fusion theory

Tourney Report 28/01/12

2012-01-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

http://sg-ygo.userboard.net/t8108-mini-tournament-ani-play-28-1-12

Deck used: Chaos Beatdown

Match 1: Junk Doppel (? Weird variant) XOO

First game, I lost to the standard Junk Doppel stunts, and I couldn't pull either a Gold Sarc or Chaos Zone, it was pretty junk a hand.

Game 2, he spent a lot of resources in bringing out a Junk Warrior and some other synchro monsters, but he hit into my Dimensional Alchemist + Honest and from there I brought out Chaos Sorceror(s) with a back row of Solemn Judgement and Bottomless while he had only 1 hand card left, it was easy from then on.

Game 3, I opened up with a turn 1 Stardust, but it got killed and reborned by him with 2 other synchros on the field. I don't remember much of what happened after but I managed to win by stalling with Cyber Valley and Chaos Zone giving me +s.

Match 2: Six Sam XX

Both games my opponent opened up with godly hands >.> Nothing much my deck can do against crazy first turn stunts.

Match 3: Gravekeepers OO

The first game, I saw that he chose to grab GK Spy from Duality with only 1 back row, so I just forced him to summon GKs in attack position by hitting him with a Red Demon Dragon and Chaos Sorceror. Eventually he lost to the 3000 beatstick.

Next game, I sided out all my BTH for Compulsory, and stalled him a bit. He didn't know that I played Chaos Zone, so he just put down his searched out Necrovalley on turn 1 with just an Assailant on the field and a few backrow. I replaced his Necrovalley, searched Necroface with Gold Sarc and got like 6 counters on Chaos Zone. Then, I summoned Guldfaxe, he BTHed, I used Chaos Zone to bring back Guldfaxe, he D-Prisoned; basically 1 Guldfaxe burnt off 2 of his defensive traps. He had nothing more to defend against me so I basically just hit him down with a 3.5k Necroface later on in the game.

Result: 3rd/4th

I had to leave early so I just shared with my opp in Top 4 placing lol

Gishki - Hybrid Build 1

2012-01-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

I now have 3 Zealgigas to use at my disposal! So, I've decided to stray away from the hand control build I've played for so long to instead try out a Zealgigas Control Hybrid build.

23 Monsters

3x Ritua Vision
3x Ritua Shadow
2x Ritua Beast
2x Ritua Abyss
2x Ritua Arial
1x Ritua Emilia
1x Ritua Diviner
2x Deep Sea Diva

2x Eviritua Gustkrake
2x Eviritua Levianima
3x Eviritua Zealgigas

13 Spells

1x Heavy Storm
1x Dark Hole
3x Ritua Aquamirror
2x Salvage
2x Surface
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Preparation of Rites

4 Traps

2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute

I run Surfacing because I run Deep Sea Diva and Diviner, the latter because it is both a Beast and Diva target. 4 + 3 + 2 = 9, which allows me to bring out Trishula.

Compulsory Evacuation Device is run over Bottomless/Solemn/Warning/D-Prison because it is a cost-free chainable defense card. And it is especially useful against Inzektors because I can delay their +4 combo for 1 turn and Gustkrake their Dragonfly back to the deck to prevent overbearing plays the deck cannot recover from. It is the best trap of the format in my humble opinion.

I'll be uploading a short section on doing the Zealgigas OTK, but the basic skeleton is:

1. Get 2 Zealgigas in hand.

2. Get Mirror.

3. Tribute 1 Zealgigas, bring out other with Mirror.

4. Mirror returns to deck, grab Zealgigas back.

5. Draw 1 with Zealgigas on field, shuffle 1 card on field back.

6a. If more methods of searching for Mirror are available: Tribute field Zealgigas, summon Zealgigas in hand. Repeat steps 4-5-6a until only 1 mirror is available, then go to 6b.

6b. If you only have 1 Mirror left, continue from here. Mirror again, this time tributing something else (you would have drawn quite a few cards with Zealgigas' effect, so this should not be a problem. Draw 1 more with the Zealgigas you just summoned.

7. Attack with both Zealgigas. The field should be clear since you were able to use Zealgigas' effect at least twice.

8. Main Phase 2, XYZ summon Super Dreadnought Gustaph Cannon with both Zealgigas, and activate Rank 10 XYZ's effect to burn 2000 for game.

