The Format of Control/The Backrow

After the most recent banlist, it is not surprising to see that a lot of common anti-meta builds and control decks bite the dust, mostly due to Heavy Storm greatly restricting their ability to, y'know, control the game. Indeed; the new banlist is the bane of the control deck as we knew it.

And yet, looking at the deck types floating around on the Internet makes me think: while we lost control decks, our decks are now all bending towards control. Or, rather, the metagame is becoming more control-orientated, while control decks as a concept are waning a little. Or, rather, all of our decks are attaining control elements, because they have to compete with the other decks which control perfectly well. Adapt or die.

In my last post, I brought up Tour Guide From the Underworld, and it's friend Effect Veiler. How often do you see these two (and Sangan) maindecked in many builds? And Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush, run together in pairs. Talks of main-decked Thunder King Rai-Oh once more. (By the by, I've changed the colour of the Trap cards here: for better or for worse, d'you think?)

Is the meaning of this not clear? The metagame is moving into the direction of controlling the opponent's cards and setting up; whoever draws Effect Veiler first to stop the opponent's Tour Guide play has a noticeable advantage in this department. This isn't counting specific decks; my very own Agents retain their love for Archlord Kristya, especially now that monsters are "in", thanks to Heavy Storm, for example. And there's numerous others. But Effect Veiler will be hot stuff in the coming format; despite the heavier Spell/Trap hate nowadays, expect some players (especially Scraps) to be maindecking Fiendish Chains as well.

To summarise: from pre-format observations, it looks as though control  is now in; but not as a deck type, but as a way of thinking that permeates each and every competitive deck in the upcoming format. Never have I been more glad to have been shown wrong in thinking that this would be a format of OTKs; if the metagame continues to develop like this, it could be a very fun game in future.

Also: rogue thoughts on spells and traps. Considering the downturn in Trap usage, it may be advisable to drop down to two or even one MST, and using just your deck's non-generic spell/trap destruction, if it has any (and you run it anyway). I've seen a few people cut Heavy Storm entirely because, in their words, the lack of extensive backrow means that it's not as useful as it could be. I like the line of thinking, but I'd rather cut the Mystical Space Typhoons first, since they break even at best.

I've seen rumours of people going for Nobleman of Extermination instead of Mystical Space Typhoon, which I'm not so hot on; while Extermination is a great troll against Solemn Warnings, since they can't react to it, it isn't so good in this format, since the return of Heavy Storm results in much greater amounts of chainable trap cards. I've also seen people running the "anti-MST" brigade, which consists of Legacy of Yata-Garasu/Jar of Greed, which are both cards which generate pluses if targeted by Mystical Space Typhoon, Dust Tornado or Heavy Storm. Of the two, I'd recommend running Legacy, if either: there are a few decks which run Spirit monsters, even if only one jumps to mind (and even then, it's a rare tech).

But that's besides the point. The fact is that the level of S/T hate in the format is slightly overhyped; this is why Fiendish Chain may welll remain a useful card in September 11. Why, yes, people can run Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Dust Tornado, Breaker the Magical Warrior and whatever bit of archetypal destruction that suits their tastes (whether it be Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World or Master Hyperion, or what-have-you) but there are only two words to summarise why this is a bad idea: dead draw. (Except for the archetypal stuff, because they generally have other uses besides hatin' on the backrow.)

Running too much S/T hate when there are not enough spells and traps in people's decks hurts the consistency of your deck. Therefore, the amount of S/T hate drops; this will lead to an increase in the S/T used in people's decks. There may well be a happy balance found here; but I think the metagame will now largely depend on how well people deal with the new list. We're out of the woods of "set five S/T, end", and we're now in the game of weighing up the opponent's two traps; "is one a Starlight Road, or is that just what he/she wants me to think?"

Even if they're running the four spells (3x MST, 1x Storm) that everyone crows about, that's a tenth of their deck. You are not always going to draw into it; you should be more cautious because such things exist, but not especially so.

Either way, I'm pretty sure Chaining a Lyla and forcing your opponent to MST it is always funny.

