Ideas, Updates, etc.

No specific topics for today’s article, just a Yu-Gi-Oh! idea splurge.

I’ve been quite busy over the last 2 weeks, with many not yugioh things. So, I pretty much have no tangible topics to write an article about. As a way to get myself back into the swing of things I decided to just write down all the theory-oh I’ve been thinking about over the past fortnight (which I just verified is the equivalent of 14 days or two weeks, perfect!)

Lightsworns of Course:

Naturally I’ve been doing a lot of work with Lightsworns. Over the PAX Prime weekend it was basically the only deck I touched. I used it during all the handful of tournaments I entered at the yugioh tourney room at PAX. I won every duel with it except for against this one guy who bopped me in three separate matches with his Satellarknight deck on 3 separate occasions. Previously, that being the week before, I was also able to attend my local tournament on Saturday (which I rarely get to do because I almost always work on Saturday nights). During that event I also went undefeated except for my match against Satellarknights. All my games against that deck have ended really close, typically me getting thumbed down by Abyss Dweller or Rhapsody in Berserk at the last moment. With all these back to back losses I’ve been theorizing ways to side against the deck using Lightsworns, and potentially some main deck alterations I could make.

The Lightsworn build I’ve been running is a little different than normal. I’ve recently cut Necro Gardnas due to the slowing of the format; most decks do not OTK or even deplete your life points in 2 turns, which means I’m generally safe allowing myself to just take attacks. (I would still really like to be running an Electromagnetic Turtle. Please release that card Konami!) In the place of those Gardnas I’ve been running 3 Shaddoll Dragon, the one that destroys a Spell or Trap when sent to the graveyard. It basically acts as a random MST when milled off a Lightsworn effect, Needlebug Nest and Solar Recharge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with Card Trooper, Charge of the Light Brigade or discarding to revive Lightpulsar. It also acts as a DARK fodder for the Chaos Dragons and is generally good for grinding because of its 1900 ATK. It has a flip effect to return a card on the field to the hand, which is theoretically helpful against Evilswarms, which could be considered the decks worst match-up (that or Gravekeepers). I’ve also been running Foolish Burial to go with the Shaddoll Dragons as well as Mind Control and Minerva. Minerva because she’s an alternate Foolish Burial target and a Tuner for Mind Control.

As far as siding for Satellarknights, after many duels I’ve come up with the following ideas. The first is to use Super-Nimble Mega Hamster and Rykos. Rank 4 toolbox decks typically have poor options versus set monsters. The Rank 4 XYZ that can effectively deal with set monsters are generally not played or are unadvantageous, like Diamond Dire Wolf. Mega Hamster also has 1800 Defense, which beats out all the Satellarknight’s base attack stats before XYZ summoning. The Hamster also allows you to make more Rank 4 XYZ plays to hopefully bait out the opponent’s cards. Ryko just helps you mill more. I’d probably side in 2 Hamster and 2 Ryko (I main 1 Ryko) for Debris, 2 Troopers and Minerva.

I’ve also been toying around with more direct counters to the deck like Stygian Dirge. Siding into continuous traps is always a little odd for Lightsworns. There’s a weird balance between a player not being knowledgeable enough to side out MST against Lightsworns and keeping them in which screws over your continuous traps because they’re the only card in your deck they can MST anyways, and the uber foresight duelist who keeps in MST anticipating Royal Decree and other continuous traps. I typically don’t like making the gamble based on what kind of person my opponent is, so I steer clear of siding continuous traps for Lightsworns in most instances, but Stygian Dirge is such a direct counter it’s hard to pass up. Because of this though, I’ve been looking at siding copies of Mischief of the Yokai in the Stellarknight and Burning Abyss match-ups as a lesser version of  Stygian Dirge. Mischief is by far a weaker card than Dirge, but it can be milled and still be activate, plus it has really nice artwork!

As far as other side deck choices go, I’ve been siding the obligatory Breakthrough Skill against Shaddolls, a match-up I found surprisingly comfortable after some duels against it with Lightsworns, so I doubt I’ll side much more than that and maybe MSTs. Mind control is amazing in this matchup because you can steal their face-down Shaddoll Falco and flip it to revive your Shaddoll Dragons.

