Thoughts about my Wind-Up Deck + My new pet projects.

Wind Ups:

Overall my impressions from YCS Seattle/Tacoma was the deck was pretty solid, only thing that was wierd about it was that I never drew Tragoedia or Spirit Reaper. I would probably side 3 Soul Drains as well and cut the Macro. I feel the deck is at the most solid it will ever be, hence why ive temporarily shelved it in favor of my new projects:

- Prophecy

- Air Neos OTK

- Rabbit X-Sabers (Idea hijacked by my friend)

With prophecy taking up most of my playtesting and deck building time. Ive almost settled on a final build. Controversial card choices include 2 Wonder Wand, 2 Star Hall, no Temperance of Prophecy, and 3 Madolche Magileine (thanks to Bahamut84 for that idea). My deck is alot like his deck would probably be if it were in the TCG, and its running as smooth as butter (most of the time). More info at a later date

My YCS SeaTac Decklist: Passive-Aggressive Wind-Ups

Quick decklist before I go to bed, thoughts about in a later post

Monsters: 20

3 Wind-Up Shark
3 Wind-Up Rat
3 Wind-Up Rabbit
3 Wind-Up Magician
2 Maxx "C
2 Tragoedia
2 Tour Guide From The Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 9

3 Wind-Up Factory
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Avarice
2 MST

Traps: 11

2 D-Prison
1 Trap Stun
1 Compulsory
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn J

Extra:

Standard Stuff + Cowboy and Abyss Dweller (No Tiras)

Side:

2 Macro
1 Soul Drain
1 MST
2 TKRO
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Chimeratech
2 Soul Take
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Trap Stun
1 Compulsory

YCS Seattle Report + Important Stuff!

After not publishing an article for over 4 months, I'm back with my comeback: a (kinda lackluster) YCS report!

Preface to this report: After becoming disillusioned with Yugioh and burnt out, I've slowly been working my way back to regular Yugioh activity levels. This culminated at my first major event I attended since my last blog post: YCS Seattle (/Tacoma)!

PRE YCS GARBAGE:

Got off work Friday night at 9 pm. After getting a ride to Tacoma, I stayed at Motel 6 with YCGPodcast crew (Matt Carter + Joe Mecham) and other people from our locals (Phoenix Games). After getting 2 hours of sleep and playtesting all night, I make my big YCS debut! 

YCS SEATTLE: DAY 1

Get in line, get registered, eat no food :(. Also I'm running a Nick Ma inspired Wind-Up deck. Around 750ish people show up, which is less than normal for a YCS, so top cut is 32.

ROUND 1: Vs. WIND UP MIRROR MATCH [WIN]

G1: I misplay horribly, but so does he and I win

G2: No backrow and my Wind-Up combos get veiler'd ;[

G3: Gagaga Cowboy burn and stall in time. Woooo!

ROUND 2: Vs. DINO RABBIT [WIN]

G1: He Macros me 2 turns in but I just use my Monster Reborn his Sabersaurus and give him a bad beatdown.

G2: He gives me the Dolkka treatment and I draw no outs for the longest time.

G3: Wind-Up player using Tragoedia and Thunder King control? His answer is Grand Mole :S. He gets stomped due to his magic monster hand.

ROUND 3: Vs. DINO RABBIT [LOSE]

G1: -

G2: -

G3: I dont remember much about the first 2 duels but the third one I lose decisively to Dolkka + Laggia.

ROUND 4: Vs. WIND UP MIRROR MATCH [WIN]

G1: He doesnt really bad Wind-Up combos and uses waaay too much resources so I win.

G2: Like, to give you an idea of how bad it was. He was using Soldier/Shark to make Rank 5's when I had 1 backrow and a set Magician, then makes Tiras instead of Zenmaioh and rams Tiras into my D-Prison :x.

ROUND 5: Vs. KARAKURI GEARS [LOSE]

G1: I draw all monsters except for 1 Factory. He opens 4 backrow + Geargiarmor. I eat dirt.

G2: I sit on my Cyber Dragon because I want to Fiendish Chain his set Geargiarmor. He Trap Stuns me, slaps me silly with Burei and Shock Master, then locks spells when I have Heavy + 2 MST and sets 4. Derp

ROUND 6: Vs. AGENTS [WIN]

G1: Shock Lock for the win.

G2: Hes low on life, I have a field full of winning, I use Adreus effect on the Gorz he dropped last turn, then try to run over the 1500 Atk Gorz token. He drops Honest and I lose cause I'm at 1200 LP. That was meansies ;(

G3: I open Magician/Shark and he uses Herald of Orange Light discarding Krystia on my Magician. 2 Turns later I Reborn his Krystia and commence a 7 turn beatdown with his own Krystia where he is forced to set every monster he draws. At the end, he reveals his hand of 2 Maxx "C", Gorz, and Tragoedia and offers me the handshake.

ROUND 7 Vs. CHAOS DRAGONS [WIN]

G1: Slow roll into a Shock Lock after being denied the first time by Effect Veiler.

G2: Sad game where my only monsters for 5 or so turns were Rat and Magician. At the end I'm so desperate that I Rat my Magician, Monster Reborn his Card Trooper, and make Zenmaity to combo off. However he drops Maxx "C" on my Rat, so I'm like fck it, and I end up trying to deck him out and getting him down to 7 or so cards left. He drops a Tragoedia on my attack. His turn, he specials Lightpulsar, Tributes both monsters for another Tragoedia , Drops 2 more Lightpulsars, and Specials Dark Armed. Scoop Phase :3

G3: Mid game Shock Lock and I got amazing backrow that he cant power through. He milled Heavy so I called monster effects. After that he's pretty much done.

ROUND 8 Vs. WIND UP MIRROR MATCH [WIN]

G1: I outplay the crap out of him. After wading through both his Solemn Warnings and  his Solemn Judgement, I make him waste his backrow on Wind-Up Rabbit since he only has 1000 left. Then I give him the beatdown once he runs out of backrow.

G2: I outplay him severely again. He wastes his resources on the wrong plays, searches the wrong things with Factory, and I leave him with nothing. I get the feeling he was not very familiar with the deck.

So I go x-2 and make it to Day 2. I get more sleep tonight! Yay!

DAY 2:

ROUND 9 Vs ATLANTEAN MERMAILS [LOSE]

This guy is a regular at any Washington Regional. I know as soon as I see that I'm playing him that he's gonna be tough to beat. Add that to the fact that this is my first time ever facing Atlantean Mermails...

G1: He goes and sets a card. I go and Shock Lock.

G2: I open backrow + Wind-Up Rabbit, which is the exact opposite of what I wanted against this deck. After a few turns, he outplays me straight up. He does more damage than I thought he was capable of doing after he gets a surprise marksman effect in somehow during my endphase with Abyss-sphere, killing my last backrow (Torrential D:)

G3: He has MST for my Macro when he uses Abyssmegalo, and he has Gozen Match for when I try to Wind-Up combo. 

ROUND 10 Vs. Alexander Thomas (MADOLCHES?) [WIN]

G1: He ends up being in the middle of a duel/trades, so he doesnt show up and I get the default win.

I end up getting 61st, which I am more than content with after being away from competitive Yugioh for so long. But I wanted a little something to remember this day by, and I told myself  that if I had time on day 2 I would try to enter the structure deck duel and win the  XYZ Symphony mat I had my eye on ever since I saw it at the judges table day 1.

A NEW CHALLENGE APPEARS!

XYZ SYMPHONY STRUCTURE DECK DUEL: 8 PEOPLE ENTER, 1 LEAVES.

ROUND 1: Vs. MYSTERY G (!)

My opponent never showed up, so I got the only bye in the tourney. I use this time to get familiar with the cards in the deck.

ROUND 2: Vs. DRAGON DUELIST PRODIGY KID!

This kid was something else. Apparently he was a famous Dragon Duelist who had a monster binder full of expensive cards like Italian Cardcar Ds and misprinted ultra Book of Moons (They said Creature Swap). He also outplayed the crap out of his opponent round 1 and seemed pretty cocky. Before the round started he offered to scoop to me if I payed him 40 bucks. I was like helllll nawww.

I 2-0'd him. He overextended alot and left himself open to counter attacks from cards like Dark Hole. He also tried to rule shark alot. Oh well, I gave that kid the beatdown.

FINAL ROUND: Vs. Joyang (?)

I think that was his name, I feel bad about forgetting it after asking him for it but my memory sucks :(. Anyways this duel was super epic. He won the first round, I won the last 2. Sorry for not remembering the specifics. This duel went on for so long that we actually got put into time, which went turn 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 instead of the standard 5. I was already edging him out near the end, but since we were both topdecking anything could happen. Me ripping a call of the haunted gave me insurance. I set it and changed my Muzurhythm to defense. His last turn he couldnt push through, so he offered the handshake.

+1 Xyz Symphony Mat.

I then finish trading for everything I need to run my next pet projects (Prophecies and Air Neos OTK). I also played in the Atlantean Structure deck tourny, but I get thrashed! Dumb Atlanteans ;(. I then go over to watch the finals and see the epic conclusion as Michael Stibbins from my locals wins YCS Seattle! Me and the rest of the Phoenix Games crowd are super stoked and we celebrate together. 

After that I go to the hotel across from the event hall be a part of the joint interview of Michael Stibbins by the YCGPodcast and SlimXTeamSymetry. Then I go eat food at Dennys and go home :S. Ill post a follow up article later answering any questions people have, giving a decklist + thoughts, and detailing what Ive been thinking about and doing in my abscence. Till next time!

