Thursday, May 31, 2012

Making the top 32 Cut

I'm specifically targeting this blog post to Mike Ting, yes, the dude that has yet been seeded to top 32, and all of his hopes falls on this Saturday.

Landing a seat in the Top 32 before the Tournament even starts is huge. But many don't realize how important this can be, me myself included until recently. For many, you auto-seeding to top 32 means you play lesser rounds. That is true. But that is not the only benefit, and above all, that is the least of the many benefits.

I'm gonna break it down into point form.

(1) Unlike the dude who would be playing 3 or 4 rounds (yes, thats so low as compare to a standard YCS's 11; but its single elimination and this is Malaysia), you get to sit back and relax for the first 4 hours of the tournament. You get to have a proper lunch (a luxury most people playing on Tournament day won't have) and enough time to clear your mind. I find trading, buying and selling cards a way to clear my mind of stress, but this is me. Normally I don't have time to do that.

Getting enough rest, water and a clear mind is important if you want to top. Of cause, there are those who would only get into mood after a few rounds, rather than going through single elimination, do some practice rounds with your fellow teammates or even fellow seeders (I doubt any one of them would show case their deck so easily).

(2) Side decking. This is the main advantage of the seeding, preparing your side deck. When going through the preliminary rounds, you face a lot of rogue decks. I've heard some people saying they rather not play a single Inzektor the entire day. For me, I would rather ALL my opponents be Inzektors, cause I know how to side against them and play against them all too well. Not facing a single Inzektor the entire day in this format is only possible if you drop. It is Inzektor format, half the field would be Inzektor. And facing these top decks, you better be prepared. But, what if you faced this rogue deck that you had not prepared a side deck for? That would be disastrous.

I'm not saying a rogue deck can't place itself in the Top 32, but I'm pretty sure at least half of the field would be Inzektors. Your chances of facing a deck that your used to fight against is significantly higher. You could go into the tournament main decking a pair of Chain Disappearance without too much fear of rogue match ups. That is huge!!

Also, I say 80 if not 90% of the top 32 would be top tier decks. This means bad news, only to those who are not prepared. This means your side deck can be concentrated for these match ups, especially the Big 3, in Malaysia's case, Inzektors, Machina and Hieratics (yes, Rabbit dropped out).

If your playing Inzektors, side in those Mind Crushes and Electric Virus. Hieratics? You can actually consider main decking Macro Cosmos because the chances of meeting another Hieratic are actually quite slime (due to their price tag). Machina can have both Imprisoning Mirrors in their deck and lock the field down with Fortress's 2500.

That said, all of the players you'll be playing are at least above average if not Malaysian-God level. But hey, if your just starting out, Top 32 in WCQ is good accomplishment!

(3) Tech cards! Similar to side decking, you can now main hate cards to your worst match ups and not feel bad about it. Nightshot says Hi! Since I don't think there's gonna be any Chaos Dragons, Lightlords and Junk Doppel making the top cut. You also have the luxury to test play only against the top decks (not advisable, but possible if you are busy or just flat out lazy).

A couple of techs that I would like to try are : Wise-man Chalice, Solemn Warning (this card is no longer a staple if your not playing Inzektors over here, even in Inzektors, some took them out) and Return from a Different Dimension.

Conclusion is, don't waste your seedings (I need to remind myself that too) cause you don't get these luxury that often. Also, don't waste your last chance to grab it, Mike. :)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hieratic Techs : Forbidden Chalice

I main copies of Forbidden Chalice, Mike and Andrew knows this. Oh, before I forget, Congrats Andrew, for winning last Sunday's Seed Qualifier, with Hanzo Hieratics. This Saturday is the last qualifier in KL, so I really do hope Mike don't waste it, considering he lives 5 minutes from Card Arena.

Back to topic. I was siding Chalice until 2 weeks ago where I gradually began to see myself siding them in every single game. Now, its a firm piece in my deck that I would not consider taking out without strong reasonings.

Chalice acts as extra copies of Veilers, to some. To me, Veiler acts as extra copies of Chalice. Playing a playset of them lets you have up to 6 effect negation which is more than enough to seal a game, if played right. I'm discussing this card from a Hieratic player's point of view, if your piloting another deck type, this might not be the case. Also, the Hieratic deck I'm talking about doesn't feature Gustaph MAX, since its a promo, and that card is down right broke and made Hieratics almost Auto pilot. Not here.

If your gonna tech anything in this format, it better be Inzektor hate. That is exactly what this card is. While it shuts down a lot of decks, this card is mainly there to mess up Inzektors even more. Some might argue this to be a weak counterpart to Veiler because you can't play them without setting them first. You can't play Chalice when your opponent is going first, meaning you can't stop their turn 1 combo. That is true, not gonna argue with that. But, does it really matter?

