So I have been thinking about doing a Market Analysis on Glow-Up for quite a while, just didn't know what was gonna happen before the announcement of the last 2 promos in the Wave 2 tins.
Many people (including Jeff Jones) predicted that Glow-Up would be the last promo to go along with Darksoul. Troll & Toad wasn't even buying them, even though they still had a pretty decent $35-40 value on eBay (higher for Ultimate). Now they are buying Ultra 1st's at $19.14 while ARG is buying Ulti 1st's at $25 and Ultra 1st's at $30 (kinda strange that they're paying more for Ultra?). Unlimited editions just aren't getting any love.
The primary reason why I decided to write on Glow-Up is because I was looking at Wiki's YGO TCG product release calendar to see what sets came out roughly a year ago. There's a saying/belief in this game that basically says once a set has been out for a year, the cards from it are susceptible for reprints. This isn't concrete of course, since Fossil Dyna came out ages ago, Lyla still hasn't been announced for a reprint, and we're still waiting on that Scrap Dragon reprint as well. On the flip side we got Battle Fader and Drill Warrior reprints very shortly after they got released, but people justify them by saying they've appeared on the anime. For the most part though, I feel that this is a general rule of thumb people should go by. STBL came out on November 16 of last year, so about 1 more month for the 1-year mark.
Glow-Up has been one of my favorite cards for quite a while now and is essential in decks that run the Plant engine, good in Monarchs (depending on build), and just pretty solid overall. He's an easy splash in a myriad of decks; plus'ing for a mill of 1 is pretty sweet. This being said, I feel that this is as good of a time as any to sell this little guy off especially if you aren't running a Plant engine deck as your main or secondary deck. For example if I end up selling my Tour Guides, that makes my Plant deck obsolete (IMO), and thus I wouldn't need my Bulb. The best thing this guy has going for him at the moment is Billy Brake's YCS win at Toronto.
This is the way I see it - if Plants end up winning again, then their value will probably remain relatively the same as what they are now or may see like a $5 price increase. If they don't do well however, and the field is pretty much all DW and Agents, I could see it going down to around $25 on eBay. After fees and shipping you're gonna end up with roughly $18 (see why I prefer to sell in bulk to ARG?). I say this because both of those are structure deck decks and thus easy to pick up. Why would Timmy want to go through the trouble of picking up set cards like Tengu and Bulb when the deck that won came out of a structure deck he can get at Wal-Mart for $10 a pop?
In a nutshell, I'm trying to say that Bulb has more things going against it than it does for it at the moment. Realistically the earliest it could see a reprint is Turbo Pack 7. Six came out in August so we may see 7 around December, and I say this based on 5's release date of April (so roughly 4 months apart). If not in Turbo 7, then Order of Chaos Special Edition, which is way beyond how far I care to look since we don't even have PHSW yet. Who knows, we may get some random-ass product release (similar to Europe's Advent Calendar thing) that sees a Bulb reprint.
You don't need to sell it off immediately or anything like that, but I would heavily consider it if Plants get outshadowed by DW and Agents at Columbus, and you aren't currently playing Plants but have a Bulb for what ever reason. This weekend I will be scouring the forums to see how certain decks do and base my sell decisions from there.
Friday, October 21, 2011
YCS Columbus Predictions + Ramblings
I find it interesting how when a new decktype gets released, people put a lot of weight into the results of the first YCS it shows up in. Which is kinda funny because theoretically that's when the amount of hate towards it will be at its maximum. I remember people hyping Dragunity a lot, and when it failed to perform well at whatever YCS it was that they debuted in, people pretty much wrote it off as just hype. Agents went through a very similar scenario but even with the amount of hate that people probably had for it, it still put up great results. That's what differentiates a deck being hype and it actually being good. Going into this YCS, I believe the top 3 decks will be Agents, Plants, and Darkworld, not necessarily in that order; Darkworld being the most played and the most hated on. The amount of hate towards it may mean that it won't win the whole event, but at the same time its odds become better of doing so, simply due to the sheer number of people running it.
I think decks like TG, GK, GB, Gadgets, Sabers, Monarchs, Gemini, etc may represent like 3-4 spots in the top 32. I think you would have to be pretty bold to run any of those decks though since we have a pretty clear top 3 list at this point. I know I wouldn't travel all that way to run anything else. If you are "down the street" from the event though, eh, whatever you wanna do is fine since you don't have all those travel expenses.
Overall, I'm going to predict that the top 32 will consist of 11 DW, 10 Agent, 7 Plant, and 4 Other. Note that I feel that these kinds of predictions and predicting the winner once the top 32 has been revealed, is rather pointless. Whenever you look on the forums, by the end of it all, nearly everyone is wrong in their prediction. You get random guy that's like "oh yea my boy [insert name here]'s got this without a doubt" and then they lose in their top 32 match, or something of that nature. It's almost like trying to predict where a bolt of lightning will strike in an open field with no trees. But, I think the numbers will be something like that, +/- 2 for each deck.
Billy Brake put up a good article regarding Darkworld on ARG's Articles site. For some reason I like the thought of using Marionette Mite, since it's literally a Puppet Plant for Darkworlds, but it seems to always miss everyone's list of useful cards against them. Summon my Grapha, Mite your Grapha, swing for game? I dunno, I guess it's too specific of a card (ie only hits Fiend and Zombie) when there are so many viable decks and side space being limited; stuff like DD Crow and Debunk hit a larger range of decks, hence why those kinds of cards get played over stuff like Mite.
Today I'll work on my side for tomorrow's tournament. I was actually thinking of setting aside like 20-25 cards, looking at what people are playing, and making my 15 that way. It's kind of a bitch move, but it's what the smart person would do. What I've always done is make my 15 and only bring my trade binder, and be sad that I had stuff like Mirror of Oaths in my side when 0 people were playing GB, but put them in due to word-of-mouth saying GB was popular. Another example, normally I may've decided to put Puppet Plants in since Kim came back to play Sams and said he'd be there this weekend, but if he didn't show up, then those spots would be useless. When you play strictly at locals, you gotta build your side for the people that you know will give you a challenge.
---------------Magic---------------
So I read the final match coverage of Grand Prix Brisbane where the UB guy won, like most blue control decks, the objective is to basically counter big threats that you can't deal with, use removal on the stuff that you don't need to counterspell, drop your big guy, and ride it out to victory. In this deck keep the Consecrated Sphinx alive and you'll draw more answers than your opponent does threats. Meh, this is exactly what I meant by pure control, and I think a lot of the singles I bought from Troll were White or like the Black/White land. FML. The thing is Blue/Black/White is so much more expensive than that Blue/Black deck that won, and the best it did was 24th in that tourney :S Oh well, at least I didn't drop money on the Lilianas; I might alter it to be primarily UB and splash some white, dunno yet! Either way Consecrated Sphinx seems pretty boss so need to pick those up. If I stick with Blue/Black, I wouldn't even need to sell my Tour Guides since the deck isn't too terribly expensive, compared to Solar Flare.
---------------Other---------------
So I just got an e-mail from eBay congratulating me and welcoming to their PowerSeller program. I got invited on my old account and actually turned it down so it's not too big of a deal to me. Seems like now they just add you into it. What I find funny is that they just put restrictions on my account like a week ago, now I have to wait like 2 weeks til I can do anything with the money I get from selling (like use it or transfer it), because like I talked about in my Fundamental Flaws article, the whole 'people filing Item Not Received cases' thing. Yea, just ignore the fact I have like a near-perfect rating.
In future posts I don't want to have to put "Ramblings" to indicate that I'm going to be talking about stuff other than what I have written for the title. Just assume I will since that's just the way I am. I will be doing a small Market Analysis post later today so be on the lookout for that :)
I think decks like TG, GK, GB, Gadgets, Sabers, Monarchs, Gemini, etc may represent like 3-4 spots in the top 32. I think you would have to be pretty bold to run any of those decks though since we have a pretty clear top 3 list at this point. I know I wouldn't travel all that way to run anything else. If you are "down the street" from the event though, eh, whatever you wanna do is fine since you don't have all those travel expenses.
