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Testing Results with Monarchs using an Extra Deck part 2

2016-02-23T22:28:00.001-06:00

Last time we talked about my thoughts and results using Monarchs as a Rank 5 and Rank 8 toolbox. My belief is that it increases the ceiling for an otherwise Linear deck enabling more plays and ending duels much faster than normal.

Monarchs 2 matches - 0

Oddly enough, this matchup went alot smoother than I expected and it in more ways than one validated my theory that relying on a Field spell is not a solid game plan. The most important card in this match up is Volcasaurus. If you can get your opponent to 3000 lp, you most certainly win the game if they control a mega monarch. You get 2800 damage from killing the Monarch with Volc's effect, then when they go to use The Prime Monarch, you get 200 additional damage from the piercing damage of Gaia Charger. I won all four games in this fashion and moving forward, this will be the way I approach every mirror match. Stay alive until they get to 3k, play around Stormforth + Ehther, then burn for game.

Mermail 1 -1

This match up is all about getting the mermail player to go 1st and then picking apart their hand and field. If you go 1st, you will almost certainly lose if you don't have Ehther + Stormforth. Dweller is the devil in this match up, making Prime, and the grave effect of the Squires and Pantheism dead. Not too mention, it makes Megalo and Gaios a Huge beatstick. Needless to say, I lost the die roll match 1 and was forced to go 1st. And even after dropping a turn 1 Erebus, The mermail player was still able to OTK me with just 5 cards. I bricked game 3 with a hand of 3 Erebus, 2 Domain, and Stormforth to his field of Gaios + Equip + Anti-Spell Fragrance.

To sum it all up, my results prove to me at least that the deck is certainly viable if for nothing else, the sheer power of the Mega Monarchs and the amount of Damage you can do in one turn. In my next article about Monarchs, I want to discuss an issue first brought up by Yugituber Glasgowygo in which he talks about alternatives to Edea/Eidos engine. Stay tuned!

Testing Results with Monarchs featuring an Extra Deck

2016-02-20T23:40:00.000-06:00

I went to a local card shop known for high caliber players to test my theory using an Extra Deck in Monarchs. I played 8 Matches against 4 players using Draco and Pals, Kozmo, Monarchs, and Mermail. I had very interesting results.

Draco and Pals 2 matches - 0

This match up is about breaking up their turn 1 board and keeping them off the board. I never liked the idea of relying on Domain because of the variance of the field. The field spell only helps you get over the big ships and other mega monarchs. I would rather just beat them outright in a few turns. In both matches I turn 3 OTK with a mega monarch + shark fortress. I understand that you should be getting auto wins vs Pendulum based decks game 1 because of the field spell, but based on the past few Regional reports, Games 2 and 3 the field spell becomes a non factor.

Kozmo 1 - 1

This match up is about about abusing Stormforth and preventing Call of the Haunted on Destroyer. I learned this quickly in Games 1 and 2, in Match 1. While the name of the game is control the board with Majesty's Fiend, it doesn't stop Destroyer or Forerunner from running over you and getting otk'd shortly after even with the Prime Monarch chump blocking. Game 2 I decided that I would save my Ehthers for use primarily on my opponents turn in conjuction with storm forth to prevent the pilots from tagging into big ships. Then on my turn I can push for damage and set up for another Stormforth + Ehther play on their following turn. It is a serious grind, but if you can prevent their big ships from running you over and lock down their call of the haunteds (Kuraz gives them more cards, but you nuke the calls and they only run 3). Both games in Match 2, when I had my opponent down in cards I was able to safely drop Majesty's Fiend to seal the game.

In my next post, I'll talk about the Mirror Match and Mermail.

This Week of Twitch.tv/dubkdad1 (2/11 & 2/12)

2016-02-11T20:47:00.002-06:00

I'm changing my broadcast times to better reflect my hectic schedule. Starting this week, I will be broadcasting from 10pm EST/7pm PST on Thursday and Fridays. This change allows me to broadcast continually without the 2 hour intermission to fix dinner and deal with other "dad" type stuff in the evenings.
This week I'm very excited to begin playing the Phantom Knight archetype. This archetype speaks to me in the same way Plant Synchro and Dragon Rulers did. I love the deck's ability to make plays from the hand and graveyard. I also love the way deck can generate advantage from comboing off. The deck can pump out up 2 or more rank 3s off of 2 cards, it can search battle traps and themed fiendish chains and themed my body as a shields. The deck can fight off otk attempts and can even otk itself.

My first step in making this deck a reality is to pick up the cards from Wing Raiders and to pick up the related cards such as Dante and other good dark Rank 4 XYZs. After that, I'll need to test and test until I can find a solid build and hopefully, I can start competing in tier 2 events again. Wish me luck guys!

What is Fair?

2016-02-11T19:30:00.000-06:00

My stance on the emergency limitations and restrictions is a s follows:

It is a sad thing to have numerous people acquire cards for a new deck and out of left field have that deck be neutered. I do not fault the players for picking up what was an obviously degenerate deck and expecting to be able to use said deck for at least 2-6 months as has been the routine in the past. I also do not fault Konami for having the foresight to nip this monster in the bud before things got worse. It simply boils down to everyone taking an "L" and moving forward trying not to make the same mistakes.

There have been a few yugitubers making valid points about this, namely Glasgow Yugioh and MegaCapitalG. I would add to their arguments that at the end of the day you have a few decision to make. Are you going to continue to play this game owned by a company who has historically been slow to heed the word of the competitive player base (a minority of the community)? Are you going to make more of an effort to reach out to the majority of the player base and convince them that tier zero formats are healthy (which I disagree with)? Finally, if you continue to invest in the game, are you going to be adult enough to realize that like in any invest, a return on your money is not guaranteed and as a result, resign yourself to taking the occasional monetary loss like a true venture capitalist?

I stopped pouring money into this game some time ago. I realized that as a company, Konami's interest is to make money and has legal obligation to do so for the sake of its shareholders. As a result, the 1k - 1.5k attendees at any given event is pea its to the untold tens of thousands or so causal players who randomly buy packs from Walmart to play against their buddies at school or at the local coffee shop. Seriously think about it. Short of sending weekly petitions to Konami with 1000's of signatures AND a business plan detailing how your ideas will not deter their cash cow from purchasing product but will also increase revenue significantly for their shareholders, there is not much else that will stop them from doing what they feel they must in the interest of said shareholders.

This Week of Twitch.tv/dubkdad1 (2/4 & 2/5)

2016-02-02T22:47:00.001-06:00

I want to thank all of the awesome coming out every Thursday and Friday 2pm MST. I've reached 100 followers on Twitch! If you didnt know I play Yugioh on DN as Dubkdadone, play awesome music, and chat with the viewers on the stream. I invite everyone to request their favorite music, talk about their favorite topics whether it be politics, sports, anime, or whatever. Also, when time permits, I have viewer duels that are password protected. The passwords are selected by the viewers in the chat and only viewers from the stream get to challenge me.

This week, I want to talk to everyone about becoming competitive while using less competitive decks. Specifically cards that you like. A majority of my tops in the past have been with decks that may have included elements of decks, but were tailored to fit in cards that I enjoy playing. To many this is not the way to compete in a large event, but for me, I lose interest really fast if I'm not having fun. Also, if I can run my favorite cards while having fun, then it is definitely a win-win. I'll be working on my new Synchro deck featuring a Monarch engine. Sounds fun? Be sure to tune in and help me work out the ratios for the build and watch me take on some people in rated matches.

Before I go, I'd like to ask that you consider helping me out to improve the quality of the stream and to obtain cards so that I might make a return to competitive play and eventually start travelling to events and meeting up with people again. If you are interested please take time to visit my donation page. Donations during stream get priority during viewer duels and other perks. Thanks again and see you on Thursday!

New Monarchs, New Engine?

2016-02-02T22:33:00.001-06:00

Much like the Destiny Hero engine being splashed in everything back in 2008 and beyond, we now have a new draw engine in the form Pantheism of the Monarch. In case you aren't familiar, here is the card:

How could you possibly use this card as a draw engine in a deck NOT focused on Monarchs? I imagine playing 3 copies of this card in conjuction with Tenacity of the Monarch, The Monarchs Stormforth, and the Prime Monarch. Finding the right ratios will take some trial and error, but after seeing this deck place 5th at an event in Scotland, I'm sure there has to be something there.

One of the things that is discouraging is that the engine is rather large. If I were to begin constructinng a deck using this as an engine, I would start with:

3 Ehther

1 Erebus

3 Edea

2 Eidos

3 Pantheism of the Monarchs

3 Tenacity of the Monarch

2 Monarchs Stormforth

2 Prime Monarch

That is 17 cards leaving some, but not much room to fit your win condition. Obviously, since I'm dubkdad1, I'll be trying out Quickdraw. Please leave your comments below with any ideas you may have about the idea of using these cards as an engine.

This Week on Twitch.tv/dubkdad1! (1/28 & 1/29)

2016-01-26T21:20:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't heard, I've been streaming on Twitch every Thursday and Friday 2pm MST. I play Yugioh on DN as Dubkdadone, play awesome music, and chat with the viewers on the stream. I invite everyone to request their favorite music, talk about their favorite topics whether it be politics, sports, anime, or whatever. Also, when time permits, I have viewer duels that are password protected. The passwords are selected by the viewers in the chat and only viewers from the stream get to challenge me.
This week on the stream I'm going to be building a couple of decks with the help of the viewers. Some of the decks suggested were a deck revolving around Generation Force and Utopia and a Monarch deck. Just so you know this is Generation Force:

I think as a fun card, it doesn't get much better than this. With this card you can tutor an XYZ themed Call of the Haunted, Pot of Greed, Raigeki, and even a Heavy Storm. I honestly cannot wait to see what direction the deck goes in.

