Saturday, July 12, 2014

Japanese Hero Lists

So quite alot of cool hero variants have popped up in Japan. These lists are all translated by the org and can be found here: http://www.ygorganization.com/ocg-07112014-japan-decklists/

Just a short post today although I will debunk some of the techs that they are using, as i've tested most of them.

RANK 4 TOOLBOX HERO 
MONSTER CARDS (13):
1 Elemental HERO Stratos
3 Elemental HERO Shadow Mist
1 Elemental HERO Bubbleman
3 Goblindbergh
2 Summoner Monk
3 Tin Goldfish
Techs:
1) Goblin bird- I used to test one of this card as a one-of in pure heroes because it made in-hand shadow mists live and instantly nets you a dark law. It can also make a 1 card rank 4 with either mist/airman as both cards replace themselves. Very solid card however its drawbacks are that if you arent using it for a rank 4, placing it in defence means you lose 1 card (usually itself) to a monster, and using a trap to protect goblinbird is a terrible strategy.
2) Tin Goldfish- cool overall and a better goblinbird. However not ROTA searchable. 
Techs: 
1) E Hero Ocean- bad card end of story.
2) Warrior returning alive- never tested it. seems cool. Another r4 centric deck since returning bubbleman is the main strategy. This deck seems like it would clog with monster hands.
techs:
1) Trap trix mermelo- tested this as a 1-of in the beta stages of the deck. Being an MST / ROTA seemed really really solid and its clear that this card was designed after airman. However at times it could get really really underwhelming past turn 1.
STAR SERAPH HERO 

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As VERZ returns into the meta with its ability to play floodgates and its monsters being inherently bigger than heroes/ tella's, it seems that hero hands could be a good meta call going into any event, as hands are a huge power play and the deck having an easier time placing monsters in the grave to abuse with soul charge. Its disadvantages would be a first turn dark law which relies on you having to draw a trap to deal with it, or to pray your opponent doesnt have a trap to deal with your r4 combo to out dark law.

Destiny Heroes are really solid atm too due to the speed the deck has, however its main problem is playing cards like destiny draw + diamond dude. Its a 2 card combo which is equivalent to trade in+ blue eyes, or consonance + tuner whereby drawing 1 or the other results in a dead draw. Luckily the deck searches the dheroes quite efficiently, and its saving grace is that diamond dude alone isnt as bad of a terrible draw like bewd without ravine, or dragon tuner without a ruler, as you can pair it off with a bubbleman, or HC halberd etc. However, would you really rely on this strategy since its flaws are fairly obvious? 
Most of the sidedecks resembled what i have been testing for a while being 2-3 dprison, 3 royal commands, 1-2 s/t destroyers, and a combination of either super poly/ maxx c / raiou etc.  
It also really peeves me how some of those decks can play hero alive together with soul charge, they conflict way too often to prove to be a consistent strategy, altho hero lives can be conserved as a last resort power card to get out a dark law, but regardless, it still conflicts way too often. 
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Friday, July 4, 2014

OCG: Heroes in the current meta

So, I'm pretty free during the holidays so thought i'd pen down my thoughts on Heroes.

Heroes currently receive huge support in the form of Masked Heroes. What was a slower version : Gemini Spark is now replaced by Masked Change, a new quick spell which is searchable, and doesnt require a specific monster, and can be used on any hero monster you possess.

So, let's discuss the cards individually:

1) Dark Law- I won't go into depth with dark law because by now, everybody knows what it does. Konami made it quite balanced in the sense that 2400 attack is really weak and can be outted quite easily. It doesnt have any built in protection like Felgrand, and can be outted with Compulsory, BTS etc. However, it is still a really good card, and if theres anything we've learnt from YGO, its that just cos a card can be outted by a trap, doesnt make it any less good of a card.

Dark Law makes it particularly good vs satella knights going first, as they need to draw a trap to out it. If you can protect the dark law, you win quite easily. However, as good as it seems vs shaddolls, its actually not, a simple shadoll fusion clears it, and it doesnt prevent shadolls flip effects from happening. This would not be the play I would make if i am versing a shaddoll opponent.

Note that drawing a card (like from upstart) is counted as adding and will cause dark law's effect to trigger.

2) Kamikaze- Another decent monster. Its effect to prevent battle, and that it cant be destroyed in battle is hardly relevant as its easily outted by honour ark, castiel etc. Its main function is a wind mask hero so that you can abuse airman with. the draw effect is very very good in heroes you need cards to thin the deck. Well timing your kamikaze can be very devastating for your opponent and its effect makes it a threat in the mirror match if you go against a Mask hero Kouga

3) Kouga- The last monster and at first sight probably the worst. However, its probably one of the most useful mask heroes because its effect can be chained to, and acts like a pseudo honest. Kouga can put huge damage on board, which is very important in the hero deck. However, its downside is having to run E hero Alias, a bad card, a brick, and a card which hardly contributes to your comboes. If the meta turns out to be hero mirrors, you can bet its well worth maining one Alias. Alias however isnt that terrible backed up with Vanity Emptiness, particularly against Tella Knight etc. However its still a subpar card.

4) Mask Change 2- At first glance this card seemed crazy. But, its actually not as good as you think it is, mainly in Heroes. Opening with it is terrible , because its a bad investment, its cost is too steep, and the fact that you had to summon a monster with a higher level reduces its versatility. In a pure hero deck, you would never want this card, because Mask change does the exact same thing but much better. However, it is good for other decks which want to abuse mask heroes like infenity, shadolls etc.

5) Form Change- And dont get me started on form change, its dead most of the time, a horrible card to draw all around and only good for otk-ing, which translates to you being in a winning position so you should already be winning anyway. Bad card bad design.

6) Mask Charge- A very nifty card. Acts like salvage, and a 1 card of any mask hero you choose. You can return fusions too, and overall very good card. Card advantage and options are always welcome.

7) Contrast hero Chaos- Sweet card in general, with a very good effect (Solemn Judgment anyone?) but its requirement is pretty steep. It is very very rare that you will be summoning it because to have 2 Mask heroes in grave and to have miracle fusion is very unlikely and can only be good in late game. Most of the time your go to card for Miracle is Absolute Zero.

