2011 is gonna end in a few hours, and heres what I have to say about the year for YGO.
It has been a bad one ...
Well, compare to 2010, anything not better will seem bad, since it was that good of a year for the game, movies, Duelist Revolution among others.
2011 was a bad year for YGO for me at least, and the Malaysian YGO community (KL).
Main reason was Cardfight! Vanguard. The game was much more simple and luck based as compare to YGO, but it penetrated the market at the right time. Comparing this to what Duel Masters did a few years back. DM was a much more strategical game and very very much more complex, so, its target market are competitive players (or so it seems), BUT that was 2005~2006-ish, YGO was super huge back then and it was Goat Control format, it didn't caught on, and faded away. What CV did was it came in when YGO was a mess with loads of overpowered combos - Six Samurai era. People stray away because the game ended too fast for them and Kizan was rm100 a piece, a playset of those, Shi-En, Gates and Grandmasters would easily hover between 900~1000, for a country which pays their fresh grad Engineers (points at me) about 2000 per month, thats quite an amount.
Now, you see half of the YGO players playing CV in KL. Most of us are only playing this as an secondary cardgame, only having 1 deck and still focusing on YGO, BUT, no other (card) game had this effect on the community, which YGO reign supreme for at least a decade. Although I've seen lesser players from our side playing that actively on that side. Well, CV is now as expensive or maybe more expensive than YGO is, I think thats the main reason people came back, that, or the game is just too simple for us who likes traps and Effect Veilers.
The other important thing that happen in 2011 is, of cause, Monster Exceeds.
Exceeds may not had change the game like Stardust and his lot did 3 years ago, BUT, there's no doubt that they are here to stay (unlike Fusions and Ritual). And they are getting more powerful as more sets are introduced.
Aside from the 1 main point that made 2011, 2011. There really isn't anything thats gonna be remembered for. The March and Spetember formats are perhaps, the most boring of formats in a long long time. Its not that the balance between decks are off, the games (here) are very much skill based, and we see decks that control doing as well as decks that spam. But, its still very dull. 2011 can be described as the year of Gachi Gachi, as Hyperion rode it to top deck status and stayed there for the rest of the year (although Inzektors are giving them a run for their money).
Thats YGO as a whole for 2011 from my point of view. Now, off to myself.
I'm doing better this year as compare to last year. I've top considerably more shop events than I've ever did. And I've made it to top16 in Christmas Tourney a few days ago in Single Elimination format, which I suck at and has never advance pass top64 since 2006.
I've been better at my game now, that is, taking down top tier decks with ex-top tier decks. Basically showing them how good is the deck they had betrayed. Up to now, I have always played decks that were dominating the pass formats, its almost as if, when the deck loses popularity, I would play it, mainly cause the pieces are easier to assemble and mocking people like this feels good.
Thats it for today, its new years eve and I have a life. Not gonna post an E HERO decklist like I did for the past 2 years, since I've already update my current strategies in the Mask Change post.
Bye 2011, and welcome 2012!!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Oppression Being Irrelevant
Many are saying we need Oppression back or we continue getting our ass raped by Inzektors. I want Oppression back too, and I see it back March 1st, BUT, unless something happen to Inzektor, or someone found a flaw in that +4 loop or that Zenmighty Loop, or maybe just a super special awesome tech that would render them useless. Its not gonna do much.
Oppression never succeed in stopping a Tier 1 deck from being tier 1, it did however, joined their ranks and made them more consistent.
Oppression does next to nothing to standard Inzektors in my books. Reason being Hornet. Its gonna blow Oppression up before searching for Centipede, and blow more shit up.
Unless your opponent has something like Hyperion, Krystia or BLS (bosses who would outright kill you if you 2nd Inzektor might somehow failed itself), you would target the backrow first. In this format, people don't set alot. Unless your gonna risk it out and set 4, hoping Hornet misses, and you won. BUT, even after taking Storm out of the question, IF your opponent hits Oppression, his gonna rape your other 4 cards off. Setting useless cards against Inzektors are suicide.
And if you could set multiple in the first place, and not fear a Heavy Storm to the face, your not in any position to be scare of Inzektors. BTH, Torrential, Warning are 3 cards almost always seen in a deck with 10+ traps, and all of these stop the loop just as well, no, they stop it better. You want something that stays, Macro or Shadow Mirror.
I still do think Oppression should and would be coming back March 1st, but I don't see it terribly good against Inzektor, of cause, 1 more generic card against them would increase your chances, but the problem with Oppression would be, you don't wanna see it at the other side of the table. Hornet can blow his own cards, and with Oppression back, I imagine they would run Trap Stun again, instead of MSTs.
During the past weekend, I've been playing alot against Inzektors. Maybe I'm just being confident in my own deck, I don't think a +4 Hornet loop would outright kill Junk Doppel, theres not many cards he can hit in the first place. Zenmighty Loop does the same effect to the deck, as long as he doesn't pull Dimensional Fissure. The biggest problem most deck have against Inzektors would be how good the deck works with Fissure. How can a deck with an ability to gain massive pluses, rape your opponent's hand and just outright makes Leviair like its free, plays Fissure so well.
I'm saying this based on my own opinion, but I felt that people are fearing the wrong card. Samurai, Laggia and now Inzektor all dominated their own format (until a new set release or banlist), they all have 2 things in common, wasting your opponent's resources and access to Dimensional Fissure. D Fissure wins games for you in the right deck, but people are so preoccupied with the loops and shits, they tend to forget the main thing killing them is Fissure, not the loop itself.
If your playing Agents, you don't have set cards most of the times, unless your opponent has Gigamantis, his not gonna kill you, you've loss next to nothing and your gonna take out his field next turn. Hornet has a +4 loop? Venus Gachi play does the same thing, it doesn't destroy 2 of your opponent's card, Gachi waste them. And you have Orange Light to deal with the loop in the first place, unlike Veiler in Plants, Agent thins their deck a lot faster and pulls them more often. The problem now would only be Fissure, the card that stops all of your plays.
BUT, there is no doubt Inzektor Wind-Up is a broken deck. There's no disagreement that its tier 1, some might even argue its tier 0, but we all know thats not true. Its amazing but not unbeatable.
That was my personal opinion. I'm a little weird and look at things at a different way to many I guess.
Just build my own version of TG Agents, but unlike how most people play it, my focus is not on Agents, but on TG. The deck works like how an average Junk Doppel should, summoning very very beefy monsters steadily and ending the game by flooding the field with monsters. Basically, its now my Combo/Spam deck for Official Tournaments. My Junk Doppel is my Control/Annoying Stall deck for Official Tournaments.
How the hell these 2 decks swap functions? I just found that I work better with builds like this, and I just like to be different. Venus, Warwolf and Hyperion easily makes an OTK and by NOT summoning Venus head on, the chances of me pulling it off drastically increases. Reaper, Mole and Goat, cards that you don't see in the Asian Format, just outright proof their worth to me in my Junk Doppel and after placing a lot of Traps and hand traps into the deck, it might not be as consistent in pulling out big plays, but it can stall the game long enough and waste enough cards from your opponent to pull out a kill, the way I like the game to be done.
Well, I'm just weird I guess.
Oppression never succeed in stopping a Tier 1 deck from being tier 1, it did however, joined their ranks and made them more consistent.
Oppression does next to nothing to standard Inzektors in my books. Reason being Hornet. Its gonna blow Oppression up before searching for Centipede, and blow more shit up.
Unless your opponent has something like Hyperion, Krystia or BLS (bosses who would outright kill you if you 2nd Inzektor might somehow failed itself), you would target the backrow first. In this format, people don't set alot. Unless your gonna risk it out and set 4, hoping Hornet misses, and you won. BUT, even after taking Storm out of the question, IF your opponent hits Oppression, his gonna rape your other 4 cards off. Setting useless cards against Inzektors are suicide.
And if you could set multiple in the first place, and not fear a Heavy Storm to the face, your not in any position to be scare of Inzektors. BTH, Torrential, Warning are 3 cards almost always seen in a deck with 10+ traps, and all of these stop the loop just as well, no, they stop it better. You want something that stays, Macro or Shadow Mirror.
I still do think Oppression should and would be coming back March 1st, but I don't see it terribly good against Inzektor, of cause, 1 more generic card against them would increase your chances, but the problem with Oppression would be, you don't wanna see it at the other side of the table. Hornet can blow his own cards, and with Oppression back, I imagine they would run Trap Stun again, instead of MSTs.
During the past weekend, I've been playing alot against Inzektors. Maybe I'm just being confident in my own deck, I don't think a +4 Hornet loop would outright kill Junk Doppel, theres not many cards he can hit in the first place. Zenmighty Loop does the same effect to the deck, as long as he doesn't pull Dimensional Fissure. The biggest problem most deck have against Inzektors would be how good the deck works with Fissure. How can a deck with an ability to gain massive pluses, rape your opponent's hand and just outright makes Leviair like its free, plays Fissure so well.
I'm saying this based on my own opinion, but I felt that people are fearing the wrong card. Samurai, Laggia and now Inzektor all dominated their own format (until a new set release or banlist), they all have 2 things in common, wasting your opponent's resources and access to Dimensional Fissure. D Fissure wins games for you in the right deck, but people are so preoccupied with the loops and shits, they tend to forget the main thing killing them is Fissure, not the loop itself.
