Earthbound Immortals: The Condor

As I announced yesterday, I will today focus on building a deck around an Earthbound Immortal.
Let me introcude you today's star of the show:

Wiraqocha Rasca was played by Rex Godwin in the series and is cosindered as the most powerful Earthbound Immortal. In the series, his effect allows you to skip your Battle Phase to decrease an opponets life points to 1.




Of course, this card would have been to strong if it would realy have gotten that effect in reality (ever killed an opponet with Sparks?)

So, we chose to play Wiraqocha Rasca. Let's first look at his stats....he's a Dark, so we can try running Allures in our deck. He's a winged beast, so we could tribute him for Icarus Attack if we're really desprate. He has 100 ATK and 100 DEF before his effect activates, so he won't be affacted by Bottomless Trap Hole and can be searched with Sangan. He's Level 10, so we need to tribute 2 Monsters to bring him up.
Now let's look at his effect:

There can only be 1 face-up "Earthbound Immortal" monster on the field. 
Would anyone try to summon 2 of those? o0

If there is no face-up Field Spell Card on the field, destroy this card.
Okay, so we need to find a fitting field spell for him.
Your opponent cannot select this card as an attack target.
Translated to player's language: No Honest or Kalut!
This card can attack your opponent directly.
Pretty decent.
When this card is Normal Summoned, return up to 3 cards you control to your Deck, except this card, and discard the same number of cards from your opponent's hand at random. This card gains 1000 ATK for each card discarded by this effect.

So it goes up to 3100, can not be affected by BTH, can not be attacked and can attack directly, while also limiting your opponet's options by stealing up to 3 cards in his hand.

Well,there's only one problem: We need to send three of our own cards bakc to our deck. We also just tributed two Monsters to summon Wiraqocha Rasca. So we have to give up major field control to gain hand advantage. Another problem is that we have to run a Field card. So let's just think...is there any Field Spell in this game that would work with Wiraqocha Rasca?

In fact, there is!

Black Garden gives us tokens we can tribute to summon Wiraqocha Rasca use for his effect. So Black Garden gives us a Field Spell that helps summoning him while not even touching his ATK! Remember, Black Garden only halfes the ATK when he's summoned. He will still get the full amount of ATK from it's effect!

So after finding a Field Spell that works with him, let's start building the deck:

2 Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca

1 Sangan

3 Black Garden

2 Terraforming

1 Solemn Judgement

That's what I would add until now. Now,let's look at Wiraqocha Rasca's weaknesses:

While he can not be attacked and because of that doesn't have to fear Honest or Kalut, he is still affected by effects. DAD, Brionac, Monarchs, Gyzarus, Celestia and all thier friends will kick him off.

Noticed something? Most of these effects tartget. And what card very well prevents targeting effects?

Tributing a Plant to negate and destroy DAD, Gyzarus, Brionac and all those? No problem! As often proofed in the past, Black Garden also works with Tytannial very well. To have an easier way to access Tytannial, we can and should add 2 Lonefire Blossoms to our deck. Dandylion also brings more tribute fodder, while he can also be searechd with Lonefire Blossom and tributed for Tytannial's effect.

Now let's also add some staples like Call, Space Typhoon, TT,BTHs and Mirror Force. We won't play Storm, as killing our Field Spell is also killing our Immortal. 

2 Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca

2 Tytannial, Princess of Camellias

2 Lonefire Blossom

1 Dandylion

1 Sangan

3 Black Garden

2 Terraforming

1 Brain Control

1 Mystical Space Typhoon


2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Solemn Judgement

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

Until now, we have a very low numer of monsters, right?
As we want to get out our Black Garden as soon as possible, we need more speed in our deck, so we can add Morphing Jar and 2 Cyber Valleys. The last ones especialy work well with the Garden. For more speed, we can play Reckless Greed along with a pair of Mask of Darkness. Reckless Greed is a very good card when the Earthbound comes down. Sending back three cards is not a cost, so you can target your face down Greed, cahin them, and your opponet still has to discard for each Greed you targeted. As we now play 3 Flip-Effect monsters, we can add 2 Book of Moon. 2 Tomatos can get out our Sangan faster,while they are also searchable with Lonefire Blossom. As an additional target to summon for Tomato, we can also throw in Spirit Reaper,which can also buy us some time.
With now 8 Darks,we can also add Allures. We don't want to remove Wiraqocha Rasca for it, but I will still count it as target. Besides, did you notice all our Darks have below 1500 ATK? We can add Dark Eruption to reclycle them (even the Immortal!):

2 Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca

2 Tytannial, Princess of Camellias

2 Lonefire Blossom

2 Mystic Tomato

2 Mask of Darkness

2 Cyber Valley

1 Morphing Jar

1 Dandylion

1 Sangan

3 Black Garden

2 Terraforming

2 Book of Moon

2 Dark Eruption

1 Brain Control

1 Mystical Space Typhoon




3 Reckless Greed
2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Solemn Judgement

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

5 Slots left.

I think 8 Darks are enough to run Dark Armed Dragon, even if it will sometimes only have 1400 ATK, we still can use it's devastating effect. I also think 2 copies of Dark Bribe and one copy of Polinosis as additional possibility to counter opposing cards. (For OCG People: Just play 3 Starlight Roads). For the last slot, let's add one Mark of Rose to get additional tribute/Valley fodder.

So this is the final decklist:

2 Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca

2 Tytannial, Princess of Camellias

2 Lonefire Blossom

2 Mystic Tomato

2 Mask of Darkness

2 Cyber Valley

1 Morphing Jar

1 Dandylion

1 Sangan

1 Dark Armed Dragon

3 Black Garden

2 Terraforming

2 Book of Moon

2 Dark Eruption

1 Brain Control

1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mark of Rose


3 Reckless Greed
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dark Bribe
1 Polinosis

1 Solemn Judgement

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

Like always, this deck was build while I wrote this article, so rate the deck an help me to make it better ;)

I think I will feature more of the Earthbound Immortals within my next articles.

Oh,and about my Tuner-Articles: I chose not to write any more of those, as I think everyone knows by himself which ones are good and which ones are not. Also, there are too many Level 2 or 3 Tuners out there,listing them all would be to much xD

The Champions: Norman Wilde "D-Flamvell-Synchro"

There were two events in Germany this weekend: Santas Christmas in Duisburg and Card Wars Vol. 5 in Zeitz. I attended in Duisburg with Zombies, but dropped at 1:3 . I Also got my first Featured Match there, but lost it because I'm dump xD.
Today, I will show you the deck that won the event in Zeitz:
It's Norman Wilde's D-Flamvell-Synchro:




3x Destiny Hero - Defender
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious
2x Cyber Valley
2x Flamvell Magician
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Summoner Monk
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Flamvell Firedog
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Sangan


3x Destiny Draw
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mind Control
1x Brain Control
1x Gold Sarcophagus
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Rekindling
1x Reinforcement of the Army


3x Skill Drain
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Trap Stun


When you look at this decklist,you will first think that this is an ordinary Skill Drain Synchro,but when you look closer, you will see that Norman replaced the far outdatet Rose with Flamvell Magician and added one copy of Flamvell Firedog and one copy of Rekindling.
Those changes made a major diffenrence I how the deck works. First, It has more OTK potential. Rekindling can bring up 2 level 8 Synchros all by itself if you already control a levle 4 monster (a fact that some Lightsworn players also tried to use). This deck can bring all 3 Flamvells to the graveyard very easy, as you can search the Magicians with the Firedog, Sangan and Summoner Monk (last also works on Firedog if you're realy desperate). You can see what explosive power lies in this deck in Norman's Top 16 Featured Match (for the less of you who don't understand German, he ended the first game with 3 Colossals and a Stardust Dragon on his field). He can also get to his one copy of Rekindling with Gold Sarcrophargus. A single Trap Stun in his deck let's him bring his own effects even if he's under the effect of Skill Drain, while it can also shut down most Meta-Beats for one whole turn (in which you should usualy be able to OTK or at least gain major control over the game).
Norman also chose to play the full three copys of Skill Drain. That first seemes wierd in a format where Zombies are getting stronger and stronger, but if you think about it, what are the best cards in a Zombie-Deck right now?

