Dandy Warriors with Promos

In case your wondering why the heavily hit plant based syncro decks are still doing so well in Japan, TCGland and even here ... well, thats cause they're still too good of a deck.

While the deck seems dead after the massive hit by banned list September 2011, the deck is still pretty much VERY alive.

I'm not talking bout Tengu and Tourguides since we don't have them here. But, without 2 extremely broken cards, the decks is still winning large tourneys, the only decks that could hold an edge is Agents.

In essences, this deck and Agents are polar opposites. Agents do the same thing every game and beat you with that. Dandy Warrior can play every game with different procedures, not following any guides and end the game with a field of syncro monsters.

Right now, I'm actually considering Dandy Warrior as the more powerful decks as compared to Agents (with the promos of cause). I seriously think that this deck is more broken now then the previous format.

1 example is that I pit 2 of my decks together, my HERO and my Dandy Warrior. I can have Rai-Oh, Super Poly or anything I might need against the deck and I still lose 80% of my games.

My HERO deck is build to kill plants and other syncro decks, and prior to a few weeks ago, no decks that does syncro spam can beat it like this.I'm not bitching or saying how good my HERO deck is, but looking at the results kinda stuns me. Thats when I really realize how bad a mistake Konami made by banning Oppression, I knew that was the stupidest move one can make, but I never expect this big of a stupid move.

Of cause, carefully sided against, this deck is easily beaten. But if played right, this is a deck that could almost always get you game 1.

Looks like I have to remodel my HERO decks for coming months as thats my unofficial tourney decks.

BUT, for some retarded reasons, my Sabers can take out Dandy Warrior easily. I'm not sure why, but I'm winning roughly 12~14 times in my 20 games.

My guess is that, my sabers, like Dandy Warrior is a turn 2 deck.

For me, the only real way to beat Dandy Warrior this format (if your not running Agents or Macro) is to do your stuff before your opponent. If you try to stall and slows your opponent's pace, its not gonna work, since I don't need to normal summon to bring out Quaser, and more turn equals more cards in hand. Oppression is not with us anymore.

Drill Warrior is extremely powerful this format, getting it out 1st turn almost always ensures your win. BUT, you can play around it, with the right cards.

For example, I see a lot of players playing Warning on Drills summon. That might be good and all, but thats not gonna do much harm to your opponent. I normally let my opponent ditch a card, getting his oversized mole out of the way, do some damage next turn. Play Warning when your opponent tries to get it back next turn.

Whats the difference? Warning it when its summon, and your opponent wastes 2 cards and you traded it off with 1. Sounds good. Thats good and all, but its Dandy Warrior we are talking about, they might just drop Dark Armed or BLS on you, then your screwed.

Saving the Solemn now might equal to you getting hit by Drill Warrior, but thats only 1200 damage most of the time. His gonna ditch a card that his gonna get back next turn. So, his 3 cards for your Warning. Better deal? But there's more, saving Warning then also meant you can play it in case your opponent does have a bigger monster than might have been able to kill you then.

Effect Veiler works the same. You can ditch the Veiler when your opponent activates Drill's effect. But, the discard isn't a cost. So his still gonna keep his hand and Drill Warrior while you lost Veiler. If you let it go, you might get a free direct attack, ditching Veiler when he activates Drill Warrior's effect. Now he can't get his card back and he can't use his effect this turn.

Of cause, thats just how I look at it.

Why am I discussing bout Drill Warrior specifically when I'm saying Dandy Warrior as a whole is an overpowered deck? Cause Drill Warrior is the 1 card that make this whole deck alive. You make sure his effect doesn't resolve, you own the game (most of the time).

The other card that made this deck so powerful this format is BLS.

This card needs no introduction, and the only good strategy against it is to kill it ASAP. And make sure your opponent doesn't bring it back.

BLS is the main reason you don't wanna waste your Solemn Warnings. Cause holding BLS and Junk Syncron with Level Eater in grave means "Game 2 please".

Effect Veiler is not gonna do much against BLS, so you can play waste it when you feel right. DD Crow is the same.

The truth is, there is just no good anti-BLS strategy in the game. There's always trap cards, but those aren't strategies. And thats why decks with BLS is always gonna be better than the decks without it.

This might be old, but to beat this deck, you need to know what they have in the grave. Check the grave, think of any possible combo with the cards in the grave. Make sure non of the vital pieces is sent there (the 3rd Dark, a plant for Spore, etc).

The deck is powerful because it doesn't need any field commitment. You can blow their entire field up but they're gonna rebuilt it next turn. Against Dandy Warrior, time IS gold. Every turn you try to stall means more things are drawn and more combo pieces are now in the grave. Not saying playing Conservative is bad, its good. But if you don't think you could hold onto a fullforce combo from Dandy Warrior, your better off attacking risking a Gorz or your whole resource get blown up. Its not gonna matter pass turn 2.

