VS Deck: Lists Hero V Hero

With the GX Manga ending in what seems to Koyo playing against Judai, I figured I’d make two decks to commemorate nothing too major, just something fun that I’d figure I’d write. Please note that the decks aren’t actual character decks, if anything they’re just interesting concept variants of hero decks.

“Judai” Deck

Monsters: 15

3x Elemental Hero Ocean
2x Elemental Hero Heat
2x Elemental Hero Wildheart
2x Thunder King Rai-oh
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master
2x Effect Veiler
1x Tragoedia
1x Elemental Hero Stratos

Spells: 14
2x Mask Change
3x E- Emergancy Call
2x Skyscraper 2 – Hero City
1x Reinforcements of the Army
1x Giant Trunade
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Book of Moon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole

Traps: 11
2x Solemn warning
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Warning
1x Royal Oppression

Extra:15
3x Mask Hero Vapor
2x Mask Hero Goka
1x Stardust Dragon
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Tech Genus Hyper Librarian
1x Thought Ruler Archfiend
1x Brionac Dragon of the Ice Barriar
2x Black Rose Dragon
1x Chimaratech Fortress Dragon
1x Trishula
1x Magical Android


For Judai’s deck I really wanted it to focus on the two Masked Hero monsters with Mask Change.

What this deck’s aim is to act like the old Big City decks. Providing tempo control and restricted summoning, old school-style control. I felt like it was the easiest way of incorporating the M-Heroes into a deck when the deck is only going to run Masked Heros.


To be honest, the idea of this concept is cool to me. Vapor is a powerhouse in the deck, and an opening of him and some strong back-row can be pretty devastating. The downside to this is that the variant isn’t as strong attack point wise or huge play wise. What it lacks in power it makes up for with the ability to lock-down the opponent’s options.

The deck is lacking Pot of Duality. Mainly because I couldn’t find room, but then again, the deck isn’t meant to be competitive, and is more conceptual.

“Koyo” Deck

Monsters: 15
3x Elemental Hero Neos Alius
3x Elemental Hero Ocean
2x Elemntal Hero Heat
2x Thunder King Rai-oh
1x Elemental Hero Wildheart
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Gorz, Emissary of Darkness
1x Cyber Dragon
1x Honest

Spells: 16
1x Future Fusion
3x Miracle Fusion
3x E- Emergancy Call
3x Pot of Duality
1x Mystical Space Typoon
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Polymerization
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
1x Giant Trunade
1x Book of Moon

Traps: 8
2x Solemn Warning
2x Seven Tools of the Bandit
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Call of the Haunted

Extra: 15
3x Elemntal Hero the Shining
3x Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1x Elemental Hero The Great Tornado
3x Elemental Hero Nova Master
2x Elemntal Hero Gaia
1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1x Vision Hero Adoration
1x Vision Hero Trinity

Again, the deck deviates quite a bit from a standard hero build. This build is pretty straight foreword as a standard fusion variant. It has some nice tricks, and more access to different hero fusions than the standard builds. Pretty much designed to show off the power of fusion summoning. The interesting thing about the deck are the deviations from the standard builds, cards like E- Hero Wildheart while dated in the metagame now, had their place being a powerhouse way back when.


Compared to the “Judai” deck, this version has a lot power behind it’s punches, as it is supposed to. The spell and trap[s then become tailored less towards control but more towards protecting the fusions.

Versus?

The big part of why I am doing this is to show off how Hero decks can be built in multiple variants, and update the older theories and ideas. So how would they stack up against each other?

Hard to say for sure. We can look at each deck and see that both of them are trying to accomplish different things. The Judai deck is trying to push through with control playstyle and keeping the heroes alive while the Koyo version is relying on beating the opponent down through powerful fusion summons.

Both decks have nice tricks to back them up, with the Judai deck having access to Vapor, who has a nice control ability as well as synchro summoning (albeit the only tuner included in the deck being Effect Veiler). Mask Change is also powerful, allowing for a hero to hit and then change out for another hero and hit again.

The Koyo deck just has a wide away of warrior monsters and has bigger set ups in general.

Conclusion…and?

Basically, the GX Manga will be missed. The storyline has given us the cards that make the Hero archetype, which isn’t even an exaggeration. Without the comic, neither of these decks would be possible, and the history of the game would have changed forever, and for that we salute you…

New Stuff - A minor Assessment

A lot of new stuff has been going on.

For starters, Six Samurais winning the last YCS was kind of to be expected. The deck is still incredibly powerful. From what I can see from my experiance of playing against the deck is that an out to Shi En are a must if you want to win. The deck really establishes a powerful lockdown with that opening that almost seems to happen every game.

I'll admit that I wasn't impressed with the deck when I first played against it way back when STOR came out. But that was mainly due to my own skepticism and the deck getting bad hands when I went against it (which seems hard to believe right now). I feel like effect monsters have gotten really power since the deck has been doing well (effect monsters as a counter to cards like Shi En).

