What Products Should I Buy?!

Hello everyone! Ever had that feeling where you want to buy all the packs behind the shelf? All the decks, all the tins? Today, I will be talking about what type of product that a player should invest in. This may be biased, but there is a solid amount of truth behind it. I'm always an advocate of knowing what you get and not take the chance at some unknown kind of product. Compared to your work environment and your hobby, I think money investment in a hobby is more important because you don't want to use more than unnecessary money into something that may dwindle. So let's get started in smarter investment in the YGO products.

PRICE

Each product has it's monetary value. Each pack should be $4. Each deck should be $10. Each Gold Edition should be $20. Each Legendary Collection should be $20-30, depending on what you get. Etc. But if your locals has packs going for $5 or a funky range of prices, then there's some kind of issue. That's the time you try to figure out what's up with the store OR go some where else to find another store to buy your product. 

GUARANTEED

What cards are guaranteed in your product? Personally, I like buying product where my cards are 100% certain. For example, a Collector's Tin, I know that I get the cover card and the 5 extra super rares. No chance in those, and majority of the time, it's useful cards, not like booster packs where it's completely ratio'd by Konami. I'd rather be able to utilize those promos and also get a chance to pull some good cards out of the packs. Structure decks always gave the player 100% guarantee that you will get those 40 cards promised on the back of the box. Especially the new archetypes that are included in the box. Don't chance the 12% that you might pull one in a case ($700) of the newest set. It's not worth that much, in that case, just trade for it. 

YOU WANT TO PLAY IT

Don't just buy it for that one card, but for the entire deck/cards. Don't spend $700 on a case of YGO cards because you want that super awesome shiny card. Even this isn't very helpful as a lot of the "Good cards" are going to be super hard to pull, you may not even meet the number of cards for the deck that you would be building. But God willing, you can pull it off. 

MOVING THE PRODUCT

What do you do with the excess amount of cards? Go and use them as trades or get them out onto eBay. If you're too young, find stores that are willing to buy bulk cards and sell it to them. They are more than willing to buy 1000 commons for $10 or more depending on your local store or website. These places are much better than one person slowly trying to move all those Normal Monsters that aren't that good. (If a Frostosaurus can run it over, it's not worth it) 

OVERPOWERED!!!

You have to play the deck, or know of an overpowered card in there. That's gonna be hard unless you know the HUGE VAST and GROWING YGO card database. You'd have to know what cards people would use, what the current meta consists of, and how it would be game changing. An example would be Maxx "C". With Royal Oppression around, it wasn't necessary, but as soon as that disappeared, the demand for Maxx "C" increased. Why you may ask? It's because it gives your opponent the potential to OTK you the next turn, unless you OTK him with your special summons. 

Ban List

August, the biggest time for the September Yu-Gi-Oh! banlist. As many of you, Konami is capable of throwing Screw(you)balls when they want to, especially with the new holiday wave 1 tins. Coming out with GAOV and PHSW packs, but reprinting PSHW and GAOV cards in the 6 promotional cards as well. Also, last years ban list was a big confusion as they semi-limited Reborn Tengu when OCG didn't get their Reborn Tengus (the old saying is, if it is exclusive, it won't get touched, WRONG).

Here are my ban list predictions:

Inzektors -

This deck is huge in OCG and dominant in Regionals/Locals in TCG. People say that limiting Inzektor Hornet will help the situation, however, after playing the deck for a few months, thinking about how the deck works, and talking to a few more experienced players, Inzektor Dragonfly is what makes the deck so OP'd. Yes, the Hornet is a key component, but if you look at OCG, they run 3 Inzektor Ladybug because it creates more targets for DFly and Centipede. So anything, Konami will be limiting DFly.