Sure, if I hold Chalice and my opponent opens Damsel and Gruf, he easily makes a Rank 5 and sets up for next turn. If you hold Veiler, you can stop that. But, in most times, I don't bother stopping my opponent at all. Veiler is like precious ammo your low on, why waste it on something thats not a threat. I'm saying a rank 5 on my opponent side of the field isn't much a threat to begin with. I basing this off the point that Exa-Beetle takes care of it and my OTK will go through no matter what they put on the board. Saving that Veiler for a Hornet play is much more effective because they now minus-one'd themselves. I never really play Hornet on an Inzektor unless its equipped with Hornet (unless the situation calls for it), if my opponent wants to equip Hornet during the first turn, I don't really care. If so, what differs Veiler from Lance? The immunity to MST maybe, but apart from that, it isn't that much of a difference. (To me)

Like I've said previously, Chalice can also be use offensively. The three Hieratic OTK, it can't be done in Asian format, sad to say. But, with Chalice, it is possible. Usually, you end up making 2 Gaia Dragoons and a Watt Dragon (with 2 Red-Eyes in def). The total damage you can ditch out is 7700. Chalice helps you put end the game right there. You can also use it on a Tragodia, making it a 0 defense monster and walk through it with Gaia Dragoon. Its just a very very versatile card.

Of cause, all cards have a flip side. The 400 attack boost may serve as much as a threat as the opposing monster's ability. Side out this card against Hieratics and Chaos Dragons. While this card can stop REDMD from summoning another dragon (and saving your ass for the turn), it makes the dragon over 3000 for the turn too. Although one may argue that this card can be good to get pass Koaki Meiru Drago, there are just better cards for either match ups. But seeing that Inzektors are still the most popular deck in the format, I think it is safe to have it mained.

Thanks for reading, and again, most of the points are based on my point of view, you don't have to agree with me and I welcome discussions.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

May 26th Toysbar Tournament report

Didn't felt like joining, my initial plan was to play test with Mike and Fishtank. But, there's this 2 annoying guys (very childish fellows) keep asking me have I signed up. And they didn't really took my "no"'s as an answer either. I ended up pulling in Mark and Fishtank to play, since it would be boring otherwise.

Yesterday at Toysbar was random, the moment I came in, this random dude was like talking to me like we're the best of friends, and I was like "who the fuck are you?" I thought he was one of my friend's friend, so I tried to not be rude, turns out no one knows him. LOL. And another dude was like trying to teach me and Mike how to properly play Inzektors.

Deck used : Hieratics

Reasons : I wanna test out my new side deck and techs against Inzektors since I know both Mark and Fishtank played them

Match 1 : VS Inzektor - Fishtank

Duel 1 : I rush and win.

Duel 2 : I open Cosmos and keep Drago on the board, beat for game after a few turns. He didn't pull any side decked cards it seems.

00

1-0

Match 2 : VS Machina Gadget

Duel 1 : I open Torrential and Cardcar D. He ditch 2 Fortress and got Fortress out, I play Torrential. He ditch Ancient Gear Dragon for Fortress, and swing for 2500. I proceed to OTK.

Duel 2 : He set a S/T and a field spell. I play Heavy and OTK.

00

2-0

Match 3 : VS Chaos Dragons - not the kind you are used to, this one is really random - the random dude

Duel 1 : I start and just pass the turn. He open Wyvern and swing for 1600. I just OTK him the next turn dropping 2 Gaia, a REDMD and a Drago (just to make sure he can't drop Trago//Gorz).

Duel 2 : He opens by setting a monster and 3 Face downs. I set Chalice and Wing Blast, resolving Cardcar D. He summons Sangan and flip Ryko, I chain Chalice since he targeted it anyway, he swings for 1600. I Duality into my OTK pieces and pass. Then he did something really random, Foolish for White Stone of Legend (getting him  Blue-Eyes), play Call to make Iron Chain Dragon, netting him another Blue-Eyes and Summoner Monk. Then, he played another Call to make Exploder Wing Dragon, getting him his third Blue-Eyes (at this point, I was about to ask him, did he had Polymerization). He then drop BLS on the board and proceed to attack for 5400, leaving me at 1000. I knew his 4 cards in hand are all crap, I just ditch Emerald Dragon for Wing Blast, go all out next turn, make 2 Gaias and a REDMD (sadly, I can't kill him yet since he had 2 BIG monsters), but I had MST in hand, and he has 4 useless cards, so it just took an extra turn.

After the match, the dude keep telling me and his friend that he almost had me or something. I was like dude, I had Wing Blast all the time, what are you talking about. But his point was he had me down to 1000. I was utterly speechless.

00

3-0

Match 4 : VS Inzektor - Mark

Duel 1 : I open OTK and won.

Duel 2 : He opens OTK and won.

Duel 3 : The first few turns go very slow. He had 4 set and was debating whether he wants to set his 5th card, he passed. I drop Tfenut, he plays Warning. I drop a second Tfenut, he played Book of Moon. I flip Dust Tornado, hitting his Wing Blast, proceed to OTK, his last card was MST. After the match, he showed me the card he was debating whether to set, it was Solemn Judgment, me and Fishtank were like "Dude, why did you not set that", he didn't really understand why he didn't set it either.

