Analysis of the End-of-Year Banlist – The good, the bad and the ug… surprises.

So the weekend has passed and people had some time to let the new list sink in (surprisingly, with not that many #freestratos posts (lol, the fans either don't know yet, or are still in denial).

So now that the initial raging has calmed down a bit, let’s take a deeper look into the new Forbidden and Limited list.

First off, I’d like to add a side-note. I’m not sad or angry that any of the following cards have been hit or have returned. I’ve arrived to the acceptance stage of banlist grieving. So yes, three Tenki’s will be f**king annoying, but we’ll live. Yes, my Prophecy deck will miss that second Fate, but we’ll get on with it. And so on… This post is just me sitting back and thinking about the cards and whether or not the hits themselves are good, bad or rather surprising/interesting.

The Good hits

• Blaster, Redox, Tidal and Tempest limited: This was to be expected and anyone thinking anything else is naïve (and that’s saying it nicely). The Dark Dragon Ruler (DAD) is limited for a few years now; the Light Dragon Ruler (JD) was limited during the peak of Lightsworns. Dragon Rulers had their time and now it’s over. Yes, Dragon Rulers pushed the best duelists to fight at their peak and the better duelists won while the scrubs were weeping in the corner. But Konami has to sell their newer products and let’s be fair: we all want to see different decks topping, right? So let’s call this a good hit and let’s get over it already.
• Return from the Different Dimension forbidden: This card IS an OTK card. I couldn’t agree more than making this card forbidden for eternity.
• Self-Destruct Button forbidden: This makes so much sense it almost shames me I never thought of this card getting a hit. Konami judges HATE this card with a passion. It caused endless discussions and ruling situations. And because of this card the judges created the weird rule that three game ties in a match does not equal a tie as end result. Self-Destruct button is more a troll-deck than anything else, but let’s cut the judges some slack and make this deck disappear.
• Sixth Sense forbidden: Never should've been legal. This was just a marketing trick to sell LC04. Though I heard people say that Konami would keep the card legal because “it’s a bad card mid-game or late-game”. After I explained them the comparison with Future Fusion in Chaos Dragons those idiots people got quiet.
• Spellbook of Fate limited: I’m a Prophecy player and I think this is a good hit (now saying this out loud just feels weird). No, seriously. Of all cards that they could hit in a Prophecy deck, this is the most preferred one. The opponents hate this card (because it doesn’t target and banishes) and the Prophecy deck can still be played with 1 Fate. Better this card than Blue Magician or Secrets.
• Archlord Kristya unlimited: Nobody played this card three times. I’ve said it the moment this card got semi-limited and kept saying it ever since. It was a joke that this card was semi-limited in the first place.
• T.G. Striker unlimited: This card being limited was only because of T.G. Agents being popular in OCG. This is a TCG list now, so I’m glad it’s back.

The Bad hits

• Dragon Ravine Forbidden: Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not sad that this card is gone, I never liked the card. I just think it’s sad that the Dragunity Deck is dead because of this. They could have limited this card instead. Seriously, now nobody will be interested in that Vajrayana reprint.
• Sacred Sword of Seven Stars: Sorry, but this is just overkill on the DRuler part. Again, don’t misunderstand me: I’m not sad it’s limited. I just think Sacred Sword is just as bad as Trade-In or Cards of Consonance. But I think hitting one and not the others is kind of silly. But I guess this is just a signal from Konami to let go of DRulers and play with the new stuff.
• Divine Wind of Mist Valley Limited WITH Constellar Ptolemy M7 unlimited: Wut? I don’t even…? This is just weird. Last list they hit Birdman and M7 in order to prevent the Harpie Dancer OTK. Now that Harpie Dancer is available in TCG, I thought they might hit Valley (or leave it unlimited because who plays Divine Wind, seriously). But this exchange is just absurd. They hit Divine Wind to return an OTK enabler to unlimited status? WHY?
• Fire Formation Tenki Unlimited: Marketing trick to sell Bujins. Next year this time around, this card will be limited (or semi-limited again). Mark my words.
• Final Countdown Limited: Lots of players don’t like this card/deck, calling it a degenerate strategy. I never played it either because I don’t like the deck myself. So yeah, I can guess where they’re coming from (though I never had any problem beating this deck because Prohibition is still my default side-deck card!). In the end, Final Countdown limited or unlimited I don’t care either way. But thinking about it… is it a good hit? NO! Why? Because how many times did Final Countdown decks top anything, seriously? Are YOU seriously afraid of encountering a Final Countdown deck? Or is this because somebody combined it with Ghostricks and created the ultimate annoying deck or so (if so, this argument becomes invalid obviously)?

The interesting changes

• Debris Dragon limited Vs Lonefire Blossom Semi-Limited: These two cards were part of the classic Plant Synchro deck. You can look at Debris Dragon taking a hit as a result of the “Plant” variant of Dragon Rulers, but mostly I think It’s a pre-emptive hit because they wanted Lonefire to return. And we do know that two Lonefires and two Debris at the same time is not a good idea. So Konami did an exchange. And obviously, Lonefire's return is because of the Sylvan archetype.
• The Return of Magician of Faith: This card is old, this card is slow, and most of the broken spell cards are now forbidden. This card will thus fare the same path as BLS/Tsukuyomi (people will complain about its return, try to play it, but leave it out eventually).
• Chaos Sorcerer Semi-Limited: Oh, poor Sorcerer. Konami just doesn’t know what to do with you. You have danced around on the F&L list more than any other card (it's pure chaos!). Now you’re back to Semi-Limited status, but god knows for how long? What will happen when the Chaos Gaia’s come out in TCG?
• Tour Guide from the Underworld Unlimited: Now this is interesting. I said it before: Ever since the Atlantean Structure Deck came out last year, Deep Sea Diva has more interesting targets than Tour Guide ever had. With Sangan on the Tour Bus to Forbidden Realms, this card lost its most important target and got into disuse. Will we see her again next format?
• Mezuki and Plaguespreader Zombie Unlimited: Now THIS is interesting. Last format, Two of each of these didn't do much to Zombie decks (but that’s the fault of Dragon Rulers, mostly). Now this duo returns to unlimited status… in the hopes that Shadow Specters will sell a little more (obviously another marketing trick). But it’s interesting. Will Zombie decks do anything now that they’re back to full force?

Afterword:

Obviously, the first months will be filled with people saying “Dragon Rulers still works”, “Dragon Rulers aren't dead”, but that’s what they say about every deck that gets butchered (remember Inzektors, Chaos Dragons and Wind-ups? Yeah, my point exactly…). My expectations is that they're going to splash all DRuler variants together and see what happens. But that won't last for long (I think).

Next format... Bujins. Next to that, it depends on the TCG exclusives and OCG world premiere cards in the January Booster. Other competitors will be the current top decks: Constellars, Fire Fists, Mermails (why didn't that get hit?), Fire Kings, Evilswarm, Noble Knight, etc.

What will I play next format? I dunno, honestly. But with 3 Tour Guides and 2 Chaos Sorcerers, I might as well rebuild my Chaos Dragons deck and see what happens (lol). or maybe Tele-DAD just for the lolz.

Until next time, V out.

The F&L List - End of Year Edition

Listed are only the changes:

Forbidden

• Dragon Ravine
• Return from the different Dimension
• Self-Destruct Button
• Sixth Sense

Limited

• All FOUR Dragon Rulers
• Debris Dragon
• Magician of Faith (from forbidden!)
• Divine Wind of Mist Valley
• Final Countdown
• Sacred Swords of Seven Stars
• Spellbook of Fate

Semi-Limited

• Chaos Sorcerer
• Lonefire Blossom

Unlimited

• Archlord Kristya (finally)
• Mezuki
• Plaguespreader Zombie
• T.G. Striker
• Tour Guide From the Underworld
• Constellar Ptolemy M7
• Fire Formation - Tenki

Short analysis

Decks that are butchered: Dragunities, Dragon Rulers, Final Countdown en Self-Destruct decks.

Decks that took a hit: Prophecies, Harpies (Mist Valley OTK version)

Decks that got boosted: Constellars, Fire Fists, Zombies, T.G. stun, Plants

Deeper Analysis will follow...

For now, V out.

And the series keep on coming - New Yu-Gi-Oh anime next spring

If you've been following the Zexal anime, you'd notice that the series is reaching its climax right now (if you don't watch it, I don't blame you).

The new series will be named Yugioh Arc-V (pronounced "Arc Five").

First details

Rumors are spreading fast, together with the latest W-Jump (and the next V-Jump (next week) might have more details). But right now, the following is known:

• The main character (see previous image) is named Yuuya Sakaki
• The series will be launched in the next Spring season of anime (April presumably, but no fixed date yet). This ends the three-year run of Zexal.
• The series will introduce yet another way of summoning monsters from the extra deck (who would've guessed?). Current rumors say that the new "Arc" summoning is based upon the "Champion" summon/ability(?) from Magic the Gathering. But more on that when rumors are either confirmed or wiped from the table.
• Primal Origins will most likely be the last booster from the Zexal Series. The OCG April booster will be filled with cards from Arc-V. For evidence, just look at the launch date of the Zexal Series and Generation Force. Final Boss monsters will most likely be released as promo cards, similar to those from the 5D's series (Shooting Quasar and the Timelords).

