OCG: The champions: Ivan

Okay. From now on, Im gonna divide my posts into TCG and OCG. IM playing the Official Card Game but there are some TCG players out there who read this blog so , oh well, i guess it isnt hard to goup my posts into the two groups.

Allright, here is another post on the champions. ^^ Last time i did Jeff Soh, currently the best players in Singapore (according to Alex and sam and everyone else LOL) and now im gonna post. OK last Saturday the KL shop in Sungei Wang called Gamers Arena organised a Christmas Tourney and yeah u guys probably saw the pics from my last post. And the number one guy is Ivan. Congrats to him for winning the tourney. In this tourney, promos werent allowed to be used so there is no undead synchro around (except for the ones running IL Blud and turtle which is so =P blek ) Luckily I was able to attend the tourney to bring a live coverage since i was at KL at that time enjoying holidays anjd my hotel is like 3-4 minutes walk from Sungei wang

Im sorry for the stupid picture that is outside down but im really lazy to rotate it and send to this comp agian via bluetooth n bla bla bla. Anyways, Ivan took down around 160+ players in this tourney with a Destiny Dark Armed deck (Tele-DAD) Normally this wouldnt seem special BUT he tweaked his deck to run a Return engine and was special from others. Check it out!

Tele-DAD return (40 cards)

Monsters (20)
2 necro gardnar
2 armagaedon knight
1 plaquespreader zombie
1 psychic commander
3 clevonse
2 Dark grepher
2 D-hero Dasher
2 JINZO
3 D-hero Diabolic guy
2 dark armed dragon
Spells (15)

3 allure of darkness
3 reinforcements of the army
2 destiny draw
3 emergency teleport
1 monster reborn
1 brain control
1 Mystical space typhoon
1 Heavy storm
Traps (5)

1 Crush card virus
1 Torrential tribute
3 ESCAPE FROM THE DARK DIMENSION

Now we have read and read many of metagame articles and practically everybody knows that the one way to shine among everybody is to TECH> Thats what Ivan did, and boy did he do it well. In the past format, no one can deny the speed of Destiny Arm return but then its too bad that Gladiator beasts took over (my next champions article is GB!) and then since return and dimension fusion was banned it made things worse and everything sucksed suddenly.

Before one plays in a tournament, one must analyse the situation. In this tourney its liek a whole different format since promos cant be used. Everything from stratos, gorz mezukis and thousands of other promos are not within reach and the whole format seemed much slower all of a sudden.

Furthermore in Malaysia, the duelists there play lots of traps. The obvious choice to make now is to find a way to negate traps and to fit it in your deck and bring benefits to you. It could be Royal Decree, Jinzo shocker and for all you know even sky scourge invicil but for Ivan it was Jinzo. According to Ivan, he told me that the deck was designed by a guy called Sung Lee( who some of you Malaysians and Singaporeans might know).

Now i saw in Shriek's OCG news the decklists of some of theJapan top decks. And i AM VERY VERY surprised to see darklord zerato, jinzo and dasher plus lots of escape and return combos! Its mind boggling to see an old strategy suddenly sweeping the tourney scene again. I wonder ifSung Lee and Ivan got this idea from there too -.-

What made this so very special is that it runs Jinzo andescape i even bolded this. Jinzo destroys traps totally. It thwarts opposing copies of Royal oppresion before they are played,phoenix wing wind blasts and other impportant ones like raigeki break, Crush card virus and torrential tribute. This deck runs Destiny hero dasher as well so drawing Jinzo at the draw step will let you bring out a 2400 attack titan to take care of all the opposing problems. With traps gone, its impossible to have your Stardusts, Thought Rulers, Collosals or anything get destroyed that easily. Dont forget Jinzo is a level 6 so if u ever run out of Malicious it can take te place easily

Escape is a very versatile card. according to Ivan he picked this strategy because it was chainable and very useful. Heavy storm, MST and giant trunade are very good cards and packed into almost everydeck and by chaining it to Escape, you got yourself a free monster and your opponent loses a card (provided that is ta4rget is Jinzo) Moreover chaining escape to cards such as skill drain and Royal Oppresion will totally stop all those Meta Beat decks out there (except for GB decks) Escape isnt only used to bring Jinzo it could also be used to bring out a Malicious and then tune it with Clevonse 2bring out the Synchro of his choice. If GB bestiari destroys escape it can always chain itself to bring out Jinzo so the GB player is put into a hard position. Then he will have to use a Fissure or a Smashing ground to destroy Jinzo. Thats meant he wasted 2 cards to destroy one. Card advantage is useful so this is a good move (:

The deck is buiklt consistently packing 2 D-draws, 3 teleport, 3 allures,3 reinforcements and 2

knight of the ends for absolute deck thinning. Removing Jino for allure isnt the only method to it. U can send Jinzo through knight and then tune knight with clevonse through Teleport to create a big monster, bring Dark arm out and then set escape. With so many cards to thin down the deck, Ivan is gonna see alot of his deck in a game provided he doesnt have a sucky hand (which is a big problem) n Jinzo is accesible in 80% of the duels.

