I have a Twitter! :o

This is where I post my thoughts, decks, and other whatnots now.

https://twitter.com/Valafar123

Follow if you want.

As for this blog, I may or may not use it again. Twitter is more convenient on the whole and Pojo gets more views.

~Valafar123

September 2012 List Review

I'm sure most of you have seen the new list by now. It's fairly certain that it's confirmed at this point, but Konami has been known to throw curve-balls in the past. This post is just so I can share my thoughts about the list, people are entitled to agree or disagree.


Forbidden:

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

I called it. I for one won't miss it, it's one of the most abused and broken cards in the game and has been a component of numerous OTK and FTK plays. This also serves as a pre-emptive hit against Atlanteans, something I don't oppose either.

However, that said, there's now a substantial lack of good lv6 Synchros. I'm glad Goyo and Brio are gone, but I'd like good and balanced lv6 options. Orient Dragon and Gravity Warrior are OK, and Flamvell Uruquizas is decent when the format calls for him, but aside from that there aren't enough good lv6 options. Somewhat tragic considering Zombies now have the cards they need to be competitive back from the rest of the list, but then had their last strong option taken from them.

Future Fusion

Good riddance. This should have gone to 0 back when Chimeratech OTK reared its head 4 or 5 years ago. I'm glad it's finally gone, but the fact that it lasted so long shows incompetence on behalf of the list makers.

I would have liked to have Metamorphosis back in exchange though. Maybe one day.


Limited:

Inzektor Dragonfly & Inzektor Hornet

I am very pleased about these hits. This doesn't kill the deck, instead this makes it run as it was intended; as an equip based utility deck. With Sword, Centipede, Ladybug and Hopper still all around the deck has no functional issues as some may believe. I think the archetype will still be a strong Tier 2 contender. I can finally use the deck without feeling dirt cheap.

If I could have chosen though, I would rather have Dragonfly get an outright ban and have Hornet at a higher number, but this is fine too. I just have more issues with Summon spam than I do with destruction.

Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

I can't complain about this hit either. This also means I won't ever have to deal with the choo-choo train of death. I  can settle for a limit.

This card deserved the hit in its own right, but as for actually dealing with Chaos Dragons and Hieratics? There's a lot left to be desired. Both decks are still fully functional and will have a large meta share next format. Keep your sides unchanged for those two.

Chaos Sorcerer

Excuse me? The list makers have got some real nerve touching this card. Apparently BLS-EotB is equally as powerful as this card. This change disgusts me. This card has never needed to be hit in the history of the game. The list makers have made this card their bitch to be frank, they just won't leave it alone.

BLS-EotB should be ban. God knows why it ever left its spot in the first place. This card should be at nothing other than 3. It's perfectly balanced and has never caused issues. Even back in '05 this card was useable at best.

I am grossly disappointed with this hit. Konami needs to stop whoring boss monsters; I'm sick of it. Boss monsters have been killing the game for years and I wish they'd get hit instead of the decks.

Spore

This card probably shouldn't have been banned, so I'm glad it isn't. It's the plant equivalent to Mezuki.

That said, LIMITED!? Who writes these lists?

"Each player can only activate the effect of "Spore" once per Duel."

Who the hell was going to use 2 or 3? Again, this is a real sign of incompetence. I guess I'm just moaning, but seriously?

Evigishki Gustkraken

Seems unfair to Gishki if you ask me, but the less hand loops the better. Not sure if this was the card at fault though.

Tsukuyomi

Was never ban worthy or even limit worthy for that matter.

Wind-Up Zenmighty

No complaints. I'd rather have this hit than WU Hunter. Again, summons spam bothers me more than anything else.

Ultimate Offering

Ban it.

Semi-Limited:

Mandatory Guide from the Underworld

Will still be used with 1 Sangan. If you played September 2009 format you'll remember how people often used 3 Deep Sea Diva with no third target. Fact is this card is still good, as is Sangan. Double TGftU will be common sight (using one to fetch the other; it's still a free Rank 3), and Sangan will still get used because it's Sangan and it always gets used. Realistically this achieves nothing other than making it a one-off rather than something you can do twice. That is until Daigusto Emeral happens.

Yeah, not the smartest hit. Should be limited so that it's exclusive to decks that actually use lv3 Fiends like DWs or Infernity, or even Relinquished decks.

Debris Dragon

I am very pleased. Junk & Debris decks are now viable again. Plus, this is a random toy for X-Sabers if they want to use it. Could easily be at 3 imo.

Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow

I'm not happy with this. They should have Gale or Whirlwind bumped to 2 imo, this card is silly. I'm not a fan of hand-based cards like this.

*sigh* Shriek's coverage will be littered with BWs again.

Rescue Rabbit

Achieves nothing. Should be limited. Once Verz Heliotrope is TCG legal the deck will get stronger again and we'll be back at square one.

The Agent of Mystery - Earth

Should never have been hit, Hyperion should have been. This is what I mean by Konami killing decks instead of the problem card in the deck. Agents will make a come back, which I'm not too happy with. Can't say I like the deck because honestly I hate them more than I hated Wind-Ups. It reeks of solitaire and easy boss monsters.

Reasoning

My arse is still sore, I know what this card is capable of. Terrible move. I expect Airblade reincarnations an Junk Collector decks to become much stronger, which is not good.

Pot of Consistency

It was inevitable really. The hit is understandable, though I disagree with it. I wish this was what happened on the September 2011 list to help neuter the usability of decks like GKs and TGs. Sadly this is one of those cards that helps low tier decks more than it helps high tier decks, so I will miss having 3. Can't say I disagree with lowering staple ratios though.

E - Emergency Call

Redundant hit is redundant.

