Mystic Tomato

YCS Paris - le chemin de la victoire

2011-04-22T21:51:00.003+02:00

Hey guys!
Last post has been a while ago, but as I like written tournament reports better than videos, I thought I just post it here!
So last week, there was Europe's third YCS, taking place in Paris. People who know me knew I would go there from the begining. So on Tuesday morning, I meet some friend in Bielefeld and we started our 7-hour car ride to Paris.
We didn't want to go there just to sit in a hall for two days, so we started a day earlier to see a bit of Paris. Here are some impressions of the city:

Yes, that's me ;)

Notre Dame

Ave Caesar!

And of course....

..the Eiffel Tower!

So enough of our sightseeing tour, YCS Paris was ready to start on Saturday morning! I was going up with a deck that nobody would expect to face: Zombies!

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Round 1 VS Machina (2-0)

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This was an easy match, Machina deck's just can't hold up my swarming speed.

Record: 1-0

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Round 2 VS Six Samurai (2-1)

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First game I lose becuase of misscalculation. In the second game, he gets blocked by Spirit Reaper and can't get any outs against him. In game three, he starts pretty well with Gateway, 3 Samurais and 2 backrows. I MST both backrows, smash Turtle into Kizan to get Plaguespreader Zombie, and take control of his Grandmaster by discarding Puppet Plant to blow up his field with Black Rose Dragon. He can't recover, and I summon Rai-Oh. He topdecks into two Smoke Signals and loses.

Record: 2-0

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Round 3 VS Six Samurai (2-0)

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I just dominate him. Caius, Gorz, Tragodia and Reaper smash Six Samurai!

Record: 3-0

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Round 4 VS Six Samurai (2-1)

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I like playing Samurai! The third one in a row got smashed like the ones before. In game one, he's able to summon Shi En and Grandmaster jsut to get smacked by Gorz. In game two, when we both were low on life, he had to go for Scrap Dragon with Kageki + Kageki + Kagemusha, aiming for victory as my field consited of Reaper and a facedown S/T. Too bad for him, my facedown was Oppression, so he has to use his Solemn, which left him without any cards to destroy with Scrap Dragon. He ends his turn, and I go for Brionac with Gale to end the game.

Record: 4-0

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Round 5 VS X-Saber (1-2)

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I was up against future YCS Champion Stehpan Sluis! In game 1, I OTK him, game 2 he OTKs me. In game three, he had a field of Faultroll (which was negated by Effect Veiler) Hyunlei and Rai-Oh with Mirror Force set. I Puppet Plant his Troll, and go for Stardust with Plagspreader. He had to negate the summon with Rai-Oh, so I had my thrid Dark Monster for my Dark Armed Dragon,cleaning his field. In his next turn, he sets a new S/T and a monster. I try to destory his backrow with DaD, he discards Veiler to keep it, and when I try to summon another monster, he flipps up TT.

Record: 4-1
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Round 6 VS Plant (2-0)

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In game 1, Ha Des gives him to much trouble and he can't get a setup. In game 2, when I attack with Goblin Zombie and Mezuki, he summons Gorz. In his turn, he tries to Synchro with Spore and the token, I negate it with Oppression. When he attacks over my Mezuki with Gorz, I summon Tragodia with 5 cards in hand. In my turn, I just discard DaD to take control of his Gorz and attack with all three monsters for game

Record: 5-1
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Round 7 VS Gladiator Beasts (2-1)

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My most feared Matchup. He starts up with Rai-Oh and goes for Gyzarus two turns later. I lose game 1.
In game 2, I can beat him down to 400 Life. He doesn't draw an additional monster, and I just special summon Plagspreader with it's own effect to attack for game. In game 3, I have enough protection to deal with his monsters, so I win.

Record: 6-1
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Round 8 VS Dragunity (2-1)

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Read my Featured Match for this. For all haters: I didn't do that Book of Life on purpose, I just forgot that I couldn't special summon because I played the Pot. Mike's a good friend of mine, I have no reason to cheat against him!

Record: 7-1

So Day 1 comes to a close. We returned to our hotel and made sure to get enough sleep so we would be ready for day 2!

Next morning, we arrived like an hour before the event continues, so we had to wait in front of the location. Just here, everybod keeps talking to me, asking me if I was the guy going crazy with Zombies.
Anyway, as soon as the pairings for round 9 were up, we were able to enter the building and start off!

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Round 9 VS Hero-Beat (1-2)

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I have total control in Game 1 and win. In Game 2, he starts with Rai-Oh and Dimensional Fissure and I can't recover. In Game 3, we're both low on life and he's down to nothing except his Neos Alius which he took with Stratos early in the game. He plays Pot of Duality and gets Gemini Spark to clear my field. I don't draw another Monster, and he topdecks DDWL for game.

Record: 7-2

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Round 10 VS Six Samurai (2-0)

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I was in a touch-and-go situation. If I lose this one, I wouldn't make it to the Top 32.
After we had our decks checked, he started up with Shien's Smoke Signal (I was celebrating because I faced another Samurai!), and ends with Barkion and 3 S/Ts. I set Goblin Zombie, he summons Kagemusha and attacks. I search for Plaguespreader, and in my turn, I have Trunade and end with Gaia, Stardust and Brionac. He can't recover from there on. In game two, he opens the same, this time with Brionac. I can't do anything but set Goblinzombie and 2 S/Ts. He tried to go for Barkion with Double-Edged, but I can negate it with Warning. He just ends without attacking. I had Trunade again, going for Android and Catastor with Grow-Up Bulb and Bool of Life in addition to my on-flied Goblinzombie. He again can't recover.

Record: 8-2

So I was 8-2 at a YCS with Zombies. The Final Standings were announced, placing me 16th, of to face place 17, Adrian Madaj, in the Top 32 Match.

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Top 32 VS X-Saber (2-1)

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I can stop his plays in Game 1 with 2 Caiuses and Ha Des, but he recovers thanks to Airbellum and Reborn.
In game 2, I take control with 2 Rai-Ohs and Caius. He plays Fulhelmknight and Mind Control to go for Black Rose Dragon, trying to get rid of both Rai-Ohs at once. I negate his summon with Solemn Warning instead of Rai-Oh, he scoops. In game 3, he had some backup, but I keep getting his monster of the Table with Caius and Nobleman of Crossout.
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Top 16 VS Gravekeepers (2-0)

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This time, I was up against Michael Ciplak, who already made it to the Top 16 of YCS Bochum and finished 4th at YCS Milan. In game 1, I do 2 crurial mistakes (I forgot to attack once, and when he summons Descendant, I flipp TT without waiting for him to call priority), but as he got some beatdown early in the game, I just go for Caius on my own Golbin Zombie to win. In game 2, I get very lucky, topdecking MST and Caius which get rid of Mirror Force and his Spy. I admit that this game was pure luck, nothing to be proud of =/

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Top 8 VS Plant (1-2)

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In Game 1, he can search with Sangan like 3 times thanks to Reborn and Limit Reverse, so he had total control and all options he wanted. In game 2, when he had Sangan and Repar on the field, I Veiler his Reaper. He still attacks, getting stopped by Tragodia. I discard Gale to destroy Reaper, then DaD and Caius come down to smash him. In game 3, he brings me down to 1400 Life with only Rai-Oh on my field. He topdecks into Caius and I lose.

