Surrender VS Getting Killed

Hello everybadyy

Today, we will be reviewing Surrendering and comparing it to taking the damage or combo to the face and losing.

So, as we all know, both actions result in a game loss.

But what factors play into whether you surrender or take the defeat coming your way?

The first factor is time.

Most tournament scenes have a 50 minutes match system, where you only have 50 minuites to finish the match.

Once the match has gone to time, it either ends with one person winning, or a draw.

Now, say you are 1-0 in the current game, and your opponent is windups and doing their OTK.

Take a quick look at your clock. If you still have a good amount of time, surrender the game, giving you more time to side out and make changes and to have more time on the final game, more turns and more time to think.
The going first and extra time just might give you the few turns or seconds it takes to avoid the opponent stalling out for a draw.
However, if you are, say, 0-1 and the opponent is going off, just stall a bit, keep in the game, and pray that you can turn that  0-2 into a draw.

So, obviously it saves time on the round. What else is there?

The next big thing is Information Advantage.
Now, the more cards you play out, the more information the opponent has on your deck.
Information advantage is very big, as we have discussed many many times before.
There are some cards that are played in only one deck and hence playing that card completely blows your entire decklist out of the water
And some cards like Dark hole, MST, etc that everyone plays like and so they shed no light on information on your opponents deck.

Another good time to scoop over taking the full combo is when you have information you want to conserve.
Some cards like Beast King Barbaros seem like versatile cards, but only actually appear in one style of deck(TG Beast Warriors w/ Drain). So, instead of playing that card and trying to stall out your very inevitable doom(you're in a situation where youre contemplating surrender. Come on.), conserve your information advantage to get the edge after sideboarding.

Conversely, if you dont know what your opponent is playing, instead try to drag the game out, to goad out information on what deck they're playing, and the various combos, and work at beating them.
 
So, say you have a beast king barbaros in your hand with nothing else, and your opponent has a field full of 3.5k power or something impossible like that.

Set your Beast King, and try to goad out more information advantage on what deck theyre playing, and any tech they want to act cute by running.
Then, when they destroy or attack your face down beast king, surrender in response and conserve information on your deck.


Thats all
/sezuaR

Insect Imitation

Normal Spell
Release a monster. Special summon an insect monster with 1 more level than the released monster from your deck.

What. The. Hell.

Agent of Creation Venus + Insect Imitation + Insector Gullh (Ladybug??(actually hornet also works here) = OTK

Which would sound like a stupid idea until you consider that
1: Both decks are among the contenders for top of the format
2: Light + Dark and we all know what fun that is
3: Each of these cards works super well in the deck without any needed support.

Again, the problem card is Insector Dragonfly.

Much like the Archfiend of Gilfer + Insector Dragonfly + Insector Hornet = 14k+ Power on the board combo

But back on the topic.
The card gives insectors their instant search for Dragonfly.

Imagine opening with Gullh and Insect Imitation.

"Lolololol normal gullh cast imitation make shock master strike bouncer tyrus zenmine and leviair, set starlight road solemn judgement and divine wrath turn"

Ok not so broken but you get the idea.
Its also your search card for Hornet, because having hornet hard to find totally wrecked insectors.


And once again considering the Agents/Insector combination deck

You gain access to Synchros(Earth is a tuner.), and since you're RFPing for Chaos Sorcerer/Soldier anyhows, use Leviair to snatch the Earth back for synchro summons.

So, instead of the 2 card full field combo, you instead have Hyper librarian to draw you like 4 cards before becoming a Shooting Quasar Dragon and summoning more random exceeds at next to no cost.

Totally not OP. Trust me.
Then summon Hyperion, Chaos Soldier, and Dark Armed Dragon.
Still balanced. I'm sure.

/sezuar

Compulsary Escape Device

No, not compulsary evacuation device. Everyone knows how good that is,

Compulsary Escape Device, that bad rare card from REDU

The one that makes each player return one monster to their deck.

What uses does it have?

Well, the obvious one is Madolche. By returning a card to your deck, your ticket allows you to get the advantage lost right back

What about Phantom Skyblaster?
You can either return the skyblaster itself to the deck and re-use the effect, lifting the "Cannot Attack" on the token, or return the token, losing no advantage

And E-Hero Wildman.
Summon him, and target him on resolution to return nothing and have the opponent fly back to the deck

Reborn Tengu.
Have one in the graveyard already? No problem. Return it to the deck, and a new chain triggers as Tengu reborns himself to the field.
 So apparently this doesnt work. According to Yugioh, leaving the field to go to the deck does not count as "Leaving the Field".
Thanks Akira.


