Deck profile: Evolsaurs

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've blogged but holidays is here and I'll kick things off with a deck profile of a theme that I personally enjoy playing. The Evolsaur/Evoltile archetype involves using reptiles and dinosaurs to xyz into the mighty Evolzar monsters Lggia and Dolkka. The theme is based on evolution with reptiles (Hence Evoltile a mixture of the words evolution and reptile) and Evolsaur (dinosaur + evolution). Some have compared the Evolsaur theme to the Gladiator Beast theme ( I shall soon be doing a deck profile of this deck too) in the sense that the Evolsaur monsters must be brought out by the effects of an Evoltile monster to gain their effect.

That is the first draft of my Evolsaur deck.

Evolsaur Cerato- A solid monster at 1900 attack points and a nice effect where if it was summoned by an evoltile it's attack goes up by 200 and every time it destroys a monster by battle you can search an evoltile to your hand. Sweet effect in my opinion.

Evolsaur Diplo- When this guy is summoned by an evoltile effect he destroys one spell/trap on the field. Useful for clearing the path for your Evolzar summons.

Evolsaur Vulcano- This is perhaps my favourite Evolsaur, when he's summoned by an Evoltiles' effect he can pull an Evolsaur from the graveyard. By summoning Vulcano you can instantly xyz into any rank 4 of your choice.

Evoltile Westlo- The recruiter of the deck and possibly the most solid opening move you can make in this deck is just setting Westlo and one other spell/trap. 1900 Defense makes this guy really solid and when he's flipped he brings out an Evolsaur monster for an instant +1

Evoltile Najasho- Najasho is perhaps the best and worst monster you can have. When combined with Enemy controller or Evo-force, Najasho becomes your best Evoltile monster but without those 2 spell cards he really is just a dead monster with a solid body at 2000 defense.

The only spell I'm really going to explain is Evo-force and Evo-Diversity since the rest are generic and you can tweak some spells/traps around if you find that they don't suit your playstyle.

Evo-force- A power card for this deck. When combined with Najasho this card can potentially be a +2 if used correctly, I'll explain a bit further down how this can happen. You can tribute any Evoltile monster for this card to bring out an Evolsaur but you'll most likely want to tribute Najasho if you can since Najasho will trigger and allow you to special summon another Evolsaur from the deck.

Evo-Diversity- This card adds so much consistency to a deck that lacks consistency. The general idea of yugioh themes is that any deck with their own spell search card is destined to do well. Well this deck has its own one too, Evo-diversity can search out any evolsaur or evoltile monster. The only drawback is that you can only activate one per turn but to me that's no big deal at all. You want most of your Evolsaur monsters in your deck unless you can guarantee an xyz summon and if you search an Evoltile you're most likely going to just set it anyway.

So as I said earlier the main function of this deck is to gain card advantage with the Evolsaur effects and using the Evoltile monsters to trigger those effects. You want to xyz into Evolzar Laggia or Dolkka as soon as possible to create pressure for your opponent to deal with it as soon as possible whilst drawing into more ways to make extra Evolzars to back your current Evolzar. Once you stick an Evolzar on the field you want to back it up with about 2-3 spells/traps. You don't need to fear petty cards like heavy storm as your laggia will keep you safe from it. And don't worry too much about your opponent using monster effects or trying to destroy your Laggia through battle because your back row will usually protect your Laggia. It's a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours situation. Once you summon Dolkka and Laggia and both of them have their effects it's usually game over for your opponent unless they have a crazy hand. Never be afraid to lose card presence to xyz into Laggia or Dolkka as they will usually make up for the -1 they cost you to summon with their negating abilities.

As I said earlier there is a combo to +2 with Evo-force and Najasho. Let's say you have two Evolsaur monsters in your graveyard.

-Summon Najasho and use Evo force (-2)
- Summon 1 Evolsaur Vulcano with Najashos ability and another Evolsaur Vulcano with Evo force's effect. (+/- 0)
-Use both Vulcanos' to bring back two Evolsaur monsters from your graveyard (+2)
 From there you could attack but I highly recommend you don't as the monsters brought back with Evolsaur Vulcano cannot attack. The best option is to bring out Laggia and Dolkka or double Laggia if you think that's what the situation calls for. In any case you just turned 2 extremely redundant cards into 2 massive bosses. One that is known as the 'walking solemn judgment' (Laggia)

Anyways I hope I managed to convince you of the strength and potential that lies within Evolsaurs. The deck does have its awkward hands like every other deck but it is one of the more efficient ways of bringing out Laggia/Dolkka.
See you next time on Gladiator Beasts.

