The Shining Darkness

Yay, the set list is up! Well, it's been up for a while, but the important thing is that the rarities are now known!

I like how they increased the rarities of Blackwing cards, since I don't like that archetype much anymore. I would have never expected Cards for Black Feathers (Black Feather Treasure) to be an Ultra/Ultimate Rare, though.

The low rarities on Koa'ki Meiru cards make me happy. Sandman as a Common and Prototype and Shield as Rares is awesome! I'll be remaking my Koa'ki Meiru deck as soon as I can get some of those cards.

Spore and Ronintoadin as Commons is also good. I'll try to pick up some Ronintoadins for a Frog deck, and I might use Spore in my current main deck. I might try to get some Cherry Inmatoes, since they're not bad.

The Synchros are pretty nice. I want a Black-Winged Dragon for use with Debris Dragon. Hopefully it'll be inexpensive. I'll also try to get Infernity Doom Dragon and Splendid Rose if they're not too expensive. I probably won't use them, but they'll be nice to have. By the way, I'm surprised that they made Chaos Goddess a Secret Rare...

What I'm not so happy about is the increase of Infernity Mirage and Infernity Launcher from Common to Super Rare. Now I won't be able to get them easily, and I wanted to make an Infernity deck... Well, maybe it's not as bad as I think. We'll see...

It's nice that some Genex are going to be made legal in this set. And as Commons, too. Genex Neutron was a nice addition, as well. I was freaking out until I found out that it could only search Tuners. Yay, Turbo Rocket!

I might want to pick up some XX-Saber Darksouls. They'll be very expensive, so I'll probably give up early on. At least I'll get some Boggart Knights, for all they're worth.

Now we'll just have to prepare our Side Decks for two or three more decks with the release of this set. But wait! There are some nice Side Deck cards in the set, like Crevice into the Different Dimension and Chaos Trap Hole. Crevice is a Common while Chaos Trap Hole is a Short Print, so they shouldn't be too terribly difficult to get.

Overall, it should be a pretty good set. I'm not going to be able to go to the Sneak Preview until Sunday, but I can't wait to get the new cards!

5D's Episode 107

A decent episode. It moved the plot along a little bit.

So, the episode starts with Yusei getting owned by Ghosts and their Ally Bombs. Bruno magically remembers that he happens to be Dark Glass and jumps into the ocean to get his D-Wheel and transform. Then, he goes to help Yusei by helping him run away from all of the Ghosts. Yes, they ran away.

Placido then gets on his own D-Wheel and tries to duel Yusei. Bruno knocks him out of the way and gives Yusei a little history behind the "Clear Mind" and Accel Synchro. So then Yusei magically disappears to get his Accel Synchro Monster.

Placido catches up to Bruno, and they duel. There's a short and interesting flashback (wow, that might be a first or something for this show...) explaining how Bruno forgot he was Dark Glass and why his D-Wheel was in the ocean.

During the duel, Placido obviously summons his Machine Emperor Wisel Infinity. And, when he's about to get owned by Bruno, a bunch of Ghosts come down and help him. He obviously can't do anything by himself...

Dramatically Yusei appears and goes to duel Placido. Pladico then transforms to merge with his D-Wheel somehow and that's the end of the episode. It was really random.

Based on the preview, we get to look forward to seeing Sheddder next episode! Oh, and there's going to be Yusei's Accel Synchro, too.

Random Stuff #6

I was going to talk about SJC Edison, but I'll wait until the deck lists are posted.

I'm trying to make my Chaos Cyclone deck better. It just seems off...

I've been playing Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3. The story is terrible, but the gameplay is fun. It takes a while to get the money to buy characters, but it's not as bad as you would expect. I've just got nine characters left to unlock/buy...

Frogs may be more prominent after Ronintoadin comes out. Same with X-Sabers after XX-Saber Darksoul is unleashed. They should have never made it a Beast, by the way. In X-Saber decks, Rescue Cat will now be able to net you a +4. It's not Duel Masters; you're not supposed to be able to summon one card (*cough*Aquan*cough*) for so many free cards.

XX-Saber Darksoul does help with my idea that there could be an anti-meta X-Saber deck using just a few X-Sabers, like XX-Saber Garsem. Darksoul's low ATK/DEF is pretty bad, though. Wait, low ATK, Level 3...Debris Dragon abuse...? No, it's nothing important...

