Playing Against Machina Gadgets

Seeing as how popular this deck is getting, i have had the opportunity to have several in depth testing sessions with Andrew who was using Machina Gadget.

Today's post discusses what you should do VS the deck.

So lets discuss what happens if you start second.

The first thing you should know about Machina Gadget is that you must Veiler the first Gadget or Gearframe you see. Usually they will use the Gadget to lure out the Veiler before committing with Double Summon to special summon another Gadget or Gearframe to search their stuffs.

Now at this point you might think im screwed as you have lost alot of advantage while your opponent has gained a ton of fuck and sits with 2 or more backrow.

After everything you are left with 5 cards during your turn (assuming you veiler-ed). Your opponent would have a total of 6 cards. The important thing to note here is that by using Double summon, your opponent has -1 himself so its just an illusion. The other thing to note is that you know 2 cards are Gadget/Gearframe so that leaves you with 3 more cards. Assuming your opponent set 1 backrow, you can safely say that the other 2 cards in hands are monsters, one probably being another gadget, or a veiler or limit break which he is conserving.

If he sets 2 cards, the other could be a monster, or a 3rd trap card he is unwilling to overextend with.

The comforting situation here is that with 2 set cards, you are likely to open up with one s/t removal which can eliminate one card already. That leaves you with another card to deal with. Which means you can bait it easily. Inzektors can easily do it by baiting a Centipede or something.
Lets say they set a Compulsory and a Warning, and you hit Warning (50% chance), then you can force your opponent to -1 to Compulsory your Inzektor. If you are playing Chaos Dragons, just drop a Lyla and fall back a turn.

Hieratics on the other hand have an easier way to deal with if you summon a Hanzo. Then you can follow it up with a Tefni, Su etc.

Assuming you have more than 1 trap, it makes it easier to deal with the Gadget/Gearframe/ Fortress he is about to drop. Another comforting thing is that Fortress causes your opponent to -1 , so it balances out the advantage they gained from Gadgets. If you have a BTH or a Warning you should save it for the Fortress.

Now assuming if you start first, what should you do?

My answer would be that if your using Inzektor you should explode with Damsel + Gruff immediately to summon a Tiras to lock down your opponent. If your Damsel does get Veilered, granted you'll still have some traps in your hand to back yourself up. If you don't, then sad story bro.

If your playing Hieratics, then well, just do your normal Card Car D or Hanzo farming. Later you just need to conserve 2 or 3 cards to set up a strong field once their backrow is gone. Gadgets may be consistent but they have small attack so it puts them at an disadvantage immediately. You could say they can still draw removal but not everything goes according to plan 100%.

One of the perks of going first against Gadgets means that you get to control the pace of the game, whereby if you set one trap with a Veiler in hand, it will cause the game to go at a faster pace. On the flipside, if you set multiple traps, the game will become slower since your opponent will have a dilemma whether to bait them out and waste his Double Summons, Gearframes, Fortresses and hence lower the amount of options he has. If he decides to conserve, your in a good position, but if he responds with a backrow war, then the game is likely to go in his favour.

The one thing to remember is that while Gadgets can gain an insane amount of advantage, you can too if your playing a meta deck ! Inzektors, Chaos Dragons, Hieratics all have insane ways to plus off.

Another thing is that even though they have an INSANE amount of advantage, some of their hand could be dead gadgets (staring at your field of big beaters).

Initially i had an impression that the deck was one of Inzektor's worst matchups but then I found out that the match was a 50-50 matchup. Every deck, no matter how perfect they seem, has their own inconsistencies, and fears. Thats why its important we take some time to play each and every deck for at least a week to know their weaknesses.

Oh and if your running Gravekeepers, you just need to throw down a Royal Tribute and sit back.

As for siding VS gadgets, the best card would be Mind Crush. Mind Crush is never dead vs gadgets and once you know their hand you can play accordingly. You can be a sohai , and wait for your opponent to MST it to gain more advantage. And while Gadgets are mostly run in 3s in each machina gadget, there is a chance of hitting more than 1. Mind Crush punishes Gadget players who try to conserve their Green Gadgets (highest attack) and whatnot.

Another incredibly effective set of cards are Dimensional Prison and Bottomless Trap Hole, which are 2 amazing game stabilizers, but were kicked aside due to inzektor. I still think that BTH is worth maining now in 1s or 2s since the only thing it doesnt hit is Damsel. Prison and BTH both remove Fortress and Gear Gigant X

For Inzektors, I could suggest siding Creature Swap. If this card sounds like a retard suicide tech, then i have to beg to differ. Nana sided 2 of this in his Inzektors which led him to pilot to top 8 spot in Japan's Nationals. Although Chariot came up with the concept (according to sources), i consider this a genius tech because they realized that Inzektors have bad hands sometimes so giving your opponent a Gruff/Hornet is too sweet while you take their big monsters. Swap works great by taking their Fortress, or Gear Gigant. Swap cannot be affected by Lance which is important to note. Summon Gruff and equip hornet and pop then swap. Sweet?

During locals, i also got to observe some players siding in Snowman Eater. Snowman can potentially slow them down and looks effective during playtesting, although it seems very mediocre in theory. I don't do this personally, and i'm iffy about this but i wouldnt mind giving it a try. Problem is the probability of oversiding in matchups.

While your reading this, you may wonder where the hell is Cyber Dragon? While Cyber Dragon works like a power card vs Gadget Machina, i dont feel it is solid enough, mainly because putting 2 in your deck means that one could be dead in the late game if your staring down a Fortress, assuming you have already used one on Chimera. This means you need to put Cyber Dragon at 1, but if you run the card at 1, what are the odds of you drawing it? Chimera in extra deck already takes up 1 precious slot, and Cyber Dragon is easily countered by generic traps if you rely on it too heavily.

Of course these are my personal thoughts since Cyber Dragon only counters one matchup effectively in the Asia format and everybody knows that each side card should be versatile and can counter more than 1 matchup.

Anyway its been a long while since i wrote an essay on my blog. Expect the next few posts to be short and sweet. Ciao