infernity is the recent hot-topic and i see many are discussing about its gayness and at the same time how to stop it. if we take a closer look, we will realize that the above combo involves a series of chains or links in order to succeed and swarm the field with trishula or the like.

the chain/link will be something like: send gun, special summon necromancer and beetle, necromancer effect, special summon infernity archfiend, infernity archfiend effect take infernity gun from deck and add to hand and the process repeats again and again till you have drawn all the infernity guns in your deck.

now, since we know that the combo revolves around these cards, it is extremely vulnerable when one of the links break, and the combo will be stopped.

Striving to be the best duelist is a common dream for duelists, and aiming to top every tournament is a widespread goal to all. However, there is a time whereby no matter how hard that you tried to improve your play, there is hardly any improvement in it. not even an inch of improvement is shown even if you pondered for all the possible plays that could get you out of the predicament that you are in the game. this is called the bottleneck, a situation whereby a duelist had already reached his peak and it is very difficult to improve further.

the underlying question is how to break this bottleneck and advance into another stage that you believe the victory is yours regardless of how grim the situation is.

if you have noticed, many sports captured every moment of the time spent on the game. just to list a few examples, we have replays for DOTA, digital video recording for basketball games, record sheet for chess etc.

the main reason is to allow players to review the match over and over again, to spot mistakes made and good deeds executed. and at the same time to have a better understanding of their opponent's strength and weakness. ultimately, it serves as a tool that aids to help the duelist improve his skills. questions like " what can i do to turn over the table?" ; " what other alternatives do i have should i not made this play?" .

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a sport similar to all others, and we should adopt off-game skills that had already been implemented by other sports. Classic matches between great chess masters have been written, analysized and published, so that others when faced with similar or the same situation know exactly how to win the game with ease. Basics like how to win the opponent(with only king) with a king and rook have been drilled to all chess players with the sole purpose mentioned.

We should by all means record the match played in any forms which is possible so that we have something to think about and to refer to as a guide and a tool that spurs us think about more in-depth plays of the game.

It is possible for Yu-Gi-Oh! to implement a system easy for recording of game plays like that exhibited by the algebraic chess notation( can google it if you wish). so that we can replay that moment through our mind over and over again until we are satisfied.

i believe only with that kind of system, can we all duelist be able to improve further. and the time will be within reach when we feel that every situations that we face looks so familiar and you know precisely how to deal with it. what makes you headache now is not how to handle it but what kind of solution should you emply. should i eat my noodle with fork or chopstick?

enjoy~

infernity is fast and it is strong. no doubt about it. the amount of damage that it can do within one turn is beyond imagination. and many have wondered and wished that the infernity gun can be played over and over again, beyond the usual limit of 3 times,since it is one of the main engine behind the infernity loop. and all of us wish that we can synchro all that 5 super big monsters in one turn. and now, we have this card to help us: pot of benevolence.

after scanning through the shining darkness again and again, i found these cards to be rather interesting, those anti-meta cards aside.


Notice that this card special summons during the battle step, like cry of the living dead for you. One thing good about it is that you can tribute it for icarus attack and proceed to destroy 2 cards, clearing that space for you and pave a way for your counter attack next turn. Playable at 1 in my opinion.



first impression is that this card will complement copy plant. and is a good complement in the sense that it can special summon itself from the grave. remember the powertool dragon loop? not only can it do that, it can also synchro into virtually any level synchro monsters so long as you have the required materials. only drawback is that its effect is limited to once per duel, but you can spam 3 of them for now. so who cares?


power tool loop again. after abusing it and finish using all your supervis, time to throw them back into the deck and get ready to draw them and abuse them again. you will be having 6 supervis in the sense. also, assuming that you are in the midst of doing the loop and you can synchro summoning for the third power tool dragon, your chance of getting that important supervis is now 33% right? just before you synchro for the third dragon, return the other 2 supervis back to deck and now you have a full 100% chance of getting it.take note that its UP TO 3.

finally the banlist is here! Sources from here.

4. plants will be on the spotlight too. spore and the new plant supports from the shining darkness will definitely hasten the pace of the deck.
5. gladiator beast will be having a hard time this time, bestiari at one makes the deck less devastating and less powerful. and we still have that corridor of suffering, poor beast standing on the corridor and suffer.
6. xx-sabers will be itching for a piece of the pie, will excellent supports like emmersblade, it will be a tough battle.

a small update after a brief look at all the cards in the new set.

infernity players can get ready to own the world, with their crazy loop.

blackfeather players can see the rise of a new playstyle for the theme, since we have more supports now, and more monsters to choose from. a note to point out, breeze the gentle wind is a super rare, so do expect its price to be high.

gladiator beast players really must keep their fingers crossed and pray hard that the new banlist sets bestiari to be semi-limited, if not the new card corridor of suffering will totally lock down the deck and make you suffer. check out shriek for the cards information if you have not done so yet.

will be back for more updates for the set after some detailed exploration.

and a happy chinese new year to all!

the days nearing the release of the holy hall of fame can be rather boring, in the sense that we dont really know what deck to play, since banlist can affect the current meta.

anyway, i'm glad that the shining darkness will be released next week. so there is something to look forward too in the coming week. and i will do more reviews on the potential cards then.

it is the chinese new year eve today, and many will be having their reunion dinner. so wishing everyone a happy chinese new year and all the best to all duelist in all your future endeavours.

here is my take on the upcoming banlist:

LIMITED:
tsukuyomi
crush card virus
judgment dragon
mezuki
card of safe return
charge of light brigade

SEMI:
burial from different dimension
tragoedia
one for one
gladiator beast bestiari
black whirlwind

UNLIMITED:
mind master

so many people have been speculating about the list currently, just be patient and we will be able to receive the official information in a couple of weeks time. guessing the list is purely for fun. i dont see any cards that needs to be banned, at least not so clear cut cards like dark dive bomber last year. oh~ talking about dark dive bomber, will it become limited since the 5th dragon: blackfeather dragon is out? o.0

Since gladial eatos is beginning to get more attention, i shall do a ruling post for one of the key cards of the deck.
CLAYMORE DUD!



