Rescue Rabbit

It's undeniably cuter than Rescue Cat.

Everyone is blogging about it, and I was about to discuss its pros and cons in a comment to another post. That comment would've been like a blog post, so I turned it into one.

Okay, so, there's all this hype that X-Saber Anu Piranha lets you drop XX-Saber Faultroll after a Rescue Rabbit play, just like what Rescue Cat allowed for a year ago in the TCG. Or, you could Special Summon two copies of Gladiator Beast Andal to fuse them for Gladiator Beast Essedarii.

Rescue Rabbit is a good card, but I think that it invites dead draws. I mean, drawing Anu Piranha or Andal isn't horrible, but they're not exactly good, either.

For instance, if you draw two Anu Piranha, then all of your Rescue Rabbits are dead. So, in addition to your two vanilla beaters, you also have up to three 300 ATK vanilla beaters sitting somewhere in your deck.

Yes, the chances of drawing two of your three Normal Monsters is low (about 5% for your starting hand, actually), but there's another problem with this. Unless you run multiple sets of Normal Monsters, then you can only use one of your Rescue Rabbits, for obvious reasons.

Not to mention that the X-Saber play is lackluster (it's not like you'd have a Tuner to go with the Faultroll). However, the Gladiator Beast play is quite good. Due to the nature of Gladiator Beasts, you can easily put the Andals back in your deck, even if you decide to use them for an Xyz Summon instead of a Fusion for Essedarii. Speaking of which, Konami may have actually thought Rescue Rabbit through... If they had allowed Essedarii to tag out, then Rescue Rabbit would be worse than Rescue Cat in Gladiator Beasts...

While its best fit would be in Gladiator Beasts, Rescue Rabbit may also see play in HERO builds. I mean, some of the Normal E-HEROes were pretty decent, and worked as good Fusion Materials. The main one would be Sparkman, of course; Clayman is okay, too. So, you could Special Summon out two Sparkman, Xyz Summon Steelswarm Roach or something else, and have the Fusion Materials for E-HERO The Shining ready to go for later. While not an amazing play, it's not a horrible play, either.

So, Rescue Rabbit does open up a variety of new plays for practically everyone (maybe not Scraps...), but using it carries inherent deck-building restrictions (except for Gladiator Beasts, I suppose). If you want to actually use the effect of Rescue Rabbit more than once per duel, then you need to run multiple sets of Normal Monsters. But, that takes away a huge amount of power from your Main Deck. Xyz Monsters aren't really powerful enough so that you can rely on them, so making a deck based around Rescue Rabbit (that's not Gladiator Beasts) is kind of ridiculous. Besides, you might not even draw the Rabbits; you might just draw a hand of Normal Monsters...

Oh, and for the impending doom that will be Gladiator Rabbits, use Gladiator Taming!

"Ha ha, I Normal Summon Rescue Rabbit and banish it to Special Summon two Andals from my deck!"

"Reverse card open! Gladiator Taming! I'll take control of one of your Andals!"

They lose their whole play, and until they can recycle one of their Andals, the rest of their Rescue Rabbits are dead draws. Or, you could just use Dark Trap Hole...

Looking back at my Genex

Seeing Wilson Tsang's Water Tengu Synchro deck made me want to play Genex again. I mean, I retired the deck before I was able to get all of my Duel Terminal Genex Undines.

I know that it wasn't that good a deck, but I still liked it a lot for some reason. It was really unique at the time, and the format was slow enough for it to do fairly well at locals... somehow. Regardless, it was just really fun to play; I just really like Smashing Ground for some reason.

So, I was thinking about a T.G. build with a Scrap engine. I didn't like it very much; it seemed too inconsistent. Even with all of the T.G. searching, the Scraps would just sit there doing nothing, unless I got lucky enough to draw Scrap Beast and Scrap Chimera together.

After a while, I realized the the basic Genex and T.G. engines could work well together. There's the whole T.G. Striker and Genex Undine combo, which nets a Synchro with practically no cost while dumping a Water into the Graveyard. The Monsters a just a series of searchers that would prevent me from running out of cards. And, it would allow me to play the Smashing Grounds that I like so much for some reason.

I'm still working on putting the deck together, but I think that it could work. I might just try it out at locals and see how it does.

Tournament Report 6/25/11

Again, I went to locals with my Scrap Worms deck. I changed up the Side Deck a little bit, but it didn't really do anything since I didn't play against Six Samurai or Plants/Junk Doppel.

Anyway, there were only 17 people there. Quite a small tournament.

Round 1: vs Agent Fairies

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: Apparently he didn't draw any Monsters to protect himself with, so I beat him with five attacks from a Scrap Beast.

-Duel 2: He used the same Hyperion three separate times (itself, Light and Darkness Dragon, then Call of the Haunted) to get rid of all of my cards. After he was done with that, he tributed it for Tethys and proceeded to plus-2 off of his draws.

