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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Quick post - 8-30

When I got to Diehard yesterday I had the sudden urge to build my Amaryllis deck.
Surprisingly, I got many cards in the 30 minutes before the tournament started and was able to build a deck. I had to borrow 3 cards from our friend Kavy to reach the 40 card mark(somehow we ended up with 41)

Surprisingly, Amaryllis worked out very well. Of course I didn't top, I went 2-2, losing to anti-meta and one version of the machina deck, but other than that the deck worked just as it should have.

Some things to note:
-The duels that I lost were matches where I did not get an Amaryllis into the grave.
-Queen of Thorns is amazing.
-Volcanic counters in the hand suck, and using Gravirose to put vounters in the grave is a bad turn 1 manuever. I'm not positive on what the better choices would be though, there are only so many level 3 targets in the deck.
-Wall of Ivy is awesome in theory, but no themed mirror force can stack up to the real thing.
-Cloak and Dagger is an amazing card against Machina. The deck doesn't run any s/t removal besides the basic ones, so declaring fortress has almost immediate results.
-It's hard to tell how much of an issue D.D. Crow is. My ooponent loses 1 card and I lose practically nothing. I wish there was an easier way to get Amaryllis into the grave besides trade-in and foolish burial though.
-Black Rose Dragon's 2nd effect wins games lol. I'm going to need at least 1 more black rose.
-Revival Rose has a ton of synergy with the deck, more than I ever thought. 1300/1300 are laughable stats, but once I get Tytannial or Amaryllis on the field its 95% likely that RevRose will be spammed.

We'll go more in depth with the deck on saturday I think. I really like it though, but I'm also REALLY excited about "Intro to Chaos". I've even found replacements for fabled raven.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Newly Limited in September

Black Whirlwind
Royal Oppression
Infernity Launcher
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole


Black Whirlwind: Whirlwind is somewhat of a problem, apparently more so in the OCG. Basically each time a blackwing is normal summoned and not stopped, your opponent will gain a potentially massive advantage. The existence of Gale, Blizzard, and Vayu to an extent plague this card's legality. If all blackwings were on par with Shibi and Breeze, then Whirlwind would be a lot less powerful. Nonetheless, it is not down to 1, so not only to BW players have to draw it, they also have to avoid all the new S/T destruction cards running around in this format.

Royal Oppression: Ouch. Really. My Koaki deck lost this and many decks are hard enough to beat with needing to draw into 2, let alone one. What's the reasoning with the banning? Well I'm sure it is a combination of a lot of things. Some people say Konami doesn't like bits of the game being shutdown(many cards stop special summons right now). Perhaps Oppression, though great in some decks, are TOO great in others. Your opponent gets the choice to stop your monsters, but if you don't play anything then there must not be much of a choice is there? Obviously, we had to replace our Oppression with Dark Hole, which loses a ton of stunning power. We'll talk about Dark Hole a little later on. I just hope a new card comes about with the stunning power of oppression.

Infernity Launcher: Having played against the new format version of this deck, I do feel it has been toned down drastically. You basically get 1 shot at a powerful, gamewinning manuever, and if it does not fire off then you have to play normally. Infernity Mirage is another Launcher, but without careful planning it could wind up in your hand and unplayable. I think I would have liked seeing infernity barrier get hit, but like I said earlier, the current game-state shows that Konami doesn't want to kill the best, unique parts on the deck, they just want to make it more fair(run on sentences ftw). I like the new infernity build. It's actually more appealing to me than the original OTK version.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: We won't be discussing this very much. A few decks in the OCG were able to play multiple Trishulas per turn, which depletes your opponent's hand in a sort of unfair way. Went to 1, not for any particular reason, but prevents abusive decks from spamming it.

Monster Reborn: Part 2 of Konami's "Let's have a fun format" fixes. Monster Reborn is essentially the most powerful Recursive tool in the game. There's plenty of theme specific recursion that does MORE than Monster Reborn, but as far as generic spells go, nothing targets as much as Monster Reborn with 0 cost. Many people think reviving cards from the opponent's grave will break the game, but I feel that reviving your own monsters is usually the better play. Monsters in your grave are usually 1 of 3 things. 1) A failed strategy. 2) A graveyard-based strategy to utilize later. 3)An exchange of field/hand resources. So unless it is a game-winning play, monster reborning an opponent's monster SHOULD do less for you as it would one of your own monsters(obviously special cases apply). Other than that, Monster Reborn is a must for any deck, even more than Brain Control was.

