Duel! - Thing's will never be the same again!

From today, things will never be the same again. Comic book fans have heard this phrase so many times it is meaningless. But we’re not talking about comic books here, we’re talking about Yu-Gi-Oh. And when you hear people saying Crossroads of Chaos is going to change the card game forever, they mean it.







Firstly the promo card – which is possibly the card that made me want to go to the sneak preview, held in Chatsworth a few weeks ago. It’s Rose, Warrior of Revenge, and it’s a level 4 tuner. The first level 4 tuner to be released. Why is it so awesome? Because now level 8 synchros (like Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend) can be summoned with only two monsters. Previously you needed at least three monsters – either the tuner and two low level monsters, or the tuner, a high level monster, and a tribute.
Promo Card – Major Victory!

Along with this is the first level 7 synchro monster, Black Rose Dragon, and a variaity of level 6 synchros. Like increasing the tuner’s level, decreasing the syncro’s level makes synchro summoning a lot easier. Again, you only need two monsters – a level 3 tuner, and a level 3 or 4 monster. Black Rose Dragon may be geared towards plant decks (you need plant monsters to activate its second ability) but its still excellent in other decks, with its 2400 attack, and its field-clearing first ability. Its certainly in my deck. Did I mention I was one of only two players who got this card at the sneak preview? I was very happy, to say the least.
Cover Card – Major Victory!

The most obvious game-change that CSOC brings about is to plants. Previously plant decks were in the same boat as aqua, fish and sea serpent decks. They existed, but you couldn’t do anything with them. With one booster set plant decks are catapulted into the realm of warrior and dragon decks. They now have searchers, revivers beatsticks, tuners, synchros, control effects, lockdown effects, swarm effects…pretty much everything. And at the sneak preview, it showed – plant decks were the decks to beat, and they came away top.
Plants – Major Victory!

The other decks I came up against were, of cause, Morphatronic. They are machines with the gimmick of having a different effect depending on if they’re in attack or defense position. Visially they look like robuts that can change into gagets like radios, cellphones and flash drives. Think Soundwave from the Transformers movie. And while its an interesting idea, in practice they don’t really work – their attack and defense are too low.
Morphatronic – Minor Loss.

I played neither. Instead I built an Iron Chain deck, the only person who did. I kind of had to, seeing as how I got two Iron Chain Dragons and an Iron Chain Repairman, and it worked quite well with Black Rose. Somehow I netted a runner-up place and a Black Rose Dragon t-shirt. Granted, we were only playing 20-card decks, and it won’t be easy to make a 40-card Iron Chain deck work, but I still think IC has potential. A 2500 attack / level 6 synchro, and a 1600 def / level 3 tuner searchable with Giant Rat are not to be sniffed at. Now if only I had a deck with lots of level 3 special-summonable monsters in it. Oh, wait. I do.
Iron Chain – Minor Victory.

Despite the fact that only three types of deck were played at the sneak, there are some game-changing cards set to revitalise some other decks. First up – spellcaster. There were only two spellcaster monsters in the set, and both were highly sought after at the sneak. Night’s-End Sorcerer is a level 2 tuner. Tempest Magician is a level 6 synchro. That would be good just in itself, but both cards meld perfectly into general spellcaster strategy. Spellcasters have some of the best special summoning in the game – and if you special summon Night’s-End you can remove two card from your opponent’s graveyard. In this day and age, where people rely on having certain cards in their graveyard, this effect can be a game-winner. Secondly, spellcasters like putting spell counters on stuff. Temepest Magician likes putting even more spell counters on stuff, and it can remove all spell counters from the field to deal 500 damage for each one. There’s your win condition right there.
Spellcasters – Major Victory.