Winning Games and Taking Names

Hey guys, how was your long weekend? Mine was pretty good. On Monday it started pouring in the morning and i honestly did not want to spend the day out in the cold so when my friend Jason told me that Parramatta would be holding an extra tournament for the long weekend I was like hell yeah. I showed up a bit early and did a bit of trading and pre tournament practicing. Finally everybody showed up and to my relief Wayne did not. Which meant that I had a legitimate attempt at first place today. I prepared myself mentally just like every other tournament I participate in. Then decided to go with Inzektors for the deck of my choice.
Match 1: Dino Rabbit
I was rather excited about this round as I had never versed Dino rabbits in real life before. Sadly the guy ran a really sub-par build and this is how it went.
Round 1:
He drew no monsters for the first few rounds so I beat him down with inzektor monsters while gaining card advantage. By the time he drew a monster I solemn warning-ed it for game.
Round 2:
This one wasn't too hard either, he summoned Cardcar D and drew two cards off it's effect and then from there i just beat him down with inzektors until he drew rescue rabbit which I solemn warning-ed
Match 2: Chaos dragons
The kid was talking about how he beat me yesterday (I joined a tournament on Sunday too) and how this is my chance to get revenge which I honestly did not care about lol.
Anyways onto business.
Round 1:
He hit me pretty hard early in the game with a REDMD and lightpulsar but I conserved my cards and began to combo off for the One Turn Kill. Sadly I misplayed and left him on 100lps. He did manage to recover a little but a simple swing with my Leviathan dragon next turn easily clinched the game.
Round 2:
After some intense thinking about what to side in and out, we started round 2. I managed to open up with some nice side deck cards such as Dimensional prison and my threatening roar (I main deck 2 though 3 is just for Chaos dragons which rely heavily on blasting out over 5000 point worth of damage in one go). A nice lock down with dimensional prison combined with multiple copies of threatening roar made round 2 rather simple for me.

The good thing about Chaos dragons is that they don't main deck traps so you'll be safe in that area and most builds won't run mystical space typhoon so feel free to set 2 traps or more if you're daring. In game 1 I like to trigger cards like threatening roar and compulsory evacuation device so that my opponent gets the impression that my traps are chainable. That way in round 2 I can side in continuous spells/traps such as dimensional prison or rivalry of the warlords. By the time they realise they need their MST's I would have already combo-ed off for game or assembled enough cards to play smoothly.

Match 3: Chaos dragons (again)
Round 1:
He over powered me with dragons and his in-hand effect veiler and D.D crow was too much for me to push through. He eventually just beat me down to 0Lps
Round 2:
This duel went on FOREVER. I drew some nice side deck cards such as fossil dyna, and my other copy of threatening roar, my dimensional fissure. Eventually he had a set monster, Lightpulsar, REDMD, Photon Strike Bounzer on the field staring me down. I managed to fend off two potential deaths with threatening roars and flipped Fossil Dyna to destroy all his monsters and swing for game.
Round 3:
This one was interesting for me because time ran out. Which meant that we had 5 turns before the winner was decided. Whoever had the least life points by 5 turns lost. I was freaked out because Chaos Dragons are notorious for dropping heaps of damage without notice. Thankfully for me dimensional prison kept him at bay and he drew no good cards. I attacked with centipede which he responded to with a Gorz drop. I used Dark hole and from there he forfeited due to bad draws. Close call !

Match 4: Lightsworn/Lightrays (Finals)
I had beaten this kid before so I didn't get too worked up about this match up
Round 1:
The guy summone Lyla on turn 1 and I set sangan with no s/t as I didn't want to lose any to Lyla. Little did I know that was  HUGE mistake as he took advantage of that next turn and killed me.
Round 2:
Some serious siding in went down on my part but he chose not to. I started an easy lock down with Dimensional Prison and Fossil Dyna which caused him to have nothing to do since he couldn't special summon or mill cards. His deck was in perfect lock down from where I sat. When the pieces were assembled I combo-ed off and killed him quickly.
Round 3:
He milled really fast, like over 1/3 of his deck was gone by his second turn. Luckily for me he decided to hold out on any big plays so I took advantage of that and combo-ed off for game.

