How to side against Prophecy?

Hey, guys! OCG environment is started swarming with Prophecy deck and soon Prophecy may conquer TCG environment as well although TCG Prophecy deck build is not cheap. Since it will become meta, thus I will share some of my thought on how to side against Prophecy especially during Game 2 & 3.

Before I proceed to the discussion, let us check out what card in current card pool that can be used to against Prophecy deck.

Monster
Archlord Kristya, Aurora Paragon, Chaos Hunter, Dark Balter the Terrible, Dark Paladin, Droll & Lock Bird, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Great Shogun Shien, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, Jowgen the Spiritualist, Koa'ki Meru Wall, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, Meklord Emperor Wisel, Naturia Beast, Number 16: Shock Master, Spell Canceller, Stardust Dragon /Assault Mode, The End of Anubis, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Vanity's Fiend, Vanity's Ruler and Void Ogre Dragon.

Spell
Deck Lockdown, Necrovalley

Trap
Anti-Spell Fragrance, Curse of Darkness, Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, Eradicator Epidemic Virus, Imperial Iron Wall, Mind Crush, Tower of Babel and Vanity's Emptiness.

1st of all, we have 3 methods to against Prophecy deck. The 1st method is to disallow the Special Summon. Since Prophecy also focus on SS, thus we can play card that forbid from SS. The cards which in this category is Archlord Kristya, Aurora Paragon, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Jowgen the Spiritualist, Vanity's Fiend, Vanity's Ruler, Deck Lockdown and Vanity's Emptiness.

Archlord Kristya and Aurora Paragon can be side by Agent Fairy player due to they are Fairy type monster. The rest of the cards can be side into almost any deck. However, you need to protect them carefully. Jowgen the Spiritualist can be side into Prophecy deck as well especially when you are having mirror match. Deck Lockdown may be suit to play for some of the deck so that Prophecy player cannot add Spellbook or SS monster from deck for 2 turns.

The 2nd method is lockdown/forbid/negate them from activate spell cards. The cards belong to this category is Dark Balter the Terrible, Dark Paladin, Great Shogun Shien, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, Koa'ki Meru Wall, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, Meklord Emperor Wisel, Naturia Beast, Number 16: Shock Master, Spell Canceller, Stardust Dragon /Assault Mode, Void Ogre Dragon, Cursed of Darkness, Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell and Towel of Babel. Most of this card hard to be play in current meta.

For Six Samurai player, they can fit Great Shogun Shien into their main again due to it can lock down from play multiple Spellbook. They can also easily synchro summon Naturia Beast and lock them from play spell cards with the back row protection. For Infernity player, if they have god luck sack then they can control the game easily with the help of Infernity Barrier and Infernity Break.

Thus we look for 3rd method which is destroy their mechanism or tempo or combo. The cards under this category is Chaos Hunter, Droll & Lock Bird, The End of Anubis, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Vanity's Fiend, Vanity's Ruler, Deck Lockdown, Necrovalley, Anti-Spell Fragrance, Eradicator Epidemic Virus, Imperial Iron Wall and Mind Crush. Currently, Chaos Hunter, Droll & Lock Bird, Thunder King Rai-Oh and Eradicator Epidemic Virus is quite effective against Prophecy.

The rest of the cards may be varied based on situation. Basically, the mechanism of Prophecy and Spellbook quite dependent with their grave. Spellbook of the Fate, Spellbook of Life, Spellbook of Master, The Grand Spellbook Tower and High Priestess of Prophecy, all also required grave material in order to activate their effect. Thus The End of Anubis and Necrovalley can be added into your side deck option.

Apart from that, most of the Spellbook or Prophecy key card required to remove from play/banish card in order to activate their effect, thus Chaos Hunter and Imperial Iron Wall can stop their play for a long time. Mind Crush may not be too effective because they will add different type of Spellbook into their hand during End Phase thus the card that hit by Mind Crush effect will be less. EEV is hot side deck choice in Japan as Evilswarm can easily fit it in and destructive.

Anyway, I don't think Malaysian will notice of the rise of Prophecy until someone topping it in major event. Thus not much people will ready their side against it and Prophecy may have advantage in upcoming ACS. So I hope some of the Malaysian player will notice this post and take it as a friendly advice so that have less issue when you are dueling with Prophecy especially in Game 2 or 3.

Okay, that's all I wanna share with you guys. Thanks for dropping by and wish you guys have a nice day. Please stay tuned for my next post.

Are you ready for Malaysia Qualifier Asia Championship 2013?

