Subject: Lots of random stuff--Cait Sith Hey, it's Cait Sith coming back and posting his second tip on Pojo.com! Thanks to the Pojo staffers for getting this and my previous tip posted. Anyways, this article doesn't really have a point. Now, that's not saying that you shouldn't read. This article has lots of good tips, combos, strategies, and mini-rants that I think that you should read. Basically, it's a small conglomerate of stuff that I have been wanting to talk about recently. First off, I am going to give some props to some good people. Thanks to all of you who sent me supportive mail and constructive critisisms. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them and responding to them. Heck, thanks for the flames too! I loved poking fun at you and making you look stupid. :P Keep in mind that I didn't respond to everyone. If you did it's most likely because I got to your mail first, before I got tired of sending back THOROUGH responses to people. (I tend to write waaaay too much.) Also, the people who put the most thought into their email's were most likely to get a response. But I am sure that you don't care. :) (Also, most of those who sent me mail telling to blame Konami instead of UD for the suckieness didn't get a response. I will address the issue later in the post. Here are some individual thank yous. Thanks to Charles M., Michael H., Blinkboy, TimpyWimpy, KuroKarasu, Unknown Duelist, JCson33, Aaron R., Sephiroth, Chindril, Andy C., Michael F., Noah M., Jordan S. and Antony B. for their supportive emails. Thanks to Pegasus (on a post, not email) and Qiaochu Y. for pointing out that LOD ruling were, in fact, released. My tip was written almost two weeks before it was posted, so a lot apparently happened during that time :) Yes, Nathan K., I am a very disturbed individual, and guess what! I LIKE IT THAT WAY!!!!!!!!!!!! >:D Ummm KuroKarasu...I think that saying that there is a conspiricy is overdoing it. >.>;;;; Maybe I can go to a parking garage and meet with Yami-Deepthroat about Upperdeck's next plans! Haha, only joking. Don't get mad. *dodges the thrown rotten vegetables* :\ If I missed anything, sorry. Anyways, on to the meat of this post! Combos with...er...Bad Reaction to Simochi?! -------------------------------------------- One of the things that slightly irritate me are a couple people who posted combos using the Allergy to Simochi Card. Before you see red and begin to type furious emails to send my way, keep in mind that I am NOT bashing them in any way. I simply want to make a point. Now that we have established that I am NOT bashing them, that I do NOT mean to insult them or hurt them or their supporters in any way, and that I am NOT bashing their tip, we can go further on and discuss the real implications surrounding this. However, using Upstart Goblin, Rain of Mercy and other cards that give your opponent life points in combination with Bad Reaction to Simochi (otherwise referred to BRTS from now on) is one of the most obvious combos in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! I mean, the card is practically SCREAMING for you to use Snatch Steal with it. Don't get me wrong, they are good combos, and I know that the people who posted them put some thought into their tips before they sent them in. I would be willing to bet though, that they got at least a small measure of hate mail from inconsiderate people bashing their tip for being too obvious. I understand that most of us don't want to read about combos that seem very obvious, or we already knew about before the English cards were even released. But one of my concerns is this: You can't post here without risking hate mail. Most people who post here get flamed at least once. Thus, I have taken measures to protect those involved. I have made a list of every card that in some way gives your opponent life. Feel free to skip over this: If you already know them all that is fine. Not only do people no longer have a reason to flame others over this issue, no one needs to post anymore obvious BRTS combos. They are all listed right here (in alphabetical order). Blue Medicine Rain of Mercy Snatch Steal The Eye of Truth Upstart Goblin More in depth Combos with BRTS: (More in depth as in more cards involved. :P ) BRTS+Creature Swap+Cure Mermaid (and/or Kisetai) This is a simple combo. Grab their monster then give them Cure Mermaid or Kisetai. With Cure Mermaid, they lose 800 LP per damage step. Just make sure that all yor strong monsters are in defense mode, otherwise your opponent will likely ram Cure Mermaid into your Attack monster to get rid of it. If you gave them Kisetai, attack it with their monster. If it was say, a Gemini Elf, then they lose 950 per standby phase. Nice. If you are willing to toss in an extra card, then a Mask of the Accursed can add insult to injury, causing them to lose quite a bit of LP for every turn. It is not an easy combo to pull off though, so minimizing the amount of cards to use with it would be a good idea. If you have a similar "in-depth" combo, please share it. I am sure there are more! ^_~ The activation of traps when chained to summons (and other things). ------------------------------------------------------------------- First off, don't get me wrong. I am not bashing Pegasus (the guy that posts here, not the cartoon character). However, I feel that he didn't elaborate enough on a particular issue about a specific ruling in his June 20 correction's. It has to do with the Scapegoat+Torrential Tribute ruling that he used. It is correct, but I don't think that he explained