Overall, I'm going to predict that the top 32 will consist of 11 DW, 10 Agent, 7 Plant, and 4 Other. Note that I feel that these kinds of predictions and predicting the winner once the top 32 has been revealed, is rather pointless. Whenever you look on the forums, by the end of it all, nearly everyone is wrong in their prediction. You get random guy that's like "oh yea my boy [insert name here]'s got this without a doubt" and then they lose in their top 32 match, or something of that nature. It's almost like trying to predict where a bolt of lightning will strike in an open field with no trees. But, I think the numbers will be something like that, +/- 2 for each deck.
Billy Brake put up a good article regarding Darkworld on ARG's Articles site. For some reason I like the thought of using Marionette Mite, since it's literally a Puppet Plant for Darkworlds, but it seems to always miss everyone's list of useful cards against them. Summon my Grapha, Mite your Grapha, swing for game? I dunno, I guess it's too specific of a card (ie only hits Fiend and Zombie) when there are so many viable decks and side space being limited; stuff like DD Crow and Debunk hit a larger range of decks, hence why those kinds of cards get played over stuff like Mite.
Today I'll work on my side for tomorrow's tournament. I was actually thinking of setting aside like 20-25 cards, looking at what people are playing, and making my 15 that way. It's kind of a bitch move, but it's what the smart person would do. What I've always done is make my 15 and only bring my trade binder, and be sad that I had stuff like Mirror of Oaths in my side when 0 people were playing GB, but put them in due to word-of-mouth saying GB was popular. Another example, normally I may've decided to put Puppet Plants in since Kim came back to play Sams and said he'd be there this weekend, but if he didn't show up, then those spots would be useless. When you play strictly at locals, you gotta build your side for the people that you know will give you a challenge.
---------------Magic---------------
So I read the final match coverage of Grand Prix Brisbane where the UB guy won, like most blue control decks, the objective is to basically counter big threats that you can't deal with, use removal on the stuff that you don't need to counterspell, drop your big guy, and ride it out to victory. In this deck keep the Consecrated Sphinx alive and you'll draw more answers than your opponent does threats. Meh, this is exactly what I meant by pure control, and I think a lot of the singles I bought from Troll were White or like the Black/White land. FML. The thing is Blue/Black/White is so much more expensive than that Blue/Black deck that won, and the best it did was 24th in that tourney :S Oh well, at least I didn't drop money on the Lilianas; I might alter it to be primarily UB and splash some white, dunno yet! Either way Consecrated Sphinx seems pretty boss so need to pick those up. If I stick with Blue/Black, I wouldn't even need to sell my Tour Guides since the deck isn't too terribly expensive, compared to Solar Flare.
---------------Other---------------
So I just got an e-mail from eBay congratulating me and welcoming to their PowerSeller program. I got invited on my old account and actually turned it down so it's not too big of a deal to me. Seems like now they just add you into it. What I find funny is that they just put restrictions on my account like a week ago, now I have to wait like 2 weeks til I can do anything with the money I get from selling (like use it or transfer it), because like I talked about in my Fundamental Flaws article, the whole 'people filing Item Not Received cases' thing. Yea, just ignore the fact I have like a near-perfect rating.
In future posts I don't want to have to put "Ramblings" to indicate that I'm going to be talking about stuff other than what I have written for the title. Just assume I will since that's just the way I am. I will be doing a small Market Analysis post later today so be on the lookout for that :)
Thursday, October 20, 2011
SD22 Dragonic Legion Update + Random Ramblings
So a few cards of what's in this deck for the OCG have been revealed (credit to Shriek), I expect it to remain the same for TCG:
Blue Eyes
Red Eyes
REDMD
Chaos Sorcerer
Red Eyes Black Chick
White Stone of Legend
Burst Stream of Distruction
Light of Redemption
Inferno Fire Blast
Escape from the Dark Dimension
And one of the new cards have been revealed as well:
Darkflare Dragon
Dark/Dragon - Effect/5/2400/DEF Unknown
You can special summon this card from your hand by removing from play 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK Monster in your Graveyard. Once per turn, by sending 1 Dragon-type Monster both from your hand and your Deck to the Graveyard, you can select 1 card in your opponent's Graveyard and remove it from play.
So I take back what I said about picking up REDMD's, at least the super ones. The Ultra should retain good value and be sought-after since it's the highest rarity. Super ones are hard enough to find around my area though, so I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna find an Ultra. As for Darkflare's effect, it's decent and allows for some combo's with REDMD and who knows what else might come with the deck. Fatty Dragons (do people still call it Hopeless?) with these guys seem like they can OTK for big damage out of nowhere. I think their issue has always been consistency and the ability to deal with disruption, so we'll see if any of the new cards help with that.
I finally got paid for my sale to Troll so I'm happy about that. I was kinda worried that my secret Thunder-Kings would be below what they would classify as NM but I guess they were content with how they were. I'll be sending out my ARG sell stuff today. $ = <3 :)
I've noticed that my view count has been going up at a pretty good pace so I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of you for taking the time out of your day to at least look at my blog. Hopefully you have found some of the content useful/entertaining/interesting. I'll be doing my best to maintain the pace I've been going at, about 1 post per day. Shoutouts to LFN for adding it to his blog list; if any one else that's visiting my blog has a blog of their own, please add it to your list as well and I will be more than happy return the favor. Likewise if yours is already on my list :) I'd like to do some kind of give-away/contest thing when I reach 1000 views but it's kind of difficult since it's not exactly like Youtube where you have subscribers. This thing's "followers" isn't really anything like Youtube's "subscribers". I read Mike Bonacini's blog for about 9 months and never was a follower, it's kinda like "what's the point when I have it bookmarked and check it every day anyway?" If anyone has any ideas please be sure to comment or send me a message.
As for Magic I've been considering picking up Blue-Black instead of Solar Flare since no Solar Flare topped the latest Grand Prix and Blue-Black won. This would make it so I wouldn't have to pick up Lilianas ($50 each) since it probably does best when paired with Sun Titan, but I'm just guessing at this point. I like White though, and like I said I didn't want to play a pure control deck, so I will have to think about it. I need to go over the UB decklist and see how it wins.
My next post will most likely be a YCS Columbus prediction, but I'd like to do a Market Analysis post as well, just not sure what card to do it on.
Blue Eyes
Red Eyes
REDMD
Chaos Sorcerer
Red Eyes Black Chick
White Stone of Legend
Burst Stream of Distruction
Light of Redemption
Inferno Fire Blast
Escape from the Dark Dimension
And one of the new cards have been revealed as well:
Darkflare Dragon
Dark/Dragon - Effect/5/2400/DEF Unknown
You can special summon this card from your hand by removing from play 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK Monster in your Graveyard. Once per turn, by sending 1 Dragon-type Monster both from your hand and your Deck to the Graveyard, you can select 1 card in your opponent's Graveyard and remove it from play.
So I take back what I said about picking up REDMD's, at least the super ones. The Ultra should retain good value and be sought-after since it's the highest rarity. Super ones are hard enough to find around my area though, so I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna find an Ultra. As for Darkflare's effect, it's decent and allows for some combo's with REDMD and who knows what else might come with the deck. Fatty Dragons (do people still call it Hopeless?) with these guys seem like they can OTK for big damage out of nowhere. I think their issue has always been consistency and the ability to deal with disruption, so we'll see if any of the new cards help with that.
