Beyond Birthdays Yugioh Site

How to side for the new format

2010-10-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hey guys its been forever since I last blogged but lets get to it.

Machina Gadgets

2x Pulling the Rug
1x Cyber Dragon
1x Mind Crush
2x Trap Hole
2x Gottoms' Emergency Call
2x Crevice into the Different Dimension
3x Nobleman of Crossout
2x Trap Stun

Mirror Matches are one of the toughest matches for machina players since your 1-1 cards dont mean anything and thats where Pulling the Rug comes in. It shuts down opposing Gadgets and Gearframes and completely destroys the Gadget deck thinning and its also a great side against Monarch decks.

Cyber Dragon allows you to take control against mirror matches by fusing every enemy machine monster for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon and its a beater against stun and Gladiator Beasts.

Mind Crush devastates Gadget Mirror matches and it comes in handy against Infernity sometimes.

The Trap Hole is sided in against both Blackwings, but also Gladiator Beasts and anti meta decks. All those decks rely heavily on normal summoning that it hurts to their consistency to keep field presence.

Gottoms' Emergency Call saves you from tight situations against X-Saber players by taking their Faultroll plays or by simply chaining your E-Call to theirs.

Crevice from the DD allows you to handle explosive decks like Lightsworn and Infernities and it hurts a little more now that Reborn is legal again.

Triple Nobleman of Crossout hits Quickdraw decks where it hurts most. Without their Rykos thy cant simply win without loading their graveyard.

Double Trap Stuns come in and come in against everything except lightsworns.

Well thats it for today laters.

Gold Series 3

2010-06-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

So theres supposedly an "official" list out in Yugioh Wikia. I really dont trust that site but its all I have to work with right now so let me review the set. And the list has no references so dont let this go to your head and think its 100% legit.

•GLD3-FR001- Mist Valley Watcher
•GLD3-FR002- vice dragon(gold)
•GLD3-FR003- Amazoness Paladin
•GLD3-FR004- Amazoness fighter
•GLD3-FR005- Amazoness swordswoman
•GLD3-FR006- Amazoness blowpiper
•GLD3-FR007- Amazoness Tiger
•GLD3-FR008- Destiny Hero Malicious
•GLD3-FR009- Freya, the spirit of victory
•GLD3-FR010- Nova Summoner
•GLD3-FR011- Exploder Dragon(gold)
•GLD3-FR012- Goblin Zombie
•GLD3-FR013- Elemental Hero Prisma (gold)
•GLD3-FR014- Dimensional Alchemist (gold)
•GLD3-FR015-Judgement Dragon (gold)
•GLD3-FR016- Amazoness Chain Master
•GLD3-FR017- Mezuki(gold)
•GLD3-FR018- Plaguespreader zombie (gold)
•GLD3-FR019- Thunder King Rai-Oh(gold)
•GLD3-FR020- Blackwing - Gale the Hurricane (gold)
•GLD3-FR021- Blackwing - Bora the Spear
•GLD3-FR022- Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
•GLD3-FR023- Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North
•GLD3-FR024- Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame
•GLD3-FR025- Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
•GLD3-FR026- Infernity archfiend (gold)
•GLD3-FR027- Infernity dwarf
•GLD3-FR028- Infernity guardian
•GLD3-FR029- Reese the ice mistress
•GLD3-FR030- numbing grub of the ice barrier
•GLD3-FR031- Mist Condor
•GLD3-FR032-Mist Valley Windmaster
•GLD3-FR033- worm falco
•GLD3-FR034- worm gulse
•GLD3-FR035- worm hope
•GLD3-FR036- worm jeteklips
•GLD3-FR037- Stardust Dragon (gold - synchro)
•GLD3-FR038- Blackwing - Armor master (gold - synchro)
•GLD3-FR039- Blackwing - Armed wing (gold - synchro)
•GLD3-FR040- MST(gold)
•GLD3-FR041- My Body as a Shield(gold)
•GLD3-FR042- smashing ground(gold)
•GLD3-FR043- enemy controller(gold)
•GLD3-FR044- d draw
•GLD3-FR045- black whirlwind
•GLD3-FR046- Amazoness archer
•GLD3-FR047- dramatic rescue
•GLD3-FR048- magical arm shield
•GLD3-FR049- Icarus Attack (gold)
•GLD3-FR050- Aegis of gaia

So Vice Dragons is finally officially released in the TCG and it should make Dragon Players happier. To me the cards is mediocre as I have no use for it. Exploder Dragon wasn't really expensive but it was hard to come by and it should make Disaster Dragon easier to build but the deck is still horrible.

Elemental Hero Prisma makes E-Hero fans rage as its previous outrageous price kept them from buying copies of it and it significantly lowers the cost of building GB decks. Dimensional Alchemist was currently a 5 dollar common and was necessary in any deck that removes a butt load of cards.

Judgment Dragon is reprinted again. Konami must really want to lower the price of a Lightsworn deck and his status as Gold Rare makes LS a little more appealing as the rest of the cards aren't expensive bar Lyla and Celestia. Mezuki was difficult to pull from PP2 and it was only 15 dollars. Now Konami decides is time to reprint the engine that made Zombies broken and if Mezuki does ever go to 2 then it should be easier to obtain along with Plaguespreader.

Thunderking Rai-Oh's were costly to obtain in sets of 3 and provides a good side deck card or main deck tech with an affordable price and expect a rise in Stun decks with Rai-Oh's reprint. Gale gets the foil treatment and makes Blackwing decks easier to bling out with Gold reprints of Icarus Attack, Armor Master, and Armed Wing.

Infernity Archfiend makes Infernity decks less costly but only by a little since Barriers are 60 each. But its a start if your making the deck. Stardust Dragons reprint as a Gold Rare officially makes it the Whore of Reprints but I see why Konami would put it on Gold Series 3. Its a staple in extra decks and its ridiculously high price before made it hard for kids who picked up the game through 5d's to obtain their characters favorite monster.

MST is another Staple that gets the Gold Treatment and I guess it makes some people happy. IDk but I dont want to pull like more than 5 MST's when I buy my case. My Body as a Shield finally gets the shine it deserves and its a format too late now with OTK decks and X-sabers owning the meta.

Smashing Ground gets a reprint in Gold as the Super version of the card was 0ver 40 dollars. Enemy Controllers were kind of hard to get but they're holo versions weren't difficult to obtain.

Remember this review is on the list on wikia. There's no guarantee that its 100% legit so dont go and sell your super Icarus Attack's. All right I'll be coming with more posts later on.

WTF?! TCG!!

2010-04-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

So Infernity Gun is now called Infernity Launcher and Infernity Revenger is called Infernity Avenger. So Beetle is a rare. Launcher and Mirage look super and Inferno looks like a rare. Avenger looks like a rare. Doom dragon is obviously an ultra. I hate the names but if the rarities are like this then I will buy them all in one day!!!! Actually on the day of the Sneak Preview!!!!!

The Shining Darkness part 2

2010-04-06T20:14:00.001-07:00

So X-Sabers seem to keep getting supports TCG exclusives. While Boggart Knight was decent the new card is crap. Saber Vault pumps up X-Saber attack points by 100 for each level they have. So Gottoms is a 4000 beater. Okay. It has no other effects and can easily destroyed since its a field card. I used to run X-Sabers and I would really like to toy with Boggart Knight but the Saber Vault is useless.

The Shining Darkness

2010-03-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yo peeps! It's been a while since I've last posted but I've been kind of busy. Well Konami has released info on one of the new exclusives for the TCG for The Shining Darkness. It's name is XX-Saber Boggart Knight. Its a crazy 1900 attack point monster that has a Marauding Captain special summoning effect exclusive for the X-Saber theme. Its downside is that you can only use it for a X-Saber Synchro but that's perfectly fine if you're playing X-Sabers. Also The Shining Darkness is bringing X-Saber Pashuul and X-Saber Palomuro both that were exclusive to the Duel Terminal and the OCG. Will X-Sabers become a tier one deck in The Shining Darkness? Only time will tell since no one has any idea what Konami is capable of.

Yugioh and Math

2010-03-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

They have more in common than you may believe. I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of plus 1's and minuses in their yugioh careers. If not then let me break it down.

A plus is something that was added to your over all card presence. A minus means you lost an extra card worth of card presence.

For example. A typical plus 1 in a Lightsworn deck is Wulf and Garoth. Both add cards to your economy while doing relatively nothing. Lets say you have six cards with your field and hand combined. And you control a Lumina and Garoth. At endphase lets say Lumina mills nothing important but Garoth mills a Wulf. Wulf will special summon itself onto the field and Garoth will let you draw one card from your deck as a result of milling a Lightsworn. Now your card economy should be 8. You are now 2 cards ahead of your opponent had this been the first turn of the duel and the duel should be in your favor.

An example of a minus is when you trade of cards that leaves you with a worse economy than your opponent. Lets say my opponent has a Shura on the field with a set Icarus attack. Let's say I special summon a Cyber Dragon and I have a set Trap Stun. We both control 6 cards in our economy. I attack Shura with Cydra. My opponent responds with Icarus attack tributing Shura and targeting Cydra and Trap Stun. If I respond with Trap Stun my opponent will not be able to destroy my Cydra. Now his total card economy is 4 while mine is 5. All because my opponent expected a 2-2 trade off and I messed that up by using one card to nullify a 2-2 trade.

An even trade is usually expressed in terms of how many cards you used to rid your opponent of cards. Lets say My opponent controls 2 Judgment Dragons and nothing else. And I control 2 cards in my economy. If I use Lightning Vortex to dispatch the 2 monsters then I have clearly created a 2-2 trade off. I spent 2 cards to get rid of 2 cards. Now If my opponent had 3 Judgment Dragons then clearly he would be cheating but lets say for educational purposes he does have 3 of them on the field. And I have 3 cards worth of economy. If I use Lightning Vortex I effectively created a minus for my opponent while since I used up 2 cards to get rid of 3.

1 for 1's are even easier to understand. It's simply one card is used to rid one other. 1 for 1 cards can only take out 1 card no matter what the situation is. Since when have you seen a Smashing Ground destroy 2 or more monsters? Never right? Good.

Well that's it for today. I'll start updating my blog more often now that I have more time. Check out my Youtube channel and subscribe to me!

www.youtube.com/666kidrobot

Tournament Report

2010-03-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to enter a tournament at my locals. I haven't entered a tournament since Shonen Jump Los Angeles. I borrowed a Dimensional Eatos deck from my friend and entered with it. I went 2-3.

My first round I faced my teammate and he raped me with Icarus Attack game 1 and 3. He was playing Blackwings of course.

My second round opponent was a friend of mine who seemed to be playing DivaDad or some Absolute Zero build. Not really sure. Dimensional Fissure and D.D. Survivors wrecked his field.

My third round opponent was running monarchs and he kept getting rid of my D-Fissures with them. I didn't draw my Skill Drains.

My fourth Round opponent didn't show. Sad face.

My fifth round opponent was running Counter Fairies. He main decked triple Fissure and triple Smashing Ground. Since the deck ran little monsters I got pwned. He magic Drained my Gemini Sparks!!!!

Oh well. Had fun. Got some cards for my Infernity deck. Next week is regionals. I hope they get me to judge. If they don't then I'll probably play. I'm going to be running my GB deck with 3 Starlight Road. They come out on Tuesday but I'm getting them tomorrow!!

Till next time!

P.S. Check out my Youtube Channel. Youtube.com/user/666kidrobot

Infernities are broken!!!

2010-03-03T12:02:00.001-08:00

I saw the video Neuxcharge posted on his youtube channel and it blew my mind. I actually proxied the deck (I hate proxying) and its ridiculously powerful. I haven't lost yet with it. Here's the link to Junk and Debris Versus Infernity. And here is the deck and commentary by Neuxcharge. Both videos are the property of NeuxCharge and I do not claim them as mine. Subscribe to Neuxcharge.

Here's the deck list for those can't see the video.

Monsters:17
3 Infernity Archfiend
3 Infernity Beetle
2 Infernity Necromancer
2 Infernity Mirage
2 D-hero Malicious
2 Dark Grepher
1 Armageddon Knight
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Dark Armed Dragon

Spells:14
2 Dark World Dealing
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Hand Destruction
3 Infernity Gun
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Dark Eruption
1 One for One
1 Foolish Burial

Traps:09
3 Threatening Roar
2 Infernity Inferno
2 Trap Stun
2 Raigeki Break

Extra Deck:15
3x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2x Ally of Justice Decisive Arms
1x Red Dragon Archfiend
1x Colossal Fighter
1x Thought Ruler Archfiend
1x Stardust Dragon
1x Dark End Dragon
2x Gaia Knight
1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1x Goyo Guardian
1x Ally of Justice Catastor

GB Post March 1st

2010-02-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything new in a while and I can't wait till I can actually play this deck in a tournament. Check it out!

