Hey it's one of these! That only means one thing! I in fact got to play Yu-Gi-Oh! and more importantly I actually wanted to play Yu-Gi-Oh! so I did. It kind of helps that my order for an Invoked core that I made last month finally came in (which btw was some REALLY good timing on my part now that I've had a chance to see what the deck is valued at now) and I've been wanting to play that deck tenever, but didn't want to spend 70 dollars CAD on Invocations.
That being said what kind of Invoked deck I use is going to vary as what I played today gets screwed over by the Master Rule changes so I'll probably have to pair them up with True Dracos or Kaiju-Luna after this week. However for today I decided to play the Invoked with Kaiju and Windwitch as I figured those two engines would pair up with the deck nicely and I could surprise some people due to I think nobody in the city having the deck at this time.
I arrived at Locals with some time to spare and chatted it up with my friends and saw that there were multiple Magician Decks (ugh) and at least one Dark Synchro deck (UGH) which made my deck choice somewhat valid? I should have known that many people would be suicide bombing today with decks that get annihilated by Link Summoning (and good riddance too) and with 3 board wipes in the main board and 8 hand traps in my side I don't completely lose out? I just have to hope to god to hit Ghost Ogre vs any Synchro Spam deck to kill the Hyper Librarian.
Round 1 - vs Synchrocentric (2-0)
He wins the dieroll and pops off to my 0 hand traps with Hyper Librarian allowing him to extend with godly topdecks which drags the game out longer and longer. I see a Reasoning, Tuning, One For One AND Soul Charge get played as he combos and eventually fucks up due to being greedy with his setup. I guess he wanted to have 3 negates but had to settle for only Quasar and Stardust Warrior while having his Omega snipe a Pot of Desires out of my hand and not the 2 Terraformings or 1 Magical Meltdown I also opened with. It's fine though. He didn't hit my Kaiju Slumber and since he left me with bevy of things to work with out of his Graveyard it was a simple matter of baiting out the Quasar (in this case he negated Invocation) and using Slumber to clear out his board. Both of his Synchros couldn't float and I ended my turn with a Lightning Kaiju + Solemn Strike for his attempted Trishula which I followed up by banishing the Omega he synchro'd with for a Mechaba to lock up the duel. Game 2 he goes first but has a much weaker hand that only lets him end with a Stardust Warrior and Herald of the Arc Light that I beat over with Mechaba and pass with a set Strike and an Alistar in hand. He can't break my board and the game starts snowballing in my favour as I stick a Raidjin on the board and eventually take the match after a L-O-N-G amount of play.
Seriously fuck Quasar spam decks. Quasar himself isn't even the biggest problem with that kind of strategy (lol Kaijus) but rather it's how fucking long these decks take to play their turns out. Our first game was literally 20 minutes long and 15 of that was my opponent's first turn.
Round 2 - vs Magician Pendulum (2-0)
I end up winning the dieroll but my hand is definitely not good. I'm forced to minus myself out the ass to make Raidjin as I drew a Wind Kaiju, 2 Field Spells and my Pot of Desires didn't get me any Windwitches or adequate protection. Turns out however that this was JUUUUUST enough as because I summoned my Invoked in defense he wasn't able to suicide his Poison Magician into it to pop it and my in hand Alestar was able to keep it safe from any attack halfing shenanigans. Come my turn I made another Raidjin and poke him with both + another Alestar (I drew one off another Desires) which he can't out, but still puts me in a bind my making Beelze which I can't out as my 2nd Desires banished my entire Kaiju engine so I have no choice but to try to draw into a means to get around it (which at this point is drawing into a Light to make Mechaba with so I can try to negate Beelze's Atk gain effect). Come my turn I Invocation for a 3rd time which he chains Maxx "C" to and thanks to my 2 Raidjins I'm able to book and flip summon the first Alestar to search my Fusion spell a 2nd time and stick a third Raidjin + an Earth Fusion to his increasingly smaller pool of resources. He eventually makes a Pendulum Summon play and makes Tornado Dragon with a Wisdom-Eye Magician while also leaving a Skullcrobat Joker on the board which costs him the game as I had 2 Alestars in hand and a means to make Mechaba and swing for game. Game 2 he goes first and tries to do Magician things but I have Droll and Lock Bird to reduce him to summoning a Beelze and Pend. Summoning with a Pendulumgraph and passing. My hand is enough that I can break that board due to Raigeki + Kaiju + Meltdown which I do play all of and follow up with a Raidjin and end with a Solemn Strike set. He Pendulum Summons into it, including a Wisdom-Eye Magician and that opens the gates for me as I summon Mechaba the following turn and he scoops shortly after. I somehow pull off the 2-0.
Round 3 vs Magician Z-ARC Pendulum (2-0)
And to cap off this weird chain of events a wild Cobb appeared! Also playing Magicians! However he's being a complete protagonist/antagonist and has Z-ARC as a power play. Regardless I don't remember much of this match other than I decided to be greedy and attempt to Desires into a Windwitch play but end up banishing them and most of my Kaiju instead, so I decide to stop being dumb and make Mechaba and try to win the grind through my Twin Twister and Solemn Strike which I do. It's not on the spot but the strike was a huge tempo swing as he had to rebuild his resources again while I'm sticking beaters on the field while never losing control of the game. The 2nd Game he Pendulum Summons the Magician Xyz after I Ash Blossom his Pendulum Call and I'm able to get my ball rolling, but he topdecks another Pendulum Call and it's off to the races. I answer with a topdecked Meltdown and Fusion Summon while having Twin Twisters to get his Sky Iris off the board and seal the game with another Solemn Strike. However because I had obligations to attend to after this round I gave him the match and left.
So record wise he wins but as you can see here I was undefeated today. Not bad for a test run with a new deck (though you can argue that what I played was considerably simple compared to the Synchro Spam, Magician and Lightsworn decks present) that I hope to figure out the optimal ratios for.
With that being said this post marks the last YGO entry on this blog under the current ruleset. This week Link Strike and its rule changes come out and the impact will be felt immediately. Decks will have to adjust and those that can't will die. Simple as that. The game will be slowed down for a bit, but once COTD comes out other decks will speed up, new decks will arise and new cancer will come with it. However it's a level of bullshit that will be dramatically lesser compared to the path Yu-Gi-Oh! was heading towards and for that I am thankful this is happening.
See you guys in Link Format!
Props
-Eyyyy I didn't scrub out on the first round.
-Techically went undefeated with a solid anti-meta rogue deck.
Slops
-Didn't like 6 Field Spells in the deck. Gonna cut Terraforming to 2.
-If I continue to run Desires I'm gonna need one more Kaiju. I kept banishing 2-3 of them off one.
-I need one or 2 Rank 4s in the Extra. Castel/Tornado Dragon legit came up once.
Sunday, 16 July 2017
Saturday, 15 July 2017
G-BT12 Narukami Spoilers - Week 1
Not going to lie this idea was 100% inspired by another player's own blog posts in which he gave opinions on spoilers for the upcoming Bermuda Triangle set and I really liked the idea so I'm going to do the same except instead of discussing new mermaid cards (at least until Circuit Break) I'm gonna talk about my favoured Thunder Dragons as they are spoiled in Dragon King's Awakening. Thankfully I don't have nearly as much content to review so these posts should be short in theory, but long time readers know I do like to be thorough in my examinations.
That being said there are some things to get out of the way;
-Since I'll be reviewing these cards WELL before the entire set is spoiled there's a good chance my initial analysis may be too harsh or too lenient.
-For context we will be getting reprints of Dragonic Vanquisher, Mighty-Bolt Dragoon and Demonic Dragon Berserker Chatura in this set. Thus I'm not holding my breath on Vanquisher specifically getting a card of the same power level as Dragon Knight, Mubdi from the last set or a Thunderstrike oriented Stride Fodder.
Now let's get started!
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Shutdown Eradicator, Dokukakuji
[AUTO](RC):When this unit attacks, if you have a vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle.
[AUTO](RC):[Counter Blast (1)] At the end of the battle that your grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name attacked, if the attack did not hit, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your vanguards, that unit and this unit get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
This card is...okay I guess? It's not hot garbage but at the same time I don't see why I'd run this over Chatura, Thunderboom Dragon or a host of other already released Eradicator Grade 2s. The CB better used elsewhere.
[AUTO](RC):[Retire this unit] When an attack hits a vanguard during the battle that this unit boosted a unit with "Eradicator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, reveal three cards from the top of your deck. If all those cards have "Eradicator" in their card names, put a card from among them into your hand, and if you put a grade 3 card into your hand, Soul Charge (1). Shuffle your deck.
Oof. This could have been the one starter to finally dethrone Linchu in non Sweep Decks as Linchu's ability to kill Grade 0s and 1s while still useful has somewhat waned due to 10k attackers no longer existing and most decks waiting until Stride before calling down their utility Grade 1s (with some exceptions) so a new starter wouldn't be argued against. Unfortunately this guy isn't it as while the conditions to trigger him are the same and he doesn't use up CB in a deck that uses ALOT of it the fact is if you reveal a non Eradicator with his effect it fizzles and that's a HUGE problem considering the deck will be running many non Erad units (Stride Fodders, PGGs, Chatura) which will turn this into a giant -1.
EDIT: With VBuster requiring Soul alongside Sweep Command and Zillion this guy's inability to go into said soul is yet another reason as to why he's less than ideal.
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True Eradicator, Bravesky Linchu
[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.
[ACT](VC):[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone with the same card name as this unit, and turn it face up & Choose one of your rear-guards with "Eradicator" in its card name, and put it into your soul] If you have a heart card with "Eradicator" in its card name, your opponent chooses two of his or her rear-guards for each face up card in your G zone, and retires them. Then, if your opponent has no rear-guards, you draw a card.
Hoo boy. This guy. Would you believe me that on the wiki page for this guy there was a huge shitshow over this thing that ended up causing a bajillion posts? Yeah there was. Guess who was involved?
Anyway despite what some would tell you Bravesky Linchu is actually quite good for the Eradicator deck. Excluding Sweep Command this guy is your arguable best first stride play as for a CB and a unit on the board you're killing a minimum of 2 things and if you've cleared the board after this draw a card. However if you have any other cards in the G-Zone prior to this then you get to kill even more things. This lessens the blow of having to ride to G3 first as if you have a G-Guardian play and follow it up with Linchu then you get to retire 4 cards for CB1 and a unit on the board and likely draw a card. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Now I can see the complaint that he requires you to give up a Rearguard in addition to a CB for a (likely) retire 2 when we've had Big Bang Knuckle Turbo "retire" 2 units for a CB and a SB or 5 if you've Legion'd before that. The thing about that is Brawlers have become too slow as the current tempo of Vanguard requires you to be striding as often as possible and purposely taking a turn to Legion for anything that will not outright win you the game or put it out of reach is a HUGE loss in momentum and the primary reason white DOTX/DOTE god awful now in addition to the subclan being reliant on the opponent having a board of many things to punch in order to advance their gameplan (Brawlers kind of died out after Set 6 and both Granblue came into the format while Pale Moon was strengthened). Yes they can abuse Conquest Dragon better than Erads but their big power play of punch the board with Turbo so that your Rear Guards become super huge can now be done with Linchu as his board wipe skill when paired up with Shuki + Hakusho literally achieves the same result as Slash Dragon/Buster + Kokon while also drawing a card to balance out the loss of a RG. This means now Eradicators can now pull off Brawler's big power play on top of having access to Finish Blow Dragon and Zillion while Brawlers have Turbo + Conquest and that's really it. Yes I know Finish and Zillion are not the best cards in the world but my point is that with Linchu the Eradicator G-Zone has become much more flexible than Brawlers' and is arguably better.
Lastly let's talk about the part that Linchu sucks up a RG. It's actually not that awful when you mull it over. It can be of use when you consider that Positive Dracokid Soul Blasts to unflip, Sweep Command Soul Blasts for his Limit Break (and you are FAR more likely to run out of Soul first with him), Rising Phoenix uses Soul to draw, Assault Eradicator Saikei uses Soul to Countercharge and Machine Gun Eradicator, Kantou uses soul to buff himself and a unit by 2k when something dies. Like say the Vanguard when you use Impede Dragon to retire 1-2 units? Combined with GBD's Limit Break thats a +5k to the Vanguard for a Soul Blast vs multi attack decks. Linchu fuels this without having to do things like throw Malevolent Djinn into the Soul which was a thing we used to do back in the day.
EDIT: I forgot to add on that Zillion eats up Soul for his restand which is relevant and VBuster also uses soul for his own skill. Not that I would promote playing VBuster over this guy in EDD/GBD as neither of them care about binds but still it's something to consider.
So yeah Linchu is not hot garbage. He's not busted by any stretch of the imagination but he's definitely more useful than people are giving him credit for. Hell look at what I was able to come up with. Can you imagine how much I'm gonna yammer when we get to Buster and Sparking?
Anyway that wraps up the first week. Tune in again when we will hopefully know the skills of some of the cards spoiled in Today's episode. 3 of the 5 things I predicted have come true so we'll see if I'm 5 for 5 and how close my theoretical effects were.
That being said there are some things to get out of the way;
-Since I'll be reviewing these cards WELL before the entire set is spoiled there's a good chance my initial analysis may be too harsh or too lenient.
-For context we will be getting reprints of Dragonic Vanquisher, Mighty-Bolt Dragoon and Demonic Dragon Berserker Chatura in this set. Thus I'm not holding my breath on Vanquisher specifically getting a card of the same power level as Dragon Knight, Mubdi from the last set or a Thunderstrike oriented Stride Fodder.
Now let's get started!
Shutdown Eradicator, Dokukakuji
[AUTO](RC):When this unit attacks, if you have a vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name, this unit gets [Power]+2000 until end of that battle.