So I fnished Top 8 with Zombies at YCS Paris, recieving a Nintendo DSi XL, Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2011 - Over the Nexus, a YCS Darklord Playmat and a qualifcation for the next European Championship as my prices.. Even though I lost in Top 8, I'm still pleased with my record. If you're interessed, you can find my decklist at the official coverage page or on my YouTube Channel (in German only). Next in line are German Nationals on June 11/12, see you there!

Switch to YouTube!

2010-06-05T02:56:00.004+02:00

I just decided to change from bloging to YouTubing!

This is my channel, I will start uplaoding Videos soon:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrMysticTomato

The Shining Darkness Previews

2010-04-28T22:44:00.001+02:00

I just realized that it's Sneak this weekend, so it would have been time to write my previews. I just forgot about that the last two days,and when I checked the spoiler today I saw there is NO fu**ing card that Konami didn't review yet. As I don't want to copy their reviews, I won't do any preview this week. But be prepared for a long Nationals report in about 2 weeks and a Qualifier Report by one of my team-mates ;)

Cat-Synchro: Best Deck for Nationals?

2010-04-04T03:42:00.000+02:00

Just a month after the new banend list, the format seems to be clear (at least until Shining Darkness will be released): Balckwings, Machina Gadgets and Cat Synchro seems to be the best decks, with Cat Synchro at the lead for many players.
I also played Cat Synchro at many events now, and I want to show you why I don't think it will be as dominant as many people think.
At first,let's outline the facts that make this dekc so strong:
- Easy access to Arcanite Magician, which is one of the most powerfull Synchros ever released.
- Fast Advantage genration with floaters like Ryko and Spy
- Ability to disturb your opponets hand with Airbellum

Now, let's look at the different matchups:

Blackwing:
Blackwing is quite simple to counter. Just stop the normal summon, and they die. They also can't get over most of our Flipp-monsters without wasting a Kalut. Last but not least: Caius makes them cry.

Machina Gadget:
Good, I hate this deck. Machian fortress is a f***ing beast. Arcanite? Lose one Card. Caius? Lose one Card. The only way to deal with this guy without taking a loss of card advantage is Spell an Trap Removal. Still, as we main Cyber Dragons, and their Gadgets and Geaframes can't get over our Hamsters and Spys, this should be an easy machtup.

So we have positive Matchups against both other dimonant decks. Where's the problem?
The worst Matchup is in fact the mirror match.

I tested many different Cat Builds, and the result in the Mirror didn't change: It keept 50:50. This is quite simple to explain: The one who gets the first turn is the one who wins.
If you start and have an avarage hand you will be bale to set Hamster, Ryko, Spy or whatever first, and you will be the one to take advantage trought thier effects first. Think about it:
Ryko kills the set monster your opponet started with. Spy gets Descendant and kill the monster he set. Hamster doesn't kill the monster immediatly, but it's a plus 1 and cna be tributed for Caius, which also kills your opponets monster.

Conclusion: Are you realing willing to enter your Nationals with a deck that loses 50% of the mirror matches because you won't start? I think I won't, how about you?

Lightsworns in the next format

2010-02-25T15:43:00.001+01:00

As I announced some days ago, I will deal with Lightsworns in the March 2010 Format today.

To start,let's see how our deck looks now:

1 Plaguespreader Zombie
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
2 Judgment Dragon
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1 Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
1 Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
1 Archlord Kristya
3 Honest
3 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
3 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
3 Necro Gardna
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner

1 Brain Control
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mystical Space
Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
3 Solar Recharge
3 Charge of the Light Brigade

1 Mirror Force
2 Beckoning Light
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Royal Oppression

(Stephen Silverman, Shoen Jump LA Winner)

Even if all of you should know, I will quickly summarize what functions of the cards hit by the list:

Necro Gardna: Protect our monsters and stop OTKs

Honest: Protect our monsters and remove opponets problem monsters like Stardust Dragon or Heraklinos.

Lumina: Swarming

Charge: Get the key Lightsworns from our deck as well as mill some cards,mostly used for Lumina +Garoth opening

Okay, we lose protection and speed.I think we don't realy need to replace the "stop OTKs" function of Necro Gardna. For protection, there is an even better possbility:

Klick for free Judgment Dragon

Now,why is this card even better?
Simple: Blackwings will be a big pick in the next format, and as we lost a Honest and 2 Necor Gardnas, we are more vunerable to Kalut. Shield Warrior is removed when your monster would be destroyed. This means You can just attakc into a small Blackwing, and if you opponet drops Kalut, you just remove Shield Warrior. Yes, you can do this even during your own Battle Phase.
Shield Warrior only has 2 big disadvantages: It doesn't stop Gladiators from tagging out, and you need a monster to use it. Even though, I still think that it will be a good replacement for the 2 missing Gardnas.

Now, the factor of speed:

To repalce 2 Charges, we play Rota and Sarcopharg. Rota can sreach for Garoth, Jain, Ehren, Necro Gradna and Shield Warrior (the latest 2 for discard costs), while Sarcopharg gets us our JDs or Beckoning Lights, or even the now-limited Charge of the Light Brigade.
To bring some additional milling effects, we can add Card Trooper.

Now,this would be my list for Lightsworns from monday:

3x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2x Judgment Dragon
2x Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
2x Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
2x Honest
2x Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
2x Shield Warrior

1x Jain, Lightsworn Paladin

1x Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1x Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid

1x Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
1x Necro Gardna

3x Solar Recharge
2x Gold Sarcophagus
1x Smashing Ground
1x Foolish Burial
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Heavy Storm
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Charge of the Light Brigade

3x Threatening Roar
2x Beckoning Light
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute

Feel free to rate ;)

The Champions: Andrew Tan - WTF Gladi

2010-02-22T00:18:00.000+01:00

I just remebered that there was the UkayPro Championship this weekend, and checked The Irish Duelist for the couverage. My first article to read was the Final Featured Match.
I was realy happy when I saw Gladiators against Blackwings as both aren't considered as top-decks at the moment. Both palyers made some creative choices in their decks, the Blackwing player ran Gorz, and the Gladiator player played this:

Monsters: 14
3 Gladiator Beast Laquari
3 Gladiator Beast Andal
1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari
1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo
3 D.D. Warrior Lady
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

Spells: 11
1 Smashing Ground
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 My Body as a Shield
2 Book of Moon
3 Gladiator Proving Ground
3 Dimensional Fissure

Traps: 15
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
3 Gladiator Beast War Chariot
3 Dark Bribe
3 Royal Oppression

Extra Deck: 15
3 Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
3 Gladiator Beast Heraklinos
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Magical Android

Side Deck: 15
3 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Zombyra the Dark
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Heavy Storm
3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute

My first thought when I saw this Deck was "What the f*** is this?"
Ultimately, I called it "WTF Gladiators" because "Dimensional-Royal-Oppression-Gladiator-Beasts" was to long for my taste xD

The first thing you see when you look at this decklist is 3 Laquai along with 3 Gladiator Beast Andal

Andal is quite simple to explain: It is the biggest Gladiator out there. It will run over every other Level 4 Monster out there without beeing summoned by an effect.