I could rant for hours about how I don't like the Zexal anime (even though Vector is the best YGO villain since Bakura), but let's just keep it at: "Glad it's over." After the series ends, I'll probably do a few analysis (rant) posts about the series and its boosters/promo's.

That's it for now. Friday the 13th is coming... V out.

Ghostrick Frost: Is Book of Moon set back to 4?

A few days ago, I’ve seen Bahamut’s deck for the latest AsiaPlus Singapore team Tournament and one of the tech cards he used was a card from the latest ocg booster set, which caught my eye. It was the following:

“I’m the abominable cute snowman!”

Meet Ghostrick Frost. Its effect?: "Cannot be Normal Summoned, unless you control a "Ghostrick" monster. Once per turn: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position. When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack: Change that monster to face-down Defense Position, and if you do, Special Summon this card from your hand in face-down Defense Position."

What’s so interesting about this card? Well, if your opponent declares a direct attack, you can put that monster face-down (Book of Moon anyone?) and then special summon this card in face-down defense position.

Basically, this is what happens when Battle Fader eats Book of Moon (let that thought sink in for a while).

Yes, its effect is limited to direct attacks only, but since you can activate it from your hand, it’s harder to get rid of (unlike book of moon). Also, it doesn’t end the battle phase.

So, that makes for an interesting, yet balanced effect which can help you get rid of annoying boss monsters like Stardust (Spark) Dragon (/Assault Mode), Shi En, Dracosack, Wind-up Zenmaines, etc. They can’t stop anything while they’re face-down (lol).

Is this card better than Book of Moon?

No. While this card mimics the effect of Book of Moon, it is not better. Okay, you can use it three times, that does make it kind of better (lol). But all in all, Book of Moon can be used in both players’ turns, in any sort of Phase and on any monster, including your own. This card just puts the opponent’s attacking monster face-down. That’s very limited, but still very annoying for the opponent (that’s what signals a balanced card).

What decks can run this card?

Any deck, basically. But if you want to pick a few decks where this card can flourish, here’s a few:

• Chaos / Chaos Dragons: If you didn’t like Battle Fader’s side-effect of banishing itself, you might consider using this card. It’s Dark and gets send to the grave after it’s gone.
• Dark World: I'm not a fan of Dark Worlds, but this IS a DARK Fiend. That makes it a good defender in Dark World decks to protect them when they have their consistency issues.
• Monarchs: A Book of Moon that works as Tribute Fodder and doesn’t consume backrow? Do I even need to say anything else?
• Dragon Rulers: Yeah, Bahamut played Frost in his Dragon Ruler deck and it worked very well in there. If you need to grind your way to victory, this can become a very useful asset.
• Piper decks: The Piper Eninge (Piper + Kinka-Byo + as many Lv. 1 monsters as possible) requires good Lv. 1 monsters. This is a good Lv. 1 monster. Nuff said.
• Lightsworn: Follow-up Frost with Lightsworn monk Ehren and watch your opponent rage.
• Ghostrick: Duh!

Afterword

Even if the Ghostricks end up being another dud-deck, there are already some interesting cards in the archetype.

• Yukki-Onna is a nice Lv. 2 Spellcaster that works in spellcaster decks that use Apprentice Magician.
• Dullahan is the key card in that awesome Lv. 1 deck I posted a while ago. And he’s now basically the best Rank 1 monster.
• And now Frost is a new, good hand trap.

And seriously, I like that. Konami focuses too much on archetype-specific cards, so I can only applaud it if Konami releases some cards that can work outside of their box (like how Tenki works for all Beast-Warriors).

Let’s just hope Konami doesn’t pimp it to Ultra/Secret rare foil in TCG, because this is now one of the few interesting cards I’m looking for.

Until next time, V out.

YCS Turin - Geargia Karuri wins the 125th YCS

Kinda overlooked this one (probably because I couldn't attend), but past weekend was the 125th YCS, YCS Turin (Italy).

Let's do a quick sum-up of the event:

• 1325 attendees, which all received the Artorigus playmat.
• 521 attendees played (some form of) Dragon Rulers, making it (obviously) the most popular deck of the moment.
• Second most popular deck was Evilswarm, once more confirming that Europeans in general like Dark decks.
• The standings at the end of Swiss. It's on this page.
• Several Americans attended the 125th YCS, including the winner (Sam Pedigo) and other famous (ARG) people like Patrick Hoban. Last mentioned one won the YCS trial, gaining a free trip to the next European YCS.
• All coverage articles can be read on The Coverage site of YCS Turin.

The top cut

The top 32 consisted of:

• 21x Dragon Ruler (all variants)
• 5x Evilswarm
• 2x Geargia
• 1x Fire Fist
• 1x Prophecy
• 1x Bujin

After that, it got cut further down as follows: Top 16 play-off chart.

An interesting side-note: I heard Michel Gruner got a game-loss due to slow play, which caused him losing the match versus Pedigo (who then ends up being the winner).

And the final was ... Samuel Pedigo (Geargia Karakuri) Vs Konrad Grunewald (Dragon Rulers). With Samuel becoming the winner!

Some deck profiles

I'll try to find some more deck profiles (let's see if Lithium uploads any). I'll post (and update) them here:

• Samuel Pedigo - Geargia Karakuri (Winner)
• Joshua Schmidt - Dragon Rulers (4th place) and Michel Gruner (top 8)
• Kevin Langenberg - Fire Fist (top 8)
• Aris Samaras - Evilswarm (Top 8)
• Matej Jakob - Geargia Karakuri (Top 16)
• Dustin Sembach - Bujin (Top 32)
• More will follow when I find them.

A side-note, the YCS Sydney Playmat

European YCS's always hold a surprise or two. This time, on Fridays, the announcement was that YCS Sydney would hand out a playmat to all attendees (to boost non-Australian players' motivation to attend). What mat could do that? A frigging Dark Magician Girl playmat! Check it out!

Is it just me or is this slightly less censored?
It looks amazing!

That's it for now. V out.

Yuginews collected - Thanksgiving edition

Last Night, Kevin Tewart posted an article on the Konami Blog of Yugioh. It was an article about the stuff they released in the past few months and the stuff they plan to release in the upcoming three months (December-February). You can read it Over here.

I've read through this and noticed the following snippets of news:

• Konami will release more Deluxe Editions. Tewart mentioned they were quite pleased with the Deluxe Edition of JOTL. They're going to rotate Special Editions out of the roster and bring in more of these Deluxe Editions instead. Prime reason is that they can experiment more with what they can put in there, where as they're quite limited in their options with a Special Edition.
• Shadow Specters SE may be the last of the Special Editions we see in quite a while. The SE promo's are Stardust Dragon and Tuning (a reprint that's quite overdue if you ask me). For those participating in the Quasar waiting/drinking game, take a shot.
• Starter Decks Yugi & Kaiba: As predicted, long time players will have no use for these since they're STARTER decks. Stop complainig already. These products are aimed at new players. It's a good way for them to obtain good generic cards like Book of Moon, Call of the Haunted, Dark Hole, Enemy Controller, etc. Each of the Starter Decks will have an Ultimate Rare Key monster (Dark Magician & Blue-Eyes White Dragon).

First revelations of Legacy of the Valiant

But people are the most interested (obviously) in the first revelations of the next TCG booster set, Legacy of the Valiant. It's the first booster of 2014. These bits of information were released:

• Gravekeeper's will have 7 new cards. Yes, 7. The six from the OCG set and 1 TCG WP card(!). And for your info, Saniwa is translated to Oracle; Shrine of Necrovalley will be Hidden Temple of Necrovalley and Royal Tombs will be Imperial Tombs.
• Shinra archetype is renamed Sylvan. I guess that works. Also, their effects will introduce a new gaming term to the card game, named "Excavate". But no telling yet if they talk about the "reveal the top card", "send to the graveyard", or "return to the bottom of the deck" part of the effect. But we'll see another blog post about those effects somewhere in December or January.
• More Noble Knight support. You remember that last unknown Noble Knight picture on the Showcase page, right? That's Noble Knight Perceval/Peredur. Why do I know this? Because Borz and Gallahad are in the background. Those three were the Knights of the Round Table that went on their quest for the Holy Grail.
• Legacy gets the next Deluxe Edition. Release date: somewhere in the beginning of March (I guess around the 7th?).

New Forbidden and Limited List in a few weeks

The last bit of information Tewart shared with us was that the new F&L list will be posted online in a few weeks. What?

Yeah, we've been so used to the fact that February is the usual banlist speculation month, that we almost forgot this is now shifted to December. And ever since the OCG and TCG list split up, there are no more early leaks. Guess we'll have to wait for the blog to update, huh.

