Lo Shogun non Guerriero: Wildheart Garden

Monster: [9]

3x Carcar D

3x Elemental HERO Wildheart

3x Tenkabito Shien (not a warrior!)

Spells: [17]

3x Black Garden

2x E - Emergency Call

3x Mage Power

3x Pot of Duality

1x Reinforcement of the Army

2x Terraforming

3x Upstart (Hoban) Goblin

Traps: [14]

1x Bottomless Trap Hole

3x Compulsory Escape Device

1x Compulsory Evacuation Device

2x Dimensional Prison

2x Mirror Force

2x Needle Ceiling

2x Pollinosis

1x Torrential Tribute

Yeah, Tenkabito is not a Warrior. I would really want to know WHAT made Konami think in a person being clearly a soldier (edo era, maybe?), with a katana (I guess) on an horse that it wasn't a Warrior. Oh well, I just lost the second Target for RotA.

Let's get to deck, shall we?

The deck is, let me say it, a watered-down version of Chain Beat. I don't generally like decks which do exactly the same thing another one does, but worse, so I struggled to find something which made it somewhat better at least in some field, and I managed: the deck can actually use Torrential Tribute and Needle Ceiling, alongside Compulsory Escape Device better than Chain Beat, due to being totally unaffected by traps. Also, no chain, unless it has a spell in it, can kill us, which is one of the things I feared the most with Chain Beat (Compulsory Escape Device, chain my stuff, opponent then uses troll card). Although pretty forced, the deck can manage a better use of pollinosis, too, and can afford using Mage Power for incredble ATK boosts (Field Spell+5 S/Ts=3000 ATK boost on a 1500 body).

The deck isn't hard to play, instead, it's pretty easy, but differently from PACMAN or other decks like those, it doesn't plus (aside from opponent's -1s), so management resource is actually a problem. Shouldn't be if you manage it good.

Let's get to a couple of the main rules: (this being a control deck means it won't REALLY have power plays, they're more like something you should keep in mind and cards you could activate at given points)

-Manage your cards, don't, don't, don't waste them. I did a couple of time when I was in a pinch, but I lost the game. If you're not losing, don't waste resources. While you can take a risk if you're losing and that's the only way out, try to play your cards at the best.

-Search, then Draw, then PoD. Although not always like this, generally you should first activate Emergency, RotA and/or Terraforming, then go with Upstarts, if you have them, lastly PoDs. That's to increase the probaiblity of adding what you need with PoD. Cases in which you could disregard this are when (1) you necessarily need a bluff, which is actually believable in game two or (2) when you need boosts for Mage Power, in which case you would rather not search.

-Your monsters are important! That's one of the main flaws of the deck. For this one, protecting the monsters is way harder than with Chain Beat. Although I said way harder, it's still pretty easy, and we do play a lot of them (before adding Tenkabito, I used to play only Wildheart and CCD, this meant that when the third Wildheart was killed, I could have admitted defeat at any time, I think you can manage the game if one or two of your monsters are destroyed). Try not to reduce damage by setting a monster unless you really need the reduction.

-Smokescreen. IF you're playing a match, hiding your deck is a nice option from time to time. If you see your opponent is a dead bad Match-up (you'll learn them playing), you may want to try a smokescreen, unless your hand is really good. Fake a Masked HERO deck by searching Wildheart and setting only a couple of backrow (not, not, not Needle Ceiling, Pollinosis, or Escape Device). Don't use PoD, too.

-Two Monsters and Garden are all you need for a Needle Ceiling trigger. You'll be using this a lot. Although your opponent won't summon face-up most of the times while you have Garden, if he is going for a power play he'll HAVE to do that. That's the right time. If you can use Needle Ceiling without accounting for the Token, go ahead and activate it in chain to Black Garden's effect, so that you can kill monsters and keep a Token.

-Use CCD. Late game it usually is Torrential Fodder. After the first turn you won't really use CCD (I'll talk about this later), and it'll sit in your hand most of the times. Remember that it is valid Torrential Tribute fodder (but also remember to use it on the Token's summon, we wouldn't want to give the opponent a free token, would we?). Also, early game it draws Solemn Warning way and your opponent LPs while doing so. Being a magnet for Veiler is also nice (and, you won't believe me, many players never think about veilering your wildheart and using a trap on him during my turn). Believe me or not, it is also additional damage here and now, and fuels Needle Ceiling, expecially with Garden, when your field isn't awesome.

-Sometimes you may prefer not using Mage Powers on first turn. If you have a Wildheart and some traps to protect him and you went first, no point in activating Mage Power. Dark Hole which kills Wildheart AND resourcers is no good.

Something you may want to change:
I'd recommend you to try this build first, instead of just going into some fixes for your personal one (I wouldn't count that as netdecking, it's more like play-testing), after that, go ahead and think about the following cards:
You may want to remove CCD. No point in dropping it to two or one copies. If you play it, it is in three copies. It's much more useful early game than late, this means you would want as many copies as possible to draw it sooner, but if you come not to like it (I'm pretty undecided), feel free to drop it.
You may want to add Forbidden Dress. Forbidden Dress is actually amazing, but I just personally don't like it. It's more protection against spells and monsters, a 600 ATK drop on your opponent (1200 under Garden). I'm pretty biased because I tried this in the garden-less build, most likely has way more potential in the garden build. I'll try it again.
You may want to add Fiendish Chain. Fiendish Chain was actually in the original decklist, but I dropped them for slots. Wouldn't recommend this if you choose to play Forbidden Dress.
You may want to remove Pollinosis. As good as the card can be, it has one flaw, tributing the monster, and your opponent will try to give you as few tokens as possible. I'd recommend Dark Bribe in its place but, as I said, managing resources is really important here, you wouldn't want a +1 on the opponent. You'd better run some Dresses in their place.

What's more, I don't know if I'm going to build a side deck, but if I am, I'll definitely try making it a change-deck side. I'll first have to see what kind of cards may be sided against it, and I definitely don't have enough knowing about current side decks to judge on that.

Hope you have fun with Chain B- Wildheart Garden.
See Ya


Usual Trivia: I came to be shocked that Tenkabito wasn't a warrior, that's just unbelievable. This also shows in the title which says "The Shougun is not a Warrior". Supposedly, Tenkabito Shien is young Great Shogun Shien (and, of course, the Shi En). How can a Shogun not be a warrior?

