Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tournament Report 3/27/11

Yay, two tournaments in one weekend. Same deck, of course.

JC and his weird friend were there, not that most of you care.

Round 1: vs X-Sabers

-Duel 1: I opened with Mind Control and Scrap Goblin, so I was going to wait until he played a Monster to steal it for a Synchro. After a few turns of draw-pass-draw-pass, I stole his XX-Saber Darksoul and Synchro Summoned Naturia Barkion, which got Warned. After that, more draw-pass-draw-pass. He used Giant Trunade to swarm, and I countered with Scrap Dragons. Over a few turns, I ground down his resources and won.
-Duel 2: Same as the first duel for the first part of the game. Then, when he was preparing to swarm, I calculated his next move and dropped a second Scrap Dragon. He only had enough cards to bounce one with Brionac, so he was stuck making a subpar XX-Saber Gottoms play, which I picked apart on my next turn.

Round 2: vs Salvo Chaos

-Duel 1: He drew really well, and I didn't. However, his deck was too slow to keep up with my Scraps, once I started making my plays.
-Duel 2: He drew fairly decently, but Crevice Into the Different Dimension removed both of his Darks, crippling the Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon that were in his hand. I beat him down with Scrap Twin Dragon over a few turns.

Round 3: vs Hero Beat

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I gained advantage on him with Scrapstorm and Scrap Chimera, removing his Monsters with Traps and such. Worm Xex and Yagan were also quite helpful.
-Duel 2: Same deal, basically. I also opened with both Mystical Space Typhoons, and he drew pretty badly.

Before the next round, I agreed to a four-way split with the other three undefeated players (okay, there were five undefeated total, but we knew that the one who got paired down would lose, so we were mean enough to exclude him).

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I started with a Set Worm Yagan and some Set back rows. On his second turn, he ran Shi En into my Worm Yagan, even though he kind of expected it. I won the game off of that momentum and another Yagan, courtesy of Worm Xex.
-Duel 2: He started with Naturia Barkion and back rows. I Normal Summoned Worm Xex, but he negated its summon with Warning. That's right, people are starting to use Solemn Warning on Worms. More on that in another post. Either way, I killed the Barkion with Smashing Ground, then revived it later with Monster Reborn. He kept drawing Traps, so he couldn't get around it, and I was able to win with it.

Round 5: vs Disaster Dragon

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first and opened with Future Fusion. He swarmed to kill me.
-Duel 2: I controlled the duel with Naturia Barkion, and he couldn't get through it.
-Duel 3: The duel was very back and forth. I was able to waste most of his resources and peck away at his LP with Scrap Beast. I negated the summon of his last hope, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, with Solemn Judgment and topped Scrap Chimera to go for game.

So yeah, I went undefeated, making up for yesterday. Now I can say that I've won a tournament every weekend this month, yay!

As the prize, I got 3/10 of a box of STOR Special Edition. That amounted to nine packs of STOR, two Light and Darkness Dragons, and one Hand of the Six Samurai. From the packs, notable pulls include Gleipnir, the Fetters or Fenrir and Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts.

Those were notable because I'm actually thinking about making a Nordic deck for fun. It seems like it could be really interesting. The only problem is the mass amount of Setting and reactive plays that the deck needs to work. It could still be a neat deck to try out, and aside from Vanadis, which is unnecessary, the deck is relatively inexpensive. I just need two more Tanngnjostr (black goat), two more Gleipnir, and a Thor.

So yeah, now I have a new deck to try and build. I don't like how combo-based it seems to be, but it could end up being competitive, if something bad happens to Scraps or something.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Tournament Report 3/26/11

So, I ended up going to locals with my Scrap Worms deck. A bunch of my friends were there, including vadangchoinga (who needs to upload videos more often) and Katana.

Um, not much else to say. The amount of people there was the usual. I only saw one person playing Fish OTK.

Round 1: vs Machina Returner

-Duel 1: He opened with Machina Gearframe, which he Unioned to the Machina Fortress he Special Summoned. He then Set some back rows and ended. I dropped Cyber Dragon, and it died to Bottomless Trap Hole. I dropped the second one and fused for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. I was able to win from there without using any Worms. Conversely, I didn't see his Jinzo (Returner)s, so I didn't side for that.
-Duel 2: I keep control with Scraps and such. He did draw Future Fusion for double Jinzo, but it was too late. My victory was already set.

Round 2: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew really well, and I didn't. It might have ended differently if he had hit different cards with his Gyzarus, since he blindly hit both of the back rows that I needed to keep for later.
-Duel 2: He locked me down with Dimensional Fissure, and was drawing really well again. But I ran him out of Monsters and beat him down with Worm Xex to win.
-Duel 3: He started with Retiari and five back rows. I Set Ryko and a back row. He attacked, and I flipped Malevolent Catastrophe. He rage quit after that.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This guy wasn't very good...

-Duel 1: I think that I used Worm Yagan on his Shi En and proceeded to win.
-Duel 2: He started with Gateway, but I had double Effect Veiler, so I wasn't too worried. Unfortunately, he Normal Summoned Kizan. I couldn't get rid of the Gateway in the next turn, so he got a bunch of pluses off of it. However, I was able to stall behind a Scrap Goblin, then pick apart his field with a Mind Control into Scrap Dragon. I used both of my Effect Veilers on the Kagekis he summoned over the next two turns, and after I let him summon Shi En, I stole it with Puppet Plant to go for game.

Round 4: vs Twilight

I've seen this guy a lot at locals and bigger events, but I think that this is the first time I've played him.

-Duel 1: After having a D.D. Crow to stop my Scrap Chimera, he drops Judgment Dragon early game. I couldn't deal with it, so I died.
-Duel 2: Same deal, except that I could deal with the Judgment Dragon. He had milled two Garoth, so I used Cyber Dragon and Scrap Goblin to Synchro into Colossal Fighter. He tried to use D.D. Crow on his own Garoth, which he didn't know he couldn't do, letting me know he had the Crow. So I attacked the Judgment Dragon, then the Wulf he got for free the previous turn. He dropped Chaos Sorcerer, and I put the Effect Veiler I had recently drawn to good use. However, he milled Plaguespreader Zombie soon after, giving him his third Dark. I lost to Dark Armed Dragon, which was horrible.

Round 5: vs Blackwings

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Royal Oppression and Black Whirlwind. Seriously...? He then drew into Blizzard and Dark Armed to kill me.
-Duel 2: I opened with Cyber Dragon, Worm Xex, Worm Xex, Worm Yagan, and Worm Xex. Seriously........? However, my sixth card was Giant Trunade, which was okay. I made the obvious Worm Xex play and ended my turn. He summoned Shura, Set a bunch of back rows, and ended his turn. I flipped Worm Yagan to force the Icarus Attack, but he didn't have it. I then played Giant Trunade and Normal Summoned the Scrap Beast I had just drawn. I attacked with everything, then Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon. I was somehow able to win, getting a total of a plus-3 off of two Worm Yagans, one of which I used Book of Moon on after Flip Summoning to reset it.
-Duel 3: He started with a Set Gravekeeper's Spy and one back row. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon. He flipped Royal Oppression, again (he did have it in the second duel, but I think that I got rid of it somehow), and I was forced to use my Mystical Space Typhoon. I attacked and he Special Summoned another Gravekeeper's Spy. The rest that I remember is him playing Black Whirlwind, summoning Bora to search Gale, then drawing into two Blizzards to kill me.

So I went 3-2, which was disappointing. My deck is supposed to have a really good match-up against Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts (my last opponent even admitted that he thought that he would auto-lose against me), but I can't do much when my opponents draw really well all the time.

By the way, the Fish OTK guy won, so I might have to watch out for that more. I was siding Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush, so I think that I would've been okay.

Anyway, I might end up going to locals tomorrow as well. I'll have to see what happens.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Crazy Side Decking Idea

So I was just talking to my friend who has no idea about Yu-Gi-Oh about how annoying the meta will be with Empty Jar and Fish OTK everywhere.

During that chat, I decided that since my deck has a good match-up against everything except Empty Jar, Fish OTK, and Gravekeeper's, I could Main Deck the Side Decked hate against my good match-ups, then use my Side Deck almost exclusively for Empty Jar and Fish OTK.

What would that mean? My Side Deck might look something like this:

Effect Veiler x2
D.D. Crow x2
Extra Veiler x2
Banisher of the Radiance x2
Nobleman of Crossout
Mind Crush
Trap Dustshoot
Crevice Into the Different Dimension x2
Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror x2

The Shadow-Imprisoning is for Gravekeeper's, obviously. With this, I could Side Deck like ten cards against Empty Jar and Fish OTK, ensuring that I don't lose to them.

Of course, the usual Dimensional Prisons and Dust Tornadoes would be moved to the Main Deck. The only problem with this is the lack of space. But, if I could make it work, this would be awesome.

I'm going to try a less extreme version of this idea this weekend, and see if it's worth it. If people don't really catch on to the Empty Jar and Fish OTK decks, then I won't have to worry.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

YCS Charlotte

The distribution for the Top 32 was as follows:

9 - Gravekeeper's
4 - Six Samurai
4 - Hero Beat
3 - Fish OTK
2 - X-Sabers
2 - (Chaos) Plant Synchro
2 - Dragunities
1 - Karakuri Machina Plants
1 - Flamvellsworn
1 - Empty Jar
1 - Stun ("Anti-Monster")
1 - Blackwings
1 - Frog Monarchs

From there, the Top 16 turned out to be:

4 - Gravekeeper's
2 - Six Samurai
2 - Fish OTK
2 - X-Sabers
1 - Hero Beat
1 - Chaos Plant Synchro
1 - Dragunities
1 - Karakuri Machina Plants
1 - Flamvellsworn
1 - Empty Jar

And the Top 8:

2 - Six Samurai
2 - Fish OTK
1 - Gravekeeper's
1 - X-Sabers
1 - Flamvellsworn
1 - Empty Jar

The Top 4 consisted of Six Samurai, Fish OTK, X-Sabers, and Empty Jar. And we should all know what happened from there. Six Samurai beat Empty Jar, then proceeded to beat Fish OTK in the finals.

So, Gravekeeper's had a notable plurality in the Top 32 (that means it had the most spots compared to each other deck, but didn't have a majority (50%+)). However, five Gravekeeper's decks were lost from the Top 32 to the Top 16, and three were lost between the Top 16 and the Top 8. The last Gravekeeper's deck went on to lose in the Top 8 to Six Samurai. Hopefully this means that more people will play Six Samurai, which would cause less people to play Gravekeeper's. I really don't want to go up against Gravekeeper's and lose to a first turn Royal Tribute.

Also notable is that a decent amount of random OTK-centric decks made the Top 32. Empty Jar, Karakuri Machina Plants, and three Fish OTK decks were there, and four of them made it to the Top 16, three of them to the Top 8, two to the Top 4, and one in the finals. From what I've seen, those decks aren't any more consistent than builds I have previously seen, which means that they probably got lucky and/or their opponents weren't prepared for them. Basically one Effect Veiler shuts them down, and that's even if they get their OTK off. The exception is the Empty Jar deck, since they can Chain Book of Moon/Eclipse to stop your Effect Veiler. In that case, D.D. Crow can stop their Magical Stone Excavation/A Feather of the Phoenix.

Unfortunately, these tops by random OTK-centric decks may encourage people to basically copy these decks in an attempt to get (easy) wins. Oh well, it's better than playing against Gravekeeper's.

The diversity of the format is nice to see, but some of the decks that are emerging worry me. I guess I have two weeks to deal with it before I go to YCS Anaheim. I'm hoping to at least Top 32 with my Scrap Worms deck and stuff. So yeah.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Hanewata of the Future

Remember that format nine months ago? Remember getting FTK'd by Frogs?

Did you hate that feeling so much that you had Hanewata in your Side Deck?

Well, you might have to re-live that with Fish OTK using the Armory Arm-Colossal Fighter OTK.

But why use Hanewata? Now, we have the awesome power of Extra Veiler!

Not only does Extra Veiler Special Summon itself, providing you with a meatshield, but it reflects all of the burn damage that your opponent's Armory Arms would deal to you!

...

Seriously, Extra Veiler might actually be useful against Fish OTK, if it starts to get out of hand. This is seriously ironic, since Extra Veiler is the first card in Starstrike Blast that I made fun of for being useless. I never thought that this day would come...

So yeah, I'll be sure to look more into the Top 32 when the deck lists are revealed. From the looks of it, this format should prove to be very interesting. Well, at least until May...

Friday, March 18, 2011

Tournament Report 3/18/11

I went to the smaller card shop that has those Xbox tournaments. I went with Katana, and I took my Scrap Worms deck, as usual.

There were only ten people there, but it was still enough for four rounds.

Round 1: vs Six Samurai

I had to play against Katana, sadly.

-Duel 1: I destroy him somehow.
-Duel 2: I couldn't get rid of his Dimensional Fissure at all. I didn't draw any Spell/Trap removal for some reason.
-Duel 3: I beat him down with Scraps and such. I didn't even draw my Side Decked cards...

Round 2: vs Newbie E-Heroes

He didn't even have Gaia or The Shining, so I won.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This guy wasn't very good and misplayed a lot. However, his luck carried him through the tournament, essentially.

-Duel 1: He goes first and opens with Gateway, Six Samurai United, and Temple of the Six. He makes a huge misplay by summoning before activating any of those cards, but he still won anyway, since he had them all.
-Duel 2: I drop both of my Naturia Synchros on him on my second turn, and he couldn't retaliate.
-Duel 3: He opened with Gateway, again... However, he didn't have a way to get rid of my Scrap Dragon, as he had clogged his field with five Monsters. When I summoned a Scrap Chimera, he Chained Torrential Tribute to its effect for some reason, letting me revive Scrap Beast with Chimera, and that Chimera with the Scrap Dragon that was destroyed. I destroyed his Gateway and proceeded to win from there.

Round 4: vs Dragunities

This guy was running a Dragunity variant with Blackwings, specifically Blizzard and Shura. I guess it makes Icarus Attack more viable.

-Duel 1: I opened with Scrap Golem and two Scrap Chimeras. As soon as a drew a Scrap Beast, I pulled off all of these Scrap shenanigans on him, and he couldn't keep up.
-Duel 2: I opened with Crevice Into the Different Dimension, removing both of his Phalanx. My hand wasn't really much beyond that, so I just stalled for a while until I drew Scrap Chimera. In the mean time, I stopped his Pot of Avarice with another Crevice, this time removing Aklys and Legionnaire. Once I had established a field with Scrap Dragon, he activated Dragon Ravine, and discarded his other Aklys to get Legionnaire. That was his last card, so I showed him my Set Solemn Warning, and he scooped.

So yeah, I went undefeated again, getting 1st place. As a prize, I got four packs of Turbo Pack 2, in addition to the one I got for participating. I pulled a Super Rare Beckoning Light and the Ultra Rare Chaos Sorcerer. The tournament organizer offered to buy the Chaos Sorcerer for a generous price, which I accepted.

Unfortunately, Katana didn't do so well, going 2-2. He's getting better, though.

So yeah, all in all, a pretty good tournament.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dimensional Prison

It's a good card overall. Protects you from attacks, removes your opponent's stuff from play, doesn't destroy, bla bla.

It even seems to be quite popular in the OCG as a Side Deck card in Vayu Turbo (Graveyard BF) and other decks (which I'm too lazy to look up at the moment). It's easy to see why. Remove pesky Gravekeeper's from play, remove Blackwings from play, remove Neos Alius from play, remove Machina Fortress from play. All-around, really good.

In the TCG, though, it might not be as viable. Gravekeeper's Descendant keeps advantage when tributing Gravekeeper's Recruiter, and Trap Stun is much more popular here, thanks to X-Sabers.

Even, so I'm considering using it in my Main Deck, or at least my Side Deck. Smashing Ground is still good (and still Duel Terminal Rare), but Dimensional Prison removes the Monster from play, which is vital against Gravekeeper's, X-Sabers, Machina Fortress, and Blackwings (to some extent).

However, it's difficult to find room for Dimensional Prison in the Main Deck. Forbidden Chalice allows me to keep that Veiler-like effect while also giving me a viable card against Stun decks. Bottomless Trap Hole is essentially better than Dimensional Prison, because it provides outs to Brionac, Caius, Scrap Dragon, and Breaker the Magical Warrior, which would all cause problems for Dimensional Prison.

That would lead me to use Dimensional Prison in the Side Deck. If that happens, it would most likely take the spot of Smashing Ground. While it's better in the match-ups I described two paragraphs prior, Smashing Ground can be better in other match-ups. Smashing Ground helps much more against X-Sabers, who use Trap Stun, Frog Monarchs, who get rid of your back rows without attacking, and Gladiator Beasts, who also use Trap Stun. Smashing Ground also gets rid of a Defense Position Spirit Reaper or a Judgment Dragon more easily, not that I have to worry as much about those, seeing as how I play Scraps.

If anything, I would move Smashing Grounds to the Main Deck and fill the spots they left in the Side Deck with Dimensional Prisons. It would help against the dreaded Gravekeeper's match-up and stuff, but I'm basically fine against every other match-up.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Tournament Report 3/13/11

I went to locals again with my Scrap Worms deck.

I pulled some cards from the Duel Terminals before the tournament and got The Fabled Unicore, which is cool.

Round 1: vs Newbie Deck

I won...

Round 2: vs Disaster Dragon

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I beat him down with Scrap Dragons.
-Duel 2: I Creviced his two Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons after he used Future Fusion, then beat him down with Scrap Twin Dragons.

Round 3: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 1 opponent from last week. He was pretty annoying and got mad really easily, so I acted pretty coldly towards him, not that you care.

-Duel 1: I start with Scrap Chimera and five back rows. Most of them were bluffs, but I didn't want him seeing my hand with Royal Tribute. I basically controlled the game from there, since I was able to get rid of the few Monsters he drew.
-Duel 2: I was able to get his Necrovalley off of the field, so I could double Scrap Dragon him using Scrap Chimera and such.

Round 4: vs Hero Beat

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I didn't let him get his Neos Alius, using Chalice on his Stratos. He didn't have many Monsters, and I was able to get rid of them easily enough. After a while, I played Giant Truande to clear the way for a Scrap Chimera, and won the game from there.
-Duel 2: For most of the duel, neither of us had playable Monsters, so it was basically draw-pass-draw-pass for a while. When he attempted to attack with Spirit Reaper, I flipped Scapegoat to block. I had to draw and pass, and he killed another Token. I drew Scrap Chimera and attacked the Spirit Reaper for damage. He switched it to Defense Position, and I ended up drawing Scrap Beast. I played Giant Trunade, again, allowing me to safely Synchro Summon Naturia Barkion. I attacked with it and Scrap Chimera after using Smashing Ground on his Spirit Reaper. I Set back rows and ended. He tried to summon Neos Alius, but I negated it with Solemn Judgment. He used Miracle Fusion for The Shining, but I flipped Bottomless Trap Hole. He ended up Setting a few back rows, but I just summoned Worm Yagan and pushed for game.

At this point, I was one of the last three undefeated players. So I agreed to a three-way split with the other two. We still played to see who the shop would recognize as the winner for that tournament.

Round 5: vs Machina Gadgets

-Duel 1: We agreed to play with our hands face-up and Convulsion of Nature-style. I saw he had nothing, so I set up my Golem-Goblin loop and won with that.
-Duel 2: We played normally this time, but agreed not to Side Deck. He took control early on, and I attempted to make a comeback with Scrap Golem, but he had one too many back rows, and I lost my Scrap Golem to a Dimensional Prison. He beat me down with Machina Fortress and Rai-Oh after that.
-Duel 3: I won with the Golem-Goblin loop again.
-Duel 4: We played another game for fun. I won with the Golem-Goblin loop, again. During one of the duels, I remember forcing him to use his Set back row with Mystical Space Typhoon because I wanted to protect my Scapegoat. So he attacked with one of his three Machines, I flipped the MST, he Chained the Limiter Removal I targeted, and I flipped Scapegoat. He minused like crazy, especially since one of his Monsters was Machina Fortress. The reason he flipped Limiter Removal was because he would've had game if I didn't have Scapegoat.

Round 6: vs Machina Gadgets

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew four Gadgets, so I was able to beat him down with Scraps and such.
-Duel 2: He drew three Gadgets, but that didn't stop him from winning with Machina Fortress and such.
-Duel 3: I beat him down with two Worm Xex and Scrap Chimera (I hadn't drawn any Tuners).

So yeah, I ended up going undefeated and getting 1st place again. So, I got the Storm of Ragnarok booster box and split it with my two previous opponents as agreed. My Round 6 opponent pulled a Legendary Six Samurai - Kizan, so that was cool. I pulled a Ghost Rare Odin, an Ultra Rare Atomic Scrap Dragon, and a D.D. Sprit. So it wasn't that good, but it wasn't terrible. Notable Rares include a Doppelwarrior and a Musakani Magatama.

So yeah, once again, this was a pretty good day at locals.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Dragunity Legion

...is now out in the TCG. That means that we can now use the largely unsuccessful Dragunity builds that have been seen in the OCG and such. Honestly, they're nothing special.

Dragunities, as they're played with Dragon Ravine, are basically a much more focused Junk and Debris deck. Yes, they have access to Level 8's in addition to the usual Level 5's and 6's, but that's not a huge advantage.

Like Junk and Debris, Dragunities rely entirely on their Normal Summon. If you disrupt that, their turn is over. Seriously, just flip Bottomless Trap Hole on their Dux, and they can't do much else but end their turn.

Also note the reliance on Dragon Ravine. It doesn't provide any advantage by itself; it simply changes cards in your hand into Dragunity Winged Beasts. That's good for the theme, but it means that the Dragunity player would run out of cards very quickly. You've seen duels on my channel with the Dragon Ravine-version of Dragunities featured. Within a few turns, the Dragunity player only has a couple of cards left. At that point, if they still have the Ravine out, then they're okay.

But if the Ravine is destroyed, then the Dragunity player is most likely going to be sitting there with a couple of incoherent cards. Really, destroying Dragon Ravine is all you have to do to beat Dragunities.

There's also the reliance on the Graveyard, but I doubt that I have to go into that.

Because Dragunities have a wide variety of weaknesses that you can exploit, you can choose from a wide variety of cards to Side Deck against them. (Bottomless) Trap Hole effectively stops their Normal Summon, Dust Tornado deals with Dragon Ravine, and Crevice Into the Different Dimension removes their Dragons.

If you really know what you're doing, then you can simply change your play style to deal with them. All you have to do is conserve your cards while they run out of theirs. As stated before, Dragon Ravine takes a lot out of their hand, so you can just wait while their hand crumbles.

Just as you would play around Icarus Attack, you could also play around the Legionnaire-Aklys combo. Don't leave too many cards on the field unless you can stop the combo (which is fairly easy) or have no face-up Monsters. Since they will only be dropping one Synchro at a time, just use enough cards to deal with those Synchros as necessary.

One last thing: try not to get Trident Dragion OTK'd. Unlike other OTK's, you should be able to avoid this one even if they have Giant Trunade. So yeah, that's the only real threat that the deck can pull out.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Random Stuff #26

Apparently, Phantom Skyblaster is being used in some sort of Nordic deck. This is apparently the reason why it cost so much at the flea market last Saturday. It makes absolutely no sense, but I was still able to find reasonable prices. If Tokens can be used in Exceed Summons, then it definitely will be worth what I paid. If not, then I can find another use for it.

I've been thinking about some sort of Chaos Hero variant. Prisma is a pretty convenient Light that can dump Dark Fusion Materials, like Destiny Hero - Plasma, Neo-Spacian Dark Panther, or Spirit Reaper. Using E-Heroes also gives access to the awesome control card in Super Polymerization. At the moment, it's just a vague idea, so I'll have to see where it goes.

Well, this format isn't as X-Saber/Trap Stun-heavy as I thought, at least not yet. I'm still going to assume that X-Sabers will be defined as a top deck in the TCG once again at the next YCS. If not, then good; less Trap Stuns to deal with. Actually, it does seem as though X-Sabers might still have a problem with Gravekeeper's, since Trap Stun doesn't shut off Necrovalley. There's also the fact that Royal Tribute kills them, no matter what hand they draw.

It is my opinion that that Karakuri OTK deck ("Karakuri Machina Plants" or whatever) is being hyped, at least in the TCG. Unfortunately, when Karakuri Komachi/Beauty/whatever mdl 224 "Ninishi" comes out in Extreme Victory, the deck may begin to pose something of a threat. Same with Junk Doppel when Tech Genus Hyper Librarian is released.

Speaking of Tech Genus, I saw some videos of a Tech Genus deck against a Six Samurai deck and an Agent Fairies deck on cardacademy's channel. It actually won matches against both decks. Notably, the Tech Genus player was only using the three better Tech Genus Monsters in his deck, Striker, Werewolf, and Rush Rhino. If he draws one but needs another, he could just let it die to search the one he wants. Amazing. I might consider looking into a Tech Genus deck when Extreme Victory is released.

Also, I probably won't be uploading videos regularly this week, and maybe not next week either. Aki was busy last weekend, and I might be busy this weekend, so I could run out of videos soon. Anyways, I'm sure that you can survive for a couple weeks...

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Tournament Report 3/5/11

So, I went to the first tournament of the format with my Scrap Worms deck. All I had to do was drop Book of Moon and Goyo Guardian, but I made a few more changes, finding room for two Forbidden Chalice.

But, before that, I went with Katana and Sick Penguin to go buy some cards at a flea market. I got an Ultimate Rare Black Rose Dragon and three Phantom Skyblasters (Exceed hype!). I also got a second Scrap Twin Dragon for my deck, since XX-Saber Gottoms hasn't been doing anything lately. Afterwards, we all went to locals.

Round 1: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

-Duel 1: I lost to Royal Tribute, again.
-Duel 2: I controlled him with Cyber Dragon and stuff.
-Duel 3: I opened with five Monsters, so if he had Royal Tribute, I would have lost. Thankfully, it didn't happen, and I double Scrap Dragon'd him.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I start with Scrap Beast, and Set Scrapstorm and Solemn Warning. He Set three cards, then summoned Kagemusha and Kizan. I let it go, since I had Dark Hole in hand. He attacked, and I didn't use Scrapstorm, then he Synchro Summoned Gaia Knight. I dropped Dark Hole, then summoned another Scrap Beast. He activated Bottomless Trap Hole, and that's when I used the Scrapstorm. I ended up reviving Scrap Beast with Scrap Chimera (he Chained Torrential Tribute to Chimera's effect...) and summoning another Scrap Beast over the next two turns to beat him down.
-Duel 2: He started out with Gaia Knight again. I Set Worm Yagan and some back rows. On his turn, he activated Double-Edged Sword Technique, reviving Kagemusha and Kizan. He attacked with Kizan, letting me keep Worm Yagan alive, while bouncing the Gaia Knight. He Synchro Summoned it in Main Phase 2, and I ended up Setting another Worm Yagan. He summoned Kagemusha and Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon, destroying my Set Worm Yagan and attacking the face-up one. I Set Scrap Goblin, and he attacked, then opted to destroy it, since I had no Scraps in the Graveyard. I summoned Chimera, reviving Goblin, and Set Scapegoat. He attacked Chimera and Set his only card other than Scrap Dragon to his back row. I flipped Scapegoat in his End Phase, then Synchro Summoned Catastor. I summoned another Chimera, reviving Goblin to Synchro Summon Naturia Beast with the last two Tokens. The play may have seemed reckless, but I was sitting on a Solemn Judgment that I had since the beginning of the duel. I killed his Scrap Dragon with Catastor, and he scooped next turn after drawing Shien's Smoke Signal.

Round 3: vs Twilight

This was my Round 5 "opponent" from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I dropped Scrap Dragon early and controlled him with it. He removed it with Chaos Sorcerer, then Synchro Summoned Stardust Dragon using the Plaguespreader Zombie in his Graveyard. I was forced to use Solemn Judgment on that (if I used it on the Chaos Sorcerer, he would have Synchro Summoned Brionac, putting me in a worse position). I Set Scrap Goblin. He attacked to flip it, but didn't want me to get Chimera back. It was okay, though, since I had Scrapstorm to destroy it and take control again.
-Duel 2: My hand was all Monsters, not that it mattered. He started with two Solar Recharges, then drew into the third one shortly after. He removed Judgment Dragon from his Graveyard as the Light for Chaos Sorcerer, then got it back with Light of Redemption. I would've been okay against one Judgment Dragon, but he had both to OTK me.
-Duel 3: My hand was really good. Something like Scrap Chimeras, Scrapyard, a D.D. Crow, Ryko, a Scrapstorm, and some other card. I Set the Ryko, and decided to Set the Scrapstorm as a bluff. He used Mystical Space Typhoon on it, causing him to think that my Set Monster was a Scrap Goblin. He Set a Ryko, which I destroyed with my own, milling Scrap Golem. I then searched Scrap Beast with Scrapyard and Synchro Summoned Brionac after considering whether or not to attack first. I asked if he had Gorz. "Yeah... maybe in a few turns." I Set MST and ended my turn. He used Nobleman of Extermination on it, then summoned Lyla to mill. He milled Necro Gardna, but I used D.D. Crow to remove it that End Phase. I summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast. Sadly, I was 100 damage short of finishing him, so I just attacked with everything, then Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon and Set Solemn Warning. The game was pretty much mine from there.

Round 4: vs Machina Salvo OTK

I was playing against Yusei JB, whom I hadn't seen in over a month. I saw him playing in the previous round, so I knew his deck fairly well. By the way, we agreed to a split.

-Duel 1: He could have OTK'd me with the Overload Fusion he pulled off of Pot of Duality, combining it with Giant Trunade and Future Fusion. However, in the previous round, he almost lost because he recklessly removed all of his Machines for Overload Fusion, then got hit with an Effect Veiler. Fearing such an event, he only removed three for Chimeratech Overdragon, attacking over my Worm Xex and face-down Worm Yagan, which bounced the Overdragon. On his next turn, I let him Synchro Summoned Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei", not wanting to waste Solemn Warning on it. I just dropped Cyber Dragon and Scrap Chimera on my turn, and he scooped (he was at 3100 LP, or something like that).
-Duel 2: He opened with Future Fusion, dumping most of his Machines to thin his deck and set up Overload Fusion. I had Mystical Space Typhoon, Forbidden Chalice, and Solemn Warning in hand, but it was useless, since he had Giant Trunade and Overload Fusion again.
-Duel 3: I poked him a bunch of times with Scrap Beast. I was safe behind a bunch of Traps and Effect Veiler, so I wasn't worried at all.

Round 5: vs Blackwings

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. He was running Whirlwind Blackwings with a bunch of tech. We were the last two undefeated players, so this was the finals, by the way...

-Duel 1: I summoned Worm Xex, Special Summoned Worm Yagan, and Set a back row. He Set a Monster and four back rows. I wanted to force the Icarus Attack, so I summoned Scrap Beast. He ended up using Book of Moon on it. That told me that his Set Monster wasn't a Winged Beast, so I Set my remaining Spells and Traps before attacking. It ended up being a Snowman Eater, instead of the Morphing Jar I was playing around. I lost 100 LP and my Worm Xex. He used Dust Tornado on my Monster Reborn and summoned Blizzard with no targets. He attacked the Set Scrap Beast, not knowing its DEF. On my turn, I flipped Worm Yagan, targeting the Blizzard. I successfully forced out the Icarus Attack, and he opted to destroy my Set Solemn Warning and the Scrap Beast. I cleared his last back row with Mystical Space Typhoon and summoned another Scrap Beast, Synchro Summoning Scrap Dragon to attack Snowman Eater. He drew and passed. I attacked and Set Ryko. He drew and passed. I attacked and Set Dust Tornado. He activated Black Whirlwind and summoned Gale. I didn't know what he was planning on getting, so I let it through. He ended up Special Summoning Breeze and halving Scrap Dragon's ATK. He used Gale to attack Ryko, which destroyed the Gale. He then suicided Breeze into Scrap Dragon, giving him three Darks. He destroyed Scrap Dragon, the Scrap Chimera it revived, and my Set Dust Tornado, which I Chained to destroy Whirlwind. As he had topped Dark Armed Dragon, I topped Scrap Chimera. I Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon, Set the spare Scrapyard, destroyed his Dark Armed Dragon, and attacked for game.
-Duel 2: He opened with Shura and two back rows. I summoned Worm Xex, Special Summoning Worm Yagan. I attacked with Xex to suicide, daring him to use Icarus Attack. He instead used Enemy Controller. I Set Mirror Force and ended. He attacked Worm Xex, and I flipped the Mirror Force, daring him again to use Icarus Attack. But, he didn't have it, the Shura died, and he ended. I attacked with Worm Yagan, then Set the remainder of my Traps. He used Giant Trunade, then summoned Blizzard, Synchro Summoning Brionac. He chucked a Blackwing to remove Worm Yagan from play, then attacked Worm Xex. I asked it was okay to go to the Damage Step, bluffing Honest. He didn't do anything, so Worm Xex died. Then, he Set two back rows and ended. My hand was full of summon-response Traps, so I had to get rid of the Brionac. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, and he let it through. I attacked and asked if we could enter the Damge Step. This time, I had Forbidden Chalice, boosting Cyber Dragon to get over Brionac. I then Set my Traps and ended. He drew and passed. I attacked and passed. He drew and dropped Dark Armed Dragon, whose summon I negated with Solemn Warning. I then used my Dust Tornado blindly on one of his two back rows. Without Warning to prevent an Icarus Attack, I didn't want to waste my Solemn Judgment, and I had to destroy the Icarus Attack before he summoned. I ended up hitting his bluffed Monster Reborn. He Set a card and passed, I attacked with Cyber Dragon again, then Set a second back row. He used Dark Hole, then summoned Kalut. He attacked and I flipped Malevolent Catastrophe. I destroyed his dead Solemn Warning (he was at 1800) LP, his Compulsory Evacuation Device, and my Solemn Judgment. I had Scrap Chimera, but no targets in Graveyard. So I Set Scrap Goblin. He attacked it with the Bora he drew, then the Kalut. I drew Scrap Beast, summoned it, and attacked over the Kalut. I destroyed Bora with Smashing Ground and ended my turn. He topped Skill Drain with exactly 1600 LP left, so Scrap Beast was able to finish the match.

So I went undefeated and got 1st place, yay! I got a Starstrike Blast pack which had nothing notable. Then, I went to watch Sick Penguin dueling against Six Samurai. He lost, but it was a cool duel to watch. He and Katana ended up going 2-3. How sad.

So, because I agreed to a split with Yusei JB, I got a considerably lowered amount of store credit. I don't mind, though. I was able to get three of the Movie Packs, completing a play-set of each of the Malefics except Paradox, which is unnecessary, and Cyber End, which also isn't completely necessary. Expect to see a Malefic deck in the near future. With the remainder of the store credit, I got a second Ultra Rare Tuning. Splitting with JB also let him get an Infernity Barrier, so that was cool.

So yeah, today was a pretty good day. The only downside I can see (besides Katana and Sick Penguin's lackluster win-loss ratios) is that now people might start to copy my Scrap Worm deck, which I don't mind that much.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Side Decking at the Beginning of the Format

It's going to be basically the same as last format.

The main difference is that you would shift the attention that would have gone to siding against (Quickdraw) Plants to siding against X-Sabers. Dandylion getting Limited essentially killed (Quickdraw) Plants, and the TCG doesn't have T.G. Hyper Librarian yet, so Junk Doppel isn't viable.

X-Sabers may have lost some of their defensive capabilities in losing two Book of Moon and one Solemn Warning, but those limits also benefit them. Trap Stun is much more effective with less Quick-Play Spells that can be used to render it useless. So, the Boggart Knight-Pashuul-Faultroll-Hyunlei play is much safer and can give more advantage.

As always, Effect Veiler can save you in that situation. But, let's not forget about Forbidden Chalice. Setting it makes it look like you could have a Counter Trap that your opponent would want to pre-emptively Trap Stun. Then, you could Chain it to Boggart Knight's effect, and it would be useless. Or, if they already had the materials for Hyunlei out and it was your only back row, you can Chain it to Hyunlei's effect, targeting Faultroll.

An interesting Side Deck option that I would like to bring to your attention in this match-up is Synchro Control. You can't really use it all that effectively if you're going to be spamming Synchros yourself, but it can be quite helpful in the X-Saber match-up, and in other match-ups as well. Being a Quick-Play allows you to play it through Trap Stun, and it also lets you keep the Synchro Monster until the end of your turn, even if you take it on the opponent's turn.

The best thing to do with a XX-Saber Gottoms stolen this way would be to attack, then tribute it to rip a card out of your opponent's hand. If you weren't so fortunate and could only steal a Hyunlei, then you should make sure you tribute it, Synchro with it, or push for game before they get it back.

If you couldn't tell already, I'm mainly advocating Quick-Play Spells because Trap Stun is going to be a lot more popular, not only in X-Sabers, but also in Gladiator Beasts. However, all of these Quick-Play Spells could be stopped by Forbidden Lance, which is also gaining popularity. If you still fear the threat of Forbidden Lance, then just use Effect Veiler.