YCS Lille - Mermails... mermails everywhere

It's Sunday evening. YCS Lille is over and I'm friggin tired right now (so short post, a big one will follow in the upcoming week). I had a hellagood time, even though I lost quickly 1-4.

• Lost against Fire Fists in a grind match
• Won against Exodia.
• Lost horribly againt Mono Mermails (seriously, got OTK'd twice. Couldn't do a damn' thing).
• Lost by a hundred point margin in time from Frog Monarchs.

Yeah, I know... not that great, huh. I entered a Battle Pack Booster match (which ended up being cancelled, because they didn't have enough people, lol) and one Win-a-Mat (didn't make it because my Prophecy deck backfired for unknown reasons).

Next to that, I got a lot of good trades: My third Spellbook Magician, my second book of the Master, my last Mystic Piper, a Pyrorex, a gold Breaker (for my Gold Deck), super rare Toon Gemini Elf (future purposes) and a few other cards.

The people at the Konami shop were... badly informed to say it in a nice way. I was already sad when I arrived first at the shop, only to notice that they DID NOT sell Hidden Arsenal 7 (boooooo!). And their pricing was way off (a full booster box is not the booster price x the number of boosters, idiots). Nobody pays 96€ for a box. At least I got a cheap box of Battle Packs, due to a miscalculation on their behalf (lol).

The rewarded boosters were Cosmo Blazer (I was not allowed to trade for Return of the Duelist), with very little good draws (a secret Abyssleed was the only thing worth more than 2€ in there).

But you know what the general consensus was? Last YCS, it was "We need more Belgian judges!" This time around it was:

That's it for now. More details on the YCS itself will follow. Next week I'm getting a box of HA7, from a shop that knows how to price a box correctly. Maybe I'll open it on camera for you guys (who knows). Until then, V out.

YCS Lille - Last preparations

This weekend is YCS Lille and currently the last planned European YCS. After Nationals season and the European/World Championship is over, there will probably be more.

One more time, all YCS Lille Details

The event will be held at:

• Lille Grandpalais
• 1 bd des Cités Unies
• 59777 Euralille
• Lille - France
• Event website: http://www.lillegrandpalais.com
• How to get there: http://www.lillegrandpalais.co.uk/contacts-and-pratical-information/accessibility
• All the info you need will be (should be hopefully) on THIS LINK
• From Saturday morning, coverage will be posted on the European event coverage page.

Pre-registration will start at Friday (between 16 and 21 o' clock). Otherwise it's Saturday between 8 and 10 in the morning.

About Hidden Arsenal 7

And in case you still didn't knew it, Hidden Arsenal 7 is NOT legal at YCS Lille (awh...). Reference the following feedback by P.J. Tierney (The Irish Duelist/Coverage writer at European YCS's) from the Judge forum:

For Duelists planning to attend, we have an important Card legality update for YCS Lille:
As we cannot guarantee that Hidden Arsenal 7: Knight of Stars will be available across Europe at the same time, Cards from Hidden Arsenal 7:Knight of Stars will not be legal at the YCS Lille.
If there are any contradictory entries under “card legality” of the ‘gameplay’ section of information provided for YCS Lille, the above applies instead.

Yes, you might have found Hidden Arsenal in your local shop this week (it's out officially since today), but that doesn't mean it's legal!

If there are people attending the YCS that are still unaware of this, please pass them this information.

And me?

I'll be attending this time as well. (I should, considering it's less than an hour driving from my home, lol).

I'm not there to top, but to have a good time. And I hope you will have a good time as well!

If you spot me, don't be shy, come say hi!

Cards to look forward to in Judgment of the Light Pt. 3 – Spells and traps

Spells

Rank-up Magic – Numeron Force: Similar card to Barian’s Force, but this card doesn’t steal XYZ materials. This card negates the effect of all other cards on the field (at the time of summon). So which Rank-up Magic will you pick (if you will ever use one)?

Ancient Battlefield of the Different Dimension - Sargasso: A long name for a field spell. (TCG might rename this to “D.D. Battlefield - Sargasso” or so). This is a nice side-deck card for burn decks, aimed to counter decks with XYZ monsters. When a player XYZ summons, he takes 500 damage; during each end phase if the turn player controls an xyz, he takes 500 damage.

