So, some interesting developments happened this weekend. On the one hand, March 2013s top deck at the moment has been defined as Mermails. Not really a big surprise there, since it was a pretty obvious choice for best deck of the format, at least for right now. A lot of people aren't focusing on these results as much, since one HA and Tachyon comes out the whole thing changes. Me? I'm just biding my time until that happens, but I really don't want to think about it (running Dragunity, needing to buy three Tempest once Tachyon drops).
As many people know, Mermail is basically a big bully, making aggressive plays while seemingly punishing the opponent for doing anything. I know a lot of people are saying the Undineless build gets much worse once Ophion comes out, and although that is true, it's kind of sad since the Undineless variant of Mermails is so good. Regardless, Mermails are here and will be here to stay.
One of the most interesting decks to make it's way out of the weekend was the Electrum Cannon deck that came out of the weekend. For those of you who don't know about it, you can read more on it and see the list here http://blog.coretcg.com/innovating-a-weapon-electrum-cannon-otk/. One of the things I like the most about this deck is that it doesn't focus exclusively on the OTK, giving it more options and functionality. Like the article points out, I think the true star of the deck is Card Car D, as it feels like the deck would not work without it. Why? Because Card Car D fills dual rolls and fills those rolls better than any other card can. It let's you play the control game, and lets you play the build the OTK game. Sadly, as fun as this looks I don't think it will be dominating any events any time soon, but it is nice to see some awesome rogue options appearing, and it's all ways nice to see a non-standard hero deck pop up.
One of the other rising stars of the weekend was Lancer Frogs. The deck has been breaking through in a good number of events this weekend, going from what was seemingly obscurity into the spotlight. I've only played against the deck a few times, but my win record against it isn't too impressive (if at all, although to be fair, the person playing the deck at my locals has a ton of experience with it, and topped the recent Detroit regional...he's really good with the deck). From what I understand, the deck apparently has a good match against the field of Mermails, but I think that limiting the estimation of the deck to just having a good match-up is a mistake, the deck has a ton of solid plays backing it. We've seen a couple of variants of Frogs pop up, from Lancer to Slushy, the deck seems to be on the rise. Once HA hits, I think the deck will fall back to where it was, again due to the Ophion control option, but I wouldn't count the deck out even after that.
Fire Fist. When I stopped writing earlier this year, and Cosmo Blazer was just released, a lot of people were worried that Fire Fist would be regulated to being the over hyped deck of the set (much like Hieratics were). I know some people are probably thinking I'm crazy for saying that, but a lot of people really were implying that until the deck saw future releases that it wouldn't be good. At this point the deck is fairly strong, but an optimal build still hasn't been completely decided for the deck, and oddly enough I don't think it will have a set standard until Tachyon hits, and the TCG hopefully gets some of the cards it needs. Other than that, it's been interesting to see some of the tech cards pop up here and there in the deck, DNA Surgery was an interesting choice.
So yeah, seems like everything I missed. I understand that other decks are also doing well this format, but this recap was for me to get some of my thoughts straight on this format.
Archives
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This Week...
Sunday, February 24, 2013
1337 competitive,
Quick updates
Will be my last week on hiatus. I just have to finish up doing a couple more research projects and then Spring Break. So I'll probably be pumping a lot out once that starts to make up for the lack of writing I've done this past month. Also, looked like my friends were right on the Undine-less Mermail call.
With a regional coming up this week, I'm hoping to run this:
Click the image to see it better. I don't want to go through too much about the deck, but one of the things that bugs me is Garunix basically turns the game into a race and I'm not sure against some decks I'd be able to win that race.
Also, with the release of Tachyon Galaxy in the OCG, Dragunity are seeing more play and are getting a bit of hype. My build for that, once that set drops for the TCG, will probably look like this:
With a regional coming up this week, I'm hoping to run this:
Click the image to see it better. I don't want to go through too much about the deck, but one of the things that bugs me is Garunix basically turns the game into a race and I'm not sure against some decks I'd be able to win that race.
Also, with the release of Tachyon Galaxy in the OCG, Dragunity are seeing more play and are getting a bit of hype. My build for that, once that set drops for the TCG, will probably look like this:
Tempest is supposed to add a lot of consistency to the deck, something that makes me a bit excited. I've never felt like the deck had consistency issues in the months that I've played it up until now, but Tempest does add a little bit, and even that helps. I'm going with double Tempest and double Sarc because, as good as the Sarc play is, I feel like trip Sarc and trip Tempest would hit more dead draws and take up deck more deck space, neither of which are positive things.
~E.P.B.
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Podcast Happening
Saturday, February 16, 2013
The usual drill. Watch on Twitch TV, being live streamed.
http://www.twitch.tv/et3rnalphoenix13#
Will be up on my Youtube channel later.
http://www.twitch.tv/et3rnalphoenix13#
Will be up on my Youtube channel later.
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Hard Times
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
News
Sorry I haven't updated anything this past week. It's been really difficult since my classes are picking up. At the moment, I have to write two-5 page (not that much though) assignments, memorize all of the bones and their characteristics in the upper body, and complete an annotated bibliography for one of my other classes, as well as keeping up on the readings for all of those classes (and prepare for a few exams).
Figured I'd let people know what's going on. I will be doing another podcast this week, so in case you missed it, here is last weeks:
~Et3rnal13
Figured I'd let people know what's going on. I will be doing another podcast this week, so in case you missed it, here is last weeks:
~Et3rnal13
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Podcast Going Live Soon.
Just waiting for people to get on. Basically, we will be discussing yu-gi-oh stuff. Put it on a listen to it in the background or something. There won't be much video, unless I switch over to show my screen if we are talking about some sort of obscure card. Thanks for watching and listening, I want to do this once a week.
Here are the links:
http://www.twitch.tv/et3rnalphoenix13 - to listen to it live
http://www.youtube.com/eternalbuysafish - to listen when I upload it.
Here are the links:
http://www.twitch.tv/et3rnalphoenix13 - to listen to it live
http://www.youtube.com/eternalbuysafish - to listen when I upload it.
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TONIGHT IS NOT HAPPENING
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Sorry, if anyone was looking foreword to it. Apparently the set time is conflicting with my friends schedules. That and it snowed really hard, making it difficult for everyone to meet up.
Et3rnal13
Et3rnal13
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Some news and...Number Chronicles Pt.1 Let's go get some Numbers.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
1337 Cards,
1337 Casual
Well, today's article is going to be more casual, really casual actually. There might not be much relevant information, but it was incredibly fun for me to write. I felt like I discussed a couple of pretty heavy topics over the last few weeks, so for this one I wanted to do something more fun.
Also SORT OF BIG NEWS; tomorrow will be the first day that I'm starting my new podcast. It's going to be a couple of the competitive players in my area discussing several topics at my choosing. It's going to be an experiment, but it will work out much better than my first Video Blog. I will be posting a link to my stream, and a link to my youtube channel where you can watch it if you miss the initial stream. I'm aiming for starting somewhere around 11:00 p.m. EST time, so look here around that time for that.
ARISE NUMBER!!!
Number monsters are Xyz monsters in the Zexal anime that have an extra effect, they can not be destroyed by battle with non-number monsters. These monsters don't get this extra added bonus in real life, but they still have decent effects, and they are still fun to collect.
The numbers in the real game add another collection element in the game. This is a good thing for people looking to collect something, but not really looking for becoming a serious collector, or even add something a little extra if a person is buying packs. It's just something cool you can look foreward to when a new set comes out.
Now, let's look at some tips to help someone collect numbers.
Start small, work your way up...basic tips for beginners.
A lot of the Number cards are pretty easy to obtain. For example, the earlier numbers have been reprinted a ton, some of them you can even pick up for about a quarter in trade or cash.
Number 10: Illumiknight is pretty easy to get, and is a decent place to start a collection if you're short on trade-able cards. Illumiknight isn't a very good example of a strong number though. He doesn't really have a great effect. He does have a couple of uses, and it really seems like cards like Illumiknight are ones to watch out for. I don't think it would be that farfetched to say that with the card designed the way it is, it could, some day, be used in a combo oriented deck of some sort. This is getting really close to saying it is has "potential" so I'll stop there. Number 34: Terror-Byte should be another easy snag, considering it's not valued at anything and has been reprinted twice.
A couple of the other numbers are staple cards for Xyz decks. Numbers like Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, Number 39: Utopia, Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction, and Number 16: Shock Master can be easily picked up. They even see reprints really often.
The more advanced stuff...
So yeah, some other places to pick up Numbers. Shonen Jump Alpha gives out 4 promos each year with subscription. Alpha promos are sometimes numbers, even if the card isn't that good those numbers can still end up costing a pretty penny if you get them elsewhere. The subscription is only $30, and even if there aren't any Numbers being offered at the moment, the promos are still generally pretty desirable things.
Shock Master was once of these promos, and fetched a pretty good chunk of money for just being one card. Right now, the most recent card from Alpha was Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings, with Number 88: Gimmick Puppet - Destiny Leo being the next one slated for shipment. As time goes on, there will probably be even more offered. My guess is that the next one will be Number 69: God Heraldic, Coat of Arms. At least that is what I would want it to be.
The other place that new Numbers see release is through the Zexal manga. Everyone knows Number 50: Blackship of Corn by now, since it is a really good card. He was released in the Zexal manga. The next promo in the manga is Number 22: Zombiestein. He won't be seen as much as the Blackship, but he's a fun little card, and a huge beatstick. Sadly, if your looking for a playable Number then Zombiestein isn't the best. It is, however, a really easy card to pick up for the collection.
New sets also contain a lot of Numbers. Those releases are often related to the anime. Currently, the most sought after Number from a base set is Number 11: Big Eye.
Trading for Numbers
Personally, I usually try to get the number cards as throw-ins in my trades. Mostly because the majority of them are not really sought after anymore, due to excessive reprints or just not being powerful enough. I like to wait on picking up the more expensive ones if I don't need them for a specific deck. The most patient hunter is the one who gets the easiest prey after all. Generally, if the card is sought after enough, or is pretty iconic, it will be reprinted soon enough.
There are a few ways to get difficult Numbers without trading. I usually don't advocate doing this, but playing for cards is another nice way. If I were to do it, I would do the throw in method if it's a Number that is valued at less than $10. Something like Big Eye would be a pretty difficult catch, because the only people who would ante it would probably be confident in their abilities. So if someone is going to do it, make sure you know what you're doing. Again, I do not advocate doing this, but it is a method for collecting Numbers as well as increasing a collection just in general. I accept no responsibility if you do this and lose.
Wrapping it Up
This was a pretty basic article. I hope it didn't bore any of you, like I said, it was meant to be pretty casual. Just something to spur up some ideas. The next part to this won't be posted any time soon, as it is something that there isn't a ton of new and interesting things to say on it. Also, Cosmo Blaze It Pt. 3 will be a video. I'm going to have that up by the end of the weekend, by this point, I can actually talk in depth about the practical uses of the TCG exclusives.
~Et3rnal13
Also, if you got here from the Pojo Number Hunters Guild, feel free to post pictures of your collection in the comments section.
Also SORT OF BIG NEWS; tomorrow will be the first day that I'm starting my new podcast. It's going to be a couple of the competitive players in my area discussing several topics at my choosing. It's going to be an experiment, but it will work out much better than my first Video Blog. I will be posting a link to my stream, and a link to my youtube channel where you can watch it if you miss the initial stream. I'm aiming for starting somewhere around 11:00 p.m. EST time, so look here around that time for that.
ARISE NUMBER!!!
The numbers in the real game add another collection element in the game. This is a good thing for people looking to collect something, but not really looking for becoming a serious collector, or even add something a little extra if a person is buying packs. It's just something cool you can look foreward to when a new set comes out.
Now, let's look at some tips to help someone collect numbers.
Start small, work your way up...basic tips for beginners.
 |
| The first Number seen on Zexal. |
Number 10: Illumiknight is pretty easy to get, and is a decent place to start a collection if you're short on trade-able cards. Illumiknight isn't a very good example of a strong number though. He doesn't really have a great effect. He does have a couple of uses, and it really seems like cards like Illumiknight are ones to watch out for. I don't think it would be that farfetched to say that with the card designed the way it is, it could, some day, be used in a combo oriented deck of some sort. This is getting really close to saying it is has "potential" so I'll stop there. Number 34: Terror-Byte should be another easy snag, considering it's not valued at anything and has been reprinted twice.
A couple of the other numbers are staple cards for Xyz decks. Numbers like Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, Number 39: Utopia, Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction, and Number 16: Shock Master can be easily picked up. They even see reprints really often.
The more advanced stuff...
So yeah, some other places to pick up Numbers. Shonen Jump Alpha gives out 4 promos each year with subscription. Alpha promos are sometimes numbers, even if the card isn't that good those numbers can still end up costing a pretty penny if you get them elsewhere. The subscription is only $30, and even if there aren't any Numbers being offered at the moment, the promos are still generally pretty desirable things.
Shock Master was once of these promos, and fetched a pretty good chunk of money for just being one card. Right now, the most recent card from Alpha was Number 40: Gimmick Puppet of Strings, with Number 88: Gimmick Puppet - Destiny Leo being the next one slated for shipment. As time goes on, there will probably be even more offered. My guess is that the next one will be Number 69: God Heraldic, Coat of Arms. At least that is what I would want it to be.
 |
| Next in line???? |
New sets also contain a lot of Numbers. Those releases are often related to the anime. Currently, the most sought after Number from a base set is Number 11: Big Eye.
