Preview – The Blue-Eyes Structure Deck

Each year, the OCG produces 2 structure decks, one in June and one in December. The last Structure deck brought us the Fire Kings. The new one (upcoming June), will produce a LOT of support for Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

New Blue-Eyes Support

There’s not 5, but 6 new cards in this set! Let’s review them quickly:

• Blue-Eyed Maiden: Already reviewed this card when I first laid eyes on her. Simply put, she’s a lv 1 tuner that brings forth the wrath of the Blue-Eyes if you try to touch her. Many people already found ways to abuse her (because she gets her effect when the user targets her for card effects (like Spellbooks for example).
• Guard of Storm Dragon: The Rider of Darkstorm Dragon. This card is a Lv.1 tuner that works as a union monster and allows the equipped monster to inflict piercing damage. This is the least impressive card of the new cards.
• Dragon’s Mausoleum: A Foolish Burial that can potentially work twice (if you first dump a normal monster, you can dump another one). I see use for this in Blue-Eyes decks, Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers and Hieratic Decks.
• Bellow of the Silver Dragon: Special Summons a Normal monster from the grave. Also, this card is a quick-play spell. Can be used in Gemini, Hieratic and Blue-Eyes decks. Who doesn’t like a quick-play monster reborn (lol).
• Dragon’s Soul Castle: Continuous Trap. Once per turn, you can banish a dragon from your grave to boost one of your monsters. When it’s sent to the grave (by any player’s card effect), you can special summon a banished dragon. Can be used in Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers and obviously, the blue-eyes deck.
• Last but not least, the Blue-Eyed Silver Dragon: The long-awaited Blue-Eyes Synchro! When it’s summoned, dragons cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects (so no bottomless, no Dimensional Prison; only Solemn Warning works). And during each of your Stand-by Phases, you can revive a Normal Monster from your grave. Not just dragons, ANY normal monster. That means Gemini monsters as well! This card is obviously used in Blue-Eyes deck, but can also be used in Gemini Decks, Gem-Knights and even Hieratic decks (Delta Flyer + Vanilla Dragon of Lv. 5/6).

Note: These are the OCG names according to Shriek, these are subjected to change when hitting TCG shelves.

"You want to D-Prison ME?
I eat prisons for breakfast!"

Amazing reprints

Next to the great new cards, there are also a lot of good reprints. I’ll give a few of the better ones:

• Flamvell Guard: Became interesting again ever since Dragon Rulers use this card. For those that can’t get this “old” Hidden Arsenal 1 card, here’s the first reprint.
• Honest: Just checked it and I can hardly believe it. My collection of Honest’s has been reduced to the ones I use. All spare ones have been traded over the years. So I guess a new reprint doesn't hurt, eh.
• Maxx “C”: Common Maxx “C”? For the OCG, this reprint is great, since the first print was a short print card from the Extra Pack. Though, I doubt if this card will be in the TCG variant.
• Trade-In: Expected reprint, since this is needed in every Blue-Eyes related deck.
• Cards of Consonance: Last reprint has been a few years ago, so a new one is welcome for newer players.
• White Elephant’s gift: THIS is a blessing. This card had 1 print: it was a short-print from the hardly-sold Starstrike Blast. It's hard to find this card, unless you buy a box of that set and even then, you’ll probably only get 1.
• Monster Reborn: One of the oldest cards that is still great. It's one of the best top-decking cards ever created. Newer players will be happy with this reprint, because it’s not easy finding good-quality Monster Reborns at a cheap price (especially since it’s a staple card).
• Fiendish Chain: Good card remains good. Even with its two reprints last year, it’s still a wanted card.
• Damage Condenser: Interesting reprint. This old Super Rare has only been reprinted once (in the accursed Dark Revelations 4 set) and is still a good surprise tech.

This will be known as White Dragon's Gift from now on!

Afterword

The full SD list can be reviewed on the Yugioh-wikia: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Structure_Deck:_The_Blue-Eyed_Dragon%27s_Thundering_Descent.

I love dragons and this set will boost all known dragon decks; from good-ol’ Deep Draw Dragons, Disaster Dragons, Chaos Dragons, Hieratic Dragons, Gemini Dragons to the currently overpowered Dragon Rulers.

The only noteworthy absence from this Structure Deck is Super Rejuvenation. But considering this card will be hit in the September banlist (its absence from this set is an obvious hint in my eyes), not many people would be interested in the card in October (when this structure deck will hit the TCG shelves).

Other than that; if Dragon Rulers get hit by the September list, this Structure Deck will be there to heal the wounds for all dragon fans. So rejoice!

V out.

Card ruling updates - the changes in Astral Pack 2

You might have known this, but reprints of cards in tournament-packs (in this case: astral packs) often mean their card rulings or card text has been updated. These updates might have slipped under your radar, but they’re important enough to make a post about them.

Note: the following pictures are as follows: Previous version of the card on the left, Astral Pack version on the right.

Justice of Prophecy: Only during YOUR turn.

Two noteworthy changes on this woman, when compared to the original version from Return of the Duelist:

• Her effect no longer works during your opponent’s turn! Until it was possible to use Book of Fate/Wisdom during your opponent’s turn, use the effect of justice during the end phase (if it was still alive) and search for a spellbook and High Priestess to use it during your next turn.
• The often discussed “you can’t use the effect because you didn’t activate a card after her summon” is now gone with the simple text “previously this turn”.

