Money... the Implications

Back in 2012, I wrote about money and it's importance in this game. If you have no idea what I'm referring to, here's the post: http://skilloverluck.blogspot.ca/2012/11/money.html

For the TL;DR version of that post, here are the key points:

- Money has depressed people from playing this game.
- Players with money are more powerful than players without money.
- Spending money foolishly in this card game can be dangerous.

Since the rebirth of this blog, my posts have been inclined to the pure, competitive nature of this card game. Obviously, money is necessary if you want to become world champion, or if you want to generate brownie points. Today's post will explain this game's dependency on money and suggest ways to help provide additional to funds to support your competitive wishes for this game.

First, I'm going to start with a story from the recent past...

When the Secret Forces was released, I knew immediately that Nekroz was going to be the strongest deck in the format. Obviously, I had to obtain everything for the deck, and I knew it wasn't going to be cheap. I started by buying a few boxes of the set, and I didn't start off too terrible.

That Saturday, there was half a box left on display, and I knew that the cards pulled from that box so far were garbage. Mathematically, I felt I would have better odds of pulling something to complete the deck, and it would be less expensive. If I did not pull anything useful, then it wouldn't be as horrible as buying a full box and pulling nothing. Sure enough, I bought the remaining packs and pulled a Brionac. The weekend after, I did this again and pulled a Valkyrus. Then I proceeded to split a box with Raymond, and I pulled my 3rd Brionac.

Unfortunately, the worst was over, but I still didn't have the complete deck. I had to purchase 2 Valkyrus, and I know I spent $100 for both... In the end, the deck was complete about $500 later.

Was the way I went about this the smartest decision? Depends on how you look at it. If my boxes were all garbage, I would've been a sad panda. Fortunately, I got a little lucky with my boxes and half-boxes I purchased. Also fortunately, I already had everything I needed for the extra deck, so I didn't have to spend any resources obtaining those cards.

Now why did I use this story as my example? I'll explain...

Essentially, my maximum amount of money I set aside for this deck was $600. That number was determined based on an estimate of how much the individual singles would be (and it turns out my estimate wasn't too far off). Originally, I wanted to purchase the singles only and not the boxes (since the ratios of pulling the expensive cards was ludicrous).

In regards to this set, I decided to start investing in the deck by purchasing boxes. Occasionally, Konami provides with a set where you can purchase boxes and strike gold. With reprints like Emptiness and Abyss Dweller, as well as releasing the deck skeletons for Yosenjus, Ritual Beasts, and Nekroz, purchasing boxes was a worthwhile investment. I was able to complete my own Ritual Beast and Yosenju deck, and have spares of these skeletons to trade and sell away. I also got rid of quite a few Emptiness while they were above $10...

Ultimately, this was still nothing more than a gamble. Honestly, I was fortunate enough to pull all 3 Brionacs, and save a lot of money. If I pulled one less Brionac that I did, then I would've exceeded my budget to obtain one, and revert to sad panda stage. However, i would've resorted to selling off some of my pulls from the boxes so I can purchase or trade for that Brionac. That's why I decided to purchased boxes of this set. In simple terms:

- Best case scenario was I pulled all the deck, or at least most of it, so my additional expenses wouldn't have been outrageous.

- Worst case scenario was I pulled garbage, and traded off other pulls to get the rest of the deck, and I'm almost 100% sure that would work.

Typically, the best deck of any given format will be the most expensive deck. Burning Abyss used to hold that title until Nekroz were released. Mermails and Dino-Rabbit are examples of past tier 1 decks that were the most expensive because they were the best decks.

Players on a budget may have to settle for second-best, or lower. If you can't afford Nekroz, you can focus your spending on Burning Abyss and Qliphorts (these decks currently cost between $200-$300 to purchase, if you purchase all of the essential singles). These two decks are second-best, so they are the second-most expensive. If money is really a problem, then you'll have to settle for the worst of the best. Currently, those decks are Yosenjus, then Shaddolls, Satellarknights, Volcanics, and then everything else. These decks are solid (particularly Yosenjus if I had to pick one) but they are not the decks that provide the greatest chance of winning a large-scale tournament. In my opinion (and I've learned this the hard way), you need to do everything possible to guarantee yourself the best chance of winning, if you dream of winning competitive events. Obtaining the undisputed best deck of the format is the first step to increasing your odds, and this will always be expensive.

Unfortunately, the spending of money doesn't stop after you finish obtaining your deck. In order to win large-scale events, you'll have to do some travelling. Gas, food, tournament entry and sometimes hotels are factors you'll have to include in your competitive gaming budget.

