Dark World for OCG and TCG

Army of Dark World

A good day to every duelists! Today I gonna share about Dark World game play and counteract to against Dark World. Recently, Dark World has topping in the OCG's Hong Kong Asian Championship and TCG's Yugioh Championship Series. This shown that the deck is powerful enough to against most of the META decks.

Basically, Dark World is a deck focus on all kind of spell or trap that able to discard the monster with its effect but not for cost. Almost all DW monster effect is activate from the graveyard except 2nd effect of Ceruli, Guru of Dark World and Brron, Mad King of Dark World. As a result, without the graveyard, they can't do their combo. Besides that, players can arrange their DW monster effect in any chain link order as they like because all DW monster effect is mandatory effect, thus no miss-timing will occur in DW monster.

Currently, DW deck can have several types of play style but the most popular one would be Control style or Beat Style. DW deck that using control style is focus on the usage of viruses which is Deck Devastation Virus and Eradicator Epidemic Virus. With these viruses, they can kill most of the decks such as Inzektor, Chaos Piper, Rabbit Laggia(in TCG), Wind-Up and etc. However, this build is not too stable and its effectiveness might not be as good as you think.

Beat DW deck is the deck that surround with the theme to re-use of Grapha and keep on beating down your opponent with Grapha. This build is far more stable and quite consistent as long as you have enough of hand discarding cards. In OCG build, the deck will have more trap to cover the lack of Dark Smog(TCG exclusive). Besides that, OCG build will more emphasize on OTK whereas TCG will more emphasize on control and beat down opponent slowly. That's the biggest difference between OCG build and TCG build.

Anyway, both deck still runs their engine in the similar ways thus you can apply same strategy against both builds. In order to stop their engine from running, there are several method that you can perform. 1st, negate their cards activation with Gemini Imps, Dark Bribe, Magic Drain and etc. 2nd, banish them with Dimensional Fissure, Macro Cosmos or etc. Apart from that, you may choose Soul Drain which just released in REDU. With this card, you can chain to their card effects that will discard the DW so that even though they have discarded the DW, their effect still cannot be activate.
*Note, Soul Drain can only prevent the monster effect that activate in the graveyard or banish zone cannot be activate but not negate the monster effect.

3rd, negate the DW monster effect with Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, Divine Wrath, The End of Anubis or etc. 4th, prevent their special summon with Bottomless Trap Hole, Solemn Warning, Void Trap Hole and etc.
By referring to these four options, you can solve most of the DW problems. In order to match up with Dark World deck, please try to put as much chainable cards in your main as possible. With enough of chainable cards such as MST, you can destroy their DW field spell before they can resolve the draw power.

Previously, anonymous ask me how can Soul Drain stop the Rabbit Laggia. Basically, Rabbit Laggia is a deck that focus on the effect of Rabbit to SS Laggia and Dolkka. If you able to set up Soul Drain and having those monster that able to stall for a long time eg, Snowman Eater, Ryko, Spirit Reaper or etc then you will not have big deal to overcome Rabbit Laggia. As a result, you can stop Rabbit Laggia by siding this card. Apart from that, Soul Drain can be used to against Dimensional deck.

Recently, I went to the local card shop to have some observation on the Malaysia Yugioh environment. Based on the observation, I can conclude that most of the players still lack of idea how to play their deck effectively and they are inexperience plus a bit over-look towards their opponent. They do play META deck but most of the time, they can't combo, control the situation or change their strategy as necessary. As a result, they having better chances to lose the game. Moreover, they also a bit weak in term of card rulings thus they can't use the advantages that generate by the card ruling to overcome their opponent.

Hopefully, Malaysia Duelists can learn their lesson based on the game play or deck testing and please always find someone that having better rulings, experience and good game play for improving your game play. Because they are the better players that can see the whole flow of your deck and can helps to point out your weakness especially in skill play testing. In order to learn skill play, I suggest you guys to play with this deck build, Nordic Diva deck. This is one of the deck that I personally feel you may required a lot of skill to master the whole flow of the deck.

