The other side of the card game #2: Starter Deck 2013

Second up in the new OCG cards review is the OCG Starter deck of 2013.

Each year, we get a new starter deck. This time, next to the 42 cards that make up this deck, each starter deck will have 2 extra booster packs (more on that tomorrow).

The starter deck itself is made of 42 cards which include 5 new ones. You should look at the deck list, because the Super Starter that will appear in the TCG upcoming June will be at least 80% the same as this list: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Starter_Deck_2013.

5 New cards

Each Starter deck also introduces a few new cards. This year, they’re the following:

• Gagaga Kid: Another addition to the Gagaga Family, this time it’s another Spellcaster (why aren’t they all Spellcasters, seriously?). You can special summon this card when you control another Gagaga monster and tune its level to that monster, for easy XYZ-ing. But its low attack makes it a bad topdeck.
• Magical Undertaker: A FLIP monster that syncs nicely with Apprentice Magician. If it is flipped, you can special summon a Lv. 4 or lower Spellcaster from the grave (nice).
• Kuro Kuro Kuro: Black, Claw & Crow are three words that are all pronounced as kuro (lol at the word play). This level 2 monster special summons itself from the hand when you control a Dark Monster. This card is a possible tech in Blackwing decks (to get Silverwind). The only thing this card is missing is the name “Blackwing”, so that it could be searched / special summoned by other blackwing card effects. But I have the feeling it won’t be used in other decks.
• Swords of Blazing Light: Stall Decks can rejoice (a little), because after the limiting of One Day of Peace, they get this new card. If you control no monsters and your opponent has a hand of less than 5 cards, he cannot attack you (lol). This card might be on the field for several turns if you activate it at the right moment (if your opponent has 2 or less cards left in his hand and no MST). Not a great card to have multiples of in your opening hand, though.
• Reborn Puzzle: If your opponent destroys a monster by card effects, you can special summon it, no matter where the monster ends up. This card is made to save your monster from a Bottomless Trap Hole. Too bad the restrictions make it so that it’s hard to use when facing a Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute and impossible when facing D-Prison.

My thoughts

A few of these new cards will have limited use, though none of the new cards are impressing (unlike previous starter decks, which had great XYZ).

The rest of the Starter deck is filled with Mediocre cards as usual (unless you're dying to get the first non-foil version of Cosmo Queen). Though, on a positive note: The reprint of Utopia Ray may be nice (if you missed out on the card in Order of Chaos). And I would appreciate a reprint of Wonder Wand any time, but due to its reprint in the Star Pack, nobody's really looking for that one anymore. Oh and of course, there’s also: Utopia, Lord of Reprints, just in case you burned all of his other reprints (same goes to Call of the Haunted & ROTA).

So not much value to buy it, huh? Luckily, Konami realized that and put 2 enhancement packs in this starter deck, to make it a little more appealing. But more on that one tomorrow.

Until then, V out.

"I'm going to break the printings record of Mystical Space Typhoon!"

The other side of the Card game #1: Promotion Pack 3

I’m going to use this new segment to talk about new OCG cards. Last week, a bunch of new cards came out, so it's time to review all of them, day by day.

Today, I'm talking about Promotion Pack 3.

The what-now?

During set periods of time, when the OCG-folks buy for 600 yen (or more) on certain Yugioh products, they get an extra pack of 2 cards from a 10-card cardpool. The previous packs (1 & 2) re-used the cards from the Jump Festa. With Promo Pack 3A & 3B, Konami added 5 new cards per pack.

Last month (February-March), the first half of this promotional pack came out. This A-part contained the younger versions of the Earth and Water Elemental Dragons, a Zexal Character token (Rio), Duckfighter and Interplanetarypurplythorny Beast.

And from this week onward, the OCG-folks can receive the B-part of this year's promo pack.

