Hit 40.000 Visits!

Just 10 visits away from perfection

That's 40.000, yahoooo! It took 1 month and 30 days to get 10k visits, while it took 2 months and 14 days to get to 30.000 from 20.000. Thank you all for the support. Lately I haven't been around too much, but still you gave me so many visits.
Thanks to my "followers", usual readers of the blog even if not subscribed, to occasional readers, to readers of other blogs that read mine in the suggested blogs, to googlers, to users that linked one of my blogposts to a friend of their and that friend of their that read it. Thanks to the other bloggers for keeping readers entertained while I wasn't active and thanks to Konami for keeping this card game (it hurts to say so, because Konami has lots of things to be blamed about). Thanks to 4kids for dubbing this and Italian dubbers for making me know this game using the anime. Thanks to internet, I couldn't have followed this game without it. Last but not least, thanks to my YGO-playing friends for keeping me playing this game, both online and in RL.
Thank you all for 40.000 visits, it wouldn't have been possible without you all.

One last thing: I'd like to dedicate this one post to mike, from dueling legacy. I believe I never posted on your blog, but still I used to read it. I think I'm speaking for all of the bloggers: we'll miss you.

As a special for the 40.000 visits: I'm studying some probabilities thingies, if I can get it done I'll post it as soon as possible.

March 1st: Next Meta, Renewal

With the coming of the new banlist, I've got lots of things to do. The two things aren't related, I'm busy because of other thingies, and thus I didn't have time to work on my decks for the new meta more than a little bit. For this exact reason I decided to write this post about changes in Yugioh and changes that will affect my decks and how.
First of all, general meta:
Meta should be easily Mermails and Spellbooks, highly supported by Konami, and Fire Fists.
Fire Fist is a great deck that I don't like to play (sadly, others say it is plenty of fun) and has a lot of potential. I don't know this one very well, but it is easy to guess that after some time after the banlist (about 3 weeks at most) most will drop Vorse Raiders. The reason Vorse Raiders were played was pretty much DDV. Currently, though, the main thing that DDV hit was Wind-Up, and the latter won't see much play, even though I'm really liking this one now. Bear aside, the deck doesn't even cost too much (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not really expert with prices).
Mermail and Spellbooks won't change much, Mermail is play-ready from the first days of the new meta without any problem, while spellbook is still waiting Judgment Day in the TCG.
Hand Traps are about to become useless, since neither Veiler nor Maxx are that good against those decks. However, if you're forced to play one (like me with Hootcake in Madolches), play 2 Veilers and you're okay.

This is our meta. End.

My decks:
Let's first say that the next meta I'm probably working on my decks more than usual, if I get some time, because I wouldn't want to play one of those three for tournaments (even on DN, I just don't want to). I'm probably working on them to make them meta-ready, and thus have big advantages against those decks. As of now, I'm playing Gate HEROes, AZ kills Mermail and I can do something against Spellbooks. However, even though I didn't test yet against Fire Fists, they should have the upper hand, because my AZ's blow-ups can't do a thing against a previously on the field bear or an addition tensu's summon.

For the other decks, let's see Chain Beat. Here is my previous list, I believed I changed it alot, even though not remember how, even before the new banlist. As you can guess, Tour is bad now in this deck, since I can't bring Zenmaity anymore. This isn't that hard to update, I just have to change my main search engine for Rabbit with another one. Tenki's the way. Dropping the entire Tour engine we get 4 slots, dropping a Warning will result in 5. We have multiple ways to use those. 3 Tenkis and 2 Bears. Provides search power and additional searchable monster hate. With 2 TKs this is a viable option, however I'm trying to get this in RL, and thus I can't make it cost that much. For a budget build it will simply be 3 Tenki and 2 Winged Rhynos or 2 Tenkis, 2 rhynos and 1 Horn (great card), or 3 tenki, 1 rhynos, 1 horn. I believe the latter is quite unstable, since I've got 4 targets for 3 cards. It's true that tenki has a power-upping effect, but 3 for that isn't that good, and opening multiples maybe isn't awesome. What's more, 3 could clog your S/Ts, so I'm using the second. In the other changes I already did there is an Orichalcos mained. It's great because Rabbits becomes, usually, 1400+500+100=2000, more than TK, and Rhynos can take care of Megalo, Junon and Soko.
I'm waiting for Thunderbirds and HA7 to play them, and the build should change alot.

Infernities XYZ. A general guide here. Well, I'm not playing this in RL for economical reasons, but with Lavalval it could be great against Mermails: they can't play Macro Cosmos and we have easy access to Dweller. Spellbooks could be a rough match-up, but I think we can handle them and possibly OTK 'em. Fire Fists are still unknown to me, so I don't know.

Collapserpent-Wyburster Monarch. Here the list. As usual, it can get Dweller out, thus it is good thing against Mermails. It plays Vanity's Fiend leaving only Undine and Pike+infantry as an out to it. As for spellbooks, we can't get Shock Master out, but Caius, Vanity's Fiend and Soul Exchange can give them an hard time. No MUs here.

Madolches. As you probably know, there'll be Hootcake in LTGY. That one card will give us Madolche player a giant push in the right direction. We can easily do Tiara on turn 1, if necessary (it sure isn't). Of course we have access to Dweller as nothing, and with some effort to Shock Master, too. Having both is great for the next meta.

There will be the main decks I'll work on, given what I know right now.


Here is all I could write in these days, sorry if I'm really busy and can't write more. See Ya.

Quick Updates

You may have noticed I'm a little less active lately, reason being bad connection and lack of time, so here's a little update on the current situation:

Banned, I'm definitely going to play WUs post-banned, I'm liking the deck alot. I'm going for a Control build with 11 traps or so, 1 bear, 1 gorilla, 3 tenkis, 3 rabbits and aiming to control the field with Dire Wolf+Rabbit or even Shock Master sometimes. Wind-Up Warrior is working awesomely to me, I'm thinking of bringing him to 2, while 1 soldier could take care of TK other than being great material for R5 Xyzs. If Warrior used on himself had more than 1900 ATK, he would've been a mainstay for me in threes.
I heard someone is trying to play the deck in a turbo build with Summoner Monks, but I think that's the worst way to do it.

Tournaments, I'm going to a Fly to YCS tournament next Sunday, gonna be quite funny, and will be my first tournament in RL. Finally.

Blogging, I'm working on something, you'll be able to see it in at the worst in a week, but I think 3 days will be more than enough, if I have a decent connection. Hope you'll like it.

Hope I can be back in the less time possible. See Ya.

1st March 2013: Banlist Revealed

Forbidden:
Sangan
Wind-Up Zenmaity

Limited:
Wind-Up Magician
One Day of Peace
Solemn Warning

Semi-limited:
Tsukuyomi
Thunder King Rai-Oh
Advanced Ritual Art

Freed:
Spore
Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Shien's Smoke Signal
Mind Crush

Let's start first saying that, as most of you know, March's Banlist is the economic-based one. Konami always tries to get as much money as they can from it.
If you didn't know, it could be guessed by seeing this. Let's see the balist closely, now:

Sangan Forbidden. Got a tour? I won't mind Torrential Tributing you on the second monster's summon instead of the first or none at all.
Zenmaity Banned. Got a Wind-Up? Well, you'd better change how it's built.
Magician Limited. Read up here, has pretty much the same meaning.
One Day of Peace Limited. Sad. I loved that FTK.
Warning Limited. Not that I care, in RL I didn't even have one even though I play 4 Antimeta decks, lol.
Tsukuyomi Semi-limited. It's been limited for 6 months, I tried hard to use it succesfully somewhere, but found nothing, only Prophecies are good enough.
Rai-Oh Semi-limited. That's great for lots of meta decks, expecially the ones that are coming.
ARA Semi-limited. Like this. I always wanted to play Herald with 2 ARAs, and I always loved Demise OTK.
Spore Freed. Nah, I don't give a fuck, only places where I'd play it are Gigavise decks, and I'd always play 1 Spore and 1 Copy Plant, aside from Glow-Up back at 1 at least.
Kalut Freed. Hate Konami. I hate facing BWs, and with three Kaluts it will be just worse.
Lumina Freed. Like this. I used to play Lightsworn XYZ since when they semi-limited Lumina, and It'll just get better.
Shien's Smoke Signal. Oh. Like Samurais, but I don't want to play them.
Mind Crush. Meh.

As you could have guessed, most of the cards were for economical reasons. Sangan Forbidden because they stopped selling Tour and the new decks won't really use the Tour Engine.
Same thing for Zenmaity and Magician, they stopped selling WUs, and they want to clear the way for new decks.
ODOP enabled a really good FTK that wasn't expensive and with cards they already stopped selling. At 1 it'll be way harder to loop, even though it is possible. Luckily, it reduces the power of Exodia Decks and Final Countdown.
Rai-Oh cleared the way for other decks, Prophecies mainly since they're getting Judgment of the spellbooks.
Lumina is a LIGHT support for a LIGHT deck, and we're getting Judgment of the Light briefly (relatively), random supports for light monsters.

