Hey ladies, germs, dudes and brohams its grant back with another post on this saturday day. Today, im actually gonna do a dual-post on yugioh and vanguard to appeal to not only my new fans for Vanguard but the loyal followers of yugioh that follow cameron's blog. Also, before i start i want to take the time to give a strong message to the yugioh community. HEAVY STORM SHOULD NEVER LEAVE THE LIMITED LIST UNTIL WE HAVE A SUITABLE REPLACEMENT. It doesnt matter if we have 3 mst and 3 night beam we will be right back to square 1 with a monster+ 4 backrow. No skilled player in yugioh wants that again.( Note: Valafar123 not trying to diss you, i recognize you as a true player but i have always been a heavy/1 mst/1 believer).
Well, there is only 1 crucial thing that comes out during this time of the year which is none other than konami's bit.. i mean ban list. The Ban list stumps our brain since their is no real way to determine what konami is gonna do unless your ishizu ishtar and can see the future with your millenium jewelry. However, I do believe there are certain cards that you should pick up to avoid having to drop your life savings or sell yourself just to get the new stuff.
Without further ado here is the list:
Effect Veiler/ Bottomless Trap Hole- Something tells me these cards are gonna become more of a staple
than they already are with decks such as aqua, hieratics, and lavals coming out in the tcg. Being able to stop potential killing plays will always entice players.
Night Beam- Oh, this card may finally accomplish what me and cameron have wanted for a long time. This card's existence may finally put mst to 1. As a result, the limited amount of backrow hate may spike this card's price up.
Forbidden Lance- This card, along with tour guide, was the card of the format after we lost ignition priority. I expect this card to be useful yet again.
Fiendish Chain- See forbidden lance.
Dark Magician of Chaos/Magician of Faith- These cards + return of the duelist= money for konami
Tribe Infecting Virus- I would hate this card to come back with all the atlantean support but knowing konami's money tactics they just might do it.
I hope this helps you all. Now onto anaheim.
The Cardfight Vanguard Kick-off event was a lot of fun. I got to meet some vanguard tubers, old friends, new friends and even got eliminated from the single tournament in the 3rd round. I say "eliminated" because bushiroad only gives 1 game per match compared to swiss rounds. However, it was no big deal and i finally got to face gold paladins after months of avoidation. Even got to pick up 2 night beam and a gaia dragon for my frog monarchs.
Anyway, thats it for today. I hope you guys liked the dual-post about yugioh and vanguard.
Next week will probably be a set 3 review.
-Grant a.k.a Blaster Dark a.k.a the magnificent shadow dragon
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
My September 2012 Banlist
This format has been, how do I put this lightly? Garbage. This format involves a seris of one card combos that once you play that one card you win. Cards are combos by themselves and many of the decks this format rely on just one card to get the ball rolling with no prior investment. Ex. Dragonfly, Rabbit, Tourguide, future fusion, you get the point. I for the most part made this list with what I want to see happen rather than what I think konami will actually do, but at the end of each card choice description(detailing why I did what I did to the card) I will talk about how likely the card is actually going to be hit by konami(that part is in red for your connivence).
Things I am Trying to accomplish by making this list:
Banned:
BLS: This card should have never came back. Its summoning requirement is a joke, it wins games by itself, and it removes face up or face down monsters, broken much? I think that there is a reasonably good chance that this card is going to get banned by konami, since it has seen quite a bit of play in chaos drgaons. I would put BLS at a 50/50 chance to be banned.
Wind up hunter: I was thinking how I would hit wind-ups, making sure I didn't outright kill the deck but I did want to hinder it. Imo hunter's only purpose in the deck is to facilitate the wind up loop. I have watched many videos, read many articles, and talked to many wind up players and I always see/read/hear the same comment. The only reason i run hunter is to be able to loop the hand. A card that's purpose is to facilitate a loop(of any kind) should not exist Loops are not healthy for the game plain and simple. I believe hunter has a good chnace of being banned by konami. It doesn't really hurt their profits(as its only ran as 1 of) but the banning of this card successfully hits wind ups. Its a win win situation.
Morphing jar: Simply put this is a reset button. It is a psuedo cyber/fiber jar. Morphing jar takes any advantage you might have and says" lets start over!" reset buttons shouldn't exist. I would extremely surprised if konami hit this card. It doesn't see alot of play(hardly any really) its just one of those badly designed cards that shouldn't exist and konami has never really hit anything that is in that category.
Gaia Dragon the thunder charger: This card really only sees play in hiertaics but it still breaks the exceed mechanic. The whole point of an XYZ is to overlay for them and once their materials are used up then a XYZ is just a glorified beater. Gaia Dragon however allows you to disregard that "hinderance" and instead allows you to summon another XYZ with piercing(gaia) for the sacrifice of a dead XYZ. This card will probably never get banned plain and simple as konami has no problem printing cards that break game mechanics.
Future Fusion: Some have said hit 5 head dragon instead, I disagree because I am hitting this card not just to hit chaos dragons but because the card design on this card is just bad. With so many graveyard effects running around there is always bound to be some loop or otk affiliated with this card. To add insult to injury it is a auto win when played in chaos dragons. Broken much? I strongly feel that either this or 5 head dragon is going to be hit by konami, but I am leaning towards them banning this card over 5 head because that would kind of be foolish to ban a normal monster. I think futuire fusion has about a 70% chance of being banned with 5 head having a 30% chance(for all of you non math whizzes out there.)
