SJC Edison Top 16 comments

SJC Edison has ended and the top 16 decks was actually surprising to me. There is only 1 Blackwings deck but there are 4 Lightsworns deck (including variants). GBs, Gadgets and Synchro Cat contributed 2 and there was 1 Flamvell Synchro and a Gravekeeper Burn deck. There were 3 Quickdraw Dandywarrior (Quick D) decks and the deck was the eventual winner. The Cat and Gadet decks in the 4 top decks that were not Quick D both used Doomcaliber Knights. I'm surprised consistent decks like Blackwings and Gadgets didn't make up a bigger number but those I considered slightly less consistent because of the use of Ryko to make up the bigger percentage of the top 16.

It appears I am wrong; Ryko is a very popular card now and even the loss of milling key spells and traps can be overcome in matches. I think perhaps the advantage generated by Quick D overcomes that problem better, hence they can rely on it for milling better than Lightsworns. Any deck using Ryko most likely also used Hamster, making Nobleman of Crossout good sidedeck choices now. I also didn't think Cat will be as good again but I may probably give it another go with a Rai-oh version of Billy Brake's Caliber Cat! The Cat decks now only use Airbellums and Ryko for Rescue Cat targets now.

All SJC articles, loads of Quick D matchups and reports:

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?cat=39

Jae Kim's blog article on SJC:

http://go-ygo.com/sjc-edison-recap-what-we-learned/

Favourite Match, Billy Brake's Caliber Cat VS Jeff Jones' winning Quick D:

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=2261

(Billy Brake commented that Jeff Jones' deck was the better one! Notable play was reviving an effect-negated Card Trooper with Debris and using the milling as a cost)

I think Quick D will get even better with Junk Destroyer. Another interesting fact of the deck is that it can only summon Dragon-type and Synchron-type Synchros with its tuner monsters! I wonder if this deck will remain top and cause Dandylion to return to limited status in the next banlist?

Chaos for the next format

Check out Henry Su's Chaos deck from SJC Nashville (penultimate deck):

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

Although the deck was named as Chaos and looked like the old Chaos Return, I think the main engine in the deck is the Battle Fader/Dimensional Alchemist combo to reuse Battle Fader's effect. I first saw this combo from Cliff Richard Georpe in the Philippine Weekly Tournament over at shriek.twoday.net:

http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/6119624/

He named it Perfect Circle. Back to Henry Su's deck, I think the deck suffers quite a bit from losing a boss monster like Chaos Sorcerer in the new format.

Monsters (22)

1 Spirit Reaper/Gale

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness/Raiza

1 Chaos Sorcerer/Raiza

1 Sangan

3 Battle Fader

3 Dimensional Alchemist

3 Cyber Valley

2 D.D. Crow

1 Necro Gardna

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

3 Caius the Shadow Monarch

2 Cyber Dragon

Spells (9)

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Mind Control

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Machine Duplication/One for One

1 Brain Control

1 Heavy Storm

2 Smashing Ground

Traps(9)

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Mirror Force

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Dust Tornado/Dimensional Prison

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Return from the Different Dimension/Dimensional Prison

I've added in Plaguespreader and Gardna although Shinning Angel should still work. I find that the 2 new additions will work with the Alchemist well. I am not too sure about the boss monsters but maybe replacing them with Raiza for a total of 5 monarchs might work. I replace the Scapegoat for Lightning Vortex as there should be more GB now. Lightning Vortex is also good after they commit to the field and you use Fader.

This deck with 3 Battle Faders and 2 D.D. Crows seems dedicated to defending against big pushes, OTKs and Infernities. The Faders are in case the Infernity player do not have Trishula while the D.D. Crows ensure the combo does not go off in the first place. After the big push is stopped, you can counterattack with your monarchs and spells and try to take over the game from there.

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

Zombies for the next format

Modified from Adam Corn's Diva Zombies from SJC Los Angeles:

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=1527

Monsters (19)

1 Mezuki
2 Goblin Zombie
2 Mystic Tomato
2 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Sangan
1 Zombie Master
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Spirit Reaper
2 Deep Sea Diva
1 Tragoedia
2 Pyramid Turtle
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind

Spells (13)

1 Allure of Darkness
1 Mind Control
1 Brain Control
3 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space
Typhoon
1 Enemy Controller
1 My Body As A Shield
2 Book of Life
1 Burial from a Different Dimension

Traps (8)

2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Dust Tornado
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

Adam Corn's deck already uses 1 Burial from a Different Dimension. Not much changes is required for the new format. I think unlike the previous time where Mezuki to 1 resulted in very few zombie decks used in tournaments, this format should be slow enough for Zombies to remain competing.

"Leaked" March 2010 Banlist

Not too long ago, there was a Pojo.com Yu-Gi-Oh! Forum posting on a supposed "leaked" March 2010 banlist, that was quickly taken down. Fortunately, google has a cache version of the forum posting:

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:BP1q79LV9pAJ:www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php%3Fp%3D16644074+pojo+latest+rumoured+march&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg

I did not expect the banning of Brain Control. It is hardly ever used in Gladiator Beasts, Dimensional Eatos and Lightsworns so those 3 deck archetypes will not be affected much. Every other decks most probably main one.

Brionic will be most definitely be limited in the TCG banlist. However, I think limiting Black Whirlwind will affect Blackwings badly so I think semi-limiting will be more suitable. Chaos Sorcerer's limiting is possible. I don't know about Beckoning Light to 1 but it can be a powerful game-ender if enough cards are milled, so maybe that's the reason. Burial from a Different Dimension's limiting will be to cripple Vayu Turbo and Zombies, although Adam Corn's Diva Zombies only used one copy in the recent SJC Los Angeles. Magician of Faith to one will be an interesting card for Lightsworns to use. I think Gyzarus to 1 will not affect GBs much as they can tag Gyzarus out to tag back again for its effect later.

Semi-limiting Bestiari will make GBs more competitive again although the limiting of Solemn Judgement has weaken the deck severely. Charge of the Light Brigade to 2 will slow down Lightsworns. Cyber Dragon and Emergency Teleport to 2 is quite broken, I do not think it will come true. Book of Moon is a very useful card but I think there isn't much of a difference between using 2 and 3.

Un-restricting Snipe Hunter might be to help sell the upcoming Infernities cards. It is also good for Zombies. Lonefire Blossoms to 3 may be possible as Plants are not competitive yet.

Those were the "leaked" banlist cards. I really like to see Bestiari put to 2 but let's wait and see when the real list is revealed next month.