Monsters:18
3x GB Laquari
3x Test Tiger
2x GB Equeste
2x Cyber Dragon
1x GB Murmillo
1x GB Bestiari
1x GB Retiari
1x GB Hoplomus
1x GB Darius
1x GB Secutor
1x X-Saber Airbellum
1x Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind

Spells:09
3x Gladiator Proving Ground
2x Book of Moon
1x Heavy Storm
1x Cold Wave
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Smashing Ground

Traps:13
3x GB War Chariot
3x Dimensional Prison
2x Bottomless Traphole
2x Waboku
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Dustshoot

Yes. That's a lot of traps. With Dimensional Eatos as my worst match up, the deck needed a large amount of monster removal. All the spell and trap removal is in the side. 2 Cyber Dragons bait out the bottomless and are quite useful for synchro summoning into level 8 monsters. Let me know what you think. All comments and questions are appreciated and I will get back to you soon.

Just Bought a box! Throw some D's on that B%&$@!

2010-02-26T18:25:00.000-08:00

My pulls:

Super:05

1x Fiendish Chain
1x Tuner's Scheme
1x Saber Hole
1x Dragonic Guard
1x Super-Nimble Mega Hamster

Ultra:02

1x Sun Dragon Inti
1x Drill Warrior

Ultimate:01

1x Drill Warrior

Secret:01

Core Transport Unit

Well...the box was all right I guess. Well for me it was. I needed the Saber Hole, Sun Dragon Inti, and Core Transport Unit. The rest is trade bait.

I'm Back!

2010-02-24T14:48:00.001-08:00

Its been a while since I've updated my blog because I switched internet services and was without the web for about a week. Now I'm back! I recently bought 3 Machina Force Structure decks on Monday as well as 2 boxes off Absolute Powerforce. I pulled decent from both boxes but didn't pull the secret I wanted. I got Shield Wing and Djinn. Like I was saying. The Machina deck is really good. They have their own Stratos that searches for any machina monster. They have a boss card that can easily be summoned and they deck packs awesome cards like Cyber Valley and D-Prison as commons. I've built my own Machina deck but haven't tested it against an actual person yet becuase I've been at home all week. Apparently Machina is good with the Ancient Gear Dragon. The deck runs Trade In's as draw power and the Stratos machine thins the deck whiile Scrap Recycler allows you to set up Fortress when its summoned and allows you to draw 1 by recycling 2 level 4 fallen machines. The deck looks really impressive and makes Chimera Fortress Dragon more dangerous since it can be used against you. I'll post my own deck list soon after testing it. On another note I am judging this Saturday at the Long Beach Regionals.

Monarch post March Ban List

2010-02-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

I was bored all day because I had to stay home and take care of my sick nephew. I decided to relieve myself of my boredom and decided to make a new Monarch deck that fits with the new ban list. Here's the result of my boredom.

Monsters:23
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
1x Card Trooper
2x Cyber Dragon
3x Cyber Valley
2x Dandylion
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2x Krebons
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Psychic Commander
2x Raiza the Storm Monarch
1x Sangan
1x Tragoedia
1x Treeborn Frog

Spells:09
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Brain Control
1x Emergency Teleport
1x Enemy Controller
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mind Control
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x One for One

Traps:08
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mirror Force
2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
3x Reckless Greed

Its pretty fun. That's all for today!

Status Report

2010-02-17T12:06:00.001-08:00

With the new ban list crippling LS, Zombies, and D-Heroes as well as a few other cards I am currently updating my decks to fit the new ban list.

Gladiator Beasts(Added Widespread Dud)

Relinquished Djinn Control(Removed one allure and 2 Necro Gardnas. Deck is on standby)

X-Sabers (Currently in its testing stages. Needs improvement)

Gravekeepers (Removed one allure and am currently running a full play set of Caius)

Koa'ki Meiru (Currently on standby. Haven't finished the deck yet)

Quickdraw Synchro (On standby. I am still missing a large portion of the extra deck and a few main deck cards.

Feel free to ask me any questions and/or request anything you would like to see me cover. Till next time. Peace!

Brionac

2010-02-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Is it me or is Brionac still at 3 in the TCG?

The New Banlist

2010-02-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

Restricted:
Chaos Sorceror
Tragoedia
Necro Gardna
Necroface
Mezuki
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Burial From Another Dimension
Foolish Burial
Destiny Draw
Charge of the Light Brigade
Allure of Darkness
Mind Crush
Magical Explosion

Semi Restrict:
Honest
Cyber Dragon
Demise the King of Armageddon
Dandylion
Treeborn Frog
Black Whirlwind
United We Stand
Royal Decree
Royal Oppression
Skill Drain

To 3:
Mask of Darkness
Smashing Ground

First off WTF! They didn't weaken Lightsworn. They murdered it. With Lumina, Charge, and Gardna limited the LS crew is out of power. To make things worse Honest was semi-ed as well making LS nothing but a joke. Zombies were hit as expected with Mezuki back in the limited list and both Burials joining it on the list. Chaos Sorcerer, Tragoedia, and Allure at 1 weakened every dark deck out there and ruined LS chance at a revival in the form of Twilight. Chaos is dead. D-Draw and Allure at 1 makes the D-Hero engine obsolete. Necroface and Magical Explosion at 1 ends the possibility of the OCG otk's from setting foot in TCG territory. Mind Crush at 1 doesn't make sense to me but whatever I don't mind. Cyber Dragon at 2 revives the dead machine archetype and gives Monarch decks hope along with the extra Treeborn frog and Dandylion now accessible to them. Black Whirlwind at 2 was the only hit Blackwing took aside from Allure but I'm pretty sure they'll suffice with Reckless Greed. Royal Oppression and Skill Drain at hit all the anti meta decks and makes GB's scream with joy. Royal Decree at 2 really doesn't do much but I don't care about this one either. Mask of Darkness at 3 makes Trap Heavy decks better in reusing their traps while an unlimited Smashing Ground will deal with all the annoying big defenders and will most likely replace Fissure.

Its finally confirmed by Shriek so everyone who held on their D-Draws and Lightsworn cards tough luck.

The Perfect Side pt.2

2010-02-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome back. Today I'll continue going over side decks for certain decks. Lets look at Zombies and Blackwings.

Zombie decks are a conservative deck that goes nuts once it has all the pieces in store for the OTK. Heavily focusing on searching cards from the deck and recovering cards from the grave makes Zombie decks easy to side against. Kycoos, Banishers, D-Fissures, and Thunderkings tear this deck apart. Here's what a standard Zombie decks side should look like.

3x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Dust Tornado
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master
2x Royal Oppression (If not main decked)
2x Traphole
2x D.D. Crow
1x Malevolent Catastrophe
1x Lightning Vortex

The Kycoos protect the ever important Zombie graveyard and decimates Lightsworn and other Zombie decks graveyards. The Dust Tornado's deal with the annoying War Chariots and anything else your opponent is attempting to hit you with. JuJu counters anti meta decks and forces Gladiators to wait until they have an answer to it. Royal Oppression stomps Lightsworn and Glads while controlling the mirror match. The Trapholes are brought in against Blackwings and GB's who are very reliant on their normal summoning. D.D. Crows deal with Necro Gardnas, Plaguespreaders, and anything else in the grave. Malevolent Catastrophe is brought in against anti meta decks, Blackwings, and GB match ups because both decks rely on heavy back row support. The Vortex controls the size of the opponents field and helps deal with problems your monsters cant handle.

Blackwings are straight beasts. Winged Beasts to be more specific. It can deal damage real fast and is very flexible when it comes to synchro summoning. It can focus on swarming the field with the help of Whirlwind or it can be controlling with Icarus Attack. Blackwings are the most flexible side deck users since most of the cards sided don't hurt the Blackwings at all. Blackwings only weakness is decks that are faster and hit harder than they do. Here's what I think the perfect side for Blackwings is.

3x Light Imprisoning Mirror
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Skill Drain
2x Royal Oppression
2x Delta Crow-Anti Reverse
2x Trap Hole
2x Tragoedia

Blackwings were able to handle Lightsworns before Gale was limited. Now Lightsworns are able to out speed Blackwings. Light Imprisoning Mirror, Oppressions and Kycoos are sided in against them to help slow them down while dealing with their graveyard (Skill Drains work too as they stop the continuous effects of Aurkus and Jain, 2 cards Light Imprisoning mirror cant stop). Kycoos, Oppressions and Trap Holes help deal with the Zombie threats while Skill Drain, Royal Oppression, and Trap Hole deal with the Glad deck. Delta Crows help deal with anti meta decks and decks that set too much back row. The Tragoedia's are brought in during the Mirror Match. Stealing monsters that work with your deck is always nice and not to mention Whirlwind adds card to the hand increasing Tragoedia's attack.

Well that's all for right now.

The Perfect Side

2010-02-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

Side decking is a difficult art to master since there are so many decks out there and you're only allowed to 15 cards to help combat them. The side deck should include cards that cover your decks weaknesses and help take down others. With only 15 slots lets look at some decks and see what they're staple side should look like.

Lightsworns/Twilight: They rely heavily on milling their deck and focus on their graveyard while summoning huge monsters. Anti Meta decks like Skill Drain and Fissure their them apart. Here's an average side for them.

3x Royal Decrees
2x Breaker the Magical Warrior
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Giant Trunade

Those 11 cards are pretty much standard for the LS/Twilight builds. The extra four cards can be tech cards of your choice. My body as a Shield and Fairy Wind work well too. The decrees completely shut down Light and Shadow Imprisoning Mirror as well as the feared Skill Drain. Breakers make sure they clear Light Imprisoning Mirrors and Fissures while counting as dark's for DAD and Chaos Sorcerer. Kycoos are usually brought in against Zombies to completely shut them down and can be sided against other decks to prevent Soul Releases and opposing Kycoos from damaging your strategy. The Bottomless Trapholes are sided in against decks that carry large monsters like Dimensional Eatos and makes the LS/Twilight more aggressive and dangerous as the Bottomless are usually not expected. MST and Giant Trunade are sided in against GB's and every anti meta deck that uses Skill Drains and Fissures.

Gladiator Beasts are one of the most feared decks around because they can easily shut down your opponents strategies with their multiple tag ins. The GB's rely heavily on special summoning and effects so when the opponent sides in Oppressions and Skill Drains the GB player is in trouble. Here's their usual side deck strategy.

3x Banisher of the Radiance
3x Trap Stun
3x Dust Tornado
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Dimensional Fissure
2x My Body as a Shield

Banishers, Kycoo, and Fissures are sided in against Zombies and Lightsworn decks. Even though GB's have an even match up against Zombies it can still be out sped by Lightsworns. It evens the playing field and makes both decks strategies fail. The Trap Stuns and Dust Tornadoes are sided in against anti meta decks and any deck that sided in Mirror of Oaths. My Body as a Shield are sided in against the dreaded Stardust Dragon, Bottomless Traphole, and Mirror of Oaths.

I'll go over more decks side deck tomorrow. Peace.

Keepers of the Dead

2010-02-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

Gravekeeper's Descendant aka Jack Atlas is a Hand of the Six Samurai for the Gravekeeper archetype except he can destroy any card on your opponents side of the field. He makes Spy more valuable as he can be searched out by it. I would run 2-3 of these.

Gravekeeper's Visionary is a boss in Gravekeeper's as he gets powered up for each Gravekeeper in the grave by 200 and he can prevent his destruction. I would run only 1-2 of this card.

Gravekeeper's Priestess is the promo from the set and she makes cards like Royal Tribute more viable. She also grants some of the Gravekeepers effects. Good effect and I suggest 1-2.

Gravekeeper's Stele is a good card to run because it recycles extra Gravekeeper cards and makes Visionary from running out of protection. It makes using Royal Tribute less risky since you can recover your fallen Gravekeepers.

My sword Versus your Saber

2010-02-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

X-Sabers have been out for a while and haven't topped in a major event because they were too inconsistent and were crushed by faster decks like Lightsworn and Blackwings. With the release of Absolute Powerforce the X-Saber archetype gets the much needed support they needed to be able to handle other decks.

Saber Hole is a counter trap card that negates the summon of a monster as long as you control an X-Saber. Saber Hole makes X-Sabers a lot better because now X-Sabers have a counter to monsters they didn't have answers too before like JD and DAD. It becomes a staple in the deck and should be run in threes.

XX-Saber Garsem is a Goblin Zombie for X-Sabers but only if he is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the graveyard. He also gains an extra 200 attack for each face up X-Saber monster on your side of the field. Since X-Sabers swarm the field with Faultrolls and E-Calls, Garsem should have no problem getting pumped up. His other effect is useful if you can bait a Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force. I would only suggest 1-2 Garsems.

XX-Saber Emmersblade is a searcher for the X-Saber monsters. Giant Rat was good but he couldn't search out Airbellum and Giant Rats in the grave didn't benefit Gottoms E-Call and Gardestrike. Emmersblade pulls the deck together and makes it more consistent. As good as they are only 2 Emmersblade is recommended. Three is overkill.

XX-Saber Hyunlei is a level 6 synchro monster that requires a non tuner X-Saber monster as its requirement. Its effect allows it to destroy up to three spell or traps on your opponents side of the field when its synchro summoned. Do I need to go on. X-Sabers had problems getting rid of spells and traps outside of Heavy Storm. Saber Slash was nice but it didn't hit face downs. Hyunlei is a welcome to any X-Saber deck. 1-2 in the extra deck would be nice.

