You may have already chuckled just reading the title of this post. Infernity? TeleDAD? The latter deck is the gold standard for consistency in the history of YGO decktypes. The former...is a theme revolving around effects that only trigger while you have no cards in hand. Basically the entirety of tier 1 decks, from 2003 to present, have featured cards and strategies that helped to burgeon your hand size, rather than diminish it: Pot of Greed, Elemental Hero Stratos, Card Trooper, and Black Whirlwind, to cite but a few examples.
But over the past year and half, trends among the tier 1 decks, if inspected closely, would actually give some hope to the prospect idea of an all-out, hand-devouring decktype being a competitive force. TeleDAD could often establish complete control over the field on turn 1 or 2 by investing all of its in-hand resources into a Stardust Dragon + Dark Armed Dragon + Solemn Judgment field, backed up further by Necro Gardna and Royal Oppression. Decks like Lightsworn and Lightsworn Zombie will gladly discard resources simply to put a game-ending titan like Judgment Dragon or Sky Scourge Norleras into play. Read Satoshi Kato's top 4 match from SJC Nashville to see a prime example of the latter: he exploits Norleras to quickly establish advantage through a loaded Graveyard and topdecks, while keeping his hand size unusually small. This is exactly the type of strategy the upcoming Infernity deck will pursue.
Infernity cards have already been released in the TCG, but the real powerhouses of the theme won't arrive on these shores til around May, when we will see The Shining Darkness (TSHD). Here are the cards to keep in mind:
Infernity Gun
Continuous Spell
Once per turn, you can send 1 "Infernity" monster card from your hand to the Graveyard. If there are no cards in your hand, you can send this face-up card to the Graveyard to Special Summon 2 "Infernity" monsters from your Graveyard.
Infernity Mirage
DARK/Fiend/Effect/1/0/0
If there are no cards in your hand, you can Tribute this face-up card to Special Summon 2 "Infernity" monsters from your Graveyard. This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard.
Infernity Beetle
DARK/Insect/Effect/Tuner/2/1200/0
If there are no cards in your hand, you can Tribute this face-up card to Special Summon up to 2 copies of "Infernity Beetle" from your Deck.
Infernity Revenger
DARK/Fiend/Effect/Tuner/1/0/0
When this card is in your Graveyard, and there are no cards in your hand, when a monster you control (other than "Infernity Revenger") is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. Its Level becomes equal to the Level of the destroyed monster.
Infernity Inferno
Normal Trap Card
Discard up to 2 cards. Send a number of "Infernity" cards from your Deck to the Graveyard equal to the number of cards you discarded.
Infernity Break
Normal Trap Card
Activate only if there are no cards in your hand. Remove from play 1 "Infernity" card from your Graveyard to destroy 1 card your opponent controls.
Infernity Death Dragon
DARK/Dragon/Effect/Synchro/8/3000/2400
1 DARK Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
If there are no cards in your hand, once per turn you can destroy 1 monster your opponent controls and inflict damage to your opponent equal to half of that monster's ATK. This card cannot attack during the turn that you activate this effect.
That covers the main additions to the theme. Overall, the theme forgoes in-hand advantage to maximize its field presence: between Beetle, Mirage, and Gun, as well as the already released Infernity Necromancer, the deck can swarm like no other. A particularly vicious loop involves Infernity Archfiend, Beetle, Necromancer, and Gun.
1. Launch Gun to Special Summon Necromancer and Beetle.
2. Use Beetle's effect to grab two more, if you want to.
3. Use Necromancer to revive Archfiend.
4. Search another Gun with Archfiend.
5. Synchro Beetle, Necromancer, and Archfiend for Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Boundary to remove a card from your opponent's field, hand, and Graveyard.
6. Use the searched Gun to start the loop over.
You can play with the level stars a bit by including Revenger or other Infernities in your calculations, but the basic synergy between Archfiend, Necromancer, and Gun remains the same. Archfiend is more or less an unrestricted Elemental Hero Stratos for this theme. Necromancer can revive any Infernity monster, even the massive Death Dragon. Gun is just a silly card that is superior to the banned Premature Burial/Monster Reborn within this theme.
The theme also possesses synergies with older cards like Foolish Burial, One For One, Allure of Darkness, and Dark Grepher, all of which are almost perfectly fitted for a strategy like this one. In light of the incredible power of the Gun/Archfiend/Necromancer trio, it's almost a relief that all of the above cards, excepting Grepher, are limited. Foolish, One For One, Grepher, and even Allure help you set up breakneck combos while also diminishing your hand presence and hence putting the Infernity effects online. Infernity Break gives you generic removal that helps to sidestep problematic cards like Royal Oppression or Thunder King Rai-Oh.
A sample decklist might look this (taken from Shriek's OCG blog:
3 Infernity Archfiend
3 Infernity Necromancer
3 Infernity Beetle
2 Infernity Mirage
2 Dark Grepher
1 Armageddon Knight
3 Infernity Gun
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Eruption
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 One For One
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Foolish Burial
1 Giant Trunade
1 Card Destruction
3 Raigeki Break
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Damage Gate
2 Infernity Inferno
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Dust Tornado
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
This build isn't perfect, but it's a start. The low monster count helps you to avoid monster-clogged hands which would keep your Infernities offline. Damage Gate was not covered above, so I'll include the effect here. It's another card from TSHD.
Damage Gate
Normal Trap
Activate only when you take Battle Damage. Special Summon 1 monster from your Graveyard with ATK less than or equal to the damage you received.
Similar to the powerful Damage=Reptile, but more generic. Perfect for abusing Necromancer (0 ATK) in particular.
Raigeki Break serves a function similar to Infernity Break, but with more utility and without the potential drawback of removing your Infernity cards from the Graveyard. The other choices are either staples or have been discussed above.
I'm curious to see how the TCG innovates this decktype, especially in lieu of the almighty Trishula. Mist Wurm is a decent LV9 Synchro, but it can't quite stack up to Trishula. Regardless, the deck's ability to spam the field with Synchro monsters from Wurm to Death Dragon ought to make it a strong contender in the upcoming format. Many players may have been high on the prospects of decks like Gladiator Beasts or Monarchs for this new format, but the persistence of rapid-accleration, rapid-control archetypes like Infernity, which follows proudly in the TeleDAD/Lightsworn Zombie tradition, will continue to make such old school, slower strategies nearly untenable.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Aliens
Aliens are a solid tier 3 deck, maybe capable of competing at the local/regional level but definitely not on the SJC or Nationals/Worlds circuit. Like Spellcasters, the deck suffers from the inherently flawed Counter mechanic which requires a stable field of monsters to be truly effective; the current game's immersion in Synchroing, tributing, and tagging (GB) makes controlling monsters, and by extension any Counters you may put on them, extremely difficult. The difficulty for Aliens is compounded by the archetype's overall weak monster base and abundance of subpar support.
Two cards, however, make Aliens worth considering. Alien Ammonite is a powerful "instant Synchro," a la Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North or Black Salvo, i.e., it revives the necessary non-Tuner material monster upon its Normal Summon. Its corresponding Synchro, Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar, is arguably the game's most powerful Synchro outside of the banned Dark Strike Fighter, yet its power is sharply hemmed in by its requirement of both Alien Ammonite and Alien non-Tuner monsters as materials. Still, the ability to clear out any face-up Spell/Traps, generate A-Counters for free, and destroy any card while retaining the ability to attack that turn, makes Gol'gar a powerhouse. Its 2600 ATK is unmatched for a monster of its Level Stars (5). Ammonite also retains the ability to instantly bring out Magical Android and Ally of Justice Catastor, and its status as a LIGHT tuner gives you access to the unusual Ancient Sacred Wyvern, too.
In my experience, the Alien deck must focus simply on accelerating toward Gol'gar. Aliens are not an overly speedy deck, though; as such, the slack must be picked up by tutors like Gold Sarcophagus and Mysterious Triangle, and card filtering like Card Trooper and Alien Grey. Here's a sample decklist for the March 2010 format:
3 Alien Grey
3 Alien Ammonite
3 Alien Warrior
2 Alien Telepath
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Junk Synchron
1 Sangan
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Card Trooper
3 Mysterious Triangle
3 Code A Ancient Ruins
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Book of Moon
1 Brain Control
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Widespread Dud
2 Planet Pollutant Virus
1 Starlight Road
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment
Like Koa'ki Meiru, Alien inherently sacrifices some consistency for redundancy and later game combo potential. Triple Code A Ancient Ruins bolsters the consistency of Gol'gar: it gives you both the fuel for Gol'gar's destruction effect, and can be used with Gol'gar's A-Counters to revive your Alien monsters, too. Mysterious Triangle increases the utility of our otherwise pedestrian Alien Greys, and turns Planet Pollutant Virus into a real menace.
You may have noticed that I have excluded both Alien Overlord and Alien Dog from this list. My reasoning is that they only add inconsistency to an already inconsistent archetype. Overlord has a remarkable capacity to be completely dead in-hand, and is really a "win-moar" card, i.e., a card that only benefits you when you're already in an advantageous position, in this case, having 2 A-Counters to remove at will. Its A-Counter generation effect is ok, but unneeded. Alien Dog's requirement of a clean Normal Summon also makes it a dead card barring your access to Alien Warrior, Telepath, or Ammonite, not a good position to be in especially in light of its mediocre stats.
Alien Warrior is your primary offense, alongside Cyber Dragon. CyDrag also synergizes with our two copies of Junk Synchron. Synchron can revive Grey for an instant LV5, can make Junk Archer with any our of level 4s, and makes a level 8 in tandem with CyDrag or one of our level 5 Synchros. Card Trooper performs several functions. It sets up Ammonite and Code, provides offense, and gives us more card filtering to dig toward our Ammonites and Codes. Gorz is ridiculous in nearly every deck, but in here he can especially nasty if you happen to have access to Ammonite on the turn after. By Normal Summoning an Ammonite, reviving a second Ammonite, and tuning with Gorz and its token, you can end up with two level 8 Synchros on the field in one turn. Alien Grey digs through our deck and generates A-Counters. It's passive, but the momentum we sacrifice can usually be recouped with an advantageous Telepath (which operates like Breaker the Magical Warrior) or Triangle. Grey into Triangle + Ammonite will accelerate our Gol'gar swarm.
Gold Sarcophagus should almost always be used for Ammonite or for a card to bounce with Gol'gar effect (Call of the Haunted, Code, Swords of Revealing Light). Gol'gar effectively gives you access to infinite SoRL and Call, and turns your in-hand Codes into actual monsters on the field. If Gol'gar lives to see 2+ turns on the field, you are probably going to win due to his unique ability to provide removal and revival in one robust package. Book of Moon, Solemn Judgment, Starlight Road, and Bottomless Trap Hole all help to protect our Gol'gar from threats.
This deck will be very strapped for Extra Deck space: after the 3 Gol'gars, be sure to include at least 1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern, a Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Junk Archer, the level 5 generic Synchros, and Synchro staples like Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Black Rose Dragon, Stardust Dragon, and Goyo Guardian. The side deck should include massive hatred for Gladiator Beasts, who have a highly favorable matchup with this deck. Prohibition is also a strong choice against decks like Lightsworn. Aliens can't effectively use Light-Imprisoning Mirror due to their own preponderance of LIGHT monsters, so other alternatives must be used.
I hope you enjoyed this look at Aliens. My next article will look at some of the expected trends of the upcoming March 2010 Advanced Format.
Two cards, however, make Aliens worth considering. Alien Ammonite is a powerful "instant Synchro," a la Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North or Black Salvo, i.e., it revives the necessary non-Tuner material monster upon its Normal Summon. Its corresponding Synchro, Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar, is arguably the game's most powerful Synchro outside of the banned Dark Strike Fighter, yet its power is sharply hemmed in by its requirement of both Alien Ammonite and Alien non-Tuner monsters as materials. Still, the ability to clear out any face-up Spell/Traps, generate A-Counters for free, and destroy any card while retaining the ability to attack that turn, makes Gol'gar a powerhouse. Its 2600 ATK is unmatched for a monster of its Level Stars (5). Ammonite also retains the ability to instantly bring out Magical Android and Ally of Justice Catastor, and its status as a LIGHT tuner gives you access to the unusual Ancient Sacred Wyvern, too.
