Alistair Albans is NOT stupid, but Konami's coverage is.

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=7359
http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Gorz_the_Emissary_of_Darkness

This page used to be a page stating that Alistar Albans was stupid, since he 'forgot' to use the effect of Gorz the Emissary of Darkness when Armory Arm's effect burned him after killing Spore.

However, Alistar (or someone claiming to be him) said that he had Gorz, and used it, but then Billy Brake used Enemy Controller, tributing Black Rose and then finishing him off with Sangan. (Actually he just flashed Enemy Controller, but both meant game).

So, I can basically chose who to believe, and then of course I chose the player, since Konami isn't exactly my best friend...

What about Agent Angels?

Agent Angels... 3 structure decks melded into a top-tier deck. Everyone asked for it for years, and when it finally came, everyone became angry?

I read somewhere on another blog that Tengu-driven Synchro and Agent Angel are opposites, because Tengu wins by doing any move that currently is good and having a good number of moves to chose from, and that Agent Angel only can do Earth into Venus, Venus into Gachi, and then drop boss monsters till they win.
Of course the variants playing T.G. monsters also have the options to do minor Synchro plays, but that is mostly irrelevant.

I used to believe that as well, until the last tournament I played in.


This guy played an insanely teched Agent Angel.

He played these cards in his deck:

These cards offer so much for the deck. Agent Angel has space, he chose to fill that space by thinking smartly, breaking new ground. The only other tech choices I've seen are Debris Dragon, Card Trooper, Genex Ally Birdman and the not-so-techish Tour Guide.

These cards have synergy, which is the first thing to note. A drop of Exodius followed by Eatos is powerful. Also, Exodius recylces Mystical Shine Balls, which few other cards can do effectively (barring Pot of Avarice, but that counteracts against Hyperion and Venus more). He is also always playable, makes for some great surprise plays.

Keep in mind that you can overlay Daigusto Phoenix, giving you an instant Shine Ball for giving Exodius 1000 ATK, then you attack and send down the third Shine Ball for 2000 ATK.

1600+2000+1500+1500 = 7600. That is quite a lot for a combo requiring two unrestricted cards and any 1 monster in your Graveyard. Of course this result won't be achieved everytime, but I hope you get the point.

Debris Dragon is played to give greater Synchro options, mainly for the Shine Ball+Debris+Venus=Trishula play, but also in some extent for Trident Dragion. Yes, Trident Dragion.

This is another underrated card, which should see more play. Debris+Iron Chain is this fabolous card which will, ALWAYS, come as a surprise. Surprise is a great moment. It is however not as fun when your opponent drops Herald on your Trident Dragion. Makes me want to scream.

If you control Venus and Earth, you pay out for 3 Shine Balls, synchro Iron Chain or Orient Dragon, then summon Debris Dragon, resurrect the Shine Ball and synchro Triden Dragion. Boom the Shine Balls, drop Kristya (3 Shine Balls, 1 Earth).

Good game next please.

Yes, it is a bit situational, but I assure you that plays like that are possible, and even if they weren't, Debris Dragon is still a good tech.

[Deck]D.D. Unicorn Knight Synchro

3 D.D. Unicorn Knight
3 T.G. Striker
3 T.G. Warwolf
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Chaos Sorcerer
2 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Sangan
2 Armageddon Knight
2 Necro Gardna


3 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Book of Moon
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm


2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Solemn Warning
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment

1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Armory Arm
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Orient Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 T.G. Wonder Magician
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 X-Saber Urbellum
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines


Finally here! D.D. Unicorn Knight Synchro.
The obvious goal of this deck is to make powerful synchros in short time by Special Summoning tuner monsters, then following them up with D.D. Unicorn Knight (DDUK), using his effect to fetch a banished monster and then make a Synchro. The inclusion of 3 Gold Sarcophaguses are for banishing Sangan, giving you a 'free' Trishula using Striker+DDUK+Sangan.

The Armageddon Knights give you a bit more control by sending down either Plaguespreader for DDUK summoning next turn, or a Necro Gardna for banishing (remember, you can banish it anytime you want during your opponent's turn before their battle phase, and it will negate the next attack) giving you setup for DDUK.

I encourage you to try this idea out if you like the concept, as my testing haven't been too much. The deck fares generally well, but unless you open with something to banish you own monster you will find yourself in a position were DDUK has no targets for his effect. I can't say it's common, but it hardly is a rare situation either.

The one card I want to play but can't fit into the deck is Genex Ally Birdman. This card has some great synergy with the deck. Bounce your own monsters for a Tuner, or bounce DDUK and play him again to summon another banished target. Do note that there are no LIGHT monster cards in this deck that can be summoned through his effect, so your best bet is Necro Gardna or Sangan.