8) E HERO Core- The one card I never tested. No comments about it (i dont even know its effect)

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Matchups across the board:


1) Tella Knight - Tella is one of this deck's worst matchups because the other deck just puts a steady stream of beatsticks that Hero cant deal with. They gain alot of advantage very very easily and churn monsters out. Heroes, having naturally lower attack, and playing lesser monsters in the deck just lose out. In theory , heroes would have to draw mask change or a trap to be in a commanding position, thus making it the inferior deck. The best way to play against tella would be to pray you went first and make dark law, or just going for the OTK, depending on the circumstances. A very cool tech to deal with tella would be to main/side 2 copies of the hands. This makes going 2nd much more favourable.  Alot of the time, Hands put alot of pressure on tella, and you can easily blow them out, as well as cause 2 for 1 trades. If they refuse to set traps to play around the hands, you are in a really strong position. Their only out is probably castiel, as nobody extra decks dweller anymore.


2) Shaddolls- Another matchup which is very very risky. It is abit hard game 1 because shadolls will stall the game out and its hard for you to otk, but siding g2/3 makes it much easier. In theory you just have to deal with their face down monsyers, and you can do so by siding, because Shadools would have to draw their fusion spell or a trap to out dark law. Furthermore, Heroes can easily otk out of the blue if they have the right hand or if the facedown monster is not a lizard. Heroes also pressure shadolls because shadolls are a reactive deck and is usually quite slow. Having emptiness + dark law out is very hard for shadoll to deal with.

These 2 are probably the most relevant decks in the OCG meta. Anything else like yang zing, dragon rulers, are probably irrelevant. Infernity is a scary deck, but after playtesting it, deck is prone to monster hands but having first turn dark law makes it really hard for infernity to get going.

So, what cards should be in a hero list?

Here is an example of a core:

1 Airman
X Bubbleman
X Shadow Mist
2 Summon Priest
X Alius

X Miracle Fusion
X Mask Charge
3 Mask Change
1 ROTA
1 Foolish Burial
X Emergency Call
X Hero Alive
1 Reborn
1 Storm

3 COTH
X Traps to deal with the format- Emptiness is probably the most important card in the current meta.

Other cards to consider also include:
E Hero Voltic
HC Halberd Challenger
Maxx C
Super Poly
Form Change
Mask Change 2


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Various versions of heroes:


1) Pure E Heroes (sample of the deck core is given up there)- This list focuses on the mask change + hero focus of the deck. It is generally solid, but can lack monster power.


2) Destiny Heroes- Clarence's list is a very good example, and some decklists mixed with some dhero cards have appeared on Japanese sites. Easy access to key beetle and faster than the pure hero build. Focuses less on the mask change aspect and more on the rank 4 plays.

3) Star seraph heroes- Probably the most popular version of heroes in Japan. Very explosive if you draw the right cards. However, it has consistency issues. Call me a sceptic, but I do not believe this is the right way to play Hero ATM. The reason tellaknight star seraph is good is because tella is a separate reliable engine to have even with dead star seraph cards in hand. Heroes however are not, because the only cards you wanna play are mist, stratos and perhaps 1 bubbleman, along with monk and the star seraph engines. Shadoll star seraph is also alright because you can just stall out with the shadolls or utilize the fusion spell to get rid of dead thrones.

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Overall thought on heroes:

It is fun and very consistent. But it lacks really strong power plays like what the star seraph engine can do, or soul charge. This makes it slightly weaker because it relies on a decent setup backed up by vanity emptiness. However, the best decks this format are ones that utilize the star seraph-soul charge engine. They usually end up with 1-2 dead in hand cards (usually a throne or a soul charge early game) if their seraph engine doesnt get going. This makes it slightly less explosive. Heroes could capitalize on that and put pressure early.

Pure Heroes' main downfall is that it cannot make use of soul charge.


However, that seems like a risky strategy to take going into a tournament. They could be tier 1.5 ish but will not really hit tier 1. Having consistency is one thing but also being blown out by decks that draw really well is also another factor to consider. The strongest power play of Tellaknight > strongest power play of Heroes, and the same can be said for the average play for both decks. Until Soul charge is limited, Heroes will never be the best deck.




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Thursday, July 3, 2014

It's been a while

What's up guys, its been a while since i made my last post. Yugioh blogging has been dead for quite a while. I've decided to come back to posting a little bit for the fun of it. It will serve like a personal diary, to record what i've come across/ seen/ think of cards/ comboes/ decks/ formats etc.

So, I think i should let you all know what's been up for the last few months in my yugioh life.

First of all, I haven't been playing much Yugioh, besides attending a regionals and nationals, which i will go into detail later in the post. I have played 1 local for the fun of it just so that me and my friends could go to pool after.

So, here goes:

Regional:

I played dragon ruler at this regional. It was just a few days after Alex Juneja nearly topped some american regional with dragon ruler. The list was really hyped, and I was fortunate to be in contact with Chris Welch and Josh Graham as they built the deck. Similar to a list i was tested at the beginning of the format (i ran silver's cry back then in mine), I thought it was interesting to bring it to a regional and see how I could pilot the deck. I came 5-2, losing 1 game to hieretics, which OTK-ed me in game 1, and in game 3 i bricked with 2 blue eyes in hand. This was before Dragons of Legends, so the deck wasn't as good (Its still horrible now), and losing the second match to bujin where i just bricked and game 3 my opponent topdecked Honest for the win. I came 9th, narrowly missing out on the top, as my tiebreaks were pretty good (I beat 1 or 2 people in the top 8, and my other loss was also in the top 8)

Nationals:

Fast forward to nationals, as i have been testing the deck for ages. I was back and forth on alot of cards, especially with the bandit vs trooper issue. Chris convinced me to play Trooper, which sounded great as 2 nights before, I played Trooper vs the mirror and completely savaged my opponents during playtesting. I was completely sold on troopers, and since it was just a week after Hoban won an ARG with dragons, I was pretty sure my nationals meta would be full dragons as the deck wasnt expensive and relatively easy to pick up.

