LoL Play it nao

I've disappeared because League of Legends is sucking my time. The game is completely free to play, so you should check it out.

http://www.leagueoflegends.com/

The game plays a lot like DotA and is comparable to the WoW Battlegrounds.

Find me on it, my screen name is Et3rnal13.

~E.P.B.

Locals and Such

Yesterday was local day, ended up getting 5th with Batteryman. Got my first glimpse at how well Infernities work. The deck is pretty legit.

I've also started playing the video game Demon Souls for anybody who is interested in that sort of thing. My character is a knight, and is currently dead...-.-; It's hard sometimes, since players can leave hints it's hard to figure out what is a good hint/tip and what you shouldn't worry about.

For exampole throughout one of the levels in the game there were hints dropped warning of ambushes with a lot of bloodstains by them. Well the "ambush" turns out to be 1 or 2 guys, with the other players just being horrible. Then I came across the same thing warniong of a tough enemy and thought "it can't be that bad" and then just getting destroyed. Bleh x.x

Interview with Rauzes

So for todays blog post, which I'm sure no one really reads, but whatever. I have an interview with Rauzes. Rauzes could be called one of the pioneers of the yu-gi-oh blogging world. His blog is one of the most popular and he has also had success in the game with pioneering the Junk and Debris deck. His current blog project is a group project. So without further adieu here is the interview. (My posts are in regular font, his are in italics)

Hi

HI! Im Rauzes. Nice to meet ya.

So for starters, what do you think you are most known for in the yu-gi-oh world?

Hmm. If anything, I think I would easily be most famous for my Yu-gi-oh blog. Before starting the blog I was also mildly famous for being in Japan and speaking English, but only to a small amount of people. The blog was what really catapulted me(and the blogging bandwagon in general) to fame.

What is your biggest inspiration when creating decks?

Initially, when I was creating a large amount of decks with much less regard to their practical application, they were mostly based on individual and small combos that look spectacular. Hence, by browsing through(mainly common or underused) cards, I think and brainstorm ways that they can be used together, and especially how to counter this threat(usually my brain jumps straight to Skill Drain, Nuke Field, or both.) If the combo proves slightly practical, I find cards that can support this in general, like cards that generate tokens on the opponents field for Alector, etc, and before you know it, a deck is born, proxies are made, and testing begins. Because some of these combos aren’t so practical, the end product is almost always a fun based deck.


As the creator of the Junk and Debris deck, where did you first get the idea for the deck?

The first inspiration was when Debris Dragon first came out. I tried to combine Junk Synchron decks and Debris Dragon decks to VERY BAD results. I kinda abandoned the idea for quite a while(because it was sorta slow and dead), but I saw the wreckage of two cars at night(no joke), and it suddenly hit me that Cross Porter and Neo Spacian Glow Moss have synergy with each other, and with Junk and Debris, respectively. I went home and double checked the sheer amount of synergy within plain sight, and wrote up the decklist for the original Junk and Debris in Space.

What were your thoughts as the J&D deck became more and more popular (almost gathering a sort of cult-like following)?

Pretty much “Whoa. Wut?”. As the deck developed speed, synergy, etc, the stability skyrocketed. Being one of the most avid players of Junk and Debris, I knew first hand how many combos could be pulled off, and especially how easy they were to do. Whilst pulling off combos is what makes a deck fun, and having many combos hidden all over the place makes it much more fun, doing so decrease synergy. However, Junk and Debris has managed to curb the lost synergy without sacrificing the incredible “fun factor”. Heck, even summoning a Junk Synchron into Catastor feels GREAT, regardless of the bottomless trap hole it triggered. Hence, stability + incredibly fun = everyone wants to run it. The fact that it actually works and could stand up to many decks quite well certainly helped. If you considered it a fun deck, it was near the pinnacle of how fun they can be.

I’ve asked a few questions about Junk and Debris, but another thing I want to know is what are you most proud of when it comes to your accomplishments in yu-gi-oh?

Achieving a cult following :P Not many people can boast such an achievement, especially if the only history of SJCs they have are 2-2:ing, not topping/winning a few.

You’re blog was one of the most popular blogs when it came to yu-gi-oh, what were the reasons for deciding to start up blogging again?

For Honor, Righteousness, and Leadership, but mostly boredom. Of course I had some people to ask to start blogging again, so that definitely contributed. Also, about a month or two after quitting, my life sorted itself out(though starting completely new at university definitely helped), and I started to accumulate great combos/ideas in Yugioh on my hard drive, with a lack of ways to share them. Cue G-Ray having a new blog and less and less time to update it, so we decided to join forces to maintain a steady flow of new ideas/combos and less pressure of either of us.

Since the blog you are part of is primarily OCG based (although being relevant to everyone) what do you feel the biggest difference between the OCG and TCG is?

Other than the card pool, I find TCG is more hardcore into theory, whilst OCG has the liberty of (most of the time) cheaper cards, and hence can test more varieties of decks, and thus is more concerned with the practical aspect(we calculate card balance differently, for starters.) Also in my experience with TCG tournaments (though I’ve only attended 1 local and 1 SJC), people are less daring and risk taking, and my “Overextension” wasn’t exactly heralded.

