After like a really long time, i finally have time to make a post.
Every exam has been fine, except History. Having mixed feelings. Many opinion questions, but you never know where you could go wrong cos you could have different opinions from the markers. Afterall the paper is supposed to be subjective... BUT Malaysian education is NOT subjective. Still banking on an A but no A+ so owell.
This post will be based on ORCS. From LGQ's blog, i managed to see that Konami has released Dark Blade, Head Soldier of Dark UnderWorld.
The original text of the Dark Blade card spoke about him being linked to the Dark World army so im kinda glad that its finally here. Its good Konami released cards that are linked to the old storyline of Yugioh. For example, the Legendary Six Samurai. Its always nice to see old cards again.
Now to discuss Dark Blade the Commander.
Being 1800 attack makes him nifty because he can be a good beatstick and being dark is just adding icing to the topping of a greatly designed card.
Dark Blade is probably the best generic card in the set because of its usefulness in the sideboard.
I think Konami purposely designed this card to tackle the Angel deck problem. This is like the best answer to Kristia ever, and it even answers to Hyperion, and occasional random stuff like BLS etc.
This card works well in DW (obviously), Blackwings (grave or whirlwind), and most importantly Junk Dopple.
I think this card was created FOR Junk Dopple specifically because Doppel have few outs to Kristia besides BTH (which is not even a staple!) and the other only thing is Ryko. Banishing a dark is free for Doppel who has Tragoedia, Chaos Sorceror, Tomato, Junk, Dop Warrior, Sangan bla bla swimming in the grave constantly.
The fact that it is a Warrior allows it to be searched via rota, and rota could be dead mid or late game sometimes. Having Dark sword sided gives you more options for Rota. Who wouldnt like summoning a 1800 beatstick which clears Kristia in the mid to late game?
This card answers to half the problems you could face against Angels already so i think it is pretty good. The other half comes from Gachi, or occasionally otk-ed by Daigusta Phoenix and Orange Lights waiting in their hands.
Exceed Reborn is quite funny too because it looks like a thinned down version of the TCG design of Monster Reborn and i think the Turtle Who will Once be Called God is probably the cutest card in the whole set. Enthusiasts would love to get their hands on Gagaga Girl, which i have no idea why too.
Overall I see ORCS to be a pretty decent set with good themes like Ninjas and the Insecters are also decent , so it kinda reminds me a little like CRMS except we dont have broken Dark Dive Bomber , but its definitely an improvement from the last 2 Zexal sets.
Its still not worth buying a whole box unless your gonna be playing Ninjas.
EDIT: Post is null and void. Dark Blade only solves level 4 or lower light monsters. Thanks to all the people who notified me. Shriek got it wrong this time. Wanna delete it but nvm just let it be
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
D Box Update
Promos:
1x scr Hope (wtf totally waste of promo space)
1x Wind Up Disguised Zenmaio
Rank 5 (2x level 5 monster)
atk: 2500 def:1900
Effect: Once per turn, detach 1 xyz monster and destroy one set card on the field.
1x M X Saber Invoker
Rank 3
atk: 1900 def: 500
2x Level 3 monster
Effect: Once per turn, detach 1 xyz monster, and ss 1 level 4 Earth warrior or beast warrior monster from your deck in face up defence mode. The ss-ed monster is destroyed at the end phase
Invoker is kinda balanced at first look, but it sets up Gottom Emergency Call really fast which is a good thing. Which means fast Trishula.
Personal comment of overall product:
Wasted promo space of Hope.
So red. Looks bad. My eye pain.
Total disappointment. Fail Product.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
So Imba
Just for some of you who don't know, Rauzes has started a Vanguard blog. Those who like/play/watch VG can check it out.
http://soimba.blogspot.com/
FYI, no im not dead yet, just busy and lazy thats all. Exams start on the 14th!
Cya all on the 31st!
http://soimba.blogspot.com/
FYI, no im not dead yet, just busy and lazy thats all. Exams start on the 14th!
Cya all on the 31st!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
More OTK w/ dragons!
firstly, the thing konami tcg did with DW deck promotion was really really gay.
Summon out dragon, banish for redmd, special summon pulsar for redmd's effect.
send both to grave for Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon.
Pulsar's effect ss REDMD which in turn revives Pulsar again
Total damage = 8300 damage otk lol.
Yes the more Galaxy Eyes , the more fun.
Kudos to Anand for the combo =)
Summon out dragon, banish for redmd, special summon pulsar for redmd's effect.
send both to grave for Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon.
Pulsar's effect ss REDMD which in turn revives Pulsar again
Total damage = 8300 damage otk lol.
Yes the more Galaxy Eyes , the more fun.
Kudos to Anand for the combo =)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Little Bit Of Comparison
So, i decided to compare MTG and Yugioh, since i know a wee bit about mtg but i know shit about vanguard still.