Before I go, I'd like to ask that you consider helping me out to improve the quality of the stream and to obtain cards so that I might make a return to competitive play and eventually start travelling to events and meeting up with people again. If you are interested please take time to visit my Twitch Donation page. Donations during stream get priority during viewer duels and other perks. Thanks again and see you on Thursday!

Decklist Compendium 2016

2016-01-23T23:21:00.003-06:00

These are decks that I've created this year:

Dragunity 2k16 (1/15)

18 Monsters
1 Dragunity Arma Mysteltain
1 Dragunity Darkspear
3 Dragunity Phalanx
3 Dragunity Dux
3 Pilica, Descendent of Gusto
1 Zephyros, the Elite
1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
3 Maxx "C"
1 Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
1 Effect Veiler

18 Spells
1 Foolish Burial
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Cards of Consonance
3 Emergency Teleport
2 Dragon's Ravine
2 Terraforming
2 Twin Twister's
1 Raigeki
1 Dragunity Divine Lance

4 Traps
1 Breakthough Skill
1 Solemn Strike
1 Solemn Warning
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

Psy-Frame/Yosenju Hybrid (1/29)

22 Monsters
3 Psy-Frame Alpha
3 Psy-Frame Beta
3 Psy-Frame Delta
2 Psy-Frame Epsilon
3 Psy-Frame Gamma
2 Psy-Frame Driver
2 Yosenju Kama 1
2 Yosenju Kama 2
2 Yosenju Kama 3

12 Spells
3 Psy-Frame Circuit
2 Psychic Feel Zone
2 Psychic Path
2 Terraforming
2 Dark Hole
1 Raigeki

6 Traps
3 Psy-Frame Overload
3 Lose 1 Turn

Super Quantum Monarchs w/extra deck (2/18)

Monsters 16

3 Ehther
3 Erebus
2 Kuraz
2 Red Layer
1 Blue Layer
2 Edea
1 Eidos
1 Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit
1 Ghostrick Jack Frost

Spells 21

3 Pantheism
3 Tenacity
3 Stormforth
2 Domain
1 Return
3 Emergency Teleport
3 Upstart Goblin
1 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Charge
1 Instant Fusion

Traps 3

3 The Prime Monarch

Sylvan Learning Center - part 1: Card Choices

2014-06-30T11:14:00.002-05:00

From Debris Hime to Quickdraw Dandy Warrior to Synchrocentric, whenever plants have had strong cards available, they have always been a powerful engine. Konami has finally released a Plant Archetype consisting of cards that have characteristics of Monsters of other themes. They have also granted the deck an array of combos that produces some of the most dominating fields the game has seen. The only things keeping this deck from being the number one played deck in the Meta are the facts that the deck can serve up some of the WORST unplayable hands and that the learning curve for the deck is extremely high. Unlike some of the other decks in the format, this deck is unforgiving and has no "I win" cards that can just be played from the hand or activated on the field such as Geargiagear with no prior setup.

In this series of articles, I would like to discuss how to improve the deck and its faults. I would like to offer outside of the box ideas for card choices, combos, and useful interactions between the cards in this deck and other strategies in the current Meta.

One of my main points of contention with card choices in this deck is the insistence of running Kuribandit as people believes that it gets you out of the Early Game by digging for needed power spells and fuels your graveyard for Soul Charge and Miracle Fertilizer. Yes, it is an amazing card for what it does. But let's also consider other things that it does not do. It does not have Sylvan in its name, so it cannot be used for Sylvan Charity. It does not have the Plant typing, so it does not work with your Excavating effects. It does not provide field presence or deal with established fields. Face it, if your opponent has a facedown Geargiarmor and 3 sets, you are not going to want to summon this guy and leave your field open.

This guy is my solution to the above conundrum. While he shares the problem of not providing field presence, he is the perfect combo piece for excavating with Mount Sylvania. You simply pitch him to activate Sylvania and stack a Sylvan on top of your deck. Then his effect will activate and immediately Excavate the stacked card. Opponent has a possible set Warning, Breakthrough Skill, or Black Horn of Heaven? Activate Sylvania, send Snapdrassinagon -> place Komushroomo on top of deck. Snap activates and excavates Komushroomo right away. Opponent has that annoying Fire Hand and you have no monsters on the field? Use Snapdrassinagon to place Marshalleaf on top of deck and Excavate Marshalleaf right away and kill Fire Hand without triggering its effect. You can also send Sagequoia to add back a used Sylvan Charity for immediate use or send Hermit Tree to peek at your top 3 cards then use Miracle Fertilizer to revive Hermit and get a nearly guaranteed Excavate and a draw.

In testing this card, I have found that it is completely reliant on seeing and successfully resolving Mount Sylvania. I have been using multiple copies of Terraforming to make sure I see one of my 3 copies as soon as possible. When doing so, it gives the feel of Dragunities searching Ravine before the Dragon Rulers where released, because usually at the very least, you get to pitch a Hermit or Sagequoia from your hand to use with Fertilizer or Soul Charge.

Tell me what you think about Snapdrassinagon in the comments below. Next time we'll talk about the use of Dragon Rulers and the Plant Princesses in this deck.

Dubkdad1

Deck Compendium 2014

2014-04-26T21:50:00.002-05:00

Decklists Created for 2014

Psychics (4/2014)

19 Monsters

1 Redox
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
1 Ghostrick Jackfrost
2 Overdrive Teleporter
1 Psychic Jumper
1 Esper Girl
3 Serene Psychic Witch
2 Hushed Psychic Cleric
2 Silent Psychic Wizard
2 Psychic Commander
3 Maxx "C"

14 Spells

3 Emergency Teleport
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Upstart Goblin
2 Soul Charge
1 Book of Moon
1 Forbidden Lance
1 Miracle Synchro Fusion

7 Traps

2 Psychic Overload
2 Breakthrough Skill
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra Deck

1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Crimson Blader
1 Mist Wurm
1 XX-Saber Gottoms
1 Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree
1 Magical Android
1 HTS Psyhemoth
1 Psychic Nightmare
1 Psychic Life Trancer
1 Overmind Archfiend
1 Ultimate Axon Kicker

Bujingi Turbo (6/2014)

19 Monsters

3 Bujin Yamato
2 Bujin Hirume
1 Bujin Arasuda
1 Bujin Mikazuchi
2 Bujin Crane
2 Bujingi Hare
2 Bujingi Turtle
1 Bujingi Sinyou
1 Bujingi Quilin
1 Bujingi Fox
2 Photon Thrasher
1 Honest

15 Spells

3 Soul Charge
3 Tenki
3 Upstart Goblin
2 Bujincarnation
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Book of Moon
1 Reinforcement of the Army

6 Traps

2 Breakthrough Skill
1 Solemn Warning
1 Bujin Regalia - The Sword
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Bottomless Trap Hole

Extra Deck

2 Bujintei Susanowo
1 Bujintei Kagutsuchi
1 Bujintei Tsukuyomi
1 Bujinki Amaterasu
2 Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1 Constellar Omega
1 Number 103: Ragnazero
1 Number 101: Silent Honor Ark
1 Diamond Dire Wolf
1 Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Lavalval Chain
1 Blackship of Corn

Giga-Vise (2014)
**still testing, coming soon!**

Do you really need to run 3 MST? Part 1

2014-02-01T23:21:00.003-06:00

I want to explore a concept that I have been messing around with. In the last few years, there have been many decks that have chosen to forgo Spell based Spell/Trap removal, namely Mystical Space Typhoon. Consider this: The decks that you actually want spell and trap removal against, run in excess of 10 traps and they happen to set multples on their first turn. In your opening hand staring down a Fire Fist Bear with 4 set cards, how many of those 6 cards do you actually want to be Mystical Space Typhoon?
If you have ever ran a deck like Chaos Dragons, Dragon Rulers, Monster Mash, or even Agents you know that using your monsters effectively work just as well as having Spell and Trap removal. The key to decks like these is know that at any given point, there can only be so many Summon Response traps. This format we generally only have Warning, Bottomless, and Torrential Tribute (with a fringe few running Black Horn of Heaven and Chaos Trap Hole). Next, these players know that there only so many battle response traps: 2 Mirror Force and 2 Dimensional Prison in addition to other cards that can be used during the battle phase like Fiendish Chain, Enemy Controller, and Book of Moon.

The idea of being able to freely throw expendable monsters into backrow is what made Dragon Rulers, Chaos Dragons, Plants (synchro-centric), and wind-ups so good in their prime. Those decks did not necessarily need backrow removal to make plays and could easily absorb multiple backrow cards in a single turn costing the opponent valuable resources in the process while actually wasting none of your own.

In the upcoming articles, I'd like to explore baiting backrow with access to removal and designing your deck to withstand copious amounts of traps.

Analyzing Hieratic Dragon Rulers from ARGCS Nashville

2014-01-20T00:09:00.000-06:00

Whether it be over representation or the fact that the deck is that good. Hieratic Rulers made a good showing at the event. My only regret was that the pilots of the deck had just recently picked up Hieratics in general and had no background with the former versions of the deck. In this article, I'm going to analyze my favorite list from the event, Chris Leblanc's Hieratic Ruler decklist.

