Get your Game On with YGO 2

[Doppleganger]

I got knocked out of Plat 2. Winning against this onslaught is fake news. I stalled the Tears players like there's no tomorrow, though.

My first win, it turns out, was against Eldlich in Plat 3.

blaze, I want to know your opinion of Branded Ishizu Tears Frightfur.

The Ishizu cards are a nightmare to handle, but I think Branded is actually stronger overall.

I successfully Reaper'd this deck and it just reverted to Branded Despia.

I think the new Branded Despia + Mirrorjade + Aluber is a lot stronger than the OG. Colossus can stonewall the searchers but Albaz is annoying to deal with.

I have yet to beat Branded Despia proper this season. I think the closest was I beat a Tear player in the lower tiers using Masquerade.

Is there some weakpoint between the two archetypes that isn't Dimensional Barrier?

[Doppleganger]

Came really close to beating Tears a few times but misplayed (it's really late/early), stuff I learned:

-Shenshen is useless against them
-The Field Spell is stupid, as it boosts the Attack of all Fusion and Tear monsters along with search and pop, it's a priority to destroy, but it's not easy to do so outside of Spell negation
-Cryme can recycle banished, face-up Kitkallos or Rulkallos, so hitting them with Called isn't a great idea
-Instant Fusion bypasses Ghost Reaper, since Reaper requires a monster on the field

I've had to resort to Junk Speeder to deal with them, since GRM isn't safe in the GY due to the Ishizu cards. But I made te mistake in going for Speeder +

Surprisingly, the new hot deck for handling all sorts of stuff is...BLS. Relying on an Extra Deck boss for everything got exhausting, and the swing spots were inconsistent, so I bought the Structure Deck and got BLS.

BLS is good because he banishes as cost, so the dumb Ishizu cards can't chain to the banish. Since Tears mill plenty if BLS is in hand, it's a safe go.

I lost a painful Tear game due to that earlier misplay for Shenshen. Second turn ended on:

BLS, Coral Dragon, Colossus

Opponent summons Guardian Chimera the next turn, along with Rulkallos.

I remove them and end on Junk Speeder, Shenshen, and Baronne. The mats I had to work with were 1+3+5+7+8

THAT was the mistake. I should not have ditched Colossus, but Colossus had no protection in the GY, while Shenshen recurs. In retrospect, I should have done Crystal Wing, Junk Speeder, left Colossus and summoned a Level 8.

But the lack of a solid, generic Level 8 is why I was timid. I put in Beelz who in theory should handle everything but Kaleidoheart and Dragostapelia, but I was too chicken to commit to it. Why? I sit on Colossus all the time, Colossus is exactly the same.

Next time, Gadget. Next time!

[Emi]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I got knocked out of Plat 2. Winning against this onslaught is fake news. I stalled the Tears players like there's no tomorrow, though.

My first win, it turns out, was against Eldlich in Plat 3.

blaze, I want to know your opinion of Branded Ishizu Tears Frightfur.

The Ishizu cards are a nightmare to handle, but I think Branded is actually stronger overall.

I successfully Reaper'd this deck and it just reverted to Branded Despia.

I think the new Branded Despia + Mirrorjade + Aluber is a lot stronger than the OG. Colossus can stonewall the searchers but Albaz is annoying to deal with.

I have yet to beat Branded Despia proper this season. I think the closest was I beat a Tear player in the lower tiers using Masquerade.

Is there some weakpoint between the two archetypes that isn't Dimensional Barrier?

The weakpoint is that the Branded stuff is pretty bad at actually setting up Tear combos and forces the deck to run a bunch of cards that aren't great to mill.

But in addition to this, the Branded line is incredibly weak to Mudora or Keldo. You can chain Mudora or Keldo to Albion or Lubellion and shuffle back the Fallen of Albaz and the entire combo stops. It might be better against rogue decks because Mirrorjade is pretty strong but it naturally settled itself out of the meta in both formats.

I'm going to leave this here in case it's helpful. Master Duel doesn't have a sanctioned tournament scene so community run tournaments like this one are probably the best you're going to get, but you know, Jesse Kotton won this one so how bad can they be.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Emi

The weakpoint is that the Branded stuff is pretty bad at actually setting up Tear combos and forces the deck to run a bunch of cards that aren't great to mill.

But in addition to this, the Branded line is incredibly weak to Mudora or Keldo. You can chain Mudora or Keldo to Albion or Lubellion and shuffle back the Fallen of Albaz and the entire combo stops. It might be better against rogue decks because Mirrorjade is pretty strong but it naturally settled itself out of the meta in both formats.

The decks are 60 card Grass decks with Shaddolls, Branded, and Tears. Opening Grass or any of the Tears lets them mass mill and Fusion without a spell, and footstool into the harder summons like Mirrorjade and Dragostapelia.

One such deck opened Perlereino, Reinohart, and Grass. It was able to summon Mirrorjade, two Masquerades, Winda and Rulkallos on the same turn: it featured the longest self-chain I've ever seen, at least 10 effects before I could do respond.

The basic Tear lineup of Rulkallos, Kalaeido-Heart, and Dragostapelia is actually not that threatening without backup from Perlereino and Cryme. But add the Branded monsters into the mix, specifically Mirrorjade and Masquerade, and it's much more threatening.

Heck, Winda herself is probably the worst of the Fusions. Winda locks out the Tears from floating and being immune to Raigeki means the opponent can't remove her easily.

Meanwhile, Mirrorjade and Masquerade are extremely obnoxious and hard to kill because of Branded Opening and their Graveyard effects.

Originally Posted by Emi

I'm going to leave this here in case it's helpful. Master Duel doesn't have a sanctioned tournament scene so community run tournaments like this one are probably the best you're going to get, but you know, Jesse Kotton won this one so how bad can they be.

I...don't actually hate the format?

Certainly it sucks that I can't make Diamond, and it annoys me that there are liars claiming they've done so with similar decks despite it being impossible.

But tier zero formats are fun for the novelty of playing against the Tear Zero™. My only two frustrations are no Diamond and the banlist hits that prevent me from flexing my full power.

[Emi]

Yeah the Grass variants are like, fine, but you're trading a lot of consistency to do that. The thing that made Grass variants of Infernoid and of Shaddoll Lightsworn in the past good was that you were trading that consistency for a massive power boost over the rest of the format, and over other variants. I wouldn't consider the Grass variant to be notably more powerful, and there's even still the weirdness of Grass where the better Grass decks are, the worse they are because Grass becomes a dead card.

The standard build just ends up being better as a result, even if the Grass builds can put up some more threatening board states (you also lose a lot harder to DRNM).

[Doppleganger]

I had an interesting battle in Gold V against Amazoness which served as my promotion match. It was notable beyond that because the Amazoness player had me go first, which is terrible for TDS normally.

I was able to win at the end by summoning the BLS Link monster. I realized that BLS when summoned with a Level 7+ is a pretty good out for Tearlaments, as nothing in their Extra can really handle something that can't be destroyed, targeted, and is that big (once BLS gets 4500 Attack I think only Gameciel outs it).

This win was bittersweet, as it had me realize some important truths I was fearing.

Doppelwarrior and Librarian aren't necessary for the deck anymore!

I still have the old mentality of wanting Librarian to draw all my protective backrow, but the truth is that going second, that backrow is not powerful enough to invest going through Librarian first, and it's ill-suited for it anyway.

Monster removal is so powerful, and mass removal so prevalent, that investing in a Quasar or even Blazar and protecting it isn't viable. You are one Gameciel away from a full board wipe.

Additionally, even among the special Synchros, Spell/Trap negation is rare or conditional. I lost one battle even looping Librarian against Floowandereeze: the Floo player had Evenly Matched, and I left a Doppeltoken on the field so I could have the pairing of Crystal Wing + Shenshen without knowing what I was facing. Evenly forced mt to banish everything but the Doppeltoken.

When Halq was legal, Doppelwarrior still made sense. I could nuke the field with Zeus, then proceeded to rebuild my field using Jet Synchron/Doppelwarrior. But Halq is banned so that's no longer possible.

I am also using Speeder because it can make any of the Level 8+9 off Maxx "C" in the grave, along with that 3+2+5 Baronne combo with Thunder Dragondark. But doing this nukes the deck since I was only running x2 copies of Junk Synchron.

Removing Librarian, Marcher, Star Shaman and Doppelwarrior...not sure where to go for the Extra anymore. But I replace the Doppelwarrior with a third Junk Synchron.

x2 main deck BLS seems to work better than the Bystials. For one, it has priority summon over the Bystials on my turn, the banish is good, and as fodder into the Link works well.

I'm really worried about bricking here. Halq would ironically work really well with no Doppelwarrior, since it means Junk Synchron is always live with something in the grave.

[Doppleganger]

Painful, 50 minute duel with Tearlaments.

My mistake was not banishing Radian from the grave for BLS. I was able to remove Rulkallos, Kalaeido-Heart, Winda and Dark Law; my opponent summoned Dharc and summoned

Maybe if I was't under time pressure or sleepy I might have forseen this. Or maybe not! I don't know what Tears run in their extra, and I don't think the Tear player ever got this far either.

I simply didn't have enough mats to summon the BLS boss though. Was really close. Might not have even top decked BLS if Time Thief Re-Doer didn't take Unknown Synchron from the top.

[Doppleganger]

Got knocked out of Gold I but I've had a lot of success against a bunch of decks. Removing Doppelwarrior has indeed made the deck more resilient, although it's tragic to admit so.

I only just realized that I can run Sprite Elf, it works with the same Junk + Maxx "C" combo. Elf gives target protection to Colossus and Shenshen, something that had me lose against Adamancipators. It'll be a priority for me to craft, at least, once I get some more gems.

I also need to craft another Kitkallos and Ghost Reaper. Without Swamp King, the hits to Tearlaments makes Ghost Reaper a much stronger play. Milling Cryme is unfortunately as obnoxious as ever.

[Doppleganger]

Wait, what happened to Necrovalley? Did it get errata'd?

I used to be able to summon monsters by their own effect from the grave, now I can't do it anymore?

[Emi]

Yeah it got errata'd a while ago, you can't do that anymore.

[Doppleganger]

Luckily nobody plays Necrovalley, that buff is obnoxious. I guess that explains why Eldlich uses Zombie World rather than Necrovalley.

...

I've beaten several bad Tear players but I completely screwed one over. But I also bricked really hard.



This guy didn't mill Cryme, so I nailed him with Ghost Reaper to banish Kitkallos. Rather than let the fusion fizzle, he summoned Kalaeidoheart, summoned Dweller using the two Ishizus, set Cryme and passed.

By kaijuing Kalaeidoheart, Cryme, Scream and Perlereino were all inactivated.

However, he did have Mudora in the Grave, which meant I had no plays. Once the Bystials come out I will replace BLS with them, which lets me play through this.

[Doppleganger]

Aside from Artemate Slay and Dogmatika Punishment, is there another way to pitch Garden Rose Maiden into the grave?

There is a loop possible with Baronne, Hot Red Abyss, and Shenshen:

-Baronne summons Abyss from the Grave
-Shenshen brings back Jet Synchron
-Summon Baronne with Shenshen + Jet Synchron
-Search Junk
-Summon Shenshen back next turn

I beat a Myutant player using such a setup, summoning Speeder, making Chaos Ruler then adding THUNDER DRAGONHAWK to hand while milling Dragondark and Dragonroar.

This had me realize that Speeder, Converter's deck thinning, alongside something like a Gold Sarc, removes basically all bricks from the deck in an instant.

The only issue is there's no draw cards bar the random Pot of Desires to take advantage of it.

[Emi]

Nadir's Servant, Zaborg (lol), and Extra Foolish Burial come to mind

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Emi

Extra Foolish Burial

Wow.

They over-nerfed the heck out of this one. Considering how good Burial and Goods are, this is a real disappointment.

Literally no deck would run this over, say, Pot of Extravagance.

...

What's up with Adamancipators? The deck is as dumb as it was last year, they don't seem to have suffered any hits at all.

[Emi]

I have no idea Adamancipator is just allowed to exist I guess.

[Doppleganger]

Well, to detail what it's doing, it's running 50-60 card decks with the Ishizus to turbo mill rocks for Block Dragon.

The goal is to open Koa'ki Meiru Guardian, then just spam Ishizus until Block Dragon gets milled then Link Geonator Transverser with it to search out the Adamancipators.

The original weakness of Adamancipator was they were reliant on stringing together excavations, but that's no longer necessary. The excavations are now just icing and the Ishizu cards screw you over.

[Doppleganger]

I was naiive. And close-minded.

I had speculated that i could use the Sprights but it never really came together how, but I see it now.

Junk Synchron + Maxx "C" or Junk Converter + Unown Synchron = Spright Elf
Spright Elf + Maxx "C" = Gigantic Spright
Overlay Downerd Magician
Overlay Zeus

It's a 5 mat Zeus, unfortunately not strong enough for 3 procs of Zeus's ability, but still really strong. Don't think Downerd is necessary actually.

[Doppleganger]

I'm thinking I might main deck Dimension Shifter.

I can actually use it decently thanks to the Thunder Dragons, and Maxx "C" can be chained over it, providing the Level 2 necessary for Junk Synchron to go into Speeder.

My main concern is that it's not really possible to OTK with Level 9 Synchros, although an OTK *IS* possible using Battlewasp Hama if I I can summon a Thunder Dragon, at least Thunder Dragonroar.

[Doppleganger]

I need to think up new combo ideas.

TDS is neat, and competitive. But mostly on the Thunder Dragon side. While Speeder has potential its inability to summon anything but Hot Red Dragon Abyss or Supernova is a big problem, as neither of those bosses are worth the investment.

Baronne herself is really cheap and other decks can summon her more easily than I can!

That said, I have noticed something interesting and may have found the loophole to Speeder's restriction.

There's this card, Chaos Emperor, Dragon of Armageddon.

It's a Pendulum but doesn't operate like one. It can't be Pendulum summoned, but it can Special Summon itself like BLS.

I tested this on EdoPro but it's possible to use something like Nirvana High Paladin, a Synchro Pendulum, in conjunction with Armageddon to Pendulum Summon my entire hand.

None of the Syncho Pendulums are good enough to justify this, however. But it does bypass Junk Speeder's restriction in that I can still Pendulum Summon from the Extra Deck, as long as it's Synchro Monsters.

[Doppleganger]

I got OTK'd by a Thunder Dragon player using Titan, which had me realize that Titan or more specifically Thunder Dragon Fusion fixes one of the issues I've had with TDS where I don't have enough beef to just kill the opponent.

I also realized that Bystial Magnamhut searches Archnemeses Eschatos, so here is my searchable nuke against stuff.

I used Eschatos against Tears and won, considering uploading that battle to YouTube because it's an epic.

Unfortunately it's not looking so hot for Speeder. It's suddenly becoming just one of several plays.

On EdoPro I dropped ROTA for a single copy of Thunder Dragon Fusion. Now even Junk Converter is not so important.

If running Thunder Dragon Fusion I can also use Verte, on top of Gigantic Spright, Spright Elf...oh man this is crazy.

[Doppleganger]

I've still in the low Platinum ranks but the new changes:

+Dimension Shifter
+Archnemeses Eschatos
+Thunder Dragon Titan
+Thunder Dragon Fusion

My main problem was no way to OTK using just Synchos, hence the need for Main Deck support. Bystals aren't here yet, so for the time being Archneses Eschatos is the boss.

And holy heck is it crazy. I went from unable to OTK to OTKing like crazy. Eschatos can banish from the field as well, meaning something as inoccuous as Normal Summon Jet Synchron = OTK with 5 bosses.

I learned this strategy from that Thunder Dragon OTK! It's possible to summon Colossus twice in one turn, and I learned to do so, beating Runick and Phantom Knights.

With my play on EdoPro, with x3 Gold Sarc I can actually, semi-consistently, beat the full power Tearlaments bot. The bot struggles to deal with Bystial Magnamhut and so do the players.

I was Googling the Bystials and stumbled on a Reddit post ranting about Magnamhut (originally, I focused on Baldrake and Druiswurm) and only through the realization Eschatos is searchable, from the Deck or Grave, did I realize Magnamhut is truly bonkers.

Once Bystials are released in Master Duel, I have a swing spot that will go to either Shifter, Ash, or another copy of Radian.

I do wish Gold Sarc was upped to 2. Also, I got rid of Junk Converter, as it's just too much of a minus and too easily disrupted.

[Doppleganger]

I tested the roided-out TDS with Halq.

I now realize that Chaos Ruler is so much stronger than even Baronne. The play I always thought was amazing, 3+5+2 = 10 and search Colossus, is actually quite tame compared to 3+5+1 = Chaos Ruler, which is not only an omni-negate in the form of Hot Red, but allows for further extension depending on what gets milled.

Here's two demonstrations going through the different routes:

Junk Speeder
Halqifibrax

Notice I have a light Extra. That is even considering I have Zeus and Downerd Magician in there. While Main Deck space is tight, Extra Deck space is not and there's some room for options.

Baronne is even superflous as I don't easily make Level 10's without a Level 2 Tuner, although her Ignition destruction effect is indispensible. What I'm looking for then is a much desired Level 11 Synchro.

[Doppleganger]

Is there a way for Branded Despia to recycle a banised Lubellion, bar another Lubellion?

[Doppleganger]

I made Platinum II, then fell back to Platinum IV and have been treading water in Platinum III for a few days.

I can beat Tear semi-reliably now, so long as they don't draw or mill godly (one Tear player opened Reinoheart, Herald of Orange, Agido, Cyber-Stein and Ash, milled Exchange of the Spirit along with Kelbek, despite me opening with Dimension Shifter and Maxx "C").

I am sure struggling with Ghoti, and I lost to Icejade and Naturia too.

...

Ultimate Slayer is good if you don't need special space for it

Garden Rose Maiden and Thunder Dragon Colossus have their Graveyard uses, Colossus being fodder for Thunder Dragon Fusion, and GRM is something I've wanted to pitch for free for a while.

The only downside is I'm not able to run enough mass destruction to my liking. Right now, I have:

x3 Evenly Matched
x1 Lightning Storm
x1 Raigeki
x1 HFD

+ Zeus and Archnemeses Eschatos, who are also nukes in their own right.

This isn't enough! I can't even run x2 of Called or Kaijus, deck space is simply too limited.

[Emi]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Is there a way for Branded Despia to recycle a banised Lubellion, bar another Lubellion?

Don't believe so no.

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

I made Platinum II, then fell back to Platinum IV and have been treading water in Platinum III for a few days.

I can beat Tear semi-reliably now, so long as they don't draw or mill godly (one Tear player opened Reinoheart, Herald of Orange, Agido, Cyber-Stein and Ash, milled Exchange of the Spirit along with Kelbek, despite me opening with Dimension Shifter and Maxx "C").

I am sure struggling with Ghoti, and I lost to Icejade and Naturia too.

...

Ultimate Slayer is good if you don't need special space for it

Garden Rose Maiden and Thunder Dragon Colossus have their Graveyard uses, Colossus being fodder for Thunder Dragon Fusion, and GRM is something I've wanted to pitch for free for a while.

The only downside is I'm not able to run enough mass destruction to my liking. Right now, I have:

x3 Evenly Matched
x1 Lightning Storm
x1 Raigeki
x1 HFD

+ Zeus and Archnemeses Eschatos, who are also nukes in their own right.

This isn't enough! I can't even run x2 of Called or Kaijus, deck space is simply too limited.

How has Nibiru felt to use? It might be you need something like 3 evenly 3 nibiru