• Deep Sea Diva
• Tragoedia
• Caius
• Brionac

Now, combine these cards with Skill Drain. Diva becomes a single tuner. Tragoedia turns into a 0 ATK monster. Caius can't remove anything. Brionac is still able to discard, but won't be able to break your defense with his effect. This is why I think Skill Drain realy hurts Zombies more than most people expect.
As I don't think the rest of the deck realy needs to be explained, I will now shortly focus on his Sidedeck:




3x D.D. Survivor
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master


3x Dimensional Fissure
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Mystical Space Typhoon


2x Royal Oppression
2x Trap Hole
1x Trap Stun


His side gives him the possibility to change his strategy completely. He can change to (Skill-Drain-)Dimensional-Synchro or Oppression-Synchro if he likes. This gives him an even better matchup against Lightsworns, Gladiators and Zombies.
I think the weakest point in this deck realy is the Blackwing matchup, especialy if you meet a deck with triple Icarus. You only have one lonely Solemn and your Stardust Dragon (which will mostly be killed by Kalut) to protect you backrow, while you will also have to deal with their maindecked Oppressions. He could add more negation to his dekc by adding Flamvell Counter, but he realy needs all his Flamvells in his graveyard, so this would be a bad choice. He instead added a second copy of Trap Stun to his side, so he would be able to deal with the black birdie's tricks.


To end this article, I would like to greet Piyal Peiris, who again failed in the finals in Duisburg. I also want to say something to who-ever stole my teammate's deck before his Top 8 Match: I hope you someday see yourself how pathetic you are.


In my next article, I will show you some attempts to play Earthbound Immortals!

Tournament Report Gießen 6th December

Hey guys
After a long time without real posting, I'm back here with a tournament report of yesterday's PS3 event in Gießen.

=================================================================
Preparations:
=================================================================

At first, I wanted to play Lightsworns so badly. There only was one problem: I didn't have JDs, I can't afford to buy them at the moment, and nobody could borrow them. So I first thought I had to play my Blackwing deck, but when I saw Dale Bellido presenting his brother's Zombies on his YouTube channel, I thought I could also try this, as I didn't want to play Blackwing any more. I made some modifications in the sidedeck and kicked Gorz from the main for the second Tragodia, so this is what I played:

Monsters:

2 Mystic Tomato
2 Pyramid Turtle
2 Goblin Zombie
2 Mezuki
2 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Krebons
2 Tragoedia
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Sangan
1 Plaguespread Zombie
1 Zombie Master
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

Spells:

2 Allure of Darkness
2 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Brain Control
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Book of Moon
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Creature Swap

Traps:

2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Dust Tornado
1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

Side Deck:

1 Kycoo the ghost Destroyer
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 D.D. Crow
1 Smashing Ground
3 Light-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Trap Hole
2 Dust Tornado
1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Grave Robber

====================================================================
The Journey:
====================================================================

We started of at 8 o'clock in the morning, and went all the way to Gießen (2,5 hours) by car.
As we arrived at the location at 10:30 we saw it wasn't opened yet, and searched for a shop were we could buy something to breakfast. When we retunred we still had to wait for 10 minutes, while other people like Michel Grüner and Soner Güngör also arrived.
I also got the last cards I needed for my deck, so I was ready to start.

====================================================================
Round 1:
vs. Sascha Senne (Zombiesworn) (1-2) ====================================================================
I build up constant advantage in the first game, but he topdecked JD.
In the second game, I make the right reads and remove 1 Goblinzombie and 1 Ryko with Caius. The third game was quite depressing. I opened with a face-down Sangan, but he summoned his side-decked Thuner King (lol!). I lose from there on.

====================================================================
Round 2:
vs. Roland Gress (Blackwing) (2-1) ====================================================================

I first thought this would be a joke when I read the parings. I get a depressing lose in the first round just to face our national champion?
In fact, I could do like nothing in teh first game, he had total control. The second game was quite balanced, but I could manage to make a big move for game thanks to Tragodia. I took his Goyo Guardian with her effect and took control over the game.
The third game was an easy one for me, I had the perfect answer to all of his cards.
He opened with Bora and 3 backrow cards, I lured out his Icarus by setting Goblinzombie and a random spell or trapcard. He plays Blizzard to brign back his Bora and attacks, I summon Tragodia. He endes after setting one more back row card. I first play Vortex,discarding the Mezuki I searched with Goblin Zombie to make him play Solemn, then I tributed Tragodia for Caius. He activates Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, I chain MST. He blocked my attackwith mirror force, but didn't draw anything, so he could only attack with Bora. I still had Krebons in hand and Mezuki and Goblinzombie in my graveyard, I think you can imagine the rest....


====================================================================
Round 3:
vs. Thorsten Kattler (Lightsworn) (2-1) ====================================================================

This match also was a quite easy run. I hit Necro Gradnas and Rykos with Caius and he had to protect his Lumina with Honest when I attacked with Pyramid Trutle, Tomato or Goblin Zombie. My maindecked Kycoo also blocked his 2 Gardnas that would have protected him in the first game. Main Kycoo,he roxx!

====================================================================
Round 4:
vs. Joshua Gielessen (Twilight) (2-1) ====================================================================

I hate it to face teammates that early in a tournament. I don't know how the first game proceeded, but I know I lost it. In game two, he decked himself out because I had Tragodia to stop his OTK, and in the third game I activate Call for Kycoo at the end of his turn while he had 2 Gardnas in his grave...

====================================================================
Round 5:
vs. Jörn Schmidt (Lightsworn) (1-2) ====================================================================

Lost to Tempest Magician.....don't remember the rest of the match....

====================================================================
Round 6:
vs. Julian Gaitzsch (Antimeta) (2-0) ====================================================================

When I saw his Thunder King, I thought this one was over,but in fact, this was a quite easy match. As he didn't paly Dimensional Fissures, I could bring out big monsters with my Turtles (Mezuki and Zombiemaster can realy be big ones if your oppenet does only play Thunder Kings to get them off the field). After baording my third Caius, Trap Holes and Dust Tronados, he didn't stand a chance.

====================================================================
Top 16:
vs. Christopher Wenge (Gadgets) (2-0) ====================================================================

I think this was the easiest match of the whole day. Green Gadget? Go for double kill with Tomato. Yellow Gadget? Go for double kill with Pyramid Turtle. My maindecked Dust Tornado and Vortex also were a sake for this match.

====================================================================
Top 16:
vs. Thorsten Hutzl (Zombies) (2-0) ====================================================================

This would be my first mirror match today!
Whizzy already cangratulated me for reaching the Semifinals before this match xD
Thorsten was playing Reckless Greed and flipped two of them in his second turn,so he had 9 cards in hand....which were all blocked by my maindecked Kycoo xD
I the second game, I build up control with Caius (I consider maining the third one, he's god in the mirror).

====================================================================
Top 4:
vs. Piyal Peiris (Anti) (2-1) ====================================================================
This was the best match of this tournament. I lost the first game as he did +4 with Morphing Jar, but the second and third game were two of the most intense games I ever played. The second game was balanced, but I could manage to go for card advantage with Caius plays. The third game was also very intense, but a Storm from my backrow on his full backfield without any countertrap hit him too hard.

