OTKing with Utopia is FUN!!!!!

Well, I was looking at decklists on shriek when I came upon a weird deck named Sacred Zexal Weapons.

Basically, the deck revolves around Sacred's (I refuse to call it Constellar) ability to churn out rank 4s and rank5s continuously. With cards like Ghost Ship, Flamedance Tenki. Photon Slasher, Instant Fusion and Summon Priest, the task of OTKing with Utopia becomes easier.

When I modified the deck a bit(stress on "a bit", I just put in TraGorz and Honest because I don't like setting traps) looks like this.

Monsters:
Sacred Algiedi x2
Sacred Pollux x3
Sacred Kaust x3
Ghost Ship x3
Photon Slasher x2
Summon Priest x1
Estelle Drone x3
Honest
Trag x2
Gorz
ZW- Lightning Blade x2
ZW- Tornado bringer x2
ZW-Phoenix Bow
ZW - Unicorn Spear
ZW- Ultimate Shield

Spells:
Flame Dance Tenki  x3
Instant Fusion x3
ROTA
Staples

Traps:
I don't really like traps in my fun decks

Extra:
x3 Fusion Monsters( level 4 and 5)
Pleiades x2
Utopia x3
Utopia Ray x2
Lion Arms(depends on how many you like)
Gaia Dragoon
Rank 4s and 5s (amount depends on how many Lion Arms you want, although Volcasaurus is kind of a must have)

The goal of the deck is to summon Utopia and Lion Arms in one turn. Lion Arms searches for whatever weapon Utopia needs(usually Lightning Blade or Tornado Bringer, since they equip from the hand). If the two attacks Lion Arms gives you go through, it's usually an OTK.

I haven;t tested the deck that much yet, but based on what I have done so far, only problems I came upon are Kristyas, Windups, Verz Ophion(cause I can't Lion Arms with him around, unless I somehow get two Estelles on the field) and drawing a handful of Weapons.

Some cards I'm thinking of putting in are Breakthrough Skill(because I'm in love with the card), some Traps, and another priest.

TL:DR? Utopia can shit on everything now.

FInal Words: Dustons are cute. Nuff Said.

Cosmo Blazer Stuff: The Haze Beasts

Get ready for a wall of text because I'm too stressed to put pictures.

The effects of the new Cosmo Blazer cards are now up on Wikia and in some are already in DuelingNetwork. 

So far, the themes look pretty good but they are pale in comparison to Wind-ups. 

Although just one Flaming Star monster backed by an S/T zone full of Flame Dances is hard to beat with conventional strategies especially if Tenken is involved. Flaming Stars can easily reach 3k+ attack power, and they can pop your cards. Not as scary as pre-Sept2012 Inzektors but still scary.

But the card that caught my attention is:

"It's not the size of your Basilicok that matters,
it's how you use it" - Sir SkullBuster

Haze Beasts caught my attention because of this boss and the spell Haze Pillar because it reminds me of Soul Charge from CFV. Also, the effect monsters cannot be targeted by card effects, making it quite hard for your opponent to stop you with Veiler, Compulse or Book of Moon.

The Soul Charge is almost unimportant(unless I'm missing something) and Pillar is mostly used to summon Spinx, Peryton or Cerberus first turn(the best one being Cerberus, since he's big and can get you a Haze card if your opponent gets something bigger than him). 

So if charging Basilicok isn't important, then how come he's good? If you're asking this, then you're probably too tired or lazy to read his whole effect. He can banish a monster from the field, just like BLS. And he can also choose to banish a monster in the grave, getting rid of that 4th lightsworn monster, that Machina Fortress, that Grapha or just about something that likes lurking in the grave. Too bad he does not get the "cannot be targeted" effect unless you charge his soul.

How do you summon Basilicock easily? First, there are Pillar and Glory, allowing you to normal summon them without tribute. Next there are the easily summonable monsters like Gryps and Cerberus. There's also Peryton but he's too costly and Spinx but he's still too unreliable because of the lack of good lv6 FIRE monsters.

Other cards that come to mind are Laval Lancelord, Manticore of Darkness and that Super rare Spell card to be released in Assault of the Flaming Kings(that's probably also the name of the spell).

