Another regionals report

I've run out of things to talk about for now., so i'll just go with another report.

Hopefully after all this i can go back to reading up on the OCG.

Asia Championship 2013 has just passed and congratz to:

1) SAM MY IDOL FOR GETTING 2ND WITH VERZ
2) Edsel from Phillipines for getting 3rd
3) Korea for winning the whole thing !

In case anybody doesn't know yet :

Master Key Beetle + deck lockdown + 1 trap = GG incarnate dragons

Do check out Yugioh Edition Singapore on FB for the awesome coverage!

At the same time, it is currently day 2 of YCS Lille and fellow group Complexity Card Gaming members Alpay and Joshua Schmidt are now in the top32, all the best to them !

As i'm typing this, i just got news, Alpay finished in the top 16, and Joshua is in the top 8!

For both the pages mentioned above, just type it in the search bar in FB

So back to the report:

Today the venue was held in a RSL club which i guess stands for sport and leisure club or something, which meant it was a proper and good venue, unlike the previous ones. So, there was ample space to walk around, large playing spaces, and most importantly good lighting and aircon.

There were 128 people joining today, which was just as big as the previous and im tired so im just gonna post the report:

Round 1:  Fire Fist

i won the die roll

Game 1 : he opened Abyss Dweller (how the fuck he know i using mermails?) but i somehow pull through and won

Game 2: He overextended into my Torrential tribute, we were topdecking, and we both made sick topdecks (he had tenki i had something else which i couldn't remember) but i won

1-0

Round 2: Six Samurai

i won the die roll

game 1: He wasted Solemn warning on my teus, and i just megalo and kill

game 2: This time he didn't want to waste his facedowns on my teus, so i summoned pike , knocked over the bottomless (why didn't he chain it?), played mst on his other backrow (which he kept touching meaning its obviously something good), and then otk

2-0

Round 3: Windups

he won the die roll

Game 1: he turn 1 D Fissure and car D, i cant remember what i did but i know i warning-ed his tour guide, and he had no monsters so i pulled through.

Game 2: I was very sure he was playing rabbit because no sign of WU in g1, so i sided in all the rabbit related bullshit and lost after he did the volcacharge combo

Game 3: Proper siding = win. cannot remember how.

3-0

Round 4: Mermail

i won the die roll

Game 1: He made Gachi then killed me with megalo + diva next turn

Game 2: I win somehow

Game 3: This was a very good game and had alot of grinding. Slowly played around his cards (he had advantage) until i had the advantage by a longshot. Won somehow because dweller + catastor > abystrite + bahamut + linde after i cleared his backrow.

4-0

Round 5: Dark World turbo

he won the die roll

Game 1: I swear i literally died when he had tour Guide, reborn, gates, card destruction, snow, a million dragged downs but somehow i won because he commited everything to his field and turbo-ed his deck and replenished my hand so i just destroy his field slowly, and his hand was all crap.

Game 2: He did the same thing and my hand was trash and i died.

Game 3: I forgot how i won

5-0

Round 6: Verz

he won the die roll

Game 1: He didn't have Ophion so i whacked past his Thunderbird into.... GORZ! He had Ophion , and i could clear the first lance, but he had the 2nd verz lance = GG

Game 2: I won because Mermail with Warning against the Ophion = ggverz

Game 3: The only legit game out of the 3. Very close call. He had like a big backrow and i had Heavy Storm but my hand was 1 leed 2 dragoons . Conserved the dragoons and then summoned infantry into diva and made gachi . Won because bahamut shark and friends are good.

The reason he lost is because he wasn't Sam and his Ophion doesnt stay on the field forever =(

6-0

Round 7: Chain Beat

He won the die roll

Game 1: Extremely nervous to play this match because i had no idea what the deck does, although the guy asked me some card opinions before the tournament but i couldn't give much constructive advice because i've no idea what it does. I overextend into Mirror Force (didn't expect this) and lost.

Game 2: Opened Diva into Catastor, set MST + dust tornado. He plays D Fissure and sets 2, and then I blow both his s/t, salvage back the stuff and just makes a field which he can't comeback from.

