5D's Episode 103

A filler episode. How fun.

Well, it wasn't entirely filler. Most of it was just the conclusion of the the race/duel between Team 5D's and Team Unicorn. It's sad how Team 5D's thinks that they actually won.

We're introduced to Team Catastrophe, which seems to be full of homicidal people. They crashed (the screens showed "crush" instead of "crash" for some reason...) Andore and Jean's D-Wheels, causing them injuries. Apparently Breo forfeits, not wanting to die. What doesn't make sense is how both Andore and Jean's D-Wheels were still on the tracks, since they would have to wheel them in before the next duelist could enter.

It is also (very) strongly implied that Team Catastrophe was behind Crow's crash in episode 97. The preview shows that Crow is going to duel, so maybe he'll get his revenge.

There's also some character development for Bruno. He actually seems important now. I'm sure that they'll blatantly explain why he's important in a later episode..

Random Stuff #5

I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now, but I can't think of much. I am hoping that in writing this post, I will be "greasing the wheels" so that I can start on my essay...

Nobleman of Crossout and Nobleman of Extermination are good. Side them.

Winged Rhynos can be amazing against Trap-dependent decks like Gadgets.

Flip Effects are too slow sometimes. Ryko may be good, but it takes a turn to use Volt Tackle, and your opponent could mess with you before you're able to use it.

Blackwings haven't been as good as expected. It's usually the less-skilled players who play them, from what I have seen. Breeze didn't even make an impact in the OCG, by the way...

Gladiator Beasts aren't that great either. They're decent, but if they don't draw a good combination of Monsters and Spells/Traps, they lose.

Infernity hype will occur soon in the TCG. Prepare the Battle Faders and Lightning Vortexes.

Great Tornado is on its way...

Tournament Report 3/27/10

I was going to go with Monarch's Reverse, but I was scared of Nobleman of Crossout. A well-timed one (like, on the first turn...) would kill my plans most of the time. So, what I did was I went with my anti-meta Insect deck.

Upon getting to the card shop, I realized that I forgot to put any Nobleman of Crossout in my Side Deck. So, I bought a couple Hobby League ones to use. They were somewhat helpful...

Round 1: vs Newbie Reptiles

I won...

Round 2: vs Spellcasters

-Duel 1: I almost decked out. I won the turn I drew my last card.
-Duel 2: I messed up his Secret Village of the Spellcasters and won.

Round 3: vs Trample Lightsworn

My opponent ran Gragonith, but not Judgment Dragon. Odd, I know.

-Duel 1: Cross-Sword Beetle's piercing effect was awesome.
-Duel 2: He had Aurkus, two Honests, and Beckoning Light. Yeah, I can do so much against that... (sarcasm, if you didn't notice).
-Duel 3: I couldn't do anything when he pushed for game with Gragonith and Jain.

Round 4: vs Blackwings

It's honestly very hard to distinguish newbs playing Blackwings from Blackwing players who just aren't very good. I wouldn't call this guy a newb, but he wasn't very good...

-Duel 1: Starlight Road on his Icarus Attack. Yay.
-Duel 2: Starlight Road on his Icarus Attack. He misplayed, so I could win.

Round 5: vs Synchro Cat

This wasn't the usual Synchro Cat. It's more akin to the olden variants.

-Duel 1: I trampled over his Ryko with Cross-Sword Beetle for game.
-Duel 2: He didn't draw very well, and his Call of the Haunted prevented him from using Gorz.

So, I went 4-1 and got 4th place, which was good. I got some store credit, which I spent on two Dragon's Mirrors and two deck boxes, since I'm planning on triple sleeving my cards, and that would take up a lot of space.

I guess that deciding to go with Insects paid off. I usually don't like decks like that, since they rely too much on Spells and Traps (mostly Traps). I'll probably go back to Monarchs, but I need to find a good build...

5D's Episode 102

The whole episode was the end of the duel between Yusei and Jean, so that was good.

I don't want to type up the whole duel, so you should just watch it for yourselves if you care. It was pretty good, or cheesy, depending on how you see it.

But, Yusei does unnecessarily use Synchron Explorer to revive Junk Synchron and Synchro Summon Junk Warrior. It's unnecessary because he fused for Dragoequites. He could have left Synchron Explorer on the field as a shield, but he wasted it for dramatic effect.