OCG Promotion Pack 3 Pt. 2

This B-part has the following new cards:

• Burner, Elemental Dragon of Fire and Lightning, Elemental Dragon of Wind: The younger versions of the Fire & Wind Elemental Dragons. They help summoning the big E-dragons. The 4-Dragon deck can now be completed with E-Dragons only! I’m curious on how these two new cards will influence the OCG meta, since the 4-Dragon Deck is already a noteworthy competitor (the only reason why not everybody is running it, is because it’s the most expensive OCG deck at the moment).
• Madolche Pyocolate: Pyo, as the (Japanese) sound that baby birds in their nest (of chocolate) make. Other than the cuteness of this card, it’s not worth remembering.
• Vivit Knight: A Constellar Card that isn't a Constellar Card. Most archetypes have one of these cards, it doesn't have the name of the archetype, but you feel it's part of it. In most cases, since that card doesn't share the archetype name, it's often not worth running. Though, due to recent support for Beast-Warriors, this one might be worth running. Vivit Knight can be searched with Tenki (which Constellar decks are already using) and it can protect a LIGHT Beast-Warrior by temporarily banishing it (Aldebaran, Kaus, but also Hyades and Omega) and then special summoning itself. Can be a nice way to save your monster when you run into a Bottomless Trap Hole or a Forbidden Lance.
• Similar to the A-Part, a Zexal Character token is available, this time: (Ko)Tori.
• The other 5 cards in this pack are cards from the last Jump Festa, like Collapserpent, Kamaitachi, Kujakujaku, Armor Kappa and Token Christmas.

Next up on review: The OCG Starter Deck 2013 and the Enhancement Pack.

"Will you follow ME through the rabbit hole, Alice?"

Guessing the OCG inclusions – Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy edition

In May, Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy will come out in the TCG, bringing us an army of WIND attribute monsters. The promo page on the 808blog told us that there will also be more Noble Knights (TCG World Premiere cards) and perhaps even a few monster correlated with Hidden Arsenal 7.

So without further ado (and this time before there’s an official product page), let’s start guessing which OCG promo’s could be in Lord of the Tachyongalaxy.

Note: Last time I got 5/10 right. Lolkonami remains lolkonami; they can put in whatever they want.

High probability of being in Lord of the Tachyongalaxy

Constellar Omega: Originally I thought we would see this card before Hidden Arsenal 7 came out, but Konami thus decided it will be printed in the set following the last HA-series. This is one of the cards hinted on the 808-blog, so it has a very high chance of being in this set.

Constellar Sombres & Evilswarm Kerykeion: Woops, not Cercyon, but Kerykeion (name changed). Both are linked with the Hidden Arsenal 7 archetypes. These two “brothers” will most probably be printed.

Number 69: Heraldry God, Coat of Arms: Should’ve been in the last set, honestly. Dunno Why It didn’t get printed then, becaue all of the Heraldic beasts were in the last two sets. This card needs to appear for the archetype to be playable.

Number 42: Starship Galaxy Tomahawk: This is a VJump promo and it fits soooooo well in this set, because it’s heavily linked with the Mecha Phantom Beasts. It’s a WIND machine that produces tokens! It’s also a Rank 7 monster, which the MPB’s are easily ranked in to (according to what I hear, haven’t played with them yet).

Harpie Dancer: Harpie support? This one will be involved, definitely. It would be a real shame if Konami would miss the current Harpie Hype that’s going on.

Medium Probability of being in Lord of the Tachyongalaxy

Reactan, the Elemental Dragon of Crags & Stream, Elemental Dragon of Cascades: The younger versions of the Incarnate Dragons which are introduced in this set. These younger "brothers" are quite new in the OCG, so it’s not entirely sure they would already be in this set. But it’s possible.

Duckfighter: From the same promo pack as the previous 2 mentioned cards. It’s a WIND Machine that works with tokens. Nuff said (but also, might be a little too soon).

Sonic Warrior: The last card of the Tag Force 6 promo cards that needs a TCG print. This one is WIND attribute, so it’s a good fit, right?

The Atmosphere: The last of the Sphere monsters that require a TCG print. They’re all WIND, so might be the right time, right?

Kujakujaku (Nine-Snakes Peacock): One of the cards of the Jump Festa Pack of 2012. I mention it, because it’s a WIND attribute monster and fits in this set more than other sets would have a place for it.

Token Christmas: A trap that turns tokens into monsters! I know the timing for this card is totally off (Christmas, lol), but it works with the Mecha Phantom Beasts, so yeah, it’s possible.

Low probability of being in Lord of the Tachyongalaxy

Shuttleroid: The last of the Roid cards to be printed in the TCG. Was originally part of the group of cards that were in Premium Pack 2, but never got a print over here? I have no idea why. And even though it’s a WIND attribute and could be in the set, the absence of this card in both Premium Pack 2 and Legendary Collection 2 makes me wonder if we’ll ever see this card.

