Monday, August 24, 2009

Random post #1: X.E.N.O

This is my first random non lenghty post. Here's a card that is splashed into Gladiator Beasts sidedeck everywhere.

Its none other than X.E.N.O also known to the TCG players as Jowls of Dark Demise. Its effect/stats:

water/fiend/level 2/
atk: 200/ def: 100
effect: FLIP: Take control of 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field until the end of the turn that this card's effect is activated. When the controlled monster attacks, it may attack your opponent's Life Points directly

Can anyone enlighten me how this helps the GB deck as I have been away all last format and haven't even dueled once. yes. the horror of that. Not even once. Thanks.

Also, Im in need of a banner that doesnt belong to Vjump/ konami/ shueisha. Can anyone be kind enough to help me design one?

Also, please dont comment for a certain post. If you want to comment, just go the tagbox. =) Thats what its for. It will take me forever to notice the comment down there. have a nice day.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

The Big Five

This post, I'm going to review to you all the Big 5 for the start of the new format. Later on, there are bound to be new decks coming out and making their presence. For now, this are the big fives:
Firstly:

1.Anti-meta control


Its no denying that the new format list caused the game to turn a little more control based and to rely more on skill. In turn, its not so much of a luck-based game anymore where OTKs ar potent. Furthermore, the game has become slower, and this just gives anti-meta builds a chance to shine. They control really well and its no doubt that they will probably take game 1 and probably game 2 if you do not side well.

2. Zombies


Zombies are naturally fast again. With Mezuki at two, its safe to say that the living dead are subjected to dominate the meta. With 3 Burial from different dimension, one can only understand why so. With the latest release of the MH cup 23 decklists, the top 8 consisted of about 3 or 4 zombie decks, one gladiator deck, a few Lightsworn builds, and a carefull built Arcanite cat based on Deep Sea Diva. With so many variations of zombie (even light undead and zombiecharge!) its time to pack those DimensionalFissures, D.D crow, and Retiari!

3. Graveyard vayu

The new restriction of Gale has caused the Blackwing deck to lose alot of power. All in all, blackwings have only about 15 runnable Blackwings and the rest of the deck must be packed with cards such as Gorz, Dark Creator, dark Armed Dragon and so on...Have no fear. Graveyard Vayu is even faster as vayu's tricks let it call out synchros faster than before and the new ruling lets it special summon Silver Wing the isolated. (since its considered special summon NOT synchro summon). Vayu has speed, and has 3 burial from the d.d backing him up for that.

4. Gladial Beasts.


While GB might have taken a hit with the restriction of solemn judgment, and rescue cat, its safe to say that the Dimension Forest variant is as strong as ever! Not to forget, GB hasnt actually lost much and the new restriction could be good as it lets them innovate more and test out new strategies. The new MH cup decklists' GB deck ran Rescue cat and Summoner Monk still with just one copy of Airbellum. Does that mean AKGB is still potent and dominant? Lets wait and see. No matter what, GB has survived how many formats and they are just gonna adapt to the changes and be an annoying deck to play against =)

5. Lightsworn

Last but not least, Lightsworn. One could say this is the best of the five but i disagree. LL has the strongest boss monster in Judgment dragon, 3 reinforcments of the light (charge of the light brigade) its undoubltly the fastest of the 5. But could it be the most inconsistent too? With the release of aurkus and ehren into OCG this is crazy. There are also Chaos Variants as they have access to Chaos sorceror, Dark Arm Dragon and I gotta say, thats one deck i fear to play against. Against Zombies or the mirror match, LL doesnt have to worry as they have got their hands on a very versatile old card in Fiend Comedian. Heads your opponent loses his graveyard. Tails you send cards from the deck to graveyard. Helpful much?
And this is my opinion on the best 5 decks in the OCG for the current format. Good luck beating them =)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Meta Villages


Okay its been quite long since i posted and I know I dont post very often, and I just got my mouse back for a while, so I'll use the time to post. A post well done is its own satisfaction =) Today I'll be posting a decklist. Usually, I talk about the meta, and give some introduction as well as explain the synergy of the deck and what it can do in the meta and stuff and all the card uses but today the post wont be nearly as long as last time.

But first of all, this deck is based on the new banlist. Its a very unique deck if you ask me because it works like an anti-meta build, as well as being able to combine certain meta-focused cards inside. I first got this idea when I was viewing through HanRui's blog, and saw on his Fortune Lady deck. If you guessed Fortune Ladies, you're a bit off track, it has something to do with spellcasters, but certainly not the luck girls. Besides, I'm not a carly fanboy.

Now, time for the decklist.

