Light. Ray. Agents.

Do to..very foreseen circumstances, I took a hiatus from playing Yugioh at my locals. No I have not quit the game, and you will still very rarely hear me say bad things about it. Instead, I took this, for the second time, to find a new deck. When I last played at my locals, I was using my lightsworn-less Chaos Dragon deck, which did fairly well. If you have been on the internet at all between April and now,  you would know that Lightsworn Chaos Dragon decks have exploded onto the YCS scene, winning multiple championships and filling up decklists across the nation. This, of course, means that I can no longer play Dragons.

Who would want to play mirror matches all the time anyway?

There has only been one YCS championship post GAOV and no brand new deck has made it into the top 8. This is not to say that GAOV decks are bad, just that the majority of players are playing other things. I wholeheartedly believe that GAOV will begin to top in the next month or 2. We also have Hidden Arsenal 6 around the corner, in which many of your friends may jump on the Gishki bandwagon.

So what am I playing? I don't have the physical deck complete, but Alpha testing has begun on something I really enjoy:

 

 

I have never really talked about Agents in depth. I had never even played the deck when it was at its prime. In fact, I only briefly mentioned it in 2011 when this and Tengu Synchro was running rampant. The OCG is actually still playing the deck with plenty of Cardcar D and T.G. monsters to replace the missing Earth (actually, they've been using TG's for years). The deck I want to talk about is a little different. I have no idea how to rate the power between the 2, as both have amazing cards for you to use. This is part of the main reason why I haven't been playing, I can't decide on how to complete this deck.


Monsters:
1 Earth is a staple. All the card does is search out Venus or Jupiter, but it is also an Agent for Hyperion. I have heard of people dropping the card, but many Yugioh decks don't require 40 cards to play. Using Earth also fills in that 40 card requirement that other fairies may not be good enough to fill.
3 Venus and 3 Shine ball still make one of the most powerful plays in Yugioh. Even with all the Effect Veiler and Maxx C, there are times when the opponent will not draw them in their opening hand. The resource that a Venus creates is an important part of whether the deck can win or not. 2-3 Jupiter is something that I have never considered, but the loss of Earth makes this a necessity.
 3 Hyperion, as dead as they seem on paper, have to be run. Hyperion is a win condition and you can really feel that during the duels that you never see Hyperion.

The basic idea of the deck is this. A)Lightray Sorcerer is a pretty good card, just like the Chaos version. It isn't amazing, but it gets the job done. B)To fuel him, Hyperion and Jupiter can remove Agents and light monsters from the graveyard, which are easy to do after 1 Venus. The Agents and fairies get to use Cards from the Sky, which is generally believe to be a bad card. Skipping your turn isn't very fun, but the follow-up is sometimes more important. When those aren't available, Lightray Grepher can Banish lights to use later. Similar to how strong Dark Grepher was years ago, Lightray Grepher is a hard -1 that will cause a game loss without a proper follow-up. C)Following up with Banished cards is more light support. Light of Redemption lets you pay 800 life to put any Banished Light into your hand. Miraculous Descent will summon any Banished Fairy to the field. The "minuses" are very apparant, but following your minus with a Kristya or Hyperion out of nowhere is phenomenal. There are even instances where banishing Venus is the best play. The scariest part of the deck is the chance that the opponent will OTK you. Outside of Gachi Gachi and Gorz, the only other defensive line is Honest and Miraculous Descent.

So we know lights and fairies have amazing cards they can play:
Kristya
Honest
Miraculous Descent
Light of Redemption
Lightray Sorcerer
Lightray Grepher
Freed the Brave Wanderer

We know that Agents have amazing cards they can play:
Maxx "C"
Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
Forbidden Lance
Tour Guide of the Underworld
D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation
Pot of Duality

