THE FUTURE OF YUGIOH - Post Ycs Brighton Format and March 2012 thoughts.

G'day my army of cynical followers,

I know I rarely update this blog and post important stuff but YCS brighton happened recently and as a brit I felt compelled to actually post something otherwise the yugioh community may unleash the hate upon me. Also Im going to do my "FAV CARD OF THE FORMAT" in a review which I havnt done in a while thought id treat you guys, and also pass my thoughts on the end of this format and looking towards the future :D

FIRSTLY YCS BRIGHTON.

MAin decks that emerged we're of course

Dino rabbit

Darkworld

Synchrocentric

These were apparently the three most played decks at Brighton, but the deck that came out on top was DINO RABBIT played by Ping Xiao, Deck list below. (https://tcg.konami-europe.net/coverage/6429/the-top-16-decklists-of-ycs-brighton/) Reference for other lists.

Ping Xiao (Dino Rabbit, Champion)

Monsters: 20

3 Jurrac Guaiba

3 Kabazauls

3 Tour Guide From the Underworld

3 Rescue Rabbit

3 Sabersaurus

2 Maxx "C"

1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

1 Sangan

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 12

2 Forbidden Lance

1 Pot of Avarice

2 Smashing Ground

1 Dark Hole

1 Book of Moon

1 Mind Control

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Gold Sarcophagus

1 Monster Reborn

Traps: 9

2 Dimensional Prison

2 Solemn Warning

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Mirror Force

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

Extra Deck: 15

1 Number 39: Utopia

2 Evolzar Laggia

2 Evolzar Dolkka

1 Steelswarm Roach

1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

2 Leviair the Sea Dragon

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Side Deck: 15

2 Cyber Dragon

2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo

2 Fiendish Chain

2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror

2 Dimensional Fissure

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Spirit Reaper

So all my congrats to the boy. But in a typical cynical style we arn't BIG fans of the GOOD CARD DECKS, during the tournament there was a very unique deck which appeared simmilar to that of the psychic decks Pre September 2011, and that was Lars Junginger's Water synchro deck.

Lars Junginger (WATER Synchro, 4th Place)

Monsters: 24

3 Reborn Tengu

3 Swap Frog

3 Maxx "C"

2 Treeborn Frog

2 Caius the Shadow Monarch

2 Effect Veiler

1 Lonefire Blossom

1 Dandylion

1 Glow-Up Bulb

1 Spore

1 Junk Synchron

1 Genex Ally Birdman

1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

1 Ronintoadin

Spells: 13

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

3 Enemy Controller

1 Dark Hole

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Book of Moon

1 One for One

1 Foolish Burial

Traps: 4

2 Solemn Warning

1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

1 Trap Dustshoot

Extra Deck: 15

2 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

1 Leviair the Sea Dragon

1 Number 39: Utopia

1 Formula Synchron

1 Armory Arm

1 T.G. Hyper Librarian

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Gaia Knight, The Force of Earth

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Ancient Fairy Dragon

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Side Deck: 15

2 Ally of Justice Quarantine

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Penguin Soldier

1 Snowman Eater

1 D.D. Crow

1 Gemini Imps

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

1 Dimensional Prison

1 Smashing Ground

2 Dust Tornado

This deck beat all plant synchro decks and proved to be the most fun looking deck also. Seems to be centred around abusing the frog engine and making gachi gachi gantetsu and reeks of a more consistent and aggressive Agent style deck. So well done sir you get my praise :D

Overall there we're 700+ people who attended the YCS Brighton event, so well dont to all top 32 players (my friend matt came 33rd :/) all playing excellent decks truly showing the best of the best in yugioh play but like in this game at the end of the day Money does talk, and Rescue Rabbit shouts the loudest.

CARD OF THE YCS AND OF THE FORMAT.

Now for my favourite part, over this format we have seen the return of the Chaos era due to the unbanning of BLS-Envoy of the Beggining. We've seen the transition of the agent deck domination period, to the incredible rise in price of Tour Guide from the underworld, more sought after than Pot of Duality in its day, and also the incredible banning of some of our favourite monsters due to the release of the XYZ monsters (MISS YOU FISHBORG). But at the end of the format, one card, in my eyes, has risen above the rest. 