Game 3: I won in the end through grinding. Somehow all my game 3 ends up in some grind

7-0

Round 8: Windups

I win the die roll

Game 1: Mermail > windup

Game 2: He overextended his stuff into Shock Ruler and i Mirror Force then follow up with Storm ^^

8-0

Since this was a round robin tournament, i went undefeated and placed first and got that fire fist mat.

Decklist is as follows:

Added 3rd Infantry in the morning because i wanted to try it out.

Abyssturge is inside after sazabi performed stunts with it during our training session (kudos to SG best mermail for helping me up my game). I would much rather have a turge than a 3rd spike which means i can overextend my diva in turn 1.

PS: i wanted to run breakthrough skill but no one had any to lend out.

Sidedeck explanations:

1 gozen match because nobody had prideful roar/ knew what it does so i just threw it in to make it 15.

Malevolent catastrophe is inside because i never draw my sided backrow hate so more hate! It was good except i won without it, or it got MST-ed so...

The rest is very standard.

Good night people.

A Short Message to Konami TCG

What are the odds of Konami's TCG team reading this? Probably lower than 20%, unless PJ suddenly decides to look at this measly blog; but heck i'll still give this a shot, i just have to because it is too important.

So here goes:

Dear Konami TCG team,

Prior to the release of LGTY TCG in May 2013, i would like to bring to your attention regarding the topic:

Releasing of Elemental Dragon Babies into the LGTY set, or any future sets, within a time span of 1 month thereof

The purpose of this short text is to urge you to release the E dragon babies into the TCG.

Allow me to give my reasons why:

1) If E dragons aren't released, the entire TCG format will be a 1-deck format. Prior to one deck formats (some can be skillful like TeleDAD and GB), this is one of those cases where it is not, and the first person to access spellbook judgment day properly wins. The game will come down to who gets their JD and who learns how to use their JD against their opponent properly. This means just conserving it and knowing the right time to activate, or if you get lucky and draw 2 JDs, you will win the mirror.

The second/third games will be the exact same thing, with the added option of who draws their D&L birds, and maybe cursed seal of forbidden spells.

2) E dragons are not unskillful. The current TCG hypes the LADD dragosack 1st turn combo, because all they have had heard are rumours, and believe me when i first heard of the combo i was baffled too, and maybe some have had some exposure to some games on DN. However, after more testing, the engine is very subpar. Referring to the OCG, everyone has cut the LADD engine because it is inconsistent/takes up many resources etc. Reference to LADD as a outright win condition turn 1 is also bull, because there are many ways to play around it, and 1 of them include dropping a simple Castor + any verz and destroying the engine.

3) If the babies aren't released not only will every TCG event, but even Worlds 2013 become a 1-deck event, which is play prophecy and win. Evilswarm and mermail both can hold their grounds if they can access EEV first turn, but the problem comes down to actually drawing it or praying your opponent opens bad.

4) Despite the fact that E Dragons overpower just about every other deck except Prophecy and itself, the mirror match is very skillful. I believe as long as TCG players pick up the fact that  LADD is crap soon enough, we will have a very skillful format which players will appreciate.

5) Despite receiving complains on the price tag on e dragons (3 SCR dragosack 3 SCR big eye and maybe more), i believe it is the same with receiving complaints about having to blow on 3 SCR judgment days/ Junons (high priestess). Besides haven't you been receiving complaints every format? No reprints of exp card- players complain. After reprint- players complain too.

6) If e dragons aren't released, and prophecy dominates, yes, the players will feel better, and less insecure about deck choices because they think oh its better than having 2 broke (almost tier 0s) in the game , rather than having 1 superior deck, so i can freely gamble on my mermail, fire fist, or verz. But it will make no difference so it is irrelevant because Prophecy will still take at least 75% of the top 8 spots in each TCG national event, (except if that country doesn't have a high number of players willing to invest in expensive decks, whilst the 25% goes to lucky players who managed to pilot their grade 2 tier 1 deck into the top 8)

7) No first turn Naturia beast/ six sam shien is not an option.

I believe it is in your good will to include the additions of the cards into the set, whether you have started production of the cards or not. Besides, the whole purpose of releasing the E Dragons into the OCG was to make up for the horrid card design of SJD right? (i hope) So, i dont see any reason why it won't be in TCG too.