Agents from the Underworld

For those of you who recognise my name (all zero of you!), I was someone who wrote for this blog back at the start of the last format, then schoolwork and computer breakings hit. But you probably didn't sign up to read this, so I'll talk about something relevant to your interests.

After being forcibly ejected from regular research on the format, I come back to what I can only call banal madness or laughable stupidity. Given that this is the Internet, it's likely mostly the latter, with a few spoonfuls of the former. As I've remarked before, the September 2011 format is amusing; it certainly mixes the game up, but it doesn't turn it into a melting pot so much as it does a lumpy gruel. I'll go over a few points that I'm sure that you're all familiar with by now, since

Let us take a card we are all very familiar with: Tour Guide From the Underworld. Combined with the old hat Fiend, Sangan, we have the "Sanguide engine", which is a group of four cards which increases the consistency of most decks that it's splashed in. Combined with two/three Effect Veilers, you have a rather splashable method of summoning Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning; or so the theory goes.

I don't even want to talk about the other things which I believe some refer to as "broken"; Reborn Tengu is the top of my "I am making faces at this card" list. But hey, don't hate; abuse.

But let's go back to Tour Guide, because it's relevant to my current pet archetype; the Agents. Tour Guide is great in Agents, if you can afford it; it increases the consistency of the deck by a great deal, since Tour Guide turns itself into Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, or Leviair the Sea Dragon, as we all know, no doubt. Below, you can find my current "Tour Guide Agents" build. The below post will presume that you have some basic familiarity with the Agents and their playstyle. If you'd like an Agents 101, leave a comment below and I'll get started on it.

Monsters [24]
[2] Archlord Kristya
[3] The Agent of Mystery - Earth
[3] The Agent of Creation - Venus
[3] Mystical Shine Ball
[3] Master Hyperion
[3] Herald of Orange Light
[1] Sangan
[3] Tour Guide From the Underworld
[1] Genex Ally Birdman
[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
[1] Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
Spells [11]
[3] Cards from the Sky
[2] Gold Sarcophagus
[2] Mystical Space Typhoon
[1] Monster Reborn
[1] Heavy Storm
[1] Book of Moon
[1] Dark Hole
Traps [5]
[2] Solemn Warning
[1] Solemn Judgement
[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device
[1] Torrential Tribute

Extra
[2] Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
[1] Leviair the Sea Dragon
[1] Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
[1] Armory Arm
[1] Ally of Justice Catastor
[1] Magical Android
[1] Orient Dragon
[1] Brionac
[1] Black Rose Dragon
[1] Genex Ally Triforce
[1] Ancient Sacred Wyvern
[1] Stardust Dragon
[1] Scrap Dragon
[1] Trishula


Now, I have no doubt that at least one of you read that and your eyes were instantly drawn to Gold Sarcophagus, and are now hurriedly rushing to the comments section, no doubt with comments of the likes of, ahem, "lolscrub". And I will then point those people in the general direction of an opticians, because they clearly missed the description below.

Gold Sarcophagus, Tour Guide From the Underworld and Master Hyperion/Black Luster Soldier. Against a clear field (or a field with one monster on it, since the bosses can destroy it), this is an OTK. How, you ask? Before I go on, I first saw this combo laid out by Samuel Pedigo (who was 2nd place at the 2011 North America World Championship Qualifiers), which I'm reposting below.

1) Summon Tour Guide, grab Sangan.

2) Xyz into Leviar the Sea Dragon with Tour Guide and Sangan.

3) Gold Sarcophagus The Agent of Creation - Venus.

4) Detach Sangan for Leviair's effect, special summoning Venus from Banishment. Sangan searches out Genex Ally Birdman.

5) Use Venus' effect. -1500LP, +3 Mystical Shine Balls.

6) Xyz into Gachi Gachi Gantetsu with two Shine Balls.

7) Bounce Shine Ball to special summon Birdman.

8) Venus' effect. -500LP, summon Shine Ball from hand.

