As many of you know, I have put together numerous team battles that feature the greatest players in North America dueling each other for fame and fortune. While watching these top players, I have developed a keen eye for different talents. At the start of each interview, I will profile the player sitting down and describe the player’s style (so you can use these elements in your own game). On with the interview!
Dale Bellido is our subject for the day. As a core member of Team Overdose, Dale is one of the best players on the best team in all of Yu-Gi-Oh! monsters. His list of credentials is enormous. Double-digit Shonen Jump Championship day two’s (it’s difficult to verify the exact number due to Metagame’s collapse). A runner up finish at the Canadian Nationals, in addition to another top eight finish at the second-biggest North American tournament of the year. Dale also won SJC Chicago, thoroughly dominating future teammate Paul Levitin (another superstar) on his way to victory.
Described often as the face of Canadian YGO, Dale has contributed numerous deck ideas and principles that helped shape the game. He helped test his brother Lazaro’s creatin of the dominant Zombie advantage engine using Ill Blud and Card of Safe Return with his brother Lazaro Bellido. Lazaro and Dale also introduced the ubiquitous modern-day idea of Necro Gardna to Lightsworn builds, taking this concept to success at Shonen Jump Championships. Then, the two brothers (bigger than Mario and Luigi at this point) helped create one of the first templates for Tele-DaD that the world ended up using, incorporating a stable 2 Destiny Draw/3 Allure of Darkness engine along with tech picks like Destiny Hero Doom Lord and a single Necro Gardna that led to success.
During my two week stay in Canada between Gencon Indy and SJC Hamilton, I spent all of my time watching and dueling the best of Canada. Matt Peddle, Lazaro Bellido, Calvin Tsang, Dexter Dalit, Kyle Duncan, Nik Ristoski (he prefers being called Nik Rastafari), Chris Simoes, Chris Pittao, Walter Chan, Ervin So, David Bui, Andrew Hayton, g0bstopper, Joseph Lueng….. the list of extremely solid Yu-Gi-Oh! thinkers and talents in Canada just stretches on and on. In my estimation, the first five names on this list (along with Dale) are undoubtedly five of the best players the world has ever seen (and would make any top twenty list).
Most of my time was spent playing with Dale, Matt, Lazaro (along with other guests such as Emon Ghaenian and Paul Levitin). The most fascinating part of my stay was in a round table where we spent time discussing how to play certain situations and also card choices that defined a player’s style. What was always the most interesting aspect to me was the rivalry between Dale and Matt (until Lazaro apparently surpassed both of them). Their styles are completely different; prior to joining together and unleashing Team Superfriends, Matt And Dale were basically Kaiba and Yugi (feel free to pick which was which). Even after becoming beautiful friends, their different approaches to the game have constantly been paired together (most notably twice at Canadian Nationals. In 2007 they played in the top 8. In 2009 they played on the bubble for the top 8).
Dale’s style is very unique. He is a definite feel-based player (as opposed to cerebral types like Kris Perovic, Wilson Luc, and Matt Peddle). Over the history of his play, there are a few consistent card types and choices he prefers. He favors recruiter monsters like Mystic Tomato and decided to use Lightsworn at Nationals in this format (it is highly unlikely you would have ever seen Kris or Wilson go with Lightsworn in any format). Other decks with his signature style include decks like the infamous Hydrogeddon + Shrink build (when Shrink was a 2000 dollar card). Dale’s playstyle to me most strongly resembles someone like Hugo Adame, another feel-based player who prefers strong board presence and plays a very intuitive, consistent game based on reads and flow.
Click the next page for the interview.
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haha nice interview.
If Aurkus is good enough that it singlehandedly wins you Cat Synchro matches, why would you only run 1?
i main 2 now, that was the final consensus i got after nationals… i found my self siding in the 2nd on against almost every matchup
Agreed. While testing for nats, my playgroup began to realize the power of Aurkus this format…to the point where we were prioritizing putting Lumina + Aurkus on the field over Lumina + Garoth. It’s amazing vs Cat Synchro, good against the mirror and GB, stops many of BW’s defensive options (Icarus, and avoids BTH). We ended up dropping the 2nd Garoth for 2nd Aurkus.