Light and Darkness Dragon: Now syncs with Lightpulsar Dragon

The important changes are:

• The problem-solving card text now specifically mentions that it only works once per chain. Not to mention, it now also specifically mentions it works during either player’s turn (this should end LOTS of discussions).
• Destruction and Special summon now occur at the same time. Until now it has always been assumed that the special summon happened AFTER the destruction. This means that if LADD was on the field with (for example) Lightpulsar Dragon, LPD would have missed its timing (because the last thing that happens in the chain was the summon of LADD’s effect, not the destruction of LPD). From now on the destruction and special summon occur at the same moment, so nothing stands in the way of Lightpulsar’s effect. (this is a nice upgrade for Chaos Dragons).

Gemini Spark: Draw only when successful

Two changes here:

• The card text is now clearly divided in 4 parts. The first two (tribute and target) are the cost (before the semicolon), the last two (destroy and possibly draw a card) are the effect. This should avoid lots of discussions.
• You can only draw a card when the destruction was a success. So no longer targetting Zenmaines to draw a card; this is no longer possible.

Harpies Hunting Ground: Its effect now targets

The first problem-solving card text is out and it has an interesting change: The effect of spell/trap destruction now targets, where it previously did not mention it!

Other (minor) card changes:

• Photon papilloperative: The detaching of XYZ material and the target declaration no longer happens at the same moment. Now you FIRST detach an XYZ material, THEN you target an opponent’s monster.
• Recycling Batteries: The effect of adding Thunder monsters to your hand now targets.
• Spiritual Water Art- Aoi: Its effect now no longer targets (huh?).
• Harpie’s Brother: First announcement of the set was the name change of Harpie’s brother. It is now named Sky Scout.
• Cyber Phoenix: It now specifically mentions that it has to remain face-up until the start of the damage step.
• Removal of “face-up” from card texts: The mention that certain effects can only activate if you control a face-up “archetype” card has been updated to have that face-up removed (was kind of silly anyway in the effect of the affected cards). This change is inflicted on Spellbook of Power, Atlantean Dragoons, Geargiaccelerator, Fire Fist Raven and Fire Fist Hawk.

Other changed card texts are old cards now being available in problem-solving card text. They do not have any change impact.

Number Hunters – Stats and facts

Last month, the 808-blog posted that the TCG would receive a new set of 60 cards. These 60 cards would be 10 foil reprints of previous rares/commons and 50 new cards, including 25 XYZ monsters (of which 6 chaos Xyz). While everybody was rejoicing of this great news, I was one of the few calling it bullshit.

The stats didn't add up

Why, you ask? I’m a statistics person and thus I’m keeping a list of all OCG promo cards that need a print in the TCG. While the "50 new cards" part is quite possible (there are more than 50 ocg promo cards that need a tcg print, fyi); the 25 new xyz, including 6 chaos xyz was statistically not possible at the time of the announcement. The extra part of new Heroic Challenger cards was just as hilarious, since at that point in time, all Heroic Challenger cards were printed. But yeah, the 808-blog is infamous of giving us info on products before Konami confirms it (remember the Zexal tin and the Star Pack? Yeah, they got that info first too). So I had my doubts about it being BS.

So I started thinking. In the past year, the OCG did get a ridiculous amount of new promo cards, compared to all previous years. I guess it was all a build-up towards this kind of release? I was skeptically accepting the post as “truth”, but kept my Big-Eyes out on OCG-news.

"I spy with my little eye..."

And then came the (at least for me) stress releasing post on shriek, at the beginning of this month:

Number Hunters Vs Collector’s pack Zexal Edition

Take a look a the following two links:

1. http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/products/bp-numh.html
2. http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/352913642/

The first one is the product page of Number Hunters (more on that further on). The other one is a Shriek post that says that upcoming August, the OCG gets a similar set to Number Hunters, but this will have 50 cards (instead of 60), containing new ones and reprints. Suddenly my stats did add up (rejoice!).

The surprising thing here is that we get Number Hunters in July, while the OCG gets the set in August. Did you know that it is the first time we get this kind of set BEFORE the OCG?

"Wow, that's a shocker!"

So what is going to be in there?

A while ago, the product page of Number Hunters came online (see the first link previously mentioned), providing both OCG and TCG a glimpse of what’s going to be in the Number Hunters (and thus also the Collector’s pack). The glimpse turned out to be half of the whole set. This is what we got on info:

• The set will be released on July 12th (or 11th in Europe). The boosters will be similar to Hidden Arsenal boosters (4 super rares and 1 secret rare).
• We now know 21 of the promised 25 new XYZ monsters, including all 6 chaos XYZ.
• We know 14 other new cards (that’s a total of 35 of the 50 new cards), including new Chronomaly cards, new Gimmick Puppet cards and (indeed) new Heroic Challenger cards.
• The fun part is: A lot of the new monsters didn't appear in the anime yet at the time of announcement, providing us with a sneak peek of what was to come in the anime (that's cool).
• Two OCG promo cards (of the 10) are already confirmed to be printed in this set: Nr 15: Gimmick Puppet Giant Grinder and Coach King Giantrainer (does that mean Wolfberk finally gets a TCG print as well?). More likely is the Chronomaly and Gimmick Puppet cards from the last OCG Premium Pack.

