30/01/2013

Happy Birthday!/Buon Compleanno!

Yup, my blog just became one year old, 30th January 2012 was posted the very first post (well, not really, I'm going to explain this later) on the blog, an introduction to the blog.
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Yup, il blog ha appena compiuto un anno, il 30 Gennaio del 2012 è stato il giorno in cui è stato postato il primo post di questo blog (non proprio, c'è una storia dietro che spiegherò più tardi).

Looking back to some posts, I noticed how I got better in both general writing skills and english skills, not considering YGO skills and knowings.
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Guardando qualche vecchio post, ho notato come sia nettamente migliorato sia a scrivere in generale che in inglese, senza considerare YGO.

I was looking forward to this day, but really didn't know what to post. Or, TBH, WHICH to post, since I had lots of ideas but didn't know which one to use. This is what I decided: little tips on the blog posted in both italian and english.
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Aspettavo con ansia questo giorno, ma non sapevo veramente cosa postare. O, per meglio dire, QUALE postare, dato che avevo moltissime idee senza sapere quale usare. Ho quindi deciso: piccole chicche sul blog postate sia in italiano che in inglese.

The blog started as a way to express some of my knowings about YGO and as a deck and ideas gallery, but it was in Italian. I created the domain and wrote the introduction to the blog in Italian. I did no spam or such, I just wrote that off to remember me that it existed and what I would have want to aim for with that blog, since I was pretty busy in that period.
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Il blog è nato come un modo di esprimere alcune mie conoscenze in ambito di YGO e come una lista di deck e idee, ma in italiano. Ho creato il dominio e scritto l'introduzione del blog in italiano. Non ho fatto pubblicità o nient'altro, ho solo scritto quell'introduzione per ricordarmi dell'esistenza del blog e di cosa ci avrei voluto fare, dato che ero piuttosto occupato e non avrei potuto scrivere.

However, after leaving it dead like that for quite some time, I decided to start fresh and switch to English. That was because, for the first time in my life, I had a not that great mark in English at school, B. It was a test promoted by the Trinity College, it was the second one I did, and I skipped 3 levels (the trinity exams are divided in levels, the very first time it was in elementary school, since I went way too good for level 1, 2 and 3, they decided to make me do 4, but they changed their mind again and went for the 5, asking me for permission).
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Comunque, dopo averlo lasciato a morire per un po' di tempo, ho deciso di ripartire e passare all'inglese. Questo perché, per la prima volta  nella mia vita, ho avuto un voto non troppo buono in inglese, B. Era un test promosso dal Trinity College, il secondo che facevo, dopo aver saltato 3 livelli (gli esami del Trinity sono divisi in livelli, il primo l'ho fatto alle elementari, ma dato che sono andato molto meglio del necessario sia per i livelli 1, 2 e 3, hanno deciso di farmi fare il 4, ma hanno cambiato idea nuovamente e mi hanno fatto fare il 5, dopo avermi chiesto il permesso).

The fifth wasn't even that difficult, grammatically speaking, I had good enough knowings for other lots of levels. However, starting from the fifth, all of the levels required that you brought a topic along with you, choosing from some your teacher proposed you. Mine was Coke, a friend of mine brought Pizza and so on. I'm good when we talk about getting some ideas or concepts in my mind, or when it is English, however I'm REALLY bad at learning by heart, thus I continuously forgot names or other things that you can't conceptualize.
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Il quinto non era nemmeno più di tanto difficile, dal punto di vista della grammatica, avevo buone conoscenze anche per molti altri livelli. Comunque, partendo dal quinto, tutti i livelli richiedevano che assieme al parlato venisse portato anche un topic (argomento), scegliendo fra alcuni proposti dall'insegnante. Il mio era la coca cola, un mio amico portò la pizza e un'altra mia amica portò gli scaldatelli. Sono bravo fino a quando si tratta di capire alcune idee o concetti, ma se devo imparare a memoria, dimentico continuamente nomi o altre cose che non si possono concettualizzare.

