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).

World Championship Qualifiers Report

I was at Sungei Wang Plaza yesterday doing a lot of scouting work, trying to figure out how some of the better players play and also what they tech. Then I proceed to do some light training with Kyde to 11pm.

I played Bujin for the event, because my build is good against Dragon Rulers in general. However, Prophecies are a very bad match up. Since there are a little over 15 Prophecies (I suppose) by Top 64, I guess my chances of actually meeting 1 is rather slim, so I went with Bujin.

Before I forget, I was depending on the format to be swiss because I don't really think I can win in a match against Prophecy. So, when they announced the format to be Single Elimination, I shit bricks.

Game 1 : VS Prophecy

Why god? What did I ever do to you?

Duel 1 : I open 2 Tenki and 2 Yamato without traps. I wasn't really sure how I'm gonna win this, but since Tenki are pretty much useless I set them. Somehow, my opponent either didn't open well or that scared him. I was able to win when I YOLO and made Susanoo with Reborn and Habakiri.

Duel 2 : I open 3 Yamato and he starts. Yeah, best opening ever.

Duel 3 : I open Tenki, Bear, Tengu, Kycoo and Hetsuka. I wanted to cry that exact moment. I run 12 monsters not including Maxx C (it was Droll&Lock in this game) and Veiler, how did I even open a full monster hand. I start and drew into my six, Droll&Lock. I search for Yamato and ended. Luckily my opponent didn't open very well either. When he was trying to resolve a big Judgment play, I had the bird for it and somehow won this game.

I won but I don't know how I won. I was not sure what was wrong with my deck and how the hell I open multiple Yamatos without trying. I went for a light "sembahyang" session before round 2.

Game 2 : VS Prophecy

There are 8 Prophecies left in Top32 and I met another one. Nice ...

Duel 1 : I open Compulse, Judgment and Emptiness; no monsters. His Kycoo murdered me in a few turns because God answered my prayers and gave me no monsters.

Duel 2 : I was in an equally bad situation as duel 2 of game 1, where I open 3 War God (NOT YAMATO) for no real reason. I just set them since Kycoo and Star Hall is big. I decided to go YOLO and make Susanoo with Reborn again, he Veilers it and I kill Kycoo. I set Autonomous as a bluff holding Veiler and Habakiri. He flips Storm and plays Secrets to get Magician. I used Veiler on it. He then plays Masters to copy Secrets. If he takes Fate now, I'm a dead man. But I knew he might take Powers since he has Maiden on the field and Blue-Eyes has field presence. I put on EMO Face #1 and keep passing responses. His Blue-Eyes took was murdered and I won next turn.

Duel 3 : Although I won game 2, he starts in game 3 so I don't feel good at all. He ends with Azure-Eyed Silver Dragon, Judgment for 2 and a random Magician. I have Yamato kill his Magician set Compulse, Safe-zone and Judgment. I play Compulse on his draw. He shows me Storm, I play Judgment, he shows me MST, and a Dark Hole, and a Reborn (the Spell Book one) and a Secrets and a Masters. Yeah, most back and forth game I've played in my life ...

Well that wraps up the event. I'll be moving to the US this August so this will be the last OCG event for me (not including locals). 

Countdown to WCQ - 1 Day!

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are. Sorry for a month of absence, I've was working as an application engineer for the past month and have been following a project since then (any engineers reading this should feel this). I've finally had some free time and what good timing it is. A day before the start of WCQ Malaysia.

How is this event any different from previous event you might ask. Well, this is the first time (correct me if I'm wrong) we have a 2-day event. I know quite a number of us were begging for this for some time now and we finally have it. Finally, we can proudly say, "I've made Day 2!" LOL

As many Malaysian bloggers had explained, Day 1 will be single elimination and cut to top 32, where they will join the 32 seeded players for a Top 64 Day 2 Swiss. Nice!

Personally, I prefer swiss over single elimination. Double elimination is still the better format, but I understand its much difficult to pull out with 64 players (or am I wrong?).

Since I was qualified for Day 2, I originally planned to do coverage for day 1, BUT, the Singapore coverage team would be here tomorrow it seems and they have a good track record at doing coverage at their event. Guess no one would be missing my crappy writing.

Well, not writing for a month really took its toll on me, as I have nothing more I wanna put in words as of now. Again, I wish everyone the best of luck come tomorrow and Sunday, and to whoever gets the air ticket, hopefully Malaysia can finally take home a World Championship trophy!

WCQ SEED Qualifier TB Tourney Report

Today was the last leg of the seed qualifiers for TB. Me and Kyde went there to get the seeding because not having a seed means you'll be ditching out money for a booster box to participate in WCQ. Since this was one of the last qualifiers is KL, the turn up rate was way higher than usual. I played War Gods / Bujin.

Match 1 : VS Firefist (4 axis)

Duel 1 : I won the die role and summons Yamato, he can't do shit once Yamato gets on the field.

Duel 2 : I open with Rai-Oh and Safe Zone, they stood on the field the whole game.

1-0

Match 2 : VS Hieratic (Kyde)

Duel 1 : He played Reckless Greed but was not able to kill me, I summon Susanoo, he scoope since he can't draw for the next two turns.

