Update

I have been busy lately with school and such, but finally here comes an update!

I topped the Kings oF Games regionals with x-saber ranking 2nd place.

my build goes as follows:
3 X-saber Darksoul
3 X-saber Faultroll
3 X-saber Boggart Knight
2 X-saber Emmersblade
2 X-saber fulhelmknight
1 X-saber pashuul
1 X-saber airbellum
2 Cyber Dragon

3 Book Of Moon
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster reborn
1 Giant Turnade
1 Cold Wave
1 Mind Control
1 Reinforcement of the Army

3 Gottoms E-call
3 Trap Stun
1 Solemn Judgement
2 Solemn Warning
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Royal Oppression

I will update it with side deck..

September 2010 banlist

Banned:
 Rescue Cat- Well I thought large Trap Hole meant this card would stay, but it really is better of banned, this card with x-sabers is just broke.

Substitoad- Good call over being at one, the FTK can't be done anymore

Brain Control- Finally, Brain control has been turning to many games by itself

Heavy Storm- Im quite suprised but I figured it would happen sooner or later. Now we will have more people set 3-5 and end.

Limited:
 Black Whirlwind- This card generates so much advantage I can see why it is at one.

Dark Hole- Hmhm this one is quite interesting the card is quite powerful but the last time it was banned there was no stardust or starlight road.

Infernity Launcher- otks so yea it makes sense to limit this.

Monster Reborn- I belive this card is quite to powerful being how fast it is compared to call and how it can get it from anyones graveyard. Should have stayed banned but not the end of the world with it comming back.

Royal Oppression- The card is rather overpowered regerdless where its played. Its annoying to either vs anti-meta without your special summons or meta that techs this card and only lets themselves special summon before you do.

Semi-limited:
Chaos Sorcerer- Chaos sorcerer has been going around the banlist so much, at 2 it is quite powerful but I don't see any decks abusing it to much this format.

Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier- To match ocg list

Magic Cylinder- Ok

Mystical Space Typhoon- Fine, card at 3 might be annoying tho so 2 seems liek a good number.

Ojama Trio- Ok, I wasn't even aware this was limited but it hasn't done much at one so we can try two.

Snipe Hunter- could be at 3

No Longer Limited
Cyber Dragon- Hmhm Should have been left at two. This card gives machines trouble because of Chimertech Fortress Dragon. It is also a free 2100 beater that can possibly give cybertwin, overdragon otk a chance.

Goblin Zombie- fine seeing as x-saber Darksoul is at 3 and arguably better.

Treeborn Frog- Doesn't really matter to much, you can only bring it out once per turn anyways.

Black Rose Dragon- hmhm difference between two and three isn' too great, I can't see people bringing it out 3 times in one duel. Still quite to powerful to be above one.
United We Stand- Fine

Royal Decree- Hmhm mixed on this one since cards that shut down a third of your deck are annoying and this with perfect herald is annoying.

Overall the banlist is good, better format now than last format. X-sabers,Herald,GB's,Quickdraw should all be tough contenders for this format.

Laters....

September 1st banlist predictions

I know its been a while I have been busy with other things in my summer and I will soon begin updating more frequently.

So here comes my Banlist Predictions:


Banned:
Cold Wave- Really has been a issue ever since we have had cards that can pop like 2 or more cards.

Ronintoadin- This card really should just go, it gave frogs to much power.

Limited: 
X-saber Faultroll-A 2400 beater that you can special summon for free thats plus one every turn? yea...

Infernity Launcher- OTK enabler

Royal Oppression- this card is to good of an anti-meta card and its also to good when you take a meta deck, summon everything and then have this facedown.

Magician of Faith- Should come of the list, it is kind of slow being flip effect and most broken spells are banned.

Semi-limited
Machina Gearframe- Plus one 1800 beater is pretty dam good.

Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner- Give Lightsworn a bit power back because they haven't really done much.

Destiny Draw- Could be at 3 but I doubt it for now.

Burial From a Different Dimension- With mezuki at one, it could  be at 3.

Plaguespreader Zombie- its good, but you do have to minus yourself one card and Mezuki is still at one..

Scapegoat- could happen

Swords of revealing light-could happen

Snipe Hunter-could happen

Unlimited
Goblin Zombie- if Darksoul is gonna run around at 3 this can too and Darksoul will since it is tcg exclusive.

United We stand- could happen

So yea this is what I predict/think the banlist should be like. The ones I put as could happen means it could since the card won't make a difference as far as i know.

Laters....

Yugioh: X-Saber Update

So far my Newest build is this:
20 Monsters:
3 XX-Saber Darksoul

1 X-Saber Pashuul

3 XX-Saber Faultroll

2 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

2 XX-Saber Boggart Knight

1 Summoner Monk

2 X-Saber Airbellum

1 Sangan

1 Rescue Cat

1 D.D. Crow

2 XX-Saber Emmersblade


9 Spell Cards

2 Gold Sarcophagus

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Giant Trunade

2 Book of Moon

1 Brain Control

1 Mind Control

1 Cold Wave



11 Traps

2 Gottoms’ Emergency Call

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Starlight Road

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Solemn Judgment
2 Dust Tornado
This deck has done very well in various match ups for me. Monsters like Gorz catch people by suprise and to have that extra 2700 beater (and token) applies pressure to the opponent. Gold Sarc continues being helpful and alot of time gets me game by cold wave or cat. Traps are pretty typical, DustTornado is good vs infernity launcher and royal oppression.
Side Deck:
1 Mirror Of Oaths
2 Royal Oppression
2 Legendary Jujisu Master
2 Saber Hole
1 Trap Stun
1 Crevice into the Different Dimension
1 D.D. Crow
2 Light Imprisoning Mirror
1 System Down
1 Consecrated Light
1 Mind Crush
Mostly to handle GB's, Perfect Herald, Infernity, Frogs while at the same time being pretty well off against quickdraw and other decks. Consecrated light is good but can be worked around, so you side in much more than just that hence why I only use one.
Match- Ups:
1-1 Vs GB's
1-0 vs Infernity
1-0 Vs Macros
1-0 Vs Frog Monarchs
1-0 vs Synchro Cat
1-0 vs Perfect Herald
For the most part i have tried many different Match ups at least once and will continue to do so.
As for now, Laters..

X-saber deck update

Few things for the X-saber Deck

Ragigura is meh to be honest. Alot of times it doesnt seem like I need somethnig back from grave to hand.

Added Bottomless and Torrential For more defense.

Monk is good and so is sangan, Cat is just broke in this deck and they let you search it out.  

Gold sarcs are working fine so far, similar to monk and sangan but also get cold wave and other targets. I will keep updated..

X-saber Deck

I will be entering a gold series tourney this Wednesday with the following:

3 xx-saber Darksoul

2 xx-saber fulhelmknight

2 xx-saber emmersblade

2 x-saber airbellum

2 D.D. Crow

1 x-saber Ragigura

3 x-saber Faultroll

1 Morphing Jar

2 x-saber Boggart Knight

1 Rescue Cat

1 x-saber pashuul

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typoon

2 Gold Sarcophogus

1 Cold Wave

1 Giant Turnade

1 My Body As A shield

1 Brain Control

1 Mind Control

2 Book Of Moon

1 Starlight Road

1 Royal Opression

2 Gottoms Emergency Call

2 Dust Tornado

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Trap Stun

Side Deck: Idk at the moment it will probaly be geared towards Frogs,Perfect Herald, GB's and Infernity.