I can make up a wishlist for the next list, but we all know what's going to happen, right? They're going to hire some good Dragon Slayers and butcher the best deck of the moment, obviously.

YCS Atlanta Top 16 will switch to Booster Draft

Yesterday, another fun bit of news was shared. In order to promote their new Battle Pack 2 Round 2, Konami decided to switch the top 16 of YCS Atlanta into a booster draft final. That's fun!

Yeah, I like the idea, personally. It's generally known that Sealed and Draft formats bring out the best in the duelists and that only good players will win (and lucksackers obviously). Not to mention, I've always been a fan of Draft/Sealed plays.

Though I understand the frustrations of not being able to see the top decks of the new January Format face off against each other, but at the time the Top 16 starts, you should already know that, right?

Top ranked Cossy duelists get a token

Remember Cossy ranking? Yeah, in the tcg it's hardly being used. But once every so often, the top ranked duelists get a special price for being top ranked. In the past, this was often a special playmat. This time around, it's a special token card.

Well, that's it for now. V out.

PS: on a side-note: If you didn't already do it, don't forget to buy your copy of the latest 5D's manga with Stardust Spark Dragon. Don't forget, only the first print comes with this great card.

Cards to look forward to in Legacy of the Valiant

It took me a while to finish this one, but here we finally are. Time to take a look at the more interesting cards in the upcoming January Booster, Legacy of the Valiant.

Effect Monsters

1. Giragilancer: A Lv. 6 Warrior Cyber Dragon. It comes with a maintenance cost, but you’ll probably only use this for Tributing / XYZ-ing / synchro-ing anyway so who cares?
2. Rainbow Kuriboh: When your opponent declares a direct attack, you can equip this card from your hand to that monster and stop it from attacking until either Kuriboh or the equipped monster is gone. Add to that that you can special summon it from the grave if your opponent declares a direct attack and you have another annoying Kuriboh to face.
3. Gorgonic Golem: An interesting rock monster that reduces an opponent’s monster’s attack to 0 if it’s destroyed by battle (permanently). Also, if you want to make a big move or swing for game, you can banish it from your grave to render an opponent’s trap/spell useless.
4. Tribute Devotee: Remember Samsara Kaiser? Neither do I (lol, j/k). Samsara Kaiser was part of the Caius Structure deck and was not worth remembering, because Treeborn Frog was just so much better. But this one… It’s a Water Warrior that special summons itself during your next stand-by phase if you tributed it. Handy for more Monarch Summoning obviously. Positive: you can have backrow, unlike with Treeborn Frog; downside: It has to survive (it has 2000 defense to help that, but still).

Ritual monsters

Knight of Photon Dragon: First Ritual Monster released in a regular booster since ages. And this one is the new Paladin of White Dragon. It’s level 4, it allows you to draw if you destroy a monster and you can tribute it to special summon Galaxy-Eyes from your hand or deck. Also, it’s a Warrior, so you can use both Preparation of Rites AND ROTA on it (lol).

Synchro Monsters

Guardian Beast of the Divine Tree – Gaou: A Lv. 10 synchro that’s easy to summon and cannot be targeted by your opponent’s card effects (safe during your main phase 2). I find that a weird exception, but that means it’s still vulnerable to a well-timed Compulsory Evacuation Device, Raigeki Break or Karma Cut.

Xyz Monsters

• Number 101: Silent Honors Ark Knight (read: SHArk Knight): Detach two to turn an opponent’s special summoned monster under this card as XYZ material. Better yet! You can detach 1 to prevent its own destruction. And with 2100 attack this card is slightly overpowered.
• Gorgonic Guardian: This card turns your opponent’s monsters attack to 0 and negates the effect. Better yet, you can use it during your opponent’s turn (WTF?). And if that’s not enough, you can destroy a monster with 0 attack once per turn! Thank god this requires 2 Lv. 3 ROCK monsters, because otherwise, this card would be dead broken. Still, a nice addition to Chronomaly decks. It also makes you consider mixing Gorgons and Reptillianes.
• Shinra Protecting god, Alsei: Probably will become Shinra Guardian Deity or something like that in the tcg (references to god is a no-no). Either way, this card requires 2 Lv. 8 monsters. Its effect: If a card is sent from your deck to your graveyard (f.e. effects of Card Trooper, any Lightsworn, etc), you can detach 1 to target and return 1 card on the field to the deck. Also, once per turn, you can declare a card name and draw the top card. If the card is the declared name, you can add it to your hand (*cough*convulsion of nature*cough*).
• Ghostrick Dullahan: Forget Utopia Roots, this is thé Rank 1 monster to look forward to in this set. It auto-gains 200 attack for each Ghostrick you control (including this one). During either player’s turn, you can detach 1 material to halve an opponent’s monster’s attack until the end phase. Handy to get over something and even more handy to protect your monsters.

• Fairy Knight Ingnal: This card reads as a massive Giant Trunade. You can detach 2 XYZ materials to blow the entire field back to their owner’s hands (or extra deck). Downside: It requires THREE Lv. 6 monsters. Primary use: Hieratics, if you want to turn the tables; otherwise a big no-no.
• Nobelswarm Beelzebuth: A light version of Evilswarm Roach (I think). During your main phase, or your opponent’s battle phase, you can detach one to blow the field if your opponent has more cards (field +hand) than you. It’s a good come-back card. But sadly enough it also promotes overextending. If you get punished with a Torrential Tribute, you can get this on the field and watch your opponent cry. Yeah, I have the feeling this card isn't going to be legal for a long time.
• Downerd Magician: AKA a vengeful Slacker Magician (eek, what did Alchemic Magician do to her in Xyz Tribalrivals?). You can summon this by using either 2 Lv. 4 casters… or by using any Rank 3 monster during your main phase 2 (e.g. Leviair after it uses its effect). Similar to Gaia Dragon, it’s a piercer and it gains 200 attack for each XYZ material. After each battle though, you detach 1 XYZ material.

Spells

• Xyz Override: A nice Field Spell. Instead of detaching an Xyz material from an Xyz you control, you can banish 1 card from your hand face-down instead. The face-down is to prevent abuse (Dragon Rulers). But that won’t stop control decks! If Dino Rabbit was still viable, this card would be their field spell (seriously, detach 2 from Laggia, or banish 1 card from your hand instead, make your choice). Downside: Similar to Mausoleum of the Emperor, BOTH players can use its effect. That means you need to be careful when using it.
• Riding Together: Remember Appropriate? It’s an awesome trap that allows you to draw 2 cards when your opponent draws cards outside of their draw phase. Downside: searching cards doesn’t count. Solution: This card! Each time your opponent searches a card this turn, you can draw 1 card. Seems a good side-deck card when facing search-heavy decks like Prophecies.

Traps

• Ghostrick Roleshift: Shame on me for covering an archetype-specific card? No, read between the lines of this card, seriously. Its second effect works outside of Ghostrick decks! "Once per turn, during the battle phase, you can select a set monster you control and flip it face-up." No need to remember the rest of the card if you don't play Ghostricks. What makes that effect interesting? Well, it's Book of Taiyou on crack. You can trigger cards like Geargiarmor, Gravekeeper Spy, Senior Silver ninja, etc faster this way. And unlike Book of Taiyou, this is a continuous trap. So you can use its effect multiple times (if you're able to keep it on the field, obviously).
• Frozen Will of the Monarchs: Can only be activated if you have no extra deck (awh), but in return, a Tribute Summoned Monster (obviously Monarchs) loses its effect (who cares if a monarch loses its effect after its been used) but in return, it is unaffected by ANY card effect. Catch: It doesn’t say until the end phase; it’s permanently unaffected by any card effect. Did you have trouble facing Monarchs? Well, it just got worse!

Card not to look forward to (lol)

Rank-up Magic – Astral Force: Actually, I wanted to exclude this card from my review due to it being nerfed like hell. But since a lot of people were freaking out about it when it appeared in the anime, I feel I should still talk about it.

The good part: You can rank up the monster with highest rank on the field with a full 2 ranks. Of course, it needs to be the same Type/attribute. Also, you can easily recycle the card.

The nerf: “You cannot special summon any other monster, except by the effect of Astral Force” (LOL, what a nerf!). So the “draw whore” decks you might have seen on youtube that abuse this card? Yeah, they don’t work in real life…

My thoughts about this set:

Hard to find cards I really like in here, because I'm not into any of the included archetypes (safe Gravekeepers maybe).

But just about any extra deck card in this set is good! I’m not covering the Chaos XYZ anymore, due to the lack of a decent Rank-up Magic card (again lol at the nerf of Astral Force).

Also, WTF at the 5 OCG-exclusives? Don't misunderstand me, they're good. The cards make both the Chronomaly and Heraldic archetypes tournament-worthy.

But seriously, why? All booster cards are already “World Premiere” for the OCG and the OCG has promo’s the TCG won’t receive for months or years (thus also “World premiere”). Why add 5 more in this booster? Are we seriously not going to see these for a year or so?