Monster Reborn: I have been asking for this for a very long time. I hate cards where you just say "oh look I drew this, now I win!" This card should not have came back. Plus it is not skillful in the slightest, you just draw and play. Its time for this card to be retired for the next six months. I do think that konmai will ban monster reborn because it has been proven that konami has no problem banning this card then a few formats later limiting yet again.
Mind Control: Imo opinion this card has become no different than brain control. The metagame has proven time and time again that taking advantage from your opponent and giving it to yourself is just to good. I honestly do not think this card has a good chance at being hit. Yes it does see play in all decks, but I just do not see this card as being on konami's radar. I say it has about a 20% chance of being banned.
Limiter Removal: I may sound like a broken record here, but seriously what purpose does this card serve outside of facilitating otks's? A card that exists solely for the purpose of otking or looping simply should not exist. See morphing jar.
Gateway of the six: If you draw this turn 1 in samurai's you win. That is not healthy for the game. Samurai's need to find other ways to win games. See morphing jar/limiter removal.
Card Destruction: I have expressed how I feel about this card many times before. If you draw this in dark worlds you win 9 times out of 10, its basically future fusion but for dark worlds. Since Dark worlds havent done much this format I highly doubt that konmai will hit this card. If and/or when dark worlds do something relevant to the metagame is when this card will get hit.
Final Countdown: I thought about banning one day of piece instead of this, but in all honesty I would just be ignoring the problem. The reason I hate this deck so much is because it doesn't really matter who you are playing against, whenever you play this deck it is like you are playing a game of solitaire. There are no interactions with your opponent, nothing. Just you passing turns playing fader or any other battle phase trick then passing then repeat. This deck shouldn't exist, it requires no interaction with the game at all. Now technically this goes against the solitaire rule that Kevin Tewart posted on the konami blog, but since he was talking out of his ass when he posted those articles I don't see konami actually identifying that this deck should be hit.
Royal Tribute: Even though gravekeepers don't see much play having all the monsters in your hand wiped out is still to good. Gravekeepers have not done anything relevant in the meta so konami will not hit them.
Limited:
Rescue Rabbit: I know by hitting this down to one that it effectively kills the dino rabbit deck. I don't see where the problem is in that. Dino rabbit has dominated the TCG metagame for two formats. The deck has had its time in the spotlight and yes some of you may not like my reasoning, but for one single card to completely reinvent the metagame as we knew it and make normal monsters relevant again and to dominate for 2 straight formats, I believe it is a justified hit. Honestly at some point in the game it will probably join its feline counterpart by being banned, right now that is to harsh but we have yet to see what konami is planning to print. On top of all this it is a one card engine, you just play it and your field is set up. I see konami limiting laggia and semi limiting rabbit more than I see them doing what I have done. In essence they would be taking the same approach in hitting rabbit as they did samurai which wouldn't be entirely bad but not entirely good either.
Inzektor Dragonfly: By summoning this card and having one card in the grave(hornet) you can nuke your opponents field and XYZ up so you can otk. Need I explain more? This card is basically the epitome of what this format is. It is a one card set up there is no actual prior set up(besides hornet) and this card by itself can do all the work of summoning out the other inzektors. No skill high reward. I actually truly beleive that konami will hit dragonfly when they go after inzektors, logically it makes the most sense, it functions as the otk enabler, the one that effectively starts the combo, and the one that starts the nuking of the field, but when has konami used logic to make their banlists?
Grapha dragon lord of dark world: This card is quite possibly the best floater this game has ever seen. It has 2700 atk(sometimes 3000), it comes out for free from the graveyard and when it is sent from the graveyard to the hand it pops a card. One of this card is bad enough to deal with but when you have 3 to deal with it becomes ridiculous. Imo the worst part about this card is that backrow is not a viable answer to it as it usually pops the bacrow when it is discarded, this leaves very few outs besides running macro cosmos which doesn't work in most decks or running dd crow which is not as versatile a veiler. Its a recurring floating boss monster and something that we should have only one to deal with. I honestly don't think will do this. Konami has shown that they only hit decks that see a ton of play and consistently top YCS's. Dark world has not done this to the extent where I think they are on konami's radar.
Goyo Guardian: Yes I am on the bandwagon that thinks Goyo should come back. Konami has tried to make us believe that synchros don't exist and to a extent they have succeeded. When I was contemplating bringing back this card i thought what decks could utilize Goyo to its full extent. I couldn't think of any. Blackwings were the only deck capable of consistently brining out Goyo and they have fallen of the face of the earth. Yes it is one more boss monster to bring back into the game but no deck in this format can truly utilize it. Taking a XYZ with goyo really only serves the purpose for bringing a beatstick to your side of the field as the XYZ loses its materials. Konami is trying to push XYZ's and make us forget that synchros exist. Bringing back a good sycnhro would go against this products pushing policy so unfortunately I do not see goyo make a triumphant return any time soon.
Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon: The summoning requirement is a joke, it summons massive beatsticks with huge atk that enable otk's and it is at the heart of the hieratic otk and is the engine behind chaos dragons. Redmd was already bad enough within those sacky dragon decks of the days of old but when we got really good dragon support Redmd became busted. It enables otk's and that is one thing that I am trying to punish on this list. I say redmd has about a 50% chance of being limited. Gustaph Max is coming to the tcg soon via shoenen jump promo and hieraticts will be a good selling point for konami in the tcg, on the other hand to build a chaos dragon deck you really only need 3 structure decks and a set of reprinted tour guides and you have a tier one deck that is relatively cheap and doesn't make konami much money so it is still up in the air whether or not redmd will get hit.
