EXVC Sneak Preview

I went to the smaller card shop with Aki for the Sneak Preview for various reasons. One is that they let you enter as many times as you want.

So, I entered once and pulled Shien's Dojo and Blackwing - Kogarashi the Wanderer. Aki pulled an Ultra Rare T.G. Blade Blaster. Kinda okay.

I entered four more times, and pulled two more Dojos, a Super Rare Reborn Tengu, an Ultra Rare E-Hero Neos Knight, an Ultra Rare T.G. Blade Blaster, Blue Rose Dragon, and some decent Psychic and T.G. Commons and Rares. Then, I went on a trading mission.

Someone had pulled a Scrap Orthros, but they wanted Karakuri Cash Shed. One person who had Karakuri Cash Shed wanted Junk Berserker. One of my friends pulled a Junk Berserker, so I traded him two Shien's Dojos for it. I traded the Junk Berserker for the Karakuri Cash Shed and Hushed Psychic Cleric. I then traded the Cash Shed and the last Dojo for the Scrap Orthros. Success!

During that time, Aki was dueling against a Mist Valley player. I joined him at the table to sort my cards, then went and bought a box of Hidden Arsenal 4 for a very nice price. The first pack had Trishula in it, so I was already satisfied with the box. What's more amazing is that the fifth pack also had a Trishula. I stuck that one in my trade binder after going through the box. Other notable pulls include two The Fabled Cerburrel, three Genex Ally Birdman, and a Naturia Landoise.

Some people then came up to me asking for Meklord stuff. So I traded them a bunch of Meklord Army Monsters and Meklord support Spells/Traps for T.G. and Psychic cards.

When Aki finished his duel, I talked to his opponent a little bit about his deck. It was quite interesting. He also asked about my deck, and he was interested in how the Worms worked. So, we dueled. In the first duel, I drew a Trap-heavy hand and controlled him with that, beating him down with Scrap Beast. Solemn Warning made sure his Reborn Tengu didn't hit the field.

In the second duel, I drew a similar hand, but I got locked down by Royal Oppression, and I didn't draw any Spell/Trap removal. What's cool about my opponent's deck is that he could just bounce his Oppression with Mist Valley Thunder Lord or Falcon, proceed to Special Summon with Divine Wind of Mist Valley, and re-Set Royal Oppression.

In the third duel, I ground him down with Scrap Golem, and Divine Wind of Mist Valley and Reborn Tengu kept gaining him cards. But, once he was out of Traps, I was free to rip his field apart with Scrap (Twin) Dragons. It was a really entertaining duel.

I also noticed that the Mist Valley player was using one Super Rare Reborn Tengu. So I traded an extra Ultra Rare one that I picked up in a trade I don't remember and my T.G. Blade Blaster for his Super Rare Reborn Tengu, a Common Miracle Fusion, and some Rares.

After that, I traded the Kogarashi to my Round 4 opponent from this tournament for a Debunk. Then, I traded Blue Rose Dragon to my Round 5 opponent from this tournament for two Duel Terminal King of the Swamp, a Duel Terminal Mystical Space Typhoon, a Duel Terminal Jurrac Guaiba, Ally of Justice Core Destroyer, and a T.G. Striker.

At that point, I had already gotten three T.G. Striker, Warwolf, and Rush Rhino, so I had the T.G. engine to work with. I also got three each of Esper Girl, Serene Psychic Witch, Hushed Psychic Cleric, Psychic Feel Zone, and Brain Hazard. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Silent Psychic Wizards.

The tournament organizers then raffled out a bunch of the mats. Neither Aki or I got one. Then, they said that they would raffle off one more if two more sets of packs were bought. I bought one and my Round 2 opponent from last weekend bought another. I ended up winning that mat, so that was cool. I'm probably just going to trade it.

That's basically all I did at the Sneak Preview. Getting all of the cards for the T.G. engine allowed me to make a deck around it, which will be featured in videos starting tomorrow.

So yeah, this Sneak Preview was actually really good for me. The last two weren't that good, so this one was definitely a lot better.

Extreme Victory

So, all of the rarities have been found out, finally.

The Ultra Rares were expected. I guess I'll try and pick up an E-Hero Neos Knight.

Secret Rares are kinda the same. I'll try for a Scrap Orthros, since it's significantly better than Mind Reader and Breaker. Better to the point that it's playable, at least. I'll see how well it works, since it can be searched with Scrapyard, so I'm excited for that.

I want to get a play-set of Super Rare Reborn Tengus to go along with the Ultra Rare play-set I'm planning on getting. I don't think it'll be so easy, but I can try. I won't be all disappointed if I can't get them, though.

I had been looking into the T.G. stuff, but then I saw that it fails without Hyper Librarian. So, I'll probably just pick up the Halberd Cannon and Blade Blaster, since they're okay by themselves.

The Psychic stuff is where I want to focus. I'm envisioning a Psychic beatdown deck that gets pluses off of the remove from play shenanigans that the new Psychic cards pull off. Too bad that Silent Psychic Wizard is a Super Rare and Hushed Psychic Cleric is a Rare... I also need to get an Overmind Archfiend, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Unfortunately, though, Psychic Feel Zone is another Rare, so I'll have to go through the trouble of finding those...

I guess that Debunk and Safe Zone are worth mentioning. They're both Super Rare, so I don't think I'll be able to get them that easily. They both seem like fairly decent cards, with Debunk being an equivalent of Chivalry.

Oh, and also Tour Guide From the Underworld, I need to get three of those before the end of May. I don't want to have to get them after Exceeds are released in the TCG, since their prices will go up.

So yeah, I'm just trying to pick up a bunch of cards, so it probably won't be feasible that I'm able to get them. I'll just buy a bunch of packs to get the Tengus as promos and see what I pull.

Hyper Librarian needs to slow down...

So, up until now, the format has been pretty slow. The only notable exception was Six Samurai, and that case only applies when they open with Gateway of the Six or Double-Edged Sword Technique. But, that was still manageable; pulling out a first turn Shi En didn't guarantee a victory.

Unfortunately, this won't last. When T.G. Hyper Librarian gets here, Junk Doppel and Fish FTK will become top tier decks. And, if you haven't seen, they're quite fast... If these decks get out of hand, then the format could speed up quite a bit.