The problem is, what cards to even put in; and not play a deck that has more than 40 cards. This is where testing comes into play and the reason why I still call this deck an Alpha deck. Here are a few of the major points for deciding what should be played:
1) Lightray Sorcerer, though good, clogs when ran in high amounts.
2) Light of Redemption can't make a card instantly alive the way that Miraculous Descent can. Even better(or worse) D.D.R. can make any Fairy live on turn 1, so long as you minus yourself.
3) Cards from the Sky works well with the decks conservative nature. Pot of Duality also fits the bill. Cards From digs 2 turns into the deck whereas Duality puts you 1 turn ahead. Cards From can set up a Banished play. Duality is better in the late game than Cards From.
4) Kristya can win the game against many decks. It works with Herald of Orange Light and Cards From. It can be summoned by DDR or Miraculous Descent. But, next to 3 Hyperion, is it too inconsistent to run 2?
5) Hyperion is an excellent boss monster. Clogging is not much of an issue because there are many ways to place him onto the field. I often wish I could play more than just 3 Hyperion.
6) Forbidden Lance can do some amazing things against many different matchups. Best of all, the effects of Miraculous Descent and DDR that destroys fairies attached to them, can be nullified by Forbidden Lance.
7) Herald of Orange Light is a huge minus, but almost every deck starts off with an effect that sets its wheels in motion. However, drawing multiple Orange Lights is almost as dangerous as not drawing any. Of course, you can toss an Orange Light to pay for a different one, so maybe playing 3 copies isn't so bad.

Quickee Post: Battle Pack Epic Dawn

So I just bought 20 packs of BP:ED, and wanted to give you guys a quick list of the Rares and Starfoils I got:
Rare:
Pot of Duality
Wind-Up Zenmaister x2
Creature Swap
Gachi Gachi Gantetsu x2
Call of the Haunted
Fox Fire
Grenosaurus x3
Graceful Charity
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon x2
 Burden of the Mighty
Heavy Storm
Ancient Gear Golem
Gem-Knight Pearl x2
Soul Exchange

Raging Flame Sprite
Mad Dog Of Darkness
Ape Fighter
Goblin Attack Force
Giant Soldier of Stone
Cybernetic Magician
Stealth Bird
Night Assailant
Skilled White Magician
DUCKER Mobile Cannon
Dark Resonator
Mask of Darkness
Changing Destiny
Book of Moon
Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite
Alector, Sovereign of Birds
Scapegoat
Insect Knight
Premature Burial
Card Trooper

I think I never want to see another Grenosaurus again...

GAOV World Premieres Pt. 2

Galactic Overdrive, Overload, Overlord, Overcoal, or whatever you want to call it is here in full force. Whether you personally like the set or not is irrelevant, this product is moving and many retail stores in my area are already sold out (wasn't me!).  The first six World Premiere cards (the monsters) have mixed reviews all over the internet. What is there to say about the remaining cards?
GAOV-EN086 Draconnection
Normal Spell
Okay Konami, we get it. Dragons are strong. Apparently, they are so strong that they need more support. And yet, they can't be given anything too ridiculous. There are also a TON of Dragons out there, so the support has to be as general as possible. The result? Draconnection; excellent card in theory, but not anything the players really want to use. There will always be a time where a player has a hand that is just not as good as it could have been. Draconnection basically removes 1 card from your hand, to stack 1 card in your opening hand. Stacking your hand in your favor(legally) is good. Removing cards in your hand, however, is not good. I would like to believe that some day, when a minus to your hand isn't the end of the game, Draconnection can see some play. It really isn't a bad card for the types of decks you can use it in. Our current meta just can't warrant a -1 with no change in tempo on either side of the board. Still, a very solid. very balanced card.