Thus, that day, I went there without remembering anything, before the exam started I stayed there talking with a girl that already did the test and that was waiting for me before leaving. I didn't even tried to repeat what I studied, because I would have forgotten it back, so I just tried not to get stressed by talking and laughing a bit. The exam itself didn't go that bad, because my speaking skills covered pretty much all of my lack of knowings about the topic. Of course, even though I tried to cover it, he noticed I didn't know most of the things about the topic. I took B, but that was balanced with the conversation with the examinator.
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Quindi, quel giorno, sono andato li senza ricordarmi nulla, e prima che l'esame iniziasse sono rimasto a parlare con una ragazza che aveva già fatto il test e che aspettava me per andarsene. Non ho nemmeno provato a ripetere il mio topic, perché lo avrei dimenticato nuovamente, quindi ho solo cercato di non stressarmi parlando e ridendo un po'. L'esame in se non è andato male, perché le mie abilità nel parlare (presenti anche in italiano, durante interrogazioni di storia, che uso per coprire i buchi dovuti alle date e ai nomi) hanno coperto più o meno tutte le mancanze riguardo il topic. Ovviamente, nonostante abbia provato a coprirle, l'esaminatore ha notato che non sapevo una buona parte dei fatti riguardo il topic. Ho preso B, ma è stato bilanciato dalla conversazione in inglese con l'esaminatore.

However, dunno why, it took a lot of time before we knew how the exam went. I did the exam in the last year of middle school, but I knew the results about the half of January of the first year of High School. I then decided to prove myself on my English skills, to see if I were good enough to talk and write fluently in English, and so it was. As the time passed, though, I noticed getting better and better, learning slangs, being able to understand an English-speaking person, began speaking with an American accent, and being able to sustain a full conversation with English-speaking people. I was pretty satisfied, and having the blog wrote in English meant that I could link by lists to everyone if someone asked me for a specific decklist. Basically everytime I post a deck is because someone asked me the list, and more rarely when I want to show it because I like it.
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Comunque, non so perché, i risultati ci misero tempo ad essere rivelati. Ho fatto l'esame nell'ultimo anno di medie e ho saputo i risultati a meta Gennaio del primo anno di superiori. Ho quindi deciso di mettermi alla prova sulle mie abilità d'inglese, per vedere se ero abbastanza bravo per la parte pratica dello studio dell'inglese, parlare e scrivere, e infatti lo ero. Mano a mano, comunque, ho notato che diventavo sempre più bravo, imparavo slang, diventavo capace di capire una persona che parlava inglese e sostenerci una discussione e iniziato a mostrare un accento americano (ancora mi chiedo la ragione). Ero piuttosto soddisfatto, e avere il blog scritto in inglese significava che lo potevo linkare a chiunque mi chiedesse una lista. Praticamente, ogni volta che posto un deck è perché qualcuno mi ha chiesto la lista, o, più raramente, quando voglio veramente mostrare un deck che mi piace.

This was the big story behing the blog, I was so satisfied that the exam didn't matter anymore to me, and they didn't even send an official certificate or likes, so, officially, I never did that exam, it's kinda lollish. If I wanted to, I could even re-attempt to it, but I don't wanna. And now I'm happily writing on my beloved blog, when others that had an A because they learnt the topic word by word now have something like 7 or 8 at maximum (with 10 as a maximum, for those who don't know this kind of ratings), while I'm happily being marked as a 9 without studying,and I like that (not needing to study, I mean).
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Questa era la grande storia dietro il blog, ero così soddisfatto che non mi importava più niente dell'esame, e, dato che non mi hanno nemmeno mandato un certificato o cose simili, ufficialmente non ho mai fatto quell'esame. Se volessi, potrei anche riprovare, ma non voglio. Ora sto scrivendo sul mio amato blog, quando gli altri che hanno avuto una A perché hanno imparato il topic parola per parola ora hanno 7 o 8 al massimo, mentre io ho felicemente 9 senza studiare, e mi piace (non dover studiare, intendo).

Well, this was all, once again, Happy Birthday! See Ya.
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Questo è tutto, e, ancora una volta, Buon Compleanno! Arrivederci.

