Future Visions: The Atlantean Archetype

Hello once again readers. In the midst of my busy schedule I decided to do the forth segment of our world famous Future Visions. Instead of looking at the booster sets of the future, I decided to delve into what might possibly be, our next tier 1 deck. As a fan of the TCG, it's in my best interest to constantly keep up to date with new cards, regardless of where they come from (Booster set, structure decks, starter decks etc). From the latest structure deck in the OCG comes the new Atlantean archetype.

Incase you did not know, just like Geargia, they already have 1 monster in the TCG already, Atlantean Pikeman. Unfortunately it's a vanilla beater which doesn't really do much for any deck so it's not really worth worrying about.

Now lets take a look at the monsters we know of so far.

Atlantean Marksman

When this card inflicts Battle Damage to your opponent: You can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Sea Serpent-Type "Atlantean" monster, except "Atlantean Marksman", from your Deck. When this card is sent to the Graveyard for the activation of a WATER monster's effect: Target 1 Set card your opponent controls; destroy that target.

To start off, this card allows you to special summon an Atlantean monster when it deals battle damage, which is nice for a quick rank 3 xyz. However, it's second effect means you can summon a Leviathan dragon and detach this card for it's effect. This means it's second effect kicks in and you can destroy one of your opponent's set cards. Even easier yet, you can send it to the graveyard for Genex Undine's effect, which triggers it's effect too! The possibilities for some amazing advantage are available to you if you know where to look.

Atlantean Armed Soldier

While this card is face-up on the field, once per turn during your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon a Level 4 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monster in addition to your Normal Summon or Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.) When this card is sent to the Graveyard for the activation of a WATER monster's effect: Target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; destroy that target.

This card also allows for a quick rank 2 with another armed soldier. Once again, Leviathan dragon and Undine shenanigans apply, but this time, you can hit a face-up card, which is much more helpful.

Atlantean Assaultman

If you control another face-up Fish, Sea Serpent, or Aqua-Type monster, this card gains 800 ATK.

A simple yet powerful effect. It's not actually debuting in the structure deck, but Return of the Duelist. With Deep Sea Diva it can be summoned straight from the deck and is now at a wonderful 2200 attack, allowing it to get over Thunder king and other big beaters. On it's own, it's not too good, so maybe run only 1 to reduce the chances of drawing it when you don't have a Diva or a Armed soldier to use it with.

Now for the one spell card in the structure deck with "Atlantean" in it's name, so It's worth a look.

Atlantean Roar

Target up to 3 Level 3 or lower Sea Serpent-Type monsters in your Graveyard; Special Summon those targets. You cannot Special Summon other monsters the turn you activate this effect.

So this card allows you to summon 3 monsters. That's pretty stupid. Even better yet, it's a quick play meaning you can just chain it to your opponent's MST, meaning you get 3 monsters for essentially no cost. You can summon Lost Blue Breaker with this card then tribute it to destroy a backrow on your opponent's field. If you summon 3 Assaultman and you can attack directly, then you can deal 6600 damage. If you summon 1 Assaultman and 2 Marksman, then you can deal 5000 damage from them alone. Then you summon 2 more Sea serpents (Provided you activated Atlantean Roar the turn before) and finish the job!

But sometimes, little Fish things with weapons won't cut it. The archetype needs a boss, and the Structure deck has quite a one at that!

Introducing...

ATLANTEAN DRAGON POSEIDRA

You can Tribute 3 Level 3 or lower WATER monsters you control; Special Summon this card from your hand or Graveyard. When this card is Special Summoned by this effect: Return all Spell/Trap Cards on the field to the hand, and if 3 or more cards are returned by this effect, face-up monsters your opponent currently controls lose 300 ATK for each card returned.

So using Atlantean Roar, you get the 3 Water monsters needed to summon this beast. When it hits the field, you can Giant Trunade all spells and traps and then you Masked Hero Acid their monster's attack. With it's 2800 attack, it will most likely be the strongest monster on the field after you use it's effect. However with that being said, There's much reason to run more than 1 since the little guys can be quite powerful on their own and 3 level 3s are hard to get onto the field (outside of the spell card). Think of it as a secondary win condition, with your xyz monsters being the main beaters in your deck. I think Konami knew this though, since their secondary effects cannot be activated in the structure deck. We will have to wait and see what the second card on the structure deck list is.

Until next time, TheTCGLover out!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Super Dimensional Robo Galaxy Destroyer

Greetings yugioh peoples. Once the entire set has been revealed for Return of the Duelist, I'll do another Future Visions segment since there are a few archetypes left in that set that need reviewing.

But for now, we are going to discuss one of the Xyz monsters in that set. I believe there are going to be a grand total of 10 Xyz monsters in Return of the Duelist. That's even before the TCG Exclusive ones are announced, so there might be as many as 15 Xyz monsters depending on how crazy Konami are feeling.

Today's card review is on Super Dimensional Robo Galaxy Destroyer

It's a giant robot, comes from a super dimension and destroys galaxies...

Boasting a powerful 5000 attack and not so scary 2000 defence, this is a hell of a powerhouse. It requires 3 level 10s to summon it so it's not a walk in the park and requires it's own deck. While there are some good generic level 10s, it's still difficult. Now for it's effect

Once a turn: you can detach 1 xyz material from this card to destroy all spell and trap cards your opponent controls. Your opponent cannot activate spell or traps in response to this effect.


So... It lets you detach to harpie's feather duster your opponent's backrow away. It's been worded in a way so that in the TCG, your opponent cannot bottomless trap hole or torrential this card. Infact to be more specific, your opponent's chainable back row cards are useless and they will have to predict this card's summon before it hits the field. Once the backrow's are gone, it's boasting an incredible 5000 attack and your opponent wont be able to protect themselves against that attack unless they have a Battle fader or something. Oh and by the way: It's a machine. There's a certain card that can double the attack of machine types until the end of the turn.... It Removes the Limiter on the card's attack, in a way.

Now like many of the quirky Xyz monsters out, it's summoning condition is what breaks this card, but not the good kind of break. How on earth are you supposed to consistently get 3 level 10s on the field. without completely depleting your resources?

There are a few cards you can use, to ease the pain:

- Tragoedia is a great option since it can hit the field pretty easily.
- Metal reflect slime can hold a good wall while you set up. 3000 is a pretty solid defence and it does not waste your normal summon
- Galaxy Queen's Light lets you select a level 7 or higher monster you control and all monsters you control become the same level as that monster. So by selecting Tragoedia, you can make 2 other monsters level 10, and allows you to summon this card. Use something like Tour guide from the Underworld (LOL I know.) to get the 2 extra monsters out.

Once the summoning requirements have been met, you can still fall to a Solemn card which is a buzzkill. You might want to try and reduce their backrow first before summoning this, but it will reduce the effectiveness of this card's effect.

In conclusion. In the modern game where keeping a monster on the field for longer than a couple of turns is an achievement, this card will not see play. It's strictly for fun duels and it does require a deck build round it, which is a shame since it looks like a transformer. To have made it slightly more worth the investment, it should have had a protection effect (discard to prevent destruction perhaps?) because lets face it, it's going to be the bane of your opponent more than anything else you have on your field and is the prime target for anything they throw at you.

Until next time. TheTCGLover out!

Offering Gadgets (Post GENF)

Hey everyone. I'm sorry i've been away for a month. I just want to apologise to my regular readers who might have wondered where i have been and thought i was gone forever.

However, that is not the case.

I've theorised a gadget deck, but with the machinas thrown in there too (They are just so darn good not to).

Deck 41
Monsters - 19
3x Machine Gearframe
3x Machine Fortress
1x Machine Force
2x Green Gadget
2x Red Gadget
2x Yellow Gadget
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
2x Effect veiler
1x Blackwing - Gale the whirlwind

Spells - 12
1x Monster reborn
1x Dark hole
1x Limiter removal
1x Book of moon
2x Smashing ground
2x Mystical space typhoon
1x Giant trunade

3x Pot of duality

Traps - 11
3x Ultimate offering
2x Dimensional prison
2x Solemn warning (or Bottomless trap hole)
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Seven tools of the bandit
1x Mirror force
1x Torrential tribute

Extra deck
3x Number 39: Utopia
3x Steelswarm roach
1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice barrier
1x Chimeratech fortress dragon
7 other generic synchros

So the general idea here is to use Ultimate offering to Xyz summon up to 4 Xyz monsters in a single turn using ultimate offering and the gadgets. I have seen many decks trying to make this but have some really stupid cards in there like Marauding captain (I refuse to use trashy cards like Gurensaurus). This deck still needs some tweaking (like a couple of Pot of dualities for consistency) so give me some ideas about what to change.

