Sunday 30 December 2012

Verz or Sacred?

In just a matter of weeks, the meta shift from Mermail/HERO/Fuck-ups all that good jazz to the new Verz/Sacred hooha has taken the OCG meta by storm (kinda).

These are not new archetypes, in fact, the only new cards in both archetypes are the Graveyard retrievers Cercyon and Sombres.

Personally, I feel both decks are competitve and stronk, that's why they've been winning shit. 

What I feel is that Verz has a more linear engine, and being a control based toolbox deck, is naturally easier to counter. The plus point of Verz is the bulk of their monsters as well as that annoying dick Thunderbird.

Sacred is to me an agressive style deck that should be used to churn out large Exceeds that force out removal, with the presence of Omega the job is made even easier as they cannot simply wait to Compulse your Exceed and must clear the material first.

Sacred rewards good plays with easy and quick wins, while Verz rewards personal decision making as most of the deck is large monsters and 1 for 1 removal.

So personally, I would prefer to play Sacred. Cos I rather be rewarded on one big decision, rather than small decisions here and there.

I may post how to counter these decks in my opinion if I feel my counter tactics are not so personalized and easy to adapt.

Sunday 23 December 2012

Revisiting BF

In my previous post I talked about BK or Burning Knuckler, which I am very excited about cos of its similarity with BF, one of my favourite decks of all time.

So in that excitement I decided to rebuild my BF deck, and it is showing some consistent results.

Monsters
1x BLS
3x Best card in the world
3x Bora
3x Shura
1x Zephyros
2x Kulat
1x Sirocco
1x Gale
1x Gorz
1x DAD
2x Veiler
2x Verz Mandrago
2x Thrasher
1x Maxx C

Magiks
1x Allure
1x Whirlwind
1x Book of Moon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Storm
1x MST
1x Night Shot
2x Pot of Duality

Traps
3x Icarus
2x Torrential
1x Solemn Jadgement
1x Bottomless Trap Hole

The decklist does not look like some conventional meta deck and rightly so cos it is not. What I have been trying to do with it is to make it a toolbox deck to churn out Rank 4 whilst having the presence and backup in the form of Kulat and Blizzard.

As a whole the early game can and should be played with typical BF openings ie. Shura and backrow. Essentially it is jus a toolbox Rank 4 deck that can play Icarus.

The Sirocco I kept because, Raiou is OP and needs to be banned.

I'm joking, but Raiou is a real pain in the ass for this deck.

The extra deck should be personalised but I believe Arms Wing and Armoured Wing are both must haves as they are Icarus targets, Black Rose as well.

The deck has shown reasonable success in normal games, but I wouldn't be confident enough to bring it into a tournament lol, besides, Verz does what this deck does but better. The only edge this deck really has ahead of other decks in the current meta is access to Icarus which is a really powerful plus card.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Burning Knuckler

It is just BF in a new way LOL, they even called it BK.

Spar is similar to Bora
Switch Hitter is similar to the best card that ever exsisted
Counter Blow is Kulat

All that's left is for furthur support and this deck will be just like the good old days!

Lead Blow also looks quite strong, and being a Warrior deck, can utilise already exsisting Warrior perks such as Blade Heart and Excalibur.

Really looking forward to building it, although the Phantom Fighter Planes thingy does look like it has quite abit of potential, although having to choose the best generic Rank 3-7 Exceeds in 15 cards could prove to be a challenge.

Friday 14 December 2012

Flush out the Mermail (Part 2)

As the last post was getting as long as a Lambyseries post (check him out at highlevelgaming.wordpress.com) I guess I should split this thing in two parts.

What I have covered:
1. Measuring the pros and cons of going against Sniper plays
2. Reading Abyss-sphere plays if you don't have the MST.
3. Reading a Moulin-glace drop with similarity to Dark Armed Dragon.

I actually think I didn't do a very good job with the previous post so I'll elaborate on all of them.

When the Pike searches Sniper, the most instinctive thing to do is to leave it with no targets to destroy upon its drop. This is actually BAD. Sniper is an attacker who can swing for potentially 3600 with the Troops thingy. Rather, to counter Sniper, chainable backrow, Sangan and other shennanigans that net advantage or no loss (Necro Gardna, Vayu) should be used.

Abyss-sphere is rarely utilised properly, as everyone thinks it's some unwritten law to call Linde and let Sphere destroy it. Abyss-sphere enables Synchro and Exceed plays, as well as being able to call the discard outlets in Megalo and Pike. Based on the monster summoned, and your present board, the hand of the opponent becomes easier to read.

For example, if he calls Pike to clear a monster with Infantry, it is likely he is going for a Gungnir play with Genex Controller, or a Bahamut Shark play with Dragoons, why so? By clearing the monster, the board is open and if he could do the same by summoning a Megalo into Infantry into Sniper or Diva, that board would look more menancing than just a lone Pike and potentially swing for more damage. The arguement that he is saving the Megalo for later use is to me, invalid, as the only difference would the additional 2 discard and search, the Megalo being in the deck, and the only tutor for it being Dragoons, allow Dragoons to search for a more advantageous play, such as a Diva search.

