Questioning Konami's Card Design

-What is this Knife of Stone?

Or Inzecter Damsel? Or Master Hyperion? Or Grapha, Dragon God of the Dark World? I'm sure there have been times we are thinking WTF is wrong with the Konami design team. And today I'm gonna express my views on some of the most scrutinized cards in the game.

Inzecter Damsel: You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise this card is a problem, at 1000ATK it is as hard to stop as a Trunade, which is banned for that very reason. Even without Hornet this card can abuse Mantis and Gulf to net pluses. An engine on its own, the consistentcy and potential of it must be nerfed.

Card Car D: Pot of Greed is banned for a reason, and the only reason this isn't is cos of all its restrictions. Giving rogue decks a boost is one thing, giving Tier decks more consistentcy is another. The only things the restrictions do is define which decks can play it and which decks can't. Bad design is bad.

Master Hyperion: Everyone knows I hate Agents, and this is why. At 2700, beaters with good effects never looked so free. Hyperion comes out way too easily and gives the Agent player way too many options. The typical opening of Earth -> Venus, Pot -> Hyperion is already enough to force players is olay conservatively. It isn't banworthy per say, but the design can seriously be improved, such as lower ATK.

Grapha, Dragon God of the Dark World: On the topic of free 2700 beaters, Grapha has taken alot of flak for being a recurring one. Able to utilise field clearance whilst losing a minimal, Grapha is truly a force to be reckoned with. However, what many fail to realise is that with Grapha, the Dark World playstyle has already been defined, that is to pitch Grapha and revive him. This isn't hard to stop as compared to the variations that Agents can do, hence I belive Grapha is balanced in every regard.

Snoww, Magician of the Dark World: HOWEVER, the real reason Dark World can win probably lies in this card. Snoww gives the deck much needed consistentcy and also serves as a backup beater. Recurring toolboxes are still a problem though, as Snoww searches any Dark World card, including itself. If the basic set up of Gate is not stopped in time, Snoww could potentially rip 6 cards out of the deck by herself, a feat that no other toolbox can do.

Glow-up Bulb: I think I speak for all Junkdo players who have truly abused this onion time and time again that Bulb is indeed, banworthy. A +1 that can be used to garner more +1s with Formula and such, Glow-up Bulb is too splashable to remain in the game.

Tour Guide of the Underworld: A +1 anyway you look at it, with a potential +1 after that, Tour Guide is really a pain. However, with the exception of Sangan, there really isn't any more targets which could truly prove to be a problem. Still, a free Rank 3 is not cool and Tour Guide's reign has to be cut short, one per deck would be fair.

Wind-Up Rat: Did they not see the ridiculous loop that they had made? The card attempts to balance itself by allowing Rats to call Rats in DEF, but it doesn't take a genius to see that when put with Zenmaighty this card was dumb. Zenmaighty just wanted to give Wind-Ups some playablility, but Rat defined the way Wind-Ups were played.

True Six Samurai - Shi'en: I'm bashing on my own card! In Post March'11, Six Samurai was still dominating despite Gateway's limit, largely due to the fact that a double Shi'en board was easy to build, and difficult to break. I myself have never lost on a double Shi'en. Now that it is Limited, and Veilers are everywhere, too much emphasis to keep the Shi'en alive can lead to a less experienced Six Sam player's downfall.

Dark Dive Bomber: The first Synchro to be banned, DDB defined a format by itself, games were won and lost by this Machine too often. It looks ok to the average player, but put in the hands of a pro, and the monstrousity of this chunk of cardboard can be seen even before it hits the field. Fucking bad design.

Evolkaiser Ragia / Rescue Rabbit: Both cards are not bad design IMO, Ragia is one use only anyway. The reason they win so much in the TCG, is cos of TGU, which was already discussed above.

That's all I have for now. Lalalala.......

Oh ya, I think the new Knight of the End for WATER mobs, is SICKKKKKK!!

OMG PEOPLE

I dunno if anyone else noticed.

BUT THE MIGHTY BOO KOO HAS BEEN REPRINTED.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Tournament_Pack_2012_Vol.1

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY BOO KOO!

