Round 2 - Releasers vs UniStorm MKII

Tanngrisnir is out for vengeance! After so much trial and error, The UniStorm deck(Unicorn Synchro MKIV) has been revamped into a more powerful, streamlined build. It still has a lot of the "fun" aspects that makes Unicorn Synchro what it is, but now with much more offense. But will it be enough to take down last week's winner - Djinn Releaser and her Relinquished deck? Let's find out!
Djinn Releaser(Relinquished) 8000 - Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts(Unistorm MKII) 8000

Since this is still qualified as round 2 of their match-up, Tanngrisnir will have the option of going first or not. Naturally, with such a set-heavy deck, Tanngri will want to go first.

Turn 1- Tanngri Most decks will start of setting cards on the opening turn, and Unistorm is no different. The opening play is the common 1 set monster and 2 set spells/traps. with that, Tanngri ends the turn/

Turn 2- Releaser Releaser draws her card. Her opening play will be Armageddon Knight, which sends a Plaguespreader Zombie from the deck to the grave. Armageddon Knight attacks into Tanngri's facedown card- a Super Nimble Mega Hamster! After dealing the 400dmg in attack difference to Releaser's life points, tanngri summons a Tanngjostr out of the deck with hamster's effect, face-down and in defense position. Releaser sets 1 s/t and ends the turn.
Releaser 7600 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 3- Tanngri Tanngri is ready for the offensive push already! One monster on the opposing field and 1 spell/trap? What could go wrong? After the draw, Tanngri switches the f/d Tanngjostr to attack mode, activating its effect to summon Guldfaxe in defense position right out of the deck. With no response from Releaser, Tanngri can synchro for 4+4, which is Stardust Dragon. Still nothing from Releaser? Well let's overextend and activate Gold Sarcophagus, allowing Tanngri to remove Dark Desertapir straight out of the deck. Classic Unicorn Synchro in action: Desertapir summons Guldfaxe right back to the field, without ever normal summoning. Battle Phase - Guldfaxe tramples Armageddon Knight for 200 damage. Then Tanngjostr attacks, Releaser activates Call of the Haunted that was face-down to summon Armageddon Knight back. Unfortunately, Tanngrisnir main decks Crevice Into the Different Dimension, which allows it to remove 2 darks from the graveyard - Plaguespreader Zombie and that Armageddon Knight. Tanngjostr's attack goes through for 1200, then Stardust chimes in 2500. Tanngri isn't done with its turn in Main Phase 2 though, there are too many plays to be had. Level 3 Tanngjostr and level 4 Guldfaxe sync up to become Voltic Bicorn. And with that, Tanngri ends the turn with 2 Synchro monsters, 1 s/t and leaving Releaser with nothing but a floating Call of the Haunted.
Releaser 3700 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 4- Releaser Releaser probably can't do too much on this turn. No plaguespreader to make Brionac with and a floating CotH that may interrupt Gorz. She decides to set a monster in f/d defense position and end the turn.

Turn 5- Tanngri Draw for turn. Tanngri summons a lone Chain Dog in attack mode, then immediately enters the Battle Phase. The first attack is Voltic Bicorn attacking the f/d, a Mystic Tomato. Tomato uses its battle destruction effect to replace itself with another Tomato from the deck. Chain Dog attacks over that for 200 points for damage. That Tomato also activates and puts an Armageddon Knight on the field, which in turn puts a Necro Gardna in the graveyard. Stardust attacks Armageddon Knight for 1100 damage. With that, the turn moves back to Releaser.
Releaser 2400 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 6- Releaser It seems that Releaser drew into Allure of Darkness. Allure loves being a topdeck in your time of need. Activating Allure Draws 2 and removes an in-hand Relinquished from the game. Releaser counts her grave, which is usually not a good sign. She then summons a Card Trooper in attack mode and mills 3 cards from the deck to use its effect. Dark Armed, Prep, and Ryko all go to the grave to give Trooper a boost to 1900 attack. Why? For Pot of Avarice of course. Releaser's entire grave, minus that Necro Gardna, returns to the deck, and then she gets to draw 2 MORE cards. "Oh hoho" Black Illusion Ritual. Tribute Card Trooper to summon Relinquished from the hand. Relinq's effect activates and equips itself with Stardust Dragon. Now a 2500 attack, Relinq swings over Chain Dog for 900 damage. Releaser sets 1 s/t and ends the turn.
Releaser 2400 - Tanngri 7100
Turn 7- Tanngri Tanngri isn't a dumb goat. With Necro Gardna in Releaser's grave, attacking over Relinquished will not kill it this turn. Tanngri has to prepare to lose its Bicorn. It sets a monster in f/d defense position, then a s/t on its backrow and ends the turn.