Wind-Ups win WCQ...My Reaction.

------------------

In other news, computer issues have plagued me for the last week or so, but now that they are completely resolved, I look forward to finishing my Zenmailstrom articles, then moving on to giving more analysis/love to what will probably be the newest/oldest sensation of this summer: Wind-Ups. Not sure why people were so surprised when Wind-Ups topped. They were never bad, and it all makes sense in retrospect if you consider the following formula:


{if:}


Maxx "C" =/= Your side or main deck


{then:}

{executefunction=WINDUP_TAKES_A_DUMP_ON_YOU}

Certainly is enlightening isnt it?

An Introduction to Zenmailstrom

Before I detail the combos involving Zenmailstrom, I thought it would be prudent to first give an proper introduction to the card itself, since there's a good chance most of you out there have no idea what it even does.

As you can see, the basics of the card are:

• Tribute 1 Wind-Up monster with 1500 or more ATK (as a cost.)
• Special Summon 1 Wind-Up monster from your hand (Mandatory)
• Special Summon 1 Wind-Up monster with the same ATK as the monster just special summoned from your deck (Optional)

On the surface, the card is a minus 1 1/2. You play the card (-1), tribute a Wind-Up monster you control (-1), Special Summon a monster from your hand (-1/2?) and special summon one from your deck (+1). 

Likely candidates of monsters you want to tribute for Zenmailstrom are:

Wind-Up Hunter

Wind-Up Soldier

Wind-Up Shark

There are more targets but you probably don't want to run them in a competitive Wind-Up deck (Knight, Juggler, ect.)

Likely candidates of monsters you want to special summon with Zenmailstrom are:

Wind-Up Rat (600 ATK)

Wind-Up Magician (600 ATK)

Wind-Up Shark (1500 ATK)

Wind-Up Soldier (1800 ATK) [Not recommended as this doesn't lead into any meaningful combos by itself but it IS possible]

So you might be thinking whats the point of playing a card like this where you get a couple of negs just from resolving it? Simple my friend, when used correctly it sets up some of the most broken and ridiculous combos the Wind-Up deck has to offer. Now its time to detail how exactly to properly use this card.

The first rule to using Zenmailstrom is realizing that what you tribute to activate it doesn't really matter too much for basic combos, but matters alot when executing advanced ones. There is a hierarchy in tributing preferences in regards to these combos:

1. Shark (Technically better than Soldier to tribute due to a better level range [3,4,5 as opposed to 4,5 for Soldier] however be wary of using all your Sharks too fast. Also is the only one of the 3 tribute choices that can make the Shock Master/Disigma plays happen.)

2. Soldier (These things are expendable and can make most of your big plays happen no problem.)

3. Hunter (Obviously only gives you level 3 to work with from the graveyard. However this is perfectly acceptable to use as tribute for Zenmailstrom because 1) The graveyard is where you want Hunter anyways 2) It leads into the hand loop seamlessly and 3) it wont limit your plays too much as long as you don't try anything ridiculous.)

In 95% of all cases when resolving a Zenmailstrom your going to want to summon Magician or Rat, then summon the counterpart you didnt summon from your deck. This is the beginning of most Zenmailstrom plays barring a few strange ones involving Shark that really arnt worth doing. The reason you do this is because:

• It lets you use Rat immediately (Bring back the monster you just tributed)
• Lets you resolve up to 3 Magicians in one combo and end with a meaningful field, a feat that is almost impossible in normal Wind-Up decks due to field space issues.
• The basis of the forbidden Shock Master/Disigma OTK combos!
• Truly the best start to making the field of your choosing

Next article will tackle the combos themselves, from the strange to the expected, the outlandish to the boring, and might possibly include a flowchart! Tune in next time!

Deluxe Article: 4-in-1!

Having made 3 half finished post drafts for this blog in the last few weeks and not finished them, I will instead include them all (and more) in this one post.

Kevin Tewart Presents: I got info, do you?


Dont get me wrong. I appriciate that Kevin Tewart took time to give us some "insight" into this very secretive process, but I was expecting something a little more businesslike from some bigwig at Konami. He talked very causally; if I didn't know better, I could have mistaken his article for the reasonings of some random on Pojo's Forbidden/Limited discussion board. I feel he vastly understated the influence his counterparts in Japan hold over the banlist. His methods for justifying Konami's sometimes dubious decision making was also pretty funny: Secret info that only you know, really? If Konami had access to that kind of information you'd think their NA YCS coverage would be better. And why not make that information publicly available? Any move towards transparency would be good in my opinion.

And of course there was the contradictions (Like saying you support syncro summoning still, but ban Trishula, arguably the best syncro monster and one of the main syncros keeping them relevant in the meta.) and the expected but still annoying non-admission that Konami is a business that makes most of its decisions to make more money. If you look at most of the unexplained changes on the banlist, they are mostly money driven: Phase out old archetypes that arn't making any money, and make new archetypes more attractive to move more product. Like I said, expected but still a minor annoyance. All in all its a mixed bag for me. Useful info, but best taken with a grain (or more) of salt.


The New Hotness: Thoughts on a new Evol + Dino Rabbit Tech


Around the time of Seattle regionals, I lent out my Forbidden Lances to my friend attending the event, and havnt seen him in a while. Afterwards, I was bidden by 2 other friends to run Evols using the cards they had gathered. The deck was pretty much complete but neither of them felt like running it, so I volunteered. I did not have the Lances back yet, so the search for replacement tech led me to a card that I think might have some potential in Evols or Dino Rabbit:

Burden of the Mighty

Me and my friends have a long running joke that if Dino Rabbit ever started teching Molten Destruction (The Field Spell card that adds 500 atk to all fire monsters) they would be almost unstoppable due to eliminating one of the main weaknesses of the deck (the relatively low atk power of Laggia and Dolkka). It tested fairly well, with especially good synergy with Casinario. I like 1 card Laggia as much as the next guy! =]. Just something to think about, I certainly didnt expect for it to work as well as it ended up working.


My Boring Life (2 articles combined together)


These 2 posts was originally designed to detail what I was doing while I was on break from my blog, but after several deletions and rewrites I came to realize it wasn't very important in the grand scheme of things to detail every little thing, so a quick review will be done instead.

Basically I took a break from Gladiator Beasts, feeling I had achieved as much explosiveness as I could at the time. I would revisit them when a new idea stuck me to improve them, but for the time being I decided to move on to testing miscellaneous things. I started with a Spellcaster deck that included some of the new cards from GAOV like Bound Wand plus Gagaga stuff. It didn't do very well, so I added the Destiny Hero engine to it along with good cards like T-King and D-Prisons. It did markedly better, but since I was still missing pieces of it (Strike Bounzer and other good rank 6 XYZ) I decided to ultimately shelve it.

An antimeta deck that I created on a whim was my next project, and that lasted all of 2 days before being dissected. Antimeta is good, but it has no identity, no soul. The strategy is always the same: plug up holes in a dam till either you win or you fail, let your opponent go off, then lose. After being torn apart, I combined the remains of the antimeta deck with the remains of the Spellcaster deck for a hilarious hybrid deck that strangely won all 3 duels I used it in. Alas, it was abomination, so I killed it.

Next I was pretty much given everything for Evols, so I decided what the heck, might as well try them out. They had a good run as well, there were very few games I didn't feel like I had momentum going for me. Only problem is not drawing defense for when you draw the Evolsaurs and need to camp on them to make the Xyz. Then again, pretty much everyone agrees that's the decks major weakness, so I shouldn't have been surprised by it. Again, Burden of the Mighty helped out tremendously in keeping a Cerato or other dinosaur that I drew alive so I could make Laggia/Dolkka next turn.

Parallel to the Evol project I started experimenting with Gladiator Beasts again, this time compacting the engine to Laquari, Darius, Bestiari, and Equeste, adding good beast/beast-warriors and Horn of the Phantom Beast, Reckless Greed, and control cards (D-Prison, Bottomless, ect) for a fast paced control deck (!). The results were... interesting. I certainly won the majority of the duels I used it in, but I still don't know what to make of the results of my testing. Further testing is definitely warranted and will be done at a future date.

After finishing with those 2 decks, I took them partially apart to create what I am currently using, testing, and improving: Zenmailstrom Wind-Ups. The idea is simple: go off as much as possible with 3 MST, 2 Night Beam, and all the explosive plays Wind-Ups are known for. 3 Soldier adds a bit of stability to the volatile monster line up, provides food for Zenmailstrom, and insures dominance over T-King, a major pain for the deck. 2 Factory and 1 Rabbit lessen the slow paced control elements of the deck, while 2 Call of the Haunted and 3 Ryko help establish it as a deck that can go off early and often thanks to the graveyard setup Ryko provides. Rats are very rarely dead in my hand, and 2 Instant Fusion along with the Calls help me push through Effect Veiler and D.D. Crow. Maxed Magician is needed as I run Zenmailstrom in 3's and need either Rat or Magician in hand for it to work.

More details on the deck, including a decklist, combos exclusive to Zenmailstrom Wind-Ups, and other information is pending my continued testing of the deck, as admittedly the deck is still in the very early stages of development. Where it could go from here is anyone's guess, and I want some concrete ground to stand on before I start posting about it here. I will try to get the combos done very soon however.

Till next time and thanks again for your patience!

A few things....

