Thursday 29 November 2012

Top Shop 2012 + New Blog

Hi everyone, Et3rnalFlam3s here. I know it has been quite a while since there was a blog post up here (more than a month), due to our busy schedule. Lamby and me were busy with the start of our final semester in poly, zzxiaoboizz was busy taking his A levels, and Siryugiohalot was taking his year-end examinations. So ya, top shop 2012 is round the corner, and all four of us are qualified via either shop qualifiers or being selected as shop representatives. This time we wanna at least win something hahaha. (The mat is sexy) Anyway, lamby has set up a new blog with Sazabi and Awesomehazelnuts, and I doubt he will be updating any more in this blog. Eustace from team ygonoobs has also created a new blog, so do keep a lookout for updates there. Thats all for now, will update once again after the top shop as my exams are drawing near. Ciaos

Lamby's new blog = highlevelgaming.wordpress.com
Eustace's new blog = nologicygo.blogspot.com

Saturday 20 October 2012

Here we go again. [ AsiaPlus ]

This is just my routine for every major event and therefore this post is as such. Tomorrow is the last major event of the year for us in Singapore, and therefore I wish everyone all the best. Team tourney is a whole different ball game as such many different challenges would ensue. As a team, we have struggled through the last month to attain the best form to aid in our win, lets hope that the year will end on a high for us. I will shamelessly declare that I am very hungry to once again represent the country in our beloved card game, and it is safe to say that the entire team feels the same. Without any other pointless banter, I would just like to say, may the best players win.

Cheers
Lamby

Monday 10 September 2012

[Aftermath] Road to Worlds

Hi people, it's been too long since I made my last post and now here I go with a humongous ton of info that I have been so very eager to share and yet too lazy to do so. It had to be done some time and since work is starting tomorrow its pretty much now or never. The following is an overview of my Worlds experience in Tokyo.

8th August, Wed
Met up with the team and a few others at the airport for some dueling before meeting up with DSummon from DuelingDays(mentioned as DS for the rest of the post) to take our flight to Tokyo which was set to leave at 11.55pm. Nothing much else happened since it was midnight and everyone was tired, thus sleeping through the flight.

9th August, Thurs
We arrived at Narita airport in the morning and proceeded to our hotel in Shinagawa where we met up with SungLee(Msia rep), Joshua Schmidt(Euro rep), Angel Matas(Euro rep) and Michel Gruner. DS being the only one who knew the area, became our Tour Guide from the Other Land, and brought us around. Visited some streets, a shrine, and proceeded to Akihabara. To put it simply, it was where SungLee and I unloaded most of our money buying cards, as they were relatively cheaper than that which you can get back home. Walked around for the rest of the day there, before leaving with everyone visibly tired. Went out again at night for some extremely delicious ramen before going back to the hotel to meet the other reps, mostly from the USA.

10th August, Fri
Started the day with a Japanese buffet breakfast, before going back to Akihabara for more card hunting. DS had to leave early for the hotel for a staff meeting of sorts, thus leaving SungLee and I to our own devices. Upon mentioning that we we reps for Worlds to be held the following day, the staff at one of the card shops gave us vip treatment and showered us with a gigantic card pool of foils which were so damn cheap. Spent a good amount of time and money hoarding much cards to bring back home. In the evening we had our welcome dinner, where we were formally introduced to all the reps and received our welcome gifts which included 2 exclusives playmats, 4 japanese booster boxes, 2 tcg tins, SD23, deck box, token, a giant No.39 card and some brochures. Managed to buy a few sets of the japanese boxes off the tcg reps for cheap as they were trying to get rid of them asap. The night time was full of activity. Many reps were in the lobby either contemplating deck choices, trading or simply hanging out. Spent most of the time trading with the japanese there and talking to Gruner and Irwin(Phillipines rep), while witnessing the hilarious moments which involved Jarel "Pro" Winston(USA rep) trying to buy duel calculators off a japanese, and subsequently having the exodia head which i bought during shopping snatch stealed by Jarel. We all know why. Got to sleep at only around 1am, which was not really sleep at all given that I was pretty damn excited for the day that would follow.

11th August, Sat
The morning of the 1st day of tournament happened in a flash. Woke up a little later than I would have liked and had a rushed breakfast before making my way to the bus which brought us to the tournament venue at Tokyo Midtown. The place itself was really huge however we were located a few halls within the building for our event. After all the reps were being escorted into the waiting room, we were given a briefing on procedures that we had to follow, rules, and even had a rehearsal for how we should go on stage. Everything said and done, we proceeded to the actual thing that we all came here for, it was Time to Duel!

