The Irish Duelist

New ways to Summon Xyz Monsters!

2012-01-26T15:10:00.000Z

Here's my latest article for Konami's official strategy site. You can check it out at the link here or read on below.

2011 saw the introduction of Xyz Monsters to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG and by the end of the year they had already made a huge impact on Dueling! This trend is set to continue in 2012 as Order of Chaos gives us some cool new ways to Summon Xyz Monsters.

Number C39: Utopia Ray is the monster you see on the front of every pack of Order of Chaos, and the one that was featured on the exclusive Order of Chaos Sneak Peek Game Mats you may have seen at your local Sneak Peek events. Utopia Ray is an upgraded version of Number 39: Utopia, and can be Summoned by using either 3 Level 4 LIGHT monsters or by putting it directly on top of a Number 39: Utopia and absorbing all of that monster’s Materials into itself! It’s an awesome new way to Xyz Summon, which is currently unique to this monster.

Utopia destroys itself when it’s attacked while it has no Xyz Materials, so if you run out you can use Utopia to Summon Number C39: Utopia Ray to reinforce your monster. You can also use your opponent’s Utopia that you took with Mind Control to Xyz Summon Utopia Ray, so even if you don’t have Utopia in your Extra Deck (and you probably should if you play Level 4 monsters) Utopia Ray is still worth using.

Utopia Ray also has its own special ability built for epic comebacks! When you have 1000 Life Points or less, you can detach 1 Xyz Material to give Utopia Ray 500 more ATK and take away 1000 ATK from an opponent’s monster. The neat thing about this is it can be done multiple times per turn, so if you use a fully loaded Utopia as Xyz Material, you can use the effect 3 times in one turn! That’ll bring Utopia Ray up to 4000 ATK and almost any monster your opponent has down to 0 ATK to help you complete the comeback.

Kurivolt is a handy little Level 1 monster that makes Summoning Rank 1 Xyz Monsters a whole lot easier, and can also weaken your opponent’s Xyz Monsters in the process! During your Main Phase, you can target any Xyz Monster (especially your opponent’s) and detach an Xyz Material from it. When you do, you get to Summon another Kurivolt from your Deck.

If there’s a monster with 2 Xyz Materials attached to it, you can get rid of them both, Summon 2 copies of Kurivolt, and have enough monsters to Xyz Summon Baby Tiragon or Number 83: Galaxy Queen! This is a handy way to get around the effects of your opponent’s strongest Xyz Monsters, as without any Xz Materials, they can’t activate their effects.

Xyz Monsters can be revived with cards like Monster Reborn and Call of the Haunted, just like any other monster, but if you do that, they don’t have any Xyz Materials attached to them and you can’t use their effects. Xyz Reborn changes all of that! Xyz Reborn’s a Trap Card that lets you Special Summon any Xyz Monster from your Graveyard, and it then attaches itself to that card as an Xyz Material.

That means you can protect yourself from a Duel-ending attack with Number 39: Utopia (or Summon Utopia Ray and have 2 Xyz Materials attached to it), negate another monster effect with Evolzar Dolkka, Special Summon another banished monster with Leviair the Sea Dragon, go one more round with an invincible Tiras, Keeper of Genesis, or even protect your Ninja monsters again with Number 12: Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja! If you’re playing any Deck that Xyz Summons a lot, Xyz Reborn is one of the must-have cards you need in your Spell and Trap line-up.

All of these exciting new cards can be found in Order of Chaos, which just came out yesterday, so if you’re looking for some cool new ways to play Xyz Monsters, you know where to look!

YCS Guadalajara to take place on February 4th/5th.

2012-01-25T11:37:00.000Z

Konami have sent out more information on the upcoming Mexican YCS.

_{Source: Williams Group Public Relations}

DUELISTS TO CONVERGE IN GUADALAJARA, MEXICO
FOR PRESTIGIOUS Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

FEBRUARY 4th – 5th

Younger Players Can Compete in Dragon Duel

El Segundo, CA (January 24, 2012) – Duelists from Mexico and surrounding Latin American countries have been preparing their Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Decks for weeks as the countdown to the first 2012 Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (YCS) begins. Hundreds of players are expected to compete at the YCS Guadalajara, Mexico February 4th – 5th, the first premier-level Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG event of the year from Konami Digital Entertainment (Konami).

Duelists participating in the main event can expect two days of demanding head-to-head competition. The First Rounds on Saturday will give players an opportunity to present their best game strategies, each one hoping that it will take them to the Final Round on Sunday and the opportunity to Duel for the title of YCS Guadalajara Champion. Duelists can also participate in a wide variety of fun and challenging Public Events to push their Dueling skills to the limit!

Pre-registration for YCS Guadalajara will run from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 3rd and will begin again promptly at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 4th. Upon registering, Duelists will receive four Order of Chaos booster packs for participating in Konami’s YCS Guadalajara. Round One will start at 10:00 a.m. and the Top 16 or 32 YCS finishers (depending on attendance) will earn invitations to participate in the 2012 World Championship Qualifier – Continental, of their region.

In addition, Konami will once again hold a Dragon Duel for the younger set (for Duelists born 1999 or later). The top four finishers in the Dragon Duel events will receive a special Dragon Duel Champion’s Medal, a 2012 Regional Game Mat, a Card Binder, and an invitation to their regions’ 2012 Dragon Duel World Championship Qualifier – Continental, where they can earn an invitation to the inaugural Dragon Duel World Championship to be played at the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championships this summer.

Accompanying the main event, Konami will be conducting a full range of Public Events such as Regional Qualifiers, 3 vs. 3 Team Dueling, ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!!, Classic Drafts, Dawn of the Xyz Starter Tournaments, Pegasus Challenges, Retro Drafts and Win-A-Mats.

The main event winner, the two runners-up and the winners of Sunday’s two Public Event playoffs will each be awarded a YCS prize card. The main event winner will take home an Ultra Rare version of the Blood Mefist prize card, with the other winners bringing home Super Rare versions.

Event Address:

Expo Guadalajara
Avenue Mariano Otero #1499
Esquina Avenue Las Rosas
Col. Verde Valle C.P. 44550
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

www.expo-Guadalajara.com

Prizing Information:

1st place –
Ultra Rare Blood Mefist YCS Prize Card; Trophy; Paid travel to their World Championship Qualifier (if underage, then winner and guardian) or a local-market YCS (flight and accommodations) if the Duelist has already won an earlier YCS in the current year; YCS Top Cut Game Mat; Xbox 360 Elite 250GB console; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier tournament

2nd place –
Super Rare Blood Mefist YCS Prize Card; 32 GB Tablet PC with redemption codes for Konami Mobile games; YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

3rd place –
Super Rare Blood Mefist YCS Prize Card; 32 GB Touch Screen MP3 Player with redemption codes for Konami Mobile games; YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

4th place –
32GB touch-screen MP3 Player; Konami game codes to be used on the touch-screen MP3 player; YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

5th – 8th place –
Video game console with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2011 Over the Nexus; YCS Top Cut Game Mat and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

9th – 16th place –
24 booster packs of Order of Chaos; YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

If attendance exceeds 513 Duelists:

17th – 32nd place –
YCS Top Cut Game Mat and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

Duelists unable to participate in YCS Guadalajara can check out online blog coverage of the event provided by Konami staff at www.yugioh-card.com/en/events.

Every Saturday morning, Duelists can watch the all-new Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL animated series as well as classic Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes on TheCW4Kids programming block, the leading Saturday morning kids broadcast network in the United States. Fans can also view their favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes at www.CW4Kids.com. In Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV! For more information on Konami or the Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.

New official playmats.

2012-01-24T12:36:00.000Z

Some new officially-designed playmats have surfaced in the past week, one being the new WCQ Regionals mat and the other an Order of Chaos tie-in.

_{Source: Facebook}

_{Source: The 808 Blog}

Don't know about you, but I really like that 2 player design, and would love to pick one up.

Sealed events at The Gathering.

2012-01-23T16:45:00.002Z

Every few months The Gathering hosts a Sneak peek event for the latest booster set, and they're some of the most exciting events to play in all year! They're also extremely popular, so now there will be similar events taking place every month, starting this Saturday with Order of Chaos!

The sealed events work in the same way as the Sneak Peeks do; you get 5 packs for entering and have to build your Deck from the cards you get out of those packs. The winner at the end of the event receives a Playmat, and if you've seen some of the more recent ones for Sneak Peeks you'll know they look amazing!

The first Yu-Gi-Oh! Sealed Event takes place this Saturday at the usual time (10am). It costs €25 to enter and you'll have time to build your Deck before you take on your fellow Duelists.

Most of the cards in each set will work well with each other, so you'll get to see some new combos that you may even end up using in your main Deck every week!

For more information on Limerick's local events check out The Gathering's homepage.

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Duelist Portfolio

2012-01-18T10:43:00.000Z

A new binder will be available to pick up in stores soon.

_{Source: Williams Group Public Relations}

SHOW-OFF IN STYLE WITH Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME DUELIST PORTFOLIO

El Segundo, CA (January 17, 2012) – Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Duelists wondering how to keep all their new cards in pristine condition can rejoice when Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (Konami) introduces a brand new 4-pocket Duelist Portfolio.

Featuring the same starry pattern as seen on the black-bordered Xyz Monster cards, each Duelist Portfolio includes 20-pages with four pockets per page. That’s enough space to proudly display and protect 160 Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG cards! The Duelist Portfolio will be available on January 24th for $7.99 each.

Every Saturday morning, Duelists can watch the all-new Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL animated series as well as classic Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes on TheCW4Kids programming block, the leading Saturday morning kids broadcast network in the United States. Fans can also view their favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes at www.CW4Kids.com. In Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV! For more information on Konami or the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Duelist Portfolio, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

_{About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.}

Looking back: The Deck of Commons

2012-01-17T16:06:00.000Z

I recently got a PM from a Pojo member who was introducing his friend to the game, and he brought up my Deck of Commons from 2009 and how it worked out for the 2 of them. Looking back on it now I really want to make a new version of that Deck. Here's the article again incase you missed it.

A common complaint among Yu-Gi-Oh! players is that decks and cards cost too much money these days, and while Konami have been doing great things in terms of reprints recently, a few decks (usually Lightsworn) are still out of reach for some. A good, basic Tier 1 deck could be worth anything from €100 to €300, which isn't exactly a small amount of money to 'throw away', especially in these tough financial times.

At a local tournament a few weeks ago I decided to do something different; the format was over for me with nothing else to really play for so I had the opportunity to try out different decks, ideas and so on. I built a deck entirely out of commons (didn't bother building a Side or Extra) and it did pretty well given how cheap it was to build. Here's the latest version, adjusted for the new format we're about to enter:

Monsters: 19
3 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
3 Banisher of the Radiance
3 Legendary Jujitsu Master
3 D.D. Warrior Lady
3 D.D. Assailant
1 Morphing Jar

Spells: 17
3 Lightning Vortex
3 Book of Moon
3 Fissure
2 Enemy Controller
2 Hammer Shot
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Smashing Ground
1 Heavy Storm

Traps: 4
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute

This deck won't win you any Shonen Jump Championships, but it's still a nice little thing to have some fun at locals with, and a fairly solid starting point for anybody who's just starting to compete in tournaments. The deck should be able to teach beginners the basic fundamentals of deck construction and card advantage while leaving enough room for their own innovations. It also serves as a very basic Anti-Meta lineup with many cards in here capable of disrupting standard Lightsworn, Blackwing, Gladiator and Monarch builds.

The monster lineup is the core of the deck and if timed well enough should be able to cause enough trouble on its own. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer attacks Lightsworn on two fronts; first it prevents the opponent from blocking attacks with Necro Gardnas and then it removes them from play anyways. Banishers prevent cards from hitting the grave in the first place and also lock out key cards such as Honest, Kalut the Moon Shadow, Rescue Cat (which is only seeing play in Gladiator Beasts now) and Charge of the Light Brigade.

D.D.'s Warrior Lady and Assailant cause direct one-for-one trades and make players think twice about attacking face-down monsters. Warrior Lady in particular is a major threat to recruiter monsters which have seen a rise in popularity after the new banlist was released. Legendary Jujitsu Master is purely a defensive option but can often change the way the opponent plays and force them to use up valuable resources in order to take care of it. The Breakers help provide and secure some sort of offense while Morphing Jar does what it always does.

The spell and trap lineup is a little different to conventional Anti-Meta builds (which are usually Trap-heavy) and probably still needs a bit of work. The idea is to avoid getting trumped by both Royal Decree and Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid, two cards that cause these types of decks a lot of problems. Having a large spell lineup makes the deck rather proactive instead of having to commit to the field and wait for the opponent to do something. It also feeds into Summoner Monk, a card that could easily fit in this deck. There's also enough non-targeting cards in here to take care of Aurkus (and to a lesser extent, Thought Ruler Archfiend) and make the rest of the backrows 'live' again.

The Vortexes help take care of early game swarms, one of the main weaknesses that this deck has. Fissures, Hammers and Smash are all single card outs to whatever monster is in the way at the time. Book of Moon is probably the best quickplay spell in the game due to its versatility and ability to shut down big plays so maining a full playset makes sense. Controllers are capable of all sorts of tricks, providing temporary defence and massive swings in play when needed to. The rest of the spell lineup needs no real explanation.

This deck only runs four traps, which helps to keep the pace up and prevent a long drawn-out game. Now that Crush Card Virus is banned people have been looking for replacements and not surprisingly turned to Bottomless Trap Hole as their makeshift alternative (Konami expected this and semi-limited the card, a smart move that forces players to think outside the box). Torrential Tribute is the decks 'panic button'. You don't want to lose any of your monsters without taking out at least one or two of the opponents' along the way but if that isn't possible Torrential steps in to reset the battlefield. The final card in the deck is Call of the Haunted, which swapped places with Monster Reborn on the banlist. Most players would be relieved to finally get rid of that Banisher or Kycoo that's been disrupting their gameplan all match long, and bringing it back will hopefully cause a lot of problems.

While this deck may be cheap (everything listed is easily tradeable or can be bought for spare change) I like the fact that it actually works and doesn't feel hindered by its pricetag. Changes can (and most likely should) be made to it in order to improve its competitiveness as there are many decent common cards out there that can work. For those that just want a framework for an Anti-Meta (or 'Stun') build, here it is. Feel free to add Doomcaliber knights, Thunder King Rai-Oh's, Solemn Judgment or whatever takes your fancy. Just remember that most of those cards would cost more than the entire deck.

Have fun.

-PJ

It'll need a bit of updating for the current format, but there's been plenty of good reprints since I last played it. Thunder King Rai-Oh and Solemn Judgment are now Commons, Mirror Force and Dimensional Prison too. Dark Hole and Monster Reborn, triple Smashing ground, Chaos Sorcerer, heck, even Dark Bribe. If I put something like this together again I'll run a blog post on it.

The Irish Open 2012

2012-01-16T11:40:00.000Z

Update: Prizes now posted.

The next Irish Open will be taking place at the end of the month!

_{Source: Facebook}

Saturday, 28 January 2012

Where
UCD Students Centre. University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 8

Description
The Irish Open is back! Join us for this years tournament whcih we hope will be a huge success! The Irish Open has drawn top players from all over Europe in the last few years.

Buses to venue:
Belfield (91 m NW) 2, 3, 11B, 39B, 46A, 145
Belfield Campus (79 m NW) 3, 10, 17

Date: 28/01/12
Entry: €10
Registration: 11.30
Start time: 12.30

Swiss draw tournament followed by top 8 knockout.

Prizes: (dependent on at least 70 attending)

Main Tournament:
1st: 3ds
2nd: Booster box
3rd: 16 packs
4th: 12 packs
5th: 10 packs
6th: 8 packs
7th: 6 packs
8th: 5 packs
9th-rest 1 pack

U13 tournament:
1st: 10 packs
2nd: 8 packs
3rd: 6 packs
4th: 5 packs
Rest: 1 pack

More info will be available here as it becomes known. If you want an idea of what the venue and event will be like, check out this gallery from last year's Nationals.

Order of Chaos Special Edition

2012-01-12T12:45:00.000Z

The Order of Chaos Sneak Peek is only a few days away, and yesterday Konami officially announced the ORCS Special Edition, along with what the 2 promos are.

_{Source: Konami}

If you’re looking to order up a second helping of chaos, Order of Chaos Special Edition is the place to do it.

More Ninjas! More Inzektors! More Photons! It’s everything that makes Order of Chaos exciting beyond words – and it’s all back for a second round. Each box comes with 3 booster packs of Order of Chaos, plus 1 of 2 Super Rare variant cards: either Effect Veiler or The Winged Dragon of Ra!

Effect Veiler was first released in Duelist Revolution, and is a highly versatile LIGHT Tuner monster. During your opponent’s Main Phase, you can send Effect Veiler from your hand to the Graveyard to negate the effects of 1 opponent’s monster. You can even Chain it to the monster’s effect, so if your opponent paid a cost, the effect is stopped, but they don’t get a refund! Effect Veiler is a valuable weapon to stop your opponent’s most powerful monsters dead in their tracks.

The Winged Dragon of Ra needs no introduction – it’s one of the legendary Egyptian God Cards! But until now, a playable, tournament-legal version of the Great Beast of the Sky was only available as a special promotional card. Now you have a chance to add this Egyptian God Card to your Deck! Just like you saw in Battle City, you can pay Life Points to raise this card’s ATK by an equal amount. So the only limit on its strength is how much life you have left! Or you can activate its Rage of Ra ability to destroy monsters directly!

You’re guaranteed one of these cards in your Special Edition box, plus the 27 cards you pull from your 3 booster packs. Order of Chaos Special Edition is a great way to fill out your Deck – or your collection – and for less than it would cost to buy those 3 packs separately!

Order of Chaos Sneak Peek info.

2012-01-11T11:23:00.000Z

The Order of Chaos Sneak Peek takes place on January 14/15th and here's the info that Konami has posted about the worldwide event.

_{Source: Konami}

Chaos and order collide!

It's time for the Order of Chaos Sneak Peek, your first chance to get your hands on the brand new Order of Chaos booster packs - before they’re available in most stores!

Order & Chaos – Polar opposites, slugging it out in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME for years. Now, the feud that never seems to end hits a new zenith in 2012, with Order of Chaos.

As chaos and order collide, Order of Chaos contains all the tools YOU need to forge a Deck and achieve whatever destiny awaits. There are plenty of other cards in this 100-card set, for Decks of all kinds.

At the Sneak Peek, you can also try to get an exclusive Order of Chaos Game Mat. You don’t have to be a skilled Duelist because we’ve asked the stores to give them out randomly, so everyone has a chance! Plus everybody gets a limited edition, Ultra Rare Inzektor Axe - Zektahawk Spell (while supplies last), and a mini-poster with an Order of Chaos checklist on the back! Be sure to show up early because supplies of all items are limited and late-comers could get left in the dust.

As with every set, Order of Chaos includes 10 Bonus Cards (previously available only in Japan), plus 10 World Premiere cards never before seen anywhere on Earth! You won't want to miss out!

Sneak Peek: What is it?
A Sneak Peek is your first look inside the latest booster set. New Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME booster sets are released every three months, featuring 100 brand new cards! Add these new cards to your collection, or create a new Deck based on the featured new themes, or add the new cards to your current Decks to make them more powerful than ever.

At a Sneak Peek, you’ll get 5 booster packs of the latest set, and use just those cards to build a new Deck. The minimum Deck size at a Sneak Peek is lowered to 20 cards. Since only these new cards are used, everyone has a chance to win their Duels!

While you’re having fun with your new cards, you might win a special Order of Chaos Game Mat. Additional booster packs will not be awarded, but you can buy more packs of Order of Chaos on January 24, in stores everywhere!

For Parents
If your child is younger, shy, or just getting into Yu-Gi-Oh!, a Sneak Peek is a good first stop. Some tournaments can be intimidating, with highly competitive players, but these Sneak Peek events are more casual and fun. These are some of the best events for new Duelists since everybody has access to the same cards. If your child is nervous about asking a stranger to Duel against, ask the store personnel to help. Sneak Peeks are all about everyone having a good time with their new cards.

Sneak Peek Locations
Order of Chaos Sneak Peeks will be held at Official Tournament Stores all across the US, Canada, and Latin America. You may also want to contact your local Official Tournament Store directly to find out if they will be hosting a Sneak Peek.

A list of Official Tournament Stores that are hosting a Sneak Peek will be posted a few weeks before the event, so be sure to keep checking in!

New Wind-Up monster revealed.

2012-01-10T17:18:00.000Z

A new article went up on the Konami Strategy Site yesterday, revealing one of the World Premiere cards in the upcoming Order of Chaos set.

_{Source: Konami}

When a “Wind-Up” monster is Normal or Special Summoned to your side of the field: You can Special Summon this card from your hand. Once per turn: You can activate 1 of these effects.

●Increase this card’s Level by 1, until the End Phase.
●Reduce this card’s Level by 1, until the End Phase.

The article itself goes through some of the combos it has, while also looking at a few other Wind-Up cards you can get this weekend at your local Sneak Peek, so have a read.

More upcoming YCS events announced.

2012-01-09T15:14:00.000Z

Konami posted up a few new things on their (North American) events page.

_{Source: Konami}

In addition to the events leading up to the 100th YCS at Long Beach, we now know which cities the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship series will head to after that, leading us right into "Nationals Season" and the various World Championship Qualifiers taking place across the globe.

Barbaroid, the Ultimate Battle Machine

2012-01-06T11:28:00.000Z

I didn't even realise this was released in the TCG until somebody pointed it out on the forums. The ultimate "Roid" monster makes its appearance in volume 8 of the GX Manga, which according to Wikia was released on Tuesday.

5 Machine-Type "roid" monsters.

This card can attack twice during the same Battle Phase. This card cannot attack your opponent directly. After damage calculation, if this card attacked an opponent's monster: Negate the effect(s) of that monster (including in the Graveyard). If this card destroys an opponent's monster by battle: Inflict 1000 damage to your opponent.

(Spoiler) Turbo Pack 7

2012-01-04T13:39:00.000Z

Turbo Packs are specially created booster packs that you get for entering all kinds of tournaments, and the most recent version makes its debut this week. As with any new product, some people are eager to be the first to "break the news" on what's inside, and we have pictures + a card list plastered all over the Internet already.

_{Sources: Pojo, LFN & YGO}

TU07-EN000 Ally of Justice Catastor (Ultimate Rare)

TU07-EN001 Book of Moon (Ultra Rare)

TU07-EN002 Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke (Super Rare)
TU07-EN003 Yellow Gadget (Super Rare)
TU07-EN004 X-Saber Pashuul (Super Rare)
TU07-EN005 Horn of the Phantom Beast (Super Rare)

TU07-EN006 Dark Horus (Rare)
TU07-EN007 Lightning Warrior (Rare)
TU07-EN008 Primal Seed (Rare)
TU07-EN009 Big Evolution Pill (Rare)
TU07-EN010 Tail Swipe (Rare)
TU07-EN011 Geartown (Rare)

TU07-EN012 Seiyaryu
TU07-EN013 Serpent Night Dragon
TU07-EN014 Kotodama
TU07-EN015 Gokipon
TU07-EN016 Goe Goe the Gallant Ninja
TU07-EN017 Herald of Orange Light
TU07-EN018 Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn
TU07-EN019 Ninjitsu Art of Transformation
TU07-EN020 Ninjitsu Art of Decoy

Personally, I'm excited about (Ultra Rare) Book of Moon, (Super Rare) Horn of the Phantom Beast and (Ultimate Rare) Ally of Justice Catastor. The (Super Rare) Yellow Gadget is cool too, but if/when its Red and Green counterparts get a similar treatment it'll be more desirable.

What do you think of the pack? Let people know in the comment box below.

(Spoiler) Gold Series 2012 [OCG]

2012-01-03T11:11:00.000Z

The newest edition of the OCG Gold Series is due to come out later this week (according to Wikia) but it looks like some places have got theirs already. Bahamut84 of Dueling Days posted a few photos on their blog recently, so let's take a look at what's in the pack.

_{Sources: Dueling Days, Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia}

GS04-JP001 Morphing Jar #2
GS04-JP002 Jowgen the Spiritualist
GS04-JP003 Lava Golem
GS04-JP004 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
GS04-JP005 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
GS04-JP006 D.D. Crow
GS04-JP007 Armageddon Knight
GS04-JP008 Lonefire Blossom
GS04-JP009 Stardust Dragon
GS04-JP010 Wind-Up Zenmaines
GS04-JP011 Soul Release
GS04-JP012 Creature Swap
GS04-JP013 Necrovalley
GS04-JP014 Enemy Controller
GS04-JP015 Pot of Duality
GS04-JP016 Gravity Bind
GS04-JP017 Destiny Board
GS04-JP018 Icarus Attack
GS04-JP019 Dimensional Prison
GS04-JP020 Starlight Road

There's a few interesting things in here, like "BLS" and Pot of Duality, as well as Wind-Up Zenmaines, which made its TCG debut in Photon Shockwave. The OCG and TCG Gold Series are often quite different but it's still nice to see what the OCG is getting (and soon to be using) every so often.

There's no word on a TCG Gold Series for 2012 at the moment, but I hope we get one at some stage as I really liked GLD4's reprints.

(Spoiler) Duelist League 13

2012-01-02T11:43:00.000Z

This was posted on the Konami Strategy Site over the holidays but with YCS Brighton and my Card of the Year articles I never got a chance to take a look. Here's the info for Duelist League 13 for anybody else that's missed out.

_{Source: Konami}

For more info on Duelist Leagues and what they are, check the source link above. The spoiler's below.