Turn 8- Releaser At this point in the game, Releaser has slowed Tanngri down to her speed. Now is the time to get control of the game back. Releaser immediately enters the Battle Phase after drawing and attacks the equally powered Bicorn. Tanngri activates Mirror Force, an obvious play, destroying Relinquished and Stardust with it. In Main Phase 2, Releaser summons Relinq back with Monster Reborn and equips it with Voltic Bicorn. Finally, she summons Manju in attack mode and adds the final Relinq to her hand. The turn ends with Manju and Relinq with a set s/t, versus 1 f/d monster and 1 f/d s/t.

Turn 9- Tanngri Losing all of those synchros is not good. Tanngri starts by flip summoning that set monster, a Ryko, to destroy Relinquished. Since Voltic Bicorn was destroyed and sent to the grave, both players discard 7 from the top of the deck (Tanngri loses a total of 10 because of Ryko). Tanngri then summons Guldfaxe in attack mode. No response from Releaser allows Tanngri to special summon Chain Dog from the grave (2 beasts are face-up on the field.) Four + Four = Lightning Tricorn. Tricorn at 2800 attacks Manju, in which Releaser removes that Necro Gardna in the grave to save it. The turn ends there, nothing else Tanngri can do.

Turn 10- Releaser Releaser asks to know how many cards are left in Tanngri's deck. Tanngri has 17, Releaser has 16, so another Bicorn may be hazardous. But for now, the options are getting slim. She does Dark Hole to clear all the monsters on the field, and Tricorn replaces itself with Bicorn. She then sets a monster and ends the turn.

Turn 11- Tanngri This game could stall out for quite a while if Releaser keeps this pace up. What I can say about Tanngri's Hand is that this would be a great time to own a Mist Worm. Tanngri summons Elephun in attack mode. Now that it has 2 beasts on the field, it can summon the next Chain Dog from the graveyard. Tanngri tries to enter the Battle Phase, but Releaser finally uses that facedown card, Threatening Roar. Tanngri sets a s/t and ends the turn.

Turn 12- Releaser Do or Die time now. Releaser draws and passes the turn.

Turn 13- Tanngri No opposing spells or traps. No Necro Gardna in the grave. No chance for Gorz because Call of the Haunted is still Face-up. Time to end the duel. Tanngri summons a Mega Hamster in attack mode. Level 4 Mega Hamster and Level 2 Elephun become a Level 6 Brionac, Ice Barrier Dragon. Brionac sends the f/d monster Releaser had back to the hand to end the game.
Releaser 0000 - Tanngri 7100


Result Djinn Releaser 1 - Tanngrisnir 0

Releasers vs Unistorm!(Uni MKIV)

This is a match up between 2 very fun decks: Relinquished and the upcoming Unicorn Synchro MKIV(aka Uni post-STOR aka UNISTORM). Relinquished has the ability to lock out certain aspects of the game from the opponent, whereas Unistorm uses small monsters to create larger ones. Both decks have a small reliance on their opponent, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Djinn Releaser(Relinquished) 8000 - Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts(Unistorm) 8000

Coin flip, Djinn Releaser wins the coin toss and chooses to go first.
Turn 1- Releaser Djinn Releaser opens with the usual 5 cards and draws the 6th. She chooses to just set 1 monster in def position and end the turn.

Turn 2- Tanngri Tanngrisnir has a deck that plays defensively just like Releaser's. So its opening move is very similar, to set one monster. But then Tanngri also sets a face-down s/t card and ends the turn.

Turn 3- Releaser Releaser draws her card. She then summons a mystic tomato in attack mode and attacks Tanngri's f/d monster. Tanngri reveals and sends Key Mouse to the graveyard, and uses its effect to add Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts to its hand. Releaser ends the turn after that.

Turn 4- Tanngri Tanngri draws and looks a little dissatisfied. It sets another card and ends the turn again, with 5 cards in hand.

Turn 5- Releaser After drawing a card, I think Releaser is ready to go for the offensive push. She begins by flipping her set sangan, no response from Tanngri. She then Summons Plaguespreader Zombie in attack mode, again, no response. A synchro for 5 lets Releaser summon Magical Android to the field using Plague and Sangan, then sangan's effect lets her add Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands to the hand. Battle Phase. Android attacks the facedown card and Tanngri flips Mirror Force, wiping Releaser's 2-monster field. Releaser ends with 6 cards in hand.