0X0

4-0

Ranking : 1st - got 3 Promo packs but pulled crap.

Did a lot of selling and buying (more to the selling) yesterday. Also, test played with Mike, Andrew and later Ryan till 12.30am last night at Card Arena. Came home at about 1 in the morning to find both my parent still awake in the living room, awkward!!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Chaos Dragons : The Dark Horse of WCQ

No one in Malaysia gives a shit bout this deck, seriously, no one takes them seriously. Many of the Malaysian players don't follow the TCG at all and for the few who does, they would think that Tourguide or other TCG exclusives made the deck good. Some people came into the conclusion of Chaos Dragon's domination was due to the TCG format. While others think that the deck dies to Macro Cosmos (a card seen in every side deck aside from Inzektors and Dark World)

My answer to this would be : Inzektors perform horribly if your opponent puts a Macro on the board. But did that stop them from being the number one deck in the META? If so, why would that stop Chaos Dragons from being a power house? Like any sideboard hate, you need to draw into them first, and who says the defending player can't have outs.

Dino-Rabbit is the deck to beat in the TCG, Dino-Rabbit is a deck that could main copies of Macro Cosmos and not feel bad bout it. But the most recent YCS had 2 Chaos Dragons beating 2 Dino-Rabbits in the semi-finals for a Dragon Showdown in the finals. The Rabbits not playing Macro? Highly unlikely.

People here think of Hieratics as the go-to Dragon deck for the format, because Hieratics are one of the most explosive decks available. But, compare to Chaos Dragons, Hieratics are control decks. People say that decks that explode based on mills will not turn out good because there are luck factors involve. Hello, Lightlord was the TOP DECK for 2 formats, and they essentially run on the same engine. Also, Lightlord has 3 Judgments, and milling them means trouble. In Chaos Dragons, you don't care what you mill, your bosses come back anyway.

In one of my earlier post, I've stated that this deck has a bad game-2 and 3. Basically means, you need to win Game-1 to stay in the game. This was based on the fact that this deck dies horribly to Macro Cosmos. While the fact that this deck dies to Macro is ever present, I forgot a very important note. This deck has TONS of back row hate, even in the Asia format. Triple Lyla, Ryko, MSTs and the single Heavy means one-fourth of your deck is back row hate. Your opponent would only have 3 Macro, and the chances of your opponent drawing into them before you have a backrow hate is significantly lower.

I've stated that you would HAVE to win game 1, but after more thinking, this deck would most likely take game 1 anyway. The sheer explosiveness of this deck is unparalleled this format. Without Gustaph Max, Hieratics actually have a much much harder time going for OTK.  If anyone has played Dragons, they would tell you, if you resolve Future Fusion, the only reason you lost would be because your opponent has an infinite amount of outs, or your just plain bad. Most Malaysian duelist aren't familiar with this, and a vast majority of them may end up not playing MST on your Future Fusion. Also, most of them don't understand Lightpulsar Dragon.

The fact that you could very well play MST and chain Mirror Force//Torrential Tribute on Pulsar and Red-Eyes not coming back may be Astrophysics to some of the Malaysian duelist. Simply put, aside from the big names and those who hang out with them a lot; most Malaysian duelist are bandwagon hoppers with limited amount of knowledge on rulings. And running a fast pace deck and unconventional deck like this may just make your opponent confused. Think Confuse Ray, they might just end up Hitting Themselves (like playing Torrential Tribute on your Pulsar so you can't deal damage to their Centipede).

Lastly, I've also considered that while Chaos Dragons aren't tough to side against, the fact that most of them think that Chaos Dragons is that deck that plays White Stone of Legend and Blue Eyes would make them side the wrong cards against you. Or rather, they won't know how to side against you to begin with.

I've spend half of this post stating the fact that Malaysian Duelist are of a lower standard. Don't get me wrong, there are a good amount very good duelist here where you wouldn't want to meet in Tournaments like WCQ. But skill gap between Good and Mediocre is very very large and the majority of the people playing this game falls under the latter group. Thats why you've been seeing the same guys topping tournament since forever.

Conclusion of this post would be, Chaos Dragons is a deck that most people aren't expecting, and therefore not prepared. Meaning you should play something like this if you don't want to go into the top tables for Mirror Matches.

(Personal Opinions)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Zexal Gods?

Whose the artist? Cause I would really like to shake his hand

Most likely just fan made cards, but these arts sure look cool. Based on Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, which most people (myself included) has been suspecting; since Konami is very predictable to a certain degree.

So, all there of them have the "the summon of this card cannot be negated" which is fitting for a god. And they all also feature the "This card cannot be targeted by spell, trap and monster effect", sorta like Obelisk. Gay? Well, they are gods, they are meant to be broken and lay waste to your opponent if you can get it out on the board. I say that, but getting 3 level 10 monsters onto the board isn't something a lot of decks can do. 