A Hero Lives

Hieratic Seal of Convocation

Semi-Limiting cards like this literally achieves nothing and doesn't do anything to consistency whatsoever. And once more, Konami can't deal with problems properly. Ban that stupid giant Lonefire Blossom on steroids and we won't have any issues.

Mirror Force

Konami dodging problems. This and TT didn't need to move up. If the list maker were able to hit the problem card (Heavy Storm) we wouldn't have to have every mass destruction trap in the game moving up.

I've said this before: how do one or two face-downs stop 5 monsters? Answer: they don't. The solution is obvious, and this is not it. This game needs more proportionality.

Unlimited:

Marshmallon

Yes.

Necro Gardna

Was never a problem.

Emergency Teleport

Not a fan of this card. I've seen what it does at 3.

Destiny Draw

See Emergency Teleport.

Level Limit - Area B

So discrete.

Swords of Revealing Light

In the words of fellow Pojoer and YouTuber:

"NO ONE USED IT...

... apart from Aliens."

Shout-out for him, go subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/user/ygobritain?feature=results_main

Magic Cylinder

Because solitaire burn needed another toy apparently.

Conclusion:

The two bans are good, but as for actually fixing the game? Nothing was achieved. Last meta's good decks have been torn down and a pathway has been laid for the next generation of lucksacking and solitaire. I got my Tsukuyomi back though, so I don't care. Once I get my second copy of Goats legalised I can finally have modern Goat Control working.

It's evident that this list wasn't well thought out, and it became apparent what the problem was after listening to a podcast that a few pros did. Hint: it's not Kevin. I probably owe him an apology if anything, but that's another post which I've planned.

The Forbidden & Limited Card List: What Needs to Happen

In an ever increasing attempt to bide time for final testing with the Chain Infernity variant, I thought I'd post a rather unorthodox take on the Forbidden & Limited Card List (or FLCL for conciseness' sake). What I find is people tend to have a habit of creating rigid lists with loose reasoning behind them, but the general state of the game itself seems to be ignored and dead fads also seem to get ignored.

What I'm going to do instead of the norm is divide cards into groups and discuss them rather than ascribe a position to them. This will be based around and idealised model rather than any sort of prediction. The model itself is rather straightforward. There are three primary problems with the game as it stands:

1. The game is extremely luck based, more than it has ever been in the past.
2. The game is very fast. Not as bad as Airblade or September 2009, but it's an issue.
3. The game is limiting player interaction.

Alongside this, there are the two regular issues:

1. Some cards or combos are broken.
2. Some cards or decks are overpowered.

Note that there is a difference between the two. A broken card is one that abuses other cards or mechanics, or a card that simply isn't fulfilling the purpose it ought to. An overpowered card is simply a card which is too good.

Also, there are a few cards which are arguably poor design and should have restrictions placed upon them simply because of their functionality, not their actual usage.

I'd also like to point out that popularity isn't a valid reason for anything to be hit, which is tragic considering this is how Konami makes 50% of their FLCL decisions.

Onto some of the actual categories:

Cards that are abusing game mechanics

This is quite the issue and one that I rarely see addressed. Konami gets a bit carried away when making cards and often disregards the functionality of game mechanics themselves. The prime culprits right now are:

• Leviair the Sea Dragon
• Daigusto Emeral
• Pot of Avarice

Leviair the Sea Dragon: Removal has always been an important balancing factor in this game, even in the days of Goat Control. Removal has always been the end of the line for a card and that alone induced a substantial amount of fear, forcing people to play conservatively or run the risk of losing their card for good. Giving these cards a second chance was always reserved for very specialised decks which had their own drawbacks to compensate. What Leviair does is grant universal access to the RFP. As we've seen in the past with Return-DAD and in modern times with Dino Bunny, this only leads to the abuse of cards that have removal as costs or restrictions. It also removes the fear of removal meaning there is reduced incentive to conserve cards. Regardless of how effective Leviair is at his job, this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

Daigusto Emeral & Pot of Avarice: In this case, the area being abused is the Graveyard. The Graveyard has always been a little bit loose, but with the speed of the game on the rise these two are not only removing the need to conserve resources, they're actually giving an incentive to burn through them as fast as possible. There's no need to keep cards in reserve because these two are essentially letting you do everything twice. Again, this isn't an issue of how good the cards themselves are, it's about the gameplay they allow for.

Cards which are or have become broken

• Future Fusion
• Lavalval Chain

Lately Konami seems to have been rather strict about this. This is a fairly straightforward example of what it is to be broken. This was a card designed to give a more effective option to fusion summon that wasn't as redundant as Polymerization. Right now, its sole function in the game is to act as a super powered Foolish Burial or a mini Painful Choice.

Oddly though, I think the correct way to handle this card is to give it the Prisma treatment: make it so that it's only valid for monsters with specific materials.

Lavalval Chain needs to be dealt with also. There are already decks abusing the ability to determine their own draws indefinitely. The culprits are Infernity, and to some extent, Lightsworn.

Cards which are overpowered

• Judgement Dragon
• Dark Armed Dragon
• Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
• Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
• Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World
• Infernity Launcher
• Rekindling
• Limiter Removal
• Royal Tribute
• Return from the Different Dimension

There's been quite the build up of these over the years. Regardless of how good the deck that supports these cards are, these cards are quite frankly far too powerful. They more or less hand wins to the user on a silver platter. The majority of these are boss monsters, which have proven time and again to have no positive effect on the game whatsoever. I'm not certain why the player base seems to have such a fetish for them.

Cards that limit player interaction

• Cardcar "D"
• Evolzar Laggia
• Final Countdown
• Skill Drain
• Chain Burn in general

I've reserved some cards that should be here for another section. This is a fairly straightforward one. Cards like these are removing interaction between players and are making the game more solitaire like.