Here’s the full card list for Duelist League 13. And remember, each card comes in 4 colors!

Armed Ninja
Shining Angel
Flying Kamakiri #1
Crimson Ninja
Strike Ninja
Pinch Hopper
Howling Insect
Granmarg the Rock Monarch
White Ninja
Ultimate Tyranno
Black Stego
Babycerasaurus
Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
Insect Barrier
Dark Factory of Mass Production
Ancient Rules
Zombie World
Fossil Dig
Ultimate Offering
Magic Drain

Looking back over 2011

2011-12-30T14:25:00.000Z

2011 has been another great year for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, and with the year about to end here's a brief look back at what's happened in the past 12 months.

January

The year kicked off with the third edition of the Irish Open, an unofficial event which can be best described as a "mini YCS". Duelists from Ireland, the UK, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands descended on Dublin for 2 days of Dueling action before Northern Irish Duelist Daniel McCourt defeated Claudio Kirchmair in the finals with Plant Synchro.

February

February's biggest story was the release of Storm of Ragnarok, with the boosted Six Samurai Decktype taking down YCS Dallas in style. Konami also announced their plans for 2011's European events, from Regionals and other WCQ events to upcoming YCS tournaments.

March

The new Forbidden & Limited Cards list for "Nationals Season" was released and it helped continue to make the game diverse at the highest level, as evidenced by YCS Charlotte and UkayPro Championship 3. In the OCG, the basic rulings for Xyz Monsters began to surface as TCG Duelists looked to see what sort of impact they'd have on the game in the future.

April

YCS Paris was the big event on April 2011, and I headed off to France to help Konami out with covering the tournament. The event was a big success, with 800 Duelists competing in Europe's first major tournament of the year before Holland's Stephan Sluis won out with X-Sabers. Hidden Arsenal 4 came out and the TCG was introduced to one of the year's best cards in Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.

May

"Nationals Season" kicked off in May with several countries hosting their WCQ events. Greece was the first, followed by France and several others. YCS Orlando also took place and Extreme Victory was released.

June

June saw more National Championships, the introduction of the Lost Sanctuary Structure Deck and a redesign of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG logo. I headed off to the UK to compete in the UK/Irish National Championship, as well as the Battle of the Kingdoms the day before. On a local level, Conclave took place in Limerick.

July

Nationals Season reached its climax as we headed into the major WCQ events. The European Championship and North American WCQ took place on the same weekend as the World Championship roster began to fill up. We also got our first look at Problem-Solving Card Text, which changed the way that card effects were written, to make them easier to understand.

August

The highlight of the Dueling year is the World Championship, which took place in Amsterdam in August. I've always wanted to go to Worlds, and it was a great experience to cover the event with Konami Europe and enjoy the entire spectacle. The format ended with Ireland's unofficial National Championship, where I finished 2nd out of roughly 80 Duelists.

September

September started with a new Forbidden & Limited Cards List, and update to the game's Rulebook and a call for more writers to join the Konami Strategy Site. YCS Toronto and YCS Ecuador kicked off the format and The Irish Duelist was redesigned. A Dragon Duel World Championship was announced for 2012 as well.

October

October was primarily about product announcements/releases, from Samurai Assault and the Six Samurai Card Sleeves to the newest Structure Deck and Collectible Tins. Germany/Austria got an exclusive Adventskalender and I posted a bunch of handy links to sites that every Duelist should be keeping tabs on. We also had another YCS title for Billy Brake and the announcement of the next European equivalent event.

November

Photon Shockwave made its long-awaited appearance, Hidden Arsenal 5 was announced, and we got some info about the 100th YCS. YCS Kansas took place with a surprise victory for Chaos and the OCG got a new Structure Deck.

December

2011 ended with Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Brighton, as over 700 Duelists competed in the 2 day event before Dino Rabbit took all 3 (main event) Prize Cards home. After that I rounded out the year by counting down the 10 best cards of 2011.

See you all in 2012!
-PJ

Card of the Year (#1): Tour Guide From the Underworld

2011-12-29T16:03:00.001Z

So here it is, the best card that was released all year (in my opinion). I hope you enjoyed this little series of articles and feel free to make your voice heard in the comments!

Tour Guide From the Underworld
(Extreme Victory)

DARK/Fiend/Level 3

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 3 Fiend-Type monster from your hand or Deck. Its effects are negated, and it cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster.

1000/600

First off, let's ignore the pricetag of the card on the secondary market. Yes it's incredibly high, but I've seen a lot of people's opinion on the strength of the card lie too much on the cash/effort it takes to get one.

Along with the #2 card, Tour Guide From the Underworld is one of the stars of Extreme Victory, and one of the most successful World Premiere cards we've seen since Allure of Darkness. When you Normal Summon it, you can Special Summon a Level 3 Fiend-Type monster from your hand/Deck (usually the latter). This monster is usually Sangan or another Tour Guide (though Tour Bus will be another option in a few weeks) and from there things open up.

When Tour Guide first came out it wasn't the most popular card in the set (Reborn Tengu had the Summer all to himself it seems) as the game was still largely Synchro-orientated, something that Tour Guide itself can't be a part of (otherwise it'd be a free Brionac/Orient whenever you Summoned it). But by the time Generation Force was available people had realised just how strong the card was, and it's been a major factor in the tournament scene ever since.

When I originally put this list together I had Reborn Tengu as my #1 and Tour Guide as my #2, but then I had a conversation with a colleague at YCS Brighton who pointed out something very important: Tour Guide has single-handedly made an entire type of card playable; Xyz Monsters. Once he said that I realised the true impact the card had right away, and as such Tour Guide's my #1 for the exact same reason.

Tour Guide's rise in fortune came about in August when more powerful Rank 3 Xyz Monsters began to make their appearance. Up until then we had Grenosaurus from the Dawn of the Xyz Starter Deck, but it wasn't exactly the most fearsome card to start down, or the most impressive to strong combos together with, and Tour Guide was largely used as Chaos material at the time. Generation Force changed all that with the inclusion of Number 17: Leviathan Dragon and Leviair the Sea Dragon (as well as the occasional Number 34: Terror-Byte and Submersible Carrier Aero Shark). Now Duelists had a way to Summon high ATK monsters for free with powerful effects, and they suddenly realised how useful Tour Guide had become.

When the most recent Forbidden & Limited Cards List came around, along with the definition on what happens to Xyz Materials when they're used, many people predicted that Tour Guide would become a weaker card as a result. Instead, Tour Guide's popularity exploded, and its use both as an instant Xyz Monster and a DARK to banish later for Chaos Sorcerer/Black Luster Solider meant that several Decks used 3 copies (and a Sangan) to give them the edge in tournament play.

That edge became even greater come Photon Shockwave when Wind-Up Zenmaines (as well as Number 20: Giga-Brilliant) made their debuts, along with another key card: Rescue Rabbit. Rescue Rabbit made Rank 4 Xyz Monsters a serious tournament threat (most notably with the Evolzar monsters form the same set), and Tour Guide's role in the Dino Rabbit Deck was to Summon leviair the Sea Dragon, which could help re-use the Rabbit, which would provide another Xyz Monster. The first fully-focused (competitive) Xyz Deck had been born, and its dominance of YCS Brighton was all but assured before the event had even began. As more cards come out we'll surely see more combos and places for Tour Guide to make its presence felt (Wind-Up Inzsectors sounds like an incredibly powerful Deck from what I've been reading) as Xyz Monsters fight toe-to-toe with the Synchros we've all be playing since 2008.

Tour Guide From the Underworld has helped change the game in big way, and ensured that a new game mechanic and card type made a lasting first impression, and for that it deserves its recognition as the Card of the Year.

Card of the Year (#2): Reborn Tengu

2011-12-29T14:31:00.000Z

There's only 2 cards left in my list of this year's Top 10, and here's the first. The "Card of the Year" (in my opinion) will be revealed later on today.

Reborn Tengu
(Extreme Victory)

WIND/Beast-Warrior/Level 4

When this card leaves the field: Special Summon 1 "Reborn Tengu" from your Deck.

1700/600

Extreme Victory brought about several cards that saw instant tournament success. Tour Guide From the Underworld is one of the most popular cards ever printed, T.G. monsters are an extremely consistent addition to the tournament scene and Mystic Piper made Level 1 monsters cool again. The one card that everybody was talking about come May though was the one we all got for entering our Sneak Peeks, Reborn Tengu.

Reborn Tengu has a very simple effect which makes a big impact on the game. When it's removed from the field, you get another one from your Deck. It's a mandatory effect too, so unlike its predecessor (Peten the Dark Clown) it'll never miss the timing, which means you can get rid of it for the costs of effects etc. as well as the standard Synchro/Tribute Summons (though it won't work when detached as an Xyz Material). All of this means that Tengu's a pretty difficult card to get rid of, as well as one that can work in almost any Deck.

If we just take Tengu on its own, it's a 1700 ATK monster that needs to be eliminated 3 times before it finally goes away. If its Summon goes off okay (ie: No Warning/Judgment etc.) then it'll instantly put pressure on your opponent, as they'll have to commit several cards to destroy all 3 copies. It's also a good defensive option when you're under pressure. When faced against some higher ATK monsters with no way around them, you can Summon/Set Tengu, and when it dies in battle you bring out another in Defence Position, followed by a third when it's destroyed again. If you run Pot of Avarice and draw it, you can do the whole thing again, eventually earning enough free cards to overpower your opponent.

In terms of combos, Tengu's biggest impact on the game came in the Summer when it was part of the formidable Tengu Plant Deck. When combined with Spore and Glow-Up Bulb (along with other cards like Dandylion, One for One etc.) it was possible to play multiple Synchro monsters per turn, and if T.G. Hyper Librarian was involved you'd be drawing free cards every time you Synchro Summon, turning a once barren field into a white-bordered infestation of terror and doom (for your opponent!). Many people say that Hyper Librarian was the card of the Deck, but the way I see it is that Librarian's success is largely attributed to that of Reborn Tengu. Take away the Tengu, and Librarian's impact diminishes.

Another major feature of Reborn Tengu is that it's a Beast-Warrior, which makes it compatible with Horn of the Phantom Beast. This made Tengu an extremely valuable addition to the T.G. decktype, as several of its core monsters can be combined with Horn for Damage Step surprises and free cards. This also made alternative strategies like Nordic Beasts viable (at least on a locals level).

All-in-all, Reborn Tengu's a simple card with a strong effect. It can be played in pretty much anything since all you need for it to work are extra copies in your Deck, and when combined with some of the game's other top cards it can be a devastating combo starter. It was a tough choice between this and the Number 1 card for the top spot, but it's still miles ahead of anything else we've seen this year, and 2011 will be remembered by many Duelists as "The Year of the Tengu".

Card of the Year (#3): Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

2011-12-28T13:31:00.000Z

Now we're into the top 3. While everybody I've seen on the forums has accurately predicted the top 2 (though the order changes from person to person), the 3rd place card differs depending on who you ask. For me though it's this year's most powerful Synchro monster, which quickly became an Extra Deck "staple" no matter what Deck you ran.

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
(Hidden Arsenal 4: Trishula's Triumph)

WATER/Dragon/Synchro/Level 9

1 Tuner + 2 or more non-Tuner monsters
When this card is Synchro Summoned: You can banish up to one card each from your opponent's hand, field and Graveyard. (The card in the hand is chosen at random.)

2700/2000

Ever since Synchro Monsters have come into existance there had been situations where you'd have 3 monsters on the field, and there'd be nothing in the Extra Deck that could handle what your opponent had laid out infront of you. "Man I wish I had a Level 9 Synchro right about now!" was the call of the Duelist in this situation, and while Mist Wurm solved that when it was released in late 2009, it wasn't exactly a card that every Duelist needed to have in their Extra Decks.

Trishula changed all of that when it was released in its own booster pack earlier this year (when a booster pack has a card name in it, you know that card has to be good) and suddenly every Duelist wanted their Deck to be able to bring out The Three-Headed Frozen Dragon of Doom. Trishula was so powerful that people built FTK Decks around it, and if you haven't seen "Bahamut's Divine Performance" yet you must click this link right now.

When Trishula is Summoned you can banish up to 3 of your opponent's cards; one from hand, one from field, and one from the Graveyard. Since the in-hand card is chosen at random the entire effect doesn't target, which means that you banish cards after your opponent responds with cards like Bottomless Trap Hole etc. to try and take Trishula out. Given how Graveyard-orientated the recent formats have been, a well-timed Trishula can spell (frozen) doom for your opponent unless they have the Warning/Veiler that can save them. As a Plant Duelist you never want to lose your Dandylion, Debris Dragon and Spore, and potentially losing all 3 at once is devastating. Same for Agent Duelists and losing Hyperions and the Agents needed to Summon them.

There aren't many Decks out there that can stand up to a Trishula that's unleashed its rage on them, and even the ones that can will have a tough time getting back into a Duel without getting hit by the dragon's 2700 ATK at least once. So long as the card is legal it'll be used, it'll be Summoned and it'l be feared, which is why it's totally deserving of its spot in 2011's top 3.

(On a side note Trishula is my personal favourite card of the year. It'd be higher on the list, but the top 2 have made a bigger impact on Duels this year than several other cards combined.)

Card of the Year (#4): Master Hyperion

2011-12-28T13:08:00.000Z

As I was (shall we say..) "decomissioned" by the flu yesterday there'll be 2 blog posts today, and here's the first, #4 of my Top 10 cards of the year.

Master Hyperion
(Structure Deck: Lost Sanctuary)

LIGHT/Fairy/Level 8

You can Special Summon this card from your hand by removing from play 1 "The Agent" monster in your hand, field, or Graveyard. Once per turn, you can remove from play 1 LIGHT Fairy-Type monster from your Graveyard to select 1 card on the field, and destroy it. If "The Sanctuary in the Sky" is face-up on the field, you can activate this effect up to twice per turn.

2700/2100

Nobody will argue that the card of 2008 was Dark Armed Dragon, the destructive force that defines the DARK monsters of this game we all play. It was (relatively) easy to Summon, had high ATK and could clear the way for direct attacks without needing any help. It's also my personal favourite card out of everything I've ever tried, even if it's no longer the terrifying force it once was.

If you look at Master Hyperion, you can see that it shares several characteristics with the most fearsome Dragon from Phantom Darkness. It's got high enough ATK, can get rid of cards on its own, and in the right Deck is easy to Summon. It's a Dark Armed Dragon for Fairy-Types, and has seen top table play ever since it made its debut earlier this year.

The Lost Sanctuary Structure Deck also gave Hyperion the support it needed to make it a powerful and consistent threat. The Agent of Mystery - Earth can search for more Agent cards, making Hyperion's Special Summon cost a freebie, and in Sanctuary builds can even get out Hyperion itself, before being banished to Summon the showstopper right away. With Sanctuary out Hyperion can destroy 2 cards per turn, and with the card currently being Unlimited, there's a high chance of a Duelist dropping multiple copies at once to demolish opponents. In fact, that's exactly what happened at the finals of the World Championship this year, when Duel 1 took only 3 minutes, thanks to double Hyperion (and Gachi Gachi Gantetsu).

There's not much else that can be said about Master Hyperion to be honest, one look at the card text shows how powerful the card is, and with it being a Structure Deck card everybody has easy access to it. This year's Structure Decks have all been quite strong for players of all levels of experience, and the best Structure Deck card of the year deservers its place in the Top 10.

Card of the Year (#5): Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

2011-12-26T14:46:00.056Z

We're into the final 5 now, some of the strongest and most influential cards we've seen released this year, and we start with one of the strongest Synchro Monsters ever created!

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En
(Storm of Ragnarok)

DARK/Warrior/Synchro/Level 5

1 Warrior-Type Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner "Six Samurai" monsters
Once per turn, when your opponent activates a Spell/Trap Card, you can negate its activation and destroy it. If this face-up card on the field would be destroyed, you can destroy another face-up "Six Samurai" monster you control instead.

2500/1400

If you go back to the first few months of the year (basically before Extreme Victory came out) you'll remember that Duelists were in a paradoxical situation when it came to Deckbuilding. They had to reduce the monster count in their Decks due to the threat of Gravekeepers and Royal Tribute stripping them all away (while also locking down the Graveyard at the same time), but at the same time keep their Spell and Trap Card count low, as today's featured card would render most of them useless. No matter which way you built your Deck, it was going to lose to either Shi En or Tribute, unless you came up with something incredible enough to withstand both.

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En was the standout card of Storm of Ragnarok, a Synchro Monster capable of negating 1 of your opponent's Spell/Trap cards every turn. It was easy to Summon too (which made it even more threatening) thanks to the other Legendary Six Samurai cards, and the card we looked at 2 days ago, Shien's Smoke Signal. On top of that, even if your opponent did have an opportunity to kill it, you could redirect the hit to another of your Samurai. This perfect storm of conditions meant that Shi En was a near unstoppable force, and Six Samurai duly won several major events around the world because of it.

To give a personal example, I was running Plant Synchro for the majority of the year (before switching to T.G. in August), and I've never had a more difficult matchup than that of "Fissure Sams", which used Dimensional Fissure to shut down the Graveyard and Shi En to shut down everything else. Normally when I played against Samurai I'd try and take down Shi En through various monster-based plays, from Trishula and Black Rose to Brionac and Scrap Dragon, with the occasional Chaos Sorcerer thrown in as well. More often than not that involved various mixes of Debris Dragon, Dandylion, Spore and Glow-Up Bulb, all of which need a fully functioning Graveyard to work well. Take that away and there's almost nothing that can be done about Shi En. Turn 1 Shi En was always a menace, but Turn 1 Shi En + Dimensional Fissure? I may as well sign the match slip now and go home, it was that good.

Shi En's success is largely dependant on the wide variety of support cards that made it such an ever-present threat, but you could also argue that without Shi En, the Deck was easily beatable. For being one of the most fearsome cards Duelists have ever come across, it's certainly deserving of its spot as one of the year's best cards.

Card of the Year (#6): Rescue Rabbit

2011-12-25T14:00:00.061Z

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's number 6!

Rescue Rabbit
(Photon Shockwave)

EARTH/Beast/Level 4

This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Deck. You can banish this face-up card you control; Special Summon 2 Level 4 or lower Normal Monsters with the same name from your Deck. Destroy them during the End Phase. The effect of "Rescue Rabbit" can only be activated once per turn.

300/100

This current format has seen the emergence of a new Deck, which fully utilises the cards released in the recent booster set (Photon Shockwave) and combines them with age-old Dinosaur cards to create something worthy of dominating a YCS. Evolzar Laggia and Dolkka may be the "end result" cards that put all the pressure on your opponent, but more often than not you start off by Summoning a fuzzy little Rabbit that will strike fear into their hearts.

Rescue Rabbit should look familiar to any Duelist who's been playing competitively since early 2009. Back then we had Rescue Cat, which sacrificed itself to Summon 2 monsters from the Deck and create all sorts of terrifying combos (from XX-Saber Hyunlei to Dark Strike Fighter, and even the occasional Gladiator Beast Heraklinos). Rescue Rabbit is a somewhat more restricted version of "the Cat" in that it banishes itself to Summon 2 Normal Monsters of the same name from your Deck, which you can then use to Xyz Summon a Rank 4 monster like the previously mentioned Evolzars, Number 39: Utopia or even Steelswarm Roach. Rank 3, 2 and 1 monsters are also possible, but Decks that use Rabbit rarely use lower Level monsters when they've got a chance to bring out something big and scary.

The release of Rabbit and the Evolzar monsters brought about a new Deck called Dino Rabbit, which uses Rescue Rabbit to Summon cards like Sabersaurus and Kabazauls, which then attack for large amounts of damage and/or are used to Summon Evolzar Laggia/Dolkka, shutting down various plays your opponent would like to make to stop you. Rabbit into 2 Dinos into an Evolzar is already a powerful combo capable of winning Championships, but when boosted by Tour Guide From the Underworld and Leviair the Sea Dragon it can be done with the same Rabbit multiple times per Duel, and the end result is our first mainstream Xyz Monster Deck. Unlike when Synchros made their debut the Deck hasn't reached Tele-DAD levels of dominance, but it's a fine example of how a few new cards can create a YCS winning Deck out of older commons that were previously brushed aside.

Rescue Rabbit may have been a latecomer to 2011, but its impact will be felt well into 2012, and as such is one of my cards of the year.

Card of the Year (#7): Shien's Smoke Signal

2011-12-24T13:50:00.000Z

Here's number 7 on my list of the top 10 cards released this year.

Shien's Smoke Signal
(Storm of Ragnarok)

Spell Card

Add 1 Level 3 or lower "Six Samurai" monster from your Deck to your hand.

Earlier in the year the big Deck to watch out for was Six Samurai. With instant access to one of the strongest Synchro monsters ever printed, the flexibility to use Dimensional Fissure in a Graveyard-reliant era and much more besides, Six Samurai wasn't a Deck you made plans for, it was a Deck you feared. Storm of Ragnarok gave the 4 year old Decktype a massive boost with a new set of monsters, a boss card that every Deck dreams of running, and plenty of other options, but one card in the set was more important than the others, as it turned an alarmingly powerful Deck into an alarmingly consistent one as well.

Shien's Smoke Signal does exactly what it says on the tin; get a Samurai from your Deck, and add it to your hand. The Deck's main combo was to Summon Legendary Six Samurai - Kageki, Special Summon Kagemusha, and then Synchro Summon Shi En which can control the Duel from then on. Kageki and Kagemusha were both run in triplicate, but also had the added bonus of being searchable by Shien's Smoke Signal.

What Smoke Signal did was take a strong combo and make it a very real opening turn threat. With 3 copies in your Deck there's a very high chance that you'll open with Kageki/Smoke, Kagemusha/Smoke, Kageki/Kagemusha or even Smoke/Smoke. Each one of those 4 outcomes ends with you having a Shi En and your opponent having a headache as they try to take it down. The Deck was so consistent that it would often follow up a Turn 1 Shi En with a Turn 2 Shi En, or when combined with the Level 4 Kizan a turn 2 Trishula. Some Samurai builds also ran Shinai and Mizuho (both searchable by Smoke Signal) to create a "Red and Blue" variant capable of producing infinite ATK. Even classic Samurai like Yaichi and Spirit are searchable by Smoke Signal, opening up further options.

There are many good Decks and strategies out there that never see the tournament play the deserve, simply because they're not able to consistently get the combos off in a competitive environment. Shien's Smoke Signal helped the new Samurai Decks to avoid that fate, and deserves recognition as one of the best cards released this year.

Card of the Year (#8): Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi"

2011-12-23T13:15:00.002Z

We're up to number 8 on my list of this year's Top 10 cards, take a look.

Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi"
(Extreme Victory)

EARTH/Machine/Tuner/Level 3

This card must attack if able. When this face-up card on the field is selected as an attack target, change its battle position. While this card is face-up on the field, once per turn during your Main Phase, you can Normal Summon a "Karakuri" monster in addition to your Normal Summon or Set. (You can only gain this effect once per turn.)

0/1900

While many of the cards that Duelists consider to be the "best of the best" are generic cards that can fit into almost any Deck (Pot of Duality, Reborn Tengu etc.), every so often a card comes out that takes an archetype from being a fun thing to try out at locals to the top tables of a YCS. Extreme Victory did just that to a few Decks, one of them being Karakuri. The Karakuri Deck's main combos involve bringing out multiple Synchro monsters and getting as many free cards and effects as possible in the process. The 2 Karakuri Synchro monsters (Burei and Bureido) are incredibly powerful but were always difficult to Summon. That is, until Ninishi came along...

Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi" has all the basic effects that we've become familiar with in Karakuri monsters, from switching battle positions to being forced to attack whenever it can. What sets it apart though is the ability to gain a second Normal Summon (of a Karakuri monster) per turn. That means Ninishi + any other Karakuri monster = a quick and easy Synchro Summon. Ninishi's a Level 3 monster so Summoning 919 "Kuick" or 236 "Nisamu" will give you a Level 7 monster (like 00 "Burei", which in turn opens up more combos), while dropping 177 "Inashichi" gives you a Level 5 (Naturia Beast, T.G Hyper Librarian or Ally of Justice Catastor) AND a free search. Cyber Dragon or another Level 5 monster can give you 00x "Bureido" and open up a wide variety of plays. Of course you can also just Summon another Ninishi (or Nishipachi) and Xyz Summon a Rank 3 monster, like the ever threatening Wind-Up Zenmaines. It's also searchable by Genex Neutron.

It goes without saying that Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi" only has a purpose in Karakuri Decks, but when a single card can push what was a "casual" Decktype into the mainstream that card deserves some form of recognition, and as such is (in my opinion) one of the best cards of the year.

Card of the Year (#9): Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

2011-12-22T13:06:00.002Z

Yesterday I started the countdown of the 10 best cards released in 2011 with Maxx "C". Now we're up to number 9!

Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
(Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz)

EARTH/Rock/Rank 2

2 Level 2 monsters
If this face-up card would be destroyed, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card instead. Face-up monsters you control gain 200 ATK and DEF for each Xyz Material attached to this card.

500/1800

2011 saw a new type of monster hit the Dueling world, and a new game mechanic to match. In recent times Xyz Monsters have been performing quite well at tournaments, and have given the 3 year old Synchro mechanic a run for their money. Just like in 2008 when the 5D's Starter Deck first introduced people to Synchro monsters with Colossal Fighter going right into Duelists' Extra Decks, 2011's Dawn of the Xyz contained 2 incredibly useful cards which will see play in years to come. The first is Number 39: Utopia which is your "go to" Rank 4, and the second is the card we're going to discuss today.

Gachi Gachi Gantetsu is one of the strongest defensive cards we've seen in a long time, and has done remarkably well in an era where attacking force is ever increasing. Statwise is starts at 1800 DEF which is enough of a wall for most Deck's basic monsters, but as Gachi Gachi is an Xyz Monster those materials have to do something, and that thing they do are what propels this card to the #9 spot. First off, whenever Gachi Gachi has an Xyz Material on it, all of your monsters gain 200 ATK and DEF. You start off with 2 so that turns your initial investment of 2 Level 2 monsters into a 900/2200 powerhouse that can also boost the rest of your monsters. On top of that whenever Gachi Gachi is about to be destroyed you can detach a material to keep it safe. Assuming your opponent's only attacking, that means it gets to stick around for 3 hits before biting the dust, which is nothing short of astounding.

Where Gachi Gachi really shines though is when it's combined with simple combos from other Decks to give them the boost they need. It's no coincidence that the Lost Sanctuary Structure Deck made its appearance around the same time of Gachi Gachi's release, as the Xyz Monster's best used in Agent Decks thanks to The Agent of Creation - Venus. Venus can Summon multiple copies of (the Level 2) Mystical Shine Ball in a single turn, and you can overlay those to Summon Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. It's not uncommon to see your opponent open up with Venus, pay 1000 Life Points for 2 Shine Balls and end their turn with (at least) a 2000 ATK Venus and a 2200 DEF Gachi, all for essentially the cost of playing 1 card. And while you're spending up your resources to get rid of those 2 monsters, they're setting themselves up for the Master Hyperion or Black Luster Soldier which will end the Duel in their favour.

Gachi Gachi Gantetsu is one of the best designed cards I've seen all year (it's a testament to this card's concept that Photon Shockwave essentially gave us a beefed-up version in Wind-Up Zenmaines) and for that it deserves its recognition as one of the year's top 10 cards.

Card of the Year (#10): Maxx "C"

2011-12-21T14:45:00.001Z

A few weeks ago I made it known that I'd be doing a bunch of mini articles towards the end of 2011, highlighting what I thought were the best cards released over the past 12 months. After seeing things in action at YCS Brighton and getting feedback from the Yu-Gi-Oh! community it's time to start the countdown!

Maxx "C"
(Storm of Ragnarok)

EARTH/Insect/Level 2

You can activate this effect during either player's turn by sending this card from your hand to the Graveyard. This turn, each time your opponent Special Summon a monster(s), draw 1 card. You can only activate "Maxx "C"" once per turn.

500/200

Ever since Phantom Darkness was released in early 2008 the top Decks of each format have been based around Special Summoning monsters and using their effects to push Duelists towards victory. In 2011 this was even more evident with the evolution of Plant Synchro, which could Special Summon up to 10 or 11 times in a single turn thanks to cards like Reborn Tengu, Spore and Glow-Up Bulb, as well as the Synchro monsters they produce. In more recent times, Dino Rabbit Decks are doing the same, here's one of the Deck's major combos:

Normal Summon Tour Guide From the Underworld
Special Summon a monster from your Deck (either another Tour Guide or Sangan)
Xyz Summon Leviair the Sea Dragon
Detach an Xyz Material to Special Summon Rescue Rabbit
Banish Rescue Rabbit again to Special Summon 2 copies of Kabazauls
Xyz Summon Evolzar Laggia/Dolkka

Here's where things get interesting; if the Dino Rabbit's opponent discarded Maxx "C" when Tour Guide was Normal Summoned, he'd have drawn five cards that turn. That's around 12% of most Decks, and in the later stages of a Duel that number could be as high as 20 or even 25%. And therein lies the power of Maxx "C". With so many Decks Special Summoning monsters these days you're bound to get its effect off whenever you draw it. Worst-case scenario your opponent only Summons 1 monster, but even this is an even trade; they get a free monster, you get a free card, and up your chances of drawing what you need during your next turn. At best you're drawing the 25% of your Deck that will almost certainly turn the Duel in your favour if you can survive your opponent's big turn. Either way there's plenty of reasons to maindeck at least 1 copy of Maxx "C" if you're competing in a major event these days.

There's also another spinoff effect of running the card. As soon as you discard it your opponent has a choice to make: Do they go all out and hope to defeat you there and then, or do they wait a turn by which time it could potentially be too late to make their big push? Even if they decide to dive right in, you're drawing more cards with every combo your opponent puts together, which means you could eventually draw Gorz or Effect Veiler to halt your opponent's plans, and possibly even the Heavy Storm/Dark Hole which ensures that you can hit them back hard next turn.

Maxx "C" is a worthwhile card to consider in every Deck at the moment, and with Special Summon-based Decks as popular as they have ever been, the little insect from Storm of Ragnarok more than deserves his recognition as one of the year's best cards.

All the action from the YCS Brighton

2011-12-20T18:49:00.000Z

Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Brighton took place over the weekend to round off the Dueling year and it was a huge success. As ever there was live coverage of the event and you can find links to all the articles the team wrote over the weekend below.

_{Source: Konami (Day 1, Day 2)}

Day 1

News & Updates
Welcome to YCS Brighton!
Public Event update!
Prizes and Public Events overview
Public Events: The first Regionals Winner!
Overall Deck & Duelist breakdowns for YCS Brighton

Standings & Playoffs
Standings after round 3
Standings after round 4
Standings after round 5
Standings after round 6
Standings after round 7
Final Standings of day of the YCS Brighton

Feature Matches
Round 1: Nicolas Petz (Watt) vs. Marc Berger (Chaos)
Round 2: Pete Ward vs. Lee Brook
Round 3: Maicol Pittau vs. Josiah Walker-Mason
Round 4: Matt Bennett (Reficule Burn) vs. Kevin Semlali (Plant Synchro)
Round 5: Jordan Ruff (Gadget Xyz) vs. Marvin Weber (Dino Rabbit)
Round 6: Matthew Morrissey (Chaos) vs. Peter Heider (Fish)
Round 7: Lennart Diaz (Disaster Dragon) vs. Andrea Caruso (Monarchs)
Round 8: Floris van Asch (T.G. Agents) vs. Jordan Ruff (Offering Gadget)

Deck Analysis & Strategy
2 cards today’s Duelists need to find answers for.
Deck Profile: Nicolas Petz’ Watt Lockdown
The top 3 Decks leading in to YCS Brighton
Deck Profile: Chris Bull’s “Divine Diamonds”
Deck Profile: Jordan Ruff’s “Diva Gadgets”

Other
Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal is here!
Players in pictures: Opening announcements
QQ: What were your highlights in 2011?
Players in Pictures during Round 6
QQ: What are you most looking forward to in 2012?
Meet Team America
WCQ: Regional winner profile: Bradley James

Day 2

News & Updates
Welcome to Day 2 of YCS Brighton.
A look at the Top 32 action!
Top 8 Profiles
Public Events Update
The finalists of YCS Brighton are…
Here are the Public Event Playoff winners!
Goodbye Brighton!

Standings & Playoffs
Standings after round 9
Top 32 Matchups
Top 32 results
Top 16 Matchups
Top 16 results
Top 8 Matchups
Top 8 results and Semi Finals Matchups

Feature Matches
Round 9: Stephan Sluis (Plant Synchro) vs. Robert Boyajian (Plant Synchro)
Round 10: Jake Quinsee (Dino Rabbit) vs. Kevin Gloor (Dino Rabbit)
Top 32: Thomas Cavaliere (Agents) vs. Long Dao (Dark World)
Top 16: Allan Kennard (Dino Rabbit) vs. Lars Junginger (WATER Synchro)
Quarter Finals: Ping Xiao (Dino Rabbit) vs. Adrien Dudeck (Dino Rabbit)
Semi Finals: Marvin Weber (Dino Rabbit) vs. Nathan Pang (Dino Rabbit)
3rd Place Match: Marvin Weber (Dino Rabbit) vs. Lars Junginger (Plant & Frog Synchro)
Finals: Nathan Pang (Dino Rabbit) vs. Ping Xiao (Dino Rabbit)

Deck Analysis & Strategy
Top 10 Tables: Round 9
Deck Feature: Fabijan Pavlovic (Low Level Synchro)
Breakout Card of the Weekend
The Top 16 Decklists of YCS Brighton!
The Top 16 Deck and Duelist breakdowns of YCS Brighton.

Other
QQ: Favorite Decks 2011 / Breakout Decks 2012
Pictures of Day 2
European YCS Judge Team in action
Mattia Graziuso takes down a Regional!
We have an Attack of the Giant Card Winner!
We have another Attack of the Giant Card winner!
We have a YCS Trial winner!
We have our final Attack of the Giant Card winner!
Dragon Duel winners at YCS Brighton!

I hope you all enjoyed the coverage provided by Oliver Gehrmann, myself and Konami's Peter Frottier, and if you've any feedback feel free to post a comment below!

Off to YCS Brighton tomorrow.

2011-12-15T11:29:00.000Z

YCS Brighton takes place this weekend, and I'll be heading over to the UK for the weekend to help provide live coverage of the event.

It's been a while since the last major European event (the World Championship) and even longer since the last YCS (Paris) so it'll be interesting to see how much the game has changed in Europe since those events. As ever you can find the live coverage at this link, and I'll do a writeup of my experience here on the blog next week. As always, Oliver Gehrmann and I are teaming up with Konami to provide the best coverage we possibly can, and you'll find us at the Feature Match area for the majority of the weekend.

Regarding the event itself, it should be an interesting one. Photon Shockwave's widely available now, so we could see more Dino Rabbit variants doing the rounds. Plant Synchro is still the Deck to beat but what I'm going to be most intrigued by is how European Duelists build their Dark World Decks. I haven't seen a build that really stands out as "amazing" yet but hopefully that'll change come the weekend. There's also stuff like Karakuri, Piper Chaos, Final Countdown and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm looking forward to seeing in action.

If you're at the event (or pre-registration on Friday) feel free to come over and say hello. If you've got a cool Deck go ahead and show it to me/Oliver and we might be able to feature it if it's doing well. Some of our most memorable Feature Matches have come from players who've shown up between rounds to let us know "I'm x-0 with THIS thing!" so don't be afreaid to let us know you're doing well.

I'm looking forward to this event and telling you all about it, so make sure to check in over the weekend to see how things are going!
-PJ

Oh look, a new DMG.

2011-12-14T12:12:00.001Z

Here's something I came across on the forums recently, a new Xyz Monster being released in Japan. From the looks of it it's a retrained Dark Magician Girl with artwork drawn by Takahashi himself.

Love the artsy way that JUMP showed off the card by the way, anyways, here's the effect according to Wikia:

Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal
DARK/Rank 6
Spellcaster/Xyz/Effect

2 Level 6 Spellcaster-Type monsters
Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card and banish 1 card in your hand to apply 1 of these effects. ● Target 1 monster your opponent controls; gain control of it until the End Phase. ● Target 1 monster in your opponent's Graveyard; Special Summon it to your side of the field.

No news of a TCG release yet, but it's interesting to see more "Takahashi art" cards getting released.

Last minute advice for YCS Brighton.

2011-12-12T14:40:00.000Z

YCS Brighton takes place this weekend and here's a few things to be aware of if you're heading to the event.

Pre-registration:

There are 2 ways to pre-register. First is the online version, which can be found here. If you register online you'll still need to head to the registration area on Saturday morning to pay for tournament entry, but you'll only have to show your COSSY ID and not spend a bunch of time providing your details.

The second way is to head to the venue on Friday, from 4-9pm (16.00 - 21.00). I'll probably show up there at some point too if you want to show me your Deck or say hello.

Coverage:

Oliver and I will be teaming up with Konami Europe to bring you the best tournament coverage we possibly can over the course of the weekend. You can find that coverage here, and there'll be a brief roundup here on my own blog when I get back from the UK.

On a related note we're looking for Decks to feature! If you've got something worth showing off to the world head over to Facebook and let us know what you're running, and why it stands out from the rest of the competition!

Decklists:

There's a blank Decklist sheet here for you to print and write your Deck on before the event. There's also a fully editable one here if you prefer to type your list and print it off. I highly recommend going for the typed one as it'll make everybody's job a lot easier. It auto-totals and resizes everything too which is great.

Here's a tip I've learned from experience: Write your Decklist the night before the event, or on the morning before you head to the venue. Ideally you should do this alone so that you can give it your full attention. This has 2 benefits; 1: you don't make any mistakes that could give you game losses, and 2: you'll subconsciously be working out combos in your head as you write the cards down, which will come in handy while playing in the event itself.

Nearest card shop:

The nearest place to buy cards before the event takes place (there'll be vendors at the venue as well) is located at the green arrow in the map below. It's located down a pedestrian alley where there's plenty of small shops etc. to be found. While it's far too small to be able to host any Dueling (it's roughly the size of a big hotel room) they're always fully-stocked with all the latest product, and the staff are quite friendly there as well. Handy little place if you're stuck for cards/sleeves on Friday morning.

Best cards of 2011?

2011-12-09T11:56:00.001Z

We're nearing the end of another year of Yu-Gi-Oh!, one that has been quite eventful with new cards, Decks and so-on making a big impact on Duelists. I plan on doing a set of mini articles to round out the year, but I need some input from you all to help me out first.

YCS Brighton is the last major event of the year, and once that's over I want to finish off 2011 by counting down the 10 best cards released this year. While I have my own opinions on what cards made the biggest impact on the game since their release I'm sure all of you have your own thoughts on what the best cards of 2011 are as well, so I'd like to know what you think.

How to get involved.

Post a comment below this blog post.
List out the 10 best cards released in 2011.
Post reasons if you want, but it's not necessary.

Also, here's a few things to help you out:

Any card which made its TCG debut this year is eligible.
Reprints don't count.
Prize cards can be nominated.
JUMP and other promo cards can be nominated.
"Best" doesn't always mean "most powerful", it could also be a card that helps out one specific Deck by giving it the boost it needed.
Judge each card on its stats/effect alone, ignore rarities.

Here's a list of products that contained new cards in 2011:

Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time movie pack

Legendary Collection 2: The Duel Academy Years (LC02 cards only)

Hidden Arsenal 4

Hidden Arsenal 5

UkayPro Podcast 5: YCS Brighton and Order of Chaos

2011-12-08T13:49:00.005Z

The latest UkayPro podcast has been posted, with discussions taking place about the upcoming YCS in Brighton, and the new booster pack heading to the TCG after Christmas.

Have a listen here.

The third God Card...

2011-12-07T15:53:00.008Z

Here's an interesting little bit of news I found via the forums yesterday, it seems that the OCG will soon be getting the final Egyptian God Card in legal form, Osiris the Sky Dragon.

_{Source: ManjyomeThunder (Effect unconfirmed.)}

VJMP-JP064 Osiris the Sky Dragon

DIVINE / Divine Beast

Level 10

? ATK/ ? DEF

You must Release 3 monsters you control to Normal Summon this card (you cannot Set this card). The Normal Summon of this card cannot be negated. When this card is Normal Summoned successfully, cards and effects cannot be activated. If this card is Special Summoned, it is sent to the Graveyard during the End Phase. This card gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in your hand. When your opponent successfully Normal Summons or Special Summons a Monster in face-up Attack Position, that monster loses 2000 ATK and, if the ATK becomes 0 , that monster is destroyed.

No news on a TCG release as of yet, but since Obelisk and Ra made it over here I expect "Slifer" to head over eventually.

Ra Yellow Mega-Pack announced.

2011-12-06T11:49:00.000Z

Konami have recently added a new product page to the official Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG website, with a spinoff product of the highly successful Legendary Collection 2.

_{Source: Konami}

Looking for more Mega-Pack mega-goodness? Look no further!

Legendary Collection 2: The Duel Academy Years introduced you to a brand new kind of booster pack: the Mega-Pack. Mega-Packs contain at least 1 card of each rarity, including 1 Secret Rare, 1 Ultra Rare, 1 Super Rare, and 1 Rare in EVERY pack – guaranteed.

Legendary Collection 2 was such a big hit that it became almost impossible to find. And you, the Duelists, wanted more, more, more.

So get ready for a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX sophomore surge, with the Ra Yellow Mega-Pack!

More of What You Want
Ra Yellow Mega-Packs are a remix of the Legendary Collection 2 Mega-Packs, with 2 major differences:

One: We’ve added 2 more common cards to each pack. Ra Yellow Mega-Packs have 11 cards total per pack.

Two: We’ve condensed the card set to 113 cards. Only the most popular cards from Legendary Collection 2 made the cut this time around!

Time for a quick math test: What do you get when you combine MORE cards per pack + a SMALLER set?

Answer: Better odds than ever of pulling exactly the cards you’re looking for!

New Foil Cards
We’ve also shuffled some rarities around, so you can get many cards in the Ra Yellow Mega-Packs in foil technologies they’ve never been before, like:

Ultra Rare versions of the original Six Samurai, Foil Crystal Beasts, Foil versions of the H-E-R-O Flash!! Cards …and more!

You’ll still find all the super-popular Common cards that made Legendary Collection 2 such a hit, including Thunder King Rai-Oh, Gateway of the Six, Judgment Dragon, Mezuki, Card Trooper, Elemental HERO Stratos, and D.D. Survivor. Plus they’re joined by new commons like Gallis the Star Beast, Rainbow Dragon, Rare Value, Test Tiger, Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid, and Gladiator Beast Lanista. (And don’t forget: with more commons per pack, and fewer commons in the set, your chances of getting one of these cards in a pack are better than ever.)

Ra Yellow Mega-Packs also still contain all the variant art cards from Legendary Collection 2. So if you missed them the first time around, you’ve still got a second chance.

It’s Round Two for Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s Mega-Packs. Don’t miss out a second time!

Each Ra Yellow Mega-Pack contains 11 cards:

1 Secret Rare Card
1 Ultra Rare Card
1 Super Rare Card
1 Rare Card
7 Common Cards

The Ra Yellow Mega-Pack set contains 113 cards:

55 Common Cards
11 Rare Cards
14 Super Rare Cards
16 Ultra Rare Cards
17 Secret Rare Cards

YCS Leipzig announced.

2011-12-02T13:51:00.000Z

YCS Brighton is only 2 weeks away but if you can't make it Konami have announced the next major European event to take place, in February next year.

_{Source: Konami}

Announcing the next stop of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series: Leipzig (Germany), Feb 25 / 26, 2012!

With 2011 almost over, the European Yu-Gi-Oh! scene is looking forward to YCS Brighton, which will be held on December 17th / 18th.

Of course, Konami will continue to offer the vastly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events in Europe in the future. The first YCS stop in 2012 will take place in Leipzig (Germany), on February 25th and 26th. We would like to invite everyone to join us in Leipzig, for a weekend full of fun and Yu-Gi-Oh! Dueling!

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events are big, exciting 2-day events that take place from Saturday to Sunday. Hundreds of Duelists from all over will attend these events to compete for exclusive prizes and spend the weekend Dueling, trading, and hanging out with hundreds of other Yu-Gi-Oh! fans. In addition to eternal glory, the top Duelists will receive exclusive promotional cards and other high-end prizes.

Parallel to the main Championship Series tournament there are numerous Public Events, including tournaments specifically for Duelists born 1999 and later. Competitive or casual, there is something for everyone to do at a Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series weekend event!

More information on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series can be found here. Detailled information on the YCS Leipzig will be added to that page in the next few weeks.

Order of Chaos announced.

2011-12-01T11:33:00.000Z

Konami have put up the product page for Order of Chaos, the next set to hit the TCG.

_{Source: Konami}

Order & Chaos – Polar opposites, slugging it out in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME for years.

Now, the feud that never seems to end hits a new zenith in 2012, with Order of Chaos.

As chaos and order collide, Order of Chaos contains all the tools YOU need to forge a Deck and achieve whatever destiny awaits. Will you create order from the chaos that surrounds you? Or impose a new order on your opponents – of the chaos, by the chaos, for the chaos?

That choice is up to you!

There Will Be Order…?

Order has a new champion!

Number C39: Utopia Ray is an upgraded version of Number 39: Utopia (from Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz). You can Xyz Summon Utopia Ray with 3 Level 4 LIGHT monsters. But it also has a special way to Summon it – the first of its kind!

You can Xyz Summon Utopia Ray by using ONLY Number 39: Utopia as Xyz Material. Utopia attaches to Utopia Ray as Xyz Material – and any Xyz Materials that were attached to Utopia also transfer over to Utopia Ray!

Once Utopia Ray is on the field, equip it with ZW - Unicorn Spear, right from your hand. This card is normally a 1900 ATK Level 4 monster, but when equipped to Utopia Ray, it boosts Utopia Ray by 1900 points instead. That brings Utopia Ray up to 4400 ATK!!!

Let Loose the Bugs of War!

Inzektors aren’t just an invincible, infinite, insect swarm, each one equipped with a state-of-the-art high-tech suit of power armor and weapons systems. (After all, we see that every day!) No, what really sets them apart is their unique technology of Variable-Form Battle Armor.

Inzektor battle armors are interchangeable AND modular. This means that Inzektors can equip to and with each other for powerful effects and super combos!

Summon your Inzektor Dragonfly or Inzektor Centipede, then equip it with your Inzektor Hornet, granting +3 Levels, 500 extra ATK, and 200 more DEF. And once it’s equipped, you can send Hornet to the Graveyard during your turn to destroy any card on the field.

Even better: if you send Hornet to the Graveyard while equipped to Dragonfly, you also get to Summon an Inzektor from your Deck. If Hornet was equipped to Centipede instead, you can add an Inzektor from your Deck to your hand.

Sound good so far? Did we mention that you can do this EVERY TURN by re-equipping Hornet from the Graveyard? Or that you can also equip Inzektor Ant, making your Dragonfly or Centipede indestructible? Or that you can also pump them up with Inzektor Giga-Mantis, giving them 2400 Attack Points? Add it all up for a 2400 ATK monster that can’t be destroyed, blows up 1 card every turn, and gets you an Inzektor of your choice from your Deck when it does.

Interested yet? Don’t forget about Inzektor Exa-Beetle, their Rank 6 Xyz monster that equips itself with a monster from either player’s Graveyard when it’s Summoned. And it has the power to send cards on the field to the Graveyard each turn.

Inzektors bring plenty of weapons besides each other, too. Equip Inzektor Axe - Zektahawk to give your Inzektor 1000 more Attack Points, and stop your opponent from activating Spells or Traps when it attacks. Use Inzektor Orb to power-up by 500 ATK and DEF, and negate effects that target your Inzektor monster. And use the Continuous Trap Card Variable Form to equip your Inzektors to each other, or Summon your equipped Inzektors back as monsters!

Finally, Inzektors have the power of Armor Blast. This Spell Card lets you destroy 1 Inzektor card you control and 2 cards your opponent controls. (You don’t have to destroy an Inzektor monster, you can just destroy an Inzektor that’s equipped.) And most of your Inzektors give you something when destroyed, so this adds up to free cards for you, and a world of hurt for your opponent!

Will you be ready when this crawling chaos emerges to take over the Dueling world?

Ninjas: The True Order of Chaos?

Ninjas! Ten Monsters – Five Spells and Traps – One Unstoppable Ninja Army!

Ninjas have thrived for centuries within their secret order… a silent order... a powerful order… perhaps the one, true, order of chaos! Spanning all six Attributes, Ninjas have only two things in common – their total dedication to their Ninja clan, and their total dedication to obliterating YOUR enemies.

Order of Chaos includes traditional Ninjas, plus the new “Armor Ninja” monsters. They both count as “Ninjas”, so they work in perfect unison in your Deck! The Armor Ninjas include two new Xyz Monsters: Blade Armor Ninja lets your Ninjas attack twice, and Number 12: Crimson Shadow Armor Ninja makes your Ninjas indestructible for the turn.

“Ninjitsu Art” cards are the Traps that Ninjas set for their foes. Use Armor Ninjitsu Art of Freezing to stop your opponent’s monsters in their tracks. Or deploy your Armor Ninjitsu Art of Rust Mist to cut the enemy’s Attack Points in half. And when the time is right, use your ultimate weapon: Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation. This Trap Card lets you combine 1 of your Ninjas with 1 of your opponent’s monsters to Summon a Dragon, Dinosaur, or Sea Serpent from your Deck!

Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation can easily Summon a Dragon, Dinosaur, or Sea Serpent of up to 7 or 8 Levels. So what’s the perfect monster to get? The White Dragon Ninja! This Level 7 monster is both a Ninja AND a Dragon, so it’s easy to Summon AND still works with all your other Ninja cards. With 2700 ATK, it can beat down almost anything your opponent throws at you. AND it protects all of your Spell and Trap cards from being destroyed, so your Ninjitsu Art cards are safe and sound.

If your White Dragon Ninja is ever in trouble, you have one last trick up your sleeve. Tribute it for Ninjitsu Art of Duplication to splinter it into a new Ninja army, by Summoning up to 7 Levels of Ninjas from your Deck – face-up or face-down!

Ninjas have been lurking in the shadows since the very first Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG set, but have never appeared in full force – until now.

More LIGHT and DARK Monsters

Order of Chaos is stuffed with new LIGHT and DARK monsters for your Deck, including a ton of new Photon monsters to fill out your Deck from Photon Shockwave. It’s also got Photon Trident, a Quick-Play Spell that gives 1 Photon monster 700 ATK for the turn, AND makes it inflict piercing Battle Damage, AND lets you destroy 1 Spell/Trap when it damages your opponent!

On the DARK side of things, there’s a bunch of monsters to use in different Decks. Trance Archfiend lets you discard a Fiend and power up its ATK - a great combo with Dark World monsters since it activates their discard effects! Interplanetarypurplythorny Dragon is a Level 5, 2200 ATK monster you can Summon whenever one of your monsters is destroyed. And Dark Blade the Captain of the Evil World seizes your opponent’s LIGHT monsters to use as living shields.

LIGHT and DARK? In one set? That’s an order for chaos, right there!

Ga Ga for Gagaga

It started with Gagaga Magician, from Generation Force, the Level-matching wunderkind that lets you Xyz Summon like lightning.

Now he’s got help! Gagaga Girl can match the Level of Gagaga Magician, to set up triple-Xyz match-making parties! Gagaga Magician copies a monster’s Level, then Gagaga Girl copies him. Now you’ve got 3 monsters on the field with the same Level. Mega-Xyz Summon incoming!!

Don’t forget to get your other Gagaga cards in the set, too. Like Gagagabolt to destroy any card on the field, or Gagagaguard to protect your monsters from destruction!

Hoping to see more Gagaga cards in the future? We gagaga-guarantee it!

She’s Back…

And she brought friends! Hop on board the Tour Bus From the Underworld for a guided tour of some of the most powerful Xyz Monsters in any universe!

But this is just the start! There are plenty of other cards in this set, for Decks of all kinds. Too many to go into here, so be sure to make a list and check it twice, because you won’t want to miss any of the exciting cards coming in Order of Chaos!

Order of Chaos contains 100 cards:

48 Common Cards
20 Rare Cards
14 Super Rare Cards
10 Ultra Rare Cards
8 Secret Rare Cards

The Roundup: November 2011

2011-11-30T18:09:00.014Z

Here's a brief roundup of what's taken place in Yu-Gi-Oh! and on the blog over the past month. You can find all this month's articles by clicking here.

This month's top story:

YCS #100 announced.

While YCS Kansas was taking place an announcement was made regarding the upcoming events in the new year. After December's YCS in Brighton we head to Mexico, Germany, Atlanta and finally to the 100th event at Long Beach, California at the end of March.

Product updates:

This month saw Photon Shockwave hit the shelves and several new cards made an impact at YCS Kansas, most notably the Evolzar monsters and Rescue Rabbit.

Order of Chaos revealed.
Hidden Arsenal 5: Steelswarm Invasion
Yu-Gi-Oh! Next-Gen Dueling Kit
Hidden Arsenal 5: Special Edition

Spoiler - Photon Shockwave
Spoiler (OCG) - Dragonic Legion

New Strategy Site content:

Some more of the articles I recently wrote for the Konami Strategy Site have gone up.

5 essential Elemental HERO Fusion Monsters.
Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

Event updates:

Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek
YCS Kansas - Preview
YCS Kansas - Coverage Roundup
YCS Brighton - Travel Advice
YCS Brighton - Public Events

On top of all this I've been quite active over on my other blog as well, so feel free to check it out for some non-YGO-related action.

5 essential Fusion Monsters for your HERO Deck.

2011-11-29T17:42:00.000Z

Konami have published the latest strategy article I did for them, give it a look!

When Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was on our TV screens a few years ago, Jaden’s Elemental HEROes were one of the most popular Decks around. There are several “HERO” Fusion Monsters out there that can have a big say in the outcome of a Duel, but they were often difficult to get. But fear not, true believers, because almost every Elemental HERO card got another shot at the limelight this fall, and here’s 5 of the best Fusion Monsters you can use in your Elemental HERO Deck!

Elemental HERO Absolute Zero (Generation Force Special Edition)
Elemental HERO Absolute Zero is one of the strongest monsters a HERO Duelist can have in his Extra Deck. Zero can be Summoned by combining any “HERO” monster and any WATER monster with Polymerization, Super Polymerization or Miracle Fusion. Absolute Zero gains 500 ATK for every other WATER monster on the field and when it leaves the field it can destroy every monster your opponent controls! To give you an idea of how powerful an effect that is, Raigeki does the same thing, and it’s Forbidden!

Elemental HERO Nova Master (Generation Force)
Elemental HERO Nova Master is another useful monster to have in your Extra Deck, especially if you’re using Super Polymerization, which can use your opponent’s monsters as Fusion Materials as well as your own. This is great for when you’re facing off against Dino-Rabbit Decks, as your opponent can provide the FIRE monster while your Deck has all the “Elemental HERO” monsters. Super Polymerization can’t be Chained to by the opponent, so not even Evolzar Laggia is safe! When Nova Master destroys a monster in battle you get to draw 1 card, perfect for re-filling your hand after you Summon a bunch of HERO monsters!

Elemental HERO Gaia (Wind-Up Zenmaister Collectible Tin)
Elemental HERO Gaia can be Summoned by combining any “Elemental HERO” monster with an EARTH monster, and with Super Polymerization in your Deck it’s a great monster to use against X-Sabers, Gadgets and Karakuri Decks, which are all EARTH-based. When Gaia is Fusion Summoned you choose one of your opponent’s face-up monsters and halve its ATK, before Gaia then gains the same amount of ATK that monster just lost. Gaia starts out at 2200 ATK, and if you target any opposing monster with 1600 ATK or more you’ll have a 3000 ATK HERO that can take down anything! If you want to Summon Gaia with just your own monsters, Elemental HERO Wildheart is a handy EARTH monster to have.

Elemental HERO Great Tornado (Legendary Collection 2: The Duel Academy Years)
Elemental HERO Great Tornado is an all-new “HERO” monster you get with every Legendary Collection 2 binder! It’s Summoned by combining any “Elemental HERO” monster with any WIND monster and starts out with 2800 ATK. With Great Tornado in your Extra Deck, Super Polymerization lets you absorb Stardust Dragon or even Shooting Star Dragon to create a monster of your own! When Great Tornado is Summoned all of your opponent’s monsters lose half of their ATK and DEF, and with 2800 ATK your Great Tornado can take down anything with less than 5600 ATK and DEF, which is pretty much every monster out there! Fuse Stratos with whatever HERO he searched out to Summon Great Tornado quickly.

Elemental HERO Darkbright (Legendary Collection 2: The Duel Academy Years)
Elemental HERO Darkbright is a little tougher to Summon than the other Fusion Monsters we’ve looked at today, since it uses 2 specific monsters as its Fusion Materials (Elemental HERO Sparkman and Elemental HERO Necroshade). When Darkbright attacks a Defense Position monster your opponent takes Piercing Battle Damage, which is especially useful against Synchrocentric Decks and other Decks with low DEF monsters. After Darkbright attacks it switches to Defense Position, but your opponent won’t want to destroy it. When Darkbright’s destroyed you get to destroy any monster your opponent controls, no matter how powerful.

Darkbright’s a very versatile card, even its Fusion Materials have a use after you Summon it. When Elemental HERO Necroshade is in the Graveyard you can Normal Summon high-Level “Elemental HERO” monsters like Elemental HERO Neos and Elemental HERO Bladedge without Tributing anything. Elemental HERO Sparkman is needed to Summon several powerful “HERO” Fusions like Elemental HERO Shining Flare Wingman. Finally, Darkbright’s Fusion Materials are LIGHT and DARK, so if you Summon it with Polymerization you can banish those monsters from your Graveyard to Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning!

Elemental HERO Decks are one of the most exciting to Duel with, and use the Extra Deck in a completely different way to anything else you’re like to see. You can pick up almost every “HERO” right now, so there’s no excuse for missing out on the action this time!

(Spoiler) Structure Deck: Dragonic Legion

2011-11-28T14:16:00.000Z

Dragonic Legion is the next/latest Structure Deck to hit the OCG, and focuses on LIGHT and DARK monsters, primarily Dragon-Types. The TCG version (Dragons Collide) will arrive after Christmas and some minor changes are expected, but the OCG version's pretty much a known quantity now, so here's the (incomplete) spoiler.

_{Source: Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia (via Shriek and ManjyomeThunder)}

SD22-JP001 Lightpulsar Dragon (Ultra Rare)
SD22-JP002 Darkflare Dragon (Ultra Rare)
SD22-JP003 Eclipse Wyvern (Super Rare)
SD22-JP004 Blue-Eyes White Dragon
SD22-JP005 Red-Eyes B. Dragon
SD22-JP006 The White Stone of Legend
SD22-JP007 Red-Eyes B. Chick
SD22-JP008 Axe Dragonute
SD22-JP009 Vice Dragon
SD22-JP010 Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon
SD22-JP011 Prime Material Dragon
SD22-JP012 Dark Armed Dragon
SD22-JP013 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
SD22-JP014 Chaos Sorcerer

SD22-JP023 Chaos Zone
SD22-JP024 Burst Stream of Destruction
SD22-JP025 Inferno Fire Blast
SD22-JP026 The Flute of Summoning Dragon
SD22-JP027 A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon
SD22-JP028 Book of Moon
SD22-JP029 Magical Stone Excavation
SD22-JP030 Reasoning
SD22-JP031 Monster Gate
SD22-JP032 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation
SD22-JP033 Charge of the Light Brigade
SD22-JP034 Light of Redemption

SD22-JP035 Dragon Reincarnation
SD22-JP039 Escape from the Dark Dimension

SD22-JP0?? Lord of D.
SD22-JP0?? Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress

SD22-JP0?? Burst Breath
SD22-JP0?? Call of the Haunted

OCG Release Date: December 10, 2011

Features:
Includes LIGHT, DARK and Dragon-Type monsters.
Includes new Dragon-type monsters, as well as support cards.
Includes 5 new cards and many reprints.

Includes 40 cards:
2 Ultra Rares
1 Super Rare
37 Commons
1 Rulebook
1 Playing Guide
1 Duel Field

Some Public Event info for YCS Brighton

2011-11-25T17:09:00.000Z

Konami have posted a little news article on some of the attractions of YCS Brighton, mainly regarding Public Events. The YCS takes place a week before Christmas, in the South of England.
_{Source: Konami}

At each of the previous European Premier events like the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series or the WCQ: European Championship, Konami has offered a range of widely-popular Public events for all those players who didn’t want to or couldn’t participate in the Main event. For the YCS Brighton (December 17/18), this tradition will not only continue, but the Public Events will be more interesting than ever, with new cool event types and increased prize support!

Many of the previous events featured a “YCS Trial” – 128 participants Dueling for a sponsored trip to the next European YCS. This time, however, we’ll up the ante for the Trial: Next spring will see the 100th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in Long Beach, USA (March 24/25). To celebrate this anniversary, the YCS Trial in Brighton will not offer a paid trip to the next European YCS, but to California instead, including flight and hotel!

For the first time, the YCS will also offer WCQ: Regionals as Public events, and with them a chance to qualify for the WCQ: European Championship 2012. For the younger Duelists, there will be a Dragon Duel event, which will also qualify directly to the WCQ: European Dragon Duel Championship 2012.

To make this wekeend even more exciting for everyone, Konami will also award two additional Super Rare versions of the YCS prize cards “Blood Mephist”– the same card you can win in the YCS Main event!

During the weekend, players will earn points whenever they participate in a Public Event. Each event participation is worth 1 point, and winning an event is worth additional points (2 to 8) The Top4 points collectors will be chosen for a playoff event on Sunday afternoon, to Duel for one Blood Mephist. Four additional Duelists will be chosen randomly among all Public events participants to Duel for a second Blood Mephist card!

With all those attractions, attending the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series will be a thrilling experience for everyone, so don’t miss your chance to enjoy some pre-holiday Yu-Gi-Oh! extravaganza!

More information on the YCS Brighton can be found here.

The run-up to YCS #100.

2011-11-24T14:04:00.000Z

Since the dawn of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG a decade ago we've seen major events take place all over the world, with thousands of Duelists competing for fame and glory. The highlight of the Dueling season for many is when they attend a Championship-level event, and we're now nearing the hundred mark.

While YCS Kansas was taking place an announcement was made outlining the dates and locations of the next few events, all leading up the the 100th Championship Series event in Long Beach California.

_{Source: Konami}

Get ready to Duel, because the next 5 YCS tournaments have been revealed! Check out the YCS schedule, all the way through to the 100th YCS!

United Kingdom: December 17th and 18th
Guadalajara, Mexico: February 4th and 5th
Atlanta, GA: February 18th and 19th
Germany: February 25th and 26th
100th YCS in Long Beach, CA: March 24th and 25th

The 75th event was held in New Jersey in April 2010, and every single participant got a commemorative 75th YCS Game Mat. What sorts of celebratory shwag awaits in Long Beach? Stay tuned to http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/events/ for news on this and all upcoming events!

Duelists are pumped to practice their skills for these 5 YCS tournaments on the horizon, but for now all attention is turned to YCS Kansas City!

I was fortunate enough to attend the 75th event which took place at Edison, New Jersey and it was an amazing experience (have a read of it here). I'm sure the 100th will have some incredible stuff lined up and if you're able to attend I highly recommend doing so.

As for the other events YCS Brighton is next, and less than 4 weeks away. I'll be there helping Konami Europe out with coverage again, so if you're at the event feel free to say hello.

As for YCS Germany, the location isn't known yet but as soon as it is I'll blog about it to keep you all in the loop.

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

2011-11-23T12:40:00.001Z

My latest article for Konami's official strategy site has gone up. You can view it on their site by hitting this link or read on below.

Photon Shockwave is here, and yet we somehow haven’t looked at the monster you see on the front of each and every pack! It’s time to give Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon its day in the sun!

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is a LIGHT Dragon-Type monster with 3000 ATK and 2500 DEF, just like the all-time classic Blue-Eyes White Dragon! Unlike Blue-Eyes however, Galaxy-Eyes has several effects which will devastate opponents who come up against it.

First off you can Special Summon Galaxy-Eyes by Tributing 2 monsters with 2000 or more ATK. If you’ve been reading our previous Photon Shockwave articles you’ll know that Alexandrite Dragon and Rescue Rabbit make this an easy task, and there are plenty more ways to get the right monsters on the field as well.

Decks that play Galaxy-Eyes will want to use Gorz the Emissary of Darkness as it’s a solid defensive option against many of the current top Decks. If you’ve got an empty field and take an attack from a strong enough monster, you can Summon Gorz and an Emissary of Darkness Token with ATK equal to the damage you just took, giving you 2 high ATK monsters to use for Galaxy-Eyes!

Dragon Decks will be able to Summon this card with incredible ease. In addition to running several high ATK Dragon-Type monsters (for you to Tribute) like Prime Material Dragon and Light and Darkness Dragon, these Decks have access to the mighty Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, which can Special Summon Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon for free from either the hand or Graveyard! There’s also Dragonic Tactics from Legendary Collection 2: The Duel Academy Years, which can Special Summon Galaxy-Eyes directly from the Deck!

And speaking of Summoning Galaxy-Eyes directly from the Deck, word is that there’s going to be a shadowy new way to do it when Order of Chaos comes out this winter!

An invincible monster?
With Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon on the field you’ve got a powerful ally in battle, and its effects make it near impossible for stronger monsters to take it down! Whenever Galaxy-Eyes battles, you can banish it and the monster it’s battling, and both monsters return to the field at the end of the Battle Phase. This alone means that any monster that could take it down will never get a chance to, as the monsters are banished before reaching the Damage Step!

Galaxy-Eyes’ effect is also handy when you want to get around a monster with a tricky Battle Phase effect of its own. D.D. Warrior Lady and Neo-Spacian Grand Mole are 2 useful cards we often see in Anti-Monster Decks, as they can get rid of stronger monsters by themselves. Galaxy-Eyes can take on either of these and banish them before their effects activate, leaving your other monsters free to battle without fear! It’s also handy if you want to get a card like Spirit Reaper, (which can’t be destroyed in battle) out of the way so that your other monsters can attack directly.

Galaxy-Eyes’ final effect happens when it battles an Xyz Monster. If you banish an Xyz Monster with its effect, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon will gain 500 ATK for every Xyz Material that monster had attached to it when the monsters return to the field. Also, since Xyz Materials detach from the Xyz Monster when it’s banished, your opponent won’t be able to use their effects when it returns! It’s an absolute beating to an opponent relying on Gachi Gachi Gantetsu or Wind-Up Zenmaines to slow down your strategy.

One more cool thing to point out is that Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon’s effect is a Quick Effect, so if you declare an attack on a monster and your opponent activates a card like Mirror Force or Dimensional Prison, you can still banish both monsters and dodge the Trap Card’s effect! This also comes into play when you’re taking on Number 39: Utopia. If your opponent detaches a material to try and negate your attack, you can Chain Galaxy-Eyes’ effect to banish both monsters anyway!

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is a mighty card, and you can get it in either Photon Shockwave or its own Collectible Tin!

All the action from YCS Kansas

2011-11-21T12:47:00.001Z

The last major North American event of 2011 took place in Kansas City, Missouri over the weekend, and as always Konami provided live coverage of the event. You can read the coverage by hitting this link, or by using the index below to get to a specific article.

Feature Matches:
Final
Top 4
Top 8
Top 16
Top 32
Round 10
Round 9
Saturday Dragon Duel

Match Summaries:
Round 8
Round 5
Round 3
Round 2
Round 1

Pairings:
Top 8 to Top 2
Top 16
Top 32
Round 10 (Top Tables)
Round 8 (Top Tables)
Round 6 (Top Tables)
Round 3 (Top Tables)

Standings:
Round 10
Round 9
Round 8 (End of Day 1)
Round 7
Round 5
Round 3

Quick Questions:
How'd you find out about YCS Kansas?
4 heroes, 1 event, who wins?
What card do you fear this weekend?

Tech Update
Tech Update: Photon Shockwave
Tech Updage: It's Grapha Time!
Tech Update: Photon Shockwave 2

Other Updates:
YCS Kansas First-Timers
Thank you Judge Team!
Prize Card Playoffs
And the winner of YCS Kansas is...
3v3 Team Duel Prizes
Saturday Dragon Duel Winners
Saturday GIANT CARD Winner
Round 7 in Pictures
Yusei and Jack... Mathis?
Rev it Up!
The GIANT CARDS of Kansas
Grapha's Game Mat
Round 2 in Pictures
Upcoming YCS Schedule
Welcome to Kansas!

Top 32 Decklists

New portfolio, prints and more.

2011-11-18T18:20:00.000Z

Evening everybody, time for a few updates. I've been quite busy this past week with a lot of stuff for PJTierney.net and a few (big and small) changes have taken place, so it's best to keep you all in the loop as to what's been going on.

New F1 posters.

First up are the new Formula 1 posters that I've been working on recently. If you were following the blog in the past few weeks you might have seen that I was given permission to sell altered versions of my Formula 1 poster series, put them together and sent off some files for test printing. After going through the test process a few times things have come out just right and the order for the first run of prints has been sent out. Assuming everything goes to plan they'll be on sale from Wednesday onwards and the product pages are already up, so feel free to take a gander.

Here's the nuts and bolts for those who are curious:

The first 5 copies of each poster will sell at a discounted rate of €25 (+ shipping).
Once the discounted ones are sold out the price reverts to its standard €30 (+ shipping).
These posters are limited to 50 copies each.
The posters are A2 sized, which is about 17" x 24" for you American folk.
These posters are unofficial and have nothing to do with the F1 group of companies.

New portfolio layout.

Back in September I overhauled my portfolio (which lead to the redesign of this blog too) and it was working well for me to a degree. After using it for a while I came across a few minor visual issues when adding new work to it, so I decided to have a rethink and change things for the better. Fortunately CargoCollective's an awesome system to use and I found a template that I could work with, and tinkered away. I'm no web designer but fiddling about with CSS values is strangely enjoyable to me and the design is now pretty much finished. You can find it here. Bear in mind that there's a few issues with it on Internet Explorer, as IE generally makes a mess of everything in general. Works fine on Chrome/FireFox and Safari though!

New site URLs.

The change to the portfolio also ties in with the changes to where you can find stuff across the "PJ Tierney network" (what a lame title...). If you've got things bookmarked you should take note of the following.

The portfolio can be found at pjtierney.net
The blog is now located at blog.pjtierney.net
The store's still at shop.pjtierney.net
My email address remains the same: pj[at]pjtierney[dot]net.

Basically, the locations of the blog and portfolio have switched. The reason for this is that I want to showcase my work first and foremost so that I can (hopefully) pick up new clients and so-on. I felt that with my main URL linking to the blog it wasn't obvious from the outset that I'm a freelancer, hence the switch. The downside of this is that anything that previously linked to blog posts PJTierney.net is now a "dead link", but it had to be done. I'll fix up the links in important locations when I come across them.

Other than that everything's "comin' up Millhouse", and I'm nearing the completion of a few exciting projects I can hopefully tell you all about real soon.
-PJ

Hidden Arsenal 5: Special Edition

2011-11-16T10:49:00.000Z

Over the Summer Duelists were able to pick up Hidden Arsenal Special Edition sets, North America getting HA01/02/03 and the rest of the world getting HA04 only. With Hidden Arsenal 5 on the way it looks like there'll be another Special Edition doing the rounds.

_{Source: Shriek (via Pojo)}

Hidden Arsenal 5: Steelswarm Invasion Special Edition

Contents:
3 Hidden Arsneal 5: Steelswarm Invasion
1 (of 2) variant cards

Not much info to go on there but it's the standard Special Edition deal of 3 packs and a promo, most likely a reprint of something useful.

Once news of this set broke on Pojo we got some more info from Kevin Tewart (of Konami) on the availability of the Special Edition.

_{Source: Kevin Tewart (via Pojo)}

Please note that Hidden Arsenal 5 Special Edition is only for Europe, Latin America (and in Spanish only there), and Australia/New Zealand.

It will not be available in the U.S. or Canada.

[...]

Also note that Duel Terminal 6A comes out the same month. (But not in Europe, Latin America, or Oceania....)

"HA05:SE" will be available in January of next year, and once the promos are known I'll post about them here to keep you all in the loop. In the meantime you can speculate away in the comments as to what the 2 promos could possibly be.

Custom Cards

2011-11-15T14:00:00.000Z

Every Duelist likes to have some accessories on-hand when they attend a tournament, or just to have them because they look cool. Some people collect OCG cards, others desire specific playmats, and we all know about Rodrigo's pink elephant. Several people (myself included) like the look of customised card artworks, and tend to use them as Token cards for various effects.

There's a few active threads on Pojo and DuelistGroundz covering this topic so you can check out plenty more over there, but here's a few that stand out. Of course, the vast majority of these aren't tournament legal, but people often remember "the guy with the cool custom cards" when they go to an event and it's another of the little things that people like about Yu-Gi-Oh!

Oh, and check out this Dark Armed Dragon too:

Yu-Gi-Oh! Next-Gen Dueling Kit

2011-11-14T11:45:00.000Z

Over the weekend a new product popped up on the Internet, a Dueling kit which combines a few previous products together into a handy little package for new/younger Duelists.

_{Source: Toys "R" Us}

The Yu-Gi-Oh! NextGen Dueling Kit contains 1 Starter Deck: Dawn of the XYZ, 3 YuGiOh! TCG Booster Packs, 1 Pack of 50 tournamentlegal Card Sleeves, and 1 Overzized Grenosaurus Monster Card.

The NextGen Dueling Kit contains everything a young, aspiring Duelist could need to start Dueling or improve his game. It comes with the new Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz, 3 booster packs, 1 pack of 50 cards sleeves, and a giantsize Grenosaurus Xyz Monster Card. It's perfect for Duelists of any skill level, and an incredible value for parents looking to make their kid happy without breaking the bank.

Price: $24.99

Contents:
1 Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz.
1 Oversized "Grenosaurus" card.
1 Pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! sleeves (50).
1 Generation Force
1 Stardust Overdrive
1 Duelist Pack: Yusei 2

Hidden Arsenal 5: Steelswarm Invasion

2011-11-11T11:11:00.014Z

Looks like the product page for the new Hidden Arsenal set is up.

_{Source: Konami}

After the devastation brought by Hidden Arsenal 4’s Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, new monsters have emerged to grab their chance for world conquest! In Hidden Arsenal 5: Steelswarm Invasion, 6 new groups of monsters have arisen – adapted to withstand the harshest Dueling environments!

Steelswarm Roach from Generation Force demonstrated the power and tenacity of Steelswarm monsters, and now their full army is invading! Over the last year you’ve gotten a glimpse of the power of the Steelswarm, Vylon, Gishki, Gusto, Laval, and Gem-Knight Decks, but now they’re here for real.

This 60-card all-foil booster set gives you full command of all these monster groups. And for the first time since the original Hidden Arsenal booster set, Hidden Arsenal 5 includes Spell and Trap Cards to go with them! No matter how you like to Duel, there’s a new family of monsters here that’s right for you!

Do you get fired up when you sit down to Duel? So do the Lavals! The passion for battle in these fiery warriors is unmatched, and their Synchro Monsters never go down without a fight.

Are you the man with the plan? Then check out the Vylon monsters. They almost always have the right tools for the job. And in the rare cases they don’t, they can go get the perfect tools for free!

Is it your way or the highway? Then you’ve got something in common with the Gishki monsters. They’re ruthless when it comes to carrying out their evil plans.

Do you value teamwork? Then the Gem-Knights are for you! These noble knights team up to create awesome Fusion Monsters, and win battles that would be impossible for an ordinary monster.

Are you the outdoorsy type? Then you’ll want to roll with the Gusto monsters. They’re so in-tune with nature that it gives them psychic Dueling powers!

Does your hunger for conquest know no bounds? Then you’ll want to join the Steelswarm invasion! These Fiends will do anything to win, even if it means devouring their own comrades!

This 60-card all-foil booster Set has every kind of monster from the first three eras of Dueling: Normal Monsters, Effect Monsters, Fusion Monsters, Ritual Monsters, and Synchro Monsters! Plus Spells and Traps!

You can find more monsters to go with these Decks in Generation Force and Photon Shockwave booster packs!

Hidden Arsenal 5: Steelswarm Invasion contains 60 cards:
20 Secret Rare Cards
40 Super Rare Cards

Product Title: Hidden Arsenal 5: Steelswarm Invasion
Product Type: Booster Pack
Set Size: 60
Launch Date: December 6th, 2011
Konami Tournament Legal Date: December 6th, 2011

Looking ahead to YCS Kansas

2011-11-10T12:17:00.000Z

YCS Kansas is the final major North American event of 2011 and Duelists Stateside are in the final stages of Deck preparation for the event. So far this format's thrown up a few surprises and there are several Decktypes capable of making it to the Top 32. I found this interesting analysis over on DuelistGroundz which looks at the main contenders.

_{Source: DuelistGroundz/benthegreat}

Plants
I think everyone can agree that "Synchro Summon" (which is probably the more appropriate name at this point) is the deck to beat. It makes great use of the monsters Tengu and Tour Guide, which are, in my opinion, the best in the game. As far as Synchro Summoning goes, Tengu and Plants go hand-in-hand; allowing for TGHL into something else plays via Spore and GUB. But the real beauty of this deck, I believe, lies in its versatility. It can run Maxx Cs, TKROs, DD Crows...whatever. The backbone of the deck is strong enough to support myriad anti-meta cards without sacrificing maindeck consistency.

This is a boring prediction, but I have to believe this deck will have the most tops and has a damn good chance of winning the event.

Agents
Agents (Hyperion) are Agents(Hyperion). It's very hard to come back from a first-turn Venus play (regardless of whether it's Gachi alone or Stardust+Gachi). And most decks would kill to run as many boss monsters. Interestingly, the deck's best perceived boss, Kristya, has been falling out of favour among some in the community. I won't comment on this, but I will say that Kristya is the bane of the Plant deck's existence. Further, it spells game against a great many other decks. The deck packs a ton of power, and it is obviously not under the radar. However, cards like Banishing the Light are very difficult to deal with in Games 2 and 3. Further, in my experience, the deck has a tendency to beat itself, by occasionally opening with impossible hands.

Deck should and will place. Top 4 or even Top 2 is not out of the realm of possibility. Surprising, right? It's just one of those...so many bosses, you might just lose based on great draws.

T.G.
It's my belief that this deck will fall out of favour after having only placed 1 in the last Top 32. It's anti-meta strength, though, is well-documented. But the prevalence of maindeck Rai-Oh and the fact that Dark World (especially when it mains DWL) is a tough match-up leads me to think people will be less inclined to play a "traditional" T.G. deck. However, Photon Saber Tiger will be legal, and with Gadgets, Ultimate Offering, Tengu, and Horn of the Phantom Beast, who knows what we might see?

I think a handful of things that include T.G. monster (not necessarily just Agent versions) will top. However, Debunk and Rai-Oh are basically sidedeck staples this format. Therefore, the T.G. deck is more easily broken than it was in earlier times. But, it is still an incredible core that has a lot of versatility.

Dark World
Oh Dark World, the great Columbus disappointment! From "the deck sucks" to "everyone was over-prepared," there are so many legitimate theories as to why the deck did not top that it is difficult to really understand why it failed to succeed. I have said this in the past and will repeat it now, I think that this is the greatest boon the Dark World deck could encounter. The less a player expects to play Dark World, the better Dark World will perform, and vice-versa. I still think a pair of Imps/Crow and Debunk will appear in most sidedecks, but I do not think the 10+ cards that many Columbus decks sided will reoccur. Oh, Dark Smog exists now...I have no idea what, if any, effect this card will have. It is not bad, but how good it is has yet to be determined.

I will be shocked if multiple DW decks do not top. I expect those that top will run 2-3x Dark World Dealings AND Card Destruction. Since the mirror match should be less of a liability, I think it will finally perform to expectations.

Karakuri
Karakuri is maybe the least discussed, best deck of this format. The deck's core is incredibly solid, and its ability to maindeck anti-meta and side very versatility is high. It can move between OTK and Control during the course of a single game. Frankly, the deck has always been good, but it needed a metagame full of less-good decks and a good build to come into the forefront. It's never had a better chance to shine.

It's not the best deck out there, but it's certainly not bad. I believe a few (2-4) should top. It could actually place a few more, now that the deck is gaining popularity/notoriety.

Rabbit
I will preface this by saying two things: 1) The only deck worth mentioning is the Dinosaur-build 2) I have actually done an extensive amount of testing with it. I believe that this deck is a weaker version of Six Samurai. If it opens well, or can open into a solid gamestate, it will beat you. If it can't, there are severe problems. These problems are compounded by the fact that Six Samurai could at least make due with other Synchro monsters and Hand of the Six. Rabbit decks play 6 Normal Monsters with great attack. (You DON'T want to draw them all that often). Rabbit decks typically (and with a degree of success) mitigate this weakness by maindecking Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos.

I don't anticipate too many Rabbit decks topping. First, they will be in short supply, i.e. expensive, this quickly. Second, at this point, it's a hit-or-miss deck that isn't that great. 1 maybe 2 should top. It could be straight up shut out.

Heroes
The deck MIGHT see a brief resurgence for the simple reasons that 1) It's a decent anti-meta build; and 2) a lot of the stuff is cool and foil now. Further, the Fusion Gate/Rabbit /maybe Rabbit w/o Gate/Maybe Gate w/o Rabbit builds are not all that bad.

It isn't inconceivable that some manner of Hero-based deck makes T32. It might even T16. However, barring something I haven't seen or totally failed to anticipate, I don't see multiple Hero decks in the T16, if even 1.

Gladiator Beast
The deck that won't die. A Hero Lives is a big boon. The fact that it can main cards like Maxx C, Veiler, and Crow helps. Heraklinos+Chariot is game against pretty much anything. If this happens...well you lose.

While the deck is nowhere near dominant anymore (and some may even say it's barely good compared to other options), I'd be a fool to count it completely out of contention. 1 might sneak into the T32.

Anti-Meta
Who knows what "anti-meta" will consist of, but it almost invariably tops every event. (Thanks to Solemn Warning and Pot of Duality). Whether it's Malefic, Hero Beat, Stun, Macro or something else, it might top. So...I don't know...ummm side some Dust Tornadoes?

We might see one.

........I really don't envision anything else of any significance topping. Monarch, Chaos, Dragon, Blackwing, Saber, etc. are all fine decks. And, while I won't say that making T32 is not an achievement, it's not exactly crazy difficult for an off-beat deck piloted by a solid player to Day 2 and Top. But I truly believe the Top 16 will comprise of the first 6 mentioned decks; and not even most of them.

Just stirring up discussion.

You can find the original thread here so feel free to chime in and add your thoughts.

No, I don't make mats...

2011-11-09T11:49:00.000Z

Every so often I get messages from fellow Duelists who are looking for custom playmat designs, and would like me to put something together for them. This is natural as I used to make mats a few years ago, and outside of YGO-related stuff I'm a freelance digital artist. However I just want to make it known to everybody that I don't do "the mat thing anymore" for a few reasons.

Back in late 2006 when I started my University course at Limerick School of Art and Design, I came across the wonders of Photoshop. As I was getting back into Yu-Gi-Oh! at that time I ended up playing about with card images so that I could learn how Photoshop worked and what I could do with it. As I got more involved with the Dueling community a group of mat designers surfaced on Pojo and we set up a single location to talk about mat design and help each other develop our skills. That community's still active today over on the Pojo forums and some of the original artists still post there, which is nice to see.

Anyways, I used to be quite active in terms of mat making but I stopped doing it a year or 2 ago for various reasons. First off I wanted to focus on original artwork, and try and carve out a career as a freelance artist/designer. Things have been going okay in that field so far, and you can check out my work here. Secondly, since late 2009 I've been doing writing for Konami's Yu-Gi-Oh! Strategy Site, and as of mid 2010 I've been travelling to major events to help provide tournament coverage for Konami Europe. Since custom mat designs usually involved taking a card image and editing it to some degree, it would generate a conflict of interest between myself and Konami, hence why I stopped. It wouldn't be right for me to continue doing custom mat designs and breaking copyright rules in the process, since custom designs are essentially "knock-offs" which (depending on the design) could damage the way the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand is presented.

To cut a long story short, I don't do custom mats anymore, so please don't ask. If you're after something more professional you can check out my portfolio and send me a message, or otherwise pick up some of my prints which are available to order, but I won't be "plonking a Dark Armed Dragon into a .PSD" anytime soon, just so you all know :)
-PJ

(Spoiler) Photon Shockwave

2011-11-08T14:39:00.000Z

The Photon Shockwave Sneak Peeks took place across the TCG regions this past weekend and by Monday the entire set's contents was known and posted on Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia. The users of Pojo were also compiling a list over the weekend and here's everything you can look forward to picking up when the set goes on general release later this month.

_{Source: Pojo}

Sneak Peek promotional card:
PHSW-ENSP1 Alexandrite Dragon

Regular set contents:
PHSW-EN001 Bunilla
PHSW-EN002 Rabidragon
PHSW-EN003 Rai-Rider
PHSW-EN004 Stinging Swordsman
PHSW-EN005 Kagetokage
PHSW-EN006 Acorno
PHSW-EN007 Pinecono
PHSW-EN008 Friller Rabca
PHSW-EN009 Shark Stickers
PHSW-EN010 Needle Sunfish
PHSW-EN011 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
PHSW-EN012 Daybreaker
PHSW-EN013 Light Serpent
PHSW-EN013 Plasma Ball
PHSW-EN015 Photon Cerebrus
PHSW-EN016 Evoltile Gephyro
PHSW-EN017 Evoltile Westlo
PHSW-EN018 Evoltile Odonto
PHSW-EN019 Evolsaur Cerato
PHSW-EN020 Evolsaur Vulcano
PHSW-EN021 Evolsaur Diplo
PHSW-EN022 Wind-Up Warrior
PHSW-EN023 Wind-Up Knight
PHSW-EN024 Wind-Up Hunter
PHSW-EN025 Wind-Up Bat
PHSW-EN026 Wind-Up Kitten
PHSW-EN027 D.D. Telepon
PHSW-EN028 Wattcobra
PHSW-EN029 Naturia Marron
PHSW-EN030 Prior of the Ice Barrior
PHSW-EN031 Senior Silver Ninja
PHSW-EN032 Rodenut
PHSW-EN033 FengHuang
PHSW-EN034 Tribe Shocking Virus
PHSW-EN035 Goblin Pothole Squad
PHSW-EN036 Creepey Coney
PHSW-EN037 Rescue Rabbit
PHSW-EN038 Baby Tiragon
PHSW-EN039 Number 83: Galaxy Queen
PHSW-EN040 Black Ray Lancer
PHSW-EN041 Number 10: Illuminight
PHSW-EN042 Number 20: Giga Brilliant
PHSW-EN043 Evolzar Laggia
PHSW-EN044 Thunder End Dragon
PHSW-EN045 Attrafic Control
PHSW-EN046 Ego Boost
PHSW-EN047 Monster Slots
PHSW-EN048 Cross Attack
PHSW-EN049 Xyz Gift
PHSW-EN050 Photon Veil
PHSW-EN051 Photon Lead
PHSW-EN052 Photon Booster
PHSW-EN053 Evo-Karma
PHSW-EN054 Evo-Miracle
PHSW-EN055 Overwound Spring
PHSW-EN056 Extra Gate
PHSW-EN057 Shard of Greed
PHSW-EN058 Murmur of the Forest
PHSW-EN059 Tri-Wight
PHSW-EN060 One Day of Peace
PHSW-EN061 Space Cyclone
PHSW-EN062 Poisonous Winds
PHSW-EN063 Heartfelt Appeal
PHSW-EN064 Fiery Fervor
PHSW-EN065 Damage Diet
PHSW-EN066 Copy Knight
PHSW-EN067 Mirror Mail
PHSW-ENo68 Fish Rain
PHSW-EN069 Icy Crevasse
PHSW-EN070 Lumenize
PHSW-EN071 Evolutionary Bridge
PHSW-EN072 Zenmairch
PHSW-EN073 Wattcancel
PHSW-EN074 Champion's Vigilance
PHSW-EN075 Darklight
PHSW-EN076 Tyrant's Throes
PHSW-EN077 Sound the Retreat
PHSW-EN078 Deep Dark Trap Hole
PHSW-EN079 Eisbahn
PHSW-EN080 Sealing Ceremony of Suiton

World-Premiere Cards
PHSW-EN000 Alexandrite Dragon
PHSW-EN081 Photon Sabre Tiger
PHSW-EN082 Evolsaur Pelta
PHSW-EN083 Wind-Up Rabbit
PHSW-EN084 D-Boyz
PHSW-EN085 Latinum, Exarch of Dark World
PHSW-EN086 Evolzar Dolkka
PHSW-EN087 Wind-Up Zenmaines
PHSW-EN088 Xyz Territory
PHSW-EN089 Dark Smog

Bonus Cards
PHSW-EN090 Sergeant Electro
PHSW-EN091 Vylon Ohm
PHSW-EN092 Laval Dual Slasher
PHSW-EN093 Gem-Turtle
PHSW-EN094 Laval Lancelord
PHSW-EN095 Gishki Beast
PHSW-EN096 Gem-Knight Emerald
PHSW-EN097 Junk Defender
PHSW-EN098 Metaion the Time Lord
PHSW-EN099 Infernity Knight

Rarities and card effects can be found on Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia.

Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek this weekend.

2011-11-04T14:48:00.000Z

The Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek takes place around the world this weekend and will be your first opportunity to see the cards from the latest booster set to hit the TCG. Here's some more information on the event to have a read over before it takes place.

_{Source: Konami}

Prepare your Deck for galactic devastation!

It's time for the Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek, your first chance to get your hands on the brand new Photon Shockwave booster packs - before they’re available in most stores!

Packed with 100 new cards for your Deck, Photon Shockwave will unleash incredible energies that have been building up since the dawn of creation. Don’t let this incredible power come as a shock to you!

At the Sneak Peek, you can also try to get an exclusive Photon Shockwave Game Mat. You don’t have to be a skilled Duelist because we’ve asked the stores to give them out randomly, so everyone has a chance! Plus everybody gets a limited edition, Ultra Rare Alexandrite Dragon Monster (while supplies last), and a mini-poster with a Photon Shockwave checklist on the back! Be sure to show up early because supplies of all items are limited and late-comers could get left in the dust.

As with every set, Photon Shockwave includes 10 Bonus Cards (previously available only in Japan), plus 10 World Premiere cards never before seen anywhere on Earth! You won't want to miss out!

Sneak Peek information for The Gathering, Limerick

The Sneak Peek at The Gathering will follow the same format the store's been using for every Sneak Peek so far. You build a Deck of at least 20 cards with the 5 booster packs that you get for entering, and use that Deck against the other Duelists to see who comes away with the prizes, including the Sneak Peek mat you see above! There'll be Judges on-hand to help you out if there's any card rulings you're confused about, so feel free to ask them questions about how certain cards work. You can also bring your regular Deck to have some friendly Duels with everybody before and after the Sneak Peek.

Location: The Gathering, 43 Lower Gerald Griffin Street, Limerick City (view map)
Time: 10am
Deckbuilding: 10.45am (30 minutes)
Cost of entry: €25

Everybody that enters gets a free Alexandrite Dragon promotional card to use in their Decks. If the cards aren't available on the day every Duelist who attends the Sneak Peek will get them as soon as they arrive.

Travel advice for YCS Brighton.

2011-11-03T13:54:00.000Z

YCS Brighton is the last big Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG event of the year, taking place a week before Christmas. If you're heading to the event and haven't sorted your travel plans yet have a look below for some of the options available to you.

So where the hell is Brighton anyway?

British Duelists will know exactly where Brighton is considering it's one of the UK's major tourist destinations. For the rest of us though it's located on the coast, south of London. What that means for the majority of people attending the YCS is that you'll have to go to London first and then travel from there to Brighton, as that's where all the airports are.

View Larger Map

Getting to London

The majority of competitors will have to head to Brighton by going through London first, especially if you're travelling from another country. London has 4 major airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead and Luton. There's also Shoreham Airport which is closer to Brighton but from the looks of things it doesn't serve any commercial flights. Your order of perference for getting to YCS Brighton should be to fly to the following:

Gatwick Airport
Heathrow Airport
Stanstead Airport
Luton Airport

You can also take the Eurostar train from various European countries directly to London and then make your way to Brighton.

Finally, you can get on a boat! There's ferry services going between Brighton and Dieppe (France, north of Paris), or you can cross the English Channel at Dover and head to Calais (France). Dover is also close to where the Channel Tunnel is located on the English side, and the Eurostar passes through it on its way to London. If you do end up at Dover you'll most likely have to head to London to get to Brighton.

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

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From London to Brighton

No matter which route you take you're most likely going to end up somewhere in London and will have to get a train to Brighton. The easiest way is if you landed at Gatwick Airport, as there's a fairly straightforward train that ends up at Brighton from there. Depending on the route it'll cross Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill but from travelling on this train myself the difference in travel time is barely noticeable.

View Larger Map

For the rest of London you'll have to navigate London's Underground network ("The Tube"). The primary station for getting to Brighton is London Victoria, so if you're on the Tube you'll have to follow the various lines until you get there, and then get a train to Brighton. The great thing about the Underground is that no matter where you are in London you can get to another part of London with great ease, so even if you're travelling from Luton or Stanstead all you have to do is get as far as London and then navigate the Tube to Victoria, which will take you the rest of the way. One thing you'll notice while on the train is that you'll pass Gatwick on the way to Brighton, hence why it's the first choice of airports on the list above.

From Brighton Station to the YCS venue

Almost everybody heading to this YCS will end up at Brighton Station at some point, and locate their hotel from there. One thing I always tend to do is base my locations in a new city off of the venue the event is being held in, rather than the stations. Fortunately Brighton's a very compact area and when I was there in September I found that everything was within walking distance. It's a 12 minute walk in a straight line from Brighton Station to the beach, and the Brighton centre's right around the corner when you get there.

View Larger Map

That should be all the basics for you if you're heading to YCS Brighton. If you can read German be sure to check out Oliver Gehrmann's guide to YCS Brighton on TCG Source, where he also gives solid travel advice.

Myself and Oliver will be at the YCS to help Konami bring you live coverage of the event, so feel free to say hello if we're not buried under laptops, water bottles and Decklists, and have fun at the event!

Oh, and one last thing, we use these plugs in the UK & Ireland, so have an adapter handy:

Order of Chaos revealed.

2011-11-02T12:49:00.000Z

Shriek has posted a bit of information about Order of Chaos, the booster set that comes after Photon Shockwave. There's no specific information on cards in the set just yet other than what's already available in the OCG version, but here's the known info regardless.

_{Source: Shriek}

Order of Chaos is the stunning sequel to 2004’s Invasion of Chaos, the legendary, best-selling booster pack that started the immortal battle between light and darkness in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME. The confrontation continues in this brand new booster set, with 100 new monsters, spells, and traps. Duelists will be able to get their hands on some of the coolest cards ever created. Transforming Ninjas will do battle with an invading army clad in insectoid power armor, amid a sea of all devouring Xyz Monsters, only in Order of Chaos!

Cards from order of Chaos can be combined with cards from the Dragunity Legion Structure Deck, Gold Series 4 and Photon Shockwave for incredible combos!

100 card complete set contains:
48 Common cards
20 Rare cards
14 Super Rare cards
10 Ultra/Ultimate Rare cards
8 Secret Rare cards

The OCG set can be viewed here if you want to see what the main cards in the set are (the set's OCG release is November 19). Like previous boosters there'll be 10 World Premiere cards (1 of which will most likely be a Sneak Peek promo) and 10 "OCG Import" cards. We won't know anything about those for a while I bet.

Which cards are you liking the look of so far? Have your say in the comments below.

The Roundup: October 2011

2011-10-31T12:01:00.001Z

Here's a brief roundup of what's taken place in Yu-Gi-Oh! and on the blog over the past month. You can find all this month's articles by clicking here.

This month's top story:

Billy Brake makes it 2 YCS titles in succession.

YCS Columbus took place this month and despite all the pre-event talk about Dark World potentially dominating the event, it was the surprise underperformer as Tengu Plant variants took up the majority of seats in the Top 32. Of those Plant Duelists was one Billy Brake, who's been on an impressive run of form lately. This was his second YCS title in succession, something that's only ever been done once before (by Ryan Hayakawa, many, many years ago)

Product updates:

The usual mix of press releases and product spoilers filtered out over the month and if you've been an active follower of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG you'll have known about these already, but here's a brief recap of everything regardless.

Samurai Assault
Six Samurai Card Sleeves
2011 Collectible Tins: Wave 2

Spoiler - Structure Deck: Gates of the Underworld
Spoiler - Yu-Gi-Oh! Adventskalender (Note: German/Austrian exclusive)

New Strategy Site content:

Here's the newly-published content that I wrote for Konami's Strategy Site this month.

Photon Sabre Tiger

Event updates:

All the action from YCS Columbus.
Videos from Conclave II

YCS Brighton announced.
More details about YCS Brighton.
YCS Kansas announced.

More info about YCS Brighton

2011-10-28T13:10:00.000+01:00

YCS Brighton was announced recently and more information has been posted on Konami's website regarding the date, location and all the other essential details.

_{Source: Konami}

Konami presents: The Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series!

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events are big, exciting 2-day events that take place from Saturday to Sunday. Duelists from all over will attend these events to compete for exclusive prizes and spend the weekend Dueling, trading, and hanging out with hundreds of other Yu-Gi-Oh! fans.

In addition to the main Championship Series tournament there are numerous Public Events, including tournaments specifically for Duelists born 1999 and later. Competitive or casual, there is something for everyone to do at a Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series weekend event.

Who can participate in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series?

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series tournament is an open event. No invite is required – everyone can participate!

Next Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series stop:

December 17th/18th

The Brighton Centre
Kings Road
Brighton BN1 3GR
United Kingdom

Event Structure
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series will be Advanced Constructed format.
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series will consist of a number of Swiss-style rounds, followed by one or more top cuts, as follows:
Up to 512 Duelists: 9 rounds of Swiss on Saturday, Top16 Single-Elimination on Sunday
513 to 1024 Duelists: 8 rounds of Swiss on Saturday, 2 more rounds of Swiss on Sunday, then Top32 Single-Elimination
1025 or more Duelists: 9 rounds of Swiss on Saturday, 2 more rounds of Swiss on Sunday, then Top32 Single-Elimination
If 513 or more Duelists attend, the 2 Swiss rounds on Sunday are open to only the top 128 players OR all players with 18 points (21 points if 9 rounds were played on Saturday), whichever number is larger.
There will be a playoff match for 3rd place.

Public Events

KONAMI offers many exciting activities during those two days, namely a feature match area where you can watch the top Duels of the main event, and a wide selection of Public Events, ranging from casual to highly-competive events. Among others, there will be:
Duelist League – casual League play for young players
Pegasus Challenge – mix up the Dueling experience with fun new formats and deckbuilding rules! (exact rules to be announced)
ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!! – the winner receives a giant Yu-Gi-Oh! card!
Win-a-Mat – some fine and limited gamemats to win (e.g. Regionals mats)
WCQ: Regionals – qualify to the WCQ: European Championship 2012!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Trial – offering travel sponsoring and accomodation to a future YCS
There will also be a Dragon Duel event open for Duelists born 1999 or later. The Top 4 Duelists will qualify to the WCQ: European Dragon Duel Championship

With all those attractions, attending the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series will be a thrilling experience for everyone!

Coverage

There will be round-by-round online coverage of this event, including feature matches, a photo gallery, deck analysis and more – even if you’re unable to make it to the event, you can still be part of the action as the coverage page is updated with live content from the tournament site.

Look for coverage at http://tcg.konami-europe.net/coverage/, and follow the event as it progresses.

Preparing for this event

Be prepared to present your COSSY ID number along with your name at registration. If you don’t have a COSSY ID number, you can receive one at registration or here.

You will also need to fill out a Deck List registration sheet. You will fill this out by listing all of the cards included in the Deck you want to use. You can get a Deck List form at the registration area. This Deck List will be collected from you right before Round 1 of the tournament, so you do not have to have it ready the moment that you register.

You should bring an Advanced-Format Deck, along with any tournament supplies you will need: paper and pen to track Life Points, dice or counters if you are using cards which require them, extra sleeves to replace any that become damaged, and so forth. Players participating in these events are expected to be familiar with KONAMI’s tournament policies. These can be found in the “Gameplay” section of this website.

Early registration on Friday

You can – and you should! – register at the venue on Friday already. Once you are registered, you are officially entered into the tournament and will not need to register again on Saturday. Save yourself a few hours of sleep on Saturday morning, and take advantage of early registration! You can pick up a copy of the Deck List form when you register.

Buying and Selling of cards at the event

There will be a number of vendors present, selling single cards, sealed product, and card supplies such as sleeves and deck boxes. Vendors will also be buying cards on site. Duelists are not allowed to buy or sell from one another at Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series venues. If you do so, you risk incurring penalties, including being disqualified and removed from the event.

For parents

We will have a Parents’ Area available, where parents can relax while their children are occupied in the tournament. This area is open only to parents and their children. You are not required to stay on site, but we strongly recommend that you do, especially if your children are young or this is their first event. Please know that the tournament staff cannot be responsible for looking after your children, or their possessions. Always make sure your child has a way to contact you, and is provided with any necessities such as food, drink, or extra money if you do not wish to remain in the tournament area.

When your child is preparing for the event, encourage him or her to leave any bulky or expensive possessions at home. Electronics and large collections of cards are hard to keep track of during a big tournament – your child will have a much easier day without having to worry about these kinds of items.

Trading cards is a big attraction at large tournaments, but if you are concerned about your child trading away valuable cards, talk to him or her before the event and set some guidelines. You can always have your child check with you before making a trade.

All the Yu-Gi-Oh! links you need.

2011-10-26T13:54:00.000+01:00

Every so often I get messages from returning Duelists who are looking for forums or sites to help them get back up to speed with the game and find out what's changed since they last played at an event. Usually I send out a few quick links to the main forums but I felt it would be easier (and better for all involved) if there was a more permanent place to link people to, hence why I've put this list of top Yu-Gi-Oh! sites together.

The Irish Duelist's essential list of top Yu-Gi-Oh! sites

This resource is a list of the major forums, news sites, blogs, official pages and other related locations for all the Yu-Gi-Oh! content you need. It is by no means a 100% comprehensive list as the Internet is a vast place and there are several good sites out there that haven't been mentioned, but if you head to these sites you'll have a solid knowledge base to go from. Also, you don't have t follow all of these sites so feel free to pick out your favourites and go from there.

Official pages:
These sites are run by Konami Digital Entertainment, and are 100% official. Anything you read on these pages can be considered to be 100% accurate and should be the first place you go to if you hear a rumour about an upcoming event or product.

Yu-Gi-Oh! official page. (Country page index)
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG official page. (North America)
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG official page. (Europe)
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG official strategy site.
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG event coverage. (America)
Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG event coverage. (Europe)

Forums (major):
These are the top Yu-Gi-Oh! forums to go to and discuss the game with others. Some of these are more suited to casual players and beginners, while others are environments and geared more towards competitive play.

Pojo
DuelistGroundz*
TCGPlayer

_{*Warning: contains mature content.}

Forums (country-specific):
The major forums take in users from all over the world, with the majority of them being North American. Several countries outside of the region (especially European countries) have their own specific forums for users to join if they want to chat with Duelists closer to home.

Feckin'YuGiOh (Ireland)
UkayPro (United Kingdom)
eTCG* (Germany and neighbouring countries)

_{*Note: German is this site's primary language.}

News sites:
News spreads fast in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! and these unofficial sites tend to cover as much as possible. I also post the most interesting news I find here on The Irish Duelist to help keep you all updated on what's happening elsewhere. Please note that information from these sites isn't always 100% reliable so check up on the official sites from Konami if you have any doubts (please note that anything I post on The Irish Duelist is reliably accurate unless clearly stated).

Pojo
TCGPlayer
Shriek TCG
eTCG

Reference sites:
These sites and pages can serve as reference material should you need to look up a card effect or a specific ruling. Bear in mind that like the news sites above, any unofficial site may not be entirely accurate with the information it provides.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia
Netrep
Konami: Limited and Forbidden Cards List
Konami: Gameplay and rulings notes.
Konami: Judge program.

Are there any other sites that you use on a regular basis? If so please add them to the comments below, and the most useful ones will be added to the index.

All the action from YCS Columbus

2011-10-25T13:57:00.000+01:00

YCS Columbus took place this weekend and was the debut event for Structure Deck: Gates of the Underworld. It' was also the final YCS to take place before Photon Shockwave makes its grand appearance in the TCG. Konami provided coverage of the event which you can check out here, and all the links are below.

Feature Matches:
Final
Semi-Final
Quarter-Final
Top 16
Top 32
Round 11
Round 10
Round 9

Pairings/Standings:
Semi-Final Pairings
Quarter-Final Pairings
Top 16 Pairings
Top 32 Pairings
Round 11 Standings
Round 10 Top Tables
Day 1 Standings
Round 9 Top Tables
Round 8 Standings
Round 7 Top Tables
Round 6 Standings
Round 5 Top Tables
Round 4 Standings
Round 4 Top Tables
Round 3 Standings
Round 3 Top Tables
Round 2 Standings

Dragon Duel:
Suncay Final: Ben Leverett vs Zach Leverett
Who's going to the 2012 WCQ?
Dragon Duels begin!

Tech Update:
Top 32
Taking on Dark World
Dark World Tech Choices
GENF Extra Deck additions

Quick Questions:
QQ: The Decks you expected to see this weekend.
QQ: The the new Dragon Duel World Championship convince you to take part this weekend?
QQ: What are you looking forward to in Photon Shockwave?
QQ: How popular is LC2 in your area?
QQ: Farthest you've travelled for a YCS?

Other updates:
Meet the Judges!
TCS First-Timers!
Round 5 Update
Pictures from Round 5
Round 3 Update
Round 2 Update
Pictures from Round 3
ATTACK OF THE GIANT TOUR GUIDE!
Pictures from Round 2
Round 1 Update
Welcome to Columbus!

YCS Brighton announced.

2011-10-24T12:38:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since Europe has had a YCS, the last being YCS Paris in April. Since then several countries have had National Championships, the European Championship went by in a flash and the Dueling world descended on Amsterdam for the World Championship itself. Since then there's been a bit of a wait but Europe's next major event was announced over the weekend.

_{Source: Konami}

2011 is almost over, and we’d like to celebrate the holiday season with a weekend chock-full of Yu-Gi-Oh! Dueling and fun! We would like to invite everyone to join us at the next stop of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series, which will take place in Brighton (UK), on December 17th and 18th.

Here's a few quick tips if you're heading to the event:

The nearest airport is London Gatwick. You can get a direct train to and from Brighton at Gatwick Airport.
If you can't get to Gatwick go to Heathrow instead and take the Underground in to London Victoria Station, and from there get a train to Brighton.
BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS NOW before the prices inflate due to the holiday season (this has already started). If you leave it too late there won't be any flights left at all.
If you want to visit London for a few days do it BEFORE the YCS takes place, as everything that takes place after the YCS will be a lot more complicated due to the holiday season.
Have a look around for hostels in Brighton. I stayed at The Grapevine while I was there in September and it was quite decent: £12.50 a night with free wifi, and shops/restaurants galore nearby.

Best of luck if you're heading to the event!
-PJ

New Project: TCG Source Logo

2011-10-21T13:11:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago I was asked by Oliver Gehrmann (who I designed the nexTab logo for) to come up with a design for TCG Source, a new website dedicated to providing card gamers with the latest news, videos and features. The site's due to (formally) launch soon, and the logo went live today.

I was tasked with creating the new logo for the website, and was required to create a long (for banners etc.) and short (social media) version. They wanted something simple that would stand out from the other card gaming sites around the web (which tend to have overly complicated designs that don't work well across varying media). After I recieved some initial concepts and bounced a few emails around we settled on the basic design, and after some colour selection and final tweaks we were good to go.

This was a fun little project, one I liked so much that I did a bunch of extra work (wallpapers, site backgrounds etc.) in between getting the all-clear and giving the client the complete package. The wallpaper set should go live around the time of the official site launch, so if you're after something different as your background give it a look.

You can view everything related to the project below as well as on all the usual sites:

View in portfolio.
View on Behance.
View on Flickr.

As always I'm available for more work so go ahead and shoot me a message if you need something done :)
-PJ

Videos from Conclave II

2011-10-20T14:07:00.000+01:00

Conclave is the convention that The Gathering (where I play my locals) holds every Summer and Autumn and as always there's some Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG events taking place. I made it to the final of both the Advanced and Traditional Format events on the Saturday, which you can view below.

Unfortunately the attendance for both events was quite low in comparison to previous Conclave events, but that's a trend across all Irish events in the past year or so. Hopefully the numbers will pick up a little as Winter approaches, but the game in Ireland as a whole has certainly seen better times.

YCS Columbos is this weekend.

2011-10-17T19:03:00.030+01:00

Not long to go now until we have another YCS to follow, will be interesting to see how the top Decks have developed since YCSes Toronto and Ecuador last month.

_{Media Contact: Williams Group PR}

Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
TO TOUCHDOWN IN COLUMBUS, OHIO
OCTOBER 22nd – 23rd

El Segundo, CA (October 12, 2011) – Move over Buckeyes, there’s a new game in town! Columbus will be transformed into a Dueling town when Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Duelists fill the streets later this month. Traveling from all across the country, hundreds of Duelists who have deftly prepped for weeks, will battle it out off the gridiron at the Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (YCS) October 22nd – 23rd at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

This premier-level Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG event from Konami Digital Entertainment (Konami) pits Duelists in head-to-head competition. Duelists in the Main Event will be laying it on the line for the chance to advance to the Final Round on Sunday for the opportunity to Duel for the title of Champion. Duelists can also participate in a wide variety of fun and challenging Public Events to push their Dueling skills to the limit!

Pre-registration for YCS Columbus will run from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 21st and will begin again promptly at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 22nd. Upon registering, Duelists will receive five Generation Force booster packs for participating in Konami’s YCS Columbus. Round One will start at 10:00 a.m. and the Top 16 or 32 YCS finishers (depending on attendance) will earn invitations to participate in the 2012 World Championship Qualifier.

Event Address:
Greater Columbus Convention Center
400 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43215
USA

http://www.columbusconventions.com/

Accompanying the main event, Konami will be conducting a full range of Public Events such as Regional Qualifiers, 3 vs. 3 Team Dueling, ATTACK OF THE GIANT CARD!!, Classic Drafts, Dawn of the Xyz Starter Tournaments, Dragon Duels, Pegasus Challenges, Retro Drafts and Win-A-Mats. The Top 4 finishers in the Dragon Duel events (for Duelists age 12 and under) will win a 2012 Regional Binder, 2012 Regional Game Mat, a Dragon Duel T-Shirt, and invitations to the 2012 World Championship Qualifier and, to the recently announced inaugural Dragon Duel World Championship Qualifier.

The main event winner, the two runners-up and winners of Sunday’s two Public Event playoffs will each be awarded a YCS prize card. The main event winner will take home an Ultra Rare version of the Blood Mefist prize card, with the other winners bringing home Super Rare versions.

Prizing Information:
1st place –
Ultra Rare Blood Mefist YCS Prize Card; Trophy;
Paid travel to their World Championship Qualifier (if underage, then winner and guardian) or a local-market YCS (flight and accommodations) if the Duelist has already won an earlier YCS in the current year;
YCS Top Cut Game Mat;
Xbox 360 Elite 250GB console with Yu-Gi-Oh! Decade Duels game code; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier tournament

2nd place –
Super Rare Blood Mefist YCS Prize Card;
32 GB Tablet PC with redemption codes for Konami Mobile games;
YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

3rd place –
Super Rare Blood Mefist YCS Prize Card;
32 GB Touch Screen MP3 Player with redemption codes for Konami Mobile games;
YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

4th place –
32GB touch-screen MP3 Player;
Konami game codes to be used on the touch-screen MP3 player;
YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

5th – 8th place –
Video game console with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2011 Over the Nexus;
YCS Top Cut Game Mat and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

9th – 16th place –
24 booster packs of Generation Force;
YCS Top Cut Game Mat; and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

17th – 32nd place (If attendance exceeds 513 Duelists) –
YCS Top Cut Game Mat and an invite to their 2012 World Championship Qualifier

Duelists unable to participate in YCS Columbus can check out live online coverage of the event provided by Konami staff at www.yugioh-card.com/en/events.

Each Saturday morning in the United States, Duelists can catch TV episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series on TheCW4Kids block. In Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV! For more information on Konami, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME or the Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.

(Spoiler) Yu-Gi-Oh! Adventskalender

2011-10-14T12:52:00.001+01:00

Last month word broke from Germany about a Christmas-Themes product exclusive to that region. The reprint set would contain 24 cards, all Super Rare or higher, and 1 pack of Extreme Victory. The spoiler was posted from the same source earlier this week.

^{Source: Spieletom (via Pojo)}

Promo contents:

AC11-DE024 Stardust Dragon (Secret Rare)

AC11-DE003 Black Winged Dragon (Ultra Rare)
AC11-DE009 Formula Synchron (Ultra Rare)
AC11-DE012 Ancient Fairy Dragon (Ultra Rare)
AC11-DE015 Power Tool Dragon (Ultra Rare)
AC11-DE018 Black Rose Dragon (Ultra Rare)
AC11-DE021 Nitro Warrior (Ultra Rare)
AC11-DE0?? Red Dragon Archfiend (Ultra Rare)

AC11-DE001 Junk Synchron (Super Rare)
AC11-DE002 Morphtronic Remoten (Super Rare)
AC11-DE004 Shiny Pixie (Super Rare)
AC11-DE005 Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow (Super Rare)
AC11-DE008 Twin-Sword Marauder (Super Rare)
AC11-DE010 Rose Tentacles (Super Rare)
AC11-DE013 Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn (Super Rare)
AC11-DE014 Sunlight Unicorn (Super Rare)
AC11-DE016 Kuribon (Super Rare)
AC11-DE017 Big Piece Golem (Super Rare)
AC11-DE019 Morphtronic Boomboxen (Super Rare)
AC11-DE020 Dark Resonator (Super Rare)
AC11-DE022 Rose Fairy (Super Rare)
AC11-DE023 Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights (Super Rare)
AC11-DE0?? Shield Warrior (Super Rare)
AC11-DE0?? Nitro Synchron (Super Rare)

2011 Collectible Tins (Wave 2)

2011-10-13T12:11:00.017+01:00

The press release for the 2011 Collectible Tins (Wave 2) made its way around the Internet yesterday. There's no new info (to those of us that frequent the YugiForums) as all the promos have already been revealed (check the links in the sidebar) but here it is regardless.

_{Source: Williams Group PR}

JINGLE ALL THE WAY TO 2012 WITH THE NEW Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME 2011 COLLECTIBLE TINS
FROM KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT

El Segundo, CA (October 11, 2011) – On shelves in time for the holiday season, the 2011 Collectible Tins will have Duelists dashing all the way to their local store to celebrate the arrival of these two unprecedented Tins. Hot on the heels of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Number 17: Leviathan Dragon and Wind-Up Zenmaister Collectible Tins (released at the end of August) come new Tins featuring two new monsters: Number 10: Illumiknight and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, both from Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (Konami).

Konami’s premier holiday products are always a spectacular gift idea for any Duelist. This year’s final Tins, available November 1st, are an outstanding value at MSRP: $19.99 per Tin. Included in each Tin are five booster packs of the year’s hottest sets (two Storm of Ragnarok, two Extreme Victory, and one Generation Force), one Secret Rare Monster, one Super Rare Solemn Warning Trap Card, and three more Super Rare variants of out-of print monsters. This makes them perfect for new players, for veterans looking to fill-out their collection, or as a seasonal gift for the special Duelist in your life!

The Number 10: Illumiknight Collectible Tin features another of the red-hot, black-framed Xyz Monsters that have taken Dueling by storm this year. Illumiknight has 2400 Attack Points and lets you swap cards in your hand with fresh draws from your Deck! Number 10: Illumiknight is easy to Summon using the new cards in Photon Shockwave, like Rescue Rabbit and Kagetokage!

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is a massive and menacing monster that can take any foe it battles to a galaxy far away. If it battles an Xyz Monster, Galaxy-Eyes comes back stronger than ever, after it siphons off the Xyz Monster’s power! Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon has no restrictions on its Summoning, so it’s very easy to get into play and dominate a Duel!

In addition, both Tins also include Solemn Warning, one of the most popular cards from the last year. This must-have tournament card is a permanent feature in almost every top-finishing Deck at major championships.

And if all that doesn’t put the Tins at the top of everybody’s list, three more Super Rare variant cards (differing by Tin) are also included! A full list of which cards come in each Tin are available online at www.yugioh-card.com/en/products/.

Each Saturday morning in the United States Duelists can catch TV episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, along with the new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s series, on TheCW4Kids block. In Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV! For more information on Konami, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME or the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME 2011 Collectible Tins, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.

(Spoiler) Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck

2011-10-12T12:03:00.002+01:00

The Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck is out next week in North America ans as is always the way with product releases, Europe gets it a few days early. With that in mind there is always some French/German site out there ready to reveal the contents of a set before anybody else, and it's no different for this product.

In English, and sorted alphabetically, it comes out as this:

Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World
Belial - Marquis of Darkness
Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
Brron, Mad King of Dark World
Celri, Guru of Dark World
Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World
Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World
Gren, Tactician of Dark World
Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World
Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World
Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World
Scarr, Scout of Dark World
Sillva, Warlord of Dark World
Snoww, Unlight of Dark World
Zure, Knight of Dark World
Battle Fader
Card Guard
Goblin King
Grave Squirmer
Newdoria
Sangan
Tragoedia

Allure of Darkness
Card Destruction
Dark Eruption
Dark World Dealings
Dark World Lightning
Gateway to Dark World x2
Terraforming
The Gates of Dark World

Dark Bribe
Dark Deal
Dark Scheme
Deck Devastation Virus
Eradicator Epidemic Virus
Escape from the Dark Dimension
Mind Crush
The Forces of Darkness
The Transmigration Prophecy

You can find full details about each card on Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia, and also compare the Structure deck to its OCG counterpart to see what's been changed:

- Gaap the Divine Solider
- Darkness Neosphere
- Giant Germ
- Dark Necrofear
- Demise of the Land
- Recurring Nightmare
- United We Stand

+ Zure, Knight of Dark World
+ Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World
+ Newdoria
+ Card Guard
+ Goblin King
+ Dark Eruption
+ Dark Deal

Quick eBay update.

2011-10-11T10:57:00.001+01:00

Hi all, just a quick update on the mats I put up on eBay last week. The auctions expire tomorrow at about 6pm (GMT) and 2 mats have already been sold via private offer. You can find links to all the mats below as well as here in this link. Feel free to make a bid :)

2011 Win-A-Mat (Akiza & Black Rose Dragon)

2009 National Championship (Dark End Dragon)

Gold Series 4 (Yugi)

UkayPro Championship 2010

Last minute advice for Conclave II.

2011-10-10T12:06:00.007+01:00

Conclave, Limerick's big gaming convention, is back again next week and as always there's something for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelists to compete in. If you're already following The Gathering's site you'll have seen this blog post yesterday but incase you haven't I've posted it here so there's no excuses for not being prepared!

Conclave is less than a week away (find all the YGO event info here) and Duelists from all over Limerick (and beyond!) are putting the final tweaks to their Decks before they compete at the Castletroy Park Hotel. However, while your Deck is what may win you the tournament and big prizes, it's no use to you if you can't play in the event at all, so don't forget your COSSY Card!

Your COSSY Card (or Konami ID to give it its proper name) is your official Duelist number and identification for all Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments you plan on competing in, whether it be at The Gathering every week or at bigger events like the Irish Open (or tournaments in different countries!). The ID number on these cards is what's needed to enter these tournaments and can also be used to track your progress and ranking on Konami's website. You can also win cool prizes every so often if you've got a high ranking, like the Top 1000 COSSY Playmats that some of Limerick's Top Duelists use every week. Without one there's a chance you won't be able to play in a tournament so you should always have it with you!

When you attend your first official tournament you get a card like the one in the picture above as well as a set of stickers with your ID number (and password for the website). One of the stickers goes on the back of the card, and the second one is a spare incase you lose your card (The Gathering keeps the third sticker incase you lose both of them). It's a good idea to put the second sticker on something you know you'll have with you at every event, like your Deckbox or trade binder.

When you enter a tournament you need to be able to show the scorekeeper ("the guy on the computer") your ID number incase your name isn't already in the tournament system, and if you don't have it you might not be able to play, which is why it's important to never forget it!

More often than not when The Gathering hosts tournaments outside of the shop (like Conclave) some names and ID numbers that would be on the shop's tournament software aren't on the computer that we use at the event, so even if you play at The Gathering every week it's important to have your card with you when you head to Conclave next Saturday. If you don't have it you might not be able to compete in the tournament so keep it in mind.

Also, I'd like to wish you all the best of luck when you're playing at Conclave next weekend. One of the fun things about events like these is that you get to play against Duelists from outside of Limerick, and get to see new Decks and strategies that you may have only heard about but never experienced in person. Even players as experienced as myself see new things at every Conclave so there's something new for everybody.

See you there!
-PJ

YCS Kansas announced.

2011-10-07T22:46:00.000+01:00

Konami have recently announced the next YCS to take place in North America. YCS Kansas will take place on November 19/20 making it the first Premier Level event that Photon Shockwave is legal for. All the details you need about the event can be found on Konami's events page.

Photon Sabre Tiger

2011-10-06T11:54:00.000+01:00

My recent article on Photon Sabre Tiger is now up on the Konami Strategy Site. Tiger's a World Premiere card in the upcoming Photon Shockwave booster set and in the article I explain what it does and some quick and nifty combos you can pull off with it.

Photon Shockwave includes many useful LIGHT-based cards that are powerful in their own right, but can also help out with summoning the pack’s ace monster Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon! Today’s World Premiere card makes Summoning the Dragon a whole lot easier, but its uses go far beyond just that. Say hello to Photon Sabre Tiger!

When this card is Normal or Flip Summoned: You can add 1 “Photon Sabre Tiger” from your Deck to your hand. If you do not control another “Photon Sabre Tiger”, this card loses 800 ATK.

Super-Nimble Mega Awesome!
Photon Sabre Tiger is a Level 3 LIGHT monster with 2000 ATK, a rare sight in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. If you control only 1 Photon Sabre Tiger it card loses 800 ATK, but thanks to Tiger’s other effect it’ll be back up to 2000 ATK in no time! Whenever Photon Sabre Tiger’s Normal or Flip Summoned you can add another copy from your Deck to your Hand. Tiger’s also a Beast-Type monster, making it the perfect card to Summon with Super-Nimble Mega Hamster!

Super-Nimble Mega Hamster’s Flip Effect lets you Special Summon a Level 3 or lower Beast-Type monster (like Tiger) from your Deck in face-down Defense Position. Since Photon Sabre Tiger’s searching effect can activate when it’s Flip Summoned, this is a safe way to set up that combo and Normal Summon the second copy, giving you 2 2000 ATK monsters to Tribute for Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, or 2 Level 3 monsters for an Xyz Summon with another Tiger safe in your hand. Xyz Decks that use Gravity Bind and Level Limit – Area B will make the most of Photon Sabre Tiger as the Level 3 monster can still attack while opposing monsters are unable to!

Let there be LIGHT!
The other cool thing about Photon Sabre Tiger (and several other monsters in Photon Shockwave) is that it’s a LIGHT monster, which works well with several new Spell and Trap Cards from the set. First up is Photon Lead, a Quick-Play Spell Card that Special Summons a Level 4 or lower LIGHT monster (from your hand) in Attack Position. After you Normal Summon Photon Sabre Tiger and add another copy to your hand, Photon Lead can Summon that second Tiger right away and both will be at 2000 ATK!

Lumenize is a Trap Card that negates the attack of one of your opponent’s monsters, but if you combine it with Photon Sabre Tiger your monster will gain ATK equal to that of the monster who’s attack you negated. The ATK boost lasts until your next End Phase, so you get to stop your opponent’s monster, power over it in battle next turn, and deal at least 1200 Battle Damage in the process! Lumenize is also handy for when you have that second Tiger in your hand that you need to Normal Summon next turn (also adding third Tiger to your hand), protecting the first one long enough to give you the ATK boost of controlling 2 copies.

Photon Veil’s a Spell Card that allows you to send 3 LIGHT monsters back to your Deck, and then add up to 3 LIGHT monsters from your Deck to your hand. This card lets you “fix” your hand when things go wrong. Drawing more than 1 Photon Sabre Tiger reduces its effectiveness, and drawing too many copies of a high Level LIGHT monster or any copies of Mystical Shine Ball can really hurt. Use Photon Veil to send the cards you don’t want or need right now back to the Deck and replace them with up to 3 new Level 4 or lower LIGHT monsters with the same name. Effect Veiler is one of the best cards to get with this effect, especially if you already have a powerful monster on the field.

If you can Summon Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and back it up with 3 Effect Veiler, almost nothing can stop your Photon Dragon… but more on that another day!

Photon Sabre Tiger’s a useful card which can lead to some very big plays, and you can only get it in Photon Shockwave. Be on the lookout for it at your local Sneak Peek on November 5th/6th!

Six Samurai Card Sleeves

2011-10-05T10:03:00.000+01:00

Over the past year or so Konami has been releasing its own line of card sleeves, such as Slifer the Sky Dragon, Shooting Star Dragon and so-on. The next set of sleeves will have Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En as the main image, and info about the new product spread yesterday evening.

_{Source: Williams Group PR}

WARRIORS UNITE ON KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT’S NEW Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME CARD SLEEVES

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (October 4, 2011) – Since the return of The Six Samurai in Storm of Ragnarok booster packs earlier this year, Duelists have been waiting to get their next taste of these noble monsters. Now, the wait is over as Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (Konami), the maker of the best-selling Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) is set to unleash the latest accessory for Duelists, the Legendary Six Samurai Card Sleeves.

Originally introduced in Strike of Neos, the Six Samurai cards have become incredibly popular monsters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. These new high-quality card sleeves feature their powerful Synchro Monster: Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. Available October 18th, each $3.99 pack holds 50 tournament-legal Legendary Six Samurai Card Sleeves.

Each Saturday morning in the United States Duelists can catch TV episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, along with the new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s series, on TheCW4Kids block. In Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV! For more information on Konami, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME or the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Legendary Six Samurai Card Sleeves, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.

Media Contact:
Don Williams
Williams Group Public Relations
(760) 707-4589
don@williamsgrouppr.com

Conclave II

2011-10-04T12:00:00.000+01:00

Limerick's big gaming convention is back and as always there's some Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG events taking place. All the info about the convention is on The Gathering's website and here's the details that pertain to this card game we play on motorcycles.

_{Source: The Gathering}

Calling all duelists! The time to test your skill and courage on the mat of battle is here.
We’ll be running a series of Tournaments over the 2 days of the weekend and with the new release in November this will be your last chance to run your decks as they stand before the new cards. As always the entry fee into the con is €10 for 1 day or €15 for both. Prices for the individual events listed below.

Saturday.
Advanced:
Reg: 9:00 – 10:30
First round will be called at 11:00
Finalists will be drawn at 3
Price: €5

Traditional:
Reg from 3:00
First round will be called at 3:30
Finalists will be 6:30
Price: As this is a fun event we will be running it free for the competitors.

Sunday:
Traditional:
Reg from 9:00 – 10:30
First round will be called at 11:00
Finalists will be drawn at 3:00
Price: €5

This will be a great couple of days dueling with players from all over coming in to play against top notch duelists so c’mon in and bring all who wish to come. And best of luck.

All prices quoted above are in addition to the convention day/weekend pass.
I'll be there playing in the Main Event as always, and should be able to provide photos and Decklists post-event. Here's some shots taken at the previous Conclave, by Ken Coleman.

Location:
Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick City

View Larger Map

Samurai Assault

2011-10-03T12:00:00.003+01:00

About a month ago this product showed up on various (unofficial) websites but recently Konami posted the official info for Samurai Assault, a Special Edition pack which hits the shelves in early December.

_{Source: Konami}

The Six Samurai have spent the last few years in quiet meditation…

But they returned with a vengeance in 2011! Bursting out of the Storm of Ragnarok booster set, the new LEGENDARY Six Samurai won tournament after tournament this year. If you’ve been looking to build a Six Samurai Deck of your very own, Samurai Assault is a great place to start!

Each box of Samurai Assault comes with 3 booster packs:

1 Storm of Ragnarok pack – the booster set that includes the new Legendary Six Samurai, along with their powerful Spell and Trap Cards!
1 Strike of Neos pack – home of the original Six Samurai, including Grandmaster of the Six Samurai and Great Shogun Shien!
1 Crimson Crisis pack – you might get the Six Scrolls of the Samurai card, out of print for over 2 years! Plus, it’s a second chance to grab the Insect-boosting Verdant Sanctuary Spell Card, so you’ll be ready when powerful new Insect monsters come out in Order of Chaos (coming in January 2012).

As an extra bonus, each Samurai Assault comes with a Super Rare copy of Elder of the Six Samurai. This new monster from the Extreme Victory booster set is becoming more and more popular. He’s a super-fast way to get your Six Samurai steamroller going!

Three booster packs plus a Super Rare variant card. It’s a whole new way to learn the way of the warrior!

Each Samurai Assault contains:
1 Storm of Ragnarok Pack
1 Strike of Neos Pack
1 Crimson Crisis Pack
1 Super Rare card: Elder of the Six Samurai
Available at hobby stores and select retailers!

Now selling various playmats on eBay

2011-10-02T18:41:00.000+01:00

Over the years I've picked up several playmats, either from winning them in tournaments or getting them through trades. Unfortunately I now have too many but that's good news for you lot out there as I've put them up for auction.

Here's the 6 mats I listed today, the auctions expire in 10 days time so make sure to bid early incase you miss out!

Top 1000 COSSY Duelists (Blue)

Top 1000 COSSY Duelists (Red)

2010 Win-A-Mat (Akiza & Black Rose Dragon)

2009 National Championship (Dark End Dragon)

Gold Series 4 (Yugi)

UkayPro Championship 2010

The Roundup: September 2011

2011-09-30T12:58:00.000+01:00

Here's something I've been doing over at PJTierney.net for the past 6 months, that I feel like trying out here as well, a brief roundup of what's taken place in Yu-Gi-Oh! and on the blog over the past month. You can find all this month's articles by clicking here.

This month's top story:

The rulebook update regarding Xyz Materials.

At the start of the month Konami announced a change/clarification to how Xyz Materials are meant to function. This change affected (among other cards) Tour Guide From the Underworld (and its interactions with Sangan) and Reborn Tengu.

Product updates:

Smyths Toys no longer selling Irish Yu-Gi-Oh! product.

Samurai Assault
Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck (2)
2011 Collectors Tins: Wave 2
Yu-Gi-Oh! Advent Calendar

New Strategy Site content:

Konami's looking for writers.

Resonance Device
Space-Time Police and Time Escaper

This month's big events:

YCS Toronto / YCS Ecuador
New format Decklists from Serbia.
Summer Challenge 2011 (Croatia)

Dragon Duel World Championship from 2012 onwards.

2011-09-29T10:00:00.001+01:00

I got news of this via my inbox this morning, needless to say it's totally come out of the blue but I'm glad that younger Duelists will get the chance to emulate players like Galileo de Obaldia, Takashi Ogawa and Dario Longo in years to come.

_{Source: Williams Group PR}

KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT INTRODUCES
THE YU-GI-OH! DRAGON DUEL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Duelists Aged 12 and Under will compete for new World Championship

EL SEGUNDO, CA (September 28, 2011) – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (Konami) is pleased to announce the inaugural Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) Dragon Duel World Championship event for Duelists aged 12 and under (open only to those participants born in 1999 or later). The Dragon Duel World Championship will be held each year alongside the regular Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship.

“With years of steady growth and increased player registration, we felt strongly that the time was right for these young Duelists to have their own global event, thus the Dragon Duel World Championship was created,” noted Yumi Hoashi, vice president of Card Business for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. “Expect to see Dragon Duelists from around the globe journeying to the World Championship event in 2012 to be crowned Yu-Gi-Oh! Dragon Duel Champion!”

The large presence of younger Duelists at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series (YCS) and Regional Qualifiers have led to the activation of this separate 12 and under (those born in 1999 or later) Dragon Duel World Championship Event. The two-day Dragon Duel World Championship Qualifier (WCQ) will be held in North America at the annual WCQ in addition to the main event, which is open for all ages.

Duelists can win an invitation to the Dragon Duel WCQ at any Dragon Duel event, which are held at YCS events and select Regional Qualifiers. In addition, any Duelist born in 1999 or later can use a standard WCQ invitation to compete in the Dragon Duel WCQ instead. As the WCQ and Dragon Duel WCQ will be held simultaneously, Duelists will not be able to participate in both events at the same time.

Duelists unable to participate in the Dragon Duel Championships can check-out live online coverage of these events provided by Konami staff at www.yugioh-card.com/en/events.

Each Saturday morning in the United States, Duelists can catch TV episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, along with the new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s series, on TheCW4Kids block. Additionally, in Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV!

For more information on Konami, the Dragon Duel Championship or the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

_{About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.

###

Media Contact:
Don Williams
Williams Group Public Relations
(760) 707-4589
don@williamsgrouppr.com}

Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck

2011-09-28T15:45:00.026+01:00

The release of Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck is fast approaching, and is certainly going to change the face of the Advanced Format when it hits. Here's the blurb that the various TCG news sites have been publishing this week.

_{Source: Williams Group PR (via Game Review Network)}

DUELISTS BEWARE! THE FORCES OF DARKNESS HAVE RETURNED WITH
THE Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME GATES OF THE UNDERWORLD STRUCTURE DECK

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (September26, 2011) – After six years of waiting, plotting, and planning, the most fiendish monsters of all time have finally been assembled in one place by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (Konami), the makers of the best-selling Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG), in the Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck.

Opponents will flee in terror at the sight of this benchmark, ready-to-play, 40-card Deck. Poised to dominate the Dueling world are The Lords of Dark World, a hungry, powerful, yet often overlooked coalition of cards. Overlooked, that is, until now. Ready to crush any who stand in its way, Gates of the Underworld unleashes the invincible Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, leading the charge into battle! This card enables a Duelist to Summon any monster from an opponent’s hand to their side of the field. Grapha can never be defeated for good, as it returns to play so long as its owner controls at least one Dark World monster.

The plot thickens when Duelists throw down The Gates of Dark World, which lets a player discard Fiends and draw cards. Some Dark World monsters are Summoned to the field when discarded, and others do even more fiendish things, so this new Spell Card enables new combos for this Deck! Also, the new Snoww, Unlight of Dark World card searches out ANY Dark World card from a Duelist’s Deck. It can also corrupt an opponent’s monsters, by Special Summoning any monster from the opposing Graveyard to Snoww’s side of the field, under her control.

Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck (MSRP $9.99) will be available on October 18th at hobby and retail stores nationwide. Duelists can play with the Deck as-is, or use these cards to create and customize their own Deck. It includes every Dark World monster released to date, plus 5 brand new cards, so it’s got everything that Duelists need to build a Dark World Deck of their very own!

Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck Contains:

37 Common Cards
1 Ultra Rare Card
2 Super Rare Cards
1 Rulebook
1 Game Mat
1 Dueling Guide

Each Saturday morning in the United States, Duelists can catch TV episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, along with the new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s series, on TheCW4Kids block. In Canada, Duelists can watch episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s every Friday and Saturday on YTV! For more information on Konami, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME or the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck, please visit www.yugioh-card.com or call 310-220-8630.

_{About The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG
The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME is the #1 trading card game in the world with over 25 billion cards sold. It is a game of strategy, where players create individual Decks of cards collected from Structure Decks and Booster Packs. Two players engage in a Duel while using cards that represent powerful monsters, magical Spells and surprising Traps. Duelists with well-constructed Decks, dominating monsters, solid strategy and good fortune are the victors in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is the exclusive licensee and rights holder to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG in North America and Latin America.

About KONAMI
KONAMI is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties and traditional trading card games. KONAMI's software titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, DanceDanceRevolution and Castlevania, among other top sellers. KONAMI is also the manufacturer of the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME, which has sold more than 25 billion cards worldwide. The latest information about KONAMI can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. KONAMI CORPORATION is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. KONAMI CORPORATION is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by KONAMI can be found at www.konami.com.}

_{Note: This press release was created for the North American market; prices and release dates elsewhere may differ.}

All the action from Croatia's "Summer Challenge 2011"

2011-09-27T12:23:00.000+01:00

During this year's National Season you may have come across the event coverage and Decklists from the Croatian National Championship. At the start of the current format Croatia held its "Summer Challenge 2011", an unofficial event similar to The Irish Open. I was kindly sent the link to all the action from a Pojo user so here's a quick look.

_{Source: Yugioh Planet}

Videos:

Decklists:

The Top Decklists from the event can be viewed here.

Photos:

Welcome to the new-look Irish Duelist.

2011-09-26T13:46:00.000+01:00

If you've been on the blog over the weekend you may have noticed that The Irish Duelist looks a little different. This part of the personal rebranding I've been doing recently, but there's also a few new features added that I want to talk about, so here's a rundown of what's changed.

New colour scheme and layout.

The most obvious change is the colour scheme and layout of the blog, which was done so that a greater emphasis can be placed on the content rather than how it was decorated. Several unnecessary items have been removed from the sidebar and the important links are now at the top of the page. The site should also work better across various browsers and operating systems now, as previously there were some issues with Internet Explorer 8 for example.

Live updating of blogs around the world.

Last month I launched the official Twitter page of The Irish Duelist, which automatically shares links to new content from various Yu-Gi-Oh! blogs around the world. If you've been following The Irish Duelist on Facebook it's essentially the same feed of links, and can get quite busy when a YCS is on, as all the coverage articles are also shared there. Anyway, even if you're not on Twitter you can find the live content in the sidebar of this blog, so take a look and see if there's anything worth reading right now.

Upcoming product releases.

Also in the sidebar, just above the Twitter section, is a basic calendar of upcoming product releases in the TCG. For the sake of space and clarity, only the North American release dates are mentioned, Europe usually gets each product a few days before America so bear that in mind. Links to the official product pages are also given where available.

Article categories.

The categories for each type of article have also been updated. The Irish Duelist has roughly 500 articles posted at the moment, so sifting through them for the content you need can get a little complicated. Now, if you're looking for Decklists, Videos or anything else, you can get it a lot easier. There's also a search bar and the option to view articles by the month they're posted.

Event galleries.

This is one of the big new features of The Irish Duelist. Over the past few years I've been fortunate enough to compete in many high profile tournaments across Europe (and one time in the United States), and recently help out Konami with their European event coverage of the region's biggest events. I've taken plenty of photos long the way and you can find them all by clicking the link at the top of the page.

Forbidden & Limited Cards List

The "F&L list" is the backbone of competitive play and governs what cards we can use, and what ones are too powerful for Advanced Format play. The list is available on yugioh-card.com of course but for ease of use you can also find a link at the top of the page.

Comment system overhaul.

For the past year I've been using a Facebook commenting system on the blog, mainly to deter spammers from flooding each article with pointless content. At the time, Blogger (which this site is powered by) didn't have a reliable comment moderation system but that changed a few months ago. Also, the Facebook system kept causing site loading/crashing issues, so it had to go.

Other than the above it's business as usual here at The Irish Duelist. Content goes up daily (during weekdays), some minor tweaks have been made in addition to the above, and there's a donation button in the sidebar for those that feel generous enough to help out. This site intends to remain ad-free for as long as possible (the blog's 3 year anniversary took place this month!) but it takes a lot of time and effort to get to its current standard, so anything you people can do to help would be greatly appreciated. I also plan on doing some giveaways in the near future (playmats, art prints etc.) so some of the proceeds will go towards funding those.

Finally, I'm always looking to help aspiring writers out and give them an opportunity to share their views with a large audience, so if you'd like to be a guest writer all you have to do is get in touch and we can make it happen.

Keep on Dueling!
-PJ

OCG Rulings clarifications for Extra Pack: Volume 4

2011-09-23T11:43:00.018+01:00

Extra Pack: Volume 4 was recently released in the OCG and allows the region to catch up with the World Premiere cards that the TCG has received in in the past year or so. Various ruling clarifications were also posted on the OCG websites for the new cards, and some of them work a little differently to the way they do in the TCG, most notably XX-Saber Darksoul. Here's a brief rundown of the rulings, bear in mind that these rulings are for the OCG only, and the current TCG rulings for these cards still apply.

_{Source: Pojo}

Extra Pack 4: XX-Saber Boggart Knight
•"This card cannot be used as a Synchro Material Monster, except for the Synchro Summon of a "X-Saber" monster." is not treated as a Monster Effect.
•The effect to Special Summon an "X-Saber" Monster does not target.

Extra Pack 4: XX-Saber Darksoul
•You decide whether or not to activate the effect of this Card during the End Phase.
•This Card does not start a chain when it is sent from the Field to the Graveyard.
•During the End Phase, the effect activates in the Graveyard.
•Even if this Card is tributed or sent to the Graveyard as a cost to activate a Card, its effect can be activated during the End Phase.

Extra Pack 4: Koa'ki Meiru Prototype
•Even if a "Koa'ki Meiru" monster is destroyed during the End Phase due to a [Maintenance] Cost or any Card Effect, this effect can be applied.
•This effect is applied when the "Koa'ki Meiru" Monster would be destroyed.

Extra Pack 4: Snyffus
•Tributing 1 Plant-type monster you control is a cost to activate the effect. This effec targets 1 Card the opponent controls.
•You can tribute 1 face-down Plant-type monster you control as a cost.
•The effect to Special Summon this Card from the Graveyard cannot be activated during the Damage Step.
•The effect can be activated even when a Plant-type Token Monster is destroyed.

Extra Pack 4: Nimble Sunfish
•The Fish-type monster is sent from the Deck to the Graveyard when the effect resolves.
•Even if you have no copies of Nimble Sunfish in your Deck, the effect still activates to send a Fish-type monster from the Deck to the Graveyard.
•Even if this Card is attacked while in face-down Defense Position and flipped face-up by an opponent's monster, its effect will still activate if it's destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard.

Extra Pack 4: Akz, the Pumer
•This is a Special Summon monster. Furthermore, "This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set." is not treated as a Monster Effect.
•Banishing 2 Beast-Warrior-type monsters is part of the Summon Procedure. Also, this Special Summon does not start a chain.
•You select which of the 2 effects to activate upon activating the effect. Discarding 1 Beast-Warrior-type monster is a cost.
•Neither effect targets.

Extra Pack 4: Saber Vault
•Each "X-Saber" monster gains ATK and loses DEF according to their own Level.
•If the Level of an "X-Saber" monster changes, recalculate the ATK and DEF values (for example, if the Level increases, increase the ATK).
•If a face-down "X-Saber" monster you control is attacked by the opponent, apply the effect of Saber Vault during Damage Calculation.

Extra Pack 4: Core Overclock
•Neither effect targets.
•If a face-down "Koa'ki Meiru" monster you control is attacked by the opponent, apply the effect of Core Overclock during Damage Calculation.
•You cannot activate the effect of this Card during the same chain link in which you activate this Card.
•Discarding 1 Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru is a cost to activate the effect that increases ATK.

Extra Pack 4: Wave-Motion Inferno
•The effect to send all Cards in your Hand to the Graveyard start a chain.
•Sending Wave-Motion Inferno to the Graveyard is a cost.
•If you have no Cards in your Hand, the effect to send all Cards in your Hand to the Graveyard cannot be activated.

Extra Pack 4: Infernity Barrier
•This Card can be activated during the Damage Step.
•This Card cannot negate the activation of the effects of Continuous Spell/Trap Cards.

Extra Pack 4: Scrap Archfiend
No rulings.

Extra Pack 4: Amazoness Scouts
•This effect does not target.
•This effect cannot be activated during the Damage Step.
•If you control no face-up "Amazoness", this effect cannot be activated.

Extra Pack 4: Naturia Pineapple
•The effect to treat all monsters you control as Plant-type monsters is applied even if you have monsters in your Graveyard that aren't of Beast or Plant-type.
•Even if you have multiple copies of Naturia Pineapple in your Graveyard, you can only Special Summon 1 of them.

Extra Pack 4: D.D. Destroyer
•This effect targets 1 face-up Card the opponent controls.
•This effect can be activated even if this Card is Banished during the Damage Step.
•If your opponent controls no face-up Cards, this effect cannot be activated.

Extra Pack 4: Dark Desertapir
•This effect targets 1 Level 4 or lower Beast-type monster in your Graveyard.
•If you have no elligible monsters to target, this effect cannot be activated.
•This effect can be activated even if this Card is Banished from the Hand or Deck.
•This effect can be activated even if this Card is Banished during the Damage Step.

Extra Pack 4: Psychic Nightmare
•You select a Card in the opponent's Hand at random when the effect resolves.

Extra Pack 4: Guts of Steel
•This effect targets 3 "Scrap" monsters in your Graveyard.
•The opponent selects 1 of the 3 targeted monsters when the effect resolves.
•Special Summoning the monster selected by the opponent and Banishing the remaining monsters is considered to happen simultaneously.

Extra Pack 4: Amazoness Heirloom
•The "When the equipped monster attacks, after damage calculation, destroy the attack target." effect does not target, it destroys the monster after Damage Calculation, and it starts a chain.

Extra Pack 4: Amazoness Shamanism
•This effect does not target.
•This Card cannot be activated during the Damage Step.
•After destroying all "Amazoness" Monsters, the player chooses how many Level 4 or lower "Amazoness" Monsters to Special Summon from the Graveyard.

Extra Pack 4: Super Rush Recklessly
•This effect targets 1 monster you control and 1 monster the opponent controls for a total of 2 targets.
•This Card cannot be activated during the Damage Step.

Extra Pack 4: Empress Archfiend
•The effect to Banish a DARK Fiend-type monster in your Graveyard instead of destroying a monster does not target.
•The effect to Banish a DARK Fiend-type monster in your Graveyard instead of destroying a monster is applied during the resolution of the effect that would destroy the monster, and the monster is Banished at that time.
•The effect to Special Summon a Fiend-type monster targets.

Extra Pack 4: Skull Meister
•This effect does not target.
•This effect must be activated in a chain to the effect controlled by the opponent that activates in the Graveyard.
•This effect can be activated during the Damage Step.
•Sending this Card from the Hand to the Graveyard is a cost.

Extra Pack 4: Droll & Lock Bird
•This effect cannot be activated during the Damage Step.
•This effect cannot be activated in a chain to an effect that would add Cards from the Deck to the Hand. This effect is activated after an effect that adds Cards from the Deck to the Hand resolves.
•Drawing Cards is included in "adding Cards from the Deck to the Hand".
•This effect can be activated during the opponent's turn.

Extra Pack 4: Spellstone Sorcerer Karood
•If an Monster Effect is activated outside the Field like in the Hand, Graveyard, etc., a Spellstone Counter is still placed in this Card.
•A Spellstone Counter is placed on this Card regardless of who activates the Monster Effect.
•Spellstone Counters are placed on this Card even during the Damage Step.
•Removing 1 Spellstone Counter is a cost to activate the effect that Banishes a Card in the opponent's Graveyard.
•The effect that Banishes a Card in the opponent's Graveyard targets.

Extra Pack 4: Scrap Mind Reader
•"If this card is used as a Synchro Material Monster, all other Synchro Material Monsters must be "Scrap" monsters." is not treated as a Monster Effect.
•The effect to Special Summon this Card targets 1 "Scrap" monster you control to destroy it.
•All other Synchro Materials must be "Scrap" monsters even if you don't Special Summon this Card from the Graveyard by its own effect.

Extra Pack 4: Gravekeeper's Recruiter
•This effect activates even if there are no Cards to add from the Deck to the Hand.
•This effect is activated even during the Damage Step.
•This effect will activate even if this Card is sent from the Field to the Graveyard while face-down.
•This effect will activate even if this Card is sent to the Graveyard as a cost or during a chain, starting a new chain.

Extra Pack 4: Psi-Blocker
No rulings.

Extra Pack 4: Koa'ki Meiru Wall
•Tributing this Card is a cost.
•This effect does not target.
•This effect can be activated during the Damage Step.
•This effect cannot negate the activation of the effect of a Spell Card.

Extra Pack 4: Karakuri Barrel mdl 96 Shinkuro
No rulings.

Extra Pack 4: Mischief of the Yokai
•Neither effect can be activated during the Damage Step.
•If multiple copies of this Card are activated, the Levels are reduced by each copy of this Card.
•The first effect does not target.
•The effect that activates in the Graveyard to lower the Level of 1 monster targets.
•Banishing this Card in the Graveyard is a cost.
•Even if this Card is sent to the Graveyard from the Hand or Deck, its effect cannot be activated during the same turn.

Extra Pack 4: Vortex the Whirlwind
•This effect can be activated even if this Card is attacked while in face-down Defense Position and destroyed in battle by an opponent's monster.

Extra Pack 4: Vanadis of the Nordic Ascendant
•"You can substitute this card for any 1 "Nordic" Tuner monster for a Synchro Summon." is not treated as a Monster Effect.
•Thor, Lord of the Aesir, Loki, Lord of the Aesir, and Odin, Father of the Aesir can be Synchro Summoned using Vanadis of the Nordic Ascendant as a Tuner Monster.
•"If this card is used as a Synchro Material Monster, all other Synchro Material Monsters must be "Nordic" monsters." is not treated as a Monster Effect.
•Sending a "Nordic" Monster to the Graveyard is a cost for the effect that modifies the Level of this Card.

Extra Pack 4: Shien's Daredevil
•The effect to Remove a Bushido Counter from this Card to place a Bushido Counter in another Card targets.
•The Bushido Counter is Removed when the effect resolves.
•You can place a Bushido Counter on Cards that the opponent controls.

Extra Pack 4: Karakuri Muso mdl 818 Haipa
No rulings.

Extra Pack 4: Scrap Breaker
•"If your opponent controls a monster, you can Special Summon this card from your hand." is not treated as a FLIP, Continuous, Ignition, Trigger or Quick Effect. Also, it does not start a chain.
•The effect to destroy a face-up "Scrap" Monster you control targets. Also, if you control no other "Scrap" Monsters, Scrap Breaker targets itself.

Extra Pack 4: Chaos Hunter
•Discarding a Card is a cost to activate the effect that Special Summons this Card.
•This effect cannot be activated during the Damage Step.

Extra Pack 4: Maxx "C"
•You cannot activate the effect of multiple copies of Maxx "C" by sending them to the Graveyard during the same turn.
•You can draw Cards even when Monster Tokens or Cards like Embodiment of Apophis are Special Summoned.

Extra Pack 4: The Nordic Lights
•The effect to destroy all "Nordic" Monsters is activated when this Card is sent to the Graveyard and it starts a chain.

Extra Pack 4: Nordic Relic Megingjord
•This Card targets 1 face-up "Nordic" or "Aesir" monster you control.
•This Card can be activated during the opponent's turn.
•This Card can be activated during the Damage Step, before Damage Calculation.

Extra Pack 4: Six Strike - Thunder Blast
•These effects target 1 Card the opponent controls. They can also target face-down Cards.
•This Card cannot be activated during the Damage Step.
•Removing a Bushido Counter is a cost.

New Yu-Gi-Oh! podcast series.

2011-09-22T11:43:00.000+01:00

It's always interesting to see Duelists and fans of the game use new media to express their thoughts on the game. The Irish Duelist was part of the blogging revolution that started when Metagame.com was still popular in 2008, and YouTube has been flooded with Yu-Gi-Oh!-themes channels since 2010. I've never seen a podcast on the game though and that's where today's blog post comes in.

If you're a Duelist in the UK you've probably heard of UkayPro, the country's main Yu-Gi-Oh! forum. The community over there has been experimenting with podcasts for a while now and here's the first of a new series, discussing the recent changes to the Forbidden/Limited list. Have a listen below:

Ukaypro Yugioh Podcast EP 1 by TheSuntanSuperman

All the action from YCS Toronto and Ecuador

2011-09-21T16:10:00.075+01:00

In the past year we've seen simultaneous YCS events take place in Europe and North America but this past weekend was the first time that North and South America had events on the same weekend. Both were covered on Konami's North American coverage site so check them out here or find all the article links below.

YCS Toronto

Feature Matches
Final
Semi-Final
Quarter-Final
Quarter-Final
Top 16
Top 32
Top 32
Round 10
Round 9
Round 9
Round 7
Round 7
Round 5
Round 4
Round 4
Round 3
Round 2
Round 2
Round 1
Round 1

Deck Features
Anthony Alvarado's Karakuri
Michael McTavish's Banishment Deck
Jason Larabee's Infernities
Bobby Barone's Mask Change HEROes
Sorosh Saberian's Nordic Beasts

Pairings and Standings
And the winner is...
Top 16
End of Day 1
Round 5 (Top Tables)

Dragon Duel
Sunday Final
Saturday Final

Other Updates
Starter Deck Tournament Winners
Tech Update: Splashable Suites
YCS First-Timers
QQ: What Deck are you playing?
QQ: Your toughest matchup!
QQ: Your favourite Meklord?
QQ: Favourite Side Deck card?
QQ: Favourite Forbidden/Limited list change?
QQ: Your thoughts about Starlight Road?
Welcome to Toronto!

YCS Ecuador

Pairings and Standings
And the winner is...
Final
Top 4
Top 8
Top 16
End of Day 1
Round 8 Standings
Round 7 Standings
Round 6 Standings
Round 5 Standings
Round 4 Standings
Round 3 Standings

Dragon Duel
Sunday Winners
Saturday Winners

Other Updates
New Win-A-Mat prize unveiled!
Public Events Winners
This weekend's Bounty Duelists
Welcome to the first South American YCS!

New format Decklists from Serbia

2011-09-20T15:41:00.019+01:00

The new format is well underway with 2 YCS events taking place last weekend and various other tournaments taking place across the world. I recently got some Decklists from an event in Serbia (many thanks to the guy that provided them!) so if you're looking for a few ideas take a look at the lists below. They're provided "as is", but any and all abbreviations should be easily understandable.

WINNER, THE CHAMPION - PLAYER WHO IS PLAYING THE LONGEST IN OUR COUNTRY --- IVAN "THE STIG" SRETENOVIC

2x lyla
2x chaos sorcerer
1x black luster soldier - envoy of the beginning
1x mezuki
1x effect veiler
1x plaguespreader zombie
2x pyramid turtle
2x goblin zombie
2x ryko
2x zombie master
1x paladin of the cursed dragon
1x gorz
1x spirit reaper
1x glow-up bulb

2x mst
2x book of life
1x book of moon
1x heavy storm
1x dark hole
1x monster reborn
1x mind control
1x charge of the light brigade
1x allure of darkness

2x solemn warning
2x compulsory evacuation device
1x torrential tribute
1x starlight road
1x return from different dimension
1x solemn judgment
1x mirror force
1x transmigration prophecy

Extra Deck:
2x No. 39 - Utopia
1x wind-up zeinmaster
1x grenosaurus
1x gachi gachi gantetsu
1x scrap dragon
1x mist wurm
1x magical android
1x brionac
1x stardust
1x black rose
1x catastor
1x gaia knight
1x red dragon archfiend
1x doomkaiser dragon

Side Deck:
1x Book of Life
1x Dark Dust Spirit
1x Maxx "C"
1x mst
2x trap stun
2x crevice
1x vanity's emptiness
2x mind crush
2x enemy controlled
1x burial from dd
1x pulling the rug

FINALIST: 3 CONSECUTIVE TITLES IN 2011, OUT OF 6 FINALS IN 2011 - - Nikola "LLawliet94" Mitic

1x bls-eotb
3x judgment dragon
1x gorz
2x tragoedia
1x chaos sorcerer
1x celestia
2x lyla
2x wulf
2x ryko
1x lumina
1x ehren
1x garoth
2x card trooper
2x necro gardna
2x veiler
1x bulb
1x plaguespreader
1x jain
1x honest

1x charge
3x recharge
1x dark hole
1x monster reborn
1x monster reincarnation
1x allure of darkness
1x book of moon
1x heavy storm

1x treacherous trap hole

Extra Deck:
1x armory arm
1x ally of justice - catastor
1x T.G. hyper librarian
1x brionac
1x gaia knight
1x arcanite magician
1x black rose dragon
1x ancient fairy dragon
1x stardust dragon
1x colossal fighter
1x scrap dragon
1x trisuhla
1x utopia
1x leviathan
1x chimeratech fortress dragon

Side Deck:
1x Cyber Dragon
2x Rai-Oh
2x Kycoo
1x Puppet Plant
1x Lightning Vortex
1x M.S.T.
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Mind Crush
2x Royal Decree

SEMI-FINALIST. 2 TIMES CONSECUTIVE NATIONAL CHAMPION IN Yu-Gi-Oh! AND Magic: The Gathering, WINNER OF 3 MAJOR TOURNAMENTS IN 2011 - - - Aleksa "Chuck Norris" Telarov!!!

3x Chaos Sorcerer
3x Reborn Tengu
3x Rai-Oh
2x Card Trooper
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Glow-up Bulb
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Blackwing - Zephyros
1x Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2x Ryko, the Lightsworn Hunter
1x Lyla, the Lightsworn Sorceress
3x Tour Guide from the Underworld
1x Sangan
1x Gorz
2x Effect Veiler

3x Pot of Duality
1x Mind Control
1x Book of Moon
1x Foolish Burial
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Charge of the Light Brigade
1x One for One
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Heavy Storm

1x Treacherous Trap Hole
1x Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck:
1x Leviair
1x Leviathan
1x Steelswarm Roach
1x Utopia
1x Armory Arm
1x Catastor
1x Librarian
1x Brionac
1x Orient
1x Arcanite
1x Black Rose
1x Scrap Archfiend
1x Stardust
1x Scrap Dragon
1x Trishula

Side Deck:
3x Kycoo
3x Light-Imprisoning Mirror
3x Royal Decree
2x Cyber Dragon
1x Chimeratech Fortress
3x Mystical Space Typhoon

The Other Semifinalist : Joel Dobrota!
3x Caius
3x Raiza
3x Chaos
2x Ryko
2x Effect Veiler
2x Treeborn Frog
1x Plaguespreader Zombie
1x Glow-up Bulb
2x Card Trooper
1x Gorz
2x Battle Fader
2x Light and Darkness Dragon
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Ehren
1x Dimensional Alchemist

1x Pot of Avarice
1x Pot of Duality
1x One for One
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Monster Reincarnation
1x Charge of the Light Brigade
1x Monster Reborn
1x Mind Control
2x Soul Exchange

1x Treacherous Trap Hole
1x Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck:
2x Stardust
2x Black Rose
1x Thought Ruler
1x Formula
1x Arcanite
1x Armory Arm
1x Utopia
1x Brionac
1x Mist Wurm
1x Gaia Knight
1x Android
1x Red Dragon Archfiend
1x Chimeratech Fortress

Side Deck:
2x Puppet Plant
2x Light Imprisoning Mirror
2x Genex Ally Salvo
2x Smashing Ground
2x Cyber Dragon
1x Soul Release
3x M.S.T
1x Kycoo

Luka Milutinovic
3x Machina Fortress
3x Machina Gearframe
3x Cyber Dragon
3x Red Gadget
3x Yellow Gadget
3x Green Gadget

1x Dark Hole
3x Fissure
1x Limiter Removal
1x Monster Reborn
1x My Body As A Shield
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Smashing Ground
3x Solidarity

2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Mirror Force
2x Seven Tools of the Bandit
1x Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck: 0
Side Deck: 0

Antonije "The Priest" Isakovich
2x Cyber Dragon
1x Marshmallon
1x Gorz
3x Chaos Sorcerer
1x Sangan
1x Necro Gardna
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x BLS-EOTB
1x PSZ
2x Lyla
1x Veiler
2x Caius
2x Spirit Reaper
2x Ryko

1x Charge
1x heavy
1x Allure
1x Mind Control
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
1x M.S.T.
1x Gold Sarcophagus
1x Forbidden Chalice

2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Seven Tools of the Bandit
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Mirror Force
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Return from DD

Extra:
1x Ancient Fairy Dragon
1x Stardust
1x Armory Arm
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Iron Chain Dragon

Side:
1x pot of avarice
2x threatning roar
2x trap stun
1x dust tornado
1x nobleman of crossout
2x compulsory evacuation device
1x mobius
1x caius

Stefan Veselinovich
2x Cyber Dragon
2x Crusader of Endymion
1x Penguin Soldier
1x D.D. Warrior Lady
1x Grand Mole
2x Rai-Oh
3x Neos Alius
1x Gorz
1x Honest
1x Veiler
1x Stratos

1x Future Fusion
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
3x Gemini Spark
1x Heavy Storm
1x Book of Moon
3x Miracle Fusion
2x M.S.T.
1x E - Emergency Call
1x Reinforcement of the Army

2x Bottomless trap hole
1x Seven tools
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Mirror Force
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Solemn Warning
1x Torrential
1x Starlight Road

Extra:
2x Shining
2x Absolute Zero
1x Gaia Knight
1x Stardust
1x Neos Knight

Side:
2x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
2x Malevolent Catastrophe
1x Gottoms Emergency Call
1x Gozen Match
1x Light Imprisoning Mirror
3x Kinetic Soldier
3x Consencrated Light

Ronin Vujoshevich
1x Caius
1x Dark Dust Spirit
2x Van'Dalgyon
1x Gorz
1x Morphing Jar
3x Cyber Valley
1x Bountiful Artemis
1x Grand Mole
1x DD Warrior Lady
1x DD Scout Plane
3x DD Survivor

1x Mind Control
3x Dimensional Fissure
1x Dark Hole
1x Reinforcement of the Army
3x Pot of Duality

1x Magic Jammer
1x Solemn Judgment
2x Seven Tools
2x Solemn Warning
3x Dark Bribe
3x Divine Wrath
3x Macro Cosmos
1x Mirror Force
1x Starlight Road

Extra:
Utopia

Side:
1x Magic Dragin
1x Black Horn of Heaven
1x Interception
1x Pulling the Rug
2x Drastic Drop Off
1x Starlight Road
1x Trap Dustshoot
1x Torrential Tribue
2x Nobleman of Crossout
3x Prohibition

Yu-Gi-Oh! Advent Calendar

2011-09-19T15:06:00.000+01:00

Towards the end of last week a product announcement was made on a German site about a new Christmas-themed product due to come out later this year. At the time of writing this blog post there's nothing on yugioh-card.com, but here's the info that's been made available so far:

_{Source: Spieletom}

This year will shorten the wait for the biggest day of the year.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Advent calendar helps all the fans of Yusei
and his friends survive the days to Christmas well.

24 doors with great reinforcements for each deck!

The Advent calendar includes:
24 Limited Edition Yu-Gi-Oh! Foilkarten, including:
* 16 Super Rare Cards
* 7 Ultra Rare Cards
* 1 Ultra Rare card
* 1 Unlimited Edition Booster Extreme Victory

* 100% Foil: Contains 24 Limited Edition Foilkarten
* Only Super Rare, Ultra Rare and Secret Rare Cards! No Commons! No normal Rare cards!
* Strong dragon in Advent - the big story in Yu-Gi-Oh! Kids
* Behind the door wait including the Stardust Dragon Archfiend and Rotdrachen
* Premiere: Formula sync for the first time as Foilkarte!

Other than what's been posted in that site there's not much we know about this product. There's rumours that it's European (or even German) exclusive, that it's reprints only, that it's full of chocolate etc.. We'll know soon enough exactly what details there are regrading this product when the official product page goes up on yugioh-card.com but for now feel free to speculate.

Space-Time Police and Time Escaper

2011-09-16T13:16:00.000+01:00

_{Here's another article I recently put together for Konami's Strategy Site, be sure to check out their page for more.}

Psychic Decks got a big power boost thanks to several cool cards from Extreme Victory. Generation Force has 2 cool new Psychic monsters that let Psychic Duelists eliminate problem cards, protect their own monsters, and unleash some of the best Xyz Monsters around!

Space-Time Police is a Level 5 Psychic-Type monster with 2300 ATK. Whenever it’s Special Summoned you can banish one of your opponent’s face-up cards, which is great for getting rid of cards that might cause you problems this turn! When Space-Time Police leaves the field the banished card returns, but this time it’s Set instead of returning to the field face-up. This can make certain powerful monsters easier to destroy (since a lot of them have low DEF). For example, if you banish a Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En with Space-Time Police’s effect you’re now free to activate all the Spells and Traps you have, and if it returns to the field in face-down Defense Position, its 1400 DEF won’t be enough to survive the attacks of cards like Silent Psychic Wizard and Psychic Commander!

Space-Time Police will only banish a card when it’s Special Summoned, but Psychic Decks have no problems with Special Summoning monsters. Hushed Psychic Cleric can banish Space-Time Police from the Graveyard with its effect, and when Cleric’s sent to the Graveyard you can Special Summon Space-Time Police! Better yet, use Psi-Beast to banish Space-Time Police from your Deck, then use Brain Hazard to Summon it back. You get to banish your opponent’s best card, then Xyz Summon Tiras, Keeper of Genesis or Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon. The best part is, thanks to the new rules in the latest rulebook, your opponent will never get their banished card back!

Time Escaper’s another card from Generation Force that Psychic Duelists should be interested in! During either player’s turn, you can discard Time Escaper to banish one of your face-up Psychic-Type monsters until your next Standby Phase. This is great for protecting your monsters from nasty effects like Dark Hole, Black Rose Dragon and (if you’re protecting a Synchro monster) Orient Dragon! You can also use it to get your Psychic monster out of the way of your own destructive effect.

Psychic Decks no longer have access to insane Mind Master combos, but thanks to Space-Time Police and Time Escaper, Psychic Duelists can concentrate more on sustaining a series of powerful individual plays that can lead to big wins!

Konami's looking for writers.

2011-09-14T20:18:00.017+01:00

Konami made an announcement on their Yu-Gi-Oh! Strategy Site over the weekend putting the call out to experienced Duelists who'll make for good additions to the writing team.

Having been there since the Strategy Site kicked off let me just say that it's an enjoyable experience and you get to work with a solid bunch of guys, so feel free to shoot on an application if you're interested in sharing your thoughts and experiences with the Dueling world.

Here at the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME Strategy Site, we’re always looking for new writers, like Scott, to join our team. If you haven’t yet, check out his first article here. Do you have a lot of Dueling experience? Do you want to share it with the world like Scott? Then write to us at us-ygorules@konami.com with the subject line “Strategy Site Writer” and tell us about yourself, your experiences, and why you think you’re up to the challenge!

2011 Collectors Tins: Wave 2

2011-09-13T14:36:00.009+01:00

_{Source: Konami (2)}

The unprecedented awesomeness of 2011’s Collectible Tins just keeps coming!

Hot on the heels of the Number 17: Leviathan Dragon and Wind-Up Zenmaister Collectible Tins come two more Tins for the holiday season: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon and Number 10: Illumiknight!

This year’s final two holiday tins keep giving you more bang for your buck than ever before:

5 booster packs of the year’s hottest sets (2 Storm of Ragnarok, 2 Extreme Victory, and 1 Generation Force)
1 Secret Rare Monster
1 Super Rare Solemn Warning Trap Card
3 more Super Rare variants of out-of-print cards.
If you tried to get the contents of this tin separately, it would take you a lot of time and work. But to help celebrate the holiday season, and our upcoming 10th Anniversary, you can get it all in one place at a bargain price!

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME has a proud history of Level 8, 3000 ATK mega-dragons, and the Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon Collectible Tin comes with the latest and greatest one! Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon is a massive and menacing monster that can take any foe it battles into a different dimension. If it battles an Xyz Monster, Galaxy-Eyes comes back stronger than ever, after it siphons off the Xyz Monster’s power! Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon has no restrictions on its Summoning, so you can Tribute Summon it, or Summon it back from the Graveyard. You can also Special Summon it from your hand by Tributing 2 monsters with 2000+ ATK. This is easy using cards from Photon Shockwave like Rescue Rabbit, Alexandrite Dragon, or Photon Sabre Tiger!

Like the Number 10: Illumiknight Collectible Tin, this tin also includes Solemn Warning, one of the most popular cards from the last year. This must-have tournament card is a permanent feature in almost every top-finishing Deck at major championships. Both tins also include 3 more Super Rare variant cards (different cards in each Tin, see list below).

Whether you’re picking this up for yourself, or shopping for a Duelist you know, this is another money-saving opportunity that you literally cannot afford to miss.

Tin Contents:
2 packs of Storm of Ragnarok
2 packs of Extreme Victory
1 pack of Generation Force
1 Secret Rare card: Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon
1 Super Rare card: The Tyrant Neptune
1 Super Rare card: Solemn Warning
1 Super Rare card, to be revealed soon!
1 Super Rare card, to be revealed soon!

The unprecedented awesomeness of 2011’s Collectible Tins just keeps coming!

Hot on the heels of the Number 17: Leviathan Dragon and Wind-Up Zenmaister Collectible Tins come two more Tins for the holiday season: Number 10: Illumiknight and Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!

This year’s final two holiday tins keep giving you more bang for your buck than ever before:

5 booster packs of the year’s hottest sets (2 Storm of Ragnarok, 2 Extreme Victory, and 1 Generation Force)
1 Secret Rare Monster
1 Super Rare Solemn Warning Trap Card
3 more Super Rare variants of out-of-print cards.
If you tried to get the contents of this tin separately, it would take you a lot of time and work. But to help celebrate the holiday season, and our upcoming 10th Anniversary, you can get it all in one place at a bargain price!

The Number 10: Illumiknight Collectible Tin features another of the red-hot, black-framed Xyz Monsters. This shining defender of righteousness comes with 2400 Attack Points, and lets you get rid of unwanted cards in your hand, replacing them with fresh draws from your Deck! Number 10: Illumiknight is easy to Summon using the new cards in Photon Shockwave. Just a 2-card combo of Rescue Rabbit and Kagetokage gives you an instant Number 10: Illumiknight in a single turn!

Like the Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon Collectible Tin, this tin also includes Solemn Warning, one of the most popular cards from the last year. This must-have tournament card is a permanent feature in almost every top-finishing Deck at major championships. Both tins also include 3 more Super Rare variant cards (different cards in each Tin, see list below).

Whether you’re picking this up for yourself, or shopping for a Duelist you know, this is another money-saving opportunity that you literally cannot afford to miss.

Tin Contents:
2 packs of Storm of Ragnarok
2 packs of Extreme Victory
1 pack of Generation Force
1 Secret Rare card: Number 10: Illumiknight
1 Super Rare card: Malefic Stardust Dragon
1 Super Rare card: Solemn Warning
1 Super Rare card, to be revealed soon!
1 Super Rare card, to be revealed soon!

Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck

2011-09-12T12:45:00.012+01:00

_{Source: Konami}

Duelists of the mortal world – beware!

I am Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World. And it is my honor to serve as supreme commander of the forces of Dark World, on the eve of our return to your earth.

We – The Lords of Dark World – have always stood on the periphery of dueling. Duelists have overlooked our powers to destroy the opponent’s monsters, spells, traps, and even the cards in their hand. We have brought devastating victories to our allies, yet we have never been seen in the winner’s circle.

No longer!

You wish for us to show our full powers? So be it! The Gates of the Underworld have opened. And let all who oppose us flee in terror as our full might comes forth!

The Gates of Dark World lets you draw whenever you discard a Fiend. If you discard a worthy lord of Dark World, that monster will also Summon itself from the Graveyard, giving you a free monster on the field.

Snoww, Unlight of Dark World darkens our black hearts by searching for ANY Dark World card from your Deck. She can also corrupt your opponent’s monsters, by Special Summoning any monster from their Graveyard to YOUR side of the field.

Finally, I, Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, will personally lead your forces into battle. Including your enemy’s own monsters, for I can Summon any monster from your opponent’s hand to YOUR side of the field. And as long as a Dark World monster is under your control, I shall return from the Graveyard again and again. For I am invincible!

With our most powerful forces finally assembled, we will crush any who stand in our way. And when Photon Shockwave arrives in its full glory this November, we will receive further reinforcements, including Latinum, Exarch of Dark World, and one of our most secret weapons: the Dark Smog.

After six years of waiting, and plotting, and planning, we are back. You WILL ally yourself with us. Or you will be swept aside.

Abandon all hope, ye who would stand against us!

Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck is a ready-to-play 40 card Deck. You can play with it as-is, or use these cards to create and customize your own Deck. It includes every Dark World monster released to date, so it’s all you’ll need to build a Dark World Deck of your very own!

Gates of the Underworld Structure Deck Contains:
37 Common Cards
1 Ultra Rare Card
2 Super Rare Cards
1 Rulebook
1 Game Mat
1 Dueling Guide

Smyths Toys no longer selling Yu-Gi-Oh! product in Ireland.

2011-09-09T17:57:00.000+01:00

I don't usually do 2 blog posts in a day, but I just got some breaking news from a felow Irish Duelist that is of importance to the majority of Irish Yu-Gi-Oh! fans.

_{Source: Pojo}

Bad news if you are like me living in Ireland. SMYTHS toys are no longer selling yugioh cards. I emailed them this morning about the lack of new Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and I got this response.

---

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately we have stopped selling the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards due to unforeseen circumstances.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused and if you require any further assistance please do not hesitate in contacting us.

Kind Regards,

Conor.
Customer Service Dept.

Smyths Toys Superstores

For those of you reading from outside of Ireland right now, Smyths Toys is Ireland's largest (and dare I say only) toystore chain, with stores in all the major regions in the country. More often than not (for whatever reason) they manage to get in product before our Hobby Stores can do the same, and on rare occasions get in product that the Hobby Stores aren't able to (the most notable case was the original Gold Series in 2008, which was pretty much only available in Smyths).

This announcement will have a big impact on the game in Ireland, and while most cities have their own Hobby Stores (The Gathering in Limerick, Sub City in Galway, Other Realms in Cork and various stores in Dublin) where events are held and product is sold, the vast majority of Yu-Gi-Oh! product buyers in Ireland will not exactly be aware of these, which will affect these stores in future as existing players who move on or "grow out of the game" won't be replaced by fresh new players as often as they used to.

It's a sad day for Irish Yu-Gi-Oh!, and those of us who are playing right now have to stick together to help the game survive. If there's a Hobby Store near you, do what you can to support it and keep the game going.

The Irish Duelist

New ways to Summon Xyz Monsters!

YCS Guadalajara to take place on February 4th/5th.

DUELISTS TO CONVERGE IN GUADALAJARA, MEXICO FOR PRESTIGIOUS Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIESFEBRUARY 4th – 5thYounger Players Can Compete in Dragon Duel

New official playmats.

Sealed events at The Gathering.

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Duelist Portfolio

Looking back: The Deck of Commons

The Irish Open 2012

Order of Chaos Special Edition

Order of Chaos Sneak Peek info.

Chaos and order collide!

New Wind-Up monster revealed.

More upcoming YCS events announced.

Barbaroid, the Ultimate Battle Machine

(Spoiler) Turbo Pack 7

(Spoiler) Gold Series 2012 [OCG]

(Spoiler) Duelist League 13

Looking back over 2011

Card of the Year (#1): Tour Guide From the Underworld

Tour Guide From the Underworld

Card of the Year (#2): Reborn Tengu

Reborn Tengu

Card of the Year (#3): Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Card of the Year (#4): Master Hyperion

Master Hyperion

Card of the Year (#5): Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En

Card of the Year (#6): Rescue Rabbit

Rescue Rabbit

Card of the Year (#7): Shien's Smoke Signal

Shien's Smoke Signal

Card of the Year (#8): Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi"

Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi"

Card of the Year (#9): Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

Gachi Gachi Gantetsu

Card of the Year (#10): Maxx "C"

Maxx "C"

All the action from the YCS Brighton

Day 1

Day 2

Off to YCS Brighton tomorrow.

Oh look, a new DMG.

Last minute advice for YCS Brighton.

Pre-registration:

Coverage:

Decklists:

Nearest card shop:

Best cards of 2011?

How to get involved.

UkayPro Podcast 5: YCS Brighton and Order of Chaos

The third God Card...

Ra Yellow Mega-Pack announced.

YCS Leipzig announced.

Order of Chaos announced.

There Will Be Order…?

Let Loose the Bugs of War!

Ninjas: The True Order of Chaos?

More LIGHT and DARK Monsters

Ga Ga for Gagaga

She’s Back…

The Roundup: November 2011

This month's top story:

Product updates:

New Strategy Site content:

Event updates:

5 essential Fusion Monsters for your HERO Deck.

(Spoiler) Structure Deck: Dragonic Legion

Some Public Event info for YCS Brighton

The run-up to YCS #100.

Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon

All the action from YCS Kansas

Feature Matches:

Match Summaries:

Pairings:

Standings:

Quick Questions:

Tech Update

Other Updates:

DUELISTS TO CONVERGE IN GUADALAJARA, MEXICO
FOR PRESTIGIOUS Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

FEBRUARY 4th – 5th

Younger Players Can Compete in Dragon Duel

Yu-Gi-Oh! CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
TO TOUCHDOWN IN COLUMBUS, OHIO
OCTOBER 22nd – 23rd

JINGLE ALL THE WAY TO 2012 WITH THE NEW Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME 2011 COLLECTIBLE TINS
FROM KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT