Quickee Post - EXVC World Premieres

This is a copy past of a post I made on BG. It talks briefly about the new world premiere cards that are coming out in Extreme Victory(Tomorrow!).


So all the TCG exclusives for EXVC have been revealed. There is no TG world premiere card which is a huge surprise. In general, I'd have to say that it is a little lackluster besides the couple of great ones, but I guess that is how every set it?

Vampire Dragon - 2400 6-star Dark/Zombie. When this Tribute Summoned card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can add 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your Deck to your hand. A way to get people to tribute for more than Monarchs(and Jinzo now!). But the problem with this is pretty much the reason why people dont run Il Bud in Zombies, that running synchro fodder is more efficient and consistent. I doubt it will get much play, especially since it is SECRET RARE.

Dodger Dragon - 1900 4-star Wind/Dragon. The Normal Summon of this card cannot be negated. Your opponent cannot activate Counter Trap Cards the turn this card is Normal Summoned. Ehhh. This is what I mean by lackluster. The game does need more 1900 4-stars with effects sure, and the effect isn't BAD, it just isn't awesome. If it shut down traps entirely on that turn, it would be Darksoul good. I feel like Konami is really afraid to make broken cards.

Mara of the Nordic Alfar - Level 2 Tuner Dark/Spellcaster If this card is used as a Synchro Material Monster, the other Synchro Material Monsters are 2 "Nordic" monsters in your hand. Noone has come up with a good Loki build yet, but this is an important piece of it. It is better than Valkyrie because the synchro summon is not an effect that can be negated and you can do it with a full field. However, it is worse than Valkyrie because you can only make synchros with the condition it has. That means you can't drop your Mara with goat on the field and synchro for 5, you HAVE to synchro with TWO monsters out of your hand.

Tour guide from the Underworld - 1000 Level 3 Dark/Fiend When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 3 Fiend-Type monster from your hand or Deck. Its effects are negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster. Yay, oh wait....Its effects are negated? It can't be used as synchro material?? Wth konami. Only thing the card can do right now is search out Sangan, Djinns, or itself. At least it looks cool.

Psi-Beast - 700 Level 2 Earth/Psychic When this card is Normal Summoned, you can remove from play 1 Psychic-Type monster from your Deck. This card's Level becomes the Level of that monster. Another missed opportunity. Card makes great combos, but it should have had higher attack. Who cares if it is 1700+, wouldn't make it broken, just better.

Gladiator Beast Essedarii - 2500 Earth/Beast/Fusion Made from any 2 Gladiator beasts. Very good for glads, the fact that it can be made from anything is pretty dope. It can also suicide into Stardust Dragon, the only thing glads can't stop. It can't tag out, but you probably wouldnt need to if you bust this out.

Gladiator Beast Taming - Quickplay If a face-up "Gladiator Beast" monster is on the field, activate 1 of these effects:
● Select 1 face-up monster your opponent controls, and change its battle position.
●Select 1 face-up "Gladiator Beast" monster your opponent controls, and take control of it until the End Phase.
Why is this Secret!? Because it's so good?? Maybe. It's so many times better than E-con in glads, and some people even want to side it AGAINST glads. I would probably never go so far as to do that, but the card is still good in Glads imo.

Full House - Trap Select 2 face-up Spell/Trap Cards (except this card) and 3 Set Spell/Trap Cards. Destroy the selected cards. Konami really wants us to use this card, and I would say that most of us are still on the fence about it. This is definitely not a main decked card, just fyi. You side this in against people who use field spells and continuous spells(GKs, dragunities) and decks that set excessively and use lots of normal spells(Hero Beat, Machina). The idea is, if your opponent has a field spell, then it is pretty easy to use full house. Example: They have 1 Descendant, 3 face downs and Necrovalley up. You have Full House and D.prison because hey blasted away your monster. He attacks for 2000, you flip D.Prison. No response? Full House. Target your own D.Prison, Necrovalley and all his f/ds. You can do it on your turn too, with a little more time to set up. Your opponent set like crazy and you try to Summon a monster. Oops, Bottomless. Okay, chain Book on your monster. No response? Full house. Your Book, their bottomless, then everything else they have. Pretty situational, but the card can work.

Psychic Shockwave - Trap Activate only when your opponent activates a Trap Card. Discard 1 Spell/Trap Card to Special Summon 1 Level 6 DARK Machine-Type monster from your Deck. This was the silly card we were talking about earlier. Your opponent plays a trap card, you punish them by summoning Jinzo. So they lose a trap and you gain a 2400 machine of torture, pretty cool trade off.

I really wish they upped their game on a few of these cards. Sometimes, it is hard to tell if Konami is being timid, or if they have some other reason for breaking other decks and not any with these^ cards.

The Co-op Experience

Once again, I have been slacking with my posts. But this time, Time itself isn't the only issue. As most of you know, the Playstation Network has been down a lot lately, and now it is undergoing maintenance. The first few days of connection issues was reportedly from DDoS attacks on Sony's server. People claiming to be outraged by Sony's actions against the Mod Community, decided to show their feelings by shutting down Sony's online servers and websites. This not only hurt Sony's image(as planned), but any innocent bystander that wanted to play their games online suffered too. And even more recently, there have been security threats to Sony's User Account Access. Since this is a threat to the customers, Sony had to shut down the servers for maintenance, meaning once again, I can't play games Online. For the server attacks, it is stupid for anyone to think they are doing other's a favor on an issue that effects less than 5% of the players. I don't really want to get into how I feel about Modding video game systems, but what I can say is that when your modding affects other people, then there is a problem.

Basically, people suck(except you guys). Another person that doesn't suck at life is Chelsea, which brings us to the point of this post. Since I can't play MAG with strangers online, I have resorted to playing local co-op with my girlfriend at home! We haven't played a new release together, as most of my latest games are single player or have a ridiculous skill curve. I did manage to go out and buy one thing that puts us on the same level of joy and difficulty.

