And so... priority is gone

In case you've missed the news in Yu-Gi-Oh!-verse... the thing that people called priority is gone.

Read it here, on the Konami page!

So, all the times where people yelled "PRIORITY!" after you activate a bottomless trap hole or Torrential Tribute is gone!

What is the immediate effect on the metagame of today?

• Inzektors will rule almighty (until september, bring your cans of bugspray)
• People will lose interest in Dino Rabbit (I've chosen the words carefully here)
• Heroes will come back... again, like it's a friggin anime! The heroes always return!
• Chaos Dragons took a serious hit (a lot of monsters used that damn priority)
• The Wind-ups will remain the fifth wheel on the wagon, wondering if they're ever gonna get their turn at the top of a YCS. You'd almost feel sorry for them...
• The rest will suffer a little

Oh, yeah... And this guy is laughing his arse off, because he can't be stopped by mortals anymore (only by gods)

Djinn Vs Devil

With the new Starter deck, we’re getting a few new XYZ monsters. They give support to Djinn XYZ monsters. Because of these Djinns, there now is a clear Djinn archetype, which includes these new monsters, but also older cards, like those Ritual Djinn monsters from the 5D's era.

The conductor of a merry band of musicians	The conductor of a band of fat ritual freaks

All good and well, but one thing you need to know… Djinns aren’t devils, even if they are!
What the f*ck, you ask? Well, to understand what I’m talking about, you need to know a few things.

A bit of history

Konami-US renames Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters when they appear in the TCG. And that’s because (let’s be honest)... sometimes the Japanese card creators are just looking for trouble. For example, the OCG name for the Djinn archetype is Majin, which CAN be translated into Devil.

"You rang?"

Yes, Majin means Devil. Now, how would the average volvo-driving-soccer-mom react if their kid had a few Devil cards that were promoted in a starter deck of Yu-Gi-Oh!?
Yeah, not that great, huh. And it only gets better…

"Hi, I'm Satan. Pleased to meet you."

Meet “Death Devil - Satan”. Yes, this is Satan in the OCG. He looks quite dandy, doesn’t he?

If you’ve seen the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, right now you should be flashing back to the episodes of the RPG world, where Seto was held captive by this guy.

"Do you enjoy being bound to this cross, err... stone tablet?"

Now imagine this guy being named devil, let alone “Satan”, on a kids show on TV. How long before some parents start complaining that their kids are watching satanic Japanese cartoons?

So, yeah, you can’t blame Konami for changing those names a little and turn Satan into a witty phantom. You can, however, point fingers at their inconsistencies in naming every devil card.

Massive inconsistencies in both TCG AND OCG

Up until now, there haven’t been that many problems with this archetype, because all the Djinns were supporting random themes or types. But now that the majin/djinn XYZ are supporting “Djinn” monsters, it will become confusing for a lot of players. That's because some Djinn monsters have been (wrongfully) translated into “The Terrible”, “Fiend”, “Lord”, or nothing at all.

But if you think this is all Konami-US’ fault, you’re wrong. The Japanese card makers didn’t make the job easy, you know? Not every Japanese “devil” card is automatically a Djinn card! Sometimes their cards aren’t named Majin, but simply Debiru (I’m using the phonetic pronunciation).
Debiru’s ONLY translation in English is devil, while Majin CAN be translated into devil (I’ve seen it being translated as demon too, for example).
To help fix this confusion, I’m listing every devil monster that’s either a Djinn, or a real devil. It would help if people out there would start making an actual difference between Djinns and Devils.

Djinn monsters

• Dark Balter the Terrible (Djinn Dark Balter)
• Terra the Terrible (Djinn Terra)
• Infernal Incinerator (Hellfire Djinn Hell Burner)
• Ultimate Obedient Fiend (Exceptionally Obedient Djinn)
• Dragon Piper (Jar Djinn)
• King Dragun (Dragon Djinn - King Dragoon)
• Lord of the Lamp (Lamp Djinn)
• Necrolancer the Timelord (Time Djinn Necrolancer)
• Perditious Puppeteer (Djinn Puppeteer from Hell)
• Viser Des (All Powerfull Djinn - Viser Death)
• Fireyarou (Fire Djinn)
• Witty Phantom (Death Djinn - Satan)

