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Brandish Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki pages sure don’t have what they used to (unless they plan to update the page later.) Here is the entirety of what they have to say about the Brandish archetype: “’Sky Striker’, known as ‘Brandish’ (閃せん刀とう, Sentō) in the OCG, is an archetype set to debut in Deck Build Pack: Dark Savers. It includes the sub-archetype ‘Sky Striker Ace’. The ‘Sky Striker’ cards are made to look like suits of powered armor (in the case of the ‘Sky Striker Ace’ Link Monsters), or various gadgets equipped to said armor, as with the Normal and Quick-Play Spells within the archetype. The pronunciation ‘Sentō’, which means ‘Flash Blade’ using the archetype's Kanji, can also mean ‘Battle’ (戦闘).” …and that’s it, most of it useless information for non-weebs. So, for a non-placeholder OP, an actually constructive one, we’ll have to start from scratch. Brandish Monsters Excluding the Wind Link, which it is not likely we’ll have for nationals format, there are three Brandish monsters: Brandish Maiden rei, Brandish Maiden Kagari, and Brandish Maiden Shizuku. Let’s go in that order. Brandish Maiden rei “(Quick Effect): You can Tribute this card; Special Summon 1 ‘Brandish Maiden’ monster from your Extra Deck to the Extra Monster Zone. If a face-up ‘Brandish Maiden’ Link Monster you control is destroyed by battle, or leaves the field because of an opponent's card effect, while this card is in your GY: You can Special Summon this card. You can only use each effect of ‘Brandish Maiden rei’ once per turn.” Brandish Maiden rei, usually just shortened to “rei,” is the only non-Extra Deck Brandish Monster (not counting the token from Hornet Bit.) Clearly, though, it’s a card that revolves around the Extra Deck. While you’re able to summon the Brandish Link Monsters without using rei’s effect, by just normally sacrificing her for a Link Summon, her tribute effect is relevant in two key situations: When you have Diabolos (the boss monster,) and when it’s on the field during your opponent’s turn. The latter situation, that of it being on the field during the opponent’s turn, becomes the case due to its floating effect. Your opponent may force one of your Brandish Link Monsters to leave the field, especially on their turn, and this will allow rei to activate, bringing herself back and then allowing herself to summon another Brandish Link Monster to use even on your opponent’s turn. As far as the actual structure of the deck goes, Brandish Maiden rei is one of three basic starter cards: Her, Start-Up Engage, and Hornet Bit (and Reinforcements of the Army to get her.) This gives you a total of 10 starter cards, assuming the next ban list doesn’t mess with RotA. This, combined with the ability to see more cards with your other Spells (Desires, Upstart, Metalfoes Fusion, the Field Spell,) makes for a pretty consistent deck. Since Brandish mirrors are a bit slower paced, it’s not the end of the world if you brick on the first turn either. Brandish Maiden Kagari “1 non-FIRE ‘Brandish Maiden’ monster You can only Special Summon ‘Brandish Maiden Kagari(s)’ once per turn. If this card is Special Summoned: You can target 1 ‘Brandish’ Spell in your GY; add it to your hand. Gains 100 ATK for each Spell in your GY.” Brandish Maiden Kagari, usually just shortened to “Red,” is the first of two Brandish Link Monsters we’ll be looking at. Notice that it takes a non-Fire “Brandish Maiden” monster to summon, and that its own attribute is Fire. All the Brandish Link Monsters have this clause for their own respective attributes, and all of the Brandish Link Monsters are different attributes. What this means effectively is that you cannot use Red for Red, or Blue for Blue as fodder. The recursion of Brandish Spells in graveyard is relevant for several reasons. First, it can combo with Engage to use multiple of them in a turn. One common turn one play that is very strong is to Engage for Spellbook of Judgment, and then get back Engage with Red to get another Spell back for Spellbook of Judgment by activating it again. This then allows you to set back the Engage with Spellbook of Judgment in the End Phase, and then use Blue to search for another copy of Engage. Second, this card’s effect activating on summon is important in contradistinction to Blue, which activates in End Phase. This is because if you’re floating with your rei on your opponents turn, they can’t completely cut you off from adding cards to your hand by just running over the Blue that rei would float into, because you can summon Red instead to get the add back. Third, and finally, the add back effect allows you to reuse important utility cards. This lets you get away with playing less copies of them overall. Be careful though, you might not want to play too little copies of certain utility Spells, since you might banish them with Pot of Desires. The attack gain on this card becomes relevant in the later game when you have a lot of Spells in the graveyard. It can help you get over bigger monsters, sometimes even mustering up enough attack to trade with a Diabolos (or Infernoid Onuncu.) Lastly, notice the clause on this card that you may only summon it once per turn. All the Brandish Link Monsters have this clause, otherwise they’d be able to be summoned indefinitely and you would be able to indefinitely add back cards with Red. So, it’s good they put that clause there. Brandish Maiden Shizuku “1 non-WATER ‘Brandish Maiden’ monster You can only Special Summon ‘Brandish Maiden Shizuku(s)’ once per turn. Monsters your opponent controls lose 100 ATK/DEF for each Spell in your GY. Once per turn, during the End Phase, if this card was Special Summoned this turn: You can add 1 ‘Brandish’ Spell from your Deck to your hand with a different name from every card in your GY.” This is Brandish Maiden Shizuku, usually shortened to “Blue.” This card allows you to get the ball rolling if you didn’t open Engage, as it can search Engage in the End Phase. It also pairs well with the Spellbook of Judgment as mentioned, since the Spellbook of Judgment can set spells from the graveyard in the End Phase, allowing you to then search one of the same name with Blue. Notice that the Attack and Defense loss is for all of your opponent’s monsters, which is important to help get over boards sometimes. Other than that, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about with this card. It’s just an obligatory part of the run-of-the-mill plays in this deck, where you summon Red and then tribute Red off for this card to search in the end phase, setting you up for the following turn. One thing to note though, about the two Link Monsters, is where their arrows point. This means that if you summon them to your Extra Monster Zone, they point away from the field. This allows for a more slower game with less OTKs and the like, with an average turn dealing normally only some lower increment of 1500 damage. Brandish Spell Cards With rei, Red, and Blue all figured out, we can move on to the main magic of this deck, the Spell cards. This deck has some of the strongest archetypal Spell cards ever printed, and it is amplified by the fact that very few of them have anything even close to resembling a “once per turn” clause. The Spell cards we’ll be looking at are Brandish Start-Up Engage, Brandish Mechanism Multi-Roll, Brandish Mecha Hornet Bit, Brandish Airspace Area Zero, Brandish Mecha Widow Anchor, Brandish Skill Afterburner, Brandish Skill Jamming Wave, Brandish Mecha Shark Cannon, Brandish Mechanoid Hercules Base, and Brandish Mecha Eagle Booster. Brandish Start-Up Engage “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Add 1 ‘Brandish’ card from your Deck to your hand, except ‘Brandish Start-Up Engage’, then if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, you can draw 1 card.” Brandish Start-Up Engage, usually just called “Engage.” Yes, you read this card’s text correctly. And no, you did not read a once per turn clause. Because there isn’t one. Including adding it back with Red, you can potentially activate this card up to four times in a turn, getting the extra draw as many times as you do it with at least 3 Spell cards in graveyard. As mentioned, and as indicated by this cards name, this is one of your starter cards. It’s not that bad if you don’t draw this because you can search it in the mirror, but if one player draws it going first and the other player doesn’t have it going second, they can start to fall a little bit behind because the player on first is able to resolve this card multiple times before the player on second was able to resolve it once. Fortunately, with the Field Spell and draw Spells, you have a pretty good chance to see this card on turn one. What you ideally want to do in the first turns of the mirror is end with multiple copies of this card either in hand or field or between both, since it will make your follow-up quite strong. Don’t overly worry about getting three Spells in graveyard for the draw, that will naturally come in time and unless the Spells you put in graveyard are free (such as Foolish Burial Goods and Metalfoes Fusion,) it’s not worth building your deck around trying to get to three Spells in graveyard. The draw effect on this card also obviously helps you to begin to come back while playing from behind. Be careful when deciding whether or not to Ash Blossom this card, since they can add it back with Red (as opposed to using it on something like, say, Pot of Desires.) Just something to be aware of. Notice, finally, the clause on this card about only being able to activate it while you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zone. A lot of the Brandish Spells have this clause. Just like the arrows on the Brandish Link Monsters themselves, this helps slow down the pace of the game, since you don’t want to shut yourself out from your Spells just to do a little more damage usually. Brandish Mechanism Multi Roll “Once per turn: You can target 1 other card you control; send it to the GY, also your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to your Spell Card activations this turn. Once per turn, during the End Phase: You can Set ‘Brandish’ Spells with different names from your GY to your field, up to the number of ‘Brandish’ Spell Cards you activated this turn while this card was face-up on the field, but banish them when they leave the field.” This is Brandish Mechanism Multi-Roll, which we call “Spellbook of Judgment” for obvious reasons. Yes, you read this card’s second effect correctly. A good mirror will often have this card face-up on both players field, resolving it as much as possible. And by as much as possible, I mean that using the Quick-Play Spells, you can use this card on your opponent’s turn too. Just the existence of this card justifies using cards like Ghost Ogre, Twin Twister, Evenly Matched, Typhoon, and so on to hopefully not get blown out by a turn one Spellbook of Judgment. Or, if you don’t see these cards, you’re hopefully able to come back with your own Spellbook of Judgment such that you’re able to match the power that your opponent was able to generate. The fact that it banishes the Spells that you bring back is important in late game grinds, so be careful. Worth noting as well is that it can set the Field Spell too. Finally, the first effect is worth keeping in mind, since it can help you get rid of a Metalfoes Fusion that you’ve hard