The use of 2 Tragoedias

I was using Chaos Lightlord facing off the shopkeeper's Arcana deck in WC2011. I did not get out any boss monsters and my hand and field was getting wiped out and I had a lumina left with Arkus, card trooper and Tragoedia in hand. She got 3 Arcana monsters on the field and use them to summon the Arcana boss monster, level 10 with 4000 attack.

She attacked with it and destroyed my lumina and I summoned Tragoedia. Next turn, I draw my other Tragoedia... :D

I wanted to save the replay but was too used to skipping the replay save option that I missed it!

Synchro Cat, Dark Leeroy Challenge and Flamvell Monarch

I was checking out the Official Synchro Cat Thread at Pojo and come across 2 European duelist's names, Michel Grüner and Claudio Kirchmair, who were both running Synchro Cat (or Cat Synchro, whichever you want to call it) in the Dark Leeroy Challenge Tournament which recently took place at Paris. Surprisely, Blackwings and Synchro Cat topped. A breakdown of the top 16 deck can be found here over at strategyjam.blogspot:

http://strategyjam.blogspot.com/2010/03/dark-leeroy-challenge-top-16-decklists.html

The link to the deck list from that blog post leads to a forum which requires registration but I manage to find an alternative at a Peru forum, Yugioh DuelPeru, posted by francisco96:

http://oficialyugiohperu.foroactivo.net/reportes-torneos-internacionales-f14/paris-dark-leeroy-challenge-t685.htm

I hope I did not get any of the names wrong, I do apologize if I did. The top 2 Blackwings featured 2 Rykos, something which CapitalG mentioned over at the Pojo official Blackwings thread. Rykos make good opening plays for Blackwings. A quick look at the top 2 Synchro Cat and they are both using Hamster and Gravekeepers engine. I tried Flamvell Cat before in a video game but I did not like it... which brings me to another Flamvell deck. (Not Flamvell Lightsworn found at the Dark Leeroy Challenge)

I was checking out Dale Bellido's youtube channel and found his Flamvell Monarch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fwGIJ--quA

Interesting Flamvell Variant but if I run it, I might try cutting the Rekindling and Pot of Avarice so the deck becomes 40 and less possibilities of dead cards early in the game as there are also 3 Caius in the deck. I normally see Pot of Avarice used in ones for Monarch decks. I will test it out in the video game first!

In a Match against Lightsworn:

Game 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJC0C30-Am0

Game 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYSomjSIhHk

Game 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwj--cEJLFE

Flamvell Magician is released in Tournament Pack Vol. 13 as a normal parallel rare! This means Flamvell decks will be seen in Konami OCG Qualifiers tournament! (Don't quote me on this, please check it out if you are entering the tournament)

Updates: Tried Flamvell Monarchs in a video game and it went ok. I even used 2 Rekindling and 2 Pot of Avarice. I have to add that drawing into 2 Flamvell Magicians in the early game is bad too.

My WC2010 Early Game Deck Guide

I've played until the turf battles and thought I share the deck used so far. It has evolved from the starter deck into a Tuner Beat Deck. Rauzes has posted a deck of that sort in his now defunct The Gaijin Duelist blog, based on Road/Hyper Synchron or Trap Eater/Gale with Battle Tuned card.

I build mine in the game based on card availability as the Starter Deck given is not very strong. I spent most of the DP on the DT packs and the best monsters you can get are Synchros like Brionac, Mist Wurm, AOJ Catastor and Goyo Guardian as well as tuners like Mist Valley Soldier and X-Saber Airbellum. Mist Valley Soldier also works well with the Icarus Attack which I recommend transferring over to the main from sidedeck. When your tuners are all 3-4 stars, you need to use weenies that can survive and the starter deck's Nimble Momonga does the job well. Powered Tuner given in the starter deck also works with so many tuners available.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Duel_Terminal_-_Synchro_Awakening!!

Notable cards: Cyber Dragon, X-Saber Airbellum, Mist Valley Soldier, Brionac, Mist Wurm, X-Saber Urbellum, AOJ Catastor and Dust Tornado

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Duel_Terminal_-_Invasion_of_Worms!!