[AUTO](RC):[Counter Blast (1)] At the end of the battle that your grade 3 or greater vanguard with "Eradicator" in its card name attacked, if the attack did not hit, you may pay the cost. If you do, choose one of your vanguards, that unit and this unit get [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
This card is...okay I guess? It's not hot garbage but at the same time I don't see why I'd run this over Chatura, Thunderboom Dragon or a host of other already released Eradicator Grade 2s. The CB better used elsewhere.
Ambush Eradicator, Kosangyou
[AUTO]:Forerunner[AUTO](RC):[Retire this unit] When an attack hits a vanguard during the battle that this unit boosted a unit with "Eradicator" in its card name, you may pay the cost. If you do, reveal three cards from the top of your deck. If all those cards have "Eradicator" in their card names, put a card from among them into your hand, and if you put a grade 3 card into your hand, Soul Charge (1). Shuffle your deck.
Oof. This could have been the one starter to finally dethrone Linchu in non Sweep Decks as Linchu's ability to kill Grade 0s and 1s while still useful has somewhat waned due to 10k attackers no longer existing and most decks waiting until Stride before calling down their utility Grade 1s (with some exceptions) so a new starter wouldn't be argued against. Unfortunately this guy isn't it as while the conditions to trigger him are the same and he doesn't use up CB in a deck that uses ALOT of it the fact is if you reveal a non Eradicator with his effect it fizzles and that's a HUGE problem considering the deck will be running many non Erad units (Stride Fodders, PGGs, Chatura) which will turn this into a giant -1.
EDIT: With VBuster requiring Soul alongside Sweep Command and Zillion this guy's inability to go into said soul is yet another reason as to why he's less than ideal.
True Eradicator, Bravesky Linchu
[Stride]-Stride Step-[Choose one or more cards with the sum of their grades being 3 or greater from your hand, and discard them] Stride this card on your (VC) from face down.
[ACT](VC):[1/Turn]:[Counter Blast (1) & Choose a face down card from your G zone with the same card name as this unit, and turn it face up & Choose one of your rear-guards with "Eradicator" in its card name, and put it into your soul] If you have a heart card with "Eradicator" in its card name, your opponent chooses two of his or her rear-guards for each face up card in your G zone, and retires them. Then, if your opponent has no rear-guards, you draw a card.
Hoo boy. This guy. Would you believe me that on the wiki page for this guy there was a huge shitshow over this thing that ended up causing a bajillion posts? Yeah there was. Guess who was involved?
Anyway despite what some would tell you Bravesky Linchu is actually quite good for the Eradicator deck. Excluding Sweep Command this guy is your arguable best first stride play as for a CB and a unit on the board you're killing a minimum of 2 things and if you've cleared the board after this draw a card. However if you have any other cards in the G-Zone prior to this then you get to kill even more things. This lessens the blow of having to ride to G3 first as if you have a G-Guardian play and follow it up with Linchu then you get to retire 4 cards for CB1 and a unit on the board and likely draw a card. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Now I can see the complaint that he requires you to give up a Rearguard in addition to a CB for a (likely) retire 2 when we've had Big Bang Knuckle Turbo "retire" 2 units for a CB and a SB or 5 if you've Legion'd before that. The thing about that is Brawlers have become too slow as the current tempo of Vanguard requires you to be striding as often as possible and purposely taking a turn to Legion for anything that will not outright win you the game or put it out of reach is a HUGE loss in momentum and the primary reason white DOTX/DOTE god awful now in addition to the subclan being reliant on the opponent having a board of many things to punch in order to advance their gameplan (Brawlers kind of died out after Set 6 and both Granblue came into the format while Pale Moon was strengthened). Yes they can abuse Conquest Dragon better than Erads but their big power play of punch the board with Turbo so that your Rear Guards become super huge can now be done with Linchu as his board wipe skill when paired up with Shuki + Hakusho literally achieves the same result as Slash Dragon/Buster + Kokon while also drawing a card to balance out the loss of a RG. This means now Eradicators can now pull off Brawler's big power play on top of having access to Finish Blow Dragon and Zillion while Brawlers have Turbo + Conquest and that's really it. Yes I know Finish and Zillion are not the best cards in the world but my point is that with Linchu the Eradicator G-Zone has become much more flexible than Brawlers' and is arguably better.
Lastly let's talk about the part that Linchu sucks up a RG. It's actually not that awful when you mull it over. It can be of use when you consider that Positive Dracokid Soul Blasts to unflip, Sweep Command Soul Blasts for his Limit Break (and you are FAR more likely to run out of Soul first with him), Rising Phoenix uses Soul to draw, Assault Eradicator Saikei uses Soul to Countercharge and Machine Gun Eradicator, Kantou uses soul to buff himself and a unit by 2k when something dies. Like say the Vanguard when you use Impede Dragon to retire 1-2 units? Combined with GBD's Limit Break thats a +5k to the Vanguard for a Soul Blast vs multi attack decks. Linchu fuels this without having to do things like throw Malevolent Djinn into the Soul which was a thing we used to do back in the day.
EDIT: I forgot to add on that Zillion eats up Soul for his restand which is relevant and VBuster also uses soul for his own skill. Not that I would promote playing VBuster over this guy in EDD/GBD as neither of them care about binds but still it's something to consider.
So yeah Linchu is not hot garbage. He's not busted by any stretch of the imagination but he's definitely more useful than people are giving him credit for. Hell look at what I was able to come up with. Can you imagine how much I'm gonna yammer when we get to Buster and Sparking?
Anyway that wraps up the first week. Tune in again when we will hopefully know the skills of some of the cards spoiled in Today's episode. 3 of the 5 things I predicted have come true so we'll see if I'm 5 for 5 and how close my theoretical effects were.
Tuesday, 11 July 2017
Estrel Yuuzen's Fantasy Thunder Theme Part 1 - Structure Deck Roar of Thunder
This is a post I meant to do a while ago as I've had the contents of an "Estrel Structure Deck" for a few months now buuuuut I was kind of ignoring the blog due to Persona 5/Xenoverse 2. So let's fix that!
Anywho one of the themes I almost like as much as Ritual Monsters are Thunder Monsters. A friend aptly described it as "lightning runs in your blood" and it shows with the passion I have towards Zekrom/Eels, Narukami and the many, many attempts at creating Thunder support. Well here's more of it in the form of what the protagonist of my eventual VRAINS Fanfiction, Estrel Yuuzen (whose name roughly means Star born in a New Storm) will be using at the beginning before she gets an archetype.
STRUCTURE DECK LOLK 1 - ROAR OF THUNDER
"Wield the power of the lords of Thunder as you stun your opponents through their awesome might! This structure deck consists of 40 cards and is built ready for tournament play! Can you handle it's power!?"
Contents include;
1x Imperial Thunder Empeor, Great Rai-Jin
1x Thunder Sprite
1x Thunder Spirit
1x Thunder King, The Lightningstrike Kaiju
1x Immortal Hermit of Thunder
1x Thunder Seahorse
2x Mahunder
2x Pahunder
2x Sishunder
2x Brohunder
1x Vylon Prism
1x Thunder Nyan Nyan
1x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x Lightning Rod Lord
1x Denko Sekka
1x Zap Mustang
1x Electric Virus
1x Palace of the Thunder Emperor
1x Terraforming
1x Recycling Batteries
1x Makiu the Magical Mist
1x Raigeki
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Electro-Whip
1x Photon Lead
1x Ties of the Brethren
1x Pot of Acquisitiveness
1x Space Cyclone
1x Thunderbolt Breaker
1x Raigeki Break
1x Judgement of Thunder
1x Thunder of Ruler
1x Heavy Dust Storm
1x Storming Mirror Force
1x Lost Wind
1x Solemn Strike
New Cards are;
Imperial Thunder Emperor, Great Rai-Jin
Level 7 Light
Thunder/Effect/2500/2100
You can special summon this card (from your hand) by banishing 1 Thunder-Type Monster from your graveyard. All Thunder-Type Monsters you control gain 100 Atk for each of your banished Thunder-Type Monsters. Once per turn, during either player's turn: you can banish 1 Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard, then target 1 card on the field; destroy it.
Thunder Sprite
Level 4 Light
Thunder/Effect/900/1800
Once per turn: You can Normal Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Light Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or deck, except "Thunder Sprite", as an additional Normal Summon. If this card is banished, you can target one face-up card your opponent controls; destroy it.
Thunder Spirit
Level 4 Light
Thunder/Effect/1400/1000
Once per turn: You can Normal Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Light Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard, except "Thunder Spirit", as an additional Normal Summon. If this card is banished, you can target one set card your opponent controls, destroy it.
Palace of the Thunder Emperor
Field Spell
All Thunder-Type monsters you control gain 500 Atk and Def. Once per turn, you can activate one of these effects;
*Target 1 Light Thunder-Type Monster in your graveyard; Special Summon it. Banish it during the End Phase.
*Banish 1 Light Thunder-Type monster from your hand or side of the field and if you do: Add one Light Thunder-Type Monster from your deck to your hand.
Thunderbolt Breaker
Trap Card
Tribute 1 Thunder-Type Monster you control; destroy up to 2 cards on the field. If a Thunder-Type monster(s) you control would be destroyed, you can banish this card instead.
The structure deck is built around Light Thunder monsters with the Hunder family paired up with the Stun oriented stand alone monsters as the only Thunder Archetypes out there are Batteryman and Watts and the first one is an OTK strategy and the second one is a retarded stall strategy and I refuse to acknowledge it's existence other than this post. You've got reprints of some really good cards in TKRO, Denko, Raigeki, Space Cyclone and Solemn Strike to go with the new cards that basically let you flood the field with Thunder Monsters while setting up a Master Hyperion on steroids. Hyperion was REALLY good back in the day with his easy summoning condition and DAD-lite removal effect. Great Rai-Jin is basically the same except in exchange for less easier to cheat onto the board he's got the same level of removal power as Master Peace. The structure comes with a strong field spell to aid consistency and an Icarus Attack that has Return of the Dragon Lords' protection effect.
I put alot of thought into this one, trying to strike a balance between power and balance and I think I succeeded for the most part? This definitely looks like something a main protagonist can use to get through the first couple chapters of a story and build upon which is what I also wanted to do.
Anywho one of the themes I almost like as much as Ritual Monsters are Thunder Monsters. A friend aptly described it as "lightning runs in your blood" and it shows with the passion I have towards Zekrom/Eels, Narukami and the many, many attempts at creating Thunder support. Well here's more of it in the form of what the protagonist of my eventual VRAINS Fanfiction, Estrel Yuuzen (whose name roughly means Star born in a New Storm) will be using at the beginning before she gets an archetype.
STRUCTURE DECK LOLK 1 - ROAR OF THUNDER
"Wield the power of the lords of Thunder as you stun your opponents through their awesome might! This structure deck consists of 40 cards and is built ready for tournament play! Can you handle it's power!?"
Contents include;
1x Imperial Thunder Empeor, Great Rai-Jin
1x Thunder Sprite
1x Thunder Spirit
1x Thunder King, The Lightningstrike Kaiju
1x Immortal Hermit of Thunder
1x Thunder Seahorse
2x Mahunder
2x Pahunder
2x Sishunder
2x Brohunder
1x Vylon Prism
1x Thunder Nyan Nyan
1x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x Lightning Rod Lord
1x Denko Sekka
1x Zap Mustang
1x Electric Virus
1x Palace of the Thunder Emperor
1x Terraforming
1x Recycling Batteries
1x Makiu the Magical Mist
1x Raigeki
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Electro-Whip
1x Photon Lead
1x Ties of the Brethren
1x Pot of Acquisitiveness
1x Space Cyclone
1x Thunderbolt Breaker
1x Raigeki Break
1x Judgement of Thunder
1x Thunder of Ruler
1x Heavy Dust Storm
1x Storming Mirror Force
1x Lost Wind
1x Solemn Strike
New Cards are;
Imperial Thunder Emperor, Great Rai-Jin
Level 7 Light
Thunder/Effect/2500/2100
You can special summon this card (from your hand) by banishing 1 Thunder-Type Monster from your graveyard. All Thunder-Type Monsters you control gain 100 Atk for each of your banished Thunder-Type Monsters. Once per turn, during either player's turn: you can banish 1 Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard, then target 1 card on the field; destroy it.
Thunder Sprite
Level 4 Light
Thunder/Effect/900/1800
Once per turn: You can Normal Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Light Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or deck, except "Thunder Sprite", as an additional Normal Summon. If this card is banished, you can target one face-up card your opponent controls; destroy it.
Thunder Spirit
Level 4 Light
Thunder/Effect/1400/1000
Once per turn: You can Normal Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Light Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard, except "Thunder Spirit", as an additional Normal Summon. If this card is banished, you can target one set card your opponent controls, destroy it.
Palace of the Thunder Emperor
Field Spell
All Thunder-Type monsters you control gain 500 Atk and Def. Once per turn, you can activate one of these effects;
*Target 1 Light Thunder-Type Monster in your graveyard; Special Summon it. Banish it during the End Phase.
*Banish 1 Light Thunder-Type monster from your hand or side of the field and if you do: Add one Light Thunder-Type Monster from your deck to your hand.
Thunderbolt Breaker
Trap Card
Tribute 1 Thunder-Type Monster you control; destroy up to 2 cards on the field. If a Thunder-Type monster(s) you control would be destroyed, you can banish this card instead.
The structure deck is built around Light Thunder monsters with the Hunder family paired up with the Stun oriented stand alone monsters as the only Thunder Archetypes out there are Batteryman and Watts and the first one is an OTK strategy and the second one is a retarded stall strategy and I refuse to acknowledge it's existence other than this post. You've got reprints of some really good cards in TKRO, Denko, Raigeki, Space Cyclone and Solemn Strike to go with the new cards that basically let you flood the field with Thunder Monsters while setting up a Master Hyperion on steroids. Hyperion was REALLY good back in the day with his easy summoning condition and DAD-lite removal effect. Great Rai-Jin is basically the same except in exchange for less easier to cheat onto the board he's got the same level of removal power as Master Peace. The structure comes with a strong field spell to aid consistency and an Icarus Attack that has Return of the Dragon Lords' protection effect.