In my experience, the Alien deck must focus simply on accelerating toward Gol'gar. Aliens are not an overly speedy deck, though; as such, the slack must be picked up by tutors like Gold Sarcophagus and Mysterious Triangle, and card filtering like Card Trooper and Alien Grey. Here's a sample decklist for the March 2010 format:
3 Alien Grey
3 Alien Ammonite
3 Alien Warrior
2 Alien Telepath
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Junk Synchron
1 Sangan
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Card Trooper
3 Mysterious Triangle
3 Code A Ancient Ruins
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Book of Moon
1 Brain Control
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Widespread Dud
2 Planet Pollutant Virus
1 Starlight Road
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment
Like Koa'ki Meiru, Alien inherently sacrifices some consistency for redundancy and later game combo potential. Triple Code A Ancient Ruins bolsters the consistency of Gol'gar: it gives you both the fuel for Gol'gar's destruction effect, and can be used with Gol'gar's A-Counters to revive your Alien monsters, too. Mysterious Triangle increases the utility of our otherwise pedestrian Alien Greys, and turns Planet Pollutant Virus into a real menace.
You may have noticed that I have excluded both Alien Overlord and Alien Dog from this list. My reasoning is that they only add inconsistency to an already inconsistent archetype. Overlord has a remarkable capacity to be completely dead in-hand, and is really a "win-moar" card, i.e., a card that only benefits you when you're already in an advantageous position, in this case, having 2 A-Counters to remove at will. Its A-Counter generation effect is ok, but unneeded. Alien Dog's requirement of a clean Normal Summon also makes it a dead card barring your access to Alien Warrior, Telepath, or Ammonite, not a good position to be in especially in light of its mediocre stats.
Alien Warrior is your primary offense, alongside Cyber Dragon. CyDrag also synergizes with our two copies of Junk Synchron. Synchron can revive Grey for an instant LV5, can make Junk Archer with any our of level 4s, and makes a level 8 in tandem with CyDrag or one of our level 5 Synchros. Card Trooper performs several functions. It sets up Ammonite and Code, provides offense, and gives us more card filtering to dig toward our Ammonites and Codes. Gorz is ridiculous in nearly every deck, but in here he can especially nasty if you happen to have access to Ammonite on the turn after. By Normal Summoning an Ammonite, reviving a second Ammonite, and tuning with Gorz and its token, you can end up with two level 8 Synchros on the field in one turn. Alien Grey digs through our deck and generates A-Counters. It's passive, but the momentum we sacrifice can usually be recouped with an advantageous Telepath (which operates like Breaker the Magical Warrior) or Triangle. Grey into Triangle + Ammonite will accelerate our Gol'gar swarm.
Gold Sarcophagus should almost always be used for Ammonite or for a card to bounce with Gol'gar effect (Call of the Haunted, Code, Swords of Revealing Light). Gol'gar effectively gives you access to infinite SoRL and Call, and turns your in-hand Codes into actual monsters on the field. If Gol'gar lives to see 2+ turns on the field, you are probably going to win due to his unique ability to provide removal and revival in one robust package. Book of Moon, Solemn Judgment, Starlight Road, and Bottomless Trap Hole all help to protect our Gol'gar from threats.
This deck will be very strapped for Extra Deck space: after the 3 Gol'gars, be sure to include at least 1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern, a Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Junk Archer, the level 5 generic Synchros, and Synchro staples like Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, Black Rose Dragon, Stardust Dragon, and Goyo Guardian. The side deck should include massive hatred for Gladiator Beasts, who have a highly favorable matchup with this deck. Prohibition is also a strong choice against decks like Lightsworn. Aliens can't effectively use Light-Imprisoning Mirror due to their own preponderance of LIGHT monsters, so other alternatives must be used.
I hope you enjoyed this look at Aliens. My next article will look at some of the expected trends of the upcoming March 2010 Advanced Format.
Requests Again
What decks would you like to see reviewed/profiled? Have any decks you would like me to critique/fix?
Reptilianne Revisited
I've been playing around with the Reptilianne deck again, and so far I really like it. I ultimately decided to run 2 copies of Recurring Nightmare; getting back Naga + Vaskii has helped propel me to several victories. I'm also going to add in a single copy of Starlight Road in March, mainly to protect Damage = Reptile. Damage = Reptile backing up either Naga or Gardna can net you solid +1s. Here's the final build, hybridized from the two I posted earlier
3 Reptilianne Naga
3 Reptilianne Scylla
3 Reptilianne Gardna
2 Reptilianne Viper
2 Reptilianne Medusa
2 Reptilianne Vaskii
1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
1 Tragoedia
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Reptilianne Spawn
2 Enemy Controller
2 Recurring Nightmare
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
3 Damage = Reptile
3 Offering to the Snake Deity
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Ojama Trio
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Starlight Road
Fairly self-explanatory. Spawn gives you easier plays with Econ, Vaskii, and Medusa. Medusa itself is a nifty target for Damage = Reptile if you can ram Naga into a larger Synchro/tribute monster.
My main concern with this deck is the upcoming release/popularity of Starlight Road, which would obviously hurt the playability of Offering in particular. I may try out Trap Stun.
3 Reptilianne Naga
3 Reptilianne Scylla
3 Reptilianne Gardna
2 Reptilianne Viper
2 Reptilianne Medusa
2 Reptilianne Vaskii
1 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
1 Tragoedia
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Reptilianne Spawn
2 Enemy Controller
2 Recurring Nightmare
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
3 Damage = Reptile
3 Offering to the Snake Deity
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Ojama Trio
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Starlight Road
Fairly self-explanatory. Spawn gives you easier plays with Econ, Vaskii, and Medusa. Medusa itself is a nifty target for Damage = Reptile if you can ram Naga into a larger Synchro/tribute monster.
My main concern with this deck is the upcoming release/popularity of Starlight Road, which would obviously hurt the playability of Offering in particular. I may try out Trap Stun.
Friday, February 26, 2010
MST
Quick gameplay post today about Mystical Space Typhoon, one of the most popular competitive YGO cards of all. In many games, in nearly every format I can remember, my opponent has done something like the following:
-Activate MST, set a monster/Spell, pass.
-MST on one random card in a multiple card backfield; card turns out to be something like Icarus Attack, Jar of Greed, or Call of the Haunted (reviving a floater like Card Trooper), which results in a negative transaction for them.
-MST in my End Phase; no follow-up or offensive push on their next turn.
Such plays are among the most common misplays (or at least subpar plays) in everyday YGO. You should not just burn your MST as soon as you draw it, or throw it blindly into a fat backrow. MST is best used to set-up an offensive push, or damage/destruction by battle which leads to advantage. It is also incredibly powerful as a chain to Continuous cards such as Black Whirlwind, D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation., especially against novice opponents who do not appreciate MST's value as a versatile Quick-play Spell Card.
If you're used to flinging your MST at the first opportunity you have, at any random card...stop and think about it next time. You'll probably wish you had saved it for that Whirlwind or the last Set card in the way of your push for game.
-Activate MST, set a monster/Spell, pass.
-MST on one random card in a multiple card backfield; card turns out to be something like Icarus Attack, Jar of Greed, or Call of the Haunted (reviving a floater like Card Trooper), which results in a negative transaction for them.
-MST in my End Phase; no follow-up or offensive push on their next turn.
Such plays are among the most common misplays (or at least subpar plays) in everyday YGO. You should not just burn your MST as soon as you draw it, or throw it blindly into a fat backrow. MST is best used to set-up an offensive push, or damage/destruction by battle which leads to advantage. It is also incredibly powerful as a chain to Continuous cards such as Black Whirlwind, D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation., especially against novice opponents who do not appreciate MST's value as a versatile Quick-play Spell Card.
If you're used to flinging your MST at the first opportunity you have, at any random card...stop and think about it next time. You'll probably wish you had saved it for that Whirlwind or the last Set card in the way of your push for game.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Disaster Dragon: A Closer Look
I received a request from a loyal reader for my analysis of Disaster Dragon. For those of you unfamiliar with this decktype, it is fairly recent archetype pioneered by Richard Clarke of Florida. As its name suggests, it focuses on the Dragon-type, and seeks to exploit massive Special Summoning via the Red-Eyes monsters (Wyvern and Darkness Metal Dragon) and antimeta lockdoown via Koa'ki Meiru Drago. We looked briefly at Drago in my article on the Koa'ki Meiru deck: its ability to lock down all LIGHT and DARK Special Summons has been, and will continue to be, huge in a metagame overrun by Lightsworn, Blackwing, and Infernity decks. REDMD (Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon) is one of the most powerful piece of theme support in YGO, boasting not only a 2800 ATK body and an easy Special Summoning condition, but also the ability to Special Summon any Dragon other than itself from either the hand or the Graveyard.
With that in mind, let's look at the monsters from my version of this deck:
3 Masked Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Wyvern
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2 Totem Dragon
2 Exploder Dragon
1 Debris Dragon
1 Prime Material Dragon
1 Lava Dragon
1 Yamata Dragon
The Red-Eyes pair are the heart and soul of the deck. REDMD toolboxes Dragons from your Graveyard (ideally dumped there by Future Fusion; see below), and Wyvern brings back REDMD. Masked Dragon maintains solid field presence while also searching out options such as Totem Dragon, Exploder Dragon, or either of our Dragon-type Tuners. The stability provided by Masked will lead to easier REDMD drops, Synchro Summons, and removal through Exploder. Drago is both a beater and solid antimeta pick; its maintenance cost is no sweat in a deck running 20 Dragons. Prime Material is an amazing revival target for REDMD's effect, due to its ability to lock down the abilities of Gladiator Beasts Murmillo and Gyzarus, Judgment Dragon, and Icarus Attack, among other widespread cards. The single Yamata Dragon is often painlessly brought out via a Totem tribute, and can inflict major damage while accruing ridiculous card advantage. The single Lava Dragon can bring back Drago, Masked, or Totem in pairs.
Let's move onto the Spells:
2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
1 Future Fusion
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 Lightning Vortex
1 My Body as a Shield
Sarcophagus is here mainly for Future Fusion, the Spell which gives this deck so much of its power. A Future Fusion targeting Five-Headed Dragon can fill your Graveyard with REDMDs, Wyverns, Prime, Tuners, etc, with which you can toolbox your way through the rest of the duel. Burial recycles Wyvern and Dragons which have fallen victim to cards like Caius the Shadow Monarch or Bottomless Trap Hole. Book and MBaaS are versatile offense/defense cards, and Vortex lets you resolve a complicated field, especially against LS.
Lastly, the Traps:
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Burst Breath
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Starlight Road
Fairly self-explanatory. Burst Breath can remove most monsters from the field if it tributes one of the Red-Eyes monsters. Starlight Road is in here as tech against commonly played mass removal; see my article on Starlight for more details on why maining one copy is a good idea.
The Extra Deck will look something like this:
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Trident Dragion
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Iron Chain Dragon
1 Five Headed Dragon
1 Magical Android
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
Fairly self-explanatory. This deck has unique access to Trident Dragion and Exploder Dragonwing, both of which require Dragon-type monsters as Synchro Materials. Iron Chain Dragon can be used with Debris Dragon to make Trident, actually. The single Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is largely a tech pick based on Cyber Dragon returning to 2 per deck for this upcoming format.
My next article will look at some of the subtleties of a very popular card: Mystical Space Typhoon.
