Card of Demise - The return of the classic Anti-Meta deck

In my previous post, I talked about Card of Demise. Let me go into a little more detail about why this card is better than you might think!

The card effect

Draw until you have 3 cards in your hand, also for the rest of this turn after this card resolves, your opponent takes no damage. During the End Phase of this turn, send your entire hand to the Graveyard. You can only activate 1 "Card of Demise" per turn. You cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this card.

Plus-2 card with huge drawback? Or with no drawback at all?

When I first read this card, I ignored it pretty quickly. While "draw until you have three cards" seems interesting enough, the drawbacks are very high. So I thought there would be no meta deck ever that would ever use this card.

But that's where the magic word rang. Meta.

In the OCG, this card was used nearly instantly and caused a few players to top events... with anti-meta decks.

This anti-meta deck is an update of the classic anti-meta deck, with cards like Rai-Oh, Banisher of Radiance, etc. A handful of monsters that are to be normal summoned and a sheitload of spells and traps.

With a deck like that, the deck pilot doesn't care about "discard your hand" drawbacks. They normal summon a banisher of Radiance or Rai-Oh, set their hand face-down, activate cards of demise, set some more cards until the field is full and end the turn with discarding 0 or maybe 1 card (if your deck doesn't like you and lets you draw into another monster). In a deck as dangerous as anti-meta, having a +2 card (in the best case) is not just good, it's frigging amazing.

Decklist?

The obvious question you have is: Where's the deck list? So here it is. Though remember, this is OCG. So a few cards have different limits there than over here in TCG.

MONSTER CARDS (11):

• 3 Banisher of the Radiance
• 3 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
• 3 Thunder King Rai-Oh
• 2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

SPELL CARDS (10):

• 3 Card of Demise
• 3 Pot of Duality
• 1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
• 3 Moon Mirror Shield

TRAP CARDS (19):

• 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
• 1 Torrential Tribute
• 1 Dimensional Prison
• 1 Starlight Road
• 3 Bottomless Trap Hole
• 1 Ring of Destruction
• 2 Rocket Hand
• 1 Vanity’s Emptiness
• 2 Macro Cosmos
• 1 Solemn Warning
• 1 Solemn Judgment
• 3 Solemn Strike

SIDE-DECK (15):

• 1 Dark Hole
• 2 Forbidden Lance
• 2 Mystical Space Typhoon
• 3 Book of Moon
• 1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
• 2 Chain Disappearance
• 3 Imperial Iron Wall
• 1 Macro Cosmos

Side-note: No extra deck was listed (and probably not used). If any card was used, I think it's limited to Stardust Dragon. though on the other end, if you play no extra deck it's a great mind-game to troll your opponent into thinking you play Monarchs (lol).

Other "weird" or "unusual" choices

It's been a while since an anti-meta deck has topped, so a few card choices are made that you're probably not that familiar with. Let me list them.

Rocket Hand (OCG exlcusive):
Target 1 face-up Attack Position monster you control with 800 or more ATK; equip this card to it. It gains 800 ATK. During either player's turn (except during the Damage Step): You can send this Equip Card to the Graveyard, then target 1 face-up card on the field; destroy it, then the monster that was equipped with this card cannot change its battle position, also its ATK becomes 0. You can only use 1 "Rocket Hand" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Moon Mirror Shield:
If the equipped monster battles an opponent’s monster, during damage calculation: The equipped monster’s ATK and DEF become equal to the ATK or DEF (whichever is higher) of the opponent’s battling monster +100, during damage calculation only. If this face-up card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: Pay 500 LP; place this card on either the top or bottom of your Deck.

Basically these two cards do the same: Protect the few monsters you have and make sure they can overcome any challenge thrown at them.

Other uses for Card of Demise

Well, this deck choice of anti-meta shows that this card is best used in decks that don't special summon a lot and/or run a limited amount of monsters.

For exmaple, if Resuce Rabbit would ever be released from its limit, Dino Rabbit could make a return, using this card. Gravekeepers and regular HERO decks are decks that run limited amount of monsters and might be able to use it as well. Though similarly to Pot of Duality, the limit on special summons can become a drawback in these decks.

Luckily enough, decks like Chain Burn won't be able to use this card, because decks like that tend to focus on hand traps to save their lives. And one of the big drawbacks of Card of Demise is discarding your entire hand at the end of the turn.

But there are probably other obscure decks that suddenly might become good or better because of this card. I'm curious to see what top players wil use this card and make it work in random decks. Jeff Jones might be interested...

Until next time, V out.

The Millennium Pack - Booster of Demise

If the Millennium Pack flew under your radar in the past week, there's a good explanation for that. the millennium change was more than a decade ago. That's long past tense there. Same as with the pack's content. It's already past tense.

Lack of good new cards

Let's start with the positive aspect here. There's a few new cards in this pack. Some are either retrained versions of anime classics (e.g. a new Curse of Dragon), or random cards from the anime that for some reason turn into actual cards.

Yeah, who knew that Holding Arms, Holding Legs or Left Arm Offering would actually make it to an actual card before the rest of the Kuriboh family?

And there's some cards that are actual moments from the anime, like Symbol of Friendship (from the first episode) and The True Name (of the Pharaoh).

Want to know which cards are good? Well, there's only one. Cards of Demise. But this card is so interesting, I'm going to focus a single post on that, later this week.

The "whoops" moment

Past weekend, there was one other card from this set that made Yugioh headlines. And not because it's powerful, but rather because of a screw-up at Konami when translating its text. I'm talking about "Symbol of Friendship".

"Wait, is that permanent marker?"

The card should read:
To activate this card, you must draw it for your normal draw in your Draw Phase while your opponent controls 3 or more monsters and you control no cards, reveal it, and keep it revealed until the Main Phase 1. During your Main Phase 1 that same turn: You can activate this card from your hand; reveal 1 card from your Deck, and add it to your hand.

