Emo Report

Went to Gamer's Arena today because I wanted to pull some Hysteric Party from the new Tournament packs. It turns out the packs would only arrive next month and the rankings for this tourney won't carry on to next year, so my effort for the pack of Top100 sleeves were to waste as well.

So, I played Hieratics.

Round 1 : Vs Quasar Quickdraw

Duel 1 : His deck can't make Ophion, so I win.

Duel 2 : First turn Quasar looks a bit like an Ophion.

Duel 3 : Again, his deck doesn't make Ophion.

1 - 0

Round 2 : Vs Quasar Quickdraw (since when was this top tier?)

Duel 1 : His deck doesn't play Ophion.

Duel 2 : His deck doesn't play Ophion.

2 - 0

Round 3 : Vs Spellbooks (OMG, they really exist)

Duel 1 : He dropped 2 Junons on me and fucking Injection Fairy Lily FTW.

Duel 2 : He didn't drop 2 Junons and fucking Injection Fairy Lily.

Duel 3 : I notice he can't make Ophion, so I think I'm in a good position.

3 - 0

And I went home after making some quick cash, selling some cards.

Yesterday was Malaysia's last Official Tournament for 2012, and I must admit, its not a big event by any means. Firstly, the prize support is bad and secondly, Comic Fiesta was held on the same day. Quite a number of my friends went to KLCC for the CF event instead of coming to GA for Malaysia Open. I would probably do so myself if I had not already got seeded to top 32. The number of participants barely reached 100 or maybe slightly lower than that. You get a free T-shirt and a pack for entry (unfortunately, I didn't get my pack).

This is one tourney I went without thinking of winning. I seriously told everyone I'm gonna scrub the first round, since this was single elimination. I was pretty much very emo because I don't have the cards to play Hieratics, so I went with HERO. Lately I have issues with control based decks and I really wanted to just play Hieratics and go YOLO on everyone. I registered my decklist an hour before closing, I just netdeck the HERO build that took second place at Singapore Top Shop and Mask Change as the extra card just to troll.

Despite the low turn out, this tourney shows some great improvement over past tourneys. Number 1, we start on time and the scheduling was done rather well for Malaysian standards (the standard is pretty low in comparison to other countries thou). Also, we have feature matches every round. A camera was set up and a wide screen broadcast the matches live, that's a first in Malaysia, where we previously aren't even allowed to watches matches (unless your a friend of the staff crew and Mr.P doesn't hate you). 

Since I was seeded to top 32, I waited at the sides for the tourney to start ... again. I wasn't even in the mood to play, and I kept play testing against people using Hieratics just to show how much I want this deck to be in action. I didn't know Sam would be playing in this tourney beforehand, and when I saw him early yesterday, I knew I really wanted Hieratics to be my deck, just for a chance that revenge kill (despite having a very very bad matchup against Verz). I asked head judge Cookie if it was possible for me to change my decklist (even in the Hanzo build, I would be more confident than playing HERO at this point), but he told me it wasn't possible.

Top 32 vs Zombie-Chaos (that sides into Antimeta)

I've never seen my opponent before and he told me he was off the game for a few years now and just got back very recently. Also, he was playing with clear sleeves, that lead me to believe this would be an easy win on my part, I let my guard down way too much.

Duel 1 : My opponent starts with just a set monster and ended. (Again, how I wished I was playing Hieratics) I opened Thrasher, Allius, Bubbleman, Miracle, MST and Judgment. I special summoned the thrasher and attacked into Pyramid Turtle (I stunned when I saw that) which got him Goblin Zombie. I set 2 and passed. He then set another monster and set 3 backrow. I MST'ed Prison in the end phase but i didn't wanna lose to a combination of Torrential and Solemn, despite having a Miracle. I summon attacked into a Reaper, but my main phase 2 Black Corn was destroyed by BTH. I made Shining so I wouldn't lose Bubbleman to Reaper. He played Dark Hole and summoned Zombie Master, knowing I'm gonna lose a card in hand other wise, I flipped Judgment. He sets 2 more and passed. I drew Super Poly and summon Allius, that was hit by Torrential. He summoned another Zombie Master and brought back Pyramid turtle, hitting me to lethal condition. I topped decked MST. With him having 2 backrows and 2 monsters that could kill me with a hit, Gaia and Escuridao doesn't look good at all. I decided to risked it all and blow my Super Poly with MST and special Bubbleman and draw 2. I hit Dark Hole and Reborn. Sadly, there was nothing delicious in both our graves, so I've decided to play Dark Hole to clear the board and draw 2 with a reborned Bubbleman, but he had Starlight Road. I play Reborn just to make Hope and get rid of Zombie Master but his last card was BTH.

Duel 2 : I started with 2 Maxx C, Rai-Oh, Veiler, Torretial and Gemini Spark. But my opponent sided into anti-meta with cards like Kycoo, Cyber Dragons and also that 2400 zombie from the structure deck. Effectively making my hand traps dead. Luckily, a Torrential was able to go off without triggering a Road and I had Shinings to farm advantage.

Duel 3 : I was really in a dilemma since I didn't know what my opponent is gonna side into now. Since he switched quite a few cards, so his deck could be both the more aggressive build from game 1 or the more defensive build in game 2. I tooked out the a Maxx C (I was playing 2) and Veilers for conventional traps. He started with a set monster again which was a Pyramid turtle into Il Blud (yes, fucking Il Blud), and I blast it with Gemini Spark because I wasn't sure of it's effect and wasn't in the mood to ask a judge for it (NOTE : Don't ever do that!), but I set 3 and passed. He set 2. I summoned Stratos, which got BTH'ed. I searched for Bubbleman, flipped MST on a lone Compulsed, set Miracle and Mirror Force, Special Bubbleman and flip Miracle for a 3500 Shining and attacked (I had Mirror Force, Soul Drain and Solemn Warning set). He sets a monster and passed. I drew Rai-Oh and was very certain I would win at this point. Rai-Oh attacked into Ryko, which he destroyed my Rai-Oh, taking 3500 instead. This lead me to believe he has a Chaos monster to take care of my Shining and didn't want Rai-Oh to be in the way. He draws to 4 and special BLS, I had Warning. He then showed me Sorcerer. He summoned Zombie Master, ditch his last card for Pyramid Turtle. He passed and I drew into BTH. I set that and passed back, knowing I could fend off his attack and destroy his field if he tried to go for game, but he top decks Heavy Storm... Yu-Gi-Oh! 

I packed and found out something, his field had 5300 attack, while I'm still at 6000. Felt like an idiot since 1 of my friend lost because some stupid miscalculation in life back at Top Shop, and I laugh at him. Karma. But I didn't bothered to look at the next card, since I don't wanna feel even worst if it was something good.

Basically that wraps up my report for this event. All I could say, I wasn't in the zone ... at all. Sam won the event, not like that came out of nowhere. Verz easily won the event because the majority of the people playing (myself included) knows how to side against it, some doesn't even know what Ophion does, much less counter it. A Good deck + a Skilled player + no one knows how to counter it = easy victory.

On side note, I've found out yesterday my Hieratic build has an even worst matchup against Dark Worlds than I previously thought. Grapha isn't a problem, viruses isn't a problem; but Dragged down is a very big problem. Since I mained deck a ton of hand traps (3 Veiler and a Maxx C), I tend to have a lot of dead draw against DW. And my deck tends to start slow and snow ball into an OTK, which is easier and more consistent than people give it credit for ... but that's when your hand doesn't get Dragged down every second turn. Need to construct a better side deck for it now. The few games with DW really helped me realize this. 

Reinventing the Invented.

I love Hieratics, they're the deck I'm most comfortable with and to date, they have never failed me in any event. The past few months did sway me away from my dragon empire but now I'm having my faith back in them and regretted losing them in the first place. Of cause, I doubt any modifications on the old build would take you far, and Hanzo is as inconsistent as ever. I spent my free time for the past few weeks (when I'm not playing Magic) trying to recreate the Hieratic deck. Perhaps the introduction of MTG into my card game career helps me realize this. "I want to build a deck with staying power."

I've been playing Cast-Attack-Win mono-red Aggro in MTG and I've experienced the disadvantages of lack of staying power a lot. Sure, it might not matter if I could pull a good hand and my opponent is playing a slower deck. But a turn 3 Tragtusk almost always set me back a turn and I would lose out due to lack of high power spells. The same is here in YGO. Although I'm pretty much very confident that I can go for the kill whenever I want to. My judgment on when to land an attack using Hieratics has been good so far (except for that match with Sam at ACQ finals), I really do feel the need of increasing the staying power of my deck. By the way, Staying Power is basically a term for the capability of a deck to withstand an onslaught after your tempo has been disrupted and or took away from you. This is especially true in a deck like Hieratics where there are almost no 1-card-top-deck that would change the tides of the game (outside of staples like Reborn and Black Luster Soldier).

So, before I started my project to reinvent Hieratics, I took a bold move and basically remove everything from the deck but the core, which are the Hieratic engine. I know how good Hanzos can be and also how the Exodius engine can benefit the deck. But in order to have a fair view, I throw everything out into the side lines and let the testing tells me whats best. Even my all time favorite pure-Hieratics that features 10 traps were broken up into chunks of dragon meat. I sat down at my desk, looking at the very core of the deck and nothing else, thinking how am I gonna make this thing last longer and also how am I gonna last until I have the perfect window of opportunity where I launch the killing blow.

The 3 Su, 3 Tfenut, 2 Vanillas, 2 Convocation and the Red-Eyes Darkness Metal are staples. There is no way I'm able to take them out. But I've decided to cut down a copy of Eset and have a single copy of Nebthet to increase my options especially against decks with big monsters and Gorz. Another reason why I cut down Eset would be to make space for the other cards that would then be included into the deck. The skeleton of the deck took out 14 space, thats about one-third of the deck right there. I need every bit of space I can get, in order to keep the deck at 40, I never like to go over that magic number, no matter what the statistics tells me. 

Next, I look through my binder to look for a strategy that would be defensive enough to keep me in game until I do a push for game and also help me make a come back after the assault fails. At this point, Hanzo has completely left the picture. I know how good the card is as a starter, but I really hate pulling Ninjitsu Art instead of the Hanzo. While it give the deck more control, it took some amount of consistency from it. I wouldn't want a game lost because I drew my cards in the wrong order. I've searched the net for some decklist and look through some videos (the majority of them doesn't even include Hieratics, I wanna add new elements or borrow them from another deck). Believe it or not, the deck that actually gave me the inspiration for my current build was Mermail Atlanteans. 

We all know how good the deck is and how it totally dominates game 1 in most match ups. The fact that MST and Storm does almost nothing to it speaks a lot. I was thinking, maybe I could borrow this aspect of the deck. And the card that came into mind was so simple. That card was so back to basic I almost always look passed it. This card was none other than Call of the Haunted.

Old, but still one of the best cards ever!

We all know what Call does, it is one of the best cards in the game offensively and defensively. Inzektors play 3 copies of this card to stay in the Meta even after its supposed death by banlist. The next thing that came into mind was how to make Call of the Haunted an Abyss Sphere. Abyss Sphere is good because it wastes a blind MST or Storm. It laughs at destruction and makes your opponent looks like an idiot. But there is no card in Hieratic that would gain you that kind of value, so I look outside the box for cards that you normally don't find in Hieratics, some cards that would be stupid to run in a standard Hieratic deck. Again, the answer was right there all the time. Junk Doppel told us again and again how good a play chaining Call to a MST targeting Sangan really is, we weren't listening. Sangan fetches none of the Dragons, which leads to why no one would play it in the deck. But, the format as of now is very dependent on hand-traps, and Sangan fetches them all, not to mention Cardcar D, the all time Hieratic favorite. 

At first I was thinking about the practicality of this play, I mean, turn 1 Sangan and turn 2 Cardcar doesn't sound like the best opening ever. It gets the job done in terms of card advantage, but how is the deck gonna survive 2 or 3 turns without field presence. Simple, hand traps. The lack of cards on the field makes Mermail's destruction pretty much useless at the beginning stages in the game, and because you are digging into your deck at such a fast pace, you would most probably have some sort of hand trap in your hand to survive. As such, I included Gorz and Tragoedias into the staple pile. And, to increase my chances of opening Sangan, Tour Guide of the Underworld sounds very promising. Also, equipping Sangan on an Exa-Beetle is a pretty broken move as you take down a monster and grab a hand-trap of choice then make a 2600 piercer. I've checked several ruling sites to make sure this was possible.

Ｑ：装備カードとなった《クリッター》が破壊され墓地へ送られた時、効果は発動しますか？
Ａ：発動します。(09/10/07)

Q : If "Sangan" was treated as an equip card and then sent to the graveyard, would it's effect activates.

A : Yes, it will be activated.

Knowing this, I was thrilled that my strategy was coming together. I've also added another card that would benefit from Call, which was Card Trooper. Trooper's milling effect may seem to contradict with the consistency I was looking forward to, but for the most part it doesn't. My deck is now so jam packed with monsters I would rarely mill more spells and traps. Also, I could always just set the card and treat it like a random floater. Since Thunder King Rai-Oh is still a major pain in the ass, I really like this card in here. Also, M7 gets rid of problems like milling key monsters, although I would normally care less since I have Call.

With good amount of Lights and Darks, Luster Soldier was a no-brainer. But what about the other Chaos? Sorcerer is a good card, being level 6 gives it a lot of synergy with the deck. It is also a one-card out to The Shining without massively profiting my opponent. Banishing a monster and making a M7 to get it back again seems very good. But does that justify playing him. Chaos cards are bad early in the game for a deck that does not do a lot of milling or grave filling. I fear its inclusion would do more harm than worth, but I still list it as one of the cards I want in the deck, since Call makes him a pretty scary card to mess with. I put Chaos Sorcerer on the bench warmer as of now. At this point, the 40 cards have been decided and I jumped onto DN to test it out.

While winning in DN doesn't mean much, if anything at all, I got to know the consistency of my deck. In 20 matches, I won them all, and I have not drawn unplayable hands. I was stunned at that point, I honestly felt I was looking at a monster trying to shed its skin of an innocent bystander. At the end of the deck testing, I took out the Maxx C's from the main deck as it would not be as effective in the Malaysian meta game. I was looking for cards to replace the 2 new empty slots in the main deck, and that Chaos Sorcerer seems pretty tempting at the moment. I went to Kyde's blog for inspiration since he is the only one aside from myself who is still constantly updating on Hieratics, and I need not look further for answers.

I grab Exodius the Forbidden Lord and teched a copy of it in my deck. In addition of making Gustav Max and also recycling M7, I found another use for it in my deck. That was to recycle Sangan and my hand traps, to start my engine all over again. Since I was only playing a Sangan and 2 Tour Guides, the second TGU sometimes finds itself dead. Exodius helps solve this problem to some degree. While I'm not gonna usually waste an Exodius for a TGU, sometimes, what has to be done, has to be done. Also, the Forbidden Lord help me in quite a few games now and I am glad to say, there wasn't once I wouldn't want him in my hand. But, I would not play it in 2's though. So, my last card would obviously be Sorcerer right? Nope! Exodius gave me another option, and that was Zephyrus the Elite.

Zephyrus needs no introduction, it is good and it makes Red-Eyes so much better by bouncing it back after the Atum play, granting access to an OTK without the 3rd hieratic in hand. Exodius can send the Blackwing into the grave by simply declaring an attack. Also, this deck draws so much you could easily end up with more than 7 cards in hand during your end phase. You could also always just summon it since you're not gonna be doing much until your OTK anyways. I'm very impressed at what the bird could do, but is it better than Sorcerer? I don't have an answer to that yet. Zephyrus is capable of granting you OTKs but Sorcerer is the better card when it comes to spot removal and card advantage. So, it comes down to whether I want an extra Sword or Shield. Both seems to flow with the deck just fine and I bet both would do good to the deck, I guess the ultimate choice would be depending on how the meta game forms itself again. And at last, I've finalized my main deck for my new Hieratic build.

The extra wasn't as tricky as the main. The usual rank 6s and 7s are included. Since I have Veilers in my main deck, I really wanted Black Rose Dragon to clear the board. And since TGU is here, I've added Rank 3's Wind-Up Zenmaines and No.17 Leviathan Dragon. I was gonna play Leviair, but I found myself never making him in test playing sessions and taking him out for another Syncro monster, Ancient Sacred Wyvern. He wasn't as important as Black Rose, and doesn't do as much as well. I am currently debating whether to replace him with Ancient Fairy Dragon (for DW and GK matchups) or Scrap Archfiend. But, the potential to grow gigantic is something I couldn't look away from, and being a comrade that have fought together with me since last format, I am bias towards the Wyvern as of now.

Finally, after the long wall of text that could easily fit into a text book. I'm sorry for dragging you guys on a long boring lecture on how I made this deck. Please take note that while I didn't copy this deck idea (from another Hieratic) off someone else, I am not sure if this deck is new. Someone might have already build something similar and is doing quite well with it, but that's beyond my knowledge. Really big thanks for sticking with me so far and now to the decklist.

monster (28):

3 Hieratic Dragon of Su

3 Hieratic Dragon of Tfenut

2 Hieratic Dragon of Eset

1 Hieratic Dragon of Nebthet

1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

1 Luster Dragon

1 Wattail Dragon

2 Tour Guide from the Underworld

1 Sangan

2 Card Trooper

3 Effect Veiler

2 Cardcar D

2 Tragoedia

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

1 Exodius the Forbidden Lord

1 Chaos Sorcerer // Blackwing - Zephyrus the Elite

spells (9):

2 Hieratic Seal of Convocation

2 Pot of Duality

3 Mystic Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

traps (3):

3 Call of the Haunted

Extra (15):

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

1 No.17 Leviathan Dragon

1 Tiras Keeper of Genesis

2 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum

1 Photon Streak Bounzer

1 Number 25 Focus Force

1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

1 Sword Breaker

1 Constellar Plolemys M7

2 Gaia Dragoon

1 Superdreadnough Rail Cannon Gustav Max

side (15):

3 Rivalry of the Warlords

3 Debunk

2 Nightbeam

2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

2 Maxx C

2 D.D Crow

1 Neospacian Grand Mole

Well, the cards in the side are meant to counter the decks in my area, so it might not work on a universal scale. Rivalry was a card that I wasn't too sure of either since I have quite a few different types of monsters in here, but I've tested it out against Wind-Ups and it works just fine. Since I couldn't play both Soul Drain and Macro Cosmos, I settled with Debunk for the Mermail and Dark World match ups. Crow is gaining more popularity over here too.

Thanks for staying on for so long and reading my ridiculously long post. Any constructive criticism is welcome, just don't leave a comment like "This deck suck!" without reason (Mike, I know you and/or Andrew are gonna do it, so I'm gonna give you a warning before hand). I wasn't planning to review this deck until the end of next week, because I wanted everyone to see what this deck could do. But, I don't have Tour Guides and I couldn't find a Gustav Max. The chances of this deck being completed before the 22nd is grim. Not wanting a decklist to go to waste, I would really wish for a brave soul to pick up this deck list and enter a tournament. 

TB Tourney Report

Not much has been going on since Team MYM's achievements at Asia Plus 3 weeks ago, the game has came to another stalemate period. Well, since the last tournament for 2012 is next week, although it would be an event without interesting prize support; nevertheless, there is still something to look out for. Not gonna make an excuse for myself, I wasn't completely in YGO for the past 2 weeks. Hence, there was no post at all. I'm currently training myself to follow the footsteps of great planeswalkers. Yes, I've started playing MTG (officially) 2 weeks ago, and some of my YGO friends also decided to join in as well. I'm not going to stop YGO, I've played multiple card games simultaneously before, I just took 2 weeks off YGO to learn the game of MTG, thats all, and after some back breaking sessions of Friday Night Magics, I think I finally get to know the game now.

Back to YGO. Today was Toysbar's qualifier thing for the tournament on the 22nd. I wanted to test my super special awesome Hieratic build, but I don't have Tour Guides (yes, I've spent too much cash on MTG and I can't afford TGUs at the moment). So, I played Masked HEROs today just for fun. Before I get heat from the other Malaysian bloggers, NO, I wasn't playing the build that won Top Shop, I was playing the build I played at Asia Plus Qualifiers.

Match 1 : Vs Inzektors

Duel 1 : I wasn't aware of his deck until I destroyed Sangan and him grabbing Hornet. Once I saw that card, I went from defensive to offensive to make sure he doesn't get his engine started.

Duel 2 : I open with a Crow and a Veiler, nothing much for him to do after I veilered his Centipede and Crow that lone Hornet.

Match 2 : Vs Wind-Ups

Duel 1 : I drop Maxx C on Magician-Shark. I just keep pushing with big monsters that gets even bigger with Mask Change.

Duel 2 : Both of us are at the 2000s, I have Maxx C in hand and a Rai-Oh on board. He has Rabbit and top decks Sangan, which he makes Zenmeity. Figuring his gonna get Rat and make another XYZ, I let that pass and chained Maxx C to its effect. Wind-Up Warrior was summoned and I looked at it and went "Oh!"

Duel 3 : I open 2 Veilers. I just keep my stream of beaters on the field and eventually won after his Magician-Shark was met by veiler.

Match 3 : Vs Fire Fist

This was my first meeting with this deck across the board and I have almost no knowledge on how should I side for it.

Duel 1 : My opponent sets up an obvious Morphing Jar and I took advantage of that. Acid-Zero cleared the board and I made Shining for a push for game.

Duel 2 : My opponent over extended into Torrential and his backrow was wiped out by a top deck Heavy Storm. I won after Zero crashed into his monster and have my army of Ocean and Allius attack for game.

So, I took first and 5 packs of boosters. Nice prizes for a Rm10 entry fee, but I pulled jank, so it was still a loss of 10 bucks I guess.

Updates!!!

So the last nationals for 2012 is on December 22nd. Thats wonderful, I thought for sure I was gonna miss this one out cause I'm going on a trip with some friend from college on the 23rd to 26th. This tournament usually falls on the 25th or the next day, hence Christmas Tourney. But since I'm still here on the 22nd, I say its one more chance to aim big before we close 2012.

Also, since I'm going to the US next year for my Masters program, I figure it would be good to know someone over there. Gotta make some social links (too much Persona 4 for me recently) before travelling, I don't wanna get home sick for the first month. I've added my Facebook account on the side, so please add me!

The Bright Star Shines Upon the Dragon Lords

After getting pass the emoness from scrubbing yesterday's event, I've decided to review on the deck that I was originally gonna enter Top Shop with. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to get my copy of M7 by yesterday morning, so I did a last minute decision to play E HEROs again. Kyde among others see me running around trying to borrow a copy of M7, which ended up in vein. Before i start my deck review, I originally wanted to play this deck because I know no one would be prepared for it and it would dominate through the swiss rounds. I know the deck has great match ups against Mermail Atlanteans and also Wind-Ups. HEROs is a bit iffy IF they know what you are doing, which I doubt. My Meta call was spot on yesterday, which leads me into even more emoness as I would most likely made top 8 if I had this deck with me.

monster (24) :

3 Hieratic Dragon of Su

3 Hieratic Dragon of Tfenut

2 Hieratic Dragon of Eset

1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

1 Wattail Dragon

1 Emerald Dragon // Luster Dragon

3 Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo

2 Tragoedia

1 Gorz the Emmissary of Darkness

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

2 Cardcar D

2 Effect Veiler

2 Maxx "C"

spell (10):

2 Pot of Duality

2 Hieratic Seal of Convocation

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

trap (6):

2 Ninjitsu Art of Super Transformation

2 Solemn Warning

2 Threatening Roar

extra (15):

1 Hieratic Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis

2 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum

2 Gaia Dragoon

1 Constellar Plolemys M7

1 Photon Streak Bounzer

1 Number 25 Focus Force

1 Sword Breaker

1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

1 Tiras Keeper of Genesis

1 Heroic Champion Excalibur

1 AOJ Catastor

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern

side (15):

2 Koaki Meiru Drago

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

1 Puppet Plant

2 Nightbeam

3 Macro Cosmos (EDIT)

2 Rivalry of the Warlords

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Malevolent Catastrophe

If your still wondering why M7 plays such an important role to the point that I would NOT play this deck without it, then here's what I have to say. I gives this deck a 3-card-OTK. Hieratic was a deck that was known for their 3-card-OTK. If you have any 3 Hieratics you could put onto the field, it was an OTK. But since the banlist took out our second REDMD, this wasn't possible with 3 dragons alone, until M7 finally came into the picture. This may be old news some, but we only got M7 last week and a majority of the guys here are clueless about Hieratics. Lets say this article is directed towards that crowd.

You need to have any combination of Hieratics you could put out on to the field, ie Su, Su, Eset or Su, Eset, Tfenut. Any combination would do. 

First your gonna take 2 dragons and make Atum, and that Atum brings out REDMD from your deck. Now, special a Hieratic from your grave and tribute it for the 3rd copy in your hand. Then, with the 2 level 6s on your field, make M7. M7 would then uses it's effect to bring REDMD back to hand. Your gonna banish Atum and bring back a Wattail Dragon onto the field.

2800 + 2700 + 2500 = 8000

Well, if your opponent has a monster on board, the your not gonna get an OTK, true. But, even if don't get an OTK, this deck can hold its own very well since your beaters are humongous. I would like to shout out to Kyde who suggested me playing Exodios the Ultimate Forbidden Lord in the deck. The reasoning behind that was solid, it makes Gustav Max and it also lets you recycle your M7's. I would most likely include a copy of that card in my deck soon.

I don't think there is much to say bout the main and extra. Lets go straight to side deck. I've predicted a strong showing of Mermails, Dark Words and HEROs yesterday. While Wind-Ups are powerful, they are just too expensive to have many players playing them, but their presence shall never be discarded. Also, this deck dies hard to Agents, so I have a few cards in the side board to counter that match up.

Drago and Kycoo, along with BTH are Agent hates. It also hits random Chaos Dragons and mirror matches (expect Kycoo). I know all these cards are anti-Krystia, instead of destroying the Krystia on board. But I do not feel Agents as a deck, is fast. The Trooper build might get Krystia out early, but Call of the Haunted in vulnerable. For the DW match up, I would side in Kycoo, Soul Drains and also BTH. "Dark Worlds are not a matchup, its solitaire", I shall not review who said that. For both these match ups, the Maxx "C" and Threathing Roar comes out. Veiler comes out too for DW and Heavy Storm for Agents. (I constantly side out Heavy in both this and my HERO deck)

I have much hate for both Mermail Atlanteans and also Wind-Ups in my main, so I don't really have much in my side. 3 Macro (EDIT) for Mermails and 2 Rivalry and a Malevolent for Wind-Ups. Malevolent is in there mostly for Factory, and the Wind-Ups here are usually pretty trap heavy.

The rest of my side is focused on HERO, arguably this deck's worst match up. I would side in Puppet Plant, BTH, Nightbeam and also the GALAXY-EYES!! I take out the Maxx "C", Veiler, Dark Hole and also a copy of Roar (or 2, depending on the results of game 2). Puppet Plant explains Excalibur in my extra. I wanna drop Plant on a Allius or Stratos and then attack for big damage. But I bet people would be confused with Galaxy-Eyes.

I like Galaxy-Eyes for 2 things. (1) it is a LEVEL 8 DRAGON I could bring out with Atum and (2) it's effect is excellent when your trying to push for game through a Shining or Excalibur. Being a level 8 monster means I could potentially use it to steal a Shining or Zero off my opponent's board with Tragoedia. I know its a very risky move to side in a card just for this, but I would always win the game if I pull this stunt off. Also, Galaxy-Eyes is good against random match ups where my opponent would hide behind Gachi or Zenmains. I could side this in for Agents as well, but I feel Krystia would stop Trago. It's random, I know, but I really like this card.

That's it for my deck review today, thanks for reading. And I am still salty my donkey didn't win me my playmat yesterday. 

Donkey Let Me Down ...

Today was Top Shop 2012, the last official tournament for the year. Early this morning I was faced with dilemma, no deck to play. I've not receive my copy of M7 yet and I don't actually own E HERO Gaia (WTF!? I know). Effectively, I couldn't play either deck to their best potential, but decided to stick with HERO because unlike Gaia, M7 is a necessity.

Tournament actually started on time today, that's crazy!

Match 1 : VS Mermail Atlanteans - Saw

Duel 1 : I hid my balls somewhere in the closet and didn't attack his face down for at least 3 turns. Turns out to NOT be Linde and I got smashed by set Heavy (which I did not MST because of Sphere) and Megalo.

Duel 2 : I open Soul Drain and manage to keep it on the board for the majority of the game. My opponent plays Trap Stun, dropping Megalo and destroying Shining but attacks into Warrior Lady. He scooped for no real reason after witnessing that.

Duel 3 : We were trading monsters but I was steadily decreasing his life. At one point, my hand was Storm, Allius and Bubbleman, with 2 set; he had 3 set and a Librarian. I YOLO and play Storm and XYZ into Excalibur, and left him at 700. I know I just have to top deck any Stratos, E Call or RoTA to seal the game, since I doubt Excalibur would stay on board. My opponent tops Avarice and makes Catastor. I top Miracle into Shining, rammed into Catastor, brought back the 2 HEROs and made Gagaga Gunman.

*My opponent was extremely salty and keep telling EVERYONE how I topped deck a win, dude YGO!*

X00

1 - 0

Match 2 : VS Rabbit MetaBeat

Remember my most recent post before this, the one regarding Burden of the Mighty, this match proves my theory 100%.

Duel 1 : I started with Rai-Oh and MST. My opponent shows me Alexandrite Dragon. I was on the ropes next turn when he decided to show me Rescue Rabbit and made Laggia to protect his 4 face downs. I drew for my turn, took a deep breath and plays E Call for Stratos, naturally that got negated by Warning. I played Reborn but was hit with Laggia, no matter. I flipped a face down Miracle Fusion, banishing both Airman and TKR into Shining, he shows me BTH, which I chained the ever powerful Super Poly. I knew his last card was Starlight Road. Nova kept attacking for damage.

Duel 2 : I couldn't draw Burden and was killed when his 2000 line gets pass my 1900.

Duel 3 : I opened TKR, Warning and MST. He summons Genewarp Warwolf, I played Warning. He sets 4. I attack for damage and sets Torrential. I summons another 2000 and walk pass my monster. The next turn, I passed and he summons Rabbit into double Sabersaurus the next turn, I chained BTH which was met with a Starlight Raod.

0XX

I lost the match but I was ever so certain that my side deck choice was correct. Problem was drawing into it.

1 - 1

Match 3 : VS E HERO - Izzat

Duel 1 : I dance around his spells and traps with Allius and Trasher. He tops a Miracle and cleared my board. I set MST and passed. He attacked me and I chain the MST dropping Gorz. It was over the next turn since he had under 2700.

Duel 2 : I open Burden first turn and proceed to control the board. Allius piratically became unstoppable and I was able to take this match pretty easily.

00

Izzat agrees with me that Burden was extremely effective in the mirror match and he said he had a nightmare playing against it.

2 - 1

Match 4 : VS E HERO - Mike (the blogger dude)

Duel 1 : We basically played the same playstyle since we were testing with each other for the pass 2 months. I would say the outcome pretty much comes down to the draws in this matchup. Problem was, my deck was fitted to play against the more diverse meta while his was more pin pointed towards the main meta (which HERO was part of). At the end of the day, I got murdered by Gorz.

Duel 2 : I drop Gorz early on when his Rai-Oh attacks into MST. Manage to keep the token on board and won the game with it.

Duel 3 : I open Allius and attacks his empty field, no Gorz. He passes again (hey!!Hhe should have discard a card since he had 7, OMG cheater spotted!!). I summon Startos and attacks ... into Gorz. I set 3 face downs, Compulse, BTH and Prison. He draws and shows me Night Beam on Compulse and MST on the others. Airman into Allius and ditching that Allius for Super Poly on my monsters. As the saying goes, I draw good, he draws god.

X0X

Shouldn't have told Mike what I was siding against another HERO before the match, he totally pin pointed what I sided in while I have no clue what he sided. But, I doubt that would matter since he opened the nuts that last round.

Match 5 : VS Dark Worlds

Duel 1 : He opens Tour Guide and double Dragged Down. Luckily I was able o hold my own (somehow) long enough for me to make Shining and hopes to get pass Grapha, which it did and he scopes. At the end of the game, I found out he mistook my life for his. I was at the hundreds where as he had still a good 6000 with him.

Duel 2 : I open double Soul Drain but he had answers. Grapha stood there and did his job; he was pleased when Shining took a Skill Drain to his face.

Duel 3 : I open YOLO hand, so I passed a turn, which I got hit by Leviathan Dragon. I YOLO next turn and he had no answers for it.

0X0

3 - 2

That last game didn't matter since even some 4 -1's could't get into top 8. Sharmir was emo cause he fought his way through a game loss at the beginning to received an answer like that from Cookie. We 3-2 (me and Kyde) just sit back and watch the action.

At this point, I've decided to cheer for Mike, since him winning means I get a playmat for myself ... indirectly.  Which brings us to why the title of this report is Donkey. Me and Kyde have decided to bet on whose gonna win the tournament. I was betting (or actually hoping) for Mike to win and his choice was with Zack. So, he said "Lets see whose horse would win this match." which I've replied "Nah, horse is too big for Mike, maybe donkey"

This is how Mike is suppose to level up:

Donkey (top 8) --> Pony (top 4) --> Horse (finals) --> Cow (champion)

Cows are bigger than horses, true story, at least from where I'm living.

