Something about Dino Rabbit

First let's take a look at a typical Macro Rabbit deck that has been topping recently

Monster [17]
6 Dinosaurs
3 Jurrac Guaiba
2 Rabbit
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Tour Guide
1 Sangan
1 Night Assailant

Spell [11]
3 Forbidden Lance
2 Soul Taker
2 MST
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Book of Moon

Trap [13]
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Macro Cosmos
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Starlight Road


So we all know about Dino Rabbit. Rabbit Tour Guide 4 traps for game.

But it changed. Now the deck turns into an anti-meta with 1900 beater and some good stuffs that have Rescue Rabbit as a game-breaking play. You can't draw Rabbits and Tour Guides all the time now. Every game is a grind game and making Evolzar after normal summoning 2 Dinosaurs is no uncommon.

Does it resemble HERO Beat? Anti-meta, 1900 beater, grind game, and Miracle Fusion is the game-breaking play.

Dino Rabbit has the advantage over HERO Beat in the form of Macro Cosmos, and the Rescue Rabbit does not require any setup. Just summon it and win (assuming you do not draw all your normal dinosaurs)

The question is... Do you really make Evolzar every game? Or maybe 1 Laggia a game. And you have to run 6 normal monsters for games like that. Sabersaurus is cool, but Kabazaul... Hell no

So here's my current DN deck:

Monster [17]
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh
3 Doomcaliber Knighht
3 Jurrac Guaiba
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Tour Guide
1 Sangan
1 Night Assailant

Spell and trap the same as above.

What the deck lacks: Powerful plays involve Evolzar

What the deck has: Mini powerful play every turn.

Imagine when you're starting with 1 Sabersaurus and 1 Kabazaul, now that turns into 1 Thunder King and 1 Doomcaliber Knight.

And mid-game Rabbit or Dyna is both devastating, in 2 different ways. With Rabbit you have more protection, with Dyna you need more protection, but have the lockdown ability

Of course the ideal Dino Rabbit hand of Rabbit Tour Guide now turns into Dyna + Tour Guide which is... LOL

I'm not claiming this deck is better than Joe Giorlando's Dino Rabbit. But this is a good deck, I believe. At least you have the same way to approach the game (1900 beastick + traps + Cosmos)

About the deck, because Sabersaurus + Kabazaul on field become Laggia, you have to change the s/t line-up a little bit. Maybe more Starlight Road. From there, Doomcaliber Knight + Thunder King are as good

If Dino Rabbit can win out those grind games, why can't this deck?

Hieratic - Some OTK elements

Hieratic is well known for its 3-card OTK when REDMD was at 2 (and Gustaph Max was available). Now what? 1 REDMD can't do shit?

In fact there're a bunch of 3-card OTK combos for the deck. It's just not as simple as 3 Hieratics like before.

Something you should know beforehand:

Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (REDMD)
Hieratic Dragon of Su
Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit
Hieratic Dragon of Eset
Hieratic Dragon King of Atum
Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger
Wattaildragon
Luster Dragon #2


So let's start with the obvious/basic play: Special summon Tefnuit (or normal summon Eset), tribute it for Su and summon Wattaildragon. Make Atum, get REDMD, get back Wattaildragon

1. Genex Ally Birdman: Bounce REDMD for Birdman. Upgrade Atum into Gaia. Remove (banish) Gaia for REDMD, get back Su/Tefnuit/Eset, make a second Atum with Wattaildragon, get Eset, synchro with Birdman for Scrap Dragon, upgrade the second Atum into Gaia. So it's REDMD + Scrap Dragon + Gaia = 8200
2. A second copy of Su: This way you have to ss back Tefnuit/Eset with REDMD, tribute it for Su, get Luster Dragon 2, make Constellar Ptolemys M7, bounce REDMD, upgrade Atum into Gaia, remove for REDMD, summon back Atum, upgrade into Gaia again. REDMD + M7 + Gaia = 8100
3. An on-field Tragoedia, or Call of the Haunted: Basically the same as (2). It's just another level 6 for the combo. With Tragoedia the combo must start with Eset
4. Overdrive Teleporter: It must start with Tefnuit and it's a little bit different this way: First special summon Tefnuit, tribute for Overdrive (get Wattaildragon), Overdrive pay 2000 for Naturia Barkion. Barkion + Wattaildragon = Atum, get REDMD, get back Tefnuit. Tribute Tefnuit for Su (get Luster Dragon 2), make a second Atum, get a second Tefnuit, then Tefnuit + Overdrive = Force Focus. Finally upgrade Atums into Gaias. Gaia + Gaia + Force Focus = 8000
5. Tour Guide: Yes, really. And start with Tefnuit again. You maybe thinking of Acid Golem? No, too risky. If you want to finish it in style, then Tour Guide into M X-Saber Invoker, then Amazoness Archer. Upgrade Atum into Gaia, so Gaia + Wattaildragon + Invoker = 6700, then let Amazoness Archer finish it.
6. Armageddon Knight: It needs Tefnuit to start too. Summon Armageddon Knight to kick Zephyros the Elite into graveyard. Bounce REDMD, make Queen Dragun Djinn, get back Tefnuit, Tefnuit + Wattaildragon = Atum, get Eset/Su/Tefnut, remove for REDMD and ss back the detached Wattaildragon. Gaia + Gaia + REDMD + Queen Dragun + Wattaildragon = 12700...
7. Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord: It's back to simple this time. REDMD + Exodius = Gustaph Max, then Gustaph Max + Gaia + Wattaildragon = 8100, not counting the 2000 damage. This can be done with Tragoedia too

And more, but I haven't done a deep search yet.

And what if you draw the damn REDMD? Maybe another post LOL. But drawing it is not that bad, trust me.

And to combine (almost) all those things in one deck, here is it:

Skill Drain Machina Atlantean

No meta talk from now on as there would be no big events in the TCG until February. I'll be spending my brain work on rogue stuffs from now on. No net deck, promise

However there can be some OCG elements because I follow a lot of OCG players' blogs

A few days ago I came up with the deck. Don't get confused of the name, it's really random, more like a list of cards used in the deck

Mindset as follow:

• I like Machina Gearframe and Machine Fortress
• Fortress needs machines
• Genex Undine adds machines to hand
• Atlanteans work good with Undine
• Fortress and Atlanteans' effects activate in grave, no conflict with Skill Drain
• Skill Drain work good with Barbaros and the Malefic monsters, furthermore with Skill Drain on field Genex Undine can be abused as many times as possible due to negated effects
• Malefic needs field spell
• Geartown comes to mind as the Dragon is level 8 machine for Fortress

So, decklist: [43]

Monster [21]

3 Genex Undine

2 Genex Controller

2 Atlantean Marksman

2 Atlantean Heavy Infantry

2 Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon

3 Machina Gearframe

3 Machina Fortress

1 Machina Cannon

3 Malefic Cyber End Dragon

Spell [15]

3 Terraforming

3 Geartown

3 Necrovalley

2 Duality

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Limiter Removal

Trap [7]

3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

3 Skill Drain

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra deck not important this time.

The deck is quite simple: just push as soon as possible to deal 8000 damage

As mentioned, Genex Undine works as removal for the deck. When you have Drain up, it's an instant shoot. Without Drain, it pops a card and gets something for you Fortress. Genex Ally Birdman would combo well with Undine, but only Undine works well with it and deck space is tight

There are a lot of spare cards so Phoenix Wing is played at 3. This card is awesome, trust me. And if you played through the Tele DAD format you understand it. Genex Controller, Machine Fortress, Gadjiltron Dragon, any Atlanteans in hand, or random field spell... Many many things can be discarded without hesitation. The trap can work as monster removal, xyz hates, set monster removal in end phase,... Good card

Barbaros not included because it does not help Fortress after all. Without Drain, Barbaros sucks. And this deck is created to push early and end the game in less than 3 turns of pushing no matter what you and your opponent have, so not this time Beast King!

And the deck actually has the ability to OTK. Limiter Removal is the best card but don't hope too much because it's a 43-card deck

Talking about the deck size, 43 because there're some cards that shouldn't find the way to your hand (Genex Controller, Atlanteans, Gadjiltron Dragon)

That's it, for today's deck. Give me your opinions, I'll be fully appreciated xD

Transformers

The idea here is to change the deck into a completely different strategy after side-decking to make people side deck wrongly and take advantages from that. This can also lead to ultimate confusion for your opponent when you go to game 3: He cannot be sure if he's facing the deck in game 1 or 2. I won't be advising you to use this in small tournaments where everyone knows each other. More suitable for regionals/YCSs and big tournaments.

First is the oldest deck on this blog: Chain Burn siding into Agent

Another possible side deck can be:
1 Genex Ally Birdman
1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Luster Dragon #2
1 Wattaildragon
3 Hieratic Dragon of Su
3 Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit
3 Hieratic Dragon of Eset
2 Hieratic Seal of Convocation

You got the idea now!