29/01/2013

Madolche Magileine

When this card you control is destroyed by your opponent's card (either by battle or by effect) and sent to your Graveyard: Shuffle this card into your Deck. When this card is Normal or Flip Summoned: You can add 1 "Madolche" monster from your Deck to your hand.
Well, great, uh? I LOVE this card, she's quite of awesome. Not because it is an auto-searchable stratos that recycles herself, that is perfect for naturia synchros, for arcanite or for her splashability, but because of her art. Oh, come on, a witch on a fork with eyes with different colors and that's quite "moe", why shouldn't you love her?
Put aside how lovely she is, she's the centerpiece of Madolche decks, makes the deck work. Search another copy of her, resulting in a +1 in no matter the deck, then if she's destroyed, you get to recycle her making her another possible target for another copy of herself.
Let's see why this card is good in steps:

Recyclability and Searchability
The titles says it all. Starting off this card on first turn is a pretty consistent opening, since it doesn't really reveal you deck (saying that you're splashing her in another deck aside madolche and spellbook), conducting to misplays based on misjudgments. It is a +1 on the very first turn and as a splashable engine it is a lot more stable than Gadget's, that basically do the same thing in some decks (Gadget are sometimes, or it's better to say "were", used only as an engine to generate +1s in stun decks or such) but eating more slots in the deck. For stun decks based on +1s, gadget are still better, but in decks where you can continuously stun your opponent's monsters, this card is way better. Doesn't eat too many slots if compared to gadgets, leads to less dead draws (double gadget in hand), is better for long games since magileines recycles themselves continuously.

Versatility
Magileine is spellcaster, and thus she works wonders with Spellbooks, power makes her a 2400 that searches when destroys a monster. Being spellcaster is awesome with some random LV3 Tuners to go into Arcanite and destroy two cards. Going into Naturia Synchros with a LV1 EARTH Tuner or LV2 (won't consider Landoise since I don't like him, aside from a few decks). Being LV4 makes her great R4 XYZ material in two turns.

Engine Expandability
The engine should be 3 Magileines alone if the deck supports them, otherwise you should include some monster hate, too, but that depends on the deck. However, what's great about this deck is that you can expand it, too. Add Butlerusk and you'll have a walking Terraforming that afterwards makes you a R4 XYZ, add in Cruffsant in a deck where you play beast supports (Horn of the Phantom Beast is good, too) and you'll have a 1500 at the worst, 1800 usually, and eventually 2100 and so on, recycling you magileine for more searchs and +1s, while having a monster that could be used for bounzer, big-eye, drago-SAC or whatever based on what you're playing.

Dodging Ability
Dodges BTH, makes your opponent's Solemn Warning a waste of 2000 LPs (since you'll get to recycle her), if on her alone TT turns into a -1 for the opponent and so on. If you attack with this into WU Rabbit, you'll have the upper hand, tenki or factory aside.


Really, the only bad sides of this card are not working when flipped face-up (an attack, for example) or Special Summoned and having poor ATK. That's it. And you should love the artwork.

See Ya.

22/01/2013

Madolche Hootcake and Madolche Nights, Thoughts on them and Madolches

When this card in your possession is destroyed by your opponent's card (either by battle or by effect) and sent to your Graveyard: Shuffle this card into the Deck. You can target 1 monster in your Graveyard; banish that target, then Special Summon 1 "Madolche" monster from your Deck, except "Madolche Hootcake". You can only use this effect of "Madolche Hootcake" once per turn.
When a monster effect is activated, if you have no monsters in your Graveyard: Negate the activation, then, if you control a face-up "Madolche Puddingcess", shuffle 1 random card in your opponent's hand into the Deck.

