Wednesday 30 November 2011

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.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

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!

Monday 21 November 2011

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.

Friday 4 November 2011

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.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

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
WindUpKnightPHSW-JP-C.jpg

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
WattKingCobraPHSW-JP-C.jpg

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
PhotonSabreTigerPHSW-EN-OP.png

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
GalaxyEyesPhotonDragonPHSW-EN-OP.jpg
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
WindUpZenmainesPHSW-EN-OP.png

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
EvolzarDolkkaPHSW-EN-OP.png

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
WindUpKittenPHSW-JP-R.jpg

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
WindUpRabbitPHSW-EN-OP.png

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
EvolzarLaggiaPHSW-EN-OP.png

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
RescueRabbitPHSW-EN-OP.jpg

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!