Trading for Numbers
Personally, I usually try to get the number cards as throw-ins in my trades. Mostly because the majority of them are not really sought after anymore, due to excessive reprints or just not being powerful enough. I like to wait on picking up the more expensive ones if I don't need them for a specific deck. The most patient hunter is the one who gets the easiest prey after all. Generally, if the card is sought after enough, or is pretty iconic, it will be reprinted soon enough.
There are a few ways to get difficult Numbers without trading. I usually don't advocate doing this, but playing for cards is another nice way. If I were to do it, I would do the throw in method if it's a Number that is valued at less than $10. Something like Big Eye would be a pretty difficult catch, because the only people who would ante it would probably be confident in their abilities. So if someone is going to do it, make sure you know what you're doing. Again, I do not advocate doing this, but it is a method for collecting Numbers as well as increasing a collection just in general. I accept no responsibility if you do this and lose.
Wrapping it Up
This was a pretty basic article. I hope it didn't bore any of you, like I said, it was meant to be pretty casual. Just something to spur up some ideas. The next part to this won't be posted any time soon, as it is something that there isn't a ton of new and interesting things to say on it. Also, Cosmo Blaze It Pt. 3 will be a video. I'm going to have that up by the end of the weekend, by this point, I can actually talk in depth about the practical uses of the TCG exclusives.
~Et3rnal13
Also, if you got here from the Pojo Number Hunters Guild, feel free to post pictures of your collection in the comments section.
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Admitting you play Yu-gi-oh and other things...
Monday, January 28, 2013
Random
I haven't written anything in the past 5 days, and I realize that I need to. I have a couple of things coming up that I am working on. For starters, I want to do more videos, but the whole thing of just streaming and then trimming the video will not work once I start advertising the stream on League of Legends forums.
That, and the quality could be better, at least in terms of adding things that make videos interesting. So, making it look more professional. I'm not planning on doing just youtube videos, I still want my blog to be the primary thing. I just need to put more effort to make the videos appealing, things like scripting out what I want to talk about will also help, as now that I look at it, that Evol video was really bad for that reason. It was low production, unscripted, talking into a camera and me coming across as an idiot.
I also want to start a podcast with some of my friends. It all depends on if they are down to do it. Would be nice.
Coming out of the Yugi-closet
One of the topics that comes up the most in this game is whether or not it is socially acceptable to play yu-gi-oh, or even admit to playing it. It's something that every high school gamer worries about, it's something adults worry about, it's something guys worry about admitting to girls, basically, a lot of people worry about whether or not their lives would be destroyed if they mentioned that they play.
A big reason why this happens is because of how the show is presented. The yu-gi-oh series is a pretty over-the-top toyetic anime about people saving the world with card games. This is combined with the dubbed version being targeted, even more so, to little kids. This makes it difficult for people to admit that they play the game out of fear that their friends won't understand and that they will be labeled a social outcast.
I think the other thing is being worried that they fit into the stereotype. We all know them. Yu-gi-oh players are fat, smelly, pedophiles, mentally challenged, etc. We even have people who play the game throw these around to other people, saying things like "that guy has no life, he smelled really bad" or "the guy I played was really overweight, he had literally no life". There are people like that in almost any hobby, there are also even people who fit those stereotypes, but why throw it around? A lot of the people who play this game that I've met are generally normal people. Everyday guys, who really shouldn't be worried about anything like that.
Even myself, up to a few months ago, had a fear of being judged because of how people would view my hobbies. I realized that this was ridiculous fear, and I've just started mentioning stuff about the game on my Facebook account.
The problems with being afraid are kind of silly. For starters, if people are really you're friends, why should they give a flying flip about what you do in your spare time?
There is another side to this as well though. Nobody likes having things shoved down their throats. Being over-dramatic (such as making a Facebook post exclaiming that you play to the world) is a bit silly. Another thing would be bringing it up with friends to the point of obsession. When I was a little kid, in 5th grade, I was obsessed with Digimon to the point where that's all I mentioned to anyone when they tried to talk to me. That was me years ago, and yeah, I was a little kid so it wasn't that big of a deal, but there are some people out there, who are immersed in the game to the point where that's all they mention to anybody. My general rule is that, if my friend isn't really into it, or it doesn't apply to them (like there is no need to say anything about it to them) then I just don't bother bringing it up. There is no need to. If something comes up, like I say I'm taking a trip to Ohio or something for the weekend, and they ask why, I'll say something but otherwise, some things just aren't worth mentioning to people who aren't interested.
The worst thing about not being open about yourself is that it makes life harder than it all ready is. I repeat, you are making life even more difficult, because you're worried that people don't like one of the things you do in your spare time.
I don't have any psychology background, but it really seems like in life, if you are hiding something, people will realize this, either subconsciously or just because you avoid some questions that they have. I think more people will notice you acting strangely to certain topics about your life, than they would if you just actually said what you were doing. Being secretive really pushes people away, and it comes across as if you're an insincere person. It's also harder when you're gaming friends don't care what people think and want to playtest somewhere like a coffee shop or some other public place. I know I've missed out on some fun times.
There should especially be no fear if you are in college. Once you're in college, literally no one cares.
Personally...
My biggest reason why I've been more open about yu-gi-oh is because of what I want to do for the game. I would like to start doing more multi-media projects in this game, especially since my major is partly based in the media. It's part of the reason I write this blog, I really enjoy it, I like seeing that people read (or at least view) what I have to say about this game. It's addicting, and I want to do more. It's also why I'm trying to do at least one video and podcast a month. Let's face it, I do this for fun.
Part of the big reason being closed off about this topic is bad is because places like Facebook and Twitter are the places you are going to get the most connectivity. For example, to comment on TCGplayer articles, you need to be connected to Facebook, usually. In order to participate fully with ARG, you need to be able to comment on Facebook. In order to have access to rulings discussions, Facebook. These are a ton of resources you miss out on if you try to compartmentalize your life by trying to separate yu-gi-oh and...well, the rest of life. It just doesn't work at the end of the day, and you spend time trying to cover up something that is irrelevant in the first place.
Finally...
Besides, there is little reason to be embarrassed anymore. Lots of things from the late 90s, early 2000s, are getting a lot of attention, mainly because of nostalgia. Hardly any people are ragging on Pokemon now, even though it faces the same social stigma that Yu-gi-oh would otherwise face. So why wouldn't yu-gi-oh be taken in a similar way? Maybe it's all the just the rise of nerd culture in today's society.
Anyway, I think getting ragged on for the game is a high school thing any way.
End
That's about it. Not really a heavy topic, and it's pretty opinionated. Take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
~E.P.B.
That, and the quality could be better, at least in terms of adding things that make videos interesting. So, making it look more professional. I'm not planning on doing just youtube videos, I still want my blog to be the primary thing. I just need to put more effort to make the videos appealing, things like scripting out what I want to talk about will also help, as now that I look at it, that Evol video was really bad for that reason. It was low production, unscripted, talking into a camera and me coming across as an idiot.
I also want to start a podcast with some of my friends. It all depends on if they are down to do it. Would be nice.
Coming out of the Yugi-closet
 |
| Probably the only card most people know. |
A big reason why this happens is because of how the show is presented. The yu-gi-oh series is a pretty over-the-top toyetic anime about people saving the world with card games. This is combined with the dubbed version being targeted, even more so, to little kids. This makes it difficult for people to admit that they play the game out of fear that their friends won't understand and that they will be labeled a social outcast.
I think the other thing is being worried that they fit into the stereotype. We all know them. Yu-gi-oh players are fat, smelly, pedophiles, mentally challenged, etc. We even have people who play the game throw these around to other people, saying things like "that guy has no life, he smelled really bad" or "the guy I played was really overweight, he had literally no life". There are people like that in almost any hobby, there are also even people who fit those stereotypes, but why throw it around? A lot of the people who play this game that I've met are generally normal people. Everyday guys, who really shouldn't be worried about anything like that.
Even myself, up to a few months ago, had a fear of being judged because of how people would view my hobbies. I realized that this was ridiculous fear, and I've just started mentioning stuff about the game on my Facebook account.
The problems with being afraid are kind of silly. For starters, if people are really you're friends, why should they give a flying flip about what you do in your spare time?
 |
| The other thing people remember. |
The worst thing about not being open about yourself is that it makes life harder than it all ready is. I repeat, you are making life even more difficult, because you're worried that people don't like one of the things you do in your spare time.
I don't have any psychology background, but it really seems like in life, if you are hiding something, people will realize this, either subconsciously or just because you avoid some questions that they have. I think more people will notice you acting strangely to certain topics about your life, than they would if you just actually said what you were doing. Being secretive really pushes people away, and it comes across as if you're an insincere person. It's also harder when you're gaming friends don't care what people think and want to playtest somewhere like a coffee shop or some other public place. I know I've missed out on some fun times.
There should especially be no fear if you are in college. Once you're in college, literally no one cares.
Personally...
My biggest reason why I've been more open about yu-gi-oh is because of what I want to do for the game. I would like to start doing more multi-media projects in this game, especially since my major is partly based in the media. It's part of the reason I write this blog, I really enjoy it, I like seeing that people read (or at least view) what I have to say about this game. It's addicting, and I want to do more. It's also why I'm trying to do at least one video and podcast a month. Let's face it, I do this for fun.
Part of the big reason being closed off about this topic is bad is because places like Facebook and Twitter are the places you are going to get the most connectivity. For example, to comment on TCGplayer articles, you need to be connected to Facebook, usually. In order to participate fully with ARG, you need to be able to comment on Facebook. In order to have access to rulings discussions, Facebook. These are a ton of resources you miss out on if you try to compartmentalize your life by trying to separate yu-gi-oh and...well, the rest of life. It just doesn't work at the end of the day, and you spend time trying to cover up something that is irrelevant in the first place.
Finally...
 |
| If you don't remember this than you weren't a 90s yu-gi-oh player. |
Anyway, I think getting ragged on for the game is a high school thing any way.
End
That's about it. Not really a heavy topic, and it's pretty opinionated. Take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
~E.P.B.
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Where Are We Now, A Perspective on Competitive Yu-gi-oh
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
1337 competitive
So yeah, on the account of my Internet being all, all I basically can do is sit here and write blog posts that will get published either sometime today or tomorrow. Or never, it would be bad if I was in a state of perpetual Internetless, I use that...for science and porn.
Any who, lets talk about something that I rarely mention, the competitive side of the game. Like I've said multiple times, I. am. not. a. competitive. player. I do not do nearly enough testing, I don't have that much of a desire or a need to play the game on that level. That does not, however, mean that I can't provide insight on some things, things that might not even pertain directly to play skill. This video got me thinking, it got me looking things up, and it made me realize something that everyone has been talking about.
What is the point of this article? Well, the point is that a lot of people have been a lot of frustration within the competitive Yu-gi-oh community. To some players, the game, as a whole, has fundamental problems with things such as coverage, prize support, and even a lack of "good" players relative to the older generation of pros, lasting until the end of the Tele-DaD format. People believe that these things have lead to the decline of the competitive environment, where things like Yugi-tubers are only making videos to profit, rather than help players and the same argument is used against people writing articles. Basically, the main point is that players are hungry for good, quality discussion on Yu-gi-oh strategy.
In order to prime yourself, you need to read next couple of articles. If you all ready have seen them, or at least heard about it, you can skip.
http://kperovic.com/blog/ygo-the-state-of-the-game-restated/
http://articles.alterealitygames.com/?p=16110
http://duelistgroundz.com/index.php?showtopic=147607
All right, so by now, you should be pretty primed on what the main point of contention is. I'm going to provide my thoughts on these issues. BUT WAIT...you're probably thinking, "if you're a casual player, what makes you think you're going to have any idea what you're talking about?" Well, that's true, but the things that happened have actually aren't related to Yu-gi-oh in a card sense that much, and are more related to the cultural aspect of the game, and the construction of that culture. Being that my main field of study in college is in communication (with some background stuff in Antrhopology), we talk about what and how exactly culture is constructed.
First of all, we need to decide on whether or not there has been a decline in the competitive culture of Yu-gi-oh. We need to look at what happened, and where the starting point of all of this is. So is there a decline? My argument is yes, there is a decline.
Describing the Decline
The decline is not necessarily in terms of raw numbers of people entering the tournament, but in terms of quality resources and discussion on the Internet, there is. This is coupled with the lack of competitive drive, in fact, I would even argue that the lack of discussion is a direct reflection of the lack of competitive drive. This is coupled with the lack of proper prize support. I don't care what your opinion of Konami is, good or bad. If a person is being honest and rational, they would look at this game and see that the prize support is strictly worse than all other available options in the card game world.
Also, the argument that players are just being greedy is just a bad argument, borderlining on being a strawman argument. This isn't about wanting more, this has more to do with generally being concerned about the games competitive environment. There is very little reason to want to be good at yu-gi-oh at the moment, and it's a shame when regionals hit 500 plus people and the best prize is something with no actual value (National Invite) that is barely worth the effort. Yes there is a mat and a binder included, but playing 10 - 12 rounds is no where near worth it. No, people shouldn't make money off of being a yu-gi-oh player, but they should at least receive something that is worth the effort put into playing a competition of that caliber.
Also, I'll say this right now, I think the only reason Konami has these high numbers is because there is a lack of tournaments available. The prize thing is not as big of an issue as the issue of the lack of tournaments. I hate doing this, but if you compare it to MtGs tournament scene, it's not even close. There was literally a competitive (5Ks, PTQs) tournament every weekend of the month of September that I could have gone to (in at most a 4 hour driving distance), multiples on the same day sometimes, in addition to local events. Compare this to Yu-gi-oh, where there is a regional maybe once a month (sometimes twice) that is a reasonable distance, occasionally a YCS once a year within a reasonable distance, and Nationals.