Very good interview. It’s nice to see how the best players in the game relate to each other and it.
“If Aurkus is good enough that it singlehandedly wins you Cat Synchro matches, why would you only run 1?”
I’m not a Lightsworn player but to me it comes down to what I’d want to draw with the deck. Late game I’d much rather draw into Lumina or Garoth. The fact that Aurkus can easily be searched out with any of your three copies of Charge of the Light Brigade or Lumina means you basically have access to Aurkus at any point in the game. I’d expect that’s part of the reason that Dale is also only running a single copy of Lyla, running any more copies of either Monster would hurt the decks consistency, something Lightsworn players are always striving to add to the deck.
Lightsworn thrive on having different Lightsworn Monsters in the Graveyard to bring Judgment Dragon online. This Monster line up is fine tuned with that goal in mind.
He didn’t say “I realized before Nationals Aurkus was the reason.” He said “Aurkus is the reason why.”
You have to keep in mind this was one of the first (I think the first?) tournament where Cat Synchro had been released. Nobody really could have been expected to know how huge Aurkus would have been until seeing the first European Championship and Nats Cat Synchro builds.
And what Den said. 3 copies of COTLB + all the mill + Lumina means you are really running like 5+ copies of Aurkus.
Love the bonus question.
Deck looks like my deck post nats lol, I agree with Dale’s conclusion of Aurkus, if I could’ve changed my nats deck I would’ve added a 2nd Aurkus, playing protect the Aurkus works vs every deck and I’m glad I at least the sided the 2nd. Good interview, nice to see one of the greater players of the game giving his input even in a format like this. Me next Jae!
While I believe that BW, LS, Cat Sync, Glads, and Dark Variants are the top decks right now, I have to say that Cat Sync is -THE- top deck. It won 3 (to my knowledge) National titles and has dominated the Japanese meta for quite some time. Theses creds alone should be enough to show which of the 5 is the leader of the pack. Sure, that may be because so many people decided to run it in these major tournaments, but if the other decks were clearly better they’d have beaten this crazy cat fusing machine. People didn’t complain about DDT’s otk/ftk turns, and that was a total hit-or-miss style deck, so I don’t understand why Cat Sync is hated on by players for being a ‘lucksack’ deck…
I could be wrong. But I’m sure Dale didn’t mean “everyone” as in 100%. More likely just a majority. So you wouldn’t always want them for other matches. Plus I’d think all of the milling/searching makes two sort of useless.
I have to sort of disagree with the Aurkus statement. I am probably wrong, since both of you have stated it as well as multiple people on forums.
But unless you draw/mill well Aurkus is an easy target. It may stop a brain control/mind control for game, but it will just get ran over. Sure that gives you another turn, but that can be done with a variety of cards.
Aurkus is only 1200/1800. The defense is respectful, but setting it doesn’t accomplish its purpose. The 1200 is easily ran over by almost anything.
Honest and Necro Gardna can protect it, but that won’t always happen/be the best choice.
You can Lumina him into defense. But any synchro can still run him over, and LS doesn’t run traps that hinder battle, so I wouldn’t be afraid to attack anything in defense.
I’m not trying to say Aurkus is bad. But I would like to know why everyone thinks it is currently such a great pick. Maybe on your blog explaining Lightsworns more.
As for Cat Synchro being on top reply. Japan has a different meta from the rest of the world. It really shouldn’t be included in an argument.
Cat Synchro also isn’t dominating like other top decks of their times. Glads and TeleDAD held a true majority in the top slots of tournaments.
In Europe, LS took more spots than Synchro Cat in top 16.
In Canada, BW took more of the top 8 spots.