Oh, and look Cerberus has a "destroyed and sent to grave" effect and has 200 def. Rekindling and Call of the Haunted stunts!!!! He can also be called out by Flamvell Firedog but I'm still iffy about that because the dog is not lv6.

Also, generic Rank6 XYZ monsters are good and Sacred M7 will be legal for play when duelist set comes out. Good timing for a lv6 monster theme. 

That's it for now. I'm still exploring possibilities with CBLZ cards. Aster Drawn, Breakthrough Effect and the new Mermail XYZ looks good and Pyrorex looks too awesome to pass on. Until next time!

[Tourney Report] Let's Play Geargia. aka Kaito Sleeves look cool

Managed to get some free time by sneaking out of class after delivering a report. Grabbed the first deckbox at home then stormed out to get to Galleria. I want to play under promo format so that I can test how the absence of promo cards in my decks affect their competitiveness.

Playtested a bit with Sir Tim and I realized that removing the psychic engine out of deck in favor of trap stuns was bad. Also forgot to bring a copy of Pot of Avarice in case I wanted to put it in again. I don;t really miss Avarice. It's just that having a set Armor without any targets in the deck is gg.

I'm still laughing at myself for having two copies of Gear Gigant X but I still don't have a copy of Hope and Maestroke.

Anyway, on to the tourney report.

Deck Used: MKG - Machina Karakuri Geargia
4 rounds of Swiss

Round 1 vs Teched-out Black Feathers(Armin? is that how you spell your name?)
I lost the roll
Game1: I drew a bunch of monsters, he drew a bunch of traps. GG for me.
Game2: Magic Cylinder. Fortress hits me in the face. GG

XX
0-1

Round 2 vs Kyle the Rai-Oh guy(Anti-meta)
Had a chat with him and found out that we were both going to drop if ever we lost
Won the roll
Game 1: His D-fissure is a pain in the arse. But after Armor's effect baited out Doomcal and I managed to resolve Fortress, GG.
Game 2: D-fissure again. Managed to clear most of his monsters but my triple Arsenal hand failed to beat him down. Died to Rai-Oh.
Game 3: I went first so Fortress got in safely.

OXO
1-1

Round3 vs Sir Irwin my idol(Chaos Dragons)

Game 1: Geargia OTK
Game 2: I misplayed so much. Had a nice field with a bureido. I DDCrowed Debris's target Trooper because I was afraid of BRD but I realized that Reaper is also lv3. Then I crashed Armor with limiter onto LPD, thinking I was attacking with Arsenal. Got used to the Triple Arsenal hand from last round.
Game 3: He opens with Rai-oh and decree. But I was going first. Compulsed Rai-oh during his end phase then proceed to Geargia OTK next turn.

OXO
2-1

Round4 vs Jairen(Black Feathers)

Game 1: Lost to classic BF field flood.
Game 2: Fortress is GOD!!!
Game 3: LIMITER GEARGIA OTK!!!!

XOO
3-1

Got 3rd place and just took the madolche ticket form the draft.

THE DECK:

Monsters:
x3 Armor, Arsenal, Accel
x3 Gearframe
x2 Fortress
x1 Force
x2 MK-II
x2 Karakuri Doggy
x1 Karakuri Position Changer
x1 Karakuri Haipa aka Rai-oh killer
x1 Psychic Commander

Spells:
Storm
Reborn
Dark Hole
x2 MST
x2 Smashing Rai-oh
x2 Emergency Teleport
Limiter aka the machine user's Pro Card.

Traps:
x2 Call of the Haunted
Solemn Judgment
x2 Solemn Warning
x2 Compulsory
Starlight Road

Extra:
x3 Bureido
x3 Burei
Stardust
Black Rose
x2 Gear Gigant X
x2 Zenmaines
Soul of Silvermountain
Parallel Rare Number 25F: Fake Hope(LOL)

I'd probably replace Dark Hole since if I'm in a position that I should use it, I might as well scoop.

I know most PH players would rather use Gadgets or Karakuri than use Geargia because those two decks are either more consistent(Gadgets) or more explosive(Karakuri). But Geargia has that flexibility of switching playstyles depending on what your opponent plays, something that is hard to do with the other machine decks.

Another upside to Geargia is Armor's 1900 def body that is really hard to run over for common monsters. With CotH, Mk-II, and Arsenal, you are almost sure to plus from a set Armor.