Notable cards: Goyo Guardian and MST

Remember to check for the cards available in the packs before buying as the follow their real world counterpart namesake. I recommend buying half a box each time to see if you already get the cards you require. For spell and trap staples, I get them one of the Structure Deck (SD). Zombie Madness makes a good choice for that lone SD you can buy before completing the game as it contains a good number of staples like Heavy Storm and Torrential Tribute. Check the in-game recipe viewer and you will see the cards available in SDs.

Another tip for the game is to talk to everyone you see at least once like RPG games because some Non-Playable Character (NPC) give useful tips and hints. Move to all corners of the area and look out for yellow arrows showing that some objects that can be checked for treasure. I'll update again when my deck evolves again and I think it should be to Lightsworns when Light of Destruction is unlocked later in story mode!

Updates: I manage to defeat Peko, a girl in Satellite, consecutively 3 times in Structure Deck duels (used Spellcaster's Judgement, Warrior's Triumph and Zombie Madness) to unlock Absolute Powerforce. After buying 1 and a half box of those packs, I manage to form an X-Saber Beat Deck, the second deck after Tuner Beat, with the Saber Holes and Garsem and the DT X-Saber monsters. Unfortunately, I could not get a single Hyunlei.

"The State of the Metagame" articles and my comments

I came across this 2 articles by LIGHTNINGBLITZ over at the tcgplayer.com blogs and will like to share them with everyone:

Part 1: http://forum.tcgplayer.com/blog.php?b=2082

Part 2: http://forum.tcgplayer.com/blog.php?b=2097

It talks about most of the current decks and card choices in the new March 2010 banlist not, including Infernity. I agree with most of what is written (especially about the lightsworns) except the Rescue Cat decks. I don't really agree that Kitty Synchro is Tier 1 as the Rescue Cat engine is only 1 of Summon Priest and 1 of Rescue Cat. Limited cards are extremely hard to draw into now, Blackwings players will most probably notice now regarding Allure. I may try the Flamvell variant of Synchro Cat if possible to see if it is true.

Updates: I tried out Flamvell Cat in a video game. It is nice to be able to easily get out a Colossal Fighter and/or Stardust Dragon. However, drawing 2 Pot of Avarice and 2 Rekindling early game leads to bad hands and there is only one Summon Priest to dump them in early games, provided you draw him too. I think 3 Flamvell Dogs (Flamvell's Shura!) and 2 Flamvell Magicians works better than using 3 each.

Using Flamvell, it seems to be the main engine and not the Cat engine. The synergy between Flamvell and Cat will be Rykos can help to mill Flamvells to the grave and the Magicians also can be summoned by Summon Priest, escaping Bottomless, to go for Stardust. I still think GB, BW and Gadgets will be more consistent. Flamvell Magicians are DT cards so you will not be seeing this deck in OCG Konami Tournaments.

Infernity Deck Video, Infernity strategy and updates on some decks

I recently came across videos of Infernity vs Blackwings in oyatunozikann's youtube channel, courtesy of Zack Legacy's blogpost:

http://zacklegacy.blogspot.com/2010/03/good-match-between-infernity-and-bf.html

They are all interesting battles and if you navigate to the youtube channel, you will see 1 more latest Infernity-Blackwings battle for a total of 4. However, the newest one has some cuts in between the duel, making the video incoherent. Nevertheless, there are loads of Yugioh Duel videos, mostly Blackwings I think:

http://www.youtube.com/user/oyatunozikann

The most interesting video I wanted to point out is this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4SkkyXPHwM

There were no Infernity Demon/Archfiend used in that duel! (The player had them in other games but just did not draw into them this time.) There is hope for budget Infernity players! The game was played at a slow pace and the Infernity player still managed to swarm the field. I think Heavy Storm was the turning point of the match. If he had Infernity Revenger summoned during that swarming session, he would be able to go for the Colossal Fighter loop as the Blackwing player had a Sirocco on the field. Refer to this alternate version of Infernity OTK:

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Infernity_OTK

I have another idea on how to play Infernities, other than the OTK versions which we usually see - play it card for card destruction so that both players are down to zero hands. Similar to Gadgets in simplifying the game but instead of holding on to card advantage we try to make both players lose cards to an equal state of handless and resort to top decking. This play style will be slower, controlled and more defensive and the deck will less likely be stopped by Battle Fader/D.D. Crows. This is just an idea and I have not tested yet.