Neither of us have ever played Portal 1. I know all about it and the premise of the puzzles, but I have never actually played the game. The PS3 version of Portal comes with a code for Steam, an online platform for games. With that, you're supposed to be able to play Portal 2 on your PC and play with others who are on the PS3. So the idea was to have Chelsea on the computer, while I play on the TV. Unfortunately, the PSN is all out of wack so that didn't happen. We are playing Split-screen on the TV though, which is good enough for now. The Co-op campaign is not the same as the single player. In Co-op, you plays as the blue and orange robots, and complete a series of missions from a Hub. The missions are "Tests" designed by Aperture scientist for humans to complete, but obviously robots are better. As far as I have seen, no mission is soloable, and requires at least 1 portal from your partner to complete. It could be something as simple as them shooting it while you hold on to a ball, or as complex as overlaying portals.

We probably aren't experts at the game. Right now we are in the 3rd Mission set, which are Light Bridges. It is a pretty cool idea, there are bridges of light that come from a bulb, and extend until it hits an opaque surface. Using portals, you can extend the bridge "indefinitely." The bridge will also protect you against turret fire if it is veritcal. It still takes us a bit of time to clear a level even with the "advantage" of talking about it face to face. Hey, we're noobs so we're allowed to take our time.

Figuring out how to do that probably took us 15 minutes.

The game is surprisingly good. Portal always had a bit of comedy behind its characters, so when I bought it for Chelsea, I was afraid she wouldn't get into it. Luckily for me, she was laughing in the first 10 minutes of the game. If any of you readers have a gamer girlfriend who has very strict tastes, try out Portal 2.

Her favorite game is Legend of Mana, even though we have lots of other great games she could choose from. Mana is also a Co-op game and it is from Squaresoft, back before they became Square Enix(whatever that means). The premise of this game is that you have a character, and there are just tons of quests and content to go through. You sort of "build" the world and quests based on your interactions with other characters. If you kill off someone, you may miss a quest or a whole town later. If you befriend a certain character, you may be able to quest with them whenever you want, which brings the co-op element in. Many of the quests give you a character who will help you complete it, usually the one that gave you the quest in the first place. You can set an option in-game so that the 2nd character is controlled by the 2nd controller. This way, the first player will always play the main character, and control the skills, magic and weapons he uses and the second player will be using many different characters, all with different weapons and abilities. In between quests you get to breed pets! (Gift Idea Go!). Your pet will fight alongside the two of you, well if it isn't timid, and comes in many shapes and sizes. If quests and pets aren't enough for you, there is "legendary item hunting and crafting" in the form of spirits and instruments. Spirits are found on dungeon maps, based on how you create your world map(town and dungeon placement.) If I remember correctly, you trade in spirits that you find for coins. Those coins are used with items you collect to create magical instruments. Each instrument does radically different things and I haven't played the game nearly enough to know what they do. Basically, Legend of Mana is an original sand-box dream and there aren't too many games out there like it. Especially ones that allow 2 people to play.

No one is home right now and PSN is still down. I won't be able to play co-op anything. In other gaming news, I am about half way through the last trophy in Bayonetta. That is beating the game on Infinity Climax difficulty. It isn't the most difficult thing in the entire world, but it is pretty tough. The key is using counter attacks with the Moon accessory and Dodge Offsets to extend your combos. Remember, I am not using cheat codes to platinum this game, as it is not necessary. After that, if the PSN is still down, I am tempted to go back to Sonic Unleashed or Mirror's Edge. We all know why I'm having trouble with Unleashed(Eggmanland), but Mirror's Edge is a different story. I'll get some news on those as they unfold.

AB and Deck #4.5

Sorry guys, I was the photographer.
Wish I had caught their names, thanks for the picture op!

Anime boston was a blast. I really wish I had more pictures of the gaming area, but I didn't take any because I'm stupid. But please believe me when I say I am trying my best to make the blog as picturific as it was in the earlier posts. I have a good amount of reporting I can do since I did bring my cards and was able to play a bit. I even sold some cards for the first time, which help support me actually being in Boston over the weekend. Selling cards isn't anything new to Yu-Gi-Oh players, but to the other casual players out there, this is the low-down. Most people have a trade binder, and a lot of those people have a separate, non-trading binder, full of the stuff they make decks out of. After a while, stuff in the trade binder is less and less good, and the odds of you trading it for something more useful before you could have sold it for cheap increase over time. So a lot of people go straight to Dealers and Venders to sell their cards. Some sell for less than a dollar, some for 1 dollar, but eithe rway, they have to get rid of the card. I tried to avoid dealers as much as I could and just went with players. Of course I didn't sell as much as I probably could have, but I am still satisfied with the results. I also brought the latest UniSTORM and a 12-card side deck to play people with.

Monsters: 20 x2 Veiler x2 Ryko x2 Desertapir x2 Grisnir x3 Gnjostr x3 Gudlfaxe x3 Mega Hamster x1 Gorz x1 Airbellum x1 Vanadis Spells: 11 x3 Gold Sarcophagus x2 MST x1 Duality x1 Reborn x1 Dark Hole x1 Avarice x1 Mind Control x1 Trunade Traps:9 x3 Fetters x2 Warning x1 Mirror Force x1 BTH x1 Mind Crush x1 Torrential Side: 12 x2 Cyber Dragon x1 Chimeratech x2 D.D. Crow x2 Chain Disappearance x1 Kinetic Soldier x1 Seven Tools x3 Laevateinn

The deck did decently, I was able to win the first 8-man tournament, but I lost the 2nd.
11am Swiss
Budget Six Sams
I played a lot of Budget decks in the first round, which sucks but not everyone has $300+ decks, so Budget Samurais are almost like the old samurais, except with synchro monsters(no Shi En). The one victory the guy got over me was in round 2 when he opened the duel with Mizuho and double Shien, which is not fun at all. There was also a Starlight Road involved while he had a Musakani set, so that duel was going nowhere fast. Every time I think about Six Sams though, I always remember about how much difficulty they have against Thoughtruler, and how I never summon it. Veiler does work with stopping plays cold, and Solemn Warning on the normal summons hurts just as much. I have no idea if he ran double-edged sword technique though.