Judgment Dragon: Lightsworn are pretty dead but that doesn't make this card any less broken. You just rip it off the top of the deck and most of the time you can play it. Lightsworn is already a sacky deck and judgment dragon only adds insult to injury. Konami has been returning cards to lighsworn rather than taking them away so this looks like a pipe dream.
Rekindling: I was playing against lavals on Dn and this card in conjunction with lavals was able to summon up shooting quasar, once shooting quasar hist the field you lose. Any card that allows you to summon any number of monsters from anywhere is just bad yugioh it factiliates swarming and otking even if rekindling in this case is not use for a otk it is still used as a complete lockdown which is just as bad. Since lavals have not yet seen the limelight here in the tcg I doubt that konmai will hit it, but on the other end of the spectrum konmai still hit blackwings because of the ocg even though they werent doing anything in the tcg. I would give rekindling about a 45% chance at being limited.
E emergency call/shiens smoke signal/hiertaic seal of convocation: No theme should have 3 rotas and even having 2 rotas still is to much searching and makes it way to easy to get to your combo pieces. Konmai might hit miracle fusion over e call but konmai likes to hit the consistency of decks so e call has about a 50% chance of being limited. Konmai will most likely want to keep giving support back to six sams since they have done nothing this format so I think smoke signal has about a 0%(lol) chance at being limited. I think konmai will most likely hit redmd over convocation but if konami doesn't hit redmd I think convocation has about a 80% at being limited as konami likes to hit the consistency of a deck.
Mystical Space Typhoon: This game has to many ways to otk. If you need to otk you need to get rid of backrow. To get rid of backrow you need backrow hate and yugioh has to much of that as well. Part of the reason that otks are running so rampant these days is because of the wide variety of options you have to pop backrow. With mystical space typhoon at 3 it makes all other forms of one of backrow hate irrelevant. Yes mst is a simple one for one but having 3 mst and one heavy storm makes destroying backrow and otking your opponent too easy. I am on the fence of whether konami will limit mst or not. Yes they want to push night beam down our throats but at the same time with less backrow hate means slower games which konami is not a fan of. I give mst about a 40% chance of being limited.
Ultimate Offering: This card is a otk enabler. It rewards you for dumping your entire hand and swarming the field. That kind of play is not only bad for the game but it should not be rewarded whatsoever. Leaving this card at 3 is just asking for abuse. Konami has a ton of machine support coming out in the next few sets and ultimate offering staying at 3 will only help push that. Add that on top of the fact that ultimate offering has seen no play and you have a a very slim chance at konami even hitting ultimate offering.
Royal Oppression: This is definitely the contreversial choice of my list. Simply put I believe that oppression is a necessary evil for the game. On one hand oppression prevents any kind of comeback for the player that is losing. On the other hand it curbs the extreme special summoning that is running rampant. There is no doubt in my mind that if this card came back everyone would run it, but that would make for a slower format. With the 1 mst you have you might want to save it for this card or give up spots to dedicate to night beam or dust tornado. All in all at 1 I think oppression deserves to come back, yes it makes it near impossible to make a comeback but most likely if you were that far behind you couldn't have made a comeback anyway. Oppression is a very controversial card and konami does like brining back controversial cards, but imo having this card brought back to 1 is a pipe dream for me, konami has proven time and time gain that they want fast formats and oppression facilitates slower formats. I think oppression has a 5% chance at coming back for the sole reason that it is controversial.
Semi Limited:
Tourguide of the underworld: A card is only as overpowered as the stuff it summons, and in tourguides case that is very overpowered. It is one of if not the most versatile cards that yugioh has ever seen. If you limit tourguide to 2 then you pretty much have to summon the other or risk drawing into a dead tourguide later in the game. yes you could just add in tour bus, but that card is sub par and would be dead if you drew it. In essence by only having 2 tourguide it would make the card more awkward to play and a little less powerful. Konami has shown in the past that they are not afarid to hit tcg exclusives. If thats the case then tour guide should have no problem getting hit but I have my doubts about konami actually hitting this card so i think it has a 50/50 chance at being hit.
TG Striker: Striker was unjustly hit. Death by association, just because it was in the tier 1 agent decklists doesn't really mean that TG's were the problem. The real culprit were of course the agents. TG were a pretty balanced deck and since earth was limited the real problem has been dealt with. TG's imo were dealt with because of the unbanning of heavy storm and the semi limiting of tengu and rest easy Kevin Tewart just because they won YCS Atlanta doesn't mena TG's are going to take over the world lol. Again this pushes a slower more sycnhro oriented game which konmai wants no part of.
Wind up carrier zenmighty: If you look at this card as a standalone entity you see that zenmighty is perhaps the best theme support card that a theme could ever hope for, let alone the fact that being able to pull a monster from the deck to mitigate the -1 that you took from making zenmighty. banning hunter stops the wind up loop but I still feel the deck can otk very easily and that is just not acceptable in my book. I could see konami either limiting zenmighty or banning hunter but not what i have just done so don't think that zenmighty will be semi'd, if anything it will be limited.
