YCS Turin - Geargia Karuri wins the 125th YCS

Kinda overlooked this one (probably because I couldn't attend), but past weekend was the 125th YCS, YCS Turin (Italy).

Let's do a quick sum-up of the event:

• 1325 attendees, which all received the Artorigus playmat.
• 521 attendees played (some form of) Dragon Rulers, making it (obviously) the most popular deck of the moment.
• Second most popular deck was Evilswarm, once more confirming that Europeans in general like Dark decks.
• The standings at the end of Swiss. It's on this page.
• Several Americans attended the 125th YCS, including the winner (Sam Pedigo) and other famous (ARG) people like Patrick Hoban. Last mentioned one won the YCS trial, gaining a free trip to the next European YCS.
• All coverage articles can be read on The Coverage site of YCS Turin.

The top cut

The top 32 consisted of:

• 21x Dragon Ruler (all variants)
• 5x Evilswarm
• 2x Geargia
• 1x Fire Fist
• 1x Prophecy
• 1x Bujin

After that, it got cut further down as follows: Top 16 play-off chart.

An interesting side-note: I heard Michel Gruner got a game-loss due to slow play, which caused him losing the match versus Pedigo (who then ends up being the winner).

And the final was ... Samuel Pedigo (Geargia Karakuri) Vs Konrad Grunewald (Dragon Rulers). With Samuel becoming the winner!

Some deck profiles

I'll try to find some more deck profiles (let's see if Lithium uploads any). I'll post (and update) them here:

• Samuel Pedigo - Geargia Karakuri (Winner)
• Joshua Schmidt - Dragon Rulers (4th place) and Michel Gruner (top 8)
• Kevin Langenberg - Fire Fist (top 8)
• Aris Samaras - Evilswarm (Top 8)
• Matej Jakob - Geargia Karakuri (Top 16)
• Dustin Sembach - Bujin (Top 32)
• More will follow when I find them.

A side-note, the YCS Sydney Playmat

European YCS's always hold a surprise or two. This time, on Fridays, the announcement was that YCS Sydney would hand out a playmat to all attendees (to boost non-Australian players' motivation to attend). What mat could do that? A frigging Dark Magician Girl playmat! Check it out!

Is it just me or is this slightly less censored?
It looks amazing!

That's it for now. V out.

The other side September Edition #2: Revelations of Legacy of the Valiant, Duelist Sets (Lightsworn & Geargia) and 3DS Game promo's

Next up in our preview of upcoming OCG products, there's the first revelations of Legacy of the Valiant and the two upcoming Duelist Packs.

Legacy of the Valiant

Legacy of the Valiant is the November booster for the OCG (shortly after we receive Shadow Specters). Not much is known about the set, safe the following things:

• There will be more support for Bujins and Ghostricks. Let’s hope for the fans that these archetypes will become competitive.
• The new archetype will be Shinra (OCG name), which are Plants whose core effect is: "reveal top card. If it's a plant, then plusses, otherwise, return it to the bottom of the deck".
• The old archetype that receives support is Gravekeepers. The new GK card revealed is Marik's dad (lol). I wonder if they'll receive an XYZ as well (here's hoping at least)?
• There is yet ANOTHER Utopia version, but this one seems interesting. Number 39: Utopia Roots is a Rank 1 XYZ that requires 2 Lv. 1 monsters and has a similar effect to the original Utopia (safe the self-destruct button). Handy in Piper decks, though I feel Slacker Magician is better than this one.
• There’s now a Rank-Down Magic that pipes down Utopia monsters (to obtain Utopia Roots from Utopia)... read as: very limited and situational version of Rank-changing magic. Worst of the bunch at this moment.
• And an interesting revealed spell is Xyz Shift. This card tributes an XYZ for another in your extra deck with the same rank/type/attribute. This seems handy to turn a material-less XYZ into a harder-to-achieve xyz with interesting effects. Like turning a Fairy Cheer Girl into Madolche Queen Tiaramisu to bounce cards, or turning Utopia/Excalibur into Photon Alexandra Queen and bounce the entire f**king field to their owner's hand. Basically, the more XYZ come out, the more interesting this card becomes.

