So the first WCQ has been finished, and the top 32 results are less than surprising.
16 Tengu Variants
4 six Samurai
2 gravekeeper's
2 x-sabers
2 gladiator beast
2 scraps
1 t.g.
1 fabled
1 light gemini
1 worms
As I have already talked about this trend before, tengu variants are trending very high, while gravekeeper's and x-sabers are also trending very low. What is surprising to me is that I feel like six samurai was underrepresented in this top 32, with spots being stolen with decks like gladiator beasts. Of course a few "rogue" decks will make it into top 32 and in this case only 8 "rogue decks" (2 GB, 2 scrap, 1 t.g., 1 fabled, 1 light gemini and 1 worm). As we get further into hyper librarian's legality date, more and more players will be running plants and samurai and that should be what we are expecting at nationals in three weeks.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Water Tengu Synchro vs. Planets/Herald
This is a continuation of my video from my youtube site. I was talking about the water tengu matchup versus fairy/planets but neglected this matchup so here I go.
Water Tengu Synchro vs. Fairy/Planets
Herald is always hard to play against. The point of herald is to negate everything you throw at them and when you run out of cards, they counter.
So when you play against herald, it is so important for you to waste the herald deck's cards. They only have a finite amount of faeries they can discard from their hand so baiting out their cards is most vital to winning.
The best and easiest way to get rid of their cards is to go for formula synchron early and often. If they choose to negate the drawing of formula, they lose a faerie. If they choose not to, you get to draw more outs. Going for formula usually sets you up for more options because treeborn is free while you usually discard something useful into your graveyard for fishborg without using your normal summon. This is one of the few decks that can outpace heralds.
What to do in the side deck:
Thunder King Rai-Oh is necessary to side in to stop their Kristya, Manju, Senju, and/or sonic bird searches.
Torrential Tribute and Smashing ground are also important in this matchup because after you waste their negations on trivial things like formula synchrons, you can easily activate these cards against it.
So the side board really only has a few cards against herald but the reasoning for that is the deck is already capable of handling herald decks.
Water Tengu Synchro vs. Fairy/Planets
Herald is always hard to play against. The point of herald is to negate everything you throw at them and when you run out of cards, they counter.
So when you play against herald, it is so important for you to waste the herald deck's cards. They only have a finite amount of faeries they can discard from their hand so baiting out their cards is most vital to winning.
The best and easiest way to get rid of their cards is to go for formula synchron early and often. If they choose to negate the drawing of formula, they lose a faerie. If they choose not to, you get to draw more outs. Going for formula usually sets you up for more options because treeborn is free while you usually discard something useful into your graveyard for fishborg without using your normal summon. This is one of the few decks that can outpace heralds.
What to do in the side deck:
Thunder King Rai-Oh is necessary to side in to stop their Kristya, Manju, Senju, and/or sonic bird searches.
Torrential Tribute and Smashing ground are also important in this matchup because after you waste their negations on trivial things like formula synchrons, you can easily activate these cards against it.
So the side board really only has a few cards against herald but the reasoning for that is the deck is already capable of handling herald decks.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Top 32 Trends
What has been trending at the past few YCS?
Tengu Variants have seen a huge spike in play at the most recent events. 13 decks at the YCS topped with with a full 3 copies of reborn tengu.
Gravekeeper's have been on the decline as only 3 made it into the top 32 of YCS Rhode Island.
Pot of Duality: 17 players ran at least one copy of Pot of Duality. I'm still not sure what is the case for the huge price drops in this valuable card.
Solemn Warning: 28 people ran a full complement of this card in their main/side deck. No wonder this card is swelling in price.
The power/momentum have switched from control decks like gravekeeper's to full on assault/synchro decks such as six samurai and tengu pant variants. In this day and age, decks that are anti-meta/ anti synchro summons are slowing down, being driven away by faster and more broken decks that include reborn tengu. If you haven't hopped off the gravekeeper's bandwagon yet, i sure hope you consider it soon.
