Mystic Piper Chaos versus Dragunities up on my channel!

I now have a decent enough camera to record HD dueling!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsqdccl1yhc&feature=channel_video_title


Make sure to subscribe for more duels and thumbs up if you like them!

I do a special thing that many yugitubers do not do and that is LISTEN.

If you want to see a certain matchup, then ask and I will see if it is feasible.

- TheTCGLover

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from TheTCGLover!

I hope you get whatever you wanted, whether it be Yu-Gi-Oh related or not!

Winner of YCS Brighton's deck: Dino Rabbits

I'm sure if you're an avid player, you've already seen the decklist. But for those who are only casual yugitubers and only read a few articles, here's your chance to see it.

The winner's name was Xiao Ping, from the UK.

Main Deck
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3 Jurrac Guaiba
3 Kabazauls
2 Maxx "C"
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
3 Rescue Rabbit
3 Sabersaurus
1 Sangan
3 Tour Guide From the Underworld

1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Smashing Ground

1 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Dimensional Prison
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Solemn Warning
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot

Side Deck
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Dimensional Fissure
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
1 Spirit Reaper
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

Extra Deck
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
2 Evolzar Dolkka
2 Evolzar Laggia
2 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

Quick overview of the deck. Rabbit gets your Kabazauls and your Sabersaurus. Overlay them into either Laggia or Dolkka. Once Rabbit is in your banished zone, use Tour guide to summon Leviair and detach to summon Rabbit back. Use that rabbit's effect to get 2 Sabersaurus.

At this point, you would have a Laggia on your field from the last turn, A Leviair and 2 Sabersaurus. If your opponent's field is clear, you can swing for exactly 8000 damage. If you don't, then you can overlay into another laggia and swing for around 4000.

Gold Sarcophagus allows you to banish a rabbit from your deck. Then you can summon Tour guide and end your turn with a Laggia and a Leviair, with one more material left on the sea dragon to summon another Laggia or Dolkka next turn.

Aside from that, the deck has general staple cards and a Grand mole to deal with cards that the deck cant get over (Stardust, Scrap dragon Etc).

His side deck consists of mainly stun cards. Fossil Dyna, now easily available to everyone, can slow down your opponent to a halt. That alongside cards like Fiendish chain can beat the Agent matchup (If they go first) since Kristya hits the deck pretty hard.

Dimensional fissure is a good side for this deck since the materials that are detached from an xyz monster are sent to the graveyard regardless, making monster reborn less of a dead draw. He could have sided Vanity's Emptiness to shut down the opponent's special summon. Either he didn't like it or he just didn't think about it.

Overall, the deck is incredibly powerful and while you sometimes open bad with it, it's a great deck to take to a large tournament since it's overall douchery is a pain for any deck.

Personally, I blame Tour Guide (and partially Leviair). Makes the deck go from good to broken.

Jurrac Guaiba

Hey readers. Once again I apologise for the lack of consistency in my blog posts. As I stated in a previous post, I will post what I deem interesting rather than what has just been announced.

So after coming back from YCS Brighton, I did not get the chance to play any Rabbit Dino decks. However, there was one card in the deck that many decks can use without having to be rich.

Jurrac Guaiba is an interesting little tech card that works in the deck it's currently being used in quite well. It allows for the deck to make plays while waiting for a Rabbit or a Gold sarcophagus (whichever comes first, then the sackyness starts). All it requires you to do is destroy a monster by battle, and you get a free Evolzar Laggia in your main phase 2.

Note how it does not say "and sends it to the graveyard". Meaning that you can hit a token or a battle fader and you still get it's effect.

Like most cards, it falls susceptible to cards like Veiler and Maxx "C", so you will not get it's effect off 100% off the time, especially if you are playing a YCS level player.

But what I really like about the card is its general versatility. It CAN be played in many different decks without hurting the overall win condition. On it's own it can make it's own plays and you get a free Solemn Judgement (with legs) out of it. As soon as it hits the field, Guaiba is putting a lot of pressure on your opponent to deal with it quickly before it becomes a bigger problem. I mean, nobody liked seeing a first turn Shi en and 3 backrows (Warning, Magatama and Judgement) did they?

Another great thing I noticed about the card is it's general psychology that comes with the card. As soon as you see the card, whether you see it on a table in your locals, in a binder or on the Wikia, you know what it's being used it in right now. If you go first, Summon Guaiba and your opponent does not know what deck you are using, they will assume its a Rabbit deck, and most likely overextend to stop you. You can imagine their surprise when you start summon a lonefire and make some pro plays.

Along with the few hand traps that can stop this card, this card suffers the same problem as Reborn Tengu in that multiples are dead in your hand. But that has not stopped players running 3 of them has it?

So yeah. In conclusion, Jurrac Guaiba is a really nice little addition to almost any deck right now. It provides field presence and if you get it's effect, a free solemn for them to deal with on their turn. You can either play 2 or 3 copies. 3 copies adds consistency to the engine but 2 eliminates as many dead draws. I'm currently testing 3 in T.G. Plants (A deck I'm just messing around with) and it's working great. I can ditch the extra copies by One for One or use it with the T.G.s or spore for a high level synchro summon.


On an unrelated note, If you are a viewer of my Youtube Channel (I am more active on that than this blog these days, so Subscribe to it!) I am getting a new camera to film Deck Profiles and Duels. They will be in 720p quality and there will be none of that one-handed or having to balance the camera on the table nonsense anymore. That means better video quality, better content and overall a better experience for you.

- Kyle

Hey Readers....

Sorry I've been inactive for the past couple of weeks, but It's because recently there has been little to talk about in the Yu-Gi-Oh world that peaked my interest. There was the recent Premium pack 12 released in the OCG, but we wont get the cards in that set for a while. Once we get a confirmed import, I'll review them.