-Duel 3: I opened with no Scrap Tuners, but I just beat him down with Worm Xex for a while. I forced his Divine Punishment, then destroyed the field with Black Rose Dragon, and an attack from Scrap Chimera won the game.

Round 2: vs X-Sabers

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I started with a Scrap Beast and two back rows. He Set X-Saber Pashuul and a few back rows. I attacked, which only flipped the Pashuul, and ended my turn. He dropped Fulhelmknight and two Faultrolls. He Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon with one of the Faultrolls, then didn't activate its effect or the other Faultroll's effect for some reason. I played Giant Trunade and negated his Solemn Judgment with Seven Tools. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, Normal Summoned Scrap Chimera, and revived Scrap Beast. I Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon, Set my Scrapstorm and destroyed it to destroy Faultroll. Cyber Dragon forced Fulhelmknight's negation, I crashed our Scrap Dragons, reviving Scrap Beast to run over Fulhelmknight. I Set a Dimensional Prison and Synchro Summoned Scrap Twin Dragon. He couldn't get over it, so I won in two turns.

-Duel 2: He sided into some weird Stun build. I was able to drop Scrap Twin Dragon on him, but his Reborn Tengu lived long enough to tribute for Caius to remove it. After he used D.D. Crow on my Scrap Beast, I died slowly to beatdown from Boggart Knight.

-Duel 3: I opened with Scrap Beast, Scrapstorm, and Seven Tools. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, Normal Summoned Reborn Tengu and attacked for a bunch. I let it go, not wanting to use the Scrapstorm (I had other Scrap Tuners in my hand...). I summoned Scrap Chimera, which died to Solemn Warning, as he had the Solemn Judgment for my Seven Tools. Scrap Goblin got back the Chimera a few turns later, but I only had 1000 LP left; if my Scrap Chimera play didn't go through, I would lose. And, sure enough, he had the other Solemn Warning to negate its summon, so I lost.

Round 3: vs Newbie Volcanics

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. I drew so badly in one of the duels that the match actually ended up being 2-1... Well, I won, so whatever.

Round 4: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He had control of the duel until he ran out of back rows. Book of Moon let Scrap Chimera run over his Essedarii, and afterwards I was able to Synchro Summon Scrap Archfiend to control the duel.

-Duel 2: I drew all-Monsters and was doing pretty well. But then once all of my Monsters died, I couldn't seem to draw any more, so I died to a Monster Reborned Gyzarus.

-Duel 3: I drew all-Monsters (which included no Scrap Tuners) plus a Solemn Warning, which didn't stop him from fusing for Gyzarus to kill my field, as he had Mystical Space Typhoon. Once I finally started drawing Scraps, he kept removing them with Retiari. Then, after his position was solidified (as in, three Gladiator Beasts on the field, one in hand, and four Traps Set), he fused for Heraklinos to lock me down. It didn't matter what I drew, as I didn't have any Tuners in the Graveyard, so I died on the next turn.

Eh, 2-2 is quite disappointing. I was just drawing so horribly all day. I'm not sure what else I can do to make my deck more consistent, save buying Pot of Duality... Well, it happens, I suppose. I'm still contemplating switching decks, but Scraps have just been everything I've been looking for in a deck, so I'm hesitant to switch.

Anyway, today wasn't completely horrible; I was finally able to pick up Silent Psychic Wizards. That's something. Anyway, I've got to get back to fixing my Duel Masters deck. So yeah, hopefully I'll be able to do better next time.

Morales' Top 16 Scrap Build

Someone asked me to discuss my opinion on it, so I will.

Tournament Report with Deck List

Before I even saw his deck, I had already considered Horn of the Phantom Beast. It's okay, but it's too much of a dead draw late game and does very little against decks that don't have Stun elements, like Plants and Frog Monarchs. Plants, and soon Junk Doppel, are already bad match-ups for Scraps, so I wouldn't want to just hope to draw multiple Effect Veilers/Fiendish Chains to win.

His build does very little to stop Six Samurai. If he goes first, then he would be in a good position to stop a Shi En, but starting second against a Shi En doesn't look too good for him. He could be run over on the second turn before he can even do anything.

In addition, according to his tournament report, he either opened with or drew into Reborn Tengu early game in practically all of his duels. That's basically a free plus-2 every game. Not to mention that he opened with Horn of the Phantom Beast most of his duels, too.

His build has some good points, but it looks like there would be some consistency issues. His deck is like a Stun build, which inherently means that it's going to open badly sometimes, and he also doesn't have that many ways to access his Scrap Tuners.

The deck may work for him, but I don't like it. I personally have horrible luck, so I have to make my decks as consistent as possible with as few dead draws as possible.