Tomorrow I'll review the new cards for Gravekeepers and how they'll improve Gravekeepers.

Hidden Arsenal 2

2010-02-11T14:01:00.001-08:00

It hits the TCG in July with a 60 card set! I wonder what were getting in there?

I Fight for the Core

2010-02-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Koa'ki Meiru are an interesting archetype. They mostly all have good effects and some can be splashed in other decks. However running a successful pure Koa'ki Meiru deck has been difficult in the past because you would run out of cards too quickly. Absolute Powerforce fixed that problem by releasing Iron Core Specimen Lab, Core Transport Unit, and Koa'ki Meiru Urnight.

Instead of going over the whole deck like I have with the other 2 lets just look at these new cards and how they make Koa'ki Meiru more reliable.

Iron Core Specimen Lab allows a Koa'ki Meiru player to let their monsters die and thin the deck by searching extra Koa'ki Meiru monsters. A good combo when you have 2-3 monsters on the field with all different costs is to let one die and search out the remaining ones cost cards.

Core Transport Unit is what makes Koa'ki Meiru decks more reliable since most of the cards in the deck rely on Iron Core of the Koa'ki Meiru. This allows you to search the core faster and lets you toss extra copies in the grave loading up effects for some of the traps.

Koa'ki Meiru Urnight makes Koa'ki Meiru decks faster and more brutal. It used to be rare for Koa'ki Meiru decks to be able to swarm the field. Urnight makes it simple and his high attack of 2000 makes him nearly invincible against other level 4 monsters.

All right that's it for today. Tomorrow I'll be going over the new X-Saber cards and how they'll affect how X-Sabers play from now on.

Battle Bred Beasts

2010-02-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

Gladiators have been around for a while. They surprised the world at Shonen Jump Minneapolis 2008 by winning the event with Gladiator Beasts and decimating Dark Armed Return. People quickly net decked what was less expensive yet successful. When Light of Destruction hit stores everyone had access to Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. The Prisma spam was used to dominate tournaments everywhere until finally Bestiari was limited. GB's slowed down as Stardust and TeleDad countered it and Lightsworn finally out sped it. Now with the ban list hitting Lightsworns and Zombies, Gladiators can come back.

Monsters:18
3x Gladiator Beast Laquari
3x Test Tiger
2x Gladiator Beast Samnite
2x Gladiator Beast Equeste
1x Gladiator Beast Bestiari
1x Gladiator Beast Retiari
1x Gladiator Beast Secutor
1x Gladiator Beast Murmillo
1x Gladiator Beast Darius
1x Gladiator Beast Hoplomus
1x Rescue Cat
1x X-Saber Airbellum

Spells:11
3x Gladiator Proving Ground
2x Book of Moon
2x Shrink
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Trunade
1x Cold Wave
1x Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps:11
3x Gladiator Beast War Chariot
2x Bottomless Traphole
2x Waboku
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Trap Dustshoot

Gladiator Beasts are a control deck that focus on slowly grinding your opponents cards while they gain advantage. With cards like Murmillo and Bestiari handling field cards and Retiari dealing with the grave, the opponent loses ground. Airbellum isn't a GB but it works wonders with Rescue Cat and discards a card from your opponents hand and its a tuner. Equeste and Darius are the Garbage Men as they recycle cards out of the grave in two different ways while Secutor and Samnite is the Cheerleader as one brings out 2 GB's from the deck with their effect loaded and the other adds cards with GB in the name to the hand. The spell cards in the deck made the cut because they help you maintain control of the duel. Book of Moon ends Blackwing swarms and ends Lightsworns end phases. Shrink can also help you avoid Bottomless Traphole and shrinking a BW using Black Whirlwind forces them to search for something else. The Spell and Trap removal make sure your GB's can attack safely. War Chariots ensure no effects can mess up your plays and allows you to control what your opponent can and can't do. Bottomless Traphole rids the field of high attackers that can stop GB's like Thunder King and Barbaros. Waboku lets your GB's survive battle and ensures tag outs. Solemn and Dustshoot allow you to control plays on the field and hand. Call ensures you can revive anything you need like solemned Rescue Cat. Torrential clears the field for your attacks to go through. Mirror Force didn't make the cut because Starlight Road is coming real soon and mass destruction effects will be dangerous. Torrential will be removed from the deck once Starlight Road is out. Starlight Road will be interesting in GB decks because it will protect all GB monsters and their Spells and Traps from mass destruction and gives them a one shot Stardust. Who knows what the ban list holds in store. Will Bestiari and Solemn Judgment be semi limited? We'll find out soon.

Tomorrow I'll analyze a Koa'ki Meiru deck.

Synchro Kitty

2010-02-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

Synchro Cat was definitely the scariest OTK deck I have encountered during my experience playing YGO(I started playing when Gladiator's Assault was released). I only faced it once at my locals but it OTK'd me both games. Ever since I watched multiple players lose to Synchro to one turn kills. The Cat was heavily hit September 2009 as Summoner Monk, Rescue Cat and Dark Strike Fighter took a blow. Summoner Monk and Rescue Cat, the main combo pieces of the deck were limited to slow the deck down. The deck's key spell cards that made otk's possible, Cold Wave and Mind Control, were limited as well. Dark Strike Fighter the win Condition of the deck was banned. Players were unable to otk as frequently and many people left Synchro Cat behind and moved towards other decks that could possibly take over the new format. Synchro Cat is still a force to be reckoned with. With the right hands it can still otk and while not as deadly as they used to be, the Synchro Cat deck can still outplay any current top tier deck if underestimated. Synchro Cat didn't only win by OTK. It had another kind of victory. It focused on decreasing the opponents card presence and keeping their own advantage. Look at the deck list I have created and tested and see if you can spot the advantage each card in the deck provides.

Monsters:21
3x Cyber Valley
3x X-Saber Airbellum
2x Mystic Tomato
2x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2x Gravekeeper's Spy
2x Gravekeeper's Guard
1x Rescue Cat
1x Summoner Monk
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1x Sangan
1x Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind
1x Des Koala

Spells:11
2x Allure of Darkness
2x Pot of Avarice
1x Mind Control
1x Brain Control
1x Machine Duplication
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Cold Wave

Traps:08
2x Threatening Roar
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Torrential Tribute

Now for my analysis.

First off are the monsters. Cyber Valleys allow you to draw more cards from your deck and allows you to create a slower environment for you opponent if they don't have an answer to it other than attacking it. In conjunction with Brain Control, Mind Control, and Machine Duplication this deck can seriously start grinding away at your opponents cards and allow you to put you combo faster. Airbellums are the heart of the deck as they are a level 3 beast tuner accessible by Rescue Cat. It creates ideal situations when your opponent has no monsters on their side of the field. A direct attack and your opponent is down 1 card from their hand. Airbellum works really well with Mind Control and Brain Control by allowing a possible discard from your opponents hand and a Synchro summon. The Mystic Tomato's allow you to keep your field presence after a massive Blackwing or Lightsworn swarm and counts towards your dark count for Dark Armed Dragon and allows easy access to Summoner Monk. Ryko is the answer to the feared Colossal Fighter and allows you to clear cards on the field that may become a nuisance later on while loading your graveyard for Dark Armed Dragon and Pot of Avarice. Gravekeeper's Spy's allow you to +1 and enables double Synchro summons and allows the deck to go Arcanite Magician for an easy -2 for your opponent. Gravekeeper's Guards also open up the possibilities to an Arcanite Play but also allow you to rid the field of one monster when flipped face up. Annoying Synchro monsters beware and he works well with Airbellum too. Rescue Cat, the Soul of the deck. It allows for a +1 and enables Synchro Summons by searching out Airbellums and any other beasts if needed. Summoner Monk is the body of the deck and he allows you turn any spell card into a level four monster once per turn. With Rescue Cat as a level four it goes nuts and lets loose 2 Airbellums which leads to an Arcanite Magician and Airbellum. Arcanite destroy 2 cards on the field while the extra Airbellum clears a card from the opponents hand or if you had another no tuner monster on the field it would allow for a double synchro summon. Dark Armed Dragon is an instant +3 if he survives his summoning and with a 2800 attack body he will end games really fast. Gorz saves you from a bad situation or allows you to decimate your opponent by walking into your feigned weakness by hitting the field as a 2700 hitter and creating a +1 by creating a token. Sangan searches for whatever you need at any situation. Gale allows access to the unbeatable Armor Master and is a dark so it can easily fuel DAD and Allure and its shrink ability makes Gale an enemy of high attack monsters. Des Koala is a level 3 dark Beast monster that can be searched by Rescue Cat when your in need of a level 6 synchro monster. Its a dark so it also fuels DAD and Allure and its burn damage and high defense is always nice too.

Allure's allow for quick draws and easy deck thinning. The pots recycle fallen monsters and allows for draws and if synchros were used it allows for multiple +'s. Mind Control and Brain Control allow for an easy -1 from your opponent and allows for easy synchro plays and Cyber Valley draws. Machine Dupe allows for the abuse of Cyber Valleys and their effect. Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade, MST , and Cold Wave do what they do best. They allow you to make your plays without interference from decimating back row cards like Torrential or Mirror Force.

Threatening Roars allow you to survive OTK's and set up your combos safely. Bottomless Traphole is your basic monster removal card and can be a +1 if your opponent summoned more than 1 monster at the same time with 1600 attack points or more. Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute are the field enforcers of the deck while Trap Dustshoot allows you to see your opponents hand and hinder their strategy. Call can lead to a multiple Rescue Cats and well you all already know what this does.

Tomorrow I'll do an analysis on a Gladiator Beast deck I created.

The Aftermath

2010-02-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

After the sneak preview was done I ended up with these cards.

1x Consecrated Light (Common)
6x Gravekeeper's Priestess (5 Ultra, 1 Super)
2x Koa'ki Meiru Urnight (1 Ultimate, 1 Ultra)
2x XX-Saber Garsem (Rare)
1x Gravekeeper's Descendant (Rare) I will from now on refer to him as Jack Atlas.
1x Iron Core Specimen Lab
10x Gravekeeper's Stele (Common)
3x Saber Hole (Super)
2x XX-Saber Emmersblade
1x Battle Fader (Ultimate)
1x Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings (Super)
1x Majestic Red Dragon (Ultimate)

I ended up trading my Battle Fader to get my friend a Guardian Eatos and I got me some stuff from the trade as well. Come back later this week as I go over decks that may come back into the tournament scene post ABPF and the March 2010 ban list. It will feature Synchro Cat, Gladiator Beasts, Koa'ki Meiru, X-Sabers, and Gravekeepers.

Sneak Preview

2010-02-05T22:37:00.001-08:00

Its only a couple of hours away and I just came up with my wants list.

3x Consecrated Light (Common)
2x Gravekeeper's Priestess (Super Rare)
3x Koa'ki Meiru Urnight (Ultra/Ultimate Rare)
2x XX-Saber Garsem (Rare)
2x Gravekeeper's Visionary (Super Rare)
2x Gravekeeper's Descendant (Rare)
1x XX-Saber Hyunlei (Ultra Rare/Ultimate Rare)
3x Iron Core Specimen Lab (Super Rare)
2x Gravekeeper's Stele (Common)
3x Saber Hole (Super Rare)
2x XX-Saber Emmersblade (Secret Rare)
2x Shield Wing (Secret Rare)
3x Core Transport Unit (Secret Rare)

The commons and rare will be simple for me to get. The supers I can manage. Its the Ultras and Secret rares that are going to be a drag. I probably will have to end up trading my Ultra Chaos Sorcerer and Absolute Zero's for a couple of the stuff.

Cactus Control

2010-02-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

With the upcoming release of Absolute Powerforce being this Saturday I have taken time from blogging to look at decks that have been playing at locals and the one that caught my attention was a Plant deck that proxies 3 Cactus Bouncers. I'm not a fan of proxies but the results I saw from the Cactus Control deck made me forget about it. It was beating down Lightsworns, Gladiator Beasts, and Blackwings. Here's a similar deck list I came up with.

Cactus Bouncers are the heart of the deck. Having a similar effect as Archlord Krystia(god I hate that card). Its 1800 attack means it can battle with BW Shura, E-Hero Stratos, LS Jain, and GB Laquari. If However you had summoned Cactus Bouncer and followed up by activation Black Garden you would be in an ideal situation because whatever is summoned by your opponent will have its attack cut in half and Cactus Bouncer's effect will turn online the moment the token hits the field. Mystic Tomato and Lord Poison keep your field full of plants for Cactus Bouncer. Lonefire allows for set up plays with Tytannial or any other card you need. Botanical Lions become the beat sticks for your deck while Violet Witch searches for the Cactus Bouncers. Dandylion is used to keep your field full of plants and allows for the major abuse of Debris Dragon into Blackrose play which leaves the field empty except for 2 fluff tokens. Pot of Avarice recycles your fallen Cactus Bouncers and anything lost that you need back in your deck. 2 copies of the the card MY Body to protect the Cactus Bouncers from destruction effects. Dark Bribes, Solemn Judgment and Black Garden are the control cards of the deck along with the set of Cactus Bouncers. I suggest building a Cactus Control deck if your able to acquire the cards at the Sneak Preview because as annoying as Archlord Krystia(god I hate that card) is, its annoying and brutal to play against and it wins games. Cactus Bouncer has a similar effect and is supported by an amazing cast of plant cards. Plant decks will be a force to be reckoned with come Absolute Powerforce. Whether they will be Tier 1 or anti-meta will be unknown but I do promise you this. Cactus Bouncer will be expensive and beast to play against.