GAOV-EN087 Trial and Tribulation
Normal Spell
I have been waiting for a card like this for a very, very long time. Some people are already using it in Frog Monarch decks. I have seen a couple of others tech in a copy for Hieratic decks. I am a lover of Ritual Monsters, and experimenting with this thing leads to many possibilities. And that is exactly what this card is, even its name and effect suggests experimentation among the player base. At its playable worst, Trial and Tribulation gives you a card draw, effectively thinning your deck by 1. In something like Monarchs, that "37 card deck" can increased chances of drawing awesome cards like Battle Fader, Gorz and Trag. Any deck that can tribute via effect, or drop double tributes like LADD get to salvage 2 monsters from their graveyard. It doesn't have to be the monsters offreed for the tribute. In fact, if your Darklord Asmodeus or Zerato are destroyed by Solemn Warning, you can add it along with another good monster back to your hand. The third option for Tri&Tri is the big one that most of the internet is focusing on. I feel that limiting the destruction to face-up cards was a little unnecessary, but I will chalk that up to Konami's tier-crafting. Not many decks can even tribute 3 things in 1 turn, but more and more ideas are surfacing every day. Obelisk and Slifer/Osiris Hieratics Beastking Barbaros Poseidra (OCG) Steelswarm Hercules Ice Master Of course, nothing is as good as the mainstream decks already teching Tri&Tri With Poseidra and other cards being released in the future, time will tell just how good this card can really be.
GAOV-EN-088 Hieratic Seal From the Ashes
Continuous Trap
After spoiling us with Dark Smog, Konami teased us with yet another World Premiere Continuous card to make a particular theme even more threatening. Seal From the Ashes does not tribute your Hieratics for free in the same fashion that Dark Smog gives you "free" discards. Instead, Seal From the Ashes provides a means of getting bad draws out of your deck and deterring your opponent from stopping you. Most of all, it supports the other 3 Hieratic Normal chasers, Seal of the Dragon King, Seal of the Sun Dragon, and Sutekh. The first effect of Seal From the Ashes supports these cards by putting the Seal monsters in the graveyard. This prevents you from drawing them when you don't want to. In the grave, they are targets for not only Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, but also Sutekh and any other Normals tech you would like to add to your deck. After that, it will allow you to return banished Dragons to the grave. This may not seem useful outside of Sutekh, but a lot of people have been trying Chain Disappearance against Hieratics, as it destroys most of their special summons. Finally, if your opponent decides to destroy Seal From, you get a Hieratic monster from the grave to the field for free. Your opponent doesn't even have to destroy it themselves! You can use Sun Dragon to destroy your own Seal, and even target the same Hieratic you tributed for Seal's special summon. The plays are too good to pass up.
GAOV-EN-088 Xyz Wrath
Continuous Trap
Remember the first few packs of the 5d's Universe? We can even look at all of the 5d's starter decks. Konami gave us as much generic Synchro material as possible. We had cards that reborned Synchros for free, cards that boosted their attack and cards that destroyed your opponent's cards. Did we use any of them in competitive duels? Not really. So what does Xyz Wrath do that is so different than all of the old Synchro support? To be hones, not much. As the game goes on, we are being presented with more and more easily summoned level 5+ monsters that AREN'T synchro monsters. In your Wind-up, Inzek, Geargia, Verz, etc deck, this technically makes Xyz Wrath a live card. At least in the extra deck; you can theoretically side Xyz wrath against any boss drop deck like Lightsworn Dragons, Hieratics, Six Sams, Frog Lancer, and many more decks. Of course, you could also side hundreds of other excellent choices that will stun those decks perhaps more effeciently that Xyz Wrath. The Xyz requirement isn't too difficult in this Meta. They even go so far as to put one of the easiest Xyz to summon, Evolzar Soldda in the art. We'll see if anyone actually tries to use this card, but don't expect it to skyrocket in price if someone does.

GAOV didn't present me with a lot of cards I had to have. Cardcar D, Tri&Tri, Photon Bounzer, and a few others make up the very best cards in the deck. Surprise~ They're secret rare! If you can get these cards, then please do so. You may not use them now, but many of the cards in GAOV are so good outside of this format that they can easily generate a mint's worth in the correct meta.

GAOV World Premieres

The Sneak peak for Galactic Overdrive has passed and I am sure it was a great success. Whether you admire your pulls or you think the card list was lackluster is irrelevant. The stage of the game we are in is all about new cards and fresh ideas. So many people say(somewhat untruthfully) that the surprise factor is back in Yugioh; and that fresh ideas and personalized builds is what wins games. For the most part,the world premiere cards of GAOV "try" to accommodate originality. Deciding if you want to use most of these is up to you.