Duel 2 : He starts with Nebthet and Atum (which was veilered). I set 2 Mirror Forces and a Judgment. He special a Su, hits a Mirror Force. His second Atum was Solemn'ed. He makes Ancient Sacred Wyvern, Gaia Dragoon and Nebthet to walk over my Yamato but was surprised by my second Mirror Force (which he believed was a bluff).

2-0

Match 3 : VS Mono-Mermails (Rex)

Duel 1 : His deck doesn't play Abyss Spheres but 3 copies of Decrees, those lock my traps real hard. He played the equip spells too to negate my spell so I couldn't get rid of the Decree.

Duel 2 : He played Light Imprisoning Mirror which was very effective but I was able to come back using Gem Knight Pearl with Safe Zone to kill all of his monsters and proceed to beat down.

Duel 3 : He opens with 1 set, I have MST in hand. I was still under the impression of the card being Sphere, thus setting 3 and ended. He passes the next turn and I had Yamato attack him directly which he responded with Malevolent Catastrophe. It went down hill from there since I lost 3 back roll and stuck with a useless MST in hand.

2-1

Match 4 : VS Six Samurai

Duel 1 : My opponent doesn't seem to know how War Gods work and made stupid mistakes like attacking into Yamato with Shi-En.

When I was shuffling my opponent's deck, I found out that he had more cards in it then there was in game 1. He tried to say that his deck had 49 cards, but I've confirmed with him that his deck had 40 when I was shuffling his deck in game 1. He show me a 15 card side deck but some of the cards were sleeved and some were not. Judge rule a game loss to him  and I won the match.

Top 4 : VS Incarnate Dragons / Dragon Rulers (Weiyann)

Duel 1 : I was able to hold on my own for quite some time but lost when he played cards to force his own LaDD to negate them so that he could make Big Eye.

Duel 2 : I open 2 Habakiri, which was bad, but Iron Wall stop him from doing anything. I was able to make Susanoo next turn and won from there.

Duel 3 : This game was intense, I walk over LaDD and he summoned Lava Golemn with its effect. I had Habakirir and Safe Zone in defense and have his own Golem wear him down. It all came down to a top deck Tenki to make Susanoo, and attacked over his Tidal leaving him with 800 life and Golem burnt them away next turn.

Finals : VS Mono-Mermails (Rex) - Revenge match

Duel 1 : I open Yamato and he didn't open very well and I was able to set up and beat him down.

Duel 2 : He had Big Eye, Pike and a Yamato he stoled in attack. I top Reborn, summon a War God and special another, making Susanoo. I grab Habakiri to my hand, walk over his 2 level 4s with Susanoo and 2 Habakiri to win the match.

So, I won the seed qualifiers with War Gods. Safe Zone was an MVP today as expected. I didn't have 3 Vanity's Emptiness with me which hurt during my game against Dragon Rulers. Overall, my current build proved to be quite consistent and I'm liking it thus far.

Irrelevant Side Deck Options

Hi guys, sorry for not posting for the past week, I was caught up with a lot of PS3 action and there wasn't much happening in YGO anyway. Today, I really wanna talk about some misconception regarding how you play against War Gods and stuff. From the get go, we all know that the War Gods aren't gonna be meta determining because it just lacks the firepower and consistency shown by Prophecies and Incarnate Dragons. However, if you rule them out as irrelevant, its gonna come back stinging your ass, although I doubt anyone would even try playing the deck since its not winning much. Still, some extra knowledge can't be bad.

Now, when I go around asking what cards you would side in against War Gods, most answered "Imperial Iron Wall, Soul Drain or Macro Cosmos". True, these cards stop Murakumo and Hetsuka from going off, but in reality, the only one that really slows the deck down would be Macro Cosmos. I doubt many would realize this, but the only important War Gods are Yamato and Habakiri (the Honest), Macro stops all Honest, making it a big pain in the ass. Thats why if you start the game by going first, send Murakumo into the grave first to destroy any Macro set up.

Why wouldn't Soul Drain and Iron Wall do anything? Simple, cause I side into 3 Soul Drains myself. Hetsuka may seem extremely good at first glance, but who in their right mind would target a War God? The only cards that targets right now are Compulsory Evacuation Device (which doesn't really hurt), Fire Fist Bear (somewhat relevant but you run a very trap heavy deck) and the 2 Rank 7s in Incarnate Dragons (Dragosacc would just crash into you wasting your Habakiri). As the current format stands, I strongly believes that good ol' Forbidden Lance is a much relevant card to be played in 3s. 

Murakumo is not much different. The only good target it has are Ophion and thats about it. It might be good against some non-Tier 1s. But it really does nothing against the Big 2. My current build only plays 2 copies of each "grave trap" and focuses more on the beat down element of the deck. 

Also, hand traps are pretty much useless against the deck in case you've not notice.

If you really wanna side against War Gods, just side in Bottomless, Torrential, Mirror Force and other non-targeting traps, they do their very well. If Yamato doesn't hit the field, the deck can't really do anything big. 

In reality, you're most likely not gonna meet any War Gods if your playing in a larger event, but please keep in mind what I've said just in case.