Please, for the love of Christ, do not screw up my first TCG nationals experience with an 8 round swiss of prophecy.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
a very hopeful and troubled player

PS:  ERR  NO  I  AM  NOT  TROLLING  I  AM  BEING  DEAD  SERIOUS 

Deck list post + Extra stuff

So i'll write the post now while everything is still kinda fresh off my head.

The list is VERY standard in my opinion, but i bumped up the trap count to include fiendish chain. It was a good card today, but i am only half sold on it, because it makes my opponent's MSTs live. In a way, it could switch the target away from Abyssphere but the deck doesn't have any form of protection. Almost everytime i had this, i wished it was torrential tribute, simply because there were many times when people just flooded their field, especially with wind-up (should have side some gozen or something)

The side list was pretty solid/standard except for Enemy Controller. I saw Jeff Jones using E-con in his deck and so i thought, heck i'll just tech 1 in the side and see how it comes along. It was pretty bad, because i always wished it was another Soul Taker or some other more solid form of removal.

Surprisingly i did not face a single fire fist yesterday which i prepared and sided heavily for the matchup.

Now to talk about the tournament:

From what i said yesterday, the tournament format was an 8-round swiss with no top cut. (This wasn't a bad format from a neutral POV but i just personally do not like it. I will talk about why later)

The bad part was squeezing 130 people inside a store with a playing size area of approximately 3 by 5 metres playing space, and having no aircon. So you can imagine the sweat smell and the heat.

However, the event was quite a smooth one because the 3-man judge team was very good, and also fair, there weren't any biased rulings and they knew their stuff, so kudos to them. They also ran the rounds very smoothly, and things were very organized despite the bad atmosphere.

Coming out from Malaysia where we play 5 rounds of swiss to make the top cut of top 32, and then playing another 5 rounds if you can make it to the final, most of us have never played that long, so it was a challenge of stamina for me.

Most good players have qualified for the seedings everytime they have the chance so that means they will be playing only 5 rounds to go to the finals.

Seedings give alot of advantage and leverage to good players for a number of reasons :

1) You don't feel tired. You can sleep in, reach late or go early and talk with your friends and observe what the other players are playing. This gives you so much advantage while nobody knows your deck.

2) You can actually eat or drink and not feel degenerated after playing a 5 round swiss. Using your brain to consider every option/possibility/situation can be very tiring. I remember how i went into time in the round 6match vs chaos dragons, and was the last match to finish, and right after that i had to play windups, so it wasn't easy.

3) You do not have to prepare for degenerate decks because they will be eliminated outside of the 5 round swiss. There will be less anti meta to prepare for too, and you will not meet random tier 2 decks (because everyone knows meta > anti meta).This gives your deck alot of leverage.

4) This is probably the most important point: In a long round tourney, the probability of your deck's inconsistencies start to show, because if you have taken advanced math before, the accuracy of a study increases with more scenarios considered. Thus, if you base your deck's consistency off a 5 round tourney, you may open bad maybe once or twice only (if your using a tier 1 deck). Yesterday in the 8 rounds, there were times i opened many unplayable hands (2 sphere 2 linde my life is good) or hands which just simply could not deal with what they had (its yugioh). Consequently, if you are playing the deck long run, the probability of you getting sacked or you sacking also increases. From yesterday's report i opened the nuts in at least 3 games, while my opponents opened the nuts in at least 4 games, which is quite accurate ^

So, to players who think TCG is not as hard as OCG, i've just explained how TCG can be harder in some ways. In SEA countries, the seeded tourney system is a huge advantage. i've no idea about Japan, but in TCG, no such thing exists, and i think the closest thing to a seeded tourney was YCS san diego, where the better players made day 2. Sure it is true that more OCG players know what they're doing compared to TCG ones (only like 1/10th of the players there were decent/good) while the rest were just strange.

I am not sure what decks made the top 8 yesterday, but i know:

1 Electrum deck
3 Mermail
1 Windup

Congrats to Bohdan, Jimmy, and Troy for topping, and to Sean for losing on the bubble at 9th place with sams. Ah well.

So, time to stop Yugioh for a few weeks, until the next regional.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, this is a random part of the post i wanted to share since Baha already asked you guys to follow him on twitter where he posts comboes. I know some of you guys do not have twitter so i'll just share this here:

A few weeks ago, the deck i was talking about which can abuse Transturn is none other than Infernity!