Over the last few weeks I have started and not finished several articles, which I apologize for. I will be trying to improve on that aspect of blogging in the future. I am currently in the process of combining all 4 of them into one large article, so for everyone who reads this blog and has been patient waiting for new posts, I ask that you wait just a bit longer. Thanks! In the meantime, I present this...

Quicksand Theory

Like quicksand, the meta is ever shifting...


The results from YCS Philly are in, and they are simultaneously surprising and unsurprising. On the one hand, the top 16 cut was made up mostly expected and established meta decks, Dino Rabbit and Chaos Dragons. But the surprising thing was the notable absence of one accredited tier 1 deck: Inzektors. No Inzektor deck made it into the top 16. Hieratics didnt manage to live up to the hype and HEROs also were MIA in the top 32. Wind-ups and Dark Worlds, while being on the decline in comparison to Dino Rabbit and Chaos Dragons, still managed to sneak into the top 16. So what does this mean for the meta going forward?

In theory, Inzektors should be one of the strongest decks in the format, especially now that they have even more support available (Ladybug). They also have neutral or favorable match-ups against almost every other relevant deck in the meta. But we all know that Yugioh theory doesnt always equal Yugioh fact. So why did Inzektors lay an egg at Philly, taking only a measly 4 spots out of the top 32 for such a allegedly dominant and powerful deck? Was it under representation, a lack of Inzektor usage? Its impossible to know at this point due to a lack of solid numbers, but if Inzektors fall out of favor  due for some unknown reason, it will certainly leave a power vacuum at the top, with only two tier 1 decks left to duke it out. It might weaken Dino-Rabbit, who have a very unfavorable matchup against Dragons, and push them out of tier 1 in the most extreme case.
Will a new deck rise to check the power of widespread Chaos Dragon usage? Or will Inzektors steamroll on, proving in time that this YCS was just a fluke, with OCG records and results to back up their claim to tier 1 status? One thing is certain, the Yugioh meta is like quicksand, and it only takes one shift to completely restructure the power base.

Product Analysis: Galactic Overlord

Replacing YIP will be an analysis of every new Yugioh product that will come out in the future. The move towards generalization was a conscious one, as I feel its a better approach to give people my opinion and information and let them draw their own conclusions when it comes to investment and such. That doesn't mean I wont drop the occasional hint or two about potentially lucrative investment opportunities ;O.

So without futher ado...

Galactic Overlord:


What a... interesting pack this turned out to be. In the grand scheme of Yugioh products, its far from the worst (that title belongs to Cybernetic Revolution...*shudder*) but it really didnt knock my socks off with its awesomeness either (like ORCS, yeah!). And from reading around the sneak peak for it tended to have left a bad taste in many peoples mouths. But enough chitchat, here's the analysis:

The people to see:


Galactic Overlord introduces the Hieratic and Lightray archetype, as well as major support for Inzektors and Evols. The verdict still isn't in about how good TCG Hieratics will be, and Lightrays haven't made much of a splash in the OCG. The Inzektor and Evol support (and by support i mean Inzektor Ladybug and Evo-Diversity) is really good, but then again its common/rare, so you shouldn't really be hurting to get it. Overall I think this is so-so pack as far as archetype support goes.

The places to go:

Rarity-wise, I feel like the spread is subpar, almost as bad as Extreme Victory. There's tons of secrets and ultras that you don't want to pull, like Zekt Conversion (Ultra), Neo-Galaxy Eyes (Ultra), Xyz Unit (Ultra), Tardy Orc (Secret) and Lucky Stripe (Secret). I'm expecting this pack to turn out similarly to Extreme Victory, that is, a mediocre pack with a few good chase cards, like...

The things to do:


Cardcar D: The chase card of this pack, its currently sitting in the 100-120$ range. Whether its worth its high price point is a fact that will become apparent after the first few YCS where its legal.

Photon Strike Bounzer: A good card with a good effect, I just wish it wasn't secret. Its big in Hieratics and thats about it, so its price will rise and fall with them.

Night Beam: Amazing card, and its price isnt too high either for a ultra (~15$).

Overall...


This really isnt a pack you want to buy. Take the information I've provided and decide for yourself if its worth it, but in my opinion, unless you need multiple (10+) super/ultra/secret cards from the pack, your money would be better spent buying them as singles, as there isnt a whole lot of tradebait you could pull to leverage out a pack where you dont get what you want. Return of the Duelist is shaping up to be a pretty amazing pack, so look forward to that and avert your eyes from this lukewarm pack >_>.

Till next time!

Extended break over, new articles on the way

After an almost 3 week break from Yugioh blogging (I guess to "reinvigorate" myself), I'm back! I haven't been taking a break from Yugioh card game itself however, and several new articles in the next few days will be detailing my thoughts and exploits while on blogging hiatus. Look forward to them!

Portland, Oregon Regional Report 4-14-12

So to start things off...

The only really noteworthy thing that happened on Thursday is I found out that the event would cap off at around 140 people due to the size of the shop in question after reading a post by Mike from Team Overload's blog. Thanks to him I dodged a bullet and was able to do more research and tell everyone coming with me to the event to preregister to guarantee ourselves a spot. I owe you one dude! It turns out the event was populated by lots of familiar faces from Washington.

Friday night at 6pm, the 8 people going to this regional (Me [Justen], Matt, Kyle, Nate, Tyler, Seth, Joe, Kegan) gathered at our locals (Phoenix Games) to carpool in Matt's SUV to Seth's house in Tacoma to stay the night and prep for the event which would be starting at 10 am the next day. Bouncing ideas off my team members (We might as well be a team, most of us go to every event, playtest, and hang out together) it was regrettable that I found out my idea for Glad Beast HEROs was unfeasible, at least in its current form, and neither my team nor me brought the cards needed for me to try my new idea to make it work. So I dropped the HERO element almost completely and focused on making my deck into a sleek Gyzarus spamming machine. I also perfected my side on the ride and by the time we arrived at Seth's house and play tested a bit, I finalized the following decklist:

AHL Glads v2 [41 Cards]

14 Monsters

3 Prisma
3 Test Tiger
2 Darius
1 Laqurai
1 Bestiari
1 Hoplomus
1 Equeste
1 Retiari
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh

14 Spells

1 Pot of Duality
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
2 Forbidden Lance
2 MST
1 Heavy Storm
3 A Hero Lives
1 Monster Reborn
1 RotA
1 Smashing Ground

13 Traps

3 War Chariot
2 D-Prison
1 Solemn Judgement
1 Starlight Road
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Trap Stun
2 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

Extra Deck

2 Gyzarus
2 Heraklinos
2 Essedarii
1 Stardust
1 Utopia
1 C39 Utopia Ray
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Zenmaines
1 Leviair
1 Leviathan Dragon
1 Acid Golem

Side Deck

2 Smashing Ground
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Bottomless
1 King Tiger Wanghu
2 D.D. Crow
1 Retiari
1 Snowman Eater
1 MST
2 D.D. Warrior Lady
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh

A few words on my card choices:

Hoplomus was pretty much for the HERO matchup, I was very wary of them because lots of disruption + lots of 1900 beaters = sad day for Glads. The matchup isnt terrible but its definitely a uphill struggle. I wanted something that could wall a Alius then tag into Laquari or just sit there and make them do something about it.

I decided to max out Gladiator Beast War Chariot rather than try something crazy to counter the hand traps I feared. In theory and in practice its very strong right now and and extremely effective against pretty much all the top decks except for HERO's, which ended up being my most played matchup. Still I would definitely maindeck 3 of them if I could do it all over again because even against HEROs there's some good stuff to negate (Veiler, "C", Stratos, Honest).

I wanted to try to balance offense and defense in this deck because I felt it would be more effective than the all out offensive builds I ran in the past. Hence the inclusion of Dimensional Prison and Compulsory Evacuation Device. I ended up also including Starlight Road on a whim, which proved to be a very good decision as that card won me at least 3 games that day and was only dead once in a duel I was going to lose  already.

Anyways...

After getting to Seth's around 10:30, I spend 10:30 - 12:30 playtesting and playing Brawl with everyone else, then I attempt to go to sleep to little avail so I play some more Brawl and fall asleep at what I suspect was 3am but I'll never know for sure since I didnt look at a clock since 1am.

We wake up the next morning at 6:15, do standard morning stuff. I eat some food, then we cram into the car and drive the rest of the way to Portland. We find the venue with very little trouble (yay for 3 people having GPS phones!) and arrive at around 9:30, where we are greeted with a crush of people milling around the front door to the venue (Guardian Games). Since we preregistered, we get ushered past all of them by an employee into the store proper, where we get in a much smaller line to check off our names on the preregistration list. My stomach does the usual shenanigans it always does before regionals, but I contain it as we move slowly forward in line. Its while we are waiting in line that we find out that everyone who also came from our locals to Oregon for the regionals didn't make it in. I will always preregister if possible from now on =[.

So I fill out decklist and parings go up!


ROUND 1: Justen Vs. Bo (Six Samurais)

So I sit down at my table and we get our entry packs, where I pull a Tour Bus. I was already planning on stocking up on that card, so the day is off to a good start. The head judge says his usual spiel and informs us that out of the 154 people competing today 115 people were preregistered, leaving only 39 spots for people who didnt preregister to fill. Crazy. I then find out that my opponent is Bo, a cool guy I am already familiar with. 2 regionals ago he defeated my friend Matt on the bubble in one of the craziest duels I have ever seen. He drops hints that he's running some crazy deck, but it turns out he's running Six Samurais as usual. The entire duel was filled with fun and awesome banter. Definitely one of my favorite duels of the day. BUT ENOUGH TALK...HAVE AT YOU!