Monsters: Nothing unusual really in x-saber line up. Pashuul has gained alot of polularity and certainly will gain more as naturia beast comes out. Opression and this tihng sitting there sets up for a nice lock.

Spells: Gold Sarc at first I was iffy about, but seeing as how so many decks that topped yugioh Championship Chicago ran it; I thought I would give it a try. Sets up nicely for cat plays with cold wave which many times can be instant win.

Traps: Opression was something that sounded weird at first, but lets make some observations:

1: Most x-sabers are fairly strong and can hold on their own.

2: Swarming the field, disrupting the hand and then oppressing any attempt to come back is a very effective strategy.

3: many ways to get around oppression when you need too..like trap stun, cold wave, giant turnade, ect..

4: XX-saber Emmersblade and Fulhelmknight activate in the damage step so it is oppression free.

Now for other tihngs:

No saber Hole???? Well as I mentioned before saber hole is actually kinda limited in what it can negate. Myabe side deck worthy or one in main deck seems best. Divine Warning coming out in Duelist Revolution seems to be a better pick in negating summons.

Laters..

Yugioh card: Saber Hole??

It seems to not be as poplular at it used to be. I hear people talk about running 2,1 or even 0 copies.There may be a few reason for this and I can explain why.

1) Speed- One thing that stood out to me about the 3rd place deck last championship was how it took out defense for speed. Considering we are in a very fast format this is an appluadable choice to do since game can easily be done witihng your first turns. Makes less chances for you opponent to get their outs to you since you are beating them pretty fast.

2) Saber Hole can't negate everything. From what I understand it isn't like opression where it can stop summon like return from or different dimension and so on. The card is more like a bottomless with a horn of heaven/solemn judgment feel to it.

Laters..

Synchron Explorer and Yugioh Championship Chicago

Is awesome, sets up for quick synchros. Junk Destroyer was a bit to hyped, it is good but not something that can come out constantly in quickdraw like duelers seemed to think.

I might try a deck based on Junk Destroyer I saw on you tube. From what I remember is that it used a mini-LS engine and synchron explorer. I'll keep updated if anything. I'll post my Rescue Cat Synchro deck soon as soon as I get to test it.

So Yugioh Championship Chicagoa Is this weekend..

I can see in top 16:

Quickdraw

Perfect Herald

X-sabers

Infernity

Frogs of some kind

GB's

Machina Gadgets

Cat

Maybe LS or BW

Laters..

The width strains against the failing hate.

Yugioh Deck: QuickDraw Sworns

2 x  Light and Darkness Dragon
1 x Dark Armed Dragon
1 x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3 x Quickdraw Synchron
1 x Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
2 x Dandylion
1 x Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
3 x Junk Synchron
1 x Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
2 x Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1 x Necro Gardna
1 x Plaguespreader Zombie
2 x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3 x Synchron Explorer
2 x Wulf, Lightsworn Beast

1 x Brain Control
1 x Charge of the Light Brigade
1 x Foolish Burial
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Monster Reincarnation
2 x Pot of Avarice
1 x Reinforcement of the Army
3 x Solar Recharge

2 x Royal Decree

1 x Trap Dustshoot

This is my most recent lightsworn build and I will break it down for you.

Monsters: Mostly instant synchros with a few nice boss monsters like LADD and DAD. I was thinking of adding Chaos Sorcerer and may try to find room for it. LS mills for you speeding up the synchro power of this deck alot. Dandny is there for LADD or synchro into Junk Destroyer.

Spells: Mostly Lightsworn Engine Stuff with Pot of arvice to get back and re-use cards like LADD DAD or Synchron Expolorer. Foolish has so many plays in this deck it isn't funny.

Traps: Royal Decree helps you keep these strong monsters on the field. Trap Dusthoot is there in case you draw it first turn, which is a very good start for anyone.

Overall the deck has doen good vs : X-sabers, Frog Monarchs and Fortune Lady Zero.

Laters..

DoomcaliCat

Is pretty awesome, I have play tested the deck. I will post he build in a later post. 

Recently I have tried these new decks:

Geartown Machina-tested Great

Kristya Sworn-testing soon

CaliCat- so far so good

I did a post on Machina Geartown and I will eventually get to the other 2.

Haven't been able to update lately but I will do so tomorrow

Laters..

Banisher Of the Radiance

Tried this card in gadgets, it tends to put pressue on opponent to go after it. This is good because at the same time you can continue summoning gadgets and should be able to protect Banisher with D-prisons ect..

It counters the meta greatly since the meta is xsabers and infernitys right now. My anti meta line up today was:

2 Thunder King Rai-oh

2 Doomcaliber Knight

2 Banisher of The Radiance

From there I had typical Gadget stuff like Cyber Dragon, Tragoedia and the Gadgets themselves.

The build beat everyone I vsed today. i beat BW's, Quickdraw and Absolute Zero. I hope tomorrow to test vs infernity and x-sabers.

Later I will say more about the deck..

yugioh deck-Geartown Machina

I tried this build today and it worked rather well:

2 Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon

2 Machina Peacekeeper

3 Machina Fortress

1 Machina Force

3 Machina Gearframe

3 Cyber Valley

2 Thunder King Rai-oh

2 Breaker The magical Warrior

1 Giant Turnade

1 Heavy Storm

1 MST

3 Geartown

1 Limiter Remover

3 Smashing Ground

1 Lightning Vortex

2 Bottomless Traphole

1 Malevolent Catastrophe

3 Dimensional Prison

1 Solemn Judment

2 Dust Tornado

2 Starlight Road

1 Magical Hats

Beatstick your opponent like crazy is whats this deck does best. Gadjiltron works well with fortress as discard fodder. Valleys helps you draw into your cards for certain combos. Rai-oh is there to helps vs the meta decks and stop synchros from running you over.

Magic cards a pretty basic, there alot of monster removal to take down you opponents LP quickly. Geartown is there for Ancnient Gear Gadjiltron.

Traps- nothing different in particular, but there are some techs like dust tornado for the meta decks and Malevolent Catastrophe to help set off geartown.

Laters..

 

To the Top: Perfect Herald

I have watched a Perfect Herald deck duel three times and I got to say, I am impressed. The deck can gain control quicker and longer than a Light and Darkness Dragon deck can. Tethys, Goddess of Light gets you so many fairy's. Most of the time Tethys, Goddess of Light and Perfect Heralds with a load of fairy's in hand is game. the deck has search power through Manju Of The Thousand Hands and stuff like that. Tethys, Goddess of Light is rather easy to summon with Soul of Purity and light as tribute fodder.

The deck can get its fair share of bad hands. Sometimes you can get to many of the big star monsters. Other times you may not draw into perfect herald or anything to help you search perfect herald fast enough. The last thing is that you can run out of fairy's quickly if you don't get Tethys, Goddess of Light out (thats if you opponent has that much worth negating..)

I don't know the whoel decklist for the deck but I will give some cards I remember seeing and that I would recommend.

Shining Angel: Good searcher for Manju, Arcana Force the fool, and Dimensional Alchemist.

Dimensional Alchemist: Very good in this deck since you A) Have alot of monsters and B) remove them often with soul of purity and light.

Tethys, Goddess of Light: Helps you draw alot of fairy's since most of the deck is monsters (like 30).

Herlad Of Perfection:  Negator of all and the awesome boss in this deck

Herald of Purple/orange/greenlight: Thiso ne is really up to the player, but usually people use Purple and Orange. Orange is just too good and saves you from boss monsters while purple is good in this trap heavy format.

