The Grunty of the Light

Tournament Report 1/28/12

2012-01-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

So, as usual, I decided to go to locals today. But, I decided to use neither my T.G. Zombies nor my Scraps. I used a Nordic Beast deck with Deep Sea Diva. Yeah, that's right.

There were about 22 players, and more than half were regulars, so that was good.

Round 1: vs Yusei Synchro

Um, he used Unknown Synchron and Boost Warrior to make Formula Synchron without using up his Normal Summon. That was pretty cool. But, I just Trishula'd him each game using Deep Sea Diva, Lost Blue Breaker, and a Level 4. It wasn't too eventful.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Kagemusha and Kizan into Naturia Barkion, then Set a card. Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed his Set card, and I Special Summoned Guldfaxe and Normal Summoned Reborn Tengu. That made Scrap Dragon, letting me run over his Barkion and attack directly with the second Tengu. Unfortunately, I lost my Scrap Dragon to a Dimensional Prison, and his Irou ripped through my Set Monsters. He also had a Compulsory Evacuation Device to bounce the Tanngrisnir (white goat) that I Normal Summoned to stall.
-Duel 2: I started with a Set Super-Nimble Mega Hamster. He summoned Spirit of the Six Samurai and Grandmaster, equipping the former to the latter and attacking my Hamster. I got Tanngnjostr (black goat), and he Set two cards. I Flip Summoned Tanngnjostr for its effect, getting Guldfaxe. I Synchro Summoned Black Rose Dragon to destroy every card on the field, and he got back his Grandmaster. From there, I was able to keep control of the duel pretty well. He used Solemn Warning on my Scrap Dragon, but it only prevented him from stealing it with Monster Reborn later in the duel.
-Duel 3: He started with Elder and Asceticism, making Shi En. He then summoned Grandmaster and ended. I Special Summoned Guldfaxe and Normal Summoned Reborn Tengu, making Scrap Dragon. I used Scrap Dragon's effect, targeting my second Tengu and Shi En. He destroyed Grandmaster to protect Shi En, and I attacked over it with Scrap Dragon, then directly with Tengu. After a while, he was able to clear out my field, then summon Kizan and Grandmaster and equip the Grandmaster with another Spirit. I then summoned Colossal Fighter and Number 17: Leviathan Dragon to get rid of the Grandmaster once more. He couldn't get over the Colossal Fighter, so I was able to win from there.

Round 3: vs T.G. Plants

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament. Apparently, he switched out the Zombies for T.G.'s.

-Duel 1: This duel went on for about half an hour. I was in control of the duel for the whole time, but I was just wearing him down. He literally ran out of Monsters by the end of the duel; he was lucky to draw Reinforcement of the Army before he drew his last Monster, which just happened to be Marauding Captain. Using his last three Monsters, T.G. Striker, Warwolf, and the Marauding Captain, he made a Scrap Dragon to destroy my Scrap Dragon. I cleared the field with Dark Hole and attacked a couple times with Guldfaxe to win.
-Duel 2: He summoned Naturia Beast backed by Horn of the Phantom Beast. All I drew were Spells and Effect Veilers, so I slowly died.
-Duel 3: Since the first duel took so long, this would be sudden death. I started with Deep Sea Diva to make Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. He used T.G. Striker and Marauding Captain to make Naturia Beast, then Set a couple cards and ended. I Set a Reborn Tengu and a Torrential Tribute and ended. He Set a Monster and ended. I summoned Guldfaxe and Flip Summoned Reborn Tengu. I Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon and Special Summoned my second Tengu in Defense Position. I used Scrap Dragon's effect, targeting his Set Mirror Force and my Tengu. The third Tengu was in my hand, so that was sad. Either way, Scrap Dragon attacked into Dimensional Prison and I ended my turn. He summoned Effect Veiler and Synchro Summoned Brionac. I used my own Effect Veiler to negate its effect, so he just attacked my Gachi Gachi Gantetsu to detach an Xyz Material. I Normal Summoned my third Reborn Tengu and flipped Torrential Tribute. I switched Gantetsu to Attack Position and attacked for game.

Round 4: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. There was one other undefeated player, but he was paired down and lost, so this ended up being the finals.

-Duel 1: He sent a Hornet to the Graveyard with Foolish Burial and Set a Monster and a back row. I summoned Reborn Tengu, Set a couple cards, and ended my turn. He hit my Torrential Tribute during the End Phase with his MST. He tributed his Set Sangan for Inzektor Giga-Mantis and searched for a Dragonfly. He attacked my Tengu and I brought out the second one. I drew the third Tengu, then summoned Deep Sea Diva to grab Lost Blue Breaker. That let me make Trishula, banishing his Giga-Mantis, the Hornet in his Graveyard, and a Hornet from his hand. He drew Armageddon Knight and used it to send the third Hornet to the Graveyard. I summoned the third Tengu and pushed for damage. He summoned Inzektor Dragonfly, equipped it with Hornet, and sent Hornet to the Graveyard to target my Trishula. I Chained Enemy Controller, tributing Trishula to steal his Dragonfly and prevent him from getting its Special Summon effect. He merely Set a card and ended. I ran over the Dragonfly with my Tengu and Set a Super-Nimble Mega Hamster. The last card in his hand was another Dragonfly, so I lost...
-Duel 2: I opened with a Set Sangan and two back rows. He summoned Tour Guide, grabbed a second Tour Guide, then made Wind-Up Zenmaines. He Set a card and ended his turn. I drew a second MST (I had one Set), and ended. He drew and Set a Monster. I drew, used my Set MST to destroy his Set Solemn Judgment, then Set another back row. He drew and passed. I Set Super-Nimble Mega Hamster. He summoned Mystic Tomato and attacked my Hamster, letting me Special Summon Tanngnjostr (black goat). I flipped Tanngnjostr to Special Summon Guldfaxe, then flipped Sangan so that I could Synchro Summon Thor and search Effect Veiler. I summoned a second Guldfaxe from my hand and used it and the Hamster to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon. Scrap Dragon destroyed my Set Gleipnir, which I Chained to grab another Tanngnjostr, and his Mystic Tomato. I activated Thor's effect to negate Zenmaines' effect, then ran over it with Scrap Dragon. Thor destroyed his Set Sangan, which he used to grab Hornet. He summoned Centipede and equipped it with Hornet, then sent Hornet to the Graveyard to destroy my Set Torrential Tribute and search for Dragonfly. He then used his Centipede and my Guldfaxe (courtesy of Monster Reborn) to make Black Rose Dragon. He assumed that I would negate Black Rose Dragon's effect with my Effect Veiler, but I let it through. In the End Phase, I revived Thor with its own effect, burning him for 800 damage. I summoned Lost Blue Breaker from my hand and used Monster Reborn on Scrap Dragon to go for game.
-Duel 3: He opened with Trap Dustshoot to send away my Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, then he destroyed my Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror with MST. I couldn't do anything with the rest of my hand, so I just stalled for a while until he killed me with a swarm of Inzektors.

So, I ended up going 3-1 and got 3rd place. At least I got some store credit, I suppose. As usual, I didn't pull anything good from my Turbo Pack 7, and I only pulled a ZW - Unicorn Spear from the ORCS pack I bought using the store credit.

So yeah, my Nordic deck did pretty well today, considering I just made it the night before. I don't really like how it doesn't play many Traps, but I suppose that's okay since the Monsters defend themselves pretty well. Either way, I'll see if I can find some ways to improve the deck, and especially the Extra Deck, since it's really cramped.

Dealing with Inzektors

2012-01-22T18:07:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how Inzektors will be legal in the TCG in a couple of days, I've started contemplating about how to deal with them. The reason I'm completely ignoring all of the other themes from ORCS is because they aren't nearly as deadly. So what if you lose half of your hand to a first turn Wind-Up loop? You still have three cards, and they just have a field full of weak Monsters. Either way, you should at least be running Effect Veiler to lessen the chances of getting looped...

Anyways, after thinking for a while about Inzektors, I've realized that the plus-4 they get off of the Dragonfly/Hornet/Centipede combo isn't all that powerful by itself. It's the fact that they can do it three turns straight that's scary, provided they get the first one off. Like Six Samurai, Inzektors have proven to be one of those decks where if they open well, you can't do very much to stop it, but if they don't, they can't do very much at all.

So, dealing the first Dragonfly is the problem. The way that people will usually deal with this is by using certain Traps, like Solemn Warning or Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, or by using Effect Veiler or D.D. Crow. That's great and all, but they'll be expecting this and will often be ready to play around it. It's not uncommon for Inzektors to play Trap Stun, which deals with your Traps, and they can also run Dimensional Fissure, which stops your "hand Traps." So, if they can stop what you're trying to stop them with, you basically lost.

The rest of these strategies are rather unorthodox, so if you don't care and just want to use the generic stuff, just skip the next three or four paragraphs...

The second way to deal with Inzektors is to OTK them. Yeah, not much to be said about that. Just play Lightsworn or Six Samurai and hope to get lucky or something.

A third way, which is quite unconventional, is to use a deck that leaves its field empty on the opponent's turn. How is this possible? There's only one way I can think of: Drill Warrior. That's right; you can keep your Drill Warrior safe during their turn by banishing it with its effect, then beat them down during your turn. If Inzektors somehow become "tier zero," then this will be something to consider, but otherwise, Quickdraw Synchron-based decks are too inconsistent to deal with the rest of the meta.

A fourth option is hand disruption. Get rid of that Dragonfly after they grab the second one from the first combo. Mind Crush and D.D. Designator could work as generic hand disruption. Dark Worlds also have access to their own forms of hand disruption, but they would lose to the same types of cards that are sided against Inzektors like Macro Cosmos. This strategy isn't all that great, seeing as how you would have to get combo'd on before being able to use it most of the time.

The latter three options don't seem all that appealing, but they have the surprise factor that can throw off an Inzektor player pretty easily. However, the most generic strategy of just siding in more Traps will probably be the most common. As I've said, though, it provides the same dilemma of playing against Six Samurai during their format. They will be able to anticipate your counters and side in counters for them. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about that but try your best and hope to be luckier than them.

So, how can we best prepare to stop them? You should already know about stuff like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, Macro Cosmos, Solemn Warning, and Chain Disappearance, so I won't go into those. They're all good generic options, but they lose to Trap Stun, so I'm hesitant to rely on them. Instead, let's look at another plausible Side Deck card.

Foolish Return, that garbage Rare that you pulled so many times from Storm of Ragnarok while trying to get Six Samurai cards, isn't garbage anymore. If they have their Hornet set up in the Graveyard, you can send it back to the deck to stymie them. If you banish it, then they can get it back with a Tour Guide into Leviair play. However, it's harder to access while it's in the deck, making this a better way of stopping their combo. Let's consider the following:

You go first and Set Foolish Return and perhaps a Monster. Your opponent opens with their Dragonfly and Hornet, and proceeds to summon the Dragonfly and equip Hornet from their hand. They send Hornet to the Graveyard to target your Set back row, of course, and you Chain Foolish Return, sending Hornet back to their deck. Now, they have to consider what they want to Special Summon with Dragonfly's effect. If they have another Hornet in hand, you would've lost anyway, but if not, they will probably decide to Special Summon the Hornet you sent back and overlay for an Xyz Monster. So, your opponent basically just used two cards in their hand to make a Rank 3 Xyz Monster. All you lost was a Foolish Return, and perhaps a Set Monster.

What would've happened if you banished that Hornet with D.D. Crow instead? Your opponent would be able to destroy your lone back row with Hornet, then Special Summon Centipede. If you Chain D.D. Crow to Centipede's equip effect, they would be able to simply overlay for Leviair and grab the Hornet back. So, you would lose at least one card plus the D.D. Crow, and they would be left with Leviair and Hornet on the field.

In both scenarios, you will have to minus, but Foolish Return is better at mitigating that minus. D.D. Crow may make them waste a Centipede, but Foolish Return is more reliable overall. It prevents them from using Leviair to bring back the Hornet, gets around stuff like Dimensional Fissure and Debunk, and also adds a psychological aspect to your play. A Set Foolish Return might look like a Solemn Warning to them. They might waste a Trap Stun only to have their Hornet sent back to the deck before they can make a play.

And if you think about it, that's the most important factor in stopping Inzektors. You have to make them waste their first Dragonfly. That's what all those Side Deck cards like Solemn Warning and Trap Hole are being used for. If you use Foolish Return, you won't lose to something like Trap Stun or Limit Reverse, which would let them continue their combo unhindered.

Am I saying that I won't be using Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror against Inzektors? No, I'm not crazy. Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror also hurts other decks which I would expect to face, like Dark Worlds and Infernities, so there's no reason not to at least side it. However, in an attempt to be able to better deal with Inzektors by siding unconventional cards, I will most likely play Foolish Return. Besides, it's not like it doesn't serve the same purpose as D.D. Crow against other decks, not that people were siding D.D. Crow to begin with...

Tournament Report 1/21/12

2012-01-21T22:48:00.000-08:00

So, I went to locals today with my T.G. Zombies again. I'm still trying to decide about which deck to use once Inzektors become legal (next week...), but I felt that since the two Dino Rabbit players at locals switched to Tour Guide Tengu Plants, uh I mean "Synchrocentric", T.G. Zombies would be the right choice for today.

There were quite a few regulars today, but there were also a lot of little children.

Round 1: vs Malefic Skill Drain

I was paired up against vadangchoinga.

-Duel 1: He flipped Skill Drain early, and after Royal Tributing the T.G. Warwolf that I needed to follow up my Heavy Storm, and I was forced to make a Utopia against his Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon. I held out for a few turns, but I just drew a Bottomless Trap Hole and Mystical Space Typhoon during that time, so I wasn't able to deal with his Monster.
-Duel 2: I drew an all-Monster hand, but it included two T.G. Strikers, so it was okay. However, I decided to pass and bluff Gorz. He summoned King Tiger Wanghu and Set three back rows. From there, it was a lot of draw-pass-draw-pass. After a little while, forced his Skill Drain so that I could summon my T.G.'s in spite of his Wanghu, then some back row removal to deal with the Skill Drain once I had made my Synchro Summon plays. He wasn't able to deal with the resulting swarm.
-Duel 3: He opened with Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon, Necrovalley, and four back rows. Those back rows were Skill Drain, Safe Zone, Dark Bribe, and Starlight Road. After flipping Skill Drain, he drew into Malefic Cyber End Dragon, and I couldn't do anything to protect myself from all of his big Monsters.

Round 2: vs Newbie Dragunity Blackwings

He didn't even have Dragunity Phalanx; he just used Dux with Brandistock...

Round 3: vs "Synchrocentric"

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Tour Guide for Sangan. I killed the Tour Guide with a Goblin Zombie, then used Book of Moon on the Reborn Tengu that he tried to attack with. I used a Striker from my hand and his Tour Guide, courtesy of Monster Reborn, to make Trishula and banish his Sangan and run over his Tengu. He just Set a Monster and ended. I made Revived King Ha Des and ran over his Set Snowman Eater, then killed his second Tengu with Trishula. He Special Summoned the third Tengu and used it, a Glow-Up Bulb off of One for One, and a Normal Summoned Spirit Reaper to make Scrap Dragon. He revived Glow-Up Bulb, milling Dandylion (I wish I was that lucky...), then destroyed one of the Fluff Tokens with Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy my Trishula. He made Formula Synchron, then attacked over my Ha Des. I made my own Scrap Dragon, however, destroying my Creature Swap to destroy his Scrap Dragon. I ran over his Formula Synchron and ended. He made a huge misplay, using Monster Reborn on my Trishula instead of his own Scrap Dragon, which cost him the duel. Also, I Creature Swapped his Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning to OTK him later...
-Duel 2: He sided in a lot of stuff like Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, which made his own deck a lot slower. It was able to kill my Brionac after I bounced his Leviathan Dragon with it, but I was able to continue attacking him with my Zombie Master. I was able to slowly grind out some card advantage and take control of the duel. I was simply beating him down with Goblin Zombie while he kept drawing nothing.

Round 4: vs Newbie Blackwings

I was paired down... great... By the way, this was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament, and I won 2-0. He isn't really that bad of a player; he just doesn't have access to many cards, or so I would assume.

Round 5: vs "Synchrocentric"

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I went first and just Set two back rows. He opened with Tour Guide into Sangan and attacked with the Tour Guide. Reinforce Truth brought out T.G. Striker, which he attacked over, letting me search Warwolf in the End Phase. I used Armageddon Knight to dump Plaguespreader Zombie, then revived it with its own effect and Special Summoned Warwolf to make Trishula. Even though Trishula's effect was negated by Effect Veiler, I realized that Armageddon Knight isn't as much of a filler card as I thought it was. It actually has its own specific uses. Anyways, back to the duel... I attacked over his Tour Guide, then he played Dark Hole to grab Debris Dragon with the Sangan. He summoned Reborn Tengu and attacked directly. I Set Sangan and ended. He attacked it with the Tengu, letting me search another Warwolf. He Set a Monster and ended. I used Reinforcement of the Army to grab Striker, then Special Summoned it and the Warwolf in Attack Position. I tributed Warwolf to summon Caius and banish his Set Dandylion, then attacked over the Tengu. He didn't misplay, which is what I was hoping for, and summoned the second Tengu in Attack Position. That left me to Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon and Set a second back row. He summoned Debris Dragon to revive Effect Veiler, then used Mind Control on my Stardust Dragon. I was confused why he did that. Could he have Heavy Storm? No, he would've made that play first to destroy my two back rows. Would he be able to make Shooting Star Dragon? No, his Dandylion was banished. After a bit of thinking, he used Effect Veiler and Reborn Tengu to Synchro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian. He got the third Tengu, then tried to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon with Debris Dragon and the Tengu. I pointed out that he couldn't use Debris Dragon as a Synchro Material if any of the other Monsters were Level 4. He then used Foolish Burial to send Glow-Up Bulb to the Graveyard and revived it to Synchro Summon Catastor with it and the Tengu. He banished a Light and a Dark from his Graveyard for BLS, but I activated Bottomless Trap Hole. He tried to use Stardust Dragon to negate, but I pointed out that he couldn't tribute it due to Mind Control. I Chained my MST to destroy my Bottomless Trap Hole and clear my field. He recognized that this would let me drop Gorz, but attacked with Debris Dragon anyway. I dropped Gorz at that, and the Token died to Catastor's attack. I got back my Stardust Dragon at the end of his turn. I attacked over his Hyper Librarian and Catastor with Gorz and Stardust Dragon, then Set Goblin Zombie. He summoned Tour Guide, grabbing the last Tour Guide, then overlaid for Leviair. Leviair's effect brought back Dandylion, which he tuned the Debris Dragon to to make Black Rose Dragon and Special Summon Fluff Tokens. He used its effect to flip my Goblin Zombie and zero its ATK. He attacked it, letting me grab Zombie Master, and ended. I summoned Zombie Master and sent another Goblin Zombie from my hand to the Graveyard to revive it. He Chained Maxx "C", hindering my plans. I was going to kill all of his Monsters except Leviair, then steal it with Creature Swap and bring back my Plaguespreader Zombie, but I didn't want to let him draw any more. So, I just ran over his whole field with my Monsters. I was able to kill him in a few turns, pushing through his Gorz.
-Duel 2: He opened with a Set Sangan and a back row. I Set my own Sangan. He Tribute Summoned Caius, banishing my Sangan and searching Tour Guide. I Special Summoned Tragoedia when he attacked, and he ended. I drew to five cards and attacked over his Caius. I then Set MST and ended. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and tributed that for another Caius, banishing my Tragoedia and attacking directly. I destroyed his back row with my Set MST, then made a Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth with Striker and Goblin Zombie to run over his Caius. He summoned Tour Guide and made Wind-Up Zenmaines. I revived my T.G. Striker with Call of the Haunted, then summoned Zombie Master and sent Spirit Reaper to the Graveyard to Special Summon it. That let me make Trishula, and he scooped, revealing his hand of two copies of Reborn Tengu and a Glow-Up Bulb.

So, I went 4-1 and got 6th place. Unfortunately, only Top 4 get store credit, so that was sad. Oh well, I didn't really need it...

Anyway, I was able to make quite a few trades after the tournament, getting an Evolzar Laggia, an Ultra Rare Test Tiger, a third Secret Rare Gallis the Star Beast, three Super Rare Jurrac Guaiba, another Chaos Trap Hole (if you still want some, sickpenguin, I now have enough to trade), a third Duel Terminal Instant Fusion, and some other cards. Also, my Round 1 opponent from this tournament gave me an Ultra Rare Number C39: Utopia Ray. Apparently, he was planning on getting a Ghost Rare one, and he pulled the Ultra Rare one today after winning the tournament. Awesome, now I'll have it if I decide to use Scraps next weekend.

But that's the thing. Should I use Scraps next weekend? Inzektors won't completely overtake my locals, for sure, but many of the richer people will probably decide to play it. The thing is that I would be depending on Traps to deal with their swarms if I use Scraps. With T.G. Zombies, I can just swarm them back and such. However, my other match-ups would be somewhat more difficult due to the additional Side Deck hate. As I've said before, cards that are going to be used against Inzektors, like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Macro Cosmos, also happen to work well against my T.G. Zombies. So I'll either have to side against people's Side Decks even more (something like siding a third Dust Tornado and Trap Stuns), or I'll have to use a different deck. I suppose that we shall see...

Tournament Report 1/15/12

2012-01-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

As I said in yesterday's post, I decided to go to locals today. Thankfully they ran out of ORCS packs for the Sneak Preview yesterday, otherwise there wouldn't have been a tournament today.

Anyway, I decided to use my T.G. Zombies today. There were 40 players today, and quite a few of them were regulars.

Round 1: vs Newbie Burn

I dropped Trishula and T.G. Wonder Magician on him both games...

Round 2: vs Newbie Fairies

I dropped Trishula and Ally of Justice Decisive Armor on the same turn during the first game. Trishula killed him the second game.

