OCG Tournament Analysis

Lightpulsar Dragon is essential in Chaos Dragon build

Hey, guys! Today I gonna share my own thoughts regarding the OCG tournament environment. Before I discuss about the topic, let us congratulate Sam for becoming Malaysia's Asian Champion again. The deck that Sam play in this tournament is an Inzektor deck that consists of most of the chainable trap plus Card Car D.

With the apply of latest format of ban list, OCG environment have change a lot and we can see the actual result based on the tourney result. By referring to the Malaysia Asian Championship 2012 that was held on last week's Sunday, we can conclude that Inzektor, Hieratic(Hieroglyph in OCG) and Wind-Ups are the major meta deck in Asia. Anyway, there still some tier 1/2 decks such as Rabbit Laggia, Agent Fairy, Dark World, Machina Gadget, Gravekeeper and etc compete in the event.

At here, I would like to emphasize on a priority matter and this issue have been forgotten by most of the players. Every time right after the monster have activate their effect, there is a timing where turn player and non-turn player can only activate Spell Speed 2 or above card/effect. This timing has existed for a long time but not much people realize of it only until the introduction of Inzektor to the world.

Once turn player have successfully equipped their Hornet or Gruf to the Centipede or Dragonfly and turn player do not have any Spell Speed 2 or above card/effect to activate, they need to pass their priority to non-turn player before they can activate the effect of Hornet or Gruf. Within this timing, non-turn player can chain with Spell Speed 2 or above cards such as Raigeki Break, Book of Moon, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and etc before turn player can use their Hornet or Gruf effect.

Okay, back to the tournament analysis. Due to the popularity of Inzektor and Hieratic decks, they almost immune to Fiendish Chain due to they still can use chainable traps, synchro or Xyz to prevent their monster from locking down by the Fiendish Chain in OCG. Most of these decks will main Raigeki Break, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Mystical Space Typhoon to prevent their monster effect from locking down by Fiendish Chain. Thus Effect Veiler is the most good choices for negating an opponent monster effect. Apart from that, Number 25: Fullmetal Photoglide - Focus Force is the good Xyz monster that can be used to against Inzektor and Synchro theme deck.

In order to against Hieratic deck, you can use Photon Streak Bounzer to negate their Hieratic King Dragon - Atumus effect and I can see that this card is a must in order to against Hieratic OTK. For decks like Inzektor and Hieratic, I will main 2 Raigeki Break 1 PWWB instead of 3 Raigeki Break. Besides that, Transmigration Prophecy is the good side cards to against Inzektor or Wind-Up. Due to winning of Sam in Malaysia Asian Championship, a lot of player searching for Lair Wire which have been used by Sam during his 2nd match and this has caused the price of Lair Wire raising drastically. Anyway, it is a good card to combo with Dragonfly so that you can make OTK more easily. However, if you face decks such as Chain Burn then it will waste you a slot.

Furthermore, most of the Inzektor deck did not put Royal Decree in their side deck and this is a bit unsafe because if you face with Chain Burn deck then you might lose because of lacking it. However, Malaysian players seldom play this kind of deck thus normally no one will put this card in their side. In order to against Wind-Up and Hieratic deck, Maxx C and Tragoedia is essential in the side deck because they can help to reduce the possibility of you being OTK. Maxx C is a bit overprice in Malaysia and hopefully Konami will reprint it very soon.

If you guys main Card Car D in your deck, you guys may see the advantage of using it. 1st, it can be a bait for Solemn Judgment, Warning, Torrential Tribute or Effect Veiler. 2nd, if your opponent did not negate its effect before it is release to the graveyard, then you will gain a +1 effect and the extra one can be used for other purposes such as cost for discarding. If you try to use Fiendish Chain to stop its effect, then it will not works at all due to releasing Card Car D to activate its effect is an cost. The same case is applied on Rescue Rabbit and Card Trooper as well.

One of decks that I thought it will be tier 1.5 is Chaos Dragon which can easily OTK on the 2nd turn if they have a good hand. However, this deck is very afraid of D.D deck and they use a lot of hand card just to OTK. I still see very little people playing this deck and not much understand why this deck is very little people play of it. I think the main reason may be due to Malaysian players like to copy tier 1 deck build that is popular in Japan rather than playing Chaos Dragon deck which requires a lot of skill.

Sangan's effect is activate in the graveyard

Grapha's effect is also activate from the graveyard

I have seems a lot of player keep on asking question regarding how to differentiate effect that activate on field and effect that activate on graveyard. Let me give you guys some hints so that you guys can differentiate its differences easily. Generally, effect that activate on graveyard will have this kind of effect description, "When this card is sent to graveyard" / "If this card is sent to graveyard" / "When this card is tributed" / "When this card is discarded" / "If this card is discarded" / "When this card is sent from XXX to graveyard" whereas card effect description that lack of the statement above mostly is effect that activate on field.

*XXX = where

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

Hints and Ruling for Duelists before Enter the Tournament

Hey, guys! This coming Saturday(17th March 2012) is the day where Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG Asian Championship 2012 Malaysia is held and this grand event may have less duelists joining this game due to we need to buy a box of booster pack in order to get the registration form although there is the registration fee is FOC. Anyway, I would like to share some hints of play and rulings here so that players will having less problem of rulings and bounce back the bad situation during this event.