drawn. Overall, this Spell is probably the strongest card in the deck. Brandish Mecha Hornet Bit “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Special Summon 1 ‘Brandish Maiden Token’ (Warrior/DARK/Level 1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in Defense Position, but it cannot be Tributed. If you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, its ATK/DEF become 1500.” Brandish Mecha Hornet Bit, usually just called “Hornet Bit.” This is another starter card, since you can immediately tribute the token summoned for a Red or Blue. It isn’t always clear whether or not you want to go with this card when you have the option between it and rei. This card is more vulnerable to Cherries, but you end with more cards if you add it back with Red and then use Blue. Arguably you don’t even want to waste a Red on adding this card back sometimes. This card has different functions at different points in the game. Early game, it’s a starter card. Later game, it can help you go into toolbox Link Monsters, such as Troymare Phoenix. Further, in the worst-case scenario, you can set it to chump-block so you don’t die. It’s good to keep a copy of this card floating between your hand and field in most matches so that you have a follow-up if something goes wrong. Overall, a pretty solid component of the deck. Brandish Airspace Area Zero “You can target 1 other card you control; excavate the top 3 cards of your Deck, you can add 1 excavated ‘Brandish’ card to your hand, also shuffle the rest back into the Deck, then if a ‘Brandish’ card(s) was excavated, send the targeted card to the GY. If this card is sent from the Field Zone to the GY by a card effect: You can Special Summon 1 ‘Brandish Maiden’ monster from your Deck. You can only use each effect of ‘Brandish Airspace Area Zero’ once per turn.” This is Brandish Airspace Area Zero, normally just called “Field Spell.” Quite simply, this card turns your 5-card hands into 8-card hands, and your 6-card hands into 9-card hands. It also can clear monsters from your Main Monster Zone to allow you to activate your Brandish Spells. The best card to send with it is usually a hard drawn Metalfoes Fusion. Carefully read it. Even if you don’t add a Brandish card, as long as you reveal one, you send the targeted card to the graveyard, so you just about always might as well add the Brandish card you reveal anyway. The best thing that this card does is help you brick even less. You already have 10 starter cards, and this card helps you get to 9 of them. In fact, this card has quite a lot of functions. It turns dead draws into real cards and potentially gets another Spell in graveyard in the process. The second effect combos with Spellbook of Judgment’s first effect to unbrick your hand as well. You can even destroy this on your opponent’s turn using Twin Twister or Typhoon in order to float a rei against them. Unfortunately, because of the once per turn clause on this card, seeing multiple Field Spells isn’t that good. Seeing one Field Spell and one Terraforming is fine though because you can just send the Terraforming with its first effect. Obviously you want to be using Terraforming for this card instead of hard drawing it because it gets a Spell in graveyard for free. Brandish Mecha Widow Anchor “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Target 1 Effect Monster on the field; it has its effects negated (until the end of this turn), then if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, you can take control of that monster until the End Phase.” Brandish Mecha Widow Anchor, usually just called “Claw” for short. This card is essentially Snatch Steal, sometimes even a little better because you can give them back their (presumable) Link Monster in a Main Monster Zone to turn off their Brandish Spells on your turn, including their own copies of Claw. Playing around this card is a key skill to have in the mirror. The most unfortunate timeline is banishing all of your copies (people normally play 2) of this card with Pot of Desires. In order to stop them from getting the monster back in the End Phase, you can Link it away. If all else fails, going second, this card is also a starter card if you can get three Spells in the graveyard. This is because you can take their Red or Blue (usually Blue) and make your own Brandish Link Monsters with it. Brandish Skill Afterburner & Brandish Skill Jamming Wave “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Target 1 face-up monster on the field; destroy it, then if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, you can destroy 1 Spell/Trap on the field.” “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Target 1 Set Spell/Trap on the field; destroy it, then if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, you can destroy 1 monster on the field.” Brandish Skill Afterburner, usually called “Afterburner,” and Brandish Skill Jamming Wave, usually called “Wave.” I’ve put both of these together since they’re more or less the same card, just with reversed effects. These are your ways of clearing your opponent’s board. An extremely relevant thing to point out is that the second effects on both of these cards don’t target. Especially in the case of Afterburner, this forces your opponent to flip up Spells/Traps on its activation if they don’t want to risk them getting destroyed and not being able to use them at all. These cards are especially strong going second, so lists that are built to go second will traditionally play more of these. Other than that, these cards are pretty self-explanatory, they’re great utility cards and add more “counters” to Spellbook of Judgment. Brandish Mecha Shark Cannon “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Target 1 monster in your opponent's GY; banish it, but if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, you can Special Summon that monster to your field instead, but it cannot attack.” Brandish Mecha Shark Cannon, normally called “Reborn” due to its 3-Spell effect, is a great utility card. It can help cut off their floating rei in the mirror. It is strong against the Infernoid build because you can banish one, add it back with Red, banish another, then use Spellbook of Judgment to set it, banishing a third. It may be surprising at first, but the banish effect tends to come up more than the Monster Reborn effect. This is because not only does the card you Reborn take up your Main Monster Zone, but all you can normally do with them is Link them away after. This is with one crucial exception. Late game in the mirror, especially if your Red or Blue were Cherries’d, you can use it on your opponent’s Red/Blue to use their effects instead. A pretty solid card. Brandish Mechanoid Hercules Base “Activate only if you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zone. The equipped monster cannot attack directly, but can make 2 attacks on monsters during each Battle Phase. If the equipped monster destroys a monster by battle and if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY: Draw 1 card. If this card is sent from the field to the GY by a card effect: You can target up to 3 ‘Brandish’ cards in your GY, except ‘Brandish Mechanoid Hercules Base’; shuffle them into the Deck.” Brandish Mechanoid Hercules Base, usually called nothing for short because this card’s quite frankly awful. However, every once in a while, you’ll see this card played for the Daigusto effect, so that late game in the mirror you can replenish your Extra Deck with your Brandish Link Monsters. That’s about all there is to say about this card, I don’t recommend using it. Brandish Mecha Eagle Booster “If you control no monsters in your Main Monster Zones: Target 1 face-up monster on the field; this turn, that target is unaffected by card effects (except its own), also if you have 3 or more Spells in your GY, it cannot be destroyed by battle this turn.” Brandish Mecha Eagle Booster, called “Booster” for short. I’ve only ever seen this card played in one list. Like Hercules Base, it’s pretty bad. Maybe a situation will come up where it’s good to play this on your opponent’s monster. Isn’t much else to say. Non-Brandish Cards We’ll limit our scope here to pure Brandish lists. The cards that best compliment Brandish cards from an engine perspective will obviously be Spell cards that help you meet the 3 Spell threshold in your graveyard. On top of that, since pure Brandish is a control deck, Hand Traps and “real Traps” also tend to be played in this deck. Here is a non-exhaustive list of Main Deck cards to consider: · Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring · Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries · Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit · Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair · Toon Cyber Dragon · Toon Cannon Soldier · Pot of Desires · Foolish Burial Goods · Metalfoes Fusion · Toon Table of Contents · Upstart Goblin · Terraforming · Reinforcements of the Army · Foolish Burial · Twin Twister · Cosmic Cyclone · Solemn Strike · Solemn Judgment · Evenly Matched · Typhoon · Infinite Transience Brandish Ratios Ratios of Brandish cards vary depending on several factors. The first factor they vary on is whether you want to go first or second. The second factor they vary on is the metagame, are people using Altergeist and the Infernoid Build? Or do you expect to see more of the pure Brandish mirror? A third thing they vary on is depending on how many other Brandish cards you’re playing. If you’re playing a list with less Brandish cards to hit off Field Spell, for example, Field Spell may not be as good. Here is a list of common ranges of quantities per card played: · 3 Brandish Maiden rei · 3 Brandish Start-Up Engage · 1-2 Brandish Mechanism Multi-Roll · 2-3 Brandish Mecha Hornet Bit · 0-2 Brandish Airspace Area Zero · 2-3 Brandish Mecha Widow Anchor · 1-2 Brandish Skill Afterburner · 1-2 Brandish Skill Jamming Wave · 0-1 Brandish Mecha Shark Cannon · 0-1 Brandish Mechanoid Hercules Base · 0-1 Brandish Mecha Eagle Booster · 3 Brandish Maiden Kagari · 3 Brandish Maiden Shizuku Other Card Ratios The ratios of non-Brandish cards to play varies even more widely than the Brandish ratios themselves. I’ll just go over the potential quantities of cards commonly played from the “Non-Brandish Cards” section. · 3 Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring · 0-3 Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries · 0-3 Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit · 0-2 Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair · 0-1 Toon Cyber Dragon · 0-1 Toon Cannon Soldier · 2-3 Pot of Desires · 2-3 Foolish Burial Goods · 1 Metalfoes Fusion · 0-3 Toon Tables of Contents · 1 Upstart Goblin · 0-2 Terraforming · 1 Reinforcements of the Army · 0-1 Foolish Burial · 0-3 Twin Twister · 0-3 Cosmic Cyclone · 0-2 Solemn Strike · 0-1 Solemn Judgment · 0-3 Evenly Matched · 0-3 Typhoon · 2-3 Infinite Transience Concluding Remarks I’ll leave considerations of the Side Deck and Extra Deck, due to their relative subjectivity, for the discussions to be had in this thread. I’ll do the same for technical play because the deck is less streamlined in terms of proper maneuvering at the moment. In any event, we’ve worked out the basics of what the Brandish deck is, what it does, and we have some basic ratios to play in our lists. Here’s to a hopefully great thread and a return to the types of discussion we’ve once had on these boards.