Lost the dice roll

Game 1: He makes a first turn Shi-En and sets 1. I play MST, he lets it slide and I hit a D-Prison. I then play Smashing Ground forcing the negate and AHL into the Gyzarus play with my in hand GB. I have no protection however and he clears my field next turn and beats me down with Sams since I only have 4k.

Game 2: I set a D.D. Warrior Lady and some backrow (War Chariot and Solemn Judgement). He goes, plays Gateway, Specials Elder and Grandmaster, searches Kagemusha, and does some searches and ends with a field of Shi-en, Grandmaster, and Kizan. I think to myself if he doesnt attack Warrior Lady with Shi-En I'm going to be in a bad spot. Fortunately for me he makes the misplay of attacking with Shi-En, so I remove it, and I eat some damage. Next turn I set Mirror Force and a Hoplomus, and he rushes headlong into it after summoning Zanji. He sets 1 and ends. I make the Gyzarus play by summoning Prisma, pop and non chainable trap, attack, and tag into Darius and Laquari, then triple tag into Heraklinos. The rest of the duel I just stockpile cards in my hand and attack his set monsters. He runs out of monsters after 2 turns and draws unhelpful stuff consecutively (Heavy, Bottomless, Solemn Warning) so he loses this one.

Game 3: He goes first and passes. I draw a very explosive hand, but don't have quite enough protection to tempt me into going for it since he has nothing on board and ill pay a huge chunk of LP for nothing. I set 2 cards (AHL and War Chariot) to prep for my next turn with another AHL and Prisma in hand. He draws, MST's my bluff AHL, summons Zanji, specials Kizan, uses Asceticism for another Kizan, then Asceticism again for Grandmaster. At this point he has game, but I do something I don't have alot of practice or confidence doing, which was pretend I had a power card (Mirror Force in this case). Its very easy for bluffing to not work, but this was a prime situation for it to work perfectly. He had just lost to Mirror Force last game, so that was still in the back of his mind as he stared down my lone facedown card. I had set a bluff, so he figured the chances of my other card being a power card I wanted to protect were high. I tried my hardest to act indifferent to his field and indifferent in the tone of my voice. So he ended up doing the safe play and xyzing his 2 Kizans into a defense position Utopia, and attacking for 3900. His face was the very picture of confused when his attacks went through unopposed, and I could tell he instantly smelled something was rotten. He set no backrow and ended his turn, and on my turn I drew and proceeded to destrolish his field with a Gyzarus into Heraklinos play, leaving him with nothing on board and a Heraklinos + War Chariot face down. He couldnt recover.

LWW
Record: 1-0


After the event I notice that he sided heavily against me (Veilers, Rivalrys, and Bottomless plus some other nasty pieces of work). I thank my lucky stars I didnt see any of that in the match. Again this was by far my favorite duel of the day, hence the amount of detail I remember.


ROUND 2: Vs. Gladiator Beast Mirror Match

I win the dice roll

Game 1: I didnt expect to face a Glad Beast mirror here, thats for sure. This game basically came down to me establishing my field before him because I went first. Eventually I got a Herk on board and he was reduced to setting Glads till he lost.

Game 2: This duel came down to me drawing Bestiari in my opening hand, which is bad for me since I drew very little protection. I didnt get rid of it immediately by setting it which didnt help.I made the mistake of summoning Prisma to get some damage in after Smashing his Laquari, and he had Mind Control next turn to make a Gyzarus of his own. By the time I was able to get rid of Bestiari from my hand it was a simple matter for him to go into Retiari for the slap to my face and the KO.

Game 3: I set 4 (Mystical Space Typhoon, Starlight Road, Book of Moon and Call), summon Darius and end. He specials Cyber Dragon, summons Equeste, and tries to beat over Darius but I have Book for him. He is visually distraught and he pretty much tells me he has Heavy in hand but fears Starlight Road. He holds off and sets 1, which I MST. Next turn I attack his Cyber Dragon and tag into 2100 Laquari. At this point he has no choice but to Heavy my field, which I Starlight. He has MST to deny me the free Stardust though. We pretty much trade blows at this point with Smashing Grounds and direct attacks. He gives before I do as I have Dark Hole and my second Call set to seal his fate.

WLW 
Record: 2-0




ROUND 3: Vs. Kyle (HERO's)


So I'm 2-0 and feeling pretty good after winning 2 hard fought matches. I sit down at table 2 and who else do I have to face but Kyle, a friend/team member who came with me to the event! While I could handle his deck when I playtested a few days ago, both our decks have changed alot since then.

I lost the dice roll

Game 1: I pretty much get the stuffing beat out of me as I draw into 1 MST but not the Lances / Trap Stuns I need to fight back in this matchup. I'm forced to MST a Skill Drain that would have shut my deck down, but it makes little difference as I lose soundly anyways.

Game 2: I now find out a fact that would plague me for the rest of the day: In my final edits I made to my deck last night, I saw fit to reduce my Laquari count to 1. After drawing my only Laquari in my hand, I was unable to go into Gyzarus with my AHL and Prisma in my hand. After 2 turns of being stunned like this I finally drew enough cards to make a workaround but it was too late. Kyle had already established his field with enough cards to make winning the game impossible without Trap Stun or Forbidden Lance, which I again failed to draw into. By the end of the game his set cards were Spark, Rivalry, Starlight Road, Solemn Warning, and Solemn Judgment, and he successfully beat me down for game.

LL
Record: 2-1



ROUND 4: Vs. BYE?!?


Here's how this worked. After round 3 there was a lunch break that lasted until 2:40. My opponent had crossed a bridge to go with a friend to a food place, and the bridge had been raised by the time he tried to leave, so he had to wait for it to lower. By the time he got back it was 12 minutes into round 4, so he got a match loss.

FAILURE


Record: 3-1




ROUND 5: Vs. Dino Rabbit


I lost the dice roll

Game 1: The game does not get to a very good start as I make my first straight up misplay of the day by summoning the wrong monster. I had a Prisma on the field with a Prisma and Laquari in hand. His field was 2 backrow locked under Trap Stun. I went for the play that would get me the best setup, the double Prisma into Gyzarus into Herk +1 play which would have locked him out of the game. However I forgot that I had only ONE Laquari in my deck, and it was in my hand! The correct play should have been to summon my in-hand Laquari, make the Gyzarus then battle tag into Herk. As it was, I went into double Prisma, sent a Bestiari and was rudely awakened to where my one Laquari was. I was pretty mad after that, and made another misplay in leaving them on the field and not xyzing into Utopia. I didn't immediately lose after that, but I slowly lost advantage and after he finally makes a Laggia I was pretty much done.

Game 2: This game was just a grindfest. I attempt to make Gyzarus 2 times in one turn, but he interrupts me with Veiler and Fiendish Chain. We both use our resources smartly, and after a while we're down to no monsters and topdecking. After getting some good defensive cards set, I just need a Glad Beast monster but instead I just topdeck 3 AHL over the next 5 turns with no monsters in sight while he draws a Sangan and later a Tour Guide after I get rid of the Sangan and beats me down for game.

LL
Record:  3-2




ROUND 6: Vs. Elemental HERO's


I win the dice roll

Game 1: I find out he's running monster heavy when he summons Crusader of Endymion to beat over my Glad on board. Next turn, I activate Trap Stun, then go bonkers on his Crusader + backrow with Gyzarus into Herk because I know his monsters cant do anything to me and I have a War Chariot face down in case of Honest.

Game 2: A long and drawn out game thats characterized by me not being able to get any momentum throughout the game. Near the end I make a push with Essedarii over his Alius which he has Honest for. After that I pretty much lose.

Game 3: He annoys me in the beginning with Grand Mole shenanigans, but I bait out his backrow and make a Herk with Solemn Judgement face down. He really has no answers after that but Grand Mole, which I Judgement. After that its a slow slide downhill for him as he cant get rid of my Herk and I eventually draw War Chariot to complement my Herk. Fortunate for me, because he made one last effort to kill my Herk with a Thunder King + Honest play near the end, which failed due to War Chariot.

WLW
Record: 4-2




Round 7: Vs. Elemental HEROs (Bubble Beat)


I lose the dice roll

The second time I've faced a Japanese person in a duel. While his English was lacking, was a stellar player who knew all about TCG ruling and plays.

Game 1: I lose this one quick after getting my Gyzarus play disrupted and him beating me down with Blade Armor Ninja after clearing my backrow with Heavy Storm.

Game 2: I do a pretty crazy play. He plays Heavy Storm to my 3 set, which I Starlight Road for the Stardust. He sets and ends. His field is 4 backrow including a face up Skill Drain. Mine is a Thunder King, a set Hoplomus and a Stardust. I play Trap Stun so I can go off. I summon Prisma, and he plays Super Poly on my Prisma and Stardust for Great Tornado, halfing my Thunder King's attack. I play through that with Monster Reborn on Prisma, make Gyzarus blowing up Tornado and a backrow, attacking, making another Gyzarus with Darius to pop 2 more, then using Test Tiger to create a Herk to control the rest of his backrow and the game.

Game 3: He just disrupts me all game with Gemini Spark, Veiler, and Solemn Warning, and I cant get anything going.

LWL
Record: 4-3




Round 8: Vs. Elemental HEROs


I lose the dice roll

Game 1: He drew, in his own words, "the poop." I, in turn, pooped on him by setting up and taking advantage of his terrible hand of all monsters.

