Heavy Storm followed by Torrential Tribute

Funny how Yu-Gi-Oh can still relate to real life incidents.

First and foremost I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for not posting for a while. This is mainly because of the September 26, 2009 Typhoon that has struck my country, which led to much disaster and decay. The flashflood has risen up to almost six feet in my household alone, disabling my basic utilities such as the electricity, telephone and internet connection, which was soon to follow.

Everything is in order now and hopefully the next storm bound to strike the Philippines again is not as heavy as what hit us past 3 days ago.

The card that blocks everything... almost

People still do not have the clue what deck will truly dominate the new format. Most of us, including me, is still waiting for the result of the upcoming Shonen Jump Circuit Orlando to really see who's boss. Main bets are Lightsworn, Gladiator Beast, DARK variants, Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor, or Vayu turbo and other rogue entries like plants, X-Sabers and whatever people decide to bring. The emerging victor would dictate the meta.

The game has been relying too much on the graveyard. Apparently, there is one card that would hamper most of the cards in these new decks.

From the top of my head, I can name a few cards bound to be shut down by this card: Bottomless Trap Hole, Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor, Necro Gardna, Chaos Sorcerer, D.D. Survivor, D.D. Crow, Mezuki, and Dark Armed Dragon, to name a few. It also renders some cards totally useless like Burial from a Different Dimension.

These cards cannot activate their effects and they are rendered useless when this card is active. Whilst maintaining your strategy, if you rely on your graveyard.

One or two copies of this card in your Side Deck woudn't hurt.

Majestic Star Dragon

Dragon/Synchro/Effect
"Salvation Dragon - Savior Dragon" + "Stardust Dragon" + 1 non-Tuner monster
When your opponent activates the effect of a Spell, Trap or Effect Monster, you can Tribute this card to negate it, and destroy all cards your opponent controls. Once per turn, negate the effect(s) of 1 face-up monster your opponent controls until the End Phase. That monster's effect(s) can be treated as this card's effect and can be activated once. Return this card to the Extra Deck during the End Phase, and Special Summon 1 "Stardust Dragon" from your Graveyard.

There are a lot of interesting cards that have devastating effects but usually, there are steep costs in summoning such monsters. Majestic Star Dragon is definitely one of them. This card needs a Stardust Dragon, a level one non-tuner monster and Salvation Dragon - Savior Dragon to pull off. Obviously, the easiest way to summon this card is by using Treeborn Frog as the level one monster requirement. You also need a Stardust Dragon in play and have Salvation Dragon - Savior Dragon in hand.


Dragon/Effect/Tuner
If this card is used as Synchro Material Monster, it can only be for the Synchro Summon of a "Savior" monster.

This is where the problem arises. Those Salvation Dragons would naturally end up as dead draws in the early stages of a duel, or any time where you do not have Stardust Dragon in play or Treeborn Frog is still in your deck, much worse if it was removed from play. This makes Majestic Star Dragon a poor choice in Extra Decks and is only used in casual duels. No one in a right mind would run this card in a competitive deck. It is such a waste of an awesome card design.

With Absolute Powerforce being announced and released this coming November in Japan, one card has caught my attention-Harmony's Treasure. The card basically needs a 1000 ATK Dragon type Tuner as fodder to draw 2 cards. This is where the fun begins. Those dead draw Salvation Dragons are now recycable via this spell card. Conveniently, Debris Dragon, also an easy method to summon Stardust Dragon or Red Demon Archfiend, is also a target. This might enable people to run The Salvation Synchros in competitive decks.

The only thing left to deal with is its consistency. Grab your copy of Majestic Star Dragon today before prices would skyrocket once the set gets released.

09-12-2009 and Lightsworns

With midterm exams nearing and mock-defenses for project proposals and research just around the corner, my time for the blog was shortened to some extent, being unable to post stuff regarding the game. I was still able to visit my locals this weekend, and was able to buy certain cards that are missing in the deck. What's left now is actually play testing it and using it to participate at my locals.


