TCG-Konami & Duelist Packs

You might have noticed it's been a while since the TCG got their last Duelist pack. The last one that was released over here was Duelist pack: Crow and was quite a success, due to easy-to-get Blackwing monsters & Zephyros the Elite being one of the most splashable Blackwings ever.

But Kevin Tewart (the most known honcho of Konami) never made a secret of it that TCG-Konami does not like Duelist packs. The appearance of the Duelist pack Yuma last year made his point completely.

This 30-card set was something that the TCG didn't want. Out of the 30-card set, Volcasaurus was the only new decent card. Any Marketing student (with a specialization in card games) could see that this Duelist Pack would remain in store shelves for years to come.

So, until further notice, Konami will never again release a Duelist Pack.

"Come on, you do WANT one of my "amazing" cards
to make a Yuma deck, don't you?
Trust me, it's competitive!"

What about the new cards?

But stopping the line of Duelist Packs brought a new problem along with it. In each Duelist pack, there are a few new cards. Duelist Pack Yuma had 5 new cards. This year's Duelist Pack Kite/Kaito had an incredible amount of 12 new cards (lol, as if OCG-Konami was laughing in the face of its TCG-counterpart). But those cards need to get a TCG print sometime.

Kevin Tewart once said on Pojo that they were brainstorming a lot about a decent way to release this.

And then finally last week, after a long period of silence, the 808blog posted an announcement that 2013 would see the release of a new Premium Tin (the Zexal Collection Tin), which includes these cards.

The Zexal Collection Tin

In short, each tin will have 3 fixed Ulimate Rares (reprints), 4 random new Ultra Rare cards and 7 random new Super Rare cards. That's a total of 14 cards in each tin.

Also, the random cards will come from a card pool of 21 (new) cards, including the cards from the Duelist Packs.

So WHAT is in it?

The reprints? There's a great chance that these will be reprints of Jump cards (so non-US players can play them), like 7-Swords Warrior, Barbaroid, E-Hero Escuridao, Catapult Warrior or Shooting Quasar Dragon. Though I wonder which ones they'll pick, since all of the cards I just mentioned are NOT Zexal-related (lol).

And the new cards? Well, the tin art revealed cards like Volcasaurus and Photoknight Paladios, so I bet your ass most of the new cards from the previous mentioned Duelist Packs will be in here.

I so feel like a TV-shop salesman right now... <_<

But if you can count and you read all of the previous sections, you'll notice that the numbers don't match. 5 new cards from the Yuma Duelist Pack, 12 new cards from the Kite Duelist pack... that doesn't match the 21 new cards in total!

So, I guess there's still some speculation on what OTHER cards will be in here? Will there be cards from the upcoming OCG-premium pack (which includes Zubaba General)? Or will it be random OCG promo cards (like Number 56: Goldrat)?

Anyway, I'm looking froward to this release, since my main deck right now is a Photon deck and cards like Volcasaurus & Paladios are good XYZ monsters in general.

That's it for now.

Until next time, V out.

Them Locals: Legendary Collection Edition

Last weekend we had another local tourney. This time around, the price was 2 Legendary Collection 3 boxes for first place, 1 box for second place and lots of boosters (ROTD & TU7) for the rest. Yes, this store gives enough price support to keep its people happy.

Before the tournament, I try testing my ninja deck in real life. I play Vs Ruben’s new deck (Agents) and lose horribly, because he opens broken first game and he blocks my moves second game. Okay, enough testing, let’s take that Photon lightray deck and get on with it.

Round 1: Vs Tim (Twilight)

Both games are kind of similar. He tries to mill his light and dark monsters. But in both cases he ends up milling or discarding boss monsters, so he can’t defend himself enough for my boss monsters.

Result: OO

Round 2: Vs Maarten (Inzektors)

• Game 1: I notice that with only 1 Dragonfly & Hornet, it’s harder to get the deck working. I get my field going and negate his monsters at the right moment. That’s game.
• Game 2: I open badly and after a while I feel like just attacking his Sangan so he can search dragonfly and kill me off (yes, I gave up on that one).
• Game 3: Back-and-forth game. At a certain point he has a Centipede with Gigamantis & a Brilliant with 1 material detached. I’m able to summon a light monster and just revived Honest to get it back to my hand. Due to me doubting rulings, I attack Brilliant (I thought Mantis’ effect would go off when I destroy Centipede, I was wrong) and I end up losing a game I could’ve won.
• Result: OXX

Round 3: Vs Davy (Monarchs)

Newbie or someone returning to the game after a while, I’m not clear on that one.

