Classic fun - Koa'kis

I have been waiting for this format and certain key reprints for a while. Pot of Duality, Heavy Storm, emphasis on monster cards and their effects; all of these are good reasons to run beatdown decks and anti-meta. Of course, this is me we are talking about. I had to give Koakis their long-awaited retry.

The last time I played Koakis at locals was in 2010, back when Six Samurai were the prevalent deck. At that time, I only had my 1 Duality, so getting off Urnight plays were heavily dependent on my opening hand. Some builds resorting to using Morphing Jar, others used 3 Gold Sarcophagus. If I was lucky enough to get Shi En off the field and survive Trishula, I could usually win. A lot of the matches weren't in my favor, so that is what we call an inconsistent deck. My current build seems to respond fairly well to other decks, so here is hoping we can improve upon it.

Monsters: 19
3 Koa'ki Meiru Urnight
3 Koa'ki Meiru Crusader
2 Koa'ki Meiru Boulder
2 Koa'ki Meiru Guardian
2 Genex Ally Birdman
1 Summoner Monk
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
1 Koa'ki Meiru Maximus
1 Koa'ki Meiru Sandman
1 Koa'ki Meiru Wall
1 Koa'ki Meiru Tornado
1 Maxx "C"

Spells: 12
3 Pot of Duality
2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

Traps: 9
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Solemn Warning
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Bottomless Trap Hole

Extra: 15
Your choice of Synchros
1 Arcanite Magician
1 No. 39: Utopia

Side Deck: 15
3 Leeching the Light
2 Soul Release
2 Light Imprisoning Mirror
2 Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
2 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Cards that work well:
Call of the Haunted is probably the best answer to Solemn Warning this format. Even with all the Mystical Space and Heavy Storm, Call can bait out their spells, help you survive the turn, or even allow you to win the game. Koakis aren't built to mill monsters, or to needlessly expend resources because you have survival tools (there is a Koaki build that can do that!). Call is always meant to be an answer to your opponent's destruction effects.

Summoner Monk creates amazing combos if you have 1 Iron Core and 1 of any other spell card in your hand. I am only running 1 in the deck, or perhaps I should say that I only own one. The typical play for Monk is to discard a spell card and summon Urnight. You can then use Urnight's effect to summon another Koaki from your deck. If your opponent has no response, you will have 3 monsters on the field for the cost of 2 cards in your hand. Monk and Urnight cannot attack, so you can overlay them into a Utopia if necessary. A lot of the time, I will keep them both of the field. It really depends on the matchup, as some decks will resort to effects to clear your monsters rather than attacking. Most people say that Summoner Monk is not good because of the spells you have to pitch. I like to believe that the Koaki Deck solves this problem with Iron Core, Duality, and Gold Sarc. Anyone can easily discard a Pot of Duality to summon an Urnight. The most fun however is using Boulder, Duality, or Gold Sarc a turn prior to the Monk play in order to get 2 Iron Core into your hand. Two Iron Core, 1 Monk, and any card to protect your invest (such as Compulsory) is a very powerful play. If your opponent cannot rid you of the Summoner Monk, you can add the discarded Iron Core to your hand during your next draw phase and have 5 monsters on the field without normal summoning.

Koa'ki Meiru Guardian was ran in 3's in the VERY beginning, and then it was bumped down to 2. When I remade the deck a week ago, I originally had 1 Guardian and 2 Sandman (which makes no sense at all). It is obvious that Effect Monsters are very important in this format. Some people run 3 Effect Veiler, some run Fiendish Chains, and so it is only natural to play Guardian in 2's or 3's. It may be ideal to Run 2 in the main deck and side in a 3rd when playing against low trap-count decks. Like Doomcalibur, Guardian forces plays out of your opponent. Be it wasting powerful spells and traps to destroy 1 monster or forcing you to use the effect prematurely. Many of the top decks rely on key effects to "get their ball rolling" and to keep them from using them is very important.

Perhaps the best part about the Koaki deck is the ability to side against any other deck. If you look at my side, I appear to have a major grudge against Light decks. You may opt for a more universal side. In my opinion, the main decks to beat are Chaos Synchro, Agents, Hero Beat, and TG variants. The first 2 are handled by the heavy amount of anti-light cards and soul release. The latter 2 are handled by Cyber Dragons and an additional Space Typhoon.