So yeah. The big problem with comparing it to Magic is that Magic has all ways had more tournaments than yu-gi-oh, so that point may be moot. What I am trying to say, is given which the prize structure of regionals (which I think is actually designed to discourage people from entering after getting their Nats invite) there should be no reason why those tournaments are hitting record numbers, unless that reason is because there is a lack of other semi-big tournaments to go to.
Let's touch on the topic of the coverage site as well. Everyone hails Metagame as being the pinnacle of coverage. I agree with this, Metagame offered outstanding insights, as well as daily articles on everything ranging from competition to casual play. Konami's blog is taking a different design, publishing much less frequently, and are less than half the size of an average Metagame article. For as much complaints as people have had on Konami Blog's coverage of events, I've found it to be decent to start with but I've felt like it has been slowly digressing. Now it's Konami's site, and shorter articles are probably just the standard, this wouldn't be a problem if there were articles that targeted different groups of players, but this isn't true. It is a shame as well, because the community knows the writers on the site could put out much more helpful official content, but it hasn't happened.
This all rolls into each other. So what you end up with is a player base that enjoys the game and wants more tournaments, but that partially lacks the resources to have meaningful discussions about the game. I think this leads to the decline of the competitive playerbase. I get that people should think for themselves, but being able to have the resources in front of you, as well as being able to have topic starters is invaluable to the game as a whole.
How Did We Get Here (The part where things get slightly different)
Up until now, it's been the same rehashed argument. To put it in TL;DR form, Konami Strategy Site sucks, prizes suck, attendance is through the roof. I'm trying to refrain as far as I can from arguments about the game (not the playerbase) getting less skilled, Konami designing to make the game easy or formats being bad, as it's hard to get actual evidence that those are the reasons (especially the whole Konami designing things so that anyone can win, no offense to the people using this argument, but it really sounds like a conspiracy theory. This is vastly different than what I think is actually happening, but it stems from the idea that Konami is trying to make the game more casual, which is a different thing altogether).
We got here because of quite a few different things happening in Yu-gi-oh culture.
The Competitive Desert
UDE getting out of the picture was not a smooth transition at all. For months during and after the whole thing went down there was a competitive desert. What I mean is that there were no tournaments, there was very little reason to play the game competitively. This might not seem like a big deal at first, after all, yu-gi-oh was still popular, but it took it's toll on the competitive scene of the game. All discussion of the game halted, there wasn't much of a reason to talk about theory and all of that good stuff if there was no real reason to.
I think the big thing that I am trying to say is that we never fully recovered from this flatline. The big thing about this is that it lead to the other things on my list. The transition was not smooth, interest in the game was declining (albeit at a slow pace), writing about the game slowed down, all contributing things to our current problem.
Metagame's death.
I've talked about this a bit in the paragraphs above, but I haven't mentioned how much of an impact this has had on the game. Without Metagame, the premier source of topics and competitive insight is gone. This wouldn't be much of a problem if something took it's place. Right now, the closest thing we have is ARG, which gets a lot more flack than what they deserve. The void left by Metagame means a couple of things to competitive culture. For starters, I wouldn't say that the "Pros" in this game are worse than those of yesteryear, more so that they aren't in the limelight as much. This does mean that the plays they make and why they make them aren't as well known, card choices and tech (a word that you almost never hear anymore) are also left out.
Metagames death lead to a somewhat standstill on competitive discussion. Instead of talking about things like card choices and tech, a lot of discussion seems to be on complaining about why a format is bad, hyping cards, etc. I guess what I am trying to say is that without having a place to start, and without having that platform, there has been a decline of competitive discussion. Whether you listened or agreed to what was written on there, it gave you something to talk about, it gave talking points, that is the most important thing.
Losing Metagame was to the Yu-gi-oh Community what losing major news networks would be to watercooler conversations. No one is primed anymore.
The Decline of the Yu-gi-oh Teams
The big names in the pre-Konami era were teams, not specific people. I guarantee more people that played in that era can name the teams more so than they can name each specific person on those teams. Yu-gi-oh Teams gave us something incredibly unique to Yu-gi-oh, a community interconnected, something which wasn't seen anywhere else, and something that we lost.
The importance of the teams is incredibly understated. Teams gave us a community. The competitive goal of Yu-gi-oh has become too individualized today. Teams gave the community something to aspire to more so than the pro players ever could. It also set a good example for the importance of playtesting and having a group that you could grow with.
I think what I'm trying to say here is that by groups of players aspiring to play as a team and playtest as a team, grow as a team, bounded by the mutual idea of improvement was something that the game has lost. Now, instead of being happy that you're friend did well at a champion level competition, you're jealous. Instead of having people help you focus on what you did wrong in a match, you become conceited. Having a team meant people could call you out on your bullshit.
It's too individualized now. Sure you have friends but how often do you sit down and work, really work with your friends, not just for yourself, but for the guy sitting across from you as well?
The Pussification of Our Tournament System
Remember when I said that I don't think Konami was designing the cards and format so that anyone can win? I don't think that's true. I do not think there is substantial evidence to suggest that Konami wants everyone to be able to win equally.
What I know is true is that there is this current system that is trying to make everyone happy. What I mean is that by dropping invites down to top 32, and the 5 pack entry, it made the game much less serious in terms of competition. Everyone may not be a winner, but you can damn sure feel like it under this system. No one has to work as hard for their spot in Nationals anymore, I don't think this change was originally intentional, what had happened was after the shift, there was a rush to get people to be able to enter Nationals after the Yu-gi-oh Desert. They dropped the invite level so that there could be a National tournament. What happened was this drove Regional attendance through the roof at the time, and it could be considered largely successful, in turn making Konami keep that entry requirement permanently.
This isn't needed now. I don't have the same marketing research, but I feel like if Konami brought the cut back up then there would be more of a drive to play in multiple regionals, which would drive up attendance even more. The same could be said for prizing.
I wonder if the regional system switched to top 8 invites, with a box going to each of them, would work out. I'd like to know if regional attendance would increase over time. The main reason I say this because the original success of their system could have been caused because of initial hype and newness of it and lack of tournaments more so than the prize/invite structure.
What I would largely like to see is more tournaments, whether that be championship level events, or just more regionals with more locations. I'd like a system that rewards me for doing good at a tournament more so than it rewards more just for showing up.
I want there to be something special about going and getting to play in Nationals. Right now, there isn't that feeling. I get my invite, and I don't feel like I accomplished much, this is ass backwards from what it needs to be. I don't care if the prize structure doesn't change, just do something to make me feel like it's not a waste of time again.
"'Can I get a trophy?' No, but you can participate." ~Christopher Titus
Where do we go from here?
All of what I previously discussed has lead to the game's competitive decline. We need to fix this. What I purpose is much like one of the videos suggested. Take the game into our own hands. It doesn't even have to be the pros. In fact, the pros owe NOTHING to us. They don't owe us shit. Neither do the Yugi-tubers So let's talk, let's have discussions, legitimate discussions about competitive ideas we have. IT doesn't even have to be good, just as long as you say something, anything you think is worth saying. You have the power, that's all I'm saying.
Write articles, write ideas, give something back. Don't be afraid to be bad or receive criticism, that's how we improve. Too many people are afraid of that now. Don't be afraid to give criticism either. Make sure you are in depth. Don't just talk to hear yourself.
Something I would say to the Pros is to start considering yourself in terms of teams again, it isn't even that hard. ARG is practically a team all ready, just wear ARG shirts to tournaments and get the name out there. It's much easier than remembering the specific names and faces. Yugi-tubers, keep doing what you're doing but try to offer something in depth once in a while.
If you have friends, start working together more often.
Write Konami e-mails, messages, anything (don't be a douche though).
Things can get better, but it's no longer Metagame or Konami that's going to help us, it's ourselves.
...........
..........
......
...
Also, don't be lazy, half of you are going to think I'm crazy now, and just continue doing whatever, but I'm serious, we can change the game.
Fuck it, you don't believe me any way.
~E.P.B.
Any who, lets talk about something that I rarely mention, the competitive side of the game. Like I've said multiple times, I. am. not. a. competitive. player. I do not do nearly enough testing, I don't have that much of a desire or a need to play the game on that level. That does not, however, mean that I can't provide insight on some things, things that might not even pertain directly to play skill. This video got me thinking, it got me looking things up, and it made me realize something that everyone has been talking about.
What is the point of this article? Well, the point is that a lot of people have been a lot of frustration within the competitive Yu-gi-oh community. To some players, the game, as a whole, has fundamental problems with things such as coverage, prize support, and even a lack of "good" players relative to the older generation of pros, lasting until the end of the Tele-DaD format. People believe that these things have lead to the decline of the competitive environment, where things like Yugi-tubers are only making videos to profit, rather than help players and the same argument is used against people writing articles. Basically, the main point is that players are hungry for good, quality discussion on Yu-gi-oh strategy.
In order to prime yourself, you need to read next couple of articles. If you all ready have seen them, or at least heard about it, you can skip.
http://kperovic.com/blog/ygo-the-state-of-the-game-restated/
http://articles.alterealitygames.com/?p=16110
http://duelistgroundz.com/index.php?showtopic=147607
All right, so by now, you should be pretty primed on what the main point of contention is. I'm going to provide my thoughts on these issues. BUT WAIT...you're probably thinking, "if you're a casual player, what makes you think you're going to have any idea what you're talking about?" Well, that's true, but the things that happened have actually aren't related to Yu-gi-oh in a card sense that much, and are more related to the cultural aspect of the game, and the construction of that culture. Being that my main field of study in college is in communication (with some background stuff in Antrhopology), we talk about what and how exactly culture is constructed.
First of all, we need to decide on whether or not there has been a decline in the competitive culture of Yu-gi-oh. We need to look at what happened, and where the starting point of all of this is. So is there a decline? My argument is yes, there is a decline.
Describing the Decline
The decline is not necessarily in terms of raw numbers of people entering the tournament, but in terms of quality resources and discussion on the Internet, there is. This is coupled with the lack of competitive drive, in fact, I would even argue that the lack of discussion is a direct reflection of the lack of competitive drive. This is coupled with the lack of proper prize support. I don't care what your opinion of Konami is, good or bad. If a person is being honest and rational, they would look at this game and see that the prize support is strictly worse than all other available options in the card game world.
Also, the argument that players are just being greedy is just a bad argument, borderlining on being a strawman argument. This isn't about wanting more, this has more to do with generally being concerned about the games competitive environment. There is very little reason to want to be good at yu-gi-oh at the moment, and it's a shame when regionals hit 500 plus people and the best prize is something with no actual value (National Invite) that is barely worth the effort. Yes there is a mat and a binder included, but playing 10 - 12 rounds is no where near worth it. No, people shouldn't make money off of being a yu-gi-oh player, but they should at least receive something that is worth the effort put into playing a competition of that caliber.
Also, I'll say this right now, I think the only reason Konami has these high numbers is because there is a lack of tournaments available. The prize thing is not as big of an issue as the issue of the lack of tournaments. I hate doing this, but if you compare it to MtGs tournament scene, it's not even close. There was literally a competitive (5Ks, PTQs) tournament every weekend of the month of September that I could have gone to (in at most a 4 hour driving distance), multiples on the same day sometimes, in addition to local events. Compare this to Yu-gi-oh, where there is a regional maybe once a month (sometimes twice) that is a reasonable distance, occasionally a YCS once a year within a reasonable distance, and Nationals.
So yeah. The big problem with comparing it to Magic is that Magic has all ways had more tournaments than yu-gi-oh, so that point may be moot. What I am trying to say, is given which the prize structure of regionals (which I think is actually designed to discourage people from entering after getting their Nats invite) there should be no reason why those tournaments are hitting record numbers, unless that reason is because there is a lack of other semi-big tournaments to go to.
Let's touch on the topic of the coverage site as well. Everyone hails Metagame as being the pinnacle of coverage. I agree with this, Metagame offered outstanding insights, as well as daily articles on everything ranging from competition to casual play. Konami's blog is taking a different design, publishing much less frequently, and are less than half the size of an average Metagame article. For as much complaints as people have had on Konami Blog's coverage of events, I've found it to be decent to start with but I've felt like it has been slowly digressing. Now it's Konami's site, and shorter articles are probably just the standard, this wouldn't be a problem if there were articles that targeted different groups of players, but this isn't true. It is a shame as well, because the community knows the writers on the site could put out much more helpful official content, but it hasn't happened.
This all rolls into each other. So what you end up with is a player base that enjoys the game and wants more tournaments, but that partially lacks the resources to have meaningful discussions about the game. I think this leads to the decline of the competitive playerbase. I get that people should think for themselves, but being able to have the resources in front of you, as well as being able to have topic starters is invaluable to the game as a whole.
How Did We Get Here (The part where things get slightly different)
Up until now, it's been the same rehashed argument. To put it in TL;DR form, Konami Strategy Site sucks, prizes suck, attendance is through the roof. I'm trying to refrain as far as I can from arguments about the game (not the playerbase) getting less skilled, Konami designing to make the game easy or formats being bad, as it's hard to get actual evidence that those are the reasons (especially the whole Konami designing things so that anyone can win, no offense to the people using this argument, but it really sounds like a conspiracy theory. This is vastly different than what I think is actually happening, but it stems from the idea that Konami is trying to make the game more casual, which is a different thing altogether).
We got here because of quite a few different things happening in Yu-gi-oh culture.
