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

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Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Watt King Cobra & Wattcancel

Hello readers. After eventually getting over my rage with black luster soldier, I can now continue with my card reviews. Watts have been given the short stick to be completely honest. Since their debut in The Shining Darkness back in May 2010, they were given support in every set until Storm of Ragnarok. But all of their support has been lackluster, bar a couple (Wattgiraffe and Wattdragonfly are decent). When they stopped recieving support in Extreme Victory, it was assumed to be the end of watts. All they need is a few more decent support cards, and then they are very good, maybe even competitive (Maybe a level 4 that can special summon a Watt from the graveyard perhaps?).

Now that Photon Shockwave is on the horizon, Konami gave Watt players a little something to keep them interested: Watt king cobra & Wattcancel

Lets start with the monster. Watt king cobra has 1000 attack and 500 defense. all Watt monsters have a low attack power, so no surprise there. Like a few of it's Watt buddies, it can attack directly. However, when it does damage by attacking directly, you can add a Watt monster from your deck to your hand.

This is actually very good. It's not perfect, but it's definitely worth using in Watts. If you get it's effect, it's a +1 and it forces your opponent to waste cards on it to stop you gaining the advantage. The best card to add to your hand is probably another Cobra, so you can +2 next turn. But this whole process is incredibly slow, which is the main problem with Watts in the first place.

However, Wattcancel is a way to slow down your opponent to your speed.

 Ojama yellow getting a Watt welcome

It's a counter trap card that lets you negate a normal or (Inherent) special summon and destroy it, provided you discard a watt monster.

This is also another very useful card to use. It's better than other archetype specific summon negation cards such as Vanquishing light and maybe even Saber hole, since you do not need to have the monster on the field, just in your hand. That's what makes it decent though since Watts are reliant on their normal summon so they will almost always have a hand with at least 1-2 Watts in it. Although, the card is a -1 (-1 from the card itself and a -1 from the discard cost, but a +1 from the monster it destroys), there are a few ways to recover from it. If you attack with Wattkingcobra and use it's effect, then you have now turned the Wattcancel into a slightly worse solemn warning. Also, if you use the spell card Recycling Batteries, you can retrieve the card that you discarded and another Watt monster. Running 2-3 Wattcancel alongside 2 Solemn Warning is some serious monster hate right there, and your watts can just keep poking for damage now that their field's open (Especially Wattgiraffe, since its effect stops your opponent from summoning Gorz).


So yeah, Photon Shockwave is jam packed with many interesting cards to give semi-old archetypes a helping hand, which Konami should always be doing to stale archetypes, but they don't (poor Toons :( ). But i can tell that Watts are still in need of one or two good cards before becoming a threat in the current meta. For my next review, I'm going to take a look at a banned card that's been revised.

Black Luster Soldier: One little pickle of a card.

This post is not really a card review, more of a rant and a discussion of said card.

If any of you (and I hope it's many of you), have seen one of my recent duels on the Dueling Network (DN), Black Luster Soldier - Envoy played a huge part in my opponent's strategy. He managed to summon it 3 times in the duel, causing me to run out of outs to it the third time round. I managed to use Gladiator beast war chariot twice, but it just wouldn't die. If I had known he had beckoning light set, I would have summoned Gladiator Beast Retiari and removed it. But he could have chained beckoning light and got it back anyway. Point is, the card really screwed me over.

One of the things I don't like about this card is how the situation goes down when it hits the field. It has two effects: Remove a Monster on the field, or double attack right? Well when it hits the field, the person who summoned it has priority to use the first effect to remove something.

So, I would politely say "Priority?", giving him a chance to use the first effect if he wants. One of the problems with this card is that if I don't suggest it, then he might activate it after the summon was successful, so my face down bottomless trap hole is useless.

But the most annoying problem here is, if I ask if he is retaining priority to use it's effect, he will begin to figure out that I will activate a card after priority has been passed over to me, thus realising to use the removal effect before I can activate my bottomless and 1-for-1.

It's very frustrating when this happens, and it's the reason why I cannot stand facing it right now. How is a budget player supposed to deal with cards like this without losing 2 cards on the field in the process?