This card, is none other than Number 39: Utopia.

Since the start of this format this guy instantly became a staple in nearly every extra deck. His 2500 attack and his ability to synergize with nearly every deck that uses level 4 monsters with the ability to negate 1 attack makes him a brilliant card. 

So here's the review. Guys. :D

NUMBER 39 Utopia

Effect:

2 level 4 monsters

When any player's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the attack. When this card is targeted for an attack, while it has no Xyz materials; Destroy this card.

As you can see from the effect, 2 attacks negate, plus he blows himself up when he has no materials. But this in my opinion is another abusable effect.

STRENGTHS.

solid 2500 attack, very tough to beat without your opponent using a lot of resources, even then he can negate 2 attacks. He's a perfect anti-OTK monster. Also the fact he can negate ANY attack means that you can abuse the detach ability to get one of the monsters you used and place it straight into the graveyard if you please :)

Also because of decks like anti meta who use massive level 4 beatsticks, he is a great addition to add more flexibility to the deck. He also dragged some decks back into formats from the hell of tier 2 in a big way, namely Karakuri and gadgets who seemed to be lost after the banning of Royal Oppression and the limiting of Pot of avarice.

So we salute you number 39. One of the most played starter deck cards since Machina Fortress ;D

FUTURE THOUGHTS.

With this format drawing to a close with the release of another powerful rescue card and the upcomming rise of a new dark archetype which quite frankly will be meta breaking, and the possible insta ban of "convergence of nature" due to the gishki diamond dude deck that's lurking in the depths, the end of this format is sure to be interesting. 

Its going to be down to speed as to whether dino rabbit can get dolkka out before izektors/gishki can get their loops off and destroy everything they own. Which I can see leading to the banning and limiting of some cards that allow this.

Firstly Cards who are being played a lot right now which may be limited.

Tour guide I can see being limited to 1. Due to the release of Tour bus, who is rumoured to recycle tour guide.

After this dark hole. This card has been over played too much recently and I can see march's format being down to destruction effects with monsters rather than spells. This theory can be applied to storm, but because its come back recently i doubt it will go.

BLS - This guy, just should never have come back. Way too good still and decks still we'rent ready for him. Because if you drop him, its essentially game.

A mad Choice here but a possiblility of being limited, maxx C to one. Too much advantage and can be game breaking, either put to two or one seems a logical move for konami here.

Another crazy choice that ive been considering is the limiting or ban of rabbit. He's too good, and can clearly win a game solo.

which brings me to the next card. Leviair. Rabbit combo too good, enough said. But if my tour guide limitation prediction is true, then perhaps not touched at all.

Spells wise, i think instant fusion may be banned. With exceeds emerging and the abuse that can be had with certain decks i can see this guy being touched. If im wrong I will sing Friday by rebecca black on my youtube channel for you all, but in all seriousness this card has so much potential to allow huge plays at a small cost.

OKAY AFTER LOOKING AT CARDS BEING PLAYED NOW FOR FUTURE CARDS.

INSTA LIMIT in march from order of Chaos. Wind-up rat. The combo with this card using zenmaines is unreal. Played right with hunter and inzektor's it creates a stupidly broken combo which annihilates opponents hands and fields.

after this, Inzektor Hornet, too good, destruction look with multiple of these is mad, balances inzektors and slows the deck down to a better level.

Wind up zenmaighty - its either THIS or wind-up rat TBH.

and thats it really for future cards being banned or limited :)

Decks to look out for:

there are two main decks which I see emerging after march 2012 which can be considered strong for the TCG. This includes Inzektor, Wind-up zektor and gishki, as both these decks have some incredible loops available which are easily executed and powerful so expect these to be played a lot.

Well I hope you enjoyed this read and my introspection into the future of the game and what is to occur in the formats, obviously this is very basic as im not a wizard and cant predict the future :).

PEACE OUT GUYS AND HAPPY DUELLING.

Christmas is around the corner. So what does konami have for you?

Hello my fellow QQers, Xmas is coming faster than we thought and Santa Konami has presents for the folks in germany anyway. An ADVENT CALENDER!