What Brandish Format Could Be: In Defense of Current Format “. . . It is the process of its own becoming, the circle that presupposes its end as its goal, having its end also as its beginning; and only by being worked out to its end, is it actual.” - G.W.F Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit Sec. 18 Introductory Remarks We shall here operate under three basic assumptions. First, that the next ban list will arrive relatively soon. Second, that this ban list will move Pendulum and Draco from their dominant position to a non-dominant position in the metagame. Third, and finally, we assume that no unforeseen releases between now and nationals format will severely impact the expected trajectory of the coming format. Considering the notice on Konami’s site concerning when we may start expecting the next ban list to arrive, considering the last ban list already attempting to substantially address Pendulum and Draco, and considering our current knowledge of releases to be expected in the next few sets, I believe that all three of these assumptions are justified for those duelists looking to get an early start on testing for nationals format. Historical Context There are three historical trajectories which we must be mindful of in conceptualizing what the coming Brandish format could mean. First, and most immediate, that of DuelistGroundz.com. Second, and no less important, Brandish’s place in the competitive history of this game. Third, and less obvious, the ever-evolving rules of the game itself. DuelistGroundz.com & Goat Format To begin with, let us consider the current situation of DuelistGroundz.com. The dominance of Goat Format is obligatory and has reached a level not previously seen since perhaps the original 2005 format itself. What does Goat Format structurally symbolize? It started being played again in the early 2010s at a particularly vulnerable time for Current Format, and served as a sort of escape from what was deemed “not real Yu-Gi-Oh!” As such, a certain snobbishness has persisted in the overall attitude of Goat Format contra Current Format, where the Goat Format players believe they are engaging in a more “skillful” game, one that could be properly called “real Yu-Gi-Oh!” If Goat Format were to remain as it was originally intended, a pet project to play at locals for fun in between matches, then there would be no hostile conflict between Current Format and Goat Format. While that situation remains the case in most real-life play, its current manifestation on DuelistGroundz.com is a completely different story. It is precisely when Goat Format seeps into competitive play, when the allure ceases to be merely an “escape” from current format, but fully an alternative thereof, where Goat Format becomes a legitimate structural threat to Current Format. It is in this sense that I consider Goat Format as a whole to be “self-alienated” Current Format. Signs of this eventuality were there in the beginning of its comeback in the early 2010s, especially in the obnoxious attitudes towards an admittedly defective Current Format, but it took years of effort for its purpose to materialize. Of course, the original presupposition the entire movement and snobbishness was based on, the attitude that Goat Format is this holy game that no format can surpass, blinds one to some of the greatest formats this game has ever seen. 2013 Dragons, 2014 H.A.T/Geargia, 2015 Nekroz, 2017 Zoo, etc., have been some of the most intricate formats ever in terms of technical play and deck building. To believe that Yu-Gi-Oh! ended in 2005 is ludicrous. To believe that no format could surpass one that was around when the game itself wasn’t even 5 years old is equally absurd. My hope is that within these words at least a handful of the Goat Format players can find the inspiration to at least glance in the direction of Current Format once more. The central thesis and case I’ll be making throughout this article-post is, therefore, that Brandish format is a better Goat Format in just about every way possible. Furthermore, I’ll be stepping up to the plate personally, not just in efforts to revive deck discussion as I’m doing here, or in effort-posting generally, but also in terms of getting my old Current Format friends (of whom there are many) to start taking this website seriously again. It’s no coincidence that the time of Goat Format being the most serious thing on this site is the same exact time as most of the great players currently either looking back at this site only nostalgically, or for the newer crop of Current Format players, not even knowing what DuelistGroundz.com is/was to begin with. (The general indifference towards these issues of certain figures in the contemporary administration on the site isn’t helping.) So, to summarize, what Brandish format could mean for the history of DuelistGroundz.com, via a better Goat Format, more effort from people like yours truly, and so on, is a return to the respectability and identity that we once had as a site. In the words of my dear friend Madeline, “let’s make this [the] format where we remind everyone to suck our dicks again.” Competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! & Brandish Format We have seen Goat Format, on this website, rise to prominence at a time of particular vulnerability for Current Format. The first of the vulnerabilities that Goat Format took proper advantage of was after a peak in Current Format, at the famous 6,000-person YCS where they had to knock down a wall just to fit all the players. While we had many great formats and tournaments since then, the predominant view, especially by the year 2016, was that competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! had declined from its peak some years prior. It is no coincidence that, bar the Monarch mirror, that year is viewed as one of pretty lackluster formats. The deck that won nationals in 2016 was one that, with a few excess purchases, someone could have made by getting three structure decks at Walmart the Thursday before, learning how to play the game with the beginner’s guide included, Last Chance Qualifying for nationals the following day, and then winning the tournament on the next two (not in the least to discredit the actual winner, obviously.) Pairing this was a decline in attendance of events. Traditionally 11-round YCS tournaments now became 10 rounds. Such YCS’s would occasionally have less participants than California regionals, or even Philadelphia regionals in rarer cases. But this is changing. Nowadays, in 2018, while we may have had a bad YCS or two, if one digs deeper towards a more local level, regional attendance is rising across the board. Even in 2017, the NAWCQ that year was a 3,000-person tournament. This paired what is viewed as a relatively good format. In the words of my dear friend Azad, “Yu-Gi-Oh! is peaking again.” We’re digging ourselves out of the rut we were in during 2016. As a result, in the broader history of the competitive game, Brandish format is the next peak. This makes the coming format a prime time to take Current Format seriously again, if not for the comparisons to be made between Brandish format and a better Goat Format, then for the heightened level of competition that recent trends are pointing towards. There is also an important technological context in which Brandish format is arising. The advent of replays on Dueling Book, as well as the advent of YGOscope.com, have the potential to form the foundations of a new era of testing and theory. It can drastically change also how we conduct competitive deck discussion threads. For example, we can construct replays to display complex situations instead of having to describe them. In doing so it can illuminate all the variables in technical play that the poster might not have thought relevant themselves. The possibilities are endless, and it is important to establish standards for a proper appreciation of these new technologies, which is one of many conversations we should be having at the moment. [Questions such as whether or not we should have dedicated thread(s) for accumulating replays for different decks come to mind.] With the modern competitive epoch of the game fully in mind, all that is left for us to discuss insofar as the historical context that Brandish format occupies is concerned, is the Konami-side of things; Rules and releases. Link Monsters & Rule Changes The past fourish years of the game have seen more turbulent rule changes than perhaps at any other point in this games history, and I include the switch from Upper Deck Entertainment within this. Among these rule changes, the ones that stand out the most are the decision to change drawing 6 going first into drawing only 5, the decision not only to release pendulum but then to move the pendulum zones to the Spell/Trap zones proper, and of course, Master Rule 4 and Link Monsters. While Link Monsters and the new rules that came about with them may be ostensibly overcomplicated and hard to understand for non-initiates, a deeper consideration of their implications in the competitive sphere of the game would reveal an absolutely genius mechanic. Particularly, the idea of limiting Extra Deck maneuvers to only the Extra Monster Zone and the zones that Link Monsters point to, should have ideally made for a slower game overall. The concept of using the previously almost meme-worthy mechanic of card zones to severely impact the plays that all the best decks are able to perform was a great move. However, there were of course some defects here. First, the defect of them simply releasing Link Monsters that were absurdly abusable (such as Firewall Dragon.) This made for some formats that the overall logic of Link Monsters and Master Rule 4 should have altogether avoided, such as the pre-emergency ban list Spyral format, as well as the current issues we’re having with Electrumite. However, in the broader history of the game, these formats are merely momentary defects and a slower format, one that Brandish format aspires to be, would become structurally inevitable given this ruleset. Another defect that Link Monsters have which is worth pointing out is that the “Extra Link” mechanic is nothing except for a floodgate built into the very rules of the game. Luckily, Extra Link situations are quite hard to pull off in competitive decks, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue for the time being. Nonetheless, one of the major impacts that Link Monsters have had on the game which is laudable is that they gave us a real science of which card zones to play our cards in. Our theory on this website and on discussion boards in general have yet to