The night before in Brisbane, I playtested, and was extremely satisfied with my list, except i wanted to find 2 metaions to sidedeck, which i eventually found the next morning.

So, here's a short recap of my games:

R 1) Firefist- win. It was a fast win. i saw dragon shrine game 1 and had a playable hand, and game 2 i sided in hands and skill drain to win.

R 2) Zombie Soul charge.dek- He summoned dark grepher and sent mezuki and I was so glad and was like yes a bye, I sent trooper into it, and set a wing blast. In my turn he completely savaged me as he wombo-combo zombie master and friends and made a field of Infernity doom dragon, Beelze and something else, and I used PWWB on the beelze as he was setting his backrow to prevent doom from negating. I was sure I would survive and be able to mount a comeback next turn but he dropped Dark Arm and crushed me.

Game 2 I managed to win, but it took me a long time as dragons were grindy. I managed to attack for game as time was called. It was unfortunate but i was 1-0-1 at this point.

Reminescing here, I made a mistake at one point. I let him take back a play in G1 which might have caused him to win. However, he was the nicest guy I have ever met in a YGO tournament, and we had a very very good chat, and I thought he was a nigga (i've a soft spot for niggas they dope as hell and really cool people to talk to, although Bodan told me he was actually maori after LOL). The whole day, if we met, and even on the next day, he would greet me and chat, and was just a nice person all around. I felt bad, and let him take back the play.

R 3) Mermaids- I drew playable but abit slow, but he completely otk me next turn with tidal, megalo and lots of other shit. I win the next game, and in game 3 i bricked so hard I could build a house. So, I took my first loss for the day, and was 1-1-1

R4) Geargia- My opponent was some weird ginger kid who was horrible at the game. G1 he comboed and my only trap i drew to stop him he had wiretap for it. I lost in 2 turns as my hand was slow and he had geargiagear, armour, wiretap, and accel in hand. Nice hand.

Game 2 he started his plays and I had PWWB to deal with his GGX but i wasnt sure if I should PWWB it as he had a lvl 3 in grave (the one that specials another lvl 4 by tributing itself). I scanned the guy overall and decided he probably didnt know GGX had another eff to revive and just went for it. Lo, and behold, he didnt know ! I drew my combo pieces eventually and it was a long hard grind and I managed to win. However, at one point he read GGX and asked if he could special summon off it (I destroyed it in battle but had proceeded to my MP2). I said hell no LOL you passed priority long ago. As I was attacking for game, the game went to a draw as time was called. We wanted to play game 3 in time with 5 rounds but just my luck, as a judge walked by behind us, looked at the game and (with people watching it), we could not lie and just signed the slip.  I was 1-2-1 and had almost given up hope at this point.

R5- Constella - I savaged him game 1, and game 2 I savaged him too. He had soul charge and electric virus my star eater (???) and swung for game. I reminded him about soul charge and he scooped. 2-2-1

R6- Mermaids- I win pretty fast as I saw dragon shrine etc. 3-2-1

R7- Hands deck- It was interesting vs-ing a hands deck before HAT became popular. I win g1 with ease with stardust, and game 2 i sided in my hands and destroyed him in the mirror LOL. 4-2-1

R8- At this point I had climbed back up pretty high, and if i won the last round I had a chance of topping (we found out later that this was not true , as my opponent ended up only in 22nd place). I was seated next to Jono Ritzau and we chatted and I watched him get savaged in the Infenrity mirror while he kept showing me his hands. I was vsing mermail, and my opponent was a bit of a douche, and it was funny how he kept trying to talk to Jono but kept getting ignored (SMH fanboy). Game 1 he combo-ed off and had the warning for my play (I opened really bad and could not get anything going till about turn 3).

Here's the interesting part as Game 2 approached and I get random deckchecked. They came back telling me I had a game loss because I used the duelist kingdom cards as a token. This was literally just unreal as you guys should know that the duelist kingdom cards are the tokens included in the Japanese pegasus starter deck. I ended up in a long debate at the event as several people watched. I told them ,:

1)  on a balance of probabalities, it was reasonable to infer that my intention was to clearly use those cards as tokens, and they could not be included in my deck so obviously I had 0 ways to cheat with it.

2) People like Hoban and americans use it all the time, and it was fine.

3) I had asked a judge before the event and showed him my token list (included my Malaysian IC and driving license and several other membership cards) and he said it was fine.

It was beyond absurd and I was so pissed off that I had gotten the game loss. Their reason was that below, on the left hand corner, there was a japanese clause stating this card cant be used in a duel. Well, no shit sherlock, its a fucking token not a card to be played in the maindeck. I smoked up, and went to dinner with friends.

So i ended up 4-2-2 losing 1 to judge OTK, 1 to bricking, and drew 2 games. It was clear my deck choice for the event was wrong as dragons clearly sucked and I had completely forgot about the time factor. I also made a wrong meta call thinking everyone would be running dragons and cut bandit and skill drain out of my maindeck.

I will not be attending Oceanics this year because I am not spending 900$ on return flights to play in a terrible format where lightlord is probably the best deck. Quoting one of my friends, this format is just picking the deck you hate the least. Most of my Aussie friends (progressive team) arent even using the same decks, mainly because there is no clear cut best deck and everyone is just using what they're most comfy with.
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So, overall, i decided to take a break from Yugioh TCG as it was pretty bad experience during nationals. The metagame right now is mostly sylvians/ lightlord and geargia, and basically anything has a chance to win. The game is very very linear, as the comboes and plays are mostly fairly obvious and there are no lines of thoughts/ and is impossible to plan multiple turns ahead.

Recently I had started to look at the OCG again when Heroes got released, and started testing and playing. I tested a little bit of tella knight and shadolls but stopped, and decided to go full throttle after heroes became available on DNET. The last time I played a proper game of OCG was with dragon rulers around. Naturally, after a few games with some friends, I started getting savaged badly because my thinking had become too linear playing TCG. I soon got used to it again, and am now getting better and more used to OCG. I am learning to play Hero like i used to, and playing control / tempo based decks again, and not just dragon ruler/ combo decks.