====================================================================
Finals:
vs. Michel Grüner (Zombies) ====================================================================

When I arrived at the table, he offered me a pricesplit. We arranged that he would get the PS3, while I would get 100 Euros and two Mezukis along with 10 Turbo Packs from him. I pulled JD and Doomcalibur out of those, so we both went home with a big plus in our bags.


====================================================================
Conclusion:
====================================================================

On our way home, I invited my three mates, who waited for me for about 7 hours, to a meal at McDonalds. We arrived at my house at about midnight, and I went to bed instantly as I was looking forward to a History classtest today....
In the end, I was quite happy I didn't play Lightsworn. I think I would never have made it that far with them...

The Tuners: Level 4

As Claudio just postet a comment to my last article which said that he would prefer Flamvell Magician or Mist Valley Solider over Rose, I just decided to write about all tuners and their pros and cons. I will start with level 4, and will post about level 3, 2 and all other out there within my next articles.

Until now, there are 8 level 4 Tuner available in the TCG:

• Trap Eater
• Flamvell Magician
• Hyper Synchron
• Royal Swamp Eel
• Mist Valley Solider
• Rose, Warrior Of Revenge
• Road Synchron
• Debris Dragon

At first, all of them are searchable with Summoner Monk (except Trap Eater and Royal Swamp Eel) for easy level 8 Synchro Summons (or level 6 with Road Synchron).

Trap Eater:
I think this guy is the most played level 4 Tuner. The reason? Many players use him instead of Dust Tornado in their Side decks. Especialy Dark-Decks can do this, as they can also remove him for Allure of Darkness. As sending a card to the graveyard is a cost, not even Royal Oppression can stop him.

Flamvell Magician:
One of the two new level 4 Tuners available in Hidden Arsenal. His biggest advantge is that he can not be touched by BTH, so summoning him with Summoner Monk will be a save synchro summon. Diwsadvatage? He cna do nothing else.

Hyper Synchron:
Just forget I wrote him down, he's just here because I want to bring a complete list.

Royal Swamp Eel:
This guy is pretty interessting with Colelacanth. If you find a save way to bring him up,you can simply discard one card from your hand to bring up two level 8 Synchros. This is also a got setup for Pot of Avarice. This deck would only need some small support for becoming a deck worth playing I think.

Mist Valley Solider:
I think this guy is one of the best level 4 tuners available. You can tribute him for Icarus Attack, he's a first class out against Synchros and Heraklinos, and he's a WInd monster you can remove for Dark Simorgh.

Rose, Warrior of Revenge:
The first level 4 Tuner came up as Sneak Promo in Crossroads of Chaos. While she's searchable with Reinforcements Of The Army, her effect is useless I think. Flamvell Magician can't be touched by BTH and Mist Valley solider has a much better effect. I would only play her in decks with Reiforcements, and even there I would consider playng one of the other two guys as nearly every deck runs 2 BTHs nowadays.

Road Synchron:
Did you ever summon Goyo Guardian, Tempest Magician or Brionac with Summoner Monk? In fact, you can do it with this guy. At first, this idea doesn't sound that bad, but we can simply summon Rescue Cat and can get even more options. The reason he's here is the same as for Hyper Synchron.

Debris Dragon:
Last but not least, this guy comes up. His restrictions are quite hard, but you can simply summons Black Rose Dragon with him. You can also use him for level 8 Synchro summons if you use a Treeborn Frog or a Dandylion Token. I just mentioned his best target to use: If you use him with Dandylion you get 2 extra tokens which you can use of effects, as a tribute or what ever comes to your mind.

I don't want to give you a rankign here, as this is only my personal oppinion of these guys. The fact would be that Road and Hyper Synchron would be place 7 and 8 xD
Good luck for everyone who visits this weekend's SJC, if something interesting reaches the playoffs, I will give you one more analysis.

The Champions: Ronny Reitz "Catfish"

I'm back!
Sorry for not writing last week, but an IT classtest and an addicting Nintendo DS Game (Disgaea DS) keept me busy xD.
Today, I will for the first time show you a deck by a German player:
Ronny Reitz' "Catfish". Ronny became established after wining 2 larger tournaments with his very own rebuild of the old Cat Synchro Deck.
Here is his list:

3x Gravekeeper's Spy
3x Deep Sea Diva
3x X-Saber Airbellum
2x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1x Neo-Spacian Dark Panther
1x Rescue Cat
1x Cyber Dragon
1x Spined Gillman
1x Gravekeeper's Guard
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1x Sangan
1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
1x Summoner Monk
1x Rose, Warrior of Revenge


Zauber
3x Book of Moon
3x Pot of Avarice
2x Lightning Vortex
1x Heavy Storm
1x Brain Control
1x Mind Control
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Scapegoat


Fallen
3x Threatening Roar
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Call Of The Haunted
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute

(Side Deck missing)

As you can see, this deck is very similar to the old Cat Synchro decks, but wth some modification, it also became playable in the new format. Ronny decided to add a Deep See Diva Engine, comprehending 3 Divas and a Spined Gillman. With this, his deck becomes extremly Synchro-friendly. He also added 2 Rykos as additional targets for Rescue Cat, which also serve as great opening play and can fill his graveyard for his 3 copies of Pot Of Avarice. You read correctly, he added the full three copies instead of the more standart pair of Pots. This is a simple decision if you want to use your combos as often as possible, and filling the graveyard is not realy a big deal in this deck. Ronny also added a pair of Lightning Vortexes, an exelent card in the current metagame, especialy in combination with Threatning Roar (which he runs three times). Let your opponet overextend, stop his OTK with Roar, punish him with Vortex. Sound simple? In fact, it is. Another card that was rarely seen in Catsynchro is Rose. With her, Ronny gets access to level 8 Sychros. Stardust Dragon is a gamewinner against Gladiator Beasts, and Colossal can kill a Blackwing deck on his own (I speak from my own experience...).
The rest of the deck is nothing special. The only thing that still might be mentioned is that Ronny decided to run Spies and one Guard. I think the main reason for this is the limitation of Mind Control, which could disturb your plays with Flip-Effects while it was unlimited.
In summary, you can say that the revival of Cat-Synchro is still a deck you should anticipate when you're heading to a larger tournament. It got even more power with Hidden Arsenal, as it has easy access to Castator, Brionac and Mist Worm. I think I will test this deck when I have the time to do so.
At this point, I want to congratualte Ronny for his success with this deck, I hope we get the chance to play once more somewhen (1:0, I'm leading :P)
I will try to post one more interview within the next few days. Stay tuned and have fun ;)

Dual Village

As I promised you, I will today discuss an Anti-Meta deck featuring some cards from Stardust Overdrive.
In fact, I will rebuild an older deck that was introcuded some months ago at TCGPlayers:
Little Village

Build as heavy anti-meta deck, it would always have one of it's keycard on it's starting hand, simply because it plays 4 cards which hurt the metadecks hard (Village,Oppression,Skill Drain,and eventually Thunder King) in triples and 2 cards to search them.

Let's have a short look at his list:

3 Beast King Barbaros
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Gemini Elf
3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
3 Skilled Dark Magician
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

2 Book of Moon
1 Lightning Vortex
3 Secret Village of the Spellcasters
1 Smashing Ground
2 Terraforming

3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
3 Dark Bribe
1 Mirror Force
3 Royal Oppression
3 Skill Drain
3 Solemn Judgment

Now, we hat to adjust the deck to our new banned list. In fact, there is only one thing we have to change:
-2 Solemn Judgement

Now, if you read the tital you will have recognized that I want to call the new deck "Dual Village". In fact, I will be playing the 2 new Dual Monsters from Stardust Overdrive:
Tuned Magician and Crusader of Endymion.
As you can see, both of them are SPellcasters and fit perfectly in out deck. Now, why do I have to add Dual Monsters and not any other random Spellcasters?
Look at this:
Gemini Spark
We just have to give up one of our monsters to destory any card on the field that annoys us.
In addition, we are allowed to draw one more card from our deck. Of course,usualy giving up field presence is not the best thing in Anti-Meta strategies, but we get some speed and can get rid of cards like Royal Decree,big defenders, opposing Spellcasters, we can destroy a freshly sommuned Blackwing to prevent the Whirldwind search, and more options.

