Mastering the dragon mirror : Back to the Basics

So, im back with ANOTHER ARTICLE, because i simply feel like it.

This article is written to help some of you guys out there realize that the dragon mirror is actually more skill based than you think !

It took me 1 game vs Christopher mattiske in the very last round of nationals swiss (oceanic champion) to realize that i was doing it wrong. In game 1, i had a reju for 5, and a maxx Cand 2 Veilers (in which 1 of them i used to make Ancient Sacred Wyvern), while he had only 1 veiler and 1 Maxx C throughout the whole game. Looks like i would have won right? Fraid not, he baited out my stuff, and killed me with Crimson blader in the last moment. My misplay was that i should have let his Big eye steal my mnster, and saved the Veiler for another play incase he had Reborn or a tuner in hand. I disregarded the probability out of greediness so that i will just outright trash him with like 1000 to 1 card advantage and it cost me the game after he bladers me and destroys my other momster with his big eye (which i veilered).

That led me to alot of thinking the night after. What was i doing wrong? In all of my playtestings, i had found out whosoever had more reju, veiler, maxx c would win. Usually that was the case.

Fastforward to last night where 1 of my teammates asked me to playtest, and i decided to test some theories.

Game 1: I bait him into a collosal fighter loop and otk him

Game 2: I open dragons and spells/traps without any hand traps and lose after he rejus for a fuckload.

Game 3: I resolved reju for 2, and set 1 backrow, keeping my hand of 2 veiler, 2 chalice, 1 compuls. he card destructions me and rejus for 14 putting him in a very strong position. He sets 3 backrow and passes, I heavy storm him and right after the game became more balanced in my favour. I did my stuff, he maxx C and i reju-ed for another 2 before passing. My hand consisted of 2 scarecrow, while i was down 2 veilers, and he had 3 in his hand. Usually you would scoop right? But i decided to play it out. In the last turn i was at800 to his 6800 lp, and i had used 1 scarecrow already while he had wasted all his dragosacks, and big eyes, while most of his dragons/resources were burned in the process of trying to otk. I used my last big eye on his gaia (to atk his token), tributed stuff to summon another dragon and revived a blaster to win.

What went wrong?

It realized to me that that was a repeat of my game with mattiske. Sure the fact that i had scarecrow helped alot, but this meant 1 thing: The dragon mirror is not unwinnable if your opponent has a fuckload of advantage!

So, what went wrong over the whole time?

It dawned upon me that after so much testing, we have come to forget the very basics of the dragon mirror. The grinding, usage of resources, making your opponent waste resources, and the way you manipulate dragosacks and big eyes. The mirror takes alot of patience.

Whilst testing all this while, I can safely say that until the past weekend, i have forgotten the very basics of the dragon mirror. My team and I have tested out various power cards such as enemy controller, victoria, trifortressops etc etc even before Japan has started using them. I have relied too much on the power cards for winning and built my deck to utilize drawing those power cards (double sword) instead of actually focusing on the dragons abilities themselves.

So, what should YOU do ?

1) Test the real dragon mirror.  Yes you heard me. test it without your power cards like Super rejuvenation. You can test without Maxx Cs and Veilers first too and then slowly add back Veiler then Maxx C into your different stages of testing.

Testing without reju and hand traps teach you the 1st basic rule: Managing the very resources themselves. the dragons are basically built in Monster reborns and reinforcement of the armys built into each card.

Next, factor in Effect veiler: This will teach you and refamiliarize you with the art of baiting the card effects, managing your Big eye and dragosack resources. I will talk about Big eye later in the article, because big eye is SO important.

Lastly, when you factor in maxx C you relearn the art of pushing and conserving. Should you  continue going despite being under maxx C? Should you continue going and let him draw the extra card so that he cannot otk you next turn? or should you go more so that it will cost him to waste dragons and grave/hand resources while you slowly build up tempo.

2) PLAY THE 3RD BIG EYE
Yes you heard me ! The true art of using dragon mirror is not just using your dragons properly and putting dragosack out on the board, its also learning how to use your Big eyes. Big eye has been seen as a liability to many players in the sense that they only use it when they have protection or are very sure that the opponent doesnt have a Veiler. It is not wrong exactly, but it is not exactky right either. Sometimes making Big eye after a turn battle phase to steal your opponent's remaining stuff is better than dracosack because if your opponent takes your dragosack, your fucked. The art of the mirror should be learning to balance both usage of big eyes and dragosacks. Veilering your Big eye is good too because if they veilered it on summon , Big eye can be used to attack something, and you can just leave it on the field. If your opponent takes your Big eye, it isnt so painful since you can just either :

a) take it back
b) be thankful that at least it doesnt spawn dragosack tokens

There are so many rounds during the tournament where i am so thankful that I am playing the 3rd Big eye.

The general rule should be:

If you are not playing the Monster reborn, you must play the 3rd big eye, because you will be making xyz more than you think compared to synchros.

3) SHOULD YOU FEAR PROPHECY?

Lets face it. Books are not a meta deck. They are Konami's latest design of anti meta on crack. Imagine an anti meta deck which has a boss card to let it search a +6. Books are basically:

1) Batel- Airman
2) Secrets- Specially designed Rota to search spells
3) Wisdom-Forbidden lance
4) Fate- Raigeki break-gemini spark-esque card/ book of moon
5) power- some random gay ass card
6) tower- a pseudo magician of faith card which lets you recycle your traps every turn.
7) starhall- burden of mighty/solidarity sort of card
8) master- a 5th to 6th copy of any other card you want in the deck thus increasing its consistency
9) crescent- pot of duality

and..... a Judgment day to help it search every single other card mentioned in the deck.

Does this deck start to look like hero Beat to you yet?

So, in a way yes. But yet, the deck dies like how every other anti meta deck loses. To various cards like EEV, decree, skill drain.

Kycoo, Puppet plant and Horus have been testing very well for me vs books. People are aware of droll, and eev, could a surprise factor now take the tournament?

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Anyway , thats all for today, tmr i will be reviewing a list of what i would have played in my tournament if i could go back and play it all over again. Thank you for reading, and i hope it helps you guys out there, in midst of your WCQ.