Now, New meta's thoughts:
Prophecies and Mermails for sure, I think there'll be some WUs rebuilt for the meta, some samurais for the first month, and if it is successful it will see some more play. Herald will be played, and will be a lot more stable than in the past. Some more BWs.

Personal Thoughts:
Sad for my Chain Beat, but I'll be able to play some more techs. I wanted to play serpentine princess, and in april we'll get Thunderbird. I'll restart playing Herald and Lightsworn once again. I'll definitely play WUs.

Post-Banned Wind-Up

Nope, the ban's not out. I think I will use this kind of posts to expose my thoughts about the banlist: single talks.
Supposing that WU is being hit by the banlist, what could it be? What would WU-Players gameplay change into?

Magician limited
If this were to happen, I think WUs would change to a more control build, with Rabbits being searchable via Tenki that would search bear and gorilla too for extra field control. Rabbits would plus with Factory every turn, and possibily go into Diamond Dire Wolf keeping that Rabbit on the field for free destruction every turn. While the banlist will be effective starting March 1st, Hidden Arsenal will be out in April, letting TCG-players using their Emerals to recycle Wolf and such, and probably a new little loop will appear.
The best things to do would be either the Dire+Rabbit or Shock Master, as always.
Magician+Shark will now result into:
NS Magician, SS Shark, SS Rabbit via Magician, Shark+Magician=Dire Wolf
OR
NS Magician, SS Shark, SS LV4 via Magician, go into Shock Master with a -1
OR
NS Magician, SS Shark, SS Rabbit, banish Magician, Shark at 3, Rabbit+Shark into Zenmaity, SS Rat via zenmaity, SS Rabbit via Rat, banish Rat via rabbit, when needed, or do it during your opponent End Phase. Next turn you'll have Rat and magician for sure, maybe even zenmaity and rabbit.
Or something else I can't really think about, because I'm not a WU player, and I don't really care, I would go for Control builds, and thus those three, random summoning to go into a R5 or 3, or at the best a combo that wouldn't minus you that summons Shock Master, are good enough.

Factory Limited/Semi-limited
Not much to say about this, it'll let your search power down, you'll play 3 magician if you weren't already, and go for the usual Magician-Shark combo.
If anything, this could change the number of Rabbits in the deck, or, at least, prevent the addition of other rabbits in form of tenkis.
I wouldn't like this since it would make that deck just more luck-based than it already is.
However, this is probably the more likely to happen since it would be pretty much the same than Black Whirlwind.

Hits on Shark/Rat/Rabbit
I don't think this is likely to happen, but still it reserves a mention. Shark could be limited, but I can't see that being that dangerous to the deck, just decreasing the probabilities of drawing into it first turn.
Rat, not that it makes that much of a difference, the only thing that would hit the loop by hitting this is the ban, but it just doesn't reserve this. I really can't see this being hit, but some do, saying that it would hit the grind plays of the deck, I don't think so.
Rabbit, nah, some think it will be hit, but I don't think so, neither I want it to, since it'll quite hurt my Chain Beat, even if we are getting Thunderbirds in April and thus I'd be able to replace it.

Torrential at 3
I don't know how many would play this in 3 copies, but it's sooo good against WUs that it would give it quite the hit. They stop Spells? Set torrential and lance, summon a TK or something like that. Good.
They go second? Set Torrential+other Backrows and possibly SJ/Starlight.


I expect WUs to be hit, mainly factory or magician, giving more space to new decks from HA7 so that they cna sell it properly.

That's All, Folks!

Suppressor Dragons, Combined and Single

Who are the suppressor dragons? They're an archetype composed of 4 monsters, one for each element (remember that in YGO elements are EARTH, WIND, FIRE and WATER. All are LV7, the sum of their ATK and DEF is always 4600 and have got similar effect. Basically:
*Name* LV7 *corresponding attribute*/Dragon ATK+DEF=4600
You can banish 2 Dragon-Type or *corresponding attribute* monsters from your hand or Graveyard, except this card; Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard. During your opponent's End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Return it to the hand. You can discard this card and 1 other *corresponding attribute* monster to *so-called discarding effect, different for each one*. When this card is banished: Add 1 *corresponding attribute* Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to your hand. You can only use 1 "*name*" effect per turn, and only once that turn.

