Lucky Number 13?

I've been checking out shriek's tournaments and seeing all the decks. Agent Angels are aplenty. Offering Gadgets seems to be the best exceed deck and I've seen a few variants running Deep-sea Divas. I think Divas benefit from Gachi Gachi Gentetsu. It used to be pretty dead when you draw it with only a Diva left in the deck and no monsters in the field to synchro. The other exceed deck I noticed are Gravekeepers and Dark World.

I read in the comments that the TCG exclusive coming in Extra Pack 4 called Gravekeeper's Recruiter is going to boost the deck-type. Gravekeeper's Spy are excellent 4 Star Exceed summons. Perhaps Diva can splash into Gravekeepers but I've yet to see a version. Gravekeepers'(GK) key card, Royal Tribute is kinda like a Crush Card Virus and Recruiter will aid in getting Commandant to get Necrovalley, making Royal Tribute a live card.

As for Dark World (DW), the structure box cover already specifies Zexal which should signal the dawn of the XYZ age. However, most of the DW decks are using Demon God Raven as a tuner for synchros. Most of them also do not use Dark World Dealings and I guess it is in fear of mirror matches. The main point I brought up about this 2 decks is because of a particular player that runs both these decks.

Google for "site:shriek.twoday.net efu"

I noticed his deck in that search result list always pack 13 monsters only. I can understand for GK as it synergies well with Royal Tribute. I'm not too sure about DW and its mechanics and looking at the trap, I guess the point of the deck is to cycle through the deck and OTK with an Return from the Different Dimension? His decks also seem to focus on exceeds and I wonder if 13 monsters is a winning formula or his personal preference.

There are a couple of other decks that can work with 13 monsters that I can think of: offering gadgets, gladiator beasts and infernities. You will have to force yourself to choose 13 of the best themed monsters mixed with the most 1 splashed monster like Sangan. Be sure not to run Allures in the dark decks!

September is around a month away and the banlist is coming. Newcomers might want to stray building the current top tier decks as they might get hit and limited. In my opinion, DW should be safe as it has not dominated as much as Agent Angels going from the Nationals (It's not allowed in SG Nationals) and OCG tournaments but I keep my fingers crossed nevertheless!

Will you be running 13 monsters in your deck?

Update: I think it works because of 3 pots of duality. The 13 monsters can still act as reference as the base monsters.

Junk & Debris & Doppel... Tier 0?

This deck has been around for quite a while, since before I stopped playing. It's good to see it is going strong and has now evolved thanks to Doppelwarrior, Formula Synchron and TG Hyper Librarian. In fact, I think the deck should be called Doppel Librarian as those 2 are the key cards. I think Librarian should be banned while Doppel might get limited. The deck can still function without Librarian as you can see from the recent Singapore World Qualifiers 2011.

There is a prediction, by TeamPurplePanda, that it will top the Worlds. (Is the Librarian allowed?)

XYZ Offering Gadgets

I'm just starting to read up on XYZ (Exceeds). It replaces Synchro Summon in the new anime series. The XYZ cards are very cool, coming in a black border. Some of the popular ones that I'm seeing being used are Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, Number 39 Utopia, Steelswarm Roaches and Tiras, Keeper of Genesis. Agents can get out Gantetsu with the Mystical Shine Balls, Gadgets can get Utopia while Dark World can try for Tiras.

One of the most interesting deck based on it will be Gadgets. It gets another Boss Monster in the form of Utopia. Here's a deck from TeamPurplePanda. A useful tip given was that Gravity Bind can be used and XYZ are unaffected by it. One problem I foresee is that you might get hands clog with Gadgets and not draw into the Ultimate Offerings.

Japan Nationals 2011

Shriek.twoday.net link

Interesting... the report doesn't show all the decks but there is a lack of Agent Angels and Machina Gadgets.

Dark World Anaylsis

This deck is more recent and I actually liked it more than the Agents because I find that the cards have more synergy with each other and can mostly function well alone whereas the Agents have a couple of cards that require the Angel's field spell in order to have its second ability. The Dark World's field spell has a much better stand-alone effect compared to the Angel's field spell. Adding in the available powerful dark monsters, spells and traps and you have a very powerful deck. This is one of the few decks that can run Eradicator Epidemic Virus! Once you use it, you will be able to target with Mind Crush.