Now this isn't the end-all beat-all version of a Koaki deck. There are many routes to choose from if you want to give it a try. You can add a Synchro element using TG Striker and TG Warwolf. You can put in a miniature Miracle Fusion in the form of Gaia Plate. Some people also want to run Effect Veiler in the deck, alongside Guardian; it locks out many effects without the need to play Skill Drain. There are many Koaki themed cards to choose from too. Just be very careful as many of them have lost power in this format (Reckoned Power). There more you try to fit in, the less consistent the deck will be, so if anyone wants to try out Negaton or Overclock, I suggest not running too many other themed spells and traps.

Happy Beating!

YCS Providence Part 3

If you have been on the internet lately, you would be able to see the top 32 decklist on Konami's strategy site.


7 "Pure" Tengu Plant Synchro
5 Six Samurai
3 Gravekeeper
3 X-Saber
2 "Pure" Agents
1 Herald/Hyperion
1 Scraps
1 Blackwing
1 Fabled
1 Tech Genus
1 Water Tengu Synchro
1 Infernity
1 Frog monarch
1 Chaos Plant Synchro (no Tengu)
1 Machina Gadget
1 Macro
1 Anti-Meta

Out of 32 decks, 12 of them used Reborn Tengu.
11 out of those 12 decks combined Reborn Tengu with the Plant Engine.

Taking just the deck list at face-value, you could say that the current deck spread in yugioh is pretty diverse. Even though a LOT of people were using Tengu plants as at least part of their deck, a decent number of decks topped without using Reborn Tengu at all. Still, a lot of people say that Reborn Tengu is hurting the game because it promotes pressing the opponent without volition. In Monarch's, you can bait out solemn warning by tributing Tengu for a Caius, then get your 1700 ATK monster back. In Tengu Synchro decks, 1 Giant Trunade and a face up Reborn Tengu could be the death of the opposing player. A lot of people on the internet say that Reborn Tengu will go to 2 in September, especially with the release of Hyper Librarian in July, the card becomes even more combo-centric. The card itself is only so powerful. There are just so many things you can do with it that make it too much to handle. It is a shame because Reborn Tengu can do more than give players a free pass to extend their field presence. This can be seen in decks like Adam Moshinsky's Macro build and Sorosh Saberian's Fabled, both of which ran three. Of course I'm not saying that either player invented the idea of running Tengu in those decks, but it shows that Tengu can do things besides providing synchro material fodder. Other decks can benefit from Reborn Tengu too, like the recent uprising in Horn of the Phantom Beast users. Because Tengu is a beast-warrior, he can be equipped with Horn in the damage step just like a Flamvell Firedog, T.G. Rush Rhino, or Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts. Although they SHOULD probably semi-limit him to 2 per deck, there are a number of other cards that need to be limited to one in September.

For those who did not run Reborn Tengu, they still shared in the top 32 limelight. I for one was suprised to see Pure Agents (Planets) in the top deck list. I have never been a fan of the deck, because of the fact that their normal monsters are so weak. I guess that the ability to drop boss monsters with ease is what makes the deck so good. A lot of people say it is a very consistent deck too. Dragunities are also very consistent, but not many players use that deck anymore. The Herald/Hyperion deck that got into the top 8 really surprised me, as I have not thought of using Agents in that way. Deep Draw Hyperionswarn? Sure. Agent-Return? Sounds like fun. But Agents with Herald was the last thing I expected to see in the top 8. That just goes to show that boss monsters with good effects aren't just limited to synchros. Luke Mattingly's deck packs so many anti-monster cards (Heralds and 2 main decked Gozen Matches) that it is surprising how he even lost. Oh he lost against the YCS winner...Unfortunately, there was no feature match for them, and I did not attend Day 2 of the YCS, so I have no way to let you guys know how he lost. I'll just assume that he did not get out Krystia or Gozen or enough effect-stun to keep Plant Tengu at bay.

The other deck I am excited about is the Scrap deck that got into Top 16. I do not play Scraps, but I have all of the cards, so I could play it if I wanted. One interesting thing to note is that he did not run Machine Emperor Granel. Granel is a terrible topdeck, but if you draw into him early on in the game, you are almost guaranteed to summon it. Worst thing that could happen is that you bait out Solemn Warning. Instead, Guillermo Morales opted for a more consistent build. Did I mention it had 3 Reborn Tengu too? Honestly, I would have made a few changes in his card lineup, such as his 3 Horn of the Phantom Beast and 3 Effect Veiler. It almost seemed as if he decided to main more cards that he would usually side in, just for the greater chance at winning game 1 against unfavorable matches. I think I would love to see a Safe Zone instead of 1 of the Veilers. As situational as it sounds, Safe Zone has some nice synergy with Scrap Dragon. If you equip it to your opponent's monster in chain with Scrap Dragon's effect, you can destroy a card with Scrap Dragon's effect and destroy the monster equipped with Safe Zone. Guillermo ended up losing to Six Samurai. In all honestly, Six Sams SHOULD be a favorable matchup against Scraps, as you can synchro into many different monsters that can all attack over a Shi En. However, a lot of Six Sam players are siding in cards that would hurt the scrap deck, such as Dimensional Fissure. Also, losing your scrapstorms to a 1st turn Shi En also sucks, so the scrap player's side-deck needs to be spot on.