So yeah, anything Yu-Gi-Oh related I've done recently is just preparing for Brighton. It's only when you get close to something that you start to notice flaws and important cards that you didn't think you needed before.

So yeah, if you watch my videos, you will have picked up that I have stopped playing T.G. Stun (Love the deck though) and decided on Gravekeepers. Why?

The main reason is that I refuse to go into a YCS with half a deck (The other half being filler cards) since to Top or to get to the bubble, you must have a fully functional deck, complete with all the necessary cards that makes the deck good, and for all the tech cards to have some synergy with the main theme. I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to get hold of 2 Skill drains and It's impossible. So instead I'm playing Gravekeepers. I have all the cards (bought 3 Marik structures when they came out since I knew recruiter was going to be a beast) and I like the way they play. They are incredibly Auto-Pilot (Almost as Auto-Pilot as Dino Rabbit) so there is little room to make misplays. However in the past few days of testing, I've noticed that I've made some bad misplays on my part. I've been using Royal tribute with a hand of 2-3 monsters and no way to get them back. Or I accidently fetch Descendant rather than Recruiter and run straight into a mirror force. But now I'm playing much better.

One card in the deck I'm really becoming fond of is Wonder Wand. It's a really nice little card for GKs since you can boost your monsters attack, attack over their monster and then send the monster and the card to draw into protection. I've managed to summon a descendant and attack over a dolkka, then tributed my Spy to destroy their used laggia, then drew 2. It put me in a really good position since they could not get their stuff back from the Graveyard (Necrovalley) and I still have a good field. Of course, using Wonder Wand on Recruiter means you +1 by its search.

Also, continuing from my recent "What to side for YCS Brighton" Video, I'm also going to side Kycoo since it really does beat a lot of decks. It works in gravekeeper's very well (Spellcaster for Wand, Dark for Allure) and it takes care of my worst matchup: Dark world. You have 2 Graphas in your graveyard? Not anymore.

So yeah, I'm counting on you readers as a team to back me up and cheer me on (If you're not going to Brighton).

Watch out for me (Kyle Griffin) in the top 32! Billy Brakes got nothing on me!

T.G. Stun for YCS Brighton!

Hey guys. I hope some of you readers are going to YCS Brighton. It should be really fun and I hope you and your deck is ready for whatever is going to be played there.

Anyway. I've decided to play T.G. Stun since all the money cards in the deck are now easily available. The deck is actually maining cards to deal with other decks of the format, so siding is not completely necessary but a nice added bonus.

Here it is thus far:

Monsters - 14

3x T.G. Warwolf

3x T.G. Rush Rhino

2x T.G. Striker

3x Reborn Tengu

2x Beast King Barbaros

1x Thunder King Rai-Oh

Spells - 5

3x Pot of Duality

1x Dark hole

1x Monster Reborn

Traps - 21

2x Bottomless Trap Hole

2x Solemn Warning

1x Solemn Judgment

3x Horn of the Phantom Beast

2x Skill Drain

1x Fiendish chain

2x TG1-EM1

3x Starlight Road

3x Dimensional prison

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Trap Dustshoot

It's a trap heavy deck, but it's what makes the deck work. I run no backrow removal cards since I'm happy to let the monsters run into whatever my opponent has since I don't lose advantage. Rush Rhino plays a crucial part in this deck as It can hit my opponent for a quarter of their life, which forces them to use their Solemns on it. Horn of the Phantom beast is so good in this deck just because you can activate it during damage calculation. Sometimes I've used horn on a previous turn and It's been destroyed, then attacked their higher attack monster with a Beast and I say "response?". They think I've got a horn set and they waste their traps on it.

Of course, Reborn Tengu serves as a target for horn and a way to keep field presence. Under horn it goes to 2500 which allows it to get over a Vanity's fiend or a Caius.

Skill drain is another crucial part of this deck. I draw into it about 2 in every 5 games but when I do, It gets to work. You should always chain it when your opponent activates an effect rather than just at any time on their turn so you get the benefit right away. As you can see every monster in my deck works with Skill drain. Beast King Barbaros becomes 3000 attack under drain, and the attack stays even when Skill Drain is destroyed.

And 3 Starlight road makes sure that my field is safe, and I can set 5 face downs without worrying about heavy storm.

What did you think of Photon Shockwave?

The set was hyped quite a bit since it was revealed, and the set overall was pretty good.

But what did you think?

To answer: Click on the poll on the right or comment!

T.g. gadgets on Friday (11/18/2011)

I went to my locals and played T.G. Gadgets. my mindset was "there is nothing more consistent than a deck full of floaters". I honestly just dismantled my Machina Gadgets and just replaced the Machina part for T.G.s and made a few changes. If you want to see the decklist, check out my channel and it's up there.

So I took it to locals and played in the tournament. There were very few players so there was only 3 rounds. However, that does not mean you're playing bad players. It just means the chance of playing a certain deck decreases.

Round 1: Luke (TGU Tengu Plants) 0-2
Yup he was playing a very similar deck to Billy Brakes. I really did not like the feeling of being put in the deep end like this since I knew I hadn't done enough practice with the deck to be playing against this deck. He is one of the only guys in my locals that has consistently topped the YCSs in Europe, and was not afraid to boast about it. I didn't mind though. I have had to chance to play against Mat Collins (who won YCS Milan back in November 2010) right after he had won so it was not my first time playing a pro YCS player.

G1: I started off and set up some good advantage plays. It was going well until he managed to clear my field and summon a Thunder king and stop my searches, which meant I overextended thinking I could replenish my hand in the end phase. He seemed to have the right card for every move I played. It went on a while but he managed to take control of my Scrap Dragon and I forgot to veiler it, so it killed my backrow and managed to swing for around 6000: more than I could take.
G2: I sided Fossil Dynas and Power Filter (Continuous spell card: Neither player can special summon monsters 1000 attack or less) in the hopes that I might be able to stop tour guide and his plant engine. However I just didn't draw into my sides, even when I used my Duality. He took control of the game pretty quickly since he drew the nuts in his opening hand. His field ended up being like 3-4 synchros (the first one to hit the field was Librarian) and had 4-5 cards left in his hand.

