Yes I Am Alive + Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien

Alrighty guys, this post has been LONG overdue but there were various reasons for this such as me not being into yugioh/no-real-news for a week, then I had heaps of uni work that bogged me down for another week, and finally, my internet has been fagging out for the past few days. But after many swear words and a couple of unforeseen early nights, all is well and I am finally able to post this up. I swear I haven't even been to a locals in like 3 weeks thanks to parties, uni work, and sleeping in on that rare day where I have nothing else that I am committed to. Here's another long post for you guys to make up for my laziness.

Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien

Anyway, first up is Shadow of the Six Samurai - Shien. He's already been blogged about a little but I really wanted to do so myself seeing as this is straight up the card I've been looking forward to the most in the last few months. His effect is as follows:

2 Level 4 "Six Samurai" monsters
Once per turn, During either player's turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 face-up "Six Samurai" monster you control with less than ?000 ATK; its original ATK becomes ?000 until the End Phase. (amounts unconfirmed)

Sources:

http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Six_Samurai_-_Shien

http://www.pojo.biz/board/showthread.php?t=1052396

I love the name and the reference to the samurai lore whereby he is acting as Shien's double. His art is smexy to say the least that I actually prefer it over Shien himself. But I've been looking over the pojo thread every day waiting for confirmation. So far the consensus seems to be that his target has to have less than 3000, and will be boosted to 3000. If this actually turns out to be his effect, this achieves a few things that samurais really wanted. Firstly, it means that Shien (with bros around) can't be rushed in one turn and then die. Secondly, it allows you to get over bigger monsters that you otherwise would have to synchro to get rid of. Additionally, Kageki, Enishi and Kizan become 4500, 3500 and 3300 respectively which is very daunting to say the least. Kageki could have the potential to take down an OBELISK. Of course, against a clear field it also just allows you to hit for more damage and kill them outright rather than having to wait until the next turn.

Next, he is easy to summon being rank 4 by using 2 kizans and sets you up for more special summoning thanks to gateway and the counters that he'll add to that when he's summoned. So he can essentially be free in most respects if gateway is up. If it's not, he can add a bushido counter to a united stuck on 1, or a dojo that needs one more counter to bring out an enishi, hand or whatever. Another point to consider is that if he actually does have the 3000->3000 as speculated, he can target himself which is a bonus among much else because that means he doesn't need another samurai up = solo boss. Also as a side-note he can be brought back by gateway. That's not much of a bonus, I know, but it could come in handy once in a hundred games. And that's really all you need to improve consistency.

In a sense, Shadow has become the Trishula of the samurai deck. No don't go all flaming me and shit as I'm not comparing what they specifically do but rather, what they do for the deck. Trishula was instantly the go-to when you were facing a problem monster (aside from an advantage and field-clearing perspective). The fact that an opponent can't just special summon into a big guy and take down your Shien with ease in one turn means that you've given yourself an extra turn's grace to comeback. Now grapha can be met and laughed at, shining becomes possible to get over without hand or enishi, and chaos dragons can go and suck it. Seriously, the relatively weak bodies of the samurais have honestly been the thing that has hurt me the most out of anything else when I've played them, such as monster effects and such. I really hate making my field even once I've bated out most of the danger cards that I believe my opponent to have, only for them to clear my field, leaving me to top-deck. Because as much as I wish they could, samurais cannot top-deck for shit. Especially when compared against rabbit and inzektors.

Now again, I'm not saying that Shadow is the most broken of the samurai or anything like that but what he does do is address a few small problems that occasionally cropped up in the deck which I have already outlined above. Now your kizans aren't stranded without a boost, and you can actually go on the offensive while still retaining that defensive stance thanks to his once-per-either-turn effect. And even if it ends up being a boost to a more reasonable 2500, it'd still benefit the deck a whole lot. In short lol, I can't wait to use him.

Other News

I am pretty keen for a battle pack tournament, although after reading various blog posts, the recurring gist that I seem to get is that the quality of your pulls are determined by how many tourguides you rip. Now while this may sort of seem obvious, I don't like how it's apparently more of an issue than I had originally thought.

Also, I've had a good go on Yu-Gi-Oh BAM on facebook and while it can barely be called yugioh, it is great fun in its own regard in a sort of bash-and-crash way. At least at the start anyway. I was greatly saddened though when today, I opened yugioh bam and it had me starting at the very beginning for some studid reason. I was all the way to lv13 :( Maybe it's out of beta, I dunno, I can't be bothered to research tbh but now I really don't care. But what it did do was remind me in a small way of what yugioh used to be like on a basic level which was the best bit for me really. It was just nice as something different to do as opposed to DN or something which is what I'm going to be talking about next.

