A guide to Prophecy, Dragon Ruler or Evilswarm?

Hey, guys! Sorry for not update my blog so frequent. Before I start off with today's topic, let's us give a round applause to Michael Bonacini for discussing the change of Yu-Gi-Oh nowadays. What he had mentioned in his blog indeed is a fact, however, the reason that I believe why Konami would alter the competitive environment is due to they want to access to new blood(player)/niche/market. For more detail of his blog content, kindly visit his blog(Death Aspect) which I have placed into my buddies list.

Today I would like to share some of my views regarding Prophecy, Dragon Ruler/Elemental Dragon and Evilswarm. Most of us only knowing how good they are but not much people fully understand of how the deck work like. As a result, better players will have higher chances to win the game and poor players will have more misplay. Therefore, we must learn well how the deck works around and from there we can plan how to goes against them especially during mirror match.

Firstly, let us review on Prophecy. As mentioned by Michael Ting in his article, Prophecy is a beat deck which quite similar with HERO beat. Actually, Prophecy not just a beat deck, but I would categorize it under the group of control-oriented deck. Basically, what it did is try to waste all your resource within the few turns and kill you once your resource fully deplete. Normally, they will outplay you within 3-5 turns. If they have exceed the period and they still unable to outplay of you then mostly they will having trouble. The deck mechanism is quite similar with Six Samurai but rather than swarming with monster, they swarming the field with many spellbook.

With the release of Extra Pack 2013, new Spellbook support is started added into their deck and I believe soon Star Hall will become an important card that can be fit into most of the prophecy build as it can boost their monsters attack so that they can kill most of the big monster easily. Generally, the key in prophecy is Spellbook of Judgment and Spellbook Magician of Prophecy. Without Spellbook Magician of Prophecy in the deck, Prophecy is unstable and you can lose the game easily due to most of the spellbook require a spellcaster on field so that it can be activate. If you able to resolve Spellbook Magician effect, then you will instantly +1.

High Priestess of Prophecy is a card that enable you to have destructible effect so that you can shut the game down earlier. However, drawing too much Priestess is a bad dream especially when you unable to fulfill its summon condition. It may destroy your deck consistency thus some of the OCG player already drop its number to 2 instead of 3. The spellbook that added by the effect of Judgment enable you to have enough of hand to outplay your opponent or lock down your opponent. Kycoo is important when you are facing with Dragon Ruler or mirror match. Thus most of the Prophecy player will conserve Kycoo as it is the card that can lock your opponent while attacking them.

During mirror match, the player that won the die roll mostly have advantage as almost nothing can interrupt you unless they have Effect Veiler on their hand. Spellbook of Judgment will be the key to win the game during mirror match as you can set it and wait for your opponent to start with their combo then only chain for it. During your opponent End Phase, you will have more hand to play during your turn or lock the SS of Justice of Prophecy by SS Jowgen as non-turn player will resolve their card effect then only follow by turn player card effect. Therefore, beware of this play as it does happen frequently.

Second, Dragon Ruler is dominating OCG and TCG environment and they are good enough against almost any deck. This is due to they can outplay you almost any time and whenever they needed. Apart from that, Dragon Ruler consider as the 1st deck in Yu-Gi-Oh history that not necessary to use up their normal summon while performing their combo. They are consistent most of the time as they can SS or Xyz summon almost any of their turn. However, they will be pretty bad if they have only 1 color Dragon Ruler in their hand and this situation seldom happen to them as they can swap their hand with the Dragon in their deck by using Tempest effect.

Basically, they will try to gather at least 3 color of Dragon Ruler in their graveyard so that they can have enough of resource to play during next turn. As I had discussed in my last article, Dragossack is the key to generate field advantage or suppress your opponent from having big play. 2nd, their Number 11: Big Eye is super effective especially during mirror match. The 1st player that firstly summon Big Eye during mirror match mostly will lose the game due to Big Eye Trading Card Game. As a result, be alert of dropping your Big Eye too early as you may lose the game because of it and dropping it when you have some sort of protection for Big Eye as some players started to main Enemy Controller to against from negated by Effect Veiler.

Vanity's Emptiness started become one of side deck for Dragon Ruler as they can shut down their opponent from abusive play after they have control the field. Many of the deck try to maining Vanity's Emptiness so that they can compete with this deck. However, Dragon Ruler can easily unlock it by activate Tempest effect to search for Dragon in the deck. Similar with Prophecy, Dragon Ruler normally try to deplete their opponent resource within 3-6 turns. If after the time frame they still unable to kill you, they will be facing difficulty of not enough of resources to continue the game. Thus the match between Prophecy and Dragon Ruler or mirror match is very interesting as you can see how they play their resource effectively.