Oh, and in case you guys are thinking why they lack Obelisk and Osiris's "when this card is special summon, destroy it in the end phase" effect, well, they are xyz monsters. Their main effect would be gone making the (fucking big) vanillas if you special summon them via reborn.

On to the individual card review, all of them have the 2 effects I've mentioned, so I'm gonna skip that. I'll just mention their individual effects.

Ocean Dragon God - Poseidon

R10/Divine/Divine-Beast 

3500/2500

Detach 1 xyz material, banish all Spell and Trap cards on your opponent's field and Graveyard.

(I'm Harpie Feather Duster with legs, bitch)

...

Heaven Dragon Emperor - Zeus 

(although the kanji says Sky, but I'm pretty sure the guy who made these oricas was referring to the heavens, also, the word 皇 translated to emperor in Chinese language, where the 王, shown on Hades refers to king) 

R10/Divine/Divine-Beast 

4000/4000

When your opponent summons, special summons a monster or activates a spell, trap or monster effect, detach 1 xyz material, negate and destroy that card. 

(Solemn Judgment and Divine Wrath in 1 card; and I can use this up to 3 times!)

...

Hell Dragon Lord - Hades

(the word 冥府 gets translated into the most random shits when the card is printed in the TCG, I understand the fact that religious issue might cause problems and all, but at least get a standard. Well, 冥府 translates directly to Underworld or as I like to call it Hell, although the word Hell God Dragon sound far from cool, but hey, the Japanese name Mei-Ou-Ryuu sounds cool as fuck)

R10/Divine/Divine-Beast 

3000/3000

Detach 1 xyz material from this card. Special summon any number of monsters from your graveyard.

(Seriously, why did the artist made Hades even more powerful than Zeus; I mean, sure. Zeus can negate Hades's effect and destroy him, but Hades's effect is a bloodly OTK from which ever angle I'm looking at it)

...

I've said this before, none of these cards are official and they are mostly likely (or almost certainly) FAN-MADE oricas. I've found this picture on Facebook a while ago, and decided to blog about it, just to show case this awesome set of cards that I would like to play with.



Sunday, May 20, 2012

WCQ Seed Tournament Report

Went to GA early today and end up waiting for the shop to open. A lot of big names showed up today because there wasn't really a lot of tourneys lately I guess.

Deck used : Hieratics (cause I don't have FGD, or I would be playing Chaos Dragon)

Match 1 : VS Agent Angel

Duel 1 : I open an OTK and won.

Duel 2 : He sided in Mask of Restrict and I can't get rid of it.

Duel 3 : He open Valhalla and Krystia, I manage to put the Krystia face down with Book and got the 2 normal monsters out. My opponent has 2 hands, I was worried bout Herald of Orange Light; but I figure my opponent would just special Krystia next turn and crash into Focus Force, I made Atum, but he did had Herald.

1-2

0-1

Off the a bad start, I don't usually lose my first match, but a loss is a loss.

Match 2 : VS Dark World

Duel 1 : I checked his grave and made sure he had no monsters, Dark Hole and Reborn his Grapha. Wack for game after a few turns.

Duel 2 : I open Drago and unbelievably, his has no answers.

2-0

1-1

Match 3 : VS Hieratic - Kyde

Duel 1 : He open with an OTK and won,

Duel 2 : I open Drago and kept it on the board and won.

Duel 3 : I play Smashing Ground on his Drago, Reborn it, and proceed to win.

2-1

2-1

Match 4 : VS Inzektors - Parameswaran

Duel 1 : I open OTK and won.

Duel 2 : He set a facedown, I was about to make Photon Bounzer to take care of his facedown, because Mike keeps reminding me about Morphing Jar 2, but I don't think anyone other than him would play the card, so I made Gaia, Red-Eyes and Su, attacked, and hit Jar #2 ... Lost because I contributed 3 cards on a stupid Jar.

Duel 3 : I open POD into Cardcar, drawing POD. He sets a monster, passes. I POD into another CardCar and drew 2 more. I now have double Macro and Torrential set. He sets another monster. I top decked my 3rd CardCar and proceed to draw. My opponent normal summon Gruf and ended up in Torrential. I won the next turn since he has nothing else to do.

2-1

3-1

Match 5 : VS Inzektor - Ivan

Duel 1 : He has thick backrows and I can't get pass then.

Duel 2 : The same as above.

0-2

3-2

At this time, I thought I scrubbed but manage to squeeze into Top 8 thanks to my tie breaker.

Top 8 : VS Junk Doppel - SungLee

Duel 1 :  He set a S/T then a monster. I open MST, did a Hieratic OTK, Exa-beetle sended a Dandylion into grave but I made 2 Gaia to pierce through Fluff tokens.

Duel 2 : I have Drago out, he plans to do a Junk Syncron play, I had Maxx C, he failed to kill Drago. My advantage is just too big now.