The last deck that I am excited about is the 2nd place Infernity deck. There isn't much that makes this deck special over other Infernity decks except for the fact that it uses 18 monster and only 1 Infernity Inferno, a bad ratio if you ask me. Most infernity decks use a lower monster count or more Infernos. His loss in the final round feature match shows how a build like his can be inconsitent. Round 1 gave him a monster-heavy hand. He managed to get out of it by Brionac bouncing his own cards until he could One-for-one and empty his hand. In the end, he still lost to Mirror Force. In Round 2, he lost to D.D. Crow and Royal Oppression. Oh well, maybe we can see a better build at Nationals.

Light Fiend Summon Part 2

Locals last night was relatively small. I believe we had 18 players, with top 8. Friend of the blog Kavy would be there for a short time, so I was able to borrow his Reborn Tengu to try a more consistent version of the Fabled Deck aka LFS - Light Fiend Summon.

As a lot of you guys know, a Fabled Deck from Sorosh Saberian did make it into the top 32 of YCS Providence. While I was judging the event, I do remember seeing a Fabled Deck in the top tables on Saturday night. Whether that was Sorosh or not, I won't know until the deck list is up on Konami's blog. From what I saw, his deck was 100% Synchro. You kill the opponent's backrow with Trunade, Space Typhoons and Dust Tornado, then you go into a frenzy of synchro summoning that should eventually lead you to win the game. If I remember correctly, he was using Reborn Tengu, plants, Reckless Greed, Instant Fusion, and even a tech Quillbolt Hedgehog, all for the purpose of dropping a full field of synchro monsters easily. As powerful as this sounds, he ended up losing to Machina Gadgets, which is actually a tough match-up against his deck. You may explode into an awesome field, but Machina Gadgets have D.Prisons, Warnings, and Fortress's destruction effect waiting for you. Then on their turn, they have smashing grounds and more monster cards in hand. Their conservative play punishes decks that have to overextend to win.

LFS still uses the Tengus even though I hate the idea of only running 2 Krus. It is still an explosive deck when it can be, but instead of exploding into a full field of Synchros, it explodes into half a field of synchro monsters and multiple backrow cards. A lot of people call this a "control" version of the Fabled Deck, rather than the recently topping OTK versions. Most cards in both decks are the same, but LFS just has a different trap lineup than the others. Cards like Karma Cut hurt a lot of top decks right now, and can completely kill an opposing player's Tengu engine. Then, I am able to use staples such as Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute, allowing me to pass turn 1 and not take as much damage as the other decks that only have 2 Solemn Warnings to hold their opponent back. Besides that, LFS has more individual Fableds in it, instead of losing 8 card slots to 3 Tengu, 2 Lonefire, Glow Up, Spore, and Dandylion. Here is a look at the deck:

Monsters: 22
3 Grimro
3 Chawa
3 Cerburrel
3 Tengu
3 Snipe Hunter
2 Ganashia
2 Krus
1 Sangan
1 Nozoochee
1 Kushano
Spells: 11
2 Avarice
2 MST
2 Instant Fusion
1 Reborn
1 Trunade
1 Mind Control
1 Card Destruction
1 Dark Hole
Traps: 7
2 Warnings
2 Karma Cut
1 Dust Tornado
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute

In all honesty, I don't like Card Destruction much in this deck. Nor do I like Dark World Dealings or Morphing Jar, and those don't even have a slot in my deck. Card Destruction is more of a last ditch effort to get something good or to place something on the field, at the cost of a -1. If there was a Quickplay Spell, or another good Spell that isn't called Lightning Vortex, then that would probably work better than Card Destruction. I don't consider Dark World Lightning a good replacement, as the deck already runs 2 MST, Dust Tornado, and Trunade. Some people op for Monster Reincarnation. That can also be a good choice, but sometimes you don't have any good targets in the graveyard. I may give it a try, as I almost always side out Car Destruction after the first game.