9) Birdman+Venus+Shine Ball into Stardust Dragon (or Scrap Dragon).

That's all doable without Hyperion or BLS, by the way. You turn two cards (which can be run in threes!) into a wall (Gantetsu), and two beatsticks (Leviair and Stardust/Scrap), both of which are boosted by Gantetsu. You may, if you so choose, use Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy an opponent's card; if you target Gantetsu on your side of the field, Gantetsu preserves himself through his effect, and generates a nifty +1. But if you have BLS or Hyperion in hand...

10) Remove from play necessary monsters (Sangan+Shine Ball for BLS, Venus for Hyperion).

10a) Use Hyperion's effect, removing a Shine Ball from play to destroy an opponent's card (if needed).

10b) Use Black Luster Soldier's effect to attack twice, if the opponent has a monster on the field.

11) Attack directly. You will do over eight-thousand damage if you attack with all monsters, insuring a victory: the weakest combination involves using Scrap Dragon's effect, and summoning Hyperion. 700+2000+2900+3000=8600LP)

And thus, with a certain trio of cards in-hand, you win the game. You don't need Gold Sarcophagus for this; if you're willing to wait a turn, you can use Cards from the Sky to Banish Venus instead (as Cards from the Sky restricts your Special Summons and Battle Phase).

Now, you may ask: why no Pot of Duality? Unlike the standard Agents build, Tour Guide Agents will be special summoning a lot; Cards from the Sky is only tolerated due to it's great use on the first turn, and greater deck thinning ability. Despite what the little combo up there may seem to show, this deck isn't a one-trick pony. It can adapt to almost any hand you throw at it, and it includes that most saintly of cards, Archlord Kristya. Kristya will be highly significant in the current format, believe me; it's ability to shut down special summons will be very handy for slowing down decks which specialise in spamming them. Indeed, I've seen Agent builds floating around which use Gold Sarcophagus and Miraculous Descent to summon Kristya straight to the field. They're not too great from my experience, but the theory is sound. Kristya is perhaps the ultimate win condition of this deck, because it's special summoning restriction tends to hit many decks very hard.

But that's enough gushing about Kristya. Despite what it's detractors claim, Tour Guide From the Underworld gives a noticeable benefit to the deck if you can afford it. The ability to summon Leviair (who can give you additional Synchro Summons by returning Birdman to the field, or make use of Banished Fairies) or Leviathan Dragon (2500/3000ATK beater. Enough said) who can also search your deck for almost all of your non-boss monsters (through Sangan) is a great addition to the deck. That it opens the door for Black Luster Soldier is merely icing on the cake. But the underlined is important; if you can't afford Tour Guides, don't try and find a replacement - don't throw in Summoner Monk, or something silly like that. Tour Guide = Tour Guide = Tour Guide. Nothing can replace it's role as it is in the deck; and nothing will be able to, should the TCG go to the same ruleset as OCG.

Let's go over some quick basics here, for the uninformed. Herald of Orange Light is a card with a similar design to Effect Veiler, but you have to discard another Fairy as well, and you destroy the opponent's monster as well as negating the effect (Veiler discards itself and doesn't destroy, by the by). Some may see the extra cost and shake their head; "too much hand advantage lost". Not so! Personally speaking, I'd much rather destroy a Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, or a Leviair the Sea Dragon, or a Tour Guide From the Underworld then keep it hanging around. The minor loss of hand advantage (when you can easily discard a useless Mystical Shine Ball, or The Agent of Creation - Venus when there's no more Shine Balls left to summon) is offset by the destruction of your opponent's monster; plus, it puts Fairies into the graveyard for Hyperion's effect, and brings you closer to that all-important four-Fairy target to summon Kristya. This is all Agent 101, though.

Many people say Agents will be a "Tier 1" deck in the coming format; and, to be quite frank, I agree with them. But, of course, everyone says that about their deck. That it's cutting edge; that it has something over the opponent. So that shouldn't surprise anyone; but Agents are consistent, powerful and quite terrifying in their ease of summoning powerful monsters to the field.