______________________________

Second, is my Tour Guide HERO deck [42]

Monster [13]
1 Stratos
3 Alius
3 Thunder King
2 Tour Guide
1 Sangan
1 Night Assailant
1 Gorz
1 Black Luster Soldier

Spell [16]
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 ROTA
2 E - Emergency Call
2 Duality
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Gemini Spark
3 Miracle Fusion

Trap [13]
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Mirror Force
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Hero Blast
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment

Extra:
2 Elemental HERO The Shining
1 Elemental HERO Escuridao
1 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero (in case you have Leviathan Dragon. Replace for whatever)
1 Secret card
1 Wind Up Zenmaines
1 Leviair
1 Giga Brilliant
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Leviathan Dragon
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Shock Master
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Adreus Keeper of Armageddon

Tour Guide:

• To make something you want for your Miracle Fusion: LIGHT or DARK (Brilliant),  FIRE (Zenmaines), but sadly I have no space for Nova Master
• Get back banished Thunder King/Stratos from Miracle Fusion, or Alius if you dead-draw Gemini Spark
• Extra solution for your opponent's cards: Temtempo for Zenmaines/Gantetsu/Acid Golem, Zenmaines for defense, Leviair to steal Wind Up Rabbit
• For easier side-decking (see below)

Side deck:
3 Wind Up Rabbit
3 Wind Up Rat
3 Wind Up Shark
3 Wind Up Magician
3 Wind Up Factory

And the secret card was Zenmaity xD Predictable right?

Siding out:
1 Stratos
3 Alius
3 Spark
3 Miracle Fusion
1 ROTA
2 E Call
2 Hero Blast

The idea is to hope your opponent side out Veiler/Maxx Cs. As simple.
Bottomless/Torrential may be taken too because no one wants Gemini Sparks to create pluses for me

______________________________

And, lasly:

YOLO HERO [41]

Monster [7]

2 Card Car D

1 Stratos

1 Alius

3 Bubbleman

Spell [23]

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

3 Night Beam

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Book of Moon

1 ROTA

2 E - Emergency Call

2 Duality

2 A Hero Lives

3 Warrior Returning Alive

3 Miracle Fusion 

Trap [11]

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Compulsory Evacuation Device

2 Torrential

2 Call of the Haunted

2 Solemn Warning

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra deck is quite easy to build this time

Side:

2 Elemental HERO Prisma

2 Gladiator Beast Laquari

2 Gladiator Beast Darius

1 Gladiator Beast Equeste

1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo

1 Gladiator Beast Retiair

1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari

2 Gladiator Beast War Chariot

3 Test Tiger

Siding into YOLO Gladiator Beast!

Out:

1 Stratos

1 Alius

3 Bubbleman

2 E - Emergency Call

2 Miracle Fusion

3 Warrior Returning Alive

3 more cards of your choice, maybe MST/Night Beam.

Keep the Card Car D and Call because you'll need it. Miracle Fusion will serve as a tech card to abuse the fallen Stratos/Prisma. Just don't forget to add Absolute Zero and Nova Master in extra deck because if you have Stratos played, Miracle Fusion is never dead with Laquari/Murmillo around

Siding into a control deck is the idea now. In fact Veiler can hit Gyzarus but 2400 ATK is still big and you can trade it with Megalo and then Call of the Haunted'd it back for a +3

I know this GB is weak at defense so just gather your resource before YOLO. Even with a set up field you can easily get comeback'd because meta decks are too fast when you are defenseless.

Of course you can do the reversed thing: Use the side as your main deck and such...

So that's for today, thanks for reading xD

Solar Wind Jammer and more from ABYR

Quick summon on turn 0, which can help you a lot in some specific deck.

• Solar Wind Jammer + Ninishi + Inashichi = Bureido + Naturia Beast + 1 draw + 1 search first turn which is quite respectable. You may say Instant Fusion is better but I want something that can be discarded for Machina Fortress (Cyber Dragon cannot be used in turn 0 which sucks) Or even in situations when Instant Fusion is more convenient, just save the best for last because you can eat only 1 noodle per turn. Or from the beginning you can replace Inashichi with a random level 4 Karakuri, the ending field would be 2 Bureidos 1 Nishipachi and 2 draws. Good.
• Solar Wind Jammer + Hieratic Dragon of Eset first turn = Tiras/Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja, good setup. Or if you have protection you have a level 6 for your Hieratic shenanigan on your following turn. Better than Instant Fusion this time because it takes no extra deck slot and won't be Maxx C'd. And Solar Wind Jammer + Eset + Su would turn into Atum + REDMD + Tiras/Armor Ninja/Zenmaioh, telegraphing OTK
• Or just setup plays that require 2 cards on the field like synchro summon for Stardust, or Cyber Valley (which can provide 2 LIGHTs for Lightray Sorcerer)

This does not look any interesting at first glance. It's true since normal water deck won't be using the effect often. Talking about this card is talking about a whole new deck idea that can be called like fullwatermonsters.dek. 

If you successfully use this card's effect, its condition is reset therefore after it goes to graveyard again, you can use the effect again. Being tribute fodder for Coelacanth seems to be the most popular use for now.

This card is released way too late LOL. I'm still imagining how sucked it is when you're playing an Inzektor mirror match with Mind Pollutant available.

Still, it can be used in most mirror matches. However, Electric Virus, Marionette Mite and Puppet Plant often do better job

                                           

Solemn Warning(s), Solemn Judgment, Skill Drain, Soul Drain, Agent of Creation Venus (kicking this into the deck is good because you won't have to face Hyperion immediately), Hope for Escape, A Hero Lives and many many more.

It's just some random looks into Abyss Rising. There could be part 2 or 3 of this post so... xD

That's for today, thanks for reading *peace*

YCS Barcelona

Apparently the European Konami staffs did their jobs very well, so everything is on the European Konami TCG Coverage, so I don't have much to do in this analysis.

Top 32 Deck Breakdown:

Wind-Ups covered almost half of the top 32, which was pretty predictable considering it's the deck with the most consistency, speed and power combined in one. Mermails followed, but scored only 6 spots in the top cut.

However, the thing I noticed the most was the absence of Machine-based deck like Karakuri, Geargia, Gadget (or any mixed variants of them), Chaos Dragon and Dark Worlds. In Europe where YCSs are held 1 or 2 times a year (and YCS Sheffield was not a constructed event), players seemed not to risk their 2 days at the event and tended to play top tier decks (I'm not sure if Inzektor is a top tier deck, but it's reasonable since it just won the last YCS in the US). Of course there's only some spots for rogue pick, and Chain Burn took that only 1 slot this time.

The top 8 consisted of 1 Mermail, 2 Rabbits, 1 Agent and 4 Wind Ups! (Shock Master too strong), and no Inzektors. Sadly (or fortunately), 3 of those Wind Ups were kicked away after the top 8, leaving the four last duelists with four different decks: Mermails, Rabbit, Agent and Wind-Ups. Jack Bruun's Macro Rabbit defeated Stephan Sluis's Wind-Ups in the semi final and moved on to face Federico Zoppini's Mermails in the final.

...

..

.

And this happened again! Against a field of Evolzars and Macro Cosmos, Mermails are no different from Inzektors. The final can be reported like this:

Duel 1: Jack Bruun started the game and flipped Macro Cosmos asap. After a long grind game with Deep Sea Divas and Atlantean Marksmans got Torrential'd 2 times, Bruun took it with Wind-Up Zenmaines after a clutch Solemn Warning on Zoppini's Gorz

Duel 2: Federico passed the first turn. Jack opened with Laggia, Cosmos and 2 other traps. However, Dark Hole, Heavy Storm, Abyssmegalo sealed the game on Federico's second turn

Duel 3: Jack Bruun started the game and opened with Laggia, Cosmos and 4 other traps. GG

Anyway he deserved it IMO as he is a good player who made it to the final once (losing terribly to Peter Gross's Chaos Dragon in Toulouse)

Speaking of Peter Gross, he took Inzektor to the top 16 before losing to Jack Bruun. Revenge!

...

..

.

So one old hated deck won again. First was Wind-Ups, then HERO, then Samurais, then Inzektor, then Dino Rabbits. LOL it's not what Konami's supposed to do.

That's what we call a meta call. But this is still ironic as hell as Madolches (what are they?), Prophecy (the spellcaster with weird artwork stolen from MTG?) and Mermails were supposed to make some impacts.

And Mermails failed in the final again. Whatever you say, I'm pleased because I hate Mermails. If you are one of the mere frequent visitors on my blog you know it. (Or you can just scroll down this post...)

___________________________________________________________________________

I'm done. Your turn!

Six Samurai - The power hiding behind Shi En

We all know that Six Samurais (6S) is a luck-based deck.

Don't get me wrong, I respect all the Six Samurai players, including Junior Dorcin, Oscar Zavala, Sean Coovert,... You need to be a good player to do the correct combos with your given hand. The luck-based side is that, if you don't draw well enough, there's nothing you can do.

I'm not talking about luck today. I'm talking about the deck when it goes like expectation. What makes it good?

Shi En is a spell and trap negator, which is always good. 2500 is respectable in his era, but not now. Boss monsters (the Dragons, Master Hyperion, the Chaos duo) and especially the easy access to extra deck without using spell and traps (Tour Guide, Wind-Up, Machina Fortress, Summoner Monk...) make it easy to have a bigger beatstick on the field. Destroying Shi En is a little bit harder since Shi En has the ability to dodge destruction effect, and he has Magatama Musanaki as his backup.