Vertical Landing: A quick-play spell card that replaces WIND attribute monsters (any number) with Lv. 3 Phantom Beast Plane Tokens. Though it’s original use is intent for PBP’s, since it’s not restricted to the archetype, other WIND-archetypes can use it just as well (harpies, Mist Valley, Gusto, Dragunities(!), etc). This card is perfect to avoid your opponent’s traps (D-Prison, Mirror Force) or to aim for the desired synchro monster.

Transturn: I couldn't miss out on this one; it’s the most hyped card of the set. Send 1 monster you control to the Graveyard; Special Summon 1 monster from your Deck with the same Attribute and Type as the sent monster, but 1 Level higher. There are many decks that can abuse this card: Blackwings, Karakuri, Infernity, Six Sams, Agents and Inzektors are just a few.

Traps:

Sin Key Law: This trap summons 3 Umbral tokens while you control an XYZ monster. The tokens gain attack equal to the attack of the XYZ monster. Granted, they cannot attack directly and they cannot be tributed for Virus cards (aaaawh), but having a few free powerhouses on your field can never hurt. Just use this card after your HC Excalibur has 4000 attack to have three enormous tokens on the field (yes, it's attack, not original attack).

Fascinating Trap Hole: This card's artwork shows what the Fascinating fiends really are (eew). When a monster special summoned on your opponent’s side of the field activates an effect (Abyssmegalo, High Priestess, any XYZ or Synchro monster), negate the effect and destroy it. No cost (unlike divine wrath), but unlike Divine Wrath, this card is no counter trap and it’s kind of situational. It’s up to you to choose the best trap in your deck.

Afterword

As expected, this set is kind of a let-down. Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy is an amazing set, so the follow-up was expected to be kind of a let-down. Konami defended itself by releasing some very good synchro monsters; but safe those synchro's there's hardly any card in here worth getting (Transturn & that 1 XYZ). The Fascinating fiends are interesting; The War Gods may be interesting, but (like Wind-up's a while ago) it will take a few sets before they're really good.

The OCG prices of this set after a week already confirmed this, making Flying "C" the most wanted card from the set (and only 20$), and it's a common card (normal rare = 1 per box).

Up to the question: Is this set worth investing in? The answer is obviously... NO. Get the few single cards you really want; for the rest you can ignore it.

Cards to look forward to in Judgment of the Light Pt. 2 – Extra deck monsters

Second part of my review of Judgment of the Light. This set marks the return of synchro monsters. And well, let’s admit it. They’re ALL good and better than the new XYZ this time around. The 2 synchro’s not mentioned are the archetype specific ones (because they don’t work outside of their archetype).

Synchro monsters

Mist Bird Clausolas: The living form of Ally of Justice Clausolas. And yes, next to Mist Wurm, this is another Mist Valley synchro that isn't a Mist VALLEY synchro. It’s the first Lv. 3 synchro worth summoning. While it has 0 attack, it has 2300 defense and it can turn an opponent’s monster’s attack to 0 and negate its effect.

Balmung, Fighter of the Demon World: Not Dark World not Dark Demon World (unlike Dark Blade), this is the Demon World Fighter Balmung. This is a Lv. 4 synchro whose artwork AND effect will remind you of Colossal Fighter (but revival due to destruction by card effects, rather than battle). Decent replacement for Armory Arm.

Armades, keeper of Illusions: Brother of Adreus & Tiras. When this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate card effects. So no Mirror Force, D-Prison or protection by Utopia, Catastor or Zenmaines. Good card!

Psychiconductor Behemoth: A Lv. 6 synchro that works well with the Banish-psychics from Extreme Victory (and the Psoil deck, remember that one?). And believe it or not, it’s D.D. Warrior Lady in (mecha-)dog form! So yes, finally we have a decent Lv. 6 synchro again!

Starform Dragon: A good lv. 11 synchro (the first one). Takes some effort to get on the field, but once it hits, it’s annoyingly hard to get rid of. I've seen DSummon promote it as a boss monster in Karakuri. Apparently they can easily summon it (*shudders in fear*).