After everyone was introduced on stage, round 1 pairings were announced. The following is a brief run down of my route through swiss. (managed to save some of my life point totals by asking a staff member to collect the lp sheets for me throughout the day lol, so most of the facts are accurate)

Round 1: vs Santi Phromduangsri(Thai rep, Chaos Dragons)
Game 1: He opened double veiler which halted my attempts to search with Centipede. Even so, he was unable to destroy it as it was back by Mantis and multiple backrow. He finally brought out a Pulsar successfully to destroy it however i flipped Coth and proceeded to shenenigan all over him with Gorz only delaying his death.
Game 2: He begun with Future Fusion and Pulsar + REDMD setup. attempted to stall into combo pieces but the appearance of both BLS and DAD in the following turns made it impossible, so I died.
Game 3: Lp totals show that i was way ahead going into time, with me being at 8000 to his 800. He brought out a BLS which almost turned the tide however i got rid of it and stalled with a zenmaines before eventually preventing him from even touching my life further with swift scarecrow, which unfortunately had to end the match in such a  fashion.
OXO

Round 2: vs Michael Steinman(USA rep, Gravekeepers)
Game 1: I never once resolved Damsel or Centipede this game, but used a combination of both Ladybug and Hornet to pick a way at his backrows which helped alot as they were both BTH. He couldnt keep a monster on board for longer than a turn and when Necrovalley was finally up I think my card advantage was too great for it to matter.
Game 2: We both had 4 backrow set before he flipped a suprising heavy storm to wipe both our boards and took control with Malefic Stardust + Necrovalley. Somehow managed to play out of that situation as he did not have a skilldrain up, therefore was able to slowly grind away the game by constantly searching hornet with my centipede, and protecting it. He got skilldrain up fairly late in the game which managed to stymy me for abit, though i drew and dualitied into an mst on the following turn and won from there.
OO

Round 3: vs Saito Akikazu(Japanese rep, Mirror)
Game 2: (game 1 was non existent as i got a game loss for my Book of Moon being sleeved upside down.....)
We both exploded out of the gates with inzektor effects resolving here and there, however I opened with the better hand and was able to maintain advantage by sitting on floaters while most of the stuff which I popped on his side were genuine. Searched out a Mantis and stormed myself to otk.
Game 3: It was his turn to sit on floaters, having trooper and sangan pressure me with hits early on. Fought back with  inzektor stunts but left him with one lone backrow as he had a zenmaines out that needed taking care off. To my suprise he had not sided out his CotH which proceeded to shit all over me as I did not have a veiler in hand, and got destroyed on that very turn due to otk.
-OX

Round 4: vs Jonathan Ritzau(Oceania rep, Mirror)
Game 1: I had double mst, dragonfly hornet mantis and irrelevant card. He had no veiler. Done.
Game 2: He had BLS and Bounzer out with a searched inzektor in hand to my scarecrow and next topdeck. Done.
Game 3: Early game was just sets from both sides till I dualitied into heavy storm. Stormed the following turn and chained my backrow( i think compulse or PWWB) before otk-ing him. He drew horrible with DAD and mantis stuck in hand.
OXO

Round 5: vs Norihama Takeru aka Chiami(Japanese Rep, Mirror)
Game 1: Very fast paced game, he exploded right out of the gates while I opened subpar.
Game 2: Cannot really remember what happened but I know it went very quickly too, albeit in my favour.
Game 3: It sucks that I had no veiler in the entire match as he opened with Damsel + Ladybug and was visibly concerned if the play would go through, probably because he opened full monster hand. He pumped out 3 rank 5 xyz over the next three turns but tiras and ninja were both met with compulse. Regardless, his monster hand consisted of enough veilers to make it unable for me to mount a comeback.
XOX

So I ended up 3-2 at the end of day 1, well it was technically 3-1-? but we will never know. Top 8 begun to be announced and I was immediately spared from my agony as 8th position was announced with my name resounding from the commentators lips. Didnt think I could have been happier as I let out a shout of delight. I was followed by Jarel, Joshua and Stefano Memoli(euro rep), and the top 4 places going to team Japan. Based on pairings, it would seem that the following day of top 8 would be Team Japan vs the World, or what the four of us remaining affectionately termed as Team "Not Japan". It was exciting to say the least, heck our little Taiwan rep made it into top 4 of the Dragon Duels too so thats a double for our asian group. Went back to the hotel and proceeded to have dinner and an early night in preparation for the next day.