That build got me into the top 4 at locals, which was a lot of fun. My loss was against a Plant Tengu deck which is supposedly a similar match-up. This is where Karma Cut and Warnings shine, as every time I play against plant synchro, the results are usually the same. If that deck doesn't draw or mill into all of its "one-of" cards, it will stall until it does. This is the time where LFS can go for the kill. While they are stalling with Lonefire->Lonefire->Dandylion with no set cards, you can easily spew out Ragins without much worry. If the monster is face-down, it is either a ryko or a plant, neither of which is very harmful. In my opinion, the only dangers in the Plant Tengu deck is the Gorz while their field is empty. If you leave gorz and its token on the field, you will give your opponent the chance at a level 8 synchro using Glow-Up or Spore. Luckily, if my turn went well, I can have multiple facedown cards that can stop any synchro attempt.

I believe that LFS and Fabled Decks are actually rather difficult to play. It takes a bit of skill to figure out how to turn a hand full of incompatible cards into something good. You also have to know how to take a hit on that first turn where you can't commit to the field. I will probably play this same deck on Saturday too. Wish me luck!

YCS Providence Part 2

Well, day 1 is already over. I really wanted to post about it but I was judging the event.

Before the event even started, I had a nice dinner with some of the other judges. Jambalaya with muscles, scallops, shrimp and chicken breast; so good you wouldn't believe. Should've topped it off with a good drink, but I stuck with water because I'm lame.

The Rhode Island Convention Center is a pretty snazzy place. Put smack-dab in the center of downtown Providence, it had all the luster of Hotels, Malls, and Pride Parade traffic at around 7PM. With 700-800 participants, not including venders and visitors, it almost seemed too big for the YCS. But that's okay, more space means less cramping in player seating. I must say that I did expect more players, seeing as how this was the last YCS before Nationals. I guess we were a little too deep in New England for people to warrant traveling to us. Might not sound like a big deal, but if I ran an event and got considerably less people in certain locations, I wouldn't take the event to that location any more. Let's hope that a large scale Connecticut event would do better than Rhode Island, which is probably a difference of only 200 miles.

The first day of YCSPVD was a lot of fun though. The biggest part of judging is having confidence in your rulings, and I felt good about each ruling I made. Of course, I was appealed on 2 of them, in which the head judge spoke in contrast. But hey, that's part of learning the game I guess. The first was Kinetic Soldier vs Honest. Kinetic Soldier activates at the start of damage calculation. I knew that you could activate Honest at a lot of different times in the damage step, so I figured that there is a sub step after Kinetic resolves that you can use Honest from your hand. I was informed that not only can only 1 chain occur during the part of damage calculation that Kinetic Soldier activates, but also that that time of activation is the last moment either player has to use a card. In this case, you can only chain Honest to Kinetic Soldier's trigger effect, so that the light monster gains 1350 attack and the Kinetic Soldier gains an additional 2000. The second mistake was a silly priority question for summoning monsters.

Everyone else's questions were pretty straight forward and I didn't have to correct much:
1) Saber Hole can not negate the summon of Gorz.
2) Solemn Warning can not negate the activation or resolution of Infernity Launcher.
3) If your opponent uses Dark Hole and you chain an effect to summon a Six Samurai monster to the field, you can not activate Musakani during the resolution of those effects.
4) If you switch control of Caius and a TG monster using TG-EM1, Cauis will not lose its target. Furthermore, Caius will deal 1000 damage to your (new) opponent if the monster was Dark.
5) Reborn Tengu can not activate its effect from inside of the deck.

Speaking of Tengu, I hate Tengu plant decks. It capitalizes on the worst part of Reborn Tengu, the fact that you can make a full field of synchros and 1700 ATK monsters with it. I judged Attack of the Giant Card (TRISHURAAAAAA) and at least 5 win-a-mats, and 3 of the winners were Tengu Plant decks. I have seen Tengu Plants get out of the most ridiculous 1st turn Six Samurai fields. It almost makes you think that Brionac is the problem, and maybe it is. Perhaps we should get a format with Goyo Guardian and no Brionac and see how that fairs for a year. I don't like the deck, but if you dont think it is unfair, let's take a look at one of the plays my win-a-mat player made against Six Samurai.
Samurai Field: Gateway of the Six, Shi En, Grandmaster, Kizan, Kizan, Musakani, Musakani.
1) Charge of the Light Brigade, opponent negates it with Shi En(bad move, but it isn't going to matter, don't worry). Mills off 1 Glow Up, 1 lonefire, 1 Avarice.
2) Giant Trunade
3) Normal Tengu. One for One discard dandy for spore.
4) Synchro for Formula and draw 1 card.
5) Synchro for Brionac, special summon Tengu.
6) Special Summon Spore from the Graveyard by removing Lonefire, it is level 4 now. Synchro Spore, Tengu and a token for Trishula, remove Shi En from the game, special summon Tengu.
7) Mill for Glow-up Bulb, special summon it. Monster Reborn for Tengu. Synchro Glow-up and 2 Tengu for Trishula, remove grandmaster from the game.
8) Bounce both Kizan back and attack for 2700+2700+2300 = 7700.

