Nekroz: Breaking Down Card Choices

This is a follow-up to the writing I produced a few days ago regarding the perfect Nekroz deck. I’ve had a few more days to fiddle around with different card choices, and unfortunately, I still haven’t found a deck list I would be comfortable playing at a higher level tournament. On Saturday, there is an OTS which I should be participating in, and I need something concrete before Saturday morning.

A fair portion of this difficulty has arisen because deck space is extremely tight. There is a significant amount of cards that are mandatory for the deck to be consistent and functional. Here is the list of cards I believe are mandatory:

3 Brionac, 3 Unicore, 2 Valkyrus, 1 Clausolas, 1 Trishula, 1 Gungnir, 3 Manju, 2 Shurit, 3 Senju, 1 Djinn Releaser, 3 Prepration of Rites, 2 Mirror, 2 Cycle, 2 Kaleidoscope

For those you don’t really feel like counting, that’s 29 cards. Essentially, 72.5% percent of the deck is mandatory. These numbers originate from any deck profiles and lists with a legitimate credential (YCS Tacoma, Regional and ARG tops). I believe 95% of all the deck lists I’ve gathered play these 29 cards consistently. Some players have added additional cards to provide extra consistency to the deck (2^nd and 3^rd Clausolas, 3^rd Shurit, 2^nd Trishula, 3^rd Valkyrus, Great Sorcerer, ROTA, etc).

That first part is the skeleton, the base that the entire deck is structured. The rest of the deck contains the cards that will either defend you, or prevent you from auto-losing the game, which is the meat. Gathered from many deck lists, here are the cards that players have chosen to include into their decks:

2-3 Effect Veiler, 2-3 Maxx C, 1 Dance Princess, 1 Raigeki, 2 Dark Hole, 1 Book of Moon,  2-3 Book of Eclipse, 3 Shared Ride, 3 MST

That`s an additional 16-19 cards, which if added to the skeleton I`ve supplied, that`s a 45-48 card deck (and that`s not include adding extra copies of skeleton cards that aren`t necessary, but are nice to have). The reason that there are so many card choices is because people have built their Nekroz deck to tailor certain match-ups in their favour.

Today, the current tier 1 decks are Nekroz, Burning Abyss and Qliphort. All of the mentioned cards above are strong against 1-2 of the three tier 1 decks, but are less effective against the other deck. I believe the guide to building the perfect deck is defining which of these cards is the most optimal, and then weeding out the less powerful and useful cards.

I’ll dedicate some time to relay each of these cards and state their strengths and weaknesses amongst the top decks, in an attempt to figure out which of these cards reign supreme.

Effect Veiler – This card is strong against Nekroz. If you can save it for a Trishula, or perhaps an extra deck monster, that would be the most useful chouce. Waisting it on a Manju or Senju might be useless because the opponent may be able to search what they need, depending on their hand. Against Burning Abyss, it’s really strong against Tour Guide, and Virgil. Against Qliphorts, this card is ineffective… On a side-note, you can use Veiler to synchro with Trishula to make a Leo, if that ever becomes relevant.

Maxx C – This card is the strongest against Burning Abyss, stopping their special summons or letting you draw a lot of cards. This card can also generate some card advantage against Nekroz, which can help draw outs to whatever they establish. Unfortunately, it cannot stop their plays, and if they can play a Trishula, it could provide permanent damage. As well, this card is almost useless against Qliphort. You can chain it to Disk’s effect, or pre-emptively activate it before they pendulum summon.

Dance Princess – This card is particularly useful against Burning Abyss and Qliphorts, as your opponent cannot active cards in response to ritual spell activations. As well, don’t forget Princess protects Nekroz ritual monsters from targeting effects. Usually, the opponent will have to waist something on the Princess so they can do something about your ritual monsters. Against Nekroz, that card along with Decisive Armor is a potential out to Djinn lock, as well as Vanity’s Fiend. The ability to unlock your rank 4 toolbox and add a banished Nekroz to you hand is useful. However, playing more than one of this card wouldn’t be useful; it’s just a one shot card, and wastes your normal summon.

Raigeki/Dark Hole – In Nekroz, these cards are an answer to the Djinn Lock, assuming the opponent doesn’t have Gungnir. Against Qliphorts, it clears their field so you can OTK. Against Burning Abyss, it provides similar behaviour. It’s also not difficult to create an Abyss Dweller first then activate one of these cards to decrease their advantage significantly. Finally, these cards are outs to Emptiness (against Qliphorts, one of their monsters need a Saqlifice on it), and other floodgate monsters (Dark Law, Vanity’s Fiend, Thunder King, etc).

Book of Moon – You could almost copy and paste my previous explanation of Raigeki and Dark hole, minus the ability to clear all monsters. Against the Djinn Lock, they need Trishula instead of Gungnir. Against Burning Abyss, this card can flip a monster down to destroy other regular Burning Abyss Monster, and can be activated on the opponent’s turn to mess them up. Against Qliphorts, this card isn’t as useful as Raigeki, but has its applications (like activating a Manju or Trishula under Skill Drain).

Book of Eclipse – This card is the ultimate answer to the Djinn Lock. Other than that, it has random uses similar to Book of Moon. As long as you don’t let the opponent draw cards, you won’t land yourself in a negative situation.