Game 2: I open pretty good, but he first turn dualities into veiler, which sets my plan back a turn or 2. Not that big of a deal however, as he doesnt draw Miracle Fusion, Mask Change, ect till way later in the game when I have control of the duel. I end up baiting out his Veiler and using the War Chariot. Then when I try to loop War Chariot with Equeste, he D.D. Crows it...I was like wtf. He makes a offhand remark like "it doesnt really matter, you probably have another one." Next turn I draw into another War Chariot lol. Near the end Herk control wins the day again.

WW


*FINAL Record: 5-3, 26th place*


So I end up placing 26th, putting me slightly out of invite range, which is ok. I learned alot about this deck and next time I will have a much more refined and tested build to run. All of us mostly go 5-3 except for Kyle, who places 20th at 6-2 and gets his second invite. Congrats to him =)

IN REVIEW




THE GOOD:

- Doing fairly well with a new build of my deck
- Preregistering and not driving all the way to Oregon for nothing
- Meeting Mike Jeezy and Danny from Team Overload's Blog!
- Pulling Tour Bus and making some good trades
- Olive Garden after Regionals with the best service ever!
- Overall a good trip and experience


THE BAD:


- Bo getting sacked game 3 by a topdecked Bubbleman with no cards in hand or on the field. Guy draws into Miracle Fusion and Mask Change and both are live. Must be nice!
- Random Trenchcoat Samurai Guy beating 2 of my friends, who both underestimated him and payed for it.
- What I've come to call "Regional Sickness", which plagued me Round 1. Although I didn't have it as bad as Kyle...
- Our team playing a total of 5 matches against each other.
- Random Trenchcoat Samurai Guy ripping a Mind Control off the top of his deck, and the floor shaking roar that ensued. I was in the middle of a match and I thought a bomb had gone off for a second.


THE UGLY:


- Random Trenchcoat Samurai Guy in general. After he ripped that Mind Control to win a game he was about to lose, a bunch of people were asking him for advice and talking to him. The answers he gave made me cringe. His voice in general made me cringe. He just seemed like he wasnt used to the attention he was getting and it showed.


WHAT I WOULD CHANGE FOR NEXT TIME?
Add a 3rd Lance because it was winning, add a second Laquari because its too important not to run, and run a 3rd Trap Stun because thats what let me go off all day and was rarely dead. I would probably side the MSTs for Dark World and thats about it.



Thanks for reading! If you want any additional information, just ask! 


Till next time!

Drawing Conclusions: Elemental Glads

A update after testing the deck some more recently:

My suspicions were confirmed after a few duels. The power ratio is definitely lopsided in the deck. Almost all the major plays involve the Glad Beasts and Prisma, and very few involve the HEROs. Whats worse, Prisma plays involving the Glad Beast stuff usually send him back to the deck, where I dont want him if I want Miracle Fusion to be live later in the Duel. I dont really know how to give the HERO plays a greater share of the deck without cutting Glad Beast stuff (AHL, Retiari, Proving Ground, ect) which I'm not sure will be a good or bad thing.

This is probably the biggest problem that I could find with the deck, giving the HEROs a greater share of deckspace. While I might have tested well against my friends decks, this gives me little reassurance because they dont run Maxx "C" and Veiler, at least not in the decks they dueled me with. I know that if I rely too heavily on the GB plays, I'll get smashed to pieces if someone interrupts them with "C" or Veiler as they are very offensive and leave me vulnerable if interrupted.

With only 1 day left till regionals, my goal will be to find the balance between defense (Needed in both GB and HERO decks and something I've been neglecting) and offense on both sides of the deck (GB and HERO). Finding the perfect mix between GB and HEROs will be hard but is doable imho. It just requires testing, testing, and more testing, along with appropriate deck revisions along the way. It might take upping the HERO count (Adding Alius and crew), reintroducing Fusion Gate into the deck, or finding a powerful HERO play that is compatible with GBs. I'm going to play my deck into submission!

Btw if your going to the Oregon regionals on Saturday I hope to see you there! I'll be the mulatto dude with glasses and a YCS Long Beach mat.

Till next time!

Testing the waters: Elemental Glads

Before everything else, here's the decklist that I decided on after a night of playtesting:

40 Cards

15 Monsters

3 Elemental HERO Prisma
3 Test Tiger
1 Elemental HERO Stratos
1 Elemental HERO Bubbleman
2 Gladiator Beast Darius
2 Gladiator Beast Laquari
1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
1 Gladiator Beast Retiari
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari

16 Spells

3 A Hero Lives
1 Gladiator Proving Ground
1 E-Emergency Call
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 Smashing Ground
1 Book of Moon
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Miracle Fusion
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon

9 Traps

2 Trap Stun
1 Solemn Judgement
2 Gladiator Beast War Chariot
1 Fiendish Chain
2 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

Extra Deck: 15

1 Gladiator Beast Heraklinos
2 Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1 Gladiator Beast Essedarii
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Number C39: Utopia Ray
1 Elemental HERO Nova Master
1 Elemental HERO The Shining
1 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero
1 Elemental HERO Gaia
1 Elemental HERO Great Tornado
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

Side Deck: 15

???

This by no means the definitive version or the final one, but I felt like I needed to get something up to show what direction this deck goes in. A few details on the card choices and playstyle:

After testing the entire night I ended up taking out Fusion Gate. It was a dead draw if I ever drew into multiples of it and I never really made any game-changing plays with it. And removing Gladiator Beasts from play when I'm running AHL Glads is bad. While I do have fairly easy access to Leviair, I dont want to use it to salvage random Glads from the banish zone (except Bestiari).

The deck plays defense very poorly from what I've seen since every Glad play you do is a miniature nuclear explosion, so I cut D-Prison from the final build in favor of Trap Stuns, which let me go into Gyzarus unopposed.

Hand traps are a major problem for Glads, but a minor annoyance for HERO's. I toyed with the idea of siding into Macro Glads to counter hand traps game 2 and 3 but sadly it was unfeasible. My idea now is to maybe transformation side into HERO Beat game 2 and 3 to counter my opponents side and maindecked Gladiator Beast hate, but it's just a idea at this stage. If I face someone who runs hand traps I'll just focus on the Hero plays over the Gladiator Beast plays. I might at a later date add more HERO-friendly cards to facilitate that strategy and even out the power play ratio between HERO's and GBs because right now i'd say its split 65-35 in favor of GBs.

A few major plays include:

2 Card Gyzarus:

-Prisma/Test Tiger
-AHL/Test Tiger
-AHL/Any Glad Beast
-AHL/Prisma

The dreaded 3 card Double Gyzarus

-AHL/Prisma/Test Tiger

Details on this place because its a little less linear. Play AHL for Prisma dumping Bestiari. Normal Summon 2nd Prisma dumping Laquari. Tag into Gyzarus popping 2. At this point the play branches.

*You can do the legendary 2 card double Gyzarus, but it requires attacking directly with the Gyzarus you summoned. After doing so, tag out for Darius and the Glad beast of your choice. Darius brings back the Bestiari you dumped earlier, leaving you free to tag into Gyzarus again. A great play to perform under Trap Stun. You can also bring out Double Darius to go into Gyzarus with Darius # 1 and Bestiari, then triple tag into Heraklinos with Darius #2, the Laquari brought back by Darius #2, and Gyzarus.

*If you dont think you can battle, you can spend a in-hand Test Tiger to forcibly continue the combo. Special Test Tiger and tribute it to tag out Gyzarus for Darius, bringing back Bestiari and tagging right back into the same Gyzarus for another double pop.



Going to be playtesting this deck some more tonight, and you can bet I'll have more info on deck changes and combo's afterwards! Till then!

