Scraps: They're some good s***.

Hey. Here's my recently updated Scrap Deck. Once Scrap Orthros comes out, its going in.

Booster boxes

Recently, i've been considoring getting a booster box. I don't want to waste my money (Who doesn't?) and yu-gi-oh is got to be one of the biggest money sinks in my life. The amount of times i've invested into a box only to pull crap and untradable rares. So even though i made about 3/4 of my money back with the pulls, its always theoretical money. However, there's a few places i've found cheap booster boxes:

• Crossroads of chaos: Over the last few months, the price of a CSOC box has halved in price. On amazon its around £30 (With free shipping). The set still boasts an assortment of really good cards. An ultra plaguespreader values at least £10 and a Black rose dragon is still good tradebait. When i bought one i split it with a friend so i paid £15 for 12 packs. While he pulled an overdrive teleporter, i got a Tytannial, Princess of Camellias. From one card, i made my money back, and everything else i pulled from those 12 packs was a pure bonus.

• Duelist revolution: This is the money set. Pot of duality and Solemn warning are both expensive as hell right now regardless of which side of the atlantic you reside in. Booster boxes are at least $100. But KoolKingdom are selling DREV boxes for £75 and £100. The £75 ones have their wrapping missing, but from my past experience, KoolKingdom is a website you can trust. Its where i get my singles ;)

• Ebay are selling Crimson Crisis boxes for around £33 now. It has some useless cards like the assault mode monsters, but it also has arcanite magician, which is so good!

There are many more cheap boxes out there. And a box is very difficult to be scaled, so you know what you're getting.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Tour Guide From The Underworld

The past few days, a couple of the TCG exclusives for Extreme Victory have been surfacing, one of which was accidental, like this one.

I give you, Tour Guide From The Underworld

One of the best artworks i've seen in a while.

Konami told us about a month ago that they are getting ready for the new exceed summoning which debuts in the TCG in August. They wanted to give the players an easy way to get the requirements to exceed summon (Having two or more monsters of the same level on your field), and this card is proof.

Its got 1000 attack and 600 defence. Thats not really important though, because i doubt you will be using it for attacking.

When this card is normal summoned, you can special summon one level 3 fiend type from your hand or deck. Its effects are negated, and it cant be used as synchro material.

This means that you summon this card, special summon a level 3 fiend, and exceed into a rank 3 monster. Thats the jist of it anyway. However, this card can special summon quite a few interesting monsters, albeit their effects will be negated. The best card i can think of is sangan. You can simply exceed into a rank 3, remove sangan from the exceed monster, and search for any card you want. And it replaces the card you used in your hand in the first place.

This card can also fetch infernity Necromancer. While its effects are negated, its a 2000 wall which when sent to the graveyard, can be brought back with Infernity Launcher for many Shenanigans. Or if you really want to, you can special summon a second copy of tour guide.

But after researching all the possible targets this card can special summon, its actually quite limited. Since it can only special summon a level 3 fiend-type, many good cards dont fit into that catagory.

Well, at least you can attack with the monster you summoned, as well as Tour guide itself.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Scrap Kong

It's Friday again. I think all this Rebecca Black hate is starting to go now. Which is good, because the only thing i care about in life is Trading Cards.

Next up for review is Scrap Kong



Scrap Kong has a powerful 2000 ATK and 1000 DEF. Like all its brethren, its an EARTH attribute and even though its comprised of random bits of machinery from a scrapyard, its a Beast type. Anyway, this card has a meh effect.

When this card is Normal Summoned, Destroy it. When this card is destroyed by the effect of a Scrap monster (including itself) and sent to the graveyard, you can return a scrap monster (Other than Scrap Kong) from your graveyard to your hand.

So, Normal summoning it means you can get whatever you want back to your hand. Usually you will want to be returning a Scrap Chimera or Scrap Breaker, but i'm not stopping you if you want to bring back anything else. This effect only applies when its normal summoned though, so special summoning it with Scrap Dragon's effect or Scrap Lube (That name is still funny) will not destroy it.

However, this card works incredibly well with the Meklords. To my Knowledge, Skiel is coming out in Extreme Victory, Wisel is out sometime soon, and Grannel is for whoever wins a nationals in the coming months. Any Meklord works well with Scraps and Scrap kong is a quick way to get a Meklord onto the field without losing advantage. From there, you can steal your opponent's synchros.

So, while this card does not really have a spot in scrap decks right now, it will once we get the Meklords.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Dodger Dragon

Hello everyone. I hope you guys, the ones who are students, have had a decent Easter Holidays. I know I haven't. For everyone else, at least the weather is getting better.