Shared Ride – Against Nekroz, this card is amazing. This will force the opponent to stop for the turn, or you’ll draw some cards. Against Qliphort, you’ll draw a card or two at most, but it could be quite helpful. If the opponent does activate Summoner’s Ar t and you chain Shared Ride, they may not search with Scout that turn. Against Burning Abyss, the most you can do is chain it to a Scarm search or Dante activation from Graveyard.

MST – This card is enticing. This card is almost useless against Nekroz, but there’s the odd time where a Nekroz player will set a card into the spell/trap zone, and maybe you can blind MST it at the End Phase. I wouldn’t place money on that happening, though. Against Qliphorts, I try to use this card on a Skill Drain or Emptiness, as opposed to a Scout. My reasoning is because I have a harder time dealing with their traps then their monsters. I would only MST the Scout if I knew it wouldn’t be better used on something else, and I was sure there would be no negative reprocussions. Against Burning Abyss, saving it for Emptiness is pretty good, or an end phase MST on a single set card can sometimes be just as good (especially if you fear Fire Lake).

Now that I’ve explained all these optional cards, I’ll sort them out in a chart to rate their effective using a scale between 0 and 2.

	Nekroz	Burning Abyss	Qliphort	Total Score
Effect Veiler vs	2	2	0	4
Maxx C vs	2	2	0	4
Dance Princess vs	1	2	2	5
Book of Moon vs	2	2	1	5
Book of Eclipse vs	2	2	1	5
Shared Ride vs	2	0	1	3
Dark Hole/Raigeki vs	1	1	2	4
MST vs	0	2	2	4

 

I believe Dance Princess, Book of Moon and Book of Eclipse are the most versatile cards, with everything else just following behind in usefulness. Since Dance Princess is a monster, and the deck should be summoning Manju and Senju the most (for the sake of consistency), Dance Princess should be played at 1. It’s also searchable via Brionac, which is useful. Book of Moon will be played at 1 and I’ll probably play Book of Eclipse at 2 (unless I can’t get another one, since I only have 1). It’s a fantastic card, but it does have its drawbacks.

Now, what about the rest of the cards? We know that floodgates will murder this deck, and building the best deck would contain answers to these floodgates. We also need cards that will make life easier in winning the game through the main condition: Inflicting 8000 damage. Raigeki should be included since it can clear Emptiness and enable OTK plays. I’ll also choose to include a single copy of Dark Hole. In all honestly, you shouldn’t need to resolve Raigeki and 2 Dark Holes in a single game. Additionally, I’ve drawn hands in testing where I drew both Dark Holes and Raigeki, or just two of those, and I lost some of those games because I didn’t have enough combo pieces, since I had those mass removal cards instead. Finally, 3 MST should probably be included to deal with troubling spells and traps. Don’t forget Emptiness and Skill Drain exists, but there are other floodgates running around in the main deck. Anti-Spell Fragrance is picking up popularity in the decks that can afford it, and you need that MST as soon as it’s activated, or you’re screwed.

It’s time to do some basic mathematics. The basic skeleton is 29 cards, and I’ve opted to add 1 Princess, 1 Book of Moon, 2 Book of Eclipse, 1 Raigeki, 1 Dark Hole and 3 MST. That’s 9 more cards, putting the total deck count to 38. I have 2 more spots to go, and these might be the hardest spots to fill! Here are the options I’ve decided to pick from:

1 Clausolas, 1 Valkyrus, 2 Effect Veiler, and 2 Maxx C

If I were to include all of these cards, that would bring me up to 44 cards, which is a negative in my books. I suppose further thinking is required to pick the final two cards.

Clausolas isn’t a bad card. It makes your deck 2% more consistent, which adds up over multiple games and matches. You’ll probably never summon it anyway, unless it’s for Djinn lock, or to push for damage.

Valkyrus is pretty good, being the archtype’s Swift Scarecrow, and provides solid draw and attack power. My biggest challenge is obtaining a 3^rd copy of this card… Every deck now has OTK potential, so Valkyrus at 3 is better than at 2.

Effect Veiler is great at negating monster effects, but sometimes, playing it at the wrong time could cost you the game. As well, it will be a dead card in your hand until it’s useful.

Maxx C is the final option. Honestly, this card shines when you are going second, and your opponent wants to special summon turn one. Even against Burning Abyss, I’ve drawn this card too late and it was no better than a Jar of Greed.

Based on the above information, I feel Clausolas and Valkyrus should be the final two cards. Out of the above options, those cards are usually never dead, whereas Effect Veiler and Maxx C can be dead, especially if I’m playing against Qliphorts. If for some reason I can’t obtain another Book of Eclipse and Valkyrus, I’ll have to decide between Effect Veiler and Maxx C.

I’ll end this discussion now. Writing this out (while I was at work) helped me sort through my own convoluted thought process, and I have a more strategic basis to building the perfect Nekroz deck. Obviously this discussion of cards can be applied to building whichever deck you wish, though keep in mind you’ll need to make the correct card choices to maximize your chances of victory. Let me know what you readers think, and thanks for reading!

Yo...What?

Yosenjus... This is other deck that immediately intrigued me as soon as the Secret Forces was released in the TCG. This is a solid anti-meta strategy with OTK potential; really similar to Satellarknights and Fire Fists (a deck which I always enjoyed playing). Recently, a Yosenju deck made it all the way to Top 8 of ARG Metro Kentucky, which prompted me to write this article.