Five Anti-Fairy Cards

Even though Agent Fairies aren't all that great, I was thinking about how I would deal with an opponent's Side Deck if I were playing Agent Fairies. So, here were the top five cards that I would be worried about:

1. Thunder King Rai-Oh

This is going to be the card you see most often. It stops Earth, Synchros, Hyperion, and Kristya effectively and has more ATK than anything you could Normal Summon (save Jupiter with its boost and Zeradias, which needs Sanctuary in play). Your best outs are Honest, Traps (which may not apply, since many builds are Decree variants), and Cyber Dragon.

2. Ally Salvo

This can destroy your Valhalla/Kristya set-up, locking the Kristya in your hand. Fortunately, this is fairly easy to play around. Just Synchro into a non-Light to kill Set Monsters. If your Kristya is already out and you can't Synchro, then you can drop your Herald of Orange Light or summon a non-Light Monster that you could've sided in, like Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. There's also Banisher of the Radiance, which conveniently is a Light Fairy...

3. Light-Imprisoning Mirror

If you can't find an out to this, all you have are huge beaters, which don't usually last long against other back rows or opposing Synchro plays. Decree builds don't have to worry as much, but it's a good idea to side Dust Tornadoes and what-not to get rid of back rows.

4. Ally of Justice Core Destroyer

While not exactly popular in the TCG, it had seen play in the OCG as an easy one-card out to any Monster in your deck. It's especially effective against Decree builds, since your only outs would be Herald of Orange Light and Genex Ally Birdman, if you play them. Again, non-Lights and Traps are the way to deal with this. It's also a Machine, so Cyber Dragon into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is also an effective play.

5. Ally of Justice Quarantine

Yes, that random Super Rare AOJ that you pulled in Hidden Arsenal 3 which you proceeded to toss into your garbage pile. Like Rai-Oh, it provides an effective lock, stopping everything except Jupiter, Zeradias, and Rai-Oh, if you even play those. Despite being a Machine, its effect stops Cyber Dragon from hitting the field, so it can be more effective than you think.

While you may not see Core Destroyer or Quarantine, the other three are definitely cards to consider if you want to counter your opponent's Side Decking. Sadly, it's hard to prepare effectively for all of these threats, since there's no one out that deals with all of them.

So yeah, if Agent Fairies somehow become a prominent deck (like after the ban list), Agent Fairy players will need to learn to deal with these Side Deck cards, as you'd see more of them then. In doing so, you'll need to take into consideration the prominence of other Light-based decks like Lightsworn and Fabled. Decks like that can have similar weaknesses to cards like Light-Imprisoning Mirror, but don't care as much about Ally Salvo. However, Hero Beat and Worms would care about Ally Salvo.

Of course, looking into this, you can see which of these cards are more likely to be sided against you. If Hero Beat is popular but Lightsworn are not, you can expect to see more Ally Salvos and less Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. But, if Fabled decks are popular, people wouldn't want to side a slow card like Ally Salvo. See the logic?

Lost Sanctuary Structure Deck

Even though Kristya wasn't in there, it's still a pretty solid product. The deck, I mean, not the packaging. Seriously, a plastic bag and a piece of cardboard...? I'm not expecting the nice plastic packaging from the Warrior's Strike Structure Deck, but I would like something a little better than some random piece of janky cardboard. I usually store the extra cards and stuff back in the box, but I wouldn't have been able to do that had I not had some of the plastic packaging from Special Edition packs lying around.

Anyway, I made a fairly decent deck just using cards from the Structure Deck and other Commons, not counting the Extra Deck. It doesn't seem too bad. It actually could be something I might use competitively during the Librarian format (side into Herald of Orange/Green Light).

For my variant, I went with the Sanctuary in the Sky build. Zeradias, Herald of Heaven provides fodder for Master Hyperion and serves as a beater when I have the Sanctuary out. Having the Sanctuary also helps in the Gravekeeper's, Dragunity, and the upcoming Dark World match-ups. Those decks kind of died, but I still see people play them now and then.

Sanctuary also opens up the use of Divine Punishment, which is a great Counter Trap. Negating practically any effect at a negligible cost is really nice in a format where everyone is using Counter Traps. It's always fun to negate a Solemn Warning/Judgment for no cost and laugh at your opponent, which is part of the reason why I liked Koa'ki Meiru so much...

So yeah, some of the more random choices I decided on were Gellenduo (it's Common in Duel Terminal 5) and Junk Synchron. There is over an 80% chance to get access to a Mystical Shine Ball in your starting hand. I think that's a high enough number to warrant two Junk Synchrons. As for Gellenduo, I saw Yusei JB playing it in his version, and it seemed like a good choice. Combos well with Sanctuary, and provides a "double tribute" for Hyperion.

