Tournament Report 7/30/11

It feels like forever since I've last been to locals. That's probably why I forgot that I only run one Scrap Goblin now... I tried to search for it using Scrapyard after I sided it out in one duel... I need to remember not to side it out anymore...

Anyways, I went with my Scrap Worms, as usual. There were twenty players. Before the tournament, though, I dueled in couple of videos for Yugilo's channel using his deck against Yusei JB using their friend, Erik's deck.

Round 1: vs X-Sabers

This guy knew me from school, so he knew what I was playing and such.

-Duel 1: He Set a XX-Saber Darksoul and four back rows. I took it with Mind Control after summoning Scrap Beast and blew up the field with Black Rose Dragon. That won me the duel, basically.

-Duel 2: I wasn't able to draw any Scrap Tuners. I had to use Forbidden Chalice on my own Cyber Dragon to get over his XX-Saber Hyunlei, but he was able to get through it to kill me.

-Duel 3: I stole his XX-Boggart Knight with Mind Control to Xyz Summon my Utopia. It poked him for a few turns, then died to a Mirror Force. By that time, I was able to draw a Scrap Chimera to go with the Scrap Beast that died to that Boggart Knight, so I was able to control the game with Scrap Dragon from there.

Round 2: vs Junk Doppel

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Lonefire Blossom into Tytannial. I was able to keep pushing back his swarms using Scrap Chimera, but, thanks to Pot of Avarice and Tuning, he had more Junk Synchrons than I had answers.

-Duel 2: I locked him down with Scraps from the start and had Effect Veiler and D.D. Crow to deal with his Monsters. At the end of the duel, with only 1400 LP left, he chucked a Monster to Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron, then played Pot of Avarice. I showed him a D.D. Crow and asked "Do you want to scoop?" Kind of mean, but the answer was yes, since he would've died next turn with nothing but the Quickdraw Synchron to protect him.

-Duel 3: I was able to wear him down pretty well for a while, controlling the field. When I went for game with Scrap Dragon, he flipped Book of Moon to stop the attack. Then he topped Junk Synchron with Doppelwarrior in hand. He summoned the Synchron and attempted to revive Effect Veiler. I Chained Maxx "C". Effect Veiler hit the field; draw a card. He Synchro Summoned T.G. Hyper Librarian; draw a card. He Special Summoned Doppel Tokens; draw a card. He tuned the Veiler to a Token for Formula Synchron. I Chained Effect Veiler to negate Hyper Librarian's effect, then drew a card. He ended there. I drew to seven cards in hand and pushed through his field with a Scrap Chimera and the Dragon that was already on the field, since he declined to attack it for some reason.

Round 3: vs Tengu Scraps

This guy knew I was running Scraps, but he didn't know I was running Worms. He was also pretty annoying.

-Duel 1: He opened with Summoner Monk, discarding Scrapstorm to Special Summon Scrap Beast and Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon. I Set Worm Yagan and two back rows. He attacked and lost his Scrap Dragon to Yagan's effect. Then he Set a back row. I summoned Worm Xex and lost it to Trap Hole. Yeah, just normal Trap Hole. After a while, he played Giant Trunade and went off with a Scrap Chimera. I dropped Cyber Dragon and Scrap Beast to make a Scrap Twin Dragon to run over his Scrap Dragon. He got back a Scrap Goblin, and I re-Set my back rows. He Set two back rows. I activated my Scrap Twin Dragon's effect to target his Goblin and one of the back rows. He used Effect Veiler. I flipped Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy one of the back rows, then flipped Call of the Haunted to revive Cyber Dragon. I summoned another Scrap Beast to make another Scrap Twin Dragon. It destroyed the Call of the Haunted to attempt to bounce his last two cards, but he flipped Scrapstorm. He tried to Special Summon Granel off of the destruction, but it Misses the Timing because Scrapstorm was Chain Link 2. The last thing that happened was Scrap Twin Dragon's effect. And that is why Granel is bad.

-Duel 2: We both opened with quite a few back rows, one of his being Royal Decree. His Reborn Tengu attacked into my Set Worm Yagan, which bounced the Tengu, letting him summon another. I summoned Scrap Chimera so that I could make an Orthros/Scrapstorm play, getting another Chimera to my hand. Then, I Xyz Summoned Utopia with Yagan and Chimera to run over one of the Tengus, which got the third. He Set the Tengu I bounced back. I summoned Scrap Chimera, but it got Veiled, so I Mind Control'd his Set Tengu and flipped it to Xyz Summon my second Utopia. They pushed through the leftover Tengu and were able to successfully beat him down. He tried to do something crazy, using Mystical Space Typhoon on his own Decree so that he could use Compulsory Evacuation Device, but I flipped Dust Tornado, targeting his Set Decree, which he flipped, negating both of our Traps. He would've lost either way.

At this point, there were only three undefeated players: JB, one of his friends, and myself. We agreed to a three-way split. Since the prizes for today's tournament were store credit for the Top 3, from there, we had to arrange our records in a way so that all three of us would be in the Top 3.

Round 4: vs Birdman Diva Tengu

I was playing against JB. We decided to duel first, then decide which one of us would move on to the finals.

-Duel 1: I opened really well, with Worm Xex, Scrap Beast, Scrapstorm, and Scrap Chimera. That basically let me push through whatever he had, so I won.

-Duel 2: I was struggling to get through all of his advantage-gaining engines for most of the duel. Worm Yagan countered Reborn Tengu pretty well, so that was good, but it just let him Xyz Summon Utopia on his next turn. Nearing the end of the duel, he topped the Pot of Avarice he was waiting for, letting him shuffle back three Reborn Tengu into his deck. Unfortunately for me, he drew one, crashing it into my Scrap Chimera, letting him summon another to go for game.

-Duel 3: I wore him down for a while with Thought Ruler Archfiend. After an attack from Scrap Orthros, he dropped Gorz, which I crashed into with Though Ruler. He was able to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon, which was putting pressure on me for a while. I was finally able to set up a safe Scrap Chimera play, letting me crash into his Scrap Dragon with my own. That revived a Scrap Beast which attacked for game.

Round 5: vs Debris Plants

The reason I say Debris Plants and not Tengu Plants is because I didn't see any Reborn Tengu. Anyways, we decided that he would have the win, because he had worse tiebreakers than I did. Regardless, we still dueled; I thought he was running Tengu Plants and I wanted some practice against it.

-Duel 1: I opened with a Scrap Beast so that I could make an Orthros/Scrapstorm play. I drew Giant Trunade, which was good, but no back rows to Set. He opened with Lonefire into Tytannial, which ran over my Scrap Orthros. I summoned Scrap Chimera, but it got Veiled. He summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior (weird, but cool) and attacked with both of his Monsters. I used Dark Hole to clear the board and slowly gained advantage from there with Scrap Dragon. I didn't even draw into my Worms.

-Duel 2: He opened with One for One, discarding Dandylion, for Glow-Up Bulb. That made a Formula Synchron, then he summoned Debris Dragon. I used D.D. Crow to remove the Dandylion. He still had a bunch of advantage on me, and I was forced to use Book of Moon on his Ryko to prevent a Trishula play. I then summoned Scrap Chimera to make Scrap Dragon, which he destroyed with Torrential Tribute. The revived Chimera attacked, and he dropped Gorz. I couldn't get over it after that, and lost.

-Duel 3: He dropped Gorz again after a little while. I was forced to use Solemn Judgment on the Synchro Summon of his Scrap Dragon, since I didn't draw my Warnings all match for some reason. From there, his Gorz attacked my Scrap Beast, but I flipped Scrapstorm to get a Scrap Chimera. I took the direct attack and went down to 350 LP. I then summoned the Chimera, but the Scrap Beast I tried to revive got removed by D.D. Crow. I Set the Book of Moon and Nobleman of Crossout in my hand after considering whether or not to use them at that time. He attacked with Gorz, which I used Book of Moon on, then Set a bluff Foolish Burial, which I destroyed with Dust Tornado. I topped another Scrap Chimera and summoned it to revive another Scrap Beast. I flipped the Crossout and rushed him with my Scraps for game.

So I went undefeated today, but my official ranking was only second place, as I gave my Round 5 opponent the win. It's okay, though, since he gave me the store credit that didn't divide evenly between the three of us.

With that, I was able to get two Super Rare XX-Saber Boggart Knights for the X-Saber deck I'm planning to build once I get some Hidden Arsenal Special Editions. I was also able to get some sleeves and a Meklord Army of Granel (I had a dollar of store credit left, and I had traded away most of the ones I pulled at the Sneak Preview). Also, instead of getting a Turbo Pack 5, since there were out, I got a WoW TCG booster pack. Worldbreaker: War of the Elements, if that means anything to anyone.

So yeah, I was able to do pretty well today. Side Decked triple D.D. Crows really helped.

Response to my Hopes Post

This is the response to the three Anonymous comments on the last post. It can be seen as an extension of that post.

@Anonymous #1

Dark Worlds are still plenty powerful. Gate is a free discard every turn, and, like you said, Snow is good enough to keep them in the meta.

@Anonymous #2

I was leaning more towards Dust Tornado, but yes, that is another alternative. It's just that those cards downsides make it so that they don't just become another copy of Heavy Storm if your opponent only Sets one back row.

@Anonymous #3

Yes, it is what I hope will happen.

Coelacanth is a +3 "barf your deck onto the field" card. It's like the Gateway of the Six for Fish.

Gorz is a huge Monster that is difficult to stop. If it didn't make a potentially huge Token, it might be okay. But, the fact that it can swing games that were otherwise lost by itself, and also how the opponent cannot effectively play around it detracts from skillful play. Personally, I don't care, since Scraps can push through Gorz like it were a Tragoedia, but I think that it should be banned.

Morphing Jar gets rid of Empty Jar and indirectly hits Dark World. While it can be used skillfully, especially if Heavy Storm is legal, it's a huge power card in Dark Worlds. And I'd rather have one less FTK (Empty Jar) in the game, especially since it's pretty difficult to stop.

Dandylion's Tokens are abused too easily through Formula Synchron. And, the Debris Dragon into Black Rose Dragon play would be a lot less horrible if they didn't still have field presence in the Tokens afterwards.

Giant Trunade is harder to negate than Heavy Storm, and doesn't discourage Setting your whole hand.

I explained Mind Control already. If you'd like to explain why you think we should still have it, then we could actually have a discussion about it.

Grapha is infinite +1 recursion.

Judgment Dragon is a field nuke at a minimal cost. You shouldn't have more than one of those.

Rescue Rabbit is part of an OTK combo that makes Shooting Quasar Dragon with Treeborn Frog and Fishborg Blaster. If Fishborg were banned, then I wouldn't mind Rescue Rabbit so much.

Faultroll is easily searchable, so the consistency of the X-Saber swarms is not what I'm after. It's the fact that they can drop two Faultrolls and OTK you in an instant.

Formula Synchron enables too many combos. It lets you turn Tokens or Treeborn Frog into free draws.

Mystical Space Typhoon is for if Heavy Storm is Limited. I shouldn't have to explain this.

Why should Reborn Tengu be Unlimited?

I did play during DAD Return and Tele-DAD. I don't see how that relates to anything.

I think that Konami is too afraid to touch Destiny Draw and Emergency Teleport, but I wouldn't mind either way.

Hopes for the September 2011 Ban List

I might as well, since everyone else is sharing their opinions.

Now, be warned, this isn't a comprehensive list. This is just going to be some of my hopes for what Konami will do with the next ban list.

EDIT: I added Mind Control to Forbidden and provided an explanation for it.

Forbidden:

Dandylion

Fishborg Blaster

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Morphing Jar

Mind Master

Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth

T.G. Hyper Librarian

Card Destruction

Future Fusion

Gateway of the Six

Giant Trunade

Limiter Removal

Mind Control

Monster Reborn

Royal Tribute

Limited:

Archlord Kristya

Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World

Judgment Dragon

Lonefire Blossom

Rescue Rabbit

Treeborn Frog

XX-Saber Faultroll

Formula Synchron

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Heavy Storm

Mystical Space Typhoon

Pot of Avarice

Shien's Smoke Signal

Double-Edged Sword Technique

Solemn Warning

Semi-Limited:

Reborn Tengu

Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier

Nothing for Unlimited

Okay, so I might as well explain the choices that need explaining. So, for the cards I want banned:

Fishborg Blaster and Coelacanth have been abused by so many combos. They just really need to go.

Morphing Jar and Card Destruction are to hit Dark Worlds. They're basically hand destruction cards that let the Dark World player plus a mess load off of their discard effects. Cards shouldn't have that much power.

Gorz promotes bad play more than skillful play. Besides, there are plenty of other cards that work to stop reckless OTK's.

Mind Control basically says "Take one of your opponent's Monsters, use its effect to ravage them, then use it as a Synchro/Xyz Material." I wouldn't mind so much if it was only limited to face-up Monsters, but it's not. I mean, I've gotten a huge plus stealing a Set Super-Nimble Mega Hamster to Special Summon my own Ryko and Synchro for Scrap Dragon. That was pretty game-breaking. Not that this is very relevant, but Flip Effect Monsters are weak enough as it is.

You shouldn't be rewarded a win just because you opened with Future Fusion, Gateway, Royal Tribute, or Limiter Removal.

And for the cards I want Limited:

Grapha is a huge beater that is a plus-1 just for summoning it. It basically turns all of your Dark World wienies into 2700 ATK floaters...

The limit on Judgment Dragon and XX-Saber Faultroll is long overdue.

Treeborn Frog shouldn't have left the Limited list. Its main weakness is that if it's banished, it's gone for good. However, in combination with Swap Frog, you can just dump another one and continue on. Really, if it weren't for Swap Frog, I'd be fine with Treeborn Frog at three. Maybe I should call for the limit of Swap Frog instead...

The cards I want Semi-Limited, as well as the rest of the cards that I didn't bother explaining should be pretty self-explanatory. Everyone else has already explained many of my choices for me, so yeah... If you have any questions and such, feel free to leave them in the comments.

I will speak a little bit on the whole Heavy Storm thing, though. I'm on the side that believes that people shouldn't just be setting their entire hand to the back row. After playing without Heavy Storm for so long, it feels as though I've lost the ability to determine which and how many cards I could safely Set to the back row. We don't really have to think about it at all anymore; I can just Set all of my Quick-Play Spells, Traps, and even some bluffed Normal Spells to the back row and not care.

Others might say that it takes skill to be able to read your opponent's back rows and be able to play around them. But really, if all of their four/five back rows are live Traps, it wastes a lot of your cards and LP to just try and push through them. Your only effective answers are Giant Trunade or copying your opponent.

Personally, I find it more challenging to try and see what my opponent would do next turn, and Set back rows accordingly. That's why I want Heavy Storm back.

There is one thing that caught my eye, though. Someone on Pojo had the idea of bringing back Heavy Storm, but banning Mystical Space Typhoon. His argument was that MST is basically another Heavy Storm if you haven't already played your Heavy Storm, since people will only Set one card. So, with MST banned, you would be forced to play inferior alternatives like Dust Tornado and Nobleman of Crossout. I can't say that I disagree. I would actually be pleasantly surprised if Konami actually did that...

Side Decking against T.G.'s

As I stated, I wasn't able to go to locals last weekend because I was busy all last week. But, I'd assume that a bunch of people would want to start playing T.G.'s because they did well at the North American World Championship Qualifiers. So, I've been trying to figure out what to side against them.

The most obvious thing is Forbidden Lance. It protects your Monsters from stuff like Dimensional Prison or TG1-EM1, of course, and it also counters Horn of the Phantom Beast amazingly. They lose the 800 ATK boost because their Monster isn't affected by the Equip, then they lose another 800 ATK. As long as you're not playing Junk Doppel/Tengu Plants/whatever you want to call it, you should have Monsters with decent enough ATK to get over a 1200 ATK T.G. Rush Rhino.

That takes care of the main problem, which would be getting around Horn of the Phantom Beast and some other Traps, but that still lets them search out more T.G.'s. For that, we could use Thunder King Rai-Oh. It gets over all of the T.G.'s if they aren't boosted by Horn of the Phantom Beast, which is pretty good. I mean, it's not like they'll have it all of the time, and you can easily run a bunch of counters to it.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work for me. I'd rather not side Monsters against a deck that is specifically built to kill or otherwise get rid of every Monster it comes up against. So, there's Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos. It removes the T.G.'s from play so that they can't search in the End Phase. What's sad is that this isn't very effective for most decks.

From what I've seen, Trap Stun can be pretty effective at getting through half of a T.G. Trap line-up. It stops TG1-EM1, Dimensional Prison, Horn of the Phantom Beast, and the non-Counter staple Traps. It doesn't stop Horn of the Phantom Beast during the Damage Step, though, so Trap Stun probably isn't the best option for most decks.

There's actually one more card that I've picked up to combat T.G. decks. They usually use King Tiger Wanghu, which is sometimes used with Burden of the Mighty. However, if Wanghu is summoned and the opponent has Burden up, Wanghu would kill itself. Neat, I know. Which is why Burden can be used to hurt T.G. decks, lowering their Monsters' ATK even if they don't use Wanghu. I mean, it's not like they have a back row-wiping card... (No, T.G. Wonder Magician doesn't count; it only hits one card)

Now, normally, I wouldn't care that much about another Stun deck entering the format. I mean, Stun is generally pretty weak, especially against my Scrap deck. But, T.G.'s are different. I can't just Smashing Ground their Monsters or run them over with Cyber Dragon. Not only do they have Horn of the Phantom Beast to counter my attacks, their Monsters search out replacements when they're destroyed.

This means that you have to use some "specialized" cards to effectively stop T.G.'s from searching. Of course, we have Solemn Warning, but you only get two of those, and they're needed (absolutely necessary) to stop Reborn Tengu from hitting the field. Dimensional Prison is commonly played in Stun decks, and is pretty good at removing T.G.'s from play. And, Bottomless Trap Hole has been picking up popularity again, and works against about a third of the T.G. Monster line-up.

When using the latter two cards, you have to play around TG1-EM1. The main thing is to not have a Monster on the field when you activate these cards. Kind of like how you don't commit more than one card to the field if you fear an Icarus Attack or Gemini Spark.

This is all mainly for my Scrap deck, but I can't really figure out much else that would be effective against T.G.'s. If anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate suggestions.

Tournament Report 7/17/11

Luckily, I was able to go to locals today. I wasn't able to go last weekend, and I won't be able to go next weekend. How sad. Anyways, I took my Scrap Worms deck, which I modified for the advent of T.G. Hyper Librarian. Basically, I just crammed three D.D. Crows into the Side Deck to go with the three Effect Veilers that were split between the Main and Side Decks.

Before the tournament started, I talked to my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. I helped him a little bit with his Side Deck, recommending Chaos Trap Holes, since he doesn't have Solemn Warning.

A lot of the better players were at Nationals, but there were still plenty of decent/good players there. No Junk Doppel or Tengu Plants, surprisingly, but there was Fish FTK.

Round 1: vs Karakuri

-Duel 1: I locked his swarms down and killed him with Scrap Dragon after he wasted most of his cards.

-Duel 2: Pushed a little bit of damage through for a while, then I let him swarm. With that, I used Cyber Dragon to fuse for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon (using his Burei and Bureido) and dropped Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast and take out the rest of his LP.

Round 2: vs Fish FTK

I knew that this guy was playing Fish FTK, and I knew that he wasn't very good at it, so I played accordingly from the beginning.

-Duel 1: He went first, went through two Upstart Goblin and two Moray of Greed, but still didn't have the FTK. I summoned Worm Xex to push through some damage. He Set a random Monster to defend himself, and I summoned Scrap Beast to go into Scrap Dragon and run through it. But then, he used Giant Trunade and successfully pulled off the Trishula loop. So, I lost.

-Duel 2: I opened with a Maxx "C" in my starting hand, which made me feel at least a little safer if he were to pull off his combo. Either way, I made the Worm Xex play and Set my Spells/Traps to my back row. He used Gold Sarcophagus for Giant Trunade and Set Treeborn Frog. I summoned Scrap Beast and flipped Worm Yagan, tuning them together for Avenging Knight Parshath. It pierced the Frog for 2500 damage, then Worm Xex attacked directly. He revived the Frog on his turn and Set Oystermeister. I flipped a bluff Scrapyard to search a Scrap Beast and summon it to Synchro for Scrap Dragon. I destroyed the Oystermeister with its effect, and switched the Token it made to Attack Position. Scrap Dragon could run through it and Parshath could pierce the Treeborn Frog for game. Avenging Knight Parshath really puts in work.

-Duel 3: He went first, using Foolish Burial to dump Coelacanth. He summoned Oystermeister and activated Monster Reborn. I was lucky enough to have opened with a D.D. Crow to remove Coelacanth, and he didn't have the D.D.R. So, he used Hand Destruction to throw away the rest of his hand in an attempt to draw it. That failed, and even if he did draw it, he wouldn't have had enough cards in his hand to use Coelacanth's effect. So, I just cleaned up what was left with the usual Scrap shenanigans.

Round 3: vs Twilight

I was up against vadangchoinga. He was kind of upset, since he expected to lose to me, but he's playing Lightsworn, so anything could happen.

-Duel 1: He opened with two Judgment Dragons and milled two Wulfs over the course of the duel. I did not draw any Solemn Warnings, Effect Veilers, Scrap Chimeras, or Scrapstorms, so it was an uphill battle that I wasn't able to win. I was able to bluff like I had protection, but it doesn't matter when you're able to push through it with Judgment Dragons.

-Duel 2: Again, I didn't draw anything at all to stop his Lightsworn plays. And, to top it off, when he already had enough damage for game with Chaos Sorcerer on the field, he topped Dark Armed Dragon with three Darks in his Graveyard. Yeah...

Round 4: vs Newbie Naturia

I was playing against a little kid, which was kind of sad. I won 2-0, of course...

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. He didn't want to play against me, expecting to lose, so he gave me the win. Yay, I guess.

So yeah, I had a 4-1 record and got a Hobby League Parallel Rare Dark Dust Spirit. For some reason, I had no Dark Dust Spirits before, so I decided to just go and get one. The Turbo Pack 5 I got for entering was bad. The Rare was Zoma the Spirit, which I already have a holo play-set of...

Anyways, vadangchoinga ended up winning the box of Extreme Victory, but I don't think he pulled anything good. Kind of sad. It ended up being the opposite for me, though. While he was lucky in his duels, I was lucky with my pulls; I bought eight packs of The Shining Darkness at a good price in an attempt to pull Batteryman AAA. I only had two of those for some reason, and I was fortunate enough to pull a third one. I also got a Core Overclock, Bird of Roses, Infernity Mirage, Synchro Ejection, an Ultra Rare Chaos King Archfiend, and an Ultimate Rare XX-Saber Darksoul!

So, when XX-Saber Emmersblade is reprinted in the Hidden Arsenal Special Edition, I'll be able to make my own X-Saber deck. Also, I was able to get the Xyz Starter Decks, so I'll be able to start using Xyz Monsters next week.

By the way, Aki and I should be making more videos tomorrow, but there won't be any new duel videos until next Monday, since I'll be busy all week, which is why I can't go to locals next weekend. There will be STORM Monday videos, though. So yeah.

Random Stuff #33

I went to pick up some of the Xyz Starter Decks at the smaller card shop. They didn't have them, sadly... So, now I'll have to get them on Sunday and make the next STORM Monday video that night so that I can upload it on Monday. How sad.

So yeah, other than that, not much new in the land of Yu-Gi-Oh. I guess that it's kind of news that Kristya is getting reprinted as a promo in one of the ZEXAL tins. Hopefully Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo will be in the other tin; I'd like to be able to own some without wasting a bunch of money.

While I was at the smaller card shop, I was also planning on getting some of the WoW TCG Starter Decks. But, since they would've been brought by the same people who would've brought the Xyz Starter Decks, I couldn't get any of those, either. Maybe next week...

I've finally gotten up to the Elite Four in Pokemon White. All of my Pokemon are kind of weak, though, so I need to level each of them up like ten times. And, I got a Beartic in order to beat Iris, but I ended up killing two of her Pokemon with Excadrill, so that was kind of a waste. I might drop Beartic from the team, now. I have no idea of what I should get to replace it with, though.

One of my friends recommended a Psychic Pokemon, since one of the Elite Four has a Fighting-Type team that also have Rock-Type moves. The specific one he recommended was Reuniclus, but I was thinking about going with Sigilyph, since Reuniclus is really slow. I guess Sigilyph also dies to Rock-Type attacks, but Reuniclus would be taking damage every turn, anyway.

So yeah, I'm almost done with the game, as far as I know. I mean, I have no idea what other plot events would happen after I beat the Elite Four, N, and the Champion. Anyways, after I'm done with the game, I'll start EV training my Pokemon and make an actual good team. So yeah.

Pokemon White Version

Before anyone complains, this is going to be a Pokemon post. So, if you don't care about Pokemon, don't feel obligated to read. There is some stuff pertaining to Yu-Gi-Oh at the end, though.

So, I've been playing Pokemon White in my spare time (basically whenever my DS isn't on the charger) recently. It's quite addictive.

My main problem with this new generation is how ugly and/or cheesy some of the new Pokemon are. I saw Pidove and Tranquill in the anime, and hoping that the third stage would turn out to be as cool as Staraptor, I made an effort to catch a Pidove and train it as early as I could. It turned out to be a pretty good tank as a Tranquill. I just gave it an Eviolite and had it learn Roost, so it could chip away at opponents with Air Cutter and Quick Attack while taking their attacks like a beast. But then, it evolved into an Unfezant... I found out that there's a gender difference between the two, but regardless, they're both so ugly... I might drop it from the team because it's just so horrible to look at...

I mean, there are plenty of good candidates. It would just have to fit in with the current team, which is:

Samurott (it's the least ugly of all of the starters)

Excadrill

Galvantula (it's like the Rotom of Gen V!)

Lilligant (it reminds me of the Jumpluff that I had in Pokemon Colosseum; probably because I gave it basically the same move-set)

And of course Unfezant is part of the team for now, along with an HM slave.

So yeah, I just need some Pokemon to fill its niche as a Flying type. I was thinking of using Emolga, but I have the awesome Galvantula as my Electric Pokemon. Besides, having to kill the two most annoying Emolga in the fourth gym was horrible. They kept Volt Switching, so I couldn't pin one down...

I wanted to use Braviary since I saw a picture of it before the game came out, but apparently you only get it right before the Elite Four. How silly. Conveniently, it learns Fly, Cut, Strength, and Rock Smash, so I could grab one to use as an HM slave for later. Then, I could get a Frillish to have Surf, Waterfall, Dive, and Flash. Yay, I guess.

So yeah, Galvantula is awesome. Having only two weaknesses is pretty good, and it has a cool type combination with a clever name. Joltik is also pretty neat, too. In the Chargestone Cave, I was basically catching every Joltik I ran into, since I want to have one for a competitive team after the game.

Let me finish by apologizing for the lack of Yu-Gi-Oh posts. There hasn't been much interesting going on recently that hasn't been done to death. Besides, I'm saving some of the more interesting topics for my STORM Monday videos. I've already got the next one planned out. It's going to be about a card in the new Starter Deck. I'd bet none of you could guess which one...

STORM Mondays - Priority

This is my first STORM Monday video in collaboration with TheYugiohElite. The other channel, on which I'll be uploading these videos, is LiteGrunty (clever, no?). More info on that channel.

Here's the video description, because whoever uploaded it neglected to put it on the video:

Hey people, this is LightGrunty with the first of my STORM Monday videos in collaboration with TheYugiohElite. The link to my second channel, where I will be uploading these weekly videos, is here:
www.youtube.com/user/LiteGrunty

Making this video helped me understand why so many people are so confused with the game mechanic of priority; it can be pretty complicated to explain. So, for a further explanation, be sure to visit this post on my blog:
http://lightgrunty.blogspot.com/2010/02/priority.html

And, here's the explanation of the OCG priority ruling change:
http://lightgrunty.blogspot.com/2011/02/ocg-priority-rule-change.html

This is my first STORM Monday video, so feel free to offer suggestions or constructive criticism.

Random Stuff #32

More random stuff. Yay...?

I finished Okami and started Pokemon White. I bought it a few days ago, but opted not to start playing until I finished Okami. I was going to go to a tournament today, but not enough people showed up at the smaller card shop, so there was no tournament. I got two janky packs of Turbo Pack 4, and I also bought a Super Rare XX-Saber Boggart Knight for later.

I might be going to a tournament tomorrow with Aki, or possibly on Sunday. But, chances are I won't be able to go on either day. So, sorry to the Anonymous that I met there and also to Yugilo. I'll try to be there next weekend.

Seeing the surprising turnout of Machina Gadgets in the Singapore World Championship Qualifiers kind of makes me want to play Machina. Machina Fortress is a very good card, and I really like cards that I can Special Summon easily. I just hate it when my turn ends because my Normal Summon is interrupted. That was the appeal in the old Quickdraw-based deck that I used to use, despite its inconsistency.

I can't wait for Xyz to come out. Not only can I use them in my Scrap deck, but I've had a bunch of decks that I've wanted to use them in. Even with the two Xyz from the Starter Deck (Grenosaurus doesn't even count), they're so flexible that they can be used in a variety of different decks. It's too bad we have to wait for Nationals to be over before we can use them.

Of course, I can't not talk about the Pot of Duality reprint. I don't really care, since I didn't waste much money on DREV (I actually won a bunch of packs at locals, which is how I pulled the Pot of Duality that I traded for two Solemn Warnings). And, if Konami decides to do something silly like hit Pot of Duality on the ban list, we'll know before we invest money on the tins. Quite nice. I was going to get the tins anyway, since I wanted Leviathan Dragons and Wind-Up Zenmaisters (I've been looking into Wind-Ups, and they have potential); the additional promos are just extra incentive. It's kind of horrible that the North American tins have Hidden Arsenal 4 instead of Generation Force, but whatever.

Fair D's Format

Allows sets up to:

Starter Deck Duelist Toolbox
Structure Deck Lost Sanctuary
Extreme Victory
Duelist Pack: Crow
Hidden Arsenal 4
Premium Pack 13 (OCG)


Modified March 2011 Ban List (modified cards in color)


Forbidden:

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
Cyber Jar
Cyber-Stein
Dark Magician of Chaos
Dark Strike Fighter
Destiny HERO - Disk Commander
Fiber Jar
Goyo Guardian
Magical Scientist
Magician of Faith
Makyura the Destructor
Rescue Cat
Sinister Serpent
Substitoad
Thousand-Eyes Restrict
Tribe-Infecting Virus
Tsukuyomi
Victory Dragon
Witch of the Black Forest
Yata-Garasu

Brain Control
Butterfly Dagger - Elma
Card of Safe Return
Change of Heart
Cold Wave
Confiscation
Delinquent Duo
Dimension Fusion
Graceful Charity
Harpie's Feather Duster
Last Will
Mass Driver
Metamorphosis
Mirage of Nightmare
Painful Choice
Pot of Greed
Premature Burial
Raigeki
Snatch Steal
Temple of the Kings
The Forceful Sentry

Crush Card Virus
Exchange of the Spirit
Imperial Order
Last Turn
Ring of Destruction
Time Seal

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Dandylion
Fishborg Blaster
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
Mind Master
Morphing Jar
Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Gateway of the Six
Giant Trunade
Mind Control
Monster Reborn
Magical Explosion
Royal Oppression
Trap Dustshoot



Limited:

Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
Dark Armed Dragon
Elemental HERO Stratos
Exodia the Forbidden One
Gladiator Beast Bestiari
Honest
Left Arm of the Forbidden One
Left Leg of the Forbidden One
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Marshmallon
Necroface
Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
Night Assailant
Plaguespreader Zombie
Right Arm of the Forbidden One
Right Leg of the Forbidden One
Sangan

Advanced Ritual Art
Allure of Darkness
Black Whirlwind
Book of Moon
Burial from a Different Dimension
Card Destruction
Charge of the Light Brigade
Dark Hole
Destiny Draw
Foolish Burial
Future Fusion
Infernity Launcher
Level Limit - Area B
Limiter Removal
Monster Gate
One for One
Reasoning
Reinforcement of the Army
Scapegoat
Swords of Revealing Light

Call of the Haunted
Ceasefire
Gravity Bind
Mind Crush
Mirror Force
Return from the Different Dimension
Solemn Judgment
The Transmigration Prophecy
Torrential Tribute
Wall of Revealing Light

Archlord Kristya
Formula Synchron
Judgment Dragon
Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En
T.G. Hyper Librarian
Treeborn Frog
XX-Saber Faultroll
Heavy Storm
Mystical Space Typhoon
Pot of Avarice
Rekindling
Royal Tribute
Shien's Smoke Signal
Double-Edged Sword Technique
Solemn Warning



Semi-Limited:

Card Trooper
Debris Dragon
Destiny HERO - Malicious
Lonefire Blossom
Reborn Tengu
Spirit Reaper

Chain Strike
Magical Stone Excavation
Megamorph
Overload Fusion

Bottomless Trap Hole
Icarus Attack
Magic Cylinder
Ojama Trio

Chaos Sorcerer
Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier
Mezuki
Necro Gardna
Summoner Monk
Tragoedia
Emergency Teleport

Random Stuff #31

Today's the day that ends the nice(ish) format that we've been, um, enjoying in the TCG. Yeah, T.G. Hyper Librarian is now legal, so we'll have to deal with it for the rest of the format. I think I'll main Smashing Grounds for that...

Anyway, I've been thinking about a deck that uses Batteryman AAA for easy Xyz Materials. And, to search them out, I was thinking about playing Resonator Engine. So, after using Resonators for Synchros, I could search out Batteryman AAA for an Xyz. That's the plan, anyway. I doubt that it'll be that easy, but it's an interesting concept and should be fun to try out.

For those of you who don't watch underworld6667 and drakoDMD's videos, they selected me as one of five people (which also includes LFN) to post weekly videos in connection with their The Yu-Gi-Oh Elite group. I agreed, so I'm set to start posting videos this upcoming Monday. So yeah, more info when the time comes...

The reason I didn't post a video yesterday was because I was sorting all of my random cards. I'm still not done sorting all of them, but everything since The Duelist Genesis is sorted. You all probably don't care, though; just giving you a reason as to why there was no duel video yesterday.

I'm almost done with the Okami video game. I've got a couple of Stray Beads to get before the final boss, and both of them require me to go through those Devil Gate trial things. I already did the first one, and it wasn't too bad; I just died twice, but when you have four full Astral Pouches, it doesn't really matter.

Lastly, to the Anonymous I met last Sunday, I found a Trident Warrior, if you still need it. I'll bring it to locals this Sunday. Also, please check the comments section of the previous post.

Tournament Report 7/3/11

As stated at the end of the last post, I was able to go to another tournament this weekend. Pretty nice.

I went with my Scrap Worms deck, of course. There were quite a few people there; I think it was around 34 players.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about how I spent (wasted, really) a bunch of money on Duel Terminal 5 again. With Rescue Rabbit coming out, I thought that I should get play-sets of all of the Normal Gem-Knights, as I only had gotten a play-set of Garnet before. Unfortunately, I only pulled one more Sapphire, making two each of that and Tourmaline. I did get a Topaz and two Aquamarine, so that's not bad. I also got a third Gem-Knight Fusion and a third Gem Merchant.

Round 1: vs Lost Sanctuary Structure Deck

Right out of the box. Yeah, I won.

Round 2: vs Naturia

-Duel 1: I wasted my Dimensional Prison dealing with Tytannial, but then she dropped Naturia Beast, and I had no outs to it at all. I didn't even draw into Worm Yagan or Scrap Chimera...

-Duel 2: I controlled the duel pretty thoroughly from the beginning, getting a bunch of pluses off of killing wienies like Spore and Naturia Pumpkin in battle. Scrap Dragon finished it, of course.

-Duel 3: She started with a Set Dandylion and a couple back rows. Scrap Beast ran over the Dandylion, and I Set a few back rows. She Set Naturia Cliff and ended. I used Scrapstorm on my Scrap Beast to get Chimera to my hand. I Summoned it to revive the Beast and run over both of the Tokens and Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon, which got hit by Compulsory Evacuation Device. On her turn, she Tribute Summoned Naturia Bambooshoot and negated my Solemn Warning with Solemn Judgment. After the direct attack, we were both left at 4000 LP, and she Set another back row. I had another Chimera, so I Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon and destroyed my Set Scrapstorm and the Bambooshoot to make sure it would be off of the field. Unfortunately, I attacked into a Dimensional Prison. She Set a Monster and ended. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and Normal Summoned Scrap Goblin. That made Avenging Knight Parshath, which pierced through her Set Sangan for 2000 damage. Still in the Battle Phase, I revived Cyber Dragon with Call of the Haunted to go for game.

Round 3: vs Tour Guide Resonators

I was playing against Yugilo once again. He agreed to give me the win regardless of the result of the match, which was filmed for his channel.

Round 4: vs Stun

My opponent was someone who I saw practically every time I went to this card shop, but I don't remember ever facing him in a duel.

-Duel 1: He opened with Rai-Oh and five back rows. I opened with Forbidden Chalice, Fiendish Chain, Giant Trunade, Scrapstorm, Book of Moon, and Call of the Haunted. Yeah, I didn't draw a Monster for three turns, which was enough for him to kill me.

-Duel 2: I opened Worm Xex, Worm Yagan, Scrap Beast, Scrap Goblin, Mind Control, and Scrap Orthros. I made the Worm Xex play and Set Mind Control as a bluff. Worm Xex got killed by Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, and he Set two back rows.. I Mind Control'd the Gale and Flip Summoned Worm Yagan, both of which died to Torrential Tribute. I Set another Worm Yagan, and the Scrapyard I drew as a bluff. He summoned D.D. Warrior Lady and used it to remove my Worm Yagan. I drew another Worm Xex (a little late, ya'know), and summoned it to thin my deck of the third one. It got removed by Dimensional Prison. He passed, I drew Scrap Chimera and summoned Scrap Beast to attack. He used Giant Trunade to clear my bluffed back row, then Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and Normal Summoned Banisher of the Radiance. They killed and removed my Scrap Beast, sadly. I Set back down my Scrapyard, the Seven Tools I just drew, and some Monster. He switched Cyber Dragon to Defense Position, then used Neo-Spacian Grand Mole to bounce my Monster. I summoned Scrap Chimera to run over the Cyber Dragon. He used Smashing Ground on the Chimera, then summoned Rai-Oh to go for game.

Wow, first duel: no Monsters; second duel: all-Monsters. Not fun.

Round 5: vs Newbie Debris Junk Doppel

The first thing this guy said when we sat down was "You're not allowed to use Japanese cards", which was in response to seeing my Soaring Eagle Above the Searing Land (紅蓮地帯を飛ぶ鷹) cards, which I used as Tokens. It was kind of annoying, since he had a Japanese Shooting Quasar Dragon on top of his Extra Deck for show as well. And, constantly, throughout the match, he kept trying to rush me. So, I played pretty coldly towards him. It also helped that I had the perfect hands to counter his hands. In the first duel, I controlled the game with Stardust Dragon (he tried to Black Rose while it was out...) and Scrap Dragon. In the second duel, I controlled the game with Stardust Dragon, and finished him off with Avenging Knight Parshath, piercing through his Dandylion and Fluff Tokens.

Anyway, I got a Hobby League Parallel Rare Nobleman of Crossout for having a 4-1 record; I gave it to Yugilo, since I didn't really need it. I also got nothing good out of the Turbo Pack 5 (Cyber Eltanin, ehh...).

I was able to meet one of the Anonymous people who read my blog. You know who you are. We talked for a while about Scraps and other such things, like Gem-Knights. So yeah, that was pretty cool.

Tournament Report 7/1/11

I was able to go to a tournament at the smaller card shop today. Of course, I took my Scrap Worms.

However, I was able to get in some test duels with the new T.G./Genex deck I had been working on. It did okay against Agent Fairies and X-Sabers. I'm still working on it, of course.

There were only twelve players there today, and the majority of them were newbs...

Round 1: vs Newbie Gladiator Beasts

He kept complaining that I wouldn't attack into his Magic Cylinders or Dimensional Prisons... Of course, I just waited and picked off his back rows one at a time with Scrap Dragon, and when he ran out, I went for game.

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

-Duel 1: I opened with Worm Yagan and a Set Dimensional Prison. That banished his Ehren so I wouldn't have to deal with it. Next turn, I went for Scrap Dragon, and the turn after that, I made a Stardust Dragon, thanks to Call of the Haunted. They were backed by a Solemn Warning and Forbidden Chalice, so there wasn't anything he could do.

-Duel 2: I pulled off the same set-up with Stardust Dragon and Scrap Dragon, this time with the help of Scrap Chimera. Stardust Dragon died to Gale, though, since I didn't want to waste my Set Solemn Warning on it. From there, I basically ran him through with Scrap Dragon.

Round 3: vs X-Sabers

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. By the way, we agreed to a split.

-Duel 1: I wasted all of his Traps and was able to kill him with Scrap Twin Dragon.

-Duel 2: He OTK'd me with Cyber Dragon, two XX-Saber Boggart Knights, and a Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo.

-Duel 3: A few turns into the duel, he had Rai-Oh and a back row. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, which he let through. I Normal Summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast. I then Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon, which he negated with Rai-Oh. That let me revive Scrap Goblin, which I tuned to my Cyber Dragon for another Scrap Dragon. I Set a Solemn Warning and destroyed it an his last back row, then attacked. I was sitting safe behind a Scrap Dragon, two Set back rows (Solemn Warning and Forbidden Chalice) with a Scrap Chimera and Mind Control in hand. He had no Traps, so he just Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and Set XX-Saber Emmersblade. I summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Goblin. I tried to destroy the Chimera to destroy the Set Emmersblade, but he negated it with Effect Veiler. So, I used Mind Control to take his Cyber Dragon to Synchro Summon another Scrap Dragon and go through with my plan. He didn't have Gorz, so I was able to go for game that turn.

Round 4: vs Machina Geartown

This guy's deck was kind of, uh, inconsistent. I think that he made it this far because he was paired against newbs in the last three rounds.

In both duels, I just saved my Cyber Dragon so that I could fuse for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon when I could get rid of the most Machina Fortresses. In the second game, I could play a little more recklessly, since I actually drew my Scrap Chimeras (all three of them throughout the course of the game, actually).

So, I went undefeated and got 1st place. I won five Turbo Pack 5's in addition to the one I got for entering. My Round 3 opponent got 2nd place, so he won three. So, for the split we agreed to, I let him take one of my Turbo Packs, we we each ended up with five total. I pulled two Puppet Plants, a Zoma the Spirit, a Wulf, and the Super Rare Laquari. I'll probably trade it or something. A notable Common was Black Salvo; I finally pulled one.

So yeah, I'm probably going to go to another tournament at the usual card shop on Sunday.