I finally got paid for my sale to Troll so I'm happy about that. I was kinda worried that my secret Thunder-Kings would be below what they would classify as NM but I guess they were content with how they were. I'll be sending out my ARG sell stuff today. $ = <3 :)
I've noticed that my view count has been going up at a pretty good pace so I just wanted to say that I appreciate all of you for taking the time out of your day to at least look at my blog. Hopefully you have found some of the content useful/entertaining/interesting. I'll be doing my best to maintain the pace I've been going at, about 1 post per day. Shoutouts to LFN for adding it to his blog list; if any one else that's visiting my blog has a blog of their own, please add it to your list as well and I will be more than happy return the favor. Likewise if yours is already on my list :) I'd like to do some kind of give-away/contest thing when I reach 1000 views but it's kind of difficult since it's not exactly like Youtube where you have subscribers. This thing's "followers" isn't really anything like Youtube's "subscribers". I read Mike Bonacini's blog for about 9 months and never was a follower, it's kinda like "what's the point when I have it bookmarked and check it every day anyway?" If anyone has any ideas please be sure to comment or send me a message.
As for Magic I've been considering picking up Blue-Black instead of Solar Flare since no Solar Flare topped the latest Grand Prix and Blue-Black won. This would make it so I wouldn't have to pick up Lilianas ($50 each) since it probably does best when paired with Sun Titan, but I'm just guessing at this point. I like White though, and like I said I didn't want to play a pure control deck, so I will have to think about it. I need to go over the UB decklist and see how it wins.
My next post will most likely be a YCS Columbus prediction, but I'd like to do a Market Analysis post as well, just not sure what card to do it on.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
PHSW Set Review - Part 5
Finally getting around to catching up! As everyone is saying on the boards, this is a great money set. I think it's a great money set for the Ultras and Secrets, only for Rabbit.dek. As CaptialG said in his video, this isn't quite like TDGS and GENF that had a lot more support for a larger range of decks. Danny and I will both be getting a case - never ordered a case before so that's kinda cool :) Last night I used the rest of my Troll&Toad store credit to buy some Magic singles, cheaper stuff like playsets of the commons and uncommons in Solar Flare, as well as the cheaper rares like Day of Judgment and a few of the lands. I have a little more than half the deck purchased, now I just need to get the more expensive cards.
I will be selling another $100 worth of stuff to ARG but I think that'll be about the end of it. I had to milk the rest of my binder, there are basically no money cards left in it, which is perfectly fine. Actually a lot of it was cheapy holos that no one was interested in the first place. When I had expensive cards in it, people would want it sure but most people don't have much anyway so it was just kind of a waste of time since they'd skip over all the lower-value cards and only focus on the "cream of the crop", while I'm trying to find something more than that super Dandylion or other $5 card in their binder.
Anyways, on to the revealed cards that I haven't written reviews for:
Wind-Up Rabbit
EARTH Beast-Warrior
LV3 1400/900
During either player's turn: You can target 1 “Wind-Up” monster you control; banish it until your next Standby Phase. This effect can only be activated once while this card is face-up on the field.
They're pushing Wind-Ups pretty hard. Will they ever get to the point that GB's, BW's, and GK's did? I dunno, I don't know much about the deck but they seem a lot more fragile than BW's or GK's. Eventually if they release enough broken support it'll be played though. Is Wind-Up Rabbit broken? I don't really think so, it doesn't say draw, destroy, negate, discard, banish (your opponent's card), or special summon anywhere in its text, which are usually the top characteristics of broken cards we have.
Secret Rare
2/5 - I'd probably try to get rid of them at the sneak for $20-30. I dunno, I may be going the wrong way with Wind-Ups but I just don't like them.
Latinum, Exarch of Dark World
DARK Fiend
LV6 1500 DEF 2400
If this card is discarded to the Graveyard by a card effect: If it was discarded from your hand to your Graveyard by an opponent’s card effect, target 1 Fiend-Type monster on the field; Special Summon this card from the Graveyard, then that target (if any) gains 500 ATK.
Ultra Rare
This guy seems pretty bad. At best you give a 500 atk boost to a guy? This won't see play in competitive DW. I'd rather just run Goldd/Sillva, neither of which will see much play either.
2/5 - Give rid of them at the sneak while they have hype value.
Evolzar Dolkka
FIRE Dragon
RK4 2300/1700
2 Level 4 Dinosaur-Type monsters
When an Effect Monster’s effect activates: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation and destroy it.
Secret Rare
I covered this guy a little bit, we knew he negated a monster effect but just didn't know how many materials you had to detach. This guy is a walking double Herald of Orange Light with a respectable ATK. Absolutely insane. Why would anyone want to run Wind-Ups over Dinos when you got broke guys like this and Lagia? Besides the inevitable high price of Rescue Rabbit lol.
5/5 - Pick them up and hold on to 'em! If people want to buy them off you, be bold and say $80-100.
Dark Smog
Continuous Trap
Once per turn: You can target 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard; discard 1 Fiend-Type monster and banish that target.
Secret Rare
A discard outlet that lets you turn every DW card you have into a DD Crow? Seems like good sideboard material, unless your meta was all DW. I think the best thing to deal with DW is banishing their Graphas, and this card is a good enabler of that.
I don't think this will be as big of a money card that people are wanting it to be. It's a sideboard card that can get MST'd away, but it's better than getting your Gate MST'd, since people are gonna bring in their 3rd copy from the side against you.
I think it will settle as a $10-15 secret but have like an initial $40 tag and gradually go down from there.
3/5
I think there are 2 exclusives left and that will round out the set. Actually, I don't remember writing about Infernity Knight. It looks like a Super, and I'm not sure if it would get played over the stuff they already have. It doesn't seem to be like the card that would make players all of a sudden be like "oh snap I'm gonna play Infernity now." I know the deck can be very potent, about the only deck that can still spam Trish, I just think it takes a lot of skill to play well and players would rather herp with Tour Guide/ Grapha/ Hyperion/ BLS/ Rabbit+Dolkka+Ragia kinds of cards.
I will be selling another $100 worth of stuff to ARG but I think that'll be about the end of it. I had to milk the rest of my binder, there are basically no money cards left in it, which is perfectly fine. Actually a lot of it was cheapy holos that no one was interested in the first place. When I had expensive cards in it, people would want it sure but most people don't have much anyway so it was just kind of a waste of time since they'd skip over all the lower-value cards and only focus on the "cream of the crop", while I'm trying to find something more than that super Dandylion or other $5 card in their binder.
Anyways, on to the revealed cards that I haven't written reviews for:
Wind-Up Rabbit
EARTH Beast-Warrior
LV3 1400/900
During either player's turn: You can target 1 “Wind-Up” monster you control; banish it until your next Standby Phase. This effect can only be activated once while this card is face-up on the field.
They're pushing Wind-Ups pretty hard. Will they ever get to the point that GB's, BW's, and GK's did? I dunno, I don't know much about the deck but they seem a lot more fragile than BW's or GK's. Eventually if they release enough broken support it'll be played though. Is Wind-Up Rabbit broken? I don't really think so, it doesn't say draw, destroy, negate, discard, banish (your opponent's card), or special summon anywhere in its text, which are usually the top characteristics of broken cards we have.
Secret Rare
2/5 - I'd probably try to get rid of them at the sneak for $20-30. I dunno, I may be going the wrong way with Wind-Ups but I just don't like them.
Latinum, Exarch of Dark World
DARK Fiend
LV6 1500 DEF 2400
If this card is discarded to the Graveyard by a card effect: If it was discarded from your hand to your Graveyard by an opponent’s card effect, target 1 Fiend-Type monster on the field; Special Summon this card from the Graveyard, then that target (if any) gains 500 ATK.
Ultra Rare
This guy seems pretty bad. At best you give a 500 atk boost to a guy? This won't see play in competitive DW. I'd rather just run Goldd/Sillva, neither of which will see much play either.
2/5 - Give rid of them at the sneak while they have hype value.
Evolzar Dolkka
FIRE Dragon
RK4 2300/1700
2 Level 4 Dinosaur-Type monsters
When an Effect Monster’s effect activates: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the activation and destroy it.
