How to Train Your Dragons of Legend

Today marked the release of the latest expansion set, Dragons of Legend.  The set will without a doubt change the metagame significantly, with the release of not only Soul Charge, but both the Fire & Ice Hands, Kuribandit, Mathematician, and Wiretap are all great cards as well.  There are some definite sleepers in the set that could prove to be great cards that many people have overlooked with the hype of other great cards.  Moving forward, here is a breakdown of my thoughts on a variety of cards from Dragons of Legend.

Soul Charge

Soul Charge is easily the card in Dragons of Legend with the greatest amount of hype and for good reason, it is a great card.  Soul Charge allows the player to sacrifice their battle phase to summon up to five monsters from their graveyard, by paying 1000 life points for each.  Believe me when I say that every 1000 life points will matter more than ever.  It is doubtful you will see as many decks running Upstart Goblins, in my opinion, as it essentially is giving your opponent a free summon off of one of their Soul Charges.  Soul Charge will create numerous plays in decks that gain advantage without the use of their battle phase or simply by creating huge boards that are incredibly difficult for the opponent to break.  We have already seen the price of Shooting Quasar Dragon go insane due to the release of Soul Charge and the obscene combos that it creates with Lonefire Blossom.  Soul Charge will without a doubt be a defining card this format and have an unbelievable and immediate effect on the metagame. 

Fire & Ice Hands

Given the Fire & Ice Hands were announced prior to Soul Charge, I thought these cards would easily be some of the best in the set.  After Soul Charge, they almost seem balanced…almost.  The Hands will certainly be seeing play at some point, given their unbelievable effects.  Your opponent can have a field of six cards and you can have one of these things and destroy every card on their field in the right situation.  It is literally a one card Black Rose Dragon when played correctly.  That is incredibly powerful all by itself, but not only that, it is a plus-able floater.  They are simply a really, really powerful pair of cards that may not see immediate play, but eventually will be extremely powerful.

Kuribandit

Kuribandit screams break me.  It adds an interesting interaction to the Sylvan archetype that it did not previously have.  Magical Merchant provided a similar effect, however with Kuribandit, you are guaranteed to see five cards and you have an option of the Spell/Trap that you add.  In addition, you can do it the same turn that Kuribandit is played rather than having to wait for Merchant to flip.  Given all of these circumstances and the release of Sylvan Charity awaiting the TCG, Kuribandit could be a very key cog in the correct build of Sylvans.

Mathematician

Mathematician is a creation of two of my favourite cards sandwiched into one.  It provides you a powerful effect, similar to that of Armageddon Knight, except for virtually any deck.  In addition, similar to Card Trooper, it makes itself a floater, given the condition that it dies by battle.  With 1500 attack it is not exactly a pushover.  It creates more interesting interactions when crashing into say a Mermail Abysslinde, causing the Abysslinde’s summoned monster to miss the timing on its effect (like Abysspike or Abyssturge).

Wiretap

Wiretap is quite a powerful trap card.  It can be both better and worse than the already played Seven Tools of the Bandit, but more often better.  First off, it literally has no cost and remains a counter trap, just like Seven Tools of the Bandit.  In addition, there are certain traps that may be in your advantage for your opponent to have back in their deck, for instance a Solemn Warning if they are low on life or if you have an already established field, which essentially makes the card a dead draw.  Wiretap can be a double-edged sword though as it can add powerful cards versus your deck back into your opponent’s deck for use later in the duel, such as Macro Cosmos versus a graveyard based deck.  Simply put, I can confidently say that Wiretap will probably trump Seven Tools of the Bandit in seeing play.

Construction Train Signal Red

When this card was brought to my attention by my friend, I actually had to re-read it.  This card is actually unreal.  Not only is it an EARTH machine type monster, it also provides a very real addition to Geargias.  It helps one of the deck’s major weaknesses in having to protect Gear Gigant, and being a hand trap it is quite hard to play around.  It is better than similar cards like Battle Fader, because rather than only stopping direct attacks, damage, or allowing your monster to live, it is not able to be destroyed by battle and it puts a monster on board that you are able to XYZ with next turn.  Not only that Gigant is able to recycle it from the graveyard, so you do not have to play more than one, allowing you to prevent it from clogging in your hand.  Make no mistake, Construction Train Signal Red is a really damn good card.

