Subject: Combos, how to keep cards safe from theives and a rant! yay!
~Cait Sith

Hullo everyone, I am known as Cait Sith a.k.a. Felojiro and this is my

first post on Pojo's Tips section.  In this post, I will address

several issues, make a little bit of ranting (well, maybe not a

little...) and honor you with some overlooked combos that I haven't

seen.

NOTE:  I don't read every tip on Pojo, but I am pretty sure that none

of my combos/tips will be too redundant.  Some of my tips involve

Scapegoat, but rest assured that I wont repeat any common combos that

three-year-olds can figure out.  Yes, we know that you can sacrifice

Scapegoat tokens to Cannon Soldier/Amazon Archer/Hysteric Fairy/The

Little Swordsman of Aile.  Yes we know that if you equip United We

Stand to a monster and then play Scapegoat it gets a 4000 point stat

bonus.  Geez people, think up some original combos and post them, not

some that some people have already figured out BEFORE the sets are

actually released.  Sheesh :\


ANOTHER NOTE:  This is a looooooooooooong post.  I am saving the rant

for next to last, since its probably the longest among anything in

this post.



The Secret of Ekibyo Drakmord

Allow me to introduce you to a highly underrated card, Ekibyo

Drakmord!  I am assuming that you already know what it does.

Basically, it kills anything it is attached to after two turns.  And

the monster it is equipped to cannot attack.  And it is a VERY

underrated card.  I don't think someone would actually do this, but

please dont stick 3 EDs in your deck just because I said so.  ED is a

strategic card, and it's NOT meant for a beatdown deck.  It's meant

for a Stall/Burner deck.  Take a look at the following combo.

Ekibyo Drakmord+Ekibyo Drakmord+Vengeful Bog Spirit

Put down Vengeful Bog Spirit, then stick ED on one of his monsters.

Your opponent is likely going to have one of two reactions.

Reaction #1:  Your opponent doesn't do anything about Drakmord, most

likely because he cant.  He could sacrifice it to perform some type of

summon, but the only good Ritual monster is Relinquished, no one plays

level 7 and up monsters (Except for Barrel Dragon), and the occurance

of level 5 and 6 monsters is slim.  Most beatdowns use two Skulls and

a Jinzo, some use just the Jinzo.  And if your opponant can't counter

it, then s/he is out of luck.  They just let Ekibyo run its course.

If they summon another monster, you stick another ED on it.  Since

your oppnant cannot attack with a monster that s/he just summoned

(Vengeful Bog Spirit) you have effectivly created a lock.  Every time

they summon a monster, you stick Drakmord to it, bacause when a

Drakmorded monster dies from the card, it goes back to your hand.

Everytime they summon a monster, you Drakmord it with the Drakmord

that was most recently returned to your hand.  And your opponant wont

likely be able to do anything about it.  He or she will set their

monsters in defense mode, hoping to throw you off balance.  Of course,

you could toss in Light of Intervention and screw them over.

Reaction #2:  Your opponant sees Drakmord, realises what it is, craps

his pants and uses some sort of removal on it before his monster dies.

  Is that a bad thing?  Drakmord didn't get to kill a creature.  It's

one weakness is that it doesn't do anything IMMEDIATLY...or is that a

weakness?  ED is underrated because people don't know how to properly

use it.  The way to use Drakmord is to act as a DECOY to protect your

stall and permenant burn cards!  If your opponant wastes MSTs on

killing Drakmord, he or she may have no or little removal left to use

on the cards that are REALLY hurting him now.  I mean, ten turns or so

into the above combo, my opponant has several monsters in his

graveyard.  I soul release them away, as well as any M/T removal, thus

preventing a Magician of Faith from being able to save him.  I smack

down Graverobber's Retribution, and during his turn I activate it.  If

he has wasted his removal and you have a good stall defense up, there

is likely nothing your opponant can do but wait til he dies.  Of

course, your opponant could draw the M/T removal he needs...but that's

what counter traps are for. :)  The bottom line is, I'll still be

slowly but surely killing his monsters.  Raigeki, Dark Hole, or

whatever other removal I can muster to kill his monsters, then maybe

another soul release or two.  Toss in another G.Retribution, and your

opponant will be hurting.  The combo can potentially do 4500 LP damage

per standby phase.  And yes, this combo does require a lot of cards,

it really needs to have a deck built around it.  BUT!  By the time the

mid-game rolls around, you will likely have the cards you need,

especially if you use Graceful Charity. :)

More cards to help:

Magician of Faith:  This girl can be absolutely evil in the right

spot.  Use her to get back the Ekibyo Drakmord that your opponant

typhooned and watch as they writhe in agony. >:D Or, snatch back soul

release in late game to increase the damage that your Graverobber's

Retribution does.