Tengu Variants have seen a huge spike in play at the most recent events. 13 decks at the YCS topped with with a full 3 copies of reborn tengu.
Gravekeeper's have been on the decline as only 3 made it into the top 32 of YCS Rhode Island.
Pot of Duality: 17 players ran at least one copy of Pot of Duality. I'm still not sure what is the case for the huge price drops in this valuable card.
Solemn Warning: 28 people ran a full complement of this card in their main/side deck. No wonder this card is swelling in price.
The power/momentum have switched from control decks like gravekeeper's to full on assault/synchro decks such as six samurai and tengu pant variants. In this day and age, decks that are anti-meta/ anti synchro summons are slowing down, being driven away by faster and more broken decks that include reborn tengu. If you haven't hopped off the gravekeeper's bandwagon yet, i sure hope you consider it soon.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Perfecting the Side Deck
What decks are you going to see at nationals? Let's see what we have.
Plants
Samurai
Plants
Samurai
Fairy
Fish
Plants
Plants
Plants
Fish
Samurai.
So that's basically what you are going to see at nationals, in that order.
So how do we prepare the side deck for these decks?
Firstly, what cards are great against all/most of these decks.
D.D. Crow
is good against plants, fish, and anything reliant on the graveyard.
Maxx C
is great for all matchups especially with hyper librarian running rampant.
Fairy Wind
is important in the samurai matchup, as well as a good card against necrovalley, dimensional fissure, etc.
Malevolent Catastrophe
is good in any matchups not named fish or water tengu synchro.
Thunder King
stops people from searching their deck and negates synchro summons.
Debunk
removes from play cards with effects taht activate in the graveyard or hand. Great tech.]
These are the cards off the top of my head that I will definitely include in my side deck. At this point, the only real thinking is how many of each card I will be using.
Plants
Samurai
Plants
Samurai
Fairy
Fish
Plants
Plants
Plants
Fish
Samurai.
So that's basically what you are going to see at nationals, in that order.
So how do we prepare the side deck for these decks?
Firstly, what cards are great against all/most of these decks.
D.D. Crow
is good against plants, fish, and anything reliant on the graveyard.
Maxx C
is great for all matchups especially with hyper librarian running rampant.
Fairy Wind
is important in the samurai matchup, as well as a good card against necrovalley, dimensional fissure, etc.
Malevolent Catastrophe
is good in any matchups not named fish or water tengu synchro.
Thunder King
stops people from searching their deck and negates synchro summons.
Debunk
removes from play cards with effects taht activate in the graveyard or hand. Great tech.]
These are the cards off the top of my head that I will definitely include in my side deck. At this point, the only real thinking is how many of each card I will be using.
Friday, June 24, 2011
YCS Rhode Island Top 32 Deck Feature: Chris Gong
Like I said yesterday, Samurai are a force to be reckoned with. With that being said, which samurai deck did I like the best out of the YCS decklists?
That would be my good friend's decklist, Chris Gong. His deck choices were unique and not used in many "top" samurai decks. Here is the list to the top 32 as well as his decklist.
Top 32 YCS Rhode Island Deck Lists
Monsters: 15
3 Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan
2 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
1 Hand of the Six Samurai
1 The Six Samurai – Yaichi
1 Spirit of the Six Samurai
1 Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor
Spells: 17
1 Gateway of the Six
3 Six Samurai United
2 Shien’s Dojo
1 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Shien’s Smoke Signal
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Giant Trunade
1 Book of Moon
2 Dimensional Fissure
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Traps: 9
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Double-Edged Sword Technique
1 Mirror Force
2 Musakani Magatama
1 Royal Oppression
Now what makes this deck so special?
Firstly, the inclusion of dimensional fissure. As he and I discussed before the event, dimensional fissure is good against EVERY meta deck. It even works against gravekeeper's because they have to tribute recruiter to search for cards. It works in the mirror when they can't double edge their monster's back and can't use grandmaster's effect. It works well against plants, frogs, and even blackwings. The inclusion of two in his maindeck was an absolute beastly choice and worked out well for him on his quest for top 32.