So, the duel went on forever because Jean had a Trap called Thousand Cross, which would return his LP to 1000 when it changes up to three times.

In the end, Jean should have won. He could have ended his turn, letting Yusei deck out. But, he attacked Yusei's Defense Position Rapid Warrior (200 DEF) with this weird Breaker-wannabe sheep thing (1400 ATK). Yusei just happened to have a drop-hand effect waiting to use. He conveniently was able to use the effect of the last card in his hand to increase his Rapid Warrior's DEF by 1500, which was conveniently enough to kill Jean, who only had 300 LP left.

Why couldn't the writers have made Yusei win without having to rely on the stupidity of his opponents? Why couldn't he have just used a cool Trap to do something? At least if he had used Speed World 2's effect to win, it would have been a well-earned win...

The Future of Monarchs

The Monarch variants that are played are usually dependent on the meta. For instance, last format, Macro Monarchs were basically the only Monarch variants used due to the dependence on the Graveyard (well, I don't know this for a fact, but the only Monarch deck I saw last format besides mine was Macro Monarchs).

So, with a slower format, Monarchs are more likely to be played. But, what variants would people choose?

Macro Monarchs probably won't be too popular because they'd get killed by Gladiator Beasts and don't have much of an inherent advantage against most other decks.

Monarch decks based on Flip Effects (Gravekeeper's Spy) and/or recruiters (Mystic Tomato) might be used, but with Shura, Flamvell Firedog, and Gladiator Beasts running around, it's not a very strong choice.

Perhaps Monarch decks that are based around quick tributes, like those using Cyber Dragon/Jester Confit/Soul Exchange/Trap Monsters/whatever. Those variants don't leave themselves open to the shenanigans that Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts like to pull off, but are often less consistent or lose too much card advantage. You could throw variants using Dandylion and/or Treeborn Frog into this category if you want to.

There's also the Monarch variant that uses Drill Warrior for its amazingness. Of course, there's the Drill Warrior-Monarch loop that was featured on my channel a couple times. I've even heard of builds that just abuse Drill Warrior itself to recycle Dandylion's effect.

There may even be new Monarch decks that no one has ever created before.

As the format starts to solidify (after the next Shonen Jump, so that everyone can net-deck the Top 16), an effective Monarch build may emerge. It might even be one of those top 16 decks at the Shonen Jump Championship...

Tournament Report 3/20/10

I went to a tournament with Aki. I was running Monarch's Reverse, a new Monarch deck that uses a bunch of Flip Effects. Aki was running a Skill Drain Zero variant that I lent him.

I had to get a holo Thestalos, since I only had two Super Rare ones and I was forced to use a Common one, since I was running three. I was going to buy some Drastic Drop Offs, but I wanted to see if I would have gotten store credit.

Round 1: vs Newbie deck

I won...

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

I had to duel the same guy Aki lost to in Round 1. He kept asking to count my Side Deck for some reason. I wasn't cheating, so I didn't care. He kind of threw a fit over my siding an Extra Deck card.

-Duel 1: Judgment Dragon. Yeah, it's broke.
-Duel 2: I was getting killed by Aurkus, but he Torrential Tributed when I summoned Gale. He lost Aurkus and Wulf, and I lost Gale. I was able to take control of the game after that.
-Duel 3: I couldn't do much against Gorz, and he had My Body as a Shield.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

I got paired up; I was 1-1, and he was 2-0. He was the same guy who was playing X-Sabers when I beat him with Insects in this tournament.

-Duel 1: He was in control of the game, but I topped Gravekeeper's Spy and set it. He killed it with Zanji (equipped with Spirit), but he couldn't kill the other one I brought out. I tributed it for Raiza to mess him up, and proceeded to win.
-Duel 2: I had sided out a bunch of the Flip Effect cards (the Gravekeeper's and one Super-Nimble Mega Hamster), since I anticipated Nobleman of Crossout and Irou. The sided in Cyber Dragons helped, since I topped one against a field of annoying Six Samurai with three Monarchs in hand. I felt bad taking the win away from him, but I didn't want to lose my chance to top, either.

Round 4: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: He had a terrible hand, drawing no Whirlwinds, Shuras, or Siroccos. Gravekeeper's Descendant did very well in killing his field.
-Duel 2: He had control at first, but I negated his Icarus Attack with Starlight Road. I was able to win from there.

Round 5: vs Norleras Zombies

-Duel 1: He was able to pull off a game wipe with Phantom of Chaos copying Sky Scourge Norleras. I couldn't do much.
-Duel 2: I sided into a bunch of good stand-alone cards, like Cyber Dragon and Rai-Oh. I also sided in Pole Position, but none of it was any help. He didn't use Norleras' effect, but had multiple Dark Creators. I couldn't do much against those.

So, I went 3-2, and Aki went 2-3, saddeningly. Neither of us got store credit, so I didn't get the Drastic Drop Offs.

My deck did better than I had expected, but there's still plenty I could do to fix it. Actually, on second thought, there's not much room with a Flip Effect engine that consists of nine cards and eight Monarchs. I'll have to see where the deck goes...

5D's Episode 101

Plenty of dueling in this episode. That's good.

Breo keeps milling Yusei's deck, killing his Stardust Dragon in the process, and his deck reaches 5 cards. Yusei ends up summoning Junk Destroyer by tuning Junk Synchron to Dash Warrior and Card Breaker. That allows Yusei to destroy two of Breo's Traps.

When Junk Destroyer attacks, Breo plays a card that reduces its ATK by 1000 for the turn while also dealing 1000 damage to Yusei. Breo still loses, though, since he was only at 1500 LP and Junk Destroyer's original ATK is 2600.

Jean (thought it was John, but then they spelled it like that for the duel) continues the race/duel for Breo, and summons his Lightning Tricorn (2800 ATK) on his first turn. It attacks Junk Destroyer, but Yusei protects it with the Shield Warrior in his Graveyard.

Then, since Yusei only has 800 LP left, Jean attempts to use Speed World 2's burn effect. Yusei negates the damage with the Damage Eater in his Graveyard, by removing it and a card in his hand from play. Breo's strategy really doomed Team Unicorn...

Yusei used Speed World 2's effect to destroy Lightning Tricorn, but Jean ended up reviving it. The episode ends with Yusei about to take a direct attack, but we all know that he'll be able to do something about it.

Random Stuff #4

I like random stuff posts, since they let me talk about whatever I want without having to go into detail. However, this random stuff post will mostly be on the World Championship 2010 video game.

Okay, so Aki let me borrow his game so that I could unlock stuff for him and download the free cards. It's actually better than I thought. I guess that's mostly because Aki already finished the Story Mode and got a decent Lightsworn deck. It's actually not a very good Lightsworn deck; it's basically just cards from Light of Destruction.

Riding Duels are actually pretty fun. I thought it would make the game worse, because of all of the Speed Spell stuff. It actually makes the game more fair. It slows down the duel down, preventing the use of broken Spells in succession. Using Speed World 2's effects is pretty cool, too.

Sadly, as I was typing this, I got bored of the game. I'll probably stop playing and try to make a new deck in a little bit.

Speaking of which, I'm still struggling to come up with a good, creative deck. Insects and Koa'ki Meiru didn't work out so well, so I'm probably going to move towards Machina. I'm not sure, though.

I still need to figure out the best way of abusing Natural Extrio. I was thinking a Junk and Debris variant with Scroll of Bewitchment and or DNA Transplant. However, I might just move to a Synchro Cat-esque build.

Miracle Synchro Fusion is amazing. Same with Synchron Explorer and Synchro Fusionist.

Tournament Report 3/13/10

I went to locals with a Koa'ki Meiru deck. It's not so much Core Control as it is just straight Koa'ki Meiru. It didn't work too well, so I'm probably going to go with something else next time.

I was thankfully able to buy the third Urnight before the tournament. I got two from JC, since I lent him a bunch of money for Regionals and I wanted his Urnights. Also, I bought three of the red Yusei Tins for the Starlight Roads. I pulled a Junk Archer, which is kind of pointless, since I already have one and don't need a second...

I tested my deck out against the guy I dueled in Round 1 of this tournament. I lost the match, but it was pretty interesting. He was playing Gladiator Beasts, and neither of us sided, which contributed to his win, but I didn't mind.

Round 1: vs Gladiator Beasts

This is the same guy who I beat twice before (when I was using Junk and Debris against his Blackwings and when I was using Zombie Monarchs against his French Twilight). Again, we both had new decks.

-Duel 1: I drew badly and lost. Don't exactly remember how, though.
-Duel 2: I drew two Royal Oppressions and a bunch of random Monsters. He had everything he needed to counter my cards. He apologized for drawing so well.

Round 2: vs Newbie Deck

I won. I really do hate playing against newbs...

Round 3: vs Plants

-Duel 1: I swarmed with Urnight and won.
-Duel 2: Basically the same thing, except that it took longer.

Round 4: vs Flamvell Synchro

-Duel 1: I couldn't do anything against Stardust. I really need to do something about that, like play Monarchs...
-Duel 2: I only drew a few Monsters and ran out of Monster removal. Unfortunately, I lost.

Round 5: vs Newbie Blackwings

My real opponent dropped, so I dueled against someone whose opponent also dropped.

-Duel 1: She opened up Black Whirlwind and wasted a Kalut to deal extra damage. I was able to take control, swarm with Urnight, and win.
-Duel 2: We both were just sitting there for a long time. I got her down to top-decking and won with Urnight.

So I went 3-2, which is decent. This Koa'ki Meiru deck, though cool, is far too inconsistent. Urnight was amazing, turning the deck into a great toolbox, but it's not good enough to warrant a deck around it.

I randomly got some store credit and spent it on a play-set of Gravekeeper's Spys. I saw Dale Bellido's Flamvell Monarch deck, which was using an innovating new "engine," for lack of a better word. Three Spys and a Descendant. I think it's a pretty neat idea, and I didn't really need to buy anything else with the store credit...

I want to go back to a Monarch variant, but they have a bad match-up against Gladiator Beasts and Blackwings. Same with Junk and Debris. I could win sometimes, but more often than not, I would lose. That's why I've been trying out new decks, but, unfortunately, nothing has been working...

5D's Episode 100

A kind of lame episode. There were only a few turns of dueling.

Thunder Unicorn apparently has a messed up effect that allows it to revive itself during a Battle Phase where it was destroyed by battle. It does get removed from play at the end of that Battle Phase, but Andore used that effect to save himself from getting owned by Yusei.

Andore ended up setting two cards in his last turn. Yusei used Card Breaker (destroys a Spell/Trap to Special Summon itself in Attack Position) to destroy Andore's set The End of Storm. Then, Andore conveniently had the Trap, Magic Mine, set, so he could use it to deal 2000 damage to both players when a Spell is destroyed. Yes, Andore killed himself with burn. He's so used to using burn effects, that he can't even kill himself without burn damage...

So, everyone worried about how Yusei only had 2000 LP to deal with Breo and John. Then, Breo took Andore's place, and the race/duel continued.

Breo uses a bunch of silly mill cards on Yusei, and by the time almost half of Yusei's deck is gone, Yusei realizes that Breo is using deck destruction. It'll probably backfire when Yusei plays cards like Dead Synchron or Debris Dragon, but we'll see...

Breo could have just attacked over Card Breaker (100 ATK) with the Tuner he summoned, then Dash Warrior (600 ATK) with his Voltic Bicorn (2500 ATK) on the next turn to win. Of course, Andore is the only person in the show who actually thinks, so yeah...

By the way, there was a flashback about how Breo met Andore and John. Of course, no one cares...

Random Stuff #3

The stuff Aki ordered from Japan arrived today. That means that he's got his World Championship 2010 DS game, which only has packs up to Absolute Powerforce. The good thing is that it has all of the Duel Terminal cards up to number eight (Pulse of Trishula).

More importantly, it also means that my Natural (Natruia) Monsters are here! I got Natrual Palkion (Balkion), Natural Beast, and Natural Extrio! Yay Extrio!

On another note, I went to Wal-Mart today. I found the Starlight Road tins there! But, they were the yellow ones, with the barfy holo cards: Drill Synchron, Speed Warrior, and Advance Draw. Seriously, who would want those as holos?

I'm waiting to find the purple tin, which has Level Eater, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, and One for One, all nice holos. The red tin is also pretty good, too. It has Junk Synchron, Quillbolt Hedgehog, and Synchro Blast Wave. Too bad there's no holo Debris Dragon...

Either way, I can always get the red tin at the card shop when I go to locals, I just want a couple purple tins for a pair of holo Level Eaters...

Machina!

Frustration! (kind of a Chowder reference, but very obscure...)

I haven't been able to figure out a good Machina deck! And by good, I mean consistent and something that won't get owned by Dimensional Fissure/Royal Oppression.

