The future of TRB...

...seems to be rooted in Vanguard. All of us have taken the plunge, and we're also all a bit sick of YuGiOh and the direction it's been going in. As of right now, we're all still playing both, but I'm thinking about selling off my stuff and buying up Vanguard here before it gets TOO popular. I am gonna hold on to one deck for shits and giggles (also because YCS Seattle is in November and I've never been to one before), and it's something I've played variants of in the past: Frog Monarchs.

Or, to be precise, Lancer Frogs. A hybrid, actually.

Monsters: 27

3x Sea Lancer
3x Light and Darkness Dragon
2x Caius the Shadow Monarch
1x Obelisk the Tormentor

3x Swap Frog
3x Ronintoadin
2x Poison Draw Frog
2x Dupe Frog
1x Treeborn Frog

1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2x Tragoedia
2x Battle Fader
1x Effect Veiler
1x Maxx "C"

Spells: 11

3x Enemy Controller
2x Creature Swap
2x Salvage
1x Book of Moon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm

Traps: 2

2x Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra Deck: 3

3x Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

Basically, I'm running it because a) it's consistent-ish, b) it usually has an out and it's kind of fun to bash Inzektors into the ground with LaDD, and 3) it's CHEAP. Super fuckin cheap. I think the whole deck (minus Maxx "C") cost about 40 bucks.

Anyway, there are some choices in here I feel need some explanation.

3x Light and Darkness Dragon

This shit fucks the meta hardcore. Nothing really has an out besides chaining Fiendish Chain or Forbidden Lance to its negation, and opponents usually eat up resources trying to get rid of it only for me to just drop a second one next turn. 3 of these is mandatory. Not too sure how I feel putting it against Lyla, but it's just too good.

1x Obelisk the Tormentor

Funny as hell to drop, and easy to boot. Doesn't hurt that you can blow the field for virtually no cost using Ronintoadins as food.

1x Effect Veiler/1x Maxx "C"

I know Veiler does a lot more against the meta but I don't have more than one and I happen to have two Maxx "C" so it felt like a shame to not put in at least one. Also helps stop Hieratic/Wind-Up plays and lets me draw into the Faders.

2x Compulsory Evacuation Device

Just too good not to run this format. Stops everything, especially with the new priority rulings. REDMD? Fuck that shit. Dragonfly? Fuck that shit too. Fuck all the shit. It also doesn't interfere too much with Treeborn because it's so versatile.

That's about it, the rest of the choices are standard/preference. Can't wait for Daigusto Phoenix to come out, this deck will be fucked after that. Don't see it getting hit in September either... freakin' sweet. Expect to see a few more Vanguard posts, but not from me because I don't understand that shit at all yet. Picked up Gold Paladins today, we'll see how that goes. Peace out.

/fugglor

BubbleBeat

E.HERO Stratos
E.HERO Alius Neos x3
E.HERO Bubbleman x3
Photon Thrasher

Emergency Call x3
RotA
Duality x3
Super Poly
Miracle Fusion x3
Monster Reborn
G Spark x3
Dark Hole
Warrior Returning Alive
Mask Change
MST
Heavy Storm

Warning x2
Judgment
Hero Blast x2
Mirror Force
Compulse
BTH
Torrential Tribute x2
Fiendish Chain
Starlight Road

I was actually writing this down to keep a copy of the deck but I accidentally posted this instead. Oh well...might as well follow up.

WHAT'S UP YUGINERDS, CHOW UP IN HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! AND TODAY WE'RE GOING OVER BUBBLEMAN BEATTT!!!!!

Hahah sorry, I haven't done one of these in a while. I've gone through a lot of decks lately (Wind-Ups, Blue Eyes Control, Chaos Dragons) but I decided I'm selling away all my excess cards for money so I can start up Cardfight!! Vanguard. Hopefully it picks up around here because I am dying for some competition >:D

Anyways, today I'm gonna quickly go over a deck that has been running wild for the last two months. Inspired by no other than Bahamaut himself, who I swear breaks archetypes (i.e. Bahamaut's Divine Performance), I present to you guys with BubbleBeat! Bubblesssssssssss.

...My bubbles.

So I've been playing this deck for almost more than a month and I've got to say, I love it. Gemini Beat was kinda boring but adding the Bubblemans really gives it more plays than summon Alius and setting G-Spark. Since this deck is old news, I'm not gonna bother going over the strategy when Bahamaut and GQ have already done so.

Another thing I really like about this deck is how good it runs against the meta...although I can't really say that for a fact. I've only played against a lot of Inzektors with this deck but this deck wrecks Inzektors. Hero Blast, G Spark, and Torrential kills their attempts to plus with Hornet. Most of the time, I don't find myself the need to side out against them. Still need to test out against Dino Rabbits and Wind-Ups.

The one thing I don't like though is how I occasionally find a hard time to get over big monsters. Blade Armor makes most of the finishing plays in this deck but dropping a Gorz on him kills your momentum.

