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.

Last day of the format and the Gold (series) Rush

It's the 31st of March, meaning it's the last day of the January format. April will be filled to the brim with YCS's to test out this new format and see what the new top decks are.

No, serious, I doubt there are that many months in a YGO year that have THREE YCS's. This weekend will have YCS Mexico City (Central America), Next weekend is YCS Las Vegas (US) and the 26th of April will be YCS Paris (Europe). Wow, they're really pushing the last YCS's before the Nationals (World Championship Qualifier) period begins in May (or end of April).

And I think everybody will be curious about what decks will top. Are Mermails still thé deck to beat? Can Fire Fists gain tops with only 1 Wolfbark? Will Geargia-style decks dominate everything? Will any new card from Premium Gold actually matter in this new format?

Everybody participates in the Gold Rush!

I think Premium Gold is one of the best-selling sets in Yugioh ever. And is there any reason to think otherwise, honestly?

A pack of premium Gold basically pays for itself. More than 50% of the cards are worth more than €1$, so the chance of you earning the invested money back is close to 100% (unless you have bad luck and pull shitty cards like Utopia Buster and Golld, Wu-Lord of DW). Cards like Effect Veiler, Forbidden Lance, the Egyptian Gods, DAD, DMG, Solar Recharge and Fire Fist Tiger King are great bling reprints that are actually worth some money. And there are some interesting new cards, like Ghost of a Grudge and Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons.

And it shows that this set is very interesting. On Saturdays, two days after the set could be sold legally in Europe, lots of shops were already out of stock and some were already unable to order any new ones. I've never seen a YGO product sell this fast since Battle Pack 1 (remember, with the rush on Tour Guides, Lances, Keepers and F-Chains?).

"Worship me!"

Most interesting new cards from Premium Gold?

Without a doubt the most interesting one is Beelze. Beelzebub is a Philistine deity who's also nicknamed Lord of the Flies and... oh, wait that's another Beelze... ahem.

Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons is one of the best Lv 8 synchro's out there who's VERY hard to get rid off. It can't be destroyed, and when you take battle damage in attacks involving this card or by card effect (like Gagaga Cowboy), it gains that damage as an attack bonus. This seems like a new key card for Infernities, but I think we'll see it a lot in other decks as well.

Grudge? These two seem to be
in good spirits.

Another very interesting card is Ghost of a Grudge. The moment your opponent has 8 (or more) cards in his grave, you can turn the attack of all your opponent's current monsters to 0... permanently. Your opponent spams a field full of Mermails? They can't do much if they're all 0-attack monsters. Reptilliane Vaskii has never been this happy before.

Oh, an important ruling you'll probably wonder: Yes, you can activate it during the damage step, but not during damage calculation. Be sure to time it correctly if you want to use it!

Cute, but deadly when underestimated.

A somewhat underestimated card is Dragonecro Nethersoul Dragon. It's a Dragon's Mirror target in Zombie decks! It's a 3000-beatstick that does not destroy the opponent's monsters, but reduces them to a mere 0-attack monster, while also summoning a token on your side of the field (zombie spam decks anyone?).

Another understimated card is Nr 82: Heartlandraco. While you control a face-up spell card (like a field spell, or continuous spell), this card can't be targetted for an attack (which can cause deadlocks if used correctly). Also, this card can attack your opponent directly (for a 2000-beater that's a VERY nice feature).

"Do you feel me, bro?"

And then we have some nice support for the Gimmick Puppets, like Dreary Doll, magnet Doll, Junk Puppet, Humpty Dumpty and Human Centip... err, Shadow Feeler (thank god they made the art less disturbing in tcg). Also, the Chaos versions of the Gimmick Puppets are released, making the RUM-version of Gimmick Puppets very playable in real-life

And last, but not least, a few of the missing key cards in the pure Chronomaly deck are released, namely Tula Guardian and City Babylon. Now only Nebra Disk and Fort Hyuk are missing to make this deck really competitive.

The rest of the new cards are nice for collectors (the Duel Dragons and Numbers), or are just plain bad (because everybody wanted Big Belly Knight and Utopia Buster, right?).

"I am so busted, right? Right? Anyone?"

afterword

I'm very curious as to how these new cards will affect the meta. Nobody really knows atm, since Beelze and Ghost of a Grudge are also brand new in the OCG (released about the same time) and they're also entering a new format.

On a side-note: Yes, I realize I'm posting less than usual in the past months. But that's because I'm busy on a different "project". More on that in May (probably the end of May, but it may be sooner).

Until next time, V out.

Next European YCS, European Gold Series size debacle and Dark Strike Fighter's return?

I wanted to do a post about Dark Strike Fighter's (possible) return from the forbidden list, but a few extra news flashes came in, so I'll discuss it all!

Next European YCS is kind of hidden

This morning, I glanced over some of the massive updates on The Organisation (ironically, they need to organize that site a little more, those many updates make the news too scattered) an noticed the following link.

https://tcg.konami-europe.net/coverage/ycs-paris-judge-application-form/

So my complaint last time, about not knowing what the last European YCS will be before Nationals season finally resulted in something, even though it's kind of weird.

Due to "internal circumstances" (I guess, it's a "don't ask, we won't tell" situation), the news cannot be published on yugioh-card.com, so all we have is a date at the moment. No venue, no further details. It's been 3 years since the previous YCS in Paris, so I guess many people will be glad to return to the city of Lights.

I'll post more details when they're published online.