Blackwings

Blackwing Gust and Breeze seems to have increase the synchro swarming ability of the deck, making the deck explosive.

Spore Lightsworns

The deck is tested to be working fine against Blackwings and GB.

Alchemic Fader

I've tested and sometimes the Battle Fader and Dimensional Alchemist does not draw out well: drawing Dimensional Alchemist without Faders or drawing Faders and no Alchemist.

Updates to the Chaos, Spore Lightsworns and GB decks

Chaos

I notice by the end of the post, the deck modification changed from Chaos to monarchs. I'm guessing Chaos won't be as viable with only one Chaos Sorcerer... but on second thoughts, 5 Monarchs are too much for a deck with no Treeborn Frogs/Level Eaters so I am sticking with the lone Chaos Sorcerer. The deck name should be called Alchemic Fader because of the 2 key card combo.

Here are 2 nice reads on Battle Fader by Michael Kohanim from the Konami Yugioh Blog:

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=1525#more-1525

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/articles/?p=1545#more-1545

Spore Lightsworns

I did not always get to use Brain Control to steal monsters and synchro but it did help in matches nevertheless. One for One was not very useful as I usually draw them after or with the 2nd Spore.

- One for One

+ Lightning Vortex

Lightsworns are considerably slow now and losing Lumina and Charge seem to reduce the chances of milling. Spore will have a bigger impact if both were still around. It is now currently only effective during the late middle game or late game where most of your deck has been milled and thus both copies have a higher chance to be in the graveyard. I did manage to synchro a 8-star with Celestia, Ryko and Spore normal summoned.

GB

There is another GB "deck template" from SJC Nashville, by Travis Bibbs:

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1856#more-1856

It looks almost the same as See Huang Yeem's build except for the Dimensional Fissures. I wonder if they are teammates.

Lightsworn: Spore version

Whenever you see a card that comes with an effect that can only be used once in a duel, it is probably a card effect that can be very broken if left unchecked. The latest card from The Shinning Darkness, Spore is a plant tuner card that has a somewhat similar effect to Copy Plant but it works from the graveyard.

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Spore

I got the idea to use the card in Lightsworns from the 2nd place deck by a player, Jess:

http://sg-ygo.userboard.net/rick-shop-ngee-soon-cc-tournament-thread-f21/mar-6th-tournament-khatib-cc-mar-banlist-completed-t2788.htm#44888

His deck is a mix of Zombies, Lightsworns and Spore. I think any card that has effects activated from graveyard should deserve testing with Lightsworns. Notice the art of Spore, it looks like it is glowing in light...

Monsters (24)

2 Judgement Dragon

2 Honest

1 Necro Gardna

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Lumina

1 Ehren

2 Lyla

2 Garoth

2 Ryko

2 Wulf

2 Jain

2 Celestia

2 Aurkus

2 Spore

Spells (10)

1 Charge of the Light Brigade

1 Foolish Burial

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 One for One

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Brain Control

3 Solar Recharge

Traps (6)

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Threatening Roar/Bottomless Traphole

2 Beckoning Light

The deck is mainly modified from the previous Lightsworn deck I posted. Notable additions include One for One and Brain Control as well as Spore. The Threatening Roars are for Infernities. The threat is real. You should find Brain Control to be more consistent with 3 tuners in the deck now. Spore takes the place of the 2 'departed' Necro Gardnas and provide additional synchro abilities to Lightsworns. In this deck, Spore has the possibility of synchro-ing 4-8 stars when summoned onto the field and when there is 2 in the graveyard, it becomes a Plaguespreader Zombies without requiring a card from your hand.

There was once a time where Plaguespreader was unlimited and I think Lightsworn players use 3. Spore acts almost like another 2 Plaguespreaders now. I like this version name too because it looks and sounds like it is made in Singapore!

More of GB and Lightsworns for the next format

2 more decks from SJC Los Angeles: http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1527

See Huang Yeem GB

Unaffected by March Banlist and the 2 Fissure can be replaced with Smashing Ground. This is more OCG-like in my opinion, with the low monster count and 3 G. Proving Grounds. He also didn't attempt to replace the 2 Solemns.