I tried not to make a big fuss for this, however I noticed it wasn't like me not to talk at all about those supports (from LTGY) for madolches, being a madolches-addicted, that made me write this post. Lots of people, too, asked me for advices and opinions on those two cards, so this is a review addressed to all of those who asked me.
Let's start it:
First of all, Madolche Nights, cute card. Adds control factor to our build, being searchable and valid target for Tiaramisu. However, I don't like it. It doesn't destroy the monster, but, mainly, it requires a monsterless grave. For this exact reason, I'd recommend none, Puddingcess Builds aside.
Hootcake, however, is another thing. Leaving the artwork aside, that I as for one don't like, it has got a great effect. Banish a monster (not only madolche, any monster is ok), SS a Madolche from the deck (no matter the level, so, yeah, it's great even for Puddingcess builds, since it empties the grave for both Pudding and Nights). If it is Gelato, congratulations, you just got a search. Searching Chateau like this will mean that you'll have two beatsticks, 2000 and 2100 respectively. However, what's the great fact of this card? It is the first, in the main deck, that can bring a monster on the table directly, so this generates +1s and comboes at the same time. Think of the old Mew+Gelato+Warwolf combo, now switch Gelato with Hoot. Do you see what's happening there?
Mew, SS Hoot, SS Warwolf. Warwolf+Mew=Invoker, eff Invoker, detach Mew, bring one Gelato, get to search Chateau, banish Mew for Hoot's effect and Summon Gelato, getting another search. If you've got a target in the grave for Tiara's effect, search Ticket, if you haven't, search another Chateau and activate it in top of the previous one to gain a target.
This combo is really flexible and has lots of different endings, similarly to Wind-Ups. You can even do something with just mew and hoot or hoot and warwolf if you've got a monster in your grave, and this is what I aim for. Basically, the 3-cards setup we needed before just turned into a 2-cards setup+1 in the grave to work. I think that this one is lot more solid, and gives us the chance to enter the meta. Why's that? Not only it's easier to combo and we have more ways to do that, but mainly because this gives us the ability to play Soul Drain and more Hand Traps in the main deck.
Soul Drain is the first thing I thought while reading Hoot, it stops lots of the cards in the actual meta and lets some of our monsters stay in the grave, so that we can use them for Tiara or Hootcake. Other than that, mained, you can use it to stop searchers or other grave reliant monsters (sangan). In the worst case scenario (you face someone who doesn't matter soul drain being on the field) you can side 'em out.
For the Hand Traps, you could have slots issues and cut them out, but with Hootcake, that's just awesome. Veiler and Maxx are awesome Hootcake's effect fodder, and they can stop what soul drain doesn't. Basically, if you face something that fears Soul Drain, play more of them siding out Veilers and Maxx. If you face something that fears Veilers and Maxx, side more of them and side out Soul Drains. However, the most of the times, no matter what of the two sidings you did, you'll have monsters in the grave, and that's just awesome.
Remember that, even though it probably will be the best action in lots of possibilities, SSing Gelato via Hoot isn't the only thing to do. Bringing another beast could make you able to go into Leviair to SS what you just banished, could it be another Madolche, or whatever really. It gives us our first way to recycle some used non-madolche monsters, so I can finally play the T.G. Engine (even though Soul Drain locks their effects in the grave, but that doesn't matter) and be able to use Striker more than just once.
I won't build anything 'till they'll be out on Dueling Network, but I'll test quite some lots of things with those.
That's All Folks!

18/01/2013

Deck Concept: Noble Knight Virus Control

Virus, love 'em. Crush Card Virus was banned because of his greatness at low cost, but Deck Devastation Virus and Eradicator Epidemic Virus are still playable because of their quite high costs.
However, what if I said you that Viruses could plus you (without considering opponent's minuses via DDV) in Noble Knights?
The concept is, basically, use Equips to power-up Laundsallyn or even Medraut to make them viable target for both DDV and EEV and control the opponent like that.
The main combo of the deck should be something like, Medraut+random equip, I myself would like Arfeudutyr to destroy opponent's face-downs (if you didn't notice, it can kill even face-down monsters), with an activable DDV on the field.
Equip Arfeudutyr on Medraut, use Arf's effect to destroy one card
Eff Medraut, SS Laundsallyn, destroy Arf and re-equip it on Medaut
Use Arf's effect again, then activate DDV tributing Laundsallyn
Use Medraut's effect again, SS Gawayn/Artorigus and destroy Arf
Now you have two main possibilities not considering other cards you could have:
1.XYZ into Kink Artorigus and get back Arf and other cards from the grave or go into another big XYZ like Excalibur or such
2.SS Laundsallyn tributing Medraut, tribute the other Noble Knight, get a good equip and equip it on Laundsallyn