That's it for now. V out.

Analysis/rant of the September 2013 format

You might have noticed I’m cutting a bit back on blogging. That’s mostly because I'm busy with a project at work and have lots of side-activities. So for the upcoming weeks, expect less frequent updates.

I’ve been typing up the “cards to look forward to” post for Legacy of the Valiant, but while that one is on hold here’s something else I’ve been working on. This is my analysis of the current format.

And it’s not hard to see what the current format is. It’s all about Dragon Rulers.

Dragon Rulers = Tele-DAD anno 2013

During a lot of formats, you hear people complain about how unskilled that current format is. You heard it about Inzektors and Chaos Dragons, you heard it about Wind-ups and Mermails… but you don’t hear it about Dragon Rulers (safe the uninformed n00bs). And that’s because the deck is skill-intensive.

While it is true that the deck is good and bad players with this deck can still win over most other decks, they will fail more frequently when facing a good Dragon Ruler player. Dragon Rulers was and still is a deck that rewards good players, while punishing bad players in grind matches.

That makes Dragon Rulers the new Tele-DAD. There are two choices in a Tele-DAD-alike format: You can either play this deck and try to win, or you don’t play it and lose almost automatically. That was the scenario of Tele-DAD and that’s the scenario we see today. Even with the ban of the Baby Dragons and the Limit of Gold Sarc, the deck is still everywhere, though now with a lot of different flavors.

Only in the rare case where good players fix their deck to make it 100% anti-Dragon Rulers and if they only face dragon rulers during the tournament (which requires a great amount of luck), other decks may top. The prime example of this case is the ARG Open in Columbus Ohio, where both a Constellar and Evilswarm player made it to the finals. Both decks were teched out to face and destroy Dragon Rulers and both players were really good (seriously, why did I never see anyone use the GremlinKing + Azathoth + Infestation Infection combo before?).

Downside

While we should applaud that there’s finally a good skill-intensive deck that tops everywhere, this also has a few serious downsides:

• No other deck can truly shine: No matter what Konami tries to introduce in JOTL or Shadow Specters, it all pales in comparison to Dragon Rulers. And if Dragon Rulers survive the end-of-year banlist (highly unlikely), the same will happen with all cards introduced in Legacy of the Valiant. It makes people less interested in any of the new archetypes, like Mecha Phantom Beast, Bujin or Ghostrick. The only other deck that seems to gather attention is Noble Knights and even those players say it’s missing one or two more cards to make it top-tier.
• F&L list changes have hardly any effect: What happened to Zombies after the Semi-Limit on Mezuki and Plaguespreader? Nothing. What happened to Blackwings after the unlimit of Black Whirlwind (which never should've returned to three): two good players topping. None of the changes that should’ve impacted the game did anything, due to Dragon Rulers. Heck, Konami might even return Inzektors and Wind-ups to full force in this format and they wouldn’t do anything but scrape a few tops (don’t even think about it, Konami, that was NOT a hint).
• Bad sales for Konami: The main reason as to why Dragons will get butchered in the EOY-banlist is that Dragon Rulers cause bad sales for all other YGO products. There’s a reason why the Dragon Rulers are the cover monsters for the tins and Sixth Sense was made legal in TCG. Konami knows those “cheap tricks” are the only thing that will sell products at this moment. JOTL will not sell out, neither will Shadow specters (I even heard it flopped in Japan due to this and the competition with Vanguard). That’s also the main reason why Konami experimented with the JOTL boxes and the massive Noble Knight boost in Shadow Specters.
• Non-players don’t like Dragon Rulers: Not everybody can play (or wants to play) Dragon Rulers, that’s an obvious truth. But those people are sick and tired of seeing Dragons everywhere two formats in a row. So they either quit the game (until the next F&L list), or annoy the Dragon Players at locals to force them to quit the deck. If you’re one of the few competitive players at your locals, that behavior can be extremely annoying. Heck, even competitive players that don’t like the deck still play it, because it’s the best deck atm.

Meanwhile in the OCG

Ever since the split F&L list in September, people stopped looking at the OCG decklists. It’s hard to compare the two sides at the moment, because there’s such a huge difference between the two. But from what I can tell from Shriek, the decks that top the most are Dragon Rulers (duh) and Mermails.

Mermails have more power in the OCG, because they still have 3 Diva’s and 3 Dragoons . Adding to those is also the non-forbidden Trishula (yeah, that card makes a huge difference) and Dragoascension (which will be released in TCG either as Jump promo or in the next May booster) and Mermails become a lot more competitive than their TCG variant.

What is to come?

Until the end of year, we’ll only see Dragon Rulers, in all of its variants: Plant Rulers, Dragunity Rulers, Mythic Rulers, Blue-Eyes Rulers etc. The only decks that are able to scrape some tops are Constellar and Evilswarm (and one or two lone Prophecy/Mermail players).

And what of the end-of-year F&L list? Konami will kill Dragon Rulers and see what happens next. Most probably, Konami will make each Dragon Ruler either Limited or Forbidden. With those changes, Gold Sarcophagus and the Baby Dragons can return (edit: scratch the idea about the baby dragons. The link in the comments says enough, lol).

Next year, the TCG will see the launch of Legacy of the Valiant (the January booster), the Cyber Dragon Structure Deck in February, probably a new Zexal Tin (with the Duelist Pack promo’s) in March and (hopefully) the Zexal DS Game (in March or April) with their respective promo’s. This will mean that the January-April format will be ever-evolving.

Me in this format

I’ve been busy with work and social life activities, so Yugioh-ing has been set on the backburner for a bit. Add to that the latest few boosters don’t have many cards that really interest me (safe a handful in each set), so the experimenting has been cut down as well.

By far the only interesting deck I’ve seen in the last few months is the full Lv 1 deck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt3w3Huu4Jk. It’s really fun to watch and shows the true potential of Ghostricks, outside of its own archetype deck.

So, this is my little rant / analysis on the current format.

Until next time, V out.

Reprint season continues - November tins content revealed

Last night, Konami announced the full content of the November tins. No further teasers (Rank-up Magic BF) or accidental leaks (Diamond Dire Wolf), this is the real deal.

The "Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders" Tin includes:

• 5 booster packs (different in US vs Europe tins)
• Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders
• Diamond Dire Wolf
• Number 88: Gimmick Puppet of Leo
• Spellbook of the Master
• Rank-Up-Magic Barian’s Force

The "Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms" Tin includes:

• 5 booster packs (different in US vs Europe tins)
• Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms
• Thunder Sea Horse
• Gear Gigant X
• Number 40: Blackship of Corn
• Rank-Up-Magic Barian’s Force

My opinion

Well, since Big Eye, High Priestess and Abyssmegalo got reprinted (or announced) in the last few months already, it would be hard to surprise us with the tins content.

But the end result is okay. Not broken (like last year's Hanzo tin), but still okay. Diamond Dire Wolf, Gear Gigant X, Blackship of Corn and Thunder Sea Horse are very good reprints (next to the obvious dragon rulers). Leo is another legalization reprint and RUM is kind of necessary due to the many Chaos XYZ.

The only card that feels unnecessary is book of the Master. Okay, budget Prophecy players will like it obviously, but there were other cards that require a reprint before that one.

And seriously, where is the frigging Quasar reprint? Europe has been waiting for two years now. :-/

Until next time, V out.

Yarr! This time for real!

Battle Pack 2 Round 2 and Star Pack

There have been a few updates which I wanted to share with you.

Star Pack 2

First up is the announcement that 2014 will have another Star pack, because SP1 was a huge success [/sarcasm]. The new one will contain another few US-only cards from manga's and Jump.

But in reality, it's only the less good cards we see reprinted in here, together with a bunch of random reprints of less good cards. So don't expect reprints of cards like Big Eye or Quasar dragon in here. I think we would be very lucky if even Blackship of Corn would make it here.

Cards I expect to see a reprint: Troposphere, Blackwing Gram the Shining Star, Kachi Kochi Dragon, Infernity General and maybe Zubaba General. None of the big names, thus.

Battle Pack 2 Round 2

It was confirmed a while ago that Battle Pack would get a re-launch next year, with a special variant made for booster drafts. But since this week, more details were made available.

This re-release will be available from January 17th and will be a box with both 6 packs of the original Battle Pack 2 and 1 16-card pack from a card pool of 98 "new" cards.

The principle of the new draft will go as follows:

1. Each player receives and opens a box of BP2 Round 2.
2. You staple the packs as follows: 3 BP2 packs, the new cards pack and then 3 more BP2 packs.
3. You open the 3 BP2 packs and look at the 15 cards.
4. Pick 1 card you desire the most and hand the rest over to the player to the left of you.
5. You will receive the same amount of cards from the player on your right.
6. Repeat the previous two steps until all cards are chosen.
7. Open the Round 2 pack and take out the Ultra Rare card. That one is yours. You have 6 Super Rare cards and 9 commons remaining.
8. Pick 1 card you desire and pass the rest to your right.
9. You receive the same amount of cards from the player on your left side.
10. Repeat previous 2 steps until all cards are chosen.
11. Then open the other set of 3 BP2 packs and repeat the same process as with the first three packs.
12. At the end you have 1 Ultra Rare card (more on that below) and 45 other cards. With this you can create a 40-card deck.
13. Now you can play with these assembled decks! Have fun!