• Game 1: I underestimate him and he gets LADD on the field early (I admit, I did not expect Soul Exchange). I only have spells in my hand, so f**k this game.
• Game 2: For a while, it looks good for him again, but then he attacks into a surprise Gorz and has no monster big enough to get over it. When I activate Gozen Match, he’s in trouble and can’t get his Caius out anymore.
• Game 3: Gozen match in my opening hand. He’s pissed when I activate it (he’s been facing the damn’ card every round, due to the Wind-up Hate (lol). As expected, he can’t overcome the card. He’s stuck with a Caius in his hand he can’t use. And when I mind Control his set Spirit Reaper, I can attack for game.
• Result: XOO

Round 4: Vs Ruben (Agents):

• Game 1: He apparently opens with 2 or 3 Shiny Balls, Kristya and Herald of Orange Light. He’s being beaten easily and is forced to negate the effect of my Crusher (when it goes to defense), because he has to do something. Logically, he loses. He showed his opening hand, it was horrible.
• Game 2: He's able to fend better than first game, but he still a bad opening hand (again, 2 balls in hand, together with 2 D.D. Crows). And trust me, a bad opening hand is not something you want when facing my deck. Yeah, that’s another win for me. I explain to him that D.D. Crow is useless against my deck. It just fuels cards like Lightray Sorcerer & Madoor.
• Result: OO

After that, I end up 4th place and there’s a top-4 cutoff.

Top 4 match: Vs Carl (Machina Geargia):

• Game 1: He starts off with Gearframe to search for Fortress. I mind control his Gearframe to overlay into Maestroke. But he has a second Gearframe, gets 2 Fortress on the field, turns them into Big Eye and steals my monster. With my field open, I can't come back from that.
• Game 2: I try my Cyber Valley + Mind Control trick on his Gear Gigant X, but he has Dark Bribe on the field (curses, foiled again). I fail to draw any of my side-deck and my draws are not enough for his barrage of machine monsters.
• Result: XX

End Result: 4th place

So no Legendary Collection for me, but I get a few boosters, with more yank holo’s (another Hierophant & Gawayn, hurray![/sarcasm]).

It was a nice tourney in a new location (the old place, where we had the barbeque-tournament was not the best location) and it was a nice place. Still needs a bit more decoration, but it’s already better than the other place.

Well, that’s the last locals I play until I come back from Japan (5 days until I leave). Then the first one is going to be the sneak peek of Abyss Rising on November 3rd.

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.

Them Locals #3

Yesterday, I went to one of the locals I attend from time to time in Ghent. Second time I brought my Photon Lightray deck along to a local tourney, but I noticed this time around there was some decent competition (yes).

I was a little late and the judge tells me that (since I got a little late on the sneak too here) this is the last time he would let it slip through his fingers (sure, k, no problem.).

Round 1: Vs Ruben (Wind-up)

• Game 1: I open broken and clear both his backrow (storm) and send his monster back to the deck (ehren). Turn 4, the game is already over and I didn't even get to see one of his monsters.
• Game 2: I suddenly notice what he's playing... wind-ups. Without siding decently and no Veiler in my hand, I quickly lose to his magician combo's.
• Game 3: I didn't draw a single good card from my side and draw my gearfried waaay to early to actually be useful. He solemns my only way of countering and I quickly lose (ratz).
• Result: OXX

Round 2: Vs Kai (random deck): newbies? I always face them for some reason...

• Game 1 & Game 2: With random monsters and spells you can't achieve a lot, honestly. I tried to hold back, but he quickly lost both games. I tell him he needs to reduce his deck to as close as 40 as possible (he has near 60 cards in there) and give him a few other hints.
• Result: OO

Round 3: Vs Michaël (HERO deck)

• Game 1: I open teh nutz again and he has to look as I take the game in a few turns.
• Game 2: I open badly this time around. But I'm able to hold my defenses for a while (thank you Lighray Madoor). But when he uses Miracle Fusion to get Great Tornade to blow my Madoor away and the next turn parallel world fusion, I have to give in.
• Game 3: For a while I fear I might lose again, but I draw into Spirit of Purity and Light, get enough monsters banished for Lightray Madoor and then use them to get Photon Strike Bounzer on the field. I finish with Summoning Lighray Gearfried, causing a deadlock. A close game, but I win.
• Result: OXO

Round 4: Vs Jolly (Zombies)

Another first-timer, but this one's better.

• Game 1: Again, I try to hold back. But my deck answers me with power cards. I win.
• Game 2: She gets stallers on the field (Spirit Reaper, Lady in Wight) and suddenly appears with Patrician of Darkness. I underetimate this old-school card and get suckered into defeat. Curses
• Game 3: She tries to stall again, but I get better answers in my hand this time around.
• Result: OXO

End result: 3 wins gives me the 4th place. 3 boosters of ROTD & the latest Turbo Pack as price. Though the only noteworthy card is... Rebound (why do I only draw crap from this set?).