Secret Rare
I covered this guy a little bit, we knew he negated a monster effect but just didn't know how many materials you had to detach. This guy is a walking double Herald of Orange Light with a respectable ATK. Absolutely insane. Why would anyone want to run Wind-Ups over Dinos when you got broke guys like this and Lagia? Besides the inevitable high price of Rescue Rabbit lol.
5/5 - Pick them up and hold on to 'em! If people want to buy them off you, be bold and say $80-100.
Dark Smog
Continuous Trap
Once per turn: You can target 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard; discard 1 Fiend-Type monster and banish that target.
Secret Rare
A discard outlet that lets you turn every DW card you have into a DD Crow? Seems like good sideboard material, unless your meta was all DW. I think the best thing to deal with DW is banishing their Graphas, and this card is a good enabler of that.
I don't think this will be as big of a money card that people are wanting it to be. It's a sideboard card that can get MST'd away, but it's better than getting your Gate MST'd, since people are gonna bring in their 3rd copy from the side against you.
I think it will settle as a $10-15 secret but have like an initial $40 tag and gradually go down from there.
3/5
I think there are 2 exclusives left and that will round out the set. Actually, I don't remember writing about Infernity Knight. It looks like a Super, and I'm not sure if it would get played over the stuff they already have. It doesn't seem to be like the card that would make players all of a sudden be like "oh snap I'm gonna play Infernity now." I know the deck can be very potent, about the only deck that can still spam Trish, I just think it takes a lot of skill to play well and players would rather herp with Tour Guide/ Grapha/ Hyperion/ BLS/ Rabbit+Dolkka+Ragia kinds of cards.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Jumping the Fence
So it didn't take me very long to decide that I will be picking up Magic. I spoke with my friend Mikey from Texas (who I spoke about in my very early posts) and he told me he got top 32 at his States tournament. I am very proud of him. He's topped both a Yugz and MtG regional now, he has come a long way since I first met him and trained him to be the player he is today. He pretty much told me Magic is very good to get in now and Solar Flare (Black-White-Blue) is one of the top decks, if not the top. I also spoke with Butters and I guess he's achieved quite a bit in Magic since I've been gone, beating Luis Scott Vargas at a Starcity Games 5K in the finals, qualifying for Nationals twice (dunno if he went tho), top 8'ing a PTQ and barely missing Day 2 at a Pro Tour. He told me he plays about 4 days a week, I asked him what deck he was playing and he said "eh whatever people have to lend me." Just like old times, borrowing cards from people in order to play lol.
I also asked him where he was playing (Merlyn's and downtown Uncle's) and how the attendance was, he said "pretty good." Pretty good has a large range though so I'm gonna ask him like '20? 30?' When I started up Magic for the 2nd time (when I played seriously) tournaments used to be in the 30-35 range. Right before I left Spokane for boot camp, that figure had dropped to around 16. So is it back to the old days, or just decent enough like 15-20? I asked him about the new ratings system and pretty much my old Constructed rating will be gone very soon, I was sad to hear that. They also don't do the Player Rewards program anymore, very sad to hear that. It was a program where they sent you free full-art/alternate-art cards depending on how many tournaments you played in in like a 6-month period. The more you played, the more you got, and most of the Player Rewards cards were worth good money. I dunno why YGO can't do something similar. The only rewards we get are reprints of year or 2-year-old Ultra/Secret rares that get rarity bumped from the OCG in the first place. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a Fat Pack of Innistrad but pulled crap except for 2 of the dual land things. Makes me pretty much not want to get a box of the set lol. Which I won't, singles all the way.
I asked them both what a Solar Flare deck costs and neither of them replied, so I did the research myself and even if I got 3 Liliana (the most expensive card in Standard I believe), it would be less than the total amount I would get from my Tour Guides. 3 YGO cards for a top-tier Magic deck and some change? That sounds like a good deal to me. I don't know the exact build I would play since the decklists I found all varied a good amount. Basically they all have a similar 45 to 50-card skeleton, then the rest is personal preference I guess. I'll have to learn the other decks and see what is popular in our area and build a side accordingly. Anything with blue has always been strong in Magic so I don't feel like I'm picking the wrong deck to come back with. I've never liked aggro, and I don't like pure control. I've done my best playing mid-range control decks and I used to play Solar Flare back in the day (with Angel of Despair) so the colors are nothing I'm unfamiliar with.
Unlike others, transitioning into Magic for me isn't a farewell to Yugz, it's more like a "hey long time no see" to Magic. Like I said in the previous post, I want to dominate in both games at the local level. This way we have at least 1 Team O member that is playing Magic which only helps our team presence. If Danny joins me we have a better presence and we can test with each other and whatnot. I will probably make the blog a mix of MtG and Yugioh content, at the very least it gives me more to write about. I will stick with my original plan of waiting till YCS Columbus in hopes that Tour Guide goes up. Actually I may wait till right after the Sneak so I have the best chance of winning it (we do regular tourneys rather than that sealed crap) and getting a lot of the new set. I don't know what it will mean for me in regards to playing Darkworld; I probably won't. I may switch my main to Pure Agents, TG Agents, or TG. I really like Plants but I probably wouldn't play the deck without Tour Guides. I will wait and see what happens in Columbus to see what my best options may be.
On a side note, I already got paid from my sale to ARG but still waiting on Troll and Toad. As advertised, they pretty much pay on the day that they receive (1 day after in my case). That is incredible service and I highly recommend selling to them. My only gripe I have is that when I was making my sell list their site listed Forbidden Lance at $7.75 and TU Sangan at 10.50 but when I sent my list they e-mailed me back saying they changed their prices to $4.75 and $6.50 respectively. I was like eh whatever that's fine, since I haven't had anyone be interested in either locally.
I also asked him where he was playing (Merlyn's and downtown Uncle's) and how the attendance was, he said "pretty good." Pretty good has a large range though so I'm gonna ask him like '20? 30?' When I started up Magic for the 2nd time (when I played seriously) tournaments used to be in the 30-35 range. Right before I left Spokane for boot camp, that figure had dropped to around 16. So is it back to the old days, or just decent enough like 15-20? I asked him about the new ratings system and pretty much my old Constructed rating will be gone very soon, I was sad to hear that. They also don't do the Player Rewards program anymore, very sad to hear that. It was a program where they sent you free full-art/alternate-art cards depending on how many tournaments you played in in like a 6-month period. The more you played, the more you got, and most of the Player Rewards cards were worth good money. I dunno why YGO can't do something similar. The only rewards we get are reprints of year or 2-year-old Ultra/Secret rares that get rarity bumped from the OCG in the first place. I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a Fat Pack of Innistrad but pulled crap except for 2 of the dual land things. Makes me pretty much not want to get a box of the set lol. Which I won't, singles all the way.
I asked them both what a Solar Flare deck costs and neither of them replied, so I did the research myself and even if I got 3 Liliana (the most expensive card in Standard I believe), it would be less than the total amount I would get from my Tour Guides. 3 YGO cards for a top-tier Magic deck and some change? That sounds like a good deal to me. I don't know the exact build I would play since the decklists I found all varied a good amount. Basically they all have a similar 45 to 50-card skeleton, then the rest is personal preference I guess. I'll have to learn the other decks and see what is popular in our area and build a side accordingly. Anything with blue has always been strong in Magic so I don't feel like I'm picking the wrong deck to come back with. I've never liked aggro, and I don't like pure control. I've done my best playing mid-range control decks and I used to play Solar Flare back in the day (with Angel of Despair) so the colors are nothing I'm unfamiliar with.