Lastly, Evilswarm will be our last topic to discuss. Evilswarm is a deck where your monster will easily use up and once you unable to Xyz summon then you will lose the game. Most of the time, you will not have enough of monster in your hand and you will out of the tempo if your opponent able to withstand with the suppress of your Ophion. Some time you even have bad draw and require Infestation Infection to swap with other Evilswarm card from your deck. If your opponent chain with MST toward the play of Infection then you will lose a hand and may lead to a lose. Therefore, some of the players started to maining Kagetokage in order to improve the chance of Xyz summon.

1st, they will summon any Evilswarm monster then follow by SS of Kagetokage. If the monster you summon is Castor and you have another Evilswarm monster then you can have up to 2 Xyz monster on the field. In order to have more number of monster in the deck, they even include a copy of King of Feral Imps and Number 66: Master Key Bettle. They use Feral Imps to search out Kagetokage from the deck and use Master Key Bettle to protect their Ophion/Safe Zone/Imperial Iron Wall. If they have Castor, another Evilswarm and 2 copies Kagetokage and a Safe Zone, they will summon all of them and Xyz summon Ophion with Bettle then set the Safe Zone. Activate Bettle effect to target Safe Zone/Ophion, as a result, Ophion will not be easily destroy thus can form a lock down.

Evilswarm is a deck that require a lot of skill and a bit of luck as the deck is inconsistent thus not many people able to play it effectively. Some of the players even joke it as "it is not a deck" but for me, this is a deck which focus on player's skill rather than their combo. Their combo is straight-forward and this have cause some of the player for not thinking deeply on how to play it effectively. Innovative players will always come out of all sort of idea to improve their deck others than abandon it without having a try. So guys always remember that creative idea will generate better deck.

FYI, Droll & Lock Bird is not too effective against most of the deck except Prophecy and it only slow down the Prophecy but not killing them. Thus I don't highly recommend you guys to use it to stop DW or Dragon Ruler. Besides that, SD25 already officially release and overall the deck is inconsistent yet. Now I waiting for the release of special pack of V-Jump Edition 09(VE09). Hopefully this pack can upgrade the level of SD25 to tier 1. The new BLS will also release in this pack and more news will be revealed any time soon within this period.

Okay, that's all I want to share with you guys and sorry for posting such a lengthy article. Thanks for your precious time to drop by and wish you guys have a nice time with your parents. Last but not least, happy father's day to everyone and enjoy your precious moment with them. Please stay tuned for my next post.

1st ever most competitive WCQ!

Hey, guys! Today I would like to share my personal view on meta change. Extra Pack - Sword of Knights has been officially released to OCG. This is the 1st time OCG synchronize with TCG so that during WCQ we can have similar card pool to play. As a result, I expect we will have much interesting side-decking techniques and only competitive decks can survive in this environment. Apart from that, first time ever most of the Asia countries will be introduced with new format of tournament.

The new format started implement during WCQ 2013 and basically we will held the tournament similar with TCG environment. The tournament will be break into 2 days event which is day 1 preliminary of top 32 qualifiers and day 2 is for 32 seeders and top 32 qualifiers on day 1. This time we will have knock-out basis/single elimination on day 1 and Swiss format tournament on day 2. So for those that will compete during 2 days event, stamina and concentration will be the key for you to survive till day 2.

I bet Elemental Dragon will still conquer the OCG environment and they may even conquer TCG environment as well. Due to all the Elemental Dragon rarities are below R except their extra deck thus I expect a high percentage of people will playing it. In the end, we will a format where Elemental Dragon is the dominance in WCQ. I personally think that not much players affordable to play Prophecy as they are very bloody expensive in TCG environment due to most of their cards are in highest rarity.

Besides that, Evilswarm also started landed at TCG environment thus Evilswarm may be one of the choice to against both deck as most of the decks hard to cope with their speed and Evilswarm can temporary lock them down by standing Ophion on field. However, if we regularly check out the deck choice that compete in major tournaments especially in Japan, we will found that Evilswarm is less topping since mid of April 2013. The reason behind this is Evilswarm not so easy to against both decks as both of them can generate OTK easily once they stop your Ophion from face-up on the field.

