Hand Traps - Flawed Mechanic

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates but I will try to create more articles in the coming weeks. Today I will talk about hand traps and how they're important but are also ruining the game.

Before I start, I'm not saying that all hand-traps are bad, I do think cards such as Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Tragoedia, Swift Scarecrow, Electric Virus, Puppet Plant etc are good for the game. It's mainly hand traps that can disrupt opponent's play during their turn (such as Effect Veiler, Maxx C and Droll & Lock Bird).
 
     
 
NOTE: When I mention hand traps in this article, I'm talking about the hand traps that I find problematic.


Importance of Hand Traps

Going first in Yugioh has always been an unfair advantage because your opponent has a clear field and you're able to make plays without worrying about the repercussions. To prevent this, the concept of hand traps has allowed the player going second to respond to cards being played by the turn player. This will then allow the player going second to set up his field before his opponent

Hand traps are important in the current format because of Prophecies and Dragons. The presence of hand traps can prevent both decks from going off and creating a massive board advantage and sometimes hand advantage if they have the Spellbook of Judgment or Super Rejuvenation.

Another positive is that they tend to make the game more skilled base, because you need to be able to read if your opponent has them or not and they allow you to have certain controls over the game because you can't really counter them


Flawed Mechanic

However, as the title says, I think the hand traps are ruining the game because it's a flawed mechanic. The problem with hand traps is that it is very hard to deal with because if they don't use it, it stays in their hand so you can't get rid of it. There are a couple of methods to counter hand traps which are:

Playing around them

Baiting them out

Run cards that counter them

Discard them for their hand

In my opinion, none of these are practical. By playing our hand traps, it also forces players to make a less optimum play, but sooner or later because of the way you've been playing, there're going to be moments when you can only make one play and a hand trap will just shut the play down completely.

Baiting out hand traps is also impractical because it normally leads to giving your opponent a free turn, which in the current format will allow your opponent to set up a really strong field presence which will then make it hard for you to regain control of the board

The same can be said if you run cards such as Mind Drain just to counter hand traps, which can lead you to dead draws and is something you don't want in the current format. There are only a couple of cards you can use to discard cards and the only one practical at the moment is Card Destruction, which doesn't stop your opponent drawing into another copy if they're lucky

Another problem that can occur involving hand traps is if the player starting off is able to set up his field and also has a hand trap to prevent his opponent from making plays. This scenario is very common in the current format and can mean defeat because the opponent is now even more disadvantaged.

Hand traps are also very unpredictable in my opinion. Unlike Gorz where there are certain requirements that needs to be met. These hand traps can be used anytime. It's also very hard to read because it's not on the field. I for one will admit I find it tough reading hand traps. I've had situations in the dragon mirror where my opponent summoned Big Eye against me, which should telegraph that they have at least 2 Veilers in hand. I found out afterwards they only had 1 Veiler which fooled me because I was trying to play around 2 of them.
 
Don't get me wrong. I do like the concept of being able to counter my opponent during their turn but for a resource-less game such as Yugioh, there should be a cost or a certain requirement involved to play these cards.
 
 
Solution
 
One of the solutions is to ban or restrict some of these hand traps which is stupid because it's very important in the current format. The alternative is to take a leaf out of Magic The Gathering and Pokémon and have cycles, which allows Yugioh to start fresh each format so that old cards won't suddenly be broken, (such as Super Rejuvenation) because I'm sure that it was never intended to be used liked it has been currently compared to when it first came out.
 
Of course that will never happen
 
That's my two cents anyway
 
Thanks for Reading
 

Afterthought

Hi,

As promised I will talk about a couple of pointers that I learned from this years Nationals and Oceanics.

• Play testing is very important if you want to succeed. Obviously the luck factor comes into play during a tournament but knowing the meta and what cards to side in game 2 and 3 can sometimes give you an edge in a match-up. As I said previously, I should have made more effort play testing because I only found out during the tournament that Dragons pretty much swings the match-up against prophecy game 2 and 3 in their favour because of the cards they side in.

