TB July Ranking Tourney Report

Since I had nothing better to do with my time yesterday, I've decided to drop by Toysbar for some ranking locals. I've not really played any ranking this season so you can kinda expect my ranks to be quite near the bottom. Anyhow, I was testing this new build of Elemental HEROs I've come up with. It focuses on making Shock Master and beating both Dragon Rulers and Prophecies. At least, that was the plan.

Match 1 : VS Firefist 3-axis - Megat

Duel 1 : He opens with 3-axis usual stunt, making a board of monsters while not losing any advantage in hand; however, that just look too cute as compared to what Dragons and Prophecies have been doing, so I don't mind much. I open Stratos, set 5 and passed. I was making him believe that I have a Torrential set by asking him if he was summoning the monster he grab using Tenki, he attacked and walked into Mirror Force. He summons Spirit next but I had a Super Poly to stop him from Synchro summoning, he end and I flip a Call of the Haunted. Next turn, I special Bubbleman and flip a Warrior's Returing Alive to grab Alius and made Shock Master, game basically ended there.

Duel 2 : He opens a Synchro, a XYZ and both Fire Formation trap set. I E-Call for Alius and set Call, Torrential and 2 Spark. He attacks and I let it pass. He summons a monster and I wiped his board. He sets a FD and I flip Call on Alius and then destroyed the FD with Spark. I know what his two facedowns were, and I have RoTA and Reborn in hand. I'm guessing no one will leave Veiler in deck going against HEROs (not the right thing to do thou), so I just went for an OTK and won.

Match 2 : VS Prophecy - Mark

Duel 1 : I open Allius and set 4. He starts with Priestess, I let it pass; he summons Kycoo and I flipped Warning (I'm guessing he was confused), he walks over Stratos, set a Facedown and play Tower. I special Thrasher, flip Warrior's Returning Alive and summons Allius. Flip Miracle Fusion and then flip Spark to destroy Tower (to make it lose timing). Shining attacked into Book of Moon, I played my last 2 cards which are Super Poly to make another Shining and attacked for 3200. He didn't have an out to Shining cause he had no Spellcasters left.

Duel 2 : He opens and go plus 4 with Judgment and had Jyogen out. I have Stratos attack the Jyogen, special Bubbleman and E-Call another to make Shock Master, sadly he had a Veiler for it. Died next turn when he plays Heavy Storm on my 4 facedowns and Fate my Shock Master.

Duel 3 : I open Goblinberg, Bubbleman and Bubbleman to make Shock Master, setting Hero Blast, Miracle and RoTA. Sadly, he had a High Priestess and Magician in hand, but luckily he can't play his spells just yet. I drew Allius, summon it and RoTA for Bubbleman. I risked it out and made Emerald instead of anything bigger, returning Shock Master, Goblinberg and a Bubbleman to draw into Mirror Force. I play Miracle to make Zero and traded for his field, Emerald landed an attack. He summons Kycoo, played Judgment, Secrets, Starhall and Powers to try walk over my Emerald, but I had a mirror force ready. He ended with Jyogen and plus 3. I asspulled Stratos off the top, summon it to grab Bubbleman, attacked the Jyogen, special Bubbleman, played Emerald's other effect that lets me special a normal monster and grabs Allius (Emerald says non-effect monster, but me and my opponent were under the impression of normal monster, apologies for the misplay), and made Shock Master. He conceded.

Match 3 : VS Dragon Rulers - Yunkang

Duel 1 : I only open an Allius but I was controlling the board, making him run out of Dragons to banish and no hand. I made Shining sometime later and attacked him directly. He used all his resources (literally) to make Big Eye in defense and took Shining, I have Mirror Force set. I was feeling very good since he can't special his Rulers back now with no resource and I have Allius and Bubbleman in hand, but I topped Stratos. I set the Stratos and he took it with big eye, summons a Chibi and made Peark, attacked with it. No big deal right? I topped another Allius ... 

Duel 2 : Resolved a Judgment on his broke ass plus 4 Rejuvenation. Summoned Stratos, he played Veiler but I had Super Poly and I have Soul Drain in hand.

Duel 3 : He makes a field of a facedown, Dragosack and 2 tokens. I played YOLO, I mean, A HERO Arrives to grab Stratos, he had Veiler, but I had Super Poly. I summon Goblinberg and specials Allius, sets all and special Bubbleman. He played Book on Allius, Bubbleman and Tornado took the tokens and I made Abyss Dweller. Since I hand Debunk set, I'm pretty much in a winning position already, he topped Dark Hole ... His baby Dragon was Debunked and he passed. I had Torrential set and drew into Super Poly, but he had a Storm. Made Big Eye and set a card, since we all knew that was a Virus, I just concede. 