On a more serious note, the reprint of of Gaia Plate makes it Asia legal and really some Skill Drain bullshit might make the deck actually playable. Or Dark Fusion into Dark Gaia with Malicious Edge. With new Rock support the possibility can't be overlooked.

Coping with Stress in games

-Steady! Steady! Steady!


Before I start I just wanted to credit WDF, Odin Thor Loki Iron Man, in particular, that there is truly no limit to human stupidity. His article is a clear attack on my theory that people play to win in this game and the room for fun and enjoyment is largely occupied by people's desire to win. I dunno about you but I find burning $8 a week to have fun an extremely dumb way to spend your money in any currency. So fuck you, KFC. Speaking of arrogance, I don't recall flaunting my Lavalval Chain in front of anyone but my close friends. Hope that rings a bell, hypocrite.


Anyway, let's dwell into today's topic of stress. Very often, we find ourselves in a tournament situation shaking, though I only credit 50% of that to poor air conditioning. This is usually the case in matches to decide the Tops, or when time is called and both player's LP are extremely close. In these situations, it is often the player with the clearer head that emerges victorious.

For me personally, I usually start shaking in my first match of every tournament, be it Single Eli or Swiss. Because in both cases losing the first round is BAD. Everyone knows in Swiss the first round is the most important round as you will be facing people with 1win in round 2 hence your tiebreaker will be better if you win and not as bad if you lose. As compared to a second round 0win, the chances of going up is almost out of your hands and you will have to rely on the tiebreakers of your opponents to pull you up. For those who do not understand the Swiss system, refer to the following link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_system


Next on to the topic of tilt. Tilt is when a player is put in a situation where he'll be so stressed he'll end up doing shit he normally wouldn't do. One example is often seen in Game 2s of these decisive matches. Very often the player a game down would tend to throw everything he has and win ASAP. Likewise, a less mentally composed player could end up throwing the game because he went to aggressive in game 2 despite winning game 1. 


One must realise that losing games because of bullshit like that is a problem in their game and has to be eradicated. Many a time I see people trying so hard to win or not to lose even in casual play that the shit they do is a clear example of tilt, like throwing a whole board only to get Gorz-ed halfway or Storming 5 backrow and getting SLR-ed. These are poorly timed, poorly executed plays as Gorz and Road are both easy cards to read.


To overcome tilt, one must be mentally composed as mentioned above, but how do we actually go about doing it?


Well first and foremost, I believe the first step to overcoming tilt is to familiarise yourself in a tournament setting. Many non tourney go-ers don't know about how playing in a tournament is like. It is different from your casual games, because every there will be playing to win, and everyone there will look better than you. I'm sure there are those of us who go think someone's way of shuffling is cool, way of drawing is cool, way of hand shuffling is cool and all that fanboy jazz. This can prove intimidating cos you think you don't shuffle cool enough, or draw cool enough or hand shuffle cool enough and all that bullshit which I thought when I was newb. This is the first step to losing your composure, by telling yourself you are not good enough.


Building on that, the status of the opponent should never faze you. This will only lead you to make extra conservative plays cos all his backrow must be real. Similarly, never get too overconfident, as 1 backrow is still backrow. But this is easier said than done, considering I am occasionally guilty of both.


Lastly, improve your thinking speed. This is the only thing I can say that every player can do, the above two may not be as easy for some people because of different personalities, or lack of confidence to take part, but this is a technical point that some people are born with, some people lack, but all can improve in. Very often we do stupid shit in games because we did not evaluate the situation carefully. Of course, you can't take 10mins to do that so what we have to do is improve out thinking speed to prevent going into time with a deficit or whatnot. 


Of course, all this is not foolproof and if your mind goes blank in stress situations there's very little I can say to you but to get something for all that anxiety. This is also why many top players advise younger players to get enough sleep before big tournaments. Lack of rest results in blank minds.


Stress is all part of a competitive game like YGO, no one likes losing, and stress leads some people try too hard not to lose. What matters is how to combat it effectively, and make it close to a null factor in all your games.

Marymount Tourney Report 25/5/12

-Better than nothing though. Can we get up to it?