Unlike others, transitioning into Magic for me isn't a farewell to Yugz, it's more like a "hey long time no see" to Magic. Like I said in the previous post, I want to dominate in both games at the local level. This way we have at least 1 Team O member that is playing Magic which only helps our team presence. If Danny joins me we have a better presence and we can test with each other and whatnot. I will probably make the blog a mix of MtG and Yugioh content, at the very least it gives me more to write about. I will stick with my original plan of waiting till YCS Columbus in hopes that Tour Guide goes up. Actually I may wait till right after the Sneak so I have the best chance of winning it (we do regular tourneys rather than that sealed crap) and getting a lot of the new set. I don't know what it will mean for me in regards to playing Darkworld; I probably won't. I may switch my main to Pure Agents, TG Agents, or TG. I really like Plants but I probably wouldn't play the deck without Tour Guides. I will wait and see what happens in Columbus to see what my best options may be.
On a side note, I already got paid from my sale to ARG but still waiting on Troll and Toad. As advertised, they pretty much pay on the day that they receive (1 day after in my case). That is incredible service and I highly recommend selling to them. My only gripe I have is that when I was making my sell list their site listed Forbidden Lance at $7.75 and TU Sangan at 10.50 but when I sent my list they e-mailed me back saying they changed their prices to $4.75 and $6.50 respectively. I was like eh whatever that's fine, since I haven't had anyone be interested in either locally.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Greener on the Other Side? (The Tour Guide Effect)
This is another self-reflection type post.
I have been thinking about this issue over the past several weeks so I'm glad I can finally talk about it. Speaking as a Yu-Gi-Oh player, I came to the realization that I know that I will never be able to travel to the various YCS tournaments across the country, or even Nationals if I ever qualified. As Mike Bonacini pointed out in his last blog post, you only walk away with a few grand for winning a YCS anyway. I think that is why attendance in the YCS's the past few years have been so low; poor prize support. At the end of the day, the amount of what you can get has to be a lot more than what it costs to go. They should make it like how it used to be where only first got the prize card, and the prize card was broken. Or, have like 2 or 3 different prize cards for 1st - 3rd, each decreasing in broken-ness. What's the price on a Blood Mefist? Probably nothin' compared to Stein, Gold Sarc, CCV, and Doomcal in their peak. We saw the same thing with the Darklord cards, they were pretty meh in playability and thus in value, and attendance decreased. They give out a lot more copies of the prize card (does anyone really care if it's Ultra or Super?) too, thus decreasing its value. Yes it becomes unfair if only former YCS winners/people with a lot of money got to use the broken prize cards against others in future YCS events, but Christ, people need to get back that competitive mindset of "I don't give a crap, I'll beat you either way." Did only the people that had prize versions of Stein/CCV/Gold Sarc/Doomcal/Dark End ever win Jumps? No, well, CCV maybe a little if you could always stack Sangan/Necro + CCV, but you know what I mean. Did people just say "eh I'm not gonna play anymore" in the Dark Armed era? Some, sure, but from what I remember there was a huge boom in YGO around that time.
Realistically, for the remainder of my time in Yugz, I will be a simple locals guy with the occasional trips to regionals. One could argue "what's the point of going to regionals if you know you aren't gonna go to nationals?" I dunno, probably for the trading/buying/selling aspect of it and team pride if I do well. The problem is that back in the day the Seattle/Tacoma area used to have a regionals like every month to 2 months, now it's once per season. There are none on the east side of the state and none in Idaho. I don't think Portland gets any either, so it's basically a regional once a year for everyone in the Northwest. Will we ever get a YCS Seattle? Probably not, the turnout for the previous Seattle Jump was pretty poor. It was basically just an average-sized regional.
So if 99% of my playing time is restricted to locals, I thought, what is the point of me having these super-expensive cards (ie Tour Guide)? Danny and I are the only people that play to have a set, and I feel that my skill alone can still win me locals. We both only get to play at most once a week, and with their $450+ price tag, $8-10 in store credit per week at a $5 tourney entrance expense per week+ gas money to drive out there just doesn't justify it. For me, the point of having expensive cards is to win enough so they pay for themselves in winnings and that way you obtain more cards to continously do well and sell/trade the excess of what you obtain. That is why I have been considering playing at a closer location, to reduce my gas cost. Unfortunately Shiggs told me that the Saturday Uncle's tournament only gets like 6-8 as well. If they have better prize support though, I have to really consider that option.
Yes, Tour Guide adds consistency and is a great tool-box for Leviathan and Leviair and soon Zenmaines, and will only get better with Darkworld and future Rank 3's, but I just think "I'd probably do just fine anyway." I think the thing that makes me hesitate in selling them off is the competitive mindset I have from being on Team O. I have always felt that we represented a group of the best players that are in our area, and in my opinion to be the best you have to have the best in terms of skill and in cards. Without Tour Guide, I could not say I have the best cards in the game. I would be settling on "this is good enough" rather than go for "this is the best". I am pretty much at a crossroads between keeping my Tour Guides and playing only Yugz, and selling them off to play Magic as well. I'm not willing to pick the alternative of keeping the Guides AND picking up Magic. Too expensive. If I sold them off I would just have to make a few alterations as to what I'd play, but then I'd also have the money to probably have a tier-1 Magic deck. I'd most likely still win out in Yugz and then also in Magic. Sounds like the best of both worlds right?
Between Yugz and Magic, I've always said that I would play the most popular game in the area. Especially being military and moving around so much the past few years, there'd be no point in keeping all my Yugz stuff if no one played it, and vice versa. Pensacola FL and Corpus Christi TX were great places for Yugz so I stuck with the game. Now, in Spokane, I'm not certain. I have to consider all the places that currently run Magic tournaments and see how the attendance is in those locations. I would not mind having a brief Magic stint if it forced players back into Yugz, since I think that the love I have for this game is more than I have for Magic, even though I have achieved more in Magic than in YGO.
Over the next few weeks I will try to get numbers as to how the local FNMs are in attendance, the next couple of Yugz tournaments in the area, and consider how many people show up for the PHSW sneak. My mind says to sell Tour Guides after YCS Columbus since they will undoubtedly be in like every top 32 deck and thus increase in price even more. Regardless of what I do, I will still play YGO. My main deck will simply be $450+ lower in value but I'd also have a top-tier Magic deck. It may be a good move since eventually it will get reprinted, so might as well cash out now than gamble it all in the future. Mike Bonacini and Allen C. Pennington have made the transition to Magic, and I'm sure countless other people have as well. It's pretty apparent in our area when even at YGO tourneys the YGO players casually play Magic with each other rather than play in the actual YGO tourney. Like I said, in the best-case scenario I want to dominate in both Yugioh and Magic. The things in my top considerations are 1) the number of players 2) prize support 3) quality of players. The larger the attendance, the more opportunity there is to plus off trades and sells. The better the prize support, the more reward you get from doing well. The lower the quality of players, the easier it is to do well, but that comes down to personal satisfaction and desire - do you want to play against harder people to improve your own game, or dominate worse people and get that prize support? I like a mixture of both, but if I had to decide on one I would go with plus'ing from prize support and trading with nubs all day every day.
I have been thinking about this issue over the past several weeks so I'm glad I can finally talk about it. Speaking as a Yu-Gi-Oh player, I came to the realization that I know that I will never be able to travel to the various YCS tournaments across the country, or even Nationals if I ever qualified. As Mike Bonacini pointed out in his last blog post, you only walk away with a few grand for winning a YCS anyway. I think that is why attendance in the YCS's the past few years have been so low; poor prize support. At the end of the day, the amount of what you can get has to be a lot more than what it costs to go. They should make it like how it used to be where only first got the prize card, and the prize card was broken. Or, have like 2 or 3 different prize cards for 1st - 3rd, each decreasing in broken-ness. What's the price on a Blood Mefist? Probably nothin' compared to Stein, Gold Sarc, CCV, and Doomcal in their peak. We saw the same thing with the Darklord cards, they were pretty meh in playability and thus in value, and attendance decreased. They give out a lot more copies of the prize card (does anyone really care if it's Ultra or Super?) too, thus decreasing its value. Yes it becomes unfair if only former YCS winners/people with a lot of money got to use the broken prize cards against others in future YCS events, but Christ, people need to get back that competitive mindset of "I don't give a crap, I'll beat you either way." Did only the people that had prize versions of Stein/CCV/Gold Sarc/Doomcal/Dark End ever win Jumps? No, well, CCV maybe a little if you could always stack Sangan/Necro + CCV, but you know what I mean. Did people just say "eh I'm not gonna play anymore" in the Dark Armed era? Some, sure, but from what I remember there was a huge boom in YGO around that time.