Monsters:16
3x Cactus Bouncer
2x Mystic Tomato
2x Lonefire Blossom
2x Botanical Lion
2x Lord Poison
1x Violet Witch
1x Tytannial, Princess of Camellias
1x Dandylion
1x Nettles
1x Debris Dragon

Spells:14

3x Black Garden
2x Terraforming
2x Mark of the Rose
2x My Body as a Shield
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Brain Control
1x Pot of Avarice

Traps:10

3x Dark Bribe
2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment

Chaos Heroes

2010-02-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

What's more fun than playing with E-Heroes? Adding Chaos Sorcerer's to throw you opponent off!!!

Monsters:18

2x Chaos Sorcerer
2x Elemental Hero Bladedge
2x Elemental Hero Necroshade
2x Elemental Hero Prisma
2x Elemental Hero Sparkman
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
2x Elemental Hero Wildheart
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3x King of the Swamp
1x Sangan

Spells:16

1x Brain Control
3x E-Emergency Call
1x Future Fusion
1x Heavy Storm
3x Miracle Fusion
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Reinforcements of the Army
2x Polymerization
2x R-Righteous Justice
1x Super Polymerization

Traps:07

2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Mirror Force
1x Return From the Different Dimension
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Dustshoot

Rise of the Machines

2010-02-02T18:34:00.000-08:00

With Absolute Powerforce bringing out Cyber Dragon Zwei as a rare, machine decks may be able to rise to the top spots. The infamous Cyber Twin OTK and Chimeratech OTK are revived with Zwei who becomes a Cyber Dragon on the field by revealing a spell card and while he's in the grave he's instantly turned into a Cyber Dragon. With Cyber Eltanin as one of our win conditions and Return as the second if Eltanin fails this deck has many different otk's lined up.

Monsters:20
3x Cyber Dragon Zwei
3x Cyber Valley
3x Tuningware
3x Reflect Bounder
3x Honest
2x Hyper Synchron
1x Road Synchron
1x Cyber Eltanin
1x Cyber Dragon

Spells:12
2x Evolution Burst
2x Machine Duplication
1x One For One
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Brain Control
1x Mind Control
1x Future Fusion
1x Overload Fusion
1x Limiter Removal

Traps:08
2x Bottomless Traphole
2x Dark Bribe
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Return From the Different Dimension

March 2010 the Day of Reckoning

2010-01-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

After some careful consideration on the ban list I came up with something I believe will be more accurate. Here it is.

Newly Banned

Adam Corn
Brain Control
Elemental Hero Stratos
Necroface

Limited

Beckoning Light
Brionac, Dragon Of The Ice Barrier
Burial From The Different Dimension
Judgment Dragon
Tragoedia

Semi-Limited

Cyber Dragon
Gladiator Beast Bestiari
Solemn Judgment

Unlimited

Allure of Darkness
Bottomless Traphole
Chaos Sorcerer
Gold Sarcophagus

All right for my explanations on the choices. First off the ban list. Brain Control has been around for years and has won countless games by simply taking a monster for a laughable 800 life points. Too good thus it deserves a ban. Stratos leads to the deadly plays of TeleDad, Chaos, or any deck that abuses the D-Hero engine. It's an 1800 atk floater who is essentially a free card and allows you to tutor the entire hero cast. Not to mention he is incredibly broken with revival cards. Necroface otk's. No more no less.

For the limited list. Beckoning slows down Lightsworn decks and makes them think twice about dropping JD with only one way to get it back. Brionac equals broken. Limited for otk reasons. Burial leads to the abuse of Mezuki, Vayu, and Necro Gardna. Limited it slows these decks down. Judgment Dragon. Enough said. Tragoedia is a broken mind control on legs who can be a real problem to deal with.

The semi limit list sees Bestiari at 2. It gives for Gladiator Beasts a chance to make a comeback. Cyber Dragon at 2 helps promote the new Machine cards coming out and helps machine decks join the tournament scene. Solemn Judgment gives support to control decks and helps stop problems.

Allure of Darkness is unlimited to help dark decks who relied on Stratos make a comeback. Bottomless at three helps counter Gladiators and Eatos decks. Chaos Sorcerer at 3 allows Twilight decks and Chaos decks a chance to recover from losing Tragoedia and Stratos. Gold Sarcophagus at three allows any deck to help search for their newly limited cards and with Necroface banned it no longer is a problem.

Absolute Powerforce TCG Exclusives

2010-01-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

Alchemist of Black Chaos disappointed me. I thought it would have been better. At least its not a secret rare.

Kaiba is Back!

2010-01-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

It's about time they do this for Kaiba. Can't wait for the Joey duelist pack.

Duelist Pack – Kaiba –
In 2009, we brought back some of Yugi’s best cards in the easy-to-collect Duelist Pack format. Now we’re doing the same for Yugi’s greatest rival, with Duelist Pack – Kaiba –!

This is your chance to collect the most famous – and infamous – cards of the man himself, with some all-new twists you’ve never seen before. We’ve expanded this Duelist Pack set to 40 cards, because Kaiba has so many great cards, and we couldn’t bear to leave any of them out!

Highlights of this special set include:

A brand-new “Blue-Eyes White Dragon” Effect Monster, available for the first time!
5 Ultimate Rare versions of Kaiba’s most foreboding – and forbidden – cards, including “Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End,” “Cyber Jar,” and “Pot of Greed” – cards never before seen as Ultimate Rares.
Brand-new artwork for “XYZ-Dragon Cannon” and “Vorse Raider.”
Includes two of the biggest monsters ever created: “Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon” and “Dragon Master Knight.”
A new chance for you to get popular but hard-to-find cards like “Fiend’s Sanctuary” and the alternate artwork “La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp.”
Foil-up your deck with a shiny Super Rare version of “Return from the Different Dimension.”
Each pack also contains a tip card to help you re-live some of Kaiba’s greatest Dueling moments.

So dust off your cape and strap on your Duel Disk, because it’s time to prove you’ve got what it takes to be the world’s greatest Duelist!

Duelist Pack – Kaiba – product breakdown:

40-card complete set:

19 Common Cards (4:1)

8 Rare Cards (1:1)

5 Super Rare Cards (1:5)

3 Ultra Rare Cards (1:15)

5 Ultimate Rare Cards (1:24)

Handless Demons-The Infernity

2010-01-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

Well I promised to deliver an Infernity deck and I'm going through with it. I made an Infernity deck for this format (TCG). I kind of messed up though. i thought Infernity Destroyer was out in the TCG and playtested the damn deck on Tagforce 4. After looking through my Ancient Prophecy and Stardust Overdrive boxes and find none I decided to look it up and see that it still not out in the TCG. Damn it. For those who want to netdeck this I suggest replacing them for either Bottomless Traphole or Smashing Ground + Infernity Force.

Monsters:24
3x Dark Grepher
3x Infernity Archfiend
2x Infernity Beast
2x Infernity Destroyer
2x Infernity Dwarf
2x Infernity Guardian
3x Infernity Necromancer
3x Necro Gardna
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
3x Dark Creator

Spells:12
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Card Destruction
2x Foolish Burial
2x Hand Destruction
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
3x Upstart Goblin

Traps:04
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Mirror Force
2x Raigeki Break

Charging Batteries

2010-01-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

Batteryman were released Cybernetic Revolution and have gained support in Light of Destruction and Duelist Genesis. In The Shining Darkness there has been revealed so far 2 new Batteryman monsters. Batteryman AAA has a crappy effect but its the other one that made me do a double take. Fuel Cell Batteryman has an amzing effect. If you already control 1 or more Batteryman monsters you can special summon this 2100 attacker from your hand. Not only does this allow you to power up Batteryman Charger but allows you to Brionac a card on the field by tributing another Batteryman, but it prepares combos with Batteryman Industrial Strength. I like where the Batteryman are heading.

Duelist Revolution

2010-01-28T16:08:00.000-08:00

This is the set after The Shining Darkness. While the OCG may get it April, us TCG players have to wait till August. The supposed cover card is called Surging Dragon Knight Dragonquetess . There's no info on the effect or actual card but sounds awesome.

Relinquished Control

2010-01-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

I am almost done building my Relinquished deck. It's a fun deck that hammers the opponent who doesn't take it seriously. Its greatest weakness is Gladiator Beats and its most favorable Match is Lightsworns. With Djinn Releaser of Rituals stopping special summons and Relinquished stealing monsters the opponent soon runs out of options. Check it out and let me know what you think. It doesn't support a tuner cast yet. I want to be able to add 2 Krebons with an Emergency Teleport and a Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind.

Monsters:20

3x Relinquished
3x Armageddon Knight
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
3x Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands
3x Djinn Releaser of Rituals
2x Necro Gardna
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Sangan

Spells:11

3x Black Illusion Ritual
2x Allure of Darkness
2x Preparation of Rites
1x Brain Control
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps:09

2x Threatening Roar
2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Trap Dustshoot

QuickDraw Synchro

2010-01-26T11:56:00.000-08:00

Yusei decks are pretty damn good! My friend runs this build and its competetive and synchs like theres no tomorrow and it draws like hell too. It was able to beat my glad deck once every match but thats because Glad decks are the Kryptonite to combo decks like this one. You can see our duels on my good friend's Youtube channel right here.

Heres duel 1.

Here's duel 2.

Here's duel 3.

Quickdraw synchron x3
Junk Synchron x3
quillbolt hedgehog x2
breaker the magical warrior
level eater
tuning ware x3
darksea rescue x3
chaos sorcerer x2
card trooper
armageddon knight
sangan

foolish burial x2
reasoning x1
desynchro x2
machine duplication x2
allure of darkness x2
heavy storm
one for one
brain control
mind control
reinforcements of the army

threatening roar x2
call of the haunted
limit reverse
mirror force
torrential tribute

extra
junk archer x2
junk warrior
road warrior
nitro warrior
turbo warrior
armory arm
colossal fighter
mist wurm
stardust dragon x2
black rose dragon
magical android
brionac
goyo guardian

Dont forget to subscribe to my friend Wild Harpie!!!

From Beyond the Grave

2010-01-22T22:21:00.000-08:00

Gravekeepers were originally dug up in Pharaonic Guardian and were used to combat Chaos decks with the field card Necrovalley. Gravekeeper decks would rise every once in a while to counter top decks like TeleDad and Lightsworns but quickly faded from popularity due to faster decks being more reliable. Certain Gravekeepers were splashed into decks. Gravekeepers Spy and Gravekeepers Guard found their way onto Monarch decks and Synchro Cat for advantage. With Absolute Powerforce releasing more Gravekeeper Support it revived a nearly dead Archetype. I have taken my time to build a sample decklist for the new set that can work.

Monsters:20

3x Gravekeeper's Assailant
3x Gravekeeper's Commandant
3x Gravekeeper's Spy
2x Gravekeeper's Priestess
2x Gravekeeper's Guard
2x Gravekeeper's Visionary
2x Gravekeeper's Descendant
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Sangan

Spells:13

3x Necrovalley
2x Royal Tribute
2x Gravekeeper's Stele
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Brain Control
1x Lightning Vortex

Traps:09

3x Rite of Spirit
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Solemn Judgment

This deck is heavily reliant on Necrovalley and will shut down most of the top decks strategies. No Destiny Hero-Malicious or Miracle Fusions to ruin your plays. Chaos Sorcerer can't hit the field and Dark Armed Dragon can't destory. Lightsworns can't target their grave with Lumina and no one can use Call of the Haunted. Zombies lose all their Mezuki plays. With Royal Tribute you can flush out all your opponents monsters and drop their Gorz and Tragoedia dead in the grave. The Visionary is considered your boss card as he gets powered up to quite a bit with Necrovalley and can negate his destruction which is pretty cool. The Stele keeps you ahead of your opponent with extra cards for Lightning Vortex or the Visionary. This deck is more of an anti meta beatdown because all of your gravekeepers will pound on your opponent. The rest of the card choices are pretty obvious so I won't go over them.

Starlight Road

2010-01-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

Would you stop main decking Heavy Storm, Mirror Force, and Torrential Tribute? Or will you be cautious with your major destruction cards. i predict Lightning Vortex will see less play.

BlackWing Treasure

2010-01-21T21:50:00.000-08:00

They ruined the damn card. Now you have to remove a Blackwing monster from your hand to draw 2 cards and you are not allowed to special summon the turn you do. Horrible top deck and only useful early in the game where the special summons aren't as important as setting up.