Anyway, today's card is a confirmed exclusive from Extreme Victory (Next to Absolute Powerforce, a ridiculous name for a booster set) . Konami have been observing what's going on in YCSs recently, and have seen what cards are predominant in most decks, so one of their answers is Dodger Dragon.

As the name implies, he dodges stuff.

This Dragon has a 1900 attack and 1200 defence. In the past, that Attack and defence have gone together quite often. Off the top of my head i can remember Vorse Raider, Luster Dragon and many more. Its effect however, makes it quite useful in today's meta.

This card's normal summoning cannot be negated. Your opponent cannot activate counter traps on the turn that this card is normal summoned.

This card is a huge middle finger against some of the most common trap cards out there. While cards like Bottomless Trap Hole can destroy it (Since you have to wait for it to be normal summoned, then BTH destroys it after it has been summoned successfully), many players have switched out their 2 copies for Solemn Warning. This card completely stops that and if you wish to summon more that turn, you can without worries. Not only is it good against Warning, its also good against its brother, Solemn Judgement as well as many others. It's a great starting point to the beginning of your turn, and can help you get in some really neat damage with its 1900 attack power.

But this card shines in Hopeless Dragon decks. You can summon this card and shut down their Warnings, then remove it from play to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and from there, you can summon whatever dragons you want from your hand and your opponent cannot do a thing about it. Even if you attack directly, their useless card on the field means that they can't summon Gorz.

This card however, only gets its effect when its normal summoned. While that's not a big deal in some decks, it slows down the deck it's in unless you have the resources to swarm the field using other cards. Topdecking this card is not too bad, but you would have preferred something that could possibly bait their Warning/Judgement and make them waste their life points late game. Its also a WIND type, which does not do it many favours compared to if it was a DARK or LIGHT. And after the turn this card has been summoned, its a sitting duck which does nothing else for you (Unlike Thunder King Rai-Oh), but so does Trap Stun, and many people run that.

Its going to be a Super Rare in Extreme Victory, so at least its not too hard to pull. I would have felt cheated if it was a higher rarity than that, though.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Naturia Landoise

Its friday (FUN FUN FUN FUN!) and its only a few days left until Hidden Arsenal 4 is released to the public. There are already some box openings on youtube and some people have been lucky enough to pull multiple Trishulas per box.

Anyway, the last HA4 card i will review is Naturia Landoise

Torterra from Pokémon, anyone?

This level 7 rock-type synchro monster has 2350 attack and 1600 defence. That's actually really bad, since the standard attack for a level 6-7 is around 2400-2800 attack, and this card just misses that crucial bracket. It requires an Earth tuner and one or more Earth non-tuners, which is not too difficult to accomplish, but its a little harder to make than Beast and Barkion. The effect will get better with age, but as of now, its lacking:

Which this card is face up, when your opponent activates an effect monster's effect, you can send one spell card from your hand to the graveyard to negate the effect and destroy the monster.

So, if the effect goes off, its a one-for-one. As the game becomes more effect monster orientated, this card has so many chances to make use of its effect. While its 2350 attack means monarchs and other such beaters can get over it, it can negate the monarch's effect and destroy it, or you can Bottomless a Shi en and you can use this card's effect to make sure it goes through (But its still a -1).

However, unlike its brothers Naturia Beast and Naturia Balkion, its effect is somewhat a difficult choice to use. Beast is great to lockdown opponents (especially their book of moon or forbidden lance) and you get to mill too, which is never a bad thing. Barkion lets you negate traps, which is a big part of our current meta. But with Landoise, you dont +1 no matter how you look at it. The only way to +1 is to negate a Brionac or another monster that has a cost to their effects, but whats stopping your opponent from synchro summoning Gaia Knight instead?

It also has no use when its destroyed unlike the other two. Beast and Balkion can be used to fusion summon Exterio and really lockdown your opponent. If you can get a landoise and an exterio on the field however, then you have created a difficult lockdown for your opponent. Im guessing Konami feels that negating Monster effects is somewhat more important than negating spells or traps, which is true for a lot of decks.

One way that this card might get better is if we suddenly get spell cards that do things when they are discarded. Ojamagic can get you ojamas from your deck to your hand, but now you're deck is really starting to look inconsistent.

Thats about it really. Don't get too excited if you pull this. It's probably going to be chilling in your binder for a LONG time.

Hidden Arsenal SE Promos Confirmed!

Hey people. Konami have officially announced the promo cards that you could get when you buy a Hidden Arsenal special edition. Each special edition will come with a hidden arsenal 1, 2 and 3 pack as well as one of the two promo cards:

Naturia Pineapple OR XX-Saber Emmersblade!