Decklist: Naturia Exterio V1.0

Right. I've been thinking about Naturia Exterio. Its a really good card and it has what bambooshoot doesn't, immunity against cyber dragon with its beefy 2800 attack.

Anyway, here's the most consistent Exterio deck i can think of. And it looks pretty good too. I might have to build it sometime (I have about 3/4 of the cards already)

Monsters - 16
3x Naturia Cherries
2x Red Gadget
2x Green Gadget
2x Yellow Gadget
1x Glow up bulb
2x Giant Rat
1x Gigantes
1x Sangan
2x Effect veiler

Spells - 15
3x Miracle Synchro Fusion
1x Monster reborn
1x Dark hole
1x Book of moon
1x One for one
1x Foolish burial
2x Mystical space typhoon
1x Giant Trunade
1x Nobleman of Crossout
3x Pot of duality (completely optional. Just fill that with whatever you want)

Traps - 9
1x Debunk
1x Divine Wrath
2x Solemn warning
1x Solemn judgment
1x Call of the haunted
1x Mirror force
2x Dimensional prison

Extra deck - 15
2x Naturia Beast
2x Naturia Barkion
2x Naturia Exterio
1x Naturia Landoise
1x Chimeratech fortress dragon
1x Ally of justice Catastor
1x Brionac, Dragon of the ice barrier
1x Stardust dragon
1x Trishula, Dragon of the ice barrier
1x Scrap dragon
1x Red dragon archfiend
1x T.G. Hyper librarian OR 1x Red nova dragon

Right. Lets start with the monster lineup. Naturia Cherries is beautiful in this deck. When its destroyed, you get two more to take its place from your deck in face down. That means you flip them up on your turn, summon a gadget and get one from your deck to your hand, then synchro summon naturia beast. Now you have a beast and a Naturia cherries to synchro into the level 6 Barkion, which is the other requirement to summon exterio. Now, you have a beast in the graveyard and a barkion on the field. Now use Miracle Synchro Fusion and fusion summon exterio. Lets look at how negative we went here:

1. Summoned 2 Naturia cherries, so thats a +1 in field advantage
2. Summon a gadget, get one to your hand which is another +1 (Were up to +2 now)
3. Synchro into beast, which is a -1
   
4. Synchro into barkion, which is another -1
5. Fusion summon Exterio, which is a -1 unless you have beast on the field, then thats a -2.

So its 1 + 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 = -1

So even though you went through all of that, you only -1 yourself overall and now you have an amazing fusion monster on your field.

So to make sure you can get this combo off without hurting yourself any more than a -1, running 2 of each gadget is best. Glow-up bulb is another great EARTH tuner that can easily get out exterio. You follow the same steps as above except after summoning beast, you just have to use its effect and special summon itself and synchro into barkion.

Giant rat is a good recruiter that can fetch most monsters from the deck, the best card being a gadget so you can search for another gadget. Gigantes is a really good card in this deck. If you're faced with a big backrow to deal with, you can ram it into your opponent's bigger monster and heavy storm the field without having to waste your normal summon. Sangan is a personal favourite since it can search for any card you need for the situation, like Effect Veiler. I'm running two of those because it's the only thing that Exterio cannot stop. With Exterio out on the field and 1-2 veilers in your hand, you have shut down your opponent quite tightly with no easy way to get out of the situation.

Spells. 3 Miracle Synchro fusion means you will draw it more often. You only need to bring out one exterio to get the job done, so with its draw effect, you can set the ones you don't need or when you would rather have the draw power over getting out exterio (Like if your opponent's backrow looks like it could have a solemn warning and you don't want to risk it). You have your normal staples of this format: Dark hole, monster reborn and Book of moon. One for one is great for special summoning that level 1 tuner you need for beast. The best monster to special summon with its effect is Glow-up bulb since you can get exterio out that way. There are enough level 1s in this deck to run it. Mystical space typhoon and Giant trunade are good removal cards and are also semi-staples at the moment, so run those too. Nobleman of crossout seems to be a way with coping with another weakness of this deck: Running into a bad facedown like Ryko or Snowman eater which could destroy your exterio in an instant.

