Deck Lockdown

Can be usefull against tech genius if you can't fit rai-oh in your strategy.

Banlist Predictions sept 2011 (english)

Banned:

Hyper Librarian

Limiter removal

Mind control

one for one

Gateaway of the six

Sangan

lonefire blossom

Limited to 1:

Trishula

Doble edge sword technique

Formula syncron

Black luster soldier

Kristia

semi-limited

Gravekeeper spy

vayu

dewloren

destiny draw

Agent earth

Kizan LSS

The main problem of the game right now is syncro-plant decks, either way I don't think tengu will be on the list this time. Also the strengh of the deck in the OCG meta has proved how good it is without Tengu, so maybe Konami will ban librarian and restrict part of the engine.

In my opinion this problem could be solved if konami removed part of the tuners or the no-tuners. However either glow-up bulb or spore have well designe, and you can not ban dandylion because doppel warrior accomplish the same purpose. The only solution is restrict the syncro monster, formula syncron, so the material will be meaningless. Furthermore iif konami ban one for one and lonefire blossom, the deck won't abuse of the whole plant syncro engine. In this way, The combination of glow-up bulb and reborn tengu is still great, but it is harder to create.

The syncro summon strategy have been evolving in order to create big monsters with hard summon requirements, while the small monsters become syncro material with weak attack but strong search effects. For this reason, Sangan is a key card right now. Some people are willing to play tour guide to the underworld only to search Sangan. Maybe this card will be banned this time.

Mind control have been a overwhelm card since the arrived of the syncro age, and it will become worse with the exceed age. Every game can be drasticly changed with this card, so it has to go, and some day Mark of the Rose will go too.

Gateaway of the six / Limiter removal: These two cards are great examples of overpower and madness. These two create instant wining scenarios if we play it correctly. I think this is the type of card that should be banned from the game.

Fishborg blaster: If sangan and one for one are banned and formula syncron is limited to 1, the potential of this card will decrease. So I don't think it will be on the list this time.

Kristia y Agent earth: Even when this deck has a lot of engines, I think that earth and Kristia are the main problem. Kristia is hard to kill behind herald of perfection or any other strong fairy defense (like herald of the orange light).

Doble Edge sword technique: This is why six samurai is capable of summon trishula, summon a shi en any turn, destroy many monster at the once (thanks to hand of the six), and eat all your life points at the same time.

Gravekeeper Spy is the oldest card of the actual meta, however it have the worst design ever. A 2500 def monster capable of summon almost any gravekeeper monster from the deck, this kind of thing should not even exist. Also gravekeeper stele let you recover it. If this card is semi restricted, both players will feel more the effect of royal tribute.

I think six samurai is in the game in order to force people to concentrate in their monsters (while gravekeeper force people to concentrate in their magic and trap cards). What is wrong with six samurai is his capacity to summon many monsters easily, that was not a problem before because grandmaster is a well design card, but Kizan is not....

Banlist Predictions sept 2011

I'm going to translate this as soon as I can ;)

Banned:

Hyper Librarian

Limiter removal

Mind control

one for one

Gateaway of the six

Sangan

lonefire blossom

Limited to 1:

Trishula

Doble edge sword technique

Formula syncron

Black luster soldier

Kristia

semi-limited

Gravekeeper spy

vayu

dewloren

destiny draw

Agent earth

Kizan LSS

El principal problema del juego en este momento son los decks syncro-plant, no creo que Tengu no sera tocado en esta lista. Sin embargo el potencial del deck en el OCG ha demostrado que puede llegar muy lejos aun sin él. Por tanto no solo se debe banear Librarian, tambien se debe limitar el motor. El deck abusa demasiado de spore y glow-up bulb para sacar formula syncron, desencadenar extra draws y una ola de syncronias.

Por tanto el problema tiene dos posibles soluciones, quitas los tuners o los no-tuners. Sin embargo tanto glow-up bulb y spore estan muy bien diseñados, y no se puede eliminar dandylion porque aun queda doppel warrior. La unica solucion logica es limitar el syncro resultante, formula syncron. Quitar one for one para evitar la convocacion instantanea de los tuners, y anear lonefire blossom para disminuir el abuso de todo el sistema de syncronia planta. De esta manera la combinacion de glow-up bulb y tengu sigue siendo genial, pero es mucho mas dificil de combinar.