All cards of the last V-Jump pack: I’m talking about Fire Fist – Chicken, Fire King Beast Yaksha and the three Enthousiastic monsters. Kevin Tewart mentioned recently that it might take longer to get these cards into a TCG print. So possible, but quite unlikely.

Skullbird: I hope this card will NOT be in here. But considering Crimson Sunbird was in the last set, it’s not entirely impossible. This fusion monster has all its materials released in old boosters and Skullbird is a WIND attribute monster. So it has the same conditions as Crimson Sunbird.

Burner, Elemental Dragon of Calderas and Lightning, Elemental Dragon of Cyclones: Still need to appear in March in the OCG, so less likely to be seen here, but not entirely impossible either.

My 10-card pick:

The previous mentioned cards are the ones that have a decent chance of being in Lord of the Tachyongalaxy. If there are any other cards in the set, which are not mentioned in this list, then those cards are a pure random Konami decision (look at Cosmo Blazer, it doesn't get more random than that).

But if I would have to pick 10 cards, I’d pick:

1. Constellar Omega
2. Constellar Sombres
3. Evilswarm Kerykeion
4. Number 42: Starship Galaxy Tomahawk
5. Harpie Dancer
6. Number 69: Heraldry God, Coat of Arms
7. Sonic Warrior
8. Kujakujaku
9. The Atmosphere
10. Token Christmass

We’ll see how much I get correct this time around.

V out.

Broken as Hell - Spellbook Judgment Day

Lord of the Tachyongalaxy has now been released for a few weeks in the OCG, so the effects of this new booster set should be visible in the OCG tourneys. So I started checking the new tourney lists.

And for crying out loud, everybody’s playing prophecies. Not the Phantom Plane Beasts, PROPHECY. And all this happened because of ONE card: Spellbook Judgment Day (name may vary upon TCG release).

What does the card do?

The effect of this spell goes as follows:

"During the End Phase of the turn you activated this card, add "Spellbook" Spell Cards from your Deck to your hand, except "Spellbook Judgment Day", up to the number of Spell Cards activated this turn after this card resolved, then you can Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your Deck, whose Level is less than or equal to the number of cards you added to your hand this way. You can only activate 1 "Spellbook Judgment Day" per turn."

Error or not?

When the card was first revealed, I suspected a translation error, in the same way Reaper of Prophecy had a fan-translation error (you know, the 5 DIFFERENT spellbook spell cards part).

With the first tournament results being crammed with Prophecy players, I know this is NOT a translation error. The effect does NOT specify SPELLBOOK spell cards. It does NOT specify DIFFERENT spell cards. I'm a Prophecy player and even I can admit: This card is just plain unfair for any opponent to face.

As a result of this Konami BLUNDER (seriously, this is a blunder), a prophecy deck that took some skill to play (because you lose if you make a mistake and your opponent doesn't), now has become a brainless plus-machine.

OCG-Prophecy decks now consist of 3 Toon Table of content + Toon Gemini Elf, 3 Upstart Goblins and any possible spell that lets you draw cards, because during the end phase, for each spell you activated, you can search a Spellbook card from your deck (WTF?) AND Special summon a Spellcaster from your deck (depending on how many cards you activated, you might even summon High Priestess). You can activate cards and effects until your hand is empty and during the end phase, your hand is completely refilled and you get a free monster. And don’t forget, because everyone uses 3 Spellbook of secrets & 3 Spellbook Magicians, this annoying card is so easy to search you can basically activate 1 EACH turn (including the recycle power of Eternity & Fate I literally mean EVERY turn).

Can it be stopped?

Well, first things first. You need to know, Macro Cosmos does NOT stop this deck. Stop trying to side it in, because it’s not going to save you. Seriously, I've faced several opponents trying to side Macro Cosmos against me. While it slows me down or cuts off the book-of-life possibilities, it doesn't stop the terror of Judgment Day.