My theory is that because the OCG and TCG banlists are identical, Black Luster Soldier could come back into the OCG quite happily since they do not have priority anymore, therefore clearing up the issue I had with the card.

Simply put, it should have stayed at 0 in the TCG. The TCG is simply not suited for a powerhouse card like Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning to exist in.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

Next up for review is the Cover card of the next set, Photon Shockwave. Its been a long time since the cover card was not between the numbers 40-50 in the set (I believe the last time this happened was Rainbow dragon, or maybe Red Dragon Archfiend/Assault mode). It's evident that Konami have some crazy obsession with dragons, because so many cover cards thus far have been dragons, as well as boss synchro monsters and other cards.

Anyway, today I'm reviewing Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.

The ghost rare art is so freakin' sexy!

This is Kaito's ace monster in the Anime (If you dare to watch it). It hits the field at 3000 attack and 2500 defence. With those stats, it's assumed that he is going to be Yuma's rival for the rest of the anime (Like Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician). He is part of the Photon archetype, which I have mentioned a few times in my previous card reviews. Anyway, here's the effect:

You can Tribute 2 monsters with more than 2000 attack to special summon this card (From your hand). When this card battles, during the damage step, you can remove from play Galaxy-eyes and the monster it's battling. When the battle phase ends, return both monsters to the field. If your opponent's banished monster was an Xyz monster, this card gains 500 attack for every Xyz material that Xyz monster had when it was banished.

That's quite a lot of effect right there. Definitely one of the weirdest effect's I've seen in a long time. Like all good boss monsters, it's got a built in special summon condition that does not need to be filled in order to get it onto the field. But it does require 2 monsters and they both have to be 2000 attack or more. There are very few level 4 or below monsters that come onto the field with 2000 or more attack, so unless you're running Koa'ki Meiru's, you will have to use level 5 or above, which means you will have to tribute summon monsters, which is rarely ever a good thing to do anymore (unless its for a monarch). Therefore, the best cards to use as fodder are easy to summon cards like Cyber dragon, or cards that can gain attack by their effects, like Wind-up Soldier.

Once your preferred summoning method is sorted out, you can easily summon it when you need to. Now, it's effect, I admit, is really not very good. With the way the game is, this card can be stopped so many times even before you get to enter the battle phase (Bottomless, Solemn warning, torrential etc.. etc.. etc..). However if you do manage to get into battle without being stopped (Say, by using MST on all of the back rows before summoning this card) you can banish problems that are in the way, allowing your other monsters to attack through. You can attack the Legendary Jujitsu Master that is sitting there on your opponent's field and remove them before it's effect activates. But it's best used against Xyz monsters so that you can remove their Xyz materials. That makes Leviathan dragon a 2000 sitting duck or Leviair the sea dragon completely useless. But with 3000 attack, wouldn't you prefer to just attack over their monster anyway? sure you can gain up to 1500 attack with it's effect (If the Xyz monster had 3 materials), but how many cards in this game can get over 3000 attack? At least you do not have to worry about Honest if you use it's effect.

Anyway, in conclusion, this card is really nothing to rave about. It's got a lackluster effect, and it's just food for the younger player base who watch the anime and wants to play Photons. There are other, easier to summon 3000 beatsticks with much more potent effects, like the ridiculously broken Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

It's price? Well I can imagine many people getting very annoyed if they pull this card from a pack, so it wont be any higher than around $5. The Ghost rare might be around $10, only because that rarity is sought after by collectors, and it actually looks really good.

The poll is now closed

Hello everyone. The poll I had displayed on my blog is over. The question was 'Where should Mystical Space Typhoon be on the Banlist?'

You guys voted and:
6% wanted it to be forbidden
11% wanted it limited
49% wanted it semi-limited
33% was happy that it's now at 3

Thanks for voting. I personally feel that you guys are right. MST at 2 would certainly clear up some problems this format. I made the wrong assumption that players would only run 2 since less traps are played, but MST at 3 protects your traps as well as being a 1-for-1 offensive tool right when you need it.