And yeah that's pretty much it. Oh, I feel like a lot of the times, the only thing we post on here is deck profile. I wanna spice things up here so if we have any readers out there, I wanna hear what you guys want to read about. So leave a comment in the box below ;D

Oh and visit my eBay account! I'm trying to get rid of my Wind-Ups :3
http://www.ebay.com/itm/220975545374?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1287

That's all for now I guess. Take it easy Yuginerds :)

Gotcha~
          Chow

Orgymaster Chaos Dragons-34 monsters

So in case anyone was wondering, Fugglor, Chow and I are all running chaos dragons, and all finding it fairly fun (and relatively cheap) to run. While I am still not entirely convinced of the deck's competitive potential, I'm slowly discovering ways to make this deck more consistent. My version was influenced by some of my interactions with Chow's and Fugglor's builds, but there are a number of things that set mine apart. Here's my 34 monster Chaos Dragons

Monsters: 34

3x Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

3x Lightpulsar Dragon

3x Darkflare Dragon

3x Eclipse Wyvern

3x Divine Dragon Apocralyph

2x Alexandrite Dragon

2x Axe Dragonute

1x Dark Armed Dragon

3x Breaker The Magical Warrior

3x Dimensional Alchemist

3x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

1x Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress

2x Effect Veiler

2x Chaos Sorcerer

Spells: 4

2x Gold Sarcophagus

1x Monster Reborn

1x Future Fusion

Traps: 2

2x Torrential Tribute

Side:

3x Neko Mane King

3x Thunder King Rai-oh

2x Cyber Dragon

3x Mystical Space Typhoon

2x Smashing Ground

2x Shadow Imprisoning Mirror

Extra:

1x Brionac, Dragon Of The Ice Barrier

1x Five Headed Dragon

1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

1x Black Rose Dragon

1x Number 39: Utopia

1x Wind Up Arsenal Zenmaioh

1x Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon

1x Ally of Justice Catastor

First I will skim over the obvious. You run 3 REDM, 3 Wyvern, 3 Lightpulsar, and at least 2 Darkflare in any pure chaos build like this. Another fairly obvious addition I think was the 3 Divine Dragon Apocralyph, which is ridiculous in this deck. It allows you to reuse or reverse toolbox your dragons, while simultaneously filling your grave with chaos food. Dark Armed is thrown in mainly because it is another target for Wyvern's effect, but it has obvious merits in any deck that runs darks and can regulate the number in the graveyard. 2 Chaos Sorcerers provide some removal, though I would take out one or even both if I had a Black Luster Soldier, which you should obviously run if available. Then, 2 Effect Veilers are essential in any deck nowadays (3 if you have room), and with their recent reprint there's not much of an excuse not to have them.

Now for some of the stuff that defines this build: you may notice that it has exactly 17 dark and light monsters. This should help ensure that you mill both lights and darks, and end up with fairly even numbers of both for chaos food. To help mill are the 3 Rykos and single Lyla, which is one of the reasons I run 2 Gold Sarcs. My main problem with old builds that ran more spells and traps was that the lightsworns would end up milling spells and traps instead of monsters, which obviously hurts, especially when every spell and trap could help you win. Here I ran the bare minimum with Monster Reborn and Future Fusion. The 2 Gold Sarcs not only ensure that you can get either to hand, they also allow you to mill freely without having to worry about losing Future Fusion, which is a HUGE win condition for this deck. Anyways, the lightsworns also provide destruction, which you may recall was one of my main problems with the deck. However, I don't run Charge of the Light Brigade because I don't believe the lightsworn engine is essential to this deck.

Another thing that sets this build apart is the beaters. 2 Axe Dragonute and 2 Alexandrite allow you to get over the increasingly common Thunder King Rai-ohs, which can cause problems for just about every boss monster due to their summons being inherent, and negatable. Even besides taking out Thunder King Rai-oh, having 2000 atk beaters can help in a lot of situations, especially since they are both chaos food as well as dragons, which allow them to be brought back by Apocralyph and discarded with Darkflare. Breaker is another beater that provides some backrow destruction. In old builds, I would often mill MSTs, which not only prevented me from using them, it also made it so that I had cards in grave that weren't chaos food. Running Breaker solves half of that issue by being dark, meaning it's okay to mill him most of the time. The 3 MSTs are in the side deck instead, for use against a number of matchups.

The last "beater" is Dimensional Alchemist, which I believe is essential to this and other chaos dragon builds. He can speed up the deck with his milling, which also gives him 1800 atk for one turn. Most important is his second effect, which allows you to bring back banished monsters when he's destroyed. The massive amount of banishment in this deck ensures you will always have useful targets to bring back with this effect. I hate myself for not realizing sooner how perfect this guy is for this deck.

The 2 Torrential Tribute provides some control, and works great against both rabbit decks and wind ups (after turn 1). They also have immense synergy with Lightpulsar and Dimensional Alchemist, allowing you to potentially plus while you derail your opponent's plays. Most decks nowadays should run the maximum, as it is one of the best ways to prevent the big decks from getting out their bosses, but in Chaos Dragons it's just too good to not run.

This brings me to some of the omissions in the spell and trap lineup. You may notice that I don't have Heavy or Dark Hole in my main or side deck. I felt Dark Hole was inferior to the Torrentials here since it can't be used to prevent your opponent's plays. Heavy was left out due to the massive amount of spell removal (Breaker, Lyla, Ryko, and MST in the side) already available in more useful forms. Another problem with Heavy and Dark Hole is that they can both set off Starlight Road, which I believe will be fairly common tech in this format. Torrential also sets this off, but I decided that its benefits were too good to disregard. Also left out were the more generic control traps, such as Solemn Warning, Bottomless, Dimensional Prison, Safe Zone, and Compulsory, as well as Call of the Haunted. These were fairly easy ones to take out since they don't particularly contribute to the consistency of the deck, which depends on the high monster to S/T ratio.

This format, the side is just as important as the main, because of the range of strategies you may come up against. 3 Rai-Ohs are fairly obvious, and your opponents are fairly likely to run it against you anyway. He's simply too good to leave out. Against wind-ups, the main sides are 3 Neko Mane King and 2 Cyber Dragon. Neko Mane King can help end the wind-up loop prematurely, and is MUCH CHEAPER than the obvious alternative, Maxx C (for those of us who don't have 300 bucks to spend on a playset of cockroaches, or awesome friends to borrow theirs from like Fugglor has). Cyber Dragon is great at cleaning up after the wind-up loop, when their field is likely to be littered with Zenmaighty and/or Zenmaines. It can also attack over most of the monsters that deck can produce. Obviously, it is a good side against any deck that runs machines or simply lacks large beaters.

Against inzektors, Shadow Imprisoning Mirror stops basically everything they could do. The 2-3 Effect Veilers in the main deck should help supplement these. Also, MST can possibly help, though this has its obvious downsides against Dragonfly.

While wind-ups and inzektors have some scary plays, the big deck to worry about this format will be Dino Rabbits. I believe the main deck could do fairly well against a rabbit deck. However, the 2 Smashing Ground will likely help tremendously. Smashing allows you to get rid of Dolkka quickly, and it can force Laggia to use its negation. Besides this, it could be sided against any deck that may require non-monster removal to deal with, such as skill drain decks. The 3 MST will also likely be helpful against Dino Rabbit, since they love to set backrow.

Finally, we get to the extra deck, which is not particularly important to this build. Obviously, you need Five Headed for Future Fusion, and Fortress Dragon for Cyber Dragon. Fugglor's Gallis, Birdman, and Tragoedia allow him to go into rank 3 xyz and synchros fairly easily, but my build has more or less opted out of that. The only tuner is Effect Veiler, which is not likely to be used as a tuner unless absolutely necessary. If required, Veiler can synch with Darkflare or Cyber Dragon to make level 6s (Brionac, Orient, Gaia Knight, whatever), or Lightpulsar to make level 7s (primarily Black Rose). Level 8s are fairly difficult here, since the only direct combination possible is Veiler and DAD, which is not likely to pop up at an opportune moment. Obviously, you should still run the staples (Scrap, Stardust, Colossal) if you have room for them, though they are fairly low priority.

More likely to come out are the xyz. Cyber Dragons and Darkflares can make Zenmaioh or Adreus (or Tiras) fairly easily, and the many level 4s available make rank 4s like Utopia or Zenmaister attractive prospects. One flaw with this build is that it has no feasible way to go into Leviair, which has immense synergy with this deck, one thing that Fugglor's build addresses quite easily.

The best extra deck pieces are not yet out in the tcg. First is Queen Dragun, a generic rank 4 xyz that provides some nice support by bringing back dragons, mainly Lightpulsar, which would still get its effect if destroyed. A monster that many are looking forward to is Lavalval Chain which in most cases will be used as a Foolish Burial, though without the minus one. This deck thrives on cards in the grave, so this has some obvious combo potential. Lastly is the Hieroglyph Dragon King Atumus (its name seems to change all the time, so I won't even bother writing it right). He can be made with 2 Lightpulsars, and allows you to quickly get out any dragon from your deck (except DAD of course) for MASSIVE combo potential. Then, because this deck can get out level 10s so easily, a cool idea would be to run Super Duper Dreadnought Cannon Giant Gustaph Max Railroad Cannon, who has a huge burn effect and a huge name that can help you make the final push for game.

So I hope this was helpful, and at least gives you guys some more ideas on how to run this deck. I'm really sorry I haven't been posting more, but college life has been pretty hectic lately. Honestly, I shouldn't have posted this now with finals coming up but I felt bad, especially since I now have 2 teammates trying to challenge me as a dragon playa. I'd like to mention some other ideas in future posts, but I wouldn't expect anything too soon. For now I think I'll just badger Chow to put up his list. Please leave some comments or suggestions below. I apologize if this build doesn't work as well as I think because I haven't spent much time play testing it yet.

Blazers finally won a game, and against Chicago, no less. Nolan Smith is the next Jeremy Lin.

-Orgymaster

Deck Profile - 35-Monster Chaos Dragons

Monsters - 35

3x Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

3x Lightpulsar Dragon

3x Darkflare Dragon

1x BLS - Envoy of the Beginning

3x Eclipse Wyvern

3x Divine Dragon Apocralyph

1x Dark Armed Dragon

2x Tragoedia

1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

1x Effect Veiler

2x Maxx "C"

1x Zephyros the Elite

3x Gallis the Star Beast

3x Genex Ally Birdman

2x Card Trooper

3x Dimensional Alchemist

Spells - 5

1x Future Fusion

1x Dark Hole

1x Heavy Storm

1x Monster Reborn

1x Mind Control

I'm really brain-dead right now but I'll try to explain a bit. Ignore typos or poorly worded phrases.

The Chaos Dragons (Lightpulsar, Darkflare, Eclipse) are the main engine. First two SS themselves, third adds REDMD to hand so you can swarm harder. Apocralyph is in here not only because it's a Dark Dragon but allows you to fill your grave with Lights/Darks and get back REDMD or a Chaos thingy. It's also NSable which has always been a slight problem for Dragons.

Dark Armed is standard for decks that run both Darks and GY control, and the hand traps (Trago, Gorz, Veiler, Maxx) are in here for protection.

Gallis/Birdman make cool plays with Leviair, and also allow for a bit of Synchro shenanigans. Zephyros lets you mill again with Gallis while also grabbing a +1. There are five level 10 monsters in here too, which means a 1 in 7 chance to deal 2000 damage first turn with a Gallis.

Trooper's in here to fill the Graveyard while killing stuff like Rai-Oh and Roach, and D-Alc's here to pull used cards to hand late game and to pull together a strategy early game. Doesn't hurt that he's a Light.

Spells are standard, opening Future Fusion and a single Chaos Dragon usually means game and on the second turn, if they don't set anything, it DOES mean game.

This was sort of a warmup post, trying to get back into blogging more since Epicake's the only one posting lately. Look for something else coming up soon.

/fugglor

Deck Profile - Scrapvells

Epicake's back with another deck profile.  Not sure whether or not to run Crystal Beasts or Scrapvells this format, but I'll probably go with Scrapvells.  Chow and I also recently opened up a box of Ra-Yellow Mega Pack and good god.  That was fun.  The set is worth the money if you enjoy opening packs :3  This shit's like drugs.  

Anyways, here's the decklist:

Monsters x16:
Thunder King Rai-Oh x2

Cyber Dragon x2

Scrap Chimera x3

Scrap Golem x1

Scrap Beast x3

Flamvell Firedog x3

Flamvell Magician x2

Spells x12:
Scrapstorm x2

Scrapyard x1

Rekindling x2

Dark Hole x1

Monster Reborn x1

Mystical Space Typhoon x2

Heavy Storm x1

Pot of Duality x2

Traps x12:
Horn of the Phantom Beast x2

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Solemn Warning x2

Solemn Judgment x1

Mirror Force x1

Compulsory Ejaculation Device x1

Starlight Road x1

Dark Bribe x1

Call of the Haunted x1

 Most of my choices are pretty obvious.  The only thing that sets this deck apart from others are the 2x Cyber Dragons.  Drawing into Cyber Dragon and Scrap Beast is an instant Scrap Twin Dragon.  Whenever I whip out my Scrap Twin, I fuckin' win.  Even if you don't draw into the Beast, you can still use Cydra as a beatstick and protect him with all the traps.  Honestly, if I had the money for 2 Maxx "C"s I'd definitely be running them.  The sideboard is something in progress, working on it for the new format.

I'll try to get a locals report to you guys on Sunday :)

~Epicake~

Epicake's Banlist OCG Banlist Reaction

Even though all of you probably already know the banlist by heart by now, I'll post it anyways:

Forbidden:
Glow-Up Bulb
Spore
Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Trap Dustshoot


Limited:
T.G. Striker
The Agent of Mystery - Earth

Semi-Limited:
Marshmallon
Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
Reborn Tengu
Emergency Teleport
Shien's Smoke Signal
Level Limit - Area B
Torrential Tribute
Ultimate Offering

Unlimited:
Call of the Haunted

So first off, I hate the looks of this list, and hope to GOD that Konami decides to break the tradition and give the TCG a completely different list than what they gave to the OCG.  I doubt it'll happen though.  The reasons I hate this list is mainly because it isn't going to be healthy for the game, but rather healthy for Konami's wallet.  Konami is attempting to sell Exceeds by fading away from Synchros.

Lez break it down:

Forbidden:
Glow-Up Bulb/Spore: I don't believe that the issue with the plant engine should have been handled this way.  I would've liked a banning of Dandylion instead, and putting Lonefire Blossom to 2.  It would be more skill based because now Dandy is going to hang around and be derpy for ANOTHER format.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier: Trish just wasn't healthy for the game, being so easy to bring out.  I think they did this to add on to the hitting of Agents since Trish is their main play.  I like Trish, but I saw this coming.

Trap Dustshoot: I agree with this completely, if someone draws into Dustshoot first turn they end up winning the game a majority of the time.

Limited:
T.G. Striker: WTF?  If Konami felt like hitting the T.G. engine I believe they should have limited T.G. Warwolf.  I also never saw the T.G. engine as much of an issue, so again... WTF Konami?

The Agent of Mystery - Earth: Okay, something had to happen to Agents and this was the correct decision to make.

Semi-Limited:
Marshmallon: Hell, why not?  Card is less broken and far too slow for the Inzektor/Wind-Up format we'll be seeing.

Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner: This might be the lift that Lightsworns need to get a boost in consistency.  Lumina is pretty much THE best Lightsworn there is, so we'll see what happens.

Reborn Tengu: Foreshadowing much?  Looks like the OCG will be getting Tengu soon, and Konami feels like it'd be too much of an issue.  I hated Tengu personally... so good riddance.

Emergency Teleport: What's this for?  Gustos?  Tele-Dad?  Who cares?  I like the card and it'll give a boost to a underpowered deck.  Good call by Konami to ban Mind Master and bring this back.

Shien's Smoke Signal: I've never had an issue playing against Samurai, I don't believe I've ever lost to Sams in a tournament (even during the derpy format).  Just add a little consistency to Six-Sams, why not?

Level Limit - Area B: Nobody will give a fuck about this, MST has stayed at 3.

Torrential Tribute: Wow, didn't see this one coming.  This card ALWAYS generates me plusses, but I guess it will teach players not to try to overextend their field.  I don't know how this will turn out, but it might actually be for the better.

Ultimate Offering: Okay? DGAF.

Unlimited:
Call of the Haunted: I'm pissed about this.  Call of the Haunted is a ridiculous card for Inzektors, and any deck that can plus from the graveyard.

So overall, we'll see how the list turns out but I hate it.  Doesn't matter, I'm switching to playing casually until Konami gives us a decent banlist and releases better sets that DON'T introduce a new, broken archetype.

I guess I'll run Crystal Beasts or something.

~Epicake~

Banlist's confirmed.

http://shriek.twoday.net/stories/64975791/

I'm out. Peace, everyone.

EDIT: Shriek fucked up, which is in and of itself post-worthy. The list may or may not have been fake (90% sure it's fake, no unbanned cards? Really?) but Shriek, known for being factual and accurate, fell for it due to a photoshopped magazine.

Ignore this post, banlist is NOT confirmed.

Deck Profile - Inzecter Full Monster

Not even gonna bother with an intro, the deck can drop Naturia Beast and the Inzecter/Wind-Up loop in a single turn.

Monsters - 38

3x Inzecter Dragonfly

3x Inzecter Centipede

3x Inzecter Hornet

1x Inzecter Gigamantis

2x Armageddon Knight

2x Mystic Tomato

1x Plaguespreader Zombie

1x Dark Armed Dragon

1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

3x Wind-Up Rat

2x Wind-Up Hunter

3x Gallis the Star Beast

3x Genex Ally Birdman

3x Tour Guide from the Underworld

1x Sangan

2x Tour Bus from the Underworld

2x T.G. Warwolf

2x T.G. Striker

Spells - 2

1x Monster Reborn

1x Pot of Avarice

Extra Deck - 15

3x Wind-Up Zenmaighty

1x Wind-Up Zenmaines

1x Leviair the Sea Dragon

1x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

1x Lavalval Chain

1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1x Stardust Dragon

1x Scrap Dragon

1x Black Rose Dragon

1x Underground Arachnid

1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1x Naturia Beast

1x Ally of Justice Cat Fister

As for the choices, the Inzecter/Wind-Up engines are standard Inzect-Ups. The Tour Guides/Tour Buses add a bit of variety; if you feel like doing just the hand loop instead of the whole shebang, now you can. The real reason I crammed Inzect-Ups into Full Monster is because Gallis lets you pull the first turn loop so much more often, without having to resort to Gilasaurus or Marauding Captain. Everything save for the T.G. engine is basically to help get the loop off, and the T.G.s give it access to Naturia Beast while also providing another easily summoned three-star, Warwolf.

That's all for today, I have an exam tomorrow and I'm totally not prepared so I'll see you all later.

/fugglor

Chaos Dragon Options

One thing I like about Chaos Dragons is how many options you have at your disposal. There are any number of ways to try and run this deck, as with most chaos decks. Here I will name some cards that could help support this deck and some simple combos you can pull off. The purpose of this article is just to give you guys some ideas as to what is possible in this deck.

The first two cards are White Stone of Legend and Blue Eyes White Dragon. Now some of you may (most likely won't) remember how much I love this family. With Cards of Consonance and Trade In, these cards make a very fun engine, where Cards of Consonance with White Stone nets you a plus one, and fetches Blue Eyes to use with Trade In. Whether or not you run the draw cards, the pair may be worth inclusion simply because they are both light attribute dragons, something the deck will definitely need. The plus one that often comes with White Stone can also help bring out Light Pulsar dragon in the grave via his second summoning condition.

Another viable engine involves 2 of the low level Lightsworn monsters, Ryko and Lyla. Both cards have destruction effects that help solve one of the weaknesses I discussed in the last article, and that is the lack of removal. Ryko is famous for his generic removal, and Lyla can create plus ones fairly often. Even besides this, their ability to mill is extremely valuable to this deck, which otherwise lacks reliable methods of filling its graveyard with the needed pieces for its big plays. Combined with Charge of the Light Brigade, this engine can help make a lot of decks more consistent, and here it provides exactly what this deck needed. One more thing to note about these 2 engines so far is that they are both included in the Dragons Collide structure deck, meaning even newcomers could pick up these pieces very cheaply.

Now, while the cards discussed thus far have been light monsters, a good chaos deck needs both light and dark to work. One dark monster that I have mentioned before is Divine Dragon Apocralyph. This card allows you to reuse dragons in the graveyard, particularly Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon. Another strength of this card is that you can choose what you discard to bring back your dragon, giving you the opportunity to selectively fill your graveyard with chaos food without losing advantage. A dark dragon that hasn't yet come out in TCG is Verz Zahhak, an 1850ATK beater with a fairly useful control effect that allows you to destroy a level 5 or higher monster when Zahhak himself is destroyed. This allows him to hold the field as a deterrent to your opponent's plays, often forcing them to get rid of this before they bring out their biggest monsters. One thing to note is that his effect is mandatory, meaning that if your opponent doesn't have any level 5 or above monsters and you do, you will have to destroy your own. This limits its late game utility, but early game you can use this in combo with Light Pulsar Dragon by targeting Light Pulsar for destruction, ensuring you can get REDM from the grave without missing Light Pulsar's timing. This card holds a lot of synergy in this deck, and is something you should keep an eye out for. The last really viable dark dragon is Vice Dragon, a card often seen as a parallel to Cyber Dragon. While clearly not as powerful, it is likely a better choice in this deck (though Cyber Dragon, as a light monster, is still a possible choice) simply because it is a true dragon. This means you can revive it with REDM, or discard it for Darkflare dragon's effect. If you throw in some tuners (White Stone of Legend for example), he can help you synchro summon, and running multiples can help you go into rank 5 XYZ.

Speaking of XYZ, one card that can help you bring out your XYZ monsters is Rescue Rabbit. In Chaos Dragons, this guy has 2 viable targets for his effect. The first is Alexandrite Dragon, a light attribute, level 4 normal dragon with 2000ATK, tied for the highest ATK of a level 4 normal monster. Besides being a beater, this option gives you access to instant rank 4 XYZ like Utopia and Roach, and being light means that it can serve as food for your hungry chaos monsters. The other option is Hunter Dragon, which tied for the strongest level 3 monster in the game at 1700ATK. He is a dark normal dragon, providing you more chaos food, as well as access to rank 3 XYZ, such as Leviair, Zenmaines, and Leviathan. Leviair in particular would truly shine in this deck, allowing you to reuse banished monsters such as Eclipse Wyvern that are needed for your strongest combos. Of course, nobody is stopping you from running Sabersaurus as well, giving you access to the rank 4 Evolzars Laggia and Dolkka, though this choice would lack synergy with the rest of this deck for obvious reasons.

Because this is a chaos deck, there are a number of light and darks that should be considered for the sake of consistency. Besides the obvious inclusion of BLS and Chaos Sorcerer, Thunder King Raioh and Effect Veiler are 2 of the best control cards in the game, and should likely be included in the side deck at least. For dark monsters, you may want to consider Breaker the Magical Warrior or Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. Breaker allows you to choose between having a 1900ATK beater or destroying your opponent's backrow for a plus one, While Kycoo lets you control your opponent's grave while protecting your own from your opponent's DD crows or Crevice from the Different Dimensions. If you run enough light monsters, Honest could be thrown in as well, though I wouldn't recommend it. If you choose not to run Chaos Zone or Dragon Ravine, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness can occasionally save your life. Caius the Shadow Monarch could be included in ones or twos for some extra removal.

Hope this helped give you guys some ideas, and sorry if I didn't explain some things well enough. Please comment if you want to ask me a question, argue with me, or give us some of your own ideas of what will work in this deck. I will likely post a few decklists for this soon, as well as my opinions on some upcoming dragon cards.

Have fun, Orgymaster.

Chaos Dragons

So on February 7 the TCG will finally get its hands on Dragons Collide, a structure deck that features some interesting new dragon support. Let me start off by saying that most people should buy this deck regardless of what they think of the dragons in it. The confirmed Lyla reprint and possible Ryko reprint will be reason enough for most normal people, as these cards are not the easiest to come across for the average budget player (I can't say I've ever owned either of them, not that I've tried too hard to get them). More details will emerge as the release date approaches on what other reprints will come out, but there seems to be a lot to look forward to if the OCG reprints are any indication.

For us current or aspiring dragon players, however, this structure deck may mark the beginning of a fairly interesting deck concept, something that I will refer to as Chaos Dragons. There are a few new cards that obviously support this idea. First up is Light Pulsar Dragon, perhaps the most "hyped" card of this deck. It shares the typical chaos summoning condition of removing a light and dark monster to summon it from the hand. This is a good thing; we have seen how easy this is to pull off in any deck that runs a fair amount of lights and darks. As a bonus, if in grave, he can summon himself if you discard a light and dark in hand. While this is initially a minus one, this gives you an out in some possible tight situations, allowing you to bring out a beater and simultaneously load the grave for the requirements of another chaos monster. Clearly, his last effect is where he shines, allowing you to special summon Red Eyes Darkness Metal when Lightpulsar is sent from the field to the graveyard. This is a great effect that could potentially create a loop; your opponent will usually have to find some form of indirect removal (banishing, bouncing, spinning) in order to stop this loop, unless they want to destroy both Lightpulsar and the dragon replacing him. Many decks are ill suited against this level of near instant recursion.

The next card is Darkflare Dragon, a card that shares the same chaos summoning requirement. This guy has decent stats, with an effect that acts like a simultaneous Dragon Ravine and DD Crow. It is nice that it can help fill your grave, and it has clear combo potential alongside Eclipse Wyvern (another new release), essentially allowing you to add a powerful dragon from your deck to the hand at the cost of a dragon already in hand. This combo could be one of the main draws of this deck, being the first consistent way to add stuff like REDM, Galaxy Eyes, or even DAD to your hand.

Chaos Zone is a new field spell (as Konami seems to have a hard-on for field spell support for their past few structure decks) that serves chaos as a whole. It gains a counter every time a monster is banished, and when you have at least 4 counters, you can remove them to bring back a monster with an equal level to the number of counters removed. As I see it, this effect helps alleviate the problem I can see in this deck of inadvertently banishing every card that could be useful later. These new support cards have a lot of nice aspects, but it really is all downhill from there.

I do not believe that Chaos Dragons as I imagine them have much competitive potential. Lightpulsar has the unfortunate problem of having his revival effect be optional. This means that it can easily miss the timing if it is sent to the graveyard in the wrong way. This hurts its potential as a cool combo card, reducing its role to being a fancy floater. Plus, the indirect means of removal that I mentioned earlier are not at all uncommon in today's meta (notably, cards like Caius, the Chaos Monsters, Brionac, etc.), allowing some common decks a way around the loop easily. This reminds me of the LaDD/Leyvaten loop that was hyped a while ago; the problem there was how shallow the loop was, essentially giving you a recurring 2600ATK beater while simultaneously sweeping the rest of your field. A skilled opponent could easily work around it, or even use it against the owner. This REDM loop has the same problems; it is something you can hide behind, but it will rarely get you closer to winning the game.

This deck also has clear consistency issues. While I will admit that the combo involving Eclipse Wyvern and Darkflare Dragon is indeed powerful, how can you consistently get this combo out early game? Darkflare Dragon will be hard to summon without his own effect or with REDM's effect, meaning you will need to set up the grave to get him out easily. This deck lacks draw power, so you can't expect to load your grave with Future Fusion all the time, meaning you will usually need to rely on something like Dragon Ravine to help set up your grave. The fact that you will likely need to run Ravine to simply make this deck work immediately rules out Chaos Zone as a viable choice, as it would be foolish to run 2 different field spells.

Even besides these issues of consistency, we must look at the options available to this deck. Once set up, it is pretty good at filling the field with big beaters that could wreak havoc on an open field, but how often can you expect to come up against an open field without reliable removal? Besides Dark Armed, Dark Hole, BLS, and a few possible Chaos Sorcerers, this deck lacks built in removal. That means you'll have to take out possible combo pieces to make room for other removal, such as Compulsory Evacuation Device or Dimensional Prison. This deck heavily relies on combos to work, so it's hard to tell how this will affect the consistency of the combos.

I could go on forever on the problems this deck has to get over to be tournament viable, but at a certain point I just feel like I'm being overly critical of it. It could definitely be a fun deck to run, what with all its big strong dragons, which is why I will give this deck a try. The thing is, for now, it's not consistent or fast enough to be a great swarm deck, so it would have to incorporate control elements that detract from the funnest parts of the deck. And if I want a good dragon deck that controls, there is no reason why I wouldn't just continue to run Disaster Dragon, which is a deck that would beat this deck in a straight up match-up over 90% of the time anyways, and in the words of Eminem: "Why the fuck would I join them when I beat them?"

Now I want to see what other people think, so please leave your comments below. My next post will probably be about some of the cool combos you could potentially run in this deck.

Order of Chaos Reaction - Da' Fuck, Konami?

So, I ordered a box of Order of Chaos along with Chow's two to save some shipping.  Why?  This set is fucking beautiful.  ORCS gives us a hell of a lot of great cards such as:
Tour Bus from the Underworld
Inzektor Hornet
Inzektor Dragonfly
Wind-Up Rat
Wind-Up Shark (I think it's kind of meh)
Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaighty
Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh
Trance Archfiend
Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo
Number 96: Dark Mist
Royal Prison
Gagaga Girl (Don't laugh at me :D)

I personally think that there are two cards in this set that are greatly overrated, and two that are greatly underrated.  The overrated would be Tour Bus and Wind-Up Shark.  Shark is good, but not great.  There are better Wind-Ups to run and I don't see anybody running pure Wind-Ups.  I only think that people are going to be running the loop.  As for Tour Bus, I believe it is NOT a $75 card as it is now, and just a tech for a build that runs TGU.  I'm definitely not investing in this card, but might if I can pick one up cheap (say, 30$).  The cards I see as underrated would be Trance Archfiend and Gagaga Girl.  Trance Archfiend is a great addition to Dark Worlds, and gives it the extra discarding outlet they "need."  It also allows them to recycle a possibly removed Grapha, which slows the deck down a ton.  Gagaga Girl is going to be good, but ONLY when good Rank 8 XYZ get released.  If or when they do, watch out for Gagaga Girl.

The main point of this post is to point out the reason why this set is fucking retarded.  What changed your mind Konami?  Why are you only giving us ONE good fucking set this entire shitty-ass format?  The past sets have been an extreme disappointment to me, and probably some of your readers as well.  And after seeing Galactic Overload, I realize this isn't something Konami wants to change.  They want us to buy tons and tons of boxes of ORCS.

Anyways, this is a set I love and hate.  Mostly because there needs to be less Secret Rares per set, even if its 4-5.  8 is just WAY too many.

/rant

Good pack is good.

~Epicake~

Disaster Dragon Until the March Banlist

I believe it's been over a year since my last Disaster decklist, so suffice it to say that this has been a long time coming. This format is one of the best to run Disaster in, given the prevalence of tour guide, agents, lightsworn, darkworld, and chaos variants, as well as the popular light and dark synchroes (Catastor, Librarian, Formula, etc.). A field of just Koaki Meiru Drago and a few backrow is often enough to lock down the average opponent's plays early on. Now, with the release of Divine Dragon Apocralyph in Order of Chaos, Disaster can finally try its hand at "reverse toolboxing", reusing dragons in the grave. I firmly believe that Apocralyph is what could really push many dragon decks over the edge; the ability to reuse cards like REDM and Yamata Dragon allows Disaster to set up big swarms and reverse bad situations. Anyways, here's the decklist:

Monsters: 20

3x Koaki Meiru Drago

3x Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon

2x Red Eyes Wyvern

3x Masked Dragon

2x Divine Dragon Apocralyph

2x Totem Dragon

2x Delta Flyer

1x Exploder Dragon

1x Yamata Dragon

1x Prime Material Dragon

Spells: 13

3x Pot of Duality

2x Dragon Ravine

1x Future Fusion

1x Monster Reborn

1x Book of Moon

1x Dark Hole

1x Heavy Storm

3x Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 7

2x Solemn Warning

2x Bottomless Trap Hole

2x Compulsory Evacuation Device

1x Solemn Judgement

Extra:

1x Five Headed Dragon

1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

1x Trident Dragion

1x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

1x Leviair the Sea Dragon

1x Stardust Dragon

1x Dark End Dragon

1x Scrap Dragon

1x Red Dragon Archfiend

1x Colossal Fighter

1x Black Rose Dragon

1x Ancient Fairy Dragon

1x Exploder Dragonwing

1x Brionac Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1x Orient Dragon

This is the most consistent this deck has ever been. Triple Duality helps to pretty much ensure your hand will always be live. The impact of Apocralyph cannot be understated here. This card is one of the best dragon support cards ever released because it gives us the ability to really weigh our options and choose the best course of action for a given situation. If you need to turn a game around fast you recycle REDM; if you need to set up your lock you recycle Drago; if you need to get rid of a big beater quickly you recycle Exploder Dragon. Plus, it can be searched out by Masked Dragon. There is so much we can do now with just a few cards in hand and a well set up graveyard.

Another big thing for this deck in this format is the new XYZ cards available to us. The new rulings for Totem Dragon say that it isn't removed from play by its own effect if it was used as an XYZ material (like with Plaguespreader). This goes together perfectly with Delta Flyer in making rank 3 XYZ or level 6 synchroes. Now, we can go into Leviathan when we want a beater, Leviair when we want to reuse banished monsters, Brionac when we want to set up an OTK or blow away a menacing field, or Orient Dragon to get rid of annoying synchroes without disrupting future Totem Dragon plays. These options combined with REDM open up this deck as one that can easily abuse the extra deck.

When playing this deck, you should know that you should always focus on control. Your first priority in most cases will be to keep Drago on the field; always wait to start your swarms. I advise that you not play Future Fusion or activate Dragon Ravine when your opponent has a backrow, unless you have a good idea of what this backrow is, as a stray MST or Solemn Warning can really slow you down. Always play conservatively, as this deck can have trouble keeping hand advantage if you commit too much to the field at the wrong times; as a rule, always try and have at least 2 cards in hand. All that being said, use your judgement and you can set up some truly spectacular plays. What I love about this deck is that it requires a lot of thought to run it well, and a different pilot can take a given situation and produce vastly different results.

Some other options for this deck include Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon, Light and Darkness Dragon, and the upcoming Light Pulsar Dragon. Galaxy is great against XYZ, and gives you an out in a lot of bad situations with its ability to dodge battle phase effects, but I will side it until XYZ become more prevalent than synchroes in the meta. Light and Darkness is a bit of a liability this format with lightsworns and chaos running around and finding ways around it, and should be dropped or replaced with Yamata Dragon, whose massive plus is far easier to pull off this format with triple MST and Heavy Storm. As for Pulsar, I will explain my stance later. Also, while I prefer the all dragon approach, mainly due to the Totem Dragon plays mentioned above, many believe Totem should be ditched or sided to make room for Effect Veilers and Thunder King Raiohs, 2 of the best generic control cards in the game. My problem with this is the consistency issues that come with Koaki Drago and not having enough dragons in your deck, but it is a personal choice, and many have found this more consistent. I would advise you to try this out, as well as the devastating combo of Trap Dustshoot and double Mind Crush, to see what works best for you.

Please leave any questions or comments below, and have fun with your new dragons!

Orgymaster is Back

Sorry guys, it's been a loooooonnnnggg time since my last post, but I guess with all the new dragon shit coming out I should weigh in. Expect an updated Disaster Dragon decklist soon, as well as my opinion on the new dragon structure deck (it's alright).