Ten Simple Ways to Improve at Yugioh - Part 1

So, it’s nearly October, and according to popular-for-reasons-I-don’t-understand band Green Day, it’s almost time to wake up and smell the roses card games. What does that mean? Well, it’s still early in the Septemeber 2010 format, and for many people, it’s a nice way to stop and think for a moment about their lives. The rush of summer and the hustle and bustle of September is nearing it’s curtain call, and with some time left before the end of the year, it’s the perfect time to get yourself reorganized and ready to face the next few months. The same applies for Yugioh.

Stop, and think for a minute where you’re current skill level in the game is. Go ahead, take a moment.

My guess is that most, if not nearly all of you would like to get better to some degree. But how? Do you fell like you’ve reached a plateau? Or is it just the lack of direction that’s slowed your advance? Either way, this three part series of articles may just be what you need to step up your game. I’ve got ten simple ways for you players out there to improve your game. Just to make things fair to newer players, I’ll start with the more basic methods, and work up to the more advanced ones.

1.       Know You Metagame

First things first, in order to succeed at Yugioh, you need to know quite a few things. One of the most elementary of those things is your metagame. What’s a metagame, or meta, you might ask? It’s not as scary of a term as some people may make it out to be. It’s simply what people are playing in the area or tournament you play in.

There are many ways to find this out, but at the same time, there are many different metas to look at. To find the right one for you, simply think of where you’re going to be playing the most, and if you’ll be attending any big tournaments in the future.

To learn your local meta, simply attend a tournament or two, and see what everyone’s play, but more importantly, see what’s winning. Random or poorly built decks, as well as decks that lack proper structure and support shouldn’t be any of your concern. Concentrate more on the becks that do consistently well. With that in mind, you can tailor make a deck to be able to compete with those decks, or beat them outright.

To learn the meta of let’s say, a Yugioh Championship Series tournament, you’d need to learn the nation-wide meta. Surprisingly, this is fairly easy. Read over past tournament coverage and view decks posted on popular message boards to get a good idea of what you’re going to see at the event. Do this, and you’ll do much better than you would of otherwise.

2.       Learn and playtest as many competitive decktypes as possible

Once you know the meta of area you’ll be playing at, then you should immediate start playtesting the decks that are winning consistently in said area. If you having trouble learning how the deck works, watch some videos of people using them online, or look for articles about the deck. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, someone who owns the deck can tell you how it works, and even let you test with it if you’re trustworthy enough.

By learning and playtesting as many deck types as possible, you’re able to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the deck, as well as it’s good and bad matchups. Once you know that, you’ll be all the more effective at taking it out once you play against it.

3.       Make your deck competitive

As much as some people hate to do this, it’s necessary to improve as a player. Without a well built and well structured deck, you’ll be at a disadvantage in a competitive environment. If the deck you usually run doesn’t quite have the support to win tournaments, you may want to consider switching to something else until your desired deck gets enough support to hold it’s own against the best of the best decks.

How do you tell if your decks competitive? It’s easy. Playtest it against the best decks you can, and see how it holds up. Once it starts to lose consistently, you may want to start making changes, or use something else entirely.

If you’re not sure how to make your deck competitive, there are lots of experienced players on the internet that are willing to help whoever they can. Don’t worry as much about people’s opinions. Take their advice into consideration and always ask why they suggest any given card, save for the obvious stuff.

With those three steps, newer and more casual players should be able to get a grasp of what they need to do to improve.  For all your intermediate and advanced players out there, don’t worry, I’ll get to you guys in my next two articles. Until then, take it easy and good luck.

-Dave on the Rock

Two More Videos: YCS First Look and Upcoming Releases

These videos were posted on my youtube account a while back. Now you can watch them here. Go subscribe liek nao plz :P

Back with More Videos! Back Again In General! - Cards That Need Reprints

Hey guys, sorry for the long hiatus on posting here. I haven't been feeling the best lately, and therefore I didn't feel the part for making videos or writing articles. But alas, I'm feeling fine and ready for more.

Here's my most recent video - Cards that Need Reprints:

Hidden Potential: Eccentric Boy

Hey everyone, it's been a roughly few weeks for me lately, with restless, sleep disorderly nights. In fact, that's the very reason why I'm writing this article bright early, about 6:30 AM here in Newfoundland. Now if you're living outside of Newfoundland, it's probably something o' clock right about now. That's because us Newfies have our own time zone. Yes, we're that special.

As much as I'd like to give you random facts you'll probably only ever use in a game of Trivial Pursuit during a power outage sometime, I'd much rather give you some facts about another game, of the card variety.

Hidden Potential, as you may or may not know, is all about underlooked and underused cards that have great potential if used correctly. The card I'll be talking about today fits the role perfectly, er...should I say, eccentrically? Yes, today I'm talking about "Eccentric Boy" from Duelist Pack: Yusei 2.

First thing's first, it's stats and effect:

He doesn't look all that eccentric...maybe they're talking about his outfit?