So there you have it, I piloted Inzektors to first place and claimed my $20 prize money. I'm happy to win of course as I profited some money but I didn't beat Wayne which probably won't happen for a while. All in all it was a good day, I brought some cards at very reasonable prices and even received a few goodies off my friends.

Tournament Report - 10th June 2012

Alex and I went to Good Games in the city to participate in a tournament, with a $15 buy in. He was running Inzektors, and I was running a Chaos Dragons build incorporating Lightsworns and Judgment Dragon that we built on the train. Both of us ended up 2-2, pretty disappointing results overall for the both of us. Even for my first live event, I feel like I underperformed considering I did make a few misplays which I was able to pick out.

The tournament was in Swiss format, with the best 4 out of 10 participants moving onto the finals.

Match 1 - vs Nathan (Dino Rabbit)
Game 1: I don't remember if I won the diceroll or not, but he opened with Rabbit and Lance and I had no real mill outlets in my hand so his Laggia controlled the board pretty hard. I managed to mount a small comeback with a well timed Red Eyes, sweeping his monsters by baiting Laggia's negation with a Monster Reborn I didn't care about anyway, but he topdecked a Tour Guide into Leviair into Rabbit, and then the game was over.

Game 2: Once again I opened poorly (despite siding in three Mystical Space Typhoons, two Spirit Reapers and two Soul Takers), but going first allowed me to stall a little with Ryko. At one point I was ready to push for game with Red Eyes and Lightpulsar after baiting Laggia negations and reading his backrows correctly. However, when I went for game, I started out with Heavy Storm on his two backrows, straight into a Starlight Road. I lost Red Eyes on the next turn and the game was over quickly. I never saw any of my side decked cards.

Match 2 - vs Connor (Chaos Dragons)
Game 1: I lost the diceroll and he opened with Tour Guide into Zenmaines. I played Ehren, but he Veilered it and I lost Ehren on the next turn. I managed to push through Zenmaines by making it use its effect on itself, and had established presence with Lightpulsar, but he took it out while I had no Red Eyes in the yard and rolled me with his Red Eyes.

Game 2: I went first, and we went blow for blow. He had sided in three Electric Viruses and two Victorias, two of the Viruses were milled by he still hit me pretty hard with the Victorias. Eventually, a timely Chaos Sorcerer drop finally banished his Lightpulsar and I pushed for game.

Game 3: At one point I had an Eclipse Wyvern on the field with Honest in hand and Lance set. He had Lightpulsar, Zenmaines and Red Eyes on the field, and attacked my Wyvern. I made a misplay here - I should have used Honest, but instead I let it fall and every time I tried to come back, his Electric Viruses and Victorias shut me down.

Match 3 - vs Lucas (Blackwings)
Game 1: This guy was a kid and probably not very good at the game, but I decided I wouldn't take him easy. He had a pumped up Sirocco on the field at one point, and even managed to Dark Hole my field of Lightpulsar and Wyvern with no Darkflare or Red Eyes in the yard. I was dangerously low on Life Points at one point, but I dropped BLS and swung for game.

Game 2: He had stalled me for at least 5 turns with a Marshmallon. Instead of waiting for a good topdeck, however, he Tributed the Marshmallon for Sirocco to end the game by swinging at my field. However, I had Honest in hand and won.

Match 4 - vs Roman (Citadel Spellcasters)
Game 1: I won the diceroll and opened strongly, milling Wyvern on the first turn (and Gorz too...). He managed to use Arcane Barrier (or whatever the card is) to draw 4 cards, and nearly gamed me with a souped-up Arcanite Magician, but I just banished it with Chaos Sorcerer and he couldn't come back.

Game 2: I dispatched of his Citadel and Defender pretty early, and I constantly applied pressure with Lightpulsar. I had about 3000 points left from going blow for blow with him. A few turns in, he said "time to try something new..." and he ended up stacking about 4 Spell Counters in one turn on his Arcanite Magician and swinging for 3400 at my points. I was dumbstruck as I reached for my Side Deck.