However, Shi En is not all in that deck. Shi En is, as always, the boss. But the boss, as always, has his assistant.

• Hand of the Six/Mizuho: The destruction effect seems no dangerous at first glance, until you see it combined with Gateway.

• Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi: Don't ever underestimate this card. He has the ability to get rid of any monsters that belong to the extra deck. His effect is a quick effect, thus if you Bottomless him, he can kick himself to the hand and next turn will be no different.

• Heroic Champion Excalibur/Blade Armor Ninja: In the long run Six Samurai may not have enough resource to keep up with any deck of the current meta. However, they have the ability to push very hard (even without Gateway). 4400/4000 + 2500 is 6900/6500, no joke here! You may find yourself near death very often, and if you cannot push through everything the following turn, gg.

• Kageki + Shadow of the Six: 3500 (Kageki) + 2500 (Shadow) is 6000. No joke again!

Why am I talking about Six Samurai now? Because it's the black horse you should be watching out for. You say it has bad match-ups against everything? Yes, it seems. But aside from Wind-Ups and Karakuri (monster heavy variants of its, including Geargia), not many decks can set themselves up fast enough without the help of spell and trap.

Let's take a look at Chaos Dragon: Charge of the Light/Solar Recharge is denied. What will you do? Nothing looks effective against Samurais' field, from Ryko to Zenmaines. Or Mermails. You have no access to Abyssphere, so what if your Undine eats a Warning? Nothing you can do because even if you have Abyssmegalo AND Heavy Infantry (commonly run at 2 each), you have to get rid of all the other Samurais before touching Shi En (Megalo is smaller than Shi En if you do not realize it). No easy task. And what will Evolzar Laggia/Dolkka do against Shi En assuming no Forbidden Lances?

The real power of Samurais comes from turn 1-2 plays. If they go explosive turn 1 and you cannot break through, there's a high chance their turn 2 will be your last unless you play an incredible amount of traps. No matter how fast current metas are, people have 1 normal summon a turn. If you can't make use of it, or your opponent just doesn't let you, it's bad.

Side story: Today I picked my Samurai deck against Wind-Ups. I went first, ending my field with Gateway, Kizan, Grandmaster and Shi En, setting Bottomless. My opponent MST'd the Bottomless (I let it go because I feared Dark Hole or any power spell), then go Shark Magician into Tiras and Utopia. Utopia killed Grandmaster, Tiras killed Kizan and Gateway. Second turn, I searched for Enishi with ROTA, and as soon as my opponent got to his draw phase, his field was cleared. He sacked Rat from the top, made Acid Golem and killed Shi En (I have no Samurais in grave to feed Enishi T_T). My turn, I dropped Dojo and Mizuho, forcing out Torrential. His turn, he sacked a second Rat and make Zenmaity + Gigabrilliant to wreck me. My turn, I topped Elder (with an 1-counter-Dojo), make Catastor and killed Zenmaity. He flopped Rabbit of the top, summon it, pumped it to 1700 (and Brilliant to 2400), ended. I killed Brilliant with Catastor, set Double-Edged. He passed. I sacked a Kizan and Double-Edge for Shi En + Enishi into a field of Catastor, Shi En, Blade Armor Ninja to stole the game (Enishi cleared his Rabbit)

Like I said, getting Shark Magician'd and field cleared is not the end for Sams.

So, watch out!

And thanks for reading xD

Mermails, and Konami, yet again

I tried playing Mermails on DN today. They are, expectably, too strong, and I felt really sorry for my opponent each time I beat them with the usual boring combos.

It's way too easy to create a +4 in card advantages when playing Mermails. I'm not telling more specifically about its plays, you guys should all be familiar with them. The exact same feelings as if I were playing Inzektors with 3 Dragonflies and Hornets. Popping cards on the field, special summoning a lot of monster, massive damage and usually ending the duel in 1 or 2 turns. Everytime I started with an "average" hand, I had game. They are too broken, but also too boring as I didn't even need to think of what to do. Just summon Megalo, popping some cards, add Abyssphere, drop Moulinglacia, picking some more cards, attack for near game, set Sphere end. Next turn is gg no matter what.

Yes, I don't even need to think of anything to special after 2 hours of playing. I miss the early Plant format (2 Danylion, 2 Lonefire Blossom, Spore but no Bulbs) when I have to consider my moves every turn. I love YGO, as I've always been loving it for 7-8 years. But I'm getting tired, really.

So the question is, what the **** has Konami done to YGO?

I quitted during the TeleDAD format so I'll only be talking about more recent formats. In 2009, "Big 3" were Blackwing, Lightsworn and Cat Synchro. Blackwing was the most balanced: beatdown (Shura), some "average" special summoning elements (Bora, Gale, Blizzard), attack boost (Sirocco). The only annoying thing was triple Black Whirlwind which gave them too much speed. Handleable after all. Lightsworn is explosive but inconsistent, just like Chaos Dragon today. Cat Synchro made better push than Blackwing, but they didn't have any reliable combos aside abusing the Cat.

Then came the X-Sabers and Infernities. More summoning, faster, more inconsistent. Infernities were mad as always, but they needed setup. Same as Sabers, they needed to set up to start combo off.

In 2011, the plant-based decks became popular. Quickdraw Dandy, Debris Hime, Dark Debris (Doomcaliber, Caius, DAD...). Best recent format IMO

The 3 mentioned eras were good. The most important reason was that we didn't need to play the exact same thing as the other players who piloted the same deck (aside from Lightsworn and Frog FTK in game 1 only). We were not forced to do anything for the win. Each person had a different playstyle, which led to different approach to the game, and that way of approaching the game can be changed against different match-ups. Of course, as time went on, more broken hands were created more usually. Again, those broken hands could be abused by many different ways.

Take a look at recent metas: Six Samurai: Gateway, United, Kageki and Kagemusha and a bunch of Kizans ending with Shi En, some Kizans and some prioections. Agents just did the same thing everytime: Earth for Venus, Venus for 3 Balls (along with T.G. Striker sometimes), then Hyperion and Kristya came out. Or Inzektor: Dragonfly equips Hornet, boom, Centipede comes out, boom, adds Dragonfly, and Gigamantis included sometimes. Or Wind-Up loops? Or set Geargiarmor + Nishipachi? Or Dark Solitaire World?

...

..

.

I mean, the old decks' strategy couldn't be explained in one line of words. The new meta decks, conversely, are very easy to understand and operate. The consequences can easily be seen: Skills are not as important anymore. You don't need skills to to those combos mentioned above. We, semi-pro or competitive duelists, do not feel bad losing. But, it's really really bad to lose against an under-average player just because they have better hand. That thing did happen in the past, but not as frequently as now.

It's just some random thoughts of me about the game right now. I'm not quitting, I'm still in love with it. Just hoping things will get better soon. Don't talk about Cosmo Blaze here. Onslaught of the Fire King, along with their 2700 boss which has a Cyber Eltatin-like effect, is just as stupid as Mermails.

Btw, my Mermails build that I used:

Some explanation:

Max on almost everything: I'm not a control player. I just want to go fully aggressive as soon as possible.

Abyssgunde: I play too fast, which results in a lot of dead (Warning'd, Torrential'd,...) Mermails in grave. Bringing back a second Megalo for instant Big Eye is cool.

No Diva: the normal summon is often taken by Abysspike or Undine.

Against the Mermails

Yes Inzektor took the title at YCS Seattle, but the thing I noticed the most was the interesting showing of Mermail - Atlanteans in the YGO TCG. The deck looks like another version of Inzektor, with which you can creates massive card advantages through searching/blowing cards on the field.

Before moving on to side-decking, there're some notes for game 1 against Mermails. I myself have played a lot against them, and honestly my advice could only work when you're against an average hand. If your opponent open broken, just save time for side-decking.

1. Don't waste your MST blindly: This is maybe the most important thing about playing vs Mermails. If your MST walks into Abyssphere, which happens very often, you're dead. They can search out Abysslinde, then Abysslinde will be destroyed along with Abyssphere, and then Abysspike or Megalo can come out at any time. Unless you have a very developed field, Abysspike will be picked for some setup. At this point my advice is trying to finish the game because if you don't, your opponent will. Save your MST so that you can chain it to the activation of Abyssphere, at least it will be an one for one trade.
2. Don't use Gorz/Tragoedia too early. At least wait for 1-2 copies of Heavy Infantry out of their access. Aside from Infantry (which is commonly run at 2), they don't have that big monster to run over a 2400 Tragoedia or Gorz (Catastor cannot help, which is pretty good)
3. Don't attack their set monsters. Usually you'll hit an Abysslinde which calls out Abysspike/Megalo and shit will happen next turn.
4. Veiler the Divas/Megalos, and Maxx "C" the Spheres. The former is kinda obvious. About Sphere: If they get out Abysslinde and let it die to summon one more time, you get +1. If they don't get Abysslinde, you get +1 too.
5. Hit Moulinglacia: the Elemental Lords (Moulinglacia and Grandsoil) have the same drawback. If you want to survive another turn, Moulinglacia is your target.
6. Don't use Veiler on Genex Undine...

