Get your Game On with YGO 2

[Doppleganger]

My deck is completely dead at this point. You'd have to rewind to 2014 for it to be playable in this form.

The biggest loss is Halq, loathe I am to admit that.

What made Halq really good was that it could combo into Zeus, allowing me easy access into a field nuke if I didn't open with Evenly Matched. Halq also fixed one of the main Synchro problems of opening with too many Tuners, relieving some pressure of dead hands which was always an issue.

But with Thunder Dragon Colossus, Gold Sarc @ 1, I can't stack my deck with thinners or draw cards to make that side of the deck more consistent. The Junk Doppel side 3-2-1 combo can still be kickstarted, but currently there is no easy way into the Cosmic Synchros, and said Synchros don't have enough negation to justify running them anyway.

I still have the old "Stardust Stun" mechanics with Hanewata, but they're nigh impossible to get off due to being a 3 card combo, without enough payoff to go full ham. Without Level Eater, there's no accurate level modulation anyway and no easy way of summoning Dark Law, since Mask Change II is also @ 1.

Basically, if I had Halq with the current cardpool, I would still be able to compete against the likes of weakened Tearlaments and Splight. Without it, I don't have enough consistency cards or payoff to justify extensive Synchro combos, and I don't have cheap control cards or Zeus as a Plan B if I can't summon negators.

I'm kind of at a loss as to where to go now. This is about as bad as MR4.

[Emi]

Yeah I feel like the main way forward with the deck is likely to be shifting into the Junk Speeder combo lines since its the most explosive enabler left to the deck.

There's also the possibility of exploring the Adventure engine, as even though it does shut off Junk Synchron, it won't do much to the rest of the deck and its a great way to get additional bodies on the board and an early negate.

[Doppleganger]

Speeder and the Deskbot/Auroradon decks have different genetics from mine. They're both all-or-nothing decks that need to loop their full combo to win, and they need to loop to their control cards.

As-is, I no longer have a full loop combo, and I can shortcut my way to my control bosses while staying under Nibiru (or just recovering off it). Shenshen, Chaos End Ruler, and Garden Rose Maiden having recovery is better than negation bosses that stay in the grave.

I basically have to ditch Doppelwarrior and probably Junk Synchron to mke the other builds work. I've seen Junk Synchron in Speeder decks, but it's run @ 1. The identity is completely different.

I feel like the future is going back to the past. El Shaddoll Winda is the last splashable control boss that hasn't been hit in some way, but I don't have any easy way of making her. Running Shaddolls is not impossible, but I can't incorporate Fusion spells easily.

I guess I'm looking at potentiall Instant Fusion, Muddy Mudragon and Winda. I really need some way of reviving Winda from the grave though, wasn't there a Synchro that can tutor her from there?

...

Chaos Angel isn't available on EdoPRO yet, I really want to test it out. I think it might have more potential than Baronne honestly.

[Emi]

You might just need to update EdoPRO because I'm looking at Chaos Angel right now in the client.

I feel like the future is going back to the past. El Shaddoll Winda is the last splashable control boss that hasn't been hit in some way, but I don't have any easy way of making her. Running Shaddolls is not impossible, but I can't incorporate Fusion spells easily.

You don't really need to, even decks that were playing Winda as a splashed control boss were doing so by sending El Shaddoll Apkallone to the GY with Nadir Servant to search Schism.

[Emi]

The other thing I can think of that is probably worth considering is the PUNK engine as well. Ze Amin, Deer Note etc

[Doppleganger]

How do I update it? I am already looking at the most current OCG banlist. A lot of card art is borked too.

Man, the Byssted cards are the most aptly named cards ever.

[Doppleganger]

My mind is so blown right now.

Playing against the Adventurer deck feels almost nostalgic at this point. TDS is a lot more advanced that when I first used EdoPro (I had first developed it in Dueling Book, tested EdoPro then took it to Master Duel) so I'm doing way better against it than I did last year.

But what blows my mind is how effortlessly I can get rid of DPE. Even with Fusion Destiny at x4, the Bystial cards remove it so easily.

I also got comfortable main decking Evenly Matched, which was a hard card to learn but makes blanking these boards really easy.