Julian Wong Zombie/Lightsworn

Some of the choices are already close to the March Banlist. The 2 Charges can be replaced with 1 Foolish Burial and 1 Reinforcement of the Army (ROTA). The rest of the cards that require replacement: 1 Mezuki, 1 Burial from a D.D. , 1 Chaos Sorcerer and 1 Necro Gardna. This may be the way to go for both Zombies and Lightsworns next format. TCGPlayer.com has a good article on this hybrid, written by Kevin Cavanagh: http://yugioh.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=2393

Interestingly, both players above had a feature match in SJC Los Angeles: http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1475

Lightsworns for the next format

Monsters (22)

2 Judgement Dragon

2 Honest

1 Necro Gardna

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Lumina

1 Ehren

2 Lyla

2 Garoth

2 Ryko

2 Wulf

2 Jain

2 Celestia

2 Aurkus

Spells (12)

1 Charge of the Light Brigade

1 Foolish Burial

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Spirit Burner

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

3 Solar Recharge

3 Book of Moon

Traps (6)

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Bottomless Traphole

2 Beckoning Light

This pure build is not tested yet but Lightsworns should still be playable, they are just less explosive. 2 fewer Necro Gardnas means it is harder to tech that sole copy of Chaos Sorcerer unless you are going Twilight. I'm also not sure about D.D. Crow in the new format. (Useful against Vayu, Treeborn, Level Stealer and Lightsworns?)

I think Lightsworns will just become a Light Beatdown deck, protected by Aurkus and backed by Judgement Dragons. On a brighter note, lesser Necro Gardnas and Honest to clog up your hand...

Official March 2010 Banlist

Limited

- Mind Crush

- Lumina

- Necro Gardna

- Necroface

- Mezuki

- Tragoedia

- Chaos Sorcerer

- Charge of the Light Brigade

- Allure of Darkness

- D-Draw

- Burial from a Different Dimension

- Magical Explosion

- Foolish Burial

Semi-Limited

- Cyber Dragon

- Dandylion

- Treeborn Frog

- Honest

- Demise, King of Armageddon

- United We Stand

- Black Whirlwind

- Skill Drain

- Royal Oppression

- Royal Decree

Unrestricted

- Mask of Darkness

- Smashing Ground

Source: http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/6192267/

Oh well, the previous list I posted was only a few cards off. Judgement Dragon and Solar Recharge remains for Lightsworns. I think the Lumina and Necro Gardna hit is still too much for Lightsworns.

On another note, Dandylion to 2 will help to sell the new TCG Absolute Powerforce Special Edition.

Additional thoughts: Dimensional Eatos not only loses a Skill Drain, but also 2 competitive decks that depended on the graveyard heavily: Lightsworns and Zombies. Blackwings and GB (Gladiator Beasts) are hardly affected by being RFG. (Removed from game) GB can in fact use Guardian Eatos and Dimensional Fissure as well.

March Banlist 2010 - This looks like it!

Shriek.twoday.net usually posts it on 18 February for the Yugioh March Banlist. It comes out on the newest issue of V-Jump on 20 February but according to posts mentioned on the Pojo Boards, subscribers receive it around this few days.

There are many threads on banlist which are not real but I was looking out for post linking to Japanese blogs, as they will most likely provide the latest information. There was one Pojo thread that was deleted but fortunately I had the link to the blog in my history:

http://hikari0302.seesaa.net/article/141247177.html

No list here but a picture of the V-Jump along with details of the number of cards banned, limited, semi-limited or unrestricted. This was posted on 16 February midnight.

Right now (around 3pm), there is a latest post with a link to another blog which contains a list this time:

http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=808361 (I don't know if this will get taken down)

Blog post with Banlist: http://blog.livedoor.jp/mitsu713/archives/51636991.html

The number of cards match the numbers given in the first blog and blogged at 2:57PM. I think this looks like the list!

For those who are trying to translate, putting the words on those translating tools may return weird names that make it hard to guess the actual card. I suggest putting each word on google and checking the images returned or the searched link from yugioh-wiki.net/index.php which is usually the first few links. If you have the OCG card, you could check for the wording directly to be sure.