enough about it. Here, I will attempt to make a better explanation about why that combo doesn't work as well as explain a new ruling. It seems like it would be legal. Activating Scapegoat to summon the four tokens to the feild and then activating a previously set Torrential Tribute to wipe the board clean. Well, it is not legal. Why? It has to do with how the card's activations are timed concerning the usage of chains. Upperdeck's new ruling is that you cannot chain cards to the special summon of a monster that is not brought out by it's own inherent effect. For a better explanation, here is a model. It shows the timeings of the cards activations in a simplified format. Now, let's take a look at it. 1. Player activates the "Scapegoat" card. 2. Activation timing of "Torrential Tribute" occurs HERE. 3. "Scapegoat" resolves and the tokens are special summoned to the feild. The activation timing of Torrential Tribute must happen BEFORE the tokens appear. Why? Because Upperdeck has ruled that you cannot chain cards to the special summon of a monster that is not brought out by it's own inherent effect. The cards MUST be chained to the card that is SUMMONING the monster, BEFORE the summon is resolved. In this example, Torrential Tribute MUST be chained to the actual magic card. However, Torrential Tribute cannot be legally chained to the activation of a magic or trap card, it can only be chained to a summon. So you CANNOT use Torrential Tribute AT ALL during the turn that Scapegoat is activated. This also includes other cards that produce tokens. The only way that the summon of a token would be legal is in one of two scenarios. 1. The token itself is considered to have effect text that makes it "count" as coming out by it's own effect and not by the effect of the card itself. In this case there would be an oppurtunity to negate the card who's effect creates the token (unless it was by the effect of a flip effect monster that was flipped and NOT flipped summoned.) as well as the summon of the token (since it's considered to come out independently of any other cards, it is considered a card "activation" and can be chained to. They would probably have to be resolved in two separate chains, however, as there is no such card in America or Japan, I am not sure how UD/K would rule on this kind of card. I doubt such a card will ever be released.) 2. Konami changes it's Japanese ruling and has Upperdeck change it's ruling. Since the ruling stems from actual rules concerning chains, I doubt that this ruling will ever change. So basically, if an opponent uses a card that produces tokens, you will ALWAYS have to chain TO the card producing the tokens and NEVER to the tokens that are being produced. This ruling also includes other cards that make monsters appear on the feild, such as Monster Reborn. Lets look at another model, this time using Solemn Judgement. 1. Activation of Monster Reborn. (Gemini Elf) 2. Solemn Judgement's activation timing occurs here. 3. Monster Reborn revolves and Gemini Elf is special summoned to the feild. In this case, Solemn Judgement CANNOT negate the special summon of Gemini Elf. That is because the timing of the activation occurs before the summon takes place. However, Solemn Judgement could have still prevented Gemini Elf from coming to the feild by negating the Monster Reborn. Solemn Judgement is largely untouched by this ruling. It doesn't need to negate the monster, it can just as easily negate the other card that is involved in bringing out the monster. On the other hand, Horn of Heaven took it in the groin. The largely eschewed card is now in an even deeper crapper because it cannot negate special summons involving cards like Call of the Haunted or fusions and rituals. On another note, magic cards brought out by other card's effects cannot be countered either. The only card that does this is the Destiny Board. I think the Spirit Messages cannot be countered because they do not count as actual card activations, and therefore cannot be Magic Jammed/Drained. And if a card is not considered to be "activated" then it cannot be chained to. Simple as that. Trigger Happy Traps ------------------- An interesting new ruling about certain types of traps is out. Basically, it concerns continous trap cards who's owner can use over and over again like Type Zero Magic Crusher and Skull Lair. Every time your opponent uses Type Zero Magic Crusher or Skull Lair, it now counts as a separate trap activation each and every time that these cards are used. Here is a game play setup to illustrate how "multi-trigger" traps may be countered. 1. You set one "Seven Tools of the Bandit" face down and play "Gemini Elf" in attack mode. Your opponent flips "Skull Lair" face up and removes 4 cards from his graveyard and destroys the Gemini Elf. Since you just set "Seven Tools of the Bandit" this turn, you may not activate it to negate and destroy the "Skull Liar". 