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.