Stardust Dragon Assault Mode Deck comes March 09, 2010

2010-01-21T21:31:00.000-08:00

With Starlight Road coming out soon why not make a list for the most feared card in the game. SDAM is a beats that you never want to run into cus it wins games. If your opponent is able to bust out 2 SDAM's on you, youre as good as gone cus theres no getting out of that situation without losing major card advantage. This decklist was based off of Tomas Mijares SDAM deck that he took to Shonen Jump Anaheim 2009. I had to make some changes as Solemn was limited and I had to make room for the Starlight Roads. I'd like to test the deck but sadly I can't because I don't proxy cards and the video games don't carry Starlight Road in them. Will Assault Mode decks be good come March? I hope so or I'm going shopping for a new deck again.

Monsters: 18
2 Assault Beast
2 Krebons
2 Stardust Dragon / Assault Mode
2 Destiny Hero – Defender
2 Destiny Hero – Malicious
2 Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude
1 Armageddon Knight
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Sangan
Spells: 12
3 Destiny Draw
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Assault Teleport
1 Brain Control
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Giant Trunade
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 12
3 Starlight Road
3 Skill Drain
2 Assault Mode Activate
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment

Zero Heroes

2010-01-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Well my Absolute Zero deck has been testing very well and I'd like to bring it mainstream. Take a look.

Monsters:19

1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
3 Cyber Valley
3 Deep Sea Diva
1 Destiny Hero-Dasher
1 Destiny Hero-Diamond Dude
2 Destiny Hero-Malicious
1 Elemental Hero Ocean
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
2 Snowman Eater
1 Spined Gillman
1 Treeborn Frog

Spells:14

2 Allure of Darkness
3 Destiny Draw
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mind Control
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Reinforcements of the Army

Traps:07

2 Bottomless Traphole
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Return From the Different Dimension
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Torrential Tribute

March 2010 Banlist Prediction

2010-01-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Julia Hedberg!!!

So everyone is posting up on youtube and blogs what they think is gonna be on the new banlist. Well I might as well do one as well.

Banned!
Brain Control
Sky Scourge Norleras

Limited!
Blackwing-Vayu the Emblem of Honor
Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary
Burial From the Different Dimension
Colossal Fighter
Dark Magician of Chaos
Deep Sea Diva
Mezuki
Judgment Dragon
Tragoedia

Semi-Limited!
Black Whirlwind
Charge of the Light Brigade
Honest
The Transmigration Prophecy

Unlimited!
Chaos Sorcerer
Gold Sarcophagus
Mind Crush
Smashing Ground

Okay that's a lot of changes. Okay let me start by explaining my card decisions. Brain Control has always changed the outcome of duels by instantly taking one card presence from your opponent with a laughable 800 lifepoints. It deserves to be banned. Sky Scourge Norleras is unfair. Many people get frustrated when the duel starts they just lost everything in their hand and field to a Phantom Norleras combo. With the amount of advantage this card provides it deserves to be banned.

I limited Vayu to deal with the growing threat of Blackwing Treasure and instant +1's it provides. Brionac should have instantly hit the limited list upon release but its assumed that Konami left it unlimited to sell out the Hidden Arsenal. With its ability leading to otk's it finally gets what it deserves. Burial gets a hit because it was abused with Necro Gardnas, Vayu's, Mezukis, and Plaguespreaders. Basically anything that abused the graveyard was enhanced with Burial. Colossal Fighter gets hit because it leads to otk's with its unmatched strength and unwillingness to die by battle. Every successful deck runs 2-3 of these bad boys. Hopefully it gets limited. DMOC. WTF! Why not? It won't be as broken as it was before. Monster Reborn has been banned. Lightsworns cant use it since its almost impossible for them to bring him out to the field. Blackwings rarely tribute 2 monsters for anything. The only deck that this would help is a dark deck. Deep Sea Diva gets limited because it allows double synchro summons to happen to quickly. This further hurts Zombie decks using the Divas and limits the power of Zero decks using the Diva Engine. Mezuki should have never been taken off the limited list. It leads to unfair advantage in a zombie deck and leads to multiple synchro summons which in turn leads to otk's. Konami hates otk decks. Judgment Dragon. I wont go into detail about him because everyone should know why this should be limited. Tragoedia has been splashed in many decks after it helped Lightsworn win a Shonen Jump events. Its a permanent Brain Control and can be real hard to get over.

Black Whirlwind needs to get hit because Blackwings need to be dealt with before they take over the format again and with the rise of Shining Darkness in May, Blackwings will be a force to be reckoned with. Charge of the Light Brigade will limit the power of Lightsworns even further and slow decks that abuse the Lightsworn engine. Transmigration Prophecy hasn't seen play in years and would help stabilize decks that have been hit by the banlist or help recover key cards that were lost to effects.

Chaos Sorcerer will never hit three but I want it that way so I can have a playest of Ultras in my deck. Gold Sarcophagus will help those slower decks speed up and help decks that have been hit recover faster. If it leads to otk's then it should be dealt with. Mind Crush hasn't seen play either and can limit plays for decks that reveal cards in their hands like Black Whirlwind or Charge of the Light Brigade. Fissure hasn't changed the format so why should Smashing. Unlimit the card.

Well that's my idea for the banlist. If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask.

The Shining Darkness

2010-01-18T14:36:00.000-08:00

Im excited about some of the cards coming out in this set.

Blackwing Hunter is a nice attempt at weakening Blackwings but the fact that the opponent has to control 3 or more of the same type of monster makes it less playable as Blackwing decks have slowed down. No longer do they swarm the field to otk with Dark Strike. Its nice to see Konami trying to weaken Blackwings and this might be a warning that Blackwings will be a force to be reckoned with again.

Blackwing Treasure adds speed and brings Blackwings to the top of the tier list. Its a D-Draw specific for Blackwings and it allows you to dominate the opponent faster. With the searching power of Black Whirlwind and Shura comboes with Blackwing Treasure will make this deck unbeatable. Hopefully for all our sakes the March banlist will address the growing issue by semi limiting Black Whirlwind and/or limiting Blackwing- Vayu the Emblem of Honor.

Infernity monsters get a major boost and theres too many to go over. This deck will be annoying to play against and will be a problem on the tournament scene. For those interested in this deck I suggest stocking up on playsets of the infernity monsters out so far.

Thats all for right now. When theres more cards released for the set that interest me I'll post more on them. I'll also do an article on Infernity monsters soon just to show you their potential.

Necrovalley Shutdown

2010-01-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

Since Gravekeepers are going to be getting more popular as Absolute Powerforce approaches I've decided to look at some interesting Gravekeeper builds. The one that caught my attention was the Necrovalley Shutdown. It possesses raw power that could take down any top tier deck with ease. I took it upon myself to build my own version of the deck and test it out. So far its been able to beat French Twilight, Blackwings, and D-Hero Zombies. I haven't had the chance to test it against Glad decks yet but one of my friends pointed out that I could side into a Skill Drain version of the deck. I'll have to try that out soon. Well heres the deck.

Monsters:18
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
3 Gravekeeper's Commandant
3 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
3 Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
2 Brron, Mad king of Dark World
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
1 Morphing Jar

Spells:16
3 Necrovalley
2 Royal Tribute
3 Dark World Dealings
2 Dark World Lightning
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Card Destruction
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Brain Control

Traps:07
3 Rite of Spirit
2 Bottomless Traphole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

The point of the deck is to get Necrovalley on the field as quickly as possible. It will shutdown all graveyard removal and graveyard targeting effects. All the top decks get hurt by this. Once Necrovalley is on the field you need to be able to Royal Tribute. Royal Tribute requires Necrovalley on the field to activate. It forces both opponents to reveal their hands to one another and to discard all monsters to the graveyard. With the Dark World monsters being able to work under Necrovalley it screams Dark World abuse. Rid your opponent of their monsters while you draw or special summon your own. The Gravekeepers chosen here work perfectly with Necrovalley. The Commandant searches Necrovalley and while both are on the field it becomes a 2100 hitter. The Assailant becomes a 2000 beater when Necrovalleys on the field and allows you to switch you opponents monsters battle positions when you declare an attack. You think the opponent has Honest? No problem. Have your Assailant attack their light monster and switch it to defense to avoid Honest. The deck doesnt run any tuners so the possibilty of an extra deck is pointless unless your able to Brain Control a tuner. Or you could remove a copy of Rite of Spirit for Plaguespreader Zombie to have some kind of Synchro action. The deck is really cheap to make since most of the cards are common and rare. The holos shouldn' be too expensive either except for Mirror Force and Allure of Darkness. In my opinion this deck is really good. Its unexpected and its a force to be reckoned with. My only concern is a Tragoedia or Gorz. The deck doesnt have many outs to them so if your trying to build this deck you might want to make some modifications like adding Fissures or Lightning Vortex. The side is totally up to you guys but I do recommend a full set of Skill Drains for Glads.

Black Garden Control Before and After

2010-01-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

Well I was looking through some old files from Metagames history and I found an old decklist by Jerome McHale. His Black Garden deck was a win away from the top 16 but it caught people attention from all over the world. I'll post up his decklist and do a quick fixes to get it up to speed in our new format or what we have left anyways. Black Garden Control messes every top tier deck up in more than one way. It absorbs their swarms by halfing their monsters attack and provides field presence for you. Lots of negation and removal to deal with problems. And Tytanials a beast.

Jerome McHale's Black Garden Control at Shonen Jump Championship Detroit

Monsters:19
3 Lonefire Blossom
3 Botanical Lion
3 Cyber Valley
2 Tytanial, Pirincess of Camellias
2 Lord Poison
2 Nettles
1 Sangan
1 Card Trooper
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Gigantic Cephalotus

Spells:11
3 Black Garden
3 Mark of the Rose
2 Miracle Fertilizer
2 Terraforming
1 Monster Reborn

Traps:11
3 Pollinosis
3 Solemn Judgment
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

Now for my remix

Monsters:18
3 Botanical Lion
3 Cyber Valley
2 Tytanial, Pirincess of Camellias
2 Lonefire Blossom
2 Lord Poison
2 Debris Dragon
1 Nettles
1 Sangan
1 Card Trooper
1 Dandylion

Spells:12
3 Black Garden
3 Mark of the Rose
2 Miracle Fertilizer
2 Terraforming
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Giant Trunade

Traps:11
3 Pollinosis
2 Dark Bribe
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

I dont know if I should have added Pot of Avarice but I'll get back to this if it must. Debris Dragons were added for further synchro capabilities and to abuse the hell out of Dandylion. Added more spell/trap removal but no heavy. This deck is too reliant on backrow.

Necro Control

2010-01-15T22:08:00.000-08:00

Well I sold my deck the week before the Shonen Jump so now Im left without a main deck. I borrowed my friends Twilight deck for Shonen and I kept some cards for later. I finally was able to build a decent deck. Its a spin on a Necro Gardna control deck. Since I dont want to spend money on D-Draws and Mali before the Ban List I built it with a different approach. Heres the list.

Monsters:20
3 Armageddon Knight
3 Necro Gardna
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Mystic Tomato
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2 Flamvell Magician
1 Flamvell Firedog
1 Sangan
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Tragoedia
1 Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind

Spells:10
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Fissure
1 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Rekindling

Traps:11
3 Reckless Greed
2 Bottomless Traphole
2 Royal Oppression
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute

Yes. Dark Armed Dragon is not on this decklist as it conflicts with the pair of Royal Oppressions. Since I do not own any Burials from the Different Dimension I wasnt able to mke this into a full Garna Control deck but decided to rely on the Oppressions and strong beatsticks like Kycoo and Caius. The Flamvells are in here as the Tuners of choice because I really want to synch into those Colossal Fighters as they are hard to get rid of and they get around Oppression. That and the Firedog can get around the oppression by special summoning the magicians during damage step and a 1900 beater isnt bad either. The rekindling is there for quick synchs or to revive a Flamvell for a tribute. Ive tested the deck on TagForce 4 against the computer using a recent Blackwing deck and French Twilight. I was able to beat both. But remember they are computers so in real play it might turn out different and neither did the computer or I use our side decks.

Blackwings!!!!

2010-01-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

Will they be good again? Im not sure. With the banlist coming soon its hard to tell. Lots of rumors of a Whirlwind Semi limit. Absolute Powerforce offers absolutely nothing new for Blackwings. Shining Darkness offers more cards for them but I doubt they'll make much of an impact. BlackFeather Dragons effect kills its playability and it makes Silverwind look good. I would only synch into this card for Kalut support. Then we have Blackwing-Ghibli the Hot Wind who does nothing to mak e Blackwing decks better. Sure he saves you from an attack but not worth space in the main deck or side deck. Following the special summon mechanic comes Blackwing-Gust the Adverse Wind. Makes Elphin playable and can allow access to Silverwind without the use of Vayu. And the reduction effect might be good depending on how much the opponent loses. Blackwing-Breeze the Gentle Wind is whats gonna get Whirlwind banned. Summon Shura search this card special summon it by force and synch into an armor master. Its essentially Gale number 2,3, and 4. Even Blizzard can search this card out. Blackwing Shot would be nice if it let you destroy a monster but since it doesnt lets skip it for obvious reasons. Blackwings get a burn card for them selves. Black Thunder can end games if your opponent controls a large field. Will it be played? Maybe. Depends on the duelist. Its like running Mistral. Can help but sucks as well. Blackwings are already tight on space and adding new cards can be difficult. I would actually suggest not maining the third whirlwind and Dark Armed Dragon. As useful as they are they arent always there. Drawing Dark Armed with 6 Blackwings in the grave is a drag. March 2010. The banlist will most definately hit lightsworns and Zombies but the question remains. Will Blackwing be touched? The deck can still otk and searches like no other deck out there. It has the best synchro mechanin in the game and is still a top tier. The only cards I can see getting hit are Black Whirlwind, Icarus Attack, and Blackwing-Vayu the Emblem of Honor. Those cards build up too much unfair advantage for the Blackwing duelist. Well take care and see you tomorrow.