After some 0-8-15 bla, you read " 3 D.D. Warrior Lady"

This is the realy most inovative choice I saw in this deck. DDWL just takes out every bigger problem you could have.

The Kycco and the Mole are quite obvisous choices, Kycco can kill Lightsworns on it's own, and Mole will take care of your opponets Synchros.

In the spell Lineup,you can see that Tan choose to add Dimensional Fissures. This is also a more obvisious choice, as this card also disturbes the top 2 decks.
The last realy inovation is also the last card on the list: 3 Royal Oppression.
This card makes Andal's 1900 ATK realy worthful. If you just put down Laquari and D-Fissure /Oppression, there are still soem monsters that can run over your Gladiator and leave you without defense. If you put down Andal, there is only one single monster that can destroy your Gladiator by attacking: Jain.
If you can setup with one of your 2 anti-meta cards, a strogn Gladiator and a Chariot, your opponet will be in a realy close position if he wants to beat you.
Sounds like a rare opening?
You play 3 Laquari, 3 Andal and 3 Proing Ground
You play 3 Dimensional Fissures and 3 Royal Oppressions.
As we know from the "Ten Numbers To Make You A Better Duelist" article by Jason Grabher-Meyer, the chance to open with a large Gladiator and one of your Metakillers is realy high (65%), abou 2 of 3 games. The same article says that the chance to open with one copy of a card we play 3 copies of is 39%, about 2 of 5 games.

Basicly,this means you open with a big Gladiator, a Metakiller and a Chariot about once each two matches in you first 6 cards. The probability of having it in the first 7 or 8 cards is much higher, I would guess about 2 of 3 games.

I was looking forward to see more inovation in Tan's side, but the only think that made me think "What the f***" were the 2 copies of Zombyra.
Am I think only one out here who realy has absolutely no idea what this card is useful for? =(

The Infernity Hype

2010-02-21T20:34:00.000+01:00

As you should all know, The Shining Darkness will bring a HUGE push for the Infernity Archtype.
For all of you who didn't see the cards yet, check the article on YugiWiki or the following Videos:

Machina Gadgets VS Infernities - Game 1

Machina Gadgets VS Infernities - Game 2
Machina Gadgets VS Infernities - Game 3

Handless Combo

Since those Videos were published, there was a big hype around the Infernity Monsters:

Konami said the would be "sure to be the next big thing", many people said they would be the no1 pick for the next format, and Infernity Archfiend rised up to 25$ per card on eBay.

Today, I want to show you why Infernitys will NOT be as overpowered as many people think they would.

Let's just analyse the combo:

When you have no cards in your hand, you special summon Infernity Archfiend, then you search your deck for Infernity Gun. You play Infernity Gun and send it to the Gaveyard to Special Summon up to 2 Infernities from your Gaveyard, one of them is Infernity Archfiend, so you can start all over again.

Now, the red written points are the points where you can destroy the whole setup.

You need to have an empty hand. This is a VERY high risk. If you opponet can stop you, you will have to rely on topdecking.

The whole Combo is all about Special Summoning. Oppression, Pachy, Vanity and all their friends kick your ass.

You search your deck for the Gun...Thunder King doesn't like that ;)

Your Infernity Gun can be destroyed by MST, Dust Tornado and all those things before you can send it to the Graveyard.

You have to send the Gun to the Graveyard. Cosmos and Banisher kicks your ass.

You target an Archfiend in your Graveyard. D.D. Crow kicks your ass.

You want to do Synchro Summons to kill your opponet. Book of Moon kicks...you know...

If you should be able to bring it up to here, you can still be stopped by Battle Fader, Gorz and Tragoedia (In the OCG area,there's Trishula to get around those, guess why some people call it Trishula-OTK)

All in all, you need to kill you opponets S/T Zone, you eventualy have to destroy annoying monsters and you have to make sure your opponet won't just drop D.D. Crow and destroy your beautiful OTK.

In fact, you need a godlike hand to perform the "Handless Combo".

Playing an OTK in a more slow paced format might seem a very good option, but this deck realy can't do anything else than just stupid OTKs. If your attempt gets stopped, you're toast.

One of my next articles will deal with Lightsworns in the next format (No, it is not as dead as many of you might think!).

Tournament Report Gießen

2010-02-16T21:39:00.000+01:00

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Preparations:
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This time, I didn't plan to play soemthing else than Zombie. Wunstorf and Gießen convinced me of that deck.
First off,here is my list:

My list:

3 Tragodia
3 Caius
2 Goblin Zombie
2 Mystic tomato
2 Pyramid Turtle
2 Krebons
2 Mezuki
1 Zombie Master
1 Spirit Reaper
1 DAD
1 Plaugespreader Zombie

2 Allure of Darkness
2 Burrial from the different Dimension
1 Heavy Storm
1 MST
1 Brain Control
1 Smashing Ground
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Book of Moon
1 Lighning Vortex
1 Mind Control

2 Royal Oppression
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgement
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call Of The Haunted

Side:

2 Vanitie's Feind
2 Jujitsu Master
2 Kycoo

2 D.D. Crow
1 Möbius

2 Malevolent Catastrophe
2 Trap Hole
2 LIM

Yes, this is almost exactly my list from Wunstorf.

I tested it at my locals and went 7:0 with it, so there was nothing to complain about.

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

Waking up at 6 am, we (Marvin Boberg, Rainer Luong, Andreas Middendorf and me) all took a shower, ate breakfast and started of at 8:30.
When we arrived at the freeway to kassel, we saw that it was blocked because of ice -.-
Andread already wanted to tun around and go home, but Marvin annoyed him until he decided to take another route.
We arrived in gießen just in time to reagister for the first round.

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Round 1:
vs. John-Micheal Papagni (Zombiesworn) (2-1) ====================================================================

Facing Team members in the first round! Perfect.....not =(
I lost the first game because of a missplay. He had 800 life left, I had 1500 and a Catastor and Android on my side of the field, he only had 1 face-down monster, but didn't paly his JDs yet.
I wanted to win this turn,and played Goblin Zombie from my hand to deal the last bit of damage if he had a Ryko.
Stupid as I am, I attack with Goblin Zombie first....right into Necro Gardna. He topdecks JD, and attacked my GoZo for game.

In the second and third game, I was able to biuld up constant control thanks to LIMs and Caius.

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Round 2:
vs. Andreas Middendorf (Eatos) (0-2)
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EPIC FAIL!
One teammate after another. He just smashed me, I didn't stand a chance in those 2 games.

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Round 3:
vs. Raul Wenghe (Twilight) (2-1) ====================================================================

Why do I only have to face friends of mine? <,<

I angainst lost the first game, I don't realy remember why, but Kycoo and a gamebreaking D.D. Crow (stopping Lumina for Ehren when I had GoZo face-down) helped me to win the other games.