Before I started the article, please be ready to spend some of your time for reading this article because this article is quite lengthy. Below are the Hints and Rulings:

1. Inzektor Dragonfly and Centipede can only activate its effect for twice(in two different chain) if the equip card is destroy separately (eg, Hornet effect destroy Mantis while both cards are equipped on Dragonfly or Centipede). If the equip card on Dragonfly and Centipede is destroy simultaneously(Heavy Storm), you can only activate its effect for once.

2. Hieroglyph Dragon - Nephthe Dragon can release/tribute any face-down Hieroglyph monster on his/her field to special summon it from hand. Thus don't ever think that Book of Moon can stop its release effect. Bear in mind that Hieroglyph Dragon King - Atumus is the key of combo-ing. Without its effect, your opponent will hard to perform OTK.

3. If your opponent special summon Hieroglyph Dragon - Tfeni Dragon from hand and his/her field is clear while you having Solemn Judgment or Warning set on the field, you may not choose to negate its special summon because your opponent will use it as the stepping-stone for combo-ing. You may wait till its next Hieroglyph monster special summon from his hand by releasing Tfeni Dragon then only negate its special summon with Judgment or Warning. In this case, your opponent field may left with 1 normal dragon monster which are 0 ATK and 0 DEF and he/she have lost 2 hands.

4. All Hieroglyph monster's effect that special summon a normal dragon monster when it is release is an mandatory effect thus no miss-timing will occur. You can use Sangan as the tribute for advanced summon of Monarch monster in this case to solve the chain link problem or to explain why no miss-timing is occur.

5. Dimensional Rabbit will be a real threat for Inzektor, Hieroglyph and Dark World match-up. Thus guys please be aware of this deck because it just won in Hong Kong Asian Championship last week. In order to against this deck, your side deck must be consists of Mystical Space Typhoon, Raigeki Break, Snowman Eater or Ryko. These few cards can help you to reverse the situation and Evolkaiser Dragon is very hate Snowman Eater and Ryko.

6. Wind-up is the next threat against all decks due to its hand destruction effect. However, you can stop it by maining 3 Effect Veiler, Fiendish Chain and Maxx C. If you able to withstand with their hand destruction effect, then you may stand a chance to win them later on. Since promo cards are prohibited in this tournament, thus you guys may have more chances to win this deck due to unable fully drop all your hands at once.

7. Skill Drain and Fiendish's Chain is useless against Rescue Rabbit due to Rabbit still can be banish and gain its effect to special summon 2 normal monsters from the deck. Thus you guys may side in Effect Veiler in order to negate Rabbit effect. Anyway, Rabbit player will always side in Macro Cosmos during match 2 and 3 thus your Effect Veiler may not works properly. For me, I would rather to side in Snowman Eater, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, MST and Raigeki Break to the main when I match-up with Dimensional Laggia.

8. Card Car D and Hieroglyph monster(s) still can activate its effect even though Dimensional Fissure or Macro Cosmos is face-up on the field. However, if Card Car D is negated by Effect Veiler, you still can tribute it but you cannot draw any card due to tribute it is a cost to activate its effect. Generally, once effect of Effect Veiler has applied, all the monster effect that activate on the field will be negate even though the targeted monster is banish or send to graveyard. Therefore, you cannot negate the Hieroglyph monster effect that activate once it is tribute from the field due to its effect will only activate after it leaves the field. Most of the Hieroglyph monster(s) effect can be activate even though it is remove from play.

9. If Jurrac Guaiba suicide with opponent monster that have the same attack point, it still can activate its effect to special summon another Jurrac monster with the attack point 1700 or less from the deck. If you are not the controller of the Jurrac Guaiba that suicide with opponent monster that have the same attack point, you are not allow to activate its effect for special summon another Jurrac monster with the attack point  1700 or less  from the deck.

10. Wind-up swarming can be easily stop by the occurrence of Cyber Dragon and fusion into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. Thus all the advantage that you have gained previously will lost just because of a card. Remember to Bottomless Trap Hole or Solemn the Cyber Dragon when your opponent special summon Cyber Dragon from their hand.

11. Overworked or The Emperor's Holiday may be the good side card to against Inzektor deck due to Overworked can destroy the opponent's Inzektor monster before they can trigger the monster effect whereas The Emperor's Holiday can negate the effect of Hornet. Besides that, Overworked can fully destroy all Inzektor monster(s) on the field if they are equipped with equip card.

12. Every time right after the Inzektor monster have activate their effect to equip another Inzektor monster from their hand or graveyard and it is successfully equip to the Inzektor monster, there is a timing where you and your opponent can only activate Spell Speed 2 or above card effect. This timing has exists for a long time but not much people realize of it only. During this timing, you can chain with Raigeki Break, Book of Moon, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and etc before they can use their Hornet to destroy your card or special summon another Inzektor monster.