3200 + 3200 + 2000 = 8400

This is a relatively easy play to set up, and there are variants of it which I shall discuss more in-depth as I uncover more combos. It is also possible to loop Gustkrake instead of Zealgigas for Turn 1 plays, both going by the same concept.

Hieroglyphs

2012-01-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

The new stuff coming out in Galactic Overlord includes a new archetype of LIGHT Dragons.

So far, after playing a few rounds against them, I find them to be explosively fast. Really explosively fast. Also, they are quite consistent because of their level-unlimited RotA, combined with the searches some of them have when they are tributed.

But I also find them to have a weakness: Over-extension.

If they go and pull their entire combo off with like 2 REDMDs on field and Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon and their Rank 8 boss dragon, they are very likely to have no hand left and maybe at most 1 backrow. If you toss down a Fader and Black Hole them next turn, they are quite screwed. And they can't rely on Prime Material Dragon because they usually have little to no hand cards after all the stunts.

But all in all, a decently powerful archetype, just take Inzektors are overpowered to the point that they make this archetype look meek despite their recipe for disaster.

Comparing Hieroglyphs to Inzektors, I feel that this archetype is more of a aggressive rush, while Inzektors win by getting their +4 advantage every turn through the combo. Something like aggressive rush vs aggressive control. But at least this deck wouldn't flunk as badly when they don't draw their key card (a.k.a Hornet for Inzektors) because they have lots of searching and alternatives.

Tier 1? Maybe. But pales in comparison to the Tier 0.5 of Inzektors at the moment. We'll see how Konami does a Baygon banhammer on Inzektors come March~

Hand Control - Ritua (Gishki)

2012-01-19T04:04:00.000-08:00

Ritua (Gishki in the TCG) cards in my opinion are one of the most underrated archetypes in YGO :) Water cards, because they are not often played (before the introduction of Frogs/Fish) results in powerful support for them, often with incredible pluses. Combining this with the recursion tactic of the Ritua archetype, this makes a Ritua deck actually very flexible with many different routes the deck could go.

I however do love control decks and hate meta ones, so a nice antidote to both poisons results in me going for a hand control Ritua build.

Monsters:

3x Gishki Shadow

3x Vision Gishki

2x Gishki Beast

2x Gishki Abyss

1x Gishki Avance

2x Gishki Emilia

1x Gishki Noelia

2x Evigishki Gustkrake

2x Evigishki Levianima

1x Evigishki Psychelone

Spells:

3x Gishki Aquamirror

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x Heavy Storm

1x Dark Hole

2x Salvage

2x Surface

2x Preparation of Rites

2x D.D. Designator

Traps:

2x Mind Crush

2x Spiritual Art - Aoi

1x Mirror Force

1x Trap Dustshoot

This build runs many hand control elements - Gustkrake + Psychelone shuffles 1 hand card back, Levianima sees the opponent's hand, D.D. Designator + Mind Crush + Spiritual Art - Aoi + Trap Dustshoot uses information from the other cards to rape opponent's hand.

Basic strategy for hand control? :D

New headers :D

2012-01-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

Not bad, right? Now I can make my blog more aesthetically pleasing to readers :D

surface synchro #5 - Stable build + Guide to playing it

2012-01-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

The Gishki idea didn't work out too well, just because they were too inconsistent despite their search/revival/recycle abilities, so I've decided to remove them from my deck totally instead.

But so far, I've already mostly decided on a stable (probably not finalised though) build for this deck, and future posts will stop focusing on the changes to this deck. This post will be long because I will be adding a basic strategy guide to playing it in addition to the basic deck list.

Monsters (16):

3x Deep Sea Diva

1x Knight of the End

1x Sangan

2x D-Hero Malicious

2x D-Hero Diamond Dude

3x T.G. Warwolf

1x T.G. Striker

1x Lonefire Blossom

1x Glow-up Bulb

1x Spore

Spells (21):

1x Foolish Burial

1x Reinforcement of the Army

1x Heavy Storm

1x Black Hole

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

2x D.D.R

1x Monster Reborn

1x Reasoning

1x One for One

2x Miracle Fusion

2x Destiny Draw

3x Instant Fusion

3x Surface

Traps (3):

2x Call of the Haunted

1x Mirror Force

There are 2 main routes this deck can go into:

Librarian route -> Synchro spam
Scar Red Nova -> Beatdown + Absolute Zero

Basically, your starting hand governs which route your plays for the game will take. If you can reach level 5 easily, which is something like:

Diamond Dude/Arma Knight + Plant Tuner
Diva/Striker + Warwolf/Sangan
Diva/Striker/Plant tuners + Instant Fusion

You may consider going into Route #1. Note that the deck is now designed with minimal monsters and a lot of S/T that can be activated from hand to give Inzektors the hate they deserve.