In the end it was -2 on the opponent's field (not considering King's destruction effect and Arf's destruction effect once equipped to the king)+other minuses via DDV, and you got, from just 3 cards a king with some equips equipped, even though that's a minus, you could even not XYZ.
However, that's one easy and not that good combo, based on what you have you can plus alot even in terms of LPs. A standard play that isn't a combo is doing what you can during your turn leaving Laundsallyn and another Noble Knight with an equip on Laundsallyn with an activable DDV. Even though you used that card's re-equipping effect already in that turn, you can just wait your opponent's turn to use it and suddenly boost Medraut's ATK (yeah, it probably will be Medraut) via 1000 with Gallatin or 500 with Caliburn. That could wreck your opponent's plans that was expecting just to face an 800 DEF monster and a 1700 normal LIGHT monster, will be facing a 2200 or 2700 ATK DARK effect monster, and believe me, that really wrecks your opponent's plans, expecially if his boss monster has less than 2700 or if he's playing HEROes (assuming he didn't draw into Super Poly, but, let's be honest, that kills everything) and has, let's say, stratos and just added a bubbleman, wouldn't that kill him, basically?
Via Gallatin and Caliburn you have access to EEV, and EEV on spells against DW and similar is pretty much an auto-win.
Viruses are great because they give you long-terms control abilities, like I really lol'd when I used both EEV and DDV against Chain Beat. He had 4 face-downs and rabbit on the field. I had Medraut with Gallatin and Laundsallyn with DDV and EEV face-down. Activated EEV tributing Medraut declaring Traps, and he chained Compulsory Escape, Legacy, Rabbit, Accumulated, I chained DDV tributing Laundsallyn. That was GG without a second though.
Next turn I went into Artorigus+Gawayn to go into King Artorigus that was quite the beatstick (Gallatin and Caliburn). Next turn I drew into Medraut, summoned him, tributed him for Laundsallyn's Summon from the grave and won.
The deck has quite some potential, I easily see this as one of the builds that should be played in the near future for the competitive or semi-competitive scene, however I've got quite a bad connection in those days so I could test it just a little bit without being able to heavy test it to do some fixes.

See Ya

15/01/2013

Collasso Dimensionale: CollapseWyburster Monarch (aka. Chaos Pet Monarch)


Monsters: [28]
3 Battle Fader
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
1 Chaos Sorcerer
3 Dark-Winged Dragon Collapserpent
3 Cyber Valley
3 Dimensional Alchemist
2 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Jinzo
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch
1 Tragoedia
1 Vanity's Fiend
3 Bright-White Dragon Wyburster

Spells: [9]
1 Book of Moon
2 Chaos Zone
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Soul Exchange

Traps: [3]
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Mirror Force


The extra is quite random, I'd want to play some LV8 Synchros, too, because I'd want to side Trap Eater (more on this later), and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, because I'd want to side or even main Cyber Dragon.
The deck itself is kinda great, I envy OCG players for having those two great monsters and we'll have to wait quite some time. Basically, Collapserpent and Wyburster are younger version of Lightpulsar and Darkflare (not for a matter of effects, but of artwork and being "coupled" like these two) (this is the reason for the alternate, and my favourite, name for the deck, "pet" because they're younger). They can summon themself by banishing one of the opposite attribute (Wyburster banishes a DARK and Collapserpent banished a LIGHT), and IF sent to the grave from the field, you can add the other one from the deck. If...you can means they never miss the timing, and thus making them great Synchro or Tribute fodder. My main idea was making a LV8 Synchro-reliant build, with Summoner Monk and Vylon Prism and such, since LV8 Synchros are great. However, building it, I noticed it was completely inconsistent, because it would have had way too many dead draws. I thought a little more about it and I realized that going into a monarch build would have been awesome, because caius was DARK, Veiler was LIGHT and such. I looked into ALL of my monarch builds, even older ones (I found even perfect circle monarch among them, LOL), to gather some more ideas, and I finally found "Dimensional Monarch". It used Fader as main tribute fodder, while cyber valley was the second favorite tribute fodder and even recycling and stalling source while being even the main source of draw power of the deck (I didn't like allure and I still don't in this deck) while Dimensional Alchemist recycled all of those things, and at the same time was a beatstick and eventually tribute fodder.
Right now, with the build revamped quite a lot, the deck is consistent, way too consistent than lots of other things or so-called tier2 decks. A starting hand consisting of one of Battle Fader, Cyber Valley or Dimensional Alchemist is a good starting hand, expecially if you mill well with Alchemist.
Having one DARK or LIGHT in the grave, allows for a chain of dragons basically endless. Have, for example, veiler in the grave. Summon Collapserpent (that, btw, is my favourite because of the pun I love), tribute him, get Wyburster and summon him banishing Collapse so that when Wyburster is destroyed, you'll have once again a banish fodder in the grave and so on.