The new TCG-exclusive Koa'ki Meiru support (basically just Prototype) is totally worth playing. I'm going to rebuild my Koa'ki Meiru deck once I get three of those and three Sandman.

I'm really really REALLY irritated by the "Quickdraw Dandywarrior" decks running around. The name the Konami article writers chose was terrible. I'll go on with the flaws of the deck in a later post...

Tournament Report 4/24/10

I threw together a deck this morning and wanted to take it to locals. I dubbed it Chaos Cyclone, since it uses Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Simorgh. It has an extremely high Monster count (30), since Spells and Traps don't play much of a role in random rush Quickdraw OTK's.

I got three Substitoads before the tournament started so that I could have them for when The Shining Darkness comes out, which is next weekend...

Round 1: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: Treacherous Trap Hole did its job. I won.
-Duel 2: He could have won if he wasn't too afraid to drop his Kaluts.

Round 2: vs Hopeless Dragon

-Duel 1: I forgot how I won.
-Duel 2: I forgot how I lost.
-Duel 3: The duel went into time when we were both at 8000 LP. I didn't mind, since I had two Battle Faders in hand. I stalled out for the longest time, and I topped Mark of the Rose in sudden death. I attacked with Dark Horus over his Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon for game.

Round 3: vs Flamvell Zombies

-Duel 1: I stalled for a while and he ran out of cards.
-Duel 2: He dropped King Tiger Wanghu on the first turn. What's with that? I got around it when he used Heavy Storm on my set Heavy Storm and Starlight Road, which I chained. After I attacked with Caius, he dropped Gorz. I was able to go for game by summoning a Caius to remove his Gorz for 1000 damage, attacking over his Pyramid Turtle for 1200, and attacking directly past the token Gorz generated with Drill Warrior.

Round 4: Lightsworn

-Duel 1: I finished him when he was at 5300 LP by stealing his Judgment Dragon with Mark of the Rose and Synchro Summoning Drill Warrior.
-Duel 2: He sided in Vayus and other Blackwings. He also happened to draw his Royal Oppression, and I couldn't do anything about it.
-Duel 3: I beat him down with a Mystic Tomato and Sangan for a couple turns, so he was down to 4600 LP. Then he dropped Chaos Sorcerer to remove my Sangan and Stardust Dragon to attack over Mystic Tomato. Next turn, I sent Battle Fader to the Graveyard to Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron, Normal Summoned a second Battle Fader, and tuned Quickdraw Synchron to Battle Fader and the Level Eater I got with Mystic Tomato for Junk Archer. I removed his Stardust for the turn and stole his Chaos Sorcerer with Mark of the Rose. He scooped at that.

Round 5: vs Synchro Cat

I considered splitting with him, but I decided to play for it, since Synchro Cat is a good match-up for me.

-Duel 1: I was just waiting for a while for the right time to take control of the game. I lured out all of his Traps with most of the cards in my hand. The last card I had in my hand that turn was Dark Simorgh, and I dropped it on the empty field. I could've finished the game in two attacks (he was at 3950 LP), but I was afraid of Gorz. I won in the end, though.
-Duel 2: I took control with Dark Simorgh again. There was a ruling dispute over whether or not he could use Book of Moon when Dark Simorgh is on the field. I did let him use it, since everyone was saying that it's allowed, even though it's not. It didn't change anything, since he just set a Ryko, which I sent back to the top of his deck with Raiza next turn.

I went undefeated and got 1st place! It was only a small tournament, so I only got $30 in store credit. I didn't really need anything, so I just got two copies of Cards of Consonance, XX-Saber Hyunlei, Fusion Gate, and a pack of sleeves.

I liked how my deck worked today, and it showed me that a high Monster count is really beneficial for a deck with Quickdraw Synchron. I'll probably continue to use my Chaos Cyclone deck, since it worked out very well. The odd thing is that I never draw Chaos Sorcerer...

The Current Meta

It's good. Plenty of different decks, including rogue decks, actually stand a chance right now.

What I don't understand is why Blackwings continue to make up a huge amount of tournament-winning decks in the OCG. Seriously, they're not that good. They kind of died out in the TCG. It is because they main Royal Oppression to kill Infernities? It is because they main D.D. Crow to kill Infernities?

Besides, dropping Dark Simorgh and Consecrated Light on the first turn would basically give you the win against Blackwings...

Synchro Cat has made an appearance in the OCG, which is understandable. Despite the hype, Super-Nimble Mega Hamster isn't the most amazing card ever. It is pretty good, but it's not necessary in the deck.