He actually won on that turn and I really wish I had remembered how he kept a Tengu on the field. There may have been a mind control involved, that way he could sync 1 Tengu with a Kizan to make Trishula. Either way, you can see how a deck with good monsters and a bunch of Limited spells and traps can be very powerful.

In my last post, I said that I wanted to see other decks than Tengu Synchro in the top tables last night, and I was happy to see some good ones!
-I saw at least 1 Fabled deck, which was awesome. Of course, the guy I watched was using a more explosive version, utilizing Tengu, a few plant monsters, and a few other cards instead of the more controlled version I like.
-I saw lots of gladiator beast decks, which I feel is a great deck right now thanks to Forbidden Lance, Safe Zone, and D.Prison.
-I saw a couple of Scrap decks, but I'm not sure how many of them survived.
-Sabers are still on of the best decks in Yugioh. Every single monster in that deck is good, and the only losses I've seen is when they COULDN'T draw a monster.

A few of the people at my locals did make day 2, so that is very exciting. I would play a bit of the public events today, but I don't want any of the prizes. I got my Akiza mat, Essedarii mat, and the Sun and Moon Dragon mat. I got packs and my binder, so driving back to providence to win some turbo packs, a giant Shi En, or MORE Akiza mats isn't sounding too thrilling.

I'll probably chill at home, maybe drive around for some yard sales or something. I'll play Yugioh tomorrow at locals.

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.

Amaryllis Tourney Report

Amaryllis got a shiny new build that you guys can see on the Page Menu. The deck was running very well and I'm really proud at the hands it was giving me. Some of the rounds did have some amazing topdecks - specifically having Trade-in and topdecking Tytannial or Amaryllis, leading into game-changing hands. This is but a mere sample of what the deck was doing last night:

Match 1 Amaryllis vs Classic Monarchs 2-0
I was actually surprised to see Classic Monarchs in this day and age. By classic, I mean that the focus on the deck is dropping tribute monsters every turn, rather than the new formula monarchs, which synchros every turn and draws new cards because of it. What is so great about this matchup is that A) I don't have to worry about an opposing backrow against Monarchs, and B) Tytannial murders Monarchs with her effect. Match 1 I gladly brought out the effect damage with Amaryllis, but in round 2, I realized who powerful it was to keep Tytannial(s) on the field with tokens to tribute.

Match 2 Amaryllis vs Xsabers 0-2
Xsabers don't usually give me that much trouble, but last night I did poorly. The thing about sabers is that their spell and trap lineup are half as much monster answers(Book of Moon) than backrow answers(trap stun). So both rounds(that did have some bad hands) you would see me dumping dandylion with foolish, summoning Tytannial as fast as I can, and trying to beat Xsabers to death, which is definitely not the way to win. Because Xsabers are both a high aggro and sub-par controlling deck, trying to "out-swing" them isn't very easy to do. One of the rounds I did manage to get the duelist on the ropes, as he defended with Pashuul for 2 turns. But in that time, I should have already had Amaryllis ready in the graveyard.

Match 3 Amaryllis vs Karakuri 2-1
Karakuri themselves are pretty annoying. They synchro pretty easily, they have some decent spell and trap support, and worst of all, they are Machines. Now, I didn't get Limiter Removal'd in either match, but just the fact that my open can "Synchro Summon for game" is pretty ridiculous and Limiter needs to be banned. As far as the match itself, Amaryllis was quick work on my opponent in game one. He was a little confused on the rulings of some of his cards. Karakuri Showdown Castle is a lot like Geartown, when it is destroyed, you have the option to summon a monster. A lot of people believe that, with Ancient Fairy Dragon, you can destroy these field cards, gain 1000 lifepoints, search out a new field card, then summon a monster. This is not true however as the field card will miss its timing if you use the rest of AFD's effect. After the first round defeat, he sided in what he said was 12 cards, and holy crap did it turn things around. D.Fissure, Necrovalley, and Gravekeepers, enough for any plant deck to get spun around. And indeed I did in that round. After that, I sided in the extra MST and Malevolent Catastrophe in the side deck. I only got to use MST to get over Dfissure, enough to win round 3. Luckily, my deck isn't completely dead when Dimensional Fissure hits the field. It's just a lot harder to play it when it does lol.

