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I hope this article helped challenge everyone's sense of originality and creativity. Search within your own decks, and find cards that you "just put in" but deserve some examination and scrutiny! As always, e-mail me with decks, questions, comments, and cards to review at pojojaelove@yahoo.com. We'll get back to deckbuilding in a few. Article 8: The World Championships This past Sunday brought us the World Championships 2004 in sunny Anaheim. I live ten minutes away, so it was right down my alley. I picked up 4 passes, took my friend and her cousin, and went around 11:00 am. The first thing I noticed was the sheer ugliness of the area. I mean, boy, I don't have pictures of the whole thing, but it sure was an ugly concrete slab of building. The areas were all spread out, and the place was divided up into free play zones (where people dueled and traded), a pathetic arcade (where people could see the horror of Reshef of Destruction), duel the "experts" (where we dueled "experts" from around the world), and a magician's workshop. We could also buy exclusive movie packs at the store, and buy Yu-Gi-Oh! merchandise at another zone as well. Upon arrival, I went straight to the billboards showing the World Champion finalists and the presentations of different nations. Our boys from the U.S didn't fare so well, with only one making the top eight. There was a cool display showing cards from about ten different nations, all in different languages. There was another section of billboards that showed all the sets from South Korea, for some weird reason. It was slightly intriguing, considering I'm Korean myself. I took my friend's cousin to the dueling sections, and let him use my deck. Then, for the next 4 hours, I traded and talked. We were interrupted by a cool guy who needed movie packs to sell at his website. The exclusive movie packs section "limited" each participant to ten packs each, but we could simply move to a different booth and buy ten more. The slightly shady guy was paying ten dollars, or giving free cards, for each set of ten packs. Needless to say, I bought twenty for him. I found out later that one of my friends was simply cycling through the Beat the Experts portion, winning five times and gaining five free packs. By that time, I was tired, but the World Championships soon started. THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FINAL DUEL:
The final duel featured Japan versus China. I don't
Anyways, the first duel concluded with Masatoshi bringing out the Luster Soldier, which elicited a gasp from the crowd. He removed the face down card, then attacked for game. I think the face-down card was a D.D Warrior Lady. The duel featured heavy pre-negators on both sides, and Masatoshi used scapegoat well. The second duel was interesting. Masatoshi had scapegoat tokens on the board, but eventually they failed him. By that time, the Chinese guy brought out Black Luster Soldier and Jinzo. Masatoshi couldn't handle it. The third duel featured a heavy dose of pre-negators on both sides. Eventually, both of them knew what the other had in hand, and neither had any monsters. The Chinese guy broke the stalemate by bringing out sinister serpent to attack. Masatoshi eventually used scapegoat, then both players had two facedown spell/traps. They seemed paralyzed, too scared to attack. Finally, Masatoshi heavy stormed the field, taking down a Call of the Haunted and a Torrential Tribute, I believe, from his opponent's field. Then, he creature swapped his remaining goat token for a Kycoo. Then, he brought out Magical Scientist. Then, I think he attacked with D.D Warrior Lady/Tribe, Kycoo, Scientist, and Dark Flare Knight for the win. I thought he'd jump up and scream, but he remained rather calm. After that, I had the chance to duel with yet another guy who played at nationals, winning the only game we played. He was solid, like all nationals qualifiers are. Then, I left, because my lady friend wasn't keen on staying past 6 p.m. Note to Upper Deck: Prettier settings, more hi-tech displays for the World Championships, cheaper food/beverage, good job on the rest. That does it for this week's article. Tune-in next week for more! As always, send comments, questions, and even your own experiences at the WC2004 to pojojaelove@yahoo.com!
A BAD System Score of
the Week Advantage F/H: If used properly, Creature Swap will hopefully give them a searcher (Witch, Sangan), a different searcher (Giant Germ, Pyramid Turtle, Shining Angel, Mystic Tomato), a sinister serpent, a Yata-Garasu, or a scapegoat token. In almost all instances, you're either losing no monster, getting it back the next turn, or getting a searcher to replace it! Thus, you're basically upgrading your monster for the cost of one card. You'll also do 1000+ life point damage with the card. 8/10 Best Draw for the Situation: This is a good card to have when losing. Also, you can switch a face up monster like sinister serpent, picking up their monster then attacking it for a lot of damage. This card works well in all phases of play, and only truly fails when you have no monster to afford (a not too rare situation). 7.5/10 Attributes/Effect: There is no other card in the game that offers permanent control without a cost (the others, snatch steal and falling down, have prohibitive life point costs). Of course, it wastes a card from your hand, but nothing does what Creature Swap can do. This is a highly effective card in the right deck. 8.5/10 Dependability: This is the weak point of Creature Swap. To use it properly, you'll need a decent monster of your own to "waste". You'll also need preferably one good monster of theirs on the field (otherwise, they'd just give you the inferior one). You'll also need a clear path to attack. Creature Swap doesn't work if the situations don't line up perfectly. It's not as dependable as a change of heart or snatch steal, lowering it to 6/10. A BAD Score: 30/40= 75/100
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