catch up to this reality, but it will in time. With these three historical trajectories in mind, those of DuelistGroundz.com, the competitive scene, and the rule changes and releases of the game itself, we are thereby able to place a Brandish format within its proper context. From here, we’re able to move on to the central question of this article-post, that of what a Brandish format could be, with the ultimate answer being, in appeal to the modern players on this site, “a better Goat Format.” Brandish Format Mechanics Those comparisons between Brandish format and Goat Format structurally can seemingly only be expressed in a list. A defect of this list is that it isn’t exhaustive. Rather, it deals with only those most immediate points understood from even a superficial familiarity with the format’s dynamics. These are, still, more than enough to compose a compelling case. The first thing to be discussed is the unclearness of when to use cards. Then, we will articulate the so-called “community of cards” between both players that the format creates and compare it to Goat Format. Following this, we will get down to brass tacks and talk about Boss Monsters. After that, we shall talk about going first or second. Penultimately, we’ll broach deck-building. Finally, externalities such as possible FTKs/OTKs and other, non-Brandish strategies will be brought up. The running theme here will be the thesis that while these things compare favorably with Goat Format, they have for the most part reached a “higher level” of more complexity and refinement in the modern day that a format lived out in 2005 continues to not be able to deliver. When to Use Cards The first thing that strikes one in Brandish format is that it is not very clear when to use a lot of the cards. Even cards that were traditionally obligatory, such as hand traps (Ash Blossom, Cherries, Transience,) become complicated. Do I Ash Blossom your Reinforcement of the Army hoping to cut you off of a play but then lose to a follow up? Do I Cherries on your turn or let you use a Blue to wait until my turn because I think you’re going to hold Called by the Grave since you’re expecting to use it on an End Phase Ash Blossom for your Blue? Do I Transience this turn one Red or do I hold it to set in a good spot (with respect to my opponent’s card zones) and then use it on a later Red at a more crucial juncture? Further, the opportune time to use extraneous Spell/Trap destruction such as Cosmic Cyclone and Twin Twisters isn’t clear either. Do I set them to out their Spellbook of Judgment? Do I hold them to not get Jamming Wave’d, or even worse, Afterburner’d? Do I set them to stop Void Imagination against the Infernoid Build? Do I keep them to avoid getting Patrulea’d/Decatron’d because I have an Ash Blossom to deal with their Imagination or an Ogre to deal with their Vanishment? What if they have Called by the Grave? It isn’t merely the non-Brandish cards that are unclear when to use, it is also the Brandish cards themselves. If I’ve opened just rei and Hornet Bit, do I float with rei or do I Hornet Bit, summon Red, and get it back? I end with more cards in the latter case, but I float in the former case. Or perhaps I Hornet Bit just for Blue to not use a Red on merely a Hornet Bit? Do I hold this Start-Up Engage to do it for 3 on another turn or do I foresee by Red/Blue chain resolving, allowing me to possibly use more of them on my next turn? Can I play through Cherries? Should I rei instead of Hornet Bit here to play around Cherries more effectively? It is not the case that the actual decision trees themselves are vast, as in a traditional combo deck. Rather, the options you’re given every turn are all defendable. This is akin to Goat Format, where different lines of play are all highly considerable. This being the case, though, we must acknowledge that rather than the decisions to play around 1-ofs in Goat Format, our opponent can potentially have at least 3 of all the cards we’re trying to play around in the Brandish mirror. As a result, there is no “unfortunate” case of them having the 1-of that you decided it was best not to play around, you must play around everything. This is one way in which Brandish format is brought to a higher level than Goat Format. The Community of Cards Another way in which Brandish format may be compared to Goat Format is that, rather than my cards being my cards and your cards being your cards, a sort of community of cards is established between my opponent and I where my Claws and Reborns are searchable methods of making my opponent’s cards my own. This “community of cards,” akin to how the aforementioned decision-making is brought to a higher level in Brandish format, is also itself brought to a higher level, since rather than Snatch Steal or Creature Swap being cards to keep in the back of your mind, Claw and Reborn are obligatory and ever-present in the mirror. Boss Monsters A third similarity between the two formats is that of Boss Monsters. This especially applies to how Diabolos in Brandish format compares with Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning in Goat Format. Diabolos is a card that, unlike BLS, is good at all points in the game. BLS and Chaos Sorcerer, if drawn early, may be an issue, but since the only requirement to use Diabolos is to see rei (of which at least 7 are played,) it’s not nearly as much of a problem as getting a light and dark in the graveyard is. So, the boss monsters that we’re dealing with in Brandish format are in this way “better Yu-Gi-Oh!” than the ones dealt with in Goat Format. The Trap Dustshoots of Goat Format side decks (and sometimes main decks,) further, are actually built-in to Diabolos, making it less relevant who went first or second. Resolving a turn one Diabolos isn’t the end of the world because the opponent gets to pick the card that they return, and you don’t see their hand. First & Second Speaking of the decision to go first or second, this is another thing that Brandish format arguably does better than Goat Format. In Goat Format, while it isn’t by any measure the end of the world if you’re on second, it’s still quite obligatory to go first. In the era of only drawing 5 cards going first, on the other hand, and with the possibility of altering your Brandish list with more copies of Jamming Wave and Afterburners to have an advantage going second, it’s not only less clear whether you want to go first or second, but also less clear whether or not you want to build to go first or second (in the same way that it was less clear when to use the cards themselves.) Deck Building Regarding how to build your deck generally, you’re given quite a lot of freedom. It had become a cliché of Current Format in recent years to expect deck lists that top to consist of mostly 3-ofs and searchable 1-ofs. But considering the paradigms that cards like Pot of Desires open up for the game, as well as the grindy nature of Brandish mirrors which can require multiple copies of utility cards to “come up,” and finally, because you can splash Brandish in many different decks (simply opening Hornet Bit is a plus two,) the options for deck building are opened up in Brandish format which is also reminiscent of the ability to play more or less Dust Tornadoes, Sakuretsu Armors, Scapegoats, and Metamorphoses in our Goat Format decks. Brandish format, while I’d like to stress that the card pool which the metagame restricts us to is by no way too daunting for a non-initiate to familiarize themselves with, still has a richer card pool and selection than Goat Format. This is something that both formats do well, but that Brandish format does theoretically better. Other Strategies and Externalities Just like in Goat Format, the predominant deck (in their case Goat Control and in our case pure Brandish) is not the only strategy one can use. To begin with FTKs, OTKs, and traditional “combo decks” prior to examining other more “real” [sic] decks, we must first notice two things. For one, we have an impending ban list that could all but make the Instant Fusion FTK in Pendulum unusable. For two, more hand traps are being released, especially in the form of Infinite Transience, which, between them, Cherries, Ash Blossom, and Ogre, can make such decks hard to win with. There is the possibility of using Curious and Troymare Griffin to combo into a set Imperial Order with a strong field, but for the time being, that appears to be our only worry on this front. This contrasts how frustrating decks like Empty Jar can be to deal with in Goat Format. Just like splashing Scapegoat and Metamorphosis into non-traditional Goat Control decks, the Brandish engine creates possibilities to be splashed in many decks, most prominently Infernoid and Invoked. Then there are still non-Brandish anti-meta strategies, such as the different builds of Altergeist. While I don’t have an argument for why the deck selection now in particular is “better” or has “reached a higher level” than that of Goat Format, I do think they are at least directly comparable. Conclusion What we therefore are dealing with is a slower deck/format which doesn’t OTK much, a deck where the decisions you are able to make on every turn are all defensible, a deck where these decisions often revolve around which cards you’re playing around, a deck where a community of cards is formed between you and your opponent such that you needn’t rely on only your own cards to win, a deck with “fairer” and less troublesome boss monsters, a deck whose building is akin to but in fact richer than Goat Format, a deck that deals with FTKs and OTKs very well, and finally, a deck where going first or second is not merely something that less hinges on, but also not obligatory at all. These things are all brought to either a higher or equal level to that of Goat Format, creating less arbitrary losses overall. We’ve summarized Brandish format’s ideal place within the history of the game, its ideal place metanarrativistically in the history of DuelistGroundz.com, and we’ve given some basic introductory analyses of the mechanics of Brandish format and how they compare to Goat Format. The conclusion has been reached that, for all intents and purposes, Brandish format represents a “better Goat Format.” The implicit myth that all the fedoras at your locals the past 6 years keep in the back of their mind, that while you’re there grinding out games in the absolute savage barbarity of Current Format, they’re sitting in the back playing a more “cultured” game of “real Yu-Gi-Oh!,” let this myth be completely laid to rest. I highly recommend that the modern Goat Format players on this site get into Current Format. Thank you.