But what can stop or slow the deck? The following cards:

• Thunder King Rai-oh: Stops all searching, but with the boost of Spellbook of Power & the special summon effect of High Priestess (yeah, Rai-Oh can’t negate it), it’s sooo easy to get over him.
• Number 16: Shock Master: Shock Lock is a bitch. If you can, put it in your extra deck. The only thing that can get over Shocker is High Priestess’s special summon effect. If you're able to protect him, you can have free reign over spellbooks.
• Also, there’s a reason why Mind Crush is at 3 nowadays. Prophecies is the master at searching cards, so their greatest weakness is Mind Crush. If it’s not already main decked, at least side-deck a few copies, because you are going to need it, believe me.
• Droll & Lock Bird: This hand trap is they key in stopping Exchange FTK, Gishki FTK and is thus also the key in stopping the Prophecies' new bomb. It just causes your opponent to stop adding cards to their hand.
• Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell: This counter trap card is becoming more and more live each day. It permanently stops the activation of a certain spell and the opponent can no longer activate cards with the same name (primary targets: Book of Secrets and Judgment Day). Yes, it costs you a spell. But you can block a Prophecy player completely with this card. And hey, it’s a useful side-deck against Fire Fists and Fire Kings as well.
• Anti-Spell Fragrance: Your opponent must set his spell cards and cannot activate them the same turn. Though be aware that this card is a favorite target for High Priestess and Breaker.

Personally, I advice Droll & Lock Bird and Cursed Seal for most decks (unless you can play the shock master+Roach or Beast+Roach combo). But Anti-Spell Fragrance works wonders as well.

"You activated Judgment Day?
It would be a real shame if you wouldn't be able to use its effect, eh?"

What should've been the better card text?

“During the End Phase of the turn you activated this card, add "Spellbook" Spell Cards from your Deck to your hand, up to the number of different Spellbook Spell Cards activated this turn after this card resolved, then you can Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your Deck, whose Level is less than or equal to the number of cards you added to your hand this way. You can only activate 1 "Spellbook Judgment Day" per duel.”

Look, I added/changed 3 words. Still a frigging plus-machine, but it's less broken and easier to stop, since it's only a once per duel-effect.

Afterword

I'm kind of sad with this card. I love spellcasters and I simply love it that a pure spellcaster deck has become competitive. But Judgment Day is broken and wrong on so many levels. It could've been a more balanced card, but now it's just a card waiting to get a permanent ban.

Until next time, V out.

Analysis of YCS Bochum: Very diverse top 16, wind-ups win.

After my experience has been posted, I promised I’d post up an analysis of the event. It took a while, but here are the numbers:

• Players: 1455
• Rounds of Swiss: 8 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday.
• Cutoffs: top 256 at the beginning of sunday to continue the last 3 rounds of swiss.
• After 11 rounds of swiss, there was a top 32 cutoff.

Due to the high amount of players, losing 2 matches was often enough already for you to not be qualified for the top 32. It was harsh, but only 32 were allowed in.

Top 32 players/decks

Top 32 players were playing the following:

Duelist	Deck
Antione Duval	Dino Rabbit
Jan Groenke	Dino Rabbit
Piyal Peiris	Dino Rabbit
Sheik Soegrimsingh	Dino Rabbit
Andrea Zenari	Fire Fist
Anthony Francis	Fire Fist
Franck Bolognino	Fire Fist
Ho-Ming Wong	Fire Fist
Nicolas Petz	Fire Fist
Paul Adler	Fire Fist
Ricki Madsen	Fire Fist
Stefano Memoli	Fire Fist
Matthias Beu	HERO
Phi-Long Ly	HERO
Helio Babo	Mermail
Nick Boulbassakos	Mermail
Raul Wehnge	Mermail
Umut Serin	Mermail
Yannick Siegmund	Prophecy
Sandor Malinowski	Six Samurai
Alpay Engin	Wind-Up
Benjamin Lin	Wind-Up
Dennis Verspeek	Wind-Up
Dominik Kampel	Wind-Up
Felix Berttram	Wind-Up
Julian Kobler	Wind-Up
Michael de Santis	Wind-Up
Nicolai Knuesel	Wind-Up
Ole Wegner	Wind-Up
Thomas Cavaliere	Wind-Up
Valens Leteurtre	Wind-Up
Vitjan Glavicic	Wind-Up

So, that means:

Cutoff results

In the first round of the cut-off, wind-ups had 8 broken toys (12 to 4), Fire Fists lost 3 of their 8 brothers, Dino Rabbits power was cut in half and only one Merlantean player was left of the 4.

This results in the following top 16:

• 5x Fire Fist
• 4x Wind-up
• 2x Dino Rabbit
• 2x HERO
• 1x Mermail
• 1x Six Samurai
• 1x Prophecy

Top 8, this was reduced to:

• 2x Dino Rabbit
• 2x HERO
• 1x Fire Fist
• 1x Mermail
• 1x Six Samurai
• 1x Wind-up

Wow, this top 8 is very diverse. The 7 different decktypes that were in the top 32 were also present in the top 16. And if it wasn’t for the fact that the Six-Sam player was matched up with the Prophecy Player, all 7 might’ve ended up in the top 8. This once more proves that the current format is very diverse.

