Chaos Hero decklist

EDIT: Thanks to LFN for pointing out that I did not have any tourguide lol( when I played the deck at my locals I did not have access to tour guide at that time so I played without them and forgot to add them in when I got home!)

So here is the deck I have been playing most of the format. I recently took out the maxx C's and a breaker for thrasher and a 2 mst's. For the most part it combines the anti meta aspect of heros with the more aggressive aspect of the chaos engine. I choose to only play 3 traps in order to try to stop the aggressive pushes that my opponents make. The one thing that I absolutely love about this deck is the fact that it really doesn't have to commit anything to the field to win. There are times were I summon doom cal and pass and other times when I special thrasher summon startos search ailus exceed into armor ninja play miracle summon a hero fusion(if I have the requirements which I usually do) and go for a agressive push.

Thrasher opens up so many plays to the deck and since there are some really solid rank 4's to summon he just gets more utility every time a new rank 4 is released.

Tragodia is really the only card that needs explaining. Trag is one of my favorite cards in the deck because of the utility he brings to the table. he can be used defensively to block attacks when he has enough attack, he can be used offensively by stealing the opponents  monster using him to make a rank 4 then summoning another beater to attack with. It is plays like those that make the deck so good.

There are games where i have won with the hero engine and times when I have won with just the chaos engine. The only matchup that I truly struggle with is of course chaos dragons. Chaos Dragons are able to do everything this deck can just better. A good side deck can mitigate this for the most part but you still only have a 50/50 chance which imo are not good odds. Other than that the deck performs well against inzketors because of how little it can commit to the field but still backs itself up with gorz and trag. Rabbit is definitely the best matchup(as is the case with normal heros). Overall the deck is very strong and seems to be able to handle this sacktastic format.

Before I go I have a question to ask all of my readers. Would you like to read a cardfight vanguard article every Saturday? The article would be written by Grant(one of my team members) and the articles would discuss decks, strategies, and the meta. Don't worry the blog would still remain a yugioh blog at large(I'm not going anywhere!) and cardfight vanguard would only be featured on Saturday. Leave your thoughts in the comments below and I have a poll near the top of the blog asking this same question so make sure to vote! Thanks for reading!
-Cameron

New Look to the blog!

So that depressing rainfall template finally got to me lol. I like the simpleness of this template a lot better. Tell me if you like or don't like. On a final note I took down that subscribe by email option as that was getting zero use and I updated my blog header and my list of decks I have played/ am currently playing. Hopefully you like the new updates.
-Cameron

Wind Ups win NAWCQ(recap of NAWCQ)

The results are in! The battle lines were drawn and Wind Ups won the war. Tyler Tabman took the gold. In all seriousness it wasn't really out of the realm of possibility for wind ups to do good infact I figured that they would at least have some tops, however I didn't expect them to win..... but we have seen this entire scenario before. People side for the major contenders(in this case rabbit, dragons, and inzektors) and either completely forget about other non major contenders ot give them a token concession and maybe fit a card that is specific for them or try to fit a card that is widely good against all decks but not focussing on just wind ups.

     Wind ups were clearly left unchecked here. This has happened before, when dark worlds got no spots in the top cut at YCS atlanta because people over sided for them then won YCS long beach because people undersided for them. This is pretty much the same situation just on a much more prestigious scale. Wind ups are good everybody knows that its just that chaos dragons, inzektors, and rabbit were nerfed because of the heavy siding doen against them. I have to hand it to Tyler he made a great meta call realizing that wind ups are still a fantastic deck capable of fighting with the grown ups just kind of forgotten about.

The top 16 was as follows:
9 Dino Rabbit
5 Wind ups
1 Anti monster
1 Chaos Dragon

Clearly this shows that chaos dragon were in the sights of everyone as it occupied a paltry one spot. This should not be surprising though considering that chaos dragons have just won the two most recent YCS's(philly and toulouse) clearly stating that they were a threat heading into NAWCQ. Dino Rabbit continues to be good but that should be old news to every person playing this game. Apparently wind ups did trend pretty high considering they did occupy the 2nd most spots and also restates what I said in the last 2 paragraphs. The ani monster deck is whatever as there is laways that one rouge deck that sneaks in there. Also on a side note the lone chaos dragon deck is being piloted by Jarel Winston for anyone who cares. On side note #2 no inzektors? Konami never posted the top 32 parings so i can't be sure if inzektors topped( I would think they would) but it does seem weird that inzektors wouldn't at least have a single spot. Their field clearing abilities are legendary lol.