they are actually in soul prison

This past weekend, I visited Germany to play in CSL's Grand Open Berlin. For all of you uncultured Americans that has no idea what a CSL Grand Open is, CSL (or Card Sports League) is a third part tournament organizer filling a role similar to what ARG does in USA. Except they do it way better. This is a tournament I've had booked for a while, before I realized how little I enjoy playing the current format of yu-gi-oh right now. But a few weeks before the event, my saving grace gets announced. Instead of hosting their usual day 2 regional-esque tournament in current format, they would have it be goat format. All I had to do was miss out on top cut and I was free to participate, and I declared my goal for the trip to be to scrub out the main event so I could win a goat side event. Although I prepare for the main event, I do not take it very seriously. I end up working on a burning abyss deck together with Arvin that would have good chances of topping, which at this point I don't care much for doing anyway. Ironically, I prepare way less for the goat event. Anyway, about a week before the event I'm looking through old decklists on Duelingbook and find my old darklord deck. The deck was always so close but not quite making the cut every time I try it, but I'm bored so I try it again. And it steamrolls true draco. Because I have way too much time on my hands, I put more effort into the deck and figure out the flaws against pendulum (shoutout to Jeka for kicking my ass a few times with pendulum) so I could patch up the matchup and make it favorable as well. Burning Abyss was still obviously the better deck, but I wasn't going with an honest attempt at topping so I was split on what deck to play. I decide on Burning Abyss. Fastforward to Friday night, I'm rooming with team trent and ask a few question about their predicted meta since the German guys will know Germany meta much better than me. I'm told that the entire Berlin, all five locals, plays almost exclusively lightsworn. Oh shit. That matchup is completely unwinnable for Burning Abyss. So I sleeve up darklord. The actual main event wasn't very interesting, but I suppose it has some comedic value so I'll quickly go through the rounds. Round 1: Pendulum I lose the dice roll, but open reaper so I win game 1. Game 2, he makes me go first and I open sphere mode and 2 kaijus and get OTK'd. Game 3 I draw through half my deck and end on anti-spell (obviously, I draw half my deck...), he just sets a monster and some spells and passes so I corebadge his set monster and kill him. Round 2: I lose the dice roll and my opponent goes first. He summons a gouki suplex and declares effect. Fastforward a few moves and he's on Saryuja, naturia beast, 3 backrow and an ash blossom in hand. Not winning that game. So here I look through my side deck and see that all my tech slots suck in the matchup, I go first with 3 kaijus and 1 evenly matched in the deck. Playing through my draw cards, I get my spellbook guy veiler'd, which is the equivalent of getting your desires ash'd and that kind of sucks, so I only end on being able to raigeki break him 2 times on his turn. Kaiju and evenly in hand, of course. However, his hand has raigeki+forbidden chalice+lethal so what does my field matter. Round 3: Mekk-Knight Invoked Win the dice roll, but doesn't matter because invoked would have made me go first anyway. I don't remember exactly what the situation was with my hand after turn 1, I know I couldn't summon any darklords to the field but I think the only thing missing was that I needed my normal summon next turn and I'm fine. I end on 3 set typhoon, reaper and ash; might get me there. Typhoon his field spell, gets beaten down my mekk-knights. Think my ukoback on my 2nd turn got veiler'd or ash'd which put me back a turn again and he gets to put me so low on life that it doesn't matter that I get to play on my third turn. Then I win game 2 and game 3 because it's mekk-knight invoked, I didn't brick and I could raigeki break whenever he sets a spell. Round 4: Trickstar Not much to say here, it's trickstar. I'm paying 1k for each effect I activate and I draw half my deck, this isn't really winnable. This guy was actually the only trickstar player I saw in the room period, so of course we got paired. Round 5: Metalfoes Draco Win the dice roll, go first. My opening is completely nuts, but then near the end of my turn I desires and banish all 3 ixchel, which puts me back. Regardless, I end on reaper+ash+typhoon+1 darklord, 2 traps in grave and the resources to snowball into infinite raigeki breaks next turn. So I trade down all his resources, he's down to 1 scale, 1 astrograph, 1 card in hand and he has an orichalc on my side of the field that I enchantmented in the battle phase. He shuffles in the metalfoes fusion for a 2nd hand card, activates diagram pops scale adds master peace, plays heritage from hand and snowballs me out of the game from there. Game 2 I go first and don't brick, he actually had cosmic cyclone for my anti-spell but it turns out that 5 spell hands loses to eradicator epidemic virus (his specific hand would still have lost to my 2 set typhoon I never got to use even if I didn't eradicator). Game 3 he goes first and combos off, ending on zefra metaltron, vortex dragon, alkahest, master peace, diagram, return, tornado dragon (can pop return to trigger monster pop), so I do the only reasonable thing and sphere mode him followed by evenly matched. From there, my hand is kind of awkward with triple banishment and he can recur and annoyingly big master peace with return, so I end up just paying myself down to 1k life over the course of 2 turns and winning on underclock+number 35: ravenous tarantula with a 7k life point difference in time. Round 6: Lair Of Darkness Ok so, I did not see a feasible way for this deck to do anything real against any real deck. Except that its boss monster appears to floodgate true draco. Maybe that's how he got this far? Anyway, I win g1 because his deck doesn't do anything. It just recurs a 3k beater and has no disruption. Game 2 I open typhoon, evenly, triple allure. Because of the field spell, I get to evenly him down to nothing and he's forced to keep tokens. But then apparently I opened triple allure and had no darks in my top 12, can't even blame that on darklord being inherently bricky. Which brings me to game 3, darklord is inherently bricky and I opened a weak hand that could easily have turn amazing if my desires didn't get ashed. But it did and I'm bricked. So I just drop at this point. It's late and I could just play the tournament out to have something to do, but I'm tired of these rogue decks. What happened to all the supposed lightsworn? Didn't true draco have the most representation out of any deck at this event? I tested against these decks, I know I can beat them. But in the end, I played a "bad" deck and wasn't expecting to top. Now I get to play goat, finally. Can't get much worse than gouki nat beast and being paired with possibly the only trickstar player in the room, right? Turns out it actually can't and the goat event is a blast. This event was, according to the facebook page, supposed to be exarion goat. I have no idea what was said by anyone at the venue because every announcement is in German, but turns out exarion wasn't legal. I have no idea if they did a good job at correcting their initial misinformation or not. Round 1: We start playing and a few turns in, the judge walks past the table and sees my opponent's exarion on the field. I don't know if me and my opponent were the only ones to not catch the memo, I at least didn't see anyone else get in trouble for using exarion. But my opponent got game lossed and given the option to submit a new decklist. Instead he dropped. Understandable and unfortunate. Just wanted to get that out of the way before I got into this for real. Walking around the venue on the Saturday, literally everyone playing goat for funsies was doing so with exarion tdrag discard trap decks. Which is quite interesting and way different from dgz. Both chaos sorc and the discard traps does more to stop empty jar than the entire goat control deck, which I had to keep in mind. Also realize that I thought this was what people would be playing during the tournament because I had no idea exarion wouldn't be legal. Turns out most of them just replaced exarion with other cards and still played tdrag discard trap decks. Also worth noting that although tdrag decks were by far the most represented ones, this eventually didn't carry over to top cut. The event had 23 participants, 5 rounds swiss and cut to top 4. Now let's get into the real rounds. Round 2: I can't remember much of the actual technical play of this match but his deck was interesting. I saw reasoning, monster gate crane shenanigans but I never saw dmoc or dfusion or chaos monsters. Instead, he was maining both solemns and dustshoots, which obviously turned into a huge problem for me. I still win the match without much problem, but lost game 2 to duo+dustshoot+solemn turn 1. Round 3: I'm the 2-0 guy to get downpaired with a 1-1 guy. He was playing with type of monarch chaos deck with penguin soldier and injection fairy lily. I struggle a bit in game 1 because I opened the nuts sangan+taiyou+trunade going first, summon sangan pass and he has the graceful discard light+dark into sorc and I'm cut off from my combo. But still 2-0 him. Round 4: This guy knew what I was playing before the round started and he was vocally very salty/tilted over having to play against it. He's complaining to everyone around him about it. Of course he's complaining in German, which is a language I don't speak, but the point gets across. He's on the tdrag discard trap deck. For the actual match, not much really happen. You don't actually ftk with empty jar and you could see my opponent getting angrier and angrier the more combo pieces he saw until my deck finally exploded all over him. And repeat for game 2. He's so so angry that someone could "take empty jar to a goat tournament" and "play it with a smile" if I'm paraphrasing him correctly, which I'm probably not because he's complaining to his friends in German but some words are similar enough that I feel kind of confident in these translations. Fun match. Round 5: Complete opposite opponent from last round, he's playing reasongate (standard, not solemn dustshoot thing from earlier) and genuinely looks interested in my deck and takes it with a laugh. He then shows me his own empty jar deck and compare, "do you run this?", etc. He also had never seen a feather of the phoenix before I activated it in the duel, which looked more like it got him hyped than anything else. Win the 2-0 quickly, enjoyable in a completely different way from the previous round. After this, we cut to top 4 and play single elimination. What actually went on during the duels becomes interesting at this point. Top 4: This opponent is playing a giant rant pyramid turtle warrior roolbox deck with mained solemns, skill drains and royal oppressions. I concede to that I might lose this round and would be ok with it because the matchup is just that bad. Game 1, that is exactly what happens. I open monster clogged and can't manually resolve jars against skill drain+oppression. Game 2 looks really grim as well, I don't remember exactly how the early game played out but I think I just pass for draw phases before I reload. I go down to 2500 life in the passing game, then trunade him and go off with a morphing jar. Except I draw 2 or 3 monsters. I think I resolve jar again somehow, maybe reloaded first. Point is I drew 2-3 monsters every jar or reload and cannot go for the full FTK. I have to pass on attack position morphing jar, 4 sets, 1 thunder dragon and 1 mystic tomato in hand. He has ddwl, blade knight, 5 cards in hand and I'm still at 2500. Heavy storm and I lose. Normal summon monster and attack and I lose. He summons pyramid turtle. He activates creature swap. ddwl attacks turtle. Turtle searches the deck. Fails to find. Oh shit. Blade knight attacks, I drop down to 600. Morphing jar attacks, I book it. He sets 3 and ends, I flip decree in the end phase. I trunade up his sets to play around his own book of moon, summon a topdecked cyber jar and beat over the morphing jar. And I go off. And I win game 2. Game 3, my opening 5 are: taiyou, taiyou, heavy storm, thunder dragon, graceful charity. Unreal. But. He activates duo. His the heavy storm, I discard a taiyou. He sets 1 monster and 3 backrow. My tdrag+graceful combo resolves and I'm somehow on taiyou+cyber+trunade, trunade resolves. gg. Finals: Playing against the same reasongate guy from round 5. I win the dice roll and for the only time ever in the tournament, I FTK someone. We go to game 2, he just passes on empty field. I summon tomato, swing, set cursed seal and end. He snatches+monster gates my tomato, I cursed seal his monster gate. He sets 3 and passes. I heavy storm away 2 more monster gates and I think the 3rd was coth. I normal summon a 2nd tomato and premature back my first one. And I swing. And I swing next turn. And I swing for game the turn after that. And the finals has my only FTK and my only win by damage. So in the end, I went 7-0 with empty jar, or 6-0 if you don't count round 1. The general view and response from the German goat community seemed more to be along the lines of "wow, really?" and general interest rather than "you play empty jar? fuck you", with a few exceptions. What I know of, no one sided neko manes. Dekoichi is super popular, thunder dragon even more. Reasongate got 2nd place this tournament and top 4 at CSL's last German goat tournament, despite apparent modest representation. For the future, I wonder if people will start siding neko manes now. If they are, empty jar may not be a good choice anymore. Playing through neko is easy. Playing through traps is easy, playing through both in the same game is hard. Maybe angel chaos will be a better meta call for the future, recruiters in general benefit from the huge popularity of dekoichi. I guess if I had to play through the same meta again, I would be maining some copies of decree. For the main event itself, Lucas Windel, aka McKnaehrich of team trent and of STOR won it. Congratulations.

