Wednesday 13 February 2013

Update

I'm enlisting into National Service on the 15th of February, so posts will be very few for the next couple of months. However, I will still continue to study the game, and post as often as possible about stuff I think deserve to be talked about in the Singaporean metagame. Also, expect another Introducing our Singaporean Players for my next post, I already know who it's going to be :D

As of today, which is the LGTY release for most people I must say Konami did splendidly in business terms this time around. They:
1. Made decent tech-able commons and rares.
2. Made good support for existing archetypes
3. Made decent introductions into the meta, which could certainly help diversify the game.
4. Made a Tier 1 deck that requires skill to win, is fun to play, and everything is Super Rare.

Basically with the last point, they have made one of the most profitable moves that is still able to make the player base happy.

Next step is banning Heavy Storm.

Let's be honest, no one will ever be truly happy if Heavy Storm stays or goes. We all wish we have it, we all wish that our opponent doesn't. There will forever be complaints on both sides.

More importantly, the announcement of the new Extra Pack, BOMB THE WORLD.

But please don't Attack the Moon. =D

P.S All that hype about Mental Drain, the card is thrash. Complete rubbish, you heard it here first.

Thursday 7 February 2013

Hoard all the Dust Tornado!

Dust Tornado is going to be an extremely potent piece of backrow removal in the upcoming format. Reason being that it can be activated during your opponent's turn to stop bullshit like Tenki and Tensu, and has more utility than MST with it's secondary effect, which can:

1. Help protect cards from being MST-ed or Night Beam-ed during you opponent's Main Phases.
2. For Infernity players, give the opponent a fake sense of security that even if you top deck Archfiend you can't use the effect by setting your last hand card with Dust Tornado's effect during the End Phase.
3. In general, to force optional effects of Spell/Trap that activate when destroyed to miss timing.

I think Dust Tornado has finally risen from the slumps of being that lousy MST to a main deck worthy card, we'll have to see as the format progresses from March. As of now, I see much potential in this card as more than just Side Deck stuff, but given time I'm sure it'll prove itself.

As for now, just hoard all dem Dust Tornados.

Sunday 3 February 2013

In preparation for March 2013

I don't think this list is going to be easy to predict. In fact, I'm not even going to try to predict it in full.

What I forsee is older problem decks, such as Wind-up getting knocked off a bit but not to an unplayable state, and the next format to be a monster based format.

Konami has been releasing several new archetypes that are different but playable, it appears they want to diversify the meta with the new archetypes, but not let anyone of them be miles ahead of the others. That said, Fire Fists and Mermails appear to be the top contenders with decent support in upcoming sets.

If it is true that the meta is set to be diversified, then only problem staples should be hit. Right now I can only think of 2 problem cards, which are Monster Reborn and Heavy Storm. I hate Mind Control, but that has certainly lost power and will only continue to lose power as the meta diversifies.

Reborn should not be allowed to stay any longer, the card is on borrowed time. Heavy Storm is iffy as part of me wants it to stay, most of me wants it to go. I do feel that snipe backrow cards, like MST, Dust Tornado and Night Beam should not be as abundant, perhaps 4-6 in both altogether in Side and Main, so perhaps something may happen to them. I doubt it.

BLS is honestly no longer a problem in my eyes. The card is vulnerable to almost all types of monster removal, and Chaos attributes are losing power as more and more support goes in favour of the Elemental attributes.

That's what I think, in fact, this list is more likely to balance out the splashable cards instead of killing off any deck in particular. Konami has shown that they rather cards fade out of the meta than straight up putting it on the banlist in previous banlists.

I do think though, if Rescue Rabbit doesn't go to 1 that Fire Fists will continue to dominate.