Felt like it: I'm back, guys!///The Theory behind Plusses

Hey guys, how have you been? It's been a long time, hasn't it? Yeah, yeah, I know, I said I had no interest in the current meta, but I'm not taking back my word, I still have no interest in it. So, why am I writing? Well,  I felt like it. What's more, the Banlist is a Ray of Hope for me, it'll hopefully crush or enormously hurt ED and SB, "hopefully"... Let's just hope it is like that.
Then, then, what's moving and exciting me right now? If, let's say, ED and SB get injured so hard that they can't be played anymore, what will be left? Everything! As of now the meta is:
Tier 1: ED and SB;
Tier 2: Everything else aside 4funs.
You do realize that if the Tier 1 gets crushed, we'll have a various meta, at least for the first part of the september-march period?
If you follow the upcoming sets, you probably noticed that all (most) of the new cards form decks that aim to control. This simply means that the next meta will probably see lots of old decks reborned through the beautiful art of Heavy-Trap decks, a couple of fast decks, and brand-new decks whom, as said, aim to control, leading to a slow format.
Ahhh, this brings back memories, in a meta where if I couldn't play a deck because the idea behind it wasn't consistent enough, I could simply add those 11-12 traps and be happy.

Well, let's get to the point of the post: after having explained why I'm slowly getting back at the game, here's some little theory-oh.

Card Advantage Theory
Most of you, if not all, have used or read/heard this thing at least once and, most probably, you know what it means: the Card Advantage Theory (CAT, from now on) says that in this game, msot of the time, the player who's winning is the one with most cards on the field and viceversa. "Why's that?" you may (or may not, I don't care, lol) ask. It is as simple as that: the player with most cards is more likely the one who has more possible counters to the opponent's moves. If I have 10 cards and my opponent 8, we could balance it out saying that 8 of my card nullifies my opponent ones, and I'm in +2. This supports CAT, indeed. This means that the CAT takes into consideration your opponent's plusses and minuses, inverting them. For Example, if you both have no cards in hand and you have a One Day of Peace set and you activate it, you lose one card (-1), you draw one (+1), your opponent draws one (-1)=-1. So, yes, One Day of Peace is a -1.

CAT applied to cards
Even cards follow CAT's rules, let's use the very example of +1: Thunder Dragon
You have one card in your hand, Thunder Dragon, activating it, you lost 1 card, but you added other two. 2-1=1. Congrats, you just went +1.
But, let's talk about a +0 (well, mathematically speaking, 0 doesn't have a symbol before it, but usually you'll see it with either a + or a -, so let's keep it): Upstart Goblin.
Activating it, you lost one card, but drew one. 1-1=0.
This was a +0, nothing to be really proud of, but nothing bad, either.
Let's talk, then, of the infamous -1s: Spellbook of Power.
Activating it you lost 1 card, and just gave 1000 ATK to a monster, without other income. 0-1=-1. Damn, you went negative, that's no good, is it?

Exceptions and whatnots
What we saw in the last paragraph, mathematically speaking, is that Thunder Dragon is good, Upstart is meh, Foolish is bad, but is that right? Well, not. You mustn't forget that there are variables and that sometime card quality is what matters. Unless you have something that needs discard fodder, are you really having some use for those Thunder Dragons? I believe not, that's why Thunder Dragon is under-used, seeing use only in FTKs or similar thingies, because it thins the deck, lets you go +1 and provides discard fodder for Dark World Dealing.
What about Upstart? If what you did didn't provide you any advantage but just made the opponent gain 1000 LPs, what was its use? Again, deck thinning. Playing Upstarts basically lets you go under the 40 card limit. Playing 3 in a 40 card deck will make it like you're using 37 cards, which improves your deck. Let's just say you can bypass the 3-card limit, how would a deck made up of 35 Upstarts and 5 pieces of exodia be? Simply unarrestable, whoever goes first without the opponent reacting with a droll and lock bird wins.
And then, what about Spellbook of Power? It's an inconfutable -1, so it's bad, right? Damn no. This is one of the whatnots I was talking about, it has a "side effect". When it destroys a monster in battle, you get a Spellbook spell from your deck. This means that you lose the card you activate (-1), search one (+1) and destroy an opponent's monster (+1). All in all, it becomes a +1. You happy now, SB player?

Applications
Why is this rule so important in YGO? As said before, the player who has more cards is most likely the one winning, but why does it matter if there are cards that are -1, -2, -3 or +1, +2, +3? First of all, let's just say that we're speaking of an at least semi-competitive game-scene, where no one plays plain -1s aside from Foolish Burial, SB of Power and similar (because, in the end, they aren't really -1s or have a real purpose). Considering that you start with 6 cards, you shouldn't waste them, but use them to produce more cards. What an ED player does is a combo on first turn that usually takes him to about +6 (+6 from the original number, resulting in about 12 cards). Do you realize why EDs are so strong right now?
What about SBs, why are they so strong? That's because they have +1s of about +3/4 but that they do repeteatedly, plus eventual stuff from Power and such.
This means that Card Advantage can easily vary. If you keep on using 1 for 1 (you lose one card in exchange for another from the opponent, like MST) you'll eventually lose because the opponent will plus if you don't have a consistent plus engine. What's behind Antimeta is exactly that, it doesn't use simple 1 for 1, but uses cards (even though they are mostly one for ones in the end) that won't let the opponent plus. The example I use the most is "Veiler that Stratos". Of course locking their pluses isn't that helpful if you don't have a way to plus yourself, but what if the way to plus yourself is minusing the opponent? That is a legit way of plusing, I said before, an opponent's -1 is a +1 for you. Let's say, then, that you are playing a control deck, you have a 1200 ATK Dyna and a Garden on the field. You'll instantaneously notice that the opponent isn't able to SS big monsters while it is needed to have an AT LEAST 2400 ATK monster to ram into Dyna, as of now. You don't leave him ways to ATK you and to damage you (you're locking Garden's summons with Dyna) and when you summon you don't plus him. Given that you have a big monster, you're free to set your monsters and then flip them if you want them at full force.
Doing so, you'll either keep the opponent at your same number but with less useful cards or you'll be minusing him always.

Decks
The kind of decks that work with this mindset are mainly Control, Stun and Antimeta, Stun being the one who uses is the best. I named Chaos Stun a couple of times, my favourite Stun deck ever I'm renewing. Either in the next or the one after the next post I'll write about it and the renewed list I'm working on.
Control has the option I named up there of Garden+Pachy, for example, while Antimeta lives off that, with Pachy on the field and several backrows.


Well, well, liked getting back at writing a lil bit, hope I can fully return blogging.
Stay Tuned.

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.

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

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).