Turn 6- Tanngri Draw for turn. Tanngri flips its face-down, the Tanngrisnir that was searched. He then plays another Tanngrisnir in attack mode. Finally, it uses Gold Sarcophagus to search out Dark Desertapir from the deck, which activates the Tapir's effect to summon Key Mouse from the grave. Battle Phase. Tanngri attacks with all 3 monsters to inflict 1700 damage. Then, in Main Phase 2, it synchro summons the level 7 Voltic Bicorn using all 3 monsters. Tanngri ends the turn with just Bicorn on the field and 4 cards in hand.
Releaser 6400 - Tanngri 8000
Turn 7- Releaser Luckily enough, a 1 monster field is nothing to Djinn Releaser and a 7 card hand. She opens with Manju, which lets her add Black Illusion Ritual to her hand. Then she uses Preparation of Rites which adds Relinquished to the hand. to put relinquished on the field, she sends a Djinn Disserere(trap immunity) to the grave and summons Relinq in attack mode. We all know Relinq's effect. It sucks up Bicorn and becomes a 2500 atk monster.Releaser swings hard into an open field for 3900.
Releaser 6400 - Tanngri 4100
Turn 8- Tanngri Tanngris paid the price for playing so passively. Now it must stop the 2 monsters (Relinq and Manju) on the field. It starts by summoning the giant rat it just drew. At 1400, Giant Rat can crash into Manju and destroy both, then summon a Dark Desertapir in attack mode. During MP2, Tanngri uses a Creature Swap, which swaps control of the Relinq and the Tapir. Now Tanngri ends the turn with a 2500 Relinquished on the field.

Turn 9- Releaser Releaser checks her graveyard after drawing, usually not a good sign. She starts by top-decking a card from her hand to summon PGZ from the grave in defense position. Three darks (Sangan, Disserere and Tomato) allow Releaser to special summon Dark Armed Dragon in attack mode. But that's not it! She summons Armageddon Knight in attack mode which not only dumps a Djinn Releaser into the grave, it also shuffles that top-decked card into the deck. PGZ(2) + Desertapir(2) + Arma Knight(4) becomes level 8 Stardust Dragon. It already sounds like this match is over, Releaser removes the Armageddon Knight from the graveyard to destroy Tanngri's 1 Relinquished. Voltic Bicorn's effect does activate since it was destroyed by game mechanics, but unfortunately since Tanngrisnir doesn't run and Graveyard effect monsters, it won't save it.
Releaser 6400 - Tanngri 0000


Result Djinn Releaser 1 - Tanngrisnir 0

Various things.

I don't have TOO much to talk about today. So I'll give a little bit of updates. I did take Divine Armageddon to locals last week and got into top 8. I lost to D.fissure Glads and to AbZero, which was 100% my fault. The deck works very well and I was able to beat what I thought was the worst matchup for it - Quickdraw Plants. You can tell that D.A. works because a lot of time I will have 4-6 cards in my hand while my opponent is playing multiple cards per turn, all of which get nuked by Black Rose or Demise during my next turn. But as I was saying, I did lose to D.Fissure Glads (a deck I always seem to lose to), so D.A.'s side deck needs some tweaking. Right now it uses the generic deck-hating side that the Koaki deck runs, but since Koakis don't have a dedicated harmful card like other decks do, it can side cards to use solely AGAINST decks. D.A. requires a side deck that can not only punish the opponent for using a tier 1 deck, but also stop the cards used to side against itself (Macro). I did the same with Unicorn Synchro, the side-deck is no longer "tier 1-hate", it is now complementary. So basically, I will have to find cards that can replace the Salvo Destruction engine and play into the opponent's Macro Cosmos. So far, the only things I've come up with is siding into the Demise-Garland build, with Escape from the Dark Dimension and Return from the D.D.