I used to play Tour Guides, but decided to cut them since right about every deck plays counters to it and I don't feel like paying for them since I want to build this deck outside of Dueling Network, so I removed them and the 1 Esper Girl/1 Dark Resonator I used to play for 2 Armageddon Knight and 2 Necro Gardna. This somewhat reduced consistency since you no longer has 4 Sangan, but made D.D. Unicorn plays easier, which I value over a card that has poor synergy overall with the deck.

Overall, the deck performs well. It is also surprising to see how bad people on Dueling Network play. I Special Summon Striker. I Special Summon DDUK, bringing back Sangan. Now a comment usually appears, either "Cool", "Nice idea", "Wow", or "You're just lucky" based on whom I am facing. Then, I synchro Trishula. Now my opponent drops Effect Veiler. This gives me a 2700 body and a search with Sangan as well as a DARK and LIGHT in the Graveyard.
If they had Veilered DDUK instead, I wouldn't have gotten any search, no DARK in the Graveyard and a level 6 instead of a level 9.

I will try a version with Plants and Hidden Armory, then possibly a version with Bazoo the Soul-Eater, Dark Desertapir, Card Trooper and so on. It will be like a Bazoo Return OTK!
...or maybe not.

Future Fusion is broken pt. 2

Wow, just realized you can OTK simply by having Future Fusion and a level 2 Tuner.
Future Fusion dumps 3 Quillbolt Hedgehog, then you summon them, overlay Daigusto Phoenix, detach, summon it back, overlay Daigusto Phoenix, detach, summon the Quillbolt back, overlay your third Daigusto Phoenix and game. 9000 damage.

Or you could Synchro Summon Armory Arm if your opponent has Tengu. You won't win, but you will deal a lot of damage.

As a side note, Daigusto Phoenix is a lot better than it seems. The effect is any WIND attribute monster, meaning you could technically use it on another card such as Stardust Dragon, Orient Dragon or Reborn Tengu.

And the D.D. Unicorn deck is coming along. Just need to test it a bit more before I release a deck list.

YCS Toronto Deck Lists + Death Aspect

http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?p=7125

In case you haven't seen, I've had Billy Brake's main deck for quite some time. I can let a heavy sigh go as the deck list I provided was correct...

What won?

"Synchro Summon"
Seriously, that deck name is stupid. But so is Tengu Plants, considering the Plants compromise 4 cards and the Tengus compromise 3 cards. The japanese deck is more rightly called Junk Doppel, based of the main focus of the deck. But since these decks have like nothing in common anymore it is a bit off to even compare them as the same deck.
Have a good idea what to actually call that deck?

This deck is basically a cookie-cutter, actually. All the cards (except Spore) are strong on their own, splashable, and new (meaning affected by the power creep) which is pretty much the definition of cookie-cutter.
Well, I am not one to criticize. I feel the game is at least borderline balanced with all the outs we are handed. Also, an aggressive meta is just SO much more fun than a control-based.

Looking at the first place deck list, what is a suprise?
The Spirit Reaper, 2 main-decked Rai-Oh, the Scapegoat and only 1 Call of the Haunted seems strange. Else the deck is perfectly as you would think. What is the reasoning behind those cards?
Card Trooper, Rai-Oh's worst enemy, didn't see much play. That makes him a strong call. Spirit Reaper is probably chosen over other Debris targets such as Snowman Eater due to the fact that Agent Angels (dubbed "Master Hyperion" by Konami) can't get rid of it except with Hyperion, and you want them to drop him early when you have both resources and life points left to deal with him.
Scapegoat is an overall good card, making Formula Synchron with ease, and I guess that in the end he just didn't have enough space for a second Call.

11 "Synchro Monsters"
2 "Synchro Monsters" without Reborn Tengu
11 Agent Angel
2 Tech Genus
2 Karakuri
1 Anti-meta
1 Monarch
1 X-Saber
1 Nordic

The all-important question: Is Agent Angels better than random Synchro?
Obviously Angels are a cheaper deck, but a lot of the top decks played 3 Tour Guide from the Underworld, including the Angels.
HOWEVER, a lot of decks like Agent Angel made top cut without it, including some of the playing BLS.
Neiber Lopez played BLS and 1 Chaos Sorcerer, but no Tour Guide, instead choosing to play Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and Junk Synchron.

Even in the top 8 some players opted not to use it, which by extension means:
YOU DON'T HAVE TO PLAY IT TO WIN.

I have always been a strong believer of this, but 'other' people have written in their blogs that "Tour Guide decks will always beat non-Tour Guide decks", which wasn't, isn't, and never will be true. Unless they reverse the XYZ detatchment ruling again.

One of the interesting things is that many Agent players opted to play Effect Veiler. And not just one copy, but 3 full copies. And that they chose it over playing Herald of Orange Light.
I can't say I'm 100% liking this choice, but let's go over the basics.
Both are -1.
Both are Tuners.
Both have worthless stats.
Both are LIGHT.