Round 3: vs Zombie Plants

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first and opened Reborn Tengu and Trap Dustshoot. He sent back my Spirit Reaper, but I summoned Armageddon Knight to send Plaguespreader Zombie to the Graveyard. He used Mind Control and Glow-Up Bulb to make Trishula next turn, and I had basically lost because of that. Mind Control should be banned.
-Duel 2: I went first and Set Bottomless Trap Hole and Mystical Space Typhoon. He summoned Goblin Zombie and attacked, milling Call of the Haunted from my deck, but I dropped Tragoedia. He Set two back rows, and I destroyed one with my Mystical Space Typhoon. I used Tragoedia's effect, discarding my Goblin Zombie to steal his and overlay for Utopia. I attacked directly, then he Set a Monster. I used a second MST to destroy his other back row, then summoned Mystic Tomato. I ran over his Sangan with the Tomato, letting him get his own Mystic Tomato, then attacked directly again with Utopia. He summoned Banisher of the Radiance, but I banished it with Bottomless Trap Hole, and he scooped.
-Duel 3: He went first and summoned Reborn Tengu and Set two back rows. I summoned Mezuki and lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole. I Set a back row and ended. He summoned Plaguespreader Zombie and Synchro Summoned Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. When the second Reborn Tengu was Special Summoned, I used Torrential Tribute to kill both of his Monsters, but he got the third Tengu from his deck. He attacked with that, Set a back row, and ended. I drew and he used Trap Dustshoot. My hand consisted of T.G. Rush Rhino, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Goblin Zombie, Monster Reborn, and Mind Control. He sent back the Rai-Oh, and I summoned Rush Rhino. He negated its summon with Solemn Warning, but I got it back with Monster Reborn and ran over his Tengu. He sent a card to the top of his deck for Plaguespreader Zombie and tributed that for Caius the Shadow Monarch, banishing my Rush Rhino and attacking directly. I Set Goblin Zombie and used the Creature Swap I had just drawn. I attacked my Goblin Zombie with the Caius I got to grab another one. He drew and Set a back row and ended. I attacked with Caius to drop him down to 3300 LP and ended. He drew and Set a Monster. I summoned Goblin Zombie and he used Solemn Warning. I moved his Set Goblin Zombie out of the way with Mind Control so that I could attack for game with his Caius. Mind Control should be banned.

Round 4: vs Machina Gadgets

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I went first and Set Sangan. He summoned Machina Gearframe, searching Machina Fortress, then attacked. I searched T.G. Striker, and he Set two back rows and ended. I used Striker and Warwolf to make Wonder Magician. Its effect hit his Bottomless Trap Hole, which he Chained. I drew a card off of Wonder Magician's effect, and Set Mystic Tomato. He simply attacked, letting me grab Plaguespreader Zombie. He Set a back row and ended. I summoned Goblin Zombie and Synchro Summoned Revived King Ha Des. He negated the Synchro Summon with Solemn Warning, but I searched another Goblin Zombie. I then used Reinforcement of the Army to get another T.G. Striker and Special Summoned it. Mind Control took his Gearframe, letting me make Gaia Knight and attack directly. He Set another back row and ended. I attacked again and Set another Mystic Tomato. He used Dark Hole to destroy both of my Monsters and ended. I used Monster Reborn on the Gaia Knight and attacked directly with it. I tributed the Gaia Knight for Caius, hoping to banish the Caius itself and deal the last bit of damage for game, but he flipped Torrential Tribute. He finally drew a Gadget and summoned it, searching another. He attacked directly and Set another back row. I made Brionac with my third T.G. Striker and a Goblin Zombie, searching another Goblin Zombie. I pitched the Mezuki I had drawn to bounce one of his back rows, then the Goblin Zombie I searched to bounce the other. I attacked over his Gadget for game.
-Duel 2: He opened with Green Gadget, searching Red, and two back rows. I summoned Mystic Tomato and attacked, but he stopped it with Book of Moon. I Set two back rows and ended. He used Pot of Duality to grab Solemn Judgment, summoned Red Gadget to search Yellow, then Set two back rows. In the End Phase, I destroyed his Solemn Warning with an MST. I Flip Summoned my Mystic Tomato, and he declined to use Judgment on it. So I crashed into his Green Gadget, grabbing my second Tomato to run over his Red Gadget. I ended at that, and he used Smashing Ground to destroy my Tomato, then summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh, which I banished with Bottomless Trap Hole. He ended his turn. I summoned Spirit Reaper, daring him to use the Solemn Judgment, but he used Effect Veiler instead. I poked for 300 damage and ended. He summoned Yellow Gadget, grabbing Green and attacking over my Spirit Reaper. I summoned T.G. Warwolf, crashing into the Yellow Gadget. Spirit Reaper ripped the last card (the Green Gadget he had just searched) out of his hand. In the End Phase, I grabbed a T.G. Striker and ended. He flipped his bluff Monster Reborn to revive the Green Gadget I discarded and searched Red. He ran over Spirit Reaper for a little more damage, then Set a Monster. I summoned Rai-Oh and attacked over the Green Gadget. I switched my Spirit Reaper to Defense Position and ended. It turned out that his Set Monster was a Spirit Reaper, and because of that, we were just sitting there for a while. Eventually, I destroyed his non-Solemn Judgment Set back row with an MST and summoned Mezuki. I then used Creature Swap to steal his Spirit Reaper and give him my Mezuki. Rai-Oh ran over the Mezuki, and my Spirit Reaper took a card out of his hand. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked into my Rai-Oh, but I blocked with Dimensional Prison. I was able to rip the last two cards out of his hand with both Spirit Reapers, then overlay for Leviair and steal his banished Rai-Oh. He drew Torrential Tribute a little too late and played too conservatively with his Solemn Judgment, so he couldn't deal with the field that I had built.

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. Also, we were the last two undefeated players, so this ended up being the finals. I offered to split with him, and he accepted. The winner would decide which box we would get, and we didn't side.

-Duel 1: I went first and Set two back rows. He summoned Spirit Reaper and attacked. I was forced to block with Book of Moon, leaving him to Set three back rows. I drew and Set Mystic Tomato. From there, we were just playing the draw-pass-draw-pass game and slowly building up our fields. Eventually, I flipped my Set T.G. Striker and Sangan, then summoned Goblin Zombie, daring him to use Torrential Tribute. Instead, he used Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. I attacked to flip his Spirit Reaper, then ended. He drew and passed. I summoned T.G. Warwolf and Synchro Summoned T.G. Wonder Magician to destroy Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. I then tuned Wonder Magician to Sangan for Scrap Dragon, searching another Striker. Scrap Dragon's effect destroyed his Spirit Reaper and my Goblin Zombie, letting me search Plaguespreader Zombie. Scrap Dragon attacked directly and I ended my turn. He used Dark Hole, then searched Yaichi with Shien's Smoke Signal. He played two Six Samurai United, then summoned Yaichi and Kizan. He drew four cards, then used Yaichi's effect on my Set Reinforce Truth, which I Chained to Special Summon X-Saber Pashuul. He Set one back row and passed. I summoned Goblin Zombie and Synchro Summoned Brionac. I searched my third Goblin Zombie, and he flipped another Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. I revived Zombie Master from my Graveyard with Mezuki's effect and sent my Plaguespreader to the Graveyard from my hand to revive Goblin Zombie. I Creature Swapped my Goblin Zombie to him, taking his Yaichi. Zombie Master suicided with his Kizan, and Yaichi ran over the Goblin Zombie, letting me grab my last Zombie, Spirit Reaper. He played Shien's Dojo and his third Six Samurai United, then summoned Kageki whose effect I Veiled. He ended his turn, and I summoned Spirit Reaper and overlaid for Leviair. I detached Spirit Reaper to grab my Mezuki, then attack over his Kageki with the Leviair and Mezuki for game.
-Duel 2: He Synchro Summoned Shi En with Kageki and Kagemusha, then Set two back rows. I used Striker and Warwolf to make Wonder Magician, which he destroyed with Musakani Magatama. I drew a Goblin Zombie off of its effect. I used Dark Hole to bait out Shi En's negation, then used MST to destroy his Double-Edged Sword Technique. I Special Summoned another Striker and Normal Summoned Goblin Zombie to make Gaia Knight, search another Goblin Zombie, and run over his Shi En. I Set Call of the Haunted and ended. He summoned Kageki and Yaichi. He tried to destroy my Set Call with Yaichi's effect, but I Chained it to revive Warwolf. He overlaid for Leviathan Dragon, detached an Xyz Material to boost its ATK, then ran over my Warwolf. He Set a back row and I searched T.G. Striker in the End Phase. I just ran over his Leviathan Dragon, Set a Mystic Tomato and ended. He drew and flipped Double-Edged Sword Technique to make Ally of Justice Catastor and destroy my Gaia Knight. He Set the card he drew and ended. I drew and ended. He drew and attacked my Set Mystic Tomato, letting me Special Summon Armageddon Knight and dump Plaguespreader Zombie. I drew Mezuki and sent it back to the top of my deck for Plaguespreader Zombie, letting me Special Summon it and a Warwolf from my hand. I made Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, banishing the Shi En from his Graveyard, the Catastor on the field, and the Dark Hole in his hand. I attacked directly and ended my turn. He drew and Set a back row, which he flipped when I entered my Battle Phase: Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. So I Set a Goblin Zombie and ended. He drew and ended. I summoned Sangan and attacked with it to drop him to 4100 LP. He drew, then Special Summoned Elder of the Six Samurai and Kagemusha with Asceticism, letting him make Naturia Beast. He ran over my Sangan and I searched Effect Veiler. I summoned it and flipped my Goblin Zombie so that I could make Catastor and search Zombie Master. Catastor destroyed his Naturia Beast, and in a few turns, the rest of his LP.

So, I went undefeated and won half a box of Photon Shockwave! I pulled a Gem-Turtle, Number 20: Giga-Brilliant, Wind-Up Hunter, two Thunder End Dragons (one Ultra Rare, one Ultimate Rare, both horrible cards), and Evolzar Dolkka! It seems as though I got the better half of the box, which is good. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do with most of these; I don't think that I'll be needing more than one Thunder End Dragon, as if I'd ever need even one.

I may be able to find some use for the Dolkka. Perhaps I'll be able to get a Laggia next weekend. If so, I could toss the couple of Duel Terminal Jurrac Guaibas I have in Aki's Gladiator Beast deck and put Laggia and Dolkka in his Extra Deck. Not a bad idea, since it adds to the control aspect of the deck. We'd probably have to find room for stuff like Shrink in the deck, though.

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with how today's tournament turned out. I made some pretty cool plays with my T.G. Zombie deck today, and I'm starting to like the deck again. What I don't like his how people are going to start siding Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Chain Disappearance once Inzektors are released. So, even though T.G. Zombies would have a good match-up against Inzektors in theory, it would be risky to play with all of the Side Deck hate that people will be inadvertently playing. There's still a couple weeks until that'll matter, so I'll probably play my T.G. Zombies next weekend.

Random Stuff #39

2012-01-14T18:03:00.000-08:00

So, I've finally started dueling random people on "The Network" (that's what Katana calls Dueling Network, and sickpenguin, Evilhamsdwch, and I all make fun of that). So far, I have 20 wins and no losses, but that doesn't really mean anything. Seeing as how it's Dueling Network and my rating was low from having just started, I just played a bunch of newbs in a row. This doesn't really help me, because I'm trying to get 100+ rep so that I can take that Admin Exam that they're having. I've seen some pretty bad rulings made by the admins there, and I want to fix that.

EDIT: And my 34-win streak has been broken by a guy who went first and opened with Manju, Advanced Ritual Art, Kristya, Dark Factory of Mass Destruction, Ritual Weapon, and some other card. He started with Manju, Kristya, and Herald of Perfection with Ritual Weapon out and three Normal Fairies in hand to negate my cards with. He went on to say how he's so good because he opened up with Herald of Perfection 15 games in a row. Yeah...

But, back to the main problem. Since a majority of the people I've played so far just quit instead of hitting the Admit Defeat button, I don't gain any rep from those duels. You get +1 rep when your opponent admits defeat, and you get +2 rep when you admit defeat, but if one player just quits, then neither player gains any rep. Because of this, I only have 9 rep after 20 duels... Getting to 100 may take a while...

On another note, I was planning on going to the ORCS Sneak Preview at the card shop I usually go to for tournaments. That's because I couldn't make it to the tournament they held yesterday, and I couldn't make it to the Regional today. So, I was planning on going tomorrow, but they ran out of packs, and will instead be having their usual tournament. Yay!

I didn't really want much from ORCS besides Number C39 Utopia Ray, which should be easy enough to get, and Gogogo Giant and Photon Thrasher, which are Rares. I would like to have some Inzektors and some of the Xyz Monsters in the pack, but I think I'll wait until the prices cool down for those.

So, the next big event for me is a Regional on March 10, then YCS Long Beach on March 24-25. They'll be right after the ban list, so hopefully all of the big decks will be hit by the ban list. Otherwise it'll just be a swarm of Inzektors (pun intended). I guess that we shall see...

Also, I have to decide on what deck to take to locals tomorrow. It's the same dilemma of whether to take Scrap Worms, which is slow but has a great match-up against Stun decks, or T.G. Zombies, which is faster but has some problems against Stun decks. I like T.G. Zombies more, since it's more flexible and I can make so many different plays, but there are too many Six Samurai players at locals now. It kind of forces me to run Scrap Worms... It feels as though Heavy Storm was never taken off of the ban list, since so many people still play Stun decks...

Tournament Report 1/7/12

2012-01-07T22:59:00.000-08:00

As I said in yesterday's post, I went to locals today once more, this time with Aki. I took my Scrap Worms, since they did really well yesterday, and Aki used his A Gladiator Lives deck.

There were about the same number of players as yesterday, but there were more regulars, so that was good.

Round 1: vs Newbie Dark Worlds

I won the first game somewhat easily. I lost the second after he swarmed with Card Destruction and Return from the Different Dimension. During the third game, he drew into two copies of Return from the Different Dimension, showed them to me, and conceded. I would've won that game either way, since he didn't draw many Dark World Monsters...

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was Aki's Round 1 opponent. Seeking vengeance for friends is fun.

-Duel 1: He opened with three (THREE!) Six Samurai United, summoned Mizuho, and used Asceticism for Hand of the Six Samurai, letting him draw six cards. That's totally fair... He overlaid for Leviathan Dragon and detached one Xyz Material to boost its ATK. After Setting two back rows, he ended his turn. The only Scrap card I had in my starting hand was Scrapstorm, so I would be stuck only using the Worms this duel. I summoned Xex to grab Yagan, Set two back rows, and ended. He summoned Elder and used another Asceticism for Kagemusha, letting him make Shi En. I forced its negation with Bottomless Trap Hole, then he flipped Double-Edged Sword Technique to make Naturia Beast. Yagan could only deal with one of his huge Monsters, and I died to the overwhelming advantage.
-Duel 2: Yet again, no Scrap cards in sight. I opened with the Xex/Yagan play and two back rows. He made quite a few misplays, letting me control him easily with my Traps. I was able to beat him down with a Utopia, courtesy of the Worms.
-Duel 3: He opened with Elder, Asceticism, Kizan, and a couple back rows. Instead of Shi En, he made Naturia Beast, and that was kind of weird. I drew to start my turn and frowned at my sixth card: Maxx "C". I made the Worm Xex play and attacked his Kizan with Xex to bait out his Dimensional Prison. I Set three back rows and ended. He attacked with Naturia Beast, but that was met with a Dimensional Prison of my own. He attacked with the Kizan, which I bounced with Yagan's effect. He Special Summoned Elder and Kizan before ending. I drew Dark Hole and contemplated playing it. I decided against it, but I Set it to bluff. He summoned another Kizan to get the ATK boost, letting him attack over my Yagan, then directly. I cleared out the rest of his back rows with my Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado, then flipped the Dark Hole. He was top-decking, but all I had was a Maxx "C" and a Book of Moon. I Set both and ended. He drew Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and attacked with it, but I used Book of Moon to stop its attack. I drew Mind Control and ended. He drew and summoned Kageki and attacked with both of his Samurai. Finally, I drew a Scrapyard... It still wasn't that great of a situation, since he could bounce whatever Monster I wanted to take with Mind Control using Enishi's effect. But he didn't. I took Enishi with Mind Control, then triumphantly dropped the Scrapyard. He was shocked; since I hadn't played any Scraps all match, he had no idea, even going so far as to side in Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. I made the Scrap Dragon and ran over his Kageki. He topped Dark Hole, but I revived Scrap Beast with Scrap Dragon's effect. I topped Cyber Dragon and simply poked with the Scrap Beast. He drew and Set a back row. I attacked with Scrap Beast again after drawing Scrap Chimera. I Tribute Set my Cyber Dragon to be safe and ended my turn. He drew and passed. I Flip Summoned the Cyber Dragon on the following turn, summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast, and pushed for game. His Set card ended up being Musakani Magatama, and the card in his hand was Grandmaster. Dead draws are to be expected, though, I suppose.

Round 3: vs T.G. Stun

-Duel 1: I drew the exact cards I needed to counter his cards. Like, exactly; I didn't have any cards to spare. I ended up killing him with a T.G. Rush Rhino I stole with Monster Reborn earlier to prevent his search.
-Duel 2: I forgot how I lost. Him having Reborn Tengu and double Solemn Warning played a part in it, though.
-Duel 3: I started with two back rows and ended. He summoned Reborn Tengu, Set three back rows, and attacked. I summoned Scrap Chimera (sadness) and used Mind Control to take his Tengu and overlay for Utopia. It was able to push an attack through, which was good. I Set two more back rows and ended. He played Dark Hole, then used Monster Reborn on his Reborn Tengu; all that work for nothing, and now I was out of Monsters. I had to lock up his Tengu with Fiendish Chain while I stalled out. I was eventually able to make a second Utopia with two Scrap Beasts, but he took it with TG1-EM1. He had a Solemn Warning for my Scrap Chimera, and there wasn't much I could do. Quite sad, seeing as how I should have a good match-up against Stun decks, but I suppose that he just drew counters to everything I had.

Round 4: vs Chaos Agents

-Duel 1: Once again, I opened with no connection to my Scrap cards, but Worm Xex was enough to hold out for a while. He had gone first, and passed, leaving me to make my Xex/Yagan play and Set two back rows. He summoned Earth to search Venus, then milled T.G. Warwolf for Gallis the Star Beast, burning me for 600 LP and letting him make an Ally of Justice Catastor. I banished it with Dimensional Prison, and he ended. I attacked with Xex, letting him drop Gorz. Yagan bounced his Token, and I overlaid for Utopia and Set another Dimensional Prison. He summoned Venus and used its effect twice; I negated with Effect Veiler after he summoned the first Shine Ball in Attack Position. He banished the Venus on the field for Hyperion, and I used Solemn Warning to negate its summon. He attacked with Gorz and I negated with Utopia. That left me to attack through his Mystical Shine Ball for 2000 damage. He summoned another Shine Ball from his hand, then attacked with Gorz. This time, I banished the Gorz with Dimensional Prison, leaving him with just his lone Shine Ball. I attacked over it for another 2000 damage, then Set Solemn Judgment. He Special Summoned T.G. Striker, then Kristya. I contemplated using the Solemn Judgment, as I had a Dark Hole in my hand. I let it go, and he pushed through my Utopia with the Kristya and another Venus. I played Dark Hole and summoned Scrap Chimera to go for game. I could've won the turn earlier by summoning the Scrap Chimera before running over his Mystical Shine Ball, but I hadn't used any Scrap cards that duel, and I wanted to hide the true identity of my deck. Unfortunately, it failed, but I still won, so it was okay.
-Duel 2: I opened with both of my Worm Yagans. I ended up having to bounce his Hyperion using one of them, then I had to Mind Control his Spirit Reaper to kill it because I had no outs. After a while, once I finally had my Scraps set up, I lost my only Chimera to a Herald of Orange Light, so he proceeded to beat me down with a Thought Ruler Archfiend. I had made a risky move, summoning Avenging Knight Parshath to pierce through his Set T.G. Monsters, which allowed him to capitalize with the Thought Ruler Archfiend. But, if I hadn't done that, he would've made Trishula and Gachi Gachi Gantetsu instead, so it wasn't really as bad. I Monster Reborned my Avenging Knight Parshath to run over his Thought Ruler, but he dropped Kristya and I lost to it.
-Duel 3: I opened Scrapyard, Scrap Beast, Scrap Orthros, Scrap Goblin, Worm Yagan, and drew another Scrap Beast as my sixth card. Yeah, I lost. I was able to hold out for a little while, but he killed my only Chimera with Herald of Orange Light, then OTK'd me with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Honest...

That was pretty demoralizing... losing two matches I shouldn't have. T.G. Zombies would've been able to rip through that Agent deck, but I probably would've had a harder time against the T.G. Stun deck. It's so hard to decide what deck I want to use...

Round 5: vs Burn

-Duel 1: I swarmed with Worms and Scraps to destroy his back row and go for game.
-Duel 2: He burned me for a lot really fast; after I made a Xex/Yagan play, he used Ojama Trio, then Just Desserts and Thunder Short. He then played One Day of Peace and played Messenger of Peace. I flipped Yagan and overlaid for Steelswarm Roach. That gave me room to summon Scrap Beast and Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon using two of the Ojama Tokens. I destroyed the third using Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy his Messenger of Peace. He tributed both of my Monsters to give me a Lava Golem, then he gave me a Grinder Golem. He Set two back rows and ended. I drew and took 1000 burn from the Lava Golem. I played Heavy Storm, but he Chained Remove Brainwashing to take back his Golems. I dropped Cyber Dragon and Scrap Beast to make Scrap Twin Dragon, then used Monster Reborn on my Scrap Dragon. I used my Dragons to attack over his Grinder Tokens, leaving him at 400 LP. He drew a Battle Fader and lost to his own Lava Golem.

So, I went 3-2, which is pretty sad. I pulled a Lightning Warrior from the Turbo Pack 7, which isn't horrible, though.

The whole reason I stopped playing Scraps is because they're too slow for this format. They're decent against Stun decks, but they can't keep up with faster decks. While T.G Zombies can keep up with the faster decks, they have some trouble against Stun and other lockdown-based decks like Six Samurai and Dino Rabbit. It's such a dilemma... and there's a Regional coming up next weekend, which I may or may not attend, so I need to decide soon...

On an unrelated note, Aki and I each bought a new WoW TCG Starter Deck. I got the Horde Mage, while Aki got Alliance Death Knight. Last time I checked, Death Knights were exclusive to the Horde, but I don't play World of Warcraft, so maybe there's something going on that I don't know about...

We're also looking into Battle Spirits, so if any of you want to chime in about that or the WoW TCG, feel free.

Tournament Report 1/6/12

2012-01-07T02:41:00.000-08:00

So, first tournament of the year. I kind of wanted to post an end of the year thing for 2011, but it didn't feel important enough. I'm probably going to talk about how the format was throughout the year as the ban list approaches.