With that in mind, let's look at the monsters from my version of this deck:
3 Masked Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Red-Eyes Wyvern
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2 Totem Dragon
2 Exploder Dragon
1 Debris Dragon
1 Prime Material Dragon
1 Lava Dragon
1 Yamata Dragon
The Red-Eyes pair are the heart and soul of the deck. REDMD toolboxes Dragons from your Graveyard (ideally dumped there by Future Fusion; see below), and Wyvern brings back REDMD. Masked Dragon maintains solid field presence while also searching out options such as Totem Dragon, Exploder Dragon, or either of our Dragon-type Tuners. The stability provided by Masked will lead to easier REDMD drops, Synchro Summons, and removal through Exploder. Drago is both a beater and solid antimeta pick; its maintenance cost is no sweat in a deck running 20 Dragons. Prime Material is an amazing revival target for REDMD's effect, due to its ability to lock down the abilities of Gladiator Beasts Murmillo and Gyzarus, Judgment Dragon, and Icarus Attack, among other widespread cards. The single Yamata Dragon is often painlessly brought out via a Totem tribute, and can inflict major damage while accruing ridiculous card advantage. The single Lava Dragon can bring back Drago, Masked, or Totem in pairs.
Let's move onto the Spells:
2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Book of Moon
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
1 Future Fusion
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 Lightning Vortex
1 My Body as a Shield
Sarcophagus is here mainly for Future Fusion, the Spell which gives this deck so much of its power. A Future Fusion targeting Five-Headed Dragon can fill your Graveyard with REDMDs, Wyverns, Prime, Tuners, etc, with which you can toolbox your way through the rest of the duel. Burial recycles Wyvern and Dragons which have fallen victim to cards like Caius the Shadow Monarch or Bottomless Trap Hole. Book and MBaaS are versatile offense/defense cards, and Vortex lets you resolve a complicated field, especially against LS.
Lastly, the Traps:
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Burst Breath
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Starlight Road
Fairly self-explanatory. Burst Breath can remove most monsters from the field if it tributes one of the Red-Eyes monsters. Starlight Road is in here as tech against commonly played mass removal; see my article on Starlight for more details on why maining one copy is a good idea.
The Extra Deck will look something like this:
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Trident Dragion
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Iron Chain Dragon
1 Five Headed Dragon
1 Magical Android
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
Fairly self-explanatory. This deck has unique access to Trident Dragion and Exploder Dragonwing, both of which require Dragon-type monsters as Synchro Materials. Iron Chain Dragon can be used with Debris Dragon to make Trident, actually. The single Chimeratech Fortress Dragon is largely a tech pick based on Cyber Dragon returning to 2 per deck for this upcoming format.
My next article will look at some of the subtleties of a very popular card: Mystical Space Typhoon.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Hamsters: A Look At An OCG/TCG Hybrid Deck
I will write the requested analysis of Disaster Dragon soon enough, and also cover Geminis, but I'll take a brief breather from that to look at a purely theoretical (and very fun) decktype which synthesizes a TCG exclusive from Absolute Powerforce with several OCG (Asian) Synchros and Fusions. My friend from Pojo, Liling Po, was kind enough to supply the deck list. Presenting, Hamster Heroes:
Maindeck (40 cards):
3 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster
3 X-Saber Airbellum
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2 Elemental Hero Wildheart
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Elemental Hero Bladedge
1 Elemental Hero Prisma
1 Rescue Cat
1 Tree Otter
1 Sea Koala
1 Summoner Monk
1 Hane Hane
2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 E - Emergency Call
2 Miracle Fusion
2 Book of Moon
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Brain Control
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Waboku
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Call of the Haunted
Extra Deck:
2 Lightning Warrior
2 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Elemental Hero The Great Tornado
1 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero The Shining
1 Elemental Hero Wildege
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Naturia Beast
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Koalaccoala
This deck functions in some sense like the classic Cat Synchro deck from previous formats. It features the one allowed copied of Rescue Cat to fetch Level 3 and lower Beast-type monsters from the deck, and supplements them with 3 copies of the new Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, which draws from the same range of targets, except in face-down defense position. With this wealth of search power, the deck can easily toolbox its way into a variety of different Synchros and attribute-specific Elemental Hero Fusions. It has WATER (Tree Otter) for Absolute Zero, WIND (Stratos) for the Great Tornado, EARTH (Cat, Hamster, Hane Hane, Airbellum, Wildheart, Bladedge) for Gaia, and LIGHT (Ryko, Prisma) for The Shining. Airbellum + Ryko is an instant LV5 generic Synchro, Airbellum + Koala brings out the fearsome Spell-negating Naturia Beast, and, most vitally, the deck can bring out the LV9 Trishula with ease by simply resolving a Hamster (LV4) into Airbellum (LV3) and following it up with a LV2 monster (likely Ryko) next turn. Even a simple Hamster + Airbellum lets you bring out the potentially game-ending, Dark Strike Fighter Lite of Lightning Warrior.
Since some of these OCG cards are obscure, I'll post their effects for reference:
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
WATER/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV9/2700/2000
1 Tuner + 2 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned, you can remove from play 1 card each from your opponent's field, hand, and Graveyard.
Naturia Beast
EARTH/Beast/Synchro/Effect/LV5/2200/1700
1 EARTH Tuner + 1 or more EARTH non-Tuner monsters
During either player's turn, you may send the top 2 cards of your deck to the Graveyard to negate the activation of a Spell Card and destroy it.
Lightning Warrior
LIGHT/Warrior/Synchro/Effect/LV7/2400/1200
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's level x 300.
Elemental Hero The Shining
LIGHT/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV8/2600/2100
1 "Elemental Hero" monster + 1 LIGHT monster
This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. The card gains ATK equal to the number of your removed from play "Elemental Hero" monster x 300. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can add up to 2 of your removed from play "Elemental Hero" monsters to your hand.
Elemental Hero The Great Tornado
WIND/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV8/2800/2200
1 "Elemental Hero" monster + 1 WIND monster
This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. When this card is Special Summoned, halve the ATK and DEF of all face-up monsters your opponent controls.
Every one of these monsters has a massively powerful, broken effect (especially Trishula), and this deck can exploit the whole gamut through its rapid access to Beasts and Warriors of different attributes. Trishula followed up by Absolute Zero can break the back of numerous decks, by shredding field presence, in-hand options, and Graveyard resources all at once, then creating a removal deterrent/defense with Zero. The crippling effect of Trishula is further supplemented by the hand destruction of X-Saber Airbellum, long one of the more overlooked aspects of any Cat-based deck's power. Stripping in-hand cards with Trishula and Airbellum, while amassing further advantage down the road with your Elemental Hero Fusions, puts you in a position of firm card advantage and constant aggression. Even your non-Extra Deck monsters, like Cat, Stratos, and Hamster, manufacture basic card advantage which becoms an avalanche as the game progresses.
This is not my deck or idea, and I'm going to avoid making full-fledged fixes, but I think the above deck could enhance its strength with a copy of Sangan for searching Cat, Monk, and Hamster, as well as a Pot of Avarice and/or 3rd Miracle Fusion. I think these changes would help the deck to gets it engine online more quickly, and to recycle key cards in order to maintain pressure and recover from disruption.
I think that Cat-based strategies as a whole will be a strong pick for the new format now that Hamster is legal for play. Whether as a Synchro engine or advantageous tribute bait for Monarchs etc., Hamster is sure to be a major player in the coming months.
Maindeck (40 cards):
3 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster
3 X-Saber Airbellum
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2 Elemental Hero Wildheart
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Elemental Hero Bladedge
1 Elemental Hero Prisma
1 Rescue Cat
1 Tree Otter
1 Sea Koala
1 Summoner Monk
1 Hane Hane
2 Gold Sarcophagus
2 E - Emergency Call
2 Miracle Fusion
2 Book of Moon
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Brain Control
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Waboku
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Call of the Haunted
Extra Deck:
2 Lightning Warrior
2 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Elemental Hero The Great Tornado
1 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero The Shining
1 Elemental Hero Wildege
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Naturia Beast
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Koalaccoala
This deck functions in some sense like the classic Cat Synchro deck from previous formats. It features the one allowed copied of Rescue Cat to fetch Level 3 and lower Beast-type monsters from the deck, and supplements them with 3 copies of the new Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, which draws from the same range of targets, except in face-down defense position. With this wealth of search power, the deck can easily toolbox its way into a variety of different Synchros and attribute-specific Elemental Hero Fusions. It has WATER (Tree Otter) for Absolute Zero, WIND (Stratos) for the Great Tornado, EARTH (Cat, Hamster, Hane Hane, Airbellum, Wildheart, Bladedge) for Gaia, and LIGHT (Ryko, Prisma) for The Shining. Airbellum + Ryko is an instant LV5 generic Synchro, Airbellum + Koala brings out the fearsome Spell-negating Naturia Beast, and, most vitally, the deck can bring out the LV9 Trishula with ease by simply resolving a Hamster (LV4) into Airbellum (LV3) and following it up with a LV2 monster (likely Ryko) next turn. Even a simple Hamster + Airbellum lets you bring out the potentially game-ending, Dark Strike Fighter Lite of Lightning Warrior.
Since some of these OCG cards are obscure, I'll post their effects for reference:
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
WATER/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/LV9/2700/2000
1 Tuner + 2 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned, you can remove from play 1 card each from your opponent's field, hand, and Graveyard.
Naturia Beast
EARTH/Beast/Synchro/Effect/LV5/2200/1700
1 EARTH Tuner + 1 or more EARTH non-Tuner monsters
During either player's turn, you may send the top 2 cards of your deck to the Graveyard to negate the activation of a Spell Card and destroy it.
Lightning Warrior
LIGHT/Warrior/Synchro/Effect/LV7/2400/1200
1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's level x 300.
Elemental Hero The Shining
LIGHT/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV8/2600/2100
1 "Elemental Hero" monster + 1 LIGHT monster
This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. The card gains ATK equal to the number of your removed from play "Elemental Hero" monster x 300. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, you can add up to 2 of your removed from play "Elemental Hero" monsters to your hand.
Elemental Hero The Great Tornado
WIND/Warrior/Fusion/Effect/LV8/2800/2200
1 "Elemental Hero" monster + 1 WIND monster
This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. When this card is Special Summoned, halve the ATK and DEF of all face-up monsters your opponent controls.
Every one of these monsters has a massively powerful, broken effect (especially Trishula), and this deck can exploit the whole gamut through its rapid access to Beasts and Warriors of different attributes. Trishula followed up by Absolute Zero can break the back of numerous decks, by shredding field presence, in-hand options, and Graveyard resources all at once, then creating a removal deterrent/defense with Zero. The crippling effect of Trishula is further supplemented by the hand destruction of X-Saber Airbellum, long one of the more overlooked aspects of any Cat-based deck's power. Stripping in-hand cards with Trishula and Airbellum, while amassing further advantage down the road with your Elemental Hero Fusions, puts you in a position of firm card advantage and constant aggression. Even your non-Extra Deck monsters, like Cat, Stratos, and Hamster, manufacture basic card advantage which becoms an avalanche as the game progresses.
This is not my deck or idea, and I'm going to avoid making full-fledged fixes, but I think the above deck could enhance its strength with a copy of Sangan for searching Cat, Monk, and Hamster, as well as a Pot of Avarice and/or 3rd Miracle Fusion. I think these changes would help the deck to gets it engine online more quickly, and to recycle key cards in order to maintain pressure and recover from disruption.
I think that Cat-based strategies as a whole will be a strong pick for the new format now that Hamster is legal for play. Whether as a Synchro engine or advantageous tribute bait for Monarchs etc., Hamster is sure to be a major player in the coming months.
Taking Requests
Let me know if there are any cards or decks you would like me to look at/review soon.