Final note, Dandy Warrior is a Turn 2 or 3 deck. Either beat it in 2 turns or survive 3 turns. Then you'll most probably win the game as their asset won't be enough for another push. BUT, surviving 2 turns from Dandy Warrior is no easy task, especially since Quaser and Heavy are in the game.

Those are my opinion, please feel free to state otherwise. Thanks for reading!

Re : What do I side into while

For myself, the only 2 decks that I consider a problem to Sabers are DW and Agents.

DW : not too much bout the I cant ditch their hand thing, but Sabers tend to set a lot and decks that blow up cards regardless of position and does that early in the game is generally bad for sabers.

I usually side in cards such as 2 Kycoo, 2 Crow, Release and 2 copies of Dark Imprisoning Mirror.

Agents are just pure annoying. Not so much bout Krystia, I can play around a card that just stands there, no problem. Its the cards that I dont see that matters. You never know when they have Hyperion or Orange Light, that why they're doing so well.

Consistency is another issue, Agents are perhaps the toughest deck you'll ever face if your trying to ditch their hand. All of their plays comes together easier than yours.

I now side 2 copies of Light Improsoning Mirror, 2 BTH (my main 2 D Prison instead now), Soul Release, 2 Kycoo.

Kycoo is a boss in the format. The amount of decks this guy can kill is amazing. Even if he doesn't out right kills a deck, you can still make your deck a bit more anti-meta-ish in game 2 so you won't die to card people usually side against Sabers (ie, DD Crow).

As mentioned, after play testing, I felt like maining Dimension Prison over Bottomless Trap Hole.

If your starting, you wanna have BTH, while D Prison works a lot better in later games, or when your starting second in general. But for me, my first move is usually setting Emmers or Darksoul, I don't mind my opponent go on offense there. D Prison is more effective later in the game. Cause normally I don't mind letting my opponent have the head start as long as I can strip them of their advantage later on.

But BTH is still an extremely important card this format. Since Agents are big, Grapha is a pain and Librarian will still kill you if you don't take it out fast.

I was siding Black Horns of Heaven, but took that out since I decide to main D Prison and took out BTH. But the Black Horn is an amazing card this format. It acts as your 3rd and 4th Warning, minus the cost.

The last 2 cards I have in my side are a copy of Nobleman of Crossout and a copy of Creature Swap.

Nobleman is an obvious choice. GK aren't as dead as I hope they would be. Ryko is an ass. Most importantly, I don't like people beating me with Sabers cause I have an ego to live up to.

Swap is the card thats gonna grab most of your attention, if your not from Japan that is ...

The card is good against decks that rely on 1 monsters. The card can get you that Krystia and your opponent is doomed, BLS and you opponent is crying, Quaser(when played right) and your opponent will scoop.

Just my personal preferences I guess as most of my card choices are weird a lot of the time.

Side deck changes!!

Wanghu is a good card, I'm pretty positive bout that. It kills plants by itself. Samurai and Agent both can't make big plays with it on the field.

But why isn't it seeing any plays this format. Well, maybe cause those are the only decks this card hits, and it doesn't hit the latter two hard enough. Another thing is that not many decks could play this card in their main deck well. The only good deck that could potentially play this and not be pure antimeta are those who are played like antimeta, namely T.G and something else.

Wanghu is more of a side board card then. But, there are better cards you can play in your side deck nowadays then the king tiger. 2 Soul Release actually kills more decks than Wanghu can.

Lets see, Soul Release kills plants, Darkworld, T.G (if you destroy more than 1 of them that turn), Sabers (because Darksoul works like T.G now here and Faultroll is the only bitch in Sabers), Agents (to some degree, but there is always the T.G variant), Frogs and Infernities.

Leeching the Light seems like a good card until I tested it out. It doesn't do too much damage to Agents, especially those that plays T.G. It really doesn't do anything against Lightlords, because their monster are almost always too small to matter, or backed by Honest. Most players now hold onto their Dragoons for the kill, so the 3000 boost for every monster seems a bit useless, and with Dragoon out, your mostly looking at giving 3000 to 1 of your monsters.

Crow vs Veiler is perhaps the most widely asked questions here.

Lets see what these do. Veilers are more commonly seen in the main because he hits more decks, but Crow hits them harder. But, Crow has a more limited range of targets.

A Veiler can stop Plants (if played right), Samurai, Agents (if played right), Gadgets and any other random monsters you don't wanna see. Crow kills Darkworld, Plant, T.G based decks, Sabers, Lightlord (if played right) and Infernity. But to those deck that doesn't need the grave, Crow is useless, whereas the only deck Veiler is completely useless against would be Darkworld.

