Dark Worlds

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make blog posts this week. I haven't even had time to watch videos on YouTube until last night. And, having watched all of Michael Bonacini's Dark World videos, it makes me want to play Dark Worlds when they come out.

I mean, all of the complex plays that the deck can pull off and how it forces you to find the best order in which to make certain moves makes the deck seem very challenging to play, which I like. The deck can also be teched out fairly easily, which means that at least some creativity in deck building is rewarded.

There's just three problems I have with the deck...

It's too dependent on Grapha. If you don't draw or can't search out Grapha, then you can't really accomplish anything against faster decks. Also, that means that if your Grapha(s) get banished, you can't really do much. You can still gain a bunch of advantage with discard effects, but it's empty advantage.

It's too easy to Side Deck against Dark Worlds; banish the Graphas and you win. D.D. Crow, Debunk, Soul Release, Crevice Into the Different Dimension, Kycoo, Dimensional Fissure, Dimensional Prison, and such are viable Side Deck cards that can wreck Grapha. There's also stuff like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Consecrated Light, but those aren't really as good against these newer builds that only use one Dark World Lightning...

What is perhaps the worst thing about the deck is the mirror match. In the Dark World mirror match, you can't use Card Destruction, Morphing Jar, Dark World Dealings, or Dragged Down into the Grave (okay, maybe you can use Dragged Down if your opponent is incompetent...). So your only discard outlets become Gate, Lightning, and possibly Raven. Unfortunately, Gate can be destroyed by an opposing Gate.

Siding into additional Lightnings may be a decent idea, as your opponent could be Setting all of your Spells/Traps to avoid Dragged Down, making Lightning more live. But still, you'd be depending on like six cards to function as your discard outlets, and while Gate can be used more than once, it probably won't live that long.

Even with these problems, I'm still going to try out the deck. The thing is that I haven't quite yet figured out what type of build I would use. I don't have Tour Guides or Fabled Ravens, so those are out of the question. Any other build is plausible, though. I'd definitely use Dragged Down, since it's amazing, but I've been pondering about how to build the deck from there.

I'm thinking a Stun-esque build so that I can win without Grapha, on the off chance that I can't access it. I'd probably use Dimensional Prisons and other Stun cards to support the Level 4 Dark Worlds, which are decent beaters (like Scraps...). This would probably lessen the problem with the mirror match, but we'll have to see...

Tournament Report 9/24/11

As usual, I went to locals today with my T.G. Zombies deck. I just changed a few Side Deck cards, such as adding Rai-Ohs and a second Chain Disappearance.

There were about twenty people there today. Not much else to talk about...

Round 1: vs Newbie Dragunities

-Duel 1: He used Dux to get Phalanx, then dropped Inferno Reckless Summon to enable him to make Red Nova Dragon. On my turn, I dropped Striker, Warwolf, and Tengu to make Trishula, removing the last card in his hand and his Dragon Ravine. Then, I Creature Swapped him my Tengu to take his Red Nova. Yeah, he couldn't do much top-decking.

-Duel 2: He didn't draw his Dragon Ravine, so he lost.

Round 2: vs The Deck Formerly Known as Tengu Plants

Seriously, there's only four Plants now. And, this was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I stopped his Sangan search by stealing it with Mind Control and overlaying it with my Spirit Reaper (after ripping a card out of his hand) for Leviair. After that died, I made a Revived King Ha Des, Steelswarm Roach, and Creature Swapped his Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. He didn't have the Dark Hole, so I won.

-Duel 2: I had complete control of the whole game. I had like four cards on him for most of the duel, and he couldn't do anything that I didn't have an answer to. I was holding an Effect Veiler, a D.D. Crow, and a Maxx "C" in my six-card hand, but I didn't even need to use them.

Round 3: vs Lightsworn

I was up against vadangchoinga this round. I would say that his deck is a Twilight deck, but he told me that he only ran one Chaos Sorcerer.

-Duel 1: I killed the first two Judgment Dragons, but died to Black Luster Soldier and its double attack.

-Duel 2: Trishula removed a bunch of his cards, and Rai-Oh protected me from his Chaos Sorcerer, since he forgot to summon Jain to run it over first.

