Player Interview: Edmund  “Unsunghero” Lim
1^st Place Champion

2004 Duel Masters Gen Con So Cal Championship

By Christina “cecillbill” Page

World of Books in San Leandro California should consider changing its name to “World of Winners.” Two of the store’s seasoned Duel Masters players, Unsunghero and LifeStream who both played Water/Nature decks, dominated the So Cal Duel Master Championship with 1^st and 3^rd place finishes respectively. Unsunghero emerged victorious over 11 duelists, demonstrating that his ability to adjust his playing style to tackle the situation at hand was a quality befitting a Champion. Perhaps Edmund “Unsunghero” Lim should consider a name change as well. No longer shall his accomplishments or views on the game go unsung…

cecillbill: How long have you been playing Duel Masters? What piqued your interest in this game?

Unsunghero: I've been playing since it came out. There was a lot of hype for it to dethrone Yu-Gi-Oh! where I play. Well it wasn't the show, because I don't have cable so I've never seen the show. I probably got interested in the fact that it was a game Wizards of the Coast made to compete with Yu-Gi-Oh! and that it was popular in Japan. I do play a few card games from time to time, namely Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, VS System, Initial D, and Pokemon.

cecillbill: What is the meta like at your local stomping ground? Do you regularly finish in the top bracket at your local store?

Unsunghero: I don't really see the game as having too much of a meta right now. That may be because there aren't more than a dozen people that play in my area. Basically everyone in my playgroup is pretty competitive to me. I play at a store in San Leandro, called World of Books. The tournament scene died down a bit, most of the time people are just playing for fun in between rounds other games. I'm trying to get it started up again, so hopefully this interview will spark some interest.

cecillbill: What do you think is the most important aspect of deck building?

Unsunghero: Play testing! Unless you are some sort of card guru that can simulate card combinations and possibilities in your head you need to play test. When I use to play Yu-Gi-Oh! I was part of a group, Avalanche, we were pretty well known. Play testing is what got us there. We were just more prepared than most people and it made things a lot easier for us.

cecillbill: What do you consider to be the best card for each civilization? The worst? Why?

Unsunghero: Well with such a small pool of cards currently there are some cards in each civilization that do stand out. Normally I wouldn't comment on "staple" cards, because I feel it is more of a preference call.

Water- Crystal Lancer is my favorite, and wish I got some foils of this card for winning. But the best card is probably Corile. Just think about it, if it cost 4 then it'd be broken. The worst card is probably Aqua Shooter now that Aqua Guard is out. You are paying 3 extra mana for 1000 attack power and so that it can attack.

Light- I like Alcadeias a lot; I'll probably try to make a control deck with him. As for the best card, probably Ladia Bale or Holy Awe. Light gets one of the best shield triggers and the strongest 6-drop evo. Worst card, Laser Wing, with Diamond Cutter and Light being so blocker heavy Laser Wing is out dated compared to Diamond Cutter.

Nature- The best card is hands down Dual Fang. I hate having to go up against this guy; he usually attracts another 1 or 2 of his friends to join in. The worst is probably Aurora of Reversal; I can't see any reason that makes this card worth it.

Dark- Terror Pit, of course. Ghastly Drain is pretty useless; pretty much any card that gets rid of your shields for you without some game breaking effect is useless.

Fire- Valdios is really awesome. The worst card is Artisan Picora. I'd rather run Deadly Fighter Braid Claw than that guy. Losing mana for pretty much any monster that will have summoning sickness is a waste, unless they are game breaking.

As you can see from some of my responses, I'm a strong advocate for the Evo set. The only card I added from the 3rd set was Mana Nexus. 

cecillbill: I read on Realms that you believe Rampage had little to offer top tier decks. What cards, if any, from that set do you consider worth playing and why?