Mk-II also opens up a lot of combos with Accel and CotH that would take too long to list. But his best use in the meta is to pressure Gadget players with a one-card Silvermountain to freeze backrow, run over a gadget then SS an Armor, Tuner, or even Karakuri Synchros and Scrap Dragon.

MK-II also opens up to usual rank3 plays. Zenmaines, Leviair and Revise are on my list of cards to get because of this guy. Yeah, as Billy Brake said, MK-II is TOUR GUIDE FROM THE MACHINE WORLD!!!! (if only there was a Geargia that functions like Sangan)

I'm still stressed though. I still can't think of what to use for Asia Plus. Geargia Machina? Machina gadget? Machina Geargia Karakuri? Karakuri Cosmos? Machine Monster Mash just for the lulz? Can't really decide.

Karakuri Techs. (and some Kpop)

Karakuri has a special place in my heart as a deck. After I learned about its power a few weeks before the banning of Glow-Up Bulb(or as I like to call him, Fortress and Bureido's best friend), I've been too attached to it that if my deck can't churn out Bureis and Bureidos consistently, it's a bad deck.

Burei is the answer to everything. Easy out against Shien, BLS, Stardust, Scrap Dragon, Grapha and anything with less than 2600 def. The only time he is useless is if he's under Skill Drain and your opponent has something with more attack. Other times, he's the card you'll go to when you draw Ninishi.

Bureido is a plus machine(pun intended). Nuff Said.

Today, I'm going to talk about some techs and enumerate their pros and cons. IMO, Karakuris were not seen last format because their synchros don't stand a chance against a Damsel-Hornet play. But now that Zekters are ALMOST out of the competitive scene, Karakuris have a chance. Take note that this was written before promos are allowed in the Philippines.

SOLAR WINDJAMMER

Best card in ABYR. LOL

Really good if you're aiming for a Turn 1 Bureido or Stardust. Or Tiras if you only draw him and Instant Fusion. Although if I drew those two card, I'll probably grind and wait for a Ninishi or Emergency Teleport.

The only problem about him is his only use in late-game is as a comeback card after your opponent clears your field. Other than that, it has no uses unless you're running Machina Fortress.

This card is outclassed by Cyber Dragon once Rai-oh becomes legal in PH.

SMASHING GROUND

That's a nice boss card you have there, it would be
a shame if something happened to it

What card totally shuts down Karakuri? ARCHLORD KRISTYA!!!!

and this card has FUCK YOU KRISTYA written all over it. Kristya stops every trick Karakuri has except one. I wouldn't need this if Agents aren't slowly making a comeback, but they are starting to rise and Valhalla plus Kristya is a bitch. Seriously, I'm still haunted by that loss against a first-turn kristya. The only outs left in my deck are Dark Hole, and a Saizan+Cash cache, search Haipa combo and I didn't draw them. At least with 2 of this, I have a better chance.

Also, Laggia auto negates this if they didn't have a forbidden lance up. If they do have lance, Laggia becomes food for Kuick and Haipa. WIN! And an added out to TKRO is good.

Machina Fortress is also a bitch since you can't take it down by battle with Bureido and Burei. Synchros are harder to replace than Fortress. Given the number of Machina players in PH, this serves as a one-turn out to Fortress.(or more, if they don't draw Cannon or two gadgets)

The only downside is the highest def condition. But most decks nowadays sit behind one monster and a full backrow making it easier for Smashing Ground to hit what it intends to hit. The only thing keeping this card from seeing play is...I don't know. I honestly don't know. I love this card.

Soul Taker may be better in some cases(Pulsar and Swarms). But the extra life points I give my opponents may end up giving me the loss.

Got the idea when I saw Karlo Bonillo of Topdeck's Hieratic deck. 

MY BODY AS A SHIELD

My body is ready to protect you, Bureido

Really good card. Much more surprising than Starlight Road since you can activate this from your hand when your opponent activates Torrential or Mirror Force or even Bottomless. The only downside to this card is the HP cost so you almost always have to side this out during Game 3. And Starlight Road is actually a two destruction negations in one so that kinda makes it better.

A neat trick with this is if you're going for a Black Rose Dragon and opponent chains Starlight(your opponent will more likely Starlight than Solemn a Black Rose), you can chain this to make sure Black Rose goes through.