But it actually reads:
... while your opponent controls 3 or more monsters and you control no monsters, reveal it, and keep it revealed ...

Small error in terms of words, but a world of difference in activation possibilities. Just imagine Gorz the Emissary of Darkness with those two words being switched around.
This just made Symbol of Friendship's usability rise from 0% to like 1%.

Yeah, in case you didn't notice it in my sarcasm, the card still sucks no matter the card text screw up. Yes, I know YOU can make a deck that can make this card work. But that doesn't mean it's going to be a good deck.

Konami finishes the missing alternate art issue... or not?

One of the big promo tag lines of this set was that it had a bunch of the previously unreleased alternate art cards. And yes, that is true (good!). But could somebody at least call Konami and say they even f**ked that one up?

This was the moment to release all OCG alternate art cards we hadn't seen yet. But instead of that, we got a so-so job.

YES, we got a lot of unreleased alternate arts (including Broken Finger Flame Swordsman). Thank you for that.

"Not broken. I can just stretch
my fingers in superhuman ways!"

We also got a lot of "alternate art cards" that we've seen already in previous boosters, like Toon World or friggin' Viser Des. It was already weird enough for Viser Des to have an alternate art, but people certainly weren't waiting for a reprint of that card.

But the biggest issue is the cards which were still "missing" a few alternate arts, but Konami just goes: "Was it this one?" and utterly fails in the process.

I can understand mistaking 1 of the alternate arts. But I've checked. You picked the wrong artwork on FIVE cards. FIVE! How do you f**k that up?

Let me list the errors: Kuriboh, Summoned Skull, Red-Eyes B. Dragon, XYZ Dragon Cannon and Gilford the Lighting. Seriously, Gilford the Lighting? Gilford has TWO artworks. We had one, just pick the other! How difficult is that?

Due to these five screw-ups, these alternate arts are still left unreleased.

And worst of all [personal opinion]... Where's the Gemini Elf alt? Gemini Elf's art was like thé only alt I was really waiting for! And I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. And don't talk about the censorship, because the censored card has already been used in video games! You just had to print it!

"We're still outside of YOUR grasp, boy." *wink*

Low ratio of new vs old cards

And lastly in my rant: What's with the low number of actual new cards? Why didn't Konami take the opportunity to add cards from the Millennium Box Gold Edition (Summoned Lord Exodia, Exodd Flame & Ties of the Brethren), or the cards from the Duelist Road packs (like Ring of Peace, Dark Burning Attack, etc). Or in worst case, add in some old Vanilla monsters not yet seen in the TCG (e.g. Horn Imp WAS a card Yugi used in the anime and still needs a TCG release).

Honestly, I wouldn't have made such a big noise about it, if it wasn't for so many weird/bad reprint choices in this set. Nearly half (if not more) of the cards are reprints of cards that were in other sets already. And I don't think anyone was waiting for another reprint of Scapegoat, or a reprint of Dark Master Zork...

Conclusion

This whole pack is one big heap of disappointment. We got a few new cards, we got some new alternate art cards. But it could've been a lot better!

And it shows. The secondary market only rates TWO cards with a value over €5. Winged Dragon of Ra Phoenix Mode (around €5-7) and Cards of Demise (currently between €12-15). It's been a while since a booster scored this low on the secondary market value.

So, skip buying this booster. If you care about the two previously mentioned cards, just buy them as single cards. There's no way buying a box of the Millennium pack would ever make you a happy customer.

Speaking about disappointments... next booster set is Shining Victories. Yeah, let's just hope the TCG exclusive cards are good, because this set needs a "motivation boost" of sorts. Drifting Ghost and the Blue Eyes monsters alone won't save it.

Until next time, V out.

TCG Forbidden & Limited List is out

So I was busy preparing a post about the new OCG set when suddenly...

http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/limited/

TCG Forbidden & Limited List is out today and goes in effect from Monday already. Saying that's fast is quite an understatement.

The April 11, 2016 Forbidden & limited list

Listed are only the changes

Forbidden

• Performage Damage Juggler – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Performage Plushfire – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Tellarknight Ptolemaeus- Already hit on the adjusted list
• Chicken Game – Previously Unlimited
• Wavering Eyes – Previously Unlimited

Limited

• Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Performapal Monkeyboard – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Performapal Skullcrobat Joker – Already hit on the adjusted list
• Wisdom-Eye Magician – Previously Unlimited
• Elder Entity Norden – Previously Unlimited
• Thousand-Eyes Restrict – Previously Forbidden
• Ignister Prominence, The Blasting Dracoslayer – Previously Unlimited
• Draco Face-Off – Previously Unlimited
• Reasoning – Previously Unlimited
• Upstart Goblin – Previously Unlimited

Semi-Limited

• Debris Dragon – Previously Limited
• Allure of Darkness – Previously Limited
• Emergency Teleport – Previously Unlimited

Unlimited

• Dark Magician of Chaos – Previously Forbidden
• Tragoedia – Previously Semi-Limited
• Advanced Ritual Art – Previously Semi-Limited
• Crush Card Virus – Previously Limited

First impressions

Well, they confirmed EVERY change on the adjusted list without thinking about it if the hits were right or not.

Next to that, I see cards I kind of predicted (Ignister, Draco Face-off, Reasoning and arguably Wavering Eyes (thought it was going to be limited, but I'm just as happy with it being forbidden tbh).

Also surprised that Konami decided to take (minor) hits towards Kozmo, while officially still supporting them with new cards. This by Semi-limiting E-Teleport (hardly a hit in my eyes) and Reasoning (seen them abuse this). But for some reason I doubt they'll feel very salty about it. Might be that there's going to be another batch of support for them in the next set.

And... did Konami read my article about Monarch/Magical Explosion FTK? Because they made Chicken game forbidden instead of Life Equalizer. And as I said in that post, Monarch FTK deck is dead without Chicken Game.