Number of participants:

Deck used: Ascestism Six Samurai

Round 1 vs Jon (Dark World) XOO
Game 1 - He sets one and ends, I didn't attempt to first turn Shi'en since I dunno what he playing. He ends up Card D-ing me next turn so I lose LOL.
Game 2 - I open Shi'en with protection so I win.
Game 3 - I open Beast, and Night Shot his Skill Drain. And Compulse his Trance Daemon. That's basically all I did.

Round 2 vs Amo (Laval) XOO
Game 1 - He threw his whole hand to open Stanon. I threw abit back to get rid of it. He Rekindling twice after te first got Warning and I was fucked by a Gemknight Parl RAWR.
Game 2 - He opens poorly, after his Raiou goes I Reborn it to stop his Pot and any big play, drop Maxx "C" on his Rekindling, and he SPs 3 times to get his Black Rose out, Mind Crushing after that to call Smoke Signal, which missed. This left him almost naked and I went it right after.
Game 3 - He drew alot of Spell and I made Beast.

Round 3 vs Da Tou (HERO Beat) OO
Game 1 - He drew no monsters so jus beat. Nv show me what deck he play. Zzzz....
Game 2 - When kinda back and forth till he try to Spark my Shi'en which I divert with my Kagemusha. He then Compulse when I going for final blow and I negate LOL.

Round 4 vs Daniel (HERO Beat) ???
I let him win cos he got people to pull.

Swiss Ranking: 3rd I think
Proceed to Top 8

Top 8 vs Amo (Laval) OO
Game 1 - I start first this time and I heard first turn Shi'en is good.
Game 2 - He drew very badly having to Thunder Break my GM to keep his Raiou alive which still died after I Ascestism on Kizan. I make Brio about Turn 4 hoping no Veiler Gorz or Trago and really don't have any.

Top 4 vs William (HERO Beat) XOO
Game 1 - I go second and I heard that drawing jank is bad. You know you're fucked when you set Kageki.
Game 2 - I open Shi'en with protection and I heard that was good.
Game 3 - He gets Stormed 3 cards but chains Spark and HERO Blast to it to minimise loses so in the end is jus a MST. I make Shi'en and hold it and he jumps Trago but it attacks into my DP and I jus beat already.

Top 2 vs Calvin (Arrive HERO) OXX
Game 1 - I opened Shi'en and Maga his Storm and let MST pass, negate Future he HERO Arrive and I'm like this is bad, but he has no Miracle so I next turn Normal Enishi to bounce his Parl who attacked my Kizan and swing for game.
Game 2 - Drawing bullshit is bad when your opponent wants to kill you.
Game 3 - Made a Turn 2 Beast but made a mistake in attacking into Gorz and lose from there. He told me his hand was 5 Spell plus Gorz, maybe should have waited.

Result: 2nd
Prize: Atum

Actually I seriously considered taking the Miracle Contact cos I heard that someone bought it for $50 but personally after much thought I think that's ridiculous. Glad to get 2nd as my initial aim was only Top 4, but abit sian couldn't win my 2nd Chain.... Still quite pleased with today's performance and really the side deck is so damn dog cos SG meta is so diverse but when half the Top 8 is HERO, I think my Puppet Plants are staying. Really regret siding the 2nd Chain D though I'm pretty sure I'm taking it out.

Six Samurai engine is so damn big is annoying I wish they would just ban Gateway so I can take it out same reason they should ban Reborn. Anyway, for those looking for Six Samurai stuff, my advice is to wait for Kizan reprint in TCG deck cos foil Kizans always CLUMP. There hasn't been a day that my Kizans haven't clumped and that is FUCKING annoying, CLUMPED KIZANS AND A ZANJI OMG. I would play common Kizans if they existed in Jap. Stop CLUMPING.

BTW, anyone who hasn't read LFN's new post on Konami's reasoning for the banlist, should go have a look. It's a great read, and while I don't hate the banlist as much as before, I think that they are being full of shit.

The Deck

- In our world, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.

Well I've decided to begin every article with a quote from Eustace Scrubb of the Chronicles of Narnia. The article will be somewhat related to what Eustace says.

The reply given to Eustace was that in even in his world, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of. Likewise, so is a player's deck.

To any layman who has never touched a TCG, a deck is simply a pile of cards, put together to win locals, nationals and all that jazz. However, seasoned players will tell you differently.

