Hello there alll you Yu-gi-oh people! Over the weekend quite a few things happened, there were many WCQ Regional Qualifier events, alongwith many oher tournaments. One such tournament was held at Misty Mt Games in Burnsville Minnsota. On the last Sunday of every month the store holds a free "Win-a_mat" Tournament! I personally love these tournaments so I try to go to as many as possible. On Saturday I met up with the local Rochester players to test out a newer build of my Double Aesir Control deck, only to be met with dismal results. I was drawing poorly and couldn't put together my combo's fast enough. So I was pretty down that night and was planning on just not going. One of my friends offered to drive free of charge early Sunday morning so I figured that if I was going to do sub par all day, at least I wasn't killing my wallet to do so!
Speeding along, right before the tournament one of my friend's from the area trades me my 2nd Pot of Duality which many people know I feel is a staple in the Aesir deck. So I start to feel better about my chances of getting a decent record! After 4 rounds I was 3-1 with my only loss being to another undefeated player in the final round so I was very happy with how I did. When they called my name in the top 8 pairings I turned a lot of heads from people saying things like, "Nordics?! No way!" causing a few players to go as far to try and pick up the pieces of the deck themselves. Sadly, I lost my top 8 match to Samurai, all in all, not a bad day since i hadn't planned on doing well! On that note, here is the deck I piloted this weekend!
Double Aesir - 41 cards
Monsters - 19
3 Vanadis of the Nordic Ascendant
3 Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts
3 Tanngjnostr of the Nordic Beasts
3 Tanngrisnir of the Nordic beasts
1 Garmr of the Nordic Beasts
2 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster
2 Effect Veiler
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
Spells - 10
2 Pot of Duality
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Avarice
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon
Traps - 13
3 Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir
2 Dimensional Prison
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Solemn Warning
2 Trap Stun
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
Extra Deck - 15
2 Stardust Dragon
2 Black Rose Dragon
2 Thor, Lord of the Aesir
1 Odin, Father of the Aesir
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Zeman the Ape King
1 Scrap Archfiend
1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
Side Deck - 15
2 Maxx "C"
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Puppet Plant
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Dust Tornado
2 Chain Disappearance
1 Mirror Force
There you go! That is the deck I ran, card for card. A few of the tech choices made I feel warrent discussion in light of my last post. The first card many people were confused about was Garmr, nobody really saw the point. His effect is situation to say the least, and he doesn't have high enough attack points to really do anything (800 to be exact). So why run him? Well, it's simple. He created a shock factor that nobody saw coming. I would often set him and they wouldnt attack fearing a potential drop of a God monster next turn, so then I would flip him, summon Vanadis, and go into a level 8. Something other Aesir decks can't do with her (Vanadis). Rounding out the monster line-up, Gorz and a random Chaos Sorcerer were the other odd picks in most people's eyes. Gorz makes some sense seeing as most of my facedown traps are chainable, but most players dont realize how destructive Gorz can be in those situations where they get rid of my Aesir monster. To do so, they probably wasted a lot of cards and simply cannot answer the Gorz/Token. As for the Chaos Sorcerer, his synergy with the deck was simply too good to believe and I dont regret using him.
There was nothing overly techy in the spell line up, but most players frown at the 2 PoD (Pot of Duality), what they don't realize is that PoD makes this deck playable in so many ways, it's worth the $300 in trades I had to do for them.'
Going to the traps, Most players were caught off guard by the usage of Trap Dustshoot. I still don't see why more players aren't using it. The knowladge gained from a first turn Dustshoot play WILL dictate the entire game. It created a game that really came down to both players having to play flawlessly, and after a Dustshoot play, most players set up a desfensive field with a set monster and multiple back row which is exactly what I wanted. I would then flip Tanngnjostr and Black Rose the field. Catching a solid +2 or 3.
A lot of people asked the age old question; "Why no Mirror Force?". Simply put, I think mirror force is bad right now. All the decks can get a stardust out with little to no problem or can answer the mirror easily. So I opted to not even play it in my side, the reason it's listed is because I traded the Effect Veiler that was supposed to be there.
Finally, the Extra Deck choices were probably the are of most interest. A lot of players feel that getting out the Aesir monsters is how the deck works. But that's simply untrue, they're a tool to be used just like the rest of the Synchro monsters. You don't summon them just because you can, you play them because they're the best answer at the time. Honestly, my favorite card in the Synchro deck was Zeman the ape king, nobody really knew how to play him (Vanadis + either goat, or Vanadis + Garmr after sending a goat to grave). Like the Aesir monsters, you don't just slap him on the table to look cool. You do so because you have strong reason to believe he/she has a defensive Spell/Trap card and he could attack safely. It happened so many times, I won at least 1/4 of my games that way.
Well, that's that! I'll be back later this week with more, any requests should be sent to me email. Remember, you're only as good as the work you're willing to do!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Teching for your meta, and how to do it
Hey there readers, I'm back with my first official post! This is going to be done in a stream of thought style of writing so I apologize ahead of time for the choppy style! Anyways, one thing that I have been known for around the MN area isn't being creative like some players, or playing a perfect game like others. My biggest reputation has come from my tech picks, I have been known to make some very obscure and precise tech picks that end up pushing me farther than the competition. Examples of this would be back in TeleDAD format I sided 1 Caius, 1 Raiza, 2 Mobius, 2 Soul Exhange, 2 Royal Oppression, and 2 Divine wrath along side the normal side deck cards of the time. Doing so allowed me to have a huge advantage in the mirror match and the Lightsworn match up which were the most common match ups at the time. That was one example from back then, a more recent example would be teching Royal Oppression in pretty much anything I play right now. Its very good right now because most of the top decks in the game set up early and slowly lean on the opponet afterwards allowing cards like Oppression to be played without clashing with the main strategy too much. This is just one example of a stellar tech card this format!