Heavy Storm, Starlight Road, And The New Metagame
Ever since its inception, YGO has been governed by risk/reward mechanisms: how many cards should I invest in the field for defense and/or aggression, while being wary of mass removal such as Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, and Judgment Dragon? For a beginner, opening the game with a Set of Dimensional Prison AND Bottomless Trap Hole may seem like a brilliant idea. Between them, the two traps cover all defensive bases from monsters with 1500+ ATK to anti-destruction monsters like Stardust Dragon. Together, they would seem to make you highly safe. However, the presence of cards like Heavy Storm, and before it Harpie's Feather Duster, has discouraged many players from making such overzealous defensive moves. The threat of losing two cards to your opponent's single Spell, and then likely losing a monster(s) by battle or effect-destruction now that you are defenseless, is just too grave to routinely set a fat backrow without protection such as Solemn Judgment or Pollinosis.
Expert players, however, have still often exploited the specter of Heavy Storm to make cunning plays with their Spell/Trap Cards. These players know that their opponent only has about a 15% chance of naturally opening with Heavy Storm. As such, an expert player can mess with his opponent's head by opening with two cards to their backrow WITHOUT an anti-Storm measure, to create the image of a strong defense and hand, while statistically being mostly safe from Storm. Such a move also avoids the possibility of Mystical Space Typhoon being dropped to clear your only backrow, and segue into battle advantage with a monster like Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame or X-Saber Airbellum. A double set effectively forces the opponent to hold MST or to make the classic bad play of a "blind MST" into one of your multiple Set cards. In all of these cases, the strategic reward of presenting a strong defense at the outset outweighs the statistical risk of being hit with an early Heavy Storm.
Heavy Storm has also given rise to the "pro Storm" play, which involves creating the illusion of heavy Spell/Trap card investment followed by a surprising Storm play. You can attempt such a play by setting Heavy Storm, having your opponent Set a card, and then setting a second card (perhaps another Normal Spell, or a defensive Trap) on your turn. At this point, a Storm from your opponent merely breaks them even at 2-for-2; a traditional Storm play, from your hand, would actually put you at a -1. The calculus of card advantage might make it even more likely for your opponent to then set a 2nd card on his turn. However, if on your turn you were to flip one of your Sets, showing it to be a previously dead Destiny Draw, and then follow that with Heavy Storm, you have netted a solid +1 (your Storm for you opponent's two Sets) while exploiting the strategic specter of Storm to its absolute max. You presented the image of a strong defense when you had none, and then gained card advantage in the process.
The rise of Solemn Judgment as a maindeck staple, following the introduction of Light of Destruction and the demise of the original DAD Return in May 2008, complicated the Storm mechanic in YGO. Solemn Judgment, by being able to negate Heavy Storm, and by being paired with card-filtering such as Allure of Darkness which allowed players to routinely see 2-3 Solemns per game, gave rise to increasingly complex fields incredibly resilient to Storm and other mass removal. TeleDAD saw this mechanic through to its peak. Arguably the most consistent decktype of all time, TeleDAD could establish a field of Stardust Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Royal Oppression, and Solemn Judgment, with a graved Necro Gardna, which between them could render normal mass removal like Storm of JD completely impotent. The old risk/reward mechanic enforced by Storm and its ilk was replaced by a new form of rapid control, in which quickly established and protected field presence took precedence over all else.
The overdue limitation of Solemn Judgment helped to reinvigorate the strategic Storm calculus, while diminishing the possibility of a TeleDAD-esque control deck which had all the answers and counters at all times. Control decks reliant on Solemn, such as Gladiator Beasts or Gravekeepers, lose one of the best weapons in their arsenal and were increasingly unable to compete with decks capable of dropping large monsters against unprotected fields/backrows. Control decks, however, may be in luck with the imminent release of the much hyped Starlight Road. Let's take a look:
Starlight Road
Normal Trap
Activate only when your opponent activates a card effect that would destroy 2 or more cards on the field. Negate that effect and destroy it. You can then Special Summon 1 "Stardust Dragon" from your Extra Deck.
At first glance, Starlight Road is perhaps the most brutal counter ever printed to Storm. It can turn what would have been a +1 play for you (your Storm against their crowded backrow) into a -1 by negating your Storm and getting a free Stardust, which in turn can eat another removal card down the road. The tables have turned, in a sense: just as setting multiple Spells/Traps before Storm has been played can be a risky move, now dropping your Storm on such a field is almost equally as dangerous.
The ability of Starlight to negate a staple like Storm, as well as metagame menaces like the perennially semi-limited Judgment Dragon, make Starlight Road a strong pick for almost any deck in a single copy. Like Storm, its mere presence in the deck complicates Spell/Trap Card Zone strategies and adds another layer of strategy to Duels. It doesn't even have to be activated for its power to be felt: many players will think twice now about attempting to shred a complex field with Storm. Decks such as Lightsworn will require higher levels of strategic planning, to manipulate effects like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel, to pick off cards one by one and bypass Road. I wouldn't be surprised if cards like Dust Tornado and Breaker the Magical Warrior returned to the maindeck.
For all of its power, Road itself won't be the real threat in this "brave new world" of post-March YGO. Rather, Continuous control cards like Necrovalley, the insanely broken Royal Oppression, and Skill Drain will be harder to deal with because of Road, and will become the actual new menace. Strategies heavily reliant on backrows, from competitive archetypes such as Machina and Gravekeeper's to fringe one likes Aliens or Koa'ki Meiru, gain a huge boost from the availability of multiples Roads to protect their investments. The introduction of Road seems like a positive change in this respect, although I'm still wary of its power in stall decks which may resort to burn or even Final Countdown (an article on Countdown will be forthcoming in my next few entries) as a win condition. The old Comic Odyssey burn deck, which used Solemn and Dark Bribe as similar measures to protect Skill Drain, prove the resiliency of heavy control strategies when viable protection measures are available.
I don't expect Starlight Road to be a 3-of staple like Solemn was. It will, however, be a strong maindeck tech pick to complicate Storm and JD plays in particular, and an amazing new tool for control strategies to exploit. It will serve in effect as their missing copies of Solemn Judgment, and let them establish powerful field presence for gaining card advantage.
My next article will return to the deck garage. This time we will look at Gemini monsters.
Expert players, however, have still often exploited the specter of Heavy Storm to make cunning plays with their Spell/Trap Cards. These players know that their opponent only has about a 15% chance of naturally opening with Heavy Storm. As such, an expert player can mess with his opponent's head by opening with two cards to their backrow WITHOUT an anti-Storm measure, to create the image of a strong defense and hand, while statistically being mostly safe from Storm. Such a move also avoids the possibility of Mystical Space Typhoon being dropped to clear your only backrow, and segue into battle advantage with a monster like Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame or X-Saber Airbellum. A double set effectively forces the opponent to hold MST or to make the classic bad play of a "blind MST" into one of your multiple Set cards. In all of these cases, the strategic reward of presenting a strong defense at the outset outweighs the statistical risk of being hit with an early Heavy Storm.
Heavy Storm has also given rise to the "pro Storm" play, which involves creating the illusion of heavy Spell/Trap card investment followed by a surprising Storm play. You can attempt such a play by setting Heavy Storm, having your opponent Set a card, and then setting a second card (perhaps another Normal Spell, or a defensive Trap) on your turn. At this point, a Storm from your opponent merely breaks them even at 2-for-2; a traditional Storm play, from your hand, would actually put you at a -1. The calculus of card advantage might make it even more likely for your opponent to then set a 2nd card on his turn. However, if on your turn you were to flip one of your Sets, showing it to be a previously dead Destiny Draw, and then follow that with Heavy Storm, you have netted a solid +1 (your Storm for you opponent's two Sets) while exploiting the strategic specter of Storm to its absolute max. You presented the image of a strong defense when you had none, and then gained card advantage in the process.
The rise of Solemn Judgment as a maindeck staple, following the introduction of Light of Destruction and the demise of the original DAD Return in May 2008, complicated the Storm mechanic in YGO. Solemn Judgment, by being able to negate Heavy Storm, and by being paired with card-filtering such as Allure of Darkness which allowed players to routinely see 2-3 Solemns per game, gave rise to increasingly complex fields incredibly resilient to Storm and other mass removal. TeleDAD saw this mechanic through to its peak. Arguably the most consistent decktype of all time, TeleDAD could establish a field of Stardust Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Royal Oppression, and Solemn Judgment, with a graved Necro Gardna, which between them could render normal mass removal like Storm of JD completely impotent. The old risk/reward mechanic enforced by Storm and its ilk was replaced by a new form of rapid control, in which quickly established and protected field presence took precedence over all else.
The overdue limitation of Solemn Judgment helped to reinvigorate the strategic Storm calculus, while diminishing the possibility of a TeleDAD-esque control deck which had all the answers and counters at all times. Control decks reliant on Solemn, such as Gladiator Beasts or Gravekeepers, lose one of the best weapons in their arsenal and were increasingly unable to compete with decks capable of dropping large monsters against unprotected fields/backrows. Control decks, however, may be in luck with the imminent release of the much hyped Starlight Road. Let's take a look:
Starlight Road
Normal Trap
Activate only when your opponent activates a card effect that would destroy 2 or more cards on the field. Negate that effect and destroy it. You can then Special Summon 1 "Stardust Dragon" from your Extra Deck.
At first glance, Starlight Road is perhaps the most brutal counter ever printed to Storm. It can turn what would have been a +1 play for you (your Storm against their crowded backrow) into a -1 by negating your Storm and getting a free Stardust, which in turn can eat another removal card down the road. The tables have turned, in a sense: just as setting multiple Spells/Traps before Storm has been played can be a risky move, now dropping your Storm on such a field is almost equally as dangerous.
The ability of Starlight to negate a staple like Storm, as well as metagame menaces like the perennially semi-limited Judgment Dragon, make Starlight Road a strong pick for almost any deck in a single copy. Like Storm, its mere presence in the deck complicates Spell/Trap Card Zone strategies and adds another layer of strategy to Duels. It doesn't even have to be activated for its power to be felt: many players will think twice now about attempting to shred a complex field with Storm. Decks such as Lightsworn will require higher levels of strategic planning, to manipulate effects like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel, to pick off cards one by one and bypass Road. I wouldn't be surprised if cards like Dust Tornado and Breaker the Magical Warrior returned to the maindeck.
For all of its power, Road itself won't be the real threat in this "brave new world" of post-March YGO. Rather, Continuous control cards like Necrovalley, the insanely broken Royal Oppression, and Skill Drain will be harder to deal with because of Road, and will become the actual new menace. Strategies heavily reliant on backrows, from competitive archetypes such as Machina and Gravekeeper's to fringe one likes Aliens or Koa'ki Meiru, gain a huge boost from the availability of multiples Roads to protect their investments. The introduction of Road seems like a positive change in this respect, although I'm still wary of its power in stall decks which may resort to burn or even Final Countdown (an article on Countdown will be forthcoming in my next few entries) as a win condition. The old Comic Odyssey burn deck, which used Solemn and Dark Bribe as similar measures to protect Skill Drain, prove the resiliency of heavy control strategies when viable protection measures are available.
I don't expect Starlight Road to be a 3-of staple like Solemn was. It will, however, be a strong maindeck tech pick to complicate Storm and JD plays in particular, and an amazing new tool for control strategies to exploit. It will serve in effect as their missing copies of Solemn Judgment, and let them establish powerful field presence for gaining card advantage.
My next article will return to the deck garage. This time we will look at Gemini monsters.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Koa'ki Meiru: A Closer Look
For the first year of its existence, the Koa'ki Meiru theme was one of the major card design gimmicks in YGO. The theme consisted by and large of 1900 ATK fatties with good antimeta effects...but a horrendous maintenance cost. The maintenance cost mechanic would destroy each of them during the End Phase barring the discard of Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru or the revelation of a monster of the same subtype. Iron Core itself is a useless Spell Card, further compounding the problem. The KM monsters hailed from a variety of unusual subtypes (Beast-Warrior, Fiend, Rock, Zombie, etc.), making a pure KM deck nigh impossible to support. Key cards from the theme, such as KM Drago and KM Guardian, found comfortable niches in Disaster Dragon and Rock Stun, respectively, but the rest of the theme floundered.
