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.