Realistically, for the remainder of my time in Yugz, I will be a simple locals guy with the occasional trips to regionals. One could argue "what's the point of going to regionals if you know you aren't gonna go to nationals?" I dunno, probably for the trading/buying/selling aspect of it and team pride if I do well. The problem is that back in the day the Seattle/Tacoma area used to have a regionals like every month to 2 months, now it's once per season. There are none on the east side of the state and none in Idaho. I don't think Portland gets any either, so it's basically a regional once a year for everyone in the Northwest. Will we ever get a YCS Seattle? Probably not, the turnout for the previous Seattle Jump was pretty poor. It was basically just an average-sized regional.
So if 99% of my playing time is restricted to locals, I thought, what is the point of me having these super-expensive cards (ie Tour Guide)? Danny and I are the only people that play to have a set, and I feel that my skill alone can still win me locals. We both only get to play at most once a week, and with their $450+ price tag, $8-10 in store credit per week at a $5 tourney entrance expense per week+ gas money to drive out there just doesn't justify it. For me, the point of having expensive cards is to win enough so they pay for themselves in winnings and that way you obtain more cards to continously do well and sell/trade the excess of what you obtain. That is why I have been considering playing at a closer location, to reduce my gas cost. Unfortunately Shiggs told me that the Saturday Uncle's tournament only gets like 6-8 as well. If they have better prize support though, I have to really consider that option.
Yes, Tour Guide adds consistency and is a great tool-box for Leviathan and Leviair and soon Zenmaines, and will only get better with Darkworld and future Rank 3's, but I just think "I'd probably do just fine anyway." I think the thing that makes me hesitate in selling them off is the competitive mindset I have from being on Team O. I have always felt that we represented a group of the best players that are in our area, and in my opinion to be the best you have to have the best in terms of skill and in cards. Without Tour Guide, I could not say I have the best cards in the game. I would be settling on "this is good enough" rather than go for "this is the best". I am pretty much at a crossroads between keeping my Tour Guides and playing only Yugz, and selling them off to play Magic as well. I'm not willing to pick the alternative of keeping the Guides AND picking up Magic. Too expensive. If I sold them off I would just have to make a few alterations as to what I'd play, but then I'd also have the money to probably have a tier-1 Magic deck. I'd most likely still win out in Yugz and then also in Magic. Sounds like the best of both worlds right?
Between Yugz and Magic, I've always said that I would play the most popular game in the area. Especially being military and moving around so much the past few years, there'd be no point in keeping all my Yugz stuff if no one played it, and vice versa. Pensacola FL and Corpus Christi TX were great places for Yugz so I stuck with the game. Now, in Spokane, I'm not certain. I have to consider all the places that currently run Magic tournaments and see how the attendance is in those locations. I would not mind having a brief Magic stint if it forced players back into Yugz, since I think that the love I have for this game is more than I have for Magic, even though I have achieved more in Magic than in YGO.
Over the next few weeks I will try to get numbers as to how the local FNMs are in attendance, the next couple of Yugz tournaments in the area, and consider how many people show up for the PHSW sneak. My mind says to sell Tour Guides after YCS Columbus since they will undoubtedly be in like every top 32 deck and thus increase in price even more. Regardless of what I do, I will still play YGO. My main deck will simply be $450+ lower in value but I'd also have a top-tier Magic deck. It may be a good move since eventually it will get reprinted, so might as well cash out now than gamble it all in the future. Mike Bonacini and Allen C. Pennington have made the transition to Magic, and I'm sure countless other people have as well. It's pretty apparent in our area when even at YGO tourneys the YGO players casually play Magic with each other rather than play in the actual YGO tourney. Like I said, in the best-case scenario I want to dominate in both Yugioh and Magic. The things in my top considerations are 1) the number of players 2) prize support 3) quality of players. The larger the attendance, the more opportunity there is to plus off trades and sells. The better the prize support, the more reward you get from doing well. The lower the quality of players, the easier it is to do well, but that comes down to personal satisfaction and desire - do you want to play against harder people to improve your own game, or dominate worse people and get that prize support? I like a mixture of both, but if I had to decide on one I would go with plus'ing from prize support and trading with nubs all day every day.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Locals Report 10-15-11; Lightning Comics & Weekend re-cap
Warning: this post is extremely long because it is basically 3 different posts combined into one. It's a whole weekend re-cap rather than just the locals report.
Part 1 is what I had written up Saturday night but wasn't able to upload since I didn't have net access. Part 2 will consist of the events of Saturday night, and Part 3 will consist of today. If you're only interested in how I did at the tourney, just read Part 1. Most of the rest of the post is just me telling a story of Saturday night, (in case any of the local guys were curious how our night went) and a reflection on the state of card games in our area.
Part 1:
Part 1 is what I had written up Saturday night but wasn't able to upload since I didn't have net access. Part 2 will consist of the events of Saturday night, and Part 3 will consist of today. If you're only interested in how I did at the tourney, just read Part 1. Most of the rest of the post is just me telling a story of Saturday night, (in case any of the local guys were curious how our night went) and a reflection on the state of card games in our area.
Part 1:
So before the tournament I try to do as much of my homework that I can, I get like 60% of it done so I'm happy. I go to the post office at 11 to see if my T-Kings show up (since I have a PO box), and sure enough they still weren't there. I was like wtf you gotta be kidding me. I received an automated e-mail from bbcards last night asking if I was satisfied with my order, I just think to myself like “no, I haven't even received yet.” I'll e-mail them on Monday, the wait is ridiculous.
So I show up at the tournament and some unfamiliar faces show up. I'm like sweet better turn-out. Nate shows up so I give him a hug and he tells me how he got promoted at his job just after 10 days of being there, while his girlfriend had been working there for like 4 months and is still in the same position. I'm like “damn, at this rate you'll be the CEO in 2 months” lol.
So I get some trades in, give Nate my Stardust I pull out of the Turbo Pack and a spare double deckbox I had and he gives me his Super D.D. Crow from LCGX. This guy with his wife shows up and I ask him if he has trades, we exchange binders and I have to look though pages of random commons but keep my eyes open for little gems like Dragged Downs, Sabersaurus, etc. I see 2 Safe Zones which I can at least sell to ARG so I tell him I was interested in those. He takes his binder and pulls them out and is just like “here.” I'm like “...are you sure?” He's like “yea, they'll be put to better use in your hands.” I was thinking like “not really, I'm just trying to pick stuff that I can sell.” Oh well, can't complain getting free playable cards! He ends up giving away a bunch of random cards to people.
I think the turnout was 13, which I'm happy about cuz playing with 7 or 8 is just like -_- There are more Agent players today so I'm glad I altered my side to include 2 Leeching the Lights. I move my 2 Maxx C from my Plant deck to my side as well, which were definitely boss all day not just for Agents, but against everything I played.
Round 1 vs New guy w/ Tengu Synchro
Game 1
I open Stardust + Gachi and he doesn't really get much going.
Game 2
My end field is Thought Ruler, Hyperion, Kristya, and earlier he Solemn'd my Torrential for 4K.
1-0
Round 2 vs New guy with his wife w/ Pure Karakuri
Game 1
He explodes like on turn 2 and hits me for 7400, I establish a board and maintain control, but eventually he deals the last 600 by running over something.
Game 2
He tries to go off but I Maxx C. I literally draw to a handcount of 18, Trag out, and I explode right back and hit him for over 8000. I don't know what the board was, I think it was Trag+Brionac+Leviair+Kristya.
