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

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

Dragunity 4Dragons

Monster [26]
3 Blaster
3 Tidal
3 Redox
3 Tempest
3 Dragunity Phalanx
3 Dragunity Dux
2 Dragunity Arma Mystletainn
1 REDMD
1 Blackwing, Zephyros the Elite
1 Garuda the Wind Spirit
1 Flamvell Guard
2 Maxx "C"

Spell [14]
3 Sacred Swords of the Seven Stars
3 Cards of Consonance
3 Dragon Ravine
2 Terraforming
3 Mystical Space Typhoon

Trap [1]

1 Return from DD

Extra [15]

2 Dragunity Knight Vajrayana
1 Dragunity Knight Gar Dearg
1 Crimson Blader
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Queen Dragun Djinn
2 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum
1 Photon Strike Bounzer
1 Gaia Dragon, Thunder Charger
1 Dracossack
1 No11: Big Eye
1 No74: Master of Blades


I started building this like... 1 week after the OCG ban list was announced, so don't ask why this isn't identical to Patrick Hoban's build. In my opinion Hoban's (and Dale Bellido's) deck is REALLY bad. It lacks the true power of 4Dragons (3Dragons < 4Dragons no matter what), while also lacks the true power of Dragunity (1 Mystletainn? No Zephyros or Garuda? What the fucking duck? This is not March 2011 when SDLS was just released and the game went as Dux -> Vajrayana -> Stardust all day long)

I usually end my first turn with Atum, REDMD, Queen Dragun Djinn and 2 level 7 Dragons (xyz for Master of Blades or Big Eye, depends on the opponent's deck)

The set up of Gae Dearg + a level 6 dragon is so good. I mean the best thing that can happen to a YGO deck. If you want it to taste more delicious, make room for Mist Valley Baby Roc, Arma Leyvaten, Trident Dragion and (optionally) Gustaph Max

It goes like... Dux, Mystletainn, Phalanx -> Gae Dearg (search + discard Zephyros). Go for Atum, REDMD, get back Dearg, search Garuda and discard a dragon. Use Zephyros, use Garuda, make Queen Dragun Djinn, banish the first Atum for REDMD

Now you can go for the second Atum, or Bounzer, or if you have colors (and you usually do), you can go for some level 7 things

Some reasoning:

Gold Sarcophagus: I don't like unsearchable 1-of

Leyvaten, Baby Roc, 3rd Mystletainn: Space :<

Flamvell Guard: When you need to pop with Blaster, or have Blaster + Tidal + Redox + Cards of
Consonance without Phalanx, and, most frequently happens, when you run out of Dux/Vajrayana but you need your level 8 synchro

Garuda: Queen Dragun Djinn with Zephryos

Zephyros: Bouncing back REDMD = OP

Master of Blades: When you do not have enough spaces for 2 Dracossack tokens (which actually happens a lot)

No traps: People like Vanity's Emptiness but I prefer Maxx "C" because it's harder to stop and it has synergy with Redox

Tehys OTK?

Even though the idea is purely stolen from a friend of mine, this project is so incredible that I can't help posting it here

Just a way to share the idea with the whole YGO community, right?

/feels ashamed

So the idea here is:

1. Summon Tehys, Goddess of Light
2. Draw
3. OTK

A little more detailed:

September format

YCS Toronto just ended and Dragon Rulers, piloted by an Asian, took the champion

Honestly I am not surprised with this at all. Going deeper into the format with more and more testing people will soon realize how easily Dragon Rulers can be beat (Soul Drain rules them all). But this is just the start of the format, and it takes time to define a real top tier deck

The champion's decklist isn't even the "Dragon Ruler Plant" thing that has been floating around for quite some time. It's just Dragon Rulers, with some synchro elements like Debris Dragon/Card Trooper and Dragunity Corsesca. To be honest this is quite similar to my build when I first heard about the OCG ban list (my build was more about summoning Trishula but fuck it lol), aside from Card of Consonances

And, to be honest (again), I really think that Dragon Ruler Dragunity thing is a real joke. You can look at how Patrick Hoban played in the semi-final: It's not about Dragunity after all, and all those Duxes and Mysteletainns just make things worse. Dragunity is a good deck, Dragon Ruler is a good deck, Tempest is a good card and Tempest in Dragunity is broken. That's all. If you want to make more use of Dragon Ravine, play Eclipse Wyvern/LADD instead

Blackwing in top 4 is quite a surprise, but it's still reasonable because that kind of deck with heavy traps and a little aggression never wins but will top a lot. There was also Psychic Madolche in the top 32 (go on Youtube for decklist, I'm lazy now) and in my opinion that mix is another joke. Madolche is good, Psychic is good, but combining them into a deck sucks. I've tried myself, and I realize there're better cards that fuel the graveyard for Hootcake than Serene Psychic Witches

However the things that caught my eye the most was Sorosh Saberian's Mermail and Evan Daniel Waxman's Transmodify Herald Agent. Sorosh has been my favourite player for quite a while (the first time I really netdecked was "building" a Fabled Ragin turbo deck just like his) and Mermail has been my favourite deck for a shorter while. The interaction between Abyssocea, Mechquipped Angineer and Bahamut Shark is quite interesting and I've promised myself to spend some time working on it

That Herald Agent with Transmodify concept isn't new (Robert Boyajian showed us on CoreTCG blog weeks ago), but seeing such control deck in the top is really interesting. Advanced Ritual Art finally made it to the YCS tops

That's just some little talk about what I've seen after YCS Toronto. After some more testing I'll bring you a little more information about how I think the format will proceed. Until next time :D

Deck that will rape you next TCG format

Check my blog roll for more information

Karakuri
Hieratic
Machina Gadget
Blackwing
Infernity
Dark World
Agent

And the list goes on

And this is for K'yde, LGQ and anyone who loves Hieratic: How will you build the deck next format?

The awesomeness of Deep Sea Diva

Let's say we run 3 Deep Sea Diva, 1 Atlantean Marksman and 1 Atlantean Dragoons in our deck

Summon Diva equals:

*Herald of Pure Light:  Recycle basically everything you want to recycle with minimal cost. Getting back BLS/Dark Armed Dragon/Master Hyperion/... while returning a useless card to your deck? Too good

*Trishula: Marksman attacks calling out Dragoons, make Trishula. 1 card Trishula without required setup? Too awesome

*Daigusto Phoenix: 3000 damage

*Gachi Gachi: Classic wall

*Armor Kappa (in case you run Heavy Infantry): Clear 1 face-up card, even Dimensional Fissure, while gaining 1000 ATK permanently

*Catastor: Classic crusher

I'm wondering why Konami decided to release Trishula but not hit Deep Sea Diva. Because they think people would still main deck Imperial Iron Walls? So retarded