Maybe "Quickdraw Plants" will start to pop up in the OCG? They're extremely versatile and are really well-balanced. I'm kind of sad that they're becoming meta in the TCG, since now my Cyclone Synchro deck is just a "meta" deck. Oh well...

For the TCG, the meta will become more defined by the end of this weekend, because of Shonen Jump Edison. Then, people will go back to copying the top decks instead of trying to make their own decks. That's the way it is, I guess.

5D's Episode 106

There wasn't much plot development, but it was a pretty good episode.

So, as we know from the last episode, Placido releases the army of Ghosts to Battle Royal duel everyone on the streets. They use Ally (of Justice) cards.

Yusei, Jack, Bruno, Sherry, her butler, and some random Sector Security guy Jack met before (Kazama) go out to find who's controlling the Ghosts. Then, there's a bunch of scenes showing Yusei, Sherry, and her butler and Jack and Kazama killing Ghosts.

Placido realizes that the Ghosts can't defeat main characters so easily. So, he sends all of them to kill Yusei.

The butler, Sherry, and Yusei stack their hands so that they can all Synchro on the first turn and kill off two of the bajillion Ghosts.

The first Ghost uses three AOJ Cosmic Closer to kill the butler. The next Ghost attacks Sherry's Synchro Monster with Ally Bomb after the first Ghost flips DNA Transplant, turning everything into Lights. Ally Bomb's effect destroys Sherry's Synchro Monster and Yusei's Speed Warrior, even though Yusei had a Road Warrior on the field. The next ten Ghosts summon Ally Bombs and attack Sherry directly with all of them to beat her.

Yusei is left by himself to defeat a horde of Ghosts. The preview leads us to believe that we can expect to see an Accel Synchro in the next two episodes, so that's something to look forward to...

Extra Deck for "Quickdraw Plants"

Call the deck whatever you want, but I'm talking about decks that use Quickdraw Synchron and Debris Dragon as Tuners.

Because of those two, unique Tuners, you have to play a fully-packed Extra Deck. Not to mention the fact that the Level 1 Tokens give you access to a wide variety of Synchro Monsters, regardless of the Levels of the other Monsters in the deck.

So, to accommodate Quickdraw Synchron, you need Junk Warrior (if you play Level Eater), Drill Warrior, Turbo Warrior, Junk Archer (it's better than you think...), Nitro Warrior (it's not a Wind...), and Road Warrior (if you run targets for it).

For Debris Dragon, it would be good to run Iron Chain Dragon, Ancient Fairy Dragon, Black Rose Dragon, the generic Level 8 Dragons you would run either way (Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend), and maybe Trident Dragion... (and Trishula in the OCG).

If you run any other Tuners (most likely Plaguespreader Zombie), you might want to run all of the other Synchros. Those being Armory Arm, Catastor, Magical Android, Brionac, Goyo Guardian, Thought Ruler Archfiend, Colossal Fighter, and Mist Wurm. You would also consider running Dark End Dragon, Infernity Death Dragon, Decisive Arms, and others if you're in the OCG.

Not to mention Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, since Machina Gadgets have a pretty good match-up against this type of deck...

So, how many was that, 21? And 25 in the OCG? Last time I checked, you only have 15 spots, so it's going to be hard to choose. Some of them, like Trident Dragion, Infernity Death Dragon, and Armory Arm, would be easy to cut, but others...not so much.

To save grief (and money), you could take the easy way out and only use Quickdraw Synchron and Debris Dragon. That would leave your Extra Deck looking like this:

Trident Dragion (if you want...)
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (for the OCG)
Red Dragon Archfiend
Road Warrior (if you have targets)
Stardust Dragon
Nitro Warrior
Black Rose Dragon
Junk Archer
Ancient Fairy Dragon
Turbo Warrior
Iron Chain Dragon
Drill Warrior
Junk Warrior (if you play Level Eater)
Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

See? You've got room to spare, allowing you to play multiples of the more important ones.

But, I was asked, "What if you Brain Control a Tuner?" First of all, who just leaves a Tuner on the field for you to steal? The desperate Flamvell/Synchro Cat player who just dropped their Flamvell Magician to attack? Yeah...if that happens, you're probably in a pretty good position etiher way...

The simple answer to the question is to just go for one of the Dragon Synchros that you play for Debris Dragon, since they're generic and require no special Tuners/non-Tuners. If you really care, use the extra space to play stuff like Colossal Fighter, Goyo Guardian, and Brionac.

