Neo Kaiba's Duelist Blog

About the only real note worthy pulls from 8 packs of Dark Saviors, not impressed but not pleased either. But hey I agreed to help put a friend and stuck to my word.

When you trade away your copies of scapegoat then pull a new play set

Now this is far from overdue and into the months of me getting back into the game I did lots of research so I could become familiar with the games mechanics; at this point they are the ravings of (as most competitive players would say) a casual but it is something I wanted to kind of put out there. Of course I am talking about Extra Links. ~~~~~~~~~ Extra Link, as defined by Konami is when a series of Link monsters are Co-Linked connecting both Extra Monster Zones. Now this can be done by one player or both should links connect them. Often times this is a serious commitment to the board and establishing fields that can or would be otherwise unbreakable: now that is of course just regarding one player; sometimes involving multiple monsters that can or would otherwise replace themselves or leave behind a token of some kind. As we have seen tokens are invaluable with Link monsters being prevalent. Now don’t get me wrong with the way the game is and how Link Monsters were designed as a way to “slow down the game”, retiring the power houses that were combo synchro, XYZ spam, and Pendulum. Forcing these styles of decks to slow down considerably keeping monsters summoned from the Extra Deck confines to the Extra Zone of which you may only control one Extra Zone unless it is a zone linked with a Link Monster. Facing off against a deck that can Extra Link you on turn one is by far the worst feeling imaginable. Your opponent utterly locking you out of your own extra deck reminds me of the same days where you would be Djinn Locked, or put you into a position where you are not able to special summon any monsters (Vanity’s Emptiness comes to mind). Shutting you from major mechanics that the game is built on. Now of course you are able to use your opponents link arrows; if any; to summon your own Extra Deck monsters but some will purposely use Links with no arrows pointing to the opponents zones further cementing the lock. Even being in a position where they can negate an effect or their destruction entirely. This means out is clearly a lose/lose scenario. With the right fields a player can be stopped dead in their tracks and forced to try and break through or lose. This makes the game no slower then any other formats prior to Master Rule 4. I understand the attempt is there, but practically it’s not slowing down they’re almost no different from the FTK/OTK decks that they try to preemptively hit every so often. It is something I find problematic and in terms of the games longevity I am not sure what awaits us on the horizon. All we seem to be missing is the banning of a powerful Link Monster; I am not sure what that monster will be but will be within some time of Links lifespan. Perhaps it will come down to a gentleman’s agreement every game; good game, have fun, and don’t Extra Link me.

Now I’m not saying that they will or should do this. But it could be an interesting attack negation and possibly being spell/trap destruction back while also bringing something that’s interesting maybe not competitive but definitely an interesting effect

Doing some play testing and trying. Put new tools and cards, am glad to see that some consistency is still good

As is noticed, I have spent a large amount of time away from the game. The major surge of the PePe deck all but taking hold has left a very stale taste in my mouth. Due to the limiting of specific cards, not key cards more so specific cards, the deck is hindered in its ability to perform at its previous state. I am more or less seeing this as the decks erectile dysfunction period, as pendulums are still going to be coming out and more cards will be made to where the cards that remain will be just as powerful as when the deck had just come out. Really it comes down to the game just being boring and trying to compete with newer mechanics and having less and less diversity in the competitive level. Leveled based on tier strength rather than archetype builds (combo, control, Aggro, midrange; being the examples of what I mean when I use the word archetype). It does feel like a shame that the games overall competitive strength is measured by what is considered within tiers zero being the most powerful with tiers one and two being the most relevant to the least relevant and tiers three being non existent to the point where no one even see's them. Oh well I suppose I will being hoping for a more impactful change on the game. And hopefully for the better.

Possibly one of the funnest cards I've seen in production of recent sets. The fixed monster reborn so to speak. The fact that you must control no monsters to get the reborn effect adds perfectly to decks that may only need that one extra monster. Also being able to shuffle a dead card away at the cost of one card means you can reuse potentially dead cards like fiendish chain that would have been left on the field or otherwise had its own effect nutrelized. There may be situations where shuffling is less than desirable but that is the case of nearly everycard. Perfect in certain situations but not all.

Freaking prize cards.... these cards arethe reason i can't have nice things. A generic 10 scale would be perfect but no you had to have that Victory Dragon effect.... uuuugggggghhhhh

Looking at some cards and came across these two hidden gems. Side Effect? is coming out as a short print in Clash of Rebellions. The care gives your opponent the option of three new cards, but gives you an additional 2000 life points per card. As the card requires one to three there is no option of drawing zero cards promising at least 2000 right off the bat. The Other is Urgent Ritual Art which lets you use the trap as a ritual spell card by banishing one ritual spell from your hand or graveyard allowing you to surprise opponents like suddenly dropping a Nekroz of Trishia during the opponents turn. Just Saying.

A Recent trend that has been occurring throughout many of the sets is the inclusion of some kind of card that has a graveyard effect or that would activate from the graveyard. This evolution is not seen in one sole archetype but seems t  be spread out further between every card. However cards that produce this similar kind of effect are more specific to different archetypes, and do not rightfully interact on a strong level as those listed below. (Void Seer being the only exception because its effect is stronger than most of the other archetypal cards) - Void Seer: can make one Infernoid unaffected by opponents Card Effects. Banish from grave to Prevent Destruction. - Mischief of the Gnomes: Reduces monsters level of monsters in hand by one. Banish from grave to do the same. Even if they are summoned to the field. - Breakthrough Skill: Negate One Monsters Effects: Banish from Grave to negate on monsters effects. - Skill Prisoner: Pseudo-Target prevention by negating Targeting effects. Banish from grave to do the same. - Mischief of the Yokai:  Reduce levels of all monsters on the field by two until the end phase. Banish from Grave to reduce one monsters level by one until the end phase. - Galaxy Cyclone: Destroy one set card. Banish from grave to destroy one face-up card. - Damage Diet: Halve all damage this turn. Banish this card from the grave to half the next effect damage. Many of the more archetype specific cards are rather straight forward and allow you to search out something specific to that one archetype of give benefits to that archetype. None more clearly than in the TCG with The Terminus of the Burning Abyss it is mainly used to Fusion summon one Burning Abyss monster from the Extra deck. It can banished to give one Burning Abyss monster 800 ATK until the end phase of your opponents next turn. Which hales in comparison to that of Void Seer which is used more as a defensive means to the Infernoid archetype. The Nerkoz ritual spells all have this similar staple like searching effect to them. Meaning that they are less powerful once used initially but give you a new ritual to work with at a later time. Many newer cards are beginning to show signs of this inferior method of searching. By banishing this card from the Graveyard to add one archetype specific card to the hand. But one thing that I do like from these secondary effects of cards is that they can act as more than just a onetime use. Allowing an element of recursion to the game or as Magic players are familiar with Flashback a keyword mechanic that allows a spell to be used twice once for its original cost and again for its flashback cost.  Giving players more angles of attack, which can often sway a game in one players favor or another. Strong effects on generic support can be beneficial in changing up how games are played. I’m certain it will not be long before we have a kind of mirror force hybrid of this similar cards. That would allow a player to say destroy on monster if banished by destroy multiple when used as a regular trap card. As more and more cards are developed and adjusted to better the game we would have to think fairly carefully about these kinds of effects in future sets.

Venominaga, Exodia the Forbidden One, Final Countdown, Destiny Board, Number 88: Gimmick Puppet Destiny Leo, Chaos Number 88: Gimmick Puppet Disaster Leo, Jackpot 7, and the Creator God of Light Horakhty. Each of these are powerful instant kills in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Once their conditions are met they will instantly win the game for you (not the match). The reason why I bring this up and the image above is because the game has only these conditional victories. Cards such as Victory Dragon that win the Match are excluded as they themselves are not legal for play and they win the match not just one game. Is because I feel that instant winning methods in the game shouldn’t actually be legal. They slow the game to a standstill and make it more like a strict game of solitaire, they make the game fun for one player but exclude the other which in some sense is unfair to say the least. Honestly I wanted to see what you guys think of the whole instant win cards. I’ve heard many opinions and they’re not pretty. They range from sweet and innocent bringing back memories of the anime, to harsh profanities that could make God himself blush. 

Hey Guys Sorry for the late heads up if you haven't been checking I have uploaded a new video to my channel.

-NK

So I got a little bored and decided to doodle around with a new Idea. What drove the deck was Maiden of the Macabre, wo gets bigger everytime you destroy a monster. Combined with cards like Spell Power Grasp, Secret Village of the Spell Casters, and Shaddoll Fusin bring her to a forerunner. Village will lock out spells and in theory Nekroz. The Shaddoll support was added for that last litte kick. Tempest Magician can add in that last bit of burn for game with all the spell counters going on. Continuous Breaker can eliminate backrows. Really just a odd fun deck you could probably improve it to be more of a troll deck.

I will be trying to do one a video today hoping that i have time between the school stuff i need to get done. Sorry to make you guys wait :(

First off yes the banlust has been on everyones discussions lately butthe dragon rulers were busted and needed to go. Second Bestiari, spirit, are off the list. Hi 3-axis wont see too much after a while and as for those Gladiators can you guys give it a restnow and just play them as a control deck like I've been saying, they complain they want Bestiari niw you have it so play the damn deck. We got some garbage errata cards back, boo, Nekroz and Qli got some smack downs; big deal the all should've been hit ages ago ho estly and Nekroz being new is no exception, they hit rituals all the time usually before hand. The biggest thing is goid bye to Vanity's in the main, thats finally dead thanks to it going to one by far the most annoying floodgate and its been beaten down. I've been opposed to the notion of floodgates in the maindeck for a reason and I am glad they are gone, hopefully the game can clean up a bit after this mess of a format. I'd love to see more of a diverse game again.