I think some of the players still haven't figure out what is the main reason Elemental Dragon dominating OCG. FYI, they have the ability of destroy, search, grave SS, mill and swarming where all of the element that a competitive deck must have. One of the major reason why Elemental Dragon is so strong and stable is due to the occurrence of  Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack. With it, you can perform attack or defense easily. Aside from that, it enable you to get rid of back row almost without cost or force your opponent to waste more resources in order to get rid of it.

2nd reason is they can Xyz summon Number 11: Big Eye easily and use it to steal your monster so that you lost your defense wall. 3rd reason is they can swarm the field without performing any normal summon. Averagely, all of the level 7 Elemental Dragon ATK are more than 2k except Redox thus they can beat you down even without Xyz summon. Moreover, Judgment of the Light(JOTL) has been released to the OCG environment 2 weeks ago. Quite some amount of good cards were printed in this booster.

However, those cards would not cause a drastic change to the current meta environment. Just few new archetype of cards been introduced to the game such as Mesmerizing Maneater, Bujin and Umbralis are quite interesting as their combo is pretty nice and easy to play. Quite a number of Mono Mermail topping during last week Japanese major tournaments thus we might see a lot of Mono Mermail after this. Let us see how effective Mono Mermail against tier 0, Elemental Dragon and Prophecy.

Okay, that's all I want to share with you guys. Thanks for your time and wish you guys have a nice day. Please stay tuned for my next post.

How to side against Elemental/Incarnate Dragon

Hey, guys! Lord of Tahyon Galaxy(LTGY) will be introduce to TCG environment by next month and I believe it would affect whole TCG meta if their baby version Elemental Dragon were released in that booster as well. As a result, I decide to share some strategy on how to side against them. Basically, we can categorize E.Dragon into 2 major deck build, 1 is LADD control while the other is OTK build.

When E.Dragon was started introduce to OCG, numerous of player have tried different build for E.Dragon. In the end, they decide to play the build of LADD control and it is quite stable during that period. However, if you tried to observe them again, you will found that OTK build is increasing while LADD control build is decreasing. They found that LADD control is easier to be counter by their opponent especially Prophecy. Besides that, Prophecy player had changed their build to Jowgen lock down compare with High Priestess beat.

Before we go further on how to side against E.Dragon, let us review what are difference between LADD control build with OTK build.

Generally LADD control build will go through step as below to play LADD as soon as possible:
1, activate miniature Elemental Dragon effect and send Eclipse Wyvern to grave to SS big Elemental Dragon from deck.

2. Wyvern effect activate and banish LADD from deck.

3. If you have big Elemental Dragon on hand then SS it by banishing Eclipse Wyvern and miniature Elemental Dragon in graveyard.

4. LADD is added to hand due to Wyvern's effect.

5. Xyz summon Mecha Phantom Beast Dragon-Sack by overlay both big Elemental Dragon and activate its effect to SS 2 Mecha Phantom Beast tokens.

6. At this time, no normal summon was performed yet, thus released 2 tokens and normal summon LADD. By controlling face-up LADD and Dragon-Sack on the field, we use them to push through opponent.

For OTK build, they much more emphasize on Xyz summon of Mecha Phantom Beast Dragon-Sack to control the field. With Dragon-Sack, they can be used to push their opponent from setting up the field. It also have self-protection effect when they have token monster on their field and it can be use to attack or destroy back row. Moreover, they also focus on Xyz summon of Number 11: Big Eye to take control of opponent monster and push through opponent with their own monster.

Below is the list of cards that we may use to against/siding when your opponent is a E.Dragon player.

Monster
Angel O7, Archlord Kristya, Battle Fader, Chaos Hunter, Colossal Fighter, Crimson Blader, Destiny HERO - Plasma, Effect Veiler, Electric Virus, Evilswarm Ophion, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Jowgen the Spiritualist, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Lava Golem, Light and Darkness Dragon, Maxx C, Mermail Abyssgaio, Metaion, the Timelord, Number 16: Shock Ruler, Number 22: Zombiestein, Photon Strike Bounzer, Red Dragon Archfiend, Reptilianne Vaskii, Tragoedia, Treeborn Frog, Tribe-Shocking Virus, Vanity's Fiend, Vanity's Ruler

Spell
Dimensional Fissure, Forbidden Chalice, Necrovalley, Special Hurricane, Zombie World

Trap
Black Horn of Heaven, Bottomless Trap Hole, Breakthrough Skill, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Debunk, Deep Dark Trap Hole, Fiendish Chain, Imperial Iron Wall, Macro Cosmo, Mind Crush, Mind Drain, Rivalry of Warlords, Skill Drain, Soul Drain, Stygian Dirge, The Transmigration Prophecy, Vanity's Emptiness, Void Traphole