La evolucion de la estrategia de syncronia ha hecho que los monstruos fuertes tengan complicados requerimientos de convocacion, mientras que los monstruos pequeños y debiles tengan efectos de busqueda muy versatiles. Por tanto Sangan se ha convertido en una carta clave. Tanto asi que algunos estan dispuesto a jugar tour guide to the underworld unicamente para buscar Sangan. Es verdad que la epoca de la syncronia esta a punto de acabar, pero aun asi creo que veremos esta carta fuera del juego por una epoca.

Mind control es una carta muy explotada desde la llegada de la syncronia. Y posiblemente lo sea aun mas con la llegada de los XYZ, haciendo que una partida cambie drasticamente por el unico hecho de robar un monstruo del oponente. Esta carta tiene que irse, y algun dia, cuando las estrategias planta cobren mas fuerza Mark of the Rose tambien se ira.

Gateaway of the six / Limiter removal: Al igual que muchas personas, yo soy de los que creen que las cartas que dan victoria casi instantanea deberian irse del juego. "Limiter Removal" permite hacer practicamente 8000 de daño si te toca junto a gearframe y un campo medio indefenso. Mientras que Gateaway te permite convocar practicamente todos los samurais del deck en un solo turno. Ambas significan victoria segura si se juegan adecuadamente.

Fishborg blaster: Con sangan y one for one fuera del juego y formula syncron limitado, el potencial de esta carta pierde cada vez mas peso. No creo que sea afectado por la lista.

Kristia y Agent earth: La fuerza del deck de agentes se ha hecho presente en el TCG y la gran variedad de formas para jugar este deck hace que sus mas pontentes cartas tengan que ser afectadas. Apesar de ser un deck lleno de motores intensos, creo que earth es pieza clave para ralentizarlo. De la misma manera limitar Kristia es totalmente necesario dado que la carta practicamente controla todo el duelo y regresa a la mano si no se elimina adecuadamente.

Doble Edge sword technique: Esta carta permite usar trishula en six samurai, permite Crear innumerables shi en, eliminar muchos monstruos a la vez (gracias a hand of the six), y acabar con muchos puntos de vida a la vez.

Gravekeeper Spy es una de las carta mas antiguas del meta actual, sin embargo tiene uno de los peores diseños del juego. Un monstruo de 2500 def capaz de convocar casi cualquier GK del deck al campo no deberia siquiera existir. Si consideramos ademas que puedes recuperarlo con gravekeeper stele, esta claro que esta carta deberia ser al menos semilimitada. De esta manera ambos jugadores sufririan mas los efectos de royal tribute.

Personalmente creo q si hay algo mal en six samurai, es su capacidad de convocar tantos monstruos en especial. Antes no era tanto problema porque Grandmaster tiene condiciones de convocaciones razonables, asi como shien. Pero kizan no cumple los mismos principios...

In Nazca, summoning the Earthbound Immortals

Fui a Nazca (Perú) el otro dia para ver las lineas de esa cultura antigua (la cultura Nazca claro esta). Trate de convocar a los dioses inmortales con mis cartas en ultimate, pero no paso nada :(

I went to Nazca (Perú) the other day to see the lines of that ancient culture (Nazca culture of course). I tried to summon the earthbound gods with my ultimate/1ºedition cards, but nothing happened :(

Maybe nothing happened because I didn't have aslla piscu.

Quiza no paso nada porque no tenia a Aslla piscu.

Or maybe because Wiracocha wasn't a ultimate edition.

O quiza porque Wiracocha no era ultimate.

Or maybe because it is just a fucking cartoon show for childrens.

O quiza porque es solo un dibujo animado.

Ooooooor maaaaybe because I am not the chosenone to carry a Earthbound Immortal god :(

Ooooooo quizaaaa porque yo no soy el "elegido" para llevar a un dios inmortal de tierra :(

Who knows......

Quien sabe....