So now let's come to the side deck. The obvious choice are graveyard hate like Dimensional Fissure, Macro Cosmos, Banisher of the Radiance/Light, or even The End of Anubis! But what if you cannot run those card? I have some suggestions here:

1. Debunk: Destroys everything, including an in-hand Megalo. Sadly you can use only 1 Debunk, so if your opponent discard 2 Atlanteans to summon Megalo, just take the minuses from the Atlanteans and Debunk Megalo away. You don't want to face a 2400 double attacker backed with Abyssphere.
2. Soul Drain: Cannot stop Megalo, but it prevents ALL the destruction effects. Without too many minuses that setup is handleable. If you can affore Skill Drain, you can lock them down completely.
3. Mind Crush: Because Megalo uses the chain to summon, you can Crush it away before it hits the field. Crush also helps against the Dragoons' search, Salvage, etc... Sweetest play would be chaining Mind Crush to Allure of Darkness, calling Genex Controller. At least you rob them a Gorz/Tragoedia. Once I dropped 7 cards from my opponent's hand with that play.
4. Deck Devastation Virus: the Atlanteans, beside Dragoons, is small. Luckily Dragoons do nothing on their own. the Mermails are small too. Under Virus, their best play maybe summoning Abysspike, discard Dragoons to search Moulinglacia...
5. Wild Tornado: Yes, Wild Tornado. It helps against Abyssphere, and if it's randomly hit by Marksman, you still gain back a card from your opponent.
6. Gemini Imps: Mermails' winning play is often dropping Moulinglacia to eliminate the last chances of getting fought back. And if you successfully use Imps, you just destroy Moulinglacia which gives you another turn of breathing.
7. Multiple Veilers and Maxx "C", at least.

Conclusion? If something is good against Inzektor, it will probably be good against Mermails.

Side note: If you're running a fast, aggressive deck like Dragons, Agents, you should make big pushes as soon as possible. Mermails have a lot of advantages mid to late game, when they're set up and they start to have pluses from Salvages.

With Mermails getting more and more popular, I guess any of you guys should have some preparation of facing it. If you have more interesting choices, just comment below for my appreciation! Thanks for reading..

Mind Crush

"Declare 1 card name; if that card is in your opponent's hand, they must discard all copies of it, otherwise you discard 1 random card."

 So let's make a list of top tier deck (TCG)

• Wind-Up
• Geargia
• Machina Gadget
• Agent
• Chaos Dragon
• HERO
• Mermails

Too many LOL. Not in any order btw.

So let's take a look at how Mind Crush does against these deck:

1. Wind-Up: They play Factories! And when they normal summon Wind-Up Magician or special summon it with Zenmaity, just go confident and call SHARK, you win more than 90% of time.
2. Geargia: Just call Geargiaccelerator when you know they have it, at least you stop them for a turn.
3. Machina Gadget: They search to much. Just don't call Fortress, ok?
4. Earth searches Venus. Later on you should have some good read to call Hyperion/BLS/Kristya at the right time.
5. Eclipse Wyvern searches! Sadly people do not often play more than 1 Wyvern now. Charge of the Light Bridgade and Sangan search too. Overall Mind Crush does not do much against Dragons because it's hard to read Darkflare/Lightpulsar/BLS/DAD/Sorcerer/... Too many
6. HERO: E - Emergency Call and Stratos! Try to read Miracle Fusion too. If you're facing Bubblebeat then it's easier to use Crush.
7. Mermails: You can chain Mind Crush to Megaloabyss's summoning effect. It will be dropped to graveyard and no Abyssphere will be added. Abysspike, Atlantean Dragoons do searches too, not mentioning Salvage. Just don't call Genex Controller LOL

Aside from those specific use, Mind Crush can be used when you read Gorz, Tragoedia Veiler... Don't call Maxx "C", they can just chain it. Pot of Dualities among with other searching spells (Seal of Convocation, GB Proving Ground,...) are widely used too.

There're actually a lot more ways to abuse Mind Crush, but they depend on the state of the game you're playing. Try to read your opponent's mind, just try. Becoming better at using Mind Crush means becoming better at YGO overall since YGO has something called "mind game" which is really important and it defines the good and the best players.

That's for today, thanks for reading.

Abyss Rising Fish?

That ugly guy is still the boss.

Basically , the combo I'm thinking of:

Activate Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth (SDKC), discarding Atlantean Dragoons to special summon 3 Mermail Abyssmanders and a Royal Swamp Eel, then using the Dragoons' effect to add Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord to your hand.

Do whatever synchro or xyz plays that you can do to get exactly 5 WATER in your graveyard. It depends on the number of Treeborn Frogs, Ronintoadins and friends that you loaded your graveyard with. Remember to pick xyz that can detach from itself without rough conditions (I'm talking of Maestroke, Photon Papilloperative, Abyss Dweller or something like that). If your opponent is running low on Life Point (rarely happens since you can only push once per duel), you can just go for the mighty Shock Master and call trap. I know you want to prevent Gorz/Tragoedia but Shock Master stops yourself too.

Back to the combo, after load your graveyard with WATERs, drop Moulinglacia to pick 2 cards from your opponent's hand. From this point you have SDKC, Moulinglacia and usually 2 synchro/xyz monsters on the field, enough for an OTK in most cases.

Sometimes after getting 1 Abyssmander into the grave you can use its effect to pump the 2 other Abyssmander to level 6 and go for Strike Bounzer/Force Focus/Exa-Beetle, or level 5 for Adreus/Volcasaurus (most of the time, to deal some damage then upgrade it to Gaia Thunder Charger, OCG use only, but it conflicts with Abyssmander which is a TCG Exclusive LOL).

Or when you don't have access to Moulinglacia just make Scrap Dragon + Stardust Dragon/Thought Ruler Archfiend with Ronintoadin as your free Scrap Dragon's bullet. 2800 + 2800 + 2500/2700 is still an OTK anyway.

The damn weaknesses is Moulinglacia itself. If you fail to OTK and your opponent clear your Moulinglacia next turn you'll be stopped for a turn, and then realize you have nothing left in your deck for combos. Metabo Shark or Pot of Avarice? They're dead in your hand most of the times IMO

Still I'm thinking because the additional OTK conditions (Atlantean Dragoons and Moulinglacia) take 5-6 slots in main deck, which used to belong to Light and Darkness Dragon and some extra defense (Tragoedia, Maxx C, Veiler...). It helps OTK, but it also make you feel dead when that OTK fails.

What do you think?

If you have time, feel free to make a deck based on the combo and test it for me, I'll be highly thankful for that :D

Chaos Dragon - My take on it

This is a decklist post!

But before I show you guys my Chaos Dragon build, I've got something to talk about it.

So the September ban list took away Future Fusion and 2 (1 in other builds) Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons (REDMD).

In fact I don't really care about the former. Trust me or not, I've never played Future Fusion in all of my Chaos Dragon builds since I got my SDDCs. Reasons? Same as Peter Gross, it's a power card, but it also makes your opponent's Mystical Space Typhoons (MST) live. Because I wanted to make them DEAD, I decided not to include Future Fusion. Surely that means I didn't have any YOLO moments, but when I lost one copy of Recharge and replaced it with Future Fusion, Lyla milled it all the times. To conclude, I didn't think I needed it.

However, with REDMD limited to one copy per deck, my deck (more like my style, whatever) had to change. I'm used to special summoning REDMD from my hand, getting more dragons to my field and killing my opponents in less than 2 turns. My goal is not generating the REDMD-Lightpulsar loop. My goal is eliminating my opponent's 8000 LP, so I played 3 REDMDs (and 3 Eclipse Wyverns, 3 Darkflare Dragons) because REDMD in hand meant more damage.

Back to present. Deck changed, my playstyle did not. I sill want to do big big push, as big as possible, rather than controlling the field or such... Since 1 REDMD is never enough (even with Eclipse Wyverns at 3), I need to find another way of dealing damage. I tried everything: the Lightrays, Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit (and Su, once, to make Atums), Gold Sarcophagus/Pot of Duality/Card Car D. The problem is that I never draw the right cards at the right time, like top-decking Card Car D when I need a Dark or Light to feed Lightpulsar, or late game Gold Sarcophagus when I have used/milled all the BLS, REDMD, Heavy Storm, Monster Reborn, etc..., or even Tefnuit when my field is already filled with monsters, Lightray when I have dropped all the Chaos things and did not even have 3 different Lights...

Shit.

And then I realized I was playing a Dragon combined with Lightsworn deck, and the Lightsworn boss is a Dragon which can be searched with Eclipse Wyvern.

So? I increased the number of different Lightsworns, added 1 Judgment Dragon as a tech. It did surprisingly well that I decided to play a full set of Judgment Dragons. Of course I got dead draws like hell LOL

Still, that's my way. After weeks of testing I finally come up with a deck I'm quite satisfied with:

Monster [32]
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2 Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
2 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Eclipse Wyvern
2 Tragoedia
1 Gorz
3 Darkflare Dragon
3 Lightpulsar Dragon
2 Judgment Dragon
1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

Spell [8]
3 Solar Recharge
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Something's missing? Yes, I don't want to play more than 40 cards so Card Troopers have been cut from the deck.