Mischievous Mog's Marvelous Plan with Flan

~~~~ The wheel of fate is turning... ~~~~



As you can probably tell, the title of this post has nothing to do with Yugioh. I grew tired of the cut and dry format of my titles even though they befit a scientist such as myself, so from now on I will occasionally use random titles when my topic isn't laser focused. =)

This will be a turning point for this blog. Up till now I've been pretty narrow in my coverage, providing occasional variety but mostly focusing on Wind-Up combos. Now I will try to branch my posts out to cover whatever comes to mind, or whatever gets requested.

So I'm shelving my work on Wind-Up combos (for now) to cover a deck that started out as a joke between friends but evolved into something much more: A Hero Lives at the Gate (A Hero Lives PrismaGlads + Gate HERO's)

This deck has evolved from a fun side project into my last best hope with regionals coming up in less than a week and my Wind-Up deck in pieces. HERO's have always had a place in Gladiator Beasts but this deck takes the symbiosis to a whole new level. I've seen this deck do some crazy things with my inexperienced hand piloting it, capable of the best plays from both AHL Glads and HERO's, with a few key cards bridging the gap between the two decks. I would love to post a decklist, but I feel like I need to take it to freeplay at locals one more time tomorrow before I can confidently release a decklist and definitively detail what the deck can do. I will release detailed deck testing notes, a decklist, and some of the decks power plays late tomorrow night.

A cursory look at YCS Long Beach

As you probably already know, YCS Long Beach was the largest Yugioh TCG event in the history of the game. Over 4300 people attended this monumental event, and almost appropriately the event was filled with every deck imaginable. The top 16 embodied this perfectly, being a mishmash of both familiar and unfamiliar decks. I'll just take a brief look at the top 4 decks and give my thoughts about them.

1st Place: Dark worlds, piloted by Michael Balan

We all knew Dark Worlds were a decent deck, but I bet few people thought someone could take them to the very highest peaks of dueling fame. I believe a combination of pure skill and blind luck (in respect to pairings) helped him win it all, along with the amazing side decking skills needed to combat the biggest problem a Dark World deck faces: Game 2 and 3. One look at his side deck and you saw that he was ready to anti-side for all the hate being sided against him. Congrats to him for winning, he certainly deserves it.

2nd Place: Dino Rabbit, piloted by Simon He

Hey, its Dino Rabbit. I thought about only typing just that one sentence for this section. Nothing I say is going to change what you think about Dino Rabbit, or tell you anything you don't already know. Its a good deck, its tier 1, and it was the most played deck at the top tables of the event. No details about his deck have surfaced yet, but I have no reason to believe its anything radically different from the norm.

3rd/4th Place: Chaos Piper, piloted by Gabriel Perez

Now here's a deck I never thought I'd see top 4 a YCS. Most people counted Piper Chaos out when planning for the event, but this YCS was all about both the expected and the unexpected, and this deck certainly was unexpected. While the main deck is pretty standard bar a few odd tech choices like Wisel, Swap, and main decked D.D. Crow, the side deck was absolutely filthy. With only 2 main decked traps most S/T hate would be sided out game 2, and the opponent would quickly fall into the hands of his barrage of side decked traps. Kudos to you for taking a chance with transformation siding that payed off big time.

3rd/4th Place: Drained HERO's, piloted by Joseph Giorlando

HERO's made a big showing at YCS Long Beach, as it's no secret that they're very popular in the area (The last 2 California YCS events were won by a HERO variant). While its obvious that the pilot of this deck had overwhelming skill to take it this far, a few odd decisions in the deck left me puzzled. This deck bears a striking resemblance to Bubble HERO's, but it seems like he just dropped the Bubbleman and was filling the hole left in the deck with cards that normally don't see play in HERO decks, such as Barbaros and Crusader of Endymion. Puzzling but definitely not bad tech choices. The side deck is pretty geared towards Dino Rabbits, already a fairly favorable matchup. No doubt he smashed any Dino Rabbit player he played to pieces. There is an absence of cards that address probably the worst match up HEROs have in the current meta: Dark Worlds. For those who read the final duels you will know that this comes back to haunt Joseph as he must duel the future champion who is running Dark Worlds.

In conclusion...


That's all for the review of the Top 4 of YCS Long Beach. That isnt to say there arn't any other decks that are worthy of attention (Wind-Up Beasts from the Top 16 in particular caught my eye) but this was just meant to be just my 2 cents as admittedly there are other people who actually went that did a much better job of detailing the event than I could ever hope to =). Look forward to the newest edition of Dueling like a Mad Scientist, which should be up in a day or 2 (provided I stop procrastinating and get it finished...)

Till next time!

Dueling like a Mad Scientist: Wind-Up Combos 1.7 + YIP News

[No Data Log]


CONTINUING FROM THE PREVIOUS ARTICLE:


SS = Special Summon


With Shark or Factory (search Shark) in hand in addition to Shark and Magician, the possible ending fields you can have become more lethal and harder to break. For example:

ENDING FIELD: Wind-Up Zenmaity, M. X-Saber Invoker, any rank 5.

CHANGES IN COMBO: Tribute both Magicians for the first two discards, make Invoker with the last Rat+Hunter, then use Invoker to SS Soldier/Warrior and SS Shark from hand. You now have your rank 5. This is especially useful for destroying a set Mirror Force or a troublesome facedown monster with Zenmaioh after you hand loop in the event you go second.


ENDING FIELD: Any rank 3, any rank 4

CHANGES IN COMBO:  Tribute the first Magician for the first discard, then proceed like normal. When the last Rat summons Hunter, SS Shark from hand, use Hunters effect on the last Zenmaity, then xyz Shark and Magician for the rank 4, and Hunter and Rat for the rank 3. Badabing, badaboom.


News about this weeks YIP:


YIP has been canceled this week due to lack of news/market changes. This is a very slow time for Yugioh, both market and gamewise. During these slow times I might make YIP bi or once monthly, because there's just not that much to talk about when nothing is happening =X.

Next time on Dueling like a Mad Scientist, a supplement on non-Hunter combos and strange Wind-Up combos you've probably never seen before! Plus maybe one or 2 more hunter combos for kicks ;). Till next time...

Dueling like a Mad Scientist: Wind-Up Combos 1.3

Data Log 43:


Added Wind-Up Hunter back to my deck, and I have to say its a strange feeling using the Wind-Up loop after spending around a month not using it. I realize fully now how much power and versatility it gives the Wind-Up duelist. I caught my friends completely off guard and found that they radically adapted their playstyles just because of one card in my deck. For one card to have such profound power is unusual. More experimentation is needed to fully document its effects...

And now for the main article!


For today I will just be listing a few different ways to change your field up after a Wind-Up hand loop

INFORMATION:

*When doing the Magician-Shark Wind-Up hand loop, adjust what you tribute based on what you want your ending field to be. This is where M. X-Saber Invoker tries to earns his extra deck space lol. This article assumes you already know how to flawlessly do the Wind-Up loop.

Ending Field 1: M. X-Saber Invoker + Utopia

Changes in the combo: Tribute 1 Magician for first card you discard, summon M. X-Saber Invoker with your last Rat-Hunter, then use Invoker to bring out Soldier/Warrior and xyz with the magician.

Ending Field 2: Zenmaity + Rank 3 of your choice

Changes in the combo: Tribute both Magicians for your first 2 discards. The standard setup that you want to end with

Both these options are pretty basic, but can be expanded depending if you open with Factory/more Sharks, which is what i'll be looking into in part 1.7. Sorry for the lack of content lately but I've been fairly busy as of late. I'll make sure to post alot more content in the future to make up for it! Thanks for reading this (and again I apologize for the lack of length or details. I will supplement it in the next article).

Yugioh Investment Portfolio 3: Week of 3/11/12 (NEW PRODUCT INFO!)

Check it out here! Includes information on recently announced TCG products!

Dueling like a Mad Scientist: Wind-Up Theory I

Data Log 37:

Been extensively testing E-Tele and Instant Fusion in Wind-Ups as well as fluctuating how much defensive traps I run. The conclusions I'm drawing are first and foremost, whether it be hand or normal traps, you MUST run traps to survive this format. Trying to run Wind-Ups so aggressively that you forgo traps is almost suicide. Maxx "C" and Veiler or normal traps are just too important to survive a format where almost every deck is capable of overextending into a OTK. E-Tele has been working wonderfully, letting me combo out of a hand that would otherwise be terrible if I so choose (lone Rat/Rabbit/Shark in hand become workable with E-Tele). Having the option to go into the Naturia Syncros as well as easy access to Stardust after a combo via lvl 5 Shark is VERY nice, especially at the end of a long Wind-Up combo. The same goes for Instant Fusion, its pretty much almost the same thing as E-Tele except a tiny bit less flexible. The only problem I'm having with E-Tele is deciding how many psychics to run. I've tried variations of 1/2 Psychic Commander, 0/1 Esper Girl, and 1/2 Serene Psychic Witch, to varying levels of success. More experimentation is required...

And now please enjoy the main article!


This will more or less be a discussion about Wind-Up theory and the greater purpose of the deck. Its amazing how the goals and purpose of the deck have shifted with each successive release of support. In GENF the only cards released for Wind-Ups were Soldier, Dog, Magician, and Wind-Up Factory. Nobody knew or cared about Wind-Ups at that point (including me for a short while) but at the slight prodding of one of my friends, I checked them out. Starting out as a Gadget-like beat down deck, they have evolved from that into a advantage keeping Stun-like deck, where the many disruptive monsters like Juggler and Knight teamed with the reliable Soldier and Magician, all the while keeping advantage with Factory. With the release of ORCS they have matured into a deck absolutely unrivaled in Xyz summoning power. A deck that I truly believe is one of the most flexible and powerful archetypes to date. Or, as they are most infamously known as, a deck capable of neutralizing an opponent on the first turn of a duel by dropping their entire hand.