Unsunghero: Well for blue I think Emeral is overrated, I like Mana Nexus much better. Sundrop Armor is pretty good for Light. The Jack Viper should've been enough to make Darkness stronger. Gigamantis made mono-Green possible, but not strong enough for me to use.

cecillbill: What do you think are the most metagame changing cards in sets 2-4?

Unsunghero: Evolutions hands down. I'd like someone to show me a tier 1 deck without any evolutions. Other than Diamond Cutter decks, which fall to Crystal Paladin, none of the deck without evolutions are quick enough. Diamond Cutter is pretty much the only deck that can go without evolutions, but I think it needs Ladia Bale, so that is just me.

cecillbill: Several players in the online DM community have expressed concern over DM’s 60 card sets, asserting that smaller sets hurt Duel Masters’ popularity and game play. Do you think Duel Masters sets should be bigger?

Unsunghero: That is hard to say, the demographic they are aim toward seem somewhat oblivious to its existence. I might be biased in this observation, but I work as a Chess Teacher to a lot of elementary school kids. When I mention Duel Masters they are like: “HUH?” But if you say Yu-Gi-Oh! Then they are like, "Oh, do you have any God Cards?" I think a lot players that play other games such as Magic are put off by the demographic and the lack of counter play during your opponents turn, other than shield triggers. I've heard that "quick play cards," will be introduced shortly. I think DM is a pretty balanced game, the shield trigger aspect frustrates some people, I say just run more. I like how all cards can be used as mana, and how your opponent gets more cards as you break more shields and get closer to winning.

cecillbill: Do you think Blockers are worth playing with or not?

Unsunghero: Well no offence to anyone that runs Light or blockers, but Crystal Paladin just devastates decks with them. If I see a hint of a Light blocker, then it is going to be over really quick. Blockers aren't threats. Light’s blockers are though, with Diamond Cutter and the ability to attack monsters. I run enough blockers myself that I'm not vulnerable to rush decks, and not too much that I don't have threats on the field.

cecillbill: You mentioned that you run just enough blockers not to be mauled by Rush. What blockers do you consider playable and why?

 Unsunghero: Well in my Championship deck I run 4 blockers, 2 Marine Flowers and 2 Hunter Fish. Both are relatively cheap in cost, so I don’t hesitate to drop my Crystal Paladin. Most of the time I have the luxury of re-dropping the blockers I bounced. With the addition of Shadowclash’s Aqua Guard, my Marine Flowers are easily out dated. So my deck should be stronger with some upgrades from that set.

cecillbill: What were your initial impressions of how Shadowclash would impact the meta?

Unsunghero: After the weak impact Rampage had I'm glad Shadowclash was released. The Evo set easily overshadowed the Rampage set. I think that mono decks are possible now, if they aren't I'll be really surprised. Hydro Hurricane could be broken. Alcadeias might usher a new era of control decks. Ballom has a pretty nasty effect and puts Vampire Silphy to shame. Niofa champions Nature nicely. I think red got the short end of the stick this time. The only really good card I see is Mega Detonator, which could replace Snake Attack. Losing cards from your hand is a lot better than losing a shield.

cecillbill: What is your opinion on ST creatures? Which ones do you think are worth playing?

Unsunghero: I like the Shield Trigger creatures. I think there is a lot of potential in them. You could run a deck close to full of Shield Trigger creatures/spells, and then you wouldn’t be hindered by the lack of shield triggers down. I think it deserves some play testing. I didn’t have any Aqua Jolters until I got my packs for winning. After inserting them my deck seemed faster, but I still have to test it out because I have too many 3 drops.

cecillbill: When it comes to creatures like Aqua Hulcus and Hypersquid Walter where they have similar effects for the same price but one could net more use of its effect, which do you consider best to run and why?