-Duel 3: I attacked his Set Necro Gardna with Rai-Oh, then directly with T.G. Rush Rhino. He dropped Gorz and its Token. He summoned Glow-Up Bulb, and I was forced to use Torrential Tribute, as I had a Light-Imprisoning Mirror active. He used Monster Reincarnation to take back the Gorz. I just kept Setting Monsters to build up my field, and he kept passing to keep that Gorz live. I ended up making a Trishula, but I missed the Gorz, so I kept building up my field. After that, I made a Decisive Armor. He had drawn into a Wulf and a Judgment Dragon with only two Lightsworn in the Graveyard and 4150 LP. So, Decisive Armor's third effect would've killed him if he dropped Gorz (the Kaien Token is Light), but Decisive Armor's attack would've killed him if he didn't drop Gorz. Ally of Justice Decisive Armor is amazing.

Round 4: vs Stun

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. There were only three undefeated players left, so we agreed to a split. We assumed that the third undefeated player would lose this round, letting this be the finals.

-Duel 1: I got run over by Rai-Oh and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. If it were one or the other, it'd be fine, but it had to be both. So, I lost this duel, but it didn't matter, since I side into anti-Stun...

-Duel 2: I drew all of my Mystical Space Typhoons to pick off his back rows as he Set them. Rai-Oh and Tengu were able to control the duel with that, and Trishula finished him off.

-Duel 3: I was able to control the duel with Monsters, slowly picking away at his LP. His Dimensional Fissure was pretty useless, since I didn't even use my Zombies.

Okay, so the third undefeated player, who was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament, ended up "winning" the previous round. In actuality, his Round 4 opponent gave him the win... So, I reluctantly decided to split with him...

Round 5: vs Watts

-Duel 1: I simply beat him down with Zombies, then dropped Trishula to finish him off.

-Duel 2: I build up my field while under Swords of Revealing Light so that I could OTK him after it wore off, using Trap Stun to stop his Rivalry of Warlords and Gozen Match.

That finals was a joke, since he didn't really deserve to be there. But, I guess that luck plays a huge factor in a children's card game like this...

Regardless, I got 1st place and some store credit, which I used to get a Generation Force: Special Edition pack, pulling a Spore, which I was going for. In the packs themselves, I pulled a Super Crashbug (Yugilo, you can have it if you decide to play Crashbugs again) and an Ultra Rare Wind-Up Zenmaister. It's really cool, but it's too bad I'll never find a use for it...

After the tournament, I hung out with vadangchoinga and another friend (my Round 3 opponent from this tournament). I arranged a trade with vadangchoinga, then played a match against my other friend.

In the first duel, I dropped Decisive Armor, but it got Veiled. On the next turn, he made a Black Rose Dragon to destroy the field, which left him with four Fairies in grave. That let him drop Kristya and get back Hyperion. Unfortunately for him, that Black Rose Dragon play got me two Goblin Zombie searches, which got me a Spirit Reaper and my third Goblin Zombie. Even worse for him is that I drew Pot of Duality for my turn, getting me a Creature Swap. With no other cards to deal with that, he scooped.

In the second duel, I made a Trishula, which got Veiled. Later in the duel, I made Decisive Armor. Since I had more than one card in my hand, I went through the unnecessary actions of making a Brionac using the extra cards in my hand before discarding the last card in my hand for Decisive Armor's third effect. He ended up having a Hyperion, Kristya, and Honest in hand with only 5900 LP left. Ally of Justice Decisive Armor is amazing.

Random Stuff #36

I've been pretty busy the past few days because I just moved to a new home, so I haven't been able to get on the computer as much. It will only get worse once school starts up, again.

Really, I shouldn't be awake this late at night (really, early in the morning, as it's after midnight). I just have nothing better to do, and I don't have to wake up early tomorrow (really, today, as it's after midnight). At least it's given me time to edit some duel videos, which shall go up on my main channel over the next few days.

Other than that, I haven't touched my deck since locals. I'd like to find the time to find the room for the second Chain Disappearance and perhaps Maxx "C"s, but that's not too important at the moment.

The problem I'm having is that I want to make a Side Deck that I can test at locals when it comes time for the next Regional (fortunately, it's before Dark Worlds become broken). Unfortunately, my locals is completely different from a Regional. There's far fewer Agent Fairy players (and the ones that play the deck aren't very good, from what I've seen) and far more Lightsworn decks. At the Regional that I was at a couple weeks ago, all of the Lightsworn decks were at the bottom tables, along with most of the Stun-based decks. But, it's a lot easier to sack through a five-round local tournament compared to a ten-round Regional.

As such, my Side Deck has been geared more towards hating on Lightsworn, with anti-Agent cards taking more of a back seat. Then I just tossed in random stuff like Smashing Ground and Dimensional Prison to deal with rogue match-ups. It's worked pretty well, but I'd like to side a little more for Agents, and also for the deck formerly known as Plant Synchro (there's only four Plants in the deck now...). So, I may gear my Side Deck more towards Regionals, now.

Maxx "C" and Chain Disappearance deal with both of those decks very effectively, so they're going to take up a good chunk of the Side Deck. Kycoo has been useless, so I might have to drop them in favor of Rai-Oh and such. The rest can be anti-Light and anti-Stun cards, I suppose.

Either way, I'm still considering dropping the T.G. Zombie deck in favor of something else. It's like when I played Zombies in the Lightsworn/Zombie format; the deck worked, but I didn't really feel like playing it, but I couldn't figure out another deck to play. I may use Dark Worlds once they come to the TCG. Tour Guide-less, of course.

The problem is that I don't like how one-dimensional Dark Worlds are. There may be several ways to pull off their big combos, but they all end the same: Grapha spam. While I don't like that, it's the best way to play the deck, unfortunately. So I'll probably end up not playing the deck (competitively, at least), since I don't like one-dimensional decks like that, even ones that require thought.

Anyway, I still want to change the T.G. Zombie deck a lot, if I continue to play it. It just doesn't really feel complete to me. It feels as though something needs to be changed about the deck; I'm not just sure what, exactly.

Tournament Report 9/16/11

I ended up going to locals today since I won't be able to go tomorrow or Sunday. I took my T.G. Zombie deck, and I changed up the Side Deck a little bit since Regionals. I took out all three copies of Leeching the Light and made room for a couple Trap Stuns, since Trap-heavy decks are apparently still usable.

There were only 16 players there, but most of them were regulars, so that was good.

Round 1: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I started with a Set Bottomless Trap Hole. He opened with Secutor, which poked me for 400 damage, and five back rows. He used Trap Dustshoot on my draw, and I lost my only real Monster, T.G. Striker. I just sat there taking 400 damage each turn for a few turns until he drew Laquari and summoned it. My Bottomless Trap Hole was negated by Dark Bribe, and he attacked with both of his Gladiators. Laquari tagged out for Bestiari, targeting my Set Mystical Space Typhoon, which destroyed his Set War Chariot. On my turn, I Special Summoned T.G. Striker and attacked over Secutor, then stole Bestiari with Mind Control to make Gaia Knight. He didn't have an out to it, so I beat him down over the next few turns to win.

-Duel 2: He opened with a Darius and a Set back row. I had Creature Swap, T.G. Striker, Goblin Zombie, Mind Control, Zombie Master, and a Dimensional Prison. So many options, but I decided to just run over the Darius with Zombie Master and Set Dimensional Prison, which removed the Rai-Oh he tried to attack with next turn. After that, I summoned and attacked with Spirit Reaper to rip a card out of his hand, then directly with Zombie Master. He summoned Gyzarus using A Hero Lives and Murmillo. It destroyed my Zombie Master, but got banished by Bottomless Trap Hole. He was able to make another Gyzarus on the following turn by tagging into Darius off of my Spirit Reaper to destroy the Spirit Reaper, but Creature Swap stole the Gyzarus and won the game from there.

Round 2: vs Fusion Gate HEROes

-Duel 1: She dropped The Shining on the first turn, but Brionac was able to bounce it and help me take control of the duel.

-Duel 2: I dropped Trishula on the second turn of the duel after a Heavy Storm to banish a bunch of her cards. She couldn't recover from that.

Round 3: vs Agent Fairies

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. I helped him with his deck before the tournament, so I knew what he was running.

-Duel 1: I went first and Set Call of the Haunted. He made the usual Venus play and Set a back row. I destroyed it with Mystical Space Typhoon, then dropped Trishula using Striker, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie, searching another Goblin Zombie. Trishula removed the Venus, the Solemn Judgment in his Graveyard, and an Earth from his hand. On my next turn, I made Brionac using that Goblin Zombie and Call of the Haunted (reviving Striker), searching Mezuki and discarding it to bounce Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. He was left with four Fairies after that, but Bottomless Trap Hole dealt with his Kristya. He had no out to Brionac, so he scooped.

-Duel 2: I had to defend for a little bit, as he made the usual Venus play and was able to put pressure on me with it and Dimensional Alchemist. Brionac bounced the Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, but died to Honest. After taking a little more damage, I made a Decisive Armor using T.G. Striker and two Goblin Zombies (one Normal Summoned, one revived with Mezuki). After the searches, I used Monster Reborn on Brionac and discarded Plaguespreader Zombie to put Dimensional Alchemist back in his hand. I discarded the rest of my hand to see his hand with Decisive Armor's effect, discarding his Hyperion, Jupiter, and the Dimensional Alchemist I bounced before. With that, he had taken enough damage for me to be able to run over the Venus for game.

Round 4: vs Twilight

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. This was the finals, but he had to leave, so we decided to split the prize.

So, I ended up going undefeated (technically, since I didn't play the last round), and split the prizes for 1st and 2nd. I ended up getting a Tiras, Keeper of Genesis. I didn't need anything else, so I thought that I might as well get a Rank 5 Xyz Monster.

Also, my Round 3 opponent ended up pulling a Super Rare Chain Disappearance, so I bought it from him at a good price. Now I'll have a second one for my Side Deck. So yeah.

"Scraps are bad this format"

That's what I've been telling everyone this format. There's actually quite a few reasons why I've been saying this.

Firstly, Heavy Storm is back. I initially thought that this would help Scraps, but they function best as a control deck, not a Synchro-spamming deck. Not to mention that Heavy Storm being back encourages people to use Effect Veiler more now.

Effect Veiler hurts the Scrap variants that depend on Summoner Monk. If they Veil your Summoner Monk, you basically minused, since they'll easily run it over on the following turn.

And, with Heavy Storm around, people are playing less back row. Bottomless Trap Hole, Dimensional Prison, and such aren't as popular now, which means that you'll be getting fewer pluses off of Scrapstorm. My friend who was at the Regional last weekend played Scraps (he went 1-3, drop; by the way...), and he admitted that Scrapstorm is usually just MST-food.

In addition, the deck is now entirely dependent on Scrap Chimera or a live Reborn Tengu. You can't make Synchro plays without them anymore, but you're not always going to draw them.

Judgment Dragon at three also encourages more people to use Lightsworn, which is somewhat of a bad match-up for Scraps. If you don't have a spare Scrap Chimera in hand to deal with the Judgment Dragon that they will inevitably drop, then you're going to lose to that Judgment Dragon. Scraps just aren't fast enough to deal with Lightsworn when they draw well (read: open with Solar Recharge).

To top it off, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning is now legal, and it has the luxury of either banishing your Scrap Dragon or running over it and the Scrap it brings back. It's broken.

So basically, Scraps were hit indirectly by the ban list in so many ways that they're not really viable anymore. Not to mention that the Worm engine doesn't do anything against Agent Fairies or Lightsworn...

So yeah, that's why I had to give up Scraps (at least for this format) and switch decks. All of the people I know in real life already knew that, but I thought that you guys might be interested in the reasoning as well.

Regionals Report 9/10/11

As planned, I went to Regionals today with Aki. I was using my T.G. Zombie deck of course, and Aki was using the fixed up version of his Gladiator HEROes deck. We got A Hero Lives and such for it, if you didn't already know.

I changed up my Side Deck quite a bit. I made room for Leeching the Light to combat Lightsworn (it can help OTK when used in a deck that can swarm), switched the Rai-Ohs out for Kycoos, and added a Chain Disappearance.

I pulled an Ultimate Rare Leviair the Sea Dragon from my Generation Force packs, and I put it in Aki's Extra Deck. It's more useful than Number 17: Leviathan Dragon in Gladiator Beasts... I'm pretty sure that Aki didn't pull anything good from his packs, but he was able to sell the Ultimate Rare Dark Armed Dragon that he got from last week's tournament for a good price.

There ended up being 576 players there. That was a lot more than I had anticipated, and we ended up staying for all ten rounds.

Round 1: vs Macro Cosmos - OO

-This was my opponent's first time at Regionals, so I felt bad 2-0'ing him. The first game was close, but he didn't draw any Dimensional Fissures or Macro Cosmos in the second duel.

Round 2: vs Gladiator Beasts - OXO

-Stun tactics worked well enough to win me the first and third duels. While he was very polite while we were dueling, he started lying and talking trash about me and my deck to his friends after he lost. Not that you guys care...

Round 3: vs Agent Fairies - XOO

-It seemed as though I had the first duel in the bag with a successful Trishula and a revived Catastor, but his second Hyperion sacrificed itself to kill them both. Then I didn't draw any more Monsters, so I lost. In the second duel, Light-Imprisoning Mirror prevented Venus from making Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, so I didn't have any trouble. I dropped Trishula in the third duel to remove a bunch of stuff, then Ally of Justice Decisive Armor to kill the last two Hyperions he summoned (I used Book of Moon on one of them to prevent it from killing me).

Round 4: vs Agent Fairies - XX

-In the first duel, I dropped Ally of Justice Decisive Armor against his Hyperion, Jupiter, Gantetsu, and Set card. I discarded the Mezuki I searched with Goblin Zombie to destroy his Set card (No, I'm not stupid. I did that on purpose). He Chained the Set Compulsory Evacuation Device, bouncing Decisive Armor. Using Mezuki, I was able to make Decisive Armor again that same turn. I then looked at his hand with its third effect, discarding a Hyperion. Unfortunately, he topped another Compulsory to bounce Decisive Armor again, and I couldn't recover from the resulting swarm. In the second duel, I drew all Monsters with no Veilers, and died to a Venus swarm.

Round 5: vs HERO Chaos - XOO

-I lost the first game because he opened with Future Fusion, Monster Reborn, and two Miracle Fusions. I won the next two games by controlling his Fusions with Synchros, especially Brionac and Trishula.

Round 6: vs Frog Monarchs - OO

-He didn't know what Trap Dustshoot did... Luckily, I was able to use it to control his hand in the first duel. And I actually drew Chain Disappearance in the second duel, letting me deprive him of his Treeborn Frogs.

Round 7: vs T.G. Tour Guide Stun - OXO

-This was Aki's Round 2 opponent, so I had an idea of what his deck was like. I was able to swarm in the first duel, making Trishula. I lost to general Stun tactics in the second duel. The Zombie engine really proved its worth in the third duel, letting me go into Level 6 Synchros three turns in a row, eventually taking control of the duel and going for game.

Round 8: vs T.G. Agent Fairies - OO

-I banished almost all of his cards with Trishula early game, then Creature Swapped his Stardust to take the game. In the second duel, I stole his Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning with Creature Swap and OTK'd him with it. It's broken.

Round 9: vs Infernities - XX

-In both duels, he opened with Solemn Judgment and Infernity Launcher, and started his loops on his second turn. In the first duel, it was with Infernity Inferno, and in the second duel, it was with two Stygian Street Patrols. There was absolutely nothing I could do, and it destroyed my chance of getting Top 8.

Round 10: vs Agent Fairies - XX

-In the first duel, he opened with Venus, and I Veiled it after the first Shine Ball. I killed the Venus with Reborn Tengu, but he had a second one, so all of my efforts were wasted. It didn't help that I had opened with two Reborn Tengus. Then, in the second duel, he OTK'd me with Trishula, Leviair, and Brionac. Not fun.

While I was doing really well with a 7-1 record at first, I ended up getting wrecked in the last two rounds because my opponents just drew everything they possibly could to OTK me without interruption...

So, I ended up with a 7-3 record, getting 34th place. Not bad, as I did get my Nationals Invite, but I really wanted to Top 8... While there was nothing I could do in the Infernity match-up, I suppose that I should Side Deck even more for Agent Fairies...

By the way, I was typing this up at 1:00 AM after the grueling 10-round Regional, so forgive any grammatical errors.

Tournament Report 9/5/11

There was a Labor Day tournament today, so I went with Aki. We were up until like 3:00 AM working on his deck and Side Deck, so I didn't have any time at all to change my deck since yesterday.

There were over 40 players, but a lot of them were newbs.

Round 1: vs Gravekeeper's

I haven't played against this guy before, but I knew that he was at least pretty good. He also knew that I was pretty successful with Scrap Worms, so yeah.

-Duel 1: I drew three Reborn Tengus and no Traps, so I couldn't do much against his Gravekeeper's backed by Necrovalley.

-Duel 2: General beatdown and anti-stun tactics were enough to win this duel. He didn't seem to draw many back rows.

-Duel 3: He opened with two back rows and a Breaker the Magical Warrior. I Set Plaguespreader Zombie and Creature Swapped it to him. With Breaker, I destroyed his Set Mystical Space Typhoon and attacked into Dimensional Prison. He didn't have Necrovalley, so he couldn't get over the Breaker with Gravekeeper's. From there, I was able to keep control with Rai-Ohs, Reborn Tengus, and two more Creature Swaps.

Round 2: vs Watts

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I drew all Traps, which were useless against his Watts, and Monsters that couldn't kill a Wattpheasant. My hand was that bad.

-Duel 2: I was able to destroy his back row with Ally of Justice Decisive Armor. It's good, especially since he would overextend with his back row without regard for Heavy Storm. I beat him down with Decisive Armor and Trishula to win.

-Duel 3: He had Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, Rivalry of Warlords, and Gozen Match all out at once. I didn't draw Heavy Storm or MST's, so I lost.

Round 3: vs Gladiator HEROes

Sadly, I was paired up against Aki. He had just played against Yugilo in the previous round, and I'm assuming that the videos will be up on Yugilo's channel soon. Anyways...

-Duel 1: He made a Utopia with two Gladiator Beast Darius. I traded him Sangan for that Utopia using Creature Swap. I was basically able to control the game from there.

-Duel 2: I beat him down with Reborn Tengu, and he drew no Monsters.

Round 4: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: I beat him down with the T.G. engine and Reborn Tengu, finishing him with a Trishula.

-Duel 2: He kept whittling down my LP while I ground down his card advantage. After I got him down to just a couple cards, I made a Utopia. Unfortunately, he had drawn Black Luster Soldier. My last card was Effect Veiler, which negated its removal effect. I topped Goblin Zombie and Set it. He removed Utopia with BLS and attacked my Goblin Zombie with a Bora, letting me search for Plaguespreader Zombie. I used Mezuki's effect to revive Goblin Zombie, then summoned the Plaguespreader to Synchro Summon Brionac and search Goblin Zombie. After a little consideration, I decided to send the Goblin Zombie back to the top of my deck to revive Plaguespreader and Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon. It destroyed my used Call of the Haunted and the BLS, then ran over the Bora. He flipped his bluffed Heavy Storm on his turn to destroy the Bottomless Trap Hole I Set, but he had no follow-up. Scrap Dragon was able to clean up the few cards he had left over the next few turns, allowing me to win.

Round 5: vs Hero Beat

I'm pretty sure that this was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament... By the way, he was paired down, and was one of the three remaining undefeated players. So, beating him would end the tournament, as the other two undefeated players would be playing for first place.

-Duel 1: I kept beating him down with Reborn Tengu and Creature Swaps. He didn't draw Gemini Sparks or other such things, so I was able to just beat him down. Not to mention that I was able to destroy his chances of winning with a late-game Trishula play...

-Duel 2: I drew no Monsters besides Gorz, which he had Traps and Gemini Sparks for, so I lost.

-Duel 3: I controlled him for a little bit with Thunder King Rai-Oh. After its usefulness had run out, I used it, Reborn Tengu, and X-Saber Pashuul to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Decisive Armor. That destroyed his Set Snowman Eater with its effect and killed his Absolute Zero through battle, sacrificing itself in the process. Afterwards, he beat me down a little bit with a Stratos and a Crusader of Endymion, but I just revived the Decisive Armor and used its third effect, taking two Neos Alius out of his hand and burning him for 3800. The last card in his hand was Gorz, which was no help, and I won on my next turn.

So, I went 4-1, again, which is pretty good. My Turbo Pack 6 was bad, but Aki pulled the Ultimate Rare Dark Armed Dragon. He's going to try and sell it, since we aren't going to use it...

I'm pretty happy with how my deck is working so far, but I'd really rather play a different deck. The T.G. engine is great, and the Zombie engine is nice, but I don't think that there's enough room for the both of them in one deck. It just provides some difficulty when it comes to Side Decking, and also having to cut a bunch of cards from the Main Deck in the first place. So, I might want to change it up; we'll see.

Tournament Report 9/4/11

I went to locals today with the T.G. Zombie deck that I was talking about in previous posts. I threw the Side Deck together last night; I had to break my habit of siding a bunch of cards for each match-up. I decided to only side a few cards for each match-up, except for any Stun-eqsue match-ups. In those cases, I would side into anti-stun.

There were at least thirty players, and it was interesting to see what everyone was using for the new format.

Round 1: vs T.G. Stun

-Duel 1: He didn't draw many Monsters, so I just kept beating him with Reborn Tengu.

-Duel 2: He opened with a Monster and three back rows. I opened with three Mystical Space Typhoons to get rid of his back row, then was able to push with Monsters.

Round 2: vs Flamvell/Assault Mode

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He dropped Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode on me early, but I was able to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Decisive Armor in an attempt to run it over. Unfortunately, Scrap Dragon destroyed my Decisive Armor, and he proceeded to OTK me with double Rekindling.

-Duel 2: Double D.D. Crow removed his Flamvells to cut off his Rekindling, and Soul Release banished his Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode after he used its effect, along with four other Monsters. From there, I was able to control the game with Synchros.

-Duel 3: I pulled off an early Trishula to banish his Flamvells. That play essentially won me the game, because he had very few plays afterwards.

Round 3: vs Blackwings

This was my Round 4 opponent from last weekend.

-Duel 1: He OTK'd me with Brionac, Armed Wing, and Dark Armed Dragon.

-Duel 2: I was able to control him with the T.G.'s, especially Wonder Magician.

-Duel 3: I got him down to 1800 LP over time with attacks with Reborn Tengu. After a Blizzard play, he bounced back his used Call of the Haunted with Zephyros. I Synchro Summoned Colossal Fighter to try and finish off his last 1400 LP by attacking over Zephyros, but he used Kalut to survive. In the end, though, I pushed through his Set Sangan with Flamvell Uruquizas to win.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Smoke Signal and Asceticism to make Shi En. I took the Shi En with Creature Swap after baiting out its attack. He destroyed it with Musakani Magatama, unfortunately. To top it off, he had Monster Reborn for it. It was okay, though, since I was able to summon Brionac using Reborn Tengu and Plaguespreader Zombie. That summoned another Tengu, letting me clear out the two Samurai alongside Shi En before bouncing it with Brionac's effect. He couldn't recover from that, so I won.

-Duel 2: He opened with Gateway and two Six Samurai United. Those let him draw into four back rows to keep the Gateway company, so I lost.

-Duel 3: I started with a Set Spirit Reaper and Reinforce Truth. He opened with Shinai, Grandmaster, and Solidarity. During his End Phase, I used the Reinforce Truth to Special Summon Striker, then Special Summoned Warwolf with its effect. On my turn, I used Striker and Warwolf to make Wonder Magician and destroy Solidarity. I summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and switched Spirit Reaper to Attack Position. Wonder Magician and Rai-Oh pushed through Shinai and Grandmaster (with help from Book of Moon), and Spirit Reaper took a Kageki out of his hand. I Synchro Summoned Stardust Dragon in Main Phase 2. Next turn, he used Monster Reborn to revive Grandmaster and run over Rai-Oh. Then he used Smoke Signal to search Kagemusha and Synchro for Scrap Archfiend. My gamble had failed, but I had a back-up plan. I Set two Goblin Zombies over the next two turns. When he killed one, I got a Plaguespreader Zombie to make Brionac and search Mezuki. I discarded that to bounce the Scrap Archfiend and pushed for some damage. He was able to push through that with a Shi En, but I had Gorz to finish him off.

I was one of the two undefeated players going into the last round. The other player was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament. We agreed to a split, with the winner of the duel deciding which booster box to get.

Round 5: vs Twilight

-Duel 1: Mind Crush showed him my hand and Trishula ripped it apart. It's hard to keep advantage when he keeps milling Wulfs...

-Duel 2: He used Trap Dustshoot to see that I had no Traps (it didn't matter which Monster he sent back at that point, since they were all equally useful), then OTK'd me with two Wulfs that he milled, Black Luster Soldier, and Honest.

Yeah... maybe I need to side more for Lightsworn/Twilight...

Either way, I went 4-1 and got 2nd place, which is nice. I got half of a box of Generation Force and pulled Gagaga Magician, Wind-Up Factory, Surfacing, an Ultra A Hero Lives, and Pain Painter. I promptly sold the Pain Painter, as it is quite lackluster.

I didn't think that my deck would do as well as it did. I probably did so well because I was paired up against the Stun-esque decks that my deck can easily gain advantage on. Faster decks like Lightsworn and Agent Fairies may be much more difficult to get through, so I'll probably have to work on my Side Deck to deal with them.

A Question for the OCG Players

In the TCG, everyone will be using Effect Veiler. There's just no question; if you have it, it's in your deck.

While this may just be because of Tour Guide, plenty of other stuff can get Veiled effectively as well. For instance, Brionac, Trishula, Black Rose Dragon, and Junk Synchron are really powerful cards that Effect Veiler can effectively shut down.

But, I've noticed that many OCG players (at least in Japan), aren't playing Effect Veiler at all this format. The only decks I've seen run it are all-Monster decks and Junk Doppel.

I'm well aware that the TCG and OCG metas are quite different, but I'm just trying to understand the mind-set behind the decision not to run Effect Veiler. And, now that I think about it, this lack of Effect Veilers in OCG decks has been going on for quite a while.

So, if anyone wants to chime in and offer their thoughts on why many OCG players don't use Effect Veiler, feel free to comment below.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

It's the Rai-Oh of this format.

By merely being on the field, it severely restricts the options of many of the more popular decks this format. Twilight decks can't drop their Chaos Monsters or use their Necro Gardnas. Agent Fairies can't drop Hyperion or Black Luster Soldier. Zombies can't use Mezuki or Book of Life. And, in all of those match-ups, you can keep banishing cards from your opponent's Graveyard.

Unfortunately, it has some of the same weaknesses that Rai-Oh has. It dies in battle to commonly sided beaters like Cyber Dragon and even Rai-Oh itself. Both also lose hard to Tragoedia. At least Kycoo gets to remove a couple Monsters before Tragoedia steals it...

And, Rai-Oh does have some advantages over it. Rai-Oh hinders Venus into Gantetsu plays, and can stop Synchros, Xyz, and inherently Special Summoned boss Monsters that Kycoo can't prevent, like Judgment Dragon and Kristya. Then again, Kycoo can prevent them from being summoned by controlling the Graveyard.

I think that the advantages that Kycoo has outweigh the cons, because the Chaos Monsters are going to be really popular and such. And, it's really easy for someone to bait out Rai-Oh's effect with Chaos Sorcerer, then drop Black Luster Soldier or Judgment Dragon to kill you.

So, the main problem that comes with using Kycoo is protecting it. The same thing applies to Rai-Oh as well, I suppose. Dimensional Prison can be quite effective. I remember it being used against me back in the Lightsworn/Zombie format, and it was quite good. Remember, that was back when we had Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade, and Cold Wave.

That's my plan at least, siding Kycoo and Dimensional Prisons. Unfortunately, there's not much room in the T.G. Zombie deck, so I can't side that many cards unless I completely side out the Zombie engine. It's not a horrible idea, but I think that it kind of defeats the purpose of Reinforce Truth.

Yes, this post was kind of ramble-y, but I'm still trying to figure out what deck to run before my tournament this weekend.

Bittersweet News

As you should already know, the TCG Xyz ruling has been changed to match the OCG Xyz ruling.

What's great is that this kills the Tour Guide/Sangan combo that gives you a 2500 ATK floater for no reason at all.

What's bad is that now I have to rethink my Zombie deck. I might just drop it, we'll see.

Overall, the good far outweighs the bad. I just wish that this news could've come earlier.