And that's it for my Agents at the moments. I'll be giving out updates regularly, of course; new factoids are eternally interesting and, no doubt, fascinating to you all. Not. If you have any questions about Agents, please leave them below: I'll either answer them in the comments, or write up a new post on anything you can suggest to me. Much appreciated,
-A. Assiduity

Through the hellhole: Part 1

With the recent atrocity that is the ban list now in circulation, I've decided to start a series which I named "through the hellhole". In this series I will be discussing the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! itself. For those who know me, I'm not normally one to complain about Konami's shenanigans, but it got to the point where I honestly don't want to tolerate them any longer. It's naive for me to think that we can get rid of Konami, but for goodness sake they need to clean up their act.

I've gotten a lot of criticism over the past few days. Such as "The ban list has it's perks, it causes bad players like Valafar to quit". I can take an insult thrown my way, so this doesn't concern me too much. What does bother me is how unbelievably moronic some of these people have been. Virtually no good has come from this list. In fact, no good has. Sure, Fishborg Blaster is banned, but shouldn't that have happened a long time ago?

Now, this may sound like a conspiracy theory of sorts, but I think this list was deliberate. It reminds me a lot of the September 2008 list. Everything seems to be in place to promote Exceeds to ridiculous proportions. Just look at the secondary market value for Tour Guide From The Underworld.

The number one problem for this list is Heavy Storm. People are very quick to point the finger at Mystical Space Typhoon, but let's be reasonable. MST is not an overpowered card.

And this is probably the biggest problem we have right now. If you set 2 or more face downs, you will get sacked by HS. If you only set 1, they're going to MST you and make their plays without you being able to do anything. It gets to the point now where you're better off not setting at all, at least their cards will be dead.

In other words, you're not allowed to defend yourself. So if you can't defend, you have to go on the offensive. And this is where centralization begins. Your only option is to attack, so you need to be able to attack harder and faster than your opponent can. Eventually someone finds/builds a deck that can hit harder and faster than any other deck, and that deck becomes unbeatable.

The thing is, these decks tend to lack any sort of skill or thought with them. I'll give an example.

September 09 Lightsworns. JD at 2, Lumina at 3, Necro Gardna at 3, CotLB at 3. To win with this deck, you need to be able to mill fast and draw good. If you're lucky, you'll mill Wulf and Necro Gardna a lot. If you're unlucky, you won't and your opponent will win. It was that simple. As Michael Bonacini said, you did need to know when to go derp all over your opponent's face, but if your opponent wasn't playing Lightsworn as well? Not so much.

The deck ran itself. Much like Tengu Plants of last format. You learn how to make a few plays, and then you repeat them. The difference is that Tengu Plants needed to be smart against the back row. The back row would change from deck to deck, you'd need to know what was in it, how to counter it and how to play around it. The thing is, now there isn't any back row.

So no worrying about Warning, Compulsory, BTH, D Prison, you just make plays and 9 times out of 10 they'll happen. I don't know about anyone else, but this is hardly my definition of skill.

People say that there is skill involved in setting back row in a format where HS is legal. I disagree. I've played quite a few formats with HS legal and I'll be the first one to tell you that very little thought went into it. If you're opponent had both Storm and MST still, you set 2. If your opponent has Storm but not MST, you set 1. If your opponent has MST but not Storm, you're free to set as much as you like provided you can protect it.

This is what's called a "routine", and it hardly pertains to skill. The person activating MST/Storm isn't being particularly skillful either. Since when does activating a spell with no condition or cost take effort or thought? By that logic Ookazi is skillful.

And this is all provided that players draw their cards, which is of course completely luck based.

At least in the last HS format, we had Starlight Road. However, in the current format, SLR isn't particularly effective. If your SLR gets MST'd and you have face downs, HS is going to win the game. If you do manage to get off SLR, your dragon will probably be eaten alive by Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

So the number one rule of this format is to draw really well and to sack hard. And people wonder why I'm in a bad mood?

~Valafar123

If it's true...