Anyways, I decided to take my Scrap Worms to locals today. I expected there to be quite a few Dino Rabbit and Six Samurai decks, and my Scrap Worm deck is supposed to have a good match-up against them. It also can deal with all of the random stuff that people often play at locals fairly easily.

There were 31 players, including quite a few newbs. A majority of the players were regulars, though, and that was good.

Round 1: vs Karakuri

Apparently, this was this guy's first tournament. How sad.

-Duel 1: He opened with Meklord Army of Granel. I opened with a Set Worm Yagan. He summoned Ninishi and used it to summon Kuick, Synchro Summoning Burei. Burei's effect got Saizan, which was tuned to the Granel for Stardust Dragon. He then used Burei's effect to flip my Yagan, which bounced his Stardust Dragon. I proceeded to buy a couple of turns with Scrap Goblin and Fiendish Chain before making a Scrap Orthros/Scrapstorm play, letting me Normal Summon Scrap Chimera to make a Scrap Dragon to destroy his field with. He made another small push with his Karakuri to get rid of my Scrap Dragon, but I made another one with a second Chimera and destroyed his field again. He was top-decking after that and couldn't recover.
-Duel 2: He pushed through a Maxx "C" giving me four cards. He kind of had to, since he would've had to attack my Monsters with his wienies like Ninishi and Inashichi due to their Karakuri Effects. Too bad for him, though, since that Maxx "C" gave me a bunch of options of how to deal with his swarm. I decided on fusing my Cyber Dragon with his Burei for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, then Mind Controlling his Naturia Barkion to go with my Scrap Goblin and make Scrap Twin Dragon. With only a couple cards left, he couldn't break through my field, which included three back rows.

Round 2: vs Gravekeeper's

Really...? People still play this...? This guy was kind of annoying, too...

-Duel 1: He wasted all of his back rows for no reason (Compulsory Evacuation Device on my Scrap Beast that was attacking directly while he had 8000 LP...twice...). That let me finish him fairly easily with a Scrap Twin Dragon.
-Duel 2: I had control of the duel, but I couldn't capitalize because I didn't have any Scrap Tuners. So we just sat there for the longest time until I drew into every single Scrap Tuner I had (I had a dead Scrapyard, my third Scrapyard, at the end of the duel because I had used all of my Tuners...). In the end, he used Heavy Storm on my four back rows and his four back rows and Necrovalley. He proceeded to use Gravekeeper's Stele to grab Spy and Assailant, then Set the Assailant. His reasoning was that I wouldn't expect him to have Set Assailant. Obviously not, but that still doesn't make it even a remotely good play. I dropped Cyber Dragon, Scrap Chimera, and a topped Mind Control to go for game. I still advocate the banning of Mind Control.

Round 3: vs Dimensional Eatos

Really...? This is even more obscure than Gravekeeper's...

-Duel 1: I started with a Set Worm Yagan. He opened with three back rows, a Guardian Eatos, and a D.D. Survivor. He used the Survivor to attack, and I bounced the Eatos. He resummoned it and ended. I summoned Worm Xex and sent the second Yagan to the Graveyard from my deck. I attacked the D.D. Survivor with Xex, but it got banished by Dimensional Prison. I didn't have any back rows (I opened with two Effect Veilers...), so I was just kind of sitting there. I got to use a Veiler to negate the effect of his Spirit Reaper, at least. On my next turn, I summoned Scrap Beast, attacked the Reaper, and Set a Scrapstorm. I had to negate Reaper's effect once again with my second Effect Veiler, and I used my Scrapstorm to grab Chimera. The resulting Scrap Dragon was able to take control of the duel after I forced out his Solemn Judgment with my Heavy Storm.
-Duel 2: He opened with Eatos, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and a couple of back rows. I summoned Worm Xex, and he negated its effect with Skill Drain. I was fine with that, since it let me run over the Breaker. I Set two back rows and ended. He blind MST'd my Set Forbidden Lance, which I Chained to weaken Eatos. He then summoned Barbaros which I had to use Fiendish Chain on. I summoned Scrap Beast to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter, but he had Solemn Warning to negate its summon. I Set the Dust Tornado I had just drawn and ended. He tributed Barbaros for Caius the Shadow Monarch, then attacked with both Caius and Eatos directly. I drew and played Dark Hole, then attacked directly with Scrap Beast. All he had left was a dead Caius in hand, so he couldn't do much to stop me.

Round 4: vs Newbie Dark Worlds

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. He was still playing junk like Forced Requisition, but he also had expensive cards like Dark Smog and Fabled Raven, so it would still be a, uh, tough match...

-Duel 1: He went off with Card Destruction, The Gates of Dark World, and Fabled Raven, and I died in two turns. I considered scooping strategically, as he had only seen the Worm side of my deck up to that point, but I still had a slim chance of winning. I still ended up losing, though...
-Duel 2: He didn't draw many discard outlets, only a lone Gates. Two pokes from Utopia and an attack from his own Grapha, courtesy of Monster Reborn, was enough to beat him. It's neat, as that Utopia was free, thanks to Worm Xex, and I was able to use its effect to negate its own attack. He basically told me that he had Gorz, since he Heavy Stormed his own two back rows while I only had one Trap Set and promptly ended his turn, so I used Utopia's effect on itself to get a Monster into the Graveyard for Monster Reborn, but it turns out that that wasn't necessary. It's still cool, though.
-Duel 3: I don't remember exactly what happened, except that he kept drawing Dark World Monsters to go with his discard outlets. Fortunately for me, he didn't draw his Graphas, so my Scrap Dragons were able to take him down without interference. Honestly, this match was a lot closer than it should've been. He didn't really have any idea what he was doing, but his deck was powerful enough to carry him through several duels. If he had known was he was doing, he would've won without question. This speaks to what this game has come to... But I'd rather not go into it right now. Perhaps another post...

Round 5: vs Nordics

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. Yet again, it was the finals, and we agreed to a split. We played for fun without siding.

-Duel 1: We were sitting there for a while, as I had drawn into both of my Worm Yagans, and he had drawn into multiple Nordic Tuners. After a bit, he cleared out the field, then summoned Odin using Valkyrie of the Nordic Ascendant, banishing a Vanadis and Guldfaxe from his hand for its effect. I used Bottomless Trap Hole, but he Chained Forbidden Lance. I made a Number 39: Utopia in an attempt to stall out, but I didn't draw any more Monsters and died to Odin. Number C39: Utopia Ray would've been quite helpful in this situation...
-Duel 2: He opened with the Valkyrie, banishing two Vanadis to make Odin. Odin attacked into my Set Worm Yagan, and laughs ensued. It should be pretty easy to tell who won just from that, but I ended up finishing him off with a couple Scrap Dragons. If I hadn't played Nordics for a little while, I might have lost this duel, since playing Nordics allowed me to see which of his Set Monsters were Super-Nimble Mega Hamsters and which were Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beasts, and I was able to make a game-breaking play using this knowledge.
-Duel 3: He Set two back rows and a Monster. I used Heavy Storm, but he Chained Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir to grab a Tanngnjostr (black goat) from his deck. I summoned Scrap Beast and used Mind Control to take his Set Tanngrisnir (white goat). I attacked with Scrap Beast, then Synchro Summoned Scrap Death Demon (that's Scrap Archfiend's Japanese name, and I personally like it quite a bit). He Set one back row and a Monster and ended. I made an Orthros/Scrapstorm play to get Scrap Chimera and make a Scrap Dragon. I was able to destroy his field and grab back Scrap Chimera in the process, and he scooped next turn. Apparently, he Set the wrong Trap Card on his previous turn; he meant to Set Solemn Warning, but Set Mirror Force instead. Even though I had already used Heavy Storm, he didn't Set both because he had his own Heavy Storm in hand and wanted to use that later.

So, I went undefeated and got 1st place. Yay, Scrap Worms! They had the new Turbo Pack 7's, so I was able to get one. As expected, I didn't pull anything that great. Herald of Orange Light is nice, though.

I ended up spending my store credit on the Orient Dragon I put off getting for months. Literally, three months. I was going to get one at the Regional I went to on September 10, 2011, but I was too lazy to find someone with one for trade. Soon after, I decided to use Splendid Rose instead, so I put it off even further. But, now I have one, so yay.

I'll be going to locals once more tomorrow (really today, seeing as how I'm finishing this post at 2:40 AM...). Aki with almost certainly be coming with me, so that's pretty cool. So yeah...

Random Stuff #38

2011-12-25T20:29:00.000-08:00

So, I was unable to go to locals this weekend, not that I expected to be able to. I wanted to test out my Scrap Worms a little more, but I guess that'll have to wait.

I've been thinking about what deck to play when Order of Chaos comes out in January. It'd be nice to continue using my Scrap Worms, since it can use Number C39: Utopia Ray, but the deck would be weak against Inzektors. Seeing as how Inzektors would probably be pretty popular, I'd probably have to use a different deck, like T.G. Zombies. We'll see.

Either way, for the holidays, I got a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, among other things. This includes eight packs of Duelist Pack: Crow, four packs of Generation Force, four packs of Photon Shockwave, and two Generation Force: Special Editions. The best card I pulled out of all of these packs was an Ultra Rare Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Oh wait, I spoke too soon. The best thing I got was one of those free entry coupons for Side Events at a YCS. Yeah, that bad.

However, I did get Starcraft II, which is pretty cool. I haven't starting playing it yet, though, because I'm looking into another game at the moment. That game is RuneScape. Runescape is pretty fun when you start out, then it gets boring once you finish all of the free to play stuff, then becomes fun again once you're a member. I'm planning on just playing for free until I get bored, since I'm not going to be committing as much time to it as I used to.

So yeah, I'm still looking for new deck ideas. I'm satisfied with staying with either my Scrap Worms or T.G. Zombies until the end of the format, but if I can find something better, then I'd want to try it out. I mean, if the format stays relatively the same after the ban list, then it won't take much adapting, and I'll be able to use the same deck from this format, whatever that may be. If not, though, then we'll see what happens then.

Tournament Report 12/18/11

2011-12-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

So, since I'm most likely going to be unable to go to locals next weekend, I decided to go today. I was pretty disappointed with my T.G. Zombie deck, so I threw together my Scrap Worms to take to the tournament.

There were about 26 players with quite a few newbs. Guess who I get to play first...

Round 1: vs Newbie Agent Fairies

He didn't even have Synchros...

Round 2: vs Agent Fairies

-Duel 1: The initial Bottomless Trap Hole on his Venus forced him to fight an uphill battle. After a couple turns, I ended up with a field of Steelswarm Roach and Scrap Dragon. He couldn't get through the Roach , so I won.
-Duel 2: He started with a Set Herald of Orange Light. I Set Worm Yagan, Scrapyard, and Bottomless Trap Hole. He used Heavy Storm, then summoned Earth to search Venus. He attacked, and I had to bounce the Earth with Yagan's effect. I played the other Scrapyard I had to grab Scrap Beast and make Scrap Dragon. It attacked over the Set Herald, and I Set a second Bottomless and a Dimensional Prison. He destroyed my Scrap Dragon with Smashing Ground, and I got back Scrap Beast. I used Bottomless Trap Hole on the Venus that he Normal Summoned, and he ended his turn. I drew into Light-Imprisoning Mirror, and that let me lock down all of his effects while Scrap Beast continued to run over his wienies. A Scrapstorm later let me turn Scrap Beast into a Scrap Dragon, and he couldn't get over it.

Round 3: vs Zombie Plants

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I pushed through his floaters with my Scraps and Worm Yagan. He couldn't deal with the resulting Scrap Dragon, so I was able to win fairly easily.
-Duel 2: He made a Lonefire Blossom play after using Foolish Burial on Dandylion. That let him make a Trishula; I had Effect Veiler, but he had Book of Moon. I lost all of the Scraps from both my hand and Graveyard, so I couldn't recover.
-Duel 3: I opened with a Worm Xex play and a Set Debunk. He just Set a Monster. I summoned Scrap Chimera and used it to attack over the Sangan, which I banished with Debunk. Xex attacked into Gorz, but I bounced Gorz with Yagan, then overlaid my Worms for Utopia. He crashed a Reborn Tengu into my Scrap Chimera, but didn't have much follow-up. I ran over the next two Tengus with Utopia. He held out with that Gorz in hand, but I had like four cards on him, so I didn't mind waiting. Eventually, he Set a Dandylion and a Call of the Haunted. I ran over the Dandylion with a Scrap Dragon, then killed a Token with Utopia. He tributed the Token for Cyber Dragon, then attacked my Scrap Dragon with it. I declined to negate with Utopia, and he used Book of Moon and Call of the Haunted to revive his Banisher of the Radiance. My Scrap Dragon got banished, but I simply destroyed both of his Monsters next turn with Utopia and another Scrap Beast. Mirror Force killed my Utopia, and we both started Setting Monsters. I kept running over his wienies with Cyber Dragon, but I didn't want to let him drop Gorz. After a few turns, though, I had gathered the necessary cards to OTK him. I summoned a Scrap Chimera to make Scrap Dragon and destroy his lone Trap, then I Flip Summoned a Scrap Beast to go with the Worm Yagan I Monster Reborned to make Avenging Knight Parshath. That pierced his Plaguespreader Zombie, letting Scrap Dragon finish him off before he could drop Gorz. Yet another duel won by Avenging Knight Parshath.

Round 4: vs Dino Rabbits

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I went first, but opened up with a hand full of Spells. I used Scrapyard to get Scrap Beast, summoned it, and Set Scrapstorm and Mystical Space Typhoon. He hit the former with his own MST, and I Chained it to grab my Scrap Chimera. Then he used Gold Sarcophagus for Mind Control and summoned Sabersaurus. He attacked directly and ended without a back row. I summoned Scrap Dragon using Scrap Chimera and ran over his Sabersaurus. He summoned Tour Guide to grab Sangan, then Set a Trap. I used Scrap Dragon's effect, targeting my MST and his Sangan, then Chained the MST to destroy his Set Starlight Road. He searched for a Rescue Rabbit, but it was too late. I summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast, then Mind Controlled his Tour Guide to make Scrap Archfiend. He was at 7100 LP, and I attacked with everything for 7200 damage.
-Duel 2: He opened with a Sabersaurus and two back rows. I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, ran over the Sabersaurus, then Set three Traps. He hit my Dimensional Prison with an MST in my End Phase, then dropped Electric Virus to steal my Cyber Dragon. He attacked with it, then tributed it for Caius the Shadow Monarch. Caius' effect targeted my Fiendish Chain, so I Chained it to negate. I couldn't do anything but summon a Scrap Chimera and Set Scrapstorm. He summoned another Sabersaurus and attacked, forcing me to use Scrapstorm; I sent Scrap Beast to the Graveyard and took a direct attack. I was able to make Colossal Fighter using Cyber Dragon and Scrap Goblin on the following turn to run over the Sabersaurus, but he dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning to banish it. I topped Scrap Chimera and used it to make Scrap Dragon. I destroyed Fiendish Chain and the BLS with its effect, then ran over Caius. He topped a second Electric Virus to get rid of my Scrap Dragon and my Set MST, leaving me at 200 LP. I drew and Set Maxx "C". He drew Rai-Oh and beat me down with it. I drew a Worm Xex, meaning that I could've had a small chance to come back, but I decided to scoop so that he didn't see the Worms.
-Duel 3: I opened with all three Worm Xex and a Worm Yagan... Opening with three Xex is okay, but opening the Yagan preventing me from making a second Worm Xex play after he used Solemn Warning to negate the Flip Summon of my Special Summoned Worm Yagan. So, I died rather slowly to some beatdown from Rai-Oh and Sabersaurus for a while. He eventually decided to Mind Control my Set Worm Yagan after I used the third Worm Xex to revive it and overlaid it with his Sabersaurus to make a Steelswarm Roach. I was able to banish the Rai-Oh with Dimensional Prison, the first Trap I drew all game. I drew Scrapyard, finally, but getting Scrap Beast in an attempt to make Scrap Dragon would be a waste against his Roach. So, I grabbed Scrap Goblin and Set it. He destroyed it by attacking with Roach, then another Rai-Oh. From there, I decided to stall: I summoned Scrap Chimera to grab Scrap Goblin in Defense Position and ended. He attacked both of my Monsters, dealing 200 damage, while I got back the Chimera using Goblin's effect. I continued to stall like this for a while; even though I kind of expected to lose this duel, being able to make this kind of play with Chimera and Goblin made me feel glad that I was playing Scraps again. Either way, he tributed his Rai-Oh for Caius after a while in an attempt to banish my Scrap Goblin, but I Veiled Caius' effect. From there, I started to take 700 damage per turn with his Caius attacking over the Scrap Chimera. When I was down to 300 LP, I drew Scrapstorm. I made the Chimera/Goblin play and Set the Scrapstorm. He attacked, but I destroyed my Chimera so that I wouldn't take the damage, also allowing me to set up my Scrap Beast for later. Finally able to make an offensive play, I summoned Chimera and revived Beast. Beast attacked his Set Sangan, and I used Debunk on its effect. Chimera attacked over Roach with help from Forbidden Lance, and I decided to go into Utopia to protect myself and avoid Electric Virus. It didn't matter what I made, though, since he dropped BLS to banish my Monster, then attacked directly with Caius for game. I played the best I could with what I drew, but I guess it isn't enough sometimes.

Round 5: vs X-Sabers

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He started with a Set Super-Nimble Mega Hamster and a couple back rows. I made a Worm Xex play (if you haven't figured out by now, that means I Normal Summoned Worm Xex, sent Worm Yagan to the Graveyard, then revived Worm Yagan with its own effect) and attacked his Set Hamster, letting him grab X-Saber Airbellum. I Set a couple of Traps and ended my turn. He summoned XX-Saber Darksoul, and I decided to negate its summon with Solemn Warning. He attacked my Set Worm Yagan, and I bounced the attacking Airbellum. Then, he played Dark Hole and Set Trap Dustshoot. I drew and lost Cyber Dragon with the rest of my hand being Scrapstorm, Effect Veiler, and Dark Hole. I ended, and he summoned and attacked with Airbellum. I flipped Dimensional Prison, but he negated it with Trap Stun. I lost the Veiler from my hand and drew into Scrap Beast. I destroyed Airbellum with Dark Hole and summoned and attacked with the Beast. I Set Scrapstorm to finish out my turn. He summoned and attacked with XX-Saber Emmersblade, and I used Scrapstorm. I drew Forbidden Lance and grabbed Scrap Chimera from my Graveyard, then took the direct attack from Emmersblade. I drew into Scrapyard, then made Scrap Dragon with Scrap Chimera. Scrapyard got me Scrap Orthros which got my Chimera back to my hand. I Set the Lance to destroy with Scrap Dragon's effect so that I could destroy Emmersblade. I hesitated to attack against his lone back row, but decided to risk it. He summoned XX-Saber Fulhelmknight and stalled behind that for a turn while I drew into Gorz. He then flipped his Trap, Gottoms' Emergency Call, to revive Darksoul and Airbellum. He tuned Fulhelmknight to Darksoul to make Brionac, then summoned a second Fulhelmknight. He pitched his last card, X-Saber Pashuul, to bounce my Scrap Dragon. He attacked with Airbellum, and I Chained Gorz. I lost my other card, Scrap Chimera, but Gorz stopped him from killing me. He declined to attack the Kaien Token with Brionac, and ended up forgetting his Darksoul search. I attacked his Fulhelmknight with the Token to force its effect, then over the Brionac with Gorz. I Set the Lance I drew and ended. His draw was apparently of no help, as he decided to scoop. Apparently, he had somewhere to go, since he just gave me the whole match.

So, I ended up going 4-1 and getting 3rd place. Since today's tournament was a box tournament, X-1's got Hobby League cards. I got a D.D. Warrior Lady, even though I'm never going to use it... And the Turbo Pack 6 wasn't completely horrible, since I pulled a Rare Stardust Dragon.

Even though I wasn't able to win, I was pretty happy that I was playing Scraps again. I'm not sure if I will continue to play Scraps, since not drawing Tuners means I auto-lose and also that I have some trouble with bigger Monsters, but I feel like it's not as bad as auto-losing to not drawing Goblin Zombie in T.G. Zombies. At least I can hold out with the Worms, and I'm not only gaining advantage through searches, which Rai-Oh messes with. My deck also isn't as reliant on the Graveyard and doesn't die to Gozen Match, so that's good. Oh, and I'm also now able to play Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Solemn Warning, so that's pretty cool.

I'm still thinking about Flamvells, since I have all of the cards to make the deck, but it seems worse than the Karakuri deck I made, so I'm not so sure. If anyone has some interesting deck ideas, I'd be happy to hear them, especially if they use Phantom Skyblaster...

Regionals Report 12/17/11

2011-12-17T23:12:00.000-08:00

So there was a Regional today, and I think I'll start this report from the beginning of the day. And by the beginning of the day, I mean 12:00 AM.

Katana, sickpenguin, evilhamsdwch, and their friend, teamsuicide69, were over at my house to finish up their decks and borrow cards and such. I lent out a bunch of cards, including Chaos Trap Holes, Bottomless Trap Holes, Compulsory Evacuation Devices, a Mystical Space Typhoon, a Rivalry of Warlords, a Gozen Match, and a Leviair the Sea Dragon. They ended up running Six Samurai, Junk Doppel, Agent Fairies, and Hero Beat, respectively. After they ended up leaving, which was at about 2:15 AM, I rushed to print out my T.G. Zombie deck list (I would've printed it earlier, but I thought that I might change something after some last minute testing with my friends; I didn't change anything, though...), and ended up falling asleep at about 3:00 AM. Seeing as how I had to wake up at 7:30 AM, I only got four hours of sleep. Yeah...

I left my house at about 8:30 AM, and we got to the Regional at about 9:10 AM. We would've left later, but sickpenguin and I concocted a plan to tell everyone else that registration ends at 9:00 AM to ensure that we wouldn't be late. That's because we often got to Regionals with very little time to spare when we went as a group in the past, and we didn't want to be late. So, we got there with plenty of time to register and for them to fill out their deck lists.

The entrance packs weren't very good for most of us. I pulled an Alexandrite Dragon, Wind-Up Knight, and two Laval Dual Slashers (from the same pack, actually). teamsuicide69 ended up pulling Wind-Up Zenmaines, so he made his money back.

There ended up being 580-something players there today. That means 10 rounds... Ironically, though, sickpenguin and evilhamsdwch were paired against each other for the first round.