To continue: Top 4 was:

• Dino Rabbit
• Mermail
• Wind-up
• Fire Fist

4 Players, 4 decks. It happens, but not that often.

The final was (as we know by now) Stefano Memoli (Fire Fist) Versus Alpay Engin (Wind-up), resulting in a win for Engin and marking the final stand for Wind-ups.

And for those that want to know the decklist: it's available on Engin's youtube channel.

Afterword

That’s it for now. Took a while to write this, but I’ve got a few other things lineup for the rest of the week.

A few side-notes:

• Star Pack is out since end of last week. It sucks, as expected. Only a handful of nice reprints (Escuridao, Wisel, Wonder wand), but lots of crap.
• Zexal Tin content is now known and will release the end of this week. This release is better, as it holds the Numbers cards Volcasaurus, Freezerdon and Goldrat, Starliege Paladynamo, Gagagashield (a good trap for Spellcasters), and lots of other nice new cards (if you like Photon/Lightray/Galaxy decks, like me); together with a nice reprint of Giga-Brilliant.
• Edit: And yeah... noticed this youtube clip, revealing that the SE of Cosmo blazer will have Shark & Blade Armor Ninja. That fake picture is apparantly real. Fuck logic, lolkonami strikes again.
• Next up this week: My thoughts on Spellbook Judgment Day (the horror of Spellcasters) and my predictions of OCG cards included in Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy.

Until then, V out.

YCS Bochum - The Experience of a first YCS

(warning - long text, don't mind if you go tl,dr)

Day 1 - Friday

I left on Friday morning with my friend (Carl) for Bochum. After a smooth trip we ended up at the hotel in Dortmund (Ibis Budget Hotel Dortmund West). Since neither of us have a credit card, we waited until the reception opened, so we could pay with cash. To kill some time, we took a trip in the local area and we looked around for some nice restaurants to eat and visited the German Lidl and Aldi store.

When we drove back, we passed the well-camouflaged hotel (seriously, it was hidden behind a car-wash) and drove 15 minutes in the wrong direction (lol, fail). In the end, we got back to the hotel, checked in (and paid) for everybody in our group and went off to the event place in Bochum.

At the event place, Carl started looking around for a third Fire Fist - Bear, so he could play Fire Fists instead of his usual deck (Geargia). While he was busy trying to get a good price for the bear (read as: preventing to get ripped off), I registered with my Prophecy deck and received both a YCS token and a chip to get 5 boosters the next day.

After acquiring his third Bear, Carl made his decklist and we did a LOT of trades with the people present. My Diamond Dire Wolf, my Ultra Book of Moon, Ultra Mind Crush and my Abyssgaios were the most frequently requested cards and were gone in a matter of minutes. In return, I received another Lightning Chidori, and Abyss Dweller, a Grandsoil and Moulinglacia, etc. I think I got nearly everything from my wants list this weekend (truly amazing).

When the event closed for the day, we went back to the hotel, only to run into more Yu-Gi-Oh players (the hotel was filled with them). We played and traded some more, until our Belgian friends arrived (somewhere between 10 and 11). Due to some communication error, one of them ended up at the wrong number in the street (*facepalm*), while the other arrived at the wrong hotel (okay, I admit, it’s quite confusing if 3 different hotels are named “Ibis Hotel Dortmund West”). But in the end, they arrived at the correct place. They all paid back the correct price for the hotel (went better than expected) and I told them the hours of registering for the main event (8-10 o’clock). Then we went to our rooms (I could say we went to bed, but honestly, we joked around in the hallway for another while).

Day 2- Saturday (Event day 1)

We got up, got dressed and went to the event place. It took some time before the first round started, so I got myself a coffee and a sandwich with cheese (and plastic for some reason, eew) and we met up with some of the other Belgian players.

After the big line was gone at the booster stand, we tried to get our packs, only to hear that the English ones were already gone. German Cosmo Blazer it is, then (meh). Got me a German Heart-Earth, but nothing else noteworthy.

Around 11 the competition started (an hour late) with the notion that there were 1439 players (later edited to 1455), making it the biggest European event ever held (cool).