Core Chimails can use the overpowered Urknight to special summon a card once a turn, then return it to stop it from self destructing.

On the topic of Core Chimails, have you tried using the new Flame Dances with them?

Activate Tenki, search Urknight. Summon Urknight, pull out a Crusader by revealing the Iron core.
You now have 2 level 4s at 2100 and 2000 respectively, at the cost of 1 card.
Not enough Continuous spells in your hand for Ice? No Beast Warrior for Urknight and Crusader?
Overlay! Make a Rank 4 exceed.

/sezuar

Demonic Motor Omega

Have you guys see this thing?

Its english name is Fiendish Engine Omega
it is a rather old card, but Two new cards make this really interesting.

The first is The Charging Emperor.
With this card out on the field, not only can your demonic motor not be targetted by effects, it cannot be destroyed by effects either.

Need I mention this includes its own effects?

Yes, this means that your Demonic Motor can always self pump himself, without being destroyed.
3800 the first turn, then 4800 the next turn, and 5800 after that!
Yes it doesnt say "Until the end phase"

The second card that makes the tokens he creates really useful is the Seal of Orichalchos.
Now, since they cannot  attack your weaker monsters, those tokens are chilling out there to be tributed the next turn

/sezuar

Making the Cut #1 - Part 1

Hello ladies.

Look at your battle pack deck
Now back to your deck
Now back to me.
Sadly, your deck isnt me,

but you stopped randomly putting cards together and switched to listening and practicing, it could be a bit like me.

So everyone, welcome to our first issue of "Making the Cut".

During this blog post, you will follow me through as I go from 10 un-opened battle packs, my thoughts on each individual pack, the pulls, and the construction of the sealed deck from the pool.

While I know my pulls wont be the same as yours, I will describe each individual cut from the pool to build the deck, so you can use similar thought processes in building your deck.

Additionally, instead of building a 40 card deck, I will be building a 30 card deck, THEN making another 5 cuts, down to 25 cards, to help illustrate the thoughts that go into cutting a card from the deck a bit more, as well as showing what cards would swap out in the side.


For those who just want to skip to the deck Construction, Click Here To JUMP!
Thats part 2, deck construction.
Part 1 is our pulls and preliminary deck construction, just throwing in whats good for a draft deck.

So, on we go!

Before we start, keep an eye on how I lay out my cards to take a good overlook at my deck.
I lay out all the slot 1s together, the slot 2s, slot 3s, slot 4s, and starfoils.
Because each of the slots does a different thing, this lets us take a good look at the focus of powerful cards for each slot, which cards has the most really nice cards, and which slots shouldnt be bothered with really.


Pack 1:
Burden of the mighty
Grave squirmer
Voltic kong
Ducker mobile cannon
Vortex trooper

Burden of the Mighty, I am quite a big fan of. It is an instant combat advantage. Combat is a big part in sealed, and you want to be using high attack monsters to shut out their offensive.
With this out, one high defense monster beats everything. Seriously.

Grave Squirmer.
a removal card. It again is a high pick, taking out some high power and troublesome monsters that you might come up against, as well as destroying some backrow thats giving you problems. Skill drain, Burden of Mighty, anything else continuous.
When I see this card I really want to open a Creature swap.

Voltic Kong
1800 beater. Mill isnt relevant.

DUCKER mobile cannon
This card is useful if you dont have enough level 4s, as it gives the level 4s recursion.
Also, quite the card if you have a good amount of defensive cards, and Rank 3 exceeds.

Vortex Trooper
A similar card to Grave Squirmer, I wasnt expecting to get both in one pack.
This card can help you cycle through some cards if you summon it, or you can set it for a draw when its destroyed.
The on summon ability is really great if: You have a good rank 3 and level 3 lineup, or you have creature swap.

IN: Grave Squirmer, Burden of the Mighty.

Pack 2
Gachigachi Gantetsu
Shadow Spell
Zombyra the Dark
Night Assailant
Offerings to the Doomed

Gachigachi:
Oh god so powerful... If you can summon it. Being an Exceed, its an instant IN for the deck.

Shadow Spell
This card is really great. It chains down an opponents monster for you to kill the next turn, as well as reducing their damage output.
However, you want to destroy the opponents monster as soon as possible, so keep in mind using this on your own turn, just to kill something.
Theres nothing sadder than Shadow spell-ing something, then it being tribuited for a DMOC.
If they have already normal summoned, its a good time to use this.

Zombyra the Dark.
2100 Attack. Kills every other high beater. Then becomes a 1900 high beater.
Cards I really want to see with this card: Skill Drain, Interdimensional Matter Transporter(reset Zombyra), etc.

Night Assailant.
Oh yay more kill monsters when attacked!
Doubles as retieval for flip effects, but I'm not sure if theres many discard outlets in the deck.
Oh, and it isnt limited in sealed, so if I pull more discard effects like Raigeki Break, and a second Night Assailant, wow, he becomes a Killer Snake.
Cards I want to see with him: Cybernetic Magician.

Offerings to the Doomed.
Quickplay. Kills stuff.
I think this is an instant IN, as its 2 cards sacrificed to kill something. You want to be targeting stuff that comes out with 2 tributes or an exceed.
Battle pack isnt as much about card advantage as it is about board advantage, and I think this is a good example.

IN:
Gachigachi, Shadow Spell, Zombyra, Offerings to the Doomed.

Pack 3:
Pot of Greed
Ante
Skileld White Magician
Giant Soldier Of Stone
Goblindbergh

Pot of Greed
Oh god instant in. Not broken, necessarily, but pretty damn powerful.

Ante Match
I want to be using this with cards like Gorz and Tragoedia, to knock out not only their cards and deal damage but to outright make them slow play or have to play around trago and Gorz, severely limiting their options.
Cards I want to see:
Gorz, Trago, Level 8s.

Skilled White Magician.
Not that sold on it, until I can pull a Buster Blader

Giant Soldier of Stone
2k defense, a potential in, but Ill wait on Rank 3s before going for them.

Goblindbergh
If I get a N39 Hope, Instant in. Any card that make Hope easy to make is great IF you have a hope.

IN: Pot of Greed

Pack 4
Numbers 17 leviathan dragon
Spell Shield Type 8
Card Trooper
Gagaga Magician
Skill Successor

Leviathan Dragon.
Instant in, but I mentioned something about Rank 3s with Giant Soldier of Stone, Ducker, and Night Assailant right? Those have a high chance of coming into the deck thanks to this.
 How awesome would it be if I pulled Tour Guides? I already have some level 3 fiends (Night Assailant)

Spell Shield Type 8
Counter spells. Protect your monsters. Pretty good.

Card Trooper
More than killing something and getting killed back, Id like to use him to kill a 1900 and get a free card, but he mills ONE TENTH of your deck in one shot. Remember that. Unless we get a Monster Reborn, that is a BAD thing.

Gagaga Magician.
Not sold, as I only have 2 Exceeds so far, and no good level 2s for Gachigachi. If I get more variety of exceeds, he becomes viable.
Especially a Tyrus/Adreus.

Skill Successor
You cant ask for much more than this powerhouse in sealed.
TWO combat tricks in one card? Instant in.

Pack 5
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wake
Gene Warped Warwolf
Tangrisnir of the Nordic Beasts
Mystical Space Typhoon

Hoh wow! Look at those 2 first cards!
TWO revival cards at once! Both in!
Call of the Haunted makes reviving big high level monsters much easier, while Miracles Wake makes great work for cards that force the opponent to trade, like 1900 attackers.
Miracles Wake is especially great with Card Trooper. Crash into something with 1900, get killed next turn, draw one, at the end of the turn revive him, next turn mill 3 to crash into the 1900, draw more.

Gene Warped Warwolf
2000 Attack.
Instant in.

Goat guy
He spawns 2 tokens, which can be tributed for a tribute summon.
With him around I want to be pulling high level monsters like White Nights Dragon, etc.
As I dont have too many of them around, I'm not sold on running him quite yet.

Mystical Space Typhoon
Because we're not the only ones with spells and traps. In.

So, lets review after 5 packs.



Heres what we pulled, and our "IN" pile so far is:
MST, Warwolf, Miracles Wake, Call of the Haunted, Skill Successor, Card Trooper, Spell Shield, Pot of Greed, Offerings to the Doomed, Zombyra the Dark, Shadow Spell, Grave Squirmer, Burden of the Mighty.
Extra deck: Gachigachi, Leviathan Dragon.



Next 5 packs!