The top 8 is as follows:
3 Dino rabbit
3 Wind up
1 Chaos Dragon
1 Anti monster

So 2/3 of the dino rabbit decks were ousted and now wind up and dino rabbit were neck and neck. The Chaos Dragon continues to prevail and hangs in there. The anti monster also stays in. The same 4 decks that were represented in the top 16 are also still all represented in the top 8. At this point I was thinking that it really is still anyones game.

The top 4 is as follows
1 Chaos Dragon
1 dino rabbit
2 wind up

So konami never actually posted the last deck that comprised the top 4. They never actually even posted the top 4, I was able to get the known decklists by looking at feature matches. I will assume though that the last spot is dino rabbit but I cannot be for certain.

The finals
wind up mirror match!
The last duel was quite good with Tyler Tabman eventually winning against Robert Lewis, but take into account this was Robert lewis's first ever WCQ so not bad at all for a first timer actually not bad at all even for a pro. The first game was over in a flash as Tabman pulled off the loop that magically makes your opponents hand vanish into thin air and then reappear in their graveyard! What I found interesting is that Lewis mained maxx C which has seen alot less play as the format moves along. Maybe he made a good meta call and predicted that other people would play wind up because they knew that wind up hate was relatively low and he could hate on wind ups therefore giving him a edge. Or maybe he thought it was a good card. Lets go with the latter.
In game 2 Lewis was able to loop 3 cards out of Tabman's opening hand which gave him a massive advantage. Lewis fought back with mirror force and snowman eater, but lewis dre into a instant fusion allowing him to bring out a scrap dragon and finish the job.
In game 3 Tabman was able to get all 3 zenmaity on the board and quickly wrap up the NAWCQ.

     Congratulations to Tyler Tabman and everyone who is going to tokyo for worlds the official list is:

For the all-ages World Championship:
Tyler Tabman, 17, from Overland Park, Kansas
Robert Lewis Jr., 25, from Mt. Sterling, Kentucky
Jarel Winston, 21, from New York, New  York
Kevin Rubio, 19, from Pennsauken, New Jersey
Adrian Shakir, 22, from Colorado Springs, Colorado
Michael Steinman, 18, from Burlington, Iowa

And for the Dragon Duel World Championship
Tyler Nilson, 12, from North Port, Florida
Zachary Leverette, 13, from Winston, Georgia

Courtesy of konami
There really isn't any well known pros save for Jarel Winston, and Tyler Tabman has been performing very well in the past few events and I have seen his name a few times(I could be overlooking a big name that I don't know or some other "pros" could have been in the top 32). Also Robert Lewis was the runner up and this was his first WCQ! I am looking forward to worlds and hopefully these North American reps see victory!

Overall this seems like a decent NAWCQ. We have some relatively well known names mixed in with a lot of fresh faces. Wind ups winning isn't a WTF win, it is in the realm of possiblity though I do wish konami posted the top 32 parings so I could see if some well known faces topped and what other decks topped as well, but konami will be konami. Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone who was successful today.
-Cameron

The Random Factor

     Well, well, well. Look who's back! I know I have been dead since march. Yugioh has been uninteresting to me as of late but I have of course been keeping up with it all. Today I wanted to talk to all of you about something that has been discussed many times before: the sackiness or random factor in a game that no matter to what degree you plan to there is always that one random factor that you in no way figured, or maybe you thought all hope was lost until that one random event happened.


      That one random event can take the form of many things. I will give a few examples. For all of you Civilization 5 players out there(myself included) El Dorado(the world wonder) gives the player who found it first 500 gold immediately. Now in the early game that heavily sways the balance factor. Normally 500 gold would take many turns to accumulate because it takes a while to get a strong economy up and running. But if you have that 500 gold right away you don't have to wast preciuos early game turns to produce a worker, warrior, etc. You can now buy one instantly giving you a bonus that will give you the lead right away and if you play smart you will never lose it. That oen discovery has now influenced the entire game. Another civilization 5 example would be the ruins. When one person discovers a ruin they might find a map of the surrounding area and its advantages are quickly lost as that area would be discovered eventually anyway. Another person might discover a ruin that gives them a free technology which in most cases puts that person ahead by about 5-10 turns which is huge in a civ 5 game. There is no way you can change the outcome of the ruins, or who finds el dorado first or if it even spawns at all.


