Thursday, July 25, 2013

leaked september list #1

banned: 0

limited:

sarc
EEV
mind master
jowgen
reju

semi limited:

atlantan dragoons
pollux
effect veler
castor
tenki
dragosack
big eye
abyslinde
rota
batel
secrets

back to 3:

a hero arrives
hieratic rota
duality
torrential tribute
tsukuyomi

Now at first sight this list is retarded.

Why is this list retarded?

1) prophecy isnt touched much. it will still be pretty strong. granted i know reducing it by 2 searchers instantly cuts off its consistency even more, but in this list, if this were to happen, dragins would be not really be a deck so you wont really need to play so many kycoos, and i guess konami is trying to encourage the usage of blue eyes and the girl.

2) jowgen to 1 is stupid

3) EEV to 1 wut

4) torrential tribute to 3?????!!! Bujin killerrrr

5) mind master released??!!

However  if you think about it, this list actually seems really legit because it is something that konami would do.

I am in no way saying this list is real, but 1 possible direction konami could take with the banlist is to make it look like something like this.

Dragons just die alot because sarc and reju are cut off. There will definitely be ways to innovate this deck and such. But if it is to continue the current build and direction, it will just die. There will be blowout techs like trooper 3 sword bla bla, and probably some kinky synchro engine incorporated.

I like how pollux and castor are hit. I have always said castor is the problem card in verz because it brings out the 1st turn ophion combo but then again konami released rota to 2 so errr....same access??

Another reason why rota is released to 2 could be to promote the usage of noble knights. NK are a nice archetype mainly because i love their art. Granted most of their support cards are foil or of a high rarity although not worth much now, konami has announced release of 5 new TCG exclusives in the shadow spectres so i will not be surprised if they become meta. Drystand is already a step in the right direction.They seem to be the next prophecy, high rarity cards which seem shit at first but get better and better with more support and suddenly a whole blowout card (jday , but in the case for NK, card(S) not 1 terrible brokefuck)

And finally, what i LOVE about this list:

Dragoons to 2 and linde to 2 literally does shit to mermails, i am already playing with 2 linde, and dropping dragoons to 2 will just let me cut the  list down to 40 :DDD

And to people saying angel of zera will be useful in the dragon mirror, yeah, no it wont, kthxbye

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Banlist speculation time

Its been ages since i've touched yugioh, and the closest thing i did to yugioh was play goat control matches intensively (which i learnt alot in a short period of time), but that fad of playing old format diminished as i moved to perth to settle down in a new environment !

TBH, the format itself is aids as anybody would know.

I did get some games in last week heading down to a locals just to meet some players (thanks kosc and co). I played a few dragon ruler matches with kosc (aus nats top 4) and went about equal as i solidified my hypothesis that reju won games. each of our games went the same way. Whosoever went reju won, and the other player did not see a reju. Granted there were times consevring hand traps won you games, but reju put in 95% of the work.

i also played some goat control matches which were very good as they were very different from new yugioh but players who opened 2/3 of the trinity (usually pot and had the faith tsukuyomi recycle loop usually won by a longshot) . Games were not really won by delinquent duo because we conserved it until we knew our opponents had dropped serpent, or when you were in a really simplified game state whereby duo-ing even 1 card (+ serpent) would make a big difference to the game. Charity played a very big part too but most people conserved it unless you had a MOF and a snake (but doing so will risk duo but whatever if you have established a good enough field control)

I found that thousand eyes is a bitch but it wasnt impossible to get rid off. Most of the time, 1000 eyes only lasted 1-2 turns unlike cards like jowgen, kycoo, ophion in which relentlessly stopped you from playing yugioh, and as 1 of my friends once said, no matter how much skill level you have, if you cant get rid of jowgen/kycoo, it doesnt fucking matter.

And that is what the game has become now. The skill level comes from constructing your deck , and choosing the appropriate cards, and pray you draw them as an out. I pray i draw my tsukuyomi/ last day of witch/ eclipse book vs spellbooks, and i pray i sack them with reju. This is why spellbook in the OCG are relatively better than TCG spellbooks because they are more consistent, with the release of blue eye girl while TCG spellbooks give you some blowout hands which are identical to meta beat hands and you just lose coz dragons > metabeat anyway.

With that said, dragons and spellbooks have to go. Here is the banlist i came up with:

Banned:

Burner dragon ruler of sparks
Lightning dragon ruler of currents
Stream dragon ruler of droplets
Reactan dragon ruler of pebbles
Spellbook judgment day

Limited:

Super rejuvenation

Now you may ask what is the significance of the banlist that i have created.

