Random Stuff #43

So now that we know basically everything about the Battle Pack, we can properly analyze it.  Besides the Xyz Monsters, which are overprinted (36% of your Rares will be Xyz Monsters), everything else in the Battle Pack seems to be evenly printed.  That means no short-print Tour Guide that everyone was afraid of.

But, in such a massive set, you're bound to pull a lot of bad cards.  Even with the Rares, all of which are good cards, you're going to be pulling some useless Forbidden cards or stuff you already have tons of like Grenosaurus.  You may be happy to pull Raigeki in a sealed pack tournament, but you're probably going to be a little frustrated when you buy a box for Tour Guides and pull Raigeki instead.

Basically, don't buy the box for the reprints.  Even Commons like Forbidden Chalice, Forbidden Lance, and Fiendish Chain will be hard to pull.  Statistically speaking, you're basically going to pull two of each of these cards every three boxes.  That's honestly not very good; it's better than trying to get the original versions of the cards from the booster packs they were in, but still not good.

I mean, I'm considering getting a box or two because I'm looking for quite a few of the Commons, and it would be nice to have some of the Rares, but I'll probably decide against it.  Like with most booster packs, it's smarter to buy singles than packs, though this is a relatively good pack in its own right.

And of course, we shouldn't forget the official reason for the pack: a Sealed Format for Yu-Gi-Oh.  I'm thinking about maybe playing sealed with some of my friends after locals, if my locals doesn't start doing their own Battle Pack tournaments.  I'm thinking that me and three friends could chip in for a box (that's like $16.25 each), and we'd make decks of 30 cards out of eight packs each.  The last four packs could be the prizes; first would get three, second would get one.  Round Robin or double-elimination seems like a good format for this type of thing, meaning that at most there would only be four rounds.

And for my friends from locals out there who are confused about how a four-person double-elimination tournament would go, here's a summary:

The four players would be paired randomly for the first round.
Then the players with the same records would duel for the second round.
After that round, one of the players would have lost twice and would be eliminated.
The two 1-1 players would duel in the third round, and the loser is eliminated.
The last two players would duel for first and second place.

I understand that this is double-elimination, meaning that the undefeated player in the finals should get two lives, but they get a bye in the third round, so I think this would be a fair format.  Basically if you win two of your three matches, then you get into the finals, so it seems fair.

If anyone from locals would be interested in this, let me know.  Like I said, this would go on after the tournament, most likely at Panda Express, LOL.  We could get the box from locals before they close.  The only downside to this is that we'd need exactly four people.  I mean, we could figure something out if there's more or less people, but it would make things difficult.

While it was not my intention, this Random Stuff post essentially became a Battle Pack post.  I made this post to discuss the Regional I'll be attending on Saturday, so I'll start talking about that now...

So, the last Regional of this tournament season that I'll be able to attend is in two days.  It's also the first Regional I'll have been to this year (unless you count YCS Long Beach, which I probably would).  And while the format isn't great, and I already have my invite to the World Championship Qualifier (which will go to waste), and the only prize worth getting requires getting Top 8, it's usually a fun experience to go to Regionals.  So, I'd rather not waste it, and I'm going for sure.

What's not so certain is what deck I'm going to take.  I've been playing Scrap Worms for the past two months since it's been doing well at locals, but I don't think that it's that great against the top decks.  I've never beaten Dino Rabbit with the deck, and I only beat Chaos Dragons if I draw a fast hand.  Inzektors aren't a problem.  The deck has been a good local meta call, since people are playing Dark Worlds, Six Samurai, and other random rogue decks.

So, I've been thinking that my old Nordic Diva deck would be a better pick for Regionals.  It's a slower deck than Scrap Worms, so I wouldn't have as good of a match-up against Inzektors, but the deck has a great Dino Rabbit match-up with the proper Side Deck, and it can also hold its own against Chaos Dragons.  I mean, that's why I decided to take it to YCS Long Beach, and I only lost my Dino Rabbit match-up to Rabbit/Tour Guide games one and three.  I was able to beat Inzektors, and Chaos Dragons didn't exist back then.

I also had a worse Wind-Up match-up than I thought, but no one's really playing that now.  So I could help my Chaos Dragon, Hieratic, and Lightsworn match-ups by switching out my Chimeratech Fortress Dragon for Steelswarm Roach, which would open up room in my Side Deck as well when I drop the Cyber Dragons.

What's more is that no one would know what's even happening.  The surprise factor when playing Nordics is amazing, since people don't know how to play against them.  And even if they think they know how to play against them, you can play so many mind games.  It's one of my favorite thing about playing Nordics.  Perhaps I should write up a blog post about it later...

So yeah, even though I just got a Duel Terminal Super Rare Gem-Knight Pearl for my Scrap Worms deck, I may end up going with my Nordic Diva deck.  We'll see, but the argument for using Nordic Diva is pretty good.

Also, this is my 413th post.  Homestuck reference!