XYZ monsters

Herald of Sacred Light: Only 1 good (splashable) XYZ this time around. This requires 2 Lv. 2 monsters. Its effect: Detach 1 to return a card from the grave from your hand and then shuffle a card from your hand to the deck. This can be used to return dead cards to the deck (that second D-HERO Malicious or Reborn Tengu, or vanilla’s you rather keep in your deck) while obtaining a good monster from your grave (A reverse Monster Reincarnation of sorts). Good card is good!

Next time up, Spells and traps!

Cards to look forward to in Judgment of the Light Pt. 1 – Effect monsters

As promised, this is my list of cards to look forward to. As usual, I skim through all 80 of the new OCG cards and pick those that stand out because it stands out or is splashable. Due to the length, I'll split it up in 3 parts: effect monsters; extra deck monsters & spells+traps. This time up: Effect monsters!

This time around, no Elemental dragons (arguably Light and dark aren't really elements) or elemental lords, nor a LIGHT-attribute Armageddon Knight knock-off. Also, no more support for Mermails/Geargia/Madol/Fire King/Atlantean/Harpies. Only Fire Fists, Mecha Phantom Beast and Prophecy gain more support.

Monsters

V Salamander: A new sort of Zexal weapon? This card is an equip card for Utopia Ray Victory. But unlike the other Utopia support cards, this one is actually good! When normal summoned, you can revive a Utopia monster from your grave (any variant of it). So basically revive Utopia, use rank-up magic to put Victory on the field and then equip Salamander to it. And then kicks in the second effect of Salamander. Detach 1 material of Victory (Utopia, duh) to destroy all monsters your opponent controls AND give a nifty burn effect of 1000 damage per destroyed monster. Nice.

Umbral Unform: A searcher for Umbral monsters (only 3 different ones). But unlike Giant Rat and consorts, this special summons TWO Umbral Monsters. This effect is amazing… if not for the fact that Umbral Monsters otherwise suck (at the moment). I can see the Umbral monsters being used in Reptilliane decks (with their 0 attack). Let’s hope a few more of these monsters appear, because otherwise it’s a waste of a good effect.

Schwarzschild, the Limit Dragon: If your opponent controls a monster with 2000 or more attack, you can special summon this one from your hand. In other words, it’s a rank 8 xyz made easy (Tachyon dragon, Neo-Galaxy-Eyes, Zombiestein, etc). No further restrictions mean that you can summon more than one; a dark lv 5 or higher dragon means it’s a nice addition for Chaos Dragons; etc. This card is interesting enough to be used.

War God Vessel – Taruta: While the War Gods are an interesting new archetype (that still requires more support), the most splashable card at the moment is Taruta. This is a protector Beast that prevents other Beast, Beast-Warriors and Winged Beasts from being destroyed. This is interesting because combined with cards like The Seal of Orichalcos and/or Spiritual Forest, this means that you have a field of monsters that cannot be destroyed (by battle)!

Mecha Phantom Beast Blue-Impalase: While its use is the best in a Mecha Phantom Beast related deck (due to its restrictions), it has a very good use in general. You can use a MPB from your hand to synchro (always handy) and you can negate its effect to synchro with/for anything else (similar to Vayu). But more importantly is that last effect: “If your opponent controls a monster and you control no monsters: You can banish this card from your Graveyard; Special Summon 1 "Mecha Phantom Beast Token" (Machine-Type/WIND/Level 3/ATK 0/DEF 0)”.

Atora, Trion and Kazuura, the Fascinating Fiends: First thing you notice about these cards: they’re cuties. Second thing you notice: Why are they named fiends when they’re… insects (huh)? Third thing you notice... you’re dead. These three fascinating (I think a better term would be “luring” but who am I) cards are basically Venus flytrap insects, aimed to lure in lolicons (lol). And yes, they are fascinating. They’re unaffected by Trap Hole cards (safe the wrongfully named Dark Trap Hole). Kazuura searches/spams Fascinating monsters when a Trap Hole card is activated. Trion searches Trap Hole cards (amazing) and Atora allows you to activate them FROM YOUR HAND!

