Posted on August 23rd, 2010 |
They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a good one:
Posted on August 9th, 2010 |
Hello dear readers,
I always keep it honest with you guys. I figure it’s hypocritical to post news items about other top players getting disqualified or banned and not talk about myself. I also figure a lot of rumors and false stories will spread around so here is the real deal.
I registered with a Gladiator Beast deck. At round 8, I was 6-1 at table 10. I found right as the match started that my deck box was missing. This had happened to me at SJC Edison and I was dropped from the tournament. Because I wanted to continue playing with one round of swiss left to go, I panicked and asked a nearby friend for a deck. My plan was to finish out the round quietly and find my deck.
It was obviously a bad plan. The head judge was right when he told me it was a violation of tournament integrity. I didn’t really think through the consequences even though I knew I was breaking tournament procedure.
Just to clarify: my deck really was stolen. There was really no reason for me to swap from a GB deck I had thoroughly tested to a random X-Saber deck without even knowing my next matchup. I have played for almost a decade of steamy YGO action without doing anything dirty or suspicious. This was just a spot where I did not want to get dropped, panicked, and made a pretty silly decision.
I will keep you updated on what Konami decides to do.
Posted on July 15th, 2010 | Comments are closed
Hey guys, one of the interesting side events I did during Yugioh TCG Nationals was coverage of a Team Battle between ten of the best players in the game currently. The format was two team captains and eight other players in the pool. The two captains alternated picking players and a 5v5 endurance team battle was set.
The battle included big names such as: Billy Brake, Adam Corn, Jeff Jones, Ryan Spicer and others.
You can read coverage of each Yu-Gi-Oh! duel on the Pojo main page:
Introduction: http://pojo.com/yu-gi-oh/FeaturedWriters/JAE/2010/7-15-25.shtml
Match 1: Paul Levitin versus Billy Brake
Match 2: Billy Brake versus Jarel Winston
You can also catch video footage of each match on my Youtube. I took the time to transcribe each match to Yugioh Virtual Desktop for ease of viewing:
Match 1: http://www.youtube.com/user/JAELOVE#p/u/3/4rW7jtsJHeE
Match 2: http://www.youtube.com/user/JAELOVE#p/u/1/AydziGXexFc
Also I finished wrapping up my series “Getting There” on TCGPlayer. As you know, I rarely link to my YGO media articles. But I think these are very valuable to beginning players and players who have taken a long break from the game. I basically analyze every big meta strategy in this format (except Herald of Perfection).
Machina Gadgets
Blackwings
Gladiator Beasts
Quickdraw
X-Sabers
Infernity
Frogs!
Finally the VIDEO section under the menu has a link to my Youtube and all of the content I produce.
Posted on July 13th, 2010 |
For the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh! card tournament of the year, I ran through quite a few options before settling on a subpar one.
Potential Yu-Gi-Oh! Nationals Deck #1: Triple GEC X-Saber
Many of you have seen the two videos I recorded for my Yu-Gi-Oh! Youtube channel regarding X-Sabers. That Ryko/GEC strategy was actually what I was using to sweep multiple Yu-Gi-Oh! local tournaments. The theory behind it was to swarm Infernity quickly while retaining an edge in the mirror due to powerful face-down monsters and triple Emergency Call. Unfortunately, as I tested with Saber players I began to realize that the edge against the mirror was relatively minor. It would still come down to who drew the Faultroll and Cat to explode.
As I dropped matches to players making noticeable misplays, it began to dawn on me that using this variant of Sabers would only give me a rough 60/40 edge in the mirror (without factoring in a skill gap).
Potential Yu-Gi-Oh! Nationals Deck #2: Anti-Meta?
I had been play-testing constantly with Yu-Gi-Oh! legends Evan “Sandtrap” Vargas and Wilson “Mr. Shonen Jump” Luc. Wilson and I built an incredible anti-meta toolbox that had very sharp matchups against Infernity, Herald, and Gladiator Beast.
Unfortunately during this testing, we were unable to stabilize the matchup against Frog Monarch and X-Sabers. We had a problem consistently defeating those two prevalent strategies. I predicted the Nationals metagame would be swarmed with X-Saber and Frog variants. (Boy was I wrong. I saw numerous duelists use a number of outdated decks at the biggest tournament of the year, from Lightsworn to Quickdraw to others that did nothing to stop or counter the expected metagame).
Because our Anti-Meta was only about 50/50 game one against these expected strategies (game 2 and 3 would be a lot easier against Frogs), it didn’t seem like a wise choice. While Wilson moved on to Gladiator Beast, as of the Friday evening before Nationals I did not have a finalized decklist.
Settling on a Mediocre Yu-Gi-Oh! Strategy
Here is the decklist I piloted to a 6-3 finish. My losses came to Infernity, Frog FTK, and Gladiator Beast (in round 9).
Get more Yu-Gi-Oh! strategy →
Posted on July 10th, 2010 |
Welcome to live updating of US Nationals.
As expected, Sabers are the top pro pick.
Lost in last rnd of day one to gb.
R8 jae kim vs jay quick. Will I get outplayed AND outjayed?
There are two rounds of swiss remaining. I am told a variant of my Diva Frog is 7-0 along with Alex Mitchell’s Spaceships!
I am five-two with losses to infernity and frog ftk.
My good friend and multiple day twooer Jonny Nagel, from Colorado, is x-1 with Gravekeepers!
After round 4, players in contention:
B. Brake: 4-0
A. Corn: 4-0
R. Spicer: 4-0
C. Bowling 2-2
J. Holloway 3-1
J. Kim 3-1
R. St. Clair 3-1
Turbo pack 3 Confirmed:
Apologies. Four unreliable sources. Find them at yugioh card.com
Confirmed: Star player Stephen Silverman is disqualified for allegedly marked cards and cheating.
Top picks:
Saber
H. Adame
C. Bowling
B. Brake
S. Bui
E. Diaz
A. Herrera
J. Kim
A. Kulman
F. Luna
M. Matheu
R. Newburn
T. Poonsombat
J. Samek
R. Spicer
S. Silverman
Infernity
R. Ackerman
R. Hayakawa
P. Levitin
Gb
A. Corn
J. Holloway
R. St. Clair
Herald
J. Jones
T. Mijares
Online studs
Livin legend: frog ftk 2-0
Ocelot: frog ftk 2-0
Jhubb: infernity 2-0
Pozjoker: inf 1-1
Aznpersuasion2008: saber 2-0
Colton: 1-1 sabers
C. Hentz: 2-0
News:
Reliable sources have indicated Peter Cheng, YCS Virginia champion and Andrew Scovern have received bans. It is also rumored that others are also banned. I will confirm this later.
We finished a five on five team battle featuring the best of the usa yesterday. Look for it on pojo.
More updates to come.
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