More information on this set will follow when November comes closer.

"I shall call him... Mini-me!"

Duelist Sets Machine Troopers & Lightsworn Judgment

Next to the next Booster set, the OCG will also receive two new Duelist sets in November. For those who are unfamiliar with Duelist sets, a duelist set is a reprint deck with a few new cards. Last year, the OCG received these kind of sets Constellars and Evilswarms. But those were mostly reprinted due to legal reasons in non-Japanese OCG countries (who weren't allowed to play them until that point). I guess the sets were such a success, Konami decided to give the people some more.

This year the Duelist sets will be centered around Lightsworns and Geargias.

Each of these sets will have a rubber playmat (cool), some archetype sleeves (of low quality, so don’t rage about that), a special code card for the upcoming Yugioh 3DS game (I presume to download the new cards into the game?), a deck-case, a constructed deck with 37 reprinted cards and 3 new ones and a Power-up pack (similar to that from the Starter deck earlier this year).

The revealed new cards for the Lightsworn variant are:

• Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden (a lv. 3 LIGHT spellcaster tuner): She searches a LIGHT dragon when normal summoned with a level depending on the number of different Lightsworns in the grave (NOT interesting in Lightsworns, unless you mix Lightsworns with Blue-Eyes cards...).
• Raiden, Lightsworn Assailant (a Lv. 4 LIGHT warrior tuner): This is now the ideal Lumina target (lol). It has a useful attack and an effect that boosts his own attack, but mostly he's there to sync into Lv. 7/8 synchro's.
• Lightsworn Arch Michael (A Lv. 7 LIGHT warrior synchro): Too bad, but no effect as of yet.

And the rest of this set will probably be the rest of the Lightsworn support cards, wether they're good (Solar Recharge), or bad (like Shire, Lightsworn Spirit).

The new cards for the Geargia variant are:

• Geargiano Mk III (A Lv. 3 EARTH Machine): Another target for Geargiagear! When special summoned by a Geargia Card (monster/trap), you can special summon another Geargia (spam-spam-spam)!
• Geargiattacker (A lv. 4 EARTH Machine): This card works similarly to Geargiarmor, but destroys backrow when flipped face-up. Its 100 defense makes it kind of 'meh' though (unless a card comes out that allows Geargia's to be flipped more frequently).
• Geargiagear X Gigant (A Rank 3 EARTH Machine XYZ): This XYZ gives a purpose for playing the Geargiano’s. But the effect? Nobody knows at the moment.

The other cards in this set will probably be the other Geargia's (duh) and Gadgets (guess that fits, yeah). More info will follow when November comes closer by.

Teasers all over, but no effects for these as of yet.

3DS Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Carnival game promo's

More practical information on the (belated) 3DS game has been released. The cards included will be up to and including Duelist Pack 15 (Shark & Rio Duelist Pack) in October; although the game cards in the Duelist sets give the impression you can download those new cards as well via code (unconfirmed).

So the latest booster set included will be Shadow Specters. For the TCG, that means there are no TCG exclusives from JOTL (like XYZ Encore) nor Shadow Specters (way less Noble Knights).

As stated before, the game will be released in the OCG in Winter 2013. IF (and only if) this game gets a release in the TCG, you should expect it in the spring of 2014.

The promo cards included with the game (and playable in the game) will be the following:

• Snow Plow Hustle Rustle (Lv. 10 EARTH Machine | 2500/3000): "When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack while you control a card in your Spell & Trap Card Zone: You can Special Summon this card from your hand, then destroy all cards in your Spell & Trap Card Zone, and if you do, inflict 200 damage to your opponent for each. You cannot Special Summon any monsters, except Machine-Type monsters."
• Night Express Knight (Lv. 10 EARTH Machine | 3000/3000): "Cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. You can Normal Summon this card without Tributing, but its original ATK becomes 0".
• Special Schedule (normal spell): "Target 1 Machine-Type monster with 3000 or more ATK in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. You can only activate 1 "Special Schedule" per turn. If this Set card is sent to the Graveyard: You can target 1 Level 10 Machine-Type monster in your Graveyard; add it to your hand."