Chris Leblanc – Hieratic Rulers (source: ARGCS Nashville)

Main Deck:
2 Cardcar D
3 Hieratic Dragon of Su
3 Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit
3 Hieratic Dragon of Eset
1 Labradorite Dragon
1 Flamvell Guard
1 Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos
1 Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls
1 Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms
1 Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders

3 Hieratic Seal of Convocation
3 Dragon Shrine
3 Upstart Goblin
1 Book of Moon

3 Hieratic Seal from the Ashes
3 Reckless Greed
3 Skill Drain
1 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Trap Stun

Side Deck:
2 Maxx “C”
2 Effect Veiler
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon
2 Divine Wrath
1 Dark Hole
1 Swift Scarecrow
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo

Extra Deck:
2 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Constellar Ptolemy M7
2 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum
1 Star Eater
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter

1 Stardust Dragon
1 Crimson Blader
1 Black Rose Dragon
2 Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger
1 Stardust Spark Dragon

The list is very straight forward and to the point. Starting with notable monsters, we have Cardcar D at 2 copies. Considered a staple in the Pure Hieratic variant, the little racecar that could digs for your combos at the cost of your Normal summon, battle phase, and prevents special summoning for the turn, while finally ending your turn. In Leblanc's build, he is able to set defensive traps or even Trap Stun to prepare for a huge follow up turn. Many people chose to forgo Cardcar because they felt that the loss of momentum for the turn was too detrimental for the decks strategy. However, as you can see, his defensive suite allowed him to sacrifice field presence and advancing his strategy for the long term goal of setting up a huge controlling field. Initially, the lack of Nebthet bothered me greatly, but as I looked closely at the build, I began to see that it wasn't necessary to the deck's goals: Use the Hieratics as an engine to tutor the Rulers, then provide endless fuel for their summons. Use the Hieratics to harass the opponent and disrupt the backrow, then once the duel is simplified, pour on intense pressure with 2000+ recurring attackers. Knowing the goal of the deck can also explain the lack of a second level six Normal dragon monster. Initially, I was concerned about the ability to play around Effect Veiler with just being able to summon one Atum in one turn, but as it was explained to me by none other than Patrick Hoban, "Effect Veiler is essentially a Neg 1 and now the opponent has 1 less card to deal with a floating 2400 atk monster and 1 or more protection cards." Finally, the lone Flamvell Guard allows you make level 8 Synchros with your Rulers tutored from the deck via Atum.

In the Spell line up, we can see a full 3 copies of Dragon Shrine and a set of Upstart Goblin. I'm not the biggest fan of Dragon Shrine in this deck because you will almost always be summoning your Vanilla Dragons from the effects of the Hieratic monsters and at that time, Shrine simply becomes a once per turn Foolish Burial. The only reasoning I can come up with for running 3 is that opening Cardcar plus Shrine means that you can eliminate the possibility of drawing a normal monster and draw real cards instead. Also, I think Leblanc was thinking that gaining access to all of the Rulers as quick as possible was more important that the "Neg 1" that Shrine actually is. Upstart Goblin too my knowledge is frowned upon in the Pure Version because the majority of the OTK combos put exactly 8000 damage on board anything above that means that deck has to begin grinding, something that the Pure Version does not do well at all. In the Ruler version, you have the ability to OTK:

Summon Eset/Tefnuit, tribute to special summon Su, get level 6 Normal dragon, tribute the Su to special summon the second Su and get the level 1 tuner Flamvell Guard. Next Overlay Su and the Normal level 6 for Atum, detach Su to summon Blaster. Synchro Blaster and Guard for any level 8 Synchro with at least 2600 attack, then Special Summon Blaster from the grave by banishing Su and Eset/Tefnuit from the grave. Overlay Atum with Gaia, The Thunder Charger and now your field is the Classic Pure Versions 2600 + 2600 + 2800 = 8000.

However, the goal of the deck is not to OTK, it just has that ability. To those who insist that you must OTK to win, just remember that it doesn't matter if you opponent has 11,000 life points or 8000 life points, if they are locked out of plays and/or can't break your field you win anyway.

Hieratic Seal of Ashes has recieved a lot of debate and discussion, so I won't waste time here rehashing what has already been said about the card. The only thing you should really remember about the card is that multiple copies of the card active on the field means that you have endless fodder for the summoning of your Rulers. I would have preferred to see Fiendish Chain over the Skill Drains in this build, simply because Leblanc chose not to run Mystical Space Typhoon in the main and having Skill Drain face up on the field would make it difficult to get around certain cards without access to monster effects. The 2 copies of Trap Stun are probably a direct remedy to that in addition to turning off all of his opponents Traps. I don't really see Trap Stun as suitable replacement for Mystical Space Typhoon simply because you won't always have access to Su, Scrap Dragon, or Draccossack. Solemn Warning is a fantastic choice here because it allows him to protect an Atum and Stardust field from Monster based threats. Torrential on the other hand seems counter productive here in that you will almost always have field presence and there will only be 2 occasions where I'll want Torrential Tribute while I have field presence: 1) My opponent summons Crimson Blader to run over one of my weaker monsters and I don't have a possible counter on the following turn. 2) I have a Dracossack with tokens or floating Dragon Rulers. Finally in the traps we come to Reckless Greed. Although the card is at its very best in multiples, sometimes just digging for a few more cards to combo off is enough to seal the game. Combined with Cardcar, Upstart, and walling up with Dragon Rulers, Reckless Greed when played correctly should never be detrimental as you were going to be drawing those same cards anyway.

The extra deck is more or less self explanatory. The Hieratic line up is rather limited, so it makes since that there are only a few Rank 6s. I would have liked to have seen a Gauntlet Launcher as a Blader resistent Rank 6 in case his opponent played Maxx "C" mid combo and he needed to clear his opponents monsters. The only cards I could possibly see dropping from the Extra are Spark Dragon or the second Gaia, the Thunder Charger. I get that Spark + Atum is a great turn 1 play ensuring that you get 2 activations out of Atum if you lack proper defense so the only other option would be Gaia since it will be a rare occasion that he makes 2 Atum in the course of a duel and be in the position of overlaying Gaia on top of them to push for damage.

The Side Deck was tailor made for the event. Veiler, Maxx "C", Swift Scarecrow, Fossil Dyna were to counter the Mirror or OTK capable decks like Mermail. Veiler, Dark Hole, and Divine Wrath were direct counters for Prophecy. Typhoon and Wing Beat were just simply Spell and Trap hate. There is no doubt in my mind that Leblanc is probably kicking himself for not siding Overworked, Black Horn of Heaven, and Fencing Fire Ferret as counters to Geargia and Fire Fist. I sure he felt that the main decked Skill Drains should have gotten him there but both decks max out on Typhoon. Fire Fist often max out on Forbidden Lance and many ran Fire Formation - Gyokkou. Geargias run Trap Stun and can spit out 2800 Attack monsters as easily as Rulers while being able to support a healthier backrow to protect said 2800 attack monster.

Going forward, I think that all variants of Hieratics will be a force to reckon with even in the face of Number 101 and Exciton Knight. Innovation will rear its head and hard counters to serious threats will be included in the main deck, side deck tech will be more in line with the meta, and the deck will see more success. I hope you all enjoyed reading my analysis of Chris Leblanc's deck. Congrats to him for a job well done and a big thank you to ARG for providing a forum for duelist to display their skills. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

Super Secret Secrets

2014-01-15T20:46:00.001-06:00

I used to be like many of you and get upset when the high profile players come up with super secret strategies and refused to share them with the masses. It used to annoy me that "I" was kept out of the loop. What makes them so special that they feel that only the select few should be privy to such information? The answer to the question is quite simple and depending on your reaction is the VERY reason why "YOU" are also kept out of the loop.
I recently had an hour long conversation with one of the most consistent players in the game. His approach to the game was miles beyond the way I approached the game. Within the first 10 minutes, it became apparent that what I thought I knew about Yugioh was so narrow focused and limiting that there could be no question as to why I have zero Large Scale Event tops.

Let us begin by taking a serious look at ourselves objectively when it comes to Yugioh. Are you the kind of player that will play deck "X" because you like it regardless if the deck is inadequate for the current format? Are you the kind of player that will find a way to squeeze a certain card into your deck because you simply are too attached to the card? If these apply to you, then fine. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that mentality. But you have to understand that much like life, Yugioh requires you to adapt or die.
To truly play and compete at the next level, you have to be willing to let go of preconceived perceptions and notions. In the conversation I had with this person. We quickly identified many of my problems when it came to the game. I had trouble letting go of cards and combos that worked for me in the past and failed to realize that many of those strategies are unnecessary and antiquated, leading to unwieldly hands and punted games. Together, we went through sample decklists and with his help I was able to understand how to conserve certain resources and make certain plays that produce identical, albeit less flashy results. Because, as you know consistency wins tournaments.

Next, take a step back from yourself and analyze comments made when high profile players share any tidbit of information with the general public. People come out of the woodwork and claim that they've been running deck "X" since its inception and they are the foremost authority and how dare Mr High Profile bastardize the deck. I know this feeling personally, since I frequently post my deck ideas online. Without fail, some "expert" tells me that I'm doing it wrong with no other explanation other than they are the authority since it is their pet deck and I should simply listen to them.
Now, I ask you to look back at some of the information shared with in the past. Those things that were mocked by the masses have surely become the accepted norm and the new standard. Why is that? The answer can't possibly be because people are sheep and netdecked. If that were the case, Plant Rulers would have been the most popular deck last format. Or, cards like Mystical Refpanel and Retort would have been easily dismissed. The answer again is simple. Good players test ideas before they put them into practice. The good player will test until they find the flaws in the idea, and when that idea reaches the point that flaws are so insignificant in comparison to the benefits, then they know that they have found the next super secret.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments.

dubkdad1

Mediocrity...

