Hey everybody! I’m back this week fresh off a Top 16 at YCS Providence this past weekend! I played a version of Extra Deck Monarchs that I started 9-0 with, only losing one game in those rounds. Monarchs are definitely one of the most played, if not the most played, decks in the format. Throughout the tournament I played against five Monarch mirror matches. That was more than any other deck that I played against. Without any real deck advantage and playing a fairly standard deck, we have to rely on technical play to gain an edge in the mirror. Read more

I recently saw a discussion on whether or not higher rarity cards provided any kind of real advantage. We’ve all heard the ridiculous claims like “you draw higher rarity cards more often,” that have no factual basis in reality, but today I’m going to argue that there is a real advantage to be gained by using higher rarity cards.   Let’s say you have two copies of the same Monarch deck. All cards in the deck are the exact same. The only difference between the two decks is in the rarity of the cards. One of the Monarch decks is Read more

At ARG Detroit I made top cut of the Circuit Series using a Pendulum deck that devoted nearly half of my side deck spaces to the Kaiju engine. While Gameciel has certainly seen play before, most of the other Kaiju cards haven’t seen much competitive play. Today I want to talk about the engine that helped me finish first after swiss!   Let’s start out by taking a look at which Kaiju cards I sided:   2 Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju 1 Gadarla, the Mystery Dust Kaiju 1 Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju 3 Interrupted Kaiju Slumber   The sheer Read more

Cube drafting has been rapidly catching on throughout the community. People are finding quite a lot of fun taking the best cards ever printed and drafting with them. Max has written a couple of articles on cube drafting here and today I want to talk about it as well. While a lot of players have implemented “All monsters are all types” rules, similar to Battle Pack 3 was in top cut of a YCS, to make the cards work better together, my cube is a little different. My cube is designed with a rule of “All cards are all archetypes.” Read more

There is an overwhelming consensus that Instant Fusion is not needed in the Pendulum deck. Most players who do use it don’t maximize on it. Click here to see some of the deck lists from YCS Atlanta that clearly indicates a trend away from the card. I think that this trend is incorrect and today I’m going to make an argument for why Instant Fusion should not only be included, but also maxed out on.   First of all let’s address how it’s possible for the masses to come to an incorrect consensus. After all, it is being excluded in Read more

Pendulums took a big blow with the recent adjusted list that banned Plushfire, banned Damage Juggler, banned Tellarknight Ptolemaeus, limited Luster Pendulum, limited Monkeyboard, and limited Skullcrobat. After taking 29 of the Top 32 spots at YCS Atlanta it seems like these hits might have been necessary, but do they outright cripple the deck? I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Pendulum summoning is a once per turn Soul Charge built into a game mechanic and I’m willing to bet that the best deck will be whichever deck does it the best. Today I’m going to talk about some of Read more

Over the last couple of years there has been a trend to side out powerful cards in mirror matches. We saw cards like Return From the Different Dimension, Vanity’s Emptiness, and Djinn Releaser of Rituals be offered to be sided out to make the game more fair. This trend has continued into the Pendulum era with the offer to side out Wavering Eyes. I have always been a fan of offering to side out cards to make the games more fair, but Wavering Eyes is something I disagree with siding out. I’m back today to tell you why I don’t Read more