Ancient Prophecy brought the first real hope for the decktype, with the introduction of KMs Boulder and Crusader. Boulder was a Sangan or sorts for Core or any LV4 or lower KM monster, while Crusader was a proactive battle recruiter a la Blackwing Shura the Flame, able to produce free cards via battle destruction of an opponent's monster. A KM draw card, Core Compression, gave the deck a touch of speed, too. Overall, however, KM had a long way to go since it still relied so heavily on Core itself and could not manufacture consistent card advantage.
Finally, Stardust Overdrive and especially Absolute Powerforce helped nudge the deck into at least tier 3 status. Overdrive introduced KMs Rooklord and Maximus, the dual "boss monsters" of the archetype who could destroy any card on the field. ABPF introduced the most important card in the archetype, though: KM Urnight. With 2000 ATK, LV4 status, and the ability to Special Summon any non-Urnight LV4 or lower KM to the field for free, Urnight is undoubtedly one of the most powerful monsters ever designed. Powerforce also introduced a non-battle way to search Core via Core Transport Unit, and a versatile tutor in the Field Spell, Iron Core Specimen Lab.
Most importantly, the introduction of Urnight and Maximus finally gave the theme some coherence in its subtypes for End Phase reveals. Urnight and Crusader are both Beast-Warriors, while Maximus and Drago are both Dragons. As such we can run them in pairs so as to avoid having to toss a Core and/or let them die during the End Phase.
With all this in mind, let's get to work on a monster base. I realize that Koa'ki Meiru are not really a tier 1 deck, no matter how they are constructed. The aim of this build is to exploit Core itself via Urnight, Maximus, and Iron Core Luster especially. I don't feel that a techy, Stun-like build with lots of Rock-types and generic stun monsters (Thunder King Rai-Oh, Doomcaliber Knight, etc.) and relatively few actual KM cards can do that consistently enough, and as such will leave Urnight (the pivotal KM monster) a vanilla much of the time. This build will feature a lot of redundancy, but if it can survive even a few turns into the Duel, it can create some amazing setups.
The monster lineup:
3 Koa'ki Meiru Urnight
3 Koa'ki Meiru Crusader
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
3 Koa'ki Meiru Maximus
3 Koa'ki Meiru Boulder
1 Koa'ki Meiru Tornado
Fairly straightforward and simple. Urnight/Crusader is our synergistic engine for claiming free cards both from the deck and the Graveyard. Their shared Beast-Warrior type means that they nicely support each other's End Phase maintenance cost. Drago is one of the great anti monsters, able to shut down powerful hitters like Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Judgment Dragon. His reveal cost is support by Maximus, who serves as the "boss monster" of this deck. Maximus' summoning condition can be harsh, but usually you can win the game during the turn that you drop its 3000 ATK onto the table. In tandem with Urnight, Maximus can put 6900+ damage on the table in a turn while also clearing out any card. Augment your aggressive rush with Drago and you won't even have to worry about Gorz, Tragoedia, or Battle Fader.
Boulder is mainly here to find Core and Urnight. Tornado is a single teched monster which can clear out lots of Special Summoned monsters by simply topdecking a Core.
On to the Spells:
3 Book of Moon
3 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru
3 Core Compression
3 Core Transport Unit
2 Iron Core Specimen Lab
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Core is a necessity at 3. Core Transport Unit, though nominally a -1, is too important not to run in multiples; it makes every card in your deck live. It also has the angle of letting you accumulate multiple Cores, which can allow for more strategic Maximus plays: i.e., dropping Maximus supported by a live Luster, or having a Core to cycle to keep Maximus and his massive presence on the field for another turn at least. The -1 of CTU can also be recouped by the +1s of Urnight and Crusader especially.
Core Compression is ideally used to toss Maximus or redundant Boulders to be reclaimed by Crusader. Speaking of which, Book of Moon will help Crusader to take down a wide array of commonly played monsters by battle. Iron Core Specimen Lab gives us some leeway with our End Phase maintenance costs: you can stabilize an awkward hand by doing something such as Urnight -> LV4 KM, let both die in End Phase, search Urnight + Crusader. You now have Urnight's maintenace cost secured and a full Graveyard to exploit with your further Crusaders. Lab can also search Maximus.
Lastly, the Traps:
3 Iron Core Luster
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Core Blast
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment
Luster is hard Spell/Trap negation as long as we have a Core. It's invaluable for stopping any Bottomless Trap Holes that might disrupt our Urnight/Maximus rushes, and can also be used aggressively against cards like Solar Recharge and/or the upcoming Blackwing Treasure. Bottomless Trap Hole is here to fend off larger monsters that could give our KMs problems; I'm not running Torrential Tribute due to the low monster count and the deck's difficulties with field presence. Call of the Haunted is here due to its ability to put 3000-4000 damage on the table by reviving Urnight or a properly summoned Maximus.
The last Trap, Core Blast, has one of the most unusual effects in YGO.
Core Blast
Normal Trap
You can only activate this card's effect if you control a face-up "Koa'ki Meiru" monster. Once per turn, during your Standby Phase, if you control fewer monsters that your opponent, you can destroy cards your opponent controls so that he controls the same number of cards as you control monsters.
It can be unwieldy due to its Standby Phase requirement, but using either Call or Urnight can often set you up to trigger it. The ability to wipe out indiscriminate "cards", as opposed to just monsters or just Spells/Traps, cannot be taken lightly. This card can be a great equalizer, akin to Balance from Magic: The Gathering.
I'm not maindecking Rooklord due to the unavailability of KM Bergzak (another Warrior-type) in the TCG. I feel that KM must run either Drago/Maximus or Bergzak/Rooklord; it can't really support both sets due to conflicting types and potential for further dead draws in a deck already prone to them.
The side deck will include Reckoned Power, Dust Tornado, Legendary Jujitsu Master, and KM Guardian, all of which can help give us a stronger game 2/3 against decks like Gladiator Beasts. These cards also synergize strongly with our maindeck picks, as many of them are KM-related and help to support End Phase maintenance.
Don't expect to win or even top an SJC with KM. This is primarily just a solid deck perhaps acceptable for regional play. It has some unique tricks and can actually make life hard on Gladiator Beasts in particular due to its ability to spam 1900+ ATK bodies with ease. The Blackwing matchup is tough due to Icarus Attack, Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn, and Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow. Against Lightsworn, you can often shut down Wulf and JD with Drago, but have to be constantly wary of Celestia, Lightsworn Angel.
My next article will look at the much hyped Starlight Road and how it will change YGO forever.
Ancient Prophecy brought the first real hope for the decktype, with the introduction of KMs Boulder and Crusader. Boulder was a Sangan or sorts for Core or any LV4 or lower KM monster, while Crusader was a proactive battle recruiter a la Blackwing Shura the Flame, able to produce free cards via battle destruction of an opponent's monster. A KM draw card, Core Compression, gave the deck a touch of speed, too. Overall, however, KM had a long way to go since it still relied so heavily on Core itself and could not manufacture consistent card advantage.
Finally, Stardust Overdrive and especially Absolute Powerforce helped nudge the deck into at least tier 3 status. Overdrive introduced KMs Rooklord and Maximus, the dual "boss monsters" of the archetype who could destroy any card on the field. ABPF introduced the most important card in the archetype, though: KM Urnight. With 2000 ATK, LV4 status, and the ability to Special Summon any non-Urnight LV4 or lower KM to the field for free, Urnight is undoubtedly one of the most powerful monsters ever designed. Powerforce also introduced a non-battle way to search Core via Core Transport Unit, and a versatile tutor in the Field Spell, Iron Core Specimen Lab.
Most importantly, the introduction of Urnight and Maximus finally gave the theme some coherence in its subtypes for End Phase reveals. Urnight and Crusader are both Beast-Warriors, while Maximus and Drago are both Dragons. As such we can run them in pairs so as to avoid having to toss a Core and/or let them die during the End Phase.
With all this in mind, let's get to work on a monster base. I realize that Koa'ki Meiru are not really a tier 1 deck, no matter how they are constructed. The aim of this build is to exploit Core itself via Urnight, Maximus, and Iron Core Luster especially. I don't feel that a techy, Stun-like build with lots of Rock-types and generic stun monsters (Thunder King Rai-Oh, Doomcaliber Knight, etc.) and relatively few actual KM cards can do that consistently enough, and as such will leave Urnight (the pivotal KM monster) a vanilla much of the time. This build will feature a lot of redundancy, but if it can survive even a few turns into the Duel, it can create some amazing setups.
The monster lineup:
3 Koa'ki Meiru Urnight
3 Koa'ki Meiru Crusader
3 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
3 Koa'ki Meiru Maximus
3 Koa'ki Meiru Boulder
1 Koa'ki Meiru Tornado
Fairly straightforward and simple. Urnight/Crusader is our synergistic engine for claiming free cards both from the deck and the Graveyard. Their shared Beast-Warrior type means that they nicely support each other's End Phase maintenance cost. Drago is one of the great anti monsters, able to shut down powerful hitters like Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Judgment Dragon. His reveal cost is support by Maximus, who serves as the "boss monster" of this deck. Maximus' summoning condition can be harsh, but usually you can win the game during the turn that you drop its 3000 ATK onto the table. In tandem with Urnight, Maximus can put 6900+ damage on the table in a turn while also clearing out any card. Augment your aggressive rush with Drago and you won't even have to worry about Gorz, Tragoedia, or Battle Fader.
Boulder is mainly here to find Core and Urnight. Tornado is a single teched monster which can clear out lots of Special Summoned monsters by simply topdecking a Core.
On to the Spells:
3 Book of Moon
3 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru
3 Core Compression
3 Core Transport Unit
2 Iron Core Specimen Lab
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Core is a necessity at 3. Core Transport Unit, though nominally a -1, is too important not to run in multiples; it makes every card in your deck live. It also has the angle of letting you accumulate multiple Cores, which can allow for more strategic Maximus plays: i.e., dropping Maximus supported by a live Luster, or having a Core to cycle to keep Maximus and his massive presence on the field for another turn at least. The -1 of CTU can also be recouped by the +1s of Urnight and Crusader especially.
Core Compression is ideally used to toss Maximus or redundant Boulders to be reclaimed by Crusader. Speaking of which, Book of Moon will help Crusader to take down a wide array of commonly played monsters by battle. Iron Core Specimen Lab gives us some leeway with our End Phase maintenance costs: you can stabilize an awkward hand by doing something such as Urnight -> LV4 KM, let both die in End Phase, search Urnight + Crusader. You now have Urnight's maintenace cost secured and a full Graveyard to exploit with your further Crusaders. Lab can also search Maximus.
Lastly, the Traps:
3 Iron Core Luster
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Core Blast
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment
Luster is hard Spell/Trap negation as long as we have a Core. It's invaluable for stopping any Bottomless Trap Holes that might disrupt our Urnight/Maximus rushes, and can also be used aggressively against cards like Solar Recharge and/or the upcoming Blackwing Treasure. Bottomless Trap Hole is here to fend off larger monsters that could give our KMs problems; I'm not running Torrential Tribute due to the low monster count and the deck's difficulties with field presence. Call of the Haunted is here due to its ability to put 3000-4000 damage on the table by reviving Urnight or a properly summoned Maximus.
The last Trap, Core Blast, has one of the most unusual effects in YGO.
Core Blast
Normal Trap
You can only activate this card's effect if you control a face-up "Koa'ki Meiru" monster. Once per turn, during your Standby Phase, if you control fewer monsters that your opponent, you can destroy cards your opponent controls so that he controls the same number of cards as you control monsters.
It can be unwieldy due to its Standby Phase requirement, but using either Call or Urnight can often set you up to trigger it. The ability to wipe out indiscriminate "cards", as opposed to just monsters or just Spells/Traps, cannot be taken lightly. This card can be a great equalizer, akin to Balance from Magic: The Gathering.