What do you think TCG players can learn from and by observing the OCG?

High risk also means high return, and also do remember that most of the time, WE HAVE THE CARDS FIRST, and Chances are, if a TCG exclusive isn’t involved, WE’VE TRIED IT, and it DOESN’T WORK.


What do you feel are some of the biggest misconceptions about the OCG?

That all those tournaments listed on Shriek are the equivalent of regionals and such. They’re not. Of course others do exist(such as we use Raigeki Break instead of PWWB), but the TCG tends to forget the OCG exists most of the time. Oh, and the thought that all our cards are cheaper. Its not true. Some cards are more expensive, and commons are more cheaper over there.

I’ve often toyed with the idea of going to Japan (for yu-gi-oh, and other things >.>) would you recommend it to players and people interested in finding out what it's like?

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend a trip to a country to play Yugioh unless you know a good number of people that play Yugioh over there, as they can bring you around and help with the language barrier. I know of two bloggers who recently(a month or two ago or so… I think) made a trip to Japan to play(and tour, but that bit is irrelevant). I don’t think such a short time is enough to fully assess the differences, as most of it is just having fun. Also, its expensive. So, unless you’re loaded and have a lot of free time/have someone funding your trips for other reasons, youre better off going to a SJC… it’s a similar experience. That being said, I have found travelling around the world with my Yugioh cards to be a rather eye opening experience.

Well that’s it for now. It’s a little harder for me to do this without speaking directly to you, but I’m thinking those questions will cover a lot of what I wanted this interview to cover, but is there anything else you would like to add?

Nope.

Thank you for your time and this interview. It is very much appreciated.


Awesomes.

So there you you have it. Please remember to also pay attention to the blog he is part of.

http://onlytheduel.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html


Remember cats, stay classy.

~E.P.B.

Tempo Argument, Rehash

Since this article I wrote on my previous blog is gaining the attention I felt like it should have gotten now, I'm gfoing to repost this with some thoughts right here aat the beginning. The main thing being that one of my friends didn't think the article would be read because it was technical. For a bit there it was looking like he was right. Anyway he is it reposted.

The Tempo Argument

Chess. the gaining or losing of time and effectiveness relative to one's continued mobility or developing position, esp. with respectto the number of moves required to gain an objective: Black gained a tempo. ~ From Dictionary.com

Now, Yu-gi-oh is not chess, but the game does require set-up to the point where tempo plays a roll in the game. Tempo in Yu-gi-oh is a lot like how it was described in Chess. Tempo deals with the flow of the game, and how card advantage is interacting within a game of Yu-gi-oh. So here is my definition of tempo:

Tempo is the rate of play in a duel. Rate of play directly meaning the card advantage interactions that go on within that duel. Duels usually have different states of tempo. Tempo also deals with the number of options a person has in the game, much like card advantage. It is not just limited to the speed of the game.

If we look in Jason Grabher-Meyer’s article on Tempo, he lists the different rates of tempo and how they work. Being directly stated as the Slow Duel, Neutral Duel, and Fast Duel. To sum it up:

Slow Duel: Card exchanges rarely happens every turn. Both players can be viewed as building up resources.

Neutral Duel: Card exchanges are relatively even, both players maintain near equal card advantage.

Fast Duel: Card exchanges are relatively uneven, with one or both players using up card advantage faster than usual.

http://yugioh.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=1269~ Jason’s Tempo Article

The article discussed what the tempo states are, but did not mention the changing of the tempo states within a game, or how to directly analyze when the game state is about to change in a game. To understand this you must start at the beginning.

The first part of the in-game analysis is to ask yourself what role your deck is. Is your deck in the beatdown role or the control role? Miss-assigning deck roles can what cause a person to win or lose. Example being is that if your deck is in the beatdown role and is put into a control role than it will have less of a chance of winning, and vice versa.

More on this can be viewed in the MtG article of ‘Who’s the Beatdown?’ by Mike Flores. I know its Magic, but the central idea of the article is relevant to the game of Yu-gi-oh.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/3692.html ~Who’s the Beatdown Article

These roles will ultimately establish what you will want your tempo role to be. Most Beatdown decks want a fast game speed to establish a fast tempo. Most control decks want to establish a slow game speed with a slow tempo starting out and then developing into a fast tempo position where they are in control and gaining multiple pluses (cards like Oppression make this possible).

Changes in a deck’s role effects tempo a lot. Example being that a deck that attempts to establish a neutral tempo faces a deck that attempts to establish a slow tempo are playing each other. The slower deck is able to create a better control on the games tempo early on forcing the game to change completely making the neutral deck miss-assign it’s role. The deck that miss-assigns its tempo role is at a severe disadvantage because it is not playing it’s optimal game.

This is essentially an expanded idea of the ‘Who is the Beatdown’ idea from Magic, but deals less directly a deck’s role and more directly with what your deck needs to do to accomplish it’s role.

