First Impressions: X-Saber Deck
Posted on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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X Sabers are a theme that revolves around discarding cards from the opponents hand. The main way that the deck does this is through two cards. One being XX-Saber Gottoms and the other one being X-saber Airbellum. The deck accomplishes this through either looping things with XX-Saber Faultroll and XX-Saber Gottoms, or getting attacks through with multiple X-Saber Airbellums.
First things first, the deck is primarily an aggro control deck. It plays it field aggressively while maintaining control. The main feeling I had when playing with this deck was that the deck needs to gain an early +1 or 2 to win. If it could do this it would be in a pretty good spot. The main thing I noticed is that the job is A LOT easier when a Rescue Cat can go off. Immediately the card nets you to Airbellums, as well as loading up the Airbellums in the graveyard for further plays in the next two turns. Which brings me to the next point, that the graveyard is an important piece of the puzzle for the deck to work correctly.
The graveyard is primarily important for the deck. Gardstrike, a card that revolves around having 2 X-saber in the graveyard is a great starting place for extending into the game winning field for the deck, Ragira, and Faultroll, also need X-saber monsters in the graveyard to work. The deck accomplishes this through mills from Card Trooper, and Raiko Lightsworn Hunter, and of course a Rescue cat play.
The game winning field for the deck usually involves some back row destruction (Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, Cold Wave, Giant Trunade, and Solemn Judgment) 2 X Saber Monsters, and a Faultroll. This field wins by being able to discard multiple cards out of your opponent’s hand, limiting their abilities to make a comeback next turn. The field this way is almost guaranteed to get the multiple pluses that the deck needs to win. In order to get this field you’ll probably have to overextend, or in other words, get multiple X-saber monster on the field to discard the opponents hand, the real trick with this deck is knowing when the best time to overextend is.
If by some reason, you can’t get the game-winning field, it becomes a control game until you can. The deck can make small pushes with X-sabers and sets with Ryko to keep the field in check. You want the presence of floaters in the early game as well. Cards that can have replacing effects but not take a massive amount of card advantage to pull off. Most of these cards are defensive. The cards being Gorz, Sangan, Card Trooper, Giant Rat, and Ryko. The reason being is that you want to maintain this card advantage over the opponent. In my minor preliminary testing, I’ve found that the deck has trouble coming back from being hit with a minus. Cards that are able to do this would be cards like Raiza or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, any card that can mess with the decks tempo and your card advantage has a huge effect on the deck. The deck plays a lot like Cat Synchro in this aspect.
The Weaknesses the deck has?
The X-Saber deck doesn’t always get the best hands. If you draw a lot of graveyard reliant cards, or back row removal, you end up being royally screwed. The deck also has problems if it can not control the tempo early game. If you play into your opponent’s cards you end up losing with the deck really easily (playing the rescue cat with no back row destruction and getting the X-saber Airbelluns bottomlessed, usually means game for you)
With that being said, this is my basic analysis of the deck. The deck is okay, I think it needs a bigger push to be top tier, but ultimately the deck works fairly well.
SJC Indy Report and Video from Andrew
Posted on Saturday, August 22, 2009
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Hey Andrew stepped up to the plate, and wrote a tournament report for SJC Indy (aka the one at Gen Con). He also got a deck profile on Mkohl40 youtube channel, so here are those.
SJC Indy report
So I never actually planned on going to Indy...but Thursday my friends had a cancellation so I said I would go. I have been playing Black Heroes for the past 4 weeks at my locals after I saw Zaki Said playing it at Nationals this year. I got a peak at his deck and built my own, interestingly enough it was 2 or 3 cards from his exact build.
So I pack, and Friday morning Jake picks me up, we pick Evan up, and then meet Anthony and I start driving down. The drive down was rather uneventful except we started singing Seether's "Careless Whisper" cover while listening to it on my ipod connected to the radio - a result of chronic boredom.
4 hours later we arrive at the hotel, we will call it FailLodge. Jake booked it on Travelocity, it was 15 minutes away and pretty cheap. So they won't let us check in until 3:00, we got there at 12:00...and we were confused because Jake called before and asked if we could check in early.
So we just decide to go the convention center. I drive there, we park about 5 blocks away for $10, and start walking down to the center. Once we get in, the line was relatively small. A 5 minute wait would be a good estimate. We all get 4 day badges, and head to the vendor hall for some sleeves. I pick up 2 White PCs. Then we go to the TCG hall and I resleeve my deck, meet up with Zaki, show him what I'm playing, we play, and I change my deck to his because I liked his better. I ran a Necro Garda where he ran a second Tomato.
Friday night we eat at Dennys which was right next to the FailLodge, FailLodge must've rubbed off on Dennys (more on this later). I get a Lumberjack Slam, and the waitress sucked. Then we head back to the hotel, and we discover that it is, in fact, fail. I end up sleeping on the floor the first night. I wake up at 4 not feeling so good, and I crawl my way to the bathroom. I say "****!!! I'm sorry guys..." and I turn the light on and I vomited...when I washed out my mouth and lay back down, Anthony retorted with "Denny's fail?" If I wasn't so tired I probably would've laughed at that.
Okay, now on to the matches...I can't remember a lot of the names. Sorry if I forgot your name :/
Round 1: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Lightsworn Guy #1
Game 1: I see he is playing Lightsworn, but he doesn't get Aurkus out on me and I am able to drop DAD and Dark Strike for game.
Game 2: I draw Crow and LIM with Solemn. He is shut down with LIM and Crow and can't come back.
1-0
Round 2: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Blackwings Guy #1
Game 1: He gets a game loss for having an illegal decklist. He had two torrentials in his deck and wrote down 39 cards on his decklist.
Game 2: I beat him down in a couple of turns after I Grepher for Plague with Double Mali, discarding one for Grepher's effect. Then drop Dark Strike for game. So glad that card is getting banned.
2-0
Round 3: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Lightsworn Guy #2
Game 1: He takes it pretty easy, I didn't draw so well due to me forgetting to pile shuffle.
Game 2: LIM shuts him down.
Game 3: It was really close, but in the end he pulled out of me having control.
2-1
Round 4: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Lightsworn Guy #3
Game 1: He T-Sets, and I'm like...Crush. I double Allure my double Shura, and dodge his CCV completely. Then I Crush him for his entire hand.
Game 2: I control with Armor Master and Colossal Fighter.
3-1
Round 5: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Lightsworn Guy #4
Game 1: He has amazing card advantage, but he fills up his field and I stall with double Krebons on the field along with a facedown Tomato.
Game 2: We go into time, we are both at 8000. Turn 2 of his time he Charges and hits a Wulf after he's already summoned. He gets a Ryko, and says "Go." I remind him of Wulf, but he forgot to attack and he already ended his turn. Lucky me. Turn 3, I really can't do anything except stop his attack with a Malicious and facedown Tomato. He sets Ryko after attacking my Malicious, and ends. I have a Destiny Draw in hand with a Mystic Tomato facedown that I had set. I draw Stratos. He has Wulf, and a facedown Ryko on the field with double Necro Gardna. I summon Stratos, get Plasma, D-Draw it away and draw Dark Armed. Plasma gave me my 3rd dark, sacking ftw? I dropped the Dark Armed off the table by mistake, picked it back up, and he was like "Wtf?" But the Judge was watching and I had two people behind me say they saw me draw it off of D-Draw so it was cool.
4-1
Round 6: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Levi Nissen (SalvoDAD)
Game 1: It goes back and forth, but he gets the upper hand and flips Return for game.
Game 2: I draw pretty well, and control the game pretty well.
Game 3: He has a Valley, and two backrow to my Shura and two facedown Solemns. He tries to mind control, but I solemn. I draw, summon Plaguespreader, synchro for Goyo. He thinks for a second, but then has no response. I drop DAD, he asks if I am using priority. I confirm that I am. I target one of his facedowns, which happens to be Torrential. He flips both Roar and Torrential, I ask which one is he chaining first, he says the Roar. I Solemn, and then the Torrential can't be chained. I'm left with Brain and Plasma in hand, with a Mali and Plague in the graveyard. I remove Mali to special, and then put Brain Control on top for Plaguespreader, syncho for Colossal, and blow up Valley and he concedes. Robbie Kohl was recording the last minute or so when I made that play so when he gives it to me I'll post it. Levi tells me he had game during game 2, but I had Crow in hand to shut him down.
5-1
Round 7: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Toni (Blackwings)
Game 1: I end up having Plasma on the field with his Colossal Fighter equipped to it. He synchros for Armor Master, and attacks, a misplay on his part. I inform him that Armor Master is negated. I take this game.
Game 2: Jerry Wang is watching from behind, and Toni has 3 backrow. I D-Draw my Diamond Dude into Heavy Storm and play it. Toni looks up at Jerry, and is like "He drew that off of Destiny Draw didn't he?" I nodded. He has a Bora on the field. I summon Sirocco, special summon Gale, Reborn his Kalut, pump Sirocco, half Bora, and attack for game.
6-1
Round 8: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Matt Hoey (SynchroCat)
Game 1: He drops Gorz on me early and I can't really get around it. He takes this one no problem.
Game 2: I draw trash, Double Nobleman, Dark Armed, Threatening Roar, and Goats, and Malicious I think. It was pretty bad. I end up scooping after like, two turns.
6-2
Round 9: Andrew Leffew Moore vs Charles Easton (Blackwings)
Game 1: I was repaired against Charles. I would've much rathered play the TeleDAD player I was paired up against first before the fire alarm went off. I'm sure I would've taken it. But Charles takes this one pretty easy after forcing me to overextend to keep field presence.
Game 2: He Kalut's his Shura when I attack, and then flips Deck Dev hitting a couple monsters. I scoop after a few turns.
6-3
So I ended up 6-3, 49th place. Oh well, I was happy with the decks performance. Zaki ended up dropping early on, but he was pretty excited to see me doing well with the deck.
Quote:
Monsters: 18
3 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
2 Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame
2 Mystic Tomato
2 Krebons
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1 Destiny Hero - Plasma
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Dark Grepher
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Sangan
Spells: 12
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Destiny Draw
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Brain Control
1 Mind Control
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Scapegoat
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 10
3 Solemn Judgment
2 Threatening Roar
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Crush Card Virus
Side Deck:
3 Light Imprisoning Mirror
2 Mirror of Oaths
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Blackwing - Sirroco the Dawn
2 D.D. Crow
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Dust Tornado
Extra Deck:
2 Blackwing Armor Master
2 Stardust Dragon
2 Colossal Fighter
2 Black Rose Dragon
1 Dark Strike Fighter
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Magical Android
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth
Props:
Doing decent
The Champion sports bar
Jake
Anthony
Evan's cards
Playing "Name that Yu-Gi-Oh player" on the way back home
Destiny Hero - Plasma
Slops:
FailLodge
Anthony for failing
Jake for thinking Black Heroes are bad when they are good
Zaki failing
Dennys
Not having time for my duelist intervies with Paul Levitin, Roy St. Claire, Jeff Jones, and Dale Bellido.
Final Update Before Articles
Posted on Friday, August 21, 2009
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So it looks like my friends writing about Gen Con was a big flop. =/ Anyway I'll write up results of test findings for next format shortly.
Another Blog Update
Posted on Friday, August 14, 2009
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So while my friends are at Gen-Con I figured I would write something fun and lighthearted for the blog, while they cover the knitty gritty stuff that I can not write about. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Gen-con, and I haven’t written in the past few days, party because I’m lazy, partly because I’ve been reading The Nightside Novels (which are incredibly entertaining), and partly because I was helping my friends play test for the upcoming event.
Anyway, here goes what, I’d figured I’d lay low with the really heavy stuff, especially for this format, since next format’s OCG list is officially confirmed (we hope). Assuming we still have the same list, writing about next format will soon follow if and when the list is confirmed as ours. So I figured I’d write something that everyone can enjoy, and that would be about the Sneak Preview.
Starting off, the format for the sneak preview is rather simple. You put together a 20-card deck from the 5 packs you get and you play in free play or if your tournament is boss they might be doing flights). The things you look for if you are playing in flights are high defense and high attack monsters, and various minor combos here and there. Nothing really too complicated there, just use common sense and put two and two together when it comes to cards with effects that you may want to use. Don’t use too many cards that you want ever be able to use.
Now, when it comes to values, sneak previews are usually the place to pick up, or get rid of cards before the secondary market decides on a final price for them. In this set, the cards a competitive player will want to be on the lookout for will probably be Blackwing- Vayu the Emblem of Honor, the Ko’aki Meiru ultra rare cards (if only for testing and trading), and any X-Saber card that’s above a rare. Fortunately for us, Black Shiny C is a common and a main anti-synchro card that Lightsworn will be able to use.
At the sneak preview, pretty much any holo can net you some good stuff in trade stock, you just have to push your cards right. The value for sneak preview cards are usually hard to determine, so players will either trade freely, or become much harder to trade with. I guess a lot of it would depend on whom you talk to.
Anyway, enough about the sneak preview, lets look at the Turbo pack. The pack itself is an amazingly well done set.
Ultimate Rare:
TU01-EN000 Judgment Dragon
Ultra Rare:
TU01-EN001 Doomcaliber Knight
Super Rare:
TU01-EN002 Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior
TU01-EN003 Krebons
TU01-EN004 Gladiator Beast Samnite
TU01-EN005 Black Whirlwind
Rare:
TU01-EN006 Crush Card Virus
TU01-EN007 Satellite Cannon
TU01-EN008 Rescue Cat
TU01-EN009 Grandmaster of the Six Samurai
TU01-EN010 Trade-In
TU01-EN011 Armageddon Knight
Common:
TU01-EN012 Book of Moon
TU01-EN013 Terraforming
TU01-EN014 Hand Destruction
TU01-EN015 Gladiator Beast Murmillo
TU01-EN016 Gladiator Beast Bestiari
TU01-EN017 Gladiator Beast Laquari
TU01-EN018 Golden Flying Fish
TU01-EN019 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
TU01-EN020 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation
It’s a really good set. If you have seen the pictures, the Judgment Dragon is a really amazing piece of hawtness. Any of the reprinted supers will be a must have if players want to shine out their decks, and plus they just look so amazingly cool. The Ultra Rare Doom Calibur Knight is a really nice surprise, especially since it’s a reprint of a really (I mean really) hard to obtain card.
My only personal gripe would be Crush Card getting released and then possibly getting the axe, but that is really only a minor annoyance, because honestly, it’s a good card that probably should be banned. Either way definitely be on the lookout for Turbo packs when they finally hit shop (or be sure to win a lot, since the only way to officially obtain them is through tournaments).
So that it for now. Hopefully when my friends get back I’ll have some juicy Gen-Con coverage. If not, well then you’ll be sure to hear about that too. Either way, really big blog update, thanks for reading.
E.P.B.
Blog Update
Posted on Saturday, August 8, 2009
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Well, I've finally gotten the site banner down and perfected. A huge thanks goes to Andrew Moore for designing it and making it (even though I dislike the french, they do have good taste.)
Recently there has been a lot of discussion over a post on a forum made by Kevin Tewart, basically hinting at Heavy Storm being banned and that blackwings are one of the top decks being played the most. Granted there has been a lot of s discussion among forums over whether Heavy should be banned or not.
Personally, I'm one of those whatever happens happens type of guys. I don't think Heavy Storm is the beacon of skilled cards in this game. Truth be told Heavy Storm being banned would be a shift in the metagame, and playstyles of people, but I think it would eventually even out. Going along with the trend of the last article goes my post that I made on a forum.
"The arguement that Heavy Storm provides skill for the game is flawed at best.
Last time I checked, counting cards is not skilled, its just counting cards. I think everyone knows that you can use Heavy Storm to get more than 1 card.
The thing that banning Heavy Storm would do would be opening up the real reason why setting so many cards at 1 time is bad. That reason is information.
Setting all of your cards is bad, not only because of Heavy Storm, but because you let your opponent know exactly what you have. For example, you set four out of six cards, I now know that I can probably beat you using monster attrition and my own backrow to destroy whatever threat your monsters can cause, now that I know you have at most possibly two monsters, I can use this information to my advantage and adjust my playstyle accordingly.
The truely skilled players will be able to use this information given freely by the opponent to their advantage. It happens now as well, my friend pounting this out to me while I was playing G-beasts, he said that if I set 3 cards (obviously one of them being solemn, like storm would be going through anyway) he could safely assume that one of those cards was something to protect the backrow (solemn) and two orther cards to support my monsters.
Now granted he was playing Blackwings, but the difference is as subtle as selecting Kalut to keep his monsters going with BW, over Gale. Its recognizing these subtle differences, that is the true skill in this game.
So granted Heavy Storm may be skilled in the way that puts the fear of overextension, but without Storm people can begin to realize why setting multiple cards is bad. The truely skilled wouldn't need Storm to punish their opponents, Storm in reality is just a crutch."
A huge Credit would also go to Jake for discussing and making great points about this idea for me.
Until Next Time,
E.P.B.
The Unseen Advantage: Information
Posted on Thursday, August 6, 2009
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Written by: Jason
Covers: the basics of information advantage
In most card games when people think of advantage, the only thing that they really think about is the card advantage. Usually the idea of advantage is calculated in an equation of pluses and minuses pertaining to how many cards a certain player has, its also a idea that determines whether or not a card can warrant use. The more advantage you gain from a card, the more you’ll want to use that card.
What most people don’t realize is that there is an advantage in knowing the cards your opponent has well. The more knowledge you have of what your opponent has the more you can make your own successful power plays and set-ups.
Advantage doesn’t always have to be seen to be had. That is part of the reason why you don’t go setting all the cards in your hand if you have all spell and traps (albeit, you don’t want to overextend, but most people have the wrong idea). If you let your opponent know what you have ahead of time, then it makes part of their job so much easier. It is also part of the reason why you don’t want to make comments about how bad your hand is, or whether or not you’ve drawn all monsters until after the fact ( its not that hard to tell when your opponent is bluffing, but you also want to be careful of what information your trust that comes out of your opponents mouth). You want to keep the opponent guessing.
This is part of the reason why Trap Dustshoot is such a great card. Not only do you get the card out of your opponent’s hand but also you get an advantage of information over your opponent that they won’t have over you.
Playing around the information you have received is not that hard, but it does take some skill to be able to recognize when you have the advantage of information over your opponent. It also takes skill to know how to play using this advantage to your own benefit. If you can master this, you will find yourself being able to win a lot more games than what you did before.
So until next time, keep the other guy guessing,
E.P.B.
DOUBLE FEATURE: Hero Decks
Posted on Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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by: Jason
We’re going to have a double deck feature over these next two days. One of which being my good friend Leffew’s D-Hero and Blackwing variant called Black Heroes (he really calls it Andrew Heroes, but that’s the original deck name.) and today’s deck list, which is a Big City varient, that I call Hair Heroes (I’d call it Cloverfield though if it needed another name). The side deck and extra deck you'll have to figure out on your own, but here are the main decks.
Hair Heroes
For starters, my deck plays a lot like how it looks like it would. The basic strategy is obviously a lot like playing with any other anti-meta deck. You use Wildhearts and Oceans to control the field while using spell and traps to back them up. It plays a lot like gadgets would but is more on the offensive. Tragoedia is a key card in this deck, since the majority of the opponent’s monsters will be level 4 or 3. Also if you play it right, Tragoedia can be a huge beat stick backed by protection. Letting you get out of one turn kill situations. I haven’t finished the testing for this deck, but this is the latest updated version I have so far.
Monsters:14
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Elemental Hero Heat
2 Elemental Hero Ocean
3 Elemental Hero Wildheart
2 Thunder King Rai-oh
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
2 Tragoedia
1 Cyber Dragon
Spells:15
1 Reinforcements of the Army
3 E Emergancy Call
2 Skyscraper 2 Hero City
2 Lightning Vortex
2 My Body as a Shield
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Book of Moon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Swords of Revealing Light
Traps:11
3 Solemn Judgement
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Royal Oppression
A. Heroes
Written by: Andrew Moore
A-Heroes, strikingly similar to a deck run by Zaki Said (2 card difference, nevertheless I recieved the idea from him), utilizes both 8 star, and the ever-so-popular 7 star synchro monsters. 7 star monsters are so incredibly powerful this format, Blackwing Armor Master allows to an annoying beat stick that just doesn't seem to go away, Dark Strike Fighter allows OTK potential, as well as just a game-ending effect when Shura is on the field with a Gale in hand. It runs similar to TeleDAD without, of course, the ridiculous speed and overpowered-ness that TeleDAD had.
Monsters: 18
3 Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind
2 Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame
2 Krebons
2 Mystic Tomato
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Destiny Hero - Plasma
1 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Sangan
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Dark Grepher
Spells: 12
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Destiny Draw
1 Brain Control
1 Mind Control
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Emergency Teleport
1 Scapegoat
Traps: 10
3 Solemn Judgment
2 Threatening roar
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Crush Card Virus
__________________
Playtesting and How it Should be Done.
Posted on Saturday, August 1, 2009
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The main misconception about play testing in yu-gi-oh (and probably a lot of other games) is that you are play testing to make the deck better. This idea is false. The main reason you play test is so that you can make yourself better, not the deck. Granted there will be times where you will probably want to make changes to your deck, and this method of play testing will insure that you get some more optimal results.
Okay so now that you have this idea of what you should be play testing for, a good method of playtesting that me and my friends use is a 20 game method. The 20 game method consists of, you guessed it, 20 games. The idea is to have five games of you going first and then five games of your opponent going first. After the first set of 10 is completed you side deck and do five games with your opponent going first. Then you side deck again and play the last five games with you going first.
This method allows you to become comfortable with the deck for multiple situations, letting you plan the matches ahead of team. Obviously you should do this for multiple decks and then after the set of 20, you and your opponent can (and should) also switch decks between you two so that you can get a feel for the other decks main strategies. Knowing how your opponents deck plays is just as important as knowing your own, and allows you to make skilled reads on what they will do (granted, we're talking about four common decktypes you'll play against, blackwings, gladiator beasts, lightsworn and cat synchro).
You probably wont feel the need to play test like this unless its for big events, but at least doing the 20 game set will allow you to keep your skills sharp with the deck, as well as giving you a just reason to eliminate cards that you don't feel are working optimally.
So until next time:
E.P.B.