The Competitive Desert
UDE getting out of the picture was not a smooth transition at all. For months during and after the whole thing went down there was a competitive desert. What I mean is that there were no tournaments, there was very little reason to play the game competitively. This might not seem like a big deal at first, after all, yu-gi-oh was still popular, but it took it's toll on the competitive scene of the game. All discussion of the game halted, there wasn't much of a reason to talk about theory and all of that good stuff if there was no real reason to.
I think the big thing that I am trying to say is that we never fully recovered from this flatline. The big thing about this is that it lead to the other things on my list. The transition was not smooth, interest in the game was declining (albeit at a slow pace), writing about the game slowed down, all contributing things to our current problem.
Metagame's death.
I've talked about this a bit in the paragraphs above, but I haven't mentioned how much of an impact this has had on the game. Without Metagame, the premier source of topics and competitive insight is gone. This wouldn't be much of a problem if something took it's place. Right now, the closest thing we have is ARG, which gets a lot more flack than what they deserve. The void left by Metagame means a couple of things to competitive culture. For starters, I wouldn't say that the "Pros" in this game are worse than those of yesteryear, more so that they aren't in the limelight as much. This does mean that the plays they make and why they make them aren't as well known, card choices and tech (a word that you almost never hear anymore) are also left out.
Metagames death lead to a somewhat standstill on competitive discussion. Instead of talking about things like card choices and tech, a lot of discussion seems to be on complaining about why a format is bad, hyping cards, etc. I guess what I am trying to say is that without having a place to start, and without having that platform, there has been a decline of competitive discussion. Whether you listened or agreed to what was written on there, it gave you something to talk about, it gave talking points, that is the most important thing.
Losing Metagame was to the Yu-gi-oh Community what losing major news networks would be to watercooler conversations. No one is primed anymore.
The Decline of the Yu-gi-oh Teams
The big names in the pre-Konami era were teams, not specific people. I guarantee more people that played in that era can name the teams more so than they can name each specific person on those teams. Yu-gi-oh Teams gave us something incredibly unique to Yu-gi-oh, a community interconnected, something which wasn't seen anywhere else, and something that we lost.
The importance of the teams is incredibly understated. Teams gave us a community. The competitive goal of Yu-gi-oh has become too individualized today. Teams gave the community something to aspire to more so than the pro players ever could. It also set a good example for the importance of playtesting and having a group that you could grow with.
I think what I'm trying to say here is that by groups of players aspiring to play as a team and playtest as a team, grow as a team, bounded by the mutual idea of improvement was something that the game has lost. Now, instead of being happy that you're friend did well at a champion level competition, you're jealous. Instead of having people help you focus on what you did wrong in a match, you become conceited. Having a team meant people could call you out on your bullshit.
It's too individualized now. Sure you have friends but how often do you sit down and work, really work with your friends, not just for yourself, but for the guy sitting across from you as well?
The Pussification of Our Tournament System
Remember when I said that I don't think Konami was designing the cards and format so that anyone can win? I don't think that's true. I do not think there is substantial evidence to suggest that Konami wants everyone to be able to win equally.
What I know is true is that there is this current system that is trying to make everyone happy. What I mean is that by dropping invites down to top 32, and the 5 pack entry, it made the game much less serious in terms of competition. Everyone may not be a winner, but you can damn sure feel like it under this system. No one has to work as hard for their spot in Nationals anymore, I don't think this change was originally intentional, what had happened was after the shift, there was a rush to get people to be able to enter Nationals after the Yu-gi-oh Desert. They dropped the invite level so that there could be a National tournament. What happened was this drove Regional attendance through the roof at the time, and it could be considered largely successful, in turn making Konami keep that entry requirement permanently.
This isn't needed now. I don't have the same marketing research, but I feel like if Konami brought the cut back up then there would be more of a drive to play in multiple regionals, which would drive up attendance even more. The same could be said for prizing.
I wonder if the regional system switched to top 8 invites, with a box going to each of them, would work out. I'd like to know if regional attendance would increase over time. The main reason I say this because the original success of their system could have been caused because of initial hype and newness of it and lack of tournaments more so than the prize/invite structure.
What I would largely like to see is more tournaments, whether that be championship level events, or just more regionals with more locations. I'd like a system that rewards me for doing good at a tournament more so than it rewards more just for showing up.
I want there to be something special about going and getting to play in Nationals. Right now, there isn't that feeling. I get my invite, and I don't feel like I accomplished much, this is ass backwards from what it needs to be. I don't care if the prize structure doesn't change, just do something to make me feel like it's not a waste of time again.
"'Can I get a trophy?' No, but you can participate." ~Christopher Titus
Where do we go from here?
All of what I previously discussed has lead to the game's competitive decline. We need to fix this. What I purpose is much like one of the videos suggested. Take the game into our own hands. It doesn't even have to be the pros. In fact, the pros owe NOTHING to us. They don't owe us shit. Neither do the Yugi-tubers So let's talk, let's have discussions, legitimate discussions about competitive ideas we have. IT doesn't even have to be good, just as long as you say something, anything you think is worth saying. You have the power, that's all I'm saying.
Write articles, write ideas, give something back. Don't be afraid to be bad or receive criticism, that's how we improve. Too many people are afraid of that now. Don't be afraid to give criticism either. Make sure you are in depth. Don't just talk to hear yourself.
Something I would say to the Pros is to start considering yourself in terms of teams again, it isn't even that hard. ARG is practically a team all ready, just wear ARG shirts to tournaments and get the name out there. It's much easier than remembering the specific names and faces. Yugi-tubers, keep doing what you're doing but try to offer something in depth once in a while.
If you have friends, start working together more often.
Write Konami e-mails, messages, anything (don't be a douche though).
Things can get better, but it's no longer Metagame or Konami that's going to help us, it's ourselves.
...........
..........
......
...
Also, don't be lazy, half of you are going to think I'm crazy now, and just continue doing whatever, but I'm serious, we can change the game.
Fuck it, you don't believe me any way.
~E.P.B.
0
Bored campus snowy boredom
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Yay college campus. Yay boredom. Part of the joys of having a halfway decent phone is that I can do stuff like this. The downside? No spellcheck. Huzzah! Any way. I need to update the top thingy slider, with what is in store for this week. Also the sneak preview was on sunday!
What happened there? Nothing too exciting. Payed my $20 for my 5 lottery tickets, sat down had hope. First pack, nothing. Second pack, mermail xyz, decent. Was hoping for something different but whatevs. Third pack, swing and a miss. At this point the guy sitting next to me gets Diamond Dire. Was there any hope? Doubtful. Fourth pack, fail. It was looking grim. I grit my teeth in anticipation for the final pack. Open it. Move through the cards, hit the rare. Notice black behind it. Anticipation. Bullet time begins. 20 minutes in a half a second. Diamond Dire. Hell yeah.
Other than that bad pulls were abundent. As they allways are. People overhype sneaks but I feel the pack ratios are the same. There was one breakthrough skill floating around. Im trying to figure out if riding the hype train is worth it. I can pick two up for like 30 monies at the moment.
Anyway. My friend was trying to hussel peope to pay him 5 monies for his pull. Basically paying 5 for an Orbital 7. Unsure if worth it, so I avoid. In hindsight, it would have been all right, because I kind of need another caliburn.
There was a free tournament. I left two rounds in, I was 2-0 with madolches. They are actually pretty good, but I was getting laughed at. Could have been the pink sleeves and me yelling Princess Power everytime puddingcess did something. Jusrt might have been that.
The reat of the day was all right.
- Et3rnal13
0
Brain Droppings: Random thoughts on different yugi things.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
1337 competitive,
Brain Droppings
This is the first, and maybe last, but probably not, one of these types of things that I will do. Basically, Brain Droppings is where I'll clear my head of things that I've wanted to say, but don't really want to write articles about. Each of these will be like a mini article. Sounds like fun.
Et3rnal13 on Potential
Basically, you will hear a lot of people say "oh, this and this deck has potential", every time someone does that I just cry a little inside. Now, it's perfectly reasonable to say something has potential in a format by looking at the cards in front of you. I could say, for example, at the start of the September format that Dragunities had potential because they can pump out hard hitting combos like the other decks that are being speculated as top of the format, This wouldn't be a wrong thing to say (although, it did end up wrong in hindsight, because consistency matters), especially if I was verifying it through testing at the start of the format. The same thing could be said for decks that will be released throughout the format (example: Fire Fists will be good because of x reason, y reason, z reason).
Where I start having problems is when people look at an archetype or something, like Iron Chains or something, and go "this deck has potential to be good, if only Konami released more and better cards for it", at which point I go "well, no duh". Any deck can be good if Konami releases powerful cards for it. It seems like everyone who says this uses it as an excuse as to why they run what they run. Of course decks will get better if Konami releases more cards that are better for it.
Look, if you like a deck then run it, but don't try to pass it off like people who dismiss it are overlooking something that is important to a format. Also, people forget to list reasons why something may or may not have "potential".
Et3rnal13 on Ebay
This one is going to be short, but my gawd, have you seen the prices on some of the singles on Ebay for Cosmo Blazer? Ridiculous. When your singles are going for double the price of some retail sites preorders of said single, then clearly, people in this game are just being money gougers. There isn't even a "have it now reason" to fall back on, because the cards won't (or at least not supposed to be) legal until the sets official release date.
Et3rnal13 on Pojo Strategy Section
I use Pojo, I use Pojo a lot, I like the community there, and I'm sure a majority of you frequent Pojo as well. As people could probably see, I like linking to their guides because they give a compiled list of the cards used in an archetype and it's much easier than looking it up individually. Now, if people were interested in a really in depth discussion on archetypes, then I'd look for the thread on DGZ.
Here is my problem though. The people on Pojo do this thing, where immediately once an archetype is announced they make a guide for it. Generally, with the thread starter making the guide so he can have "dibs" on being the expert opinion on the archetype.
Normally, I try not to swear on here, but that attitude is bullshit. Testing things early is important, don't get me wrong, I'd rather the guides get made then not, but when people do this, it really doesn't encourage testing. Why? Because when someone makes it they all ready have listings of how many copies of a card you should run, why you should run it, etc. The problem is, without any extensive testing of the archetype, how in the world can people say what the right number of certain cards is? I get that for most cards you can look at it and probably figure out how many you should probably run, but that's not the point, the point is that doing this that early stifles deck growth. It is helpful to some extent after a while of enough people playing the deck though, because it lets people know what others have had the most success with, but making a guide with numbers of what should be ran a night after the archetype is revealed does not.
Also, playing randoms on DN does not count as extensive testing, you're not going to queue up against random people on DN and test a gauntlet of the competitively viable decks of the format, it just doesn't happen. You also won't be able to play with people guaranteed to be above a certain skill level that you need them to be.
The attitude feels toxic. No one person is the ultimate authority on any deck, and I suggest people stop acting like they are. I have more to say on this, but I'll end it here.
Et3rnal13 on Balance
Balance is relative, especially when judging the competitive scene of a game, and a lot of people forget that. For example, lets say there are 5 decks that are way better than the other decks in a game, but are relatively the same in power compared to each other. Could we not say that, due to them being the same in power to each other, that the format was relatively balanced? Why does every single deck need to be competitive?
The other problem is there is a facet of people that want the game to go back to being 1-for-1 trades without a lot of the special summoning that happens today. A lot of the complaints are that everything is far too powerful now compared to those days (which people argue were more skilled). Yes, decks now are far too imbalanced in power compared to the days of say Fiend and Spellcaster Beatdown, and Goat Control. I don't see why the game's growth should be a problem as a whole. Is there powercreep? That's a whole different article, but I think the game is just finally finding its niche in the card game world. I don't think that the power-creep has increased a ton after the last few years (last format was an example of making things too fast though, no game should be decided on the first turn, the nice thing is that the banlist is able to mitigate these problems).
We need to face the reality that Konami is merely just falling into the niche of Yu-gi-oh being the popular fast-paced game on the market.
Et3rnal13 on Side Decking
The majority of the games you play in competition will be post-side. The Internet does not have nearly enough people talking about this subject though, especially at the depth that it needs to be talked about in. ARG, TCGplayer, you have spies everywhere I hope, please fix this. I will also do my part and write a second part to an article I wrote way back when.
Et3rnal13 on not writing 420 Cosmo Blaze It Pt. 3 in time
I'm sorry, my sneak is tomorrow, I haven't wrote it. I've been extremely busy the past few days. It will get written at some point though.
~Et3rnal13 on Stopping.
Yeah, this is the end.
~Et3rnal13
Et3rnal13 on Potential
 |
| The tears, I feed off them. |
Where I start having problems is when people look at an archetype or something, like Iron Chains or something, and go "this deck has potential to be good, if only Konami released more and better cards for it", at which point I go "well, no duh". Any deck can be good if Konami releases powerful cards for it. It seems like everyone who says this uses it as an excuse as to why they run what they run. Of course decks will get better if Konami releases more cards that are better for it.
Look, if you like a deck then run it, but don't try to pass it off like people who dismiss it are overlooking something that is important to a format. Also, people forget to list reasons why something may or may not have "potential".
Et3rnal13 on Ebay
This one is going to be short, but my gawd, have you seen the prices on some of the singles on Ebay for Cosmo Blazer? Ridiculous. When your singles are going for double the price of some retail sites preorders of said single, then clearly, people in this game are just being money gougers. There isn't even a "have it now reason" to fall back on, because the cards won't (or at least not supposed to be) legal until the sets official release date.