2-0

Top 4 : VS Inzektor - MK

Duel 1 : I open OTK and won.

Duel 2 : I thought I had game but he had a couple of Battle Fader (which I did not expect, and sided out Drago), he almost turn the game around but luckily, I top deck Eset and play MST to destroy his Call of the Haunted (equipped to a Centipede with Gigamantis and Zeck-callibur).

2-0

Finals : VS Inzektor - Mike (yes the blogger dude)

Duel 1 : I open OTK and won.

Duel 2 : He paysback with an OTK on his side.

Duel 3 : I couldn't remember well, but this is easily the best game of the day, and one of the best games I had in a while. Both of us basically had really low LP and are top decking. I ended taking the game by making Ancient Sacred Wyvern (at 2500), setting double Macro and a Chalice, while he was top decking.

2-1

Result : 1st! And seeded to WCQ top 32.

Deck List (40):

monster (20):

3 Tfenut
3 Su
3 Eset
2 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
2 Koaki Meiru Drago
3 Cardcar D
2 Effect Veiler
1 Watt Dragon
1 Emerald Dragon

spell (13):

3 Hieratic Seal of Convocation
3 Pot of Duality
3 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon

trap (7):

2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Solemn Judgment

Side (15):

2 Maxx C
2 Electric Virus
2 Snowman Eater
2 Smashing Ground
2 Forbidden Chalice
3 Macro Cosmos
2 Royal Decree

Edit :

extra (15):

2 Atum
2 Gaia Dragoon
1 Exa-Beetle
1 Photon Bounzer
1 Focus Force
1 Sword Breaker
1 Queen Dragoon Djinn
1 NO39 Hope
1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern
1 Black Rose Dragon
+3 randoms

Friday, May 18, 2012

Summon Limit



If you don't know what this card does, which most players should not, its perfectly fine because this card has never done anything since its release back in Light of Destruction. I've stock piled a play set of these because I thought that it would be good when special summoning happens a lot. That thinking is not wrong but if you were to play in those formats, your deck need to be special summoning a lot as well, or you just won't win. So this card basically stops your own play, therefore, I left them in my staple pile and went searching for other cards.

Found them yesterday while I was digging through my staple pile for cards that might be good for my Hieratic side deck. This card is far from it, its one of the worst cards you can put in a Hieratic side, second maybe only to Mask of Restrict.

I've said this in my previous blog post, if you are to build a side deck, you should have at least a considerable amount of cards against Inzektors. This card hits Dino Rabbit; it hits Hieratics; it hits Chaos Dragons; and it also hits any deck that tries to special summon a lot of monsters in 1 turn; but it doesn't hit Inzektors. After I come into realization, I was thinking "why isn't Inzektors siding these?"

Sure, I understand the fact that this card isn't as powerful as some of the other cards you can play, but a card that can hit every single matchup other than a mirror is very very good. And because of this, you CAN play Fiendish Chain again, I mean, if your playing Hieratics, do you think his gonna blow Fiendish Chain or Summon Limit. Your opponent only has 3 MSTs. Billy Brake ran 3 copies of Messenger of Peace in his Inzektors, because it is good specifically towards Dino Rabbits. While arguably this card does the same thing as Gozen Match to Rabbits; I don't remember Gozen Match doing anything towards Hieratics.

There are better cards you can add to your side deck, I'm sure of it. I'm just pointing out this isn't a bad side deck card for Inzektors. Mask of Restrick kills Hieratics and Gozen Match kills Dino Rabbit, but playing 6 of those are kinda heavy considering you would now limit your side deck for Mirror and other match ups to 9 slots, and I don't think 3 cards are enough to stop a tier 1 deck consistently. If you can play 3 copies of Summon Limit that does the job, you would have saved 3 slots in your side, and now you can potentially have up to 6 cards to swap in. No matter how much better a job those specific counter cards do, it only takes a MST to get rid of them.

Obviously, my target audience for this post are the Inzektor players would are playing Continuous Traps to counter the Rabbit and Hieratic match ups, if you don't do that to begin with, then I see no point in starting now. But, its always a good thing to have a back up in mind, no matter how ineffective it might be. This goes back to the EFFICIENCY VS EFFECTIVENESS debate, that us engineers have to question everyday.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

WCQ Preparations

Well, I've been spending the last few days trying to build the "perfect" main deck together with the "best" side deck for the META. I see progress, yeah, but progress is slow. I'm really in need of a tournament to test my deck, I was hoping for one last weekend at Toysbar, but yeah ... I should had expected, it was a Toysbar tournament, I didn't even bother reaching for my side deck most of the time.

This Sunday would be WCQ Seed Tournament at Gamers Arena, whats so surprising is that we actually get prizes in addition to the seeding. 1st and 2nd place both get qualified into the top 32 of WCQ Malaysia, also, 1st place gets a Playmat, 2nd place gets a deck box. We need to purchase items above RM20 to participate, but thats very reasonable in the fact that we actually are playing for something and there are more prizes now. AND, paying RM20 for something is better than paying RM5 for nothing in my opinion.