KrystiaSworns

2010-01-13T22:06:00.001-08:00

I hate this deck. I hate what it represents. I hate that I lost to 2 opponents at Shonen playing this deck. Dont get me wrong its a good deck. Its just I hate Archlord Krystia. I declare it to be my arch enemy!!!

Shonen Jump Los Angeles

2010-01-13T21:56:00.001-08:00

I just found out that theres rumors that that one guy Silverman bought his win at Shonen Jump LA. If its true he should be ashamed.

Hidden Arsenal-Return of the Sabers!

2010-01-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

X-Sabers have always been good but never good enough to take to a tournament and hope to do well. They were missing something to tie the deck down and get it functioning. With the release of Absolute Powerforce they release four new X-Saber cards that made me take another look at the Archetype. XX-Saber Garsem is the Goblin Zombie of X-Sabers. It doesnt search based on defense. It searches anything with X-Saber in the name. Now thats where he stops being good. He needs to be destroyed by a card effect to get his effect going. With everyone running cards like Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force, and Lightning Vortex it shouldn't be a problem to get his effect going. If you summon Garsem he can eventually become a problem for your opponent when you summon those Faultrolls or activate those Calls because he'll become a big hitter. XX-Saber Emmersblade is the pyramid Turtle for the deck searching for any level four X-Saber monster when its destroyed by battle. Giant Rat was good but it couldn't search out those Airbellums when you needed them. Absolute Powerforce also introduces a Solemn Judgment exclusive to the X-Saber deck. Saber Hole may only negate summons but who in this game doesn't summon? It suddenly turns the X-Saber deck into an aggro control deck that will deplete you of your hand and summons now. With the fear of Airbellums and Gottoms, most players would try setting their spells and traps hoping to keep them safe but Absolute Powerforce releases a new X-Saber Synchro to deal with that. XX-Saber Hyunlei devestates your opponents backfield and leaves them open to an attack. Heres a sample decklist that I've come up with. It may change due to the ban list changing the legality on some of these cards.

Monsters: 17
3 X-Saber Airbellum
3 XX-Saber Faultroll
3 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight
2 XX-Saber Garsem
2 XX-Saber Ragigura
2 XX-Saber Gardestrike
2 XX-Saber Emmersblade
Spells: 10
3 Saber Slash
2 Pot of Avarice
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mind Control
1 Brain Control
1 Giant Trunade
Traps: 13
3 Saber Hole
3 Dark Bribe
2 Gottoms’ Emergency Call
2 Bottomless Traphole
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted

The deck is extremely trap heavy which might lead to bad hands. I have not tested the deck yet because I dont like proxying cards. I'll get the cards come Sneak Preview and make the deck there and play test it with my teammate and friends. Im unsure on running either 2 or 3 Emmersblade since he's the only card in the deck that would allow me to synch into Hyunlei. If your in the Los Angeles area and your going to the Sneak Preview at Savys I urge you to look for me. I'll be one of the guys helping out at the event. Just ask for Darwin. Almost veryone that attends should know who I am. I urge you to attend you local Sneak Preview to increase your collection and to make friends and once again. If your in the Los Angeles area visit Savys. Its the friendliest card shop in LA and congrats to Rodrigo Togores for making Top 16 at Shonen Jump Los Angeles.

Dimensional Eatos

2010-01-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

I present to you my new deck. I just need most of the damn cards!!!!

Monsters: 16
3x Guardian Eatos
3x Beast King Barbaros
3x D.D. Survivor
3x Doomcaliber Knight
3x Elemental Hero Neos Alius
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
Spells: 11
3x Dimensional Fissure
2x Soul Release
2x E-Emergency Call
1x Reinforcements of the Army
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
Traps: 15
3x Skill Drain
3x Dark Bribe
2x Bottomless Traphole
2x Macro Cosmos
2x Magic Jammer
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Judgment

Shonen Jump Los Angeles

2010-01-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

Round 1

Beyond Birthday (French Twilight) Versus ???? (Salvo DAD with Volcanic Engine)

I dont see much of the deck since I quickly damage his field with Celestia and Judgment Dragon. Game 2 h manages to make a comeback. Game 3 DAD for the win after I force him to Blackrose my field of Tragodia at 2400 and his 5 card field.

Round 2

Beyond Birthday Versus Ivan Cortez (KrystiaSworn)

Game 1 he wins after I beckoning for double JD and he special summons an Archlord Krystia and tributes his 2 other Lightsworns for a second Krystia. I draw Gorz. Scoop Phase. Game 2 I wreck with bottomless trap holes and fast Judgment Dragon plays. Game 3 I get stuck with double Wulf and JD as he summons Krystia. Scoop.

Round 3

Beyond Birthday Versus I dont remeber

I have no idea who I faced that round or what they were playing. Regardless I won that round.

Round 4

Beyond Birthday Versus ???? (Twilight)

The guy slow plays like hell. Funny thing is he had to take a dump so the slow playing was more beneficial for me and was destroying him from the inside. I 2-0 him cus he misplays both games.

Round 5

Beyond Birthday Versus ????( I should really take note of my opponents names)Six Sams

I otk him game 1. I otk him game 2.

Round 6

Beyond Birthday Versus Ricardo (Oppression Blackwings)

Game 1 he beats me down with Armor Master and DAD. Game 2 I wreck his field of DAD, Armor Master, and double Whirlwind with a JD and I special a second JD and DAD to otk him. Game three I draw bad. Lets just say Oppression beats the hell out of me.

Round 7

Beyond Birthday Versus Bobby or Riley (GB's)

Game 1 I own the game. Game 2 I get D Fissured and get owned. Game 3 I wreck.

Round 8

Beyond Birthday Versus Justin Torres (Relinquish Djinn deck)(his friend got a deck profile for the same deck and this guy got mentioned)

I otk him both games. The guys a jerk. He insults Cesar Gonzalez who's right next to us for no reason. Im glad I beat him.

Round 9

Beyond Birthday Versus Nobody

Opponent doesnt show

Round 10

Beyond Birthday Versus Dylan (Chaos)

Round gets repaired twice. Then I get paired against Ricardo from round 5 and the 2 of us get repaired to the 2 next to us. This kid slow plays like hell. I beat him game 1 really fast. Game 2 he gets lucky. Game three it goes to time. He's turn zero. He blows the field up with Black Rose and summons thunderking and ends. Turn 2 I summon lumina and summon garoth in defense. I mill my last gardna (2 in grave, 1 removed. Lifepoints Me: 2450, him 2300). He summons GK Spy and both Monsters attack lumina and i block both hits I draw bottomless. I have one card left in deck. I set bottomless and switch lumina to defense and end milling my last card Honest. I win but kid appeals that I lose cus I decked out. Head Judge Frank Debrito comes over and rules in my favor cus Lumina milled what it could and since I can only deck out when I can draw and since nothing force me to draw and it was end of turn procedure I won.

Round 11

Beyond Birthday Versus Riley (Krystia Sworn)

I beat him ghame one. He misplayed. I was at 2050 and he was at 5000. He summons honest and attacks and I summon Tragodeia. He had 3 cards in hand and a plaguespreader in hand. He could have synched and attacked for game. He does brain control and copies rykos level and summons plague and synchs into Stardust. I summon lyla and attack stardust. He blocks with gardna. I set beckoning light. I have 3 cards in hand and I end. He sets a bluff. I draw heavy. I activate heavy and chain beckoning two add 2 JD's and Honest back to hand. I summon everything and attack for game. His bluff was Charge. Game 2 he wrecks with JD. Game 3 he summons Krystia after Celestia mills exactly four fairies. Up till that point I had no idea he was playing KrystiaSworn. He wins. I offer the handshake and leave the event at 8-3.

Turbo Pack 2 Reprints

2010-01-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

Turns out my trusted informant was wrong. Sorry for the misinformation.

Turbo Pack 2 Reprints

2010-01-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

Mezuki, D-Draw, and Destiny Hero-Malicious are rares. Beckoning Light, Royal Oppression, Blackwing Gale the Whrilwind, and Magical Dimension are the supers. Ultra is Chaos Sorcerer. I dont remember the commons or the name of the ultimate. Shonen Jump was packed today. I got to see a lot of pro players. I saw Fili Luna, Ryan Spicer, Roy St. Claire, Kris Ferber and more. One things for sure. Lots of people were packing Lightsworns. If Lightsworns dont win this event then they dont deserve to get hit by the banlist.

New Card Errata

2010-01-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

Well Konami has finall posted new erratas and they include 2 cards from our Hidden Arsenal. Check it out.

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
HA01-EN022
Printed Text:
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
You can discard any number of cards to return the same number of cards from the field to the hand.
Correct Text:
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
You can discard any number of cards to the Graveyard
(NOTE: This clarification is to make it clear that in cases where you cannot discard to the Graveyard, you cannot activate
the effect of “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.” For example, if “Macro Cosmos” is active.)

Ally of Justice Catastor
HA01-EN026
Printed Text:
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
If this card battles a non-DARK monster, destroy that monster without applying damage calculation.
Correct Text:
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
If this card attacks or is attacked by a non-DARK monster, destroy that monster
damage calculation).
might have older text.
ata. to return the same number of cards from the field
at the start of the Damage Step (without damage calculation).
(NOTE: This clarification is to make it clear that if “Ally of Justice Catastor” attacks a face-down monster, or is itself
attacked while face-down, its effect will not activate. Its effect would have to activate at the start of the Damage Step,
before a face-down monster would be flipped face-up.)

For the source check the official Konami Site right here.

Shonen Jump LA

2010-01-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry I havent posted anything recently. With school and deck testing taking up the majority of my time I havent been able to do any articles. Well....Turbo Pack 2 here I come!!!!! For those joining the Pegasus League Side Event like me Im playing X-Sabers. I would enter the main event but I sold my Twilight deck and now dont have anything competetive to play with. I might just borrow cards from my friends to build either D-Flamvell Synchro, Destiny Hero Zombies, or a Chaos deck. Im in favor of the Flamvell deck cus it won Card Warz in Europe and Ive tested it on my Tagforce 4 against French Twilight and it kills it. See you all there!

Absolute Zero

2009-12-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

If this deck becomes popular wouldnt it be wise to side deck super poly's and have your own copies of Zero in your extra deck?

Turbo Pack 2

2009-12-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

Rumor is Jeff Jones is selling his Dark End Dragon. Tells you something doesnt it? Either he's in need of cash or a reprint is near. Oh and Jeff if you're reading this I want a rematch at Shonen Jump LA.

Banlist

2009-12-27T13:23:00.000-08:00

I have a feeling Colossal Fighter will be hitting the lmited or banned list. It leads to OTK's. It has a massive 2800 attack that increases. It basically will never be truly defeated by battle. And to top it off. Its a staple in every deck. What does being a staple in every deck have to do with anything? Well Gale, Crush Card, Reborn, Dark Strike, and other cards that have been hurt before have all had one thing in common. Staples. Every deck had them. GB's ran an airbellum so they could hope to end games with Dark Strike. Lightsworns sided Gales for Dark Strike. Every person that had a Crush Card played it. Every deck uses reborn. And all of them led to OTK's.

Shonen Jump Los Angeles

2009-12-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Pegasus League will be available at the evnt with Turbo Pack 2 as prizes. Forget the main event. I want Turbo Pack 2. The event will also reveal four world premiere cards for Absolute Powerforce as Giant cards. And Absolute Zero is not legal for the event. Check it out at the official page.

My duels on Youtube

2009-12-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Heres me versus my friend Andres. Im playing the Zombie deck and he's playing Elemental Heroes.

Zombie Versus E-Heroes Duel 1

Zombie Versus E-Heroes Duel 2

Zombie Versus E-Heroes Duel 3

Absolute Powerforce Special Edition

2009-12-22T12:12:00.001-08:00

Heres my source for those who might call me a liar or that Im just believeing the hype.

http://shriektcg.twoday.net/stories/5972666/

Thats the most reliable Yugioh source in the world. Shows previews of upcoming sets and relases the banlist before any other sites get it.

Red Eys Darkness Metal Dragon and Dandylion. WTF! Wow! Im actually heading out in about fifteen minutes to 2 Yugioh stores in California today with my friend because he wants to buy the Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. Wow! I can actually build Hopeless Dragons as a fun deck and Dandylion will be my tribute fodder for any deck!!!

My duels on Youtube

2009-12-22T12:01:00.002-08:00

They refer to me as stacker. Im the very cocky guy usually wearing the black sweater.

Im playing the FlamvellSworns.