Anyway, here's the deck list:

Monsters: (20)

Master Hyperion x3

Zeradias, Herald of Heaven x3

The Agent of Miracles - Jupiter

Gellenduo

The Agent of Creation - Venus x3

Junk Synchron x2

Honest

The Agent of Mystery - Earth x3

Mystical Shine Ball x3

Spells: (12)

Monster Reborn

Dark Hole

Giant Trunade

Mystical Space Typhoon x2

Mind Control

Book of Moon

The Sanctuary in the Sky x3

Cards from the Sky x2

Traps: (8)

Mirror Force

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Call of the Haunted

Solemn Judgment

Divine Punishment x3

Extra Deck: (15)

Ally of Justice Decisive Armor

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Scrap Dragon

Thought Ruler Archfiend

Junk Destroyer

Stardust Dragon

Black Rose Dragon

Ancient Fairy Dragon

Ancient Sacred Wyvern

Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Magical Android

Junk Warrior

Ally of Justice Catastor

Armory Arm

The deck is just for fun, so there are no Kristya or Pot of Duality, not that I have either of those. Anyway, I'm still working on it, so any suggestions are appreciated.

Tournament Report 6/19/11

I went to locals with my completely revamped Scrap Worm deck. I hadn't tested it at all (too busy playing Okami), but I figured it would be okay.

Anyway, I met with Yugilo and Yusei JB, and Yugilo filmed a match between me and Yusei JB, who was using his own Agent Fairy variant, so be sure to check that out when it's uploaded.

Round 1: vs Zombie Plants

This was the first time I've played against this type of deck...

-Duel 1: He went first and used Lonefire to go into Tytannial. I frowned at the Bottomless Trap Hole in my hand... Anyway, I didn't draw any Scrap Tuners until it was too late. I could Synchro for Brionac, but I was already out of cards.

-Duel 2: Avenging Knight Parshath put a lot of pressure on him, and he wasn't able to get rid of it, as I used Effect Veiler on his Black Rose Dragon, which left two Fluff Tokens on the field to pierce.

-Duel 3: In the beginning of the duel, I beat him down with Worms.After a bunch of turns of draw-pass-draw-pass, I topped Nobleman of Crossout, threatening to banish (that's right, I used that term) his Set Spirit Reaper, but he used Solemn Judgment. I then decided to take it with Mind Control, search for Scrap Goblin with Scrapyard, and Synchro up to Brionac. I attacked to drop him to 1700 LP, and ended. He topped D.D. Crow with his only other cards being Spore and Plaguespreader Zombie. He scooped.

Round 2: vs Final Countdown

-Duel 1: He played Scapegoat. I summoned Avenging Knight Parshath, which killed him single-handedly. That's why it's there.

-Duel 2: Same deal, for the most part. I negated his Battle Fader with Solemn Warning to push for game.

Round 3: vs Frog Monarchs

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with two Genex Controllers, so he couldn't use Genex Undine's effect. When I pointed that out, he scooped, as he didn't have a Treeborn Frog in the Graveyard.

-Duel 2: I opened with Solemn Judgment and Warning, then drew into another Warning. So, I could play all recklessly and just negate all of his Monarch plays. Turns out that he only drew one Caius, so I won fairly easily.

Round 4: vs Gladiator Beast

-Duel 1: He opened with five back rows and a Set Monster. I just summoned something (maybe Worm Yagan) and attacked it, killing what turned out to be a Murmillo. He then flipped Proving Ground for Laquari, which attacked over my Monster, tagged for Darius to revive Murmillo, then fused for Essedarii. I made a Scrap Dragon play with Call of the Haunted, then a Scrap Chimera play to bait out all of his back rows. I went down to 1200 LP, then turned the duel around with a Scrap Chimera I got off of Scrapstorm.

-Duel 2: I controlled the duel from the start with Worm Xex and Yagan, and he couldn't get around them. I waited until I drew a Scrap Beast so that I could use Giant Trunade for a Scrap Dragon play. I was able to control the duel from there and won.

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament. Since we were the last two undefeated players and this was the finals, we agreed to split a box of Extreme Victory and play for the Hobby League card. Also, we didn't Side Deck.

-Duel 1: I opened with a Worm Xex play and a Set Solemn Warning. He activated Dojo, then summoned Mizuho and Kizan. He tried to destroy Yagan with Mizuho's effect, but I dropped Effect Veiler to save it. Dojo got him Kagemusha, which made Shi En to run over Xex. Yagan bounced it, though, and I summoned Scrap Beast to Synchro for Thought Ruler, which got hit by his only back row, Royal Oppression. It was okay, though, since it locked him up, too. I just waited until I could draw a Mystical Space Typhoon to Black Rose the field and go off with Scrap Chimera, which is just what happened.

-Duel 2: He opens with Kagemusha, Kizan, and Grandmaster. Then he Synchro Summoned Brionac and Set some back rows. A turn or so later, and I died to that Brionac, Grandmaster, another Kizan, and a Shi En. Woo, Double-Edged Sword Technique...