You may be wondering, "How does this help me?" Well, if you're playing/want to play this type of deck, I've given you a little insight on the complicated creation of the Extra Deck. If you ever play against this deck, you may be able to use this information to your advantage. Knowing what's in your opponent's Extra Deck is just another piece of information that you can use to make reads and determine what kinds of plays that your opponent has. While knowledge of your opponent's Extra Deck is usually not very important, it can help against a Synchro-based deck.

Tournament Report 4/17/10

I got to go to locals with Deceiver. I was playing Cyclone Monarchs, which I had changed quite a bit, and he was playing his new Zombie deck. He doesn't have all of the cards for it, yet, but I lent him some and a whole Extra Deck.

Round 1: vs Flamvell/Lightsworn

This guy was playing some Lightsworn stuff, some Flamvell stuff, D.D. Warrior Ladies, and other stuff. I really had no idea what he was playing. But, I won both duels, even though I forgot how.

Round 2: vs Quickdraw Plants

My opponent was the guy who I played in Round 1 of this tournament. I don't think I've said this before, but he's a pretty cool guy. He explained that he was playing Quickdraw Plants because he was tired of Synchro Cat mirror matches. He was sitting next to me for Round 3 at Regionals, so he had an idea behind what I was playing.

-Duel 1: It was very back and forth. He kept getting advantage off of Ryko and Pot of Avarice. It was close, but I lost.
-Duel 2: I got rid of his Cyber Valley with Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, which I main in my Extra Deck. After a bit, I dropped Dark Simorgh, set a bunch of stuff backed by Starlight Road, and won from there.
-Duel 3: I got a pretty terrible hand and was stuck doing nothing for a while. He pulled off a Drill Warrior (I was very saddened...) and killed me with Caiuses.

Throughout the tournament, I talked to him about various aspects of the deck. He was playing Light and Darkness Dragon, but he acknowledged that Dark Simorgh is also a good choice. We also talked about the Extra Deck for this type of deck. It's actually pretty hard to make a good Extra Deck for it, but that story's for another post...

Round 3: vs Plants

-Duel 1: Forgot how I won.
-Duel 2: His opening was Lonefire Blossom for Gigaplant, Supervise, revive Lonefire, sacrifice for Tytannial, and set a card. Yeah, I can do so much against that...
Duel 3: His Morphing Jar only solidified my imminent victory.

Round 4: vs Hopeless Dragon

-Duel 1: I OTK'd him.
-Duel 2: I got killed by Koa'ki Meiru Drago.
-Duel 3: I got my Drill Warrior out and killed him with his own Stardust Dragon.

Round 5: vs Chaos Fairies

This guy was running more Darks than Lights. The Fairies were for Kristya, and he was also running stuff like Doomcaliber Knight.

-Duel 1: I got killed by Dark Armed Dragon.
-Duel 2: I went for exactly game with Caius and his Rai-Oh that I stole with Mark of the Rose.
-Duel 3: I dropped Turbo Warrior early, unsure of what his set Monster was. It was nothing, but I took control with multiple Caiuses and multiple Traps.

So I went 4-1, and Deceiver went 3-2. I got 5th! Only the top 4 get store credit, so I was very saddened... I guess my tie-breakers weren't very good... On top of that, I forgot to get the Fusion Gate that Aki needed...

Either way, it was pretty fun. I liked how my deck worked, since I was unsure of how the Cyber Valleys would work and I didn't know about not using Plaguespreader Zombie or Gale. It worked out well, even without those Tuners, though.

5D's Episode 105

A decent episode; most of it was dueling, which was good.

Crow wastes all of his cards to get rid of Hidden Knight Hook, since he just hates it that much. He ends up beating Herman, then he pits in. In the WRGP, if you pit in, you basically surrender. So Crow gives up the rest of his LP and lets Jack handle the rest because his shoulder is still injured.

Jack goes in against Team Catastrophe's Nicholas. Nicholas just sets a card on his turn. Jack Special Summons Power Giant by sending a Level 4 or lower Monster from his hand to the Graveyard.

When Jack attacks directly, Nicholas activates the Doom's Ray Trap Card. It deals 800 damage to each player for each card in the controller's hand. So, Nicholas tries to kill Jack, since Doom's Ray is also a "card of darkness" and would inflict real damage.