Round 1: vs "Synchrocentric" - XOX
-He had answers to my few defenses in the first duel, but didn't draw any Monsters besides Reborn Tengu in the second. I drew no Monsters besides Effect Veiler in the third duel and lost fairly quickly...

Round 2: vs "Synchrocentric" - OO
-I stole his Scrap Dragon with Creature Swap, then made Trishula in the first duel. We just sat back behind stall cards in the second duel, but I was eventually able to clear out his field and go for game.

Round 3: vs ??? - OO
-I have no idea what he was playing. I assume it was some sort of Stun, since the only Monsters I saw were Reborn Tengu, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Spirit Reaper, and Thunder King Rai-Oh. Either way, I had no difficulty playing through his back rows, since he didn't play anything Continuous like Dimensional Fissure or Skill Drain.

Round 4: vs Hero Beat - XX
-He mained Skill Drain, and I didn't draw into Spell/Trap destruction either game. I would've been able to survive if he didn't keep drawing Gemini Sparks and Geminis to go with them.

Round 5: vs Kuriboh Chaos - XOO
-I lost the first game to Gorz shortly after I dropped Trishula. I won the second duel because I was able to apply constant pressure with a string of Synchros. The third game was much quicker; Creature Swap his BLS for game.

By this point, everyone in our group was X-2 or had already dropped. Katana and evilhamsdwch dropped after Round 2 to go to Disneyland while the rest of us continued playing. teamsuicide69 had dropped after Round 4 with an X-2 record. sickpenguin and I decided to drop after Round 5, as we both had X-2 records. We were all pretty tired from the late night and decided to leave instead of entering any side events.

So, we were all pretty disappointed, having scrubbed out so quickly. Oh well, it was decent practice, I suppose. But, we all contemplated switching decks after this Regional. I'm still having the same problem with my T.G. Zombies: not drawing Goblin Zombie. Without Goblin Zombie, I can't gain a stream of advantage while making Synchro plays. T.G.'s have to minus to Synchro, by themselves, which really hurts when I'm trying to push through a Rai-Oh and/or back rows.

The problem is that I wouldn't know what deck to switch to. Nothing else I would consider using is really as good as T.G. Zombies... I have a bunch of choices, including Karakuri, X-Sabers, Dark Worlds, HEROes, and even Stun builds. I just don't like any of them. Perhaps I should consider Flamvells...

Tournament Report 12/11/11

2011-12-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

As planned, I went to locals today with my T.G. Zombie deck. Before the tournament started, though, I got to play a few games against vadangchoinga with my new fun deck. It uses Gem-Knights, a theme which I really like. Unfortunately, it's not a very good deck, as you will most likely see on my YouTube channel sometime this week.

There were about 30 players there, with plenty of regulars, but also plenty of newbs.

Round 1: vs Newbie Hero Beat

It was obvious that he was a newb, but he wasn't too bad. Either way, I just pushed through his Dimensional Fissures with Synchros that he didn't have answers to.

Round 2: vs Chaos

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. He was playing a Chaos deck similar to the one that won that recent YCS.

-Duel 1: I gained a lot of advantage on him with all of my searches and an early Trishula.

-Duel 2: He opened with Pot of Duality to fetch BLS. I kept his grave clear of Lights for a while, and he decided to push with a Chaos Sorcerer once a Rai-Oh hit his Graveyard. The Chaos Sorcerer's effect banished my T.G. Wonder Magician, and his Dimensional Alchemist attacked me directly. I used Dark Hole to clear out his Monsters, and he grabbed Gorz with Alchemist's effect. I made Brionac using Mystic Tomato and a T.G. Striker (Monster Reborn) and chucked my last card to bounce his Set card. He was at 2200 LP, and I knew that none of his cards were Battle Fader, so I attacked for game.

Round 3: vs Newbie X-Sabers

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. Trishula messed with him both games, banishing a bunch of his X-Sabers.

Round 4: vs Newbie Dark Worlds

He played situational cards like Forced Requisition, Goldd, and Sillva. Unfortunately for me, he drew the perfect ratio of Dark World Monsters to discard outlets, and I could only make passive plays while he went crazy every turn. I literally only got to play three turns out of the whole match, since I lost all of my cards to his effects and Deck Devastation Virus. This makes me consider siding more against Dark Worlds, but decks like this don't draw well all the time; it would be like siding for Exodia FTK. Sometimes, there's just nothing you can do. It happens...

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first with a Shi En backed by a bunch of back rows and a Grandmaster. I stalled for a bit behind Mystic Tomato, but I lost a lot of momentum to his Rivalry of Warlords. He swarmed with T.G. Hyper Librarian, Naturia Beast, Ally of Justice Catastor, and a Grandmaster equipped with Spirit of the Six Samurai, and I died.

-Duel 2: I should have lost this duel to a late game swarm of Shi En and Double-Edged Sword Technique, but he misplayed. He forgot that he couldn't Synchro while he had Rivalry up. He died to the burn from Double-Edged Sword Technique in his End Phase.

-Duel 3: He controlled me with two Solemn Warnings and other back rows long enough to amass pluses from his Gateway, and I couldn't recover.

So, I pretty much scrubbed out after losing to two luck-based decks. Oh well, it happens.

The main thing is that I got to test out siding Tragoedia. It didn't do much, honestly. I only drew it once all day and I banished it for Allure of Darkness. I feel as though it should be more helpful than Chaos Trap Hole, but that remains to be seen. I think I'll stick with it for the Regional next weekend, but I still want to change the Side Deck a little bit.

After the tournament, I played against some random regulars with my fun deck that uses Gem-Knights. It actually won a match against T.G. Plants, so that was surprising. Other than that, it just lost a bunch, which I was expecting. I can't wait for the new Duel Terminals so that I can get the new Gem-Knights to improve the deck.

Siding Tragoedia

2011-12-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

So, I was talking with vadangchoinga a bit about the upcoming Regional, trying to figure out how to fix our decks, and I came up with the idea of siding Tragoedia in my T.G. Zombie deck.

Why not? It deals with the everpresent Thunder King Rai-Oh and provides additional defense, which my deck tends to lack. Tragoedia also provides an easy way of dealing with an early Evolzar Laggia or Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. It can even steal opponents' Monsters and provide for easy Synchro/Xyz Summons.

I then had to decide on what to take out of my Side Deck for two Tragoedia. Chaos Trap Hole and Tragoedia were going to be sided in against the same match-ups, more or less, so I decided to swap those two. Tragoedia also does more against Dino-Rabbit and Six Samurai than Chaos Trap Hole.

But, Tragoedia is only good early game, and is a dead draw. Chaos Trap Hole can at least function to stop things like Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Tour Guide from the Underworld instead of just trying to react to them. While my hand is usually full to boost Tragoedia's attack, I wouldn't want to discard many of my Monsters to make use of its effect. I can also make much more explosive plays if I start my turn with an empty field, as opposed to one with Tragoedia left on it.

Chaos Trap Hole actually fulfills an important role in the Dark World match-up, acting as a Solemn Warning that also banishes. But it doesn't do all that much in most match-ups; I would normally only side it for Dark Worlds, Gladiator Beasts, Agent Fairies, and Lightsworn, and it's decent, but not that great.

Tragoedia does provide more aggressive plays for when I side out my Creature Swaps, letting me take my opponent's Monsters. I suppose that I could use it fairly decently late game as well, assuming I have another Monster. I think I'll try it out at tomorrow's tournament and see how it works, since I'm still not completely convinced that it will help.

"I'm finally free!"

2011-12-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

So, I'm done with all my school work and I'm off for a month. Awesome.

What's even more awesome is that there's a Regional in my area next weekend (December 17), which I'm definitely going to.

I'm also planning on going to the 100th YCS in Long Beach next year, March 24-25. Just a random note...

Blog posts and video uploads should be much more frequent during these few weeks. While I'm not able to upload a duel video today, I should be able to upload practically daily (meaning any day I'm not at a tournament) starting tomorrow.

So yeah...

Hidden Arsenal 6...?

2011-12-04T22:32:00.001-08:00

...?

Could this really be the product page for Hidden Arsenal 6...?

No, it's not. It's my final project for my Writing class.

So, what do you think? How convincing was it?

Tournament Report 12/3/11

2011-12-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

I went to locals today, as usual. Also as usual, I took my T.G. Zombies.

There were 30 players there, including plenty of regulars.

Round 1: vs T.G. Zombies

A mirror match, really...? Anyways, I was playing against a regular who I hadn't played against before.

-Duel 1: We both had lackluster hands from what I could tell, and I just made a Leviair with his Sangan and my Spirit Reaper, which was Veiled, to beat him down. He Creature Swapped to take it, and I Creature Swapped it back. I had answers to most of his plays and was able to win fairly easily.

-Duel 2: The duel ended with my Brionac clearing his field and going for game. I don't remember the beginning; it wasn't too eventful.

Round 2: vs Malefic Skill Drain

I was playing against vadangchoinga.

-Duel 1: He opened with a bunch of back rows and a Beast King Barbaros. Skill Drain stopped my effects, Safe Zone protected Barbaros, and Dark Bribe protected the back row. Nothing I could do.

-Duel 2: He didn't have as many back rows, and I was able to Creature Swap his Ancient Gear Gajiltron Dragon to beat him down.

-Duel 3: I tried to make a push with Brionac, but got shut down by Skill Drain. From there, I made a Colossal Fighter to stall. He couldn't get through it, so we just ended up Setting back rows for a while. I drew into Heavy Storm to destroy the Safe Zone protecting his Barbaros and a Skill Drain, and my Set Compulsory Evacuation Device bounced his Gajiltron Dragon. I was able to beat him down with Colossal Fighter and Splendid Rose with his field cleared.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened pretty badly, with two Kagemusha and no other Monsters, but I opened pretty badly, too. I couldn't get over the 1800 DEF of his Kagemusha and through his back row, so we were just sitting there until he made a Shi En backed by a full back row. My Gorz got Warned, and I scooped.

-Duel 2: I Dust Tornado'd and MST'd everything he Set and destroyed his Solidarities with Scrap Dragon. He couldn't do anything top-decking.

-Duel 3: He attacked with Mizuho, and I dropped Gorz. Kizan attacked over the Token, and he tributed the Kizan for Mizuho's effect. I had Effect Veiler, though, and he regretted not using Warning on the Gorz. I beat him up slowly with Gorz, but he played a second Solidarity, Kageki, and Grandmaster to run over my Monsters. I made double Synchro'd up to Black Rose Dragon using T.G. Striker, T.G. Warwolf, and Plaguespreader Zombie to destroy his field. He only had 400 LP left, so I revived Plaguespreader with its own effect to attack for game.

Round 4: vs Zombie Plants

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew a lackluster hand, and I was able to capitalize with Creature Swaps on the few good Monsters he did drop. Splendid Rose helped out, too.

-Duel 2: He opened with Reborn Tengu and a back row. Rai-Oh ran over the first Tengu, and I stole the second one with Mind Control to overlay for Number 39: Utopia. I attacked his Set Monster next turn, and he used Book of Moon on Utopia. He used his Set Spore and a summoned Zombie Master to make Magical Android. When he attacked, I used my own Book of Moon. But, when I Flip Summoned Utopia, I lost it to Solemn Warning. So, I Set T.G. Striker. He attacked it, and I got T.G. Warwolf. That let me make T.G. Wonder Magician with a second Striker on my turn, destroying his Set Soul Release (he forgot to play it last turn). Creature Swap switched our Synchros, and I attacked over my Wonder Magician with his Magical Android to draw a card. From there, I was able to beat him down with his Magical Android, and he didn't have any answers.

Round 5: vs Stun

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. This was the finals, but we decided not to split, since neither of us wanted anything specific, and the prizes were pretty good for both 1st and 2nd.

-Duel 1: I made an early push with Caius, but he got rid of it with D.D. Warrior Lady. Dark Hole cleared out his Monsters, and I made a push with Brionac to finish him off.

-Duel 2: I had pretty decent control over the duel, but he was able to chip away at my LP. He used Dark Hole to clear out my field, and I died to a Breaker.

-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Snowman Eater. He opened with King Tiger Wanghu and Dimensional Fissure. Snowman Eater's effect destroyed Wanghu, and I supposed Warwolf to overlay for Leviair and steal his banished Wanghu. I beat him down with those two Monsters for a bit, but his D.D. Warrior Lady banished my Leviair, and he made his own Leviair using Banisher of the Radiance and my Warwolf (Monster Reborn). I was forced to get rid of it with my Brionac's effect after failing to destroy it with Utopia, otherwise he would be able to use its effect to grab back his Wanghu, which I didn't have an answer to. That Brionac cleared his field on the following turn and allowed me to go for game.

So, I went undefeated and got 1st place. Using the store credit I got, I bought a Super Rare Royal Decree, two Photon Sabre Tigers, a Secret Rare Gallis the Star Beast, and some Duel Masters-sized sleeves for Aki.

So yeah, I'm not sure what else I can do with the deck. It seems to be pretty solid now that I added more Spell/Trap destruction to the Side Deck and started playing Heavy Storm again.

Tournament Report 11/26/11

2011-11-26T22:22:00.000-08:00

As I said yesterday, I would be able to go to locals again today. Of course, I took my T.G. Zombies, since all of the other decks I have right now aren't really good enough for tournaments... Sad...

There were 38 players today, including plenty of regulars. There's really too many to list. There were also plenty of new people; one of my friends said that many of them went to Sunday tournaments, but they're new to me.

Round 1: vs Newbie X-Sabers

He ran Gardestrike, hence "Newbie X-Sabers." Trishula is really mean to newbs...

Round 2: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: I controlled with Traps and Gorz and such. He didn't really draw into many Shuras/Boras, and I Creature Swapped the one Shura he did draw, so it wasn't too difficult.

-Duel 2: I feared Heavy Storm and Icarus Attack and played conservatively with my back row. That doomed me when he just used a Mystical Space Typhoon to clear out my one card and OTK me.

-Duel 3: I drew out his Gorz fairly early, sent it back to his hand with Compulsory Evacuation Device, then summoned Trishula. I missed his Gorz (I had a 50% chance), but I was able to defend with Dimensional Prison and kill him with Splendid Rose.

Round 3: vs Vayusworn

I think that I had played against this guy before, but it would have been years ago.

-Duel 1: He milled a lot quickly with two Lylas, but I dropped Trishula to remove the Lumina in his Graveyard and the Wulf on his field to cut down on the Lightsworn count in his grave. I ended up dropping Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using his Ehren, Goblin Zombie, and Plaguespreader Zombie. That discarded his Judgment Dragon and went for game on the following turn.

-Duel 2: I made Decisive Armor very early in the duel, but his only Light was a Judgment Dragon, again. Either way, I was able to beat him up with the Decisive Armor and a Number 39: Utopia (I would've made Steelswarm Roach, but Decisive Armor showed me the Sirocco in his hand). Either way, there wasn't much he could do after that.

Round 4: vs Newbie Wind-Ups

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. Trishula was really mean to him both games. My Duel Terminal Trishula seems to be much more evil than the Secret Rare one, ha ha.

Round 5: vs Diva Zombies

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. I overheard his friends and brother tell him not to split, and I was perfectly fine with that (not because I expected to win, which I did, but because the prizes today were really good today because there were so many participants, even for second and third place).

-Duel 1: I opened with a Set Goblin Zombie. He Set Goblin Zombie and a back row. I Tribute Summoned Caius, just like in the Zombie/Lightsworn format, ha ha. After a while, he swarmed with my Spirit Reaper (Monster Reborn), a Goblin Zombie, and Dark Armed Dragon. I had enough outs in my hand to not care what he hit with Reaper. He missed my Dark Hole, so I played it. After that, I beat him down with Mystic Tomato for a few turns, and he didn't have any answers.

-Duel 2: I played conservatively with my back row again, fearing Heavy Storm, and lost out to Mystical Space Typhoon and a random swarm. I was already down too many cards since he Trishula'd me using Deep Sea Diva and Mystic Tomato.

-Duel 3: We started off just Setting Monsters, just like in the Zombie/Lightsworn format. I drew into my Caius, banishing his Set Goblin Zombie and running over the other one. He stalled for a bit behind a Spirit Reaper, and I just sat there gathering resources. I eventually made a Brionac/Mezuki play to bounce his field and swarm for game. He said that if I didn't kill him that turn, he would've killed me on his turn, but I had a Maxx "C" in hand and a decent back row, so I was pretty safe, even if he did have Gorz.

So yeah, I went undefeated and got 1st place and a mess load of store credit. I got a couple of packs of sleeves, some more Bottomless Trap Holes, and a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon tin. From the packs in the tin, I pulled a Forbidden Lance and an Ultra Rare Gladiator Beast Essedarii. I traded both to the friend that I played against after this tournament, and we had a few duels afterwards.

He rebuilt his Gladiator Beast deck, and I used my not-so-great Karakuri deck to test it out. We played five duels, and I won four of them. Two were due to me sniping his Solemn Judgment/Starlight Road with MST, then playing Heavy Storm on his remaining three/four back rows. Good stuff.

Because I got that Galaxy-Eyes tin, I once again have two Solemn Warnings, and now I have three Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. I don't think I'll be using them in my T.G. Zombie deck, but we'll see.

Tournament Report 11/25/11

2011-11-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to locals today, in addition to being able to go tomorrow, as usual. Yay Thanksgiving, I suppose.

So, I was thinking about using Karakuri, since the deck seems good. So, I made a Karakuri deck and tested a little bit with it. It sucks. I don't know how Karakuri decks do so well at big events; they're so combo oriented and there are some situations where you just can't do anything at all for turns at a time just because you drew an awkward hand. So, I just fixed up my T.G. Zombies Side Deck and took that deck to locals... We'll probably be seeing the Karakuri deck in some duel videos, eventually, though.

There were 23 players there today with only four or five regulars. On the upside, there were only a few little kids. But, who do I have to play against first...?

Round 1: vs Newbie Evil HEROes

So maybe he wasn't a little kid, but he was a newb. I OTK'd him with his own Evil HERO Dark Gaia in the first duel and ran him through with Trishula on the second duel.

Round 2: vs Dino-Rabbit

Normally, I would call it Rabbit Laggia, but it's also based around Dolkka in the TCG. By the way, this was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with no Monsters and played defensively. I wasn't really able to make a push, so I just waited until he made a random push with Brionac (he stole my X-Saber Pashuul with Mind Control). I responded with Gorz, and he had to waste his Smashing Ground. I had the T.G. Striker and Warwolf to make Ally of Justice Catastor and kill the Brionac. I held out behind that Catastor for a while, but he had his own Gorz, which destroyed my Catastor. Trishula got rid of his Gorz and I ran him through with that.

-Duel 2: He opened with Rescue Rabbit to Xyz Summon Evolzar Laggia and Set a couple cards. I attempted to Special Summon Striker, but he used Solemn Warning. So, I just Set Warwolf and Dust Tornado. He summoned and attacked with Sangan to destroy Warwolf and with Laggia directly. I Chained Dust Tornado, hitting his Torrential Tribute, so that I could drop Gorz. I searched another Striker with Warwolf's effect in the End Phase and ran over Laggia with Gorz, leaving my Token in Defense Position and Setting Call of the Haunted. He summoned Tour Guide to grab a second one and make Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. He detached a Tour Guide to boost Leviathan Dragon's ATK, then dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. He attacked Gorz with BLS, then my Token with Leviathan Dragon. He tried to attack with BLS again, but I pointed out that it couldn't use its second attack since he already attacked with his Leviathan Dragon. I took 1000 damage from Sangan, though. I Special Summoned my Striker, Normal Summoned Goblin Zombie, and Special Summoned Warwolf with Call of the Haunted to make Trishula. That banished his BLS and a Kabazauls from his Graveyard, but he didn't have any cards in hand to banish. I tried to run over Leviathan Dragon, but he flipped Magic Cylinder. He used Leviathan Dragon's effect to boost it to 3000 ATK and run over Trishula. I made a Brionac with my third Striker and the Goblin Zombie I searched after Synchro Summoning Trishula. That let me search Mezuki, which I pitched to bounce the Leviathan Dragon. From there, it was draw-pass-draw-pass, since I didn't want to kill the Sangan and let him grab another Rescue Rabbit. We weren't really building up resources, however, since I kept drawing into Mystical Space Typhoons and Dust Tornadoes to destroy the back rows he kept drawing. After a while, I drew a Caius and tributed Brionac to summon it and banish Sangan. He dropped Gorz off of the 1000 damage, burning me for 1000. I sent a card from my hand (Snowman Eater) to the top of my deck for Plaguespreader Zombie so that I could make a Scrap Dragon and run over the Gorz. From there, I continued to destroy what few cards he had left, and I rode that Scrap Dragon to victory.

Playing against Dino-Rabbits isn't as bad as I thought, I suppose. It would still horrible to lose to them, though, since it's a luck deck like Six Samurai or Lightsworn...

Round 3: vs Macro Cosmos Stun

-Duel 1: He drew the perfect hand to counter my hand. He almost OTK'd me, but I blocked with Gorz. I kept the 2700 Token (he Trishula'd me...) in Defense Position to block, but he topped Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind to kill me.

-Duel 2: I drew four of my five Spell/Trap destruction cards over the course of the duel to keep his Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos off of the field. He couldn't do much without them.

-Duel 3: He made a passive play with Reborn Tengu and one back row. I summoned Zombie Master to run it over and Set a back row. He drew into Dimensional Fissure and played it. I ran over the second Tengu, and the third was in his hand. He drew a D.D. Survivor to crash with my Zombie Master, though. I held the Survivor off for a bit with Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. He drew into a Dimensional Prison to get rid of my Gaia Knight, but I drew into a Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Dimensional Fissure. From there, he Set a bunch of Monsters, and I wanted to used Torrential Tribute, but I was worried he had Starlight Road. Under the assumption that he had Starlight Road, I just pushed through the two Monsters, making a Leviair with my Spirit Reaper and T.G. Warwolf to grab his banished D.D. Warrior Lady. Leviair got removed by a Dimensional Prison, but the Warrior Lady ran over a Set Gale. I ran over his other Set Monster next turn, and it turned out to be Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, which destroyed the Warrior Lady. With my field cleared, I was ready to make Trishula with the usual Striker, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie, but he used Debunk on Warwolf. So, I settled for making Brionac and pushing for a little damage with that. He was able to kill the Brionac with Dark Hole, however, and I just Set a couple of Snowman Eaters over the next few turns, while he apparently didn't draw playable Monsters (that's what happens when you play Guardian Eatos). He eventually summoned Deep Sea Diva to make Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. I Flip Summoned both Snowman Eaters to get rid of Gantetsu's Xyz Materials, then summoned Striker to make Scrap Dragon and push for game.

