Shonen Jump New Jersey Top 16 Decklists

The top 16 decklists from Shonen Jump New Jersey have been released! See them all on the Konami website here.

YuGiOh National Championships Confirmed!

The location and dates for the majority of 2010 National Championships has just been released! For more details, check out the Konami website here.

	Country	Event Type	Event Date	Event Location
	Denmark	open	May 01st/ 02nd	Vamdrup
	Austria	open	May 02nd	Wien
	Switzerland	open	May 08th	Basel
	South Africa	open	May 08th	Johannesburg
	Norway	feeds into Sweden	May 08th/ 09th	Stockholm
	Finland	feeds into Sweden	May 08th/ 09th	Stockholm
	Sweden	open	May 08th/ 09th	Stockholm
	Greece	invitation-only	May 09th	Athens
	Malta	open	May 09th	Msida
	Germany	invitation-only	May 15th/ 16th	Kassel
	Estonia	open	May 16th	Tallinn
	Netherlands	open	May 22th	Utrecht
	Lithuania	open	May 23th	Kaunas
	Turkey	open	May 23th	Istanbul
	France	invitation-only	May 29th/ 30th	Paris
	Ireland	feeds into UK	May 29th/ 30th	London
	United Kingdom	invitation-only	May 29th/ 30th	London
	Italy	invitation-only	May 29th/ 30th or June 05th/ 06th or June 12th/ 13th	TBA
	Latvia	open	June 5th	Riga
	Portugal	open	June 5th	Coimbra
	Belgium	open	June 05th/ 06th	Etterbeek
	Spain	invitation-only	June 05th/ 06th	Madrid
	New Zealand	open	June 6th	Auckland
	Australia	open	July 10th	TBA
	Bulgaria	invitation-only	TBA	TBA
	Croatia	open	TBA	TBA
	Slovenia	open	TBA	TBA

Shonen Jump Championship New Name Confirmed!

“This is also, the last SHONEN JUMP Championship, as we are relaunching as the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series! The first Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series event will be held next month in Virginia!”
Konami's Vice President in charge of Card Business, Yumi Hoashi.

The statement was met by more cheers, but left attendees wondering: what did it all mean? We asked! On one hand, the shift from SHONEN JUMP Championships to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series is a change in name. But it’s also a lot more than that. “The biggest change is that the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series is going to be a global program.” That means Duelists from Latin America and Europe won’t have to travel nearly as far to compete in YCS events.

It's confirmed, the new name for Shonen Jump Championships is Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series. However it is more than just a new name - Shonen Jump Championships are being completely relaunched, and Yugioh Championship Series are now scheduled to take place in Europe and South America. Find more information on Yugioh Championship Series on the Konami website here.

"We love Shonen Jump and they love us. You'll continue to see coverage of Yu-Gi-Oh! in Shonen Jump, as well as cards inserted in the magazines and graphic novels."
Kevin Tewart on Pojo.

There's more good news - according to Kevin Tewart, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s relationship with Shonen Jump and Viz is still very strong, meaning the name change will not alter the release of Shonen Jump promo cards or the appearance of Yu-Gi-Oh! manga in the magazine.

Shonen Jump New Jersey Live Coverage

SJC New Jersey coverage has begun! Around 2,200 people have attended the largest Yugioh tournament of all time. Read all the latest deck profiles and feature matches on the official Yugioh website here.

Playtesting and Reading Your Opponent's Plays

I recently stumbled upon a couple of very informative videos, made by two lesser known Youtubers; iamsixxy, and shinfitz. They are both invaluable in the advice they give, explaining how to playtest effectively, and how to read your opponent's plays. They put into words perfectly what I was aiming at in my previous article. I hope these videos will be useful for those lucky enough to attend Shonen Jump New Jersey this weekend, enjoy.

The Shining Darkness Sneak Preview Mat

Click to enlarge image

The mat for The Shining Darkness Sneak Preview is confirmed, and looks remarkably similar to the Win-a-mat unveiled a few weeks ago. See the full details of the Sneak Preview on the official Yugioh website here.

Check out the Shonen Jump Championship win-a-mat here.

How to Read your Opponent's Plays

Reading your opponent's plays can be difficult at best, however it is possible. If you are able to fully master being able to predict your opponent's plays, it puts you at a significant advantage over your competition. Some of the tips below may seem like common sense, but so often I see players fall into these common traps, which can often lose them the game. As long as you strictly abide by your common sense, and use the resources available to you, you will see yourself winning a far greater number of matches.