Evilswarm, Tests and Builds

Evilswarm, if you're Malaysian you totally know what I'm talking about. Evilswarms are getting lots of attention lately in Malaysia (source: Digital Mortal, I'm not Malaysian), as such, lots of people started building and playing it. It's an easy guess, even as an Italian yugioh player, that Evilswarms will be considered part of the meta in a short time there in OCG-land, specifically Malaysia because of the different meta.
As I read about that, though, I remembered having an old list on my pc of Evilswarms. I like the entire 'lswarm archetype, I played those nasty steelswarms, too, when they were just released, and thus it was obvious I had one.
Let's start saying I NEVER saw another build of Evilswarms nor played against them before those last two days, so all I did was on my own and of course it was different from other builds. Said so:
I play a rabbit build, as I think everyone does since it looks like the most intelligent option right now. I play 6 vanilla monsters, 3 of those are obvious Heliotropes. I remember myself thinking while building that list that Sabersaurus would have been wonderful, since we're already going for the control route, so laggia/dolkka could just have been better. Even though, I decided to play 3 Archfiend Soldier. I didn't really remember why, but I continued reading my list and everything matched, in the end.
I did play some mandragos and thunderbird, and tour engine (now 2 tours, 1 sangan and 1 night assailant, but previously it was 3 tours and 1 sangan). Going on the spells I noticed what was off for sabersaurus: Dark Calling. 3 Dark Callings, not one. Seeing that I remember everything about the build.
I basically went for the control routes with Ophion and Thanatos, sometimes stealing opponent's monsters with Bahamut, and then, when we were late game, with few options left, I could have relied on Dark Calling on Gaia for giant beatsticks (sometimes 1900 Archfiend Soldier + 2600 Pearl, or 1950 Heliotropes + 2350 Thanatos, or 1900+1950 or 2600+2350). Dark Calling was either played late game, as a finisher, or early game, to attempt to some OTKs or giant damages to prevent your opponent's future Warnings on your key monsters.
I'm actually trying to perfectionate it, 'cause I'm liking it. I should check some builds online, but that wouldn't help because the gamestyle is way different.

See Ya.

P.s. in the tags there's the Verz tags. For those who don't know, Verz is the OCG name of Evilswarms, and since I already posted with that tag, I'd prefer to keep this one.

Prohibition, What About Maindecking?

Activate by declaring 1 card name. Cards with that name, and their effects, cannot be used. Cards already on the field are not affected (including face-down cards).

Great side deck card it is, isn't it? Generic enough to be a generic side deck card against every deck. For this exact reason this card is primarly used for random decks you could encounter in a tournament but that you weren't ready for so that you didn't side anything. But, let's be a little more specific: every deck has a key card or some cards that they'd suffer alot to lose, or even cards that you don't want yourself to face. This card will always be there for you (looks romantic as a statement, doesn't it?).
So, what am I reviewing this card for? Maindeck it.
When there's a card enough specific to always be used it is considered a staple, let's say Reborn, Heavy and Dark Hole. Dark Hole and Heavy Storm are in the 90% of cases great minuses for the opponent and they could win your game, while reborn is played even in macro decks because SSing something without any cost is just great. No limit for the summon, even the opponent's grave is ok, and you can bring your opponent's BLS.
Prohibition does just the same, but even better: DH isn't good against some decks, Heavy isn't against other, Reborn suffers Macro decks, but this card can slow down ALL of them, or even kill some of them (prohibition on sea lancer is pretty much an auto-win, if you can protect prohibition).
Here's another factor, protection. Sometimes you can use Prohibition to protect yourself from DH when you overextended and opponent used fader or swift scarecrow, or even gorz. Sometimes you can use Prohibition on MST (maybe along Starlight face-down) to protect your field spell, your continuous cards, your face-downs, and your prohibition itself. Sometimes you can use prohibition when you see your opponent has 3 DARK monsters in grave on DAD.
This all makes maindecked prohibition great for lots of decks, from OTKs to control, to Antimeta, to Macro, to Skill, to Grave-reliant, to SS-reliant and so on.
Focusing a bit more on OTKs, you can use Prohibition on Gorz, Fader or Scarecrow (based on what you think opponent has in hand), or, if he has a set card, on Mirror Force, Prison or Compulsory. If you're comboeing and your opponent has a face-down, declare that Solemn Warning or Torrential Tribute right away.
Focusing on Control/Antimeta decks, stopping MST and Heavy Storms isn't everything you can do. If you play, let's say, a Control deck that focuses on bringing a boss monster to win, you can declare Solemn Warning and summon without worrying.

This is in game 1, in early game, where you don't even know what the opponent's playing, in mid and late game you can easily kill decks once you know what they're playing. Go for Prohibition on Hornet and plan to win, or use it on REDMD to stop the infamous Lightpulsar-REDMD loop, or use it on WU-Rabbit to stop some more abuses or Magician if he has yet to combo, while Mermails could lose some power once you stop their infantry, because they'd lose their raigeki break for face-ups that's searchable and abusable and that could destroy that prohibition itself. Everything suffers at least a bit Prohibition, even in game 1.

In game 2 and 3, if you didn't side out those prohibition (I'd always recommend to keep them, though, except for some rogue and such), this card gives you the upper hand since you won't have to side out anything to fit them, they're already in! Side what you want, and if it is a continuous spell/trap, declare MST.
Use this on Magician and protect it well, you should have already won like this. I won't explain all the decks cause you should know their main cards, just know that everything suffers, rogues and similar apart.

In game 2 and 3, too, you can use this card to counter-side. Basically awesome. You playing Wind-Ups? Go for Needle Ceiling. Playing Chaos Dragons? Fissure. Fear opponent's Prohibition? Prohibit it. (If you're asking if it is possible, yes it is).

Well, I described Prohibition as a meta call, sometime I should show you something else about Prohibition-
Stay Tuned, I prohibit you to stop following me (? LOL, just wanted to use prohibit someway, I like this verb a lot).

Black Garden, Giant Little Beatsticks, How to Build

When a monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned, except by the effect of "Black Garden": Halve its ATK, also you Special Summon 1 "Rose Token" (Plant-Type/DARK/Level 2/ATK 800/DEF 800) to its controller's opponent's side of the field, in Attack Position. You can target 1 monster in your Graveyard with ATK equal to the total ATK of all face-up Plant-Type monsters on the field; destroy this card and all face-up Plant-Type monsters, then Special Summon that target.