2. On your next turn you play another "Gemini Elf" in attack mode. Your opponent removes 4 cards from his graveyard to pay for "Skull Lair"'s effect, however, since this counts as a trap's activation and your "Seven Tools of the Bandit" as placed last turn, you CAN activate it now and destroy "Skull Lair" even though it was NOT turned face up as part of the activation. Your opponent does not get the removed-from-play cards returned to his graveyard, as they are the cost to use "Skull Lair"'s effect. One more thing; you may not activate one of these kinds of trap cards without actually paying and using it's effect. In other words, you can't activate Skull Lair "just for the heck of it". If you flip Skull Lair face up, you HAVE to choose a monster to destroy and you HAVE to remove cards from your graveyard equil to the chosen monster's level number. If you cannot remove a sufficient ammount of cards from your graveyard to destroy any of your opponent's monsters, then you CANNOT activate Skull Lair. Same thing with Type Zero Magic Crusher; you have to have a card in your hand in order to activate it. A deck to help n00bs get den00bified. ------------------------------------- To most kids that are trying to get into the game, it can be a daunting task to get the abundant amount of very rare and good cards. This deck is a compilation of common cards from starter decks as well as many of the sets that have been released in English. My intention is to help get this deck and others out to kids who otherwise wouldn't know where to start. It can easily be made out of somebody's spare commons, and I am sure that many people reading this could easily compile a deck at least similar to this one. (Note to wartortle32: I know that decks are not supposed to be posted in the tips section, but this purpose is different than that of a tourney report. In other words, I am not sending this in just to show off this deck. I am hoping that this post will encourage people to make decks and give them away as charity to kids who simply don't have the good cards to play. This deck can help someone who is new to the card game get a good grasp on gameplay. While a starter deck could acomplish this task, it's harder to build on a starter deck, and also, some parents don't want to buy their kids starter decks, thinking that they have enough cards anyway. It's an excellent way to ease someone into the game. And it can put a smile on a kids face. :-) Please consider making this deck and giving it to a kid that you know who is not as fortunate as you are. Being made entirely out of commons, it costs only a few bucks at the most. And you certainly can afford to give THAT away. Monsters (20): Level 4 1800 attackers x10 (any of them will do) Man-eater Bug x2 Level 4 2000 defenders x3 Sangan x1 Witch of the Black Forest x1 Summoned Skull x2 Magician of Faith x1 Magic (14): Change of Heart x1 Monster Reborn x1 Dark Hole x1 Fissure x3 M/T removal cards x3 (De-Spell, Remove Trap, MST, Bait Doll) Malevolent Nuzzler x3 Dian Keto the Cure Master x2 Trap (6): Waboku x1 Trap Hole x1 Magic Jammer x1 Seven Tools of the Bandit x1 Ultimate Offering x1 Skull Lair x1 If someone had this deck way back when LOB was all that, it would be killer! >:-) This deck obeys all official restrictions. It's made to be slightly competetive, while not hurting the builder's pocketbook if/when s/he chooses to give it away. I hope someone considers making a deck similar to this one to give to someone. Making a kid happy is always a good thing. :-) Hey! Where are the girls? -------------------------- One thing I have noticed is the lack of female players in this game. I know of only six girls that actually play this game. I know that Yu-Gi-Oh! seems to be directed at boys, but that shouldn't prevent a girl from playing and making competative decks. One thing that I would love to see is a girl come and trounce all of the good beatdown players that go to the store I play at. I think I would laugh my butt off! :D Tired of the bashing? So am I. ------------------------------ I think every basher and/or bashed person should take a deep breath and relax. Lets look at it...beatdown gets bashed because it's a very good archetype. Fusions and rituals get bashed because a lot of players think they stink. Really people, is all this bashing really necessary? As Yu-Gi-Oh! progressed into the Metal Raiders and Magic Ruler's sets, Summoned Skull was starting to recieve a lot of crap. Why? Because summoned Skull was GOOD! And now, beatdown deck's are being slammed, just for being a powerful archetype. A lot of people who slam beatdowns bash them because they have been BEATEN by one too many of those types of decks. Not to say that all beatdown bashers don't have a legitimate reason to complain; I too dislike seeing the Pojo tourney reports site flooded with hardly anything but beatdown decks. But some of these "beatdown bashes" are more like pathetic whining to me. No offense meant, but I wish more people would think about why they are bashing a card or deck before they actually do it. If you have a legitimate reason, be my guest and rant until your face turns red. (BTW: I don't consider "This card sucks!" or "A beatdown beat me in the last tournament!" as a good reason to start bashing.) The biggest reason why beatdowns are bashed is because they are good! If a deck is good then more people are going to use it! More people using it gets more people ticked. More people ticked results in senseless card bashings being posted on Pojo.com. Eventually, someone is going to send in a rant bashing Warrior decks, and it's probably going to be because it smacked the crap out of their three hundred dollar beatdown deck. I am just saying, people, think about why your bashing and what your bashing before you actually go to bash. Unecessary flaming just leads to more ranting and more people getting pissed. (NOTE: I am not saying that just because you have bashed something before means that you are an imbicile for doing it. If you bashed something for a genuinely good reason, then you know that I am not talking negatively about you. Also, bashing a person is a whole different story, especially if they said something stupid. :-) Judging UD/K