Pyo Kokko: This is possibly the cutest card from the set. It’s also a Flip effect monster that special summons a Lv. 5 or higher tuner from your deck! Interesting, don’t you think? Lv. 5 or higher tuners are neglected most of the time due to them being dead in the hand (safe Quickdraw synchron).

Flying “C”: The new buggy brother of Shiny Black “C” and Maxx “C”. This one special summons itself to the opponent’s side of the field after a normal/special summon and prevents him from XYZ summoning. Best troll move is letting your opponent use Rescue Rabbit’s effect and then troll him with this one :-P. You hear me coming. This card is a nice side-deck card fit for opponents that focus on xyz spamming (and do not have tuners in their deck).

Honorable mentions

Of course there are honorable mentions to cards like Trick Archfiend and the World of Prophecy, but those cards are archetype-specific, so I'll leave them aside for now.

Next time up, a bunch of synchro monsters and an xyz (only 1 good one this time around).

Yu-Gi-Oh!'s Kisara enters the realm of actual cards

Hey guys. While I'm still busy to write up the "cards to look forward to" post, something came up of which I really, really wanted to make a post about.

And that news is... Kisara becomes an actual Yu-Gi-Oh card!

Kisara, Who the X is Kisara?

For the people among you that actually watched the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game anime, Kisara may be a familiar name. In the Egyptian story arc, she's namely the host of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon spirit. She's a crucial figure in the anime for (priest) Seto into obtaining the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

Now, with the new Structure Deck coming out in the OCG upcoming June, I was secretly hoping that Konami would do something with Kisara. And look, they did!

Meet the subject of many fan-written love stories with Seto Kaiba.

The Blue-Eyed White Maiden

One of the new cards that will be in the BEWD-themed Structure Deck will be the Blue-Eyed White Maiden.

Next to the wonderful art, she also has this effect: When this card is targeted for an attack: Negate the attack, and if you do, change this card's battle position, then Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard. When this face-up card is targeted by a card effect: You can Special Summon 1 "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard. You can only use 1 "Blue-Eyed Maiden" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

So basically, if you dare do anything against this fair maiden, you will suffer the wrath of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

"Come to me, Seto"

So, what else is there?

Other cards? There are other...? Oh, yeah... ahem...

Other new cards in this Structure Deck are the Blue-Eyed Silver Dragon and the Guard of the Storm Dragon.

Blue-Eyed Silver dragon is the first synchro in a Structure deck (no, I'm not counting Starter decks) and is basically the long-awaited synchro of Stone of White Legend and Blue-Eyes white Dragon (took em long enough). This card protects dragons and allows the special summon of Vanilla's from your grave (during your stand-by phase). I see this card being used in BEWD-decks (Captain obvious strikes again!), Hieratic decks (a free Wattail or Emerald dragon each stand-by phase) and of course... Gemini decks. You can revive any Gemini card from your grave, Gigaplant, Phoenix Gearfried... and Darkstorm Dragon!

Guard of Storm Dragon is a tuner, but also an equippable monster (which rides the previously mentioned Darkstorm Dragon (lol). He allows the monster it's equipped to to inflict piercing damage and protects it the same way a union monster does (I guess an effect/tuner/union monster would be to weird to write?).

And last but not least, the first announced reprints are great: Maxx "C", Fiendish Chain & Monster Reborn! If they throw Super Rejuvination in here as well, the pack is going to sell like hotcakes!

Now, let's go back to work. If I find some more free time (kind of busy), I'll give you that "cards to look forward to" post.

See ya. V out.

"Who do you think created Heavy Storm, huh? Me!"

Yuginews collected (Battle Pack 2 first details, YCS Lille details, Judgment of the Light first spoilers)

It's been a while since my last post, but that's mostly because it has been a few very busy weeks.

So, let's compile what happened the last few weeks...