LS/Chaos Dragons -

We all know that decks that has to do with milling are the luckiest and one of the most sac-iest. As a player in my local always tells me, "You're such a sac. You would have all the answers" well, maybe if you built a deck that aimed for your locals, then you'd win your locals more often, just saying. Anyways, tangent. Future Fusion (or FuFu) will get banned. Not just because of this particular deck, but with future cards coming out, such as Mermail (mermail E. Heros = win) and countless other things. I was thinking FuFu, Cyber Eltanin, and cyber monsters in the deck. Ridiculous. Lightpulsar must be hit, going to semi(2) or limit(1). Same with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. Lightpulsar = recycle of REDMD or said other dragons. REDMD for obvious reasons, but from what I'm learning, they might just put him to semi-limited because Konami is still trying to push for XYZs, (Gustav Max). Chaos Sorcerer may go back to 1 or 2 maybe even back on the ban list with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy.

Wind-Ups -

Well, guess we saw this coming. With Wind-Ups topping a lot of the World Championship Qualifiers (or more known as Nationals to the older generations), we can see why this deck is getting hit by the ban list. First off, it destroys your hand turn one, leaving you with max 2 resources left in hand and worst case scenario, you're top decking yourself to a victory. 3 very main key cards are in this deck, Wind-Up Hunter, Wind-Up Zenmaighty and Wind-Up Rat. You may ask, "which one is going to get hit?" Personal Opinion, both Wind-up Hunter to 1 and Wind-up Znemaighty to 1. This way, you'll have dead Wind-Up Rats in your deck and you can only loop the hand max 2 times. Some say to ban Hunter and problem is solved, but I think there's a larger problem. To kill the deck, no, to force the player to play other cards, yes.

DinoRabbits -

I personally don't think Konami will do too much about this. Maybe force the Evolzar Laggia to 1 and Evolzar Dolkka to 2 will make the deck less viable. My reasoning of not touching Rescue Rabbit is because of Konami's push for the XYZs and the usage of Normal Monsters. This may sound silly, but in all good business perspective, it does make sense. Maybe in another year, we will have a different type of monsters, Maybe a RED colored card!? Who knows? *cough Konami cough*

Miscellaneous -

Mystical Space Typhoon is going to go to 1. With Night Beam out, there's no point. Also with so many new archetypes requiring backrow support, I can see this being quite possible.

Tour Guide From the Underworld is another really popular target for a lot of players. Especially after Konami really sold on the Battle Packs, they have a good push for the next meta and they can semi-limit/limit this card for no reason. Some people have told me that Sangan was gonna get banned, but 75% of people would just XYZ into something.

These are what are going to get hit by the ban list. Just my own personal opinion of what is "OP'd" in this meta. What's your opinion?

NAWQ - Long Awaited Update

Almost two months later, this person finally puts up a post. Sorry about the long awaited post. I've been busy with work and trying to figure out some logistics in my life. Anyways, as you can read from the title, I judged in the North American World Qualifier for Yu-Gi-Oh!. It was an exciting news when I got an email confirmation that I were to be judging at such a prestige level of event. Before I continue, I want to thank for all those who got me on the staff and those who supported me. I am very thankful and grateful for such an opportunity. 


A small tid bit about the event. It was an attendance of a little over 1600 in the main event. I believe that Konami tried to put it in the middle of the United States so that people from the East coast and the West Coast was able to attend at the same price where as if it was in California or in New Jersey, it would be too "expensive" for some of the players. However, I also believe that it was just that they try to put the NAWQ at different places in the country every year. Also, with this being the case, the amount of people were well below what was expected. With 4400+ players having invites to this event, we expected at least 2500+ players and max 3500 players. However, it wasn't the case, having "unnecessary" rooms. But, as we always say, "better to have too much than have too little". 


A lot of the staff members were a bit stressed because of the amount of things going on. Not exactly sure what was going on, but a lot of hustle and bustle was rousing around in the back area of the judge area. The staff were talking to this player and that player for doing something that they weren't allowed to, etc. etc. It was quite the unexpected behavior of the players and I, as a judge AND a player, am upset about the player's behavior. Besides all this, the event staff moved swiftly and quickly which made the event end sooner and on time. 