Dark Hole: Part 3 of the "Let's just see what happens" format. Dark Hole's competition is Torrential Tribute, and Torrential Tribute should be ran in ANY deck imo, even decks that run a couple of Royal Decree. But now, some of those decks that didn't need Torrential for defense, can use Dark Hole for offense, which is the difference between the 2 cards. Torrential is about 85% defense, Dark Hole is probably 30% defense, the rest is offense. You use Dark Hole to open a safe offensive, or breakthrough overwhelming odds. Many people will play Dark Hole as soon as they see a chance for an offensive, others(like me) hold dark hole as long as possible to reset an opponent's overwhelming maneuver. Both are probably equally as good of a play, and which is best is definently personal preference.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Sept 1st Ban List

It seems that I will be the last blogger to say something about the new advanced ban list additions coming in about a week. In all honesty, I hope that the tcg drops 1 or 2 more cards on us as a surprise when September rolls around, but for now we have this leaked info to go by.
Newly Banned:
Rescue Cat
Heavy Storm
Brain Control
Substitoad

Newly Limited:
Black Whirlwind
Royal Oppression
Infernity Launcher
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole

Newly Semi-Limited:
Mystical Space Typhoon
Chaos Sorcerer
Snipe Hunter
Ojama Trio
Magic Cylinder

Newly Unlimited:
Black Rose Dragon
Goblin Zombie
Cyber Dragon
Treeborn Frog
Royal Decree
United We Stand


As you can see, there's only about 6 deck-defining changes. I think, besides Heavy, Dark Hole, and Monster Reborn, we have a better clue about Konami's stance on the current game-state. I believe it is more focused on the idea that good decks can remain good, banning their best cards and turning all decks into clones of each other (except Glads) would only make the game stale. Any game will have components that do better than others, so the only cards that should be removed are ones that create such a leap in power, that could be brought about at just about any point during a duel, need to be removed.

Rescue Cat: As awesome as Cat is, especially with the new support beasts have gotten, it's a little saddening to see it go so soon. It was a very very strong card though, perhaps if Rescue Cat was sent to the RFP zone rather than sent to the grave, awaiting revival, then it would be a bit more balanced. Sabers are still just as powerful as they ever were, they just lost 1-2 cards in the deck.

Substitoad: A toad that affects frogs. Really, that's all it does, and when the card was released, this idea is what made it less powerful. While still true, substitoad's strength doesn't come from the frogs you dump, it comes from the plays you can make using said frogs. We can all agree that removing half of your deck from the game is powerful, leaving you with only your best spells and traps. What not everyone agrees on is the usage of frogs after this is done; an engine that non-frog related cards use as an advantage. The non-frog cards aren't all bad, and there's too many to try to stop, so the next best thing is to dump the engine enabler: Substitoad.

Heavy Storm: In my opinion , part 1 of Konami's plan for a fun format. As you all know, I haven't been on the YGO scene for very long, but I am told that every format usually comes with 1 or 2 cards that changes everyone's deck. One of those is Heavy Storm, a card with a lot of debate. It "penalizes" players for setting too many traps, it clears the way for uninterrupted game-winning plays, it has the perfect counter in Starlight Road, and it is one of the few generic backrow-resets in the game. Some decks can do without it, like our Koaki Meiru deck, but others such as Lightsworns will need a replacement. And there's tons of replacements out there, Cold Wave, Trunade, Catastrophe, or maining a 2nd, newly semi-limited Space Typhoon. Many people debate on the direction decks will take without Heavy storm. Is it safer to play all your S/T cards now? Is every deck going to use Malevolent Catastrophe? Who knows.

Brain Control: One of the few, actually unbalanced cards in the game. Not as good as Change of Heart. Not as good as Snatch Steal. But drawing into it can still win you the game, and 99% of decks use it. And why not? You can do anything you want with the card. Mind control is slightly more balanced, yet abused because of the Synchro mechanic. This card can do almost anything though. Many people believe it will never come off the ban list now, but I'm sure it will see the light of day once again.

So yeah, those are the newly banned cards. Of those, my decks lost Brain Control and Heavy Storm, as did most people. Next time I will touch on the Limited cards and how much decks may have changed from those.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

RELINQUISHED

Locals last night was a lot of fun. I didn't get into top 8 again, which was wholly my fault, so that is what we'll be talking about today.

Match 1 vs Generic Gadgets 2-1
Thought I was going to lose actually. Releaser shuts down Fortress, so the only thing you have to watch for is smashing grounds.

Match 2 vs Lightsworn 2-1
Thought I was going to lose these too. I actually opened gorz on all 3 matches and my opponent only got to play 1 JD. Which was promptly absorbed.

Match 3 vs Frognarchs 2-1-1
Terribly missplayed. I had the oppurtunity to win this match but I botched it completely. Round 1 was amazing, relinquished with Releaser shuts down frognarchs and your only threat then is soul exchange. Round 2 I had to force a tie by swinging into Obelisk. I already used my torrential so I had no more widespread destruction to destroy it. The next round is where I messed up. My opponent had 2 frogs in defense mode and I had Armageddon knight on the field. In my head, I'm thinking that I can make Stygian Sergeants and attack both to clear his field. Unfortunately I didnt realize until halfway through my play that I can't attack at all because 2 Dupe Frogs create a lock. The play I was supposed to make involved normal summoning Caius and removing a dupe from the game. Then Possibly making a relinq and controlling the game. At the end, I had absorbed 2 monarchs with 2 different relinquished and had a manju face-up on the field; life point count was 1000/1800. He brain controls for the win.

