So I'm on vacation and the hotel I'm at has WiFi, but unfortunatley my netbook crashed so I am unable to use it. I am typing this on my phone(which the smaller size keyboard is less than optimal to type long posts on). So I'm sorry but until I get home no blogging for me! I hope you understand!
-Cameron
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Not able to post for a week
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Chaos Hero decklist
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
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
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
-Cameron
Sunday, July 1, 2012
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:
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
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
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
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
Saturday, June 30, 2012
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
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
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