Black Whirlwind: Black Whirlwind is no where near as broken as gateway and has good restrictions(rightfully so!). Blackwings have been dead for a while now and maybe it is just a certain affinity I have for the deck but I want to see them to be able to at least compete with the other decks out there. Make them at least semi competitive because right now if you run blackwings you are asking to lose. I tried to make blackwings at least somewhat completive but to no avail. The deck can still be played but not successfully. Putting black whirlwind at 2 would make the deck tier 1 but it would help it out immensely and make it worth playing again. I don't like the idea of battle tricks from the hand(honest, kalut) so I didn't want to put kalut back at 2 for that reason. Konami seems to be done with their killing blackwings ways so it seems likely that whirlwind kalut or gale will come back to 2.
Mirror Force: Torrential at 2 was one of the best things konami has done in recent memory. Putting mirror force to 2 would be the second best thing. Like torrential, mirror force punishes overextension and bad players. Mirror force sees relatively low play right now due to the fact that it is a slow card and this is a fast format, with that reasoning konami could put it up to 2, it did put torrential to 2 even though it saw play. I say that mirror force has a 60% chance of being semi limited.
Unlimited:
Spore: Plants need a comeback and as long a glow up bulb stays banned the deck won't be broken. Konami wants to get rid of synchro monsters so bringing this back will go against that policy, so the chance for spore to come back is slim to none.
Destiny Draw: The only decent target for this card is malicious which is dead unless you have this card. Plus with all the broken card effects now days malicious is a good card not overpowered just good. I can see konami bring back d draw because they seem to be pretty good at brining back theme support that has been dead for a while. I say d draw has a 60% chance at being unlimited.
And that is the list! I have been working on this post for quite a while(hence the length and the recent lull in post). Please discuss in the comments and tell me what you agree and disagree(all you Royal oppression haters out there lol). Thanks for reading!
-Cameron
Things I am Trying to accomplish by making this list:
- I am trying to slow the game down and have no otk's whatsoever
- I am trying to eliminate 1 card setups/combos(Rescue rabbit, inzektor dragonfly, tourguide)
- I am trying to get rid of all loops of any kind
- I am trying to get rid of decks that have no interaction with the other player and act like you are playing a game of solitaire
- I am trying to do away with badly designed cards even if those cards see little or no play
- I am trying to get rid of cards that break game mechanics
- I am trying to get rid of cards that you can just draw off the top of the deck and win
Things I want to male clear
- This is not a prediction list though I do have a a certain hint of prediction at the end of every card choice but please take those with a grain of salt as I have no idea what konmai is going to do in the end.
- This list is strictly my opinion and what I would do if I were making the banlist
Banned:
BLS: This card should have never came back. Its summoning requirement is a joke, it wins games by itself, and it removes face up or face down monsters, broken much? I think that there is a reasonably good chance that this card is going to get banned by konami, since it has seen quite a bit of play in chaos drgaons. I would put BLS at a 50/50 chance to be banned.
Wind up hunter: I was thinking how I would hit wind-ups, making sure I didn't outright kill the deck but I did want to hinder it. Imo hunter's only purpose in the deck is to facilitate the wind up loop. I have watched many videos, read many articles, and talked to many wind up players and I always see/read/hear the same comment. The only reason i run hunter is to be able to loop the hand. A card that's purpose is to facilitate a loop(of any kind) should not exist Loops are not healthy for the game plain and simple. I believe hunter has a good chnace of being banned by konami. It doesn't really hurt their profits(as its only ran as 1 of) but the banning of this card successfully hits wind ups. Its a win win situation.
Morphing jar: Simply put this is a reset button. It is a psuedo cyber/fiber jar. Morphing jar takes any advantage you might have and says" lets start over!" reset buttons shouldn't exist. I would extremely surprised if konami hit this card. It doesn't see alot of play(hardly any really) its just one of those badly designed cards that shouldn't exist and konami has never really hit anything that is in that category.
Gaia Dragon the thunder charger: This card really only sees play in hiertaics but it still breaks the exceed mechanic. The whole point of an XYZ is to overlay for them and once their materials are used up then a XYZ is just a glorified beater. Gaia Dragon however allows you to disregard that "hinderance" and instead allows you to summon another XYZ with piercing(gaia) for the sacrifice of a dead XYZ. This card will probably never get banned plain and simple as konami has no problem printing cards that break game mechanics.
Future Fusion: Some have said hit 5 head dragon instead, I disagree because I am hitting this card not just to hit chaos dragons but because the card design on this card is just bad. With so many graveyard effects running around there is always bound to be some loop or otk affiliated with this card. To add insult to injury it is a auto win when played in chaos dragons. Broken much? I strongly feel that either this or 5 head dragon is going to be hit by konami, but I am leaning towards them banning this card over 5 head because that would kind of be foolish to ban a normal monster. I think futuire fusion has about a 70% chance of being banned with 5 head having a 30% chance(for all of you non math whizzes out there.)
Monster Reborn: I have been asking for this for a very long time. I hate cards where you just say "oh look I drew this, now I win!" This card should not have came back. Plus it is not skillful in the slightest, you just draw and play. Its time for this card to be retired for the next six months. I do think that konmai will ban monster reborn because it has been proven that konami has no problem banning this card then a few formats later limiting yet again.
Mind Control: Imo opinion this card has become no different than brain control. The metagame has proven time and time again that taking advantage from your opponent and giving it to yourself is just to good. I honestly do not think this card has a good chance at being hit. Yes it does see play in all decks, but I just do not see this card as being on konami's radar. I say it has about a 20% chance of being banned.
Limiter Removal: I may sound like a broken record here, but seriously what purpose does this card serve outside of facilitating otks's? A card that exists solely for the purpose of otking or looping simply should not exist. See morphing jar.