Regarding back row in general

• Heavy Storm
• Solemn Judgement
• Solemn Warning
• Torrential Tribute
• Dimensional Prison*

This chunk of cards here are fairly controversial. Personally, I think they should all get the axe and be taken down a few notches.

Heavy Storm: I won't deny that this card has served the game well in the past, but realistically speaking this card has had so many ill effects on the game lately that denying it is, to be frank, ignorant. It's been the golden ticket for OTK decks and it's been letting players get away with overextending their monsters for a very long time. I won't deny that back row needs to exist in moderation, but as it stands back row simply does not exist. There's no reason to think twice with monsters any more. How is one face-down (if any) meant to handle an obscene number of monsters? The monsters have been taken up a notch over the years and for proportionality back row needs to be made more present also. This cannot happen with this card legal.

The Solemn Brigade: Inversely, without HS legal these two acted as the golden ticket for stun decks. By definition, stun decks limit player interactivity. The Solemns turned attrition based gameplay into flat out stalemates. Summons need to be restricted, not made impossible. There are more balanced conditional options in existence. These needn't be legal.

Torrential Tribute: This is a testament to HS's detrimental effect on the modern game. This card was raised up because one back row was not sufficient in dealing with a swarm of monsters. With HS gone, this can be taken down.

Dimensional Prison: A bit of a miscellaneous hit here. Arguably it isn't a problem, but we saw how hideous the game becomes when people main 3 of this. This card ought to stick around just as an attack deterrent, but like with SW we don't want stalemates. I'm not completely certain as to what to do with this one, though. There are attack deterrents in the game which are much more balanced and perfectly useable.

Effect Veiler

This is a card that bothers me often with its design. I don't like the idea of having cards that have no risk attached to them in this game. I'm not settled on this card.

Miscellaneous Decks

• Inzektors
• Wind-Ups

If all of the prior are dealt with, these should be the only issues left. I'm not particularly bothered about how these decks are dealt with, so long as they are.

---

I think that's everything summed up. This is opinion based, but I hope this at least conforms to my model. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Quick Thought - 2

Would March 2011 format really have been so bad if Solemn Warning wasn't around?

Well I'll be damned...

And who said Yu-Gi-Oh!'s art was kiddy?

If you don't believe this is a real card, check here: http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=4096#more-4096

Way to sell an archetype. I'll definitely be looking into Prophecy monsters because of this guy.

I for one am impressed. Let's have more stuff like this, Kevin.

Quick Thought - 1

This is a little idea I had to make it easier to post frequently as well as stimulate the community. These probably won't be more than a paragraph or even a sentence long, but the idea is to use a little rhetoric to convey ideas. If they're popular, I'll keep them coming. The idea is I post a little notion and then it is up to you all to decide what to make of it. There will often be implied meaning in these posts.

Can you imagine this format without Effect Veiler?

Building the April 2005 Community

This post will be a little shorter as it's an ongoing project, but hopefully it's one that should interest you all.

As you all know, I've been working on setting up an April 2005 format group. What I have discovered is that duelistgroundz also has its own Goat community with a bulkier player roster. Naturally I am now registered and subscribed. Although they do have a larger community, they do seem to be a little unorganised, so perhaps I could lend assistance there.

I intend to do something a little unorthodox; I plan to create an inter-forum community. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about this and to my knowledge nothing like this has been attempted before. The end objective is to make one large group instead of several small groups. What this will do is make it easier to find games and perhaps increase the community's influence overall.

To my knowledge, DN still doesn't have a community for this, so this will be my next project once I can at least secure interactions between the communities.

If we can get enough demand, we may be able to persuade the DN admins to have a fully fledged option for this format.


On another note, I have fully retired from Advanced gameplay. I've grown sick of the metagame and how boring it is. Most decks play themselves and build themselves, and most games are decided by raw luck more than anything else. It's gotten to the point where it's fairly safe to say that skill is largely irrelevant in the meta. I've had games where I've misplayed the entire way and still gotten wins simply because the deck I'm using is so obscenely powerful. Winning this way isn't satisfactory, and losing this way is bitter. I can't take it anymore.

Standardising the April 2005 Format

Hello blogosphere. Today I present you all with one of my pet projects that I have been ardently devoted to. That of course would be the recreation of the April 2005 format, more commonly referred to as the Goat Control format. I wasn't made aware of any standardised set up for this, and the community seemed to be a little everywhere because of how recent the upsurge in demand for this format is.

Again, as stated in my previous blog entry, I attribute the start of this demand to Michael Bonacini. I plan to contact him fairly soon since he has more direct experience of the format whereas my knowledge lies primarily on the logistical side of things

When I was first setting this up, I noticed the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia's record of this format's Forbidden & Limited list was inaccurate, so I spent a little time with a few veterans of the format to ensure that the list we would be using was entirely accurate. Another pressing matter was set legality. For now, I and the others on Pojo are fairly settled on using the pre-CRV TCG legality. The only disparity between the TCG and OCG at this time was the fact that the OCG was a few sets ahead of the TCG (with the post-CRV sets having a fairly negative impact on the game) and a few exclusives like Crush Card Virus and Foolish Burial (again, fairly negative impact).

Once we had that established, it became apparent that people were trying to abuse the format by building solitaire decks such as OTK decks, burn decks, mill decks, stall decks, etc. These were all present in the format and although they had no substantial advantage, it's fairly safe to say that they took away from the overall game state. Other decks like Warrior Chaos, Zombies or Apprentice Monarchs, however, are acceptable.

To solve this problem with out detracting from the authenticity of the format, I devised an Honour Bans system. What this essentially is is a sub-F/L list that is completely optional. It forbids cards that specifically detract from the game whilst leaving the natural gameplay unchanged.