So we want to add:
3 Cruasder of Endymion
3 Tuned Magician
3 Dual Spark

With Solemn limited, we allready got 2 free slots, so let's look what else we can kick. As our new monsters are farly better than Gemini Efls, frist let's kick those. Also, I am not a fan of Barbaros, simply because he's only a senseless beatstick in this deck. To get 1 more free slot, Breaker also has to go back to the subs bench. Now,let's look which spell or trap cards we can kick. As you can read in his article, Shaw only played CEDs to get rid of opposing problem monsters. With Dual Spark, we can get rid of them forever, while we're also albe to handle spells and traps: Result: Kick!
With Tuned Magician on board, we also have to option to Synchro Summon if we need to.
Now,we still have 2 free slots.
Let's look at the Spellcasters that are jumping around in todays metadecks:

Lyla
Lumina
Chaos Sorcerer
Breaker
Kycoo

Exept Lumina, all of them have more than 1500 ATK, so let's add our 2 copies of Bottomless Trap Hole. This card is great against every deck played nowadays. As we play Royal Oppression,we could also use Trap Hole to handle Lumina, but I don't want to relay on having Oppression on my field.

Now, you may have seen that, with Evacuation Device gone, we have very less ways to deal with large monsters on the field. As the Crusader we just added is a Light monster, we would be able to add Honest. Thunder King also is a Light, but 3 Honest is too much for 6 Lights I think, so which other Light/Spellcasters do we have?
*uses card search engine*
Here we go:
Herald of Creation
1800 ATK,Light,Spellcaster...any other whises? Okay, you could use his effect if you would still play Barbaros, but that doesn't matter now. Let's kick our 3 Skilled Dark for 3 copies of him. Now, we would have 9 Light Monsters for Honest. There's only one problem: We still don't have any Honest in our deck. Let's try to make space for it. As I already told you, Dual sparl has the disadvantage of cosing field presence, so simply let's cut this down to two copies. With 1 Spark gone, I thin two Tuned Magician are enough to feed the Sparks. The third Honest can simply be put in the deck, so we play 41 cards:

Main:
3 Honest
3 Crusader Of Endymion
3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
3 Herald Of Creation
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Tuned Magician

2 Dual Spark
2 Book of Moon
1 Lightning Vortex
3 Secret Village of the Spellcasters
1 Smashing Ground
2 Terraforming

3 Dark Bribe
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
3 Royal Oppression
3 Skill Drain
1 Solemn Judgment

Of course,this is only my personal version of this deck. If you like, you can also play it more focused on dark Spellcasters, so you can add Allure:

3 Dark Elf
3 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
3 Skilled Dark Magician
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

2 Book of Moon
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Lightning Vortex
3 Secret Village of the Spellcasters
1 Smashing Ground
2 Terraforming

3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
3 Dark Bribe
1 Mirror Force
3 Royal Oppression
3 Skill Drain
1 Solemn Judgment

Just find you very own build of Village-Anti, be creative ;)

Stardust Overdrive Sneak Peek Results

As I came home very late yesterday, I will show you my results today:

- Explosive Magician
- 1. Place, winning a Stardust Overdrive Playmat

Also, three people got a Dark Simorgh from their Boosters. Of course, non of them wanted to trade me his one.

If you want to read the previews again,here they are:

Fortune Ladies
Dark Simorgh
Guardian Eatos
Archangel Kristya

As school just started last week and Ill start writing class test tomorrow, I will not be able to post as frequently as I did the last weeks, I hope you understand :P
Next week, I will inter alia show you a Metabeat deck with additions from Stardust Overdrive.
See you next time ;)

Stardust Overdrive Preview: Fortune Ladies

As I already announced yesterday, I will today present you a whole new archtype brougth to the TCG in Stardust Overdrive. This theme is loaded with it's very own D-Draw, Ring of Destruction, Disc Commander and a very special searcher: I'm talking about the Fortune Ladies. Here they are:

Fortune Lady Light
Light/Spellcaster - Effect/1/?/?
This card's ATK and DEF are equal to its Level x 200. During each of your Standby Phases, increase the Level of this card by 1 (max 12). When this card is removed from the field by a card effect, you can Special Summon 1 "Fortune Lady" monster from your Deck.

Lighty is our prime search monster. Whenever she's removed from the feild by a card effect, you can special summon another Fortune Lady from your deck. So,how can we remove her from the feild? My first thought was Torrential Tribute. You can also use Compulsory Evacuation Devyce to brign her back to your hand,which also is "remove her from the field".
Now, let's look at Lights friends:
Fortune Lady Fire
Fire/Spellcaster - Effect/2/?/?
This card's ATK and DEF are equal to its Level x200. Increase this card's Level by 1 during your Standby Phase (Max. 12). When this card is Special Summoned in Attack Position by the effect of a "Fortune Lady", destroy 1 face-up monster on your opponent's side of the field, and inflict damage to your opponent equal to that monster's ATK.

Hi, one-sided Ring Of Destruction? With this lady, you can get rid of ANY monster you don't like. You can also summon her with Dark if you ahve to get rid of a monster during your battle phase. As you see, you have your very own Murmillo here.

Fortune Lady Wind
Wind/Spellcaster - Effect/3/?/?
This card's ATK and DEF are equal to its Level x 300. During your Standby Phase, this card's Level is increased by 1. (max. Level 12). When this card is Normal Summoned, you can destroy a number of Spell and Trap Cards your opponent controls equal to the total number of "Fortune Lady" monsters you control.

Stratos' S/T destruction effect reloaded! It's realy sad this doesn't work when she's special summoned, but I think she would be too strong if it would. With her,you can get rid of you opponet's back field and especialy Royal Oppression.


Fortune Lady Water
Water/Spellcaster - Effect/4/?/?
This card's ATK and DEF are equal to its Level x 300. During your Standby Phase, this card's Level is increased by 1. (max. 12). If you control a "Fortune Lady" monster other than "Fortune Lady Water" when this card is Special Summoned to your side of the field, draw 2 cards.

When your opponet gets this card running,you will remember why you hated Disc Commander. Simply summon her with Dark or Light to get free card advanatge.


Fortune Lady Dark
Dark/Spellcaster - Effect/5/?/?
Increase this card's Level by 1 during your Standby Phase (max. 12). This card's ATK and DEF are equal to its Level x 400. While you control this face-up card, when a face-up "Fortune Lady" monster you control destroys an opponent's monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, you can select 1 "Fortune Lady" monster in your Graveyard and Special Summon it.

This card is the reason why you should run 2 copies of Foolish Burial. Because she's level 5, you would have to tribute a monster to summon her, but Light's effect solves that problem. With her,you can easily perform monster destruction (with Fire) oder draw actions (with Water) from your graveyard.

So far about the Fortune Ladies themeselfs. I would suggest the following monster lineup:

3 Light
2 Fire
2 Water
2 Wind
2 Dark

3 Light because she is your primary search option. Without her, the deck won't win. Playing the rest of them twice is enough as you can simplay search every single one of them with Light's effect.

