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Leon’s South Wall Corner Club
"Dear Leon…"
August 16, 2005

Welcome back. Oh my goodness I feel good. I just got back from a three day cruise to Mexico for my 21st birthday. Lots of fun. Lots of girls. Beer is good for you - seriously. Lets fit it in the food pyramid somewhere. But you didn’t click my little old link just to hear me talk about this. You want another exciting and insightful edition of South Wall. I will get to it - a couple of things to address first.

First of all I am glad so many of you have taken an interest in my writing.
I know you all have because of the dozens of e-mails I’ve gotten on a mistake I made in my last article. It was in regards to the quick review I made on Drillroid. At the preview I only skimmed over its effect and assumed it to be essentially identical to Sasuke #1 and Mystic Swordsman. Not quite so. Lets compare the texts:

Drillroid - If this card attacks a Defense Position monster, destroy the monster with this card's effect without applying damage calculation.

Mystic Swordsman lv2 - If this card attacks a face-down Defense Position monster, destroy the monster immediately with this card's effect without flipping it face-up or applying damage calculation. Blah, blah, blah…Go grab lv4.

I suppose the mistake was easy enough to make to hopefully be forgiven. One phrase clearly separates the two effects: without flipping it face-up. What does that essentially mean? If your opponent has a monster face down and you attack it with either of these monsters you will destroy it with their effects without any damage calculation - but Drillroid will allow the monster to be flipped face up first. Meaning if the monster in question has a flip effect it will activate since there is no effect or mechanic to negate the ability. That hurts it a bit. However, on the plus side, Drillroid’s effect will still apply to face up defense monsters. Many of the people who corrected me have more accurately chosen to compare Drillroid to a much better version of Grand Master Sasuke. That remains to be seen due to GMS’s attack strength, type, and attribute - which are still very, very usable for current meta. Sorry for the mess up and I’ll work to eliminate them in the future.

Secondly, I just read Death Jester’s latest article. I am glad we at Obelisk Blue have given a positive impression. We strive to lead by example and fully welcome fellow knowledgeable duelists to our forums. While I believe the actual application procedure for OB is currently down you should talk to Rainstorm (Dark Necrophia on Pojo forums) or Kat for more info. To my best knowledge there are currently four members that are now Pojo Featured Writers - Wicked, Ben, Yami Bakura Fan, and myself.

And, Death Jester, I love your work and just want to tell you to keep writing. Its always good stuff.

Oh, and also we at OB have a Card of the Week team that posts on the strategy forum. If (wink) someone at Pojo (wink) were to be interested in having these featured on the main page (wink) they should contact Dark Necrophia - as he’s in charge of that.

All right! Enough selling! You came for an article and you’re going to get one! What was I gonna…(looks at title)…oh yeah.

I’ve gotten quite a large handful of e-mails from several of you. There were a couple I thought to be quite interesting focal points for discussion. In the general interest of anonymity I will withdraw the names of the senders.
I’ll post a couple of these questions and my responses. Enjoy.

E-mail #1: Hey there Leon. My name is *******, but that really isn't important. I was just wondering how I would go about finding out where the Regional Yu-G-Oh! event for my area will be held. I would much appreciate a reply, but if not that’s cool too. I just started playing this game a little while back and am kind of lost among all the local veterans. Well, if you can help me out thanks. If not thanks for your time and consideration.

I already e-mailed this person a general answer with what I believe to be the best way to help but there are more general things to observe here. We, as experienced players, often work too fast for our own good. I do not want to do that as a writer. I want to help the new guy just as much as I do the veteran.

For other veterans out there it should be much more of a responsibility to help out newer players. Especially younger kids. Take time out of your schedule to explain the more basic points of the game: general observations on effective deck building, interesting theme specific or general strategies, and tips on how to start dabbing into more competitive environments. The parents will appreciate you for being so kind and not simply taking advantage of “an easy mark.” If you are a member of a team you should work on helping everyone in your store. It just feels good inside to do the public service and you might make a killer trade in the process.

In answer to the question, schedules of Regional events occurring in your area are usually posted and updated on Upper Decks official site:
www.ude.com. They usually will have links to the PTO (Premier Tournament
Organizer) main page, which you should click to get the details. First, go to the UDE main page. In a bar on the right side of the page they have a column titled “Organized Play.” Below that, in a link, they have “Click here for more.” Click it. In the next page click the Yu-Gi-Oh! Icon then click on the link for Yu-Gi-Oh! Regional Tournaments. The rest should be easy.

E-mail #2: I was wondering after reading you article about Gear Up! See I have been visiting Pojo for a couple of years now I and was wondering if you have an idea on what to do if you come up against a cookie-cutter. Thanks for you time.

Very interesting.

Fear the almighty cookie cutter! That beast of beasts that strikes fear in the hearts of organized play! They win almost every premier event it seems.
Relax. Its not because they are the best. Its because of the sheer number of these decks that you see everywhere give them a natural statistical probability of winning events. In more common language, you see cookie cutter decks win more than originals because there are simply more of them out there. I, personally, believe most of them to be “on-par” to “sub-par”
competitively with the best originals that other innovators come up with.

You see cookies more often because they are simply easier to come up with then trying to waste all the time and energy to find something else that works. And please - for the love of all that is good and holy - do not try to sell me that any changes to the banned/ restricted list will ever change this undeniable truth. There will always be a cookie cutter. It will adapt to the list and everyone one else will follow.

What do I personally do when I know I am playing a cookie cutter? I actually breath a quick sigh of relief. The biggest fears in this game -just like in life - are of the unknown. Playing someone with an unknown deck is kind of frightening. Most tactics people adopt are purely against the common meta, but what’s to stop that weird piece of tech from screwing you over.

True story. Back during the first ban list I was playing against my friend Zon. He ran Strike Ninja. He had just used Forceful Sentry. He saw my hand and knew that I had a Nobleman of Crossout. For some reason though, I thought it ok to go ahead and use it on that face down monster he just set.
It was a Scout Plane. Next turn came a beefy trib. Shortly afterwards was my game.

For another example. At my second Regional in Sacramento I had a 3-0 record after the first half. I was playing with a Gravekeeper deck against all cookie cutters. First and second rounds were against Junky Spot members (recognizably the best team in the Bay Area) that had play mats, t-shirts, hats, the whole deal. Then I took my first loss in fourth round. It was to a fiend deck. Do you know what finally killed me? Do you? Flippin Giant Germs!

You see. More often than you think it’s the weird pieces of tech that will get you. That’s why I find I have a reasonably less stressful time against cookie cutters. I know every card in the deck. I may not know what is in his hand or face down, but a quick look through the graveyard and I can start guessing. My guesses get better the longer the game drags on. There is no reason to fear BLS. There is more than enough counters to it. If you had the advantage before BLS came out chances are quite good you will have a counter and still be able to press the advantage after he hit’s the field.

Just play the game the same way you have always played it. Be ready for the cards you already know are there.

One more thing before I leave. Its time for me to give out an award. This internet award - prized at a whopping jack squat - goes to a duelist with the effective title of “Most Bad A## Player”. Here goes:

While on vacation down in Mexico I was talking with my older brother. I was telling him it was interesting that the Mexican National Champion won with a mill deck of all things. My brother is a Magic player and “mill decks” are generally recognized amongst them as decks whose win condition is to force your opponent to deck out (The term itself comes from the actual Magic Card “Mill Stone” which started the whole craze of this deck arch type). I then explained to him that this particular deck had a specific tactic for its success - using and reusing Cyber Jar and Morphing Jar. Hence, it was given the title “Cookie Jar.” He was mildly shocked. Why wouldn’t he be? What’s cooler than winning the National Championship with something that weird and original? I come back from vacation and find my answer.

I look up the results, from Death Jester’s article, for Worlds in Tokyo. Why do I find that same guy with that same deck placing second in the whole thing? Maybe some of you are not quite getting this. I’ll slow it down.
He…is from Mexico…and placed second…at Worlds…with a cookie jar deck.

His name is Jorge Fabian Pina Lizarraga. And just for having the cajones, if nothing else, I award him the honorary title of “Most Bad A## Flipping Savage Nation Player!” I’d be hard pressed to find someone to take his title too.

Well, I think I’ll cut the lesson off there. Have a good week you guys. Any comments, suggestions, or critics you know where to send them. Until next time.

Peace.