Although this deck have a lot of staple cards but it still can cost you to lose the game easily because if you make a wrong step then you will lose the whole game due to this deck is a bit slow and hardly to perform OTK. Anyway, this deck is good for intermediate or above players that tends to improve their skills level and test whether how good is their skill level. Hopefully, you guys will enjoy using this deck although it may not good match with the Hieratic, Inzektor or Wind-Up deck.

Nordic Diva

Below is the deck build of my Nordic Diva:

Monster(20):
Atlantean Pointman x1
Deep Sea Diva x3
Effect Veiler x2
Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beast x3
Nimble Hamster x2
Photon Thrasher x1
Ryko Lightsworn Hunter x2
Sangan x1
Spirit Reaper x1
Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beast x2
Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beast x1
Tragoedia x1

Spell(9):
Book of Moon x1
Dark Hole x1
Heavy Storm x1
Mind Control x1
Monster Reborn x1
MST x2
Pot of Avarice x1
Scapegoat x1

Trap(11):
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Call of the Haunted x1
Compulsory Evacuation Device x1
Gleipnir, The Fetter of Fenrir x1
Mirror Force x1
Solemn Judgment x1
Solemn Warning x2
Torrential Tribute x2

Extra Deck(15):
Ally of Justice Catastor x1
Black Rose Dragon x1
Brionac, Ice Barrier Dragon x1
Gachi Gachi Gantetsu x1
Gaia Dragoon, the Force of Lightning x1
Leviair the Sea Dragon x1
Maestroke the Symphony Djinn x1
Number 39: Utopia x1
Number 61:Volcanosaurus x1
Number C39: Utopia Ray x1
Scrap Archfiend x1
Scrap Dragon x1
Stardust Dragon x1
Thor, Lord of Aesir x1
Wind-Up Zenmaines x1

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

Basic Rulings Part 2

A good day to all duelists! Today I gonna share another ruling article that can help you guys further understand the game play of Yugioh. Sorry for delaying in posting this article because I'm quite choosy and I have re-written this article for several times. Hopefully you guys can understand it much better now. Okay, let's back to the topic.

1st, what is inherent special summon? Inherent special summon is also known as built-in special summon or special summon that you cannot chain with its special summon effect. It is a kind of special summon where you would special summon a monster without using any card effect but its own effect and the special summon is not count as special summon by card effect. As a result, card that negate the activation of an effect can't stop this kind of special summon. Generally, the group of special summon that belong to this category is Synchro monster, Xyz monster and some of the effect monster(s). Eg of inherent special summon are most of the cover cards in Structure Deck series, Stardust Dragon, Wind-up Zenmaines, Dark Armed Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, Lightpulsar Dragon(1st effect) and etc.

2nd, what is non-inherent special summon? Non-inherent special summon is also known as effect that special summon or special summon that you can chain with its special summon effect. It is a special summon where you would required to special summon a monster using an card effect. The group of special summon that belong to this category is Fusion monster, Ritual monster, Monster Effects/Spell/Trap that special summon the monster(s). Eg of non-inherent special summon is Gorz the Emissary of Darkness(SS token effect), Summoner Monk, Elemental Hero - Shining, Herald of Perfection, Monster Reborn and etc.

3rd, what is the biggest difference between inherent and non-inherent special summon? For inherent special summon, you cannot chain to the activation of effect for special summon the monster. Eg, when you discarding a Machina Force to the graveyard and target the Machina Fortress from your graveyard, your opponent cannot chain to the special summon of Machina Fortress with D.D. Crow. This is because the special summon of monster is resolve simultaneously with the discard of card(s).

For non-inherent special summon, you can chain to the activation of effect for special summon the monster.  Eg, when you activate the effect of Summoner Monk by discarding 1 Spell card from your hand as the cost for activate its effect, your opponent can chain with Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror to negate its effect from resolving. This case happen due to the discarding of spell is not happen simultaneously with the special summon of monster.

4th, how to differentiate whether the card can negate the inherent or non-inherent special summon? Most of the card effect that can negate a special summon eg, Thunder King Raioh, Solemn Judgment, Saber Hole, Horn of Heaven and etc can only negate the inherent special summon but not non-inherent special summon. Only 2 cards that capable to negate the inherent and non-inherent special summon which is Solemn Warning and Royal Oppression. For the case of negating the Ritual or Fusion summon of a monster, you can only negate its ritual/fusion spell activation before they started sends the monster/material(s) to special summon the ritual/fusion monster.