Testing with these cards have been good lately and hopefully, I do better this Sunday if I ever get to play. I'm maining more tech cards than staples now, and I'm loving it. If only Konami would reprint Naturia beast and Landoise in a non-DT set, Karakuri will be tier 1 in asia format. XD

IN OTHER NEWS

Spica's I'll be there is actually good(never liked Russian Roulette and Painkiller). Might start watching Spica performances now.

T-ara's Sexy Love is pure sexy. Qri's looking nice, as usual. Hyomin lost much of her muscles(nice!). Cyclops is growing up. and Boram is entering puberty.(really nice). Now, they only have to get rid of Ahreum's ugly blonde hair.

Might watch Kpop fantasy concert this January if the rumors that the remaining two slots are for Secret and T-ara. Will have to restrain myself from buying Cosmo Blazer cards, though.

Tourney Report: My Brother's First Time in Sanctioned Play

After spending most of our time playing in the confines of our own home, me and my brothers finally decided to play. Buying those two Gold Boxes almost completed the staples we need for two decks. Well-spent 2.2k.

Preparation:

I decided to bring my Karakuris(refusing to play MKG, geargiarmor is too slow for me and Gadgets is to mainstream #hipster) and my brother decided to use Chaos Dragons(with techs to replace 2 copies of REDMD, Future Fusion and MST since we don't have enough MSTs). We had an agreement that one of us will bring the playset of MST and the other would use the Heavy Storm(we had plenty of Night Shots anyway, so the only problem for the one with Storm are field cards and Skill Drain). I used the MSTs and he used the Storm.

Before the tourney, we looked for another Storm which failed but we found 2 Trap Stuns and agreed that he will test it since he was SO against me using our money to buy something that I need. I've always wanted Trap Stun. He took out his two Night Shots, put in Trap Stun and filled his deck with Breakers and Lylas. The spots I reserved for Trap Stun were replaced by CotH. Then, we looked for cheap Arcana Force cards since he was collecting it and tried to look for character cards(only found Injection Fairy Lily, but we decided not to buy it). Got ourselves Reversal of Fate and The Fool, all that's left are Light Ruler, Dark Ruler, The World, The Temperance and Light Barrier.

Tourney Report(my side):
sad to say, I did so bad. I was always staring at my hand wondering how combinations of Ninishi, Nishipachi and Psychic Commander will enable me to win games. My tuners wanted me to draw them so much that I almost never saw Instant Fusion and Solar Windjammer. I saw them in one game, but Kristya was staring at me from the other side of the field. And I prepared too much for Gadgets since I knew Gideon and Junely would be there, but I never got to duel them. 1-3 record, yo! and that 1 win was a bye. DISGRACE!

Tourney Report(my brother's side): I was watching him most of the time so I have an idea of what happened during his duels

What? You're saying that me and my minions are nothing without FF?
We have new recruits, mofos!
(cr: whoever posted this in DA)

ROUND 1: against me(karakuri)
game 1: He floods then ends with DAD to seal the deal
game 2: I flood and seals the deal with three traps I drew from Bureido(solemn brigade, LOL)
game 3: BLS is broken, yo!

OXO 1-0

ROUND 2: against Blackwing(thanks for the second Magical Merchant)
game 1: First turn flood. Future Fusion not needed yo! and Trap Stun shat on Icarus
game 2: Wasted too much cards to get rid of Spirit Reaper and Armor Master. Then, Light-Impri bitched him out of any comebacks.
game 3: Trap Stun shits on Icarus Attack again. Discard Crow to prepare the grave then out comes Dark Armed Broken Dragon.

OXO 2-0

ROUND 3: against Junely(do I even have to state what he is using?)

I wasn't able to watch this match because I was losing badly to Racil(did I get the spelling right?) on another table. He did tell me that during one game, Junely managed to get a hold of his REDMD but he was able to comeback from that. And he told me that his lack of generic rank 4 cards gave him a hard time.

OO 3-0

ROUND 4 TOP MATCH: vs Gideon(Gadgets)

Never really watched game 1 because I needed to use the CR, but I saw games 2 and 3. DD Crow is a bitch against Chaos Dragons. After the match, Gideon commented that Eclipse Wyvern makes the deck broken, not REDMD. I had to agree with him. Wyvern fetches DAD, nuff said.