But there are even more supporter for them:


Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate
Earth/Spellcaster - Effect/4/1800/0
When your opponent Special Summons, you can remove from play 1 monster from your Graveyard with ? ATK to destroy the Special Summoned monsters.

This guy saves you from any special summons. Simply remove one Fortune Lady from your Graveyard to destory your opponet's DaD,Heraklinos or any Synchro exept Stardust Dragon. I would add 1 of him.

Also,did you see that all Fortune Ladies are Spellcasters? We can simply use Magical Exemplar to swarm the field with the Ladies that were destroyed or we send to the graveyard with Foolish Burial. Let's add 2 Exemplars to the mix.

So until now we have:

3 Light
2 Water
2 Wind
2 Dark
2 Magical Exemplar
1 Fire
1 Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate

2 Foolish Burrial

One moment please. Didn't I mention that Fortune Ladies also have thier very own D-Draw? In fact, this is more a Pot of Greed with restriction:
Fortune's Future
Select 1 of your removed from play "Fortune Lady" monsters. Return it to the Graveyard, and then draw 2 cards.

It's the same here like with Watery: If your opponet throws down this card,you will remember why Pot is banned ;)
If you have Dark on your field, you can directly special summon the Lady you brouht back to your graveyard! Playing Soul Release in your main deck wouldn't be a bad idea here,would it?

Also,as I said before, Light's effect will activate no matter how she's removed from the field, exept by battle. S0 let's add a pair of CEDs to the deck. After addign the staplesm it will look like this:

3 Light
2 Water
2 Dark
2 Magical Exemplar
1 Wind
1 Fire
1 Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate

3 Fortune's Future
2 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Release
1 Heavy Storm

2 Compulsory Evecuation Device
1 Mirror Force
1 Call Of The Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute

Makes total numer of 28, so we still have 12 free slots to fill.
Don't you also think that playing only 13 monsters is a bit to less? With all this draw power, I think adding a pair of Tragoedias is a must. She will have high attack power and,as she has ? ATK, she can be romved for Catoblepas.
This makes 15 monsters.
Now, as I already said, the deck has trouble if you don't have your Light Lady. As it has ? ATK, you can not search her with Shining Angel or Sangan. But there is another card you can use to search her:
Anyone of you remembers Rai-Mei? Set him,let him destroy and be happy about your Light Lady! 1 Cyber Valley as additional target should work quite well,so let's add it.
And there is one more guy who can abuse Light once every turn, and I would wounder if you know it:
Kinka-Byo
He removes your Light from play, lets you abuse her effect, gives you a traget for Fortune's Future, and has a great synergy with Foolish Burial.
Now,with 7 Lights and 5 Darks, I think we can add a pair of Chaos Sorcerers here, and with them, DaD can join in.

So now we have:

3 Light
2 Water
2 Dark
2 Magical Exempla
2 Tragoedia
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Wind
1 DAD
1 Fire
1 Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate
1 Kinka-Byo
1 Cyber Valley
1 Rai-Mei

3 Fortune's Future
2 Foolish Burial
1 Soul Release
1 Heavy Storm

2 Compulsory Evecuation Device
1 Mirror Force
1 Call Of The Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute

20 Monsters is quite enough I think. Now, as all our monsters have different levels, I would like to add Reasoning to the deck. Also, with that many Darks, let's play a pair of Allures. 2 Gold Sacros can also help you to search your Light Lady or any traget for Fortune's Future.
I would also like to add MST and Trunade, for ensuring Dark will hit her target. Also, Lighning Vortex will be a help to fill your graveyard and destory opposing monsters. For even more search power for Light, you can add the single copy of One For One you're still allowed to play. For more protection, let's add 2 BTHs

3 Light
2 Water
2 Dark
2 Magical Exemplar
2 Tragoedia
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Wind
1 DAD
1 Fire
1 Catoblepas and the Witch of Fate
1 Kinka-Byo
1 Cyber Valley
1 Rai-Mei

3 Fortune's Future
2 Foolish Burial
2 Gold Sacro
2 Allure
1 Reasoning
1 Soul Release
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
1 Mystical Space typhoon

2 Compulsory Evecuation Device
2 BTH
1 Mirror Force
1 Call Of The Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute



Makes 41 cards. I think when you get the Fortune Lady Engine running, almost nothing will be able to stop you, as you have easy access to monster destruction, draw power and some other devastating effects like DAD and CS. If you like crazy cards,you can even add Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan if you like (seriuosly, how many of you could remember to this old card? I can beacuse my brother always crushed my Dark World field with this while he had Elemental Mistress Doriado on his field...good old times xD).
Like always,this is a spontanous build,so feel free to critize ;)

Good luck to all of you at the Sneak tomorrow, if I don't overlseep I will briefly present you my successes tomorrow afternoon.

Stardust Overdrive Preview: Dark Simorgh

As I just realised that I didn't start writing previews on monday this week, I unfortunately will have to kick one of my planed articles. You all will have to cognize yourself why Silver Wind is overrated ;)
Today I will write about another card that was hyped since it was announced to be content of Stardust Overdrive:
Dark Simorgh
Dark/Winged Beast - Effect/7/2700/1000
This card's Attribute is also treated as WIND. You can Special Summon this card from your hand by removing from play 1 DARK monster and 1 WIND monster in your Graveyard. You can remove from play 1 DARK monster and 1 WIND monster from your hand to Special Summon this card from your Graveyard. Your opponent cannot Set (or flip face-down) any cards.

His effect sounds amazing, doesn't it?
In fact it is. As long as he stays on your field, you don't need to fear Ryko, any Traps, and not even Book of Moon. The most amazing thing: Your are still allowed to play those cards! Simorgh only locks your opponet down!

But there is more about him:
Imagine your opponet would also be prohibited to play spells! Lightsworn without Solar and Charge, Blackwings without Black Whirldwind, Zombies without Burrial and Book of Life, any deck without Storm. Sounds like a game winning plan? Now,which card can help us to perform that powerfull kind of lock?
It's a card that many people used durring TeleDaD times (and that brought me a spot in Top 32 at Fortune Tour Bremen):
Yeah,you read correctly! With Simorgh and Fragrance on your field, you lose a bit of speed because you have to set your spells before using it, but contrary to your opponet, you are at least allowed to use spells!

So now, we talked about how amazing his effect is. Now, let's look at the reason taht makes this card not as overpowered as you think: His summoning conditions!
You have to remove one Dark and one Wind Monster from your graveyard to special summon Simorgh from your hand. Pay attation to the fact that his effect doesn't say that you can't Normal Summon him or use other cards to Special Summon him, so feel free to remove him with Allure and bring him back with return or easily revive him with call!
We have enough good Dark Monsters, but how about the Wind?
(* opens eTCg and enters WIND/Effect in the card search engine *)
There is Stratos...Stardust...Twin-Headed Behemoth...Raiza...Tytannial...Derbis Dragon....Vortex Trooper...the Harpie Ladies...Gladiaotor beast Bestiari,Equeste and Secutor....Koai'ki Meirou Dragon....and Red-Eyes Wyvern.
At first, this doesn't sound like realy much support for him, does it?
In fact, it isn't. So,let's think where we can play him: D-Hero Monarchs, Harpie Ladies, Hopeless Dragon, Plants. So far about the decks we know until know. But,as Hidden Arsenal will be a 1:1 copy of Duel Terminal 1, a new friend will join our company of Wind monsters:
Solider Of Mist Valley
Wind/Winged Beast - Tuner/4/1700/300
When this face-up monster attacks or is attacked by an opponent's monster, unless the opponent's monster is destroyed by battle, it is returned to the owner's hand at the end of the Damage Step.