If the ban list that has been given is correct, it's time for me to quit this game and take up Magic: The Gathering. I personally like a game where skill and thought are rewarded more than lucksacking like a mofo.

If you haven't seen it:

Forbidden Cards 「禁止カード」:

Fishborg Blaster「フィッシュボーグ－ガンナー」
Mind Master「メンタルマスター」
Giant Trunade「ハリケーン」
Royal Oppression「王宮の弾圧」

Restriction Cards 「制限カード」:

Black Luster Soldier「カオス・ソルジャー －開闢の使者－」
Debris Dragon「デブリ・ドラゴン」
Lonefire Blossom「ローンファイア・ブロッサム」
Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En「真六武衆－シエン」
Tech Genus Hyper Librarian「ＴＧ　ハイパー・ライブラリアン」
Formula Synchron 「フォーミュラ・シンクロン」
Heavy Storm 「大嵐」
Primal Seed「原初の種」
Shien's Smoke Signal「紫炎の狼煙」
Pot of Avarice「貪欲な壺」

Semi-Restriction Cards 「準制限カード」:

Summoner Monk「召喚僧サモンプリースト」
Tragoedia「トラゴエディア」
Necro Gardna「ネクロ・ガードナー」
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier「氷結界の虎王ドゥローレン」
Destiny Draw「デステニー・ドロー」
Swords of Revealing Light「光の護封剣」
Mind Crush「マインドクラッシュ」
Call of the Haunted「リビングデッドの呼び声」

No longer restricted 「準制限」:

Judgment Dragon「裁きの龍」
Spirit Reaper「魂を削る死霊」
Overload Fusion「オーバーロード・フュージョン」
Mystical Space Typhoon「サイクロン」
Megamorph「巨大化」
Gravity Bind「グラヴィティ・バインド－超重力の網－」
Icarus Attack「ゴッドバードアタック」

My tolerance for Konami's bullshit has ran out if this list is correct.

~Valafar123

Deck Profile: Stitch's Crystal Beasts

Yes, I know I was meant to do his Fabled deck, but this stood out a bit more for me. CBs have always been an archetype due to the odd way that they play. Their monsters technically float, but in exchange they lose access to back row. This is would be a hindrance, but the deck has access to some very powerful supporting spells in exchange.

Here's his build:

Monsters [14]
[3] Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth
[2] Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle
[3] Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus
[3] Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger
[3] Thunder King Rai-Oh

Spells [22]
[3] Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins
[2] Crystal Abundance
[2] Crystal Beacon
[3] Crystal Blessing
[2] Crystal Promise
[3] Crystal Release
[1] Crystal Tree
[3] Rare Value
[1] Terraforming
[1] Dark Hole
[1] Monster Reborn

Traps [4]
[3] Horn of the Phantom Beast
[1] Torrential Tribute

First of all, I'd like to give him a cookie for staying away from the Rainbow Dragon/Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder builds. Not using Rainbow Dragon gives a lot of flexibility with the monster line up, and not using Hamon is a given. After all, it would still be a -3 for a leech on your resources.

So this is where I pull out my NDS and test the build. Sure, WC11 doesn't have Exceeds, but it should play fine without.

I'm very impressed with its performance. If it's not netting advantage due to Pegasus spam, it's netting advantage from Abundance. It plays better than I initially expected it to, though there were a few things I'd like to discuss about his build.

Firstly, lack of Summoner Monk. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it looks like it would be at home in this deck. Discard one of your dead spells, summon Pegasus from deck and get a CB in your S/T zone. Then you're free to Exceed away into Steelswarm Roach or Gem-Knight Pearl or who knows what else. I would probably drop a TKRO or a CB Ruby Carbuncle for one.

Next up is Rai-Oh. TKRO is an amazing card right now, however, I think King Tiger Wanghu would be more supported in here. KTW is Horn supported and almost none of the monsters in deck are affected by it. It's a great card in the Plant matchup and a lot of other marchups too. It keeps Tuners, Tokens and other small monsters off the field.