Speaking of Unicorn synchro, real life testing hasn't been going to well. Deck hurdles are important to think about with any new deck, especially one that you can't just find on the internet. Decks suffer from pretty much the same things, just some are more important than others. It can be overcoming enemies with high ATK power(monarchs), holding comparable field advantage(Sabers, Samurai), dealing with monster effects (Herald, Quickdraw), Backrow vulnerability(Stun, Macro) and a multitude of other things. From what I've gathered so far, Unicorn Synchro has 2 serious contenders. Those are Effect Negation (Skill Drain) and it has a serious Backrow Vulnerability. Monsters aren't usually an issue with the deck's synchro performance, so we had to take out a few of the trap cards that are designed for monster-stun. Most of this has been replaced by more offensive cards, as Unicorn Synchro is a surprisingly offensive deck, though many effects activate when your monster is killed. The way the deck is played is beginning to show more and more. You take hits, and burst back. Unicorn MK II needs more testing, but I feel that we are fast on the track of the correct build.

Lastly, a small tournament in Japan had a top 4 winning Naturia deck, which is great because "Naturals" are fun cards and I would love to give them a try. Though Naturia Cliff is not out yet, Naturia Cherry was released in STBL, and that is part of the Natural arsenal. Cherry is your fuel, Cliff is your grabber, Antjaw and Bambooshoot are the win condition. Besides those 3 cards, the only thing else you really need is to stop your opponent's monsters. So the rest of the deck is mostly monster stun. This is a look at the deck that topped. DISCLAIMER: I do not condone netdecking. It is difficult to find originality in a pool of 3000 items, but playing a deck strictly because it wins prizes is my definition of "netdecking."

x1 Giant Rat x1 Medusa Worm x1 Morphing Jar x3 Bambooshoot x2 Naturia Butterfly(DT07) x3 Naturia Cliff (DT05) x3 Des Lacooda (Not sure the reasoning behind this) x1 Monster Reborn x1 Swords of Revealing Light x3 Duality x1 Trunade x3 Dark Bribe x2 Bottomless x2 Grave of the Super Ancient Organism x1 Mirror Force x1 Solemn Judgement x2 Solemn Warning x1 Wall of Revealing Light x1 Royal Oppression x1 Trap Stun x3 Fiendish Chain (hate this card) x1 Starlight Road x3 Red Screen (excessive if you ask me)

Thats a whopping 21 trap cards. Some of the cards I do not necessarily agree with, but it worked for this guy/gal.

Northemise, Divine Armageddon

Earlier in the week a mentioned briefly around experimenting with Northwemko and Demise. I've played both decks, the Northy lock, and Demise Geartown OTK. Now we combined the best of both worlds. We removed the "lock" and the "one turn kill" to make it into a consistent deck that does what it does as much as it possibly can.

So as with any deck, D.A.(Divine Armageddon) has a win condition. That is to summon monsters like Demise and Blackrose to clear the opposition and attack life points directly. The deck lineup is:
Monsters: 24
Disk Magician x2
Genex Controller x2
Mechanical Chaser x3
Battle Fader x2
Black Salvo x2
Dekoichi x3
Gorz x1
Manju x3
Sangan x1
Sonic Bird x1
Demise x2
Northy x2
Spells: 12
ARA x1
Allure x1
Dark Hole x1
Gold Sarc x2
Monster Reborn x1
Pot of Avarice x2
Preparation of Rites x3
Ritual of Grace x1
Traps: 4
Call of the Haunted x1
Torrential Tribute x1
Trap Stun x2

As you see, the point of the deck is to use ARA in conjunction with Preparation of Rites to put Demise and Northy on the field together. As stated before, Northy won't be destroyed by Demise's effect, so while you take 2000 damage, your opponent takes 5100, which is a pretty fair trade off. To insure that this happens, there are 2 Trap Stuns that are always used before ANY card is played that turn. Then there are the Preps, which instantly summons Northy after a successful Demise summon. If Northy or ARA targets are in the grave, they are put back in with Pot of Avarice. If I fail to stop the opponent, the deck relies on Battle Fader and Gorz to keep the opponent at bay. If THAT can't happen, then we use Black Salvo to preemptively nuke the field. Against a classic T-set, Salvo is the perfect bait for Solemns and BTH. Afterward, you are free to Attack directly.

So what match-up does this not work against? One is decks like quickdraw and scraps to an extent. Decks that don't use much of a backrow, and also has 1 card synchros (Chimera into Dragon, Debris into anything). They don't have an advantage over D.A., they simply are not hurt as badly by the field destruction. But of course, against decks like that, we have other level 7 synchro targets like Scrap Archfiend. Another deck that can be a problem is pure Monarchs (no Absolute Zero). The problem with this deck is that with Monarchs in hand and Treeborn in the grave, it is very difficult to keep Demise and Northy on the field. Djinns destroy Monarchs, but this deck obviously has no way to perform rituals using them. The only real answer is side decking.

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.

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