• In this format, going first matters a lot. In the 9 rounds I played over the weekend, I only won 1 die roll and in all my losses, I started second in every single time. Looking back, I reckon I would have won 3 of those games if I went first because of what I drew, but instead I had to start against Dracossack + double Super Rejuvenation, which makes it hard for me to established a board if they drew a hand trap

• Watch out for cheats and people stacking your deck. Apparently it happened quite a lot over the 3 days. I think Konami needs to do something about the way people shuffle their decks and how they cut your opponents deck

• Dragon is definitely the best deck this format. I always thought that Dragons and Prophecy are about even before the tournament, but after seeing and playing while taking into account the mechanics of the deck and post board. Dragons is by far a superior deck. Super Rejuvenation has to be banned, end of story.

• Evilswarm is not as bad as I thought they were, but you need to go first in order to set up your field. 2 out of 3 games I said I probably would have won was using Evilswarm. I could have turn 1 Ophion backed with Safe Zone against Dragons and turn 1 Ophion set Eradicator against Chain Beat. Props to Kenny and Tim for not giving up on the deck lol

• When the new cards came out, I thought the format is very skilful. I still think the same except its only for the Dragon Mirror. All other match-up is very reliant on who gets to go first

• With the amount of Douches in the game, I realised that the only reason I'm playing is because of the people I hang out with, so thumbs up again to Kenny, Sean, Jimmy, Yaowei, Moore, Xuan, Giang, Troy, Kate, Ting, Andy, Marcus, Short , Robin, Justin, Sharp and other people that I haven't mention from NSW that I talk to. That's not to say that I meet and caught up with a couple of cool people from interstate as well.

Thanks for reading. I'll try to creating something else before the end of the month


PS: Congrats to Marcus Wheeler for winning Nationals and Chris Mattiske (sorry if I spelt that wrong) for winning Oceanics. I didn't get to talk to you but I heard you're a really nice guy so good luck at worlds

Nationals + Oceanics

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the lack of update. I've just been very busy with work lately. But today I'll be talking about the weeks leading up to Nationals / Oceanics and my experiences that I got from the 2 events

To begin with, I have pretty much decided that I will play Prophecy about 2 weeks prior to the event because I know that I won't any time to playtest and I was pretty comfortable with the deck.

I was also confident in the mirror, Dragon match-ups and other random rouge decks including Evilswarm from my time playing at the regional. But now looking back at it. I probably should have made more effort to playtest because I would have probably ran Dragons instead.


Saturday

I pretty much scrubbed out of both events, I went 3-3 at Nationals and 1-2 at Oceanics. I ran a Cresentless build for nationals and my 3 loses were against 2 Dragons and 1 Mermail.

Apart for being a retard and trying to bottomless Dracossack when there are tokens on the field. I really couldn't do much both game 1 and 3 against a turn one Dracossack followed by a Super Rejuvenation or 2, which got them a couple of veilers

The game 1 I lost to Mermail was because of turn one Double Dragoon, Megalo, Teus followed by Moulinglacia and game 3 because I drew unplayable. The guy was pretty cool and said sorry to me afterwards so I was less annoyed.

So I pretty much dropped and was hating the game. I had a bit of a laugh when I found out Pend Pender did worst than me and we pretty much just chilled out with a couple of people at the bar downstairs,

When we got back to the event. Pretty much all my friends top 64 apart for a couple of us. I was really happy for my friend Christian who topped running Dragons after only 2 games of play testing via DN.

After the top 64 was announced we pretty much all went home. A lot of them were staying at Penrith and they walked to Outback Steakhouse, but a couple of us that drove went to get Kebabs and just enjoyed Dinner. This and the bar were probably the highlight of my day, I like to thank Kate, Troy, James, Pender and especially Tingy for such a fun time at these 2 places which made my day bearable.


Sunday

On Sunday, Christian and Tim picked me up in the morning which was really nice of them. We got to the event and within 5 minutes my "dongsaeng" Kenny sat next to me because he drew poor game 2 using Evilswarm against Dragons. We then found out that Christian won his game and got the Dracossack mat, which he kindly gave to me :) for letting him borrow the deck.