I love the diversity of the format, but the one thing I dislike is that Six Samurai keep the metagame from being a slower based metagame. The reason I'm saying this is because, despite the banlist addressing some of the more pressing issues, I think Samurais are still too strong. Shi En is just too powerful of a card in my opinion, especially for a turn 1 opening, which can essentially lock-out your opponent in the pre-sideboard game.

I'm not saying Sams are the best deck (although they might be)but I am saying that what they offer is warping a meta-game to the point where a lot of "instant" speed disruption is required, which just seems funky to me especially since Konami restricted two cards because they were able to do this.

Direct from Hand effects are quickly dominating this game, cards like Puppet Plant and Effect Veiler are just simple better than their spell and trap options, especially in a metagame where shutting down spell and traps seems to be the trend. Powerful synchro-based decks are also not helping this. I'm not saying Dragunities are overpowered or that synchro-based is bad, I just feel like it's speeding up the metagame, coupled with from-hand effects and the inclusion of drastic spell and trap disruption (that and counter-traps being really really powerful).

I'm just saying that the game shouldn't be boiled down to having whoever going second having to fight a huge uphill battle, with a decent portion of their deck shut down. (Spell and traps to Shi En, Monsters to Solemn Warnings or Royal Tribute, you get the idea).

Other Stuff

GX Manga is ending in Japan. The storyline was probably the best spin-off to the original series. I know a lot of people playing the game don't care about it that much, but it does mean that the release of Hero related support will probably cease, although they'll probably get some legacy support here and there.

Card prices are also another big issue. I'm not complaining about prices, even if I find the amount that Dualities and Warnings are going for a bit rediculous. I like the fact that certain cards that I've felt like are worth more than what they were at are going up. Cards like Armory Arm for example.

I don't like the idea of generic cards going up in prices or being too unobtainable, but I don't mind price shifts that involve specialty cards like Armory Arm where the cards seem like they should have been worth something in the first place. With that said I think the price market is pretty stable right now aside from all the rediculousness.

With that said, spoiler cards for Extreme Victory are slowly being released. With Gladiators Training and the new Nordic Alfar monster being the first two shown. Pretty exciting stuff.

Quick Update

Just a quick update. The rules for Exceeds are out.

http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=937399

Follow the link.

~E.P.B.

Interesting Exceeds: that I can see being used

This is just a list of the cards that I think are so far the interesting monsters in the Exceed mechanic. These are followed by short explanations, any translations are borrowed from Shriek.

Underwater Warship Aero Shark
Water/ Fish - Exceeds/ Rank 3/ 1900/ 1000
2x Level 3 Monsters
Once per turn, you can activate this effect by removing 1 of this card's Exceeds Material Monster. Inflict 100 Damage to your opponent's Life Points for each of your removed from play monsters

A card like this isn't very good in terms of actually being good. What I mean by that is that this monster will require a very specific deck to work in, but in all honesty I can see this card having an OTK or some interesting combos down the line. So what ends up happening is the Substitoad phenomenom. I doubt it will happen with this card, since the burn is so small, but you never know.

I would say that I'm less interesting in this one.

Spring Armor Mainspring Meister
Earth/Machine - Exceeds/Rank 4/1900/1500
2x Level 4 Monster
This card gains 300 DEF for each of its Exceeds Material Monster. Once per turn, you can remove 1 of this card's Exceeds Material Monster to select 1 face-up monster on the field. The selected monster is changed to face-down Defense Position. During this turn's End Phase, the selected monster is changed to face-up Attack Position.

Probably my most favorite card that has been revealed so far. The card itself reminds me a lot of Archanite Magician. The card just does a lot of nice things, and in my opinion will find it's home competively in Gravekeepers. Re-using Gravekeeper Spy is just a really strong play, and let's the deck make bigger set-ups and stronger power plays.

The only problem that this card has is in order to be of use, you'll have to overextend your field making it's uses limited, but it's a card thats perfect for decks like GK who have extra deck space.

Protector of the Founders, Tyrus
LIGHT/Angel - Exceeds/Rank 5/2600/1700
2x Level 5 Monster
The following effect is not applied, if this card is without Exceeds Material Monster. This card is not destroyed by card effects. At the end of the Battle Phase this card battled, select 1 card your opponent controls and destroy it. During your End Phase, remove 1 of this card's Exceeds Material Monster.

This is the first Exceed monster revealed that has a Rank above 4. Personally it's hard for me to say if this card is worth it or not. It is an incredibly strong card to be honest, and for the two turns that it will dominate the field, but after that its just kind of a big body and in this game, big bodies don't necessarily last long.

What ends up happening, the card maybe sticks around for 2 turns, kills two of your opponents cards, and then becomes a stick. The problem is the difficult Rank. If this was Rank 4 I could see it becoming the poster child for the mechanic, but sadly it does not.