12th August, Sun
Once again breakfast in a hurry and was out of the hotel by like 8am+. Those of us that made top 8 had to be present earlier, while the other reps were scheduled to arrive later for challenge the champion event. Pairings were announced, and true enough it was Team "not Japan" vs Team Japan for the top 8. The four of us wished each other luck, as this round couldnt be more crucial. securing the win here immediately meant that we would secure the exclusive trophey and prize card.

Top 8: vs Yohei Arimura(Japanese rep, Malefic Skill Drain Necrovalley Antinzektorwtf1234trapdek)
Game 1: On the contrary to how most would think this would be a bad matchup for me, I was so damn happy that I didnt have to fight an inzektor mirror because alot of luck was involved. Went in with the game plan of eliminating his monsters with priority over his backrow(which I'd like to mention was endless). It helped that I had access to both my torentials early in the game. Midgame he had 2 set and a barbaros on field, in which i crashed a trooper and drew storm. set storm and passed. He set one more. On my turn i flipped the massive heavy storm and won from there as I had easily 3 more cards than him.
Game 2: Sided all my monster hatred in. Attempted to crash my trooper into his barbaros but was met with skill drain, though still drew one off trooper. dualitied for trap stun which made him visibly worried. He managed though to snipe the stun out of my three backrow with mst, however he left me with a prison and torrential which i used to relieve him of monsters. Proceeded to beat the shit out of his life with a hornet for five turns in a row. He summoned a monster to kill my hornet and I booked it. Tried to make No.17 and got warninged. He misplayed here by not first flipping his set monster, but instead summoned a barbaros from hand to which I torrentialed and he chained bribe. If he had flipped his set monster I might have activated the torrential already. Dark hole on both his monsters and summoned a topdecked sangan to hit him twice down to 500. At any point if he drew one of his three remaining malefic cyber end we would go to game 3, however he was not able to, and ended the match by special summoning bottomless traphole in attack mode(lol), and with that the hand shake.
OO

Overjoyed~ was the only reaction I had. Guaranteeing myself the prize card and trophy at this point was the main thing on my mind, and it only got even better as both Memoli and Joshua had secured their places in the top 4 too. We waited for ages for Jarel to finish his drawn out and "Jadge!" filled match, which sadly had to end with him losing. Top 4 matches were immediately announced and I was paired up with Memoli.

Top 4: vs Stefano Memoli(euro rep, Mirror)
Game 1: I drew 3 centipede 1 damsel 2 mst. yea. no veiler drawn the whole game
Game 2: I drew many many traps, but no monsters. He had double mst and proceeded to rape the shit out of me and didnt fall for a single trick I tried when i finally drew inzektors. No veiler drawn the whole game.
XX

It did suck to end my Worlds trip on such a note, however I feel I did my best and lost to good players overal. Will not make much mention of the third and fourth place match as its all over youtube, life streaming was actually a really cool feature, given that is was the 10th World Championships and much special preparations were made. Watched the Dragon Duel final after and boy did the Taiwan kid destroy the Japanese kid. Watched the Finals after and it was a really good match from both players, sad though that Memoli lost as we were all rooting for him.

Went out for a fun night of eating with the rest of the asian reps and staff, ate so much till I wanted to explode. Sukiyaki all the way~.

13th August, Monday
Our flight was at night, so DS and I had the luxury to go shopping for more stuff. Most of the other reps had earlier flights so they all left along our shopping route. Bought alot of Japanese biscuits at the airport before we departed back to the motherland.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the whole experience was amazing. Be it the place, people, or event itself, everything was largely new to me and trading such an experience for something else would never cross my mind. The journey from qualifiers to international level competition was long, and definitely hard, but it has been a pleasure to be able to represent Singapore in this game of Yugioh. Once again would like to give a shout out to everyone who has supported me both at home and also friends whom I have made abroad. I may not have been the ideal person for such an honour in everyone's eyes but I do believe that I have done my pretty damn best.

 Thanks for the patience to read through the lengthy post, next post will be about the new format and my new love deck aka Wind-Up!