Unsunghero: Well I feel a lot of these cards like Hypersquid, Silver Axe, and Laguna, Lightning Enforcer aren’t efficient. I rather have the card or mana right away, rather than wait a turn, mainly due to summoning sickness. However, if they were evos this would be a different story. In the case of Laguna, which I think I saw in the Indy Champion’s Diamond Cutter deck, I feel it is too slow and not worth 5 mana. If I really wanted a spell I’d just tutor it with Logic cube--with 2 mana to spare. Besides you rarely use the above mentioned monsters affects more than twice. The only way to use it multiple times is if they are defended. They are too vulnerable and slow, the payouts only out weigh the cost if they are on the field long enough.

cecillbill: What deck types have you heavily tested to solid success? What do you find essentially puts them over the top?

Unsunghero: I've run a Diamond Cutter deck, it is good, but isn't much fun to play. The threat of all your blockers attacking puts a nice amount of pressure on your opponents. When the Indy Champions deck was released I was surprised that he didn't run Ladia Bale. I've tested the deck against mine and if a Crystal Lancer comes out you are in serious trouble. So having Ladia Bale really helps if you need to take out larger threats. Although you could just use the Gran Gure, I like Ladia because it is much faster. A much stronger variation of the Diamond Cutter deck is a control variation that one of the Kaijudo Masters, Damon, was running. At the time he said it was undefeated, and it was pretty strong last time I saw it.

cecillbill: Crystal Lancer or Crystal Paladin?

Unsunghero: Hmm, well Paladin is more versatile; he is essentially an unblockable creature, as LifeStream points out. He is quicker than Lancer, but at a mere 5000 attack power he isn’t that great. Against green, Barkwhips can suicide to take them out, or if two Barkwhips emerge the Paladin is dust. I wish it had 6000atk so it could take out Valdios. Lancer being unblockable guarantees a hit to 2 shields or takes out a tapped monster. I don’t always need either evos to win, but they are my pocket aces.

cecillbill: Holy Awe or Terror Pit as splash?

Unsunghero: When I went to the Duel Masters Mall Tour in Santa Rosa I had the honor in playing the Kaijudo Masters. While talking to Damon, one of the Kaijudo Masters, he was telling me that Spiral Gates are inferior to Terrors Pits, and I've been using them ever since. It is funny when people look down on my deck for lack of Spiral Gates and Natural Snares. With Evos out and about Spiral Gate was a small hindrance to the rapid threat of Evos. I'm not sure if Pits or Awes are better, there are situations where I wish I had Awes, and others where I'm glad I have Pits. Terror Pits just fit into my current deck and playing style. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

[cecillbill’s note: Playing some games versus Damon Edmondson at Gen Con Indy was a wonderful experience. His advice is invaluable. He's one of the people everyone should meet and duel when they attend big level DM events.]

cecillbill: Why did you choose to run Water/Nature at the championships?

Unsunghero: I’ve been running this deck since Evo, and I’m comfortable with it. I’ve tweaked it slowly to deal with multiple threats, and I can compensate for some weaknesses with the style in which I play.

cecillbill: What do you consider to be the key cards of your deck and why?

Unsunghero: Well there aren’t any cards that are imperative; I need all the cards to work properly for me to win. Key cards only emerge from certain match ups and opponents playing style. My deck doesn’t perform the same against every deck; so the cards I need and the way I play them differ from deck to deck. But I guess there are a few cards I use pretty much every game, Bronze-Arm Tribe, Aqua Hulcus and Crystal Lancer.

cecillbill: I read that Shadowclash hadn't arrived in your area prior to the Championships. If you could have tested some Shadowclash cards for your deck, which ones would you have tested?

Unsunghero: Well in my deck Aqua Guard, basically an upgrade of Marine Flower. This also allows me to drop Crystal Paladin and Crystal Lancer earlier, so my deck should be better with them. Aqua Jolter might be good, but Aqua Hulcus is better at the 3 drop. You can’t complain about having a Shield Trigger Liquid People though. I have to play test Aqua Jolter a little, he might throw off the chemistry of my deck.

cecillbill: Let's address the 'most surprising' addition to your W/N build, Thought Probe. Many players would have gone with 4 copies of Brain Serum or even 2 Crystal Memory before Thought Probe. Why did you decide to give the situational draw spell a shot in your deck? Did your decision have anything to do with anticipating Shield Trigger creatures or Rush decks?