2014-01-01T00:23:00.001-06:00

Usually, the beginning of a format means that there will be a plethora of really decks floating around in the competitive scene. However, coming out of consecutive explosive formats, everything just seems so meh.
I'm not advocating a return of Turn 1 or 2 kills, ie Dragon Rulers with the Babies or Mono Mermail with triple 'Goons. I'm just saying that grinding out wins through infinite backrow is going to be extremely annoying. Consider this, every spell and trap line up is going to resemble the following in some fashion:

3 MST
1 Book of Moon

1-2 Dust Tornado
2-3 Fiendish Chain

That is a whopping 7-9 spots in the maindeck before you even get a chance to figure out the ratios of Monsters, tech, and themed spells/traps you decide to run. I contribute this trend to the fact that there are 3 Kings of Grind in the game right now: Geargias, Fire Fist, and Spellbooks/Prophecy. All of these decks grind away the opponents resources while simultaneously generating card advantage with floaters and recurring monsters, spells, and traps. Unless there is someone out there who has secretly discovered a deck that out grinds the Kings, be prepared to either play a King or become a subject of the King.

That's all for now. These are just my thoughts. Let me know what you think below in the comment section.

Ninja Rulers

2013-09-24T22:06:00.001-05:00

So Hieratic Rulers was a no go. My next project is Ninja Rulers. Before I show my deck, I'd like to know why "variants" of the deck are more acceptable to people who insist on playing decks that stand no chance in today's metagame. I'd really like to know why people purposefully handicap themselves and hide behind empty catch phrases such as "auto pilot", "no skill", "OP", etc. I am a competitive player. I never run "standard" decks, but I always try to run decks that at least emulate what the best decks can do. In this format and the previous few, the power levels of the decks released just do not allow "fun" decks to anything more than waste $7 at your local tournament, $20 at your regional, and $20 + travel/expenses at a YCS. Just playing for fun is fine when you are with your buddies, but when it comes to competition, most people would actually like to COMPETE!

This is version 1 of the deck. The focus of the deck is to provide disruption with Super Transformation while at the same time summon the rulers from the deck, thus accelerating your Dragon Ruler engine. I've only played a few games, but from the limited testing I've had, it has played very smoothly.

If you have any suggestions or fixes, please leave a comment below!

dubkdad1

Undefeated Regional Report: 9 - 0 with Dubk-Dragons!

2013-09-18T22:15:00.001-05:00

Hey guys, I'm pretty terrible at writing reports, so please bear with me. Also, my memory is kinda fuzzy as I worked 10+ hours Friday, 6 Hours Sunday, and 13 hours today.

Friday Night:
On my way home from work, I'm agonizing about what to play. I have every deck available between my own and teammates collections, but I've never been one to play straight up Meta Decks. Once I get home, I'm dead set on playing Bujins and sleeve up my deck in Green Sleeves (favorite color btw). I shower, get dressed, and head over Johnny's house at about 8pm to playtest and discuss theory-oh about the expected meta at Lenexa. Generally, Lenexa, KS regionals are comprised of Kansas players, KC, MO players, STL players, some OKC and Denver players. As you can see, trying to predict what to side for will be a nightmare.

Once I get settled in at my teammates house, I begin furiously playtesting Badjins and get roflstomped by Colossal fighter and MST repeatedly....FUCK THIS DECK (until LVAL..maybe). Now once again, I'm super stressed about what to play. One of my teammates say I should just run my Hieratic Dragon Ruler deck because of how easily the deck OTKs out of nowhere. I remind him that the deck has ZERO natural outs to Ophion and loses completely to Emptiness and Crimson Blader. Finally, I suck it up and rebuild my deck I posted on YouTube dubbed, "Summon Debris Dragon!" As I'm sleeving it up in the Green Sleeves formally used by the Badjins, Johnny is organising his "Good" commons and comes across cards from the BEWD structure deck and flings Castle of Dragon Souls at me and says use this card and win all of the Yugiohs! I read it, look at the 2 DDRs in my deck and immediately take 1 out for a copy of Castle. Then I have an epiphany, IF I'm going to run bad cards, I might as well run several bad cards that I think are cool and see if I can sack some people. I pull out a fresh pack of White Sleeves because Badjins have ruined the color Green for me for awhile. This is the list I sleeve up:

25 mons

3 Blaster
3 Redox
3 Tidal
3 Tempest
2 Debris Dragon
2 Truppa Della Carta
1 Dandylion
3 Maxx C
1 Effect Veiler
1 Corsesca
1 Flamvell Guard
1 Exploder Dragon
1 Swift Scarecrow

7 spells

3 Swords
2 Ravine
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon

10 traps

2 Waboku
2 Raigeki Break
2 Dragoncarnation
1 RftDD
1 Castle of Dragon Souls
1 Divine Wrath

Side:

2 Fencing Fire Ferret
3 MST
2 Skill Drain
2 Emptiness
2 Decree
2 Debunk
1 EEV
1 Needle Ceiling

Extra:

2 Dracossack
1 Big Eye
1 Star Eater
1 Colossal
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust
1 Crimson Blader
2 BRD
1 AFD
1 Orient Dragon
1 Armory Arm
1 Mist Bird Clausolas
1 Formula Synchron

*side note*
Sunday

9/15, 9:37am
Joshua Graham
gj at ur regs
but ur deck is an eye-sore.

9/15, 9:37am
B Darnell Alexander
Ikr, isn't it awesome!

9/15, 9:38am
Joshua Graham
lol

9/15, 9:39am
B Darnell Alexander
You see no merit in any of my card choices?

9/15, 9:40am
Joshua Graham
yeah i really like the 12 dragon rulers.
and 3 swords.

*l.e.l.*

Saturday Morning

I was so hype about running this deck with my card choices and so anxious to play mirrors all day and blow them out with Waboku! On the drive to Lenexa (2.5hrs), we came to the conclusion that the decks to beat were: Dragons, Wizards, Fishes, and Ophion.dek. I was VERY confident that I would do well vs all of those...but someone forgot to tell me that Constellars was a deck!

At the McDonald's a few blocks from the venue, we stop and get food. And as is tradition, we test and trade with ppl there as we wait for the venue to open. After destroying the Mirror as suspected and blowing out Badjins, I feel really good about the event. Again, as is tradition, we sign a few Trade Binders, Snapbacks, and cards before we head out to the venue.

Collector's Cache! I absolutely love this place. The very first time I went there, it was for UDE day and I went undefeated in Swiss using my Dark Armed Dragonless, "Dark Nephetys Control" and ended up 3rd place and sold my Des Volsgath (sp?) for $600 to a collector...lol it was reprinted later that year! I'm walking around talking to fanboys and friends alike and I get a terrible chill. I see and hear people scrambling for DT Pleides. I'm like, why is everyone looking for Pleides? I have like 7. As I'm trading a few away, I see more and more FREAKING CONSTELLAR PLAYERS! W.T.ACTUAL.F. I calm down a bit and just tell myself, relax, this is just a few people...can't mean that this place is going to be overrun by Constellars, that deck is garbage...right?

I can't take it anymore. I won't allow myself to be overcome by rage at the thought of playing random.dek again for the 5th regional in a row, whilst I prepare my deck to play mirrors and then proceed to lose to things that a kaiba structure deck can beat. I walk outside and spark up a Black & Mild and immediately overrun by fans wanting to pick my brain about various things: "Hey, Dubk, what do you think about Karakuri?" "Hey, DKD! What are you running? Are you running Ninjas again?" "Hey Dubs, you gonna go X-3 drop again, hurr hurr..." "Hey Dubk, I've been subbed to you for a year, do you wanna play a quick match?"

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Registration is taking forever and it is well past 10am. Finally, 11am rolls around and we find out that there are 320 players! Largest regional at this venue to date (yeah, the Coasts do it better, but this is Kansas). I find out that I'm at seat 148 and as I head to my table I see Dorragans errywherrr so I'm like LEZZGO!

Round 1 vs Zack (MPB)

1st and foremost, I wanna give glory and honor to God. Second, I wanna thank based DGz for allowing a MPB discussion thread and it being graced by the likes of Exiled to make it worth reading. Lastly, I wanna kill myself because it seems already that I'm in for a day of playing RandySavage.dek all freaking day...AGAIN!

Game 1
I know what his cards do and I maxx c his token spam.
Game 2
Emptiness + Drain + Fire Ferret trumps Iron Wall.

I win easy, but I don't feel good about it. The dude played his cards correctly and knew what he was doing. But the fact is, Dorragans > Machines.

1 - 0
Round 2 vs Justin (Constellars)

So yeah, I know there is a thread for this deck, but I have never ever opened it and truly thought the deck was a mere gimmick. OMG, Pleides is annoying as FUUUUUUUUUU!

Game 1
I open Return, Truppa, Dragoncarnation, Castle, Scarecrow, and Redox. I mill 3 Dragons set Return, Carnation, and Castle. He remarks, "I've never seen Dragons set so many backrow, MST for my Tenki?" Unfornately, I don't and he goes Algiedi + Kaust and make Omega. He attacks and I flip Castle, banishing Blaster to add a Blaster to my hand and take 1400 damage from Omega + Tenki. He sets 2 more and ends. My turn, I draw Debris Dragon. I summon Debris and he Chain emptiness to the effect to which I chain Return, then Castle (banishing Tidal, but not use effect), then Dragoncarnation. When the Chain resolves I have 2 Blaster In hand, Tidal and Debris on the field. I use blaster to pop his set Mirror Force, then use redox to pitch Crow to revive Truppa. I mill Tempest, Ravine, and Corsesca. I make BRD then combine it with Tidal for Dracossack, detach Tidal for tokens and pop Omega. Next, I banish debris and Tempest for Tidal and swing 2600, while searching for another Debris Dragon. He tops tenki and searches Bear...then thinks and just scoops.