Damn' Ultra rares

End of last week, Tewart revealed the reason why that Ultra Rare is not included in the drafting and why you don't use it in your deck. The 5 ultra rares are highly wanted reprints. See his explanation on the following link: https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=5687

The reprinted highly wanted cards are:

• Fog King
• High Priestess of Prophecy
• Dragunity Knight - Vajrayana
• Number 11: Big Eye
• Safe Zone

Afterword

Personally, I like this re-release. I've always been a fan of booster drafts. The cover already reveals interesting monsters like Goryu, General Raiho and Chow Len and Tewart mentioned some cards that may (or may not) be in the pack.

And the Ultra Rares just turned this pack into something highly wanted. Four of the five cards have indeed become highly wanted cards (safe Fog King). Guess they'll be easier to obtain now.

On a side-note: This week, the OCG releases Legacy of the Valiant. The first spoilers are being leaked over the net. I'll give my "cards to look forward to". But all in all, it looks like there are some amazing cards in there.

Until next time, V out.

YCS Turin & First Oceanian YCS

Hey, it's been a while. You know, busy with work and had a concert with the brass band I play in (and help manage). Due to that, I'v been missing out on the sneaks.

But now that the concert is over, I got more time again for Yugiohs! There have been quite a few announcements in the past week. The most interesting ones were those about the first upcoming YCS's.

First Oceanian YCS is a fact: YCS Sydney

North America, Latin America and Europe have had their fair share of YCS's in the past few years, but people from down under have been requesting a YCS for years now. Up until now, that was always without avail.

But guess what? A few days ago, Mike Ting (Dueling Legacy) mentioned on his facebook page that Australia would get the first Oceanian YCS. And yesterday, that was confirmed by Konami on the following page: http://www.yugioh-card.com/uk/news/news_ycssydney.html.

This YCS will take place in Sydney, Australia on January 18 + 19. The event will take place in the ANZ Stadium.

YCS Sydney will become the first YCS of 2014 and will be (most probably) the first YCS that will follow the January 2014 Forbidden & limited list.

So if you ever thought about taking a trip down south, this might be the perfect opportunity. Also for many OCG players, this might be an opportunity to participate in a big TCG event, since Australia is closer by than most American events (let alone European events).

YCS Turin is 125th YCS and Konami celebrates it

The next YCS is the 125th YCS and this time, that will be YCS Turin (Italy) at the end of this month (November 30 + December 1).

For that reason, Konami announced yesterday that every attendant will receive a unique playmat for that YCS, with Noble Knight Artorigus. Also, the top-cut will not receive the Giant Hand playmat, but a unique Lady of the Lake playmat. And they're quite nice looking too.

"You have my sword!"

"It's dangerous to go into the top-32. Take this!"

More details on the event itself can be found on the following page: http://www.yugioh-card.com/uk/events/ycs_turin.html

Sadly enough, I won't be attending this one (ran out of days off :-P ), but I guess it just became worth it to attend, huh.

Until next time, V out.

A weekend in London - YCS London & MCM Comic-con

Last weekend was YCS London, linked together with London MCM Comic-con. And my friend and I went there for a lengthened weekend (Thursday-Monday). We enjoyed London as tourists and then had more fun at the comic-con.

Thursday - Acting like total tourists

Not much to say about this. We walked... walked a lot. Visited the Forbidden Planet megastore (you should visit it too if you're an anime/toons/etc fan. Amazing store. Finally got myself the novel variant of Battle Royale (cool).

We visited some more tourist stuff and ended up at the hotel, deadly tired. We had a drink at the lounge bar, teched out and finalized our decks and went to bed.

Friday - YCS pre-registration and Day 1 of Comic-con

After visiting Greenwich and eating at KFC for the first time (yeah, Belgium doesn't have KFC's), we went to the Excel for the Comic-con and the YCS event.

At Canning town (underground station), we noticed the sign saying that the DLR did not go to the venue on Saturday and Sunday due to engineering works (seriously? Talk about bad timing), but this day we were still able to hop onto the train.

At the venue, we were able to skip the gigantic waiting queue, since we came for the YCS, and walked to the very short waiting line for the YCS (lol). We filled in our decklist, had it checked, got our white, temporary wristband and were able to attend everything in the main hall of the Comic-Con and the YCS.

And I have to admit it, Konami really ensured people would enjoy it. There were many side-events happening, like Numbers bingo, a Giant Card duel, a specific Blue-Eyes SD duel (for a rubber variant of the SD playmat), etc.

We got a card where we could collect stamps to get more free goodies (random battle pack 2 boosters, or boosters from Cosmo Blazer and Judgment of the Light).

And after we got a bit tired of the Yugioh stuff, we were able to freely enter the main hall of the Comic-Con (the vendors) and walk through it all with only a medium crowd.

At the end of the day we were able to see most of the main hall and returned to the hotel quite pleased.

Saturday - YCS London Day 1

We got to Canning Town and noticed a gigantic mass of people walking to the Comic-Con. Most people were waiting for the replacement buss, but we wisely walked to the venue (only a 15-minute walk anyway).

Once inside, the waiting game began. We got there around 9.30 AM. And while the event should've started at 10, it only started at noon. And the waiting got so boring, people actually started to applaud when they announced the start of the YCS (seriously, people were that annoyed). In the meantime, we noticed many of the staff running around with tables and chairs because there were more people than they expected. All chairs at the coverage duel screen were removed because they were needed elsewhere. It was quite chaotic.

And if you thought the waiting was over, guess again. Round 2 started at 2 PM, with even more chaos. The pairing were missing all people whose last name started with U-Z. Yeah, this little V could not find his name on the list either.

Several of the players went to complain with the head judge (who was clearly annoyed by the situation) and after 5-10 minutes they finally found the rest of the pairings... or so we thought.

We looked at the pairings for "U-Z" and noticed that they hung out the pairings for round 1 (seriously?). So back to the judges we went (while the time started already). Eventually everybody was able to get to their table, but you can bet a lot of people were seated wrong and a lot of people got a game loss because they didn't get there in time. Even I faced the wrong opponent (which wasn't really obvious because our real opponent's both didn't show up.

After this chaos, both me and my friend were kind of fed up with the YCS already. I got some food in the main hall of the Comic-Con and noticed I didn't actually care if I would make it back in time or not. I got back in time for round 3 (which started at 4 PM), but I really wanted to drop already.

I probably played one of my worst games with my deck as to date because I just didn't feel like it. Facing Evilswarm (the worst match-up for my prophecy deck) didn't really help either. I lost and decided to drop. My friend Carl did the same. We were so sick and tired of the YCS we wanted to leave already and see the rest of the comic-con.

A bit later, one of the Antwerp players then took us to a shop he wanted to show us (really nice one), so we left the Comic-con completely. Back on the subway we were calculating how long the event would take, if they continued the current trend of 2 hours per round. We realized that the event would end around midnight (ugh).

Sunday

We arrived quite late at the event, because we didn't really care anymore at that point and did another walk for touristy stuff. We saw the rest of the Comic-Con and ended up being too late for our free sealed Win-A-Mat tourney (they were out of product), which was not that fun.

We heard that day 1 ended around 11:30 PM and thus could easily spot the players that were qualified for day 2... They were the most tired people at the venue (lol).

And then we heard someone boasting he got into top-32... while mentioning quite subtle that more than half of his opponents in swiss were no-shows... Yeah, basically if you topped YCS London, that's not a top you should be proud of.

So what did we do? We traded, did some more of the free events, finished the rest of comic-con and went back to the hotel.

Monday - the storm of the decade

I woke due to the noise of the storm that was raging over the UK.

At the breakfast table in the hotel, we suddenly noticed the storm caused debris to fall from the roof. We saw one of the hotel employees outside got crushed by it. Not cool. There's no mention of his death on the news, so I guess he survived, but I don't think he's going to return to his job anywhere soon.

We got in time for the Eurostar back home, even with a lot of delays on the underground and got back home.

Pros and cons for the event

Good:

• Combining the YCS and the Comic-Con. Double the fun for the same price!
• Skipping the waiting line for the comic-con, both on Friday and Saturday.
• Lots of side-events, more than on a usual YCS. The bingo was hilarious and the judges hosting the side-event were really entertaining.
• The free side-events granted you random free boosters (always good).
• Another new record for an European YCS. 1466 players (20 or so more than YCS Bochum I think).
• Due to the comic-con LOTS of different food available.
• Cosplayers: Everybody heard of the High Priestess cosplay, but I also noticed a few more, including a Zombie Dark Magician Girl (really cool).
• Lots of people means lots of trading. Did some very good trades throughout the weekend.