With all that said, here are the lists for this format. It should provide you with everything you need to know to play the format:

The Official April 2005 Forbidden & Limited Card List
Forbidden
• Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
• Fiber Jar
• Magical Scientist
• Makyura the Destructor
• Witch of the Black Forest
• Yata-Garasu

• Butterfly Dagger - Elma
• Change of Heart
• Confiscation
• Dark Hole
• Harpie's Feather Duster
• Mirage of Nightmare
• Monster Reborn
• Painful Choice
• Raigeki
• The Forceful Sentry

• Imperial Order

Limited
• Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
• Breaker the Magical Warrior
• Cyber Jar
• D.D. Warrior Lady
• Dark Magician of Chaos
• Exiled Force
• Exodia the Forbidden One
• Injection Fairy Lily
• Jinzo
• Left Arm of the Forbidden One
• Left Leg of the Forbidden One
• Marshmallon
• Morphing Jar
• Protector of the Sanctuary
• Reflect Bounder
• Right Arm of the Forbidden One
• Right Leg of the Forbidden One
• Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
• Sangan
• Sinister Serpent
• Tribe-Infecting Virus
• Twin-Headed Behemoth

• Card Destruction
• Deliquient Duo
• Graceful Charity
• Heavy Storm
• Lightning Vortex
• Mage Power
• Mystical Space Typhoon
• Pot of Greed
• Premature Burial
• Snatch Steal
• Swords of Revealing Light
• United We Stand
• Call Of The Haunted
• Ceasefire
• Deck Devastation Virus
• Exchange of the Spirit
• Magic Cylinder
• Mirror Force
• Reckless Greed
• Ring of Destruction
• Torrential Tribute

Semi-Limited
• Abyss Soldier
• Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow
• Manticore of Darkness
• Marauding Captain
• Night Assailant
• Vampire Lord

• Creature Swap
• Emergency Provisions
• Level Limit - Area B
• Nobleman of Crossout
• Reinforcement of the Army
• Upstart Goblin

• Good Goblin Housekeeping
• Gravity Bind
• Last Turn

Note that neither Crush Card Virus nor Sixth Sense had TCG prints at this time.


Honour Bans
• Cyber Jar

• Dimension Fusion
• Level Limit - Area B
• Monster Gate
• Reasoning
• Wave-Motion Cannon

• Gravity Bind
• Last Turn

- Cyber Jar was banned to prevent mill decks and OTKs.
- Dimension Fusion was banned to prevent OTKs.
- Wave-Motion Cannon was banned to prevent OTKs and burn (this was a serious issue).
- Monster Gate and Reasoning were banned to kill OTK engines.
- Level Limit - Area B and Gravity Bind were banned to kill stall, burn and mill.

April 2005 TCG Set Legality

Booster Packs

• LOB - Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon

• MRD - Metal Raiders

• MRL - Magic Ruler

• SRL - Spell Ruler

• PSV - Pharaoh's Servant

• LON - Labyrinth of Nightmare

• LOD - Legacy of Darkness

• PGD - Pharaonic Guardian

• MFC - Magician's Force

• DCR - Dark Crisis

• IOC - Invasion of Chaos

• AST - Ancient Sanctuary

• SOD - Soul of the Duelist

• ROD - Rise of Destiny

• FET - Flaming Eternity

• TLM - The Lost Millennium

Starter Decks

• SDY - Yugi

• SDK - Kaiba

• SDP - Pegasus

• SDJ - Joey

• SKE - Kaiba Evolution

• SYE - Yugi Evolution

Structure Decks

• SD1 - Dragon's Roar

• SD2 - Zombie Madness

• SD3 - Blaze of Destruction

• SD4 - Fury from the Deep

Tin Promos

• BPT - 2002 and 2003 Collector's Tins

• CT1 - 2004 Collector's Tins

• CT2 - 2005 Collector's Tins

Special Editions

• IOC-SE - Invasion of Chaos SE

• ROD-SE - Rise of Destiny SE

• TLM-SE - The Lost Millennium SE

TCG Reprint Sets

• DB1 - Dark Beginning 1

• DB2 - Dark Beginning 2

• DR1 - Dark Revelation Volume 1

• DR2 - Dark Revelation Volume 2

• DR3 - Dark Revelation Volume 3

Tournament Packs

• TP1 - Tournament Pack 1

• TP2 - Tournament Pack 2

• TP3 - Tournament Pack 3

• TP4 - Tournament Pack 4

• TP5 - Tournament Pack 5

• TP6 - Tournament Pack 6

Jump Magazine Subscription Cards

• Blue-Eyes White Dragon

• Red-Eyes B. Dragon

• Archfiend of Gilfer

• Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon

Miscellaneous Sets

• MP1 - McDonald's Promotional Cards

• PT1 - Pharaoh's Tour Championship Prize Cards 2005

Miscellaneous Cards

• Kanan the Swordsmistress

• Black Luster Soldier

• Firewing Pegasus

A few thoughts

It's been a very long while since I made a blog post, and in all honesty with the game as inert as it is it's very hard to make consistent posts. I've been following Michael Bonacini's initiative and have revisited the April 2005 format.

I've been very impressed with the format to the point where I play it more than I play Advanced. Surprisingly, the demand has been very large and I'm having no difficulty in finding a game. More surprisingly, I've managed to get a decent following for it on Pojo, perhaps suggesting it isn't the completely inane well of idiocy some portray it to be.