So the Donkey "beat" Zack at the top 8, so he becamed a Pony. But he lost at top 4 AND the bottom 4, so he leveled down back into a Donkey. No playmat for me and I'm utterly disappointed with the donkey today.

Quotes of the day:

"Prophet Muhammad GQ" ~ Kyde

"He where got pony? He donkey" ~ GQ

"I think his gay -->" ~ Fishtank

"I'm best Wind-Up player in Malaysia" ~ Sharmir

"My idol shall "tapau" you all with Crystal Beast" ~ quite some number of guys

*Tapau means wallop in cantonese*

When You Need Power Over Everything Else

If your piloting a control based beat down deck, be it Elemental HEROs or Dino Rabbit, you want your monsters to be able to walk over anything your opponent has on the board, and keep your spells and traps for something bigger, like the boss monsters. If your level 4's couldn't win in a battle against your opponent's 0-drops, you know your in deep shit. Lets just stick with HEROs and Rabbit for the moment, and not think of any other control beat decks. Chances are, the only time you would feel an insufficient in power, and also the need of more power, would be in a match against another HERO or Rabbit.

Why is power, or in YGO, the ATK stats important in these match ups? Normally, HEROs have their 1900 line, and in a mirror match, players would trade monsters if they do not want to waste traps on a lesser HERO, waiting for cards like ZERO or Shining. In Rabbit, how many times did you wish you could just walk pass Kabazaus with your Guaibba and not wasting your Forbidden Lance in hand? Some might argue that the traps is what matters in these match ups, I'm not saying thats wrong, but thats not all there is to these grind games. When a HERO player drops Photon Trasher on to the field, the game would suddenly favor the card's owner. Photon Trasher isn't a game ending card in any means, but it has 200 more attack points than HERO's 1900 line. This forces your opponent into playing traps, spells, summoning XYZs or dropping Honest to get over it, effectively putting pressure on the board, especially since it wasn't normal summoned.

A big contributing factor why the 2100 attack line in so good against these decks would be the ineffectiveness of traps against them. Don't get me wrong, a single BTH or Prison is enough to get rid of the Trasher. But in a HERO mirror, especially early in the game, you wouldn't want to set more than 1 face down, unless you have a Warning or such. Gemini Spark contributes to this, because setting more than 1 would let your opponent plus off you like no ends. Looking at a HERO (and also Rabbit's) trap line up, the Solemn Brigade took 3 slots off the 10 or so copies of traps. And you don't really wanna use Solemns on a 0-drop, especially if the game is early. In grinding games, every life counts, a direct swing from Trasher may prove sufficient in the long run.

Thats all I have to say about how utterly amazing Trasher is in mirror matches, but why is it good? Because it is a card that could walk pass any level 4s your opponent might throw at you. Basically, it slightly weaken's your opponent's power line and affects how the game should be played altogether. In conclusion, I do feel that cards that alter power lines would be very important in these match ups. Which leads me to the card I wanna discuss today. Similar to what Kyde said on his blog, Seal of Oricharos increases your power line by 500. That's enough to steal games in a control mirror grind game. But I do feel the card's drawback is too much for decks like HERO and Rabbit. We still need our extra to fully utilize our advantage, unlike decks like Rock Stun (which Seal truly shines in).

Burden of the Mighty is a very simple card, it decreases your opponent's power line in accordance to their level, here, we are mostly talking about 400 points. It does not affect XYZs, so your opponent can always overlay their monsters to make your card dead. So, why is it good? Simple, it wastes your opponent's resources. Imagine, your opponent has a field of Trasher and Allius, pretty amazing field for a grind game, but you place Burden on the S/T zone and summons Thunder King. Thats not all, it forces your opponent to get rid of it early. Burden also makes HERO fusions in the ranges even an Allius could take out.

How does this benefits Rabbit? It makes Guaibba an instant trap magnet, baiting you everything so you could drop Rabbit or Tourguide safely. Thats not all, your 1900 line becomes 2300, while your 1700 becomes 2100. That is basically gonna change the tempo of the game until the inevitable MST shows up. If your opponent HAS to prison your level 4s, you know your in a better position than he is. If you have Allius and Burden, you could just attack your opponent's Allius, knowing your gonna deal damage, cause his gonna take out Burden first. You setting a face down after that is gonna be huge, cause that card might be Spark, it doesn't have to be, but your opponent is gonna do everything they can to try to play around it, which affects their tempo instantly.

This card is more powerful against HERO than it is to Rabbit. While there is some use of this in a Rabbit mirror match, Laggia and Dollka are still too powerful. Whereas in HEROs, the XYZs are usually unprotected from traps and spells. In short, Burden forces your opponent to go into their extra deck for answers. Also, you can even try siding a copy of this against Agents and Chaos Dragon's. It doesn't have to stay on the field for long, since you just need to get in there and take out a big boss monster, like how Leeching the Light does, except this card stays on the field until something happens to it, you still fall short to Krystia by 100 thou.

To wrap things up, I would really recommend this card to any who is trying to catch your opponent off guard in a HERO mirror. Its not the most effective of cards, but it does it job in slowly changing the games tempo and gaining you slight advantage, a little at a time. I wouldn't play this in anything but a control deck, and wouldn't play this against anything thats not a control deck. This is the kind of card that would only shine in a mirror match, where the power line of both decks are equal. Hope this helps.

Preparing for Top Shop

Its this time again, me looking through my cards and decks, trying to figure out what am I gonna bring to the tables this Sunday. Top Shop is a few days ahead and to me, this would be my last big tournament for the year. I'll be going on a trip and would most likely miss out nationals at the end of the year. I'm not retiring from the game or anything, unlike Mike.

Lets talk about Top Shop. This would be a tournament only for 56 players with invites, Gamers Arena holds 28 of the invites if I'm not mistaken. Duelist playing in this event are all qualifiers from their respective local's Top Shop Qualifiers. So, I guess the chances of playing against randoms are lesser I guess. Now, what does Top Shop stands for? To be honest, I have no clue. Last year, it was to decide the so-called Asia's best trading card game hang out, which Sam won and crowned Gamer's Arena with that title. But this year, no such event would be taking place, so effectively, we're just playing for the fame and glory I guess. Don't let me start on the prize support, if TCG players are complaining about their prizes, let me say, you would rather kill yourselves than admitting the gifts they provide are the grand prizes.

Now, what deck am I gonna play this coming weekend. I'm not sure! I'm currently leaning towards Hieratics, but that all depends on the whether M7 is legal for the event. I know the set would be officially release by Saturday, but I'm still not sure if the cards would be legal. This is because we have some events where cards are legal on the day it was release, and other where we need to wait a week or two before we could play them. If the card isn't legal, guess I'll stick with HEROs. Don't get me wrong, I love HEROs, but their matchups against Dark Worlds are horrible, and game 1 against Mermail Atlanteans heavily favors the opposition. DWs are a lot more popular than I initially thought.

I'm still testing out both decks at the moment and trying to figure out a good side deck for the META. Luckily, Firefist (lame ass name) still seems to be off the radar at the moment and Mermail Atlanteans didn't change their playstyle even with the new support. Wind-Ups, being Wind-Ups, are still too expensive for the majority of the community and would likely be low in numbers. Not that you could avoid siding for them. The ever present Countdown is still as annoying as ever, you really don't wanna lose just cause you play someone with Countdown.

That's all I guess, hope I could do better this time, I've yet to capture a win for an official tournament yet, and I really hope to add that into my achievement sometime soon, especially since I'm leaving for the US mid to late next year for my Masters programme (TCG, here I come?).

Blame the Internet!

I'm not dead, in contrary to my semi-retiring announcement a month ago. It's not that I have nothing to share, but I've been cut out from the world for 1 week now. My internet is down since last Friday and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee at Starbucks as we speak to check my mails and stuff. I would really wanna go into depth on the single cards in Cosmo Blazer, but truth is, I don't have the chance to read them yet. I could read them now, but I'm at the Starbucks near my school, I don't want my friends from real life walk by and go "Hey, GQ, OMG, you play YGO!?". Blame the Internet Service Provider (ISP)! Also, I have no clue whether the set has reached Malaysian shores yet.

I've recently rekindled my passion for Hieratics, and after a few games with Mike on DN the other day (yeah, at Starbucks), I seriously feel with a good side deck, this could be very viable this format. It all started last Saturday, before my rounds for Asia Plus started. All day long, I wished I've picked an aggro-combo deck for the event instead of a control deck like E HEROs. Maybe my deck responded to my dilemma (Heart of the fucking cards, yeah!), I drew shit the whole day. Since then, I've been straying away from pure Control oriented decks for a bit. Which leads me to my Hieratics, a deck that had never let me down since it's introduction.

While the deck was a top contender last format, it's pretty safe to assume not many in Malaysia truly understands the deck. Everyone still think that the deck is a one trick pony with Gustav Max, even with me and Zack bringing the deck to the top tables in 2 qualifier events, the people are still skeptical. Truth is, I don't think many has ever tried the deck, the only ones I know still playing and refining the deck are me and Kyde (If your not mentioned, I'm sorry). Also, with the release of M7 to our format in a month's time, its perfect to bring the great Dragon OTK deck back into the picture.

HEROs would rape Hieratic, there is no question there. Control beats combo, thats how the game works. But HEROs in general, have a very very low showing in Malaysia. Most top players here would prefer decks like Mermail Atlanateans and Wind-Ups over HERO. Theres a ton of reasons contributing to this, but we're not here to discuss this. Also, while Hieratics would lose to HEROs more often then not in game 1, theres always games 2 and 3. A good side deck is the perfect solution to any matchups. And in my opinion, the best side deck cards against HEROs would be Forbidden Lance, a card Hieratics could main 3 of's if they want to, actually, thats not a good idea considering the monster effect heavy format we are in, lets just stick to siding them. I always think the best way to play against HEROs would be to know what they are gonna do next. I could usually pinpoint what cards my opponent is gonna play and what remaining options they have left, lets just say this comes from years of experience with HEROs. So, with the proper cards, the match ups would actually come into my favor, especially since there would be nothing that devastating in their side deck anyways.

monster (25):

3 Hieratic Dragon of Su

3 Hieratic Dragon of Eset

3 Hieratic Dragon of Tfenut

1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

2 Wattmeter Dragon

3 Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo

2 Cardcar D

3 Maxx C

2 Effect Veiler

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy

2 Tragoedia

spell (10):

2 Hieratic Seal of Convocation

2 Pot of Duality

2 Mystic Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Dark Hole

1 Monster Reborn

1 Reinforcement of the Army

trap (5):

2 Ninjitsu Art of Super Transformation

2 Solemn Warning

1 Starlight Road

extra (15):

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern

1 Tiras Keeper of Genesis

1 Number 61 Volcasaurus

2 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum

1 Photon Streak Bounzer

1 Number 25 Focus Force

1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

1 Sword Breaker

1 Constellar Plolemys M7

2 Gaia Dragoon

1 Hieratic Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis

I'm still refining my side deck at the moment, I still can't get the right mix of cards to take on the format, also, I'm still not sure what the new Haze Beast and Fire Fist (lame ass name for Flame Star), along with the powered up Mermails are gonna do to the meta. That may take a weekend or 2 to make, as I wanna see a good decklist and playstyle for these decks first before I could do anything to counter them.

And lets get into the decklist, starting from below, at the extra, since most of my explanations would be at the monster line. I bet many are questioning my choice of Heliopolis over Gustav Max. I had both of these cards in my extra until I've decided to play more level 7 Synchros. But in my test plays, I've never ever made Gustav Max, but I've made Heliopolis twice in like 10 or 15 games. I'm not sure why did that happen, since the only real way to make Heliopolis would be a combination of BLS, Stardust and Tragoedia, still I've manage to brought it out in more than 1 occasion and I would normally win the game if that happened. Gustav ... not much luck. Maybe I'll drop both all together for a second copy of M7, cause it's just that good. Recycling copies of Maxx C and Veilers is good, making broken OTKs is even better. I'm not sure why I still have Exa-Beetle in the deck considering I play them both the same way.

Moving on to traps, the only real card I would need to discuss might be Starlight Road, and even that is pretty obvious. Lets just say going first and opening Road and 2 Hieratics basically spells game for most match ups. It punishes your opponent for trying to punish you for over extending, if thats fair. I play Warning over Torrential or Bottomless because I want my OTKs to go through. Thats all that matters really. Spells are pretty standard.

To back up my lack of real traps, I'm playing a lot of hand traps. Maxx C in 3s is really good this format, anything aside from HEROs die to them. Even if I play against HEROs, I could still use them as a 1 for 1, but like I've mentioned, HEROs are tough to beat using a combo oriented deck. The main strategy in the main deck building is to snatch wins from non-control based decks in game 1. I'm leaving the majority of my side deck for HEROs, taking Veiler and Maxx C out and I will have at least 5 free spaces in my main deck, not to mention Tragoedias and that Starlight Road. My side deck is pretty packed with traps I forecast. 

The overall playstyle of the deck is similar, but without Inzektors blowing your stuffs one by one, you could start very strong with a Eset-Su play, and that is devastating if your opponent doesn't have answers in hand. With strong openings, consistent OTKs and also a pitch of control, this deck can challenge anything the meta would throw at it. And I don't see it losing to any non-tier 1's any time soon.

That's all I wanted to say, and my coffee is getting cold. I don't do scripts, so I tend to just type whatever on my mind on the moment and this took me bout a hour to finish? Hope my internet gets fixed by the end of the day, so I could do some reviews on the upcoming archtypes and promising singles.

Mate Your Mama

Asia Plus qualifiers went by and while I didn't win it, I feel proud that my friends Andrew, Zack and Sharmir took the championship medals home. MYM - Mate Your Mama fought through 4 rounds of single elimination and was crowned champion with leader Zack, showing us the power of Ultimate Offering in a Mermail Atlantean mirror match against Mango, the Asia champion for 2010. I would be lying if I said I wound't wish it would be me standing there instead, but I really wished they would win this thing as they've been putting so much hard work into it. Good job guys, really proud of you!

Now to the report for Team GQ.

We have a less eventful day, waiting for our top 16 match to start for at least 5 hours. And at 3 pm, we finally started our match.

Top 16 : vs Lightsworn/Agent Angel/Darkworld

Our opponent would go on to the top 4 of this tournament, not that it really matter.

Duel 1 : I open 3 Gemini Sparks, HERO Blast, Miracle Fusion and Nightbeam. I continuously drew into defensive traps to keep his Agents at bay. But lost after I run out of traps. My grave count was 22, I drew no monsters.

Duel 2 : I open 2 Gemini Spark, 2 Prison and Warning. I drew for my turn, Gemini Spark ... Holy shit. History repeat itself, and I counted the cards I drew. It was 21 cards in my hand and grave total, I see no monsters, no RoTA, no E Call, no nothing.

Our player A, Yap Zian won his first game rather quickly, but lost his second game because he opened 2 Hyperion, 2 Krystia, 2 Shine Ball. We both kinda try to laugh it off, when we saw each others hand. Third game wasn't so nice either, he was stuck with Hyperion since turn 1, luckily his opponent misplay and left him with an extra turn, which he topped an Agent and turn the game around.

Sunny took a Card Destruction in the face game 1. Won game two by spamming the field with Hieratics. Game 3, he was playing too safe in my opinion and his opponent took momentum away from him with legion of Dark World and Volcasaurus.

Basically we scrubbed at top 16, I'm not even sure whether I should be blaming myself or not. Agents is one of my better matchups and I don't wanna make an excuse for myself. But I seriously don't know whats wrong with my deck those 2 games. Sunny and Zian were both shaking their heads when I showed them what I drew for both games.

Good thing is, Top Shop has finally been announced officially and would take place 25th of this month. Also, the winner will join MYM in a trip to Hong Kong. Guess the ride is still not over yet, that leaves 2 weeks for us to prepare for the tournament and I can't wait!

EDIT : It seems like theres a communication error between me and Paul. I've been confirmed by many that there would be no flight to Hong Kong at the conclusion of Top Shop. I apologies for the error. 

The Format after this Weekend

This Saturday would mark an end to the team tournament format in Malaysia, where all but 3 lucky individuals would take apart their decks and prepare for the 2 final events of the year. Asia Plus may be the last celebrated event of the year, as Top Shop has yet to be confirmed, but its ending definately not marks the end of competitive YGO 2012. As mentioned, there's still a "Top Shop" tournament and also the Chritmas tournaments aka Nationals (which isn't really that much celebrated as the winner gets no trip overseas and the prizes are usually booster sets that are outdated). While the manager of Gamers Arena had confirmed that the Top Shop qualifiers would not go to waste, he never confirmed if Malaysia would send our rep for the tournament at Hong Kong. "There would be a tournament from the qualifiers, I promise you that."

Putting that aside, lets look at the format pass this weekend. Wind-ups, while gaining full power through Extra Pack 2012, has lower-than-expected successes in locals, as none of them won anything worthwhile at the moment. I think it has something to do with the pricetag on the deck, Shark is close to RM100 a piece if I'm not mistaken, thats about 30 bucks in USD and Tour Guide is even expensive, at price range of 120 to 150, thats 40 to 50 in USD. Also, the extra pack themselves are out of stock till mid November I've heard. All of these contribute to lack of showing. Another factor behind this may be Mermail Atlanteans.

Mermail Atlanteans have proven themselves as one of the most powerful deck in the format, with card destruction, hand destruction, an OTK, consistent searches and one hell of an annoying wall all packed under one box. Also, the deck is relatively cheap for its tier 1 lable, if you would give up the Genex engine (which I don't recommend). While their percentage in the meta is still low if you compared to those feature on Shriek and in Singapore, I would say the reason behind this would be the players. Few weeks back, I've went to Gamers Arena and saw 4 or 5 Mermail Atlanteans among 15 or 16 players, roughly a third of the guys there are playing this deck, but till now, only Michael (not the blogger) has captured a win with one. I'm not saying the guys piloting the deck sucks, I'm just saying they don't neccessary know how to deal with side decks, as Mermails are pretty easily sided against in my opinion.

While HEROs are the most hyped deck back when their restrictions are lifted. "OMG!! Super Poly so Imba!!" I've always feel that people are over estimating the capabilities of the deck. As much as I love the deck, it is no way, a perfect answer to everything, like many suggested. Super Poly is a card that doesn't reward skill-less plays. So what if it can't be chain, Bottomless Trap Hole and Torrential Tribute are at 2. HEROs in general aren't a favored deck in Malaysia, as there is no autopilot control, relatively expensive and the overall power of the deck is lacking when compared to Wind-Ups and Mermail Atlanteans. Well, that is to be expected from the control deck of the format I suppose. Also, I do think that first turn Stratos into Allius is a bad move, I really do.

Without a doubt, the most played deck would be Agents. Agents got a boost in Extra pack in Tour Guide from the Underworld, giving the consistent strategy the extra edge it needed to combat the newer decks. Also, endless legions of Krystias are no joke, that alone is a factor that would keep most decks from going off. Master Hyperion is more than a powerful boss monster, its a broken top deck. In my opinion, a broken boss monster is one who can turn the tides of the duel around by top decking it, Master Hyperion fits into this category. Also, unlike most top tier decks with high explosive powers, Agents are relatively hard to side against, if you don't know what your doing.

Last but not least, the rogues. Rogue decks has always been a big part of the metagame in Malaysia. Over 40 percent of the meta comprise of rogue decks. Its never safe to just side for the big 3 or 4 here, as chances are your gonna meet more rogues than meta decks. An option would be siding less deck specific cards like Rivalry of the Warlords or Debunk instead of Gemini Imps and his likes. Lightsworn, Six Samurai, Dark Worlds, Chaos Dragons all fit this category. Its not unusual for someone to play in a locals without playing a meta deck, its always the opposite that shocks me the most.

I guess this is it for now. I can't think of another deck off my head to talk about, I mean, if I can't remember it, its not important right? Guess I should try that scripting thing people are talking about. Also, its about 24 hours to Asia Plus Qualifiers Malaysia, I wish everyone participating good luck in the games and may the Force ... I mean, Heart of the Cards be with you.