Snipe Hunter?

I was playing one of my internet buddies via Dueling Network and he was using an Ojamachinegun deck vs. my Shi En says "yo" deck. Naturally, I had a massive advantage over him and won 2-0, but his deck really got me thinking about our little friend Snipe Hunter. This thing used to be a real bad boy in its time, almost like a mini Tribe-Infecting Virus. It got limited for a long time and only left the ban list a while ago. If you're not familiar with this card, here are some stats.

Snipe Hunter

✪✪✪✪ DARK

Fiend / Effect

You can discard 1 card to select 1 card on the field and roll a six-sided die. If the result is not 1 or 6, destroy the selected card.

ATK 1500 DEF 600

Relatively straightforward, discard a card and have a 2 in 3 chance of destroying a card. Whilst gambling based cards are notorious for their inconsistencies, this guy has a few things going for him.

Firstly, this guy is supported by some pretty powerful rulings. Because the destruction is not guaranteed, cards that respond to destruction effects cannot be used in response to this card. That means Stardust Dragon and Shooting Star Dragon can't do anything against this guy. Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En just has to sit there and and have a chance of being destroyed whilst Magatama just sits there unable to respond.

Secondly, this card hits absolutely anything. It doesn't care what you discard and it doesn't care what you choose to destroy. That means if you have trouble with GKs, this card could really ease the match up. Necrovalley's life expectancy can become really short if the GK player fails to deal with Snipe Hunter quickly enough.

Thirdly, this card is amazing bait for Solemn Warning. Solemn Warning kills a monster before it has a chance to use its effect, so if this guy gets warning'd, your hand will remain in tact. This guy can have trouble if he runs into a BTH after targeting it, so just make sure you're careful about how you use it.

Some people may be deterred by the fact this card is luck based, however, it is a 2/3 chance (or 66.6% if you prefer), so the odds of this guy working are in your favor by a relatively good amount. Most of the time you'll be discarding dead cards, or better yet, cards you want in the graveyard like Spore and Glow-Up Bulb. This card is also DARK attribute, meaning it's food for Allure of Darkness, Chaos Sorcerer and Dark Armed Dragon.

His body is a bit paltry, however most decks don't run that many monsters with over 1500 ATK anyway. Tengu can cause this guy irritations in TCG Land, but to be fair there is no practical solution to that card bar Solemn. Grandmaster is also an irritation, but a lot of Samurai decks only run 1 copy, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

This card certainly has home in a few decks. Plants, Lightsworn, Zombies and possibly even Infernity could make really good use of this card. Anything that gets dead hands or needs to get anything out of its hand basically.

I think this little guy has a lot of potential. Tell me what you think.

~Valafar123

Thought for the day

Apparently I can banish an Elemental HERO Darkbright in my Graveyard to let my Hundred-Eyes Dragon inflict piercing damage after I target a Reborn Tengu for an attack, and then when it leaves the field it Special Summons another one.

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=2915

Double Facepalm: when one facepalm simply isn't enough.

Why Kevin, why must you make the game worse?

~Valafar123

Change in card text?

I was browsing the world wide interwebs and I stumbled upon this on the Konami TCG site. Kevin decided to write up the following article. If you don't know who Kevin Tewart is, he is the big boss of the TCG.

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=2906

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has too many rules.

Don’t get me wrong, the basic game rules are pretty simple. Everyone’s seen how they work from the TV series and the manga. The big problem is with rulings on specific cards. There are so many. So why is that, anyway?

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG is a game designed to be played by everyone. Whether you’re in elementary, junior high, or high school; college, grad school, or law school; working for a living, playing with your kids, or playing with your nieces, nephews, or grandchildren… the game is designed so anyone can pick up some cards and start to play.

Because of this, we’ve always avoided making the cards sound too “technical.” If we write the cards in geekspeak so you need a user manual to decipher them, that’s not much fun. It would feel less like a game, and more like you’re taking a test or visiting the DMV.

So as much as we can, we’ve always written cards the same way that plain folks talk. And for a long time, it worked fine. But as we approach 10 years and almost 5,000 different cards, we’ve run into a problem: Using plain folks’ language limits the number of ways you can write things. There are only so many ways to say “Joey ate an apple,” after all.