The winner, Carl, gets 10 boosters and pulls 4 ultra/ulti cards (Puddingcess, Spellbook Magician, Spellbook of Secrets & SuperRoboGalaxyCrap). Why is he the only one that gets good stuff? :-(

On the other hand, the same day was able to get 10 ORCS boosters off a very cheap price (something close to 0). THose packs got me better results (Invoker, Super Transformation, Evolzar Solda, Dark Mist and a bunch of rares.

So, all in all a good day of testing. Now I at least have a few ideas to fill my side-deck with.

Until next time, V out.

Deck Tests September format #1: Photon Lightray

For the past few weeks, I've been testing a lot (like I said two weeks ago). Since my agenda's pretty full, that means an average of 2-3 matches per day, so it takes a little longer than originally intended.

From this week onward, I'll give you the test results and deck lists. First up is one of my favorites: Photon Lightray.

Backstory

After the release of the Photon Trio (Lizard/Thrasher/Crusher) in ORCS and the introduction of the Lightrays in GAOV, I noticed that both archetypes mixed very well together. I found out I was not the only one with that idea, as shortly afterwards, OCG legend Rauzes came up with a build (His decklist can be found on Dueling Legacy), which gave me a few ideas as well (like using Guardian of Order).

Since first tests went bad while facing Inzektors, this deck was put on hold. But with Inzektors getting banhammered, I picked it up again, re-molded it and gave it this result.

Explaining the deck

• The Photon Trio: Thrasher is a well-known card, since it's splashable in many decks. Crusher is his 2000-attack buddy and Lizard is the Photon Searcher. Twin Photon Lizard (in the extra deck) is summoned by Dragon's Mirror and is rank 6 material.
• Lightsworn Engine: No need to explain, I guess? Filling the graveyard is essential in this deck.
• Lightray round-up: Gearfried and Daedalus can be special summoned with ease, Sorcerer and Madoor take joy in the fact that people use Bottomless trap holes more and more and Lightgay Grepher does the same job Bondage Grepher did (preparing the grave/banished area to summon the boss monsters).
• Soul of Purity and Light: A handy old card which is easy Rank 6 material and helps summoning cards like Lightray Sorcerer and Madoor.
• Extra deck: Filled with Rank 4 and rank 6 monsters, together with a few synchro's I can summon via Veiler.
• Side-deck: I haven't decided on the side-deck yet. Either I put the necessary cards in there to transform it into a chaos deck, or I just prepare for bad match-ups or my own weaknesses (like facing Light-Imprisoning mirror).
• Downside: There's only one downside to this deck, and it's the same downside my old Chaos Dragons deck had. With all the boss monsters in the deck, you have a chance of opening really bad. That's one of the reasons I put Gorz and Veilers in there.

The deck tested really well on DN and the few tests I did in real life were good (though only locals with not that great competition). I'm testing this deck further.

Next time, more test results - the ninja deck.

Until then, V out.

New Format - Deck tests

It's been quite a while since I've done deck-experimenting. Last format, it was Chaos Dragons and that's it. Any other deck I made, failed the matchup vs inzektors, so I gave up quicly on them.

Since my Chaos Dragon deck got hit by the September F&L list, I'm doing a lot of deck tests, to see with which one I'm going to play until the next set comes out (at least).

But until that, I'm going to stop buying cards and test the decks first on DN.

Decks I'm testing right now:

• Chaos Dragons post September: My deck choice of last format, with only 1 REDMD, 0 Future Fusion, 1 Chaos Sorcerer and 2 Tour Guides. Also, with Night Assailant and Foolish Burial.
• Photon Lightray: A deck I've started last format, but I noticed it failed hard when facing Inzektors. So with Inzektors gone and a few new cards in the card pool, I'm giving this another try. Lightray Gearfried is still boss.
• Piper Exodia: Yeah, you're hearing that correctly. Ever since Wan chan (or Where arf thou?) came out, I've seen potential in Piper Exodia. The card is an amazing search card for both Piper, Kinka-Byo and each Exodia Limb. And honestly, what is better than inconsistent draw power? Search power!
• Prophecy mash-ups: I love spellcasters as a type, but finding a good build is harder than you think. Since pure Prophecy don't work, I'm trying out mash-ups with other spellcasters, like Lightsworn, Spell Counters and even Gravekeepers. So far, I've tested the results are fine, but the archetype really needs the cards from Abyss Rising to work (especially hanged man of Prophecy).
• Ninja's: Since Tsukuyomi is coming back, I'm looking for a card she can abuse. I found an abuse target in Senior Silver Ninja. Each time he's flipped face-up, I can spam the field with Ninja's. Made a pre-test build, but still need to test this one.
• Status: making a new build for: Chaos Control (curse you Konami) and Hieratic Agents (dunno if this will work, though).

Test results and decklists (when I agree with them) will follow...

Until next time, V out.