-Duel 3: I opened with no Scrap Tuners; that may be fine against some decks, but I need to Synchro to take down Six Samurai. He opened with Mizuho and Grandmaster, which was enough to kill me before I could make my Scrap Chimera play, since I drew like Scrap Chimera and two Scrapstorms, then topped Scrap Orthros, which made those cards live, but he killed me before I got my next turn.

So yeah, 4-1 and 2nd place isn't bad. As stated before, I got half of a box of Extreme Victory, which my previous opponent wanted for the Shien's Dojo. I pulled one and sold it to him, so that was nice. Also, the Turbo Pack 5 I got was pretty good, with Miracle Fusion, Spirit of the Six Samurai, and the Super Rare Snowman Eater. Snowman Eater used to be good, but I really don't need it anymore. So, it went into my trade binder...

So, despite the fact that I changed back to the Worm variant to take down Six Samurai more easily, it didn't work as well as I had hoped. I did draw Gale in the third duel, but it's just too slow. I might have to replace it with something. I'll look into it a little more and see what else would do well against Six Samurai that's worth Main Decking.

Also, I bought three of the Lost Sanctuary Structure Deck, because I've been wanting to get it since I saw the deck in the OCG. No Kristya is sad, but it's fine with me, since I was planning on making a build without it. Too bad, though, the deck is a lot better with Kristya...

Random Stuff #30

Now that I've gone back to the Worm engine in my Scrap deck and have taken out the random tech like Breaker and Zephyros, the Extra Decked Synchros that went with that tech has come out, too. So, I have too much space in my Extra Deck...

Once Xyz Monsters come out, Number 39: Utopia, and then Steelswarm Roach, will take the extra spot(s) in my Extra Deck. Until then, I have to figure out the best card to put in that extra spot.

So far, there's Ancient Fairy Dragon, Light End Dragon, and a second Scrap Archfiend that could fit into that spot. Other Synchros that would be less likely to be summoned would be Naturia Barkion (if I Mind Control a Darksoul or something) and Trishula (if I have two face-up Worms or something with an Effect Veiler). So far, I'm kinda leaning towards the Light End Dragon, since it actually does something. It basically kills anything that has up to 1000 ATK more than its current ATK.

Yeah... it's not that good. But it's better than the other options, I suppose. Maybe Colossal Fighter could have its spot back or something, not that it really deserves it... There's just nothing better to put in my Extra Deck until Xyz come out. Random note: it's really annoying to type Xyz...

In other news, I got a box of DM-29 Lock-On Heroes and DMX-01 King of Duel Road Strong Seven. Yeah, they're Duel Masters sets. And I got some decently good pulls, too; well, as far as I'm concerned, since I was looking for the Commons. I got my four Emergency Typhoons, but it's just too bad that Falconer, Lightfang Ninja is Limited... The plan was to use them together so that if Emergency Typhoon was in my Shields, it would help me draw into my Shinobi. But, since that can't happen, I might just go back to using Energy Right/Light.

Also, Aki gave me a new video game, Okami. It's pretty interesting so far. It seems like quite the long game, since I've been playing for more than three hours and I'm still in the beginning stages. There's just so much to explore and such. It's like Majora's Mask, except without the strenuous time pressure.

Going back to the Worm Engine

Yesterday, at Regionals, it felt like I didn't have enough outs to Synchros like Shi En and Shooting Star Dragon.

I used to not have to deal with problems like that because I had Worm Yagan to bounce everything. I could Set it against Shi En and not care that I didn't have a Scrap Chimera in hand; I wouldn't have to force a Dark End Dragon play to get rid of Shooting Star Dragon.

So, I might go back to the Worm engine, taking out the Reborn Tengus, of course. There's a few disadvantages to that, though.

For one, Reborn Tengu is basically immune to Normal Traps. Bottomless Trap Hole hurts Worm Xex, but Reborn Tengu doesn't care. Same with Dimensional Prison, I suppose, but to a lesser extent. That would basically only apply to the Gladiator Beast match-up, where I'd want to run over a Retiari or something, but it's protected by a Mirror Force or Forbidden Lance or something. Otherwise, I wouldn't care all that much.

Also, three Reborn Tengus take up less space than a five-card Worm engine. Running Reborn Tengu allowed me to tech cards like Breaker the Magical Warrior, two Effect Veilers, and other such things. This is the main problem with switching back. I don't care about the Breaker so much, but I'd like to keep the Zephyros and Veiler(s).

Besides those two things, the Worms were much better. Better stats, additional effects, Light Attribute; it was just a perfect fit. So now I might have to go back to them to get around the new brokenness that Six Samurai has acquired.

The 50% opening turn Shi En has jumped to over 70% thanks to Elder of the Six Samurai and Shien's Dojo. I can't do the exact calculation, because of the variation caused by Dojo, United, and the other combos facilitated by Kizan and Grandmaster, but it's up there. So yeah, I might be forced to go back to using Worm Yagan as my out to Shi En.