      Another example would be the random factor in Pokemon(I hope this example reaches a broader audience than the last!) In online battles people try to out predict their opponent while trying not to over predict the opponent so they still get the super effective hit on them.  These are a sereis of judgment calls that player decides to make that will ultimately determine the outcome of the battle. However critical hits can occur which in most cases completely nullifies the decision and doesn't care what judgment call you made as it will still do a ton of damage potentially even knocking out the Pokemon. Also when moves miss that is also a random factor though to a lesser extent because that can be characterized as risk vs. reward(which is for another day).


     So why am I bringing all of this up, what does this have to do with yugioh? This all comes from a certain realization that I had today and it told me why I hate the random factor so much. Please keep reading as I will make it worth your time.


      Today Grant and I went to locals. Grant is now off of yugioh mode and is riding the cardfight vanguard train. He implored me to try the game(I had heard of it but ignored it for the most part up until now). I agreed and we set up and were ready to play. He gave me a choice of a few decks and I choose oracle think tank because he said it required "skill" and had the highest learning curve. Its in my nature to always start with something difficult as I learn best that way. Grant played kagero. I won game 1. I won again in game 2. I won yet again in game 3. We switched decks. I won again this time with kagero. We waited awhile and Grant was able to complete his narukami deck. I played oracle think tank and lost game 1 and 2, won game 3. Then I played kagero and won game 1, and Grant won game 2, after that we decided to stop. How was able to win so many times against him? I have been playing for mere hours and Grant has dedicated months to practicing his technique with all 3 of his decks. The one that took the most "skill" oracle think tank, I won with the most and still won a number of games with his other decks. I looked for answers wondering why i won. By all means I should have lost, there is no way that I could have won against a player that has dedicated much of his time to that game. Then it came to me it was the triggers.


     The person that won each game was the one who pulled the most triggers. A crit trigger when I had 4 damage, a heal trigger when I had 5 damage, a draw trigger to be able to block that last attack with the monster I drew. Triggers are a random factor. Quite possibly one of the most annoying random factors in any game i have ever played because of the sheer volume that they are produced at. I am not bashing the game of vanguard. I think it is quite fun, but I have read on many forums, watched many videos, and heard many former yugioh players extol the virtues of vanguard and shove off yugioh. When infact both games have their respective problems. One game is not significantly better than the other. Both are struggling on how much the skill/random factor should weigh in on games.


     Many people call what I call the random factor the luck factor. I don't like this name because it is not statistically possible to be more lucky than the other person. Just because one person tosses a coin and gets heads 3 out of 4 times, and another person tosses a coin and gets heads only once out of 4 times does not mean that the first person has a 75% chance at heads and the second person only has a 25% chance at heads.


     The point of this post is my realization. All things have a random factor there is no game that  doesn't have just a little random factor in it. We cannot control this random factor and unfortunately to my dismay there is no way to curb it either. This realization has made me like yugioh more for what it is. I still do not like many of konmai's policies and the way they run their business but yuigioh and many other games at their core they are skillful it is just the outside influences and in yugiohs case the outside influence is konmai. These outside influences sway the game to what it is. I am not saying that we should put up with konmai's policies but don't extol the virtues of any game until the random factor is truly deduced.




    Btw on a unrelated note, i know I have been gone for a few months but hopefully I can post at least twice a week. I have taken a hiatus from yugioh for a while, but I am back now and will start in full force once the september banlist is put into effect(hopefully it is decent). I also would like to thank to all my loyal followers and readers for putting up with my negligence of the blog, I truly don't deserve this generosity.
-Cameron 

Locals Report 3-3-12

Yes I am back. I do apologize for not posting in a while( you've heard that before lol) but I was super busy studying for a big exam and then I got sick. Then as I was getting better I got hit with the flu WTF. I even got a flu shot but apparently that didn't help oh well. So to sum it up I was sick for the past 2 weeks and busy withs school. I am back on track with my posting schedule so I can guarantee regular posts for the rest of march. Anyway I went to locals today!

