User: Griffin Phillippi
Yata-Garasu: An Irrelevant Icon
November 5th 2020
Yata-Garasu. The name itself is iconic, and for good reason. This little bird, with its mere 200 ATK, is the reason the Forbidden List exists. Back in 2004, Konami banned Yata-Garasu for its role in the infamous Chaos-Yata Lock: after clearing the field and hands with Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, and searching Yata with a previously summoned/set Sangan or Witch of the Black Forest, the little bird’s attacks would repeatedly peck an opponent to death. This was death by a thousand cuts, with no ability to ever draw into a reprieve. Yata has never been legal for a single format since. Yet despite all this, Yata-Garasu would see no serious competitive play if unbanned today.
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Shunping Xu and Three Tactical Talents
April 24th 2020
Recently, Konami announced the Normal Spell Three Tactical Talents for Rise of the Duelist. This Spell card set off immediate shockwaves in the community upon its announcement. Yugioh players speculated that it would be an expensive, sought-after Secret Rare and a staple card in the metagame. People have already begun calling it “the best card of 2020”.
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History of Madolche – the Golden Age
February 18th 2020
Ah, Madolche – Yugioh’s sweetest archetype. From its release in 2012 to the modern-day, these colorful cakes have captured the hearts of many a Yugioh player. And they have stolen several event tops as well! Seemingly fated to fade into obscurity, a plethora of support cards throughout the years has kept the deck afloat. With new support looming in Eternity Code, Madolche looks set for the foreseeable future. Such an intriguing deck of Yugioh’s history deserves to have its story told.
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Format History: High HAT Format
February 8th 2020
HAT Format was an extremely diverse period of Yugioh lasting from May to August 2014. This format featured dozens of distinct rogue strategies and double-digit meta decks. In my previous article, I looked at Early HAT from Primal Origin to Structure Deck: Realm of Light. This article will focus on the High HAT Format period following the release of Realm of Light and encompassing the 2014 World Championship Qualifiers that ended with the release of Super Starter: Space-Time Showdown and the advent of Master Rule 3.
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Every Loss is Your Fault: Proper Mindset for Improving Your Play
February 2nd 2020
“He opened the nuts.” “My hand was unplayable.” “I got sacked.”
We’ve all heard these excuses before. Chances are, after a bad beat you’ve dropped one of them yourself in disgust. It’s only natural to look for excuses after a loss – and sometimes a game really was unwinnable.
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Degenerate Card Design and Sky Striker Multirole
October 3rd 2019
It’s banlist discussion season (because when is it ever not), and one of the items on a lot of player’s agendas is Sky Striker. There’s been a lot of debate about whether or not Sky Striker deserves to be hit anymore. Quite a few people do not think so. They believe that Striker is not a problematic deck, and people want it out of the meta just due to fatigue.
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Playstyles in Yugioh: Correct Plays and Correct Decks
April 25th 2019
The idea of “playstyles” in Yugioh is that each individual duelist has a certain affinity for how they play the game. Some duelists like to play aggressively, pump out big monsters, and quickly go for game. Others like to sit back, set lots of backrow, and slowly grind their opponents down. These affinities affect what decks duelists are attracted to and enjoy, how they play out their turns, and generally how they view, experience, and interpret the game. Not all players believe in the existence or validity of playstyles, however.
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What’s The Matter With Altergeist?
March 29th 2019
Altergeist was predicted to be a top deck in the metagame for this new format, and YCS Chicago was supposed to be the deck’s proving ground. Things… didn’t quite work out that way.
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TCG Meta Snapshot: Thunder Dragon March 2019
March 26th 2019
Ahh, Thunder Dragon. Ever the bridesmaid, never the bride. For the fourth time now, Thunder Dragon has placed second in a YCS, managing to do it three times in one event at YCS Atlanta. Thunder Dragon’s playstyle has changed significantly since it’s arrival in the TCG in Soul Fusion
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TCG Meta Snapshot: Danger! Dark World FTK November 2018
November 7th 2018
When the Danger! monsters were revealed in Cybernetic Horizon, duelists quickly devised a strategy to pair them with the older Dark World monsters. The two archetypes’ strategies of discarding seemed made for one another. The deck failed to accomplish much in the metagame until the release of Soul Fusion, however. After Soul Fusion introduced new Danger! monsters, especially Danger!? Tsuchinoko?, a few duelists realized that Danger! and Dark World monsters could form a combined engine to perform a consistent First-Turn Kill.
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