So far, all Machina decks I've seen (which have mostly been on Neuxcharge's channel) are builds that focus on randomly OTK'ing the opponent. That's fine, but I want a build that is more focused on control.

I also like the Union aspect of Machina Peacekeeper. Roll Out! is a pretty decent card, especially since it's chainable.

What's bad is that Gladiator Beasts would wreck Machina decks, in theory.

Unfortunately, I'm having trouble thinking past the established Machina builds. In a few days, you'll see the Machina Core deck I came up with, which is a Machina-Koa'ki Meiru hybrid. It's not that good; I just wanted to play my shiny, new Core Transport Units and Machina cards.

I also was thinking about a Machina Gadget deck that sides into anti-meta Gadgets, but siding would be too awkward. If I can figure that out, then it could prove to be quite the deck.

There was also the idea that I was thinking of of using Quickdraw Synchron. It's a Level 5 Machine, and it's good. Yeah, that was my reasoning. Although now that I think about it, combining it with Roll Out! can give access to a Level 7 Synchro, like Junk Archer or Nitro Warrior (random note: I got a Nitro Warrior from the Duel Terminal today, which was nice, but now I have like 4...). I should look into this idea a little more...

Of the established Machina builds, I like the Junk and Debris variant the most. However, it gets owned by Dimensional Fissure/Royal Oppression. If you couldn't tell, I really hate stuff like that. That's why I try to use decks that aren't affected by them or decks that can side to a slightly different theme that would make them immune.

Hopefully my fears of decks running Dimensional Fissure (Gladiator Beasts, Gadgets, Dimensional Eatos) and Royal Oppression (Blackwings, Gadgets, Dimensional Eatos) will be unfounded, as they were in the tournament I attended today, which I posted a tournament report on, which I didn't mean to overshadow by double-posting...

Tournament Report 3/6/10

Finally, the new format is here. I was kind of anticipating this format to be filled with Blackwing and Gladiator Beast decks, but that wasn't the case at my locals...

With that false expectation, I brought my new Anti-Meta Insect deck to the tournament to see how it would do. I had to buy a couple Neo Bugs (yeah, Neo Bug) and a couple Magical Merchants, but luckily they were inexpensive.

Round 1: vs Newbie Deck

I won.

Round 2: vs Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode

-Duel 1: I kept wrecking his plans with Raigeki Break and such. Cross-Sword Beetle's piercing and double Verdant Sanctuary basically won me the game.
-Duel 2: I used my Nobleman of Extermination on his Trap Hole, and all three of his were removed. I lost the one that was in my deck from that, and I lost the one that I set to his Nobleman of Extermination. He was able to get out a Stardust Dragon, and I couldn't do anything about it.
-Duel 3: I couldn't do anything about his Stardust Dragon, again...

Round 3: vs Newbie Deck

I won.

Round 4: vs X-Sabers

-Duel 1: He had control of the game in the beginning, but he ran out of cards, and I triumphed in the top-decking war, since he had already wasted his Heavy Storm.
-Duel 2: I sided Skill Drains, one of which I drew in my starting hand. It didn't help much, as it only negated his Regigura's effect. He Synchro Summoned Colossal Fighter and got me down to 4000 (Skill Drain cost and Regigura included). I topped Lair Wire to destroy his Colossal Fighter, and I forced him into top-decking mode again. I preceded to win from there.

Round 5: vs Zombies

-Duel 1: He kept summoning Monsters under my Bottomless Trap Holes, and he was able to beat me.
-Duel 2: He had the same Instant Fusion (for Reaper on the Nightmare), Tuner, and Book of Life combo he started with in the first game. With only Monsters in my hand, I couldn't do much about it.

So, I went 3-2. My deck was designed to kill Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts, so it was annoying that I didn't face any, even though half of the little kids there were playing Blackwings and a good amount of people were playing Gladiator Beasts.

Well, after being able to test the Insect deck, now I know what to change. Or, maybe I shouldn't play it until Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts define themselves as the top decks. I'll have to see what happens.

There weren't as many remove from play decks as I thought there would be, so maybe it's safe to run a Graveyard-reliant deck, for now...

5D's Episode 99

A good episode. It was actually good. Usually I just make fun of the ridiculousness of the show, but it was actually a good episode.

So, apparently when one player loses, the next player goes in for them. During the gap between the switch, the player still in the race/duel can keep driving around the track for free Speed Counters. Then, when they max out, they can continue to reduce the opposing team's Speed Counters, since apparently the Speed Counters and cards on the field remain unchanged when a player loses.