On the flip side, if your opponent has Hanewata, you won’t be throwing a spell tempest at them. Hanewata can be discarded to negate all effect damage for your turn. Bad for burn decks. But what if your opponent doesn’t have a burn deck? Then just summon it for a synchro – it’s a tuner. Although, it’s a level 1 tuner, so I’m not sure what you’re gonna summon with it. It might work in a Valhalla deck if you’re special summoning level 6 or 7 fairies a lot. Then there’s Plaguespreader Zombie. Everyone wanted it at the sneak. No one got it. Why is it so good? It’s a tuner you can bring back from the graveyard by adding a card from your hand to the top of your deck. There are so many ways to use this – but the most promising is in a Lightsworn deck. Lightsworn spends all its time sending cards to the graveyard, so it was hard for them to use tuners. Not anymore. Send that useless wulf in your hand to the top of your deck, special summon Plaguespreader. Then, in your end phase, Wulf goes to the graveyard, and is summoned by his effect. Sweet. Plaguespreader is, of course, Ultra Rare. And lastly there’s the White Stone of Legend. I myself have not heard of the legend about it, but it would seem it’s a pretty good legend. Its only a level 1 tuner again, but that’s hardly necessary. Cause when it is sent to the graveyard you can add Blue-Eyes White Dragon to your hand. It doesn’t specify how its sent to the graveyard, as long as its sent there. I’ll have to check up that it will actually work, but I’m thinking Foolish Burial…
Assorted Tuners – Major Victory!

There's a lot more card I haven't mentioned, but I think I've gone on long enough.

Best Card Name: Tytannial, Princess of Camellias
Best Card Artwork: Iron Chain Snake
Best Card: Black Rose Dragon

Duel! - Halloween Special - The Dead Rise Again

I'm not entirely sure why we need another zombie structure deck, but they decided we do - so we have Structure Deck: Zombie World just in time for Halloween. And damn if they haven't made it good. This deck centres around destroying your opponents monsters, and then brining them back from the graveyard as zombies to fight by your side. It’s the obvious strategy for a zombie deck, I wonder why they didn't think of it before - up till now, zombie decks only brought their own monsters back from the dead, not their opponents.

The New Cards
Forget about previous structure deck trump cards who were badly hampered by their summoning restrictions and inability to be brought back once destroyed - Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon is easy to summon, resummon, and resummon again. It’s a level 7 monster, but only needs one tribute if you're playing a zombie deck. But, it only has 2400 attack, which is standard for level 6 (one-tribute) monsters these days anyway, and you can't use decoy dragon on it, as it it’s a zombie. So its basically a zombie-deck-only level 6 monster. It does have another effect - when it destroys a zombie-type monster, you can summon it from the graveyard to your side of the field. In attack position. Nice - but only really useful if you're playing against a zombie deck, right? Wrong.

Despite its 'Ultra-Rare' status, the new version of Red-Eyes isn't really this decks trump card - that honour goes to another new card, the field spell Zombie World. When this card is on the field, all cards on both fields and in both graveyards are treated as zombie-type cards. See the synergy? No matter what deck your opponent has, his minsters will become zombies, and Red-Eyes effect will work. Plus, it messes up some type-based cards - the powerful Fossil Excavation won't work as all cards in the graveyard are zombies. Lightning Blade, Tail Swipe and Icarus Attack are useless as all cards on the field are zombies. Oh, and there's one more effect - you can't tribute summon non-zombie monsters. And since zombie world doesn't affect your opponents hand, that means no high-level monsters for him.

There are two other new monster cards in the deck - Malevolent Mech - Goku En and Paladin of the Cursed Dragon. Both cards are an antithesis of a previously released card, explaining why they are light monsters, the only two light zombies found in the game. Malvolent Mech- Goku En is the dark version of Majestic Mech - Okha and both are vaguely dog-shaped with wings. They are very similar, both are level 6, have 2400atk, 1400def, can be normal summoned without a tribute, and are destroyed during the end phase if you summon them in this way. Goku En's effect has some added zombiness, however - his destruction is delayed as long as there is another zombie on the field, and when it is eventually destroyed by this effect, you take 2400 damage. Ouch. Is the risk worth it? You decide.

The relationship of Paladin of Cursed Dragon to Paladin of White Dragon is a lot more complicated. From the artwork alone, the former is obviously the zombie version of the latter. Both are level 4 light monsters with 1900atk. Paladin of Cursed Dragon is an effect monster that can summon a level 4 or lower zombie-monster that was destroyed by battle from your opponent's graveyard. Think death knight. However, Paladin of White Dragon is a ritual monster that you can tribute to special summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Quite different. But if you think back to the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Series, you'll remember that Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon were the two opposing powerhouses. It seems Red-Eyes has now fallen to the dark side and become a zombie, and taken the Paladin with him.

