My general thoughts on the game right now + Gear-Gearano is broke

Hello members of the Yu-Gi-Oh! blogosphere. This will be the first of many more in-depth posts that I promised. Due to all my exams and other various shenanigans, I took a much needed one month break from the game to sort out my ever shrinking social life. But enough about my life.

The meta hasn't changed too drastically. Tengu has run totally rampant and has totally dominated the TCG metagame. I totally underestimated it and I overestimated Solemn Warning's capacity to deal with the threat. The fact that it takes so long to die and can also be used for synchros is ludicrous. It's almost better than the nightmare that once was Destiny Hero - Malicious.

What concerns me about Tengu is how tricky it is to counter. I'm not one to give up easily, so I did try delving the archives of all packs and did manage to pull up two cards which could potentially be a counter, but may have difficulty being used effectively.

The first of the two is the cousin of the well known Chain Disappearance. Whilst it does lose points for not killing the Tengu on the field, it does find a very interesting niche in rendering it completely useless. Tengu becomes nothing more than an adequately bulky vanilla. Better yet, it dampens Pot of Avarice's effectiveness, which is always a good thing.

For those of you who are regulars to this blog, you will know how much I love Gozen Match. Whilst it is totally restricted to mono-attribute decks, it does hurt Tengu a lot. It basically renders plants useless for as long as it remains on the field. The ruling on it says you can't synchro/tribute/xyz/fusion/ritual summon into different attributes, so the most plants will be doing is summoning a Stardust through a Tengu + Spore play. Watch out for Ryko though.

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During my browsing session, I found something I completely overlooked.

Gear-Gearano

Level 3 / EARTH

Machine / Effect

You can Tribute this card to select 1 Level 4 Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard. Special Summon that monster. That monster's effect(s) is negated.

ATK 500 DEF 1000

I can't believe I didn't see this sooner. Looks like Gadgets got a new toy to play with. The fact that it's also a Debris target is fantastic. When GENF comes out, it certainly seems like Xyz/Synchro Gadgets will be viable. It's also Machine Dupable, which could reinvent Troop Dupe Scoop. Alas, Gear only summons monsters who are exactly level 4. But nonetheless, it sound like it is workable.

I have to try a build with this. 6 Gadgets, Karakuri Watchdog Saizan, Trooper, Debris, it certainly sounds plausible. I'll work on it for the next few weeks and post feedback once I'm done and I check a few rulings.

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I was totally shocked to find that Infernity got second place at YCS Providence. Not so much that Infernity topped, I knew that would happen eventually, but more because of the deck he was using. It was just... ew.

Seriously, not only did he main Beetles, he also mained Tomato. As evident from his feature match, those two really hurt him. They clogged horrendously.

I'm not going to be naive though. Considering a lot of people in the top spots stack, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Many of my fellow Infernity players are inclined to agree. I still wish to credit him with topping, that is no easy feat. But I must say that his methods were unorthodox and a tiny bit uninformed.

The depressing thing was that one of his hands was FTK compatible, except the Beetle in his hand was clogging and he could do next to nothing. This, people, is why we don't main Beetle.

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I've noticed that diversity in the current metagame has skyrocketed (if you ignore TenguDerp.dek). With Cold Wave out of the picture, GKs losing popularity, and that menace that rhymes with Bevy Form finally out of the game, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has become a lot more enjoyable.

This is the first time in the history of the metagame that you can actually top with something unique sufficed to say it is well built, effective, and that you are a good player. Though admittedly, this owes itself to the splashability of the plant engine, but its better than nothing.

Solemn Warning is still a dominant force in the meta and I have reason to believe it will be after the banhammer sufficed to say it survives it. Those of you who are smart will stay off the BTH bandwagon and be prepared to counter it once the new priority ruling takes effect.

Like at the start of every format, Trap Stun will be powerful and Gladiators will be ferocious, so be prepared for those.

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I always take requests for post. I'm willing to analyze decks (they don't have to be your own), but be warned I do have a 'tough love' policy and will be blunt.

I'd just like to offer a very huge thanks to all of my followers. When I started out I had no idea that I'd get this far, I just want to say thanks to all those who've stuck by me even from day one and I really appreciate the support and the comments I get. :)

~Valafar123

Yay! =D

For those of you who were wandering, my recent inactivity is mostly due to me having a plethora of exams to plow through. Fortunately, I have now completed all of them, so I should be posting a lot more now. I hope to post at least twice a week and I'll try to keep the quality of my posts high.