Game 2
He opens kinda weird with Kaust and 3 sets. I open Ferret, Drain, Castle, Redox, Guard, and some other card. I set Ferret, Drain, and Castle. He tops Rota plays it and searches Pollux. I immediately flip Skill Drain. He decides not to attack and sets another card. My turn I top Truppaand he flips Iron Wall. I flip summon my Ferret. I summon Trooper and mill dragons and a waboku. I attack with Ferret into his Kaust and swing direct with Trooper. He summons Bear and swings over Trooper and I draw Blaster. My turn, I draw another Ferret Summon it. Swing for 1700 and then pop Iron Wall. He summons TKing, reads Ferret for the 3rd time and passes. In my endphase I banish blaster with Castle to search another Blaster. On my turn, I draw Sword which I activate and by banishing Blaster to search my last blaster, Drawing into Geki Break and MST. I attack over Tking by banishing Tempest (searching Debris) in grave and he has to let it go or he loses his Tking anyway. I read he has Honest. He finally finds the MST for Drain and summons Pollux and then Algeidi, then Kaust. He Bumps up Kaust, then Geidi, then I break Kaust. He sets what I believe one more card still holding Honest as his only in hand card. In my draw phase he flips another Iron Wall and I get giddy. I summon DEBRIS DORRAGON reviving Trooper and mill godly. Make BRD and OTK him. He reveals the Honest and offers up the hand shake.

2 - 0

Mkay. So, now I realize that if I can successfully summon Debris Dragon and resolve his effect, I will win every match, thus maintaining my decks namesake, "Summon Debris Dragon!"

Round 3 vs Kevin (Prophecy)

By this guys demeanor, I put him on Lswarm and I'm like I should probably scoop if he makes Ophion and just go to game 2 without him knowing what I'm playing.

Game 1
I go first. I banish Blaster and Tidal for Redox. I then summon Corsesca and make Stardust Dragon. I end my turn with Scrap Dragon, Waboku and Dragoncarnation set. OMG, he starts his turn with Crescent and my heart just drops. Fortunately I give him Master. He summons Temperance, Fetches Priestess, then Crescents for what I believe to be Power. At this point I know I win. He plays power attacks my Scrap Dragon and flip Waboku. He sets Two cards and ends turn. My turn, I draw Trooper. I summon Trooper and mill Tempest, Redox, and Dandylion. I think for a second and flip Dragon Carnation for Blaster. I pitch both Blasters to target his Priestess to forces the fate for 2 on my Card Trooper. Next, I summon Tidal by banishing Redox and Tempest (searching Debris Dragon). Tidal swings and gets Windblasted (he pitches another Temperance) and I realize that he opened worse than I thought. His turn he tops blue boy and fates my Scrap Dragon and runs over my card trooper. Then activates tower (which he fetches off of duality). I summon Debris DORRAGON! Get Trooper, mill garb, make AFD, pop tower, Get Ravine, and OTK him from there.

Game 2
I realize that judging people by there appearance is NOT a good way to tell if they have a good deck or not, so I play more cautiously from here on out.

He opens really well this game with Secrets, master, Temperance -> World with 2 Set. I attempt to banish for Redox by banishing Blaster and Tidal and he flips Emptiness. UGH! I pass obv. His turn, he summons Blue Boy and I flip Skill Drain. He punches for a shit ton of damage. I finally top Ferret and ram his World but he flips Soul Drain and I just die.

Game 3
I'm not losing to this Cheesy deck. I refuse to lose to fancy dressed girls carrying books around with funny looking letters swirling around them!
I open insanely well. 2 Ravine, Trooper, 2 MST, and Tidal. He stood no chance. Sorry bro!

3 - 0

Round 4 vs Joseph (Infernity)

Game 1
He goes first playing Upstart then summons Armageddon Knight dumping Street Patrol. Sets his hand to Banish Patrol to summon Archfiend and I play Maxx C. He goes for it anyway giving me a few cards and ends with 2 Barrier. My turn, I pitch Blaster and Guard to pop his Archfiend and he barriers. Then I summon Trooper, mill and he barriers again to prevent me from attacking over his only face up atk position Infernity. I read he may only have a break that he is saving for my facedown. With 3 cards in hand. I banish Tempest and Tidal for Redox, in defense mode, set Wrath and dragoncarnation. He endphase pops my Dragon Carnation. He draws for turn summons Necro, revives an archfiend and I divine wrath it. Endphase I bounce for redox. I top Ravine and he MST's it when I pitch Tidal. Next, I summoned DEBRIS DORRAGON! to fetch Truppa, mill some stuff and BRD his whole field. His last set I believe was Transmodify (I would have gotten Dougied on if his Necromancer was allowed to be swapped for a 3rd Archfiend). From there it was an down hill battle for him.

Game 2
He does the Archfiend dougie and I don't have a hand trap to stop the madness. I get pooed on completely.

Game 3
I again open no Maxx C and just set book, Wrath, and Return. Next I summon Truppa and mill complete ASS! He sets 5 and sets a monster. I figure it was Mancer. I draw Castle and start to feel really good. I mill Trooper, Tidal, and Maxx C (-_- ' ). His turn he TOPS Archfiend and Searches Break and I flip Book on Archfiend before he can set it. My turn, I draw Needle Ceiling and I mill amazing: Tempest, Redox, and Blaster. I attack into Book of Moon. Next I banish Tidal and Tempest for Blaster. Then banished the Maxx C and Trooper for Redox. I overlay for Dracossack and he breaks it. I set Needle Ceiling and Pass. His turn he tops Street Patrol. Does the Dougie, Gets Launcher, activates, gets the 3rd Archfiend to Banishes to Special summon and searches a Barrier. Sets it, turns Mancer to attack mode (smart play btw), Makes Lavalval Chain, does stuff. Revives archfiend to search another Barrier and I flip NEEDLE FUCKING CEILING killing my trooper, his Mancer, Chain, and Archfiend. He sets the Barrier and Passes. So now he has one unknown set and I think it is another Transmodify or something. My turn I attempt to summon Tempest by Banishing Sack and Blaster to which he chains Soul Drain....I'm like GG and flip Return.

(Dear Konami,
RftDD is busted as hell. Will you please Ban it in December. Thanks.)

4 - 0

Round 5 vs Vincent (Prophecy)

Game 1
I already know what this guy is playing because he was sitting next to me the previous round. He goes first with Blue Boy and I have the Clutch one of Veiler. He plays Crescent and gets tower and Ends with No other sets. My turn, I pitch Redox and Dandy for Veiler. Make a race Car, Summon Debris DORRAGON! Make AFD, pop Tower, Get Ravine and OTK him from there.

Game 2
He opens strong with Blue Boy, Tower, Fate live for 3. I summon Corsesca to force the Fate and he fates his Blue Boy down to Search for Secrets. I set Drain, Redox, Wrath and MST. His turn I MST his tower. His turn, he plays secrets for Wisdom, then Master for Tower after summoning Temperance. He gets greedy and goes for World and I Divine Wrath it! From there he can't get anything going and is kicking himself for not Powering over my monster. I told him, either way he still loses when he attempts to activate Temperance, I just Wrath what ever Temperance gets and then he can't use Life. It's not his fault I'm playing shitty cards.

5 - 0

At this time. I get approached by several people asking what my record is and why have I been at the top tables since round 3 using such shitty choices. I ask some of them what are they playing and what were their losses. Almost in unison, they said Hoban.dek. I ask well, what did you lose to? In unison, Constellars. I asked how? Skill Drain shits on that deck. One of the guys reminded me that Drain conflicts with the deck. And I go, oh yeah, but with all of that digging, you should be digging for your outs, right? Ha, Ha, the answer I got was MAXX C too stronk!

Hobans deck is pure genuis. I admit. But Maxx C on your plays when you need to push back vs Pleides backed up by infi backrow is kinda rough. Sure you can play out of it with Encore and such, but you still have to get through the backrow. The deck doesn't make BRD so you don't have an efficient field wipe and when they have a simple TKRO backed with traps, your best bet is to somehow grave phalanx, then summon Dux and Ram it. Also, Constellars play Vanity's better than any deck ever could. That seems like a lot of work. Did I mention that if you encore their guys but don't kill them, kaust can still bump them back up and make an Omega or even another Pleides with a second Kaust. Players have gotten smart game 2 by not detaching Kaust so that Kaust can still bump himself and others to continue with XYZ plays. I saw a lot of players have a hard time playing out Pleides + Zone + Emptiness.

Round 6 vs Cameron (Hoban.dek)

Game 1
He wins the roll and draws a shitton of cards and I cry. He sets up what I know to be a huge Return play with emptiness set. I go for it anyway and flips the emptiness. I then set Dragoncarnation and Divine Wrath and Pass. His turn he plays Upstart to kill his emptiness. Plays ravine, gets dux and I Wrath. He then flips Return and QQ even more.

Game 2
I now learn the awesomeness of Hoban.dek. and make sure to put my shitty cards to work. I summon Trooper and mill Debris, Redox, and Tempest. I banish for Redox adding another Tempest to hand. I set Waboku and Skill Drain. His turn. He does the Hoban Boogie with the Dragunity stuff. When he makes Atum, I flip Skill Drain and he doesn't have the MST! Afraid of my other Facedown, he doesn't attack. (waiting until they consolidate all of their monsters into Atum is in my Opinion the perfect time to flip Emptiness, Use Veiler/Maxx, etc. This is because in the case of Maxx C, they have to keep going or they lose Redmd/Atum to Blader. In the case of Veiler/Drain. They don't have a faceup Dragunity to drop Mystle. I think you should just let them burn their entire combo package since avarice is gone and blow them out from there if you can defend against the impending OTK.) At this time he has one card in hand which I believe to be return or emptiness. I draw Break. I summon Debris Dragon with no effect attempting to go into AFD to wall up, but he flips the emptiness. I mill some more with truppa and turn him to defense. His turn he rips the MST, turns off his emptiness and I break his Atum. He pitches a dragon to send a dragon for Ravine, summons blaster to run over my Debris Dragon and I flip Waboku, then Bounce Redox to my hand in the Endphase. My turn, I draw Castle, I make the AFD, pop Ravine, search ravine, Make colossal over his Blaster. His turn, he resummons Blaster, attacks Big Eye and I flip Castle and he can't recover.