Other than that, glad with the hits on Norden and Upstart Goblin; glad with the release of Thousand Eyes Restrict and DMoC. But I find it sad that Wisdom-Eye had to go as well. I admit, it's an OP searcher. But as the owner of an Odd-Eyes Magician deck I find it sad that a deck that hasn't topped (much) is being hit INSTEAD OF B.A. or MONARCHS?

 

That's it for now. Kind of figuring out what to do with my Odd-Eyes Magician deck now.

V out.

My thoughts on the OCG Forbidden and limited list

Wow, i'm late with this one. Yeah, it's been a busy few weeks at work, so I got a bit of delay on this post. #priorities

In the March edition of V-Jump, the newest Forbidden and Limited list (aka, the banlist) for the OCG (not the TCG!) has been published. This one will go into effect from April 1st (no joke).

The Changes

Listed are only the changes compared to previous OCG list:

Forbidden:

• Performapal Monkeyboard
• Lavalval Chain
• Life Equalizer

Newly Limited:

• Sangan
• Thousand-Eyes Restrict
• Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
• Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss
• Performapal Skullcrobat Joker
• Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer
• Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer
• Draco Face-Off
• Wavering Eyes
• Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer
• Mask Change Second
• Tour Guide from the Underworld
• Emergency Teleport
• Domain of the True Monarchs
• Pantheism of the Monarchs
• Pendulum Call
• Reasoning
• Monster Gate

Newly Semi-Limited:

Super Rejuvenation

Unlimited:

• Glow-Up Bulb
• Kuribandit
• Destiny Hero – Malicious
• Mermail Abyssteus
• Mind Control
• Book of Moon
• Gold Sarcophagus
• Allure of Darkness
• Dragon Shrine
• Crush Card Virus

Analysis

A quick run-through of the list sees a slaughtering pattern in the top decks of ritual B.A., Monarchs and DracoPals.

The OCG hits PePe as well as the TCG did last month. Although in this case, the focus is on the DracoPals variant instead of the Performage variant. Now if only people would stop calling DracoPals PePe, that would seriously stop a lot of confusion (where's the "Pe" in Dracoslayers? For real!)

Draco Face-Off is limited (card is broken), just like Luster Pendulum and Ignister (wow). Monkeyboard is forbidden (wow), together with the limit of Skullcrobat Joker and Sorcerer. And finally to take its head of completely, Wavering Eyes has been limited. That's one top-deck completely eliminated.

Also, surprisingly, OCG Konami paid attention to the new Magical Explosion FTK by making Life Equalizer forbidden!

But most surprising is the pre-emptive hit of the OCG towards Kozmo! Both Reasoning and Emergency teleport have become limited before even one Kozmo card hits the OCG. Wow, that's harsh.

On another note: What is with the returned cards? I'm sure many people are pleased with the return of three Books of Moon, as well as the Dragon Shrines and Malicious. But why three Allure of Darkness? Why three Mind Control? And Thousand-eyes restrict legal again? I'm not sure if I like those changes.

And while we're talking about returns...

Sangan is back from prison!

"Free at last!"

Yes, Sangan's been released from prison in the OCG, after his "Mistaken Arrest" and "Mistaken accusation"(lol). The only thing needed was a "few tweaks" in his card text. So here's the updated text (changes are in bold).

The effect of “Sangan” can only be used once per turn. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: Add 1 monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck to your hand. If you add a monster to your hand with this effect, you cannot activate the effects of monsters with the same name during that turn.

So it's no longer useful to keep reviving Sangan during the same turn, due to the once-per-turn effect.

Sangan's story will now need a continuation now. So I expect an "Early parole" card to be released somewhere in the future, with artwork of Sangan being freed with a few "parole rules" in place (lol).

Where's the TCG list?

Ever since the OCG and TCG banlist split apart, it's harder to predict what OCG changes will be adopted intp the TCG F&L list. But the ones I think will be adapted into TCG are:

• Life Equalizer Forbidden
• Monkeyboard Forbidden (instead of limited)
• Draco Face-Off & Ignister Limited
• Wavering Eyes Limited
• Emergency Teleport Limited
• Reasoning & Monster Gate Limited
• Dante limited

So as to the question: "Why hasn't Konami posted the new list yet?", the previously listed cards have a few pointers, right?
A lot of these cards have been reprinted in the latest Gold Series (and in the OTS pack). Konami can't really hit the cards they're trying to sell right now, right?

This is why I expect the TCG list to not be revealed until (at least) half of April, to be in effect from May 1st (just before the new booster is released).

Effect on current meta in OCG?

YGOrganization has posted a few OCG tournament results from places that have adapted the new list already. the results aren't really surprising. With all top decks gone, pepole are now just throwing working engines together to try and see what "sticks" around. The speedroid engine, Phantom Knight engine, Quantum engine, Magician engine etc. So that's why there's suddenly weird decks like Speedroid Abyss Monarchs or Artifact Abyss Madolche (lol).

Other older decks are also profiting from this massive top-tier slaughter. Suddenly decks like Satellar, Evilswarm and even an updated version of the classic anti-meta deck are topping again.

Afterword

Anyway, the road is now open again for Konami to give the OCG a new expansion with brand new power cards and archetypes. And it's needed, because the Shiranui, Dinomist and Amorphage archetypes haven't really done anything (yet).

Until next time, V out.

Starter Deck 2016: Bears, Flying Squirrels and tons of Hippo's (but no Pendulum Sorcerer)

I shortly mentioned the Starter Deck in a previous post and didn't give it much afterthought because I thought that everybody knew what Starter Decks were about. But when talking to people on a regional last weekend (obviously talking about the Gold Series reprints), the Yuuya starter deck was brought up (which is already weird) and everybody was talking about how Pendulum Sorcerer will "definitely" be in there.

