Spikes & Baron Duel Monster Comet - The #1 Yu-Gi-Oh OCG Site and Community

Article 57: Dual Tactics

3 months of anxious wait, then 3 hours of anxious looking at scans at cost of 3 hours of chaos1986's time to make all members happy (THANKS again for the scans!!), finally, the latest set is here. As usual, I would type my first impression article on the set. At the end of this article, I would also talk about some latest decks in Japanese metagame.

Tactical Evolution - First Impression:

Card Trends and theme:
As I said in my review on [Hell Kaiser Dragon], the main theme of this set is a new mechanic (and FINALLY a new one after...ehh...LV monsters) called Dual monsters. The basic idea of Dual monster is initally at field or at Graveyard (to abuse with other cards), it's treated as a Normal monster. Afterward, you can choose instead of performing a Normal Summon, you "evolutionize" (called "Second Summon"/"Re-Summon") the monster again to gain the effect.

Of course, that's not it for this set. Since we all know it's been a while since a BUNCH of Judai cards are released, Konami thinks "it's time, since there're 80 slots, to print them". Total of 19 Judai cards (5x Cacoon, 1x Necro Guardna, 4x E-Hero/Neospacian Fusion, 9x "Cacoon"/"Neospacian"/"E-Hero" supports) are printed. As for other characters, the Venom cards of Prof. Cobra (if I'm not wrong, ALL the "original" cards used by him), the random Ojama Knight, etc.

As for other, there are 3 random "Reverse effect" monsters, 2 "other Attribute Chaos" monsters, 4 Equipments, random draws (Normal monsters boost...), 5 Normal monsters, etc.

Deck Types:
Here are some of the new deck types that I think people could create after this set, competitive or not.
- "True" Judai Neospacian/Cacoon theme deck (it WILL required god draw!)
- Venom/Reptile Poison
- "Dual" abuse
- Fire-Water, Wind-Earth mix deck
- FLINT!!

For deck types that get boosts:
- Alien, Volcanic, Dark Realm (XD)
- Cyber Dark Dragon
- Gem Beast (not really...)
- Advance Ritual - Demise
- Ojama
- E-Hero/Neospacian (non-Judai god-drawing version)
- Emperor and other "1-tribute abuse"
- Normal monster beats
- Chain abuse
- Greed, Gearfreed, Simochi anti-life (XDD)

Useful cards :
Obviously, we would now look at the useful (not necessary GREAT!!) cards that I believe could be consider to add to deck (no matter theme or every decks...). It goes down from the cardlist.
- Poisonous Snake Lord - Venominaga ("Best win condition EVER")
- Poisonous Snake King - Venominon
- Venom Snake/Venom Boa/Venom Serpent
- E-Hero Another Neos
- Hell Kaiser Dragon
- Aretha of Water/Flute Player of Luck
- Variable Armor
- Fortune Teller of Crystal (Apprentice's latest toy)
- Frost and Flame Twin Dragon/Desert Twister
- Offering of Ritual
- Zombie Master
- Ojama Knight
- Hope of Fifth
- Convert Contact
- Venom Swamp
- Venom Shot
- Cyberdark Impact!
- Dual Summon (Possible best card in the set)
- Skill of Summoner
- Spear of Divine Protector (cough cough Harpy Queen/Lady)
- Jewelry of Usurpation
- Dimensional Tunnel - Mirror Gate -
- Decree of Snake Lord
- Charity of Commoner
- Magic/Trap Capturing

Of course, my first look at the set stops here. Since there're so much useful cards in this set, and also few VERY shitty cards in the set, it's really hard to choose the worst card. However...here it is.

(Drumroll): Quick Draw of Destruction: Surprise? Well, I did changed this...however, the 3 other choices is not as bad as this card. This card said "you play me, you never ever get anything, you then have to pay...oh yeah, it don't stop destructing your life (no optional payment), and yes, opponent gets to draw also. Destroy me with Cyclone? Fine...I will explode on your face for 3000, boo yeahh!!!"

Why not [Broken Bamboo Sword]: It called itself "broken"!! Anyway, at least this card can be useful with [Naked Gearfreed], [Ben Kai], [Maha Vailo], killing [Spirit Reaper], etc.
Why not [Giftcard]/[Gift of Greed]: We all know [Giftcard] with [Simochi] is deadly. We know [Gift of Greed] can be use to deck out opponent and combo with [Greed]...

Latest Metagame (Japanese):
Even if I don't pay much attention (no time) to the whole Asian metagame, the whole metagame basically revolved around 5 types of deck: Beatdown, Decree-Horus, Gadget, Light and Darkness Dragon, and Emperor.

For 3 of those deck types, everybody are familiar with them (Emperor, Gadget, Decree-Horus). Why not beatdown? Well, because there're so many variants of them.

The most classic beatdown in the current metagame is, of course, Cy-Caliber variant. Although there're million types of them (some used Hydrogeddon, some Miine, some go Tomato hand-destruction route, Good Stuff, etc.).

The other variant is Recruiter route. Although they are no way as common as before, there's still Recruiter-Angel (since they have 2 sets of Recruiters), and Undead.

Of course, Spikes' favorite type of beatdown is "Dummy Undead" deck. For those who had never in the world heard about the deck, basically it's just a fancy name for a Baboon-Manticore deck. The deck revolved around [Foolish Burial], [Rescue Cat] + [Worm Beast], [Momonga], [Hell Dragon], and of course, [Reward of Rebirth] to draw until death. It's not one of those "big-hit" deck, however...

As for the last last deck, it's the MOST common deck right now all over Asia. The deck, as the name said, revolved around Light and Darkness Dragon. There are two main variants: Undead Light-Dark and Destiny Light-Dark (there are some others, but I cannot list everything).

For Undead Light-Dark, it used Light and Darkness Dragon with Undead recruiting engine (Pyramid Turtle), abusing LnDD's 2nd effect with beaters like [Dragon Bone Orge] and [Vampire Lord]. As for Destiny Light-Dark, it used the whole "Destiny Draw engine" (nothing new...) with [Destiny Draw], [D-Hero Discguy], [D-Hero Doomguy], and sometimes [D-Hero Diabolicguy] for tribute bait (plus Frog and Dandy...). The monster choice revolved around the "good stuff"/"lock card" like [Jinzo].

So is the deck good? Of course, I had tested it. The ability for LnDD to lock down opponent for 2-3 turns is just insane. The card advantage with 2nd effect of LnDD (revival) bringing back another good monster is also crazy. Destiny Draw engine just draw cards until you don't need them, making "cannot draw the key cards" impossible.

That's it for this article. Next one? I will finish the 2 part Gem Beast article...

- Baron, 5/9/2007