I put alot of thought into this one, trying to strike a balance between power and balance and I think I succeeded for the most part? This definitely looks like something a main protagonist can use to get through the first couple chapters of a story and build upon which is what I also wanted to do.
Friday, 30 June 2017
5 Things I'm expecting for Narukami in Set 12
Kinda tempted to make this a video as well if I decide to not do a "How I would support" like I did when Set 9 was announced. Anyway;
It's not a secret that I was not happy with how Set 9 handled Narus. Despite their position as one of the headliner clans of the set with a large number of cards to their name the fact of the matter is Bushiroad botched the clan support big time. We got an impressive Generation Rare in VMAX who on paper is bonkers but the support for the Vanquisher deck was extremely lacking and Eradicators got more support nobody wanted, this time with the "strongest" version of the deck in Descendant getting a Stride and support that also sucked dick which I had made a video warning people about. As a result the Eradicator deck was a failure and Vanquisher got the raw end of the stick.
No seriously of all the cards released under the Narukami banner in Set 9 the amount of units actually played now are; VMAX, Bulwark Dragon, Martial Arts Dragon, Trainee Monk Dragon and Dragon Dancer Fatine. The latter two don't even see play half the time as I swear to god 8k Vanillas are sometimes more effective than they are.
And people thought Genesis has it rough in the upcoming set. Sure they get 20 cards and only a few are useful...but Amaruda is insane, Ishtar is the first stride the clan NEEDED and the new Revelation units don't suck! They even have a good PG and synergize with the older support. You know that thing that Thunderstrike was never able to do.
So with Bushiroad claiming that they will give Thunderstrike a significant buff (not holding my breath here) and make it easier to bind I'm going to list off the things I think we can all see coming a mile away and give my thoughts on what they should do. Why? Because I'm a wrestling youtube channel that thinks it's more of a bigger deal than it actually is (no seriously I'm starting to dislike whatculturewwe).
1.) A Generic G-Unit that G/Persona Flips, Retire + Binds and isn't GB2.
This is what I feel like will be what makes or breaks the deck as Narukami is one of the clans in the game that has no legitimate first stride options outside of Brawlers. Right now our options are; Zorras who is an on hit from fucking Set 2, Vanquisher Voltage who is bonkers in the late game but as a first stride...is Zorras and finally Voltechzapper Dragon who requires you to be at Thunderstrike 3 to do anything so he's basically limited to the Vanquisher Deck because as it is Kaiser, Erads and Brawlers can barely hit Thunderstrike 3 on a good day. Needless to say we've been overdue for a makeover in that regard for over a year and a half now and I feel like Bushiroad will deliver on this regard based on previous sets. In Set 9 we got Split Pegasus, Dragdriver Luard and Altiel, Set 10 gave us Gaia Dynast, Heavenly Law Gurguit, Selfina and Luminous Hope Dragon and the upcoming Set 11 will be releasing Ziegenburg, Magentenbu, Mujinlord and Ishtar so I think whatever we get will follow in the same vein. It'll do something that lets you immediately go up in advantage over the opponent as a first stride and have a strong Generation Break 3 effect that'll make it an alternative finisher. Bonus points if it can flip anything as being able to flip up Voltages could be a thing.
-Theoretical Skill: CB1/Persona Flip/Your opponent retires and binds RGs equal to the number of face up [This unit] in your G-Zone and this unit gets GB3 Thunderstrike 3: All your units get +1000 power for each card in both players' bind zones.
2.) A new Dragonic Vanquisher
This one is also confirmed and I'm at a loss as to what it's going to do outside of one thing: his on stride skill needs to be able to retire anything and not just the front row. It's too easy for many decks out there to end their turns with an empty front row thus OG Vanquisher can't use his Stride Break which is usually what kick starts Chain-Bolt Dragoon which in turn is the heart and soul of the deck. This guy also needs to have an ability that allows you to punish decks like Nightrose who end their turn with no board at all. Narukami is supposedly the counter deck to Granblue but it lacks many of the tools needed to do that. I think an ability that forces the opponent to bind from drop would be fine. Maybe even take it a tad further and allow it to be a quick effect that allows me to choose what gets bound on either turn for a Soul Blast at Generation Break 2 and Thunderstrike 2+. I'll be watching what they do with this guy closely as the OG Vanquisher right now has a niche of being able to gain power off retires which is now relevant thanks to 2 of our G-Guardians being able to retire.
-Theoretical Skill: VG: GB2/TS2/1-Turn/SB1: During either player's turn you may choose a unit in your opponent's drop zone, and bind that unit face up. On Stride CB1: Opponent binds a card from their drop zone face up, then retires a unit they control and binds that unit face up.
3.) Good main deck units
Our G-Zone aside from lacking a good first stride is actually solid. We have finisher's up the ass including 3 that support Rear Guards (Conquest, Voltage, Closer) but the problem with that is that we don't HAVE rearguards to use them with. Narukami's Rear Guard quality has been extremely hit or miss with the majority of the deck being made up of cards from Set 2 and Set 5 and the occasional Set 9. Martial Arts Dragon is NOT a good card, but it's ran because there is literally no good alternative for Vanquisher. This needs to change. Make these new cards able to bind regardless of the opponent's board presence and give them a bonus skill at Thunderstrike 1-2 and I promise you things will improve. At the very least make it so that we have something as good or better than Chatura, a common that's been more impressive than all of the RRs and RRRs Narus have gotten in over a year. Also PLEASE give us a counter charge engine. Vanquisher is super heavy on counter blasts and we need more ways to unflip outside of Anastasia and Vianne. Blademaster and Nightrose have two very good examples that allow them to maintain their tempos without running out of CB for their upcoming turns (most of the time).
-Theoretical Skill: On call opponent binds a card from their drop zone face up, then Thunderstrike 1-2: When your Vanquisher VG attacks, countercharge 1 for every 3 cards in your opponent's bind zone.
4.) A better Perfect Guard
This one's also a no brainer as every clan has gotten another PG in a main/character booster and they've been mostly good. Eras is insane, but I wouldn't mind a PG that helps the deck towards its win con in the same vein of the Neo Nectar and Genesis PG.
-Theoretical Skill: Normal Perfect Guard skill. Thunderstrike 2: If another one of [This unit] Is in your drop zone this unit gets: At the end of the battle this unit was placed on G, your opponent chooses one of his RGs at rest and retire + binds it.
5.) A new G-Guard
This has also been a thing with sets. Every clan has gotten a third core booster G-Guardian and they've mostly been about gaining ALOT of shield. Usually +10-15k. Since Bulwark Dragon is our +10k shield I think we'll get something that allows us to hit even higher numbers. Ideally this guy should not be restricted to Thunderstrike AND should be able to bind.
-Theoretical skill: On G: Your opponent binds a card from their drop zone face up. This unit gets Shield +5000 for each card in both players' bind zones.
There you have it. Now let's see how these predictions pan out.
It's not a secret that I was not happy with how Set 9 handled Narus. Despite their position as one of the headliner clans of the set with a large number of cards to their name the fact of the matter is Bushiroad botched the clan support big time. We got an impressive Generation Rare in VMAX who on paper is bonkers but the support for the Vanquisher deck was extremely lacking and Eradicators got more support nobody wanted, this time with the "strongest" version of the deck in Descendant getting a Stride and support that also sucked dick which I had made a video warning people about. As a result the Eradicator deck was a failure and Vanquisher got the raw end of the stick.
No seriously of all the cards released under the Narukami banner in Set 9 the amount of units actually played now are; VMAX, Bulwark Dragon, Martial Arts Dragon, Trainee Monk Dragon and Dragon Dancer Fatine. The latter two don't even see play half the time as I swear to god 8k Vanillas are sometimes more effective than they are.
And people thought Genesis has it rough in the upcoming set. Sure they get 20 cards and only a few are useful...but Amaruda is insane, Ishtar is the first stride the clan NEEDED and the new Revelation units don't suck! They even have a good PG and synergize with the older support. You know that thing that Thunderstrike was never able to do.
So with Bushiroad claiming that they will give Thunderstrike a significant buff (not holding my breath here) and make it easier to bind I'm going to list off the things I think we can all see coming a mile away and give my thoughts on what they should do. Why? Because I'm a wrestling youtube channel that thinks it's more of a bigger deal than it actually is (no seriously I'm starting to dislike whatculturewwe).
1.) A Generic G-Unit that G/Persona Flips, Retire + Binds and isn't GB2.
This is what I feel like will be what makes or breaks the deck as Narukami is one of the clans in the game that has no legitimate first stride options outside of Brawlers. Right now our options are; Zorras who is an on hit from fucking Set 2, Vanquisher Voltage who is bonkers in the late game but as a first stride...is Zorras and finally Voltechzapper Dragon who requires you to be at Thunderstrike 3 to do anything so he's basically limited to the Vanquisher Deck because as it is Kaiser, Erads and Brawlers can barely hit Thunderstrike 3 on a good day. Needless to say we've been overdue for a makeover in that regard for over a year and a half now and I feel like Bushiroad will deliver on this regard based on previous sets. In Set 9 we got Split Pegasus, Dragdriver Luard and Altiel, Set 10 gave us Gaia Dynast, Heavenly Law Gurguit, Selfina and Luminous Hope Dragon and the upcoming Set 11 will be releasing Ziegenburg, Magentenbu, Mujinlord and Ishtar so I think whatever we get will follow in the same vein. It'll do something that lets you immediately go up in advantage over the opponent as a first stride and have a strong Generation Break 3 effect that'll make it an alternative finisher. Bonus points if it can flip anything as being able to flip up Voltages could be a thing.
-Theoretical Skill: CB1/Persona Flip/Your opponent retires and binds RGs equal to the number of face up [This unit] in your G-Zone and this unit gets GB3 Thunderstrike 3: All your units get +1000 power for each card in both players' bind zones.
2.) A new Dragonic Vanquisher
This one is also confirmed and I'm at a loss as to what it's going to do outside of one thing: his on stride skill needs to be able to retire anything and not just the front row. It's too easy for many decks out there to end their turns with an empty front row thus OG Vanquisher can't use his Stride Break which is usually what kick starts Chain-Bolt Dragoon which in turn is the heart and soul of the deck. This guy also needs to have an ability that allows you to punish decks like Nightrose who end their turn with no board at all. Narukami is supposedly the counter deck to Granblue but it lacks many of the tools needed to do that. I think an ability that forces the opponent to bind from drop would be fine. Maybe even take it a tad further and allow it to be a quick effect that allows me to choose what gets bound on either turn for a Soul Blast at Generation Break 2 and Thunderstrike 2+. I'll be watching what they do with this guy closely as the OG Vanquisher right now has a niche of being able to gain power off retires which is now relevant thanks to 2 of our G-Guardians being able to retire.
-Theoretical Skill: VG: GB2/TS2/1-Turn/SB1: During either player's turn you may choose a unit in your opponent's drop zone, and bind that unit face up. On Stride CB1: Opponent binds a card from their drop zone face up, then retires a unit they control and binds that unit face up.
3.) Good main deck units
Our G-Zone aside from lacking a good first stride is actually solid. We have finisher's up the ass including 3 that support Rear Guards (Conquest, Voltage, Closer) but the problem with that is that we don't HAVE rearguards to use them with. Narukami's Rear Guard quality has been extremely hit or miss with the majority of the deck being made up of cards from Set 2 and Set 5 and the occasional Set 9. Martial Arts Dragon is NOT a good card, but it's ran because there is literally no good alternative for Vanquisher. This needs to change. Make these new cards able to bind regardless of the opponent's board presence and give them a bonus skill at Thunderstrike 1-2 and I promise you things will improve. At the very least make it so that we have something as good or better than Chatura, a common that's been more impressive than all of the RRs and RRRs Narus have gotten in over a year. Also PLEASE give us a counter charge engine. Vanquisher is super heavy on counter blasts and we need more ways to unflip outside of Anastasia and Vianne. Blademaster and Nightrose have two very good examples that allow them to maintain their tempos without running out of CB for their upcoming turns (most of the time).
-Theoretical Skill: On call opponent binds a card from their drop zone face up, then Thunderstrike 1-2: When your Vanquisher VG attacks, countercharge 1 for every 3 cards in your opponent's bind zone.
4.) A better Perfect Guard
This one's also a no brainer as every clan has gotten another PG in a main/character booster and they've been mostly good. Eras is insane, but I wouldn't mind a PG that helps the deck towards its win con in the same vein of the Neo Nectar and Genesis PG.
-Theoretical Skill: Normal Perfect Guard skill. Thunderstrike 2: If another one of [This unit] Is in your drop zone this unit gets: At the end of the battle this unit was placed on G, your opponent chooses one of his RGs at rest and retire + binds it.
5.) A new G-Guard
This has also been a thing with sets. Every clan has gotten a third core booster G-Guardian and they've mostly been about gaining ALOT of shield. Usually +10-15k. Since Bulwark Dragon is our +10k shield I think we'll get something that allows us to hit even higher numbers. Ideally this guy should not be restricted to Thunderstrike AND should be able to bind.
-Theoretical skill: On G: Your opponent binds a card from their drop zone face up. This unit gets Shield +5000 for each card in both players' bind zones.
There you have it. Now let's see how these predictions pan out.
Saturday, 24 June 2017
Cardfight!! Vanguard Locals Report - "RAIGEKI!"
Imagine a game where Fiend Comedian isn't a shit card.