Match 4 vs Teched Machina 2-0
1st round I got greedy and attacked into a morphing jar with a hand full of relinquished pieces. That's pretty much an instant game loss. Round 1 he played thunderking which is usually no threat, but I needed to search my deck badly, so that was the next game less.

Oh well, we had fun at least. Had 2 heart of the card moments, topdecking manju when you have Relinq and prep in your hand is seriously the god of YGO saying you need to play this deck as your main. Serious Anime moments. Judgement Dragon on the field? Machina Fortress on the field? Draw your shining card off the top of the deck and then proceed to win.

But I digress, we need to talk about the deck itself, and then toss it onto the Blogger Page in it's own glory. I won't bother posting the list, it will be on the Blogger Page. Currently we have 6 cards that can potentially be dead in the hand, and this deck needs a boost of consistency. We have
1 Return from the Different Dimension- originally paired with double Nephthys in order to cause a win condition when I remove things or get D.Prisoned. Unless the above happens, this card has never helped in the deck, it is currently replaced by a single smashing ground.
1 Dark Nephthys- originally the only boss monster, easily dropped from Relinq food. It comes back to knock off an opponent's S/T or Relinq's to absorb something else.
1 Dark Armed Dragon - wins games. But not every time. Without more grave control, I can easily have 5+ darks in the grave and no means to get them out. Thus he becomes a dead card.
2 Breaker the Magical Warrior- Forces a lot of opponent's plays. 1900 ATK that is one of my few outs to Thunderkings, banishers, etc.
1 Magical Exemplar- Newly splashed in. One of the easiest Relinq recursion tools in the game. Had to take out 1 security to put her in.

So what do we replace these cards with? my choices are Caius, Jinzo, Smashing grounds, limit reverse, more Magical Exemplar, Level Limit Area B, Magic Drains, Dark Bribes, Reinforcements of the Army with 1 or 2 Rose, 2 effect veilers to combine with One for One, Plaguespreader Zombie, My body as a shield, and a few others. Without owning a brionac and goyo, I may not be able to use Plaguespreader yet, though that would be a great choice. I'm slightly interested in the efect veilers though, even more so if I owned a Catastor. I think I may main Jinzo for a little while and side Caius if necessary to start. Then, I'll play with the Smashing ground that is currently replacing RftDD and then try Magic Drain over it (unless I had a Solemn Judgement).

But this deck seems to be begging to be played, so I won't be putting it away for very long.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Wait what? Why is my Chaos deck winning?

DISCLAIMER: A lot of my deck testing now, I do on DMG (Duel Monsters Genesis, a little fan made duel sim). Of course not many people on the game can be called competent duelists, but success rates are still success rates, even if 50% are worse than others.

As usual I love weird cards, and one of those is Chaos Goddess, one of the most unsummonable synchro monsters in the game. I researched a bit about some of the best ways to summon Goddess, and of course it involves using the other members of the "Chaos" theme. Nowadays, any deck with a chaos sorcerer in it is called a "Chaos" deck, but this deck I decided to make I believe is as close to pure chaos as it gets.
"Intro to Chaos" Sept 1st banlist approved.
-Monsters: 24-
Chaos End Master x3Chaos Goddess
Chaos Sorcerer x2
Shining Angel x2
Byser Shock x2
Effect Veiler x2
Honest x2
Fabled Raven x2
Level Eater x2
Sphere of Chaos x1
Cyber Valley x1
Armageddon Knight x1
Battle Fader x1
Dark Armed Dragon x1
Sangan x1
-Spells: 11-
Book of Moon x3
Allure of Darkness x1
Dark Hole x1
Monster Reborn x1
One for One x1
Giant Trunade x1
Mystical Space Typhoon x1
Reinforcement of the Army x1
Mind Control x1
-Traps: 5-
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Call of the Haunted x1
Mirror Force x1
Torrential Tribute x1
Chaos End Master
Okay, as you see the purpose of the deck is synchro spamming. The extra deck has 2 Stardust and 2 Red Dragon Archfiend so that there is no qualms with pumping out synchros. I almost think that 1 Pot of Avarice is necessary in the deck, but so far I havent needed it. End Master has many outs for firing off his effect. Raven can put Level eaters in the grave and can easily synch with brionacs and such in case of emergencies. Byser Shock is one of our End Master targets and works wonderfully in such a set-heavy format. He even sends face down monsters to the hand. In all honesty, I rarely have to/get to drop Goddess, but maybe that shows how powerful the other level 8 synchros are. Her main target is things like RDA, but very often I can drop RDA and already control the game.

What sucks though is that so much of the deck is secret rare. Though they dont cost more than 5 dollars a piece, that is ANOTHER deck to build, and we all know how much I talk about making new decks. Perhaps some day I will give it a try, but definently not right now. It's fun though, and it's winning which is very confusing to me. I tend to lose once the opponent get out lots of monster removal, or stops me from synchro summoning, but they can't do it ALL the time.