The OCG overall is much better. There are times you still get outdrawn but its a card game for God's sake these things happen, but you are in a much better position to control your fate. There are times where your opponent can still outdraw you but lose if they waste their cards and play unoptimally, while you draw your combo cards later in the game.

The game over in Asia is much more complicated and more skilled due to the abundance of options. Hoban once mentioned that a game with a high power creep isnt neccessarily bad, as dragon format was skillful because of the availability of resources and how you had to manage them in different ways.

I will have a post up in the next few days about Heroes in the OCG in general, and how competitive it can be and whether it can survive in the metagame.

Also if you have not known, I have set up a multi FB account for YGO (ting tong which you can freely add as I shall accept every YGO player friend request) . Take heed that its an account for me to go spazzy and at this point, its probably the 2nd most annoying FB acc, after Cordero Vexacus Spencer.



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Friday, March 14, 2014

TCG banlist wishlist

As of now everybody should be aware that speculations are not possible since its very hard to predict Konami's actions, and even if it is easy, its not something we are gonna accept easily, so i think its easier to just have a wishlist.

This is what i would want done to the format:

Banned:
Royal Tribute

Limited:
E- Hero Stratos
E- Hero Bubbleman
Verz Ophion
Rekindling
Fire Formation Tenki
Dragon Ravine
Mystical Space Typhoon
Kaiser Colosseum
Skill Drain
Abyssphere
Reckless Greed
Royal Decree
Solemn Judgment

Semi-limited:
Thunder King Raiou
Gorz
Judgment Dragon
Book of Moon
Bottomless Trap Hole
Compulsory Evacuation Device
Torrential Tribute

So, my explanations for the list:

Royal tribute- spooky card which auto wins hanttttt

E-Hero Stratos- Should have never have been banned in the first place, IDK what they were thinking

E-Hero Bubbleman- with airman limited, this card can be at 1 just for the option and the luls.

Verz Ophion- Annoying floodgate which shouldnt exist. I can see Konami keeping it around for artifacts so..

Rekindling- another crazy boogy card, I like how Konami TCG is banning boogy cards, and leaving us with a playable game.

Fire Formation Tenki- card should never have been at 3, its at 2 in ocg.

Dragon Ravine- Personal wishlist to have more dragonss

Mystical Space Typhoon- With all the floodgates gone, and playable traps backed up to 2 in this list, it just makes sense that MST doesnt need to exist at 3 anymore. MST can be considered a floodgate in some sense since alot of plays revolve around spells/traps, for example dragon ravine, tenki, abyssphere etc.

Kaiser Colosseum- annoying floodgate which need not exist

Skill Drain- ^

Abyssphere- Card that makes mermails super strong. Hitting tues will totally kill off the deck. Sphere is the card which generates alot of advantage which ep sphere into pike into gunde and bringing back linde again. Basically a deck thinner, attack protection and fills their grave which fuels their play.

Reckless Greed- Drawing multiples is very strong in TCG with the power creep being low. In fact, resolving reckless once is an auto win cz its hard for your opponent to keep up with the advantage  generated. In a deck like mermails, you churn out advantage and the draw phase doesnt matter. At the end of the 2 turns you usually find yourself having the same number of cards as opponent/ or more, and with a stronger board.

Royal Decree- ^

Solemn Judgment- OK to see at 1. Its not an annoying floodgate or a boogey power card and adds more variety in the game.

Semi-limited:

Thunder King Raiou- With more traps, this can exist at 2.

Judgment Dragon- Powerful card. To 1 would kill Lightlords definitely, and at  3 seems too many, 2 seems to be the optimal number.

Gorz- not doing much actually, the formats for Gorz has totally passed us by :(

Book of Moon
Bottomless Trap Hole
Compulsory Evacuation Device
Torrential Tribute

^ Im gonna sum all of these in 1 post since they're effectively the same thing. I think we have all learnt that a format with Solemn warning as your best trap, and having to main 3 fiendish chains in everything was horrible.

Thats all for this post. As i've advocated, more power traps in the format is healthy, and less floodgates/ less boogey cards is the way the game should be heading. The power creep exists, we should get over it, and just adapt to it, and enjoy the game as it is by eliminating as much of the luck factor and the floodgates which stop us from playing the game.
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Thursday, February 20, 2014

CardSharpPro

So this short article has been long overdue. Was supposed to write it last weekend, but after having to pack and prepare for my flight back to Perth on Monday, i arrived in Perth tired and was busy for the last few nights.

Usually, i would be quite neutral on reviews like this, because Michael Bonacini (DeathAspect) would usually review/write/ comment on topics like this such as Occupy Ygo or the Kristopher Perovic article.

This topic has garnered quite alot of attention lately on the internet among the Yugioh community, especially on DGz.

Alot of people are saying stuff like "its not worth it", "its not worth the money etc", and TBH, i don't actually know if its worth the $.

Josh has showed me a small part of the article he wrote and TBH its pretty good just like Hoban's writing and definitely surpasses mine and any of the other bloggers'.

Like the content is definitely pretty good, and it can definitely help you become better.

However the expensive cost could be due to the fact that he has to pay others who have helped him promote the video/package (i.e: yugitubers) and to pay for the domain of his website.

I am not completely clear on what the package comprises of besides what the ORG has posted on which is 3 videos and 1 article. There have been talks on expanding onto FB and creating groups where good players help the players who purchased this. IMO, that's a good idea, because a fastway to get good at YGO is to have the best help you out. 

The ORG review (particularly Earl's part) was quite harsh. I honestly dont think its that bad, and alot of times, once you watch the videos, after understanding what was said, you tend to think "oh i know that" when you actually didn't, and just realized it after watching. So, i would give Josh the benefit of a doubt. (Not calling earl out on anything).

Its up to you if you think 97$ is a good investment. Personally i would never spend that much $ on YGO advice considering most of it is free from blogs/ youtube/ forums/ and just having good networking skills. Spending 97$ to get into the circle seems to be taking a shortcut, which is not neccessarily a bad thing.

My advice is to get a group of friends maybe 10+ or so chip in to buy the product and see how good it actually is, as it seems like the most reasonable option.