Hyper Librarian essentially allows the player who summons it to win in one (or both) of two ways. The more obvious one, shown by the example videos, is by swarming for an OTK/FTK. Fortunately, it's more difficult to pull off a Shooting Quasar OTK in the TCG (just a little more difficult) [/sarcasm...].

The other way is to give the controller such an obscene amount of advantage that the opponent has no hope of catching up. It's pretty hard to win against someone who has Hyper Librarian and six cards in hand after he just dropped Trishula on you.

There are a few ways to combat this, though.

The one that everyone's already thought of is Effect Veiler. Obviously, it negates Hyper Librarian's effect so that your opponent can't continue drawing to fuel their combos. Or, against Fish FTK, you use Effect Veiler on their Armory Arm or Dewloren, if they're not smart enough to dodge it (thanks to Michael Bonacini for making such awesome videos).

Another way, and a better way, in my opinion, is Maxx "C". It's sad that it can't be used in the OCG, but Maxx "C" is going to be an amazing card for countering the meta in the TCG. The reason why is that one of two things happen when you drop Maxx "C" in response to a combo.

If your opponent doesn't want to let you draw a mess load of cards, they'll stop as soon as they can. This is good for you because you got at least a one-for-one with Maxx "C", and you won't die that turn.

If they think that they can kill you that turn, they probably would continue. However, they might just be letting you draw into the card you need to stop their OTK, whether that be Effect Veiler or Battle Fader.

When I brought this up in the Fish FTK match-up, people said that they would just loop Synchros to deck you out. The point of Maxx "C" in this case is to let you draw as many cards as you want:

"I'm gonna drop Maxx 'C'."

"That's fine, I'll just deck you out."

"Okay, continue. I'll let you know when I draw my three Effect Veilers."

By that time, you also have your Dark Hole and whatever cards you need to break up their field, provided you live.

However, I don't know Fish FTK well enough to say that this would happen for sure. There may be some way to dodge multiple Effect Veilers and D.D. Crows during the set-up of the loop. I'm not completely sure. That's something I need to look into.

So, the moral of the story is: The Librarian format is going to be terrible.

Random Stuff #28

I forgot to mention in my tournament report that I bought a box of Duelist Pack: Yusei 3. I pulled two Effect Veilers, which was what I expected. I also got a bunch of Starlight Roads and Cards of Consonance. I personally would use the Rare Starlight Road over the Secret Rare one, since the Secret Rare one bends and basically says, "Hey, I'm a Starlight Road. Don't use Black Rose Dragon or I'll slap you in the face."

Also, Aki and I were supposed to make videos yesterday or today. But, that didn't happen, so no videos this week. I'll definitely get some videos at the Extreme Victory Sneak Preview, though.

So, I spent that time that was allocated to making videos playing the Duel Transer video game that I wasted my money on to get the Closed Forests. The game actually isn't that bad...

Your deck starts as complete garbage, but it gets better fast. You can turn it into a fairly decent Synchro beatdown deck right after you finish the first stage, which is what I did. And, the duels go by pretty quickly as well. That's basically because half of your opponents' decks are random, incoherent garbage cards, so summoning a Synchro Monster or two will win you the game over a few turns.

So, I've been using this primitive Synchro deck with Marauding Captain, Junk Synchron, and an Emergency Teleport engine. It works okay, since the first Synchros you can get are Gaia Knight, Magical Android, Junk Warrior, and Junk Destroyer. And, after a couple hours, I had a 15-card Extra Deck with Synchros that I could actually summon.

If I continue with the game, then I plan to make my Scrap Worms deck in the game. It's fairly convenient, because Duelist Revolution and Hidden Arsenal 3 are supposedly unlocked in the same stage. So, when I get there, I can just make my Scrap Worms deck from those two packs, assuming I have enough DP.

So yeah, that's how I wasted my time today.

I also looked into a Scrap variant with the Reborn Tengu engine yesterday. It seems as though it could work. I'm a little skeptical, but I'm going to try it, since using Reborn Tengu instead of Worms frees up two card slots. And, with Reborn Tengu functioning as an almost automatic (Solemn Warning can hurt) plus-2, I can make the deck a little faster, since that sheer advantage helps against Stun decks.

The added speed should help against Chaos Plants/Junk Doppel, but I'm not sure what will happen with Hyper Librarian's release. The fact that Heroes can swarm on the first turn is what is making me want to play Debris Heroes if the format gets too crazy. But, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Tournament Report 4/22/11

So, I went to that smaller card shop because I felt like going on a Friday. I took my Scrap Worms, as usual.

Since Banisher of the Radiance has been failing me, I switched it to a Nobleman of Crossout. You can Warning a Banisher, but it's hard to stop a Crossout.

Round 1: vs Fabled

-Duel 1: This guy drew an amazing hand, swarming me on the first turn. He summoned Fabled Leviathan, and I tried to make it Miss the Timing with Ryko's effect, but he kept saying that it worked no matter what. I didn't feel like arguing it, so I let him take back his stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't draw any Tuners, not that it mattered. He had a Set Royal Oppression to push through my Scapegoat and kill me.

-Duel 2: I beat him down with Scrap Beast and Worm Xex. I made an overextension, fearing Morphing Jar, but he flipped Torrential Tribute, destroyed the field. I was ahead by a bunch, so I didn't mind. I cleared the remnants of his field with Ally Salvo and Dust Tornado, letting me push with Scraps to win.

-Duel 3: Maxx "C" is amazing. I mean, wow. I drew three cards off of his Kruz/Monster Reborn play. So freaking good. He Synchro Summoned Thought Ruler Archfiend with the Special Summoned materials, netting me that third draw. I Dark Holed, then Monster Reborned it. He tried to flip Crevice Into the Different Dimension, but there were no other Dark Monsters, so that was a bust. I ended up winning with the overwhelming advantage Maxx "C" provided.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend.