A deck is a projection of a player's mentality, vision, and ability. It is easy to jumble 40 cards together, but difficult to make them actually work. An example I can take is back in the Junk Doppel days, both me and Wesley ran EXTREMELY DIFFERENT builds yet both builds were able to give us the desired results.

Netdecking is not wrong, complaining about a netdeck is, saying shit like how the fuck did he win YCS with this jank is an insult to the player and not the deck. He chose to put these 40 cards together in this way, by questioning it you are questioning his ability so what right do you have to netdeck him. Ofc, when looking at your average champion decklist, there are bound to be points that you disagree with. If there are, change them on the spot. For example, I don't side Macro in my Six Sams cos it constricts the United. So everytime I see Macro in the side I will not even bother to look at it when trying to find inspiration for side decking. Does this make Macro bad in Sams? Er.... To me, yes. To the majority of Sams players in the world, no.

I don't believe in the whole heart of the cards shit, so I will choose to play stuff that increase the probability of drawing stuff to shift the game in my favour. On the other hand, my shinjitae polar opposite would rather have more big plays present in his deck, and all he needs to do is believe which he is already very good at.

A good example would be in Bottomless Trap Hole. I know Bottomless will help in disruption as well as mantaining board control. It can also be the shittest top deck in the world. Being a more careful player, one may think that playing one copy would balance out the pros and cons, or none as the cons outweigh the pros.

The deck is a sacred object and is supposed to be unique to every player, make sure you don't ever play stuff just cos the pros played it, or someone told you to, but because you really like it and is comfortable with it. The deck should be a representation of you and no one else.

WATER boost

Met a foreign TCG player today and realised how lucky we are to be playing in the OCG, the game is not so money based and we have less to worry about such as the threat of Tour Guide and Tengus durh. Card Car D and Zenmaines, stuff that some of them struggle to get, are also easily available to us.

Anyway, appreciate the OCG, not everyone is as lucky to own a Gold Zenmaine for like 1/20 of the price of a Secret one.

That said, more craps from the upcoming SD23 has made me more excited and almost certain to play it after release.

Dragon Rider is a good card that combos well with Sniper. However it is slightly harder to trigger its recruiter effect as not many things can force it into Grave, the only ones I can think of off the bat are Brio and Gungnir. Though allowing Sniper to attack directly is good enough as it can transition into a Rank 3 or 4 play easily.

Roar of the Sea Dragon makes Treeborn Frog obselete in the deck. I initially wanted a Swap Frog engine in it with Veilers, but looking at it now that seems totally unecessary. Will have to wait and see though, won't be easy feeding 3 mobs in anyway. Could prove cloggy.

The new Mermail archetype is a fucking rip off off Bermuda Triangle, seriously, mermaids that are good? This will get a whole bunch of skillless noobs into the game who just wanna look at boobs. I mean, I like the design of the archetype but the ART!!! Why can't we have something more macho, more masculine, mermaids? I'm not sexist or anything, jus don't like the idea they are jumping on the Bushiroad bandwagon and now we gonna have otakus running some of the best design Konami has made in a long while.

All that out of the way, the WATER archetype does look to be semi competitve, and could be able to fight for a berth in Tier 1. I believe that DARK has been given too much support and LIGHT has Lightlord and FIRE has Laval, so potentially the huge boost will push WATER decks in general to actually have a Tier. Still in desperate need of testing though. Anyone saying Poseidra is bad though is mad. Or noob. Or both.

Updated

Long overdue update on the blog has been done, I've added many more blogs to the blog list, please do check out Putra Noob YGO cos is Putra and Keith's blog as well.

I have decided to implement the comment moderation to stop haters from hating, does not mean if you disagree with what I say it won't be approved but if you choose to talk garbage LOL joke's on you. Many other blogs are doing this anyway so I don't see why not.

Also, planning to create a Twitter account in the near future. Don't know why could be cause all the girls in my class tell me to.

As for the WCQ analysis shit that everyone else is doing, Inzecter damnit, jus play them and win. 