[6:20 PM] Ynusgridorh: Your whole team has less talent than Jazz's pinky. Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. Jazz is, without a doubt, the most fearsome and challenging opponent I have ever faced not just in Goat Format, but in any sport or game I've ever played in my life. This was a long season with a lot of twists. As G-sop mentioned in Discord, most of the regular season felt like Seraphim vs Damage Step, with neither team clearly better than the other, but Damage Step suffered an unfortunate loss in the first week to Neo Sigurimi that was due entirely to my own failure against Shining Blue-eyes. This was a surprise to me because I had had SBE's number with Chaos Control for most of the Autumn split. This was the start of my very gradual and drawn-out drift away from Chaos Control and towards other options. While all of the wars we played were challenging and interesting in their own ways, the war I'm going to cover in detail here is, of course, Damage Step vs Seraphim. HyperBeam, Tristan, and myself faced the terrifying trio of Jazz, Ynus, and Kev. HyperBeam stunned everyone on Seraphim when he took the match over Kev 2-1, from what I've heard. Tristan vs Jazz was a bit of a longer shot, as Jazz had proven particularly troublesome for Tristan back in the Juneau Lives (aka pools). Jazz ended up edging it out 2-1, which left me to face Ynus with all the marbles. I knew a few weeks in that I would be using Empty Jar for this war for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I believe Empty Jar is a top 3 deck and the best combo deck in the format, and I feel capable of beating absolutely anyone with any deck with it if I manage to play perfectly. "If I play perfectly" is a bit of a meme in modern theory, but it's absolutely impossible to deny the power of the core engine of Mjar-Cyjar-Taiyou-Moon. Seraphim are a team that were setting the pace of the metagame while staying months ahead of it, so the first thing I did when I started cycling through decklists is think about what I would play in a tournament 2-3 years from now. Spoilers: Empty Jar is the Goat Format deck of the future, and I was determined to prove it. All that left me to do was figure out 2-3 years worth of Empty Jar combos in a few weeks, lol. Furthermore, I wanted to exploit a particular weakness in the Seraphim's theory regarding sidedecking. I knew Kris's sidedecks had always traditionally contained 3 Neko Mane King, and Ynus had carried on this tradition with his own sidedecks for the most part. Something I noticed in my early ranked matches with Empty Jar was how easy it was to win postboard games when my opponents' Neko Mane Kings clumped and ended up dead in their hands. This is because it is most efficient to side two Neko Mane Kings. Here's the post I made in the team channel prior to the war regarding this: [6:41 AM] MMF: this is eventually going to become an article, i think but i'm posting it here and keeping it private for the rest of the season and i'm not gonna tell people on other teams many people believe right now that 3 neko mane king is a necessary sidedeck choice in a metagame with enough empty jar decks. the general idea seems to be that "if i side 3 neko mane king i can't lose to it." i know for a fact that the members of the Seraphim largely if not unanimously agree on this. this mentality is one of the reasons i have been winning so much with the deck in ranked. people always worry about the probability of having all copies of neko mane king on the bottom of their deck. they think that's the only way they can lose. the problem is that that isn't the only bad outcome that's relevant to neko mane king. the other, much more important one in my opinion, is opening with 2 or more copies of neko mane king. god forbid you open with all 3, in which case you're completely boned by any cyber jar loop. opening with 1 copy is still bad, but usually not that bad (+-1 is the average parity for well-played cards in goat format; think of it as getting duo'd on turn 1 by a deck that duo isn't very good in to begin with). multiple copies are what can really bog a hand down to the point that the empty jar player gets enough time to draw into a combo. [6:41 AM] MMF: The probability of opening with 2 or more Neko Mane King with 2 in deck: 1.92% The probability of opening with 2 or more Neko Mane King with 3 in deck: 5.36% Adding the third Neko Mane King increases this by 3.44% The probability of all copies of Neko Mane King being on the bottom 5 with 2 in deck: 1.28% The probability of all copies of Neko Mane King being on the bottom 5 with 3 in deck: 0.10% Adding the third Neko Mane King decreases this by 1.18% 3 neko mane king is actually mathematically worse than 2 neko mane king for the opponent of the empty jar player. Here's the list I used for the war match: There are a couple things to say about this list. Dragged Down Into the Grave is an absolutely miserable card and Card of Safe Return is clearly the better mainboard option. A lot of people tell me that CoSR is "winmore" because you should always be winning if you resolve Shallow Grave for Jars. I think these people think that Books of Taiyou grow on trees that you can create out of thin air with magic and harvest for all the Books of Taiyou you will ever need. CoSR also helps the alternate win plan of Tomato+Thunder Dragon beatdown when you're trying to go big with Premature+Trunade. Prohibition and Mind Control are the nuts postboard. That's about it. I won game 1 with a totally nutty hand. Game 2 began with me Mind Controlling his Neko Mane King and then using Taiyou+Cyjar, so I'm getting nervous, but I ended up whiffing that turn by stupidly playing into another Neko Mane King and getting beaten down by a Spell Canceller that I couldn't avoid having to discard from his hand to turn on his Call of the Haunted. Much like the Sigurimi war, I completely threw this war for my team in this game. I got a few combos going in game 3 but in the end it didn't get me there. Sorry guys. This is one of the matches that taught me the importance of sidedecked Compulsory Evacuation Devices, because I lost one game to Dark Balter and then another to Spell Canceller. Shouts out to Damage Step member Me. aka Ludrah aka Chevalier de Fromage aka Big C, who took these and other sidedeck concepts with Empty Jar to a 2nd place finish at DCS Dallas, just barely losing game 3 of match 2 of Grand Finals to Silverdude. Oh yeah, and Ynus had also kicked me off of Seraphim earlier, in the days before it was actually a warring team, because I had tried to argue to him that Scapegoat was worth keeping in against Empty Jar because of the interactions with Shallow Grave and Cyber Jar, and he just wasn't having it. Turns out he was only able to win Game 2 because of that Scapegoat interaction, so you're welcome From then on, I was able to focus my preparation entirely on Jazz, since he was qualified for playoffs through the DCS way before this. I knew my window to upset Seraphim members with Empty Jar had evaporated after the war, and I needed to find another angle to attack from. Fortunately, the matches from Juneau and FLC 1 gave me a lot of data to work with. What stuck out to me the most is that Jazz was very close to losing FLC 1 GFs to an aggro player that was entirely unknown to us at the time. Coupled with his unconvincing split sets with Loli's Recruiter deck at Juneau and frequent forays into PACMAN (which I perform terribly against with control) and my own knowledge of the Detox Goat list (2 merchant, 3 meta, 2-3 goat), this made it increasingly obvious to me that aggro was the way to go against Jazz. I decided I would need a deck that would hit him like a 10,000 ton train and keep going. So I started testing out the notorious "aggro deck" in ranked. Surprisingly enough, I was able to get my Master ranking back with it, so I decided to just keep jamming it to get as much practice with it as I could. In the end, I went 158-98 for the entire season+postseason and narrowly eeked out the coveted first seed over Kasper. To no one's surprise, the opponent I chose was Jazz, and the 55 cards I brought were all fine-tuned for him specifically: I ended up shaving all of my mainboard copies of Kycoo for this event only since I didn't expect any of my possible opponents to be on any kind of Chaos deck, with the exception of Kasper's single teched copy in his Goat deck. Instead, I included Tsukuyomi and Sangan and paired them with Snatch Steal and Torrential Tribute, the latter two being uncommon maindeck choices for this kind of deck but made viable by the inclusion of the former two cards. Mystic Swordsman LV2 is tempting to maindeck, but it doesn't make the cut because it doesn't count as an out to a flip effect monster set across a Wanghu, which are among the most important flip effects to answer. For this same reason, Light of Intervention is usually staple here, but I cut it for this event and I'm not sure if I'll play it in the future. I strongly considered Asura Priest, but it also misses the cut here because I can't afford to play more than a single Spirit maindeck. Asura Priest answers a Goat that has already resolved, but Tsukuyomi answers a TER that has already resolved, and the latter is the more important interaction by a long shot. From what Markus has told me, Neo Sigurimi were absolutely convinced that I would be too prideful not to play Chaos. As I told Jazz after the tournament, this was a poor estimation of my personality, because the number one thing I pride myself on in YGO is my adaptability, or as my good old rival Nick Wei used to call it, my "Ninja Copy Eye." I played something similar against WGM in our Winter Classic Top 4 war match and won fairly convincingly, but the rest of his team was able to edge out the win 3-1 in order to face Neo Sigurimi in the finals. This leaves Neo Sigurimi, Seraphim, and 4HUNNIDS as the only three teams to win a war against Damage Step throughout the season. However, the main event for me, of course, was individual playoffs. Things got off to a flying start when Kasper beat Mascis unceremoniously 2-0, which meant he would be waiting in Winners Finals for the winner of the match between me and Jazz. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=164637-3932451 https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=164637-3932628 So I narrowly squeaked out a 2-1 win in Winners Semis. Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush did what they do best in Game 2 going first, then in Game 3 I gained the edge with Wanghu against his hand of two Metas. The Detox list is weak to these cards in particular because all of the non-limited staple Spells and Traps are played at 2-3 (especially the ones that Wanghu turns off) and very few of the maindeck monsters can actually attack anything effectively. Tribe's body is pathetic and Asura Priest's Spirit effects are bugs rather than features in this matchup. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=164637-3984199 It's no secret that Kasper hates playing any matchup other than a control mirror. His weaknesses showed in this set and I took it convincingly 2-0, avenging Mascis and getting me into Grand Finals. Since this match, 4HUNNIDS has stepped their game up against this decktype, and their technology now is way more advanced than it was during this match. I wouldn't play it against another member of their team again. Good shit guys. https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=164637-4225265 https://www.duelingbook.com/replay?id=164637-4225699 As fate would have it, it came down to a second match of Grand Finals, and there's a lot to say about both matches. As I expected, Jazz hit the ground running with adaptations from the winners match, and exploited a couple high-risk high-reward plays I made to take the first match 2-0. Even after using Zombyra and Deck Devastation in game 2 to no avail, I wasn't out of sidedeck tricks. I took a convincing game 1 in match 2 and boarded in Noblemen of Extermination and Skill Drain, both of which I had left out in the first match, and started off game 2 by hitting one of Jazz's signature Seven Tools with one of the Exterminations. From there, I was able to pin him down with Skill Drain+Sangan. As Brandis noted in Discord, I chose to attack into Jazz's sets repeatedly with non-Sangan monsters while settling for smaller Sangan LP pokes, but I think this was correct because of the way I ended up winning. At the end, his Dust Tornado on my Skill Drain unfortunately gave me the kill with Premature Burial+Abyss Soldier+Sinister Serpent, where Dusting my set Premature might have given him an extra turn or so and where I wouldn't have had enough life for a second Premature activation if my Sangan had attacked the wrong set monster at any point prior. From here, I'm going to talk about something a little different but still relevant to a "War League Winter 2018 Report." During some points of this this season, my negativity and toxicity reached all-time highs, and I said some particularly nasty things that I regret to a lot of people that I wish no harm on, such as Waka, Frosty, Silver, Morphing Jar AKA Big P AKA Sleeping Giant, Digbick, Brandis, Kewl'kat, various LPG members, and countless other people. I want to extend a formal apology to all of these people that I've said hurtful things to. Going into the Winter season, my goals were to develop my skills as much as possible with Goat Control, Chaos Control, and Empty Jar. Going into the Spring season, my goal will be to be a better and more positive me for the community. As fate would have it, Waka is now, in fact, the best Goat Duelist of all time, with a 100% winrate in DGz ranked games, multiple sponsorship deals, and a 20k diamond chain, so joke's on me anyways. I'd also like to thank each and every player that spent any time on Damage Step at any point during the season. This is, by far, the greatest and most powerful team I have ever been a part of, and I can't stress how lucky I am to have all of the teammates that I have. None of what I did this season would have been remotely possible if it weren't for all of the following people: Soul, Mjar, Mascis, Cameron, Tristan, Ludrah, Bergy, WGM, Hyper, InsiDS. You guys are the shit. RIP Endphase RIP Pimp C one love MMF out

quota

I have a very personal want to play in this. I have had a difficult time as of late but the time under the waterfall has been well spent.