Let's see the cards one at time:
Fader, tribute fodder and attack blocker, alchemist recyclable.
BLS, great, 'nuff said.
Caius, best monarch ever.
Chaos Sorcerer, same of BLS.
Collapserpent and Wyburster are the main engine.
Valley is draw power, tribute fodder and stalling card.
Dimensional Alchemist, great, recycles anything, has a good body, triggers chaos zone, and is LIGHT.
Veiler, LV1 for Chaos Zone searching effect, good card itself, and LIGHT.
Gorz, good against OTKs and such, and is DARK.
Jinzo, good "monarch", to allow OTKs and go into control on the opponent. In one game I drew into all 3 of my traps and this one alongside fader. I used everything not worrying about my set traps, and after they destroyed my jinzo, I activated my traps one after another totally scaring the opponent and making him thinking my deck had quite some traps, and thus setting MSTs was pretty good and useful and he didn't see that Gorz coming.
Plague, not sure about this one, however DARK tuner recyclable that lets you go into Volcan, the new LV6 Synchro. Tribute fodder too.
Raiza, good monarch, I was thinking of playing another one in place of Plague or something else.
Tragoedia, you usually have large hands, and that's good. What's more, DARK.
Vanity's Fiend, lets you go into control on the opponent if he has a Special Summoning heavy deck, and if well played, this card can sit onto the field for quite some time.
Book of Moon, good card.
Chaos Zone, good card, sometimes it has lots of counters that it can search you a caius, and you can use it to revive anything. What's more, it's the only card in the main that you have to counter those Macro decks, Heavy and MST apart.
Staples everywhere.
Soul Exchange, teched at 1, I feel that one is good enough, because more would make you skip your BP too many times. Great against Dolkka and for when you fear a set monster.
Staples for the traps.

I used Lightray Sorcerer (1 copy), but later on I took him out because I didn't really feel the need for him, and was quite hard to summon mid game, and late game he wasn't needed.

About Trap Eater, I'd like to side him for those Macro Decks, mainly, and then going into Stardust, Scrap or such. That's always a great thing, isn't it? Either Eater or Warnings to stop starlights, macro and regular summons.

Well, that was it, try the deck out because it really works wonders.
See Ya

Usual Trivia: "Collasso Dimensionale" means "Dimensional Collapse", referred to Collapserpent and Dimensional Alchemist, other than the banishing ability of the deck.

13/01/2013

Ultimate Leodip's Infernity Guide

As requested by Thomas, the winner of the 30.000 Visits Contest, here it is a full Infernity Guide.
As an Infernity lover (and pretty much half-veteran, since I played it in lots of builds with lots of techs at least once per format) I'm more than happy to write this one. What's more, this'll be a guide that I'll update, that's why it is the "ultimate" guide, it'll always be updated as long as I discover something new about Infernities that I think it's worth writing.
Let's start it: (cutting post because it is way too long)

08/01/2013

Catene Maligne: Accumulated Chain Beat (TCG)


Monsters: [7]
1 Night Assailant
1 Sangan
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
3 Wind-Up Rabbit

Spells: [4]
1 Dark Hole
1 Forbidden Chalice
2 Pot of Duality

Traps: [29]
3 Accumulated Fortune
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Compulsory Escape Device
3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
3 Dimensional Prison
2 Jar of Greed
3 Legacy of Yata
2 Macro Cosmos
2 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Solemn Warning
2 Starlight Road
2 Torrential Tribute

Extra is one of the worst I've ever built, considering I forgot Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, too, lol. Only things you REALLY need for the extra are Zenmaity and 2 Stardusts, the rest is extra things, if you've got some zenmaines, Giga-Brilliant and other R3s, play them.
For the main itself, consider first that I promised lots of people to post this deck, and this day was the deadline, so I forced my way in against some important tasks I had to do (luckily, this morning I didn't go to school, and that helped me alot) to have some free time to write this. Said this, let's explain the deck as it is, first:
Chain Beat, uses immortal Wind-Up Rabbits (when OCG-built, at least 2 thunderbirds are needed since you can even go into Ophion, and they avoid everything just like Rabbit but with a bigger body, the only thing they fear that rabbits don't are beaters summoned without using any effects, but if you've got a random chainable card, you're fine) to beat the opponent, while back-upping and handling your opponent's resources with the tons of traps you've got. You totally don't fear traps, Judgment and Warning aside.
In this build I implemented Accumulated Fortunes and Legacy of Yata with Jar of Greed to increase the draw power, since this is budget build with no Cardcar Ds.

