Wednesday, 14 April 2010

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.

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

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.

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

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.

Monday, 5 April 2010

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.

Monday, 29 March 2010

The Format so Far: Which Decks Have Made an Impact?

We are almost a month into this brand new format, so I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of the decks that have made a splash at the largest tournaments of the format so far. Below is what I found, enjoy!

Top Decklists (84 in total) from 10 Tournaments

22 Cat Synchro Variants (of which 18 Flamvell Cat) (26%)
14 Blackwing (17%)
14 Gladiator Beasts (17%)
11 Gadget Variants (of which 9 Machina Gadgets) (13%)
6 Lightsworn Variant (7%)
5 Stun (of which 1 Gemini Stun) (6%)
2 Dark Variant (2%)
2 Burn (2%)
1 Flamvell Variant (1%)
1 Ben Kei (1%)
1 Six Samurai (1%)
1 Light and Darkness Dragon (1%)
1 Gravekeeper’s (1%)
1 Dragons (1%)
1 Lightsworn-Zombie-Blackwings (1%)
1 Elemental Heroes (1%)

Generally it seems to be a fairly healthy, diverse format. Synchro cat seems to be the most successful deck, yet it still only accounts for a quarter of the playing field. I hope for a good, competitive meta in the next few months!

You can find all the decklists from above at Duelistgroundz.com* (see links below)

March 27th/ 28th
Las Vegas Regional

March 20th/ 21st
The Hague Regional (Netherlands)
Tampa Regional
Maplewood Regional

March 13th/ 14th
Greenville Regional
Mobile Regional
Paris, Dark Leeroy Tournament (France)

March 6th/ 7th
Greensboro Regional
Jacksonville Regional
Fargo Regional

* Registration is required