Game 3.
He opens Upstart Goblin and goes off. Again, I wait patiently until he makes Atum and Drop the Maxx C and he thinks for a LONG TIME, finally deciding to get Redox then Banishes for REDMD from hand and sets a backrow. My turn. I open Hole FOR THE 1st time all day! and blast his field. Then I summon trooper mill Tidal, Corsesca, and Tempest, swing for 1900. Next, I pitch Double redox for Corsesca and banish a redox and Tempest (search debris Dorragon) for Tidal and make Blader. I set Geki Break, Dragoncarnation and Waboku. On his turn he attempts to bait my Emptiness (which I never saw BTW) with Dux so I pitch my One of Veiler. Next he banishes REDMD and Redox in hand for Blaster and flips Return with a field of Dux, Redmd, Redox x 2, Blaster just as time is called (me 9000, him 3050). He swings at trooper with Blaster and I let it die (me 6600, him 3050), next he swings with REDMD into Blader and I flip Waboku! He rocks back in his seat and shakes his head. MP2 He makes Dracosack and pops Blader and sets 1. My turn I draw and reveal Maxx C. He smiles and I then I flip Dragoncarnation for Redox. I summon Debris, He flips Emptiness, I chain Break, Pitching Sword, get truppa, mill Ravine, Wrath, and Blaster. Make Blackrose. Then Pitch Redox and C for Blader, summon Blaster and seal the game.

Bad Beats for sure with me drawing my Only Veiler and having an earth for Redox to get back Blader and also milling godly with my Truppa Della Cartas (pro tip, foreign troopers mill better than English ones...ask Navarro, he'll confirm!). I have huge respect for the Dragunity Variant now and in the future will side all 3 MST instead of 1. I mistakenly thought that skill drain would shut them down, but the deck also runs big dragons that can deal lethal damage as well and makes his Emptiness plays more Godly. Anyway, I apologize PROFUSELY for sacking the shit out of him and reveal that I only play 1 Veiler. He said it was cool, we shook hands and the judge grabbed the slip. After it's all said and done, Waboku outs Star Eater when they push for game, Castle saves Stardust, Draco, Tidal, and Tempest from getting Bladered, and Dragoncarnation lets you lead your opponent to believe that you burned your elements too early.

6 - 0

Round 7 vs another Justin (also playing Constellars)

At this point. I am the ONLY DRAGON PLAYER Undefeated. There are, I believe 2 Constellars, 1 Mermail, and Zombies (Tray Massengale) also undefeated, with 1 Prophecy player who is X-0-1. Also, at this point, everyone knows what everyone else is playing and everyone at the Top Tables (1 - 4; I was at table 2) watched my Game 3 since we went into time.

Game 1
I lose the dice roll (-_- ')
He opens standard Pleides set 3. I am so aggravated by the facts that I only faced one mirror, played no mermails, and that people are calling bad/terrible/sack/stacker for using my shitty card choices that I YOLO all in his face. I pitch double Tidal for Trooper, Play book of moon on Pleides. Summon Debris Dorragon, mill Geki Break, Blaster, and Waboku then Blackrose his Pleides, Mirror Force, Lance, and Safe Zone. Then Summon Blaster and poke setting Wrath with only Sword in hand. His turn, he tops sombres. Summons it, gets kaust, bumps once, bumps twice and I divine Wrath. He looks at my grave, reveals his in Hand MST and scoops....don't set so many cards buddy!

Game 2
He opens Tking + 2 Sets
My draw phase he flips Iron Wall. I Methodically windmill Slam Truppa Della Carta and rape TKRO after milling Dandylion, Redox, and Maxx C. Next, I play MST on Iron Wall, banish Tidal and draw Blaster and Debris DORRAGON! Search Blaster. Next I set Castle and pass. His Turn he sets 2 other Backrow and summons Pollux and Kaust. He thinks about bumping levels but insteads attacks both tokens and makes Omega. My turn I draw another Trooper. I mill some cards (including a Tidal) and sigh as I Banish Maxx C and Blaster in hand for Redox to which he responds with Emptiness. I slump to the side and say well, I gotta kill off my Truppa so I take less damage now 19 than at 400. I attack and he's like OK and begins to write down that I lose 500 Life, but in the Damage step I flip Castle (Banish Tidal, search Tidal) and kill His omega and emptiness. Next I set Geki Break and Waboku. He summons bear and enters battle phase then picks up Castle and says ok, just 700. I flip Waboku and he almost flips the table. He sets one more card leaving only One card in hand. On my turn I mill more good cards (Truppa, Ravine, and Tempest. He flips his newly set Iron Wall and I summon DEBRIS DORRAGON fetching Truppa, mill some more, He chains Maxx C, I blow the field, draw from Trooper, then Castle Nets me Blaster. Next Redox combines with Blaster for Dracossack. Then Blaster and Tidal are summoned to put 8k on Board.

7 - 0
Round 8 vs Chris (Constellars...yet again)

We are the only 2 undefeated players at this point with the X-0-1 Prophecy player being paired down with an X-1-0 player. I was very salty about the inevitability of one of us being paired down in final Round of Swiss. Like, can't we just say whoever wins this rounds, just gets 1st place??? I talk to the Head Judge and he informs me that by Policy, all rounds must be played according to the # of ppl entered blah, blah, blah... Mkay. Can't argue with policy. Lezzgo!

Game 1
I lose the dice roll YET AGAIN! (Handless, a member here on DGz will confirm that I have the shittiest luck sometimes). He opens godly with cool tech cards. Pollox -> Sheraton Search Sombres. Activate Tenki, search Kaust. Activate Tensu, summon Kaust Bump sheraton to 4 and makes Omega. He then Sets 2 and passes. I draw trooper mill 2 Blaster and Ravine. Then I activate Ravine and pitch my Tidal and he chains MST next I banish a blaster and tidal for Blaster and he has Emptiness. I set Dragon Carnation and Divine Wrath and Geki Break with just Tidal in hand, he End phases detaches for Omega. He Draws for turn and plays space off the top to hit my Carnation which gets me back Blaster. then summons Sombres. Detaches for Omega again, Banishes Sheratan for For Pollux and Summons Pollux. I do some calculations before he enters batlle. Omega Swings at trooper and I activate Castle (banishing blaster, netting me Guard) only taking 1400. then Pollux, Kaust, and Sombres swing leaving me at 1450! Saving me from being finished off by Cowbell. He pumps Pollux and Kaust and makes Pleides then overlays M7 ontop of Omega. My turn my hand is Tidal, Blaster, Guard, Book of Moon (off of truppa dying) and Debris Dragon! I summon Debris Dragon and get Trooper, he response with ANOTHER EMPTINESS!!!! I pitch Tidal for Geki Break and kill the emptiness. When Debris DORRAGON resolves, he tries to Pleides my Truppa and I chain Divine Wrath pitching Guard. Now I'm hoping he doesn't have maxx C. Truppa mills good cards (like Sword, my last Ravine, and Dark Hole) and I BRD his field because he's going to be topdecking vs my impending Dracossack + Book. Blaster and Tidal get in for big Damage and I have the Book for his Top Decked Sombres.

Game 2
He starts slow and sets 2. My turn I summon Fire Ferret and punch (me 8k, him 6300). In his Draw phase, I flip Drain (me 7k, him 6300) and he summons Kaust and passes. My turn. I draw Trooper and set it. As expected. he doesn't atk and sets another card. I draw MST and Set it. He passes without attacking my Truppa. On my turn, I draw Return. Flip Summon trooper and mill Redox, Tidal, Tempest. He doesn't summon anything and just runs over my Truppa (drawing Sword; me 5400; him 6300). My Turn I draw another Tempest. He immediately flips Iron Wall and I MST it. Then I banish Tempest for Sword and draw Blaster and another Skill Drain then Search Debris DORRAGON! Next, I banish Tidal and Redox for Blaster, he Flips Emptiness and I chain Return for 2nd or 3rd time this event and he chains Maxx C. With him being on 6300 life and me at 2700 now, I knew that I had to play around Honest. I look down to see that Ferret is still standing strong. Ferret Attacks his Kaust forcing the Honest but killing Kaust and Emptiness at the same time, then Tidal, Tempest, and Redox is enough to win the game. He set cards were Dark Hole and lance, with Effect Veiler, Sheraton, and MST off the top from Maxx C. I ask him what he was trying to draw into with Maxx C and he just said, he was hoping I would just stop summoning.

Again, another tale of Bad Beats. But skill drain outs too many Normal summon dependent decks. I wished him luck in his next round and again apologized for being so sacky.

8 - 0

Round 9 vs Danny (Prophecy)

Game 1
I lose the die roll but open with Dark Hole and Return. He does the Crescent-Master-Temperance-World-combo and sets 2. I know one is a fate so I summon Trooper and he fates it face down. Next I play the Dark Hole, Draw geki Break. I set Return and Geki Break with Redox, Dandy, and Veiler in hand. He draws for turn and plays Blue Boy which I veiler and he has the Book of Moon and tower. He activates tower and passes. I summon DEBRIS DORRAGON! and he Windblasts my Card Trooper before I can mill. Next, I pitch Dandy and Redox which elicits an sigh and revive Veiler. make RaceCar, Draw Trooper. Next, AFD is made, I pop Tower, Get Ravine. Pitch Trooper to Send Blaster, Special Blaster. AFD runs over Blue Boy and Blaster Swings Direct. He Draws to 3 in hand and summons Blue Boy and Gets life. Next he attempts to Summon World and Break it...he Scoops when I show him return.