Thursday, 13. October 2011

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game Advent calendar

Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game Adventskalender


Release: Mid October 2011 (only available in Germany and Austria)

Contains:

• 1 Extreme Victory Booster Pack
• 6 Super Rare
• 7 Ultra Rare
• 1 Secret Rare

Which is pretty amazing. The EXVC is a great gift as it wasn't printed for as long over in europe as it was in britain due to ecnomic reasons. So this is konami's way of saying thanks for putting up with us I guess.

But still the rest of us europeans are asking... WHERES OUT XMAS PRESENTS! THEY GET A CALENDER WHY DONT WE!?!

Well we in britain got a YCS so we can't complain... and france and spain are next door. Italy i dunno maybe they've been forgotten. But i personally am happy germany get an extra print of EXVC because of the issues that occured. So kudos konami.

Ill see you on the dueling field

Cyn

YCS UPDATE and Weekend events at Locals. YCS BRIGHTON

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, as you know this weekend has been an important one for many many duelists as its YCS columbus.

As you know, before the actual YCS the structure deck "Gates of dark World" was released, and many people we're scared of this deck dominating the scene because of its sheer consistency and speed by using the field spell to dicard snoww/grapha to gain advantage... However people have been smart, smarter than usual anyway, and have found many good counters for the deck. So lets see what decks have teched in to stop the dominating army of grapha and his darkworlds... [source: http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=7326]

1.) Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror

Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror is one of the most popular choices for defeating Dark World Duelists. Dark World Decks rely on the effects of their monsters to carry them through Duels. But since all Dark World monsters are DARK, all of their effects are negated by Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror.

Monsters like Broww, Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World, and Snoww are helpless to use their effects while Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror is face-up on the field. Even Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World won’t be able to destroy any cards with its effect while Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror is up.

But as great as Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror is against Dark World Decks, it’s not an automatic win against them. Grapha has come up with ways to fight around it. Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror only negates the effects of monsters that activate. Grapha’s power to revive himself from the Graveyard by recalling a Dark World monster to the Duelist’s hand doesn’t activate. So even while Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror is face-up, Grapha can continuously Special Summon itself from the Graveyard and take control of a Duel.

2.) Debunk

Some Duelists sought a permanent answer to Grapha, instead of just a way to negate its destruction effect. That’s why they resorted to using Debunk.

Debunk has the power to negate any monster effect that activates in the hand or the Graveyard, and then banish that monster. Again, since all of the Dark World monsters have effects that activate in the Graveyard, all of their effects can be negated by Debunk. It’s just like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror in that respect.

But unlike Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, since Debunk banishes the monster whose effect it negates, it has the ability to get rid of Grapha for good. When an opponent discards Grapha and tries to destroy a card on the field with its effect, Debunk will negate Grapha’s effect and banish Grapha so that it can never return to the field.

Unfortunately for the valiant heroes fighting against the darkness, Debunk also has the same weakness as Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. Since it negates monster effects that activate, it won’t work against Grapha when he Special Summons himself from the Graveyard. That Special Summon is an inherent Summon, which Debunk, like Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, is powerless to stop. Debunk is also a sitting duck for Dark World Lightning, unlike the Mirror which can be Chained to it.

3.) D.D. Crow

Some Duelists are using D.D. Crow to try to stop Grapha’s army. D.D. Crow can banish any card from an opponent’s Graveyard, so Duelists fighting against the darkness are using it to stop Dark World monsters before they can reach the field.

Even though Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World Special Summon themselves from the Graveyard when they’re discarded, their effects use the Chain. By Chaining D.D. Crow to one of their effects, a Duelist can banish the Dark World lords and prevent them from ever reaching the field.

A Duelist can also use D.D. Crow to banish Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World from the Duel! But unlike Goldd and Sillva, Grapha’s effect doesn’t use the Chain, so D.D. Crow needs to be used to stop it before Grapha tries to Special Summon itself from the Graveyard. 