Of course, Jack's new Monster has a convenient effect that would negate effect damage to him when it's attacking. Jack protects himself from the explosion and also saves Nicholas from dying.

Also very convenient is the fact that when a duelist's D-Wheel explodes, the whole team loses because they can't pass to the next duelist. So, Team 5D's (Yusei didn't duel this time...) wins. How unexpected.

Placido, one of the evil infinity people, decides to release all of the Ghosts on the city. I wonder where that will lead... (sarcasm, by the way...)

Seeing OTK's

What's that supposed to mean, "Seeing OTK's"? It means what it says.

In mathematics, some people can add (or perform other mathematical functions) faster than others for varying reasons. One reason is the method by which they add.

For example, if I told you to add 3740, 5380, and 991, how would you add them? Would you stack them all and then add, or would you add the first two together, then that sum and the remaining number? (The answer is 10111, for those who care, not that it's relevant.)

Of course, this can be applied to Yu-Gi-Oh. Instead of just counting the damage you think you have, it might be easier to think in set numbers. For me, those set numbers are 2400, 2800, and 2800. They add to exactly 8000 and are fairly common in this game.

One example I remember from when I was playing Dark Reverse Junk and Debris was an OTK with Dark Armed Dragon, Goyo Guardian, and Black Rose Dragon. Oh look, that's 2800, 2800, 2400. How convenient.

It doesn't have to be set strictly to those numbers. With Cyclone Synchro, I don't usually have two 2800's because I don't run Dark Armed Dragon (it's not blasphemy to want the deck to be faster). Well, Turbo Warrior can pick up the extra 100 that Dark Simorgh lacks. Basically, these set numbers serve as a guideline for OTK's.

Of course, that's just my experience. You may have found this already and may have different set numbers. You may just be one of those people who just counts up damage and keeps trying until you can get it to 8000. Either way, I hope that this has given you a different perspective on how to spot OTK's.

Dark Simorgh #2

Drill Warrior-based decks are starting to become meta. That's bitter-sweet for me, since I'm playing a Drill Warrior-based deck. But, what I like to think sets my build apart is Dark Simorgh.

In my experience, it's quite helpful to be able to drop a 2700 ATK Monster that can prevent your opponent from performing a game mechanic practically for free. It also helps with OTK's. In fact, most of the OTK's I pull off with Cyclone Synchro involve Dark Simorgh.

Despite the lack of use, Dark Simorgh can be a defining card in both the TCG and the OCG.

Think about it; what deck relies on Flip Effects? Hmm, maybe Synchro Cat? Synchro Cat variants that use Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, Ryko, and Gravekeeper's suffer when faced with Dark Simorgh. They can't even use Book of Moon while it's on the field.

And in the OCG, what deck has to set a bunch of cards to work? Infernities? They can't be handless if they can't set their hand. And, Infernity decks usually rely on Traps for Monster removal, so they'll have a hard time getting rid of your Dark Simorgh.

It might be interesting in the OCG to make a deck that can drop Dark Simorgh on the first turn against Infernities, because you'd basically win from there. Come to think of it, it'd be interesting to see how my Cyclone Synchro deck would work in the OCG...

Regionals Report 4/10/10

I was able to go to Regionals again with Katana. I was running Cyclone Synchro, which is a newer version of my old Cyclone Monarchs. Obviously, it focuses more on Synchros.

I only played five of the ten rounds, so I'll be able to write more details about the rounds I did play.

After being seated for the first round, I was able to meet DarkZeroHour501st. He was pretty cool, but we didn't really talk much.

Round 1: vs Machina Gadgets

My worse match-up. Very sad.

-Duel 1: I was able to mount a comeback near the end, but I got killed by Limiter Removal.
-Duel 2: I stalled behind two Legendary Jujitsu Masters in the beginning and kept poking for damage to win.
-Duel 3: He killed my Dark Simorgh and Drill Warrior and his Machina Fortress that I stole with Mark of the Rose with Mirror Force. He hadn't activated it for the whole duel, so I thought it was a bluff. He killed me with Gadgets from there.

Round 2: vs Synchro Cat

-Duel 1: I opened up with two Caius, two Dark Simorgh, and some other stuff. Pretty bad, I know. But, I drew out of it and was able to drop Dark Simorgh to prevent him from doing anything.
-Duel 2: I use Nitro Warrior to kill both of his Arcanite Magicians after he used Cold Wave. I was able to win from there.

Round 3: vs Monarchs

This guy was kind of a newb...

