5D's is starting to become desperate, like the previous series. It was good in the beginning, when the story line was coherent and there wasn't too much filler, but it's on the way to becoming ridiculous.

Anti-Meta

Anti-meta, it's good on paper right? Designed to beat all of the top decks, so why does no one play it?

Anti-meta decks are designed to be consistent and to beat all of the meta decks. That's just it, they only beat meta decks. If they run into a deck they aren't expecting, maybe one that isn't affected by its specific brand of anti-metaness, then they lose. If they run into another anti-meta deck, then it's a toss up.

Let's say an anti-meta deck makes it to the top. They beat the odds and can consistently top, or even win, at tournaments. Then, it gets netdecked, and it's no longer anti-meta. It's the new meta deck.

Anti-meta, by definition, can't do better than counter the meta. When I see an anti-meta deck, I first think of how great it would do. Then I think, "Wait, anti-meta sucks..." Very sad, I know.

But I suppose that that's what makes the game what it is. It defines the game so that people know what to expect. It'd be interesting to see this game without a meta, though...

XX-Saber Gottoms and Mist Wurm

There's really no reason that I'm posting these two together other than the fact that they're both Level 9 Synchro Monsters.

XX-Saber Gottoms is currently the best Level 9 Synchro Monster in the game. That's not saying much, seeing as how its only competition is Hyper Psychic Blaster. However, it also has one of the most awesome names in the game.

Everyone should be aware of the loop you can pull off with two XX-Saber Faultrolls (awesome name, by the way) and XX-Saber Ragigura (another awesome name). I'm not going to discuss what should be called the LAMN (Loop of Awesome Monster Names). I'm also not going to discuss the fact that Gottoms can by Synchro Summoned with more than one Tuner.

Decks that aren't based on Synchros should have Gottoms in their Extra Deck (since they would have the space for it). There's ways to pull him out randomly if you want to discard a card from the opponent's hand for some reason. He could even act as a 3100 beatstick. Even decks that are based on Synchros could find a place for him. In Junk and Debris, it's as easy as tuning Junk Synchron to Iron Chain Dragon or Goyo Guardian.

As for Mist Wurm, it's actually pretty good. It's going to be in everyone's Extra Deck as soon as it comes out, like AOJ Catastor and Brionac. It may not gain card advantage (actually, the way it's set up, it's almost guaranteed to lose you card advantage), but card advantage doesn't matter if your opponent doesn't get their next turn. It sets up OTK's.

Obviously, Brionac is somewhat better at that, since it's easier to summon and can put Mezuki into the Graveyard. There are advantages to using Mist Wurm in certain decks, the most notable one being that you don't have to discard.

A neat way to summon Mist Wurm that doesn't cost you a Normal Summon would be D-Hero Malicious, Treeborn Frog, and Plaguespreader Zombie. So, if your opponent decides to chain something, like Bottomless Trap Hole, you can still Normal Summon your Stratos or your Junk Synchron. You could even finish the opponent off, in the right situation.

But who would use Malicious, Treeborn Frog, and Plaguespreader Zombie in the same deck? *cough* Monarchs *cough*

Pegasus League - Caste Party

For those of you unfamiliar with the Pegasus League for this month, it's "Caste Party." That basically means that every card in your Main Deck, Side Deck, and Extra Deck have to be of the same rarity. By the way, it's Traditional Format.

Seems pretty cool, since it forces people to use innovative deck ideas. Lightsworn cards are of varying rarities, and the same goes for Gladiator Beasts. Blackwings could get away with using Commons, though, as could Gadgets.

Most decks would be in Commons, since Common is the most common rarity (duh...). There are some decks, however, that can get away with using stuff like Super Rares or Ultra Rares. I don't see how people can make decks with Gold Rares or Secret Rares, but I suppose it's possible...

Monarchs would be a viable deck type, seeing as how many of the Monarchs are Common. Maybe even a variant of Empty Jar could be used.

Too bad my locals don't have it (or at least I think they don't)... I would probably run some Super Rare or Ultra Rare Deck...

Destiny Draw Engine

The Destiny Draw Engine. Why do people run it?

My understanding of the Destiny Draw Engine is that people throw Stratos, two Malicious, some Diamond Dudes, and maybe Fear Monger/Plasma into a deck along with three Destiny Draws and Reinforcement of the Army. Many people use it to much success in the TCG, but it just seems just a little inconsistent to me.

People use it in Zombie Synchro, Monarchs (Perfect Circle is the most notable variant), and in Dark-based decks. It doesn't even have a place in some of the decks it's used in, but people use it anyways. They want the (somewhat situational) +2 that can come from Stratos into Malicious for Destiny Draw.