Am I saying you should travel to every event possible? Not necessarily. Should you try travelling if you've spent a good amount of money into your deck you want to use? Probably. What's the point of spending $500 on your deck if you're only going to use it at Locals? Spending $500 on a deck you take to multiple higher-level tournaments is much more gratifying, and a proper use of money. Inevitably, the more you decide to travel, the more money you'll have to spend. I know I want to travel as much as possible because the best way to win events is by attending those events, so i'll have to budget accordingly.

Now... In relation to this wonderful card game, are there effective methods of building resources? Honestly speaking, after paying for life and bills, my paychecks are not enough (at least to me). There have been ways I've used this card game to build up resources. Here are some examples of what you can do:

1. Self Vending (AKA ripping people off) - Vendors buy and trade cards from players at half the value, then sell or trade them at full value. Clearly, this is a fantastic way of making money. This works really well in bigger communities. Unfortunately, my community is not big enough for something like that to be successful.

2. Store Credit - If your community has a tournament store credit system, this comes in handy. You can use this credit to purchase boxes, packs and singles. Years ago, I would use my store credit to purchase Effect Veilers, Maxx "C"s and Pot of Duality (this was when they only had one reprint, and they were over $10). All the buying/selling of those cards brought me raw profit.

3. Getting Cards Before they Increase in Value - Before the Secret Forces came out, Book of Eclipse was under $5, and now it's about $10. A smart idea is to do some research and pick up cards that will become expensive, while they are cheap. Sometimes, this is a gamble, but it takes practice until you get it right.

Once you use these methods to build resources (cards and money), you can use these resources to trade and buy cards, and set money aside for travel expenses. This is something that needs to be done in the pursuit of competitive glory.

One final comment: This post is not meant to convince you to drop your life's earnings on cards. Survival is obviously important if you want to play card games. Some people even play this game while raising a family. Just bear in mind that the more money you can properly invest, the better output you can expect.

That's all for today. Let me know your opinions, and thanks for reading!

Burning Abyss: The Darkest Horse of the Format

Hello everyone! As you probably know, Burning Abyss won a YCS in Europe last weekend. Although there were several accusations of cheating and whatnot, we cannot deny Burning Abyss still has potential. Unfortunately, I don’t like the build that the champion used. My opinion is that the build is missing a lot of key factors that I wouldn’t be comfortable without. If I were to build Burning Abyss and participate in an event with it, this is the rough draft of the build I would utilize:

3 Tour Guide

3 Scarm

3 Cir

3 Graph

2 Farfa

2 Rubic

1 Alich

1 Libic

2 Vanity's Fiend

1 BLS

2 Mask Change 2

2 MST

1 Dark Hole

1 Raigeki

1 Book of Moon

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Beginning of the End

1 Foolish Burial

1 Snatch Steal

2 Phoenix wing wind blast

1 fire lake

2 mind crush

3 emptiness

Extra deck:

3 Dante

2 Virgil

2 Downerd

1 Giga Brilliant

1 Nightmare Shark

1 Acid Golem

1 Zenmaines

1 Angineer

2 Dark Law

1 Koga

Side deck:

2 Enemy Controller

3 Maxx C

2 Monarch Stormforth

2 Majesty's Fiend

1 MST

2 Fire Lake

1 Fairy Wind

2 Threatening Roar

I believe Farfa is crucial for overcoming the Djinn lock, which Nekroz can consistently establish. Alich is necessary for negating Unicore if it becomes a problem. Otherwise, these two monsters are easy Allure of Darkness targets. The other intriguing monster choice is Vanity’s Fiend. This card is another form of the Djinn lock. Against Nekroz, the deck cannot play until it is dealt with. And of course, it’s annoying against the mirror match.

Mask Change 2 I feel is necessary and mandatory now. Dark Law is a meta call that is powerful against Nekroz, and just as powerful against most other current decks. I’ve also adopted to play Masked Hero Koga, and this is due to a few reasons. First of all, it’s just a nice out to huge threats, like Apoqliphort Towers. Secondly, I might be attacking a Nekroz player with a Dante… If they activate Valkyrus to negate the attack, I can change Mask Change to dodge it, summon Koga and attack again. I’ll also get to add something back to hand with Dante. In regards to the other spells, I feel only 2 MST are needed now. Nekroz don’t play many reactive spells and traps. I can work around other deck’s spells and traps (which is why I like Burning Abyss so much) without a need for MST, though sometimes it does simplify things. I feel the rest of the spell and traps are self-explanatory…

I don’t think I need to discuss extra deck choices either… In regards to the side deck, I sorted it out based on match-up. Against the mirror match, Maxx C, E-con, Stormforth and Majesty`s Fiend will all go in, based on whether or not I`m going first or second. Against Nekroz, Stormforth and Majesty’s Fiend definitely go in, and maybe Maxx C if I’m going second. Against Qliphorts, MST, Fire Lakes and Fairy Wind go in. Finally, Threatening Roars are for those matches where I go into time…

Of course, this build is a draft right now. To be honest, I want to try to fit 3 Upstart Goblins in the main deck... That would be the only change I would make.