Game 2
He Starts off with Upstart, Blue Boy, Secrets, Master, Tower, Soul Drain. On turn I banish Tempest and Blaster To summon Redox, he flips Soul Drain and He thinks that I lose access to 2 Elements. I set Dragonacarnation and 2 MST with no hand. He draws, then again for Tower. Summons another Blue Boy gets fate and I endphase MST it as Redox bounces to hand. I draw Sword and MST his Soul Drain. Next I banish Redox to get Card Trooper and Ravine, then search another Redox! 1 outers for Days! Trooper mills 3 dragons. Next I flip Dragoncarnation to get back my Tempest and Send it to the grave to send Tidal. I then banish Tempest and Tidal to Summon Blaster to search Debris Dragon and my and another Tidal. I attempt to run over the Blue Boys, but get punished by Mirror Force! Trooper nets me Divine Wrath, so I set it and pass. His Turn he sets 1 and passes. I'm really afraid of Torrential, but since I feel that he can't out my Ravine. Summon Debris and it goes Through. Next I summon Blaster again and attempt to swing and he windblasts my Blaster pitching World. I think I have 2 or 3 cards in hand and I just make an AFD, Pitch something to send to add Corsesca, then Pop it to add Ravine to hand but don't activate it to keep him from activating his Tower. I end turn and he Draws to 3 Cards in hand, SB of Wisdom, SB of Power and SB of Life!!!!!!!!!! He activates it life banishing a blue boy and targets World. I'm like, that's pretty raw, 3900 Gets over AFD with Power or World can just Nuke Everything and be done with it. I ask him his targets for World and he looks up at me and asks if I have Veiler. I say no. He says Secrets and Fate. The room got quiet as there were at least 20+ people behind me jammed between the tables and several dozen people crowded around trying to peek over the shoulders of the judges. I toss a card facedown in the grave and say, no its not Veiler, then Flip Up Divine wrath and he Rages as the Room erupts.

9 - 0

TL;DR
I used shitty cards in a shitty regional and went undefeated because I'm sack.

Props
Team DKF!!!
All of the Fanboys who let me smoke my Black and Mild in peace
Tray Massengale for giving me 3D Dracossack Tokens
Paul Cooper for finally agreeing with me that Hieratics are past their prime, regardless of Convocation at 3.
Collector's Cache
Reading most of the Deck Discussion Threads on DGz!

Slops
All of the Fanboys who followed me around when I was just needing some time to think and concentrate
Not reading the Constellar Thread on DGz
Paul Cooper for playing Hieratics (LOL)
Not playing enough Dragons to fully test my theory-oh
Not playing any Mermails to fully test my theory-oh
Fanboys telling me they will unsubscribe to me since I used a "Meta" deck.
Fanboys telling me that I should be ashamed for not taking one of my YouTube showcased decks to the event.
Really good players telling me that my card choices suck and I was lucky all day.
> they all played standard builds, Hoban.dek, etc yet still lost out to all of the Constellars at the event
> I only dropped 3 games all day
> I went undefeated, the closest Dragon player finished X - 2

Final Thoughts:

I'm super excited to finish this regional undefeated with card choices that I liked and just believing in my ability to make them work. Things I would change would be to play another Veiler in place of the Scarecrow, as Crow was redundant with the 2 Waboku. Another thing I would change would be dropping the Exploder dragon altogether as I did not summon it once all day and Raigeki Break/Castle would often do what I wanted Exploder to do anyway. I have no idea what I would replace it with or if I would replace it at all, since the deck is 41 cards.
I am in no way suggesting that my deck was the best build. I am in no way saying that the card choices I made were the best choices for everyone. I do NOT believe that I was just lucky all day. I firmly believe that because I played certain cards, I kept people off guard and it forced them to play out of their comfort zone since it was never really safe to hit my backrows unless it was in the endphase after I just set them. I also believe that Waboku should see more play. It allowed me to get multiple uses out of Truppa and allowed me to keep Monsters like Stardust and Blader on the field longer than they should have. Finally, I don't think Maxx C should be maindecked if you don't have anything to draw into.

Thanks for reading. I'll respond to any questions or criticisms (as I have been in the last 2 days)

Hieratic Dragon Ruler - Version 2

2013-09-05T20:09:00.000-05:00

This is my updated build. In testing I found that I needed more cards to grind out what is becoming the standard "Dragon Ruler" deck. I've included 2 copies of Tidal to help give me more options and beatsticking capabilities. If you noticed from the previous version, I have dropped to just 2 traps and I have dropped the Swift Scarecrow from the maindeck. In future posts, I'll explain some of the choices, but for now, I'll answer some questions about how this deck operates.

Standard Hieratic OTK:

3 Hieratic Monsters - Su, Su, Eset/Tefnuit

Summon Tefnuit/Eset
Tribute for Su > lvl 6 Vanilla dragon is summoned.
Tribute Su for second Su > 2nd lvl 6 Vanilla dragon is summoned.
Overlay Su and 1 Vanilla for Atum > use effect to special summon Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from the deck.
Use REDMD's effect to retrieve Su and overlay Su and the other Vanilla Dragon for Ptolemy M7.
Ptolemy M7's effect on REDMD.
Overlay Atum with Gaia Charger.
Banish Gaia Charger to Special Summon REDMD > use effect to summon Atum from grave.
Overlay Atum once more for Gaia Charger.
REDMD: 2800 atk, M7: 2700 atk, and Gaia: 2600 atk = 8100 damage.

As you can see, the deck is quite capable of pulling off OTK's on the 1st available opportunity. Adding the Dragon Rulers give the deck a cushion should the OTK fail or if the gamestate will require me to grind out a win. Any Hieratic player will tell you that there is nothing worse than to try to grind through backrow and big monsters while blowing your whole hand with no hopes of recovery.

Alternative Hieratic/Dragon Ruler OTK:

(one monster on the field)

3 Hieratic Monsters + Dragon Ruler - Su, Nebthet, Tefnuit, any Dragon Ruler

Special Summon Tefnuit
Tribute for Nebther > lvl 6 Vanilla dragon is summoned.
Tribute Su for Nebthet's effect > 2nd lvl 6 Vanilla dragon is summoned.
Overlay the 2 lvl 6 Vanilla dragons for Atum special summon Tidal or Blaster from the deck.
Tribute Su and the Dragon Ruler for the Dragon Ruler in hand > lvl 1 vanilla dragon tuner is summoned.
Synchro Vanilla and Dragon Ruler for Scrap Dragon/Colossal Fighter.
Banish Su and previous Dragon Ruler to special summon Tidal/Blaster from grave.
Overlay Atum with Gaia Charger.
Tidal/Blaster: 2600/2800 atk, Scrap Dragon/Colossal Fighter: 2800 atk, and Gaia Charger: 2600 atk = 8000 - 8200 damage.

There are several other ways to reach those magic numbers and I'm still figuring them out. If you guys have any tips that I've overlooked or want to read more, let me know in the comment section and I'll keep you updated on my progress with the deck!

Dubkdad1 out!

Pot of Avarice replacements

2013-09-04T14:19:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about cards that are in the current card pool that emulates Pot of Avarice to some degree. Here is a short list of what I've come up with:

For Tech Genus obviously. With Striker at 2 again, this gives the deck more longevity as well as being chainable MST bait for the huge plus 2. Heading into the Regional season, I expect someone some where to include a copy or two of this in their deck.

Jeff Jones used this card in the P-Soil build he piloted to a second place finish at YCS Toronto in 2012. Same concept as Tech Genus version, but in my opinon, live more often because of the Synchro spam the Psychic deck is capable of.

Finally we have this gem! To this day, I wish that Konami would have FULLY fleshed out the Volcanic archetype. They gave them a good stand alone card, Volcanic Rocket, a good semi splashable card, Volcanic Shell, and a nice piece of removal, Blaze Accelerator. The other support cards are severely lacking ESPECIALLY their boss monster who requires you to run a situational spell card that you have to first activate and it not get MST'd then also draw Volcanic Doom Fire and hope he survives the summon and battle phase.

There are few honorable mentions like Transmigration Prophecy and Metabo-Shark but neither one of them give you a draw 2 effect. The names escape me at the moment, but I do believe that there are other cards that shuffle graved cards back to the deck, but again, they suffer the same problem as Metabo-Shark as they do not generate advantage. This may all be part of Konami's grand scheme to force us to pick up "Secret Rare" copies of Pot of Duplicity when it is released in Shadow Specters. The card is indeed interesting:

At the start of your Main Phase 1: Target 3 monsters with different Types in your Graveyard; shuffle all 3 of them into the Deck, then draw 2 cards. You cannot conduct your Battle Phase during the turn you activate this card.

The restrictions on this card are kind of Harsh, but at this point in the games progression, it may be the only thing to keep a card like this from being as busted or even more busted than Pot of Avarice was. This card makes it so that you have to play multiples of several types of monsters and then wait a turn to reuse them at the cost of giving up your battle phase. I really can't think of deck that would use several types of monsters and then willingly give up their battle phase. I know that Mermails play Aqua, Fish, Sea Serpent, some number of Spell Casters (veiler), some number of Insects (Maxx "C"), but that deck wants to kill you asap and even when avarice was legal, it was hardly seen in decks in the last 2 formats...last format it was absent due to Tidal being a really good card. In a Quasar type deck or some other spammy type deck, I could see this used, shuffling back your wombo-combo pieces if you can't put enough damage on board for game or they cleared your field, but other than that, skipping your battle phase would probably hurt since you wouldn't be able to turn the tide. With all of that said, there is someone out there who will break this card and I await the day when that happens!