Cheers
Lamby

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Updates

So yeah, team insanetech is NOT dead, just utterly lazy to post. Still have to persuade Lamby to post his World's report, and while waiting for that, here is the report of the team tournament that took place last last sunday (So long ago sia).

Return of Team Insanetech
Player A: Lamby (Genex Mermail)
Player B: zzxiaoboizz (Poh Poh Gadgets)
Player C: Et3rnalFlam3s (X-Sabers)

You might be thinking, why sabers? I really had no idea what to play at the beginning of this format, and since it was slower than the last format I decided to give me old deck a chance. Playtest with it was also not bad, thus the choice of sticking with it.

Round 1: Vs Elton (Arrive Hero) XX

Game 1: Died to drawing too many small monsters without and combo and him having miracles to kill me.
Game 2: Was in control till he top-decked a Pot into Miracle, and then had Arrive to kill me.

Lamby and zzxiaoboizz both won.

Round 2: Vs Putraaaaa (TG AA) XOO

Game 1: Died to his pro topdecking skills (Aka getting a hyperion when he was dying)
Game 2: Controlled and won
Game 3: Midgame I decided to push and summoned FullHelmKnight with him only having Revise Dragon on the field. I declared battle and used Book of Moon, and chained Gottom's Emergency Call, to which he Solemned. But I had a Solemn of my own to push it through, and with it the match.

Lamby and zzxiaoboizz both lost

Round 3: Vs Xiaomei (TG AA) OXO

Game 1: Just killed her with saber beats
Game 2: Died to OTK
Game 3: It came down to her having a BLS, and me only having a monster reborn in my hand. I drew, and my saviour came, CREATURE SWAP!!! I reborned my Emmerseblade and swapped it for her BLS, and even though she veilered the BLS I still won due to emmerseblade's effect.

Lamby won, zzxiaoboizz lost

Round 4: Vs Clarence (Mermail OP) XX

Game 1: Mind Control OP
Game 2: Mind Control OP

Lamby lost, zzxiaoboizz won

Our overall record was 2-2. And we got 9th place. And a team with a bye got into top 8. WHAT IS THIS CONSPIRACY!!?? LOL But yeah we were a bit sour over the fact that we did not get into top 8, and Lamby was emoing cause he made vital mistakes, but oh wells who doesn't? Our main target is still the Asia Plus Championship, which is taking place starting mid september, so I hope that we have a better showing there.

Thats all folk, stay tuned for our next post (No idea when)

Peace out!

Monday 27 August 2012

No updates lol?

Hey guys sry for the lack of updates for the past 2 weeks plus, will try to get the other members of the blog to revive it, probably lamby having exams till tuesday while eternalflame Ought to be posting something anyway haha

zzxiaoboizz signing off

Saturday 11 August 2012

Updates on World Championship 2012

So, day 1 of WC2012 has more or less come to a close, and there are a few interesting thing that I have witnessed.

1. Jarel 'Pro' Winston of USA managed to pilot an Exodia deck all the way to top 8 of the championship. HOW DA HELL DID HE DO THAT!! Respect for that dude. Not an easy feat at all.

2. Yosei using Dimensional Skill Drain Beat and going to Top 8 as well. I also learnt from him that using Solemn Warning on your own macro cosmos wins you games.

3. Wesley Seek (Lamby), representative of Singapore has successfully gotten into Top 8 with insektors. COME ON, BRING HOME THE GLORY!!

4. Regarding the incident on Malaysia's rep Sung Lee normal summoning twice in his game, it could be said that it was an honest mistake. It was already the 5th Swiss round and since no one (Judge included) caught the mistake, it was let slip. However, even without the normal summoned zephyros, he still could have controlled totally and won the next turn. So stop flaming him on FB already..

That's all for today. We shall see who is crowned the champion tomorrow, and I seriously hope its Singapore :)

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Updates + Banlist Talk + Road to Worlds

Hellos everyone, im back with another of my ever so frequent(not) updates. Before I continue, I would like to thank you everyone who has helped me test and given me advice in preparation for my trip to Worlds, and I must say, it has been rather fruitful. Bring It World!

On to the updates, the following are just basically some of the things you can expect from me in the following months.

Firstly, I will try my best to update the blog daily for the duration of my trip in Japan, providing as much insider(where allowed) info and details of my stay there. Pictures this time are a definite, though mostlikely only to be updated when I get back. Will be travelling there with DSummon of DuelingDays. Apparently he knows his way quite well around the land of Nippon so I should be able to find my way around rather easily. Excited to buy merchandise and more merchandise.