I think its safer to assume, if you can't main Veilers, don't side them. Whereas, Crow is always a good side card, but its not that much of a main deck card. But this assumption is based on our OCG meta, so I can't say much bout TG cause Tourguide is gay, although I still can't figure out how a girl can be gay.

Gemini Fiends (or however its called) is a card thats gaining in massive popularity at the moment. I can't think of why anyone wanna play that card aside from Saber and Darkworld hate. I do think its a good card, but as a DW and Saber player, I know I can and will play around it. I side out Dealings most of the games for more hate usually. And in Sabers, I side out the Faultroll Loop pieces for antimeta cards too. Maybe that just me, cause I tend to side into antimeta quite a lot.

But, I do kinda understand why they side these. Cause you need more cards in your side for decks that your bad against. 2 Crows and a Soul Release is never enough for decks that are near Tier 1. You do need more cards for them. And Gemini Fiends is a good card, just not my cup of tea I guess.

Off to work now, signing out!

Random ranking tourney

So, we played this ranking tourney with Sirocco as the 1st place prize.

Only 4 of us where there, but what the heck.

I still didn't get my Maxx Cs and Darksoul yet, so I'm playing HEROs.

Round Robin format, but thats not important.

1st match vs TG Agent - Fishtank

1st duel - Get Rai-Oh out 1st turn for the early lead. My other monsters rush for game later.

2nd duel - He hid behind Gatchi for very long, and tried to go Trishula, I play Torrential which cause me Hope, but his 3 monsters for Trishula was Warwolf, Striker and my Honest he reborned. He later drop Hyperion on me and won.

3rd duel - I open Skill Drain, set it and summon Allius, holding Honest. He plays MST and got a free Gatchi play. I ditch my Honest to keep my Allius. Summons Airman to pop his Mirror Force, overlay both for Hope. Some how, he manages to kill my guys but I was fighting back with Shining. I joke about him top decking a BLS and kill me here. But he did had BLS, and the thing he top deck was Honest.

0-1

2nd match vs Six Samurai - Crowser

1st duel - He opens into Shi-En and sets 2. I misplay here, I summon Allius and attacks into his Shi-En, holding Super Poly hoping he chains something. But he lets it through, and now I look like an idiot, and plays Super Poly to get rid of Shi-En and deal damage. He later plays Dual Sword into Trishula. I regretted playing Super Poly at this point, cause playing it now might got me a lot more advantage. Loss to Trishula.

2nd duel - King Tiger just sits there and does his job. My opponent was left with nothing to summon but setting.

3rd duel - He stalled too long with Kageki and rushes, making Trishula and we both played all our backrows. I summon Allius and destroyed his Kizan, setting Spark. He summons Mizuho, special Kizan, tribute Kizan and tries to pop my back row, which I chained to get rid of his Trishula. I drew, played King Tiger and Miracle Fusion for game.

1-1

3rd match vs Twilight - LCW

1st duel - He open nuts and double JD on me one the 3 turn after Dark Hole killed Rai-Oh.

2nd duel - I open Airman and Gate. Playing a Shining 1st turn and setting Judgment and BTH. He summons Lyla, which I played BTH. He then Recharge into Wolf in defense. I topped Kycoo and banished his Lightlords. He later review multiple JDs, but no Lightlords.

3rd duel - I open Dustshoot and Mind Crush. I summon Airman for Allius and attacks his lone set monster, which wasn't Ryko, but Necro. I set the 2 traps. I then saw 2 Monster Reincarnation, 2 JD, Recharge and Avarice. Basically he had the worst hand anyone could have, and I just kinda won from there without doing much.

2-1

Fishtank won 3 of his games so he won the Sirocco. And I got a random booster for 2nd place.

TG Agents are good, they live up to their reputation.

Boggard and Emmers

I found a pattern in the number of these cards being player in sabers. You play these in a different amount you can massively affect your play style and how you wanna win you games in general.

Of cause, you would have 5 of them in your deck, thats always a staple now, but who gets the 3?

3 Boggard and 2 Emmers or 2 Boggard and 3 Emmers.

I see more people leaning towards 3 Emmers. I myself plays 3 Boggards and 2 Emmers.

Play anything aside from 5 of these and some of them might go to waste and you won't have space for Effect Veilers and Maxx Cs.

3 Boggard and 2 Emmers :

I like this set more because I could afford to go all out more often. This set up actually ensures easier Trishulas and Gottoms in general.

But, this set is useless unless your playing Regigura, which is deem too unreliable for many. I see why people dislike the Faultroll loop in general, and I understand the reasonings behind them, but I'm not buying it.

In this set up, you also need to have 3 Faultroll, or your Boggards go to waste. Boggard + Regigura = Trishula + a 1900 beater.