At first, his effect is quite good, you can use him to get rid of Synchros or any defensive walls. But beside this, his stats are what makes him realy good for this deck:
Wind - for Simorgh
Winged Beast - for Icarus
Tuner - for Synchro Summons
Level 4 - searchable with Summon Monk!

With him, you can easily build a deck I would call Simorgh Synchro:
You can add Stratos, Solider of Mist Valley, Raiza, and have easy access to Stardust Dragon!
This makes 6 Wind monsters in the main plus 2 in your Extra Deck, far enough for Simorgh I think. Also remember Stratos can be searched with Reinforcement and Solider of Mist Valley can be summoned with Summoner Monk. Now,you can use the full draw-power of 3 D-Draw and 2 Allure of Darkness! With this,you should draw your combo quite fast!
But there is more! Imagine a hand of Monk, Simorgh, Fragrance and a random Spell card!
As Summon Monk is Dark and Solider of Mist Valley is Wind,you can just synchro for Stardust Dragon and instantly remove both for Simorgh! Set Fragrance and watch your opponet cry while he is trying to find a way out of his situation.
With all this, Simorgh himself look realy strong, right?

But there is STILL more: He is also fitted with a revival effect. If your opponet can handle to get rid of Simorgh,you can simply remove a Dark and a Wind monster to bring him back. With all this remove from play options, you can also add Return From A Different Dimension for OTK options!
All in all, I think Simorgh will be the most sought-after card beside Archangel Kristya, so be sure you can trade your copies at the Sneak.

Tomorrow, to end the first week of previews, I will write about a new theme deck with it's own Stratos,Ring of Destruction and even an own Disc Commander: Fear the Fortune Ladies!
See you tomorrow ;)

Stardust Overdrive Preview: Guardian Eatos

Bceause I realy liked to read the preview articles at Metagame, I decided to replace them. In the weak before the Sneak, I will try to bring you one card preview each day,starting Monday, followed by a short summarize of the Sneak itself! The preview doesn't need to be positive, for example, I will explain why Blackwing - Silver Wind The Isolated is overhyped.

So now, as the "Super Ultimate Strong R0XXor" Lightsworn cards turned out to be crap, I will now bring the post I already announced in my last one:

Guardian Eatos
Wind/Fairy - Effect/8/2500/2000
If there are no Monster Cards in your Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. By sending 1 Equip Spell Card equipped to this card to the Graveyard, select up to 3 Monsters in your opponent's Graveyard and remove them from play. For each monster removed from play by this effect, this card gains 500 ATK until the End Phase.

Sound realy powerfull,doesn't it? Simply bring a 2500 Beatstick from your hand to the field. Only condition: Your graveyard has to be empty.
So, how can we keep our graveyard free of monsters?
There are two possible ways:
- Add a complex shift engine
- Use Dimensional Fissure and Macrocosmos

It should be obvisious which way we should choose.
In Japan, a deck build after this concept made the first,3rd and 8th place out of 63 players, beating Lightsworn, Zombies and Gladiators.

Here is the list:

Monsters: 12

3x Beast King Barbaros
2x Crusader of Endymion
3x Guardian Airtos
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
3x Elemental Hero Neos Alius

Spells: 13

1x Reinforcement of the Army
3x Dimensional Fissure
2x Book of Moon
2x Forbidden Chalice
3x Dual Spark
2x E-Emergency Call

Traps: 15

3x Dark Bribe
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Solemn Jugdment
2x Macro Cosmos
3x Starlight Road
3x Skill Drain

At first,there is a modification to do:

Starlight Road is far away from beeing released in TCG, so kick it.
I realy think that playing Dual Spark with Crusader Of Endymnion is a very good idea, but I don't want to leave D.D. Survivor out of this deck.
2 E-Call for 4 targets while already playing Reinforcement is far too much I think, let's also kick those.
So,we have 9 free slots now,how can we use them?
If it happens that a monster lands in our graveyard, we have no way to get it out of there, so Eatos I a dead card. And what do we do with dead cards? Correctly, try to discard it. As Barbaros and Eatos are level 8, we can play 2 Trade In for more speed.
Also, I'd like to add a third copy of Macrocosmos, becaus we realy need to draw one of those cards on our starting hand.
As aditional card to discard a dead Eatos, let's add a pair of Lightning Vortex. It the current format, Blackwings and Lightsworns can easy swarm the field, and we have to get rid of our dead copies of Skill Drain, Dimensional Fissure and Cosmos. For more monster protection, let's also add a pair of Prisons.
Last but not least, our 3 Survivors will join the party.

So,here is our list:

Monsters: 13

3x Beast King Barbaros
3x D.D. Survivor
3x Guardian Eatos
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
3x Elemental Hero Neos Alius

Spells: 12

1x Reinforcement of the Army
3x Dimensional Fissure
2x Book of Moon
2x Trade In
2x Forbidden Chalice
2x Lightning Vortex

Traps: 15

3x Dark Bribe
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Mirror Force
1x Solemn Jugdment
3x Macro Cosmos
3x Skill Drain

of course, it would be much mor edevastating with Starlight Road, as it can negate 2 mass destruction effects, one by it's own effect and one with the Stardust it summons, but as we don't have it yet, we have to play without it. I still think that this deck will be the Number 1 Anti-Meta Deck, packed with Skill Drain AND Cosmos/Fissure AND large beaters.
My other articles this week will deal with Dark Simorg, Silver Wind, and last but not least, the fortune Ladies. I chose not to say anything about the new Ritual Support because Nimroid Hellfire already wrote a very good article about it.
Thanks for reading, I hope to see all of you at Card Wars Vol. 3 ;)

Stardust Overdrive Preview: Archangel Kristya

Next to it's indisputalbe star, Maximillion Pegasus' very own Dark Rabbit, Stardust Overdirve brings another Japan only card to Europe and America: Archangel Kristya

For those of you who don't know her,here she is:

LIGHT/Fairy - Effect/8/2800/2300
If there are exactly 4 Fairy-Type monsters in your Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. When this card is Special Summoned this way, add 1 Fairy-Type monster from your Graveyard to your hand. While this card is face-up on the field, neither player can Special Summon monsters. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, it is returned to the top of its owner's Deck instead.

Sounds similar to a card that poisned our meta for about a whole year, doesn't it?
In fact, I think Kristya will not influence the meta as much as the dark father did, but she is definitly a boss monster fairy decks were looking for. Did you ever imagine how strong Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo would be with higher attack points? Here you have him! besiedes or angel lady is even able to do more: When you summon her, you can pick a fairy from your graveyard and take it to your hand! Targets? Honest is the most obvisios. Other targets would be Artemis, Asura Priest, Gellendou, Marshmallon or Banisher.
As you see, you can do some realy crazy things with her.
Speaking of Artemis: You can simply add Krystia to your Counter Fairy decks. Lets see a simple decklist featuring Kristya:

3 Archangel Kristya
3 Boundful Artemis
3 Honest
2 Mask of Darkness
2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 Gellenduo
1 Freed, The Brave Wanderer
1 Asura Priest
1 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1 Mashmallon
1 Morphing Jar

2 Booko of Moon
2 Trade In
2 My Body As A Shield
1 Heavy Storm
1 Smashing Ground
1 Lightning Vortex

3 Dark Bribe
2 Magic Drain
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison
1 Mirror Force
1 Divine Wrath
1 Torrential Tribut
1 Solemn Judgement

Of course, this is only a sample decklist, I think there are many cards I din't see and many possible improvements.