Further down the line, with a few of my major commitments coming to a close, I will start posting deck ideas, theory-oh articles and the like. Think of it like a look into my brain and my perspective of our beloved card game. Keep a look out for that, have quite a few ideas in store.

Last but not least, by doing the above mentioned things, I hope this blog becomes more alive and gets many many more views. It is obvious as of now as to why it has not gone off successfully yet as the team is currently rather inactive on here, but do expect more frequent posts and better content from now on(less tourney report, more interesing stuffs)

With that being said, we move on to the most fun part of pre banlist season, le prediction! As you can already expect, this is never going to affect the final banlist outcome but it's always fun to speculate and see how much of a prophet we can be. So here's my take on what I want the list to look like:

Banned
Wind-Up Hunter
Monster Reborn
Future Fusion
Mind Control
Elemental Hero Stratos

Limited
Inzektor Hornet
Evolzar Laggia
Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
Tsukuyomi
Ultimate Offering
Mystical Space Typhoon
Final Countdown

Semi Limited
Rescue Rabbit
Tour Guide fomr the Underworld
Inzektor Dragonfly
Chaos Sorcerer
Judgment Dragon
Mezuki
Book of Moon
Scapegoat

Unlimited
Summoner Monk
Spore
Destiny Draw
Emergency Teleport
Swords of Revealing Light
Magic Cylinder

Now for some explanations. The general idea of my mock list would be to neuter certain decks, but not outright kill any of them. For the banned cards, we have the obvious double Ms. Both of these cards are splashable in anything and have the potential to outright win games when used properly. Bye. Hitting Hunter is simply a way to make wind-ups a xyz toolbox deck, which is what it should be anyway. I left zenmaity out of this as by banning or limiting it the deck would be along the lines of trash. Future Fusion for the obvious Dragonesque Painful Choice. Now, for Stratos, I feel that by banning him every other hero related card can remain untouched. There would be less arrive hero(because I think hero shld be a control deck), and other viable options can be explored. Hitting stuff like Miracle or E call seem viable but I feel that by banning the one Stratos everything else can stay as it is as they are not as potent.

For the limiteds, i chose to drop hornet to one simply because it makes inzektor players have to be more careful when making their plays as with this limit dd crow becomes once again extremely potent. Laggia to one follows the tradition that Shien left behind. REDMD is too disgusting of a boss monster and by leaving it at anything other than one it makes Hieratics so very skilless(Gustaph Max much). Tsukuyomi just deserves her break. She doesnt do much in this meta, though flipping down Monarchs and DAD is a thing, but still. Offerings should just be banned but I feel since it is a trap, it is slow, and therefore limiting it to one is fine. MST to one just to remind everyone Dust Tornado exists, and the dilema of setting only one on the first turn will be less of an occurrence. Countdown to one is due to the fact that I hate the whole concept of it and Konami probably does to.

Semi limits are quite interesting. Rabbit to two to reduce its consistency, might actually make Evols do something. Dragonfly to two as if it was limited the deck would be too nerfed to do anything, so two makes the deck just right. Tour Guide to two so you open with it less, but is still a power card that will mostlikely be used to search another copy of itself now instead of a Sangan. Sorcerer is rather broke, it was banned once for a reason and at 3 it is a nightmare to deal with. JD should be at one, but lightsworns will die. I think its card design is too wrong, on the level of Dragonfly + Hornet. Mezuki to two as zombies need some speed back and even then they might not do much in the coming meta. Book to two for more control in the game. Last but not least, scapegoat to two as it will have no impact on the meta, without the likes of metamorphosis and plant synchro around.

Finally for the unlimiteds, Monk at three will not up its playability as Veiler is a card. Spore should never have been banned, Bulb was way more broken. This gives plant decks some added potential to synchro and even xyz. DDraw and Teleport to three as the TeleDAD era has passed and this duo cannot match the pace of modern decks. Teleport unlimit can give psychics a tier boost though. SoRL and Cylinder are too slow and are largely redundant, so yea to three it is.

With that, I end my little prediction.

Will be leaving for Japan tomorrow night at 11.55pm, and returning in the morning of the 14th. I have every intention to represent our country well and hope to be able to repeat our amazing 2009 performance. See you all soon, and don't forget to check back for updates!

Cheers
Lamby