-Duel 1: Double United, Kageki, Kagemusha, draw four, Gateway, Synchro Shi En, drop Grandmaster, drop Kizan, Set two Double-Edged Sword Techniques. Yeah, I lost. Not to mention that he used one of those Double-Edged Sword Techniques to bring out a Trishula, using the Kizan already on the field. It wasn't as traumatizing as I expected, since I had two outs to his Synchros in my hand, and he only could hit one. Either way, he drew Mizuho, and I only had one Spell/Trap, which is useless against Shi En.

-Duel 2: I stopped a reckless Trishula play with Solemn Judgment. It didn't matter, though, since Double-Edged Sword Technique(s) (I forget how many...) got him Shi En and Barkion. Together with Royal Oppression, my hand of two Scrap Chimeras and a Giant Trunade and field of Set Dust Tornado and Monster Reborn couldn't get through his set-up. How sad, the first time I've lost a match to Six Samurai since the ban list...

Round 3: vs Gravekeeper's

This guy wasn't that experienced, so he was using some odd card choices (mained Starlight Road) and made quite a few misplays.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw into Necrovalley, so I kept poking with Scrap Chimera, Cyber Dragon, and Worm Xex, preventing him from keeping a Monster on the field. My back row was pretty helpful, too. By the time he drew a Necrovalley, I had a Mystical Space Typhoon for it. When I finally drew into a Tuner (that seems to be a big problem, I should probably run more), I used Giant Trunade and summoned Scrap Beast to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon. I took complete control of the game from there and won.

-Duel 2: He opened with four Set back rows and a Set Monster. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon to bait out a Solemn Warning, but he let it through. Then I used Giant Trunade and summoned Scrap Beast. Cyber Dragon attacked over Spy, and Scrap Beast attacked over the Recruiter it brought out. He searched Commandant, and I used Monster Reborn on Spy to Synchro Summon Thought Ruler Archfiend. Such a good decision. His Dimensional Prisons were unable to get rid of it, and I gained a bunch of LP, leaving me with a maximum of 13100 LP. In that time, I had drawn a Closed Forest and successfully resolved it. When he revealed Mirror Force with Pot of Duality, I switched Thought Ruler Archfiend to DEF and pushed with Cyber Dragon. He eventually used Pot of Duality to get Dark Hole, then played it. I Chained Forbidden Lance to attempt to protect Thought Ruler, but he negated it with Solemn Judgment, leaving him with 700 LP. I drew out the Mirror Force with Scrap Beast, and after a couple turns, he was able to destroy my Closed Forest with Descendant. I blasted his back row with Malevolent Catastrophe, and used Dark Hole to destroy two Descendants. Unfortunately, all I had left was a Scrap Goblin and a Solemn Judgment. Both of those were Set, and he tried to Special Summon Malefic Stardust Dragon. I negated it with the Judgment, and his last two cards were just two copies of Necrovalley. I topped Scrap Beast and ended it.

It was a short tournament, only three rounds. I ended up getting 3rd by going 2-1, and I got a couple of Turbo Pack 4's. I was disappointed, since last time we got Turbo Pack 2's. I was even more disappointed because the Rare in both of the packs was Swallow Flip. Oh well.

Either way, it was a pretty important experience for me today. I learned to fear Trishula, I guess. I didn't really hurt me all that much because my hand was already bad to begin with, and the other times, I had counters to it. More importantly, though, I learned the power of Maxx "C"! Now, I'm going to make an effort to Side Deck more than one, since it's freakin' amazing.

Debris Heroes

So, I was thinking about switching to a Debris Hero deck if I decide to stop using my Scrap deck.

They seem kind of similar, except that while Heroes gain advantage by just existing, Scraps work for their advantage through Scrap Dragon plays and such.

I like how E-Hero Absolute Zero is safe to drop to the field, much like Scrap Dragon, since when either dies, they provide you with some form of a defense. However, Heroes don't do much against back rows, as opposed to the Scrap Synchros, which can remove them from the field fairly easily.

Miracle Fusion is also faster than Scrap Chimera, allowing you to bait out Traps with your Normal Summon, then push with Fusions. However, if you're under Royal Oppression or if you don't have Fusion Materials in the Graveyard, then Miracle Fusion is much more useless.

But, Debris Hero decks have more ways to make big plays, using Polymerization, Miracle Fusion, and Debris Dragon. I like the concept of being able to destroy the field at the cost of a Normal Summon, especially if you can follow it up with a Fusion.

Unfortunately, the Debris Hero deck that I've come up with doesn't have much room to innovate, both with the Main Deck and the Extra Deck. I struggled to include the basic defensive line-up from my Scrap deck, including the Effect Veiler, but I didn't have room for Forbidden Chalice or Lance. However, I made an effort to Main Deck Maxx "C", since it's a Debris target and basically every deck in the meta Special Summons, some more than others...

I also forced the inclusion of Spirit Reaper and Reaper on the Nightmare, allowing me to dump a Debris target with E-Hero Prisma if need be.

I feel like I need to Main Deck more Spell/Trap hate, but I've been using about the same amount in my Scrap deck, and it's been doing fine. I'm also not sure of how the Side Deck will look because I can't be entirely sure what this deck's match-ups will be like. I feel as though I'd have a better match-up against Dragunities, Hero Beat, and X-Sabers, but a worse match-up against Six Samurai and possibly Gravekeeper's. The Chaos Plant match-up is unclear, unfortunately. I guess that having Debris Dragon to blow up the field would be useful against them, but they could just Trishula away all of my cards fairly easily.

Here's the deck list I'm working with, if anyone was wondering:

Monsters: (18)

E-Hero Neos Alius x2

E-Hero Stratos

E-Hero Prisma x2

E-Hero Ocean

Honest

Debris Dragon x2

E-Hero Voltic

E-Hero Bubbleman

Sangan

King of the Swamp x2

Snowman Eater

Spirit Reaper

Maxx "C"

Effect Veiler

Spells: (16)

Dark Hole

Giant Trunade

Mystical Space Typhoon x2

Book of Moon

Polymerization x2

Miracle Fusion x3

Future Fusion

Super Polymerization

E - Emergency Call x3

Reinforcement of the Army

Traps: (7)

Dimensional Prison x2

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Solemn Warning x2

Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: (15)

Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Black Rose Dragon

Iron Chain Dragon

Ally of Justice Catastor

Dragon Knight Draco-Equiste

E-Hero The Shining x2

E-Hero Absolute Zero x3

E-Hero Terra Firma

E-Hero Gaia

E-Hero Mariner

Reaper on the Nightmare

Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

By the way, I've been comparing it to my Scrap deck because they're so similar. For instance, the Monsters can stand alone fairly well, and some can gain advantage by themselves. However, they work better in combos, of course.