So,let's look how this deck works. At first, 2 Trade In with onyl 3 targets look quite strage, but remember: Every time our Kristya would go the graveyard from the field, she returns to the top of our deck. So if we draw one of her and she doesn't happen to run into BTH,Prison, Oppression ect (what you should be able to stop with your Counter Traps/MBAAS) we have a monster we can play and that is a sure target for Trade In. Also, If we discard one copy of her, we can just get it back when we summon a second one (and discard it for the second Trade In if you're lucky). Or imagine this: You have Kristya in hand and Torrential Tribute face down. Simply summon her, clean the field and give your opponet a direct shot with your freshly recycled Artemis! And if your opponet can get rid of Artemis, you simply can summon Kristya again next trun (remember, the one you destoryed was send back to the top of your deck). So, let's have a look at Kristyas many fears in the current meta and how we play around it:

Kalut: Honest, Wrath, Book of Moon, Prison, Mirror Force
Honest: Wrath, Book of Moon, Prison, Mirror Force
Ryko/Celestia: MBAAS, Solemn, Wrath
BTH: Solemn, Bribe, MBAAS, Book of Moon, Storm
JD/DAD/Gyzraus/Murmillo: Her own effects prevents them

So far about Kristya. So now, let'slook at the rest of this deck: Artemis, Honest and Mask Of Darkness are no-brainers in my opinion. I added Gellenduo because it's a fairy and can save you some time, same with Marshmallon. Ryko is used as strong opening and for removing Oppression,Decree and other backfield cards. Lyla serves the same purpose, while she is an additional beatstick next to Kristya and Artemis.
Freed is used for grave control: If you have to many Fairies in your graveyard, you have to remove some of them to get out Kristya. Also, Freed has high ATK and can get rid of Jinzo or Colossal. The spell and traps are quite self-explaining I think. As much monster removal and as many counter traps as possible.


Remember,as your main effects are unaffected by Light-Imprisoning Mirror, you can side it against Lightsworns ( Artemis, Gellenduo and Kristya are contiuos effects and Honest activates in your hand,so the don't care about LIM). Other cards for your main deck could be Magic Jammer, Seven Tools of the Bandit, Ultimate Drop Off, Rai-Oh or even a Chaos Splash with some more Dark monsters liek Sprit Reaper, Sangan, Doom Calibur, all backed up by a pair of Chaos Sorcerers and eventualy DAD (cerntainly, I would never run him,for a reason see the my article about Chris Bowling's Twilight). Just be creative ;)
One of my next articles will deal with the light side of Dartz' strongest servant Raphael: Guardian Eatos!

The Champions: Chris Bowling " Twilight"

Chris Bowling is a well known american Duelist. After countless Day 2 appearances, the 2008 US National Champion now won his (I think) first Shoen Jump Championship. He used a very special Twilight Version:

3 x Necro Gardna
3 x Honest
3 x Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2 x Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
2 x Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
2 x Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
1 x Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1 x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 x Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
2 x Shiny Black “C”
1 x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 x Plaguespreader Zombie
2 x Chaos Sorcerer
2 x Judgment Dragon

3 x Charge of the Light Brigade
3 x Solar Rechage
2 x Gold Sarcophagus
1 x Heavy Storm
1 x Pot of Avarice
1 x Burial From a Different Dimension

1 x Torrential Tribute
2 x Bottomless Trap Hole
2 x Beckoning Light

Side:

2 x D. D. Crow
1 x Card Trooper
1 x Legendary Jujitsu Master
1 x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

2 x Lightning Vortex
1 x Twister
1 x Mystical Space Typhoon

1 x Trap Dustshoot
1 x Dust Tornado
2 x Royal Oppression
1 x Dimensional Prison
1 x Royal Decree

At first, this deck looks quite similar to a normal Twilight Deck. 2 Chaos Sorcer, 2 Judgement Dragons and...wait...no Dark Armed Dragon!
Why did he choose not to play DaD?
I think there are several reasons:
- With 2 JDs and 2 CSs,the deck already has enough boss monsters. He simply doesn't need one more of them.
- The DARK part of his deck mainly consists of monsters he wants to remove on other ways: 3 Necro Gardna and Plaugespreader Zombie.
- The deck already plays enough dead draws like Wulf, Necro Gardna and Shiny Black "C" and to be succesfull, you simply musn't play to many deatdraws.
- Most important reason: Try to get your graveyard to three darks in this deck: It's almost not possible.You only play 7 darks total, while you won't want to remobe your Sorcerer as long as you can reuse him with PoA, and you won't want to save your Gardnas or Plaugspreader just to eventualy be able to summon DaD.

Also, Bowling decided to run some techs against the meta: Shiny Black "C" is one of the mopst effective counters against Synchro oriented decks. If you have the "C" in your Graveyard, your opponet has no other choice than summoning Stardust Dragon. Every other synchro, like Colossal Fighter or Armormaster, which are know as big fears to Lightsworn,especialy in combination with Light-Imprisoning Mirror, would simply be destroyed by the "C"s effect. Because Bowling has enough ways to get rid of those threats, he can afford to run only one single copy of Ryko. He also chhosed to play one one copy of Lyla. I think this has one big reason: There are too many chainable Traps in the current meta, so Lyla is not very good. Because she has to stay in defense, she is just a defensles (Ha,word joke!) victim to opposing attacks unless you can tribute her for Celestia.
3 Wulfs without Foolish Burial seems quite crazy on the first look, but as Bowling can use his Plaugespreader multiple times thanks to his Burial From The Different Dimension, he can just stack Wulf to the top of his deck and the special summon it by milling it.
Burial From The Different Dimension has a very different function than in many other decks here:
In Zombie and Blackwing, you focus on the offensive options this card opens and use it to abuse your Mezukis and Vayus.
Bowling on the other hand decided to use Burial as a defense tech: He will mostly send used copies of Shiny Black "C" or Necro Gardna back to his graveyard. By this, he can use up to 6 Gardans and 4 "C"s!. As I already said, Stardust is the only way to avoid "C"s effect, but I don't think Stardust is the Synchro of your choice against Lightsworn because Honest realy kicks his ass. I think Honest is the main reason why Bowling opted to run Beckoning Light instead of Monster Reincernation. He needs as many copies of Honest as possible to get rid of as many Stardust dragons as possible. His single copy of Pot of Avarice simply can help him to avoid a lose because he decks himself out. he also can reuse his Chaos Sorcerers with it.

There is not much to say about his side deck, but I think two cards need an extra explanation:
Trap Dustshoot:
Bowling simply chose that it can only be a good card if you start. So,he only boards it in when he starts the game.
Card Trooper:
Why side him? Because you need cards you can replace Shiny Black "C" with when you play against non-Synchro decks.

I hope you like my analysis, I'm open for your criticism ;)
I also hope there will be a creative deck to analyse today in Wunstorf. See you later ;)

Chaos Tele-DaD

As Claudio just posted his Chaos Tele-DaD decklist, I choosed to post my version here:

3x Cyber Valley
2x Krebons
2x Dimensional Alchemist
2x Chaos Sorcerer
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1x Cyber Dragon
1x D. D. Warrior Lady
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
1x Destiny Hero - Plasma
1x Dark Armed Dragon

3x Destiny Draw
2x Allure of Darkness
2x Gold Sarcophagus
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Emergency Teleport
1x Machine Duplication
1x Scapegoat
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mind Control

2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Mirror Force
1x Return from the Different Dimension

As you can see, instead of playing with Thunder Dragon and lots of discard effects, my deck focuses on big draw actions with Cyber Valley. My advantage of course is that I draw my combos a lot faster, therefor, I have some problems in handling large opposing field presence. Everything else is the same as In Claudio's version: Quality monsters, a lot of special summons and OTK potential.
As Claudio alreaedy said, you can easily side into SD or Oppression. I played 3 Winged Kuribohs and 3 Threatning Roars in my sidedeck. Reason? Just imagine the face of a Lightsworn player that loses just because his JD blowed up a Winged Kuriboh:

(greetings to Patrick Keackerey)
Unpricable!
Some more reasons for Kuriboh:
- Unaffected by Decree
- Your opponet can't abuse it Brain Control like he could do with Cyber Valley
- Your oppoent can't avoid it's effect by destoying with effects like he could do when Cyber Valley is on the field

I think it depends a lot on your own playstyle which version you should use. If you like more speed,you should use my version, but if you more like to control the game, you should play Claudios version.