I was baffled and tried to explain reality, but they were so hung-over on "how Konami is killing the second-hand market" and how "everything is getting a reprint" that they're forgetting one thing: What is the purpose of a Starter Deck?

Starter Decks: A first step for new players to enter the game

Have you ever really analyzed the content of a Starter Deck? It always contains cards aimed at NEW players. People who have no idea as to what to play yet. People who probably haven't done anything but playing the Yugioh videogames and watching the animes.

The cards in a starter deck are hardly ever overpowered. They're no "absolute must-haves". But they're a starting point until you have a sight about what Yu-Gi-Oh is about in real life and you have an idea about what to play exactly.

After obtaining a Starter Deck, a new player is almost always pushed into the direction of Structure Decks; these are the next step. A structure deck provides a single deck strategy and also has cards that are useful in Yu-Gi-Oh in general.

Each structure deck provides building blocks which lay upon that first block of a starter deck. After that, you're ready to decide a deck; either one built from one of the structure decks (3 copies of the Monarch structure deck and you have a working deck, for example), or buying boosters/tins or buying single cards and deck cores from other players.

But everything starts with a Starter deck (in Konami's eyes). Though reality has it that most people skip the starter deck all together. Because most people realize that only a little amount of cards are actually useful.

A Starter Deck is not a Structure Deck

The fact that there's a difference between Starter and Structure decks apparently confuses a lot of people. I've seen lots of people that seem to mix up the two or don't know the difference between the two. And it doesn't helped that they're packed in a very similar matter. I've seen many people become disappointed when they see the Starter deck, thinking that it's just another Structure deck that sucks.

What a starter deck does not have compared to structure decks is reprints of powerful or formerly OCG promo cards. Thus the chance you'll run into cards like Battle Fader, Tragoedia, Night beam or Breakthrough Skill in these is very low. Let alone a Pendulum Sorcerer (Not happening! Keep dreaming!).

The reality is that the average "good" cards in a Starter Deck are usually limited to MST, Dark Hole, Book of Moon and a few basic traps like Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute. Yes, cards like Raigeki or Bottomless Trap hole are usually considered too good for a Starter deck! That's saying something, isn't it?

Only if the Starter Deck is a good character-related starter deck, there's a few good character-specific cards that are useful (like the Synchron cards in the Yusei starter decks). But not every starter deck even has those.

So, is THIS starter deck a GOOD Starter deck?

YES! Yes, it is. I've been looking at the new cards created and by god, there are a few REALLY interesting new cards in here! Of all the new cards revealed so far (10), the following are interesting.

Performapal King Bear (Scale 7, Lv 6)

Pendulum Effect: During the End Phase, if this card was activated this turn: You can destroy this card, and if you do, add to your hand, 1 Level 7 or higher monster among the face-up Pendulum Monsters in your Extra Deck and the monsters in your Graveyard.
Monster Effect: This Attack Position card cannot be destroyed by Spell/Trap effects. This card gains 100 ATK for each "Performapal" card you control during your Battle Phase only.

So basically it's a different version of Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. but in this case, instead of searching for a limited amount of Pendulum monsters from your deck, this time you're re-adding Lv 7 or higher monsters from the extra deck or your grave (read: detached Xyz materials) back to your hand.

Also, read that card text carfully. The way it's worded now, the monster you recycle from the graveyard... doesn't have to be a Pendulum monster. This way, you might as well be recycling cards like High Priestess, Kozmo Dark Destroyer or a frigging Mega Monarch.

Performapal Carpet Momonga: Scale 7 (lv 3)

Pendulum Effect: Unless you have a card in your other Pendulum Zone, destroy this card. Halve all battle damage you take.
Monster Effect: FLIP: You can target 1 Set card on the field; destroy it.
If this card is Special Summoned: You can change this card to face-down Defense Position.

Ignore its Pendulum effect, because the times it'll be used that way are slim (though not non-existent). What IS interesting however, is the monster effect!

Carpet Momonga is a Beast that destroyes SET cards when flipped face-up (both backrow and monsters, thus), but it also allows itself to be set face-down when special summoned! And it being a Pendulum monster means it could basically be special summoned every turn. Use this card in combination with cards like Quaking Mirror Force, Book of Moon, Swords of Consealing Light or even Ghostrick Monsters in general and you can cause lots of destruction. That's hilarious and an absolute must-have for troll decks!

Super Hippo Carnival (quick-play spell card)

Special Summon 1 "Performapal Hip Hippo" from your hand, Deck, or Graveyard, then you can Special Summon as many "Hippo Tokens" (Beast-Type/EARTH/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) as possible. These Tokens cannot be Tributed. You cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck while a "Hippo Token" is in a Monster Zone. For the rest of this turn after this card resolves, if you Special Summoned a "Hippo Token" by this effect, your opponent cannot target monsters for attacks, except "Hippo Tokens".

Again, read that carefully. The tokens are optional, but you will always get Hip Hippo.

Performapal Hip Hippo suddenly turned from a "meh" card to a card you can summon from anywhere, anytime you want (safe the banished zone) and use for Xyz or Synchro shenanigans. And with Hippo being a Lv 3 Earth Beast, you have easier access to LOTS of monsters (most prominently Naturia Beast and Barkion)

Also, since it's another rendition of Scapegoat, you can still use it and the tokens during your opponent's turn to prevent you from being OTK'd.

When?

This Starter deck is set for release on March 19th in the OCG. So I guess we'll see the full contents around that time. But I think the "most exciting" cards from this starter deck have already been revealed.

The TCG will get this at the end of May (26/27th). Still quite a few months away, but enough time to see if anyone actually will use any of these new cards.

Until next time, V out.

Yugioh explosive weekend: Infinite gold spoiled, DracoPals wins YCS Prague and Magical Explosion FTK is back

First off this Weekend: A Konami ad spoils all of Infinite Gold

Late last Friday (in European time) this ad suddenly launched on the internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2yKH_alp6c.