Gateway of the six: If you draw this turn 1 in samurai's you win. That is not healthy for the game. Samurai's need to find other ways to win games. See morphing jar/limiter removal.
Card Destruction: I have expressed how I feel about this card many times before. If you draw this in dark worlds you win 9 times out of 10, its basically future fusion but for dark worlds. Since Dark worlds havent done much this format I highly doubt that konmai will hit this card. If and/or when dark worlds do something relevant to the metagame is when this card will get hit.
Final Countdown: I thought about banning one day of piece instead of this, but in all honesty I would just be ignoring the problem. The reason I hate this deck so much is because it doesn't really matter who you are playing against, whenever you play this deck it is like you are playing a game of solitaire. There are no interactions with your opponent, nothing. Just you passing turns playing fader or any other battle phase trick then passing then repeat. This deck shouldn't exist, it requires no interaction with the game at all. Now technically this goes against the solitaire rule that Kevin Tewart posted on the konami blog, but since he was talking out of his ass when he posted those articles I don't see konami actually identifying that this deck should be hit.
Royal Tribute: Even though gravekeepers don't see much play having all the monsters in your hand wiped out is still to good. Gravekeepers have not done anything relevant in the meta so konami will not hit them.
Limited:
Rescue Rabbit: I know by hitting this down to one that it effectively kills the dino rabbit deck. I don't see where the problem is in that. Dino rabbit has dominated the TCG metagame for two formats. The deck has had its time in the spotlight and yes some of you may not like my reasoning, but for one single card to completely reinvent the metagame as we knew it and make normal monsters relevant again and to dominate for 2 straight formats, I believe it is a justified hit. Honestly at some point in the game it will probably join its feline counterpart by being banned, right now that is to harsh but we have yet to see what konami is planning to print. On top of all this it is a one card engine, you just play it and your field is set up. I see konami limiting laggia and semi limiting rabbit more than I see them doing what I have done. In essence they would be taking the same approach in hitting rabbit as they did samurai which wouldn't be entirely bad but not entirely good either.
Inzektor Dragonfly: By summoning this card and having one card in the grave(hornet) you can nuke your opponents field and XYZ up so you can otk. Need I explain more? This card is basically the epitome of what this format is. It is a one card set up there is no actual prior set up(besides hornet) and this card by itself can do all the work of summoning out the other inzektors. No skill high reward. I actually truly beleive that konami will hit dragonfly when they go after inzektors, logically it makes the most sense, it functions as the otk enabler, the one that effectively starts the combo, and the one that starts the nuking of the field, but when has konami used logic to make their banlists?
Grapha dragon lord of dark world: This card is quite possibly the best floater this game has ever seen. It has 2700 atk(sometimes 3000), it comes out for free from the graveyard and when it is sent from the graveyard to the hand it pops a card. One of this card is bad enough to deal with but when you have 3 to deal with it becomes ridiculous. Imo the worst part about this card is that backrow is not a viable answer to it as it usually pops the bacrow when it is discarded, this leaves very few outs besides running macro cosmos which doesn't work in most decks or running dd crow which is not as versatile a veiler. Its a recurring floating boss monster and something that we should have only one to deal with. I honestly don't think will do this. Konami has shown that they only hit decks that see a ton of play and consistently top YCS's. Dark world has not done this to the extent where I think they are on konami's radar.
Goyo Guardian: Yes I am on the bandwagon that thinks Goyo should come back. Konami has tried to make us believe that synchros don't exist and to a extent they have succeeded. When I was contemplating bringing back this card i thought what decks could utilize Goyo to its full extent. I couldn't think of any. Blackwings were the only deck capable of consistently brining out Goyo and they have fallen of the face of the earth. Yes it is one more boss monster to bring back into the game but no deck in this format can truly utilize it. Taking a XYZ with goyo really only serves the purpose for bringing a beatstick to your side of the field as the XYZ loses its materials. Konami is trying to push XYZ's and make us forget that synchros exist. Bringing back a good sycnhro would go against this products pushing policy so unfortunately I do not see goyo make a triumphant return any time soon.
Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon: The summoning requirement is a joke, it summons massive beatsticks with huge atk that enable otk's and it is at the heart of the hieratic otk and is the engine behind chaos dragons. Redmd was already bad enough within those sacky dragon decks of the days of old but when we got really good dragon support Redmd became busted. It enables otk's and that is one thing that I am trying to punish on this list. I say redmd has about a 50% chance of being limited. Gustaph Max is coming to the tcg soon via shoenen jump promo and hieraticts will be a good selling point for konami in the tcg, on the other hand to build a chaos dragon deck you really only need 3 structure decks and a set of reprinted tour guides and you have a tier one deck that is relatively cheap and doesn't make konami much money so it is still up in the air whether or not redmd will get hit.
Judgment Dragon: Lightsworn are pretty dead but that doesn't make this card any less broken. You just rip it off the top of the deck and most of the time you can play it. Lightsworn is already a sacky deck and judgment dragon only adds insult to injury. Konami has been returning cards to lighsworn rather than taking them away so this looks like a pipe dream.
Rekindling: I was playing against lavals on Dn and this card in conjunction with lavals was able to summon up shooting quasar, once shooting quasar hist the field you lose. Any card that allows you to summon any number of monsters from anywhere is just bad yugioh it factiliates swarming and otking even if rekindling in this case is not use for a otk it is still used as a complete lockdown which is just as bad. Since lavals have not yet seen the limelight here in the tcg I doubt that konmai will hit it, but on the other end of the spectrum konmai still hit blackwings because of the ocg even though they werent doing anything in the tcg. I would give rekindling about a 45% chance at being limited.
