TCG finally synchronize with OCG? Yes, no doubt!

Hey, guys! Finally TCG is synchronize with the OCG and we no longer have the priority for activate the Ignition monster effect. In OCG, we have explain the whole thing very clearly and completely. However, TCG explanation is a bit complex but still follow the rules of OCG. This is the most great news to all OCG players because we have practicing it for 1 year above. The number of Rabbit Laggia and Wind-Up players may drop drastically while Inzektor, Hieratic and Dark World players may increase drastically.

Effect Veiler will become much and much expensive after this in TCG and TCG players will find difficulty to pull the SCR Card Car D from GAOV. However, this situation may not last for a long time because as I predicted Konami will reprint them in the tin box soon(TCG). Oops! TCG have reprinted Effect Veiler in the Order of Chaos: Special Edition. Besides that, the new structure deck that gonna released in OCG is a deck that oriented with Deep Sea Diva combo and it is similar with the SD22 that oriented with the REMDD combo.

I can foresee that the deck will have a field spell that can add 1 level 4 or below sea-serpent monster from the deck and mill 1 sea-serpent from the deck with the cost of banish a sea-serpent from the graveyard so that we can search the Deep Sea Diva much more easily. By just looking at the effect of the cover card of SD23, I can see that its 2nd effect is used to combo with its field spell so that players can re-use of its effect again. I also hope that its new trap will be far more useful than previous trap card in other SD. Hopefully Konami will make this deck as the Tier 1.5 materials so that more players can join the joy of duels.

Hieratic will be officially released in TCG and let us see how far can this deck dominate OCG and TCG. Soon we will see Inzektor, Hieratic, Wind-Up, Dark World, Rabbit Laggia at least in the semi-final list of World Qualifier Championship 2012 and I can feel that the final of World Championship 2012 will be interesting because variety of decks is competing in the event. Although many players may not agree the act of Konami for releasing theme cards such as Inzektor, Hieratic and etc, I still want to thanks it for providing the fair skill play in the game although you guys might feel that most of the decks seems like auto-piloting.

Even the deck have the auto-pilot engine, you still required skills so that you can bait your opponent to enter your comfort zone. Comfort zone is an environment where you will enjoy yourself and do the thing according to your like or an environment where you would feel familiar and allow you to do usual stuffs easily. You might think that comfort zone as the strategy/tactic of the game but it does included your tempo, sensors(including your six sense) and whatever that you would have/feel during the duel. With comfort zone, you can unleashed your deck power easily and can owned your opponent when the time is right.

Many of the players haven't see the important of comfort zone and tends to rush when their opponent is in the comfort zone. In order to take control of the game, always remember to create your own comfort zone when the time is mature. Some of the players like to listen to their favorite music when they are dueling and this is an act to create their own comfort zone. No matter you are playing MTG, Yugioh, Gundam or any trading card game, you still need to create comfort zone. This is the basic of playing trading card game.

Apart from the comfort zone, you also required to have understanding towards your extra and side deck. Many of the players did not plan well for the side deck and this stuff have been mentioned by K'yde Ren in Digital Mortal thus I won't discuss it anymore. You also required to fully utilize of your side deck. Never ever forget your extra deck's monster especially during critical period and do check your side deck if you have forget what else extra monster left in your extra deck.

Eg, you have Monster Reborn and Pot of Duality in your hand while you have no monster on field and left with 2500LP. Your opponent have 1  Maestroke the Symphony Djinn with 1 Xyz material overlay on it and he have no set card and no hand card and left with 1000LP. Your graveyard have 1 Blade Armor Ninja(being negated by Warning), 4 level Vanilla monster, 1 Heroic Champion Excallibur, 1 Photon Slasher, 1 T.G. Striker, 1 Number 39: Utopia while your opponent graveyard have only 1 Card Car D and 1 Hornet. Thus what is best solution for you to stay longer if you have 1 Number C39: Utopia Ray, 1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn, 2 Heroic Champion Excallibur and 1 Brionac?

For me, I would choose to reborn Utopia but not Striker because I still can use Utopia to Xyz summon Utopia Ray and use it to stay for longer period. If you prefer to use POD then you may face the problem of without monster on the field(no Reborn Tengu at all). Furthermore, Utopia Ray can be used to reduce the Xyz material of Maestroke so that he can't win you instantly. Anyway, the situation may vary according to your experience and your strategy to create the comfort zone.

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

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.

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.