OXX 3-1

Got one pack which had shit in it. That's okay, though. We already pulled a Gandiva and La Maison from our entry packs. And during booster draft, we finally got Tiny Penguin, one of the cutest cards ever.


My brother does not want to share the build because he told me spent so much time testing against me to figure out the ratios. All I can say is, he did get a good job of getting a nice ratio of Lights and Darks (almost 50:50) and he put in Magical Merchant and Reasoning to help with the mills and Special Summons. Breakers were used as replacements for the missing MSTs and Trap Stun shuts down a lot of decks and allows him to kill Skill Drain with Lyla and Breaker. Trap Stun was missing puzzle piece during our playtests, and now that he has claimed ownership of it, I have to find another two copies.

If you're curious about my Karakuri build, it's pretty standard. Only missing pieces are another copy of Instant Fusion and better traps. I'm pretty confident with it even though it failed me this time. Although, I dislike Compulsory because it doesn't outright kill problem cards like Kristya, Hyperion, Fortress, BLS and DAD. I can't complain, though, since Compulsory, Solemn Brigade, D. Prison and CotH are the only worthwhile traps we have. I should get my copies of BTH and M.Force this weekend when I go and get those copies of Dragged Down for our eldest brother. Scrap Dragon and Karbonala Warrior can wait

Might come back next week if my parents allow my brother to stay out late again during a Sunday. My brother definitely had a great time(definitely more than me) and wants to try and repeat what he did. I hope I get better draws next time.(seriously, tuner hand is not funny yo!)

This first time laying a sanctioned tourney together gave me and my brother a thrill we never felt before. I hope our eldest can join in before Team Tourney so that we can make our debut as Team MasterBatel.

This is it for this time! Might feature a some deck ideas for my next post. And yeah, you won't see any meta deck lists in this blog

Double Feature Day part 2: Gagaga

After Rauzes posted that fun Gagaga deck, I've been dying to try one. This is the build I want to run IRL. My build runs by getting the gagaga monsters to the grave, then summoning them back with Gagagarevenge and CotH.

7 Monster Reborns in one deck is BOSS!

Got this idea after I fought Inzektors in DN and they just abused the hell out of Sangan, Trooper and Damsel with CotH.

I tried  using solar recharge, lylas and wulfs. It worked out great, until I milled all my gagagarevenges and hidden armories. A lot of random milling is bad in a deck which relies too much on Spells and Traps.

Watch out for Necrovalley and Macro Cosmos.

Card Choices:

Instant Fusion: my favorite card. Allows me to belch out Tiras if I'm going first, or Machu Mech if I'm going second. OTKs with Veiler and BLS. This card should really get hit by the banlist if they want the XYZ era to be more balanced.

Hidden Armory: mills one card, and searches Revenge.

Summon Priest: gets Magician from deck. Also an instant Rank 4.

Mystic Tomato: tutors Magician.

Tragoedia: changes level. fits the XYZ whatever you want theme really good. Really good when most of your hand cards are dead.

Extra Deck:

Musician King
Kamionwizard
Flame Ghost
Tiras
Machu
Hope and Hope ray
Photon Butterfly Assassin
Exa-Beetle
Photon Strike Bounzer
Gaia Dragoon
Zenmaines
Leviair
Maestroke

Double Feature Day Part 1: JinzoDAD

No defense? No Problem!

So, I was scanning DuelingDays' deck archive when I saw a decklist for tele-DAD which uses Jinzo instead of D-hero Malicious. After three days of testing in DN, I came up with my version.

The focus of the deck is getting out a Jinzo, either by dark grepher and returner, future fusion, or tribute summoning. A lot of creative OTKs can be done with this deck with veiler+instant fusion+BLS being the most straight-forward.

Card Choices:

Instant Fusion: one of my favorite cards, especially in Chaos-themed decks. It provides this deck some lights (Musician King for lv 5 xyz plays with Cydra) and additional darks(Kamionwizard for lv 4 xyz, and Flame Ghost for armory arm). Also gives me a tribute for Jinzo and Caius(and tefnuit, if ever I want her to attack immediately)

Spirit Reaper: stall until I can tribute summon. Although it dies to inzektors pretty easily, it gives other decks a headache.

