Tuesday, March 12, 2013

ACS Qualifiers Fall Out + Updates

So.. It's been two days since the ACS qualifiers for Singapore were held. It was a half-assed event for me, considering I went in with two engines for the same deck after only being allowed very minor changes to my decklist, and even lesser after realizing I registered a wrong card. 

So this was the deck I played.


Gonna explain why what nonsense you see is in there in awhile.

First, I wanna congratulate fellow bro Wei Ann (Mamalemon) for getting to top8 with his Ninja Prophecy deck.

No I don't mean "Ninja" in reference to a Hanzo engine inside. Just an inside joke for both him and his opponent not realizing certain card activation requirements. Heh.

Also want to congratulate Kenneth for winning the entire event again from last year. Hopefully the finals for the whole of Asias would be SG vs SG again.

Okay so I'm gonna be real brief.

As you can see in the decklist, you'll see just a lone Rescue Rabbit and two Gene-Warped Warwolves. The original plan was to just go in with Rabbit Firefists as I did not have any Wolfberks then, acquiring them only much closer to the actual event. Once I got my hands on a playset of Wolfberks, I learnt that I could only edit up to 5 cards in the Main, Side and Extra decks collectively. Alongside with the fact I input a Solemn Judgment as Dark Armed Dragon (oops).

Hence, the accidental birth of Rabbit-Wolfberk-Firefists came about.

As for the side, I tried to include the 5-card-spell/trap-removal engine in. But being unable to find any Fusilier's, I resorted to Giant Kozaky's as it was the only other thing that was able to be set while meeting the criteria for EEV. Sadly it's drawback effect cost me a game somewhere in swiss.

The other side cards were pretty self-explanatory.

Overall, it was a really half-assed event for me, having to use two different engines of the same deck and stuff.

But overall quite happy and surprised at the same time that I went 4-2 with such a half-assed deck.

For now, probably gonna tone down the tryhardiness and focus on climbing the ranked ladder in League of Legends.

Off I go then.

Signing off,
Shaunewbiez

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tournament @ AGC 2/2/13

Damn, time flies. This time bringing you yet another tournament report from last Saturday at AGC.

Sorry about the lack of content and such, been too busy with 9 submissions over the course of 3 weeks, taking it's toll on me and stuff. WIll probably update more once I actually have time to myself. Heh.

On to the report!

Deck Used: Mermails

Round 1: Wind-Ups (Paul)
Result: XX-

Round 2: Mermail (Jonas)
Result: OXO

Round 3: Dino Ninja (Chase)
Result: OXO

Round 4: Hero Beat (Da Tou)
Result: OO-

Round 5: Fire King (Ryan)
Result: OXO

Top 8: Arrive Hero (Calvin)
Result: OXX

Bottom 4: Drunk Doppel (Anthony, played by Baha)
Result: OXO

5th/6th: Wind-Ups (Wesley)
Result: Shared.

Ended up taking a Number 106: Rock Palm Hand which I didn't have so it's cool. 5th and 6th was either the Black Jump Fiesta Pack or Number 106, both of which I was fine with but we settled it with the dice roll, simply because I felt if I didn't have the luck to even win a dice roll, I won't have the luck required to pull an Armor Kappa from the pack heh.

Okay so now that the report is over, just gonna write a quick mini-essay on the upcoming banlist.

Personally, I feel that they're gonna hit Wind-Ups similar to Inzektors, with Magician + Shark being similar to Damsel/Dragonfly + Hornet. Both limited.

For Mermails, despite being a player of it, removing the bias I'd have to speculate that Konami have their eyes on Undine being limited and Dragoons being semi-ed.

Fire Fists, similar to Inzektors the format they got released, will remain untouched until the September 2013 banlist.

Verz, Cercyon to 2 and their exclusive lance to 1, either that or Cercyon to 2 and Ophion to 1.

Funny feeling of Agents, or more of TGAA getting their T.G. Striker back to 2, not like it matters much anyway.