with the Millenium Scale ------------------------------------- First things first; I got very little feedback about my tips from my last post. I DID however, get TONS of feedback about my rants. A lot of people agreed with me wholeheartedly. One issue was brought up though. Is it really Konami that is messing things up? Is the rarities scale actually out of Upperdeck's hands? I shall be posting a VERY in-depth essay on the matter of the rarities screw-up, why YGO costs so much, as well as some of UD/K's past screw-ups. It won't be my next post, but it will appear in the near future. Look out for it! My next post is going to concern sidedecks and how to build a successful one. I have attributed tournament losses to not having a solid side deck, and any good duelist should have one. "Sidedecks 1.01" should be posted in the near future. In the meantime take my advice, and work on building a solid sidedeck. It can mean the difference between victory and defeat. :-) He or she...or S/He?? --------------------- A small thing that gets on my nerves. I know that Yu-Gi-Oh! is a mostly "boys game", but that does't mean that every card in the game that is not obviously a woman is a "he". DARK NECROFEAR IS FEMALE! Do you see those gold things on her chest? Yes, those are her BOOBS! -__-;;; Maha Vailo is also female, and that was established in her Pojo CotD. But I still see people calling Maha Vailo a "he" or "him" even on this site. I know that this is just a game, and I am not calling you stupid if you have ever called one of those cards a guy. But I feel that the information needs to be gotten out. Just pay attention to the artwork next time. Otherwise you might insult the Heart of the Cards. ;-) Ergh...Must...Explain! >_o;;; ------------------------------- My whole "fusion" of YGO and M:TG was JUST a comparison. I had people emailing me telling me, "YUGIOH IS DIFFERENT FROM MAGIC YGO SHOULDNT HAVE COLORS LIKE THAT!" and stuff. People, it was just a comparison to ANOTHER GAME. I didn't mean that YGO should really be like that. I just tried to put it into perspective some of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s gameplay flaws and "borrowed" some mechanics from another popular game, Magic: The Gathering, in order to focus on how every card in Yu-Gi-Oh! should be balanced. Also, a couple people obviously failed to see the last paragraph on my rant in my last tip. Here is that specific little blurb for you to read. Please note that in no way I have desicively concluded that Upperdeck is the only one (or is responsible at all) for screwing with this game. THE BLURB: (A lot of the crap that I have been dishing out has been directed at Upperdeck. None of us really know whether or not Konami is just as much at fault as Upperdeck is for making many of these cards insanely rare. After all, Upperdeck claims that it only prints what Konami tells it to, so could it be really Konami and not Upperdeck that is screwing up Yu-Gi-Oh!? I am not inclined to believe that, but I wouldn't be surprised if Konami is just as bad (if not worse) than UD.) See?! I got flamed because some idiots seemed to overlook this paragraph. (I am not talking to the only kind person who pointed this out to me without actually being insulting. Thank you Keith! :-) I am performing research to determine which is the lesser of the two evils. If you still think Upperdeck is all that and a bag of chips, then go to Edo's Yu-Gi-Oh! website and read his seventh article titled "The Status of Yugioh, Among Other Things" Here is the URL to his site. http://www.stormpages.com/edhrzic/Yugioh.htm Here is the URL the directly goes to his article. http://www.stormpages.com/edhrzic/Yugis07.htm You will have to scroll down about half-way before he actually begins to talk about Upperdeck. Scroll until you see "The Status of Yu-Gi-Oh!" in large white letters. Keep in mind, it is slightly outdated, but it basically tells the story of how Upperdeck totally screwed over Yu-Gi-Oh! to the point of it almost dieing BEFORE Magic Ruler was even released. Also, everything there is true. Edo wouldn't lie. Edo is the ultimate Yu-Gi-Oh! diety. Some people have emailed me saying I should give credit to Upperdeck for producing this card game in America. I _do_ give credit to the manga-ka Kazuki Takahashi for creating the Yu-Gi-Oh! comic. I do give credit to Konami for making Yu-Gi-Oh! possible in America and making some kick butt games. But Upperdeck deserves none of my respect. Why should I honor a game company just because it was CHOSEN by Konami to make cards in America? I know that Kazuki-sama probably CHOSE Konami to produce cards in America, but thats not why I honor Konami. Konami could have easily chosen another company to produce Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in America. So all Upperdeck gets from me is the cold shoulder. Anime Blues ----------- I love the American YGO anime. But I hate how it is castrated when it comes over here. The entire first season of Yu-Gi-Oh! was left out...the Duelist Kingdom season was the SECOND season in Japan. Also, there are some major unnecessary changes from the Japanese version to the American version. Like when Yugi duels the Exodia-using Rare Hunter, his cards are not "inked" like in the English version. Instead, they are fake cards, which the Rare Hunter can tell which card is next in his deck because he is wearing special contact lenses. This is also why Mokuba tries to disqualify him. So ends my anime rant. :-) June 27, 2003 Questions? Comments? Bring on the fire! felojiro@dangerous-minds.com