Stripping advantage is what I think this set up is all about. And of cause, this set up enables the Faultroll Loop alot easier as compare to the other set, which doesn't play the loop at all.

Of cause, being the offensive set does have its drawbacks. Namely, if you can't get your cards right, ie, no Faultroll or Darksoul (although unlikely since you play 3 Pots and Emmers), your gonna have a hard time staying alive, since Boggard can't be sync to anything but Sabers.

Hope gives you that extra boss monster if you have 2 Boggard and wanna push or just stay in the game. But you should avoid this in general, as I find summoning Hope means you can't afford to lose it, and its the card you don't wanna make unless absolutely necessary.

Emmersblades are only run in 2 because the 3rd copy WILL go to waste in a deck like this. There aren't a lot of targets aside from Darksoul or maybe Kamikaze into something to get Regi or Fullhelm out (which I tend to do a lot).

2 Boggard and 3 Emmers :

The more common way of playing Sabers. This allows you to stall longer and search your key pieces easier. Best thing bout this set up is that you won't need 3 Faultroll to function.

This is more defensive in nature because without 3rd Faultroll and Regigura, you can have tech in 2 more cards. I personally go with Hamster or Debris (not both) and maybe Maxx C or Gorz.

Emmers is a hell of a wall, searching you any sabers at any given time its destroyed by battle in no joke. This card alone (technically) can wall attacks from most decks if they don't have an answer to it.

Builds that main 3 Emmers are mostly going for Level 6 Syncros or Rank 3 Exceeds. If your opponent is playing massive backrow aka CONTROL (ie, BF or GB), go into Hyunlei and blow them up. Playing beat down or something like that? We fight AGGRO with AGGRO. Revise Dragon and Gaia Knight are extremely big beaters. Last but not least, the COMBO decks, they do to much shit with their banish pile, so Leviair is there to take that advantage away from them.

An Emmers with Fullhelm in hand can instantly get pass most plays as long as they don't have boss cards like Quaser or Krystia out.

Boggard only serve as the extra muscles in here most of the time. Or getting Faultroll out faster if you already have the pieces.

This set up is more popular as you could held on to your tail easier and the less demanding set up allows you to side more effectively and play more techs that the other set up can't.

The problem with this set up is Darkworld. Because of how reactive this deck could be, Darkworld and their Lightnings could easily gain advantage while poping your things. You need to play Emmers to get its effect off, but when staring at an opponent that could destroy your cards for free, its not that good of a deal.

Only thing we saber players could do against DW at this point is to play more chainable cards and try not to set Emmers unless necessary. The releasing of triple MST is good for sabers, since decks with field spells are generally bad for them. But even with that, to take down DW with Sabers means you need both luck and skill, try playing more conservative and don't commit to the field too much, and do that only when your gonna win. This is easier in the former set than this, although the difference is minimal.

Another card in sabers I really wanna discuss about is Regigura.

This card is there for the Faultroll Loop, and if you don't plan on the Loop, don't play this. Playing this also meant you need 3 Faultrolls.

But thats not all to this 200/1000 reptile.

This card can easily make Faultroll with Boggard, and give you a free Trishula. I feel this cards good because of Trishula. Usually, in sabers, we make Trishula using a Fullhelm and 2 more sabers. While you can get Darksoul and search and all, but I don't think your gonna pull that off that easily without Emergency Call.

Regi gets access to Trishula faster and easier. Although playing Regi gives you less choices and variances most of the time.

I think the point I wanna make is that, playing or not playing Regi is all bout which do you think is more important :

Variance and less dead draws or Trishula (yes, Trishula).

I don't think I'll go any further, as my post usually only get out half of what I'm trying to say, asI can't express myself that well.

Quickdraw Dandy Warrior 2.0

So, this is the deck I'm currently building. Since I pretty much completed my Sabers and build my side deck to beat the Malaysian meta.

monster (26):

3 Quickdraw Syncron

2 Junk Syncron

2 Effect Veiler

1 Debris Dragon

1 Plague Spreader Zombie

1 Spore

1 Glow Up Bulb

1 Unknown Syncron

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

2 Lightlord Hunter Ryko

1 Lightlord Magician Lyla

1 Dark Armed Dragon

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Level Eater

1 Card Trooper

1 Lonefire Blossom

1 Dandelion

1 Dark Dust Spirit

2 Maxx C

spell (11):

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystic Space Typhoon

1 Foolish Burial

1 One For One

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Mind Control

1 Charge of the Light Brigade

2 Solar Recharge

trap (3):

2 Call of the Haunted

1 Limit Rebirth

The deck list may seem kinda weird, but it works for me.

Why do I have Solar Recharge when I'm only running 3 Lightlords.