When Konami decide to something right, they deserve an applause. Players have been begging for an Emmersblade reprint since it hit our game as a secret rare in Absolute Powerforce a year ago. It is an essential for the deck.

Naturia Pineapple is good too. Another Secret rare from a hard-to-find set. It was intended to be abused with Naturia Bambooshoot for a quick lockdown, but never really hit off. Maybe this is the breakthrough that could put them on the competitive scene. We will find out soon enough.


Still waiting on that Pot of Duality Reprint :(

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Reborn Tengu

Hey readers. With the Extreme Victory Sneak Peek around a month away, its mandatory that I do a review of the Sneak Peek card that comes with the 5 packs you will get when you enter. And guess what, this one is actually good.

Say hello to Reborn Tengu

Mirror force me, I DARE YOU!

This Beast-Warrior type monster is a WIND attribute (boo!) but comes with a respectable 1700 attack and 600 defence. Its effect has been specifically designed by Konami themselves to synergise with the new summon mechanic: Exceed Summoning.

When this card is removed from the field, special summon one "reborn tengu" from your deck.

Right off the bat, this card replaces itself when it leaves the field. If you send it for a synchro summon, you get another one. If you attack into a Mirror force, you get another one and can attack again. If you Tribute summon it for a monarch, that's a potential 4100 points of direct damage right there.

The best part about this card is the fact that its effect is Mandatory. Like Dandylion for example, its effect goes off no matter what, which is why it can potentially be utilised for so many mechanics as stated above. It works with exceed summoning because when you remove it from your exceed monster, it special summons another from the deck. That means you get the exceed monster's effect, and a new 1700 beater to summon more exceed monsters with.

However, this card is best ran in 2s. Like Gravekeeper's spy (Which will work epicly together with this card by the way!), it is horrible to draw more than one in your opening hand since you cant special summon the tengu from your hand, only your deck. So two is the way to go.

This card also gets it's effect when its returned to the hand, so there are many synchro options with cards like Genex Ally Birdman (And Birdman becomes 1900 atk).

A deck that can really abuse this card? The medal has to go to Scraps. Summon a tengu with a scrap beast on the field, Synchro Summon a Scrap Dragon and you get a tengu to use for Scrap dragon's effect (And if you're running 3 tengu, you can get the third one now).

There is really so many combos that you can do with this card. Konami really have outdone themselves this time with this promo card. If you go to the sneak peek in may, make sure you grab a few of these before people realise how good this card is!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Naturia Ragweed

In Hidden Arsenal 4, we will be introduced to some more naturia monsters. Even though it is one of the largest archetypes in the game (Next to Worms, which is also a DT archetype), Konami insists that they don't have enough monsters already.

After looking through them, i found one that stood out, called Naturia Ragweed

Aww!

Right, down to business. Ragweed has an OK 1200 attack and a modest 2000 defence. that 2000 defence is solid enough to protect you for a turn or two. Its effect?

When your opponent activates a card that lets them draw outside the draw phase, you can send this card from the field to your graveyard to draw 2 cards.

Thats some very good draw power. The reason why im reviewing this card is because you don't need to play naturias to play this. It can be placed in any deck, and it can be sided against many meta decks. Here is a list of cards that this card works against in our current meta:

- Allure of darkness: Many DARK decks run this.
- Morphing jar: You will get to draw 7 cards (ROFL) instead of 5
- Archetype specific draw cards like destiny draw, solar recharge, cards for black feathers and Cards from the Sky (When it comes out in the summer)
- Card Trooper: Its at two now, and many decks are running this card for its milling and drawing which you can take advantage of with this card.

The problem is that a lot of decks are no longer using draw power. Searching for the cards that you want from your deck is more beneficial to deal with the current situation. Cards like Reinforcement of the army, Gateway of the six and Sangan let you search, which does not count as drawing, so you would not be able to use ragweed when they do this, which means it could become a useless card on your field

So check this card out when you open your Hidden Arsenal 4 booster box in 2 weeks time. Its probably going to be a super but i wouldn't recommend running more than 1 in your deck (Side the other two against exodia and lightsworns!)

Duelist pack 2011 opening

America gets a tin, and we get a cardboard box.

Deck Thinning: How it works and why it's so darn important.

Today i would like to write a lengthy review about one of the most important aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Every deck uses it, and decks use it to win. Use it right, and you can manipulate your deck to toolbox any situation, without compromising on advantage.

The power of Deck Thinning is one of the tools avaliable to any duelist who wishes to use it in their deck. Firstly, what is it?

