Here's my "Preseason" prediction for all 150 Yugioh Archetypes. Like all preseason predictions, this is mostly nonsense. Still, when was the last time you checked the accuracy of any of Sport Illustrated preseason picks? At the very least, my list is the most complete.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
The Power of the Draw
To understand why the last format devolved into a two-deck
slugfest, you need to understand the impact Super Rejuvenation and Spellbook of
Judgment had on their respective decks.
Without these cards, E dragons and Spellbooks are good decks. E dragons would still be tier one while Spellbooks
would likely return to its pre-JOTL quirkiness.
However, add Super Rejuv and Judgment and these decks get propelled into
the Yugioh pantheon of “The Best Ever”.
The reason becomes obvious when you consider how much an extra draw gets
you.
Let’s say you have a 45 card deck and want to draw into one
of three power cards. Your odds of doing
so are about 35.6%. If you work hard and
eliminate five cards, you can increase your odds by about 4%. However, if you draw an extra card without
lowering the total card count, your odds of drawing your power card is 40.5
%. Draw two extra and the probability
increases to 45.2%. In other words,
drawing one additional card makes up for the sloppiness of having five cards
over the minimum deck size.
Compare these numbers with the advantages of adding Pot of
Duality to your deck. In my mind, this
card is the equivalent of reducing your deck by three cards. So going back to
our 45 card deck, adding one PoD increases your odds to 37.8%. If you add three PoD, your odds increase to
43.1%. In other words, three Pot of
Dualities underperforms two extra draws.
Of course, draw power was only part of the E
dragon/Spellbook monopoly. These decks
also had search power. I see cards that
search as “equivalent” to the power cards.
So if you add a searcher, you now have four chances to draw your power
card. This increases the odds to
44.8%. Thus, adding a card that searches
is the most efficient means to getting to your power cards.
Do these numbers shed some light on why your quaint little
Samurai deck didn’t stand a chance against E dragons? If they played three gold sarcs, three
reactant, and three Redox and if they drew four cards with Super Rejuv, their
chances of getting to Redox was 93%.
The rest of us never had a chance.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Charma Charma Charma Chameleon*
I’ve played a lot of machine-based decks in the past several
years. I’ve suffered through wins and
losses using Geargia, Karakuri, and Malefics, but I always return to Gadgets.
Their simple “plus 1” deck-thinning mechanic is usually quite powerful …
provided the meta is not swarmed by “plus 4 to 6” cards. Consider their three week raise to prominence
after the release of Hidden Arsenal 7.
It was a sublime time for gadget players. Then it all ended with the release of Lord
Tachyon’s Galaxy.
Fortunately, the game is about to change. We can all say good-bye to the card-hoarding
tendencies of E dragons and Spellbooks.
The upcoming ban list and the introduction of Masked Chameleon also led
me to move away from the XYZ mechanic and back to synchro cards. Here’s the result**
MAIN DECK
Red, yellow, and green gadgets x 6
Kagetokage x 3
Tinplate x 2
Photon Thrasher x 3
Gearframe x 3
Fortress x 2
Cannon x 1
Swift scarecrow x 3
Redox x 2
That’s 25 monster cards.
The spell and trap lineup varies with the local meta. Flexibility in card choices is one of the
appealing aspects of Gadget decks. I
will point out that I do not play Double Summons, Chain Summoning, or Ultimate
Offering. I also tend max out Forbidden
Lance and Compulsory Evacuation Device. Eradicator Epidemic Virus is seeing more and
more play in part because of the addition of Crazy Box. Reactant (x1) was also a part of the
deck. Unfortunately, this poor little
baby dragon will have to pay for the sins of the big dragons.#
EXTRA DECK
King of the Feral Imps X2
Geargigant X x 1
Lavaval Chain x 1
Crazy Box x 1 (EEV, DDV target)
Shockmaster x 1
Big Eye, Dracosack, Master of Blades or some rank 7 of your
dreams x 1
Colossal Fighter x 1
Scrap Dragon x 1
Crimson Blader x 1
Ally of Justice Catastor x 1
That’s 11 cards. The
other 4 are rank 4 XYZ monsters. In
general, I wouldn’t add more synchro monsters.