Round 4 Amaryllis vs Machina Gadgets 2-1
I played this the way I should have played against Xsabers. Burn now, not later. Invest in the field only when effect damage isn't an option. The difference between Xsabers and Machina gadgets is that 99% of their s/t lineup is monster hate. Dimensional Prison, Bottomless, TRAP HOLE(sided in), Smashing ground, THREE Solemn Warnings. With all the above cards, what is the point of trying to play like a plant synchro deck? Every game I played involved heavy use of Volcanic Counter and Amaryllis. I did manage to drop a Tytannial or 2 to end the game, but what really kills this and other duelists is that Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgement. Those cards actually help me win by making their maximum lifepoints a smaller number. As long as I don't commit to field presence I can commit to forcing Solemns while I have Magic Cylinder set, or Volcanic Counter in the graveyard.

In the end, it was a very good night. It goes to show that Amaryllis is probably one of my top decks in the many many decks I have. If I had to rank them, I think it would be something like this:
1)Koakis
2)Amaryllis
3)UniSTORM
4)Relinquished
5)Unicorn MKII (Scrap Beasts)
6)Divine Armageddon
7)Yubel
8)Into to Chaos
I am building Yusei Turbo/Synchron Madness. I'm actually a big fan of the deck, and a little unsure as to why people don't run it. Some say the deck has too many bad hands(with so many tuner monsters, its easy to draw 100% tuners.), while others say that the deck has no room for tech. It is pretty much 95% yusei cards and 5% staples, which turns a lot of people off. I also have a fiend deck made, which isn't doing too well. I'm not really sure why that is, as Caius, Faders, Dimensional Alch, and Gorz are all fantastic cards. For whatever reason, when I add in 2 Necrofear and 3 Stygian Securities, the deck falls dramatically in playability. Oh well, we'll figure something out.

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.

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.

Locals 7/24 Copypasta

Once again this is a copy from the pojo yugioh forums. I was 3-2 yesterday and lost the first match of the top 8, meaning that I was between Sixth and Eighth place.

Match 1 vs Flip Burn(friend of mine.) 2-1
He was using the flip monsters like Des Lacooda and the insects, all stuff that he can constantly reflip and control the game while Gravity Bind and level limit shuts down your opponent. First match he drew into nothing but Gravity Bind in which trunade->Urknight->Etc won me the duel. Round 2 he won with a very heavy set back row and 2 wave motion cannons, though I had to spend both my dust tornados on those 2 cards, I couldnt draw anything to get rid of Gravity Bind. Round 3 was starting off the same, but then I drew into Maximus on turn 2-3 and the play went as thus: Urknight->Sandman-> Maximus -> Blow up Messenger of peace-> Attack facedown stealth bird->deal 4900 damage. Next turn he forfeited.

Match 2 vs WCQ Xsabers 1-2
Xsabers, just like everyone else I played, I stomped first round. And he was constantly asking what cards did what, Xsabers is still the deck's best matchup. Its like blackwings without Kalut. Anyway, round 2 he has his sidedeck lined up: 2-3 Mask of Restricts, and Mind Crush....ouch. One turn he Mind crushed my reveal target, ruling says its revealed at activation, not resolution, so i got to keep my guardian. I actually had him down to 200 life points to my 8000, but then he busted out The Calculator to do some math, which means I was going to get FTK'd. Trunade made me pick up compulsory and Oppression-> boggart->some crap with double faultroll, i dont even know. Round 3 was pretty neck in neck, i think it was my 3600 to his 3000, but he had Mask of Restrict very early in the game and I dont side in dusts for xsabers. I almost think the deck needs to run Jinzo in the side >_> his backrow was sooooooooo heavy its not even funny. Only prob with Jinzo is he makes compulsory useless, so i'd have to drop them for enemy controllers.

Match 3 vs Morphtronics 2-1
Got stomped game 1. Sided in dusts for that stupid C&D equip card (i dont have the standard machine sidedeck). Won with Boulder searching for Urknight then playing Maximus for 5000 damage on both rounds 2 and 3.

Match 4 vs Glads 1-2
First round had a D Fissure on the field and I played Maximus and you cant maintain maximus on the field with D Fissure out, so I lost. I also had Corridor of Agony out which worked "okay" but it also stopped my Urknight play. (luckily he cold waved to stop my oppression and corridor, so i was able to win next round.)Round 2 I lost, I may be confusing that Maximus play with round 2. Round 3 he got out a very early Herk and I drew into nothing so he won.