Gimmick Puppet? They might as well have named them "Creepy Puppet".

Any good cards in there?

Of the revealed cards, some were quite vaguely printed, making it unable to get the effect (wonder what effect Queen of the Night will have). But of those whose effect was clear enough to get, these are good:

• Number 74: Master of Blades: This requires 2 Lv. 7 monsters (everybody loves Lv 7 monsters lately). It has 2700 attack and when targeted by a card effect, you can detach 1 to negate and destroy the card effect. Also, it’s a psychic XYZ!
• Mechquipped Engineer: This Light Fairy requires 2 Lv. 3 monsters and has the ability to place 1 of your attack monsters into defense, during either player’s turn (!). It also makes the target invulnerable to destruction. It’s a good defense and helps decks like Karakuri and Morphtronic.
• Comic Hero King Arthur: Never thought they would print this one, considering the Noble Knight archetype, but hey… here’s another King Arthur XYZ (lol). This one, however, is splashable in any warrior deck. If this card would be destroyed by battle (including suicide attacks), you can detach 1 XYZ material instead. While doing so, this card gains 500 attack (permanently) and the opponent takes 500 damage. Considering this card has a base attack of 2400, this makes him a nice addition to the extra deck.
• CXyz Comic Hero Legend Arthur: If you would use rank-up magic on a warrior to make this, it might be worth your while. Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed by battle (3000 attack makes it nice). And if you upgraded King Arthur, you can banish the monster this card destroys by battle and inflict burn damage equal to the destroyed monster’s original attack (wow).
• Skypalace Gangaridai: Forget Gustav Max, here’s the new rank 10 XYZ: Gagiga …Gangreen… Gangaridai! Detach 1 xyz material to destroy 1 card your opponent controls (card, not monster). And if the destruction is a success, you can burn your opponent for 1000 lifepoints. The effect can only be applied once per turn (they learned their lesson, huh) and this card cannot attack when its effect is used, but it can be upgraded via Rank-up Magic and can then still attack (you know, the Gaia Dragon syndrome).
• CXYZ Skypalace Babylon: The upgrade of Gangaridai. It has 3800 attack, has a great burn effect if it destroys an opponent’s monster and if you upgraded Gangaridai instead of Gustav Max, you can detach 1 XYZ material to attack once more (did I mention the 3800 attack and the burn effect when it destroys another monster?). So this is Konami’s way of saying “Please try out the rank-up magic cards. It now comes with a free burn OTK”.
• Box of friends: This trap lets you summon 2 monsters with 0 attack or defense from your deck. This ain't the full effect yet (I bet), but if this is it, I see this card being very useful in certain decks (like Zombies).

Buy Number Hunters. It now comes with burn OTK cards!

And the reprints?

Well, the 10 foil reprints are unknown at this point, but they shouldn't be too amazing (the reprints are anime cards and the Zexal anime cards suck by default). And if you think about it, the foil reprints should be mostly reprints of Heroic Challenger and Chronomaly cards.

"Come on, you all wanted a foil version of Heroic Gift, right?"

Afterword

Ever since the Duel Terminal and Hidden Arsenal series ended, we were kind of wondering what Konami would do as a follow-up. Guess this is the answer, huh.

Will we see more releases like this one? Only time will tell.

Until next time, V out.

Note: Big Eye and Shock Master are not in this set. They're only in this post for the function of comic relief.

Reviewing the TCG World premiere cards (GAOV-ROTD-ABYR-CBLZ-LTGY)

Like each year (the sixth one in a row), the OCG gets a special pack with all TCG World Premiere cards of the past year.

This year’s edition is kind of special. Instead of the usual September release including 4 sets of 10 cards, the OCG now gets the set in May (making the cards legal for the World Championship) and the set now includes all cards of the last 5 sets (including those from Lord of the Tachyongalaxy). They also get the 2 World Championship promo cards Legendary Magician of Dark and Legendary Dragon of White (the “unplayable” XYZ of both Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon).

Now let’s review the TCG world premiere cards we got. Unlike previous editions, this year was without real broken cards. The most noteworthy additions were the following:

• Noble Knight Gawayn (Return of the Duelist): Sneak peek promo and a card that is splashed in various HERO decks. It’s a 1900 beat stick that can be special summoned when you control an E-HERO Neos Alius.
• Abyss Dweller (Abyss Rising): Became an instant staple in many Extra Decks. During either player’s turn, you can detach 1 material. Any monster effect that activates in the opponent’s grave is negated for that turn.
• Spellbook Star Hall (Abyss Rising): Had quite a bit of interest upon its release, due to its ability to boost Spellcasters and its ability to search a caster when destroyed. However, it became neglected in favor of Spellbook of the Master and Spellbook Judgment day. This is a card to remember if Judgment Day and/or High Priestess gets hit in September.
• Mermail Abyssteus (Cosmo Blazer): This card empowered TCG players to turn the Undine-Merlantean version of Mermails into the Mono-Mermail decks as it’s known today.
• Totem Bird (Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy): Too soon to know if this card will actually have an impact, but it’s a mini-Laggia. And even if you can’t use it now, you know that it will become useful someday.