Herald obviously has higher synergy with the deck due to being a Fairy, but seems to lose out to Veiler in terms of playability. There aren't a lot of cards Herald can stop that Veiler can't, and most likely, you don't want to. Negating a Sangan or Dandylion by discarding two cards is a bit steep to say so. However, beyond the initial turns your hand will be clogged with excess copies of Venus, Miracles and Earth which make great targets for the Herald.

T.G. wasn't just a suprise deck. In fact, it is consistent. That's why it wins.

The random appearances of Monarch, Karakuri, Nordics, X-Saber and Anti-Meta are much welcomed. I will go into more detail about that later.

Black Luster Solider was key pick for this tournament. Nearly every deck, except Karakuri, X-Saber and T.G., played it. A lot of the decks also played supporting copies of Chaos Sorcerer.

12 of the players chose to play Ally of Justice Decisive Armor.
The 4th place T.G. was the only player choosing not to play Heavy Storm.
Strangely enough, 2 decks decided not to play Monster Reborn. Upon closer inspection, it turned out Konami misspelled Monster Reborn as Mosnter Reborn in one case, but the Frog Monarch actually chose not to play it.
Thunder King Rai-Oh and Effect Veiler were all over decks.

The Nordic deck was splendid in my opinion, but I would probably have played an additional Effect Veiler if I could fit it. Setting Gleipnir and holding Veiler is a strong move, since your opponent, if holding S/T removal, will most probably think the way is free after you chain Gleipnir.
I'm not sure on how good the Nordic Engine actually is, but other than Dave Trepanier, Sorosh Saberian also played Nordics, and he is in my book a skilled enough player to make Nordics a recognized deck.
He also side decked Legendary Jujitsu Master, a smart move against those people thinking there is a Hamster set. He only side-decked one copy, as the Jujitsu Master actually isn't too good of a card right now, but good enough when your opponent pushes with a Librarian or something along those lines, expecting to hit a Hamster.


It is hard to build an unique X-Saber. Simon Phoenix's X-Saber is no exception, playing the standard monster line-up with the addition of 2 Effect Veiler, although only playing 2 Fulhelmknight and 2 Faultroll. It is possible he wanted to reduce dead draws, but I still think the 3rd Fulhelmknight is to important.
The rest of the deck was standard.

Logan Djuricin played Monarchs. That is a really old deck, which is officially considered "dead" with the banning of Fishborg Blaster. Yet he managed to top with it.
The monster line-up contains no hidden surprises, playing 3 Caius, Raiza, LaDD, Fader, Swap Frog, Treeborn Frog and Thestalos. Yes, Thestalos. After these Monarch Staples, he also played 2 Tragoedia, Gorz and 2 Effect Veiler. I believe a Monarch deck, due to its low player interaction, should play 3 Effect Veiler. He also skipped out on Ronintoadin, but that issue is not such a large issue considering he played 3 Soul Exchange.
Where the deck really shined was the Side Deck, a blast from the past of Monarch Toolbox. He sided 3 Zaborg, 3 Vanity's Fiend, and a BLS!
Another card worth considering in Monarch is Plaguespreader Zombie. A monarch, it and a Treeborn makes Trishula.

It seems that this format is a lot about preventing plays indirectly rather than playing hard counters. A Mask of Restrict stops Monarchs dead in their tracks but does nothing against Venus or Earth. A Light-Imprisoning Mirror stops renders Angels useless but has no effect on Monarchs. A Veiler makes both of them less good but is a minus in terms of card advantage.
Even though there are superior answers to both, a single 'soft counter' is better since it has more uses and is simply better against a diverse format. The same goes for a lot of others cards, such as Bottomless over Warning. This majorly applies to the OCG since the TCG has Tengu which needs to be Warninged.



Finally, Michael Bonaccini from Death Aspect has decided to retire from blogging. I am relatively new to the whole blogging thing, so I won't be lying when I say I haven't followed any blogs much.
He was a great player, and I respect that.
But I think he had a little bit high thoughts about himself. He once stated that he "at one point in the time was responsible for 15% of the meta". This is a ridiculous claim as far as I am concerned. Also, unlike other bloggers like [name redacted] who NEVER states their own worth but simply brings good and new thinking ideas, he instead spent his time talking about how good he was and why it was the formats fault that he didn't top.

From his farewell post:
He claims Konami has given him some things they actually have, including "horrible prize support",  "horrible card design", "corrupted rulings", and "rarity bumps". Konami are no angels and I won't ever defend them, but then he follows up by saying:
"So why the fuck does Konami deserve my time and effort?"
They don't. They don't deserve mine either, or your.
But that shouldn't stop you from playing the game. You are over 10 years old, GET OVER IT. Seriously. If you think the game sucks so much, why did you even bother to begin with? The game is healthy now. Anything can win and skilled play is awarded.


So goodbye, you were a good player, but you think too highly of yourself and are generally plain stupid. Sorry for the rude words.