Let's begin the Tour!!
Well, first off I'd like to thank the staff at Yuginewz for letting me voice my opinions and observations through their site. I would like to introduce myself to old and new readers alike. I am a duelist and a U.S. player writing to you from my nook in Chicago, Illinois. Hopefully through my articles and the opinions of others we can help fellow players find new and innovative startegies to blow up the dueling lanscape! So, without further adew.. let's start discussing the newest topic; An introspective look into the YCS Meta scene domestically and abroad.
First off I'd like to take a look (retrospectively) at the past season of YCS action In the U.S. Let's wind the clocks back to February of this year.. YCS Dallas is the setting for the newly crowned king of the ring: Legendary Six Samurai: Shi En. Three of the top four duelist piloted these contenders to victory..taking clear advantage of new synchros and gateway of the six being played in triplicates until March 1st. This is also where we finally see the end of an era; blackwings. It is also the First time we see Billy Brake in 2011 crack the top 16, just narrowly missing a top 8 finish with his six samurai variation. Also, someone who basically topped or placed high in almost every mid-western YCS this year.
The basic kageki into kagemusha was every duelist opening hand..and if you had at least one gateway and one smoke signal/ROTA you were pretty much paving the way for a turn 2, second shi en or Great shogun shien..devastating your opponent os much so that they would either flip the top card or just scoop on the spot, side and hope for better luck in game 2.
The format changed radically on March 1st. Quickly abolishing goyo gaurdian and cold wave. It also destroyed everyones favorite frog combo with mass driver.. thus began a rebuilding process.. samurais got hit hard with gateway going from 3 to 1. With a YCS happening almost every month, duelists were on their toes trying new startegies..samurais were dead..right?
When the YCS in North Carolina took place in early march..very few people expected a samurai deck to top, but Shi En proved everyone worng and it was the first time that there was so much variance at the top of the YCS ladder.. four very different decks placed in the top four.. as eluded to earlier Samurais took 1st..but what was surprising is what followed it up; a fish deck, deck destruction and X-sabers piloted by Billy Brake. It seemed like a confsuiong time where almost anything had a chance to contend..but by the time April rolled around we had a world wide spotlight on yu-gi-oh..two very crucial and very different YCS events taking place. This is where the two roads meet.. YCS Paris and YCS Anaheim.
The two tournaments ran quite smoothly with a very similar showing, but with some major differneces at the top.. starting with the champs all the way down the top four.. one one hand we have the hyped "KMP" (karakuri/machina/plant) deck in Paris pretty much shredding through its competition and then the slower, more stratically played gemini/light dual deck. Dont get me wrong, both decks were amazing thoughts and did very well in their repsective tournaments.. but both proved that a saying more relevant to sports that a childrens card game; on any given day, anyone can win.
Now, let's skip ahead a few months.. entenched deep into the summer (or winter).. this was definitely one for the ages for YGO TCG players..two sets of tins that killed the set Duelist revolution and gave less fortunate players a chance to stop "proxying" cards and get their hands on cards like Pot of duality and Solemn Warning; two tremendous stales in todays meta. We also got an early present in the form of a TCG exclusive in Extreme victory that turned the tide of Dueling up until about 2 weeks ago; of course I'm talking about that mysterious woman in the blue jacket.; Tour Guide form the Underworld. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it goes a little this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXVC-EN084 Secret rare
Level 3 Dark
Effect Monster
Fiend
1000 / 600
When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 3 Fiend-Type monster from your hand or Deck. Its effects are negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This card is amazing..It is nearly splashable into any deck that runs Dark or light monsters and let's you immeadiately search for another one OR that all important fuzz ball..Sangan! I do believe that Reborn Tengu gets an honorable mention as well, it is after all just a pricey sneak peak card.
It wasn't until we came accross decks being played in the lone Cnadien YCS in Toronto that we saw the surge of players, including eventual champion BIlly Brake(who also ends up taking YCS columbus a few weeks later) running a card that was featured on our site earlier this week: none other than the Amazing Maxx "C"..simply put when your opponent decides to special summon or swarm the field to make that game ending push, you can drop this little menace and they have one of two options; continue to special summon and make their big move and give you severe hand advantage..or stop what they were going to do, set a few backrows and pass. Either way, you usually buy yourself a turn, same could be said about Effect veiler.
Now as we continue to look forward, let's jump ahead to YCS Kansas City. This was one of those YCS's that had some people scratching their heads, myself included. Rescue Rabbit had just hit shelves and the mind melters and deck wielders were already making the bold predictions abuot how this deck would fair..contending with the likes of Synchronetic (formally plant/tengu synchro, just faster), Chaos Agents (basic Agents build with Tour guide splashed in along with BLS), Darkworlds and rogue Gemini/Hero builds. It was the hype of the mid-west YCS and had high expectations that just didnt quite pan out this time. While Dino Rabbits took 5th-7th and a lower 26th rank, this deck was clearly on the upper eschalon, but seemed to run out of gas just before the end. This is in stark comparison to the YCS accross the pond that took place just last week and had its top 16 invaded by dino rabbits..in fact exactly half of the top were filled with playsets of rabbits and extra deck bellowing with Evolzar laggia and Dolkka, as well as Leviair the sea dragon. this deck WAS going to dominate..just a matter of time.