4.) Gemini Imps

Some Duelists have chosen to use Gemini Imps against Dark World Decks. By discardingGemini Imps from the hand, a Duelist can stop any card effect that would force him to discard a card. Plus, the Duelist who uses Gemini Imps gets to draw a card. Unlike the previous 3 tech cards, Gemini Imps can completely stop Dragged Down into the Grave, Morphing Jar, and Card Destruction. Many Duelists consider these to be Dark Worlds’ strongest cards, so by stopping them, they think they can triumph over the Dark World beings.

So basically as a result of this crafty tech, Dark worlds arnt even in the TOP 32. Which makes me weep with happyness. Well dont lads, keeping the synchro monster deck dominating for another format. However in march I can see a limitation of Junk synchron... maybe even a ban of dandylion... but we will wait and see!!!

ONTO LOCAL NEWS!!!

This weekend at my locals I decided to run a different deck, considering that Krystia is a super I found her easy to obtain and played Angel Stun/ Also known as counter fairy for you old skool duelists like myself. The deck did well defeating Synchro monsters and DARK WORLDS! As the trap card Divine Punishemnt can negate their effects when the try to activate in the grave, creating a huge advantage for me. 

My featured duel (which is on my youtube channel youtube.com/channel/thecynicalduelist) was infernity's ran by my team mate L (Dane Pearse) against synchro monsters. What was brilliant was the domination he had all weekend due to the sheer speed of his deck... Next time I play him I have shadow imprisoning mirror ready for him muahaha.

Anyway, my best duel of the day  was against flamvell sworn played by Benjamin Frost... incredibly close last game where Krystia Royally saved my ass from a rekindling as did my dark bribes. The deck thought still needs work, snowman eater, fissures and Thunder kings are my main wants for the deck so if you have any guys let me know ^^. 

The duelist league is looking close woth 2 weeks to go, with first place tied between benjamin frost and James (i forget his surname) but he plays a mean swap burn deck... beat me 2-0 as I didnt see it comming, one hillarious moment was when I dark bribed his creature swap... only for him to draw another costing me the game... sad times.

NOW ONTO THE BEST NEWS! 

The next euro YCS has been announced as YCS brighton the party capital of Britain (ignoring newcastle cuz those geordies are retarded on taht show... and possibly not human... :/) So I will be heading down there with my deck of choice, WIND-UP STUN. Due to there being a ton of new wind-up stuff comming out from photon shockwave Im torn between playing Rabbit stun/ Wind-up stun... or maybe even just go with synchro monsters. Depends what I can aqquire in that time. May play scraps but they are so easily countered these days it will take some work...

Hopefully I will see you guys there :D

See you on the duelling field folks. PEACE

YCS COLUMBUS

This weekend is the emergence of YCS columbus, the biggest YCS of the year... Also the first where we will see XYZ's at their first fullest usage since release and the new darkworld cards.

Many of the big decks that we will see will be Agents, tech genus, twilight in many forms, hero's, gadgets and of course as mentioned Dark worlds and lets not for get plants doppel variants and quickdraw variants.

All these people will battle it out for a fantastic prise of a world championship qualification and a crimson mefist. A beautiful synchro card that should be seen more on dueling network in my opinion.

I will provide a full overview of my thoughts and opinions on the decks seen and how the YCS turns out in a full report on monday.

Till then duelists ^^

Cyn

EXCEED RABBIT!

Recently I've been looking at the new cards from photon shockwave and have seen some interesting cards. Back in the 09 era I was a dedicated synchro Cat player, loved the deck, loved everything about it then it got banned. T-T

THEN! I saw this...


Enlarge this image 
 and my heart missed a beat. So I looked up every normal level 4 or lower TUNER and normal monster and got to this idea... Genex controller will be awesome with this card. along with the Rank 3 exceed Empty Space Sea Serpent Levaiel and my mind exploded.

we have a new version of synchro cat. EXCEED RABBIT! Now, I don't know how broken this deck can be or what potential it has, however... it can exceed AND synchro A LOT! and from my proxy testing I can tell you the meta better be ready for this bad boy, so here we go.

Firstly to get the synchro engine going, I decided to adopt the "UNDINE ENGINE" into it, as this makes getting genex controller to hand easy but also makes it less dependent on Rabbit SO!

2x Genex Undine
1x Fishborg Blaster
2x Treeborn Frog
3x Genex controller.