Once the ritual/fusion materials have been sent to the graveyard, the ritual/fusion summon no longer can be negate with any cards effect that can negate inherent or non-inherent special summon. I have seen this case happens for numerous times especially in DN. Hopefully players whose have read this article will not repeat this mistakes again. Besides that, synchro summon that perform by the effect of Formula Synchron / T.G. Wonder Magician can be negated by Solemn Judgment/Warning/Royal Oppression/Horn of Heaven right after the monster is sent to the graveyard if there only 1 chain existed during that time. For further understanding towards the synchro summon with card effect, please visit this article.

5th, long time ago, Konami did not set any rules for activate an card effect although the target or condition for activating the card effect cannot be achieved anymore. Eg, you can activate the effect of The Agent of Creation - Venus as long as you still have life point even though you don't have any Mystical Shine Ball in your deck or hand during those ages. However, Konami have made a rulings so that you are no longer allow to activate a card if you knew you no longer have the target or the condition for activating the card effect cannot be achieved. In simple term, you can't activate an card effect if you knew its condition cannot be achieved.

6th, many players especially new OCG players thinks that priority is not longer existed in OCG ruling. Hereby, I clarify that this statement is a false message and priority is still existing in OCG ruling. The only change that Konami have made on priority in OCG is the priority for activating an ignition monster effect when the monster is successfully normal summon/flip summon/special summon is not longer valid but not the priority for the others(including trigger effect, quick effect and etc).

7th, what is lingering effect? Lingering effect is an card effect where you cannot negate its effect once it has successfully resolve its effect. Its effect will be applied till its limit/condition has finish resolve. As a result, you can only negate its effect when it is activate but not after it has resolved its effect. Eg, Final Countdown, Last Will, Cold Wave, Gold Sarcophagus and etc. Besides that, token that have effect also categories in the group of lingering effect. Thus even Skill Drain, Effect Veiler also can't negate its effect.

8th, what is condition effect? Condition effect is also known as Rule effect(in OCG). It consists of 2 type of conditions which is an card effect will not treated as an effect thus cannot be negated by any card effect while the another one is it is treated as an effect and can be negated by Skill Drain or etc. Generally, it does not activate the effect and it is apply same like the case of continuous effect. Overall, monster effect that categorised under inherent special summon is belongs to condition effect. Eg, most of the SD series cover cards, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Cyber Dragon, Quickdraw Synchron and etc. Due to condition effect can be further categorised, thus I won't cover it in this article. For further details of condition effect, please visit here.

9th, what is replay and how does replay occur? Replay is the action where you would replaying an monster attack due to the number of target being changed during battle step. Replay will only occur if there is a change for the battle target(removed from the field) or new monster is summon to the field. If replay happens then you will not perform attack declaration again for the monster that have declare attack. Therefore, you can't activate cards that can only activate during the attack declaration if replay is happening. You have only 2 choices if replay occur which is continue attack or retrieve attack. Once you choose to retrieve attack, then the monster that have retrieve attack no longer can declare attack in this turn.

Many players thought that effect of Battle Fader is resolving on the field but this definitely is the wrong answer. It is an effect that activate and resolve from the hand. Thus, if you unable to negate its special summon or its effect activation then you will not be able to negate its effect for ending the Battle Phase. Furthermore, this special summon is non-inherent special summon thus you can only negate it with those cards that can negate the non-inherent special summon.

10th, what is the difference between destroy and sends to graveyard? Destroy is same as sends to graveyard but sends to graveyard is not the same as destroy. Destroy can only be done through battle destroy or card effect that destroy a card. The card effect with the DESTROY in text description can only destroy the card that on the field and in your hand. Cards that stay in the deck, extra deck or graveyard cannot be destroy by card effect. As a result, Gladiator Beast monster that return to the main or extra deck for special summon another GB monster from the deck cannot be destroy by the effect of Royal Oppression/Solemn Warning.