hey lads, whats the chapest phone i can find to use tinder on? like exclusively just tinder. i assume it'll be an android one. cant use it on my main phone for various reasons. dont judge.

Yeah all the games are public, but the mods will not spoil the spectators until the games are completed. They're entertaining to watch. I'll make sure the link is posted when the game begins

Go watch it and thank me later

Some stuff on my mind (bolded the important ones): 1. If you're playing Shark Cannon don't side it out going first in the mirror because if you get Cherries'd then you'll want to use it on their Monster later game. Although the card is generally better going second because you can cut them off rei and then reset it for free with Multi-Roll, this situation going first makes it justifiable to keep in. 2. If you've sided in Artifacts for going first, don't set Sanctum at the same time as Solemns. Set the Sanctum and then Solemns on later turns. This is because Scythe blocks their turn anyway so anything extra is just a higher risk of Evenly winning them the game. 3. If they go for turn 1 rei + Field Spell play, use Cherries immediately on either rei's normal or the Field Spells activation depending on which order they did it. Either way use it before they have a window to activate Field Spell on rei is the point. This forces them to use a real card for Field Spell if they wanna use it. 4. Considering Needlefiber isn't getting released and using the axioms that the above article was based on, passing going first is a legitimate move. This is especially true if you're using a going second list and are seeing your Cherries, Evenly, Transience, Typhoon, etc going first. The other situation where it's legitimate is if you only opened Bit, no Called, and would lose to Cherries. Not many decks can just kill you. Not the mirror, not Mekk Knight (if you pass with no cards for them to summon Mekk Knight with,) not Altergeist, etc. 5. If you have a live Sanctum, determine the likelihood that they have a rei in hand based on their plays. If you think they have it, shotgun it so they can't chain rei effect while on field. If you think they don't have it, make them search it with Engage first so that they can't use the information of Scythe to get a better-suited card. 6. If you're using a going second list with potentially more cards, the determination of how many Afterburner and Jamming Wave you use is directly correlated to the proportion of Altergeist vs Mirror you expect to face. Simply put, Afterburner is good against Altergeist and Jamming Wave is good in the Mirror. The 2nd copies of these searchable cards "comes up" in their two respective match-ups. If you expect to play almost only Mirrors, do 2 Jamming Wave 1 Afterburner. If your locals or regionals is all garbage then go 1 Jamming Wave 2 Afterburner. If you expect a fair mix of both do 2 and 2. 7. Diabolos is a card I keep going back and forth on between main, side, and not playing it at all, and between 2, 3, and 4 (OG Foolish Burial) copies. It introduces many fascinating deck building possibilities which should be gone over in-depth in a future post. A few weeks ago when everyone thought the Field Spell was bad, it's effect wasn't as good because the worst card in their hand was obvious to them. But now that these worst cards have become live cards due to Field Spell, then you're not getting rid of nothing when you use its effect now, you're hitting a real card. One might be tempted to say, then, that Diabolos becomes better when people are using Field Spell and worse when people are not. 8. Activating multiple Spellbook of Judgment when opportune is one way to get around Typhoon and Ghost Ogre, but loses harder to Evenly Matched. Do this only in appropriate situations. 9. If it wasn't obvious, Metalfoes Fusion is the best card to send with Field Spell. But the implications of this haven't caught up to some people's deck building. The second best card, by the by, is Chimeratech going second after clearing their field with Toon Tables > Cyber Dragon because it deals with their field while turning into a real card and since Field sends Chimeratech to GY you're free to use Brandish Link Monsters. 10. Some people are siding Spell Canceller to go Bit > Token > Red > tribute for Canceller. Obviously this will only work turn 1 since after that I'll be able to have enough Spells in GY to get over it with a rei line. This is another thing making Sanctum and Diabolos better. 11. Altergeist actually cannot win the grind game against this deck. You get them off Anti-Spell or Imperial Order or Village, you win. They don't draw any of them, you win. This is because you're resolving too many Afterburners and Cannon on Manifestation for them to keep up with. Your deck building against this deck should be focused on only beating those three cards. The options that beat all of them are very limited and they're essentially Typhoon and Evenly Matched, which both happen to be good going second in the mirror as well. I think these additions to one's deck just become obligatory at this point. 12. The safest fields (read: Spellbook of Judgment resolutions) in the mirror are when your opponent has Field Spell up because to get rid of that they'd have to replace it with another Evenly Matched blocker in their own Spellbook of Judgment. It might become wise to just float on the "end on double Engage in hand" plays until they have Field Spell up, instead of just going for your own Spellbook of Judgment. This would be a potential evolution in the technical play of the mirror. If such a thing occurred, Evenly Matched might become weaker against better players. 13. Solemns actually just suck I'm not tryna set them turn 1 and just lost to Afterburner/Jamming Wave when I could have blown them out with a set Fusion or Artifact. Any other strategy than just setting one of em with a Link Monster loses harder to Twin Twister and Evenly Matched. 14. Obviously the player with the third Claw in the mirror is going to have an advantage, but it's not that good against other match-ups like Altergeist if they have Protocol, Mekk Knight if they already have access to Invocation (it does stop them from sending Aleister for Spellbook of Knowledge though,) the Spyral Brandish deck which I don't know if it is real yet, and ABC if people play it as a counter to Brandish (Brandish can have a difficult time dealing with their floating which is one of the reasons it's popular in the OCG.) I think the third Claw should be sided instead of mained if it's played at all. 15. But siding into 3rd Claw means in the mirror sided you'll be on 3 Claw and 1 Reborn which is like, a lot. Maybe it could be somewhat mitigated by playing more cards, and this might play into a weird Diabolos potentially go 1st deck that plays lots of Spellbook of Judgment, Field Spell, Metalfoes Fusion, etc. Still in the lab on this one... 16. It seems more and more people are evolving beyond Ash Blossom and Called by the Grave. This is a good thing for players with strong technical play, since your Pot of Desires are resolving more often and when the better player has more cards and more options they're in better control of the game. Almost since the moment I started playing Brandish I thought of Ash Blossom as a crutch card for idiots and I don't think it's necessary at all. Basically if I'm resolving a Hand Trap and it isn't getting Called, I for fucking sure want it to be Cherries. I don't think the dream of "xd cut off their only play with my Ash Blossom" is that real between an increased popularity of the Field Spell, them hard drawing rei or having Hornet Bit, and so on. I think Ashing their Blue that they plan to get Engage with is more or less playing from behind, naturally with the exception of it being their only play as well (which I suppose translates to Hornet Bit, but whatever.) 17. Speaking of such, If you only have one Cherries it's probably a good idea if they're on just a rei > Blue line to wait for your turn to play it because that likely means it's their only play so they're going to hold their Called and not set it in the End Phase to avoid Ash Blossom because that search is crucial, and you can then capitalize on this by using it on your turn while their Called isn't set (if they're still playing Called.) 18. Basically what I'm trying to say is while these 2017 idiots are out here playing with fair cards like Ash Blossom and Called by the Grave I'm in the year 2018 on Cherries and Evenly going second and for the time being you probably should be too. 19. This deck struggles against Invoked Mekk Knight cus they can just aggro you into oblivion. Torrential and Needle Cieling are good cards but its difficult to find room for them in the side because they'd only be good basically in that match-up and if you're on the Toon Tables and Evenly etc you're prob spending a lot of your side deck on switching to a go first thing. On the other hand, Diabolos seems decent against them. 20. Some clowns seem to thing that if Draco doesn't get hit that as hard that it will be a problem for this deck. This is completely untrue. I swear to god I'm more concerned about Altergeist seeing Imperial Order and Anti-Spell Fragrance than I am about that deck seeing them. In any event, they're in a conundrum over your Diabolos. Why? Because they want Master Peace to be unaffected by Spells to not get Afterburnered but this will cause it to not get the gain from Diagram which means Diabolos will be able to attack over it. Also, this is on top of the Evenly and Typhoon and maybe Twin Twister etc whatever shit that I hope you're playing. Brandish is just better at control than that deck is at helmet.

NEEDLEFIBER CONFIRMED NOT GETTING IMPORTED TODAY HAS BEEN A GOOD DAY. FUCK EVERYONE THAT DOUBTED :B:RANDISH FORMAT. NOW ALL WE NEED IS A FUCKING LIT BANLIST AND NATS FORMAT IS A GO

And I miss you guys :*(

max suffridge is the greatest yugioh player of all time

i downloaded an extension for chrome called owo and look what it did

No. The rules have changed.