Regionals Report 6/11/11

As the title implies, I went to Regionals today. Of course, I took my Scraps Reborn deck; I didn't really know what cards to change, so I just dropped the Forbidden Lance for Chalice and the two Maxx "C"s for Banisher of the Radiance and Crevice Into the Different Dimension.

I met up with vadangchoinga and Yugilo there. DarkZeroHour501st couldn't make it, but he's started up his rant videos again, so be sure to check those out.

So yeah, there were 409 participants at the Regional. What's funny is that vadangchoinga happened to get the bye first round...

Round 1: vs Newbie Dragunities - OO

-He didn't have Phalanx...

Round 2: vs Six Samurai - XOX

-This guy seemed familiar for some reason. I've probably seen him somewhere before. Anyway, he won the first game with double United leading into a Shi En/Trishula play; I won the second with Decree lockdown and Scrap swarms; and he won the third with a back row loaded with Magatama, Double-Edged Sword Technique, some Solemn card, and something else.

Round 3: vs Vayu Turbo - OXO

-It was really a surprise to play against Vayu Turbo. It was immediately obvious after he followed up Card Trooper with Armageddon Knight. Either way, he won the second duel because he topped Dark Armed Dragon with five Darks in grave when two of those Darks were Vayu and Sirocco. I won the first and third game with the usual Scrap shenanigans.

Round 4: vs Junk Doppel - XX

-First game was a shutout since he had Catastor, Shooting Star Dragon, and Royal Decree. I had a Dark End Dragon play, but I couldn't kill both of his Monsters. In the second duel, he just kept grabbing his Junk Synchrons by using Tuning or just by drawing them. He had gone through at least four throughout that one duel.

Round 5: vs X-Sabers - OO

-Mind Control was a huge asset in the first duel, letting me take his Super-Nimble Mega Hamster and Synchro with it for Scrap Dragon on my first turn. From there, I used Solemn Judgment on his XX-Saber Faultroll, and he was out of options. In the second duel, he just couldn't build up a swarm, whereas I could.

Round 6: vs Infernity Stun - XOO

-This was really interesting. It was a Stun deck with an Infernity engine. It used Pachycephalo, Rai-Oh, Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Beetle, and Infernity Barrier. I liked the idea behind it, and it took me a little while to figure out that he wasn't playing the usual variant.

Round 7: vs Blackwings - OO

-The first game was a blowout. The second, though, I had to come back from basically all Scrap-Tuners against his field of Sirocco, Armed Wing, and Stardust Dragon. Scrapstorm gave me the Chimera I needed, since he didn't negate it with Stardust Dragon.

Round 8: vs Six Samurai - XOX

-First game: United, Dojo, Elder, Kizan, draw two with United, send Dojo for Kagemusha, Normal Summon other Kagemusha, Synchro Summon Naturia Beast and Barkion, Set a bunch of back rows. My only Monster was Zephyros, which may or may not have tricked him into thinking that I played Blackwings. Anyways, in the second duel, despite getting Trishula'd, I turned the duel around with a Reborn Tengu and pushed through the few cards he had left. Third game: Gateway, United, United, Kagemusha, Grandmaster, Kizan, Kizan, Kizan, Synchro Gaia Knight, Monster Reborn Kagemusha, Synchro Stardust Dragon, send both Uniteds for four draws, Set a bunch of back rows. It was like last format all over again.

Round 9: vs Karakuri - OO

-After using Cyber Dragon to fuse with the Nishipachi he brought out with the Nisamu I attacked, I dropped a Scrap Twin Dragon to bounce his swarmed Synchros and he didn't have much left to deal with it. He then sided into Stun, with Banishers, Rai-Ohs, and Cyber Dragons. He might as well have just scooped; my deck destroys Stun.

And I don't want to sacrifice that ability while trying to increase my deck's speed. Losing to Six Samurai when they open like they did is somewhat okay-ish; but I can't seem to deal with Junk Doppel/Chaos Plants. It's hard to beat them if they draw/mill well, so I'm not sure what else I could do.

Regardless, I went X-3, which is lackluster, and got 75th place. Oh well. It wasn't as bad as losing to Royal Tributes at the previous Regional, I suppose.

I was able to get some good cards in trades, like Gem-Knight Alexandrite, a couple of Evil Dragon Ananta, Gem-Knight Alexandrite, and a Duel Terminal D.D. Crow and Trap Stun. I don't know if I'll ever use three D.D. Crows, but I'll have it if I decide to.

Also, a piece of Side Deck tech that I picked up today: Six Samurai United. You can side it against Six Samurai to draw cards. Good Six Samurai players play around Kinetic Soldier, Puppet Plant, and Gozen Match by using Naturia Beast and Barkion, but they can't not summon Six Samurai to make those Synchros. As long as you draw it (which can be said for most, if not all, Side Deck cards), you get a +1. While this doesn't help faster decks, it most definitely helps Stun decks. So yeah, good stuff.