Similar with other deck, we can prevent/lock/stop their combo through several method. 1st method, lock down/negate/destroy their SS monster so that they cannot perform swarming so soon. Cards that can do so is Archlord Kristya, Chaos Hunter, Evilswarm Ophion, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Jowgen the Spiritualist, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, LADD, Number 16: Shock Ruler, Vanity's Fiend, Vanity's Ruler, Dimensional Fissure, Necrovalley, Special Hurricane, Black Horn of Heaven, Bottomless Trap Hole, Giant Trap Hole, Imperial Iron Wall, Macro Cosmo, Mind Drain, Rivalry of Warlords, Soul Drain, Vanity's Emptiness, Void Traphole and Zombie World.

Chaos Hunter, Kycoo, Dimensional Fissure, Necrovalley, Mind Drain and Zombie World may not too effective in locking their SS because they may SS the E.Dragon by using their baby version E.Dragon. Apart from using those cards that can help in locking SS, you must have good protection so that the you can continue push through with the card you hold till the game ends. E.Dragon can simply unlock your lock down by using Blaster, Elemental Dragon of Calderas's effect. Therefore, try to have enough of protection whenever you are in a lead.

2nd, we can negate/forbid activation of their monster effect on the field or in the graveyard. Generally, you may side in cards like Angel O7, Crimson Blader, Destiny HERO - Plasma, Effect Veiler, LADD, Mermail Abyssgaio, Metaion, Photon Strike Bounzer, Forbidden Chalice, Breakthrough Skill, Debunk, Fiendish Chain, Mind Drain, Soul Drain and The Transmigration Prophecy. If they are playing LADD control build, you may side cards such as Battle Fader, Gorz, Lava Golem, Number 22: Zombiestein, Red Dragon Archfiend, Tragoedia and Treeborn Frog.

The 3rd method that we can applied is to slow down/lock down/destroy their setup. The cards that fall to this category is Chaos Hunter, Crimson Blader, Electric Virus, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Jowgen the Spiritualist, Lava Golem, Maxx C, Metaion, Number 16: Shock Ruler, Red Dragon Archfiend, Reptilianne Vaskii, Tribe-Shocking Virus, Dimensional Fissure, Necrovalley, Special Hurricane, Zombie World, Black Horn of Heaven, Bottomless Trap Hole, Breakthrough Skill, CED, Debunk, Deep Dark Trap Hole, Fiendish Chain, Imperial Iron Wall, Macro Cosmo, Mind Crush, Mind Drain, Rivalry of Warlords, Soul Drain, Stygian Dirge and The Transmigration Prophecy.

In order to stop them effectively, you should wait till the right timing to activate cards that can counter their combo. Example, they will Xyz summon Dragon-Sack almost every turn thus whenever you see it you can decide to activate cards that can counter it so that they cannot gain too much of advantage. Most of the time, E.Dragon will have zero or little number of trap lineup but the latest E.Dragon build already included some staple traps thus beware for their back row as well.

FYI, please don't even try to side in Cyber Dragon against them because once you do so, you probably will regret for doing soon. Although you can get rid of Dragon-Sack with it and fusion summon Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, most probably you will lose the game because they can easily Xyz summon Number 11: Big Eye and snatch your Fortress Dragon to kill you. If you want to have a taste of it, you can try so.

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

Who will conquer final of ACQ at Thailand?

Elemental Dragons

Hey, guys! I'm back to blogging again. Malaysia ACQ just ended not long ago and is time for us to speculate what deck will dominate the final of ACQ. So far the finalist for each country ACQ consist of Evilswarm/Verz, Elemental/Incarnate Dragon, Prophecy and Mermail. The final stage of ACQ will be held at Thailand and each country champion will represent their country to compete in the event on 27th April 2013.

*E.Dragon=Elemental/Incarnate Dragon, FF=Fire Fist

Most of the time WCQ environment will be the replicate of ACQ environment, thus please stay tuned for it so that you can ready for WCQ much earlier. This time I saw a lot of E.Dragon appear in my country ACQ although the deck is bloody pricy(a deck that can cost RM1k++). As usual, most of my country players don't expect the swarming of E. Dragon deck in ACQ thus siding may not be ready for it. Nevertheless, E.Dragon is much stable now due to the release of its baby version dragon.