I'm not gonna do a META analysis on what decks you should prepare yourself for, that would be a waste of time. We KNOW what deck we should prepare for, if you don't you might as well drop this event all together. Instead, I wanna try predict what cards are gonna be the determining factor for winning WCQ, and the seed tournaments are the best testing ground to prove my theory.

I say both Forbidden Lance and Chalice would be crucial this tournament, more so for the latter. Testing results have told me this. I'm now starting to drop 3 Cardcar D's in favor for tech cards and its working like I planned. More update is to come, since I had not yet reach my conclusion and desired outcome.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Machina Gadgets

For everyone playing in WCQ, one piece of advise from me. Do NOT take them off your threat list.


Geargiganto X is powerful, I have no doubt in this, and it has took Machina Gadgets back to tier 1. But I've always thought that the deck needs Tinplate Goldfish to function properly, and without them, they would be normal Gadgets that other tier 1 trample over. I was wrong.

Yesterday, I was building all the top decks in the format to go against my Hieratics to build the perfect side deck. My sparring partners were Inzektors, Hieratic, Hanzo Hieratic, Dino Rabbit, GK and Gadgets. I've tested against them in that order, threat levels if you may call them. Testing went well, as I've developed side decks to counter most this deck, problem is when I've reached Gadgets. Thinking they are slow for not having Tinplate and not really sure what cards would stop this deck effectively, I sided in Electric Virus and Mind Crush. Thats not enough.

Without Tinplate Goldfish, the deck doesn't really have a turn 1 Giganto X. But doesn't have turn 1 Giganto X and not being able to function turn 1 is very very different. It can still summon Machina Gearframe or a Gadget, not to mention I replaced the Goldfish with Cardcar (since I'm not sure what would be a suitable substitute, I'm not that good with Machine decks). The deck runs like normal Machina Gadget until you pull Ultimate Offering. If your opponent doesn't have answers to Offering, you WILL win.

Some might argue that the deck is too dependent on Ultimate Offering in Asian format, and we have access to very few rank 4 XYZs. Those are facts, and I'm not stating otherwise. The deck is far from full potential in the Asian format, the only other rank 4 they bring out would be NO39 Hope, Maestroke and Fairy King. Still, I'm positive that everyone should at least playtest with this deck at least for a few rounds and figure out how to utilize your side deck against them, simply put, this is the dark horse for WCQ Malaysia, I have little doubt.


Saturday, May 12, 2012

TB May tourney report

Deck used : Hieratics

Round 1 : VS Chaos Dragons

Duel 1 : My opponent open Future Fusion and summon Dark Flare, setting up his play for next turn. I just did an OTK and won.

Duel 2 : My opponent opens Future Fusion. I didn't have good answers for Pulsar and REDMD and lost.

Duel 3 : I open Torrential. He starts with ... Future Fusion. He summons Apocalypth Dragon and pitch for REDMD. I Torrential his REDMD. He ditch 2 cards from hand to get Pulsar back, hit for 2500. I got Atum, REDMD and Exa-beetle (equipping his REDMD) and attacked through Pulsar and Dark Flare. Set BTH and Raigeki Break. He scoops.

My opponent opened nuts all three games, starting with Future Fusion every game. But this showed that as good a deck Chaos Dragons are, Hieratics are the better dragon deck.

1 - 0

Round 2 : VS Heroic Champion (H-C)

This is my first time playing against this deck, so it was new to me.

Duel 1 : I open Card Car and Bottomless. He MST and played Double Lance to make Excalibur, hitting me for 4000 damage. I played Dark Hole, set MST and Torrential, got another Car out and drew 2. He played Storm, and summoned his 3rd Double Lance, making his 2nd Excalibur and hit for 4000 again. Ouch!!

Duel 2 : I set MST and Cardcar for 2 cards. He sets a back row and a monster. I played MST and OTK.

Duel 3 : He played Goblinberg into Summoner Monk into Double Lance, and made Excalibur. I cleared his field with Dark Hole. He didn't have any cards left for a come back.

Game 1 really caught me off guard. I never imagine getting beaten by something like this. LOL.

2 - 0

Round 3 : VS Inzektors

Duel 1 : I just rush and won.

Duel 2 : Rush and won.

3 - 0

Round 4 : VS Hieratics

Duel 1 : I open with an OTK and won.

Duel 2 : He opened with OTK and won.

Duel 3 : We both don't have cards to start OTKing, but I have 2 Cardcar D which he didn't answer, I have Torrential and Veiler for his 2 copies.

We didn't even touch the calculator the entire match.

4 - 0

Ranking : 1st.

Prize : 2 packs of TP, I went to all the trouble confirming which packs are Guaibas in. I pulled none from my packs but 2 others pulled them thanks to my info. EMO!