Oh well. If you play good players, you will have to beat them at their best, which is never an easy feat. Good practice for brighton though :). A couple of friends told me that he cheats. He opens every game with Dustshoot in his hand (Which happened in my match too) which made me wonder if he is as good as he thinks.

Round 2: Lee (Dark world) 2-1
Lee is one of the locals who comes every week to play. He has all the best cards but likes to vary every week so he can work on the weaker matchups of his main decks. Very clever, but I wouldn't advise it unless you're rich. But if you do it, it should pay off and make you a better player in the long run.

G1: I won the roll and managed to negate everything he tried to do. Creature swap meant he got my Striker and I got his 3k Grapha. He honestly did not know how to come back from that. ended up beating him with no life points lost
G2: He opened up with Gates, Snoww and Deck Devastation Virus. Almost every monster in my deck is below 1500 attack so I was screwed. It was the last turn it was in effect so I thought I still had a chance. However he activated another DDV and I just scooped.
G3: It was time now. 4 turns and who ever has the most life at the end of turn 4 wins. I went first and managed to open pretty well. I didn't draw into any cards that require paying life points and he opened really badly (That inconsistency thing that Dark worlds have). He did a TGU into Leviathan dragon to try and run over my rush rhino in turn 2, but I dimensional prisoned (I'm glad he MSTed my other facedown, which was creature swap!). I didn't want this to be a "first person to deal damage" thing so I quickly made Android with Striker and Warwolf and won the game.

Round 3: Anthony (Infernity) 2-1
A good friend of mine who managed to pull a play set of Rescue Rabbits just by luck. He has been testing his infernities for a few weeks now and is slowly getting better with it. I thought that infernities, if done properly, can be a real pain in the ass. So I wanted to control the game and stop him bringing out 5 synchros in one turn. He still has not mastered the Infernity play yet so he just did whatever he wanted.

G1: Won the dice roll for the third time today. Opened up meh with a striker and summoned it in attack, and set three backrows. Luckily he did not open too well but managed to get the ball rolling around turn 5, bringing out a hundred eyes dragon and a Stygian Sergeants which dealt about 7000 damage to me. I managed to draw a dark hole and took control from there. It was really close but I prevailed in the end.
G2: I sided into Pachy and It almost paid off. He went first and set in the hopes that I would overextend and screw me over. I special summoned striker and set Pachy, knowing what he was up to. His turn came and as I predicted he exploded, summoning many synchros. He used Infernity Break to destroy pachy. Him and the few people watching said "ooooooo lucky". I was not pleased that he had done that and it meant he had game 2.
G3: We still hadn't gone into time by the beginning of this round. Once again he exploded on me but couldnt muster enough power to deal 8000. His field ended up being a Infernity Archfiend, Hundred eyes dragon and a Brionac which came to around 7500-ish. I only needed to draw into a T.g. Warwolf to turn it around. I knew he had Barrier set so I knew it was now or never. I drew Warwolf and laughed. I special summoned Striker and Warwolf then normal summoned Rhino. I attacked over Archfiend with rhino, making his Barrier useless. He then realised I had level 9 worth of monsters and prepared his field and graveyard for a Trishula, but instead I made mist wurm since his hand was empty. Best play I made that day. His field was completely cleared by it and for the next 3 turns, he only drew into useless traps. Goes to show that Trishula isn't always the best level 9 for the Job.

In the end I had come third and Anthony came fourth. I didn't pull anything out of my packs but I was only there to test my deck, and was very happy with the results. However if I can get the cards, I'd rather play T.g. Stun with Barbaros and Tengus instead.

"Where should Thunder King Rai-oh be on the banlist?" poll

This time round, we got a large variety of opinions on this one. I like making controversial polls, since it's what makes the yugioh community talk.

Anyway, where should Thunder King Rai-oh be on the banlist?

• 11 people (13%) said it should be banned
• 25 people (30%) said it should be at 1
• 19 people (22%) said it should be at 2
• 28 people (33%) said it should stay where it is on the banlist

Wow. Just wow. Look at that spread of answers!

It's clear that you guys have a very mixed opinion on Rai-oh. Today I'm going to talk about him and what he does for the game.

Right so, Rai-oh came out in the second GX manga. He hits the field at 1900 beefy attack points and a meh 800 defence. So on the field, he's going to be one of the strongest first plays you can make. If you go first, your opponent cannot activate Pot of Duality or Search with any of their floaters. What this means is that the outs that your opponent has to have need to be in their hand (or in the next few cards in the deck) at the time. If they let it stick around on the field and try and make plays, they will most likely fall victim to Rai-ohs second effect, where it can send itself to the graveyard to negate an inherent special summon, such as synchro summons and cards like Machina Fortress, Hyperion, Kristya and so on.

So for your opponent to get over it, they have to special summon a big monster to do so, and Rai-oh means that even though your opponent just did make a big monster, it can tribute itself and take it with him.

Also, keep in mind that Rai-oh sending itself it a cost and the special summon being negated happens when rai-oh is in the graveyard, meaning it can be used under skill drain. That means it can be splashed in T.G. Stun and not conflict with the searching abilities of the T.g. monsters while still having it's negation effect.

But in my opinion, Thunder King is one of the best cards in the game. It's almost always useful and can really put your opponent in a tough spot, with no investment on your part. Even running 1 still gets to work all by itself  provided you summon it at the right time, but 2-3 is best. But where should it be on the banlist?