Blackwings

Buying a box of DP Crow and getting all of the nice-looking Rare Blackwings kind of makes me want to play a Blackwing deck or something.

The main problem with that is that I don't want to play straight Blackwings. Blackwings aren't very good to begin with, and mixing them with another theme would most likely weaken them. But, it'll probably be a fun deck, so it doesn't matter much.

Even so, I can't really decide on a variant I want to try out.

The best I've got is some Worm variant. Using Honest, Kalut, Icarus Attack, and Offering to the Snake Deity all in one deck should prove to be quite annoying. There's also the fact that I could use both Chaos Sorcerer and Genex Ally Birdman. I'd just have to figure out how all of it would work together...

Well, the deck would probably work well with Xyz Monsters, so I might just wait on that.

Speaking of which, shouldn't Xyz have helped (Whirlwind) Blackwings a lot? I mean, they could easily drop a Shura and Bora for a Steelswarm Roach lockdown... Or Shura into Kochi for the same thing. Hmm, that might be annoying in the future...

Tournament Report 6/5/11

So, I went to a tournament today as well. Gotta practice for the Regional next week, I suppose.

Nothing special happened today. There were only 23 participants, but most of them were good players. So, it was nice to have a challenge.

Round 1: vs Hero Beat

This guy either didn't know his rulings, or was trying to cheat me. It's always hard to tell which, but he seemed to agree with my correct explanations. But, he did Set a Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, so I donno...

-Duel 1: He didn't draw many Monsters, so I beat him down with Reborn Tengu and Scrap Chimera.

-Duel 2: I drew all-Monsters, which can't get over Neos Alius and back rows.

-Duel 3: I kept control from the beginning of the duel with a Scrap Dragon and such. His only out was Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, but every time I summoned a Scrap Dragon, I recycled a Scrap Chimera to make another one if the first one got bounced. There wasn't much he could do, despite the fact that I never draw outs to Grand Mole. It's weird, since whenever I play against Hero Beat, they always draw their Grand Mole...

Round 2: vs Junk Doppel

-Duel 1: I swarmed with Scraps and locked him down with Solemn Warning.

-Duel 2: I dropped Brionac early on and kept bouncing the Monster he Set. After taking two direct attacks, he went for Gaia Knight using a Ryko he got with Call of the Haunted, a Special Summoned Doppelwarrior, and a Plaguespreader Zombie. I used Bottomless Trap Hole, then he revived Plaguespreader to Synchro Summon Armory Arm. It was useless, since I bounced the Armory Arm with Brionac's effect. I then summoned Effect Veiler so that I could bounce it with Zephyros and attack for game.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened United, Dojo, Kageki, Kagemusha. Draw two, activate another Dojo, Synchro Summon Shi En, Set two Double-Edged Sword Techniques. I Set Scrap Beast and Fiendish Chain. He flipped a Double-Edged Sword Technique to Synchro Summon another Shi En. Then, he used both Dojos to get a Hand and Shinai, tributing the Shinai to destroy my Set Scrap Beast and retrieve a Kageki. the second Sword Technique got him a Scrap Dragon, which I used Fiendish Chain on. He tried to negate with Shi En, and I Chained Effect Veiler. I took 5000 damage from the Shi Ens, but he didn't have any back rows. I summoned Scrap Chimera to Synchro Summon my own Scrap Dragon, running over a Shi En. He summoned the Kageki and ended. I summoned Reborn Tengu and crashed it into the Kageki, getting another one, then ran over the Shi En with Scrap Dragon. I then destroyed the Scrap Dragon with mine's effect, and he couldn't retaliate. He did Synchro Summon Brionac, but I had Effect Veiler, so it didn't matter.

-Duel 2: He summoned Kagemusha and activated Asceticism to get Elder from his deck. That made Shi En, and Double-Edged Sword Technique made a Naturia Beast. I didn't have the cards to deal with that, so I lost.

-Duel 3: I opened with Scrap Orthros, Scrap Goblin, Scrapstorm, Reborn Tengu, Royal Decree, and Fiendish Chain, so I could've made a quick Scrap play, but I decided to Set Goblin and the Traps. He went for Trishula with Kageki, Kagemusha, and Kizan. I used Fiendish Chain to negate it, and he Set two back rows. Royal Decree locked them down in the End Phase. I summoned Reborn Tengu, flipped Scrap Goblin, Special Summoned Scrap Orthros to destroy Scrap Goblin. Orthros and Tengu made Scrap Dragon, and I destroyed the Fiendish Chain and his Set Double-Edged Sword Technique after I got my second Reborn Tengu. I attacked and Set Book of Moon. His last hope was the Mizuho/Shinai combo he searched with two Shien's Smoke Signals, but I used the Book on the one he Normal Summoned, and he scooped.

After this round, there were three undefeated players, including myself. We agreed to a three-way split, with the winner choosing which box to get.

