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 defence 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 drug some decks back into formats 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.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN!?!

I'll tell you where I've been, I've been busy playing at the yugioh nationals in BOLTON, this post is a week behind but this is the only time i've had free through all the university work to update my blog (apart from the 3000+ page views i now have, maybe I should keep this going hahaha)


This isn't going to be some bullshit report but its going to be an analysis of the current meta for yugioh and also what decks are going to be far more dangerous in the future. SO firstly I'm sure you all wanna know what I played.


Well i was a brave man, i turned up with a fully constructed wind-up deck and was ready to tear apart most decks, then I realised how boring they were to play. I mean doing the loop 27times in the day just to annoy some randomer didnt seem much fun to me. So I got myself some rescue rabbits and played.................


GEM KNIGHTS! (hah you thought I was going to say Dino Rabbit, NERDS!)


Thats right and I used this oppertunity to observe the gem knights as a deck and really get a feel for their potential. (DECK LIST POSTED LATER)


So I played 9 rounds in the day, beat 2 top tier decks through sheer luck and came 300th and something , all round a good day considering the deck I was playing.


But what about the meta?


WELL, in the end Dino Rabbit was in both spots in the finals, which goes to show that consistency is still key in this game rather than OTK's and Stupid loops (COugh dragons/wind-ups) and then I saw the potential for other decks, most namely,Karakuri's, Six Sam, Frogs (which are pretty much hanging on even since frog-narch and ofc the 2009 world championship OTK build) and ironically gem-knights. 


Lets start with Karakuri, with the loss of the plant engine tuners, this decks KMP build was dead, however with that loss came Creativity and funnily enough consistency and an ability to break into this years top 32 because of this consistency delivered in the form of their Synchro's, which right now are still as dangerous as ever. Lets remind our selves of their synchro's.


Firstly:

Now definitely now the key card in the deck and the best monster at their disposal, due to his ability to let you draw each turn he is potentially a + with Karakuri 00 (shown below) on the field, ALONG WITH ALL THEIR SPELL SUPPORT and other cards to work with them the karakuri's always have another play up their sleeve.


Combined with them being all of the same element and type, they make cards such as GOZEN MATCH and RIVALRY OF WARLORDS useless in opponents side decks, but allow for them to take full advantage of these cards in their own making them very versatile in a best 2 of 3 match. Plus their speed and their flexibility to synchro into the NAturia Synchro's its no surprise that this deck is still a top contender for top 32 places at National events and with the release of the Gigigear archetype in the next set, the Karakuri's will be around for probably another format or 2 yet.

Next we have the six samurai. Before march this deck was crippled by the september banlist restricting Legendary Six Samurai Shien to 1 and also Shien's smoke signal and Gateway of the six also to 1. However in september they got their break when smoke signal revived itself to two allowing them to have more search. With the introduction of their structure deck in a few weeks and within the release of a new XYZ monster PLUS the release of return of the duelist to combine with them, allowing for the use of Heroic Champion Excalibur, these guys are also going to be a force to be reckoned with in the TCG and OCG. With the negation from shien and the power of Heroic champion Excalibur, this deck could be seeing itself over taking Dino Rabbit as the top deck with very little support for it being released in the future (However this is unknown as TCG exclusives are yet to be revealed meaning both these decks could be FAR more powerful). 

With only more support in sight for SIX SAMURAI, like karakuri it'll be a long time before these guys disappear off the face of the meta game in both TCG and OCG.

Now to frogs, its hard to tell what is happening with frogs these days since the loss of substitoad and monarchs now being too slow in todays meta. Lancer Frog now being the strongest build they have, they may have the consitency but power and control they lack. However after the six samurai structure the atlantean structure deck is to be released with much water support and two particular cards that can be abused by swap frog, this may give FROGS the destruction they needed. However it is more likely that this is the last we will see of the FROG archetype for a while, as atlanteans will deffinately be taking the top spot in terms of water attributed meta decks. So its a sad day when we see these guys go, from the D.E.S OTK to the substitoad burn deck that took the world by storm in 2009, to the frognarch era in 2010/11. All I can say is frogs are done for now, but hopefully if they can fully accommodate the atlantean archetype through swap frog abuse, I can't really be sure they will be around by next septembers ban list.

NOW THEN on to gem-knights, these guys upon first release took the OCG by storm, over in the TCG however we only have a small amount of them released, i used their strongest build at nats - Rabbit Knights, abusing rescue rabbit to fuse them faster, however this wasn't enough as they again were far too slow. So why have I said this archetype will be good in the future?

Well this is down to the next hidden arsenal/duel terminal sets to be release which contain Gem-Knight Citrine/Crystal/Prismura (i think thats right :/) which are similar to the OMNI-Heroes the elemental heroes have which use Attribute to fuse, these new gem-knights use 1 gem-knights + 1 monster of a certain type. Meaning its faster than using the current gem-knights we have now which need a specific monster eg Gem-Knight aqua marine which needs Gem-Knight Sapphire + 1 Gem-knight monster. But the reason why Citrine and their other fusions are significant is their effects - Citrine is unaffected by any card affects during the damage step. Meaning its invincible to mirror force - d-prison forbidden lance fiendish chain and other cards that are popular these days, to Prismura who needs you to discard 1 gem-knight card to the grace to destroy a card on the field, however if you're using gem-knight fusion with this effect you lose nothing.

Not only this but the techs you can add to the deck to make them faster is HUGE - examples are Summoner monk. D.D.R phoenix wing wind-blast - back to square one - lightning vortex - snipe hunter, the lsit of cards that need a discard effect is endless! So watch out for gem-knights in the future as they can be a nasty rogue deck if you arn't prepared for them.

WHAT IS YET TO COME?

With the release of new sets and structure decks there are a couple of archetypes to look out for in the coming months these include - Atlanteans - Gigigear Machina's - Madolche and if they get some more support through a TCG exclusive Evol's. Probably the most powerful being Gigigear's.

For more info on these archetypes please check out the Yugioh-wikia website.

Thats it for me in this post and I hope you enjoyed reading, I shall update again soon when I start working.

PEACE

TCD