Sunday was pretty boring, all I did was go to Westfield for lunch with Christian and traded with people. Georgio Giana bought my Prophecy and some guy traded his Evilswarm and cash for my Mermails. Tim pretty much spent the whole day convincing me to play Yolo-Swarm for Oceanics, which is what I ended up doing. I was going to play Dragons but since Christian gave me the mat. I kinda felt obliged to lend him the cards again

I tried to convince Pend Pender to run Evilswarm with me but he pretty much told me to shut up.

By the end of the day, I was so sick of Yugioh, and after getting most of the evilswarm cards and the decklist. Tim and Christian wanted to go home so I tagged along with them. That night I was supposed make the deck but I didn't even want to look at my cards. I pretty much played PS3 until 2:00am before I went to bed.


Monday

I got a call from Christian that he was 15 minutes away from my home. To be honest I didn't even want to go, but because I was going to receive a free mat I pulled myself out and got dressed.

We got to the event and I pretty much had to get all the missing cards. I got cards of Chris Sharp and James Xuan so thanks both of you. (I ended up forgetting Diamond Dire Wolf in my Extra Deck but whatever) I was pretty much being an ass all morning but all my friends were laughing so I guess they find my mental state at that time amusing. After pairings went up I played against Counter Fairy. I loss game 1 and won game 2 and 3 via Eradicator. He made a misplay game 3 and he was kinda annoyed but he seems like a cool dude.

I played the same Dragon guy that I did a misplay against. He won the roll and made a Dracossack with a double or triple rejuvenation. I tried to bahamut which is my only play and he veilered so I lost that one. Game 2 I couldn't get Ophion on the board and he stormed, Dracossack and Rejuvenation me a couple of turns later. At this point in time I was about to drop by Yaowei Didn't allow me, he literally scribbled out my tick

My 3rd round I versed Chain Beat. He won game 1, I won game 2 via Eradicator again and game 3 he opened Fossil Dyna set 3 and I tried to attack and he played mirror force and I chained pandemic and he chained some card that negates quick-play spells and a turn later he summoned Thunder King and used Black Garden. so I ended up losing that one and dropping because I couldn't top.

I ended up spending the rest of my day with Kenny, Eddie (who also only turned up for the mat) and Tay. James Moore also joined us and we pretty much hung out and laughed when Tay yelled out "FISH!" (you have to be there to see it)

We grabbed some Pizzas and did a bit of trading. After a while top 16 started and I was to busy playing Pender and James Moore with old format decks. I found out Tim lost on the bubble to an Asian Samurai sack player which annoyed Tim so much that he stayed to watch him lose.

After the Asian kid loses, Tim and Christian wanted Charcoal Chicken so we went all the way near Ashfield where we had a garlic chicken that was better than El Jannah. I think it was called Anar. I then got dropped off at the station and took the best train service in the world home, Cityrail



Pros:

• A lot people I know top 64 Nationals
• Yaowei and Justin top 16 Oceanics
• Pender doing as bad as me at Nationals :)
• Kenny, Tim, Christian, Sean, Jimmy, Xuan, Moore, Troy, Kate, Ting, Yaowei, Giang, Eddie and Tay for being cool friends and making the event bearable for me

Cons:

• Scrubbing out in both Nationals and Oceanics
• Pender doing as bad as me at Nationals :(
• Douchebags and tools at the event
• Draws
• Dracossack + Super Rejuvenation
• Wasting my long weekend
• The format apart from Dragon mirror

Thanks for reading. I will talk what I learned from this tournament in my next article

Until then, take care

Deck Profile: Spellbooks

 

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates, I've just been been busy with other things. But today I'll be doing a deck profile on Spellbook and give reasons on why I chose the cards I played.
 
