Extreme Victory: Psychics

Just saw the new Psychics coming out and I gotta say, it's good to see a set of psychics that have complete synergy without having to rely on your lifepoints, but instead work with a removal/recursion engine that seems pretty stable.

Acabo de ver los nuevos psychics del nuevo set y son impresionantes. Por fin me alegra ver un grupo de psychics que tengan una estrategia que no afecten los lifepoints, sino que tienen el "engine" de remover y volver que parece ser bastante estable.

Psychic Wizard of Silence

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can select 1 Psychic-Typemonster in your Graveyard, and remove it from play. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, Special Summon the monsterremoved from play by this card's effect.

Psychic Witch of Stillness

When this card on the field is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can remove from play 1 Psychic-Type monster with 2000 or lessATK from your Deck. During your next Standby Phase, Special Summon the monster removed from play by this effect.

Taciturn Psychic Priest

When this card is Normal or Flip Summoned, it is changed to Defense Position. Once per turn, you can send 1 card from your hand to theGraveyard to select 1 Psychic-Type monster in your Graveyard, andremove it from play. When this card is sent from the field to theGraveyard, you can select 1 monster removed from play by this card's effect, and Special Summon it.

Mental Over Archfiend

1 Psychic-Type Tuner + 2 or more non-Tuner Psychic-Typemonsters

Once per turn, you can select 1 Psychic-Type monster in yourGraveyard, and remove it from play. When this card is sent from thefield to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon as many monstersthat were removed by this card's effect as possible.

Mental Seeker

(Effect still unconfirmed/ efecto todavia no confirmado)

When this removed from play card is Special Summoned, pick up the top 3 cards of your opponent's Deck. Selectone of them and remove it from play, then return the rest to the Deck.

Will this be enough to give Psychics a notable boost?

Sera esto lo que los psychics necesitan para llegar al proximo nivel?

Six Strike - Thunder Blast

Normal Trap

Remove 1 Bushido Counter from your side of the field to activate one of the following effects:
Select 1 monster your opponent controls, and destroy it.
Select 1 card your opponent controls, and return it to the hand.

So the TCG is trying to get Samurais to play differently by relying on counters due to this and Shien's Daredevil. However, this card is simply amazing! Getting Bushido Counters with the new swarm of Samurai should be an easy feat, whether it's on Gateway or on Six Samurai United, there will be plenty of counter abuse.

Asi que en el TCG estan tratando de hacer un estilo distinto de Samurai al de Japon al hacerlo usar mas la mecanica de los "counters" gracias a esta carta y Shien's Daredevil. Pero hay que admitir que esta carta es increible. Sacando los "Bushido Counters" de cartas como Gateway y Six Samurai United sera bastante facil con los nuevos Samurai del proximo set. Es una gran forma de abusar de esta mecanica.

This is the best use of the counter mechanic since the last batch of Alien cards in Crimson Crisis, and this one so far is also being very well developed. Not a fan of Samurai, but even I have to admit when something is nicely done, especially if it promotes a mechanic not too often used.

Este es el mejor uso de la mecanica de "counters" desde las ultimas cartas Alien en Crimson Crisis, y esta le puede pasar. Y aunque no soy muy fanatico de los Samurai, tengo que reconocer una carta bien hecha cuando la veo, especialmente si es para una mecanica no muy comun.

STOR Special Edition

So it's going to feature both Light and Darkness Dragon along with Hand of the Six Samurai. Quite interesting.

It's good to see a reprint of LADD any day to make it a little cheaper, but the Hand reprint seems like it was just too obvious, given the new Samurai support.

Either way, it will be nice to have reprints of either card.

Attention Fish Duelists!!!!

It seems I might be the only Fish player in all of Puerto Rico. In all my years with the deck I have yet to meet anyone (besides my buddy Siulzen who used to play Fish years ago) who is currently piloting the deck. I hope that any of the local players reading this would let me know if there's any other Fish player out there (in the Metro Area of course). Because I look forward to a match with any fellow Fish player.

Parece que soy el unico jugador del deck Fish en todo Puerto Rico. Despues de varios años jugando el deck, no me he encontrado con alguien (ademas de mi amigo Siulzen que paro de usar el deck varios años atras) que este usando este deck en el momento. Espero que hayan jugadores locales leyendo esto que me puedan informar si hay algun otro jugador Fish en la isla (especificamente en el area metro). Y si lo hay, espero tener un buen duelo con ese otro jugador!