That's all it's used for, to get Malicious into the Graveyard for card advantage. However, Malicious can be a good card by itself, it doesn't need the Destiny Draw Engine to be used. People can abuse it with Armageddon Knight, Dark Grepher, and plain discard costs/effects. Not to mention Mystic Tomato.

People did use Dark Grepher to abuse it in the past (when it and Plaguespreader Zombie were at three). Dark Grepher may not be as effective with the current ban lists, but Armageddon Knight, discard costs/effects, and Mystic Tomato are still viable options.

Maybe people could just run Stratos, two Malicious, and another Hero or two if they wanted to abuse Malicious without Destiny Draw?

ポケモン ハートゴルド／ソウルシルバー

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver

Aki was finally able to buy HeartGold (for him) and SoulSilver (for me) on the Internet a few days ago. Yay!

Our choices for which game we wanted was basically over Groudon and Kyogre. I have a Kyogre, so I wanted Groudon from SoulSilver, and Aki has a Groudon, so he'll get the Kyogre from HeartGold.

There's also all of the Move Tutor moves. Gravity, Heal Bell, Magic Coat, and Pain Split are some of the more amazing ones. Gallade with Gravity, Rotom with Pain Split! Awesome!

And the Pokethlon seems cool. I'd probably actually play it, as opposed to Pokemon Contests. And, I found this out while I was typing up this post, Rotom's stats in the Pokethlon depend on its form, which is awesome! It also means that Rotom can be in any of its six forms in HG/SS.

Not to mention the PokeWalkers that we get with them. I could level Pokemon while doing almost anything (as opposed to rubber-banding my DS while the Pokemon is in the Day Care...).

So yeah. A Yu-Gi-Oh-related post may be up later today, I'm not sure.

Ritual Support

Stardust Overdrive is going to bring a bunch of Ritual support cards. No big deal, right? But wait... these cards are actually GOOD?

Ritual Fiend Presider and Ritual Fiend Releaser are a couple of monsters that can act as Ritual Matieral Monsters while in the Graveyard. That's pretty good by itself, since it reduces the amount of cards it "costs" to perform a Ritual Summon. However, both of those monsters also have other effects.

When either is used as a Ritual Material, then the Ritual Monster that was Ritual Summoned gets an extra effect. When Presider is used, you draw a card when the Ritual Monster kills a monster in battle. That's pretty good, seeing as how many Ritual Monsters have decent ATK. When Releaser is used, then the Ritual Monster gains an effect similar to Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo or Vanity's Fiend. That's just... wow.

The Ritual Monster being released in Stardust Overdrive, Norsewemko, also has a pretty good effect. However, when its and Releaser's effects are combined (which is basically what it was designed for...), then it becomes a force to be reckoned with. A Ritual Monster that is tough to destroy, prevents Special Summoning, and can be protected by Honest is one that has the potential to tear apart the meta.

The Ritual Spell used to summon Norsewemko is good by itself, since it was given an additional effect. Not to mention that Rituals will get yet another +1 search card in Preparations for the Ritual.

However, if Norsewemko combined with Ritual Fiend Releaser had the potential to become a new anti-meta deck, then why hasn't it sprung up in the OCG...? Probably because Rituals are inconsistent? I still think it has potential, it would just be a little slow.

By the way, the reason that I didn't post something about Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's yesterday was because it was just a "clip show" where they just have a bunch of flashbacks because the animators are too lazy to animate, but they're desperate enough to make the episode.

Differences between TCG and OCG - Side Decking

This is the first, of what will probably become a series, of my posts that will discuss the differences between the game in the TCG and the OCG.

Side decking. It depends on the meta, right? Since the meta in the TCG differs from the meta in the OCG, people would obviously side deck very differently. Side decking will even differ between people in the same region, since it depends on the deck you're running and what decks you expect. Because of this, I'll just mention the main differences.

D.D. Crow. It's used somewhat in the TCG because it can help against Lightsworn, Vayu Turbo, and Gladiator Beasts (to some extent). However, it's used more widely in the OCG, mainly due to Zombie Synchro. It stops your opponent from continuously using Mezuki for free. They try to revive their Goblin Zombie with Mezuki, you remove Goblin Zombie. Two of their Zombies are removed, and they'll have to waste some cards if they want to set up again.

Divine Wrath. When's the last time you've seen this in someone's side deck in the TCG? Yes, it's extremely versatile; it can help against basically any deck. However, it's usually a -1. Against Monarchs and stuff like that (Dark Grepher, uhh... I can't think of much else), it's an even trade, but you'd use Pulling the Rug on Monarchs for a +1. Divine Wrath is used more in the OCG. Sure, it's a -1, but what's a -1 if you prevent an OTK? If they attempted to use Brionac, you wouldn't even be down in card advantage (the Synchro may cost a card, and the discard).