If your playing Agents, you don't have set cards most of the times, unless your opponent has Gigamantis, his not gonna kill you, you've loss next to nothing and your gonna take out his field next turn. Hornet has a +4 loop? Venus Gachi play does the same thing, it doesn't destroy 2 of your opponent's card, Gachi waste them. And you have Orange Light to deal with the loop in the first place, unlike Veiler in Plants, Agent thins their deck a lot faster and pulls them more often. The problem now would only be Fissure, the card that stops all of your plays.
BUT, there is no doubt Inzektor Wind-Up is a broken deck. There's no disagreement that its tier 1, some might even argue its tier 0, but we all know thats not true. Its amazing but not unbeatable.
That was my personal opinion. I'm a little weird and look at things at a different way to many I guess.
Just build my own version of TG Agents, but unlike how most people play it, my focus is not on Agents, but on TG. The deck works like how an average Junk Doppel should, summoning very very beefy monsters steadily and ending the game by flooding the field with monsters. Basically, its now my Combo/Spam deck for Official Tournaments. My Junk Doppel is my Control/Annoying Stall deck for Official Tournaments.
How the hell these 2 decks swap functions? I just found that I work better with builds like this, and I just like to be different. Venus, Warwolf and Hyperion easily makes an OTK and by NOT summoning Venus head on, the chances of me pulling it off drastically increases. Reaper, Mole and Goat, cards that you don't see in the Asian Format, just outright proof their worth to me in my Junk Doppel and after placing a lot of Traps and hand traps into the deck, it might not be as consistent in pulling out big plays, but it can stall the game long enough and waste enough cards from your opponent to pull out a kill, the way I like the game to be done.
Well, I'm just weird I guess.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Christmas Tourney Finals Videos
Head to Zack's New Blog. He had the videos up and running.
http://competitive-to-survive.blogspot.com/
Enjoying my holiday, bye!
http://competitive-to-survive.blogspot.com/
Enjoying my holiday, bye!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas Tourney Report
Its a Single Elimination Tourney, and I played Junk Doppel, since I'm most comfortable with the deck. My strategy against Inzektor? Kamikaze, I siding 3 Shadow Imprisoning Mirrors, bet they don't see that coming.
Round 1 : VS Inzektor
Seriously, that was fast.
Duel 1 : I open One for One ditching Dandy to get Formula out. I set MST but on his turn, he had Heavy. He then played Allure, removing Damsel. I swear to god my balls shrank when I saw that ditch. But fortunately for me, he didn't pull good I suppose, Foolish for Hornet, set 2 and pass back to me after a misplay, he summoned Tomato and hit Formula, cause I thought it had 1000 def. I then did a Heavy Storm + Trishula and he shuffled, knowing he has no outs to a Trishula with no Hormet in sight and no hands.
Duel 2 : I open what I thought to be the worst hand ever. It was 2 Shadow Mirrors, a Dandy, BLS and Wing Blast. He open with a Foolish for Hornet, set 3 and D Fissure. I was like ... shit. But I topped MST, got rid of Fissure. I then set Dandy, set all 3 Traps, which he had 2 MST for, but he missed 1 Mirror. His Damsel turned Vanilla and I topped Reaper and stalled the next 20 minutes. A lot of cards later, I cleared the field and both of us have 2 hands, life was 4900 to 5100 with him leading. He had Leviair fetched his Hornet and attacked my monsters. I summoned BLS (finally) but he had BTH. My last option was to make a Stardust with Lonefire, a Glow from grave and Spore removing Lonefire, my last card in hand was Junk Synchron, but I don't have any non-tuners in the grave for target. He then made another Leviair with Damsel into Hornet, forcing Stardust to tribute itself and get centipede. He got back his Damsel and send Hornet to grave to destroy his own Call, upon realizing his only Inzektor in deck was a lone Hornet. He summoned that, look at my banished pile, and saw Lyla, 1900 + 1900 +1700 is game, but he realize he didn't have a 3rd Leviair. So he settled with Revise and take me down to 600. Stardust came back, I pulled a RoTA and that fetched me Doppel and spelled GAME for him, since he told me he had no monsters left in the deck.
OO
Round 2 : VS TG Agent
Duel 1 : He started with the Venus play but C got me 2 cards, one was Heavy. He set 2. I played Storm, summon Grandmole (yes, I main Grandmole, cause I HATE Gachi Gachi). He summon Earth, I Veiler'ed it, it attacked my Mole and Venus hit Directly. On my turn, I ditch Dandy for Spore, summon Debris, made Trishula, Android and Formula. Attacked and ended. He then Special Striker and summon Earth, grabs the Venus, Exceed into Gachi. I syncro Black Rose, made Gachi into attack and attack for game.
Duel 2 : He open Earth for Venus, ending with 1 set. I MST'ed that (MST) and set Sangan and Dustshoot. Dustshoot got rid of Hyperion. I remember seeing Judgment. He then tries to Trishula me, but I had Veiler. I topped One for One again. Getting 2 Fluff tokens and Spore (doppel came down), which got me Formula. I tune the other with Spore for Catastor, which he played Judgment on. I then tune Doppel and Formula for Arm, special BLS from hand. Game.
OO
Round 3 : VS WWBF
Duel 1 : Since it was a friend of mine, the duel wasn't as stressful. I don't remember the exact details but i won from Stardust, a Formula on the field and I summon Junk Syncron and made Black Rose to attack him all out.
Duel 2 : He had 2 cards in hand. I played Storm on his backrows. I summoned Junk Syncron, get Doppel back and special another Doppel. Next I got a 3900 Junk Warrior out and attacked him directly and he dropped to 800, with me at 3000. I'm feeling good since I have Veiler for DAD and his likes. But he summoned Sirocco, I was thinking maybe a Bora, but Veiler can stop that, he attacked me and dropped Kalut. and took exactly 3000 life from me. I guess I was over confident here.
Duel 3 : I started with Decree and Reaper set. He set 4 backrows and ended. THE END.
OXO
Round 4 : VS Pure Agents//Agent Angel
Duel 1 : I somehow got him to 5400. He had a gachi out. I had Reaper and Dandy set. I special Sorcerer, he payed for Judgment, leaving him at 2700. I pay special Glow from grave, get Arm out, and banish Glow for Spore. 3+4+2 = 9.
Duel 2 : He opened Gachi and set 2. I played Heavy, he had Starlight Road. I wasn't expecting that. I summon Grandmole and attacked his Stardust, he played Mirror Force. I set 2 (bluffs), he summon Earth, got out Catastor, Banish Earth for Hyperion and Venus for his effect. MST'ed my last card and attack for game.
Duel 3 : I open Dustshoot to see Sangan, Mole, Shining Ball, Judgment, Dark Hole and Torrential. I got rid of Sangan. He summoned Mole, I played Warning (which I didn't know why either), he set both his cards and MST got Torrential. I summon my Mole, flipped Dandy and attacked for 1200, and Overlay them for Revise ... why did I do that? He had Dark Hole ... Venus came out and attacks for 2000. I set Doppel and Compulse. I have Junk in hand but he had Judgment. He attacked my monster, I played Compulse on Gachi, wanting him to negate it, he let that go. I then end up losing cause I slowed myself too much fearing Judgment.
OXX - what pisses me off was my opponent told me sorry he wasn't paying attention during the coarse of the match, his mind was on some prom or something. Which my friend translated into "I don't need to play my fullest to beat you ..." LOL.
Top16/8? I'm not that sure myself. But this is my best record in a large single elimination tourney to date.
Things that happened during the tourney :
1. Andrew Ng is actually a bot. His name appeared in 2 seats in round 1, and his opponent's got a bye for the match. LCW "dueled" him round 2. Another Bye.
2. Some dude dropped his deck box from the table and at least a dozen of Zenmighty and Hunter fell out. Frenzy didn't happen thou.
3. Fishtank and Sunny scrubbed!! But their anonymous friend, who never NEVER played a single tourney (big or small) before, made it to top16 I think. Apparently, he faced Andrew (LoL) in the 1st duel. Fishtank said his gonna cry his way home.
Round 1 : VS Inzektor
Seriously, that was fast.
Duel 1 : I open One for One ditching Dandy to get Formula out. I set MST but on his turn, he had Heavy. He then played Allure, removing Damsel. I swear to god my balls shrank when I saw that ditch. But fortunately for me, he didn't pull good I suppose, Foolish for Hornet, set 2 and pass back to me after a misplay, he summoned Tomato and hit Formula, cause I thought it had 1000 def. I then did a Heavy Storm + Trishula and he shuffled, knowing he has no outs to a Trishula with no Hormet in sight and no hands.
