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