"The best card from this abyss..."

And honestly, that’s about it. 5 good cards from a set of 52 cards. At first, I also thought of putting Elfobia in here, but the limitations on her effect (only levels and only until the end of MP1) made it kind of an awkward card.

So basically, if you are an OCG player and you don’t like the Noble Knight archetype, there’s absolutely no reason to buy lots of this booster. There’s only a handful of cards worth noting.

Reasons to love or hate Lord of the Tachyongalaxy

Last Thursday/Friday, Lord of the Tachyongalaxy finally came into stores. So it's time to review the hits and misses of our latest TCG booster set.

Hits, or reasons to love LTGY

• The Dragon Rulers are rare! Konami took a different approach to the TCG-version of the Elemental Dragons. Instead of bumping their rarity from Super Rare to Ultra or Secret Rare, they wanted it to remain playable and made them all rare! So I guess TCG won’t have to pay 20$ per Dragon, unlike the OCG. And for the foil fans, Konami decided to give everybody their secret rare as well, in this year’s tins! That is amazing!
• The Baby Dragons are present! During the last month, every Dragon fan was crossing their fingers to have the baby E-Dragons as well. The 4-Dragon deck would only work at half the original strength I those 4 weren't in the set. And Konami heard our prayers. They’re in the set… and they are common (WOW). Yeah, no 20-30$-versions of the baby dragons either, huh. 4-Dragons might really become a budget deck (at least if you don’t look at the extra deck, lol).
• Totem Bird: Aside from its amazing artwork, this is probably the "best" TCG World Premiere Card of this set. Too bad it’s a secret rare. Still, I want this mini-Laggia for my Angry Birds, err… Gusto Deck.
• A lot of good cards have low rarity (safe a few exceptions): Shark Fortress is a common (lol, wut?), the 4-dragon archetype monsters are non-foil, Zerofyne is a rare, Wheel of prophecy is also pimped down, and then look at the OCG imports. Sombre and Kerykeion are Super rare instead of Ultra, Constellar Omega is Ultra instead of Secret and Number 69 is a frigging rare, not a secret rare? Many cards of which I expected to see a rarity bump got downgraded instead.
• TCG Konami gets the joke: The Mecha Phantom Beast are airplanes. Their support cards are obviously terms from the military airforce, using terms as “scramble” or “Barrel roll”. The fans immediately remembered a certain meme and TCG-Konami got it as well. Thus, the card “Barrel roll” became “Do a barel roll!” .
• Every archetype of the last year gets support: Whether you like Madolches, Geargia’s, Prophecies, Fire Fists, Mermails, Atlanteans, Fire Kings, Constellars, Evilswarm or Noble Knights, they all receive new cards.
• Boosting older archetypes: Continuing with their trend to boost older archetypes, Konami now boosts Harpies with Harpie Channeler, Harpie’s Pet Phantasmal Dragon and Hysteric Sign. With the rumor that Harpie dancer may be the next Jump Promo after Zubaba General (not confirmed at all, btw), that would make a nice revival of a fan-favorite archetype.

"Press Z or R twice!"

Misses, or reasons to hate LTGY

• The anime cards suck (as usual). Blizzard Falcon is the only anime card that may be used, rendering 20-25 % of all cards in this set virtually useless. The Burning knuckler archetype is nice, but you already know this is about the only support they'll have.
• MPB Dracosack is a secret rare: Yeah, this could've been expected after seeing the rare Dragon Rulers and common baby dragons. You’ll save out 4 (elements) x 3 (of each card) x 2 (big and baby dragon) x 20$ = 480$ on main deck cards, so in return you’ll have to spend over 100$ per MPB Dragosack.
• Prophecies remain bling-bling: As expected, Spellbook of Judgment is secret rare (considering the previous bumps, I’m not surprised). Fits with the rest of the bling deck, but this makes Prophecies one of the most expensive decks ever.
• Mermail Abyssbalean: There's no real broken TCG World Premiere card, but bad cards? This is possibly the worst. Dump 4 Mermail monsters to summon it? At least Abyssleed is a beat stick and is able to force your opponent handless (if you ever use its effect). This card just isn't worth it.
• Fire Fist fans are sulking: Still no sign of Chicken, but they get a Cyber-Dragon knock-off instead. Yeah, Tewart mentioned it might take longer than expected to get the rights from Jump's publisher(Shueisha) to get a TCG-print of Fire Fist Chicken. But then there's Coyote... Why? And why (for crying out loud) a secret rare? The card would have some use in the 3-axis build (which is not being played without Chicken anyway) to get that level 8 synchro on the field. But… why does it have that restriction of needing a face-up Fire Formation card? That makes Cyber Dragon a better topdeck in Fire Fists than this card (and that’s saying something).
• No Special Edition: Obviously absent from the past months news flashes, there's no news on a special edition! Of the past few sets we all got a Special Edition, with varied success. And while we all know this set is the best since Duelist Revolution, we will get NO Special Edition of this one (due to many other releases probably?). Let’s hope the August tins will have this set at least.

"Prepare your wallet for the rapture!"