A few days, I explained my Satellarknight anti-meta deck, and how it was a reasonable (and budget) option to combat the current tier 1 decks. I also made it perfectly clear that your deck needs to be able to consistently defeat the top decks of the format, if you want to see competitive success. Well, Yosenjus are another option, and they are cheaper to build than Satellarknights, and quite possibly the better deck between the two.

After some tinkering and a dedicated thought process, I've come up with a build that I would like to experiment.

1 Thunder King

2 Fossil Dyna

3 Yosenju Tsujik - Mini-Honest of the archtype

3 Yosenju Kama 1 - Bounce 1 face-up card once per turn, provided extra normal summon

2 Yosenju Kama 2 - Direct attack at half damage, provides extra normal summon

3 Yosenju Kama 3 - Searches a Yosenju card when a Yosenju monster does battle damage once per turn, provides extra normal summon

3 Tenki

2 MST

3 Duality

1 Snatch Steal

1 Book of Moon

1 Raigeki

1 Dimensional Fissure

3 Anti-Spell Fragrance

2 Dimensional Prison

2 Mirror Force

2 Fiendish Chain

3 Emptiness

1 Bottomless

1 Macro

The main point of the deck is to beat down the opponent with Yosenju tactics, with traps to follow-up. Thunder King destroys Nekroz and Qliphorts, and Fossil Dyna is strong against Nekroz and Burning Abyss.

I kept the monster line at 14 monsters. This is a deck that can’t start off with too many monsters, or it will probably auto-lose. I would rather draw 5 traps than 5 monsters, and hopefully I’ll be able to open with multiple spells/traps every game, preferably with a floodgate in the mix.

I think the spell choices speak for themselves. In regards to traps, there are more traps (maybe more than there should be) to protect your monsters in battle. Sometimes, you will have to play "protect the Dyna, or Thunder King", while building Yosenju cards, and all those battle traps will assist with that. Anti-Spell Fragrance is a very great choice, since it wrecks Nekroz and Qliphorts.

I didn't include an extra deck or side deck. A generic rank 4 toolbox should work fine. Side deck will be determined it necessary; AKA more hate for the top decks.

This deck, in particular, does not auto-lose to Emptiness, Vanity’s Fiend and the Djinn Releaser lock, which is beautiful. In fact, this deck doesn’t even care if those cards are present. You’ll barely go into a rank 4 unless you have too, and that’s the only special summon the deck is capable of.

There's a little part of me that prefers this deck over Satellarknights, currently. This deck can afford to main deck Dimensional Fissure and Macro, which is quite amazing. As well, it can afford to play Pot of Duality, which is a lot better than Upstart Goblin in the decks that can utilize it properly.

I don't immediately want to jump on the "Yosenju Band-wagon". If I didn't already sleeve this deck before the hype became real, I probably wouldn't even bother. I might as well experiment against Nekroz, Burning Abyss and Qliphorts, and see how powerful this deck really is.

Going back to Satellarknights for a moment, I did do the appropriate testing against the top decks. Against Nekroz and Qliphorts, the deck won when Fragrance resolved, if not, the deck lost. Against Burning Abyss, Diamond/Triverr control with Abyss Dweller was enough to get the job done, and it's about 50/50. I'm bringing up these results because I want to see if Yosenju can surpass these results.

I don’t think Yosenjus are tier 1, and I certainly don’t think it’s the best deck of the format. However, I can’t deny this deck has a lot of potential, and I might be proved wrong in regards to Yosenju being a tier 1 option. Let me know what you think about the build, and any suggestions you have. Thanks for reading!

Nekroz: Creating the Best Deck

Hello everyone! Today, I will be discussing some deck-building theory in the Nekroz deck. Even if you cannot play Nekroz, this article might still be helpful, since the concepts I will discuss can carry over to other decks.

There have been moments where I was playing the game, and I was completely helpless and unable to play. Yesterday was a good example of this. I’ll provide the backstory…

I played Nekroz at Locals yesterday. I went 2-0 the first three rounds, without much of a challenge. Round 4 I fight against Nekroz for the first time ever. On his first turn, he locks me down with Djinn Releaser of Rituals. As well, I knew he ended his turn with a Gungnir in hand, because he searched it. My response was activating Dark hole to clear his Clausolas (Djinn-locker) and Lavalval Chain. He did activate Gungnir to protect his Clausolas, to which I chained Book of Moon. It was the smartest play; unfortunately, he had Trishula as well to protect from the Book. Essentially, he opened perfect, and I couldn’t play the game. Game 2 I go first, but do not open with the pieces to make the Djinn lock. He goes, and has the pieces to perform the lock, and I eventually do not draw any outs to it during the entire game.

Needless to say, I wasn’t too impressed with that result. I just had to brush off my negative feelings so it wouldn’t interfere with my top 4 performance. I figured I’ll reclaim myself in the finals, since I ended up fighting against Evilswarms and he fought against Ritual Beasts, in the Top 4 portion of the tournament. I won my match, and I was ready for another mirror match for Top 2, and then for some reason, he ends up losing to Ritual Beasts… Needless to say I end up defeating Ritual Beasts in the finals.