Crystal Release and Horn of the Phantom Beast in the same build seemed a bit odd at first. Surprisingly, it works quite well. Six in total might me a bit overkill though.

I noticed this deck has a few problems with Dimensional Prison. Maining Reborn Tengu may solve this problem. It's compatible with Horn, doesn't fill your back row, sponges D Prison and makes summoning Exceeds a lot easier. A single mained BoM could also help.

Crystal Abundance is sooo good. The current game state permits people to put as many cards into play as they are able to, something that could be considered "overextending". Abundance milks advantage off of this and can be a game ender depending on the size of the opponent's hand. Immunity to Stardust Dragon is nice too. It's a shame that AC-RR gets lost in the process, but you should have a second one in hand by the time you use Abundance.

I only tested a few matchups, but I am impressed by this build. Cookie for you, Stitch. Hopefully my suggestions are valid and will help to improve this build. If anybody else wants me to analyze their deck, just link it to me in the comments section.

~Valafar123

It's almost that time of year again...

August is almost half way over, which means that the new Forbidden/Limited Card list is soon approaching. Here is what I will expect to see on the new list, with explanations:

Forbidden:
Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Sangan
Dandylion
Fishborg Blaster
Future Fusion
Monster Reborn
Giant Trunade

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: With Konami trying to promote Xyz Monsters, they will try to kill of the Synchros as fast as possible. also, with the TCG release of Generation Force, Brionac got a little brother: Orient Dragon. In a way, they essentially do the same thing, have the same ATK and Level.

Sangan: I'm sure we are all aware of Kevin Tewart's new Xyz ruling. Not much explanation needed.

Dandylion: In some way Konami WILL hit the Plant Engine. It makes Tier 2 and 3 decks become competitive(KMP, etc.). If Dandylion does not get hit expect a Limitation on Lonefire Blossom.

Fishborg Blaster: With Rabbit's release in a few months, this card is beyond insane. It can lead to so many OTK's/FTK's. It also hurts Fish FTK/OTK.

Future Fusion: With the release of Elemental HERO Escuridao in the OCG, there is a 1 card FTK going around involving Future Fusion. However, Konami may want to promote the release of the new HEROes in Generation Force.

Monster Reborn: I still don't understand why this card is legal. I feel that Call of the Haunted and Limit Reverse is enough. Reborn is one of those cards that can win you the game alone.

Giant Trunade: This card literally wins games. You can easily go off with your big plays without having to worry about any negation. I feel that Trunade is worse than Heavy Storm.


Limited:
T.G. Hyper Librarian
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (TCG)
Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World (OCG)
Archlord Kristya
Lonefire Blossom
Pot of Avarice
Shien's Smoke Signal
Solemn Warning
Ultimate Offering

T.G. Hyper Librarian: The Plant deck's main draw engine. However, from what I have seen at Gen Con's lists, many people are only playing 1 Librarian because of Xyz's. Most people were playing some Tengu Tour Guide Plant varient. There is always the possibility of Librarian going to 0.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: The card is already at 1 in Japan. No explanation needed.

Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World: This card is worse than Machina Fortress. Summon, bounce. The only real thing that can stop Grapha's resurrection is remov- err, Banishing cards such as D.D. Crow and Dimensional Fissure. He can get over almost any Synchro Monster under Gate and can be Tributed for any Virus, including Dark Flash. It has been ruled that Grapha's Summoning is an Inherit Summon, meaning cards like Thunder King Rai-Oh and Steelswarm Roach cannot stop him.

Archlord Kristya: Agents are still very popular in the OCG. When your opponent has out Hyperion and Kristya at the same time, you pretty much have no chance of winning. Even if you destroy Kristya, It returns to the top of their deck.

Lonefire Blossom: Main card of the Plant Engine. If Dandylion does not get banned, expect Lonefire to go to 1.

Pot of Avarice: This card is always a +1. Plants, Fableds, or any other decks that can easily fill up the Graveyard benefit from this card immensly.

Shien's Smoke Signal: Even though Smoke Signal is themed, it allows Samurai's to play 4 RotA's.