Vortex the Whirlwind

So the Sneak Peek Promo for Storm of Ragnarok has been revealed. And I gotta say, it's very interesting.

Ya vi la promo para el proximo set Storm of Ragnarok y tengo que decir, es muy interesante.

Vortex the Whirlwind

Winged-Beast/Wind/Synchro/6

1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner Winged Beast-Type monsters

When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower Winged Beast-Type monsterfrom your Deck.

Vortex makes for an ideal card to use in both Blackwings and Dragunity decks alike. Blackwings now have an extra synchro they can access via Blizzard + Kalut or Shura + Vayu, while Dragunities have Legionnaire + Phalanx. It also has compatibility with Icarus Attack, which is something both Dragunities and Blackwings alike can exploit under a tight situation.

Vortex es una carta ideal para uso en Blackwings y Dragunity por igual. Blackwings pueden sacarlo por medio de Blizzard con Kalut o por Shura y Vayu, mientras los Dragunity tienen Legionnaire con Phalanx. Tambien es compatible con Icarus Attack, algo que los Blackwing y Dragunity usan a menudo.

Whether you like it or not, Vortex will be a card these 2 decks will be likely to use from now on due to the great synergy it holds. Blackwings will ram it into something (like Monarchs) and then search and attack with Shura, while Dragunities can search Tribus and dump their essential tuners like Phalanx.

Aunque a uno le guste o no, Vortez sera una carta usada por ambos decks. Blackwings lo usaran para estrellarse contra un Monarca para buscar a Shura pa un proximo ataque mientras Dragunity lo usaran para buscar a Tribus y botar a Phalanx del deck.

Hook Line and Sinker, Gone Fishing

For many years, Fish have been the laughing stock of the Yugioh world (along with Thunder and Sea-Serpents) as the least supported types in the entire game. But now they are getting some noteworthy attention and could make an impact in the future metagame, under the right circumstances of course. Plus, they have been one of my favorite types for years now.

This is Archetype Analysis: Fish

Learning to Swim

Back during the "First Era" of Yugioh, the only Fish that ever saw use was Terrorking Salmon and 7-Colored Fish in ALO Beatdown. The rest were just spares that barely got to anything (Soul Eater, Flying Fish, Tongyo) by being just too weak to even try any kind of beatdown strategy during that era. There were other Fish released with effects, but they were mostly lackluster or not fitting any particular strategy. This was the bane of Fish for many years until we got a miracle in Tactical Evolution.

Tactical Evolution finally brought a meaning for Fish, and that was to cause destruction and have some sort of control. Cranium Fish was meant to destroy face-downs, Abyssal Kingshark dodged non-targeted destruction, and the others somehow just had a level of synergy between them. But all in all, it still wasn't enough to make a solid Fish deck. That is, until the godsend arrived a few packs later.

Super Special Awesome Deepsea King Magikarp is Here!

While it is true that Phantom Darkness brought the game a ton of powerful cards, there was one that was quite overlooked until now. It was where the world came to know of Coelacanth's existence as the boss of all Fish. However, the giant was here, but still barely had an army to lead. The deck by then became a simple swarm-control deck, using Coelacanth and Cranium Fish as the main attackers while keeping the field full of Fish for Golden Flying Fish to destroy. Little did people know that this king of fish was soon going to become a force to be reckoned with...

An Exclusive Ocean, How the TCG Boosted Fish

But even with the presence of Coelacanth, Fish were still feeling incomplete in their arsenal. That is, until TCG Exclusives began spitting out new toys for Fish. They first gave us our first tuner, Royal Swamp Eel. At an instant, the deck turned into an OTK deck just by being able to swarm 4 fish that gave access to 2 level 8 synchros and could go for 8000 damage. But it wasn't done yet, we got the ability to recycle our fish via Metabo-Shark and a way to speed the deck up via Nimble Sunfish.

Frogs and Temples, How Fish are Making an Impact

Once all our support finally arrived, we had a full school of fish at our disposal. And so, we created various versions, but only 2 have known great success: Froggy Fish and Mausoleum Fish.

Froggy Fish consisted in using the Frog engine (composed of 3 Swap Frog, 1-2 Treeborn and 1 Ronintoadin) to not only thin the deck, but also set up tributes for both Coelacanth and Monarchs alike. While it's a slower paced deck, it can be quite explosive under the right setup, but it's always keeping field presence and runs more like a Frog Monarch deck due to this.