On a side note, Effect Veiler is getting a lot of hate right now. Veiler is an amazing card to me. Level 1 tuner, negates effects, it's a D.D. Crow with more utility in my opinion. All you can do with D.D. Crow is shut down 1 play, Veiler can do the same, but then it can come back to synchro into a Catastor or whatever else. I can bet that if someone tops with Veiler in a national then the price will soar.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Relinquished

Relinquished is a pretty nice card. He takes a lot less effort to place on the field than Northwemko, revives even more easily, and is more often than not a "-1" for your opponent (Yes I do still hate the terms "minus" and "plus" in YGO, but it is very easy to exemplify a gain in advantage in this scenario). After the first starter I bought in May, I got a few pieces for my old Relinquished deck and it got thrashed in the tournament. I realized that my problem was the amount of cards in my deck that WERENT relinquished, applied too little pressure to the opponent. So now we come to the August build, which does very well, albeit not topping, which is okay to me lol. Koakis are still a perfectly viable deck, but for the next few tournaments, I will be entering with Relinquished.
Monsters: 21
Relinquished x3
Manjuu x3
Djinn Releaser x2
Djinn Disserere x1
Armageddon Knight x2
Stygian Security x2
Breaker x2
Sangan x1
Gale x1
Chaos Sorcerer x1
Dark Nepthys x1
Gorz x1
DAD x1
Spells: 9
Black Illusion Ritual x2
Preparation of Rites x2
Allure x1
Heavy x1
Brain Control x1
One for One x1
Traps: 10
Threatening Roar x2
Call x1
Torrential x1
Bottomless x1
Gravity Bind x1
Escape from the Dark Dimension x1
Dark Bribe x1
RftDD x1
Dust Tornado x1

So basically, we don't have too many gimmicks, and the one i do have is sided out when necessary. That is basically Nephthys. What makes Nepthys good is that she A) controls my Dark count for DAD, B) can be special summoned if ditched, C) sets up for EftDD and RftDD sillyness. The trap count isn't as situational anymore either. I never liked T.Roar, but with the rise of Book of Moon and special swarming, T.Roar can keep Relinquished up for one more turn and stop your opponent from attacking through him(twice). The other addition to the deck is stygian security which has amazing synergy in this deck. One for one after I use Breaker's effect to make Sergeants, pull Disserere from the deck after battle, remove with allure and bring it back with EftDD, it's a great card.

In all honesty there are TOO many cards one can put into a relinquished deck. Magical Exemplar, Limit Reverse, Lava Golem, Volcanic Queen, Level Limit, Ceasefire, there's too many choices and not enough deck space. I actually believe that all of the above cards have a spot in the side deck, but it's impossible to use all of them and keep a consistent deck. Perhaps running 1 exemplar and 1 breaker would be ideal, you would think that summoning a relinq from the graveyard just for playing a magic card would be too good to pass up, but I do unfortunately lose a dark target. If I ever get Golem or queen they will 100% definitely go into my side deck to combat things like machina, burn, and fairy decks.

I'll post more about the deck when I can, lately I've only been able to play YGO on Mondays. So far I have lost to blackwings due to kalut, and dandylion due to bambooshoot(another target for volcanic queen).

And also sorry for the lack of color and grammar lol

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My latest obsession - Flowers

Yeah you heard me, Flowers. I've always been a fan of plant decks, but the current quickdraw dandylion deck wasn't really my style. It's good, don't get me wrong. Huge monster supply, a very few amount of unplayable cards, and access to many different synchro summons make it a good deck. The other plants that are popular right now are naturia, which are also powerful in their own right. But the deck I want to talk about takes a little bit from the dandylion deck, splashes in plant support, then has the rest of its own theme going on - and that is the Phoenixian Amaryllis Cluster deck.
Phoenixian Cluster Amaryllis

Amaryllis is a level 8 plant, 2200ATK 0 DEF, that can only be Special summoned with its own effect. That is, whenever it is in your graveyard during your endphase you can remove 1 plant to special summon it in defense position. Whenever Amaryllis attacks it is destroyed after damage calculation. Whenever Amaryllis is destroyed and sent to the graveyard your opponent takes 800 points of damage. Lots of effects for just a flower, but they're all pretty nice. To most people, 800 burn damage isn't much, and truth be told, its not. That burn damage isn't your win condition, it just applies pressure to your opponent until you win. So what is the win condition? Attacks and effect damage.

Volcanic CounterLet's talk about the deck itself. DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility for the creation of this deck. I do have cards in it that suit me, but I am in no way the "creator" of using Amaryllis in this fashion. The big stars of the deck are:
3 Phoenixian Cluster Ameryllis
3 Tytannial, Princess of Camellias
3 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3 Trade-In
3 Volcanic Counter

All the other plant staples are in, including Lonefires and Miracle Fertilizer. As you can see, the basis of the deck is to put Amaryllis and Volcanic Counters in the graveyard ASAP and start abusing their effects. The graveyard is very important in this deck, so cards like Macro Cosmos are a problem(side deck). This is done using Ryko, Trade-in, Card Trooper, and Koaki Meiru Gravirose. Once we start removing stuff the deck, there is 1 Burial from the DD and 1 Return from the DD to get them back. By then the round should already be over.