Bring out Librarian.
If there are cards in your hand that need to be dumped -> Go into Brionac. Skip if not needed.
Use your resources to bring out more and more stuff. Really, pretty easy going from here on.

What this deck is rather good at is stepping synchros. Meaning, you synchro for Arms Aid first, drawing 1. Then synchro for L5, draw 1. Synchro for 6/7, draw 1 more. Synchro for 8, draw 1 more etcetc.

Here's what you have:

Deep Sea Diva and Surface. No need for more explanations.
T.G. Striker if you're starting second.
Plant tuners. Same as above.
Instant Fusion. If you haven't used this for Librarian, use this for Brionac.
Reasoning. The deck is mostly okay with both the monster being summoned or being milled, just watch out because you don't want to lose your third Diva when 2 are in your hand.
Warwolf, which jumps from Diva/Spore/Instant Fusion/Glow-up Bulb/Striker.
Malicious and D.D.R, helping you discard plants for another level 6 non-synchro.

TL;DR:
You have a lot of stunts. Abuse them. Oh, and fill up your last monster slot with Absolute Zero after all your combos are done :) It's more advisable to bring out 2 Stardusts rather than Red Daemon if you're going this build.

Otherwise, it's route #2 for you if none of the above pieces are available in your hand. In this scenario, you probably will have a way to dump Malicious into the grave, because the likelihoods of you drawing into a terrible terrible hand (3 Divas + 2 Malicious etcetc) are pretty low and neigh impossible if you shuffle properly.

In which case, bringing out Scar Red Nova in this deck is easy.

D-Draw/Foolish Burial Malicious.
Summon Diva -> Bring out another.
Bring out another Malicious, synchro Diva + Malicious for Red Daemon Dragon.
Surface/Reborn Diva, synchro both Divas with Red Daemon for Scar Red.
Miracle Fusion for Absolute Zero if you have it.

This combo really only needs 3 cards in your hand, and there are variations of it which you will discover yourself as you play the deck.

Here's the general basic strategy of playing this deck, and if you ever run into dead hands, Diamond Dude (with 40% of the deck being normal spells) should help you set up for your next turn. Armageddon Knight will also add some consistency for Route #2.

surface synchro #4 - Absolute Nova -> Gishki build

2012-01-13T07:38:00.000-08:00

I've looked rather hard for a consistent way to play my surface synchro deck, and so far, I believe I have found an answer.

Gishki.

Combining their search and ritual capabilities (which translates into dumping from hand) with the mill/discard dependant D-Hero and Plant engine, the deck can benefit from the lovely +1s when using Salvage simply because the Gishki archetype are designed with frugality and recycling in mind.

Mainly, the deck will be running a large but consistent engine of Gishki monsters. Running 1 each of Gishki Mind Angus and Gustkrake will also help handle opposing threats.

An untested deck list would look something like this:

Monsters:

2x Gishki Shadow

2x Vision Gishki

1x Gishki Abyss

1x Gishki Mind Angus

1x Gishki Gustkrake

3x Deep Sea Diva

2x D-Hero Malicious

2x D-Hero Diamond Dude

1x T.G. Striker

2x T.G. Warwolf

1x Sangan

1x Glow-up Bulb

1x Spore

Spells:

2x Gishki Aquamirror

2x Destiny Draw

1x Dark Hole

1x Heavy Storm

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

2x Surface

1x Salvage

1x Monster Reborn

1x Future Fusion

1x Miracle Fusion

2x Instant Fusion
1x Foolish Burial

Traps:

2x Call of the Haunted

1x Mirror Force

surface synchro #3 - T.G. build

2012-01-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

After extensive testing over the last few hours, I have crafted a new build for my surface synchro deck.

It's now officially renamed: Absolute Nova. As the name suggests, the main boss monster of the deck is Scarlet Nova Dragon, and the secondary boss monster would be Absolute Zero.

Ideally, dump Malicious and something to grave with Future Fusion, use it's effect to bring out another Malicious, summon Diva, bring out another Diva, synchro 1 Diva and Malicious for Red Dragon Archfiend, then Surface/Monster Reborn/Call of the Haunted back the Diva, Red Nova. Then Miracle Fusion for Absolute Zero.