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Round 4:
vs. Nikals Gottwals (Eatos) (2-0)
====================================================================

This guy got smashed by me as I was smahed by Andread in the 2. round.

In the first game, he opend with DCK and 2 face downs. I had Brain,MST and Caius to clear his field. He went on b setting 2 more face down cards. Next turn, i played my Heavy Storm. That decided the outcome of the first game.

The second one was even more devastating. He opened with 3 face downs and I again had Storm xD

He was quite pissed of me after that round =)

====================================================================

Round 5:
vs. Christoph Steyh (Simochi) (2-0)
====================================================================

Whe he flipped his Simochi, I just thought "What the fuck" ,as he burned me down to about 2000 life in less then a second.
Fortunately, I was able to keep control of the game from there on.

In the second game, I smacked his hand with Spirit Reaper xD

====================================================================
Round 6:
vs. Pascal Justen (Lucksworn) (1-2) ====================================================================

Off course I got to play someone who's 3-2 while I was 4 -1.....
This guy was lucky like hell.
I don't realy remeber the first game, just that he had everything he needed.

The second game was strange. He opened with 1 Brigade and 3 Solar, but didn't magnage to kill me.
He also topdecked Storm for BTH and LIM, so his JD could clear the field. I topdecked Burial there, so I could summon Kycoo and run over his JD with Colossal. He was able to counter, and my next topdeck was another LIM.

I don't remeber the third game, I just know it was depressing and that I thought I wouldn't top beccause I lost to him.

Result:

I topped, he didn't xD

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Top 16:
vs. Carmelo Butigcieri (Lightsworn) (0-2) ====================================================================

We knew each other from several former tournaments, so the atmosphere of this duel was quite relaxed.
I don't remember the first game, but I know he killed me with double JD in the second game.
I also made a mistake here, as I forgot to bring back SDD in his Endphase -.-

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

====================================================================

Blocked freeways are shit
Faceing three freind in a row is shit
Lightsworn needs no skill

Shoutout to all UPG Members and friends who topped ;)
See you again in a more skilly format without Lightsworn ;)

Marbel Control

2010-02-10T21:23:00.000+01:00

Hey guys ;)
I would like to show you another masterpiece of Greman creativity today.
The deck is called Marbel Control:

1x Dark Armed Dragon
3x D-Hero Plasma
1x Arkana Force EX - The Dark Ruler
2x Caius
2x D-Hero Malicious
1x Gorz
3x Agent of Creation - Venus
3x Mystical Shine Ball (= Marbel)
1x Dark Grepher
1x Plaugespreader Zombie
1x E Hero-Stratos
1x D-Hero Diamond Dude

3x Destiny Draw
2x Allure of Darkness
2x Pot of Avarice
3x Book of Moon
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Scapegoats

2x Bottomless Traphole
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute

A friend of mine had the idea of playing a deck focusing on dealing burn damage with Athena and Venus, and we discussed about this. Somewhen, I made a joke about playing Plasma, as Venus basicly makes it possible to summon him without losing card presence. We went away from the basic idea of a Burner deck and mainly focused on a D-Hero/Dark engine with Venus to get tribute material for Plasma..

The result?
He played this deck at an event in Hamburg, and made 20th out of over 100 players,running over Zimbies and Lightsworns, missing the top 16 just because of bad Tie Break.

I will just give you a short introduction to the strategy:

Basicly, Venus does a free +1 for 500 life points. The maina spect here is that Venus' effect is NOT limited to one per turn. This means you can just summon 3 Shiny Balls, tribute them for Plasma, shuffle them back to your deck with Pot of Avarice, and summon 3 more if you like. You can summon level 8 Synchros without losing card presence. Mist Worm is an even more devastating option here. You can even run Blackwing Silverwind if you chose to add Gale (Venus+Ball+Gale = 8).
The options Venus brings with it are nearly endless. As you see, even Arcana Force EX is played here.
Didn't know the card yet?
I linked it in the decklist for you ;)
His effects are both devastating, but you would lose 3 cards to summon it. With Venus, you don't lose anything and get an 4000 double attacker (which should means victory in most cases) or it destroyes the whole field when it dies.

Pot ot Avarice is the card that makes this deck so awsome:
Make +3 with your Venus, and just shufle the Shiny Balls back to your deck with Pot (+1) to make +3 again!

With 3 DDraws 2 Allures and 2 PoAs, we have an incredible speed in this deck.
As Shiny Balls are Light monsters,you can also Synchro Summon Light End Dragon or Avenging Knigt Parshath if you like to ;)

Absolute Powerforce Preview: Bad End Queen Dragon

2010-02-05T18:22:00.000+01:00

Last but not least, I will give you a short introduction to the new Crystal Beast Support.

Yeah,you read correctly.
Crystal Beasts are getting support after over 2 years again.

Dragon / Effect

This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card can only be Special Summoned if you control 3 or more Continuous Spell Cards. When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent, your opponent selects 1 card from their hand and sends it to the Graveyard, then you draw 1 card. If this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, during your Standby Phase, you can send 1 Continuous Spell Card from your side of the field to the Graveyard to Special Summon this card from the Graveyard.

First thought:

Yeah, this thing IS ugly.

Second thought:

Awsome effect!

In a Crystal Beast (CB from now on) deck, you shouldn't have a problem to set up this card.

Every single CB goes down to the S/T Zone when it gets destroyed.

With Pegasus and all the spell support this deck offers, you should be able to summon BEQD in turn 2 or 3.

As BEQD is a Dark, you will be able to add more Speed with Allures. If we think about that, we have to add soem more additional Dark Monsters. As most of our Crystal Beasts Support Spells are Normal Spells, we should add Diamond Dudes and DDraws, with that may Darks, we cna also add DaD

The result should look like this:

(* can't post the decklist as eTCG is down *)

Result: Speed!

3 Bad Ends,3 Rarety Value, 2 DDraws, 2 Allures, and 2 Shrink to make sure that Bad End's Effect will work.

You will draw your keycard like Crystal Abundace for your OTK realy fast.

The main focus in this deck should be to bring 3 Pegasus to the field. If you play Crystal Abundace and sumon 3 Pegasus with it, you can can put 3 CBs in you Spell/Trap Zone and summon Bad End instantly!

This means you're going for a straight +2.

I don't think Crystal Beasts will move to Tier 1 with Bad End, but it will be a deck you will have to keep in mind for future events.

Again, if you like to discuss, just post a comment /add em on ICQ/ mail me /whatever.

Good luck at your Sneaks tomorrow ;)

Absolute Powerforce Preview: Djinn Disserere of Rituals

2010-02-04T23:51:00.000+01:00

As I promised yesterday, I will today talk about and SDR deck ;)

The card we're focusing on will be

Fiend/Effect
When you Ritual Summon a Ritual Monster, you can remove from play this card from your Graveyard as 1 of the monsters required for the Ritual Summon. The monster Ritual Summoned by this card is not affected by Trap Cards.