Debacle on Premium Gold pack size

So a while ago, a picture was released, revealing that the French edition of Premium gold would have 10 cards, instead of the 15 card-pack in the US. Many Europeans were displeased with this difference in size, considering pre-order prices were based on the price of the US version (which would mean Europeans once again pay more for their cards).

Then, suddenly, yesterday the product page for the UK variant of Premium Gold was published, revealing that the UK variant ALSO has 15 cards.

This makes the situation very weird. Personally this makes me think that the picture of the French edition is a troll/fake, because it would be extremely weird that there's a difference in pack size within the same continent (especially since those cards/packs are created in the same factory).

If true, it would also create weird situations in Belgian shops, were they sell both the French and English cards. Uninformed shop personal will be confused as hell when people ask for Premium gold.

I guess all will be revealed when the product pages for the other languages are updated.

Draft picture or a troll/fake, that's what I call it.

Oh, and for a prediction on what new cards will be in there? Most probably the 3 OCG exclusive Gold Series cards and the cards from Premium Pack 15 and 16 (the "Premium" stands for something, you know).

Dark Strike Fighter returns?

The main point of controversy yesterday on the internet and facebook was the possible return of Dark Strike Fighter (DSF)... since it will receive an errata in the OCG, similar to the errata of Catapult Turtle.

What errata, you might ask? Well, both Catapult Turtle and Dark Strike Fighter can now only activate their effect Once per turn (previously unlimited amounts of times per turn, making DSF broken as f**k).

And if you think "Oh, this is only OCG. Nobody knows if it will be the same in TCG", you're wrong. The Yugioh Card Database already confirmed the change in TCG for Catapult Turtle. So it's only a matter of time before DSF will follow.

So, what do you guys think of a possible return of Dark Strike Fighter? Are you hoarding your DSF's already? Will it become thé Lv 7 synchro that everybody puts in their extra deck?

Take a long look at them. They will no longer be unlimited times per turn.

Well, that's it for now. Until next time, V out.

The other side September Edition #3: Cyber Dragon Structure Deck and final OCG Gold Series

In this last part of looking at upcoming OCG products, I'm going to be talking about the Cyber Dragon Structure Deck and the final OCG Gold Series.

Cyber Dragon Structure Deck

December will have the next Structure Deck in the OCG. We already knew it was going to be a Cyber Dragon related Structure Deck, but in the latest V-Jump we got a sneak peek at the first reprinted cards, together with the cover monster.

Cover Monster: Cyber Dragon Nova (Rank 5 LIGHT Machine XYZ, requires 2 Lv. 5 machines): “Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card, then target 1 "Cyber Dragon" in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target. Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can banish 1 "Cyber Dragon" from your hand or your side of the field; this card gains 2100 ATK until the End Phase. If this card is sent to the Graveyard by your opponent's card effect: You can Special Summon 1 Machine-Type Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck..”

First thing that you should know: While Cyber Twin Dragon and Cyber End Dragon are the intended Fusion monsters to summon after this card is destroyed, you can also summon Barbaroid the Ultimate Battle Machine. If I can give you a hint: stock up on them while they’re cheap (due to the Star Pack reprint). Once this structure deck is out, I think we’re going to see a lot of Barbaroids.

Next to this interesting XYZ, the first reprints also have been announced. They are the following:

• Cyber Dragon (duh, it's a Cyber Dragon SD)
• Cyber Dragon Zwei
• Solar Wind Jammer
• Cyber Twin Dragon
• Super Polymerization (remember, this also works OUTSIDE of HERO decks)
• Transmodify (LOL)

Yes, you read that correctly: Transmodify: The secret rare from Judgment of the Light that went to 40-something dollars just before YCS Toronto (the price dropped a little, but not that much).

I can understand its presence in the Structure deck (Special summon Cyber Dragon, normal summon Zwei, use Transmodify to turn it into a Lv. 5 Light Machine, overlay into Cyber Dragon Nova); but the question remains if Konami will keep that card in the TCG variant (Please don’t remove it!).

Other cards will probably include all LIGHT Cyber monsters, other Light Machines (like Biofalcon, Blue Thunder T-45, etc) and general LIGHT/Machine support (Shining Angel, Honest, etc).

Will this card be in the TCG variant or not?
All bets are open!

Gold Series 2014

Similar to last year’s Gold Edition of the TCG, the January Gold Edition will be the final OCG-variant of this release (awh, no more gold cards :-( ).

For TCG, this has zero impact, but it’s always fun to look at the other side, no?

This Gold Series will have the three Egyptian Gods. And if I can guess, it will be the Battle Pack 2 variants (you know, the original art with the actual effect).

Other confirmed cards are Tour Guide, Elemental HERO Prisma and Imperial Iron Wall. But the set will also include a few NEW cards. It's a strange place to put some new cards in, but I guess we'll see once they're revealed.

And for this last gold set, the OCG-folks have the ability to choose three of the Gold cards in this set (though from a 15-card cardpool). If you understand Japanese, you can go and vote as well on this link. The choices are the following:

Pick your poison

You can vote from September 20 until October 21st (not 21/09-20/10, like a lot of other sites mention).

Afterword

That's it. No mention of other promo cards as of yet (V-Jump promo's for example), but the end of the year should have more of those.

On a side-note, last weekend was Alter Reality Games first (self-organized) big event in the US(the ARG circuit), which Patrick Hoban won with Dragon Rulers. I'll see if I can get more info on that later this week (I'm kind of busy with work, so I dunno if I'll be able). In the meantime, check the blogs of Lord Invishil and Rudest Awakaning on that topic. Or check the ARG coverage itself.

Until next time, V out.