Now to one of the least important part of the event, the winners. As you can read a lot of this stuff on the Konami website, I will also make a quick note on this post. Tyler Tabman was the winner with the deck, Wind-Up. It was an interesting deck that won it, but was one of the few decks that had a huge advantage. However, I think that DinoRabbits should have a huge advantage in this format, the only issue is the inconsistency it does have. But it should have a favorable match up against Wind-Ups, so I was confused when I heard that Wind-Up won. Here's his deck list. (found off yugidojo)

Monsters: 21

3 – Wind-Up Rabbit
3 – Wind-Up Rat
3 – Wind-Up Shark
3 – Tour Guide From the Underworld
3 – Effect Veiler
2 – Wind-Up Magician
1 – Wind-Up Hunter
1 – Spirit Reaper
1 – Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 13

3 – Mystical Space Typhoon
2 – Wind-Up Factory
2 – Instant Fusion
1 – Heavy Storm
1 – Book of Moon
1 – Dark Hole
1 – Pot of Avarice
1 – Mind Control
1 – Monster Reborn

Traps: 8

2 – Solemn Warning
2 – Torrential Tribute
2 – Bottomless Trap Hole
1 – Solemn Judgment
1 – Mirror Force

Extra: 15

3 – Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
1 – Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 – Number 20: Giga Brilliant
1 – Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 – Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 – Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 – Number 39: Utopia
1 – Acid Golem
1 – Steelswarm Roach
1 – Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1 – Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
1 – Cyber Saurus
1 – Dragoness the Wicked Knight

Side: 15

3 – Dimensional Fissure
3 – Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
2 – Maxx C
2 – Snowman Eater
2 – Dimensional Prison
1 – Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 – Soul Taker
1 – Dust Tornado

This was a surprise for a lot of North Americans because a lot of people are in the state that DinoRabbits and LS Dragons will win it for sure, but never saw that Wind-Ups had a decent matchup against any and almost any deck. Again, it really matters one what you were paired up against. Maybe he got paired against an easy matchup, maybe he got the first round bye. Only he would know, but so far, the deck looks solid and I really can't complain too much. After all, it is Yu-Gi-Oh!, there's not much explanation to this card game. :\


Until next time, Blog to you soon!

Opening a Case

This was my first time opening a case of some sort of packs from Yu-Gi-Oh! It was pretty awesome, not gonna lie. Especially after waiting 2 months for it to arrive at my door steps. I opened every single card possible and I even traded some of those cards for some newer cards out there. I was really satisfied. All you need to know is, I'm not using the inzektor engine to get my leviairs for my rescue rabbits lol. Any who. I have enough resources to build several decks now. SUPER HAPPY!

YCS Chicago [Judge experience]

This is my second premier event that I am judging. I LOVED IT. It was another amazing event and like the 100th, I learned a lot from judging and from watching players play. We relied on each other for rulings and sometimes a judge overhears one of my rulings and corrects me. Thank God for that or else I would have been obliterated. My first ever appeal from these 2 premier events that I've judged came from a well known player. It was super satisfying when I got it right and he got it wrong. Maybe I wasn't firm with my call, but I was super happy that I got it right. Hopefully, this player will learn a few things about that happened there.

As for the rest of the event, it was relatively slow and a lot of drama going on that was completely unnecessary, but once there's money and pride on the line, things will happen. Theft, arguments, cheating, card sharking (purposely not maintaining the game flow/state), and  fights. I wished that we played this game to enjoy it and not for the prizes or feeding our own ego. This is small paragraph is irrelevant, but I felt a lot of it throughout the event.

On day 2, I may have been a bit rude to the players, but I felt it was necessary because they have been through this since day 1. There was no need to continually do the same thing two days in a row. Just my opinion. We were all tired and I'm sure them not understanding where they were standing and me being tired did not help. I learned a lot about patience and a lot about where I should be trying to help players and judges grow. I needed a lot of patience to teach players each rule and to help judges, but it was awesome. I felt like there was a good connection in this group.

However, there were a few disconnects between the judges, but I think they were minor and I think that's a good thing. We need to put those issues aside and work on bringing a good event for the players and that's what I felt we did. Keep it up judges. Thanks for the opportunity again Julia.