It took only a day or so before every card in the ad was seen and listed. So let me say this first: Called it (or at least: a lot of it)! (Teh spoils listed on YGOrganization.)

The amount of reprints in Infinite Gold is amazing. Next to the new cards of PP18 (called it) and Beatrice (yeey, Burning Abyss is now complete), we also have ALL B.A. cards, all Kozmo and all Dracoslayer cards (safe those from BOSH, as mentioned in previous post), we also get a lot of Trap Holes, and a lot of expensive secret rares of the past year (Ghost Ogre, Galaxy Cyclone, Archfiend Eccentric, Mistaken Arrest, Blazing Mirror Force, Storming Mirror Force, Radiant Mirror Force, Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon, Mistake and Shared Ride).

And next to that, so many good cards get reprints: Abyss Dweller, The Horns of Heaven, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Pleiades & M7, Fire & Ice hand, Big Eye, Volcasaurus and so much more.

So keep your pennies in your wallet and wait for Infinite Gold.

Right now it's just a vague image...
But follow the light and you'll get there.

YCS Prague result - PePe is dead, long live DracoPals

Yes, you heard it right. The new term for PePe is now "DracoPals" (because DraPe would just sound awkward).

And it's just as deadly (and popular) as the Performage Performapal build. Heck, even the YCS winner (Urh Kovacic from Slovenia) beat his opponent in the finals 2-0 with not "that much" problems... Though on that end, the number of misplays made in the final were huge. Are people honestly forgetting HOW Stardust Dragon works?

"Oh, does your Kozmojo destroy cards?
How very interesting. Yeeeeees...."

Monarch FTK? Magical Library FTK? No, it's Magical Explosion FTK!

I've seen many people give it different names in the past 24 hours. People called it Royal Magical Library FTK (thus blaming Library), others called it Monarch FTK (thus blaming the Monarch structure deck). But let's call it like it is... It's the 2016 edition of Magical Explosion FTK.

This incarnation of the deck focuses on abusing the first effect of Chicken game and Upstart Goblin (along with other draw cards) to draw tons of cards and make sure the lifepoint difference between the two players is 8000 or more. Then during your opponent's turn, use Life equalizer to turn the lifepoints to "3000-3000" and use Magical Explosion to win.

And without any Performages left in the field to prevent burn damage, one player took this deck to Top 16 at YCS Prague. Top 16!

Obviously, because a degenerate deck (read as: whiners who think that any deck that isn't meta is degenerate) has topped, discussions are going on, on what cards to limit/forbid in order to stop this deck from topping again.

And from what I've seen, the best hit is Chicken Game. Every other card can be replaced with something else to obtain a similar result (without losing "that much consistency"). But reducing 3 Chicken Games, 3 Terraforming and 3 Pseudo Space to basically one of each (at most) will hurt this deck more than any other hit.

Looks like the average player raging
after receiving damage from this card.

That's it for now.

Until next time, V out.

Edit: Oh, and on a sidenote: Keep an eye out for Lithium2300's youtube channel. He's posting up decklists from YCS Prague!

Gold Series Infinite Gold - Moneycards reprints and Premium Pack imports

Last year TCG-Konami had decided that every booster pack from 2016 onward will include a foil card. This was done in an attempt to stop card prices from skyrocketing to new hights.

And it was necessary. Cards like Kozmo Dark Destroyer at its peak were being sold around €100. Ghost Ogre was between 50-70 and so on and so on.

And if you look at the single price cards of BOSH, it makes you wonder what cards like Pendulum Sorcerer, Solemn Strike or Cyber Dragon Infinity would be worth if booster boxes had the old rarity (*shudders*)

But how can Konami now stop the old cards from remaining overpriced? Reprint them, obviously!

Reprint season continues - Gold Series 2016: Infinite Gold

After cards like Ghostrick Alucard, Diamond Crab King, Harpie Harpist and many more were reprinted in Wing Raiders, the next set that includes reprints is the new Gold Series pack - Infinite Gold.

Earlier, it was already announced that the Gold Pack would include the former YCS Promo cards Giant Hand and Digvhorzak; and also the ever-popular Emergency Teleport.

And last weekend, some Konami officials were happy enough to bring a few other Gold Cards to a UDS sanctioned tournament. People obviously were curious and were massively taking pictures. Result is a leaked list of cards which are receiving a Gold treatment:

• Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
• Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss
• Kozmo Dark Destroyer
• Kozmo Farmgirl
• Kozmo Goodwitch
• Kozmo Sliprider
• Kozmo Forerunner
• Kozmo Dogfighter
• Kozmotown
• Mask Change
• Mask Change II
• Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Wow. If you want to start making a Kozmo deck, you're almost better off buying a few Gold Packs rather than paying several hundreds of dollars on a full deck...

Note: Only half of these have been actually confirmed by photographs. The rest is from a message/post by Jeff Jones. Due to this, the leaked list might not be 100% accurate.

What new cards are going to be in this Gold Series?

Yes, the reprinted gold cards are always fun to have (Personally I love gold foil cards; but that's just me). But more often than not, people are curious about the NEW cards that will be in there.

While none of the new cards have been officially confirmed, I can take a well-calculated guess on what cards will be included.

I can say with 90% certainty that most (if not all) of the new cards included are those from OCG's Premium Pack 18. It's a set of 20 cards that are mostly taken from the Yu-Gi-Oh manga's (5D's, Zexal and Arc-V manga).

For those who care, this is the full list of that pack: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Premium_Pack_18

As usual with Premium Pack cards, most of these cards are for collection purposes rather than actually being useful. But there's always a few exceptions in there that prove their worth. In this case, at least two of these cards see play in OCG decks.

Those two areFreezing Air of the Monarchs and Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon - Titanic Galaxy

note: These are fan-translated names; the actual TCG names may vary upon release

What do these cards do?

