Well...

I'm playing yu-gi-oh again...because this game.

I have moved, and you may be disappointed.

http://et3rnal13log.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/introduction-to-my-et3rnal13log/ I no longer play yu-gi-oh gaiz. Sorry, but it's been a long time coming, and I feel like I've been out of the game long enough to where I can say it for sure.

With that said, my final thoughts on Yu-gi-oh as a game. It's been a fun ride that's pretty much scoped a good 12 or so years of my life. There's a lot memories that I have with the game, and some life long friends that I've gained because of it. I know there's probably still a social stigma about the game, but no amount of heckling can make me ashamed to say that I loved the game and the friends I got out of it.

In terms of the competitive game, it's going in good places. I know a lot of people didn't think too highly of ARG when I left, but I genuinely feel that they've done good for the game. I'm also excited to see where Jeff Jones and Alexander Vansant go with their new store. I'm really hoping we see them branch off with the same sort of content and tournaments that we see from ARG. With that said, I've met both of them a few times, and they definitely seem like the type of guys that will follow through with their goals and what they want to accomplish, I have nothing but respect for them.

At the end of the day though, it's important to remember that it's just a game. As big as a part of your life it may be, that's all it is.

~E.P.B.

The Big March of the Yu-gi-oh decks

So, some interesting developments happened this weekend.  On the one hand, March 2013s top deck at the moment has been defined as Mermails.  Not really a big surprise there, since it was a pretty obvious choice for best deck of the format, at least for right now.  A lot of people aren't focusing on these results as much, since one HA and Tachyon comes out the whole thing changes.  Me?  I'm just biding my time until that happens, but I really don't want to think about it (running Dragunity, needing to buy three Tempest once Tachyon drops).

As many people know, Mermail is basically a big bully, making aggressive plays while seemingly punishing the opponent for doing anything.  I know a lot of people are saying the Undineless build gets much worse once Ophion comes out, and although that is true, it's kind of sad since the Undineless variant of Mermails is so good.  Regardless, Mermails are here and will be here to stay.

One of the most interesting decks to make it's way out of the weekend was the Electrum Cannon deck that came out of the weekend.  For those of you who don't know about it, you can read more on it and see the list here http://blog.coretcg.com/innovating-a-weapon-electrum-cannon-otk/.  One of the things I like the most about this deck is that it doesn't focus exclusively on the OTK, giving it more options and functionality.  Like the article points out, I think the true star of the deck is Card Car D, as it feels like the deck would not work without it.  Why?  Because Card Car D fills dual rolls and fills those rolls better than any other card can.  It let's you play the control game, and lets you play the build the OTK game.  Sadly, as fun as this looks I don't think it will be dominating any events any time soon, but it is nice to see some awesome rogue options appearing, and it's all ways nice to see a non-standard hero deck pop up.

One of the other rising stars of the weekend was Lancer Frogs.  The deck has been breaking through in a good number of events this weekend, going from what was seemingly obscurity into the spotlight.  I've only played against the deck a few times, but my win record against it isn't too impressive (if at all, although to be fair, the person playing the deck at my locals has a ton of experience with it, and topped the recent Detroit regional...he's really good with the deck).  From what I understand, the deck apparently has a good match against the field of Mermails, but I think that limiting the estimation of the deck to just having a good match-up is a mistake, the deck has a ton of solid plays backing it.  We've seen a couple of variants of Frogs pop up, from Lancer to Slushy, the deck seems to be on the rise.  Once HA hits, I think the deck will fall back to where it was, again due to the Ophion control option, but I wouldn't count the deck out even after that.

Fire Fist.  When I stopped writing earlier this year, and Cosmo Blazer was just released, a lot of people were worried that Fire Fist would be regulated to being the over hyped deck of the set (much like Hieratics were).  I know some people are probably thinking I'm crazy for saying that, but a lot of people really were implying that until the deck saw future releases that it wouldn't be good.  At this point the deck is fairly strong, but an optimal build still hasn't been completely decided for the deck, and oddly enough I don't think it will have a set standard until Tachyon hits, and the TCG hopefully gets some of the cards it needs. Other than that, it's been interesting to see some of the tech cards pop up here and there in the deck, DNA Surgery was an interesting choice.

So yeah, seems like everything I missed.  I understand that other decks are also doing well this format, but this recap was for me to get some of my thoughts straight on this format.

This Week...

Will be my last week on hiatus.  I just have to finish up doing a couple more research projects and then Spring Break.  So I'll probably be pumping a lot out once that starts to make up for the lack of writing I've done this past month.  Also, looked like my friends were right on the Undine-less Mermail call.

With a regional coming up this week, I'm hoping to run this:

Click the image to see it better.  I don't want to go through too much about the deck, but one of the things that bugs me is Garunix basically turns the game into a race and I'm not sure against some decks I'd be able to win that race.

Also, with the release of Tachyon Galaxy in the OCG, Dragunity are seeing more play and are getting a bit of hype.  My build for that, once that set drops for the TCG, will probably look like this:

Tempest is supposed to add a lot of consistency to the deck, something that makes me a bit excited.   I've never felt like the deck had consistency issues in the months that I've played it up until now, but Tempest does add a little bit, and even that helps. I'm going with double Tempest and double Sarc because, as good as the Sarc play is, I feel like trip Sarc and trip Tempest would hit more dead draws and take up deck more deck space, neither of which are positive things.

~E.P.B.

Podcast Happening

The usual drill.  Watch on Twitch TV, being live streamed.

http://www.twitch.tv/et3rnalphoenix13#

Will be up on my Youtube channel later.

Hard Times

Sorry I haven't updated anything this past week.  It's been really difficult since my classes are picking up.  At the moment, I have to write two-5 page (not that much though) assignments, memorize all of the bones and their characteristics in the upper body, and complete an annotated bibliography for one of my other classes, as well as keeping up on the readings for all of those classes (and prepare for a few exams).

 Figured I'd let people know what's going on. I will be doing another podcast this week, so in case you missed it, here is last weeks:

~Et3rnal13

Podcast Going Live Soon.

Just waiting for people to get on.  Basically, we will be discussing yu-gi-oh stuff.  Put it on a listen to it in the background or something.  There won't be much video, unless I switch over to show my screen if we are talking about some sort of obscure card. Thanks for watching and listening, I want to do this once a week.

Here are the links:

http://www.twitch.tv/et3rnalphoenix13  - to listen to it live

http://www.youtube.com/eternalbuysafish - to listen when I upload it.