Round 4: vs Gadget Stun

-Duel 1: He drew all of his Smashing Grounds/Fissures to keep killing my Monsters, but I was able to defend myself well enough with Traps so that I didn't die to a Gadget swarm. That gave me the time to outsearch him with my T.G.'s and Goblin Zombies and such. I was able to make a Scrap Dragon and push for game with that.

-Duel 2: I only drew a couple of Traps over the course of the duel, and he beat me down with his Gadgets, Doomcaliber Knights, and seemingly endless Smashing Grounds/Fissures.

-Duel 3: I drew even less Traps than last time (one) and the outcome was the same as the second duel. He just kept drawing Smashing Grounds and Fissures...

Round 5: vs Agent Fairies

I was paired down, so that was kind of disappointing. However, I was paired up against someone really nice, and we had a fun duel (not a "Happy Duel"--there was no crazy Johan OTK... um, actually, now that I think about it...).

-Duel 1: Apparently, he drew two Mystical Shine Balls and no Agents, so I beat him down with Zombies. He dropped BLS, but Torrential Tribute dealt with that, and he had no follow-up.

-Duel 2: Apparently, he drew all three Mystical Shine Balls, but he broke up my hand with Trap Dustshoot (not really, it was Monster Reborn, Mind Control, Dimensional Prison, Mystical Space Typhoon, Warwolf, and Striker, and he sent back the latter). Warwolf ran over a couple of Shine Balls, but he drew into a Rai-Oh, summoned it, but declined to attack. I summoned Goblin Zombie and used Mind Control. He dropped Maxx "C", so I attacked before overlaying for Steelswarm Roach. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, which I negated with Roach, and then summoned Earth, whose effect I Veiled. He dropped BLS, and I had to use Roach's effect again. Finally, he banished the Earth on the field to drop Hyperion and banished one of the three Shine Balls from his Graveyard to destroy my only back row (Dimensional Prison). He attacked over Roach and ended with one card in hand and just Hyperion on the field. I considered my options and decided to drop my hand onto the field. I used Monster Reborn on Goblin Zombie, and he Chained Maxx "C". Ha ha, I was actually happy that he did that. In response to Goblin Zombie's Special Summon, I dropped another Warwolf. I overlaid the two Warwolves for Leviair and used its effect to Special Summon his banished Earth. I Normal Summoned Zombie Master and Synchro Summoned Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using it, Goblin Zombie, and Earth. I searched Mezuki with Goblin Zombie and Set my MST. Because of Maxx "C", he had drawn five cards--five cards that I could see with Decisive Armor's third effect. It turns out that he had drawn into Hyperion, Venus, and Kristya with only 4500 LP left. Yay, Decisive Armor!

So I ended up going 4-1, but because of lackluster tiebreakers, I was the lowest 4-1 (4th place). Today's prizes were only for the Top 3, so that was really disappointing... The Turbo Pack wasn't even good (another Zombie Master...).

Oh well. I guess I'll just try again tomorrow.

"Good Stuff" Tournament Report 11/19/11

2011-11-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

So, I went to a "Good Stuff" Tournament at a card shop I have never been to before. By "Good Stuff" tournament, I mean that the prizes were "Good Stuff," like Tour Guide from the Underworld, Wind-Up Zenmaines, a 1st Edition Pot of Duality, Dark Smog, and a Duel Terminal Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Good stuff, yo.

This card shop is known to have regulars who have all of the expensive top tier decks, so I chose to go with my T.G. Zombies. I really liked the idea of using Scrap Worms, since Worm Yagan deals with Evolzar Laggia like it dealt with Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En in previous formats. But, Laggia can negate Worm Xex's summon, and Scraps need their Normal Summon too much. T.G. Zombies would be able to make explosive plays using only Special Summons, and they can more easily dodge Dark Smog.

There were 15 players, with the decks including at least one Tour Guide Tengu Plants, one Infernity, one Machina Gadgets, one Gladiator Beasts, one Rabbit Laggia, two Dark Worlds, one Lightsworn, and one Tour Guide Agents. The format of this tournament was four rounds of Swiss and a cut to Top 4.

Round 1: vs Tour Guide Tengu Plants

-Duel 1: He wasted a Solemn Judgment, so I just beat him down in a few turns with T.G. Rush Rhino and such.

-Duel 2: He combo'd off after Heavy Storming my back row, beating me down with Reborn Tengu and Caius.

-Duel 3: This duel went into time, with me getting the last turn. I was down over 4000 LP, but I made a desperate push with Brionac and Utopia on my last turn to reverse the LP count and win.

Round 2: vs Machina Gadgets

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I OTK'd him with Gorz, Brionac, and his Utopia, courtesy of Creature Swap.

-Duel 2: I got OTK'd by Limiter Removal.

-Duel 3: I summoned Rai-Oh and Set a bluff Creature Swap. He used Heavy Storm and ended his turn. I summoned T.G. Warwolf and attacked, but declined to attack with Rai-Oh to prevent Gorz from coming out. I Set my real back row (Dimensional Prison and Bottomless Trap Hole) and ended. He Set one and ended. I attacked with Warwolf, but not with Rai-Oh, fearing Dimensional Prison. That's what happened over a series of turns, until he decided to summon a Gadget, then flip Torrential Tribute on his own summon. From there, I had so much advantage, and he was so low on LP that I was able to push through his Gorz and kill him.

Round 3: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was my Top 8 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I drew an all-Monster hand, and it's hard to beat Gladiator Beasts with all Monsters.

-Duel 2: I drew a Trap for each of his Gladiator Beasts and beat him down fairly easily.

-Duel 3: He invested all of his resources into a Heraklinos and Set the last card in his hand to his back row. I topped Dark Hole with Caius in hand and made the obvious play (playing Dark Hole...). He drew and Set a back row. I drew Book of Moon and Set it. He drew and Set a back row. I drew and Set Effect Veiler. He drew and Set a back row. I drew Torrential Tribute and Tribute Summoned Caius. He Chained Mystical Space Typhoon and Bottomless Trap Hole to the summon. I flipped the Book of Moon he targeted with MST to save Caius from the Bottomless Trap Hole, and Caius' effect removed one of his other back rows. He drew and summoned Rai-Oh, and I had to use Torrential Tribute. I drew Mezuki and attempted to summon it. He had Solemn Judgment face-down with 1800 LP, but if he negated the summon, I would use Mezuki's effect to revive a Zombie and attack for game, so he declined to use the Solemn. I attacked, he drew and Set a back row, and I attacked once more for game.

Being 3-0 going into the last Swiss round, I was guaranteed a spot in the Top 4, so that was cool.

Round 4: vs Infernities

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. Revenge time.

-Duel 1: He started with a slow hand, pushing for a little damage with Stygian Street Patrol. I Normal Summoned Sangan and he flipped Solemn Judgment. Okay...? I Set a bluff Creature Swap because I knew a little about his play-style and that he wouldn't combo off if he didn't know that it was safe. He could've OTK'd me that turn, but he decided to just make a Catastor with Infernity Avenger and the Stygian Street Patrol and Set a back row. I made Brionac with T.G. Striker and Goblin Zombie, grabbing a Mezuki and pitching it to bounce his back row. I used Mezuki's effect to revive Goblin Zombie, Creature Swapped it to him, then bounced it back to my hand with Brionac's effect. That left his field open, letting me attack with Catastor and Brionac for game.

-Duel 2: I controlled him with Rai-Oh, Chaos Trap Hole, Compulsory Evacuation Device, and Maxx "C" so that he couldn't complete his combo. He was left with a Utopia and two Infernity Necromancers. I drew a Monster to pitch with Zombie Master, stealing his Plaguespreader Zombie. Then, I Mind Controlled one of the Necromancers and Synchro Summoned Trishula to banish the other Necromancer. Compulsory Evacuation Device bounced the Utopia, and I attacked for game.

So I went undefeated in Swiss, meaning that I would play against the 4th place players in the Top 4.

Top 4: vs Dark World

-Duel 1: He went first and summoned Tour Guide, which I Veiled. He then Set two Mind Crushes and played Dragged Down into the Grave. I lost my Bottomless Trap Hole, and chose to discard his Beiige (better than throwing his Snoww...). I lost Mystic Tomato to the first Mind Crush and summoned Armageddon Knight to pitch my Plaguespreader Zombie and run over the Tour Guide. He played Gates after grabbing it with Pot of Duality, removing the Tour Guide to discard Grapha and destroy my Set Torrential Tribute. Beiige ran over my Armageddon Knight, and he ended. I drew, and he flipped the second Mind Crush on my Caius. I Set the MST I drew and a T.G. Warwolf. It got killed by Grapha's attack, and I continued to search T.G.'s to stall. I was able to Creature Swap his Grapha after a bit and beat him down with it. He destroyed it with another Grapha's effect, though, and revived a Grapha on his next turn to kill another Set Warwolf. I searched T.G. Striker and drew Goblin Zombie. With those as the only two cards in my hand, I made the usual Brionac/Mezuki play to bounce Grapha and go for game. It's pretty hard to lose when you open Dragged Down and double Mind Crush, but apparently, it's possible.

-Duel 2: He didn't open nearly as well as last game, but I didn't have an answer to his Grapha this time after I lost a Chaos Trap Hole. I was able to Creature Swap one of them, but it died to another Grapha.

-Duel 3: I went first, but opened with a subpar hand of Spells and Traps, so I passed without making a play. He Set a back row and passed, not wanting me to drop a Gorz. I drew another Trap and Set a Bottomless Trap Hole. He used Fabled Raven to discard Snoww and grab The Gates of Dark World to discard Grapha and destroy my Set Bottomless. I drew and summoned Mystic Tomato and Creature Swapped it with the Raven, attacking over my Tomato and grabbing T.G. Warwolf. That let me make T.G. Wonder Magician to destroy Gates. With that, I Set three Traps, now that they were live (Crevice Into the Different Dimension, Call of the Haunted, and Torrential Tribute) and ended. He summoned Beiige, and I used Crevice to banish his Grapha and Snoww. I attacked over the Beiige, and he used his Set Reckless Greed, then Gates to discard Grapha and destroy my Torrential Tribute. He then revived Grapha and attacked over my Wonder Magician, letting me draw a card. I revived the Wonder Magician with Call of the Haunted on my turn and summoned Sangan to make Scrap Dragon. I searched T.G. Striker and used Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy Gates, letting me attack over the Grapha. He proceeded to stall with the Grapha, as he couldn't get over my Scrap Dragon. After a while though, I was able to destroy his field and go for game.

So it turns out that my Round 3 opponent was my opponent in the finals. We decided to split the top two prizes (Tour Guide and the DT Trishula), him getting the Tour Guide and paying me the difference. My Top 4 opponent and Round 4 opponent played for 3rd/4rd; the Dark World player got 3rd and the Wind-Up Zenmaines, while the Infernity player got 4th and a 1st Edition Pot of Duality.

So yeah, I ended up going undefeated, walking away with a Duel Terminal Trishula and a bunch of other cards that I got from my Round 3 opponent, in accordance to the split we agreed upon. We didn't end up playing the second time; I was pretty tired and didn't really care, since I had already beaten him earlier.

I'm planning on trading the DT Trishula, but I don't even know what cards I would need. Maybe I can get a set of Infernity Barriers or something cool like that...? I really don't need anything at the moment...

Tournament Report 11/12/11

2011-11-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

It's quite sad that I've only been able to make blog posts for tournament reports recently. I just haven't had many ideas of what to write about, and school work has been taking up most of my time.

Either way, I was able to go to locals today with a new version of my T.G. Zombies. I dropped the Reborn Tengus for Mystic Tomatoes and some tech choices.

There were about 20 people there, with only a few little kids.

Round 1: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. Splendid Rose helped me OTK her in the first duel, so that was cool.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I had to pull through a horrible hand after he used Irou to kill my Mystic Tomato. I was able to deal well enough with his swarm at first, but he used Monster Reborn on Shi En, and I couldn't deal with it the second time.

-Duel 2: He used Rivalry of Warlords against my Gorz so that I wouldn't be left with the Kaien Token, but I tributed Gorz for Caius to remove his Utopia and attack over Grandmaster. Later, he had cleared my Monsters out, and pushed for a little damage with a Kizan. I took it with Mind Control to go with my X-Saber Pashuul and Synchro Summon Gaia Knight. Quite convenient, I'd say. Rivalry doesn't hurt me as badly as I thought.

-Duel 3: He swarmed me with Shi En, Enishi, and Grandmaster, and I didn't have any outs, despite drawing a bunch of cards with Maxx "C". Quite sad.

Round 3: vs Newbie Blackwings

Trishula banished all of his cards in the first duel, and I OTK'd with Splendid Rose in the second. Splendid Rose put in a lot of work, even on the first day that I put it into the deck. It's pretty good.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: Spirit Reaper swung for some early advantage, but I took a lot of damage from the resulting swarm before I dropped Trishula to take control of the duel.

-Duel 2: He made a Naturia Barkion, which I was able to kill with Dark Hole. Then, he Synchro Summoned Shi En, but he couldn't get through my Spirit Reaper. I forced Shi En's negation with Mind Control, then played Creature Swap. He scooped.

Round 5: vs Hero Beat

-Duel 1: He used Torrential Tribute against my field of four Monsters; two of them were Gorz and its Token, and the other two were Sangan and Goblin Zombie. That let me make a Trishula play on the following turn, and he couldn't recover.

-Duel 2: He had control of the duel with his big beaters, whereas I had three Goblin Zombies. I Set one against his D.D. Warrior Lady, just wanting to get rid of the Warrior Lady so that I could Set something I really needed in the Graveyard. But, he summoned Doomcaliber Knight and tried to remove my Goblin Zombie with D.D. Warrior Lady's effect. I reminded him that Doomcaliber Knight's effect negates D.D. Warrior Lady's effect, and that completely cost him the duel. From there, I was able to build up advantage and finish him off with Trishula.

So yeah, I ended up going 4-1 and getting 3rd place. With the store credit that I won, I got a couple of Bottomless Trap Holes so that I don't have to keep switching the only pair of English Bottomless Trap Holes that I have between my decks. Now I can have a full Scrap deck and a full T.G. Zombie deck at the same time. Cool stuff.

There's not much else to talk about. Perhaps I should start siding more heavily for Six Samurai, since there are so many regular Six Samurai players at my locals. We'll see.

Tournament Report 11/4/11

2011-11-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to go to the Friday tournament this weekend, since there would be no tournaments due to the Sneak Preview today and tomorrow. By the way, I didn't go to the Photon Shockwave Sneak Preview because the only cards I needed from the pack that I could plausibly get are the Wind-Ups (minus the rarity-jacked Zenmaines...).

I had no time at all to change my deck since last weekend, so I went with the lackluster Scrap variant (I really want to be able to use the Worm engine...). I went with sickpenguin and his friend evilhamsdwch. They were playing Junk Doppel and Agent Fairies, respectively.

Round 1: vs Newbie Six Samurai

I could tell that he was a newb because he searched for Hand of the Six Samurai instead of Kagemusha when he had Kageki in hand...

Round 2: Blackwings

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I opened with a pretty awkward hand and just stalled out with Gravekeeper's Spy (Worm Xex would've been able to do lots of damage here...). He made a Stardust Dragon and Set his hand to his back row, and I worked to bait out all of his Traps before I made a Scrap Chimera play. Once he ran out of back rows, he couldn't do anything about my Scrap Dragon.

-Duel 2: He made Brionac with Blizzard to bounce my Scrap Dragon. I had to wait a few turns before making my own Brionac with Cyber Dragon and Effect Veiler to bounce his Brionac, but I lost my Brionac to a Dimensional Prison. From there, we were both top-decking, but he drew a Monster to kill me with.

-Duel 3: We both opened with pretty Trap-heavy hands. I destroyed his whole back row in a turn with Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado before I summoned Scrap Chimera to make a Scrap Dragon. It got hit by Compulsory Evacuation Device, but I was able to make another one to keep control of the duel with.

Round 3: vs Junk Doppel

I was paired up against sickpenguin. How sad.

-Duel 1: I opened pretty crazily with two Scrap Chimeras, Scrapyard, Scrapstorm, and two Traps. I made the obvious Scrap Beast/Scrapstorm play to grab Scrap Orthros. He didn't draw any Effect Veilers to deal with my Scrap Chimeras, so I won fairly easily.

-Duel 2: He opened with Trap Dustshoot, seeing my hand of Effect Veiler, Gravekeeper's Spy, Chaos Trap Hole, Dimensional Prison, Mind Control, and Reborn Tengu, the latter of which he sent back. That left me to Set Gravekeeper's Spy and Chaos Trap Hole. He searched Ryko with Charge of the Light Brigade, but he didn't want to Set it because I had Mind Control. I lost my Spies to a Torrential Tribute when I flipped the Set one, and I Chaos Trap Holed his Caius, so we just sat there for a while. I drew into a Tengu and beat him down a little bit with it. He made Catastor with Junk Synchron to kill my Tengus. I had Cyber Dragon in hand, so I was okay with that. However, I had to consider whether or not to fuse it with Catastor or steal it with Mind Control and overlay. I wanted to keep Chimeratech Fortress Dragon in my Extra Deck, considering I had Monster Reborn in my hand, so I overlaid for Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon. Adreus died to Ryko, so that was sad, but that was okay; I finally was able to summon a Rank 5 Xyz Monster. And, it worked out pretty well when he summoned Card Trooper on his next turn and I topped a second Cyber Dragon. After so long, I was finally able to draw a Scrap Beast and make Scrap Twin Dragon using it and the Monster Reborn. He couldn't deal with it (I had two Effect Veilers, ha ha), so I won.

Round 4: vs Lightsworn

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Recharge and Charge, but he milled Lumina with Charge, so he had to settle on getting Lyla. Without that momentum, and seeing as how he milled all of his Judgment Dragons, I was able to take control of the duel with Scrap Dragon fairly easily.

-Duel 2: He gained a bunch of pluses off of Wulf, Celestia, then Judgment Dragon, and I couldn't do anything about that.

-Duel 3: I was doing fairly well with an early Scrap Dragon, be he milled four Lightsworn names within a couple turns, then dropped two Judgment Dragons on me. I killed the first, but couldn't do much about the second. I stalled out for a while, then made Black Rose Dragon using Reborn Tengu and Scrap Goblin to destroy the Judgment Dragon and push for a little damage. Unfortunately, he drew Lumina and chucked a Necro Gardna to revive Lyla and break my Set Forbidden Lance. With Glow-Up Bulb, he made Catastor and destroyed my last Tengu. I topped Cyber Dragon to fuse with Catastor and force out one of the two Necro Gardnas. He was able to rid of it, though, and I topped Dark Hole to clear the field. He topped Monster Reincarnation, so he was able to kill me with Judgment Dragon the following turn.

Round 5: vs Scraps

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. We agreed to a split, and I had much higher tiebreakers than him, so he would give me the win regardless of the outcome of the match.

-Duel 1: He opened crazily with Reborn Tengu, Scrap Beast, Scrap Chimera, Mind Control, and Monster Reborn, so he killed me by the fifth turn of the duel.

-Duel 2: I was able to control the duel with Utopia, then Scrap Dragon.

-Duel 3: I opened pretty badly, and he drew Scrap Chimeras so I lost. I really hate how the Scrap mirror match can often come down to who draws more Scrap Chimeras...

And that's part of why I'm considering switching up decks for next weekend. Either way, I went 3-2, but technically got 2nd place with a 4-1 record. With my half of the store credit that I got, I was able to buy a Number 10: Illumiknight tin at a good price. I pulled Gladiator Taming and Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi from the packs, so that was pretty good.

sickpenguin ended up going 4-1, getting 5th place; evilhamsdwch had a lackluster record (*cough* 1-3 plus a bye *cough*).

So yeah, I'm not sure if I want to run the same Scrap deck next weekend. I might want to switch to a Worm variant (as least I can do something if I clump-draw Worms, Tengus are useless), or I might want to switch to a different version of my T.G. Zombies that doesn't lose as hard to Rai-Oh. We'll see...

Tournament Report 10/29/11

2011-10-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to go to locals with a Scrap deck this weekend. Since Worms aren't too good this format with all of the Rai-Ohs everywhere, I decided to use Gravekeeper's Spies instead.

There were about 20 players there today. Most of them were newbs...

Round 1: vs Newbie Synchro

It was basically just a deck based around Junk Synchron that wasn't Junk Doppel...

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

-Duel 1: I drew double Tengu, but that let me make a Steelswarm Roach. He couldn't get over it, so I won.

-Duel 2: I made an early push with a couple of Spies and a Scrap Beast, letting me keep control of the game with Scrap Dragon.

Round 3: vs Zombie Plants

-Duel 1: He dropped Dark Armed Dragon and Stardust on me early in the game, and I was able to kill both by sacrificing my Scrap Dragon. From there, I was able to keep him off of the field until he milled a Dandylion off of Ryko and proceeded to draw Debris Dragon... Needless to say, I lost to Trishula.

-Duel 2: I just rushed him with Scrap Dragon, since he had a lackluster hand.

-Duel 3: I tried to rush him again, but his D.D. Crow and Effect Veiler stopped my play. Then, he banished those two cards to drop Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and destroy me with it. This was the first time I have legitimately lost to BLS; it's broken.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. He was one of the three undefeated players, so I offered to give him the win. We still played it out for fun.

-Duel 1: I played conservatively, using Effect Veiler on his first turn Leviathan Dragon so that it couldn't run over my Set Gravekeeper's Spy. I used that Spy to make Utopia, which died to Mirror Force. From there, I made a Scrap Dragon to run him through, and he couldn't do anything about it.

-Duel 2: I opened with Scrap Beast and two Scrapstorms. I used them to get a Scrap Chimera before he Synchro Summoned Shi En, and the resulting Scrap Dragon ran over that Shi En. He couldn't deal with it, so I rode Scrap Dragon to victory.

Round 5: vs T.G. Agent Fairies

-Duel 1: I drew three Reborn Tengus, but he made a Gachi Gachi Gantetsu with Striker and Earth, so he didn't have anything to attack with. As such, I built up my field with the Tengus and Gravekeeper's Spy. Once I had enough Level 4's on the field, I made Scrap Dragon and Steelswarm Roach to lock him out of the game.