E emergency call/shiens smoke signal/hiertaic seal of convocation: No theme should have 3 rotas and even having 2 rotas still is to much searching and makes it way to easy to get to your combo pieces. Konmai might hit miracle fusion over e call but konmai likes to hit the consistency of decks so e call has about a 50% chance of being limited. Konmai will most likely want to keep giving support back to six sams since they have done nothing this format so I think smoke signal has about a 0%(lol) chance at being limited. I think konmai will most likely hit redmd over convocation but if konami doesn't hit redmd I think convocation has about a 80% at being limited as konami likes to hit the consistency of a deck.
Mystical Space Typhoon: This game has to many ways to otk. If you need to otk you need to get rid of backrow. To get rid of backrow you need backrow hate and yugioh has to much of that as well. Part of the reason that otks are running so rampant these days is because of the wide variety of options you have to pop backrow. With mystical space typhoon at 3 it makes all other forms of one of backrow hate irrelevant. Yes mst is a simple one for one but having 3 mst and one heavy storm makes destroying backrow and otking your opponent too easy. I am on the fence of whether konami will limit mst or not. Yes they want to push night beam down our throats but at the same time with less backrow hate means slower games which konami is not a fan of. I give mst about a 40% chance of being limited.
Ultimate Offering: This card is a otk enabler. It rewards you for dumping your entire hand and swarming the field. That kind of play is not only bad for the game but it should not be rewarded whatsoever. Leaving this card at 3 is just asking for abuse. Konami has a ton of machine support coming out in the next few sets and ultimate offering staying at 3 will only help push that. Add that on top of the fact that ultimate offering has seen no play and you have a a very slim chance at konami even hitting ultimate offering.
Royal Oppression: This is definitely the contreversial choice of my list. Simply put I believe that oppression is a necessary evil for the game. On one hand oppression prevents any kind of comeback for the player that is losing. On the other hand it curbs the extreme special summoning that is running rampant. There is no doubt in my mind that if this card came back everyone would run it, but that would make for a slower format. With the 1 mst you have you might want to save it for this card or give up spots to dedicate to night beam or dust tornado. All in all at 1 I think oppression deserves to come back, yes it makes it near impossible to make a comeback but most likely if you were that far behind you couldn't have made a comeback anyway. Oppression is a very controversial card and konami does like brining back controversial cards, but imo having this card brought back to 1 is a pipe dream for me, konami has proven time and time gain that they want fast formats and oppression facilitates slower formats. I think oppression has a 5% chance at coming back for the sole reason that it is controversial.
Semi Limited:
Tourguide of the underworld: A card is only as overpowered as the stuff it summons, and in tourguides case that is very overpowered. It is one of if not the most versatile cards that yugioh has ever seen. If you limit tourguide to 2 then you pretty much have to summon the other or risk drawing into a dead tourguide later in the game. yes you could just add in tour bus, but that card is sub par and would be dead if you drew it. In essence by only having 2 tourguide it would make the card more awkward to play and a little less powerful. Konami has shown in the past that they are not afarid to hit tcg exclusives. If thats the case then tour guide should have no problem getting hit but I have my doubts about konami actually hitting this card so i think it has a 50/50 chance at being hit.
TG Striker: Striker was unjustly hit. Death by association, just because it was in the tier 1 agent decklists doesn't really mean that TG's were the problem. The real culprit were of course the agents. TG were a pretty balanced deck and since earth was limited the real problem has been dealt with. TG's imo were dealt with because of the unbanning of heavy storm and the semi limiting of tengu and rest easy Kevin Tewart just because they won YCS Atlanta doesn't mena TG's are going to take over the world lol. Again this pushes a slower more sycnhro oriented game which konmai wants no part of.
Wind up carrier zenmighty: If you look at this card as a standalone entity you see that zenmighty is perhaps the best theme support card that a theme could ever hope for, let alone the fact that being able to pull a monster from the deck to mitigate the -1 that you took from making zenmighty. banning hunter stops the wind up loop but I still feel the deck can otk very easily and that is just not acceptable in my book. I could see konami either limiting zenmighty or banning hunter but not what i have just done so don't think that zenmighty will be semi'd, if anything it will be limited.
Black Whirlwind: Black Whirlwind is no where near as broken as gateway and has good restrictions(rightfully so!). Blackwings have been dead for a while now and maybe it is just a certain affinity I have for the deck but I want to see them to be able to at least compete with the other decks out there. Make them at least semi competitive because right now if you run blackwings you are asking to lose. I tried to make blackwings at least somewhat completive but to no avail. The deck can still be played but not successfully. Putting black whirlwind at 2 would make the deck tier 1 but it would help it out immensely and make it worth playing again. I don't like the idea of battle tricks from the hand(honest, kalut) so I didn't want to put kalut back at 2 for that reason. Konami seems to be done with their killing blackwings ways so it seems likely that whirlwind kalut or gale will come back to 2.
Mirror Force: Torrential at 2 was one of the best things konami has done in recent memory. Putting mirror force to 2 would be the second best thing. Like torrential, mirror force punishes overextension and bad players. Mirror force sees relatively low play right now due to the fact that it is a slow card and this is a fast format, with that reasoning konami could put it up to 2, it did put torrential to 2 even though it saw play. I say that mirror force has a 60% chance of being semi limited.