13. Effect of Effect Veiler will last till the end of End Phase of that turn, thus card's effect such as Lightsworn monster(s) will be negated for the whole turn. Anyway, some of the people may chain to activation of Effect Veiler by release/banish/remove their monster with Enemy Controller, Compulsory Evacuation Device or etc when they are activating their monster effect. Therefore, their monster effect will not be negate because effect of Effect Veiler have not fully apply.

14. Effect of Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is Spell Speed 2 thus you will no surprise if the Galaxy-Eyes chain to the activation of your traps during Battle Step. It is almost perfect against any card during the Battle Step.

15. Effect of Hieroglyph God Dragon - Ennead to tribute any number of monster on field or hand is an effect but not cost thus if you want to negate its effect, please do so before they have tribute the monster(s). Furthermore, the effect of Card Trooper milling card(s) is the cost but not effect thus even though its effect is negated, you still can mill card(s).

16. Never forget to go through every phase carefully by mentioning the phase that you are gonna switch to. Else case of Mind Crush replay will happen again. This case has happened during previous tourney thus hopefully you guys will not repeating it again.

Lastly, hopefully judges that are in-charge in this event will always refer to the head judge regarding the rulings that are unclear to them before they make any decision regarding it so that unfair situation will less happen. Okay, that's all I gonna share today! I hope this article can clarify the way you should play and avoiding too much of rulings problem to happen. Thanks for your time on reading this article and wish you guys good luck during the tournament. Please stay tuned for my next post.

Asian Championship Final Result Prediction

Hey, guys! Today I gonna share with you guys regarding the prediction result for Asian Championship Final 2012. As usual, Konami will organize this event every year before the World Championship Final 2012 is held. Due to the new format that just apply on 1 March 2012, I can see that most of decks that will topping in this event are Inzektor, Hieroglyph, Dark World, Rabbit Laggia and Wind-Up. Although we may see these decks frequently appear in the tournament, I still think that several decks will be good match-up against them such as Lightsworn, Chaos Dragon, Blackwing, Gravekeeper, X-Saber, Karakuri and Machina Gadget.

In this event, most of the promo cards can't be play, therefore, most of the decks will have a bit of fair chances to win for their match-ups. I just heard the result of Hong Kong Asian Championship 2012 and the winner is the player(haven't get his name) with his Dimensional Rabbit. 1st runner-up is Dark World while 2nd runner-up is Inzektor. So based on the result of the tournament, we can see that Dark World is not outbound from the tier 1 at all.

I think that the champion of Asian Championship Final 2012 will be Rabbit Laggia because this deck can almost withstand all kind of decks and their side deck is easily to be build. Although OCG Rabbit Laggia is far more different from TCG-build Rabbit Laggia but their mechanism is quite similar. In the OCG environment, Rabbit Laggia will have higher chances to win over most of the decks because most of their cards are not promo cards. As a result, the deck build is not much affected by the special OCG rules that used in official tournament.

Besides that, I would like to share my own recipe of Junk Doppel deck which most of the players think it has dead after the apply of March 2012 ban list. This build is consider as stable and having likely chances to against those Tier 1/1.5/2 deck. I have used it to against Chaos Lightsworn and Dark World and the deck is much more playable than I expected after the hit of the ban list. You guys can try to have this recipe and play it as you like. Without wasting your time, let me reveal my new Junk Doppel recipe.

Monster(23):
Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning x1
Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite x1
Card Trooper x2
Chaos Sorcerer x1
Dandylion x1
Dark Armed Dragon x1
Debris Dragon x1
Doppel Warrior x2
Effect Veiler x3
Junk Synchron x3
Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress x1
Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter x2
Sangan x1
Symphonic Warrior Basses x2
Tragoedia x1

Spell(12):
Charge of the Light Brigade x1
Dark Hole x1
Foolish Burial x1
Heavy Storm x1
Mind Control x1
Monster Reborn x1
Mystical Space Typhoon x2
One for One x1
Pot of Avarice x1
Reinforcement of the Army x1
Scapegoat x1

Trap(5):
Call of the Haunted x3
Torrential Tribute x2

Extra Deck:
Ally of Justice Catastor x1
Ancient Sacred Wyvern x1
Arcanite Magician x1
Armory Arm x1
Black Rose Dragon x1
Brionac, Ice Barrier Dragon x1
Formula Synchron x1
Iron Chain Dragon x1
Junk Warrior x1
Scrap Dragon x1
Shooting Star Dragon x1
Shooting Quasar Dragon x1
Stardust Dragon x1
T.G. Dragonfly x1
T.G. Hyper Librarian x1

In this recipe, one of the MVP cards in the deck is Symphonic Warrior Basses.

Most of the time, I will use its effect to increase its level so that I can synchro summon the monster that I want. With it, I can synchro summon any level 2, 4, 5 or 6 synchro monster easily. Although it cannot revive itself from the graveyard but it can be special summon from the deck if you are a Quickdraw Junk Doppel player with Road Warrior. By the way, this week's Saturday(17th March 2012) is our Malaysia Asian Championship Final 2012. I won't attend for this tournament due to some personal reasons. Anyway, I wish I am able to get the deck list and share it with you guys on next week.

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