One of the things that makes mtg superior to yugioh is how the game is designed. For example, mtg is designed that it is harder to lose life points unless your playing burn, whereas its so easy to lose all 8000 lp in one turn, or it can happen in the course of 2 or 3 turns.
mtg was designed so that your opponent has 20 lp, and yugioh has 8000 life points. Because mtg allows your opponent to choose to block whichever monsters you want, the game prolongs. furthermore, mtg doesnt deal the difference as battle damage to lp like yugioh does. That is not necessary a bad thing and can be healthy but when the game is designed in a way that you can dump 8000 lp worth of stuff on the field like snapping your fingers, then you have a problem there.
but its not impossible to end the game in mtg too because some creatures have flying effects or other built in effects like haste, death touch, bla bla bla.
another reason is that mtg has a larger set base. To make up for the set rotation problem (which sucks), mtg releases more cards in a set. Perhaps Yugioh OCG could release more cards, so that we have more options to play or choose from. You can really notice that YGO in the OCG now is quite stagnant and theres not much changing around so its getting kinda boring lately since everything is the same. Its different in the TCG because more cards are released cos of exclusives etc, and then the cards are really lop-sided cos some can be really broken while some really suck, which i guess are fillers only.
with that said, mtg's large set base consists of more playable themes and cards. these cards exist within the same power level which makes the game more fair. sure there are planeswalkers and stuff, and i can say almost each planeswalker is equivalent to dropping a hyperion, it makes up for it by being more generic, so each deck has its very own planeswalker unless your playing something really theme specific.
i guess what im trying to say is that the designers should make more of yugioh's cards more generic and less theme specific to ensure a lil more variation.
nowadays its all about theme theme theme, and like rauzes said, there is alot of weightage on how you build your deck in yugioh. when you play dw or angels, there are theme cards which you MUST add in order to keep it smmoth and effective.
dont you remember the times in early yugioh way before GX era only during LOB to AST, whereby there is less weightage on deck building? You dont have to throw in multiples of several copies of a certain theme card, and the best decks were ones whereby at least half of the monster base is made up of staple stuff like Sangan, Breaker, Spirit Reaper, DD Warrior Lady etc.
Take for example Zombies last time, it was just Vampire Lord, Pyramid Turtle mixed with other staples etc.
even warrior toolbox last time was not theme specific at all, whereby you just put in don zaloog, exiled force, dd warrior lady and other random warriors, and 3 reinforcements of army. there was no "Mainspring for Mainspring only" or stuff like that.
the most themed deck last time was probably gadgets and its just putting in 9 gadgets while everything else is generic.
remember how goat control was shaped from putting the very best cards in the game while backed up by a great ideology of stopping every single option of your opponent with TER, BLS etc?
Maybe im just nostalgic but then yeah its totally more boring nowadays. Maybe Konami should make it less about appealing to kids and i think they are kinda sidetracking from the original Yugioh which we all loved.
maybe this is why everyone is going into VG because it was designed by Kazuki Takahashi himself and it probably aims to try to correct every loophole YGO has. I just dont like the art. Prefer more mystic kinda art like MTG or old school YGO :D
anyhow this is not a rant, and its just a comparison :D
thank you for reading.
edit: due to large amount of response, (never knew i would get that many) i guess what i mean to say is that i want to see more decks that are less theme specific. problem was the repitition of seeing certain decks over and over again got to me. themes nowadays are good enough to keep up with good decks that comprise of non themed cards like junk doppel. so yeah. just wanted to see more theme decks vs non theme decks in the game around. just personal opinion.
i still think that sets should be larger in ocg, and stuff like that lol
One of the things that makes mtg superior to yugioh is how the game is designed. For example, mtg is designed that it is harder to lose life points unless your playing burn, whereas its so easy to lose all 8000 lp in one turn, or it can happen in the course of 2 or 3 turns.
mtg was designed so that your opponent has 20 lp, and yugioh has 8000 life points. Because mtg allows your opponent to choose to block whichever monsters you want, the game prolongs. furthermore, mtg doesnt deal the difference as battle damage to lp like yugioh does. That is not necessary a bad thing and can be healthy but when the game is designed in a way that you can dump 8000 lp worth of stuff on the field like snapping your fingers, then you have a problem there.
but its not impossible to end the game in mtg too because some creatures have flying effects or other built in effects like haste, death touch, bla bla bla.
another reason is that mtg has a larger set base. To make up for the set rotation problem (which sucks), mtg releases more cards in a set. Perhaps Yugioh OCG could release more cards, so that we have more options to play or choose from. You can really notice that YGO in the OCG now is quite stagnant and theres not much changing around so its getting kinda boring lately since everything is the same. Its different in the TCG because more cards are released cos of exclusives etc, and then the cards are really lop-sided cos some can be really broken while some really suck, which i guess are fillers only.
with that said, mtg's large set base consists of more playable themes and cards. these cards exist within the same power level which makes the game more fair. sure there are planeswalkers and stuff, and i can say almost each planeswalker is equivalent to dropping a hyperion, it makes up for it by being more generic, so each deck has its very own planeswalker unless your playing something really theme specific.
i guess what im trying to say is that the designers should make more of yugioh's cards more generic and less theme specific to ensure a lil more variation.
nowadays its all about theme theme theme, and like rauzes said, there is alot of weightage on how you build your deck in yugioh. when you play dw or angels, there are theme cards which you MUST add in order to keep it smmoth and effective.
dont you remember the times in early yugioh way before GX era only during LOB to AST, whereby there is less weightage on deck building? You dont have to throw in multiples of several copies of a certain theme card, and the best decks were ones whereby at least half of the monster base is made up of staple stuff like Sangan, Breaker, Spirit Reaper, DD Warrior Lady etc.