11th, what is trap monster? Trap monster is trap card that have the identity of monster and it occupy the monster zone and spell & trap zone. It is consider as a monster on the field but not in the graveyard or else where other than field. Trap monster can be used as synchro or Xyz materials whereas token can only be used as synchro material but not Xyz material. If trap monster is negated by Jinzo or Royal Decree, then it will return to the spell & trap zone as continuous trap card with no effect and it will remain the same even after Jinzo or Royal Decree have removed from the field.

12th, how does we know the card effect is targeting or non-targeting effect? Generally, a targeting effect will have the term of SELECT or TARGET in the effect description and normally its effect will only affect either one player's field, graveyard, banished zone or hand card but not both players. All equip card/equip spell also in the category of targeting effect. Eg, Icarus Attack, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, Zero-Max(1st effect), Scrap Dragon and etc. For non-targeting effect, its effect description may consists of the term of SELECT but its effect will affect both player's field, graveyard, banished zone or hand card. Eg, Creature Swap, D.D. Warrior Lady, Number 39: Utopia, D.D. Warrior and etc.

Before I ended my post, let me share a news regarding the new booster, Return of the Duelist(REDU) that will be released on this coming Saturday. The full card list have been released and it can be view in Dueling Days. There is a lot of good cards in this booster. One of the cards that I feel good enough is the continuous trap, Soul Drain. Its effect is "paid 1000 life points to activate this card. While this card is face-up on the field, monster that are banished or in the graveyard cannot activate their effects." This card is the answer from Konami to against the Dark World, Rabbit Laggia and Hieratic deck. I bet this is the side for Inzektor to against to META deck. Thus I think this card will affect the whole OCG environment very soon.

Generation Force - Normal Spell
If you control an Xyz monster: Add 1 "Xyz" card from your deck to your hand.

Besides the Heroic Challenger(H.C) set that everyone looking for in this booster, OOParts, Madolche and Geargia which introduced in this set is really playable and their system is good enough to build a deck. Another card that I have seen in this booster, Generation is the new support card for Xyz deck and this card shows that Konami may introduce the Xyz series of monster very soon. Anyway, let us watch out what will happen to the Asian Championship Series tournament on this coming Sunday.

Ok, that's all I wanna share to you guys. Thanks for your time and wish you guys have a nice day. Next post I gonna discuss about Dark World and how should you counteract it. Please stay tuned for my next post.

Basic Rulings

Photon Streak Bouncer which getting popular in OCG environment

Hey, guys! A lot of players having ruling problems but they have no idea how to solve it, thus they will request help from the judge. Anyway, judges may not be totally available for answering the ruling questions. As a result, I will re-introduce some of basic knowledge that you guys might need to use during the tournament so that you guys can refer it whenever the judges are unavailable and understand why under certain circumstances you can or can't activate the card effect.

1st of all, what is cost? A cost is you need to paid/sacrifice something(monster, life point, hand card and etc) before the card effect can be activate and you can't gained back the cost/sacrifice that you have made if the card activation is negated. If you unable to pay the cost, then you are not allow to activate the card's effect. Eg, you have only 2 cards in your deck and you have Charge of the Light Brigade on your hand, you cannot activate it even though you knew your deck have level 4 or below Lightsworn monster due to you are unable to pay the cost. Cards that need cost to activate its effect: Card Car D, Rescue Rabbit, Summoner Monk and etc.

2nd, how to differentiate an effect that will only activate in the graveyard or elsewhere? An effect that will only activate in graveyard will have the GRAVEYARD term in the effect description as "When this card is sent to the graveyard" / "If this card is sent to the graveyard" / "Send this card to the graveyard" or etc. If the card unable to send to the graveyard then its effect will not be activate. Eg, Dandylion, Sangan, XX-Saber Darksoul and etc. If the card effect is without the Graveyard term in the effect description then its effect can be activate once its condition has been fulfilled no matter it is in the banish zone, hand, deck or graveyard(Only for Trigger Effect). Example, most of the Hieratic monster, Reborn Tengu, Dark Magician of Chaos and etc.