Another funny feeling of DDV getting hit to 1, maybe it's just my paranoia of getting hit with one.

Okay, that's all I have to say for now, gotta get back to working on submissions.

Signing off,
Shaunewbiez

Monday, January 28, 2013

Beating the odds - Part 2

Hey everyone, shouldn't really be here right now as I've an 8-page report to do due in 48 hours but I have yet to start it :x

I had a little inspiration today to write on my Beating the Odds series, if you missed part 1 go check it out at http://teamaequus.blogspot.sg/2013/01/beating-odds-part-1.html.

Today's Beating the Odds is about preventing getting baited into plays by someone supposedly at a "higher skill level" than you.

First, I'd like to highlight that though the difference between players and the results they produce are obvious and significant, things such as "skill level" is total bullshit, especially not in a game like ygo where your entire game can be decided based on a draw or two.

In my opinion, having this imaginary skill level is completely up to you, if you choose to ignore it and strip that person away of everything and stare deep down into his soul, you'll see nothing more than your average human with sly tricks. Now, I'm not saying that a champion is made entirely out of lies and isn't a cheater, but they are in fact just very strong in the mind, or in will.

Okay, so cutting to the chase, having this wit isn't exactly developed over night, each person has his way of strengthening his mind games similar to having their own unique playstyle. I'm pretty sure many have heard of these lines from their opponent during their games:

During your chance to use a card:

"Just open if you have ___"
"If you have ___ just use it"

During their chance to use a card:
"So many set cards, one is definitely ___"
"Must be bad hand since you didn't do (some usual play)"

Let me give you a quick reality check about your opponents, they don't care about the wellbeing of your hand, wake up, they're testing for your reactions to those lines.

I'll give a very obvious example, imagine you just set 5 spell/traps and ended your turn, he openly says out loud "So many set cards, one is definitely ___", it can go a few ways:

1) He's waiting for a reply to test if you have any answer to the next card he plays.
2) He's watching your body language for the next card you touch and he'll automatically assume that'll be the most important card you have, usually it being a card which isn't a fake, or is an out to several things for the coming few turns.

For number 1, the best thing you can do is don't reply, give a smile and be normal, obviously don't start trying to hide a sheepish smile or something and give one of your answers away.

For number 2, it's hard, these are usually the experienced ones who haven't fell short in seeing all kinds of reactions, just don't take it in so shocked and continue keeping your cool, usually if you were to struggle or repetitively check a certain card, it would have already given away your position and passed the mental advantage to him.

It could go deeper, supposed he asked if you had a bad hand since all you did was set all 5 and not doing anything else, he could be testing if your "bad hand" was lacking defensive spell or traps, or maybe even a monster if he digs deeper and asks "I wonder why you didn't summon anything." just keep quiet, maintain your body and laugh it away. Welcome to the world of fishing.

With that all said and done, it proves that YGO is indeed more complex than one thinks, it's no long putting pieces of cardboard on the table in the right order luckily and winning, the real battle takes place inside your mind.

I'm about to introduce something I've picked up for some time and still trying to learn everything of this tactic known as "counter-mind".

Counter-minding a person is the exact opposite of fishing, whereby you use their questions to learn more about their hand.

Let's use the same lines I used up there for example:
"Just open if you have ___"
"If you have ___ just use it"
During their chance to use a card:
"So many set cards, one is definitely ___"
"Must be bad hand since you didn't do (some usual play)"

I'll go through these one by one.

1) "Just open if you have ___"
Using some simple logic, this statement leaves them vulnerable. It tells you quite abit about their hand. It already obviously tells you that he has a card that is countered by that, e.g. Starlight Road to Storm. However, it also tells you something else depends on the card, it could mean that they're running low on a resource that is countered by that card they asked about. For example, if they say something about you having a Solemn Warning set, it's a giveaway that they're scared of losing a monster, and as such it probably means they have little to no monsters that is useable in that very situation. You can probably relate to more if you have.