Freezing air of the monarchs

"If you control a monster with 2400 or more ATK and 1000 DEF: Target 1 Set card on the field; destroy it. You can banish this card and 1 other "Monarch" Spell/Trap Card from your Graveyard, then target 1 Set card on the field; destroy it."

So basically backrow control. It's a good one-of card to have in a monarch deck.

Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon - Titanic Galaxy

2 Level 8 monsters

"Once per turn, during either player's turn, when a Spell effect on the field is activated: You can negate that effect, and if you do, attach that card on the field to this card as an Xyz Material. When an opponent's monster declares an attack: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; change the attack target to this card and perform damage calculation. If a face-up Xyz Monster(s) you control is destroyed by battle or card effect: You can target 1 Xyz Monster you control; that target gains ATK equal to 1 of those destroyed monsters' original ATK."

This Xyz is interesting. Especially considering the fact that cards in the Pendulum Zone are Spell cards. Also, turning those spells into Xyz Materials is hilarious and deadly when facing decks that focus on certain spells or pendulum effects (Prophecy, Monarchs, PePe, etc).

Any other guesses?

Well, with the set being 100(!) cards and the few cards that have already leaked, I can make a few more calculated guesses. With the number of Kozmo cards included, I can only presume that every Kozmo card (those from BOSH not included) will be in the set, along with a lot of Masked HEROES and Burning Abyss cards. The last one would make sense, since they weren't reprinted in the Premium Tin last year.

With Chimeratech Fortress Dragon in here, there's a decent chance there will be a reprint of other Cyber Dragon-related Fusions/Xyz, like Cyber Dragon Nova. But no, don't hope for Cyber Dragon Infinity to be reprinted already (too soon).

Most other cards will be fan-favorite cards from the past years and frequently returning cards in tournaments (like Horn of Heaven, just sayin'). I'm sure everybody has a wishlist... So do I (like Lumina, Honest, Maxx C, High Priestess, Denko Sekka, etc).

Anyhow, we'll get to see more of the set, the closer we get to the March 17/18 release day. In the meantime, don't spend too much on single cards that might be reprinted soon!

Until next time, V out.

Things you need to remember from Wing Raiders

Last week was the release of Wing Raiders. And it has mostly passed by without causing a storm (yet). But should you be interested? Maybe.

Let me compile why you could be interested.

Monarchs get help from the Power Rangers

Well, the Super Quantum monsters might be right up your alley. Super Quantum Mecha Pilot Blue Layer and Super Quantum Mecha Pilot Red Layer (from now referred to as Blue Ranger and Red Ranger) are a nice combination team where Blue Ranger searches Red Ranger when summoned (including when summoned using Emergency Teleport) and Red Ranger recycles Blue Ranger (and more importantly, itself) for tribute fodder. Also, Red Ranger has the typical Cyber Dragon mechanic.

And yes, in case you were wondering: Konami forgot to add that Red Ranger cannot recycle itself. Thus from the moment you have 2 Red Rangers, you can summon A, recycle B and vice versa, turning Red Ranger into a new version of Sinister Serpent.

Those few mechanics turn these two Power Rangers into a Tribute Fodder Engine.

"It's Morphing time!"

Oh, if you want to play the Power Ranger engine (in Monarchs or any other fun deck), also pick up the Red Zord:

MagnaLiger, the kid of a fiery relation between a lion and a tiger

Magnaliger is a rank 5 Xyz that allows you to destroy one monster on the field. but if Red Ranger rides his Zord (read: is Xyz Material)... you can also do this in your opponent's turn. Nifty!

Burning Abyss has some nifty new Xyz

Since Burning Abyss players has an extra deck of mostly Rank 3 Xyz, it's always interesting to see some new ones enter the field. Because if you still play Leviathan Dragon, you need something new.

Well, look no further than Super Quantum Mecha Beast Granpulse. It's a rank 3 Xyz that can only attack while it has Xyz Materials, but can (once per turn) destroy a spell/trap on the field by detaching 1 material. Backrow control!

"It's like Aero Shark, but as a robot... and with a better effect!"

The other new rank 3 Xyz is Phantom Knights of Break Sword. This monster targets one card (not monster) you control and one your opponent controls and destroys them (Scrap Dragon anyone?). It also has the ability to revive 2 Phantom Knights of the same name. But for that, you actually have to play Phantom Knights. Thought on that end...

"Fear the Headless Horseman!"

Burning Abyss Phantom Knights

A deck that has surfaced in the OCG after Wing raiders is the combination of B.A. with Phantom Knights. Due to the effect of Break Sword, the BA Phantom Knight variant can also play Rank 4 Xyz. And since B.A. is a control deck, the cards added are control Xyz, like Evilswarm Nightmare or Master Key Beetle.

The Phantom Knights themselves (Silent Boots, Dusty Robe and Rugged Glove) are not really great while on the field. But all of them can be banished from the grave to either search a Phantom Knight spell/trap (Boots), search a Phantom Knights card (robe) or send another Phantom Knights monster to the grave (Glove).

And is there any Phantom Knights spell or trap that's useful with Boots' effect? Yes, there is. It is named Phantom Knights Fog blade. Its effect somewhat mimics Fiendish Chain (always handy), and when destroyed, you can special summon a Phantom Knights monster.

"I can't be the only one who thought of this youtube channel when reading the names out loud"

Blackwing gets Force Strix

If you're a Blackwing player, it's time to search for the prize card of the set, Raidraptor Force Strix. It's a Rank 4 Xyz who can search a L4 Dark Winged Beast from your deck.

"Hey Shura! GET OVER HERE!"

Reprint Season 2016 has begun

Yes, this booster includes a bunch of reprints too. The most interesting ones are: Diamond Crab King (manga promo becomes legal worldwide), Silent Honor Ark , Crane Crane, Harpie Harpist Master Key Beetle, Gagaga Cowboy and Ghostrick Alucard.