Anyway, let me know what you readers think about this build, and thanks for reading!

Looking Back and Looking Forward

As explained in my previous post, I attended an OTS this weekend, piloting the Nekroz deck I spent an exuberant amount of time creating. The events this weekend, specifically the day of the OTS, can be summarized with one single word: Ridiculous.

I spent the majority of the weekend thinking about this ridiculousness and I’ve been intending to write this post, once I had a full-fledged thought process. This post will be a reflection on recent events, and a general insight on how I think about things. This writing might be all over the place, because that’s just how my thought process works, but I’ll do my best to explain my thoughts in a logical order.

The Free Victory

I’m beginning with this subject because it sprouted this entire post. As I mentioned in my previous post, I gave one of my friends the victory because he wanted to try and get an invite. This is the question I still ask myself about this: Why did I do it?

I immediately kicked myself after I made this decision. I spent about 3 minutes sitting at the table weighing the pros and the cons of doing this, before making the decision. Here is the list of Pros:

-          It makes me look like a nice person.

-          I’m giving him a chance to retry.

Those are the positives. There aren’t very many positives… Here are the negatives:

-          Only some X-2s were making it, but only a few. By sacrificing my victory, I had to win Round 6 and hope to be lucky with pairings.

-          Additional stress added to my day.

-          I spent a lot of time working for this event. Essentially, my preparation could’ve been all in vain.

-          I couldn’t say with 100% certainty he would win the next two rounds required for the invite.

The Competitive Outlook

My goal of the event was to win the OTS, and that’s it. 1^st place got the mat, and the brownie points of the event, and that’s all I wanted. Knowing this, why did I give away a victory that was crucial to my success in the event? It completely contradicts my views on the competitive atmosphere of the game.

All throughout my life, I’ve been a competitive person. In school, I always make sure I have the highest grades. At work, I ensure people understand who I am, and I make sure I can meet the criteria of the position (even though it’s semi—luck based). In card games, I want to be the very best, that no one ever was.

I’ve planted my roots in a few competitive card games over the last few years. Vanguard and MTG were the least fruitful. Regarding MTG, I was looking to slowly increase my skills by building a stronger and stronger deck, then testing it at the Friday Night Magic’s, and I wanted to eventually enter higher tier events. I was seeing the progress and was getting better, until my deck got stolen by someone in the community. That put my MTG career on hold (for now, since I intend on coming back soon). Regarding Vanguard, our community was too small to do anything. Sure, we could travel to other Locals, but that would be inconvenient. As well, the number of competitive events Bushiroad hold in Canada is depressing. There was no point continuing.

Pokemon allowed me to go a little further. I went to one event (don’t remember exactly what it was) and I played 6 or 7 rounds and went undefeated and came in 1^st place. However, the community is really small, like Vanguard, so it got boring… If I were to pick a 3^rd game to possibly invest in, it would be Pokemon. Unlike Vanguard, Pokemon requires more complex thinking, and it’s similar to MTG. There are also a lot more competitive Pokemon events than Vanguard, and I’d have no problem spending $300 to build an amazing deck to take to a few events. Eventually, I’ll have to do that on MTG…

Now, I’ll come full circle with my point. When doing anything in life, I fight to be on top of everyone else. I’ve worked on Yu-Gi-Oh, and I’m pretty sure my competitive drive for success is greater than anyone else in my community. However, within my community, it’s gotten dull and boring. Believe it or not: Coming in Top 4 every week gets boring after a while, and now I’m thirsty for more. This is one of the reasons why I’m more willing to attend greater events (Regionals and related events). I want to start crushing everyone I play against in any event I go to. If for some reason I lose to someone, I will take the most out of the experience and apply it so (hopefully) it doesn’t happen again.

If the above is true, then why did I give that person the win on the weekend? Ultimately, I think it just came down to me being nice, and feeling bad for defeating him. I can admit with 100% certainty that letting him have the win was a moment of weakness on my part: I let my emotions get the better of me, and that was that.