Penguin Soldier, after testing, does help to set up plays during the mid game because I can +1 clear the field for Red Nova to go in for a clean hit. A sexy plus, Red Nova is immune to Inzektors :D and any variant they play.

The T.G.build (removing the plants) does make the deck really more consistent and fast.

Monsters:

1x T.G. Striker

3x T.G. Warwolf

1x Elemental Hero Stratos

2x Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude

2x Destiny Hero - Malicious

3x Deep Sea Diva

3x Spined Gillman (this card may be removed soon, I see little use for it)

2x Penguin Soldier

1x Plaguespreader Zombie

1x Sangan

Spells:

1x Heavy Storm

1x Dark Hole

2x Destiny Draw

3x Surface

1x Monster Reborn

2x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x Future Fusion

2x Miracle Fusion

1x Reinforcement of the Army

1x Pot of Avarice

1x Foolish Burial

Traps:

2x Call of the Haunted

1x Mirror Force

2x Bottomless Trap Hole

surface synchro #2 - The Plant Engine

2012-01-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

So far, I have found that the deck (while running the D-HERO engine) has been really consistent in churning out Red Nova Dragon. So, this deck's two main stars will be Absolute Zero and Red Nova.

The Plant engine that I am currently considering consists of:

1 Lonefire Blossom
1 Glow-Up Bulb
1 Spore

So far I am finding the Plant engine to be really decent if I am able to pull off the basic combos, but so far I haven't found it to be anywhere as consistent and/or fast as I would like the deck to be.

What the deck really needs is some form of positive advantage that can be gained from playing Surface. A couple of formats back, Zombie Synchro was really strong because of Goblin Zombie being able to search out Mezuki and Zombie Carrier consistently from being used as synchro material, and that allowed the deck to continually make crazy combos in a single turn.

I'm not trying to recreate that kind of broken deck (because it's impossible now), but I am looking to find a way to throw out a 1 turn combo into Red Nova Dragon. And that particular combo must be consistently replicable.

Here's what I am currently running at the moment:

Monsters:
1x Lonefire Blossom
1x Spore
1x Glow-up Bulb
3x Deep Sea Diva
3x Spined Gillman
2x Penguin Soldier
2x Destiny Hero - Malicious
2x Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1x Destiny Hero - Dasher
1x Elemental Hero - Stratos
1x Sangan
2x Krebons

Spells:
1x Heavy Storm
1x Dark Hole
1x Moray of Greed
2x Destiny Draw
1x One for One
3x Surface
1x Salvage
1x Monster Reborn
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Future Fusion
1x Miracle Fusion
1x Reinforcement of the Army
1x Emergency Teleport

Traps:
2x Call of the Haunted
1x Mirror Force

Still need more ideas, particularly an engine/combo that will maximise the power of Salvage. I'm turning my head towards the T.G. side now, will try to run a combo from there and see how the deck flows (pun? XD). Basically:

Surface something, jump Warwolf, synchro. I do agree though that the aforementioned combo requires fine-tuning. Will be testing a Doppel TG build next.

surface synchro #1

2012-01-08T03:00:00.000-08:00

The new card which came out in Generation Force: Surface gave me huge inspiration to build a deck based on it.

This card really does help the WATER archetype gain so much speed and combo potential, and I'm really liking the possibilities of a synchro/exceed deck based on abusing the underrated supports of the WATER archetype.

There is Salvage (which is a +1), Moray of Greed (for draw power), the Ice Barrier archetype (with an unlimited searcher card), and of course a weaker version of TGU - Deep Sea Diva.

Absolute Zero is also a possible option for this deck to go into, making it clearly capable of running all 3 extra deck colours in a single turn if combos are pulled off properly :D

What this deck does lack though, is serious consistency. Pure WATER builds that I have tried have not seen much success.

The Frog engine has not been working out well for me because it is more of a sustained fodder engine rather than burst engine (as compared to the E-Tele engine for example).
To be completely honest the Ice Barrier archetype is not really designed for speed. The only card I appreciate about the archetype is Medium of the Ice Boundary.

So far, the only really good build I have ran is the D-Hero draw engine coupled with Future Fusion for Absolute Zero. Will be contemplating a Plant engine (running Frost and Flame Dragon, maybe? lolol) with HEROs to see how well that build turns out.

Well, Surface is not only limited to WATER attribute cards, so I guess there will be other ways to make use of the card. The new BaniSharks could see some play with D-Heros in a Dark Simurgh deck or something I guess. Will be working on the plant engine now.