Hey guys. This weeks article is on... well, look at the title. I'm making up for the last article , so be prepared for a pretty decent block of text. Through experience, you learn that a game can last anywhere from one turn to deck out. A match doesn't usually last that long, unless you're facing an inexperienced player or someone who has constant objections to rules. Actually let me rephrase that, you can never know how long a match lasts, because that is based on the luck of the draw . You shouldn't be completely concerned with time while you're playing though. Dark Crisis and Magician's Force brought along a bunch of one turn kill (OTK) decks. Before its release Magician's Force's Magical Scientist was thought to bring about the end of the game. It only took a few weeks for people to open their eyes and see how many different ways there are to stop the combo and how hard it is to pull it off first turn. They also saw the amount of skill it takes to play such a deck, which turned a lot of players away from the idea. For those of you that either forgot the MC OTK kill combo, here it is- What you need:
7001+ Life Points
Magical Scientist (on field)
Catapult Turtle (on field)
7x Lv.6 or less 2100+ Fusions (Fusion Deck)
Summon Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle, summon the 7 Fusions, 3 at a time and launch them with Catapult. Then, set off the scientist and the turtle itself.
7(1050)+500+150=8000 exactly.
Catapult Turtle is Level 5, so in my opinion, the best way to get it on the field quickly (early game) is Reasoning.
The next OTK combos are done with Butterfly Dagger-Elma. Be warned, playing these combos will get you enemies at your local tournaments. One thing these combos all have in common is that they all involve Gearfried the Iron Knight (GF). Combo #1 has Magical Marionette. Magical Marrionette gains a Spell Counter every time a Magic Card is played, by you or your opponent. It gets +200 for every spell counter on it and you can remove 2 spell counters to destroy on of your opponents monsters on the field. So you keep on attaching Elma to Gearfried, thus bringing Elma back to your hand. Repeat until Magical Marionette's attack power is nauseating. Attack for the game. #2 only works in an Exodia Deck. Royal Magical Library's effect is whenever a Magic Card is played, you add a Spell Counter to it. You can remove three spell counters to draw 1 card. Attach Elma to Gearfried over and over again... Remove spell counters from Royal Magical Library until you draw all 5 pieces and declare an automatic victory. Keep in mind, the above two cards' effects can be used only during YOUR Main Phases. #3 is a pretty original combo and in my opinion is the easiest to pull off. This is because don't need to sacrifice any monsters. In this combo, you not only need Gearfried and Elma, but you need Fire Princess and Morale Boost as well. Morale boost (Dark Crisis) increases your life points by 1000 whenever an Equipment Magic Card is played and causes you to lose 1000 life points whenever on is destroyed. You're pretty much breaking even, so there is no immediate loss. With Fire Princess on the field, your opponent loses 500 life points every time you gain life points. Slap Elma on Gear and burn your opponent to 0 and laugh- I mean shake their hand. ^_~ Of yeah, for those of you who were wondering, Elma does not go back to your hand through Woodland Sprite's effect because Elma must be destoyed, not mearly sent to the graveyard. The final one is unable to be done in the English Game, but I'll just post it for good measure. Most of you who played World Wide Edition and Eternal Duelist Soul on the Game Boy Advance © already know this one, so you can skip ahead. Cyber Stein, or Devil Franken allows you to pay 5000 life points to summon one monster from you fusion deck. In this combo, you summon Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, which has an attack power of 4500. Megamorph, an equipment magic card that doubles one of your monster's base attack if your life points are lower than your opponents is played on Blue Eyes. If you make a succefful direct attack, you do a whooping 9000 damage to your opponent, which will almost always win you the game. Why did I put all that there? Because they are all OTKs silly. As the name implies, they can win you the game in one simple turn. It can be the first turn, which would be pretty devastating to the opponent. Playing with these combos can make a match last 5 seconds, which takes the fun out the game. It's your choice, play responsibly. Do you want to learn some things you could do to stop these combos? Well, if the Magical Scientist combo goes off the first turn in the duel there's nothing you can do. The only thing you should do is to cut or shuffle your opponent's deck before the game and hope for the best. ^_^ Against the Elma combos, you either have to destroy Elma or Gearfried/the other monster involved. Oh yeah, Imperial Order DOES NOT stop Elma from bouncing from the graveyard to the hand. This is because the destroying of Elma takes place because of Gearfried's effect and Elma's returning to the hand effect takes place in the grave, where Imperial Order can not touch it. The only way to negate Elma completely is to use Magic Drain, Magic Jammer, or Solemn Judgment. Use standard monster removal such as Torrential Tribute to destroy the monsters involved. Another good suggestion is to use Book of Moon to flip one the monsters on your opponent's field face down, thus temporarily ending the combo and giving you a chance to strike back. Now that we've covered how a game can last one turn, let's go over how a game can go on a very, very long time. One way is if you are facing a stall deck, Final Countdown, or Fire Princess Deck. These decks are designed to stall either to deck you out, or "countdown" to an automatic victory. In a Fire Princess deck, the Life Points can get to a sickening amount. Another way it that rocket tree, Fiber Jar. As demonstrated in the Yu-Gi-Oh 2003 World Championship, Fiber Jar can go off an infinite amount of times in one duel. Using cards such as Sasuke Samurai, Noblemen of Crossout, Dark Ruler Hades, and Dark Core can prevent this from happening. The final way a game can last a long time is if there is a time limit. Though it seems as though I am contradicting myself, I'm not. I am talking about people that stall in non-game related ways such as talking and such. This is because in most tournaments, when the time limit is up the player with the higher amount of life points wins. People will utilize this and try to stall until times up. How can you stop people from stalling? If we're talking cards, then pack a lot of Magic and Trap removal. Try making your moves quick and accurate. If the opponent is stalling through unconventional methods, report him or her to the judge immediately. Actions like that are considered misconduct during a duel and have penalties (if they don't, they should ^_^;) . What about conceding a duel? You should never do that unless you are Yata-Locked and have no hand. Some people use the Exodia Bluff where they pretend they have 4 pieces of Exodia when the have a Sangan and/or Witch on the field. You should always check these things. You cannot completely trust your opponent until the game is over. Don't concede, you never know, a game can turn around with a simple Raigeki or Change of Heart. This paragraph is for tournament organizers. What do you do when you have two little kids face off against each other that constantly have hour-long games? You don't pair them or have a time limit. I'm seen a three hour game between two kids with hundred card decks. Took forever... Don't fall into that trap. Also, try having multiple judges to increase the speed of the resolution of arguments (if at all possible). That's all I got for you guys this time. Vote for the next article below!
Questions? Comments? E-mail Suicune@optonline.net