3 Barrier TCG:

To do this you need to open with a hand of Zero Max, Grepher, and either Demon/ Necromancer

1) Grepher discard Demon/ Necro and sends Demon/Necro to grave
2) Zero Max summons Necro1, and Necro1 summon Demon1 which searches Necro 2
3) Grepher demon xyz lavalchain 1--> detach demon mill hellway patrol
4) Patrol ef ss necro 2--> summon demon 1
5) Demon 1 get infernity gun
6) 2 necro xyz levial--> levial summons patrol
7) demon and patrol xyz diawolf--> tributes itself to destroy levial
8) gun ss 2 necro --> Necro 1 summon Demon 1--> Demon 1 searches Demon 2
9) Patrol summon Demon B--> searches barrier 1
10) 2 Demon xyz Laval Chain 2--> Mill Trick Demon--> Searches Demon Palace to hand
11) Necro B ss Demon 1 --> Demon 1 searches barrier 2
12) Activate Palace banish Necro get Demon 3--> searches barrier 3

End product: 2 Laval Chain + 2 Demon + 1 Necromancer + Palace + 3 Barrier

Have fun guys ^

At the same time i want to point out that although the new spellbook boss has an uber broken effect, it is not that good because it is hard to special summon out. The only way is to play temperance, but are you really willing to add temperance and torunt to your spellbooks just for a chance to play that?

Level 9 is an awkward level too, and spellbooks sometimes get weird random hands despite getting 6 searchers because the deck has synergy only after spellbook of secrets hit the grave. Apart from that, without batel or secrets, your hands get really awkward.

Unless a new build for spellbooks comes out, the current OCG one will not run torunt. period.

Sydney Burwood Regionals report

Won't go into depth here so i'm gonna write a short one and follow it up with an article on how it felt to transition between TCG-OCG (feels weird), and follow it up with the decklist used.

The regs was really last minute i decided to go just 2-3 days before, and i playtested the mirror with Bixuan for like an hour the night before.

I basically tested genex mermail for weeks, but after a few scrubs to mono (too fast) , i decided to just play mono because it was so good.

So i took the build bixuan gave me and switched a few cards in there.

The format was an 8 round swiss with no top cut. Top 16 (i think) get their invites to Oceanics. So basically who placed top 8 in the swiss gets a playmat. This is such a retarded format (still better than single eliminnation) there should be a top 8, and we should not be forced to play 8 rounds just to know our standings =.=

There were 130 players (wow like malaysian nationals), and apparently it was the biggest regionals Australia has ever had?

Shoutout to Sean, Chris, Jimmy and everyone else who lent me their stuff and different bits and pieces of the deck to play. I dont have a single card/deck here.

Round 1: VS ?

I didn't know what he was playing, it looked something like monarchs so i just 2-0ed.

1-0

Round 2: VS 6 Sams

Game 1: He opened Shien, dropped 2 kizans, and commited his whole hand and i forgot how i killed him but something to do with capitalization.

Game 2: He opened D Fissure i chain max C, he summons Shien sets 4 backrow and attacks into my Tragoedia next turn. I drew 2 MSTs and set them. He flips up another D fissure, and when i used Tragoedia to attack, he flips fiendish chain, i respond with 2 MST to destroy it, and just win from there.

2-0

Round 3: Agents

Game 1: I can't remember what happened.

Game 2: I remember him making a full field and attacking into my Mirror Force.

3-0

Round 4: Karakuri

Game 1: He opened good, i drew the nuts, which was dark hole, salvage, reborn, diva, megalo and something. Cleared field, summon diva make catastor he warnings, and i hit him down to 400. He had a response but i forgot what else i did to win.

Game 2: Opened Naturia beast, d fissure, 2 backrow- scoop

Game 3: I vaguely remembered what happened but i remember doing some genius play where i dust tornado his f/d (i was hoping it was mst) and he chains it to my sphere allowing me to bring out pike, discards marksman, adds gunde. I proceed to reborn his karakuri tuner and make gungnir, discard megalo and gunde, to destroy his full field and make big eye, and capitalize, and sets 1 (bluffs a squall) He topdecks dark Hole next turn and makes Burei/bureeido (not sure?) because he said he doesnt know how to play around squall. but i fiendish chain it. He drops d fissure, i topdeck the diva and he rage quit.