I'm definitely getting an A for that answer up there. Yup.

This is just a short update rather than a post, so I'm sorry to disappoint those who were expecting something more substantial. ^^;;

~Valafar123

Gold Series 4: Complete Spoiler

With all of the Gold Rare cards confirmed for Gold Series 4, the only thing left to know about was the commons. However, GLD4 just hit French ebay, giving us the whole list. There are a Total of 50 cards: 32 commons and 18 Gold Rares. I will specify which of the cards are Gold Rares. Everything else is common.

Gold Rares (18/18)
Obelisk the Tormentor
Doomcaliber Knight
Gravekeeper's Spy
Tytannial, Princess of Camellias
Five-Headed Dragon
Royal Oppression
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
Chaos Sorcerer
Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
Morphing Jar
Toon Table of Contents
Trap Stun
Darklord Zerato
Summoner Monk
Spirit Reaper
Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
Pot of Avarice

Commons (32/32)
Millenium Shield
Goddess of Whim
Pendelum Machine
Toon Dark Magician Girl
Toon World
Meltiel, Sage of the Sky
Trade-In
Versago the Destroyer
Beastking of the Swamps
Goddess with the Third Eye
The Wicked Worm Beast
Deck Devastation Virus
Magic Formula
Sage's Stone
Soul Exchange
Eternal Draught
Sword of Dark Rites
Eradicating Aerosol
Graceful Dice
Recurring Nightmare
Robbin' Goblin
Mormolith
Prometheus, King of the Shadows
Orichalcos Shunoros
Genesis Dragon
Lich Lord, King of the Underworld
Diabolos, King of the Abyss
Radiant Jeral
White-Horned Dragon
Injection Fairy Lily
Xing Zhen Hu
Skull Dice


As you can see, the Commons are from a wide variety of sets, such as Video Game Promo's, Secret Rares from the GX era, old-school cards, and Shonen Jump promo cards.

With Deck Devastation Virus and Recurring nightmare in this set, I have this odd feeling that the TCG will not receive the Dark World structure deck, putting the new cards as OCG imports in future booster packs. This is because Deck Devi and Nightmare were originally common in the Dark World deck and are being reprinted in here.

I feel that most of these commons and some of the gold cards should not be in this set. Let me know what you think in the comments.

~Arceus

Just tested Metaion...

Temporal Machine God Metaion

Level 10 / FIRE

Fairy / Effect
This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. If youcontrol no monsters, you can Normal Summon this card without Tributing. This card cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects. You take no Battle Damage from battles involving this face-up Attack Position card. At the end of the Battle Phase in which this card battled, return all other monsters on the field to the hand(s), and inflict 300 damage to your opponent for each monster returned. During your Standby Phase, return this face-up card to the Deck.

ATK 0 DEF 0

I just tested this in Anti-Meta Gadgets. This thing does damage. It stops swarms dead in their tracks.

From my experience, I've noticed that Gadgets have trouble against decks that swarm a lot. Metaion not only solves that problem, but it has amazing synergy with the deck. The only thing that will stop it is a Solemn Warning or a Dimensional Prison. If the former is used, your Gadgets are safe and you can +1. The latter can be a problem, but decks like Six Samurais, Agents and Plants often don't run them. 

It's got a few tricks under its belt. Firstly, it will survive a GB War Chariot or Infernity Barrier, which is an astonishing advantage (yes, I did check the ruling). That means that even if its effect is fried, it will still give you an indestructible wall for a turn. You could even  CED or BoM it to have a second attempt at its effect.

What Metaion allows a player to do is to essentially change who went first. If your opponent summoned a few monsters turn 1, you can use Metaion to bounce them back. Then you can set your own back row and have Metaion to guard you for an additional turn.

The fact that Gadgets man 3 PoD and have a lot of deck thinning really helps to counteract Metaion's drawback, and at the same time Metaion helps deal with a lot of threats to the Gadget deck.

Metaion can be used in Agents too. You can use Valhalla to summon this, then Normal Summon Earth. Get your search and bounce Earth back to your hand with Metaion.

I highly recommend this card to anyone in the OCG who plays Gadgets or Agents. It really helps against the Samurai and Plant match ups, and a few other decks too.

Leave a comment with your thoughts.

~Valafar123

Lost Sanctuary's impact on the meta

It's been a while since I last made a post, so I thought I'd cover the new structure deck that is now available in the TCG.