Empty Jar
This scared me, but Empty Jar can be destroyed with a good side deck and a little luck. The first duel did drop me down to 1 card, and surprisingly, it was Pot of Avarice. I believe I foiled his last mill attempt with an Effect Veiler, which left me with a field of 4 monsters. Avarice anything and synchro a lot for the win. The next round he sided into a slower build. More focused on controlling me instead of going with the FTK. Unfortunately, I had sided in plenty of cards and letting me set Tanngnjostr on turn 1 really ups my offense.

Budget Gravekeepers
Now, budget gravekeepers are honestly gravekeepers without Duality or Warnings. The girl running this deck had neither, but everything else seemed legitamite. She even got the first turn Royal Tribute on me, which hit an amazing 1 Dark Desertapir and 1 Guldfaxe. What is nice about this version of the deck is that the lower monster count allows me to not rely on my opening hand so much. Instead, each topdeck and search are the most important. Unfortunately, playing gravekeepers without Warning against someone who IS using Warning is definitely an uphill battle. There is no way I'm going to attack her face-down monsters with my Beasts, so she has to flip everything on her turn. A few well timed Veilers andSolemn Warnings stopped her Descendant plays cold.

One of the players at Stillpoint whose name escapes me was also 3-0 with his deck(Tuning?). He had to rush to a panel that was starting so we didn't get to play! He was gracious enough to give me the win, but I definitely owe him a duel some day.

6pm Swiss
Around this time was when all the advanced players started showing up. My confidence wasn't much higher after the 11am Swiss because I fought no top-dollar decks.

D.D. Dynamite
This was a girl from The Wizards Duel that I played back in May 2010 when I first restarted. Back then she was running a bit of anti-monster burn, with cards like Lava Golem and Ojama Trio. This time was D.D. Dynamite, which beat me just as badly as that deck a year ago. The first duel I do believe I won with generic Nordic plays. After that was definitely downhill. Double D.D. Dynamite for 6000+ damage will kill just about any player, especially since I used a Solemn Warning that game. The next round was slightly different. I attacker her Backrow a lot with things like MST and Scrap Dragon, but instead of winning with Dynamite, she was doing things like setting Gret Maju so I attack into it. Maju gets a ton of attack and defense based on how many cards are removed from play, and there is no way to tell you will attack into a monster with 4000 defense. The end of the duel was decided when she used Gold Sarcophagus to get D.D. Dynamite. If you can't win in 2 turns, then the game is over.

Budget GKs again?
Different person, different build. I guess I could say it wasn't budget, but rather a "personalized" GK build(tier 2 GKs). I believe the player was getting back into YGO, or may have never been a competitive player to begin with. He asked a couple questions about rulings and made a few futile plays, which suggests casual play. An exampled would be Secret Village. A great card in GKs, until you get Necrovalley down, you can shut down your opponent's spell cards. If you realize Necro isn't very detrimental to them, keep Village on the field. He thought that with Village, even if he DIDN'T have a spell card, he could lock the opponent's. Unfortunately, the card doesn't work that way. So every duel he played Village, he would get locked out of the game by his own card.

Regional Infernities
Surprisingly, I won the first duel. Playing Infernities require a bit of finesse and so does playing against it. The duel was mostly for fun, so neither of us used our side deck, and as you know, the side-deck is what destroys infernities. I did end up losing this match because of a few misplays on my part. I have never been very good and deciding when to use what card against infernities because they almost always have a back-up plan.

I will be using Nordics today at locals. There is no telling if it will be my last time or not, but I still like the deck a lot. In fact, there weren't any other decks I planned on making now that I have Cell Spam and Nordics 100% completed.

Until now..

Not quite sure what to call the deck. Right now, it is code named as "Dual" but I may call it Warrior's Strike to poke fun at the starter deck. As a disclaimer, let it be known that I do not like Little City/Gemini Beat/Hero Beat/Light Beat/Whatever you want to call it. But I do like the Warrior's Strike starter deck, and decided to expand on that since hero beat seems to be doing so well. There are 3 important things in Hero Beat that Warrior's Strike CANNOT use:
1) Hero Mask - Add an Alius and Destroy weak cards on the field.
2) E-Call and Stratos - Additional "RotA" for Alius.
3) Main/Side decked Miracle Fusion and Super Poly.
Dual still has some options since it runs more Gemini than "Hero Beat." This allows me to use more of the Gemini Support cards while still keeping as responsive of a deck as possible.
1) Woodland Archer and Featherizer can be used as an Additional RotA for the deck. Archer can also be summoned next to Gale for a level 6 Brionac, Armed Wing, Uruquizas or Gaia. Featherizer is more similar to Stratos, except you can't attack with it.
2) Running 9 Gemini allows me to run 3 Supervise. While that may seem excessive, and may change in the future, Supervise is a fantastic card that almost always replaces itself. With Gale, a level 4 Gemini monster with Supervise makes Black Rose Dragon. After you destroy the field, Supervise will allow you to summon a monster, which could be the same one used as the synchro material.
3) Blazewing Butterfly can be used as a miniature Lonefire. Sure it is a lot easier to respond to, but the deck replaces cards fairly easily.

I don't have a full decklist yet because the deck is still in testing, but keep a look out! It is pretty entertaining.

Secret Tech

There is something I have been noticing lately after taking a good look at people who win tournaments. The most "tournament ready" deck has cards in it that you would NEVER think to main. Leaving them in the side deck is what us normal people do, but the top players main deck certain specific cards to throw off your opponent's strategies. Now, I'm not talking about maining a couple of Effect Veilers or Compulsory instead of D. prison, these cards are almost completely out of left field or shouldn't see the light of day outside of the side deck. I believe the idea is that "These cards are so good, you will PROBABLY side them in at game 2. So why not just use it in the main deck?" Whether this is a game winning strategy or not is a different question, but it seems to work for these guys. Let's take a look at the tech choices for the top 4 decks of YCS Anaheim that were recently released:

1st place-

Fossil Dyna Pachycephelo - Oh cool, Gadget Stun topped? Oh wait, it's Hero Beat. Well that makes a lot of sense, Fossil Dyna is great to side in against a LOT of decks. Well, the 1st place deck mained 2 of them, and sided them out when necessary. Of course, in this meta, Fossil Dyna can hit just about any deck, and certainly does nothing to Hero Beat. I really hope that Fossil Dyna is released in Gold Series 4. I would love to main 1 or 2 in Koakis. It has always been one of my favorites, it is just so hard to get right now.
Forbidden Chalice - No wonder people keep asking me for my Chalices. The card was never bad, but to most people, the card was never good either. And yet, this guy mained 2 of them and 0 Effect Veiler. What does Chalice have that Veiler doesn't? Well, Chalice's effect negation can be used on either player's turn. If they have Ryko set and you want to keep your monster on the field, you can actually activate Chalice during Damage Calculation to negate a flipped Ryko. You made Stardust Dragon but your opponent made Scrap Dragon? No fretting because Chalice will dominate Scrap Dragon in the damage step. The only real thing that veiler has over Chalice is the fact that it can't be MST'd. Also, you can use veilers as Chaos food, set it in extreme emergencies, or combine it with mind control for a synchro summon. So perhaps the best time to use Chalice is in a deck that doesn't use Mind Control, Pot of Avarice, or Chaos Sorcerer.

2nd Place
Mind Crush - We all know how good Mind Crush is. We all know that every top deck has some kind of search power. So why doesn't everyone use Mind Crush in their main deck? That is probably because of the ancient stigma of stubborn players. There are just some cards you want to fire off so badly in your deck that you are willing to sacrifice other great cards to add in more comboes. Mind Crush is almost easier to use than ever, and getting it turn 1 is one of the best 1 for 1s available. When can you use Mind Crush and know you're getting a hit? After the effects of Pot of Duality, Gateway of the Six Samurai, Sangan, Tuning, Gravekeeper's Commandant, Dragon Ravine, Malefic World, and any for of RotA. Card is almost too good not to run, and yet I haven't been.

Top 4
The one, SINGLE Smashing Ground - This I hate. I despise the idea of running 1 Smashing ground instead of 1 Compulsory, but there is a reason behind the madness. Smashing ground is a fall-back card, used when something unforeseen hits the field and you don't want it to stick around. Mega-Hamster, Spirit Repear and especially Gorz are good examples of this. You don't want to just Dark Hole the field, but it is too late to attack over them. So you use your 1 Smashing ground to turn your opponent's unexpected play into a reset, which is always good. Running 3 Smashing's turns your deck into an "anti-monster" deck. That is, almost anything you can't attack over, deserves a smashing ground. Very annoying, but it is a deck (that got into the top 32).

Dust Tornado - This one I hold a special place in my heart for. When Dust Tornado was first released, I main decked 2 in every(my single) deck. The March format we're in is plagued with excessive back-rows. Trap stun was the general answer to this, combined with a BRD or Hyunlei to wipe them all clean. Nowadays that is just too situational, and leaving a card on the field for too long is just too dangerous. This is where Dust Tornado shines. Unlike seven tools, it takes care of cards the moment you see it out of the opponent's hand. Also unlike Seven Tools, DT can hit face up cards that are already on the field, like CotH, or chainable to spells like DRAGON RAVINE, or Six Samurai United. What Seven tools has over DT though is the ability to "choose" which face down is the right one to stop. Since your opponent is activating a card that you will stop, you have the choice whether to flip 7 Tools or not to. Dust Tornado doesn't have that luxury. Trap Stun does something a little similar, but you also get to combo it with powerful, field-clearing effects, something DT also can not do. What DT does is constantly keeping your opponent in check, before they pile on too strong of a backrow.

Enemy Controller - This a something I have been thinking about for a while in Unicorn Synchro and UniSTORM. The deck that topped used both this and Mind Control, which gives you 2 powerful synchro options. You can tribute tokens and get an opponent's monster to synchro with. If they left a tuner on the field, you can flip Megahamster, summon something to tribute, and synchro. Enemy Controller also has the ability to stop 1 attack, which could mean setting a Tanngjostr in facedown defense position. The card is actually good in a lot of decks that hold a lot of resources, so I can understand why the guy that topped used this.

The OCG side of the table is miles different in terms of tech, but that is because the game is actually different. Their meta(even though they stick to a few decks) is pretty diverse, just like ours. But the powerful, game winning effects are different because their card pool is so enormous. We are getting them all eventually, but the Japanese get to abuse things a for a lot longer than we do. Here is a quick list of popular cards you can find on Shriek's OCG Website
-Greenkappa: Level 3 Dark Warrior so it has decent Attributes. 650/900 attack and defense is pretty pitiful, but it has a flip effect. "Select 2 face-down spell or trap cards and destroy them." Ehhhhhhhhh. The effect is okay, and you can combine it with random cards like LSS Kagemusha, or Dark Armed Dragon. I guess the JPs don't like to attack face-down cards?
-Malefics: We have gravekeepers and dragunities, but noone that topped uses Malefics in them. Why? Can't be sure to be honest. Who wouldnt want to special summon a 4000 attack monster, at LEAST to bait out a solemn. Oh well.

Unistorm is still my main deck right now, and even though my Shiresworn deck is very powerful, I want to play Nordics. I will continue to update my constant changes to the deck. I will create a powerful build out of it and I know it is possible.

Victory is at hand! Pt. 2

Continuing from the last post.