Dubkdad1 out.

Hieratic Dragon Rulers vers 1

2013-09-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

This is the deck that I will try to break this format. While I am still very interested in Bujins and I am quite sure that combo decks hate me, I have loved Hieratics since they were announced for the OCG. This format is shaping up to be a much watered down version of last format where fast paced combo decks are King: Dragunities, Dragon Ruler variants, Infernities, and Mermails. Of course I could have forgotten a few decks, but I think you get the point.

The way I built this deck is to allow me to have a solid Turn 1 opening, something that the standard Hieratic deck did not. This is the usual combo I try to pull off:

Hand: Eset, Su, any Dragon Ruler, + 3 random cards

Normal Summon Eset.
Special Su, by tributing Eset > vanilla Dragon is special Summoned.
XYZ summon Atum with Su and Vanilla Dragon
Detach Su for a different Dragon Ruler from the one in hand
Banish Eset and Su to special summon Dragon Ruler in hand
XYZ summon with both Dragon Rulers for Dracossack > make 2 Tokens

So far this is as far I've gotten with 1st turn plays going 1st. As I continue to experiment with the deck. I'm sure the deck will evolve and I'll come up with other plays. If you have any ideas where I can go from here, feel free to post them here!

Thanks for reading.

Dueling Network (DN)

2013-03-25T01:58:00.003-05:00

Lately it seems that there are only 4 decks playable in the TCG/OCG format on DN:
- 3 axis FF
- Judgment Prophecy
- Incarnate Dragons
- Dark World

Yeah, there are a few other decks being played, but after 6 hours of playing, I only saw Evil Swarm x 3, Six Sams x1 and Karakuri x 1. The sheer amount of Derp going on right now is almost enough to make vomit. It seems when I use Incarnates I play DW who open mind crush and all the viruses. When I use Prophecy, play against 3 axis and get otk'd before I even draw my combos.

I think Konami has finally created their dream format. Any kid with enough $$ can pick up any brown deck, learn a few plays and wreck face simply because of he forgiving nature of the new decks. I've said this in the past and its becoming more true each format. Creative deck builders are now being shut out from competitive play. Nothing new or unique stands a chance vs these pre-packaged, overpowered archetypes. Don't believe me? Describe one deck that has the ability to consistently win, yet is considered new or unique and I'll tell you how the deck fails to break up boards on a consistent basis.

In closing, I just want to say that I would love to be able to be able to outplay my opponent and not be punished for it.

Back at it

2013-03-24T08:31:00.001-05:00

Testing

Geargia Guide Book #2 - New Toys!

2012-09-29T21:10:00.001-05:00

I've been convinced to play the Machina version of Geargia. As much as I LOVE the Karakuri version of the deck, Effect Veiler and Maxx "C" put in so much work against that deck. I'd rather have a consistent game than one or two big shots for an OTK.
Right now I'm looking at ways to improve the build and trying to figure out which XYZ monsters would be best. This is the current build:

Some interesting things you'll probably notice in the maindeck

Pot of Duality. Since I'm not trying to go H.A.M. as often, Duality lets me get to my two most important cards in the deck, Geargiarmor and Machina Gearframe, as soon as possible! They were originally Cardcar Ds but after further testing, I really hated using the normal summon AND skipping the Battle Phase.
Snowman Eater. Most people will suspect right away that you are running Geargiarmor if you summon a Gearframe first turn and then on a following turn, set a monster. The random Snowman Eater serves to play mind games on my opponent so that they never quite feel secure in just summoning a Thunder King Rai-Oh and passing turn, when I can just easily flip Snowman to kill it or force the Veiler/Warning.
Trap Stun. This was originally a second Snowman Eater, but after getting my Machina Fortresses Bottomless'ed and Prison'ed over and over again, I decided that using stun would further solve the problem of making pushes into multiple backrow cards.

Now if you will notice the Extra deck, you will see two very cool XYZ monsters!

Lavalval Chain. This has just been released in the Duel Terminal and I'm itching to get my hands on a few for this and other decks I have in the works. This monster allows you to either dump a copy of Fortress to the grave to be revived by Cannon (wombo combo!) or allows me to place Gorz, Gearframe, Effect Veiler, or any monster that I sided in for the matchup on the top of the deck. If I had Chain on the field from a previous turn, I can easily play Pot of Duality and add the card to my hand immediately!
Daigusto Emeral. Another busted XYZ released in the newest Duel Terminal that I'm itching to get my hands on. The primary purpose of this bad boy is to get an extra card after shuffling key combo monsters into the deck: Geargiaccelerator, Gearframe, or even Machina Cannon to be retrieved by Gearframe to revive Fortress!

Overall, I feel that this build has all of the tools to be a very competitive deck. I have grown to understand how fully exploit the power of Machina Fortress and any further improvements and versions of the deck will be running the Machina engine. A floating 2500 attack monster is just too good to be ignored!

Thanks for reading. Please comment below with your thoughts on the build and things you would add or your experiences with this deck type.

Amber Bock (Naturia Deck) Tips and Tricks!

2012-09-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

I was inspired to make this deck a slow grind type of deck after being taught how to properly play Machina Geargias. You know who you are! Naturia Marron is the heart and soul of the deck. Being able to draw an extra card almost every turn is just insane! As you can see in the video, the way I play the deck is to use Naturia Cliff and Cherries to thin the deck and then use Marron to draw my power cards.
Decklist via Dueling Network:

An ideal turn would be to set Cliff or Cherries and get their effects to activate. If they put 2 monsters on board and you have Cliff on the field; the first Cliff gets the second and the second Cliff gets Marron. From there you can return both Cliffs to draw a card. I realize that the deck is extremely trap heavy but the ideal of the deck is to out advantage your opponent by putting up an endless stream of floaters until they have no more options. Anything they put on the field you should be able to take down or move out of your way with the help of Mind Control, Compulsory Evacuation Device, XYZ summons or Synchro summons. Not to mention, just like Plant Synchro, you always have the trusty Lonefire-Dandy-Call/Reborn plays that lead to huge fields and many times OTKs.

Pick up the deck for yourself and tweak it to your liking. I would be interested in hearing your results and cards you changed/added.

Geargia Guide Book #1 - First Impressions

2012-09-16T00:09:00.000-05:00

I have finally found a deck that rivals Synchrocentric in the way it has a plethora of plays that can offset your opponent while still retaining card advantage. The fact that the deck has 2 and 3 card OTKs is just icing on the cake. Synchrocentric could never OTK on the first turn unless you were holding a few limited cards. The ability for this deck to switch from passive to aggressive at the drop of hat catches so many opponents off guard that many times you can game them from just overwhelming there resources.

For this first installment of the "Geargia Guide Book" I'd like to point out that I feel that the Karakuri and Machina variants are equally good. They have similar plays, except Machinas have the ability to randomly drop a 2500 beater from nowhere and OTK with limiter while Karakuris synchro spam for an OTK. The build you run is going to depend on your playstyle. Machina, I feel is better for the aggressive player. The deck can just push through damage and absorb backrows every turn while still having the option to summon Machina Fortress as a follow up. Machinas can also make the most of Gear Gigant X. Searching for multiple copies of Gearframe is a devasting advantage play. My only problem with the Machina version is that I always draw my Fortresses before I ever see 1 Gearframe.

The Karakuri version of the deck is more suited for the conservative player. I have always been a conservative player and this fits my style to a T. Opening with Geargiarmor gives me goosebumps every time. I always feel like I'm going to win if I can get 2 successful flips of Geargiarmor. With 2 Geargiaccelerators in hand and a Geargiarmor on the field, I can essentially OTK without losing any card advantage. Finally, the amount of flexibility the deck offers for Traps, since you don't have to run the full Machina engine (6+ cards), and the flexibility to run cards like Macro Cosmos in the sidedeck without harming your main plays in the deck is just amazing.

Comment below with your initial thoughts about the deck. Next installment, I'll talk about what cards I feel are necessary in both variations of the deck.

Cards That I Feel Should Exist 4 - 6: Video Compendium

2012-09-10T21:19:00.000-05:00

Thank you for supporting the 1st 3 episodes of Cards that should exist. As I said earlier, I want to create and explore the many possibilities that "Could Be!" In the upcoming videos, I'll be working on using the Card Creator program/site to make the videos more visually appealing as well as talking about cards that have generic uses. Please be sure to share your thoughts in the comment section!

Episode 4

Reptilianne Seeker
Dark/Reptile ****
0atk/0def
When this card is summoned while you control another face up Reptilianne monster, it is special summoned to your opponents side of the field. When this card is special summoned: All monsters you control have their original attack become 0 until the end phase.

SLITHER!
Counter Trap
When your opponent activates a spell, trap, or Monster effect: Destroy 1 face up monster on the field with 0 attack and if you do, negate that spell, trap, or Monster effect.

Episode 5

Queen's Pawn Archfiend
Dark
Rank 2 2 level 2 Fiend type monsters
1900atk/200def
While this card has materials, neither player has to pay Life Points during the Stanby Phase for Archfiend Monsters. Once per turn, you can detach 1 material from this card: Add 1 "Strategy" card from your deck to your hand.

Imprisoned King Archfiend
Dark
Rank 4 3 Level 4 Fiend type monsters
2500atk/1200def
May also be XYZ summoned by using Queen's Pawn Archfiend as material. Materials attached to Queen's Pawn Archfiend become this cards materials. If this card has no materials during either player's Standby Phase, it is destroyed. During either player's turn when a Fiend type monster is targetted by a card effect: Detach 1 material from this card.