Duel 2 : I open what I thought to be the worst hand ever. It was 2 Shadow Mirrors, a Dandy, BLS and Wing Blast. He open with a Foolish for Hornet, set 3 and D Fissure. I was like ... shit. But I topped MST, got rid of Fissure. I then set Dandy, set all 3 Traps, which he had 2 MST for, but he missed 1 Mirror. His Damsel turned Vanilla and I topped Reaper and stalled the next 20 minutes. A lot of cards later, I cleared the field and both of us have 2 hands, life was 4900 to 5100 with him leading. He had Leviair fetched his Hornet and attacked my monsters. I summoned BLS (finally) but he had BTH. My last option was to make a Stardust with Lonefire, a Glow from grave and Spore removing Lonefire, my last card in hand was Junk Synchron, but I don't have any non-tuners in the grave for target. He then made another Leviair with Damsel into Hornet, forcing Stardust to tribute itself and get centipede. He got back his Damsel and send Hornet to grave to destroy his own Call, upon realizing his only Inzektor in deck was a lone Hornet. He summoned that, look at my banished pile, and saw Lyla, 1900 + 1900 +1700 is game, but he realize he didn't have a 3rd Leviair. So he settled with Revise and take me down to 600. Stardust came back, I pulled a RoTA and that fetched me Doppel and spelled GAME for him, since he told me he had no monsters left in the deck.
OO
Round 2 : VS TG Agent
Duel 1 : He started with the Venus play but C got me 2 cards, one was Heavy. He set 2. I played Storm, summon Grandmole (yes, I main Grandmole, cause I HATE Gachi Gachi). He summon Earth, I Veiler'ed it, it attacked my Mole and Venus hit Directly. On my turn, I ditch Dandy for Spore, summon Debris, made Trishula, Android and Formula. Attacked and ended. He then Special Striker and summon Earth, grabs the Venus, Exceed into Gachi. I syncro Black Rose, made Gachi into attack and attack for game.
Duel 2 : He open Earth for Venus, ending with 1 set. I MST'ed that (MST) and set Sangan and Dustshoot. Dustshoot got rid of Hyperion. I remember seeing Judgment. He then tries to Trishula me, but I had Veiler. I topped One for One again. Getting 2 Fluff tokens and Spore (doppel came down), which got me Formula. I tune the other with Spore for Catastor, which he played Judgment on. I then tune Doppel and Formula for Arm, special BLS from hand. Game.
OO
Round 3 : VS WWBF
Duel 1 : Since it was a friend of mine, the duel wasn't as stressful. I don't remember the exact details but i won from Stardust, a Formula on the field and I summon Junk Syncron and made Black Rose to attack him all out.
Duel 2 : He had 2 cards in hand. I played Storm on his backrows. I summoned Junk Syncron, get Doppel back and special another Doppel. Next I got a 3900 Junk Warrior out and attacked him directly and he dropped to 800, with me at 3000. I'm feeling good since I have Veiler for DAD and his likes. But he summoned Sirocco, I was thinking maybe a Bora, but Veiler can stop that, he attacked me and dropped Kalut. and took exactly 3000 life from me. I guess I was over confident here.
Duel 3 : I started with Decree and Reaper set. He set 4 backrows and ended. THE END.
OXO
Round 4 : VS Pure Agents//Agent Angel
Duel 1 : I somehow got him to 5400. He had a gachi out. I had Reaper and Dandy set. I special Sorcerer, he payed for Judgment, leaving him at 2700. I pay special Glow from grave, get Arm out, and banish Glow for Spore. 3+4+2 = 9.
Duel 2 : He opened Gachi and set 2. I played Heavy, he had Starlight Road. I wasn't expecting that. I summon Grandmole and attacked his Stardust, he played Mirror Force. I set 2 (bluffs), he summon Earth, got out Catastor, Banish Earth for Hyperion and Venus for his effect. MST'ed my last card and attack for game.
Duel 3 : I open Dustshoot to see Sangan, Mole, Shining Ball, Judgment, Dark Hole and Torrential. I got rid of Sangan. He summoned Mole, I played Warning (which I didn't know why either), he set both his cards and MST got Torrential. I summon my Mole, flipped Dandy and attacked for 1200, and Overlay them for Revise ... why did I do that? He had Dark Hole ... Venus came out and attacks for 2000. I set Doppel and Compulse. I have Junk in hand but he had Judgment. He attacked my monster, I played Compulse on Gachi, wanting him to negate it, he let that go. I then end up losing cause I slowed myself too much fearing Judgment.
OXX - what pisses me off was my opponent told me sorry he wasn't paying attention during the coarse of the match, his mind was on some prom or something. Which my friend translated into "I don't need to play my fullest to beat you ..." LOL.
Top16/8? I'm not that sure myself. But this is my best record in a large single elimination tourney to date.
Things that happened during the tourney :
1. Andrew Ng is actually a bot. His name appeared in 2 seats in round 1, and his opponent's got a bye for the match. LCW "dueled" him round 2. Another Bye.
2. Some dude dropped his deck box from the table and at least a dozen of Zenmighty and Hunter fell out. Frenzy didn't happen thou.
3. Fishtank and Sunny scrubbed!! But their anonymous friend, who never NEVER played a single tourney (big or small) before, made it to top16 I think. Apparently, he faced Andrew (LoL) in the 1st duel. Fishtank said his gonna cry his way home.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Mask Change
Busy Saturday is ahead of me, gonna wake up early in the morning, go pick up my Shonen Jumps at KLCC, go to GA for some tourney and head back for a house warming party at night. And later, gonna prepare for the big tourney the next day.
Yeah, spending Christmas eve with cards, and Christmas with more cards.
Like I've said in the M HERO post, I see a lot of people "misplay" when playing Mask Change. So, I'll be discussing my experience with the card from the past year. I have been doing quite well with Mask Change and some people question me about this (including my team mate Nick on multiple occasions, well, his statement was "the card isn't good yet, why are you playing it?").
I'm trying to make this post like how Christ Bowling made his Maxx C video, in case you guys haven't watch that. Type it out on youtube, its a good 12 minutes or so video. It helped me a lot, since my Maxx C plays are definitely more effective now as to when I first got the card.
I know I don't have as much of an experience on the top tables as some of the players out there, but just hear me out and see if this helps.
1. Activation
Many people tend to play Mask Change during the main phase, which I don't understand why. The fact that it being a quickplay pretty much means its a card that you should only play in the battle phase. The fact that its a quickplay also means that if possible, you should always play it in a middle of a chain.
The most common of is to activate it in a chain, lets say, Icarus Attack, to gain pluses of it.
An E HERO deck is a deck that survives on pluses and making more pluses by wasting your opponent's resources. Mask Change is no different.
For Example,
Your Opponent has 2 Face Downs, a Librarian, a Formula and a Dopple token out.
I see quite a few would summon Ocean, play Mask Change into Acid(proxy) to take out your opponent's backrow and attack. There is nothing wrong with that, but your opponent will just sync for Scrap during end of main phase 1 or worst, Black Rose if you have backrows yourself.
What I would do, is to summon Ocean, declare battle phase. Your opponent may or may not perform synchro summon, as he might assume your just trying to get some damage. Why I take Ocean as an example is important, because Ocean doesn't have the attack to get rid of Formula Synchron, if you were to have a HERO that would take it out in battle, your opponent WILL synchro into something bigger.
IF your opponent allows you to go into battle phase, and assuming your opponent doesn't have Warning (which would basically make everything I just said pointless), attack the token for damage, if your opponent has plays Prison or Mirror Force, THATs when you play you Mask Change.
Both Acid and Vapor(if you really need to) can take out Librarian, and he can't synchro in the middle of battle phase.
What did you accomplished?
You've played an Ocean and Mask Change, so 2 cards. Your opponent lost Prison, Librarian, the token and another facedown assuming you've made Acid.
This might not be news for some of you guys, but I've seen people do the wrong things way too many times.
Another play which can be done now, is to treat Mask Change like Delta Crow on crack. With Acid of cause.
Summoning Ocean and set a couple of facedowns on the first turn is WAY to obvious. Don't do that.
But summoning Ocean and set a couple of facedowns when you have Airman or Allius in the grave is good, because the things that are running in your opponent's brain would be you trying to get your HERO back.
This may or may not matter depending on the duel, but I say most of the time, this play alone will win you the game if your playing a deck that is similarly backrow dependent. Set as many as you can (on your own risk), now, your opponent will be more willing to set his whole hand, because you won't play Heavy Storm normally under these circumstance. Thats when you would generate the most pluses off Acid.
Basically, I'm saying mind games are important when your playing Mask Change. Never play it when its obvious because it'll end up being a minus 1. The more unlikely your gonna play the card (on your opponent's point of view), the more pluses you can generate.
Aside from the normal, beat, beat, beat, Mask Change, beat, Game. Which if you DON'T play Mask Change, your an idiot.
And if you have a HERO out and Mask Change set, when your opponent plays MST, DON'T chain the mask change unless absolutely necessary or you can reuse that M HERO (like Miracle Fusion). The simple fact being your most likely only going to run a copy of each Mask HERO, if your playing all of them in a FUSION HERO build, if your not, you don't have to worry about this.
Now, off to M HERO Daian. This perhaps is the toughest M HERO to play with in my books. Mainly because if your playing it using Forest or Wild Heart, theres no way this won't look like your trying to play Mask Change. Playing Daian means your attacking your opponent face on, there is no tricks to it. UNLESS you would fake a misplay!
If you played with me, you know I pretty much always fake misplays. Don't do it in a way where your opponent knows your faking it, this is something I can't describe, its in the blood I think.
How do you fake a misplay with, lets say Forest. Using the same 3 monsters your opponent had in my example just now. The easiest and perhaps the most effective would be this :
Act like your a noob (compulsory, if your opponent knows your good, then thats too bad), summon Forest and ASK him whether Librarian would allow him to draw if you synchro summon, naturally your opponent will be thinking Mind Control and he can easily chain Formula to it. His gonna let you pass.
Next, you act as if you realize that you need to kill that Formula Synchron and get into the battle phase, and you ask checking with your opponent, can he synchro summon if your attacking his Formula. Now, your opponent will think your just trying to attack the Formula (he will most probably think you don't know Formula has 1500 defense and your a noob) and when you got into battle phase, drop your act and show him how good you really are(not compulsory).
Attack the token, get Daian out and kill his Librarian and then Allius(from your deck) take out the Formula. Then politely thank him.
This of cause is not necessary because IF your opponent just syncs into Stardust, then there is no problem, problem was with Colossal and Scrap. Again, the faking was to gain maximum advantage and prevent a failed attack.
Thats about all I can say about when to activate Mask Change, aside from the obvious. Well, I bet most of the things I said were pretty obvious too.
2. Playing Mask Change by NOT playing it
The title doesn't make sense right, well, I'm not sure how do I make this clear with my inability to express myself.
If your gonna play Mask Change in 3s, then chances are your gonna draw into more than 1 copy. But, thats not necessary a bad thing, in fact, it can be pretty beneficial.
1st, we're gonna assume your opponent thinks Mask Change is some sort of tech and your playing 1 or 2 copies. If you draw 2 early and an Ocean. SET both of them, with protection from Heavy Storm of cause.
Now, there are 2 ways you can play around with 2 set up. The 1st would be wasting your opponent's Solemn Warning if he had them set. But its the second way to play this I wanna talk about.
Imagine your opponent has like 3 facedowns and an Ocean. You KNOW he has Mask Change set. So, your gonna summon something bigger and try to run over it, wasting the Mask Change and saving your set cards in the process. This is why Vapor is important in the deck. When your opponent attacks, your gonna bring him out. Your opponent mostly can't take him out in main phase 2 since he is blanket from destruction effects. Your opponent is gonna set his hand. Now, the 2nd Mask Change is gonna make him cry. If your opponent just sets 1 or maybe 2 Facedowns, don't play the Mask Change, since its more likely MST.
Thats how I think you should play if you have more than 1 Mask Change in hand. How does this differs from having 2 Gemini Sparks? Well, sending the HERO isn't a cost and only happens during resolution.
Treat 1 of the Mask Changes as bait and hitting him hard with the second one.
Also, theres a trick I like to play between matches. If you played Mask Change to its full potential during Game 1. When your siding, you CAN take them all out and put in the side deck cards, effectively, that gave you 3 extra slots. This is where playing Mask Change by not playing it starts.
Now, your opponent will not set his whole hand even with Judgment or Road if you have Ocean and a facedown. Your opponent is less likely to response to your attacks that may end up in a minus if you have Mask Change. This is just how the human brain works. When you are hit by something so hard, your gonna take more precaution steps against it. He may think that his doing the right thing by not letting you gain pluses for free, but in actuality, his just slowing himself down.
I'm not saying this without references. I've done this a lot. I side out Polymerization and Mask Change almost every game. And that gave me at least 10 cards in my deck that I could side out. It doesn't just gives you a lot of freedom with the side decking, it also makes your opponent side in precautions for something thats no longer there. I would normally side in some Kycoos and Breakers along with BLS to make it Chaos Beat and gain access to Escuridao without Super Poly.
I'm not sure if this is effective, but I'm been successful so far with this game plan.
3. The don'ts!
This is basically a summary to what I've said.
Don't make obvious plays, play Mask Change only when you know your gonna gain massive pluses. Like how Gemini Spark should be played.
NEVER E CALL for a target thats not Heat or anything big. Its too obvious. Like, E Call for Forest ... I know, you have Mask Change now ...
Never play it just to gain extra damage, unless its gonna kill. This is where most people fails. They just drop Mask Change to deal an extra 2400 damage. In an E HERO deck, you can easily take out all 8000 life with minimal setting up, why bother for a 2K plus?
Never fuse into Gaia, unless you absolutely need to, if you don't have Mask Change. Because Gaia baits out stuff like crazy, same goes to Nova, but you need to randomly summon Nova for plus 1's. Your opponent is less likely to play stuff against Shining and ZERO, hence Gaia is the perfect bait. And he makes ANYTHING a kill target for Daian.
Don't randomly summon a M HERO without thinking. If you have 2 HEROs on the field that are Mask Change targets. You opponent plays Storm. Don't panic and chill the fuck down. Don't just play Mask Change and grab your extra deck. That would be a big mistake.
2 things you need to keep in mind. 1, will you get killed if you don't play the card, and if you do play it, does it matter? Depending on your opponent's hand size, and how the duel has been played, the answer can go both ways. 2, if you need to summon for what ever reason suitable, who you gonna summon. If you think just get rid of the HERO with the least attack, your wrong. The biggest difference in attack 2 HEROs can have would be 1000, thats HEAT and Forest. If that 1000 difference is more likely than not, NOT gonna kill you. You don't necessary need to bring out Daian. And if you 1 of your HERO is ZERO, then thats not even a question at all. Don't use it on ZERO, please. You need to question yourself, which M HERO you are LESS likely to need later on in the game, or maybe if you have Miracle Fusion, who you wanna make.
While it may not make sense to you, as I suck at explanations. Thats what going on in my brain when something like this happens.
...
That concludes what I wanted to say. I'm sorry if the post is messy, I'm not entirely too sure how should I place the points.
But, playing with E HEROs basically means you need to know how to react to different circumstances. So, the things I wrote may not be helpful in your game. You need to think about things like what you may draw into the net turn. If your gonna lose the game if you play safe, why no set up for something that can help you win, but you don't have the missing piece yet. Then again, with the amount of tutors the deck have, its not as unlikely as you may think.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for your time. Feel free to comment as those are just my personal thoughts on how the card should be played. I welcome constructive criticisms, both on your thoughts on Mask Change and how I presented myself.
Yeah, spending Christmas eve with cards, and Christmas with more cards.
Like I've said in the M HERO post, I see a lot of people "misplay" when playing Mask Change. So, I'll be discussing my experience with the card from the past year. I have been doing quite well with Mask Change and some people question me about this (including my team mate Nick on multiple occasions, well, his statement was "the card isn't good yet, why are you playing it?").
I'm trying to make this post like how Christ Bowling made his Maxx C video, in case you guys haven't watch that. Type it out on youtube, its a good 12 minutes or so video. It helped me a lot, since my Maxx C plays are definitely more effective now as to when I first got the card.
I know I don't have as much of an experience on the top tables as some of the players out there, but just hear me out and see if this helps.
1. Activation
Many people tend to play Mask Change during the main phase, which I don't understand why. The fact that it being a quickplay pretty much means its a card that you should only play in the battle phase. The fact that its a quickplay also means that if possible, you should always play it in a middle of a chain.
The most common of is to activate it in a chain, lets say, Icarus Attack, to gain pluses of it.
An E HERO deck is a deck that survives on pluses and making more pluses by wasting your opponent's resources. Mask Change is no different.
For Example,
Your Opponent has 2 Face Downs, a Librarian, a Formula and a Dopple token out.
I see quite a few would summon Ocean, play Mask Change into Acid(proxy) to take out your opponent's backrow and attack. There is nothing wrong with that, but your opponent will just sync for Scrap during end of main phase 1 or worst, Black Rose if you have backrows yourself.
What I would do, is to summon Ocean, declare battle phase. Your opponent may or may not perform synchro summon, as he might assume your just trying to get some damage. Why I take Ocean as an example is important, because Ocean doesn't have the attack to get rid of Formula Synchron, if you were to have a HERO that would take it out in battle, your opponent WILL synchro into something bigger.
IF your opponent allows you to go into battle phase, and assuming your opponent doesn't have Warning (which would basically make everything I just said pointless), attack the token for damage, if your opponent has plays Prison or Mirror Force, THATs when you play you Mask Change.
Both Acid and Vapor(if you really need to) can take out Librarian, and he can't synchro in the middle of battle phase.
What did you accomplished?
You've played an Ocean and Mask Change, so 2 cards. Your opponent lost Prison, Librarian, the token and another facedown assuming you've made Acid.
This might not be news for some of you guys, but I've seen people do the wrong things way too many times.
Another play which can be done now, is to treat Mask Change like Delta Crow on crack. With Acid of cause.
Summoning Ocean and set a couple of facedowns on the first turn is WAY to obvious. Don't do that.
But summoning Ocean and set a couple of facedowns when you have Airman or Allius in the grave is good, because the things that are running in your opponent's brain would be you trying to get your HERO back.
This may or may not matter depending on the duel, but I say most of the time, this play alone will win you the game if your playing a deck that is similarly backrow dependent. Set as many as you can (on your own risk), now, your opponent will be more willing to set his whole hand, because you won't play Heavy Storm normally under these circumstance. Thats when you would generate the most pluses off Acid.
Basically, I'm saying mind games are important when your playing Mask Change. Never play it when its obvious because it'll end up being a minus 1. The more unlikely your gonna play the card (on your opponent's point of view), the more pluses you can generate.
Aside from the normal, beat, beat, beat, Mask Change, beat, Game. Which if you DON'T play Mask Change, your an idiot.
And if you have a HERO out and Mask Change set, when your opponent plays MST, DON'T chain the mask change unless absolutely necessary or you can reuse that M HERO (like Miracle Fusion). The simple fact being your most likely only going to run a copy of each Mask HERO, if your playing all of them in a FUSION HERO build, if your not, you don't have to worry about this.
Now, off to M HERO Daian. This perhaps is the toughest M HERO to play with in my books. Mainly because if your playing it using Forest or Wild Heart, theres no way this won't look like your trying to play Mask Change. Playing Daian means your attacking your opponent face on, there is no tricks to it. UNLESS you would fake a misplay!
If you played with me, you know I pretty much always fake misplays. Don't do it in a way where your opponent knows your faking it, this is something I can't describe, its in the blood I think.
How do you fake a misplay with, lets say Forest. Using the same 3 monsters your opponent had in my example just now. The easiest and perhaps the most effective would be this :
Act like your a noob (compulsory, if your opponent knows your good, then thats too bad), summon Forest and ASK him whether Librarian would allow him to draw if you synchro summon, naturally your opponent will be thinking Mind Control and he can easily chain Formula to it. His gonna let you pass.
Next, you act as if you realize that you need to kill that Formula Synchron and get into the battle phase, and you ask checking with your opponent, can he synchro summon if your attacking his Formula. Now, your opponent will think your just trying to attack the Formula (he will most probably think you don't know Formula has 1500 defense and your a noob) and when you got into battle phase, drop your act and show him how good you really are(not compulsory).
Attack the token, get Daian out and kill his Librarian and then Allius(from your deck) take out the Formula. Then politely thank him.
This of cause is not necessary because IF your opponent just syncs into Stardust, then there is no problem, problem was with Colossal and Scrap. Again, the faking was to gain maximum advantage and prevent a failed attack.
Thats about all I can say about when to activate Mask Change, aside from the obvious. Well, I bet most of the things I said were pretty obvious too.
2. Playing Mask Change by NOT playing it
The title doesn't make sense right, well, I'm not sure how do I make this clear with my inability to express myself.
If your gonna play Mask Change in 3s, then chances are your gonna draw into more than 1 copy. But, thats not necessary a bad thing, in fact, it can be pretty beneficial.
1st, we're gonna assume your opponent thinks Mask Change is some sort of tech and your playing 1 or 2 copies. If you draw 2 early and an Ocean. SET both of them, with protection from Heavy Storm of cause.
Now, there are 2 ways you can play around with 2 set up. The 1st would be wasting your opponent's Solemn Warning if he had them set. But its the second way to play this I wanna talk about.
Imagine your opponent has like 3 facedowns and an Ocean. You KNOW he has Mask Change set. So, your gonna summon something bigger and try to run over it, wasting the Mask Change and saving your set cards in the process. This is why Vapor is important in the deck. When your opponent attacks, your gonna bring him out. Your opponent mostly can't take him out in main phase 2 since he is blanket from destruction effects. Your opponent is gonna set his hand. Now, the 2nd Mask Change is gonna make him cry. If your opponent just sets 1 or maybe 2 Facedowns, don't play the Mask Change, since its more likely MST.
Thats how I think you should play if you have more than 1 Mask Change in hand. How does this differs from having 2 Gemini Sparks? Well, sending the HERO isn't a cost and only happens during resolution.
Treat 1 of the Mask Changes as bait and hitting him hard with the second one.
Also, theres a trick I like to play between matches. If you played Mask Change to its full potential during Game 1. When your siding, you CAN take them all out and put in the side deck cards, effectively, that gave you 3 extra slots. This is where playing Mask Change by not playing it starts.
Now, your opponent will not set his whole hand even with Judgment or Road if you have Ocean and a facedown. Your opponent is less likely to response to your attacks that may end up in a minus if you have Mask Change. This is just how the human brain works. When you are hit by something so hard, your gonna take more precaution steps against it. He may think that his doing the right thing by not letting you gain pluses for free, but in actuality, his just slowing himself down.
I'm not saying this without references. I've done this a lot. I side out Polymerization and Mask Change almost every game. And that gave me at least 10 cards in my deck that I could side out. It doesn't just gives you a lot of freedom with the side decking, it also makes your opponent side in precautions for something thats no longer there. I would normally side in some Kycoos and Breakers along with BLS to make it Chaos Beat and gain access to Escuridao without Super Poly.
I'm not sure if this is effective, but I'm been successful so far with this game plan.
3. The don'ts!
This is basically a summary to what I've said.
Don't make obvious plays, play Mask Change only when you know your gonna gain massive pluses. Like how Gemini Spark should be played.
NEVER E CALL for a target thats not Heat or anything big. Its too obvious. Like, E Call for Forest ... I know, you have Mask Change now ...
Never play it just to gain extra damage, unless its gonna kill. This is where most people fails. They just drop Mask Change to deal an extra 2400 damage. In an E HERO deck, you can easily take out all 8000 life with minimal setting up, why bother for a 2K plus?
Never fuse into Gaia, unless you absolutely need to, if you don't have Mask Change. Because Gaia baits out stuff like crazy, same goes to Nova, but you need to randomly summon Nova for plus 1's. Your opponent is less likely to play stuff against Shining and ZERO, hence Gaia is the perfect bait. And he makes ANYTHING a kill target for Daian.
Don't randomly summon a M HERO without thinking. If you have 2 HEROs on the field that are Mask Change targets. You opponent plays Storm. Don't panic and chill the fuck down. Don't just play Mask Change and grab your extra deck. That would be a big mistake.
2 things you need to keep in mind. 1, will you get killed if you don't play the card, and if you do play it, does it matter? Depending on your opponent's hand size, and how the duel has been played, the answer can go both ways. 2, if you need to summon for what ever reason suitable, who you gonna summon. If you think just get rid of the HERO with the least attack, your wrong. The biggest difference in attack 2 HEROs can have would be 1000, thats HEAT and Forest. If that 1000 difference is more likely than not, NOT gonna kill you. You don't necessary need to bring out Daian. And if you 1 of your HERO is ZERO, then thats not even a question at all. Don't use it on ZERO, please. You need to question yourself, which M HERO you are LESS likely to need later on in the game, or maybe if you have Miracle Fusion, who you wanna make.
While it may not make sense to you, as I suck at explanations. Thats what going on in my brain when something like this happens.
...
That concludes what I wanted to say. I'm sorry if the post is messy, I'm not entirely too sure how should I place the points.
But, playing with E HEROs basically means you need to know how to react to different circumstances. So, the things I wrote may not be helpful in your game. You need to think about things like what you may draw into the net turn. If your gonna lose the game if you play safe, why no set up for something that can help you win, but you don't have the missing piece yet. Then again, with the amount of tutors the deck have, its not as unlikely as you may think.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for your time. Feel free to comment as those are just my personal thoughts on how the card should be played. I welcome constructive criticisms, both on your thoughts on Mask Change and how I presented myself.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Tourneys, Organizers and how people think
I think this is the 1st time I'm posting something about how people think. Well, there's not been a successful tourney in Toysbar (yugioh wise) since August. The turnouts are usually extremely low. Toysbar, since the beginning of the year had replaces Gamers Arena as my locals, mostly cause its closer to my place and parking is free. BUT, recently, I've been feeling like going back to Gamers.
I really miss dueling, and by dueling, I don't mean play the damn game, but play it right. And I almost never get into the mood to play seriously unless something is on the line, and I think many felt the same as well. Maybe I'll stick to GA starting next year since I'm moving out (again) and it'll be a lot closer.
Problem with TB's YGO tourney problem. I asked a few locals and most of them gave me this very disappointing answer.
Its not worth rm15 if they won't be taking anything but a TP. One of them (which I shall not name) stated that his cool with the entry prizes, but he wants a fair chance to win, not paying up so the winners take good stuff for little cash.
I was a little confused by this as in TB, there's no judge (if Cookie isn't there) and we just check out issues regarding rullings on Wikia. Thus, there won't be any bias. And the pairings are done by drawing lots, so unless God hates you, you have your fair chance. BUT, he answered something entirely different.
Dude claims that its a waste of their time cause the winners are almost always predetermined as me and Fishtank have won every (yes, every) tourney since May, and its a waste of effort for most of them. I'm sure thats not how everyone thinks, but at least theres a few who thinks that way.
That, I couldn't do nothing, as I can't possibly just give them a free win.
Most others give another reason thou, which may be reasonable to them, but not so to the organizers and us competitive players.
Most players in TB are looking to get at least a Booster pack and a TP for just entering the tourney, thus, no one wasted any thing. This is good if the organizer is Konami, but in our locals, the organizers are just players like ourselves. No way they're gonna ditch out cash so everyone is happy. The profit margin is too low, unless they alter the prizes.
I speak for myself on this one, but I don't mind getting shitty entry prizes if the main prize is good. I don't mind paying 15 and not getting anything if I lose if I'm getting something like Lavaval Chain if I win.
But most people don't think that way. Thus organizers are having tough times. RM15 is actually the maximum amount of cash most people would pay for a tourney.
So, its either going to be "fair" and everyone gets something but shitty grand prizes, the more competitive players would not even think of coming because I would be better of playing for my ranking at GA. If the grand prize is good, the former group won't show because they know they're not getting anything from it, and when that happens, there are gonna be less than 8 players (which is most of the time, me and team Arco).
Of cause, the fact that TB is more based on Bushiroad card games such as WS and VG is a huge part of YGO being further down in priority.
Not sure how I've sounded after that wall of text. Am I bitching or ranting? Seriously, I have no clue. I've never wrote anything like this. And my "market analysis" must have suck and not made sense right? Sorry if it does, can't help it, I'm an Engineer.
But, thats just how I felt right now. I feel like the YGO community in TB is falling apart. People are saying that its the format that lead this to happen, well, the current Asian format is a VERY skill driven format, we consistently see the big names topping (Sam won Top Shop and MY team took 2nd in Asia Team), but to the lesser experienced players, they might shy away from the game and play something less "experience driven".
Also, I would say the gap between good and bad players in YGO is really huge now, you can easily stuff a F.G.D in there and still have room for Blue Eyes. I could easily call out whose gonna win by just looking at whose playing (like when we suddenly saw Sam playing in Top Shop Qualifier, most of us were just like ... I'm not winning ... am I?). I'm guessing that kinda also lead to why TB YGO is suffering.
I really miss dueling, and by dueling, I don't mean play the damn game, but play it right. And I almost never get into the mood to play seriously unless something is on the line, and I think many felt the same as well. Maybe I'll stick to GA starting next year since I'm moving out (again) and it'll be a lot closer.
Problem with TB's YGO tourney problem. I asked a few locals and most of them gave me this very disappointing answer.
Its not worth rm15 if they won't be taking anything but a TP. One of them (which I shall not name) stated that his cool with the entry prizes, but he wants a fair chance to win, not paying up so the winners take good stuff for little cash.
I was a little confused by this as in TB, there's no judge (if Cookie isn't there) and we just check out issues regarding rullings on Wikia. Thus, there won't be any bias. And the pairings are done by drawing lots, so unless God hates you, you have your fair chance. BUT, he answered something entirely different.
Dude claims that its a waste of their time cause the winners are almost always predetermined as me and Fishtank have won every (yes, every) tourney since May, and its a waste of effort for most of them. I'm sure thats not how everyone thinks, but at least theres a few who thinks that way.
That, I couldn't do nothing, as I can't possibly just give them a free win.
Most others give another reason thou, which may be reasonable to them, but not so to the organizers and us competitive players.
Most players in TB are looking to get at least a Booster pack and a TP for just entering the tourney, thus, no one wasted any thing. This is good if the organizer is Konami, but in our locals, the organizers are just players like ourselves. No way they're gonna ditch out cash so everyone is happy. The profit margin is too low, unless they alter the prizes.
I speak for myself on this one, but I don't mind getting shitty entry prizes if the main prize is good. I don't mind paying 15 and not getting anything if I lose if I'm getting something like Lavaval Chain if I win.
But most people don't think that way. Thus organizers are having tough times. RM15 is actually the maximum amount of cash most people would pay for a tourney.
So, its either going to be "fair" and everyone gets something but shitty grand prizes, the more competitive players would not even think of coming because I would be better of playing for my ranking at GA. If the grand prize is good, the former group won't show because they know they're not getting anything from it, and when that happens, there are gonna be less than 8 players (which is most of the time, me and team Arco).
Of cause, the fact that TB is more based on Bushiroad card games such as WS and VG is a huge part of YGO being further down in priority.
Not sure how I've sounded after that wall of text. Am I bitching or ranting? Seriously, I have no clue. I've never wrote anything like this. And my "market analysis" must have suck and not made sense right? Sorry if it does, can't help it, I'm an Engineer.
But, thats just how I felt right now. I feel like the YGO community in TB is falling apart. People are saying that its the format that lead this to happen, well, the current Asian format is a VERY skill driven format, we consistently see the big names topping (Sam won Top Shop and MY team took 2nd in Asia Team), but to the lesser experienced players, they might shy away from the game and play something less "experience driven".
Also, I would say the gap between good and bad players in YGO is really huge now, you can easily stuff a F.G.D in there and still have room for Blue Eyes. I could easily call out whose gonna win by just looking at whose playing (like when we suddenly saw Sam playing in Top Shop Qualifier, most of us were just like ... I'm not winning ... am I?). I'm guessing that kinda also lead to why TB YGO is suffering.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Masked HEROs
I bet most of you guys already know this, the next premium pack, PP14 features 10 new cards in secret rare form. Most of them are mediocre to good. I find most of them interesting.
My main interest would be the M HEROs, but aside from that, there are a couple of other cards that caught my eye.
The first one would be Rosalian. While its effect is not necessary what I would say amazing, but it has its uses. Once per turn, negate the effect of all other face-up cards till the end phase. A few example how this effect would be good would be attacking No39 Hope, or playing a trap while Decree is up (I think thats possible, although I'm not 100% sure, please update me on this one.). The main reason I took interest in Rosalian is his summoning condition.
You can special summon him by banishing a level-7 or higher Plant from your hand or graveyard. Kinda like Hyperion but slightly bigger, at 2900, his no joke. What makes him good is that he is a level 8 Plant himself. While he can't be special summon by Lonefire, this card gives you another reason to play Tytannial. Maybe as another boss monster for Skill Drain Barboros? Like how Eatos was, only Rosalian is less situation late game and is bigger. Overall, I say his one of the cards I would definitely try out.
Ma'at as a Secret Rare sucks, its either Ultra or don't print it at all. They've already ruin E HERO the Earth years ago as a secret and not naming him The EARTH (his name is in katagana, unlike the other Planets).
Orge Dragoon serves as another boss for Infernities, but I highly doubt Infernity has space for it. Since they run 3 Hundred Eyes, Brionac, Trishula, Leviair, Chain, Emerald among others. Well, I'm not that familiar with an Infernity deck's extra, so I'm not one to bitch.
Being a 3000/3000 (almost) generic beatstick is good. And he is a Shi-En under handless situations, that can't go wrong.
Photon Sanctuary may seem to be a Photon Imitation of Stray Lambs, but its actually pretty good, even outside of the Photon archtype. The negative effect of the card, is unlike Stray Lambs, where you can't summon at all, you can't summon anything thats not a Light monster. That basically solved everything Stray Lambs was deemed useless for. Not being able to be used as a syncro material is good since Formula and Quaser are both Light.
The tokens themselves are pretty beefy, 2000 each. Means you can now drop Galaxy Eyes without even normal summoning anything. A huge leap from what ORCS gave us. Photon Wyvern also has its uses because of this. Unless your opponent has a Solemn set, his very likely to have his whole field nuked 1st turn, and since this is normal summon, Rai-Oh doesn't do shit. I say, if you plan to play Photon (or rather, Galaxy Eyes), get a play set of this. I see this being played in other decks as well, namely a token deck, which I've been planning to build since DREV.
Now, into our topic of interest, the Masked HEROs.
The 2 M HEROs released in PP14 makes the 2 from PP13 look like jokes.
M HERO Acid's effect is simple, he can only be summoned by Mask Change and when he is, he blows up ALL spells and Traps your opponent controls. AND all their face up monster loses 300 attack. This has to the one of the most devastating effect from a HERO since Absolute ZERO. Like how ZERO brought HEROs into the competitive scene, this would be the HERO that would make Mask Change playable.
The 1st effect needs no introduction, destroying all spell and trap upon summon is an extremely powerful effect, the only thing that might happen to you would be BTH or Torrential. Well, if you took out 2~3 cards, its fine. Solemn Warning and Judgment does NOTHING to this card, keep this in mind. Your opponent has to negate Mask Change, and sending a HERO into graveyard isn't a cost, you only do that upon resolution. So, IF your opponent has Solemn, it would be a 1 for 1, where you treat Mask Change as MST, while your opponent loses 2000 life.
The 2nd effect may not seem so powerful, BUT it has its uses. Acid is 2600 to begin with, so its gonna kill anything thats under 2800 upon summon. Although your most probably gonna use ZERO as the tribute fodder and blow up your opponent's field.
Because of this, I'm considering playing 3 Mask Change instead of the 1 I'm playing right now. I really do think Mask Change is an amazing card, its won me a lot of games up till now, and I only had Vapor and Gokka to work with. I've seen a lot of people misplay this card, kinda like how most players don't know when you should play Gemini Spark or Super Poly in HEROs (especially when they play my deck). May discuss about this some other time.
The last card I want to review, would be M HERO Daian. And I would say, this card is AMAZING. While you would most probably play 1 copy of this in your extra, unless your running some sort of Earth based HERO deck (which isn't half bad, cause Wildheart is 2500 under Skyscrapper and Blade Edge is a 2600 piercer thats is free to summon most of the time).
Daian is 2800/3000 (a 3000 defend HERO is good since we don't really have a generic wall, but thats sarcasm I guess). When Daian destroys a mosnter by battle and sends it into the grave, you ... special a level 4 or lower HERO from deck ...