Hey, guys! Finally we have enter the month of March and the new March 2013 list will be applied. For those whose still not believe the latest ban list that I have posted last week, you can check it from here. Therefore, we will see more new meta to be formed due to new format.

New tier 1 meta will be comprise of Evilswarm, Constellar, Prophecy(currently in OCG), Mermail Atlantean, Fire Fist, Gadget variant(although number of players keep on decreasing), Geargia Elemental, Alive HERO, Mask HERO and etc. Tier 1.5 will comprise of Dark World, Wind-Up, Rabbit Laggia(also keep on less appear), Harpie Lady, HERO beat, Laval and etc.

Tier 2 comprise of Inzektor, Fire King, Hieratic, Chaos Dragon, Lightsworn, Dragunity, Agent Angel and etc. By referring to my prediction meta deck, I think you guys should have a question for why I would place Wind-Up at the tier 1.5. Many of us thought that March 2013 format will totally shut down most of the Wind-Up engine combo.

However, if you search through the card pool, you will found some combo whereby it would make Wind-Up competitive enough. They still can perform OTK with just 3 cards. The new combo for Wind-Up would be Zenmailstrom and Shark Fortress. Before I introduce the combo, let me introduce Zenmailstrom and Shark Fortress 1st.

Zenmailstrom

Zenmailstrom
Normal trap
Tribute 1 "Wind-Up" monster with 1500 or more ATK; Special Summon 1 "Wind-Up" monster from your hand, then you can Special Summon 1 "Wind-Up" monster from your deck with the same ATK as the monster Special Summoned by this effect.

The condition for activate Zenmailstrom is a bit difficult because most of the Wind-Up monster's ATK point lower than 1500. However, once you able to activate this card, then it almost ensure you will win the game.The monster that special summon from your deck via this effect can be same as the one special summon from your hand and you can choose its battle position.

Shark Fortress

Shark Fortress

Dark/Fish - Xyz - Effect/Rank 5/ATK 2400/DEF 1800
2 Level 5 monsters
Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 face-up monster you control; that target can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn. Other monsters you control cannot be targeted for an attack.

Shark Fortress is a good beat stick whereby it allow any of your face-up monster to attack twice during this turn's BP and without any side effect at all. It allow you to have more chances to OTK your opponent. Wind-Up is a deck where it can easily Xyz summon monster from Rank 3 to 5, thus this card is one of the good option for performing OTK.

Before I go further explain of the combo, let's have a view of the sample deck list 1st.

Monster(17):
Wind-Up Rabbit x3
Wind-Up Rat x3
Night Assailant x1
Tour Guide of the Underworld x2
Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear x1
Wind-Up Warrior x2
Wind-Up Shark x3
Wind-Up Soldier x1
Wind-Up Magician x1

Spell(13):
Heavy Storm x1
Pot of Duality x2
Wind-Up Factory x3
Mystical Space Typhoon x3
Monster Reborn x1
Fire Formation - Tenki x3

Trap(10):
Torrential Tribute x2
Dust Tornado x2
Zenmailstrom x2
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Solemn Judgment x1
Solemn Warning x1

Extra Deck:
Wind-Up Zenmaines x1
Number 17: Leviathan Dragon x1
M-X-Saber Invoker x1
Gagaga Cowboy x1
Diamond Dire Wolf x1
Maestroke the Symphony Djinn x1
Wind-Up Zenmaister x1
Number 16: Shock Master x1
Number 69: Heraldry God - Coat of Arms x1
Heroic Champion - Excalibur x1
Photon Papilloperative x1
Tiras, Keeper of Genesis x1
Shark Fortress x1
Number 61: Volcasaurus x1
Gaia Dragon, The Thunder Charger x1

Due to the key card, Zenmailstrom is a trap card and it is easily to be destroy if we set it up during our turn, therefore Dust Tornado is recommended so that Zenmailstrom can be set to field during opponent's End Phase. Then during our turn, we can use it to do our combo.

Below is the combo description:

1st method: You have Fire Formation - Tenki, Wind-Up Factory, Zenmailstrom on hand.

During your turn, activate Tenki and search for Rabbit. Activate Wind-Up Factory and normal summon Rabbit and activate its effect. Rabbit's effect trigger Factory's effect, add Magician to hand using Factory effect and set Zenmailstrom.

During your next turn, return Rabbit to field and with the help of Tenki, Rabbit ATK become 1500, thus fulfill the activation condition of Zenmailstrom. Activate Zenmailstrom and SS Magician from hand and Rat from deck. Activate Rat's effect to SS Rabbit from grave, Rat's effect trigger Magician's effect.