And then there's Mausoleum Fish (my current variant). It's more of a control build, allowing for Mausoleum to grant access to cards like Vanity's Fiend, LADD, End of Anubis, and the usual Coelacanth. It tends to use cards like Snowman Eater and Thunder King Rai-Oh sometimes in the main deck to counter strategies directly from game 1. It's a whole lot more explosive than Froggy Fish, but allows for a larger degree of control. Currently it is the newest and fastest growing variant out there, but both Froggy Fish and Mausoleum Fish are strong contenders and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Here's an old video on my old Froggy Fish build, along with a tiny guide of how it plays out. Note: it's a build from the previous format.

And here's my current Mausoleum Build:

Monsters: 21

Coelacanth x3

Vanity's Fiend x2

Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

Thunder King Rai-Oh x2

Royal Swamp Eel x3

Tongyo x2

Metabo-Shark

Oyster Meister x2

Nimble Sunfish x2

Golden Flying Fish

Fishborg Blaster

Morphing Jar

Spells: 16

Mausoleum of the Emperor x3

Moray of Greed

Card Destruction

Terraforming

Giant Trunade

Pot of Avarice

Mystical Space Typhoon x2

Book of Moon x2

Gold Sarcophagus x2

Monster Reborn

Dark Hole

Traps: 3

Call Of The Haunted

Royal Decree x2

Extra Deck: 15

Shooting Star Dragon

Formula Synchron

Stardust Dragon

Scrap Archfiend x2

Mist Wurm

Colossal Fighter

Black Rose Dragon

Magical Android

Goyo Guardian

Iron Chain Dragon

Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

X-Saber Urbellum

Thoughtruler Archfiend

Top 10 TCG Releases of 2010: Part 2

Well, it's time to finish that list before I enter the new year and realize I left a list halfway. Let's begin then...

#5. XX-Saber Darksoul

X-Sabers were already becoming a powerful deck due to Emmersblade's release, but it was Darksoul who launched them into another level. It allowed for incredible speed since it managed to search for the Saber you need (*cough* Faultroll *cough*) even multiple times per turn should the situation need it. To this day, people are still debating it's rulings and no doubt it's one of the biggest impact cards of the year.

#4. Gravekeeper's Recruiter

The complete underdog of the list. It allowed Gravekeepers to finally break through the glass ceiling. It searches for any Gravekeeper except Spy and Guard, but the card alone has brought the archetype competitive accomplishments after it's PGD release back in 2004. Recruiter's release felt like the end of a 6-year journey for these tomb keepers, and rightfully so.

#3. Solemn Warning

Upon it's release, Warning was already making an impact on how we play the game. The ability to negate any summon (including effects that summon) for the cost of 2000LP is no laughing matter. The best part about this card? It's actually balanced. 2000LP is not always a cost one is willing to pay, and you can't just negate any summon with it. You have to really consider the consequences of a wrongfully negated summon. And it's also making players use their summons more intelligently, and not just go all crazy. Balanced card, but not too happy about the price...beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

#2. Ronintoadin

If anyone has read my previous article about Ronintoadin, they know how I feel about this card. This card took a deck from unknown status to world champion in half a format. While Substitoad was responsable for thinning the deck, Ronin was the key piece of the puzzle that allowed for the FTK. And even post-september, Ronin has still become a potent card in such decks as Frognarchs (or Formula Frognarchs) and Froggy Fish. A former world champion, and still a contender, Ronin takes the #2 spot.

#1. Unicycular!!!!!!!

I joke...here's the real #1

#1. Pot of Duality

Pot of duality gave many decks a much needed boost. It gave the consistency many decks lacked, just by being able to add some searching power to any deck it was in. Duality has certainly become a part of many of our current decks, and it's no surprise given the amount of help it can give. But the best part of all, it's a balanced card. Allowing yourself to pick any of your next 3 cards at the cost of being unable to special summon is quite the price to pay, but many can play around it...that's what makes it such a useful card. And just like Warning, it's price tag leaves a lot to be desired (it costs my left arm just to be able to get one), but it's definitely the card that had the biggest impact of the year.

And speaking of the year. Happy new year to all the fellow bloggers and readers here. Hope to see you around in 2011 as well.