I guess Konami decides that HEROs doesn't have a good search engine and need a bigger shura/firedog then. This card is good when you need to push for game, see this happening quite often. HEROs usually face 1 problem when trying to push for game. The right monsters on the field. What this card does is it searches out the piece you need and win the game from there. If you play Fusion based HERO decks (Miracle Gemini is NOT a HERO deck!!!), you would have face this multiple times. Having those big powerful quickplays in hand but not having the right HERO out, and you would have to minus-one'd yourself to get rid of what ever your opponent has on his field. Well, this card answers that question, and with 2800 attack, it answered them very well.
I may be a bit bias on the 2 M HEROs, but that just showed how excited I am knowing these 2 would be release soon.
Monday, December 12, 2011
GS04
I'm sorry I've not been posting, but I still have 2 more papers coming up in the next 3 days, but something really caught my attention.
On Shriek and some other sits, I'm seeing the updated GS04 list. 2 more cards were added to it.
1st was Pot of Duality. Well, this is no surprise, since its a 2 year old card now and deserved its reprint ages ago. For people who didn't see this, yes, its coming. If its not in GS04, its gonna be in some other reprint next year.
The other however, was a big surprise. Wind-Up Zenmaines.
What? A TCG exclusive in a reprint set? Really?
Not that this has not happen before. Grandmaster of Six Samurai and Volcanic Rocket were printed in Jump Festa a year before EXP1, so I guess its possible. But I would be lying if I say I saw this coming.
I'm guessing the success of Wind-ups and the fact that the previous 2 GS were failures lead Konami to such desperate measures.
I'm still not buying on this completely, as this does seems too good to be true.
So, what more can I expect from this? Tourguide as a common maybe?
On Shriek and some other sits, I'm seeing the updated GS04 list. 2 more cards were added to it.
1st was Pot of Duality. Well, this is no surprise, since its a 2 year old card now and deserved its reprint ages ago. For people who didn't see this, yes, its coming. If its not in GS04, its gonna be in some other reprint next year.
The other however, was a big surprise. Wind-Up Zenmaines.
What? A TCG exclusive in a reprint set? Really?
Not that this has not happen before. Grandmaster of Six Samurai and Volcanic Rocket were printed in Jump Festa a year before EXP1, so I guess its possible. But I would be lying if I say I saw this coming.
I'm guessing the success of Wind-ups and the fact that the previous 2 GS were failures lead Konami to such desperate measures.
I'm still not buying on this completely, as this does seems too good to be true.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
From Rauzes
Checked my FB mailbox a few minutes ago and saw Rauzes sent me this.
"Yo I thought of a nice idea of YGO deck using the new Trial Deck cards.
Go ahead and post it up
Sin Chaos
Key Cards: Chaos Zone, Sin Dragons
Chaos Zone:
By summoning the Sin Dragons alone, it gains 1 counter.
Objective is not to utilize its special summoning ability(which can still be used to call out Blue Eyes with 8 Counters) BUT
When its destroyed with 1 or more Chaos Counters, it can search a Light/Dark monster with levels less than the counters on it.
If you summon ONE Sin Dragon, and they chain Cyclone, you can do the following:
Chain 1 in response to summon: Cyclone.
Cyclone resolves, destroys Chaos Zone with 1 Counter.
You use the 1 counter to search Machine Emperor Wizel(OH FUCK! LEVEL 1!)
Although you cant special summon at this time, its a good search. The opponent wont mindlessly blow up Chaos Zone after that.
Enemy used 1 Card, you used 2 Cards.
End result: You lost 2 cards, thinned deck 2 cards(1 Wizel, 1 Sin Dragon, potentially 1 Terraforming used), and have a Wizel in hand.
Key Card:
Eclipse Wyvern
Hi. I search any Sin Dragon by feeding Chaos Soldier/Sorcerer. WTF.
Deck build would be 2/3 Sin world and 3 Chaos Zone.
Key Sin Dragons:
Sin Blue Eyes(Light/Dark, 3k, Thin Deck), Sin Stardust, Sin Cyber End(Just power)
Key Monsters:
Machine Emperor Wizel INFINITY
Chaos Soldier/Chaos Sorcer.
Eclipse WyvernX3, A few other Level 4s: Summon Priest?
Secret to generating a lot of LIGHT monsters in graveyard:
2 Level 4s, Exceed Hope.
Use Hope to Exceed Hope Ray.
Now, you have just pulled 2 LIGHT monsters from the Extra deck, and whatever was used to exceed.
If you have enough, exceed something else, use Eclipse Wyvern instead to search.
Another use of Hope:
Negate 2 attacks. 3rd attack will cause it to self destruct.
Oh Snap Wizel @.@
Keep in mind Eclipse is OPTIONAL and can miss timing to remove, but to add is compulsary.
You can also use Eclipse to balance out the number of Sin Blue Eyes/Normal Blue Eyes in your deck to make less dead draws.
Draw Engines: Allure of Darkness, Trade In. "
"Yo I thought of a nice idea of YGO deck using the new Trial Deck cards.
Go ahead and post it up
Sin Chaos
Key Cards: Chaos Zone, Sin Dragons
Chaos Zone:
By summoning the Sin Dragons alone, it gains 1 counter.
Objective is not to utilize its special summoning ability(which can still be used to call out Blue Eyes with 8 Counters) BUT
When its destroyed with 1 or more Chaos Counters, it can search a Light/Dark monster with levels less than the counters on it.
If you summon ONE Sin Dragon, and they chain Cyclone, you can do the following:
Chain 1 in response to summon: Cyclone.
Cyclone resolves, destroys Chaos Zone with 1 Counter.
You use the 1 counter to search Machine Emperor Wizel(OH FUCK! LEVEL 1!)
Although you cant special summon at this time, its a good search. The opponent wont mindlessly blow up Chaos Zone after that.
Enemy used 1 Card, you used 2 Cards.
End result: You lost 2 cards, thinned deck 2 cards(1 Wizel, 1 Sin Dragon, potentially 1 Terraforming used), and have a Wizel in hand.
Key Card:
Eclipse Wyvern
Hi. I search any Sin Dragon by feeding Chaos Soldier/Sorcerer. WTF.
Deck build would be 2/3 Sin world and 3 Chaos Zone.
Key Sin Dragons:
Sin Blue Eyes(Light/Dark, 3k, Thin Deck), Sin Stardust, Sin Cyber End(Just power)
Key Monsters:
Machine Emperor Wizel INFINITY
Chaos Soldier/Chaos Sorcer.
Eclipse WyvernX3, A few other Level 4s: Summon Priest?
Secret to generating a lot of LIGHT monsters in graveyard:
2 Level 4s, Exceed Hope.
Use Hope to Exceed Hope Ray.
Now, you have just pulled 2 LIGHT monsters from the Extra deck, and whatever was used to exceed.
If you have enough, exceed something else, use Eclipse Wyvern instead to search.
Another use of Hope:
Negate 2 attacks. 3rd attack will cause it to self destruct.
Oh Snap Wizel @.@
Keep in mind Eclipse is OPTIONAL and can miss timing to remove, but to add is compulsary.
You can also use Eclipse to balance out the number of Sin Blue Eyes/Normal Blue Eyes in your deck to make less dead draws.
Draw Engines: Allure of Darkness, Trade In. "
Osiris.deck
monster (19):
3 Sky Dragon of Osiris (or play 1 of each god if you want)
2 Green Gadget
2 Red Gadget
2 Yellow Gadget
3 Karakuri Merchant
2 Karakuri Komachi
1 Karakuri Strategist
2 Karakuri Soldier
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
spell (11):
3 Karakuri Cash Cache
3 Karakuri Anatomy
3 Burden of the Mighty
2 Pot of Duality
trap (10):
3 Ultimate Offering
2 Dust Tornado
2 Starlight Road
3 Final Attack Orders
Why the weird cards I chose? Just to make sure nothing could get through Osiris.
No real strategy beside summon Osiris and proceed to beating every monster your opponent has.
3 Sky Dragon of Osiris (or play 1 of each god if you want)
2 Green Gadget
2 Red Gadget
2 Yellow Gadget
3 Karakuri Merchant
2 Karakuri Komachi
1 Karakuri Strategist
2 Karakuri Soldier
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
spell (11):
3 Karakuri Cash Cache
3 Karakuri Anatomy
3 Burden of the Mighty
2 Pot of Duality
trap (10):
3 Ultimate Offering
2 Dust Tornado
2 Starlight Road
3 Final Attack Orders
Why the weird cards I chose? Just to make sure nothing could get through Osiris.
No real strategy beside summon Osiris and proceed to beating every monster your opponent has.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Inzectors
Since I'm getting loads of cash from my birthday last Sunday and my friends bought me something I was thinking of buying. I felt like cracking a box of ORCS next Thursday (right after my finals).
I'm looking forward to Inzectors as seeing how easily the deck generates pluses, and mostly cause you would most probably get enough cards to build the deck with 1 box, and maybe a few singles (which is most probably Hornet).
True, the deck can be easily sided against. But I like the concept of the deck, while I don't like the art.
I'm still not sure what am I going to do with Inzectors, since I already have my official deck, I'm just planning to play around with techs and such.
Can't get my brain to think with this much partially stable systems and compensator designs in my head.
Late yesterday night, I re-build my Fusion HERO (note, I have a couple of HERO decks with me all the time), after I took apart Rainbow Neos (I didn't touch the deck for months). The deck is surprisingly very very good. While being a fun deck it has hard times pulling copies of dead cards, but the deck almost certainly kills when you have Polymerization. I'm not joking.
The big question now would be the extra deck cause I still have not decide which HEROs to have. But 2 Zeros, 2 Shinings, a Tornado, an Escuridao and a Gaia is most certain. Thats 8 slots left.
I basically made this deck after playing with Nick's Dark Paladin deck (which he claims to be his official tourney deck), which surprisingly is very consistent. Well, the deck was filled with tutors, so, it would be pretty embarrassing if it wasn't at least that good.
My Fusion HERO decklist is currently something like this :
monster (15):
2 E HERO Prisma
2 E HERO Sparkman
2 E HERO Bladeedge
1 E HERO Wild Heart
1 E HERO Airman
1 E HERO Necroshade
1 E HERO Bubbleman
3 King of the Swamps
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
spell (23):
3 Polymerization
3 Fusion Sage
3 Fusion Recovery
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Super Polymerization
3 E Emergency Call
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 The Warrior Returning Alive
1 Heavy Storm
3 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
trap (2):
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot
My extra deck would most probably be :
2 E HERO Absolute ZERO
2 E HERO The Shining
1 E HERO The GREAT Tornado
1 E HERO Gaia
1 E HERO Escuridao
1 E HERO Shining Flarewingman
1 E HERO Plasma Vice
1 E HERO Wild Edge
1 E HERO Wild Wingman
1 E HERO Necroid Shaman
1 E HERO Dark Bright
1 E HERO Sailorman (I've still not played this yet, but who knows, since I have 1 extra slot left)
1 V HERO Trinity
Back to Inzectors, and I still fail to see why Gilamantis is necessary. I know its a beatstick but I don't see how it serve the deck aside from that.
Fill me in on this please.
I'll most probably be playing a build that runs 3 of Hornet, Damsel and Centipede with no other Inzectors (until someone can explain to me how Gilamantis works). I'm thinking of playing a syncro exceed build since Inzectors are the easiest set of cards to make Rank 3 (in the OCG) and generate pluses from it.
Will see how it turns out, since I'm still busy with final exams, I have not tried anything out yet. Will get to it in 2 weeks.
I'm looking forward to Inzectors as seeing how easily the deck generates pluses, and mostly cause you would most probably get enough cards to build the deck with 1 box, and maybe a few singles (which is most probably Hornet).
True, the deck can be easily sided against. But I like the concept of the deck, while I don't like the art.
I'm still not sure what am I going to do with Inzectors, since I already have my official deck, I'm just planning to play around with techs and such.
Can't get my brain to think with this much partially stable systems and compensator designs in my head.
Late yesterday night, I re-build my Fusion HERO (note, I have a couple of HERO decks with me all the time), after I took apart Rainbow Neos (I didn't touch the deck for months). The deck is surprisingly very very good. While being a fun deck it has hard times pulling copies of dead cards, but the deck almost certainly kills when you have Polymerization. I'm not joking.
The big question now would be the extra deck cause I still have not decide which HEROs to have. But 2 Zeros, 2 Shinings, a Tornado, an Escuridao and a Gaia is most certain. Thats 8 slots left.
I basically made this deck after playing with Nick's Dark Paladin deck (which he claims to be his official tourney deck), which surprisingly is very consistent. Well, the deck was filled with tutors, so, it would be pretty embarrassing if it wasn't at least that good.
My Fusion HERO decklist is currently something like this :
monster (15):
2 E HERO Prisma
2 E HERO Sparkman
2 E HERO Bladeedge
1 E HERO Wild Heart
1 E HERO Airman
1 E HERO Necroshade
1 E HERO Bubbleman
3 King of the Swamps
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sangan
spell (23):
3 Polymerization
3 Fusion Sage
3 Fusion Recovery
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Super Polymerization
3 E Emergency Call
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 The Warrior Returning Alive
1 Heavy Storm
3 Mystic Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
trap (2):
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot
My extra deck would most probably be :
2 E HERO Absolute ZERO
2 E HERO The Shining
1 E HERO The GREAT Tornado
1 E HERO Gaia
1 E HERO Escuridao
1 E HERO Shining Flarewingman
1 E HERO Plasma Vice
1 E HERO Wild Edge
1 E HERO Wild Wingman
1 E HERO Necroid Shaman
1 E HERO Dark Bright
1 E HERO Sailorman (I've still not played this yet, but who knows, since I have 1 extra slot left)
1 V HERO Trinity
Back to Inzectors, and I still fail to see why Gilamantis is necessary. I know its a beatstick but I don't see how it serve the deck aside from that.
Fill me in on this please.
I'll most probably be playing a build that runs 3 of Hornet, Damsel and Centipede with no other Inzectors (until someone can explain to me how Gilamantis works). I'm thinking of playing a syncro exceed build since Inzectors are the easiest set of cards to make Rank 3 (in the OCG) and generate pluses from it.
Will see how it turns out, since I'm still busy with final exams, I have not tried anything out yet. Will get to it in 2 weeks.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Random Tourney Report
I just wanna get the TP with that Jurrac, I could care less bout Hope and GR Monster Reborn.
Deck used : X-sabers, since I'm lame
match 1 vs Ken Shing - Dark World
1st duel : He wins with random DW shits
2nd duel : I sided, he doesn't stand a shit of a chance
3rd duel : Like I said, I no longer have targets for Grapha and stupid Lightning so I proceed to beat him.
XOO
match 2 vs Keok - Dark World
1st duel : He Grapha'ed my set cards and won after a few attacks with me having nothing.
2nd duel : Sided out all those cards he might hit, he has no targets. I won from there.
3rd duel : Pulled Shadow Imprisoning Mirror, Gottom's Loop his whole hand. Felt good since its DW.
XOO
match 3 vs Lam - Dark World
Since he wanted Hope and I dont want anything in particular, we decide to just split or something and just play a duel instead of match.
1st duel : He Grapha'ed my BTH, then somehow beat me with it.
X
Results : Second, got GR Reborn and 2 TP (which I later found out to be the wrong packs).
Well, really, 3 DWs when I'm playing Sabers. Not that they matter at all since my side pretty much did its job every match.
Thats it for today, can't elaborate because Team Mamak just had this long ass discussion on how Vanguard Sucks, how the current format sucks, a few racist issues and among others.
Deck used : X-sabers, since I'm lame
match 1 vs Ken Shing - Dark World
1st duel : He wins with random DW shits
2nd duel : I sided, he doesn't stand a shit of a chance
3rd duel : Like I said, I no longer have targets for Grapha and stupid Lightning so I proceed to beat him.
XOO
match 2 vs Keok - Dark World
1st duel : He Grapha'ed my set cards and won after a few attacks with me having nothing.
2nd duel : Sided out all those cards he might hit, he has no targets. I won from there.
3rd duel : Pulled Shadow Imprisoning Mirror, Gottom's Loop his whole hand. Felt good since its DW.
XOO
match 3 vs Lam - Dark World
Since he wanted Hope and I dont want anything in particular, we decide to just split or something and just play a duel instead of match.
1st duel : He Grapha'ed my BTH, then somehow beat me with it.
X
Results : Second, got GR Reborn and 2 TP (which I later found out to be the wrong packs).
Well, really, 3 DWs when I'm playing Sabers. Not that they matter at all since my side pretty much did its job every match.
Thats it for today, can't elaborate because Team Mamak just had this long ass discussion on how Vanguard Sucks, how the current format sucks, a few racist issues and among others.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Finally, the semester is OVER!!!
Well, I still have my finals coming in a week or so, but that dreadful sem is finally done!!
I apologize for not having anything posted this week, its been a super busy week, assignment, labs and the bloody lectures are stacking up (all thanks to the random holidays Malaysia always have). Well, I guess that what to expect from an Engineering course.
Back to YGO, I have 0 updates currently. Cause I have not been playing for the past 2 weeks.
There would be a tagforce style tourney tomorrow at Toysbar, so if your interested, please head there.
We need at least 10 teams to start the tourney. Lam wants to get back into the game competitively again (as oppose to just casual I suppose) and Nick (he said he quit playing the game quite a few times now) wants SD22 ...
I'm not joining cause I have no interest in tag duels (especially tag force style) and the prizes in my eyes aren't good at all. 2 boxes of SD22 maybe good for someone, but I really have no interest.
And I don't have a teammate anyway, so I could care less.
I apologize for not having anything posted this week, its been a super busy week, assignment, labs and the bloody lectures are stacking up (all thanks to the random holidays Malaysia always have). Well, I guess that what to expect from an Engineering course.
Back to YGO, I have 0 updates currently. Cause I have not been playing for the past 2 weeks.
There would be a tagforce style tourney tomorrow at Toysbar, so if your interested, please head there.
We need at least 10 teams to start the tourney. Lam wants to get back into the game competitively again (as oppose to just casual I suppose) and Nick (he said he quit playing the game quite a few times now) wants SD22 ...
I'm not joining cause I have no interest in tag duels (especially tag force style) and the prizes in my eyes aren't good at all. 2 boxes of SD22 maybe good for someone, but I really have no interest.
And I don't have a teammate anyway, so I could care less.
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