Cause I see the 3 Lightlord + 2 Recharge thing in Chris Bowling's Tengu Plant / Tourguide Plant deck.

I originally thought thats only good cause Tourguide is gay ... I'm not sure how a girl can be gay, but apparently thats how it is ...

But no, you don't need tourguide for that. And come to think of it, Sangan into Ryko is kinda pointless.

I don't see myself poping alot with Ryko either. Most of the time, its just there to mill or as discard folder.

Tested it out after I convince myself to. It does make the deck a lot more explosive, not necessarily more consistent. But I like power, so it stays.

Most of the monster line up are kinda pointless in explaining, aside from Dark Dust Spirit.

I was planning on running Caius, only to found out I sold my last copy of it. That sucks I know. So I proxied it with Spirit. After test play, I found that I need it's effect in much more situation as compare to Caius's.

I'm not sure if his staying in there for long thou, as I don't like cards that needs to be advance summon.

I play 1 reaper and 1 trooper as oppose to 2 trooper as I think that could get me Leviair easier. Since we don't have tourguide, I have to make up with what I have right?

The 3 traps are all call of the haunted variants. Cause there are tons of targets that would benefit you when your opponent plays MST.

I was planning on playing 3 Rykos, but I felt that I'm gonna see Nobleman when I set it 1st turn, so Lyla kinda makes Nobleman less deadly. And I really don't wanna see Recharge dead.

The remaining problem now is the extra deck. Thats Quickdraw's main problem. Because there are so many key cards you need in the extra, you need to plan very very well. I still haven't make a final extra deck list yet.

Tell me what you think. In case your wondering, no, OCG doesn't have Tourguide and Tengu.

Non-YGO

Well, its kinda ... I mean VERY late now, but I wanna get a few things out before I go to bed.

First, you may or may not know, I also play Cardfight Vanguard as my secondary card game, and I do have a blog for that.

Although its pretty much dead, like Lam's blog. Or just about 90% of the bloggers blog.

And for those of you who reads my blog and plays Vanguard, I just wanna link these blog to you.

my VG blog : http://ride-the-vanguard.blogspot.com/

Rauzes's VG blog : http://soimba.blogspot.com/

Have fun.

Oh yeah, found a super sweet tech for Quickdraw Dandy. I'm not sure about the consistency and stuff, but I find the card nice in there.

I'll talk about it tomorrow, as I can't really focus on typing right now. Off to bed!

Henshin!! Super Saiyan Ultra-Yuma

Thats what happened in episode 24 of YGO ZeXal. Astral overlay'ed himself and Yuma to form a super hero mode of themselves. Of cause, they are not on the field or in the game, its just sorta like how Kaito can Photon Change before dueling.

ZeXal is actually some sort of mythical force thats suppose to save Astral's world. So, its not just a random name, its actually a random name that got used in the story for some random purposes. Wow!

I bet a lot of people will go crazy and rant about how the transformation or fusion thing is stupid and how its so not YGO. BUT, this isn't the 1st time they do it.

No, this happened late 2007 when Judai fused himself and Yubel to form the Tom-Cruise-Version of himself.

This is just the animators way of answering the fans how was that move possible. By stating, A is possible because B is possible. That doesn't make sense? It does cause C makes sense, and C is equivalent to A and B. By C I mean Yusei turning gold in color before summoning Shooting Quaser where he fused with the Crimson Dragon (since Red + Crab = Gold).

On side note, the ZW or ZeXal Weapon cards, or the only card revealed. The Unicorn thing. Is Good!

Ignoring the fact that its effect can only be played if you have Hope Ray out, which isn't hard at all. Its just as hard as getting Hope out, and we know how hard that is.

The Unicorn Spear thingy (which I forgot its name) is a 1900 Light Beast monster. That by itself is enough for lots of good things.

TG Gadget just got another big beater, to top things off, TG Gadget seems to be the deck which could make Hope the easiest. And being the deck that could pull off Hope Ray's stupid requirement most easily.

So, now we can have :

6 Gadgets, 3 Unicorn thing, 2 Striker, 3 Warwolf, 1 Rhino, a Glow Up Bulb and BLS.

Or you could play 9 Gadgets and have 20 monsters in your deck. I'm not sure what thats leading towards, but I'm not sure I like that monster count in Gadget.

That Unicorn actually makes playing Warning in Offering Gadget reasonable. Not to mention Seven-Tools.

Unicorn shit also made BLS alive in Gadget if anyone where to play it that way.

To top things off, Unicorn dude is part of the ZW archtype which can be translated as "we will release a ton of support for these guys so get your wallets ready", so I can see improvement for the deck. Thats IF Offering isn't hit by the banned list in 6 months. Hahahahaha ...

Or maybe they just made it a Unicorn to remind the players how many packs/boxes of DREV he pulled in hope of getting Pot of Duality. Who know?