Yeah, yeah, great card, anyone knows this card's great, right? Let's start saying that recently I'm taking a liking to this card (I always liked this, but recently it got better), and I'm thinking of lots of uses for this card's effects. Let's start reading them one by one:

When a monster(s) is Normal or Special Summoned, except by the effect of "Black Garden": Halve its ATK, also you Special Summon 1 "Rose Token" (Plant-Type/DARK/Level 2/ATK 800/DEF 800) to its controller's opponent's side of the field, in Attack Position.

Basically, I summon a monster, his ATK is halved, and I summon a token on the opponent's field or viceversa. This part of the effect is awesome, it's way this card is played where it is played. Decks that abuse this part of the effects are usually called Garden Control. Basically you set a monster that would benefit alot by having a greater ATK than other monsters, like don zaloog, next turn flip summon it and have a great beatstick that does anything. Here the name Giant Little Beatstick (GLB) comes to mind, it is a little beatstick, but it becomes giant if compared to other monsters. To abuse this card's effect we have:
Don Zaloog, hand control like hell.
Wind-Up Rabbit, becomes basically a 2800, good enough, isn't it? Comboes with Kaiser Colosseum (I'll say more about this later). (Verz Thunderbird does the beating better, but the Kaiser worse)
Horus, once LV6 is summoned, he'll be a hell of a beatstick (not halved via Garden, too), and could upgrade  easily beating a token into LV8 to negate ALL the spells, good enough.
Jurracs, Guaiba could easily become a laggia destroying the token he just generated, and Dino could let you draw two during the end phase (always working with kaiser colosseum).
(Pseudo-/)Flip Effects, Sazank could be a 1200 (2400 against other monsters) that sends a monster to the grave and direct attacks, Fossil Dyna could destroy all of the tokens and keep control on the field with his 2400 ATK, and so on.

What's more, the tokens being plant means you can use pollinosis as additional judgments (or better, main judgments, since I wouldn't play judgment itself for the LP cost that here is really bad), and fragrance storm as a mean to control the field for kaiser (I wouldn't suggest this, anyways, because could really be a dead draw)

Let's see the second and last part of the effect:

You can target 1 monster in your Graveyard with ATK equal to the total ATK of all face-up Plant-Type monsters on the field; destroy this card and all face-up Plant-Type monsters, then Special Summon that target.

Then, what about this? Let's start saying that tokens are 800 ATK and are probably the only plant monsters on the field, that means that the monster that you want to reborn has to be a 800*X ATK monster, where X is a number from 1 to 10 (even if the higher it is, the most difficult to summon it is), I find that 800, 1600 and 2400 are the easier to summon). I wrote something about Garden and possible targets in this post, so I think I should not focus on this part of the effect in the explanation, just use the other post as a reference for anything about this part of the effect.

Now, let's see supports for the supports. You can't just randomly play those supports if they don't accomplish at anything, so let's see some supports for the supports:
-Tour Engine, brings Rabbit faster. Not really needed, but for those who don't care for Kaiser Colosseum's field control and like Tour, this engine could be played. As engine I mean 2 Tours, Sangan and Night Assailant. Sangan searches pretty much anything, while Night Assailant is a mindfuck for the opponent. You'll be setting a lot of monsters, so your opponent wouldn't always expect a flip effect when you set a monster, so cards like assailant, fossil dyna, sazank and others are real bitches for the opponent.
-Kaiser Colosseum, I talked alot about this card in this post, why's that? Rabbit that auto-banishes itself reduces the number of monsters on your side of the field, reducing even the number of monsters the opponent can play. What's more, let's see an hand of garden+guaiba+Kaiser, and the opponent with a clear field (first turn, for example). Activate Garden, summon guaiba, the opponent gets a token, then activate kaiser and stop your opponent's monsters. Next turn (assuming it was the first turn), you beat the token, get another guaiba, opponent gets a token, too, go into laggia, your opponent can't summon the other token, and you'll be left with Laggia, kaiser and garden, while the opponent has a token. Lots of cards, generally, can abuse kaiser in here, I don't see why you shouldn't be playing with it.
-Ninjas, we do play sazank, we could play other ninjas. They can easily bring Horus and keep field control with supertransformation for when you don't have kaiser. You can summon either horus or white dragon, since the latter can prevent your S/Ts' destruction. We do even play some Dinos, so why not?
-Royal Decree, along with horus LV8, needs no explanation. You just have to balance your trap set well.

Now, counteracting to the opponent's counteract in the first game. Let's first see what the opponent is likely to do:
If he NS or SS monsters, it'll halve their monster's ATK, and they'll get me a token as tribute for horus and such, but he could not know I do play horus, based on your gamestyle and what you revealed to the opponent. Since he surely knows that having a monster with halved ATK against my monsters that benefit from killing opponent's monsters isn't good, he'll probably set them, so let's see what we can do against the setting of monsters.
Setting a monster isn't a very good option in YGO, since it'll make you lose the normal summon of the turn and you can't attack with that one, what's more you'll have to flip it next turn exposing it to additional traps the opponent could have drawn in the turn he bought. For this exact reason I'd max out on those BTH and CED. Bottomless is a great card, if the monster has less than 1500, it won't be a threat to us, if it is greater than 1500, you can kill it. Compulsory, on his side, can bounce that monster buying you another turn since he'll have to set the monster again and flip it next turn. I'd play some Torrential, too, but it's based on how your build is.
Acid Trap Hole is another choice, based on how much control you want on the opponent. Let's be realistic, no one plays >2000 DEF monsters, except Glads if they tech Hoplomus (but you'll have to encounter a GB that does play hoplomus, and both of the facts are pretty surrealistic, and they'll even have to draw into it, because searching it with proving would conclude nothing from their side of the game), and in that case you'll know who the set monster is. Only sad fact is that it trigger FLIP effects, but they would have triggered them however, sooner or later, right?

Other things they could do in game 1 is activating a field spell to ruin your garden setup. In that case you have few responses, but they are good enough considered that you'll have first to encounter a deck that plays a field spell and searches it pretty fastly. In that case we have 2/3 maindecked typhoons, cards to negate the field spell so that it won't destroy garden, and horus LV8. Horus is your main response to ANYTHING, once you have it into play, you can stop the main S/T destruction cards (MST and Heavy), and opponent's field spells.
Other than this, there's something I'm playing in lots of places recently, and it gave me some pretty results: maindecked Prohibition.
Every deck has some main cards for their strategy, and every deck plays typhoon and heavy that you'd want to forbid, so why not?

And there we are, post-side situation: you know the opponent's deck, your opponent knows yours, you've got to side.
You don't fear neither Macro nor Fissure, so if you encounter a Macro Rabbit, he'll surely de-side them in game two, even if it hasn't nothing special against you, so that'll be 3 slots that will probably go to hand traps or prohibition.
For the fact you don't fear Macro and Fissure, you can play them, even in the main if you want.
What someone will probably side against you is Closed Forest, if they do play it. In any case, what they'll side will probably be some continuous S/Ts, so add some Dust Tornadoes.
They could (should) add some more mass destruction effects if they side them, so build your list the way you'll be able to play 1 or 2 starlights in game 2.
Be aware if skill drain, too.
Build your list the way you'll be able to side Royal Decrees, if you're not maining them.
If you're not maining them, side hand traps. It's highly recommended to main them, though, since you fear a first turn explosion that you wouldn't be able to control since they started comboeing before you could put anything on the table.
Side some more mass destruction, if you don't play at least TTs in the main, because you, as just said, fear first turn explosions.
If your list is a little bit homogeneous in either type or attribute, side or main Gozen Match or Rivarly of Warlords. You just have to continuously summon plant/EARTH tokens on the opponent's side of the field so that he won't be able to do anything. That is more hate for the Wind-Up loop and other explosive decks, aside from Chaos Dragons. For Chaos Dragons Macro/Fissure are enough, but you should control them well enough with your mained cards.


Well, this was all for today's post. I could update it someday, but for now it is all. Take this post as a guide to the deck, I think it is pretty exhaustive about everything. If I forgot something, make me notice in the comment, I'll fix it.
See Ya.

Rosso Sangue: Red Dragon Ninja Control

Monsters: [18]

1 Alector, Sovereign of Birds
1 Dark Simorgh

1 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon/White Dragon Ninja

3 Jurrac Guaiba

3 Karakuri NINJA mdl 339 "Sazank"

2 Mist Valley Falcon

3 Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo

3 Red Dragon Ninja

1 Silver Senior Ninja

Spells: [7]

1 Dark Hole

1 Magic Planter

1 Monster Reborn

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Swallow's Nest

Traps: [13]

1 Dark Bribe

1 Fake Trap

2 Ninjitsu Art of Duplication

1 Ninjitsu Art of Shadow Sealing

1 Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation

3 Ninjitsu Art of Transformation

1 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Solemn Warning

1 Starlight Road

'Kayyyy, that's it. Actually I don't know which one to choose between GEPD and White Dragon, GEPD takes care of common threats like zenmaines, maestroke, gachi and similar, while bonusing doing so. White Dragon is compatible with the Ninjitsu cards, Red Dragon target and protects all of the backrows you've got, even though it has 300 less ATK than GEPD, and there are some monsters with an higher ATK. What's more, GEPD can take care even of those with an higher ATK, working as a wall. Actually, I'm more into GEPD, but sometimes having White Dragon would have saved me from sure death. I'm sure that I'll side the one that I'm not maining, though.

About Guaiba without Lance, it's ok. At least, it puts pressure on the opponent.

About double Falcon and no Fiendish, I was thinking of adding them, since at least 2 cards to negate monster's effect are required.

About Reinforcement of the Army with only 3 hanzos, it's awesome. It's like playing 4 of them.

About single Magic Planter, it fits my gamestyle perfectly, just 1 is good.

About triple Sazank, good MU against Rabbit, it kills Zenmaines, Gachi and Maestroke with ease, Ninjitsu target and awesome surprise effect. Duplication can eventually bring two of them for great mass destruction.

About Fake Trap, it's great, Starlight is good, but can easily be negated and mst plays around it, while this card blocks more cards. If you don't like this card, play a Huge Revolution is Over, instead.

About single super-transformation with only Guaibas and GEPD/White Dragon as targets, it is good. First turn hanzo that searchs this puts the opponent under great presure, it's awesome.

For more explanation, here is the other post.

I played this deck quite a lot, I must say I'm having some fun with it, trolling your opponent with Sazank and Red Dragon, ultimately stoppiong some continuous cards with Alector, other than, obviously, monsters. I realized that I have quite a great match-up against rabbit, only that this deck suffers quite a lot Fissure/Macro, so siding S/T destruction should be needed. Maybe you can change the deck play-style entirely against some decks that don't set a lot. I think I'll build a side for this, not sure. If I do, I'll post it too.

That's All Folks.

Rosso Sangue: Deck Prototype: Red Dragon Ninja Control

Monsters: [20]

1 Alector, Sovereign of Birds

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

1 Dark Simorgh

1 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

3 Jurrac Guaiba

2 Karakuri NINJA mdl 339 "Sazank"

1 Mist Valley Falcon

3 Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo

3 Red Dragon Ninja

1 Silver Senior Ninja

2 Upstart Golden Ninja

1 White Dragon Ninja

Spells: [7]

1 Dark Hole

1 Magic Planter

1 Monster Reborn

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Swallow's Nest

Traps: [13]

1 Dark Bribe

1 Fake Trap

2 Ninjitsu Art of Duplication

1 Ninjitsu Art of Shadow Sealing

1 Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation

2 Ninjitsu Art of Transformation

1 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Solemn Warning

1 Starlight Road

The extra is the worst I've ever built, just try not to even see it. Still, I don't use it a lot, so it's ok, I should add more xyz options, indeed.

About the main, let's start saying I've got the idea from Beau Butler from the TCGPlayer Blog (here's the article). To be honest, I didn't read it all, since I usually get tired from reading articles talking about a single cards in a single deck, but all I read (till the end of AssuREDly Good) gave me so many ideas that I shifted that page to DN to build it fastly, so even if I could read it all, I wanted to build it so badly that I couldn't have continued reading it however.

Back to deck itself, this is just a prototype, what I built in about 4 minutes, extra included. I've got so many doubts about this, that it could radically change.

Basically, the deck is based on Red Dragon Ninja and the -1s it can provide to the opponent. Getting that huge thing on the field isn't hard, and it can kill all of the backrows and even the set monsters like ryko, snowman eater, Gravekeeper's Spy, Geargiarmor, and so on. Being able to either put that card to bottom or top can not only do a -1 to your opponent, but even "stopping" his next draw making him draw the same card you spun. The mind set is: if that card can't kill you or your key cards, spin it. If it is a trap card or a flip monster and you can summon Simorgh, spin it. Otherwise, just put it back to the bottom of the deck and -1 the opponent.

That card really lets abuses everywhere, I happened to face an antimeta that set a pachy and 1 forbidden lance, 1 compulsory and 1 starlight road. I've first used mst, hitting compulsory, then I summoned red dragon to put back to the bottom his pachy, then used duplication to bring another red and spun his starlight road, then used swallow's nest and put to the bottom lance, then summoned simorgh banishing a dead hanzo and falcon. No need to say that the opponent just felt the need to ragequit.

Let's talk about the single cards:

Alector, great card, can be easily bringed to the field from the handto use swallow's nest on him to bring Red Dragon Ninja. Mainly Transformation target.

BLS, not sure about this card, however, in the few test I did, I didn't draw into him once, so I can't tell.

Dark Simorgh, great card, if backupped with some traps can be a great starting.

Galaxy, newly added, not sure, just 1 test with this one. If I drew into Hanzo or Super-Transformation, this card would have won the game for me. I won via Red Dragon in the end, though.

Guaiba, why be original? Let's be mainstream. Every deck with Hanzos and Super-Transformation plays those, so why not? Not sure about this one, I don't play lances, but this card rides over common cards, so it's ok. It won me games, but it's one of the prime candidates to be dropped along with BLS and another one.

Sazank, one of the main reason I built this deck. I thought "it should be trolling enough to exchange a red dragon in the opponent's end phase with two of these with Duplication and minusing the opponent by two, other than having 2 monsters that can attack directly and valid Ninjitsu's tribute fodder.

Falcon, great card, recycles dead ninjitsu's in an awesome way. Good card, I found myself in a situation like red dragon, falcon, double transformation already activated. I think it is needed in more than 1 copy, though, even if you can bring it with transformation.

Hanzo, awesome.

Red Dragon, centerpiece.

Silver, well, trollish card. In the few games I played (about 10), I could pull off his effect only once, and that felt great. Double Sazank and double Red Dragon, u mad? I think that 1 copy is enough.

Upstart, not sure about this card, but it is one of the best ninjas out there to be played here, I would run out of Ninjitsu's tribute fodders, but I'd like to drop this.

White, good card, but I'm thinking of dropping this one, too. Galaxy-Eyes has basically the same use (beater that doesn't fear its ninjitsu being destroyed), while being able to kill nasty XYZs easily.

No Heavy Storm, I've got lots of S/T hate, and this would have backfired on me, probably.

Planter, draw card.

Swallow's nest, comboes with Red Dragon. I did OTK with this and a couple of set cards with hanzo (opponent's field was clear). Attack with Hanzo, then Transformation, bring Red Dragon, attack with him, then transformation, bring another Red Dragon, attack, then Swallow's nest.

Bribe, good negation card.

Fake Trap, here, I like it more than Starlight, and that's a rare thing. Seeing your opponent being killed by his own heavy while we don't take any damages to our S/Ts is just awesome. What's more, can't be negated via Warning.

Duplication, great card, can both do some swarms with Sazanks, and do Red Dragon again, or Senior Silver Ninja.

Sealing, testing this one. Actually, I don't like how it minuses you without any direct pluses, but this card is perfect against nasty combo decks and zenmaines/chronoaut.

Super-transformation. Why one? Because I don't really need this one, but it's awesome to break apart your opponent's comboes and bringing a big beater to the field, or guaiba.

Transformation, great card. I was thinking of playing 3 of those.

Return from the Different Dimension, didn't draw this card, not even once. Still it is theorically awesome, I've seen with my own eyes how much I can banish with red dragon.

Starlight, backrow protection.

So, the cards I think I'll drop are:

Upstart Golden Ninja

BLS

White Dragon Ninja

Guaiba (not sure about this one, I think that in the end I'll keep it because laggia and dolkka are amazing)

The cards I'd like to fit in are:

one more sazank (upstart substitute, since I'd run low on the number of ninjas)

one more Transformation

I'll try to fix this one, if you've got some ideas, just write them under here in the comments. I think that by next Saturday at least you'll be able to see the new decklist.

Usual Trivia: "Rosso Sangue" means "Crimson". That's referring to the card that Red Dragon Ninja is based off, Crimson Ninja.

That's All Folks!

Card of the Week #19: Doomcaliber Knight

Cannot be Special Summoned. During either player's turn, when a monster effect is activated: Tribute this face-up card; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy that monster.

I wanted to review this card from quite some time, yesterday talking with a friend of mine I thought about reviewing this today, and so it was. Here, have some rulings:
-Tributing is a cost;
-The "cannot be special summoned" part of the effect is a condition;
-This effect does not target.

The first two don't need explanations, just keep in mind that you can use his effect even with skill drain on the field and that that "cannot be special summoned" can't be avoided no matter what.
The third one, instead, is a logical thing. As you all know, you can't target cards in hand or deck, so if this card hits a card in hand or deck, this means it can't target. That's the same reasoning that's behind Trishula's rulings.

Let's take a close look, shall we?
DARK, yeah, supports, and given his effect even chaos fodder;
LV4, usually a lovely level, but with this card it doesn't really matter, just keep that in mind for eventualities;
Fiend, some other good supports;
Stats, 1900 ATK is great, and everyone seems to forget that this card has a great defense, too, 1800 is really something.

I love this card, that's it. Great stats with great effect. Negate monster's effect to stop their plays, at the worst it's 1 for 1 trade, so it doesn't matter, expecially if you have some cards to back you up.

Well, why this card? As you should know, I like controllish and antimetish things, so that cards that are always there in these decks are my favourite ones. To be honest, I hated Doomcaliber initially, probably because of some bad experiences I had against him, but then I started playing chaos stun for something like 2/3 formats (before BLS was limited again) and this became one of the big three of the deck, alongside Thunder King and Chaos Sorcerer.

Why is doomcaliber so awesome? Doomcaliber has a particular ability: can negate any monster's effect, no matter where and when. The problem is that his effect is mandatory, but that's not a problem if you can work with him. Summon this, set 1 warn, 1 bribe and 1 dimensional prison and you are ready to win. While playing this card the main thing you need to control is YOUR field, and not only your opponent's. If you have nothing to back you up after you use his effect you're probably done for. I'd rather not summon him in place of sumoning him without any back-up plans or other antimetish cards in the backrow.
While you have to play being aware of this, this card is great because it can destroy giant monsters if they have mandatory effects or stop your opponent from using them if they don't have anything else to kill doomcaliber. If they do have them, you have your backrows, so anything's fine and you'll continue stopping your opponent's cards while locking your opponent's monster's effect with your still-on-the-field Doomcaliber Knight.

A pro that's at the same time a con is that doomcaliber can negate cards from everywhere, both fields, both hands, both decks, both graveyards, both banished zones, basically everywhere.
While this can be used from your opponent to kill your doomcaliber without high costs, or sometimes without any cost at all (treeborn frog is an example), you can use this to stop your opponent's key monster's effects, like the only monster's effect that inzektors will need to start comboeing, that rescue rabbit your opponent is trying to use, that Stratos your opponent is trying to summon (that has a mandatory effect, of course), that dark world's effect that your opponent used wasting a discard card only to kill that 2200 beater you have on the field (cause he gets the 300 ATK bonus from gateway, of course) and so on.

Speaking of Dark World, even though I never played them competitively recently, I started building an antimeta build that features triple doomcaliber. I'm actualyl developing this with a friend of mine that's way more expert than me about this deck, but I definitely think it has potential.
Being able to generate +1s or generally not to go into some -1s, and the ability to play skill drain, it makes Dark World a perfect deck for antimeta/control. Being Doomcaliber fiend, too, he gets the +300 ATK from gateway, making him a 2200 beater against TK or even cyber dragon, while being able to stop effects from the hand or graveyard, other than field if skill drain is not active.

I should, one day, do a general guide to control and antimeta decks, I felt the need of it sometimes.

Well, this was all, hope you liked the card and the post. Check out LFN and YGO's post about him, too, as he did a fast post about that card mained against the meta.
See Ya.

Selvaggio: Beastly Synchro

Monsters: [22]

3 Chain Dog

2 Dark Desertapir

1 Egotistical Ape

1 Green Baboon

3 Key Mouse

3 Kinka-Byo

1 Lock Cat

3 Ryko

2 Super-Nimble

3 Uniflora

1 X-Saber Airbellum

Spells: [10]

1 Creature Swap

1 Dark Hole

2 Gold Sarcophagus

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mind Control

1 Monster Reborn

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 One for One

Traps: [7]

1 Fiend Comedian

3 Horn of the Phantom Beast

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Starlight Road

The Extra Deck is quite randomish, but it worked well. If you want, I think I should do it too, add one other Emeral by dropping a tricorn or unicorn.

Then, back to the deck itself, how does this work? It works fairly well, I'm yet to find the perfect build, but it works.

Go into fast Naturia Beast, maybe with Horn equipped to make it a giant beatstick not overrunnable via usual methods, then do, as fast as you can, barkion to lock out the opponent's usual choices and eventually lock even all of the methods they have to kill your duo (not everyone plays monsters capable to kill other monsters, and if the draw into veiler too late they should have lost already, even because you play other protections, too.

While doing this, you have lots of beat abilities, ryko's destroying ability, uniflora's SS ability, Kinka's effect to bring back uniflora and another monster with uniflora's effect, that single creature swap control and so on.

Explaining some of the most odd choices:

Desertapir+Gold Sarcophagus, extreme SS ability, with uniflora in the grave you can virtually SS all of the beast monsters.

Egotistical Ape, discard chain dog, bring him back, go into Beast. What's more, random tuner with variable levels.

Single Lock Cat, I didn't feel the need for more than one, since uniflora can't activate its effect, only thing left was summon mouse to use its effect once destroyed, or go into armory arm. If armory was beast, Lock Cat would have been at least at 2, but usually 3.

Green Baboon, decent beater, main reason for it. As an added reason, back-up plan sometimes.

Single Creature Swap, more have been cloggy to me, and 1 just good.

Fiend Comedian, my favourite tech from some time on. Use this, either ruin opponent's plans or give you the mill you need.

I'd like to have another emeral in there because one recycles the other one so that you don't have non-beasts in the grave.

The major problem of the deck was, though, the speed. You could either start with awesome hands or bad hands that needed you to stall some turns. However the deck has one main good point: it has pretty much never a totally bad hand such as "Oh, I have these shits, I should hit the admit defeat button", you could always turn the table.

Other ideas for the deck were playing solidarity as, the most of times, we have only beasts in the grave.

What's more, I initially played Bazoo in the deck to get rid of non-beast monsters, but when I read desertapir's effect closely I noticed that it wouldn't work with bazoo's effect, so I took if out for soul release that worked, but was way too occasional, I gave up on the idea of removing those monsters like that and use emeral instead, however I thought of Transmigration prophecy while writing this post. I think it should be good, recycle your cards, make your opponent's monsters not be a valid target for lot of cards and they're done for. What's more, chainable.

I believe I'll play one dropping an Airbellum, since it felt more than anything else cloggy and useless. And, yes, it happened, I had airbellum on the field against DWs making him totally dead.

Well, that was it. As usual, the translation: "Selvaggio" means "Wild", I felt it was appropriate for the deck since this goes "selvaggiamente" (wildly) into some big synchros and beaters.

See Ya.

Karakuris, a Story of Beast+Safe Zone and some +1s

Actually working on some karakuris, other than the roid deck.
Of course the roid one is meant to be only fun, while this can easily be tier 1.
You know I don't like mainstream things, but karakuris are, along with infernities, the only decks I used at least once in each banned from when they were released.
Still, against the mainstream itself, I'm playing a build focused on +1s, baiting and mind gaming.
The deck is kinda good, since it does play 3 ninishi, obviously, to go into insta synchro, 3 inashichi, to +1 at every time, 3 anatomies, +1s on the road, and baits out your opponent MSTs, 3 Cash Cache, search what you need, still a 0, but really good, since it fuels anatomy, too, and searches lots and lots of pieces for the combo, 3 safe zones, protection, on beast mainly, but even other things, and is a really useful card.
Let's just say on of my ordinary hand:
1 Anatomy, 1 Cash Cache, 1 Inashichi and 3 other random cards.
You know how many pluses this one is? NS Inashichi and search (+1) cash cache, activate anatomy, activate cash cache (+1-1=0), search random cards for your comboes next turn, usually either inashichi or ninishi (0+1=+1), activate another one and search for inashichi or ninishi, based on what you already have in your hand (+1-1+1=+1), send anatomy to the grave (+1-1=0) and draw 2 (0+2=+2).
This is a standard one. Consider that everything in this combo is searchable and played in 3 awesome copies. If you have a ninishi in your hand, too, this play goes into beast, with a set-up next turn for barkion (searchin sazank in place of inashichi) and could have made you draw a safe zone, making you sure to win that game in most cases (in this meta, the only thing I can think of that can counter this combo is lyla or ryko, or other monsters/traps that do destroy spell/traps. Still, making barkion should be a good enough protection, and having some starlight road against BRD is always useful.
And, what if we add another card to that combo?
2 Anatomy and 1 Cash Cache/1 Anatomy and 2 Cash Cache, and 1 inashichi. I think I don't even need to explain this, it's just that you draw 2 more cards losing one, so another +1, ending it up with a +3.