With that point raised, I'd like to respond to one of Michael's posts briefly. Link to post here. The content of his post is accurate. I can't disagree with anything he said because in all honesty it's true. What I will say, however, is that his post seems somewhat mis-targeted. From my personal experience, I do find that this sort of player extends far beyond the boundaries of just Pojo; I find them wherever I go, be it YouTube, DuelingNetwork, locals or wherever I venture. Although Pojo does seem to have a disturbing accumulation of these players, especially (if not, exclusively) in the Forbidden/Limited forums, I don't think it's accurate to say that Pojo is the sole culprit of the game devolving as it is.

I'm also becoming increasingly frustrated with Konami. Their motives are so blatantly about pushing product that it's sad. Kevin's F/L list articles are a crude attempt to make the list seem altruistic when in reality it acts solely as a form of pseudo set rotation. This goes for their other articles too. They seem to be more about pushing the card than discussing its relevance and design in an honest and open way. And to no discredit to the authors, some of the articles are very misleading or at least show lack of proper knowledge. When I read the Void Ogre Dragon article suggest that people should be discarding cards in an Infernity deck, part of me died.

On that note, my Chain Infernity variant has been testing flawlessly. It has good match-ups against most of the meta. Dino Rabbit just doesn't have outs to Barrier, Chaos Dragons aren't designed to be able to handle mass back row, Inzektors have a tough time handling the negation and Wind-Ups lose their win condition after I take a turn. If the OCG weren't so busy maining triple Beetle in a redundant attempt to summon VOD on the first turn, they might have noticed how obscene Lavalval Chain was as a brute consistency engine. Running the first turn VOD variant (A.K.A. BVOD) is quite frankly idiotic. The deck can't do what Dino Rabbit does and forfeiting so many plays for a mediocre boss monster that dies to Fiendish Chain/Compulsory Evacuation Device is asking for trouble. It's far better to abuse what Infernity is best at: raw advantage. The BVOD variant just doesn't have a reliable +1 engine to fall back on after their field gets dismantled.

I'll go into a bit more detail about Infernity in an upcoming post. There's an awful lot to talk about.

Goat Control format has been very appealing to me so far. The fact that I can be hit by a first turn full trinity and still win leaves a very nice feeling. The deck is also a lot of fun and the format is unbelievably balanced. It's nice to actually play against my opponent rather than just their deck. I highly recommend trying out the format.

Here's a guide I made on Pojo if you need somewhere to start. Link here. A lot of people don't have accurate access to the F/L list or legality for the format (the Wikia's one is inaccurate), so that thread is pretty good in that regard.

On another note, I'll probably be removing the rating system below. While I've always wanted honest feedback and I do appreciate the good ratings I get, I don't want to have to restrain myself just to appeal to readers. I want to be more honest in my posts and I feel that it's the best way to go about it.

Leave a comment if you want.

~Valafar123

Teleport Zombies

Hello, Yu-Gi-Oh! Blogosphere. As promised, here's the Zombie deck list. The ban list gave Zombies a lot to play with this format. For starters, E-Tele to 2. E-Tele gives Zombies the speed they've been craving for quite some time. We can now summon Brionac fairly quickly and have out grave set up within a few turns. Secondly we were given CotH at 3. Given all the floaters the deck can run, CotH works out very nicely.

Deck List:

Screenshot from DN, for those who prefer visual deck lists

Monsters: 22

[1] Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

[1] Card Trooper

[1] Dark Armed Dragon

[2] Effect Veiler

[3] Goblin Zombie

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[2] Krebons

[1] Mezuki

[1] Mystic Tomato

[1] Plaguespreader Zombie

[2] Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

[1] Sangan

[1] Spirit Reaper

[3] Tour Guide from the Underworld

[1] Zombie Master

Spells: 13

[1] Allure of Darkness

[1] Book of Life

[1] Charge of the Light Brigade

[1] Dark Hole

[2] Emergency Teleport

[1] Foolish Burial

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Mind Control

[1] Monster Reborn

[2] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Pot of Avarice

Traps: 5

[3] Call of the Haunted

[2] Torrential Tribute

Synchros: 9

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Orient Dragon

[2] Revived King Ha Des

[1] Scrap Dragon

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] T.G. Hyper Librarian

Exceeds: 6

[1] Daigusto Emeral

[2] Leviair the Sea Dragon

[1] Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

[1] Number 39: Utopia

[1] Wind-Up Zenmaines

Review:


This particular build focuses more on abusing floaters than it does Synchro/Exceed swarming. With Mezuki at 1, I find that aggressive builds suffer some consistency issues, so this is more of a control build that works by generating advantage, and then using that advantage to fuel plays. As always, the deck relies heavily on Brionac, mainly for the discard. Solemn Warning can cause Brionac a headache, but fortunately we have Emeral and Avarice to recycle it back to the Extra Deck and get a free draw too.

The E-Tele engine essentially allows one to summon Brionac (long with other synchros) a lot more easily. In the past cards like Deep Sea Diva were used, but I've found Diva to be inefficient for this format because it uses up ones normal summon. That's where E-Tele comes in. E-Tele gives one an instant level 2 Tuner on demand. One can then use that Tuner to Synchro with Sangan or Goblin Zombie to get your search. If one searches into PSZ/Mezuki, you can then discard it for Brionac and bounce a pesky Exceed or Synchro monster back to the Extra Deck, or get a free turn of attacks. This allows one to instantly set up the Graveyard for future abuse whilst not losing any real advantage. Additionally, Krebons is DARK attribute, which has plenty of support in the form of Allure, Dark Armed, Tomato and BLS-EotB.

In the past, the E-Tele engine has often been seen paired with the Destiny engine (Stratos, Malicious, Diamond, Doom Lord, RotA, Allure and D-Draw). I did test the engine since I had a lot of success with it in 2009 (the last time it was viable), but I found 2 copies of Destiny Draw to be insufficient and often resulted in dead hands. Feel free to try it if you can find space, but don't expect anything fantastic.