Deck list :

monster (20):

3 Hieratic Dragon of Su
3 Hieratic Dragon of Eset
2 Hieratic Dragon of Tfenuit
2 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Cardcar D
3 Effect Veiler
2 Koaki Meiru Drago
1 Watt Dragon
1 Emerald Dragon

spell (12):

3 Hieratic Seal of Convocation
3 Pot of Duality
2 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon

trap (8):

2 Torrential Tribute
2 Raigeki Break
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Stun
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Fiendish Chain

side (15):

2 Ryko Lightlord Hunter
2 Maxx C
1 Tragodia
1 DD Crow
1 Smashing Ground
1 Mystic Space Typhoon
2 Royal Decree
2 Mind Crush
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
1 Transmigration Prophecy

extra (15):

2 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum
2 Gaia Dragoon, the Thunder Charger
1 Photon Streak Bounzer
1 No25. Focus Force
1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle
1 Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1 Queen Dragoon
1 No.39 Hope
1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern
1 Black Rose Dragon
+ something else which I don't think I'll ever use.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Watt-deck!!

My exam ended 2 days ago, but hanging out with classmate till latenight Wednesday means no time for me to YGO. Yesterday, I wasn't in the mood to test my tournament decks, so I took a part some old decks and build new ones. One of them was this Watt deck.

Yup, definitely MVP

I've always know Watts are good but I can never find the time and mood to build the deck. But I randomly found the Watt cards and thought, what the heck. So, wasted about 15 minutes building the deck, and it felt good.

monster (17):

3 Wattgiraffe
3 Wattcobra
3 Wattdragonfly
3 Watthopper
2 Effect Veiler
3 Cardcar D

spell (12):

3 Pot of Duality
3 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Recycling Batteries
1 One-for-One
1 Book of Moon
2 My Body as a Shield

trap (11):

3 Safe-Zone
3 Fiendish Chain
2 Dark Bribe
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment


Originally, My Body as a Shield is just a substitute for Forbidden Lance, BUT, after some thinking, the only thing that could get pass a Hopper lock would be Dark Hole and double Torrential Tribute. So, instead of just saving one of my Hoppers, My Body can just save both. Also, theres always random non-targeting cards like Smashing Ground and Black Rose. So, I feel My Body is the better pick in here.

Notice there is almost no monster destruction in the deck (if you don't consider Warning). Since I don't really care what my opponent does, I'm just gonna have my Watt monsters attack them directly anyway. Safe Zone doubles as Inzektor hate as well, since I can always equip it to one of their Inzektors if they were to pop it. Triple Fiendish Chain because it stops so many things that would normally ruin my combo. A single Bribe just in case I need to chain to a Judgment. Why not 7-tools? Cause I don't really mind my opponent drawing a single card if he can't break my Hopper lock.

Once the Hopper Lock is up and running, basically you win. In the Asian format META, all members of the big 3 can't do anything to you anymore. The only trouble you might find would be rogue decks that run Skill Drain (thats a very big problem).

This deck has a very good matchup against Inzektors. And if your opponent doesn't know what his doing, he might even side in Light-Imprisoning Mirror (in the side for Hieratics) against you, which doesn't do shit. Sure, your Cobra can't search now, but he still can direct attack, so it doesn't really matter. And since you run triple MST in your main, thats not a big problem. Inzketor's pop doesn't do much cause Cobra is a plus one in itself, Dragonfly goes off anyway and you don't drop Giraffe until the lock is done or you wanna set up the lock in main phase 2. Besides, double Veiler and triple Chain in the main, together with triple Safe-Zone is sorta very safe going against Inzektors.

Hieratics cannot do anything to the lock at all, maybe a Black Rose, but thats about it. In this matchup, or you have to do is make sure you have a Veiler in hand and some ways to answer the Dark Hole and Torrential and you would be fine. Dino Rabbits might even try siding in Macro Cosmos against you (if they don't know what they're doing), since most people would think that Dragonfly, like most recruiters, activate in the grave. Truth is ... it doesn't. Dino Rabbit may pose the biggest problem to this deck (among the big 3) because they have a lot of Smashing Ground and Laggia WILL negate your My Body as a Shield. But, they can't really get pass your lock unless they are willing to heavily neg themselves (which they have to).

NOTE : I'm also thinking playing two copies of Necrovalley instead of Reborn and Recycling in the main, just to really really fuck with Inzektors.

doesn't says graveyard anywhere on the text :)

As mentioned, the real problem this deck face would be Skill Drain, and decks that run a lot of annoying cards like Compulse (which would make sure no 2 Hoppers are ever on the field, but thats what Giraffe is for). Side in Decree for these match ups, cause most of your traps doesn't matter anyway. But again, these matchups would be uphill struggles.

side (15):

2 Electric Virus
1 Maxx C
1 Wattpheasant
2 Smashing Ground
2 Prohibition
1 Heavy Storm
2 Royal Decree
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Macro Cosmos

Maxx C is really random, but you don't wanna run into a Wind Up Loop. And you can also use it to stop Hieratics from going off. Virus is a Thunder type, meaning you can get it back with Recycling Batteries, unlikely, but possible. 