So with the cursory introduction out the way, the real questions can now be asked. What is the best way to run the deck? What should the Wind-Up duelist keep in mind? What is the best endgame scenario a Wind-Up player can aspire for? Whats the best way to use each Wind-Up card, and for that matter what are the best Wind-Up cards? Unfortunately these questions have many answers, but I will aspire to discuss what I truly believe every Wind-Up player should know about their chosen archetype as well as my opinions on the answers to the above questions. The first thing I believe every Wind-Up player should know is that through extensive testing I've come to the conclusion that the Wind-Up hand loop, while a very powerful weapon in the arsenal of a Wind-Up player, cannot be counted on to consistently bring you victory as it is now, espically at a large event like a Regionals or YCS. I would personally never go for the 3 card loop, it is sub-optimal and will lose you games if you get unlucky and hit the wrong things. The 4-5 card loop is the only one you should consider ever using, and even then give very serious thought to if it's worth going for. The price you pay for hitting your opponents hand is very steep. 0 Zenmaitys and 0 Rats ensure that unless you have some way to revive rat or Pot of Avarice you will have no explosive plays left in your deck.

All of what I said before only applies to a first turn loop, and mostly if your playing multiple rounds at a major event where probability will bite you eventually. At a locals tourney, as long as your running the best build possible you probably wont have to worry about the random games you'll lose because you discarded the wrong cards from their hand, they drew into Maxx "C" or Veiler, or you just didn't draw the right cards. Its important that if you decide to make the Wind-Up loop your win condition that you run the optimal build because after you loop your opponent first turn your basically telling them "try to break me with what you have left." I am personally very wary of doing the loop first turn unless I draw into multiple Solemns (to make sure my field survives till next turn) or Pot of Avarice (to hit their entire hand). I feel the loop is much more potent later in the game when the odds of dropping power cards they've been holding are much higher, but I realize that many of you do not share this belief so this advice is for you. Tour Guide, Tour Bus, 2 Hunters, and Instant Fusion/Emergency Teleport are absolutely crucial to any Wind-Up deck that is trying to loop first turn consistently. Those cards allow you to beef up your field presence at the end of a loop and do it more consistently, increasing the odds that your setup wont be broken by random power cards. Since everything will be done in the first/second turn, hand traps are obviously preferred.

Konami sold Wind-Ups as the Xyz archetype, so its only natural that this is what they are most proficient at doing. The deck was literally made for doing this and after months of testing I feel like this will be the optimal way to run the deck for the foreseeable future if you are in a competitive mindset. More and more powerful Xyz monsters are being released with each new set, and Wind-Ups will have access to the lions share of them. Being able to toolbox into any Xyz monster and not just rely on whats given to you from your deck is what I feel makes a Xyz focused Wind-Up deck stronger than its variants.

In the next part I'll discuss some lesser known ways to run Wind-Ups, as well as answer the rest of the questions posed in this article. Till next time!

Yugioh Investment Portfolio 2: Week of 3/4/12

Check it out! Comments/Questions are appreciated!

Dueling like a Mad Scientist: Wind-Up Combos I

Introduction!

In my "Dueling like a Mad Scientist" series of articles, I will be detailing my latest and greatest experiments with the Wind-Up archetype. Pushing Wind-Ups to the limits and finding out everything and anything that they're capable of is my ultimate goal...and then passing the knowledge I learn to you the player! Plus these toys make marvelous test subjects... +_+. It's not torture if it's in the name of science!

Now please enjoy the main article!


Data Log 33:

I took out Wind-Up Hunter from my build, at least for now. The hand loop is getting boring and losing me friends (lol), plus it's hard to see how much Xyz spam Wind-Ups are truly capable of when I'm tributing off my Zenmaitys for Hunter. Not even sure if its worth it, you lock yourself out of the game if they can clear your field after you go into the loop because you have 0 Rats and 0 Zenmaitys. Short of Pot of Avarice or Monster Reborn your pretty low on options left in the deck. And there are a surprising number of decks that can topdeck answers to your field after you loop their hand (HEROs being at the forefront of my mind). Its my current belief that looping your opponents hand is only worthwhile if you have Pot of Avarice in hand to make sure you take everything from them as well as end with a stronger field, as taking 3-4 cards from them is not worth the price of robbing yourself of your best monsters when the game has barely begun. But I digress...here are some basic to intermediate Wind-Up combos I discovered that you might not be aware of...

SS=Special Summon

COMBO 1: The Infinite Blocker (Requires Rabbit in grave and Rat in hand)


1. Summon Rat, SS Rabbit from graveyard with effect
2. Use Rabbit to banish Rat
3. Rat comes back during your next standby phase
4. Switch it from defense to attack, then activate its effect again to SS Rabbit if it died.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 ad infinitum

ENDING FIELD: [Used Rabbit in defense mode] WITH Rat coming back next standby phase.

CARDS USED: 1

Comments: Simple, easy to do combo that juggles a Rat and blocks an attack till whenever you feel like stopping and getting serious.

COMBO 2: The Wombo Combo (Requires Magician and Shark in Hand with with Factory faceup.)



1. Summon Magician.
2. Activate the trigger effect of Shark in your hand.
3. Resolve the effect, SS Shark and activate Magician 1's effect, then resolve it in a separate chain, SS  Magician 2.
4. Activate Sharks effect to make him/her/itself(?) level 3.
5. Activate Factory to add Shark 2 to your hand
5. Activate Magician 2's effect to SS Rabbit.
6. Activate Rabbit's effect to banish Magician 1.
7. Xyz Rabbit and Shark for Zenmaity.
8. Zenmaity SS Rat from the deck.
9. Rat SS Rabbit from the grave.
10. Activate the effect of Shark 2 in your hand; SS it.
11. Rabbit banishes Rat.
12. Activate Shark 2's effect to make it level 3.
13. Xyz Rabbit and Shark for Zenmaity 2/M. X-Saber Invoker
14. Zenmaity 2/M. X-Saber Invoker SS Any Level 4 Wind-Up Monster/Soldier/Warrior
15. Xyz Magician 2 and Any Level 4 Wind-Up Monster/Soldier/Warrior for Rank 4 of choice

ENDING FIELD: [Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity, Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity/M. X-Saber Invoker, Any Rank 4 (preferably Number 39: Utopia)] WITH Rat and Magician coming back during your next standby phase.

CARDS USED: 2 (- 2 Sharks and -1 Magician, + 1 from factory)

Comments: This is a powerful 2-stage play. You get 2 dangerous combo monsters (Zenmaitys) and the means to protect them (Utopia). Not only that, but if somehow your field doesn't survive, you can make another Rank 3 and 4 of your choice next turn with Magician and Rat coming back due to Rabbits effect during your next turn. This play offers unparalleled power and safety and is highly recommended if you think can pull it off.

COMBO 3: The 1 Card Wonder (Requires Rat in hand and any level 3 Wind-Up monster in the graveyard, has 1 variation.)


1a. Summon Rat, activate effect to SS level 3 Wind-Up from grave.
2a. Xyz Rat and level 3 Wind-Up for Zenmaity
3a. Zenmaity SS Rat from the deck.
4a. Activate Rat's effect to SS level 3 Wind-Up from grave.
5a. Xyz Rat and level 3 Wind-Up for Zenmaity 2.
6a. Zenmaity 2 SS Rat from the deck.
7a. Activate Rat's effect to SS level 3 Wind-Up from grave.
8a.Xyz Rat and level 3 Wind-Up for Zenmaity 3.
9a. Zenmaity 3 SS Soldier from deck, activate effect to boost attack. (6700 damage total) OR IF SHARK IN HAND
9b. Zenmaity 3 SS Soldier from deck, activate effect to boost attack.
10b. Activate Sharks effect in hand; SS it (8200 damage total)

ENDING FIELD, SCENARIO A: [Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity x3, Wind-Up Soldier with 2200 ATK]
CARDS USED IN SCENARIO A: 1 Card, 6700 Damage.


ENDING FIELD, SCENARIO B: [Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity x3, Wind-Up Soldier with 2200 ATK, Wind-Up Shark]
CARDS USED IN SCENARIO B: 2 Cards, 8200 Damage.

WILD WIND-UP DECK USED 8200 DAMAGE INTO OPEN FIELD!

ITS SUPER EFFECTIVE! 



Comments: The true power of Wind-Up Rat unleashed! 1 Card making 6700 damage is ludicrous, it's very easy to win games with this combo after your opponent has taken the tiniest scratch. With a Factory or Shark in hand, the damage is lethal instantly. Don't be afraid to use this combo the instant you smell blood, but watch out for Gorz!

COMBO 4: The Dark Option (Requires Magician and Shark in hand.)



1. Summon Magician.
2. Activate the trigger effect of Shark in your hand.
3. Resolve the effect, SS Shark and activate Magician's effect, then resolve it in a separate chain, SS Magician 2 from deck.
4. Activate Sharks effect to make it level 3. SS Rabbit from deck (you can substitute Rabbit for any level 3 Wind-Up monster).
5. Xyz Rabbit and Shark for Zenmaity 1.
6. Xyz Magician and Magician 2 for Utopia.
7. Zenmaity SS Rat from deck.
8. Rat SS Rabbit from grave.
9. Xyz Rat and Rabbit for Zenmaity 2
10. Zenmaity 2 SS Rat from deck.
11. Rat SS Rabbit from grave.
12. Xyz Rat and Rabbit for Zenmaity 3
13. Zenmaity 3 SS Any Wind-Up with 1000+ from deck. (8000+ Damage)


ENDING FIELD: [Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity x3, Number 39: Utopia, Any Wind-Up with 1000+ Attack]
CARDS USED: 2 Cards, 8000+ Damage.


Comments: Why loop the hand when you can attack for game? Variations of this combo make it workable in a non-open field (summoning Kitten at the end of the combo for a face-down monster, Snail for a face-down trap) at the cost of your opponent having to take a bit of damage in order for you to get game (200 for kitten, 900 for snail.) I will present variations and improvements of this combo in future articles as admittedly its probably the most important one.



COMBO 5: The Illuminati Agenda (Requires Magician and Shark in hand, a returning or already present Rabbit, and a open field on your opponents side to attack for game.) [WARNING: EXTREMELY SILLY COMBO]


1. Summon Magician.
2. Activate the trigger effect of Shark in your hand.
3. Resolve the effect, SS Shark and activate Magicians effect, then resolve it in a separate chain, SS  Magician 2 from deck.
4. Activate Sharks effect to make him/her/itself(?) level 3. SS Magician 3 from deck.