The second part of the deck is the Zombie engine. I'm using it to make advantage-neutral Synchro plays. The engine is fairly self-explanatory; use Goblin and Master for Synchros and take advantage of PSZ and Mezuki along the way. I'm only using 1 Zombie Master. With Veiler and other similar cards quite prevalent, I find that Zombie Master doesn't really do much very often. It's good enough to run, but not good enough to rely on in my opinion. I'm using 3 Goblin Zombie for consistency. I can also search other copies of Goblin off of it, so I can stay advantage neutral for most of the duel. Sprit Reaper is and always has been good in Zombies as a 1 of. It gives you stall and hand destruction, two things this deck appreciates. I threw in a random Book of Life for Leviair plays.

Finally, the near-staple Tour Guide engine. TGftU gives one access to Leviair, a card this deck likes a lot. For this deck, it's Burial From The Different Dimension 2.0. It lets one abuse all of the removal outlets in this deck, namely Mezuki, PSZ, BLS-EotB and DAD. Being able to continually reuse these cards is too good an opportunity to pass up. Additionally, it gives one access to Zenmaines, which is one of the best control cards this format in my opinion.

One of the new toys this deck got from the ban list was CotH at 3. With back row destruction so plentiful, CotH really shines. Chaining it to destruction lets you gain access to the effects Sangan, Goblin Zombie and Card Trooper, which will in turn give you a +1. And of course, it can just be used for general revival of monsters to help one make aggressive plays. I'm really liking this card at 3 at the moment.

I opted against the Solemn brigade. Torrential and Veiler are more effective for this particular deck. Veiler is graveyard fodder and Torrential lets you deal with swarms whilst not losing advantage due to the copious number of floaters.

Ryko is in there against Laggia. It also lets you fill up your grave as a bonus. One can also use it to bluff with CotLB by setting Goblin or Reaper instead, which could buy a turn to make plays.

The rest of the deck is staples, which don't need explaining. I'm only running 2 MST because of space constraints.

Conclusion:


It's a fun Tier 2 deck to play around with. I don't think it's strong enough to consistently take on the Tier 1 decks, but it does fine against most other decks.

Hope you all enjoyed the deck list. Please rate and comment.

~Valafar123

Quick Update

I got a request from Pojo for my current Infernity build, so I thought I'd post it here in tandem with an update.

I might do a review on this after I post my Tele-Zombie deck list. I just need to get more play testing done.

Also, I'm feeling a lot of negativity on my last post. I'm going to guess it was any of the following:

• The quality of the post was poor. I've got the balls to admit it, it wasn't as good as some of the posts I've done in the past. It's hard to go in depth about something I've already talked about and hasn't changed much, so my apologies if that was the problem. I'll try to keep it fresh in future and put a little more time into my deck profiles.
• Storm fanboys.
• The deck itself. Maybe people don't like the build. That's fair enough I guess, but it's been solid in testing. To each their own.

Please leave a comment so I know what I'm doing wrong. :/

Also, why I it whenever I run a deck with 9 monsters I open with 5 of them, and when I run a deck with 24+ monsters I open with only 1. Oh DN, why must you troll me. -.-

~Valafar123

LIGHT/Hero Beat for March 2012

Here's one of the decks I mentioned in my earlier post. It's doing better than I expected.

Choices:

• Cyber Dragon: I still main and side a CyDra. It's good for those pesky 2000 DEF walls and is a nice counter to Zenmaines, which can be a very frustrating card.
• Thunder King Rai-Oh: good card is still good. Dropping this on turn 1 is crippling to most meta decks. Inzektors do get around him, which is annoying, but it's very nice against everything else. His negation effect works through Skill Drain, which is always a bonus. Having a 1900 Black Horn of Heaven on legs when your opponent's monsters are limited to mere beatsticks is very good. Verz Heliotrope gives TKRO issues, however.
• E - Emergency Call: I see a lot of OCG builds use it, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's decent, but I'll probably drop it to 1. Luckily Skill Drain removes the conflict with TKRO.
• Miracle Fusion: bumping it to 3 because of Grapha. Sided out Skill Drains, sided in DCK, MST and Sack Storm.
• Compulsory Evacuation Device: still good. Another out to Zenmaines and a very nice disruptive card. Two was overkill, one is perfect.
• Dimensional Prison: dropped to 2 because of Sack Storm. It's been very good in testing. Most people don't see it coming and it makes TKRO very hard to deal with for some decks.
• Mirror Force: I still like it. With SLR mained, it becomes very good.
• Skill Drain: best anti-meta card of the format without a doubt. It renders the big three decks totally useless.
• Solemn Brigade: this is a control deck. Enough said.
• Starlight Road: I mained 2 last time Sack Storm was legal and I main 2 now. Very good card, especially with DH legal and TT at 2. Most decks don't have many outs to back row because Storm does the work for them. Being able to shut down their enabler is nice. It also lets you safely put 2+ monsters on the field without risking 1/5 of all of your monsters.
• Torrential Tribute: nice against a lot of decks. This deck keeps a low monster presence, so it fits nicely in here.
• Hero Blast: too slow so I dropped it.
• Bottomless Trap Hole: redundant thanks to TT.
• Doomcalibur Knight: strong generic side card. Works through Skill Drain so you can stop hand and graveyard shenanigans.
• Maxx "C": Wind-ups.
• Snowman Eater: Rabbit.
• Abyssal Designator: It's dueling network; I play against a lot of Exodia decks.
• Sack Storm: for anything that's annoying.
• Mystical Space Typhoon: good against some decks.
• Super Polymerization: mostly for the mirror match.
• Chain Disappearance: it really hurts a lot of decks, namely Inzektors. Mostly for lower tier decks though.