The Tragoedia and Rai-Oh are pretty randoms, change to Doomcaliber Knight, Maxx C, Veiler of your own choice depending on the meta in your area.

Basically the deck's strategy did not change much: when you're safe, drop as much damage as possible. Simple huh?

With REDMD in graveyard, Judgment Dragon + Lightpulsar = GG. Or even if you opponent has Gorz, you can just pay for Judgment Dragon again and set up the exact same field in main phase 2.

Ehrens get rid of set monsters to clear the way for your push. You don't want to attack into Ryko, Snowman, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo etc... It's my way to improve the Geargia match-up as well. Jain helps killing Rai-Oh. I'll play it at 2-3 if Jain milled 3 at End Phase, sigh.

The lone Typhoon is random, too. Sometimes I face Skill Drain/Soul Drain so I think I need it. At 1 because of tight deck space, and the deck thins itself very well.

Judgment Dragon is the boss of bosses, trust me.

That's it. Comments, as always, are highly appreciated.

Peace!

(Interesting) decklists from Providence, Rhode Island

Nareg Torossian's Zombie (top 4)
Monster [25]
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
3 Spirit Reaper
3 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3 Effect Veiler
2 Mystic Tomato
2 Card Trooper
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Goblin Zombie
1 Mezuki
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Black Luster Soldier (not the ritual)
1 Dark Armed Dragon

Spell [8]
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon
3 Mystical Space Typhoon

Trap [11]
3 Call of the Haunted
2 Solemn Warning
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

44-card deck with cards mostly from 2-3 years ago. I'll call this a random mess of good stuffs piloted by a legendary player from Goat era who randomly showed up for a random tournament. Every card in the deck can work on its own, and he has 5 mill engines so deck size was not a real problem. That's it. Pro's deck is pro, I can't tell anything else about this.

Justin Ashe's Gravekeepers (top 8)
Monster [15]
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
3 Gravekeeper's Recruiter
2 Gravekeeper's Descendant
2 Gravekeeper's Commandant
1 Gravekeeper's Assailant
2 Effect Veiler
2 Card Car D

Spell [11]
3 Necrovalley
2 Royal Tribute
2 Gravekeeper's Stele
2 Pot of Duality
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon

Trap [14]
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Starlight Road
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

Pretty standard build with the addition of Card Car D. However I often see people playing a full set of Necrovalleys and Commandants, or 3 Commandants and 2 Necrovalleys. This guy's choice was quite... weird considering Commandant is a 2100 beatstick on its own which can be reused by Stele while Necrovalley does nothing as a second copy.

Simon He's Chaos Agent (top 8)
Monster [29]
2 Agent of Mystery - Earth
3 Agent of Creation - Venus
3 Mystical Shine Ball
3 Master Hyperion
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Archlord Kristya
1 Black Luster Soldier
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Herald of Orange Light
2 Tragoedia
2 Maxx C
2 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz
1 Honest

Spell [10]
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mind Control
1 Enemy Controller
1 Creature Swap
1 Forbidden Lance

Trap [1]
1 Treacherous Trap Hole

Pretty much similar to Nicky Lacaille's Agent which finished 2nd (losing to Billy Brake's Tengu Plant) at YCS Toronto in 2011 (a lot of tech cards with no traps). However, Simon had too many tech cards IMO, which can lead to consistency issues when playing a long swiss. He managed to pull it through anyway (through Obelisk with Hyperion, Armory Arm and Gachi Gachi Gantesu. Pro's move is pro, sigh)

Daniel Vrabel's Trooper Agent (top 8)
Monster [26]
2 Agent of Mystery - Earth
3 Agent of Creation - Venus
3 Mystical Shine Ball
3 Master Hyperion
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh
3 Herald of Orange Light
2 Archlord Kristya
2 Card Trooper
2 Tour Guide
1 Sangan
1 Black Luster Soldier
1 Honest

Spell [6]
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
3 Mystical Space Typhoon

Trap [8]
3 Call of the Haunted
2 Solemn Warning
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment

Kind of a standard OCG Trooper Agent build. Really nothing to talk about aside from the triple Thunder Kings to help combating Geargia and Wind-Ups.

Nick Amato's Trooper Agent (top 16)
Basically similar to Daniel's decklist, minus the Tour Guides, Sangan, 1 Thunder King, 1 MST, adding in 2 Forbidden Lances, 2 Dualities and 2 Bottomless Trap Holes

Same as above LOL

Kevin Rubio's Guaiba Agent (top 16)
Monster [24]

2 Agent of Mystery - Earth
3 Agent of Creation - Venus
3 Mystical Shine Ball
3 Master Hyperion
3 Herald of Orange Light
2 Archlord Kristya
3 Jurrac Guaiba
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Maxx C
1 Honest

Spell [9]
3 Forbidden Lance
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon

Trap [12]
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Solemn Warning
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Raigeki Break
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Starlight Road

Another oversized deck that managed to top. It's something innovative in the US (I'm familiar with it in my area but US meta is different), considering people are saying things like "Guaiba is no anymore effective". Still, I doubt it a deck with more than 41 cards can work consistently as the deck's owner wants it to do. Again, he managed to succeed anyway, pro's choice is pro.

William Casaw's Lancer Frog (top 16)
Monster [29]
3 Battle Fader
3 Swap Frog
3 Dupe Frog
3 Poison Draw Frog
3 Ronintoadin
2 Treeborn Frog
3 Obelisk
2 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
2 Sea Lancer
1 Jinzo
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch
1 Gorz

Spell [13]
3 Soul Exchange
2 Salvage
2 My Body as a Shield
2 Creature Swap
1 Enemy Controller
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

Trap [0]

Yet another oversized deck (from my point of view) with too many tech cards (from my point of view too). I cannot really understand how he could play with 3 Obelisks and 2 Light and Darkness Dragons. I've been playing Frogs for years, and I keep getting bad hands with dozen of stars when playing with more than 3 monsters requiring 2 (or more) tribute fodders. He even play only one copy of Enemy Controller, the card that I consider the best card in a Frog deck. Or maybe I'm too bad of a duelist LOL. My Body as a Shield is an interesting choice, also. 

Joe Ellis Maddalena's "bunch of Machines" (top 32)
Monster [36]
3 Gallis the Star Beast
2 Witch of the Black Rose
1 Machina Force
3 Machina Gearframe
3 Machina Fortress
3 Genex Neutron
3 Genex Ally Birdman
3 Ghost Ship
3 Cyber Valley
3 Cyber Eltanin
1 Cyber Dragon
2 Lightray Sorcerer
1 Black Luster Soldier
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Honest
1 Gorz
2 Tragoedia

Spell [4]
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mind Control

You can read more about the deck here. I have absolutely nothing to talk about. I like the deck, end of story.

Chris DiGregorio's Fish (top 32)
Monster [24]
3 Swap Frog
2 Treeborn Frog
2 Ronintoadin
1 Dupe Frog
3 Light and Darkness Dragon
3 Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth
3 Shark Sticker
1 Friller Rabca
1 Effect Veiler
2 Maxx C
2 Tragoedia
1 Gorz

Spell [16]
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Enemy Controller
3 Moray of Greed
2 Pot of Duality
2 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm

I have no idea how he can do OTKs, can you guys tell me? It's a standard fish deck. The only confusing choice is that single copy of Dupe Frog. Swap Frog is the most important thing in this deck IMO, there's no reason to run less than 2 Dupe Frog.

YCS Providence

INSANE.

Was is a real YCS or another kind of random tournament hosted by Konami?

According to Konami's blog, YouTube, DuelistGroundz and more Google stuff, the top 32 consisted of anything that you can imagine in this format: Agent, Geargia, Wind-Ups, Chaos Dragon, Dino Rabbit, HERO, Gravekeepers, Gladiator Beast, Fish, Lancer Frogs, Zombie and a Machine-based deck that I have no idea of how to call it: Genex Neutron, Genex Ally Birdman, Cyber Dragon, Cyber Eltanin, Machina Gearframe/Fortress, Gallis the Star Beast, Lightray Sorcerer, Ghost Ship, Black Rose Witch, everything in one deck.

Cutting down to top 16, there were still 11 different decks staying in competition, with Agents dominated in numbers (5). 4 Gadget/Geargia/Karakuri managed to climbed here, the rest was filled with rogue pick and only ONE Wind-Ups.

As can be predicted, the top 8 consisted of absolutely ZERO Wind-Ups, with Agent and Geargia Karakuri were the only 2 decks which could be seen in double.

The random Zombie things went up to top 4, along with 2 Geargias and Chaos Dragon. Geargia took the win, Chaos Dragon finished second, and Zombie (!) piloted by Nareg Tarossian, a SJC veteran with a Jump Champ. in 2005, was the 3rd.