Unlimited:
Spore: Plants need a comeback and as long a glow up bulb stays banned the deck won't be broken. Konami wants to get rid of synchro monsters so bringing this back will go against that policy, so the chance for spore to come back is slim to none.
Destiny Draw: The only decent target for this card is malicious which is dead unless you have this card. Plus with all the broken card effects now days malicious is a good card not overpowered just good. I can see konami bring back d draw because they seem to be pretty good at brining back theme support that has been dead for a while. I say d draw has a 60% chance at being unlimited.
And that is the list! I have been working on this post for quite a while(hence the length and the recent lull in post). Please discuss in the comments and tell me what you agree and disagree(all you Royal oppression haters out there lol). Thanks for reading!
-Cameron
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Vanguard Clans and choosing
Hello again followers, its grant back with another saturly post of vanguard. I hope you liked my previous post because , believe me, things will only get better. Today, i will be talking about the current playable english clans. Now, whenever a new clan(s) appear, i will make a post covering it. Talking about clans reminds me a lot about old style yugioh decks. I miss some of those old days when id face cameron's blackwings with my lightsworn or machina gadgets. Even making decks back then was nice. It was fun. Anyway, on to the topic!
Currently there are 9 different clans:
Royal Paladins- Swarm. equivalent to blackwings. -$150-170
Kagero- Field control, Retires opponents rear guards. Kinda like soul taker or inzektor hornet. -$140
Oracle think tank-Focuses on hand advantage and drawing. The only deck i know that can legally stack cards. $200($250-300 once set 3 comes)
Nova grapplers- Beatdown with multiple attacks. Kinda has bad hands, though. -$130
Spike Brothers- Rush Beatdown, equivalent to gbs without chariot. -$110
Granblue- Toolbox the drop zone(graveyard). Takes a skilled pilot to run. $100
Gold Paladin- It swarms like royals but in a much faster way. They superior call the top card of the deck( trust me its an inconsistent way to set up the field.)- $150(Garmore based), $200(Spectral Duke based), $250(Ezel based)
Narukami- Kagero's twin and my favorite deck atm. Controls the field like kagero but in a different manner. Instead of retiring rear guards, they extend pressure so that the opponent will misplay. Also, takes a skilled pilot to run.- $190
Angel Feather- Toolbox the damage zone, and another skilled pilot deck. $200
With these clans in mind i must warn all of you that choosing isnt easy. In case you already didnt know , there is no "perfect" deck so choosing would probably depend on these 3 questions?
What is your playstyle?
How creative can you get?
What deck have you truly loved in the past that would make you run 1 of these decks(if you are from yugioh or magic)?
Now, you don't have to stick to these 9 decks, since there are 3 more viable clans being released 2 weeks from today.
Thats really it for today. I know i may have not been funny in this post but ill try to make a joke next time.
-
Grant a.k.a Blaster Dark a.k.a The Magnificent Shadow Dragon
Currently there are 9 different clans:
Royal Paladins- Swarm. equivalent to blackwings. -$150-170
Kagero- Field control, Retires opponents rear guards. Kinda like soul taker or inzektor hornet. -$140
Oracle think tank-Focuses on hand advantage and drawing. The only deck i know that can legally stack cards. $200($250-300 once set 3 comes)
Nova grapplers- Beatdown with multiple attacks. Kinda has bad hands, though. -$130
Spike Brothers- Rush Beatdown, equivalent to gbs without chariot. -$110
Granblue- Toolbox the drop zone(graveyard). Takes a skilled pilot to run. $100
Gold Paladin- It swarms like royals but in a much faster way. They superior call the top card of the deck( trust me its an inconsistent way to set up the field.)- $150(Garmore based), $200(Spectral Duke based), $250(Ezel based)
Narukami- Kagero's twin and my favorite deck atm. Controls the field like kagero but in a different manner. Instead of retiring rear guards, they extend pressure so that the opponent will misplay. Also, takes a skilled pilot to run.- $190
Angel Feather- Toolbox the damage zone, and another skilled pilot deck. $200
With these clans in mind i must warn all of you that choosing isnt easy. In case you already didnt know , there is no "perfect" deck so choosing would probably depend on these 3 questions?
What is your playstyle?
How creative can you get?
What deck have you truly loved in the past that would make you run 1 of these decks(if you are from yugioh or magic)?
Now, you don't have to stick to these 9 decks, since there are 3 more viable clans being released 2 weeks from today.
Thats really it for today. I know i may have not been funny in this post but ill try to make a joke next time.
-
Grant a.k.a Blaster Dark a.k.a The Magnificent Shadow Dragon
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Intro and my experience to Cardfight Vanguard
Hello, people of cameron’s blog, my name is Grant(the magnificent shadow dragon). You’ve probably heard of me through many of cam’s posts and you must know that i play cardfight vanguard. It is all true, although since the past week i have decided to play yugioh again(no matter what konami spews out of their king piccolo mouth). Without further ado, I will tell you about cardfight vanguard as well as clear up some rumors behind it .