DivaDestiny Versus FlamvellSworn Duel 1

DivaDestiny Versus FlamvellSworn Duel 2

DivaDestiny Versus FlamvellSworn Duel 3

Another Look-Flamvell Lightsworn

2009-12-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

So I kind of talked smack about Flamvell Lightsworn before but that was before I played with it. I dueld against my teammate Johnny and his Zombie Heroes deck. It was recorded and should be uploaded later today on Youtube. Look for Jake14l channel. Heres my deck list for those interested. I am not gonna go over the cards as I went over them on the video. I'll post the link to the video after its been uploaded on Jake14l channel on youtube.

Monsters: 28
3x Lumina, LS Summoner
3x Flamvell Magician
3x Flamvell Firedog
3x Necro Gardna
2x Judgment Dragon
2x Wulf, LS Beast
2x Celestia, LS Angel
2x Lyla, LS Sorceress
2x Honest
1x Ehren, LS Monk
1x Aurkus, LS Druid
1x Garoth, LS Warrior
1x Jain, LS Paladin
1x PlagueSpreader Zombie
1x Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 12
3x Solar Recharge
3x Charge of the Light Brigade
3x Rekindling
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Monster Reincarnation

Traps: 2
2x Beckoning Light

The Shining Darkness

2009-12-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

So far the preview for the set has revealed a lot of Infernity monsters. That bugs me. I wanted to see more Blackwings but they haven't revealed anything yet. There are some Chaos Synchros out and a dragon synchro that was meant for the Infernity cards. I might just hate this set too if it ends up being full of crappy Infernity monsters. i hope the majority are commons cus I dont want to pull them as holos. Oh and theres a Herald ritual monster that negates spells, traps, and monster effects just by discarding a Fairy monster. I can see a lockdown deck revolving around this and Archlord Krystia.

Absolute Lightsworns AKA Zero Sworns

2009-12-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

Absolute Zero will be a force to be reckoned with at tournaments very soon. With many versions flying left and right I decided to come up with my own version. I present to you Zero Sworns.

Monsters: 28
1 Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
2 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
1 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3 Honest
1 Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
2 Judgment Dragon
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
3 Deep Sea Diva
2 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast

Spells: 10
3 Miracle Fusion
3 Solar Recharge
3 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Heavy Storm

Traps: 02
2 Beckoning Light

The point of the deck is to mill what you need in the graveyard for the summon of Judgment Dragon and Absolute Zero. The deck has a lot of monsters that may clog up your hand the first few turns but sets you up for the mid game very well. With 3 Deep Sea Divas main decked it may not rare to find your first turn Lumina/Garoth play turn into a Lvl.5/Lvl.6 synchro play next turn. Well thats the deck. Any feedback will be gladly accepted.

I have no idea what to post for tomorrow so just keep checking in for updates.

StarDust Assault Mode Deck for the March format

2009-12-16T11:57:00.001-08:00

With a new banlist coming up soon (hopefully lightsworn takes a hit this time)and the with the release of Starlight Road a couple of days later many decks will have tho change completely to stay competetive. Starlight Road is beast. It completely shuts down Heavy Storm, Torrential Tribute, Mirror Force, Black Rose Dragon, Icarus Attack, and Judgment Dragon and gives you a Stardust Dragon to your side of the field. People will have to rely on cards like Cold Wave, Giant Trunade, Brianoc, and Mist Wurm more often because they dont destroy. Anti-Meta decks can replace their lost copies of Solemn with three Starlight Roads and be able to dominate the field with cards like Skill Drain. You know what decks benefits from this the most? Assault Mode decks!!! It was always a problem summoning a Stardust becuase Assault Mode decks tended to need a setup that could last turns. With Starlight Road you can set Starlight Road and Assault Mode Activate and wait for your opponent to activate Heavy Storm and all you'll do is chain Starlight Road. Negating Heavy Storm and special summoning a Stardust Dragon from the extra deck. And with that Assault Mode Activate face down you can now release one of the most fearsome cards in the game. As long as none ofg the cards listed below get touched by the banlist then it should work well.

Monsters: 18
2 Assault Beast
2 Krebons
2 Stardust Dragon / Assault Mode
2 Destiny Hero – Defender
2 Destiny Hero – Malicious
2 Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude
1 Armageddon Knight
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Sangan
Spells: 12
3 Destiny Draw
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Assault Teleport
1 Brain Control
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Giant Trunade
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 12
3 Starlight Road
3 Skill Drain
2 Assault Mode Activate
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment

Now to explain the cards I havent explained before. The Assault Beasts are beatsticks when summoned and allow you to search for your copies of Assault Mode Activate by discarding them from your hand. Stardust Assault Mode. Without it the Assault card would be useless and its a spell and trap cards Solemn Judgment and a Divine Wrath. Assault Teleprt allows you to turn those Assault Mode Stardust back in the deck and allows you to draw 2. Starlight Road. Easy. Special Summon a Stardust and keep your spells, traps, and monsters safe. Assault Mode Activate allows you to bring out the beasts.

Shonen Jump Los Angeles

2009-12-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

Will the release of Elemental Hero Absolute Zero make a big impact? Lets find out!

Elemental Hero Absolute Zero

1 "Elemental Hero", "Destiny Hero" or "Evil Hero" monster + 1 WATER monster
This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. This card gains 500 ATK for each WATER monster on the field other than "Elemental Hero Absolute Zero". When this card is removed from the field, destroy all monsters your opponent controls.

Well it seems we have a useful and playable Elemental Hero. With its summoning requirements easier than the other crappy Heroes and devestating effect this card will be seen at Shonen Jump LA and your locals soon. Very soon.

There have been decks in the OCG that have run Absolute Zero in a Skill Drain based deck which doesnt hurt Zero in any way since his effect works off the field. Skill Drain Zero contains D-Hero engine with Deep Sea Divas as its primary tuners and water fusion materials.

His effect allows Zero to attack a full field of Lightsworns without fear of Honests Unless they have multiple copies and your low on life points)because they'll lose everything on their side of the field. Judgment Dragon will have a hard time dealing with Zero because if Judgment nukes the field Zero nukes the opponents field right back destroying Judgment in the process. Now thats cold.

Let me show you a sample decklist I've made but haven't tested yet.

Monsters: 17

3x Deep Sea Diva
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious
2x Destiny Hero - Defender
2x Beast King Barbaros
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Sangan
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Dark Grepher
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1x Destiny hero - Fear Monger
1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

Spell Cards: 12

3x Destiny Draw
2x Miracle Fusion
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Heavy Storm
1x Brain Control
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Smashing Ground

Trap Cards: 11
3x Skill Drain
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Solemn Judgment

Let me explain the monster choices first. Deep Sea Diva is a tuner that can special summon another diva onto the field and can grant 2 synchro summons per turn and it water attribute means its our way of fusing into Zero. The malicious are self explanatory but they allow the abuse of Destiny Draw and Deep Sea Diva and more importantly it grants easy access to Zero. The Defenders are used well to Defend until you can draw your combo pieces and stall under Skill Drains effect and its a D-Hero so you can drop it with Destiny Draw and Allure. Barbaros is used to abuse Skill Drains effect and its a pretty nice beatstick without it and if you need to you can fuse Stratos and Barbaros to form E-Hero Gaia. DAD is used to well be the boss card and a beatstick under Skill Drain. it can be used for Allure in a pinch. Sangan can search out Deep Sea Diva and Malicious to set up the synchros and fusions or can search for Defender when you need to stall. Plaguespreader is there to be another double tuner which can be sent to the graveyard with Dark Grepher with Malicious for an instant Synchro Summon. Dark Grepher. Dump Malicious and Plague for synchro or dump any D-Hero to fuse with Diva. Diamond Dude. Another target for D-Draw and Allure and can be a 1600 defense wall when needed to be and its effect may save you. Fear Monger is here mostly to revive Malicious for another synchro summon or to mantain field presence. Gale. Why not right? It got limited for a reason and it allows you to synch into an odd level monster and its Allureable.

The spells are almost self explanatory but i'll go over them for those people who are new to the game. Destiny Draw is you draw engine and dumps D-Heroes to the grave. Miracle Fusion gives you access to both Gaia and Zero. Allure speeds the deck up by removing a dark. Heavy Storm. Come on. Brain Control. Really? Well you can steal your opponents heroes for your own Zero or Gaia. Rota. Again. MST. Enough said. Smashing is here for the annoying Aurkus and Colossol Fighter or big monsters you cant deal with like a lone DAD or JD or an opposing Defender.

The traps. Skill Drain shuts down opposing strategies like Lightsworn and Gladiators. Doesnt really do much to Blackwings so watch out against them. Bottomless is your monster removal of choice for Blackwings, Gladiators, and Lightsworns and the annoying Colossol Fighters. PWWB is to rid the field of threats like Stardust Dragon or to clear the field before you go for the kill. Torrential Tribute and Mirror Force. I wont go into details about them. Dustshoot should be mained in every deck except Lightsworn. Its too good. Gives you an insight into your opponents strategies and can ruin their plays. Solemn. Even limited its still good. Use only when necessary.

You be the judge. Do you think the deck will make a difference? We'll find out on January 9th and 10th at Shonen Jump Los Angeles.

Tomorrow I'll be covering an Assault Mode deck that will hopefully be successful come March.

X-Box 360/8GB Ipod Tournament

2009-12-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

My locals is hosting this tournament on the 26th of December. There are supplemental prizes for those who dont want that. Prizes range from gift cards to Champion packs or Turbo packs. Requires a $20 entry fee and a written decklist.

If 8-15 players or more entered
1st Place:
1/2 a box of Championship Pack 8 or Turbo Packs (50 packs)
or
$100 Chase Visa Gift Card

If 16 players or more entered
1st Place:
iPod Nano 8GB
or
75 Championship Pack 8 or Turbo Packs
or
$150 Chase Visa Gift Card

If 32 players or more entered
1st Place:
XBOX 360
or
seal box of Championship Pack 8 or Turbo Packs (100 packs)
or
$200 Chase Visa Gift Card

If you're interested:
2036 E. Cesar E Chavez Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90033
323-264-1589

Store Hours:
Monday -Saturday
10 AM - 6:30 PM
Sunday
10:30 AM - 5:30 PM

Tournament Report

2009-12-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

Today I went to my locals in East LA. I went with a French Twilight deck that I borrowed from my friend. My teammates showed up and the prize for the event was a full box of Stardust Overdrive. I pulled 2 Crush Card Viruses from my turbo packs and a Garoth super.

Round 1. Me(French Twilight) VS New Guy(Gladiator Beasts)

So Im pretty unsure of what he's running so I decide to start the match by going nuts and filling up my grave. He sets a face down monster and 1 spell or trap. I celestia both and summon 2 JD and otk him. HE doesnt side so i dont side either. Game 2 was basically a repeat of the first.

Round 2. Me VS Chris(Counter Fairies)

So I get stuck facing my former teammate who changes decks every week so I wasnt sure what he was playing. He starts of with a Thunderking Raioh and a drastic drop off. I lose game 1 because he countered everything I had once Bountiful Artemis hit the field I lost advantage while he built it up. Game 2 I mill as much as I can and I summon Lumina and Garoth and mill Wulf at the endphase. He does lightning vortex and summons Thunderking. I respond next turn with JD and he forgets to activate Thunderkings effect but chains torrential. I beat him down with Lumina and Wulf. Game three I royal decree at his endphase and he loses without his counter traps.

Round 3. Me VS Alegra(Lightsworn)

I face my teammate Alegra. She told me to go easy on her. I otk her on my second turn. We both dont side and I otk her my first turn.

Round 4. Me VS Jonathan(Gadget Oppression)

I have to face another one of my teamamates. I go first and mill crap. From there it goes back and forth with him attacking and me summoning Tragodias and him destroying them after. He wins that game. Second game he sets three backfield and I decree at endphase. Breaker slaps him silly. Game three He summons kycoo and I respond with Tragoia and take his Kycoo. He manages to get rid of tragodia but I summon breaker and destroy dprison and finish him for game.

Round 5. Me VS Raul(Zombies)

This guy is one of the top players at Savys. He was a Top 16 participant at Shonen Jump Anaheim 2009 but didnt show up. Game 1 I easily kill him with 2 JD's. Game 2 I have the game but forget to synchro to rid myself of the Plague spreader in the grave. He summons Master synchs into Brianoc and send JD and my facedown back to my hand while dropping a a mezuki and goblin zombie. He removes Mezuki for Zombie master and synchs into Doomkaiser with my plague and takes Plague again and synchros into Stardust. He uses his burial to do it all over again. He summoned four level 8 synchros and I scooped. game 3. It goes back and forth. He's at 2150 and Im at 2300. He has DAD and Colossol Fighter on the field. I have 2 Honests in hand and a Solar Recharge. I draw Charge. I search for Jain and attack DAD and drop both Honests for game.
Top 8. Me VS Chris(Counter Fairy)

I have to face him again but this time I know what to do. I open up first and mill like crazy. Its over quick. Game 2 He starts of by setting and ending. I search for Jain to get rid of Thunderkings later in the game. I summon and attack. I set bottomless and end. He summons Harvest and I remove her from play. He sets another and ends. I set another bottomless and attack. He MST's the bottomless and attacks with Thunderking. My Jain dies. I Heavy Storm and Lumina and Jain hit him. IHe basically starts top decking for answers but I win.