Firstly, let us see what crazy things this card can do:
1. Let opponent lyla break this, just chain to two other of your opponent monster, and thank your opponent.
2. Lock two of your opponent monster and tag into bestiari, destroy this card, contact fusion, destroy yet another 2 more cards.
3. Drag your opponent monster along, just select any of your opponent monster and your monster that he is attacking.

Ok, lets look at its even better ruling, taken from yugioh wikia:
1. The effect of "widespread dud" targets two face up attack position monsters on the field.
[ ok, it targets, but not a big deal. doesnt hurt its usefulness much, because of point 4. ]

2. When "widespread dud" is removed from the field, its effect to destroy the targeted monsters does not start a chain link.

3. If "widespread dud" is activated and an effect like "enemy controller" or "zero gravity" is chained so that a targeted monster(s) is in face-up defense position when "widespread dud" resolves, then the effect of "widespread dud" will still be applied, and will still continuously target those monsters. Also, if "widespread dud" has resolved and afterwards an effect changes one of the targeted monsters to face-up defense position, then the effect of "widespread dud" will still be applied, and will still continuously target those monsters.
[ wow...that means die die any of the 2 targets you select confirm will be locked by this card. unless solemn or dark bribe of course. book of moon? you may ask, refer to point 4.]

4. If "widespread dud" is activated and an effect like "book of moon" or "compulsory evacuation device" is chained so that one of the targeted monsters is not face-up on the field when "widespread dud" resolves, then only the monster which is still on the field will remain targeted by "widespread dud". If that monster is removed from the field, then "widespread dud" is destroyed.
[cool? even book of moon cant stop/fizzle this card even if one of the target is no longer face up on the field. and you still get to lock the other monster. too bad this card targets, if not you can reselect another one, but that would be too broken to be true.]

5. If "widespread dud" targets two monsters and only one of them is removed from the field, then "widespread dud" is still destroyed. Afterwards, the remaining monster which was targeted by "widespread dud" is destroyed.

On a side note: a know many players like to put morphing jar for d.d gladiator beast, but trust me, never ever in this card. because if you have your morphing jar dump down in your grave, say goodbye to that 3 pieces of eatos in hand. gladiator beast is alright, since you have that indomitable gladiator beast to help you get rid of them.

just watched the newest episode of 5Ds in youtube.and its crazy to see those black feather support AGAIN! especially...Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite!

Totally cool. anyway here is the effect according to the anime:

there are so many things to look forward to in the coming months, which is what keeps the year filled with excitement and anticipation.

first off, we have the shining darkness coming up, with lots of black feather support. hence, many are expecting that black feather may top again in the official tournament again this time round. which leads us to our second point.

the banlist. yes, the holy hall of fame. which greatly affects how and what the meta will be, and also our game play. who will be the champion? the gladiators? the feathers in black? the angels that shine? or the zombies that never die?

next up, we have the another new set that promise us a revolution in the making. bringing us with loads of support for the old theme: fusion.

and not to forget, the extra pack 3 will be coming soon as well. which means another x-factor is brewing, a factor that adds colour to our game.

cant wait for their release... HAHA!

yes, yes i know, this is the month of feburary, meaning the chinese new year is around the corner. and also what most duelist cares about: the march banlist is coming soon too. but please tone down the hype, as it is still a couple of weeks more and dueling still has to go on.

so let us look forward to the release of the new set: the shining darkness first,shall we? and what i would like to mention is none other than its outstanding ritual monster of this set. the perfect declarer!



many may have overlooked or underestimated this card due to its look attack, as we are too used to the misconception that monsters with high attack associates with good. but hey! nobody asks you to use this as a beatstick and go round whacking people. instead, take a look at its nice BIG butt of 2800 DEF. cool ~ just put it in defense position and lock your opponent.

this card undoubtedly is a support card, and is a pretty "solid" support card. just put it to defense position and you can control the field to your preference. simply because this "declarer" has a build-in dark bribe and divine wrath, aside from the difference in spell speed.

what many may see of its shortcoming is its requirement, which requires you to send 1 fairy-type monster from hand to graveyard in order to negate the spell, trap or monster effect. what comes to mind next will be the use of dumping so many fairy monster to grave for? easy... and this also brings us to our next best partner of this card: archlord kristya!



after you have dump some fairies into grave, time to special summon this angel out.whats more, this angel refreshes your ammunition by giving you one fairy that you had dumped to grave. you can even take back that honest that you had thrown in desperate attempts, and now use it to protect them. do take note that both of them are light monsters too. honest-able.

whats so interesting about both of them when they are both on the field is that, it only shows your dominance over your opponent. think about it, you dont have to worry about your opponent using spell,trap or monster effects, since you have the PERFECT solution to it provided by the PERFECT declarer; no need to worry about opponent special summoning, or doing that insane goblin zombie-mezuki loop since you have the archlord kristya to take care of it.

now, you wouldnt be worrying about your opponent normal summoning, would you? just let him waste that once per turn normal summon if he wishes to. anyway he wont be able to penetrate through any of your shield or sword.

enjoy~