Psychics
In my opinion, Psychics have always been good, but lacked substance to make it a playable deck. Sure you could OTK, but playing a long and drawn out duel was against the Psychic archetype. EXVC answers this by giving psychics a new strategy in the form of RFP manipulation. Don't try to make it some kind of Macro or Chaos variant though, as most of the cards only work with each others own effects. The best card is Psychic Wizard of Silence. You remove from play any, read that, ANY psychic monster in your graveyard from play. When Wizard is sent from the field to grave, SS that monster. As of right now, the effect is mandatory, so you can do some of the most ridiculous plays imaginable with Wizard. Of course Overdrive Teleporter can't be Special Summoned, but it can get back just about any tuner, Armored Axon Kicker, or synchro monsters. And it even has 1900 attack for no reason whatsoever! Psychic Witch does the same except you remove a 2000 or less Psychic from your DECK when it is destroyed by anything and sent to the grave. Then you Summon it during your standby phase. Priest does it too as an Infernity Necromancer. You discard a card to remove psychics from your grave from play. Then when it gets removed from the field, you can summon any one of them. The new playstyle is like the ultimate deterrent. And if your opponent decides not to attack your monsters, you get to synchro for an equally as ridiculous synchro monster, Mental Over Archfiend. Level 9 so it loses cool points for that. 3300 attack so it gets those cool points right back. Then its effect gives it cool points on EVERY turn. Imagine EH The Shining, it gets cards from the rfp zone back to your hand when it leaves the field. Mental does that too, but you remove a card once per turn, then you summon them ALL when Mental gets removed. And guess what? The effect is Mandatory. So instead of The Shinging, Mental is like a Reversed Absolute Zero. Instead of Destroying Everything, it gives you everything. Then Psychics get their own Escape from the Dark Dimension and a trap that turns any psychic into a D.D. Warrior Lady. And Konami has already announced Psychic Beast as a TCG exclusive, the deck is already sounding amazing. Whoever said deck diversity is bad for the game needs to get their head examined.

Six Samurai
If you thought The TCG loves X-sabers, then you may have to agree that the OCG loves Samurai decks. Luckily, the monsters in the new set are not as explosive as STOA. Instead they provide help setting up and help getting over monsters. Because of this, the cards may not see play at all, but they are still support nonetheless. They do gain access to a new continuous spell card that uses Bushido counters, which can scare a lot of duelists. To use its effect, it has to go the graveyard and only counts the Counters on it. It also only gains 1 counter per summon. The effect is still decently powerful, as it allows you to summon a Six Samurai from your DECK with level equal to or lower then the counters. So imagine this, you have Mizuho, Shinai, Kagemusha, Kizan, and Dojo in hand. You really wish you had a Kageki to make a 1st turn Shi En. You won't be able to, but you can on turn 2. Activate Dojo. Summon Mizuho, Special summon Shinai, Special Summon Kizan. That is 3 counters for Kageki. Or if Kizan is in your graveyard, Use Mizuho to tribute Shinai and destroy something. Add Kizan and summon it. Three counters again. If you don't feel comfortable playing so many cards, they have a new trap card which punishes your opponent for not playing six samurais themselves. If you control exactly 1 face up Six Samurai monster(which is very easy), you can send up to 2 cards your opponent controls back to their hand. Ridiculous? Maybe. The argument going around right now is "good players can get out of any situation." Six Samurai just make it 10x more difficult.

Gladiator Beasts
Glads also go support in this pack as TCG exclusives, but to be honest, I don't know enough about Gladiator Beasts to comment about it. There is an all new Fusion monster with an unconfirmed effect. It is also hard to tell what makes it because of its color scheme. There is a lot of Fire, which means Laquari and some armor which could mean Samnite. There is also a new quickplay spell card which is supposed to be used AGAINST gladiators called Gladiator Taming. With Taming, you can take control of a gladiator beast for no reason at all. If you play Glads, you can use it as an enemy controller to change a monster's battle position. I think we are all waiting to hear about the fusion monster before we cast judgement on Glads as a whole.

As usual, most new packs are defined by world premiere cards. I can turn easy outs to decks into solid defenses that you can't get over. In STOA, TCG exclusives were effects that punished your opponent for trying to do things. EXVC may do the same but also introduces new strategies. Mara of the Nordic Alfar demands that you perform synchros with it from your hand. Reborn Tengu is a 1700 attaker that replaces itself from your deck when removed from the field(Oh yeah, it's mandatory). Full House is situational, but is made to stop your opponent from overextending. It is great in decks that play chainable cards like Fetters, Enemy Controller, Compulsory and Book of Moon. Psychic Shockwave is supposed to be like Starlight Road except with a Jinzo attached to it. If your opponent plays a trap card, you can punish them by summoning a Jinzo from your deck. Sound like fun? You bet!

EXVC looks like a blast. I didn't have time to talk about Karakuris, but I may add that in later tonight, so keep an eye out. Morphtronics got a big boost too. Deck Diversity is the name of the game.

2011 is Going to be HUGE!

Correction: Every year is huge for video games. Why is that? Because every year we get a new basis on what is great. Take for example Infamous. Great game. Huge hit when it came out. This year(June specifically) we have Infamous 2 coming out, which will also be amazing. This is because developers have successful platforms to build games upon. Some people say this destroys innovation, but with so many games on the market, Quality surpasses Quantity. I'm not really sure what I plan to buy this year, everything just looks so good. In no particular order, here are some of my hottest releases coming this year(or Q1 2012)

Infamous 2
Infamous was one of the best semi-sandbox action adventures available. The amount of carnage you can wreak was great, and is heightened in Infamous 2 in June. Cole gets new powers, more choices to make that affect story progression, and more things to do. They even added a Mission Creation mode that you can share with others online.

L.A. Noire
A friend of mine talked to me for a while about how Noire tries a bit too hard. "The game wants to feel so realistic, that it becomes unconvincing." The acting in this game is probably the low point of my anticipation, the gameplay trailers are what really excite me. One of the games Chelsea and I rented a few years ago was Condemned 2. Condemned had 3 things they REALLY wanted to emphasize: 1) Brutal Combat uses all sorts of weapons. 2) Scary atmosphere(which became Scary-Grunge instead of Scary-Horror). 3) Problem Solving a la detective work. The case solving was by far the best(if not the only) good thing in that game to me, and L.A. Noire uses a system very similar to this. Aside from vintage bar shoot-outs, chase scenes, and exploration, there is case solving that you have to do that sounds like hours of fun. There are interviews to do that not only have you comparing statements, but also watching facial expressions to pick up on their "ticks." You examine evidence just like in Condemned, where small details could be the biggest clues. Quite frankly, I could care less about anything else in the game. I honestly just want to pick up envelopes and find lipstick marks on the adhesive. (Everyone says I should play Phoenix Wright. No thanks.)