Cyber Dragon: Light, and for Instant Fusion

Triple MST: I only have three slots left since I didn't want to go over 40 cards, and this is broken if 3. also provides room for siding out in case of chaos dragons.

Veiler: I use her as a level 1 tuner most of the time. Her effect is priceless, but the fact that she's the best level  1 tuner right now is the reason that I'm playing her.

Extra Deck:

Usual suspects for Synchros( level 4 to 8)

The three good rank 6 XYZ(Number 25, Exabeetle, Photon Strike)

Tiras

Gaia Dragoon

Kamionwizard

Flame Ghost  or Zombie Warrior

Musician King

Chimeratech Overdragon

A Random Duel Blog for the Random(and poor) Duelist

Hi! I'm bassfreak, an unknown duelist from the Philippines. I made this blog to share my random thoughts, not just Yugioh-related. Most of my posts

Why is my blog named The Fortress Express? Well, my favorite card is Machiner Fortress, a Machine-type monster that needs no introduction but will get one anyway.

Probably the most badass Machine in the game

A recurring boss, a 2500 beater, a guy who brings his opponents down with him, this guy is amazing. Usually, Machine-based decks use him as a big beater early game or a means to use dead draws. The following decklist uses this guy to tank as you set up for an OTK(but when things are going good, I don't even need the OTK to win)

Why no Birdman? Birdman is not sanctioned legal in PH. Bummer

Explanation of monster choices:

x3 Fortress/Gearframe - we all know what these two can do. A not-so-obvious reason here is Fortress serves as a way to get some use out of the Karakuri tuners when you actually draw them. You'll probably end up hating yourself when you draw two of those Karakuri tuners.

Kuick - you know how Fortress dumps those tuners in grave when you draw them? This guy lets you revive them. Additional level 4 non-tuner is also nice. And Haipa isn't really a nice comeback card.

no Cannon/Force - during playtesting, i just side these out and never got a chance to use it. great comeback cards, though.

x2 Psychic Commander/E-tele - the next best thing to Birdman.

x3 veiler - don't leave home without these

x3 geargiarsenal - tutors armor, nuff said. i don't know why some people disregard the fact that three of arsenal increases the chance of drawing the OTK hand (Armor/Arsenal + Accel + Tele/Birdman) and it increases the chances of making a Gigant X on the first turn. Arsenal is also a good card to side out in case you need to side heavily. Still, the best quantity is debatable.

no Mk-II - I'm still thinking about this. if i would main MK-II, i would have to get rid of two Arsenals or Kuick+Arsenal. MK-II mostly serves as a comeback card, or something that you'll use to get more options (Brionac, Zenmaines, Djinns, Silver Summit to name a few). I chose to run Kuick +additional Arsenal since I like ending games early.

The spells in the list change depending on my mood/budget. i don't have that many cards on me so I have to be resourceful. If i could get my hands on a set of chalices/ lances and mind control, i would certainly use them, since book of moon is not really that good when you only have 1.

The "cheapest" trap I

Triple CED is something i have been using ever since i got it. I tried using Raigeki Break and PWWB but the minus is bad for this deck, since summoning Fortress is already a minus 1. Besides, I would rather mess up my opp's NS for free and see if he has a comeback, than debate with myself whether i should use RB or PWWB every time he tries something.

I side whatever i have that I find useful. Rykos(i don't have snowman), Prohibition(FU Grapha and Hornet), Soul Drain(FU again Grapha, and you bunch of expensive dragons), and Imperial Iron Wall.

I was supposed to debut this deck during PH May Monthly Tournament but I didn't get the chance since I was too busy waiting for the replay of APink's comeback performance on TV. When I made it to the tournament venue(since I still had to meet the guy who would sell me his cheap Lightlord Set), they were already doing their decklists and being the shy guy that I am, I didn't ask the tourney organizers if me and my brother could still join. Bummer!

I still lack a lot of cards for me to be able to use this during weekly tournaments(my Machiners, Staples and Side cards are EN, and veiler is too expensive for someone like me). I'm currently saving up, but if you'd like to trade them for my cards, I would love it.

I would also like to playtest this against duelists aside from my brothers(you should see how me and my bros playtest, playing with handwritten cards is hard), i'd love it.

Next post: Probably about Magical Fortune Ladies or Destiny Fortune Ladies or Side Cards that shouldn't be overlooked.

Ciao!

(Video not related)