Next up will be Teleport Zombies.

~Valafar123

Lavalval Chain

Lavalval Chain is soooooo good. This was Turn 3 or so.

And yes, I'm alive.

*fake cheering from background*

Anyway, just a few quick thoughts:

• The new ban list finally addressed Plants, so I am happy. However, it failed to address every other glaring problem in the game. Namely a certain spell card that really shouldn't be legal with the game the way it is.
• Trish banned brought a tear to my eye. It needed a ban, but I will miss it. Luckily, Verz Ouroboros is playing well in testing and has equally awesome artwork.
• Tele-DAD prices woo. Maxx "C" and TGFTU are $120 each last time I checked. Rescue Rabbit's going for about $40-80 from what I've seen. That makes it about $1000 for a Bunny main deck. I wonder how much the extra deck costs.
• Wind-Ups, Bunny and Inzektors. I don't think I need to say anything. I'd rather give Sams first turn for an entire match than play against these things.
• Inzektors are fun. Very broken, but somewhat satisfying. Yes, I'm a hypocrite.
• Bunny with Verz Heliotrope is good. Verz Bahamut's discard cost is frustrating though.
• Skill Drain is very good.
• Lavalval Chain is very good.
• Heroes are good. Nice to see them do well in the OCG again.
• OCG isn't using BFs. I didn't even know that was possible.
• Emergency Teleport with Goblin Zombie shenanigans is effective.
• I miss big back rows. Was more fun and took more effort to win against imo.
• Most of OCG land still doesn't know how to run Infernity properly.
• Even now I still call Exceeds Exceeds. I refuse to call them Xyz. That's not even a word, nor is it any permutation of any word I know. How Kevin gets "exseeze" from "xyz" I'm not sure. I get "ziz" from "xyz". I'm sure XYZ-Dragon Cannon is weeping.
• I don't like the new blogger layout. That said, I'm glad they kept my "magic fix problem" button, more commonly known as the "remove formatting" button. If any of you bloggers out there don't know about it, you should. It's the easiest way to fix buggy posts.

That's about it really. I may or may not make more posts. I want to share a few things I've been working on, so if you're an optimist you have something to look forward to.

~Valafar123

D-Boyz In Da 'Hood

If you are not aware yet, Konami has announced another TCG exclusive in addition to Alexandrite Dragon and Wind-Up Zenmaines called D-Boyz.

As you can see, D-Boyz's picture is quite odd. It features three people who appear to be from the "Ghetto." I feel that this type of artwork is something Konami would not make due to the name and appearance not being "kid friendly" or "child appropriate."

Onto the actual card. D-Boyz is a Level 1 Dark Fiend-Type Monster with 100 ATK and 1000 DEF. It has a Flip Effect in which you can Special Summon up to two D-Boyz from your Deck, but you take 1000 damage for each 1. It was obviously designed for making Rank 1 Xyz's such as Number 83: Galaxy Queen and Baby Tiragon. However, these monsters aren't worth the effort put into summoning them. And to top it off, D-Boyz is a Secret Rare that requires a playset to properly use. In my eyes, this was a poor attempt to promote Rank 1 Xyz's.

The only use I can see for this card is in Mystic Piper decks. First, it's another level 1 target for Piper and Kinka-Byo. Second, it's a Dark monster to fuel your Chaos boss monsters. Finally, it easily fills the Graveyard for cards like Pot of Avarice.

~Arceus

Chain Burn

As I promised, here's the Chain Burn deck list. Once again, I apologize for not posting as frequently as I would like. I've been overwhelmed by work in recent weeks. Gears of War 3 coming out on Tuesday doesn't help either. But I digress. I'll be trying a new format where I bold card names. Hopefully this will make referencing cards easier and add a little bit of style. I'm also learning to program in html code, so you may see a few interesting things on my posts in the future.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Chain Burn, it's a fairly old deck which does exactly what the name suggests: it chains and it burns. The reason for chaining is for three specific cards; Chain Strike, Accumulated Fortune and Fairy Wind. Chain Strike and Accumulated Fortune debuted in CDIP, what is often considered to be one of the worst packs in existence. Incidentally, the best cards in that pack were all commons. Chain Strike lets you deal 2000 or more damage with relative ease whilst Accumulated Fortune lets you replenish your hand. Fairy Wind was released much later in ANPR and is probably the best support the deck has received since CDIP. It's essentially Chain Strike, but without the name clause and the added bonus of not needing to be at the end of a chain to function correctly^[1].

Another ruling people forget is that it is possible to have 2 Chain Strikes OR 2 Accumulated Fortunes per chain. These  cards don't count their own names, only the names of cards lower down in the chain link. This is why Strike is semi; to make it unlikely that one chain link will end the game then and there.

The rest of the deck is essentially chainable draw, stall and burn cards. Morphing Jar is in there because it gives you a fresh hand. In some respects, Jar is a win condition. It does tend to be obvious though, hence sided Marshmallon.

People often question my usage of Battle Fader. People often choose Swift Scarecrow over Fader because it can't be hit by Solemn Warning. I run Fader because it can be hit by Warning. Being down 2000 LP is not a good thing against this sort of deck. Royal Oppression is banned too, making Fader much more effective than it once was.

Ojama Trio is for those opponents who like to wise-up to your plays. People tend to keep their monsters in hand in fear of Just Desserts and Ceasefire, so Trio gives you a way to make Desserts active (though Ceasefire won't work because Tokens are normal monsters). Trio is a great jammer. Nothing like playing it when your opponent is trying to special summon a third monsters as a part of some combo. Trio also acts as a catalyst, speeding up the deck.