Bad:

• The chaos on Saturday. one round takes 2 hours and the whole seating-not-available got really tiring.
• Most people got here just for the comic-con, meaning a lot of no-shows after round 1. This actually caused many people to make day 2 (or even top) while facing hardly any (noteworthy) opponents.
• They ran out of win-a-mat products waaaay too fast.

So, was the trip worth it? Hell yes. This is one experience I won't forget soon (due to multiple reasons, though).

I enjoyed last weekend, I hope you did as well. V out.

Meanwhile, at YCS London...

Short post, since I'm typing on the phone.
I'm at YCS London and thoroughly enjoying the event (and mcm comic-com obviously).
Played the many free events, including the bingo. Saw next two new cards on my bingo paper...

Sandayu was confirmed rare by the judge, looks like the other one will be common or rare as well.

For those in London, enjoy the event. 

V out.

Yugi-news united - soo many updates

Sorry for the lack of updates last week, but work >> blog updates.

But back on topic. V-Jump was released in the OCG yesterday, so that means many OCG product updates! Also, in tcg land, the first info on Shadow Specters is coming out. I'll make an extract from all of it.

TCG - Updates Shadow Specters

Last week, it was revealed that the Sneak Peek promo would be Ghostrick Ghoul, which seems a nice addition for the archetype (not playing it, so I can't give an objective opinion on it).

But due to the Noble Knight Showcase on the European yugioh website, we've also seen the new cards Noble Knight Borz (the Arthurian Knight whom achieved the holy grail) and the Lady of the Lake (who gave Arthur his Excalibur). More Noble Knights cards (the Noble Arms, the Lv. 5 Synchro & the rank 5 XYZ) will be revealed in the following weeks. Both cards seem very good additions to the archetype, but I guess we'll see the relevance of Lady of the lake when the Noble Knight Synchro is revealed.

The last revealed new card is The Duke... Vampire Duke, which is another addition to the Vampire Archetype The card reads instant Rank 5 XYZ and when special summoned, it can send a card (preferably spell/trap) from the opponent's deck to the grave. Nice, but unless there are other ways (safe Vampire Sorcerer) to keep summoning Lv. 5/6 monsters without much tribute, I don't think the archetype will work (for similar failure, see Hazy Flames), unless Frog Vampires would become a thing (lol). Though I doubt the last thing becoming a thing, considering the Vampires are being pimped like crazy (why?).

"It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."

OCG - Duelist Pack Kastle twins is released

I already talked about this pack a month ago, when most new cards were revealed. Now, with the pack released, we can say there's only two interesting cards in here. Amulet of Water Deity (of which I spoke last time) and Diamond Dust (which is the perfect anti-mermail card).

That card basically reads as follows: Destroy all WATER monsters on the field (preferably your opponent's side of the field, lol), then inflict 500 damage for all water monsters send to the grave by this effect. Then apply water to the burned area.

Anybody else having a Saint Seiya flashback?

Duelist sets cover monsters have their effects revealed

In my posts last month, I talked about the Geargia and Lightsworn duelsit sets. Back then, the cover monsters were revealed without any effect. Today, those effects are known to mankind.

Geargiagear X Gigant: Requires 3 level 3 monsters (awh). When a machine you control battles an opponent's monster, you can detach 1 to negate all card effects from your opponent, and prohibits your opponent from chaining card effects (nice versus Fire Fists). And when this card leaves the field, you can recycle 1 Geargia monster from the grave. So nice effect, but you're going to have to run a lot of Geargiano's to make this monster live.

Michael, Lightsworn Arch: A Lv. 7 synchro that requires any tuner + 1 or more non-tuner light monsters. For the cost of a 1000 LP, you can banish a monster. And when this card is destroyed, you can return any number of Lightsworn monsters back to the deck to gain lifepoints. Yeah, I think we all have our new favorite Lv. 7 monster, right? Also an easy Debris Dragon result.

"How to tame your dragon, yugioh style!"

OCG - Legacy of the Valiant reveals its XYZ

The V-Jump showed us all the XYZ that will be in the next booster set. This includes the anime cards Silent Honors (D)Ark Knight, Utopia Roots The Chaos versions of Nr. 69 and 92 and Gorgonic Guardian. But also new cards like Shinra Guardian deity Alusei, Ghostrick Dullahan, Bujintei Tsukuyomi (which looks nothing like the original Tsukuyomi), Fairy Knight Ingunar, Nobleswarm Belzebuth and Downerd Magician (a.k.a., vengeful Slacker Magician).

The new cards are interesting, to say the least (no, seriously, they are). I'll cover them all when the set is fully released, but at first sight they're all useful (safe the chaos monsters, as usual).

OCG - Duel Carnival 3DS game strategy guide promo revealed

This is one that kinda gets overlooked, but each Yugioh game has a strategy guide (in Japan at least, lol). And with the strategy guide has the following promo card.

Thuggish Limited Express - Battrain: Once per turn, inflict 500 damage to your opponent. That's it. It's a lv 4 burn machine with 1800 attack that got neglected because it isn't that amazing anyway.

OCG - Cyber Dragon Structure Deck

And last but not least, all new cards from the Cyber Dragon Structure Deck + 1 additional support card in the OCG Gold Series have been revealed.

Last month, we were introduced to Cyber Dragon Nova, the boss monster in this new Structure Deck. This time around, we see the following new cards:

• Cyber Dragon Core: When normal summoned, you can add a Cyber Dragon support spell/trap from your deck to your hand. When in your grave, you can banish it to special summon a CD from your deck (when you control no monsters). Nice support!
• Cyber Dragon Drei: The third part of the trilogy. This card ensures all Cyber Dragons (and the copycats) become Lv. 5, ensuring the field for some nice Zenmaioh/CD Nova summons.
• Cyber Repair Plant: ROTA for Light machines, with an optional extra recycle, depending on the number of CyDra's in your grave.
• Cyber Network: Lightray magician & Lighray Madoor have liked this card. Once per turn, if there's a Cyber Dragon on the field, you can banish a Light Machine from your deck(!). When this card is destroyed (it also has a self-destruct button), you can spam the field with the banished light machines. That second effect does NOT miss timing, but destroys your backrow in return and you cannot attack during that turn.
• Cybernetic Fusion Support: This is an actual anime card made real and it's Quick-play Miracle Fusion for machine fusions! Obvious support for the Cyber archetype, but also handy in Roids... and Ancient Gear decks (Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem). This card also makes it easy to summon cards like Ignition Beast Volcannon (burn decks)!

"Gorz? Who cares about Gorz
when you can summon a badass Fusion Monster during your opponent's turn!!"

Afterword

Yeah, I could've split this page, but I rather post it all in one, because I want to use my limited spare time this week to prepare for YCS London (this weekend btw!).

Until next time, V out!

Analysis of Legendary Collection 4: How crappy is it really?

Now that the full spoiler list is out for Legendary Collection 4, it’s time to look back at what mess of a booster we just got.

Stage 1: Origin of the cards:

• Joey cards: 1-81 (81)
• Mai cards + Harpie Support: 82-112 (31)
• Marik cards: 113-138 (26)
• Rex cards + Dino support: 139-169 (31)
• Bandit Keith: 170-182 (13)
• Bonz + Zombie Support: 183-219 (37)
• Para & Dox: 220-234 (15)
• Archfiend Fixes: 235-241 (7)
• Dark World cards: 242-254 (13)
• Gravekeeper Leftovers: 255-261 (7)
• Gamble cards: 262-273 (12)
• Classic Trap Holes: 274-278 (5)
• Random fillers: 279-298: (20)

Total: 298

Stage 2: Differentiation between types of cards

Number of...	Total	Details
Normal Monsters	46	19 (Joey) + 3 (Mai) + 9 (Rex) +7 (keith) + 3 (Bonz) + 3 (paradox) + 2 (Archfiend)
Effect Monsters	127	33 (Joey) + 13 (Mai) + 10 (Marik) + 11 (Rex) + 5 (Keith) + 24 (Bonz) + 7 (paradox) + 3 (Archfiend) + 7 (Dark World) + 5 (Gravekeeper) + 5 (Gamble) +4 (Random)
Fusion Monsters	10	4 (Joey) + 1 (Rex) + 1 (Bonz) + 2 (Paradox) + 1 (Archfiend) + 1 (Gamble)
Spell cards	62	16 (Joey) + 8 (Mai) + 6 (Marik) + 5 (Rex) + 6 (Bonz) + 3 (Paradox) + 1 (Archfiend) + 5 (Dark World) + 2 (Gravekeeper) + 1 (Gamble) + 9 (random)
Trap cards	53	9 (Joey) + 7 (Mai) + 10 (Marik) + 5 (Rex) + 1 (keith) + 3 (Bonz) + 1 (Dark World) + 5 (Gamble) + 5 (Trap Hole) + 7 (random)

Stage 3: Value or usefulness

Category	Nr of cards	Explanation
New “new” cards	2/5	3 Promo cards in each box + Harpie Dancer and Sixth Sense (which is limited until the end of year). Promo’s won’t have any value, though.
New “Old” vanilla cards	0/18	Collectors will want them, but considering they're all common, they won't have much value.
Other vanilla cards	2/28	Secret Rare Sabersaurus and Kabazauls are worth something, but even then: who plays these 2 cards with only 1 Rescue Rabbit?
Number of Forbidden Cards	1/11	Forbidden Cards are nice to have, but as long as they’re forbidden they won’t have much value.. The only card I see that will have some value is Secret Rare Pot of Avarice (which didn't get reprinted last time). For the list, see details (*).
First reprints of useful or hard to get cards	7	See list in details: (**). There are other hard-to-get cards in here, but those already have had 2 or more prints or are generally not used.
Other interesting foil reprints	15	Regularly used cards in Super rare or higher. See list in details (***)
Total of "value" cards (from $4 onward)	28/298	2 New cards, 2 secret vanilla’s, 7 first reprints and 15+1 interesting foil cards.