Still lost to Dragon Rulers, but I do think the results was very satisfactory. The side deck still needs some work thou.

Number 74 : Master Of Blades

Definitely one of the most hyped up card in the up-coming Numbers Hunter TCG set, I'm not sure when is OCG getting this card as of now. The card is also getting quite some attention back home, as a new staple to replace Big Eye and Drago-sack once they get hit by the banlist one way or the other.

What's there not to like? Its big, 2700 is over rank 7's 2600 line. Its effect makes it impossible to target leaving the only cards good against (that you normally see in main decks) it Dark Hole, Bottomless and Torrential. Making this the best card to come out in recent sets to boost the already powerful Dragon Rulers ... yeah right ... if you want my opinion, this card is mediocre at best. Its a 2700 you can summon easily, thats about it.

Now, before you go rage and I'm somehow the biggest idiot on the planet, please allow myself to explain; chances are I'm still an idiot that doesn't know how YGO is meant to be played by the end of this post. I must point out that all the things I'm gonna type down below is based on this card's place as a staple in Dragon Rulers (only), if there is another deck out there that can utilize this card better than Dragons, so be it; I am addressing this to my fellow countrymen that is in believe that this is gonna be a broken addition to the Rank 7 arsenal for Dragon Rulers.

Like I've said, Master of Blades is a 2700 that is impossible to target. Its blow another card up effect is optional, so you can't do a Zenmaines stunt on it. Zenmaines stunt basically meant, do something to the Zenmaines and let it blow itself if its the only card on the field. So, with all that, how can it possibly be bad? Its not bad at all! Its just not as good as people think it is.

Look, people aren't dumb, no one is gonna target this card with a card effect. I only run 1 Hetsuka in my Bujin main deck, why? For the exact same reason, no one in their right mind will be targeting you knowing its not going to work, let alone its going to pop another card. Remember how Zenmaines was the most broken card ever? Truth to fact, Zenmaines is gonna be a bad card if it had not been indestructible; and Master of Blades is gonna be bad if it had not own a 2700 body.

My point is, his effect will NEVER be played, unless you target him with one of your cards to blow one of your opponent's. Turning Compulse into MST isn't that bad an option. Other than that, its not going to be worth it.

Another reason why people think its good is the card's 2700 attack. But, that to me is this card's greatest weakness. This is a card you would never want to make in a Dragon Mirror match. The moment Master of Blades hits the field, you can bet your money on Crimson Blader coming down next turn. The mirror between Dragon Rulers are a battle between Big Eye and Blader. Sure, your opponent can't make a Big Eye and grab your Master of Blades, but whats the point, they can make Blader when ever they want. Even Dragosack, a card you rarely make in the mirror can stand itself against Master.

If its 100 attack higher, as in 2800, then it might be relevant, but there's always Colossal Fighter, and you are getting hit by 2800 for free. But, at least it ensures you a safer Blader drop if you're holding Veiler for Big Eye. If Master of Blades want to be good, it had to be 2900 or higher. I'm just saying.

Now, do I think this card is bad? Not at all! You might have misunderstood me stating that this was not as good a card as you think it is, I meant, in the Dragon Ruler mirror match. This thing is not gonna do anything against Prophecies as well, none of their card targets (if you're still playing Priestess, I have news for you bro). BUT, this card can be amazing against the other decks, namely the big 3 under the Top 2, Firefist, Verz and Mermails. Most antiMeta deck run 3 copies of Compulse to get rid of Dragosack, this card exploits that. However, these deck normally loses out to Dragon Rulers in the first place, its like getting a solution to something that was not a problem to begin with.

To wrap things up, this card sucks in the Dragon Ruler mirror match, leaving a 2700 on the field with no protection is a disaster waiting to happen. I'm no pro or anything, so you don't have to take everything I said for granted, heck, you don't even need to listen to a word I said; but I'm no believer that this card is gonna be big in the Dragon Ruler mirror match.

Is Crimson Blader out in the TCG? It should be right, since its a relic from the synchro era. If its not, then I guess I could understand why people are thinking this card is good. I guess I could understand the importance of this card once Big Eye and Sack are hit by the list, but before that, I see only 1 copy at best in the extra deck, for the rogue matchup (if you misread the BTH as a Compulse, well, sucks to be you).

Well, that was only my opinion, I may be dumb and this turns out to be the most broken cards ever. I may be the only one on Earth thinking this card is bad, but hey, I'm a believer of the saying, if a card is not broke, its not good. Please comment below, I really wanna know what you guys think of the card in general. 