As a result, E. Dragon dominate the semi-final of Malaysia and Singapore ACQ. E.Dragon is just too good and currently their main opponent is Prophecy then only goes to Evilswarm. Prophecy can lock down E.Dragon by just having a Jowgen the Spiritualist and have full hand to against E.Dragon. If E.Dragon met with Prophecy then the winning ratio will be 50:50. Prophecy can build up their defense within a turn thus E.Dragon can be beat down if nothing wrong is happen.

Although Evilswarm can lock down E.Dragon and Prophecy easily, they are inconsistent. Therefore, they need Infestation Infection to exchange their hand. Evilswarm is good to against those 2 decks but they are bad to Fire Fist Tri/3-Axis Fire Fist due to FF can get rid Ophion easily through battle or Bear. Besides that, Evilswarm monster ATK point much lower than FF due to the help of Fire Formation.

So if nothing goes wrong, Prophecy may won the final of ACQ. However, I think with the release of Judgment of the Light(JOTL), FF will become super effective to against E.Dragon and Prophecy if they manage to build the consistency. 3-axis FF may be the major threat in WCQ 2013 as they have plenty of support card and its swarming mechanism quite similar with Junk Doppel. Thus do not look down this deck as they can wreck Prophecy and E.Dragon with sufficient of side.

Before I ended my post, I would like share a ruling where most of you may not seen before. If your opponent have LADD ATK position on the field and its ATK is less than your Brotherhood of Fire Fist - Bear, you perform attack with Bear and manage to destroy LADD during Damage Step. Right after After Damage Calculation, you will activate effect of Bear and LADD can negate your Bear effect as long as its ATK/DEF not less than 800/400 due to it have not sent to the graveyard. Thus please beware of this ruling.

Okay, that's all I wanna share with you guys. Thanks for your precious time and wish you guys have a nice day. Please stay tuned for my next post and I will discuss how to side against E.Dragon in next post.

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.

Official March 2013 Ban List

Hey, guys! Due to busy with my Chinese New Year celebration, thus update for post also delay. Today I will share with you guys for the Yugioh latest March 2013 list. This ban list had killed Wind-Up most important key card and TGU greatest partner. As a result, I predict that Wind-Up and TGU price in OCG will drop.

Without wasting your time, let us review what cards that affected by the March 2013 list.

Forbidden/Ban List:
Sangan
Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity

Limited/Restricted List(Max 1 piece in deck):
Wind-Up Magician
One Day of Peace
Solemn Warning

Semi-Limited/Semi-Restricted List(Max 2 pieces in deck):
Thunder King Rai-Oh
Tsukuyomi
Advanced Ritual Art

No-Longer Limited/Restricted(Max 3 pieces in deck):
Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Spore
Shien's Smoke Signal
Mind Crush

Overall, this is the 1st list that affected the least cards for whole Yugioh environment. Same like previous year, Konami still not decide to hit any cards for Meta that formed after the effective of September 2012 list. With this list, some of the tier 2 decks may rise to tier 1 again. Dark World may back to stage again to compete with most of the Meta due to the unlimit of Mind Crush.

This time Konami had decided to shut down the main key of Wind-Up by banning Carrier Zenmaity and limit the play of Magician. Therefore, the speed of Wind-Up deck will drastically slow down and OTK lesser to happen. TKRO is limit to 2 copies so that search engine and SS of monster hardly to be block by it.

Many people still doubt regarding the limit of One Day of Peace and Solemn Warning. For me, hitting Solemn Warning is reasonable because Konami want us to have more aggressive play rather than defensive play and increase the game speed. One Day of Peace is an important key for decks such as FTK Exodia, Final Countdown, Prophecy and etc so that they can stay longer.

The unlimit of Kalut and Lumina may not significantly provoke the play of Blackwing and Lightsworn in the tournament due to their speed is slower compare with most of the Meta today. However, the unlimit of Shien's Smoke Signal may increase the speed of Six Samurai a little bit. Anyway, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En still in 1 copy thus the deck flow still balance.

Apart from that, we may see that synchro-oriented deck compete in World Championship 2013 soon. I predict this situation may occur due to the upcoming booster, Judgment of The Light introduce some new synchro monster and new tuner as well. Hopefully synchro monster will not just release in this booster but other booster as well.

Besides that, for those that have tried of Incarnate Dragon, it is a well-build theme card and you can play the deck very easily. It is a nice deck that well-designed by Konami and luckily all their effects can only be activate Once per turn. Else this deck is much powerful than Inzektor. This deck allow you to Xyz summon Number 11: Big Eye easily.

Okay, that's all I want to share with you guys. Thanks for your time and hereby I wish you guys have a nice day. Stay tuned for my next post.