GAOV-EN000 Noble Knight Artorigus Light? Check. Warrior for RotA? Check. Level 4 Normal for Rescue Rabbit and Advanced Ritual Art? Check. Awesome Art and Flavor text? Check. 1800/1800 stats? Wait what? Don't get me wrong, Noble Knight isn't a terrible card and fits nicely into his decks. There are many warrior variants, and Artorigus can be used in the newest one, Rabbit-Bushi-Xyz. Konami spoiled us with Alexandrite Dragon's 2000 ATK on a Normal, Light body. I will assume that Artorigus is balanced at 1800/1800 because he is a warrior monster and the sheer amount of warrior support that exists in the game. If you aren't interested in pure warrior decks, Artorigus and Rescue Rabbit also share a spot in another OCG deck: Sacred/Constellar. You can imagine Artorigus doing something in here similar to what Rabbit dide to Evolzar's, taking an already amazing boss and making him better. Constellar Omega can only be summoned with Light monsters and has an amazing quick effect. Of course, you can summon him with Alexandrite Dragon, but Artorigus gives you access to Blade Armor Ninja and even Heroic Champion Excalibur, the cover card of the next set. Perhaps more people will find ways to fit him into decks, such as Evocater Gemini and Lightray; for now, Rescue Rabbit has a new test subject.

GAOV-EN081 Ancient Dragon
Light Dragon
Level 4 1400/1300
This carded needed 2 things to make it great: 1) A reliable way to attack the opponent directly and 2) Somewhat meaningful results in the first boost. For example, in a Galaxy Eyes deck, you can use GA Photon Dragon to clear the field for Ancient Dragon's attacks. If Ancient boosted its attack by 600, it could have made another 2000 attack monster to sacrifice for another GA Photon Dragon. Instead, this guy only goes up to 1900 in the first strike, which is underwhelming. Konami had a chance to do something really cool with this card, but I am calling it a missed opportunity.

GAOV-EN082 Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King
Light Dragon Gemini
Level 6 0/0
This card is not to be dismissed simply because of the OCG version of the Hieratic deck. There are multiple new cards in GAOV for the TCG that encourage the use of this card over Luster Dragon #2 and Wattaildragon. In fact, many people are testing cards like Future Fusion and Feathrizer to throw Seal of the Dragon King into the graveyard as quickly as possible. Your reward for playing this? The ability to normal summon(gemini summon) into ANY Hieratic from any location, barring banished ones and more Dragon Kings. That could be:
Nebthet if you control more Hieratics and they still have cards.
Su if those cards are spells or traps.
Asar to further control the board.
If it could summon Sutekh, we would have a great variant of the Hieratic theme, but unfortunately, Sutekh is semi-nomi and can't be special summoned before his initial summoning procedure. Because of this, Seal of the Dragon King isn't really played in typical, swarming Hieratic decks because it simply isn't necessary. I can see the card becoming better if we get MORE cards to grab key Dragons(Sutekh) from the deck. And trust me, there are plenty of cards already that can do it.

GAOV-EN083 Evoltile Elginero
Fire Reptile
Level 2 0/0
Probably the last World Premiere card we will see for Evols; this new reptile continues with the tribute strategy that Najasho started. Instead of giving you "pluses", Elginero seeks to add consistency to the deck and fix a key issue with the ORCS version: Should I waste my Evo-Force/Enemy Controller now or continue holding it? You do maintain card advantage through Evo-Force. You lose 3 cards, Elginero, 1 Dinosaur and Evo-Force, and you gaing 1(1) card draw, 1(2) Evoltile to your hand, and 1(3) Evolsaur to the field, plus whatever effect your Saur has. It isn't much of a game winning monster, more so it gives you a turn to actually make a play. Running 3 is probably overkill in the Najasho deck, but there is almost no reason to run less than 1.

GAOV-EN084 Lightray Grepher
Light Warrior
Level 4 1700/1600
When I first saw this guy, before his effect was confirmed, I instantly fell in love. Seriously, Grepher for Light monsters and he is a World Premiere card? He's just asking to get cracked by the players. After his effect was confirmed, my hopes dwindled ever-so slighty. Then a Light(pun-intended) revealed itself to me(and other yugioh players) and Grepher seems to get better and better. Similar to his Dark counterpart, a wrong play with Lightray Grepher will destroy your hand and cause you to lose the duel. However, the plays that Grepher can supply in specific decks will create outs that were seemingly unheard of. I for one am testing him in my own Lightray variant, which I will post about at a later date. My version only runs 1 Grepher, but there are some Turbo Lightray decks on the internet that create Tele-DAD-like plays out of nowhere. Lucky for us, LR Grepher is a normal rare in the set, so we all get to do lots of testing with him.