Banlist Prediction Season!

No one seemed to notice this yet, but apart from a couple of WCQ here and there; might squeeze in a YCS or 2, I'm not sure, but this format is basically over. For the past 4 months or so, I've not heard one person said that this was a good format. The Malaysian WC Rep posted comments on FB numerous times on how bad the format was (not stopping him from getting to the finals of BOTH ACQ and WCQ). For the most part, this was a 2 deck format, either you play Dragon Rulers, or you play Prophecy, or you might consider playing on your kitchen table for 6 months.

Everyone knows both these decks need to be hit, we don't know how hard Konami is gonna hit them, but lets pray to god they know what they are doing. And hey, the September format had always been good for the past 5 or 6 years. I've asked some people for opinions, gave some as well, but we never seem to agree on what cards should be on this banlist.

I'm a firm believer of the banlist's job is to limit a deck's brokeness, not to kill a deck. Well, not being broken does kill the deck if you're like me, who thinks YGO means tournaments and nothing else, so I guess it depends on how you view not killing. Lets cut the chase and dive straight into my wish list. This is just my opinion, god allows us to have our own opinions, so don't get offended when I point out stuff you don't agree. 

Dragon Rulers:

I've seen people saying ridiculous stuffs like limit each Dragons to 1 or ban Big Eye. That either kills the deck and ruins a great engine for other decks, or doesn't do anything to the deck. (If you take out Big Eye, and not hitting anything else, you take out what skill is left in the mirror match; I'm just saying)

In my opinion, the card that needs to go to 0 is Super Rejuvenation. In all of my games against Dragon Rulers, that is the one card I never want to see in my opponent's hand. Making a huge ass field and then drawing into hand traps is just stupid. The card basically rewards players for over extending, in a mindless way. I'm not saying Dragon Rulers are a deck you can play without being good, true to fact that the best players tops consistently this format; but making Dragosacc and draw 4 isn't the hardest move to figure out, and I find it kinda hard to misplay with cards like that. "Maxx C? Sure, you get 4 cards and I get 4, fair" Wut!?

Super Rejuvenation makes it almost impossible for any control decks to comeback, unless you open nuts. You opponent is making threats while digging for Typhoons, not a really fun experience. Also, the fact that the only other deck that plays Super Rejuvenation is some sort of Exodia variant really doesn't help justify why this card is still allowed. I can go on with my rant on Reju, but thats gonna take forever to wrap up.

The other card I want to put on the list would be Dragosacc. I do not think Dragosacc is broken, but I do think that its too good, borderline broken maybe. However, my problem was never with getting rid of Dragosacc, thats the easy part. My problem is how am I gonna get rid of the next one. The only match ups where Dragosacc is not a legitimate threat would be the mirror and also Prophecies. Super Reju makes it hell to try to control Dragon Rulers, Dragosacc makes facing it a nightmare for any deck thats not gonna make a Big Eye easily or Fate it. In my opinion, Dragosacc should go to 1, or at least 2 (if Konami doesn't release another rank 7 thats too good).

With those changes, the deck is still very viable and can pull off wins easily, but I would not mind playing against it as much. Sure, it still has the best engine in the game (arguably), but in today's metagame, what deck doesn't repeat A-to-Z every turn. At least I know when my opponent wants to start with a big board presence, his not gonna have protection for his field.

Prophecies:

If you've been following my blog for the past 6 months, you'll know that I absolutely hate Prophecies as a deck. Spellbook of Judgment is retarded, no matter how you justify it, its not gonna change the fact that the card is too broke to be a card. "Prophecies needed someway to gain advantage, its not broke because Dragon Rulers have endless supply of cards too", someone told me this last weekend, please, give this guy a round of applause. 

I really hate Prophecies with a passion, if I could, I would ban everything with Prophecies in its name (and yes, I'm still butt hurt over my lost last weekend). But putting my personal agenda aside, this is a list that I think will contain Prophecies but not kill them ... 

Prophecies are a bunch that gains you advantage one way or another. Spellbook Tower is the best field spell in the game if you haven't notice, and its searchable by basically everything. If you are playing a control based deck, like myself, the Tower and Fate are the 2 cards you would hate, very very much. However, both cards aren't on my suggested list of change.