This short article is probably very redundant but its just me telling you guys that its not as bad as it seems. Josh Grahams past, and his intentions for the product (whether it is to help/ or to make $) should not be a concern before buying this product. If i wanna get better, i dont care about petty stuff like that, as people are making a fuss over the wrong issue.





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Friday, February 7, 2014

The Upstart Goblin Discussion: What do the best think?

                                                   
So, if you've kept up competitively with the TCG for the past few formats, you will know about the theory of the Upstart Goblin article. To keep it short, it was  lately popularised by an American player named Patrick Hoban whose theory was running 37 is better than 40 in the TCG because you see your core /combo cards more. Hoban is one of the best players in America and is also one of the best theorists whereby his explanations on cards, theories are very good. One of them was the theory on the skill curve, where skill is highest at the beginning of the format, and decreases exponentially as the format progresses. Although it has been very widely received in America especially, it has never showed much influence on the European meta or even anywhere in the OCG. Granted this is because OCG has a different meta with much better power cards and more powerful strategies to consider, I have decided to gather the thoughts of various players from Asia and Europe.

I chose 2 players from each respective region : Europe, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore.

I handpicked the players based on a couple of factors which are:

1) Accessibility. You wont see me interviewing HK or Taiwanese players because i cant really speak chinese, neither can i write in chinese, or even get in contact with them.

2) Number of tops/ relevance in the respective countries. Basically i will interview the best players who have made an impact over the past few years. To be 100% results oriented is wrong, but tops are a decent way to measure how relevant/ good a player is, without much bias. Hoban was always shunned but after he started his winning spree, everyone started accepting his theories.

3) How well the player knows the TCG meta. For example, some of the players in X country may be good, but IMO they may not keep up with the TCG as much. So, to avoid outliers, i decided to make sure that most of the players i interviewed have some background knowledge about the TCG.

PS: dont be offended if i didnt interview you ! I have only 2 players which is very few, so that the article isnt too long. Also, i may not be as close to you or even know you so. Also do note player preference exists in the OCG and is a widely accepted concept. So, do not be alarmed to see people mentioning on player preference.

So, basically, i asked every candidate what they thought about the upstart theory based on the TCG format, and whether they think running 37 cards is optimal/ and worth cutting other cards/techs out for the chance to draw more combo pieces. Also, i asked them to comment based on different decks in TCG such as otk-combo-grind deck like HRuler, straight otk decks like karakuri, and grind-combo decks like firefist.

Also, there's a written article here talking about the math of Upstart Goblin:

http://duellikeanidol.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-difference-of-upstart-goblin-in-six-samurai/

IDK if its accurate or not or the correct math can be found in some DuelistGroundz thread.

Here's what they have to say:

Malaysia:

 C1: Shahmir Roshidi- Shahmir has been incredibly consistent last year and have finished in single digit tops in every single tournament in Malaysia that he has gone to, meaning a 100% top ratio. To top it all, he occasionally keeps up with the TCG , and he knows his stuff so what better candidate !

(Take note some of these interviews were conducted on whatsapp, and FB messenger)

" It depends on the type of decks that use it. The best deck to use Upstart will be a combo deck, if not, i don't recommend running it. They need to get to their pieces faster. It also depends on what decks you view as combo decks, and how you wanna play those decks. Eg: TCG plays FF/ Mermail as combo decks but OCG doesnt. In DRuler Hieratic, i think Upstart isnt bad as the lp cost is negligible since the deck is more grindy and doesn't attempt to otk as often. I honestly dont get why players use upstart in decks like Windups and Firefists. There seem to be better choices. It depends on the decktype and the player's preference. All it does is make your deck 37 cards."

C2: Zack Teoh: Zack has been the most consistent player last year winning 2 whole events and topping every single sanctioned Malaysian event. I do not know how much he keeps up with the TCG but i decided to give him a brief overview of it beforehand so he has a clearer image. Here's what he has to say:

 " My opinion on Upstart is that Upstart is good , but not all decks have the space/chance to play Upstart. Based on the TCG, i think Upstart should be run because the game play is slower so you need to access your cards more and the 1k is negligible unlike in OCG."

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Phillipines:

 C3: Irwin Arogo: Irwin is the best player in the Phillipines now winning nationals back to back, winning Asia Plus, and winning every single other card game tourney like VG (he's represented Phil in multiple events), and has been successful in other games such as MTG.

" I think Upstart should be used in decks that only need to draw their key cards early, or benefits from spell card activations such as Prophecy in the previous formats. I don't like it because its like giving your opponent 1000 lp extra for no reason at all. For the part about cutting the deck to 37 to mitigate bad draws and drawing unnecessary cards by running less cards, i think that while deckbuilding, the player will not include cards that are situational or  useless for their deck strategy. I don't think it improves consistency as much because its just a 1:1 spell, and it doesnt make too much of an impact. Its far different from Pot of Duality which can fix your draws and give you 2 extra options to choose from."

C4: Karlo Bonillo: Karlo is one of my closest Asian buddies and he has in depth knowledge about the game. He has several accomplishments in the past winning 1 or 2 events and topping at least 8-10 others, before he started slowing down and committing less to the game recently. He also has been keeping up with the TCG so he seemed like a suitable candidate. To Edsel and Jun (Elvis Agoto) i wish i could interview you guys too but i only could interview 2, and to Jun, i don't know you that well personally and I didnt know how much you kept up with TCG, and as for Edsel, i think you're busy with UNI and pilot training so yea.

 " I prefer to play other useful cards compare to Upstart Goblin. IMO, cutting Upstart means you will reduce space on cards which could be helpful for your matchups. I value card space alot. 40 is the minimum for me and i wish to put other cards in my deck. I think Upstart is player preference, as it depends on what the player values more. Some players value consistency, but i value utility and having more options rather than just having my combo pieces. Since Hoban like it and it works for him well, then good for him. But for me its not worth the space"

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Europe:

 C5: Alpay Engin: Alpay has shown consistency over large events in the past formats, and has shown exceptional performance in the last format. The 3 big players last format was Alpay, Joshua, and Michel (with Michel out of the competitive scene with an unreasonable ban #FreeGruner) .

PS: Alpay didn't talk much with me because he was driviung to school at the time of interview and he only said a few words. Furthermore, it was pretty obviuous his first language is not English so he may keep the interview short. Also, dont really know him very well personally.

" Yes , i think Upstart is quite good. I personally run it in Firefists. You need it to get to Tenki and resolve the 1st turn spirit play ASAP. Sorry, i'm driving to school now, hard life. Will I see you at Berlin?"



C6: Joshua Schmidt: Joshua needs no introduction along with Alpay. He topped every YCS in the past format, and finished top4 at worlds 2 years ago.

" Alright. i'm not a big fan of playing Upstart in every deck, playing 37 sure is nice, but its not as if its for free. I consider LP as a resource too and playing a game against more LP could lead to you losing in the long run due to having to spend more resources. Generally, i like it only in decks that need it like Geargia to get to their armour asap without much ways to accelerate. Or decks like heiratics which dont have many ways to get to their key cards aside from Upstart. Most of the time, I would rather just pick 3 other cards which can be good in various situations, and i think that is better most of the time as well."

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Singapore:

 C7: Wesley Seek: Wesley aka Lambyseries is a teammate and close friend and has shown himself to be one of the best players in Singapore (whether you like it or not) by being consistent in the last few events. Despite having a few months hiatus from the game due to army commitments, Wesley returned to competiive play and went top 4 at Singapore Open ; an impressive feat for someone who has taken a long break from the game for almost 4 months. He has always been like the Asian Hoban, having interesting and strange theories which he believed strongly in, some of them which can cause controversial discussions because it's different from the norm (such as maindecking red eyes, reborn in every single variant of druler, and siding Dprison VS Hanzo Hieratic in the 2012 March format), and some which are so accurately explained and thought of, you would just apply it straight away.


Here's what he has to say: (and it might be the best response out of the entire 8 players. He also wrote a fking thesis , and it took me a lot of time to type out what he had to say, so i hope you guys enjoy the response)

"In no way is Upstart a staple in everydeck because not every deck has the same purpose. By purpose, i mean the way it functions, its win condition, its playstyle etc. Its hardly a negative to thin the deck but not every deck should run it, why?

 Firstly, is purpose: If we use otk as an example, you clearly wanna put 8k dmg on board ASAP with as much ease as possible. Considering the 1k gain, can u consistently get an extra 1k-3k dmg in with that extra thinning?

 What are you intending to draw that justifies you drifting slightly further from your purpose to warrant running Upstart? With that said, i dont think Hieratics should be running Upstart. For Druler in OCG now, i think its viable because thinning for another colour, or obtaining the Dragon shrine is very crucial as your win condition and beginning of your resource pool resolves around utilizing your edrags and that is only obtainable when you have access to all of your colours ASAP.

 So onto more popular decks like FF. Can you realistically otk with FF not consistently, or even hardly? Whats your win condition? To me, it is resolving Bear, getting those hits in, putting the pressure on opponent and generating advantage. So, yes FF should play Upstart since you wanna see bears, tenkis, tensus etc to pressure the opponent. 

 Upstart in geargiakarakuri? Well you dont wanna draw your karakuri tuner engine or the geargianos and MK2 early to fuel geargiagear. Sure drawing arsenal/armour t1 is important, but weighing the random 1 more draw to something precise like Duality, I would rather go with Duality because in this case, simply because theres the option of not choosing something that shouldn't be drawn early or not drawn at all.

 Tldr; i believe Upstart shouldn't be played in outright OTK decks. It should be played in decks that can combo off or start winning with the early access to 1 or 2 cards (edrags, bear, nebradisk in OOparts, medraut, leopard, tenki, kaust + pollux, castor + verz, Yamato, Inzektor Damsel etc)

 To conclude, dont run a card because someone runs it , run it because it makes sense. If someone runs it and it makes sense to you, then run it. Learn to doubt, and learn to question and not to follow blindly, know why things are done for certain reasons, then make the best decisions."
Last but not least we have :

C8) Anders Koh (DSummon)- Fresh off his win from YCS Sydney, i could not think of anyone else better to interview better! DS piloted an otk version of Karakuri to win the event. Karakuri, known as a combo deck should theoretically run Upstart.... right? Or maybe not? See what he has to say:

" Technically, the math involving Upstart makes sense. However it still depends on the deck build and what is is built to do. If its a deck like darkworld, Upstart is viable cos you need to see key cards and its meant to grind out for game with advantage. In my deck, i think upstart isnt viable since I need to deal damage quick and otk. 

 The main point i didn't run Upstart was because the deck was designed to end the game ASAP before your opponent starts to farm and make a comeback. (He attributes it to the slow pace format in TCG).
In a typical deck like Firefist which sorts of grind but doesnt really otk, it depends, but its all up to player's preference and build.

 Personally, i think if you have to cut stuff for space in your maindeck, it makes no sense to cut on real traps or techs just to try to build consistency through your draws. Plus anyway, YGO is about lifepoints, and makes no sense to give your opponent free LPs just to obtain a little bit of consistency.

 Also, there are cards like Exciton Knight which exist. If all you do is obtain consistency, and you have less answer to opponent's plays, doesn't make sense if your opponent can just clear your board and gain a massive lead just through an explosive play. Thats about all the thoughts in my head for now"
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Like i mentioned in the previous post, blogging and articles are almost a dead trade because almost everyone knows about the theory etc and the important part of YGO is applying it in your games, and players should look to Youtube duel wideos as the way to go to learn YGO, observe plays and techs etc.

But i decided to make this post because it was interesting to see what people think about a certain theory. Hopefully you enjoyed the post.

 As of now, i would like to make a conclusion and give my opinions, but its late and i wanna head to bed, but let me know what you think in the comments below ~

That's all for today.


ANW A FRIEND TOLD ME TO GIVE A SHOUTOUT TO HIS FRIEND'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL SO CHECK IT OUT http://www.youtube.com/user/YGOEscapade?feature=watch

 THERES ALSO A GIVEAWAY SO JOIN IT~

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Post OCG banlist thoughts and comparison with TCG

2 days ago, the OCG banlist hit us really hard with many unexpected card choices springing up.

What do i think of it?

Awesome tbh, the list keeps dragons alive and doesnt hit ravine, something which was a right move, and very very big mistake on Konami TCG's part, because it destroyed the playability of decks like dragunity.

TBH, the banlist was very good because it introduced more options and more interesting things into the game compared with how stale the TCG format is. Cards like Cyber Stein prove to be extremely interesting, because playing a high risk high reward card seems to add a new element into the game. Being tutorable through Gear Gigant X, we can easily see this card appear in gadget decks, and even karakuri geargia decks.

So, lets debunk the banlist !

Banned:
return 

Restrict 1:
Verz Ophion
E Hero Bubbleman
Devil Franken (Cyber Stein)
Atl Dragoon
7 star sword
Gold Sarc

Restrict 2:
Honest
Zombie Carrier
Lonefire Blossom
4 dragon rulers

Unlimited 3:
GB Besteri
Agent Angel Earth
Debris DRagon
Raiou
Gorz
NS Grand Mole


For Return to be banned was long overdue , and the represents the only thing stealing dragon ruler mirrors.
You'll lose to blowout cards less. IMO dragon ruler mirrors will be even more skillful as less luck elements are removed.

Verz Ophion- this is good on Konamis part. I have always called on Ophion being unhealthy for the game and 1 of the best floodgate cards and it was something the TCG should have done. GJ OCG.

Ehero Bubbleman- Similar to Patrick Hoban's article he mentioned how bubbleman made eheros degenerate with otks, loops, etc. Konami japan identified this problem, and limited it, instead of touching airman. Also precaution for next format, so less people make 1st turn shock ruler and lose. Another very good call, which Konami TCG should learn from.

Cyber Stein- Now this is interesting and i have no idea how this will affect the meta. IMO, it adds a new element to the game and it definitely should return. Its gonna be very hard to get otk-ed with 3 gorz, swordsman of revealing light and rainbow kuribiohs running around. However, isit a degenerate card which will win you the game automatically? No it isnt. 5000 lifepoints isnt cheap, and dealing 3000 lifepoints damage has been so fking easy ever since old formats like GB formats, so dealing 3k in 1 turn nowadays after the power creep is a joke.

atlantean dragoons- way overdue. sphere limited, tues limited. RIP mermail. However it will still be tier 2 ish due to 3 diva, 2 tidal.

7 Star sword- Now sword was arguably one of the best cards in druler aside from return and ravine. Sword puts you ahead of the mirror by resolving 1, and like mentioned above, limiting sword to 1,  greatly reduces the luck element of the mirror match- which is to open sword and dig deeper in your deck while your opponent is only stuck at his 1st 6 cards. I've won so many more games resolving sword in mirrors compared to blowing my opponent out with return.

Gold sarc- To greatly reduce the consistency of dragons. Good call.

Honest- Now this move is just to give lightlords more power. Bujins get a slight bump but not as much of a difference. Honestly (pun), the difference between 1 extra honest (4~5) is not so much of a difference since they have 3 searchable honests anyway. It definitely gives Lightlord a big boost, and a larger win condition. IMO a very dangerous move. Very sacky. This might be the worst decision they made in this list, but is certainly not an abomination.

Zombie Carrier- For zombies i guess. Konamis plan to increase the power creep and then unlimit old cards which are severely weakened by the power creep is working. Notice cards coming off the banlist like mezuki etc.

Lonefire blossom- shinra boost i guess. As mentioned with zombie carrier above, they are returning old cards. I dont think Plants will be as strong as they used to be.  I wont be surprised if they decided to kill off dragons, and return glow up bulb in the future.

4 dragon rulers- good call. Dragons will still be viable, severely weakened and need to look for other alternatives.

Other stuff: Not very relevant. As i mentioned 2 formats ago in my banlist discussion that Gorz to 2 would not make any impact, many people called me crazy, but now it is going to 3, and will not make much impact either :) except maybe in lightlords but there are so many better alternatives like swordsmen of revealing light and rainbow kuribou.

Overall, this banlist is quite good and the game will be quite healthy until madolche anjelly and artifacts come out. The top decks are easily, in no particular order:

1) dragons

2) Bujin- Bujin Asuka makes a big difference and people in  TCG are dumb to hype over bujin hare and peacock, when bujin asuka is so much better adding a searchable kagetokage into their deck.

3) Chronomaly- One of the best toolbox decks in the game right now. The aeroplane is actually fking dangerous shit.

4) Heraldics- Tutoring monster reborns and miracle fusions is cool, and a r4 toolbox which has extremely overpowered spell cards but underwhelming monster cards make the archetype balanced but just good enough to be competitive.

5) Madolches- This deck seems extremely imbalanced with a +5 combo but its actually not. The deck is nothing like windups because the +5 combo doesnt work turn 1 if your opponent has no field, and the deck is easily beaten if you MST their chateau and ticket. Also, despite having 6airman in the deck, 3 lonefire, and other stuffs, deck remains weak because the monsters are small and have a hard time overcoming big monsters early game. But it will remain good undoudbtly. The speed variant with TG engine is definitely not the way to go and a more stable control based approach seems to be the better build.

6) Last but not least is Firefist a deck which was untouched by the banlist. Firefist remains a very strong option and i will not be surprised to see it in the top tables once again

7) Geargia Karakuri. Lets face it. The Auger card is nuts. This deck will remain under the radar and quite unpopular IMO because for some reason people dont like the idea of playing machines and probably never will, unless its like cyber dragon toolbox but fuck that.

8) Lightlord- good deck with 3 judgment dragons. The skill in the deck comes from perfecting the deck and making it as consistent as possible. Has extremely powerful plays but will lose to itself and floodgate cards like macro, Light mirror etc. Lightlord assailant riden is extremely powerful on its own.

Anything else seems Tier 2 ish or just weird or i may not have taken it into consisderation. Despite everything else, the banlist paves the way for more decks to be competitive. The 8 mentioned here may not all be tier 1, but will horde the top part of the tier list.