Round 4: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

Round 5: vs Disaster Dragon

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

Yugilo recorded both of these matches, so they should be up on his channel soon. I don't mind spoiling the result of these matches because I always beat these guys. 2-0 both rounds. Granted, my Round 5 opponent drew horribly in the second duel. Either way, that's what happens when you play Dragons.

Anyway, we split a box of Extreme Victory. It was barely a split, though, since I pulled six holos in my eight packs. They were: Naturia Eggplant, Debunk, T.G. Cyber Magician, T.G. Power Gladiator, an Ultimate Rare Life Stream Dragon, and the Secret Rare Gladiator Taming. Quite nice. Most of it is just trade bait, though.

So yeah, Zephyros was pretty handy today, but Fiendish Chain yet again proved its worth. Forbidden Lance hasn't really done much. I might drop it from the deck or replace it with some other tech card. Then again, I can't think of any other card to put in, so yeah...

Tournament Report 6/3/11

I went to the smaller card shop for the tournament. Mainly, it was to get a box of Duelist Pack Crow at an amazing price.

That's because I had an idea shortly before leaving for the tournament. I could use Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite the same way that it's used in Dragunities in my Scrap deck. While Zephyros allows for the Dragunity Synchros when Dux is bounced, it will allow for generic Synchros plus Dark End Dragon after bouncing Scrap Chimera, which are not normally accessible. In addition, it adds more utility to Foolish Burial, which I also decided to add to get to my Scrap Tuners faster.

The rest of the box was quite nice, too. Five Armed Wings, two Armor Masters, and two Jetstream (okay, so Jetstream is horrible, but getting three Ultras is nice). There's also the fact that Bora and Shura were reprinted as Rares and Delta Crow - Anti Reverse was reprinted as a Common. Very nice, indeed.

Round 1: vs Macro Monarchs

-Duel 1: An opening with Reborn Tengu allowed me to give up my Scrap Beast to destroy his Dimensional Fissure. Luckily, I had another Scrapyard to get the second Scrap Beast and get that into the Graveyard. Either way, he couldn't do much against my Scrap Dragon, so I won.

-Duel 2: I opened up with Mystical Space Typhoon and Royal Decree, allowing me to easily deal with any removal cards he might have drawn. However, he drew mostly Monarchs, letting me take control with a cool Zephyros play.

Round 2: vs X-Sabers

-Duel 1: I opened up poorly, with no Monsters at all. I used two Solemn Warnings to stop a Darksoul and a Boggart Knight. However, while he swarmed, I was able to hold it off with Fiendish Chain. I then locked down all Traps with Royal Decree, then bounced the Chain for Zephyros' effect. I summoned Scrap Beast to let me Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon, which ran over the Faultroll which had been locked down by the Chain. After a little more waiting and such, I ran him out of cards and took the duel. He was utterly shocked, since both of us thought that he had won. Fiendish Chain, combined with Zephyros and Giant Trunade, really saved me.

-Duel 2: I didn't draw very many Monsters, and died to Boggart Knight beatdown.

-Duel 3: The first duel took so long that this game went into time. I drew all-Monsters this time, and I couldn't swarm very effectively with my Scrap Dragons, so I was unable to deal enough damage on my final turn.

Round 3: vs Frog Monarchs

-Duel 1: I opened up with two Mystical Space Typhoons, Giant Trunade, and Royal Decree. How helpful... I burned them all on his Light and Darkness Dragon so I could search with Scrapyard. Either way, I died to a stream of Monarchs, as I didn't even have an out to one Monarch.

-Duel 2: He Set his Malevolent Catastrophe, which I prevented him from activating by not Setting any Traps. That locked out his Treeborn Frog, making it fairly easy to win.

-Duel 3: He was able to summon a Monarch right away, which removed my Scrap Beast from play. Raiza then sent Reborn Tengu back to my deck, and I died with an all-Monster hand...

Round 4: vs Junk Doppel

-Duel 1: He swarmed the field with a bunch of Special Summons, tuning Junk Synchron to Dandylion, Doppelwarrior, and Level Eater for Trishula, which got Warned. The Quickdraw Synchron that was left was tuned to the four Tokens, making Chevalier de Fleur, which beat me to death.

-Duel 2: Scrap Dragon control destroyed all of his hope.

-Duel 3: I locked him down under Scrap Dragon, Solemn Warning, D.D. Crow, and Effect Veiler. Quite evil, I know.

So yeah, X-2 is not so great. At least I wasn't paired up against any newbs, or whatever. The Turbo Pack 5 gave me another Puppet Plant, which is nice, I suppose.

The main lessons of the day are: Zephyros the Elite really deserves its name, Fiendish Chain is worth the hype, and Maxx "C" is not that great in Scraps. I'm going to remove it from my Side Deck, most likely. I want to fit in Crevice Into the Different Dimension or a third D.D. Crow, or something. Maybe Banisher of the Radiance. We'll see.