Take for example Zombies last time, it was just Vampire Lord, Pyramid Turtle mixed with other staples etc.
even warrior toolbox last time was not theme specific at all, whereby you just put in don zaloog, exiled force, dd warrior lady and other random warriors, and 3 reinforcements of army. there was no "Mainspring for Mainspring only" or stuff like that.
the most themed deck last time was probably gadgets and its just putting in 9 gadgets while everything else is generic.
remember how goat control was shaped from putting the very best cards in the game while backed up by a great ideology of stopping every single option of your opponent with TER, BLS etc?
Maybe im just nostalgic but then yeah its totally more boring nowadays. Maybe Konami should make it less about appealing to kids and i think they are kinda sidetracking from the original Yugioh which we all loved.
maybe this is why everyone is going into VG because it was designed by Kazuki Takahashi himself and it probably aims to try to correct every loophole YGO has. I just dont like the art. Prefer more mystic kinda art like MTG or old school YGO :D
anyhow this is not a rant, and its just a comparison :D
thank you for reading.
edit: due to large amount of response, (never knew i would get that many) i guess what i mean to say is that i want to see more decks that are less theme specific. problem was the repitition of seeing certain decks over and over again got to me. themes nowadays are good enough to keep up with good decks that comprise of non themed cards like junk doppel. so yeah. just wanted to see more theme decks vs non theme decks in the game around. just personal opinion.
i still think that sets should be larger in ocg, and stuff like that lol
Monday, October 17, 2011
Dragons
Finally, i post about Dragons!
As you all know, the new SD is broken, and releasing REDMD into competitive play in Malaysia is nuts because REDMD is a great boss monster, possibly as good as Hyperion and Grapha, as its almost the same as having 3 Gorz in your deck (REDMD generates a beatstick once per turn)
Pulsar is good because you can ss REDMD and go into something else.
The advantage about this new deck is that it makes Dragons a Tier 1 swarm deck right off the bat.
While most people have forgotten about Dragons, let me refresh your memory about what Dragons can do, and the advantages they have.
1) A decent draw engine
Trade In exists and its still a good card, where you dump something and draw 2. Unlike other draw engines, like Cards from the Sky or Cards for BF , Trade in has no drawback whatsoever.
2) The ONLY deck around to have an effective Painful Choice sort of card.
FutureFusion alone makes this deck overpowered, and once this deck is released i expect FF to be banned in the next list. Its a friggin Painful Choice which leads to +2s or 3 instantly and can even fill up your entire field. Keeping it around means dropping a 5000 attack beatstick once 2 turns have passed, or it forces your opponent to use his MST or spell.trap removal.
Furthermore if you dump 3 REDMD, 1 Pulsar , 1 other random Dragon, you can effectively end up with 5 big Dragons on your field with just one move!
3) The generation of many OTK FTK engines.
Dragons have always been somehow used as engines because of their high level, and their synergy with Trade In. Because Dragons have such good synergy with REDMD, Future Fusion, Blue Eyes White Stone (used in Exodia FTK) etc too.
There is currently one going around with Cannon Soldier/ Toon CS, and Pulsar.
4) Foolish Burial every turn. Some of you may have forgotten Dragon Canyon.
You can discard a card to Foolish Burial a Dragon once per turn. I think this is a joke because you can just discard REDMD or Pulsar and use canyons effect to dump a dragon from your deck, and then revive Pulsar ss REDMD, ss another dragon and end up with a field of 3 beatsticks just like that. Its crazy, not even Junk Dopple can generate high level stuff as efficiently as Dragons.
I can dump Pulsar, discard REDMD and something else for Pulsar's cost, ss it from graveyard and just do stuff from there. Its ridiculous and the options are infinite.
5) The only deck out there besides X Sabers or old school zombies to have so many Monster Reborn effect monsters in the deck. Pulsar revives REDMD, Red Eyes Wyvern revived REDMD and REDMD revives everything else.
Discarding White Stone for Pulsar only generates advantage in the form of Blue Eyes White Dragon, while Blue Eyes fuel the engine of Trade In, and stuff, and its a decent removal target for Pulsar (effect or removal cost) and REDMD.
Blue Eyes isnt exactly dead either. You could try running Sin Blue Eyes just for the fun , okay i am sidetracking from competitive play ideas, but then the ideas are endless.
I am very sure there are a thousand other better Light or Dark monsters around , but its just i cant think of em right now.
One of the core points of this deck now is setup. If you can effectively set up Light and Dark Dragons in the grave consistently, you can pull Pulsar, or if you need to discard for Pulsar to be ss'ed from the grave, and you can do it without losing advantage, then you have a tier 1 deck right off the bat.
As im typing this, there has only been 1 card out of the 5 new cards in Dragons (i totally have to mention this.
I been getting so many "you should use Gate of Dark World, or Snow, or your deck build of DW is bad" when those cards have not even been confirmed at that time, that its not even funny.
Most likely, the new cards include a searcher beatstick theme card, and more field magic stuff, and a useless random trap lol
Anyway, more updates once the cards are released !
When i have time, i will try to compare MTG and Yugioh through the gaming aspects and the design, and a lil on the card design but not on Konami's or Wizards faults etc.