Game 3
He explodes right back and I have a mediocre hand, no Maxx C, Gorz, Trag, so I get OTK'd. :(
1-1
I was pretty salty because I hate losing by OTK like that. I don't mind losing because the other player is better than me, but when it's just big Karakuri x3 swing for game, I'm just like whatever. He explained that's pretty much all his deck does, go big or go home.
Round 3 vs New guy (lots of new show-ups today!) w/ Agents
This is actually the first mirror match I've played in tournament so I'm actually kinda excited!
Game 1
I open Venus + Gachi, he tries to Venus but I Bottomless. I get out Kristya and he tries to Battle Fader (eh?) and I remind him he can't special. 2 turns later he scooped it up.
Game 2
This game is a lot more back and forth, I don't remember the specifics, but I know it was a good game. I win 4300-0.
2-1
Round 4 vs Kim w/ Sams
This guy hasn't played in quite a while, he's a good guy so I'm glad he played today.
I was sorta worried cuz I know Sams can still sack off, but figured I'll just do my best.
Game 1
Turn 1 he pops off and has a field like Shi En, Grandmaster, some other derka but Hyperion is just too easy to bring out and run over Shi En. I pretty much have control after that.
Game 2
I open pretty bad and he goes crazy with Gateway United Dojo.
Game 3
He over-extends too much and I can reclaim control and board.
3-1
So they do a top 4 cut, and the top 4 of us are 3-1 and we talk about who should end up playing who. I played each of the 3-1's so it doesn't bother me too much. Naturally I don't want to play the guy I lost to, so obviously I get paired against him. Sackfest here we go!
Top 4
Vs Pure Karakuri guy
Game 1
He doesn't get much going and I end up like +3 or 4.
Game 2
He tries to goes off but I have Maxx C. Again he lets me draw like infinite cards, he thinks he has game when he has Brio + 3 Karakuri guys but I have Trag. He uses his last card to bounce Trag, and from Maxx C I drew Cyber Dragon, BLS, Hyperion, Tour Guide, obviously it's going to happen if you let me draw that many cards.
Top 2
Vs Kim w/ Six Sams
I joke around that I got revenge on the Karakuri guy and beat him, so now it was his turn to get revenge and beat me.
Game 1
He doesn't get much going and I take a quick lead with Trish and Hyperion and maintain the board.
Game 2
Turn 1 He opens with a field of X-Saber Wayne (why??), Hand, and like Kizan. I Gorz and it's pretty much all downhill from there.
So I win out for the 3rd weekend in a row. Couer d'Alene ain't got nothin' on me lol :) I get to feel better about this win since there was actually decent competition today. No Team O members besides me (Nate had to drop and leave), so I was pretty much expected to win. I cashed in my store credit for a LCGX thing, pulled kinda crap. Best pulls were a Gallis, Laquari, War Chariot, 2 Lumina, and Instant Fusion; no T-King :S I shoulda just got the Wind-Up tin like I thought I should've, ah well.
After the tournament Kim and the Karakuri guy were all like “OK we gotta figure out what to play against these damn Agents.” I was just like “play Leeching the Light”, I knew they had no idea what it was so I pulled out one from my side and they were like O_O. By the time they're “set” against Agents though we're gonna have Darkworld and it'll just be a different can of worms, lol. I won't be able to run them next weekend though since the box I ordered won't get here till next week, unless I decide to go to the store and buy 3. I don't want to fall into that temptation though, since I'm getting 4 of the decks (½ a box). I may just up my side deck Crow count to 3, or run a Kycoo or something. No one has Dragged Downs, Ravens, or Tour Guides though so if they do run Darkworld, it's probably gonna be a crappy version. Kim asks me for help on his Agent build, he obviously doesn't have Tour Guide (since he didn't even have Trish and Catastor in his Extra) so he wants to run Junk Synchron. I'm like eh it's alright, if I didn't have Tour Guides my dark line-up would probably be Gorz, 2 Trag, Sangan, DD Crow+Breaker/2x Spy, Birdman.
Here was my deck:
3 Hyperion
3 Venus
3 Earth
3 Shineball
2 Kristya
1 Gorz
1 Trago
1 BLS
3 Tour Guide
1 Sangan
2 Orange Light
1 Veiler
1 Honest
1 Birdman
2 Gold Sarc
1 Duality
2 MST
1 Heavy
1 Heavy
1 Mind
1 Reborn
1 Hole
1 Torrential
1 Mirror Force
1 D-Prison
1 Dustshoot
2 Bottomless
Side
2 Crow
2 Leeching
2 Maxx C
2 Breaker
2 Cyber Drag
1 Chimeratech
2 Pulling
1 MST
1 Mind Crush
Extra
2 Gachi
1 Leviathan
1 Leviair
1 Armory
1 Catastor
1 Librarian
1 Brio
1 Orient
1 Black Rose
1 Scrap Archfiend (should be Wyvern, but too hard to find and don't wanna buy)
1 Stardust
1 Scrap Drag
1 Thought Ruler
1 Trish
In retrospect, I really liked having Trag. It kept me alive against Sams and Karakuri when they went for their pushes. The Duality was pretty meh, and overall I liked D-Prison over Judgment. In any instance where I D-Prison'd, it was better doing that rather than paying half life for basically the same end result. These people have to realize that when I Maxx C, they shouldn't special like crazy to try and go for game. Just develop a reasonable board, and stop. Speaking of C, I sided 2 in every single game. I may try to run 1 main next week, I dunno. It's just so good against certain match-ups, especially when people don't know that they should just end their turn. It doesn't have too much synergy per-se since it's not a dark or a fairy, but it's just solid overall in the appropriate meta. The 2nd Gachi didn't do anything for me, maybe I'll switch it out for an Android, I dunno. Most of my Extra deck I don't even use that much, but it's all about the toolbox factor.
Part 2
So I get to Danny's around 7 and Jared is over, watching Danny play MW2. Jared and I try to connect to his wireless but he doesn't know the password and Nat doesn't know it by memory either, so I just open my text editor and start typing the locals report. We are all starving and end up leaving to go to Denny's around 8 I think. I drive us to Denny's and totally drive past it the first time, never realizing there was a Denny's there in the first place lol. We go to the lounge and I buy our first round of drinks, Long Islands for each of us. They were might tasty! Heather comes and I'm like "wow last time I saw you you were like a little kid", even though she was 18-19 lol. We talk about old times a little. I'm the first one done with my Long Island and I wasn't feeling much of anything. I had the most ice out of all of us, wtf. We order food and I offer to pay for Heather's meal since I'm just a nice guy like that. Once we're done we drive back to Danny's and I continue writing the locals report while everyone else gets ready to go out. I think I remember Jared saying we've been waiting for 45 minutes for Danny to get ready, I was like "when he comes downstairs we all gotta be like 'daaaammnn!'" lol. We're finally out the door and on our way at like 10.
We go to this Chinese restaurant place so Danny can hit up karaoke, we walk in and immediately notice we're the youngest people there by like a good 30 years. They're all older hill-billy/redneck folk. Jared was like "the next youngest person is 64!" I thought it was rather odd that all these redneck people were at the Chinese restaurant/lounge singing country, lol. I have another Long Island, this one was bigger and stronger than the one I had at Denny's.
We then go downtown, we get stuck at a railroad crossing and it's the longest wait ever. Sooo sloooow. I was like "we should get out and hop on and see where it takes us".