Prohibition, Storm and Decree means this deck has really really bad match up against Skill Drain. I would really wanna minimize my chances of getting locked down by it. Pheasant, Smashing and BTH for Rabbit, since its the only deck in the big 3 where this deck has problems with.

...

Tell me what you think bout the deck, I have a rough idea how Watts are normally played, but this is my first time actually playing them. 


Sunday, May 6, 2012

WCQ Malaysia format

From the news I've heard, theres a couple of ways you can get into the top32 tables for WCQ.

(1) Tournaments at GA - 6 slots
(2) Top rankings - 10 slots
(3) Fight your way through the endless hordes of zombies on WCQ day - 16 slots

It does seems fair that we are given quite a few ways to get into top32. But I don't like ranking having more slots then seed tournaments. But, from what I've heard, WCQ is on 17th of June. Thats just slightly more than a month, so I guess the time constrain has to be one of the factors for this. Although I think we can still easily squeeze in at least 2 more slots. But overall, I guess fair enough, considering there would be top32 instead of top20 like ACQ.

Tips for guys trying to get to the top32 on WCQ day. Easy, just don't lose. Since the format would be single elimination anyway. If its swiss to top32, I wouldn't bother going for seed tournaments; since the average level of Malaysian players are quite low; the seed tournaments and rankings would already consist of at least 10 of some of the better duelist, I say, not much to worry about. But, its single elimination, and I don't wanna be pit against something extremely random game 1 and drop.

Most likely, I would join 2 seed tournaments, if I don't get into top32 there, I'll just play on WCQ, no big deal.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

X-Sabers (Asia format) Update

Its been a while since I've done any update to my X-saber deck aside from changing it to the current ban list. I'm under the impression that X-sabers are one of the worst decks you can play at the moment because Inzektors are running around everywhere, and even now, I still fill the same.

One of the main reasons why I think this deck would suck is because everyone either plays Inzektors (where this deck's main card, Emmersblade, is useless against) or side into Macro Cosmos. Making every match I would face a total nightmare. I was planning to not run this deck as long as Inzektors are tier 1, but decide against it, since it would be fun to run the underdog.

monster (21):

3 XX-saber Darksoul
3 XX-saber Emmersblade
2 XX-saber Faultroll
2 XX-saber Boggard Knight
2 X-saber Pashuul
1 XX-saber Fullhelm Knight
1 XX-saber Regigura
1 X-saber Airbellum
3 Card-Car D
3 Effect Veiler

spell (10):

3 Creature Swap
2 Pot of Duality
1 Mind Control
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon

trap (10):

2 Gottom's Emergency Call
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Reinforce Truth
1 Chain Disappearance
1 Call of the Haunted

Side (15):

2 Ryko Lightlord Hunter
2 Maxx C
2 Electric Virus
2 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Dark Hole
2 Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Bottomless Trap Hole

I only mained 1 copy of MST because the deck has Hyunlei as backrow hate. MSTs main purpose would be to get rid of Macro Cosmos and Dimension Fissure.

Creature Swap is a card that I really love in X-sabers. Whenever I played it, I always win that game, ALWAYS. With Creature Swap, I don't have to set Emmersblade all that often and that leaves Darksoul as the only target for Hornet to pop. As everyone knows, Creature Swap and Emmersblade is a terrifying combo, simple, basic, but causes massive damage.

Assuming your opponent has no backrow, whatever the reason. A Creature Swap and Emmersblade will not only get rid of your opponent's monster, but also a card in hand, thanks to Airbellum. That might not seem like much, but if you add to the fact that Veiler can't stop this and the fact that Sabers's main play style is to slowly but steadily get rid of your opponent's resources, this can be devastating.

Darksoul and Card-Car are both cards that gain you advantage, sure, you might start slower in comparison to something like Hieratics, but once your combo goes off, you are would almost always win. Unlike Hieratic, where if something goes wrong, you lose; this problem is not present in Sabers. Even if the combo is somehow stopped (I'm taking Gottom's Loop), you are still generating advantage through Darksoul. If your going against a combo deck like Hieratics, rest assured that once the Gottom's loop goes off, you win. No doubt there.

Still, this deck's greatest weakness would be Dino Rabbit. Dino Rabbit have access to not only Macro, but also Dimension Fissure. And combined with a Laggia at the front, its one of the toughest walls to beat.

Now, do I think this deck is good? No doubt. But would I run it? No way! This is the fate of tier 2's, they are too dependent on what the tier 1s are. When a tier 2 is not hurt at all by the tier 1s and side deck cards people play against the tier 1s, it will do good. But its a whole different story the other way round. As long as Macro Cosmos sees a lot of plays, this deck can never top anything (big).

Oh, this build is basically geared towards taking on the Asian format META.