After buying a box of Secret Forces, and pulling my second Valkyrus, I tweak my deck slightly, and have a “fun” match against Nekroz. Game 1 he locks me with the Djinn, game 2 I lock with the Djinn, and game 3 he locks me with the Djinn, then OTKs me.

I was forced to make the realization that I lost solely because I wasn’t allowed to play the game. After I found out he was playing a 41 card deck with 2 Brionac, I realized I got sacked pretty hard, and my deck wasn’t prepared for that. Whatever; that’s beside the point.

Now that story time is concluded, I can actually begin discussing the focus of the article. If I can’t surpass a 41 card incomplete deck because of some ridiculous lock, I’m doing something wrong.

I’ll start with the decklist I ended the day with yesterday. I proceeded to use this list during playtesting against Burning Abyss.

3 Brionac, 3 Unicore, 2 Valkyrus, 1 Clausolas, 1 Gungnir, 1 Trishula, 1 Decisive Armor, 3 Maxx “C”, 3 Manju, 2 Senju, 2 Shurit, 1 Dance Princess, 1 Djinn Releaser

3 MST, 3 Preparation of Rites, 2 Nekroz Kaleidoscope, 2 Nekroz Mirror, 2 Nekroz Cycle, 2 Dark Hole, 1 Raigeki, 1 Book of Moon

Did you notice my deck is 40 cards? I believe that 40 card decks pave a route of success. Any extra cards you play reduce your consistency, which can and will make a difference over many games. I’m not crazy; this is math. How everyone is playing Nekroz decks with more than 40 cards just completely blows my mind.

When I build decks, I break down the cards I select into two groups. The first group is the Skeleton, the mandatory cards that have to be included to create a consistent and functional deck. In Nekroz, the skeleton is huge, unfortunately, and includes a plethora of searching cards like Brionac, Manju and Preparation of Rites.

The second group is everything else. These are cards that you elect to play that will further your deck’s progress in the majority of the games you play. Personally, I want to select cards that will assist me against the majority, or all tier 1 decks, since those are the decks to beat. For example, MST is good against Emptiness, and plays an integral role against Qliphorts, while stymieing Burning Abyss and Nekroz defense (if their build has room for defense).

I considered breaking down the entire deck like I just did with MST, but that would make this post a juggernaut. Furthermore, this post isn’t really a deck analysis, so-to-speak. This post is dedicated to exploiting the weaknesses of the Nekroz deck, and exploring options to mitigate these weaknesses.

When I originally composed the deck, Dark Hole and Raigeki were for the Djinn Lock, since the opponent won’t always have Gungnir. Book of Moon is another out, and the opponent won’t always have Trishula. Also, Dance Princess was also included because it can possibly attack over the Djinn lock, thanks to Decisive Armor, but that can be stopped by Gungnir.

After what happened yesterday, I’ve decided to main deck 3 Maxx “C”. It was something I originally wanted to do, but couldn’t because of tight deck space. After what happened yesterday, I had no choice; I had to make room. If I’m going second, and the Nekroz player opens the capabilities to perform the Djinn lock, Maxx “C” will either let me draw a few cards (theoretically I’ll draw an out), or they will just stop (which would be my preference). Even though this card is mediocre against Qliphorts, I’m pretty sure it needs to be played, just because of first-turn Nekroz Shenanigans. Fortunately, Maxx “C” is strong against Burning Abyss, which comforts me. Maxx “C” officially can stay at 3 in my main deck, since it’s powerful against 2 of the 3 tier 1 decks.

Continuing on the events of yesterday, I was almost convinced immediately that Book of Eclipse was a staple, at least in this deck. However, I have a few problems with this card:

1.       This card is absolutely terrible against Qliphorts.

2.       This card is only okay against Burning Abyss.

I’m going to discuss Book of Eclipse against Burning Abyss, as well as against other cards, momentarily. First, here is the exact specifications of the card:

Quick play spell: Change all face-up monsters on the field to face-down Defense Position. During the End Phase, flip all face-down Defense Position monsters your opponent controls face-up, and if you do, your opponent draws 1 card for each.

Against Burning Abyss, if you can set Book of Eclipse, there are a few things you can do. If the opponent summons Tour Guide, you can chain Eclipse to the activation of Tour Guide. It will be turned face down, then the monster will be summoned and that will usually stop their turn (unless they can use Foolish Burial on a Libic). As well, if the opponent starts their turn by revealing and special summoning a Burning Abyss monster, you can activate Eclipse to flip it down. However, this isn’t the best move… They can set a Burning Abyss monster for turn, set a Fire Lake, then draw 2 cards at the end phase when those monsters flip up, and Fire Lake is live (Really, any backrow can be a problem. Fire Lake is just the best example in this context).

If the Burning Abyss player plays Masked Hero Dark Law, then Book of Eclipse becomes a little more useful. The final situation Eclipse can be useful is when you want to turn off Fire Lake, but then you need to eliminate their board, which isn’t too hard.

On a side-note, this card is an out to Majesty’s and Vanity’s Fiend. These cards still seem semi-regular play.

As I mentioned earlier, I did a lot of playtesting against Burning Abyss. I know for a fact we completed at least 6 matches, and I know I only lost a single match (I opened completely unplayable game 3). When playtesting, every time I drew Dark Hole, I assumed for a brief moment that it was Book of Eclipse (since I would probably remove Dark Hole for Book of Eclipse). In the majority of those moments, Dark Hole was more useful, but there was the odd situation where a Book of Eclipse would’ve been better.