Unless otherwise requested, I'll spare you the details of the matches

Round 1: Opponent was a German dude with an Evol deck. Result was OXO (win). Deck was well built and I beat him in time (Spellbook Magician poke FTW).

Round 2: Opponent was an American with a Fire Fist deck. Really cool guy, but he didn't like Prophecies. Thank god I already played a lot against Fire Fists. I knew how to tackle them and won OO.

Round 3: Opponent was a Swiss with a Merlantean deck. I fought at my best, but he had outs to my side-deck. Result: XOX.

Round 4: Opponent was a French rulesharking douchebag named L. Lancelot. I admit, I made an error in the first game, but the way he handled it, made me seriously dislike the guy. At the end of my first turn, he instantly called the judge, trying to give me a game loss, without telling me what I did wrong. When he explained the judge what I did wrong (Activated Spellbook of the master without controlling a Spellcaster), I realized my mistake and told the judge I deserved a warning for my error. The judge told us to roll back (easy) and gave me a minor warning. You had to see the disappointed look on my opponents face. I instantly hated him. I tried to beat him, but due to my error, it was hard for me to come back (a common thing for Prophecy decks) and in the second game, my opening hand was so horrible, I couldn't do a thing. Result: XX.

I told Carl (who got a second loss as well) and we both were pissed. He lost to prophecies... because the opponent constantly used Spellbook of the Master/Fate without controlling spellcasters (he didn't knew that requirement). He also told me, Mr. Ruleshark should've received a warning, because he allowed the activation of a card and only called a judge afterwards. Wish I knew that in advance. I was kind of disgusted at this point, but tried to give it one more shot (though I kind of wanted to drop to the side-events).

Round 5: Another German. Cool guy who was in the same situation as me (kind of wanting to drop). we played our best, but when the match got into time, we resulted into topdecking. I couldn't draw a monster and he did, taking the necessary life to get his win. Result: XOX

3 Losses. The point where I drop. Went to the front desk and I let my name get scratched. I looked around for my teammates and I noticed that everybody dropped at this point, Even Carl (who is better than me at this game).

Jeroen and Drago went for a Regional (the Prophecy mat!), but they didn't make it. I went for a Win-A-Mat (originally wanted something else, but win-a-mat was the only one still available, because it was already getting late). I also didn't make it.

At the Konami booth, I bought an English Hanzo tin (20€? Can't find them this cheap anymore) and 3 of the Fire Structure Decks (same, cheaper than in the stores).

Carl and I couldn't find the others, so we left to get a bite. We went to a small Turkish restaurant (Pizza-Pitta place) and got a pizza dürüm (really good). After that we went to the hotel to watch some movies (only to realize that Carl forgot his external HD (lol). We then tried to watch some youtube clips, only to realize Germany has apparantly a strict youtube policy (it sucks). So, in last resort, we exchanged some music tips via Spotify (at least that went without trouble). when the others arrived, we talked some more and had some fun before we went to bed.

Day 3 – Sunday (Event Day 2)

Since none of us participated in the main event anymore, we slept a little longer. Drago asked the receptionist some directions to the nearest bank. And when we got there, we found a bakery as well, resulting in a decent breakfast (really good for a very decent price, way cheaper than at the event place).

At the event place, we wondered what we were going to do. We spotted the Evilswarm Oroborous giant card and decided in group we would enter that event with 3 of the guys. Miguel lost in round 1, I lost in round 2 (I deserved it, made some horribly stupid moves), and Carl went and won the event (hurrah, good for him). He was quite disappointed that both the Garunix and Oroborous cards were gone. He got to choose between “Attack the Moon” and “Heart-Earth Dragon”, going for the latter one. And look, he got a short post on the event coverage as well: This is it!. This also gave him an entry ticket for the Super Rare Digvorzak event (cool).

I didn’t participate in more events, but I played with Drago and gave him tips and tricks on how to play with Prophecies. Later we were joined by Haku (another Belgian player, usually a judge but this time as a player). He gave both of us tips and tricks on prophecies (many things even I didn't know. As programmers would say: Haku++). When asked on how he did it in the event, he dropped when he was at 7-3. In his last game, he faced a cheater. And when he called the judge, he sided with the cheating player. When appealing for the head judge (he got Martina instead, sigh), Haku ended up with a rulesharking warning instead. He couldn't believe what happened and dropped out of disgust.

