Rogue Deck Tutorial Part 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, you know me as the Cynical Duellist well its time to get cynical as I bring you a collection of rogue decks which not only are fun to play towards the end of this format, but also are rather competitive and entertaining.

But before we do anything we must first argue the idea of a rogue deck.

AS YOU KNOW in yugioh, there are 2 deck types in the top tier of play. META and ANTI-META

Now meta decks are defined by speed, they can special summon super fast and also gain huge advantage through card effects and the heavy use of the extra deck.

Some Prime examples would be, Dino Rabbit and Synchrocentric (AKA PLANT SYNCHRO)

Whereas anti-meta aims to restrict meta decks from gaining advantage using specific cards like - Thunder King Rai-oh and King Tiger wang-hu to turn play into a game of just normal summons and the occasional spell, you could argue - taking decks back to the vanilla age.

Now that that is established we can move onto the idea of a rogue deck - in yugioh as you know there are many decks out there, but only some are classed as "Tier 1" - these are decks which nearly every competetive player out there uses to try and gain victory. Like I mentioned before - Dino Rabbit and Plant synchro being the two most popular. SO! A rogue deck (by my definition) is a deck which can perfom like a meta deck with some anti meta elements, throwing you're opponent off guard making them un aware of what to expect and allowing an easier victory because your opponents struggle to counter it - as they themselves have built their sides and decks to counter the popular decks. THIS IS THE GREATEST ADVANTAGE ROGUE DECKS HAVE. Dragons can also fall into this catagory, as people dont have the balls to play them right now - but after their structure deck - LOOK OUT!

A perfect example would be Lars Junginger's deck from YCS Brighton titled (water synchro) - LIST BELOW

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

Now you might now be saying "merh merh merh plant synchro engine merh merh" Yes, but who at YCS Brighton expected a frog engine to be thrown in there? Clearly everyone who finished below him didn't, and look where it got him. 4th! Thats right 4th. A position I held a very long time ago myself.
The deck focusses on using caius to gain advantage through frog engine use, but also in the side deck he kept Penguin soldier (A very good card this format) to counter dino - rabbit = Yes dolkka can stop it, but its a nasty monster if you aren't prepared for it - again ROGUE DECK ADVANTAGE!

There are downsides to rogue decks and that is, after game one you must be prepared for your opponent to counter you because he knows how your deck works. (I will if people want start posting rogue deck guides to help people get out of wanting to just play meta decks right now to own on DN) which I can briefly cover - Your side deck should be cards you wanted to main but cant fit at most - keep counters to below 5 or 6 as your deck itself is counter to most meta decks, whilst being meta itself - complex I know but once you get the hang of it, it works.

Okay so now moving on - Building a rogue deck.

To build a rogue deck you must first observe the current meta and see what (or try to) understand how the meta works and the decks in it. From here you can have an idea of your rogue deck. Like Lars - who used a small monarch engine to control whilst still using plants to get the meta engine flowing within to create a consistent deck.

The deck we're going to build will be FORTUNE LADIES - an old and forgotten deck, but very comptetive when build correctly. ALWAYS REMEMBER - Speed and Control when building.

So right now cards like TOUR GUIDE and TENGU and RABBIT dominate the meta - but they all have a similar weakness - they all need to be on the field to activate. So when building the deck certain cards are needed. for example for control we will be using the field spell (Yes thats right)



This card helps slow down meta decks and anti meta but still benefits your own. May be for one turn but its enough to gain advantage especially in this deck.

So from here we need to see what monsters work well in this deck. Well for one,


works perfectly with the card. So Clealry we need a fortune lady engine. this gives us speed and advantage and with what else we're using in the deck. This is possible. A fortune Lady engine is THUS

3 Fortune lady Light < special summon
3 fortune lady dark < special summon
2 fortune lady water < Card draw
1 fortune lady fire < Control from her is amazing - free destruction > Played right she is a plus 1

So we have an engine that takes advantage of an opponents annoyance, but we havn't won yet. We still need control, draw and a win condition.

Now for control its clear we need a lot of setting up, so stall will be needed. One important thing to remember in a rogue deck is that you wont always be having a fast paced win, you have to set up for it. One deck that is perfect at this is PIPER CHAOS, personally one of my favourite decks but also a clever one. As the whole Piper engine revolves around setting up.

Not only this but Fortune Lady Light is a level 1, so this engine works perfectly with the deck.

3 Mystic Piper < Draw
3 Battle fader < stall and saves you from OTK's
1 Effect Veiler < Control + tuner
1 Glow up bulb < Synchro

So right now in the deck we have 9 cards based on control and 5 for drawing and 6 for special summoning. Its looking good.

Now for the win condition. In this deck we have have 2 as most of the monsters are light and dark Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning can be integrated and other common chaos cards like Chaos Sorcerer.
Not only this but another way is another forgotten card usually associated with "Future Visions"



But you can also in this deck have a few more options to abuse this and LIGHT and also allow for easier synchro summoning

GENEX ALLY BIRDMAN can lift these back to the hand for further use then synchro for a synchro of you're choosing. Say you lift light and summon water with her effect then summon birdman. You can then synchro for a level 7 monster like


A rarely used synchro monster that has the ROGUE FACTOR!!! AS you're opponent will not expect it.

With this done we have room for 2 "tech cards" these can be in this deck either "DOOM CALIBUR KNIGHT" "THunder king Rai-oh" or "Maxx C" depending on what you prefer you decide, I personally used Thunder king for this deck. as the search isn't so high.

Now that we have our monster line up the deck is starting to come together.

IN part 2 I shall take you through spells and traps. Then in part 3 Extra deck and The finally side. Moving onto your first game and climbing up the ranks on duelling network with you're rogue deck.

I'll see you next time. 

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