Resistance 3
Resistance games have always been underrated in my opinion. They get outshined by other games where the fights are Epic and you are also some big, burly alpha-male that can kill aliens in his sleep. And those games are fun, don't get me wrong, but the fights in Resistance are Epic in their own way. Not only are the enemies and circumstances ridiculous, but you are just a lowly soldier against these insurmountable odds. You get a real sense of "invasion" rather than "Aliens are here, but we're better than them." Resistance 2 also had ONLINE LOCAL CO-OP that was hours of fun for us. You basically did Missions with up to 8 people, and you can have 2 of them on the same PS3, on the same couch, in the same house. It has already been said that R3 will have local co-op, just hoping that it will be just as much as R2.

Uncharted 3
More games to buy holy crap. Uncharted has always had great acting, but unlike L.A. Noire, it is designed to be a full entertainment experience. There is comedy, serious moments, and high-speed action, and we expect the same from U3. For myself, I have always been a fan of acrobatics in games like Tomb Raider. U3 has this, but with a control scheme that doesn't punish you with its 8-way movement. Actually, U2 had a lot of different things in it, which combine to make a great game. There was tactical combant like Metal Gear, gun fights like Gears of War, platforming and treasure hunting like Tomb Raider, and online multiplayer like nothing else. Can't wait until November.

Yugioh World Championship 2011: Over the Nexus
Best Yugioh game ever? I still want the Xbox Arcade one to come out on the PSN so I can buy that too. WC2011 features cards up to Storm of Ragnarok and most of the Duel Terminal Series. For those who don't know, I played 2010 all day every day. I played it in bed when I woke up. I played it on my lunch break at work. I played it driving to and from work(not recommended). All to unlock every card and every opponent WITHOUT using cheat codes. WC2011 will get the same special treatment as playing any deck against any deck is a glorious experience. Unfortunately the game doesn't come out until May and if you want to import it, it will cost you double MSRP plus shipping.

Dark Souls
I talked about Dark Souls last time in this one of the best games ever post. If you haven't at least tried Demon's Souls, you should, as most retailers have it for cheap. Dark Souls will be multiplatform, and I REALLY hope the development doesn't take a hit because of this. Demon's Souls had beautiful environments, but its character models were lacking(unless you were decked out in armor). Hopefully there won't be any "Hardware Limitations" for the new game late this year.

Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3
New Gameplay modes? Check.
New Combat Abilities? Check.
Harder Enemies? Check.
More Diverse arenas? Check.
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083? CHECK!
Gundam Wing Deathscythe Hell and Tallgeese II? CHECK!!!
Gundam 00? Check I guess?

Sonic 20th Anniversary Project
I am very excited for this and, unfortunately, 95% of the gaming community doesn't share my enthusiasm. Why? Xbox. Just kidding. I talked a bit about Sonic in this Good Games You Thought Were Bad post. As I said before, developers now have platforms that work very well and can use that to build better games. For Sonic Team(and Havok?) they have the engine from Sonic Unleashed, made better in Sonic Colors to use toward this Xbox/PS3 game. So how can they make they game as good as they can? Here are a few of my own ideas:
1) Keep Sonic's top speed the same as in Sonic Colors or slow it down even further. Removing his Boost Run may be the ultimate answer and does seem like a step backwards but it really isn't. If they re-implement the standard roll attack and roll cancels from Sonic Adventure, this will keep Sonic at a maximum speed that is manageable by even the most casual players.
2) Keep worlds diverse and try not to use too many of the same things. An example is in Sonic Unleashed with the Robot chase scenes. Too easy the first couple of times. The last time should have been the first. Then each time they wanted to use that chase, add in something else like QTE bouncers, low walls, short hops, etc.
3) 80% of the people who complain about Sonic games complain about new characters. If new characters are introduced, they're levels have to be exciting. Sure they can do things 100% different than Sonic, but if they are too boring(Werehog), or outrageous(Shadow from 2006), then no one will like it. Toning down Sonic's top speed should indirectly help this.
4)Download Content. Both Unleashed and 2006 had this, and it was good. Downloading Extra Hard, Rank SSS, etc levels are great for "hard-core" players.

Disgaea 4
I never got the Platinum Trophy for Disgaea 3. Some say it is easy but it does require a bit of a grind and I had too many other games to play! Disgaea 4 is supposed to have even MORE end-game content than 3 did. That means my 120 hours of playtime will have to be 180+. If that sounds like as much fun to you as it does to me, then you should pick up Disgaea 4 too.

There are TONS more games coming out that I'm interested in that supposedly come out this year too. I can't write about them all so here is just a bit of the action. I'll give them a buyers rating: 5-Day one purchase, 4-I just bought something else, so I'll get this next, 3-I won't get it on day 1 unless there's a good deal, and I probably won't play it until I have time, 2-Low chance I'll get it unless something changes my mind, 1-Probably won't get it, but the game still seems like fun.
- Playstation Move Ape Escape (3/5)
- Socom 4 (3/5 Looking at you MAG)
- Portal 2 (2/5)
- Twisted Metal (2/5)
- Ratchet and Clank All 4 One (4/5)
- The Agent (1/5)
- Silent Hill: Downpour (5/5)
- White Knight Chronicles 2 (2/5)

Victory is at hand!

Everyone in the YGO community knows about the new set being released May 10. The sneak peak for it is at the end of the month, April 30th and May 1st. Will it be as great as STOA(Storm of Awesome)? Will it be as great as Duelist Revolution? Well today we'll look at the newest things that Extreme Victory brings to the duel table.

For a Synchron Synchro, he looks pretty scary.

From Konami's teaser:
A High-Tech War over Synchro Monsters!
For 3 years, Synchro Monsters have dominated the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Now they’ve reached their ultimate evolution. But something – or someone – has been waiting for them. It’s time for a showdown between the ultimate Synchro Monsters and the ultimate Synchro-Destroyers!

Tech Genus – The Top Tech!
Extreme Victory takes Synchro Monsters to their ultimate extreme, with the new T.G. (Tech Genus) monsters. T.G. Decks are specially designed to crank out Synchro Monsters at a fast and furious pace. And they can do it over and over and over again.
T.G. Decks have super flexibility. When most T.G. monsters get destroyed, they let you add another T.G. monster to your hand, or Special Summon one from the Graveyard. This lets you upgrade your field set-up every turn, by getting exactly the monsters you need to do the Synchro Summons you want.