I like to make a special mention to a friend of mine (ColdSnap from DGZ) for letting me borrow the whole deck for a regional on Sunday, so I can get my invite after failing multiple times :(
 
First I'll start with the Main deck
 

1 Effect Veiler
2 High Priestess of Prophecy
3 Spellbook Magician of Prophecy
1 Justice of Prophecy
1 Injection Fairy Lily
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Jowgen the Spiritualist
1 Toon Gemini Elf
 
1 Heavy Storm
3 Spellbook of Fate
3 Spellbook of Judgment
3 Spellbook of Secrets
2 Spellbook of Master
2 Spellbook of Wisdom
1 Spellbook of Eternity
1 Spellbook of Power
1 Spellbook of Life
2 The Grand Spellbook of Tower
1 Book of Moon
3 Toon Table of Contents
3 Upstart Goblin
 
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Waboku
 
 
 
Deck Breakdown
 
(Monsters)

1 Effect Veiler - If I didn't have to play any I wouldn't but because it's a Spellcaster, a hand trap and more importantly a Tuner. I had to at least have 1 in there to give the deck a bit of flexibility for their plays
 
2 High Priestess of Prophecy - The Master Hyperion or DAD of the deck. It is pretty much your win condition for the deck. I use to like running 3 in the deck but it can sometimes be dead. I recently prefer just to run 2 because the card is still searchable via Justice, so that means I can get it when I need it. The problem with running 2 is that your late game becomes significantly weaker but you should still be able to win if you know how to grind through your opponent's cards.

3 Spellbook Magician of Prophecy - A Spellcaster that can be searched by Spellbook of Secrets and can also search for any Spellbooks in the deck. Need I say more

1 Justice of Prophecy - I only play 1 Justice because I only play 2 Priestess and even if I did play 3, I would still only play 1 Justice because it's such a pain when you draw it. The card is broken if you combine it with Spellbook of Judgment because is if you're smart and search a Wisdom via Judgment to prevent your opponent activating a spell or trap to prevent him getting removed

1 Injection Fairy Lily - The only reason I ran this card is because I could not find Spellbook Star Hall. Every time I drew it, I wished it was Star Hall but to its credit. I did manage to win a game against Evilswarm because of this card lol

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer - The card is good against Dragons (which I didn't end up playing against) but it won me a lot games against evilswarm because they had Kerykeion and it could not use its effect. It's also not bad in the mirror because your opponent cannot use Spellbook of Fate and Spellbook of Life

1 Jowgen the Spiritualist - This card is good against most decks in particular Dragons because they cannot summon their big monsters. It secondary effect is also very handy against Evilswarms when they have Ophion on the field. This card can also prevents your opponent from OTKing you if you have a Tower when they storm because you get Jowgen out and they have to kill it first before they can do anything

1 Toon Gemini Elf - Main role is to be searched via Toon Table of Contents. Although with 1900atk and a discarding effect. It can be very annoying. I actually won a game with it after my opponent drew nothing and I was able to discard a couple of cards in his hand.


(Spells)

1 Heavy Storm - The only 1 of the trinity that remains. It's too good to take out and still very good against decks with multiple sets such as Evilswarm 

3 Spellbook of Fate  - The out card to everything. Some people play 2 but I really like 3 because it can break up the opponents play and it also doesn't target so your opponent has to chain when you activate this card meaning you can remove another card instead at resolution if you use the 3rd effect. It also combos well with Eternity.

3 Spellbook of Judgment - The reason this deck becomes tier one. It adds any spellbooks apart from itself in the end-phase to you hand for every spells that's played this turn and also the user to summon a spellcaster from the deck with same or lower level than the amount of spells played. This card combos well with Justice and allows the user to add another copy of Judgment and Priestess to the hand. Otherwise you can special summon any other spellcasters depending on the situation. This is the closes thing we'll ever get to a Professor Oak in Pokémon. I forgot to mentioned that this card is a quick-play so you can activate it on your opponents turn if you want!