So today I came with Narukami Vanquisher as it's the only deck I have at this time with a full set of the new Heal Triggers, G-Guardians and Generation Break 8 unit as I haven't been bothered to order the cards needed for my other decks and I wanted to see how my revised build with 8ks and 10ks would fare anyway. Sweep Command Dragon performed decently so how would the "less gimmicky" deck fare? Well;
Game 1 - vs Gurguit (Win)
Not much happens in the early game as I know I don't get a Martial Arts off so it's up to my stride turns to bring the hurt. My first stride ends up being a Voltechzapper over Voltage which was a misplay in hindsight. I REALLY wanted to get a resist unit off the board but going for the flip would have been better in the long run. As it is I kept his CB down to a low amount so his stride options were limited as with only 1 CB to work with Golds can't be TOO crazy and when he was able to mass call his RNG was sour. I know I resolve one or two Impede Dragons as I am able to live long enough to hit GB8 and proceed to #Nukethedrop for 17 and push his shit in with my suddenly 50k lines to his 4 damage. He's able to survive but can't stride wheras I have enough cards in hand to stop his desperation push and follow up with Vanquisher Voltage for the win.
Game 2 - vs Gaia (Lose)
Despite a hefty mulligan I end up missing my Grade 2 ride for 2 turns and have to G-Assist in order to not die because of my Grade 3 heavy hand (and 2 Heals), I get first stride but my drive checks reveal nothing so I'm fighting an uphill battle against a deck that can multi attack while my opponent hits Draw triggers like a god. I'm able to keep in it by using Impede Dragon to disrupt his Gluttony Dogma turn so he doesn't get the restand and an additional one to fuck up his Gaia Dynast but unfortunately because of having to ditch 1s and 2s for multiple strides I end up with of a lack of pushing power despite getting to GB8 and fail to close it out while he responds with his own GB8 and kills me.
Game 3 - vs Gaia (Win)
No misride this time! We take those! Anyway I forget how the early portion of this game goes other than I don't have a G-Guard play so I have to get to GB8 the slow way. I know I got first stride because I went into Voltage and double Chatura with none of them hitting followed by another Voltage and a Conquest. I hit a Heal eventually and do have an Impede Dragon play and the chance to drop Closer Dragon but my hand is nothing but triggers and he was at 4 damage so I opted for Vanquisher VMAX to put him at 5 via my Thunderstrike 5, survive his GB8 turn as his own field was pretty weak (enough that I only needed a PG and a 15k to stop both) and respond with Closer Dragon for the win.
Game 4 - vs Nightrose (Win)
Hoo boy. I knew my work was cut out for me as while in theory Closer Dragon should single handedly win this matchup getting to him is another issue entirely due to Nightrose's ability to multi attack at respectable power. Both of us play the Grade 2 game but I eventually win that as he rides to 3 and I topdeck mine for turn and it ends up being Great Composure Dragon (the 12k) which is arguably the better ride for this matchup. I go into Voltage but I'm pretty sure it doesn't hit (however I do force a bind through my starter so his Skeleton Cannoneer can't get the retire + draw) while he goes into Gouache but doesn't have King Serpent so he isn't able to go too overboard with his comboes. Furthermore I also have an Impede Dragon play so I'm able to get a crucial 2nd bind to make my Thunderstrike 2 units live and make it through the turn while I got into another Voltage. I believe this one also doesn't hit and he also didn't let one of my RGs hit so I passed the turn, keeping him at 1 open CB which for Nightrose is REALLY limiting as the deck needs 2-4 in order to pull off its best combos. He debates on what stride play to make as by this point I'm at GB7 and will #Nukethedrop if I survive. I do as I've got just enough cards in hand to survive all 4-5 of his attacks and have a means to stride for a delicious Closer Dragon and manage to bind a total of 24 cards off his GB8 and I go to town. He's able to stop 2 of my attacks but I flip a Stand and that's all she wrote.
Game 5 - vs Nightrose (Win)
He makes me start which is fine as I open with an 8k ride and he gets greedy and calls his starter to the front in hopes of hitting a trigger and putting me to 2. He doesn't and worse so I don't draw the Martial Arts Dragon to punish him for that, so instead I ride my 10k and swing at his Grenache to get it in the drop zone in case I draw a Chatura as my hand is such that I can Gradestall for a couple turns to get first stride. He rides to 2 and contemplates calling an attacker but doesn't and swings which I let through and I stay on 2 for a turn and swing which he takes. By this point he either has to reride to 2 to keep the game of chicken up or ride to 3 and give me first stride and he opts to ride Nighrose, call Nightstorm to the side and swings with both which I take one while blocking the other. Now I could ride Vanquisher and Stride but I instead reride Martial Arts Dragon to kill Nightstorm and bind it thinking he's only playing one of it (he doesn't) and swing for a hit while he responds with a swing of his own which I PG. I stay on 2 for another turn as he's at 1 damage and I have a Chatura in hand which I call down and proceed to swing unboosted at his VG so he doesn't take a damage and it leaves him with in an unfavourable scenario; let Chatura hit or don't Seabreeze. Either outcome is favourable to me as while getting Seabreeze'd may suck, it'll cost him 2 counterblasts and he'll have none face up so I don't have to worry about being combo'd AND I'll have bound his unflip engine which will make it even more difficult to play and I don't hit then no Seabreeze. He lets it hit and I bind his starter and his Seabreeze play is just as underwhelming as I expected and I stride into Voltage and we're off to the races. It hits so I bind a King Serpent and 2 other cards as I had Chain Bolt Dragoon in play (and it was there the entire game) to REALLY put him in a bind as I've taken away his unflip engine and his Soul Charge engine which makes his Gouache turns weaker while also limiting his counterblast options and by this point I've established full control over the game as he's gone through all 8 crits so I'm able to defend against his push turns...mostly. My following Voltage and VMAX turns pushed him to the brink (he 6th damage healed out of my VMAX) and he went into a Gouache with 3 cards left in deck, but was able to cycle one of his stands back in with another one in there while I only had enough cards in hand to block 2 attacks but not a third off a stand trigger flip (and with 3 checks and a 4 card deck he WAS going to hit one of them) so I had no choice to take the Vanguard attack and bank on getting a 6th damage heal...which I do! I live his push and he concedes he 2 cards left in deck so even if I can't kill him with VMAX or Closer Dragon, he loses to deckout on the following turn.
And that was it as after the match it was time to leave and so I did. Whew. The Nightrose matchup is just as hard as I imagined it to be. The deck can play around mine so very well and it's able to multi-attack me to hell if I don't have Impede Dragon to trigger Vanquisher's Generation Break 2. Holy shit that skill has become more and more relevant as the format continues to be geared towards small to medium sized poke decks. It just happens to be now that I have a reliable way of triggering it that I can legit use it as a counter to said decks. Having a 19k Vanquisher on the opponent's turn is no joke. It's just a shame that many of my other options are so limited. I've gone on full tangents over how badly Bushiroad handled Narukami in Divine Dragon Caper so I won't go into that here. I'll just end this with I hope they know what they're doing with Dragon Emperor's Awakening. What I want out of the set is the subject of a video or post. Haven't decided either.
Props
-Nuked 4 out of 5 drop zones.
-Managed to break my previous Thunderstrike record of 17 with a massive 26.
-Through Closer Dragon I was able to make 102k+ Columns. Where were you when Narukami was able to hit Neo Nectar numbers?
-Managed to somehow eke the win against Nightrose, Kagero/Narukami's worst enemy not once but twice.
Slops
-Misriding to Grade 2 and nearly misriding to Grade 1 and 2. I'm running a 6 Grade 3 count so that I can fit in more Grade 1s and 2s and I'm still somehow not able to see either or when I need to!?
-I may have won against Nightrose, but I had to Grade Stall to do it. I know it's a legit strategy and if this were tournament play it's expected but still it's kind of scummy. Unfortunately I need first stride that badly.
Tuesday, 20 June 2017
Ryu Azura's Fantasy Ritual Theme - Espers
Many, many years ago I had an idea for a Ritual Archetype based around the Final Fantasy franchise for the character Ryu Azura to use as a mid season deck upgrade in a YGO 5Ds Fanfiction that's many, many years dead. I think I may have posted some snippits of this "Eidolon" deck on here but otherwise never really did much with it. Anyway their original name were the Eidolons and well that name is sort of being used by the Invoked so when I heard about them it made be want to revisit these guys in case they end up being included in any potential VRAINS Fanfictions.
That and you guys know how much I like trying to come up with card designs. That being said the "Eidolons" are back but have now taken on the name of "Espers", which is the name given to Summoned Monsters in both Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy XII with the former being the best in the franchise (fight me) and the latter set to get a HD Remaster release next month which means we get to hear the glorious "Esper Battle" once again;
I hope to make monsters as glorious as this theme.
What are the Espers?
The Espers are an Archetype based around efficient Ritual Summoning in the same vein as Gishki and Nekroz. Thus they employ similar tactics of using search effects to get the Ritual Spells, Monsters and have the ability to Ritual Summon without taking heavy losses in advantage. The theme also has some common traits among its cards;
-The Ritual Monsters can discard themselves to the Graveyard to search any Esper Spell from the deck to the hand.
-The Ritual Spells can discard themselves to the Graveyard to search any Esper Monster from the deck to the hand.
-The Non Ritual Monsters have the ability to count themselves as 2 Tributes towards the Ritual Summon of an Esper Ritual Monster (so if a Level 3 Non Ritual were to be used, it can be counted as 2 Level 3 monsters and thus allow you to Ritual Summon a Level 6 Ritual Monster).
-The Ritual Monsters all have effects that are based on the number of monsters tributed for their summon. The more monsters used the bigger the payoff!
-The Non Ritual Monsters can banish themselves from the Graveyard to give an Esper Ritual Monster an additional effect. These range from giving the monster the ability to deal Piercing Damage, Attack all monsters, Armades effect, etc.
Understand? Read a few cards and you'll get a jist of the deck;
Non-Ritual Monsters
Esper Child Eiko
Lv. 2 Light
Spellcaster/Effect/0/1800
If this card were to be tributed for the Ritual Summon of an "Esper" Ritual Monster, you may count it as 2 tributes.
If this card is summoned: You can special summon one of your banished "Esper" monsters. If this card is in your graveyard; you can Banish this card and target 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster you control; during this turn if it attacks a Defense Position Monster, inflict piercing Battle Damage. You can only use each effect of "Esper Child Eiko" once per turn.
Esper Summoner Rydia
Lv. 3 Earth
Spellcaster/Effect/900/1000
If this card were to be tributed for the Ritual Summon of an "Esper" Ritual Monster, you may count it as 2 tributes.
If this card is summoned; You can add 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster from your deck to your hand. If this card is in your graveyard; you can Banish this card and target 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster you control; During this turn's Battle Phase it can attack each monster your opponent controls once. You can only use each effect of "Esper Summoner Rydia" once per turn.
Esper Sorceress Terra
Lv. 4 Fire
Spellcaster/Effect/1900/1600
If this card were to be tributed for the Ritual Summon of an "Esper" Ritual Monster, you may count it as 2 tributes.
If this card is summoned; You can add 1 "Esper" Ritual Spell from your deck to your hand. If this card is in your graveyard; you can Banish this card and target 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster you control: During this turn, it is unaffected by the effects of your opponent's Spells. You can only use each effect of "Esper Summoner Terra" once per turn.
Esper Princess Garnet
Lv. 5 Wind
Spellcaster/Effect/2000/1500
If this card were to be tributed for the Ritual Summon of an "Esper" Ritual Monster, you may count it as 2 tributes.
You can discard this card from your hand to target 1 "Esper" Card in your Graveyard; Add it to your hand. If this card is in your graveyard; you can Banish this card and target 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster you control; During this turn, it is unaffected by the effects of your opponent's traps. You can only use each effect of "Esper Princess Garnet" once per turn.
Esper Priestess Yuna
Lv. 6 Water
Spellcaster/Effect/2300/2000
If this card were to be tributed for the Ritual Summon of an "Esper" Ritual Monster, you may count it as 2 tributes.
You can discard this card from your hand; Special Summon one "Esper" monster from your Graveyard, except "Esper Priestess Yuna". If this card is in your graveyard; you can Banish this card and target 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster you control; During this turn, it is unaffected by the effects of your opponent's monsters. You can only use each effect of "Esper Priestess Yuna" once per turn.
Ritual Monsters
Titan, the Earth Esper
Lv. 4 Earth
Rock/Ritual/Effect/2400/2000
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" Spell from your deck to your hand.
You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned, destroy set cards your opponent controls equal to the number of "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Titan the Earth Esper" once per turn.
Ramuh the Thunder Esper
Lv. 5 Wind
Thunder/Ritual/Effect/2100/1500
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" Spell from your deck to your hand.
You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned, destroy face up cards your opponent controls equal to the number of "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Ramuh the Thunder Esper" once per turn.
Shiva the Ice Esper
Level 7 Water
Aqua/Ritual/2500/2100/Effect
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" Spell from your deck to your hand.
You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned, draw cards equal to the number of "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Shiva the Ice Esper" once per turn.
Ifrit the Fire Esper
Level 8 Fire
Pyro/Ritual/2800/2400/Effect
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" Spell from your deck to your hand. You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned, inflict 1000 point of damage to your opponent equal to the number "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Ifrit the Fire Esper" once per turn.
Diablos the Darkness Esper
Level 9 Dark
Fiend/Ritual/3000/2500/Effect
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" Spell from your deck to your hand.
You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned, divide your opponent's LP equal to the number of "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Diablos the Dark ness Esperr" once per turn.
Alexander the Holy Esper
Level 10 Light
Fairy/Ritual/3200/2800/Effect
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" Spell from your deck to your hand.
You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell. When this card is Ritual Summoned, you can Special Summon monsters from either player's graveyard equal to the number of "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Alexander the Holy Esper" once per turn.