Extreme Victory comes with 11 T.G. monsters, including 5 T.G. Synchros. And T.G. Synchros are some of the biggest and baddest monsters around.

Meklord Menace!
So what do you do when you’re up against the perfect army of Synchro Monsters? Answer: You build the perfect army of Synchro-Destroying Machines… an army called the Meklords! Meklords are hungry, hungry machines, led by the Meklord Emperors. They exist for one purpose: to hunt down and destroy all Synchro Monsters, once and for all! Meklords know that Synchro Monsters have lots of abilities to destroy monsters on the field. To fight back against this, Meklord Emperors are built so you can Special Summon them from your hand whenever a Meklord is destroyed. Your opponent might think he’s winning, but suddenly your Meklord Emperor will swoop down from your hand to the field, consume your opponent’s Synchro Monster, and use its power to become even stronger!

Each Meklord Emperor also leads its own Meklord Army. And Meklord Army monsters get stronger with the more Meklords you have on the field. Safety in numbers!

Battle Royal
Lots of Decks are caught in the crossfire in this T.G.-Meklord war. Don’t get caught unprepared!
Extreme Victory is loaded with new cards you can add to your Deck, whether you play Nordics, Six Samurai, Gladiator Beasts, Blackwings, Plants, Scraps, Dragons, Morphtronics, Psychics, Junk monsters, or just about anything else.
It even has the new Elemental Hero Neos Knight from the Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time movie!

Now that is a LOT of support. In fact, next to STOA, EXVC is looking like one of the few packs that jam-packed with more support for decks than any other. Let's take a look at what kind of decks are getting support.

Yusei Fudo/Synchron Decks
Obviously, the newest member is the cover monster, Junk Berserker. Berserker wins out over Nitro Synchro as a go-to synchro. It's also nice that Junk Synchron can MAKE Berserker, since it can not even make Nitro. Nitro itself can be a win condition, but Berserker continuously brings the pain with his effects. He starts off at 2700 ATK, enough to swing over most of the current synchro monsters. Then his effect will let him swing over almost ALL of the remaining synchro threats, so long as he has fuel in the graveyard. Then, when you opponent tries to set monsters with destruction effects, he can wipe those too without even flipping them! Mystic Piper and Unknown Synchron are debatable. Mystic Piper is designed to let you draw cards,Decent, but it is a waste of a normal summon to me and the effect will be negated if you bring it back with Junk Warrior. Unknown Synchron has a Cyber Dragon-esque summoning ability, but you can only use it once per duel. In my Synchron deck, I ran 1 Turbo Warrior because of its utility with the deck. Unknown Synchron is a 100% improvement over Turbo.

Jack Atlas/RDA/Resonators!
Long ago, pure Jack Atlus decks were hard to pull off. It was 80% luck of drawing combos at 20% luck of somehow winning with terrible monsters. Somehow, Jack stepped his consistency game up by buying some anime packs with good cards in it. Thus his deck is a theme in itself. EXVC brings more Resonators, and support if you have RDA face up on the field(think Earthbound Immortals). STBL also had a few cards in it you can use for your RDA deck, but EXVC makes it playable. It should be stated however that Resonators are still bad cards in general, and are only good with the support offered to using them. They have a RotA in EXVC called Call Resonator. Destructive Resonance destroys cards every time you synchro with one. Red Nova Carpet summons 2 from the grave if you have a level 8 Dragon Synchro on the field. Then there is a plethora of Tuner support that lets you cycle through the best Resonators. Once you make that RDA, you have more options in EXVC than ever before. You can Harpies' Feather Dust their backrow with Crimson Secure. You can Draw 2 cards just for having RDA on the field with Pot of the Crimson Dragon(can't summon until your next turn). Then let's not forget about Red Screen from STBL that allows for more synchro climbing.

Tech Genus
TGs are 1 of the 2 most anticipated themes of the set. I like to compare TG to Blackwings, as they easily summon themselves and have pretty good support. The difference is that each individual TG monster card isn't as powerful as individual Blackwings. Instead, when they are destroyed, you can fetch a new one from your deck. And the synchros they make are pretty strong in their own right(stronger than Blackwing Synchros?) The big thing is performing Accel Synchros with the Synchro Tuner monsters. The goal is to make TG Halberd Cannon, a 4000ATK walking Horn of Heaven. If your opponent SOMEHOW gets over that, you can special summon any TG(except himself) from the graveyard. Pretty deadly. When you can't make Halberd Cannon, there are so many other TG synchros to make, and theyre all good. A lot of people believe that once we get TG Hyper Librarian, then TG will be the next tier 1 deck. Even without Librarian, TG can do very well on their own.

Meklords
Ask any Anime/EverythingJapan fan about "Meklords" and you will get an ear full of rage. They will all tell you that "Meklords" used to be "Machine Emperor" and Konami should be ashamed with itself for changing that. What people fail to realize is that the name "Kikoutei" in itself is an abbreviated term. All languages have ways to combine different words to make something new, and Kikouhei is no different. They could have easily had each word emphasized and they chose not to. Meklord is the same idea, a combination of 2 words that seem to form a new one.
As far as the deck goes, Meklords are surprisingly good! A pure Meklord deck may not be ideal, as Machina are pretty much generic Machine Support. As of right now, the only Meklord Emperor we can get from the pack is Skiel(arguably the worst one). Grannel comes from a shonen jump magazine, and it is unknown where or when we will get Wizel(which was a Jump card in Japan). Emperors are easy to summon and only require a face-up monster to be destroyed by a card effect. Skiel and Wisel have 2200 and 2500 attack, while Grannel varies. Their lackeys, the Meklord Army cards are pretty interesting themselves. Army Wisel pierces with an 1800 body, and gains 100 for each additional Meklord around it. Army Grannel halves the attack of a monster when you summon it, and also gains 100 for each Meklord. Poor little Skiel's Army does nothing but search out other Army cards and only if destroyed by battle. Don't despair though as they have a lot of support cards to help out the cause. Their field card lets you special summon Meklords from your hand for no reason. Then they have a Pot of Greed(the new cool thing to have) just for controlling 2 Meklords(and not conducting your battle phase.) They have a Monster Reincarnation too that allows you to return Meklords to your deck to add one from your graveyard to your hand. But like I said, don't forget that this is a machine deck, so you are backed by Machina Fortress and Limiter Removal.