3 Spellbook of Secrets - Searches your deck for any spellbooks spells or Spellbook Magician of Prophecy. Don't need to say more

2 Spellbook of Master - Allows you to copy a normal spellbook spell in your graveyard. It is mainly used to copy Secrets or Eternity to add other spellbooks to your hand, but it also fills the graveyard for Fate and another counter for Judgment

2 Spellbook of Wisdom - The forbidden lance of the deck. Allows you to summon Spellcasters without worry. It actually won me a game when I summoned Big Eye and he tried to Breakthrough Skilled it. Might consider cutting this card to 1.

1 Spellbook of Eternity - Adds a remove from play Spellbook back to hand. Very useful combined with Fate. Would like to play more but space is very tight in this deck

1 Spellbook of Power - It can be an out to big monster but it also allows you to add a spellbook to your hand if you destroy a monster. I mainly used it to push for game but there was a couple of times when I searched for Fate and it won me the game

1 Spellbook of Life - A searchable monster reborn. The secondary effect won me a game which allowed me to summon Gem Knight Pearl to run over Ophion.

2 The Grand Spellbook of Tower - My favourite card in the deck. I have to admit I did not like this card at first but it's actually really good. Being able to recycle your spellbooks and have 2 draw phases is insane. It is also an out to EEV which is what kills this deck. I'll give props to Pend Pender for annoying and telling me I have to play 2

1 Book of Moon - The fact its  quickplay spell and versatile means it deserves a spot. It didn't really do anything but I would still run it.
 
3 Toon Table of Contents - This and Spellbook of Judgment is really good. A lot of my friends apparently took it out and I can see why because there were some games when I had 2 in my hand but I think I would still run it because it helps to thin my deck

3 Upstart Goblin - Its a spell and can add counters for Judgment. It also makes it seem that you're only playing a 37 card deck


 (Traps)

1 Solemn Judgment - Again props to Pend Pender for his reasoning behind this card. It didn't occur once at all but it's an out to EEV and every time I had it set. I felt so comfortable to win the game. The only time it was useful was when it won me the game where I had to grind out through 3 Ophions

2 Waboku - Prevents you from getting OTK and protects Jowgen. I sided it out every game 2 but I would definitely keep it in the deck



After the tournament the only changes I would make to the deck would be the following:

-1 Injection Fairy Lily
-1 Spellbook of Wisdom

+2 Spellbook Star Hall


I really like Star Hall as a card. Its good against EEV because you can Search Spellbook Magician of Prophecy from your deck so you can get back in the game but it also good because the amount of counters it receives makes your monsters really big and hard to get rid off.

The Extra deck is pretty irrelevant but as follows:

1 Shining Elf
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Daigusto Phoenix
1 Gem Knight Pearl
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Mecha Phantom Beast, Dracossack
1 Armory Arm
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Tempest Magician
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Crimson Blader
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon

There's nothing that I would change from the Extra deck and I will not go through them but if I get request for it I will do so

Thanks for reading

Dragon Ruler - Part 2 (Spells and Trap)

I had a bit of time so I've decide to do part 2 of Dragon Ruler today instead of next week, This time I'll be taking about the relevant spell cards for the deck and also an overview of the whole deck.

Other than the 8 Dragons and the 2 XYZs. There are 2-3 other cards that deserve a mention because of the synergy it has with this deck. The first card is Super Rejuvenation which allows you to draw a card during your end-phase for each Dragon that was discarded or tribute this turn.
 

 

I'm sure when they first released Super Rejuvenation it wasn't intended to be abused by this deck, but having the ability to replenish your hand is something that you can't pass up. Worst case scenario is just using one of 8 Dragon Rulers discarding effect and drawing 2 card at the end-phase, but in most case, you'll be able to use 2 baby dragon's effect and end up with a rank 7 and 4 new cards in hand.

 

The second card that's worth mentioning is Gold Sarcophagus, which allows you to remove a card from the deck and claim it back on the second stand-by phase.

 

 

Gold Sarcophagus is really good in the deck because it allows you to search your deck for what you need, but it's so much better for this archetype because you can remove a Big Dragon from the deck and add a corresponding type Dragon to your hand. This allows you to run 1-off tech cards such as Debris Dragon, Exploder Dragon if you wish and call upon them whenever you need them.

 

The 3rd and final spell card I want to mention is Sacred Sword of Seven Stars. I probably am a bit biased towards this card because I really liked concepts such as Destiny Draw, even to the point of saying that every deck in Yugioh should have their own Destiny Draw!

 

 

The card plays a similar role to Gold Sarcophagus in this deck. The only difference is you need to have a Big Dragon in hand but in return you get to draw 2 cards. I tend to like this card more than Gold Sarcophagus but I haven't really tested it. I will probably test 1-2 next time I use the deck.

 

As for Traps, there's no real relevant traps that should be run in this deck. It's probably more your personal preference, but I will want to talk about a card that I think has potential, which is Dragoncarnation.

 

 

Apart for having a really cool artwork. I think this card can have some potential in the future. Especially with Sacred Sword of Seven Stars. At the moment though it's not worth running

 

That's it for a look of the new Archetype of Dragon Ruler. Please look forward to the next article

 

Peace out!

Dragon Ruler - Part 1 (Monster and XYZ)

 

In case anyone that plays Yugioh has been living under a rock. There is a massive hype on a new archetype that is being released in Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy called Dragon Rulers, which consist of 4 different types of Dragons and a baby version of each one.

Essentially with this deck what you want to do is summon a Big Dragon by removing Big dragons from hand or graveyard and search the Baby Dragons from the deck which will then summon another Big Dragon on the field and make a rank 7 while fuelling your graveyard with cards to summon more Big Dragons if need be.

I’ll start by explaining effects of the baby dragons. Each of their effects consist of:

 



You can discard this card AND 1 Dragon-Type or (Corresponding Attribute) monster; Special Summon 1 (Level 7 version of the Corresponding Dragon) from your Deck. It cannot attack this turn. You can only use the effect of (Corresponding Baby Dragon) once per turn.

The release of these baby dragons allows the player to instantly special summon a Level 7 onto the field, which increases the consistency of what this deck is supposed to achieve, which is spam Rank 7s.

They also have a role during the late game, even when they have no targets in the deck because they just become banishing materials to summon your big dragons from the graveyard, so essentially you can actually look at them as half a monster reborn, which is never a bad thing!

Now onto the grown up versions of each dragon.

Each Big Dragons and have 4 effects, which are:

1. If this card is in your hand or Graveyard: You can banish a total of 2 (Corresponding Attribute) monsters and/or Dragon-Type monsters from your hand and/or Graveyard, except this card and Special Summon this card.
2. During your opponent's End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned: Return it to the hand.
3. When this card is banished: Add 1 (Corresponding Attribute) Dragon-Type monster from your Deck to your hand.
4. And an effect that triggers by sending (Corresponding Dragon Ruler) and 1 other corresponding Attribute monster from your hand to the Graveyard.

•  FIRE – Destroy a card on the field
•  EARTH – Special Summon a monster from your graveyard
•  WATER – Send a monster from the deck to the graveyard
•  WIND – Add a Dragon type from the deck to your hand

The 4 Big Dragons are the core of the deck. Without them the deck doesn’t exist. It’s like trying to run Dino Rabbit without Normal Monsters. All the effects of the Dragon’s barring the Water Dragon’s effect of sending a monster from the deck to the graveyard is relevant to the deck, it’s just the matter of knowing when to use which effect. Even though it sounds simple enough, you will soon realise after playing this deck, that it’s actually pretty complicated to run. It’s not a matter of misplaying, it’s more that you did not do the optimum play on that turn and you will feel the after effect later on in the game

The main reason why this deck is not as simple as it sounds is because You can only use 1 corresponding Dragon Ruler effect per turn, and only once that turn. So for example you can’t summon the Fire Dragon via his effect after you used another Fire Dragon’s effect to destroy a card. Without giving to much away, my suggestion with this deck is think over your play before doing it and playtest as much as you can, to get comfortable with the deck

As a word of warning. A lot of people will try and cheat with these cards if you don’t pay attention so I suggest you have a piece of paper next to you and write down when they activate one of their effects. Same needs to be done with the baby dragons.