In USA, who knows.
You can argue Cat Synchro is the best, because it won, especially despite not being the majoirty. But you can also argue the deck that tops majority is the best.
Or you can just say there is currently no best. But Cat Synchro is still pretty young, so it is impressive to take so many toruneys, it might be the best or improve to be the best.
@ Tenken: You say it’s hard to protect your Aurkus but Honest and Necro are the best and easiest ways to do it, Honest you can draw or get back with Beckoning or just bluff it and buy turns or mill Necros like the deck does and protect it that way, obviously you won’t always have Honest or mill Necros but bluffing a Honest is just as good as having it and hell even buying turns just to set up will win you games in a format like this where one turn can make the difference. The pros outweigh the cons when it comes to utilizing Aurkus, it essentially cancels out a bunch of power cards at the moment (Mind Control, Arcanite, Brain Control, Gale, DAD, GK Guard, Ryko, etc etc) and will prevent an otk (especially with Honest/Necro in the yard). It has a somewhat weak attack but you compare the attack to the effect and all of a sudden the attack just seems like a very very very minor flaw. Overall the card is great against every matchup and in my opinion is a staple at 2 in Lightsworn at the moment.
Well I was trying to say. If you draw a good hand with Honest/Gardna mills, you should be fine anyways imo.
I tried to acknowledge that the card isn’t bad. But I just don’t see it as being staple at 2 and such. Obviously it is better to have it, than not though.
I guess it is mostly about buying that extra turn so Ls can go off and take back advantage/win. If I am wrong, please correct me lol.
I can agree with Jhub on utilizing Aurkus and its worth since I competitively use (and have taken a lot of heat for while still being successful with) King Dragun and its protective ability rivals the Lightsworn Druid. Risk vs. reward is the biggest factor when regarding cards such as these as long as the protection is there, the path to winning becomes a lot less difficult.
Stop thinking about your own deck for a second. You’re playing against Cat Synchro. What are they going to have that makes your Arkus play a bad one? In order to get around Arkus they’re going to have to normal summon a monster to attack over it. They don’t exactly these kinds of plays to make. X-Saber in hand, Tomato, Cyber Dragon and Rescue Cat. These are the only real answers I see.
In the case of Cyber/Rescue Cat your opponent would much rather have saved those cards, and by forcing them to use these cards on Arkus you may very well have prevented an OTK from being set up.
Even if you lose your Arkus, it’s a simple matter to play Lumina next turn and special summon Arkus in defense. In fact this is something you can very likely do on your first turn, especially if you play 2. With 2 you’re much more likely to have one to pitch to Recharge/Lumina’s effect or mill with Charge of the Light Brigade.
Also chances are you’ll have some sort of defensive option. LS plays Honest, Necro Gardna and Threatening Roar. Some play Bottomless and Dustshoot. Some even play Book/Solemn. Chances are that you’ll be able to protect your Arkus, and in order for Cat Synchro to get passed it they have to make their hand a lot worse. Once they’ve done that, it’s a simple matter of playing your hand out to beat their worse-off hand.
Why doesn’t any1 at least consider playing lightsworn barrier as an option in sworn? Although it isn’t chainable, you can create some nifty psuedo locks in conjunction with aurkus.
In a Lightsworn deck Necro Gardna serves the same function as Lightsworn Barrier and works better. Lightsworn Barrier sits on the field with a huge target on it’s head because it’s not chainable meaning it’s a huge liability in today’s metagame. I’d much rather run Necro Gardna since it’s useful as a discard. Sure it’s susceptible to D.D. Crow, but Crow has seen a dramatic drop in play over the last few formats so that’s not a major issue.
Lightsworn Barrier is a great card but a major strength of LS right now is making s/t removal dead. So I wouldn’t use it in a standard build, but in some other version it could be good.
It’s interesting to see that there’s only 1 copy of Lyla, unless it’s just there as another name for JD. What are people’s views of LIM in the side?