These three cards were all used by Anna Kaboom in the anime and are thus created to make it easier to XYZ summon Rank 10 monsters (Gustav Max, Gangaridai & Super Robo Galaxy Destroyer).

"Call Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow."

Afterword

I wonder what TCG-Konami is going to do about these Duelist sets. I could understand they didn't like the previous ones (Releasing a set of Constellars and Evilswarm just after/before they release Hidden Arsenal 7? Would be kind of silly), but these two? Even if they don't like Duelist sets as an item, the sets themselves give possibilities to new Structure Decks, don't you think? I think many people would be interested in a Geargia and/or Lightsworn Structure deck with these new cards, right? I'm curious to how our Konami is going to handle this opportunity.

And the game? Well, cross you fingers that we'll receive it. I REALLY want that game to have an International release. I stated it before: it's thanks to the YGO-videogames that I eventually got into the real card game. They give opportunity to lure in new players. They give possibilities to test random decks without the need of being online, and they allow ruling tests (hint: you can use the duel Puzzles in the (existing) DS games as tests for ruling questions on older cards).

A clearly hopeful V out.

Note: Part 3 will cover Gold Series '14 and the Cyber Dragon Structure Deck.

Card Rulings: FLIP effect monsters Vs Trigger effect monsters

After the many positive comments I got on the Monster Reborn post, I’m going to post more posts about rulings, useful to show to your opponent on Duelingnetwork when discussing rulings. This post is about the word “flip”.

FLIP Vs When flipped face-up Vs When Flip Summoned.

There are three kinds of flip effects known to us.

1. FLIP: When the card text starts with the word “FLIP” (capitalized), you have a flip effect monster in your hands, which has a flip effect. When these cards are flipped face-up (either by attacking them, by card effect, of by its controller flip summoning the card) the flip effect will activate.
2. “when this card is flipped face-up”: When the card text does NOT start with FLIP, but has the text “when this card is Flipped Face-up”, then you have a trigger effect monster whose effect triggers when flipped face-up (by any means). These effects activate on the same occasions as FLIP effect monsters, but they’re trigger effects instead of flip effects (yes, there IS a difference).
3. “when this card is Flip Summoned”: When the card text does NOT start with FLIP, but has the text “when flip summoned”, then that is a trigger effect that only works when the card is flip summoned. The difference with this card is when the card is flipped face-up by other means (card effect, attacking it), its effect will NOT activate.

Ryko: group A, Geargiarmor: group B, Hanzo: group C

Flip Effects Vs Trigger effects (when flipped/flip summoned)

Why making such a fuss about the difference in effects? Well, certain cards have an effect that flips the opponent’s monster with the text “Flip effects are not activated at this time”.

Realize that in this case, the card text only refers to FLIP effect monsters and does not refer to trigger effect monsters whose effect triggers when flipped (group B).

"I negate card effects like Ryko & Hanzo,
but I cannot negate card effects like Geargiarmor."

Also, if you use Nobleman of Crossout on cards of all three categories (when they’re face-down), all three cards will be banished. But the secondary effect (the part of both players banishing all cards with the same name from the deck) will only occur when the banished monster is a FLIP effect monster (group A). It will not occur when the banished monster is a trigger effect monster. (groups B and C).

"When I strike, you're OUT!"

Afterword

Same as on the Monster Reborn article, feedback comments or corrections are always welcome.

Feel free to use this post as a reference to settle disputes on DuelingNetwork or even real-life.

Until next time, V out.

Them Locals Special Edition: Barbecue-tourney

Yesterday we had a special tournament at one of the places I attend. A Barbecue tournament. First we play, then we eat. Fun & Fun!

Round 1: Vs Kenneth (Gravekeepers):

• Game 1: A little back-and forth game. Necrovalley + Solidarity make powerhouses of those spellcasters. But the game turns over when I bring Lightray Daedalus on the field and I go: “Hey, for the first time EVER I can actually use his effect!” He grabs the card, reads it and swears. He tries to come back, but it’s KO soon after.
• Game 2: The game starts bad when he goes Necrovalley + Royal Tribute on me (my whole hand gone!). But he fails to draw ANY monster, so I get enough time to recuperate and come back. Not exactly the way I wanted to win, but yeah.
• Result: OO

"Hey, that's a nice field spell you have there, buddy..."