Top 8 vs same Xsaber guy.
Pretty much same went as above. We were going at it for soooooo long, other pairings were already in Match 2. There were starlight roads firing off on both sides of the field, it was bananas. I believe the things that won him the game was summoning Emmersblade under my bottomless and actually attacking with it. There was a Mind Control at some point to make Andriod JUST TO GET HIS LP BACK LOL. Next turn it forced me to flip my own torrential on myself. After that though I drew into a Maximus with Urknight in my hand and no core. I realized, he attacked my boulder with Andriod, I searched out Sandman to activate my own torrential because I had already lost my only Tornado. If i had gotten an iron core instead, then my top deck Maximus could have won me the game. Unfortunately theres no way to know something like that would happen.

Lessons learned:
Against Glad's T-set: Never lead off with Sandman, expecting D.prison or Bottomless. Always expect Waboku or war chariot and summon Guardian instead. Either way, if they activate their trap, you lose a monster(either this turn or next turn after the tag-out). You have greater chances stopping the play with guardian than gaining field presence with Sandman against Glads.
Against Mask of Restrict: Side in dust tornados and heavy. If he sided in Masks then something got sided out and his trap kind is either break even or higher than it was. If you get starlight roaded then oh well, better hope you get urknight or Tornado because stardust is probably less dangerous than a Mask of Restrict up the entire game.

Stillpoint Report

Before bed I might as well make my report on the 1 dollar tournament at Stillpoint. Surprisingly we got 10-11 people to play, despite it being pretty spontaneous. Before the tournament Chelsea and I kind of sat around not doing much. I dueled 1 person with the Northwemko deck which is still under construction, but is so close to completion that I needed to try it. Game 1 I didnt know I could Gorz before it gets discarded from X-saber battle, and that lost me the duel. After that though I didnt draw into anything and lost promptly lol. But anyways, after that we took out the Koa'kis and did the tournament.

Results 2-2, didn't top...Again.
But hey, this tournament was a lot of fun. I feel like the Koa'ki build is a LOT more consistent now than it was when I first entered tournaments in June. The theme as a whole has a lot of potential, and I'd love to see more cards, but we can save that discussion for later. For now let's try to discuss(remember) what happened today.

Round 1 vs Quickdraw 0-2.
Man oh man do I have trouble with quickdraw decks. What's nice about them is that they are very backrow lite, so I can summon guardians and not have to worry about getting sandman. The main issue I seem to have with the deck is that I feel you have to stop the fluff tokens or else they will synch into goyo and pretty much win the game without triggering Guardian. I need to somehow figure out how to stop the cards played AFTER dandylion is destroyed, rather than trying to stop the dandy play in the first place. First duel went really well. I had something along the lines of cold wave, urknight, core, maximus, and a crusader on the field to his set monster. If i summoned maximus and destroyed his set card, I could have had the OTK and won. Unfortunately, this is called "overextending" nowadays. My field ended up being Urknight, Maximus, Crusader, and Guardian and I end up blowing up a dandylion. So now my OTK goes up in smoke and because I overextended, I lost my hand and lost the match shortly after. Next match wasn't too much different. I didnt overextend and made some very good plays. What I lost to was a topdecked Lonefire->Tytannial with no Guardian on the field. I also only had Tornado n the field for the longest time, which happens more often than I would like. Tornado attacked into a hamster which got Ryko. Topdecked the core....Then he sets dandylion, attacked into that, he gains more monsters and I couldnt topdeck the core again. If he drew ANYTHING to tribute with, he could just do it with Mega Hamster. No point in "Tornadoing" tokens if he still has tribute fodder afterward.

Round 2 vs Xsabers 2-0
Same thing as most saber fights I've had. Only the synchros and Faultroll can swing over a koa'ki so a lot of this (and the next xsaber matchup)is won by set boulders. Xsaber players dont usually set monsters, and often attack into stuff to bait out your S/T cards. I didnt get saber holed today, trunade, cold wave and MST did it's job. There are many outs for the KM deck to deal with sabers. If you think about it, they have, maybe, a 5% chance to draw both Rescue Cat and Cold wave. They have an even higher chance to draw cold wave while they have faultroll in their hand(from darksoul). But we have 2 Oppressions, 3 Compulsories, 3 Urknights, 3(I added 1 today) Boulders which increases out chance to get iron core, so the raw % of me drawing cards to stop their game winning play is just higher. Theres really only so much they can do with such low attack monsters. Stop the synchros before they start and try your hardest to stay in control