Meta Village
-----------------

3 Breaker the magic warrior
3 Crusader of Endymion
3 Skilled Dark Magician
2 Dark Magician
1 Summoner Monk
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Chaos Sorceror
2 Neo the Magic Swordsman

2 Allure of Darkness
3 Secret Village of the Spellcasters
3 Dimension Magic
2 Unity of Family
2 Book of Moon
1 Smashing Ground

2 Bottomless Trap hole
2 Dark Bribe
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
2 Dimensional Prison / Sakuretsu Armor
1 Divine Wrath
1 Call of the Haunted

Side deck:
Think of your own

Extra deck:
Dont need one

Of course, the point of this deck is to abuse Secret Village's totally cool and awesome effect. Your opponent cant play spell cards if you have magicians on your field, the idea is really appealing to me because you would have shut off totally 30 to 40% of your opponent's deck. Which is total advantage and super good.
To let the village stay on the field, a constant high attack, solid spellcaster needs to be there. So first of all, why not breaker? Konami didn't give him back to us to just throw in the album. He belongs here. He is quite a solid card with a great effect. He fits the theme right and also is a Dark monster, to complement Allure, DAD and Chaos Sorceror.

The inclusion of Crusader of Endymion is just for its attack and light status, which fuels Chaos Sorceror of course. If you can pull off his effect, its even better, since he is an added bonus and gives one card a magic counter. Breaker and skilled dark comes to mind and he also gets an hefty 600 attack point plus. Too awesome? I included a few random copies of Dark magician for fun, and for usage with skilled black mage. Black magician can be special summoned from deck hand or grave. So again, why not? Neo the Magic Swordsman is the only other light spellcaster i know who has considerable attack which is 1700. He is a common from the Yugi Starter deck.

The rest of the lineup should look quite normal. Two Dark Bribes replace the slots taken by the 2 solemn judgments. U can choose to fit in Sakuretsu armor to fit your budget. Unity of Family is even better since the whole deck does play only spellcasters! Except Dark armed dragon. But most of the time, once you drop Dark arm, you probably have game. Its almost impossible for your opponent to play a spell or trap (look at 3 breaker, 3 village, bribes, solemns!) The random tech of Divine Wrath is good because it discards Dark Magician and also negates monster effects- an effect that doesnt exist in another trap card besides GB war chariot.

Do note that I dont have any idea how this deck runs because I have no one to play with now and also that Im too busy to play or proxy a deck. Feel free to adapt the idea and then change some cards with other cards and make a better deck. How nice to see a deck like this become the next anti-meta, Of course, Im hoping for too much.

Ok I have to sign off now, ciao, enjoy the game and be ready for the new Meta!

Monday, August 17, 2009

New Ban List

Its been out for quite a while, and i have been out of YuGiOh for quite a while too, and I have just gotten to seeing it. My god, its an awesome ban list, i love it, and thats all I have to say. Here are my 2 cents on each card choice made.

Out of Ban list
1) Call of the haunted: With Monster reborn, this guy is in to balance the game, and it can be chained during the opponent's turn to special summon a card to thwart a certain opponent's cards.
eg: Special summoning Raiou in response to Charge, Proving Ground, or a synchro summon.

Decks that benefit: Any deck except R.F.G.
Decks that cringe: Nothing--

Enter Ban List:
1) Crush Card Virus- Awesome choice. Too gay, speaks for itself. I still miss the times when I start Game 1 with a sangan set and this card in the backrow. Good times, good times.

Decks that benefit from this change: Most OTK decks, some combo decks, and now: tribute and level stealer decks!

Decks that cringe at this change: Level Stealer Control, any dark deck with small monster cards. Junk and Debris too i guess. Its not a vital part of any deck: just a simple random broken card to spice up the game.

2) Dark Dive Bomber/ Dark strike fighter- Even better. I pity some people who keep one or two full pages of this card in their binder, nothing to say, I'm happy that I dont die on first turn to blackwings, or lose out to Cat decks and Demise Bomber or any synchro mechanic. The Level 7 synchros are suddenly not so feared! Nothing to say. meta definer. I'm glad I sold mine off.

Decks that benefit: Any deck except meta deck, and anti meta strategies,
Decks that cringe: Cat synchro (although it will be gone effective September 1st), Blackwings, and other decks. Junk and debris too since its a synchro bases mechanic. Demise Bomber.

3) Monster Reborn- It went in, it went out, it caused trouble, its gay, so bye bye. Too many times where you can turn backthe game by top-decking a reborn. Xi!
Decks that benefit: None I guess.
Decks that cringe: Everyone except anti meta, (more or less)

4) Card of safe return- With the trouble going to be caused by Lightsworn and now Level Stealer otk, and frog OTK, this card is crazy. Especially Level Stealer. Walao-eh~ can special draw like 4 or 5 extra cards per turn ah! Provided you have enough levels to subtract. Imagine playing Barbaros, subtract the levels, special summon 3 stealers, draw, special summon a D-hero bloo-D and special summon again, crazy crazy.