Secondly, he ran two cards that samurai players tend to neglect. Yaichi is a really good card against many decks because it can pop a spell or trap once per turn. So many times when I have test played against him, he had yaichi and kizan on the field, he would always protect his yaichi in order to pop more cards. That won him plenty of games. Another card that many neglect to play is spirit of the six samurai. Spirit is another out to stardust dragon and is a great card to abuse in order to draw cards. He would have grandmaster in hand and I would have stardust and gorz on the field. He would draw smoke signal or spirit, summon spirit and grandmaster, equip and run over stardust, then draw an out like monster reborn or mirror force or whatnot.
Lastly, the inclusion of oppression is just devastating, especially when you get out to a quick start with your samurai's. Even if you go 2nd, oppression stops many cards in your opponent's deck and it is just knowning when to activate it that separates average players from good players.
These tech choices in his main-deck forced players to play around even more than the usual Shien and warning. This is an example of scouting the meta and ensuring that your main deck is highly likely to win game 1.
That would be my good friend's decklist, Chris Gong. His deck choices were unique and not used in many "top" samurai decks. Here is the list to the top 32 as well as his decklist.
Top 32 YCS Rhode Island Deck Lists
Monsters: 15
3 Kagemusha of the Six Samurai
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki
3 Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan
2 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
1 Hand of the Six Samurai
1 The Six Samurai – Yaichi
1 Spirit of the Six Samurai
1 Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor
Spells: 17
1 Gateway of the Six
3 Six Samurai United
2 Shien’s Dojo
1 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Shien’s Smoke Signal
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Giant Trunade
1 Book of Moon
2 Dimensional Fissure
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Traps: 9
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Double-Edged Sword Technique
1 Mirror Force
2 Musakani Magatama
1 Royal Oppression
Now what makes this deck so special?
Firstly, the inclusion of dimensional fissure. As he and I discussed before the event, dimensional fissure is good against EVERY meta deck. It even works against gravekeeper's because they have to tribute recruiter to search for cards. It works in the mirror when they can't double edge their monster's back and can't use grandmaster's effect. It works well against plants, frogs, and even blackwings. The inclusion of two in his maindeck was an absolute beastly choice and worked out well for him on his quest for top 32.
Secondly, he ran two cards that samurai players tend to neglect. Yaichi is a really good card against many decks because it can pop a spell or trap once per turn. So many times when I have test played against him, he had yaichi and kizan on the field, he would always protect his yaichi in order to pop more cards. That won him plenty of games. Another card that many neglect to play is spirit of the six samurai. Spirit is another out to stardust dragon and is a great card to abuse in order to draw cards. He would have grandmaster in hand and I would have stardust and gorz on the field. He would draw smoke signal or spirit, summon spirit and grandmaster, equip and run over stardust, then draw an out like monster reborn or mirror force or whatnot.
Lastly, the inclusion of oppression is just devastating, especially when you get out to a quick start with your samurai's. Even if you go 2nd, oppression stops many cards in your opponent's deck and it is just knowning when to activate it that separates average players from good players.
These tech choices in his main-deck forced players to play around even more than the usual Shien and warning. This is an example of scouting the meta and ensuring that your main deck is highly likely to win game 1.
Road to Nationals: Part 1
So I've finally made my mark on the Yu-gi-oh community, topping at a YCS going undefeated in Swiss, with a powerful and innovative deck. What better way to use this to advance in my Yu-gi-oh career and have people actually listen to my ideas than to start this blog and power up my yu-gi-tube channel.
3zInferno's youtube
Shoutout to Michael Bonacini for always having my back and giving me mad support.
DeathAspectBlog This is also where I got the idea of keeping a blog because it is a great place to put all my ideas and thoughts about yu-gi-oh.