Now, I’ve almost convinced myself that Book of Eclipse can be worth running in the main deck. However, I am faced with a seemingly pressing inquiry: What exactly do I take out for Book of Eclipse, and how many copies should go in the main deck?

Dark Hole seems like the single best pick, in first glance. Is that the optimal choice, though? Dark Hole if an out to Emptiness, and Emptiness is a problem for this deck. Dark Hole is another out to the Djinn lock, assuming Gungnir isn’t around to save the day. Against Nekroz, though, it’s safe to assume Book of Eclipse is more versatile than Dark Hole.

There are a couple of other cards that could be removed for Book of Eclipse, but that could damage the deck’s consistency. Senju is an option since it is a limited search, as opposed to Manju and Preparation or Rites.

Moving onto today’s adventures, I did some more playtesting today, trying to work with a single Book of Eclipse, and a few other slight changes:

3 Brionac, 3 Unicore, 2 Valkyrus, 1 Clausolas, 1 Gungnir. 1 Trishula, 1 Decisive Armor, 3 Manju, 3 Senju, 2 Maxx C, 2 Shurit, 1 Dance Princess, 1 Djinn Releaser

3 MST, 3 Preparation of Rites, 2 Nekroz Kaleidoscope, 2 Nekroz Mirror, 2 Nekroz Cycle, 1 Book of Moon, 1 Raigeki, 1 Dark Hole, 1 Book of Eclipse

In regards to the Burning Abyss deck I was testing against, we included 3 Shared Ride and a couple Vanity’s and Majesty’s Fiends into the main deck. Considering the deck was destroyed last night, it needed to be adjusted so it had a better matchup. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. The games were about 50/50.

Majesty’s Fiend and Vanity’s Fiend prevented me from playing the game until I drew an answer. I swear, every time I played Book of Eclipse, it was played on one of those Fiends. Unfortunately, I was never able to experiment with that card in any alternative situation.

Random side-note: I witnessed a lot of hands that were complete bricks. I don’t know if it was horrible luck, but I immediately went back to 3 Senju after it consistently happened. After that, I can’t remember bricking.

Finally, I wish I didn’t have to move a Maxx C to the side deck. Inevitably, I was drawing Maxx C after the huge Burning Abyss push occurred, then it was relatively dead when I drew it. There was a little part of me that wished I was playing Effect Veiler instead. Veiler would not have been useless in any of the circumstances where I had Maxx C.

Ultimately, more experimenting will be required before I decide my final build. This post identified how I felt about fighting the meta with Nekroz. In all honesty, between the current top three decks, Nekroz is the deck to beat; it is the best deck. This is the truth, and regardless of the path, I can’t afford to auto-lose the mirror match. As well, I need to ensure the deck recipe has enough tricks to combat everything else.

Let me know your thoughts on this post, and thanks for reading!

Satellarknight Fragrance

Currently, Nekroz is the most powerful deck: It dominated YCS Tacoma. Now, there are two options: Play Nekroz and configure your deck to beat Nekroz, or play another deck and configure it to beat Nekroz, while surviving against the other powerful decks of the format.

Satellarknights were not present in the Top 32 at YCS Tacoma. I have a soft spot for this deck, so I was thinking of how this deck could stand up to Nekroz on a consistent basis. Sure enough, I found the answer… For all those budget players, I present: Satellarknight Fragrance

3 deneb, 3 altair, 2 vega, 1 unukalhai, 1 kagetokage

3 upstart goblin, 3 rota, 3 magic planter, 2 MST, 1 snatch steal, 1 raigeki

3 call of the haunted, 3 emptiness, 3 stellarnova alpha, 3 anti-spell fragrance, 1 oasis of dragon souls, 2 fiendish chain, 2 dimensional prison

2 triverr, 2 delteros, 2 diamond, 2 castel, 1 abyss dweller, 1 dark rebellion xyz dragon, 1 gagaga cowboy, 1 rhapsody in berserk, 1 exciton knight, 1 cairnorgan, 2 more empty spots

Anti-Spell Fragrance is the tech of today’s deck. Here’s how this individual card fairs against the current meta:

-          Nekroz: They have to set their ritual spells a turn. That can definitely shut them down.

-          Qliphorts: They can’t put Pendulum monsters in Pendulum zones. Any other crucial spells like Saqlifice have to wait a turn.

-          Burning Abyss: Unfortunately, it doesn’t hurt this deck too much. They do play spells, but their spells can wait a turn, in most cases.

-          Shaddolls: They play a lot of spells, and much like Nekroz, this will slow them down.

-          Satellarknights: Like Burning Abyss, it won’t hurt too much, but it can be annoying to the opponent.

This deck may also be a little more consistent than other Satellarknight decks, thanks to Magic Planter. For those who don’t know, you send a continuous trap to the graveyard to draw 2 cards. This is good when you want to remove Emptiness, or any floating continuous trap. This deck also plays a fair amount of traps, which is quite necessary in this particular deck.

Satellarknights isn’t a deck that requires a ton of thought, but there are some nasty combos.