5. Activate Rabbits effect, triggering Magician 3's effect; SS Rabbit from the deck with Magician 3 (you can substitute Rabbit for any level 3 Wind-Up monster).
6. Xyz Magician 1, 2 & 3 for Number 10: Illumiknight!
7. Activate the effect of Number 10: Illumiknight (Optional)

9. Xyz Rabbit and Shark for Zenmaity 1.
10. Zenmaity SS Rat from deck.
11. Rat SS Rabbit from grave.
12. Xyz Rat and Rabbit for Zenmaity 2
13. Zenmaity 2 SS Rat from deck.
14. Rat SS Rabbit from grave.
15. Xyz Rat and Rabbit for Number 20: Giga Brilliant! (In keeping with the whole light motif.)
16. Activate the effect of Number 20: Giga Brilliant. (8400 Damage)


ENDING FIELD: [Number 10: Illumiknight, Number 20: Giga Brilliant, Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity x2] All monsters have 300 more attack.

CARDS USED: 2 Cards (Rabbit will come back next turn. Not that there will be a next turn...), 8400 Damage

Comments: My personal ace combo, this will embarrass anyone you use it on guarenteed, especially if you shout something corny like "FADE TO THE LIGHT!" or "YOUR DEFEAT WILL BE HERALDED BY A SHINING LIGHT!" before you attack for game. A waste of resources unless you plan on winning in 1 turn (or you want to have a awesome looking field!).

And that concludes the first "Dueling like a Mad Scientist" article. Thank you for reading and please tell me what you thought of it by commenting! Until next time!

Regionals Preparation: Rogue Decks II

To wrap up this segment, I'm going to list 5 cards (in no particular order) that people should think about siding for the Rogue matchup. This will mostly be a way to review and wrap up the last article, so here we go:

1. Torrential Tribute:

There's no reason not to run 2 of this in any deck that can feasibly run it. It gives you the best of both worlds, a field clearing card that can contain even the largest swarm, or a single target nuke that can hit a surprise boss monster, clearing your opponents board of any and all problem monsters so you can make a big push next turn. Maxing this card will single-handedly help your chances against Rogue decks (Or any deck that summons monsters for that matter).

2. Dimensional Prison


This card is in prime form against Rogue decks that employ problem beatsticks, like Wanghu, Thunder King, Grapha, Krystia, and Barbaros. Where Book of Moon or Fiendish Chain would fail to completely contain them, D-Prison cleanly kills them and sends them to the void, where they will likely never bother you again.

3. Bottomless Trap Hole


This card has fallen out of favor with most people due to its reactive nature, the presence of priority in the TCG, and it being a terrible topdeck in comparison to the usuable-when-top-decked D-Prison. But it has something that cant be found in D-Prison: Its extremely potent when it goes off, often stopping combos involving larger combo monsters completely. It can be chained after Rescue Rabbits effect resolves, removing 2 of their monsters and dealing a crippling blow to the deck. And it can hit big boss monsters with removal effects like DAD and Hyperion even if they use priority to target Bottomless, a fatal flaw in D-Prison that's left many a D-Prison user with a sour taste in their mouth.While it may not be as good as it has been in the past with all the removal flying around, I cant deny that it offers some serious benefits to those with the skill and the guts to use it.

4. Smashing Ground


When your using a deck that combos off (Like Wind-Ups or Inzektors), the last thing you want to see is a Thunder King, Laggia, Dolkka, Doomcalibur, or any other problem/Antimeta monster on your opponents board. Combo decks like this are all about speed and flow, and nothing kills the flow of that deck more than a jarring problem monster eating up your resources. Not only that, but setting a D-Prison or Torrential to try to snare them ruins your flow as well and leaves you a sitting duck to whatever your opponent happens to do next turn to ruin your simple plan. Smashing Ground shines in the heat of the moment, when you just need no strings attached removal of a big or troublesome monster that doesn't require your normal summon or combo pieces. Used like this, Smashing Ground will take you far.

5. Mirror Force


At this point the reasons why not to have this maindecked either are "I hate Inzektors and I'm scared they'll blow it up" or "My deck only uses the Solemn Brigade as my traps." This card is just way too powerful against Rogue and Meta decks alike to not be considered for the main deck, or at the very least the side. This card is a absolute slayer against Wind-Ups, sinking their fleet of boats instantly when they push in damage after they combo off. Its just as useful against any Rogue deck that swarms beatsticks (Like Dragons, Karikuri, or Dark Worlds), devastating people who just plain don't expect to see it when they go for damage/game. It plays one-for-one removal or mass removal with equal finesse, its all about how you use it.

At this point in closing I think I need to clarify what links all these decks that I've labeled "Rogue decks." If you look for patterns in the styles the decks play, you'll notice that:

• Most Rogue decks play heavier backrows than whats considered normal in the meta to try to slow down and control the pace of the game since they lack the speed of meta decks.
• Most Rogue decks employ high attack "Boss Monsters" that are not Syncro/Xyz monsters. These monsters boast huge bodies and usually have destruction or lockdown effects that activate with priority when they're successfully summoned. They then net plusses for the player that summoned them or lock an opponent out of the game.
• Most Rogue decks do not heavily focus on Xyz/Syncro summoning, though most have access to them.

And that just about wraps up this article! Hope you enjoyed reading it! Be sure to tell me what you think about it and what type of articles you would want to see in the future by commenting!

Regionals Preperation: Rogue Decks

Starting to prepare for the April 14 Regionals waaay out in Portland, OR. After piloting my Wind-Up deck in its first big debut at the last Seattle regional and going 6-3, obviously im going to have to make some changes if I want to make top cut this time around. One of those changes is preparing for the suprising amount of Rogue decks that I saw last time around that I was ill-prepared for, in both side and the main.

These decks don't play by the rules that most of the top decks this format live and die by. Decks like T.G. Stun, Jurracs, Dark Worlds, Dragons, and Agents play by completely different rules, are weak to cards normally not seen this format in top main or side decks. Unless you understand what your dealing with, they can AND will ruin your chances of making top 8. This post will be a quick list of things to keep in mind when facing these decks:

RULE #1:  YOUR HAND TRAPS ARE (MOSTLY) USELESS
Most rogue decks boast a healthy resistance to hand traps that most people include in their main decks without a second thought. Whats worse, those same people do not realize how completely ineffective their hand traps are, and do not side them out or have proper side deck cards for the rogue matchup to side into! How effective do you think Maxx "C" is against a deck that lives and dies by its inherent special summoned boss monsters, like Dark World? How much will it hurt a Dark World player when you use Veiler against their Grapha? What monster can be Veiler'd at all in that matchup? What about the T.G. matchup? Veiler almost always hurts less than if you would have sided it out for removal, thats for sure. Maxx "C", Effect Veiler, most hand traps shine their brightest against decks with combo pieces that reach their ideal setups in steps that can be interrupted, like Wind-Ups and Inzektors. They are only marginally useful, or not useful at all against Rogue decks that imploy inherently summoned boss monsters with huge bodies like Hyperion, Grapha, Malefic Cyber End Dragon, or even a T.G. Rush Rhino w/ Horn equipped. Problem monsters that most Rogue decks use, such as Thunder King, King Tiger, and Doomcalibur are almost always normal summoned and come out with effects that are instantly troublesome. To be frank, they dont give a crap about your hand traps, and neither does the duelist your facing most likely.

RULE #2: REMOVAL IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
Most Rogue decks counteract their lack of speed and explosiveness with hyper-aggressive tactics. Hard removal is the only thing that will really stop most Rogue decks cold. Things like Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison and Mirror Force really put in work against these decks, as removing their monsters is much more of a problem when you dont have the speed to easily replace them. D-Prison their Grapha and that player is hurting, Bottomless a Hyperion and you've delt a major blow. Dealing with monsters by themselves without causing you, the player, to have to combo off should be the goal of your side decked cards for Rogue. Staring down a field full of REDMD and other beefy dragons, which card would you rather have, the Mirror Force you decided to not side because it doesnt do well against Inzektors, or the Fiendish Chain that you currently have faceup that was equipped to a big dragon before it got removed for REDMD. Which brings me to my next point:

RULE #3: FIENDISH CHAIN IS CUTE, BUT YOU CAN DO BETTER
By and large its a bad idea to leave Fiendish Chain in against most Rogue decks. Its very hot and cold, sometimes hitting minor combo monsters like Venus or Desendent, but completely failing at containing boss monsters or anything with 1900 or more by itself. Chain a Hyperion and your still going to have to deal with it with another card or by comboing next turn. That Fiendish Chain might as well have been a Waboku for all the good it did you. Against hardcore Antimeta Rogue decks its a absolute joke. What in T.G.s do you want to use Chain on? Barbaros so it can go to 3k? What about any other their expendible T.G. monsters? Tengu? All bad choices. Chain on any monster in Dark Worlds is also hilariously bad. Chain is just bad at dealing with problems by itself that aren't combo pieces stranded on the field with their effects negated.

I hope this helped you realize what just doesnt cut it against Rogue decks, part 2 of this article will talk about good cards to use against the Rogue matchup.

Yugioh Investment Portfolio (YIP) 1: Week of 2/26/12

Enjoy and leave feedback!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and welcome to Codename: YGO! On this blog I will try to provide information to make you the viewer a more knowledgeable and better yugioh player. On this blog, I will post about major events and changes in the yugioh world, metagame shifts, insider info, investments, tournaments (locals and regionals), decklists, and much more including weekly content that I post on ycgpodcast.com! I hope you will come to enjoy reading this blog and experiencing with me the magical and sometimes evil world of yugioh =P.