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 I saw numerous duelists use a number of outdated decks at the biggest tournament of the year, from Lightsworn to Quickdraw to others that did nothing to stop or counter the expected metagame).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).
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Posted on June 23rd, 2010 |
After having time to test a variety of decks (Infernities and Perfect Herald) for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series, I accidentally ran into Rodrigo’s Frog Monarch build. I found that my monster-removal less Herald build would instantly scoop to Vanity’s Fiend, with the lone outs being two copies of Honest. I also realized Vanity’s Fiend is amazing in the Infernity matchup.
One of my philosophies is that preventive cards such as Jinzo, King Tiger Wanghu, and Vanity’s Fiend are bad unless you can win the game (deal 8000 life points) before your opponent draws an answer to the card. The reason is that the preventive card serves as a dam of sorts; once the dam bursts, the opponent will flood your board with the answers that were denied.
This philosophy was sorely tested when my playtesting buddy dropped Vanity’s Fiend on me (early game) and I scooped repeatedly. Later, when browsing DuelistGroundz, I realized that my friend had simply been testing Rodrigo’s Spanish National build for himself.
I made some tweaks to the engine and this was my build that went 8-2 and reached day two.
Monsters: 28
3 Deep Sea Diva
1 Spined Gillman
3 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3 Substitoad
3 Swap Frog
1 Dark Dust Spirit
1 Ronintoadin
2 Raiza the Storm Monarch
3 Battle Fader
2 Vanity’s Fiend
2 Treeborn Frog
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
Spells: 9
1 Heavy Storm
1 Brain Control
1 Pot of Avarice
3 Enemy Controller
1 Instant Fusion
1 Soul Exchange
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Traps: 5
3 Spiritual Water Art – Aoi
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Mind Crush
At the last minute, I ended up removing a Sangan and D.D Crow for a third Battle Fader and a Mystical Space Typhoon. The deck had been tested to near perfection but I was fairly comfortable making the change.
The initial version of the build used one Raiza the Storm Monarch, three Vanity’s Fiend, and one Soul Exchange. However, I had a problem dealing with developed fields and ended up including more cards that could reverse tempo efficiently.
Concept of Diva Frogs
So the basic idea is that Deep Sea Diva makes a very solid drop at any point in the game. Ally of Justice Catastor is amazing in this format while Brionac and Goyo Guardian are also incredible cards when summoned for free. Diva also has incredible synergy with Enemy Controller (allowing me to make a powerful Synchro monster for free) and Spiritual Water Art- Aoi. After using an amazing probability calculator, I’m able to open with a pre-negator or Battle Fader a large percentage of the time.
The best Yu-Gi-Oh! players are always able to pick the correct card from a Spiritual Water Art or Trap Dustshoot. And once I know your entire hand and pick the best card (for free), it’s almost impossible for me to lose the game.
As for cards that were not included (or maxed), I personally don’t feel Soul Exchange is the best call in a Frog Monarch deck. It makes for a very slow game and often leads to Monarchs getting 1 for 1′ed. Battle Fader at 3 is not entirely necessary either (though it does help versus bad players). I am fairly comfortable with the card choices I mained.
Posted on May 27th, 2010 |
I decided to attend an Illionis Yu-Gi-Oh! regionals last week, hosted by Xtreme Games. To be honest, I had grown quite tired of Infernities by this point. It’s never very fun to see the shocked and even sad expressions on players faces when they lose both duels in 3 turns, combined. Regionals are generally a time for me to experiment with tier 2/tier 1.5 decks as well.
My goal was to use a version of Vayu Turbo that I had seen Sang Bui play at the first Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship series. Unfortunately, his experience with the deck wasn’t very good and he told me not to run it. Without other cards to have access to, I ended up throwing together a Blackwing deck at the last minute (7 A.M. at a McDonald’s, to be precise).
This is what I took to a tenth place finish at the small regional (it would have been a top four if the last match was taken more seriously. Long story short, I thought I was fine on tiebreakers so ended up tributing an Armor Master for Sirocco, attempting to go for game with Icarus set and Black Whirlwind active versus Colossal Fighter. I estimate it was a 60% chance or so of winning outright and an 85%+ chance of winning if I had waited.)
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Posted on April 14th, 2010 |
I want to discuss a curious Yu-Gi-Oh! card design decision today. This decision has made a certain set of cards unplayable at a premier event. Let’s start with a riddle:
What is the main drawback of playing small monsters?
…. ……………………………………….. (take your time).
If you said “low attack scores,” please e-mail me your address and I will FedEx you a scrumptious cookie.
Most players find this drawback perfectly fair. If you have a good effect, you can have a lower attack score. This means your smaller monsters will generally lose in battle frequently and require spell or trap support to remain on the field. This historic balance between strong effect and low ATK score has always been present in Yu-Gi-Oh! strategy and relatively well balanced.
A Very Puzzling Design Decision
It’s not clear whether the card designers for Yu-Gi-Oh! (who presumably work in Japan for Konami) are entirely aware of a lot of the ramifications of the cards they print. I do not mean this in an insulting manner; as many players of TCG’s and even video games (such as World of Warcraft) know, it’s very difficult to introduce new mechanics/abilities to a game and foresee every single interaction on the macro scale.
There are numerous examples of this in Yu-Gi-Oh! lore. From my time at Upper Deck/Metagame, I heard through the grapevine that the Metamorphosis into Thousand Eyes Restrict (through Scapegoat/Sinister Serpent) was never anticipated. Or that Yata-Garasu was made a Spirit because the “drawback” of a Spirit monster would weaken its powerful effect. These types of oversights are understandable when creating thousands of cards.
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Posted on April 6th, 2010 |
The biggest distinguishing factor between top pro player and solid to intermediate, to me, is conversion. There are a few stages to YGO development I see consistently.
Beginner: Does not yet see the concept of card advantage. Can be found making plays like using Book of Moon before it’s “necessary.”
Intermediate: Has developed a full understanding of card advantage.
Expert: Realizes the concept of card advantage is useless without the accompanying idea of conversion.
A Brief Anecdote
Conversion is just my arbitrary term for building a Yu-Gi-Oh! strategy that can turn extra cards into actual field presence or a dominating position.
The match that drove this point home for me actually happened in 2005. My good friend and teammate, f00b, was playing a match versus an average player. f00b was one of the best players at the time at generating card advantage (his favorite card was Metamorphosis) but he had consistent issues with converting it.
There is an infamous story of f00b and 4 Airknight Parshaths. At one point in the duel, f00b had 4 Airknights (one was Snatch Stolen) on the field. He eventually ended up losing the game to a Morphing Jar and Tribe-Infecting Virus despite having perhaps +5 cards in hand.
Unfortunately, there were a number of situations I saw in the game where simplification and conversion of advantage was not made. An example was flipping Magician of Faith for Pot of Greed instead of Nobleman of Crossout, while having +4 cards in resources and dominating the game.
To win a Yu-Gi-Oh! duel, you can’t simply focus on getting more cards than your opponent.
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