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.

Traditional at locals

I wasn't able to participate in the previous Traditional tourney due to… partying a little too hard the day before (lol) and failing to make time to create a decent enough deck. So that’s why I was a spectator last time.

Last Saturday, though, I was prepared and went to the other locals I usually attend, for a traditional Tourney. I pimped out my chaos dragons with forbidden cards (Painful Choice, Chaos Emperor Dragon, Dimension Fusion and Graceful Charity are all boss in Chaos Dragons).

Round 1: P-H (Six Sam):

• Game 1: I open up badly, but Imperial Order saved my ass, as my opponent opened with 5 spell cards (LOL). He can only advance slowly, while I recuperate from possibly one of the worst opening hands I've ever had. When my lifepoints drop down to 1900 (mostly due to paying the cost of Imperial order) I stopped paying the cost and get my game going. I get Future Fusion in my hand, resulting with a bunch of monsters and Chaos Emperor Dragon on the field, dropping his lifepoints to 2900 and then activating CED’s effect to burn 3200 for game.
• Game 2: I beat his monster with Leviathan Dragon turn 1, but he activates Gateway + SS United. He continues to summon, Searches/draws cards, drops Electric Virus on my dragon and OTK’s me. Yeah, I suddenly remembered why I hate Gateway of the SS.
• Game 3: Back and forth game, with Imperial order backing me again and Painful choice helping me advance. I win in the end.

Result: OXO

Round 2: Newbie (random warriors)

• Game 1: I realized this guy was new to the game and the god of card games wanted me to punish him. I opened up really broken (best hand of the day) and could FTK him.
• Game 2: Even with a quick-made deck that wasn’t prepared for Traditional, he showed quite some resilience. This guy holds some potential. But yeah, when facing Chaos Dragons unprepared in Traditional, you’re bound to lose.

Result: OO

I give him some tips on what he could’ve done to stop my advance, giving him some insight into the game.

Round 3: Vs Damon (Infernity)

• Game 1: The moment I activate Painful choice, he sees where I’m going and asks if I’m going to OTK him. I bluff a little, saying yes (as if! My hand wasn’t that great). He takes my bluff and scoops (his hand sucked, he told me).
• Game 2: I can’t do a thing when he starts looping. He OTK’s me.
• Game 3: I stop his Grepher with Veiler, seal his traps with Royal Decree and go forward from then on.

Result: OXO

Game 4: Carl (Piper Chaos)

• Game 1: Back-and-forth Game. He draws a lot and makes my moves backfire. I have few tricks of my own, but I know his Piper deck takes advantage of big, beefy monsters (like mine). Though moment he activates Crush Card Virus, I’m doomed. My field is swept clean and my hand is gone.
• Game 2: I have Troll & Lock bird ready, but he doesn’t activate a single draw card (once, a single Piper, wow). My  sided Royal Decree gets MST’d early on. Crush Card Virus doesn’t discard lot from my hand (I had Tour Guide, Veiler and the D&L bird that wouldn't fly), but with every good card I draw, being automatically sent to the graveyard, I can’t come back.

Result: XX

His loss over the Droll & Lock birds a few weeks ago clearly left a sore spot, as he didn't pimp his deck out with draw power (he said he’s the only one playing without Pot of Greed). No wonder my birds wouldn’t fly.

By request of the judge, we don't play top-4 (we agreed, result would've been the same, more or less)

End result: Third place (P-H got 2nd due to better tie-breaker)

• Card of the day: Imperial Order
• Fail card of the day: Dark Magician of Chaos (dunno why I bothered using him. Mostly ended up being a dead draw, even in Chaos Dragons).
• Got crushed by: Crush Card Virus. Yeah, that card really does hurt Chaos Dragons

So that's my locals report.

Next to the report, I've decided to do something with all the banlist predictions out there... But as this might take a while, I'll post about that near the end of the week.

Until next time, V out.

How to beat a field full of dragons

Consider one of the following situations:

• Your opponent has a field with 2 Gaia Dragons (overlayed from Atum), an unused Hieratic Dragon King of Atum (or some other dragon) and 2 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons with 0 attack/defense.
• Your opponent has a field with 2 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragons and a few chaos dragons (while playing with dragons).

Seems pretty hopeless, huh? Yeah, a top decked card like Dark Hole and Black luster Soldier might get you out of this bind. But try thinking outside of the box. Try to look at cards that other players use… For example: HERO players.

Yup, the card I’m talking about is Super Polymerization.

Super Polymerization?

I hear you coming… isn't this a HERO-exclusive card? The answer is… NO. You can fuse ANY fusion monster you want, as long as the necessary fusion material monsters are on (either side of) the field and as long as you discard 1 card. 

You all know how powerful Super Poly is. It’s one of the few cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! that you can NOT counter.

How frequent could you activate it? Well, both Chaos Dragons and Hieratic Dragons have the tendency to spam the field with boss monsters, so more frequent than you think!

The best thing is, when you’re a dragon player yourself, you don’t even need to change that extra deck. The target fusion monster is already in there!

How it works – Vs. Hieratics

Hieratic dragons have the tendency to overextend to OTK you. When they do their loop (Atum - REDMD - Atum - REDMD - any dragon), they leave themselves very vulnerable to Super Poly.

Take that moment, just before your opponent overlays those two REDMD’s into Gustaph Max, to activate Super Polymerization, tribute your opponents 5 dragons and have a gigantic boss monster as a prize.

How it works – Vs. Chaos Dragons

This kind of “bullying” is harder to pull off against Chaos Dragons, but it can work wonders in Chaos Dragon mirror matches. If your opponent has 3 or more Dragons on his side of the field, you can have 1 or 2 (depending on how many your opponent has) dragons enter the field and activate this card. The plus on this is that your opponent’s Lightpulsar Dragon will miss the timing. In this case, make sure you don’t use LPD yourself (unless you’re out of options), because your LPD will miss timing as well.

So, the next time somebody tells you Konami should make Five-Headed dragon forbidden (instead of Future Fusion), tell them they shouldn't, because you can use that very fusion monster against dragon players.

Of course, this is just one possible counter against Chaos/Hieratic Dragons. But this one proves that you should not limit yourself to the generally known counters (like Electric Virus, Victoria, Soul Taker, ...). When you think outside of the box, you might just find an original answer to your problem.

Until next time

V out.