The reason i banned every single baby was because dragons was not a problem until the babies came along. Think about it, if there were no babies, would dragons even exist? Dragons would do what they do best: helping the elements decks respectively such as dragunity mermail firefist machina karakuri etc.

I once thought that dragons were created to help the elements but looking at tempests card design showed that that wasnt the case and konami intended for dragins to be dragons. Tempest is specific for searching other dragons (partially because if it searched anything else, tempest would be broke).

Spellbook judgment day was banned contrary to what people say about batel / secrets being banned. The thing is spellbook was not really much of a deck (still decent) until jday came along. Jday and reju ruined the game because they allowed players to be rewarded for spamming cards and not conserving them. Sure there are certain precautions and orders of playing them but then is that really that hard to learn?

Limited super reju isnt needed in this banlist if the babies are banned because dragons die out, but then i limited it just because it is a degenerate card which is dumb and we dont need so many in this game.

Anyhow banning the 4 babies would be applicable and the best solution but is that really gonna happen? Hmmm..

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Banned:

Super rejuvenation
Spellbook judgment day

Limited:
Mecha Phantom beast dragosack
Glow up bulb

The alternative method people take is to ban super rejuvenation and judgment day, and keep dragons alive.

The flaw here is that dragons are kept alive. The sheer power creep is really overwhelming but the argument exists that the deck will run out of fuel after making a dragosack play and you can easily lock them with iron wall or other cards which dont allow you to play yugioh, thus sort of killing the deck.

The flaw here to that is that to do this, you would have to draw the out, and dragons can still adapt with different techs like psy blocker mst bla bla bla. Granted that i have never liked cards like iron wall, oppression soul drain etc because they stop you from doing anything and you jst die if you dont draw a storm/mst. So, if i were konami i would not propel the game in that direction.

Another flaw is that by doing this, players still have to deal with dragosack. Lets face it, people have made dragosack and rogue decks waste 2 cards+ to deal with it only to meet another 1 or a big eye. The dragon mirror now only exists because of dragosack. If you take dragosack out of the equation what does that leave you? Just dragon-ing around and veiler and maxx c. You cant make master of blades because people just attack with random blaster and you die. So will the mirror come down to master of blades and whoever has the econ? Maybe.

What people are thinking of doing now is to limit dragons power. I have never been a fan of banlists outright destroying a deck (plants :C ) and have always believed the right thing to do is to limit a deck's power and nerf it. However this is not the case for dragons. Dragons need to go because they are entirely different from other archetypes.

By nerfing them and limiting dragosack, people still need to deal with the monstrosity and master of blades, and are forced to maindeck shitty cards like iron wall just to stay in the game. Sure thats do-able but do you really want to play a game which forces you to run iron wall? fk of. mermail ironwall. firefist ironwall. After that all tourney reports become:  "fk i nvr see my iron wall so i lost" or "fk never see mst so i died"

Also why did i not limit jday instead of choosing to ban it? because it can still be recycled with eternity and people will just start to run 2 eter 3 fate and revert back to the old build.

Why did i not decide to limit batel/secrets and ban jday instead? idk maybe because jday was the problem all along lol and keeping it at 3 with 1 batel 1 secrets just makes spellbooks retarded to the max.

What do i think konami will do?

Probably follow the 2nd alternative :(

I am seeing konami bring out support for noble knights and vampire and random shit so i have a little faith konami will put dragon/spellbook to an end.

What i am hoping for next format:

1) Glow up bulb to come back and be fun, However i dont think synchro plants will be able to deal with the power creep. Who knows.

Also for those wondering why i didnt limit atlantean dragoons, its because i am a bias bitch and i wanna play mermail next format the end

Also to those wondering if i will play MTG (really want to !), i will if i meet someone nice enough to lend me cards for the game. Have no $$$$ to spend on card games. I am still in the game because i have networking powa and people are saints to lend me cards/decks.





Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The importance of goat control

After a really exhilarating format of dragons and spellbooks where card advantage was not as important as deck consistency, who knows what lies for us in the next format !

Hopefully and i am quite sure Konami will do something about spellbooks and dragons.

And like most trends, setember format is a diverse format, whereby march format is a 1-2 deck battleground.

So, what better way to relearn the concept of yugioh and improve your knowledge by playing goat control, the best format in yugioh!

There are so many concepts to learn or relearn or replay :D

HLG and some other friends are playing the 2005 format seriously and properly now and we have just started 2 days ago (me and Shah 2 days ago), while Wesley, Andrew and LGQ started today.