I hope Konami visits this blog and sees exactly what the playerbase wants in the game.

The next poll question is: 'Which is the most powerful back row removal card?'

Im going to post some DN videos on my youtube channel

I'll make one every day or so. Suggest decks to play and comment on the sound or if I'm making bad plays :)

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Number 10: Illumiknight

Good evening readers. To ensure continuity with my reviews, the next card we're going to look at is Number 10: Illumiknight

 

 

This Xyz monster requires 3 level 4 monsters as it's materials and hits the field at an underwhelming 2400 attack and defense. Now i keep saying it, but so far Konami are really trying to make sure that Xyz monsters are not broken or anything close to it. If this card had 2600 attack then it would have been much more useful. Now onto it's effect:

Once per turn, you can detach one of its xyz materials, send one card from your hand to the graveyard, then draw a card.

Now, if you have not noticed, you can use this card's effects up to three times (Not on the same turn, of course). It is a +0 since you send a card, and draw a card to replace it. But while that is the case, i really like it. There will be times when ditching a useless card and digging into your deck can really benefit you. I mean, it's why Hero decks use Destiny draw as an engine, and lightsworn players run 3 solar recharge in any variant of the deck. They are a +0, but they allow you to access more options that your deck can provide for you to tackle the current situation.

Because this card sends, you cannot use cards that get their effects when discarded (Like Fabled Cerburrel). But the advantage gained would be a little too ridiculous.

When i first approached this card, i was really annoyed by the fact that it needed 3 level 4s to make it. But you would be surprised how often the opportunity comes up. With monster reborn still in the game and call of the haunted at 2, assembling the materials is easy. In lightsworns, use can use Wulf, Lightsworn beast to swarm and Xyz. Offering gadgets can make this with ease. And if you feel like trying the archetype, you can use Photon Veil to fetch 3 Daybreakers and special summon all 3 by Photon lead.

Anyway that's pretty much it. This card is nothing spectacular, but if your deck can make it, you might be able to draw yourself a victory that you wouldn't have been able to before.

The price? This card is way underhyped. Because of that, i can see it being around £15-$20 at the sneak (Since this "OMG i need xyz!!" from the GENF sneak wont apply here, which made the Xyz monsters more than they should have been) and then it should drop down to around £8-$10 by around december.

The other Xyz in the core set are pretty much trash (Baby Tragon is cute though), so what should i review next?

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Thunder-End Dragon

Happy Sunday everyone! There's no better day than a Sunday to kick back with a few drinks, huddle around your buddies, and play some trading card games.

Continuing one with the Photon shockwave card reviews, today's card is Thunder-End Dragon

 Looks a little like Blue-Eyes Shining dragon.

This is the first rank 8 Xyz monster to be made thus far. Because its a rank 8, it requires 2 level 8s as its xyz materials. Not only that, they must be normal monsters. That's probably the most difficult summoning requirements for an Xyz monster to date (Just a little ahead of Evolkaiser Ragia).

Hitting the field at 3000 attack and 2000 defense, it packs a punch. But because of its summoning requirements, you'd think that it would be 3500 to help it get over the big beaters of today (I'm looking at Judgment dragon and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning). At least it's effect can help with that problem.

Once a turn, you can detach one of its 2 materials to destroy all other monsters on the field.

Well, that's a little underwhelming of an effect. I just gave up 2 big beaters to make 1, and all it can do is nuke the monsters on the field? I'd rather it blew up all spells and traps to be honest. Then i can just attack other their monsters and put them in a tough position.

There's really not much to say about this card's effect though. It does not have to worry about Face-down monsters since it blows them away. But how do we summon this beast?

About a year ago i did a review on Blue-Eyes White Dragon. This card is a perfect candidate to use for xyz summoning Thunder-End Dragon. It can be searched by White stone of legend and Summoner's art, and can be special summoned straight from the hand by Kaibaman and Ancient Rules, which is handy. Special summon 2 of them and you can Xyz into Thunder-End. Not too difficult, is it?