Cardfight Vanguard is a super tcg(as some may say) due to the fact it combines many aspects from regular tcgs today(magic, yugioh, naruto, pokemon), yet it shows new aspects that i was unfamiliar with. First, is the aspect of
the drive and damage check. When i first heard of this, i thought it as whatever, but over time through those checks you can remember what is in your opponent’s hand(to calculate what they can guard with or whatnot). The second new factor would be there are no further use of other cards outside of units(no spells or traps). I found it awkward to transition from yugioh or magic to vanguard when all i saw was creatures. However, i then realized that every card represents defense and offense as they can either go to the field or be used as a shield. Finally, last but not least, the 3rd new interesting factor would be the triggers. Many YGO and MTG players have often used the sacky factor of the triggers to avoid playing the game, but through playing all 3 of those games ive seen some sort of sackiness within all 3( YGO: easy topdecks/loops/otks, MTG: mana screwed/miracle). People may think triggers are a random factor(like cameron stated in “The Random Factor”) in contrast, i see triggers as an avoidable random factor, since all you need to do is guard appropriately(Not going against cam, but just saying).
Now, the top 5 excuses why people say they wont get into vanguard( this is the clearing up rumors part):
5. “ It doesnt take skill”
Wrong, this game takes plenty of skill. You may not think of it as much but there are many skills to master in this game( guarding, placing proper RG columns, card counting, activating skills without wasting your counterblast/ soulblast, making proper use of your deck). Of course, those aforementioned skills come after you have played the game for a while, but there are people who do not last long because of whoknowswhat.
4. “There is no organized play”
This is a somewhat old excuse, since now WE HAVE ORGANIZED PLAY!!!! In fact, we have the first official vanguard tourney at the anaheim convention center on august 4th. After that there are regionals staring in september. However, what disturbs me the most is when some YGO players and MTG players say that. Uh, hello there was a time when your games didnt have organized play and yet people played those games anyways.
3. “ It’s a rip-off of YGO/MTG”
I laugh at this comment. Just because a game has some random game aspect from another game doesnt mean its a rip-off. If that’s the case then yugioh is a ripoff of magic:the gathering. But its not a rip off of Magic and neither vanguard is to yugioh/magic.
2. “ I don’t have enough money to play 2 card games”
I do understand we live in a shit of an economy and some of us are poor. If u wanted you can just buy a trial deck and limit yourself to that. You actually have a chance to win with a trial deck.
1. “This game won’t last”
This is probably the most irritating(and common) excuse ive heard. IT IS THIS TYPE OF BELIEF THAT KILLS UPCOMING TCGS. Believe me, nothing lasts forever(except family and friendship(dont confuse me with tea)). But even without that cardfight vanguard did take off ladies and gentlemen.
Cardfight Vanguard is a great TCG and if you have access to it, i definitely recommend you try it out. I’ve already stated that im going to play both vanguard and yugioh, so i can balance out 2 card games and so can you. This is just the start of my ongoing articles of vanguard. Next week, i will go over the different clans of vanguard in the english format..
Until next time, see yah!
-Grant a.k.a “Blaster Dark” a.k.a THE MAGNIFICENT SHADOW DRAGON
Friday, July 20, 2012
Talking Yugioh #1
After a long and restful vacation I am finally back to writing on ze blog. Anyways I always like doing these kind of posts where I talk about what the team is doing, my thoughts on certain ideas and so forth. The problem was I never knew what to name these posts so I would name them something generic. I think I finally thought of an decent name and one that catches the essence of this post. Enough with all of this boring talk let's get to yugioh!
Grant and I have been recently been staying up pretty late talking about his dark world turbo deck that he is trying to build. We were initially going to run triple sillva but after some testing we realized why no one does that: its horribly inconsistent. Even with the plentiful discard outlets it still wasn't up to par with the rest of the deck. Instead we cut sillva to one and added in some staples that we cut for the sillvas and the deck worked out like expected. We were proud of the deck. The deck doesn't really stray from the norm very much but the one sillva that acts like a tech card really does add a lot of power to the deck. The only traps that we have in the deck are 2 torrential and the solemn judgment. I will post up the deck list once we make sure the deck is perfected. BTW card destruction in dark worlds is like future fusion in dark world, you play it and you win. So far the only bad matchup is the mirror considering all of the discard outlets we use to our advantage they can use as well. Other than that the chaos dragon matchup is winnable about 70% of the the time. The decks best matchup is rabbit or hero, once u get grapha out you pretty much win.
I was recently looking over the set the return of the duelist and the set is shaping up to be pretty decent. There's not a lot of love for competive play but that also means there are no insanely broken cards yet either. The cover card is fantastic in heroes and makes them very good and able to otk very easy. Gear gigant x is also extremely good in gadgets almost too good. Soul drain is a card that I have waited for, for almost my entire competive yugioh career, and that card hands down is my favorite card in the set. I can definatley see that card being used competitively. Other than those before mentioned cards nothing seems to be really good/broken. The spell book archetype is something I would be interested in for the sake of reliving my childhood when I used my horrible spellcaster deck. Its good to see spellcasters getting some support despite that support being mediocre at best. I just hope konmai doesn't print ridicousley overpowered cards for tcg exclusives, it would be nice to have a non game changing set for a change, but we all know that won't happen.
I actually get a lot of questions from people at locals/readers of the blog asking me why I still care about a format that doesn't have anything else to offer. I honestly don't know why I still care about formats when they reach their end. Grant and I have always been like that while our other teammates are normal people and look onward to next format. In just am always eating sleeping and dreaming yugioh lol.
On one final note the poll asking about the card fight vanguard article every Saturday is over and the yes answer won by a landslide so expect a vanguard article written by Grant tomorrow and I will hopefully have my ban list wish list up no later than Sunday night.
Thanks for reading this poorly organized post!
-Cameron
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