But we have a lot of different apples, and eating each one needs to be described a different way. We wind up using the same phrases to describe cards that work slightly differently, and there isn’t enough available language to spell everything out in detail without taking up the entire card box.

Problem-Solving Card Text

The year 2011 marks 10 years of Yu-Gi-Oh! on TV in North America. As part of our 10thAnniversary celebrations, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG will undergo its greatest text and rules retrofit ever. Starting in July 2011, all cards will be written with what we call Problem-Solving Card Text.

The new text took a while to work out, and we needed to wait until we had enough different kinds of cards and effects to look at as examples. The new text doesn’t just have to work for the cards we have now. It has to work for everything we make in the years ahead.

We had 3 main goals for the Problem-Solving Card Text:

1. The text needed to be precise.

2. The text still needed to be easy to read.

3. The text can’t sound like a textbook.

In other words, we needed a way to write cards in plain English, but at the same time inject so much exact science into the card that all the complicated rules could be fixed.

Not an easy task! But we finally managed to do it, and you’ll be seeing the results very soon.

Your Cards & You – The Future

So what does this mean for you?

Up until now, if you ran into a complicated card situation, this is what you had to do:

First: read the card.

Second: run to the web to find out how the card works and how to resolve the situation.

Third: assuming your specific situation was covered online, continue playing. Otherwise you need to write in and ask for an answer.

Doesn’t that seem kind of silly? Especially since the main point of the game is that each card tells you what it does.

From now on, here’s what you’ll do, instead:

First: read the card.

Second: apply logic and figure out the answer.

Third: continue playing.

Rules posted online will be limited to super-complicated and really weird situations. Imagine going down to a dozen pages of card rules, instead of a thousand. It could happen.

That still leaves the billions of cards we’ve already got in circulation, of course. For existing cards, as we reprint them in Decks, Turbo Packs, Duelist League, and other places, we will update their text to the Problem-Solving Card Text. Over time, rules questions about existing cards won’t just be answered. They will cease being questions in the first place.

What’s Next

In order to help everyone with this transition, we’ll be taking you through it one step at a time over the next few weeks. Every few days we’ll explain another part of how the Problem-Solving Card Text works. By the time the new cards start rolling out in July, you’ll be up-to-speed on how everything works!

I'm very interested to see what Kevin's got up his sleeve this time. Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

~Valafar123

Dark World ruling knowledge is good for your health!

Celery

I thought it would be a good idea to cover a card that has caused much confusion lately: Celri, Monk of Dark World.

Celri, Monk of Dark World

✪ DARK

Fiend / Effect

If this card is discarded by a card effect from the hand to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field in face-up Defense Position. When this card is Special Summoned by the effect of a "Dark World" card, your opponent selects 1 card in their hand and discards it.

ATK 100 DEF 300

1.) How to trigger Dark World effects

DWs are very specific about how it triggers its effect (and yes, its effect is a trigger effect). DWs do not get their effects when sent to the graveyard. Cards like Hand Destruction will never meet the conditions for any of the DWs -- ever.

DWs do not get their effects when discarded by a cost. DWs say quite specifically that it must be discarded by an effect, therefor cards like Raigeki Break will never trigger a DW's effect. Bare that in mind when you consider running Trade-In, you will not get Grapha's destruction effect.

DWs only ever get their effects when discarded by card effects. Card Destruction and Morphing Jar are fine because they discard by effect.

2.) Who discards for Celri

This causes a lot of confusion. Basically, the player who does not control Celri is the one who discards. If it is special summoned to your opponent's side of the field, you discard. If it is special summoned to your side of the field by something like Gateway to Dark World, your opponent discards.

3.) Celri is mandatory

You don't get a choice when using Celri. If its discarded it will special summon and it will activate its effect. There's nothing that can be done about it bar negation.

4.) SEGOC makes DWs powerful

If Card Destruction is activated and you discard 2 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World, after all links in the previous chain resolve, both Goldds start a new chain becoming CL1 and CL2. This means that only 1 can be hit by Solemn Warning or Royal Oppression, 1 will special summon successfully. Only the very last one in the chain link can ever be negated.