Solemn Warning: Solemn Judgment is at 1, so why should Warning be at 2? The 2000 LP you pay usually does not matter.

Ultimate Offering: Gadgets have been picking up steam in both the TCG and OCG. Japan will soon receive Number 16: Ruler of Color - Shock Ruler, which is pretty much a Cold Wave for Monsters, Spells, and Traps. Getting 3 out in the same turn is complete lockdown.


Semi-Limited:
Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
Gravekeeper's Spy
Reborn Tengu
Book of Moon

Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier: To prevent Dewloren Symbols of Heratige FTK decks.

Gravekeeper's Spy: Spy will be splashed into many decks due to Xyz's. Also, Gravekeeper's can now abuse Recruiter just like Sangan.

Reborn Tengu: If Konami decides to make separate lists then expect to see Reborn Tengu at 2. The card is easily abused in too many decks. There are good chances that he will stay at 3.

Book of Moon: From what I've heard, Book of Moon was Limited because if you book an Xyz monster, it loses its materials. This is not true though.


Unlimited:
Mystical Space Typhoon
Overload Fusion
Magical Stone Excavation

Mystical Space Typhoon: With Trunade gone, MST can go to 3. Enough said.

Overload Fusion: It sees no play and is on the list for no reason.

Magical Stone Excavation: Read above.

Megamorph: Read above. However, if I can see Demise coming back with the release of Rabbit.

--

Note these are just my predictions, not the actual list. Comment below and tell me what you think will happen come September 2011.

~Arceus

Infernity Update: Infernoless?

I hope I'm not the only one who has noticed that Infernity Doom Dragon looks like a crossbreed between Vice Dragon and a moose. A crime against nature I'm sure.

Anyway, I've been neglecting this post for a while. Time is always my enemy. Hopefully I'll have more time soon, in which case I'll do a deck profile on Stitch's Fableds and the ludicrously overpowered Dark World Archetype. I have an affinity for hand-related fiends and I'm not certain as to why.

The specific topic for today is Infernity Inferno. I've talked a lot about this card in the past.

Infernity Inferno
Trap / Normal
Discard up to 2 cards and send the same number of "Infernity" cards from your Deck to the Graveyard.


A relatively simple card with a relatively simple effect. It's been a staple in Infernity decks since TSHD got released just over a year ago. Essentially it is a one card set up. It gets you Necromancer, Avenger (or Beetle back in its day) and Archfiend to your Graveyard and helps empty your hand. Sure, you go minus doing so, but that doesn't matter if you're going to win that turn. Right?

Wrong.

The game is very different now and requires a different approach to things. The old concept of "going minus to go plus" isn't particularly efficient anymore. There are two reasons for this.

• Effect Veiler: If this is dropped on you when you just went -3 in the hopes of winning, you're going to lose. No question about it.
• Heavy Storm: It got banned. Rightfully may I add. Making an OTK isn't very easy thanks to this being banned. With 5 potential back row to stop you, you can't use Barrier/MST/Judgment as an OTK enabler. This means you will have to wait longer to get an OTK enabler, during that period your Infernos are dead.

So with that in mind, I and my fellow Infernity thread members got to work testing the deck without Inferno. I have to give a bit of credit to Emissary-of-Gorz, he was one of the (if not, the) first person to use a non-Inferno build, even though some of his card choices were questionable.

Dropping Inferno frees up space and gets rid of dead weight. However, you do forfeit speed without Inferno. Generally speaking, you'll be getting cards out of your hand the way the good lord intended us to: by summoning/setting. This can take time to do, so extra defenses are necessary.

Using the 2 extra slots made available, I now main the increasingly widespread Dimensional Prison. You all know what it does and why it's good. D Prison buys you time to get things in motion, not to mention the fact that it can deal with a lot of threats that normally would be assigned to Bottomless Trap Hole. It also works wonders against the T.G. match up.

I also dropped the variable tech card for Mind Control. Mind Control is staple with Exceeds; especially in Infernity. It keeps cards like TKRO and DCK off the field, it puts dead Stygians/Archfiends/Grephers to use and it aids in reducing lost advantage from Exceed and Synchro summoning. This applies to all decks, not just Infernity.

