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.

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).

Ordered by Aurora

Wondering what does the title mean? It's the name of a deck, nothing else, but that name from what does come from?

Neither player can Special Summon monsters. When another monster is Normal Summoned to either player's side of the field, destroy this card.

This is our first card. Maybe you know this card, I named it twice in the post regarding various types of effect.
This card has a simple text, a simple effect, and is considered a junk card. Well, who consider this card like this isn't totally wrong, but this card has a lot of potential. Let's see it closely:
Neither player can Special Summon monsters. Yeah, really, other than monsters what were you going to Summon? Just kidding. However, this one is a continuous effect, non-negable by Light-Imprisoning Mirror, if someone is still playing them.

The Aurora part of the name is cleared, what about the Ordered by part?

You can choose to negate the activation of an Effect Monster's effect that activates when a monster is Normal Summoned (including itself). If you do, that Effect Monster's controller draws 1 card.

Another easy text, but this time it is a little more tricky card.
That effect is, of course, neither trigger, nor ignition, if you were thinking that. It is a Quick Effect, so it reaches Spell Speed 2. It needs to be chained directly to the normal summoned effect, this means that if the normal summoned monster is chain link 1, this card needs to be chain link 2, if that's not possible, you won't be able to negate that effect. This is a rare thing to happen, though.
The card's effect itself does one simple and good thing: stops monster effect that works when they are summoned. This card was really good before Rabbit and Inzektors, but can still stop a lot of things, main one is Tour Guide from the Underworld. This card does stop even monster's effect that activates when a monster is normal summoned, like King Tiger Wanghu.

But those two cards aren't played together for no reason. The same way the latter card negates Wanghu, it negates Aurora Paragon too. So what does it mean? You'll have a Fossil Dyna with better ATK stats that will let you draw anytime a monster is normal summoned.

You won't be able to block Tour Guide's effect, if you have both of the card on the field, but you can negate Paragon, draw a card and opponent won't summon nothing because of SS negating effect.

What will one want to build with those 2 cards? Of course something Antimet-ish or stun-ish.
Let's see some cards for this:

King Tiger Wanghu, stops a lot of monsters in actual, stops damsel in Inzektors, Rabbit in every random rabbit deck, and pretty much every deck relies on little monsters with powerful effect, that'll help you a lot, I'd suggest to play this card in ever build of this deck, since it is negable via Order.

Thunder King Rai-Oh, second effect is pretty much unuseful here, but can still be used, however it is the first one that we need. Lock SS with Aurora, stop NS effects with Aurora, stop searching with this, opponent will just go crazy.

Tour Guide from the Underworld+Sangan, Sangan's a searcher, and even if I hate to admit this (again, I said the same thing in the Iron Chain post), Tour Guide is needed. Provides a beatstick (Leviathan or Acid Golem) and a "survivor" monster that destroys nasty things (Zenmaines), other than searching sangan, in some builds. In chaos builds it provides other than the thing said up here, even dark monsters and a retriever from the Banished Zone (Leviair).

Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning+Chaos Sorcerer, yeah, chaos monsters, they're broken, if you can play them why not? The concept is, 'till you have Aurora it is ok, if you haven't, you can use those to win.

Safe Zone, protects your Aurora, and you can use it on your opponent's monster when he blind-MST  you or uses Heavy Storm. Good Card is Good.
-Imperial Custom, protects your Order, but even Safe Zone. If you reach a field like Aurora, Safe Zone on Aurora, Order and Imperial Custom, you should win.
--Fiendish Chain, this card is like a veiler that stops attacks too. If you're playing Imperial Custom, this card could be more good than it is now.

---Magic Planter, if you're playing that lot of continuous trap, Magic Planter could be good, not too much for the draw power (really good draw, though), but to get rid of some cards that are there for no reason, like fiendish that belonged to a monster used to XYZ.

Shining Angel, this card was good back in times, but right now Battle Summoners (or Recruiter, it's up to you how you want to call them, I prefer the second one) are slow and weak.

Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, this card is really good, stops a lot of decks, random OTKs, but if you can throw that against Six Samurais or Rabbit, opponent won't be able to recover fastly from this. You could think that with this lot of cards that tries to stay on the field, this card is bad, right? Well, that could be possible, but think of this: cards that will likely stay on the field are fiendish chain, either face-up or face-down, that means you have or that you can stop an opponent's OTK by stopping the main card's effect, Order, means you can stop a lot of opponent's card that could lead to an OTK, Aurora, means that you can stop opponent's summon since he does normal summon a monster to destroy your aurora, means you will remain with no cards on field and be able to Summon gorz. So if your opponent  stops your cards that will stop him, you'll be able to summon Gorz and stop him however.


This deck could be difficult to play sometime, expecially when you have multiple cards that activates when a monster is normal summoned. Here is how to play with them:
Order must be chained directly to the monster's effect, means that the effect must be last chain link. If you have Wanghu and Aurora and Order, and your opponent summons damsel, what will happen? SEGOC applies here. You'll of course want to destroy damsel and draw a card while keeping Aurora, so you'll need to make Wanghu Chain Link 1 and Aurora Chain Link 2, so that you will be able to (in order) draw a card, keep Aurora and destroy damsel.
You need to be careful while playing this, and be aware of the fact that if you have Order and Aurora on the field at the same time, you won't be able to stop opponent's effect with Order.

The Various Variants are:

Classic one, throw in the engine and some cards that doesn't interfere with that, some antimeta cards and that's all.
It is good, plays to stop every opponent's move, but could be somehow slow and if your opponent can summon a big monster some way, you won't probably be able to take him down.

Chaos Build, throw in the engine, some Doomcalibers, tour guides, TK, spirit reaper (for some match ups, and is dark and has a good effect).
Another good build, plays to stun your opponent mainly, without letting him combo. Deals best with big monsters, can take down by attacking everything that has 2999 or less ATK, and every monster with the banishing effect of BLS and Sorcerer.

Continuous Trap Build, plays to stun your opponent, has good draw power, and good beatstick. It could be the best one if it wasn't for the fact that it does clog easily you s/t zone, meaning you'll need both Skill and Luck to play this deck.

Counter Fairies Build, this is the one the fruit that falls farest from the tree (it is used in italy, don't know if it is used even in other countries, means that is is totally different from the one where you started from, like taking a different way from the original one). Throw the engine in a counter fairy deck, adjust something to take out cards that could interfere with the lock.
Haven't tried this, is an Idea I've got while writing the post, but theorically this should work good. Could take off monsters of good size, stuns a lot, has a lot of destruction and draw power. Yeah, really, should work.

Overall: deck has potential, it had more in the past but still now it is possible to be played and can be used without any problems in this meta while stopping a lot of decks. It is hard to play, so if you're looking for an auto-pilot deck, this isn't for you, really. Be sure to know perfectly the arguments in this post, expecially the SEGOC one.