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.

Splashable Nordic Engine

When a monster you control is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn, when this Defense Position card is changed to face-up Attack Position, you can Special Summon 1 "Nordic Beast" monster from your Deck in face-up Defense Position, except "Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beasts".

Look at this powerhouse, just look at it. It's something like the main engine for every Nordic deck, since it allows easy lv7 synchros with Guldfaxe and if you've got another lv3, even thor. Easy SSable, and with the XYZs this card is a 1-card R3, that is even searchable.
Just to be precise, the engine I'm talking about should be something like:
2/3 Tanngnjostr
2/3 Guldfaxe
0/1 Tanngrisnir (2 or even 3 only if you want to abuse of R3 with tanngnjostr, but in that case I'd say one or no guldfaxes, depends from the deck)
2/3 Gleipnir
(0-3 Garmr, chaos fodder, otherwise pretty unuseful, even if the bouncing effect is kinda good, and 1900 isn't a bad wall, looks like Snowman Eater)

0-3 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster
0-2 Ryko (only if you play hamster)

That's a quite wide engine, it can go from 6 cards to 15.

Why should you play this engine?
-Lets easy LV7, one could be Ancient Sacred Wyvern, a true powerhouse OTK enabler, or even Ancient Fairy Dragon, to keep under control DWs, and other things, we'll see them later.
-Lets easy R3, going into generic XYZs like Zenmaines, Leviathan, Leviair, and so on.
-Speeds-up your deck, and thins a bit with Gleipnir.
-Saves from nasty situations.

Would you like to see some ideas of how and where to use this engine? Here it is:
-Synchros LV7, one could be Power Tool, so this engine can be used to speed up a deck that uses equips. If you've got some good combo that does give you some tons of lps, or you're playing psychic, you can go into Ancient Sacred Wyvern and potentially OTK, or this is just an easy nuke, without using the normal summon.
-R3, well, random combo starter for Wind-Ups, maybe? Tanngnjostr into tanngrisnir into zenmaity, eff zenmaity, bring a monster and do what you need. And adds some synchro support to Wind-Ups. This engine can do the exact same thing in Rabbit Laggia, go into leviair, SS Rabbit and use effect. Being R3 the most generic, this engine is kinda generic, too.
-Attributes, tanngnjostr (EARTH) can summon Guldfaxe (LIGHT) or Tanngrisnir (EARTH) or Garmr (DARK). This gives you access to Silver Summit, to some specific synchros (tanngnjostr+an earth tuner can do a naturia synchro), or even specific XYZs (Guldfaxe+LIGHT LV4 into Photoknight, or constellar omega, for example).
-Types, all beasts, if you're already playing horn of the phantom beast, fear not, you'll have more targets, still a random one, but nothing to hate. And there are multiple supports for Beasts.

I'm definitely going to try a reduced version in madolches, even if I'm actually trying lots of versions with different techs (WU Rabbit, Psychic Teleport-less engine, snowman eater, and so on).
Stay Tuned, this week I've got way too much topics to talk about, but I'm trying not to exagerate.

Tests: Gishki FTK and Nimble OTK

Well, I tested alot those two, and I'm really happy, here are the results of the tests:

Gishki FTK: is really consistent, can resist for a turn or two or even win via beatdown when you don't succeed into doing the full combo on first turn. If you resist for more than 3 turns, you're probably going to win. Just hope your opponent doesn't set too much.

Nimble OTK: this post was mainly for this one, I tested it, something like 30 games, and I haven't lost even once. That's Awesome. I encountered lots of bad Match-Ups (deck that set too much and Inzektors, those two mainly), but ever win, even with bad hands. It comboes too much for the opponent to handle it with those backrows, pretty much the same of fableds. Opponent had a full field, Laggia+Dollka+2 set cards, I had nothing on the field and pretty much a bad hand I don't fully remember. Once I succeded into getting rid of dollka, everything was easy, just stalled and drew into Dark Hole, that stopped laggia, luckily the opponent didn't have starlight, then I made the opponent waste all of the XYZ materials of dollka, then comboed, I made him waste all of the set cards he had, and win. It was kinda a big table-flip. Just consider that the two set cards were solemn warning and solemn judgment. Was kinda hard.
I did pretty much the same against T.G. Antimeta and Machina Antimeta, kinda hard, but won however. Inzektor bugged me more than I expected, but got rid of them however, caius wins games.

Overall:
If you want something to play IRL, play Gishki FTK, if you can, play Nimble OTK (I think that nimbles are released in OCG already, am I wrong?).
Those are two awesome decks, nimble is the best one, though, but gishki is cheap and TCG-ready.

Troll deck: MedaMokeyChaos(Rabbit?)

Monsters: [21]

3 Meda-Bat

3 Mokey Mokey

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer

1 Dark Armed Dragon

2 Effect Veiler

1 Gorz

3 Rescue Rabbit

1 Sangan

3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

1 Tragoedia

Spells: [14]
1 Allure of Darkness
2 Creature Swap
1 Dark Hole
2 Forbidden Lance

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Tri-Wight

2 Gift of the White Elephant

Traps: [5]

2 Common Charity

3 Reckless Greed

I'm still working on the Extra Deck, that's a sample one. Don't know the situation in other countries, but here in Italy, mokey mokey and meda bat are the perfect examples of troll cards, just like larvae moth. So I decided to build something using them, and it came out pretty awesome. I played against a lot of meta decks, and totally killed them. This is the troll build, if you want to make it better you simply need to take out mokey mokeys and put in happy lovers, that should, at least, increase this deck's competitivity of the 25%, I believe. Or, if they make some rank 1 that needs 2 materials, that would be good too.

Talking of the actual deck, this is pretty good, Creature Swap is one of the main win condition (not that it directly wins games, even if it does sometimes, but it permit you doing so, supporting simple and low beats, or other win conditions), lots of draw cards let you get everything you need. Other win condition are, in order from the greatest to the worst, Tour Guide into some big monster, Dark Armed Dragon and then Chaos. I find 3 rabbits be too much, but they work good as they are now, so I decided to leave them like this.

Just try it, is more good then how much you may think.

Only things I think I'll change are Tri-Wight and I think I'll add an Enemy Controller.

Don't think I'll build a Side Deck for now, but if I'll do it, I'll put in some more controller and creature swap against Chaos Dragons, Enemy Controller should work good even against wind-ups and inzektor by stealing them respectively hunter and Dragonfly/Centipede (basing on which one they're using to start the loop). Against Rabbit controller steals either rabbit or one of the monsters summoned with him, the first one will make him having a dead rabbit for your entire turn, but if the opponent has some backrows he could stop you and then go into his evolzar the next turn, the second one will leave your opponent with no monsters on the field, but if he draws into a tour guide he'll be able to go into laggia however, so make sure to side something else against this. I'd side a third veiler, mainly against wind-up, rabbit and inzektor, maybe one or two d.d. crows, they help both with chaos monsters and dad, even if darks are rarely your problem. Since it happens to be defenseless while playing this deck I'd side swift scarecrow, not battle fader since he's stoppable with warning. This is a base guideline for the side, if you want to build it.

Some things you should note while playing this deck:

-You should be always aware of what cards are still in your deck, to not misplay with rabbit and tour guide, simply looking the grave won't help if you don't know your deck well;

-Always keep in mind what cards you have in your grave, don't check them some turns before you want to summon a BLS or DAD, except if you want to bluff;

-Veiler isn't only an Hand Trap, it won me plenty of games using it to synchro;

-Don't mindlessly use all of your draw cards, expecially to do not draw too much normal monsters making your rabbit dead, or drawing into tour guides and sangan for tour's target.

Gorz wins games, ya all know that, right?

This is pretty much all, hope you liked this, and, no, I wasn't kidding when I said that this deck is competitive enough even against meta deck.

Losing Interest in the Game

Don't know if it is just the actual meta or the game itself, but I'm bored, I have nothing really cool to build (relatively to my standards), and the actual meta is one of the most boring ever. Actually I see it centered on Luck and the Skill (the one to cheat, I don't think any other kind of skill would help), other than Sharking at tournaments. Inzektor draw Damsel while at top deck, can win without any problem, WU needs 2 cards (replaceable by a lot of other cards or a lot of other ways to make the loop start) and leaving you with no cards in hand, Chaos Dragon is totally Skill-less, if you draw good card, like it is probably going to happen, you can summon a big field, while Rabbit needs only a card to go into a giant Solemn Judgment with no cost and with an "oppressive" body (if you have a walking judgment, it won't be easy to summon a big monster to get rid of it fastly, except being lucky and drawing into Dark Hole AND a way to summon a big monster, or other things like that).
Yeah, of course having a Meta where the top decks are pretty balanced related to themselves isn't bad, but that leaves no possibilities to play 4Fun decks, like I'd like to.

Hope I don't lose interest in it completely, because is one of the funniest hobbies I've never had.

This post was mainly to say that the blog will slow down, probably, but if I have some weekly post, I'll be sure to mantain it, no matter what, except if I totally quit the game.

Hope to See You, Bye-Bee (from Lucky Star, Lucky Channel reference)

Hand Antimeta

Well, started building that, but it isn't simple. I putted in 3 Veilers, 3 Maxx and 2 Crows, 1 BLS and 1 Sorcerer, 3 Scarecrows, 3 Faders, Fiendish Chain and Solemn Trio. Of course I putted in One Day of Peace, deck's engine, and I'm thinking of putting in hand destruction. The deck should work stalling, drawing into something that kills opponent's field (I'm thinking some ways to use Black Rose Dragon, maybe Black Salvo+Wisel Army?), then summon something and totally control opponent's field with fiendish, Solemn Trio, Crow (to don't let opponent start inzektor combo), veiler, maxx in case of Chaos Dragon. Without even testing it, I can easily say that Chaos Dragons are the WORST match-up ever, there isn't a lot to stop them, you can solemn, fiendish, veiler them how much you want, but they can easily rise again. Veiler/Fiendish their monster? They simply XYZ. Crow monster's in grave? They don't give a fuck, they have a lot of light-dark monsters. Solemn them? SS back from grave. Can't handle them, only thing is Fossil Dyna, but we need to equip him with safe zone, too.
I play in here Wangu too, can help handling Inzektors and even rabbit, other than wind-up, so he's pretty good. With him I decided to put in 3 Horn of the Phantom Beast and, as an additional target, 3 Photon Sabre Tiger. I'm playing TK Rai-Oh, putted in without even thinking about it because he's prety much a staple in Antimetas, but, right now, it doesn't stop a lot nowadays, so I'm thinking of taking it out.
Even without Rai-Oh, lights fodder for chaos monster are enough, but the only dark are 2 Crows (not even considering Fader because he is banished after using his effect). Reason why I'm pretty sure I'll implement that Black Rose engine, Black Salvo and Wisel. To easily send what I need to the grave, I'm pretty sure I'll put in even 2 hand destruction.
That isn't all, of course, but the deck is starting taking a form in your mind, doesn't it? Well, those days I'm pretty busy with school and with a music band, but I'll try to build up something good.
Stay Tuned

Speedy Article: New Antimeta

I played a bit on Dueling Network today, I faced ONLY (unlucky) meta decks. Ya know, I hate meta decks, I prefer 4funs over them, but that's not it. Actual meta decks are A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G, Wind-Up wipes out your hand, Inzektor wipes out your field and Rabbit has a lot of backrows. If we consider other decks that are going to enter the meta soon, like Hieratics (tomorrow they will be released in TCG), we can say that who starts with the better hand wins, because of hieratics' OTKs. So I'm planning on doing a strange kind of antimeta deck. The idea isn't totally formed in my mind, yet, so I wanted to write it down, 'cause I'm going to sleep now, and didn't want to forget the deck. Basically this deck plays in the main deck cards to stop specifically Inzektors, Wind-Ups, Rabbit and Hieratics, so I think that 3 of every Hand Trap is needed (even crow). Don't know what will be win condition though. Maybe stall with scarecrow/fader, heavy storm and dark hole, summon fossil dyna and set a heavy backrow, but still don't know.
Well, this may be enough for today, I'll continue tomorrow if I get some ideas. Stay Tuned.

Finally Dueling Network worked to me///Verz Rabbit Laggia

I tried another time to open DN page, and finally it worked. First thing I did was building my Verz Rabbit Laggia, I tried it only a few times, but it worked godly, first turn Ophion lock my opponent, got to search an infestation to save myself from Dark Holes, Mirror Force and likes.
I think this deck will definitely be good even in the next meta (for OCG, because those verz monsters didn't came out in TCG, sadly, and they won't come out fastly). A lot of control on the opponent and big monsters. Those monsters with that +50 ATK point bonus are good to ride over a lot of opponent's monsters. This was pretty all about the deck, I tried it just two times, not enough for a full review.

Rabbit Verz

Remember my last post, the one about those good verz monsters? Ok, then I builded this, it's pretty good how rabbit works in here.
The deck is pretty simple, let's start this.