Game 3: He had little outs to an early Jain, which managed to get some good enough mills that I was able to play beatstick after beatstick whenever he got rid of them and I eventually pushed for game and ended the day 2-2.

I was aware of my misplays in the four matches and I'm working towards rectifying them. I think live practice is very important - there's stuff you can't pick up on in Dueling Network (the wince on the other player's face when he gets poor mills, or the subtle encouragement of attacking into a Mirror Force - 'do you still want to attack?') that you can pick up on in real life. Overall it was a pretty good day and I did manage to get some more experience with Chaos Dragons, though I won't be using the Lightsworn build again probably.

A new addition to the blog - League of Legends and guides to improving

Hello, due to the request of some of my friends I have decided to expand this blog into a more of an overall gaming blog. There are countless of these on the Internet, but this just gives me the opportunity to keep my thoughts written down for reference. League of Legends, for those who don't know, is basically a DotA clone with a large emphasis on teamwork and decision making rather than mechanical ability. It's one of the most popular games in the world, and currently the most popular game in Korea (bigger than Starcraft). I won't go too much into it, because the best way to find out is to just play it yourself.

The following series of posts assumes that you understand how the game works, what all the champions do as well as the current metagame. It also assumes that you have a reasonable level of mechanical skill (and why wouldn't you, the game is easy) and are just looking to improve on aspects of play outside of your mechanical skill.

The first thing I wanted to talk about was analysing the game state. This is easier than it sounds because most players will already make decisions based on the state of the game without realising. Some of the core factors to consider when you analyse the game state follow:

• Cooldowns (regular and summoner spells)
• Timers (buffs, camps, wards)
• Positioning (both in lane and overall)
• MIAs (estimated location, ganking style, ganking ability)
• Lane advantage (items, health, tower)
• Vision (yours and the other team's)

There are more, but those are the basics. An example I taught Michael (NotJim) was a technique I like to call the MIA gambit. It works especially well when you're playing a mid laner with high dueling potential, such as Ahri, Cassiopeia and Ryze, but it works well with anyone who can kill a champion quickly. This play is executed when you have an advantage in lane and you know that you can 1v1 the opposing laner.

The play follows:

• Ward any places that you are likely to be ganked from.
• Push your wave to the enemy tower.
• Go MIA, ensuring the enemy laner can see where you have disappeared into the fog from.
• Find a brush and wait.

 At this point, the enemy laner has three decisions he can make:

• Follow you into the fog to prevent a gank.
• Stay in lane and use the reprieve to get some CS.
• Recall to buy items or heal.

And, your reaction to these actions follows:

• Ambush them in the fog and pick up an easy kill.
• Run behind them in lane as they push forward and kill or force them out of lane.
• Gank a lane, or take dragon.

As you can see, all three paths lead to a victory. This kind of play works exceptionally well against players who don't really understand lane mechanics too well, but it even works on higher level players. League of Legends, at its core, is a game about decision making and snowballing. An advantage turns into a bigger advantage unless you throw it away. How do you throw an advantage? The easiest and most common way is to die. Say you knew that the brush was warded and you camped it anyway. Say the enemy jungler is significantly stronger than yours. Say you weren't winning lane anyway. Any of these happen, and you're going to come out behind. The importance of analysing the game state when making a decision cannot be stressed more.

So, next time you have an advantage, take a moment to think about the game state. How can you turn an advantage into a snowball? If you're behind, how can you take advantage of the opponent's desire to snowball? If I saw that this MIA gambit was being used against me, (through a ward) I would tell my jungler to position himself near the roaming mid laner to sandwich him in a 2v1. I could also waste his time by appearing indecisive as to whether I should farm or roam. In the end though, every player is different. Some will outthink you. This is inevitable - it's only through practice that you can learn to win the game of wits that underlies League of Legends.

However, if your mechanics aren't up to par - say you lose lane every game and your CS sucks, you should just try to improve them. You need to learn how to run laps before you can run a marathon, or run in the Olympics. You need to understand and play Yu-Gi-Oh! at a comprehensive level before you attend a YCS. Mechanical skill is utterly important and will carry you further than metagaming or thinking will.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you look forward to more articles. I'm manisier on the NA server, and I'll be updating this as I give lessons to some players.