EXP4 is here!!

Got myself a playset of Boggard and 2 Darksoul today, need 1 more. Pulled 1 Boggard from 3 packs, traded the holos from the other 2 packs for 2nd Boggard. Bought a Darksoul for RM35, thats like 10 bucks USD? Traded BLS UR for a Darksoul and Boggard, not the best trade ever, but I wanna make sure I have the cards before the market price goes stupid and I got that BLS for free from Rauzes.

LOL!!

5 down, 1 more to go. And thats from the 1st day the set is release here at Toysbar.

Didn't get to play in today's ranking cause my job is a bitch.

Did a pseudo half-ass Trishula loop with sabers today. But it took me 4 cards in hand to loop 3 Trishula ... come to think of it, its pretty worth it.

Counter Trap Issues

Sorry for not posting the entire week, I have fever and shit.

I see Mike Ting finally realizes that Divine Wrath is a good card this format. We also found out that MST is not played as much as everyone anticipated. I did say not many decks can play 3 MST, but thats not the issue we currently see. The reason MST is not played much is because people are not either not setting or setting multiples to ensure Heavy doesn't go through. Blind MST is never good, and you'll see people holding it as long as possible or setting it hoping people plays an MST on it so you can chain it to another card on their board.

While I do agree that Divine Wrath being extremely good this format (mainly cause no one will see it coming), I don't really like the idea of having multiples or a playset of it in the main deck.

I think the only deck that could afford playing multiple copies of the same counter trao in their main deck would be Counter Fairies. The other decks shouldn't really just splash in Counter Traps for fun. Of cause, if you know what your doing and serves your deck well, by all means, do it. But I see too many people splash in counter traps (mainly Seven Tools, in multiple copies) just cause they think they'll need it.

My problem with counter trap being,

1. They are way too specific, only able to chain towards the activation of a certain type of card, even Solemn Judgment can't negate a monster's effect. Normally it doesn't matter, but having DW in the game makes running unchainable cards really really dangerous.

2. The cost of playing counter traps are more often than not, high. The 3 most powerful counter traps in the game right now would be Solemn Judgment and Warning, with Divine Wrath just barely taking the 3rd place on the podium. 3 of these cards have steep activation cost, although their ability to prevent your opponent from winning makes people overlook that.

Truth is, if you mess up while playing a big counter trap, your most likely than not going to lose to its activation cost. A wrong read on your opponent and you played Judgment on a bait, and you'll most probably lose.

That said, I really cant say playing more counter traps is safe this format. But I say play 3 to 4 counter if your deck is based on control. If your deck is aggro based, play 0 to 1 counter, or to be exact, play Solemn Judgment.

Another hidden gem for (beginning of ) this format will be Magic Jammer.

I see a sudden rise in play for this ancient Counter Trap.

While I only see Gadget maining it, it does make sense. First, Magic Jammer is a card that can't negate itself, as oppose to Magic Drain. Which to me is a card that makes no sense at all. Players are playing more spells to traps this format, and the spells you commonly see in your opponent main decks are big ones. Its been a long time since we have Monster Reborn, Dark Hole and Heavy Storm in the game together. And the newer slightly less powerful spells aren't to be mess with either. All and all, you have a shit load of targets right now.

Secondly, while ditching a card for a negation of a spell is steep, actually, its VERY steep. Stopping a spell can be more devastating than stopping a monster effect most of the time. While spells don't kill you, they make way for their monster to do the job.

I'm not saying Magic Jammer is a card good enough for every deck now. No, its not. But for decks like Gadget, or Counter Fairies. This can be a good addition if you have a few slots for techs, or you just want a card to negate some spells. I do think this is the better card to Magic Drain.

EXP4

As expected, Darksoul is the UR, well, we know this already since he is the cover card. The other UR being Empress.

Boggard is a SR, as I told many people, but most of them keep saying it'll be NR. I don't know who thought of that in the 1st place, but Boggard is almost a guaranteed SR, the only possibility it ain't one, is that it switch rarity with Darksoul. In your face non-believers!!

Infernity Barrier is comfirmed ... as a COMMON! I seriously didn't see this one coming. I told Lam the other day its mostly a SR, when he said it might be a rare. Guess we really underestimated Konami in this. It doesn't concern me at all, but Lam plays Infernity, and I'm not sure what his response would be when he hears of this tomorrow morning.

The 2 syncros are foils, like there would be a non-foil syncro after CRMS (in main booster series and non-reprint sets).

Perhaps what shocks me the most would be Maxx C. Normal Rare. Great ... it'll be a RM40 card now. I was putting my money on Maxx C as a rare, but secretly wished it being a common. But I forgot Konami just likes to put awesome side deck/tech cards as NRs. Thanks man!