Et3rnal13 on Pojo Strategy Section
I use Pojo, I use Pojo a lot, I like the community there, and I'm sure a majority of you frequent Pojo as well. As people could probably see, I like linking to their guides because they give a compiled list of the cards used in an archetype and it's much easier than looking it up individually. Now, if people were interested in a really in depth discussion on archetypes, then I'd look for the thread on DGZ.
Here is my problem though. The people on Pojo do this thing, where immediately once an archetype is announced they make a guide for it. Generally, with the thread starter making the guide so he can have "dibs" on being the expert opinion on the archetype.
Normally, I try not to swear on here, but that attitude is bullshit. Testing things early is important, don't get me wrong, I'd rather the guides get made then not, but when people do this, it really doesn't encourage testing. Why? Because when someone makes it they all ready have listings of how many copies of a card you should run, why you should run it, etc. The problem is, without any extensive testing of the archetype, how in the world can people say what the right number of certain cards is? I get that for most cards you can look at it and probably figure out how many you should probably run, but that's not the point, the point is that doing this that early stifles deck growth. It is helpful to some extent after a while of enough people playing the deck though, because it lets people know what others have had the most success with, but making a guide with numbers of what should be ran a night after the archetype is revealed does not.
Also, playing randoms on DN does not count as extensive testing, you're not going to queue up against random people on DN and test a gauntlet of the competitively viable decks of the format, it just doesn't happen. You also won't be able to play with people guaranteed to be above a certain skill level that you need them to be.
The attitude feels toxic. No one person is the ultimate authority on any deck, and I suggest people stop acting like they are. I have more to say on this, but I'll end it here.
Et3rnal13 on Balance
Balance is relative, especially when judging the competitive scene of a game, and a lot of people forget that. For example, lets say there are 5 decks that are way better than the other decks in a game, but are relatively the same in power compared to each other. Could we not say that, due to them being the same in power to each other, that the format was relatively balanced? Why does every single deck need to be competitive?
 |
| Not gonna happen, sorry. |
We need to face the reality that Konami is merely just falling into the niche of Yu-gi-oh being the popular fast-paced game on the market.
Et3rnal13 on Side Decking
The majority of the games you play in competition will be post-side. The Internet does not have nearly enough people talking about this subject though, especially at the depth that it needs to be talked about in. ARG, TCGplayer, you have spies everywhere I hope, please fix this. I will also do my part and write a second part to an article I wrote way back when.
Et3rnal13 on not writing 420 Cosmo Blaze It Pt. 3 in time
I'm sorry, my sneak is tomorrow, I haven't wrote it. I've been extremely busy the past few days. It will get written at some point though.
~Et3rnal13 on Stopping.
Yeah, this is the end.
~Et3rnal13
0
Being a scrub (somewhat localish rant report)
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Quick updates
Thursdays nights are when the tournament generally is. I'm not writing a report tonight, just some things.
First of all, I probably played the worst that I've ever played tonight. Went 1-2, which is a lot worse than what I normally do. Basically, I made flashy plays when I had game on board and it cost me a match that I should have won all 3 games of. I'm not saying my opponent got lucky, or that if I had done moves way differently that I would have won, but these are little things. It's much sadder actually, as what had happened was I made basic misplays that would have made players who had even the most basic knowledge cringe. Things like not activating Dragon's Ravine before playing Heavy Storm, and making Trident Dragon (off of a field with 2 Stardusts, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Mysteltainn, and a Phalanx) instead of just going for Scrap Dragon and guaranteeing a win.
Needless to say, I did these things, realized how bad they were seconds after, and basically got kind of frustrated (it doesn't involve yelling or things like that, it's just mentally frustrating, I try not to let it show). Part of the reason was being in autopilot mode, part of it was trying to be flashy. These are all things that bad players do. These are things I usually don't actively do, and it's annoying that I know that but it happened any way.
Guess I just consider it a bad night and move on, everyone has them from time to time.
After the tournament, we all got some food. Red Robin is a great burger place, and it's somewhere we haven't been to in a while. Also, it was Jake's birthday, so we got the added bonus of watching the employees sing at him.
The we went to the 24-hour coffee shop downtown, I actually just got home 15 minutes ago. Any way, there we met up with someone else we know. Played a bunch of games. Jake calls dragunity decent. Which, something you should know, Jake plays this game competitively. Although he hasn't topped anything other than bunches of regionals (not recently, as he is just getting back into the game), he is really good. He's played MtG competitively as well, and has had moderate success at that game such as getting top 4 at a few Starcity Games 5K tournaments, top eighting a Pro-Tour Qualifier (not high enough to qualify sadly).
Since Jake takes things seriously and from a competitive standpoint, he doesn't get behind decks that don't have results, either by his own testing or topping other larger events. So playing a couple of rounds and him calling the deck decent means that there is something at least good-enough about it to hang with the rest of the format. I generally judge my own competitive choices (for those times were I do want to play competitively) off of what Jake's results and ideas are. I know I'm making a big deal off of what essentially is nothing, but generally his response to if I'm playing a less popular deck is "seems really bad".
I completed Gem-Knights and Madolches tonight. So yeah, two new decks for me to play around with. Something I am excited for.
~E.P.B.
Needless to say, I did these things, realized how bad they were seconds after, and basically got kind of frustrated (it doesn't involve yelling or things like that, it's just mentally frustrating, I try not to let it show). Part of the reason was being in autopilot mode, part of it was trying to be flashy. These are all things that bad players do. These are things I usually don't actively do, and it's annoying that I know that but it happened any way.
Guess I just consider it a bad night and move on, everyone has them from time to time.
After the tournament, we all got some food. Red Robin is a great burger place, and it's somewhere we haven't been to in a while. Also, it was Jake's birthday, so we got the added bonus of watching the employees sing at him.
The we went to the 24-hour coffee shop downtown, I actually just got home 15 minutes ago. Any way, there we met up with someone else we know. Played a bunch of games. Jake calls dragunity decent. Which, something you should know, Jake plays this game competitively. Although he hasn't topped anything other than bunches of regionals (not recently, as he is just getting back into the game), he is really good. He's played MtG competitively as well, and has had moderate success at that game such as getting top 4 at a few Starcity Games 5K tournaments, top eighting a Pro-Tour Qualifier (not high enough to qualify sadly).
Since Jake takes things seriously and from a competitive standpoint, he doesn't get behind decks that don't have results, either by his own testing or topping other larger events. So playing a couple of rounds and him calling the deck decent means that there is something at least good-enough about it to hang with the rest of the format. I generally judge my own competitive choices (for those times were I do want to play competitively) off of what Jake's results and ideas are. I know I'm making a big deal off of what essentially is nothing, but generally his response to if I'm playing a less popular deck is "seems really bad".
I completed Gem-Knights and Madolches tonight. So yeah, two new decks for me to play around with. Something I am excited for.
~E.P.B.
0
420 Cosmo Blaze it...Pt. 2
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
1337 Cards,
1337 Reviews
I apologize for yesterday's article. I went back and re-read it today. and holy smokes was it bad. It started out fine, but it teetered off into a bunch of overused phrases and sentences with me repeating myself, and some obvious grammatical errors as well as technical errors about the game (Calling Fish an archetype when they are just are monster type). The main problem is that I'm going to be really tired in the week, which is also the time where I'm going to write about stuff, since I go to bed too early to game with friends.
So yeah, I've all ready gave a couple of little blurbs about some cards and the archetypes yesterday, so today, I'm going to be continuing in a similar fashion, but I'm going to try and go more in depth. Today is the day for generic cards, some of them will belong to archetypes, but will have generic uses.
We're going to continue things out of order! Yay.
Orbital 7
Light Machine / Effect
LV4 500/2000
When this card is flipped: Place 1 ROGER Counter on this card. You can remove all ROGER Counters from this card; this card's ATK becomes 2000, cannot attack your opponent directly during this turn, and is sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase. You can Release this card to target 1 "Photon" or "Galaxy" monster in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand.
Roger! Roger! One of the few cards based off of an anime character. Orbital 7 isn't really that good, but he does have some tricks like Machine Duplication. His attack boosting effect probably won't be too relevant, and it's really slow. This is just a fun card, it does give Photon/Galaxy some support.
Gagaga Clerk
Earth Warrior / Effect
LV2 400/800
If you control a "Gagaga" monster aside from "Gagaga Clerk", you can Special Summon this card (from your hand).
More Gagaga support, which is kind of a cool thing. Not really much else to say about it. Gagaga don't really have many crazy plays in comparison to the top decks. What they do have, is access to pretty much every Xyz monster in the game.
Valkyrie Knight
Fire Warrior / Effect
LV4 1900/1200
Your opponent cannot select Warrior-Type monsters, aside from "Valkyrie Knight", as a target for attack. When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card and 1 Warrior-Type monster from your Graveyard to target 1 Level 5 or higher Warrior-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.
Hey! This guy is kind of legit. It's some random warrior support, but he helps out a bit in Warrior decks like Bushi that still synchro summon or run higher level warriors. He also has the nifty protection capabilities of Command Knight and Marauding Captain. The sad thing is that he doesn't create the same lock that Marauding Captain or Command Knight create, since he names himself in its effect, but you want him to die by battle any way. The only downside is that your opponent might not wish to attack him, so they will just use some other card to get around his effect instead.
Pyrorex the Elemental Lord
Fire Dinosaur / Effect
LV8 2800/2200
Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having exactly 5 FIRE monsters in your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card is Special Summoned: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy it, then both players take damage equal to half the original ATK of the destroyed monster. This effect of "Enreishin Pyrorex" can only be activated once per turn. If this card leaves the field, skip the Battle Phase of your next turn.
This guy is another sought after card in the set. Basically, this guy follows in the footsteps of the Water lord and the Earth lord. This card is going to be overrated when the set comes out, there aren't that many Fire decks with the graveyard control capabilities that Mermails or Earth Psychics have. You can run this card in some unique places like Evols or Fire Kings. Those places will probably be the best options. Considering this card is going to be a secret rare, I can see it reaching around $20, probably higher when it is first released.
Aster Drawn
Earth Spellcaster / Effect
LV4 1600/1000
If this card is used for an Xyz Summon, it can be treated as a Level 5 monster. An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card gains this effect:
-When this card is Xyz Summoned: Draw 1 card.
Another pretty decent card out of this set. It's generic, and you can run it in a couple of different places. Getting the draw is really nice.
Number 53: False Skeletal God, Heart-eartH
Dark Fiend / Xyz / Effect
RK5 100/100
3 Level 5 monsters
Once per turn, when this card is targeted for an attack: Have this card gain ATK equal to the original ATK of the attacking monster until the End Phase. If this card would be destroyed, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card instead. When this card without Xyz Materials is destroyed by a card effect: Xyz Summon 1 "Numbers 92 False Skeletal God Dragon Heart-eartH Dragon" from your Extra Deck using this card in the Graveyard as an Xyz Material.
Heart-eartH is the first final boss monster revealed in Zexal. He's generic, but a pain to summon, since it's not every duel you get 3 level 5 monsters on the field. This card is a pain to get rid of, since every time he would die you can detach a material from it to keep it from doing so. This card will rarely be destroyed by battle, which is a nice thing, it can get over essentially everything. Then if it finally does die you can do a psudo-chaos Xyz into the God Dragon.
The downside to this is a lot of things have to go right in order for it to work that way. This card has to stay on the field forever, and it probably won't. Heck, they can even Fiendish Chain and kill it, and then no God Dragon. Evacuation Device also deals with this guy pretty easily. It's probably not worth investing the resources to it.
Numbers 92 False Skeletal God Dragon
Heart-eartH Dragon
Dark Dragon / Xyz / Effect
RK9 0/0
3 Level 9 monsters
This card cannot be destroyed by battle. Battle Damage you would receive from this card battling is inflicted to your opponent instead. During your opponent's End Phase: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; banish all cards that were Normal or Special Summoned or Set on your opponent's side of the field this turn. If this card with Xyz Materials is destroyed: You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. When Special Summoned this way: This card gains 1000 ATK for each banished card.
This guy is all right. Not really worth the fuss and work that the other Heart-eartH requires to get to him. He has an all right protection, but you probably won't be able to use his banish effect if you want to keep him around for very long. Getting it off does decimate your opponent's field, but after that happens you probably won't have the resources to follow it up with.
Diawolf the Terrorfang
Earth Beast / Xyz / Effect
RK4 2000/1200
2 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 Beast, Beast-Warrior, or Winged Beast-Type monster you control and 1 other card on the field; destroy them.
Lightning Plover
Wind Thunder / Xyz / Effect
RK4 1900/1600
2 Level WIND monsters
When this card is Xyz Summoned: Target 1 Set card your opponent controls; Return that target to the bottom of the Deck. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; Return that target to the top of the Deck.
These two are the gems of the set. Plover and Diawolf will be what you want to pull from your packs. Diawolf is comparable to Scrap Dragon, offering a generic Xyz destruction effect when you need it. Like Scrap Dragon, Diawolf gets even better in decks that it was intended to be used in. You have a lot of options with it. Diawolf fails in the generic department to something like Black Cornship, but he is still really good. You'll want to get a few copies of this for sure.
Plover on the other hand is only useful in decks that have Wind monsters. Basically, you shouldn't need me to tell you why this card is good, it's just crazy value and crazy advantage. If you can make it, it's probably worth reserving a spot in your Extra deck for it.
Gagagadraw
Normal Spell
Banish 3 "Gagaga" monsters from your Graveyard; draw 2 cards.