Raigeki Break. Okay, first of all, people in the TCG don't usually use Raigeki Break. They opt for Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, or even Karma Cut. However, all three of these cards have their pros and cons. The OCG mind set about the whole "Raigeki Break or PWWB?" thing is that Raigeki Break gets rid of the threat while PWWB just stalls it for a turn. I'm not going to go through all of the uses of both (that's a post for another day). Either way, Raigeki Break is used due to its versatility; you can destroy any one card on the field. The discard cost can even be welcoming in some decks (Zombie Synchro, Vayu Turbo, etc.)

Of course, there are other differences beyond the actual cards in the side deck, but that's for another day.

(If you couldn't tell, I couldn't figure out a good way to end this post...)

New YouTube Channel

As most of you know, my YouTube channel has been changed to the new version. It just magically changed, seemingly without reason, though it hasn't happened to others, as far as I know.

While I don't dislike the new channel, I don't particularly like it. Basically, I'm neutral. I would have liked to have a choice in the matter, but, whatever.

Just in case anyone cares, I was planning on talking about Burial from a Different Dimension or Necroface, but there wasn't much interesting on either, and this came up, so yeah...

Mind Crush

Is it worth main decking a Mind Crush or two?

Let's list some of the top decks (in no particular order):
-Lightsworn
-Blackwings
-Gladiator Beasts
-Vayu Turbo
-Zombie Synchro

Now, let's list some of the ways that Mind Crush can help against them:
-Lightsworn: Honest, whatever they search with Charge of the Light Brigade or what they retrieve with Monster Reincarnation or Beckoning Light.
-Blackwings: Kalut, whatever they search with Black Whirlwind.
-Gladiator Beasts: Whatever they search with Gladiator Proving Ground or Samnite or what they retrieve with Equeste.
-Vayu Turbo: Burial from a Different Dimension.
-Zombie Synchro: Burial from a Different Dimension.

Against the first two, Mind Crush is an amazing card. Against Gladiator Beasts, it's somewhat useful. Against the last two, it can't do much.

With Zombie Synchro, you can mess up their planned swarm by Mind Crushing their Burial from a Different Dimension. If you miss, (which is rare, since they normally wouldn't attempt an OTK unless they had it), then you know that you'll live to the next turn (provided you have a decent amount of LP). Either way, you keep it out of their hand.

If you're able to hit a Burial or two, then you're pretty much safe for a little while. Zombie Synchro has some difficulty OTK'ing without it, so you can take advantage of the situation.

Maining Mind Crush can be a little risky, and of course it depends on the metagame in your area, but it can pay off. You can spring a card on your opponent that they wouldn't expect in the Main Deck, and it also frees up space in your Side Deck.

Zombie Synchro and Vayu Turbo

A duel featuring Zombie Synchro, courtesy of Neuxcharge:



Currently known as Synchro Undead in the OCG, Zombie Synchro is an up-and-coming deck type. The reason that it hasn't made much of a showing in the TCG is the lack of Brionac (and to a lesser extent other Duel Terminal Synchro Monsters).

Zombie Synchro has some similarities with Vayu Turbo, such as their reliance on dumping everything in the Graveyard to swarm and such. There's only two advantages Vayu Turbo has that I can think of: Icarus Attack and the immunity to Royal Oppression.

Otherwise, Zombie Synchro is better. Instead of getting improperly Special Summoned beat-sticks of Blackwing Synchro Monsters, Zombie Synchro gets multiple, properly summoned Synchro Monsters that actually have their effects. They also get free cards from using Goblin Zombie as Synchro Material and have easy access to Ally of Justice Decisive Arms, which hates on Lightsworn like no other card.

Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror does almost nothing to Zombie Synchro, just stopping them from using Goblin Zombie's effect, Zombie Master's effect, and Plaguespreader Zombie's effect. They don't even need those monsters' effects half of the time, since they are using Mezuki (an Earth Monster) to Special Summon stuff. Vayu Turbo gets stopped dead by one Shadow Imprisoning Mirror. No Vayu, Dark Grepher, Armageddon Knight, Necro Gardna, Dark Armed Dragon, Dark Creator, etc.

Zombie Synchro also has the advantage of Tragoedia, which prevents them from being OTK'd by their opponent, while also allowing them to steal opposing monsters.

Of course, something like Dimensional Fissure could stop them, but most (if not all) decks have ways around stuff like that.