This is probably going to be my next deck after Relinquished. It will depend on the ban list. I am using 2 dandylion but the deck is fully capable of running 1. Some people think Ryko may randomly get hit, in which I do not know of a good replacement. Lonefire to 1 can be worked around, otherwise the deck should be fully functional.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Double Post - Relinquished

On the way home from locals i was thinking about Relinquished. I was thinking a LOT about relinquished. My old relinquished build was outdated, and when I used to run him I would always lose. But Now I have come up with a build with as much synergy as possible. I suppose that is what my deck lacked was synergy. After a lot of testing on DME I have a consistent build that hasn't given me too much failure yet, and I have ideas about the side deck too. Instead of going with my old version of easy tribute fodder and Nephthys/Necrofear to utilize the fodder from the grave, it is now a more streamlined build, with even easier fodder, lots of backrow hate, synchros, and very easily playable cards. My only question is my boss monsters. At the moment the build has
2 Nephtys
1 EftDD
1 RftDD
The idea of those cards is that I can use Nephtys for more backrow hate and a boss monster, EftDD to get back djinns or anything else I drop (stygian for synchros!), and RftDD to get back stuff (djinns, stygians, relinquished even)
The other build instead uses
1 Jinzo
1 Caius
2 Limit Reverse
We all know how dangerous Jinzo and Caius are. Limit Reverse can get Stygians, Unused Djinns, Relinq and Sangan from the grave, but it can't get used Stygians back from the RFG zone, and I refuse to run BftDD in any build.

I'll be running this deck Monday for sure.

Rule Sharking

A lot of times at locals there isn't so many people to give a ruling on a card or a situation. At stillpoint there is 1, at Diehard there is sometimes noone at all. Typically, if I can answer I do. I'm no judge but I am working to gain better understanding of the current tcg rulings. On Monday, a game-deciding question arose, does the effects on Blackwing Armor Master target. Now, when the monster was summoned, I already knew the question would be asked, you could see it on the guy's face lol whether or not his card can counter it. This was the debate:

Black-wing Armor Master
Blackwing Armor Master's effect quote: This card cannot be destroyed by battle, and you take no Battle Damage from battles involving this card. If this card attacks a monster, you can place 1 Wedge Counter on that monster at the end of the Damage Step (max. 1). You can remove all Wedge Counters from your opponent's monsters to reduce the ATK and DEF of each monster that had a Wedge Counter to 0, until the End Phase.


Tytannial, Princess of Camellias
Tytannial, Princess of Camellias: You can Tribute 1 face-up Plant-Type monster you control to negate the activation of a Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster's effect that targets a card(s) on the field and destroy it.

So our big question is, does Armor Master target?
The answer is an unfortunate no, no a single one of his effect targets.
1) Can not be destroyed by battle = Continuous
2) You take no Battle Damage = Continuous
3) Place a Wedge Counter the monster when this card attacks = Continuous. I believe the confusion here lies in the fact that the effect is optional, continuous, and seems like it targets. But the effect can't be continuous AND targets can it?
4) You can remove all the Wedge counters = Widespread Ignition

I still don't know enough to be called a judge at an event, but I do seem to be able to provide the correct ruling to those who ask. What's funny is that some people ruleshark during tournaments. They'll basically travel from table to table, watching for people to correct. When you think someone is cheating I'm all for stepping in, but in this game it is hard to tell the difference between cheating and ignorance. Some cards are so oddly ruled that you can't be surprised at someone's ignorance of it, but some people use a card so often, and the ruling has come up so often, and they often win tournaments that if you see them break the ruling, you may have to step in for cheating. Most of the time when I watch matches I will stay quiet, even when someone makes an illegal play. If the play is gamechanging I MAY step in, and if someone asks then I will definitely assist. But the last thing I need is a brick through my car window because I called someone on their game winning play lol.

Might be time to start parking a block away.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Koakis Pt. 3 Traps

The Koaki trap line-up is a fair size. For the most part, they all have outstanding effects, but we already know that not every card can be used in the same deck. You are forced to choose between certain ones or else the deck will be too theme-heavy and many draws will become dead. This is of course speculation, but my testing pretty much says this is the case. There really is a learning curve to the deck though, so perhaps I should test a themed-trap-heavy deck today.

Koa'ki Meiru Shield - Many archetypes now have themed mirror forces. Most of them involve having the themed monster on the field and it will destroy all attacking monsters your opponent controls. Shield goes a different route, instead of penalizing your opponent, it rewards you for having 2 cores in your graveyard by destroying your opponent's attack monsters. Is this good? Well, yes and no. There's lots of ways to dump cores. The main way would probably be dropping them for your reveals. The second way would be running TWO TO THREE immediate disposals in the deck. Mirror Force is still far superior, Shield takes at least 1 turn to set-up before you can actually use it. Running it in twos would probably be ideal, but then you would almost have to run immediate disposal, which means 1 or less CTU, which means no instant cores...

Nega-Ton Corepanel - My favorite of the themed traps, though I don't use it. One of the top decks now, Glad Beasts, have a similar card to this, though most would consider it superior. Corepanel, just like shield, rewards you for putting a core in the grave, but then it also requires you to have a monster on the field. In many cases this would be a very easy card to run. Just play 3 and you'll most like use it at LEAST once. The problem we run into though is having a monster on the field. If we play one of our 1900 attackers, your opponent will PROBABLY use a S/T card on it. If we play Boulder, then it may get attacked before the opponent activates an effect. Gladiator Beast War Chariot is a very powerful anti-effect card and it's surprising that Negaton can't be as effective. Either way, I believe Negaton would be more effective in a build with a s/t lineup like glads. Cards that ensure your opponent will try to fire off an effect.

Reckoned Power - Currently running this in 3's. If you get Reckoned and a Core in your first hand and go first, your opponent will be severely hurt unless they draw a card to destroy it. It destroys all the opponent's face-down spells and traps, and would have been SUPERB if it destroyed all of them. Still, at its worse its a "1 for 1", at its best your opponent will probably lose the match. Running the card at 1 makes it a rare draw like Heavy Storm. By then your opponent may have used most of his most powerful trap cards so Reckoned isn't as great of a draw. Running in 2's is a little better. Running in 3's makes it a lot easier to get 1 in the opening hand, and that is the best time to draw it.

Iron Core Luster - Themed Dark Bribe. Reveal a core and stop any spell or trap. So why am I not running this one? Well, it should be said that most people run Luster at least once in the time they have their KM deck. Usually in the beginning. Triple no-drawback dark bribes is very painful to anyone you might be facing. We just run into that issue with deck space again. Running it in 1 sounds like a complete waste. Two may be ideal since 3 kills the rest of your deck space, but I can't say that for sure. After enough practice, anyone should be able to use Luster. The worst timing for the card(not including not having a core at all) is when you force yourself to discard the core, then all you're left with is a useless trap card. This might be the time to accept the hit you're going to take from your opponent and wait out that 1 turn to get a reveal for the monster in your hand. I've personally had Luster set and summoned a monster without a reveal. Discard core, opponent's turn, they kill the monster and set a trap then pass. My turn comes around and I draw into a useful monster, maybe even with a reveal in my hand; summon it and your opponent uses his trap. It sucks, but that doesn't make luster a sucky card, it just makes the plays you make more important. I'll try running 2-3 again soon, but not until I get more practice in with Reckoned.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Koakis Pt. 2 Spells

It's been said before on this blog and elsewhere, the Koaki Meiru deck does has a learning curve to it, and it is slightly steeper than other decks. With so many themed cards to choose from, not only do you have to know which ones to put into a deck, you also have to know how to use them effectively. A lot of the current decks have pretty simplistic goals in mind. "Summon xxx, win the game." In Koaki meiru decks, there are bosses that can fit the "summon xxx, win" criteria, but you can't get there as easily as with other decks. So Koakis have a more fulltime strategy requirement, whereas other decks may only need to focus on the "early game" or "late game" to fire off their game winning combos. So let's take a look at the type of cards we will be playing along the way.

Spells:
Core Compression - the Koaki Meiru draw card. You discard 1 monster and draw 2, after you reveal the iron core in your hand. I have yet to determine if this card can be ran in 3's or not. Other decks that had draw engines ran them in 3's, so why can't koakis? If the problem is having a core in hand, then the answer may be to use Immediate Disposal along with CTU, draw the core into your hand on your draw phase, then use the compression already in your hand. I also thought that using Core Reinforcements in the deck with this card would work, but that seems to be too many themed cards. Then, unlike other decks with draw engines, koakis dont necessarily need to draw into something specific do they? Hand advantage and resources are important for any deck, but the decks that shined from draw engines, drew into game winning combos and bosses. This isn't to say that KM has no boss or combo, I just haven't found the ideal build that would shine from these draws. This still requires more testing, but I'm sure that the card should be ran in 3's if it is to be ran at all.

Core Overclock - When this card was released, it was a godsend. Five-hundred extra attack puts the majority of KKM at 2400 and Urknight at 2500, enough to generate massive field presence from every summon. I personally used to run this card at 3, then 2, then 1, and now 0. It is not a bad card in the slightest, and can OTK when combined with the right monsters, I just had trouble with drawing dead copies into my hand. For this reason, people believe Burden of Mighty is a better card, which turns boss monsters into normal monsters. I feel Overclock is better for field presence, burden just becomes an annoyance to the opponent a lot of the time and the focus isnt on removing your monster, but rather destroying burden. A lot of my gamelosses do result from me not being able to attack over a certain monster, Overclock would make it possible to attack over monarchs, stardust, and many other bosses.

Core Transport Unit - instant core in the hand. Best KKM support outside of the core itself? Maybe. Discarding cards in your hand is often painful for KKM decks. What CTU does, is it allows you to take a small hit for the chance at running the deck at optimum potential. It took me a while to get 1 of these, then 2, and I will continue to main 2 for a long time. A lot of people believe that the core really only benefits Urknight, which is partially true. Discarding cores instead of revealing monsters is usually a bad play. With this in mind, you would think CTU should only be required in decks using other themed support such as Reckoned Power or Iron Core Luster. This may be true, taking out CTU would make room for generic S/T cards in exchange for not using cards that rely on the core. Some people call that blasphemy to the deck itself, but I honestly am not sure what to think of it.

Iron Core Armor - Any monster that battles with a Koaki loses 400, 700, or 800 ATK, depending on what you equipped it to. The effect is not negateable since it does not make a chain. Also, for 1 time only, it stops the endphase destruction of a Koaki if you choose not to reveal. I have yet to test this card, but I did think about using it with Hidden Armory in a recursive build. The problem with Iron Core Armor is that it only prevents destruction in the endphase. If it stopped destruction at any time it would have been MUCH better. The attack deduction is also a bit lackluster, and can not put you over boss status monsters with a level 4 Koaki. If it returned to the hand it may have also been good, but unfortunately it does not.

Iron Core Immediate Disposal - Option 3 for grabbing iron cores. You wont have the core in hand until the next turn, but if you have a reveal in your hand, or a monster that doesnt require it, this card allows more easy use with Negaton Core Panel. Essentially, with Negaton and a monster on the field, your opponent will have trouble activating effects until your next turn, when you get your core. When compared to CTU, you lose 2 cards(1 for playing ICID and 1 for not drawing a new card) instead of losing 2 cards (1 for playing CTU and 1 of your in-hand resources). Which is more painful is debatable. Until I test ICID more, I will continue using CTU over it. CTU also becomes 3 cores while ICID will always be 1.

Iron Core Speciman Lab - Awesome card, but why did I stop using it? This is one of the only cards that can put a Maximus in your hand. It requires a core reveal to stay alive, which isn't difficult at all, and if you do have a reveal, it becomes a target for your opponent. If you don't have a reveal, you can still activate it in your end phase before it blows up, how great is that? I think the main reason why I stopped using it is the fact that A)Losing field presence in exchange for hand resources is not always a good trade off. B) When not done purposely, your goal should be to have a reveal. C) Drawing multiples suck. Aside from that, the card really is good, and I wish I could use it. But alas, we know using too many themed cards will kill your consistency.

Koaki Meiru Initialize! - As of right now this card is garbage. I think this card is only playable in decks that use neither CTU or ICID, the card goes to your hand instantly. In essence, you lose the same amount of resources when using Initialize!, it is almost better if your card was going to be destroyed anyway, so why is this so bad? The answer is, during the time your card is not being destroyed, you will want an iron core. This makes Initialize a dead card, unless you want to sacrifice your monster. In my head, that is a bad play. Noone should sacrifice field presence for a core, using it when the card will be destroyed anyway is the only acceptable option. Though, with triple Reckoned Power and Labs and other cards that require Iron core reveals, Initialize is one of the fastest things around.

Koaki Ring - The newest KKM card, being released in STBL. It's a NORMAL spell that targets 1 FACE-UP monster, DESTROYS it and deals 1000 points of damage to BOTH players. The Capital text is what makes this card bad. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved it if it was slightly powered up, but right now it's half of a ring of destruction that only works on your turn. What makes Ring of Destruction so good is that it can deal any amount of damage and can be used on the opponent's turn. Perhaps thinking of this card has a more balanced Ring would make it more appealing. Still, I wish it was at least quickplay. When STBL comes out I will try running 3 of these, just for testing. That is up to 3000 additional damage done to the opponent (and myself) that could have won me the game (or cause me to lose).

Urgent Synthesis - Instant recursion. The monster stays on the field permanently and all you lose is the core. Getting a level 4 monster back from the grave is never a bad idea, and can even win you the game, so why is THIS not being ran? Main issue is deck space, that whole problem with using too many themed cards. I think Urgent Synthesis does require more testing, I'm not even sure how many to use in the deck. Using 1 makes it a lucky draw, and that 1 monster needs to really prove its worth. Using 2 makes it more consistent, but not something to rely on. You could get back 1-2 monsters per game, to do who knows what with(considering you drew themed support and lost a core, rather than drawing generic cards). Using 3 would make it part of the strategy of the deck. You will no longer be drawing s/t support, you are now using monsters more often, so a deck that uses Rooklord or Valafar may benefit from Synthesis. Other than that I don't see too much point in the card past just 1.

Next time we'll talk about the KM trap lineup. When I first started playing KM's I was using SIX themed traps cards, then 4, then 3, then 0 for a long time, now 3. So it should be an interesting descussion. After that I may talk about my deck as a whole, why i stopped using as many generic monsters, and why i'm not using specific cards.

DREV sneak peak is this weekend, so live testing may not happen. We'll see lol

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Koakis Pt. 1 Monsters

I haven't been posting like I should, so let's talk about Koaki Meiru cards. Koakis at the moment is my main deck, it's what I'm using in tournaments(locals) right now. It is generally complete, I just tend to change up certain cards every now and then. The theme is said to be one of the most supported theme in yugioh history, and yet it is not topping any big tournaments. Why is this? Well first off I think it's important to remember the kind of decks that are topping right now. We have decks that can win with 2-3 cards, we have decks that lock all possible plays so long as they have cards in their hand, we have decks that have a near-infinite monster supply, and decks that synchro into some of the most powerful synchro monsters available. So what does KM do? KM has A)a slight control aspect, B) a slight swarm aspect, C) a high "beat" aspect, D) a high "boss" aspect. So the idea is, that a deck with so many options, a "toolbox" as we call it, can be very good. And it can! Some people believe that 1 more good TCG-exclusive card is all KM's need to move to tier 1.5+, some people believe that the banlist in september will move them up, and some believe that the ideal deck build is out there, it just has not been found out. Now, I'm not going to talk about the obviously good cards like Urknight and Guardian that MUST be ran in 3's, but let's talk about some of the other themed cards that can be good. Keep in mind that about half of the top tier decks use mostly if not all generic support. About 2 of the top tier decks require their themed card to be so powerful. Koaki's have, arguable, the MOST themed cards in the game, so which are actually playable?

Monsters:
Drago - Used in dragon decks already. Sided in most KM decks, ran in 1's in others. In the deck it's mostly a toolbox monster. If you know your opponent plans to special summon dark or light monsters, Drago's effect will stop it. Useful, but not enough to fulltime unless you need dragons.
Ghoulungulate - Boss Status. Underused mostly, but why? If a koaki is going to be destroyed you can remove one from your graveyard instead, how is that not good? Well, in essence it is, but the card itself has a couple of limitations. One tribute, requires a zombie reveal, and requires fuel(your graveyard). So you will need to find a way to keep ghoulgulate on the field and it's own effect won't protect it from its reveal cost.
Hydro Barrier - Stops effects until the stand-by phase of YOUR next turn. It's a skill drain for your opponent, how is THAT not good?? It requires no reveal, and has 1900 defense, so it will stay in defense while you control the game. Possible side against Quickdraw? This may require testing. Topdecking a core is never a great play, but if you know you can win by using Urknight to play Hydro Barrier, then maybe it should be done. Only issue is that a real power play would also involve sandman. If you have no cards on the field, then you will risk backrow response to your normal summon and/or attack.
Ice - Most believe that tornado is a superior monster. With triple Overclocks the reveal cost probably isn't too difficult. A 2 for 1 effect on it's normal summon is not very good though unless it is your only out. The discard cost is just too painful, there would have to be cards that you want to discard in order for Ice to be better (and unfortunately his text reads to "send 1 card" so discard effects wont fire off.)
Powerhand - Ran in 1's in many builds. Ran in 0's in many builds. Negates the effect of lights and darks it battles, 2100 ATK, and has a relatively easy reveal. Unfortunately, unless you're fighting a deck with Ryko's or a Fiend deck, you won't see his effect fire off very often, which may be the reason why he isn't ran. But with such high attack he generates field presence. Being a machine he can be combined with Cyber Dragon to make Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.
Prototype - Ran in 1's in many builds. Ran in 0's in others. Ran in 2-3's in a select few. In theory, prototype is a great card. He makes your koaki's self destruction work for your, or stops it himself. Unfortunately, in a deck that isn't based on that fact, this is mostly a ruse. If you needed to negate your effect, then you may have needed to make a better play. If you blow up a monster and gain an 1800 ATK token through Prototype's effect, then you lose a possibly great effect monster and gained 2 "vanillas". On the other hand, if you can make a play with prototype that left you with greater presence than you would have had then Prototype is great. With Iron Core Specimen lab, if you blow up your monster, not only do you get to search for a new one (Maximus) you get that 1800 ATK token if Prototype was on the field. Very debatable card.
Rooklord - Boss Status. Destroys 2 cards the moment he is normal summoned, requires only 1 tribute, 2800 ATK, why is he not in everyone's pure KM build? In builds using Bergzak he sees a lot of play, that reveal of a warrior type is impossible for a lot of pure builds(and I don't even own a bergzak). One tribute is good, but you have to normal summon him to use his effect. That means he has no synergy with an in-hand Urknight, yet has game winning syngergy with an on-field Urknight. In a deck with a lot of backrow hate, I'm sure Rooklord would shine. Bottomless, Starlight Road and torrential tribute all hurt...and yet, don't at the same time. If they bottomless, then Rooklord was an even exchange in card resources. This is another highly debatable card.
Valafar - Boss Status. Immune to trap destruction, requires 1 tribute, 3000 ATK, 2100 def so book of moon isn't as painful. He even pierces defense, that is a serious threat to the enemy. He suffers in speed the same way that rooklord does, but is slightly more protected, his only major counter is D. Prison, which goes for most monsters in YGO. Good card but the reveal cost is even MORE difficult than rooklord. I believe he may benefit more from a recursion deck to fire off his piercing effect as much as possible, so long as he is not D. Prisoned.

Next time I will look at Koakis slew of magical support. There's a lot and there is a LOT of discussion on why and why not to use each one.

Thanks for reading.