Moulin-glace is very annoying to play against, so 1 for 1 removal is (obviously) the best answer for mofos like it, whenever the graveyard is at 5 WATER, it is best to use as much of your hand as possible or attempt to manipulate his graveyard. However, sometimes allowing the Moulin drop is fine if you can remove it, as 2 cards for one of your opponent's Battle Phase could be worth it depending on your situation.

Now on to the new stuff.

Mermail requires you to actually have the stuff to do anything with it, the only one card engines in it being Diva and Undine. Without the Atlanteans, the discard outlets in Mermail essentially become dead, as such, when a Mermail is not tutoring his ass off, it is likely that all 8 of the Atlanteans in his deck are not in his hand, or the ones that he has does not conform to the board you present him.

Against Mermail, their actions, if they are good and understand the deck, will tell you at the very least, what is NOT in their hand. The threatening Mermail backrow are predictable anyway such as Sphere, Torrential and maybe Dimensional Prison, as such, when the windows to activate such cards appear and there is no response, it is likely to be either an MST or a fake.

More importantly is the issue of Linde, as far as possible, do not let it's effect go off. Compulsory Evacuation Device is a good answer for this. Despite it being in terms of advantage a -1, it is actually more of a plus if the player opened with it. This being that next turn, if he sets the Linde again, that he has no plays to make if the Linde does not go off, which also = no Sphere in backrow, as he would have activated it to start his plays going.

Of course, if you can main any of the hard counters to the deck such as Raiou or Macro, it will also give you a significant advantage in the game, as all their engines become dead and they are forced to play beatdown. Bear in mind though that Mermail are more than capable of playing beatdown, with monsters like Dragoons and Sniper allowing good damage for minimal commitment.

The most important aspect of the Mermail game is the hand size though. Even a large numbers, knowing that 1 of it is a Genex Controller would reduce the probability of a big Megalo play or any other play for that matter, the minimal number of cards in hand to run a fully optimal play is 2 (Megalo + Salvage), but clearing a Megalo is an instant -3 to hand size, with the +1 from Sphere being visible advantage, the knowledge than one of his hand cards is not a WATER monster is vital in reading furthur plays from the Mermail player.

I think I may have missed some, but ya I am better at answering questions directly. Also this is simply my opinion from playing Mermail and what I believe and understand the playstyle of the deck should be.

TL;DR Clear Megalo drop, watch hand size decrease, feel safe. Don't kill Linde


Sunday 9 December 2012

Flush out the Mermail

Disclaimer : Everything mentioned is personal opinion and really if you think it doesn't make sense then you can show me all that Mermail crushing goodness you have.

Not gonna bore you with details like Lamby always does.

Mermail is essentially a toolbox deck, that wins by out resourcing the opponent and responding to their commitments on the board with the Atlanteans.

Sniper, or Marksman destroys set cards. Your typical Mermail deck plays 3 and it is the main target for the Pike search. When Pike searches this, the Mermail player is likely to have some sort of WATER discard outlet, or your field is naked and he's gonna rape you with this card.

As the Mermail player, Sniper is a card you should attempt to fully utilise to press damage, as it is essentially 3200 attacker. After all, you hold that board for 2 turns you gonna win by jus utter beatdown.

Using this as a Mermail player perspective, it is unwise to leave the backrow empty in fear of Sniper drops, honestly, if you have the backrow you will force a 1 for 1 trade as the Sniper is non recyclable by the decks standard engines. IF YOU DON'T have the backrow, the Sniper is going to net a plus 1.

Now on to understanding the deck's engine.

Abyss-sphere is one of the engine cards in the deck that some deem that if used properly, honestly, can't be stopped. We all know the "wait for activation then MST" trick, but the utility of the card allows the user to
1. Call Pike for immediate drop, or provide Level 4
2. Call Linde to bait Bottomless and possibly chain a Torrential
3. Just call Megalo for a 2400 beater.

The good news is, when playing against a good Mermail player who utilises the Sphere as said above, his hand becomes more predictable.

Bottomless on Linde is not always wise as a chain Torretital could make that play totally not worthwihle and many good Mermail players are wary of the threat of removal on Linde.

As the deck is mainly a tutoring deck in the early to mid game, Mind Crush becomes extremely potent. However, similar to Dark Armed, Moulinglace needs be treated with similar caution. What makes it more unpredictable is the usage of Salvage to tutor it. Hence my personal opinion of a safe number is 9 or 4.

MOST IMPORTANT
This is getting kinda long, so I'll just say this.
Most of the deck's engine requires:
1. 1 WATER discard enabler
2. 1 Atlantean

This means:
Without at least 4 hand cards, it is very unlikely they will have a fully optimal play.

I would elaborate, maybe I will, but I need to LoL.
:)
Later

lalalala

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Sorry for the delay

The computer I had planned to use to get the blog in order crashed the evening after my final paper. Talk about bad luck.

I'm not going to any LAN shop to settle it, that's silly. The moment I get my new computer, I'll do my best to set the blog in order.

As of now no real activity amongst us. The FIRE deck is set for release soon, so a post with furthur explaination of my personal views of the deck may be up as soon as it is.

Also, I'm planning a post on how to effectively counter Mermails, that may be up soon as well.

As for now. I leave you this : TKRO :)

Wednesday 21 November 2012

New beginnings


First post on NoLogicYGO, is the future of aggressive YGO!!!
Trap Stun > Royal Decree all the time
FACT.
Follow me @NoLogicEustace