100th YCS Judge

I was super excited and at the same time, super nervous. As I'm listening to Keep Ya Head Up by 2Pac, I'm reflecting about how thankful I am with such great judges around me. My friend's judge from Ecuador came up to help with judging and he was my supervisor for the event. It was great because I could tell people if they were right or wrong, catch people trying to cheat and to create a fair and enjoyable time for the players. Even though I don't know 100% of the rulings, it was good to help people to understand why certain cards interact the way they do. I did mess up on one ruling, but it was forgivable since it was mid rounds and at the last tables (x-2) so they wouldn't make it to the tops, especially with the decks they were running... Sorry, but it's the truth. I saw a dude run a Tour Guide From the Underworld Inzektor build and was in the last tables for the 11th and 12th round.

What I've learned from this YCS judge event is that, there are a lot of players, but it really is up to the players to read the card text, read the opponent, judge the circumstance, and figure out what the best option is for the hand that was given to you. That is if you want to win/top the YCS events. If you were there to have fun, by all means, do so. I had a blast judging and I hope as a player, I get that same enjoyment. Although my legs were super tired and wanted to do nothing but sleep after the first day, it was great. One thing that Konami has started to do is Problem Solving Card Text, PSCT as some judges call it. It helps the players understand from previous card texts by rewording punctuation and misleading card text. I give a round of applause to Konami for that. So it's less work for the judges. The only/bigger issue is the certain card interactions, (e.i. - Neo-Spacian Grand Mole vs. AoJ Catastor.)

For the first round, I was given a situation where one player drew an extra card, he was honest enough to tell me that he drew an extra card, but he shuffled his hand. I asked him if he could verify what card it was, but he "believed" it was this card, but the game state was irreversible. He already used Pot of Duality, normal summoned a Barbaros and set one card. So, I give him credit for telling me, but without verification of what card he drew extra into, I can't help him. Game Loss. As much as that sucks, it is what it is. Worst part, he could have beat his opponent from what deck he was playing. What can I say, if you try to cheat, you're cheating yourself. Later on, same instance happened, again, game loss, irreversible game state. *sigh* Please stop doing that...

After the YCS, I ran into some "locals". Not sure if you can call them that especially if they're about 30 miles from the city. I approached them and asked if they were going to the airport and wondered what time their flight was. 930pm and 1130pm, I look at my watch,  10am... LOL I asked them if they wanted to join me to go to the local Long Beach Aquarium. They said sure, we went to eat brunch first, at Hooters (normal burger restaurant, just some eye candy for the guys). Then we went on an adventure at an arcade and a hunt for the aquarium... apparently I led them to the wrong place and eventually, we found it. We had a blast as nerdy as we already were, we found ourselves enjoying our time in the Aquarium. After the Aquarium, we went to the Airport, found our flights and that was it for that. I made new friends and met new people this entire weekend. It was great. I can't wait to do it again if I could :]

Thanks for reading!
Allen Fung

Judging in Long Beach

Wow, I didn't think I would be a judge for such an important event. Even though it is a normal YCS (Yugioh! Championship Series), I think it will be a huge event because of the things that are given out to the players and after all, it is the 100th one being set out in the YGO community. I've talked a lot about being a judge with my local TO (Tournament Organizer) and other various RC-1 qualified and other judges around my locals. It was interesting. Not only that, people started noticing me that I was a judge and a reliable source of information. That is not how I wanted it to go since I did get back into YGO last year (2 formats) and I have just gotten back into YGO from a 4 year break. I think I need to get myself accommodated to the huge database of cards out there before I can do something about it.

From the current experience in locals, I've learned that a lot of casual players do not read the card text that is in front of them and that aggravates me. The problem solving text is right there in front of them. There are game mechanics that a lot of people don't know like how optional effects and mandatory effects fall in a chain (e.g. Catastor vs Grand Mole) that I can understand, but where as can I special summon this from my hand, that's a different story, that is based on text and what was activated on the field.