• (*): Forbidden cards: Fiber Jar, Raigeki, Monster Reborn, Pot of Greed, Giant Trunade, Premature Burial, Harpie’s Feather Duster, Solemn Judgment, Heavy Storm, Super Rejuvenation, Pot of Avarice.
• (**): First reprint of decent/good cards: Imperial Iron Wall, Chaos Trap Hole, Gravekeeper’s Stele, Snoww unlight of Dark World, Skull Conductor, Harpie Queen, Harpie’s Pet Dragon.
• (***): Interesting foils: Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Foolish Burial, Bottomless Trap Hole, Harpie Lady #1, Elegant Egotist, Hysteric Party, Book of Life, Broww, Sillva, Goldd, Dark World Lightning, Gates of Dark World, Gravekeeper’s Spy, Reinforcement of the Army, Trade-In.
• Note to the previous list: I did not mention the cards that have an exact same rarity in previous LC. Due to that, they have less value: This includes Monster Reborn, Heavy Storm, Mirror Force, Mystical Space Typhoon, Book of Moon, Torrential Tribute and Compulsory Evacuation Device.

Final stage: The Ratio of pulling a Sixth Sense per case of LC04

The most expensive card from the set is obviously Sixth Sense (until it becomes forbidden at the end of the year). How high its value will rise is unknown, but it might get crazy, considering it’s a busted card.

How hard is it to actually pull it from a box? Thank god I didn't have to calculate that, somebody did the calculations for me (forgot his name though, sadly enough). The amount of Sixth Sense per case = 1.59. That means 1-2 per case (which consists of 12 boxes of LC04). That’s… not much.

Also, I saw a massive booster opening, confirming the low pull ratio of Sense. I even heard comments of people opening a case and getting no Sixth Sense at all. And next to that, I noticed in those video's that you have on average of 1-3 vanilla's per booster in general.

Conclusion

I could rant for hours about reasons why this set is so bloody awful. But I think the numbers speak for themselves, don’t they? In the entire set, there are less than 30 cards that will have some (initial) value. Don't forget the value drops after a month or two; just look at the current prices of LC3 cards.

If you open 1 box of LC04, you will have a dozen vanilla monsters, a lot of cards you don’t give a rat’s ass about and if you’re lucky a handful of cards you like. And you have about 13% chance of pulling a Sixth Sense!

But if you’re a Harpie fanboy or if you like to pimp your Dark World deck, you can open a box and have several of the cards you want. So it’s not a total loss, I guess?

But let me just say: If you're on a budget and you don’t plan of attending a qualifier, YCS, ARGOpen or YGO Extravaganza, this year, don’t buy this set. You’re wasting your money! People that do attend will buy tons of this box, just to obtain a Sixth Sense, obviously making all other cards in this set cheap as dirt. Trade the cards you want from this set.

Personally, I’m going to buy (only) 1 of it, just for the tokens, the Joey cardboard and to have a shot at gambling for that sixth sense (lol). But let's just say I'm going to have low expectations of what' going to be in that box.

V out.

Ruling: Sleeve issues and marked cards warnings

I went through some of the comments on the internet to find info on how YCS San Mateo ended. But safe the winner (Dragon Rules won again, big surprise), the thing people were commenting on the most was the DQ of Adam Corn, the rude behavior of the judges and the many warning (and their upgrades) that were handed out… because of marked cards.

And while I do realize that some of the people that were disqualified may have had intentional "markings" on their sleeves, I do have to add that most warnings (and the upgrades) were caused due to a ruling update on card sleeves.

Current policy on Card Sleeves

The current tournament policy goes as follows:

H. Sleeves

• A player may choose to use plastic card sleeves to protect their cards during the course of a tournament.
• All sleeves must be identical in terms of color, wear, and design, and all cards must be placed into sleeves in the same direction and manner.
• Players may not “double sleeve” their decks. Only one sleeve may be used on each card.
• Players may have only one card in each sleeve. Players may not have anything but that card in the sleeve.
• At Tier 2 events, the quality of player’s sleeves will be held to a higher standard. Any sleeves with noticeable patterns or wear may be subject to penalties.
• Sleeves with highly reflective backs are not allowed.
• Sleeves with artwork, provided they are all identical, are allowed.
• Sleeves with excessive wear, noticeable patterns, or other identifying characteristics may be disallowed by the Head Judge. If you have a question about the legality of your sleeves, the Head Judge is the final arbiter as to whether or not your sleeves can be used in that tournament.

Clarifications on this rule

Due to many questions / comments on the sleeve ruling, Head Judge Julia Hedberg announced a few clarifications on these rules:

1) All sleeves in the Deck need to be identical.
This includes the Side and Extra Decks. “Deck” as described in the policy document means the entire Deck, which in Yu-Gi-Oh! includes the Main Deck, and the Side and Extra Decks if they are used. This isn't a “new” rule, it’s merely a rule the majority of players and judges didn't notice until recently.

Note: The infraction given out is the warning "Marked cards: minor". This situation by itself should not cause a game/match loss.

2) Players are responsible to check their sleeves before the tournament, and then throughout the course of the tournament, to ensure they are in unmarked condition.
Even brand new sleeves are not guaranteed to be free of marks, factory defects, miscuts, and etc. Packages of sleeves from different manufacturing batches may not match exactly in color. Players must always carefully check their Deck ahead of time to make sure their sleeves are identical.

Players must always check their Deck during the course of the tournament, to ensure that the sleeves have not become damaged or dirty. The condition of their sleeves is always ultimately the responsibility of the player.

Extra information

If you did forget to sleeve the extra deck correctly and a judge applies this minor warning to you, be supportive about it. Unsupportive behavior will only increase the severity.

If a judge gives you this warning and you are unable to sleeve the extra deck correctly due to circumstances (read as: money issues), inform the head judge of this and ask what you should/can do. If you do not inform the head judge, you might get repetitive warnings or it might seem as unsportsmanlike behavior (resulting in game losses or worse).

Also, if you accidentally draw into an extra deck card (which is now bound to happen a lot more), you can reveal that card to your opponent, put it in your extra deck and draw another card. If unsure how to handle the situation or in doubt of cheating, you can still call a judge.

Spreading the information

Until this "clarification" isupdated into the official rulebook or posted on the Konami Blog, it is up to the judges to spread the information via any communication channel possible (therefore, this blog post).

I know many people use different sleeves for their extra deck (and sometimes even the side deck). Please take into account that this will no longer be allowed at major events.

On a side-note: At locals judges should apply "caution" instead of "warnings". Have some mercy. ;-)

V out.

PS:: TL;DR? Just click on the following picture then. Credits for the pic go to Tyler Berger.

Blackship of Corn - edit: Still not legal

Big whooping edit: Due to a wrong link I got, I mistakingly believed that Blackship of Corn became legal in Europe. The correct link, as provided to me in the comments below, showed that I was wrong.

I'm not removing this post, just the content. This so that people who got a link to this post would see that this was a mistake on my behalf. I got too excited and forgot to double-check. I apologize for this wrong information.

An ashamed V out.

My Yugi-sense is tingling - Sixth sense is coming to the TCG!

Remember my post last Tuesday, about Legendary Collection 4? I told you Konami would have to do some tricks in order to make LC04 appealing. Now guess what they did? Check this link out: https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=5539

"I sense a disturbance in the banlist!"

The effect of this old busted card?: "Choose two numbers from 1 to 6, then roll a six-sided die. If you roll either of those numbers, draw that number of cards, otherwise send cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard equal to the die result."

Konami used "Sixth Sense". It's Super-Effective!

TEN years. That's the amount of time we had to wait for this card to be printed in TCG. TEN FRIGGING YEARS!

It's one of the most busted cards ever made and has been the joke of the TCG Konami office for a while now. Tewart once said that the card was suggested for every new release that could use "new old cards", but was just as often laughed away. So it kind of makes sense to place it in one of the least desired big reprint series of the last few years and turn it into a best-selling hit.