-Duel 1: I miscalculated an OTK, not having enough room left of my field to pull off all of the Synchros, so he was left with 2800. I used Junk Archer to remove his Cyber Valley and used Solemn Judgment on his Mirror Force so I could win next turn, though.
-Duel 2: He played Hand Destruction, letting me set up for Dark Simorgh. So, that Dark Simorgh prevented him from doing basically anything.

Round 4: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: I got OTK'd.
-Duel 2: I got a bunch of removal to mess him up with, and I was able to win.
-Duel 3: He dropped Gorz and Stardust Dragon and I couldn't get through his Mirror Force.

After this round, I had some fun duels against the guy I dueled against at the Absolute Powerforce Sneak Preview. I messed him up with Monarchs and Drill Warrior in multiple duels. I had to leave for the next round before we could finish a duel which would have probably won.

Round 5: vs Lightsworn

-Duel 1: He decked out after leaving Ehren on the field for a long, long time.
-Duel 2: I OTK'd him with Nitro Warrior, Dark Simorgh, and his Brionac which I stole with Mark of the Rose.

Katana was doing pretty poorly, and I wasn't going to win anything even with an X-2 record, so we decided to drop and leave. Katana traded for a Battle Fader, which he gave to me to pay off the money he owed me. I also got a Hundred-Eyes Dragon and two Hobby League Royal Decrees.

Ultimately, the Regional was pretty good, and all of the people I played were pretty cool, so I had a good time. It also helped me test out my Cyclone Synchro deck.

Nitro Warrior

Nitro Warrior is a nice card in the Quickdraw Synchron arsenal. Mainly because it's a huge beater and helps OTK's.

So if you play a Spell while it's on the field, it gains 1000 ATK for its first attack. That's pretty nice and can turn near-OTK's into OTK's.

What's more is that it can punch through Gorz when you go for an OTK. Imagine that your opponent drops Gorz and its Token in Defense Position right before Nitro Warrior attacks. So your OTK is most likely stopped, but you can kill both Gorz and its Token with Nitro Warrior, using its effect, to prevent your opponent from making a comeback with Gorz.

Also notable is that it can tear apart Gravekeeper's Spy and whatever she decides to summon. That's pretty nice, too.

But, that's not the reason why I'm making this post. When testing my Cyclone Synchro deck, I noticed something odd about it. I was able to produce an OTK with a Quickdraw Synchron, Level Eater, Brain Control, Foolish Burial, and a Sangan that was left on the field. The OTK ended with Nitro Warrior and Turbo Warrior side-by-side, and it looked like this:


Doesn't look like there's anything wrong, right? Well, maybe you'll notice something in the next picture:


Since when did Nitro Warrior become a WIND Monster?

Konami messed up with the American Duel Terminals, apparently, since they're spitting out Wind-Attribute Nitro Warriors. I even checked Aki's Duel Terminal Nitro Warrior, and it's also a Wind.

So, my dilemma is which Nitro Warrior should I play in my Extra Deck? The original one, or the cooler, misprint one?

5D's Episode 104

There's a new opening! It's pretty intense. When I first saw Yusei destroy a guy with Stardust Dragon, I even said, "Whoa, that's intense."

We see the Ghosts with Ally cards, which is interesting. We also see a new Monster of Yusei's which is probably Shooting Star Dragon from the Star Strike Blast pack. It might even be an Accel Synchro Monster, but we can't be sure, yet...

So, Team 5D's (really Team Yusei, according to Neuxcharge, not that I disagree...) finds out more about Team Catastrophe and their evil Hidden Knight Hook. They finally realize that that's the card that locked the wheels on Andore, Jean, and Crow's D-Wheels.

Conveniently, as they figure this out, Team Catastrophe uses Hidden Knight Hook to crash Aki's D-Wheel. She tries to save herself by summoning Rose Tentacles, but her Psychic powers don't work, and she's injured.

At the end of the episode is the first two turns of the race/duel between Team Catastrophe and Team 5D's/Yusei. Herman conveniently has Hidden Knight Hook in his starting hand and summons it. Crow foolishly attacks it with Sirocco, and its effect activates.

For some reason, Crow, and everyone else of note, notices a hook make of darkness rising from the shadow under Crow's D-Wheel attempt to grab his back wheel. Crow swerves out of the way, and apparently that's enough to save himself from his wheel being locked.