For all of you who have been keeping an eye on the OCG, you will know that Hyperion Agents have been very successful since their release. Mid game Trishulas followed up by a themed Dark Armed Dragon and Vanity's Fiend on steroids makes for a powerful archetype.

However, call me a sceptic. but I don't think this archetype will do as well in the TCG. It's the Gravekeeper factor all over again. What I mean by that is the deck's reliance on money cards not included in the deck, namely Archlord Kristya, Pot of Duality, Trishula and Solemn Warning. In the OCG Kristya, Warning and Trishula are all available as commons in the structure deck, DREV and their gold series respectively. Additionally, PoD is a super rare in the OCG as opposed to secret rare. This means PoD is in greater supply and consequently costs less.

After a quick look on Troll & Toad, Archlord Kristya goes for $79.99 each, Pot of Duality goes for $133.99 each, Solemn Warning goes for $97.99 (in minimum rarity) and Trishula goes for $59.99.

So let's do some maths.

3x Structure deck = $30
2x Archlord Kristya = $160
3x Pot of Duality = $400
2x Solemn Warning = $200
1x Trishula = $60

Roughly adding up to $850.

It will cost a lot less to make in the UK & European meta, mainly because we don't overvalue stuff that drastically. That, or T&D like to rip people off.

As you can see, Agents are hardly the budget deck. One could try to run it without Kristyas or PoDs, but in all honesty they have no chance of winning anything without them.

If you have that sort of money, you're better off building GKs. They cost less and are more powerful on the whole. On that note, GKs existing in the TCG meta will really hurt Agents. Valley locking down the GY weakens the deck substantially, probably costing an Agent player game 1 at least. I'm sure one or two will top a YCS, but will probably only top with an experienced or non-budget player.

That was my opinion. As always, I want to here other people's opinions. Leave a comment with your thoughts.

~Valafar123

Side decking with Infernity

Hello again fellow members of the blogosphere. This is a topic I haven't touched on in the past, the Infernity side deck. As all of you should know by now, Infernity is very ill tempered and is very specific about what it does and doesn't like. The deck needs fluid consistency or it will struggle to make plays, especially in today's Infernity hating metagame.

The reason I didn't cover this topic is because I honestly had no idea how to side deck with Infernity. After a few months of trial and error and close observation of top decks and other successful, I finally settled on a side deck I was comfortable with.

Here's what I came up with:

Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

As history dictates, puppy power wins games. This has been appearing in Infernity side decks for a long time. It does two things: (1) it gets rid of an annoying card (2) it fills the Graveyard. This is probably one of the most effective ways to deal with popular Anti-DARK cards like Consecrated Light and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. It also gets rid of Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En and helps weaken the effectiveness of Necrovalley.

However, this card is not without its faults. Firstly, it eats your Normal Summon. For a lot of decks, this isn't a problem. However, Infernity requires handlessness to make make plays, and having an extra monster to summon can slow the whole process down. Additionally, whilst milling should theoretically be an advantage, it can also be a sever handicap. The deck will run a low monster count even after siding, so mostly spells and traps will be milled. This can be very problematic for Infernity, especially when cards like Infernity Launcher or Barrier are milled.

This card takes very careful usage. If anybody decides to use this side, be cautious about Ryko. There are three in the side, but that does not mean 3 should be sided in. Sometimes just 1 or 2 of them can do the job.

Thunder King Rai-Oh

I am very pleased with TKRO so far. I side this against X-Sabers and Plants. If you can protect this card for long enough in the Saber match up, you can slow them down enough to gain the upper hand. Against Plants, it's a 1900 body meaning that Tengu can be ran over. It also causes RotA and CotLB to be dead for a while.

The biggest benefit of TKRO is not its first effect, but its second effect. If sabers can't get Faultroll or Hyunlei off, they have very little they can do. If plants can't get their big synchros like Trishula off, they're at a disadvantage. TKRO also works well with CotH. Flipping CotH on TKRO when they need to synchro is a nice way to add insult to injury, provided they don't have Seven Tools of the Bandit.

TKRO also helps against some of the deck's other awkward match ups. GBs don't have anything mained that can run over it. Provided that you Barrier their Lances, you should be in good shape. War Chariot is a nuisance, but it can be dealt with fairly easily. Either kill the Glad or Barrier it. TKRO also slows down Machina decks should you encounter them, but like with GBs, it does take a little protection.

Puppet Plant

This is a side deck staple these days. It combats Heros, Sabers, Samurais and GKs rather effectively, hence why this card sees so much play.

