Playing the dragon mirror : TCG + current decklist ~

So, while lurking on dgz, i managed to see an article posted by claudio about the dragon mirror in the dgz thread. One of the comments by a fellow dgz-er went something like:

- too vague. only show fundamentals of using redox /blaster for offence/defence etc
- unclear direction and message as to whether mst was good or not and how ravine should be played. also didn't give implications if ravine was mst-ed and opponents ravine continues flowing etc.

He also mentioned that Claudio should have analysed the winner of YCSlondon's lists and gave pointers on which sidedeck method is optimal.

And there was the inspiration for my article !

I have not had time to update the blog lately because of finals but i have some spare time now to talk about yugioh.

The dragon mirror as of late has gone towards the direction of added traps and trap stuns. Trap stun is an insanely good card because you can negate important traps which hinder your set up or blow out cards like return/6sense.

So, there are a couple of directions that you could take with dragon mirror game 2/3s sidedecking plans.

1) Vanity fiend+ electric virus
2) elctric virus + debunk etc
3) debunks + mst /stun

Debunks + mst /stun is probably the best way to go because it is the most consistent method. Vanitys fiend is unreliable and i have never liked cards which take too much to set up and is going to lose to traps lke rageki break or mirror force or torrential etc.

electric virus is slightly more consistent and better but it depends alot on your opponent's methods meaning you need to act in accordance to his actions which in my opinion is very unflexible. Sometimes E virus can become dead in hand. In the dragon deck, you want to use your cards asap and have flexibility, this is not goat control where you can wait for a card to be good.

One thing i noticed from the dragon mirror in the YCS london builds in the mirror matches is that those decks tend to set alot of backrow in the first few turns and rely on grinding out those backrows. It seems entirely true that they have been seeing too many traps and not enough of their combo pieces. The best way to overpower your opponent in the dragon mirror is to have a good ratio of traps/ and fuel for your dragons.

If one draws too many traps and backrow cards and doesnt get the engine going while his opponent puts pressure, then one is going to be far behind.

One thing i have decided to try is Card carD. The idea behind it is to maximise the playability of your opening hands, meaning you either open a swords, cardcarD or a ravine into ancient fairy combo which immediately puts you far ahead of your opponent. In the YCS london feature matches i saw the players pass frequently during early games because they didnt have enough plays. CardcarD is good because it puts you ahead of your opponent. Using it in turn 2/3 if your opponent doesnt get going with a few backrow is so godly. Opening sword + card car = jizz.

Cards of consonance was undoubtedly one of the best cards in the deck, to help dig the combo pieces.I replaced consonance with cardcarD so that i didnt have to run 5 tuners and i could get away with 1 of each level 1 and 2 debris. Cardcar also let u just win turn 1, and in late game it becomes a dragon fodder for redox reborn effect which is very valuable. There is the argument that it could be dead, but so can consonance. I would rather have a dead monster than a dead consonance which does the same thing. Pitching debris for consonance is so dumb you only have 2 to use, asusming 1 for the ancient fairy combo and 1 for star eater / reborn plays.

12 druler
3 maxx c
1 scarecrow
1 corsisca
1 guard
1 kodomo dragon
2 debris dragon
2 card car D

3 ravine
3 sword
1 mst
1 terraforming

2 trap stun
1 6 sense
1 rftdd
1 torrent
1 compuls
1 warning
2 break

1 afd
1 zera
1 brd
1 armory arm
1 orient dragon
1 colossal
1 tra
1 scrap
1 star eater
1 stardust
1 blader
2 dracosack
1 big eye
1 gaia

1 dd crow
2 snipe hunter
1 dark hole
2 mst
2 xyz encore
2 debunk
2 skill drain
1 transmigration
1 eev
1 divine wrath

the deck is very standard.

card choices explanation:

1) no mythics. i did not think mythics fit with this build. mythiccs cannot be used together with consonance and stuff because it can cause cloggy hands. however mythics worked best with dragon shrine. i am currently working on a tcg build with shrine and mythics so stay tuned. i tested 1 earth mythic and it was extremely underwhelming

2) kodomo drragon- better trigon. kodomo looks shitty tho :(

3) no shrine- this build is not meant to work with mythics so i wont run shrine.

4) high trap count- traps win u the mirror. pronto. even warning is pretty good although 2k lp seems like alot, but u immediately win if u resolve it and it prevents u from losing 2k and field presence and control. i didnt run 3 pwwb/break because i still feel having 3 is too much because ravine and swords require cost to fuel too.

5) orient dragon- good card to banish ancient fairy dragon. afd is huge in the mirror. and having zera and orient is suffieicnt to kill it.

The rest is very standard and snipe hunter is very good cz u can use it to pressure your opponent especially in matchiups like spellboooks and anti meta deck. it is also very good vs stardust iron wall lock set up by dragunity when they go 1st. I didnt run metaion or refpanel because they are too expensive and kinda underwhelming especially refpanel. It is very good card but i feel debunk is better vs the mirror, and vs dragunity u should be more worried about their stardust iron wall lock rather than focusing on their draw spells. However, refpanel is very real threat although it is greatly dismissed by dgz players.

What i side vs various decks:

dragon mirror: 2 debunk,1 crow (when going 1st), 1 transmigration (when going 2nd) , 2 mst, 1 hole

spellbooks: 2 snipe hunter 1 dd crow 2 skill drain 2 mst 1 dark hole 1 wrath

dragunity ruler: 2 snipe hunter, 1 wrath, 1 crow 1 transmigration

verz- 2 snipe (going 2nd), 2 skill drain (going 1st side 2, going 2nd side 1), 2 mst, 1 wrath , 2 encore

constella- 2 snipe 2 skilldrain, 1 dark hole, 2 mst, 1 wrath, 1 eev (if i go 1st)

nothing else is very relevant so....

If you are wondering why i side so few cards vs mirror match it is because in the mirror match you must maintain full consistency and just remove unneccessary cards. i wont say what i side out because im too lazy but it is not hard. Just remember what Hoban said: you shouldnt be siding out your combo cards therefore i wont really side stuff lke terraforming or cardcarD so i replace stuff like break compuls which are meant to be replacements for my sided cards.

In the words of my now dead from ygo friend wesley , less is more, more is less.

Thats all for today.