The interesting thing is that there were too many "black horses" in the tournament, making it the most diverse YCS ever seen (in history?). Aside from the usual top tier decks, there're something we can predict, for now:

• Agent is the Chaos Dragon of this format. It stayed under-radar for the first 3 YCSs, but rose to fame with a whopping 5 spots in top 16. The chance of drawing Earth has doubled comparing to last format, and that makes real differences. Oddly enough, the old (and nerfed) Chaos Dragon climbed to top 4, competing with Geargias and Zombie.
• Good old rogue picks have places in YCS-level tournament, at least before Abyss Rising. Gladiator Beast, Gravekeepers, Sea Lancer, Zombie are all solid decks, but they have the same weakness: speed. YGO is still slow for now, so there're chances for random tops. The Machine-based random deck of Joe Maddalena, and Fish deck of Chris DiGregorio, though managed to survive the Swiss, won't be making anymore YCS-top IMO.
• Geargia is too powerful. In slow formats card advantages win game. It's no different now.

It's quite too early now, I can't collect the decklists for you guys in this post. Will be updating day by day, promise. But I only care about the rogue things (Zombie, GB, GK, Lancer, that mass of Machine, Fish...). Never really care about the champion decklist, just build one Geargia deck for yourself.

On a side notes, Paul Levitin and Nareg Tarrossian were back to the top after years out of Yugioh. I don't know, maybe I don't have anough knowledge to judge, but it SEEMS like duelists nowadays do not have the skills that the old SJC legends had. Without knowledge of the metagame (Nareg even had to read Geargiarmor...), the 2 teenage legends sill managed to fight through a field of new updated duelists, even with the most rogue deck available

“A bunch of good commons!” Torrosian smiled and shrugged.  Tang laughed as Torossian continued.  “No, seriously!  This is what happens when you sell all your cards three years ago and then randomly decide to show up to a tournament!”

Geargia had its first YCS win, Agents came back, rogue picks arose, too enough for a 2012 YCS.

See you guys next time when I have collected some interesting decklists around the Internet!

Peace~

Call of the Haunted

It's too famous, image of the Italian copy just for the post to have an image.

It's one of the few cards in YGO that has been under all Forbidden, Limited and Semi-Limited list (along with Chaos Sorcerer, Rescue Cat and some more I don't remember,,,)

So... What do you guys think about this card?

It's simply a 1 for 1 revival like Monster Reborn, but it requires a turn to be set and it dies easily to a chained Mystical Space Typhoon. However, if you are running 2 to 3 copies of Call in your deck, and all of them get MST'd, you should be feeling good because you've baited all your opponent's MSTs and your other traps are safe (if you have Starlight Road then it's quite perfect, but still Heavy Storm can come out of nowhere).

Aside from those 2 drawbacks, Call is quite good IMO. Special any monster back from the graveyard is quite annoying, especially when you have baited a power trap from your opponent. Scenario: Opponent sets Sangan and Warning; you summon Rai-Oh, baiting out Warning, then simply Call it back to put your opponent in serious trouble. It's just a bad example but I can't really think of anything else. In fact, the deck that abuse Call of the Haunted the most is Inzektor, whose Dragonfly alone can lead to everything. You ever use Warning/Torrential on Dragonfly just to see your opponent Calling it back? That's when the game is almost over.

Today Inzektor is not dead, but not like before anymore. Still, people make good use of Call by combining it with Card Trooper and Sangan. If you have a Trooper/Sangan (or Goblin Zombie, Dandylion, or whatever monster with the same condition that cannot miss the timing), just set Call. If you opponent MSTs it, you get +1 by chaining it targeting one of those card. That's the most common way of using Calls nowadays, apparently.

Because it's a pseudo-Monster Reborn (that only get monsters back from your graveyard, sigh), there're too many ways to use it, and I'm not going to mention them all here. However, in some situations, Call is much better than Monster Reborn.

The fact that it's a trap is very important. It can be chained, can be activated in your opponent's turn or in your battle phase. Opponent Duality's? Chain Call targeting Raioh, put your trollface on. Your on field monsters cannot deal enough damage to finish the duel? Chain Call in battle phase for the extra needed damage, you've just stolen the game. And sometimes things do not need to be that complicated: Call on Stratos is 4000-4400 damage, Call of REDMD is often 5300, Call on BLS is... Yeah.

Recently Alistar Albans topped YCS Indy with an Agent deck that make use of 2 Card Troopers and 3 Call of the Haunteds. Because Calling back Master Hyperion is a +1 (and 2700 damage) and Calling back Kristya is a devastating play against Wind-Up, Geargia,..., it was, in most people's opinions, a good call, LOL

Mmm...

Where to use Call?

In decks that need 1-2 cards to run properly. Hyperion is a big boss, REDMD is a big boss, and the High Priestess of Prophecy too. Inzektor Dragonfly is a small boss, but you know... Any deck that has a semi-nomi or unrestricted boss can make use of this card (Judgment Dragon seems to be the only exception). I don't recommend you to run Call in Wind-Ups: They have no bosses. Salvage could be even better as you can recycle Shark and Zenmaity...

And in decks that can put 6000-7000 damage on the board quickly (that have big monsters). Hieratic, Alive HERO, Inzektor, Fabled... Call is kind of a surprise element that can finish the game when your opponent does not expect some more damage.

And (one more time only), in decks that rely on 1900-2000 beatstick and have a lot of traps (anti decks, to be simple). Calling back Rai-Oh, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Beast King Barbaros baiting MST to protect other traps... Just main 1-2 copies of it, you'll see the different.

That's for today, thanks for reading xD

The Nordic Beast Engine

Exams are over, I'm alive again.

As the title said, today I'm talking about one of my favourite engine: Nordics! No I'm not copying anything from Light Grunty LOL, I fell in love with them from the start when they were released in Storm of Ragnarok, which is better known as the Legendary Six Samurai set.

Basically the whole Nordic Beast archtype consists of:

Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beast (Black Goat)

Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beast (White Goat)

Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beast

Garmr of the Nordic Beast

And of course, Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir.

Recommended ratio: 3 Black Goats, 1 White Goats, 3 Guldafaxes, 0-1 Garmr. My preference, this is for the ones who will try the deck out.

And also, you should run 3 Super-Nimble Mega Hamsters, 3 Deep Sea Divas + 1 Lost Blue Breaker (or whatever), and/or 2 Tour Guides 1 Sangan 1 Night Assailant (or whatever).

Back in the day when I first saw the cards, the only thing I thought about was Black Goat getting Guldfaxe for instant Black Rose Dragon. Bombing consistently is pretty good, especially it thins your deck a lot, and it takes only 1 card.

Now, the key play is still summon Black Goat in defense (mostly by its own effect or by Super-Nimble Mega Hamster - another favourite card of mine). But when you turn it to attack position, you have more choices than I did before:

First, and most commonly, is to get Guldfaxe to the field, synchro summon a level 7 (Black Rose!), or level 8 if your Hamster survives the battle (or just summon another level 4 monster like Reborn Tengu). I really like going for Scrap Dragon, because the used Black Goat is your free bullet, and you haven't even normal summoned yet.

Alternatively, summon a level 3 non-tuner (Tour Guide or Deep Sea Diva into a level 3 Sea Serpent like Lost Blue Breaker, Spined Gillman...), make Thor. Thor is very good, or even invincible in some match-up like Wind-Up, Six Samurai... He eats the staller for breakfast too, as you can negate the 'cannot be destroyed by battle' of anything.

Secondly, you can get to your White Goat, make a level 3 xyz monster with only 1 card.

Take a look back: with only 1 card (Black Goat) that is search-able thanks to Gleipnir and/or Hamster, you can put a level 4 tuner and a level 3 non-tuner on the field, OR 2 level 3 monsters. What do those things mean? Black Goat is the unrestricted version of Debris Dragon (you can go for Scrap Archfiend with Black Goat and Guldafaxe!), and the engine's own Tour Guide (from the Beasts' World).

Most importantly, you haven't even normal summoned. From my point of view it seems so overpowered right?

Random combos:

~ Hamster get destroyed, special summon 1 Black Goat from your hand, 1 Black Goat from your deck. Do whatever you want next turn: 2 level 7 synchro monsters, or Thor, or a level 8 synchro along with a rank 3 xyz if you run Garmr.

~ Black Goat for Guldfaxe, normal summon Deep Sea Diva for Lost Blue Breaker (or whatever), synchro summon T.G. Hyper Librarian and Scrap Archfiend/Black Rose Dragon/..., draw 1 card. Too many pluses.

~ Assuming Hamster survived the battle, Black Goat gets Guldfaxes, normal summon Deep Sea Diva, getting Lost Blue Breaker. Hamster + Guldfaxe = level 8 synchro. The rest (Diva, Breaker, Black Goat) can be used to make another level 8 synchro, or you can use Breaker's effect to clear a trap, then make T.G. Hyper Librarian (before that level 8 synchro), getting a free draw.

Many, many more.

Most random: Chain Gleipnir to your opponent MST, get +1.

SECRET WEAPON: Ancient Sacred Wyvern. You can make Wyvern without normal sunmoning, so there's a high chances of summoning more monsters, deal more damage before finishing the game with Wyvern.

The good thing about this is even if you get Veiler'd on Diva, Black Goat, you can still make push (with smaller synchro monsters, of course...), unlike summoning Tour Guide alone or something like that...