GAOV-EN085 Tardy Orc
Dark Fiend
Level 4 2200/0
This is where the contempt lies with the players. Tardy Orc is made for a few things: 1) Deck Devastation Virus 2) Fiend support(Dark Necrofear, etc) 3) Dark support (Dark Eruption, Escape from the Dark Dimension, etc) 4) Skill Drain The part that makes it so undesirable is that (not only is it secret rare) it is a redundant card for the above "pros." Let's take a look at his closest cousin: Giant Orc. Giant Orc has the exact same stats. Same attack, same defense, same type and atrribute; one can even say they are the exact same monster in the art. As an "upgrade", Mr. Orc has achieved secret status from his new effect. He can attack every turn now, without Skill Drain, which is pretty cool, as long as you did not Normal Summon him that turn. There are some ways around this restriction. If you opponent conducts a Battle Phase on their turn, you can flip Ultimate Offering and summon him, possible stopping an attack. You can summon him with Summoner Monk, another dark monster. If you banish him for the plethora of new dark support (like Creeping Darkness), you can attack right away when you summon him with Escape from the Dark Dimension. Does this make the card cool? I would say so. Does it warrant his Secret rarity? Gotta say no on that. Next time, we'll go over the new spells and traps for GAOV. One of which I have been waiting for Konami to create for a long time.

Exciting things in 2012 - Flowcharts!

If you are reading this blog post, then you are probably on the internet. If you are on the internet, reading a yugioh blog, you may have come across this fancy little doo-dad on Konami's Official Yugioh-card website.

I'm not going to waste you guys' time explaining what this flowchart means, if you've made your way to my blog, I'm sure you have skipped over many that try to teach how you use the chart. Many people call it different things: Loss of priority, On summon ignition effects, "the OCG ruling", etc. Semantics are the only thing that is wrong here, as everyone has the same idea; that following nonchainable events (such as a normal summon), only spell speed 2 and higher effects can activate. The post on the Official Strategy Site tells us that these new rules will CHANGE HOW WE PLAY THE GAME. This is 100% true, but just how drastic of a metagame change are we talking about? Try not to get lost in the predictions from internet forums: Solemn Warning useless? Raigeki Break and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast everywhere? Triple Effect Veiler in every deck? The return of Salvo Chaos and anything else that can summon 3 Black Rose Dragons? Limitations removed from certain Ignition Effect Monsters and their support in September, ex. Dark Armed Dragon? Stun to win the next YCS? Trap Stun and Backrow destruction more relevant? The return of Xsabers? The first in a series of price drops on Maxx "C"? While many of these are...more true than others, it is important to not underestimate the strength of current decks. Yugioh is still a card game, and luck is a factor in winning. This Flowchart and Fast effects don't "kill cards." In my opinion, barring anti-monster decks, the new change gives us more outs to the same plays we expect to see every day. Will you draw that out every game? Of course not. Laggia and Dolkka may drop in price by a few dollars, but they are still just as playable against many of the popular decks today. You can imagine that many players will only have 1-2 extra Veiler in their main deck to stop a first turn Laggia. If that player was lucky enough to go first, they may have 4 additional cards, along with Veilers to stop Rescue Rabbit's effect. This 10~% increase in stunning power definitely helps, but Rescue Rabbit is far from obsolete because of this. The same can be said about all of our favorite monsters with Ignition effects, many decks simply have an increased chance in drawing an out to those cards. With luck on their side, this does give lower tier decks a chance to respond to more powerful themes and archetypes. Adding a couple Raigeki Break to something like Fabled will make them a bit more relevant. No deck (outside of stun) will jump into the competitive scene because of this Fast effectchange, but luck is a huge factor here. We are actually in a format where great tech wins YCS competitions, so, if anything, this may add a bit of variety to popular builds. Will anything change in my decks? Probably not, though I may add an extra Effect Veiler into my side. If Maxx "C" is shifted to the side deck in favor of Effect Veiler, I may test Fabled once again. Other than that, I am not willing to resurrect older decks (like Koa'ki) despite the Fast Effect ruling. However, post GAOV and HA06, I will definitely try out some new things.