I like the interview, seeing the meta from a pro’s point of view.
ya, but as i see alot of ppl shifting away from roars to 1 mirror 1 torrent and some even maindecking bth, so i just was throwing out another option to consider as peddle didn’t even mention it.
[...] ← Go-YGO.com Pro Interview #1: Six Questions for Dale Bellido [...]
cute deck, cute duelist (no homo).
My deck was similar at nats, i opted for two aurkus though, i’m quite the visionary ;]
There are better options than Lightsworn Barrier, most notably Threatening Roar. Most players would max out on Roar and potentially main Mirror Force before going towards Barrier. While Barrier’s a solidly-designed card, it has its drawbacks;
Firstly it’s a continuous trap, and one that is ‘dead’ under Cold Wave.
It’s not chainable to s/t destruction.
It only protects Lightsworn monsters (I’d like a card that works when I have no monsters too, like Roar)
Mirror Force will do what this thing does and kill the monster.
The milling aspect may be too much for Lightsworn to handle, as it’s usually knocked down to the last 4-5 cards in its deck by the end of the game anyways.
Most LS players will never leave an Aurkus out without protection to begin with, as they will either have Roars, Gardnas, Honests or a counter-attack (Lumina/Aurkus/JD) ready next turn.
The only good thing about Lightsworn Barrier is that it can be used over multiple turns, but the negatives outlined above far outweigh the positives, and there are better options even if you ignore Threatening Roar.
I was never a fan of the lonely COSR in any deck, but especially Lightsworn. Without 2 COSRs, I really just find it being ineffective when I draw it.
I know you’re already trying to get it for the community, but I figured there -SHOULD- be a comment expressing interest in an interview with Lazaro Bellido.
As for the Cat arguments, you really don’t have to address them anymore. It’s obvious the deck wins off one-turn kills and various power cards such as Cold Wave, Solemn Judgment, and Dark Strike Fighter (which is disgusting and shouldn’t exist — it defiles the principles guiding the game). Protecting Aurkus means winning the game, and it’s not particularly difficult to do so.
You -COULD- argue that it won three National titles. However, I would counter that with the current evidence floating around Youtube of the European Champion blatantly cheating, the American Champion having what was essentially a bye in the last round (the second worst deck in the format sprinkled with misplays), and the fact that many — if not all — great players who play clean (or at least to some extent) do not chose to run anything other than Lightsworn. Hell, I even saw a lot of known cheaters chosing it for Nationals.
Tom there must be happy that ‘Dark Strike Fighter’ is getting the heave-ho, huh?
I’m kinda bummed it is, but I’ll live without it (I can’t help wondering if ‘Level Thunder will come out in Absolute Powerforce…).
I’ve never actually seen anyone use Synchro Cat, so I’m not sure how Aurkus can save, but I’m gonna guess it’s to make your monsters unbrainwashable (‘Brain Control’, ‘Mind Control’, ‘Tragoedia’…).
Actualy, I’ll go see if I can find a good vid on YouTube (which is tough to follow when they aren’t crystal clear and don’t anounce their plays for the viewers like the Goofs do).
BUT
I want to know if my main deck can stand up to it.
It’s so great learning from a great player such as Dale; me, I’m from Mexico, so cards in here are a little to expensieve, although,we give our bests in playig, and building decks. For me is just impressive how this duelist has changed the game I love. Is a fantastic interview, and reading his points of view has wided-opened my eyes. I wish I could play with the best like him, or Matt, or his brother…Great job here.
Alan, you should check out “lilwunxx”s channel on YouTube, so you can see all of Canada’s best have fun against each other
Thanks ShadowQueen I’ve seen it alredy; here at mexico city we’re not that united for recording and posting our duels, and we better star doing it right? Well, I’m eager to see what new Ideas does Dale has to improve the game, and I’m always trying to come out with some. Nice site this.
LOL Yeah
I can’t wait to see what all of them pull out this new format