Exposing the cheat

http://sg-ygo.userboard.net/t9617-tournament-on-13-may-sunday

It's also heartening to hear a Singapore judge say he doesn't give two fucks about people cheating as long as he can catch them.

Call me a hypocrite with my ASK THE JUDGE post, I hav caught two cheaters whilst judging without being informed by the players. While we don't have to do anything if nothing is being put forward, judges should not have a "cheating is fine as long as we can catch them" attitude. EDIT: Though I firmly believe most of the judges in Singapore aren't like that.

I don't give a rat's ass that I lost, cos I know I won. I'm ticked off because of the "oh he cheat, you never say anything" treatment I'm receiving. That's not even the point. I've done what I meant to do and now the everyone who reads the forum will know that Sam Kee is a cheat.

Pfft, and I thought cheating was only done by kids at Yew Tee who still lose regardless. Maybe Sam shared the World Champ title with Ogawa.

Marymount Tourney Report (13/5/12)

Deck used : Ascestism Six Samurai

Number of participants : 22

Format : 4 round cut Top 8

Round 1 vs Ernest (Hiero) XOX
Game 1 - Alot of of back and forth stalling at the start but the moment he Solemn one of my disruption cards (can't remember what) I got a Dragon field vommited on me. Made a mistake setting the Kageki making his Tfeni live. Pretty fucked after that. Earlier on I had tried to Yaichi the Solemn but got Veiler WTF.
Game 2 - Got some decent control board up and won. Gateway and Volca had to put in some work after I misread his Trago as Gorz.
Game 3 - He Pot for MST, set two end.
I MST the MST, got United Gateway, got Torrential-ed which I expected, drew shit with the United (RotA plus Kageki) and ended with no backrow. He has OTK next turn.

Round 2 vs Clarence (HERO Beat)
XOO
Game 1 - Forced Solemn with Storm, he procedes to Torrential my Kageki Yaichi, and I got beat by an Alius after that.
Game 2 - Can't remember.
Game 3 - He obviously opened with crap, and after taking a hit summons Alius with one backrow, I Night Shot it, turns out to be Poly, and Puppet Plant-ed him. LOL.

Round 3 vs Baha (Arrive HERO)
Game 1 - He drew crap, apparently alot of monsters, I Warning the HERO Arrive, he set two end, I MST one next turn Yaichi the other. He's a 4000 so just hit with GM and powered up Kizan.
Game 2 - He opens less crappy and makes an Excalibur a turn after potting Miracle. I had a Puppet Plant but no way to get rid of whatever I took and he proceeds to skim through my backrow of Compulse and BTH, before flying out with a Shining.
Game 3 - I open okok, and so does he, but I manage to make a Beast on turn 3 and he summons Airman, which got Warning, then he set all E-Call and I was about to negate when he was like WTF and show me all Spell. LOL.

Round 4 vs Sam (Tour Guide Inzecter)
XOX
Game 1 - He takes this quite easily as I can't establish any sort of control.
Game 2 - I open with some god like Shi'en Enishi D.D Crow Crack into D.D bullshit which equals Inzecters die.
Game 3 - Some voodoo allows him to equip Gruf after I Transmigrate the Hornet and I got herped on and lose.

Congrats to Wesley and Pohseng for Top 8, and Wesley for taking the whole thing with his Inzecters. Actually I only care cos me Pohseng and YingJun got free dinner after he won LOL.

Epic moment when Sam realised his deck no more Inzecter as he tried to Gruf out a Volca with his Damsel. LOOOOOOL!

I paid $12 for a $14 steak, that's not such a bad loss. Puppet Plant is good, true story.

Over/Undercommitting Part 2 & DE01/02

While overcommitting is commonly heard, undercommitting is has a much lower profile than its counterpart. It is equally dangerous, as most players can tell if they have overcommitted, but rarely know if they undercommitted without finding out their opponent's set cards.

Furthurmore, with farming cards like Card Car D now, and OTK boards from both Hiero and Zecter easy to come by, giving your opponent one turn to live could be devastating.

The player going second tends to undercommit against a heavy backrow when faced without removal. While this is good, often the player finds himself not willing to commit to plays that can be stopped by multiple cards. As this carries on in the game, the player will eventually end up losing whilst doing nothing.