This was basically the deck itself, let's see them cards, now:
Tour Engine, believe it or not, this engine here really has its meaning. Zenmaity is R3, and the earlier you have rabbit on the field, the better it is. Both Sangan and Night Assailant are great here, not only as tour targets, but even on their own. Search power for Rabbit is needed, and Assailant can work as additional destructive power. Most of the times I start with Tour, I summon Assailant, because having the possibility to summon another R3 is awesome in here, having finally a big beater.
Rabbits, no need to explain, right?
Dark Hole, additional destruction that doesn't affect your rabbits.
Forbidden Chalice, testing them, not pretty sure, though. Basically, they help you dealing with nasty effects like Shock Ruler's or others. I was thinking of Gorz in place of this, more explanations later.
Pot of Duality, I SS little to nothing, so it's totally ok.
Accumulated Fortunes, if you didn't notice one little thing, you should now think I'm crazy, even with all of those chainable traps. Rabbit's effect is chainable and creates great chains. Think that 3 Rabbits alone trigger Accumulated, great, isn't it? Chainable +1 that could become +2 on your opponent's MST.
BTH, monster removal, enough said. Improves our bad match-up against Dark Worlds.
Compulsory Escape Device, use this, target one rabbit, then chain rabbit's effect. You minused, your opponent did, too, but he lost important resources. What's more, that's 2 chain links, even a random MST could trigger your Accumulated.
Compulsory Evacuation Device, easier, but it's a -1 on you, if it isn't on a Fusion/Synchro/XYZ. More on the two CEDs later.
Prison, improves once again our DW match-up, kind of helps against mermails if your opponent is foolish enough, and is monster removal.
Jar of Greed, +1 on opponent's MSTs, generates long chains, and replaces itself while putting pressure on the opponent because you've got lots of face-downs.
Legacy of Yata Garasu, same as before. The only better thing it has when compared to Jar of Greed is that it is a +1 if your opponent has tsukuyomi or kinka-byo. If you want to build this IRL but you haven't got the third Legacy, replace it with Jar, it's ok.
Macro Cosmos, improves our bad match-up against DWs and Mermails.
Mirror Force, mass monster removal, nuff said.
Solemn Trio, massive negation effects, even though the cost is pretty high for this deck.
Starlight Road, this deck sets really alot, and not always all of the cards are chainable, so this is great, providing you a beatstick, too. Be aware of MSTs, if you encounter an experienced player, he could keep them (because if he is a good player he won't blind MST your face-downs, because most are chainable) and use them on his own Heavy Storm to stop Stardust's Summon via Starlight.
Torrential Tribute, mass monster removal, great one.

Ok, now let's check the missing cards:
Typhoons and Heavy, we don't fear set cards, and Heavy would backfire.
Gorz, I'm thinking to implement this. When I'm without cards, I'm losing, except for banished rabbits. If I've got something on the field, it surely has a way to get out of the field, if it hasn't, it is something triggerable via an attack, probably, and you should be okay if you've got that face-down.
Lava Golem, I was playing this, before, but I took it out because I needed to use other monster removal on that, but that isn't totally bad. I'm siding them.
Trap Hands, I don't really need more draw power via Maxx "C", and if I needed Veilers I would rather use more Chalices. I don't fear first turn comboes, so hand traps aren't really needed, and settable cards put lot of pressure on the opponent, and have easier ways to create chains.
CEDs combinations: Actually there are 2 Escape and 3 Evacuation, but I tested lots of ways before. I'd like 3 Escapes, but I think that a total of 6 would be way too much, and the main thing that prevents me from doing so is that it is a potential dead draw. However, it improves DW match-ups, and having Rabbit on the field isn't difficult at all, I could try 3 Escapes and 2 Evacuations.
Some mainable big or decent beater that works well with the entire deck, I was thinking of Winged Rhynos. Basically it is a Rabbit that works only with traps and eats your normal summon pretty much every turn. However, it takes quite some Warnings that would go to Rabbits, has a decent body (1800 ATK) and triggers Torrentials like a boss.
For the beater issue, I'm thinking of playing Orichalcos. TBH, I'm pretty sure I'll put it in, in the end. Makes rabbit a 1900, and with two rabbits your opponent won't be able to attack you at all. The inability to attack, however, could damage you, because you can't use some of your monster removal, but I think that's ok since you can just banish one of the rabbits and let the magic happen.
Shard of Greed, some more draw power. Deck is slow. Sadly, it draws all of the opponent's MSTs, so they will have less Half Dead Draws (when a card isn't totally unuseful, but still is worth be sided out if you don't fear other continuous cards).
Chain Strike, teched. More as a Game Finisher

Well, this was it. The deck's great, I'm planning on building it IRL.
That's All Folks!