I'm not maindecking Rooklord due to the unavailability of KM Bergzak (another Warrior-type) in the TCG. I feel that KM must run either Drago/Maximus or Bergzak/Rooklord; it can't really support both sets due to conflicting types and potential for further dead draws in a deck already prone to them.
The side deck will include Reckoned Power, Dust Tornado, Legendary Jujitsu Master, and KM Guardian, all of which can help give us a stronger game 2/3 against decks like Gladiator Beasts. These cards also synergize strongly with our maindeck picks, as many of them are KM-related and help to support End Phase maintenance.
Don't expect to win or even top an SJC with KM. This is primarily just a solid deck perhaps acceptable for regional play. It has some unique tricks and can actually make life hard on Gladiator Beasts in particular due to its ability to spam 1900+ ATK bodies with ease. The Blackwing matchup is tough due to Icarus Attack, Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn, and Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow. Against Lightsworn, you can often shut down Wulf and JD with Drago, but have to be constantly wary of Celestia, Lightsworn Angel.
My next article will look at the much hyped Starlight Road and how it will change YGO forever.
Another Approach to Reptilianne
We looked yesterday at one possible route of approaching Reptilianne, featuring a strategy which converted card advantage, via Reptilianne Gardna + Damage = Reptile/Offering to the Snake Deity, into pressure and damage with Caius the Shadow Monarch. Caius has been a quasi-fixture in competitive Zombies decks, especially, for almost a format now, and he fulfills a similarly aggressive role in that Reptilianne build. I feel that that particular build is a strong tier 2/3 pick, with a few metagame modifications.
Today we will look at another, perhaps less competitive, approach to Reptilianne, this one focusing on an oft-overlooked Spell Card: Recurring Nightmare. Like Salvage or Gravekeeper's Stele, Nightmare creates a quick 2 for 1 by recurring monsters from your Graveyard. However, its condition (two DARK monsters with exactly 0 DEF) can be hard to trigger. I don't think that this card has ever been on the radar, except as a lynchpin of the wildly inconsistent Rainbow Dark Dragon OTK during the March 2008 format. We'll take it in a new direction to exploit the multitude of DARK Reptilianne monsters with 0 DEF.
Let's look at a monster base first:
3 Mad Reloader
3 Reptilianne Vaskii
3 Reptilianne Naga
3 Reptilianne Gardna
2 Reptilianne Viper
2 Reptilianne Scylla
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Power Invader
The monster base keeps the backbone of the Reptilianne engine with 3 Gardna 3 Naga 3 Vaskii, plus 2 Viper and 2 Scylla to further exploit 0 ATK monsters our opponent may control. Of these monsters, Naga, Viper, and Vaskii are all recurrable by Nightmare. Mad Reloader and Power Invader are two of the higher utility, non-Reptilianne 0 DEF DARK monster to further support our Nightmares. Reloader gives us additional card filtering and will load our Graveyard for Nightmare and Reptilianne Spawn.
The Spell lineup will be:
3 Reptilianne Spawn
3 Recurring Nightmare
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
With triple Reloader, redundancy will be our friend as we toss superfluous extra copies of Spawn, Reptilianne monsters, or even Nightmare itself in constantly digging toward/setting up an eventual power play with Invader and Vaskii. Nightmare reverse toolboxes our fallen Nagas, Vipers, Vaskii, Reloaders, and Invaders, in effect giving up access to stall, ATK reduction, monster theft, removal, card drawing, and aggression.
A timely Vaskii drop can often end the game out right, by Tributing two opponent's monsters which have been attacked by Naga and then killing two more via battle and its free destruction effect. In tandem with Invader, you're looking at potentially 4000-5000 damage in a turn by this route.
The Trap lineup will be similar to the previous build, with
3 Offering to the Snake Deity
3 Damage = Reptile
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Ojama Trio
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
I covered most of these choices in my last post. I have dropped Call of the Haunted due to its meager speed and lack of truly outstanding targets in the deck (Vaskii is a nomi).
I'll post my extra deck here, too, just for reference:
2 Reptilianne Hydra
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Mist Wurm
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Magical Android
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Armory Arm
1 Blackwing Armor Master
Side deck is to be determined. It will likely include Light-Imprisoning Mirror for Lightsworn and some Pole Positions due to the influx of Smashing Ground and Gladiator Beast decks in the upcoming format.
The Koa'ki Meiru analysis will be next, coming shortly.
Today we will look at another, perhaps less competitive, approach to Reptilianne, this one focusing on an oft-overlooked Spell Card: Recurring Nightmare. Like Salvage or Gravekeeper's Stele, Nightmare creates a quick 2 for 1 by recurring monsters from your Graveyard. However, its condition (two DARK monsters with exactly 0 DEF) can be hard to trigger. I don't think that this card has ever been on the radar, except as a lynchpin of the wildly inconsistent Rainbow Dark Dragon OTK during the March 2008 format. We'll take it in a new direction to exploit the multitude of DARK Reptilianne monsters with 0 DEF.
Let's look at a monster base first:
3 Mad Reloader
3 Reptilianne Vaskii
3 Reptilianne Naga
3 Reptilianne Gardna
2 Reptilianne Viper
2 Reptilianne Scylla
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Power Invader
The monster base keeps the backbone of the Reptilianne engine with 3 Gardna 3 Naga 3 Vaskii, plus 2 Viper and 2 Scylla to further exploit 0 ATK monsters our opponent may control. Of these monsters, Naga, Viper, and Vaskii are all recurrable by Nightmare. Mad Reloader and Power Invader are two of the higher utility, non-Reptilianne 0 DEF DARK monster to further support our Nightmares. Reloader gives us additional card filtering and will load our Graveyard for Nightmare and Reptilianne Spawn.
The Spell lineup will be:
3 Reptilianne Spawn
3 Recurring Nightmare
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
With triple Reloader, redundancy will be our friend as we toss superfluous extra copies of Spawn, Reptilianne monsters, or even Nightmare itself in constantly digging toward/setting up an eventual power play with Invader and Vaskii. Nightmare reverse toolboxes our fallen Nagas, Vipers, Vaskii, Reloaders, and Invaders, in effect giving up access to stall, ATK reduction, monster theft, removal, card drawing, and aggression.
A timely Vaskii drop can often end the game out right, by Tributing two opponent's monsters which have been attacked by Naga and then killing two more via battle and its free destruction effect. In tandem with Invader, you're looking at potentially 4000-5000 damage in a turn by this route.
The Trap lineup will be similar to the previous build, with
3 Offering to the Snake Deity
3 Damage = Reptile
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Ojama Trio
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
I covered most of these choices in my last post. I have dropped Call of the Haunted due to its meager speed and lack of truly outstanding targets in the deck (Vaskii is a nomi).
I'll post my extra deck here, too, just for reference:
2 Reptilianne Hydra
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Mist Wurm
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Magical Android
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Armory Arm
1 Blackwing Armor Master
Side deck is to be determined. It will likely include Light-Imprisoning Mirror for Lightsworn and some Pole Positions due to the influx of Smashing Ground and Gladiator Beast decks in the upcoming format.
The Koa'ki Meiru analysis will be next, coming shortly.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Constructing The Reptilianne Deck
The original Reptilianne theme and cards from Stardust Overdrive were rightly ignored. The deck focused on the offbeat, unwieldy mechanic of reducing opponent's monster to 0 ATK and it did it in the worst way possible. Reptilianne Gorgon could only reduce a monster it attacked to 0, while Reptilianne Medusa required both a tribute and a discard before it could do the same. Reptilianne Viper, one of the few nice ways to exploit 0 ATK, was as such rendered often dead and awkward. Ditto for Reptilianne Scylla. As DARK Reptile-type monsters, the cards had access to a lot of good support (Allure of Darkness, Dark Armed Dragon, Offering to the Snake Deity, Damage = Reptile) but couldn't quite capitalize.
Absolute Powerforce brings about a change, though. Suddenly the deck not only has a reliable way to reduce a monster's ATK to 0, but also a universal tutor and a boss monster of sorts. The new support cards also allow Reptilianne to become the first deck to really exploit the powerful Reptile-type support cards mentioned above. Let's take a look:
Reptilianne Naga
DARK/Reptile/Effect/*/0/0
This card cannot be destroyed by battle. A card that battles with this monster has its ATK reduced to 0 at the end of the Battle Phase. During your End Phase, change this face-up card to Attack Position.
Reptilianne Gardna
WATER/Reptile/Effect/****/0/2000
When this card you control is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, add 1 "Reptilianne" monster from your Deck to your hand.
Reptilianne Vaskii
DARK/Reptile/Effect/********/2600/0
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing two monsters with 0 ATK from anywhere on the field. Once per turn, you can destroy 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. There can only be one face-up "Reptilianne Vaskii" on the field.
That sums up the relevant new support. Naga in particular is a huge boon to the deck. Its Spirit Reaper-like effect guards against even huge swarms. The surprise factor of an opponent attacking into a Set copy instantly gives you a 0 ATK monster to exploit next turn with Viper, Scylla, or Vaskii. Moreover, even its drawback (shifting to ATK mode each End Phase) can be used to your advantage with Damage = Reptile. Since Naga has 0 ATK, the resulting damage is usually enough to bring out a free copy of Scylla or even Medusa from the Deck. Ramming Naga into your opponent's monsters will also become important to your strategy as the Duel and Match progresses; smarter players will not simply attack into your set monsters with abandon after Naga burns the first one.
Gardna is more or less made for Offering to the Snake Deity. That Trap Card is highly similar to the popular Icarus Attack, but until now, it really didn't have a comfortable home due to the overall mediocrity of Reptile-type cards in YGO. Gardna changes that by turning your Offering into a solid +1 exchange: your Gardna + your Offering for your opponent's two cards, and a monster from your Deck to your hand. Gardna's 0 ATK also lets you use it in a way similar to Naga while you control Damage = Reptile; you can actually perform a double search (one to field, one to hand) if you make use of your ATK position Gardna.
Vaskii is a boss monster that is actually searchable, by Gardna. A single Naga exchange gives you the two 0 ATK monsters (Naga + the opponent's monster) needed to drop Vaskii. From there, you can carve up another face-up monster for free and likely kill something by battle due to Vaskii's massive 2600 ATK (allowing it to attack even over Stardust Dragon). Gardna as such can be a powerful card advantage engine. In tandem with the tokens created by Reptilianne Spawn, it can also be a quick answer to an opponent's Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon.
Now that we have that support covered, let's get to building the Deck. Or goal will be to use Naga and Gardna advantageously with Reptile support, leading to aggression with freely searched Scyllas, a Vaskii drop and further power plays with Caius the Shadow Monarch. For monsters we will run:
Caius can feed off of the +1s from Offering/Damage, as well as the multiple tributable tokens produced by Spawn. Tragoedia exploits our abundance of Level 4 and 6 monsters and synergizes with our single copy of Recurring Nightmare (see below).
The Spell lineup will be:
This deck has the removal to keep many strategies off-balance. The advantage created by Gardna via Offering/Damage creates a Gadget-esque engine that feeds further aggression. Unfortunately, this deck is still inferior in almost every way to the similar Blackwing archetype, which will keep it at the tier 2/3 plateau for the time being.
Hope you enjoyed it. My next post will look at Koa'ki Meiru.
Absolute Powerforce brings about a change, though. Suddenly the deck not only has a reliable way to reduce a monster's ATK to 0, but also a universal tutor and a boss monster of sorts. The new support cards also allow Reptilianne to become the first deck to really exploit the powerful Reptile-type support cards mentioned above. Let's take a look:
Reptilianne Naga
DARK/Reptile/Effect/*/0/0
This card cannot be destroyed by battle. A card that battles with this monster has its ATK reduced to 0 at the end of the Battle Phase. During your End Phase, change this face-up card to Attack Position.