It's card design means it's unlikely to hit the banlist at all in the foreseeable future. It's an amazing card but like many other cards, there are ways to get around it and in the competitive scene, it's only really a minor annoyance. But since it's now a common (an expensive one though), it will see more play and that might make konami wake up to it.

Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek TOMORROW!

Hope you guys attending get good pulls! My locals just opens boxes and does packs of 5 like that (I heard american get sneak kits which supposedly has better pulls). What that means is that out of 5 people who enter the sneak, one person might get a secret.

I hope I get that secret, and it be a certain RABBIT.

Photon Shockwave: Top 10 monsters to look out for

Hello once again readers. I finally passed this blog on to my main account, so when I comment, it will say TheTCGLover. Same person, different account. Remember that :)

Anyway, with the Photon Shockwave sneak peek coming up in about 4-5 days, it's time to list the cards that I feel are worth grabbing if you see them being pulled. I did top 5 the last time I did this, but it was not enough to be honest.

10. Wind-Up Knight

This card allows you to negate an attack once while it's face up. If XX-Saber Fulhelmknight is anything to go by, being able to negate an attack is pretty darn good. And it's got 1800 attack which is not bad at all. On top of that, it triggers Magician and Factory. If you play Wind-Ups, it's probably best in 2s

9. Watt King Cobra

Very good support card for watts. It allows a search each time it attacks directly, so you can manipulate your deck a little better. Rivals Wattdragonfly in terms of usefulness in my opinion.

8. Photon Sabre Tiger

A great little floater. Allows you to search for another copy and it goes up to 2000 when there's 2 or more on the field, or it's effect is negated. It's effect allows it to be used with Galaxy Eyes, so it fits the theme well. Which puts me onto number 7...

7. Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon

The cover card of the set. This Dragon is the modern day equivalent of Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Even the name looks similar. It craps on Xyz monsters with it's effect so it's worth it if you can bring it out safely. I wouldn't use it outside of it's deck though.

6. Wind-Up Zenmaines

A very formidable card in terms of what it does. It sticks around a while an can be offensive while being defensive. It's easy to make now that we will get Wind-Up Rabbit. But both are Secret rare, which is annoying.

5. Evolzar Dolkka

An awesome card that can negate effects by detaching a material. It screws over flip effects and many widely played cards. It's brother is a little more versatile though.

4. Wind-Up Kitten

This card is actually really annoying once you loop it with wind-up rabbit. You can bounce synchros and xyz monsters for no cost. It's an Ultra rare in the set, so I doubt you will have to deal with it at the sneak.

3. Wind-Up Rabbit

This card brings the Wind-Up Archetype to the next tier (Tier 2-3). It does so much for the archetype and it's usable outside of it too. It can keep dodging anything and then be used for Zenmaines when you see fit. It triggers Magician and Factory so you can keep on plussing while it keeps dodging. It gets even worse once we get Wind-Up Zenmaighty in Order of Chaos.

2. Evolzar Laggia

The better out of the two brothers. Its essentially a Solemn Judgment on legs. It can negate almost anything except for monster effects and counter traps. I would say that it's more annoying that Shi en since it requires less searching and is harder to disrupt.

1. Rescue Rabbit

Definitely the card of the set. It's hype is pushing it to up to £100 on ebay. Konami made this card a secret while it was only a rare in the OCG set. But it's effect means you have access to almost any xyz monster under rank 5. It cannot be effect veilered so it's effect is almost a sure thing. You can get two Sabersaurus and make Laggia, or get two Alexandrite dragon and tribute them for Galaxy eyes. It is a card that will get better over time as more xyz monsters come out. It's only drawback is that you have to run Normal monsters which are bad to draw, but if you build the deck right, it's powerful.

Anyway. This is my list of cards I think are worth looking out for. There are other cards that are amazing in this set, but I cannot spend my whole day removing and adding cards onto this list.

Notable monsters include:

• Metaion, the Time Lord
• Number 10: Illumiknight
• Prior of the Ice Barrier
• Evolsaur Cerato
• Kagetokage
• Alexandrite Dragon

Seriously. This set is awesome. So many good cards! 

Deep Sea Diva. Why are you not using it?

Another blog entry from the TCG lover. This is just a casual blog entry to talk about Deep Sea Diva.

This card has been around for a while, and like many cards in our card pool, they get better with age. When Deep Sea Diva came out in Raging Battle, it was designed to be used with the other sea serpents in the set, like Spined Gillman. It was a support card for a very unsupported archetype, and if there was ever a sea serpent deck, Diva would be in it.

With it, you can drag out a monster from your deck. Sounds familiar to another card we all know doesn't it?

You know. It's a little girl with red hair and works in tourism. Specialises in one particular area; THE UNDERWORLD.

Yes. Tour Guide is probably one of the most powerful meta cards currently being played. Billy Brake (1st at YCS Columbus) used it, Alistair Albans (2nd) used it. Over half of the Top 32 used 3 of them. It's that good. However I, like most of the playerbase, have a life and the majority of our funds go to things that are a necessity. I would just like to say that if you devote your money into this game to play competitively, then I do not have any problems with that. It's really your money and if you want to spend $500+ on a playset of Tour Guides, then be my guest.

But I'm not one of those people. I look for alternatives and as far as I can see, Deep Sea Diva is a great alternative.

Here's what Tour Guide can do:

1. Special summon a Sangan or another copy of it.
2. Xyz into a Rank 3, mainly leviair
3. It can be fodder for Black Luster Soldier, Chaos Sorcerer or whatever you want
4. Poke for 1000
5. Make grown men yank their junk in a YCS (I don't actually know if this happens, but I guess I will be able to confirm that at YCS Brighton)

Now, here is what Deep Sea Diva can do:

1. Special summon any Sea Serpent below level 3 which includes a copy of itself
2. Xyz into a Rank 2. Gachi Gachi anyone?
3. Synchro into a level 5. Librarian/Catastor/Android anyone?
4. Fodder for Miracle fusion, which is what I use it for when it hits the grave.