2) "If you have ___ just use it"
This tells you quite abit as well. It means that they have an answer, and if he keeps tempting you to use it, he probably has another answer as a backup to that answer if the plan fails. e.g they have a Starlight Road set, they ask you about Heavy Storm, if they probe further seeing you have one card(potential Warning/Judgment) set, they have their own Judgment waiting for anything. Counter-minding this would be based on how deep one probes, the more they probe, the more answers they have. It could also mean the set were useless to them and they're trying to bait out to waste your Storm/Dark Hole.

3) "So many set cards, one is definitely ___"
Once again, testing for your reaction, this means that they want you to expose yourself. They ask for ___, and if you give either a positive or negative reaction, it'll spark off further thinking. If they ask for Warning, and you give a positive reaction, it'd mean they won't summon until they find a way to clear it, if it's negative, they'll know that you have one less answer to their summon and be more cautious in making other plays before they remove it. Through counter-minding, this will expose themselves based on how they follow up, if they really go ahead with a move that is countered by a card, it would mean they have no way to clear it, and you yourself can go ahead and roughly know that their hand has other plays but s/t removal, if they start clearing your spell and traps and find themselves making unorthodox plays, it would mean that their hand roughly consists of a combo that requires no interruption to be successful in their favor.

4) "Must be bad hand since you didn't do (some usual play)"
Similar to 3, it means that they're baiting for something, usually to check your hand this time, to see if you have anything such as a set up, or maybe even your own bait. Scenes would be a Mermail deck setting 5 spell/traps, Hero Beat summoning an Alius without spell/traps or just leaving your field empty. They'd be testing for Mermails having sided backrow or Hero Beat having Honest or Gorz in their hand. Counter-minding this is abit tricky but can be done, you won't find out much about their hands, but you'd be able to scare them into not attacking into an empty field or using a different approach to tackle that fishy situation.

Once again, this are really just the tip of the iceberg. Such basics could easily be seen and I strongly advise don't go around using this, failing and blaming me, this is just up here for your information and exposure to the depth YGO has evolved into.

That's about it for counter-minding and fishing. I'll probably write about another topic on potential card linkages the next Beating the Odds when I'm free. Simply put, an insight on how cards co-relate to each other and what can answer what cards and more. Till then.

Signing off,
Shaunewbiez

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Tournament @ AGC 26/1/13

So decided to pop by AGC again today for the weekly stress-reliever. Got abit bored of mermails as they're quite repetitive despite being strong and stuff. So yeah, brought out my Fire Fists, funny enough though, everyone was using the new promos from VE08 like Wolfberg and Chicken and I was just sitting there like a hobo summoning my Gene-Warped's. Heh.

Okay so on to the report!

Deck Used: Fire Fist

Round 1: Fire Fist (Daniel)
Result: XOO

Round 2: Fire Fist (Baha)
Result: XOO

Round 3: Arrive Hero (Calvin)
Result: XX-

Round 4: Hieratic (???)
Result: OO-

Round 5: Countdown (Javier)
Result: OO-

Top 8: Machina Gadget (Qian Rui)
Result: XX-

Bottom 4: Verz (Glen)
Result: XOX

7th/8th: Verz (Cassandra)
Result: OXO

So yep, took another Shock Ruler that amounts to my third copy again. Better than walking away with nothing though. Heh.

Another thing I'd like to point out, in the form of a short mini-tip and/or rant, is for the love of god, if you're gonna make remarks along the lines of these:

"Everytime got ____"
"So many _____"
"This person has everything"
"What a lucksack"

or anything along those lines, please, for the sake of hiding your irony, do not follow up with pulling some one-card table-turner during your next draw phase, because by doing so, in my opinion, is about the most insulting thing you can do to your dim-witted intelligence.

No names shall be mentioned, but I'm pretty sure everyone has played against some whiny little crybaby that can't shut the fuck up about the opponent having the better hand, but the moment he top decks or plays a card that nets him a 1forX advantage (X being some godly number), it's suddenly perfectly normal.

I don't really blame these people however, they probably have their head shoved up so far up their ass the tightness restricts blood flow to their brain. But still, others will still view you as nothing but a crying lil bitch.

That is all.

Signing off,
Shaunewbiez

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Beating the odds - Part 1

Hey all! Here today with another posts which isn't a tournament report. Been noticing the blog lacked content other than a storage shed for recording previous toppings.

So yeah, today I'll be talking about something so minute yet in-depth - Matchups.

Now, be it a new player or old-timer, everyone knows the basic idea of the term "Match-Up", which is used to describe if a player has a good or a bad one. However, a common misconception by most players, or at least here in Singapore, is that players already expect a win/loss the moment they find out their opponents deck.

Sadly, this is very, very wrong.

Common misconceptions on the "better" matchups are normally considered:

For Verz:
Hero
Mermail
Chaos Dragons
Agents

For Hero:
Wind-Ups

For Dark World:
Hero

Well, some might be a little off but the idea projected is there, whereby people think they'll get an assured win.

However, I strongly disagree with this mindset. Doesn't mean because you're paired up against a deck which has shown to out-perform yours in previous matches of other people, you have to follow it and assume the outcome of that match is what's already "proven".

I'm not saying that there's a sure-fire way to winning what seems to be a "bad matchup", but I'm saying that there's definitely more than what you think instead of going "OH HE DID THIS AND NOW I'M GONNA LOSE!"

Today, I'll be talking about decks which have the infamous Verz as their challenge. Most complains I've heard of comes from Mermail, Hero and Chaos Dragon players.

So, what exactly are these players afraid of? It's their boss card the deck is revolved around - Verz/Evilswarm Ophion.

Verz Ophion
Rank 4/Dark
2550/1650

2 Level 4 "lswarm" monsters
Neither player can Special Summon Level 5 or higher monsters while this card has Xyz Material. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; add 1 "Infestation" Spell or Trap Card from your Deck to your hand.



Now, the standard Verz deck is built to help protect Verz Ophion and take advantage of it's continuous effect of preventing anything above Level 5 to be Special Summoned. It allows the deck to cut off the high level bosses of the opponents deck such as BLS, E-Hero The Shining, REDMD, Abyssmegalo and such, hence the dread of facing Verz with these decks.

Some common cards used to protect Ophion are:
-Pandemic Contagion Infestation (Easily searched out with Ophion's second effect, acts as a Lance without drawbacks)
-Forbidden Lance (Spell/Traps)
-Forbidden Garment (Destruction, mostly for monsters)
-Forbidden Chalice (Damage Step against Ryko/Snowman/DDWL)

Apparently, it may seem like their range of protection is big, however, we are forgetting that the standard deck count is around 40-42 at best, and maxing out or running a couple of such copies of such protective backrow usable only in specific situations make-up the deck.

From what I have mentioned so far, the average Verz deck now has such attributes to the deck:
-Heavy backrow
-Built around a few cards
-Beatdown strategy
-Relies on protection
-Shuts down level-based monsters

So from this, it is easily deduced that cards sided against Verz must be:
-Over-Power
-Maintain field presence on your side (Either through effect or high stats)
-Reduce field presence on their side without using monster effects (Priority lies in the backrow)
-Negates effects (Shutdown Ophion)
-Speed up exceed summoning (Ophion kills high-levels, not ranks)
-Counter-Trap Removal (Bypass Lance and Infestation)

So a list of cards normally effective against Verz would be:
-Rai-Oh
-Snowman Eater
-DDWL
-Ryko
-Consecrated Light
-Spirit Reaper
-MST
-Dust Tornado
-Malevolent Catastrophe
-Skill Drain
-Rivalry of Warlords
-Black Horn of Heaven

The list goes on, but I'm stating some very common targets mained/sided.