Anyone already got what the Deck title stands for?

Just look at this:

3x Destiny Hero - Defender
3x Relinquished
2x Djinn Disserere of Rituals
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious
2x Cyber Valley
2x Mystic Tomato
1x Elemental Hero Stratos
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Sangan

3x Destiny Draw
3x Black Illusion Ritual
2x Preperation of Rites
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Heavy Storm
1x Brain Control
1x Reinforcement of the Army

2x Skill Drain
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Limit Reverse
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Call of the Haunted

We're actualy just playing Skill Drain Synchro with Relinquished. If we just Ritual summon Relinquished with the Djinn as Material, we can do some crazy stuff even if we have Skill Drain out. Relinquished basicly needs 2 attacks to be destroyed, and your opponet will take the full battle damage as well as you. You can also attack into a bigger monster and absorb it in your second Main Phase.
As Relinquished has 0 ATK, we can easily bring it back with our 2 copies of Limit Reverse.
In March, this dekc will have to be changed because of you will want to add Starlight Road. I think I would kick the Limit Reverses fot those.
I hope you like the Deck ;) Feel free to discuss it ^^

Absolute Powerforce Preview: Cactus Bouncer

2010-02-03T23:31:00.000+01:00

Writing two articles in one day is hard xD
Okay, next one will be Cactus Bouncer.

Remember me to a certain German song xD
Okay, this guy has 1800 and can't be special summoned. When another Plant type mores fight at his side, noone can perform special summons.

Nice,huh?
Who of you didn't get smacked by Pachy,Kristya, Vanities Fiend ect. in the last months?
Cactus Bouncer is better that any of those (okay, maybe not better than Kristya, but I think they ae at least even). While he can't be specieled and because of that can't take support by LFB and all it's freinds, he can still be searched out of the deck.
Just think 10 seconds which searcher can get him...

Didn't find the answer?

Still don't know it? =P

Voilet Witch

Exactly meets the conditions.

Okay,he can be searched. Any other pros? Of course!
He can be protected with Wall of Thorns and Polinosis, 2 cards made especialy for Plants.
Tytanial next to this guy makes your defense even harder to break.
You also can add Tomatos to search Violet Witch ;)

Today, I will not give you a decklist because I want you to be creative (and because it's already late and I have to sleep, just post your Cactus Control as a comment if you want to discuss it ;)

Absolute Powerforce Preview: Treasure Of Harmony

2010-02-02T23:58:00.000+01:00

Hey guys ;)
Okay, I was very busy today with school, so you will get to read today's post tomorrow.
I'll just post the card this preview will be about now so you know what you can look forward to ;)

Discard 1 Dragon-Type Tuner monster with 1000 or less ATK. Draw 2 cards.

"A Dragon D-Draw!"

Did I just read your mind? ;)

Okay, this one is very limited in it's targets. We only have 4 monsters which meet these conditions:

Okay, first one was a joke, this one doesn't have any possible uses. Majestic Dragon and Debris Dragon together can give Majestic Decks more speed, even if they're just a fun deck.

I want to focus on the last card: The White Stone Of Legend.
When we use Treasure of Harmony to discard him, we have a free +1, as we can search for

DA DA DUM!

I love such cards.

Okay, now we discarded a useless dragon to draw two cards and got another useless Dragon to our hand. What did we win now (exept of having the most epic card in our hand?)

Count BEWD's Stars....

We just got a target for Trade-In in our hand!

So if we have a White Stone, a Treasure and a Trade-In in hand, we get 4 new cards for giving 3.

Let's just look how this could look in a deck:

3 BEWD

3 White Stone

3 REDMD

3 Red-Eyes Wyern

2 Debris Dragon

1 Dandylion

1 Dark Armed Dragon

3 Trade In

3 Trasure of Harmony

2 Allure of Darkness

2 Gold Sarcophagus

2 Dragons Mirror

1 Card Destruction

1 Heavy Storm

1 Future Fusion

1 Giant Trunade

1 MST

1 Megamorph

1 Return

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call Of the Haunted

1 Solemn Judgement

The strategy is simple: Draw, Draw, Draw, Draw, OTK.

Your killing Options are Dragons Mirror and Return. You'll earn extra style points if you kill with Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon ;)

Oh, you jsut saw that the deck only consist of 39 cards?

This is because I don't know what to add ;) Be creative ^^

I Think some more Darks wouldn't be a bad idea xD

Absolute Powerforce Preview: Battle Fader

2010-02-01T22:49:00.000+01:00

I'm back in!
Sorry for the low numbers of posts last month, I became very very lazy xD
Absolute Powerforce Sneak's only some days to go!
As I did when Stardust Overdrive was about to be released, I will give you a preview each day until Saturday.

As I couldn't yet finish the deck I wanted to present you today, I will start off with Battle Fader:

Fiend - Effect
When an opponent's monster declares a direct attack, you can Special Summon this card from your hand and end the Battle Phase. If you Special Summon this card with this effect, this card is removed from play when it is removed from the field.

This thing has 3 jobs to do:

1. Defend
2. Protect
3. Stall

In fact, this is more effective in protecting your life points than Gorz or Tragoedia are, just because you don't take the damage and stop whatever your opponet just tries to do by ending the Battle Phase immediately.

So far so good, but now, which decks should use him?
Well,you could:

- Use him as a Tribute
- Use him for Synchros
- Use him for anything else that has a cost

Most devastating play I can imagine:

Stop 2 of your opponets Monsters with this guy, summon Bora/Shura next turn while Whrilwind is face-up on th field, search for Gale/Breeze (Shinign Darkness, I'm waiting for you *,*) and kill your opponets monsters with Silver Wind.

But there are also soem other decks that can use him!

What do you think about this:

3 Battle Fader
3 Winged Kuriboh
3 Cyber Valley
3 Zero Gardna
2 Maks Of Darkness

3 Upstart Goblin
3 Final Countdown
2 Gold Sarcophargus
1 One for One
1 Reinforcement Of The Army
1 Scapegoats

3 Threatning Roar
3 Waboku
3 Frozen Soul
3 Thunder of Ruler
2 Rainbow Life
1 Call of the Haunted

=> 40

Try breaking this deck's defense! We only have 8 cards in this deck that don't give us one extra turn without condition: 2 Masks, 3 Countdowns, 2 Sarcos, 1 Call
If we have a fitting monster for CotH in our Grave,Call also protects us for one turn, if we have a trap (which should almost always be the case) Mask will do the same.
So 5 "useseless" cards stay: 3 Final Countdowns and 2 Sarcros. While running this deck without Final Countdown would be quite senseless, Sarcros can search protection (or the countdown, if needed).

