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!