Though if you don't play any of the mentioned deck types and if you already have the reprinted cards; then you can easily skip this set.

Until next time, V out.

Afterthoughts on YCS Atlanta and the Emergency Ban

Last weekend was YCS Atlanta and it was also the last weekend PePe was a thing. And who would've guessed... PePe won (piloted by Jose Lagunes) in an obvious PePe mirror match (Here's the link). Commenting any more on the victorious deck isn't really worth it, since unless any other deck would've won, PePe was pre-determined to be the winner. And honestly, with the emergency ban being a thing, most people don't really cares about PePe anymore (no, not even the decks of Billy Brake nor Frazier Smith).

And the player base kind of proved the reason why the deck needed a hit. 29/32 top decks were PePe, with the other three being Kozmo and Monarch. And I think it was a small miracle that one Kozmo Player (Jose Uriel Diaz) actually made top 4 (going against a broken deck and making top 4 is a more amazing feat than piloting said broken deck and having the better draw). Too bad he bricked in his feature match (Here's the link to the Semi-Finals).

A wild Allen C. Pennington appears

Biggest surprise of the YCS was the sudden appearance of Allen C. Pennington. Allen is often considered one of the best Yu-Gi-Oh players of the past decade. But he is also considered one of the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh Bashers (he IS the author of "100 reasons why this game is awful (compared to MTG)"). So seeing him return to Yu-Gi-Oh, let alone see him top a YCS, is quite surprising to say the least.

Allen is one of the 3 non-PePe players who made top 32. And since Monarchs is considered to be (one of) the best decks post PePeBan (and the cheapest tier1 deck ever!), his decklist and explanation is probably the most interesting thing to come out of YCS Atlanta. Go watch it on his youtube channel, you might actually learn something! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYzfK3f29Y8).

Post Emergency Ban: Keep Calm and keep playing Yu-Gi-Oh

Over the past week, many (PePe) players showed their obvious frustrations on the emergency ban. Most of their arguments are just teenage boys raging that their toys just broke.

Though I can understand the frustration of some players when they said: "Where was this kind of emergency list when Dragon Rulers were tier 0? (the period with 3 Super Rejuvenations and baby dragons)", and "What chance do we have when Konami decides to hit the next good deck after a few weeks? Is Monarchs going to get hit next?"

Let me give you my opinion on it:

• A: Not every top deck is a tier0 deck, remember that. It's not because deck X wins the World Championship, that it's automatically tier 0. And Full Power Dragon Rulers being tier 0 or not is something that die-hard fans are still discussing to this day. The die-hards keep saying that "it was close to tier0, but not quite, due to Judgment Prophecy". The only confirmed tier0 decks are and remain Tele-DAD, Airblade turbo and Cookie Cutter Chaos. Most other decks are "close to Tier0, but not entirely due to oter good decks at the same time".
• B: You know that all full-power top decks are mostly handled/finished in the first upcoming F&L list, but until now, that handling could usually vary between a few weeks to a few months, depending on what time the next F&L list comes. TCG Konami has been experimenting on making that list more flexible to better suit the needs of the players, but the timing of the list will never be 100% good for everybody.
• C: Seriously, the fear of decks being hit shortly after its release is unwarranted. While it probably is true that Konami will take a closer look to see if any deck is unhealthily powerful and might hit that before it chokes up the metagame (like now with PePe), those kind of decks only occur once every 2 years or so. Most formats consist of 2-3 major decks (or more), which is more healthier for the game.

And guess what's going to happen now? The meta is going to be devided in Monarchs, Kozmo, Burning Abyss and Mermail (maybe). And the PePe remnants who either will adapt to keep it alive (and fail, unless new support comes out), or go back to Odd-Eyes Magician or Majespecter builds. So three decks or more that are relevant.

Or in short:

Damn' you Konami?

Is it right to blame Konami?

Yes, sure, I won't stop you from doing so. But only aim your spite at the Japanese mother company.

This has been going on for years now. OCG Konami makes the cards, and determines which cards end up in our boosters (yeah, TCG Konami doesn't have much say in it); but they don't playtest the cards enough to prevent the existence of overpowering decks or OTK/FTK decks.

Also, since Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't have set rotation like Magic or the Pokémon card game, it is more likely an old card will suddenly turn a new deck broken (for example: Super Rejuvenation in DRulers), or prove to be a deadly anti-meta card (f.e. Horn of Heaven or Anti-Spell Fragrance).

This power creep and lack of set rotation has frustrated a lot of players and caused many people to quit YGO and do something else; but this is part of our game, which you just have to accept if you want to keep on playing. TCG Konami tries to be a little better about it (with the split F&L list and now this pre-emptive hit), but they're tied to the Japanese mother company. And if you've followed the video game news of the past year, you know how good of a company the Japanese seat of Konami is.

What about the next full F&L list?

The next full F&L list will probably solidify most hits from this emergency ban and if necessary, it will probably bury Burning Abyss completely (don't forget: Konami likes to promote new decks and likes you to forget the oldest viable ones).

Also, the one card i'd love to see get a hit (or become forbidden) is Wavering Eyes. "slightly overpowered" is an understatement for this card. If gentleman agreements need to be made for playing without one specific card, you know something is wrong.

For the rest, maybe finally get rid of Magical Explosion? I hear Monarch have a way to (once again) abuse that old friggin' card...

Until next time, V out.

Emergency ban on PePe

Wow, I didn't think I would update the blog THIS fast after the last post, but 1 night can sometimes be enough to shake the foundation of Yu-Gi-Oh!