Round 2: Vs Miguel (Six Samurai)

• Game 1: So epic we’ll never talk about this game… EVER! <_< (I won one of the most awkward games I’ve played in months).
• Game 2: I open bad, he opens with two SS United and is able to OTK me.
• Game 3: Back-and forth game. After I get rid of his Shi En, he’s able to bring Driven Daredevil on the field (I thought he was going Black Rose, this was a surprise). After thinking for a while, I found a way to beat that bastard. I used my Maestroke’s last material to flip it down. Then I used my Forbidden Chalice on my maestroke to make his attack 100 higher than Daredevil’s defense, therefore bypassing his effect. He’s surprised and can’t come back.
• Result: OXO

"I put that b!tch face-down!"

Round 3: Vs Jeroen (Plant Synchro)

• Game 1: He loops around with his synchro’s and everything I try is being blocked. At a certain point he shows he could easily go into Shooting Quasar Dragon. Am I glad that's still illegal over here. End result: I lose.
• Game 2: I side in some stuff and he scratches in his head, because he doesn’t understand my deck or what it’s trying to do. This gives me some advantage in game 2 as I do know what his tries to do. But when both my Gearfrieds get milled (curses!), we go into time and I block access to my Gorz by having Gozen Match active, I ended up losing a game I should’ve won.
• Result: XX

"Hey, nice party. Can I come over and play?"
"NO!"

Round 4: Vs Carl (Machina Geargia)

• Game 1: Me never having faced Machina decks (I’m not counting DS games with bad AI) put me at a disadvantage, because I tried to counter with things that didn’t work as I thought they did (the Catastor Vs Gear Gigant+Gearframe ruling :-S). I end up losing.
• Game 2: I’m able to do some shenanigans with Chimeratech, but when I revive my Cyber Dragon I realize I don’t have a second one (*facepalm*). That was a stupid mistake that cost me game 2 (though Carl says he could’ve countered my other strategy). I have to admit, Machina Geargia is a good deck.
• Result: XX

"I ain't no Ancient Gear! I'm modern gear!"

End result: No top-4 cut-off and I end up 6th place or so. I can’t remember clearly (didn’t care anymore because of the two losses).

In between and after the duels we do some trades and we’re able to get cheap SE’s of Return of the Duelist (10€ instead of the usual 12,5€). I got 1 Librarian and 2 Acid Golems, together with the crappiest secret (why?), the one Spellbook I didn’t want (Hierophant) and a few good supers. Further trades and friends got me a few other cards I wanted, but getting that second High Priestess is going to be harder than I thought (since I’m not willing to pay a shitload of cash on a deck that’s not going to be a top deck anyway).

After that we got to eat barbecue. And even though the weather wasn’t that great (rain), the food and the atmosphere were great. It was a fun and great day after all.

Until next time, V out.

PS: Oh, yeah... Six Sam won YCS Indianapolis. Check the blogs of LFN for a report and the blog of Team overload for many of the decklists.

Hits and misses of Return of the Duelist

Return of the Duelist came out (officially) in stores!

Reviewing the whole set is kind of ridiculous. So instead of doing that, I’ll give you my picks and drops from this set.

I tried to avoid archetype-specific cards, unless the cards can be used outside of their mentioned archetype.