Then I decided to look at other normal monsters which can be easily used in decks today that are flexible and also a viable tuner that can be used with rabbit that were around level 4 there weren't any... so i thought, hey what what dark monsters can be searched that would be interesting in this deck to help the flow? So I decided on 2 hunter dragon because its a good beatstick and is dark so it fits with the deck, then the water monsters chosen we're of course water based to fit the theme... so mad lobster was also added, this allows for better synergy with fishborg as its a level 3 water monster so abuse is made better. and again is a brilliant level 3 beater.

3x Hunter dragon.
3x Mad lobster

Now you're thinking, "BUT HOW DOES THIS ALL WORK!?! there's no search..." Well i have that covered too, TOUR GUIDE! This card is amazing in this deck... it allows for fantastic search for itself for level 3 exceeding, or for sangan to have it be abused for its effect to search for Rabbit. So...

2 tour guide from the underworld
1 sangan

after this I have some room for other cards... so I added in some interesting "techs" of my own...

2x card trooper
1x glow-up bulb
1x dark armed dragon

Then of course 2 rescue rabbit so the list so far with the deck is as follows.

2x Genex Undine
1x Fishborg Blaster
2x Treeborn Frog
3x Genex controller.
3x Hunter dragon.
3x Mad lobster
2x tour guide from the underworld
1x sangan
1x dark armed dragon
2x caius, the shadow monarch

so here we have 24 monsters which all work well together in a deck that is incredibly versatie and also can do lost of things in a single turn. There is a chaos variant of this deck but I found this version to be much more versatile and effective compared to that of other build Idea's I've had.

So what about spells? Well... theres the obvious staples... reborn, dark hole, trunade etc etc... but thats boring...

so I mixed it up a little with some interesting ideas.

#1 CREATURE SWAP! using this card to get controller and steal an opponents monster for a synchro/exceed summon is the nuts! Not only this but it combo's well with Tour guide.

#2 Enemy controller, with treeborn in this deck, you will have nothing to fear using this card to control your opponents monster line up.

#3 Moray of greed: With so many water monsters you DONT want in the hand moray of greed is a good way of putting them into the deck for re-use and also a more consistent play within the deck.

#4 D.D.R. Different Dimensional Rebirth: With this card Rescue rabbit is just as spammable, and with a discard cost, its not much of a loss getting back your rabbit, because he gets you two monsters anyway and at one along with Leviath, its a very powerful card in this deck to kick combo's off!

So the spell line up is as follows:

2 pot of avarice
1 monster reborn
1 dark hole
1 giant trunade
1 D.D.R Different Dimension Re-incarnation
1 moray of greed
1 creature swap
2 enemy controller
1 mind control
1 book of moon

WHICH makes our line up come to 35 cards so far!

This leaves the traps... now trying to be clever here... because you're rabbit removes itself... Limit reverse isnt advised this is also the case because you play treeborn frog as the draw engine within the deck... SO!!! What do we use? Well... its rather simple.

1 mirror force
1 torrential tribute
2 common charity
1 solemn warning

This allows for draw power and the final flow of synergy between the removal in this deck and also the amount of hand and grave control you can have.

Finally we have out extra deck! YAAAAY this is what you've been waiting for isn't it haha. Well it was a long process but its sorted after 3 weeks of proxy testing...

EXCEEDS = 4

2 Empty Space Sea Serpent Levaiel
1 Number 17: Leviath Dragon
1 Number 34: Computer-Beast Tera Byte

Synchro = 11

2 formula synchron
1 T.g. Hyper Librarian
1 Orient dragon
1 brionac, dragon of the Ice barrier
1 Gungnir Dragon of the Ice barrier
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 scrap dragon
1 stardust dragon
1 thought ruler archfiend
1 trishula, dragon of the Ice barrier.

well thats the whole deck, I hope you like it and test it in the future, NOT ONLY THIS but constructive criticism is advised to make this deck flow better, but for now it seems to work very consitantly.

there is debate over using ryko and hamster over the tour guides, but the extra darks makes this deck really good at getting DAD for a guaranteed GG but let me know what you think 

THE CYNICAL DUELIST