This turned out to become an often repeated story, as many of the Belgian/Dutch players got warnings or rulings because of bad German judges. This resulted in the often-repeated phrase/yell: “WE NEED MORE BELGIAN JUDGES!”. While there were many present in the event place, they were all playing instead of judging (lol).

At first, I thought the judges all ruled in favor of Germans, but I've read on the No-Names blog that even the German players were often offended by the horrible level of judging as well, so I guess it was a general issue over the course of the weekend.

We said goodbye to Miguel and his girlfriend, since they had to leave early (he had to work on Monday). We dueled and had some more fun.

Near the end of the evening, Carl participated in the Digvorzhak event, but he got cheated during the few seconds a judge wasn't watching (he activated a Solemn Judgment he just set earlier the same turn), thus resulting in a judge conversation of near half an hour on how to deal with this situation. Since nobody could prove whether or not the opponent set the card before, they judged in favor of the cheater (disgusting Carl), so the other guy got the Digvorzhak.

In the meantime, on the other side of the hall, the final went on between Stefano Memoli (rumored to be an annoying ruleshark), versus Alpay Engin (who ended up revealing himself to be an annoying ruleshark as well, lol), thus turning the game very… “exciting”. I clearly remember one half of the viewers were cheering, while the other half was booing (Germans versus Italians). Some even claimed the Italians were very close to a fight with the Germans after the Wind-up Shark incident was ruled in favor of Engin (let alone when the duel ended). Yeah, Yu-Gi-Oh is a children’s card game with very serious fans… Report of the duel (and the incident itself) can be read here.

After Carl ended his duel (which was after the award ceremony, the judge call took this long), we walked to the hallway. We wanted to trade a bit more before we left, but the security of the event place pushed everybody out of the place (guess they wanted to go home, huh…).

We went back to the hotel and got some Chinese food (less than 500 m from the hotel). We ate it at the hotel, while the others joined us. We played some games, got joined by the few other Yu-Gi-Oh players still at the hotel and had some more fun.

Day 4 – Monday

We got up and packed our stuff. We went to the same baker as on Sunday and had a good breakfast. Then we went back home.

My experience

Even though nobody of our team topped and the judging was plain awful over the course of the event, we still had a lot of fun. This was my first YCS and it was a very fun experience. All of my opponents during the entire weekend were fun and cool, safe the rulesharking douchebag and a Karakuri player whom I still suspect of cheating during the win-a-mat event.

The only thing I was really disappointed about, was the side-events. Vexacus showed a few new mats on his channel (the Kite mat for Win-A-Mat event and the Fire King mat for the Structure Deck event), but we got neither (aaaawwwww). There was nothing on the Star Pack either, though it would've been a perfect place for the premiere of the pack (the card list just got revealed. It sucks donkey balls). The win-a-mat mats were either the Battle Pack mat, or the Yuma mat. The only good mats to win were the qualifier mats (Prophecies on Saturday, Fire Fists on Sunday).

So you could understand, the side-events weren't that exciting. Even the YCS trial was a laugh (free stay & travel to the next European YCS? Lol, it's a 40-minute drive from our home. Why would we even register for it?).

Next up this week, I’ll give an analysis of the YCS itself.

Until then, V out.

YCS Bochum - Day 2: We need more Belgian Judges

As I said, the full report will be when I get back home, but I'll give you some things:

• In case you didn't hear already, Wind-ups won the last YCS of this format.
• Memoli was already considered being a ruleshark (so I heard, I haven't played against him, so my opinion of him atm is still neutral), but according to the (non-German) people I heard in the crowd, the winner was no better. So ruleshark vs ruleshark? Wow, that's a fun duel...
• The quote of the day and of the weekend was clearly: "We need more Belgian judges!" (More on this in my review of the event).
• Only played one side-event, though I didn't make it. My friend won a Giant card though (he wanted Orobouros, but it was gone when he won). He could only choose between "Attack the Moon" and "Heart-Earth Dragon". He chose the latter (picture later on).
• And that's it. I played with friends and traded a bit more. I had lots of fun, even if I didn't do many events.
• Stayed until my friend lost in the event to win that super rare Digvorzak (or whatever it's name is) and the security guys told everyone to stop trading and get the hell out (not exactly in those words, but it wasn't that much different).
• Went to get some Chinese, dueled some more in the hotel lobby and traded with the few more Yugioh players that botherd to get to the lobby (seriously, there were tons on friday, none on Saturday and only a handful today. What happended?).
• Full report soon.
• Until then, V out.