4-0

Headache enters as the place was hot, stuffy, and they tried to fit 130 people into a store.

Round 5: Genex Mermail

Game 1: He open the nuts and then Moulins me i just die.

Game 2: He flips linde/marksman (not sure) and then summons genex controller and summons Ally Genex triace (wtf is this) to destroy my fd debunk.He summons megalo, hits for damage, and i try to com back, but he had better hands.


4-1

Round 6: Chaos Dragon

Game 1: He knew his stuff and he tries to kill me but i drop gorz, and i commit my hand to destroy his entire field (he overextended everything) but he topdecked the BLS yes! But i topdeck Avarice next yes!

Game 2: This game went into time, i forgot what happened but i know i won by a large margin.

5-1

Round 7: Windup

Game 1: Opened 2 sphere 2 linde. He had full backrow, with factory, rabbit bla bla.

Game 2: I swear he tried to slowplay me and went into time. He overextends his field, and i try to destroy it by doing infantry into diva plays. Summons infantry #1, he fiendish chain, summons infantry #2 via reborn and make black rose but he flips fiendish chain #2! He overextended the rest, i dark hole, but at the end of thee 5 rounds his life was higher so he won.

5-2

Round 8: Mirror match

Game 1: He opened the nuts and destroyed me in 1 turn.

Game 2: I remember him using linde effect and then brings out pike to discard gunde and summon linde and then dark holes himself (i had leed) lol. I think he overextends his field
then i dark hole and killed.

Game 3: I forgot how i won.

6-2 scrubbed ! Anyway a loss is a loss.

Placed 11 out of 130 players but at least i got my Oceanics invite.

Might play the other regionals (in a few weeks but dont know when) if i feel like waking up early.

More in depth post coming soon im pooped now.

Welcome to the New Meta!

Its been a while since i posted but i've been SOOO busy with piling assignments, and cramming for uni and truthfully the meta has been quite boring until now. Im in this weird transition stage between OCG and TCG and all i can say is the TCG is really different, many cards which they run, certain playstyles which we do not understand which we question can all be answered. I may do a comparison post next time but i highly doubt it because there'll probably be more relevant stuff to talk about by then....

Anyway, today i sparked my interest back in the OCG side of the game ! It occured to me that the upcoming format is a combo and speed format. So invest in those GSCR Veilers and Maxx C people!

What i love about combo formats is how skillful they can be. I honestly don't think backrow/control/grinding formats are that skillful anymore as they can get really boring and all they do is set cards and try to grind around it (what im experiencing in the TCG). All you have to do is not misplay and after a while all this reading of cards gets really boring because they occur are so damn obvious and you get bored of making the correct reads. Sometimes you can make the correct reads but you can't do anything about it :(

So, in my last article, i talked about how good incarnates were bla bla and what konami would do if they became broke. My guess was konami would transition into a different format like what they did with wind-ups. My guess was not entirely wrong neither was it right but the upcoming meta would be a combo meta in my opinion, especially post judgment of the light.

When you think about Incarnates, the first thing you think is dragosack LADD turn 1. Well, this post is gonna discuss about current card trends, and a short discussion of cards to look out for in JOTL.

After some playtesting last time, i noticed how easy the LADD combo was played around against. The other topdecks : Evilswarm and Prophecy can both topple it if they draw the right cards, which leads us to think, is the LADD approach really the right play? In fact, i've so much doubts that i almost considered cutting LADD, and if it had not been an outright winning condition versus certain decks, i would have cut the ladd-eclipse engine for something more consistent and explosive.

The problem with LADD is that if you do not draw rejuvenation, then you would have wasted plenty of resources on a play which is only 50-50 solid vs the other meta decks. For example Verz can open Mandragora + random monster and just destroy your whole setup. Prophecy could reveal Junon as many times for her effect and destroy Ladd in the process.

Consequently, in the mirror match, breakthrough skill has been seeing alot of play in japanese builds. You can easily Breakthrough your opponent's LADD effect by chaining to it when you activate a dragon effect. Now normally, i would say that japan and SEA has different playstyles and different card choices (eg : Our windups didnt play CarCarD and tenki like theirs did), but this time, the current build of dragons is very very relevant.

Which brings us to the next topic ; Breakthrough Skill. Breakthrough skill is so versatile against every matchup. If i were you, i would invest in as many copies of this card as i can because you can.