Next up i heard many many people saying that Tele-DAD runs out of steam quickly and that controlling the first few turns will destroy the deck already. think about it. If u run Jinzo and escape its another option for you if ur monsters/ synchors are dealt with. And its not a easy problem to deal with either its attack is 2400 and it'll take a synchro to destroy it. And then if u can get the escape and Jinzo combo it makes it mcuh harder for the opponent to break your combo and take out your 2 sycnrhos. Looking at it in this point of view, it solves the two problems of Tele-DAD since it lengthens ur life and makes it harder to disrupt you in the early games since phoenix wing blast, karma cut, bottomless and raigeki break cant be chained. Sems like the only way to solve the problem is by Brionac ^^ (:

Combining Tele-DAD with escape and jinzo is ingenius and brought Ivan the title of malaysia number #1. Ivan did it, the japanese did it, so can you. (: Happy netdecking

(on a side note: i just realised this is this blog's 100th post!) wow!

KL tournament

So in the Kl trip i heard abt this tournament i think its a christmas tournament? or a duelist king one? Im not so sure either. I dint join the tournament =( because of two main reasons:

a) cant use promo cards-dammit la Brionac, dark end, mezuki, Gorz all gone poof =P
b) All the sleeves must be konami distributed- F*ck la whats sort of rule like that. I have to buy two whole new packs! One cost rm20 so i have to spend (rm20 x 2) + (rm15-entrance fee). Thats a total of Rm 55 just to enter -..- I rather spend the cash on manga or some new clothes , shoes e.t.c

Anyway , i managed to make it there on saturday to bring a live coverage. Only managed to get the champ's decklist because i was lazy to ask number 2 and number 4. But number 3 said he will give me on this blog (: So here are some pictures. (:

They had to rent a (approimately) 10m x 30m area to hold part of the tourney.

Got so many more ppl in the shop. Rumours that this tourney had more than 100 players entering. Im not surprised either. Anyways, i met a guy who bore too much resemblance to Lazaro Bellido. -.- ask sam or alex if u dint believe

So it seems this tourney not only joined by Malaysians even Singaporeans! Say hello Sam! Sitting quietly waiting for the first round to start. So in this trip i managed to make friends with Sam and Alex Yeo((aka Angryboy92)

Name: Karl (forgot surname)

ranking : number 4

deck: tele- DAD

Name: Alex Yeo (aka angryboy92)

Rank: Number 3

deck : Anti Meta Gladiator beasts

ZZZ this boy made me and sam run all the way to LRT station back and forth cross so many roads. He said he wait at LRT station then when we get there he took a taxi already ZZZ. Nice friendly chap though (:

Name: (I dont know i mean seriously dont know he hardly talks and then nobody knows him either. He probably isnt from KL )

ranking: Number 2

deck: lightlords

Name: IVAN

ranking: Number #1

deck: tele DAD return

A picture of the top 8! Wah see alex and all the top also got medals ^^ 1st prize gets five boxes! and alot of other stuff i cant rmbr

Anyways for a treat here is the number one decklist ^^

Tele-DAD return (40 cards)

Monsters (20)

2 necro gardnar

2 armagaedon knight

1 plaquespreader zombie

1 psychic commander

3 clevonse

2 Dark grepher

2 D-hero Dasher

2 JINZO

3 D-hero Diabolic guy

2 dark armed dragon

Spells (15)

3 allure of darkness

3 reinforcements of the army

2 destiny draw

3 emergency teleport

1 monster reborn

1 brain control

1 Mystical space typhoon

1 Heavy storm

Traps (5)

1 Crush card virus

1 Torrential tribute

3 ESCAPE FROM THE DARK DIMENSION

Tomorrow I'll do another " the champions post" on this deck by Ivan and show you why its so good and why it became the top deck (: happy netdecking

Goiing to KL this thursday

Going to Kl till next tuesday or is it Monday i also dont know and cant remember =.= Leaving this thursday. Angryboy92 (aka alex) going too and i hope to be able to meet him and duel him ^^ at sungei wang plaza in the shop called gamers arena. Ill be there on sunday and saturday both days so means enter ranking tourney ^^ haha i gonna upload some pictures of the dueling scene there.