More neat Gagaga cards. This one is pretty self explanatory. It does give the Gagaga deck some added consistency and it isn't just limited to the Spellcaster Gagagas like Wonder Wand is.
Fire Formation - Tenki
Continuous Spell
When this card is activated: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. Beast-Warrior-Type monsters you control gain 100 ATK. Only 1 "Fire Formation - Tenki" can be activated per turn.
This card is going to be used in two archetypes. Fire Kings and Fire Fists, probably a couple more as well. Reinforcement of the Army is still a good card, and Tenki follows in that cards footsteps. This lets those decks get some added consistency.
Breakthrough Skill
Normal Trap
Target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; its effects are negated until the end of the turn. During your turn, if this card was not sent to your Graveyard during this turn: You can banish this card from your Graveyard to target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; that target's effects are negated until the end of the turn.
The last card from the base set that I would like to mention. This card is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Effect Veiler and Fiendish Chain but while it attempts to do that, I still feel like those options are better. This card can go in two directions in terms of how much it's played. It will either be the next Veiler/ Chain or it will go the way that Security Orb did by being a neat card that just doesn't do either of it's effects well enough.
The nice thing is that you do get multiple uses out of it. Cards like this and Mischief of the Yokai are cards that I'm extremely found of. Because Valuetown is still Valuetown.
AND THEN!!!
This is the end of part two. Next time I will be talking about all of the TCG exclusives, which should be fairly entertaining.
~Et3rnal13
So yeah, I've all ready gave a couple of little blurbs about some cards and the archetypes yesterday, so today, I'm going to be continuing in a similar fashion, but I'm going to try and go more in depth. Today is the day for generic cards, some of them will belong to archetypes, but will have generic uses.
We're going to continue things out of order! Yay.
Orbital 7Light Machine / Effect
LV4 500/2000
When this card is flipped: Place 1 ROGER Counter on this card. You can remove all ROGER Counters from this card; this card's ATK becomes 2000, cannot attack your opponent directly during this turn, and is sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase. You can Release this card to target 1 "Photon" or "Galaxy" monster in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand.
Roger! Roger! One of the few cards based off of an anime character. Orbital 7 isn't really that good, but he does have some tricks like Machine Duplication. His attack boosting effect probably won't be too relevant, and it's really slow. This is just a fun card, it does give Photon/Galaxy some support.
Gagaga Clerk
Earth Warrior / Effect
LV2 400/800
If you control a "Gagaga" monster aside from "Gagaga Clerk", you can Special Summon this card (from your hand).
More Gagaga support, which is kind of a cool thing. Not really much else to say about it. Gagaga don't really have many crazy plays in comparison to the top decks. What they do have, is access to pretty much every Xyz monster in the game.
Valkyrie KnightFire Warrior / Effect
LV4 1900/1200
Your opponent cannot select Warrior-Type monsters, aside from "Valkyrie Knight", as a target for attack. When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard: You can banish this card and 1 Warrior-Type monster from your Graveyard to target 1 Level 5 or higher Warrior-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.
Hey! This guy is kind of legit. It's some random warrior support, but he helps out a bit in Warrior decks like Bushi that still synchro summon or run higher level warriors. He also has the nifty protection capabilities of Command Knight and Marauding Captain. The sad thing is that he doesn't create the same lock that Marauding Captain or Command Knight create, since he names himself in its effect, but you want him to die by battle any way. The only downside is that your opponent might not wish to attack him, so they will just use some other card to get around his effect instead.
 |
| Oh no, there goes Tokyo... |
Fire Dinosaur / Effect
LV8 2800/2200
Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having exactly 5 FIRE monsters in your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card is Special Summoned: Target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy it, then both players take damage equal to half the original ATK of the destroyed monster. This effect of "Enreishin Pyrorex" can only be activated once per turn. If this card leaves the field, skip the Battle Phase of your next turn.
This guy is another sought after card in the set. Basically, this guy follows in the footsteps of the Water lord and the Earth lord. This card is going to be overrated when the set comes out, there aren't that many Fire decks with the graveyard control capabilities that Mermails or Earth Psychics have. You can run this card in some unique places like Evols or Fire Kings. Those places will probably be the best options. Considering this card is going to be a secret rare, I can see it reaching around $20, probably higher when it is first released.
Aster Drawn
Earth Spellcaster / Effect
LV4 1600/1000
If this card is used for an Xyz Summon, it can be treated as a Level 5 monster. An Xyz Monster that was Summoned using this card gains this effect:
-When this card is Xyz Summoned: Draw 1 card.
Another pretty decent card out of this set. It's generic, and you can run it in a couple of different places. Getting the draw is really nice.
 |
| The Earth's Heart |
Dark Fiend / Xyz / Effect
RK5 100/100
3 Level 5 monsters
Once per turn, when this card is targeted for an attack: Have this card gain ATK equal to the original ATK of the attacking monster until the End Phase. If this card would be destroyed, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card instead. When this card without Xyz Materials is destroyed by a card effect: Xyz Summon 1 "Numbers 92 False Skeletal God Dragon Heart-eartH Dragon" from your Extra Deck using this card in the Graveyard as an Xyz Material.
Heart-eartH is the first final boss monster revealed in Zexal. He's generic, but a pain to summon, since it's not every duel you get 3 level 5 monsters on the field. This card is a pain to get rid of, since every time he would die you can detach a material from it to keep it from doing so. This card will rarely be destroyed by battle, which is a nice thing, it can get over essentially everything. Then if it finally does die you can do a psudo-chaos Xyz into the God Dragon.
The downside to this is a lot of things have to go right in order for it to work that way. This card has to stay on the field forever, and it probably won't. Heck, they can even Fiendish Chain and kill it, and then no God Dragon. Evacuation Device also deals with this guy pretty easily. It's probably not worth investing the resources to it.
 |
| The Heart of the Earth |
Dark Dragon / Xyz / Effect
RK9 0/0
3 Level 9 monsters
This card cannot be destroyed by battle. Battle Damage you would receive from this card battling is inflicted to your opponent instead. During your opponent's End Phase: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; banish all cards that were Normal or Special Summoned or Set on your opponent's side of the field this turn. If this card with Xyz Materials is destroyed: You can Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. When Special Summoned this way: This card gains 1000 ATK for each banished card.
This guy is all right. Not really worth the fuss and work that the other Heart-eartH requires to get to him. He has an all right protection, but you probably won't be able to use his banish effect if you want to keep him around for very long. Getting it off does decimate your opponent's field, but after that happens you probably won't have the resources to follow it up with.
 |
| Lightning Plover |
Earth Beast / Xyz / Effect
RK4 2000/1200
2 Level 4 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 Beast, Beast-Warrior, or Winged Beast-Type monster you control and 1 other card on the field; destroy them.
Lightning Plover
Wind Thunder / Xyz / Effect
RK4 1900/1600
2 Level WIND monsters
When this card is Xyz Summoned: Target 1 Set card your opponent controls; Return that target to the bottom of the Deck. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; Return that target to the top of the Deck.
These two are the gems of the set. Plover and Diawolf will be what you want to pull from your packs. Diawolf is comparable to Scrap Dragon, offering a generic Xyz destruction effect when you need it. Like Scrap Dragon, Diawolf gets even better in decks that it was intended to be used in. You have a lot of options with it. Diawolf fails in the generic department to something like Black Cornship, but he is still really good. You'll want to get a few copies of this for sure.
Plover on the other hand is only useful in decks that have Wind monsters. Basically, you shouldn't need me to tell you why this card is good, it's just crazy value and crazy advantage. If you can make it, it's probably worth reserving a spot in your Extra deck for it.
Gagagadraw
Normal Spell
Banish 3 "Gagaga" monsters from your Graveyard; draw 2 cards.
More neat Gagaga cards. This one is pretty self explanatory. It does give the Gagaga deck some added consistency and it isn't just limited to the Spellcaster Gagagas like Wonder Wand is.
Fire Formation - Tenki
Continuous Spell
When this card is activated: You can add 1 Level 4 or lower Beast-Warrior-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. Beast-Warrior-Type monsters you control gain 100 ATK. Only 1 "Fire Formation - Tenki" can be activated per turn.
This card is going to be used in two archetypes. Fire Kings and Fire Fists, probably a couple more as well. Reinforcement of the Army is still a good card, and Tenki follows in that cards footsteps. This lets those decks get some added consistency.
 |
| Can't break through anything. |
Normal Trap
Target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; its effects are negated until the end of the turn. During your turn, if this card was not sent to your Graveyard during this turn: You can banish this card from your Graveyard to target 1 Effect Monster your opponent controls; that target's effects are negated until the end of the turn.
The last card from the base set that I would like to mention. This card is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Effect Veiler and Fiendish Chain but while it attempts to do that, I still feel like those options are better. This card can go in two directions in terms of how much it's played. It will either be the next Veiler/ Chain or it will go the way that Security Orb did by being a neat card that just doesn't do either of it's effects well enough.
The nice thing is that you do get multiple uses out of it. Cards like this and Mischief of the Yokai are cards that I'm extremely found of. Because Valuetown is still Valuetown.
AND THEN!!!
This is the end of part two. Next time I will be talking about all of the TCG exclusives, which should be fairly entertaining.
~Et3rnal13
0
420 Cosmo Blaze it...Pt.1
Monday, January 14, 2013
1337 Cards,
1337 Reviews
Well, it's that time again. The week before a Sneak Preview. I figured this took precedence over the other stuff I was going to write about this week...considering this is a really timely sort of thing.
Anyway, Cosmo Blazer, the set that hopes to follow on the watery fin-thingy that was the last set Abyss Rising. Cosmo Blazer heats things up this time though, turning that water into lava and should give duelists what they need to incinerate the competition and flare up intense duels. I'm running out of fire puns here. So let's start this show of what is going to be an intense set, I won't be going over everything, but let's go. Starting with the imports:
Crimson Sunbird
FIRE/Winged Beast/Fusion
LV6 2300 ATK/1800 DEF
"Faith Bird" + "Skull Red Bird"
Konami...I said intense set, not pile of crap. Ok, so Crimson Sunbird is...a card. Yeah, there is not much you can do with this thing. It's an old card, one of the earliest in the game that hasn't been released yet, and it is probably a card you will cry at. I guess this thing has a nostalgia factor if you've played Forbidden Memories. It was one of those things you'd fuse for in that game, but that's it. I wanted to incinerate the competition but instead you gave me...this?
Ignition Beast Volcannon
EARTH/Machine/Fusion
LV6 2300 /1600
1 Machine-Type monster + 1 Pyro-Type monster
When this card is Fusion Summoned: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy that target, also destroy this card, then if both monsters were destroyed, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of the monster in the Graveyard that was targeted by this effect.
Now this is more like it. A decent start, Ignition Beast Volcannon first made it's premier in the 5D's manga as one of Grieger's monsters. Vulcannon has a couple of niche uses but nothing really spectacular. If you remember my namesake OTK article, Vulcannon is a part of that, you can go for it if you're opponent has a monster and you need an extra bit of burn. Vulcannon can also see some play in a Gadget variant running Vulcanic monsters, but that hasn't been popular for quite some time now.
Crimson Blader
FIRE/Warrior/Synchro
LV 8 2800 / 2600
1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuner monsters
If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Your opponent cannot Normal or Special Summon Level 5 or higher monsters during their next turn.
2800 ATK/ 2600 DEF
This card is something I've wanted for a while. A bit dated and a bit meta dependent, Crimson Blader offers decks that can still synchro, a couple of control options. It's a nice card, that seems like it could be used somewhere. One of the decks that I'd like to test it against is Mermails, since one of their big plays involves level 5 monsters. It doesn't have a protection effect, but using it at the right moment can be beyond devastating to someone. It's gotten worse though, at the time of it's release it was just at the end of 5Ds, and it would have seen a lot more play if Xyz didn't happen. I could see this card being an Ultra Rare or Secret Rare in the set. It doesn't have any use in Sealed play, if you're store does that sort of thing.
Blackwing - Gladius the Midnight Sun
Blackwing - Damascus the Polar Night
There's two new Blackwing cards in this set. Sadly, they are only ok at best. I don't really feel like writing out the effects of these, so just google it or something. These are a couple of the leftover cards that will be coming out of the 5Ds manga and imported into sets this year. People have hope that the Blackwing archetype will get it's revival and time in the sun again. Sadly, these cards aren't really blazing any trails.
Fire Fists!
To keep the article from stretching itself into the fiery pits of hell, if you want to see what they all do, follow this link. If there is an archetype in this set, I will post a link to it.
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1096733
Ok, so these are clearly the hyped cards out of this set. Sadly, the archetype will still be missing a couple of it's pieces even after this set is released. So what do the Fire Fists do? Well, there are a bunch of articles all ready written about them, you can even find a couple on Konami's Strategy Site. So yay. Not much I really can say or want to say about them that hasn't all ready been mentioned.
I do think that people are hyping them a bit much, a lot of people seem to want them to be the next Merlantean deck. This won't happen until they get all of their cards, and even then it's not guaranteed. This seems like one of those archetypes that will keep it's price though, much like Madolches and Dragunity. It's not a bad archetype, just might be bad for this format or until it gets everything. Regardless, Beast-Warriors finally get a bit of love, and I could be wrong, I usually hope I'm wrong, this game needs more playable decks.
Now for Sealed Play, like most archetypes you probably want to open some copies of the support cards before you run them, unless the cards have high attack. Generally, if you have 4 or so cards of a specific archetype, you can assume that you would be safe to play it in 20-card sealed, of course judging if those cards are worth playing is part of what you need to do, but it's 20-card sealed.