NOT Djinn monsters, but actual Devil monsters

• Blast Asmodian (Blast Devil)
• Stray Asmodian (Stray Devil)
• Vanity’s Fiend (Vanity Devil)
• Legendary Fiend (Legend Devil)
• Fiend’s Sanctuary (the Metal Fiend Token is a Metal Devil Token)
• Flamvell Fiend (Flamvell Devil)
• Evil HERO Malicious Fiend (Evil Hero Malicious Devil)
• Fiend Kraken (Devil Kraken)
• Fiend Scorpion (Devil Scorpion)
• Doom Dozer (Devil Dozer)
• Koa’ki Meiru Doom (Core Chimail Devil)
• Volcanic Doomfire (Volcanic Devil)
• Element Doom (Element Devil)
• Creeping Doom Manta (Stealthy Approach Devil Manta)
• Psychic Nightmare (Psycho Devil)
• Gemini Imps (Gemini Devil)
• Cyber-Stein (Devil Franken)
• The Bistro Butcher (Devil Cook)
• Koumori Dragon (Devil Dragon)
• Bickuribox (Devil Box)
• Abyssal Kingshark (Deep-Sea King Devil Shark)
• Mazera DeVille (Devil Mazera)

A Djinn monster!	A REAL Devil!

The future

Now that there are actual Djinn monsters that support other Djinn monsters, let’s see what Konami is going to do with future releases. I’m curious what they’re going to do with “Dragon Majin – Queen Dragoon”, from the upcoming series “Galactic Overload”. Will it be “Queen Dragun”, or “Queen Dragun, the Dragon Djinn”?

Yes, I AM a Djinn XYZ!

Hope this info helps you out
Until next time,
V out.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Random boosterdraft & Karbonala Warrior

Last weekend was easter. And on Easter Mondays (a holiday over here), the local Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament organizer hosted a random boosterdraft!

The random boosterdraft is a tourney where people have a lot of mixed feelings about. Some of the regular players don't like it at all. I like it, because it's so friggin hilarious.
Last year, the boosterdraft was with Tactical Evolution. Everybody laughed their arses off because of the amazingly bad cards we pulled. And from time to time, somebody was glad they actually pulled a card that's worth something (FYI: Last year, Venominaga was still around 60-70€ & Elemental HERO Magma Neos around 40€).

This year, we pulled 4 random boosters in groups of 4 and drafted :-).
Random, like from Metal Raiders up and including Order of Chaos.
My deck won, surprisingly, due to the few combo's I was able to pull off :-D.
I have to admit, it was so evenly matched, that all of the top 3 had 1 loss on their counter. I'll spare you the decklist, since it wouldn't even be playable in actual tourneys.

Amongst the cards I chose, I got a first Edition SR Union Attack, SR Backup Soldier & Karbonala Warrior.That Karbonala Warrior made me quite happy.

To express my happiness about this card, a little background on this one:
Karbonala Warrior is the ONLY EARTH Lv. 4 target for Instant Fusion (to synch into Naturia Beast & Barkion). But the card is so old, hardly anyone has it. And it's not that good to waste a lot of money to import it from the UK or US.

Considering import is too expensive for this card, you need to find it from a player, buy it from a pack (lol, who would do that) or buy it as a single card from your dealer. And that's where the trouble begins. Where do you find the damn' card?
- In US & Australia, you can find it in Legend of Blue-Eyes(LOB), as a Rare (easy!).
- In most non-EN European countries (France, Germany,...), it came out in Magic/Spell Ruler (MRL), as a common (simple).
- Where I live, supposedly it's in either LOB or MRL... or in neither... It kinda depends from what country your dealer got his LOB & MRL packs (if he remembers at all!). That's confusing as hell and incredibly annoying if you want to find the card!
Reprints then? Oh, the only reprint came out in a Tournament pack that wasn't really distributed where I live... (*facepalm*).

Trading, it is, then...
About two months ago... after searching and asking people for over a year, I finally found a person who knew what the card was, still had it AND had the LOB-version in his trade binder. I was ripped off in the process (not to mention, the card was in a meh kinda state). But I finally had that hard-to-find Karbonala Warrior.

Then, last weekend I pulled that same Karbonala Warrior during the booster draft, from a MRL-pack (so it was European after all!). I was so happy and sad at the same time.
- Sad, because I instantly remembered being ripped off for this card I just pulled.
- Glad, because I pulled a first edtion mint condition Hard-to-find Karbonala Warrior... And that's what counts, isn't it?

On a side-note, in that tourney, I won 12 random boosters, which got me a Secret Fabled Ragin, a secret Daigusto Gulldos, a secret Malicious, a super Dark End Dragon, an Ultra Macro Cosmos, a E-Hero Prisma, a Super Different Dimension Dragon (that's an old one :-O) and a few hard-to-find usefull commons (really eternal rest & Dragged down into the grave).

Wow, that was a lot to type for being the first "new" blog post.
Well, soon more. I'll try to update this blog with a higher frequency.

V out.