YCS Lille's details are (finally known)

YCS Lille has been announced for a few months now and it will occur at the end of this month. But until last week, the details page still wasn't there. Now the details are finally known: http://www.yugioh-card.com/uk/events/ycs_lille.html

The event will be held at:

• Lille Grandpalais
• 1 bd des Cités Unies
• 59777 Euralille
• Lille - France
• Event website: http://www.lillegrandpalais.com
• How to get there: http://www.lillegrandpalais.co.uk/contacts-and-pratical-information/accessibility

Hidden Arsenal 7 postponed for a week (in the US)

One of the biggest rumors last week was the postponing of Hidden Arsenal 7. The news was revealed on April 1st, making people unsure whether or not it was an April Fool's Joke. But with Julia Hedberg (of Konami) confirming the delay, people became kind of worried at this side of the Ocean.

So it's postponed in the US, but what about the rest of the friggin tcg-world? It took me (and several other European players) a long time to figure out whether or not Europe's release is going to be affected as well.

Why does it matter? Well, if it's postponed, the set would not be legal at YCS Lille. If it comes out in time, it WILL be legal to play. That's a frigging big difference, don't you think?

Today we have a 90% assurance that the European release will be on time (we'll only be certain next Thursday, when the set comes out), making it legal to play at YCS Lille (unless otherwise notified).

Update: Scratch that. European release will be postponed as well, so it's NOT legal at YCS Lille. I repeat: NOT LEGAL!

Battle Pack 2 shares its first details

In June we will not only have a new Starter deck, we'll also have the new Battle Pack. And this week the first details of this new pack have been revealed:

• The full name is: Battle Pack 2: War of the Giants
• The cards will be focused on bringing out high-level monsters on the field.
• Starfoil rares are no more. Each pack will now have 3 commons, a rare and a Mosaic Rare (a new foil type).
• All three Egyptian Gods will be in this pack (the playable versions, obviously). This marks the first reprint of Slifer the Sky Dragon!
• Tewart already revealed that the packs will not be easily mixed with battle Pack 1 (ensure your event organizers know this, before they actually do so in tourneys). He also said that certain cards from BP1 will also be in BP2 (Obelisk, obviously).
• So let the speculation begin: Biggest rumor on reprint is (next to Gaia Dragon) obviously Number 11: Big Eye and Gustav Max (big monsters, big XYZ ranks). Big Eyeis the omnipotent Snatch Steal in monster form and is the boss monster in the 4-Dragons deck (and many others now). And Gustav Max becoming legal in the rest of the world is always wellcome.

"Osiris the Executive producer is back!"

Judgment of the Light is out in the OCG (first spoilers)

Apparantly, today is the offcial release of Judgment of the Light in the OCG. While it will take the rest of the weekend until the Wiki and Shriek are fully up to date, the first spoilers are flowing in on the Singapore Facebook page.

First surprises are (among others) a new "C" monster, following Maxx "C" and Shiny Black "C"; a new prophecy monster (The World?), a new cuties/fiends archetype and many others. Keep your eyes on the pages, because more info will flow in soon.

And yes, I'll give you my cards to look forward to-list next week ;-).

Until then, V out.

Youtube shuts down, Twitter becomes a paying serivce, LFN goes Triad, High Priestess & Abyssmegalo get reprinted and more

Yesterday was April fools. Hope you didn't get fooled (too much).

My friends wondered why I didn't take the opportunity to make an April Fool's joke, but I just didn't feel like it.

To make up on that, I decided to give you a compilation of the better Fools Jokes I've seen online instead. If available, I'll leave the link in each subtopic title.

Freddie Mercury smuggled Prince Diana in a gay club, dressed as a man

Hilarious by itself, right? Even if it was true, this would be a laugh.

Apparantly, a new book of comedian Cleo Rocos (The power of positive drinking) claimed that Cleo herself and Kenny Everett accompanied both Freddie Mercury and Princess Diana to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in South London, with the princess dressed in an army jacket, cap and sunglasses.

New Statesman paper from now on in Comic Sans

The paper was delighted to announce that the New Statesman is unveiling a brand new look to celebrate its centenary, using the popular Comic Sans font.

