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.

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?