Hopefully, this will carry over into the Judging experience in Long Beach because if I can see a YCS as a large locals rather than any thing else. The only thing I feel sorry for is the amount of people that might be playing Inzektors or Wind-Ups because their opponent will cry a lot because they might as well lose first turn to Wind-Up or lose turn 2 to Inzektors. The Inzektors are an aggressive type of deck and the wind-up as well, but they thing is that if the wind-up goes second, it can hardly make a come back if they have some sort of back row. With wind-up out, it really depends on who goes first that will determine who wins the match rather than who has more skills.

Until another post about my YGO adventures and blogging. Hmmmm, maybe something that will help you guys out next time. :P

Plant Synchro Deck Profile

With the acquirement of Tour Guides, I am finally able to play plant synchro deck. It's a format late and soon to be two formats late, but sometimes, when a duelist has a chance at these "tier 1" decks, we play it and see how it goes. It went well to say the least. My friend and I talked about how the deck is a mix of random cards in a deck, but it works so well because it has the random +1s and the random answers to the opponent's cards. The Tour Guides are always an aggressor in any deck and in this deck, it makes it 10 times more aggressive. Not only that, it's also dark material for the BLS. Spirit Reaper is when the poop hits the fan and we need to set or become the aggressor as well. Well, anyways, here's the deck profile:

MONSTERS [22]

1x B.L.S. - Envoy of the Beginning
1x Caius
1x Dandylion
2x Effect Veiler
1x Glow-up Bulb
1x Gorz
1x Lonefire
2x Maxx "C"
3x Reborn Tengu
1x Sangan
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Spore
3x Thunder King Rai-oh
3x Tour Guide

SPELLS [13]

1x Book of Moon
2x Creature Swap
1x Dark Hole
2x Enemy Controller
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mind Control
1x Monster Reborn
1x Mystical Space T.
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Scapegoat

TRAPS [5]

3x Dimensional Prison
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute

SIDE [15]

2x Cyber Dragon
2x D.D. Crow
2x Kycoo the Ghost D.
1x Spirit Reaper
2x Smashing Ground
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Chimeratech Fort. Dragon

EXTRA [15]

1x A. of J. Catastor
1x Armory Arm
1x Black Rose D.
1x Brionac
1x Formula Synchron
1x Gaia Knight
1x Orient Dragon
1x Scrap Dragon
1x Stardust Dragon
1x T.G. Hyper Librarian
1x Trishula
1x Leviair
1x No. 17 Leviathan
1x No. 39 Utopia
1x Wind-up Zenmaines

Monster line up is quite normal, I do not have a third Maxx "C" as it is too out of my budget. As for why I do not run the these cards, Debris Dragon, One for One, and Solemn Warning.

Debris Dragon - must synch into a dragon, monster 500 attack or less, attack mode reborned monster, Maxx "C" would stop play, therefore would rather synch, causing your opponent to plus off a possible Maxx "C" as most players play 3 Maxx "C"s or just make a side deck of anti special summon.

One for One - Same issue, possible pluses for opponent's Maxx C but also, if I don't have a good discard outlet, I won't have a monster to special summon nor do I have a follow up after the level one tuner I just summoned.

Solemn Warning - What can I say? I just like my life points too much to waste it on a summon. Also, if the deck has so many outs to cards, what's an issue with one monster summon? Would rather save that 2000 LP for something else.

As for the side, I wanted to hit those pesky backrows (Vanity's Emptiness, D. Fissure, etc. etc.) And I think Dino Rabbit is a big issue for the plant deck because they can run some cards that normally a plant synchro can't (Vanity's Emptiness, D. Fissures, etc. etc.) It' another control deck.

I chose to replace the above named cards for Creature Swaps instead. This is typically a surprise for a lot of people as the Plant Synchro deck can take enough hits to OTK them the next turn. And with them over extending so far, C. Swap can turn the game in your favor in one turn. Also chose to have a 40 card deck rather than a 41(or some random number) card deck because that's just the way I grew up with. The less cards in the deck, the higher the chance to draw the cards. Not too big of a difference, but it's just good to be concise about the deck.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this deck profile of mine. (enter catchy end phrase here)