Made Up Cards.Post

So I made the mistake of watching 10 episodes of Arc-V in a row and as the result it has me brainstorming ideas for X-Stars and how to go about writing duels, the characters and most importantly decks.  The last two stories I've written involved the use of actual Archetypes (Estrel's Constellar Deck in X-Stars, Prisma's Gem-Knight Deck in Overdrive Generation) with original cards sprinkled in with the intention of upgrading character decks to original archetypes or archetypes with original support to make them better.

Ironically some of the archetypes I picked on Konami has since given support (Gem-Knights) which made several of my ideas moot.  That being said I'm still going to post up some of the things I've come up with over the years and maybe reuse some of them (but with updates for 2015 Yu-Gi-Oh! as opposed to 2010 Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Let's start with the really early stuff that Estrel Galaxia used in a friend's Fanfiction;

Storm Warning

Normal Spell

Add one Level 4 or lower Thunder Type Monster from your deck to your hand.

Chain Lightning

Normal Trap

Activate only if there is a face up Thunder Type monster on the field.  Special summon up to two Thunder Type Monsters from your graveyard to the field.

Thunder Trickster

Level 1 Light

Thunder/Effect

If you control no monsters, you can special summon this card from your hand.  If this card is sent to the graveyard for a Synchro, Ritual, Fusion or Overdrive Summon you can reveal one Trap Card in your hand and activate it this turn.  The effect of Thunder Trickster can only be used once per duel.

0/0

Obelisk the Green Slayer

Level 4 Wind

Thunder

A famous lancer said to have defeated a hundred foes in one strike.  By drawing upon the power of comrades a greater power can be obtained.

1900/1200

Thunder God Obelisk

Level 8 Wind

Thunder/Overdrive/Effect

Obelisk the Green Slayer + 2 or more Effect Monsters

When this card is Overdrive Summoned you can choose either Monster, Spell or Trap cards.  Check all monsters your opponent controls if you choose monsters or all Spells and Traps if you choose Spells or Traps and destroy them.  Once per turn when this card battles, you can discard one Thunder type monster from your hand to have this card gain 500 attack and inflict piercing damage.

3000/2500

Remember that post I made about coming up with a new Summoning Method?  This was a product of the first attempt, "Overdrive Summoning."  It was basically a more convoluted Xyz Summoning before Xyz Summoning was done.

Bolt Leader

Level 3 Wind

Thunder/Tuner/Effect

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can discard one card from your hand to special summon a Level 4 or lower Thunder Monster from your deck to the field.  Its effect is negated and it cannot attack.

1500/1000

Thunder King Susano-o

Level 4 Wind

Thunder/Synchro/Tuner

1 Tuner monster + 1 or more non tuner monsters

When this card is Synchro Summoned, you can add one card from your graveyard to your hand.  During your opponent's main phase you can perform a Synchro Summon by using this card as one of the Synchro Material Monsters.

2100/1600

"From the speed a new power is born!  With this a new possibility is unlocked!  Synchro Summon!  Charge up a new future, Thunder Synchron!"

Astral Dragon

Level 12 Light

Thunder/Synchro/Effect

1 Synchro Tuner Monster + 1 or more Non Tuner Overdrive Monsters

Once per turn you can negate the effect of one monster your opponent controls and halve its attack, until the end phase.  Once per turn you can send the top five cards from your deck to the graveyard.  Increase the attack of this monster by 500 points for each Thunder Type Monster discarded by this effect until the end phase.  Once per turn you can remove from play one Thunder Type monster in your graveyard to negate the activation of a Spell, Trap or Monster effect that targets this card and destroy it.

4000/3000

Estrel's deck type back in the day was a Thunder Synchro type mishmash.  It used things like Thunder King Rai-Oh, Thunder Nyan Nyan and suchforth.  A thing I've noticed reading these over is that alot of these monsters are WIND Thunder Type and not light.  The design of these monsters shows that Estrel was supposed to Accel Synchro which worked with her backstory of being the Signer Clone from Stardust Accelerator, giving her the same plothax powers as Yusei and co.  Looking back some of these cards are actually designed decently well, if a bit overcosted in the case of Bolt Leader and Obelisk's Overdrive Form.  Speaking of them I found the rest of the Overdrives I planned on inserting into Lost Star Prelude;

Adramelech, the Black Thunder

Level 10 Dark

Thunder/Overdrive/Effect

1 Dark Normal Monster + 2 Effect Monsters

When this card is summoned, destroy all other face up effect monsters on the field and increase this card's attack by the number of cards x 1000.  Card effects cannot be activated in response to this monster's effect.  When this card is removed from the field, destroy all cards on the field.

3000/2500

Belial, the Black Fire

Level 10 Dark

Pyro/Overdrive/Effect

1 Dark Normal Monster + 2 Effect Monsters

This card is unaffected by spell and trap cards.  When this card is summoned inflict 500 damage times the total level of face up effect monsters on your opponent's side of the field.  While this card is face up on the field inflict 1000 damage each time the opponent summons an effect monster.

4000/3500

Zalera, the Black Death

Level 10 Dark

Zombie/Overdrive/Effect

1 Dark Normal Monster + 2 Effect Monsters

You can negate the activation of a spell or trap that targets this card and remove it from play.  When this card is summoned you can select and remove three effect monsters in your opponents graveyard from play and gain half of each card's attack.  While this card is face up on the field effect monsters sent to the graveyard are removed from play.

3500/3500

Thunder God Obelisk

Level 8 Wind

Thunder/Overdrive/Effect

Obelisk + 1 or more Effect Monsters

When this card is Overdrive Summoned, destroy all face up monsters your opponent controls.  Once per turn when this card battles, you can discard one Thunder type monster from your hand to have this card gain 500 attack and inflict piercing damage.

3000/2500

Grand Luster Dragon

Level 8 Wind

Dragon/Overdrive/Effect

1 Normal Monster + 1 Wind Effect Monster

While this card is face-up on the field, your opponent cannot activate trap cards during the battle phase.

2900/2100

Crimson-Eyes Black Dragon

Level 9 Dark

Dragon/Overdrive/Effect/3400/3000

Red-Eyes B. Dragon + 2 Effect Monsters

This card is treated as 'Red-Eyes B. Dragon' while face up on the field and in the graveyard.  Once per turn you can negate the effect of one monster on the field and inflict damage equal to its attack to your opponent's life points (a monster with 0 attack is destroyed).  Once per turn during your opponent's turn you can negate the attack of one monster and inflict damage equal to that card's attack to your opponent's life points.

Gem-Knight Ultima

Level 10 Earth

Rock/Overdrive/Effect/3000/2500

Gem-Knight Crystal + 2 Effect Monsters

This card cannot be destroyed by your opponent's card effects.  Once per turn, during either player's turn you can negate the activation of a spell or trap card and destroy it.  Once per turn during your main phase you can select one "Gem-Knight" monster in your graveyard and have this card be treated as that monster and gain its effect until the end phase.

Eidolons and Espers were going to be the major Archetypes of the story with Eidolons being powerful Ritual Monsters Ryu Azura would use to defeat the Espers of Xanthos which were Overdrive Monsters.  Eventually Ryu would switch to a Red-Eyes/Disaster Dragon hybrid and start summoning all kinds of dragons.  Thunder God Obelisk gets a much better errata and Prisma Shatterstone got an "ultimate" boss monster for her deck as Master Diamond wasn't a thing yet.

Oh and she also got some more fusion cards;

Miracle Gem-Knight Fusion

Remove from your side of the field or your graveyard, monsters listed as Fusion Material Monsters for a "Gem-Knight" Fusion Monster and special summon that card from your Extra Deck (This is treated as a Fusion Summon).  You can remove this card from your graveyard to return 2 removed from play "Gem-Knight" monsters to your hand.

Gem-Knight Jade

Level 8 Wind

Dragon/Fusion/Effect/2450/1950

1 "Gem-Knight" Monster + 1 Dragon Type Monster

This card can only be special summoned from the extra deck by Fusion Summon.  This card gains 300 attack for each Dragon type monster on the field and in all graveyards.

Seriously Gem-Knights need a Miracle Fusion!  

But wait, I mentioned Eidolon Ritual Monsters a moment ago, right?  Here they are!

Eidolon Summoning

Ritual Spell

Reveal one "Eidolon" Ritual Monster in your hand and tribute monsters from your side of the field or in your hand whose total levels are equal to or greater than the level of the revealed card.  Ritual Summon that card.  While this card is in the graveyard; select one "Eidolon" Ritual monster you control and Banish this card.  During this turn that monster can attack all monster your opponent controls.  Other monsters you control cannot declare an attack the turn this effect is used.

Eidolon Calling

Ritual Spell

Tribute one monsters you control; Ritual Summon one "Eidolon" Ritual Monster from your deck whose level is equal to or less than the monster tributed.

Eidolon Seeker

Level 2 Warrior/Effect/1000/400

When this card is Normal Summoned; Banish one "Eidolon" card, except "Eidolon Seeker" from your deck.  When this card leaves the field; add one banished "Eidolon" card, except "Eidolon Seeker" to your hand.

Shiva, Eidolon of Ice

Level 7 Water

Aqua/Ritual/Effect/2500/2000

This card can only be summoned by an "Eidolon" Ritual Spell.  When this card is Ritual Summoned; randomly select cards in your opponent's hand up to the number of monsters you used for the Ritual Summon: Send those cards to the graveyard.

Ifrit, Eidolon of Fire

Level 8 Fire

Pyro/Ritual/Effect/2800/2300

This card can only be summoned by an "Eidolon" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned; inflict 1000 damage x the number of monsters you used for the Ritual Summon.  When this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle; inflict damage equal to its attack.

Ramuh, Eidolon of Thunder

Level 6 Wind

Thunder/Ritual/Effect/2000/1600

This card can only be summoned by an "Eidolon" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned; select cards your opponent controls up to the number of monsters you used for the Ritual Summon: destroy those cards.

Titan, Eidolon of Earth

Level 5 Earth

Rock/Ritual/Effect/1600

This card can only be summoned by an "Eidolon" Ritual Spell. When this card declares an attack; increase its attack by 1000 x the number of monsters you used for the Ritual Summon, until the end of the Battle phase.

Diablos, Eidolon of Darkness

Level 8 Dark

Fiend/Ritual/Effect/3000/2500

This card can only be summoned by an "Eidolon" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned; reduce the attack and defense of all monsters your opponent controls by 1000 x the number of monsters you used for the Ritual Summon.

Bahamut, King of the Eidolons

Level 9 Light

Dragon/Ritual/Effect/3500/3000

This card can only be summoned by an "Eidolon" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned; change the positions of monsters your opponent controls up to the number of monsters you used for the Ritual Summon.  This card inflicts piercing damage.

So the gimmick of the deck was to Ritual Summon easier (Gishki hadn't been invented yet so I didn't grasp the idea of Ritual Summoning outside of the Jus) and to make the Ritual Monsters have bonus effects based on the number of tributes in order to even out the minuses of the mechanic.  When the term Banish became a thing I went back and updated card text accordingly.

Now let's get to the fun stuff: Ryu's Red-Eyes support.  Let's see how these things have aged!

Dragon Calling

Continuous Spell Card

Once per turn, if you control no monsters, you can special summon one Dragon-Type monster from your hand. It is destroyed during the end phase.

Red-Eyes Black Drake

Dark/6/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/2100/1700

1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuner monsters

When this card is Summoned, add one "Red-Eyes" Card from your deck to your hand.  When this card is sent to the graveyard, you may special summon one "Red-Eyes B. Dragon" from your hand, Deck or Graveyard.

Red-Eyes Wyrm

Dark/2/Dragon/Tuner/1000/800

If you control a face up "Red-Eyes" monster, you can special summon this card from your hand in face up attack position.  While this card is on the field, it is treated as "Red-Eyes B. Dragon."  When this card is sent to the graveyard, add one "Inferno Fire Blast" from your deck to your hand.

Red-Eyes Fledgling

Dark/3/Dragon/Tuner/1400/1000

If you control a face up "Red-Eyes" you can special summon this card from your hand or Graveyard in face up defense position.  If "Red-Eyes B. Dragon" is on the field, you can raise or lower one face up Monster's level by one or two until the End Phase.

Red-Eyes Silencer

Dark/1/Dragon/Tuner/300/200

You may remove this card from your graveyard as one of the Tributes to summon "Red Eyes B. Dragon" from your hand.  As long as the "Red Eyes B. Dragon" summoned by tributing this monster remains face up on the field, you can negate the activation of a Trap or Magic Card and destroy it.

Red-Eyes B. Defender

Dark/1/Dragon/Tuner/300/200

You may remove this card from your graveyard as one of the Tributes to Normal summon "Red Eyes B. Dragon." As long as the "Red Eyes B. Dragon" summoned by tributing this monster remains face up on the field, it is unaffected by your opponent's Spell, Trap and Monster effects.

Red-Eyes Sealer

Dark/2/Dragon/Tuner/1400/1000

You may remove this card from your graveyard as one of the Tributes to summon "Red Eyes B. Dragon" from your hand.  As long as the "Red Eyes B. Dragon" summoned by tributing this card remains on the field, your opponent cannot special summon monsters.

Red-Eyes Shadow Dragon

Dark/12/Dragon/Fusion/Effect/3500/2000

2 Different "Red Eyes" Monsters

This card cannot be destroyed by card effects.  Once per turn, you can select one "Red Eyes" Monster in your graveyard and treat this card as that monster and have its effect until your next Standby Phase.  When this card is sent to the graveyard, special summon one "Red Eyes" from your graveyard except "Red-Eyes Shadow Dragon" in face up attack position, ignoring the conditions.

Red-Eyes Demon's Dragon

Dark/9/Dragon/Synchro/Effect/3200/2500

Red-Eyes B. Dragon + 1 or More Tuner Monsters

When this card attacks, before the Damage Step you may select and destroy one Defense Position Monster your opponent controls and inflict damage equal to half of its Defense to their Life Points.  During the End Phase, destroy all monsters you control that did not declare an attack and inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points

My, my.  So basically I was going down a route of "summon Red-Eyes and stack bonus effects ala the Ritual Djinns."  Definitely sounds like an upgrade from Ryu's Northwemko deck.  I was also toying with the idea of having Red-Eyes get new forms of each summon type, something that Konami is doing with Odd-Eyes which means I CAN SEE THE FUTURE.

So basically the idea of this deck was Future Fusion Five Headed, send a bunch of Mini Red-Eyes to grave and tribute summon a Red-Eyes B. Dragon as an Uber monster.  Sounds about right.

And that's all I've got from 2010-2011.  Stay tuned for when I finally create that damned Thunder-Archetype that's been on my to-do list for the last year.

YGO Locals Report - Defining myself?

This was an interesting day to say the least.  I no longer own Aqua Force as the ENTIRE clan was traded to pick up a Shaddoll deck and a boatload of good cards/foils and there's a chance I may be able to move my Royal Paladins in the future.  Granted I know one person is going to be upset that I decided to move my Aquas when he wasn't present but I had made it clear to everyone I wanted to move everything and not just a few pieces and I got a good offer for them that I should be able to turn into money that I can use to pick up the cards I need out of Clash of Secr-I mean Rebellions.

So yeah I now own Shaddolls for the time being and decided that I'd play them in this week's tournament despite having never actually used them before.  I figured this would be a good test of my ability as a player as Dolls are often referred to as the most skillful of the Tier 1 decks at the moment (as opposed to "Summon Deneb/Play Scout, set 4 go") so if I'm as good as people say I am, then I should be able to at the very finish with a winning record compared to the bad experiences I've had with Nekroz.

That and I REALLY wanted to play Sybill/Prediction Dolls.  The moment the Sibyl theme appeared in the anime a friend told me "you'd play this deck if it were real" and then it ended up being real and looking really, really neat.  When it was announced we'd be getting a TCG release of these things it was expected that I'd probably be the one to find some way to make them work around here.  Given how the boss monster and deck works as a whole I've come to the conclusion that a Shaddoll variant is the only viable option to go just because of the synergy.  Tarotrei opens up alot of plays to the deck that I know people will not expect and Shaddoll Graveyard effects Trigger when used for Ritual Summons since you are not sending them for cost, but on resolution of an effect.  This means that if you tribute a Dragon and a Beast from hand to summon her (she's Lv.9) then you'll get a draw and backrow pop, then summon one of those monsters on EP which can lead to fun things like flipping Dragon on their turn.  The main concern I have with this build however is that bricking potential rises by cutting down the number of Dolls from your main and the strain of running less Fusions in the Extra.

Those thoughts aside I quickly sleeved and shuffled a deck together, basing it off the list PhoenixFlareX posted a few days ago;

I take no shame in copying this list as I've said it before that Net Decking is an excellent way to learn how to play a new deck.  Phoenix is also a Yugituber that I respect immensely who builds decks in the same ways that I do (consistency above all else while retaining an edge) and he's the best Dragunity player in North America by far so I'd say I was pretty confident this list would run smoothly as I figured out optimal plays and etc.  I did make a few changes though as I was only able to get two Tarotrei's before the tournament started and nobody had a Anoyatillis for trade so my extra looked meh.  That said on with the show;

Round 1 - vs Satellarknight (2-0)

Same guy from the last report except this match when WAY in my favour.  The first game I summon Tarotrei and between her Book skill and Maxx "C" I kept him from making Triverr/Delteros which in turn kept Diamond from appearing.  He did Ark it but in doing so let me punish him with Shaddoll Fusion and I took Game 1 without much trouble.  Game 2 I had to fight through his backrow including turn 1 Anti-Spell Fragrance (except unlike when I play Nekroz I actually saw my sided MSTs), Emptiness and some other crap with El Shaddoll Fusion while setting up Tarotrei by sitting on Herald of Arc Light and having her flip monsters around.  He puts up a fight but I run him out of options and drop Winda to lock him out of the game.

Round 2 - vs Junk Doppel (2-0)

Now that I got my revenge I was pretty much satisfied with the day given that from hereon out I'd be playing either Shaddolls or random decks given that a fair number of people weren't present.  In this case it was a Synchro deck and I opened up with Mathematician into Bulb into Herald and Soul Charge the following turn and promptly Trished him and summoned Tarotrei and took it from there.  Game 2 went the same way except we went into time and I was down in LP...except after my big Soul Charge play I annihilated him the next turn with El Shaddoll Fusions.  By this point I had some people watching me play the deck as one of the players present wanted to build Prediction Princesses and after seeing the combos I was pulling off they were thoroughly impressed.  I got a couple comments on being a beast and such.

Round 3 - vs Random (2-0)

This guy I swear is actually mentally handicapped.  Rude?  Perhaps but I'm just making an observation based around his appearance and the way he acts.  I got a half empty stare most of this match and my plays literally did not matter to him because it took all of what he had to focus on his stuff.

Be that as it may you guys know I don't hold back and regardless of who I'm up against I play the same way so I naturally smoke him.  I summon Trishula AGAIN in two games and he's unable to crack by board so I just pooped all over him.

Round 4 - vs Star Seraph Shaddolls (2-0)

Oh boy my first Mirror Match!  The Doll Mirror much like any of today's Yu-Gi-Oh! Mirror Matches are complete aids because of how you need to Fusion Summon to make big plays but also get your Fusions off the board to avoid getting blown out by Shaddoll Fusion.  This is much harder for my deck as I only run 2 Beasts but on the flip side Tarotrei can book my monsters to dodge this but that doesn't make this awful mirror THAT much better.  The main thing I had going for me was that this was vs mullet scrublord supreme Kody who had also just picked up the deck (or barely used it as he re-read his cards repeatedly) who apparently will go on tilt if you don't let him shuffle your deck his own special way.  You see this guy will shuffle his deck like every normal person does.  However your deck is another story as he'll split it in two parts then put the deck back together in a specific way that can damage cards and alot of people have requested him to stop it and for the most part he ignores it, largely because it puts people on tilt and it's how he stacks (oh did I mention he's a fucking scumbag?  One does not open with Prohibition as frequently as he does).  I've told him before with other decks of mine that he'll damage my cards by doing that but lo and behold he still does it.  Nord had even gone to the length of telling him that if he keeps doing it, he'll get suspended because of reasons that while I never heard likely had to do with either complaints and risk of cards being damage.  Yet he still tried to do it here.  And I had enough.  The moment he picked up my deck and tried to "shuffle" it I told him to stop right there and shuffle my deck the same way he just did and that he had been told by Nord not to do it.  His counter?  "Nord's not a real judge and he's abusing his power because of-" and I cut him off saying that the employee behind the counter is also not allowing this and that he'll have to suck it up.  Also wow really?  Nord's not a real judge?  What a fucking cunt.

Anyway after that happened he as I already mentioned went on tilt/started sulking and it affected his gameplay while I started poking with Manju.  He eventually summons Construct and leaves it on the field which I punished him by using Shaddoll Fusion into Shekhinaga to out it with El Shaddoll Fusion to dodge his Ring of Destruction and negating Construct by pitching Shaddoll Core!  I win a couple turns later and we head into Game 2 with him going first leading me to side in 2 De-Fusions and 2 Ghost Ogre/Snow Rabbits.  I don't remember much of the early game outside of seeing one of those De-Fusions and using it to out his Construct and beating down with my monsters while he's forced to burn multiple Fusion spells.  We eventually go into time with me in the LP Lead with a Tarotrei on board and him having a few monsters or something.  My memory's hazy as I know I had to deal with him having something that I was having trouble outing (likely a Construct I had Chained) until I drew a Dragon for turn and got the genius idea of setting it, then having Tarotrei turn it face up to bounce his monster off back to the extra deck and attack for game.  His remark was "well someone drew their De-Fusion..."

Yeah because you couldn't stack our decks.  Oooooh.

That aside this match proved one thing clear; the skill gap between us is there and I'm certain Kody now knows this more than ever.  He's called me out on being unskilled because I used decks like Dragon Rulers (because 3 Charge Lightsworn in Sept. 2009 totally required thinking, right?) but this time around we played the same deck and despite my inexperience with Dolls I not only beat him, but I outplayed him.  I can smash him with a top tier deck that he can never hope to touch or I can beat him with the same deck.  It's all the same as I am now flat out better than him having grown as a player in 5 years, yet he hasn't changed at all.  I've said this point before but this match right here is what drives it home.

Top 4 - vs Chaos Shaddolls (0-2)

So the Top 4 was all Shaddoll variants.  We had;

Star Seraph Shaddolls - McMullet Scrublord

Chaos Shaddolls - DaFuq

Artifact Shadolls - Allen

Prediction Princess Shaddolls - Me

Yeah no wonder Damon threw his last round.  I wouldn't have wanted to play endless Shaddoll matches with Zefra either.  To be honest I kinda wanted to throw this game too but I felt like I needed to at least get some experience playing the mirror with someone who wasn't a scumbag.  Damon did warn me that he rips BLS like no tomorrow and...

Game 1 - I brick super bad.  It's bad enough when you open without Fusions and the opponent has El/Normal with Beasts in hand, but you also have no ways to set up a Ritual Summon.  I try the Beatdown with Dragon/Squamata while resigning myself to letting him resolve flip effects, but his onslaught of mini Dragons becomes a huge problem.  I keep myself relatively in the game while trying to assemble a hand that would let me Yu-Gi-Oh!, but then he goes off with multiple Constructs to my set Falco and drops BLS to kill me.

Game 2 - My hand is a little better as I can do some Fusion plays and even set a Beast!  This time around I didn't see my sided cards while he saw all three Caius the Shadow Monarch that he brought in.  I literally went "dafuq" as all of his turns were Fusion Spell, Tribute Caius, remove my guy and then I died in 3 turns.

And that was it.  Honestly I was glad to be done as the shop was closing in half an hour and if I had somehow won this game I would have had to play Allen in the finals and GOD that would have been horrible.  That's not to say Allen is an unpleasant player as that's the opposite, he's fun to play against as he's good and as the result we both take our time figuring out how to make the best play (as opposed to his friend(?) Tien who I feel is a massive twat and can be scummy) but the result is our matches take forever to get done and there's no way we could play a Doll mirror in under half an hour.  Hell our Nekroz vs Doll matches have ended in draws because we each won a game before going into time!

After that I talked some more with the casuals as I explained how the deck worked from what I could understand.  Keep in mind people that had basically zero experience with Dolls in a competitive setting (I know there was the one time I played Dolls vs Woodhouse using Qli but let's be real here, practice games against him are meaningless as you either get sacked by him or you kill him before he can sack you) but after playing it I have to say I had ALOT of fun.  It could be because Dolls require more thinking on my part or that Tarotrei is just a really good monster and I got to play annodah Ritual deck which Damon pointed out on "You really do like Ritual cards man" much like how Nord is all "Synchros!" and uhh...do we have anyone with a hardon for Xyz?  I doubt it.  Anyway I got compliments from them again as I talked about interactions between the cards, even thinking up new ones on the fly and while I'll never let praise make my head swell it is gratifying to hear it.

Now should I be all happy that I'm getting accolades from randoms who play Helmet decks?  Eeeh that's debatable but this day played a part in rekindling some of the passion that I had lost over the last year (that and there were no Qliphort decks present to which everyone was happy about.  Most hated deck ever?) and a talk with Derrick over the various good players that we have here helped rebuild my confidence.  Alot of the people here do consider me to be a good player at the game and arguably the 2nd best in the city with Magnus as first.  Now do I consider this?  Partially.  I'd say I'm about even with Nord in the play area but he has the edge in getting what he needs whereas I'm way more open to radical changes within an established deck (like when Arma Knight/Dragon/Farfa became a thing in Nekroz) and willing to make adjustments which is something he's admitted to.

If anything what has become clear is that I'm good at the game, but I play things that appeal to me which during the early years were Rogue Decks (Disaster Dragon, Heroes) and later on happened to be Meta Decks (Agents, Mermail, Dragon Rulers, Nekroz).  It just happens to be that regardless of what I play, I apply Competitive Game theory regardless and set out to play the best possible version of said deck.

And that if anything else is my defining trait.  Even moreso than the salt.

Another Vanguard Post?

Not a very big post here as I only got a few games in with Gear Chronicle and for the first time in ages, Regalia;

Game 1 - Gear Chronicle vs G-Shadows (Loss)

I set up a board through Fate Rider Dragon so that I'd be able to unflip 2 CB per turn and am set to start going in with Ragnaclock, but my opponent checks 3 crits while I'm at two damage and I check a Crit, a Draw that puts a heal in hand and a blank.  Yeeeep.

Game 2 - Gear Chronicle vs G-Shadows (Win)

My hand starts off pretty poor but I draw out of it and set up multiple Steam Fighter Mesh-Hes while he tries to rush with a 9k, VG + 5k and 16K colum to my small board.  I block most of it and stride into Upheaval Pegasus as he hadn't checked much in triggers at this point and felt that he'd end up calling a few after I spun his board.  He does (notably a Heal and a Crit) along with 2 RGs that I spin off and put him to 3 damage while maintaining enough monsters on board to PG Phantom Blaster Diablo for a couple of turns.  I kill him at 3 damage with a Ragnaclock Dragon + a blank/blank/crit check.

Game 3 - Genesis (Angelica/Minerva/Yggdrasil) vs Genesis (Witches) (Loss)

I thought my build was really solid in theory as I'd basically sit on a G3, pitch Angelica's until I'm ready to push with Minerva/Yggdrasil and kill the opponent with whatever I didn't use.  Without a Limit Break remover that's not the case and until Soul Strike drops I'm cutting Angelica from the deck and going to 4/4 Minerva/Yggdrasil or 4/4 Nyx/Yggdrasil.  I'm not sure how I feel about Nyx's skill as the Stride Mechanic makes it so that you'll always have a plentiful amount of cads in hand and her draw skill requires to have a low size.  I think Minerva is ultimately the better choice as she gives you the option to ride a Restander on Turn 3 in the chance scenario that you're at 4 damage because you played against anyone other than Nord and got crit sacked 2 turns in a row and is a decent card to sit on as you stride.

That said as for how this game went against Rubber Raptor (name is Aaron but is more like Ross from the Grumps) it...was ridiculous.  Multiple misplays on my part due to thinking my ratios were different than they were.  I start off slow with only a 13 VG and 9 RG line that I should have done more to protect as I was unable to get maximum value out of my Doombrace during my first stride, but close the gap up with some crits and Yggdrasil.

Then he started not dying.  Like ever.  He gets his Legion skills off which most of the time resulted with a PG in hand so it made my eventual Minerva pushes hard to get through as I'm faced with the very likely scenario of decking out while he keeps shuffling triggers back in (especially after hitting multiple Heals), so I'm forced to manage my damage so that I'm able to draw into the Yggdrasils I had put back into the deck with Ordain Owl and Legion back triggers of my own before riding my last Minerva with the intention of soul blasting the Yggdrasils and repeating the whole thing again.  Unfortunately I didn't have the hand to do this as I had to keep at 4 damage for 2 turns thus burning my PGs and after the first Yggdrasil ride he checks Crit/Heal and I'm dead.  It was a much better game than I imagined and I want to try this again after Set 4 drops and we both get upgrades...assuming I even have Genesis by then.  I want to cut my United Sanctuary Decks down to 1 and that means either Genesis or Royal Paladins have to go.  RPs are the better deck so if I want to win I should keep them.  On the other hand Sanctuary Guard Dragons are HOT and moving them now is a no brainer.

Thus are my thoughts on Genesis at the moment.  Regalia are still potent.  Obviously they struggle against fast decks which is the format at the moment and I wonder how Soul Strike will fix this, but as many people have said when Genesis gets its Limit Break remover the deck will instantly become viable.  Minerva was the best restanding Vanguard during Block 3 because of how cheap she was and having this skill on your Grade 3 ride regardless of the opponent is very powerful.  Then we have the G-Support and Legacy support to consider.  Past sets have shown that subclans will get a couple cards to work with and Genesis Witches have already got some solid units so I'm really hoping Regalia get at least a solid G1, 2 or trigger to work with.

Now as a bonus I'm going to end this blog with something else; I finally finished my own Force of Will deck which is a simple Mono Blue Wererabbit Tempo deck and played my first game vs Derrick's...Mono Blue Wererabbit Tempo deck.  Well okay then.  Thankfully Allen, one of our resident competitive FoW players was nearby to help me figure out phases and etc so I got to feel things out.  More importantly I opened with this thing;

A one cost hand filter?  Beautiful.  I was able to dig myself out of what was a slow start with some bad Mana Stone draws (thus I had to pay a fair bit of LP to actually do things) and draw into my actual beatsticks and resolve "Moon" cards which causes my Ruler (Little Red) to J-Activate and hit the board, burn for 800, swing and hide at end of turn.  Was only able to do this a few times but I after stacking two Field Spells that made my creatures +400 I was able to make a massive push for game.

It'll take some time, but I can get used to this.  It's similar to MtG, but at the same time it's not nearly as complicated (at least for me).  Can't comment on expense though as my preferred colour is Blue and that means Cheshire cats are things I need but that thing is 25 bucks and I'm now on a "use cards to get cards" budget for the next while.  I've spent too much on card games these last fives years and it comes to a stop now.

Which is going to make building Red-Eyes a HUGE problem.  Fucking Secret Rares.

Have Narukami surpassed Kagero?

This was initially going to be a post following up my February article where I reviewed the Narukami support from Soaring Ascent of Blossoms and Gales and talk about where I was right/wrong on certain cards in addition to the Clan itself since.  Then the first point of this article happened and it ultimately turned into my thoughts on the Narukami vs Kagero debate that's been a thing for some time.  Being the resident Narukami player of the city you're probably going to expect me to say my clan is superior and you're right.  I do.

However I'm also going to state why I think they are outside of blind favouritism.  At the very least this'll be an entertaining read that'll rustle the jimmies of at least one person I know.

Why Narukami has become better than Kagero

Back in the day Kagero players loved to gloat over how their deck was superior and Narus were a rip off.  For the most part they were right as Kagero had a much better cardpool, better retiring (precision kills > random/front row kills) and an unfair (for its time) boss monster in DOTE compared to a solid boss (for its time) in Vermillion whom alot of people view as a balanced Overlord.  Now though the gap has closed and the two clans favour distinctly different playstyles and at the moment I believe Narukami's is better suited for the current format.  Why is that?

Kagero by nature is a control deck that favours grinding and a long game.  You want to win the war of attrition by killing units and constantly legioning with DOTX/DOTE.  This playstyle however comes at the cost of being easily rushed and killed before you get a chance to start your engine.  DOTX despite it's formidable power and let's be honest here horrendous card design can find itself victim to getting killed by fast decks such as Sanc Guard, The Navy and Revengers.  Perdition Dragons fare a bit better here as they have the ability to counter rush with Neoflame, Pain Laser and Dragnewt but they lack a consistent kill play.

Narukami on the other hand is a control deck that is more aggro.  It can kill things, hit for big numbers and can counter rushes easier with its Grade 2 card pool as a majority of Naru's kill things on ride/call require no prior setup compared to say Burnout.  Sometimes you don't have an Overlord in the drop zone.  It happens.  In addition it also now is a bit on the anti-meta side with its ability to attack the drop zone and bind things permanently, ensuring Legion Decks can't recycle triggers or persona mates.  Some people have gone on record saying it's a retarded mechanic to which I often counter with saying that it's something that makes Narukami's retire unique.  Kagero can kill things with ease and is usually cheaper.  Narukami can't but on the flipside it makes sure things stay dead.

More importantly that aggressive based playstyle works much better in the current format as both Legion and Strides have basically defeated the entire premise of the the old control decks of Sets 1-15 where by taking away their rearguards you are using less cards in hand to guard attacks with and can win via advantage.  That doesn't work anymore when VG lines are swinging for 31+ and you have to burn 3 cards for a 2 pass or a PG every single or other turn.  That's why those spammy based rush decks I mentioned are not only killing control decks like Kagero, Gear Chronicle and old school Narukami but those control decks are their best matchups.  You want those matchups because you don't have to worry about them killing you very quickly compared to playing against a fellow rush deck that can kill you on their second Stride.  Narukami is able to do this to some degree thanks to its G-Unit turning out to be perfect fits in the format.  Conquest Dragon is incredibly underrated but he wins games through his +10000 to the front skill.  Root Flare just kills a column.  Now if he instead gave all your RGs +1000-2000 for each open RG on the opponent's board that'd be a different story.  At the very least DOTX now has The Ace who is also criminally underrated but allows the deck to attempt to kill the opponent after they've managed to grind them down.  Guaranteed two attacks at 31k that'll require immense guarding or no pass vs swing with DOTX who has to hit to get the restand.

That's the main reason that I feel Narukami are currently the better of the two clans.  Narukami's gimmick of less control but more aggro is working great in the format and the addition of Big Bang Knuckle Turbo to the Brawler deck now lets the deck out retire Kagero with a cheap board wipe.  Leading up to this the retire aspect of both decks had become less of an issue due to the way deck construction has gone.  Narukami's once glossed over aspect of front row kills has become extremely potent given what you're going after.  Sure backrow sniping is always good as there are Grade 1s like Laurel that need to be killed and short of Deathscythe Narus can't do much about it.  However outside of those let's take a look at the basic construction of a deck (and yes part of this is being regurgitated from SomeGamerDude's blog);

Grade 0s
17 (16 Triggers, 1 Starter)

Grade 1s
14-15 (4 PGGs, 3-4 Striders)

Grade 2s
11-12 (3-4 Amber Clones, 3-4 12k Attackers, 3-4 Speciality Unit)

Grade 3s
7-8

Of the 0s one of which is the Starter, of the G1s 4 are Sentinels and now 4 are Stride Enablers both of which are rarely called to RG.  That's 8 out of likely 14 cards leaving the deck with 6 units that actually do things on RG and with most clans moving away from 10k attackers those Grade 1s aren't going to be swinging for relevant numbers.  Moving onto the G2 and 3 part in the past front row kills were underwhelming because a deck had basically 18 units they could call down as beatsticks to replace what you kill.  Now though people hang onto their Grade 3s for Striding which eliminates the number of front row attackers to about 11.  If the player does call a G3 to the front then that's great as it means they have one less card to use for Stride fodder.  More importantly this means that Narukami's front row kills have the same amount of value as Kageros as while they have more things they can kill (18 compared to Narus 11) what you're going after in the back isn't any better than what Narus are going after in the front.

Ultimately what this means is that while Kagero is better at retiring things, in G-Era Vanguard the things they kill are such low value that they're basically even with Narukami in that regard and as I've already mentioned in this post Narukami have much better RGs and G-Units which has allowed them to pull ahead.  Kagero is still be better VG centric clan because of Overlord support and there's no disputing that but if you pretend DOTX and The Ace didn't exist and Kagero was still Perdition Dragons + Root Flare the clan then there'd be no contest, Narukami would win hands down because they've got the better card pool now and have become the more solid clan.

And there you have it.  To make a long story short when comparing Kagero and Narukami we've now gotten to the point that the clans while similar have taken vastly different paths in how they reach their end goal.  Kagero wants to win with precision kills while grinding you to death with a big Restanding VG.  Narukami wants to kill you faster with board wipes, making sure your most important cards stay dead and attacking with big rearguards.

Locals Report - A Sore (Throat) Experience

In an odd turn of events our Vanguard Locals had a sizable turnout due to the other 70% of the player base coming up.  Thus we actually held a legit tournament with 3 rounds of best of 3 Swiss and because Saskatchewan's best were present I decided to play not my strongest deck (Lambros/Sanctuary Guard) but my signature deck.  In hindsight this was a bad idea as there were 2 Revenger Decks, 2 Sanctuary Guards (I lent my SG deck to a friend) and usually when I play Narukami in our tournaments I get blown out by Derrick's never ending barrage of crits whereas with the other two decks I usually kill people before they can sack me.

Round 1 - vs Neo Nectar (2-1)

Game 1 I hit ALL of my draw triggers to which one of our residents live/die by the trigger players is impressed by but more importantly he's playing Ahsha and I'm playing Big Bang Knuckle Turbo so any attempt at a board he made was quickly cut down by my Hokuto no Ken.

Except game 2 where I damaged checked beaters and drew Triggers and lost.  Then Game 3 I went Turbo for 3, Big Bang Knuckle for four and when he had a full board I went into Turbo again and screamed;

Not as loud, but god damn it was fun.  Also I won.

Round 2 - vs Messiah Link Joker (0-2)

Complains that he can't play the decks he wants because nobody will trade him the cards (which to be fair, his binders are usually pretty weak or he throws whole ones for an entire card so there's usually nothing left of equal value for say a playset of Lambros, etc), flips crits every turn and yolos through my two passes and succeeds each time.  Yaeup, just like old times.

Round 3 - vs Duo Bermuda Triangle (2-0)

I avenged Matt in spades by stomping a mudhole through Arpy.  That whole thing of Bermuda bouncing back to the hand?  Conquest Dragon loves when you do that.  I donked him pretty hard Game 1 and Game 2 he tried to play the sit on G2 game so he could get first stride which is legit, except I can play that game too and my deck has Chatura so I can make up for the loss of twin drive by getting the +1 draw or the -1/2 guard from him.

After that we cut to final standings and I'm tied for 3rd.  After this I proceed to head home as the cold I had been putting up with had become worse given the humidity of shop.

Moving onto Yugioh I'm not even going to bother much with this one as the entire thing was bullshit.  I opted to play Nekroz as this was likely my last chance to play the deck as is and as usual a tournament I take part in with Nekroz ends badly.  Let's see;

-First locals I went to I get locked out by Fagphorts and infinitefloodgatesfuckoffShardyouaren'tasgoodasyouthink in the finals.
-Second locals I misplay hard and get blown out in the finals by Trish in the Mirror while also having to deal with a massive helmet of a player's Tellarknights who opened every negation ever.
-First Regionals I went to with the deck I bricked hard in two vital matchups and missed out on my top.
-Second Regionals I get floodgated to fucking hell by Tellars and opened poorly vs Dolls

What happens here?  I play Allen round one and OF COURSE he hits all of his Math Men and has Soul Charge and BLS both games forcing the round to end in a draw.  Then I'm paired against the same idiot helmet that gave me problems before and wouldn't you know he opens Deneb set 5 including BTS, Fiendish Chain, Fiendish Chain, Mind Crush, Mind Crush so I lose THAT one quickly and Games 2 and 3 opens Anti-Spell, Fiendish, Mind Crush, CotH and manages to hit my Decree with a blind MST G3 and drops Thunder King.  Like fuck off.  I get salty (and honestly given the level of bullshit that happened THIS time I was justified) and told him it must be nice to open everything in the world and proceeded to drop from the tournament in disgust.  Then I played Newgioh with my Zoo Deck.

vs Tomato Chaos (2-1)

I was able to resolve Skill Drain and Horn of the Phantom Beast with Solems to keep them safe in the games I won while the game I lost was largely from a combination of Dustshoot allowing him to go off.

vs Zombies (Alot of wins)

So despite Matt telling me in the weeks leading up to this he wasn't afraid because "I have Decree and Card of Safe Return" he quickly changed his tune when I kept dropping Tiger King + Horns and flipping Solems on him.  He now respects Zoo beats.

vs Chaos Return (Alot of losses)

Heading into this I recall reading an article that said despite Horn being in the format Beasts weren't a good meta call because of Chaos and I see why now.  The deck is fast, can run you out of options and Tour Guide From the Underworld is too strong in this format.  Nord has disagreed with me on this and gone on to call out DGz as a bunch of "whiners" because the moment powerful things that allow you to do things come up, we want them gone.

Here's the thing though.  One of the things behind the creation of this format is that it was made with the intent of the community providing feedback about the format and DGz as often the case will debate pros/cons of things.  Dimension Fusion was a very real threat for the time it was legal and it caused decks to be built with it or to defeat it.  Tour Guide is much in the same in that it's an automatic three of in every deck that if you aren't using you're doing it wrong, it's made cards like Scapegoat/Book/Force weaker because of the Sangan you bring out and as the result has warped the format in the same way Delinquent Duo has.  This card is not healthy for the game and I realize this.  I'm unselfish enough to know that despite the fact I think the card is neat, it's also incredibly degenerate and because of its power has led everyone to play Chaos, Chaos, Chaos.  The result has made the format already stale and we still have some time to go until it's handled.

We're basically right back where we started with Goat Format being Goat Mirrors and nothing else, except now it's going to be Chaos.  Oh sure you can play cute things like Beasts, Monarchs or Zombies but lets be real here, why would you?

Props
-Nothing of note

Slops
-Plenty of note