Top 4. Me VS D(Gladiator Beasts)

Game 1 he makes a lot of mistakes and I dont allow him to recover from them. JD wins games people. Game 2 he searches for hoplomus with proving ground and sets it with D-Fissure face up. I summon Lyla and destroy fissure and I set torrential. He sets bestiari and he contacts. I chain torrential tribute. He sets three cards. I summon Breaker he solemns it. I end my turn. He summons Murmillo hits for 800 and I special Tragodia. He tags in for Laquari and smahes Tragodia. I use lightning vortex trying to force out My Body as a Shield. He lets Laquari die. I summon another Breaker and manage to destroy his mirror Force. He passes. I summon Lumina and get back Lyla destroying a set card. I attack with both Breaker and Lumina. I mill Gardnas in the end phase. He sets once more and I swing with Lumina for game. Fun Fact. When he side decked I noticed something odd with the way he side decked. He pile shuffle the deck and am about to give it back to him when I run my fingers through the cards and notice some are flipped. I call the Judge over to check his deck. The Judge later tells me that his entire side deck was flipped the other way and that he tried to stack against me but didnt DQ the guy cus he acted dumb.
Finals. Me VS Jonathan(Gadget Oppression)

We split since were teammates. We roll for the win. High roll. I roll a one and he rolls a five. We split with 2 other people cus I borrowed the French Twilight and he borrowed the Gadget oppression. We split the box four ways. Each person got six packs which is 1/4th of the box. I end up pulling Crusader of Endyiom Ultimate and an Earthbound reptile lizard thing Ultra. My teammate pulls the Red Lotus Rooklord or something like that and the Majestic dragon super. My friend we shared the box with pulled seal of wickedness, Clear Vice Dragon, Koaki Meiru Maximus, Black Brutdrago, and Fortunes Future.

French Twilight

2009-12-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

I love this deck. Tragodeias make up for the bad hands and being able to steal your opponents monsters is just awesome.

Flamvell Sworn

2009-12-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

Im kind of not sure why people play this deck. It slows down their central strategy of summoning JD by filling the grave with Flamvells instead of Lightsworns. And if you mill your copies of Rekindling thats it basically. I understand that if you pull it off it can be game or hard to come back from but I'd rather play Twilight over this.

Hidden Arsenal - Hopeless Dragons

2009-12-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

Hopeless Dragons wasnt a viable deck type in the TCG because the key card was only available in the OCG. When it was released a lot of people rushed to the deck they believed would own the meta. What went wrong? Well lets look at the tripod of power at the time. The tripod consisted of three decks.Lightsworns, Gladiator Beasts, and Blackwings. Lightsworns would easily outspeed Hopeless Dragons and overpower it with Honests, Celestias, and Judgment Dragon. Gladiator Beasts were packing three Solemn Judgments, triple War Chariots, and double Rescue Cats. Blackwings were faster and stronger than the other two and otk'ed their opponent more frequently with 3 Gales and 2 Dark Strike Fighters. Hopeless Dragons were just no match. Now with Blackwings losing a lot of power with the limitation of Gale and banning of Dark Strike Fighter, and Gladiators losing Rescue Cat and Solemn Judgment to the limited list, Hopeless can move up a couple tiers. With Lightsworns as the only real threat still able to defeat Hopeless Dragons consistently these Dragon decks better start packing some tech. Koa'ki Meiru Drago shuts downs the special summoning of lights and darks allowing you to control the field with this 1900 beatstick. With 2 lightning Vortexes main decked you can easily wipe out an entire field of Lightsworns and lock their special summonings down with Drago. Now your opponent will have to waste their resouces to get rid of it while you build up for a major swing in advantage. Even though I mentioned Koaki Meiru Drago it belongs in the side deck becuase it complicated your general strategy of swarming with your dark monsters.

18 Monsters
3x Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
2x Armageddon Knight
2x Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord
2x Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2x Dark Creator
2x Phantom of Chaos
2x Dark Horus
2x Red Eyes Wyvern
1x Dark Armed Dragon

17 Spells
2x Trade-In
2x D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation
2x Monster Reincarnation
2x Allure of Darkness
2x Lightning Vortex
2x My Body As a Shield
1x Brain Control
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Future Fusion

8 Traps
3x Dark Bribe
2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment

Hidden Arsenal - Junk & Debris

2009-12-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

Junk and Debris is a popular deck in Japan because its cheap to make and its a synchro spammer by being able to bring out multiple synchros turn after turn. The deck has access to three Boss monsters 2 being Chaos Sorcerer and 1 being Dark Armed Dragon. And its a force to be reckoned with if you underestimate it. In the TCG it hasnt made such an impact because we were missing a very important card that made Junk and Debris a beast. That card was released in Hidden Arsenal and we know it as the Lightsworn killer, the Ally of Justice Catastor. Junk and Debris synchros into level fives like theres no tomorrow and the reason behind the name is because of Junk Warrior and Debris Dragon. Junk Warrior allows you to special summon a level 2 or lower monster from your grave for a quick synchro summon. Debris Dragon allows you to special summon higher level monsters like Blackrose Dragon. The deck relies on the Neo Spacian draw engine. With convert contact J&D is able to send a Neo Spacian from their hand and deck to the grave and allowing you to draw 2 cards. With neo Spacian Glow Moss being a light attribute and Neo Spacian Dark Panther being a dark attribute its easy to bust a first turn Chaos Sorcerer. Heres a sample decklist for you to view from the very man who helped make this deck popular, Rauzes.

Monsters 21
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Cyber Dragon
3 Debris Dragon
1 Armageddon Knight
3 Junk Syncron
1 Neo Spacian Grand Mole
2 Neo Spacian Black Panther
2 Neo Spacian Glow Moss
1 Dandylion
1 Sangan
1 Treeborn Frog
2 Cross Porter

Spell 11
2 Pot of Avarice
2 Foolish Burial
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Convert Contact
2 Allure of Darkness

Traps 8
3 Raigeki Break
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

Armageddon Knight is used to dump a Cross Porter allowing you to search your deck for a Neo Spacian or getting that extra dark in your grave for Dark Armed Dragon or Chaos Sorcerer. Neo Spacian Grand Mole is your synchro removal and is an excellent stall card. Dark panther is able to copy any monsters effect. Mimic Judgment Dragon and you can blow up the field. Dandylion is here to abuse with Debris Dragon and the tokens help make good defense and synchro material. Raigeki Break is used in this deck because you want your opponents threats in the grave. Its not as appealing as Phoenix Wing Wind Blast because Wind Blast locks your opponents draw but it allows them to redraw it. For example. Your opponent summons Judgement Dragon. He pays his 1000 life points to destroy all cards on the field. You have 2 options. Send the Judgment Dragon to the top of the deck where they'll draw it again next turn or destroy it? Its your choice.

Hidden Arsenal-Dark Gigavise

2009-12-11T21:07:00.001-08:00

Hidden Arsenal is where I'll discuss decks that have the ability to take down Tier 1 decks.

With the release of the new Structure Deck Warrior's Strike, the Gemini archetype gains a boost in power. With Supervise to give Gemini's their effects it allows for Geminis to work faster. Normally equip cards are a drag to play because they really dont benefit in the long run, but Supervise allows you to special summon a Gemini monster from your graveyard whenever Supervise hits the grave from the field. You could fit Supervise into a fully dedicated Gemini deck and see results but today were choosing a specific Gemini to work with and were giving it a drawing engine and a boss monster. Gigaplant was released in Phantom Darkness alongside Lonefire Blossom. Together these two cards were able to create the Gigaplant Mass Driver First Turn Kill. With Gigaplant being able to special summon plants from either the grave or hand it makes it the perfect card to build a deck around with plant cards like Copy Plant and Nettles both released in Crossroads of Chaos.

Monsters: 18

3x Cyber Valley
2x Gigaplant
2x Lonefire Blossom
2x Copy Plant
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness
1x Blackwing, Gale the Whirlwind
1x Mystic Tomato
1x Nettles
1x Sangan
1x Violet Witch
1x Card Trooper
1x Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells: 16

3x Supervise
2x Mark of the Rose
2x D.D.R.
2x Allure of Darkness
2x My Body As a Shield
1x Miracle Fertilizer
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Brain Control
1x Mind Control

Traps: 9

2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2x Dark Bribe
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Mirror Force

This is currently the deck I am playing. I decided to add a dark engine to speed things up and allowing us access to Dark Armed Dragon. Cyber Valleys are included to stall while you draw your combo pieces and you can easily steal your opponents cards with 2 Mark of the Rose, 1 Brain Control, 1 Mind Control, and Goyo Guardian if you have one. I tech 2 My Body As a Shield's because of all the monster destruction in every deck and I dont want to be stymied by a Mirror Force when i attack for game and it protects you from cards like Judgment Dragon. The goal of the deck is to be able to summon Gigaplant to the field while holding a copy of Supervise in your hand and having either a Copy Plant in your grave or hand. If its in the deck you use Gigaplant to bring out Lonefire and tribute it to search for Copyplant. You then synchro Copy Plant and and Gigaplant to bring out Powertool Dragon. Supervise will activate and give you Supervise back. You then use Powertool's effect to grab three equip cards from the deck and shuffle them and have your opponent choose one randomly. Its best to grab 2 Supervise and one other. If your opponent chose Supervise then you start the combo again until you have a full field of synchros. The best case scenario is having three Powertool Dragons out on the field with a Gigaplant and a mark of the Rose. that way you steal your opponents monster and are able to deal the 8000 points of damage you need to win.

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

Perfect Circle Zombie or PCZ

2009-12-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

What I dont understand is why people don't use this deck anymore.

21 Monsters
3 Raiza the Storm Monarch
2 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Goblin Zombie
2 Mezuki
2 Destiny Hero-Malicious
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Destiny Hero-Plasma
1 Destiny Hero-Diamond Dude
1 Destiny Hero-Fear Monger
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind
1 Sangan
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Dark Armed Dragon

12 Spells
3 Destiny Draw
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
1 Scapegoat
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Foolish Burial

7 Traps
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2 Bottomless Traphole
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgement

This was my deck before I moved onto Twilight. The deck decimates decks that are too slow to keep up with it and forces faster decks to slow down. You basically abuse the zombie engine for recursing +1's while your opponent struggles to keep up with you in card advantage. The monarchs become instant field presence with -1 for your opponent if they dont have a response to the monarchs effect. The Destiny Draw Engine allows you to swift through your deck while putting threats onto the table with the monarchs and zombies. With three Raizas and 2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blasts main decked it becomes easy to lock your opponents draws while you dump cards like Destiny Hero-Malicious, Mezuki, and Plaguespreader Zombie. The best opening this deck has is having a set goblin zombie and a set wing blast with a monarch in hand. You let your opponent destroy your goblin zombie and you search for mezuki. When they set a card to the backfield you wing blast it at the endphase dropping mezuki to the grave. On your turn you remove the mezuki to special summon goblin zombie and you tribute it for a monarch hopefully Raiza. Then you search your deck again with goblin Zombie and if you have another wing blast then the game should swing in your favor.

The Top Deck of the Format

2009-12-11T21:01:00.000-08:00

Two Shonen Jumps have passed and we have Twilight reign Supreme twice. This Lightsworn build runs 2 Chaos Sorcerers as an extra boss monsters and monster removal to threats like Dark Armed Dragon and Blackwing Armor Master. Twilight has the option to run Allure of Darkness in the deck to help clear those hands of dead cards and to speed up the deck. Twilight decks have the option of running Dark Armed Dragon and Tragodeia as extra boss monsters. Twilight is seen as more consistent by some players because it can easily mill bad but as long as they milled a light and dark they can summon theyre Chaos Sorcerer. Twilight decks are known for being able to OTK theyre opponent more frequently than regular lightsworn. I ran a Twilight Deck at my regionals maining a Dark Armed Dragon along with my 2 Chaos Sorcerers. The results were beautiful. The downside to playing twilight is the side decking. If you simply side out the wrong cards you make the deck unstable and more susceptible to bad hands. Side out too many darks and Dark Armed and Sorcerer becomes useless. Side out one too many lightsworns and Judgment Dragon becomes harder to summon. My opinion on Twilight is that its a good deck but not the right decks for inexperienced duelists looking for a deck to take to a tournament. I have currently changed my Twilight deck into The French Twilight because I love how the Tragodeias work in the deck.

Introduction

2009-12-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

My name is Darwin Pocasangre and I hail from Los Angeles, California. I am 18 years old. I have been playing this game for about two years now ever since Gladiators Assault was released. I've only been to 2 regionals and I did pretty crappy in my first one due to all my matches being against TeleDad. I was able to get my invite to Nationals on November 7, 2009 at the Long Beach Regionals placing 25th place with my Twilight deck.Im am currently a level 1 Judge at Savys and am a top player from both Savys and Legacy. I'll be providing you with a variety of articles about the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game on a daily basis.