Limit to one both Spellbook of Secrets and Spellbook Magician of Prophecy. Limiting searchers has always been Konami's favorite move in hitting a deck, and for the most part, it works. If you play a game against Prophecies, going second, and knowing your opponent will not open Magician every game, its actually not that bad. Should Judgment get hit? If both searchers are hit, I doubt it'll be as good, but good lord the card is still too broke, KILL IT WITH FIRE!! In all seriousness, I'm not sure what I want to do with Judgment, obviously the card shouldn't even exist in the first place, but is banning it really the right move? I really don't know. Limiting it to one along with the other 2 might be good enough, since they have a million cards to recycle Spellbooks anyway.

With these changes, you might be able to slow Prophecies down to a more controllable state. Its still gonna be broke if they open Judgment and have 3 cards they can play, but knowing the game doesn't end if they go first is god sent to me. 

The other decks :

If the big 2 are somewhat contained, Evilswarm, Mermails and Firefist will all return as viable options. In case you've forgotten, Mermails were broke before Tachyon Galaxy came out. But to be honest, after this hell of a format, I'm not even sure what it meant to be good anymore. Sure, we know these decks are gonna make a comeback once the big 2 are gone, but I really have no clue what I should do to these decks. I mean, all of their plays seems really fair now if you ask me.

A lot of word still had to be done to make the next format fun. With no notable archtype coming out in Shadow Specters, at least in my knowledge, I don't see the pole position of these decks dropping anytime soon. A question I was asked quite a lot was, will Bujin be viable next format. I have to say I'm pretty sure its gonna be dependent on how heavy the backrow is. Bujin, if you've played with it as extensive as I've had,  is extremely weak to heavy backrow. Also, while the deck is fairly consistent, going first or second plays a very big part. So, by making the format somewhat slower and viable for control decks, I'm not exactly sculpting an ideal format for my deck here. 

What should come back :

For the love of god, please let me play 1 more Solemn Warning and Thunder King Rai-Oh. Part of the reason why control decks lost their ground this format was because of the limitation of Solemn Warning. Also, I feel like its okay for Scapegoat to come back to 2 or 3. Its not gonna be in a bunch for the top decks, and its not gonna be game busting, its just a card that makes you four goats.

...

Thats what I have on the top of my head. And these are all my very personal opinion. Anything you might wanna share or add, please feel free to leave me a message in the comment section below, I would love to read it. If you think I'm stupid and want to state it out, feel free, but at least let me know why I'm stupid okay?

...

Finally, I feel that this card should get banned. Its just too damn broke.

Do you agree Mike?

Wait! Wut!?

Just when I was preparing to put my OCG stuffs in a box and leave them there for a year, Kyde pm'ed me on Facebook late at night yesterday and showed me this.

I was like "Wait! Wut!? We have another event in July!? This is AWESOME!!"

The date is post Specters, meaning Bujin will be at full force this time and I can tell you Susanoo definitely wants to revenge kill Blue-Eyes.

Guess my days at OCG aren't really over yet. Sure, I still need to qualify for the event, but having an event by itself is a god sent to me.

Rise of the Bujin

WCQ Malaysia had officially came into a close and I can finally start test playing with the new Bujin (previously War Gods) cards from Shadow Specters. I had not been doing so because I want to focus on the cards I had excess to for WCQ. After a day's worth of test playing online, I've come to conclusion that they are amazing.

If you've talked to me a few days back during WCQ, you might had heard me saying the only good card from the bunch would be Kagutsuchi (the new XYZ). I must apologies to whoever had been mislead by my false lead. I had not been test playing with them at all and my previous opinion was based on the numerous encounters of the deck online (and quite frankly, most people fail at using the deck).

Before I start going into the review of my most recent build for Bujins, I must stress that Bujins still have a terrible match up against Prophecies. Yes, the match up is definitely better now as compared to pre-Specters because of the easy access to Rise of the Bujin (previously Advent of the Bujin). But that alone wasn't enough to turn the advantage around. Going second against Prophecies is still terrible unless you open with the right hand trap. Well, I guess thats a given since even Dragon Rulers main deck Droll & Lock Bird. 

However, Mikazuchi (the new 1900) makes the Dragon Ruler match up so much better. I've yet to lose a match against Dragon Rulers with this build (granted, the players behind the deck were no where near Wesley or Jeff's league). Three-Axis Firefist was one of this deck's worst match up, behind Prophecy, but the tide has now completely changed in Bujin's favor. Having easy access to Rise of the Bujin and a new ace monster that doesn't die easily is huge.

As for everything else, well, I'll have to agree with Mike, there are only 2 decks this format, the others just aren't relevant. 