Check your opponent's graveyard

This allows you to examine exactly what cards you opponent has in their deck, as well as showing you what cards they have used up. You know that if your opponent has a Heavy Storm in their graveyard, you should be more confident in setting several spells and traps, piling pressure on your opponent. If you see your opponent mains Dimensional Prison, you should not be so thrift in Synchro Summoning a Stardust Dragon, as you know its effect will do nothing against Dimensional Prison. If your opponent still has Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute looming in their deck, you know it would not be a good idea to over extend too heavily to try and gain control, because your offensive play could easily be countered.

Many good players switch the position of their deck and graveyard from the orthodox way, so their deck essentially blocks off their graveyard making it harder to see or reach. This makes it more difficult for their opponent to make reads - but remember that the graveyard is common knowledge, and your opponent has the right to see your graveyard and vice versa.

Site Update

Since the site started a few months ago, the 'Post a Comment' button hasn't been working properly for some reason. I've changed the HTML of the site around a bit, so now when you click 'Post a Comment' a new window will pop up and you will be able to share your thoughts about certain cards etc. Enjoy!

NB. If the 'Post a Comment' button isn't showing, try clicking the name of the post, eg. for this post it will be 'Site Update', and the link should show up.

How to Prepare for a Premier Event

Dale Bellido put a really informative video on his Youtube Channel, outlining the best ways to prepare for a major event like a Shonen Jump or National Championship. For even more tips on how to prepare for a major event, I wrote an article on how to get the most out of tournaments a few months ago, which you can find here.

Looking Forward: Divine Warning

Divine Warning (Solemn Warning) DREV-JP077
Counter Trap

Activate by paying 2000 Life Points. Negate the Summon of a monster, the activation of a Spell or Trap Card with an effect that Special Summons, or the activation of an Effect Monster's effect that Special Summons, and destroy that Spell / Trap / monster.

Divine Warning is a card just out in the OCG set Duelist Revolution, and has been relatively under-hyped. In case you didn't understand its effect, it is able to stop EVERY summon in the game - this includes Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Battle Fader, Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame, Flamvell Firedog as well as recruiters like Mystic Tomato and Giant Rat. As well as this, it has the ability to negate normal summons, rendering cards like Gadgets and Monarchs useless.

However this effect comes at a hefty price, eliminating a quarter of your total life points. This makes the Divine Warning slightly situational - it will be difficult to pay the cost during the later stages of a game, which is when the card is the most game swinging. What made Solemn Judgment so widely played was no matter how many life points you had left, you could still activate its effect - making it a great card for late game scenarios. Divine Warning may see less play due to this.

Shonen Jump Championships Have a New Name?

Following Shonen Jump New Jersey, it appears the name of Shonen Jump Championships will change, possibly to Yu-Gi-Oh! Premier Tournaments beginning with Yu-Gi-Oh! Premiere Tournament Chantilly, VA (Washington DC) coming up in mid-may. This could be due to a conflicting name with a new series of tournaments in the Naruto TCG also named Shonen Jump Championships. Naturally this raises several questions, for example does this mean Yugioh is dropping out of the monthly Shonen Jump Magazine? Will this put an end to Shonen Jump promo cards? We will have to see in the near future.

Looking Forward: Pot of Greed and Modesty

Pot of Greed and Modesty (Pot of Greederosity) DREV-JP062
Normal Spell

Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Choose 1 of them, and add it to your hand. Shuffle the remaining cards back into the deck. Only 1 "Pot of Greed and Modesty" can be activated per turn, and you cannot special summon during the turn this card is activated.

Pot of Greed and Modesty is a card recently released in the Duelist Revolution OCG set, and is one of the most splashable cards released in Yugioh so far. It provides draw power for almost every deck available, and provides a great boost for both top tier as well as less commonly played decks. The ability to dig three cards out of your deck taps into what made the long since banned Graceful Charity such a good card. Statistically, you are three times more likely to draw a card that is useful in your situation than if you played a card like Upstart Goblin. Pot of Greed and Modesty provides the closest effect available in the game to drawing three cards from your deck, which is what makes it so powerful.

However with every great card there are a few drawbacks. The inability to special summon during the turn you activate it, and the fact you can only use one per turn may limit its use in OTK variants, which in my opinion is a good thing. As well as this, you need to reveal the three cards you picked up to your opponent. This may give your opponent a good idea of what cards to look out for in your deck, and assist them when making reads later in the game.