This deck tends to synchro summon and then reborn the card. I also
wouldn’t use more than one rank 7. Fortress
causes more problems when it takes up a monster space rather than as a XYZ
material. I will go into Big Eye as a
game ending or saving play. Alas, I
don’t have Dracosack though synching with tokens is intriguing.
Advantages
The principle advantage to adding synchro monsters to
Gadgets is the ability to summon them from the graveyard with Redox. Unlike XYZ
monsters, they take their effects with them.
Furthermore, there are several old-school, powerful level 8
synchros. Though deck space is always
tight, I find Colossal Fighter, Scrap Dragon, Catastor, and Crimson Blader to
be pretty effective against most decks. Let’s
face it, the Crimson Blader lock devastates Mermails. Besides, Photon Thrasher is warrior and
Colossal Fighter’s extra attack boost always takes people by surprise.
Setting up a synchro summon with this deck is pretty
easy. It will take a turn or two, which
means the deck gives up some speed to E dragons, Karakuris, and perhaps
Infernities. However, this deck has 9
targets for Masked Chameleon (Thasher, Scarecrow, and Gearframe) and 6 of these
are searchable with Geargigant.
Chameleon is also easily searchable with King of the Feral Imps. In fact, I play two of these cards in the
event one of them gets veilered or otherwise destroyed.
The card that will make most gadget players wince is Photon
Thrasher. This card saw some play in
gadget decks before the introduction of Tinplate Goldfish. The reason for this
diffidence is that the card can be dead if you have monsters on the field. To
the critics, I would point out that cards do not seem to stay on the field for
long these days. Furthermore, the card
is not susceptible to Effect Veiler (like Tinplate). 2100 attack means it gets
over a lot of level 4 monsters. Most of
all, it preserves your normal summon. I will often summon and attack into set
backrow cards. At worse, it’s a 1 for 1
trade with Mirror Force, etc.
Occasionally, it’s a 2100 hit. The card also gives me access to
Shockmaster – still one of the most powerful cards in the game. The alternative is Double Summon. This card usually requires 9 gadgets, which
gets cloggy. Though I’ve played “Gadget
Spam”, I’ve found that DS is dead far more often than Thrasher.
Disadvantages
The rub for this deck is the restriction on additional
special summoning when Masked Chameleon’s effect is activated. This means that your synchro monster is
vulnerable to destruction by card effect and you will have no way of dealing
with it until the next turn. My
understanding is that the card works like Pot of Duality. In other words, you
can’t special summon and then normal summon this card. Gadget decks do have the capacity of placing
multiple monsters on the field without Ultimate Offering. However, once you play MC, you can do nothing
but wait.
There are ways of ameliorating MC’s restriction. Swift Scarecrow will often buy you an extra
turn. I am playing more monster
destruction trap cards than I have in the past.
Triple Forbidden Lance is also helps.
Still, you better not be reckless with your synchro summon or you’ll pay
for it.
Verdict
Like most doolists, I like the deck because I’ve invested
time, money, and thought into it. It is not “Jeff Jones” unique, but it is
mine. Giving up on one’s idea is pretty tough particularly when the deck has
moments of brilliance.
The deck does well against decks that do not rely on XYZ
summoning. Mermails, Karakuri, and even Samurai
will struggle. I’ve done well against
Constellars. Firefists may be a bit more
difficult. I have yet to duel a Bujin
deck.
The real nemesis in Evilswarm and I suspect that deck will continue
to do quite well. The irony is that this
matchup used to be much easier when I played an XYZ only variant. Now I find
myself staring at Ophion and a hand with Redox, Fortress, and Mask
Chameleon. Siding in Genex Ally Duradark
helps though Key Beetle makes that card less effective. I am playing more traps then I did over the
summer. I suspect this will be a trend among many players once the Ban List
becomes official.
Feel free to try it out and comment. I’m always on the lookout for good advice.
* This is a reference to the 1984 Culture Club hit … ancient
history to most Yugioh players
** I can post the complete deck if there is a demand, but I
think the skeleton is more useful.
# I loved the special rule that limited all decks
to only 6 dragons. Alas, it looks like
we are going to be putting the babies at the back of the binder.
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