Upcoming Format

Fortunately some of our locals have already switched to the new list a few weeks ago, even though that doesn't really matter anymore as of this post. I found it kinda funny when people were like "why is Sangan banned??" Um, cuz it only searches key monsters in a bunch of different decks? Even with T-King around, more often than not that critter was gonna get a search off in most cases. It's such an odd feeling being able to swing into a facedown and know that it's not gonna be Sangan! It's kinda nice to be honest.

While I was pretty disappointed by the initial reveal of the list, it was nothing unexpected. They have followed their general pattern of nerfing old decks and not touching new ones for the past several formats now. A lot of people wanted Dragoons to 1, but that would've been too big of a hit too soon in the existence of the Mermail deck. Speaking of Mermails, I gotta say I have enjoyed playing it a lot over the past week, but damn those side cards hurt, namely Soul Drain/D-Fiss/Macro. One thing I'm already tired of for this format is the rise of Six Sams at locals. While in most cases I feel that I can handle the average Sam player (since most aren't too good, at least around here) but there are still those instances that Gateway just outright wins the game for them. No matter how bad the player may be, if they have Gateway, a couple Sams, an Asceticism, they can simply derp a big field that'll OTK you next turn if you're not able to deal with it with the hand that you drew. It's retarded and I hate to imagine people sacking off with the miscellaneous combos that exist with the deck once HA07 comes out. Low probability or not, some players will definitely be getting it off more often than one normally would expect to. Leaving Gateway alone was a bad move in my opinion.

On the OCG side of things, it definitely looks like Spellbook has been making an impact, with Tachyon just being release over there like a week or two ago. I've been reading a lot on the forums that once May rolls around, the format will become "derped" and any slow-ish deck will just get out-paced by Spellbooks. I've seen the plus'ing that Judgment Day can do on it's own, and while mostly everyone dismisses the deck around my area, the rate of it topping in OCG is too high to simply ignore. There has usually always been a correlation of "what tops in OCG now will be what tops in TCG later". Of course exclusives play a pretty big role in that these days, but speaking in an "in general" case, I think this rule-of-thumb follows. I'm kinda confused on the whole "Dragunity topping" thing in OCG, but I guess we'll see how that whole thing pans out over the next few weeks.

As for my pet deck Wind-Ups, I went from "no hope" to "high hope" to "higher hope" then right back down to "no hope". I think it's something that I could still do well with at locals, but in terms of regionals and YCS, especially post-Tachyon, I just don't feel that relying on the grind game is the way to go. You have to figure, even with Mag-Shark derpiness last format, sometimes winning wasn't easy. Now that the derp has been taken out of Wind-Ups, for the most part, how could it consistently keep up with the decks that were already good but didn't get touched, and now have even more support? It just doesn't work. While I do still think that they are a good deck, it's not my nature to just settle for good. My main deck I always strive for it to be the best deck (with respect to my playstyle and preferences), and usually my second deck is within the top 4 decks of the meta. Below that, what's the point of having the deck built besides hoping to sell it?

Anyways, as with any crappy ban list, I try my best to make the most out of it and just adapt. At the moment I think any deck is beatable right now, just gotta hope you don't get sacked by Gateway/Card Destruction/etc. :)

Tick Tock

Sold Wind-Ups, bought Mermail, don't like Mermail (for me, badhands.com), now what to do. This is what I've been dealing with the past few days with the assumption that it was time to move on from Wind-Ups. I've also gotten to play some Magic using Danny's cards, and I must say it's quite fun. Using a mid-range deck definitely fits my style and the one Danny has built up fits perfectly for me. I'm still waiting on the next Standard event to see what cards I should be getting before I invest money into the game; I'd like to see what decks are currently good with the new set legal.

As far as ban lists go, so far I'm most inclined to think that the one with Goyo is the most realistic. My prediction on Rabbit and Factory both going to 1 and them doing a menial hit to Water (Diva to 1) all fits. Warning to 1 is kind of annoying but it's been a 2-of staple in any backrow deck ever since it went to 2. Time to make way for alternate backrow cards I suppose. The rest I won't delve too much into as I don't want to give my full opinions on a list that is by no means confirmed. Once a list with legit scans are up you can bet I'll post on it :)