Markus was an abberation. He should be banned not modded. Tyranno actually was banned and now he's modded. Wtf has happened since ive been gone

hey guys random question did wunterslaus stop posting the same time as the Mark drama? uhh can i accept the nomination as the backup? i would say to put jazz/tyranno in front of me

Going to close on my first house next week Friday. It's in the community about 500 feet from my apartment so easy move. Will post pics.

nominating japnick

It's released in Dark Saviors on May 25th in the TCG.

I want a version released that gets rid of that section and kills off rose

Ignore Sophocles. The awards are over. I won them all. Everyone can go home.

the progression i had this game "idk if i want to enter i probably wont try at all" "sure ill sign up but dont expect me to try" "alright cool game started. hey guys fair warning im not really going to try" postgame "wow people didnt try?" truly unpredictable in the end i think jazz isnt wrong we have a small community that mostly plays to mess around this isnt a mafia site and mafia is not particularly active we cant project a force of will that makes other people want to play mafia, we can only choose how much we individually want to play we had games die out the ikawolf controversy made people laugh and caused them to want to play mafia that eventually tapered off mafia is a game, just like anything else. we can't expect interest to hold forever maybe i am speaking to the wrong community because people on this site still play a format from 2005 but most people view games as a temporary thing they use to have fun with for a while i really liked four square as a kid. i played a lot of pokemon tcg and spent a while on a lot of different video games. but i dont play any of those at the current moment. people dont quit because they hate the game (usually) they quit because of disinterest you have to find a way to make people care to get games going vanilla games. Anon games. they fall flat because our community is not centered around playing mafia. people just want to idle and watch cool things happen. malcolm is the best host because every role is a crazy power. He very well could cheat as GM (powers often dont get made until a few days in, right?) to make the games more exciting as we go along, but that is fine because most people like it and it is hard to say that it is wrong. it's just the way it goes

I really don't see how Faints point is a bad dgz town excuse when you yourself admitted Markus failed to communicate. Maybe it's something you don't put particular value in because you also often fail to project town and lead lynches but it's a huge component of the game. Even with that aside, saying Markus gets MVP for "accuracy" is totally questionable when afaik you have no information as to his thought process on wanting faint and silver dead considering he didn't make any real case against them in the game. He could have just entered everyone's names into a random number generator for all we know, especially given this post immediately after his "reads": So don't bash on faint for something you have no more knowledge over than him just because it's a topic you have a personal grievance with.

>"classic bad dgz town excuse" >"this community is a lost cause" >"no offense"

Goat format should be rated

also hats off to silver im trying to coordinate a hammer he says "ok lets do it" i vote markus, say "gogogo" 30 seconds later, no post - only me and psk reading the thread "SILVER WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" 30 seconds later, still nothing just the worst :') <3

Your best bet would be DLG1 or DB1.

Since walia was on track to be lynched the modkill of walia ends the day with nobody else getting lynched. please respect the integrity of the game and do not edit posts next time

wow i cant believe markus unleashed le epic bait we're all just pawns in his master plan

It's shit pressure so faint's post was terrible which means he must be town

Markus is watching very carefully. [Safari Ball x30] [Rock] [Bait] [Run] suggest throwing bait

Playing in these games are LITERALLY a full time job. It's absurd.

missed opportunity to say someone to go do when on the go

you're right it was only 1 day

I'm a huge fucking baby when I'm sick. Just moved into a house with some friends. Forgot how much moving blows followed by the amazing sense of accomplishment due to a huge increase in living situation.

subbed

CONGRATULATIONS TO NEO SIGURIMI YOUR WINTER CLASSIC 2018 CHAMPIONS AND RUNNERS-UP THA 4HUNNIDS THANK YOU ALL FOR PLAYING AND SEE YOU FOR GRAND FINALS OF PLAYOFFS

a quiet place sure wasnt stupid

literally just don't sign up for games?¿?¿?

@Jazz wanted me to write this to explain my reasoning behind why I build my decks the way I build them in his custom format, because discord is big gay 2000 character max Ok so the first thing I think about Pioneer is that despite its goat origins and upbringing it is at its very core a modern format. What I mean by this is that it is fast, it has very specific deck archetypes that you refer to when building and choosing your cards, and it is constantly evolving. I don't mean that it is bound to how we play yugioh in current and I don't mean that it is yugioh we know and love in the exact year of our lord two-thousand and eighteen, simply the 3 parameters I named earlier. This really influences how I build decks for the format. Me and Jazz are very different in this regard. He's an old school goat fucker and I'm a modern day master peace fellater, and as such we butt heads very often. Well, when I build decks the first format I usually look to for theory is Edison, a format I'm really good at and value a lot as part of yugioh history. This is for a few reasons: the first is the deck types involved, which include plants and heroes, and the specific cards that jazz has allowed them to play. The second is that I consider it a modern format, just like Pioneer. So the first thing I think when I build decks both in current and pioneer is that being a trap card is a detractor to what i want to do, and I learned this from none other than Hoban himself. Unless they are integral to my deck, or named ring of destruction, traps are the last cards I add. This is simply because they're slower than what I want to be doing. Some traps, like torrential, bottomless, and phoenix wing wind blast, which I almost always wind up using, are very good and worth it, and they arent nearly as susceptible to removal as cards like mirror force are, which I rarely include. i'm in general a pretty aggressive player so I tend toward aggressive strategies like zombie and water, which can combo pretty heavily and win the game in a single turn at times. My current water deck has 24 monsters, 6 spells, and 10 traps, 2 being skill drain, while my zombie deck has a measly 7 traps to match its 23 monsters and 10 spells. For pioneer format, 7 traps is pretty small. But this is because while both decks are aggressive, I consider water to in general be playing a beatdown role, and for zombies to in general play a control role, to throw out as many buzzwords as I can in one sentence. Now jazz knows these opinions of mine, or at least I hope he does as much as I've talked about them. But a recent argument was had over he and another refusing to test many of my ideas, with me trying to explain why I think they're worth testing. This is where discord falls short. The first reason I think they're worth testing is just because pioneer is nothing like goat and everyone who is used to goat needs to get in the habit of trying to break formats instead of play them the way they want and hope everyone else does too. The second reason is because I think they make good decks. Now what is a good deck? Well I tried to explain it before and he asked me to make this post. A good deck is a deck that functions well in the context of several matches and consistently achieves its win condition before it loses. So now I need to define these words. Functioning well is a matter of a checklist of the following items: Drawing well Performing a combo reasonably and Getting lucky Drawing well is as simple as saying that the deck can draw the cards with which to perform its combo often and can both play its combo and deal with its opponents cards (or "out them") with little variance. I don't know exactly how I'm going to define this any more because thats pretty straightforward, but a deck being able to draw well is very much rooted in whether or not it plays useless cards, which most traps are. PWWB and ring and torrential are really good, but is mirror force? Will drawing mirror force make you reach your goal of winning the game if every deck has the ability to kill it before the battle phase or entirely recover if you do activate it? I don't think so. This is true of the majority of trap cards in pioneer format, except the ones which I resolve to play in almost every deck due to their versatility, those being the ones I've named. Drawing trap cards hinders your deck's ability to make crucial game changing plays, where drawing monsters increases that ability, as long as those monsters are all good themselves. I play 24 water monsters because water monsters need to hit the grave and I need to normal summon one every turn, or discard them with abyss soldier for added removal. I need monsters to summon every turn to load my grave in zombie decks and fuel my zombie master combos. Yugioh has always been a monster-focused game with spells and traps aiding the monsters attacking your opponent's life points. In a modern format like pioneer, I shift my deckbuilding focus to monster oriented combos because every turn I can use a monster to grind through a trap card, but I can't do the same with mirror force or dimensional prison or book of moon. Performing a combo reasonably means simply, not having to have a very specific combination of cards to do it, or if you do, that it's fewer than the cards you have in your hand. You need other cards to force backrow, like heavy storm, mst, and fuel for phoenix wing wind blast, or even just big monsters to bait them out first. you can't be trying to combo with 5 cards, but you definitely need to be combo-ing to some degree to win in a format as fast as pioneer is at the moment. Mind you, pioneer has slowed down greatly with the banning of snow, but it's still very fast paced, especially with zombie master and mezuki combos outputting >5000 damage a turn. The ability for me to build a deck to perform a combo without using every card in my hand is crucial, and its for this reason that I include more than 22 or so monsters in my zombie build. Every monster is a monster that works with zombie master. Every card trooper is 1900 beater that loads the grave and floats or baits backrow. These kinds of cards are crucial to the success of your combos because they ensure that you will be doing something. Dust tornado cannot attack for 1900 damage, but card tooper can try and if that backrow is d prison then it is, you used a dust tornado. If not, then you're 1900 damage closer to winning the game. That's huge. Another reason I use card trooper and ryko in conjunction is that milling is good and my deck wants to get lucky. Getting lucky is really just that, I dont think I need to define it, but milling puts zombies and waters in the grave. Tidal uses waters in grave, tidal comes from the grave, mezuki does both as well for zombies. I want to be milling and setting up tons of combos. If I mill spells then that's fine because theres a good chance I would be shuffling my deck before the next turn and thus wouldnt see them that game anyway. Milling any number of cards puts me closer to the other cards in my deck, so getting lucky from milling is twofold. I load my grave, and I thin my deck. Milling increases your chance of drawing well! So anyway this is all pretty basic theory stuff but for some reason I was asked to spell it all out.

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition Street Fighter IV Papers Please 999 and/or Virtue's Last Reward Dungeon Traveler 2 Borderlands 2 Walking Dead Telltale Season One Pokemon Black/White Breath of the Wild Super Mario Galaxy

Markus was Vanilla Town. Town has no means to prevent a NK. Therefore scum wins via parity. Cograts to Silver and Faint MVP goes to markus for accuracy. Phew. Mascis had good reads too but no oomph behind them.

im the insane converting silencing lynchproof cult leader cop that inflicts post restrictions