Eccentric Boy
Wind/Spellcaster/Tuner
Level 3
800/200
When using this card as a Synchro Material Monster, the other Synchro Material Monsters is 1 monster in your hand. The Synchro Monster that used this card as a Synchro Material Monster cannot activate its effects, its effect(s) is negated, and is removed from play when removed from the field.

Right off the bat, you can see that what this card does is unique. In fact, aside from "Blackwing - Vayu the Emblem of Honor", it's the only card in the TCG that let's you Synchro Summon off the field, and the only one period that let's you use Synchro Materials from your hand.

While it's stats aren't impressive, they don't need to be. This guy will start a Synchro Summon the minute he hits the field, and with only 800 ATK, he doesn't need to worry about anything outside of a Torrential Tribute when he's summoned.

From here, you can use one monster in your hand as Synchro Material to Synchro Summon a monster without it's effect that's removed from play once it leaves the field. Get the idea now? This card is best used in decks that like to dump their cards into the graveyard, or can afford to do so. Some quick mentions are decks like Junk and Debris, Gadgets, and most of all, Macro Cosmos (I'll explain why later).

Being Level 3 means that the most likely card you'll be sending to the graveyard will be another Level 3 or a Level 4, but a Level 2 can also net you an easy beater like "Magical Android". The best monsters to use as pure beatsticks for the other two would be "Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth" and "Goyo Guardian" when using another Level 3, and "Ancient Fairy Dragon" for Level 7 (yeah, Level 7 Synchro's aren't that strong physically...).

However, this card's true potential isn't in the ability to summon a beatstick or wall easily, it's to get Synchro Monsters removed from play easily. That's were this card can shine - in a deck based around "Macro Cosmos" or "Dimensional Fissure"! In those decks, many great Tuners and Synchros, like "Plaguespreader Zombie" and "Stardust Dragon" respectively, just can't function right. In addition to that, the deck wants to use it's copies of "D.D. Assailant" and "D.D. Warrior Lady" for taking out their opponent's tough monsters, not to be used as Synchro Material. That's were Eccentric Boy comes in. He can pop out a big beatstick using a dead monster card in your hand, then when the monster is removed from play, you can use "D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation" to bring it back, even without either of your two Macro cards out. But it doesn't end there, using Eccentric Boy can warrant copies of "D.D. Scout Plane" as well, since you can use it as Synchro Material with Eccentric Boy or as discard fodder with D.D.R. to get some quick tribute fodder out to summon monsters like "Caius the Shadow Monarch".

It doesn't end there! Outside of Macro Cosmos builds, there's also another deck that greatly appreciates Eccentric Boy. That deck is "Assault Mode Activate" decks. You can use Eccentric Boy to easily summon any of the Synchro Monsters that work with Assault Mode Activate, then tribute them with said card's effect to summon a powerful Assault Mode monster from your deck. Since most of the cards needed for summoning those monsters are Level 8, Level 5 monsters like "Cyber Dragon", "The Tricky" and the soon-to-be-released "Vice Dragon" (in Gold Series 2010) are recommended for getting out your Assault Mode monsters quickly and easily. While you wouldn't want to use only Eccentric Boy in those decks, he certainly is an asset.

Lastly, as a neat little trick with this card, you can use the monster you summon with it's effect as Synchro Material for yet another Synchro Summon.

That's all for me now. I'm feeling pretty eccentric myself right now, so I'm off to do some testing with Eccentric Boy. Unlike him though, I'll be wearing my less-than-eccentric, t-shirt and jeans thank you very much.


Keep checking back for more articles and that nice little Nephthys build I promised in my last article. However, it's not what you expect. You'll see that deck on my new Youtube Channel: YugiohontheRock, where I'll be posting video articles in addition to my written ones. Be sure to check it out and subscirbe.

-Dave on the Rock

Yugioh on the Rock: How to Play Deck

My first video article...of sorts. Yeah, I know I'm rambling on a little in certain parts, but it's just meant to be simple and informative for people who don't reall know how different types of decks and different styles of play.

Part One:



Part Two:



Yugioh on the Rock is my new series of videos I'm going to be uploading to my channel. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, you can do so here. Be a pal and subscribe while you're at it.

New Youtube Account

I've got a new youtube account that I'll be uploading videos to. Make sure to check it out and subscribe. Don't worry, I'll still be doing normal articles too.

Here's the intro vid:

Hidden Potential: Widespread Dud

Welcome to the beginning of a new series of my articles: Hidden Potential. In this series, I’ll be taking a look at some often overlooked cards and how you can unleash their hidden potential. Now, if you’re like most competitive players, you only pay attention to the best cards of a set – that is – the most competitive and/or the most expensive. “What’s wrong with that?” you may ask. “I play mostly to win, so I don’t need to bother with bad, cheap cards that I can’t use in my meta deck or trade with.” Well, the answer is two-fold. First off, a good player won’t pay attention to many of the cards I’ll be talking about in these articles. That’s true enough. However, a great player will.

The cards I plan on talking about in “Hidden Potential” are cards that, in the right hands, can be very effective. By “the right hands”, I mean the hands of skilled players playing rogue decks, or teching the cards in everyday decks. Great players, while they may not run these cards, will certainly be prepared for them, especially at a time like this, where rogue decks are literally all over the place (seriously, even Final Countdown decks are topping events right now). So, if you want to be prepared for those players, then get reading, because the first step to defeating these cards is to know how they work.

Absolute Powerforce is a set with many useful cards that many people overlook. While most people focus on the powerhouses and high value cards like the Sun Dragon Inti, Battle Fader and XX-Saber Emmersblade, they pay little attention to cards that can be surprisingly effective, such as this card, which, in my opinion, is one of the better overlooked cards in the set. Take a read:

Tread lightly...

Widespread Dud
Continuous Trap Card
Select 2 face-up Attack Position monsters on the field. When any of the selected monsters are removed from the field, destroy this card. When this card is destroyed, destroy the selected monster(s).

Right off that bat, this card's chainability springs to mind. You can activate it in response to anything, from an attack to your opponent's piece of removal, to just about anything else short of a Damage Step card effect. Now what's interesting about this card is one simple fact - it gets around Stardust Dragon and other destruction negation cards. This is because it's destruction effect isn't triggered upon activation.

In a worst case scenario, you can activate this in response to your opponent's monster attacking your own Attack Position monster. In this situation, after your monster is destroyed in battle, Dud destroys the attacking monster. Advantage-wise, it’s still a -1 for you, except that it puts you in a better position than you would have been normally. Now what’s great about this situation is when you have a recruiter monster (one that summons a monster from your deck when destroyed by battle) that’s being attacked, you end up still getting your monster, since the recruiter’s effect triggers in the Graveyard after Widespread Dud’s destruction effect goes off, meaning your opponent’s monster is destroyed, and you still get your desired monster from that Mystic Tomato, or XX-Saber Emmersblade. The end result is an even 2 for 2 in terms of card advantage, but with you in the better position to start your next turn.

Now, let’s talk about a slightly more ideal situation. Let’s say your opponent uses a Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon or Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy this set card. The result here is obvious, especially if your opponent has two Attack Position monsters on the field (a more likely situation if Breaker is used). You can chain the Dud to destroy two of their monsters. In this situation, this card nets you some serious advantage, being a 3 for 1 in the case of a Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon and a 2 for 1 in Breaker’s case. In a Blackwing match-up, this card can even net you a decent amount of advantage in response to an Icarus Attack. In this case, the opponent will be losing a maximum of 4 cards in exchange for a maximum of your three. However, skilful playing here can easily turn that into a 4 for 2, which isn’t that uncommon, seeing as many good players will try to maintain as few cards on their field as possible when they suspect a facedown Icarus Attack. In fact, Widespread Dud can be the perfect bait on the Blackwing player itching to set off their Icarus Attack and deal some damage. With Blackwings a favourite-to-win in this format, this card acts as a nice piece of tech against the fearsome swarm deck. Lastly, as an added trick, you can even use this card to deter Synchro Summons in some cases. Simply select the Tuner monster and one of your opponent’s stronger monsters when activating Widespread Dud. If your opponent tries to Synchro Summon, their other monster will be destroyed, netting them a -2, which turns into a 2 for 1 trade in your favour.

The last type of situation I’d like to talk about is one where you have a monster out that can replace itself when destroyed. Cards like Sangan instantly come to mind. However, while a combo with Sangan is good and all, I’d like to talk about another card – a personal favourite of mine – Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. In a format that’s aiming to be very slow (at least for a few months), this card, in it’s own deck (preferably one that can effectively run an Apprentice Magician engine to get out Hand of Nephthys easily), can be devastating. To better understand how this card works with Widespread Dud, you need to read it’s effect first:

 It's Heavy Storm on legs...er...wings...

Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
Winged Beast/Fire/Level 8
2400/1600
If this card is destroyed by a card effect, Special Summon this card from the Graveyard during your next Standby Phase. If you Special Summon this card in this way, destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field.

If you tend to be a duelist full of ideas like I am, Nephthys and Widepsread Dud scream synergy. Not only can you use the Dud’s effect to destroy two of your opponent’s monsters when Nephthys is revived, but you can also use it to destroy Nephthys and an opponent’s monster, then bring her back in your next Standby Phase and wipe the opponent’s back row. In addition to that, a deck that runs Nephthys can also run cards like Mobius the Frost Monarch to further trigger Widespread Dud for even more havoc.

Now, you may have noticed that I’ve been talking about situations a lot. There’s a reason for that – Widespread Dud is a situational card. It’s best used at specific times in a duel, so it takes some skill to make the most of.  While it is situational, the number of situations where it can be useful is far greater than it seems.

I’ll cover a decklist that utilizes the cards I mentioned earlier in an upcoming article, but until then, give Widespread Dud a try yourself. I’ll assure you, it’s anything but a dud.