Banlist reaction

Sorry for the lack of post, but this is my final year, so I just can't afford to write on the blog once a week like before

And, to be honest, I wasn't active in this game for the last format. The whole 4 months I was just toying around with Dragons (Dragunity with Tefnuit + Primus Pilus, Hieratic, Blue-Eyes Drain Ruler with Silver's Cry etc...). No competitive play for me

Now that we have our new ban list confirmed, I'm not sure whether I should get back to this game seriously again, or just remain inactive waiting for something new (pendulum summon anyone?)

The reason is... Basically nothing has changed

For Mermail: Seriously, why hit Gunde? We still have 3 Sphere, 3 Linde, 3 Spike and 3 Teus. And then there's Turge, and even Salvage. So that's 7 cards in the deck which means "you have Gunde", and another six cards that recycle Gunde, and ANOTHER six cards that search for all the above cards. Even though I've been in love with Mermail for so long, I actually wished that Sphere or Teus be hit. Now what?

For Fire Fist: Yeah, for the CardcarD Fire Fist deck that gets popular recently, hitting Wolfbark is quite a pain. But then there's still the mixed Fire Fist, and it isn't hard at all to fit 2 Call of the Haunted in space of the 2 Wolfbarks

Did I mention that I play 3 Call of the Haunted in every deck I play? That card, along with Mind Crush, was so good last format

For Infernity, yeah, seriously, if you think hitting Barriers hurt the deck, you probably never played against the deck. Instead of facing 1 Break 3 Barriers, 3 Breaks and 1 Barriers sound different? No, not at all, except for Mermail maybe. Also, Infernity has a lot more tricks: Beetle + Zone lockdown is annoying enough, not to mention Vanity's Emptiness. And the Beetle version is going to get Beezle soon (that Dragon that cannot be destroyed by any means)

Lastly, I think only Fire King and Laval died because of the list

Aaaand yeah, about the Jars. Serious... I don't even know why. Killing Empty Jar? Hitting Dark World? Or what?

Also, we all want Stratos back, and Geargiagear hit somehow

To conclude, nothing has changed, so don't expect much from my blog, at least until June. Sorry guys :<

Hieratic Ruler - The new Dragunity Ruler

Because everyone's talking about DSummon winning YCS Sydney, I'll just leave me congratulations here, and get to the other notable event of the weekend: the ARG Circuit Nashville

You can check the results by taking a look at ARG Coverage Site

Just need to know that Fire Fist defeated Prophecy in the final (just as any predictions) but the 2 other semi-finalists were all playing Hieratic Ruler, whose decklists can be found here

Also, the famous CoreTCG writer Robert Bojyajan? topped YCS Sydney with the same strategy too

However I don't think this is the optimal build for Hieratic. They're fast enough to create OTK out of nowhere, especially after the addition of Labradorite Dragon/Star Eater

What they need is the faster and more stable combo setup, like Hanzo, Reckless Greed, Card Car D,... Not more power cards like the 4 Dragons

And the 4 Dragons weren't that powerful at all. Just one Blaster in your deck is enough to create OTK with the classic 3-card Hieratic combo, but with a synchro level 8 like Scrap Dragon/Crimson Blader instead of Gaia/M7/REDMD like before

Just like how Dragunity was far better than Dragunity Rulers, imo this trend will just decrease as soon as people playtest more

Hieratic is really good right now, and one Blaster just makes it better (free Grapha!). The 3 other Dragons and those Shrines, Skill Drains just make the deck worse

I'm pretty sure about that

D:

Too long never update - The new TCG Mermails

The inspiration for this deck came from, uhm Jason Grabner Meyer, with his passion for Masked Chameleon

A week ago I realized the synergy between Chameleon and Atlanteans Dragoons. I mean, instant level 8 synchros are never bad at all, right? (If they were, Dragunity - my farorite deck - wouldn't be dead like this)

And then I looked at the spoilers of LVAL, and I see Number 101 in it

That's a good card right? One card out to Ophion when you make it with Chameleon

DN was down at that time, so I downloaded YGOPro, tested a bit

No sooner than this did I realize that Numer 101 is WATER, which triggers Dragoons

Too good right?

Now the first turn is always about setting up with Atlantean Dragoons. Even though we only have 1 Dragoons, having it in graveyard is something that happens every game thanks to the Sphere-Linde-Pike-Undine search chain

I remember reading an article of Simon He, in which he stated that Mermail is very fast but they run out of resource after the Megalo/Moulinglacia drop

This was right until Tidal came into play, and Masked Chameleon just improves the mid-game miraculously. Ark Knight is your best option, followed by the synchro ones, and Exciton Knight is basically a better Black Rose

I play Genex Undine because, yeah, it gets me to Dragoons and Tidal. I considered Hanzo too, and maybe I'll switch between the 2 engines to test out? However I suppose Undine is superior thanks to the synergy with Megalo/Teus (being WATER) and Salvage, and especially Divine Wrath

Divine Wrath is insane right now. It's one of those only traps that's good against Spellbooks, while being never bad against anything else (beside Malefic Drain maybe?) Salvages and Undines give me the hand advantage needed for Wrath, and Armor Kappa...

Which is also a very good card that can be summoned through Bahamut Shark. The Waboku effect, seemingly sub-par as it seems, is actually pretty good in many situations when you need to defend or when you have spare Gundes/Atlanteans in hand. It simply doesn't die, and it evens help Tidal run over Dracossack lol

The modern (but classic) triple Aqua Spirit is there because, yeah, Bahamut + Angineer = insane combination

Meanwhile, the double Calls are just for Dragoons. Pike searches, then Call Dragoons for xyz is cool. Calling Megalo to push is ok too, and chaining it to MST (on Linde) is of course never bad. Call also makes Genex Controller a better card, and, most importantly, Call + Sphere = commanding position, while double Sphere is awkward

I'm not too sure about the side deck. Probably will mostly be s/t hate. Xing Zhen Hu maybe? Being set on the field is the only place that your opponent cannot recycle Spellbook of Fate lol

Also, I think I need Black Rose Dragon (Chameleon + Marksman or Controller + Pike/Turge/Dragoons) but I can't find space. Aaand, against fields that Gungnir cannot deal with, Black Rose isn't usually a better choice anyway

So, that's for today xD See you next time