AND i can safely say.... WE'RE ADDICTED

Its heaps fun and good stuff !

Theres not only goats, theres also:

1) burn
2) soul control
3) empty jar
4) warrior toolbox
5) beastdown
6) Indy chaos (fancy name for goats)

and much more!!

Its gonna be beneficial for next format

So, why not join the fun :D

And play some REAL YUGIOH



Saturday, July 6, 2013

Defender the magical warrior

Just as how dragins are adapting old cards, spellbooks in the tcg are adapting too !

Many of you probably do not know this, because you would have to be on duelistgrounds to know this, or played with someone on dgz on Dnet.

The idea of defender is to be used in conjunction with kycoo and jowgen. Players everywhere are adapting to cards such as last day of witch due to its heavy success in Asia. Defender is a second layer of protection just in case you do not have wisdom (you dont always search this out mostly you take fate).

Defender's effect is a once per turn layer of defence but then the good thing about him is that he serves as a beatstick especially with the TCG's build of 3 starhalls.

The TCG builds basically utilize 3 Batel, 3 kycoo, 1 jowgen, 1-2 defender, 1 droll bird (optional)

In their sides they utilize tsukuyomi for the mirror match to get rid of kycoo, or to disperse of kycoos//horus in dragons (is a card there)

This is an entirely different strategy used than the OCG, mainly because the ocg believe in Blue eyes and Junon. While i am not a prophecy expert at all, i can say junon and maiden are very very good for the dragon matchup helping you make random crimson bladers, invincible walls and big beatsticks which require dragons to waste alot of resources to kill it or make a big eye, only to have the big eye fated/bottomless-ed.

However the main difference between tcg and ocg builds is that ocg mostly do not use 3 starhalls, however it is a common thing in the ocg to make starhall the main objective of the deck solely because they believe it is the best card.

While OCG uses a very effective strategy against dragons., the problem is that the strategy can be easily disrupted by a Book of Eclipse and Last Day.

TCG's strategy will also be easily disrupted by eclipse, but slightly less vulnerable to last day since you can protect kycoo once.

TCG has also decided to try out a very old card which nobody remembers from a structure deck called magical beast cerberus. The idea is to create a fucking big beatstick in the mirror match due to star hall counters, and at the same time get over kycoo and stuff. The only out to it is spellbook of fate!

While spellbooks remain a dominant force, i urge the OCG to test out defender + 3 star hall to see if it really is all that good (i also dunno lol). Why not, since there's almost no big events left for the format.

While it is safe to say that OCG players have an upper hand with access to more cards like maiden and blue eyes silver dragon, the fact that the only 2 reps going to worlds who qualified with spellbooks are from the TCG (kye baker natoli and chris icantrememberhisname from europe). Whether that means anything, is up to your interpretation, but i would like to know your views on this, especially on cards like defender the magical warrior and the TCG's reliance on starhall.

It used to be protect the ophion, now its protect the kycoo.

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Last minute advice to NAWCQ players (edit: drag)

So, i decided im gonna give some last minute advice. Basically i want to see how many people read this blog and follow its content (curious !!)

Of course im not gonna give advice for prophecy player because i know literally horse shit about the deck (likely to know more than the average player but still shit) , so i'd just clarify some things about dragon rulers !

I also have no idea about any other decktype because i am a 1 deck type of player. So no advice to verz/constealler/mermail players.

The first issue has to be the sarco-sword issue.

Approaching the OC period, i was playing 2 sword and 1 sarco because i believed sword was good. This got jeers and shit from many players when i proclaimed i didn't like sarco. Everyone said: NOOO sword is shit i dont play dead cards.

Pre OC DGz trend: errr no sword is shit i like how your build doesnt run sword ;) {slashtap}

POST WCQ period:

My reaction: Fuck 2 sword is actually shit i hate it to balls
Their reaction: Sword is too good, i wish i played more (2-3)

Current DGz trend: OMG sword is so good i cant believe no one caught on to it, its literally the nuts, you can just use it the next turn even if you have 2.

What i have to say to it: There is a reason why Japan decided to increase their sword count at 1 point, and have now decreased it again (for a very long time already)

It took me 1 event to cut sword to 1, to realize more than 1 is bad but then thats all you guys have ! Just 1 event.