I do still main 3 Mirage. The logic behind doing so still remains the same. If you use it, it's a +1 or more. If it's dead, you can discard it/set it and it'll become food for Hundred-Eyes Dragon anyway. I don't like to think of Mirage in terms of the loop, if you're holding Mirage instead of going plus, then you're doing it wrong. I dislike conserving monsters in this deck, it doesn't work. They're all replaceable. Even the boss monster can be revived with little to no effort.

As I said, time is against me, so I'll use the old formatting for decks:

Monsters [15]

[3] Infernity Archfiend

[3] Infernity Mirage

[3] Infernity Necormancer

[2] Infernity Avenger

[1] Dark Grepher

[1] Armageddon Knight

[1] Stygian Street Patrol

[1] Plaguespreader Zombie

Spells [11]

[1] Infernity Launcher

[1] Monster Reborn

[1] Dark Hole

[1] Giant Trunade

[2] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Foolish Burial

[1] One for One

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[1] Book of Moon

[1] Mind Control

Traps [14]

[3] Infernity Barrier

[1] Infernity Break

[1] Solemn Judgment

[2] Solemn Warning

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[2] Dimensional Prison

[1] Mirror Force

[1] Torrential Tribute

[1] Call of the Haunted

Extra Deck [15]

[1] Number 39: Utopia

[1] Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Mist Wurm

[1] Infernity Doom Dragon

[1] Scrap Dragon

[3] Hundred-Eyes Dragon

[1] Dark End Dragon

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Stygian Street Patrol

[1] Magical Android

[1] Armory Arm

If you play Infernity, try an Infernoless build. I would also recommend paying a visit to the Infernity thread on Pojo: http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=970859

~Valafar123

I'm sure most of you have heard...

Kevin recently announced that for the TCG, Exceed Material Monsters are considered to be on the field. Consequently, when the Exceed Monster dies, the material are sent from the field to the graveyard. This means that Tengu, Sangan and other similar cards get their effects...

This is going to cause so many problems for the TCG that I can't even begin to comprehend.

Summon Tour Guide, summon Sangan, exceed into Levaiel, revive one of your RFP'd monsters and search your deck? I'm sensing DWs being very powerful in the near future.

On the plus side, Sangan might finally get banned. It's about time really. That furry b****** has been searching problem cards for years.

On a somewhat related note, I've been testing Number 39: Utopia in Infernity with Mind Control mained. I keep forgetting that I can turn dead Stygians or Archfiends into a semi-useful monster. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. Roach will probably take its place once GENF is released (provided I can secure a trade). I'll do an updated deck list depending on the results I get from the Infernoless build.

This was just a short update-ish post, so I'll end it at that. Oh how I envy the OCG at times. -.-

~Valafar123

Turbo Pack 6 Unveiled!

Hello followers of the TMW blog. Here is the current list for Turbo Pack 6:


■ TU06-EN000 Dark Armed Dragon (Ultimate Rare)
■ TU06-EN001 Sangan (Ultra Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Masked Dragon (Super Rare)
■ TU06-EN005 Quickdraw Synchron (Super Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Fishborg Blaster (Super Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Chain Disappearance (Super Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Alector, Sovereign of Birds (Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Red Dragon Archfiend (Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Stardust Dragon (Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Zombie Master (Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Armory Arm (Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Black Garden (Rare)
■ TU06-EN0?? Bountiful Artemis
■ TU06-EN0?? Golem Dragon
■ TU06-EN0?? Greenkappa
■ TU06-EN0?? Kinetic Soldier
■ TU06-EN0?? Transforming Sphere
■ TU06-EN0?? Creature Swap
■ TU06-EN0?? Fusion Gate
■ TU06-EN0?? Gemini Spark
■ TU06-EN0?? Magical Dimension


What is your thoughts on Turbo Pack 6? Is it better or worse than 5? Let me know what you think in the comments.


~Arceus