Hyper librarian > Card of safe return

Card of safe return was famous for all the extra cards you could draw. It became as strong as other key cards like gateaway of the six or limiter removal. Once COSR was in play, all the combos just get you extra draws that transform your field into something unbeatable. In order to win with this card you only need two things:

1.- Create a strategy based on summon from the graveyard.

2.- Draw the damn Card of safe return.

This card was banned for the infinite number of possible draws. However Hyper librarian acomplish the same strategy but in a better way. Using hyper librarian you will get all the extra draws you need, and in this case you only need 1 thing:

1.- Create a strong syncro strategy capable to put a lv5 syncro in the field as the first goal.

Some people think formula syncron is a pot of greed with legs (but is worst because it is also a tuner). Acording to this example, Hyper librarian is a card of safe return with a hat and a book (Also his 2400atk are not underrated).

I am pretty sure librarian will be banned in the next list. But you can not forget the potential of formula, it have to be limited.

More news about the blog

Since today I will have more time to do whatever I want, so prepare to read a lot of post in the next days. Also I have a bad new to all my spansish readers:

There won't be any spanish post in this blog. From now on, everything will be in english.

Engines through history

Since the game was created, we all need ways to get our cards faster. So the concept of engine came up and have been evolved until today. At the begining, the most powerful engines in the game were cards like pot of greed or graceful charity. However, the hability to get a +1 so easily disappeared eventually. And another logical engines like destiny draw or allure of darkness start to control the game, this new kind of engines didn't give a +1 but increased the possibility to draw the things you needed in order to get your wining condition. And finally now we have a new kind of engine that basicly don't give any kind of advantage to the player at the moment, instead it gives a potential position that can not be overwhelm. I am going to explain myself a little bite.

we need to analyze the first engine to understand what is going on now.

Pot of greed (+1): An instant way to get an extra card and you dont need to be a "pro" to know how to play it. It didn't have any sinergy with other cards, so almost every deck needed one of this. Since every player needed at least one, konami gained a lot of mone from it. The problem of this card was that the player who draw it first, will have enough advantage to win the game in a few turns. Doesn't matter what format we are, an extra card will always be crucial. The history of yugi has proved how this type of cards are unconsistent.

Destiny draw, Solar recharge, allure of darkness (0): Any of this cards give extra cards on his own. But the material required could be use it like a weapon in the future. That is how Destiny hero malicious, disk commander and dasher become the extra card that pot of greed used to give us. That is how Solar recharge put the last Lightsworm in the graveyard while the summon of JD came closer. At the end, this type of engine became as strong as pot of greed and eventually had to be limited in some way.

The conclusion: Drawing cards and putting key cards in the grave at the same time without any cost was not a good idea.

After wining alot of money, Konami decided to create a new type of engine...

Lonefire blossom, Karakuri Shogun burei/bureido, Gravekeeper recruiter, Scrap storm, Worm Xex, and more (0): At the begining they look like an average card with not real porpuse, but things start to change slowly. Lonefire is probably the most played card right now thanks to reborn tengu, hyper librarian and formula syncron. Thanks to lonefire we can get any plant of the deck, it wasn't a big deal when it first came out but right now a whole deck plays around this concept. However lonefire is better than any other searchers because it also load the graveyard (key of the plant strategy), and That is how a new type of engine was created. Now you don't get any extra card, instead the engine is part of the core strategy, increasing the sinergy in the deck. Now we live a new age, where the new definition of engine is...

Engine (2011): Any card capable of search for any key card of your deck, also it works in the in core of your strategy.

I already talk about lonefire blossom, now I'm gonna give you some more examples...

Gravekeeper recruiter -> Search for GK and indirectly search for necrovalley. Also works with lithograph and is fuel for GK descendant.

Bureido/Burei -> Search for any KK in order to maintain the combo.

Scrap Storm -> Quick spell, if you play it correctly, it will work like a Reinforcement of any Scrap monster.

Worm Xex -> Key monster with a lot of sinergy in a reptile strategy, also send Worm Yagan to create a instant +1.

In the past if you wanted to abuse of some engine, you only needed to buy one card. But now, if you know a specific engine is stronger than the rest, you will have to play the entire strategy around it (which means a lot more money for Konami).

So, the next time you see a card with free draws in your effect maybe have to think twice before dropped with the rest, like "advanced draw"