Much like the role of ‘Who is the Beatdown?’ you can also design your deck with different tempo rates in mind. For example, Lightsworn is a beatdown deck designed to have a fast duel tempo, making multiple +1 or +2 card exchanges possible where something like Pacman is a control deck that has a slow tempo in mind and making 1 for 1 tades while gaining advantage.

A fast duel tempo does not mean how fast your deck plays cards though. What determines the overall speed of your deck is the card commitment to the field, what determines the tempo is the card advantage exchanges in the game.

To know how tempo effects the game we must also know how it changes. For starters, changes in card advantage are important to determine the rate of play, as it is the number of options a person has in a given game state. As we saw in Jason’s article, the tempo rates are defined by card interactions. A change in card advantage can cause a change in tempo.

For example if both players have been committing to the field and making 1 for 1 trades for a Neutral duel tempo and then one person drops Judgment Dragon for a plus 1 or 2 over the next few turns, then game changed from a neutral tempo to a fast tempo. The other person must now catch up to the advantage lost by making a trade of his own like that. If the other person can not reduce the tempo to a slower one or keep up then he will probably lose. Losing cards in hand helps this even further, because it makes it that much harder to keep up with the same amount of commitment or duel tempo.

Knowing the speed of a game is important as well. The speed is also directly related to card advantage but deals with focusing on what is on the field more so. While card advantage determines what your options are, the game speed is something that effects the decisions you put towards the field and towards what you want to change the tempo into.

For example, early commitments to the field are a good example of this, changing the games speed and thus possibly changing the game’s tempo. An early commitment towards the field with a deck like Blackwings can force your opponent to have to commit more cards to keep up with you, which can in turn give you +1’s or +2’s and changing the game into a fast tempo. Something to pay attention to is that agressive committments like this can backfire.

A Game’s tempo does not always affect the game speed however. As we saw in the JD example the tempo could be changed to a fast duel when JD was played, but the total commitment to the field was relatively the same for both players. A game’s speed is related to how many cards are played at a time during a turn, tempo is related to the card advantage trades going on in the game. So a deck that gains a fast duel tempo does not mean that it is a fast deck.

Also another thing to pay attention to is the cards on the field as they are increasing. By doing this you can further guess what options your opponent has and then try to best counteract his attempt to change the game tempo or improve your own attempts.

Analyzing an opponent’s options and commitments can give you a good idea of how the tempo is going, and how to best change it as well as give you insight on how to best play against the opponents strategy. If they like conserving cards then trying to get them to commit them to the field early may end up being a good idea, or even playing slower than them and conserving more cards than them. It is important to analyze what your opponent is doing and how to best out play that or change their deck tempo role.

Changes in roles and tempo are important because they directly reflect the game state. Know the difference of the game tempos and how they can be changed is important because it can help you pinpoint critical spots in the game. It also helps with card evaluations that are not directly related to the general +1’s or –1’s of the game.

Using the newest card Battle Fader as an example. In a Monarch deck a well timed battle Fader can change the tempo of the game, forcing an early over commitment to the field by a person who is trying to force you into a faster duel tempo. In turn allowing you take advantage of their early commitment by establishing the fast duel tempo first rather than allowing them to do it.

Establishing the tempo of the game is important because it will define how your opponent will have to play his game. For example, being the one to establish the initial +1 or 2 in the Fast Duel tempo game will give you an advantage by forcing your opponent to catch up. Vice versa in a slow duel tempo conserving more cards than your opponent will make them have to hold back their own options, allowing you to make better trades and control over the game.

If a player can analyze and pinpoint the tempo changes in the game then it can become easy to exploit and recognize the opponent’s decisions and play style. Knowing how tempo works can help you improve your game and become a better duelist overall.

~E.P.B.

Mini-golf

So I played mini-golf yesterday. I got kind of blown out. My main problem was hitting the ball too hard. I blamed it on my muscles being too big. 1337

~E.P.B.

Sneak Previews

The Shining Darkness Sneak Preview was today. Needless to say it was pretty good. I got everything I needed before the event even began. Apparently I have the worst like with these events, being the second time my only holo in the 5 packs was Boggart Knight.

Infernities were highly sought after by everyone as expected. Nobody was getting rid of the infernity cards and if they were they were overvalued like crazy. Fore example, there was one guy who was valuing the Infernity Launchers at 50 a pop. Talk about ridiculous. Since my main goal wasn’t picking these cards up I just watched the chaos unfold and needless to say it was funny watching everyone scramble for everything.

With that being said the main cool thing I did notice was all of the new players. A lot of people show up for these that don’t ever come to local events and live in the area. That was something pretty cool, and all of the players weren’t bad either. It makes one wonder why the people never show up in the first place.

All in all the event was pretty cool.

~E.P.B.

No New Content: Legasp

Nothing new tonight. Mainly because I went to an Airsoft event today. That was really fun despite wearing me out like crazy. If anyone who reads this is into wargames and physical activity while not afraid to get dirty I'd definitely recommend getting into the sport. It's always a bonus when you can shoot other people too.

~E.P.B.