As you all know, the new SD is broken, and releasing REDMD into competitive play in Malaysia is nuts because REDMD is a great boss monster, possibly as good as Hyperion and Grapha, as its almost the same as having 3 Gorz in your deck (REDMD generates a beatstick once per turn)
Pulsar is good because you can ss REDMD and go into something else.
The advantage about this new deck is that it makes Dragons a Tier 1 swarm deck right off the bat.
While most people have forgotten about Dragons, let me refresh your memory about what Dragons can do, and the advantages they have.
1) A decent draw engine
Trade In exists and its still a good card, where you dump something and draw 2. Unlike other draw engines, like Cards from the Sky or Cards for BF , Trade in has no drawback whatsoever.
2) The ONLY deck around to have an effective Painful Choice sort of card.
FutureFusion alone makes this deck overpowered, and once this deck is released i expect FF to be banned in the next list. Its a friggin Painful Choice which leads to +2s or 3 instantly and can even fill up your entire field. Keeping it around means dropping a 5000 attack beatstick once 2 turns have passed, or it forces your opponent to use his MST or spell.trap removal.
Furthermore if you dump 3 REDMD, 1 Pulsar , 1 other random Dragon, you can effectively end up with 5 big Dragons on your field with just one move!
3) The generation of many OTK FTK engines.
Dragons have always been somehow used as engines because of their high level, and their synergy with Trade In. Because Dragons have such good synergy with REDMD, Future Fusion, Blue Eyes White Stone (used in Exodia FTK) etc too.
There is currently one going around with Cannon Soldier/ Toon CS, and Pulsar.
4) Foolish Burial every turn. Some of you may have forgotten Dragon Canyon.
You can discard a card to Foolish Burial a Dragon once per turn. I think this is a joke because you can just discard REDMD or Pulsar and use canyons effect to dump a dragon from your deck, and then revive Pulsar ss REDMD, ss another dragon and end up with a field of 3 beatsticks just like that. Its crazy, not even Junk Dopple can generate high level stuff as efficiently as Dragons.
I can dump Pulsar, discard REDMD and something else for Pulsar's cost, ss it from graveyard and just do stuff from there. Its ridiculous and the options are infinite.
5) The only deck out there besides X Sabers or old school zombies to have so many Monster Reborn effect monsters in the deck. Pulsar revives REDMD, Red Eyes Wyvern revived REDMD and REDMD revives everything else.
Discarding White Stone for Pulsar only generates advantage in the form of Blue Eyes White Dragon, while Blue Eyes fuel the engine of Trade In, and stuff, and its a decent removal target for Pulsar (effect or removal cost) and REDMD.
Blue Eyes isnt exactly dead either. You could try running Sin Blue Eyes just for the fun , okay i am sidetracking from competitive play ideas, but then the ideas are endless.
I am very sure there are a thousand other better Light or Dark monsters around , but its just i cant think of em right now.
One of the core points of this deck now is setup. If you can effectively set up Light and Dark Dragons in the grave consistently, you can pull Pulsar, or if you need to discard for Pulsar to be ss'ed from the grave, and you can do it without losing advantage, then you have a tier 1 deck right off the bat.
As im typing this, there has only been 1 card out of the 5 new cards in Dragons (i totally have to mention this.
I been getting so many "you should use Gate of Dark World, or Snow, or your deck build of DW is bad" when those cards have not even been confirmed at that time, that its not even funny.
Most likely, the new cards include a searcher beatstick theme card, and more field magic stuff, and a useless random trap lol
Anyway, more updates once the cards are released !
When i have time, i will try to compare MTG and Yugioh through the gaming aspects and the design, and a lil on the card design but not on Konami's or Wizards faults etc.
Monday, October 10, 2011
GoGoGo Giant
Just finally saw Shriek after a really really long time :D
GoGoGo Giant:
Level 4/ attack: 2000/ defence: 0 / attribute: earth
effect: when this card is normal summoned, special summon 1 gogogo monster frm your graveyard. then change this card to defence position, and if this monster attacks, it is turned to defence position afterwards.
Thank god this card is changed to defence after effect resolves, or else you could summon gogogo, revive gogogo number 2, whack 2 opponent monsters and then exceed.
Anyhow, this card is a very good instant rank 4 exceed and it has potential.
Could be the new Debris Dragon kind of card. As the protagonist, Yuma is bound to receive more support in many ways.
You can also randomly revive glow up to make naturia beast.
Inzecter Beetle is also interesting as it is a pseudo Scrap Dragon, although Scrap Dragon is much better.
However, being level 6, it can be nifty for X sabers because Hyunlei is a floater and you can use your Faultroll for exceeding it, and you can actually generate profit if you send Darksoul or Gottoms E Call to grave, depending on how well you play it.
Anyhow, dropping it on the field already guarantees that it has a very big attack due to its effect.
PS: Managed to get Seans decklist for Chaos BF. Will ask him again if he allows me to post it. He won the recent Zexal Ranking tourneys again, (1st on Sunday, 2nd on Saturday), seriously he is like the new Wong Fei Hung.
GoGoGo Giant:
Level 4/ attack: 2000/ defence: 0 / attribute: earth
effect: when this card is normal summoned, special summon 1 gogogo monster frm your graveyard. then change this card to defence position, and if this monster attacks, it is turned to defence position afterwards.
Thank god this card is changed to defence after effect resolves, or else you could summon gogogo, revive gogogo number 2, whack 2 opponent monsters and then exceed.