Black Sonic

While Black Sonic is an interesting card that is receiving a little bit of hype for Blackwings it does not actually do much that other cards do not already do.  It is harder to stop then a Mirror Force, it is also harder to activate it.  The cards most interesting effect, in my opinion, is that if the opponent controls three or more Blackwings, then it can be played directly from the opponent’s hand.  While this is certainly a powerful effect, good players should be able to play around this and it also requires the opponent to overextend into you.  In short, if I were to play Blackwings, I’m not sure that Black Sonic would even make it into my deck.

Rank-Up Magic Quick Chaos

Rank-Up Magic Quick Chaos is fairly easy to understand.  If you have an XYZ monster, you can summon its C version on top of it by playing this card and targeting your XYZ monster.  Rank-Up Magic Quick Chaos does exactly what its name suggests, creates a quick chaos XYZ monster.  Most relevant at the moment, Number C101: Silent Honor DARK.  Silent Honor ARK already sees play so fitting this in your extra deck is not difficult, but I am not sure how realistic just splashing Quick Chaos is, however, once on the field, Honor DARK is one hell of a good monster and difficult to get rid of permanently without the opponent’s own Honor ARK or by banishing/bouncing it.

Given the amount of good cards in Dragons of Legend it is sure to change the metagame significantly and cause numerous decks that were tier two or three to combat tier one decks more than ever before with the additions of cards like Soul Charge and others.  

Las Vegas Post Mortem

The first event of a format is always a pretty defining moment.  It can tell us what we can expect to see more of for future events, where the prices of cards will go, and similarly what will define the format.  I realize that YCS Brazil was technically the first event of the format; however, we can tell a lot more from an event consisting of over 1000 players than only around 300.  While this will change significantly after the release of both Dragons of Legend and Primal Origins, it is still important to dissect the results of the event.  Vegas provided us with a pretty clear consensus that the top two decks the way the format is currently constructed are going to be Geargia and Mermails.  Geargia took home ten spots out of the top 32 and Mermails accounted for nine spots.  Between both Mythic Rulers and Hieratics, Dragon variants accounted for five spots of the top 32.  Two Bujin, two Fire Fist, and four rogues rounded out the rest of the top 32.  Besides clearly seeing that Geargia and Mermail were the top two decks from the results of this event, we can see what individual cards each of their builds played that make them unique to builds that we have seen before.

The most played and most hyped deck throughout the weekend was clearly Geargia.  Virtually every Geargia player was maindecking either two or three Black Horn of Heaven.  Some players were even siding Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare as fifth, sixth, and in some cases, seventh Black Horns.  The main reason players were playing Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare at all was due to the fact that it was a response to Gear Gigant X that would prevent the monster from being special summoned from the graveyard.  It could also destroy Arsenal’d Armors that were trying to flip themselves down, amongst other things.  In response to many players maindecking Black Horn of Heaven, many players began to change their playstyles with the deck; in addition, to playing other cards that would play around the techs players were maindecking.  For instance, in games two and three especially, in Geargia mirrors, most players would not attempt to instantly XYZ into a Gigant, but would instead go for Accelerator/Arsenal beats.  This is largely due to the fact that very few players played outs to plain old attacking.  As well, duelists played Seven Tools of the Bandit, to get around Black Horns and other traps that were plaguing the rest of the deck’s power plays.

While Geargia were far and away the most played deck, the most interesting deck that appeared, in my opinion, was piloted by one of my friends, Chancy Wigglestove, also known by his online screen name, Squiddy.  Squiddy played a version of Mermails that was interestingly unique.  Squiddy’s build played interesting cards and that are not often seen in Mermails builds anymore such as, Dragon Ice, Moulinglacia, and Fishborg Archer.  In addition, by playing a Genex Undine build of Mermails, Squiddy was able to make Beelze, something that few duelists had dealt with before or in testing, giving him another advantage against the competition.  Squiddy’s build was really interesting, in that in dealt with many problems that the format presented and used ways to get rid of them that were not commonly seen, and therefore would cause his opponent’s to try to think hard to get around his plays.  Squiddy’s only loss throughout the constructed portion of the event was due to his decision to go drop a deuce instead of play and got a game loss for his trouble.  His eventual loss came in draft play during top 16 to 3^rd place duelist, Robbie Boyajian.

In short, there were innovative and new ideas seen during YCS Vegas and it provides insight as to what players should expect for local and regional events to come.  Next Friday, marks the release of Dragons of Legend, a set that is sure to change the metagame significantly when it releases a number of powerful meta-changing cards, including Soul Charge, Fire Hand, Ice Hand, Mathematician, Wiretap, and Kuribandit.  Check back later this week for power plays and thoughts on these cards and more in the upcoming set.

Yugi-Nomics: Market Capitalization

Any player with skin in the game knows that they should pay attention to event results and attempt to figure out how they will impact the secondary market.  What may seem like the most obvious way to do this is to see what is doing well at an event and buy into it, but this does not always pay off.  While players actually at the event may be scrambling to get their hands on the next greatest thing in the world, the supply at this event will be extremely low, when compared to the world, and especially if the card was irrelevant prior to this.  This means that the price may not see the same sort of appreciation post-event.  In addition, other factors contribute to the card’s price beyond how it fared in the event, including but not limited to, a newly discovered tech or combo and hype.  For instance, earlier this year when a number of premier players topped with Full House in their decks the card was ripe for the picking, as cheap as $0.25, rising as high as $5-8.  The profit margin available on these types of pickups is humungous, even if you have to unload them lower than everyone else to get rid of your quantity.

In order to profit off of these buys correctly, you need to get in at the right time or you can get burned.  If you get in before the card price sees a significant spike then there can be great deals to be had.  If you get in late and the card price is peaking, then you are going to be stuck with a loss or at best, a break-even.  Therefore, a lot of the time buying into cards with prices even above $10 can be extremely risky and not worthwhile, unless you are absolutely certain the price will rise.  For instance, many people thought after YCS Toronto in 2012 that Grandsoil was going to be an incredible force in the metagame, some going as far as calling it the next Dark Armed.  If they had a fair quantity of the card and got in early enough¹, the may have made a massive profit, but if you were like most and got in too late, your investment dropped like a rock².

As a buyer, there are frequently safe (and cheap!) investments to pour cards into.  Currently a number of these cards exist, where the value is currently low, but is bound to rise, or conversely the value is extremely stable and will likely not go anywhere even with virtually any sort of reprint.  Here are some that I believe to be solid choices at the moment and another more speculative choice, moving forward.

Stardust Dragon

Stardust Dragon is a popular card and comes in virtually every single rarity imaginable.  It has seen a number of reprints lately including both the Shadow Specters SE and the latest Gold Series.  Stardust Dragon is a card that is not only a powerful monster, but is loved by fans of the anime alike.  As soon as these products go out of print, I am confident Stardust Dragon will creep back up in value, regardless of the rarity.  It was not too long ago that I could not manage to keep my hands on this card.

Stardust Spark Dragon

While Stardust Spark Dragon is a card that will see an inevitable reprint, I believe it to be undervalued because it has a very good effect that can lockout opponents and be difficult to play around.  If you can pick them up cheap enough, then stock up and hold on for the ride.  A number of manga cards prior to this have shot up in value after release and once the manga was gone, this will be one of those as well.

Effect Veiler & Maxx “C” (Super)

This rarity of two of the most powerful hand traps specifically is treated like gold.  There are very few other cards that are easier $10 bills than these.  There are many times when trading, I will gladly go even if I am moving something hard to move for one of these since it is almost the equivalent to moving it for $10 cash.

Traptrix Trap Hole

While this remains speculative, I believe this card could rise in the short future due to the nature of the current list.  The format we are currently in requires that we have numerous pre-emptive responses, such as Solemn Warning, Bottomless Trap Hole, or Black Horn of Heaven, rather than more traditional responses such as Dimensional Prison or Mirror Force.  Traptrix Trap Hole is sort of a cross between a traditional response and a pre-emptive response.  While it requires something to happen and you can draw it after the opponent already has the monster on board, you can still activate it during the main phase where the bulk of the opponent’s play will occur.  In addition, it has powerful interactions with cards like Gear Gigant X, as if the opponent activates its effect it causes it to miss the timing, because Traptrix Trap Hole does not negate activations.  I strongly believe after YCS Las Vegas this card will see considerably more play than it does now, causing its price to rise.

In short, many cards will rise and fall during an event, but if you are going to try your hand at market capitalization, get in early and know when to get out. 

¹ Prior to YCS Toronto, Grandsoil was between $10-12

² Near the end of YCS Toronto, Grandsoil had risen to over $40, but quickly began to drop back down to earth, settling around $20, but eventually dropping to the $5-8 that is currently at today

The Sin City Conundrum

In a few short hours I will be on a plane to one of the most exciting cities I have ever had the pleasure of visiting in Las Vegas.  With YCS Las Vegas quickly approaching, it is important to keep the metagame in mind and to think about not only what is the best deck one should play for the event, but to think about what other players will be playing and what specific cards to use to tweak their deck for maximum performance in an eleven-round gauntlet.  Last format, we saw decks like Fire Fist and Mermails dominate events later in the format, but it was not before Hieratic Rulers made a splash at the very beginning.  While Hieratic Rulers did not suffer much from the ban list, Fire Fists and Mermails both took significant blows with the limiting of Coach Soldier Wolfbark and Mermail Abyssgunde respectively.  Before deciding what to play for an event, one must consider what they themselves are proficient in playing and what is relevant in the current metagame.  Ideally, you should know your deck’s combos inside and out, as well as, nifty plays that will catch unsuspecting players off guard and give you the much needed upper hand in the match.  Sometimes it is not about the matchup or how you draw, but all in how you play your opponent.  There have been a number of matches where my opponents have handed me games on silver platters because of their own missteps.  Do not make the same mistake.

Mermails for instance will have changed vastly in how they are played now than before.  Players will have thought of new tricks, using cards that were rarely seen in competitive builds of the deck, until now.  The limitations of Mermail Abyssgunde and Coach Soldier Wolfbark are actually quite similar, in that they both constantly allowed the respective decks to summon powerful XYZ monsters each turn consistently with little cost.  While it affects the Mermail matchup in a way of having to play different cards that may outlet new entire combos and charades, Fire Fists will not play too many cards that you are not already familiar with, even if they are not playing a build that features Spirit and Rooster. 

Other competitors that previously utilized Fire Fists or Mermails may flock to a new deck, that was less or unaffected by the list, convinced that their deck has been hit beyond repair or that another deck is simply a better option for the upcoming event.  This sort of mindset can be dangerous if the player is making a rash decision, does not have a competitive build of the new deck, or simply is worse at playing that deck than the latter.  As evidenced by the results this past weekend in Mexico City, Mermails is still a deck to be reckoned with, taking 7 of the top 32 spots, followed closely by Bujins and Geargias, both placing 6 in the top 32.  This means heading into YCS Las Vegas, many players may flock towards these three decks.  Of course there will be a fair distribution of other decks that will make up the rest of the field including, Fire Fists, Karakuris, Spellbooks, Harpies, Dark Worlds, Hieratic Rulers, Mythic Rulers, Swarms, Spirits, and Raccoons.

By expecting the presumed top decks to be Mermails, Bujins, and Geargia we can determine that it may be better to side or main different cards dependent on how they matchup against them.  For instance, one may decide to side deck Light-Imprisoning Mirror and DNA Surgery, rather than just siding one, because they are expecting to encounter a large amount of Bujin decks throughout the tournament.  Conversely, they may decide to run a completely different deck that performs well against all of these decks.  Upon deciding on what to run, based on your own personal preferences, you should construct a side deck that combats not only these decks, but a collection of cards that combats rogue matchups as well.  These cards should be good against a number of matchups, such as additional backrow removal, graveyard hate, or stall depending on what your deck is able to run given its own constraints.  In conjunction with the construction of your side, you should also decide on maindecked hate for matchups that could be difficult for you.  For instance, when Evilswarms were first legal for YCS play, a number of Mermail players began playing Mermail Abyssturge when they had not previously.  They used this to recycle previously used Infantries to get rid of the Ophions that they were so afraid of.  Both this and the construction of your side deck are what will differentiate your deck from the average.  This is important, as it will once again create difficult and unexpected situations for opponents.

In short, play something that you are comfortable with, but have researched and discovered ways to set you apart from the rest of the pack.  With whatever you decide, remember to know what all of your cards do specifically, you do not want to get caught in a nasty situation before it is too late.  Remember to read your opponent’s cards if you do not know what they do, instead of relying only on their explanations.  After your decklist is handed in, all you can do is take it one match at a time.