Extra Pack Volume Two is nearing its release on September 19, and I was surprised that Charge of the Light Brigade came out as a rare. This would finally help OCG players get the TCG unique Lightsworn monsters and experience them for the first time. I was surprised that some people already got their hands off the cards, prior to its release date.

With Charge of the Light Brigade, Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid and Ehren, Lightsworn Monk finally out in the OCG, I hope the Lightsworn Curse will be lifted and that they would finally be given a chance to win a major event.

What's left for me to do is actually create my own Lightsworn deck, before my prediction that the theme finally dies at the upcoming March list.

Weird scarcity

I was surprised when I saw Judgment Dragons being sold for as low as $23 for two,Honest for $6 each, and most of the other Lightsworn members as commons in the OCG version of Light of Destruction. Turns out that it was just a facade. Aside from the fact that the two lightsworn females that are virtually non-existent, I heard from my other friends that one Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress go up for as high as $16 each. Celestia goes for around the same $14-$16ish. I know that its a year old theme already, but the scarcity is just weird, for the reason that they are still easily obtainable in the TCG up until today, despite higher rarities. Maybe I should just blush up the TCG versions that are widely available and for less.




These two aren't even available on eBay. Would anyone tell me if they see someone selling the two? And for how much are they in your locals?

Fear for the future of the game

It has just occurred to me that the metagame is becoming faster. Back in the good old days, Vampire Lord was nearly indestructible. We then see him gradually lose play upon the release of the better beat stick, Cyber Dragon. Today, virtually no one uses Vampire Lord anymore because his effect isn't too good for today's standards. After Tactical Evolution, the game was headed for something that was out of control.

Game breaking cards of yesterday become measly pieces of poor card choices today. Spirit Reaper is one of those cards that were staple before that lost its edge. Cards like Breaker, the Magical Warrior and Raiza, the Storm Monarch, which were broken cards before, are now reduced to semi-playable and/or Side Deck Material at best. Even Mirror Force isn't a sure staple in today's decks. Tributing for monsters today is a very troublesome task and is not usually the good choice. Equip Spells and Field Spell cards do not see play anymore. You would probably know something is wrong when you see these problems crop up.

We see archetypes come and go: Dark World, Six Samurai, Volcanic, Crystal Beast and much more. After Tactical Evolution, some of the Archetypes like Gladiator Beasts, Lightsworns and Blackwings are still solid and see competitive play until today, even after a few set releases prior to their introduction. Will these new wave of archetypes lose competitive edge soon enough? I think not.

Because of the strength of these new wave of archetypes, people are buying less packs-newer archetypes introduced today cannot basically even come to even ground with these established beasts.

It would be nice to actually implement a "cycling" of cards, like what they do at Magic: the Gathering. After two main sets and four subsets and a core set, the cards rotate, which means that you cannnot continue to use, say Lightsworn after one "cycle" of set(s). Older sets can still be played via vintage format or extended though, although the mainstream format, also known as Type 2, would only use the newer cards. This would inspire new deck ideas and force the players to think better to make their decks. Archetypes like the Earthbound Immortals would get to enjoy seeing play on major events if this happens. This would also encourage players to not just buy singles off eBay and pull them the traditional way: through packs.

But this mechanic do have its cons. Cards would lose value after the so-called cycle and people will have to continue changing decks format after format just to update their deck to the latest trend that is legal for tournament play. This means additional heavy cost for the players.

Chaos Sorcerer was changed to Semi-Limited this current format. I woudn't be surprised if Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning would get legal on the next list if this trend continues.

First month blog anniversary with store pics

Today marks the first month anniversary of this blog. I will now take this opportunity to thank you readers for actually taking notice of this simple piece on the world wide web. For a month, the blog enjoyed 913 Unique readers with 2312 Page views. This is more than enough to make me happy. I wish that you would continue to keep supporting me, if you already are and continue to read my experiences with regards to the card game. I hope to improve my posting quality for everyone to better appreciate and enjoy.