Not going into a heavy backrow without removal is common sense. However, this usually means you opened an extemsly agressive hand. In that way, you could invest a couple of turns tops to pull that Storm, after that, just commit. For the simple logic that if you don't, you're going to lose anyway.

Another time undercommitting is seen, is when the OTK board presents itself, against a deck like Hiero or Zecter and their backrow is a couple of cards, and their first Torrential is in, you should jus go for it. Even if there is a Torrential, the Hiero guy would hav jus killed you anyway, and the Zecter guy wouldn't lose much if he Torrential-ed after coming out a Damsel Centipede.

Lastly, when opening with a backrow hand in decks like Rabbit, jus set them all. Even if you get Stormed only two cards, you effectively lost two cards and a turn, putting you in a severe deficeit anyway. Setting 5 when your opponent knows what you are playing will show them that you are confident the backrow will stay. And they'll all be wary of Starlight Road.

And DE01/02 is out!!
For a box of only 12 boosters there are 6 foils that's a damn high ratio! I've opened more foils there than I have in my life. Anyway some cool foils in there:
Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
D-HERO Bloo-D
Dark Armed Dragon
Super Polymerisation
Future Fusion
E-HERO Neos Alius

And with many foils and reprints like RARE Dark Mirrors and Electric Viruses I think it's kinda cool.

Over/Undercommitting Part 1

Very often we see players, both good and bad, losing games due to overcommitting and undercommitting. Every single one of us is guilty of this some time or the other.

Overcommiting is common amongst the newer players, few of them understand card advantage. However, amongst the experienced ones, cases of overcommitting have looked much more drastic, to the extent that they lose their whole hand. I have been guilty of losing to pro Storms often due to my tendency to set every that can be set. Others have went on to try to OTK, only to meet a Torrential after exhausting all their resources.

To prevent overcommitting, there are some measures that can be taken. First and foremost, BLAME THE DECK. No joke, it could be because the deck lacks protection from mass clearance such as Storm or Dark Hole. Well after doing that blame yourself for not putting it in LOL.

The second thing requires alot of practice and natural sharpness. BE AWARE. Know everything that can stop you. This includes the typical Compulse and Book of Moon (especially after Trap Stun) and also the techs of Mirror Force, Demon's Chain, Raigeki Break etc. After doing so, measure the odds of the possibility of one of these occuring, based on your opponent's previous plays and body language.

Lastly, although this is abit cheating, remember what your opponent's foils are. In theory, it's not your fault that your opponent chose to tell you what foils he had, it's not as if you can tell yourself you dunno if they foil or not. This will help predict big cards like Solemn Judgment and Bottomless Trap Hole.

Last but not least, ensure when going for these big ballsy plays that they will kill and not leave him with 100LP. No use everything pass to get murdered by a Dark Hole. Bad math have caused many a player to lose games totally in their control.

That's it for overcommitting, next time will be on undercommiting and WCQ.

Gadgets

There has never been a better time to play Gadget. They are affordable, basic in concept and reward skill in both deck build (aggro or control) and timing your traps and pushes well.

Geargianto X has really proven its worth quickly, adding so much advantage to the deck you'll be hard pressed not to use it. Really it has been this solo card that has allowed Gadget to climb the ranks to a pseudo Tier 1 status now.

After that surprise win by the Gadget deck in a big player tournament, many players have taken a sudden interest in Gadgets. Personally, I prefer the 3rd place build myself, but there is a reason why the guy won 1st, and that is the deck's aggression, simply put, it could pull off one turn big plays like Hiero WITH FEWER CARDS, whilst not totally resigned to Car farming and waiting when they can't. Inzecters also usually don't respond well to bug damage dropped on them, and considering they plus all the way, the Hornet plays won't make them lose that much.

There's still one thing I don't like about the decklists though, it's all those Thunder Breaks, even with all the advantage, Gadgets are still -1 off Break, unlike Inzecter and sometimes Hiero, unless you throwing Fortress, which is kinda a loss too.

The best part of the deck IMO though, is being able to run 3 Compulse, and anyone not doing so should start. Compulse too gay.

While all this cool, I'm not gonna be running Gadgets, cos I sold most of my stuff lol wth. Damn.