So let's get started. What will will see at Nationals?
Top 32 deck breakdown at the YCS:
5 Six Samurai
3 gravekeeper's
9 tengu/debris synchro
2 x sabers
3 planets/herald
10 random decks
With hyper librarian coming out before nationals, we will see every person running this card. It is not a matter of price, because everyone who is attending this nationals trying to win it, will be running hyper librarian. So a few decks already have been knocked out of the picture because of this. The low reliance on synchros (gravekeeper's) and how hard it is to make a level 5 (sabers) lowers the "national's value" (NV) of these two decks. I'm going to refer to NV (national's value) in the remainder of this post.
Three decks that will see it's NV go up.
1. Samurai
Samurai have a great drawing engine, and special summon with reckless abandon. They make level 5 in so many ways (ascetism, kagemusha, kaigeki, elder, kizan and squire) that is is hard to pass. In many ways, samurai can win this natoinals.
Take an opening hand of Smoke Signal, Ascetism, Six Samurai United, Kaigeki, Reinforcement of the Army and Mystical Space Typhoon. You can turn this into such a powerful opening, especially going second. (2nd): Smoke signal for elder, activate united. Special elder, asecetism into kagemusha. Synchro Librarian. ROTA for kagemusha, draw two for united (pretend you don't draw ANYTHING useful) kaigeki for kagemusha, then synchro shien (draw one). So what does that leave you with? Librarian and Shien on the field, and four cards. Imagine if you drew gateway of another united or dojo off of the united. Samurai is a force to be reckoned with.
2. Reborn Tengu Variants (Mainly Water Tengu Synchro)
Seeing that I ran the water tengu synchro, I will talk about its variability and how devastating the water engine is in this deck. Seeing how I can formula every turn without normal summoning, I can draw two cards from hyper librarian every turn. With hyper librarian on the field, this is what a turn could look like.
DRAW for turn: standby phase, get treeborn. Discard Malicious for fishborg blaster. Remove malicious. Tune to make formula (+2), then tune formula and malicious for stardust (+1), that leaves a normal summon for things like tengu or lonefire that can lead to even MORE draws. That is why the water variant is the BEST version of the deck, hands down.
3. Planets:
This deck is pretty good and amazingly consistent. What I do like about this deck is that it can make its own hyper librarians while also stopping other people from special summoning their own (with archlord kristya). This deck has tons of surprises (herald of orange light) that can not always be "read" and is a great choice for players who don't really like "meta" decks but are still hoping to take people down at nationals.
Decks with lowered NV:
1. Gravekeeper's
This deck is all about consistency. But in this format, consistency with mediocre power is not the right way to go. True, royal tribute is still devastating and necrovalley is still a good card, but without the ability to make synchros, this deck is getting outpaced by all the others. As you can see, gravekeeper's have been dwindling (slowly) in numbers in the top 32. Decks that take advantage of huge turns with synchros will soon outpace gravekeeper's.
2. X-sabers:
Sabers are somewhat of a mess for me. I know that they can play very well and that they are not a tier 2 deck as many people have them out to be. To be fair, they can pull off hyper librarian (although not as easily) and have some decent tricks up their sleeves. But having to set all so many monsters, and still having an engine that needs people to attack blindly into facedowns (emmersblade) is being outdated quickly. What the deck needs is to get back to its original roots. I feel like being able to synchro Gottoms and discard cards people's hands is one of the only ways for x-sabers to get back into this meta.
Predictions:
Even though I have made my name in the yu-gi-oh community with water synchro, I feel like Samurai is the deck to beat. It is true that tengu is an amazing card and that's what makes these variants so versatile. However, if you are willing to trade in the more consistent plants for a more explosive six samurai deck, I'm sure that it won't disappoint you. Being able to go hyper librarian and Trishula first turn is just WOW amazing.
3zInferno's youtube
Shoutout to Michael Bonacini for always having my back and giving me mad support.