Reason why sword is bad is because you will draw hands like "2 sword, 1 veiler, 1 maxc/droll/ 1 baby/big dragon 1 storm" . Then you will curse yourself for playing droll and sword and blame the deck for bad luck, when you should have minimized on situational cards. Real life =/= DNet so please you will not always have big dragons all the time no matter what people think. I made a mistake to conforming to Dnet playtesting and sword was never bad. Why? i always draw good (by good i mean at least have 2 color) on Dnet with drags.

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

Second piece of advice:

EEV , Horus, and droll & lock bird.

IN case you haven't noticed, droll and eev are bad.

So, if you haven't cut them, you should do so. Some friends from european wcq were complaining how bad droll were and wished they had cut them. <-- .="" 2="" cut="" decks="" dont="" else="" enough="" have="" i="" if="" is.="" is="" it.="" japan="" know="" life="" nbsp="" not="" p="" s="" testimonies="" that="" top="" what="">
Even Gruner didn't use it !

Problem with prophecy in TCG is their insane amount of backrow and control based tactics. They look to boost with starhall kycoo and keep souldrain/mind drain on the field. To do this, they have totally gone anti meta and have actually used the spellbook engine to run the anti meta engine. They have also cut junon/maxx c, for consistency so it makes your droll look bad. Think about it this way: You can stop them from going off, but it doesnt stop them from summoning kycoo , mind drain, soul drain, and a bunch of backrow.

With that said, it is quite obvious how you should approach the matchup. I will not say anymore.

Horus the black flame dragon- i do not know why people are still playing this card. Has it not ever appeared in your hand with card destruction/or a blaster and you have nothing to do with it? Just because Joshua Graham suggested it and you are dickriding it. I bet Josh Graham realized long ago how bad it is and is laughing at all the peoplr who still play it. Also its combo with puppet plant is stopped by infinite backrow and mind drain. This should have been clear long ago.

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

Dragon ruler mirror match !

The dragon ruler mirror is sooooooooooo unique as we have never had a type of yugioh format which required us to change our builts every 1-2 weeks.

Why is this? beecause once a tech becomes good, people will jump on to the bandwagon (eg: chalice), but what you should be actually doing, is finding something different to counter it to go against what other people are doing. That is what makes successful dragon players. If you have noticed:

trend 1: ladd
trend 2: breakthrough to counter ladd. ladd gets cut
trend 3: vanity + stardust radiance + dragosack. usually it is dragosack coz its easier to make
trend 4: people start playing stuff like virus/ econ to take control of dragosack and pop itself and something. vanity gets cut because its easy to play around.
trend 5: since no 1 plays vanity anymore for a very long period, it starts to become good again, this time with big eye instead because nothing gets over it.
trend 6: people are starting to play Ladd again.

it is a prime example like this that shows that dragons are an ever-adaptive deck and the loop has actually come into a full circle. If you are still using the same old tricks (BTS chalice etc), do try to innovate, as it will make your moves predictable !

Well, thats all the basic stufff i have to cover, as there are more intricate stuff but then i have friends playing in NAWCQ too so can't reveal too much ~

Good luck to all the players in NAWCQ this weekend.



How to Prevent Stacking

This is actually very very easy.

All you have to do is to ask your opponent to shuffle your deck parallel to the table instead of doing the cascade/sideway shuffle (which is how people stack)

Also, if they believe you have been putting cards together you can just tell them "ok just table shuffle my deck", and make sure you dont try to foil stack it. The moment they do some random arrangement, call a judge (obviously they are trying to foil stack or do something retarded.

or you could request them to just cut the deck as many times as they want.

In the OCG, from what i know, in Malaysia last year, you are allowed to request such a thing.

However, in the TCG, in my knowledge, you cannot, because apparently: "your opponent has the right to shuffle however he wants". I am not too sure about this policy but it was stated by a couple of opponents in a regionals/ nationals when i requested them to do so .

Maybe it is only in australia, but not in other places (idk), but i think TCG Konami should just apply that policy, as letting your opponent perform a sideway shuffle is just stacking or potential "looking at bottom of deck to know your deck and open 1st turn shock master and call monsters yes i am still salty"

The end.


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Yugioh: The devil's card game?

yea im sure some of you have heard of it when you were young:

"avoid yugz ! the monsters on them are evil."

"what are u doing playing card games. its the way the devil tries to manipulate u"

"those blue eyes white dragons will turn into spirits and play around in your room at night"

These comments would usually be made by someone of religious background such as a church pastor or a concerned parent, or perhaps a traditionally-based grandparent.

But wait ! Don't close this page yet. This page has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Being a christian myself, i am not sure how to respond to those allegiated comments above ^ but i am not going to disregard the fact that the game has its ways of bringing out a person's bad side.