Now that's been listed, lets see what they can fetch from the deck.

Tour Guide: Itself, Sangan (best generic searcher), Broww, Huntsman of Dark World (Bounce for Grapha, discard for a +1), Dark Resonator (Cannot be used for a synchro summon, but can stay on the field a while), Koa'ki Meiru Doom (Negates the hell out of so many cards this format).

Deep Sea Diva: Itself, Lost Blue Breaker (pop a backrow with it), Spined Gillman (Decent 1700 beater), Gishki Diviner (Good +1 if you guess it right)

But the main reason why I compare them is because while in many situations they are different, in some situations Deep Sea Diva is the better card. Simple as that. But it's been proven that Tour Guide overall is the better card to use, but that's not what I'm saying. Deep sea diva can make a quick synchro monster OR xyz into a Gachi Gachi OR get rid of back rows. It's ALMOST as versatile as Tour Guide yet it does not get the play it deserves. If you use the same layout that you do with Tour Guide (3TG + 1 Sangan), then you can toolbox Deep Sea Diva just as well. Because lets face it, Leviathan Dragon is a bad card. You made a 2500 vanilla (almost) with two $200 cards. Here's an idea: why not use a $3 rare and make catastor? One of them is prone to anything with a bit of muscle, and the other is almost Invincible in battle.

Seriously, It's a really good card. The amount of times I've been left with a level 4 on the field and nothing else. I topdeck Diva and just like that, the game has been turned around with a Trishula. 

Keep in mind that I only suggest this alternative to players who cannot afford Tour Guide. If you have the money, Tour Guide FTW.

Discussion: "Which is the best level 8 synchro monster?" poll

Thanks to everyone that voted on my poll. The Question asked what you thought is the best level 8 synchro monster and here is the results:

Out of 195 votes:

• 104 (53%) voted Stardust Dragon
• 46 (23%) voted Scrap Dragon
• 7 (3%) voted Black-Winged Dragon
• 7 (3%) voted Crimson Blader
• 5 (2%) voted Red Dragon Archfiend
• Chaos Goddess, Life Stream Dragon, Junk Destroyer and Colossal Fighter got 4 votes each (2% each)
• 1 person voted Dark end dragon 
• 9 voted Other (monsters like Black Brutdrago etc)

So to make this discussion less redundant, I'll only talk about the monsters with the highest votes: Stardust Dragon and Scrap Dragon

Stardust dragon. There is no wonder in my mind why it received over half the total votes. Since it's début in The beginning of the Synchro era, it's single handedly changed the way people have played the game. It's ability to negate an opponent's card and return in the end phase means it is a perfect way to protect yourself from your opponent's cards. Every player runs some kind of card that destroys, and that means stardust poses a threat to every person's deck. It stops some of the most powerful cards in the current metagame like Dark Hole, Torrential Tribute and Mirror force. But it's not tied to spells and traps. It can negate monster effects that destroy, like Dark Armed Dragon and Judgment Dragon. Time and time again, Yusei showed how useful stardust dragon can be and it's one of the only anime cards that is playable. About a year and a half later, Starlight Road was released, which gave stardust an easy way to hit the field and save your ass. The only drawback to summoning it this way was that you couldn't bring it back at the end phase, but that's no big deal. Stardust does suffer from a low base attack for it's level, so it's not invincible and can be ran over by most boss monsters in the game. But because of that, it restricts your opponent's options and makes cards in their hand useless until stardust is dealt with.

Scrap dragon arrived into the TCG in August 2010. While belonging to the Scrap Archetype, the card proved to be easy to summon (1 generic tuner + 1 or more generic non tuners!) outside of the archetype. It was also the only level 8 synchro with a good ignition effect: something level 8s had been lacking since then. It's ability to pop a card you control and one your opponent controls means you can take out the most threatening card your opponent has and slap them for up to 2800 damage. You also get the choice to plus off the effect by destroying something like Sangan or Card Trooper on your side and get their effects. It meant that many OTK options were now avaliable in certain decks that could make level 8s easier. While it's second effect was only usable within the archetype, it's worth mentioning. It can special summon another scrap monster for another synchro summon next turn, which means Scrap Dragon can keep coming back if you special summon Scrap Golem.

The other monsters in the poll obviously did not have as much of an effect on the playerbase compared to Stardust and Scrap Dragon. Some of them were pretty bad, like Black Winged Dragon. But now that the Synchro era has ended, we can now reflect on how they have raised the game to a new level. It allows some decks to be competitive and others to be easily countered. There is a Synchro monster for almost any situation imaginable. It's a shame we can only use 15, eh?

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Wind-Up Rabbit

It's been a while, I know. Anyway it's just over a week to go until the Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek. If you check the YuGiOh Wikia, you will see that the OCG imports have been announced (Or more likely, guessed), and they are looking good. Gishki, Laval and especially METAION the freakin' time lord are all making their debut in this set, which is a really awesome. They will probably be stupid rarities, but at least it's there.

Anyway, to continue with the TCG Exclusives, we have Wind-Up Rabbit

It's like Konami has this thing for rabbits....

This mechanical rabbit hits the field (Or more likely, returns) at 1400 attack and 600 defence. Being level 3, that's not too bad. It's got the power to get over most small monsters (Die Tour Guide, die!). But as this is a rabbit, it's effect allows it to be very nimble indeed.

During either player's turn: you can target one face up Wind-Up you control and banish it until your next standby phase. This effect can only be used once while this card is face up on the field.

So essentially, you can use this card's effect to dodge something, whether it be a Torrential, Mirror Force or a Book of Moon. It cannot dodge a Solemn Warning however (But I'm sure you knew that).