Weaknesses?
-Decree
-End of turn MST/Icarus/Dust/whatever

Without those, the game should be yours ;)

To end this, I would like to show you an Yugituber (a person doing Yu-Gi-Oh Videos on Youtube). His nickname is decsilentenigma, this is his channel. He also did a Preview on Battle Fader, and also does some other interessting stuff. I can just recommend you watch his videos ;)

See you tommorow ;)

Tournament Report Gameland Battle Vol. 4 9th January 10

2010-01-11T16:07:00.000+01:00

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

2010's first large German Event!
After failing with 1-3 drop 3 weeks ago with my Zombies I thought about running something else, but after testing one Royal Oppression in my maindeck (Yeah,I was affected by Cesar Gonzales over here) I chose to run a deck I call Rotz (Rotz is german for snot, you will know why I called it like that when you saw my decklist).

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

When I woke up at 5:20 yesterday morning, I thought I must be crazy. I took a shower and started off at 6 o'clock. I was expecting our trains to be late because there was a snowstorm warning for this day, but it turned out to be not as terrible as expected.
After 4 hours of senseless traveling by train and bus, we arrived at the location.

=========================================================================
Tournament Data:
=========================================================================

99 parcipants
6 rounds
Top 16
I was expecting many more players....

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

When I found my table, sat down, shuffled my own and my opponets deck and was ready to start, the headjudge announced that there were new pairings because some players arrived late (It was like 1 hout after registration closed <,<)
My new opponet was playing Blackwings, a matchup I was realy pleased with as I mained 3 Caius an 3 Tragodias. The first game was a realy easy one. In the second game, he started off with triple Whrilwind, Bora and a face down Oppression. He attacked into Mirror Force and Malevolent Catastrophe next turn, and also got hit by a face down Storm on 2 of his cards. Sadly, al this wasn't enough to clear the advatage he made with all the advantage he had because of the Whirlwinds.
The third game was even more depressing. I manage to give him some beatdown with Jujtsu Master and Krebons so I could bring him down to 2450 life, but I didn't draw any non-tuner monster. I had to hold up my defense with 2 Krebons until he summoned DaD and Brionac for game. Realy angry, I flipped the top card of my deck to reveal Goblin Zombie...

=========================================================================
Round 2:
vs. Village-Decree-Beatdown (2-0)
=========================================================================

He presented me his side-deck, and when he told me he didn't have an extradeck, I knew this one was easy.
I won 2-0 in under 10 minutes.

=========================================================================

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

This one was SO funny xD
We played until time was called. In his last turn,he didn't have any cards left in his deck. If he just had ended, he would have won as I wouldn't have been albe to deal enough damage. Unfortunately, he gave up because he would have lost in his next turn...

=========================================================================
Round 4:
vs. Zombies (2-1)
=========================================================================

He would have been my opponet in the first round if there wouldn't have been new parings. I was able to make large advantage from my main-decked oppressions. In the second and third game, my single side-decked D.D. Crow was the card that heped me to win here.

=========================================================================
Round 5:
vs. Balckwings (2-0)
=========================================================================

I made him activate his Icarus attack for one of my cards and one of his ones twice in this match. Unlike my first Blackwing opponet, he didn't draw any Whirldwind in this match, so this one was easy.

=========================================================================

Round 6:

vs. Gladiator Beasts (2-1)
=========================================================================

In the first game, an early Oppression and 3 Caius destroyed him. I don't realy remember the second game, but he summoned Gyzarus two or three times ...
In the third game, he attacked into Jujitsu Master three times...too funny xD

=========================================================================

Top 16:

vs. Kevin Li (Ani-Meta) (1-2)
=========================================================================

When we sat down, he said that he would lose this one...
In the first game, Pachy and a full backrow hit me to hard. In the second game,my side decked Trap Holes along with Mezuki beatdown brought me the 1-1. Unfortunatly, I wasn't able to deal his Pachy in the third game. I played Möbius on his 2 face down S/Ts instead of removing Pachy with Caius....
I didn't draw another monster to tribute for Caius,so I lost.

For all who are interessted, here's my list:

3 Tragodia
3 Caius
2 Goblin Zombie
2 Mystic tomato
2 Pyramid Turtle
2 Krebons
2 Mezuki

1 Zombie Master
1 Spirit Reaper
1 DAD
1 Plaugespreader Zombie

2 Allure of Darkness
2 Burrial from the different Dimension

1 Heavy Storm
1 MST
1 Brain Control
1 Gold Sarcrophargus
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Book of Moon
1 Lighning Vortex

2 Royal Oppression
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgement
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call Of The Haunted

Side:

2 Vanitie's Feind
2 Jujitsu Master
2 Kycoo

1 D.D. Crow
1 Möbius
1 Snipe Hunter (will be kicked for second Crow)

2 Malevolent Catastrophe
2 Trap Hole
2 LIM

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

D.D. Crow kicks asses
Going by car >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Train!
Geting Turbo Packs for free rocks! (Thanks at Norman)
Take your own food to events

To end this article, I want to give a shoutout to all my friends who also topped:
Tolga, Patrick, Boberg, Halis, Kevin, Norman and Giocci...quite a lot o_0

You will get another "The Champions" article within the next days ;)

Earthbound Immortals: The Condor

2009-12-22T14:49:00.000+01:00

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"

2009-12-20T20:44:00.000+01:00

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

2009-12-07T14:51:00.000+01:00

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

2009-11-13T16:27:00.000+01:00

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:

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"

2009-11-10T19:22:00.000+01:00

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

2009-11-01T21:24:00.000+01:00

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

2009-11-01T13:21:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-30T16:24:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-29T18:19:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-28T19:50:00.000+01:00

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

2009-10-27T22:11:00.000+01:00

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"

2009-10-24T18:51:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-24T17:29:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-23T17:38:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-23T12:10:00.000+02:00

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.

The Champions: Roy St.Clair "D-Zombie-Skill Drain"

2009-10-13T21:14:00.000+02:00

As you may remember, "The Champions" was the name of an older column on www.metagame.com (R.I.P.). In his articels, Matt Paddle (correct me if it was someone else) analysed decks topping at Shoen Jumps or Nationals. Because I realy liked this column I will continue it in my blog. As Claudio Kirchmair already analysed the winnner deck by Rodrigo Togores in his blog and Nimroid Hellfire already did Herman Herrrera on eTCG I'll start with Roy St. Clair's "D-Zombie-Skill Drain" (which I lost against in Iserlohn last Sunday).

At first,here is his list:

Main Deck:

1 Elemental Hero Stratos
2 Destiny Hero – Malicious
2 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
2 Pyramid Turtle
2 Mezuki
1 Sangan
1 Goblin Zombies
2 Krebons
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Rose, Warrior of Revenge

1 Brain Control
2 Allure of Darkness
1 Heavy Storm
2 Lightning Vortex
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Mind Control
1 Burial From a Different Dimension
3 Destiny Draw
1 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Dimensional Prison
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Skill Drain
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Return from the Different Dimension
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

Side Deck:

3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

2 Zombie World
1 Giant Trunade
1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Dust Tornado
3 Mirror of Oaths
3 Light-Imprisoning Mirror

So,what makes his deck so strong?