For traps, i have a wierd lineup but i can explain my choices. Debunk is a new counter trap card from Extreme victory. You can negate the activation of a monster card that activates in the hand or graveyard. So in this deck, its a good way to stop your opponent negating your Exterio's effect with their own effect veiler. You have your general negation cards Solemn warning and Judgment, and they need no explanation. Call of the haunted is a good way to get a monster back on the field for a quick synchro summon. Mirror force and D Prison are good removal cards against big beaters and swarms, or if you get your naturia cherries destroyed and you need to prevent a second attack from taking any more down.

The extra deck is pretty much filler except for the necessary 3 synchro monsters, so i wont delve into it. Landoise is a good card to get out if you have exterio already on the field, which means a complete lockdown.

Thats it really. I decided to do this after naturia cherries came out since it fits the deck so well (And the fact that you guys like decklists).

Comment on fixes!

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!

The 2011 March ban list: Semi-Limited discussion

Hey. To show some actual continuity on this blog, the next set of cards on the banlist to discuss are the newly semi limited ones. They are:

Archlord Kristya

Card Trooper

Debris Dragon

Spirit reaper

Megamorph

Overload fusion

Royal Tribute

Icarus attack

Solemn warning

Archlord Kristya has been at 3 since its release, but thats not to say its a powerful card. With a high attack power, a rather easy summoning condition with added hand advantage, an increasingly useful continuous effect while on the field AND the ability to recycle itself back to the top of your deck, its got something for everyone. It limited its playability with it only being usable in a fairy deck, or a deck that splashes many fairies (Which does not really exist, except for maybe Perfect Herald decks). But to me, many players that played fairy decks played Kristya at 2 anyway, so semi limiting it really does not hurt it whatsoever.

Card trooper is the big one for me personally. As I've reviewed before, it has a built in milling ability that pumps its attack into a beatstick and replaces its self if it gets destroyed. Its a brilliant card and now that its at two, it can be used to replace the lost Dandylion in Plant synchro decks. There was no need to put it at 1 when you cannot perform the Card trooper OTK with 2 of them anyway. Expect to see this card become a semi-staple in this upcoming format with it being able to get under bottomless and +1 you if it runs into a mirror force.

Debris Dragon has been brought down to 2 from unlimited. It is abused too much in plant decks with dandylion. But has putting it to 2 really made a difference? The only difference i can see is consistency issues, but thats about it.

Spirit reaper has been at 1 for a long time. I do not know the exact banlist that it was limited though. Its a powerful card that provides a nice wall to protect you if a combo went wrong or you need to stall for something like Final countdown. In my opinion, i had enough trouble dealing with one, but maybe two is a little too annoying for my taste.

Megamorph , Like spirit reaper, has been limited for quite a while. Nobody plays equip spells anymore, and this card is not very special. Sure, it doubles your monster's attack power when you're losing, but people do not build their decks to win when they're losing.

Overload fusion is usually combined with Future fusion to make a mean OTK. you use future fusion to send Cyber Dragon (which is at 3 now) along with many machine types from your deck to the graveyard for Chimeratech Overdragon. Then you use Overload fusion to remove all the machine types from your graveyard to summon that Overdragon. You now have a huge beatstick that tends to mean OTK. With Overload fusion at 1 and Future fusion at 1 too, the deck was incredibly inconsistent. But with this card at 2, the deck might shine again.

Royal Tribute at 2 is not really a big deal. Gravekeepers players can still get this card into their hand with Pot of Duality or Gold Sarcophagus. Putting it to 1 or banning it entirely would have been much better.

Icarus attack is Konami's attempt to damage blackwings alongside limiting Blackwing - Kalut the moon shadow. While blackwings get top 32 in the tournaments in america/europe, they are a tier one deck in the OCG, which explains why blackwings have been hit hard this banlist. It is also an amazing card which can blow up any 2 cards you choose, so it was always a gorgeous 2-for-2 card.

Lastly, Solemn Warning is a powerful card which in my observation of decklists and duels, were played at 2. That's not to say that they were never played in 3s, but hitting it to 2 is not that painful. The idea of paying up to 6000 life points seems absurd, but it was used at 3 for consistency because once you drew it, you had the opportunity to stop a deadly play right in its tracks.

Next up, the UNLIMITED LIST!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido"

Its time for tuesday's review! (if i will actually do a review every tuesday from now on, i dont know) And recently i've been building Karakuri's and putting in all the new cards from Storm of Ragnarok. In this set, they got a card that can special summon when it destroys monsters in battle, a 4 star tuner and a better Reinforcement of the army.