3rd, how to differentiate an effect is mandatory or optional effect? An mandatory effect will have the term of MUST or without the term of CAN in the effect description. Eg, Reborn Tengu, Light and Darkness Dragon, Elemental HERO - Absolute Zero and etc. An optional effect will have the term of CAN in the effect description. Eg, Dark Armed Dragon, Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, Trishula, Ice Barrier Dragon and etc. Monster that have optional effect may MISS its TIMING to activate its effect in certain cases. The occurrence of MISS TIMING will be further explained later on.

4th, how to differentiate an effect is Ignition, Quick, Trigger, Flip and Continuous monster effect? Ignition, Trigger and Flip monster effect is Spell Speed 1 while Quick monster effect is Spell Speed 2 and Continuous monster effect did not have any activation timing because it will apply once the monster is face-up on the field. Most of the ignition monster effect will have the term of ONCE PER TURN in the effect description. Eg, most of the Inzektor monster, Road Warrior, Chaos Sorcerer and etc. Quick monster effect is effect that can be activate in either in player's turn. Eg, Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi, Number 25: Fullmetal Photoglide - Focus Force, Effect Veiler and etc.

Trigger monster effect is effect that CAN ONLY ACTIVATE after it has FULFILLED CERTAIN CONDITIONS such as "When this card is summoned" / "When this card is discarded" / "If this card is sent to graveyard" and etc. Example, Trishula, Ice Barrier Dragon, Mystic Tomato, Neo Galaxy-Eyes Dragon and etc. Flip monster effect is effect that have the term of FLIP at the initial of effect description. Eg, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Penguin Soldier, Night Assailant and etc. Continuous monster effect is effect that do not have activation timing thus you cannot chain with Divine Wrath to negate its effect and it will be applied as long as the card is face-up on the field. Eg, The End of Anubis, Revived King Ha-Des, Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and etc.

5th, when does miss timing occur? Miss timing will only occur when the card effect is an optional effect or there is card effect still resolving. Eg, you have Lightpulsar Dragon and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon on the field, your opponent activate Card Destruction and throw all his Dark World monster which consists of 2 Grapha, 1 Snoww and 1 Beige. Your opponent arrange the chain link in this order: (1) Beige (2) Snoww (3) Grapha A (4) Grapha B. When the chain link is resolving, Grapha B will destroy REDMD then Grapha A will destroy Lightpulsar Dragon. Once Lightpulsar Dragon has been destroyed and has reach the graveyard, its effect can be trigger. However, Lightpulsar Dragon's 2nd effect can't be activate in this case due to there are other chain link that have not be resolved which is the effect of Snoww and Beige.

If the case is not as I mentioned in list number 5 then it is named Unable to Resolve. Eg. you activate Heavy Storm while your opponent have 2 back row and opponent chain it with Starlight Road; you chain it with MST and target it to Heavy Storm. In this case, Heavy Storm will be destroyed and sent to the graveyard due to MST effect then Starlight Road will negate the effect of Heavy Storm but due to Heavy Storm is already in the graveyard thus Starlight Road cannot destroy Heavy Storm. As a result, Stardust Dragon will not be special summoned from the Extra deck due to Starlight Road cannot destroy the Heavy Storm. In the end, effect of Heavy Storm is cancel and this is named as Unable to Resolve.

*Note, a card in the graveyard or deck cannot be destroy by card effect therefore you would never heard of card in the graveyard or deck can be destroy by card effect such as Divine Wrath, War Chariot and etc.

6th, what is negate? Negate is a term where you will stop a card effect from applying. If the negation have the effect description as "negate the activation of card" then the negation will cause the card seems like never activate before/no longer on the field. As a result, cards such as Stardust Dragon can't stop the negation effect of a card if the effect will be followed by destruction of the card. Example, you have a Shooting Quasar Dragon on the field while your opponent have a Stardust Dragon on his/her field. Your opponent activate Smashing Ground and you decided to activate Quasar Dragon effect to negate the activation of Smashing Ground. In this case, your opponent cannot negate Quasar Dragon effect with Stardust Dragon effect because Smashing Ground is no longer consider on the field/activate before.