I choose to go with my Chaos Heros again today. I have been testing the deck out extensively and it has gone very well. Despite the lackluster 3-2 record last local, I was determined to do better this time. I don't really need anything before the tourney this time but i do find out that my local has changed to only 4 swiss rounds which is a little weird because we still have our usual 40+ people but whatever.

Round 1: Chaos Heros Vs. Blackwings
Duel 1: The game is back and forth in the beginning with each of us summoning a monster and it getting destroyed next turn by a attack. He summon DAD mid game he attacks me directly but next turn I have a miracle fusion in hand to summon shining with 2900 atk I continue to beat face but two turns later he summons sirroco sp bora and gale halfs and kaluts for game! Oh blackwings I love and hate you all at the same time.

Game 2: Again it is back and forth until I get some temp going by denying him his +1 icruas atk by using geni spark on his face down. I then continue to beat face with tkro and ailus until he summons sirroco sp bora pumps then plays leeching the light WTF man.

Result: LOSS
Record 0-1
He was a good player but a bad deck is still a bad deck but i digress. He did have some good plays. Time to win my next 3 rounds!

Round 2: Chaos Heros Vs. Chaos Dragons
If this is anything like a movie the hero always defeats the dragon and saves the princess so I should automatically win here right? In all seriousness she is a regular player at the shop and a decent one at that.
Game 1: She gold sarcs for future fusion then sets masked dragon. I beat face with beaters then summon doomcal to solidify my field. her only out is future fusion but that is to no avail as I draw into mst and promptly destroy it winning the game.

Game 2: She starts off with wyvern and begins the whole light pulsar and darflare dragon thing with redmd, I survive the turn thanks to trag with 3k atk, then I gemini spark her backrow, allowing me to summon BLS and I win the game because BLS is too good and needs to be banned.

Result: WIN
Record: 1-1
If you are still curious the hero saved the day lol.

Round 3: Chaos Hero Vs. Dark World
He was a good player and a regular so so far I wasn't paired against newbs which is good.

Game 1: My deck has a pretty good dark world matchup for the most part. It is pretty back and forth from teh get go until I use heavy getting a plus 2 then miracle fusion for shining and get more advantage with spirit reaper by that time the deficit is too much and he can't come back.

Game 2: I use breaker and mst to keep his gates off the field then I use chaos sorc to remove grapha and from there I win.

Result: WIN
Record: 2-1

Round 4(final round): Chaos Heros Vs. Dark World
Again he is a regular and I have played against him multiple times and we have had some good games so this will be good.
Game 1: He gets off his dark world combos earky game and I have no outs and lose.
Game 2: The game goes on forever but at the late game the chaos sorc to reove grapha and the spark to destroy the other grpha is so clutch and I win.
Game 3: The game goes into time so I mind control his defence, mst his backrow, use miracle fusion to summon the shining and summon chaos sorc and ailus and hammer home immense damage, he tries to come back next turn after using dark hole but i have torrential and I win.

Result: WIN
Record: 4-1
Top 8 time!

Top 8: Chaos Heros Vs. Hero Beat
Game 1: The game is very back and forth but I built chaos heros to speficfically have a good mid game which heros don't usually have and that is what happens so I win.

Game 2: Again another back and forth duel until he rips a monster reborn and gets advantage and wins, a fine example of why that card should be banned.

Game 3: I sound like a broken record here but it is aback and forth game and at the end game we both can't draw into a monster until I draw miracle fusion and summon shining and win.

Result: WIN
Top 4 time!

Okay no top 4 time we decide to split some store credit and hidden arsenal 5 packs. I get some sleeves, a skill drain, and a cyber dragon all with some store credit plus $1 of my own money so that is a cool deal. I actually stay a while longer and my friends and I do some theory-oh while Grant and his newest obsession (Cardfight vanguard) play in a CV tourney with 10 people but every game has to start somewhere right? After the tourney we go to Jack in the box and discuss more yugioh and I pull a shit ton of gemnight stuff from my packs. After that we all head home. Overall the day was alot of fun and I still don't really like CV.
Thanks for reading
-Cameron