We find a parking spot downtown and we go to this bar, no idea what it was called. There were a ton of hotties, I was like dayum!! In retrospect though I had my beer goggles on, and as I sobered up a little I was like ew, your face is kinda busted. But, there were quite a few hotties nonetheless. We end up ordering another drink, I think it was a shot of something, don't remember. This short lady with fangled teeth stands next to Jared and they start talking, apparently she asks if they can Facebook each other and they talk while I'm just like ew :S Like she was 40, redneck lookin', with gnarly teeth. We go back and forth between dancing, going to the bathroom, and getting drinks. As I'm waiting in line to order a round of shots of Jack for everyone, this douchebag walks up to me and deliberately bumps me so that he can move past. At first I was like huh? then like oh hell nah, I looked at him and he smirked at me like a punk, I really wanted to go to town on him but I refrained since I was supposed to be "out of town" for the weekend, and if I did anything there would undoubtedly be cops involved, and I just couldn't afford to go through all that BS. Plus being Navy, that wouldn't look good in my superiors' or junior sailors' eyes. Man I was freakin' PO'd though, what a dick.
After some more dancing we go for more drinks, this time I order a shot of 151 for Jared and me, and Danny ordered something for him and Heather. I literally couldn't feel my tongue after taking that shot lol. We go outside and there's a taco wagon right next to the bar, they don't take cash so I order for Jared (wow this seems like a recurring theme lol), we got these amazing beef burritos, omg I need to go back and get more. Not quite as good as the taco wagon in Walla Walla, but in the stupor that we were in, it was like heaven in my mouth. We walk over to Danny's car and Jared goes to sit in the backseat while the rest of us stand around and talk. There's a cop car that's circling the area and we're like well that's awesome. Eventually Jared is like laying down with his head hanging over the edge of the car and he pukes. We realize that 151 is Jared's kryptonite lol :) Heather and Danny get in the car, and Danny backs up the car a little so I don't have to walk over the puke. I get in the car and help Jared up and I'm like holding him in my arms lol. He rests his head on the passenger side headrest but his head keeps slipping off so I use my right hand to hold his head up. That's love right there, lol.
We get back around 2am and Danny and I carry Jared back into the house and help him go to the bathroom so he can puke some more. Once he's done we help him lay down on the couch and I change to get ready for bed while Danny and Heather are talking outside in his car. Jared walks over to the kitchen and pukes some more in the sink, I go over and hand him some bread telling him it would help absorb the alcohol. I help him back to the couch and grab his cell phone and other stuff and put it by him so he doesn't lose it. I think I end up passing out around 2:30.
Part 3
I wake up at 5 because I need to move my car so Nat can back her car out of the driveway to go to work. I have a pretty good hangover. I also grab my water bottle out of the car and drink what's left of it, come back, brush my teeth, and go back to sleep. I think I wake up again at like 7 or so to the sound of Danny's son saying "mommy I did potty" over and over again. Fall back asleep again after a while and Danny hops on MW2 and I wake up at like 8:30. Relax for about another hour and I get up to work more on my homework that's due today. I figured if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to go to a tournament today so just get as much done so I'll be OK for tonight. We all get dressed to go out at around 11, we take Danny's sons to his in-laws so they can be watched and drive to Burger King for some much needed food. We arrive at Board Game Nation around noon.
There's no one there so we chill a little, Danny and I finish our trade for the secret Laquari and War Chariot and some other things, I go to the bathroom, come out and Shiggs is there. Time passes and we come to the realization that there most likely won't be a tourney. Danny and I test, then Rob comes and he plays with Jared. I hadn't seen Rob in quite a while so it was nice to see him again. Jared continuously makes jokes about Shiggs going to jail and purposely throwing down the soap so he can get some lovin'. We all crack up and the jokes keep on coming throughout the day. We love you Shiggs <3
I tell Shiggs that I would pay money for a CD of him singing, and that he should first start out as a Youtube star singing popular songs and then release an album. I come up with his first album title, "Shiggified", when I use it in a sentence saying "every song I hear on the radio now is all Shiggified." I think we have stumbled on to something here :) I would gladly pay for enough booze for Shiggs to get drunk enough so that he can sing on camera and make Youtube videos. They would be instant hits I have no doubt about it. Screw Rebecca Black, there's a new Internet star in town, Shiggy Shigz!
We get done with our play-testing session around 4, and Danny and I get to talking about Magic. He says that Steve Sr. has been hanging out with Roy a lot lately and spending a lot of money on Magic. Magic has seem to boomed in popularity lately in our area. I half-jokingly tell Danny "yea, all these people think they're the shit at Magic. I should start up again and put them in their place. Can't have people feeling good about themselves, take them down a peg or two." In my peak I had about a 3 month win streak at Merlyn's followed by my undefeated Portland regional win in 2007. This was back when Merlyn's was literally the only place in the Spokane area to play Magic. Now it seems like every single shop has their own FNM. I could probably get back in the swing of things in a relatively short amount of time. We look at some of the new singles they have for sale, apparently black-blue-white Solar Flare is in again. I ask the owner if the new set is a good money set and he says yes. He's selling the new Liliana for like $55 and this 2/1 blue flash guy for like $25. I'm sure it's higher than what their real values are, but it's probably somewhere in that range. And he says all the new lands come in that set and they're decent money. If I get back in I may start with a box of Innistrad. Need to do more research.
I tell Danny that my big-picture goal is for Team O to basically dominate every local of every card game that was out there. Link and Nate got the Pokemon side of things, I have been dominating the Lightning Comics locals and Rob has been dominating the Board Game Nation ones, earlier it was this Corey guy playing Scraps who thinks he's the shit now cuz he has a few local tops under his belt. I guess he plays at Uncle's now, good job, everyone there sucks.
I tell Danny that my big-picture goal is for Team O to basically dominate every local of every card game that was out there. Link and Nate got the Pokemon side of things, I have been dominating the Lightning Comics locals and Rob has been dominating the Board Game Nation ones, earlier it was this Corey guy playing Scraps who thinks he's the shit now cuz he has a few local tops under his belt. I guess he plays at Uncle's now, good job, everyone there sucks.
I really don't want to play at Lightning anymore cuz it's just too damn long of a drive and the payout just doesn't warrant it. But without me there, we wouldn't have a "representative" for Lightning. I don't know where Epler is, he freaking lives in CDA and hasn't been showing up. Nate not playing I can understand. I would most likely like to switch to playing at the downtown Uncle's on Saturdays. It's much much closer. I don't want to support Uncle's, but at the same time I don't like hearing about people running their mouth thinking they're hot shit when they don't even have to play a Team O member to win.
Danny and I talk a bit more in the BGN parking lot and I tell him that I felt that when I first came back to Spokane, everyone on the team had a hunger/passion to do extremely well and dominate. Nowadays it seems like that passion is gone. I understand life takes precedence over Yugz, but Danny brought up a good point of "do we want a team of good players that don't play, or have an active team that's not as good?" I don't know, my first preference is for those good players to play, but I obviously can't force anyone to play, as I'm busy on particular days too. Saturdays are basically my only days now. All this ties back in with my one post where I explained that there were too many different places to play and that results in each local having smaller attendance.
I tell Danny that honestly I would like it if both Uncle's locations closed down to force those players into our locales of play. He says Andrew has pretty much killed competitive YuGiOh in our area, and I agree 100%. Danny also told me that the owner of Uncle's told him that YuGiOh was what was keeping her business afloat for some of the periods/monthly reports. Knowing that they have much lower attendance now that Team O doesn't play there anymore, it is probably just a matter of time before they close down. Either that or get rid of Andrew, I dunno how he has them wrapped around his finger like he does. The one thing they have going for them though is that they sell board games and that kinda stuff in general and have a location in the mall, so around Christmas time they are good business. I rarely see people any time else during the year though. I doubt a good holiday period is enough to support them for the whole rest of the year though and mall space rental can't be cheap.
Overall I had an amazing weekend. It was great to hang out in a non Yugioh-only atmosphere. Unfortunately I spent way more $ than I had hoped for, but when I think about the ratio between the number of years I've been gone and the night, it comes out to a pretty small amount. If we go out again though I ain't buyin' so many rounds of alcohol and not paying for peoples' meals, lol.
It's late, this post is extremely long, and I still gotta get our sheets out of the dryer, get my wife to get out of bed so I can make it, and go to bed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)