-          You get a first turn anti-spell fragrance active, and the opponent sets most of their hand (presumably because they have a bunch of spells). An annoying play is making a Triverr. It will bounce all of those cards, and Fragrance. That way, you can immediately active Fragrance when the turn ends, and the opponent will probably lose another turn. This could be coined as the “Triverr/Fragrance Soft-Lock”.

-          You use Magic Planter on your own Anti-Spell Fragrance to use spells you just drew, like Snatch Steal, Raigeki or something as simple as ROTA to accelerate your play.

This deck has a few inherent negatives, obviously. Drawing the Fragrance late game might be too late. Going first is optimal, and going second isn’t as optimal. What’s nice about this, though, is a lot of decks are choosing to go second, which could work in this deck’s favour. As well, Satellarknights always struggled when bricking: Too many monsters, or not enough monsters, or no Deneb.

When Diamond was released in Secrets of Eternity, Satellarknights regained a spot as a Tier 1 deck, in my opinion. It was even able to win ARG Forth Worth, which is an accomplishment. However, Nekroz seemed to wash away the deck (no pun intended). I feel Anti-Spell Fragrance is an answer, as well as good side-deck choices to follow-up.

Let me know what you thank, and let me know what similar ideas you have. I will test out the deck against the current meta decks and hopefully generate some positive results. Thanks for reading!

SkillOverLuck - Reborn!

I guess this post will be my return into the competitive blogging atmosphere. I’ve decided to revive this for a few reasons:

-          It’s beneficial for me to write out my thoughts. I can’t count the number of times I have a thought, and then forget it completely because I don’t make a note of it. Now, I can write out my thoughts before I forget about them.

-          It gives the readers (that’s you) the ability to criticize my thoughts, constructively. If you disagree with something, or have anything to add, you can leave a comment. Criticism is always appreciated.

-          In the past, people have reached out to me and explained how I helped them become a better player. This is meant to help others become better players.

-          This gives me a way to cope with boredom at work…

Now, I’m the kind of person that strives for nothing less than perfection. Unfortunately, this game will sometimes provide results that aren’t perfect, which is infuriating. I’m not foolish enough to expect to be victorious every single game I play. Sometimes, poop hits the fan, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I’ll provide a report of my recent Regional experience as a testament to this, since I was aiming for Top 8. I’ll explain everything that actually went wrong:

Round 1 vs Shaddolls (2-0)

Round 2 vs Burning Abyss (2-0)

Round 3 vs Satellarknights (Draw) – This is where a miscalculation on my part may have happened. I won game 1 very easily. Game 2 dragged on and on. At around 3 minutes left, I was considering scooping and going to game 3, and clock the game specifically so I would have Final Turn. However, I noticed a lot of my “good” cards (Raigeki, Snatch Steal, Tour Guide, etc) were still in my deck, and my deck was small in size. There was a chance I could’ve drawn amazing and won the game. On the opposite side of the coin, I was also thinking a draw is better than a potential loss…  Anyway, I decided to keep going. Sure enough, time was called, and that didn’t happen, so I lost and a tie was born as a result.

Round 4 vs Satellarknight (2-1)

Round 5 vs Burning Abyss (2-0)

Round 6 vs Shaddolls (2-0)

Round 7 vs Burning Abyss (0-2) – This is the match that I felt was out of my control. Both games, my opponent has Maxx “C”, and I don’t extend because there was no way I could’ve done 8000 damage. He also had traps, which didn’t help. I could’ve extended through, but I still would’ve lost.

Round 8 vs Burning Abyss (Draw) – Yep, another draw. I won game 1 really fast. Game 2 was dragging again, and I knew eventually I would’ve lost, so I scooped 3 minutes before time was called (I didn’t want another draw). Game 3 was originally configured so I would have Final Turn. However, it didn’t matter, we both poked each other with Nightmare Shark, and that was it.

The only positive fact that came out of the experience was realizing I made a good card choice in my side-deck. In that game 3, I sided in 2 copies of Threatening Roar. I originally included two copies because it seemed going into time is a weakness of mine. Sure enough, I would’ve lost if it wasn’t for 1 of the copies coming up. Now I know that was an excellent choice, but was irrelevant because I didn’t make Top 8.

After that match concluded, I was really angry: This was the worst mood I’ve experienced at the expense of card games. However, this is an article for a different day…

Now I can come full circle with my point about striving for perfection. I can acknowledge that if I skipped to game 3 on round 3, the whole outcome could’ve changed. In striving for the best outcome, did I make the optimal decision? I’m still trying to figure that one out…

I can strive for perfection, but I’ve already admitted that perfection cannot be expected in this game. You can play perfect, build the perfect deck, but still lose to random “sacking”. However, I can still strive for achieving the best results, by making the perfect plays and building the perfect deck.

My goals are simple and straight: Win events (Regionals, YCSs, Nationals, hopefully World Championships, and other related tournaments), defeat players that are “names” in this game (anywhere from Matt Bishop to Patrick Hoban) and ultimately have fun and love the game while striving for the above two goals.

How does one win events, and defeat the know players of the games? This is what I’ve come up with:

-          Playing the perfect game. Mistakes and misplays should be avoided. These can be as simple as forgetting a Scarm search, or as complicated as deciding whether or not to continue a game, based on the flow. When you do make a mistake, learn it, so it doesn`t happen again. Making the best plays is also part of this. When do you play BLS, Raigeki or Snatch Steal? This is basic theory that I’ll eventually extend, since I could compose multiple essays in regards to this subject.