When it comes to going against a Verz deck, the main idea of getting closer to victory is through removing their Ophion (no shit.) with either effects which Lance/Infestation aren't able to stop, or by over powering the Ophion, following up either way with summoning the high-level bosses which Ophion cannot naturally overcome in Main Phase 2.

Cards which are used for their effects to remove Ophion are usually:
Atlantean Heavy Infantry
Rai-Oh
Wind-Up Zenmaines
Black Horn of Heaven
Rivalry of Warlords

Cards which are used for overpowering Ophion are usually:
Gemknight Pearl
Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
Gagaga Gunman/Cowboy
Acid Golem of Destruction
Honest (Somewhat)

And yes, everything has an out, so don't go all "but ____ will kill it!" The post is not to enlighten you on how to have a 100% success rate in winning a Verz matchup, but more on telling you that it's not as bad as you think it is.

So as you can see, this is just a short introduction on a series of stuff I'll be posting, today's post was about matchups, and I hope this was somewhat helpful in anyway, till next time!

Signing off,
Shaunewbiez

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Tournament @ AGC 1/1/13

Hello readers! I'd like to start the post off by wishing everyone reading this a Happy New Year!

So today, popped by AGC after buying myself a personal Christmas gift to myself and played my new deck, Mermails.

Went full win during swiss and the last round we didn't play as he had to help pull my friend up.

Without waiting, here's the report!

Deck Used: Mermails

Round 1: Verz (Cassandra)
Results: OXO

Round 2: Mermails (Yong Jie)
Results: XOO

Round 3: Wind-Ups (Ball Snow)
Results: OO-

Round 4: Verz (Ryan)
Results: XOO

Round 5: Verz (Gavin)
Results: -Didn't play, gave him the win to pull someone up-

Top 8: Verz (Ryan)
Results: OXO

Top 4: Offering Gadgets (Qian Rui)
Results: XX-

3rd/4th: Verz (Jacob)
Results: -Shared-

So yes, knowing how unlucky I am, I had to Verz match-ups to face 5 times today, thankfully 2 of which we didn't play it out. For the other 3, I had to struggle very hard and luckily managed to use Abysspike and Genex Undines to clear Ophion away with Atlantean Heavy Infantry.

Overall, I didn't do much misplays today except during the Top 4 where I did a significant number of misplays from hurrying with my plays. Other than that, I didn't really notice much misplays on my part during the swiss rounds.

I have to say Mermails are really strong, though like every other deck, it also has its weaknesses. But nonetheless it's quite decent for a toolbox strategy and dropping a Abyssmegalo with 2 Atlanteans reminds me strongly of a full-flush Card Destruction in a Dark World deck.

So yeah, will probably run Mermails the next few tournaments or at least until I get a decent Fire Fist build going, till then.

Signing off,
Shaunewbiez

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Mini-Tournament @ AGC 23/12/12

So.. Went for a mini tourney today at AGC, played the same deck I went 3-2 with yesterday, but sadly didn't top, because of one of the people I lost to gave his full win in the last round, getting me 9th, sad.

So today went again, and finally got to top 8 with a "not-so-normal" deck. Well, it's quite surprising really, that with all the Verz decks running around that this deck somehow won at least one in both days.

This is the report.

Deck Used: Full Monster Agents

Round 1: Verz (Ryan)
Results: OO-

Round 2: Verz (Calvin)
Results: XX-

Round 3: Chaos Dragons (Javier)
Results: OXO

Round 4: Hero Beat (Cassandra)
Results: XOX

Top 8: Agents (Jun Jie)
Results: OO-

Top 4: Verz (Sam)
Results: XX-

3rd/4th: Verz (Calvin)
Results: Shared

So yeah, did decently fine, if anyone wants the decklist here it is. I'll talk more about the combos and stuff when you finish picking up your jaws.


Signing off,
Shaunewbiez