Anyway, this card is probably going to stay an ultra rare in its TCG. It shouldn't be a ultra but since it's a powerful beater, it will probably stay where it is. I wouldn't be too happy if i pulled it though!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Photon Veil

As i was looking through photon shockwave, i was picking out cards that i would probably review in the coming few months. Photons look to be an interesting group of cards to play around with when the set is released. A few of their cards however, can be splashed in other LIGHT decks since they do not specifically refer to Photon cards.

One of them is the spell card called Photon Veil

This spell card allows you to return 3 LIGHT monsters from your hand into your deck. Then you can add up to 3 level 4 or below LIGHT monsters from your deck to your hand. If you choose 2 or more monsters, they must have the same name.

The main reason why i am reviewing this card is because of Lightsworns. They are going to be big this format with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning at 1. One problem with Lightsworns is the Consistency issue. For a Deck to win a YCS, they must be able to consistently win 11-12 rounds of swiss to even get into the Top 32. When lightsworns work though, they are almost unstoppable.

This card can help with the consistency problem. You can return LIGHT monsters like Wulf back into your deck and get monsters you can actually use. It means your starting hand is better and you can focus more on milling and setting up, rather than trying to get out of a terrible hand of Necro gardna, Glow up Bulb, Plaguespreader and 3 Wulfs (It happens more often than you think). It means you can return monsters like Judgment dragon and Black Luster Envoy when you cannot summon them at that present time.

However, this card has more problems than its worth. First off, you need to have 3 LIGHT monsters in your hand before you can even think of activating this card. That means 4 specific cards in your hand. Also, you need to be able to handle the inherent -1 that this card makes. You activate the card (-1), return 3 to the deck (-3), and add 3 to your hand (+3), and thats if you add 3 to your hand.

Also, the the best way to make use of this card is to have 3 cards of the same name in your deck. Decks like Lightsworns focus more on having many different monsters in your deck. The only monster that might be played at 3 in there is Wulf. But with the way the deck needs to be at the moment, 2 wulfs is considerably better and frees up a deck slot.

The card is meant to be used with Daybreaker, which when special summoned through Photon lead (Which i might review), allows you to special summon all 3 of them from your hand, allowing for a Rank 4 xyz summon.

But the way this card supports a whole attribute, it might get rarity bumped all the way up to Ultra rare. If it did end up a holo though, the artwork would look superb.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Evolkaiser Lagia

Hello readers. It's been a while since I've done a card review. In addition, this post is my 100th post on this blog. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, today's card for review is Evolkaiser Lagia

Lagia says "no"

This Xyz monster requires 2 Level 4 Dinosaur-type monsters to summon it and hits the field at 2400 attack and 2000 defense points. That's pretty decent once you take a look at it's potent effect.

You can detach 2 Xyz materials from this card to negate the normal/special summon of a monster, or the activation of a spell or trap card, and destroy it.

Right off the bat, you can relate the effect of this card to Solemn judgment. The only difference is that this card does not cost half your life to use it. Like Solemn judgment, you cannot negate special summons from a card effect, like an X-saber special summoned by XX-Saber faultroll or a monster summoned by Call of the haunted etc.

But this card's effect puts some severe pressure on your opponent. The next card they play will most likely be negated so it depletes your opponent's resources pretty quickly. That means that bringing this card out later in the game will probably seal your victory. There are many cards to negate this format (I'm counting about 5 staple spell cards if you count the Pot of duality reprint, but that's my opinion). It negates your opponent's summon, so it can stop most floaters like Tour guide from the underworld and Reborn Tengu upon summon.

But thats not the icing on the cake. Its got legs. Once its effect has been used, it can go toe-to-toe with monarchs and puts pressure that way too. It really is one of the best control cards ever created.

Konami obviously tried to balance this card a little by needing 2 level 4 dinosaurs to summon it. However, there are ways to acquire 2 very easily. If you look at my previous post, i made a decklist around this card. The two main ways are Jurracs and Rescue rabbit. Either method allows you to make Lagia with only 1 card in your hand.

This card is by far the best xyz in Photon Shockwave, unless some broken TCG exclusive finds its way in there. I can see this card hitting £30/$45-$50 once its released in November.