Decks that benefit: None.
Decks that cringe: Lightsworn, Zombie, Undeadlord (aka zombiecharge to TCG players), level stealer decks.

Restricted to 1
1) Demise King of Armagaedon- Konami doesnt give a chance to OTKs =/

Decks that benefit: None
Decks that cringe: Demise Bomber, and other Ritual Variants.

2) Mental Master- Once again, no OTKs, because of mental lab FTK in Japan, this card took the hit.

Decks that benefit: None
Decks that cringe: Psychics, and Lab FTK.

3) Rescue cat- Self explanatory. Bye Bye cat syncrho and AKGB =( I never got to fight a CS or AKB deck before seriously! and never got to try AKGB=( no airbellums and I didn't go to KL or bother to order. Same reason for CS, I never go to KL and quite busy with exams now. So, yeah.

Decks that benefit: None
Decks that cringe: Cat Synchro, Arcanite Beat, AK Gladial Beasts, and some Ojama Variants out there.

4) Summoner Monk- Same as cat.
Decks that benefit: none.
Decks that cringe: CS, AKB, AKGB, ojama variants, specllcaster decks and MonkDAD builds.

5) Blackwing Shippu No Gale- Konami made a very stupid mistake creating such an imbalanced broken card, look at it. decent attack, fetchable by Blackwhirlwind, its a BLACKWING, meaning so much support, and it has a built shrink effect that can be used everyturn! Tell me it doesnt scream ban me ban me!

Decks that benefit: ALL except BWs. Too imbal.
Decks that cringe: Blackwings. Haha. I dont care. Everybody will soon change to graveyard Vayu variants.

6) Black Rose Dragon- Again. no OTK chance. Because of Mental Lab FTK, debris hime.

Decks that benefit: None. Nobody plays more than one anyway. except two of the following decks that are gonna be mentioned down there.
Decks that cringe: Mental lab FTK, Debris Hime, and Junk and Debris.

7) Mind Control- Limiting one is good. I think this way it becomes sort of like a brain control. And we wont have to see it often

Decks that benefit: All. We dont see our cards being taken so often anymore. Then they wont be turned into big white cards so often either.
Decks that cringe: Some Synchro decks, Cat synchro, and some BF builds.

8) One for One- Broken. Causes too many mad combos to be formed. So long.

Decks that benefit: None.
Decks that cringe: level stealer control, combo decks, lab FTK, and that X/XX saber deck which no one remembers.

9) Cold Wave- Konami didnt have to show so much hatw towards syncrho cat. =( No comment. Its still quite good i guess.

Decks that benefit: All. So we dont get crippled so often. I hate it.
Decks that cringe: CS, and some GB builds.

10) Solemn Judgment- Now if not for this minor change, I would have totally love the banlist. But my Dimension GB deck takes a plunge =( =( I guess its good since we wont die to quick death situations caused by lack of LP but DDB is gone already right! =( i guess we wont find an annoying card that says no when we want to pull off our combo. Playing one is like....=_=

Decks that benefit: Most decks
Decks that suffer: ALL anti-meta builds, and GB, and BF. NOoooo

Semi Restricted Cards: I'll make it short as i dont have much time left.
Lonefire: haha! told ya so.

Mezuki: WTH? zombie charge is back!

Bottomless trap hole: nobody plays more than 2 anyways. Except anti meta builds.

Dulauren: bye bye frog otk.

Chaos Sorceror- we will see more of chaos =)

Taken off restriction list

Nobody cares about these cards. except maybe;...

Breaker- yay magicians anti meta village get a boost!

D.D warrior lady- Light Beat and Santoso Control FTW. Counter Fairy, anyone?

As for the big meta decks its obvious these are the decks:
Well this is my opinion on the big 5 anyways =)

1) Lightsworn
2) Graveyard vayu
3) Level stealer decks
4) Some anti meta variant
5) Gladial Beast- they will be there somehow always, =) in the form of dimension GB or any sort, they will still be in the Big 5.

Okay, will update next time, ciao, and dont hate the ban list! No time left, huhu.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Worlds- Congrats to Ben!

Beforehand, an extended congratulations to Ben for getting World Champion! Benjamin Hong made Singapore and Asia proud by winning World Championships. He did so by using a Blackwing deck. the metagame at worlds consisted of purely Synchro Cat, Gladiator Beasts, Blackwings and one Lightsworn deck

Basically this is the number breakdown in descending order:

Synchro cat- 10
Gladiator Beasts- 8
Blackwings- 4
Lightsworn- 1

All in all, Worlds was awesome as The Top8 consisted of pure Gladiator Beasts and Blackwing decks! The finals was an all-Asian one and it all came down to GB v.s BWs, and the victor: BlackWings! Thank God the new restriction list is coming out or we will all be raped by birds and cats!

I would also like to congratulate Sam Kee Kian Sim who has done Malaysia proud by getting her into the top8 (even though he is Singaporean now) - ah! but wait! He is actually Malaysian who has moved there to study(if i'm not mistaken, thats what he told me when I asked about him when we went to find Alex at the LRT station).

I'm proud to say I got to know him at the end of last year when he went there to participate in a Christmas tourney (look at december 2008, there was a post about it) and he is memorable because he couldn't speak much English and we still managed to get along.

His album was also memorable because it consisted of threes of every possible meta card, expensive promos and that there were a couple of pages that consisted of ghost rares of Stardust, Black Rose, Honest, e.t.c (apart from Alex's of course =P which is the most crazy- he has more than 25 Stardust and other cards) Alex I still got the photo in my phone so no denying and saying its Sam's :P

Sam made it so far with a BlackWing deck. His other accomplishments are:
1) winning the Asia Qualifiers
2) topping numerous Malaysian events- such as representing Malaysia for Asia Qualifiers, Nationals, and other smaller ones.

To end the post, I read The Perplexed Duelist and got to see the prize for the top 8 duelists:
a binder, deck box, Worlds Mat, lots of sleeves, a small card case, and NEVER-BEFORE-RELEASED boxes of the TCG version of Ancient Prophecy, Stardust Overdrive and the Warriors' Strike StructureDeck.

On a side note: I think mostly kids won the Top8. Perhaps only Roy St Clair, the New Zealand guy and the Austrian guys looked like adults. Look at the picture: all are Asian kids like me. Also, most awesome hair award goes to: Man Man Lai Au! Runner up goes to Lee Hong Kyu.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Banlist Prediction (for September 1st)

Oh dear, I know it has forever since I last updated. I've been busy, and there's been nothing much to update about either. Anyway, to keep up with the tradition, of making Banlists predictions since last year, I shall make mine now.

Note: the real one will probably be coming out anytime this month in the V-Jump magazine. I'm sure Konami has nothing much to change. The game's been pretty balanced out (except for a few things that gotta go :P

First thing's first:

banned:
Nothing. There's nothing worth banning In my opinion for the next format as nothing is overpowered or such. Dark Armed Dragon isn't worth banning because it's not awesome and overpowered now with it at one. Heck, it won't even be seen once in your whole match.

Restricted to 1

In the list, number one to head in is:

Judgment dragon
-Broken effect, and one of the best effect monsters in the game. With Charge coming out in OCG, this card gets worse and worse. Soon we might even see a LS-dominated format like TCG.

Rescue Cat
-Heart and core of Gladial Cat and Synchro cat decks. At 2, it's still good. At 1, too easy to take down. Now with Cat limited, I dont think Summon Priest needs to be limited right?

Dark Strike Fighter
-It sucks bad being hit by 2 DSF for game. Too broken.

BlackWing- Gale the Hurricane
-searchable by Black whirlwind, fast, special summon, decent attack, built-in shrink effect, Icarus attack bait, tuner status. Why not?

Cold Wave
-Annoys just about everybody except the Synchro Cat player. =_= After that, people flip spy, play priest/cat into airbellums, into arcanite magician, boom boom, and attack to discard and then sync into DSF shoot shhot game.

Black Whirlwind
-The main reason BWs are taking the meta by storm. Crazy search effect. Best searching spell ever. Summon a card and nett yourself another BF to put on the field, 2 for one summon =_= Restricting to 2 isnt gonna do much.

Restricted to 2:

Marshmallon
- Doesnt see play so back at 2.

X-saber Airbellum
- At least give Synchro Cat two tuner targets =) decent effect, decent stats, decent type.

Lonefire Blossom
- Debris Hime, fuel for Pot, instant Tytannial princess.

Reinforcement of the army
- Playing one is as good as playing none.

Mind Control
- Minus one for opponent. +1 for you to syncrho, burn, direct attack, e.t.c

Mystical Space Typhoon
- I don't think people wanna spend their deck space to run an extra card that destroys a spell/trap. Its still good but its not even a staple in any deck.

Taken off Restriction list:

Destiny Draw, Green baboon, dol dora (twin headed behemoth), Victory Dragon (I was just thinking why is this card banned???? :O, Megamorph, Magical stone excavation. Nobody plays these cards anymore.

Done.

On a side note, Yugioh blogs are really becoming a trend huh. There are so many new blogs for OCG and TCG. Even experienced TCG players like JaeKim and Claudio Kirchmair and even Audrey Tan ( Dale Bellido's girlfriend) have blogs now. Log on over to the blog roll at the right to view them =)

Ciao/