-          Having a large card-pool, having the ability to build the best deck and build the best deck well. These two thoughts fall in the same category. I make it a point to have access to every single meta deck. This way, I will have access to the “best deck” at all times. Unfortunately, this can be expensive… However, this is only half of the pie. The other half is having access to a large card-pool. You never know when out-of-fashion cards will suddenly become staples, like Summoner’s Art. Personally, I look through my cards once in a while to find cards that have become good. I also look for surprise tech choices (choices that no one expects). I’m currently working on something like that with Satellarknights to combat the current meta decks. This assists with building good decks. When building any deck, even the best deck, you need to tailor it to beat the best decks. That’s why Burning Abyss decks were maining 3 Enemy Controller; to defeat other Burning Abyss decks… Again, there’s enough here to write an essay, so I’ll stop for now.

-          Become better by practicing with better players, and do lots of playtesting. The theory behind this is simple: You won’t learn anything by beating the people that go X-3 at Locals consistently. However, if you are consistently going X-3 at Locals, constant practice against the players that consistently go X-1 or X-0 is great practice. That`s one of the ways I grew to where I am. The players that are X-1 or X-0 consistently should practice with the people that bear similar results, to help each other grow. Also, Regionals and other tournaments are great for improving skill-level. You`ll be playing against players that can properly play the game at these events, if you do well.

-          Attend as many events as possible. This is one of those that I just realized how important it is, and I`ve decided to finally take this one seriously. You can`t win the events that you don`t go to. Every event you do not go to is knowledge and playtesting you don`t have, as well.

-          Educate yourself. Do what you need to do to help absorb maximum knowledge. Knowledge is power, and the more you have, the more success you will have. If you gather knowledge better by reading feature matches and articles, do it. If you gather knowledge better by watching feature matches and duel videos, do it.

-          A little bit of luck doesn`t hurt. Every game that you topdeck Snatch Steal for the win is a victory. It may be a cheap and undeserving victory, but it could make the difference between winning, topping or not topping an event.

This is where I`m going to conclude this post. I`ve made my goals crystal clear. I won`t stop until I am satisfied with my progress.

My posts will consist of deck ideas and theory, with the occasional tournament report and alternative post here and there. I`m open to suggestions, and criticism. Thanks for reading!

Mermail Deck 09/06/2013

As I stated in my previous post, I would be sharing and explaining my Mermail deck I utilize at YCS Toronto. I decided to not play the "Aqua Spirit" version, which was extremely popular, because I was more comfortable with the older version. Anyway, here we go with the list, then I will explain some of my choices:


Main Deck (40):


3 Mermail Abyssmegalo
3 Mermail Abyssteus
1 Mermail Abyssleed
3 Mermail Abysslinde
3 Mermail Abysspike
2 Mermail Abyssgunde
1 Atlantean Dragoons
3 Atlantean Marksman
3 Atlantean Heavy Infantry
2 Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls
1 Deep Sea Diva
1 Fishborg Archer
2 Effect Veiler
2 Maxx "C"
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Salvage
3 Abyss-sphere
1 Abyss-squall
1 Solemn Warning
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Call of the Haunted


Extra Deck (15):


2 Mermail Abyssgaios
1 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Bahamut Shark
1 Mermail Abysstrite
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Crimson Blader
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Dewloren, Tiger Prince of the Ice Barrier
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Armory Arm


Side Deck (15):


1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Tragoedia
1 Forbidden Lance
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Trap Stun
2 Debunk


Deep Sea Diva: If you are playing the synchro, there is no reason to not play this card. I did face multiple people that were confused why I played it...


Fishborg Archer: Again, I'm playing synchro monsters, so why not play a tuner that's search-able by Abysspike? The fact that it revives itself is very important.


Call of the Haunted: I've always known the surprise factor wins games. I don't think I've seen a top Mermail deck list in the last 12 months that played this card, maybe because Monster Reborn was legal. This card won me multiple games throughout the day. Either I would make an necessary synchro or extra deck card, or I would flip after the rest of my monsters attacked and summon a monster to finish the game.


Thunder King Rai-Oh: Again, I sided this card for the surprise factor. Nobody saw it coming when I summoned it game 2, and it disrupted the opponent quite a bit.


Dark Hole: I didn't main this card because normally I would have a solid field. I sided it against the decks that explode more, or the decks where certain monsters just needed it to.


Just a quick note about my side deck before I conclude this post: I decided to side staple and generic cards instead of others because that would leave the opponent guessing what the side deck cards are. I could have sided cards like Gozen Match, but I didn't feel it necessary.



And that's my Mermail deck. I think I will probably try the Aqua Spirit version of the deck, though. I want to compare it to this version to really see its strengths.

YCS Toronto 2013 Tournament Report

I've decided to start my blogging again. I like where the format is headed, so I will continue to write until I get really annoyed, or I'm too busy.


This is my tournament report for YCS Toronto. At the end of Day 1, I achieved 117th place with an X-3 record, qualifying for Day 2. I am quite pleased with my performance since this has been one my goals for quite some time. I would've liked X-2 or greater, but everyone has to start somewhere...


I decided to attend the event with Mermails. I believed the deck was still functional, considering the loss of Dragoons and Diva. The deck honestly feels as powerful as ever.