All in all, i think the OCG list seems very good and the TCG seem to have taken the game in the wrong way. Any TCG Konami staff reading this article should think twice about it. The ones who have control of the game is Konami Japan as they release all the cards in the upcoming sets etc. They will increase the pwoer creep however they want and to curb the power creep is the wrong way to go. The sets and the cards designed are designed to suit the OCG meta and not the TCG's which is extremely underwhelming.

Let me bring up a few examples:

1) Why did they ban ravine ? Because dragunity would be good if it was allowed to remain at 3 in the current format and may be one of the best decks due to its consistency etc. But dragunity is not even strong in OCG. Why? because the formats are so different.

Patrick Hoban mentioned that power creep is not necessarily bad which i agree with. The dragon formats have shown to be extremely skill reliant. Konami Japan is currently trying to create a more "fair" format despite all the power cards. its true decks are more imbal nowdays, but if all decks have equal power? Then it would not be too much of a problem.

Why dragons would be a disaster if they were left in TCG for another format? Because the format is too slow and it will just eat every other deck up. In OCG, they will still be very good this format but they will also be alot fair-er and easier to deal with because cards like Bottomless Trap hole and Compuls are left in multiples.

Banning cards like Heavy storm and limiting all good traps is a terrible way to go. It makes strong openings like Firefist opening or spellbook opening with 5 backrow extremely overpowered. Its true that with more strong traps around, it solidifies the openings in OCG, ie: a strong power play backed up by BTH and compuls very good, but one must also consider that with the power creep in OCG, its also easier to deal with those backrows. Having Heavy storm is also good because people will only set 1-2 anyway. 2 card probably because they generated a plus 1 in opening turn, and they can survive a heavy storm.

Plus with good backrows around, it makes games more exciting and less about vomiting your field out. IMO, the notion of letting your opponent play Yugioh by limiting the floodgate cards like Skill Drain, Ophion, etc is the way to go. Not limiting all the traps, solemn judgment and heavy storm. Because those cards are part of the game as much as other cards are.

Lets look at TCG. With lesser backrows, how are tier 2 decks even having the chance to compete? Lets say INzektor sets a hornet or summons a Armagedon Knight with shitty backrow, how are they gonna deal with Firefist etc? The approach that Konami TCG has taken is obviously wrong.

When the new cards come out, people will scream broken? Why? Because the power creep in TCG has been severely reduced, and introducing cards of a higher power level suited for OCG meta which is of a higher power level will make things worse. In the end, Konami TCG will just limit everything. As Allen Pennington has predicted, if they continue this stance, there are gonna be more cards on the limited list than the banlist itself.

How is Hoban topping with hieratics in TCG? Is it because he is the best player? No. It is because the power creep has lessened so much that a deck like Hieratic can suddenly win/top events in TCG. Is this a good thing? Yes, and no. But its another illustration of how a deck which is tier 2-3 in OCG suddenly becoming a force to be reckoned with in TCG.

To prove another point, i urge TCG players to go play OCG for a few games. You will notice you suddenly have so much more decisions to make, so much more moves to take into account compared with TCG. Every time i finish testing OCG with my team, and if i proceed to test TCG after with TCG friends, the game suddenly seems so much easier. If you dont believe it, try it out for yourself. If the Worlds format is in favour of OCG and follows their format, i guarantee TCG players will all scrub out again. And why? Because Konami TCG decided to "fix the game".


Thats all for today. I am extremely envious of the OCG banlist :)


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Saturday, January 11, 2014

Cards royale YouTube channel shoutout

Hey guys, last post I wrote about how yugioh blogs are not the best source of information any longer and how videos on YouTube especially competitive duel videos have become the best source of information and learning yugioh effectively.

I also wrote about a store hosting tourney series in Singapore and how they should record feature matches.

The next day baha told me that the store actually does feature matches and has a YouTube channel where they post the recordings.

Check out the channel Cardz royale on YouTube. I would link it but I'm on my iPad now.

Go subscribe to it ! Much better to watch those videos than ppl like Cordero or other yugi tubers.
The channel has a very measly number of subscribers so it would be good if you guys supported them.

They may not have updated the latest videos yet and are still a few weeks behind due to editing or being busy , but hey quality over quantity !

That's all for today.
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Monday, January 6, 2014

The death of yugioh blogging

Sorry guys but someone has to bring this up sooner or later.

Yugioh blogs  are more or less dead.

Why ?

Because everything is concentrated on social media whereby FB or forums like DGz are the popular choices. An extremely underrated option is twitter, where OCG players and Japanese players share techs and decklists. IMO, every player should set up Twitter and follow baha! and many jap players like joker, jspeed, nana, chariot etc.

Furthermore yugioh isn't exactly the most complicated thing in the world so why would people need to read blogs about its strategy?

Most of the things I have noticed myself writing is why card choice A > card choice B or why I did that instead but it's not really relevant because any idiot can test it himself and come to the same conclusion.

The only stuff which I can actually write about is about good decks at the start of an undefined format. Which in this case is irrelevant because the meta will shape after 1 or 2 ycs.

Cool stuff like techs shouldn't be shared, I mean seriously if you have a cool tech which you found which puts you ahead, obviously you won't share right, you'd rather use it to your advantage at a high level tourney.

Ygo now should concentrate on one thing - bringing more coverage and feature matches as well as duel videos . IMO this are the new best ways to help people improve. Joshua Graham's YouTube channel is doing a very good job and I commend him for going in that direction. Having commentary is good too. Granted his duels aren't top quality, but it's a step in the right direction.

Malaysias yugioh community had decided to do some thing similar by recording duels of locals finals at the official store weekly or something like that.

1 of the stores in Singapore which runs a blog called active card series has decided to give mini coverage in the form of pic and matchup charts on fb and blogs. I feel that if they record the videos or even just 1 video feature of the finals for their tournament series (weekly) , that would be extremely beneficial to the entire Ygo community. Singapore has extremely solid and consistent Ygo players, which many are of world standard, and no other country except maybe Japan, could be in a better position to do this. However, it may be too much to ask or be too inconvenient to the tourney organizers, but if they do happen to read this, think about it ! Any Singaporeans reading this, please convey this msg to them :)

That's  all for today. I will update the blog from time to time , and have a happy new year !
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