The belated sneeks in BeNeLux

Belgium (and also Netherlands and Luxemburg) had belated sneak peeks, due to the original delivery being wrong (German instead of English cards). Due to that, all sneak peeks of Tachyon Galaxy were delayed. I heard the first one was last friday. This weekend, none were going on, due to Belgium Nationals being this weekend (more on that later). But since Monday was a holiday in Belgium, there was another belated sneak. So I got a shot at this sneak peek.

Out of my original five boosters, I only got a Duckfighter and Geargia-Gear and the commons/rares were nice, but not good enough to grant me my victory (battlin' boxers were all over the place, lol). During the tourney I bought a second pack of sneak-peek boosters (no limit on sales since the set is out and Sneak-peek boosters have a higher foil chance. And that resulted in a Windrose, the Feather Duster Lord and a Rank-up Magic Barian's Force (both which I wanted). Further trades got me a Harpie's Channeler (which was later on traded for a Kerykeion), a Sacred Sword of the Seven Stars, a totem Bird and this baby...

1 down, 2 to go.

Thoughts on the set in general

This set is basically the best we got in the past year and will be sold-out in no-time (mark my words).

Do pay attention. 1 full box does not guarantee you a full play-set of Dragon Rulers (I noticed after watching a few box openings out of curiosity).

So… Get your Dragon Rulers while they’re hot! Get that Kerykeion while it’s still cheap! Get your Judgment and Dracosack while they’re “only” about 120$ (yeah, that price will rise further if the set is sold out). I expect it to become 150-200$ each around the time of the Continental/World Championship.

Until next time, V out.

PS: Further posts this weekend will be updates on OCG/TCG releases and the review of the OCG's latest Extra Pack.

Card Rulings: Negating the effect of Evilswarm Castor and Constellar Pollux

If you have been to YCS Meadowland, or have been involved in the Yu-gi-oh community recently, you might have picked up the following news. If not, I'll explain it for you.

As said in my last post, YCS Meadowland was the first YCS where Hidden Arsenal 7 was legal. This introduced the new Evilswarm archetype and a few problems.

The cause? Evilswarm Castor and Constellar Pollux' card text was supposed to be similar to Dodger Dragon, but ended up looking more similar to that of Dverg of the Nordic Alfar.

The effect reads: During the turn this card was Normal Summoned, you can Normal Summon 1 “lswarm/Constellar” monster in addition to your Normal Summon/Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.)

Problem is that Dodger Dragon and Dverg have totally different rulings.

The difference:

• Dodger dragon has the ruling that its effect cannot be negated by Veiler, a chained Skill Drain or other cards. The effect even lingers if you got rid of Dodger Dragon. Its effect can only be negated if Skill Drain was already active on the field at the time of the summon.
• Dverg of the Nordic Alfar, however, has the ruling that it's a continuous effect and can be negated by Veiler, F-Chain or Skill Drain. His effect also stops working when he leaves the field due to card effect.

During YCS Meadowland it has been ruled (after much debate) that the effect of Evilswarm Castor (and therefore also Constellar Pollux) is considered a continuous effect. That made those two cards work just like Dverg of the Nordic Alfar. That meant that you could negate the effect with Effect Veiler or Skill Drain, and if Dverg/Castor/Pollux aren't on the field (due to card effect), you can’t use the extra Summon.

Did the judges screw up?

It's been a long time since so many people have been raging against a YCS ruling, but this time Konami got thousands of mails on this specific ruling. That was logical, because that suddenly made Castor and Pollux "not that great" anymore. Even more, the OCG stated in their rulings that both new cards follow the effect of Dodger Dragon, not that of Dverg.

So, were the judges right in their judgment? The answer to that is: "Yes".

As a head judge, you have to decide the rules that apply with the cards given and they have to make a move. It was in no way the judges fault that the card text seemed more similar to Dverg instead of Dodger Dragon, right? Even if the OCG decided that they follow the effect of Dodger Dragon, that doesn't mean the TCG had to do it the same way, right?

But were the players right in saying the card should follow the rulings of the OCG? Actually, the answer to that is... "Yes" as well.

The double "Yes" brought forth a lot of confusion and leads us to the real question of today... Why are the rulings of Dverg and Dodger dragon different in the first place, if their effects work the same way? The problem-solving card text brought to light an old issue that wasn't really an issue until last weekend (mostly since nobody plays Dverg or Dodge anymore).

Why ARE the rulings different?

Konami realized THEY screwed up by having different rulings on similar working cards. Because they realized that both the judges AND the players were right, they unified the card rulings of Evilswarm Castor, Constellar Pollux, Dodger Dragon, Dverg of the Nordic Alfar and Blizzard Princes (who also has a similar effect). That ruling goes as follows:

If you Normal Summon any of these monsters successfully, and their effects are not negated from the moment they step on to the field by something like (a face-up) Skill Drain, then for the rest of the turn their effect is applied, regardless of what happens to the monster.

"You don't drain my skills that easily, got it?"

Hold up, what about Karakuri Ninishi?

If you're using this situation to abuse monsters that are already good, you're looking in the wrong direction. Cards like Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 “Ninishi” clearly state that the card has to remain face-up on the field and Ninishi's effect is also a continuous effect. So that one can be negated by all known negater cards (Skill Drain/Veiler/F-Chain/...) and the effect stops if the card is no longer face-up on the field due to card effect.

Hope this cleard up any confusion that was still ongoing. You can read the updated ruling of Konami here: http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=4956.