Although this has to activate in the hand, it doesn't affect the consistency of the Infernity deck very much. It will be out of your hand very quickly since the above decks use a lot of Warriors or Spellcasters. I don't really have much to say about Puppet Plant since it's relatively self-explanatory.

Forbidden Chalice

Someone on Pojo recommended this card to me, and it has done its job very well. The play in the X-Saber deck that kills Infernity is Trap Stun/STotB + Hyunlei. I can't use Traps to stop that play since it will be negated. I can't use Monsters to stop that play because Infernity can't run cards like Veiler. What I can do is use Forbidden Chalice. It's a Spell, so it's almost impossible to negate. That means that Hyunlei becomes a 2700 ATK beater for a turn. It also negates Trishula, which is always a good thing.

This card also has rulings to make it stronger. Because it's an ATK/DEF modifier, it can be activated during the battle step; something that is unique to Chalice. That means it can negate a Ryko, a Pashuul, a Reaper or sometimes even a GK Spy. Those sorts of cards can really slow down the game for an Infernity player, so Chalice is excellent against them.

Chalice can also act as a pseudo Book of Boon by negating Consecrated Light or Thunder King Rai-Oh for a turn, just long enough to push for game. I highly recommend this card to every Infernity player out there.

Nobleman of Crossout

With flip effects so prolific, Nobleman of Crossout can do a lot of damage. It hurts GKs and Plants a lot. If you hit GK Spy, you pretty much win provided you can keep Valley out of the way. Against Plants, if you hit Ryko, you hit a major part of their engine. If you hit Glow-Up Bulb, Dandylion or Spore, your odds of winning are also increased substantially. It also deals with sided Penguin Soldiers, which is a very helpful thing. This is a good side card for just about any deck, so give it a try if you haven't done so already.

Dust Tornado

This card hasn't left my side deck since I started playing this game. Infernity has trouble with Necrovalley, Dimensional Fissure, Macro Cosmos, anything like that. Dust Tornado is a quick and easy solution to those cards. Dust Tornado also makes some low tier match ups easier. Dragunities lose to Dust Tornado, not that they're a threat to this deck. I've faced some pretty nasty rogue Malefic decks, so this helps put you into a winning position provided you can keep Eradicator Epidemic Virus out of effect.

This is probably the best anti-rogue card available in the game. If you play a deck with a lot of Graveyard interaction, you should be siding this card in twos.

Gozen Match

I saved the best until last. Gozen Match is amazing right now. If you run a mono-attribute deck, you should be siding this (or even maining it). This shuts down so many decks.

The ruling on it states that neither player can summon into different attributes. In other words, you can't Tribute Summon, Ritual Summon, Fusion Summon, Synchro Summon or Xyz summon into a different attribute. For example, you can't tribute a Treeborn Frog to summon Caius.

This card is very, very effective at what it does. Although MST and Trunade can deal with Gozen, a lot of decks recently stopped maining MST, so Gozen will probably win you games on its own. It wins the game against Monarchs, sufficed to say that you keep Battle Fader and Mobius under control. It hurts Plants a lot. The only synchro they can make is Librarian with Junk Synchron and Dopplewarrior. If you get the first turn on sams and you flip this in response to Kageki, you win. They will never be able to summon Shi En because they don't main any DARKs. This is also a fairly effective card against GBs. They will be unable to gain any real field advantage and Gyzarus will be impossible to summon under Gozen.

As you can see. Gozen match hurts a lot of decks. In a deck like Infernity, Gozen's power is amplified due to all of the negation in the deck. Barriering anything that threatens Gozen and making a field of powerful Synchros is a game winner. Just remember that you'll be affected too, so you wont be able to synchro into non-DARKs. Fortunately, most of the extra deck is DARK attribute.


That was my side deck. Hopefully you all enjoyed my post and found it informative, and hopefully this post was better than some of my recent ones. I'm happy to receive any feedback and I appreciate honest opinions. As always, I'm open to requests, so if you want me to make a post on something, just say.

~Valafar123

Armory Arm OTK is dead?

As many of you will know, there used to be an OTK with Armory Arm and Colossal Fighter. This was achieved by equipping Armory Arm to an opposing monster and then continuously ramming Colossal Fighter into the equipped monster until you dealt enough damage to win. For a long time, this OTK was exclusive to the TCG due to a ruling difference.