Arcana Force the Fool: Searchable by shining angel and just a got defense wall incase you need to stall it out a little bit.

Nova Summoner: Another searcher you can use and some people do, but you don't really have to if you run Shining Angels.

Archlord Kristya: Helps you lock the opponent even more and easy to sumon in this deck becasue you fill the grave with fairy's fairly easily.

Honest: Protect your fairy's

Now Magics:

Pot of Avrice: Good draw power and get fairys back to deck. Good to lower count for Archlord Kristya.

Traps:

Royal Decree: Makes the lock alot easier since all you will be negating is monster effects and spells.

I am sure there is more in the deck such as staples (solemn, storm ect..) but here are just some of the tech's used in the deck.

Hope you enjoyed this and laters all..

Machina Gadgets

So here is my build:

2 Yellow Gadget

2 Red Gadget

2 Green Gadget

3 Machina Gearframe

1 Machina Peacemaker

1 Machina Force

2 Machina Fortress

1 Neo-spacian Grand-mole

1 DoomCaliberKnight

3 Book Of Moon

3 Smashing Ground

2 Fissure

1 Heavy Storm

1 MST

1 Limter Removal

1 Nobleman Of Crossout

2 Starlight Road

1 Royal Oppression 

2 Bottomless Traphole

1 Traphole

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

3 Dimensional Prison

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Dust Tornado

Side Deck:

2 Thunder King Rai-oh

1 DoomCaliber Knight

1 D.D. Warrior Lady

1 D.D. Assailant

1 Spirit Reaper

3 Dimensional Fissure

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Royal Opression

2 Light-Improsoning Mirror

1 Mind Crush

1 Crevice Into the Different Dimension

Working well so far, the main deck can easily wreck alot of the top decks. I can easily take control of the field with one of one cards and then push for game with gadgets and machinas. I side into a stun gadgets version to play a bit mind games with the opponent. They  won't expect that and I will side in what ever is appropriate in that match up. 

For top decks, side would go something like this:

Frogs: Dimensional fissure,Royal Opression,Crevice, Stun Monsters

Infernity: Similar as above, plus Mind Crush

X-sabers: Dimensional fissure with Stun Monsters, Royal Opression, Nobleman of Crossout, Mind Crush

Laters..

This format march 2010

Some thoughts about the format..

We Have:

1) Infernity OTK
2) Frog FTK
3) Gottoms Loop

Slowly those three decks will dominate more and rise in popularity.

What I would suggest on banlist
Banned:
RoninToadin- Pretty busted for a few reasons. One is that you can FTK using it. Two is you can run through half your deck with this card and Substitoad.

Rescue Cat- Thanks to Darksoul.. but it could have been argued as bannable pre-darksoul.

Limited:
X-saber-Faultroll - this one enables the gottoms loop but besides that it is way to easy to bring out now.

Infernity Launcher- OTK enabler..make like 3-4 synchros in one turn is just wow.

just some ideas..

New techs for the LS deck and other things

Royal Decree seems to be rather fine when mained so far. Debating whether is should keep them or add 2 Dust instead. 

Debating on putting DAD in the deck, just CS seem good so far tho.

1 Beckoning Light works well for me, you do not need to get JD that many times as long as the rest of the deck has some power in it. Which is why this deck has 3 Celestia....

Frogs are really broken in what they do, the forbidden list will probaly limit stuff because getting ftked is no fun. Kevein had stated that they do not make cards with the intention of it going on the banlist, well I guess they do not play test often enough.

Thats all for now..

Frog Synchro Deck

Another deck to post up here:

3 Swap Frogs

3 Dupe Frogs

3 Fishborg Blaster

2 Beelze Frogs

3 Des Frog

1 Ronintoadin

3 Substitoad

1 Treeborn Frog

3 Hand Destruction

3 Murray Of Greed

3 Upstart Goblin

1 Foolish Burial

2 Pot of Arvice

3 Salvage

1 Card Destruction

1 Giant Turnade

1 Heavy Storm

The monsters are pretty basic for frogs. Ronintoadin is run in one because you only need one to set the combo off.  Fish Borg Blaster is your tuner

Spells are there to speed up the process of geting your synchro spam. 

Extra deck is typical stuff, you need every level synchro since this deck can make any level.

Side deck can be anti-backrow stuff because that is what can mainly stop you. As well as the extra Ronintoadin's for the D.D. crow you will be facing.

To explain the combo : You use Swap Frog to dump Ronintoadin or any other frogs in Ronintoadin is in the grave already. You have at least one frog and ronintoading in grave, now you need substitoad and fishborg ready. Fishborg is the tricky one to get in grave, you can't dump it with Swap Frog because it dumps only aqua types, and Fish Borg Blaster is a fish. Usually you get it in grave by Hand-D, Swap Frog's effect to discard a card to special summon itself or foolish.

Then you summon Substitoad and start summoning Ronintoadin by removing from play frogs. You first bring out the other swap frogs to dump more frogs to the grave, since Swap Frogs can dump a frog if they are normal summoned or special summoned.

Keep the ones you want to synchro with in the deck. Then you bounce swap frogs to your hand. You can then normal summon again, another frog, because that is swap frog effect for being bounced to the hand. While this summoning is once per turn, bouncing Swap Frog is not because it is a cost. 

After doing the Swap Frog combo you should end up with like 2 swap frogs in hand and like treeborn and any other frogs you won't synchro with in grave. Now you summon Ronintoadin by removing from play a frog.

Tribute Ronintoadin with Substitoad and summon a frog (one you wan't to synchro with). Usually go for mist worm first becasue later on you may not have space to make it. This is down by first getting out Des Frog. Then you can discard a Swap Frog to summon the tuner, Fishborg Blaster. You can remove from play the Swap Frog you just discarded or any other frog in grave to summon ronintoadin from the grave. Tribute it with substitoad to summon Beelze Frog, the 3 star one. 5 (Des Frog) + 3 ( Beelze Frog) + Fishborg Blaster (1 star tuner)= Mist Wurm.

From there you can make more synchros as long as you have frogs in your deck to synchro with some in your grave, for Ronintoadin and cards to discard in your hand for Fishborg Blaster.

Out for now..

Lightsworns 2010

New build goes like this:

2 Lyla
1 Ryko
3 Wulf
2 Aurkus
1 Ehren
1 Jain
1 Garoth
3 Celestia
1 Lumina
2 Judgment Dragon
2 Honest
2 D.D.Crow
1 Plague
1 Tragoedia
1 Gorz
1 Chaos Sorcerer

1 Charge of the light brigade
3 Solar Recharge
1 MST
1 Cold Wave
1 Heavy
1 MST
1 Gold Sarc
1 My Body As a Shield
1 Brain Control

2 Dust Tornado
1 Beckoning Light
1 Royal Oppression

So I have some new tech's to deal with the meta right now. 2 D.D. Crow to help beat infernity plus it gives me a dark monster for CS. No DAD becuase there is not enough darks in the deck. D.D. crow can stop so many things besides infernity like pot of arvice or another lumina.

Dust Tornado helps against infernity launcher and stop the otk of infernity. Also a good overall card against anytihng so it's not gonna be useless in other match ups.

Royal Opression is there for similar reasons, it jsut stop any synchro spam or X-sabers who can be quite synchro happy themselves. Royal Opression just says no to so many decks and while it may stop this deck's special summoning cards like Judgment Dragon, you try to play it right.

Most of the cards teched in where made to help increase your chance of winning against the new decks that are topping alot, while at the same time being live cards against other decks.

Yugioh Championship VA

So far I hear Infernity and Sabers are doing quite well. So are Gadgets, LS variants, Cat Synchro and some other decks. Overall the format still seems like it can be diverse by the top decks within the middle rounds. Hopefully the rest of the Championship will stay that way.

No quickdraw is weird but I am sure someone will squeeze one out. BTW intresting ruling I found is that LADD can special summon a monster from grave even thought it is solemned. Yeaa so LADD kinda gets past solemn lol.

Other than that between the two new ones x-sabers and infernity, Infernity has the better chance. At first I thought x-sabers had a chance but after playing both today, Infernity might have the chance.

Fairy deck was intresting, the herald of perfection and kristya one. From what I heard the person easily was dropping Kristya and Herald quickly which is GG for most decks. It played some Mokey Mokey cards, which I have never heard off.

More to come soon..

Underated Cards

What are some cards that duelists seem to overlook?

Scrap Iron Scare crow I was looking at the Onlytheduel's blog and found a deck using scrap Iron scarecrow. While it may not be a plus one gaining card or have any broken combos with it, it can slow down you oppoenent and protect you monsters. This very controlling aspect is perfect for stun builds and any other anti-meta builds.

Shrink  i know Honest does a better job but shrink is more splashable and makes Stardust easy to take down. it does have on main difference over honest, that is that you can get past a bottomless traphole by shrinking your own monster or avoid any other similar cards like smashing ground.

Magic Drain while it may not immediatly stop something, it can force your oppoenent to go minus just to play a spell card. Works well in decks liek gadgets since they always try to keep ahead in card advantage. Great in counter Fairy's too.

Breaker the Magical Warrior I have seen players go as far as main decking it and it has worked. With Infernity and their large amount of backrow, this card can prove to be very useful. You can also combo this with cards such as geartown for a free 3000 beatstick, which is nothing new but just more reasons to see use in Breaker the Magical Warrior.

Lightsworn Barrier some regional topping decks actually used this card. it is kind of like scrap iron scarecrow in terms of purpose, but has milling added to it. Best in pure Lightsworn decks where most of the time you will have lightsworns on the field. This card will let those lightsworns stick around longer and increase your milling,which is great for lightsworns.

X-sabers

Recently i read Jae Kims blog on X-sabers and I ithnk there are many valid pointsi n terms of how broken dark soul is. Boggart is too as its a stronger maurading captain makin Faultroll easier. Dark Souls ruling came out to be that it can activate multipel times at the end phase. So rescue cat can become a pot of greed basicall or a hyunlei with a search involved ( Darksoul+ airbellum into Hyunlei for a possible plus 3). I mean like what where they thinking.

Apparently cards are banned/limited because of future sets, so whats the reason behind rescue cant Twart? Now I do not think they are the second comming of tele-dad like others seem to believe, but x-sabers do have a couple of cheap cards that continue a trend of overpowered card design.

Srry but infernities will fail at this jump. They are very much expected to show so thats one thing against them. They really are incosistent, after watchign them being played soem games you jsut set cards and don't draw a launcher and just lose. Decks liek X-sabers, Lightsworns, Machina Gadgets/Gadgets, Dandywarrior have some sort of consistency whether it be via searchers or jsut cards in the deck that dont count on one card to the all the work. Look at it this way besides JD ls still have Celestia/Honest/Chaos Sorcerer while infernity seem to be all about launcher. Dont get me wrong when launcher does go off tho it very much broken. Kind of liek starlight road.

Decks I think May do well in the future

Synchro Cat With More beast's in it.  Getting one more beast tuner (The Fabled Cerebal) you have keymouse and other new stuff for beasts in Duelist revolution. 

Magical Merchant turbo was a deck that intrigues me. I wanna see if i can get a deck that is like an all grave toolbox using some of the lightsworn cards and 3 x Magical Merchant. 

Counter Fairy's is another one, Divine warning gives them quite a boost. They can run so many control cards no it's not even funny. 

I will try to keep up with posts.. I would like to note that I have a busy week for your info 

Till Next time

Random Stuff

I remember in the beggining of the format people where trying magical Merchant in lightsworns. It just occured to me that it is a bug and that it could let you splash doom dozer. Could be worth a try since doom dozer runs over alot of monsters.

Morphing jar can be so annoying when used right. I have observed pretty good hands go to meh b/c of it. It's a lol card to use and works great in some decks.

Cactus bouncer with black garden was rather annoying. Plus counter fairy's and pollinosis where played in the deck. Very intresting deck and it worked quite well.

Thats all for now..

So far in this meta

So yea I have been busy l8tly havent had much time to update but yea here it goes:

Gadgets: Still own they will be good all format. Pretty Consistant and gain easy pluses. I have seen these builds main nobleman now because hamster can be annoying to get over.  i think DoomCali would be mroe effective since it can get other things too.

Lightsworn: Still Dominates, I am sure at VA you will see some builds there. Iyt pretty intresting b/c alot of the new builds arent too typical so there could be alot more variants popping around. I was wonderign If any one would try liek a Kristyaswornbuild with Soul of purity and Light and maybe dimsional Alchemist. What bout marshmellon? 

GB's: Kinda got hit a lil with the new card, corridor of suffering. GB players will have to prepare for this with dust and twisters.

Cat: Also still good. Calicat may be alot more favorable now b/c doomcali can rlly be effective vs infernity.

Quickdraw/Dandywarrior: only got better with new cards in the shining darkness. I expect them to still top.

X-sabers: I potentially see them topping. Boggart night and darksoul are pretty insane and as you know alot of the meta decks have like a few power cards and these are some of the xsabers'.

Infernity: While inconsistent form what I have seen they def can synchro alot and are hard to come back form when they do get thier combo off. Like some games it seems like you just set cards and let your opponenet beat you then you jsut get Launcher or mirage and proceed to win form there.

Frogs: They have potential, Ronintoadin is pretty dam good. The synchro version is very fast (but can be stopped easy) and I am sure there will be other variants to be tried out. My synchro frogs otked like 70 percent of the time. Thats pretty good considering how slow the format is supposed to be.

Those are decks I see that have potential to top 8 at the next jump. Till next time..

Frogs

So I heard frogs are pretty busted now..

I tried the deck with the new cards and dam it synchros. It rivals the synchro capabilities of infernity. Ronintoadin or w/e its called is soo broken. 

Often by turn 2 (at latest 3) I can make stardust goyo and sum other synchro. I'll say more later about it when it comes to testing it tommorrow.

Infernities are somewhat overhyped. I think they can do good stuff, but like they can still lose some games. It is not like DAD return or anything like that.  I am sure they will get a little better when ppl test their builds out and improve it.

I wonder how xx-saber Darksoul will work out. Does it miss timing if more than 1 activates a turn? If it doesnt that thing is pretty busted if you ask me. Come september I am pretty sure rescue cat will get banned but then again JD shoulda went to one and that never happened.

Some ppl at my local reconized the goodness of spore. It is a great tech in Quickdraw plants/Dandywarrior.  

Thats all for now..

Top ten trap cards (not on banlist)

1) Trap Dushoot Also known for winning games, can turn any ones strategies around and also give the you the edge by knowing what they'll have.

2) Torrential Tribute Sometihng that can turn the game around and also a way of keeping field swarming in check.

3) Solemn Judgemnet Played in so many decks and negates so many cards. Fastest spell speed and can save you the duel. 

4) Mirror force similar to torrential but not as chainable.

5) Bottomless Traphole Good overall card. Can get special summons so it makes it better than traphole.

6) Iccarus Attack chain it right and you get a plus one.

7) Royal Oppression Stops special summons which means game to alot of decks or at least can give the match in one duelers favor.

8) Dimensional Prison is becoming increasingly popular. It is better than Sakuretsu armor because it removes the monster from play, taking out any grave options the monster may have given. 

9) Beckoning Light In lightsworns it makes any meh hand into a broken hand.

10) Royal Decree Good side deck card for some decks and can negate all of these top 10 trap cards (except solemn depending on the situations).

Top 10 Spell cards of all time (not on banlist)

I thought I would do another part to this. So here we go..

1)Brain Control Alot of people think it should get banned and I can see why. People end games with just this one card. The tides have turned so much from just one card. Brain control DAD u mad?

2) Heavy Storm I believe Heavy storm is a good thing. It would be really annoying to have decks set like 5 cards without any possibility of heavy. Starlight road kinda does this (which was a dumb card to begin with) but yea heavy is a plus one if used right and helps you do your thing.

3) Mind Control similar to brain but to a lesser extent, since you are limited to what you can do with the card.

4) Charge of the Light Brigade easily splashed and one of the most powerful cards in lightsworn. Searches and mills?!? Very good 

5) Foolish Burial has many uses and is very flexable. You could send a wulf, Mezuki,necro, or a 4th LS for JD.

6)  Smashing Ground best one for one card spell period.

7) Cold Wave In certain decks like Cat and LS it can prove to be game winning since you can jsut otk your opponenet without having to get torrential tribute on you and so on.

8) Gold Sarcophagus Searches out boss monsters or spells liek charge of the light brigade and makes a hand it a god hand possible.

9) Pot of Arvice more popular now for some reason. A plus one that lets you recycle cards is great. 

10) My Body As A Shield increasingly more popular this format, this card can allow you to over extend if necassary. Helps push for game and lets you swarm, something alot of decks now do.

Trap cards next?

Top 10 monster cards of all time (not on banlist tho)

i thought this would be somtihng fun to talk about so here we go:

1)  Dark Armned Dragon took a whole format for itself. DAD return and tele-dad could easily bring this card out a reck you. If you play a dark deck you play dark armned dragon. Today it stands as one of the msot powerful card ever and still is till this day.

2)Judgment Dragon like dark armned dragon this card was a boss monster and get this.. it is still at 2! JD is jsut so easy to summon and has the advantage of not being a dead card late game unliek DAD.

3) Rescue Cat with x-sabers and thier new support this card just get's more broke. The way it works along with monk is even more broke. You know a card is powerful when the name of the deck starts with a card that is limited to one.

4) Destiny hero malicious this card was a key card in tele-dad decks since it allowed to bring out level 8 synchros with easiness. Withh d-draw and stratos this card was broken and would give you quite the advantage.

5) plaguespreader zombie this card is one card that makes zombies what it is.. you recycle this card like crazy. With mezuki and all of the other zombies you got yourself a synchro fest.

6) Gorz the emissary of Darkness single handily can beat you opponent. you get a free 2700 beat stick with a token!

7) Stardust Dragon while it doesn't come out a much as the days of tele-dad stardust can be quite pain to get of a field. 

8) Brionic this card would otk you with zombies. Also could be a good out to stardust dragon. Somtimes it could let you push for that last bit of damage you have to put in.

9) Gladiator Beast Gyzarus- pop 2 tag out for more pluses? 

10) Light and Darkness Dragon this card is quite the beast. While lightsworns may beat it pretty easy against other decks it can wreck you. You have to use up cards just to lower it's attack.  The dandy and drill warrior combo makes this card easy to summon.

hmm alot of these cards are old cards but we know they are powerful since they are still used today.

Yugioh deck: infernities

So this archetype is comming out this saturday for the first time. i have seen the deck in action once at my locals an I gotta say it can do quite the otk. You at one point seem to be losing b/c you have no hand and in yugioh hand advantage can be a sign of how ahead you are of your opponent. However this infernity dueler (who wa vsing cat) just came outta now where with like 3 synchros and had 2 barriers (searched one with Archfiend) and it was like wow.

Now another side to this is that in one of the other games they played they Cat player disrupted the play via dusttornado I belive and it pretty much took it down. It seems that stopping the synchro spam just makes the deck auto- lose for the most part. Another thing I hear is that the deck isn't that consistent. I can see why.. if you get stopped, then buidling up the combo again will be hard with all your resources used up.

Trishula does make a difference since it is a broken synchro the generates alot of advantage in an infernity deck. You can easily make 3 and strip your oppoenent of at least 2 cards.

We will see more as the cards get released this saturday.

May price guesses for the exclusives:

XX-Saber Darksoul-80 USD

Koa'ki Meiru Prototype - 5 USD (lol rare but good for its deck)

Snyffus- 15 USD

Infernity Barrier (Secret Rare)-90 USD

This is at least on sneak peak day could change with time.. 

Currently Drill Warrior is 35 on ebay like wth.. i means its good but not THAT good. I guess hype for a card that is in a deck that topped a jump is great right now..

Thats all for now

Yugioh Meta analysis post Shonen Jump..

Seeing how x-saber didn't top I can see X-saber Emmersblade go down in price. 

Why can't X-sabers top?

Well one thing I hear is that it has consistency issues. Alot of the cards need to be in certain numbers (like Fautroll Needs 2 monsters on field).

X-sabers don't really have an engine. You don't see x-sabers being splashed in any decks. You could put the LS engine in x-sabers but you can put it in other decks that do a better job with it. Their boss monster is good but not comparable to other boss monsters like JD or DAD. Overall x-sabers where overhyped to me but come Shinning darkness I can see them as more playable.

Edit: Wow x-sabers just got way better. X-saber Darksoul: If this card you control is sent to the Graveyard, during the End Phase, you can add 1 "X-Saber" Monster from your Deck to your Hand. 100/100 lvl 3 BEAST type.. Seems to improve x-saber consistency.  

Congrats to Jeff Jones, won the 1st Dark End and now the last. So dandywarrior won.. that deck can go so plus with the right plays. I gotta say night assailant is good tech in this deck. Drill warrior and this card make an amazing combo. You use night assailants effect bring back 2 flip effect monsters??

For those of you who don't know what Night assailant does: FLIP: Select 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field and destroy it. When this card is sent directly from your hand to the Graveyard, return 1 Flip Effect Monster from your Graveyard to your hand.

So far star cards of this format (ones that weren't really last format): LADD, Dandylion, Super Nimble Mega Hamster, Ryko, Drill Warrior, Doomcaliber Knight, Night Assailant, Card Trooper and thats all for now.

Comming Soon Infernities....

Shonen Jump New Jersey Update

This Shonen Jump was full like 2,100ish people. 

Looks Like the Finals is Jeff Jones vs. Renaldo Lainez  in a match up of Doomcal Gadgets vs Quick Draw. 

DoomCaliber Knight's price will see a nice rise in prize.. as if it was already easy to get. Gadgets definatly had to get to the top tables. With smashing at three and all the new tech's in them it was bound to happen. Honestly tho it went way further than I expected.

Quickdraw was insanly popular today with 3 of them in the top 8 I believe. Drill warrior is pretty broke. Also helps how not everyone knows the rulings for it. There was a feature match where someone pointed  a play someone could have done against Drill warrior but the player didn't do it. Not taking anything away from the card just saying.

Over all the top tabels where pretty mixed. You had a little bit of gadgets, Lightsworns, QD,Cat, and Glads. Yaa for a diverese format!

I gotta say I wonder what that dandyLS build is like. It didnt get as far but I heard it did good today. I was wondering when someone would do sometihng like that as LS + Dandy makes pretty good combos.

I hope everyone who went there had fun.

yugioh cards staples?!?

What cards where must haves last format?

Beckoning Light- it seems that alot of lightsworn players have abandoned this card. I can see go reasons for it, the lightsworn deck does not mill as fast and beckoning can be a dead cards sometimes. 

Cards that are currently replacing beckoning light are pot of arvice and Monster Reincarantion. Pot of Arvice is a plus and gets your stuff back, while reincarnation is faster that beckoning.

Gorz the emmissary of darkness- As I may have mentioned before (idr if i did) gorz is seeing less play because otk's are less possible this format. Still a great card tho..

Call of Haunted- has been out for a while. I think it really depends on the deck, but most decks find it to slow for use. Cat tends to be using it the most becuase re-using cat often is just broken.

Cards that are now used more

Sangan- Slower format makes sangan more viable and helps search now limited cards like Lumina or the semi-limited honest.

Solemn Judgement- Lightsworns use it now so that means pretty much every deck is using it now.

Card Trooper- at least in lightsworns it is.. milling 3 while boosting to 1900 is very good.

Neo Spacian Grand-mole- Gadgets have a tough time getting over Hamster, which right now is a very popular card.  Grand Mole says nooo by sending it back to your opponents hand. Also good out to stardust and other synchros. Alot of the recent topping builds I have seen for gadgets main this card.

Thats all for now.. expect some analysis on Sunday when we know what tops the jump.

Yugioh Card: Cyber Dragon

Cyber dragon is too Good

Stats: 2100/1600 stats that are not tributed for is not bad. Cyber Dragon defines this attack line just how gorz defines the 2700 attack line.

Effect: Simple, you jsut get to special summon it when your opponent has a monster on their field.

What makes cyber dragon so special?

It is  a versatile yugioh card that can fit into many decks. You can see it in Synchro Cat,Gemni anti-meta, Gadgets, Dark Synchro, and I have seen Lightsworns tech one in too. Sometimes Cyber Dragon is your beatstick that helps you get over stuff you would have trouble getting over. Sometimes Cyber dragon is you way to bait bottomless. Like if you opponent has bottomless almost all the time cyber dragon will be the one to get bottomless. Cyber dragon gives you good plays with synchro decks. Cyber dragon make synchroing very easy and getting stardust or collossal is simple just summon Cyber dragon and a level 3 tuner. 

This format Cyber dragon is excellent. Gets over Hamster, gets over most cards that are normal summoned in general. In fact Cyber dragon was good last format too. It's just that in this new format it's good that te Cyber dragon can put quick pressure and is very effective and so are all the different possibilty's that it can do. Oh did i metion Chimertech Fortress dragon?

Card is like 4.2/5

Yugioh Shonen Jump New Jersey

Shonen jump New Jersey is our first jump for yugioh comming up this format and our last tourney to be called shonen jump. The new name is Yugioh Premier Event.. I kinda liked Shonen Jump better since premier event seems kinda generic and Shonen jump has been the name for so long..

Theres a few things I will adress and here they are:

What this jump means:

Over the past few weeks the meta has been  defined by regionals. While regionals are a good indicator of the meta, I beleive jump will give us a clearer view, since getting into these top tables is tough and a matter of what deck you play and how good you are. This year I predict alot of decks in the top tables more or less similar to what what decks topped regionals.

Last format first place was usually taken by Lightsworn or Twilight at pretty much any Jump. This format I can see that kind of consitency decreasing since there is definatly more balance in deck power this format. What you see in 1st-3rd place this jump may be different from the next one (which is gonna be a premier event).

What I see people doing/Advice:

Playtesting: It is key to play test your deck vs various decks. If you usally play certain group of freinds or local consider expanding by going somewhere else that may have more players and play test against any deck you would expect to see at the Jump, even the rouge ones. Rougue decks are usally decks you wouldn't see often but do have the capacity to top.

Just a brief on my tips:

1) Learn to read plays. Familarize yourself what what cards a deck plays (with the decks you expect to see). Check you opponents grave to know what they have used up.

2) How Many?:Consider how many of a certain card are run in a deck. Your opponents will not always have oppression or torrential. If you feel that you have game very early, go for it. Doesn't mean to go all out but just to try to get really ahead of your opponent. Getting this advantage early on can mean game already even if lifepoints are not at 0.

3) Don't get reckless: Preserve all your cards and consider what kind of exchanges you are making. Plus doesn't have to be made by playing cards, simply attacking can be a way to gain advantage. Consider this scenario: Mid game your opponent is constantly setting monsters that can't get over your Collosal Fighter. Don't summon anything because that facedown spell or trap can be torrential or anything that can get them back on track.Don't do moves that make you go minus unless you really need to. I have seen duelers Vortex 1 monster when lifepoints where pretty high.

4) Side deck: You should know what you are gonna side deck, but what will your opponent side deck. Be prepared for that too.

Setting up binders: Seriously expect to see many Monster binders when you get there. Really get what you want to get rid of in you binder. Save up on cards for the jump, don't trade/sell them at your locals. It's easier to get more at a jump because of the amount of players and the possibilty of someone really needing that card. Sell/trade before the jump, that's when people will most look for stuff that they need.

I honestly do not know if I am going, but I know some people from my locals will. This jump will have alot of big names in the yugioh community for its popularity and prize support that has been built up. I am sure you will see players like Jerry Wang (who comes to my locals from time to time), Jarel Winston, Mkhol (that gadget player). Don't let them intimidate you, anyone can be beatable at yugioh. 

The Jump experience is one where you always win, you will at least come out a better player.

Relax too, this is supposed to be fun.

For those of you going enjoy and goodluck!

Yugioh card that is seeing alot more play..

DIMENSIONAL ALCHEMIST!

Stats are ok, powering up to 1800 allows it to run over alot of things.

It's effect allow alot of decks to have a somewhat remove from play toolbox. You can retrive so many cards back. If you boosted Alchemist and destroyed a monster by battle, then when they destroy alchemist you go plus one (assuming you have a monster RFP).

I have seen so far 2 regional topping decks using this card. One was fairy deck. It wasn't used because this was a fairy, but because it used DD warriors, soul of purity and life, and Freed the brave. Alchemist gets back whatever you removed from play.

Another deck it was seen in is zombies. Helps get back plague or mezuki and from there you could use zombie master or other discarding cards to recycle them.

Dark Synchro Variants that use fader or cyber valley also like this card. You can retrive these two cards and allow more stall time so you can get the right cards to win.

Dimensional Alchemist is being used as tech and if you use remove from play card (not macros because Alchemist need to hit grave) you could give this card a shot. 

Gadget Stun- yugioh decks

2 D.D. Warrior Lady

2 Doomcalibur Knight

2 Thunder King Rai-oh

1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

1 Tragoedia

1 Gorz, Emissary of the Darkness

2 Green Gadget

2 Yellow Gadget

2 Red Gadget

1 Cyber Dragon

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

3 Smashing Ground

3 Fissure

1 Lightning vortex

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Dimensional Fissure

1 Creature Swap

3 Dimensional Prison

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

2 Royal Opression

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Starlight Road

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Trap Hole

Side Deck:

2 Trap Holes

2 Light imprisoning Mirror

1 Dust Tornado

2 Consecrated Light

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Dimensional Fissure

2 Twister

1 Cyber Dragon

2 Mirror of Oaths

The Monsters: You have your gadgets for one for one gaining advantage plays. DoomCali is excellent this format. You don't have to worry about necro messing it up for you and it beats stuff like Hamster, JD, or anyother effect monsters. Grand mole is great since alot of peopel are setting these days and is also a good out to synchros or other bulky monsters in you way. Besides these 2 monsters i would consider all the other monsters typical anti-meta choices.

The Spells: lot of one for one cards,since gadgets specialize in that. Dimnsional fissure is excellent. It stops alot of the meta decks, alot of them use the grave. Creature swap is an intresting choice since not everyone uses it. It works pretty well you can often destroyer the weaker monsters and then just take the stronger one for yourself.

The Traps: Nothing really different. I would liek to comment that Dimsional prison should be run in threes because alot of cards destroyed can still eb useful in the grave. Also gets rid of Stardust who cn be a hassle sometimes.

The side deck: Takes care of alot of the top decks right now, as a side deck should.  Some anti-backrow cards if you do run into macros or skill drain.

This deck has 42 cards, something gadget builds should do to make sure you don't get a start with multiple gadgets.

Gadgets still top alot and variants like these are one of those topping decks. Overall the deck is working fine and thats all for now. Hope you enjoyed my analysis!

Is it just me

Or is Charge of the light brigade and 3 rykos seeing alot of play in decks not LS? I can see why since

1)charge provides a search and speeds decks up.

2)Ryko Is good in a slower format and is versatile since it can choose to destroy anything.

Dimensional Prison is also seeing a decent amount of play for 2 reasons.

1) It is way easier to get now.

2) Removing from play a monster dodges alot of things. It dodges my body as a shield, starlight road, and stardust dragon itself.

Gorz the emissary of Darkness seems to see a little less play with a slower format and less otks going around. I would at least side deck it..

I will see if i can get some decklists up for next time for some analysis on meta choices. pc for now..

Duelist Revolution Woah!!

I recently heard of two new cards that very much will have an impact on the Meta.

Pot of Greederosity

Look at the top 3 cards of your Deck. Select 1 of them, and add it to your hand. Then, shuffle the other revealed cards with your Deck. You can only activate 1 "Pot of Greederosity" per turn. You cannot Special Summon this turn.

Solemn/Divine Warning (name is unsure right now)

Pay 2000 Life Points. Negate the activation of a Spell Card, Trap Card, or Effect Monster's effect that Special Summons a monster or the Summon of a monster, and destroy it.

Wow Pot of greederosity is like an upstart goblin but 10 times better. You get to choose from your next 3 cards. Getting to choose what you draw is great, you can choose the cards you need to win. Any deck can run it, we already see decks that special summon run royal oppression so why not this. Pot of Greederosity is especially good in non special summoning decks since the costy part to this card does not apply to them.

Solemn,Divine warning, a card similar to solemn judgement, is gonna make counter fairys happy. Any deck can use it, just how 3 solmens where  used before. This card is like a one shot oppression that can hit normal sumons too. While the cost is a huge LP amount it shouldnt be a problem. This card has such a great affect that you shouldn't mind.

Rulings..

Some of the newer cards have rulings that people don't know about..

Machina Fotress:

can be negated by solemn and Thunder King Rai-oh

can discard itslef as part of it's cost, but if you do it under macros you wont get it back

when special summoned it doesn not start a chain link..

Drillw Warrior:

Discarding the card is
not a cost.

Starlight Road:

You can activate Starlight Road even if you cannot Special Summon due to the effect of Vanity’s Fiend

You Cannot Chain Starlight Road to Stratos 2nd effect because it is not a certain 2 or more card hit..

Just for you information..

Side deck tech: Mind Crush

I recently saw a build that mained this card and topped a regional. Overall it seems like a fairly decent choice to have at least side decked. There are alot of decks that add cards to hands so this card seems liek good tech. 

Mind Crush and trap dushoot together= awesome!

Thats all for now..

A classic Card Review: 1

Hello, today I will be reviewing a classic card. What I mean by that is a card that has been around for a while land still sees play.

Today that card is Trap Dustshoot. Alot of fellow duelers like to use this card. Why? Well this card can turn a good hand into a bad hand. Some key cards you needed for the hand may be useless without the monster you have sent back.

For example: You open up with Foolish,Monster Reincarnation, Wulf,Celestia,Jain, and Chaos Sorcerer. Your opponent Trap Dushtshoots and sends back Celestia. There goes your opportunity to try to easily summon Celestia with Foolish and now your only good move is to summon Jain.

This card can give you opponent a huge advantage by letting the player know what you have. the down side to this card is that it can be a bad top deck so you could simply side it against decks that carry alot of hand like Gadgets.

Card Rating: 3.8/5 

Let me know what you guys think, what would you rate this card?

The Shining Darkness : Hidden Gems

What are some good cards to look foward to in the next set? We all know how much the infernity cards will have impact, but what else can we find there?

XX-Saber Boggart Knight- with 1900/1000 stats and a muarading captain ability makes x-sabers swarm more than before. 

Ronintoadin-has 100/2000 stats. I am told that this card enables frogs to otk and spam trishula 5 times.

Spore- A tuner that can revive itself?? We all know how great that is just look at plaguespreader zombie. This one is less splashable but it's still good.

Keymouse- a searcher for beast with some restrictions. Searching is always good. 

Formula Win

What makes a deck really good? We know that the player can greatly influnce it, but what can make the deck itself good?

1) Synergy- The cards in the deck should complimate each other.. like playing Reinforcement on the army in a non-warrior playing deck would be no synergy. You build the synergy!

2) Consistency- Another one you can build. You can test draw and check how frequently you get great hands, if you don't it means your deck needs some changes or help from the next few things listed.

3) Draw power- alot of the top decks have had some sort of draw power. Tele-dad and lightsworns are two examples of this.

4) Search power- This is the reason why stuff like RODA and Charge are at one. Searching your deck is a pretty big advantage and makes deck's faster. Search power could also be stuff liek mystic tomatoe and goblin zombie, but they are a little slower.

5)Boss monster's- Cards like DAD and JD can win games.

You can look at top decks and see they have a combination of these:

Cat-Search power(hamster searches ryko,tomatoe searches monk), Boss monsters(Cat and DAD)

BW's-Search power(BWW),Boss monster(DAD), Draw power(Allure of darkness)

LS- Search power(Charge and ROTA), Boss monsters(Kristya, JD, Celestia, DAD, Chaos Sorcerer) Draw power (Solar recharge)

Gadgets- Search power(lol the main strength of the deck is gadgets search ability)

Order a schadenfreude movie on DVD now!

March 2010 Banlist

Since my blog is quite new I didn't get a chance to talk about this and will do so now.

Chaos Sorcerer
Tragoedia
Necro Gardna
Necroface
Mezuki
Lightlord Summoner Luminas
Burial from a Different Dimension
Foolish Burial
Reinforcements of Light
Destiny Draw
Allure of Darkness
Mind Crush
Magical Explosion 

 Chaos Sorcerer is to good. It is easily splashable in any deck running enough darks and lights. 

Tragoedia is another good one, having to worry 24/7 that your oppents will drop gorz or tragoedia is quite annoying. 

Charge of the light brigade (reinforcements of light): This card is way to good and helped lightsworns become very fast.

Mezuki and burial: I really woulda liked Mezuki to stay at 2 and burial to one, it seemed fair enough to me. Brionic could be banned in it's own reasons, not just because it otks with zombies.

Destiny Draw: I guess konami got tired of seeing this card. Has been in the meta for a very long time, but it would have been fine at 2.

Allure of Darkness: I'm kinda mixed on this one. It's wasn't really to bad and isn't now with d-draw at 1. But with d-draw at 3 this at 2 gave some decks way to much draw power.

Nerco Gardna: Lightsworns made this card too good.

Lightlord Summoner Luminas: Could have been at 2 but then again JD is at 2....

Semi-Restriction Cards : 

Honest
Cyber Dragon
Demise, King of Armageddon
Dandelion
Treeborn Frog
Black Whirlwind
United We Stand
Royal Decree
Royal Oppression
Skill Drain 

Honest: Getting otked by honest was stupid, 2 is a fine number for honest.

Black Whirlwind: Yea a re-usable ROTA is just to much search power.

Cyber Dragon: Perfectly fine, it lost alot of use over time.

Royal Oppressin: Losing just because of this card was dumb.  Card is  powerful and 2 is a fine number for it.

Royal Decree and Skill Drain: I loled, why? I don't think these 2 cards where doing much.

No longer restricted :

Mask of Darkness
Smashing Ground 

Smashing Ground: Helps anti-meta decks and seems perfectly reasonable. Fissure to 3 did nothing last format.

Thats all for today if you guys got any comments on these thoughts , they are very much welcomed.

Whats on your side? (besides your deck)

The side deck I have found to be one of the most important parts in deck building. You want to make game 2 and 3 (when it goes there) much easier and almost guarenteed victory. 

In my earlier post i mentioned what decks are constantly topping so for any new comers into yugioh or people who just want to get better, Listen up! 

One thing you want to make sure is how well your side deck fits your regular deck. If you are playing Lightsworns, would you really want to side d-fissure against xsabers? Sure it may hurt them but it can hurt you as much or even more.

Work your side deck smartly and you will get further in tournaments. So what tech choices are in general good for this format?

2-3 Trap Hole

1-2 Dust Torando

2 Nobleman of crossout

1 Royal oppression

D.D. crow

Trap Hole: I have found myself sidng this card alot. it just hits so much it can hit recruiters, stop searches form BWW, protect you weak monsters. Especially good in a slower format where special summoning happens less.

Dust Tornado: Alot of other side decks consist of a continous card that will screw you over. Whether its d-fissure against Lightsworns or skill drain against gadgets, you want this card to try to stop them. Other althernatives include twister and MST if you don't main it.

Nobleman of Crossout: This slower format has called for more sets to happen. Certain cards like hamster and magical Merchant are becoming more popular.

Royal Opression: Even special summon heavy decks like lightsworns side it. If royal oppression hurts you opponent more, side it. It also calls for a plan to play around it.

D.D. Crow: Alot of the Meta Decks are still graveyard based and so is one of the upcomming ones, infernities. 

Well I hope this article has given you a bit more insight on sidedecking and how much advantage you should take of it.

Deck Profile: Hamstersworn

I wanted to try lightsworns this format because I thought they would still be good. SuperNimble Mega Hamsters are really all the super. They're amazing!! They help make Celestia plays easily and make any hand decent. 

Here's My build:

3 Super Nimble Mega Hamster

3 Ryko,  lightsworn Hunter

3 Celestia,  lightsworn Angel

1 Jain lightsworn Paladin

1 Ehren,lightsworn Monk

1 Lumina, lightsworn Summoner

1 Garoth, lightsworn Warrior

2 Judgment Dragon

2 Wulf, lightsworn Beast

2 Lyla,  lightsworn Sorceress

2 Honest

1 Aurkus , light Sworn Druid

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

2 Monster Reincarnation

1 Heavy Storm

2 Pot of Avarice

3 Solar Recharge

1 Charge of The light Brigade

2 Book of Moon

1 Brain Control

1 Gold Sarcophagus

1 Cold Wave

1 Botomless Trap Hole

1 Trap Dushoot

This build has done very well for me in testing, has taken down alot of top tier decks. It plays consistently and usally in an ideal starting hand, you would have a Hamster and Celestia.  The deck can sometimes win for me without JD and thats great, it shows how truly powerful our lovely hamster is.

The Break Down:

The Monsters: It mostly your typical Lightsworn Deck but that extra room you would have used for Dark Monsters in twilight or Fairy Monsters in Kristyasworn, are Hamsters and more rykos. I don't play to many wulfs because they often have shown up to much in my hand. Necro Gardna I just did not have space for, I try to keep all my decks at 40.

The Spells: Alot of your usual Lightsworn spells with a few different choices. You have Pot of avarice times two, this deck tends to mill pretty fast. 2 book of Moon Helps you re-use Hamster in more than one turn. Cold Wave is broken it always helps  a safe Judgment Dragon drop.

The Traps: Not much, I put Bottomless to help protect my lightsworn and trap dushoot because it's such a devastating card. Alot of times I have won the game from my first turn because this card has made my opponents good hand into a bad one.

Hope You guys enjoyed my deck profile if you have some Hamsters, give this deck a try =].

TCG Meta Game

What are the competitive decks today? Well here we have the break down of the percentages of regional winning decks: (info by Pojo forums)

Cat Synchro: -------------------- 56 / 272 ---------------- (21%)
Blackwing: ---------------------- 43 / 272 ---------------- (16%)
Lightsworn: --------------------- 36 / 272 ---------------- (13%)
Gadget: ------------------------- 30 / 272 ----------------- (11%)
Gladiator Beast: ----------------- 25 / 272 ---------------- (9%)

Monarch: ------------------------ 10 / 272 ----------------- (4%)
Flamvell: ------------------------ 7 / 272 --------------------- (3%)
Zombie --------------------------- 6 / 272 ------------------- (2%)
Gravekeeper: ------------------ 5 / 272 ----------------- (2%)
Stun: ---------------------------- 5 / 272 ------------------- (2%)
Burn: ---------------------------- 4 / 272 ---------------- (1%)
Quickdraw: --------------------- 3 / 272 ------------------ (1%)
Fairy: ----------------------------- 3 / 272 ----------------- (1%)
Absolute Zero: --------------- 3 / 272 ----------------- (1%)
X-Saber --------------------------- 3 / 272 ------------------ (1%)

Other: -------------------------- 22 / 272 ---------------- (8%)
Unknown: ------------------------ 11 / 272 ---------------- (4%)

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Thoughts:

Synchro Cat: With the format slowing down this former top tier deck comes back in the spot light after Lightsworn/Zombies taking over last format.

Blackwing: While they where falling of the top of the mountain last format this format they come in smoothly, the banlist only hurting very few cards made this possible. They are also getting support in the Shining  Darkness making them even faster.

Lightsworn: Lightsworns are still very playable. The banlist definatly did slow them down, Lumina to one and Charge to one has made this slowness. Necro to one has taken a bit of their defences away. So what makes them playable? Well Judgment dragon at 2 is one good reason. Judgment dragon can be an out to alot of things and can finish you off quickly. Solar recharge leaves Lightsworns with one of the only draw engines left in the game (Destiny Draw and Allure of Darkness where put to one). 

Gadget: With the format slowing down one less opression doesnt matter as much and smashing to three makes a decent amount of difference. With Smashing at 3 you now have the best form of one for one removal this game has to offer, unlimted.  Tragoedia took a hit and that the biggest loss gadgets took.

Gladiator Beasts: With a slower format GB's come in strong and take field control easily. What else is there to say, this deck hasn't got touched by the banlist and was already topping before.