When I first saw the Top 16 Decklists, St. Clair was my personal favourite. Why?
First of all, the presence of Skill Drain gives him a very positive matchup against Gladiator Beasts and, much more important, Lightsworn. Lightsworns are only stupid beatsticks without thier game-breaking effects and Gladiator Beasts also can do like nothing under the effect of Skill Drain. You could already see how effective Skill Drain works against those two decks when Jeff Jones won Shoen Jump Championship Anaheim with his Skill Drain Synchro deck. At first, St. Clair's deck looks quite similar to Jones' :

- Skill Drain against the meta
- Teleport Engine for fast Synchro-Summons
- D-hero engine for speed

So,what makes the difference between thier decks?
Instead of running Desteiny Hero - Defender, Barbaros and Tomatos, Roy choosed to add a Zombie engine, containing 2 Pyramid Turtles, 2 Mezuki and 1 Goblin Zombie backed up by a singel copie Burrial From The Different Dimension to his deck.
The advantage?
Should be quite clear:
Roy simply can throw down more special summons, he can simply abuse Mezuki, which has just gone up to 2 copies per deck, to Synchro Summon big beaters with Plaugespreader Zombie again and again.
This is why his deck wins against Lightsworn and Gladiators: He can get out the lagrer monsters AND shut down his opponet's game-winning plans with Skill Drain.
But beside his almost perfect metagame prediction, he added some more tech cards to his deck:
If his opponet should be able to build up a field of 2 or more monsters, he could simply blast them away with one of his two copies of Lightning Vortex!
Even if his opponet would only have one big monster he couldn't get rid of he could just use a Vortex with Mezuki, Malicious or any Zombie he would be able to revive with Mezukis effect without losing card adventage!
Also, as his deck is very susceptible to Royal Decree, Vortex is a better chose than Phoenix Wing Wind Blast in Jeff Jones' Deck. Vortex also serves as a target for Diamond Dude's effect, so you can stack it to the top of your deck with Plaugespreader (which should be in your Graveyard very early) and activate it for free with Dude!
Another tech I realy like in this deck is adding the single copy of Return From The Different Dimension:
With Pyramid Turtle and Goblin Zombie, he has accsess to his two copies of Mezuki and his Plaugespreader very early and will mostly have them removed together with 1 copy of Malicious. Now,imagine a Retrn on those 4 Monsters: You can Synchro Summon 1 Level 8 (mostly Stardust) and 2 Level 6 Synchro Monsters only with Return! As you should already have used all those cards before to do big Synchro summons, Return will mostly be the big finishing move.
I also like the two copies of Dimensional Prison in his deck. Under the effect of Skill Drain, your opponet has to win by stupid beatdown, so stopping him from attacking is the best way to win.
Also, Prison is an aditional way to get rid of Colossal Figther, which would be a massive problem for Roy's deck if he wouldn't play that much monster-removal: 2 Vortex, 2 Prisons, 2 BTHs, Torrential and Force will not allow his opponet to keep Colossal on the field for very long.

Next, let's look at his Side-Deck:

His side is mainly teches against anti-meta decks and Lightsworn. With Dust Tornado, Trunade and MST he can get rid of opposing Oppressions to throw down all his special summons and win this turn. LIM serves like 3 additional copies of Skill Drain, so he would be able tu disrupt hs opponets plays even faster. And If he happens to draw to many copies of those cards, he could simply discard them with Lightning Vortex.
3 Kycoos can disrupt his opponet's play as long as he is under effect of Royal Decree or doesn't draw any Skill Drain or Mirror. It also give him access to Tempest Magcian as aditional discard option and finishing option. The two copies of Zombie World would be usefull to stop Plant and Monarch decks while also giving him the option to summon bigger Monsters like Stardust Dagon with Mezuki. Zombie World also is an alternative way to get rid of Colossal Fighter (if he isn't a warrior any more, he can't revive himself).

Conclusion:

All in all, Roy's Deck was a perfect answer to the metagame he seemed to have predicted. I don't know what he lost against, but I bet it was one of the two Vayu Decks that made all the day to the finals. Because of Icarus Attack and the option of playing Oppression, his matchup against those decks is quite bad.

So,does his deck have weaknesses?

As I already mentioned, Royal Decree + a big Monster is his largest weakness. If you can manage to bring out a Colossal backed up with Decree,he loses unless he draws Vortex.

So,thansk for reading again. My next post will be an interview with Benedikt Junk. I hope you're looking forward to it ;)

Tournament Report Iserlohn 11th October 2009

2009-10-12T16:57:00.000+02:00

I'll start my blog with a small tournament report of the "Iserlohner Dorfmeisterschaft" yesterday.

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

As this was my very first tournamnt affected by the new banned list (I missed one in September because of I had to go to hospital), and as I don't have and couldn't borrow any Vayus to play my old favourite deck, Blackwings, I didn't realy know what to play. I first thought about playing Gladiator Beasts, the Deck I topped with at Fortune Tour Bremen about a year ago, but as I played the deck about a year long, I wanted to play something else. So after studying the meta at Orlando and at different international tournaments (thanks to Kzin for the thread at eTCG ) I decided to run Oppression Synchro, the deck Roland Gress won German Nationals with this year. As the meta was quite similar to the March 09 meta, with much Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts, I thought I would have a quite good chance to top. As I didn't have the time to test, I did'nt know how good my Blackwing matchup was, but it didn't matter anywhere because I didn't face any Blackwing xD

So here is what I ran:

» Main Deck

3x Cyber Valley
2x Dimensional Alchemist
2x Rose, Warrior of Revenge
2x Mystic Tomato
2x Chaos Sorcerer
2x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
1x Morphing Jar
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Sangan
1x Summoner Monk
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind

2x Allure of Darkness
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Lightning Vortex
1x Scapegoat
1x Mind Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Giant Trunade
1x Brain Control

3x Royal Oppression
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Mind Crush
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Mirror Force
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute

» Side Deck

2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Legendary Jujitsu Master
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Breaker the Magical Warrior
1x Trap Eater

1x My Body as a Shield

3x Threatening Roar
3x Dust Tornado

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

As I life in a very small village (where was no train before 10 o'clock on sunday morning), my brother,Marius, who went to his very first bigger tournament, and me had to spend the night somehwere else. We choosed to stay at my gradnparents in Duisburg. On sunday morning,we had to get up at half past 7, about 3 to 4 hours earlier that we were used to, and go to the main station by bus. Even though we realy got up early we still almost missed the bus....
So we went to Iserlohn by train with Benedikt Junk (Goodyear2010™) and some friends of him. As my brother doesn't have any own cards exept Roid Monsters an so on, he had to borrow a deck by someone (he got a Lightsworn deck like 5 Minutes before registration closed).

=========================================================================
Tournament Data:
=========================================================================

4 Rounds
Top 16
about 90 parcipants
Quite bad decision because the organizer was overburden with that my people I think, they did'nt even have enough tables to play for everybody, so some people had to wait until others were ready until they could play. Realy bad organization.