Artistic people were ready to rage. Comic sans, lol wut? :P

Daily Express offers the Belgian Suite in Buckingham Palace for 10.000 pound/night

No link for this one, but the Daily Express had a link to hotels.com, offering the Belgian Suite at Buckingham Palace. You could rent it for the night for 10.000 pound. Lol, as a Belgian, I didn't knew the Buckingham Palace had a Belgian Suite at all!

The poor suckers who fell for it, got the following message: "SORRY, if you think you can book a suite at the Palace as we suggest on page 24, you’re an April Fool!" (awh)

Youtube was always a talent-show and will shut down to select its winner

Yes, youtube put a lot of effort into making people believe they were going to shut down for the next 10 years, to select the "winner" of all the "talent" video's made in the past years.

They really put some effort in it, since they made a special 12-hour long video with all the nominees.

Twitter will charge people for using vowels

The Twitter Blog stated that from April first onward, they would divide Twitter into a free service (Twttr), which limited you in using consonants only (no vowels). You could get the vowels for 5 bucks per month, using the "Premium Twitter" service.

Find some booty with Google Maps, yarrr!

Feeling lucky, mate? Apparantly Google found the map of famous pirate Captain William Kidd (for the One Piece Fans, yes this is the real-life pirate Captain Kid is based upon). Google couldn't figure it all out, but digitized the whole map and made it available on Google maps! Booty for everyone, arr!

Google Nose

Another google joke was their next project which seemed so realistic (considering they're making Google Glasses), a lot of people fell for it. This project was called Google Nose.

Going onwards from the scratch-and-smell books, Google developed an app which could make you experience several smells, like wet dog, car fumes, flowers, etc. Just put your nose close to the screen, press enter and experience. WOW!

The Pirate Bay moves its servers from North Korea to America, f**k yeah!

The controversial torrentsite Thepiratebay (which is supposedly not accessible in Belgium due to certain laws) claimed that it moved its servers from North-Korea (lol, wut?) to the greatest country in the world: America, F**k yeah!

Netflix adds some new categories

People always suggest Netflix should add some new categories to their movies, so they did (lol). And how, they added categories like:

• Movies that are in English, but still require subtitles.
• Movies and TV-series about seriously pissed off wives.
• Movies featuring an epic Nicolas Cage meltdown.
• TV-shows where defiantly crossed arms mean business!

Imgur now allows upload of pictures via snailmail

As you might've guessed from the title, snail mail refers to the real-life mail, instead of the e-mail. Simply mail your pictures to: Imgur.com, PO Box 420773, San Francisco, CA 94142-0773, USA.

Marvel Avengers Alliance will now include amazing items on the roulette and both Galactus & Aunt May as playable characters

If you're a Marvel Avengers Alliance player on the facebooks (like me), you might've noticed this "amazing" post yesterday.

The post said both Galactus and Aunt may to become playable characters (Aunt May, the Golden Oldie, lol). Not only that, the daily roulette would contain items like the Cosmic Cube, The Infinity Gauntlet, Captain America's Shield, Mjolnir and a few others. Kind of surreal to read, but hilarious none the less.

LFN will re-use his blog for his new passion: The Chinese Triad

Big shock yesterday in the Yugioh-bloggers community, as LFN stated that he gave an explanation why his Yugioh-blogging took a downgrade. He has a new passion: the Chinese Triad and crime.

So now he's going to blog about smuggling, trafficking, blackmail, assault, carjacking and drugs. Definitely read the reactions, they're hellafun.

Konami reprints of Abyssmegalo and High Priestess of Prophecy

And perhaps the biggest shocker in the Yu-Gi-oh community... the announced reprints of Megalo & High Priestess!

According to yugi-tuber AznEyesWhiteDragon, Konami announced a new pack (the Advantage Pack), which would have several tournament-level reprints, including Mermail Abyssmegalo and High Priestess of Prophecy. Konami also added a clip showing a Konami employee opening one of these advantage boxes. Watch it on your own risk! This is the link.

Many more

Yes, I know, there are tons more April Fools jokes, but I found these ones the most interesting of the bunch I've seen.

If you found some more interesting April Fools jokes, please let everybody know in the comments section.

Until next time,