So what do you think? Are you going to pick up your copy of Sixth Sense? Or is the thought of having this card simply ridiculous?

V out.

Edit: Small significant update... It's frigging LEGAL to play once! Jeezes, what the...? Well, I guess that will last until the December Banlist, right?

Tag Team rulings are finally here in TCG!

I wake up, go to work and check the judge forum. And there Julia Hedberg (Konami head of Judges) posted a link I was very pleased with: http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/league/dueling/tag_dueling.html.

Don't feel like clicking the link? You should. It's the long-awaited rulings page on tag duels. Yes, Tag duels!

Tag duels

Tag duels have been existing for years now, but until this point only the OCG had official rulings on tag duels. Whenever we wanted to organize a tag duel tournament, we had to either improvise, or simply use the OCG rulings.

I'm not going to repeat everything on that page, just read it already! I know the length of that page is even longer than one of my average posts, but if you want to play or organize tag duels, it's important to know the differences between regular duels and tag duels.

But the important thing to know is: THE RULES ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE OCG RULES!

The differences

In the TCG,...

• A tag duel consists of 1 game, but both players have 16 000 lifepoints together! The time remains the same (40 minutes).
• If a duel goes over the 40-minute time period, the turn player ends his turn; then the other three players get one more turn. That's it.
• The team placement is fixed In a team, the A player is seated on the right side of the team.
• The turn order is then: Team 1 Player A >> Team 2 Player A >> Team 1 Player B >> Team 2 Player B etc.
• Each team player has their own field (unlike the OCG, where you share the field).
• Each card that is Limited or Semi-Limited can only be played once/twice per Team, not per player! All other cards are still free to play in triplets per player.
• The response chain works similar. If Team 1 Player Activates a card, then first Team 2 Player A may respond, then Team 1 Player B, then Team 2 Player B. I
• Team 1 Player B chains another card (chain link 2), then Team 2 Player B can only counter the card activated in Chain Link 2, not the one in Chain Link 1!
• Important to know is: Teammates may talk, compare hands, and share information freely and with each other. Teammates must come to an agreement before making plays involving each other’s cards. Any communication must be verbal, in a language both teams can understand and loud enough for the other team to hear.

Afterword

Yeah I know people will complain that it's not the same as the OCG rulings, but get over it. At least we got rulings now :-P .

V out.

Looking forward to Legendary Collection 4?

This month, the next edition of Legendary Collection will be released. And no, it’s still not the desired 5D’s legendary Collection. Instead, this year will be all about Joey, in this "Joey’s World".

There have been a lot of comments about this release and honestly, I can’t blame people for it. Joey’s cards are far from impressive. I've been analyzing the cards he used and the related cards to his “archetypes” and there’s only a handful of interesting reprints that come to mind (and a possible Secret Rare variant of Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is at this point the only thing that would interest me).

What cards are included?

The ad said that the included cards will be cards from Joey, Mai, Marik/Yami Marik and Rex Raptor. So basically that means the cards that have a high chance of being included in this set are:

• All Red-Eyes related cards.
• A batch of random Joey cards (LOTS of warrior/fusion support and LOTS of vanilla’s).
• Harpie Cards (though I wonder if the cards from JOTL will be in here).
• Amazoness cards (remember? That second archetype that Mai played).
• Marik’ cards (his torture fiends, slimes, etc). Lava Golem is the most interesting of his cards.
• Rex Raptor Cards (lol, he played like 13 cards in the entire show).
• And hopefully some Bandit Keith/Weevil/Odion cards (though given the description, I doubt that).

This group of cards makes you want to buy this set, right?

No, me neither. So the question obviously rises: How the hell is Konami ever going to make this set interesting?

NEW cards!

One of the main selling points of this set is the World Premiere release of the Blue Flame Swordsman (finally), Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation, and Card of Last Will. And last weekend, their card effects have finally been revealed:

• Blue Flame Swordsman: Once per turn, during either player's Battle Phase: You can target 1 other Warrior-Type monster you control; this card loses exactly 600 ATK, and if it does, that monster gains 600 ATK. When this card you control is destroyed by your opponent's card (either by battle or by card effect) and sent to your Graveyard: You can banish this card from your Graveyard, then target 1 FIRE Warrior-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target.
• Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation: If you control 3 or more "Harpie Lady" and/or "Harpie Lady Sisters": Target as many monsters your opponent controls as possible, up to the total number of "Harpie Lady" and "Harpie Lady Sisters" you control; destroy those targets, and if you do, inflict damage to your opponent equal to the highest original ATK among those destroyed monsters. You cannot Special Summon monsters from the Main Deck or conduct your Battle Phase the turn you activate this card.
• Card of Last Will: When the ATK of a monster(s) you control becomes 0 by a card effect: Draw until you have 5 cards in your hand. (note: this card will not be legal to play in tournaments).

The new Flame Swordsman is thus a cool extra in Battlin' Boxers and in Fire Gemini Warriors (out with Valkyrian Knight, in with this one). The new Harpy Lady card is (obviously) for Harpies and has mixed reviews due to being unable to summon from the deck (I dunno, I don't play with Harpies and hardly faced them) and Card of Last will is just a fun card. Would be kind of broken in real life, huh.

Possible additions:

Next to these new card, I've been thinking about what Konami could add to make this set more appealing and came up with the following suggestions/thoughts/wishes:

• Monarch reprints: The monarchs were introduced in the first Generation, but were absent in the previous Legendary Collection. Since there will be more Monarch support in Shadow Specters, a reprint of all Monarch-cards may be interesting, don’t you think?
• Gemini reprints: Several of the Gemini monsters are related to cards Joey/Mai used (like Phoenix Gearfried and Dark Valkyrie). Supervise is a hard-to-get card and the Gemini’s get some support in Shadow Specters. Seems like a perfect fit to me.
• Ojama’s: Many people forget this, but Ojama’s are also part of the first Generation. Ojama’s are still quite popular as a troll deck and it’s been ages since their core cards got reprints. And since the Tanuki’s/Raccoon Rascals in Shadow Specters support Lv. 2 Beasts (Which Ojama’s are), this is the right time to reprint them.
• Spirits: And while we’re comparing this set to the new support in Shadow Specters, why not reprinting the old Spirit monsters? They get a few VERY good cards in Shadow Specters and a lot of Spirits are hard-to-get at this point. And a secret rare version of Tsukuyomi, Kinka-Byo or Yata-Garasu is always welcome.
• OCG promo prints: Harpie Dancer. Nuff said, right? No? Okay, then how about the chaos warriors from the (OCG) August V-Jump pack? I’m talking about the Gaia Knights, the new BLS etc. They’re heavily linked to the first generation and would certainly make this set more interesting.
• Some old cards get a first TCG print: Megazowler and Sword Arm of Dragon are old Rex Raptor Cards that never got a TCG print. So why not? Collectors will want them, right? And while we’re at it, Bracchio-Raidus is a Fusion card made of Rex Raptor Cards. Throw it in there, so that it’s scratched from the “OCG-only” list.
• And what else can Konami add to make it more interesting? My final suggestion is... Alternate artworks.

"Is it finally my turn to shine?"

Alt. Arts

There are many generation 1 cards that have alternate arts, but a lot of them never received a print in the TCG as of yet. Let me give you a list of them:

• Acid Trap Hole (OCG Premium Pack 5)
• Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (Asian Tournament Promo's 2001)
• Flame Swordsman (official Guide Starter Book 1999)
• Gilford the Lightning (Gameboy promo Duel Monsters 6)
• Celtic Guardian (Limited Edition Pack 2)
• Dark magician (Red one) (Premium Pack 4)
• Gaia the Fierce Knight (Limited Edition Pack 2)
• Gemini Elf (Asian Tournament Promo's 2001)
• Kunai with Chain (OCG Premium Pack 5)
• Kuriboh (Asian Tournament Promo's 2001)
• Launcher Spider (Limited Edition Pack 2)
• Panther Warrior (Limited Edition Pack 3)
• Pendulum Machine (Limited Edition Pack 2)
• Red-Eyes B. Dragon (Asian Tournament Promo's 2001) - yes, there' still a print we didn't get as of yet!
• Summoned Skull (Asian Tournament Promo's 2001)
• Thousand Dragon (Limited Edition Pack 2)
• Tiger Axe (Limited Edition Pack 2)
• Widespread Ruin (OCG Premium Pack 5)

Did you notice? Most of these cards are related to Joey, Yugi and Bandit Keith. While Red Dark Magician is unlikely to get a print, there are many others in here that would be well-received amongst fans.

"My name is FRANK!"

Afterword

So, a few world premiere cards, a few OCG promo’s, a few old OCG cards that get a first print, a few archetypes that get reprints and a batch of alternate art cards. I think that should make up for near 300 card pool, as the advertisement stated.

And with all cards mentioned above… this might make for a semi-interesting set, similar to Legendary Collection 3.

So, let’s see in the next few weeks what Konami is going to do with all this potential…

V out.