We also got introduced to Burei's Dad. presenting to you today, and i hope i wont have to write this name out ever again:

Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido"!


This level 8 Machine synchro monster has 2 cool effects, and is similar to Burei. When this card is synchro summoned, you can special summon one Karakuri monster from your deck. And once a turn, when a karakuri monster switches position on your side of the field, you can draw a card.

Wow. That's amazing. it has the same special summoning effect like its son (or younger brother, IDK), which allows you to push for game or synchro some more. And with the release of Karakuri Muso mdl 818 "Haipa", you can summon Bureido, special summon haipa and dish out a total of 4900 damage. Add a Limiter removal into the mix, and thats more than your opponent can handle.

And i have not even started with the second effect. Since karakuris change positions, you will almost certain get to draw an extra card every turn.

Good cards to use for its second effect:
- Strategist: Special summon this card with Bureido and switch its position with its effect, bureido kicks in and lets you draw a card.
- Burei: His second effect lets you switch a monsters battle position on the field, switch one of your karakuris and draw a card.
- Haipa: After its attacked, it gets switched into its weaker defence position. but with bureido, you draw.
- Karakuri Cash Cache: It lets you search for a monster, then switches the selected monster's position. you can draw there too since the position change is the last part of the card's effect.

and all of the non-synchro karakuris get switched into defence position when they are attacked, so you will always get a draw on your opponent's turn.

But how do you get this card out? its a level 8 and it requires a tuner and one or more machine type non-tuners. With Storm of Ragnarok, We now have Kuikku and Saizan. With Saizan in the graveyard, you can summon kuikku, destroy an opponent's monster with it, special Saizan in defence mode, and synchro for Bureido in your main phase two.

Or if you dont want to do that, you can always just special summon a cyber dragon, summon a strategist and theres your 8.

Karakuri's, like scraps, have really come into their own with an intricate set of combos and with all this new support, they can go toe to toe with the Six Samurai next format.

Yu-Gi-Oh ZEXAL: Looks to be a pile of s***.

Yup. I caught my first glimpse of ZEXAL the other day: the successor to 5D's. I have been watching 5D's (subbed) on youtube and even though the story is completely random and still goes on about "friendship and bonds means i win", its still entertaining to watch. I saw episode 145 the other day and Yusei was dueling Bruno (Antimony). Bruno uses Tech genus cards which debut in Extreme Victory, which is the set after Storm of Ragnarok and releases into the OCG on February 11th.

So with 5D's finishing on episode 150 (Thats about 4 weeks of Yugioh 5D's left, folks), a new Yu-Gi-Oh follows. Which is called ZEXAL.

I have not read too much into it. But i know the story follows a character called Yuma who duels some bully from his school. And some crazy event occurs with some being called Astral.

To be completely honest, 5D's was surprisingly good because the characters were not 15 year olds. They were older and it catered to the older viewers (I'm looking at you, GX). But ZEXAL? It just looks to be a pile of crap.

and what's with the name? Aparrently, the X in ZEXAL is not said, so its just "zeal".

I will only watch this to see the new cards, unless its just like GX but set in the future. *shudders*

Consistency: Why they're winning and you're not.

Hello Yugi fans. Today, in my spare time, i have decided that i should do an article on consistency, and why some cards in our metagame favour it and are ran because of it.

What is consistency exactly? Well, For something to be consistent, it needs to happen often and reliably. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, it is important to build your deck so that you have an "out" (a way to deal with anything your opponent throws at you) at any point in the game. this allows you to breakdown your opponents strategy and subject them to yours.

But if you play competitively (go to locals and attend regionals and other tournaments) or you want to, just remember one thing:

Most of the cards in the anime are inconsistent and should be kept in the anime at all times and not in your deck.

Now. How do you make your deck more consistent? Before even considoring that question, you need to know your win condition (what your deck needs to do to bring your opponent's life to 0). Then, you can build your deck to get to that condition Consistently.

Lets take an examples. Gravekeeper's used to be a control deck. they had a one-for-one removal with Gravekeeper's descendant and could shut down the graveyard with Necrovalley, which made cards like Monster reborn and XX-Saber Faultroll useless. But this deck was just not good enough. It was outcompeted by faster decks that could set up their win condition quicker. However, in Starstrike blast, Konami threw Gravekeeper's players a Consistency bone called Gravekeeper's Recruiter. It could search for almost any gravekeeper's monster when sent to the graveyard from the field. Players suddenly realised that you could search out Gravekeeper's commandant, which could search out Necrovalley. This in turn lets you run Royal tribute and deplete your opponents hand of monsters, while you can bring yours back with Gravekeeper's stele. So you see, with a little help from our friend Consistency, the deck now has a powerful Win condition which can be met quickly and often. This is why in YCS Atlanta in November, Gravekeeper's decks placed in the top 3 spots.

But in a more general sense, consistency can be aquired through certain cards. As long as you know your win condition, you can run 3 of any card that can help you get that condition.

Right now, i am running Scraps. Its a very fun deck, and it has a plethora of intricate combos and +1s at your disposal. The main win condition of this deck is to summon scrap dragon and blow your opponents cards away with its effect. While thats all well and good, Scrap dragon is a synchro monster and cannot go into your main deck. That means that i needed to build my 40 card deck that is dedicated to bringing out a scrap dragon as consistently and as often as possible. To do that, i have to run 3 Scrap beast and 3 scrap chimera as well as 3 Scrap goblin, so there is always a Scrap chimera to use. The only problem with the deck is that it relies on its normal summon often to get the ball rolling. All it takes is a Solemn warning on my Scrap Chimera to put me at a severe disadvantage. But i have cards like Scrapstorm (The Scrap's draw card) and Scrapyard to set up my win condition.

As for certain cards. The main cards that can help consistency are Draw cards. these serve little purpose in your deck but to make your hand more consistent. Allure of darkness lets you draw two and then remove a dark from your hand. At first glance, you may think that removing one of your precious monsters is a terrible idea, but your hand is stronger now and your deck has been thinned by two cards. and you can always remove a monster that does not quite fit the bill in the current gamestate. For example, lets say my opponent has a stardust dragon on the field. and in my hand, i have a smashing ground and a Blackwing - Bora the spear. I know that i cannot destroy stardust dragon with smashing ground because of its effect, and Bora does not have enough attack power to get over it. In my draw phase i draw Allure of darkness, i use its effect and draw two. Lets say i just drew Blackwing - sirocco the dawn and Blackwing - Kalut the moon shadow. If i remove Sirocco for Allures effect, i just turned that Allure of darkness into a monster that can help me get past that stardust. By using that draw card, you managed to get out of that situation and deal some damage, and your deck has been thinned.

But as far as draw cards go, the best one by far is Pot of Duality. I dont need to explain its effect, but it is by far the easiest way to increase consistency in your deck no matter what. Even though you lose special summoning for the turn, you have now got a much better hand next turn, which means that win condition your deck is aiming for is now so much closer.

I hope that this small article helped some people. Many people have been criticising that Pot of duality is too expensive. While that is true, the card turns inconsistent but powerful decks into Consistent ones.

I might do a few more card reviews soon when i get the time. Maybe when the next set comes out, because those Aesirs look awesome.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Review: Pot of Duality

With a new set of cards, comes a bunch of fun new reviews!

The duelist revolution is the latest set, and by far the most hyped and discussed card in the set is the Pot of Duality

Pot of Greed and Pot of Generosity in one card!

Its effect is simple, balanced and generally quite useful regardless of what deck you play. You reveal the top 3 cards from your deck to you and your opponent, then you select one and add it to your hand. Then send the other 2 back into your deck and shuffle it.

Now on the outside, it seems like a fair 1-for-1 (you trade in this card for another), but it goes much deeper than that. Being able to dig 3 cards deep in your deck means that pot of duality becomes a card that you want right this second from your deck, and not 1,2 or 3 turns later.

That alone is why its so good. It takes some of the luck out of the deck, makes it more consistent (meaning you pull off the same combos more often) and there is no discard cost or a life point cost either!

BUT, all powerful cards needs a drawback, and to some decks, its a very harsh one. the turn you activate Pot of Duality, you cannot special summon OR activate another pot of duality. that drawback means it might not fit in EVERY deck, like Infernities which special summon many times within a couple of turns.

So there you have it. This card is a perfect example of balanced draw power, and its guaranteed to make your deck better!

Right now Pot of Duality is worth about £60 ($100) so if you want a playset for your deck, be prepared to fish out at least £150 ($250) for them.