Invincible? No. Try the feeling of drawing 2-3 Guldfaxes. That's the bad thing about this deck, probably the only bad thing.

Build one deck for yourself. The deck generates a lot of card advantages with the use of only 1-2 cards, which is very good in this fast format where there's almost no Inzektors. They're fun, and they also create advantages from surprise factors - not many people know about Nordics. 

That's for today, thanks for reading xD

[Out of Yugioh] Drowning in assignments

Just to remind people that this blog is still alive, but not awake.

I've been busy like hell for the last week, and next week will not be getting any better.

On a side note, Six Samurai won YCS Indianapolis. I'm not too surprised that the event was won by a rogue deck. The most noticeable thing to me is the comeback of Chaos Dragon (piloted by Stefan Bizzell and legendary Alex Reed). They're still playable with more Lightsworns oriented.

Won't be posting any analysis for the event. It's way too late now. But I'll be spending sometime writing about deck trend as soon as possible.

Signing out~

Completed X-Saber deck

Monster [21]
3 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster
3 XX-Saber Boggart Knight
3 XX-Saber Darksoul
3 XX-Saber Emmersblade
3 XX-Saber Faultroll
2 X-Saber Airbellum
2 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight
1 X-Saber Pashuul
1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

Spell [12]
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
2 Pot of Duality
2 Enemy Controller
2 Saber Slash
2 Mystical Space Typhoon

Trap [8]
3 Gottom's Emergency Call
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Torrential Tribute

[Extra deck and side deck of your own choices]

After testing with my X-Saber draft which can be found here, I finished my X-Saber deck yesterday and started testing since then. Doing quite well against the whole meta aside from Wind-Up (you see, I play no hand traps now, explanation below...)

I reduced Ryko to 1 because killing 1 Laggia/Thunder King is often enough for me to go off. I play 3 Hamsters (explanation in the previous post about X-Saber), so I virtually play 4 Rykos, enough?

Enemy Controllers deal with Thunder King Rai-Oh and other low-defense monster. And sometime I take my opponent's big monster and attack for game. Not so often, but there're times.

Saber Slash serves the same purpose: getting rid of annoying monster, and also Skill Drain, Macro Cosmos, Necrovalley,... Simplify your mind: If you can use 1 card to destroy your opponent's 2-3 cards, WITHOUT FEAR OF STARLIGHT ROAD, just go for it.

Trap line-up is still the same, I'm pretty pleased with it, at least for now and with the current meta,

To summarize, I basically swap the Wind-Up and Dino Rabbit hates for more common anti-Saber hate. It's your choice, and of course the cards I swapped out (1 Ryko, 3 Maxx "C") now stay in my side deck.

That's it. Really hope an X-Saber deck will top YCS Indianapolis, like the deck that topped San Antonio Regional recently.

Comments are appreciated, as always xD

Random tech cards/side deck cards

So today I log on my Dueling Network account since I unbelievably have a little free time.

I used X-Saber most of my games, and (of course) I won most of my games. It's Dueling Network haha, what to expect from random players around the world?

Going into the main point of the post. I've faced a lot of weird cards that I've never ever seen before today. For now I cannot tell whether those cards are good or bad, but they really give the opponent(s) a little bit of surprise. And I'll write about some of the overlooked cards which just appear in my mind to, just to call it a real post LOL.


Begone, Knave!

Actually the card was released in Invasion of Chaos (the set released in 2004 which contains Black Luster Soldier EotB, Chaos Emperor Dragon, Dark Magician of Chaos and more overpowered cards LOL), but I never see it in play until about a year ago, when Reborn Tengu was widely used.

So, the card returns the monster which inflicted battle damage to its owner hand. Though it's a trap, I find this card more offensive than defensive. Summon Emmersblade, crash into one of your opponent's monster to get another Emmersblade. As the opponent's monster inflicts battle damage, it's returned to your opponent's hand. Do it again with the second and third Emmersblade, get out Darksoul and crash again, you've cleared 4 monsters out of your way, and you get an End Phase search. Of course if your opponent has 3 or fewer monsters you can just bring out Airbellum for a random plus.

Begone, Knave! works with other kind of recruiters too (Mystic Tomato, Mother Grizzly, Howling Insect, UFO Turtle, Reborn Tengu, Wattdragonfly,... and especially Giant Rat into Emmersblade LOL)


Liberty at Last!

When one of your monster is destroyed in battle, return 2 face-up monsters on the field into the deck. It's a normal trap card, but I don't care much because if you resolve the effect only once, you have given enough pain to your opponent IMO. I really think that this card looks good from the first glance. If you don't care about your monster being destroyed (the Tech Genus, Sangan, Goblin Zombie, the recruiters mentioned above and of course Emmersblade and Darksoul LOL), this card is really fun to play because it gets rid of every card that belongs to extra deck, which is pretty funny.


Heavy Slump

When your opponent have 8 or more cards in hand, he/she adds his/her hand to the deck, then draws 2 cards.

You could probably be LOL-ing right now looking at the activating condition. When your opponent have 8 cards in hand? It's almost impossible when Heavy Slump was first released (in 2004 too, brother of Begone, Knave!). It's like an impossible +5 LOL, so everyone quickly forgot about it...

Until Maxx "C" is released! I'm pretty sure Wind-Ups or Geargia (Karakuri build) special summon a lot during their combo. Your opponent counter with Maxx "C"? Just go for it, then throw Heavy Slump to his/her face, win!

Of course the card is pretty situational, but it's weird and unexpected so take note haha.


Needle Ceiling

People have started to put this card in their side deck so I don't think I need to talk too much. Unlike Heavy Slump, this card is used against Wind-Ups, Geargia and other spamming deck (like Fabled LOL).

The most beautiful use of Needle Ceiling is when you have a set monster (Geargiarmor?) and your opponent starts swarming. Needle Ceiling is an instant +2 when your opponent place the third monster to their side of the field. Plus plus plus, they're cool~


Soul Drain

The newest card mentioned in this post: it was just released in Return of the Duelist. It's the other side of Skill Drain (LOL Konami). Skill Drains negate the effects on the field, Soul Drain prevents effects outside the field from being activated. There're a lot of effects that this card can stop: Eclipse Wyvern, Tour Bus, Geargiaccelerator and Gear Gigant X (the second effect), Necro Gardna, the mentioned recruiters and of course Darksoul and Emmersblade... It's the reason for the only game I lost today, and I suppose you guys should take a look at it!


That's for today, thanks for reading!

P.S.: YCS Indianapolis is on the way. If you see any of those cards in action, remind me here and I'll be more than happy about that!

X-Saber?

Once I thought it used to be a good deck.

After days of testing I feel like it was a good deck, then bad deck for the last 2 formats, then solid deck again now...

The Plant format and Inzektor format were both too fast for control decks like Sabers to handle. Emmersblade, the deck's core searcher alongside Darksoul was completely useless against "Dragonfly Hornet boom boom". Even if you got the search with Darksoul, there's not much to do in the following turn. Boggart Knight get Veilered, you done with your turn? Whatever X-Saber was not play-able last format.

What now? Inzektor gone. Rabbit slowed down. Wind-Up is still the pain in the ass but no hand loop anymore, Chaos Dragon almost dead, Mermails (lol) not released yet in the TCG.

X-Saber is slow, but it has 6 floaters in total: 3 Darksoul 3 Emmersblade. 3 more Mega Hamsters in my build, along with Ryko to get rid of backrows and Laggia if someone was suddenly able to make it. 3 Maxx "C" to stop Wind-Ups too. Thus, I have to reduce the amount of traps, cut the trap line-up down to 8 cards (Solemn Trio, Torrential, triple Gottom's Emergency Call, the latter is just personal preference).

It has been doing good right now. Darksoul is godly good, as long as you can play the Boggart Fulhelmknight Faultroll whatever next turn without being disrupted. The biggest threat are of course Effect Veilers and Maxx "C"s. I play Rykos to feed graveyard, so if my Boggart Knight gets Veilered, most of the time I just simply flip Gottom's Emergency Call with my trollface on. Maxx "C" does not stop Boggart Knight, so I often just summon Emmersblade/Darksoul and start to attack right there. It's an 1 for 1 trade anyway, and I have a floater on the field. Not so good, but acceptable IMO

Decklist I've been playing currently. I hate the decksize of 42 (or more), and hate to play with more than 23 monsters too but I can't find any space left. I want to add Reinforce Truth, Saber Slash, Enemy Controller, 1 more Pashuul, Grandsoil to the deck but... Yeah you see. Comments on the deck are highly appreciated.

Little explanation:

Triple Hamster: I just love them, they searches everything I need: tuner/attacker (Airbellum), searcher (Darksoul), spell/trap clearer (Ryko)

2 Fulhelmknight and 2 Airbellum: Not many monsters have low defense like the fluff tokens one year ago. Fulhelmknight is often used as an attack blocker, rarely have I used the summoning effect. Airbellum, on the other hand, is quite good since he can be searched with Hamster for instant synchro, or just trolling when your opponent cannot keep his/her field presence.

Almost every Saber at 3: Rykos mill half of them.