-Duel 2: I only drew two Effect Veilers as my Monsters, and he drew three Earths, so I couldn't stop Venus from coming out.

-Duel 3: He stole my Scrap Dragon using Tragoedia's effect, but I locked it down in a few turns with Fiendish Chain. Dark Hole cleared off the field a few turns after that, and we were both top-decking. I topped Scrap Chimera after he topped Torrential Tribute, so I couldn't make my Scrap Dragon. Then, he topped Hyperion and attacked with it. I topped Scrapyard with Cyber Dragon in hand, letting me make Scrap Twin Dragon to run over Hyperion. He couldn't get over Scrap Twin, so I won on the following turn.

So, technically I went 3-2, but I actually went 4-1. So yeah.

My Round 4 opponent gave me a pack of sleeves and a Common Grinder Golem from Legendary Collection 2 since I gave him the win so that he could get to the finals. That was cool.

Last weekend, half of the people were playing Gravekeeper's, and this weekend, everyone's playing swarm decks (Lightsworn, Zombies, Chaos). Half of the reason I played the Gravekeeper's engine was because I expected to play against Gravekeeper's. I even started siding Closed Forest, again.

Either way, the Main Deck for my Scrap variant seems pretty solid, so I may just need to work on the Side Deck. I really do want to play the Worm engine again, but the sheer amount of Rai-Ohs being played hurts the Worms too much. It's quite sad, too, since the Worm engine is good against the deck formerly known as Tengu Plants. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

Tournament Report 10/22/11

2011-10-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I decided to use the Dark World deck I put together with the Ryko Side Deck. I had to go early to buy the Structure Decks and put the actual deck together.

There were 23 players, and quite a few of them were newbs. Guess who I get to play against first...?

Round 1: vs Newbie Dragons

This kid was really annoying, and after I 2-0'd him, he kept telling me about how close he was to winning.

Round 2: vs Frog Monarchs

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He was able to keep pushing through damage by destroying/spinning Grapha with Monarchs, since he kept drawing Monarch after I ripped his hand apart with Dragged Down and Mind Crush. In the end, he had to stall behind Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and Tragoedia, but that didn't last for long.

-Duel 2: For a while, he was at 3100 LP, just trying to hang on. I knew that he had a Tragoedia in his hand, and I wanted to finish him off in one shot with Grapha so that he wouldn't have tribute fodder. That plan didn't work out, unfortunately, but it gave me the opportunity to use Wind-Up Zenmaister. He had switched my Grapha to Defense Position with Enemy Controller, and Zenmaister switched it back so that it wouldn't get run over by a Jinzo or something. I ended up using Torrential Tribute to clear the field after he stole my Grapha with another Enemy Controller and tributed it and his Treeborn Frog for the Tragoedia. That let me finish him off on my turn.

Round 3: vs Gravekeeper's

I've played against this guy before, but it's been at least a year, and I'm too lazy to go back and find out when.

-Duel 1: He drew a Trap for each of my Monsters, so I couldn't get anything to the field.

-Duel 2: I drew all of my Rykos, and they all milled my Dark World Monsters. Because of that, I didn't have any Dark Worlds to use to summon Grapha. It didn't matter much, though, since he kept drawing Traps to stop whatever I may have attempted.

And that is why I didn't want to play Dark Worlds.

Round 4: vs Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 4 opponent from last week.

-Duel 1: I ripped apart his hand with Dragged Down into the Grave, and was able to keep Necrovalley off of the field and gain advantage with The Gates of Dark World. Dark World Lightning is pretty good, too.

-Duel 2: I didn't draw any discard outlets (another reason why I didn't want to play Dark Worlds), and got beat down by Gravekeeper's Guard and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo.

-Duel 3: I hit him with a Mind Crush, letting me see his hand of non-Chainable Traps. He Set them to avoid Dragged Down, but that left him open to Dark World Lightning. Once his back row thinned out, Grapha took control of the field, and he couldn't deal with it.

That ended up being the last round, so I went 3-1. My tie-breakers were bad, apparently, since I was like the lowest ranked X-1. That didn't matter, though, since I was just trying out Dark Worlds and seeing if other people picked up the deck. I think that I was the only competitive Dark World player there. Gravekeeper's, on the other hand, were quite popular, for some reason.

In fact, I played against one of my friends (the same person who I played against after this tournament), and he was playing Gravekeeper's. Hand control won me the game 2-1, with the game I lost being due to not drawing discard outlets.

So, I'm not sure on what deck I'm going to use next weekend. I'm trying to decide between T.G. Zombies, Dark Worlds, and some sort of Scrap variant. I think that I'll keep working on Dark Worlds, but we'll see.

Random Stuff #37

2011-10-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

I got my COSSY Top 1000 play mat earlier this week. It's the blue one, the one for the ranking period from July 2010 to August 2010. Yes, it's over a year behind. The coloring is also relatively dull, but it's nice to get free stuff, nonetheless.

So, I've been thinking about Dark Worlds a little more, and I realized that siding into Stun is a bad idea. It takes away the only power that the deck really has, which is Grapha. So, I'm thinking about siding against what others would side.

For instance, people might side Gemini Imps and D.D. Crow. Debunk deals with both of those, as well as many commonly played cards like Reborn Tengu, Glow-Up Bulb, Spore, Dandylion, Sangan, T.G.'s, and against opposing Dark Worlds. They could be siding other cards like Dimensional Prison and Crevice Into the Different Dimension. Trap Stun shuts those down (I've been looking for an excuse to start using my Duel Terminal Trap Stuns). Dimensional Fissure and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror are also expected Side Deck choices. Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter destroys them. Seems pretty good.

Honestly, I had forgotten about Ryko completely. And, now I see why people in the OCG used to play it, it deals with EVERYTHING, though I like it better as a Side Deck card.

So, the idea is that against slower decks that would most likely side in Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and/or Dimensional Fissure, Ryko would be sided in. Against faster decks that would use drop-hand or Graveyard effects, Debunk goes in. Trap Stun can go in against anything, it just depends. With this siding scheme, I may have to side out Dragged Down into the Grave, as it conflicts with Ryko, so I may have to replace them with Dark World Dealings.

That is, except for the mirror match. I'd need to make a special Side Deck strategy for that deck. Crevice Into the Different Dimension seems good, but that's not exactly a strategy. We'll see how that turns out.

Also, using Dark Worlds, a deck that doesn't require much Extra Deck commitment, lets me side Super Polymerization against E-HEROes. I think that it would be pretty hilarious to use, since no one would expect it.

Now, I've run out of random things to talk about, so I'm going to go work on my Dark World deck.

Tournament Report 10/15/11

2011-10-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

As usual, I went to locals with my T.G. Zombies. I haven't changed the deck in like a month, so yeah...

When I first got there, there were very few of the decent regulars to be seen. Most of them arrived right before the tournament started, though, so that was good. There ended up being about 24 players, with half of them being decent players.

Round 1: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. I won fairly easily, as she didn't play mass back row.

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I played around Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush, and while doing that, I also kept him from getting names into the Graveyard (Bottomless on Lyla, Creature Swap his Celestia, etc.) until I had a way to deal with his boss Monsters. I basically forced him to drop his Judgment Dragon, then took it with another Creature Swap.

-Duel 2: I made a Steelswarm Roach early on, since I had the cards to protect it. Then, he ended up milling Dark Hole, so I dumped my hand onto the field, leaving me with Brionac, Flamvell Uruquizas, my third Reborn Tengu, and of course, the Steelswarm Roach. He made a desperate Celestia play using Plaguespreader Zombie as the tribute to run over my Roach, but I Mind Controlled the Black Luster Soldier he ended up dropping to banish his Celestia and take the game.

Round 3: vs Gate HEROes

I knew that this guy was a good player, as I had played against him before. I'm just to lazy to go back and find out when.

-Duel 1: He stalled for a bit with Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, but I stole it with Creature Swap and made a Catastor with it and T.G. Striker, but Catastor got banished by Bottomless Trap Hole. I made a Trishula soon after to deal with his The Shining, but he then made an E-HERO Absolute Zero with his second Fusion Gate (I MST'd the first) to kill my Trishula. I made a Brionac play with Striker and Goblin Zombie, searching Mezuki to bounce the AbZ. Mezuki revived Spirit Reaper to rip the Miracle Fusion out of his hand, leaving him with only his Fusion Gate. I wasn't able to capitalize, though, and he built his field back up. It didn't matter, though, since he was low on LP, so I Creature Swapped him my Effect Veiler to push through it for game.

-Duel 2: I drew one Monster, Plaguespreader Zombie, which got sent back with Trap Dustshoot. He then beat me down with a The Shining over three turns, since I didn't draw any other Monsters or Traps that could deal with it.

-Duel 3: He made a Nova Master on his first turn to get over my Reborn Tengu and draw a card. I summoned the other Tengu in my hand so that I could make a Utopia, but he used Mind Crush, expecting me to use Creature Swap. He missed, though, seeing my hand of T.G. Striker, Gorz, Monster Reborn, and Mezuki. He randomly discarded Banisher of the Radiance to complete Mind Crush's effect, then I made my Utopia to stall. He made The Shining to try and force out both of Utopia's negations, but he attacked with The Shining first, which I let through. Fearing the Gorz he knew I had, he didn't attack with Nova Master. So, I made Trishula with Striker, Mezuki, and his Banisher, courtesy of Monster Reborn. That let me run through his two Monsters, and he had to play Dark Hole on the following turn. He stalled for a bit with Grand Mole, but kept gaining advantage with my floaters and just made a big push with Brionac to wipe out the rest of his LP.

Round 4: vs Stun

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw many of his Traps, and I was able to gain advantage with Spirit Reaper and Trishula.

-Duel 2: I drew all Monsters and lost to his Dimensional Fissure, Wanghu, and Rai-Oh.

-Duel 3: I drew mostly Monsters again, but I drew a decently consistent flow of Monster removal Spells/Traps to deal with his threats. So, I forced the game into a top-decking war. I drew Goblin Zombie, he drew Rai-Oh, so I lost. It was an enjoyable duel, though.

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. He and my Round 1 opponent from this tournament adamantly stick to Six Samurai, in case you didn't notice. Neither of them use what you would call an optimal build, but they're at least somewhat decent.

-Duel 1: I Duality'd into Bottomless Trap Hole (over Dark Hole and Heavy Storm; I needed some defense), then Set it, Mystical Space Typhoon, and a T.G. Rush Rhino. Quite an unorthodox opening, now that I think about it, but it was the best play at the time. He summoned Kageki, Shinai, Kizan, and Grandmaster, the latter of which I Bottomless'd. He attacked with his three Samurai, and I searched Striker in the End Phase. I made a Creature Swap play to get a non-Tuner (I drew Plaguespreader, and I didn't want to waste Zombie Master), giving him my Striker. I attacked over it with Shinai, then Synchro Summoned Catastor in Main Phase 2. I searched Warwolf and ended. He played Solidarity and Set a back row, which I destroyed with my MST (it was Musakani Magatama). I summoned the Warwolf, then attacked Kizan with Catastor, then Kageki with Warwolf. He summoned Shinai and Grandmaster, attacking Warwolf with Grandmaster. I searched Striker, then drew Goblin Zombie on my turn. I used Zombie Master, Goblin Zombie, and Plaguespreader (I sent Striker back to my deck) to make Decisive Armor and searched another Goblin Zombie. Decisive Armor got over Grandmaster, and Catastor killed Shinai. He couldn't draw anything, so I killed him with Decisive Armor over the next two turns.

-Duel 2: He played Dojo, Shinai, and Mizuho. When he activated Dojo's effect, I Chained Maxx "C". He stopped after completing Dojo's effect, Special Summoning Kagemusha. I didn't have a follow-up, so I just sat there for a turn, letting my field get ripped apart by Mizuho. That exhausted all of his cards, though, so I made a Brionac and bounced his Shi En, exhausting most of my cards. He dropped Kageki and Kagemusha, and I used my second Maxx "C". He had to give me two draws while making his Shi En and getting over my Brionac. I drew to three cards in hand against his Shi En and Set back row. I Set them all, and he used Double-Edge Sword Technique on his turn to get back Mizuho and Shinai. Mizuho's effect tried to destroy my Set Reinforce Truth, which I Chained, but it got negated by Shi En. He attacked with Mizuho, but I had my second Reinforce Truth to block with X-Saber Pashuul. He ended his turn, and I used Call of the Haunted to revive Brionac in the End Phase after Mizuho died. I used Mezuki to revive Goblin Zombie to tune it with Pashuul for Gaia Knight, searching another Goblin Zombie. I pitched the card I drew (MST) to bounce Shi En with Brionac's effect, then summoned the Goblin Zombie and attacked for game.

So, I went 4-1 and got 3rd place. I used my store credit to buy four Gemini Imps to go with the two that I already had. So, in case I decide not to use Dark Worlds next weekend, I'll have the Gemini Imps to side against them.

It was nice to play against so many regulars today; it's nice to have a challenge instead of playing against a string of newbs.

And, I was able to get my copies of Dragged Down into the Grave (not to mention that they're all mint, which is odd considering that it's such an old card). So I will be able to play Dark Worlds next weekend if I decide to. Regardless, I'd probably use them in some duel videos when I get the chance.

Dark Worlds Next Week

2011-10-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

So, seeing as how the Dark World Structure Deck comes out on Tuesday, tomorrow's tournament is going to be pretty pointless. Either way, I'm trying to figure out what to do next weekend when Dark Worlds are legal.

From testing out the deck a little bit, I feel that it's too combo-oriented to be consistent. Grapha is broken, but what really drives the deck is The Gates of Dark World. If you don't draw it, you won't be able to do much; it provides a constant discard outlet, which is what the deck really needed. This is amplified in the mirror match, where you can't use the discard outlets that make both players discard, so all you get is Gates and Lightning.

Because of all of that, I don't really want to play the deck competitively. The only way I'd consider using it is if I were to side into Stun for the mirror match and the Stun match-up, siding out Graphas and Dragged Down to render their Side Deck cards useless. I don't know how well this would work, but it might be difficult to figure out exactly how to build the deck to make this strategy effective.

If I can make this type of Dark World deck effectively, then it should be able to do pretty well, even without Tour Guide and Fabled Raven. However, if I can't, I'll have to learn how to deal with them in other ways.

Supposedly, they're easy to Side Deck against... The thing is that everyone in the OCG seems to feel obligated to run three Gemini Imps to protect themselves from Dragged Down. They're running a full three cards to stop as few as three cards in the opponent's deck. They may expect Dark World players to side in Dark World Dealings, but that's not a sure thing.

Besides that, Crevice Into the Different Dimension and Spell/Trap Destruction seem good. Banishing Grapha and destroying Gates are the most important things you can do to halt Dark Worlds. While Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Dimensional Fissure are decent, Mystical Space Typhoon destroys them too easily, and most decks can't use them. However, Closed Forest may become viable again...

So yeah, I'll have to learn to deal with Dark Worlds, but either way, I'm probably going to switch decks after this week. I just think that my T.G. Zombies can't do that well against Dark Worlds... So, I'll have to figure out a deck that can...

Regionals Report 10/8/11

2011-10-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

So, as stated in the previous post, there was a Regional today. I took my T.G. Zombie deck as it was, same as the past two weeks.

Before the tournament started, I got a Legendary Collection 2 pack...binder...thing... I got a Secret Rare Gallis the Star Beast, Banisher of the Radiance, and Necro Gardna. Notable Ultra Rares were Jain, Lightsworn Paladin and Light End Dragon. Not bad.

There ended up being 507 players, meaning that there would be nine rounds.

Round 1: vs T.G. Stun - OO

-I ended up making a T.G. Wonder Magician using his Warwolf and his Striker, courtesy of TG1-EM1 and Mind Control, respectively. He was pretty confused, seeing as how he had only seen Zombies and Tengu up to that point.

Round 2: vs Tour Guide Tengu Plants - OXO

-In the first game, I overextended like crazy to kill him before he could combo off, and it ended up working. I got combo'd off on in the second duel, and I held off his combos and won in time in the third game.

Round 3: vs Tour Guide Tengu Plants - XX

-I was playing against Robert Boyajian, whom I had played against four times before at locals over a year ago. In both games, Trap Dustshoot revealed to him my hand, and while my Monsters being sent back to the deck didn't hinder my strategy, him knowing my hand let him combo off knowing that I couldn't stop him.

Round 4: vs Infernities - XX

-I got looped in the first duel with Leviair and Mirage and such. I lost the second duel because I drew all of my combo-stopping cards, like Effect Veiler, D.D. Crow, and Maxx "C", but he drew a Stun-ish hand, despite not even siding into Stun...

Round 5 was a no show.

Round 6: vs Agent Fairies - OO

-This guy was kind of a newb, so it didn't take much to beat him...

Round 7: vs Disaster Dragon - OXO

-This was a very back and forth match, and it was fun. My opponent even said before the match that she didn't feel like playing, but after the match was over, she said that she felt much better. It was that fun.

Round 8: vs Agent Fairies - XOX

-In the first game, he OTK'd me on like his second turn; I stopped the Venus with Book of Moon, but he just kept Special Summoning Monsters to kill me. I won the second game with the awesome Ally of Justice Decisive Armor. I lost the third game because I drew mostly Traps and he drew two Royal Decrees...

Round 9: vs Lightsworn - XX

-I made Decisive Armor against his Wulf and five cards in hand, but its third effect only hit an Honest, which was a huge waste. Chaos Sorcerer banished my Decisive Armor, and I couldn't do much to recover from that. I lost the second game to Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

So I ended up going X-4, which isn't good at all. I got 113th place, if anyone cares, and vadangchoinga ended up getting 49th place. Overall, it was pretty disappointing. Oh well, this doesn't really mean anything with Dark Worlds coming out in a couple weeks.

Tournament Report 10/1/11

2011-10-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

So, as usual, I went to locals today with my T.G. Zombies. I didn't have the time to change anything in the deck, so I just went the same build as last weekend.

There were 23 players there, and at least half of them were regulars, so that was good.

Round 1: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He Set two back rows, activated United and Dojo, then summoned Kizan. I took the Kizan with Mind Control and Synchro Summoned Gaia Knight using it and my previously Set X-Saber Pashuul. I killed him over the next few turns with that Gaia Knight, since he didn't draw any more Monsters.

-Duel 2: I held onto my Torrential Tribute until he dumped his whole hand onto the field, letting me kill four Monsters, leaving him with no cards. I ended up making a Gaia Knight again and killing him with it.

Round 2: vs Chaos Zombies

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He was forced to use Solemn Judgment on my Creature Swap, and I was able to push through a bunch of damage with Reborn Tengu. Another Creature Swap ended up winning me the game, taking his only card, Gaia Knight, and giving him my Effect Veiler.

-Duel 2: He drew a pretty bad hand, with something like Dark Armed Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, Cyber Dragon, Reborn Tengu, and two Effect Veilers. I made a random Brionac play to get rid of all of his Reborn Tengus in one turn, and also letting me draw two cards off of Maxx "C". He wasted Cyber Dragon and Effect Veiler to make a Gaia Knight and run over my Brionac. But, I Creature Swapped him my Goblin Zombie for his Gaia Knight. He ended up taking it back with his Creature Swap, but I made a Catastor with Striker and Sangan to kill it. I ended up making a Revived King Ha Des next turn to lock him out of the game.

Round 3: vs Newbie Agent Fairies

I had to play against a little kid using three Lost Sanctuary Structure Decks smashed together. He didn't show much skill, but he remained pretty composed, so that was pretty good; he appeared to have the potential to become a better player. Regardless, it was a 2-0. I beat him in the first game with Trishula and general control tactics, and I won the second game with Ally of Justice Decisive Armor.

Round 4: vs Lightsworn

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. I offered to split, but the difference between the 1st and 2nd place prizes were so small that we just decided to play for it.

-Duel 1: He opened with Trap Dustshoot, returning my T.G. Rush Rhino to the deck. He saw that I had an Effect Veiler, so he held back on his big plays until he could bait it out. Unfortunately for him, I'm not stupid, so I saved my Veiler for his Black Rose Dragon. And when he dropped his Judgment Dragon, I killed it with Bottomless Trap Hole. Unfortunately, we were both top-decking after that, and he drew into another Judgment Dragon.

-Duel 2: I made a Steelswarm Roach, but he milled a Wulf off of his Glow-Up Bulb to run over my Roach. Then, he made a T.G. Hyper Librarian. I had to make a Gaia Knight to run it over. He then kept summoning Lightsworn Monsters to get four names into the Graveyard, but I kept his Graveyard in check with D.D. Crow. Then, I traded out my Gaia Knight for a Colossal Fighter using Plaguespreader Zombie. With five total Warriors in the Graveyard, he would be unable to get over it with Judgment Dragon, and I had two Effect Veilers to protect it from effects. He dropped a Chaos Sorcerer, but one Effect Veiler stopped its effect. He then used his last card, Dark Hole, to clear the field. After that, I slowly built up my resources, eventually making a Catastor. He ended up summoning a Judgment Dragon with three cards left in his deck, but Light-Imprisoning Mirror protected my field. In his End Phase, I destroyed my Imprisoning Mirror with Mystical Space Typhoon to force him to mill out. It was hysterical.

-Duel 3: He opened with Charge of the Light Brigade, milling Lyla, Mind Crush, and some Spell to get his Lumina. He summoned it and pitched Wulf to revive Lyla, but I had my D.D. Crow to banish it. He Set Trap Dustshoot, then milled three Spells/Traps in his End Phase. The Dustshoot didn't matter, since my hand was: Call of the Haunted, Creature Swap, Pot of Duality, T.G. Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie. He returned the latter to my deck, and I used Duality to grab Thunder King Rai-Oh. I summoned it and attacked over Lumina. Then, I set Call of the Haunted and ended my turn. He Special Summoned Wulf with Foolish Burial and attacked over my Rai-Oh. Then, he Set a Monster. I summoned the Goblin Zombie I drew and ran over his Set Glow-Up Bulb. Then, I Creature Swapped him my Zombie, then revived Rai-Oh with Call of the Haunted. I overlaid my Rai-Oh and his Wulf for Steelswarm Roach. He Set a Monster and switched the Goblin Zombie to Defense Position. I summoned another Goblin Zombie and ran over the one under his control, searching Zombie Master. Then, I ran over his Necro Gardna with Roach. He Set a back row, and I flipped Reinforce Truth in his End Phase to Special Summoned Pashuul. I also Special Summoned T.G. Warwolf, then made Trishula with Pashuul, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie. Trishula got destroyed by his Solemn Judgment, but I searched out Mezuki. I didn't attack that turn, fearing Gorz, but I attacked next turn with Mezuki, and he didn't have the Gorz. He had to block Roach's attack with Necro Gardna, as he only had 1850 LP. He drew more dead cards (like Solemn Warnings), and couldn't get rid of the Roach, so he died.