My Dark World staples (33)

Monsters (18)

3X Grapha, Dragon God of Dark World

3X Snow, Magician of Dark World

3X Broww, Huntsman of Dark World

3X Sillva, Warlord of Dark World

1X Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

1X DAD

1X Tragoedia

1X Sangan

1X Morphing Jar

1X Zephyros the Elite

Spells (11)

3X Dark World Dealings

3X Gate of Dark World

2X Dark World Lightning

1X Allure of Darkness

1X Card Destruction

1X Giant Trunade

Trap (4)

3X Eradicator Epidemic Virus

1X Mind Crush

There are only 7 slots left and you will want to fill them up with as many Banlist cards as possible:

Spells (7)

2X MST

1X Dark Hole

1X Monster Reborn

3X Pot of Duality

Giant Trunade and Zephyros are simply to bounce and reuse Gate of Dark World. This deck can also run Deck Destruction Virus and Skill Drain well. Unlike the Agents, there isn't much space for variation. Mike of Duelinglagacy.blogspot.com uses Breakers while the HK National Champion, Liu Hoi Ki ran Rykos and Charge of the Light Brigade.

Edit: Just saw how Rykos can be used in Dark World by the HK Champion. It fills up the Graveyard for to help fulfil Gate of Dark World's requirement of banishing monsters. Video of play courtesy of DuelistCodex.wordpress.com

Agent Analysis

I've been checking up on the 2 last Structure Decks with much interest. I'll start with the Agents in this post.

Agents staples (12)

3X Master Hyperion

2X Archlord Krystia

3X The Agent of Earth

3X Herald of Orange

1X Honest

Spells and Traps Staple (18)

Spells (9)

2X MST

1X Dark Hole

1X Monster Reborn

3X Pot of Duality

1X Giant Trunade

1X Mind Control

Traps (10)

1X Solemn Judgement

2X Solemn Warning

1X Mirror Force

1X Torrential Tribute

1X Royal Oppression

1X Call of the Haunted

2X Bottomless Traphole

with Venus Turbo Variant (10)

3X The Agent of Venus

3X Mystical Shine Ball

1X The Agent of Jupiter

3X Cards from the Sky

or with My Beatdown Variant (10)

3X The Agent of Jupiter

2X Zeradias, Herald of Heaven

2X Soul of Purity and Light

3X The Sanctuary in the Sky

or with My Lightlord Variant (10)

3X Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

2X Celestia, Lightsworn Angel

1X Charge of the Light Brigade

3X Cards from the Sky

I consider the top 2 list above to be the standard in my opinion. The following 3 variants are my suggestion and the Lightlord in particular may not work as it has quite a low monster count at 17.

Here's another version using the ritual monster, Herald of Perfection, ran by Luke Mattingly and he got into the Top 8. It's from the YCS Providence. Courtesy of horadoduelo.wordpress.com. One interesting comment in his video about the Venus version is that you might draw into the Shine Balls which aren't very helpful and I agree.

Back to Yugi

I'm been away from a very long time and recently came back to take a look at Yugioh. It seems like Machina Gadget decks are doing very well. It's a consistent beatdown deck and I've seen it a lot in the Singapore Qualifiers and is the 2011 South America Champion's deck.

It seems that the structure decks are getting more and more competitive, Agents and Dark World being the current and next powerful decks respectively. (I have no idea about Dragunity as when I browse through the recent shriek.twoday.net tournament decks, hardly seen that) I think this is good for newcomers as they can buy 3 to form quite a good deck to start off. Agents, however seem to require the mandatory 3 Pot of Duality/Greederosity though.

Most of the previous decks during my time seen to be no longer around, save for Blackwings. Infernities are more or less gone? Quite a number of them ran with 1 Sirroco in the OCG tournaments and I have no idea why. I guess Dark World are the new powerful Dark decks and Agents are the "lightlords". I've seen a rise in Six Samurai but am not interested in them so I didn't bother.

One of the other thing I checked was the latest Banlist, March 2011. Not much comments there except I was quite Kalut dropped to 1 (to match with Honest?) and Goyo was banned. I think Brionac will be more suitable over Goyo. There are also signs of Dandywarrior getting hit by losing Dandylions (duh) and Debris Dragon.

That's it from me about my views on the current state of Yugioh. I'll probably try to get my hands on the 2011 World Championship DS and stick to playing that for the time being.

Happy Dueling!

Edit: I saw that Machina Gadgets was mostly untouched by the banlist and Cold Wave and Heavy Storm being banned also helped.