Feel free to share this page if necessary. V out.

Analysis of YCS Meadowlands, New Jersey: The Influence of Hidden Arsenal 7

I promised I would give you an analysis report, so here it is. First up, the facts and figures:

• Total amount of players: 1583
• Card legality: Hidden Arsenal 7 legal, sneak peek weekend of Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy (so obviously not legal)
• Rounds of swiss: 9 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday (11 total).
• 145 players continued on Sunday.
• After 11 rounds of swiss, there was a top-32 cut-off.
• 14 players with 2 losses were unable to top (an annoying thing to achieve), including ARG’s Frazier Smith (34th place) and TCGPlayers’ Wilson Tsang with Chain Beat.

Top 32 players and their decks

Duelist	Deck
Alexise Simpson	Fire Fist
Ali Yassine	Mermail
Andrew Fredella	Mermail
Angelo Mendoza	Gadgets
Christian Georges	Mermail
David Nguyen	Bubble Beat HERO
Donel Jao	Evilswarm
Evan Petre	Mermail
Galo Guillermo Orbea Davila	Fire Fist
George Kyan	Infernity
George Weber	Evilswarm
Herman Herrera	Mermail
James Guerrero	Mermail
James Quick	Gadgets
Jeffrey Strain	Mermail
Jeremy MacWan	Inzektor
Justin Diaz	Wind-up
Karim Ahamjik	Infernity
Kris Perovic	Fire Fist
Marcus Hale	Mermail
Matthew Bishop	Mermail
Patrick Hoban	Infernity
Paul Levitin	Mermail
Raymond Bauzon	Fire Fist
Rodney Williams	Mermail
Satoshi Kato	Infernity
Sean Montague	Fire Fist
Simon Hé	Mermail
Tariq Williams	Mermail
Thomas Balaban	Mermail
Tyree Tinsley	Mermail
William Fernandes	Fire Fist

So in short, this is:

• 15x Mermails
• 6x Fire Fists
• 4x Infernity (huh?)
• 2x Evilswarm
• 2x Gadgets (with Tin Goldfish)
• 3 Others: Wind-up, Inzektor and HERO

Notable tops are Patrick Hoban, Simon Hé, Tyree Tinsley and Satoshi Kato.

But honestly, I’m surprised at the several tops of Infernity. Guess Infernities gained a boost with Lavalval Chain at their disposal now (Place Archfiend at the top of your deck and draw into it next turn, activating its effect).

Cutoff results

Of the 15 Mermail decks that topped, 8 survived the fishing nets. 2 of the Fire Bros, 3 Infernities and both Gadgets got killed. And the two Evilswarms didn’t make top-16 either. I must say, since they still don’t have Kerykeion, that’s a nice start for that deck. I’m expecting more of them after Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy will be legal to play.

This resulted in the following top-16:

• 8 x Mermail
• 4 x Fire Fist
• 2Infernity
• Wind-up
• Inzektor
• HERO

Top 8, this was further reduced to:

• 6x Mermail
• 2x Fire Fist

All diversity decks were killed off at this point. Only Fire Bros and Fish-men survive from here on out.

Top-4 became 3x Mermails and 1 sole Fire Fist, carried by Galo Guillermo Orbea Davila. But he failed to make the finals (sadly enough, I like diverse final rounds).

Victory goes to the man-fishes

The final was thus once more Mermail versus Memail, James Guerero Versus Tyree Tinsley. You can read the feature match here: http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=13864

The winner of this YCS was Tyree Tinsley, making this his second YCS victory after YCS Providence in 2011. This is his deck profile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrJa5kA0rz8

The other interesting deck profiles are (credits go to Wilson Tsang & Vexacus):

• James Guerrero – Mermail (second place): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vgy4DRWyyo
• Galo Guillermo Orbea Davila – Fire Fists (4th place): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSjMlxy35nc
• Willian Fernandes – Fire Fist (top-8): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxu4KPN3Aak
• Satoshi Kato – Infernities (top-16): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML95pQW0XXE
• Justin Diaz – Wind-up (top-16): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15iogD6jRgE
• Jeremy MacWan – Inzektors (top-16): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPnNux6uGww
• David Nguyen – Bubble Beat HERO (top-16): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0-2C3S13vs
• James Quick – Machina Gadgets (top-32): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2BrcEIpXLY
• George Weber – Evilswarm (top-32): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyGT02WwJLs
• Wilson Tsang – Chain Beat variant – (he calls it Black Garden Smash) (9-2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GJ-ak_KUVU
• Frazier Smith – Prophecy (9-2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxu4KPN3Aak

The influence of Hidden Arsenal 7

The first YCS after Hidden Arsenal 7 is thus a fact. So let's look at what cards really made an impact!

• Evilswarm in General: Even though they're not yet at full force, without Kerykeion, they already made tops. Impressive!
• Tin Goldfish: Helps out any machine deck and Gadgets in General!
• Lavalval Chain: This card by itself ensured that Infernities got 4 tops and also worked in the Inzektor and Evilswarm decks!
• Daigusto Emeral: Several of the topped decks used Daigusto Emeral and claim they wouldn't make it without Emeral.

This was the last event where Mermails had the top places for itself. From next week onward, Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy will be legal, pushing Prophecies, Dragon Rulers and Evilswarms to the top spots.