Round 3 vs Machina 1-2
Another deck I have serious issues with. Joe showed me his side for Machina, which is System down, Fortress Dragon, Proto Cyber Dragons, and Limiter Removal. Me being a new player, shows that I have 0 of these cards. So my side against Machina is just +1 compulsory... First game I control the match. Urknights, Crusaders, the only monster threat in the deck is Jinzo, Cyber Dragon and Fortress. Until, and this is when match 2 started, the Machina player draws Solidarity. This puts gadgets at 2000-2200, which is VERY painful. Luckily I drew up core overclock, but "hey, let's play a 2nd Solidarity." Thanks game. I lost that match, It was just too difficult to deal with a 2800 monster, all the while knowing your opponent is building towards a 4100 atk monster. Essentially I need to rethink my strategy against Machina. Either put in trap holes for gadgets(they gain a monster while you lose a trap card), put in dust tornadoes for solidarity(machina decks use a very small amount of S/T cards from what I've seen. A lot of them are 1-for-1 removal, so is dust tornado worth it for 3-4 targets?), or put in something unexpected like Core Blast and Core Reinforcements. I'll continue trying to figure this out.

Round 4 vs Sabers again 2-1
This was pretty similar to the above match. I don't believe I was able to starlight road Steve, perhaps I did. I know for sure I did against my first Saber round. Today I actually didn't get to Oppression much of anything. So what won me the game? I would have to say 1st turn(and in round 3 1st AND second turn) boulders won the game. Of course getting things like Trunade and Cold Wave help too, but saber players often attack your set monsters. And when they dont, they set darksoul, in which now you have a chance to gain the field. What's awesome about darksoul is you can search out a game winning combo at the end of the turn. But while you're doing that, I'm already controlling the field. In my opinion, Darksoul puts you either 1 turn ahead of your opponent or 1 turn behind. It really depends on what I'm able to keep on the field. They need 2 monsters to essentially do ANYTHING in that deck. Synchro? 2 monsters. Faultroll? 2 Monsters. This is where I use compulsory like a maniac. I HAVE to stop the play before it happens, or else I can't get field presence back.

All in all, I had fun. Monday I'll play more people with Northwemko if I can help it. I'll try to post the deck too.

Diehard games report

This is a copy paste from another YGO forum. I'm a little too tired to give a better report. I may elaborate on it in the morning.

Round one vs FroggyMonarchQuickdrawDandyWarriorSillyness 1-2
This dude always comes to our locals with an original deck. I have a lot of respect for him. Round 1 I was fighting he did nothing but quickdrawmonarch generic crap. I won first round with ease, and decided to side in some stuff (compulsories, something else too, basically I took out overclock and lab) Round 2 he opens up with Swap->treeborn->quickdraw->some other frog-> drillwarrior and I was like crap. Drew into nothing both rounds.

Round two vs Anti Meta Gadgets 2-1
This is the kid that beat me last weak. Antimeta is hot and all and does win games, but I think the big problem with it is its SO focused on hand advantage amd your only field advantage is Rai-oh, Cyber Dragon and a bunch of One for One S/T. I was able to win with that, he had to make me get a ruling on crusader vs doomkaiser suicide but I assured him that crusader still fires off, and i added Urknight for the win.

Round three vs Xsabers 2-0
Royal Oppression and Compulsory wins games. I think I say this every time I post in this thread. Compulsory as stopped so many Cat plays and Faultroll plays for me is crazy. He even had fullhelmknight on the field and opened Cold Wave, in which I compulsory fullhelm which completely ruined his play. I had Oppression both games and did the ole trusty Trunade Oppression->Urknight->Guardian->Re-set oppression. I also won the final hit with compulsory on Pashull.

Round four vs Six Sams kid with a "buy" 0-2fejwiojfow
He wins first dice roll. Opens: Gateway->Gateway->United->United->Union Samurai->Draw four->Search Grandmaster->Union equip and I was like wowwww. Granted I lasted for a while with double maximus in my hand, eventually I lost because he got to search basically every turn/ He even drew his 3rd Gateway which was pretty much auto win. Round two wasnt as bad.....But....I drew 5 turns after my first draw(Guardian) of no monsters. 2 Dust Tornados(sided in) 2-3 Compulsories, Torrential, Lab(i think? Some KM magic card) and Bottomless. Really REALLY wish i could have draw at least 1 playable monster but nope, I dont get to play monsters in yugioh lol.