Not gonna update till then. lazy. Unless tmr maybe? haha i also dont know. Anyways , merry christmas and seasons greetings from me (:

The Champions: Jeff Soh

Okay okay i know u seen the champions before on http://www.metagame.com/ but this is special. Last week, during the weekends, 16 duelists went head to head in a tournament in a battle for some very worthwhile prizes (1st prize included 2 Brionac, dragon of the ice boundary) and Jeff Soh aka kkBz on http://www.graceful-destruction.blogspot.com/ managed to win it all and beat the competition. This tourney was held in Comics.D.Legacy a shop in Singapore and i think i'll stop talking and go straight to the deck. But beforehand, i wish to congratulate Soh for his achievement. And special thanks to Beckoning of the mighty- http://www.graceful-destruction.blogspot.com/ for the decklists and stuff. Thats the guy in green in the picture above

Here's the decklist of the Winner, Jeff.

Deck Name: dAxAb

Monster: 19

Dark Armed Dragon x2

Emissary Of Hades, Gorz x1

Destiny Hero Malicious x3

Mezuki x3

Zombie Master x2

Goblin Zombie x3

Zombie Carrier x2

Krebons x2

Psychic Commander x

1Magic: 16

Allure of Darkness x3

Emergency Teleport x2

Burial From Different Dimension x3

Monster Reborn x1

Card of Destruction x1

Foolish Burial x2

Heavy Storm x1

Giant Trunade x1

Card Of Safe Return x2

Trap: 5

Crush Card Virus x1

Torrential Tribute x1

Raigeki Break x3

Side Deck: 15

D.D Crow x2

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x3

Compulsory Evacuation Device x2

Malevolent Catastrophe x3

Threatening Roar x2

Lightning Vortex x1

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Extra Deck: 15

Broniac, Dragon Of The Ice Boundary x3

Death Kaiser Dragon x1

Revived Lord Hades x1

Goyo Guardian x2

Black Rose Dragon x1

Dark Dive Bomber x1

Stardust Dragon x2

Dark End Dragon x1

Mental Sphere demon x1

Colossal Fighter x1

Red Daemon Dragon x1

OK here i included everything including the deck's sidedeck and its extra deck. What makes this deck so special and different than most other decks is that you just cant miss to see the consistency. This deck almost reminds me of a Magic the Gathering decklist as it runs everything it can in multiples and the only card that arent run in multiples are the semi limited ones or limited ones.

The monster line up looks extremely good as the entire strategy of an Undead synchro deck is there. The only special thing we see in there are the psychic monsters. Psychic monsters combined with emergency teleport is like the nitrox for a certain deck its speed and everything rolled in one. Most undead synchro do not play this and thus miss out on the consistency. In here the main reason that Jeff is running the psychics is probably of its level 3 tuner : psychic commando. Commander is level 3 meaning its the perfect card to bring out dark dive bomber!


DDB is probably one of the best synchros around and its power cannot be denied. I tried out dark dive bomber and it was amazing! Games that cannot be won can be won. Games can be turned because of its burn strategy. And the most rewarding part is decks that run Solemn judgment better watch out for DDB its coming to kill you. When a person plays DDB his opponent are gonna think twice abt those solemns. If he solemns DDb guess what? Ur Dark Arm Dragon and other synchros can come out without any worries (:

Next up is Gorz, gorz is just amazing and no one can deny that. It can turn games and acts as a trick. It turns game upside down wrecking ur opponent;s mind on whether he should attack. Ending ur first turn with an empty field usually means Gorz , or could it? ;) Gorz provides trickery. And in a deck like zombie synchro its too easy to draw with 3 allure, 2 teleports and COSR running wild. Besides in this format anyything can happen and that means ur opponent could clear ur field anytime so Gorz is just a vital card to play in decks.

Now most players would run 3 emergency teleports in the deck but Jeff made a wise choice to play only 2. In a deck that draws like crazy its very frequent to clog ur hand with the psychics and that would render the teleports useless. jeff decided to run only 2 because he did not wan useless cards in his hand and deck and minimzed that possibility. By cutting one teleport from the build, that allowed him space to run more cards and more tech options.

Giant trunade is a card that is very very important. Wise players can make use of the situation and trick ur opponent by returning the entire S/T zone back to the hand. That would let his opponent think he is vulnerable and commit to taking out Jeff's monster field. Then they attack and letting jeff call out Gorz and turn back the game. By then his opponent had already wasted his cards to take out the past field and thus, cannot handle Gorz letting it run rampant. Also, it can be a card if u want to safely kill the opponent because that would render his opponent vulnerable to all sort of effects and attacks.