Vairon Disigma
LIGHT/Angel - Exceed - Effekt/Rank 4/2500/2100
3x Level 4 Monster
Once per turn, you can remove 1 of this card's Exceeds Material Monster to select 1 face-up Attack Position Effect Monster your opponen controls, and equip it to this card treated as an Equip Card. If this card battles with a monster with the same Attribute as a monster card equipped by this effect, skip Damage Calculation and destroy that monster immediately.

Much like the last monster, we look at this as the other direction for the mechanic where it uses more materials than just 2 monsters. The monster is a nice size and a beat-em-up style relinquished. The monster is interesting, and has a good ability, but again, I just can't see it as being strong enough for what it requires.

Still it is one of the stronger Exceeds so it is worth mentioning.

These are most of the Exceeds that I think are worth mentioning. Konami seems to be holding back and testing the waters with the new mechanic this time. All I can say, is that if this keeps up I could see Exceeds ending up more like fusion monsters than anything. Thats not to say fusion is dead, but it is to say that it is a more specialized mechanic than what synchro is. With the way Konami is pushing the mechanic, I'm unsure on whether that is a good thing or not.

Pre-post Format: It's all fun and games until Book gets banned.

A lot of my testing of the new format so far has been interesting to say the least. I haven't been able to focus on the game for a while since college does what it does but recently I have been playing more often and all of that good jazz.

The deck I've mainly been messing around with would be Scraps, it's been fun, but I'm really missing the casual awesomeness of what I am used to. I think my friends can tell at my rage and annoyence as seeming every deck they play just seems to thrash it. I'm fairly new to Scraps, so I'm assuming it's just my lack of knowledge with knowing how to use the deck.

One thing I have been noticing is that the lack of Book of Moon seems to speed up the games. I'm not saying BoM is the sole reason for this, it's just something I have noted.

I don't mean sped up in the 'herp derp' aspect, I mean Sped up in the terms that I (and some of my friends match-ups) notice that the game is over in a couple of terms. Usually resulting in one deck having a complete lockdown over the over, or just flat out OTK'ing (Fish OTK looks really strong, this sort of thing applies to X-sabers).

It's just something interesting I'll pay attention to as the format goes on. I'm probably jsut really out of practice, since the casual games I've played for the past few months aren't exactly the greatest feats of skill.

I may write again later tonight. Depending on what goes on with the LoL group.

~E.P.B.

Exceed Summoning; the new in-thing????

New format means new rules, well not really. But there has been a couple of new developments in the Yu-gi-oh card game, as well as other games. Now Exceeds is coming to the game, which is another new mechanic to the game like synchro summoning.

What exceeds basically does is like an evolution mechanic.



The stars in the upper left side of the card is the Exceed monsters rank.In order to summon an Exceed monster you need to overlay materials on your side of the field equal to the amount required, the overlaid materials have to be the same level as the exceed monsters rank. For example, No. 17 Revise Dragon takes two level 3 material monsters in order to exceed summon it.

When you exceed summon you stack the monsters underneath the Exceed monster. The monsters stacked underneath are more like tokens than anythings else. Most Exceed monsters currently revealed have effects requiring the removal of these materials. When an Exceed monsters materials are removed, they go to the graveyard, strangely enough they apparently don't count as getting sent to the graveyard so effects like sangan don't activate.

Currently, it is unknown what happens to Exceed materials if the exceed monster is flipped face down.

Exceed monsters apparently do not have any level while on the field, meaning they are unaffected by cards like Gravity Bind and LLAB, and can not be used as Synchro materials (at least from what everyone is gathering at the moment).

Also another interesting bit of unconfirmed ruling knowledge is on the Exceed summon being negated. According to once of the video clips floating around pojo, it is fairly useless to negate an exceed summon, because the materials will still be on the field.

Now a lot of the rulings involving these monsters are unknown, but they are an interesting addition to the game. I'm currently divided on whether they are going to be good for the game or whatever. I know a lot of people liked the old school yu-gi-oh, and felt like Synchros were a pretty drastic change, which they were, and they are wary on what Exceeds means for the game.

I think it's good that the game is getting new mechanics that make it unique, and it really feels like the game has come a long way from being considered the simpler version of MtG, but I am worried about what it means for the game in the long run.

I mean, games like Duel Masters (in Japan) apparently get away with introducing a lot of new mechanics, but I don't think yu-gi-oh players are as used to having a constant changing environment. Especially if the change just keeps sneaking up on us every 4 years. I mean I honestly thought synchros would be the last big change, but I was wrong.

Anyway, the mechanic looks interesting, should be fun.

~E.P.B.

Teesting: New Formats

Sooooooooooo...been a while. Still playing League of Legends and all of that stuff. Guess I haven't written in a while because of I've been lazy or something. Anyway, lots to talk about with a new format in ygo, lots to talk about with new and interesting MtG products, and lots to talk about with Magma Chamber still. not. existing. for league of legends yet.

I guess I'm going to try and write more on other things at this point. Keeping up with everything and talk different strategies in said games etc.