All the outs are sided. Lava Golem deals with any monsters that will cause you problems and deals 1000 damage every turn (that you can chain to). Double Snare deals with trap negators. Mystical Space Typhoon deals with annoying spells or traps. The rest is just cards that are good in certain matchups.

That's about it for the deck. It's relatively simple. If anybody has any comments, leave them below.

Here's a link to the pojo page (vets only): http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?p=22622824#post22622824

~Valafar123

Response?

Activate Heavy Storm, response?

Click for a larger image

Quite a few responses actually. There's nothing like 5100 burn damage and a fresh hand. Won the match 2-0.

In this lucksack based format, I prefer to win with style.

I'll do a more detailed post about the deck later. I just thought this was too funny not to share.

~Valafar123

Through The Hellhole: Part 2

Good day to you fellow members of the blogosphere. Yes, I'm well aware I've been putting off making posts (again), but be assured that my reasons are justifiable. But we're not here to talk about the various mishaps that accumulate together to form my life.

As many of you have heard thanks to Allan's post, the Sanguide engine was more or less made redundant due to the finalized version of the exceed rulings. I will admit I did get a bit of a laugh knowing that people spent a ridiculous amount of money on a card that's only as good as the flimsy ruling that influences it. The biggest culprit of this is Konami, or rather their lack of communication with the player base. And that's the topic of today's post; communication.

As some of you may know, I recently started playing Magic: The Gathering (or MTG for short). I'm not going to hype Wizards of the Coast in this post, although they certainly deserve it. Instead I'm going to be critical of Konami, something that's not that hard to do given their history.

A good place to start is on their websites. I'll cut to the chase and get right to where the communication should be happening. To start with, Konami's articles for YGO:

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/

Pardon my shrewdness, but the Konami articles reek of "buy our product". Occasionally they do post rulings, which is good that they're finally doing that, but for the most part their articles are just a few combos to try and sell product. No offense to the writers of those articles, of course. They just do what they're told to do.

Now let's compare with MTG:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Default.aspx

A noticeable difference. WotC have a daily magazine which they update consistently. They're a lot more subtle than Konami too. Take this article, for example. Not only did they make the article flavorful, it was in depth and they also had the courtesy of making a few sample deck lists. If you noticed, there's also a contest at the end of the article. I've never known Konami to do the same. From time to time, they also do polls at the end of posts to get feedback.

If you're a pojoer, then you may not have noticed it, but all the cards mentioned are linked and if you hover above them, it will show an image and if you click it, it will go to their database for that card. That's right, they actually had the sense to make a card database. YGO players only have the Wikia to rely on, and the Wikia was created by players, not Konami.

For any of you who about how WotC approaches their ban list, you'll know that it trumps Konami's methods. With Konami, they do what they want. There isn't a shred of communication involved. Konami decides what they want to die and what they want to live and that's the end of it. Some people may say Heavy Storm's return was due to some players "demanding" it back. I'm inclined to disagree. HS being legal and MST at 3 stinks of promotion to me. Monsters are now able to hit the field with little to no opposition. No thought involved. Summon what you have and try to kill your opponent. But wait, didn't Konami just release a new type of monster that is really easy to summon? More than a coincidence I think. It's not the first time. Destiny Hero - Malicious and Allure of Darkness suddenly going to 3 on the September 2008 list probably had something to do with those cards with the wight frames, and possibly even something to do with getting rid of Upper Deck Entertainment.

I think it's a case of incompetence and greed at the same time, not a nice mix if I do say so myself. But I digress.

WotC rarely need to hit cards. They spend a lot more time and effort with their R&D department (which is a topic for another post). Sometimes they do make genuine unintentional mistakes, such as the Splintertwin combo (which is inconsistent anyway) or Jace the Mind Sculptor. And I'm sure most of you know what happened to Jace. He got banned. Unlike Konami, WotC didn't wait 6 months to do it either. They knew they had made a mistake and they took responsibility for it.

Does anybody remember X-Sabers? They were quite good for quite some time. Almost broken. They had hand-killing power (which was very good at the time if you weren't in the Infernity matchup), swarm power and loop power. Does anybody know what happened to them? The answer is nothing. Konami never hit them. Konami put off hitting them for so long that power creep killed them instead. XX-Saber Darksoul and/or XX-Saber Faultroll should have been hit on the September 2010 lists. One year later and they're all at 3. Arguably banning Rescue Cat and Cold Wave was a hit to them, but that's like saying banning Brain Control was a hit to Monarchs. Konami has this ridiculous rule that they never hit anything that doesn't exist in the OCG, and it's been destroying the TCG for years. The fact that they only do a ban list every 6 months just adds insult to injury. If they did them more frequently, we wouldn't have had to deal with Shi En for nearly 7 months.

Konami needs to pay more attention to their player base. And I don't mean the randoms on Pojo who are adamant that putting Torrential Tribute, Tribe-Infecting Virus and Magician of Faith at 3 will somehow make this format better, but the "pro" players who are actually there topping events consistently and know what they're talking about. If WotC, a considerably smaller company, can go the effort of not only acknowledging and discussing their top players, but also listens to them, then surely Konami can.

But I suppose Konami will be Konami...

~Valafar123

Sanguide Dies

Check out Page 45.

Or this handy-dandy article from Konami.

This section specifically defines what will and will not trigger a “leaves the field” effect. A card on the field that is sent to the Graveyard, banished, or returned to the hand or Extra Deck can activate its “leaves the field” effect. A card that is shuffled into the Main Deck or becomes Xyz Material cannot.

And just like that, Sanguide died. Good bloody riddance. Xyzombies also took a massive hit, since Goblin Zombie no longer gets it's effect from being Detached.

I'm too tried to write up a proper post on this - it's 3:32AM! - right now, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the update. Sell your Tour Guides now before the price crash!

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