Its been a while since I've build a deck with a 2-1-1 ratio. The monster line is very simple, Yamato is still our main guy. I only run 2 Mikazuchi because I search him with Yamato. The best opening for the deck would be to summon Yamato, grab a Mikazuchi and drop a Bujin. If your opponent kills Yamato, Mikazuchi will definitely go for a revenge kill next turn. If Yamato lives and Mikazuchi successfully resolves, the game is pretty much over. If you've played against me, you'll know that its very difficult to kill a Bujin thats successfully resolved itself, especially in this format.

The other Bujins are 2 Hetsuka, 2 Murakumo and a Bachi. Murakumo is the most powerful of the bunch, no doubt and I won't consider playing any less than 2 as of now. I was only running 1 Hetsuka until yesterday, but with Kagutsuchi, Hetsuka becomes so much better. The only good way to get rid of Kagutsuchi is Spellbook of Fate (that's why Prophecy is this deck's worst match up), in any other match up, if I resolve Kagutsuchi, it'll stay on the field and wreck havoc till the game is over. Bachi isn't very good this format because of the lack of backrow, but it is still good when you need it.

To complete the monster line up, I have a playset each of Maxx C and Veilers, along with a lone Firefist Bear. Maxx C is pretty much a staple in 3's now. Veiler is much more important now in this deck because the only real threat in Dragon Rulers will be Big Eye.

Spell line is generic, nothing too complicated. Rise of the Bujin is an amazingly powerful card. Its the kind of card that turns the game around and end games on its own. However, its not the easiest card to activate. You need to have a Bujin banished (trust me, you come across having nothing banish very often) and a Cyber Dragon condition to even activate the card. The problem with the card was actually, to draw into it at the wrong time. This card can be THE BEST or THE WORST top deck depending on situation. That is why I was reluctant to play the card before. However, because it was so powerful, I had 1 in my deck last weekend, and it won me a game. Mikazuchi changed this. Since he lets you grab Rise from your deck early in the game, you don't have to draw into it at the wrong time while having the most powerful card in your deck early. Personally, I think this is the key point that is going to make Bujin "a deck".

Trap is also generic, any beat down based deck would have similar trap line. Safe Zone is a personal pick over Bottomless Trap Hole. I feel BTH being terrible against everything if I go second or draw it outside of my opening 6. Safe Zone is a card I took a liking on since some time ago and I have a good field record with it. The trap line is anyone's pick, but don't bother wasting your trap on the Bujin traps. They're just awfully bad.

Crimson Blader is in my extra deck because I can borrow it on the spot when no one else can, LOL. Sorry, that was an inside joke within our community. The deck has only 1 way to get Blader out, which is the combination of Veiler and Reborn in a game against Dragon Rulers (and Mermails, but they're not a deck. Right Mike?) Only 1 Kagutsuchi as its not the easiest to make in my build. I know builds that ran triple Bear and even Wolberg can make it much easier, but I find those cards bad against Dragons and Prophecies. Also, I want to run more monsters and make my deck less consistent. I have yet need to make a second Kagutsuchi, but I will pump it to 2 if I really need to.

Side deck is random, I've not put much thought into it, so please ignore it. I have Foolish Burial in my side because I figure I need access to back row removal more than game 1, also Safe Zone and Zephyrus is pure advantage. Puppet Plant is in there because Wen Shen said its good.

Now, thats it for the deck list and lets move on to the game play.

For starters, always leave a Bujin banished. That is VERY VERY important. This is the key for making Rise of the Bujin live. Yes, I know this is very basic but people take it for granted and try to conserve ammo for bigger threats. If you have Murakumo in your grave and no Bujin banished. You opponent has a random Tenki face up, POP it. You might feel its a waste of precious ammo, but you can have Yamato ditch another one into the grave for you if you really want to. If you don't have a Bujin banished and your opponent kills your Bujin, you are gonna hurt so bad, having the most powerful card in your deck dead in your hand. I'm not saying you should mindlessly pop things, don't do so if you already have a Bujin banished (you can thank your opponent's BTH later).

Next, if you have Safe Zone or anything that could protect your Bujin; make sure they are live before you drop your Bujin. This doesn't really matter against the top 2 decks but against decks that play heavy back row, keeping your Yamato on the board for as long as possible is how you are going to win. The only time you would care less for Yamato is when you have Rise of the Bujin really to do some carnage. Heavy back row decks usually can't go for the kill off the bat. Taking a turn's worth of damage is well worth dropping your Bujin safely. 

Well, thats it for my Bujin decklist, hope this is helpful to anyone interested in the archtype. I would love to fit a Dark Hole and a Book of Moon in there, so if anyone figured out how you can do it, please let me know. Thank you for reading and please comment below (constructive criticisms only, no bullshit).