So, what changed? In November not a single dino build made the top four and in Brighton It take three of the top four and 5 more places between 4th and 16th.. Well, lets take a look at some of the main deck choices for some contrast; for the best results, let's observe the winning deck from Brighton and the 4th place finish at Kansas city, oth extreme different builds and very effective against certain decks. The major glaring difference I noticed was that the KC build has a single effect veiler and BLS.. while its english counterpart has elected to go a single Neo spacian grand mole and 3 jurrac guaiba. what's interesting about this is that the jurrac monster is able to search another of itself out via destrustion of an opponents monster through battle.
This allows for easy XZYing into Laggia and Dolkka.
Now more notable is the side deck options that each player made;
The KC duelist chose to main deck his 2 thunder king rai-oh's and only play one Maxx "C".. if you compare the two side decks as follows:
2 Cyber Dragon- great choice against swarming.2 D.D. Crow- Useful only against targeting cards in the graveyard.
2 Leeching the Light- two possible matches here it can help; Gemini/light beat or Chaos Agents3 Dimensional Fissure-Send it to the graveyard, not anymore you don't! Always a nice tech.
1 Closed Forest- Now here's one I scratch my head on.. help me if you can! (sUn: DW hate.)
2 Bottomless Trap Hole- Always a solid choice in my opinion, plus it's a 2-for against rabbit!2 Fiendish Chain- In a vanilla heavy deck, why not?1 Compulsory Evacuation Device- I synchro for startdust..no you didn't, poof..gone!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now for our zealous friend over the pond;
2 Cyber Dragon- Still a great choice, not much else to say.
2 Dimensional Fissure- It's still not in your graveyard..go fish!
2 Fiendish Chain- Vanillas do not fear the reaper..or the chain of rthat matter!
2 Fossil Dyna- Awesome choice, espcially during Rabbit season, careful for Road!
1 Heavy Storm- Again, great defensive card, watch out for starlight road.
1 Mystical Space Typhoon- you can never have too much typhoon..up to 3!
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror- I would feel this a bit too situational, but he won. Can't argue!
1 Spirit Reaper- Ah, a great tech card. you can stall or piece your opponents hand.
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh- I love this card, but in certain decks its best seving you in the side deck space.. I honestly feel this is where the duelist from KC may have misqued.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, there you have it.. a little look into the early part of this year as well as what we encountered at the end..literally! Now as we prepare for Order of Chaos and the Inzektors, one can only think; Were dino rabbits just a flash in the pan or will the malicious insects eat away at the landscape? Only time will tell, until then. Happy Holidays and Best of luck on all of your holiday card pulls!
First off I'd like to take a look (retrospectively) at the past season of YCS action In the U.S. Let's wind the clocks back to February of this year.. YCS Dallas is the setting for the newly crowned king of the ring: Legendary Six Samurai: Shi En. Three of the top four duelist piloted these contenders to victory..taking clear advantage of new synchros and gateway of the six being played in triplicates until March 1st. This is also where we finally see the end of an era; blackwings. It is also the First time we see Billy Brake in 2011 crack the top 16, just narrowly missing a top 8 finish with his six samurai variation. Also, someone who basically topped or placed high in almost every mid-western YCS this year.
The basic kageki into kagemusha was every duelist opening hand..and if you had at least one gateway and one smoke signal/ROTA you were pretty much paving the way for a turn 2, second shi en or Great shogun shien..devastating your opponent os much so that they would either flip the top card or just scoop on the spot, side and hope for better luck in game 2.
The format changed radically on March 1st. Quickly abolishing goyo gaurdian and cold wave. It also destroyed everyones favorite frog combo with mass driver.. thus began a rebuilding process.. samurais got hit hard with gateway going from 3 to 1. With a YCS happening almost every month, duelists were on their toes trying new startegies..samurais were dead..right?
When the YCS in North Carolina took place in early march..very few people expected a samurai deck to top, but Shi En proved everyone worng and it was the first time that there was so much variance at the top of the YCS ladder.. four very different decks placed in the top four.. as eluded to earlier Samurais took 1st..but what was surprising is what followed it up; a fish deck, deck destruction and X-sabers piloted by Billy Brake. It seemed like a confsuiong time where almost anything had a chance to contend..but by the time April rolled around we had a world wide spotlight on yu-gi-oh..two very crucial and very different YCS events taking place. This is where the two roads meet.. YCS Paris and YCS Anaheim.
The two tournaments ran quite smoothly with a very similar showing, but with some major differneces at the top.. starting with the champs all the way down the top four.. one one hand we have the hyped "KMP" (karakuri/machina/plant) deck in Paris pretty much shredding through its competition and then the slower, more stratically played gemini/light dual deck. Dont get me wrong, both decks were amazing thoughts and did very well in their repsective tournaments.. but both proved that a saying more relevant to sports that a childrens card game; on any given day, anyone can win.
Now, let's skip ahead a few months.. entenched deep into the summer (or winter).. this was definitely one for the ages for YGO TCG players..two sets of tins that killed the set Duelist revolution and gave less fortunate players a chance to stop "proxying" cards and get their hands on cards like Pot of duality and Solemn Warning; two tremendous stales in todays meta. We also got an early present in the form of a TCG exclusive in Extreme victory that turned the tide of Dueling up until about 2 weeks ago; of course I'm talking about that mysterious woman in the blue jacket.; Tour Guide form the Underworld. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it goes a little this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXVC-EN084 Secret rare
Level 3 Dark
Effect Monster
Fiend
1000 / 600
When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 3 Fiend-Type monster from your hand or Deck. Its effects are negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This card is amazing..It is nearly splashable into any deck that runs Dark or light monsters and let's you immeadiately search for another one OR that all important fuzz ball..Sangan! I do believe that Reborn Tengu gets an honorable mention as well, it is after all just a pricey sneak peak card.
It wasn't until we came accross decks being played in the lone Cnadien YCS in Toronto that we saw the surge of players, including eventual champion BIlly Brake(who also ends up taking YCS columbus a few weeks later) running a card that was featured on our site earlier this week: none other than the Amazing Maxx "C"..simply put when your opponent decides to special summon or swarm the field to make that game ending push, you can drop this little menace and they have one of two options; continue to special summon and make their big move and give you severe hand advantage..or stop what they were going to do, set a few backrows and pass. Either way, you usually buy yourself a turn, same could be said about Effect veiler.
Now as we continue to look forward, let's jump ahead to YCS Kansas City. This was one of those YCS's that had some people scratching their heads, myself included. Rescue Rabbit had just hit shelves and the mind melters and deck wielders were already making the bold predictions abuot how this deck would fair..contending with the likes of Synchronetic (formally plant/tengu synchro, just faster), Chaos Agents (basic Agents build with Tour guide splashed in along with BLS), Darkworlds and rogue Gemini/Hero builds. It was the hype of the mid-west YCS and had high expectations that just didnt quite pan out this time. While Dino Rabbits took 5th-7th and a lower 26th rank, this deck was clearly on the upper eschalon, but seemed to run out of gas just before the end. This is in stark comparison to the YCS accross the pond that took place just last week and had its top 16 invaded by dino rabbits..in fact exactly half of the top were filled with playsets of rabbits and extra deck bellowing with Evolzar laggia and Dolkka, as well as Leviair the sea dragon. this deck WAS going to dominate..just a matter of time.
So, what changed? In November not a single dino build made the top four and in Brighton It take three of the top four and 5 more places between 4th and 16th.. Well, lets take a look at some of the main deck choices for some contrast; for the best results, let's observe the winning deck from Brighton and the 4th place finish at Kansas city, oth extreme different builds and very effective against certain decks. The major glaring difference I noticed was that the KC build has a single effect veiler and BLS.. while its english counterpart has elected to go a single Neo spacian grand mole and 3 jurrac guaiba. what's interesting about this is that the jurrac monster is able to search another of itself out via destrustion of an opponents monster through battle.
This allows for easy XZYing into Laggia and Dolkka.
Now more notable is the side deck options that each player made;
The KC duelist chose to main deck his 2 thunder king rai-oh's and only play one Maxx "C".. if you compare the two side decks as follows:
2 Cyber Dragon- great choice against swarming.2 D.D. Crow- Useful only against targeting cards in the graveyard.
2 Leeching the Light- two possible matches here it can help; Gemini/light beat or Chaos Agents3 Dimensional Fissure-Send it to the graveyard, not anymore you don't! Always a nice tech.
1 Closed Forest- Now here's one I scratch my head on.. help me if you can! (sUn: DW hate.)
2 Bottomless Trap Hole- Always a solid choice in my opinion, plus it's a 2-for against rabbit!2 Fiendish Chain- In a vanilla heavy deck, why not?1 Compulsory Evacuation Device- I synchro for startdust..no you didn't, poof..gone!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now for our zealous friend over the pond;
2 Cyber Dragon- Still a great choice, not much else to say.
2 Dimensional Fissure- It's still not in your graveyard..go fish!
2 Fiendish Chain- Vanillas do not fear the reaper..or the chain of rthat matter!
2 Fossil Dyna- Awesome choice, espcially during Rabbit season, careful for Road!
1 Heavy Storm- Again, great defensive card, watch out for starlight road.
1 Mystical Space Typhoon- you can never have too much typhoon..up to 3!
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror- I would feel this a bit too situational, but he won. Can't argue!
1 Spirit Reaper- Ah, a great tech card. you can stall or piece your opponents hand.
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh- I love this card, but in certain decks its best seving you in the side deck space.. I honestly feel this is where the duelist from KC may have misqued.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, there you have it.. a little look into the early part of this year as well as what we encountered at the end..literally! Now as we prepare for Order of Chaos and the Inzektors, one can only think; Were dino rabbits just a flash in the pan or will the malicious insects eat away at the landscape? Only time will tell, until then. Happy Holidays and Best of luck on all of your holiday card pulls!
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