The Game of Life

I’m not exactly referring to that crappy board game that was released years ago. For those that don’t know what I’m referring to, it’s the game where you started as a character in school, then slowly developed your character, and the end goal was to end up with as much money and success as possible when retirement occurred. I recently had a thought that related to this game, in reference to my competitive card career. Life is one big game, and everything you do unfolds a new part of this game. Here’s a simple and straight-forward example: I went out of my way to build Nekroz. If I didn’t, then it wouldn’t have been an option for the OTS; I probably would’ve played Burning Abyss or Qliphort. The fact that I obtained the deck unlocked the part of the game where I used a Nekroz deck to fight my way through a tournament.

I believe every tournament, every match, and every game I play, will dictate the course of action I follow through this “game”. As well, the preparation and deck-building that occurs will dictate the course of action throughout the tournament. If I had changed 1 card in my deck, by taking out something else instead of the 2^nd Clausolas for the 3^rd Valkyrus I obtained, it could’ve change the entire tournament, since that card would’ve been something else and had a different effect on the games I played where I drew that card.

"If you can't win the game, if you can't solve the puzzle, then you're nothing but a loser."

This quote comes from the anime, Death Note. This expression came from the detective that inevitably solved the murder case that the series revolved around, with the data from the previous detective who died, and help from his acquaintance who discovered a critical piece of the puzzle.

This expression is nothing but true in my eyes. Flat out, if you don’t win, you lose. When I lost to Burning Abyss this weekend, I lost. When I defeated my friend, and gave him the win, I lost. You know what I realized about this weekend’s tournament? I realized that this weekend, I was a loser. You know what’s worse? I openly allowed myself to be a loser by giving up a win during the tournament. Quite frankly, this behaviour is not acceptable. I know for a fact that I spent more time preparing for this event than anyone. Throughout my life, I’ve realized that (statistically) the people that work the hardest reap the benefits, usually. I worked harder in preparation of this event, and I essentially tossed my reaped benefits aside to help someone else. I defeated myself, and no positives came out of it…

The conclusion

I was able to realize how badly I screwed myself over by releasing a win that I worked hard to deserve. I realized how strong my competitive drive is, and what happened this weekend was completely against what my principles should be.

Here’s the final point to take out of this: I will no longer let anyone have the win, period. I don’t care who you are. If I defeat you, and it’s the final match that will determine whether or not you get your invite, I don’t care. If you defeat me, then I’m the loser, and I’ll accept it. If I defeat you, then you are the loser, and you’ll have to accept it.

If I’m striving for credentials, top results, and brownie points, then I can’t go easy on anyone. I have no problem being a nice person, and friend, to those close to me. I enjoy working with certain members of the community that I trust, to further increase our strength as players. I also enjoy helping in any way I can, by lending out cards, writing these helpful provides, and offering advice to those who ask. But on the battlefield, everyone is an enemy, and whoever I play is the obstacle I must destroy. This will take place anywhere; Locals or higher tier tournaments. This is the way it has to be, if I will ever see success. This is the attitude I suggest to those who want to see success of their own.

Let me know what you readers think, and of course, thanks for reading!

OTS Tournament Report and Nekroz Deck List

Hello readers! This post is a tournament report regarding an OTS I just attended (AKA a Mini-Regional), and I will provide the decklist I used today. I believe I could've made top 8 today, but because I was being nice, I completely blew it (i'll talk about that later). Anyway, here were my six rounds of today's tournament.

Round 1 vs Harpies (2-0)

He won the die roll and chose to begin, starting with regular Harpie combos. I ruined his field with a Trishula, amongst other monsters, then I made the Djinn Lock. That effectively made the Chaneller in his hand useless, and I won next turn. Game 2, I'm pretty sure he bricked, but I would've won regardless. His only play was using Icarus attack, but I had Gungnir for protection.

1-0

Round 2 vs Nekroz (2-0)

He won the die roll and started with the Djinn lock. I was able to break it on my first turn, but he made it again next turn. I drew Book of Eclipse on my next turn, but chose to keep it a little while longer. I summoned Manju to search another card, maybe did something else, and ended turn. Then, he was going to OTK me but I had Valkyrus to protect myself. Next turn, I used Eclipse to flip his field face down and flip my Manju down. I flipped it immediately and searched, then I summoned Senju and searched again. I don't remember how exactly I did it, but I cleared his field and made my own Djinn Lock. On his next turn, he didn't draw an out to the lock, and I won on the following turn. Game 2, he started off strong enough, drawing cards with Valkyrus, and establishing a position where I couldn't take away cards with Trishula. On my turn, I made the Djinn lock. My opponent never drew an out, and I won a few turns later.