Round 1 vs Agents (2-0)


Game 1 he won the die roll and opened with Venus and Gachi. After a couple turns, I decided to make Number 11: Big Eye to power my own monsters, while dodging Honest (it turns out he did open Honest). When he summoned Hyperion, I feel he misplayed since he attempted to destroy my one face-down trap, which was Abyssphere. I special summoned Abysslinde, which was destroyed, then special summoned Abysspike. I discarded Hevay Infantry for the effect, and it destroyed Hyperion. This left him with 5 fairies in grave, and his hand consisting of Honest and Kristya was useless, so he scooped.
Game 2 he opened Earth, and I stopped its search with Veiler. Again, I did my best playing around Honest by summoning Catastor on my first turn. He then started to push with Hyperion and Jupiter. I won the game because I cleared his field, and had a face-down Call of the Haunted, which allowed me to attack for exactly game. He previously had 2 MSTs which he chained to both my Abysspheres, so COTH turned out to be amazing.


1-0


Round 2 vs Spellbooks (2-0)


Game 1 I won the die roll, which was crucial because it allowed me to Solemn Warning his Spellbook Magician of Prophecy. The only form of offence he contained was a High Priestess, which I easily handled with my Rank 7s.
Game 2 he opened with Spellbook Magician of Prophecy, and started with a solid opening, including Grand Spellbook Tower and a set Spellbook of Fate. I used Book of Moon on his Magician, then summoned Abysspike and ditched Abyssleed to search Atlantean Marksman. I discarded that, and a second one, for Abyssmegalo, to destroy his face-down magician and Fate. I won a few turns later because I had Call of the Haunted for exact battle damage.


2-0


Round 3 vs Hieratics (2-0)


Game 1 I had Veiler and Warning, which was timed perfectly to stop all his crucial summons. Call of the Haunted allowed me to make an Abyssgaios, and then he scooped.
Game 2 he took the Maxx “C” challenge on his second turn, and I drew the Tragoedia, so I won.


3-0


Round 4 vs Dragon Ruler Plants (1-2)


Game 1 was fairly back and forth. He eventually won because he drew a fire monster to discard with Blaster, which destroyed my Abyssgaios, then made Shooting Star Dragon and revealed 3 tuners with its effect...
Game 2 I had 2 MSTs for his 2 Dragon Ravines, and I barried him with card advantage.
Game 3, he flipped Return from the Different Dimension on his third turn, and brought back 4 dragons which attacked for game. Of course my next draw was Bottomless Trap Hole...


3-1


Round 5 vs Dragunity (2-0)


Game 1 I started with a set Abysslinde, MST and Abyssquall. He played Ravine and discarded Phalanx. At this point, I realized he was playing Dragunity, and decided not to chain the MST. He searched Dux, summoned it, and equipped Phalanx, which I destroyed with MST. He attacked my Abysslinde, and I summoned Abyssleed. He set one backrow and passed. On my turn, I summon Abysspike, ditch an Abyssteus, and grabbed Marskman. I discarded it and an Abyssgunde for Megalo, and the Marskman destroyed a Mirror Force. I won that turn...
Game 2 took a while, and we traded resources often. I eventually won because he didn't see Call of the Haunted coming, and I made a Dewloren, which bounced back a face-up COTH and Abyssphere, which I used next turn to kill him, after I severely devastated him that turn.


4-1


Round 6 vs Redox Machine Geargia (2-0)


Game 1 we kept trading cards to kill each other. I kept blowing up his face-down Geargiarmors with Marksman, and a clutch COTH won the game, where I needed a synchro material to make Black Rose Dragon. After it cleared the field, I special summoned Tidal and attacked for game.
Game 2 was quite long. He opened with Macro Cosmos, thankfully I had MST. I eventually made an Abyssgaios, but he kept defending with Redox and a Dimensional Fissure he drew a few turns in. I eventually one because I saved all my real spells and traps for his bigger monsters that weren't Redox, and he eventually ran out of Earth monsters to summon Redox, so I knocked him out.


5-1


Round 7 vs Spellbooks (1-2)


Game 1 I opened subpar, and he gained a lot of advantage with World of Prophecy. On my following turn, I killed it, but he swarmed me with double High Priestess.
Game 2 I OTKed him with the Megalo and Diva play.
Game 3 I opened double Veiler and all monsters, and he played Dimensional Fissure immediately, then summoned Spellbook Magician of Prophecy. After, he summoned a Priestess, it was over.


5-2


Round 8 vs Dragon Rulers (1-2)


Game 1 he OTKed me with Return on his second turn.
Game 2 I OTKed him on my second turn.
Game 3 he OTKed me with Return on his third turn, and I had no traps to stop it. I saw my next draw, and would've won if he didn't have Return. It was during this game where I wish I played Mist Wurm. If I could've played with a 16 card extra deck, Mist Wurm would've been that card. I would've won the match if I had this card, because I need to clean the opponent's field, and Black Rose wasn't an option.

5-3


Overall, the experience wasn't bad. This isn't the first event where I lost all my matches to uncontrollable factors... However, I do feel there is a significant amount of room in this format for skill, unlike last format. During the event, I played my best and outplayed my opponents. Of course, I did get those lucky hands, but regardless I still played my best.



My next post will feature the decklist I utilized and my reasoning behind it. Stay tuned!