I'm a little worried, because when Aki and I went to YCS Anaheim and participated in the Win-a-Mat side events, Aki lost in the first round both times. He noted that the level of the players there was higher than those at our locals, which wasn't surprising. What I'm worried about is whether Aki lost because of his lack of competitive experience or because his deck wasn't fit for the format.

That's why I'm still iffy on switching decks. Scraps have been everything I've wanted in a deck, so I'm hesitant to switch. If they're not going to be fit for the meta, then I'll probably have to.

Tournament Report 4/17/11

So, I went to locals with Scrap Worms, as usual. I actually decided at the last minute to try out one of the Forbidden Lances that I traded for last weekend. I'm probably going to make a deck profile video today, so I'll talk about that and such.

I played on the Duel Terminals for a little bit. I got quite a few decent cards, including The Fabled Cerburrel, The Fabled Catsith, and Naturia Exterio.

Round 1: vs Debris Plants

-Duel 1: I drew no Scrap Chimeras. Normally, that's not a problem, but it becomes a problem when he drops successive Chaos Sorcerers to keep removing the Synchros I was able to summon normally.

-Duel 2: I don't remember how I won. I just controlled him, I guess.

-Duel 3: He took so long with each turn that we went into time on his turn. I pushed for a bunch of damage on my first turn in time, forcing him to do over 6200 damage on the last turn he had. He couldn't, and scooped after thinking it through for at least five minutes...

Round 2: vs Gravekeeper's

-Duel 1: I drew really well, and he didn't draw many Spells/Traps. I was able to push through and destroy his Necrovalley to make my Scrap Chimera live. With a Scrap Dragon on the field, Gravekeeper's can't do much to stop it.

-Duel 2: He first turn Royal Tributed me. It was okay, since I had no Monsters in hand (yay, Scrapyard!), and he had to discard a Descendant. Yay, minus-2! He flipped Summon Limit on me, and I didn't really care, since I could control him with Spells/Traps for long enough to Synchro Summon a Scrap Dragon. So yeah, I did that and won.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 2 opponent from the Win-a-Mat that I played in on the first day of the YCS last weekend.

-Duel 1: He opened really badly, attacking me with Shinai, then two Spell Strikers. I just Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon and won.

-Duel 2: He swarmed me with Kagemusha, Kizan, Shinai, and two Mizuho. I had a Forbidden Chalice for one Mizuho, but I wasn't able to deal with both. After he Synchro Summoned Shi En, I drew a Puppet Plant, but I wouldn't have been able to get rid of the Shi En after I stole it. So, I just Set the Plant to see what he would do against it. When you know that you're going to lose, you should still continue the duel to possibly gain information. Just a helpful tip.

-Duel 3: He didn't draw many Traps, so I just played through his thin back row to win. He also misplayed, using Mizuho to destroy my face-up Scrap Goblin instead of my Set back row when he had Crevice Into the Different Dimension Set. If he had destroyed my Dimensional Prison, he would've been able to attack over my Scrap Chimera and Goblin, then remove them both when Goblin's effect would activate. Either way, I had Mind Control and Scrap Beast in hand to keep control of the game. The way I finished the game was pretty cool, too. His last two cards ended up being Shinai and Grandmaster against my Scrap Dragon. I topped Puppet Plant, then used it and the Mind Control to move his Monsters out of the way so that Scrap Dragon could attack for game.

Round 4: vs Chaos Plants

I was facing Yusei JB. We agreed to a split, and such. Not much else to say.

-Duel 1: Chaos Sorcerer is evil. I seriously need more outs to it, though I usually don't drop a Scrap Dragon if it would be vulnerable to a Chaos Sorcerer play.

-Duel 2: He didn't draw as well as before, and I was able to take control with Synchros and such. I don't remember exactly what happened.

-Duel 3: I opened with four Monsters. The reason this is significant is because he destroyed my back row with Mystical Space Typhoon, then picked my hand apart with Spirit Reaper. He hit my Scrap Chimera, unfortunately. Not that it would've mattered, since he had three back rows, one of which was Solemn Warning. So yeah, JB broke my winning streak. How sad...

Round 5: vs Gravekeeper's

This guy has seen my videos before, so he knew from my mat and from my opening play that I was playing Scrap Worms.

-Duel 1: I opened with Scrapyard for Scrap Beast, summoned it, then Set Scrapstorm, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Scapegoat. MST destroyed his Necrovalley when he attacked with Descendant, and I was able to continually poke with Scrap Beast.

-Duel 2: He ended up Setting five back rows to start. I Normal Summoned Worm Xex, which got Solemnly Warned. It sucks that people know about Worms now... Anyway, I Set two back rows, which got destroyed by double MST. Because of that, I played my Closed Forest on my next turn, thinking that it would be safe to do so. But, he flipped Dark Bribe, which meant that my Closed Forest would get no use. I was still able to win, since he drew practically no Monsters.

We played another duel for fun. I was finally able to use Closed Forest, and it got my Scrap Beast up to 2100 ATK. Yay! I seriously don't know how I was able to wreck Gravekeeper's so easily today. I think they just got unlucky, but it happens when they play a deck like that.

JB ended up winning, so I got half a box of Starstrike Blast. I kind of got the better half, pulling an Ultra Rare Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei", an Ultimate Rare Scrap Twin Dragon, two Karakuri Ninja mdl 339 "Sazank", two Wattsquirrel (good Side Deck card for the upcoming Junk Doppel menace), a Formula Synchron, and an Ally Salvo.

So yeah, I went 4-1, getting 3rd place and a Hobby League Nobleman of Crossout. I just need to Side Deck more heavily against Chaos Plants, as I did when Debris Plants were popular. But yeah, pretty good, overall.

Random Stuff #27

So, I've been super busy all week with a failed endeavor, which is why I haven't been posting here.

Anyway, I was able to put together a Junk Doppel-ish deck today. I made it like my old Quickdraw-abusing deck, which had 30 Monsters. This one also has 30 Monsters, and it's a lot easier to make a deck like this because of all of the new Special Summon Monsters that Konami was silly enough to make.

To help with the Doppel theme, I added a Frog engine. Swap Frog can Special Summon itself, recycle Monsters (like a Junk Synchron that revives it, essentially getting you a +1), and dump Treeborn Frog to the Graveyard. When Treeborn Frog comes out, you can Special Summon Doppelwarrior from your hand, and such.

Unfortunately, the way this format is basically kills the deck's playability. Royal Tribute hurts, and the deck can't push through multiple back rows without Trap Stun, which you won't always have. And, when its combos are locked down, the deck fails. That's why I stopped playing any Quickdraw Plant-esque decks. It's still fun to random rush OTK people, though.

So yeah, Trishula is going to start wrecking the format next week. Effect Veiler might be a good card to stop it, making your opponent minus, unless they did the whole Foolish Burial/Debris Dragon combo. Herald of Orange Light would also be good, but Fairies aren't going to be around in the TCG until July or something.

Gold Series 4 was also announced. I really hate that it comes with a play mat, since that jacks up the price by $10. I don't want to have to pay extra for something I don't want. Konami is pretty smart (read "evil") sometimes. Now if only they were smart enough to ban Tech Genus Hyper Librarian...

Oh yeah, XX-Saber Emmersblade will soon be available to everyone in Hidden Arsenal: Special Edition. I was kind of waiting for this, so I'm happy about it. What I'm not happy about is that everyone will be able to afford X-Sabers, which in the hands of newbs is a sack deck.

The other half of the HA:SE promos is Naturia Pineapple. It's actually quite convenient, since I was considering using it in my Nordic deck. All of the Nordic Beasts are Beasts, so why not? The deck won't be completely dependent on it, of course, since most of the Synchros I would go for aren't Beast or Plant-Type.

Lastly, I'm planning on making another deck profile for my Scrap Worms deck. I'm still deciding on whether or not to include the Side Deck. Probably not, but we'll see.

YCS Anaheim Report - Day 2

I went back today, this time planning to do the team event with Aki and vadangchoinga. Unfortunately, vadangchoinga couldn't make it today, and Aki and I couldn't find anyone else to be the third person in our team.

So, we just ended up entering the first Win-a-Mat event of the day.

Round 1: vs Black Garden Burn

-Duel 1: My opponent opened with Pot of Duality, getting Terraforming to search Black Garden. He then Set some other cards. I drew out all of his Dark Bribes, then pushed through with Scraps backed by Solemn Judgment. His Black Garden helped me quite a bit by putting Attack Position Rose Tokens on his side of the field. I Summoned twice to put two Tokens on his field, then Flip Summoned Naturia Barkion (Book of Moon reset its ATK) and Worm Xex (it was Set from earlier). I attacked over the two Tokens and dropped Forbidden Chalice for game.

-Duel 2: Skill Drain locked down my plays, and I waited until his back row got thinner to push for game. I Synchro Summoned Brionac, trying to bounce his Black Garden and Skill Drain. He had no response, and I Chained Book of Moon to let Brionac's effect go through. Then I Tribute Summoned for Scrap Golem to Synchro Summon Scrap Twin Dragon and went for game.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

Aki had just lost to this guy in the previous round. How sad.

-Duel 1: He had to make sub-par plays against my Worm set-up, and I capitalized on it with Scraps and such.

-Duel 2: I drew no Tuners and lost.

-Duel 3: This duel was really close. In the end, it was my 500 LP to his 400 LP, and I was controlling the field with a Scrap Archfiend and a Scrap Goblin. I ran over his Shi En over two turns (he had protection with Grandmaster on the field), then Monster Reborned it. It turns out that he had a D.D. Crow, so if I were to have tried to revive my Scrap Dragon, I would have been in a worse position. I don't think that it mattered that much, though. I won on the next turn.

Round 3: vs X-Sabers

This guy was pretty cool, and we agreed to a split. Basically, he would sell the play mat and we would split the money.

-Duel 1: I don't remember exactly, but he threatened my hand with XX-Saber Gottoms, forcing me to Set all of my Spells/Traps. Then he used a Trap Stun/Hyunlei play to destroy my back row. I tried to turn the game around with Scrap Chimera, but he flipped Solemn Warning.

-Duel 2: I was just poking him with Scrap Beast for the majority of the duel. He didn't have any defensive Traps, and tried to Set Emmersblade as a last defense. I summoned Banisher of the Radiance and went for game.

-Duel 3: I countered his XX-Saber Boggart Knight twice with Solemn Warning and Effect Veiler. He didn't play any back rows, so I was playing aggressively. Unfortunately, I didn't have any back rows either, so he swarmed with Boggart Knight, Airbellum, and two Faultrolls. He had a Darksoul in the Graveyard, so he could Synchro Summon Brionac and bounce my Monsters.

Either way, I got $30, which paid for the entry fee and a little more.

I went around and bought some stuff, including some of those new Duelist Pack Tins. I pulled an Ultimate Rare Thunder Unicorn, if that means anything. I just bought the tins for the promos, so I didn't mind.

After that, Aki and I joined another Win-a-Mat.

Round 1: vs Doppel Plants

-Duel 1: I read Dimensional Prison, so I dropped Thought Ruler Archfiend. I attacked over the wienies that he was unfortunate enough to keep drawing into (Glow-Up Bulb, Spore, etc.). Afterwards, I summoned Scrap Beast and attacked, and he did indeed have the Dimensional Prison. It didn't matter, since I flipped Scrapstorm. He made a Scrap Dragon play on the next turn, and I reversed it with my own to win.

-Duel 2: He opened with an early Scrap Dragon that I couldn't effectively deal with. I was down to two cards, Scrap Goblin and Worm Xex, and 2400 LP. I drew Scapegoat and Set it and the Goblin. He opted to destroy my back row, which I flipped. Then he declined to attack, hoping to clog my field, I suppose. I Flip Summoned Scrap Goblin and Synchro Summoned Naturia Barkion. I then Normal Summoned Scrap Beast and Synchro Summoned Ally of Justice Catastor. I ripped through his field, leaving his Call of the Haunted useless.

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

Again, Aki lost in the first round to my Round 2 opponent. How sad.

-Duel 1: His starting hand consisted of three Wulfs, one of which he pitched for Solar Recharge. He then Set a back row and a Monster, then revived the Wulf with Monster Reborn. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and Normal Summoned Scrap Beast, going for Scrap Twin Dragon. I had to decide between tossing my Scrapyard or Scrapstorm to feed the Dragon's effect, and I had a feeling that he had Honest. I destroyed Scrapyard to bounce his Set cards, then attacked into Honest. I revived Scrap Beast and Set Scrapstorm and a Trap. He used Mystical Space Typhoon on the Scrapstorm, which I Chained to get Chimera to my hand. I was able to win the game from there with that Scrap Chimera and one I drew later on.

-Duel 2: He started with a Thunder King Rai-Oh and a Set back row after using Charge of the Light Brigade and Solar Recharge. I attempted to Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, and he let it go. I read Honest, of course, and used Mind Control to avoid that possibility. He used Book of Moon when I attacked with Cyber Dragon, and I summoned Effect Veiler to Synchro Summon Catastor with his Rai-Oh. I then Set Solemn Warning. He passed turn without a play, and I Monster Reborned the Cyber Dragon that he milled previously. I Flip Summoned my Cyber Dragon, then attacked with his Cyber Dragon. He dropped Gorz, and I killed the Kaien Token with Catastor. He tried to drop Honest, but I reminded him of Catastor's effect. I then fused all of my Machines for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. He switched his Gorz to Defense Position, and I ran it over on my next turn. After a while, he destroyed my Chimeratech Fortress Dragon (either with Ryko or Dark Hole, I don't remember). He then summoned Ehren to attack directly, and I crashed my Scrap Beast into it. He Set a Monster, and my Cyber Dragon ran it over. He used Monster Reborn to revive his Cyber Dragon and fuse it with mine, but I destroyed the Chimeratech Fortress Dragon with Dark Hole on my turn. I then continued to push with Banisher of the Radiance. It died to a Ryko, and I drew into Scrap Chimera to take control of the duel and win.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This guy was feeling pretty confident, since he had just Top 32'd the main event. Of course, the fact that he was here at a side event meant that he lost in the Top 32. Not trying to be mean, just pointing out the facts... By the way, I offered him a split, and he declined.

-Duel 1: I started with a Set Worm Yagan and some back rows. He summoned Kagemusha and Kizan, then attacked with Kagemusha, expecting Scrap Goblin. He took 1400 damage and the Kagemusha back to his hand. He then Set some back rows and ended. I summoned Worm Xex and sent the second Worm Yagan to the Graveyard. I attempted to attack Kizan, but he flipped Dimensional Prison. He then summoned Kagemusha and went for Barkion, which I Warned. He flipped Double-Edged Sword Technique and went for Brionac, attacking my spent Worm Yagan. I drew and my hand consisted of two Scrap Chimeras and a Scrap Beast. I summoned the Scrap Beast and attacked to get it into the Graveyard. He attacked directly, and ended with the Brionac and two back rows. I destiny drew into Giant Trunade, which cleared the field for the first Scrap Chimera, allowing me to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon and attack Brionac. He Special Summoned Enishi and destroyed Scrap Dragon with its effect, netting me Scrap Chimera. Then he re-Set his back rows. I drew Solemn Judgment and Set it. He destroyed Chimera with Enishi's effect, then summoned Kagemusha to Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon and attack directly. I summoned Scrap Chimera and he flipped Solemn Warning, which I negated with Solemn Judgment. At that point, there was nothing he could do.

-Duel 2: I don't remember exactly what happened, but I won again, using a Solemn Judgment-protected Scrap Chimera play similar to the one in the previous duel.

So I won another play mat, which was cool. After that, Aki and I saw Satoshi Kato. He was playing in a Regional flight, so we waited for him to finish, and Aki went up to talk to him. I don't know whether or not he remembered us, but he spoke as if he did. That may just be in response to Aki saying the equivalent of "long time no see" in Japanese.

Anyway, we offered him the play mat, and he traded me an Ally Genex Triforce, three Masked Hero Vapor, three Mask Change, a Vision Hero Adoration, a Maxx "C", and $40 for it. It was really convenient that he had the Masked Hero stuff, since Aki wasn't able to get Premium Pack 13. Now we can use them in videos! Don't expect to see them anytime soon, though, since Aki is going to be busy next weekend.

So yeah. I went and bought another Maxx "C" for a great price, since I wanted to have two. I also got an Ultra Rare Odin for $5. Sometime over the course of the two days, I was able to trade away a bunch of the garbage in my binder for a couple of Forbidden Lances (not that I'm planning on using them), an Arcanite Magician (in anticipation of Tech Genus Hyper Librarian), and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember.

So, overall the YCS was pretty good for me. I was really disappointed that I scrubbed out of the main event, but winning the equivalent of two play mats was really cool. I also got a bunch of stuff that I need for both a Nordic deck (still haven't decided what variant) and a Junk Doppel deck (also have not decided).

It's going to be weird, since I was there, but I plan to analyze the Top 32 as usual when the deck lists are posted.

YCS Anaheim Report - Day 1

So, the day that I was waiting for arrived. I was somehow able to pick up three Closed Forests in the span of two days, so I was happy with that.

At the venue, I met up with vadangchoinga, then with Katana, Sick Penguin, and some of their friends. I lent all of them some Side Deck cards, and stuff. Nothing really important yet.

So, onto the report for the main event:

Round 1: vs Anti-Meta

I thought that my opponent looked familiar, and when I saw his name on the match slip, it clicked. It was dcarlos from YouTube. He seemed pretty cool, but he played very seriously.

-Duel 1: I cringed at the fact that I drew Scrap Golem in my starting hand with no way to effectively get it to the field. I risked the Tribute Summon, and got met with a Royal Oppression. Mystical Space Typhoon dealt with that, but I ended up losing my Synchros to a Neo-Spacian Grand Mole which I had absolutely no outs to.

-Duel 2: I drew all-Monsters and lost to the same Neo-Spacian Grand Mole...

Round 2: vs Dragunities

-Duel 1: He started with a Dragon Ravine, of course, but I had Effect Veiler to cut off Dux' effect. Even after I destroyed the Ravine, he drew into multiple Dux and Legionnaires, and I couldn't deal with all of them.

-Duel 2: I destroyed all of his Ravines with Ryko, Dust Tornado, and Scrap Dragon. Then, I drew the one Closed Forest that I sided in... It was fine, though, since he had already lost control of the game, and was desperately holding on with the Traps he had left. I had to wait out his Royal Oppression, but I was able to go for game with Scrap Chimera after drawing the Mystical Space Typhoon.

-Duel 3: He opened with a Stardust Dragon and some back rows. I opened with five Monsters and Crevice Into the Different Dimension, so I Set a Scrap Beast. He attacked over it, and I risked going with Worm Xex, which got Bottomless Trap Holed. He Synchro Summoned another Stardust Dragon with Dux after Trap Stunning my Crevice. When I tried to push with Scrap Chimera, he flipped Oppression, and I couldn't do anything against it.

Round 3: vs Frog Monarchs

-Duel 1: I opened up really well, and he didn't even draw Battle Faders or Gorz. I mowed him down with Naturia Beast and some other Monster.

-Duel 2: I opened up even better than last time, and he misplayed with his Gorz, allowing me to win one turn earlier.

Round 4: vs Junk Doppel

-Duel 1: He opened really badly, so I just swarmed him with Scraps.

-Duel 2: He was able to draw much better than before, and was able to win somehow.

-Duel 3: I was able to win somehow. It's midnight, I'm tired, forgive me if I forget the details.

At that point, Katana, Sick Penguin, and one of their friends decided to drop (they were all X-2) and join a Win-a-Mat. I dropped to join them. Since Win-a-Mats are 8-person flights, we basically controlled half of the event. What's more is that none of us were paired up against each other.

Round 1: vs Six Samurai

This guy was really cool, and I feel bad for how well I drew.

-Duel 1: I opened double Worm Xex, which is great in this match-up. I forced him to make sub-optimal plays, then went for game with Scrap Chimera.

-Duel 2: I ended up drawing into all three Scrap Chimeras, which made forcing into top-decking mode a win condition. I was even able to destroy the Scrap Dragons that I summoned themselves with their effects because I had so many extra cards.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I kept control with Scraps, and was able to win.

-Duel 2: He locked me down with Royal Oppression, and when I drew and out to it, it was already too late.

-Duel 3: I had a Scrap Chimera backed by a Solemn Judgment. So, I baited out his back rows until there was only one left. That cost me most of my LP, unfortunately, but the Solemn Judgment was put to good use when I negated the last card in his back row: Royal Oppression. Scrap Dragon was able to take command of the duel from there.

Round 3: vs Doppel Plants

Sick Penguin was able to make it through the previous two rounds (okay, his opponent didn't show up for Round 1, but still) and was my opponent in the finals. Of course, we agreed to split the mat, however that works.

-Duel 1: I kept control with Worms, then was able to push for damage with Scraps when it was safe. I forget exactly how I won, though.

-Duel 2: After I was getting beat down with a Frozen Fitzgerald, I got rid of it with Scrap Twin Dragon. However, Sick Penguin dropped Dark Hole, then Monster Reborned my Scrap Twin Dragon. He used Pot of Avarice then, hoping to draw a Monster that he could Special Summon to finish me off with. Sure enough, he drew Quickdraw Synchron and a Junk Synchron to toss with its effect.

-Duel 3: I opened really aggressively, pushing with Scrap Twin Dragon for a direct attack. He Set just one Monster, so I couldn't bounce it. I summoned Scrap Chimera, going for Scrap Dragon to destroy that Monster. It was a Dandylion, but I bounced the tokens with Scrap Twin Dragon to clear the path and go for game.

So I won one of the Win-a-Mat events, getting an Akiza play mat. Fortunately, we ran into someone who was winning to trade $100 worth in cards for it, allowing Sick Penguin and I to effectively split the mat. I got a Glow-Up Bulb, Snyffus, and three Super-Nimble Mega Hamsters. Sick Penguin got a Rare Effect Veiler, a Super Rare Solemn Judgment, and a HA03 Naturia Barkion. I ended up getting more than half of the trade, so I made up for it by trading an Ultra Rare Scrap Dragon to Sick Penguin for the Barkion that he got.

After that, I met up with vadangchoinga again, and he was waiting to duel with dubkdad1 of YouTube. I recorded the match, then had vadangchoinga record two matches between dubkdad1 and myself. Those videos will probably go up later this week.

I'm going back tomorrow, this time with Aki. We're planning to participate in the 3 vs 3 team event, but I'm not sure exactly who the third person would be.

Continuing Down the Path

So, I asked everyone I know to try and find me Closed Forests, but to no avail.

Since I still feel like I need them, I'll be going to three different GameStops to trade in old garbagy games (mostly old Naruto games) to hopefully be able to get three copies of Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's Duel Transer. Yeah, I'm going to have to get the games to get the cards.

With that, my Side Deck would be finished, and such. I would have 2-3 copies of a video game I'd never play, but I also have a plan for those.

When Pokemon Grey (or whatever the third version of Black/White will be called) comes out, I can trade in 2-3 copies of Duel Transer to buy it! It's the perfect plan, kind of.

Also, unrelated to this, I'm trying to find room for Thought Ruler Archfiend in my Extra Deck.

While I almost never summon a Synchro Monster that's not a Scrap Synchro, it's helpful to have the option, especially against Hero Beat. The only thing I could think to take out is Avenging Knight Parshath, but it's won me too many games (at least three). Unfortunately, the summoning conditions for the two are basically the same, since almost all of my non-Tuners are Light.

The Naturia Synchros kind of just take up two spaces, but they have earned those spots. And they kind of have to be there, with Scapegoat in the deck and all.

I'm leaning towards taking out Avenging Knight, but it's an auto-win against Frog Monarchs and Fish OTK. Auto-win. And I like to win the first duel of a match.

Thought Ruler Archfiend is helpful against Hero Beat (and Gravekeeper's and Blackwings, to a certain extent) in the same way, negating Dimensional Prisons and Gemini Sparks.

I might just end up dropping Colossal Fighter. It hasn't helped me all that much recently, and it's not particularly good against any of the popular decks at the moment.

Closed Forest

Okay, so I shot this idea down in the comments section of the previous post.

That's basically because of my Side Decking habits. I side at least five cards against any given match-up because I actually want to draw those cards. To accomplish this, I have to put very generic cards in my Side Deck, like Smashing Ground.

That means that I'm not siding cards that are auto-wins against certain decks. An example of that would be Light-Imprisoning Mirror in the Lightsworn/Zombie format. You draw Light-Imprisoning, and you win against Lightsworn. Instead, I'm using cards like Banisher of the Radiance, which don't win duels on their own, but help significantly against a lot of different decks, like X-Sabers, Gravekeeper's, Frog Monarchs, Fish OTK, and Lightsworn.

However, because the Gravekeeper's match is so bad, I may have to break this habit. Closed Forest is basically a free win against Gravekeeper's, so siding three might be justified. Along the same lines, Ally Salvo is also very one-dimensional, but it kills Skill Drain in Hero Beat, which can cause me trouble.

Fortunately, the format has slowed down to the point where I can afford to wait to draw these cards. I would wait for them in the same way that I wait for Scrap Chimera: if I open with them, I can start aggressively, but if not, then I merely stall the game out until I can draw into them.

Unfortunately, besides simply not drawing the cards, there's a huge downside to Side Decking like this. If I were to go up against a rogue deck like Gladiator Beasts, I wouldn't be as prepared, since I would be dropping the generic stuff (Smashing Ground) for specific stuff (Ally Salvo).

In this way, Closed Forest is closing off my Side Deck to more versatile options, but if it can help against the second most played deck, then it might just pay off.

All I have to do to accomplish this is drop $50-60 on Closed Forests...

The Path to the YCS

As most of you should already know, YCS Anaheim is this weekend, and I'm going to be going.

I'm fairly confident in my Scrap Worms deck, and it has been doing really well against Six Samurai, X-Sabers, and basically everything else. The only shaky match-up is Gravekeeper's...

The pluses that I can accumulate against other Stun decks through Scrap Chimera and Scrapstorm are shut off with Necrovalley, which the Gravekeeper player can expect to have practically 100% of the time. It's worse than Skill Drain, because it gives their Monsters huge stat boosts, making them nearly impossible to destroy in battle.

And looking through my deck, I only have 6 outs to Necrovalley, which worries me even more. But, I don't want to do something silly like Main Deck triple Dust Tornado. That leads to dead draws against Six Samurai, Fish OTK, and... I can't think of anything else. Seeing how those match-ups are actually fairly easy for me, maybe I should consider Main Decking triple Dust Tornado...

It would alleviate my fear of Necrovalley, while also helping against other match-ups, like Hero Beat and Dragunities. The only problem would be deciding what to take out. I'd probably just Main Deck two and keep one in the Side Deck. Or, I could just Main Deck two Dust Tornadoes and Side Deck two Malevolent Catastrophes. Seems like a good idea.

So, I guess that's what I'll try. There may be more of this type of post throughout the week, because I'm really going to try and do well at the YCS. This type of tournament doesn't come around that much, and this format is a great one for me to go with a creative deck.

Tournament Report 4/2/11

If you didn't already see the announcement on my YouTube channel, then the reason I haven't been posting/uploading videos if because my computer was down for a few days.

Anyway, I took my Scrap Worms deck to locals again. I was able to go with Aki, and vadangchoinga and Yusei JB happened to be there.

It was a fairly small tournament (only like 24 players), and more than half of them were newbs.

Round 1: vs Six Samurai

-Duel 1: He opened with Gateway and Six Samurai United. I would've been able to do something if I had drawn a Tuner, but I didn't, so I ended up getting swarmed.

-Duel 2: I controlled him with Scraps and such.

-Duel 3: Same as the previous duel.

Round 2: vs Volcanics

This was my Round 6 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: My hand started out pretty bad, but I eventually was able to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon and win.

-Duel 2: Same, except that my hand was better this time.

Round 3: vs Newbie Fabled

This guy liked to use Karma Cut, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, and Dark Core. But because of the way he played, he would only be able to use one before the others became dead cards. I took advantage of that and 2-0'd him, of course. Drawing Scrap Chimera in my starting hand helped, too.

Round 4: vs Blackwings

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. By the way, there was only one more undefeated played, and he ended up getting paired down and losing, making this the finals.

-Duel 1: I used Monster-removal Traps on all of the Monsters that he summoned. He ended up drawing mostly Monsters, so all I had to do was control him for a few turns to win. I also top-decked Scrap Chimera after a while to go for game.

-Duel 2: Same thing, kind of. I opened with Scrap Chimera, Scrap Beast, Scrap Goblin, and some other stuff. I remember a really good play that I made: He had one back row and Bora on the field. I Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon using Cyber Dragon and Scrap Goblin. He flipped Solemn Warning, and I revived Scrap Beast. My Mind Control then let me take his Bora and make another Scrap Dragon. He bounced it with Brionac on his turn, and still had one card left in hand. I drew another Scrap Chimera, summoned it, and tried to revive Scrap Beast. He dropped D.D. Crow, but I didn't mind. I Set Solemn Warning, and he bounced it with the card he drew. I just Synchro Summoned Scrap Archfiend to take control and win.

So yeah, I went undefeated again and got some store credit. I ended up buying the two Gleipnirs and the Thor I needed to complete the Nordic deck, which I will hopefully be making soon. I just need to figure out what engine to run with it.

Aki, vadangchoinga, and Yusei JB all ended up going X-1, so that was pretty good. Too bad they didn't win anything. By the way, Aki was able to take down two Six Samurai decks, which was pretty cool. He lost to Dragunities, sadly.

So yeah, another good week at the card shop.