See you later ;)

Hidden Arsenals shining star

In about 2 weeks, Hidden Arsenal will hit the stores and with it, we finaly have access to one of the best Synchro monsters ever printed:
Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier


Sea-Serpent/Synchro/Effect
Discard any number of cards to the graveyard. Then, return cards from the field to it's owners hands equal to the number of cards discarded.

So, what makes this card worth writing a whole article about it?
At first, because Brionac is level 6, he is very easy to summon. Let me give you some examples how you can summon him:

Blackwing:

Blizzard + Shura/Bora
Kalut + Gale

Zombie:
Plaugespreader + Zombie Master/Mezuki/Goblin Zombie/ect

Lightsworn:
Plaugespreader Zombie + Wulf/Lyla/Garoth

So, as you can see, bringing Brionac out is not realy a difficult thing. Now, how can we abuse his effect?
At first, Brionac easily kills any Synchro. He also frees you opponet's field for a big OTK move.
Also, his discard costs can easily be abused:

Play Blizzard, search Vayu with Black Whirlwind, summon Bora/Shura with Blizzards effect, summon Brionac, discard Vayu for his efect to get rid of your opponet's Armormaster/Colossal.

Sounds sick? Now,look at this:

Synchro Plaugespreader Zombie with Goblin Zombie for Brionac. Search your deck for Mezuki or Zombie Master, depending on which of them is already in your graveyard. Discard the searched Zombie for Brionac. Remove Mezuki for Zombie Master, discard a card for Goblin Zombie, use Plaugespreaders effect, use Plaugespreader and Goblin Zombie for Goyo Guardian. Now, you search your second Mezuki with Goblin Zombie effect, discard it for Brionac and use it's effect to revive Goblin Zombie.
Result?

2800 (Goyo) + 2300 (Brionac) + 1800 (Zombie Master) + 1100 (Goblin Zombie) = 8000

At first, this combo looks ridicioulus and almost impossible to perform. But look at the cards you need for it: Plaugespreader Zombie, Goblin Zombie, one random card in your hand and either Mezuki or Zombie Master in your graveyard. It's a 3-card-OTK, of which all three cards are easily searchable! Also, because we only use monster effects, we can back our OTK up with Cold Wave!

As you see,almost every deck can abuse Brionac:

Glaidators?
Free discards thanks to Equestes effect.

Blackwings?
Discard Vayu or Sirocco.

Zombie:
Look above.

Lightsworn:
Discard Necor Gardnas or the Lightsworns you need for your JD.

Cat-Synchro:
A simple Rescue Cat can summon him to free the field for direct attacks by X-Saber Airbellum.

Any deck:
Discard your side-boarded copies of Black Shining C.

In conclusion, Brionac is limited to one copy per deck for a good reason and I think he might follow Dark Strikge Fighter in March. One of my future posts will feature a Zombie Deck massivly absuing Brionacs OTK potential. Of course, there are many more decks where you can use him: X-Sabers, Flamvells, just be creative ;)
Thanks for reading ;)

Interview with Claudio Kirchmair

My first interview post will be an interview with Claudio Kirchmair. Claudio is know as one of the best players in Europe and agreed to sit down for an interview: (I will write my own comments in brackets like this)

Hi Claudio. For the people who don't know you, tell us something about you.
Hello everyone, I'm Claudio Kirchmair, I'm 22 years old and I'm living in Austria. I'm the present Austrian National Champion and member of the United Gosus Team ;)

How did you start playing Yu-Gi-Oh?
I started to play after one of my best friends bought the 2 first starter decks (Yugi and Kaiba). As he didn't want to play alone, I wa allowed to take the Kaiba deck and then became addicted to the game.

What are your records?
My most successfull year was 2008, I made the second place at European Championship and reached the semi-finals of the following World Championship. My last success was the long-wished titel of the Austrian National Champion.

How much time do you spend in Yu-Gi-Oh each week and how does your environment react to your hobby?
I don't have much time for my hobby. I maintain an online-shop and manage the buy and sell actions. In the evening, I write my blog every now and then and surf through different forums.
Apart from that, I play a local tournament in Graz almost every weekend. I also like to travel longer ways to larger tournaments like Shoen Jumps or Fortune Tours.
In my environment, everybody knows about my hobby. I realy don't make a secret of it. I also don't hesitate to explain the difference between the childish TV-show and the real card game.
(I like this attitude!)

Why did you start your blog?
I started to blog beacuse of several reasons: Konami took over the control over the card game. Because of that, Metagame was shut down and also the articles on eTCG were reduced. I always was a fan of YuGiOh Blogs I found on the internet and so I decided to start my own blog.
I also was annoyed by some articles because the author didn't explain something correctly and I thought I could do it better.

What do you think about the current metagame?
Our Metagame is quite similar to the one in the last format. The big diference is the upcome of new themes like Blackwings an X-Sabers and the lower OTK-potentialy. At the moen, you can clearly see that Lightsworn is the best deck because the banned list didn't affect it.
According to that, it is much harder to prepare for the meta, because there are many strategies you have to think about. (Also check his blog to see his current decks and thoughts)
I like the meta, but I didn't find the right deck yet. The release of Hidden Arsenal will change very much.

So you think Brionac and his friends will strongly influence the meta?
Brionac I one of the best Synchros ever printed. He is the reason for many OTK-Decks and his discard effect brings the potential of some crazy combos with it. He can kill every Synchro and, because of that, he is one more out to Stardust Dragon and Colossal Fighter. (check one of my next articles for more information about Brionac)
Next to him,there is Catastor, which is very strong against Lightsworn and strenghendes the Cat Synchro deck. Of course, you can't compare him to Brionac.

You already adressed the overtake of Konami. What do you think about the Organized Play and COSSY, and what do you think the future will bring us?
I realy dislike COSSY. They expect every shop to have an internet connection, what of course is not the case. I miself didn't manage until now to arrange a tournament. I realy like Mantis better because you could use it offline and report the outcome later.
I and surely many other players want large events like the Shoen Jump Championships in America.
We only got the Nationals ,the European Championship (which was a disaster) and Sneaks, so only the minumum. I think Konami should realy get things going here in Europe.

Any aims for your future?
At first: Have fun! Then, I'd like to take part in a world championship again and I want to win a Shoen Jump Championship. I also want to keep my title as National Champion.

Do you have a favourite card?
Elemental Hero Stratos. He has everything what a card has to have: He creates card advantage, he has good stats and a very cool artwork. He was included In every deck I made a big success with,exept at Worlds, because he was forbidden =/

Do you have an idol?
(*thinks very long*) Hmm... I don't think so.

As well-know player, there are many people for which you are an idol. What do you want to say those players?
Have fun with playing and always be fair. Don't give up if it doesn't work as you wish in the first place, life is long and isn't just made up of one weekend. Don't listen to people who never played Yu-Gi-Oh and judge about it cusorily. You hobby should make fun and you shouldn't be ashamed of it.
And of course read my blog ;) (And mine!)

Do you have any last words to say or du you want to greet someone?
I want to greet my team United Gosus, especialy Besnik Kajtazi, who just convalesced from his illness. Also,greetings to all of you who read all this.

Thanks for the interview ;)
No problem, I hope you liked it.