Unsunghero: Thought Probe, to most people it may seem like a VERY conditional card. They are right in that assessment, but there is more than meets the eye there. In conjunction with Brain Serum you can choose which one to use, weighing on whether or not you can trigger the Thought Probe effect. If you cannot execute the effect of Thought Probe, you can simply play it as mana. The effects of Thought Probe should not be dismissed as minuscule; one card makes a very big difference. Assuming you go first, you start with 5 cards, drop one as mana, so from turn one on the card you draw will go to the mana zone. You will still need to drop a creature pretty much once per turn, so assuming you start dropping a creature turn two, you will be handless on turn 5. During turn 6 you can choose not to drop a mana, and just play a creature. That example is not absolute; I’m just trying to convey a simple universal point in this game.

Back to the Thought Probe, instead dropping a creature on turn 4, playing Thought Probe will net me 3 cards, which will prolong the effects of top decking. Running blockers can create situations where creatures stay on the field shying away from action, which will make it easier to get to that 3-creature parameter. So it comes together for me. I say just try out Thought Probe, if you can’t get it to work, just run Brain Serum. I started this before shield trigger monsters, so it wasn’t in anticipation for them, however it makes it easier to use. The blockers are more for the rush decks, the games I had before without blockers were too close for comfort. I don’t think I could win more than half of the time versus rush decks without blockers. A lot of the red rush decks used Crimson Hammer, which would kill the Marine Flowers but not the Hunter Fish. I also like the variety in using two different blockers. Both are relatively inexpensive, and can easily be re-dropped after Crystal Paladin.

cecillbill: On the other side of the coin are the omissions from your build, chiefly Natural Snare and Fighter Dual Fang. Why did you decide not to include those cards in your deck? Why did you decide to run with the Liquid People over emphasizing the Beast Folk?

Unsunghero: Before Shadowclash I didn’t like to run Natural Snare, Terror Pits get the job done much better. Natural Snare was counterproductive in my eyes, the main reason I run green is to get some mana acceleration. The by-product of Natural Snare is to give my opponent mana, which just cancels out my mana acceleration. Versus a green deck that could be very lethal. Currently Natural Snares could be making a come back. I see them as answers for Alcadeias and Ballom. You can simply Natural Snare Angel and Demon Commands before these big guys come out. I don’t run Dual Fang because I want to concentrate more on the blue side. Dual Fang is a really strong card, and I really wanted to run him, but I wanted some focus. I’ve seen many decks that run Duel Fang and Lancer, I just feel they lack focus.

cecillbill: I also noticed that your Liquid People evo bait-to-evolution ratio doesn't follow the oft-championed "evo pyramid.” Do you think the way you've set it up, where the counts are almost equal, cripples your deck in anyway?

Unsunghero: The reason for my ratio is the way I play. I tend to set down expensive cards as mana, just like most people, but I started to notice that my Lancers would end up going down as mana early. So instead of running a 1:2 ratio I simply put evos down as mana and that kind of deals with the ratio problem. So I guess I just adjust to what I draw, and play accordingly. The way I play it works most of them time, there are situations where I have too many evos down in the mana zone and I wish I ran some cards to retrieve them. For the most part I’m satisfied with that ratio, and it works for me.

cecillbill: You've opted to include blockers in your deck. Do you think you'll drop blockers from this build or change them to a different set?

Unsunghero: I don’t think I’ll drop blockers. I’ve gotten use to how they can help me get into favorable situations. With Aqua Guard replacing Marine Flower I’m doing some experimenting with my Liquid People. I’m not forced to run Aqua Vehicle, so it may open up some possibilities.

cecillbill: Without revealing to much "top secret" information, do you see anything that needs to be "tightened" with your build?