So how do we get to the point of tech like that? Well it is a simple process really, but first we need to look at what makes a card a "good" tech pick as opposed to a "bad" pick. Typically, any card (barring normal monsters) can be a good pick given the right metagame, player mind set, etc. So how do we sort the "good' picks from the great ones? Usually, I will ask myself the following questions:
1. What are the decks being played in the given area?
2. Of those decks, which are winning the most? Why is this?
3. Of the decks played, what does my deck have a good match up against? Which decks are bad match ups? Why?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the decks? Why?
5. What cards can improve my match up against a given deck? Why?
If you ask yourself these questions, you may be surprised at the amount of knowladge you'll have. One thing you may want to do is to write these questions down at first, and think aloud. I personally have found that thinking aloud can help with the flow of ideas. Now that you have that written down, you can see how much tech you may need to get ahead of the game. If the deck you have a weak match up against is very popular in your area (something I am very familiar with), then you will need to dedicate main deck slots to defeating that deck, but if the deck is only used by say, 1 or 2 people out of 10 or 12, you can feel safe not forcing in room in the main deck.
But what do you do if the bad match up is common? Well, don't worry! It's not hard to accomidate for a poor match up, just follow these steps that I have followed for years. Literally!
1. Write down your deck list
2. Grab the card/cards you want to make room for and put them beside the deck
3. Ask yourself aloud questions such as:
*What is the main goal/goals of my deck?
*Does the card/cards I want to make room for negitively affect the goal/goals? If so, how?
(*If yes, can I still accomplish my goals despite the negitive effect on my goal/goals?)
*What cards do I need to accomplish the goal/goals? How many copies can I consistently access with little or no trouble? Which cards don't I need?
After doing the above steps you are ready to decide on the amount of room you'll need to make for tech! The more common the bad match up, the more room you'll need. With a little practice you could be as good at this as me, maybe even better! Well thats it for now! Have fun, and remember you're only as good as the work you put in!
(Just to save myself from the endless barrage of hate mail, I know I didn't fully explain everything. I did that on purpose, I want you to fill in the blanks for yourself and come up with a method that works for you! )
So how do we get to the point of tech like that? Well it is a simple process really, but first we need to look at what makes a card a "good" tech pick as opposed to a "bad" pick. Typically, any card (barring normal monsters) can be a good pick given the right metagame, player mind set, etc. So how do we sort the "good' picks from the great ones? Usually, I will ask myself the following questions:
1. What are the decks being played in the given area?
2. Of those decks, which are winning the most? Why is this?
3. Of the decks played, what does my deck have a good match up against? Which decks are bad match ups? Why?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the decks? Why?
5. What cards can improve my match up against a given deck? Why?
If you ask yourself these questions, you may be surprised at the amount of knowladge you'll have. One thing you may want to do is to write these questions down at first, and think aloud. I personally have found that thinking aloud can help with the flow of ideas. Now that you have that written down, you can see how much tech you may need to get ahead of the game. If the deck you have a weak match up against is very popular in your area (something I am very familiar with), then you will need to dedicate main deck slots to defeating that deck, but if the deck is only used by say, 1 or 2 people out of 10 or 12, you can feel safe not forcing in room in the main deck.
But what do you do if the bad match up is common? Well, don't worry! It's not hard to accomidate for a poor match up, just follow these steps that I have followed for years. Literally!
1. Write down your deck list
2. Grab the card/cards you want to make room for and put them beside the deck
3. Ask yourself aloud questions such as:
*What is the main goal/goals of my deck?
*Does the card/cards I want to make room for negitively affect the goal/goals? If so, how?
(*If yes, can I still accomplish my goals despite the negitive effect on my goal/goals?)
*What cards do I need to accomplish the goal/goals? How many copies can I consistently access with little or no trouble? Which cards don't I need?
After doing the above steps you are ready to decide on the amount of room you'll need to make for tech! The more common the bad match up, the more room you'll need. With a little practice you could be as good at this as me, maybe even better! Well thats it for now! Have fun, and remember you're only as good as the work you put in!
(Just to save myself from the endless barrage of hate mail, I know I didn't fully explain everything. I did that on purpose, I want you to fill in the blanks for yourself and come up with a method that works for you! )
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Introduction
Hello there readers, for those of you who dont know who I am my name is Zach Butler. My lagest credentials in Yu-gi-oh would be 5 regional top 8s, top 16 at UDE day, and many box/electronic/mat wins/tops. But thats not what we're here for, the purpose of this blog is to a.) help you, the player improve your game so you can consistently have a far stronger chance of doing well at tournaments or trading and b.) allow me to improve my teaching skills and provide everyone with a more fun, challenging game. Now, before we get too deep into the blogging madness I would like to point out a few things, this blog is based off of a strong mix of fact and my own personal opinion. I will also NOT be giving out clear cut advice 99% of the time. Instead, I will end the posts in a way that it will allow for open discussion amongst your peers and allow YOU to formulate your own views on such matters. Also, if there ever any questions on my posts or you need deck help, trade advice, or whatever, feel free to email me at stardust54@live.com. It is the email dedicated to the betterment of this website and of the players who read my work. I will check it daily so don't worry that you won't hear from me. Well, now that all that stuff is out of the way I am going to work on the first of many posts. Good luck! And remember, you will only be as good as the work you put in!
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