Grapha's Dirty Army - Dark World Turbo

Monster [13]
1 Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
3 Snoww, Unlight of Dark World
3 Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World
3 Malefic Stardust Dragon

Spell [16]
1 Card Destruction
1 Dark World Dealings
1 Dark World Lightnings
1 Monster Reborn
3 Dragged Down into the Grave
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Trade-In
3 The Gate of Dark World

Trap [12]
3 Reckless Greed
3 Hope for Escape
2 Skill Drain
2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

Trading Lord Grapha for 2 cards? He doesn't like it, but I do!

I have nothing better to do today, therefore I grab the Dark World pieces together then call it a deck.
Have been doing quite okay, it's just a scary feeling to start battling back when you're lower than 1000 Life Point against your opponent's 10,000 LOL

Hope for Escape in Dark World is just even more delicious than it is in Final Countdown or Exodia. Because Dark World is a control deck that need ALL the combo pieces together so it lacks the consistency quite seriously. There are times when you draw perfect combinations of cards like Dealings Gate Snoww Grapha Dragged whatever, but there are times when you draw a bunch of discard outlet with out any Dark World monsters (or a Beiige LOL) or vice versa. Hope for Escape serves well here. I play 3 Upstart in a 41-card deck just for 3 Hope for Escapes because I need them too much when I have un-playable hands.

Trade-In serves the same purpose: Getting combo pieces together. 3 Trade-In with 6 level 8 monsters is not that bad because Snoww can search for Grapha, and usually you only need to resolve 1 or 2 copy of it to get things start going. Discarding Grapha for Trade-In is not too bad when  you have full-monster hand without any Dragged/Dealings. Also, during your first turn, your opponent does not have anything for Grapha to destroy.

Triple Malefic Stardust Dragons are for Trade-In, protecting Gate, doing some push when nothing's going right, and also tribute fodder for DDV. Moreover, you can make Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon (just to troll of course) with this card and 2 Graphas.

I only play 1 Dealings because I have too many draw cards, and Dealings often speed my opponent up faster than me, which is pretty bad. 1 Lightnings here is an alternative discard outlet, and a search-able trap hate through Snoww. That card should never be played in more than 1, but I think I need it.

About the trap line-ups, I just add as many paying LP as possible (no Warnings here as I don't really need it and 2000 is too much...). DDV helps Grapha dodge Bottomless, Dimensional Prison, taking care of little monster for more advantages. A single Starlight is just a tech card, I put it in because people are running 2 Torrentials 2 Mirror Forces 1 Dark Hole 1 Heavy Storm and many other forms of mass destruction.

I want to play Tour Guide, Dark Hole and Gateway to Dark World but spaces are tight, sigh.

So yeah, you can try the deck for yourself. I'm pretty sure you'll get some joy playing Solitaire against Dueling Network users haha.

On a side note, Dark World is one of the deck that I hate the most. I just make it because I think people hate it too LOL

Number 16: Shock Master

So let's get started with a little basic information about the card. Shock Master is a rank 4 Xyz monster requiring 3 level 4 monsters. He's a LIGHT Fairy, with 2300 ATK and 1600 DEF.

What does he do? Read his effect, I'm not typing the card text here.

Is he good? Of course.

Why? Continue reading the post please.

When he was first released, the only deck that can afford 3 level 4 monsters on the field quickly and consistently was Offering Gadget (with 3 Ultimate Offerings of course). With 1 Offering and 1 Gadget, you can summon up to 3 Shock Masters in a single turn, with the cost of 4000 Life Points. Quite a lot, but it's really worth it. 3 Shock Masters mean you can lock down your opponent from card effects completely in 3 turns, which are enough to finish your opponent in almost any situation, just make sure you call monster effect lastly LOL

As the format continued, another deck had found use of it: Alive HERO OTK. Since 3 MST along with 3 Night Beam (not mentioning Heavy Storm and Call of the Haunted on Stratos) took good card of your opponents' backrow, the only thing to fear of while doing OTK was Gorz, as always. Because Elemental HERO Bubbleman could be easily searched, summoned and reused (The Warrior Returning Alive), HERO players could make Shock Master, calling monster effect before entering Battle Phase. In this case (assume that all traps card had been cleared), nothing could stop you from finishing your opponent. Also, you could make Shock Master in your first turn of the duel to keep your opponents from their key plays (e.g. call spell against Dark World, HERO...)

Back to present, when Offering Gadget is not a deck right now (of course if you have Tinplate Goldfish, a Gadget and Double summon, just go for Shock Master), HERO has lost some consistency, Wind-Up has just become the deck to play Shock Master in.

Does this look scary?

Why do people make Shock Master? Because it's like a multi-purpose toolbox. Shock Master gives you the ability to counter your opponent's deck NO MATTER WHAT THEY PLAY. Because every deck has its weaknesses, the way Shock Master stops a type of card is quite deadly.

Giving your options to counter your opponent depending on what they play? Shock Master is like a side deck itself. And if you think that side-decking is unimportant and does not make any impact on the game, then yeah...

Shock Master, in general, is a huge control card, for both defensive or offensive purpose(s). If you can summon it, just put it in your extra deck without any hesitation. It's worth a slot in your extra deck, I guarantee.

That's for today, thanks for reading xD

YCS Toronto: Results and thoughts on the results

Wind-Up, piloted by Joshua Graham took the first YCS title of the format after defeating Jeff Jones's Psychic Grandsoil deck.

Apparently there were 5 Wind-Ups, 4 HERO, 2 Rabbit, 2 Geargia, 1 Dark World, 1 Psychic, 1 Burn deck that made it to the top 16.

As can be easily seen, Wind-Up has become the dominant deck right after the Forbidden/Limited list takes effect. Because it's still powerful or because it's the deck which got weakened the least? I don't know LOL.

From the featured matches which can be found on Konami Blog, Geargia is quite an explosive deck in any of its variants, from Geargia Karakuri to Geargia Machina. However, no HERO deck got a featured match, therefore we cannot see what kind of HEROes topped (original HERO Beat, Bubble Beat, or A Hero Lives OTK). Also, Dino Rabbit is still a competitive deck, and at least for now, there're spaces for rogue pick such as Psychic, Dark World and Burn (if I'm not wrong it's not a Chain Burn deck, it's a deck that is based on Magic Cylinder, Dimension Wall LOL)

Jeff Jones, despite losing his final match, will be remembered for taking Psychic, which never found any spots in the top cut, to the final. Psychic may or may not be the Chaos Dragon of September format (which became a tier 1 deck after Peter Gross's and Alex Reed's achievement), but it has many similarities to Chaos Dragon: Jeff did not run any real traps (Psychic Overload is the archtype's own Pot of Avarice), and his deck has the ability to explode and even OTK (look at the duel log of the final, Jeff's field had Naturia Beast, Naturia Barkion, 2 Grandsoils and a Card Trooper). But if you did not notice, he tuned Tragoedia and Psychic Commander for Naturia Beast.

What can get over that field? Shark Magician LOLOL.

Wind-Up is still very powerful as with those 2 cards in hand, you can break through almost any rough situations (provide you're not stopped by traps). It has anything you can ask for in a deck: consistency (3 Wind-Up Factories...), flexibility (OTK, control, hand destruction, or just poke with Rat/Rabbit LOL), speed (Shark Magician into whatever, 2 xyz monsters or more than 9000 damage) and will still be the deck to beat in TCG for some time (until more broken TCG exclusives are released)

Top 4 decklist:

1st: Joshua Graham - Wind-Ups

Monster [20]
3 Wind-Up Shark
2 Wind-Up Magician
3 Wind-Up Rat
3 Wind-Up Rabbit
2 Maxx C
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Snowman Eater
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan

Spell [11]
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Duality
3 Wind-Up Factory

Trap [11]
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison


2nd: Jeff Jones - Psychic Grandsoil

Monster [25]
3 Grandsoil, the Elemental Lord
3 Serene Psychic Witch
2 Tragoedia
2 Giant Rat
2 Psychic Commander
2 Psychic Jumper
2 Card Trooper
2 Maxx C
2 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2 Silent Psychic Wizard
1 Neo Spacian Grand Mole
1 Esper Girl

Spell [15]
3 Emergency Teleport
1 Creature Swap
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Duality
2 Miracle Synchro Fusion
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn

Trap [1]
1 Psychic Overload


3rd: Jordan Kornntoff - Geargia
Monster [15]
3 Geargiarmor
3 Geargiaccelerator
2 Geargiarsenal
3 Machina Gearframe
2 Machina Fortress
1 Machina Cannon
1 Machina Peacekeeper

Spell [10]
2 Pot of Duality
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Soul Taker
1 Forbidden Lance
1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Trap [15]
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Starlight Road
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Fiendish Chain
1 Dimensional Prison


4th: Peter Tran - Wind-Up
Monsters [19]
1 Effect Veiler
2 Maxx C
1 Sangan
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Gorz
3 Wind-Up Magician
3 Wind-Up Shark
3 Wind-Up Rabbit
3 Wind-Up Rat

Spell [12]
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mind Control
1 Book of Moon
1 Pot of Avarice
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Wind-Up Factory

Trap [9]
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Solemn Warning
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison