Articles by MapleBlade

Pendulum monsters are some of the oddest cards in Yu-Gi-Oh!, boasting multiple effects and applications. There are a ton of moving parts, such as maintaining scales and knowing which combo pieces can survive disruption. Due to this, Pendulum-based decks can be disrupted easily. Additionally, because of their need for a mix of combo pieces and scales, the room in their deck to counteract disruption is limited. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to refer to Pendulum Magicians as currently they are the most relevant Pendulum deck.

Speed Dueling is a new format that is similar to Duel Links, in that the Deck and playing field is smaller, starting LP is 4000, and players have access to skills. Only “speed duel” cards can be used in this format, which are going to available in Starter Deck: Destiny Masters and Starter Deck: Duelists of Tomorrow. Before we look at the meta-relevant cards in the format and skills, let’s look at what the rules are and how they change from Advanced format.

If you’ve begun your grand venture of competitive trading card games, one of the first phrases you’re likely to hear is “card advantage.” There’s loads of terms associated with card advantage, like “plusses,” “minuses,” and so on. However, card advantage is not so static that every card gained is equal. Let’s analyze the differences between the types of card advantage.

Today’s deck is a Harpie deck by Skyscout! Our goal is to make the deck less slow, with emphasis on combos rather than its outdated, slow-paced game plan.

Starting June 1st, 2018, the End of Match procedures changed. The previous policy was that the duel was continued normally, with the winner being whoever had more life points after five turns, with the current turn being turn zero. However, the new rules state that the duel will end at the end of the current phase.

Think about your favorite ­­archetype. Is it Sky Strikers? Trickstars? If not, then most likely your favorite archetype is somewhere between Vampires and Dinomist in terms of playability. Not to say these decks aren’t playable, but in comparison to the uber-consistent, board wipe recovering power plays of the top decks, they are… bad.

Burning Abyss is an eternally popular deck, capable of alternating between aggressive, explosive play and grindy long game. Almost every Burning Abyss monster gets an effect when sent to the GY, and its main card, Dante, Traveller of the Burning Abyss, loops itself with Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.

Card effects nowadays are long and complicated, with semi-colons, activation requirements and questions of “does that target?” By looking at commonly used cards, we can understand how to use Problem-Solving Card Text (PSCT) and reduce the amount of time wasted by calling for a judge ruling.

Blue-Eyes White Dragon is one of the most iconic Yu-Gi-Oh! cards of all time. Can the powerful engine of destruction live up to its fame?