Pack 6
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
Damage Gate
Ambitious Gofer
Level Eater
Level Eater

Gorz: Instant Win. I mean IN.
This guy... This guy... is everything wrong with the sealed format.
THAT BEING SAID, we are already running burden of the mighty, shadow spell, both of which will stay in the backrow(and shadow spell, without a reason, potentially if they exceed with the target), so not necessarily 100% the best thing to have around

Damage Gate
Not exactly sold on this card.
IF you take damage, you can special summon something... with less attack power from the graveyard. Im not sold on this, but there ARE cards that make this a potential pick.
Namely: Cards that tribute themselves for effects, or cards with "on destroyed" triggers.
Exiled Force, Grave Squirmer.
With this, my 1st pack's vortex trooper is looking more and more viable.

Ambitious Gofer
2400 ATK, potentially outright kills 2 monsters for no reason. I see nothing wrong. In.

2 Level Eaters
As of now, because I dont have... a bajillion Monarchs, no...
Kinda sucks to open 2 of these guys at once @.@

Pack 7
Grenosaurus
Forbidden Lance
Cyber Dragon
Noisy Gnat
Night Assailant

Grenosaurus is an Exceed. Since I already have Leviathan Dragon... No biggie.

Forbidden Lance.
AWWW YEAH
In sealed play, the Forbidden series of cards are just so powerful. As BOTH a combat trick and a protection card, youre looking at a real player in sealed.

Cyber Dragon
I have no qualms about this card. Its just good.

Noisy Gnat
One of the "useless cards" in the set. Kinda weird to see this here, and it is eating up a slot...
That being said, it might have uses to fix up exceeds. Considering I have 3 so far...

Night Assailant
Woo a second copy
I mentioned infinite loop/Hyper powered Killer Snake right?
Thats right. 2 Night Assailants = Infinite hand cost.
I REALLY want to open a Cybernetic Magician now.

8
Skill Drain
Shield Crush
Chiron the Mage
Hyper Hammerhead
Pot of Duality

POWER in a pack man.
Pot of Duality, Skill Drain?
TWO "Bomb" cards at once.
Skill Drain, thought isnt a straight IN pick.
We have yet to decide what cards we WILL be using, and our 1900/2000 power lineup isnt as big as we would like.
However, we DO have: Gorz, Zombyra, Genetic Warwolf, so drain is a possiblity.

Shield Crush is great fun. removes those pesky flip effects.

Chiron the Mage I think is great. Turns any spell into a MST, which can blow up contiuous cards like Metal Reflect Slime, etc. The 1800 isnt too bad either.
Just dont hit Fiendish Chain!

Hyper Hammerhead.
I would prefer a penguin soldier, but this suffices. opening with this guy gives you a good card to set.

9
Ring of Destruction
Half or Nothing
Jurrac Protops
Big Shield Gardna
Fortress Warrior

Ring of Destruction: Free chain destruction, free burn, banned for a very good reason.
In.

Half or Nothing.
Not exactly sold on the card. It doesnt stop an attack unless you have a half decent monster out, so not an isntant in

Jurrac Protops
Err... 1800 in a 1 on 1 battle? Not too great. We're looking for 1900 beaters. Those rule.

Big Shield Gardna
Big. Fat. Defense.
Instant in. I think hes one of the best cards in the whole sealed format, even. The 2700 defense is great for stopping things. They either have to go for a tribute monster, use removal, or have 2 or more monsters to attack, taking some life damage.
Did I mention Shadow Spell?
They attack with one, take damage, turns Big Shield to attack. Activate Shadow Spell on the other guy, and run him over next turn!

Fortress Warrior
I would take him as one of my best picks, for his combat resilience, and with Gachigachi, we have a damn good reason for keeping him on the field, but the lack of other level 2s really makes him less viable...
Seriously. the other level 2 is Noisy Gnat. Not happening.

Final PACK!
Tiras Keeper of Genesis
Exiled Force
Insect Knight
Level Warrior
Gem Knight Pearl

Tyrus!
Oh wow! One of THE best cards in the set... only also one of the hardest to get out.
My chances of getting this guy out are Cyber Dragon and Level Stealer plays... Not quite sold on playing him, unfortunately.

Insect Knight is a great beater.

Gemknight Pearl... Id like a Hope more, but whatever. a rank 4 exceed is a rank 4.

Level Warrior is an intersting one. Similar to Goblindburgh, it gets me my Rank 4 Pearl, but at the same time gives me more level 3s to play around with. It is a high maybe.

Finally, exiled force.
I believe 2 of my recursion traps work with him so far: Damage Gate and Call of the Haunted.
Just by himself, pretty good.
With those 2? Really good.
In.

So, to finish up, These were our second 5 packs cards



And Our cards overview.
Once again, take a look by yourself to the distribution of the better cards in each slot, and see which slots have cards to build around and 2 card combos.

Of these, we preliminarily picked:

14
Gorz
Cyber Dragon
Ambitious Gofer
Insect Kight
Gene Warped Warwolf
Zombyra the Dark
Card Trooper
Big Shield Gardna
Chiron the Mage
Grave Squirmer
Hyper Hammerhead
Exile Force
2 Night Assailant

7
Pot of Greed
Pot of Duality (Winning with 2 pots lol)
Mystical Space Typhoon
Burden of the Mighty
Offerings to teh Doomed
Forbidden Lance
Shield Crush

6
Skill Successor
Shadow Spell
Ring of Destruction
Spell Shield Type 8
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wake

5 Exceeds
Gachigachi
Grenosaurus
Leviathan Dragon
Gemknight Pearl
Tyrus


Thats it for preliminary picks

Join us in part 2, right below this, for the rest of the deck building!

Making the Cut #1 - Part 2

Hey yo and welcome back to Making the Cut, where we build sealed deck together

As you know, Making the Cut is a potential series about opening and building your sealed battle pack deck.

In this half, we will be building the deck from the pulls.
Usually, we would only have to build a 30 card deck, but for the sake of exploring how to make cuts, we will make an additional 5 cuts, to go down to 25, so you can use similar thought schemes to make cuts.

First, lets review our pulls




And some of our preliminary picks

12
Gorz
Cyber Dragon
Ambitious Gofer
Insect Kight
Gene Warped Warwolf
Zombyra the Dark
Card Trooper
Big Shield Gardna
Chiron the Mage
Grave Squirmer
Hyper Hammerhead
Exiled Force

7
Pot of Greed
Pot of Duality
Mystical Space Typhoon
Burden of the Mighty
Offerings to teh Doomed
Forbidden Lance
Shield Crush

6
Skill Successor
Shadow Spell
Ring of Destruction
Spell Shield Type 8
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wake

5 Exceeds
Gachigachi
Grenosaurus
Leviathan Dragon
Gemknight Pearl
Tyrus

Seems like its coming together, right?

After this is our 2nd line picks.
A 2nd line pick is a card that didnt jump straight out as playable, but still has potential.
Level Eater - This alone potentiates Tyrus. But we still lack some level 5s, other than Cyber Dragon, which brings us to...
Gagaga Magician - This card enables Rank 2, 3, 4, and 5 plays. we have each rank, but the weakest rank we have is 4. we want to be making Rank 5 with Tyrus and Rank 3 for Leviathan. This with Cyber Dragon equals Tyrus. Which almost always equals win.
Voltic Kong nad Jurrac Protops - Beatsticks that didnt quite make the preliminary picks
Damage Gate -It means making more Card Troopers, Reviving Exiled Force, and Big Shield Gardna. With some of the cards above, it makes exceeds much easier to play with
Giant Soldier of Stone - If we want to be making leviathan dragon, we need him.
Night Assailant - 2 of them. Although it is a flip effect to kill and a level 3 for Leviathan, we are also considering...
Skill Drain - The best of your "denying effects". Most of the cards work with drain out, with the exception of card trooper and Hyper Hammerhead.


So, lets smash those into the pile and build from that, cutting down to 30 and then 25
Right now, we have 34.

Now, ideally, your main build would want to be something like 14:10:6, of Monsters, spells, and traps.
However, I would prefer to rather have a total of 15 spells and traps, and 15 monsters. With some recursion going, you can even drop to 14 monsters.

So, right now we run 18 monsters, 9 traps, and 7 spells.
So, what we want to be cutting is monsters.

But, before that, we should take some time to review what the deck does well, and more importantly, what it does NOT do well.

So, we run 3 Cards that kill monsters when they get attacked, and one monster that kills monsters when it tributes itself.
For Traps and spells, we have 3 Cards that kill an opponents monsters straight.

Thats 7 Kill Cards, actually a tad bit over.
You want to always have one, so you need about 6. I would cut one Night Assailant. Goodbye infinite combo with non existant Cyber Magician.

Damage Gate and Miracles Afterglow are two cards that do similar jobs: Recursion.
Whilst Miracles Afterglow lets you get your monster back after they use a combat trick to get rid of it, Damage Gate gives more synergy with Card Trooper and Grave Squirmer
I would pick Miracles Wake, as its ability to turn a combat trick to nothing is what we want to be taking.

Now, for the final 2 cuts, I chose Jurrac Protops and Gagaga Magician. While Dropping Gagaga Magician means that I wont have Tyrus, I guess its what my card pool tells me, that I will have to focus on low level monster combat, and use removal on anything bigger.

So now, we are down to 30 Cards.

Monsters
Beaters
Insect Knight
Gene Warped Warwolf
Zombyra the Dark
Chiron the Mage
Cyber Dragon
Voltic Kong
Card Trooper
Ambtious Gofer

Killers
Exiled Force
Night Assailant
Grave Squirmer

Turtlers
Hyperhammerhead
Big Shield Gardna
Giant Soldier of Stone

Broken
Gorz

Spells
Pot of Duality
Pot of Greed
Mystical Space Typhoon
Burden of the Mighty
Offerings to teh Doomed
Forbidden Lance
Shield Crash

Traps
Half or Nothing
Skill Successor
Shadow Spell
Ring of Destruction
Call of the Haunted
Miracles Wkae
Skill Drain


What about if we had to cut another 5 cards down to 25?

So, the cards I would cut out would be:
Night Assailant
Giant Soldier of Stone
Hyper Hammerhead
With less cards in the deck, you need less monsters to fight around, and you need less monsters to turtle. As the monster killer count is much higher rate, you dont need quite as much.
As I dropped Giant Soldier of Stone, Night Assailant would go next, as, well, theres no good reason to make rank 3 exceeds anymore, and so flipping him then going for the rank 3 is gone.
Also, Hyper Hammer Head is also cut.
Note that although I did cut it in the early stages, it was to maintain good tempo, and to one shot kill some exceed monsters. Since I have ring of destruction, a 1st turn Hyper Hammerhead, set a MST, and clear their field and smash through and get ahead in damage racing would put me in the win.
An alternative would to be to drop Voltic Kong instead, as, it is "just" an 1800 beater.

For Traps, I dropped Miracles Wake and Half or Nothing.
Half or Nothing may seem obvious. it was just a stall card that put me in advantage for damage dealt so I can finish with Ring of Destruction
Miracles Wake, however, was because I dropped the Rank 3 Exceeds. The Synergy to make a Rank 3 easily with a Night assailant that got attacked is there because you had some other level 3s with the ability to keep themselves on the board. Drop one, drop all.


So, in the end, this is what our deck turned out like

What about you? What do you think?

How would you build it differently?


And now, we shall do an all important step: Putting the cards back into the packs!
The more you practice with sealed play, instead of throwing away the packs, I keep the empty packs, and record what cards are in what order, returning them so next time, I just have to open the tin, pull out 10 random packs, and build!
It does get much better once you have 30-40 packs to your pool.


And lastly and most importantly, feedback!
What do you think about the way I wrote the post?
What changes do you think could be made to the post, and most importantly,
Do you want to see more of these posts on sealed play/Alternative formats?

/sezuar

Heart Earth post #2

Special Summon Heiratic Tofeni Dragon
Release for Sphere of Chaos.
Simultaneous effects go on chain, Special summon Curse of Dragon from the deck, and search Garbage Ogre in whatever order.
Discard Ogre, search Garbage Lord, special summon Garbage Lord.

Overlay the 3 Level 5s. Heart Earth Dragon!

Special Summon OoParts Crystal Bones
Effect to fish up Golden Shuttle
Golden Shuttle to raise its own level by 1.
Tribute Ooparts Crystal Bones for Sphere of Chaos

Search for Garbage Ogre.
Discard Ogre, search Garbage Lord, special summon Garbage Lord.

Overlay the 3 level 5s.

Stranger Waters

So battle packs and sealed have made all sorts of a splash in the TCG with mixed reactions to the format of sealed.

But what people dont realize is that Yugioh is trying to expand their formats as well.

Each shop runs not only standard events with advanced constructed decks, but "sub formats" supported by konami as well.

They havent been around for a whole while, and I have no idea about much of the reactions to it, but it is a start.

They all fall under the umbrella of "casual formats" where you have certain rules to apply to deck building/playing.

Now, I've played many card games in the past and for the most part, casual formats... usually arent that big a thing (Sans Commander for MTG.)

Why?
Because the game was not really designed to function in that format, bad format design, etc.
The casual format will only really grow if there is the community to grow it.

Even tag team duels, as seen in Yugioh and Vanguard, have to stretch their rules a bit. Its quite different, and hence, not very popular.

As for the formats Konami is experimenting with:
Most of my experience comes from watching these games at Konami Card game station, so yeah.

Sealed play, which everyone knows about.

Ante tournament, where each player starts with a certain amount of chips/points, and bet them in duels. At the end of the time, the players are ranked according to the number they have, with 1 game per match up, and cycling through many players.
Less a format than a tournament style, but blah.

All 1 Element deck
All 1 monster type decks
both of these are similar, I guess, falling under Tribal decks. I actually have no idea why Konami is pushing this format

Tag duel tournaments
Supporting the tag duel format more.


Duel Field Happenings
I personally think this format is 1: Named stupidly and 2: Is such a blatant rip off of MTG's Planechase its not even funny

During the duel, there is a separate deck for "Happenings", effects that will pop up and change at the end of each turn. This happens between the turns
Most cards tend to be continuous cards, like Spatial Collapse, which changes how many cards can be out on the field to 5 per player, Ground collapse, which knocks out monster zones
Or Wall of Revealing Light for 2500, or Skill drain and Soul Drain. or Summon Limiter.
In the deck are forbidden cards like Royal Oppression, Royal Order(Imperial Order?)(The thing that negates spells), and Card of Safe return, Temple of Kings, etc
Things you can activate while its around (Mass Driver)
There also are Field spells in the happening deck, which replace the field for one turn before disappearing, and things that dont actually do much, just be around, because you either dont interact with them or neither player has cards that do(That cont. spell that deals 300 damage more when you get burned)
Also included are one shot cards that happen and disappear, leaving you with no "happening" for the rest of the turn. Cards like Heavy Storm and Dark Hole, or Special Hurricane

They even include original cards, such as one that removes all exceed materials from the field, and an interesting card that CHANGES YOUR OPPONENT with the opponent playing on the same table next to you.
No I have no idea how that last one works.

This is actually an interesting concept to work with, and people 'could' go out and build "Happening decks"  Plane/Planar Event decks to use themselves.

Call the format Instability or something.
Or planechase.


And one of my favorites:

Add one forbidden card to the deck format.

Its exactly as it says, you may use up to one forbidden card in your deck.
It does open a lot of floodgates, but it is only one forbidden card.
Then again, it is just ONE forbidden card.

Some forbidden cards are much more overpowered than others, and some require specific cards to support it.

For instance, most people would think Pot of Greed would be a top choice, but what it does for the deck is give it an one shot 2 draw.
Compare to, say: Graceful Charity in darkworlds. Broke. As. Fuck.

What about Disk Commander? Some decks would play it over pot of greed because, well, the REST of the turbo deck isnt banned.

What about Trishula? Everyone hates trishula.
And Brionac. Live back your favorite infinite loop FTKs

Did I mention Dark Dive Bomber?
Who needs to draw into the =ONE= Forbidden card in your deck with luck when you can just synchro this guy out anytime?

What eventually happens is that people play in more combo-y forbidden cards than the ones with Sheer one sided power.
Like snatch steal. Nobody plays snatch steal in this format. Or Brain Control. Even Raigeki or Makyura has their arent even played. Because you can only play one forbidden card.

Also, for some reason the tournaments are only one game for 20 minuites. No idea why.


/sezuar

So like, the new Flame stuff

To counter:

Dark Simorgh.
The opponent cannot set cards.

Over Spec.
As long as they have any of their continuous spells going, Thunder Bolt on a free chain.

Malevolent Catastrophe.
One shot to nuke their backrow.

Gemini and Effect Veilers

Although you would understand this simple interaction if you actually read cards, I have to write about this because people are retarded.

Geminis get through Effect Veiler and Fiendish Chain.

See, both Veiler and Fiendish Chain specify an effect monster as the effect target.

Hence, you cannot activate Fiendish Chain on things like Another Neos. It might pop up in a game or 2, eliminating their ability to stop your attack

And you cannot Veiler Gemini monsters before they re-summon.

However, you can veiler/chain one before it gets its effect. Heres how:
They have a gemini out, and  you have a Fiendish Chain set.
The use their normal summon to change their Gemini to an effect monster. This does not start a chain but can be negated via solemn warning, etc.
This resolves, and priority is passed to you (the opponent) to respond to the summon.
At this timing, if you throw Veiler/Chain, you can stop the effect, as the chain is triggered by "link 0" of the effect monster being successfully summoned.

However, with supervis, as it re-summons via an effect, you cannot stop it with Veiler.

Lets assume you have a fiendish chain and a Sangan set.
Youre an idiot because you didnt set that torrential instead, but oh well. And a Reckless Charge or something.

They special summon Heiratic seal of the Dragon king via Swing of Memories.
At this point, it is still a normal monster, and hence cannot be Chained.

They activate supervis, targeting the seal.
Supervis goes onto chain 1, and whatever free chains happen after that.
However, as the seal is still a normal monster before Supervis gets attached, it is not a legal target for your fiendish chain

Once supervis(chain 1) has finished resolving, however, turn player has priority to activate their effects. Hence, the turn player retains priority to activate any effects(Seal of dragon king) before you can respond.

If they do something like activate something else, enter another phase, etc, you can respond to that by activating your Veiler/Chain


Edit: So apparently you cannot retain priority and activate spell speed 1 things. My bad. So you can be veiler'd. It will boil down to you explaining how gemini's are normal monsters while face up on the field, effect veiler can only hit effect monsters, and pray they dont remember it "Becomes an effect monster"

/Sezuar

Heiratics

18
3 Heiratic Seal of Dragon King
2 Debris Dragon
3 Heiratic Dragon of Tefnuit
3 Heiratic Dragon of Su
2 Heiratic Dragon of Nebthet
2 Heiratic Dragon of Aset
1 Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Blue Eyes White Dragon
1 Wattail  Dragon

18
3 Armory Hole
3 Supervis
1 Symbols of Duty
1 Foolish Burial
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Night Beam
2 Pot of Duality
1 Heiratic Seal of Convocation
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
4
3 Royal Decree
1 Heiratic Seal from the Ashes

So I recently found out that nobody plays heiratics anymore.

Because they "Neutered" the deck by killing Seal of Convocation and Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon.

Well I'm here today to tell you that you all suck at thinking outside the box.

Theres no problem with everyone reading crap like Whatever Games or the Konami site, but there is a problem when those site have no insight beyond the blatantly obvious.


So, what about Heiratics.

Well, what people dont realize is that Heiratic Seal of the Dragon king is a card.

 

Its a level 6 0/0 Gemini Dragon.

Just this alone gives is so much interaction with the deck. Revive it with the Heiratics from the graveyard, revive with debris dragon, easy overlays, etc.

Of course, you cant grab it from the deck with a Heiratic because geminis in the deck are EFFECT monsters

Also worth noting is that being a level 6 dragon

So what does that mean?



This is what that means.

Three heads of 3000 ATK going to eat you alive.

Heiratic Seal of the Dragon King is the first ever level 6 dragon monster with less than 500 ATK, meaning it does equal a one card Trident Dragion


Onto the effect.
By Tributing this card, special summon one Heiratic from your deck/hand/graveyard.

For those who dont get it, its REALLY GOOD.

Tack on a Supervis, tribute itself, special summon another heiratic, special summon either the Seal or a Blue Eyes White Dragon via Supervis.

The deck runs extra Armory Hole to fetch these Supervis for you. This guy is your new convocation. Who needs to search when you can just fetch them from the deck?


Revive it with Debris Dragon, tack on a Supervis, Synchro into Trident Dragion, and revive the seal for another go with Supervis.

Note that in this situation Trident Dragion will be summoned, and Supervis (compulsary effect) will go on Chain 1, and Trident will go onto Chain 2. Trident will not be able to target the seal to blow up for another attack, but with him out already, who cares?

Most of the rest of the Heiratic deck builds itself, so I will be explaining the remaining choices

3 Armory Hole
Because who the hell normal summons? You're playing Yugioh, not vanguard.
Card Car D is more often better fed to Machina Fortress noawadays.

1 Symbols of Duty
Because everyone loves monster reborn, and Heiratics often use this just to facilitate more special summoning And for the extra level 4s for the Shock Master to stop Gorz.
Also, forcing the deck out against Max C is awesome.

1 Heiratic Seal from the Ashes
The card seemed cute enough.
Also, the tiny bit more searching out the Seal of the Dragon King really helps. It functions as your pseudo foolish burial, as like I mentioned before, you need to get one Seal out into field/graveyard before the deck starts going crazy.

3 Cyclone
Because back row is for pussies, and you need to spread that message.

2 Night Beam
No, seriously. Fuck back row.

3 Royal Decree
Really.

/Sezuar


Oh, and apparently I messed up the auto post scheduling. Hence the lack of posts for so long.
I only checked like today. I missed almost a whole month!

Chaos Exceed Change

Keep in mind that Chaos Exceed Change only takes into account the monsters name when exceed changing.

Meaning you can use Phantom of Chaos and copy a Shark Drake and become Shark Drake Vice
Use N. black panther to copy a Hope and become Hope Ray.