So I went undefeated and got 1st place. With the store credit, I got an Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon. Now I have Tiras and Adreus, in case I decide to ever use Rank 5 Xyz Monsters. Unfortunately, my Turbo Pack 6 was bad. Oh well.

So yeah, I guess that my deck is as ready as it will be for the Regional next weekend. It's nice to know that I can beat Lightsworn fairly consistently. After that, I might switch to Dark Worlds, we'll see...

Dark Worlds

2011-09-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

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"

2011-09-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-11T01:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Random Stuff #35

2011-08-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the flea market to get a bunch of cards. I got three Number 17: Leviathan Dragon tins and two Wind-Up Zenmaister tins after selling my Solemn Warnings. People might not know this yet, but it seems as though Solemn Warning will be in the Wave 2 tins. Even if they aren't, I wasn't planning on using them this format.

Besides those tins, some sleeves, and WoW cards, I made a list of Yu-Gi-Oh cards that I planned on picking up. I was able to get the three Goblin Zombies, a second Duel Terminal X-Saber Pashuul, a third Gold Rare Mystical Space Typhoon, and another Super Rare Call of the Haunted for my Zombie deck. I was also able to get a Steelswarm Roach at a decent price.

Aside from a few random Gem-Knight cards that I also picked up, the rest of the stuff was for Aki's deck. Three A Hero Lives and a Gladiator Beast Essedarii. I decided to pick up a box of Gold Series 4 in an attempt to get Black Luster Soldier, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, and Doomcaliber Knight. I got the BLS and the Doomcaliber, but not the Gyzarus; not that that's bad, it's just odd.

After opening the Gold Series 4 box, I opened the tins. Nothing good from the packs. The Hidden Arsenal 4 packs were absolute garbage, Storm of Ragnarok was pretty horrible, and Extreme Victory was mediocre. Eh, the promo cards in the tins paid for the tins themselves, so whatever.

Either way, I was happy that I could get the cards for my Zombie deck and also the Steelswarm Roach. So, however I decide to make the deck, I'll have the cards for it.

The problem is trying to figure out how to make it. The T.G. engine is at least six cards, and the Zombie engine is at least seven cards. Add Reborn Tengus, Effect Veilers, Gorz, Caius, and X-Saber Pashuuls, and that's already 22 Monsters. I wanted to fit in another Caius, another Effect Veiler, another T.G. Warwolf, and Mystic Tomatoes, but there's just no room.

I even dropped Allure of Darkness, Foolish Burial, and other such Spells to make room. Not only is the Main Deck packed, but the Extra Deck is as well. I'm stuck on 17 cards, and I can't figure out what to drop:

Ally of Justice Decisive Armor

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Scrap Dragon

Colossal Fighter

Stardust Dragon

Black Rose Dragon

Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

Revived King Ha Des

Doomkaiser Dragon

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Flamvell Uruquizas

Ally of Justice Catastor

T.G. Wonder Magician

Number 39: Utopia

Steelswarm Roach

Leviair the Sea Dragon

Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

The first most likely candidate is Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. I can summon it easily thanks to Reinforce Truth and T.G. Striker, but I don't know if I'd ever want to.

I'm thinking about dropping Flamvell Uruquizas, but I like the piercing and the generic requirements. More often than not, I'd be using a Warrior Tuner for a Synchro, so I won't have access to the Zombie Synchros. Speaking of which, I'd want to drop one of them.

Ha Des can be really good against decks that use cards like Reborn Tengu or other floaters, but those decks are few and far in between now. The only deck I can think of that would use floaters consistently is Zombies, but I could be using Doomkaiser Dragon to steal their Plaguespreader Zombie. Same against Lightsworn/Twilight. Neither does anything against Agent Fairies, so yeah...

Either way, I'll have to figure something out by Saturday, since that's going to be the first tournament of the format that I'll be going to. So yeah...

Tournament Report 8/28/11

2011-08-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Forgive the lack of posts. I was planning on posting a tournament report two days ago, but there was no tournament.

Anyway, I went to the last tournament of the format today with my Scrap Worms deck. I hadn't even looked at it for like a week, since I was working on a deck for the new format.

There were only fifteen players there today. All but two of them were regulars.

Round 1: vs X-Sabers

I've seen this guy around before, and I've probably played against him before, but I don't really remember when.

-Duel 1: Double Bottomless Trap Hole removed all of my stuff. Not that I drew Scrap Chimera or anything...

-Duel 2: He drew a lackluster hand and I was able to capitalize. I didn't even draw Scrap Chimera; that's how bad his hand was.

-Duel 3: I Set my only Scrap Beast to try and avoid Bottomless Trap Hole. He had Nobleman of Crossout... It was okay, though, since he ran into a Torrential Tribute and I beat him down with a Scrap Chimera.

Round 2: vs Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first and opened Royal Tribute, hitting my Scrap Beast and Worm Xex. He had two Recruiters to beat me down, and I couldn't stop them from searching when I finally did draw Monsters.

-Duel 2: I opened with Scrap Beast and a full back row. He Set four and a Spy. I drew and passed. He flipped Spy and I used Warning. He used Dark Hole, summoned a Spy, and attacked. I drew Worm Xex, summoned it after flipping Decree, and revived Worm Yagan. That ran through his Spy. Soon after, I drew a Closed Forest to solidify my position. He used Pot of Duality to get a Mystical Space Typhoon for my Decree, then topped another one soon afterwards to destroy Closed Forest. But by then, I was up a bunch of cards and he couldn't get through my Monsters.

-Duel 3: He Set a Monster and three back rows. I Set two back rows and a Scrap Beast. He flipped Spy and Special Summoned Descendant. Then he summoned Beast King Barbaros and attacked with all three. I drew for my turn and flipped MST to destroy a back row. He Chained Dark Bribe to protect it. I drew Giant Trunade and he flipped Solemn Judgment. Dust Tornado cleared the last back row and I summoned Scrap Chimera to run him through. He topped Pot of Duality, but it was no help.

Round 3: vs Tengu Zombies

-Duel 1: He opened with Reborn Tengu and a couple Set cards. I summoned Scrap Beast, and he tried to use Bottomless Trap Hole. Forbidden Lance protected my Beast. I played Mind Control to steal the Tengu, then overlaid the two Level 4's for Utopia, depriving him of his Tengu. He used Book of Moon on Utopia, but I was able to beat him down over a few turns to win.

-Duel 2: He opened with Reborn Tengu, again. I didn't draw any Monsters bigger than it, and you can't kill it with Spells/Traps, so I lost.

-Duel 3: Same as the second game... D.D. Crows and Effect Veilers don't stop Reborn Tengu...

Round 4: vs Tengu Zombies

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He overextended into my Gorz. I summoned Scrap Dragon after that and destroyed his field. He topped Mind Control to destroy my field... I couldn't make up for that, and lost to a top-decked Tengu which facilitated the summoning of Brionac.

-Duel 2: I summoned Scrap Twin Dragon to keep bouncing his floaters. Unfortunately, he was still alive, and I summoned a Scrap Dragon on the following turn. After that, he tried to make a big play to destroy my field, but Maxx "C" gave me a bunch of draws (exactly seven before he decided to scoop).

-Duel 3: I lost to Reborn Tengu again. Not drawing the Worms or Scrap Chimera makes it hard to deal with Reborn Tengu and the multitude of floaters that Zombies use, so I lost.

So I went 2-2, which is not good... Not that that means much, since this is the last tournament of the format.

With that, I need to concentrate on a deck for the new format. I was thinking Nordics (which you would know if you've been reading the recent posts...), but I'm not sure how consistent they would be. For instance, during testing today, I drew a hand of two Guldfaxe (the horse), two Mark of the Rose, and an Effect Veiler. Needless to say, I lost that game hopelessly.

After seeing Zombies in play, it makes me want to run them again. Not necessarily a slow variant that focuses only on floaters, but a faster deck that uses maybe T.G.'s or something. I mean, Zombies were a major deck in the Lightsworn/Zombie format, so why wouldn't they be able to beat Lightsworn this time around?

Nordics with Plants

2011-08-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

So, after hearing about an amazing idea to use a Plant engine with Equip Spells and Power Tool Dragon in a Nordic deck from Eh Chavo, I decided to test it out.

I did use two Mark of the Rose, reminding me of the decks that I used to use it in two and a half years ago. However, instead of using two D.D.R., I used only one copy and replaced the other with Megamorph. No joke. I felt that D.D.R. was unnecessary in a format where people wouldn't be playing Bottomless Trap Hole or Dimensional Prison that often. Maybe the prevalence of Chaos would balance that out, but I still have Leviair the Sea Dragon to do D.D.R.'s job...

Megamorph isn't really that bad. If your LP are higher, it's not hard to equip Megamorph to an opponent's Monster to halve its ATK. It's pretty versatile. I had half a mind to put in two Megamorphs, too, but Power Tool Dragon isn't the main focus of the deck. It's just another tool in the Extra Deck. And, it's nice to go into it, grab an Equip Spell, then summon a Level 1 Tuner and make a Scrap Dragon.

While you can draw subpar hands sometimes with the Plant engine (Dandylion, Lonefire Blossom, Spore, Glow-Up Bulb, and Botanical Girl), the extra explosiveness warrants it, I think. As I said before, the Level 1 Tuners can make good use of Power Tool Dragon. I could even run Life Stream Dragon...

I'm kind of disappointed that I'm not able to run Reborn Tengu due to space issues, but I could always side them in...

Speaking of which, I could easily side into a more Stun-eqsue variant by taking out the Plant engine and Equip Spells. That's already seven cards at least (I might want to keep Dandylion and Glow-Up Bulb in the deck, since they're good on their own). That would allow me to side crazily against decks like Twilight, Zombies, and such. Triple Light-Imprisoning Mirror, triple Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, triple Soul Release, triple Reborn Tengu, triple Puppet Plant. Oh look, there's my Side Deck.

It probably won't be that crazy, since I might modify the deck after getting some cards like Pot of Duality and such. Again, I'm just looking for some input, since I have a Regional coming up on September 3rd, and I really want to run an innovative, format-wrecking deck.

Nordic Beasts

2011-08-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten around to making a deck for the new format. Scraps are too slow and control-based to compete with Lightsworn when Heavy Storm is around, so I'll have to put them aside for now.

So, I'm going to look into some sort of Nordic Beast deck, like I was planning on doing a while ago.

After testing with Naturia Pineapple and a Plant engine on Dueling Network, it didn't really work out well. So, I dropped that to run a "pure" version. Well, as pure as it can be with Reborn Tengu and the mandatory drop-hand cards for the upcoming format.

And, since I'm looking for feedback, here's the deck list I was working on:

Monsters: (22)

Tragoedia x2

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Reborn Tengu x3

Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts x3 (the horse)

Super-Nimble Mega Hamster x3

Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beasts x3 (the black goat)

Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts (the white goat)

Sangan

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2

Effect Veiler x3

Spells: (11)

Monster Reborn

Dark Hole

Heavy Storm

Mystical Space Typhoon x3

Book of Moon

Mind Control

Pot of Avarice

Pot of Duality x2

Traps: (7)

Torrential Tribute

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir x3

Trap Dustshoot

Extra Deck: (15)

Thor, Lord of the Aesir

Ally of Justice Decisive Armor (I've always wanted to run this)

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Scrap Dragon

Colossal Fighter

Stardust Dragon

Scrap Archfiend

Black Rose Dragon

Ancient Sacred Wyvern

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Ally of Justice Catastor

Number 39: Utopia

Wind-Up Zenmaister

Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

Leviair the Sea Dragon

What I like about this deck is how it can be largely reactive. You can basically adapt to whatever your opponent is doing. For instance, you'd like them to attack your Set Hamster, but if they try to be smart and decide not to, you can flip it, then summon a Level 4/Tuner for an Xyz/Synchro Summon.

Also, the fact that the majority of the Traps are Chainable is amazing. Gleipnir will force your opponent to think twice about blind Mystical Space Typhoons, and also allows you to safely Set multiple back rows despite Heavy Storm's existence.

What I'm not so sure about is running Tragoedia. I know that it's good for Synchros, Xyz, and protecting from OTK's, but it seems somewhat forced. It has the potential to go well with the deck in combination with Tanngnjostr (black goat), but I don't like it.

And, a card I'd like to find room for is Threatening Roar. It can allow me to safely Set Tanngnjostr (black goat) and flip it on the following turn for a Level 7 Synchro. Not to mention protecting from OTK's...

I haven't decided on the Side Deck, yet. I still want some input on the Main Deck, so the Side Deck will have to come later. So yeah, feel free to comment and such.

Tournament Report 8/19/11

2011-08-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

So, to enjoy the last two weeks of the format before Twilight players start sacking everyone, I went to locals with my Scrap Worms.

However, before that, I played in a WoW TCG tournament with six other people. It's not very popular, but the game is fairly interesting.

I was using an Alliance Mage deck that I threw together last night. It's basically the Starter Deck with the Hero and most of the Allies switched out. I used some Dragonkin cards from War of the Elements like Bronze Guardian, Bronze Drake, and Azure Enforcer to help keep advantage and also to work with some of the other Arcane cards in my deck.

I lost to Erik in the first round. My deck depends on my Mage Abilities to kill bigger Allies, so as soon as he summoned that Red Dragonkin that makes all of his Allies Untargetable, I had lost. Not to mention that his Priest Hero kept healing itself when I tried to beat it down.

I won against Yugilo and his Death Knight deck in Round 2. I kept killing his Allies with my Abilities and poking for damage with my Bronze Dragonkin. I was able to keep up the damage and he couldn't kill all of my Allies.

In the last round, I played against my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. I opened with a subpar hand, but it was good enough to warrant keeping. Unfortunately, I didn't have outs to his swarm of Horde Allies, and I ended up losing before being able to set up my field.

I got a Generation Force pack for participating, and I ended up pulling an Elemental HERO Nova Master. Not bad, I suppose. I just need to focus my Mage deck a little more.

And, about an hour after that, the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament began.

Round 1: vs Worms

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: The game turned into a stalemate when he flipped Royal Oppression in response to my Black Rose Dragon play. I used Fiendish Chain to lock down his Number 39: Utopia, and we just sat there for a while. Over the multitude of turns, I forced him to use Royal Oppression until he was down to 600 LP. That was when I made a push with Scrap Chimera to take the duel.

-Duel 2: He Set quite a few back rows, but a pair of Royal Decrees locked him down and allowed me to take control with Scrap Dragon.

Round 2: vs Machina Geartown

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: It took a while for me to keep enough field presence for me to drop a Scrap Dragon and control the game with it. He couldn't deal with it, as he had already wasted all of his uses of Machina Fortress.

-Duel 2: He opened with two Machina Fortress and four cards that could be used to revive them... I didn't have any cards to remove them from play with, so I lost to the constant pressure.

-Duel 3: I opened with a Worm Xex play and a couple of back rows. He opened with Future Fusion... Luckily, I had D.D. Crow in hand to remove the Dekoichi he tried to revive with Black Salvo. He committed to the field, so I just let his Chimeratech Overdragon implode his field. With that advantage and a couple of Scrap Chimeras, I was able to take control of the game.

Round 3: vs Gravekeeper's

I had to play against Yusei JB, unfortunately. We agreed to a split, of course.

-Duel 1: He drew almost all Monsters, and I took his Gravekeeper's Spy with Mind Control, preventing him from getting its effect. I forced out his Solemn Warning by using the Spy for an Xyz Summon, then I made a Scrap Dragon to shut him out of the game.

-Duel 2: We both had mediocre openings from what I could tell. I could get over his Rai-Oh with Scrap Beast using Forbidden Lance, but he summoned another one. And, over a few turns, he was forced to use Solemn Judgment, then Warning, lowering his LP quite a bit. Once we were both low on cards, he topped Royal Tribute, revealing the Mind Control I just drew. After that, I drew a Scrapyard, letting me push for game. Mind Control really should be banned.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend.

-Duel 1: I started with a Worm Xex play and a few back rows. He opened with Dojo, Elder and Kizan. I used Mystical Space Typhoon on the Dojo to prevent him from summoning a Kagemusha, but he had one in his hand anyways. Before Synchro Summoning Shi En, he Special Summoned Great Shogun Shien. He attacked Xex with Shi En, then made the mistake of attacking my Set Worm Yagan with Kizan, believing that it had the 300 ATK boost. So, I bounced his Shi En, and he had to attack Yagan with Shien. I then made another Worm Xex play and crashed the Worm Xex into Kizan. He then summoned Kagemusha and attacked with Shien, which I bounced with Yagan. Kagemusha hit me directly, but I just ran over it with Scrap Beast. And with that, he was top-decking. And, we all know how bad Samurai are at top-decking.

-Duel 2: He opened with Gateway, Kageki and Kagemusha. That gave him a couple of Kizans and a Grandmaster on the field and another Kageki to his hand. I was able to resolve a Royal Decree, but he was able to get over my Scrap Dragon with a Shi En equipped with Spirit of the Six Samurai, so I lost after taking so much damage.

-Duel 3: I opened with a Worm Xex play and Set four cards to the back row. Three of them were bluffs. And, when he played Gateway, again, I flipped the one card that wasn't a bluff: Dust Tornado. He summoned Kageki, Kagemusha, and Kizan, then attacked Worm Yagan with Kizan. Yagan died, but bounced the Kagemusha. He ended his turn, and I summoned Scrap Beast and flipped Mind Control to take Kizan. I Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon with the Kizan, and ran through the Kageki. He couldn't deal with it, so I was able to control the duel with it.

Yugilo was actually one of the three undefeated players going into Round 4, but he got paired down and lost to my Round 1 opponent. So, that ended up being the last round, leaving me at 1st place. With that, I got store credit and split it with Yusei JB. He got some Generation Force packs, and I got myself an Ultimate Rare Leviair the Sea Dragon. I feel that it's a safe investment, so I ended up buying it even though it may be considered overpriced.

As for my Turbo Pack 6, I pulled a Rare Stardust Dragon, which is not bad. The Commons were bad though.

So yeah, my experience today is going to make me really miss this format. Sure, newbish players can Set their hand on the field and get some easy wins. But, skilled players can read those Set cards and bait them out or push through them accordingly. Sometimes there's just nothing that you can do, but I feel as though that would be amplified next format with Judgment Dragon, Kristya, and Black Luster Soldier running around. Maybe it won't be so bad, but we'll just have to see.

Back Rows Next Format

2011-08-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

Assuming that the OCG and TCG ban lists will be the same (there's still hope that they won't be, hopefully), I'm trying to figure out how many and which Traps to run next format.

Some people are just running a few, like Trap Dustshoot, Solemn Judgment, and Torrential Tribute. Some people are running like ten Traps, including Starlight Road.

My thought is that if people don't Main Deck all of their Mystical Space Typhoons, they would Side Deck the rest of them. Which means that if you are using a bunch of Traps, your opponent can just side in additional Spell/Trap hate, and you'll be sad.

But really, people aren't going to have Mystical Space Typhoon all of the time. So Traps aren't as useless as they may seem now. I mean, Traps were never really that useless when Heavy Storm was legal before. Sure, we only had one MST, but everyone ran Dust Tornado as well. So it may not be THAT bad...

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this new ban list. Twilight seems absolutely ridiculous, but people keep saying that it's inconsistent. That kind of makes it worse to lose to them, since Twilight is one of those decks where your opening hand determines whether you win or not.

So, what I want to know from you, the readers, is, what is your Trap line-up going to look like next format and why? Feel free to leave your answer as a comment below.

September 2011 Ban List

2011-08-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/38747774/

What is this. I don't even.

The fact that I used a stupid Internet meme despite the fact that I don't care for them shows how friggin' horrible this list is.

The only part of the list I can approve of is the newly banned cards. Three of the cards I wanted to get banned are on there, plus a card I didn't care for either way (Royal Oppression).

Plants got hit enough from the OCG side with Lonefire Blossom, Formula Synchron, and Pot of Avarice getting Limited. Something still needs to be done with the TCG-exclusives, Reborn Tengu and Tour Guide...

Six Samurai got hit a bit. They lost the ability to Extra Deck more than one Shi En, but, more importantly, they lost two Smoke Signals. Not to get too much into it now, but Heavy Storm coming back helped them a lot more than it hurt them, so they didn't lose that much power/consistency. Basically, they can afford to go second, now.

Lightsworn/Twilight got a huge boost. Judgment Dragon went the wrong way on the ban list; it should've gotten closer to being banned instead of getting farther from it... Also, friggin' Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning has been released into the game once more. I didn't play competitively back then, but seeing as how it's a more broken Chaos Sorcerer that you can get back with Beckoning Light... Yeah, it's broken.

But wait! We have Light-Imprisoning Mirror to completely shut down Lightsworn, like we had a couple years ago! Right? Wrong. Konami found a way to anger both the pro-Stormers and the anti-Stormers.

Anti-Stormers hate that Heavy Storm is back. Pro-Stormers hate that Mystical Space Typhoon is Unlimited while Heavy Storm is around. Everyone loses.

Now, any hope of stopping huge swarms is stopped by an enormous amount of back row clearing cards. Set one? Get destroyed by MST. Set two? Get wrecked by Heavy Storm (or even two MST's). Our only hope? Starlight Road! No, just kidding; that card is really situational.

Besides the Forbidden section, there's only two things that I like about this new list. My selfish wish of having Necro Gardna being playable again is fulfilled. And now, we won't have to worry about going up against Stun decks, since Heavy Storm and three MST's wreck them. But, Stun decks are easy to beat, so that's bittersweet...

So, my main worry is that Lightsworn will be crazily powerful with this new list. Back rows will be unreliable, so we're being pushed even more to use Monster Effects. Hopefully my fears will not be realized and Lightsworn will be crazily inconsistent instead of crazily powerful... Regardless, that doesn't stop bad players from picking up the deck, beating players who are better than them, and then scrubbing out.

All in all, this list is horrible.