As promised, here are the pics of yesterday's journey with my local community.

As you can see, people are enjoying by talking about their cards and trading, and the players were participating in our weekly locals.


This is just a simple shot of what's outside the store. I couldn't possibly take pictures inside as it might open me to legal problems and besides, its too crowded.

Till next post.

09-05-2009 - Visit at the local community

Me, along with my brother actually went to our local community and traded/bought lots of cards today. After hours and hours of searching for certain cards, we were able to wrap up with buying most of the cards needed to build my brother's deck. I was surprised that most of our locals carry on their binders most of the cards that are widely used today.

There was a local tournament ongoing, and as I passed by the players who are competing, I was constantly seeing Zombie variants and Anti-Meta decks. I was confused on why there weren't much Gladiator Beasts, Lightsworns, although Blackwings were also common.

It might be possible next week for me to join the local tournaments, provided I am able to acquire certain cards I still need. Getting a Dandylion is difficult, along with Ally of Justice - Catasor and Mist Wurm. Although I can set up a temporary level 5 Synchro to replace Catastor like Magical Andrioids, it just wouldn't be the same. I still don't know the effects of running the Extra Deck with no level 9 Synchro.

I did not know that scanning through tens of binders were mind tiring and hectic. Despite these experiences. I really had fun. Total spending for today was at around PhP2500 (US$51). It was a good haul. My brother was happy that he finally got his Ancient Fairy Dragon at last. Needless to say, he is a Luca fan.

I was able to take some pictures, and promise to post it on my next post just to show the world our community exists. I asked a new friend met today on what are the reasons why the locals were using tier 2 decks and Lightsworn was non-existent. He said the reason was it was difficult to find certain cards to be able to actually run the decks. Gladiator Beasts share similar problems as well.

In case you're curious, Some of the cards we bought were:
Red Dragon Archfiend - The guy whom we bought this from really cares for his cards
Ancient Fairy Dragon (UtR) - Same for this guy too
Goyo Guardian (UtR)
Cyber Dragon (GS01-JP007)
Magical Android
Psychic Lifetrancer
Iron-Chain Dragon x2

...and other cards that are needed to create J&D. Yes, we chose to run J&D and show its potential on the locals. A little more and I would be able to experience true duels on organized play, despite me using my brother's deck.

Also, tomorrow will mark my first month anniversary of existence in the web. I will post pictures of my journey for everyone to see. Stay tuned.

A letter addressed to nobody

"Why am I still interested to continue playing Yu-Gi-Oh?" This question has always crossed my mind whenever I sit and idle around. On trips to school and back, on times when I stare and do nothing in front of my computer.

"I don't have much cards."
"I can't craft Tier 1 decks."
"I do not have the opportunity to Duel outside much."
"The game is totally unsupported by Konami in my country."
"Getting my needed cards are near impossible."

In spite of all these random thoughts. In spite of my financial difficulties. In spite of every hardship I experience in playing this game. Why?

"I guess its because looking forward to something like creating an awesome deck and using it to pit with others in tournaments sounds nice."

I know that companies have to prioritize their sales quota and profits first, since I study Management as my bachelor degree. I also know that I contribute little in these sales needed for Konami to back up our country with events. I also know that Philippines' economy is not doing that well for investors and businesses like Konami to even bother with.

But its not just me. There is a community in our country that loves and keeps this game alive. I know that the community is just small and isn't even worth mentioning at all, compared to millions playing over at the three main countries Konami focuses in.

I know I do not have the right to actually say for the other countries neglected, but I will mention them here as well: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the some of Latin America. All of the duelists in the aformentioned countries have the same desire. To have equal support from the company that created what they love.

This is my simple wish and I hope that this will somehow reach who this letter is intended for.