7th, most of the card effect that can negate the activation of a monster effect will only apply for monster effect that is activate on the field. Example, Photon Streak Bouncer, Effect Veiler, Number 25: Fullmetal Photoglide - Focus Force and etc. If the monster effect is activate from the banish zone or graveyard, then the monster effect will not be negated even though cards like Effect Veiler's effect has been applied on the monster. Eg of card effect that will be negated if effect of Effect Veiler has been applied on it, Card Car D, Stardust Dragon(1st effect), Rescue Rabbit and etc. Besides that, if a card effect description will only activate when it is Tributed and did not mentioned where its effect will be activated, thus its effect will be resolved even though it is in banish zone or graveyard. Eg Hieratic, Card Car D, Exiled Force and etc.

8th, what is the difference between Return and Special Summon? Return means the card is put back to the field(consider as already on the field before this) and it will not trigger the condition for activating card such as Torrential Tribute and etc. Special Summon means the card just reach the field recently(never exist on the field before) and this may trigger the condition for activating card such as Torrential Tribute, Deep Dark Trap Hole, Bottomless Trap Hole and etc. Eg of card that have return in card effect description, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, D.D. Sprite(2nd effect), Dimensionhole and etc. Eg of card that have special summon in card effect description, Drill Warrior(2nd effect), Shooting Star Dragon(3rd effect), Red Nova Dragon(3rd effect) and etc.

Note, for the case of Drill Warrior, when it is special summon to your field on your next Standby Phase and you got monster in your graveyard, your opponent cannot activate Torrential Tribute, BTH, Deep Dark Trap Hole and etc due to your opponent will miss his/her timing for activate such kind of card. This case is happen due to its effect is resolve separately but not simultaneously. 1st, it will be special summoned to the field 1st then you only resolve its effect for adding a monster card from your graveyard to your hand. As a result, miss timing is occur because an effect is resolving now.

9th, what is the difference between discard and send to graveyard? Generally, discard is same as send to graveyard but send to graveyard is not same as discard. Discard is used to describe the action where you would send your card(s) from hand to the graveyard while Send to Graveyard is used to describe the action where your card(s) is send from your hand, field, banish zone or deck to the graveyard. As a result, there is a huge differences between this two terms. Eg of card effect that will activate when it is discard, most of the Dark World monster(s), Fabled monster(s), Dark World Dealing and etc.

10th, what is the difference between WHEN and IF? Most of the time the optional monster effect with WHEN in their effect description can caused Miss Timing while most of the time optional monster effect with IF in the effect description will not caused Miss Timing. Eg of optional monster with WHEN in the effect description, Lightpulsar Dragon(3rd effect), Peten the Dark Clown, Botanical Girl and etc. Eg of optional monster effect with IF in the effect description, Eclipse Wyvern(2nd effect), Doppel Warrior, Tuningware and etc.

Furthermore, many players including me thought that Night Shot is an upgrade version of MST. But after I refer to its latest ruling, the card that targeted by Night Shot effect can be activated on the same chain if you have activate another card to chain with the activation of Night Shot. Example, you activate Night Shot and target an opponent's trap card but your opponent got another trap beside the targeted trap then he/she can activate the other trap and then follow by activate the targeted trap. I Hope you guys will note this ruling well.

Apart from that, I gonna introduce a new Xyz monster that just released in OCG and I think this is a good tech card to against most of the Xyz-based deck. Drum Djinn Tenten Tempo is a good card that can be used to against the effect of Utopia from activate while increasing your Djinn Xyz monster atk point.

Drum Djinn Tenten Tempo

Rank 3

[Fiend/Xyz/Effect]

Once per turn, during either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz material from this card to target 1 Xyz monster your opponent controls; detach 1 Xyz material from that target and all face-up "Djinn" Xyz monster you currently control gain 500 atk.

With this card, you can detach a face-down or face-up Xyz monster's Xyz material and gain 500 atk for all "Djinn" Xyz monster that you currently control. In this case, face-down Djinn Xyz monster may even gain 500 atk due to this card's effect. As a result, you may perform OTK with this card plus other Djinn Xyz monster.

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