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The anime doesn't make any sense anymore!
So apparently, Crow got all his stuff (Blackwing cards, his D-Wheel, and Blackfeather Dragon) from this guy who they decided to make up just now named Pearson.
To summarize, Pearson saved Crow when Crow was a kid, then he died, and Crow got all of his stuff. And magically, everyone now knows about Blackfeather Dragon. It's very random and makes no sense.
After they set up all of the stuff that happened in the past, then Crow goes to duel his old friend Bolgar. Bolgar is conveniently using an "Anti-Black Feather" deck. The episode basically ends there...
Oh, and Bolgar has a Continuous Trap that deals burn damage. How convenient...
They aren't really that bad. You get advantage for surviving through battle.
Okay, so usually that isn't the case. But, what makes the deck amazing, in my opinion, is the use of the War Chariot. It's a free, recyclable Divine Wrath. That's besides the point, though...
Nowadays, Gladiator Beasts aren't fast enough to keep up with Lightsworn, they can't gain advantage as easily as Zombies, and they get killed by Icarus Attack.
However, Gladiator Beasts have been used at the start of the last few formats. That's probably because it's a solid deck type and the other decks that eventually rise to the top haven't gained enough ground, yet.
Basically, I'm expecting Gladiator Beasts to be played when the new ban lists are announced (hopefully the new ban lists will hurt ALL of the meta decks this time). Depending on the list, new meta decks might arise and shove Gladiator Beasts out of the spotlight once again.
Such new decks might include Dimensional Eatos and X-Sabers, and the current meta decks probably won't drop off of the face of the planet with the March 2010 ban lists. But, Gladiator Beasts might stay meta with the release of Starlight Road to protect their back row.
Basically, it all depends on the ban lists.
So, they're finally getting it. Yeah, Blackwings are getting their own draw card. That's completely fair. That's sarcasm, by the way.
It's not sarcasm if Black Whirlwind gets Limited. If that happens, I'll accept the release of such a card.
Before we get too far into that, let's look at its effect:
"Remove from play 1 'Blackwing' monster in your hand. Draw 2 cards."
Remove from play is good; it means no easy Vayu set-up. The card also has some restrictions:
"During the turn you activated this card, you cannot Special Summon any monsters. You can only activate 1 'Black Feather Treasure' per turn."
Being unable to Special Summon monsters is nice. Shura loses its effect for the turn, no Synchro Summoning, no Vayu, etc.
The whole "you can only play one of these per turn" thing is kind of pointless. I seriously doubt that people would be using more than one per turn if Black Whirlwind got Limited.
So, if Black Whirlwind gets some sort of restriction, then this will give Blackwings a fair way to gain some speed. If Black Whirlwind is untouched, then Konami is crazy...
Yeah, I don't think I posted about episode 92. Kiryu wins. Then, they all leave, never to speak of the occurrence ever again. How amazing.
In episode 93, Yusei meets Sherry again, beats her bodyguard/butler in a duel with a really scary face and a weird Counter Trap. Yeah...
So, like I said in the last post, I'm going to be getting a Dark Simorgh from a friend. It's essentially costing me $42 and a Tragoedia, which is fair. I'm kind of excited to use it.
Because of that, I've been trying to find ways to use it, even if just as a tech card. I could throw it into my Necro Monarchy deck along with a single Vortex Trooper. However, I could try a Monarch variant with Debris Dragon.
I mean, Debris Dragon works with Spirit Reaper, Vortex Trooper, and (obviously) Dandylion. It's also a Wind Monster. Yeah...
I really don't know what else to do with it. Maybe a Hero deck using Absolute Zero? Stratos and Avian are Wind Monsters.
Even though I don't know what exactly I'll do with the Dark Simorgh once I get it, I know that I'll use it. It's too awesome not to use.
Yes, 83. What a random number. I just felt like going back through my blog and picking some of the more interesting things that I've written and discussing them.
From "Dark Simorgh" (9/25/09)
"People are going to make Monarch variants around it, probably. With three Raiza and Caius, it's not going to be very hard. I'm hopefully going to be able to get a couple, but not necessarily for a Monarch deck."
-Yeah, I'm finally going to get a Dark Simorgh. Only one, though. So I'm going to try to throw it into my Necro Monarchy deck. It's not meant to be a main theme, just something I might be able to Special Summon, since I do have Raiza. I might even try out Vortex Trooper (again).
From "Differences between TCG and OCG - Zombie Synchro" (11/11/09)
"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."
-Two things about this quote: Zombie Synchro has been getting lucksacked all over by Lightsworn and I did have the money to get a "Zombie Synchro" deck. I "only" had to spend $120 on the two Mezuki and the two Brionac.
From "End of the Year 2009" (12/31/09)
"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."
-Yeah, Zombies lost to Lightsworn. Blackwings are continuing to die out, though.
From "Tournament Report 1/3/10" (1/3/10)
"Again, I took my Zombie deck to the locals. I'm planning on selling my German Mezuki after the Shonen Jump Championship next week. Why? Because if (when) Zombies win, Mezuki's price might go up. Also because Mezuki will be Limited come March, so I want to get the most I can for selling it."
-I chose this quote because even though I said I would try to use a different deck. I did trade the Mezuki while it was good, though.
From "Tournament Report 1/15/10" (1/15/10)
"So, since I retired my Zombie deck, I had to make a new deck for locals. I wanted to use my new Hobby League Mystic Tomatoes and my new Dragon Ice, so I just remade the Necro Monarchy deck from way back when, with a few changes."
-Yes, I threw a deck together based on the build from my first Necro Monarchy deck and my experience playing Zombies. It worked out quite well, aiming at the key card for Zombies. It's not Mezuki, it's Goblin Zombie. If Caius can get rid of it, I would basically win. Since I basically only played against Zombies at my last locals, I don't know how good the match-up against Blackwings is. As always, it's (more of) a game of luck against Lightsworn, but to help me with them, I've started to side Banisher of the Radiance. It also happens to help against Zombies.
There were probably some more quotes I would've wanted to go back over, but this is good for now. Maybe on the 166th post...
It's an awesome card.
With it in your hand or Graveyard, you can discard a card (including itself, if it's in your hand) to Special Summon it when your opponent Special Summons something.
Not to mention it's a Dragon-type Monster. That gives you access to the amazing Exploder Dragonwing! It basically kills any Lightsworn or Blackwing before damage calculation, preventing them from using Honest or Kalut. It's like Catastor, except it's good against Blackwings. It has some practical uses against Zombie decks, since you can kill off their recruiters outside of battle.
It's also a Water Monster, giving you access to Gungnir, if you're in the OCG. That means you can dump it along with a Hero for Absolute Zero with Future Fusion.
The odd part is that people consider it to be a big threat. In my experience thus far, people go out of their way to get rid of it. I have no idea why, since it's not all that disastrous once it's on the field. It's just 2200 DEF... I suppose that in a Monarch deck, people don't like to let you Special Summon a shield that can be revived multiple times (*cough Treeborn Frog *cough*).
The best thing about Dragon Ice is that it "steals" priority from the opponent when they Special Summon a Monster. Being a Trigger, Dragon Ice's effect is activated in response to a Special Summon, much like how Stumbling triggers when a Monster is Summoned.
It prevents the opponent from using an Ignition effect with priority (like Stumbling), allowing you to chain something like Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute to prevent them from getting their effect at all. What's nice about Torrential Tribute is that the field will be cleared before Dragon Ice is Special Summoned.
Oh yeah, and it's kinda helpful against Gladiator Beasts, I suppose. I won't go into that, though, maybe not until Gladiator Beasts come back into power (Starlight Road!).
Yes, locals on a Friday. My friend offered to give me a ride, so I went with him and some other friends.
So, since I retired my Zombie deck, I had to make a new deck for locals. I wanted to use my new Hobby League Mystic Tomatoes and my new Dragon Ice, so I just remade the Necro Monarchy deck from way back when, with a few changes.
Round 1: vs Newbie Gladiator Beasts
My opponent rarely ever tagged out, even when he had the opportunity.
-Duel 1: I lost. I was very saddened.
-Duel 2: I won.
-Duel 3: He had Cold Wave, which ruined my plans. I was still able to pull through with Gorz, though.
Round 2: vs E-Heroes (Ab Zero)
-Duel 1: Stole AbZ with Mark of the Rose for game.
-Duel 2: I won.
Round 3: vs D-Hero Zombies
-Duel 1: I removed his Goblin Zombie with Caius. That basically won me the game.
-Duel 2: I was too afraid of his set cards to play my Rai-Oh, which lost me the duel.
-Duel 3: I overkilled him, dropping Dark Armed Dragon and stealing his Goyo Guardian with Mark of the Rose when he was as 200 LP.
Duel 4: vs Zombies
-Duel 1: I won.
-Duel 2: I lost.
-Duel 3: Dragon Ice is cool. He was forced to remove it from my Graveyard with Book of Life instead of my third Dark. I won with Dark Armed Dragon the next turn.
Duel 5: vs Lightsworn
-Duel 1: I got OTK'd on his second turn.
-Duel 2: I took control early in the game with two Rai-Ohs. I proceeded to win from there.
-Duel 3: I got killed by double Honest.
So, I went 4-1, getting 2nd place, which is good. I got some store credit, which I used to foil out one Bottomless Trap Hole and my Sangan. I also used some to get my friend some Parallel Ultra Rare Six Samurai Zanjis. Not a bad day.
Aki, Riku, and I had the unique opportunity of going to this Shonen Jump Championship, which explains why I couldn't post/upload this past weekend.
This was probably the wrong one to go to for my first (and probably only) Jump. It left a pretty terrible impression, seeing as how it started four hours late and they were severely understaffed. Not to mention it was the biggest Jump ever.
So, the first day was pretty terrible. Both Riku and I scrubbed out X-2, figuring that with so many people, even people with a 10-1 record could miss out on the Top 16.
What was cool was that we could try out the new video games that are going to be released. It still wasn't that cool, though, since the games generally become obsolete as soon as they come out. World Championship 2010 was pretty neat, though.
Day 2 was a lot better. Aki and I were able to enter the Pegasus League flights twice each.
I ran a deck I dubbed "Core Control." It's a Ratbox/Koa'ki Meiru deck that uses all of the amazing Trap support Koa'ki Meiru have, like Iron Core Luster. Reckoned Power was especially amazing in a format where Heavy Storm was nonexistent, netting me multiple +2's.
The deck, though it worked as I expected, did not interact with other decks as I expected. Against a Gadget deck, the first duel took up the whole round and ended with me winning in time. Burden of the Mighty can do that, especially since he got rid of my Maximus.
All of the matches I won were due to time, which is kind of sad. After my first match against the Gadgets, I think one judge thought I was stalling. It was fine by me, since I was stalling. Stalling's allowed, slow play is against the rules; there's a difference.
After the judges started watching my duels, they realized I wasn't slow playing, and some of them even took a liking to my deck. The neat Traps you can use are completely worth having an Iron Core in your hand for. However, one of the judges "insulted" me by calling my deck "Rock Stun." I've got nothing against Rock Stun, but Koa'ki Meiru cards are so much cooler.
Sadly, Aki and I didn't get any additional Turbo Pack 2's, but our pulls completely made up for it. In his first two packs, Aki pulled a Super Rare Foolish Burial. I traded him a mess load of cards for it and the Rare My Body as a Shield he pulled from his second pack. I basically traded him all of the cards in his Shining Debris deck that I was letting him borrow.
After the first flight Aki and I entered, we had the opportunity of meeting Satoshi Kato, the Japanese National Champion. He was a really cool guy, and we talked for quite a while. I traded him an AbZ and a Tragoedia for two Duelist League Krebons, the "Rare" ones with colored foil.
Riku and I also had the chance to duel Satoshi. Riku misplayed and lost. Yeah...
As for me, I think I did pretty well. I was playing my Zombie deck with the Rai-Ohs and Teleport engine, and Satoshi was playing his Lightsworn/Zombie deck. I was happy with how I played, even though I lost. I think I played very well, with some pretty nice reads and a lucky Trap Dustshoot.
Aki was going to play Satoshi next, but we (Satoshi, Aki and I) had to go compete in another Pegasus League flight. Satoshi lost his first round, Aki's first round opponent dropped, and I won through time. Aki and I both lost in the second round.
We all got nice pulls. I think Satoshi pulled an Ultimate Rare Gladiator Beast Heraklinos, Aki pulled a Super Rare Beckoning Light, and I pulled the Ultra Rare Chaos Sorcerer. The pulls completely made up for not getting the extra packs. Wanting to make our money back before the price of the Turbo Pack 2 cards depreciated, Aki and I sold the holos. Aki got $20 for his Beckoning Light and I got $50 for my Chaos Sorcerer.
I got some X-Saber cards and Aki received some Japanese Absolute Powerforce packs, not to mention my getting a play-set of Northwemko and Aki getting a play-set of Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth, so expect to see some new decks soon. Maybe when Absolute Powerforce comes out for the TCG, I'll be able to get more Koa'ki Meiru cards to make a better (non-"Rock Stun") deck.
I also decided to retire my Zombie deck, as was discussed before. So, I traded Riku my English Mezuki for one of his Blackwing Armor Masters. Now I'll be using more creative decks at locals, as it once was. Now I just have to decide what to use...
A good episode. No excessive flashbacks or talking. Just a duel.
Yeah, there's going to be a lot of spoilers for this one; just a warning...
So, Kiryu and Yusei (yeah, Kiryu's more important this episode) duel Lotten. But, because Lotten's lame, he forces them to let him start with 10 cards in hand instead of 5. The odd thing is that Yusei is still "surprised" when Lotten fans his 10-card hand even though it was already established.
Of course, Lotten pulls an OTK. Also expected is that Yusei has his Effect Veiler from his first duel with Lotten. What's not expected is that Kiryu's LP drop to 0 and he Special Summons Infernity Zero from his hand.
It's like the Battle Fader of Effect Damage, except that you still take the damage and you have to chuck your hand. You stay alive, even with 0 LP, as long as it's alive. But, if you take 1500 damage while it's on the field, Infernity Zero dies. It's not really 1500 damage; Infernity Zero gains a "Death Counter" for every 500 damage you take. When it has 3, it dies. It's pretty cool.
But, since Lotten has 5 more cards in hand, he can set all of those for Gattling Ogre. However, when he sends one of them to the Graveyard (as a cost, presumably, since the card just disappeared), Kiryu responds with the Infernity Death Gunner he discarded for Infernity Zero. How convenient.
It was basically a huge gamble. Infernity Death Gunner has an overly-complicated effect, which is based on the card Kiryu would have drawn. If it's a Monster, Lotten would take the damage instead of Kiryu. If it's not, the effect would go through and Lotten would be immune to Effect Damage for the turn. However, Lotten has the option to just stop his own effect, which he takes. He's quite angry when he finds out that Kiryu would've drawn a Trap.
During Yusei's turn, Lotten uses a Trap, Pinpoint Shoot, AKA Mind Crush. No, it's really called Pinpoint Shoot. The effect is essentially the same, but they just had to make it cool, since the Effect Veiler what shot out of Yusei's hand as he was about to use it. I do have to admit, it was cool.
That's basically all of the duel that I want to talk about. There's more, but it's basically just Yusei saving Kiryu from taking damage from Lotten's effects.
Yusei also has a new card (what a surprise) called Justice Bringer. It's kinda meh. It saved Kiryu during the duel. Don't feel like going in depth.
But yeah, that's basically most of the episode. Not much else of importance...
Again, I took my Zombie deck to the locals. I'm planning on selling my German Mezuki after the Shonen Jump Championship next week. Why? Because if (when) Zombies win, Mezuki's price might go up. Also because Mezuki will be Limited come March, so I want to get the most I can for selling it.
Round 1: vs Newbie Deck
-Duel 1: I OTK'd him.
-Duel 2: I won.
Round 2: vs Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode
-Duel 1: He drew badly, so I won.
-Duel 2: We made some oddly similar plays, like both of us using Rai-Ohs and such. Eventually, I lost.
-Duel 3: I took control and won.
Round 3: vs Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode
This guy was related to my opponent from Round 2. As such, they both had exactly the same decks.
-Duel 1: I removed his Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode from play with Book of Life and wont he turn after.
-Duel 2: I took control and won.
Round 4: vs Blackwings
-Duel 1: I couldn't do much and lost.
-Duel 2: He couldn't do much and I won.
-Duel 3: He drew all of his Royal Oppressions. So, after I got rid of the first two, I lost to the third.
Round 5: vs D-Hero Zombies
-Duel 1: He got two free Destiny Draws and a free Smashing Ground off of Diamond Dude. It was pretty jacked up, because I had already taken control, and he got a bunch of free cards. He would have gotten a free Lightning Vortex if I hadn't OTK'd him.
-Duel 2: I got OTK'd.
-Duel 3: I won with Caius.
So, I went 4-1 and got another Ultra Parallel Rare Trap Hole. Now I can replace the two Common ones I'm using with my new ones. I also got an XX-Saber Gardestrike from a pack of Ancient Prophecy, which was cool. Otherwise, it was pretty uneventful.
If you've watched any one of my videos from the past year, there's a pretty good chance you've seen E-Hero Absolute Zero in action.
Here is a random list of abbreviations we use for the card:
E-Hero Ab Zero
Ab Zero
AbZ
I said in one of my videos that I expect people to use other (lamer) nicknames for Ab Zero. The most common one I've heard is just "Zero."
That's all besides the point, though. AbZ is coming out officially in a few days, though people I know have already found it in bookstores somewhere. So, naturally, there's lots of hype riding on it.
That's all it is: hype.
It's like what happened when Vayu came out. There was a bunch of hype, and rightly so. It did change Blackwing decks.
However, with Ab Zero, people are trying to run D-Hero Zombies with Deep Sea Diva (and Crystal Seer) and two/three Miracle Fusions. I can see how people think this would work.
Summon Diva to get the second. After they're both in the Graveyard, you can Miracle Fusion off one of them with a Hero for Ab Zero. Then, once your first Ab Zero dies, you can use another Miracle Fusion on that and the second Diva. I think it's situational, but it can work.
I'm not saying AbZ is bad. It's actually pretty good, but it's not so good that you should throw a D-Hero engine and Deep Sea Divas in your Zombie deck just to use it.
Seriously, if you've seen some of my videos where we've used AbZ, then you would know that it's good. But, there are ways around it. Maybe Lightsworn decks can't do anything but hopelessly lose all of their Monsters, but Zombies and Blackwings can easily get through an Ab Zero.
There's just too much hype surrounding AbZ.