Unsunghero: Well there isn’t really any top secret information, you could ask LifeStream or anyone in my group. I play my deck differently all the time, although against certain match ups I’m forced to play a certain way. My deck has some of the tools to be adaptive and an affinity for control. I can’t say that it’ll remain this way. I don’t see any quick solution for Ballom or Alcadeias. I can’t Terror Pit Alcadeias, so I’ll have to either Corile him or Corile any Angel Commands and try to end the game quick. Against Ballom I could Terror Pit him, after he nukes everything on my side of the field. None of my current monsters like Crystal Lancer can go toe-to-toe with either of these behemoths. So I’m going to have to play test against a lot of these new cards. I feel this is like another Evo set, its effects will be long lasting. Although I haven’t taken a look at the next 2 sets to come.

cecillbill: What decks did you expect to encounter at So Cal?

Unsunghero: Well right off the bat I was expecting some Diamond Cutter decks because it won in Indy. I wasn’t worried about any deck with blockers, especially any yellow decks. I think decks with green, or mono-green where the decks I had to worry about. I’ve seen a decent amount of mono-color decks to know that I probably won’t lose 2 games to one of those decks. I was expecting more of the new cards to dominate, but I didn’t see any Alcadeias or Ballom. I wasn’t able to acquire any of the new cards, so I thought my deck was going to be out dated, but it still held up like it did 2 sets ago. I was reading on the forums how some of the players were tweaking their decks to beat the players there. So they weren’t expecting my deck and LifeStream’s deck. Where I normally play my deck has stayed pretty much the same after playing decks prior to Shadowclash. I felt confident that my deck could handle a wide array of decks.

cecillbill: After playing in some of the Constructed events at So Cal, what did you think of your chances in the Championship?

Unsunghero: Well the first event I played at Gen Con was the Championships. I wasn’t anticipating playing DM. Once I saw there were only a dozen players I was pretty relived. After seeing other tournaments that lasted 7 or more rounds I was glad this wasn’t going to be a grueling marathon.

cecillbill: What did you consider to be the worst matchup for your deck and why?

Unsunghero: Well the only decks that I’ve played against that have at least a 50/50 chance is any deck with some green. The green seems to cancel out my mana acceleration. I run a majority of blue, with green mainly for mana acceleration. Against Lifestream’s deck, which is a majority of green, with blue for other reasons. He can easily keep up with my deck, making it more of a Blue deck with Terror Pits versus a Green deck with Holy Awes. I’m sure there are some other decks that would create a bad match up for me, but the one that sticks out is green.

cecillbill: Can you describe the most engaging matchup that you had in the Championship?

Unsunghero: Pretty much any match I played against LifeStream was challenging. I know his deck like the back of my hand; he knows mine like the back of his hand. The scary thing is the potential our decks are capable of; our decks can both end the game quickly and hang on for a comeback. Other than his deck, I played Josh’s mono-black deck in the first round. I saw some of the new cards and I was hoping he wouldn’t drop a Ballom and wreck my field control.

cecillbill: Who did you play test with for the events at Gen Con? How much time did you spend play testing?

Unsunghero: LOL. This is actually kind of funny. I didn't intend on playing DM at Gen Con. I was planning to play in the VS 10k, but due to lack of actual play testing I was left undecided. I got in Anaheim on Friday night, and we had 8 people packed into one Motel 6 room. We were all frantically practicing for the morning. LifeStream didn't have any deck other than his DM deck, so he asked me to play. We played 2 matches, he takes the first one 2-1, and then I take the second one 2-1. Then it struck me to play DM in the morning. I was going to check out the prize support, and if I got pretty much anything then I'd play. So in the mad rush to get to Gen Con in the morning I scouted out the area, and they told me there was a trophy and plaque. That was good enough for me.

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I’d like to thank Unsunghero for taking the time to answer many rounds of questions, for passing along some “upcoming tidbits” about the game, and for taking my favorite decktype, Water/Nature, to the top! Great job!