I ALMOST broke the Auroradon loop. I only lost because I had already removed Halq.

[Doppleganger]

What I notice is Adventure is way less consistent than the crazy decks of the past - Orcust, Swordsoul, and IDS. I get blown out a lot, but when I break that deck or it bricks, I get way more free board than I should.

The new boss appears to be Crystal Wing. The sequence is,

Junk Converter + Jet Synchron → Junk Synchron
Junk Synchron + Junk Converter → Garden Rose Maiden
Garden Rose Maiden + Junk Synchron → Crystal Wing
Jet Synchron + Crystal Wing → Virtual World Shenshen
Garden Rose Maiden → Crystal Wing
Virtual World Shenshen → Jet Synchron

This is actually more consistent than Librarian. Really, the classic 3-2-1 summon is kind of hard to pull off. Doppelwarrior + Level 1 Tuner is a more consistent combo starter.

Without Halq, Coral Dragon no longer appears to have value. It was the best Halq target and a strong way to ladder into a Level 8, but with Crystal Wing in the fold, a generic Level 8 is no longer necessary.

[Doppleganger]

Is there any card or contact Fusion that can clear a hand when it's overstuffed with DARK monsters?

[Doppleganger]

It's crazy but after a year I'd all but forgotten how to play my deck. Took some time to reorient myself with the combos.

In retrospect, Halq was not as important as I thought, since I didn't run the higher level Links like Auroradon, Accesscode Talker, Apollousa, etc. to really wombo out the arse with it. There simply wasn't the deck space for it, since Zeus was a higher priority.

This is the problem:



The funny part is this used to be the opener for Stardust Stun, before Librarian. I used to run Junk Synchron + The Tricky just for this. Such cards provided acces to Stardust Dragon or Void Ogre Dragon, and later Beelze (although I never ran that). But this is no longer strong enough on its own, even summoning Colossus after the Level 8 Synchro. So on the Synchro side of things, there's no options that can make best use of these materials.

Chaos Ruler is the least bad option, being totally generic with a potential +1, high attack and recursion.

But the same materials can be used to Link summon, which gives Halq + Jet or Ghost Ogre, of which I usually do the Ghost Ogre bit. If Colossus was at 2 I would be more inclined to summon Shenshen.

None of these boards are what I'd call solid though. Ideally, I want to pair Shenshen + Colossus, Crystal Wing + Colossus, Shenshen + Crystal Wing...at least two bosses, preferrably a negate and a floodgate.

So the Christmas wishlist:

1. Some Link that works off Tuners, especially a negated Junk Synchron
2. A powerful Level 8 that requires a Synchro Tuner or two DARKs

Though, I did just lose to a bricked Traptrix player despite having Crystal Wing + Colossus. :X

[Doppleganger]

I was able to integrate Auroradon (a year late...) courtesy of running both Unknown Synchron and Jet Synchron. The only play is it makes Baronne, which has me think it's not totally worth it, since it relies on Halq resolving properly, but it's way more offensive than what I was doing with Halq. It sucks that Baronne can't summon back Halq from the grave either, otherwise that would be totally superior.

I don't think I was wrong to ignore Auroradon. But I was a bit close minded.

In other news, Bystial Druiswurm is crazy. It's the only true generic of the Bystials and it has the strongest effect. The summoning condition is actually stronger than the removal effect because it can banish stuff from the opponent's grave before they get a chance to activate, before chains resolve. I was able to use Druiswurm to banish most of Dogmatika's grave effects, like the Shaddolls and N'Tss.

I wonder if it's a replacement for Pankratops? The level isn't ideal, and the attack is slightly low, but all the other factors work in its favour.

[Doppleganger]

Anyone know of a Hanewata-like card that can reduce all battle damage to zero? Not just one battle, and no ending the battle phase.

[Doppleganger]

A year late and I only just discovered that Verte Anaconda could be used in my deck! Actually, this might be a pretty involved post. I've made a lot of research to try and get around the lack of Halq in Master Duel.