The other new spell card (besides Zombie World) is the quick-play spell, Spell Shattering Arrow, which destroys all your opponent's face-up spell cards and deals 500 damage to them for each one. What is it doing here? I don't know, but I can hear my Crystal Beasts crying.

There is one new trap here - Imperial Iron Wall. It also has nothing to do with zombies - it prevents cards being removed from play, completely destroying the strategy of the Dark Monarch decks. A lot of people will want this. But why on earth is it in here? One reason - you can't summon monsters from the graveyard if they aren't there.

The Old Cards
The rest of the cards have been seen before, but I'll mention the most useful.

Pyramid Turtle is possibly even more important than ZW. When its destroyed, you can special summon a zombie with 2000 or less def from your deck. Please note every single card in this deck has 2000 or less def. Including Red-Eyes. And you get two Pyramid Turtles. Ryu Kokki is the standard level 6/2400atk, but can take out warriors and spellcasters more powerful than itself. Its ok against most decks, but it shines against the Yusei-type synchro decks with their powerful synchro warriors, and is ready for the next structure deck which will be spellcaster themed. Patrician of Darkness is only 2000atk for a level 5 monster, but it does allow you to choose your opponent's attack targets. Marionette Mite and Zombie Master are only good when ZW is on the field - one can be discarded to take control of an opposing zombie monster, and the other can be used to summon zombies from the opposing graveyard. Plague Wolf is a little like the Mech - you can double its attack (to 2000) but then it gets destroyed.

It also has some neat spells, useful in any deck. There's the literal drawcard, Pot of Avarice - originally very rare, it was in Structure Deck: Machine Re-Volt, and now its in this one. Cold Wave is very popular in the Japanese version of the game these days. The only reason I don't think I've seen it used much is that its not easy to get hold of. Another hard-to-get card was the quick-play spell Shrink, which halves a monster's original attack for one turn - very useful. And almost impossible to get hold of was Magical Stone Excavation, the only legal way to bring back a spell card from the grave. . But now, I think we'll see all of these a lot more. I certainly want them.

Weaknesses
You have three cards with 2400 attack, all of which can be brought out pretty easily, but if your opponent pulls out a monster with a higher attack, you're in a bit of trouble -there are no cards in this deck with an attack higher than 2400. But didn't I say ZW means no high-level monsters? I did, but it's not quite true - a lot of decks can play around ZW without much effort. I'm sure the fact that the new Yusei-type synchro decks will still work perfectly well against this is no coincidence. Synchro players can still splash their low-level monsters and tuners, and bring out their powerhouses by synchro summon. Most archetype based decks use name referral, and so players won't care much that they're now playing with zombies. Most notably, Gladiator Beasts can still tag in and out and perform their special brand of contact fusion. Elemental Hero decks will still be able to use their powerful support spells fusion summon high level monsters. Crystal Beasts can still switch between monster and spell form, and Rainbow Dragon doesn't need tributes. Aliens will be slightly hampered by the inability to tribute summon the Cosmic Horror or Alien Mother, but they can still synchro summon the Cosmic Fortress, and use Crop Circles to special summon Alien Mother. The only deck I can think this will seriously hamper is Neos and Lightsworn, as you'll have to find a way around not being able to tribute summon E-H Neos or the Lightsworn Dragon - remember both Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted are now banned.

Or, your opponent could just destroy Zombie World - all they need to do is play a field card. Everyone has fields in their decks these days, and often Terraforming and Ruin of Land too. The number one problem with this deck is how much it relies on ZW to prevent tribute summons - and yet, the deck only has one ZW in it. Sure it has Terraforming and Magical Stone Excavation, but you really need three copies of ZW. Plus a Ruin of Land. You can protect it with Field Barrier, but the deck is also lacking a bit in spell prevention. It doesn't have Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm or Giant Trunade. They must have thought that Spell Shattering Arrow, Cold Wave and Dust Tornado were good enough. I don't.

So what happens if you can't keep Zombie World on the field, or you find yourself facing down a high-attack synchro or fusion monster? You have to go with spells and traps. Bottomless Trap Hole is excellent here, as it works on any kind of summon. But wait, doesn't Imperial Iron Wall negate BTH? Reading the card carefully, I think the monster is first destroyed (sent to the grave) and then removed from play, so that's ok. You could also use Soul Taker, that destroys a monster and gives your opponent 1000 lifepoints, or zap a monster with Shrink and destroy it with one of your monsters, or use Creature Swap. But honestly, I'd rather have Lightning Vortex, which isn't in the deck for some reason. There is one other option if you have ZW on the field and a high-attack monster is special summoned - Getsu Fuhma destroys any zombie it battles with. You'll just have to sacrifice it and some lifepoints.

This deck also doesn't have the banned Call of the Haunted or Premature Burial, or the unbanned Monster Reborn that everyone is now hunting for. It does have zombie-only cards that can bring back your monsters from the graveyard, and excellent cards that steal monsters from your opponents graveyard so don't be too worried about this weakness. It isn't really there. Watch out for an opponent's Monster Reborn, however. It allows your opponent to summon a monster from your graveyard - meaning they can get hold of Red-Eyes or Paladin, and as all of your cards are zombies, it won't be fun for you.

Best Card (for this deck): Pyramid Turtle
Best Card (for any deck): Magical Stone Excavation
Best Card Artwork: Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon

Verdict: Much as I dislike doing it, I'm going to have to give a zombie deck a Major Victory! All of its weaknesses are easily fixed, except its lack of really high attack monsters - and with cards like Turtle and Zombie World, you should be able to decimate your opponent before they can pull out something good anyway. I might get this just for Magical Stone Excavation, Pot of Avarice and Imperial Iron Wall, and then use ZW (and the rest) to trade for cards I want. I know people I know will be buying this.

Note: I have been using the old terminology - tribute instead of release, and tribute summon instead of advanced summon. It's not because I can't adapt to the new terminology, but rather because the cards in this deck use the old terminology. I'm not sure why, we've already had a starter deck and booster pack which use the new terms. Perhaps these cards were printed before the change, and they decided to delay the release for Halloween.

Duel! - The New Face of YuGiOh

I decided to buy a single pack of the Duelist Genesis - and I got Handcuffs Dragon, so I'm a happy camper. Big Piece Golem would be nice, but I'd rather spend money on comics than on something that might possibly have BPG in it. But I've already spoken about Duelist Genesis - today, we have Exclusive Tins to talk about. These are new - well, actually, they're not. They're exactly the same as Collectors Tins, except instead of having the artwork of the promotional card on them, they have the main character from 5D's on them. His name is Yusei Fudo, and he continues the trend of having wild multicolored hair started by Yugi and Jaden. From what little I know of translation, I think Yusei could be rendered as Jason, but apparently they're no longer Anglicising character names.

There are three tins, a choice of red, white or yellow, and a choice of Nitro Warrior, Goyo Guardian or Montage Dragon. I'm not sure which card matches which colour. The choices for promo cards are interesting - Nitro Warrior is the only one of the three used by Yusei. It would make more sense to me if they had swapped some cards with the Collector's Tins so that the Exclusive Tins had Yusei's best cards (Nitro Warrior, Turbo Warrior and Stardust Dragon) leaving the Collectors with those of his rivals. Then again, Stardust Dragon and Speed Warrior have such high profiles in the anime that they can sell themselves, whereas Goyo Guardian and Montage Dragon have a lower profile and might sell less without a boost from Yusei's face.

But do the cards deserve their promotional status? Definitely. Nitro Warrior can blast through an entire defensive field of monsters in one turn, its power being offset by stringent synchro requirements and the rarity of Nitro Synchron. Goyo Guardian has the same attack points, and its synchro requirements are a lot more relaxed. Plus it can summon defeated enemies to its side - the drawback being they're in defence position till your next turn. Of the three, Goyo is the one I want most. Montage Dragon is interesting - it is special summoned by discarding three monsters from your hand and its power is related to the levels of those monsters. Plus you can still normal summon. Seems easy, but how often do you have five monster cards in your hand?

Oh, right there's other stuff in these too. Six packs: one Phantom Darkness, two Light of Destruction, two Duelist Genesis and a Token Pack. I do not entirely believe that Phantom Darkness and Light of Destruction are the 'best selling packs of the GX era', but they have some really good cards. The token pack consists of cards called tokens, rather than small round things I would regard as tokens. They are also completely unnecessary as you can use anything from a dice to coins to represent tokens, but they can be fun.

Verdict: Major Victory! There are few really good cards in the Duelist Genesis, and these are some of them.

Duel! - 5D’s

Seeing as the first 5D’s booster pack the Duelist Genesis came out today, and I bought the 5D’s Starter Deck today, I thought I’d comment on all things 5D’s.

What on earth is 5D’s you may ask? It’s the newest Yugioh TV series, which is kicking the game into overdrive. Yes, I’m one of those people that play Yugioh. And what does 5D’s mean? It took me a while to figure this out, as I thought that it had something to do with the show’s new way of dueling on motorcycles. Yes, they play a card game whilst riding motorcycles. No, I have no idea why either. And I have no desire to watch the show to find out. 5D’s actually stands for five dragons, because there are five ultimate ‘synchro’ dragon cards that the show centers around. So far only three have been revealed – Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend and Black Rose Dragon. I don’t know why they didn’t just call the show The Five Dragons – it sounds better and is a lot less confusing.

5D’s Starter Deck
This is obviously aimed at helping you be just like the show’s main character Yusei Fudo and is filled with ‘junk’monsters – level 1 to 3 monsters with hopeless attack and defense values, some of which are designated as tuners. The aim is to get a tuner monster and a couple of non-tuner monsters onto the field so you can add up their levels and synchro summon a synchro monster equal to the total levels. The deck contains three synchro monsters who are actually pretty good. The main problem is that you need to put a decent number of useless monster onto the field and keep them there long enough to synchro summon. And because they’re useless, well, they’re hard to keep on the field. And if you can’t synchro summon, or your opponent gets rid of your three synchro monsters, you’re screwed. So as a deck in itself its not very good and doesn’t have fun combos, so I don’t see it making lots of people fall in love with the game. And for people who already play the game, you can get a lot of the cards elsewhere. So why did I get it? For two cards. One is is Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, a trap that negates an opponents trap and then resets itself to be used again. It’ll be perfect for my rock deck, which is built around blocking attacks. The other is Gaia Knight, Force of Earth, an earth-warrior synchro card I wanted for my earth-warrior deck. Its level 6 and I have a fair amount of decent level 3 warriors I can use to summon it. It goes in with Tuner Warrior (lvl 3, earth-warrior, decent attack) so I can actually summon it, and Colossal Fighter cause if I have a tuner, I may as well have a second synchro just in case

Best Card Name: It’s a Tuner. It’s a Warrior. Its Tune Warrior!

Verdict: Minor Loss. Four useful out of 43, and only cause my decks are so specilised. Leave it alone unless you can fit one or more of the synchros into your deck without major adjustment.

The Duelist Genesis
Like the Starter Deck this set consists of a lot of Yusei’s cards (all the ones not in the starter deck) and introduces the new tuner and synchro monster sub-types and their support cards. But it also has a lot of cards used by Yusei’s rival, Jack Atlus and Tetso Ushio. It includes two of the synchro dragons – Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend. It also introduces a third new type of monster card – psychic. These monsters look like they’re part-fiend part-machine (think Jinzo) and tend to have effects that use up life points to activate. I’m not sure why we need new type when old types like fish, sea serpent and thunder are still seriously lacking in support (in acknowledgement of this they have included a few half-hearted attempts at fish and thunder support cards). Fortunately, there’s some pretty good psychic support cards in this set, and they come with their very own shiny new psychic tuner and psychic synchro monsters. The Six Samurai, Gladiator Beasts, Lightsworn, and Ancient Gears all put in the required cameo - and there’s some surprising support for spirit monsters.

Best Card Name: A draw between the Lightsworn spell Charge of the Light Brigade, and the first card to have an actual Greek letter in its name, Fiendish Engine Ω.

Verdict: Minor Victory. This is a lot better, but it still has a lot of junky monsters.