There are soooooooo many more support cards in this set than I could possibly post. Psychics, Morphtronics, Six Sams, Scraps, and even glads get a spot in EXVC. I'll try to talk about the others tomorrow, so please check back!

Marvel Vs CAPcom!

For those who haven't seen on Twitter or read in the last post, Chelsea got me Marvel VS Capcom 3 for our anniversary last month. It has taken me so long to post about it because I am not very good at the game, and I especially don't play competitively. My sister and I played MvC 1 on the Dreamcast(that I still have) a LOT and that is the closest I get for experience. I do play the game enough to have finally made a post about it though.

In the beginning days of me owning the game, I played strictly in mission mode. Contrary to what it sounds like, Mission Mode is more like a combo tutorial. Each character has 10 missions which are comprised of completing a combo listed by the developers, and the "difficulty" scales upwards until the last one. For me, this is a good way to figure out what kind of playstyles each character has. The first character I wanted to learn was Phoenix(before ever hearing how terrible/spectacular she is), so I went to Mission mode and did all of her missions.

Phoenix is fun and all, but she has the lowest HP of all the characters in the game. To compensate for that, when you have 5 hyper bars she will go into "Dark Phoenix" mode when she dies. That gives her full health, a huge damage buff, and a huge improvement to her abilities. Her fireballs are doubled, single hits fire off little embers, and lots of other zany stuff. Unfortunately since I wanted her to be my "point-gal"(lead character), I often don't get the chance to farm hyber bars. The pros play Phoenix by having her in reserves and building your meter with your other lead character. Since I didn't want to do that, I decided to drop Phoenix from my roster. My main team from MvC1 had Morrigan in it, so I decided to try her in Mission Mode.

Morrigan is(as of right now) my best character. Her standing combo string is fairly long and her projectile isn't completely useless. Playing online(against other noobs), I have been able to wipe teams with her alone. Morrigan is also fairly speedy in her normal attacks, which lets you get in a frame faster than some of the slow guys. Her dash is pretty unique as she can fly across the entire level if you want, and when you drop out of dash with aerial attacks! The QCF Hyper combo she has is pretty sucky in my opinion, but her QCB in the air makes up for it. Another gripe I have with Morrigan is that her assist isn't very useful. You have the choice of either Soul Spark or Shadow Servant(one of the games many shoryukens). Life Harmonizer is the other option, and gives you 30% of your hyper bar. I'm sure that is nice for some characters, but I have yet to try it. I have Morrigan on each of my 3 teams, so that goes to show how important she is to me. I don't use her as my point-gal though, but rather as my anchor(your backup character that you try to hold off on using until the end). In the #2 slot lies Chun-li:

I am definitely no pro with Chun-li, but I like her movelist in this game, so that is why I use her. She has a nice, stunning assist with Hyakuretsu Kyaku(lightning kicks!). This lets me get in with my Point-guy or gal to start up a combo I may have not been able to do. Using her in battle is a teeny bit difficult for me with her lack of range. She has an extended crouching M attack that I should use more often. Since I'm so used to dashing in and going for the L attack, I can never reach the enemy. Probably too used to the way how Crimson Viper plays.

Like I said, I'm no pro at the game, but I do want to become good at it. Aside from learning combos, a big part of the game is coming up with Teams that work well. So far, my only good characters are C.Viper and Morrigan. On the rise from those 2 are Jill, Chun-li and Captain America(one of my favorites from MvC1). Tossing Hun and America into a team is great, but my other 3 characters are all point characters(except Morrigan I guess?). Something like Jill-America-Morrigan seems like a nice team, but Jill-Viper-Morrigan wouldn't be, as all of those characters are good point/solo characters. What I think I need is another Assist character like America. That could be Hulk(which I want to learn) or Iron Man(who I used to play a lot too.) I like America in this spot, but I would love to have another choice as my assist to Jill and Viper. Once you get a team built, the next important step is to learn how to Punish your opponent. All charcters have attacks that will leave them vulnerable. If they aren't backed by an assist, the pro players "get in there" and punish the opponent for being open. A good example is Captain America. Captain's Hyper Charging Star can breakthrough tons of different projectile attacks and lay down some nice damage. With Viper, you can charge her focus attack to stun enemies that rush in. Jill can jump over enemy attacks with her QCF special, or if you don't have that but are in the air, you can slam down on enemies with knee drop.

Poor Chun. I chickened out and didn't even try to rescue her.

As with a lot of games like this, before I get especially good at it, I chicken out a lot. It's 10x worse with Jill because she can't break through attacks very well without using her QCF Hyper. Admittedly, I lose most of my matches online. Especially against turtles, I just can't break through. For those that don't know, turtles on mvc3 will stay in the crouching stance for the entirety of the match. When you get close, they'll launch you to start the only combo they know for that character. When you try to combo through they're block(stupid to try) they will block until you're done, then launch you into the same combo. Other turtles spam projectile attacks to kill you. If you jump in, they will use a launcher to start a combo on you, punishing you for jumping over their projectiles. There are ways to counter these tactics, but I always choke up before I get it off. Turtle Blockers? Use High attacks or jump cancels to break through their low block(Such as Jill's Forward H. It attacks High without having to jump). Turtle Spammers? Haven't figured out a true answer to this. Only thing I have so far is breaking through with Charging Star or hopping over and using an air special.

People say that the only way you can get good is by playing other people. In Soul Calibur, I spent all of my time in training mode on extreme difficulty. Unfortunately the computer(usually) doesn't play like a human, especially noobs. I honestly don't care if I ever get as good as people who play competitively. I just don't want to lose to jerks online anymore!