Hits of the set

• Heroic Challenger – War Hammer: I kind of underestimated this card, but it’s good. If this card destroys your opponent’s monster and sends it to the grave, this guy can steal it and use its power for its own. If it wasn’t for Effect Veiler and three MSTs, this card would’ve been amazing.
• Temperance of Prophecy: If you’re trying to make a good spellcaster deck, from now on this card should be in it, whether or not its main focus is Prophecy monsters. When activating a Spellbook card, you can tribute this card for a high-level LIGHT or DARK spellcaster from your deck! And because most spellbooks affect spellcasters in general (not just the Prophecy monsters), these cards can be mashed into many decks.
• Madolche Magileine: Like the Gadget effect of re-filling your hand? Then check this card. When normal or flip summoned, this card searches another Madolche card, INCLUDING another copy of itself. With the usual Madolche effect that it’s automatically shuffled back in the deck, this card by itself can instantly make sure your hand is never empty (unless the summon is negated, of course).
• Uniflora, Mystical Beast of the forest: Anybody call for some Beast support? This guy is one of the best beasts I’ve seen in a while. Tribute this card to special summon ANY kind of beast from your grave or hand.
• Silver Sentinel: If your opponent has a fetish to destroy your back row, this card will surprise him. If your opponent destroys this card, it can special summon itself and destroy a card your opponent controls. A surprise about this card: they didn’t alter his sniper rifle! This probably is because the barrel isn’t that visible, but still, an unedited gun in Yu-Gi-Oh!? That’s a first one.
• Illusory Snatcher: Read this card as: Easy XYZ. I’ve looked around on the internet and somehow, this card does NOT miss timing. So, yes, it can be used in monarch (stated by the art), Hieratics, Steelswarm and any other deck that uses tributes.
• Gear Gigant X: a.k.a. the money card from the set! This card supports Geargia’s the most, but is also a generic card searcher in any machine type deck.
• Soul of Silvermountain: One of the more interesting cards. It blocks an opponent’s spell or trap card and when it destroys a monster, you can special summon ANY earth attribute monster from the grave. Granted, its 1800 attack is low, but otherwise this card would be dead broken (similar as how Leviair’s attack is only 1800). Bringing back Naturia Beast, Barkion, Iron Chain Dragon or other high-level earth monster is no joke.
• Sword Breaker: Ally of Justice Catastor for types instead of attributes. Nuff said. This is potentially the only (non-dark) monster that can commit suicide with Catastor.
• Galaxy Queen’s Light: Easy Lv. 7 and higher xyz summoning. Helps to summon monsters like Dyson Sphere, Super Robo Galaxy Destroyer and Gustav Max.
• Impenetrable attack: Remember how you can only use 3 Waboku’s in a deck? Hurray, Konami just re-made the card. Now you can chose whether or not you choose to prevent battle damage or prevent your monsters from being destroyed. But unlike Waboku, this card also prevents your monster being destroyed by card effect! Final Countdown decks will rejoice. Haters will hate, though.

Misses of the set

• Photon Caesar: In the anime, we’ve been introduced with several monsters which are treated as 2 XYZ materials. Those effects are translated in real-life as "special summon another copy of itself when normal summoned". A good example of this effect is Heroic Challenger – Double Lance. The less good example of this effect is Photon Caesar. Caesar was created to easily overlay into Neo-Galaxy-Eyes. But believe me, you will find more use in cards like Lightray Gearfried and Guardian of Order.
• Cold Feet: Every set has its cards that are weird or just simply suck donkey balls. This set has Cold Feet… literally. The card Cold Feet is a watered down version of Cold Wave and affects ONLY yourself. So unless you can combo it with Mystical Refpanel (who the hell would do that), you basically are just skrewing yourself.
• Blue Dragon Ninja: Ninja support FTW… or not? A potentially great card, if they would’ve switched the AND with an OR. Sorry, but discarding 2 cards to negate an effect is just not an option in real life.
• Spellbook Library of the Crescent: Possibly the worst of all spellbook cards I’ve seen. This card has a potential of more than 50% of being a dead card.
• Chew-bone: Of all OCG imports that could’ve made this set good (or better), we get possibly one of the worst OCG promo’s out there. This card represents the support zombies have been getting in the past few years. It’s not just any miss. This is a “three-strikes-you’re-out” kind of miss.
• The absence of Thunder Seahorse: The introduction of the Hunder (why no T?) archetype would’ve been a good deal, but Konami somehow forgot the key monster, Thunder Seahorse. The card has a similar effect like Thunder Dragon (of which the archetype is based upon), but isn’t limited to another copy of itself. I do wonder if they have plans of releasing it in the near future (the special edition or so?)
• The card rarity in general: Name any decent archetype card you want from this set, it will have a high rarity. We noticed it during the sneak. Only a handful of people got a few of the good cards and they were all super, ultra or secret rare.

Next time, I'll give you some test results of DN of the past week