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.