Today's topic concerns ethics.

Truthfully there is nothing much left to post on the blog anymore. Or on any yugi-related content page like ARG etc because we have covered all the fundamental basics of yugioh in previous posts, explored and explained decks but then we also cannot post on tech cards or personal lists because it will put us on a disadvantage to future readers. SO, i figured, we had to post something different. Michael Bonacini from Death Aspect posted on how Konami and the game lost its way, which is a very informative read, if you haven't checked it out, you should. And, the rest of the format is stale. Theres only 1 major WCQ coming up, and truthfully, i dont give a fuck! (but i will still continue to explore it because i have friends who are playing it, so must help !) So thats why im posting these random posts these few days.

Yeah you knew for sure this topic was bound to be covered sooner or later. In fact, i had to write a fucking long essay on global business ethics for one of my final papers in uni , and i swore i would never ever write about ethics for a very very long time.

And how wrong i was. Well fuck me right?

The basic category ethics i will be pointing out is :

1) Game ethics
2) Personal ethics
3) Communal ethics

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Game ethics:

Stacking, cheating and sharking.

These are 3 of the main problems with the players. In a game of yugioh, which is just a trading card game, which is just a personal hobby, is there any need to go to this extreme? Why are people so power hungry, that they have to resort to doing such things to destroy their reputation?

Stacking is the most prominent form of cheating. In my opinion, if you stack, you should be ashamed of yourself. Saying being good at stacking and doing it is one of the characteristics of a winner is just plain stupid, and if you are thinking that, you need a reality check. Every player should know how to stack to avoid being stacked, but should you do it? No. It is unfair to the player, and i dont have to continue my paragraph because you know exactly what i am going to say. Claiming you are good because you have stacked your opponent and destroyed him is the most frustrating thing to deal with.

Personally, in my first event, i tried to stack my opponent in round 1 of ACQ MAS 2012. But what happened in the end? I counterstacked myself by drawing a total trash hand in g2 (bad luck on my part, and probably deserved it considering what i did), and in g1 i got topdecked reborn in the late game. To my opponent, joe, if you are reading this, i am coming clean, and i wish to apologize for what happened. I hope i earn your apology, but then, i'd understand if i didn't. But after that incident, i have never cheated or stacked ever again in my history of competitive yugioh.

Simon He's disqualification has caused a very big uproar in the TCG, and the incident could not have come at a better time. As a malay proverb once said, the higher you rise, the further you fall (ok taken from lfn.blog and not the exact 1, cos the malay has some shit about a squirrel but its the same thing). Simon He's success was so large that an allegation like that destroyed his whole career, people have lost all respect for him, and although his personal statement has not arised, we cannot safely say he is neither right nor wrong.

But one thing about Simon and other cheaters is that they had the humility and face to know when they are wrong. There are cheaters who openly admit their mistakes and people are aware of their wrongdoings but they continue to do it without having a single guilty conscience.

Sharking is possibly one of the easiest ways to chalk off a free win. Sharking on correct rulings, or no taking back plays and other things like marked sleeves is legit. It is the duty as a player to know their rulings, or to consult a judge, or to think properly before making a play, or to make sure their sleeves are clean. But, to use it as a last resort is terrible to win the game. This happened to a friend in MAS WCQ2013. After beating him legitly (sacking him lolol but still legit win) , his opponent proceeded to make a commotion and call a judge for marking his cards. When the judge ruled the appeal as null and void, the player gave up and signed the result slip. Different allegations have happened before, as i personally have been sharked for something which was not legit by the same player (although not made into a commotion), and he has tried to make a big fuss in the previous wcq in the top tables.

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Communal ethics.

What the game brings out are people who :

1) rip people off
2) bully people who aren't of an elite group
3) destroy reputations

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Personal ethics.

This concerns bribing of most parts.

TBH im already really sick of writing this article and wish i could just go to the end. Which i will. And which is why i cut the 2 points above short.

You may respond to tell me:

 "get over it you cunt , if you dont like it just quit"

or

"get over it cunt, it happens everywhere in life. "

My response to that is:

Nobody is beyond the point of saving. Asking a person to leave or quit a game which they are trying to point out certain flaws is just dumb and ingrateful. And to those who says it happens everywhere in life, all i can say is if you are going to resort to all this in a children's trading card game, you need a reality check.

And as some person said in an Australian Yugioh Group, "It's weird that ill fortuned nerdy people pick on each other too. It would seem to me that we should all just get a long and make a group of super happy best friends."  

Thats all for today.