But once you start to understand the archetype, the card just gets better every time you look at it. This card means that you can banish itself or any other Wind-Up, and when the monster returns, you can reuse the card's effect. If you banish rabbit however, it can come back, and keep saving itself from getting destroyed. This makes it a very good card. You can return it to the field on your next turn, summon another level 3 and go into Wind-Up Zenmaines or any other Rank 3 that you wish (But Zenmaines is probably best).

Combined with Wind-up factory and Wind-up magician, you can remove Rabbit and then factory allows you to search for a Wind-Up, and Magician lets you special summon one from your deck. All that tasty advantage, and it comes back next turn.

Now what else is there to do with it? Well lets think about card's outside the archetype it can work with. It works under Pot of Duality since it does not special summon itself (a good way to turn the game around and get back some field advantage). It works with Horn of the Phantom Beast, turning it into a 2200 beater which is not too shabby. Leviair the Sea Dragon can bring it back, and you can use it's effect again if you wanted to.

There is really nothing bad to say about this card. You can argue that it's a bad normal summon since it does not provide any advantage when you do, but you plus as soon as you dodge something, so it's worth getting it on the field in any means necessary.

Now Konami decided it would be funny to make this card a Secret Rare. This card is really useful for the deck and up to this point, all the cards were incredibly easy to get (Zenmaister might have been a pain, but it was reprinted like 3 weeks after). But this card's versatility in the deck and as a tech card outside of the archetype's walls means that it could go for around £15-20 ($20-25) and I'm not stating the price at the sneak, I mean after it tanks.

Anyway I think it's time to review some of the imports. Next up will be Metaion!

Yu-Gi-Oh Video Card Review: Latinum, Exarch of Dark World

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Photon Sabre Tiger

There are other exclusives I wanted to review first, but since their effects are unconfirmed as of now, there seems to be no point in reviewing them. There is one that has been confirmed though, and it's one of the many ways that Konami is trying to make Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon more playable.

Today's card is Photon Sabre Tiger

Sabre no Swiping! 

Sabre no Swiping!

This level 3 LIGHT monster is part of the Photon archetype and has 2000 attack and 300 defence. That's pretty good stats for a level 3 don't you think? It must have some kind of downside to counter that incredible attack power.
It does, but it's nothing too bad.

When this card is normal or flipped summoned, you can add one "Photon Sabre Tiger" from your deck to your hand. If you do not control any other "Photon Sabre Tiger", this card drops down to 1200 attack.

This card is intended to be used with Galaxy eyes. If you have 2 of them on the field, they are both going to be 2000 attack. Then you can tribute them to special summon galaxy eyes. It requires a 2 turn setup but at least you don't waste 3 cards in your hand to do it.

So yeah, on it's own its 1200. You replace the tiger you just summoned so its essentially like Yellow Gadget in terms of attack power (The only difference is that Tiger does not get its effect when special summoned). So with Tiger now on the field, you will pretty much need to protect it for a turn while it's in it's weaker attack, otherwise your opponent will have trouble taking down 2 2000 attackers. Also, if you have 2 on your field, you have the opportunity to xyz into a rank 3 if you know your opponent can take one of them out on their turn.

Now for it's downsides. As I've said, if one of them dies, then the other will drop down to 1200 (unless you have all 3 on the field, then you're fine). Another is that it's quite slow. If you plan on using them for an xyz or galaxy eyes, then that's fine. But it does require you to use up your normal summon to get it's effect and that would rather be invested in something more advantageous, like Tour Guide or Goblindbergh. You can flip summon it, but at 300 defence, that's not really a good idea.

Anyway that's enough said on this mediocre exclusive. As for the price of it, it's almost assured to be a super rare and since you need 3 of them to use it, it could hover at around £5 (about $5 too), comparable to something like Naturia Cherries.

Next up for review will be something like Wind-Up Rabbit or Dark Smog, but only when their effects get confirmed. But for now I'll review one of the OCG imports.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Evolzar Dolkka

Hello everyone. Konami announced a bunch of exclusives a few days ago (about a day after my last card review) and because of that, I've got a lot to talk about over the next few days. One of the most impressive exclusives is an xyz that fills in where Evolzar Laggia cannot reach.

Meet it's weird looking brother, Evolzar Dolkka

Sorry about the Quality! 

This card has 2300 attack, 1700 defence and requires 2 level 4 dinosaurs as it's materials. What this means is that when you have the materials on your field, you have a choice of either of the two xyz, depending on the situation. This card can hit the one thing that Laggia's effect cannot:

When an effect monster's effect activates, you can detach 2 xyz materials from this card to negate the effect and destroy the monster.
So with Laggia and Dolkka on the field, you can negate absolutely anything (except for counter traps and that damn super polymerization). But enough about Laggia, this is a Dolkka review.

It can negate monster effects. Which means it can take out anything that relies on it's effect to be useful, like Breaker the Magical Warrior or so many other cards in the game. Plus once it's effect has been negated, the monster is destroyed, so you +1 at the very least (more if you destroy a synchro or xyz monster). The best cards to negate are definitely ones that require a discard to use it's effect, like Zombie Master, Lumina, Lightsworn Sorceress and if it ever comes back, Tribe Infecting Virus.

It's one of those cards that can slow own almost any played deck right now. If there's anything every deck has in common, it's that they all rely on monster effects in some form or another. This card craps all over that.

At first glance it would seem that Laggia is the better card though. It can hit more cards and negate the summon of the monster, so the effect will never happen. But Dolkka can make an impact on your opponent if their field presence is higher and you are trying to claim control. Simply put, it's an out for when you're losing, which is good since it does not take up any space in your main deck.

I kind of wish there was more I could think of to say. I doubt the 100 attack point difference makes no difference at the end of the day. But because of it's nature, one of them in your extra deck would do just fine (If you're playing the deck, of course.)