Not a bad episode. If there were more dueling and less figuring out what the other team is about (which took a chunk of last episode and the first two-thirds of this episode), it would have been better.

Natural Extrio

I kinda wanted to save this post for later, but since I just got the deck together today, I might as well post it today.

So yeah, I figured out a deck that can access Natural Extrio somewhat easily. Of course, the easiest way to get to Extrio is by using Gale Dogra to dump both Natural Beast and Natural Palkion from your Extra Deck for 6000 LP, then playing Miracle Synchro Fusion. Miracle Synchro Fusion isn't even available in the OCG, yet, so I'm waiting on that...

For now, I've combined the Rescue Cat engine and an Emergency Teleport engine to give easy access to both Beast and Palkion. Once one of those is out, I could tribute it along with The Earth - Hex-Sealed Fusion for an improper Special Summon of Natural Extrio. I wouldn't be able to revive it, but that shouldn't be a problem when half of the opponent's deck is shut down...

I'll be calling the deck "Imperial Extrio." Why the "Imperial," though? Imperial Custom. It can make Embodiment of Apophis an invincible shield, as well as protecting the teched Ultimate Offering. It's kind of pointless, since it was originally meant to protect DNA Transplant, but in this build, there's only one non-Earth Monster.

I might drop the Imperial Customs, but I wouldn't know what else to add. I'll see how it works out before I change it.

What's more is that this is the first deck I plan on triple sleeving with the sleeves I'm going to be getting from Japan. I know that OCG players often sleeve their decks multiple times (more than three...), but I think that three's enough, and importing sleeves is expensive. It was hard enough to find sleeves that were the right size in the first place...

Tournament Report 4/3/10

I got to go to locals with Katana. I decided to run Cyclone Monarchs, but it was a changed up version using Dandylions.

Speaking of which, I needed to buy a couple Absolute Powerforce Special Editions to get a second Dandylion. Both of the promos I got were Dandylion; I guess that's okay...

Round 1: vs Monarchs

This guy was running an interesting Monarch variant that uses Substitoad to search Treeborn Frog. He also used Spirital Water Art - Aoi to make full use of his Water Monsters.

-Duel 1: We were both at low LP, so I finished him off before he could kill me.
-Duel 2: He was at 1400 LP, so I summoned Gale to halve his Raiza's ATK, then dropped Dark Simorgh to attack over it for 1500 damage.

Round 2: vs Synchro Deck (?)

My opponent was running stuff like Mist Valley Soldier, Summoner Monk, and Ryko, so I wasn't really sure what he was running.

-Duel 1: I think that I OTK'd him with Dark Armed Dragon, Goyo Guardian, and Turbo Warrior.
-Duel 2: I got him to low LP, and he had one set Monster. I was scared that it was Ryko, so when I got back Drill Warrior with its effect, I returned Quickdraw Synchron to my hand. I used it to Synchro Summon Junk Archer to remove his set Monster so I could attack for game.

Round 3: vs Synchro Cat

-Duel 1: I OTK'd him with Dark Armed Dragon, Dark Simorgh, and Nitro Warrior.
-Duel 2: I forced his Solemn Judgment with Black Rose Dragon. Then, we were basically doing nothing for a while. I was able to finish him with an attack from Krebons and an attack from Catastor on the next turn.

Round 4: vs Zombies

-Duel 1: I didn't draw Monarchs while I was waiting on my Fluff Tokens. He was able to mess up my set-up and win.
-Duel 2: I had a Fluff Token, Stardust Dragon, a set Royal Oppression, and a Mirror Force. He had a Krebons on the field, and used Brain Control on my Stardust. He then proceeded to drop Heavy Storm and Synchro for Goyo Guardian. I didn't have anything to get rid of his Goyo.

Round 5: vs Gladiator Beasts

-Duel 1: His Gorz ruined me.
-Duel 2: I finished his last 1600 LP with attacks from Plaguespreader Zombie and Gale.
-Duel 3: I Tribute Summoned Gorz after he killed my Dandylion. I was able to win from there.

So, I went 4-1 and got 3rd place, which is pretty nice. With the store credit I got, I bought a second Battle Fader! Unfortunately it's Ultimate Rare and doesn't match the Ultra Rare one I pulled. Regardless, it's still a Battle Fader.

I really had no idea that Cyclone Monarchs could OTK so easily. I was losing faith in the deck because if I drew dead, it would be terrible. Today helped to restore confidence in my deck, so I'll probably continue to play it.