For your convenience (In the same order as it appears in that blog):

Limited

- Judgement Dragon

- Lumina

- Necro Gardna

- Necroface

- Mezuki

- Tragoedia

- Chaos Sorcerer

- Charge of the Light Brigade

- Allure of Darkness

- D-Draw

- Burial from a Different Dimension

- Magical Explosion

Semi-Limited

- Cyber Dragon

- Dandylion

- Treeborn Frog

- Honest

- Demise, King of Armageddon

- Solar Recharge

- Black Whirlwind

- Skill Drain

- Royal Oppression

- Royal Decree

Unrestricted

- Mask of Darkness

- Smashing Ground

I've been trying out Lightsworns with the previous list I posted below and I already found Lightsworns weakened. This list adds Lumina and Necro Gardna to the restriction and I am not sure if Lightsworns can be competitive now. Twilight versions loses 2 Tragoedia and 1 Chaos Sorcerer.

Blackwings lose an Allure and a Black Whirlwind but will gain more support in the upcoming Shinning Darkness set including Blackwing Treasure. Royal Oppressions are usually run in 2 so that semi-limitation does not affect much.

Gladiator Beasts do not gain much from this list: no semi-limited Bestiari or semi-limited Solemn Judgement. Smashing Ground is now at 3 but I think they will more likely be run at 2.

Zombies lose their 2nd Mezuki and I think the remaining card in the limited list is Burial from a Different Dimension. The previous format, Mezuki was at 1 and there were not much zombie decks around.

Dimensional Eatos deck lose a Skill Drain, Rituals deck gain another Demise (I think this is to support all the ritual cards released nowadays), Absolute Zero decks lose 2 D-Draws?, Monarch and Junk and Debris decks gain one more Treeborn Frog, a Cyber Dragon, a Dandylion.

That sums up most of the current meta's decks. Let's wait a few more days and we'll see the list from shriek soon.

UPDATE: The first blog above has been updated with a new post with the same list! The missing card is Burial from a Different Dimension.

http://hikari0302.seesaa.net/article/141328101.html

The card names here are even more accurate as the full name is given for each card. Googling their images give the card right away.

Lightsworn: Fade to Black

Nice read here, “CROWSWORN” – A YU-GI-OH! DECK REPORT BY ALLEN PENNINGTON which I saw over at the Irish Duelist's post: Allen Pennington: "Crowsworn". Allen's take on lightsworn is a twilight version that uses 2 D.D. Crows which double as "traps". This reminds me of Rauzes' Silk and Milk post: Latest Craze: Full Monster, where some monsters can actually serve as spells or traps. Lightsworns already have Necro Gardnas and Honest which fulfill those type of monsters.

I wanted to netdeck/build Allen's deck but I do not have any Gold Sarcophaguses so I decide to do away with Gorz and the 2 Gold Sarcos to replace them with 3 Battle Faders. This way the deck is OCG official tournament legal and they serve as "Threatening Roars" and also darks for Chaos Sorcerers if they get milled. I also intend to replace the Bottomless Trap Holes with Mirror Force as I think the deck needs cards other than Judgment Dragon to mass clear threats after dropping the Battle Faders. I will replace the other Bottomless for the third Beckoning Light, as the trap can be a powerful game-ender and 3 graveyard retrieval cards is better for lightsworns in my opinion.

For the sidedeck, I will have to replace the 4 cards in the list which I do not have: 2 Wabokus, My Body as Shield and Kycoo for 2 Threatening Roars and 2 Monster Reincarnations to go with Royal Decrees. I intend to replace Phantom Chaos for another Black Shiny "G" to keep the deck OCG official tournament legal. Black Shiny "G" are also another silk and milk type of card.

Monsters: 27
2 Judgment Dragon
2 Celestia, Lightsworn Angel
3 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
1 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
1 Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
2 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2 Wulf, Lightsworn Beast
3 Necro Gardna
3 Honest
2 Chaos Sorcerer
3 Battle Fader

2 D.D. Crow

Spells: 9
3 Charge of the Light Brigade
3 Solar Recharge
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 My Body as a Shield

Traps: 4
1 Mirror Force

3 Beckoning Light

Sidedeck: 15
2 Threatening Roar
2 Royal Decree
2 Dust Tornado
1 Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid
2 Lightning Vortex
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Shiny Black “G”
1 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Monster Reincarnation

After reading all the rumors about the upcoming March Banlist, I think Chaos Sorcerer might be put to 1 or 0 and Charge of the Light Brigade, to 2. I think the lightsworns should still be playable after March and the deck will have more space for other cards.

Credits to Allen Pennington for the original deck, Crowsworn.