The other cards are not important what so ever, because I have no business with them and most of the players here in Malaysia doesn't as well. All and all I don't see EXP4 as a great set. The cards everyone wants from here are the Sabers, but they're not top deck material.

BUT, the format at the moment is actually really good for sabers. And since no one is making extremely fast decks, or rather, can't make extremely fast decks. Sabers do have a chance, as long as you know what your doing. Like, siding out Airbellum when you play DarkWorld? Or maybe taking out random DD Crows when you take on Agents? I'm just saying.

I still feel Sabers being extremely competitive in OCG right now, just not on the top. I tend to say they suck thou if you have conversation with me real life. Well, other things that come out of my mouth when I talk to other players would include E HERO being a bad deck because it has no auto-win, you need to control the entire game or you lose, and main deck Winged Kuriboh is pro.

Well, most of the things I said are based on my own deck anyway, and most people still think of E HERO as a deck that you need constantly spamming Fusions to win. The truth is,you never need to spam that many fusions to begin with. Key to playing with E HERO, hold back on your resource, waste your opponent's and summon Fusion monsters for the win. Simple formula that no one from my locals understand for some reason.

And yes, I do mained Winged Kuriboh, just cause its pro. No joke!

Back to topic, EXP4 sucks. Like all extra pack before it. At least to me, its not worth buying, not like I planned to buy a box to begin with, I'm more comfortable getting singles nowadays.

Update

Went to Toysbar today for selling BLS Ultimate rare, did some deck testing with the local people there and some guys from Gamers earlier that day.

I was half serious when I mained 3 Smashing Ground into my Saber, but it turned out quite well. Especially since it was a simple 1 card out to Krystia.

While Smashing Ground is a slow card, this format here isn't what I call fast either, so I guess it'll be a fine tech before the format inevitably speeds up again with new boosters coming out. But thats still months ahead, and I could care less in the mean time.

I'm not really gonna main deck 3 Smashing of cause, but 1 might try out 1 or 2 and a Creature Swap. Since these cards really helps Gadgets, and I tend to play Sabers like Gadget.

Played a few games with y updated Quickdraw Dandy, and it does wonders. Its as powerful if not more powerful than last format. Well, I didn't mained 3 Quickdraw last format, so maybe thats where the difference come from.

I found out that I never need the 2nd Librarian and Formula anyway. Lonefire and Debris aren't really that important with Quickdraw around. The only card that kinda hurt would be Avarice, but Drill Warrior is next to extremely amazing.

However, this deck does have a very bad match up against Agents thou, because Krystia is always a bitch. Well, thats where the side deck comes in I guess.

Don't really recommend this deck for big tourneys, while this deck is still a clear tier 1 in OCG right now, its not the top deck in its tier, which makes playing it dangerous. Since people will still side for you, and you won't have the best advantage around. And especially when the No.1 deck of the format right now sorta kills this deck game 1.

On a not so YGO note, I played in the Cardfight Vanguard tourney today for the 1st time. I do have a Vanguard blog but its sorta ... dead.

Went 2 - 2, which I got my opponent getting heal triggers on me when I go for game, thats just how luck based that card game really is.

Well, its not a bad experience thou. Rauzes was there too, he crack a box of Vanguard and basically thats the best box we've ever seen. Imagine getting Duality, Chimera and Veiler for your SRs in DREV, thats how good his box was.

Thats all for today I guess, sorry for posting something non-YGO, but I thought some of you might wanna know what happen to Rauzes. The guy ain't dead and still playing Battle Spirit and more recently Vanguard.

Sabers update : side deck

I've just finalizing my side deck based on the metagame from Japan, which is Agents, Junk and Gadgets.

I've also done some minor mods to my deck too, although I'm not covering that yet, still need some fine tunings.

side (15):

2 King tiger Wanghu

2 DD Crow

1 Effect Veiler

3 Leeching the Light

1 MST

2 Solemn Warning

2 Mind Crush

1 Dark Imprisoning Mirror

1 Debunk

I've not added Maxx C into considerations yet, so don't be surprise at all if it comes into the side, or main.

Took warning off main and sided it for some other card, namely to lower my trap count.

Saber update Sspt 2011 #1

1 week to EXP4 or should I say Darksoul, Boggard and Maxx C? I could care less bout the rarity of the 2 sabers, but I really want Maxx C to be a common, not rare. As I don't wanna waste RM20 on a rare, where as a common would meant it be RM5 tops.