I actually like a lot karakuris, in the same build they can go into OTK or into control, not considering how easy is to combo doing both a giant monster that +1s you off every turn (bureido) and beast.
What's more, they're really versatile. Sazank can kill Laggia easily, improving your match-ups against Rabbit, but it's not the only thing, it can kill lots of things only to minus the opponent and making them lose their cards. And, yeah, it does send, so you can use it easily on zenmaines and maestroke, even tiras if you happen to encounter it, and even stardust that is seeing some more play with 3 teleports.

Yup, good deck, I'll use it for long time, I believe. Tomorrow I'll post the actual list.

More About Madolches: Teleport-less Psychic Build

Yet again, don't think of me as a mad scientist that works with cards in place of strange liquids, but hear what I'm about to say before.
What about a build that plays some psychic, but no teleports? Let me explain:

When this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can remove from play 1 Psychic-Type monster with 2000 or less ATK from your Deck. During the next Standby Phase, Special Summon the monster removed from play by this effect.

What about this? Is a tardy recruiter, it doesn't SS immediately, but waits for the stand-by before summoning the monster, so, why using it? Think of this as an assured LV2/3 tuner or xyz material for the next turn. Basically, summoning during the stand-by, she makes the monster immune to opponent's swarms and attack, since it'll be special summoned during my turn if the opponent destroyed this card by battle. Think of mew+messengelato, actually good, search a card, but it's bad that you can't do anything after that, and if the opponent has a solid and good hand, he will overcome this set-up really easily. This card is used to stabilize starting hands. Draw bad hand? Set this and have probably a synchro or an xyz for the next turn. If you have your usual mew+gelato, with this card that summons another copy of herself, you can already do invoker+tiara+chateau, not bad, is it?
This, played in 3 copies, and Magileine, played in 3 copies, will be good starting hands, because they let you set-up your game and stabilizing it all.
So, the little engine I was talking about is:
3x Serene Psychic Witch
1x Esper Girl
1x Psychic Commander

It gives you access to synchros, naturias too, and to easier R3, stabilizing your game and starting hand, and provides some more Mind Crush to the opponent because he's probably expecting Emergency Teleport, too, making him keep his negation cards for teleport and derivated sheningans. (Read this post for more explanations on Mind Crush and psychological game)

So, so, why am I not playing this already if it is that good? Because I haven't tested it yet, while I tested a lot the other one.

What's different between this engine and the T.G. one? The T.G. one usually explodes at once and does extreme comboes, this one is slower, but stabilizes the game alot, expecially against bad hands.

So, shouldn't teleport be played in here? If you've got slots, why not, I'm talking about builds with few slots free.


I believe this engine is kinda good, plays a little different, it's more for control builds. If you want to try it out, take the other build I linked before and do:
-1 Striker
-2 Warwolf
-1 Reinforcement of the Army
-1 Thunder King Rai-Oh

However the other build isn't exactly the most appropriate for this engine, but it's still good enough to try it out. I'll post something once I have time to build that.


Stay Tuned, I'm trying a couple of things lately.

Card of the Week #13: Queen Dragun Djinn

2 Level 4 monsters Dragon-Type monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle, except "Queen Dragun Djinn". Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 Level 5 or higher Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target. It cannot attack this turn, and its effects are negated.

Back with the regular card of the week, well, let's see some rulings and then we'll continue:
1.This card's effect to special summon a monster from the grave targets.
2.Costs and effects that work in the grave will work however even if the monster was summoned via Queen Dragun.

There isn't much to explain, however:
1.It clearly says that in the text of the card, remember you can then use D.D.Crow on the monster that would be special summoned.
2.The costs can be payed since djinn negates the effects of the monsters she summons, but costs are still available. Second one is just like veiler, if you veiler a sangan, that sangan's effect will work.

So, taking a closer look:
"Djinn" monster, works with the other djinn, maestroke mainly since they're both R4 and then have the same materials;
DARK, awesome, really awesome supports, and another thing we'll see later;
Rank 4, easily summonable, and it's generic with only 2 materials;
Dragon, some good supports over here and there;
Effect, reborner that protects other dragon from being destroyed by battle, just think of block golem for some fun, lol;
Stats, nice, not even good, but still not bad, 2200 ATK and 1200 DEF. Being both DARK and 2000+ ATK, we can go into some virus. Yeah, you heard right, this card is basically generic virus fodder.

So, so, what's about this card? This card is awesome, Deck Devastation Virus generic fodder and reborner for dragons. Dunno why, I really like this card. Just consider you can reborn a darkflare dragon with this card's effect, then discard a dragon and send another one from the deck, or summon lightpulsar and SS red-eyes darkness metal dragon when it's destroyed, special summon a tefnuit, tribute it for su, get a normal monster, go into atum, SS redmd, special summon tefnuit from the grave and overlay gaia over atum and so on.
Good card is good.
However, listing various uses this card has will make this a way too big post, so I'll just jump to deck ideas and things like that.
Consider how debris that SS block golem can go into this easily, just for something pure-ish. But I believe I'll like a lot using Monk to go into armageddon that sends something (I'd say Darkflare Dragon), go into Dragun, SS Darkflare, use its effect to send something from the hand and something from the deck (I'd say Lightpulsar, if possible send even REDMD), next turn just SS Lightpulsar too and we're already going good.
Another funny use could be using the old and never-considered hieratic trap cards. I always loved them, tribute a monster, do something. Well, let's say we summon Tefnuit with Queen, attack with queen and opponent tries to activate mirror force, activate Hieratic Seal of Reflection, tribute tefnuit and negate, SS a LV6 (if you want to try a hieratic dragun) or a blue-eyes/Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon Overlord (the last one will just be called seal dragon from now on) (if you want to try a control build) and use champion's vigilance when needed. Just funny ones, of course, if you want something serious just play something that can easily do a R4 in hieratics and you're ready.
And what about summoning a Darkflare with this card's effect and then tribute it for deck devastation virus? Wouldn't that kill actually every deck? I really like DDV, it's the stronger one, I believe that CCV isn't anymore any good if compared to DDV, except for the tribute that's actually easier to get, but, hell yeah, we've got a generic tribute fodder, I'm ok with this.
I think I'll try a control build, I don't like the hieratic dragun since it's really similar to regular hieratics, and I don't like them.

Sorry for the fast post, it actually was just a bunch of ideas put together, since I'm doing some works, and tomorrow's my birthday, I actually had only a bit of time, just enough to write this.
Don't forget to vote in the poll (right side of the layout, know, the text is grey and it hides itself, but I wrote the code wrong, lol). See Ya.