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
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06
Jun 2016
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02
Jun 2016
So, a lot of people have been wondering about the Demise Kozmo deck that I just made Top16 with at YCS Providence. Before this event, the only decks that played the card were Qliphorts, Gravekeepers, and Statue Stun. Unfortunately, all of those decks suck. The difference between those decks and Kozmo is that Kozmo actually has a lot of power on both players’ turns, and has a much better/relevant engine. It does not NEED to draw Card of Demise for it to function. It is also correct to say that no one would even play the other decks without Card Read more
25
May 2016
Have you ever wondered how all the pro players afford to travel to events? Have you ever wanted to travel yourself? As someone who’s managed to travel to all but five events in the US in the last five years while being a broke college student, I’ve picked up some useful tips and tricks you can use to minimize your travel expenses and attend more events. When Flying There are a couple of ways you can fly for cheap. As a general rule of thumb, Spirit Airlines is the go-to cheap airline. They’re not exactly luxurious, but they’ll get you Read more
19
May 2016
This game’s long and illustrious competitive history began in Madison Square Garden with the 2003 Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship. Since that time hundreds of redoubtable champions have been crowned in the search for glory. Until now this game’s history has been segmented, fractured, and devoid of a cohesive and comprehensive documentation. Today all that changes. ChampRank It is my esteemed pleasure to introduce to you ChampRank! It is the world’s first database that documents every event to date and uses a points algorithm to rank players based off of their tournament performance. Every player who has ever topped a single Read more
21
Apr 2016
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
19
Apr 2016
Hey everybody, I’m back this week with hopes of correcting an error on my part. In my book Road of the King, I unintentionally advocated an illegal move. While I certainly wouldn’t have advocated for this had I realized it was illegal, the error was my fault and I want to apologize for my misinterpretation and take some time to clear up how it works to avoid confusion for anyone who has read the book. The error will be removed from later editions of the book. Let’s start out by talking about the error I advocated. It’s a fairly Read more
29
Mar 2016
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
24
Mar 2016
Last week I came to Michigan quite early to spend lots of time with Jeff since I was on my spring break. Prior to this event, I had been testing and working with Dirk Wagner and Robert Scarpelli on their Dracopal deck via Skype and sequential Dueling Network grinding. The end product was a deck that aimed to create a field with Naturia Beast with a least one solemn set. The idea was to “FTK” most match-ups because they wouldn’t be able to make a play and then we’d kill them on our following turn. Lots of success on DN Read more
01
Mar 2016
A few weeks ago Jeff messaged me and told me about a new series of cards that he thought were being overlooked. Much to my own surprise Jeff was talking about the Phantom Knight cards that were being released in the new Wing Raiders set. Jeff began working on the deck on his own because I wasn’t sold immediately and knew that he would probably come up with something better than my own creation anyways. Two weeks ago I visited Jeff and was ready to see his own Phantom Knight deck in action against my Burning Abyss deck. In my Read more
24
Feb 2016
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