Konami Announces New Mats

Click above to enlarge images

Q: Will there be anything new and exciting at the 75th SHONEN JUMP Championship - Edison, NJ?

Yes! There will be some new and exciting things to see, win, and do at this event. Take a look!

*UPDATED 4/12*
Get new Game Mats, available at the 75th SHONEN JUMP Championship – Edison, NJ!
At this event, you can be among the first to earn the newest Regional 2010 Game Mat and the newest Win-A-Mat Game Mat. You can also receive a 75th SHONEN JUMP Championship Game Mat just for participating in the SHONEN JUMP Championship main event. You don’t want to miss that.

Konami have just announced four brand new mats - a new Regionals Mat, a new Shonen Jump Championship Top 32 Mat, a new Win-a-Mat and a Shonen Jump Championship New Jersey Participation Mat! It looks like Konami did a great job with the mat designs, and I look forward to seeing even better designs in the future!

See the full details on the Konami website here.

Looking Forward: Ally Genex Birdman

Ally Genex Birdman DT08-JP018
Dark
***
Machine/ Tuner
1400/400

Activate by returning 1 face-up monster you control to the hand; Special Summon this card from your hand. If the returned monster was a WIND monster, this card gains 500 ATK. When this card is Special Summoned by this effect, it is removed from play when it is removed from the field.

Ally Genex Birdman is another cool 'Ally Genex' card just out in the OCG's Duel Terminal. Just like the previously reviewed card Ally Genex Crusher, Birdman is highly searchable using Sangan and Mystic Tomato, however what really makes Birdman shine is its effect. It is essentially a reset button for many monsters, take Machina Gearframe for example. You can return Gearframe to special summon Birdman, then normal summon Gearframe again, search a card from your deck then synchro summon into a Stardust Dragon! This same principle applies to monarchs, allowing you to re-summon them using Birdman's effect so you can use their effects multiple times in the same duel.

However this is just the tip of the iceburg, Birdman can also be used to reset flip effects like Gravekeeper's Spy and Super-Nimble Mega Hamster. Imagine this scenario; you set Spy, your opponent attacks netting you another, then next turn you special summon Birdman, synchro summon X-Saber Urbellum, then set spy all over again - essentially netting you a free level 7 synchro monster.

+ Can easily abuse cards like Elemental Hero Stratos, Machina Gearframe, Gravekeeper's Spy, Super-Nimble Mega Hamster and Monarchs.

+ Highly searchable with Sangan and Mystic Tomato.

+ Dark Type, so it can be used with Allure of Darkness.

+ A level 3 tuner, which means easy access to cards like X-Saber Urbellum and Black Rose Dragon.

The Format so Far: Machinas

First off, sorry for the delay in articles recently. I've been coursework swamped, as well as having a throat infection which isn't helpful. At the moment the site's a one-man-band, which means things had to slow down for a while. I'm feeling alot better now, so I'll try to keep the site as updated as possible. Thanks for your patience, much love!


Machinas are a really solid archtype that were released in the Machina Mayhem structure deck a few weeks ago. As you can see from the previous metagame analysis post, Machinas have made a surprising impact in major tournaments so far, being the fourth most successful deck. The deck's success is mainly due to its two power cards, Machina Gearframe and Machina Fortress. Gearframe essentially gives the deck three Elemental Hero Stratos-esque cards which help thin the deck, provide instant advantage as well as reinforce your field position with its high attack. Used in conjunction with the gadget cards available in Machina Mayhem, it is clear how the deck can pile up massive advantage over a few turns.

The deck gets an even bigger boost with Machina Fortress, which is essentially the deck's boss monster. With an easy summoning condition from the grave or the hand, Fortress makes up for the deck's inability to synchro summon, and provides extra attack power as well as a great effect.


However, a problem with machina decks, is the ease at which they are countered. For example, System Down can cripple any field advantage you had built up, as well as removing from play those crucial Fortresses from your graveyard. Pulling the Rug also stop the gadgets in the deck, as well as the Gearframes. If you decide to run Machina's, make sure you play to avoid these cards. To avoid getting hit badly by System Downs, don't overextend too much and conserve your Fortresses until you really need to drop them (eg. going for game, or removing an opponent's monster).

For more information on the deck, and how to build it while on a budget, Robbie Kohl and Dale Bellido gave some really useful tips on their Youtube channels.