Bahamut, King of the Espers
Level 12 Light
Dragon/Ritual/3500/3000/Effect
You can discard this card and one other "Esper" card from your hand; add 2 "Esper" cards from your deck to your hand, except Bahamut, King of the Espers
You can Ritual summon this with any "Esper" Ritual Spell and cannot be special summoned by other ways. When this card is Ritual Summoned, negate face-up cards your opponent controls equal to the number of "Esper" monsters you used for this card's Ritual Summon and reduce the Atk/Def of monsters affected this way to 0. You can only use each effect of "Bahamut, King of the Espers" once per turn.
Spells
Forbidden Land of the Espers
Field Spell
When this card is activated; Add 1 "Esper" card from your deck to your hand. Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to Ritual Summons. If this card is in your graveyard, except during the turn it was sent there, you can Banish this card: shuffle 5 "Esper" cards from your graveyard into the deck and if you do, draw 1 card. You can only activate 1 "Forbidden Land of the Espers" once per turn.
Esper Summoning Ritual
Ritual Spell
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" monster from your deck to your hand.
This card can be used to Ritual Summon "Esper" Ritual Monsters from your hand or graveyard by tributing Monsters your hand or side of the field whose levels are equal to or greater than the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Esper Summoning Ritual" once per turn.
Esper Transmagicitation
Quick-Play Spell
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" monster from your deck to your hand. Ritual Summon 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster from your hand by tributing monsters from your hand or side of the field whose levels are equal to or greater than the Level of the Ritual Monster you Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Esper Transmagicitation" once per turn.
Esper Hi-Summoning
Ritual Spell
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" monster from your deck to your hand. Activate this card by tributing 2 or more "Esper" Monsters from your hand or side of the field; Ritual Summon 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster from your deck whose Level is equal to or greater than the total levels of the monsters tributed. You can only use each effect of "Esper Hi-Summoning" once per turn.
Esper Curse
Ritual Spell
You can discard this card from your hand; add 1 "Esper" monster from your deck to your hand. You can Ritual summon 1 "Esper" Ritual Monster by tributing one monster from both sides of the field whose total levels are equal to or greater than the level of the Ritual Monster you wish to Ritual Summon. You can only use each effect of "Esper Curse" once per turn.
And there you have it. My original designs for these cards were busted (then again, I made them in 2010) with Shiva being able to discard from the opponent's hand instead of draws and the monsters not requiring you to tribute Espers to get their on summon effects (which made Ifrit an FTK with Advanced Ritual Art) so I had to rework alot of them to be less insane, but still be really good if they were to come out now. Like I said before Gishki and Nekroz were a huge influence in how I designed these cards which makes sense as one served as the blueprint for future Ritual Archetypes to follow and the other is one of the most powerful decks in the history of the game because of how efficient its engine was.
Until next time!
Friday, 24 March 2017
Behold the Snow Flames!
I said I was going to start updating my Fan Card Page with VRains stuff and we'll kick it off with something that's not Thunder related for once. Instead I'm going to show off my Water Attribute Pyro Archetype called the "Snow Flame."
These guys take visual cues from Bluish Flames, Ice Barriers and Nekroz to create a group of high fantasy warriors (so Knights, Mages, Elves, etc) that are wearing pale armour while controlling flames that are literally made out of snow. The main deck monsters are named after the months of the year while the extra deck monsters...aren't (maybe I'll change their names to go with the days of the week?) and right now they all happen to have 900 defense whenever applicable.
Now for what they do the Snow Flames are a spammy theme with the ability to flood the board with monsters out of the deck with the intend of rapidly Link Summoning their boss monsters the "Azure Snow Flames" who all have the ability to call Snow Flames out of the deck to their Linked Zones.
Sounds easy right? There's a catch to this. Snow Flames instead of calling specifically out of the take instead make you look at the bottom cards of your deck for Snow Flames that can be Normal Summoned, and then you special summon them. After this you proceed to put the cards you looked at on the bottom of your deck in any order. I fully admit to taking this idea from Gold Paladins as the concept of easy board building but at the risk of bad RNG balancing it out making the deck an exciting gamble to play. That being said rather than top call, I figure why not take a concept that's almost never been explored and instead focus on using the Bottom of the deck? This will lead to some interesting interactions like having an absurd resistance to tucking effects.
Here we go;
Snow Flame, Janarius
Lv.4 Water
Pyro/Effect/1800/900
When this card is Summoned, you can look at the bottom 3 cards of your deck and special summon 1 Pyro Monster that can be Normal Summoned. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your deck in any order. You can only activate the effect of "Snow Flame, Libertus" once per turn.
Snow Flame, Februarus
Lv.3 Water
Pyro/Effect/1300/900
If this card is summoned by the effect of a "Snow Flame" card; draw 2 cards, then place once card in your hand on the bottom of the deck. You can only activate the effect of "Snow Flame, Februarus" once per turn.
Snow Flame, Marchus
Lv.2 Water
Pyro/Effect/1000/900
When this card is summoned, you may look at the top card of your deck and place it on either the top or bottom of your deck. When this card attacks, it gains 500 Atk for each other Pyro monster you control during the damage step only.
Azure Snow Flame, Freeze Squire Elf
Water Down
Pyro/Link/Effect/500/900/Link-1
Min 1 "Snow Flame" Monster
This Mutually Linked card cannot be Targeted by attacks or card effects.
When this card is Link Summoned, you can look at the bottom 10 cards of your deck and special summon up to 1 Pyro Monster that can be Normal Summoned to this card's Linked Monster Zone and put the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order. You can only use the effect of "Azure Snow Flame, Freez Squire Elf" once per turn.
Azure Snow Flame, Prominence Knight
Water Up, Left, Right
Pyro/Link/Effect/2500/Link-3
Min 2 "Snow Flame" Monsters
When this card is Link Summoned; you can look at the bottom 10 cards of your deck and Special Summon up to 2 Pyro Monsters that can be Normal Summoned to this card's Linked Monster Zones and put the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order. You can only use the effect of "Azure Snow Flame, Prominence Knight" once per turn.
Azure Snow Flame, Frostfeed Dragon
Water Left, Down-Left, Down-Right, Right
Pyro/Link/Effect/2800/Link-4
Min 2 "Snow Flame" Monsters
When another Pyro monster is special summoned, this card gains 200 Atk until the End Phase. Once per turn, you can put one card from your hand or side of the field to the bottom of your deck; you can look at the bottom 10 cards of your deck and special summon up to 2 Pyro monsters that can be Normal Summoned to this card's Linked Monster Zones. You can only use this this effect of "Azure Snow Flame, Frostbreak Dragon" once per turn. When this card attacks, if the number of "Snow Flame" Monsters linked to this card are 3 or more, your opponent cannot activate effects until the end of the damage step.
Snow Flame Gathering
Spell Card
Look at the bottom 5 cards of your deck and add up to 1 "Snow Flame" card from among them to your hand and place the remaining cards on the bottom of your deck in any order. During your Main Phase, if this card is in your graveyard, you can banish this card from your Graveyard; choose 5 "Snow Flame" monsters in your graveyard, shuffle them into your deck and look at the top card of your deck and place it on the top or bottom of your deck. You can only activate 1 effect of "Snow Flame Gathering" once per turn and only once per turn.
Snow Flame Barrier
Trap Card
You can only activate this if the number of Pyro Monsters you control are 3 or more; during this turn, "Snow Flame" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.
Right now giving everything hard OPT limits how much of a board can be made, but these guys have the ability to summon Pyro monsters outside of their theme and I'm certain I can think of some more effects for these guys in due time.
These guys take visual cues from Bluish Flames, Ice Barriers and Nekroz to create a group of high fantasy warriors (so Knights, Mages, Elves, etc) that are wearing pale armour while controlling flames that are literally made out of snow. The main deck monsters are named after the months of the year while the extra deck monsters...aren't (maybe I'll change their names to go with the days of the week?) and right now they all happen to have 900 defense whenever applicable.
Now for what they do the Snow Flames are a spammy theme with the ability to flood the board with monsters out of the deck with the intend of rapidly Link Summoning their boss monsters the "Azure Snow Flames" who all have the ability to call Snow Flames out of the deck to their Linked Zones.
Sounds easy right? There's a catch to this. Snow Flames instead of calling specifically out of the take instead make you look at the bottom cards of your deck for Snow Flames that can be Normal Summoned, and then you special summon them. After this you proceed to put the cards you looked at on the bottom of your deck in any order. I fully admit to taking this idea from Gold Paladins as the concept of easy board building but at the risk of bad RNG balancing it out making the deck an exciting gamble to play. That being said rather than top call, I figure why not take a concept that's almost never been explored and instead focus on using the Bottom of the deck? This will lead to some interesting interactions like having an absurd resistance to tucking effects.
Here we go;
Snow Flame, Janarius
Lv.4 Water
Pyro/Effect/1800/900
When this card is Summoned, you can look at the bottom 3 cards of your deck and special summon 1 Pyro Monster that can be Normal Summoned. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your deck in any order. You can only activate the effect of "Snow Flame, Libertus" once per turn.
Snow Flame, Februarus
Lv.3 Water
Pyro/Effect/1300/900
If this card is summoned by the effect of a "Snow Flame" card; draw 2 cards, then place once card in your hand on the bottom of the deck. You can only activate the effect of "Snow Flame, Februarus" once per turn.
Snow Flame, Marchus
Lv.2 Water
Pyro/Effect/1000/900
When this card is summoned, you may look at the top card of your deck and place it on either the top or bottom of your deck. When this card attacks, it gains 500 Atk for each other Pyro monster you control during the damage step only.
Azure Snow Flame, Freeze Squire Elf
Water Down
Pyro/Link/Effect/500/900/Link-1
Min 1 "Snow Flame" Monster
This Mutually Linked card cannot be Targeted by attacks or card effects.
When this card is Link Summoned, you can look at the bottom 10 cards of your deck and special summon up to 1 Pyro Monster that can be Normal Summoned to this card's Linked Monster Zone and put the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order. You can only use the effect of "Azure Snow Flame, Freez Squire Elf" once per turn.
Azure Snow Flame, Prominence Knight
Water Up, Left, Right
Pyro/Link/Effect/2500/Link-3
Min 2 "Snow Flame" Monsters
When this card is Link Summoned; you can look at the bottom 10 cards of your deck and Special Summon up to 2 Pyro Monsters that can be Normal Summoned to this card's Linked Monster Zones and put the rest on the bottom of your deck in any order. You can only use the effect of "Azure Snow Flame, Prominence Knight" once per turn.
Azure Snow Flame, Frostfeed Dragon
Water Left, Down-Left, Down-Right, Right
Pyro/Link/Effect/2800/Link-4
Min 2 "Snow Flame" Monsters
When another Pyro monster is special summoned, this card gains 200 Atk until the End Phase. Once per turn, you can put one card from your hand or side of the field to the bottom of your deck; you can look at the bottom 10 cards of your deck and special summon up to 2 Pyro monsters that can be Normal Summoned to this card's Linked Monster Zones. You can only use this this effect of "Azure Snow Flame, Frostbreak Dragon" once per turn. When this card attacks, if the number of "Snow Flame" Monsters linked to this card are 3 or more, your opponent cannot activate effects until the end of the damage step.
Snow Flame Gathering
Spell Card
Look at the bottom 5 cards of your deck and add up to 1 "Snow Flame" card from among them to your hand and place the remaining cards on the bottom of your deck in any order. During your Main Phase, if this card is in your graveyard, you can banish this card from your Graveyard; choose 5 "Snow Flame" monsters in your graveyard, shuffle them into your deck and look at the top card of your deck and place it on the top or bottom of your deck. You can only activate 1 effect of "Snow Flame Gathering" once per turn and only once per turn.
Snow Flame Barrier
Trap Card
You can only activate this if the number of Pyro Monsters you control are 3 or more; during this turn, "Snow Flame" monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle or card effects.
Right now giving everything hard OPT limits how much of a board can be made, but these guys have the ability to summon Pyro monsters outside of their theme and I'm certain I can think of some more effects for these guys in due time.
Thursday, 23 March 2017
I'm not dead!
Just making this short post to inform everyone on the status of the blog as it's been almost 2 months since my last post. Suffice to say I've been occupied. Most of Feb and a good chunk of March was spent moving myself and two family members on my weekends off meaning I had very little if any time to actually sit down and play card games. Thus I found myself becoming more inclined to tackle my video game backlog and Dragonball Xenoverse 2 commanded much of that time.
17 years later, Shellvia at long last achieves her dream of being the Tifa + Goku character I wrote her as.
I'm not going to go in depth on the game but suffice to say I had a blast playing it. Being able to take my own characters from my 9th Grade English project and fit them into the Dragonball Universe is amazing and if you consider "clearing" the game beating all of the Story Missions, Parallel Missions, Expert Missions, Instructor Missions and Academy Missions as one character, then this game takes a LONG time to beat due to variance. While you'd think this game is a Budokai Tenkaichi that you play as an OC, it's actually more of a Western RPG with a Tenkaichi battle system used for combat with horrendous AI as allies and borderline obnoxious enemy CPU.
It also ties into my mood in regards to card games as of late as playing Xenoverse 2 the way I did was enjoyable as I didn't have to metagame super try hard to handle things. I was able to do it at my own pace, in my own way and found enjoyment for it. I honestly don't think I can say the same for Yu-Gi-Oh! right now as our locals environment is the kind that doesn't really allow for that kind of playstyle. You've got the good players playing the best decks, the people who think they're as good as them by metagaming to beat them and then the terrible people that think playing Synchrons in 2017 is still cool. I hold nothing against these people as they can't help it if any of these decks are cancer or cards like Dimensional Barrier are toxic to the game but I don't see myself enjoying games against any of this with any deck that's not Tier 1 and with no intentions of going to Nationals I honestly can't justify dropping the funds on a 300 dollar deck that's just going to die after the next banlist/Link format.