Next up everywhere: Nationals / Continental qualifications and the World Championship in Vegas!

Check the Konami site for the location of your national / continental championship. Like I said yesterday, I’ll try to keep a list updated with all National champions. All help to fill in the blanks (and the respective decks) is welcome!

V out.

(the belated) analysis of YCS Lille - Because 40-card decks are overrated anyway

Yeah, I postponed it due to various reasons, but here it finally is. The analysis of YCS Lille:

Here are some facts and figures:

• Total amount of players: 828 (less than Bochum, but it’s the biggest French YCS)
• Card legality: Screwed up, because we were not allowed to play Hidden Arsenal 7. This news by itself already confirmed a win for Mermails.
• Rounds of swiss: 7 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday (10 total).
• All players with 15 or more points on Saturday could continue on Sunday (173, but several people dropped due to being unable to attend on Sunday).
• After 10 rounds of swiss, there was a top-32 cut-off.
• 8 players with 2 losses were unable to top (always an annoying thing to achieve)

Top 32 players and their decks

Duelist	Deck
Alain Ly	Mermail
Alpay Engin	Mermail
Andrea Caruso	Frog Monarch
Andrea Zenari	Prophecy
Anthony Locoge	Karakuri
Antony Cadogan	Prophecy
Billy D’hondt	Dark World
Brian Greiving	Fire Fist
Denis Miric	Fire Fist
Emanuele Follenti	Prophecy
Enzo Duval	Mermail
Frederico Zopponi	Prophecy
Filippo Galletti	Mermail
Joschua Schmidt	Mermail
Karthihan Viji	Mermail
Long Dao	Mermail
Luca Chetoni	Mermail
Marcel Leucker	Prophecy
Marcus Patel	Fire Fist
Martin Jones	Mermail
Michael Schallenberg	Mermail
Mickael Da Silva	Six Samurai
Miha Flisek	Mermail
Nikolay Paller	Mermail
Oliver Lukenda	Fire Fist
Paolo Pacchiana	Mermail
Robin Bachofner	Mermail
Roman Kieser	Mermail
Seb Moghim	Mermail
Sergio Cavaliere	Hieratic
Simon Hé	Mermail
Stefan Batterbee	Mermail

Notable toppers are Alpay Engin (winner of YCS Bochum) and multiple YCS-toppers Joschua Schmidt and Simon Hé.

Joke of the weekend: Billy, the only topping Belgian, was somehow registered as Billz D’Hondt. Due to that, we kept calling him Billz for the rest of the weekend (lol).

Cutoff results

Of the 18 Mermail decks that topped, only 8 were cut off in the next round. The lone Dark World deck, Hieratic deck and Karakuri OTK deck were removed from the field and both Fire Bros and Prophecies were reduced to a pair.

This resulted in the following top-16:

• 10 x Mermail
• 2 x Fire Fist
• 2x Prophecy
• Frog Monarch
• Six Samurai

Top 8, this was reduced to:

• 6x Mermail
• Fire Fist
• Prophecy

Unlike YCS Bochum, from the top-4 onward this YCS became boring. The top-4 was covered with 4 Mermail decks, thus making the obvious winner a Mermail deck.

It will not surprise you if I mention we didn’t stay to watch the finals (unlike in Bochum).

The victory goes to… a 53-card Mermail deck

The final was thus Mermail versus Memail, Paolo Pacchiani (Italy) Versus Long Dao (Austria). You can read the feature match here: https://tcg.konami-europe.net/coverage/13068/finals-long-dao-vs-paolo-pacchiana

The winner of this YCS was Long Dao, with a 53-card deck! The deck profile was done by fellow Belgian Lithium2300, you can watch it over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co2xaflQ3tw

I’m not going to link other deck profiles, because they’re all Mermails… the only interesting one was that of the winner.

Next up in Europe: Nationals and the European qualifier

Next up on the European events is the Nationals for each country. In previous years PJ Tierney gave us a list of all winners. I’m willing to do the same this year (since he's not doing it anymore), but then I’m going to need input from everyone. :-P

Further European YCS’s are postponed until after the World Championship (Vegas). So the last big event in Europe that’s planned is the European Championship. This will be in:

• Location: Frankfurt Germany
• Date: June 28th-30th

Afterword

Since I’m kind of late with this, I’ll make it up. So next up this week, I’ll also give you the analysis of YCS New Jersey!

On a few side-notes:

• Thanks to the great coverage team of Europe (PJ Tierney and Oliver Gehrman). It’s only thanks to them that I’m able to make this report so detailed.
• Did you notice the number of Prophecy players? According to what I hear, they apparently sided together and made a build that was really good versus Mermails, thus granting them 4 tops! As a Prophecy-fan, I can only say congratz!
• There was not a trace of Hidden Arsenal 7 at Lille, not even in the shops (probably so they didn't had to defend themselves for not making it legal). Still a sad thing, since it would've sold out in no-time.
• Mermails declare themselves once more an obvious winner with no real opponents. Fire Fists lack Chicken, Prophecies are good, but not broken and Evilswarm was obviously absent. This theme will repeat itself for YCS New Jersey as well. This will only change with each countries Nationals and the qualifier for each continent.
• One of my fellow Belgian players went with a Self-Destruct button deck to troll to the max. After three rounds he got the judges against him, because they told that three draws didn’t make a draw as end result (huh)?
• I was happy to have a YCS this close to my home. It ensured many Belgians would attend the event. And nothing is more fun to have a big event with many people you know.