I have become very tired of DN lately and as such have done less testing and had less playtime on it than ever before. Why is that you ask? Well because by the time I have free time to do so, it's late. Really late. And all I want to do is simply have a good game with some hard thinking only infrequently required in small amounts.

Enter DN noob.

Why is it that no matter who I play against, no one seems to have any idea how Yu-Gi-Oh works at a basic level all the way down to its mechanics. It actually pains me to see people hope to negate my shit with mst, say my trigger effects have no priority (massive wtf moments), say my trigger monsters lose their effects upon being flipped face-down, have contradictions even within their own stupid "rulings". And seriously, ALWAYS WITH THE FUCKING SCRAP DRAGON! I've had arguments where they've said he needs to tribute my monster as a cost to destroy theirs (this happens when they veiler). Or when they have it up and I book of moon it or something, yet it apparently somehow would still manage to destroy my monster.

One guy corrected me on a mistake I made when I misread a card having a cost when it was actually a requirement at the resolution of the effect. Fair enough, I dun goofed (it was 3 in the morning and I'd never used the card before). But not even 3 turns later, and I'm correcting him on the exact same basis of reason. Yet he wouldn't believe me. Eventually we got on with the game, but then he gets butthurt at another point about something else and jesus it pissed me off. Especially since the game itself was well-structured and needed careful plays. This just ruined it.

Seriously DN noobs, please gtfo and let me duel in peace.

I know everyone has their own 'experiences' on DN but I had to put this out there just to keep myself sane.

Now that that's out of the way, I'd also like to draw your attention to something else.

http://yugioh-duelist.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/zexal-gods.html

Now while these are likely just fakes posted up by some fan, their arts are awesome, and their effects are way cool. The main thing though, is that of course Konami are going to have to eventually make legendary XYZ as they always do in very generation. So this idea might not be that far off.

No news otherwise aside from me picking up an ultra malicious (he's like my favourite card), a gaia dragon and SIM for the lulz, and finally 2 kaiser gliders as a side for my monarch deck. Now while they aren't exactly optimal, what they do provide is a way to get rid of laggia because they function like Grandmaster of the six samurai. Even if they warning him, he's still going to get his effect off, and because he can't be destroyed in battle with another 2400 they'll still likely hit him with it so that they can actually go on the offensive rather than having to work around him later. Then I can keep my actual monarchs for later. And if anything else, he's a light for black luster envoy. Still on the look-out for a cheap Photon Strike Bounzer but alas, no luck so far. Do message me if you've got a good offer though.

Till next time (which hopefully won't be too far away this time), this is DEFER signing out.

Mystic Piper Chaos

Firstly, I'd like to give a shoutout to a fellow blogger named Mike Bonacini at http://inamedeathaspect.blogspot.com. For those of you who are not familiar with his blog, his posts are great reads and he's been on a hiatus for about 6 months, but now he's back into the blogosphere which is great news. He was the main inspiration for me making my blog, so all credit to him. And now, onwards.

A couple of my friends have been pretty keen to grab this decklist off me. It's nothing special. If it's not the exact build of the guy who topped with it, it'll only be 1 or 2 cards off. The main reason I didn't really change anything was because I felt it ran quite well and I enjoyed it alot. A change of one or two cards could disrupt the flow of the deck. Anyway, here's the decklist:

The deck is really self-explanatory. I was amazed at how something like this didn't get more notice beforehand. I remember pulling an OCG one a while back and just heard everyone saying "Oh yeah he's good", "That's deck's not bad", and I was like "well, how exactly?". When this topped I was pleased to say the least, as a deck like this has so many options at its disposal. And decks such as this really provide tons of enjoyment as you think and plan your ways through duels, and hopefully turn that into wins.


Looking at the deck though, one can only imagine how much the 2 mained D.D. Crows came in handy. They really are a great tech which also greatly benefit from being drawn via Piper's effect, allowing for more potentials draws. Three more veilers and a maxx c add to the massive Fuck You coming your way. And to round off the non-core aspect of the deck, two wisel really mess your opponent around. They'll spend so much time trying to get rid of them and the trags, the chaos monsters and tour guides should finish them off. And if you haven't noticed already, banish piper for chaos monster => tour guide => leviair => bring back a piper => tribute draw 1 or more. Thank you for coming.

As I said, the deck runs simply but isn't too linear, which is what I hate in decks as I feel they restrict my playstyle choices too much. Cyber dragon and rai-oh provide a great amount of control and allow you to push from the word "go" by being able to run over monsters and forcing your opponent to waste removal on them early. It runs a nice balance of big monsters alongside the combo monsters. Spells are generic aside from the avarice which is just for more resources. Mind control will be even more important now with photon strike bounzer being released to negate your stuff. So now, all you have to do is mind control it for the turn, and then overlay it for Gaia Dragon and laugh at your opponent. And the last little gem is obviously creature swap. It can definitely be game-changing to bring down a smaller monster and swapping it for a grapha, HERO fusion, the list goes on.


With Wan-Chan coming up for release in the TCG, there's no knowing how it will affect this deck. The ability to tutor any one of your main combo monsters straight out of your deck could prove to be game-changing.

"If you control a face-up Level 1 monster: Add 1 Level 1 monster from your Deck to your hand. During the End Phase, if you did not Normal Summon a card with the same name as the added monster this turn, you take 2000 damage"

And you're likely going to end up summoning it anyway, unless it's veiler of course. In which case I wouldn't mind paying 2000 for a veiler. Your opponent knows they can't go off, while you're still gaining advantage off piper next turn. They HAVE to do something. I haven't tried Wan-Chan!? in the deck yet, but it seems as if it'll have potential. The question is "how many do I run". No idea there, sorry. I would imagine running 1 and possibly 2 max. 3 seems way over the top but don't hold me to that. The consistency that it could add to the deck might be more impressive than you may think. The only other issue is deck space. There really isn't much to work with, so making space may prove more detrimental than helpful, but I'm sure there's room for at least one copy. The only card that I've sometimes seen being stuck as a dead card is avarice. But when it goes off, you usually have so many cards in your hand + a chaos monster, and you're good to go from there. Additionally 4 chaos monsters does sometimes prove to be a bit of a pain, but with a bit of proper set-up and thought, they DO pay off.

Once the TCG eventually get Constellar Ptolemys Messier 7, shit will go down. And it won't happen that often in this deck, but when it does, be prepared to win. A free re-use of any of the monsters in your grave is a great bonus.

So, give this deck a go and see what it does for you.

Till next time, this is DEFER signing out.

The Sneak That Never Happened

As I mentioned in my previous post, today was the sneak peak for GAOV which I had been looking forward to for the past week. However, since it was Good Games' first one that they had held since they opened in around December, the staff were trying their best to sort everything out with Konami and in the end, they could only get enough product for 16 people to join. Me, being myself on a saturday afternoon, woke up as late as possible and got there at 1pm on the dot (starting time for the tourney). However, there were already in excess of 20 people there, and as mentioned before, only 16 could sign up, so that was that, no sneak for me. Sad face :(

More people came in over the course of the next half hour, and I was honestly surprised at the turnout. I hadn't expected it to be so packed. But the main thing to take away from this is that the community here is clearly loyal and very healthy. I mean, if over 20 people come in ready to pay $40 each for a sneak, there really couldn't be a better sign. They're keen as. Hopefully, Good Games will be able to increase the amount of product they get off Konami for the next one, and can kick up the sneak even more.

Over the course of me looking over at others playing, never once did I see an Atum, Sun Dragon, Cardcar D, Photon Strike Bounzer being pulled. Apparently a Strike Bounzer was pulled but I never saw it. I was pretty pissed that it managed to slip by unnoticed. So maybe it wasn't a bad thing that I didn't join. Because that's really all I was in it for... and also the mat lol. Pretty weak pull of secrets/foils in general (there was other jank not worth mentioning) considering how many packs were opened aside from the Gaia Dragon that David pulled. You'd think that Atum being a super would have meant that a couple were flying around, but no. My general opinion was that the set had less in it than I had even thought. It lacked good fillers aside from the obvious Hammer Bounzer. There was just so much crap for lack of a better word.

Anyway, since the store felt bad for not having enough to go 'round, they decided to hold a small turbo pack tourney for fun, with no entrance cost, so that was nice of 'em. First and second place would each get a turbo pack but I was honestly just dying to play someone. There were only 7 of us. So, first up...

Match 1: Chris (not the same one as before) w/ Bubblebeat
*Duel 1 - On the second or third turn I think, he hit out with a blade armour combo alongside a stardust that had been summoned because I thought I would get lucky with heavy storm. I had completely forgotten to Maxx C before bubbleman came down and so only did so halfway through the combo, and failed.
*Duel 2 - I had a Tragoedia to push early. A turn or two later, a soul exchange for thestalos on his only alius left his gemini sparks dead, and with only other spells in his hand, he scooped it up once LaDD came down the next turn.
*Duel 3 - He set like seventeen backrows, summoned alius and ended. I set a treeborn and a torrential. On his turn he summoned stratos, I torrentialed, he used starlight again, and he continued on to end up with blade armour ninja, stardust, stratos and alius from memory thanks to a reborn. I had fader but once he warning-ed that, I really had nothing and died. Turns out I also had forgotten to side in puppet plants for a bit of quick swing damage. Should have gotten more sleep the night before but as it was, I got to sleep at 6 in the morning thanks to more than a few good LoL games with Warwick.
XOX

Match 2: Daniel w/ Crystal Beasts
*Duel 1 - A turn 1 Gorz to push early and a Vanity's Fiend ended this one pretty quickly. I even forgot to summon the token (yeah, really needed more sleep). Heavy storm meant that there was no way he could draw using rare value or any of that other stupid stuff.
*Duel 2 - LaDD came down thanks to soul exchange, and Vanity's Fiend backed him up afterwards. Heavy also again made a cameo.
OO

Match 3: Tyson w/ Umi + Gigagigo (I think)
This was essentially just a water attribute deck that ran a legendary ocean to pump his monsters and bring down big guys easily. Fenrir is a cool card, but I had thought it got its effect if it attacked directly. Lol this isn't yata-garasu again.
*Duel 1 - I reckoned I could take my time setting up, and kept his biggest monsters off the board with soul exchange and a monarch. Bls followed another Caius onto the field, and the next turn, a special summoned swap frog allowed me to put Vanity's Fiend down and it ended right there.
*Duel 2 - A huge Tragoedia hit over a couple of his monsters, and held him off until I had enough monarchs to successively hit him with one every turn for 3 turns.
OO

Because of pairings (I lost to Chris), I didn't get the turbo pack but I mean really, meh. Not going to lose too much sleep over that. I was impressed however, at how consistent and explosive the bubblebeat was. I had expected it to generally play as the regular hero beat for two turns, and then go off once it had the combo pieces and control of the board. Currently, the deck's missing 2 skill drains and a d-prison. I plan to play Gorz in my build because he's too good not to play. And I do not want to get screwed over by inzektors, or anything else for that matter, OTKing. Also Heroic Champion Excaliber from REDU will really allow them to have a crazy amount of flexibilty in their hands: him to get over big monster, or blade armour to deal more damage.

The stuff I would have pulled from today's sneak honestly would have gone into a box somewhere. So naturally, I'm looking forward to the REDU sneak peak because the set has so many archtypes with potential that not only should they play well out of the packs, but I actually WANT to collect Geargia and Magical as I stated in my last post. The Geargiganto exceed is so cool (art on the rest is up to personal preference I guess), and the whole Magical archtype screams smexy. I really DO promise to get the archtype reviews done for you guys, but I was heaps busy this week with Uni, quizzes/tests, LoL, sleeping, and general procrastination. My IB diploma, if nothing else, verifies me as being a master of procrastination in every situation that can be thrown at me. Haven't had much more of a chance to extensively test my Magical deck on DN yet, but it'll come. All in good time.

It wasn't all that bad a day though. My trades/buys for the day included Scrap Dragon (had to get a TCG one to replace the OCG version I had), Void Ogre Dragon, Neo Galaxy-Eyes, Snowman Eater, and Ra Yellow ultra foil versions of Yaichi and Zanji to complete my six samurai set for collection. As it is, I only need a Brionac for my synchro pile, and the exceeds need Tiras, Roach and Zenmaines. Seems like Photon Strike Bounzer will have to wait a little longer. I had a few decent chats to a couple of guys there that I didn't meet last week. Shaun, whom I dueled in the final round in the previous post, got (how many packs I don't know of) GENF (and other stuff?), and ended up packsacking a leviair, roach, and some other good foil, in addition to his pull of a rabbit beforehand after buying a box of PHSW. Good weekend for him obviously. David walked away with the win for the whole thing, and won the mat. Chris got paired down in the beginning thanks to a bye but didn't lost any of his matches either, so that sorta sucks but whatever. What can you do. He most certainly has enough mats though (about 8 lol).

As you can see, I really cannot write short posts, so that's something I've got to work on, but you guys deserve quality reads. I'm interested in knowing what you think of my blog posts so far below, so if you've got anything you're dying say or point out, I'm all ears.

Till next time, this is DEFER signing out.