So, Jack had to get up, push his broken D-Wheel to the pit, and make the switch with Aki. That part was kind of lame.

So, Aki resumed the race/duel against Andore, and summoned her Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis on the first turn, which killed Andore's Monster, died, did 800 points of burn damage, and was revived. Andore conveniently drew Dash Pilfer, which is a terrible Speed Spell, but was perfect for this situation. Andore also had a Monster in his hand that he could remove from play, along with another Monster on his field, to revive a Synchro Monster with a lower level.

Andore's teammates noted that Andore could have used Speed World 2's burn effect 3 times with 2 Speed Spells in his hand to deal 4800 damage to kill Aki in that turn. They also figure out that Andore didn't want to waste all of their Speed Counters, since otherwise they would have started off against Yusei with none.

Either way, Andore attacked with his Thunder Unicorn, which he loves so much. Aki took a bunch of damage (2200), and then it was her turn. She Synchro Summoned Black Rose Dragon, then Stardust Dragon! What an insane plot twist!

She attacked Thunder Unicorn with Black Rose Dragon, but after Thunder Unicorn died, Andore played this really messed up Trap. If he lost a Monster in battle, he could remove the Monster that killed it (Black Rose Dragon), revive the Monster that died (Thunder Unicorn), and end the Battle Phase. Andore probably bribes whoever is in charge of making cards in the show to make him "cheaty" cards to complement his stacking powers.

Then Andore happened to draw Speed Energy, which gives a Monster additional ATK equal to 200 times the amount of Speed Counters he has. Of course, he started the duel with 12. So his Thunder Unicorn ran over Stardust Dragon, but Aki used the Trap Half Counter to give Stardust Dragon an ATK boost equal to half of Thunder Unicorn's original ATK. Obviously, Stardust Dragon still died, but it left Aki with 800 LP.

Andore decided to activate the burn effect of Speed World 2, revealing The End of Storm, which he still had from the beginning of the race/duel. Aki chained Wicked Rebirth, paying all of her LP (which is impossible) to revive Stardust Dragon so that it could be passed on to Yusei.

And that's the episode. I can't wait to see whether Yusei will defeat all three of Team Unicorn or he will just lose, but still advance to the elimination rounds. The latter is more likely, which cheaty Andore on Team Unicorn...

Insects

Yeah, Insects. Those Monsters that Weevil used.

Like Psychics, I think that they're overlooked. Unlike Psychics, there are a lot more to use.

We all hate Black Whirlwind, right? It allows unskillful players (like the two I played at Regionals, who didn't know simple rulings for Royal Oppression and Solemn Judgment (although the first Blackwing duelist (Round 5) was skillful in other ways, as we discussed using only one Vayu in the deck, since it is a dead draw) (off-topic...)) to win with a deck with too many annoying support cards.

Well, there's a Black Whirlwind of sorts for Insects. Verdant Sanctuary. It turns all of your Insects (as well as your opponent's, but who plays Insects?) into floaters. When an Insect is destroyed, its controller gets to add an Insect of the same Level from their deck to their hand. In the "Smashing Ground format," I think it would be pretty nice to get pluses off of your opponent's "1-for-1's."

Speaking of 1-for-1's, Insects got an amazing Monster removal card in Liar Wire (Lair Wire in the TCG, which sounds a lot lamer...). Not only is it a Trap, which means that it can mess with your opponent's Black Whirlwind and Test Tiger plays, but it can also destroy face-down Monsters, too! All you have to do is remove an Insect from your Graveyard from play.

(Random note: I just got the Silver Print from the Battle Arcade!)

Insects also have access to a pretty nice Synchro Monster: Underground Arachnid. So the summoning requirements are a little difficult (1 Dark Tuner and exactly 1 Insect non-Tuner), but the effect is well worth it. It has the Ancient Gear/Dark Synchro effect that prevents the activation of Spells/Traps when it declares an attack, as well as a Relinquished-like effect. It can steal an opponent's face-up Monster and equip the Monster to itself. It doesn't gain ATK, but it can protect itself from being destroyed in battle by destroying the equipped Monster, instead.

So yeah, Insects can be good if played correctly. That's why I'm going to try and make an Insect build of some sort, whether it be anti-meta or some other random variant.