Now some players may think running card destruction is useless. This card remains a strong pick here, as it is in virtually all Zombie variants. It’s actually a tremendous card for most strategies right now, as we’ve seen in the instances where it was splashed into Day 2 decks at recent Jumps and japan tourneys. CD is a card everyone should be thinking of at the moment when duelists build a new deck — it’s speed and disruption rolled into one. So why not? =D

Raigeki break is a great tech card because it can discard cards and its better that phoenix wing wind blast. We are playing the OCG not the TCG therefore the players are not concentrating on bringing out Mental sphere deamon. Imagine going against decks like anti-meta or u wan to get rid of cards such anti-spell fragrance, dimension fissure or stuff like that. Think about it PWWB is useless it may slow the opponent down a turn but he gets the card back n ur problem still remains unsolved. Break however takes care of the opponent's card easily and effortlessly. Besides that u can use it to destroy ur opponent's monster to ensure ur opponent's graveyard isnt at 3 darks so Dark arm dragon cant come out. Apart from that bouncing back Judgment dragon ddoesnt solve any problem either. But u can wait till Judgment dragon effect comes out then chain break to destroy the dragon once and for all.

Jeff has created a monster that has destruction, surprise and consistency rolled all in one and earning 1st place. Expect to see ppl copying the decklist and trying it out for themselves =)
Thats the end of the post. happy netdecking =)

Kansai Biregion decklists

Ok i saw some interestin decklists on this cool tourney in Japan and i was downright surprised when i saw black feather deck in the top4. XD Now thats not what u will see everyday....

2 dark arm dragon
1 dark creator
1 gorz
3 blackfeather-sirroco of the dawn
1 sangan
1 psychic commander
3 black feather- blast of the black lance
1 phantom of chaos
1 necro gardnar
1 dd crow
3 black feather-gale of the hurricnae
1 spirit reaper
2 clevonse

3 allure of darkness
1 heavy storm
1 giant trunade
1 monster reborn
1 brain control
2 urgent teleport
1 Mystical space typhoon

3 bottomless trap hole
2 compulsory evacuation device
1 Dark dimension release
1 torrential tribute
1 mirror force

Cool huh? I guess speed return with cards like D.D.R and Dark release and RFTDD is back in format and play style. And playing with lots of traps is good. This boy ran 3 BTH and 2 evacuation device. Lots amount of control lols. I guess time for me to find space to run solemn judgment =/

CB i hate Shriek OCG news its black background n cannot copy and paste stuff =/ have to remember then type the decklists out

Next i found a buster undead deck. LOL buster. I gues this is how the winning tourey buster deck will look like

2 Stardust buster
2 Dark arm dragon
3 buster beast
3 d-hero malicious
2 dark grepher
2 clevonse
3 knight of the end
3 zombie carrier

3 allure of darkness
2 foolish burial
2 reinforcements of the army
1 heavy storm
1 MST
1 monster reborn
2 urgent teleport
1 burial from different dimension

3 solemn judgment
3 buster mode
1 the transmigration prophecy

Lol solemn judgments.... is 2 emergency teleports really enough? i guess so this deck thins down really quickly and runs out of steam faster than destiny dark arm decks. one DD crow can kill stardustbuster. Solemn cant stop crow =/ better to play divine wrath anyways he sure to have many useless cards in hand. =/ at least he got sidedeck it.

Now here is another top 4 deck from one of the tourneys. Camelia skill drain. Looks good. Worth netdecking? see for yourself...

2 camelia titanial
3 God beastking barbaros
3 raiou
3 killer tomato
3 black feather-gale of the hurricane
2 dark resonator
3 lonefire blossom

3 allure of darkness
1 MST
1 monster reborn
3 instant fusion
3 shrink

3 skill drain
3 solemn judgment
3 dark bribe
1 mirror force

Not bad eh? Looks good...Though i dont see why that guy plays instant fusion of shrink and mirror force the monsters are already too big anyways =/

Another deck called cold wave synchro:

2 dark arm dragon
2 wicked emperor gaius
1 envoy of hades gorz
1 dark grapher
3 d-hero malicious
3 raiou
1 sangan
2knight of the end
2 clevonse
2 psychic commando
1 spirit reaper
1 zombie carrier
1 necro gardnar

2 allure of darkness
2 reinforcement of army
1 heavy storm
3 cold wave
1 noble man of crossout
3 emergency teleport
1 monster reborn
1 brain control
1 book of moon

1 torrential truibute
1 mirror force
1 crush card virus

Notice that 3 out of 4 of the decks i posted there got mirror force =) BTW i dono y ppl bother running cold wave synchro anyways cold wave just stops ur own spell and traps =/ But it has its advantage =/

Thats abt all im gonna post for now. O.o got 2 TragoMonarch decks there cool la. And also deformer makes top 32 so yea cool and interesting. happy netdecking =)