Great, right? Well, you didn't read their discarding effect, still.
Redox, the EARTH one is a walking Reborn for your grave, no other restrictions. You can even summon himself, if Konami is ok with discarding first and then targeting the monster. Poor stats, though, 1600 ATK and 3000 DEF
Blaster, the FIRE one is a walking raigeki break, with no other restrictions. Discard him and a fire and destroy one card. Doesn't trigger Handmaiden, sadly, but it could set-up the grave for an Handmaiden mill and destroy a nasty backrow. Probably the second with better stats, 2800/1800. Great attack to run over anything, DEF good enough to block Maestroke Flip and Attack, if he doesn't have other monsters.
Tidal, the WATER one is a walking foolish burial. Probably the one with the worst effect but more applications, since it'll give Mermails a good discard, eventually can be summoned to XYZ with Megalo into Abyssgaios or Drago-SAC, a monster that's receiving lots of love, recently. 2600/2000, probably the better stats among them. Basically, the ATK is good enough to run over pretty much everything Blaster would run over, but his DEF makes him better against Maestroke. However, you should realize based on your deck and your playstyle which one has got the better stats for you.
Tempest, the WIND one is a walking...uhm...really, a walking itself. Discard it with a WIND monster and get another Dragon from your deck. That's quite of broken, isn't it? Dragunities will have tons and tons of fun with this card. Being LV7 helps more in Drago-SAC based decks or even standard Beastcraft decks. The deck where it shines the most, however, is Dragunities, as I said earlier, since it can search pretty much every combo pieces for Atum Dragunities and, in combo with Ravine, it can search REALLY everything you need. 2400/2200. Oh well, at least it suicides into Laggia. You won't summon it the most of the times, or, if you do, you'll XYZ him in the 90% of cases.

A question lots of people asked me is "can they work together?". My main response was "they aren't out on DN, I won't test them till that time. When they will, I'll try to confirm my theory where they could, even though not as a really competitive deck".
Basically, throw in some remotion, Necroface, GS and Dimensional Alchemist, and they'll be discard fodders for themselves, eventually summoning them all back and XYZ, while RFDD (Return from the Different Dimension) works as our own Rekindling.
Engine:
3 Redox
3 Blaster
3 Tempest
0/3 Tidal
1 Necroface
0/1 REDMD
3 Treasured Sword of the Seven Stars
3 Gold Sarcophagus
0-2 D.D.R.
0/1 RFDD

You can splash this engine pretty much anywhere.
Heraldic Beasts want to be in the grave, and they want discard fodder.
Plants, do I even need to talk?
Skill, well, this will negate their return effect, and on the field they effectively don't have any useful effect. Redox can reborn Barbaros, and the latter is a target for Treasured Sword (TSSS)
And I'm keeping one for another review, because I like it more than the other, even though the Plant one has access to easy Shooting.

However, I myself think that those monsters should be used on their own. Redox is great in both Rock Stun (or Skill Rock Stun) and Gem-Knight, other than Heraldic Beast (triggers Leo, and eventually Summons him back from the grave); Tidal is great in Atlanteans and Mermails, discards like hell, and I'm looking for good WATER monsters for Heraldic Beasts to use its effect to send Leo to the grave and trigger him, even though it could not be needed; Tempest has Dragunities, R7 WIND Abuse, and lots of uses for searches; Blaster can be used in Lavals (meh) or in Fire King to destroy themselves and use their effect, and Qilin could eventually send it to the grave to have another easily accessible Beater that will return to your hand to use its effect, and, even though I never played Fire King, I think they can access Skill Drain without losing much or even anything, and that's just great.
TSSS is just awesome, a +1 if you use it on a Suppressor, or a +0 on other monsters. If one, a random one, of those dragons had an use while in hand, I'd play 1 TSSS and 2 of the named dragon, even though it's pretty risky. Or I could play 1 TSSS, 1 Dragon and a monster searchable via that Dragon LV8 for Trade-In. More risky than the one before, but more useful, and Magical Mallet COULD help shuffling back the searchable Dragon. But I don't know, they just conflict too much with the FTK mindset.
Gold Sarcophagus is just way too good, on Necroface on first turn it could plus you so much that you couldn't even think about it. Assuming you just drew the first 6 cards of your 40-cards deck, and that one of those was GS, use GS on Necroface (thinning by another card). Milling 5 cards has high possibilities of banishing at least one of those 12 Dragons (91%, approximatively, thanks to Fabio Borges), and, if you drew into Necroface, you could just banish a Dragon and make it a +1 (search with the dragon+GS' Dragon-GS).
I, as one, see lots of power in those monsters, and lots of hidden uses that I won't discover till they'll be out on DN, assuming I have a good enough internet connection to log into DN without making it crash.
That's All Folks.

P.s. I LOVE Tempest, can't wait for it to be on DN.