Ninjas Ninjas Ninjas:

I’ve also been doing a lot of thought with Ninjas. I have had a little time to duel on DevPro using some weird Ninja variants, mostly testing the card Exchange of Night and Day. It’s a continuous trap that lets you swap LIGHT warriors for DARK warriors, or vice versa, of the same level from the deck. Basically, discard Upstart Golden Ninja to grab a Hanzo or discard Hanzo to grab Upstart Gold. It has loads of natural synergy with the deck, the only problem is that it burns through your deck super fast because it discards the monsters rather than returning them to the deck. The discarding is also beneficial though when it come to Chaos setup. You can activate it during your opponent’s turn, discarding a LIGHT to get a DARK. Then during your turn, discard that DARK to get a LIGHT again. This gives you a LIGHT and a DARK in the graveyard pretty darn easily.

This card was made for Black Luster Soldier, so naturally I run that as well. I’ve been using 1 Envoy of the Beginning as well as 1 Envoy of Evening Twilight, the new Shonen Jump promo card. Twilight is a DARK level 8 Warrior and the original BLS is a LIGHT warrior, meaning you can swap between them using Exchange of Night and Day.

With all this extreme monster dumping, I’ve been trying to make a Ninja deck based around graveyard revival plays, using Call of the Haunted and Soul Charge. In the next set there’s pretty much a clone of Call of the Haunted that’s coming out called Spring of Dragon Souls. The only difference is that the new card revives in face-up defense and makes the monster a Wyrm. I definitely plan on testing 3 Call, 3 Soul Charge and 3 Spring all at once.

I’ve also been trying out loads of different Ninjitsu Art engines. (I really wish there was just a Ninjitsu Art that did something silly like draw a card) I’ve basically settled 100% on running a Debris Dragon in every Ninja build I make; it’s a Super Transformation target and is also good to draw for Rank 4 plays using Upstart Gold. As of right now, the engine I’m most interested in is the Mythic Dragon engine, more exactly 2 Mythic Tree Dragon and 3 Mythic Water Dragon. I like the idea of this engine because it is supported greatly by the 3 Call of the Haunted and 3 Soul Charge, because it can still be effective when drawn, and also because it’s quite lean in terms of deck space. I’ve been thinking about adding 1 Tidal into that engine, but I’d like to test the initial engine first before adding anything extra.

Frogs & Ghostricks:

This one’s rather short. In the simplest form, I’ve been thinking about running Ghostrick Frogs, with no Monarchs, as a deck. After a lot of playing with my Ghostrick Frog Monarch deck, I think it’s potentially feasible if not beneficial to run simply the Frogs and the Ghostricks. Essentially, the 8 Monarchs, Enemy Controllers and Monarchs Stormforth would get dropped in favor of more Ghostricks, Tour Guide and Mathematician in amounts I’m not sure on yet. I would also substitute in other Spells I thought where format relevant like Mind Control. I might still run 2 or 3 Caius though, nothing is exact yet.

The basic gist of the deck, would be a hand trap styled control & stall deck. The Frogs allow you to make Ghostrick XYZ a lot easier than Ghostricks can themselves. Combine this with even more Ghostrick monsters to amplify the power of the XYZ monsters, and with Tour Guide and Mathematician you can make Alucard now as well which you couldn’t have before. Tour Guide can also make Leviair which makes really good combos with Ronintoadin.

The ace of the deck will still be the Soul Charge plays using Swap Frog, but now with the extra layers of Ghostrick defense it’s more feasible to be running 3 Soul Charge. With more Ghostrick monsters, Jiangshi is more powerful, and Soul Charge to revive it becomes a powerful play. You can also Soul Charge back any Ghostrick XYZ as a floater to recur Ghostricks from the graveyard.

QOTW? Question of the Week:

First, if you have any ideas for things to write about I’d love to hear them, and I will gladly make an article about most things. The real question though is this: what do you think is going to get hit on the upcoming ban list, and also what do you want to get hit?

Written by: Kyle Oliver