Random Stuff #48

Another Thursday without a new episode of Burn Notice... Oh well, might as well spend this time productively.

So, I've got a Regional to go to on Saturday, as I've said in probably every post for the past few weeks.  I was kind of excited for it before, but now I feel like I don't really care.  I feel as though part of it is due to me reading Michael Bonacini's post on why Regional tops don't mean much, but that's not really news to me.

The main reason would be the fact that before we knew what the ban list was, there was a lot of hope that Konami would fix the game.  They usually do a fairly decent job on their September ban lists, so we could hope for a real ban list that would deal with the problems of the format.  However, the ban list really didn't do anything.  The only thing it really did was kill Inzektors, which I'm happy about, but it wasn't enough.  Wind-Ups, Dino Rabbit, Dark Worlds, and other sacky decks still exist.  It's been pretty obvious that Konami doesn't care about the health of the game; they just want to reward players who open with Wind-Up Magician and Shark or Rescue Rabbit.

Don't be mistaken, I don't really care that Wind-Ups and Dino Rabbit specifically are still around.  I just care about the fact that Konami doesn't care.  I was hoping for a fun new format where innovation would be rewarded, but based on the results of YCS Toronto (minus Psoil, which I'll get to in a moment), nothing has changed.  The same decks are still at the top, minus Inzektors, of course.

As for Jeff Jones' Top 2 with Psychics, that's cool, I guess.  It's impressive, but the deck is really just being hyped.  It's like when Chaos Dragons got two Top 2's on the same weekend, and everyone jumped on the deck.  Then, everyone figured out how to deal with them, and the deck lost all of its power.  With Psychics, if you don't have Serene Psychic Witch, you can't do much; that's why Jeff Jones ran two Giant Rats in his final build for the YCS, or so I assume.  Having a deck so dependent on one card like that isn't good.  Besides, now that people know how Psychics work, there's nothing stopping them from playing Dimensional Fissure to wreck them.

But yeah, I just feel as though this format isn't as exciting as I had hoped.  I'm still playing Nordic Diva; I wanted to have to go out and find a new creative deck to deal with the meta, but since the meta didn't change, there was no reason to.  And so, my deck is already ready for Regionals.  I haven't even touched the deck since I finished it, since I don't really care how well I do at the Regional.  Yes, it's cool to Top 8 and get a nice mat (actually, I think it's the Prophecy Monster mat, so I guess it's not that nice), but all it takes is getting lucky nine rounds in a row.  It's not like I'm not going to try, it's just that I don't care.

Either way, I'll be going with Fwazalaza and my friend who plays Vanguard.  They'll be using Six Samurai (like always) and a Gagaga deck, respectively.  Yes, Gagaga.  Apparently, he wanted to make a Gagaga deck for a while, but since it didn't work on its own, he mixed Photons in with the Gagaga Monsters.  But now that we have the proper cards to support the Gagaga archetype (if it can even be considered an archetype), he has made a more-or-less pure Gagaga deck.  That's cool, I guess.

So yeah, if we scrub out, then we'll probably go to the other card shop and play in the free Vanguard tournament again.  My friend who plays Vanguard will have the rest of the cards I need for my Vanguard deck on Saturday, so I'll be able to complete my deck and never spend time looking for Vanguard cards ever again.  Of course, if my friend wants to give me more cards for free, I'm not going to turn them down.  And I don't know if Fwazalaza would come with us.  I told my friend who plays Vanguard to bring an extra deck for him in case he does come; it's probably the usual Nova Grappler deck or perhaps a Royal Paladin deck.

But yeah, with Yu-Gi-Oh not being a very skilled game at the moment, and Vanguard never having been a skilled game, I turn to Kaijudo for a true challenge.  The Rise of the Duel Masters Core Set will be released tomorrow, but as I have said many times, I'm not planning on going out tomorrow to go get it.  It's honestly a waste of a drive, since the card shop is a fair distance from my house, and I'm going to be there on Sunday anyways.  I don't know for sure though, I may break down and go because I have nothing better to do tomorrow.  I was planning on finishing preparing for Regionals tomorrow, but there's nothing left to do but print out my deck list, so I do have time.  We'll see, I guess.

Either way, Aki and I are planning on getting a total of two boxes between us.  I think that if I do decide to go tomorrow, I'm going to get one box, then wait to get the second box until after the tournament on Sunday.  I mean, if I can win the box tournament, I might as well get a box of Kaijudo.  Though, I don't have any cards from Return of the Duelist, so I may want that.  Eh, I'll decide tomorrow if I even go.

Regardless, the Core Set looks really cool.  I'm surprised that Crystal Memory stayed the same from Duel Masters while Logic Cube and that Nature search card were pretty severely weakened.  I mean, they were really good in Duel Masters.  Using Logic Cube to search for Hyperspatial Dravita Hole to get back Logic Cube is pretty crazy...  But yeah, I'm happy that we'll finally have Stormspark Blast, and that it's in one of the starter decks along with Grand Gure.  I expect that we'll be getting three of each starter deck mainly for the cover cards, but the cards in the starter decks (that we know of) aren't bad either.  I know that Aki wanted to use Vorg, which is in the same starter deck as Stormspark Blast.  Not to mention, we need six copies of Stormspark Blast...  It's Stormspark Blast, yo.

It does seem like a lot of money though.  A box of the Core Set would probably be around $85, while each starter deck would be $12 or so.  That means that Aki and I would each be spending $121, which is a lot on a children's card game.  However, it would be the last time we spend this much on Kaijudo all at once.  I mean, each new booster set would most likely only be a 60-card set, meaning that we'd only need to buy one box at the most.  And I don't think that they'll be releasing starter decks with each booster pack.  I guess we'll discuss our plan on Sunday when we go to the Kaijudo league.  Either way, expect a box opening video on Monday at the latest.

So yeah, that about does it for my weekend plans.  To summarize: there's a Regional on Saturday, but I don't really care about how well I do; if I scrub out, I'll go play Vanguard; Aki and I are going to the Kaijudo league and Yu-Gi-Oh tournament on Sunday; and we're going to buy a bunch of Kaijudo cards.