5.) Where do DWs activate

The effect of a DW monster activates in the Graveyard, not in the hand. Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror will shut down their effects.

6.) Bonus effects

The bonus effects do not start their own chains. They all happen as one chain. For example, if Goldd fails to revive itself, you don't get to destroy anything.

The bonus effects cause Bottomless Trap Hole and similar cards to miss the timing. If Goldd revives and then destroys a card, the timing is no longer correct and BTH cannot be activated.

7.) Inherent vs. Special Summon by effect

Grapha still needs its rulings confirmed, but the following rulings are correct.

Dark Worlds summon by effect. When they are discarded, after all previous chains resolve, they start their own chain. When each respective chain link resolves, the monster is summoned.

That means Thunder King Rai-Oh, Inverz Roach, Black Horn of Heaven and anything like that cannot stop the summon of a Dark World monster. Use this to your advantage.

8.) Which order

Say you activate Card Destruction. Both players have 1 Celri, 1 Goldd and 1 Sillva in hand. The link works like this.

(1) Your Celri.

(2) Your opponent's Celri.

(3) Either your Goldd or your Sillva, you get to choose.

(4) Either your Goldd or your Sillva, whichever is left.

(5) Your opponent's Goldd or Sillva, their choice.

(6) Your opponent's Goldd or Sillva, whichever is left.

Mandatory effects go first, so Celri must go first.

Turn player priority means that your discarded cards link first, then your opponent's. Therefor it starts with your Celri, then your opponent's Celri.

TPP then lets you choose which order you want to put Goldd or Sillva. Then your opponent gets to do the same.

Then the link resolves in reverse. After all the effects have been completed, the Celris will start a new chain becoming link 1 and link 2, both attempting to discard cards from the opposing player's hand.

It's a tad complicated, but you get used to it.

If you have any questions, leave them below.

~Valafar123

Dark World Brokeness

"Celri, Monk of Dark World"
Tag Force Artwork

Hello, members of the Yu-Gi-Oh! blogosphere. Sorry again that I haven't posted much lately, exams have been eating away at my free time at an ever increasing rate. However, I did manage to get enough time to try out the new Dark Worlds on Dueling Network. Wow.

Monsters [21]
[3] Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
[2] Celri, Monk of Dark World
[3] Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
[3] Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World
[1] Morphing Jar
[1] Sangan
[2] Scarr, Scout of Dark World
[3] Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
[3] Snow, Mage of Dark World

Spells [16]
[1] Allure of Darkness
[1] Card Destruction
[1] Dark Hole
[3] Dark World Dealings
[3] Dark World Lightning
[3] Gate of the Dark World
[1] Giant Trunade
[1] Monster Reborn
[2] Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps [3]
[3] Royal Decree

I am very impressed with this Archetype so far. It does its job very well. It can plow through a fully set back row in no time at all and Grapha just adds insult to injury.

For those of you who don't know, Dark Worlds are the original Fiend archetype. They are all DARK attribute and centre around discarding cards and gaining effects because of the discard. Many of them gain bonus effects when they are discarded by the opponent. One can consider them the prototype for Infernity, and in particular, MGS (or Fableds if you like the TCG name). They debuted way back when Elemental Energy was released back near the arrival of the GX era.

The archetype was good in its time and then faded into obscurity, much like X-Sabers in the TCG meta right now. Recently, Konami decided to give the deck a much deserved revival.

Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World
✪✪✪✪✪✪✪✪ DARK
Fiend / Effect
You can return 1 face-up "Dark World" monster you control to thehand, except "Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World", to Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. If this card is discardedfrom the hand to the Graveyard by a card effect, you can select 1 card your opponent controls and destroy it. If this card wasdiscarded by an opponent's card effect, look at 1 random card in your opponent's hand also. If that card is a Monster Card, you can Special Summon it to your side of the field.

ATK 2700 DEF 1800

Snow, Mage of Dark World

✪✪✪✪ DARK

Fiend / Effect

If this card is discarded by a card effect from the hand to the Graveyard, add 1 "Dark World" card from your Deck to your hand. If this card is discarded by an opponent's card effect, you can alsoselect 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard and Special Summon it to your side of the field in face-up Defense Position.