That's it for now. Now I'll start collecting info of New Jersey. Until then, V out.

Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy - Spoiler list

No, I'm not dead. I've just been extremely busy with the concerts of my concert band last weekend (I'm a co-organizer). Now that that has passed, it's back to Yu-Gi-Oh-ing. I still owe you guys the full report of Lille (working on that), but the full spoiler list of Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy is available, so I thought I might share it with you guys (prepping for the sneaks this weekend)

TCG World premiere Cards

Only one TCG WP Card left unknown (Explosion of the five brothers: something that refers to the fire fists, or that fairy tale?), but all the others are known.

• Mecha Phantom Beast Turtle Racer: The Sneak peek promo and not that bad. It's a nice defender for your Mecha Phantom Beast tokens.
• Noble Knight Gwalchavad: FYI, this is the celtic name of Galahad from the Knights of the round table. It's another nice addition to the Noble Knights, though I wonder if that archetype will ever be played.
• Fire Fist - Coyote: Bad Cyber-Dragon knock-off for Fire Fists. This card is a secret rare? FAIL!
• Mermail Abyssbalean: What... what is this? Kill it... Kill it with fire!
• Trifortressops: A machine triceratops specifically designed to counter the LADD-version of 4-Dragons. Too bad LADD is not being used in that deck anymore... Also a missed chance to make this a f***ing machine instead of a Dinosaur (Evolzar Soldda is sad).
• Ghost Fairy Elfobia: Interesting follow-up of Elfuria. Might be an interesting tech in the Angry birds... I mean the Gusto deck. Wonder if more of these fairies will come.
• Totem Bird: Speaking of Angry birds... This is a nice mini-Laggia for Gusto's. And I seriously love the artwork.
• Noble Arms of Destiny: Meh Super Rare. I don't really see this being used, while forbidden lance is around.
• Spellbook of Secrets: Konami's excuse of putting that "different spellbook spell cards" on both Fool and Reaper; let's make some more different spellbook spell cards! But since Prophecies hardly use XYZ (safe Big Eye or the occasional Gagaga Cowboy or Shining Elf), this card will end up more dead than alive.

OCG Promo Card imports

Still no Fire Fist Chicken (Tewart warned us that it would take "longer than expected" to get them into a tcg print). Also no Harpie Dancer (according to what I heard, this will become a Jump promo in TCG as well, though I have no confirmation on that).

Out of my prediction list, I got 5/10 correct. I admit, I didn't expect the baby E-Dragons yet, but I'm glad they're here.

Without further ado, the list is:

• Sonic Warrior
• Number 69: Coat of arms (awh, no god reference? :-P )
• Constellar Omega
• Constellar Sombre and Evilswarm Kerykeion
• The 4 baby Elemental Dragons (Reactan, Burner, Stream and Lightning)
• Duck Fighter (I guess this over Kujakujaku makes sense, with the Mecha Phantom Beast being introduced and all).

The rarities

Some boosts were predictable (Windrose, Dracosack & Judgment), but the amount of downgrades is surprisingly high this set.

• Secrets: Windrose, the Elemental lord, Mecha Phantom Beast Dracosack, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Cardinal (why?), Spellbook of Judgment, Pinpoint Guard (okay?), Torrential reborn (huh?), Fire Fist - Coyote (lol, wut?) and Totem Bird.
• Ultra/Ulti: MPB Hamstrat (didn't expect this), Harpie Channeler (saw this one coming), Nr. 107 Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon, Gauntlet Shooter, Nr. C105 Comet Cestus, Barian's Force, Scramble! Scramble! (wow, seriously?), Noble Knight Gwalchavad, Mermail Abyssbalean (no, we're not falling for this one) and Constellar Omega (no secret, that's a surprise).
• Super Rare: MPB Turtle Racer (Sneak Peek), MPB Megaraptor, Madolche Hootcake, Nr. 105 Star Cestus, Fire Formation Gyokkou, Hysteric Sign, Seven Star Sword (sigh of relief, no secret rare), Madolche Nights, Geargia-Gear, Ghost Fairy Elfobia, Noble Arms of Destiny, Constellar Sombre, Evilswarm Kerykeion, and Duck Fighter.
• Surprising non-foils: All of the Elemental Dragons (lol), MPB Tether-Wolf, Fortune of Prophecy, Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon, Shark Fortress and Sylphine the Sub-Zero Siren.

Afterword

The details can be read on the wikia: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lord_of_the_Tachyon_Galaxy. Sneak peek is this weekend, I hope you can attend it (I can only attend one, due to mother's day being this Sunday).

Other than this news, The box of HA7 I opened was not bad, but not that great either (and no video, I'm not satisfied with the result and re-opening is quite impossible). I did get most of the cards I wanted, but no Lavalval Chain or Daigusto Emeral (:-( ).

I'll try to give the Lille post before the end of the week (no promises). Until then, V out.

Edit: Rage: All Sneak peeks in Belgium and Holland have been postponed, due to wrong delivery (German packs instead of English ones) *facepalm*. New dates will be announced, depending on your locals.