However, now Kevin has implemented a new ruling. The new ruling states that the monster needs to be in the Graveyard to calculate the damage, much like how Black Whirlwind requires the monster to be on the field. Technically speaking, the OTK is still possible, but it requires 2 Colossal Fighters in order to work. It is still impossible in the OCG as (correct me if I'm wrong) either Armory Arm or Colossal Fighter will miss the timing for their effect.

This new ruling renders the old Fish OTK useless. However, Fish OTK is considered obsolete due to the FTK counterpart courtesy of Bahamut and Michael Bonacini. Consequently, the meta has not been affected very much. Infernity isn't particularly bothered about the loss of the OTK, mainly due to the fact that Hundred-Eyes OTK is a lot more powerful and can be done with the same components. I do believe that plants could pull of this OTK, however, they win the game with general synchro spam so losing one extra deck combo won't hurt them.

Armory Arm will still see play mainly due to it being the only generic level 4 synchro. I can't say the same about Colossal Fighter. In the past it was a good Honest/Kalut counter as well as a counter to 2800 ATK monsters. Now however, its use may be limited. It's not particularly effective anymore, so it may see reduced usage on the whole.

On another note, I appreciate the honest feedback on my previous posts.

~Valafar123

About those new card wordings...

Actual card text for "Meklord Emperor Wisel"

Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must be Special Summoned by its own effect, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When a face-up monster you control is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon this card (from your hand). Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. Once per turn: You can target 1 Synchro Monster your opponent controls; equip that target to this card. This card gains ATK equal to those equipped monster's combined ATK. Once per turn, when an opponent's Spell Card is activated: You can negate the activation and destroy it.

Excuse me while I vomit.

Looks like Kevin isn't a fan of grammar. I wouldn't have minded the changes so much if they were grammatically correct...

A simple change makes reading the card more pleasant. My take:

Ideal card text for "Meklord Emperor Wisel"

This card cannot be Normal Summoner or Set. This card must be Special Summoned through its own effect, and cannot be Special Summoned through other means. When a face-up monster you control is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. Once per turn, you can target 1 face-up Synchro Monster your opponent controls. Equip the targeted card to this card. This card gains ATK equal to the sum of the monsters equipped to this card through this card's effect. Once per turn, you can negate the activation of a Spell Card and destroy it.

And of course, here was the original intended card effect:

Original card text for "Meklord Emperor Wisel"

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned, except by its own effect. When a face-upmonster you control is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack. Once perturn, you can select 1 Synchro Monster your opponent controls andequip that target to this card. This card gains ATK equal to those monsters' combined ATK. Once per turn, when an opponent's Spell Card is activated, you can negate the activation and destroy it.

I'm going to add a little poll to see which version people prefer.

~Valafar123

Evolkaiser Ragia: Retranslated

Evolkaiser Ragia
Rank 4/FIRE
Dragon/Xyz/Effect
2x Level 4 Dinosaur-Type monsters
Activate by detaching two of this card's Xyz Material Monsters. Negate the activation of a Spell or Trap card OR the Normal Summon or Special Summon of a monster and destroy it.
ATK 2400 DEF 2000


Shriek retranslated this when they got full info. I'll do an in-depth post about the archetype once there's more to talk about. Sorry about the mistranslation, I was going on what I had at the time.


~Valafar123

Evolkaiser Ragia is the nuts. 0.o

Photon Shockwave gives us this thing.

Evolkaiser Ragia
Rank 4/FIRE
Dinosaur/Xyz/Effect
2x Level 4 Dinosaur-Type monsters
Activate by detaching one of this card's Xyz Material Monsters. Negate the activation of a Spell or Trap card OR the Normal Summon or Special Summon of a monster and destroy it.
ATK 2400 DEF 2000

Well, it's Solemn Judgment with legs.

That's probably the most versatile way to summon it. Splash 2 or 3 Hydrogeddons into your deck and you have your very own Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En that also negates summons. Better yet, it isn't once per turn, so it can take on  different cards at the same time.

It has the same ruling as Steelswarm Roach and Thunder King Rai-Oh, so no negating Battle Fader or Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness.

This thing sits quite happily in a Jurrac deck. Guiba and Hydrogeddon make summoning this thing a breeze.

The scary thing is that Evolkaiser Ragia is part of an archetype. Competitive dinos for the first time ever methinks. The other cards haven't had their effects confirmed, they are called Evold Odokeris and Evoldar Urukandon.

I'm seeing this becoming meta. Tell me what you think.

~Valafar123