Now for the price. It's a secret rare, and while it's not a necessity for the deck, it's worth having if you are thinking of going to competitive tournaments with the deck, since it will up your chances of winning. So yeah, I would say around £35-40 ($45-50) at the sneak and maybe it will drop about £10-15 the months after.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: D-Boyz

As promised, I'm reviewing the next exclusive to be revealed. It was announced yesterday evening, and boy, is it bad.

Introducing: the D-Boyz

 Fo' shizzle!

This DARK Fiend type monster is level 1 and has 100 attack and 1000 defense. There must be a cool effect to warrant running a card like this, right? Well, here comes the disappointment train.

FLIP: You can special summon any number of "D-Boyz" from your deck in face-up attack position. For each one summoned this way, you take 1000 damage.

So special summon 2 of them, and you lose at least a quarter of your life points. If you flip it during your turn, you now have 3 of them on your field to tribute them for whatever you want, whether it's Beast King Barbaros, Obelisk the Tormentor or one of the Wicked gods. And if you prefer to Xyz summon, you can make Galaxy Queen (Which also comes out in Photon Shockwave).

While I sound like I'm giving the card mad props, it's utter junk. 95% of the time, Flip effect monsters get flipped up by your opponent when they attack it. That means that 95% of the time, you will lose the D-Boyz getting flipped and be left with 2 on the field. And don't think that those 2 D-Boyz are a good wall, because you took 2000 damage, and they hit the field in attack mode. Also, since it's a flip effect, it gets crapped over by Nobleman of Crossout.

The worst thing though is that there are other cards in the game that do almost exactly the same thing, but better! Hero kid can special summon the other 2 copies by it's effect, and Naturia Cherries can get you the other 2 in defense mode (and they're tuners!).

At least it's dark though, so it's Dark Armed Dragon friendly.

Other than what's above, there's not much to say. It's a waste of an exclusive and a Secret rare, especially since you need 3 of them to use it's effect. I find the artwork funny since Konami usually focuses on history or futuristic stuff, but instead they have done a group of gangsters from the 90s.

It's price? It's obvious that it's a terrible card, but the power of a unique artwork can do a lot to a card's price. Before Tour Guide became a $120 card, It was $30 at the sneak simply because it had a girl on it. Now this card not only has a strange art, and you need 3, which always puts a card higher. Therefore i can see it being about $20.

"Which spell card is the most powerful back row removal card in the game" Poll

The poll actually closed a few days ago, i just wanted to be consistent with my blog entries.

Thanks to everyone that voted, here is what you guys voted:

- 30 (48%) said Heavy Storm
- 16 (25%) said Giant Trunade
- 4 (6%) said Mystical Space Typhoon
- 12 (19%) are awesome and like cookies.

Cookies are ridiculously overpowered. To 0 Konami, TO 0!!

Ok, now let's be serious. I'm not surprised that nearly half of you said Heavy storm. If you eliminate all the other cards in the game, Heavy storm is mathematically the most powerful and is capable of destroying the most backrow out of the three. Trunade cannot destroy anything, but that has not stopped it being banned.

Now lets put all the cards in the game back into the equation. If you play the game for a while, you will realize the power of each card and their uses. Heavy storm CAN eliminate all back row threats permanently, allowing you to plus off that card alone. Once your opponent takes a heavy storm, they are wide open for anything you throw at them. The obvious benefit over Giant Trunade is that if you cannot deal the final hit that turn, your opponent can't set everything on their turn again and stop any chance of dealing that hit. That's essentially what made last format a 'Set 5, go' format. Decks like T.G. Stun could summon a floater and protect it with 4-5 back row and laugh. It was not a fun format, to be completely honest. You had to leave 8-12 spots in your deck for traps OR run very resourceful monsters like Reborn Tengu (Which laughs at most played traps) or as said above, T.G.s.

However, Heavy Storm and MST dictates what many players put into their decks. Starlight Road thrives in a Heavy Storm format and it's what allows decks like Gravekeeper's and Dragunity to stay competitive. Chainable cards are more popular because of Heavy and 3 MST (A huge mistake by Konami) so you can plus off them. For example, your opponent activates Heavy storm and you chain Compulsory Evacuation Device on their Synchro or Xyz monster.

So while all back row removal cards have their weaknesses and strengths, Heavy Storm overall is the most potent and game changing one.

Surely we can agree that bringing MST down to 1 on the banlist would solve all problems. The last time this was so was back in March 2010. The two months before Infernity broke the game (In May) were a couple of the most diverse and fun months in Yu-Gi-Oh.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Wind-Up Zenmaines

Greetings people. I've been struck down with the case of a cold so I apologise for my lack of updates to the blog recently. My target is to produce about 12 blog entries a month (around 1 every 2-3 days), so you guys can come back to this site with something new to read nearly every time.

Anyway, today's card up for review is the recently revealed TCG Exclusive, Wind-Up Zenmaines

"Come at me bro!"

This xyz monster hits the field at 1500 attack (Meh!), and a decent 2100 defence. 2100 is not very high in all honesty, but if it was any higher, it's effect might not go off so much. It also requires 2 level 3 monsters to summon it, so that's very good. Now for the effect itself:

When this card would be destroyed, you can detach an xyz material from it instead. Once a turn, during the end phase, when that effect was used this turn: destroy a card on the field.

So yeah, it's a decent wall that punishes your opponent for attacking it, or trying to destroy it. Since it has 2 xyz materials, you can save it from destruction and get it's effect up to 2 times. For those who do not understand, if the card prevents destruction twice this turn, you only get to blow up one card. But who is complaining? Not me.

The best defensive cards have always been ones that can sit in defence and pick away at your opponent without needing to attack (Total Defence Shogun, Destiny Hero - Defender, Big Shield Gardna for examples, but this card is better). Its unable to be destroyed regardless of your opponent's monster's attack power, and it's effect prevents your opponent from making a second big push 2-3 turns later.

This card does have some weaknesses though. Cards like Compulsory Evacuation Device, Dark End Dragon and most likely, Brionac, can remove this card from the field without having to destroy it. Also, this card needs to be on the field for it to get it's destruction effect in the end phase, so if your opponent can make enough monsters over 2100 attack in one go, then your wall will not be able to do much. Oh also, It's destruction effect is Compulsory. Which means if it's the only card on the field when it activates it's effect, it must target itself.

I could compare this card to Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. They both sit on the field, but Zenmaines can be used offensively. Gantetsu's attack boosting effect is nothing to scoff at either though (Used together puts Zenmaines at 2500 def!).

But, does this card actually help Wind-Ups?
Short answer: It does not. Long answer: It triggers the effects of Wind-Up factory and Wind-Up Magician, but thats about it. The card is actually difficult to summon in Wind-Ups, since they prefer their rank 4 and 5s.

Judging by the picture, it will either be a Secret or Super rare. If it's a secret, it's synergy with Tour Guide from the Underworld could push it up to around $30 or more. If it's a super, I would say around $10. Either way, this card is a nice addition to anyone's extra deck, provided they run enough level 3s.

My next card review will be whatever Exclusive is revealed next. Simply because they are cards that Konami creates with the intention of screwing up the game or to sell more packs.

The Infernity Loop

Recently I've taken an interest in Infernities. In an attempt to make the deck, I am currently trying to assemble all the cards for it. The annoying thing is that at my locals, the people who have the cards insist on saying "Yeah, but I don't value *Insert Infernity card here* that low because it's a good card.

Well, if Infernities were as broken as Agents or Tengu plants then they would have topped YCS Toronto. Simple as that.

Besides, I can get the cards I need super cheap off Ebay, but I'd preferred to trade for the stuff.

Anyway, the reason why I've taken an interest in the archetype is because of a Loop that was discovered and abused in Toronto. Which the deck did not top, the Loop was very detailed and there are many steps to do. If you mess up at any point, you cannot recover from it. Therefore I can't see it becoming too popular. It requires 3 Hundred eyes dragons, a Leviair the Sea Dragon, a Brionac and a level 5 synchro in your extra deck to pull it off. I was going to type the Loop up myself, but I'll just copy it from the Konami website instead.

What you need:
Extra deck:
3x Hundred-eyes Dragon
1x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1x any level 5 synchro
1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Hand:
1x Infernity Mirage

Graveyard:
1x Infernity Archfiend
1x Infernity Necromancer
1x Infernity Avenger

"-Summon Infernity Mirage and use its effect to Special Summon Infernity Archfiend andInfernity Necromancer.  Archfiend’s effect gets Infernity Launcher from the Deck.

-Activate Necromancer’s ability to Special Summon Infernity Avenger from the Graveyard.  Tune Avenger to Archfiend and Necromancer to Synchro Summon Hundred Eyes Dragon.

-Banish Infernity Mirage to copy its effect with Hundred Eyes.  Then Tribute Hundred Eyes to Special Summon back Necromancer and Archfiend with the copied ability.  Archfiend gets you another Necromancer from your Deck.

-Discard that Necromancer with Infernity Launcher’s effect.  Then Special Summon Avenger and Tune it with Archfiend for Ally of Justice Catastor.

-Send Launcher to the Graveyard to Special Summon Avenger and the second Necromancer.

-Tune Avenger and Catastor to Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.

-Special Summon Archfiend with Necromancer, getting a third Necromancer from the Deck.

-Discard that Necromancer for Brionac’s effect, bouncing Archfiend back to your hand,

-Stack the two on-field Necromancers to Xyz Summon Leviair the Sea Dragon!  Detach a Necromancer to Special Summon the banished Infernity Mirage.

-Discard Infernity Archfiend to bounce Leviair back to the Extra Deck.

-Activate Mirage’s effect to Special Summon two Necromancers.  The first will Special Summon Archfiend, and its effect will get you Infernity Barrier.  The second Necromancer brings backInvernity Avenger.

-Synchro Summon Hundred Eyes Dragon and banish Mirage again.  Tribute Hundred Eyes to Special Summon back the two Necromancers.  The first Necromancer Special Summons Archfiend to get Infernity Beetle to your hand.  Stack the two Necromancers again to bring out Leviair, and detach a Necromancer to bring back Mirage.

From here, the combo continues reusing Leviair, Archfiend, and Infernity Mirage, making whatever plays it needs to overcome the opponent.  Larabee’s favorite is to bring out Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier; bounce it back to the Extra Deck with Brionac; and then bring it out a second time before the combo runs out of steam.  That path lets him make enough searches withInfernity Archfiend to get multiple Infernity Barriers, and ends with enough monsters on the field to total 8000 ATK."

 - Taken from the Konami Website

With this loop, you can devastate your opponent's field and deal over 8000 damage. But there is no variations of this loop; every step must be exactly as done above.

Once I get all of the pieces, I will most certainly post a decklist of it on my Channel. But for now, here's my decklist from the Dueling Network:

Monsters - 15 

2x Dark Grepher

1x Armageddon Knight

3x Infernity Archfiend

3x Infernity Necromancer

2x Infernity Mirage

2x Infernity Avenger

1x Infernity Beetle

1x Stygian Street Patrol

Spells - 11

1x Pot of Duality

1x Infernity Launcher

1x Monster Reborn

1x Dark hole

3x Mystical space typhoon

1x Heavy storm

1x Foolish burial

1x One for one

1x Reinforcement of the Army

Traps - 14

2x Call of the Haunted

1x Archfiend's Roar

1x Return from a different dimension (Use with Mirage)

3x Infernity Barrier

1x Infernity Break

2x Infernity Inferno

1x Mirror force

1x Solemn Judgment

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Trap Stun