Anyway, let's move on to the base set (I say this because a few of the Fire Fists are Ocg imports)
Xyz Remora
Water Fish / Effect
LV4 800/800
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by detaching 2 Xyz Materials from monsters you control. When this card is Special Summoned this way: You can target 2 Level 4 Fish-Type monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon those targets, but they cannot attack, their effects on the field are negated, and their Battle Positions cannot be changed. Those monsters cannot be used as Xyz Materials, except for WATER Xyz Monsters.
This is an interesting card in that it almost makes the whole fish archetype worth it again (and by fish I don't mean Merlanteans). Basically, this card just requires you to have an Xyz monster, which isn't even that difficult anymore. The decks you would run this in are Banisharks (one with level 4s) or a Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth deck, Either one of those should get some decent use out of Xyz-Remora. There's also a couple of ways to use it with Rescue Rabbit. This is going to be one of those cards people don't use but still has plenty of uses, it's just now might not be the time or place.
There are a couple other fish monsters in this pack, and they're ok. They let Banisharks run some level 4 Water monsters and they also let fish decks have some new tricks.
Heraldic Beast Archetype
Again, keeping this somewhat short. This is a link to the Heraldic Beast archetype and a list of all of their support.
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1100724&highlight=Heraldic+Beast
Basically, the Heraldic Beasts are the monsters that pump out Xyz. Essentially, they're another archetype about pumping out Xyz. Advanced Heraldy Art is one of the best support cards in the game, and these guys feel a lot like the D-Heroes of the Zexal era. They have had a little bit of support sprinkled in some of the sets, and in this one their support is concluded, save for their boss monster No. 69.
Mainly, these guys pump out Rank 4s, and it shouldn't be that hard to get out a Shock Master or Genome Heriter out.
Garbage Lord
Dark Fiend / Effect
LV 5 0/2400
You can pay 2000 Life Points to Special Summon this card (from your Hand). This card cannot be used as an Xyz Material, except for a DARK Xyz Monster.
Garbage Ogre
Dark Fiend / Effect
LV3 800/1300
You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard; add 1 "Garbage Lord" from your Deck to your hand. The effect of "Garbage Ogre" can only be activated once per turn.
These Garbage monsters are a new mini archetype. Basically, they're the Inca archetype of Zexal. They're used by the main boss of the season, get released while giving the archetype little support, and are essentially used to pump out the boss monster of the deck, who we will get to later. Not much to say about this guys, but they are slightly interesting. You might be able to build a casual deck around these guys.
Hazy Flame
Yeah, one of the last major archetypes that needs to be talked about. This archetype puts tough to get rid of monsters on the field since they can't be gotten rid of by the opponent's card effects. Once again, feel free to look up the cards.
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1086633
This is probably the more underrated archetypes being supported this set. It will probably get more hype as we get closer to the intended release.
So yeah...
Doing a whole set review is harder than what I thought it would be. I'm going to talk about some more generic stuff in the next one of these. I didn't want to talk too much about the archetypes, partly because this isn't a guide to help you build anything, and the other thing is that I don't want to rob people of discovering cool new things in this game.
There are some other cool things archetype wise. Mermails get more support, which will get a mention next time. I'll conclude this series with the TCG exclusives on Friday night, since they will all be spoiled by that point. I hope you enjoyed this, next time...more of the same.
~Et3rnal13
Anyway, Cosmo Blazer, the set that hopes to follow on the watery fin-thingy that was the last set Abyss Rising. Cosmo Blazer heats things up this time though, turning that water into lava and should give duelists what they need to incinerate the competition and flare up intense duels. I'm running out of fire puns here. So let's start this show of what is going to be an intense set, I won't be going over everything, but let's go. Starting with the imports:
 |
| Pull ME!!! I'm a f&%#ing Bird. |
FIRE/Winged Beast/Fusion
LV6 2300 ATK/1800 DEF
"Faith Bird" + "Skull Red Bird"
Konami...I said intense set, not pile of crap. Ok, so Crimson Sunbird is...a card. Yeah, there is not much you can do with this thing. It's an old card, one of the earliest in the game that hasn't been released yet, and it is probably a card you will cry at. I guess this thing has a nostalgia factor if you've played Forbidden Memories. It was one of those things you'd fuse for in that game, but that's it. I wanted to incinerate the competition but instead you gave me...this?
EARTH/Machine/Fusion
LV6 2300 /1600
1 Machine-Type monster + 1 Pyro-Type monster
When this card is Fusion Summoned: You can target 1 monster your opponent controls; destroy that target, also destroy this card, then if both monsters were destroyed, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of the monster in the Graveyard that was targeted by this effect.
Now this is more like it. A decent start, Ignition Beast Volcannon first made it's premier in the 5D's manga as one of Grieger's monsters. Vulcannon has a couple of niche uses but nothing really spectacular. If you remember my namesake OTK article, Vulcannon is a part of that, you can go for it if you're opponent has a monster and you need an extra bit of burn. Vulcannon can also see some play in a Gadget variant running Vulcanic monsters, but that hasn't been popular for quite some time now.
 |
| I represent a bygone era, and I'm sexy. |
Crimson Blader
FIRE/Warrior/Synchro
LV 8 2800 / 2600
1 Tuner + 1 or more Non-Tuner monsters
If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Your opponent cannot Normal or Special Summon Level 5 or higher monsters during their next turn.
2800 ATK/ 2600 DEF
This card is something I've wanted for a while. A bit dated and a bit meta dependent, Crimson Blader offers decks that can still synchro, a couple of control options. It's a nice card, that seems like it could be used somewhere. One of the decks that I'd like to test it against is Mermails, since one of their big plays involves level 5 monsters. It doesn't have a protection effect, but using it at the right moment can be beyond devastating to someone. It's gotten worse though, at the time of it's release it was just at the end of 5Ds, and it would have seen a lot more play if Xyz didn't happen. I could see this card being an Ultra Rare or Secret Rare in the set. It doesn't have any use in Sealed play, if you're store does that sort of thing.
Blackwing - Gladius the Midnight Sun
Blackwing - Damascus the Polar Night
There's two new Blackwing cards in this set. Sadly, they are only ok at best. I don't really feel like writing out the effects of these, so just google it or something. These are a couple of the leftover cards that will be coming out of the 5Ds manga and imported into sets this year. People have hope that the Blackwing archetype will get it's revival and time in the sun again. Sadly, these cards aren't really blazing any trails.
Fire Fists!
 |
| Lion Emperor |
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1096733
Ok, so these are clearly the hyped cards out of this set. Sadly, the archetype will still be missing a couple of it's pieces even after this set is released. So what do the Fire Fists do? Well, there are a bunch of articles all ready written about them, you can even find a couple on Konami's Strategy Site. So yay. Not much I really can say or want to say about them that hasn't all ready been mentioned.
I do think that people are hyping them a bit much, a lot of people seem to want them to be the next Merlantean deck. This won't happen until they get all of their cards, and even then it's not guaranteed. This seems like one of those archetypes that will keep it's price though, much like Madolches and Dragunity. It's not a bad archetype, just might be bad for this format or until it gets everything. Regardless, Beast-Warriors finally get a bit of love, and I could be wrong, I usually hope I'm wrong, this game needs more playable decks.
Now for Sealed Play, like most archetypes you probably want to open some copies of the support cards before you run them, unless the cards have high attack. Generally, if you have 4 or so cards of a specific archetype, you can assume that you would be safe to play it in 20-card sealed, of course judging if those cards are worth playing is part of what you need to do, but it's 20-card sealed.
Anyway, let's move on to the base set (I say this because a few of the Fire Fists are Ocg imports)
 |
| Remremremora |
Xyz Remora
Water Fish / Effect
LV4 800/800
You can Special Summon this card (from your hand) by detaching 2 Xyz Materials from monsters you control. When this card is Special Summoned this way: You can target 2 Level 4 Fish-Type monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon those targets, but they cannot attack, their effects on the field are negated, and their Battle Positions cannot be changed. Those monsters cannot be used as Xyz Materials, except for WATER Xyz Monsters.
This is an interesting card in that it almost makes the whole fish archetype worth it again (and by fish I don't mean Merlanteans). Basically, this card just requires you to have an Xyz monster, which isn't even that difficult anymore. The decks you would run this in are Banisharks (one with level 4s) or a Superancient Deepsea King Coelacanth deck, Either one of those should get some decent use out of Xyz-Remora. There's also a couple of ways to use it with Rescue Rabbit. This is going to be one of those cards people don't use but still has plenty of uses, it's just now might not be the time or place.
There are a couple other fish monsters in this pack, and they're ok. They let Banisharks run some level 4 Water monsters and they also let fish decks have some new tricks.
Heraldic Beast Archetype
 | |
| Regulus's cool cousin. |
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1100724&highlight=Heraldic+Beast
Basically, the Heraldic Beasts are the monsters that pump out Xyz. Essentially, they're another archetype about pumping out Xyz. Advanced Heraldy Art is one of the best support cards in the game, and these guys feel a lot like the D-Heroes of the Zexal era. They have had a little bit of support sprinkled in some of the sets, and in this one their support is concluded, save for their boss monster No. 69.
Mainly, these guys pump out Rank 4s, and it shouldn't be that hard to get out a Shock Master or Genome Heriter out.
 |
| King Nothing |
Garbage Lord
Dark Fiend / Effect
LV 5 0/2400
You can pay 2000 Life Points to Special Summon this card (from your Hand). This card cannot be used as an Xyz Material, except for a DARK Xyz Monster.
Garbage Ogre
Dark Fiend / Effect
LV3 800/1300
You can send this card from your hand to the Graveyard; add 1 "Garbage Lord" from your Deck to your hand. The effect of "Garbage Ogre" can only be activated once per turn.
These Garbage monsters are a new mini archetype. Basically, they're the Inca archetype of Zexal. They're used by the main boss of the season, get released while giving the archetype little support, and are essentially used to pump out the boss monster of the deck, who we will get to later. Not much to say about this guys, but they are slightly interesting. You might be able to build a casual deck around these guys.
Hazy Flame
 |
| ALL FEAR THE BASILCOCK |
http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1086633
This is probably the more underrated archetypes being supported this set. It will probably get more hype as we get closer to the intended release.
So yeah...
Doing a whole set review is harder than what I thought it would be. I'm going to talk about some more generic stuff in the next one of these. I didn't want to talk too much about the archetypes, partly because this isn't a guide to help you build anything, and the other thing is that I don't want to rob people of discovering cool new things in this game.
There are some other cool things archetype wise. Mermails get more support, which will get a mention next time. I'll conclude this series with the TCG exclusives on Friday night, since they will all be spoiled by that point. I hope you enjoyed this, next time...more of the same.
~Et3rnal13
0
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: READ THIS.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
News
I've procrastinated long enough. So I'm going to be spending the next few days working with a new template. I probably won't change around too much from how it currently looks, but if you notice, there are a few problems. For starters, the old Dueling Network images are too big. Meaning I either need to resize the template for the blog layout, or I need to use smaller images. One of those two things will happen.
I can't guarantee that I won't go back to the old layout by the way. This is a bit of an experiment.
~ E.P.B.
I can't guarantee that I won't go back to the old layout by the way. This is a bit of an experiment.
~ E.P.B.
0
Tournament Report: Fishy Fish Dragon Local Stories (Dragunity deck)
Thursday, January 10, 2013
1337 Cards,
1337 competitive,
Quick updates
So, yeah. Tournament report. I'm also going to include stuff about my day that was sort of interesting leading up to the local event. Sometimes, that's just fun to do, and it makes it less autonomous than "yeah, I won this match." So here goes.
I woke up at about 8 a.m. today. Mainly because I have class. I have to borrow my parents car to get to said classes so I walk up to the store to get it. In one of my classes, Political Theory, a girl didn't know that B.C.E. was a thing. Which, I honestly can't believe. Made me feel like there was no hope for 'Merica. Anyway, I was just chillen, getting real tired after these classes. The title of this report is because we had a big discussion in my International Relations class about globalization and invasive fish species, it was really fishy.
I get a text from my friend (Jake) for a ride to locals. I thought about whether I wanted to drive myself or not. Mainly because I all ready ate that day, they generally get lunch, and whatever. So I get ride at about 3:00 p.m. ish and off to locals I go.
We stopped by a chicken place for food. I couldn't decide which desserts I wanted. My choice was between Apple Pie and Peacan Pie. I thought about getting one or the other. Apple or Pecan, these choices can shape destinies. I decided to double down on the Pecan Pie's, getting two, since they remind me of my Grandmother and the found memories of homemade Pecan pie (specifically on my Birthday).
I decided I'd run Dragunity this week. The deck is basically the most fun deck in my opinion, like everytime I make a play with it, it just makes me smile. I know that's not the best reason to run a deck, but Dragunity has done well this format. Not just in terms of me running it, but other players have done well with it at a couple of regionals apparently. I had felt like the format sped up and Mermails were too much for the deck to deal with, but I changed my mind after I learned how to play against and hopefully beat them. I spent a good 30 minutes looking for a Dragunity Arma Mysteltainn before the tournament since I needed a 3rd to make the deck more consistent. No luck.
Something you should know about my locals. We get about 40 people a week, which is a pretty good size, that doesn't even include the 12-15 people who set up front to free duel. Also, the other thing. I don't win that often, in fact I don't even place, but I do well in the tournament. Generally, the whole thing is 4 rounds of swiss (it's all ways 4 rounds, no matter how many people...it's a shame really). I usually go 3-1, and often times I lose to one of my friends in the early rounds. Two weeks ago it was Jake, last week I didn't play either of them and walked away with 2nd place prize in 4th place (there was a split for 1st, three people got $45, I got $25). What happens when I lose to my friends? Well since it's generally early in the tournament, I end up getting 9th.