Now before anyone gives me shit about making that point even though I'm probably going to be dropping about 300+ to update my Vanguard decks bear in mind that given the nature of that game those investments are going to hold for 1-2 years. That game almost never completely guts a deck 6 months after it's release like Konami will do with say, PePe or OCG Zoo.
But yeah basically at this point I'm more or less going to be a spectator for Yu-Gi-Oh! as Nord has things under wraps from the player side. Maybe Stove will give him a few runs for his money and that'll be entertaining to see. TL:DR don't expect Tournament Reports for Yu-Gi-Oh! until Link Format comes around.
In regards to Vanguard it's an interesting case as I own the 2 best decks in the game and they're surprisingly inexpensive to update (even with Waifu tax involved, my Granblue deck should only cost 150 to update when the new set drops which considering I'm talking about 6 RRRs, 2 GRs and 6 RRs for a Tier 1 deck is QUITE the steal compared to the near 250 I'm going to need to shell out for Neo Nectar), however if I had to choose one over the other I'd have to go with Nightrose Granblue due to how complicated the deck is to play in comparison to Time Leap. I'd happily sell the deck but due to it's now ridiculous price tag of 500-700 (to put it in perspective I essentially put 200 dollars into the deck, 100 in actual cash and another 100 to get a 4th Nextage while the rest of it was obtained via trades) there's no way in hell I'd be able to move it in a local area filled to the brim with poor people.
Thing is I don't actually NEED to play them either as our environment is the type where I can honestly get away with playing just about any deck I own and usually getting the win or an enjoyable match out of it so generally my Vanguard locals are a fun time.
Pokemon is something I'm going to try to get back into. I'm building an Umbreon GX deck though by the sounds of it I'm better off building a Waterbox deck because Water is getting a Dark Patch clone and THAT doesn't sound OP OP.
Lastly now that we know what YGO 6 is about and Link Format, I'm going to have to revise my entire fan card compendium in order to line up with it. I've already reworked my Thunder support to be Link Summon focused so keep an eye out for that.
Until next time.
Thursday, 2 February 2017
Narukami Lists - Post Jan. Banlist
It's been a while since I posted my lists and we aren't getting anything for the clan until FC 2017 which is likely going to be in the summer, so I might as do so here;
Vanquisher
4x Dragonic Vanquisher
2x Great Composure Dragon
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
2x Martial Arts Dragon
2x Voltage Horn Dragon
1x Rock Climb Dragoon
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
4x Chain-Bolt Dragoon
3x Dragon Dancer, Fatine
4x Lightning of Hope, Reseph
4x Draw
4x Dragon Dancer Vianne
4x Heal
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage"
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Voltech Zapper Dragon
1x Air Element, Seabreeze
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra
2x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
Kaiser
4x Dragonic Kasier Crimson
3x Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
3x Voltage Horn Dragon
3x Dragonic Deathscythe
2x Spirit Brawler, Koukin
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Crown Holder Dragon
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
2x Dragon Dancer, Fatine
8x Crit (4 Malevolent Djinn, 4x Lightning of Triumphant Return, Reseph)
4x Draw
4x Heal
1x Ascetic Dragokid
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Kaiser Warning
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
2x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra
Brawler
4x Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster
4x Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Dragon
3x Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon
3x Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster
2x Brawler, Big Bang Slash Dragon
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Secret Fist Brawler, Koukon
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
1x Brawler, Wildcloak Dragon
8x Crit (4 Malevolent Djinn, 4x Lightning of Triumphant Return, Reseph)
4x Brawler Draw
4x Brawler Heal
1x Ascetic Dracokid
3x True Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Turbo
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon
3x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage"
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Light Element, Algleam
1x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra
1x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
Vanquisher
4x Dragonic Vanquisher
2x Great Composure Dragon
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
2x Martial Arts Dragon
2x Voltage Horn Dragon
1x Rock Climb Dragoon
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
4x Chain-Bolt Dragoon
3x Dragon Dancer, Fatine
4x Lightning of Hope, Reseph
4x Draw
4x Dragon Dancer Vianne
4x Heal
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage"
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Voltech Zapper Dragon
1x Air Element, Seabreeze
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra
2x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
Kaiser
4x Dragonic Kasier Crimson
3x Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
3x Voltage Horn Dragon
3x Dragonic Deathscythe
2x Spirit Brawler, Koukin
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Crown Holder Dragon
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
2x Dragon Dancer, Fatine
8x Crit (4 Malevolent Djinn, 4x Lightning of Triumphant Return, Reseph)
4x Draw
4x Heal
1x Ascetic Dragokid
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Kaiser Warning
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
2x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra
Brawler
4x Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Buster
4x Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Dragon
3x Brawler, Skyhowl Dragon
3x Brawler, Big Bang Slash Buster
2x Brawler, Big Bang Slash Dragon
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Secret Fist Brawler, Koukon
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
1x Brawler, Wildcloak Dragon
8x Crit (4 Malevolent Djinn, 4x Lightning of Triumphant Return, Reseph)
4x Brawler Draw
4x Brawler Heal
1x Ascetic Dracokid
3x True Brawler, Big Bang Knuckle Turbo
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Conquest Dragon
3x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage"
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Light Element, Algleam
1x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vritra
1x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
Eradicator
4x Eradicaor, Dragonic Descendant
4x Eradicator, Sweep Command Dragon
4x Demonic Dragon Berserker, Chatura
4x Voltage Horn Dragon
3x Fiendish Sword Eradictor, Cho-Jun
4x Dragon Dancer, Anastasia
4x Mighty Bolt Dragoon
3x Eradicator, Slash Dagger Dracokid
2x Eradicator, Egg Helm Dracokid
4x Erad Heal
8x Erad Crit
4x Erad Draw
2x Eradicator, First Thunder Dracokid
4x True Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant "Zillion"
4x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "Voltage"
2x Conquering Supreme Dragon, Dragonic Vanquisher "VMAX"
1x Lightning Dragon Knight, Zorras
2x Lightning King Spirit Emperor, Vitras
1x Sky Guardian Supreme Dragon, Bulwark Dragon
1x Dark Element, Dizmel
1x Light Element, Algleam
Not much I can really say. Bushiroad for fucks sake stop trying to bring Eradicators back to life. They're underpowered and overcosted compared to Vanquisher and he's also overcosted. When Narus get their next batch of support featuring the obvious Vanquisher G3 Retrain, make the deck able to bind cards outside of retires so that when Narus are paired up against Granblue/Palemoon that the deck can do SOMETHING. Also make it easier to Thunderstrike outside of Vanquisher because how the hell are Kaiser/Brawler/Erads supposed to effectively get Bulwark Dragon off but every Neo Nectar deck can abuse Rain Breath Dragon?
Saturday, 21 January 2017
CFV Locals Report - The Long Grind
Today's turnout was actually decent considering the last couple months. A handful of 'Stoon people came down so we probably could have held a tournament but ultimately didn't, instead the Stoon guys just played games against our much more experienced playerbase. One of them happened to be an Ahsha player and she actually understood the nuances of Bloom so it was really refreshing to discuss Neo Nectar theory with someone for a change. Unfortunately they forgot to bring trade binders with them so I couldn't help her touch up the deck by trading my spare Glorious Ahsha or Jingle Flowers but it's something to keep in the back of my mind for next time.
Anyway one of them wanted to play a game against someone and I volunteered;
Vanquisher vs Gear Chronicle (2-0)
This one wasn't a fleshed out Gear deck so I didn't have to worry about the Cancer Combos which made defending against his plays alot easier. He left things out on the board for me to kill every turn which helped me set up 2 large Voltage turns and a Conquest that got in there. Second game he makes me start and I land a couple Chatura hits and see my draws, so I'm able to keep advantage while doing Narukami things and kill him with a Conquest.
After I had another game against a different person
Vanquisher vs Nightrose (1-0)
We both try to anti meta a bit as I stay on G1 for a turn, then I re-rode to 2 to avoid Seabreeze with the 2 being Martial Arts Dragon to get a retire/bind off and lastly he let my first stride Voltage hit and I just so happen to hit his Grenache and lone Negrolazy which slowed him down ALOT. From there its a grind as while he is able to keep his front row clear due to hollow, he kept leaving Negrobones out in the backrow which were easy pickings for my G2s to retire which in turn set up Chain Bolts who set up Bulwark Dragon who set up Conquest/Voltage. Surprising level of synergy we've got going here. Anyway I'm able to survive his pushes and push back with my own strides, put him to 5 damage and finally VMAX him.
Cancerjet vs Nightrose (1-0)
So I misride into my ONE non Chronojet VG, but Warp Drive + Ur Watar and History Maker allowed me to dig out of what was an awkward start and I manage to get the Gear engine rolling on my following Phoenix, Nextage and Warp Drive turns and overwhelm him with my attack strings. He never properly sets up his board to deal with mine whereas I do and it's never really close. I only went to 5 damage so I could Heal Block and have CB.
After that, Jordan arrived and we decided to relay fight! My team mates were our resident non Bad End Spike player and the guy I just played. We agreed to have the Spike player lead with Dudley, I would follow up with Vanquisher as playing Cancer Gears in this format is kind of BM and our last player would be Nightrose because Granblue is REALLY good in the format.
Dudley/Vanquisher/Nightrose vs Ahsha/Messiah/Gear Chronicle (Win)
Dudley had a decent start, but the Ahsha player kept flipping triggers at the worst timing, so ultimately he got defeated. I start with 9 cards and not only do I not see Vanquisher among them, but 6 of them are triggers. I make due by going into Voltage and using Rock Climb to set up a bind zone and get the kill and end up having to deal with Link Joker. Fortunately this isn't Chaos so I just have to outlast some of the locks and thanks to Dudley Jessica's defensive skill, I have a 13k Vanguard which made it easier to guard his shit. I Voltage again and build up some more binds and we go back and forth before I start threatening him with 2 straight VMAX pushes that don't go through, but whittle down his resources before I kill him with a Conquest. I don't last long against Gears, opting to give our third player a hand to work with and he doesn't see Nightrose, but he still has enough cards to close the game out in a few turns.
Dudley/Vanquisher/Nightrose vs Great Nature/Musketeer/Diablo
I'm so glad I didn't have to lead as the amount of resist units in Great Nature now is ridiculous. Instead the opponent goes on and on about the cards he'll draw, this and that but then he got Spike Brother'd before he could Breakride Legion. RIP.
Musketeer player comes in and makes a suboptimal Legion play, Dudley fights back to pick away at the hand and is finally defeated in the face of a swoll Blizza. This time I get to see a G3 and Mighty Bolt so I search a Vanquisher after striding Voltage and just chip away at his board before going to face with Conquest or something. I know I end up facing the Diablo player soon after and he goes into a SBD and eats enough of his board away while not checking a trigger in 4 checks that I get off the easiest VMAX of the day and ping him. Then I opt to die with a 9 card hand so our Nightrose player can combo. Unfortunately we ran out of time and Tramps had to close before we could finish, so it ended up never panning out but I can assume that we would have won on the following Gouache turn.
So that was that.
Props
-Got to get some more play testing in with Vanquisher outside of CFA because fuuuuuuuuuuck that place.
-Found another Neo Nectar player who knows about the Sunwheel deck!
-It was absurdly awesome how Dudley Jessica carried Spike Brothers and Narukami on her back.
-Every time you win off of VMAX's ping effect it's a Pro.
Cons
-That feeling when someone double perfect guards to avoid VMAX.
-Not seeing Vanquisher in my opening hand of 9 in both relays.
Anyway one of them wanted to play a game against someone and I volunteered;
Vanquisher vs Gear Chronicle (2-0)
This one wasn't a fleshed out Gear deck so I didn't have to worry about the Cancer Combos which made defending against his plays alot easier. He left things out on the board for me to kill every turn which helped me set up 2 large Voltage turns and a Conquest that got in there. Second game he makes me start and I land a couple Chatura hits and see my draws, so I'm able to keep advantage while doing Narukami things and kill him with a Conquest.
After I had another game against a different person
Vanquisher vs Nightrose (1-0)
We both try to anti meta a bit as I stay on G1 for a turn, then I re-rode to 2 to avoid Seabreeze with the 2 being Martial Arts Dragon to get a retire/bind off and lastly he let my first stride Voltage hit and I just so happen to hit his Grenache and lone Negrolazy which slowed him down ALOT. From there its a grind as while he is able to keep his front row clear due to hollow, he kept leaving Negrobones out in the backrow which were easy pickings for my G2s to retire which in turn set up Chain Bolts who set up Bulwark Dragon who set up Conquest/Voltage. Surprising level of synergy we've got going here. Anyway I'm able to survive his pushes and push back with my own strides, put him to 5 damage and finally VMAX him.
Cancerjet vs Nightrose (1-0)
So I misride into my ONE non Chronojet VG, but Warp Drive + Ur Watar and History Maker allowed me to dig out of what was an awkward start and I manage to get the Gear engine rolling on my following Phoenix, Nextage and Warp Drive turns and overwhelm him with my attack strings. He never properly sets up his board to deal with mine whereas I do and it's never really close. I only went to 5 damage so I could Heal Block and have CB.
After that, Jordan arrived and we decided to relay fight! My team mates were our resident non Bad End Spike player and the guy I just played. We agreed to have the Spike player lead with Dudley, I would follow up with Vanquisher as playing Cancer Gears in this format is kind of BM and our last player would be Nightrose because Granblue is REALLY good in the format.
Dudley/Vanquisher/Nightrose vs Ahsha/Messiah/Gear Chronicle (Win)
Dudley had a decent start, but the Ahsha player kept flipping triggers at the worst timing, so ultimately he got defeated. I start with 9 cards and not only do I not see Vanquisher among them, but 6 of them are triggers. I make due by going into Voltage and using Rock Climb to set up a bind zone and get the kill and end up having to deal with Link Joker. Fortunately this isn't Chaos so I just have to outlast some of the locks and thanks to Dudley Jessica's defensive skill, I have a 13k Vanguard which made it easier to guard his shit. I Voltage again and build up some more binds and we go back and forth before I start threatening him with 2 straight VMAX pushes that don't go through, but whittle down his resources before I kill him with a Conquest. I don't last long against Gears, opting to give our third player a hand to work with and he doesn't see Nightrose, but he still has enough cards to close the game out in a few turns.
Dudley/Vanquisher/Nightrose vs Great Nature/Musketeer/Diablo
I'm so glad I didn't have to lead as the amount of resist units in Great Nature now is ridiculous. Instead the opponent goes on and on about the cards he'll draw, this and that but then he got Spike Brother'd before he could Breakride Legion. RIP.
Musketeer player comes in and makes a suboptimal Legion play, Dudley fights back to pick away at the hand and is finally defeated in the face of a swoll Blizza. This time I get to see a G3 and Mighty Bolt so I search a Vanquisher after striding Voltage and just chip away at his board before going to face with Conquest or something. I know I end up facing the Diablo player soon after and he goes into a SBD and eats enough of his board away while not checking a trigger in 4 checks that I get off the easiest VMAX of the day and ping him. Then I opt to die with a 9 card hand so our Nightrose player can combo. Unfortunately we ran out of time and Tramps had to close before we could finish, so it ended up never panning out but I can assume that we would have won on the following Gouache turn.
So that was that.
Props
-Got to get some more play testing in with Vanquisher outside of CFA because fuuuuuuuuuuck that place.
-Found another Neo Nectar player who knows about the Sunwheel deck!
-It was absurdly awesome how Dudley Jessica carried Spike Brothers and Narukami on her back.
-Every time you win off of VMAX's ping effect it's a Pro.
Cons
-That feeling when someone double perfect guards to avoid VMAX.
-Not seeing Vanquisher in my opening hand of 9 in both relays.
Sunday, 15 January 2017
Some Thunder Support - Thunder Dancer
I'm like *this* close to making a mock Light Thunder Structure Deck just because there's barely enough non Batteryman/Watt cards out there to fill out a list. Making up 5 cards to support would be easy enough outside of trying to create a good boss monster. I like the route they're going with Ultimate Conductor Tyranno though, so perhaps something that's as easy to summon as Master Hyperion but with an effect that's adjusted to power creep?
Anywho this is something I came up with the other day;
Thunder Dancer
Rank 4 Light
Thunder/Xyz/Effect/2000/1400
2 Level 4 Monsters
Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 Level 5 or lower Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard. You can only use the effect of "Thunder Dancer" once per turn.
It's simple, the materials are generic and its range is just enough that you can summon any Thunder Dragons you may have in hand/discarded to the graveyard. Notably you can go Ma/Pahunder + Brohunder, add Rai-Oh, Xyz into this, detach Ma/Pa and revive it, then Normal summon Rai-Oh.
Anywho this is something I came up with the other day;
Thunder Dancer
Rank 4 Light
Thunder/Xyz/Effect/2000/1400
2 Level 4 Monsters
Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 Level 5 or lower Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard. You can only use the effect of "Thunder Dancer" once per turn.
It's simple, the materials are generic and its range is just enough that you can summon any Thunder Dragons you may have in hand/discarded to the graveyard. Notably you can go Ma/Pahunder + Brohunder, add Rai-Oh, Xyz into this, detach Ma/Pa and revive it, then Normal summon Rai-Oh.
Saturday, 7 January 2017
CFV Locals Report - Except Not Really
Kinda digging for straws here as there really hasn't been much of a locals scene for the last while. We have the playerbase for it, but conflicting schedules has made it harder to actually organize any weekly tournaments which in turn makes it difficult for me to get legit games in outside of CFA which is notoriously iffy for testing. I did play about 3 matches worth of games though which equates to the number of rounds of a YGO Locals so fuck it let's roll with this. I REALLY wanted to test out my ideas for Dragonic Vanquisher and EDD in an actual gameplay setting and that's what I did;
Round 1 - Descendant/Sweep vs Galahad/Altmile
Yeah it's against a bad deck among bad decks but my deck here is a glass cannon among glass cannons so short of mirage decks, the matchup doesn't matter here as it's more of can my deck do its thing? If it does then the chances of winning go up exponentially. If not then I'm playing a worse Vanquisher Deck.
Anyway in both games I get the start which allows me to put some early pressure with Chatura and come my Stride Turn I have multiple chances of trigger First Thunder Dracokid's skill (Zorras and Voltage Horn). In Game 1 I whiff the first Sweep Command attempt but hit it on the following turn while in the other I resolve both superior Rides and put him to 5 damage going into a Zillion Turn.
Round 2 - Descendant/Sweep vs Nubatama
We both G-Assist and he gets really lucky with hand snipes, taking away my G-Guardian that legitimately would have given me a chance to survive his turn so I die despite somewhat fighting back having gotten a Sweep Command ride off. I'm impressed that the success rate of performing the combo seems to be at the 50% range by the time I get to my Stride turn but still salt over having to deal with Nubas. Fuck that deck.
Round 3 - Luard vs Fenrir
I decided to borrow Derrick's deck as with a $800+ price tag I am in NO WAY attempting to build that. Christ even my Gear Chronicle Deck doesn't match up to that.
Anyway I make plays and win off advantage and aggression. I'm sure I played the deck differently than others as my playstyle for Vanguard tends to be less on the now and more of the turn after when it comes to decks that need to manage their resources (ie Granblue).
Round 4 - Vanquisher vs Nightrose (2-0)
And then Allen asked to play a match. Hoo boy. The Granblue matchup for Narus is iffy at best due to them being able to make their board go away. We're slightly better equipped to deal with it than Kagero due to having better G-Units but them not having things to kill can be a problem. That being said he makes some odd moves, chiefly not playing out the matchup vs Narukami proper and as the result I punish him by killing and binding his Negrolazy, Cannoneer, Negrobone and Gauche in the first game followed by a Vanquisher Voltage push that he didn't have enough to guard following Voltage landing a hit. Game 2 I get a Chatura hit in and he again calls out a board but leaves a few things for me to kill so I'm able to get to Thunderstrike 5 quickly, but end up having to use up my hand trying to survive his G4 Nightrose push and am topdecking. I don't top a stride, but force him to use up some hand lest he deal with a 3 crit Vanquisher while checking double Heals so I'm able to survive his second push, top nothing relevant and win via flipping a draw trigger to his 3 card hand.
So close games basically. The Granblue matchup based on observation is I'd say a toss up. If they get rolling and you have a weak hand you'll probably die. On the other hand if you can get some key binds (Negrolazy, Gauche) it slows down their ability to be aggressive.
And that was it as I left pretty much immediately due to getting hungry.
Props
-Finally got some IRL games in with Narus
-EDD/Sweep performed okayish. It's by no means able to compete with the meta but against decks of its class (Raging Form) it's actually really good.
-Pulled a Mond Blau from my packs.
-Picked up some AqF Adelaides. Thavas is going to be a long term project like Viktor and Blue Wave
Slops
-Getting sacked by Nubatama
-Failing on the rest of my pack pulls
Round 1 - Descendant/Sweep vs Galahad/Altmile
Yeah it's against a bad deck among bad decks but my deck here is a glass cannon among glass cannons so short of mirage decks, the matchup doesn't matter here as it's more of can my deck do its thing? If it does then the chances of winning go up exponentially. If not then I'm playing a worse Vanquisher Deck.
Anyway in both games I get the start which allows me to put some early pressure with Chatura and come my Stride Turn I have multiple chances of trigger First Thunder Dracokid's skill (Zorras and Voltage Horn). In Game 1 I whiff the first Sweep Command attempt but hit it on the following turn while in the other I resolve both superior Rides and put him to 5 damage going into a Zillion Turn.
Round 2 - Descendant/Sweep vs Nubatama
We both G-Assist and he gets really lucky with hand snipes, taking away my G-Guardian that legitimately would have given me a chance to survive his turn so I die despite somewhat fighting back having gotten a Sweep Command ride off. I'm impressed that the success rate of performing the combo seems to be at the 50% range by the time I get to my Stride turn but still salt over having to deal with Nubas. Fuck that deck.
Round 3 - Luard vs Fenrir
I decided to borrow Derrick's deck as with a $800+ price tag I am in NO WAY attempting to build that. Christ even my Gear Chronicle Deck doesn't match up to that.
Anyway I make plays and win off advantage and aggression. I'm sure I played the deck differently than others as my playstyle for Vanguard tends to be less on the now and more of the turn after when it comes to decks that need to manage their resources (ie Granblue).
Round 4 - Vanquisher vs Nightrose (2-0)
And then Allen asked to play a match. Hoo boy. The Granblue matchup for Narus is iffy at best due to them being able to make their board go away. We're slightly better equipped to deal with it than Kagero due to having better G-Units but them not having things to kill can be a problem. That being said he makes some odd moves, chiefly not playing out the matchup vs Narukami proper and as the result I punish him by killing and binding his Negrolazy, Cannoneer, Negrobone and Gauche in the first game followed by a Vanquisher Voltage push that he didn't have enough to guard following Voltage landing a hit. Game 2 I get a Chatura hit in and he again calls out a board but leaves a few things for me to kill so I'm able to get to Thunderstrike 5 quickly, but end up having to use up my hand trying to survive his G4 Nightrose push and am topdecking. I don't top a stride, but force him to use up some hand lest he deal with a 3 crit Vanquisher while checking double Heals so I'm able to survive his second push, top nothing relevant and win via flipping a draw trigger to his 3 card hand.
So close games basically. The Granblue matchup based on observation is I'd say a toss up. If they get rolling and you have a weak hand you'll probably die. On the other hand if you can get some key binds (Negrolazy, Gauche) it slows down their ability to be aggressive.
And that was it as I left pretty much immediately due to getting hungry.
Props
-Finally got some IRL games in with Narus
-EDD/Sweep performed okayish. It's by no means able to compete with the meta but against decks of its class (Raging Form) it's actually really good.
-Pulled a Mond Blau from my packs.
-Picked up some AqF Adelaides. Thavas is going to be a long term project like Viktor and Blue Wave
Slops
-Getting sacked by Nubatama
-Failing on the rest of my pack pulls
Monday, 12 December 2016
YGO Locals Report - "EVERYTHING IS SH*T!"
He's right you know. Hell I don't see much of a reason to really write anything here because everything really does feel like shit. I don't like formats like the one we're in where matches can be literally decided by the diceroll because every deck's goal is to not let you play. There's no pretense of a long grind and if there is it's not a long, daring game of trying to outwit the other player. No instead it's because both players drew shit and are trying to play out of those hands. In some cases it doesn't even matter who the players involved are as by simply going first, you can very well win the entire match! I suppose the fact that I went to a tournament for the last time this year and was able to stay for the entire duration of it is worth mentioning seeing as Matt loves to bring up my never being present at locals yet has showed up even less than I have and the one time he does show up...he leaves almost immediately after.
Anyway I decided to play ABC as I was yet to use the deck in actual tournament play and I liked Blair Hunters approach to the deck. Empowerment raises the ceiling and drawing your "Garnets" isn't the worst as they have actual viable Pendulum effects that let A and B beat over Vanity's Fiend in the Darklord matchup. It was either that or Yang Zing and I didn't have that deck randomized nor felt like shuffling it so I went with this, but made sure to add a pair of Dark Hole to clear boards and push in.
Round 1 - vs Brilliant ABC (2-1)
I won the dieroll therefore I won the match.
Round 2 - vs Kaiju (2-1)
Kaiju decks suck.
Round 3 - vs Buji-I mean Paleozoic (0-2)
Helmet's too strong.
Top 4 - vs Woodhouse featuring Darklords (2-0)
H seck I outpel, i r teh gurst EDITOR'S NOTE: Woodhouse's Spellchecker is still currently Forbidden on the current banlist.
Finals - vs I keep wanting to call it Bujin (0-2)
Some days you are able to overcome a helmet deck. This was not that day for me.
And that was it. Yay.
...what, you were expecting memes? Me ripping into people? More complaining about YGO? I'm not Skull. I'm not going to endlessly whine and complain about the meta being too this or that because I've known for a long time the way things have been going. I've fielded my complaints and the people who've been willing to hear them out have heard them out. Today if anything reaffirmed my position and I really don't have anymore to say about that. As for the next time I participate in a YGO Locals? Who knows? I want NO part of Zodiac Beast format and no amount of Fluffals or Eidolon Beasts are going to change that.
Well okay it IS starting to get annoying seeing people with all the funds in the world at their fingertips literally buy every deck out there in any game, be mediocre at playing ALL OF THEM and because one of those decks is actually a Minerva deck with a Minerva he is very likely going to top the next Regionals solely on the back of it. On the other hand it would be hilarious as hell if he scrubbed out despite having a Minerva as it would prove that you cannot simply buy a deck and expect it to get you a guaranteed Regional Top. Right Qliphort players?
Sunday, 6 November 2016
YGO Locals Report - Red-Eyed Disappointment
Oh boy, a Yu-Gi-Oh! Locals report! Haven't seen one of these in a while.
Honestly I've been to a few of these in the last couple months despite what Matt would imply. I just haven't bothered to post any of them as each tourney I've gone to has been;
Round 1 - get sacked by Derrick via Vanity's Emptiness Game 1 and lose game 2 because I brick.
Round 2 - whatever I play bricks horribly and I lose to some retard OR I'm paired against Nord and he's not playing a legit deck (compared to what he normally would use) and it ends up being the one match I open the literal nuts and win.
Round 3 - I get paired up with one of our literally handicapped players and I don't draw aids (ie hands in which I could probably give Ryan and Stove a good fight) and scrape them.