=========================================================================
Round 1:
vs. Alexander Brune(Lightsworn) (2-1) =========================================================================

He opens the first game by double Sacropharg for double JD, I draw like half of my deck but didn't draw the Mind Crush I would have needed to prevent the KO I was facing. In the second game, my side deck helped me to deck him out with Roar,Valley and Gorz, the same in the third game. He could have won the third game, but he forgot to attack (he had Lumina, Garoth and Wulf on his field, with one more Lumina in his hand I saw with Trap Dusthoot and a Wulf in his graveyard, I had an empty field, it would have been 8050 damage)

=========================================================================
Round 2:
vs. forgot his name (D-Zombie-Skilldrain) (0-2)
=========================================================================

I don't quite remember the first game here, I just know he always had Skill Drain on his field from the first turn on, so I could'nt do any bigger move. Even though I also had Oppression on my first hand he just had the stronger monsters like Stratos and Mezuki to give me heavy beatdown. I lost the second game because I activated my Solemn just before time was called and he hold up his lifepoints with Psi-Lifetrancer, a card I never thought I would lose to.

=========================================================================
Round 3:
vs. Dominik Schulte (Gladiator Beasts) (2-1)
=========================================================================

As I already knew him from some tournaments at his local, the atmosphere of this match was quite good. I lost the first game (yes, once more) beacuase I missplayed MST (I had TRA and Royal Oppression on field while he had two cards set, Book of Moon and Mirror Force, I could have read Mirror Force because I knew from former games that his Force was bened but I hit Book of Moon). In the second and third game, I can early get card advantage with Oppression, Storm and Mirror Force and win from there on.

After this match,Marius just came up to me and told me he was 3-0 at the moment, so he already secured himself a spot in the Top 16

=========================================================================
Round 4:
vs. Manuel Dainius (Lightsworn) (1-2)
=========================================================================

This was the worst match of the whole day, I will explain later why.
In the first game I open with Trap Dusthoot and Mind Crush and destroy him with this. In the next game, I again open with Trap Dustshoot,but this time with DOUBLE Mind Crush, I already thought I would have won, but I had to let him discard Charge and JD with Mind Crush (he had 2 Lyla in hand, but I only had Mystic Tomato face down and a bad hand, so he could have disturbed my whole game with Ehren and I couldn't have handled a JD if he had milled well). I also didn't draw up any solution, so it went to a final duel. I start by setting Trap Dustshoot (Yes,again!) MJ and Roar, I saw a bad hand with TDS, but couldn't have stopped him attacking my MJ (I activated Roar because I still had Spells in my hand to set, but it didn't matter as he would have attacked the Jar next turn). Some turns later, I made the misplay that costed me a spot in the Top 16. He had Lumina, Lyla, Wulf and Decree on his field with Storm in hand (I knew because of Sacro). I had Rose, Mind Control, TT, BTH and Solemn in hand. I didn' realise the option of summoning Black Rose Dragon or Arcanite Magician to destroy everything and summoned Colossal. He draws JD an punishes me for this mistake...

=========================================================================
Still At The Location:
=========================================================================

Even though I already lost, I still had to stay because Marius was still in play. I sat down next to him during his Top 16 game and realised he was very nervous and made tons of misplays in the match. He still won by drawing JD and Storm from the top of his deck with Solar Recharge while his Blackwing-Oppression opponet had DaD and Armed Wing with Oppression and Force face down...
In the quarterfinal he face the same deck again, but he lost the first game because of misscalculation and the second because he again did tons of misplays. So I didn't get a spot in the Top 16 because of one misplay and he goes al the way to the quarterfinals with like thousands of misplays, life is very fair sometimes.

=========================================================================
The Way Home:
=========================================================================

So after I told him he shouldn't play that dump again we went all the way to the station. It was rainy all the time, so I was very pissed when we reached the train. Some people from my local store who left earlier were also sitting in the train (which only goes every second hour on sundays). Just before the train started, Adrian Madaj,who had made al the way from Hannover to Iserlohn just to finish 2:2 because his opponets were to lucky, joined us.
So the way back to Dortmund was very funny, but there we had to sepperate. Marius, Sebastian Keackerey(a player form my local store) and me had to take the train to Bielefeld while the others had to go to Hamm. So,after we left 10 Euros at McDonalds, we went all the way to Bielefeld, where the other guy left us and we two had to wait over half an hour for our last train Home to Hövelhof. Living in a hicksville also has it's drawbacks....

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

So,after 4 hours of traveling I finaly was at home and drew my conclusions from the day:

Lightsworn needs no skill
Oppression Synchro does
Traveling 4 hours home from a depressing tournament is worst thing ever
McDonalds is too expensive
Lightning Votex sucks

So I think the tournament was a quite good preparation for next weeks 2 large Events (Stand Alone Challenge in Colonge and CSL in Dortmund). I also want to congratulate my brother for his Top 8 spot. For all those who saw him play: As I already said, he did tons of missplays, but I still think topping at his first non-local tournament is a big success. I also want to congratulate Benedikt Junk, who won the tournament with a deck similar to the one Herman Herrera played in Orlando and to Ronny Rietz for winning the PS3 Torunament in Gießen. In the end, I'd like to greet my opponet in the second round because he missed his train and had to wait 2 hours for the next one. Also, my brother wants to say thanks to Dennis, who borrowed him the Lightsworn deck he topped with.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.
You can keep spelling misstakes you found ;)

Welcome to my blog

2009-10-12T16:41:00.006+02:00

Who am I?

My name is Lukas Prinz. I'm from Germany, 18 years old, and am currently preparing for my A-Level-Exams in April and May next year. My blog will show you my expiences with the Trading Card Game Yu-Gi-Oh!. It's a card game from Japan that started in Europe 2003.

Records?

2008:
- Top 32 Fortune Tour Bremen (German Couverage)
2009:
- Top 8 Nintendo Gamer Box Duisburg (German Couverage)
- Top 16 6. Great XBox 360 Tournament Gießen
- Winner 10. Great Tournament Gießen (Final Standings)
- Top 16 Gameland Battle Vol. 4 Wunstorf
2010:
- Top 16 12. Great Tournament Gießen (Final Standings)
- Top 8 14. Great Tournament Gießen
- Top 128 YCS Bochum
2011:
- Top 8 HDK 2011 Berlin
- Top 8 Great Tournament Challenge Dreieich Januar 2011
- Top 8 Spielkram Challenge Januar 2011
- Top 4 19. Great Tournament Gießen
- Top 16 Darklord Tournament Cologne 2011
- Top 8 YCS Paris
- Top 8 Card Wars Bochum
2012:
- Top 16 New Year Tournament Dülmen

What do I want to reach with my blog?

I want to share my hobby with other people who are interessted in the game. I will post decklists, tournament reports and other things.

How can you contact me?

You can contact me via ICQ (220543356), E-Mail (LukasPrinz@gmx.net), eTCG (same nickname) or just leave a comment on the article you want to discuss about

Why Mystic Tomato?

After thinking about changing the name I decided to keep it. Why?
Main reason: Mystic Tomato was the first card I saw when thinking about the blogs name.
Second Reason: Back in 2004, when I always ran Exodia decks, Mystic Tomato was my favourite card, especialy because of the picture xD

Thanks for reading my first post ;)