In fact, to be honest, I've probably gotten 9th place more than any other place. It's really frustrating in a way, and I joked about it before the tournament. Telling Jake I knew exactly what would happen, I'd end up going 3-1, probably losing to either him or Anthony, and get 9th.
So yeah. Anyway, we played a couple of games, and I was feeling fairly confident after that. Just in time for round 1 to begin.
Round 1: Dragunity vs. Agents
The guy I was playing was someone I met in my freshmen year of college. At the time, I didn't know him too well, he was dating one of my friends and I only knew of him through her. Anyway, he's a pretty cool guy and one of the people that I'm glad I got to know better because of this game.
Game 1: I can't remember too well what happened this game. We both had slow starts. He got to his cards first making a Zenmaines and Gachi Gachi Gantetsu early on. My best play was using Dragunity Legionnaire bringing Phalanx back and making a Catastor. This lasted for two turns, long enough to kill his materials, since I had some back row support but I didn't have much else to capitalize on the power of Catastor. Sadly, this wasn't good enough. He dropped BLS:EOTB and Hyperion to punch my face in. It wasn't enough for game, and I had a really awkward hand that had possibilities but those weren't good enough. I topdecked Dragunity Dux and attempted to make a play into Scrap Dragon. The Phalanx summon was met with a Maxx C. I felt like my best option was to let him draw his cards, since his field would surely kill me next turn. I go for Scrap Dragon only for it to be met with an Effect Veiler for game.
Game 2: I sided and drew. I went first setting a Phalanx and a Compulsory Evacuation Device Opening with a Maxx C in hand. He summons Venus and activates, I chain Maxx C. He goes through making Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. I felt like this was a mistake for him, since it netted me a plus 2 off of Maxx C. He sets 1 card, and ends. I bounce Gachi back to his extra deck on his end phase. My turn and I draw. After the Maxx C I have everything needed to OTK. I blow up his backrow with a Mystical Space Typhoon. I combo off, attacking with a fully-charged Trident Dragion and a Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon for game.
Game 3: I opened great this game. The details are blurry to me, but essentially, he opened poorly. The game ended really early after I swung in with a fully charged Trident Dragion and a Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, that wasn't damage on board, but I then made Gustav Maxx and killed him with it.
Round 2: Dragunity Vs. Wind-ups (Anthony)
Anthony is one of the people I grew up playing the game with. He and my other friends who play this game are all older by a few years (3-4). He's all ways been better than me, he's also had the most success out of us when the game was still in it's UDE days. I figured this match would be fairly difficult.
Game 1: I opened with a Dragon's Ravine. I tried to make plays but was met with either Veiler or Fiendish Chain. I couldn't do much else. I got slaughtered with the powerful Wind-up plays were all familiar with, basically devastated by Shock Master.
Game 2: I had a lot of options this game. I played Maxx C when he tried to combo me, netting me just the card I needed to replace it. This was fortunately all I needed since Anthony opened with a backrow-light hand. Stardust Dragon nets me the win this game, backed by Solemn Warning and a few other cards.
Game 3: This game was long. I was waiting on Dragon's Ravine, Anthony was waiting on some Wind-up power plays. Basically, it would come down to who had their cards first. We traded blows a couple of times and lifepoints fell below the 3000 range. The game was counting down to the finale. We were both still waiting on the cards we needed. I had a small board at this point, and the same with Anthony. His turn he finally gets what he was waiting for. Dropping double Wind-up Factory, I almost pooped a little. He combos off, what little spell and traps I had couldn't do much. I stare down a huge field of 3-4 Xyz monsters. One of those were Shock Master calling monster effects. I couldn't do anything after that. I signed the match slip.
Round 3: Dragunity vs. Gem Knights
This was a new guy to our locals. He seemed like a nice guy albeit a little inexperienced.
Games 1 & 2: I can't remember these games too much. All I know is that I OTKd hard and fast both games. Trident Dragion was putting in work tonight.
Round 4: Dragunity vs. Macro Dino Rabbit
This kid used to come to our locals. Now he was a lot older and has grown up. He was just getting back into the game.
Game 1: Again, I can't remember too much. I knew if he drew Macro it was all over for me if I couldn't draw an MST. I had numerous back-row to stop his plays. Life points stayed around 8K. After sitting for long enough, I exhausted the resources on his field. Estimating that he wasn't maining Veiler due to maining Macro, I went for the OTK. I killed him with Trident Dragion.
Game 2: He opened with four backrow. My turn he activated Macro. At this point, my out was MST. He didn't have any plays (no idea what he was drawing) for a few turns, and I was using some of my cards to attempt to bait out some of his massive backrow. Every turn I made a small dent but he kept setting more. I draw MST finally, at this point I was keeping enough cards in my hand to OTK. I MST his Macro. He activates another Macro and I Solemn Warning and he chains Solemn Judgment. I last a few more turns before he draws Rabbit.
Game 3: I knew that I was playing first. If I wanted to win, it meant investing most of my resources on my first turn, since my hands plays wouldn't be live if they sit under Macro. I make Stardust using most of cards. My first turn ends with Stardust, Ravine, and a set Solemn. He goes first and summons Rabbit, forcing my Solemn. After that, he was incredibly frustrated. A couple of turns pass, with his most noticeable play being a Tour Guide into Acid Golem to kill my Stardust. He doesn't set anything. After a few turns of sitting on Stardust, I now had more resources. I draw, play Dark Hole, and quickly make Trident Dragion for game.
Afterwards...
He was pretty upset after the match. I don't think Dino Rabbit has been going well for him.
There was about twenty minutes left on the clock. Table 1 consisted of the Mermail Mirror, my friend Jake was playing at table 2. There would be two 1st place winners tonight. Jake, playing Wind-ups, finished his match, and he won, meaning he would be one of the undefeated.
I walked around for a bit trying to pick up trades. I really wanted Madolches to play non-serious games with, and to use it at the Sneak Preview in a couple of weeks. One of the people there had 3 Magileine, earlier I had traded for one from someone else, I bought two of them from him for $8 each, which was pretty cheap considering my other options. I was able to pick up two of the Madolche Xyz also, best thing is, they are both ultimates. I was able to get the final Mysteltainn that I needed, which was the last thing I actually needed to complete the deck the way I want to run it.
Finally, the prizing was announced. The store-worker called out the credit distribution, I did not make the top 8 cut for credit, despite my 3-1 record. Meaning only one thing. Jake, laughing, asks "wait, wait, who was 9th place?" and my name was called out. I get a congratulatory pat on the back, with Jake saying "good job, you called it."
FML.
~Et3rnal13
I woke up at about 8 a.m. today. Mainly because I have class. I have to borrow my parents car to get to said classes so I walk up to the store to get it. In one of my classes, Political Theory, a girl didn't know that B.C.E. was a thing. Which, I honestly can't believe. Made me feel like there was no hope for 'Merica. Anyway, I was just chillen, getting real tired after these classes. The title of this report is because we had a big discussion in my International Relations class about globalization and invasive fish species, it was really fishy.
I get a text from my friend (Jake) for a ride to locals. I thought about whether I wanted to drive myself or not. Mainly because I all ready ate that day, they generally get lunch, and whatever. So I get ride at about 3:00 p.m. ish and off to locals I go.
We stopped by a chicken place for food. I couldn't decide which desserts I wanted. My choice was between Apple Pie and Peacan Pie. I thought about getting one or the other. Apple or Pecan, these choices can shape destinies. I decided to double down on the Pecan Pie's, getting two, since they remind me of my Grandmother and the found memories of homemade Pecan pie (specifically on my Birthday).
 |
| Y U so hard to find? |
Something you should know about my locals. We get about 40 people a week, which is a pretty good size, that doesn't even include the 12-15 people who set up front to free duel. Also, the other thing. I don't win that often, in fact I don't even place, but I do well in the tournament. Generally, the whole thing is 4 rounds of swiss (it's all ways 4 rounds, no matter how many people...it's a shame really). I usually go 3-1, and often times I lose to one of my friends in the early rounds. Two weeks ago it was Jake, last week I didn't play either of them and walked away with 2nd place prize in 4th place (there was a split for 1st, three people got $45, I got $25). What happens when I lose to my friends? Well since it's generally early in the tournament, I end up getting 9th.
In fact, to be honest, I've probably gotten 9th place more than any other place. It's really frustrating in a way, and I joked about it before the tournament. Telling Jake I knew exactly what would happen, I'd end up going 3-1, probably losing to either him or Anthony, and get 9th.
So yeah. Anyway, we played a couple of games, and I was feeling fairly confident after that. Just in time for round 1 to begin.
Round 1: Dragunity vs. Agents
The guy I was playing was someone I met in my freshmen year of college. At the time, I didn't know him too well, he was dating one of my friends and I only knew of him through her. Anyway, he's a pretty cool guy and one of the people that I'm glad I got to know better because of this game.
Game 1: I can't remember too well what happened this game. We both had slow starts. He got to his cards first making a Zenmaines and Gachi Gachi Gantetsu early on. My best play was using Dragunity Legionnaire bringing Phalanx back and making a Catastor. This lasted for two turns, long enough to kill his materials, since I had some back row support but I didn't have much else to capitalize on the power of Catastor. Sadly, this wasn't good enough. He dropped BLS:EOTB and Hyperion to punch my face in. It wasn't enough for game, and I had a really awkward hand that had possibilities but those weren't good enough. I topdecked Dragunity Dux and attempted to make a play into Scrap Dragon. The Phalanx summon was met with a Maxx C. I felt like my best option was to let him draw his cards, since his field would surely kill me next turn. I go for Scrap Dragon only for it to be met with an Effect Veiler for game.
 |
| Shoot to thrill |
Game 3: I opened great this game. The details are blurry to me, but essentially, he opened poorly. The game ended really early after I swung in with a fully charged Trident Dragion and a Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, that wasn't damage on board, but I then made Gustav Maxx and killed him with it.
Round 2: Dragunity Vs. Wind-ups (Anthony)
Anthony is one of the people I grew up playing the game with. He and my other friends who play this game are all older by a few years (3-4). He's all ways been better than me, he's also had the most success out of us when the game was still in it's UDE days. I figured this match would be fairly difficult.
Game 1: I opened with a Dragon's Ravine. I tried to make plays but was met with either Veiler or Fiendish Chain. I couldn't do much else. I got slaughtered with the powerful Wind-up plays were all familiar with, basically devastated by Shock Master.
 |
| This card is legit better than my whole deck |
Game 3: This game was long. I was waiting on Dragon's Ravine, Anthony was waiting on some Wind-up power plays. Basically, it would come down to who had their cards first. We traded blows a couple of times and lifepoints fell below the 3000 range. The game was counting down to the finale. We were both still waiting on the cards we needed. I had a small board at this point, and the same with Anthony. His turn he finally gets what he was waiting for. Dropping double Wind-up Factory, I almost pooped a little. He combos off, what little spell and traps I had couldn't do much. I stare down a huge field of 3-4 Xyz monsters. One of those were Shock Master calling monster effects. I couldn't do anything after that. I signed the match slip.
Round 3: Dragunity vs. Gem Knights
This was a new guy to our locals. He seemed like a nice guy albeit a little inexperienced.
Games 1 & 2: I can't remember these games too much. All I know is that I OTKd hard and fast both games. Trident Dragion was putting in work tonight.
Round 4: Dragunity vs. Macro Dino Rabbit
This kid used to come to our locals. Now he was a lot older and has grown up. He was just getting back into the game.
Game 1: Again, I can't remember too much. I knew if he drew Macro it was all over for me if I couldn't draw an MST. I had numerous back-row to stop his plays. Life points stayed around 8K. After sitting for long enough, I exhausted the resources on his field. Estimating that he wasn't maining Veiler due to maining Macro, I went for the OTK. I killed him with Trident Dragion.
 |
| Big Boss. |
Game 3: I knew that I was playing first. If I wanted to win, it meant investing most of my resources on my first turn, since my hands plays wouldn't be live if they sit under Macro. I make Stardust using most of cards. My first turn ends with Stardust, Ravine, and a set Solemn. He goes first and summons Rabbit, forcing my Solemn. After that, he was incredibly frustrated. A couple of turns pass, with his most noticeable play being a Tour Guide into Acid Golem to kill my Stardust. He doesn't set anything. After a few turns of sitting on Stardust, I now had more resources. I draw, play Dark Hole, and quickly make Trident Dragion for game.
Afterwards...
He was pretty upset after the match. I don't think Dino Rabbit has been going well for him.
 |
| Seemingly...the most hard to find. |
I walked around for a bit trying to pick up trades. I really wanted Madolches to play non-serious games with, and to use it at the Sneak Preview in a couple of weeks. One of the people there had 3 Magileine, earlier I had traded for one from someone else, I bought two of them from him for $8 each, which was pretty cheap considering my other options. I was able to pick up two of the Madolche Xyz also, best thing is, they are both ultimates. I was able to get the final Mysteltainn that I needed, which was the last thing I actually needed to complete the deck the way I want to run it.
Finally, the prizing was announced. The store-worker called out the credit distribution, I did not make the top 8 cut for credit, despite my 3-1 record. Meaning only one thing. Jake, laughing, asks "wait, wait, who was 9th place?" and my name was called out. I get a congratulatory pat on the back, with Jake saying "good job, you called it."
FML.
~Et3rnal13
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