Well, a picture and a thousand words:



As of the April 2023 OCG banlist, blaze is completely right and that Speeder is the least-bad option for Synchro summoning. Everything else is too flimsy or weak in power to really justify it, so it looks like I will have to bite the bullet and become a Speeder deck.

I don't need the level of commitment the Majestic Synchron deck needs. Speeder turbos out Shenshen by going through Crystal Wing or (preferrably) Chaos Ruler. But both monsters bypass Garden Rose Maiden and Librarian, so it's kind of a last-ditch combo and not really something I want to open with.

The interesting part is with the 3 + 2 + 2 sequence. It's possible to make the Scareclaw boss with a Superheavy Samurai Musashi in conjunction with Doppelwarrior. Unfortunately, the Scareclaw is not on the same level of Bagooska and doesn't negate the effects of the monsters forced into defense.

No, the interesting card here is Traptrix Atypus.

It needs 3 mats, including a Plant or Insect, to summon. Well, Maxx "C" is an insect, and Garden Rose Maiden is a plant. So if Doppelwarrior is present, she's easily summoned even if I no longer have Synchro 5 to make with it.

Next is the effect. It gains +1000 Attack if there's a Normal Trap in the grave. Well, Imperm and Evenly Matched are normal traps, and I run 3 each.

The second effect is a negate + destroy that always works at least once if Atypus is an insect, and twice if Maxx "C" also happens to be summoned.

I'm willing to give her a try. I wish there was another way to clear dead hands though.

...

But man, Verte. At minimum, it can be summoned at any time and summon Winda via Instant Fusion. That's nutter butters. Baronne can special Winda from the grave as well, meaning every deck can have Winda access.

Winda is especially nasty with Chaos Angel, although Chaos Angel cannot proct her from the grave,

[Doppleganger]

Master Duel might be a joke now.

I think Konami nerfed the crafting CP. Compared to my old account from last year, I have way more URs. I think 1 UR used to be 20 CP when broken down, now it's 10.

I am also Gold III despite never having killed a single opponent.

Since my deck doesn't have full cards, and to max gem yield, I've been running Exodia.

I've won with Exodia 6 times. One time took 33 turns despite my deck having 40 cards and loads of gas.

[Emi]

Golden Cloud Beast – Malong
Light Level 6
Dragon/Synchro/Tuner/Effect
1 Tuner + 1+ Non-Tuner monsters
If this card is Special Summoned: You can increase or decrease its Level by 1. If this card is sent to the GY: You can target 1 face-up card your opponent controls; return it to the hand. You can only use this effect of “Golden Cloud Beast – Malong” once per turn.

This is honestly kind of spicy

[Doppleganger]

I looked at those orgnization cards, that one and the Revolution Synchron.

Revolution Synchron appeared to have potential, but the requirements kill it. Needing to go Level 7 or Level 8 Dragon Synchro basically limits the good targets to AFD, Starust, Crystal Wing and Chaos Ruler.

Same applies for the graveyard summon effect, it seems tailor made to work with Chaos Ruler and Hot Red and nothing else. It has poor synergy with my deck.

Malong is kind of meh because it seems intended to be used as Nadir Servant/Artemate Slay bait. Otherwise Coral and the Locust Level 5 Tuner are better Halq targets.

[Emi]

Personally I don't think Malong is meant to be used with the pitchers. It certainly can be, but it's immediately outclassed by Elder Entity N'Tss. To me it's more a versatile Synchro climbing tool that maybe you can flex as a bounce if you play Artemate Slay in the sideboard. Tuners that modulate their levels really easily (like Cupid Pitch) I think have a lot of potential, especially if they come with other good benefits.

[Doppleganger]

Modulation was important in the old days (maybe I'm not seeing it because I bypass the need) but no Synchro is worth the 2+ mats or the synchro monster requirement anymore.

Why invest in a Blazar if it could be easily killed by Droplet or a Kaiju?

The new hotness I discovered is looping Crystal Wing over and over with Shenshen, who is the most broken generic boss available.

If the field is nuked, one can just summon Crystal Wing and Shenshen again. If it's bounced, summon both from the ED again (not as easy).

The irony is without Halq, I think TDS could be stronger than it was before. Halq was a huge crutch and while great at salvaging bad hands, it didn't have a lot of upside. Like a great play for me was summoning Ghost Ogre and Coral Dragon...not exactly amazing.

This missing card though is a second copy of Gold Sarc. That's way more important than a second ROTA or even Colossus. The consistency difference on EdoPro is night and day.

Droplet also seems recommended over Crossout. It combos insanely well with Imperm and Evenly Matched, since unless the Evenly is Solemn'd it can't be responded to with a Monster and Trap send.

[Doppleganger]

I mostly recreated the EdoPro TDS version on Master Duel. As said above, the missing mojo is another copy of Gold Sarc (rip). The deck isn't nearly as powerful with Foolish, but it's alright.

As much as I hate Pot of Desires I found its tolerable if one gets into a situation where Upstart isn't needed.

I.e., if a deck is so smoothe it doesn't need high tech, one should use three Upstart. But as more Upstarts get removed until one is left, it's better to just use Desires and fall on redundacy.

I wonder if I should pull Librarian. I have Nibiru on the brain even though I've drafted in resistance to it. Going through Librarian is a super plus but that plus just leads one to draw into...Imperm, Evenly, Effect Veiler.

Whenever possible I chicken out and go into Baronne first, which dodges the Librarian plus. It follows the old Stardust Stun method: 5 + 3 + 2 = 10, then Doppelwarrior gives you two tokens to go through the same combo with Baronne up there instead of Librarian.

The risk of my grave loop getting disrupted by the likes of Called has me thinking I should run a second copy of Shenshen, a second copy of GRM, or even classic Stardust Dragon.

...

Also, I got the Forbidden One title on Master Duel. Really painful to get there but I made it.

[Doppleganger]

Didn't know Tears had a counter trap. Why? -_-

Tear player opens Winda and Rulkallos, with Keldo in the Graveyard and Cryme set. I had Imperm'd on their turn which forced needing Polymerization and Swamp King.

Against the Tear player, I dropped:

1. Raigeki
2. Droplet
3. Zeus

I had managed to bait out Keldo with Thunder Dragonroar, but still. I had no trap cards in hand so there was no way to inactivate the counter trap with Droplet, hence why I had to Raigeki, Droplet the Winda, then wait for Rulkallos to resummon.

It stinks that you can use BOTH effects once per turn.

[Doppleganger]

I'm seeing videos of YouTubers using Synchrons in Diamond 1.

I'm skeptical that these players actually used Synchron to ladder up there, and are instead just cherry picking wins to show for views.

>no interruptions
>full Librarian combo
>lots of board breaking cards

Yeah how are Speeder decks winning against Tears or Nibiru?

[Emi]

They Simply Will Not Have It

[Doppleganger]

omg this format is so crazy

I've had to beat several Tears players to advance...really bad ones with cheap decks.

The craziest one bricked really hard, opening:

-Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise
-Ghost Reaper
-Tearlaments Reinohart
-Tearlaments Cryme
-Mask Change II

I had a horrible hand of x2 Thunder Dragondark, x1 Thunder Dragonhawk, x1 Crossout and x1 Ash.

I Ash'd Reinoheart and he Cryme'd Tuning, which I drew. Dark Law came out next turn off Ghost Reaper for some reason.

So in desperation I actually pulled it off - Crossout Dragonroar, summon it with Dragonhawk, and make Colossus with zero protection to run over the Dark Law.

And he scooped! wtf?

Literally one of the worst openings...any x2 Dragondark is beyond horrible. HOW?

[Emi]

Wait he was running the Crystal Beast Field Spell search package that's incredible

[Doppleganger]

Floo is also still pretty powerful despite the hits. I can now understand their interrupt combo (it uses map to Normal Summon spam on the player's turn, and triggers once one normal summons). I previously had no idea how the deck worked or how to combat it.

Hitting Robina or Eglen are the priority, then destroying Map to prevent them from interrupting.

Beyond that it's the standard hand trap, boss monster dance.

I'm still lurking Platinum 2 and haven't broken through to Platinum 1 yet. This is higher than 2022 because I saw little point grinding to Platinum 1.