To thin your deck is essentially to make the deck card count smaller. To weave through the arsenal of cards in your deck to the one that you want is probably the most powerful weapon you can wield. In many decks, there are ways to thin your deck, but all decks have access to draw cards. Draw cards have been put under control by Konami's banlist in the recent years. Pot of Greed did so much for such a simple effect. If you drew it early in the game, you could really outspeed your opponent and set up much quicker. Konami released Pot of Duality in The Duelist Revolution (Which i did a review on ages ago) which is the definition of consistency as we know it today. It is one of the ways that competitive duelists (competitive as in spends lots of money on a game with the intention of winning and making a profit) dig through their deck to the card they want. While that might thin the deck by 1 card, it does not thin it enough. Some decks need to thin their deck to get access to a single card.

The most common method of doing that is Milling. Milling is the process of sending many cards from your deck to the graveyard so the cards sent can be used. Debris plants (which is not so potent anymore) uses Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter to destroy a card on the field and mill 3 cards in the hopes that they mill anything that can be special summoned with Debris Dragon. It thins their deck immensely and the player does not have to worry about drawing the monster that they would rather have milled to the graveyard.

Lightsworn is the king of deck thinning. It uses cards like Necro Guardna and Glow-Up Bulb which are milled to the graveyard so that they can be used and not drawn into. There are other ways of thinning the deck other than milling. Upstart Goblin lets you draw a card and your opponent gains 1000 life points. Some see the 1000 life as too much of a benefit to the opponent, but others see it as a way to get to the cards you want quicker. It does not matter if you have 11000 life points and your opponent has now assembled multiple beaters on the field, ready to wipe you out right there. But with draw cards, your deck needs to be as small as possible. Many competitive players, such as myself, refuse to play a deck over 40 cards. with every extra card in your deck, the chances of drawing an out to the current situation is slimmer and slimmer. Cards like Upstart Goblin and Pot of Duality are completely useless if your deck has over 40 cards. If you're playing a 41 card deck, the card you just drew with Upstart Goblin could have been in your hand already if you were playing a 40 card deck (theoretically).

Another way to thin your deck is through controlled milling (a term i just made up). That is, sending the cards to the graveyard that you want there, rather than just sending anything that you might of wanted to draw instead (monster reborn, dark hole etc.). A deck that uses this well is Frog monarchs. They use Swap frog to send treeborn frog and fishborg blaster to the graveyard from the deck. Treeborn frog special summons itself every standby phase and fishborg is a tuner which can be summoned by discarding a card while you have a water monster on the field. This allows you to synchro both into Formula synchron and draw a card, and you have not even wasted your normal summon yet! But controlled milling (or dumping) is generally more costly on resources. Foolish burial can be used in any deck, but is a -1 depending on what you send to the graveyard. Konami know how placing "send ____ from your deck to the graveyard" on a card is a powerful tool to thin your deck, and don't make many cards that can do that.

The best decks can fetch nearly any card from their deck and place it on the field immediately. Search cards like Reinforcement of the Army, Charge of the Light Brigade, Gateway to the Six, Dragon Ravine all let you fetch the monsters from the deck that you need, allowing for increased consistency and deck thinning at the same time. If you don't run a deck that uses search cards, you can use recruiters like shining angel and mystic tomato if you really wanted to. There is no reason why you shouldnt be trying to thin your deck during a duel.

Now, back to card reviews!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: The Fabled Unicore

Hello readers. As stated at the end of my last card review, today is The Fabled Kudabbi's brother/sister (Im veering towards sister, but its a unicorn so who gives a flying f***).

Here we have The Fabled Unicore

That's one evil looking unicorn.

This 4 star unicorn has an impressive 2300 attack, making it the strongest level 4 synchro out there (There's only 3 level-4 synchro monsters, so its not really worth giving a cookie to). Like its brother it is synchro summoned with one fabled tuner and one or more non-tuner monsters. And like all of the fabled archetype, it is a LIGHT attribute. Now for the effect:

While both players have the same number of cards in their hands, you can negate the effect of effect monster's effects, spell cards and trap cards while this card is face up on the field.

This effect can be incredibly annoying for your opponent. Since fableds discard alot, the critical number is 0 cards in your hand. If you can get your opponent into a topdecking situation, there is not much he can do. If you have 0 cards and he/she does too, they will have to draw a card and not use it until their next turn, otherwise it will be negated. But you can just draw and not use that card, so you are both at 1 card in hand and they will still be unable to do anything. But i can see this card being the bane of many duelists who are sick of hearing "how many cards in your hand?".

Since this monster's effect is continuous, it does not start a chain and therefore can negate counter traps, similar to cards like Royal Decree and Spell Canceller.

One way to get both players to the same number of cards in hand is morphing jar. It refreshes both players hands to 5, so thats an option (fableds run morphing jar anyway).

Thats about it, really. its a decent card and at the very least it can suicide into Brionac.