It's been since Tele-DAD since this happened, but there has been another Emergency ban on a tier 0 deck. Though just like before, Konami won't officially call it an emergency ban (watch how they carefully measure their words to make sure they don't call this an emergency ban). This is an "Adjusted List".

https://yugiohblog.konami.com/articles/?p=7596

The Changes:

• Performage Plushfire – Forbidden
• Performage Damage Juggler – Forbidden
• Tellarknight Ptolemaeus – Forbidden
• Performapal Skullcrobat Joker – Limited
• Performapal Monkeyboard – Limited
• Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer – Limited

Changes are effective from next Monday, February 8th 2016

The Adjusted List, an emergency ban

Yes, PePe was already a very powerful deck last year. And with every release, it got stronger. Heck, even the Pendulum Structure Deck last december made it much stronger (Skullcrobat Joker). And with the release of BOSH (with Sorcerer, Monkeyboard, Draco face-off, CD Infinity and Raflessia), the deck truly became a tier 0 deck. So it was "Play it, or GTFO".

But this has been the first time since 2009 that Konami took such a drastic action. And in fact, it's the first time it's really in between F&L lists. The Tele-DAD emergency ban was just at the moment the F&L list needed to be updated, so they could mask it as a justified update. But in this case, the next list is still a few months away (probably starting around April 1st or so).

Quick analysis of the hits

Okay, I can understand hits like Damage Juggler and Scrullcrobat Joker. Those cards are just too good. But Plushfire forbidden? And Monkeyboard limited? Seems like overkill to me. Though it shouldn't be surprising that Konami chose Monkeyboard over Sorcerer (BOSH still needs to sell, you know).

But on the other end no hit for Wavering Eyes? Yeah, that card ain't broken for sure... (rolls eyes)

The only negative about this article is the hesitation of where it will be applied: These emergency hits are in effect on YCS's, qualifiers and other top-level events, but not necessarily for locals (only if the judge says so). What's the use in that? Most players use locals to test for high-level events anyway (so they will no longer ignore these hits), and have some assholes ruin locals with an overpowered deck isn't fun either.

So I think most judges will agree with this update and count these extra hits for their local events (it's better to just accept it).

Are these hits a good thing?

Konami mentions in the article that they will be more on the lookout for overpowered decks and won't be hesitant to kill when it notices tier 0 decks.

Personally, I think that this is a good thing. Nobody likes formats where 1 decks rules everything, even if that would be the deck I love most at that moment.

Though, let's be honest here. It would be just better if Konami would actually playtest the damn' cards and edit them before releasing them... *sigh*

Card Errata

Oh, on another note: Konami also admitted they made a mistake on the card text of Pendulum Sorcerer.

Revised version:

If this card is Special Summoned: You can target up to 2 cards you control; destroy them, and if you do, add “Performapal” monsters with different names from your Deck to your hand, except “Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer”, equal to the number of cards destroyed. You can only use this effect of “Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer” once per turn.

Yes, it IS cards; NOT monsters. He's that good. No need to rage. It was supposed to be this way. Konami admitted they were wrong, so get over it.

Curious to see how people will react to this emergency ban.

V out.

Back in the game: thoughts on Breakers of Shadows BOSH and Booster mapping warning!

Since the end of december my house is finished, hurrah! Finally some free time to catch up on tons of anime I've missed and to catch up on my favorite waste of time: Yu-Gi-Oh!

So obviously, there's a bunch of content I've missed out on in the past year-and-a-half and I'll try to give my thoughts on all (read as: some) of it. First up: BOSH!

The latest booster: Breakers of Shadows

This OCG set was originally kind of weak, with only a handful of interesting cards, and hardly any of them in foil. Twin twisters and Solemn Strike being just about the only really interesting ones. Yes, I know. There's the Dracoslayer cards and Quaking Mirror Force, but those are less wanted at this moment.

And by all means, the TCG exclusives aren't really "WOW" either. Yes, Kozmo and Kaiju get more support. But they're no game-breaking cards either.

So what could Konami do to make this set interesting? Put some of the most crazy OCG promo/exclusive cards ever in there!

Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer (PePe decks), Fiendish rhino Warrior (Burning Abyss), Neptabyss the Atlantean Prince (Mermail), Chimeratech Dragon Infinity (OP extra deck card) and Traptrix rafflesia (another OP extra deck card).

Also, this is the first set where every booster pack is guaranteed 1 foil card.

Combine those two ideas and whoop-ti-doop: the set is an instant hype.

A card you will love to hate

Is the set actually worth buying?

I bought a box, if that is what you were asking. But my point of view was: get lots of new high-foil cards, then trade for cards of the past year-and-half I actually want to play.

For you however, it's as follows.

• If you're playing PePe: yes, you will probably not regret buying a box (unless lady luck hates you).

• Any other single deck fanatic can better buy singles now. With the 1-foil per pack ratio; the average price of single foil cards has crashed.
• Though if you are in doubt and you're seeking for lots of high-foil cards, the foil ratio IS way better than any previosu set (lol). All boxes now have guaranteed 2 secret rares, which are usually devided as 1 good and 1 crappy card. And that is honestly better than an average of 1 secret rare (0 if you have bad luck, 2 if you're very lucky).

Warning: Do NOT buy BOSH single boosters!

Many people have confirmed it. This set has card rarity MAPPING!

This means that in a case with 12 boxes the boosters with secret rares will be in the same location in every box! If your first box has the Secret as second booster on the left and eight booster on the right, every box following that one will have the secrets on those exact positions.

This makes it extremely easy for resellers to strip all boxes of its secret rares and re-sell the rest as single boosters.

So if you find any sale of "random" BOSH boosters, DO NOT buy them! You will be tricked! Do not trust unsealed booster boxes either! Only sealed boxes can be trusted!

Personally, I have no idea what went wrong with the companies making the cards, but it's a safe guess the new foil card ratio is the prime cause of it. I hope they can fix it with the next booster set, because this is going to hurt the market.

That's it for now.

This time it probably won't take months until my next post (lol).

V out.