ATK 1700 DEF 0

Celri, Monk of Dark World

✪ DARK

Fiend / Effect

If this card is discarded by a card effect from the hand to theGraveyard, you can Special Summon this card to your opponent's side of the field in face-up Defense Position. When this card is Special Summoned by the effect of a "Dark World" card, your opponent selects 1 card in their hand and discards it.*

ATK 100 DEF 300

*Your opponent will be the one who controls Celri, therefor you are the one who will discard. This is considered a card effect controlled by your opponent, therefor it triggers the bonus effects of all the Dark World monsters.

Gate of the Dark World

Spell / Field

Face-up Fiend-Type monsters gain 300 ATK and DEF. Once per turn, you can remove from play 1 Fiend-Type monster from yourGraveyard to discard 1 Fiend-Type monster, then draw 1 card.

Strategy of the Dark

Trap / Normal

Each player selects 2 cards in their hand and discards them, then draws 2 cards. Your opponent can negate this effect by discarding1 card from their hand.

Wow Konami, I didn't know you'd give them this sort of support. Don't forget, they already have a lot of themed draw cards. My build is currently maining a grand total of 12 draw cards. Basically, Konami gave the archetype an immortal boss monster, 2 new draw cards, an Infernity Archfiend and something that unlocks the archetype's bonus effects.

This will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in both the TCG and OCG. Exceeds only make this deck stronger. It can pump out Tyrus and Levaiel very easily. It also tells Gravekeeper's to get lost. Royal Tribute is totally useless against the deck.

Tell me what you think.

~Valafar123

Dueling Network

A new site came up that allows for people to play online free of charge and without downloads. It's pretty good.

http://www.duelingnetwork.com/

Here are some screenshots.

The main menu that gives you all of your options.

The all important deck creator. It has all cards from the OCG and TCG up to EXVC.

Two people having a match.

It's a pretty good site, give it a try. Just watch out for GKs and Sams.

~Valafar123

Gold Series 4: Arceus's Predictions

If you are not aware, the first six Gold Series 4 Gold Rares were announced to be Doomcaliber Knight, Gravekeeper's Spy, Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, Royal Oppression, Five-Headed Dragon, and Obelisk the Tormentor. This leaves up with twelve remaining gold rares. Here are my predictions on what to expect.

1. Ehren, Lightsworn Monk

For some odd reason, I have a feeling that Konami will try to promote Lightsworns in Gold Series 4. If this is true, expect to see some common LS in here. Also, Ehren is overdue for a reprint.

2. Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo

Just like Ehren, Fossil Dyna is long overdue for a reprint. It has been seeing quite a bit of play in many side decks at regional/YCS events. Gold Series 4 seems like a good place for it, and if not in here expect to see it as a Super Rare promo in a Special Edition.

3. Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

Ryko has been used as a mill engine in many decks the past formats, such Plants, Zombies, and Scraps. Also, this goes back to my thought of Lightsworns being in GLD4.

4. Elemental Hero Absolute Zero

As of now, Absolute Zero is an illegal card in Europe due to it being released in the GX manga. This gives Europeans a chance to play a long desired card. Also, with the increase of Miracle Gemini decks, AZ would seem like a good choice.

5. Chain Disappearance

This card has only been released as a rare in one of the original Yu-Gi-Oh sets. It has reached an extreme price of 10$, and is only a rare. Also, Chain Disa has been one of the most played cards in the side deck for this format.

6. Spirit Reaper

Spirit Reaper recently went to 2 on the March 2011 banlist. It's a good card for stalling against swarming decks, a Debris Dragon target, and serves as fodder for Monarchs.

7. Beast King Barbaros

Just like Absolute Zero, Barbaros is illegal in Europe due to it being released in the Shonen Jump. With Skill Drain going to 3, Skill Drain decks will have an easier time finding Barbaros.

8. Dimensional Prison

This one I'm not sure on. D Prison went up in price quite a bit, and was only released as a Super in a video game and as a common in a structure deck.

9. Foolish Burial

Foolish is a very versitle card that has been used in many decks, such as Plants, Lightsworns, and any other decks that involve milling. This gives players that can't afford Super Rare Foolish to be able to play a holo version of the card.