So yeah, that mirror match consisted of Djinn Lock control. It's kind of ridiculous, but whatever, that's Yu-Gi-Oh!

2-0

Round 3 vs Yosenjus (2-0)

I can't remember who won the die roll. Game 1 was very close, and went back and forth. Eventually, he Snatch Stole a Lavalval Chain and stacked a Fire Fist Bear on top of deck, with a live Tenki on the field, obviously. At that point, he had one unknown trap. My turn consisted of baiting out his trap (CED), and breaking his board, while adding Trishula to hand so Bear couldn't destroy my monster. He drew Macro on the following turn and scooped. Game 2 he didn't open too optimally. The only real trap he drew was CED, which I destroyed at his end phase (I could've used the MST on his Tenki, but I knew he couldn't OTK me regardless). On my next turn, I'm pretty sure I OTKed him.

3-0

Round 4 vs Burning Abyss (0-1)

Basically, he won the die roll and opened strong. We went back and forth, and eventually, we hit time and game 1 wasn't concluded. I had game on my next turn, and that would've wrapped up the match in my favour. However, he top-decked Raigeki, and I no longer had enough damage to win in time, so I lost.

3-1

Round 5 vs Qliphort (2-0)

I played against a local from Belleville, who didn't have his invite yet. He won the die roll and chose to go first. He bricked really hard, and I finished him immediately. Game 2 he opened up playable, But I crushed him regardless.

Now, this is the point that doesn't make sense to me. Because he didn't have an invite, he asked if I could let him have the win. He really wanted his invite so he could attend Nationals. For whatever reason, I agreed to let him have the win. I believed in his ability to win the following two rounds (Round 6 than Top 8, since Top 4 received their invites), and he proceeded to lose round 6, even though it wasn't really his fault...

3-2

Round 6 vs Nekroz (2-1)

Some X-2s were going to enter Top 8, so I fought for this victory. He won the die roll, and couldn't establish the Djinn Lock. Unfortunately, I couldn't either, but I made a good position for myself. On his next turn, he had the opportunity to make the Djinn Lock, but he misplayed and didn't, and he realized this afterward. I still couldn't make the Djinn lock. We went for a few more turns, and I eventually overpowered him with multiple Trishula resolutions, thanks to Cycle. Game 2 he remained dominant for most of the game, and the 40 minute clock was almost up. I was judging the situation as he was continuing his turn, and I decided at this point to scoop and proceed to game 3. I didn't want to risk a potential draw, since I had to go X-2 to have a chance of making top 8. Anyway, I started, and I opened a set Shared Ride, without committing any other cards to the field for Trishula to banish. On his turn, he summoned Manju and I chained Shared Ride. He let me draw a few cards that turn, and wasn't able to deplete my life points. On my next turn, I finish him with Trishula, Unicore, Valkyrus and Kycoo.

4-2

Unfortunately, I did not make Top 8, but I was comforted in the fact I only lost 2 games out of 12. I probably would've made Top 8 if I didn't forfeit my win during round 5; I do have that much confidence in myself... Anyway, here's the decklist I came up with:

3 Brionac

3 Unicore

3 Valkryus

1 Clausolas

1 Gungnir

1 Trishula

1 Decisive Armor

3 Manju

3 Senju

2 Shurit

1 Dance Princess

1 Djinn Releaser

 

3 MST

3 Preparation or Rites

2 Cycle

2 Kaleidoscope

2 Mirror

2 Book of Eclipse

1 Book of Moon

1 Raigeki

1 Dark Hole

Before the event, I obtained my 3rd Valkyrus and took out a 2nd Clausolas for it. I didn't regret playing 3 Valkyrus, but I did regret playing only 1 Clausolas. Against Burning Abyss, I know I would've won Game 1 if I had another Clausolas in my deck. There were other opportunities where my victory would've been simpler if I had the second Clausolas.

After much deduction, Dance Princess seemed to put in the least work today. Honestly, something has to be cut for a 2nd Clausolas. I feel it would've made the deck as perfect as possible.

Let me know what you guys think. My next post will likely explore the deeper roots of why I forfeited a win today. My goal today was to win the entire OTS, yet I forfeited a win for someone else, even though I knew it would potentially be a useless sacrifice, which it was...

Until then, thanks for reading!

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!