Getting back on the topic and moving towards the extra deck, there are 2 XYZ Rank 7s that makes Dragon Rulers the best in the upcoming format. Of course I’m talking about Number 11: Big Eye and the highly anticipated, Mecha Phantom Beast, Dracossack!

 

Both of these monsters require to level 7 monsters, which is the same level as the Big Dragons!. Big Eye does not need any introduction. It’s a free permanent Change of Heart at a cost of him not being able to attack that turn. It has 2600atk, which is pretty hard to run over

When you read Dracossack, you tend to think that it’s the offspring of Scrap Dragon and Wind-up Zenmaines after it had an affair with Dandylion. The card allows you to summon 2 tokens by detaching a material and while you have a token on your side of the field, Dracossack cannot be destroyed! For an added bonus, he can kill a token to pop a card on the opponent’s side of the field. Not too shabby in my opinion.

It is so easy for this deck to make a turn 1 Dracossack which probably one of the more strong turn 1 play in Yugioh.

That is probably all for the monsters that are worth mentioning. Part 2 will consist of the relevant spell and trap cards. I will try to have it up by next week

Until then, take care

Heavy Storm

The first card I’ll be talking about is Heavy Storm. I have read a lot of articles stating that people misplay MST (Mystical Space Typhoon), but what I’m seeing a lot from games that I watch is how poorly people use this card.

It surprises me the amount of times I see someone drawing this card, looks at the field where the opponent has 4 set spell and traps. Slams this card down, only to be countered by Starlight Road or Solemn judgment and then rages saying that his opponent is a sack.

First and foremost, I’m not saying that I play this card perfectly and that you should listen to me. You guys are all entitled to your own opinion, but this is just my take on Heavy Storm.

I really do think that this card should be banned. With MST at 3, it really makes this card unfair because at times, you’re forced to set multiple cards. There have been so many games that I played when I feel dumb for setting 2 cards that have similar roles because I don’t want my opponent to get board advantage.

Which brings me to the point of how to use Heavy Storm. I see Heavy Storm as a card that decides the outcome of the game, similar to Black Luster Soldier during the goat format. I tend to think that the person who holds Heavy Storm for longer and is able to resolve Heavy Storm and take advantage of the clear backrow will most likely win.

As stated above, I believe a lot of people are misplaying with this card. I have 3 set rules (in order) with Heavy Storm and they are:

    1. Never play it early
    2. Never play it unless it will resolve
    3. Never play it unless you’re getting plusses of it

The only exception to those rules is if you need your other cards to resolve for game changing purposes or if you’re going for game

When I say never play it early. I mean, don’t Heavy Storm and just summon a monster to attack then set 2. That just means your opponent can now safely set multiple backrow and grind their way back in the game. Heavy Storm is a game changer, which means it has more of an impact mid to late game because by that time your opponent will have less out to stage a comeback.

Because this card is a game changer, resolving this card is very important. As I mentioned many times in this article already, a lot of time people just slam their Heavy Storm down against multiple backrow only for it to be negated. You tend to think that a decent player would not set multiple cards without having some sort of protection. This is where your MSTs and ability to read cards come into play so you can get rid of it before you Heavy Storm. I can go into detail on how to read cards but I’m pretty sure there is already an article on ARG and a video on YouTube by Evan Vargas

Only playing Heavy Storm for pluses is pretty standard. I mean if 1 card can destroy multiple cards, why not use it for at least some of its potential. You already have MST for your 1 for 1s. So there’s no point of wasting it for a measly card unless you need to.

I know some of you might think the timing of this article is pretty bad because Elemental Dragons and Spellbooks are about to dominate the format and Heavy Storm will have less impact, but living in Sydney and knowing that most players would not spend $100 on cards. I can safely assure you that Wind-Ups will still be the most popular deck, as it has for the last 8 month

Thanks for reading, hopefully you enjoy the article. I apologise for some of my grammar but that’s because of the Asian in me.

Hopefully I have enough time to write another article soon, until then please leave your feedback so I know what to improve