On the eve on the Extreme Victory sneak peak.

I hope that everybody is ready for the power creep of Yugioh to become a power LEAP. Ahahaha.

Ok, I shouldn't blog before my coffee has kicked in.

Today is the Extreme Victory sneak peak, and while everybody who participates gets a Reborn Tengu (which is well worth the $20 entry fee), there is a lot of good stuff in Extreme Victory that is going to wind up warping out metagame. I'd like to touch on one of those cards that might get lost in the shuffle.

Unknown Synchron is another in the cycle of "generic one star tuners that have a great effect that can be used once per duel". The down side to Unknown Synchron is that it's not repeatable like Glow Up Bulb or Spore, and as thus not nearly as broken.

The upsides are A. It has Cyber Dragon's special summon condition, which makes a level five synchro in one turn easy to make (hi there, Librarian!) and B. It's a dark monster, so it gets all the perks of dark monsters (Allure, Chaos, DAD). Hopefully Konami won't rarity-shift Unknown like they did Glow Up.

Two things:

A. An addendum to my post on Maxx C: the art creeps my wife out.  I think it looks awesome, with the roaches peering out from the secret rare foiled background.

B. I've always wanted to write a series called Konami's Greatest Misses.  It would be about cards that should have never, ever been printed, for one reason or another.

My first post would be about Sixth Sense. Released as an ultra rare in the sixth Value Book, Sixth Sense is so grossly overpowered that it'll probably never be printed in the TCG in any form.

"Declare two numbers from 1 to 6. Your opponent rolls 1 six-sided die. If the die result is either of the two declared numbers, draw that number of cards. If not, send cards from the top of your Deck to the Graveyard equal to the die result."

Protip: 5 and 6.

So, if it works, it busts the game wide open. And if it doesn't, you get ruined by having your best cards put into the graveyard.

Oh wait, that's not right. You get to mill up to four cards into your graveyard to abuse there instead. Yeah, that's more like it.

Banhammered for good reason.

Where I ponder the use of Maxx C.

One of the cards that hasn't been used much is Maxx C.  I'm not sure if that's because it's a secret rare or because people just don't think it's good enough to fit a copy or two into your side deck.

Worst case scenario... ok, worst case scenario is that you have to set the damn thing because your opponent is playing a stun deck with no special summons.  Beyond that, you should be able to cycle Maxx C to draw 1 card, at worst.

At best?  Let's say a deck like Junk Doppel enters it's "mega draw" step with TG Hyper Librarian.  Normal summon Junk Synchron.  When Junk's ability triggers, you chain Maxx C.  Junk special summons Ryko and you draw a card.  Your opponent special summons Doppelwarrior from his hand and you draw a card.  Junk and Doppel synch for Librarian and you draw a card.  Doppel makes two tokens, you draw a card.

Here, you're up three cards. 

Opponent uses One for One to special summon Glow Up Bulb, you draw a card.  Synchro a token and Bulb for Formula Synchron, they draw two cards, you draw a card.  Special Bulb from graveyard you draw a card.  They make another Formula and draw two and you draw a card... you get the pattern.

Or after your opponent uses Junk Synchron and the Ryko that they special summoned from the graveyard to synchro for Frozen Fitzgerald, they decide to stop special summoning that turn.  They lose their momentum and you still draw two cards.

The best way to play Maxx C is to have a back up plan for it if you don't use it to draw a lot of cards.

Fili Luna played a Maxx C in his X-Saber deck and one in his side at YCS Anaheim.  Even if Maxx C wound up being a dead card in his hand, it is an Earth monster, so Luna could normal summon it and use it with his Fulhelmknight or Airbellum to make Naturia Beast.

If you play a deck like Junk Doppel, I think it's worth playing one main and one side.  Since it's a level two monster, it provides you with yet another Junk Synchron target.  If you use it to draw cards beforehand, all the better.

YCS Anaheim.

A few surprises in the top 32.

A Chaos Plant build made top 8.  Jason Grabher-Meyer was unavailable, weeping bitter tears for the Nordics.

A Chaos deck also made top 4.  The build packed the Stun Brothers (Thunder King Raioh and Doomcaliber Knight), but it also included Black Salvo and Dekoichi for card draw and easy synchro summons.

Finally, in the pile of usual suspects in this metagame, a zombie deck made top 32.  A zombie deck that didn't pack a single copy of Pot of Duality and Solemn Warning.  So yes, there is hope for those who don't want to drop $600 on five cards that'll be reprinted down the line.

T-minus five days until Trishula hits.  Get ready, stay healthy.

Playing Duel Transer

Hey, look another Yugioh blog that will probably die a quiet death after I get tired of writing to it.

So, I picked up a copy of Duel Transer yesterday.  Our local Gamestop had a copy, and I needed another copy of Closed Forest, so I picked it up.  To my pleasant surprise, the game is pretty good.  Cards aren't impossible to get, as is usually the case with the World Championship series.  The character and monster animations are nice, and when you get tired of them, you can shut them off.

And Goyo Guardian is powering me through the early part of the game.  Oh, how I missed you, you kabuki-painted powerhouse.

A little backstory: I played Magic for ten years before I fell out.  I started working full time and I found it harder to justify throwing cash into the money pit that wound up being the Standard tourney environment.  I had recently bought a DS, though, and found myself buying Yugioh WC 2008.

I wound up enjoying the game so much that I found one of our local stores that held local tournaments and started playing.

When I saw the spoilers for Duelist Genesis, I immediately noticed Goyo Guardian.  Yeah, Stardust Dragon was the flag carrier for the set, but Goyo was ridiculously overpowered for his level.  His effect of stealing a monster that he destroyed in battle was also pretty wild.

Three years down the road, and Konami finally realized that Goyo was too powerful.  He takes his place alongside Dark Strike Fighter on the list of synchro monsters too damn good to exist.

Next addition to that list: Tech Genus Hyper Librarian?  Time will tell.

So as I own the crappy decks in the early game of Duel Transer thanks to Goyo, I offer a toast.  Here's to you, too-strong, permanent Brain Control dude.  May your makeup never fade!