10. Trap Stun

Trap Stun has never been made into a holo. It's one of those staples people want holo so they could bling out their decks.

11. Black Rose Dragon

Despite its popularity, this card is hard to come by. It's only reprint was the collector tins from 2008, making this card due for reprint.

12. Meklord Emperor Wisel

This may seem like an odd choice, but I think Wisel will be in GLD4. I doubt it will be released in the Shonen Jump magazine or as an OCG import in a future pack. With all of the Meklord support released, I'm thinking Konami will want to get this card out there before the next set is released.

That's all for my Gold Series 4 predictions. Expect a DotM to be posted in the coming days.

~Arceus

Still Undefeated

As most of you know, I have been using a replica Tele-DAD deck for the past week and I am still undefeated with it. It really is a phenomenal deck and deserves the fear and respect it has.

Here's my deck list. I'll go into detail about it in another post.

Monsters [17]
[2] Dark Armed Dragon
[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
[1] Vanity's Fiend
[3] Destiny Hero - Malicious
[1] Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
[1] Destiny Hero - Doom Lord
[1] Breaker the Magical Warrior
[1] Elemental Hero Stratos
[1] Dark Grepher
[3] Krebons
[1] Plaguespreader Zombie
[1] Mind Master

Spells [17]
[3] Reinforcement of the Army
[3] Destiny Draw
[3] Allure of Darkness
[3] Emergency Teleport
[1] Heavy Storm
[1] Mystical Space Typhoon
[1] Giant Trunade
[1] Monster Reborn
[1] Brain Control

Traps [6]
[3] Solemn Judgment
[1] Crush Card Virus
[1] Mind Crush
[1] Trap Dustshoot

Extra Deck [15]
[3] Stardust Dragon
[2] Red Dragon Archfiend
[2] Thought Ruler Archfiend
[2] Colossal Fighter
[2] Black Rose Dragon
[3] Goyo Guardian
[1] Magical Android

~Valafar123

What I've been up to

"Dark Armed Dragon"

Hello members of the Yu-Gi-Oh! blogosphere. Please accept my most humble apologies for my recent absence. As I'm sure most of you know, sometimes life intervenes against children's trading card games.

In what little free time I have had, I decided to be unnecessarily cruel by building Tele-DAD. I don't mean a modern version, I mean THE Tele-DAD. I decided to restrict myself to cards that were available during September 08 format just to give my opponents some kind of fighting chance.

Needless to say, I have yet to lose a match. The sheer ferocity of the deck is stunning. I have never seen a deck ignore a Torrential Tribute and still do almost enough damage for game, it's very brutal. I was very careful to make observations on the deck as I was mercilessly beating my opponent into a pulp.

This is where a little bit of controversy comes in. A heavily debated card (on Pojo at least) is Heavy Storm. A lot of people want it back. I myself have always been anti-Storm, mainly due to my bias towards control deck I will admit. However, when I saw Tele-DAD in action, my anti-Storm position was taken to a whole new level. I'm not exaggerating when I say 100% of my game wins are a consequence of Heavy's existence, even if I don't draw it.

A lot of my local meta consists of players who weren't present during Tele-DAD format, hence why my exercise was necessary to change people's views. All of my victims so far have become anti-Storm supporters. Taking into consideration how pro-Storm some of these people were, I call it a job well done on my behalf.

When you are so terrified to set more than 1 Spell or Trap in fear of one card, you lack the ability to form an adequate defense against such decks. As I said before, one set Torrential will not help you against these kinds of decks. Even more disgustingly, cards like Mystical Space Typhoon become Harpie's Feather Duster very quickly.

If you lack the capacity to stop such an aggressive deck, which was sadly the case in the Storm formats, you will lose. This eradicates any sort of defensive decks, which clearly isn't good for sales or the health of the game.

With exceeds on the horizon, I have become very concerned about the back row. Let's hope that Konami sticks with their new found logic and keeps Heavy Storm banned. I don't think anybody wants a repeat of Tele-DAD format.

~Valafar123

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Support anti-Storm if you hate Tele-DAD!

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