Concentration Duels

Instead of reviewing the insignificant 5D's Episode 116, let's talk about the duel that took place during that episode.

It's been translated as "Concentration Duel." It's quite simple, as the anime says. Basically, you get to summon one Monster, activate one Spell, and activate one Trap per turn. But, your deck is all spread out in front of you face-down, and all of your cards also count as being Set on the field, so I assume that a Heavy Storm could turn the game into an all-Monster duel.

They don't really explain it that well, so it would be hard to replicate. For instance, we don't know whether or not you can discard cards from your hand, for Divine Wrath for instance. Moreover, draw/search cards are completely useless, since your deck is also all of your Set cards.

So, to recreate these types of duels with real cards, some issues would have to be sorted out. Cards like Heavy Storm might have to be banned; cards that return other cards to the hand could be considered as flipping those cards back face-down; discarding could be from the deck/field/table (they're all the same) to the Graveyard, but in that case, only Set cards would be able to be sent, since face-up cards would be on the field in normal dueling.

One thing that the anime already dealt with was the usage of Traps on the opponent's turn. Since Yusei was planning to use the Scrap-Iron Scarecrow he revealed earlier to block an opponent's attack, we can be certain that Traps can be activated on the opponent's turn, though there might be a limit of one Trap per turn.

It's an interesting idea, and it might be fun to play out in real life...

The Past and the Future - Card Advantage

A cheesy title, I know. But I didn't just want to make this another Random Stuff post.

In many formats, being able to generate card advantage is key to winning. It should be obvious why this is the case. The idea is that more cards means more options, but that's not the point of this post.

Before the last ban list, Zombie Synchro was the deck that could consistently gain card advantage. Mezuki into Goblin Zombie is a +2, and it was a fairly simple combo to pull off. Zombie Synchro players would just keep gaining card advantage until they were ready to win. But, the deck was usually more reactive, gaining card advantage off of getting their own Monsters killed.

Looking into the future (for the TCG, the OCG already has this...), we see the new Genex support, and we can even look at the Genex cards we already have. Genex Undine (and to some extent, Genex Neutron) give you a +1 on the Normal Summon, adding a card to your hand. This is more proactive, since you get the card advantage right away.

However, Genex don't exactly have a reliable way to OTK, otherwise they'd be meta in the OCG... (They still have the potential to be meta, everyone just gave up on them!) Because of this, decks like Genex, namely Gadgets, have to keep poking for damage while using Monster removal cards. It can be just as effective, and annoying, as a reactive OTK.

On the subject of Gadgets, they could possibly become obsolete in the future, like when the Real Genex (R-Genex) take their place as a better way to gain advantage. Let's take a look:

Let's start with Genex Power Planner. It searches for a Level 3 Genex Effect Monster. Okay, let's get Real Genex Magma. That one searches for a Level 2 Real Genex Monster. So, we can get Real Genex Crusher (not to be confused with Ally Genex Crusher). Real Genex Crusher gets you a Level 4 Real Genex Monster. Why not get Real Genex Turbo? It can get you a Level 1 Genex Monster, like Genex Power Planner. Oh look, you can start all over again!

But wait, there's more! Real Genex Magma can also get you Real Genex Coordinator (R-Genex Overseer). And, Real Genex Crusher can get you Real Genex Ultimum.

You might want to say that none of these Monsters have effects other than searching, and that most of them are weaker than Gadgets. Both of those are true, but, those aren't the only things that are important.

Real Genex Coordinator happens to be a Tuner, which can help you turn extra Genex Monsters into Synchro Monsters. Also, most of the Genex Monsters that you would use are Level 3 or lower. That means that you could also have access to Level Limit - Area B and Gravity Bind as a way to protect your Genex. The only thing keeping Gadgets in play is the ease of getting them and their use with Machina Fortress.

This post is getting really long, so I'll just finish it up by saying that we'll get some cool Genex support in the future (which OCG players could be using right now...) that will give us access to new ways of gaining card advantage. But, we can't count out past ways of getting card advantage, like though recruiters and searchers.

Tournament Report 6/26/10

I took my Genex Control deck to locals today. Nothing special.

There was less than 20 people there today for some reason. So, it was a small tournament.

I got two Gold Series 3 packs and pulled some pretty nice stuff, including Gale and Plaguespreader Zombie.

Round 1: vs Machina Gadgets

-Duel 1: I thought that he was playing anti-meta Gadgets at first, since he played Royal Oppression and I didn't see Machinas until the end of the duel. I got lucky when I drew into Brain Control near the end for game.
-Duel 2: He didn't draw any Gadgets, but he sided in Banisher of the Radiance, which I didn't care about, and King Tiger Wanghu, which was annoying. I Brain Controlled his King Tiger so that I could tribute it for Dragon Ice. I forgot how I won, though.

Round 2: vs Newbie Spellcasters

I was paired down. I think someone else was paired down, too, which made no sense. I think that my locals started using the weird point system or something... Regardless, I won.

Round 3: vs Monster Surge

I don't really know what Monster-heavy decks are called, but that's the name I saw in the coverage of YCS Chigaco. I was watching this guy play and even played against his deck (his friend was using it) before the tournament started, so I knew how it worked. The reason his friend was using it was because my opponent didn't know how to play the deck very well, and he wanted to see how his friend, who is a better player, played it.

-Duel 1: He had Gale to kill my Rai-Oh so that he could drop his Dark Armed Dragon. Freaking annoying.
-Duel 2: I controlled with Rai-Oh and Infernity Doom Dragon.
-Duel 3: He had Gorz, annoyingly. It was okay, though, because I had gotten him down to 500 LP. I stalled for a while, but near the end of the game, he attacked my Sangan with Gorz, and I searched Battle Fader. He attacked with Mezuki, and I dropped Battle Fader. In his End Phase, I used Crevice into the Different Dimension to remove his Necro Gardna and Plaguespreader Zombie, knowing that attacking over his Mezuki would be my only hope. I drew into Caius, which couldn't remove anything because I had Skill Drain up, but was able to attack over Mezuki for game. I got so lucky, top-decking that Caius, but he had been very luck in every single duel. If he hadn't misplayed so much, he could've won.

Round 4: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was the finals, since there weren't many people. My opponent was the friend of my Round 3 opponent, and I had beaten him twice before in Round 4 of this tournament and this tournament. Again, it was a Round 4.

-Duel 1: I got rid of all of his Gladiator Beasts with Traps and such, which is how I usually win in this match-up. I ended up controlling the game with Brionac.
-Duel 2: He set Morphing Jar on his first turn with one back row. I set Snowman Eater and two back rows. He set three more cards and flipped the Jar on his turn, and he pulled off the Cold Wave/Rescue Cat combo on his next turn. There's no winning against that, especially since after Cold Wave wore off, he summoned Heraklinos with 4 cards in hand...
-Duel 3: I started with Rai-Oh. He set Morphing Jar on his first turn, again. It was obvious, so I set everything except a Genex Controller before attacking it. He ended up using Heavy Storm to clear both of our back rows, and I was able to control him with Monsters. He was able to drop Gorz after a while, but I had Mirror Force, and he had to save his Gorz with Book of Moon. Then, I Tribute Summoned my Gorz to run over his, and I won from there.

So I went 4-0, which meant that I got 1st place! Yay! Since it was such a small tournament, I didn't get much store credit, but I was able to get a Gold Series 3 pack. It was meh, since the Gold Rares were Infernity Archfiend, Enemy Controller, and Thunder King Rai-Oh. I was thinking about switching out my Secret Rare Rai-Ohs for Gold Rare ones, since the Gold ones look really nice. I still have to decide, though.

I was siding Skill Drain, if you didn't notice, and I might want to change the deck a little to accommodate for it better. My Spirit Reapers and Snowman Eaters die to it, but Rai-Oh and Genex Undine don't really mind it. I need to figure that out, since it kind of hurt me more than it helped me today...

Random Stuff #12

Nothing important happened in 5D's Episode 115. There's more duel puzzle stuff. And, for some reason, I thought that the Red Demon's Noodles thing was some fake thing that the 5D's gang made up to get Yeager, but apparently, it's a real brand or something.

Gold Series 3 is out. That means easy access to Blackwing Synchros, Plaguespreader Zombie, Judgment Dragon, and Stardust Dragon. I want to get some Gold Stardust Dragons, since I'd assume that they look pretty cool. Same with Rai-Oh, but that would be kind of a waste, since I have Secret Rare Rai-Ohs...

I'm trying to figure out a deck for locals tomorrow. I wanted to make a fast deck with some sort of draw engine, but then I realized that draw engines aren't all that necessary. I then wanted to make some sort of new Dark Simorgh deck, but there aren't many good Winds, and Dark Simorgh isn't as effective as it was before The Shining Darkness.

So, I'll probably end up going with my Genex deck, since I don't want to play a deck that gets killed by remove from play stuff like D.D. Crow or Dimensional Fissure. I could go with my Infernity deck, but then I would have to actually make it better, and I'm just planning on selling most of the cards in it.

I'm kind of afraid of getting locked down by Royal Oppression or Dimensional Fissure, which can be Main Decked in Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts, respectively. Those are the main cards I'm trying to play around right now, while also trying to make my deck consistent enough to deal with faster decks, like Infernities, X-Sabers, and Dragons. That's a pretty hard goal to accomplish, so I'm still working on that... Genex have the potential for that, though.

I want more Genex support in the TCG. Blastfan may have potential, but it would be a lot better if it had only 1500 ATK, or if Genex Searcher could recruit up to 1600 ATK. Genex aren't going to be broken anytime soon, so why couldn't Konami give them that, at least? Turbine looks interesting though, turning the weak little Genex into 1800 beaters. Doctor also seems interesting, like a Gravekeeper's Descendant for Genex, but a little more restrictive. But, it could be used effectively though Genex Searcher.

I finished Spirit Tracks last week. The boss battle was fun, but the way it was formatted made me not care about my hearts. I had 15, so I didn't really care if Link got hurt just so Zelda could shoot Malladus with the stolen Bow of Light. I probably would still be playing, as I could fight Shadow Link and other bosses in the Take Em All On Challenge thing, but I lent the game to Aki.

Dragunity Aklys

I've been looking through the Dragunities in Dragunity Drive, since I'm not that familiar with the various Dragunities. At first, I thought that Aklys' first effect (When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 "Dragunity" monster from your hand and equip this card to it as an Equip Spell Card.) was pointless.

It's not. Firstly, you can use it to Special Summon high level Dragunities from your hand, like Laevatein, Misteil, or Primus Pilus. But, all of those cards have Optional Trigger Effects that can activate when they're Special Summoned. So, do they get their own effects when Special Summoned with Aklys?

To find the answer, I looked to various effects with similar wording. I looked at Kuraz, Drill Warrior, Gallis, and Hand Destruction, first. Kuraz' Japanese text is different, even though the destroying and drawing are considered to be simultaneous. Drill Warrior and Gallis have the same grammar form as each other, but their effects (Drill Warrior being Special Summoned and retrieving a card; Gallis burning and Special Summoning itself) are not simultaneous.

Hand Destruction has the same wording as Aklys, but there was no ruling on Hand Destruction stating whether or not pitching cards and drawing cards are simultaneous or not. Then, I gave up. But, while looking through the Dragunity Drive deck list, I saw Ruthless Denial. Its effects are considered to happen simultaneously, and it has the same wording as Aklys! I also saw that part of Power Tool Dragon's effect (the adding the randomly selected Equip Spell to your hand and returning the other two to the deck) is considered simultaneous.

This was two days ago. But yesterday, Aki let me know that there are other Dragunities with effects like Aklys, specifically Partisan and Pilum. Pilum had no ruling on it, but Partisan did:

「ドラグニティ－プリムス・ピルス」を特殊召喚した後に、「ドラグニティ－パルチザン」自身を装備する効果処理が続くため、「ドラグニティ－プリム ス・ピルス」の効果を発動する事ができません。

What does that mean? It means that Primus Pilus Misses the Timing if you Special Summon it with Partisan's effect. Since Partisan, Pilum, and Aklys have the exact same wording, it means that that ruling should apply to all of them. That's pretty unfortunate.

That also means that the Japanese text on cards is inconsistent. Well, either that or Konami doesn't want Dragunities to be good...

YCS Chicago

Infernities won. That's good, for me, anyways. There might be a price hike, and that'll help when I'm trying to sell my Infernity cards.

Regardless, here's the list of decks for the Top 32:

Infernity - 5
X-Sabers - 12
Gladiator Beasts - 3
Blackwings - 2
Herald of Perfection - 3 (various builds)
Frogs - 4 (1 was the FTK variant, while the rest were Monarch variants)
Quickdraw Plants - 1
Synchro Cat (with teched Doomcaliber Knights) - 1
Machina Gadgets - 1

And their distribution:

1st: Infernities
2nd: X-Sabers
Top 4: X-Sabers (2)
Top 8: X-Sabers, Gladiator Beasts, Blackwings, Happy Herald
Top 16: Infernities, X-Sabers (4), Gladiator Beasts, Frog Monarchs (2)
Top 32: Infernities (3), X-Sabers (4), Gladiator Beasts, Blackwings, Herald of Perfection (2), Frog FTK, Frog Monarchs, Quickdraw Plants, Synchro Cat, Machina Gadgets

Based on this, we can get a pretty good representation of the current meta in the TCG.

Some people complain that Infernities and X-Sabers are tier 1 and that all of the other decks are below them. Depending on how you look at these results, they can either confirm or reject that argument. Infernities and X-Sabers did take the all of the slots in the Top 4. But, plenty of other decks made it up to the Top 8.

There were an unusually high amount of X-Sabers in the Top 32, though. I've personally never played against X-Sabers, which is bad, since I don't have much experience against them to discuss.

I've seen what they can do, though, which usually revolves around the idea of somehow getting two X-Sabers onto the field (Rescue Cat, Boggart Knight, Fulhelmknight, Pashuul, etc.) so that they can drop XX-Saber Faultroll. They're like the new Lightsworn, since they cost a bunch of money to get and require very little skill to play. The only decisions you have to make are which order to Synchro in, and that's not exactly difficult.

I'll probably continue this discussion in a later post, once I get more experience against X-Sabers, because somehow this post turned into an examination of X-Sabers...

Random Stuff #11

Sadness for various reasons:

No Dragunity Phalanx in the Dragunity Drive Structure Deck. Now Aki and I might not get it. Not to mention the fact that Phalanx costs $15-20.

I wasn't able to go to Regionals or locals today, and I probably won't be able to go to locals tomorrow.

I can't think of a consistent, good, Junk Destroyer-using Quickdraw variant. I like the high Monster count, since it's actually more consistent, but it gets completely killed by Royal Oppression/Dimensional Fissure. Of course, I don't really like too many Spells/Traps because that makes the deck more inconsistent and slower, in some ways.

There are some good things about today, though.

The new Doctor Who is on tonight. It should be interesting, as always.

For the past three days, actually, I've been grinding away at side stuff in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. It's actually worth doing the side stuff in this game, like getting all of the Force Gems, Stamps, and Rabbits. Unlike other LoZ games, they actually get you practical rewards, such as shortcuts, better gear, and new attacks.

I also wasted all of Thursday night to get enough Treasures so that I could get the Dragon Train Set. It's pretty cool, but I don't know how the whistle can attract attention; it just sounds like wheezing. And yesterday, I got all of the Heart Containers except the one in Beedle's shop, since there's nothing worth buying there except the Bomb Bag.

There's World Qualifiers today (well, it's like 2:00 AM in Singapore right now or something like that). Good luck to those of you who are participating. I hope it turns out better than last year...

5D's Episode 114

This episode is actually worth posting about.

So the 5D's gang is annoyed to find out that all of the cup ramen at the market is gone. A thief steals a bunch of cup ramen from an old lady, but then Yeager steals it from the thief. The old lady takes the cup ramen back from Yeager and gives him one, but then he steals two more. The 5D's gang chases after him, and Jack steals the cup ramen from Yeager. Yeager steals two of them back, and runs away. Are the writers trying to promote thievery or something?

Then, we see Yeager giving the ramen to his wife and child, who oddly look exactly like him. It's understandable that the child looks like him, but the wife too?

The 5D's gang comes up with a ploy to capture Yeager by promoting some junk they made up (Red Demon's Noodles). Yeager falls for the trap, but runs away. Yusei conveniently placed a tracking device on him, though, so they are able to find Yeager.

Of course, Crow challenges Yeager to a duel, and Yeager accepts. Yeager starts with four set Traps and a Jester Lord. Crow summons Sirocco, which would drop Jester Lord's ATK to 0, but Yeager conveniently has a Continuous Trap that gives back the lost 4000 ATK. Crow then Special Summons Gale, but Yeager flips Discord.

Crow uses both Gale's and Sirocco's effects, but Yeager flips Tuning Barrier. It prevents a player from attacking if they have a Tuner on the field of in the Graveyard and lasts for three turns, like Discord.

Conveniently, Crow has a new Blackwing, Aurora. It's a Level 10 LIGHT Monster that can be Special Summoned by removing a Blackwing Tuner and non-Tuner. Its Level also becomes equal to the combined Levels of the removed Monsters. The controller can also remove a Blackwing Synchro from their Extra Deck with the same level as Aurora (in this case, 8) to give it ATK equal to the removed Synchro until the player's next turn.

So, Crow attacks Jester Lord with Aurora, and also wastes a Kalut during the attack. He sets a card, the key card for the day, and ends his turn. Yeager's family shows up to throw garbage at Crow. Yeager summons Jester Queen after activating Imperial Custom. Jester Queen destroys all of the controller's Spells/Traps on its summon, but Imperial Custom saves them.

Then, Yeager activates a Continuous Spell that lets his Monsters attack directly if there aren't any weaker Monsters on the opponent's field. Conveniently, Jester Queen can attack once for each Spell/Trap on the controller's field. So, Yeager attacks with Jester Queen (800 ATK) four times.

Crow attempts to finish Yeager, but then Yeager claims that he's fighting to protect his family. Then, Crow purposefully messes up, allowing Yeager to win. But, Yeager then purposefully messes up by destroying the Blackwing - Mine that was revealed by Jester Panic. For some reason, the key card, Blackwing - Mine, was a terrible card that's basically just a Blackwing version of Kozaky's Self-Destruct Button. Because of this, Crow wins. He then agrees to tell the 5D's gang about Yliaster.

That's basically it. Just an episode of thievery and dueling.

Tournament Report 6/12/10

I went to locals today with my Genex Control deck. I actually took out five cards, including the E-Hero "engine." I replaced them with some nice simplification cards, so that I could win off of advantage from the Genex.

By the way, the reason I'm typing this so late is because I was just recording duels with Aki, so expect to see new videos starting tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get one of the cards I wanted for the deck before the tournament. For some reason, the card shop didn't have Level Limit - Area B... But, I will be getting it from one of my friends on Monday, so it's not that bad. It actually wouldn't have helped me at all today.

Round 1: BYE!

I got a bye. Fun fun. I was actually disappointed at first, but the bye gave me the opportunity to survey everybody's decks. There were a good amount of newb decks, a Flamvell Lightsworn deck, a Flamvell Cat deck, an X-Saber deck, two Synchro decks (both running Junk Destroyer), and a surprising amount of Hopeless/Disaster Dragon decks. I'm not familiar with the differences between Hopeless and Disaster Dragon; I just know that Hopeless tries to swarm and OTK, while Disaster likes to control, then swarm and OTK. They seem the same to me...

Round 2: vs Synchro Deck

It was the same guy I dueled in Round 1 last week, and he was using the same deck.

-Duel 1: I Mirror Forced his Junk Warrior and two Giant Germs. Later in the duel, I made the correct read that his set Monster was Marshmallon, and I kept hitting through it for damage with Flamvell Uruquizas.
-Duel 2: I didn't draw enough Monsters and died.
-Duel 3: He didn't draw enough Monsters and died to the Genex.

Round 3: vs Newbie Dragons

I really don't know how he won two rounds. It's probably because there were so many newbs. Either way, I won both rounds.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

-Duel 1: I thought that this guy was playing the D.D. deck that I usually saw him play. So, I played more conservatively in the beginning. When he dropped Yaichi, Grandmaster, Shien, I Caius'd away his Grandmaster, attacked over Yaichi, and killed Shien with Smashing Ground. I won from there.
-Duel 2: I chained the lone Dust Tornado on my field to an attack so that I could drop Gorz. Then, I Caius'd away his Irou, which was equipped with Spirit, and attacked over Shien with Gorz. He was under Reckless Greed, so he couldn't make a comeback. I made it even worse for him when I used Spiritual Water Art - Aoi to see his hand. I didn't need to use Aoi, but it helped me confirm my victory. A side note: I would have taken out Aoi for Area B, so since I only drew Aoi this one time today, Area B would have been less useful.

Round 5: vs Hopeless Dragon

I don't think that it was Disaster Dragon, since it didn't use Stardust Dragon or Genesis Dragon. It was one of those decks with the Cards of Consonance/Trade-In/Super Rejuvenation crazy draw engine. By the way, we agreed to a split.

-Duel 1: Him going first prevented me from locking him down with Rai-Oh. Prime Material Dragon really messed me up, and I was only able to survive because I had searched Spirit Reaper with Sangan. He OTK'd me as soon as he could get Spirit Reaper off of the field.
-Duel 2: He used Card Destruction on my decent hand, making me draw a lackluster hand. It also fed into all of his card-drawing shenanigans. I was still able to survive for quite a while, and I stole his Totem Dragon with Goyo Guardian. He kept trying to get it back by killing it, but I kept drawing Traps. He used Brain Control so that he could sacrifice Goyo Guardian for Prime Material Dragon, but I had Karma Cut. He attacked with Masked Dragon, but I had Dimensional Prison. He tried to Heavy Storm, but I had Starlight Road. Then, he summoned Red-Eyes Wyvern, but I had Bottomless Trap Hole. But, without a Treeborn Frog in sight, I wasn't able to stand up to his Light and Darkness Dragons.

So, I went 4-1 (if you count the bye) and got 3rd place. Because of the split I agreed to, I was able to get two (Junk Destroyer) Starter Deck: Duelist Toolboxes. I'm planning on running a Quickdraw deck at Regionals next weekend, but I can always fall back on my Genex deck.

Random Stuff #10

I was trying to watch the new Mythbusters, but my TV was being jacked up. Apparently I don't get Discovery Channel anymore. It's okay, though, since some of the TV's in my house have digital cable.

So, 5D's Episode 113 was meh. I thought that the whole Burning Soul thing was cheesy, especially how they portrayed it. It's Jack's new power, which is the parallel to Yusei's Clear Mind. And now, Jack broke the rules of Synchros, which was that they only used one Tuner. Now, Jack has his "Double Tuning," where he's required to use two Tuners. Before you say that XX-Saber Gottoms did that first, it's not the same. Gottoms doesn't require two Tuners, he just allows it.

I posted a deck profile on my current deck, Genex Control, to make up for the lack of videos, in a way. I'm still trying to find ways to improve it, even if I have to revamp it to a great extent. I'm sure that I'll figure something out in time for the next Regional, which for me is in two weeks.

I got BassGS in Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge. But, for some reason, I'm still playing. It's like I'm already done with the game, but I still want to keep playing. I'm not going to obsess over getting all of the Chips or anything, but I have the urge to play for some reason. It's strange...

Fortunately, I was able to sell a couple cards to make some money so that I can actually spend a little on cards. I might just go get Junk Destroyer Starter Decks. Actually, some kid at locals was playing Genex Quickdraw. He didn't do very well, but it's an interesting idea.

And, to end with something insignificant, the channel layout for YouTube changed ever so slightly, messing up my color scheme. So, I had to change it to make it look at least a little better. What's more annoying is that the color palette that they provide is limited, and I was too lazy to look up the hex codes for the colors I wanted. If anything good came of it, it's that the color for the links is quite nice, actually.

Infernities

They're the new top deck in the TCG. Well, that's what people say.

Yes, they can drop four Synchros in one turn to OTK you. But, there are actually ways to stop the OTK. Think about it. Before the last ban list, Zombie Synchro would drop a bunch of Synchros and OTK you even if you happened to have D.D. Crow. In perspective, it's not all that bad nowadays.

You should all know how to stop an Infernity OTK. Crevice into the Different Dimension, D.D. Crow, The Transmigration Prophecy, Gorz, Tragoedia, Battle Fader, and even Dragon Ice can help.

The problem is the fact that if the Infernity OTK fails, they'll have two Infernity Judgments (Barriers) down to negate your come back. But, you can get around them. Your opponent has to have an Attack Position Infernity Monster and be handless to use it. That means that Book of Moon and Enemy Controller can be used to turn off or waste your opponent's Infernity Barriers.

I haven't played against Infernities much, but I have built an Infernity deck and tried it out. I really don't like playing Infernities, because they're just too easy to side against. But, I can see the weaknesses of the deck, and if you can exploit those weaknesses, you shouldn't have that much of a problem against Infernities.

Oh yeah, start siding Lightning Vortex again. It helps against Frogs and X-Sabers, too.

Tournament Report 6/5/10

Like I said in yesterday's post, I went with a control-based Genex deck. It mained Rai-Ohs and other controlling stuff, like Smashing Ground. I have to admit, I thought that triple Smashing Ground was overrated, but it's actually quite useful.

For some reason, a lot of people were playing Gladiator Beasts. There was only one guy with X-Sabers and no Infernities.

Round 1: vs Synchro Deck

-Duel 1: I got killed by Gorz.
-Duel 2: I sided in Royal Oppressions and D.D. Crows, but they didn't appear. I still won, though.
-Duel 3: It was almost time, so I kept poking for damage so that I wouldn't lose in time. It seemed as though he drew badly, and I ended up killing him when he ran into my Starlight Road.

Round 2: vs Machina Gadgets

-Duel 1: Gadgets get too many pluses...
-Duel 2: I had both of the Legendary Jujitsu Masters that I sided in. I also drew both Cyber Dragons, but I Chimeratech Fortress Dragon'ed off of his Cyber Dragon, using Genex Controller. When he finally drew a Gadget, I negated its summon with Solemn Judgment.
-Duel 3: He kept drawing everything he needed. He even had Oppression to stop me from making a comeback, and I drew Gorz one turn too late.

Round 3: vs Newbie Deck

I won both duels...

Round 4: vs Gladiator Beasts

-Duel 1: First turn Snowman Eater is too good. Then, I dropped Rai-Oh and kept reviving Dragon Ice to mess with him. He also drew his Chariot too late.

After he lost the first duel, my opponent gave me the match.

Round 5: vs Frog Monarchs

I had mixed feelings about this deck. It can draw dead, but when it draws well, there's no stopping it from winning.

-Duel 1: I started with Genex Undine, dumping E-Hero Bubbleman. Yes, Bubbleman. It's my one teched E-Hero for my one teched Miracle Fusion, which was conveniently in my hand. Next turn, I used it for Absolute Zero, and dropped Rai-Oh to prevent any Dupe Frog searching. His set Monster wasn't Dupe Frog, it was Ronintoadin, but it didn't stop me from attacking over it with Absolute Zero. However, he drew Treacherous Trap Hole to clear my two Monsters next turn. Closer to the end of the duel, he had regained control. But, when he Special Summoned Ronintoadin in Main Phase 2, I revived Dragon Ice. On my turn, I topped Genex Controller, which I tuned to my Treeborn Frog and Dragon Ice for Mist Wurm! I somehow won Game 1 against Frogs.
-Duel 2: I Creviced his two Treeborn Frogs, but it was too late, since he had already dumped all of his Frogs into the Graveyard for Ronintoadin. I also noted that he Special Summoned his Swap Frogs more often than he Normal Summoned them. I should start siding Swallow Flip for this match-up...
-Duel 3: He had Treacherous Trap Hole, again, but didn't have any Monarchs for a while, so he locked me with triple Dupe Frog. Fortunately for me, when he did summon a Monarch, it was Thestalos, which discarded my Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World! I was able to clear away all of his Dupe Frogs, and set up for an OTK next turn. Unfortunately, he had Gorz, which stopped my OTK. I tuned for Colossal Fighter in Main Phase 2, but he Brain Controlled it and tributed it for Caius. He won from there.

Unfortunately, I ended up with a 3-2 record, which means that I didn't win any store credit. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to fix up my deck and try again next weekend.

I mainly need to work on the Machina Gadget match-up, Frog match-up, and probably the Infernity match-up. I think that Consecrated Light is overrated, since Infernity players can easily deal with it with Fissure, Raigeki Break, or Book of Moon, and Blackwing players have Icarus Attack, and are starting to play Legendary Jujitsu Master and Ryko. Eh, I'm sure I'll figure out something...

Random Stuff #9

I haven't had the time this week to post, so I'm posting now.

For 5D's Episode 112, they waste half of the episode with Jack chasing the Crimson Devil or whatever. Then, Jack finally duels Synchro Fusionis--I mean, the Crimson Devil's "Familiar." It conveniently uses burn, which Jack gets owned by. But, based on some of the cards from Starstrike Blast, Jack will make up some new Red Dragon Archfiend-based cards to summon his Scar-Red Nova Dragon.

Anyways, I'm going to locals tomorrow. I'm short on money, so I'm just going to duel with a deck I have to win store credit so that I can buy a new Starter Deck, the Duelist Toolbox, as it's called...

So, I'll be taking a control-based Genex deck. Speaking of Genex, I found a lot of successful decks that used Genex Undine/Controller in the past on Shriek. That was like two years ago, but it's still nice to see Genex doing well. I was thinking about using something like some of the builds I saw, but with D.D. Crow running around, Treeborn Frog isn't the best card to rely on...

Well, Aki has been very busy lately, so we haven't been able to take videos. I've got a new deck I want to feature, since some people have been requesting it for some reason. The Infernity loops are more interesting than some other stuff, but they're not the first thing I would choose to watch.

Moreover, I'm going to try and sell all of my Infernity cards soon, since I don't really like the deck, and it's way too easy to side against. Besides, I kind of need the money for Gold Series 3. I want the Blackwing Synchros and some of the other nice Gold cards, but I'll probably just buy singles. A few of the Commons are nice, though.

So, with Infernity/Frog craziness occurring, it's not the best time to be playing decks that can be wrecked by D.D. Crow. Maybe that's why Machina Gadgets are doing so well; you can't chain D.D. Crow to Machina Fortress' revival, since it's an inherent Special Summon. That means that you would have to -1 yourself preemptively if you want to use D.D. Crow.

I'm not sure what else to talk about, so I think I'll just go and sleep...

Teaching Strategy

You're walking along, and you see two children playing a children's card game on the street. One of them sets a bunch of their cards face-down. You see that the other has a card in his hand that you know all too well: Heavy Storm.

What do you say? "Hey, kid, don't sell all of your Spells and Traps with no protection."

"But what if they're chainable?"

"Then don't set too many cards that aren't chainable."

"How many is too many?"

"The amount of Spells/Traps your opponent has plus one, minus the amount of chainables you have."

"But what if I do have protection?"

"Then make sure that the cards you set are worth protecting."

"How do I know if they're worth protecting?"

You run into trouble with that question. How are you supposed to define such a relative criterion like that? It's worth protecting all of your back rows from an Infernity player's Giant Trunade, but is it worth that much against a Gadget player's Heavy Storm?

This is actually a pretty simple example. What would you say when someone asks you to explain how to Side Deck or which Level 8 Synchro Monster they should play against their opponent's Shura and three back rows?

Basically, you can't teach someone something as complicated as strategy, even if it is for a children's card game. Strategy in general is basically something that can only be learned. To pick it up, you need to watch people who know what they're doing and try to understand the reasoning behind their plays.