Repeat ad nauseam and you'll have a summary of the last couple months of YGO for me. Tis what I get for not playing Blue-Eyes when I should or tossing aside what skill I've got and piloting ABC. It's unfortunate as I want to play more combo style decks but I swear to whatever gods there are that they do not want me to play them given the hands I keep seeing when I pilot them compared to the hands Nord draws when he picks up the same deck and does test play. Really deck?
Anyway this time I'll actually do a report as there hasn't been a Vanguard tournament for a while so until Set 9 comes out I really don't have much to talk about. That and I also tried to give Red-Eyes a go which the last time I did I ended up ragequitting Tramps after getting 2-0'd by someone I had no business losing to. I based the build on the Viral list that topped a Japanese tournament that was anti-ABC and since our locals is supposedly "always ABC" according to some people around here when in fact it's only 1 or two people at most playing the deck but no I'm gonna overside for the deck anyway I figured I might be able to steal a match or two.
Round 1 - v Raidraptors (2-0)
This deck is fucking terrible. Don't let any pleb tell you otherwise. All those cards you keep searching?
They.
Do.
Nothing.
Your phantom advantage is meaningless if all you ever do is wall up with weenie monsters while trying to resolve shave force or get to Ultimate Falcon. You don't need Ultimate Falcon to win and are gonna show that by summoning something else? Fantastic! Your other Xyz monsters are easy to deal with and god help you if someone stops your normal summon since this deck needs to field shit in order to get moving.
Seriously people keep calling this a new Blackwing deck? Lol. Blackwings even in their power creeped and archaic state are FAR better than this trash. They actually make offensive plays from the onset and have REAL extra deck threats. Sort of.
Or you could play an actual combo/control deck like what Raidraptors want to be and pilot Metalfoes rather than sucking the dick of the obligatory edgelord of every anime like all these RR players do.
But seriously this deck is bad and the only time I've lost to it is when my opponent has opened with Vanity's Emptiness or multiple summon negates. So basically to generic backrow and not the deck itself. Raidraptors provided you don't brick and they don't open with a bajillion Solemns should be an easy win and that was the case here. I summoned Meteor Comet Black Dragon, beat face and made sure that he could never summon Ultimate Falcon and that was that in both games.
Round 2 - vs ABC (0-2)
It's Woodhouse. I basically have to open god to have a chance against him. I open the complete opposite of that and lose Game 1 while Game 2 I open with a brick hand while he opens playable. My Chaos Hunter gets Strike'd and I open with too many Winter Cherries so I literally cannot do anything in the face of R4 beats.
Round 3 - vs ABC (0-2)
This one was just unfortunate. I open with Chaos Hunter and drop it...only to find out he's playing the Galaxy Soldier build so my plan literally goes up in smoke and I have no plays after he drops Infinity + Buster. Game 2 I have to literally pass with nothing and he opens Hangar + Soldier with a hand to make it live, plays into my Maxx "C" and despite giving me +5-6 draws and allowing me to resolve multiple Allures I cannot draw into a hand that outs ABC Buster and Infinity and so I'm done and not in a good mood afterwards. Not as angry as the last time I played this deck but still miffed enough that I didn't want to sit around and wait for the rest of the tournament to play out with a sour taste in my mouth so I ultimately decided to leave. Not long after getting home I ended up napping for a few hours. I'm sure I disappointed some people by not sticking around for our usual Robins/BK shenanigans but honestly I was probably going to be grouchy the entire day given the circumstances. I mean hell even after the nap I'm still pretty salt with with this tournament report.
Props
-I finished Red-Eyes, Subterrors and even picked up Terrortops and Denglongs for Yang Zing and future deck projects
-I got to flash the cash with my somewhat blinged out Red-Eyes deck.
-I savaged Kody. That's always a prop
Slops
-When my deck didn't want me to win, it pretty much slapped me in the face with a giant fuck you. 4 Red-Eyes, a Return of the Dragon Lords AND Eradicator? I mean I may as well just bend over and let Bubba do his thing.
-Holy shit Allen is irritating as fuck when he's in the peanut gallery during your match. Pretty much the entire time I played Cobb he was beating off to ABC which makes it REALLY frustrating to play out a losing match.
Honestly I've been to a few of these in the last couple months despite what Matt would imply. I just haven't bothered to post any of them as each tourney I've gone to has been;
Round 1 - get sacked by Derrick via Vanity's Emptiness Game 1 and lose game 2 because I brick.
Round 2 - whatever I play bricks horribly and I lose to some retard OR I'm paired against Nord and he's not playing a legit deck (compared to what he normally would use) and it ends up being the one match I open the literal nuts and win.
Round 3 - I get paired up with one of our literally handicapped players and I don't draw aids (ie hands in which I could probably give Ryan and Stove a good fight) and scrape them.
Repeat ad nauseam and you'll have a summary of the last couple months of YGO for me. Tis what I get for not playing Blue-Eyes when I should or tossing aside what skill I've got and piloting ABC. It's unfortunate as I want to play more combo style decks but I swear to whatever gods there are that they do not want me to play them given the hands I keep seeing when I pilot them compared to the hands Nord draws when he picks up the same deck and does test play. Really deck?
Anyway this time I'll actually do a report as there hasn't been a Vanguard tournament for a while so until Set 9 comes out I really don't have much to talk about. That and I also tried to give Red-Eyes a go which the last time I did I ended up ragequitting Tramps after getting 2-0'd by someone I had no business losing to. I based the build on the Viral list that topped a Japanese tournament that was anti-ABC and since our locals is supposedly "always ABC" according to some people around here when in fact it's only 1 or two people at most playing the deck but no I'm gonna overside for the deck anyway I figured I might be able to steal a match or two.
Round 1 - v Raidraptors (2-0)
This deck is fucking terrible. Don't let any pleb tell you otherwise. All those cards you keep searching?
They.
Do.
Nothing.
Your phantom advantage is meaningless if all you ever do is wall up with weenie monsters while trying to resolve shave force or get to Ultimate Falcon. You don't need Ultimate Falcon to win and are gonna show that by summoning something else? Fantastic! Your other Xyz monsters are easy to deal with and god help you if someone stops your normal summon since this deck needs to field shit in order to get moving.
Seriously people keep calling this a new Blackwing deck? Lol. Blackwings even in their power creeped and archaic state are FAR better than this trash. They actually make offensive plays from the onset and have REAL extra deck threats. Sort of.
Or you could play an actual combo/control deck like what Raidraptors want to be and pilot Metalfoes rather than sucking the dick of the obligatory edgelord of every anime like all these RR players do.
But seriously this deck is bad and the only time I've lost to it is when my opponent has opened with Vanity's Emptiness or multiple summon negates. So basically to generic backrow and not the deck itself. Raidraptors provided you don't brick and they don't open with a bajillion Solemns should be an easy win and that was the case here. I summoned Meteor Comet Black Dragon, beat face and made sure that he could never summon Ultimate Falcon and that was that in both games.
Round 2 - vs ABC (0-2)
It's Woodhouse. I basically have to open god to have a chance against him. I open the complete opposite of that and lose Game 1 while Game 2 I open with a brick hand while he opens playable. My Chaos Hunter gets Strike'd and I open with too many Winter Cherries so I literally cannot do anything in the face of R4 beats.
Round 3 - vs ABC (0-2)
This one was just unfortunate. I open with Chaos Hunter and drop it...only to find out he's playing the Galaxy Soldier build so my plan literally goes up in smoke and I have no plays after he drops Infinity + Buster. Game 2 I have to literally pass with nothing and he opens Hangar + Soldier with a hand to make it live, plays into my Maxx "C" and despite giving me +5-6 draws and allowing me to resolve multiple Allures I cannot draw into a hand that outs ABC Buster and Infinity and so I'm done and not in a good mood afterwards. Not as angry as the last time I played this deck but still miffed enough that I didn't want to sit around and wait for the rest of the tournament to play out with a sour taste in my mouth so I ultimately decided to leave. Not long after getting home I ended up napping for a few hours. I'm sure I disappointed some people by not sticking around for our usual Robins/BK shenanigans but honestly I was probably going to be grouchy the entire day given the circumstances. I mean hell even after the nap I'm still pretty salt with with this tournament report.
Props
-I finished Red-Eyes, Subterrors and even picked up Terrortops and Denglongs for Yang Zing and future deck projects
-I got to flash the cash with my somewhat blinged out Red-Eyes deck.
-I savaged Kody. That's always a prop
Slops
-When my deck didn't want me to win, it pretty much slapped me in the face with a giant fuck you. 4 Red-Eyes, a Return of the Dragon Lords AND Eradicator? I mean I may as well just bend over and let Bubba do his thing.
-Holy shit Allen is irritating as fuck when he's in the peanut gallery during your match. Pretty much the entire time I played Cobb he was beating off to ABC which makes it REALLY frustrating to play out a losing match.
Friday, 4 November 2016
Even more Thunder Stuff! Obelisk returns!
Well I've established a tempo so I might as well roll with it. Here are some cards that allow you to make Thunder Max Dragon. No pictures though;
Storm Deity Avatar - Obelisk
Level 4 Wind
Thunder/Effect/2100/1600
This card is treated as a Normal Monster while in the Deck or Graveyard. An Xyz Monster whose original attribute is Wind with this card as Xyz Material gains this effect.
● When this card is Xyz Summoned: Your opponent destroys one card they control and if they do, banish it.
Storm Deity Avatar - Obelisk
Level 4 Wind
Thunder/Effect/2100/1600
This card is treated as a Normal Monster while in the Deck or Graveyard. An Xyz Monster whose original attribute is Wind with this card as Xyz Material gains this effect.
● When this card is Xyz Summoned: Your opponent destroys one card they control and if they do, banish it.
Now imagine all the ways you get to abuse Normal Monster support and this guy. Unexpected Dai pulls him out of the deck, Swing of Memories brings him back and Rescue Rabbit summons 2 Obelisks! His removal effect also stacks so if you make a Lightning Chidori or Castel your opponent has to blow up and banish 2 cards on their field on top of of whatever you're spinning. His effect also triggers if you Rank Up the Xyz Monster he's attached to.
Storm Deity - Obelisk the Green Slayer
Rank 4 Wind
Thunder/Xyz/Effect/2500/2000
2 Level 4 Thunder-Type Monsters
During your Standby Phase, if this card has an "Obelisk" monster attached as Xyz Material: You can Special Summon from your Extra Deck, 1 Rank 5 or 6 Wind monster, except a "Number" monster, by using this face-up card you control as the Xyz Material. (This is treated as an Xyz Summon. Xyz Materials attached to this card also become Xyz Materials on the Summoned monster.) You can only use this effect of "Storm Deity - Obelisk the Green Slayer" once per turn. IF this card attacks a defense position special summoned monster, inflict double piercing battle damage. Once per turn: You can detatch 1 Xyz Material from this card; this card gains 500 attack and the following effect, until the end phase.
●This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each.
And this would be Obelisk's evolved form. Like any iteration of Obelisk he has the ability to attack multiple enemies and pierce defenses ala his Net Navi form and he also has the ability to rank up into stronger Wind Xyz Monsters...like Thunder Max Dragon! Now granted ObeliskTGS has to safely hit the board, stay alive through the opponent's turn AND make it to your turn with an Obelisk Xyz Material in order to rank up into something scary. If anything I may have made him too balanced for 2016 Yu-Gi-Oh! (if anything his upgrade effect should be in either Standby much like how Thunder Max Dragon should banish a card for every 2 cards your opponent has banished...) although from a writing standpoint, I think the card is just fine as a boss monster. Blatantly OP shit is best saved for the Zexal style end of series boss fights what with the 50 million attack you have to attack this thing or lose the duel nonsense.
●This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each.
And this would be Obelisk's evolved form. Like any iteration of Obelisk he has the ability to attack multiple enemies and pierce defenses ala his Net Navi form and he also has the ability to rank up into stronger Wind Xyz Monsters...like Thunder Max Dragon! Now granted ObeliskTGS has to safely hit the board, stay alive through the opponent's turn AND make it to your turn with an Obelisk Xyz Material in order to rank up into something scary. If anything I may have made him too balanced for 2016 Yu-Gi-Oh! (if anything his upgrade effect should be in either Standby much like how Thunder Max Dragon should banish a card for every 2 cards your opponent has banished...) although from a writing standpoint, I think the card is just fine as a boss monster. Blatantly OP shit is best saved for the Zexal style end of series boss fights what with the 50 million attack you have to attack this thing or lose the duel nonsense.
Wednesday, 2 November 2016
Supreme Storm Deity - Thunder Max Dragon
I had an idea for an impromptu boss monster of the Storm Deity deck I've been working on;
Supreme Storm Deity - Thunder Max Dragon
Rank 5 Wind
Thunder/Xyz/Effect/3000/2500
3 Level 5 Thunder-Type Monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card; for every 3 of your opponent's banished cards, your opponent banishes cards from their hand or side of the field. If 5 or more cards were banished by this effect, this card deals double battle damage during this turn's Battle Phase.
Since it's already been established that Storm Deity are a deck that destroys banishes your opponent's cards through the effects of its main deck monsters (and some of its extra deck monsters) then it only makes sense that all this would be leading towards a boss monster who has an effect based on your opponent's banished pile. In addition to having non targeting field removal he also can potentially attack the hand if the opponent has no board to wipe which can make him devastating against decks that commit no cards to the board but still have a banish pile like Psy-Frames. Lastly if he's able to banish alot of cards, he deals 2x damage during the battle phase which is a clean 6000 damage or more against an open board.
And yes he's basically a +3 if your opponent has played at least 1 Pot of Desires.
Sunday, 18 September 2016
Winnipeg Regionals Report - All these places...
I honestly forgot to even do this and to be honest I don't have it in me to write a concise report. Instead I'll just link to my video that does the exact same thing. Right down to the part where I call out the faggot PSY-Frame player.
Remember folks. Friends don't let friends play PSY-Frames. Or Monarchs.
Remember folks. Friends don't let friends play PSY-Frames. Or Monarchs.
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