Really wish people will think of sabers as trash and sell them Darksoul and Boggard for 20 or 30 a piece. I really don't wanna throw a huge amount of cash into a deck that probably will never see support again.

monster (19):

3 XX-saber Faultroll

3 XX-saber Darksoul

3 XX-saber Boggard Knight

2 XX-saber Emmersblade

2 XX-saber Fullhelmknight

2 X-saber Pashuul

1 X-saber Airbellum

1 XX-saber Regigura

1 Debris Dragon

1 Super Nimble Mega Hamster

spell (10):

2 Pot of Duality

2 Mystic Space Typhoon

2 Enemy Controller

1 Book of Moon

1 Dark Hole

1 Monster Reborn

1 Heavy Storm

trap (11):

2 Gottom's Emergency Call

2 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Dark Bribe

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Solemn Warning

I really don't like Starlight Road, thats why I have Dark Bribe instead. I was thinking Magic Drain, cause I normally leave my opponent handless, but considering I might need the negation before the sabers do their job, I chose Dark Bribe. AND, if the sabers are really gonna do their job, that card they just drew will end up ditched anyway.

Warning isn't that great this format, but Agents are a pain. Warning still serve as the number 1 answer to their plays. Its a bit more dangerous now playing Warning, but it won't matter if I'm winning and it doesn't really matter if I'm losing anyway.

No Veilers because there just aren't enough good target for the card in the OCG right now. Aside from maybe random Samurai ( this deck could take down samurai with 3 Signals without Darksoul ), Gadgets (with 3 MSTs ... really?) and Agents (2 or maybe 3 cards in the deck gets hit), there is no deck with a Veiler Target. This deck's number 1 enemy is Darkworld and Keepers, which I doubt Veiler does anything to.

Veiler just isn't good enough in the OCG, the only decks that mained it right now is Junk variants, and thats because they wanna play BLS.

Regigura is a boss. I don't think I'll ever play Sabers without it. I don't know why half the world plays sabers like BF, but to me, Sabers meant Faultroll Loop, THE END.

Hamster wasn't here before because I dislike Ryko in a control deck, but now I see him more than a recruiter, his better than the 3rd Emmersblade, HIS LEVEL 4!!! There will be times you need Hope to clear a path for you or you just need to stall a few turns. I don't wanna waste 2 Boggards on that. With a 1800 def, this thing is pretty much a wall.

Debris might sounds like a random card there for solely Black Rose, but I mainly made this deck to run 3 Emergency Calls, and sometimes, my only Saber is in the grave. Well, I took the 3 E Call out for second Call of the Haunted cause its just better, but that Debris is still helping out real good. An 2000 wall is good starting play, to bait out those Nobleman and stuff.

Enemy Controller cause I originally ran 3 Fullhelm and no Airbellum, but my pride doesn't allow me to do that, since Airbellum did fought along my side for years now, AND I did build sabers last year just for it. Controller is still good thou, monster Exceeds just made them better.

I cut Pot from 3 to 2, cause I draw into multiples a lot, not much aside from that.

I do run a high trap count for this format, but I don't necessary hate 1 for 1s, if I could bate a MST with a Mirror Force or Warning, that means my E Calls will less likely be MST targets. Note, I usually don't leave a Saber on the field unless necessary. And I felt that Bribe and Judgment are cards that you CAN'T set alone, it has to be there to protect something.

I've yet to build a side deck yet cause I'm not sure how the Malaysian meta looks like, although it most likely mirrors Japan's cause the winning decks over there right now doesn't need promos.

Have fun guys! Sorry for the lack of post last week. I planned to post quite a few times, but I deleted the post after typing halfway cause I don't feel like its quality material.

..

Oh yeah! New deck , DRAGONIC LEGION, cool name. Supports Light and Dark Dragons? We all know THE BEST support for Light and Dark Dragons is in the prison.

But I know I smell Red Eyes Darkness Metal in that deck, there is NO other Dark (or light) dragon of its caliber that has yet to be reprinted in the sad common non-foil state.

Gagaga Magician deck

Misleading title, but I've not done anything to it yet, and the deck is still merely an idea. Spending too much time on work and anime.

What I did thou, was building my Sabers to match this format, I try making it so that I would not lose to a first turn Krystia. Normally I have my traps waiting for it but as we know right now, traps that aren't chainable aren't that good anymore.

Another threat is Darkworld. The deck can be said as saber's biggest problem, even bigger than Agents. But no good players in my area plays Darkworld, as most of them seems to favor Agents and Gantetsu more. All my DW matchups till now are easy as my opponent mostly misplay themselves to death.

Going to work now, will post the updated list this evening.

Gagaga Magician

Picked up a play set of Gagaga today, since I have obviously nothing better to pick up.

Thinking of playing a deck that focuses on Advance Draw, Gagaga and Wonder Wand.

I know I'll be playing 3 copies of Future Vision, Barboros and Sin Stardust.

But I've no clue what to play for the Spellcaster part.

Not much from me now and I made dozens of decks on duelnet this week, but most of them are either inconsistent or its not fun to play with.