1) destroy ladd and let you control it. If you were familiar with why Chalice was sided in most of the dragon decks in the ACQ, Skill does the very same thing.

2) gets over Jowgen the spiritualist effect.

3) gets over Evilswarm Ophion's effect (they can still chain lance though). But if you Skill their Ophion effect, there is a chance that they do not have lance unless they were lucky enough to open with it.

4) gets over the annoying Abyssgaios

5) Lets you finally destroy that damn dragosack in the mirror without having to resort to Big eye! Big eye is very risky if your opponent has Veiler, so why not use skill and suicide your dragosack into theirs!

The fact that most decks boss monsters in this format have continuous effect that restricts yours makes breakthrough skill even better, especially when it acts as a double effect veiler. So good!

Another reason why i am very hyped out about this format is how skillful the dragon mirror can be especially where timing and card choices matter the most. In the past few days i have noticed many different builds and different side/main cards which are very notable.

This format almost reminds me of Tele DAD because there is one dominating deck and your tech choices usually decided how far you would go. If im not mistaken one genius in the TCG decided to main royal oppression in their decks which was such a good tech (either Jae Kim or Jeff Jones i forgot)

Some notable cards i have seen are:

1) Vanity's Emptiness
2) Compulsory Evacuation Device
3) Breakthrough Skill
4) Metaion the Timelord (yes i just recently had time to read shriek here lol)

For example, most players would immediately remove their heavy storm and never consider siding in mst. That is a key point to be exploited as you can side in stuff like emptiness and compulsory which your opponent would definitely have no answer to !

There are so many playstyles and tech cards you can use so the mirror is always so skillful ! (unless you open shit). Like most of the time, the LADD turn 1 combo doesnt even exist anymore because who wants to make LADD which is not a solid play which can cause inconstencies with Wyvern, and can be played around with skill/chalice and everyone just sides it out. Take LADD turn 1 out of the equation, and suddenly the dragon mirror doesnt sound so bad anymore. Another notable card i would like to mention is Lava Golem which was used by Zack against Andrew in the Top 8 of Malaysia ACQ.

I have also seen Diva + infantry splashed into Incarnate dragons so that they have a good verz matchup. Seriously, with so much innovation, how can the game not be fun!

So, thats the current format in a nutshell. Now i will talk a little bit about the upcoming format post JOTL and the new Extra Pack.

Most players look at JOTL and think of firefist which gives them a chance to make blader to go past dragons. If that was all to JOTL i think konami would go bankcrupt.

In my opinion these are the 2 best cards in the set:

1) Demon palace- labyrinth of demon
The new field spell for the archetype is SO good as it helps provides the deck so much synergy. It could also be used in other fiend archetype decks.

2) Transturn.
If you haven't seen transturn you should read up on its effect. This is arguably the best card in the entire set lol because it can search any card from your deck by sending 1 monster of 1 lower level to the graveyard. EG: transturn diva into marks man.

Now some of you may not see how game breaking this card is, but it can be fairly gamebreaking for combo decks. Thank God you can only use the effect once per turn. I will not go into detail about this card or the decks it can be used in (as it is not my idea, i just literally stumbled upon it while randomly using my phone) but i expect these 2 cards to be particularly gamebreaking in the upcoming meta ;)

I am really sceptical with Konami for making crazy powerful spell cards. Last format we had extremely broke monster cards like rescue rabbit, inzektor dragonfly hornet etc and now we are getting what- Tenki, Judgment day of Spellbook, Hysteric Sign (i still reaffirm my stance that this is broke just that only 2 cards out of the whole archetype is good), and now Transturn? What Konami what.

Regarding the new extra pack, i dont think any card inside would be gamebreaking apart from abysteus. Teus will release mono mermails into the meta, but truthfully, i dont think it will be that good.... It probably cant keep up with dragons speed. Mermails would have been an incredible deck with Fishborg archer etc if dragons had not come into the format. Konami might release some other stuff but who knows! Maybe the new Blue eyes may have an impact in the meta, but i honestly dont see the deck being big because all the latest boss monsters have been quite shiddy, and
maybe the new support cards may just enhance dragons.

Anyway thats all for today have a nice day people and may you top locals tomorrow.