Tournament Report 8/13/11

2011-08-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Luckily, I was able to make it to locals today. There were at least 30 players, and quite a few of them were regulars. There was a noticeable amount of new faces there, too.

As usual, I was running Scrap Worms.

Round 1: vs Stardust/Assault Mode

-Duel 1: I open with a lackluster starting hand going first, so I just Set Bottomless Trap Hole and ended. He played Mystical Space Typhoon, then Dragon Ravine, discarding Dragunity Phalanx to get Dux, summoning it to get Vajrayana to get Stardust Dragon. He Set a back row then attacked. I made a Scrapstorm play to bait out Stardust Dragon's effect, then tried to take it with Monster Reborn. He flipped Dark Bribe. Then, on his turn, he topped Assault Beast and used it to get Assault Mode Activate. Then, he used Ravine's effect to get another Dux to get another Stardust. He played Pot of Avarice, then Set his hand to his back row. On my turn, he flipped TWO copies of Assault Mode Activate. I could get through one Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode, but not two.

-Duel 2: He opens Ravine and Decree, but Effect Veiler shut down his Dux. So I could make a Worm play to keep control. He couldn't draw anything to save himself, and lost.

-Duel 3: He summoned a SD/AM on me in my first Draw Phase after making the whole "Ravine, discard Phalanx, get Dux" play. I had Veiler for the Dux, but he sent it to the Graveyard for Mystletainn to get around the Veiler. He then proceeded to compliment himself for having an out to Veiler, saying that he expected it... I figure out a way to get rid of the SD/AM using Solemn Warning, but he summons another one...

So yeah, I got sacked like crazy in Round 1... Not fun... Oh, I shouldn't forget to mention that this guy ended up going X-2. What a waste...

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

-Duel 1: He opened with Kageki and Kagemusha, then Special Summoned Great Shogun Shien before Synchro Summoning Shi En. He then proceeded to Set the rest of his hand to his back row. I dropped Gorz when he attacked on his next turn to block his swing for game. I was then able to push through a Shi En and a Grandmaster. He tops Smoke Signal, searching Spirit of the Six Samurai, letting him run over my Gorz and Token. I hadn't drawn any Scrap or Worm cards, so Gorz was all that was protecting me. So, when it died, I lost.

-Duel 2: He misplayed with his Gateway, and I was able to just control him with Worms, then kill the Gateway with Scrap Dragon.

-Duel 3: I was able to push a Royal Decree through Shi En with Forbidden Chalice, which shut down his Double-Edged Sword Technique. That let me summon Scrap Dragon safely to leave him without cards to play.

Round 3: Six Samurai

-Duel 1: He opened weird with Kageki, summoning Elder. He then dropped Great Shogun Shien and Set some back rows. I opened pretty well with Scrap Goblin, which got me a Scrap Chimera through Scrapstorm. The resulting Scrap Dragon (I had Cyber Dragon to go with the revived Goblin) let me destroy his whole field.

-Duel 2: I opened with a Maxx "C", which forced him to stop Special Summoning after getting his Shi En out. That didn't help, though, as I didn't draw an out to Shi En that he couldn't answer with his back row. Not to mention the Shien's Dojo and Double-Edged Sword Technique he had ready to swarm on the following turn.

-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Worm Yagan and two back rows. He played Giant Trunade, then Gateway, Kagemusha, and Kizan. He searched for another Kizan, then played it and a Grandmaster. He then searched for the last Kizan, but kept it in his hand. He attacked with one of the Kizans on the field, and Yagan bounced Kagemusha. The other two Monsters attacked me directly for 4200 damage, and he Set one card. I was able to make a Scrap Dragon play with Cyber Dragon and Scrap Goblin. I ran over Grandmaster and destroyed the Gateway along with my Book of Moon. I then Set Fiendish Chain and ended my turn. He summoned Hand of the Six Samurai and tried to kill my Dragon by tributing a Kizan, but Fiendish Chain took care of that. He was forced to end his turn, letting me destroy his back row by destroying my Fiendish Chain. I was able to clean up his field pretty easily from there, crashing a Scrap Beast into Hand, then killing the other Kizan with Scrap Dragon.

Round 4: vs Yusei Synchro

I was playing against Erik, who is often featured on Yugilo's channel. As such, Yugilo filmed the match, and it should be up on his channel within the next few days.

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. I see him around pretty often, but we almost never play against each other.

-Duel 1: My starting hand was really weird (Scrap Chimera, Forbidden Chalice, two Forbidden Lances, and Scrapstorm). Luckily, he just opened with Kizan, Grandmaster, and two Set cards. So, I summoned Scrap Chimera and Set those four cards. He attacked with Grandmaster, but Lance took care of that. He then attacked with Kizan, and another Lance took care of that, too. He Set another card and ended his turn. I attacked with Scrap Chimera, and countered his Mirror Force with Scrapstorm. Apparently, I opened with the exact hand to counter his hand. Scrapstorm gave me Worm Xex off of the draw, and I summoned it to dump and revive Yagan. I Set a Fiendish Chain and ended my turn. From there, I was able to prevent Shi En from even hitting the field, letting me poke him to death with Worm Xex.

-Duel 2: Maxx "C" gave me a couple draws in response to his Asceticism play. I worked a little bit to bait out his back rows before summoning a Worm Xex to ruin his Shi En. I ended up losing my Worms after bouncing his Shi En, but I was able to flip Royal Decree to lock down his one Trap. From there, I was able to make a safe Scrap Dragon play to take control of the duel.

So yeah, I went 4-1 and got fifth place. Sadly, only the Top 4 get prizes, so oh well. The Turbo Pack 6 wasn't bad; Magical Dimension, Creature Swap, and Armory Arm.

I also got some WoW TCG cards. I got a War of the Elements Epic Collection and the new Mage Starter Deck. I just liked the Mage Abilities I saw, so I just decided to go with that. I might switch to something else, we'll see...

"Tournament" Report 8/12/11

2011-08-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

I went to the smaller card shop for the Turbo Pack tournaments that they have every Friday night. Unfortunately, only one other person showed up, so there was no tournament today...

I had seen him before at the card shop I usually go to; he plays Infernities. We talked a little, and I had to disagree with a lot of his opinions... For instance, he thinks that Fusion Gate HEROes are going to be amazing once we get Great Tornado. I'm pretty skeptical...

He asked to duel, and we did. He used a T.G. Stun deck like the one that won Nationals or a YCS (I don't remember nor care which).

Giant Trunade helped me make a big push in the first duel, leading to my victory. I was able to gain some advantage in the second duel with a Scrapstorm play and such. So, I won that match, 2-0.

We played another match, and decided to use our Side Decks this time. I finally drew my Worms, and they helped ward off Reborn Tengu in the first duel of this match. I sided in Royal Decree and such, and drew Decree, Mystical Space Typhoon, Dust Tornado, Cyber Dragon, and two Worm Xex in my starting hand. I used MST and Dust Tornado before flipping Decree to make sure I hit his live back rows. I ended up hitting a Dark Bribe, and he didn't have another out to the Decree, so I won that duel, too. Scrap Twin Dragon just cleaned up his Monsters and pushed for game.

We unsided and played another match without siding. 2-0. Yeah. His own Royal Oppression locked him down (I had 1700 LP and he only had 775 LP), letting me prevent potential Synchro plays. Avenging Knight Parshath actually won me that duel.

I was worried about the T.G. match-up for nothing, apparently... The Forbidden Lances really did make a difference.

We talked a little bit afterwards, and I found out that he reads Valafar's blog and talks to him quite a bit about Infernities. But, based on how he had no idea what Scraps or Worms do or how to play against them, it's safe to assume that he doesn't read my blog. Eh, it doesn't really matter to me.

Either way, hopefully I'll actually be able to go to a tournament tomorrow or Sunday... Not being able to play in a tournament for two weeks straight would be sad, not that it really matters, with the ban list coming up and all. Eh...

Tour Guide into Leviair

2011-08-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

That combo's mere existence makes D.D. Crow somewhat worse.

Okay, maybe not its mere existence, but the fact that almost all of the decks that you would be using D.D. Crow against play easily summoned Level 3's lets them potentially plus after you remove stuff with D.D. Crow.

So, what are we supposed to use instead of D.D. Crow? Effect Veiler? If you use D.D. Crow, then you probably already use Effect Veiler. Even so, you can't replace all of your Crows with Veilers.

Basically, anything that banishes can now be easily countered by most decks.

You may think that it's a little crazy to worry this much about that, but the thing is that good players will probably save their Tour Guides until they need to use them. That means that they'll be dropping it when they have no other plays, or when they need to get something back from the banished pile.

Effectively, banishing something for them could end in a huge plus for your opponent. Of course, you could possibly have Effect Veiler ready to negate Tour Guide, but if you have Crows and Veilers every time you need them, then I don't see how you would be losing anyways.

What I'm looking at right now is using Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror to stop Tour Guide, Sangan, and other Darks they happen to play. There's also Pulling the Rug, and even Black Horn of Heaven (maybe not, though, since they would still plus off of Sangan...).

The problem with all of these cards is that they can be too situational. You're opponent's playing Dark Worlds? Sure, play Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. They're playing Debris Plants? Pulling the Rug and Black Horn of Heaven work. Zombies? Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Black Horn of Heaven would probably be okay.

There's not much overlap for these cards, so it may or may not be efficient to Side Deck them, depending on the deck that you're playing.

But, I suppose we don't have to worry much about that until we find out what the new ban list is. Sangan might just be banned, making this much less of a hassle...

Generation Force Sneak Preview

2011-08-06T19:24:00.000-07:00

I went with Aki to the same place that I went last time for the EXVC Sneak Preview. Only like six people showed up, so that was kind of lame.

Aki pulled the E-HERO Nova Master he wanted, and was satisfied with that.

I entered once, and pulled the Blue-Blooded Oni and an Ultimate Rare Raigeki Bottle. Both of them were good enough for me to be satisfied with those holos.

After some other people entered and pulled garbage, I entered again. I pulled another Blue-Blooded Oni... Maybe I'm supposed to make a Zombie deck or something...?

No one had pulled anything good at the moment, so I tried my luck and entered twice more. I got an Ultra Rare Wonder Wand and the Wind-Up Factory. Then, the person who bought packs after me pulled Steelswarm Roach, and proceeded to win the Leviathan Dragon play mat...

So, that felt like a huge waste of money. The only consolation is that I got a bunch of good Rares, and that the holos I did pull should prove to be good trade bait. Now, I have to go waste a bunch of money getting a Steelswarm Roach and probably also a Leviair and an Orient Dragon. Oh well.

Random Stuff #34

2011-08-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

I'm surprised at how many people have answered the Heavy Storm poll already. I didn't know that that many people read my blog.

Anyways, lots of stuff happened today. Beast King Barbaros was revealed to be in one of the new ZEXAL tins, so Aki can finally have the copies he always wanted. I don't care which tin it's in, since I'm buying three of each.

Kevin Tewart "officially" (through Facebook) laid down the law for Xyz Materials in the TCG. They are considered to be on the field. So, Reborn Tengu does not activate when it becomes an Xyz Material, but it does activate when it's detached. Same deal for Sangan and other such cards.

Now, I hate this new "ruling" as much as you probably do, but let's look at it objectively. If it had worked this way all along, we probably wouldn't care. We'd be all like, "Oh, it works the same as Synchros, except delayed a little bit. That's nice." This whole rage thing is because a new, arguably balanced mechanic was ripped out from under us. Not to mention the whole Tour Guide into Sangan thing that we already have to deal with.

Now, ignoring Tour Guide and Reborn Tengu, since those are already broken, the problem that I see with this is that it lets you turn random floaters into big Monsters for free. You've got two Goblin Zombies? Well, let's turn them into a Steelswarm Roach! What about those two XX-Saber Darksouls? Let's give you a 2500 ATK beater and a plus-1 in Leviathan Dragon! At least with Tuners there was some requirement, and the Tuner wasn't usually a floater. With this... well, I already gave you the examples.

To end on a nicer note, let's discuss Turbo Pack 6, shall we? This is a Turbo Pack that I actually want to get. All of the holos are great, the Rares are nice, and the Commons aren't garbage. Sure, there are some cards in here that I want less than others, but it's the best Turbo Pack we've seen in a while (basically since Turbo Pack 1 or 2). I don't even need the Ultimate Rare Dark Armed Dragon or the Ultra Rare Sangan, but they're nice enough to warrant keeping anyway.

My only problem with Turbo Pack 6 is that the $10 Rare in Chain Disappearance was reincarnated as a more expensive Super Rare. It's hard enough to get as it is; why couldn't it have been a Common? Eh, assuming Six Samurai, Tengu Plants, and Junk Doppel get hit hard enough in September, it won't be that good of a Side Deck card anymore. I've made due without it, but it would be really nice to have.

Heavy Storm Poll

2011-08-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

I made a poll asking you guys whether or not you think that Heavy Storm should be legal.

Like I said in my Hopes post, I would like it to be legal, but it's honestly a coin toss with Konami.

Regardless of your choice on the poll, feel free to leave your reasoning behind your opinion as a comment to this post. Who knows, you might just change someone's mind...

Generation Force

2011-08-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

I should be used to this by now, but all of the good cards now have obscene rarities. I guess it's not completely horrible, though. There are enough good cards in this set to make it plausible that vendors can make a profit off of a box, meaning that prices might not be as high as people might expect.

Another upside is that very few of the cards are necessary to my deck. All I really need to get is a Steelswarm Roach, but it would be very helpful to have an Orient Dragon, just in case.

As for the less urgent stuff, there's the HERO cards. A V-HERO Trinity, E-HERO Nova Master, M-HERO Goka, a few M-HERO Vapors, a V-HERO Adoration, and three Mask Changes. Flash is lackluster, and A Hero Lives isn't really necessary for a HERO deck. It's more for Prisma Gladiator Beasts.

However, I'm not going to get any of that stuff until I get a box of GENF Special Edition, or at least a box of GENF. Getting a box will give me most of the Wind-Ups and Banish Fish cards that I'll need. Then, whatever HERO cards I may happen to pull will be subtracted from the list of HERO cards I need to get. They shouldn't be that hard to get, since people will realize that they aren't that amazing.

And, since the ban list is coming up soon, it'll be much easier to win some box tournaments. So, that's my plan for now. If all goes well, I won't have to waste any money past the price of a Steelswarm Roach, Orient Dragon, and tournament entry fees.

Tournament Report 7/30/11

2011-07-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-11T18:11:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-08T22:12:00.001-07:00

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.

Random Stuff #31

2011-07-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-01T23:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Rescue Rabbit

2011-06-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

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.

Royal Decree

2011-05-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

Has not been helping very much.

While it single-handedly won me one duel since I started using it, it hasn't really helped all that much since then. At the last local tournament I went to, I only drew it once, and I didn't even use it. It was just sitting there, as I didn't need it to protect my plays. Yes, it did allow me to play slightly more recklessly, but my opponent happened to have a Book of Moon or something, and I never even flipped the Decree.

Of course, it's not supposed to carry my deck, but it's supposed to help at least somewhat. I mean, I'm supposed to open with it once every few duels, and that doesn't even account for drawing into it later. It's just been pretty useless recently.

It makes me feel as though I shouldn't play it. I mean, let's list the decks it's good against:

Six Samurai

Gravekeeper's

Gladiator Beasts

Machina Gadgets

Random Stun

I don't count Hero Beat since they have Gemini Sparks, and I'd much rather just negate their summons with Warning and push through their back row. And, I guess I could include Worms, but meh. They could just Evil Dragon Ananta or whatever to destroy Royal Decree whenever they need to.

Now, let's list the decks it's good against that I actually care about:

Six Samurai

Gravekeeper's

Um, yeah... Against Gravekeeper's, with Closed Forest, it basically makes an auto-win scenario for me. Their Gravekeeper's can't get over Scrap Beast without Necrovalley, especially with the boost from Closed Forest, and their Traps are dead. They basically hope to draw both Mystical Space Typhoons or lose.

However, against Six Samurai, Seven Tools of the Bandit might be better. It pushes through Shi En's negation effect to stop stuff like Solemn Warning. The only problem is that Musakani Magatama is being used more, which stops Seven Tools...

I'm probably going to keep it in the deck for this weekend, and I'll see what happens before I decide on what to do.

Dueling Network

2011-05-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

I'm bored, so I made a fun deck on Dueling Network. I'm online right now, so if anyone wants to duel me, feel free to go on and challenge me. My username is LightGrunty, as would be expected.

Since this is the second post in such a short amount of time, make sure you don't miss the previous post...

Tournament Report 5/28/11

2011-05-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

I went with Scraps Reborn again. There weren't many people, and most of them were newbs. No Gravekeeper's or Six Samurai in sight... There were three other people playing Scraps, though. They all played weird builds though, using stuff like Meklord Emperor Granel and even Genex Ally Birdman...

TCG Duel Terminal 5 (a.k.a. OCG Duel Terminal 9) was here today. I wasted $50 on it and was fairly satisfied with the cards I pulled. I pulled three Gem-Knight Garnet, one Sapphire, one Tourmaline, one Alexandrite, one Gem-Armadillo, two Gem-Merchants, two Gem-Knight Ruby, one Topaz, two Gem-Knight Fusions, and two Gem-Enhancements. Can you tell I'm excited about Gem-Knights?

I also pulled a Necro Gardna, Level Eater, My Body as a Shield, Foolish Burial, Trap Stun, and two D.D. Crows, the latter of which went into my Side Deck. Thankfully, I didn't pull much Vylon stuff, but unfortunately, I pulled a bunch of Laval stuff that wasn't Soaring Eagle Above the Searing Land. Well, it was still pretty good.

Oh, and I was able to pick up a second T.G. Wonder Magician and a T.G. Power Gladiator. Now I have all of the T.G. Synchros that I need, so the deck shall be completed!

Round 1: vs Gladiator Beasts

I don't know why, but I had a feeling that this guy was playing Gravekeeper's. I guess it's nice that I was wrong.

-Duel 1: I swarmed with Scraps after getting rid of all of his back rows. I negated his Gladiator Proving Ground with Solemn Judgment when he was top-decking, winning me the duel.

-Duel 2: Reborn Tengu wasted all of his cards and beat him down. It's just too good.

Round 2: vs Machina Gadgets

This guy recognized me from YouTube by my mat, so he knew what I was playing.

-Duel 1: He opened with three Gadgets in hand, so he couldn't do much to combat my Scrap Beast.

-Duel 2: He made the misplay of using Book of Moon on my Cyber Dragon before I fused for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. I could still fuse, since I can reveal my own face-down Fusion Materials, and if he had saved the Book, he could've saved himself 3000 LP and the Smashing Ground he tried to use in the Chimeratech on his turn. So yeah, that misplay cost him dearly, and I won, despite not drawing any Scrap Tuners for the whole duel...

Round 3: vs All-Monsters

I was dueling against Yugilo. He filmed these duels, so I assume they'll be on his channel soon.

Round 4: vs Frog Monarchs

-Duel 1: I had control, but lost to a top-decked Caius since my LP were too low.

-Duel 2: I drew two Effect Veilers in my starting hand in addition to a Scrap Chimera, Scrap Beast, and Scrapstorm. Yeah, I won.

-Duel 3: I ran out of outs to Monarchs and lost to a top-decked Raiza...

Round 5: vs Frog Monarchs

This guy was my previous opponent's friend, so they had similar, if not the same, builds.

-Duel 1: He drew very few Monarchs, but I drew two Reborn Tengus. It was okay, though, since they could beat him down while he was waiting for the few Monarchs that he did draw.

-Duel 2: Grr, top-decked Caius. I actually drew a D.D. Crow this time (as opposed to not having drawn it last match), but it didn't do anything since he opened with Swap Frog.

-Duel 3: For some reason, I was drawing Chimeras instead of Tuners, so when I tried to revive the one Tuner I did have in the Graveyard, it got removed by D.D. Crow. I then lost to two Enemy Controllers, stealing my defenses and preventing me from using Scrapstorm.

Ugh, wow, I haven't done this badly at locals in months. Well, whatever, it happens. It's not like my opponents will draw all of their Monarchs all the time.

So, the same problem of not drawing Scrap Tuners often enough has arisen again. I don't know how, or if, I should deal with it. Short of buying multiple copies of Pot of Duality, there's not much that I can think to do for this type of build. I mean, I don't want to draw my Scrap Tuners too much, or draw too many in a row. Hmm, I'll have to figure this out...

Breaker in Scraps

2011-05-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Seems so underwhelming...

I tried it last weekend, and it didn't do all that much. When I drew it, I would have much rather summoned another Monster.

For instance, against Gladiator Beasts, I can't summon it against an on-field Gladiator because I could get hit by a Chariot. And, if it lives, it can easily be run over by Laquari or Darius. Maybe it's because I drew all-Monsters, but it still seems as though something else would've been better.

It's just that the Normal Summon is so important in Scraps. Barring Monster Reborn, it's how the Synchros occur. Breaker doesn't keep field presence, which is why playing Worm Xex and Yagan was okay, but playing Breaker or Rai-Oh didn't work as well.

I still like Breaker, since it's still really good, but the cost of a Normal Summon is a little too steep in my opinion. I've been playing two, so I'd probably drop it to one. It's just more suited to decks that don't Normal Summon half the time, like T.G.'s.

But what do I replace it with? Maybe Cyber Dragon; it essentially has the same job, which is to bait out Traps, and it also works against decks that don't use many Traps. Or, I could just use Dust Tornado or another Decree. I'm not to fond of those options, though.

I could promote a card from my Side Deck, opening room for another card in there. Perhaps Malevolent Catastrophe or some control-based Monster. I could even just switch Breaker with a card in my Side Deck, in case I decide that I need it later.

Hmm, everyone's suddenly thinking that Chain Whirlwind is a good Side Deck card. I see what they're seeing, but I don't really agree. Or do I...? It can actually be activated in response to a Counter Trap (like Seven Tools of the Bandit) destroying a Trap that was activated as Chain Link 1. And of course, it could be flipped when a Royal Decree is destroyed by Mystical Space Typhoon, so it seems like it can be worth using.

But, I also saw Xing Zhen Hu being used to great effect recently. It also seems like it's worth using. Of course, Xing Zhen Hu Replica seems slightly better, since it can be activated in response to your own summon with priority to prevent Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute. Or, it could be activated in response to your own attack declaration with priority to prevent Mirror Force or Dimensional Prison. It seems as though I would just rather Dust Tornado the card, though...

Eh, I'll decide eventually...