DeathAspectBlog This is also where I got the idea of keeping a blog because it is a great place to put all my ideas and thoughts about yu-gi-oh.
So let's get started. What will will see at Nationals?
Top 32 deck breakdown at the YCS:
5 Six Samurai
3 gravekeeper's
9 tengu/debris synchro
2 x sabers
3 planets/herald
10 random decks
With hyper librarian coming out before nationals, we will see every person running this card. It is not a matter of price, because everyone who is attending this nationals trying to win it, will be running hyper librarian. So a few decks already have been knocked out of the picture because of this. The low reliance on synchros (gravekeeper's) and how hard it is to make a level 5 (sabers) lowers the "national's value" (NV) of these two decks. I'm going to refer to NV (national's value) in the remainder of this post.
Three decks that will see it's NV go up.
1. Samurai
Samurai have a great drawing engine, and special summon with reckless abandon. They make level 5 in so many ways (ascetism, kagemusha, kaigeki, elder, kizan and squire) that is is hard to pass. In many ways, samurai can win this natoinals.
Take an opening hand of Smoke Signal, Ascetism, Six Samurai United, Kaigeki, Reinforcement of the Army and Mystical Space Typhoon. You can turn this into such a powerful opening, especially going second. (2nd): Smoke signal for elder, activate united. Special elder, asecetism into kagemusha. Synchro Librarian. ROTA for kagemusha, draw two for united (pretend you don't draw ANYTHING useful) kaigeki for kagemusha, then synchro shien (draw one). So what does that leave you with? Librarian and Shien on the field, and four cards. Imagine if you drew gateway of another united or dojo off of the united. Samurai is a force to be reckoned with.
2. Reborn Tengu Variants (Mainly Water Tengu Synchro)
Seeing that I ran the water tengu synchro, I will talk about its variability and how devastating the water engine is in this deck. Seeing how I can formula every turn without normal summoning, I can draw two cards from hyper librarian every turn. With hyper librarian on the field, this is what a turn could look like.
DRAW for turn: standby phase, get treeborn. Discard Malicious for fishborg blaster. Remove malicious. Tune to make formula (+2), then tune formula and malicious for stardust (+1), that leaves a normal summon for things like tengu or lonefire that can lead to even MORE draws. That is why the water variant is the BEST version of the deck, hands down.
3. Planets:
This deck is pretty good and amazingly consistent. What I do like about this deck is that it can make its own hyper librarians while also stopping other people from special summoning their own (with archlord kristya). This deck has tons of surprises (herald of orange light) that can not always be "read" and is a great choice for players who don't really like "meta" decks but are still hoping to take people down at nationals.
Decks with lowered NV:
1. Gravekeeper's
This deck is all about consistency. But in this format, consistency with mediocre power is not the right way to go. True, royal tribute is still devastating and necrovalley is still a good card, but without the ability to make synchros, this deck is getting outpaced by all the others. As you can see, gravekeeper's have been dwindling (slowly) in numbers in the top 32. Decks that take advantage of huge turns with synchros will soon outpace gravekeeper's.
2. X-sabers:
Sabers are somewhat of a mess for me. I know that they can play very well and that they are not a tier 2 deck as many people have them out to be. To be fair, they can pull off hyper librarian (although not as easily) and have some decent tricks up their sleeves. But having to set all so many monsters, and still having an engine that needs people to attack blindly into facedowns (emmersblade) is being outdated quickly. What the deck needs is to get back to its original roots. I feel like being able to synchro Gottoms and discard cards people's hands is one of the only ways for x-sabers to get back into this meta.
Predictions:
Even though I have made my name in the yu-gi-oh community with water synchro, I feel like Samurai is the deck to beat. It is true that tengu is an amazing card and that's what makes these variants so versatile. However, if you are willing to trade in the more consistent plants for a more explosive six samurai deck, I'm sure that it won't disappoint you. Being able to go hyper librarian and Trishula first turn is just WOW amazing.
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