Magician's effect SS Shark from deck, Magician's effect trigger Factory effect to add 2nd copies Rat to hand. Rat and Rabbit overlay to Xyz M-X-Saber Invoker, activate Invoker's effect and SS Warrior from deck. Activate Warrior's effect and Shark's effect to increase to lv5 and overlay to Xyz Shark Fortress.

Activate Shark Fortress's effect by detached Warrior and target itself to have twice attack. Normal summon Rat and activate Rat's effect to SS Warrior from grave. Activate Warrior's effect to increase Rat to lv4, Warrior+Rat+Magician overlay to Xyz summon Number 69: Heraldry God - Coat of Arms. Activate Number 69's effect by mimic Shark Fortress's effect and activate Number 69's effect which copy from Shark Fortress. Target Number 69 to gain twice attack and lastly all monster attack opponent.

Overall battle damage is 1600 + (2400 x 2) + (2600 x 2) = 11600. Above calculation can only be applied if the situation is without any interruption.

2nd method: You have Wind-Up Factory, Wind-Up Warrior and a set Zenmailstrom.

Activate Factory and normal summon Warrior. Activate Warrior's effect, Warrior's effect trigger Factory's effect and add Magician to hand. Activate Zenmailstrom by releasing Warrior, SS Magician from hand and SS Rat from deck. Activate Rat's effect to SS Warrior from grave, Rat's effect trigger Magician's effect and SS 2nd copies of Rat from deck.

Overlay Magician with Warrior to Xyz Papilloperative and activate Papilloperative's effect by detached Magician to change 2nd copies Rat position to ATK position. Activate 2nd copies Rat's effect to SS Magician from grave and overlay 2 Rat to Xyz Invoker. Activate Invoker's effect by detached Rat and SS Warrior/Soldier from deck.

Activate Warrior/Soldier's effect and target itself to increase to lv5 and Warrior's effect trigger Magician's effect. Magician's effect SS Shark from deck and activate Shark's effect to increase to lv5. Overlay Shark and Warrior/Soldier to Shark Fortress and activate Shark Fortress's effect to let itself to gain twice attack. Lastly, attack your opponent with Papilloperative, Shark Fortress and Invoker.

Overall battle damage is 1600 + 2100 + (2400 x 2) = 8500. If we Xyz Number 61: Volcasaurus instead of Shark Fortress during the last step, the battle damage will be 1600 + 2100 + 2600(Gaia Dragon) + ?(Opponent monster ATK point destroyed by Volcasaurus's effect) = 6300 + ?

3rd method: You have TGU and Factory on hand and a set Zenmailstrom.

Activate Factory and normal summon TGU. Activate TGU's effect SS another TGU and Xyz Invoker. Activate Invoker's effect and SS Warrior from deck. Activate Warrior's effect to increase to lv5 and Warrior's effect trigger Factory's effect. Factory's effect add Magician to hand and activate Zenmailstrom by releasing Warrior. SS Magician from hand and SS Rat from deck.

Activate Rat's effect to SS Warrior from grave and Rat's effect trigger Magician's effect. Magician's effect SS Shark from deck and activate Warrior's effect to increase Rat to lv4. Overlay Magician, Warrior and Rat to Xyz Number 69 and activate Number 69's effect to mimic the effect of Invoker. Then activate Number 69's effect which copy from Invoker and SS 2nd copies of Warrior/Soldier.

Activate 2nd copies Warrior/Soldier's and Shark's effect to increase their level to lv5 and overlay to Xyz Shark Fortress. Activate Shark Fortress's effect and target Number 69 to gain twice attack. Invoker, Shark Fortress and Number 69, all attack opponent. Total battle damage is 1600 + 2400 + (2600 x 2) = 9200. If we Xyz Volcasaurus instead of Shark Fortress during last step, total battle damage will be 1600 + 2600 + 2600(Gaia Dragon) + ?(Opponent monster ATK point destroyed by Volcasaurus's effect) = 6800 + ?

Above combo that I mentioned is initiated by a Japanese player, his original article can be found here.
Apart from that, Malaysia Qualifier Asia Championship 2013 is confirmed to be held on 24th March 2013. This time we need to online register and submit our form on tournament date. Online registration for Malaysia ACS 2013 will be available starting from 7th March 2013. Therefore, please register yourself before the seat and time is running out. You can register yourself by visit this site.

Okay, that's all I wanna share with you guys! Sorry for the lengthy article. Thanks for your time and wish you guys have a good day. Please stay tuned for my next post.