Reptilianne Gardna
WATER/Reptile/Effect/****/0/2000
When this card you control is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, add 1 "Reptilianne" monster from your Deck to your hand.
Reptilianne Vaskii
DARK/Reptile/Effect/********/2600/0
This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing two monsters with 0 ATK from anywhere on the field. Once per turn, you can destroy 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. There can only be one face-up "Reptilianne Vaskii" on the field.
That sums up the relevant new support. Naga in particular is a huge boon to the deck. Its Spirit Reaper-like effect guards against even huge swarms. The surprise factor of an opponent attacking into a Set copy instantly gives you a 0 ATK monster to exploit next turn with Viper, Scylla, or Vaskii. Moreover, even its drawback (shifting to ATK mode each End Phase) can be used to your advantage with Damage = Reptile. Since Naga has 0 ATK, the resulting damage is usually enough to bring out a free copy of Scylla or even Medusa from the Deck. Ramming Naga into your opponent's monsters will also become important to your strategy as the Duel and Match progresses; smarter players will not simply attack into your set monsters with abandon after Naga burns the first one.
Gardna is more or less made for Offering to the Snake Deity. That Trap Card is highly similar to the popular Icarus Attack, but until now, it really didn't have a comfortable home due to the overall mediocrity of Reptile-type cards in YGO. Gardna changes that by turning your Offering into a solid +1 exchange: your Gardna + your Offering for your opponent's two cards, and a monster from your Deck to your hand. Gardna's 0 ATK also lets you use it in a way similar to Naga while you control Damage = Reptile; you can actually perform a double search (one to field, one to hand) if you make use of your ATK position Gardna.
Vaskii is a boss monster that is actually searchable, by Gardna. A single Naga exchange gives you the two 0 ATK monsters (Naga + the opponent's monster) needed to drop Vaskii. From there, you can carve up another face-up monster for free and likely kill something by battle due to Vaskii's massive 2600 ATK (allowing it to attack even over Stardust Dragon). Gardna as such can be a powerful card advantage engine. In tandem with the tokens created by Reptilianne Spawn, it can also be a quick answer to an opponent's Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon.
Now that we have that support covered, let's get to building the Deck. Or goal will be to use Naga and Gardna advantageously with Reptile support, leading to aggression with freely searched Scyllas, a Vaskii drop and further power plays with Caius the Shadow Monarch. For monsters we will run:
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
3 Reptilianne Scylla
3 Reptilianne Gardna
3 Reptilianne Naga
2 Reptilianne Vaskii
2 Reptilianne Viper
1 Tragoedia
1 Dark Armed Dragon
Caius can feed off of the +1s from Offering/Damage, as well as the multiple tributable tokens produced by Spawn. Tragoedia exploits our abundance of Level 4 and 6 monsters and synergizes with our single copy of Recurring Nightmare (see below).
The Spell lineup will be:
3 Reptilianne Spawn
2 Enemy Controller
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
The last four are self-explanatory I think. The 3x Spawn gives us an easy way to make our copies of Caius and Vaskii live. It functions much like Scapegoat, really, right down to the ability to use the tokens in an advantageous swipe/tribute with Enemy Controller. Recurring Nightmare will recur our Nagas, Vipers, and Vaskiis while synergizing with Tragoedia and Allure of Darkness.
The Trap lineup for this deck is a bit fat:
3 Offering to the Snake Deity
3 Damage = Reptile
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Ojama Trio
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Call of the Haunted
This deck has the removal to keep many strategies off-balance. The advantage created by Gardna via Offering/Damage creates a Gadget-esque engine that feeds further aggression. Unfortunately, this deck is still inferior in almost every way to the similar Blackwing archetype, which will keep it at the tier 2/3 plateau for the time being.
Hope you enjoyed it. My next post will look at Koa'ki Meiru.
A Look At the 3/01/2010 Banned/Restricted List
After weeks of anticipation and sorting through various forgeries, the real Yu-Gi-Oh! Advanced Format Forbidden/Restricted list, for March 1st, 2010, is here and complete. Sadly, it represents a significant regression even from the September 1st, 2009 list and a return to Konami's inefficient, reactive approach to the competitive game. Looking over this list, I can see very few changes to the competitive decks of the current format, with the possible exception of Zombies. We are more or less looking at 6 more months of the same old, same old. But without delay, let's look at the cards one by one.
Newly Limited
Chaos Sorcerer - I actually agree with this change, and am happy that Konami ignored the scores of online posters who lobbied for this card at 3. Sorcerer thrives off of the two strongest attributes in the game (LIGHT and DARK) and is right at home in the most consistent deck of the past year (Lightsworn/Twilight), due to that deck's ability to load its Graveyard with monsters and to filter cards with ease. Sorcerer is an effortless +1 that can also segue into a powerful Synchro such as Arcanite Magician, Ancient Sacred Wyvern, or Stardust Dragon.
While I agree with the limit, I think that the mentality of Konami towards this card, demonstrated in many of the online posts of Kevin Tewart, is misguided. Tewart attributed the success of Chris Bowling's SJC Austin deck not to the blatant brokenness of Judgment Dragon nor the consistency of Charge of the Light Brigade, but rather to Chaos Sorcerer. Now, with Sorcerer back to 1 but JD still at 2 (more on that later), the list looks foolishly inconsistent. Sorcerer, however powerful, cannot touch JD's power level. Konami's inability to recognize this is one reason why this list is so mediocre and inconsistent.
Tragoedia - in my opinion, this mechanic a la Gorz is bad for the game. It's hard to predict and can be fatally disruptive to even the most calculated game pushes. Trag also has the ability to swipe monsters and modulate Level Stars for Synchro Summons. Its prevalence in Zombies and Twilight more or less sealed its fate.
Necro Gardna - A hamfisted attempt to "hit" Lightsworn. LS used this card for synergy with mill mechanics. With several of these cards in the Graveyard, the LS player could protect his monsters without having to invest in on-field Spell/Trap Cards. Annoying? Maybe. Limit-worthy? No. Gardna creates no card advantage whatsoever, negates 1 attack, and is an awkward card to actually draw into/have in hand.
Necroface - No one really paid much attention to this card, but its limit is both worthy and overdue. The ability to trigger this card's effect right away with Gold Sarcophagus and/or Allure of Darkness makes it the best deckout/mill card in the game. No one likes losing 5 cards permanently, to the RFG zone, just because their opponent opened with Sarc/Allure. The TCG release of Shutendoji only highlighted some of the further ways to exploit this card's ridiculous mechanic.
Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier - Predictable, seeing as how it was already limited in the OCG. As a generic LV6 Synchro, Brionac is a quick out for almost any deck to other Synchros, backrows, or anything else that might get in the way of a game push. With the Zombie engine also somewhat crippled by Mezuki's limit, Brionac will likely not be the OTK engine it once was, but instead a toolbox Synchro and Extra Deck staple.
Mezuki - An extremely powerful floater, Mezuki was the backbone of the Zombie engine. Personally, I think this could have stayed at 2 if Konami would simply have taken the extra step of banning Burial from a Different Dimension (and Return from the Different Dimension). At 1, Mezuki can't really prop up the Zombie engine anymore and the metagame loses another balanced competitive deck. Zombies were certainly powerful this format, but nowhere near the level of brokenness displayed by decks like TeleDAD or SynCat.
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner - Like Gardna, this is an overkill limit. Konami could have made much less of a mess by simply limiting JD and Beckoning Light (and/or banning Wulf, Lightsworn Beast). Instead, they went after cards like Gardna and Lumina. Lumina is a Zombie Master for LS monsters. The mechanic itself is not broken but rather ruined by its synergies with actually broken mechanics like JD, Wulf, and Beckoning.
Burial from a Different Dimension - I think this card should have been banned. It makes Mezuki and Vayu far too dangerous, and will only get better now that Konami have decided to further pursue the RFG from Graveyard -> Special Summon mechanic with upcoming cards like Spore and Revenant Toad. The power level of the game has turned this card from an upgraded Miracle Dig into a quasi-Dimension Fusion.
Foolish Burial - I see the logic, but I disagree with it. Konami were likely trying to hit Infernity and/or Zombie, but in both decks, the actual problem, as it were, were the power spells (Infernity Gun and BfaDD, respectively). Foolish Burial is at a best a 1 for 1 that sets up other plays with synergistic cards. It was garbage for years. Its playability is more a testament to how powerful Infernity Gun, Mezuki, Wulf, and other cards are, than to any broken mechanic in Foolish itself.
Charge of the Light Brigade - This was probably needed, although it likely could have been avoided if Konami were just more forthright in dealing with JD itself. Like the similarly limited Reinforcement of the Army, CotLB suffers from its interactions with a few broken monsters; whereas RotA has Elemental Hero Stratos and Dark Grepher, CotLB mills off Wulves and sets up JD plays with ease. Since Konami didn't touch those other cards (just as they refuse to touch Stratos et al), CotLB had to get the hit.
Destiny Draw - Dumb. Solar Recharge - a superior card by any metric - is at 3, while this is at 1? Destiny Hero - Disk Commander is banned, Destiny Hero - Malicious is semi-limited, and the engine as a whole has lost ground to other contenders ever since the demise of TeleDAD. Konami could have fixed this "problem" by eliminating Stratos once and for all, thereby dramatically reducing the card advantage and consistency levels of even a 3x D-Draw deck.
Allure of Darkness - questionable at best. I'm guessing Konami wanted to make sure people have to buy Blackwing Treasures (a themed Allure for BW only) and/or preclude Infernity from becoming too overpowered (it will be, anyway). This card was splashable draw power that created a 2-for-2 but suffered from its unfortunate synergies with bannable cards like Dark Armed Dragon, Elemental Hero Stratos, and the Infernity engine.
Mind Crush - I really don't get this. This card was a side deck pick at best. It's only good if you are adept at making reads/playing against a deck with a lot of tutors, or using it in tandem with the highly bannable Trap Dustshoot. This card should have gone the other way down the list.
Magical Explosion - Largely due to a new OTK build featuring Junk Collector and the LS engine. While I doubt the consistency of said build (as with every other Explosion build), Explosion itself is an unhealthy fringe card that no one likes to play against. It should have been banned.
Newly Semi-Limited
Honest - unnecessary. Honest is a Battle Phase manipulator that is easily played around. LS has, and can, win whether this card exists or not; I mention this only because Honest is definitely on this list due to Konami's attempt at "hitting" LS in typically inefficient fashion.
Cyber Dragon - really don't like this. CyDrag represents a broken game mechanic (bypassing Tributes) and is exceptionally hard on decks that rely on 2000 ATK and lower beatsticks to survive (Gravekeepers, Koa'ki Meiru, etc. to name but a few). Whereas Konami reduced the diversity of the metagame by limiting a card like Mezuki, they have unleashed a highly generic, overpowered card back into the game at 2. In many respects, CyDrag reminds me of Sorcerer: many novice players will bleat that it has "lost its power, " when in fact, it's actually gained power since the olden days but can't readily demonstrate it due to power creep. CyDrag is another broken card in a game now full of them.
Demise, King of Armageddon - the most powerful non-Synchro monster effect in the game behind JD and DAD, but strapped to the unwieldy Ritual mechanic. It hasn't been a metagame force since 2007. Looking at the current game, though, maybe Konami realized just how silly it was to have this at 1 but JD at 2. Either way, I doubt this card adds anything constructive to the game other than a quicker way to win for Ritual.dek. Cards like Garlandorf and Zorc already gave Rituals balanced boss monsters; do we really need multiple Demise again? The new Ritual support (esp. Djinn, Releaser of Rituals) make this card better, while multiple United We Stand (see below) will drive bad OTK players nuts with possibilities.
Black Whirlwind - a weak attempt at hitting an overpowered deck. This card is incredibly broken, with tutoring capacity to rival that of Stratos or Infernity Archfiend. Having 2 as opposed to 3 will not hurt BW at all, esp. in light of how they will soon get their own Allure to filter cards even more quickly. This needed to go to 1, especially in light of the theme's future support.