Anyhow, this card is a very good instant rank 4 exceed and it has potential.
Could be the new Debris Dragon kind of card. As the protagonist, Yuma is bound to receive more support in many ways.
You can also randomly revive glow up to make naturia beast.
Inzecter Beetle is also interesting as it is a pseudo Scrap Dragon, although Scrap Dragon is much better.
However, being level 6, it can be nifty for X sabers because Hyunlei is a floater and you can use your Faultroll for exceeding it, and you can actually generate profit if you send Darksoul or Gottoms E Call to grave, depending on how well you play it.
Anyhow, dropping it on the field already guarantees that it has a very big attack due to its effect.
PS: Managed to get Seans decklist for Chaos BF. Will ask him again if he allows me to post it. He won the recent Zexal Ranking tourneys again, (1st on Sunday, 2nd on Saturday), seriously he is like the new Wong Fei Hung.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
D Boyz
http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=3297#more-3297
Yup you all would have seen this already.
Really racist lol.
also:
"everyday im shuffling shuffling"
Yup you all would have seen this already.
Really racist lol.
also:
"everyday im shuffling shuffling"
Saturday, October 1, 2011
QD Doppel 2.0
2 Tragoedia
1 Gorz
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 BLS
2 QD synchron
2 Junk synchron
1 spore
1 glow up bulb
2 effect veiler
1 level eater
2 card trooper
2 ryko
1 mystic tomato
1 sangan
1 dandylion
2 doppel warrior
3 tuning
2 mst
1 foolish burial
1 heavy storm
1 one for one
1 rota
1 monster reborn
1 dark hole
1 pot of avarice
2 call of haunted
1 torrential tribute
2 bottomless trap hole
Discussion:
I only run 5 boss monsters because of consistency and lack of space. QD version takes up more space. Still choosing between DAD or a Sorcerer.
Really wanna fit in another Junk Synchron, the deck will be perfect that way. 3 Tunings now to search 4 monsters sounds impractical but works better than you think because Drill Warrior can discard any useless stuff.
Really wanna cut down the deck to 1 Veiler because its quite useless in the OCG
BTH eliminates the luck factor in YGO and i even chose to run it over Dustshoot.
No scapegoat because lack of space. No mind control or enemy controller because they were just okay, and i didnt find them spectacular. they were just there most of the time and i didnt really need them.
i think 2 Trags are really compulsory in every Plant build because it makes the deck more consistent especially when you have a bad hand, and dropping a 3k attack Trag solves everything. The Snatch Steal effect doesnt work that much in here because most of my monsters are weenies but then the level modulation thing is so good and gives so much versatility to the deck.
Kinda satisfied with this build now. It may not hav the 3rd Junk or the Scapegoat or Mind Control but it works pretty well and consistently for a Plant build, the only problem i have is drawing QDs without any other monsters and a whole load of spells and traps. May cut out the engine and just play pure Doppel xD
Thats all for today thanks for reading.
1 Gorz
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 BLS
2 QD synchron
2 Junk synchron
1 spore
1 glow up bulb
2 effect veiler
1 level eater
2 card trooper
2 ryko
1 mystic tomato
1 sangan
1 dandylion
2 doppel warrior
3 tuning
2 mst
1 foolish burial
1 heavy storm
1 one for one
1 rota
1 monster reborn
1 dark hole
1 pot of avarice
2 call of haunted
1 torrential tribute
2 bottomless trap hole
Discussion:
I only run 5 boss monsters because of consistency and lack of space. QD version takes up more space. Still choosing between DAD or a Sorcerer.
Really wanna fit in another Junk Synchron, the deck will be perfect that way. 3 Tunings now to search 4 monsters sounds impractical but works better than you think because Drill Warrior can discard any useless stuff.
Really wanna cut down the deck to 1 Veiler because its quite useless in the OCG
BTH eliminates the luck factor in YGO and i even chose to run it over Dustshoot.
No scapegoat because lack of space. No mind control or enemy controller because they were just okay, and i didnt find them spectacular. they were just there most of the time and i didnt really need them.
i think 2 Trags are really compulsory in every Plant build because it makes the deck more consistent especially when you have a bad hand, and dropping a 3k attack Trag solves everything. The Snatch Steal effect doesnt work that much in here because most of my monsters are weenies but then the level modulation thing is so good and gives so much versatility to the deck.
Kinda satisfied with this build now. It may not hav the 3rd Junk or the Scapegoat or Mind Control but it works pretty well and consistently for a Plant build, the only problem i have is drawing QDs without any other monsters and a whole load of spells and traps. May cut out the engine and just play pure Doppel xD
Thats all for today thanks for reading.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Brain Drain Occuring in YuGiOh
Before i start my post i managed to see Wind Up Zenmaines , a tcg exclusive card which is fucking fucking overpowered. The card is pure bad game design as it is 100000000x worse than Gantetsu, really frigging solid in so many ways since it has crazily high defence and decent attack too.
Level 3 is so easy to bring out, i can even see X Sabers being played more just cos of this. Plants can just Tour Guide into Tour Guide and drop this and stall and do shit.
Konami is printing more imbal cards =(
Which brings me to the current issue. The Brain Drain phenomenom
The brain drain phenomenom describes the situation whereby a country loses its human resources to other countries due to migration.
As many of you may or may not know, Malaysia is currently facing this crisis. Generally, migration is not a bad thing, because it has many advantages which i am not going into depth, but then the thing about migration is that when people migrate out of the country, there are also people migrating into the country.
So, if the rate of people migrating into the country exceeds the rate of ppl migrating out, the country is gaining advantages in the form of human resources and many more stuff, and the converse is true.
But if the very opposite thing happened, then that country is facing a loss. However, that loss, if its minimal can be mitigated by other external factors like increase of birth rate bla bla bla.
There is a funny saying written by Shaun Tan, the finalists of the World Bank 2011 Essay Contest that goes:
Smart Indians go to med school,
Smart Chinese go to investment banks,
Smart Malaysians go to Singapore.
Of course this is very crude and cynical and im not a racist, or an elitist who has no patriotism for my country (please do not misinterpret)
Now let us apply this into Yugioh.
There are many factors that cause Yugioh players to leave the game. Some leave because they have done enough or had enough of the game, some leave for work issues, and some leave to try another game.
However, this is all very healthy.
But i noticed lately that Yugioh is being sidecast more and more.
Let us first discuss the TCG. Since i am not a TCG player, my interpretations or analysis may not be accurate so i wish to inform you all of that.
I can see many players switching over to Magic because of its skill-based influence and and also because that the game is more prestigious and stuff (kinda agree)
However the main factors the players are leaving the game can be broken down and has been broken down by Michael Bonacini (Death Aspect blog) several times again and again.
Recently, Konami has taken a liking to printing incredibly broken wtf cards. It seems that everytime a card that is incredibly imbal is released, it is the TCG design's team fault. (or so it seems)
What better example then "Charge of Light Brigade , Darksoul , Tengu , Tour Guide and now Wind Up Zenmaines??? "
It is not any better when the company decides to print these cards in the highest rarity possible.
Tengu was different and made accessible to everybody but Tour Guide, Charge, Barrier, and Zenmaines (assumed) are printed in SCR rarity. Furthermore, they choose to reprint cards like Warning and Duality, which were all incredibly crucial for the last 2 formats with maximum rarity too. Even poor Glow Up Bulb was bumped up to Ultra/ Ulti version.
Seriously, Wind Up Zenmaines is surely gonna cost like $ 70 + at first release already and will surely skyrocket. Luckily it is not a card you need 3 copies of.
I mean the OCG design team is not entirely innocent either but the only thing broken that has been printed lately is Grapha and Rescue Rabbit, which the latter is not abused that much anyway. You can make Rabbit Ragia decks where you run the risk of drawing shitty and dead cards but the rewards are that you have a walking Solemn Judgment + beatstick on the field if successful which can change the game tempo.
The promotion and the release of new broken cards makes certain players sick of the game. Obviously, they want to reward players who are willing to pay more $$ to top the game. The game over in the TCG side obviously doesnt reward much skill anymore although it is much better than last format (which i should praise)
Furthermore its not like the game is like MTG whereby skill is much more prevalent there. Once my SPM exams have finished i must really make an effort to delve into MTG for awhile.
Now i will discuss the OCG part of the game =)
The game is still very much popular and well received in countries like Japan (i think), but i will choose more to focus on the Asian format, and ultimately Malaysia, my own country.
Here in the Asian format, we aren't allowed to use much promos. I have to be very thankful because i think the Asian format is the best format in the world because it rewards so much skilled play and there are no broken TCG promos floating around. Moreover, when cards like Recruiter and Dark Soul make their way to the OCG, they arent even broken anymore and the players who top Asian format tourneys are all consistent toppers.
I mean sure GK can be still good, but then there are risks to running it, such as DW. You can side Watcher or Imps all you want but the risk is still there.
As for Sabers , it is very stable and consistent and can just about beat every matchup if played properly, save for DW and Agents, which is also a huge risk. You can tune the deck or your side to match it, but again there are risks to that too like your matchups versus random decks or how the consistency will fare.
Now, what on earth would make the players here leave the game when it is so good here?
Firstly the price of the cards here are atrociously high , and hyped, and every Malaysian and Singaporean can tell you that the card prices in Msia are higher than Singapore's anytime, heck whoever takes a trip down to Singapore for a holiday will find himself in card heaven due to cheap prices everywhere.
Now this problem is caused by dealers and certain vendors. Malaysia is not big, and is actually very small, and due to that, the access between players and dealers between different states is large. Furthermore we have Facebook now as a communication device whereby several pages are set up just to discuss card prices and selling and trading.
The problem arises when these main dealers, who control the card market, suddenly decide to inflate the price. For example a SR Siroco could have been sold for RM 80 to Rm 100, but could be purchased at Rm 50 in Singapore last format. The prices will be spread out throughout the whole country very fast, which forces players to dish out their cash quick in order to but these cards.
However the problem doesnt stop there. Because these cards are not considered "market price", other vendors are forced to follow suit to this trend, because if they do not, they will be making a huge loss here and there. There are some good-hearted vendors who choose to sell the cards at a significantly lower price which lessens the burdens for some players.
Not to mention, when the demand increases, the price can hike by a large amount. Its pretty normal everywhere but whatever.
A whole lot of Yugioh in Malaysia comes down not to the playing but also to the selling/ buying involved. There are some players who have disregarded the game, and focused most of their time on the sales aspect instead.
Because of the price hike, some players have decided to leave the game or if they do stay in the game, they do so half-heartedly, knowing that they cannot afford to pay for these cards.
So, another reason for the brain drain in Malaysia's Yugioh is the introduction of a new card game Cardfight Vanguard.
I have never played VG nor been exposed to the game, so i took the liberty to ask certain players who have picked up the game about its prospects.
I asked 5 players and all 5 said that the game does not rely much on skill, and for now, all you can do is summon, attack, guard and stuff. (terms which i'm not familiar with)
Furthermore the price a Starter deck is cheap, but then the price of crucial cards are also expensive (about 50 to 80 per card) , and because the max number of cards in VG is 4 per deck, that makes the game slightly more expensive.
Please take note that I am not calling the game sacky or skillless, please do not feel insulted i am neutral about it, but the comments are feedback i have received from various players.
All 5 players i have asked are all decent players and they have been exposed to the terms "sacky", "luck-oriented", and are exposed to the blogosphere and are well aware about skill based games.
But if the game is sacky why do the players want to play it? Is it because they prefer to have fun and play games where any player has the chance to win? Or is it because they cannot stand the highly competitive Asian format?
Please take note again that i am not ranting merely i am just conveying about the current situation of Yugioh. Please do not say "if you cant take it, just quit the f**king game". I am not facing any of the problems above such as difficulty to obtain cards, financial problems bla bla bla. I am probably quitting soon due to college
Currently, we can place Yugioh in between Vanguard and MTG, whereby MTG is the most skill-reliant, followed by Yugioh and MTG.
IN ASCENDING ORDER in terms of skill reliance: VG, YGO, MTG
Yugioh now stands in the middle, so if any player wishes to play casually they will switch to VG, and if they choose to play more skill based games, they will go to MTG.
Just to show some data, i have found out that most of the players in my area are all taking up Vanguard, and they are playing YGO and Vanguard at the same time. In fact, aside from me , i only know 2 other players who do not play the game. At the same time, there has been a massive player rise in numbers for YGO over the past year, but the massive player rise for VG is so much more in just one or two months, whereas the increase in player numbers for YGO is only 2 players.
It has been a long and winding post and i congratulate you, the reader, if you have made it this far. Thank you for reading and thats all for today :)
It is sad that while everybody can play in tourneys, i am stuck at home with the burden of SPM public examinations.
[ edit- master sephiroth commented that the tcg exclusives were designed by ocg design team. now thats something to think about :D ]
Level 3 is so easy to bring out, i can even see X Sabers being played more just cos of this. Plants can just Tour Guide into Tour Guide and drop this and stall and do shit.
Konami is printing more imbal cards =(
Which brings me to the current issue. The Brain Drain phenomenom
The brain drain phenomenom describes the situation whereby a country loses its human resources to other countries due to migration.
As many of you may or may not know, Malaysia is currently facing this crisis. Generally, migration is not a bad thing, because it has many advantages which i am not going into depth, but then the thing about migration is that when people migrate out of the country, there are also people migrating into the country.
So, if the rate of people migrating into the country exceeds the rate of ppl migrating out, the country is gaining advantages in the form of human resources and many more stuff, and the converse is true.
But if the very opposite thing happened, then that country is facing a loss. However, that loss, if its minimal can be mitigated by other external factors like increase of birth rate bla bla bla.
There is a funny saying written by Shaun Tan, the finalists of the World Bank 2011 Essay Contest that goes:
Smart Indians go to med school,
Smart Chinese go to investment banks,
Smart Malaysians go to Singapore.
Of course this is very crude and cynical and im not a racist, or an elitist who has no patriotism for my country (please do not misinterpret)
Now let us apply this into Yugioh.
There are many factors that cause Yugioh players to leave the game. Some leave because they have done enough or had enough of the game, some leave for work issues, and some leave to try another game.
However, this is all very healthy.
But i noticed lately that Yugioh is being sidecast more and more.
Let us first discuss the TCG. Since i am not a TCG player, my interpretations or analysis may not be accurate so i wish to inform you all of that.
I can see many players switching over to Magic because of its skill-based influence and and also because that the game is more prestigious and stuff (kinda agree)
However the main factors the players are leaving the game can be broken down and has been broken down by Michael Bonacini (Death Aspect blog) several times again and again.
Recently, Konami has taken a liking to printing incredibly broken wtf cards. It seems that everytime a card that is incredibly imbal is released, it is the TCG design's team fault. (or so it seems)
What better example then "Charge of Light Brigade , Darksoul , Tengu , Tour Guide and now Wind Up Zenmaines??? "
It is not any better when the company decides to print these cards in the highest rarity possible.
Tengu was different and made accessible to everybody but Tour Guide, Charge, Barrier, and Zenmaines (assumed) are printed in SCR rarity. Furthermore, they choose to reprint cards like Warning and Duality, which were all incredibly crucial for the last 2 formats with maximum rarity too. Even poor Glow Up Bulb was bumped up to Ultra/ Ulti version.
Seriously, Wind Up Zenmaines is surely gonna cost like $ 70 + at first release already and will surely skyrocket. Luckily it is not a card you need 3 copies of.
I mean the OCG design team is not entirely innocent either but the only thing broken that has been printed lately is Grapha and Rescue Rabbit, which the latter is not abused that much anyway. You can make Rabbit Ragia decks where you run the risk of drawing shitty and dead cards but the rewards are that you have a walking Solemn Judgment + beatstick on the field if successful which can change the game tempo.
The promotion and the release of new broken cards makes certain players sick of the game. Obviously, they want to reward players who are willing to pay more $$ to top the game. The game over in the TCG side obviously doesnt reward much skill anymore although it is much better than last format (which i should praise)
Furthermore its not like the game is like MTG whereby skill is much more prevalent there. Once my SPM exams have finished i must really make an effort to delve into MTG for awhile.
Now i will discuss the OCG part of the game =)
The game is still very much popular and well received in countries like Japan (i think), but i will choose more to focus on the Asian format, and ultimately Malaysia, my own country.
Here in the Asian format, we aren't allowed to use much promos. I have to be very thankful because i think the Asian format is the best format in the world because it rewards so much skilled play and there are no broken TCG promos floating around. Moreover, when cards like Recruiter and Dark Soul make their way to the OCG, they arent even broken anymore and the players who top Asian format tourneys are all consistent toppers.
I mean sure GK can be still good, but then there are risks to running it, such as DW. You can side Watcher or Imps all you want but the risk is still there.
As for Sabers , it is very stable and consistent and can just about beat every matchup if played properly, save for DW and Agents, which is also a huge risk. You can tune the deck or your side to match it, but again there are risks to that too like your matchups versus random decks or how the consistency will fare.
Now, what on earth would make the players here leave the game when it is so good here?
Firstly the price of the cards here are atrociously high , and hyped, and every Malaysian and Singaporean can tell you that the card prices in Msia are higher than Singapore's anytime, heck whoever takes a trip down to Singapore for a holiday will find himself in card heaven due to cheap prices everywhere.
Now this problem is caused by dealers and certain vendors. Malaysia is not big, and is actually very small, and due to that, the access between players and dealers between different states is large. Furthermore we have Facebook now as a communication device whereby several pages are set up just to discuss card prices and selling and trading.
The problem arises when these main dealers, who control the card market, suddenly decide to inflate the price. For example a SR Siroco could have been sold for RM 80 to Rm 100, but could be purchased at Rm 50 in Singapore last format. The prices will be spread out throughout the whole country very fast, which forces players to dish out their cash quick in order to but these cards.
However the problem doesnt stop there. Because these cards are not considered "market price", other vendors are forced to follow suit to this trend, because if they do not, they will be making a huge loss here and there. There are some good-hearted vendors who choose to sell the cards at a significantly lower price which lessens the burdens for some players.
Not to mention, when the demand increases, the price can hike by a large amount. Its pretty normal everywhere but whatever.
A whole lot of Yugioh in Malaysia comes down not to the playing but also to the selling/ buying involved. There are some players who have disregarded the game, and focused most of their time on the sales aspect instead.
Because of the price hike, some players have decided to leave the game or if they do stay in the game, they do so half-heartedly, knowing that they cannot afford to pay for these cards.
So, another reason for the brain drain in Malaysia's Yugioh is the introduction of a new card game Cardfight Vanguard.
I have never played VG nor been exposed to the game, so i took the liberty to ask certain players who have picked up the game about its prospects.
I asked 5 players and all 5 said that the game does not rely much on skill, and for now, all you can do is summon, attack, guard and stuff. (terms which i'm not familiar with)
Furthermore the price a Starter deck is cheap, but then the price of crucial cards are also expensive (about 50 to 80 per card) , and because the max number of cards in VG is 4 per deck, that makes the game slightly more expensive.
Please take note that I am not calling the game sacky or skillless, please do not feel insulted i am neutral about it, but the comments are feedback i have received from various players.
All 5 players i have asked are all decent players and they have been exposed to the terms "sacky", "luck-oriented", and are exposed to the blogosphere and are well aware about skill based games.
But if the game is sacky why do the players want to play it? Is it because they prefer to have fun and play games where any player has the chance to win? Or is it because they cannot stand the highly competitive Asian format?
Please take note again that i am not ranting merely i am just conveying about the current situation of Yugioh. Please do not say "if you cant take it, just quit the f**king game". I am not facing any of the problems above such as difficulty to obtain cards, financial problems bla bla bla. I am probably quitting soon due to college
Currently, we can place Yugioh in between Vanguard and MTG, whereby MTG is the most skill-reliant, followed by Yugioh and MTG.
IN ASCENDING ORDER in terms of skill reliance: VG, YGO, MTG
Yugioh now stands in the middle, so if any player wishes to play casually they will switch to VG, and if they choose to play more skill based games, they will go to MTG.
Just to show some data, i have found out that most of the players in my area are all taking up Vanguard, and they are playing YGO and Vanguard at the same time. In fact, aside from me , i only know 2 other players who do not play the game. At the same time, there has been a massive player rise in numbers for YGO over the past year, but the massive player rise for VG is so much more in just one or two months, whereas the increase in player numbers for YGO is only 2 players.
It has been a long and winding post and i congratulate you, the reader, if you have made it this far. Thank you for reading and thats all for today :)
It is sad that while everybody can play in tourneys, i am stuck at home with the burden of SPM public examinations.
[ edit- master sephiroth commented that the tcg exclusives were designed by ocg design team. now thats something to think about :D ]
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