Usual Trivia: "Catene Maligne" means "Malefic Chains", referring to the chains the deck will create and how they will influence the game (badly for the opponent).

05/01/2013

Void Ogre Dragon, Decks and Applications

1 DARK Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters
Once per turn, during either player's turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card while you have no cards in your hand: You can negate the activation and destroy it.
Shi En with a bigger body and easier to summon. Basically some non-Tuners+Plaguespreader/Krebons are this.
He's DARK, with tons of supports everywhere, and Dragon, for other giant supports. REDMD anyone?
Being LV8 makes him a little bit hard to summon, but not that much, while 3000/3000 with Shi En's effect pays back your hard work in summoning him.

Well, what about this card? I don't randomly review cards, ya know.
I'm recently realizing how splashable this card is. As long as you have an empty hand and a DARK tuner, it won't be hard to summon him and it will pay back. If you don't have an empty hand, it is a 3000 beater without any negative effect like red dragon archfiend.
I started thinking about it seeing that Tele-Hieratics played 1 copy of him in the extra, and that opened a new world.
If you remember my various post on Avenger Abuse, you may remember that this card was one of the main cards. I pretty much always started with this on first turn that went into crazy control onto the opponent, and beating him down with 3000 beater, good enough to kill him. When I went into Void Ogre, it was mainly via Grepher (discard Plague/Malicious, send Malicious/Plague), then, if Grepher survived, I used him to send Avengers to the grave as back-up plan. Thus, seeing this was happening lots of times, I decided to try "Grepher Control". Basically, it had pretty much the same set-up as avenger abuse, but no avengers and no eaters. I went into Void Ogre using Grepher as fast as possible, then lots of traps kept me living.
The concept was simple, and it had lots of ways to make it happen (OCG-wise, since I'm talking of Lavalval Chain), like Monk+Random spell+Random card for Plague, or Grepher+Malicious/Plaguespreader and likes.
It worked, and I think it would work again if I re-built it for this meta, but it had one great problem: both Malicious and Plaguespreader were usable only once.
For that exact reason I played D.D.R. that discarded nasty things from my hand, too, and I played rfdd for another, fast, void ogre or random LV8 Synchro. However, that wasn't obviously enough. That's where Avenger Abuse succeeds over Grepher Control.
Avenger Abuse can put more pressure on the opponent so that if he were to destroy your void ogre in battle (unlikely to happen, but possible, think of GBs with Shrinks) or if he tries to destroy your lone Grepher, you get 3 LV8 or 4 that could become 3 LV8 Synchros with Eater or Shock Master. That's why your opponent will ALWAYS try to kill your void ogre via effects, because it could turn into stardust, stardust, void, or stardust, void, scrap.
Back to the card itself, Void Ogre is meant to be played in infernities, a deck I really love. Empty-handed (usual thing for Infernities) it is a bigger Shi En, quite awesome, isn't it?
Infernities can bring this card like it's nothing, the only thing it misses that didn't make him absolutely broken
enough to be even banned is that he's not an Infernity. Basically, no Barrier abuses.
After you combo, you'll most likely end with Void Ogre+ABCs (Awesome Backrow Cards) plus other random cards. If you chose Barriers as ABCs, you'll have to summon a random Archfiend in ATK, meaning that you'll have few troubles with big beaters killing your archfiend and nullifying your Barriers.
Even though, Void Ogre is great, because you should assume that you won't always be getting your comboes, you could get this via a random topdecked Archfiend with Avenger in the grave. This all makes Void Ogre great even if he isn't an Infernity monster.
Oh, just a little tip before we end this, since we're talking about Infernities, I'm working on a new loop (with dewloren) that starts off the usual grave set-up+mirage/Launcher in hand. Not anything else. I'm still in the beta phase of the project, however.

See Ya