Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Techs for Dragons

So, in a period when everyone's playing the same deck with some variations, tech cards make your deck different, win you games, and give you spaces for side decking

For Dragons, the core engine has always been

12 Dragons
1 Dragunity Corsesca
1 Flamvell Guard
3 Swords
2 Ravine
1 Return
1 Sixth Sense

Addtional (optional)

2 Card Trooper
2 Derbis Dragon
1 Trigon/Poki Draco

Those are... 26 must-have cards. One may have variations (Dragunities, Blue-Eyes, non-Trooper,...) but the standard thing is like this

So we have around 14 cards for modification. Staples are:

3 Maxx "C"
3 MST
2 Vanity's Emptiness
2 Raigeki Break/Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

Now there're 4 slots left. I've got some good tech (tested) here

1. Dragoncarnation

So you banish Tempest to search Debris Dragon. Next turn you need Tempest. Realistically Dragon Ravine isn't a reliable tool for feeding Dragons in mid game due to MSTs, so...

Dragoncarnation recycles everything you have used, without wasting a Dragon in your deck

It's chainable, no fear of MST

It sets up double Tempest or double Tidal plays in early games, double Blaster and double Redox late game (just banish to search for another copy then set Dragoncarnation)

It gives you your 3rd Debris Dragon

Sometimes it recycles power card  like Black Rose Dragon

Enough?

2. Castle of Dragon Souls

700 ATK boost - game breaking in mirror matches. Blader + Castle = fuckeverything, Scrap Dragon + Castle (with REDMD banished, ideally) = more than GG, Black Rose Dragon + Castle = a lot of pressure for decks that actually fear Black Rose Dragon

3. Dragunity Darkspear

Trident Dragion, instant 9000 damage, just like a search-able Return. Yeah?

4. Karma Cut

In Dragon mirror match, around late game, this card actually says: Fuck colors

Just like... you have 1 Blaster, summon it, it goes away and never comes back

5. Waboku

Protect Card Trooper, which is the best card. Your argument is not valid at this point

Yeah that's it. Dragon is surely the best deck, and choosing techs is another art of YGO during this period of the format.

Hope you get the luck that I never had =3

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Sometimes things are just so simple

Months and months and months of testing every possible variants of Dragon Ruler (Debris/Dandy, Plant, Dragunity driven, Dragunity added, Blue-Eyes, pure beatdown shit,...) and watching people doing their tournaments with different nice techs, I finally come to a conclusion of...

...

..

.

People keep making things much more complicated that it really is

Like, having 2 colors = no chance of OTK?

Let's say you only have access to Tempest and Blaster because you banished Redox for Swords. You summon Blaster, then Tempest, then run out of monster. You are afraid of being Blader'd next turn

Why not just add a DDR into the mix? In many scenarios DDR acts simply like another 2800 beater. If you banish REDMD for a Dragon then call it back with DDR things are even more sweet. In this case you can just summon Blaster by banishing REDMD, DDR it back, then use REDMD to summon Tidal or Tempest. This makes a lot of difference if you banish one of those 2 for Swords earlier in the turn

Another problem, Card Trooper

It's a real common knowledge that Card Trooper is a really important card in Dragon Rulers. He mills Dragons, replaces himself after dying, and himself being a target for Debris Dragon

But people are cutting Card Trooper because they don't want their best monster being Blader'd

So, instead of cutting your best card, why not just protect it? You can always play Mirror Force, or even Threatening Roar or Waboku. Using Card Trooper for 2 straight turns often result in a victory, and people don't like it for some reasons

One more thing, Swift Scarecrow

So, again, everyone knows that being stopped by Scarecrow is no good feeling, at all. Being Scarecrow'd = loss in momentum, being open to Blader, and more...

So they use RAIGEKI BREAK on THEIR OWN MONSTER to play around Swift Scarecrow (this comes from a random tourney report on DGZ)

I was like, what the fuck? Why not just Divine Wrath? The same discard cost, the far better outcome

And people still haven't realize that the pure Dragunity build is far more consistent than the homo Dragunity with 2 Phalanx and 8 Dragon Rulers (2 Redox, apparently, what the fuck)

To conclude, I think finding the best way to work with your current cards is a good things to improve your result, but you should also dig for "rogue" solutions for your common problems out there. Just like Merlin Schumacher, who piloted a quite weird Dragon Ruler build to win the whole YCS. Castle of Dragon Souls is busted because it works with the 3500-ATK Scrap Dragon like a real boss, and also helps your Crimson Blader run over Redox or even Star Eater

Just like that

Until next time buddies =3