Dandylion - I'm largely indifferent to this card. It's a favorite in Plants and maybe Monarchs, but I currently don't see a way for a tier 1 strategy to really exploit this card in multiples.
United We Stand - not a fan. This card puts a ton of damage on the table and is unhealthy.
Royal Decree - it was semi'd before, in 2007-2008. My suspicion is that this is another weak jab at LS, a deck that loved to side this card against Light-Imprisoning Mirror and other Trap-based disruption. I don't think this change makes any difference.
Royal Oppression - what once was a decent anti-meta card has been transformed, by power creep and rulings changes, into one of the most robustly meta cards in YGO. Oppression is a powerful +1 that makes the game slow and stale. The strategy is to perform your Special Summons first, and/or manipulate mechanics that Oppression cannot stop such as battle recruiters and Tragoedia, and then gain advantage with Oppression. This probably should have gone to 1 or 0.
Skill Drain - a similar case to Oppression, but not nearly as powerful right now. Like Decree, I don't think this changes anything.
Treeborn Frog - Its own text prevents the Summon of multiple Treeborns during the Standby Phase, anyway. The only difference this makes is for D.3.S Frog (irrelevant) and for Frog-reliant strategies afraid of Graveyard disruption like D.D. Crow or Gladiator Beast Retiari.
Newly Unrestricted
Smashing Ground - Many players are going crazy over this card's unrestriction, but semantically it is not much different than Fissure, Soul Taker, or a horde of other Spell-based removal currently at 3. Gadgets will not mind having more removal, but this card's overall effect on the metagame is, in my opinion, overestimated. Power creep and swarm have made it hard for Smash to resolve complicated fields, and many decks like BW will gladly let you throw your Smash into their Whirlwind/Icarus Attack trap.
Mask of Darkness - Overdue. Crush Card Virus is gone and FLIPs as a whole are no longer a centerpiece of the metagame as they were back in 2005/2006.
That wraps up my overview of the list. My next post will explore some of my own decks for the upcoming format: Flamvell, Reptilianne, and Koa'ki Meiru. Stay tuned.
Newly Limited
Chaos Sorcerer - I actually agree with this change, and am happy that Konami ignored the scores of online posters who lobbied for this card at 3. Sorcerer thrives off of the two strongest attributes in the game (LIGHT and DARK) and is right at home in the most consistent deck of the past year (Lightsworn/Twilight), due to that deck's ability to load its Graveyard with monsters and to filter cards with ease. Sorcerer is an effortless +1 that can also segue into a powerful Synchro such as Arcanite Magician, Ancient Sacred Wyvern, or Stardust Dragon.
While I agree with the limit, I think that the mentality of Konami towards this card, demonstrated in many of the online posts of Kevin Tewart, is misguided. Tewart attributed the success of Chris Bowling's SJC Austin deck not to the blatant brokenness of Judgment Dragon nor the consistency of Charge of the Light Brigade, but rather to Chaos Sorcerer. Now, with Sorcerer back to 1 but JD still at 2 (more on that later), the list looks foolishly inconsistent. Sorcerer, however powerful, cannot touch JD's power level. Konami's inability to recognize this is one reason why this list is so mediocre and inconsistent.
Tragoedia - in my opinion, this mechanic a la Gorz is bad for the game. It's hard to predict and can be fatally disruptive to even the most calculated game pushes. Trag also has the ability to swipe monsters and modulate Level Stars for Synchro Summons. Its prevalence in Zombies and Twilight more or less sealed its fate.
Necro Gardna - A hamfisted attempt to "hit" Lightsworn. LS used this card for synergy with mill mechanics. With several of these cards in the Graveyard, the LS player could protect his monsters without having to invest in on-field Spell/Trap Cards. Annoying? Maybe. Limit-worthy? No. Gardna creates no card advantage whatsoever, negates 1 attack, and is an awkward card to actually draw into/have in hand.
Necroface - No one really paid much attention to this card, but its limit is both worthy and overdue. The ability to trigger this card's effect right away with Gold Sarcophagus and/or Allure of Darkness makes it the best deckout/mill card in the game. No one likes losing 5 cards permanently, to the RFG zone, just because their opponent opened with Sarc/Allure. The TCG release of Shutendoji only highlighted some of the further ways to exploit this card's ridiculous mechanic.
Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier - Predictable, seeing as how it was already limited in the OCG. As a generic LV6 Synchro, Brionac is a quick out for almost any deck to other Synchros, backrows, or anything else that might get in the way of a game push. With the Zombie engine also somewhat crippled by Mezuki's limit, Brionac will likely not be the OTK engine it once was, but instead a toolbox Synchro and Extra Deck staple.
Mezuki - An extremely powerful floater, Mezuki was the backbone of the Zombie engine. Personally, I think this could have stayed at 2 if Konami would simply have taken the extra step of banning Burial from a Different Dimension (and Return from the Different Dimension). At 1, Mezuki can't really prop up the Zombie engine anymore and the metagame loses another balanced competitive deck. Zombies were certainly powerful this format, but nowhere near the level of brokenness displayed by decks like TeleDAD or SynCat.
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner - Like Gardna, this is an overkill limit. Konami could have made much less of a mess by simply limiting JD and Beckoning Light (and/or banning Wulf, Lightsworn Beast). Instead, they went after cards like Gardna and Lumina. Lumina is a Zombie Master for LS monsters. The mechanic itself is not broken but rather ruined by its synergies with actually broken mechanics like JD, Wulf, and Beckoning.
Burial from a Different Dimension - I think this card should have been banned. It makes Mezuki and Vayu far too dangerous, and will only get better now that Konami have decided to further pursue the RFG from Graveyard -> Special Summon mechanic with upcoming cards like Spore and Revenant Toad. The power level of the game has turned this card from an upgraded Miracle Dig into a quasi-Dimension Fusion.
Foolish Burial - I see the logic, but I disagree with it. Konami were likely trying to hit Infernity and/or Zombie, but in both decks, the actual problem, as it were, were the power spells (Infernity Gun and BfaDD, respectively). Foolish Burial is at a best a 1 for 1 that sets up other plays with synergistic cards. It was garbage for years. Its playability is more a testament to how powerful Infernity Gun, Mezuki, Wulf, and other cards are, than to any broken mechanic in Foolish itself.
Charge of the Light Brigade - This was probably needed, although it likely could have been avoided if Konami were just more forthright in dealing with JD itself. Like the similarly limited Reinforcement of the Army, CotLB suffers from its interactions with a few broken monsters; whereas RotA has Elemental Hero Stratos and Dark Grepher, CotLB mills off Wulves and sets up JD plays with ease. Since Konami didn't touch those other cards (just as they refuse to touch Stratos et al), CotLB had to get the hit.
Destiny Draw - Dumb. Solar Recharge - a superior card by any metric - is at 3, while this is at 1? Destiny Hero - Disk Commander is banned, Destiny Hero - Malicious is semi-limited, and the engine as a whole has lost ground to other contenders ever since the demise of TeleDAD. Konami could have fixed this "problem" by eliminating Stratos once and for all, thereby dramatically reducing the card advantage and consistency levels of even a 3x D-Draw deck.
Allure of Darkness - questionable at best. I'm guessing Konami wanted to make sure people have to buy Blackwing Treasures (a themed Allure for BW only) and/or preclude Infernity from becoming too overpowered (it will be, anyway). This card was splashable draw power that created a 2-for-2 but suffered from its unfortunate synergies with bannable cards like Dark Armed Dragon, Elemental Hero Stratos, and the Infernity engine.
Mind Crush - I really don't get this. This card was a side deck pick at best. It's only good if you are adept at making reads/playing against a deck with a lot of tutors, or using it in tandem with the highly bannable Trap Dustshoot. This card should have gone the other way down the list.
Magical Explosion - Largely due to a new OTK build featuring Junk Collector and the LS engine. While I doubt the consistency of said build (as with every other Explosion build), Explosion itself is an unhealthy fringe card that no one likes to play against. It should have been banned.
Newly Semi-Limited
Honest - unnecessary. Honest is a Battle Phase manipulator that is easily played around. LS has, and can, win whether this card exists or not; I mention this only because Honest is definitely on this list due to Konami's attempt at "hitting" LS in typically inefficient fashion.
Cyber Dragon - really don't like this. CyDrag represents a broken game mechanic (bypassing Tributes) and is exceptionally hard on decks that rely on 2000 ATK and lower beatsticks to survive (Gravekeepers, Koa'ki Meiru, etc. to name but a few). Whereas Konami reduced the diversity of the metagame by limiting a card like Mezuki, they have unleashed a highly generic, overpowered card back into the game at 2. In many respects, CyDrag reminds me of Sorcerer: many novice players will bleat that it has "lost its power, " when in fact, it's actually gained power since the olden days but can't readily demonstrate it due to power creep. CyDrag is another broken card in a game now full of them.
Demise, King of Armageddon - the most powerful non-Synchro monster effect in the game behind JD and DAD, but strapped to the unwieldy Ritual mechanic. It hasn't been a metagame force since 2007. Looking at the current game, though, maybe Konami realized just how silly it was to have this at 1 but JD at 2. Either way, I doubt this card adds anything constructive to the game other than a quicker way to win for Ritual.dek. Cards like Garlandorf and Zorc already gave Rituals balanced boss monsters; do we really need multiple Demise again? The new Ritual support (esp. Djinn, Releaser of Rituals) make this card better, while multiple United We Stand (see below) will drive bad OTK players nuts with possibilities.
Black Whirlwind - a weak attempt at hitting an overpowered deck. This card is incredibly broken, with tutoring capacity to rival that of Stratos or Infernity Archfiend. Having 2 as opposed to 3 will not hurt BW at all, esp. in light of how they will soon get their own Allure to filter cards even more quickly. This needed to go to 1, especially in light of the theme's future support.
Dandylion - I'm largely indifferent to this card. It's a favorite in Plants and maybe Monarchs, but I currently don't see a way for a tier 1 strategy to really exploit this card in multiples.
United We Stand - not a fan. This card puts a ton of damage on the table and is unhealthy.
Royal Decree - it was semi'd before, in 2007-2008. My suspicion is that this is another weak jab at LS, a deck that loved to side this card against Light-Imprisoning Mirror and other Trap-based disruption. I don't think this change makes any difference.
Royal Oppression - what once was a decent anti-meta card has been transformed, by power creep and rulings changes, into one of the most robustly meta cards in YGO. Oppression is a powerful +1 that makes the game slow and stale. The strategy is to perform your Special Summons first, and/or manipulate mechanics that Oppression cannot stop such as battle recruiters and Tragoedia, and then gain advantage with Oppression. This probably should have gone to 1 or 0.
Skill Drain - a similar case to Oppression, but not nearly as powerful right now. Like Decree, I don't think this changes anything.
Treeborn Frog - Its own text prevents the Summon of multiple Treeborns during the Standby Phase, anyway. The only difference this makes is for D.3.S Frog (irrelevant) and for Frog-reliant strategies afraid of Graveyard disruption like D.D. Crow or Gladiator Beast Retiari.
Newly Unrestricted
Smashing Ground - Many players are going crazy over this card's unrestriction, but semantically it is not much different than Fissure, Soul Taker, or a horde of other Spell-based removal currently at 3. Gadgets will not mind having more removal, but this card's overall effect on the metagame is, in my opinion, overestimated. Power creep and swarm have made it hard for Smash to resolve complicated fields, and many decks like BW will gladly let you throw your Smash into their Whirlwind/Icarus Attack trap.
Mask of Darkness - Overdue. Crush Card Virus is gone and FLIPs as a whole are no longer a centerpiece of the metagame as they were back in 2005/2006.
That wraps up my overview of the list. My next post will explore some of my own decks for the upcoming format: Flamvell, Reptilianne, and Koa'ki Meiru. Stay tuned.
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