Allergy to Simochi:  Nothing is more annoying to me than to face an

opponent that has three Solemn Wishes in his M/T Zone.  Use this

relatively new card to turn the tables.  All life point gains for your

opponant reverses to damage now.  This card has some tight combos with

cards, such as Upstart Goblin, Snatch Steal and The Eye of Truth.  Its

more of a Side deck card unless you use any of these cards.


Still yet more SCAPEGOAT COMBOS

First off, the card is "Scapegoat", not "Scapegoats".  I hear more

people calling the card itself "Scapegoats" than anything.  It's okay

to call the tokens Scapgoats, as there are more than one of them.  But

please people, use the correct name for the card iself.

Secondly, some people are STILL confused on the Scapegoat monster

issue.  Monster Tokens count as monsters in EVERY SINGLE WAY!!  That

means that I can use an equipment magic on it, sacrifice it to an

effect that indicates the sacrificing of monsters, switch it from

attack mode to defense and vice-versa, or even return it to my hand!

Now, when a token is returned to it's owners hand, it is removed from

play (not destroyed).  If you have confusion over this issue, look up

in the most recent Official Rulebook (version 3.0) page 15.  That is

the page that deals with monster tokens.  Anyways, combos ahead!

Someone already mentioned this combo, and it's a very obvious one, but

the person left out a very MAJOR detail in his tip.  Here goes...

Scapegoat+Creature Swap

Yes we all know you can give your opponant a crappy token while you

snatch his best monster.  Now here is the clencher, if you wait a

turn, and put the token in attack mode, THEN swap the monster, you can

attack your opponent's new token with his own monster, and practically

do direct damage.  The major detail the person forgot is that if

Creature Swap is countered, all he or she has done is set themselves

up for a world of hurt, as they have a Scapegoat token in attack mode

and no way to get it back to defense.  So I only advise you to use

that combo if you are pretty sure that your opponant cant counter

Creature Swap or if you have a backup plan like Mirror Force or

Waboku.

Scapegoat+Fiend Megacyber

This is a weird (and not too good) combo.  Its probably best to throw

in The Dark Door to ensure that you dont take too much damage.

Basically toss out Scapegoat and Dark Door and wait for the opponant

to get more monsters than you.  Then smack the crap out of them with

Fiend Megacyber.  Next turn, add Fairy's Meteor Crush, as their

beatdown monsters will likely be in their less that superior defense

positions.  Use some attack protection, some powerups and a magic

jammer, and you have it made.  It's probably better to use Metalmorph,

if you can get them.  Metalmorph plus FMC plus any good beatdown

monster is pretty darn good!  Actually, Holy Knight Perseus and

Metalmorph is good, throw in Light of Intervention (anti-flips) and

Imperial Order (anti-magic) and you have a direct-damaging, card

drawing machine....oooh, I am rambling again.  Weeee :D


Later in the rant I am going to address the issue of theft of

Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards.  In this section I am going to give you some tips on

how to prevent your cards from being stolen.

Now, on with the tips!

Tip#1:  BINDERS ARE BADDDD!  Please people, leave your binders at

home.  All of the cases that I have heard of people getting their

cards stolen is that they are stolen out of a binder.  This is

probably because binders are harder to carry around than a normal

deck.  Decks can fit in pockets.  Binders can't.  And who wants to

carry a binder around a game store for a couple hours, when you can

easily put something in your pocket?  If you really want to take your

cards with you, instead of purchasing a binder and all those card

storage sheets, simply buy a metal or plastic deck carrying case.

These can fit in the pocket of most pants easily, and many hobby shops

sell them.  Simply stick the cards you want to trade away in

protective sleeves and put them in the box.  It's easier than carrying

around a binder, and the reason that cards get stolen out of binders

is that they tend to get left around while the binder's owner sets off

to do something.  With no one looking, it's easy to snatch a card.

And I am sure someone that has stolen a card before is reading this.

I hope this tip will keep your grubby hands from making off with

someone else's rare card.

Tip#2:  If you insist on binders...then get the right kind.  People

are less likely to look through your binder while you aren't paying

attention to them if it's a cloth zip-up binder rather than a hard

plastic one.  I still however, recommend that you keep your rarest

cards in your pockets...unless you are so forgetful that your cards

sometimes end up in the washing machine.  Here is another protective

trick.  Most zip-up binders have two zippers on the same run.  If you

were to use a combination lock to hook them together, pesty theives

wouldn't be able to get in your binder at all!  Of course, make sure

you memorize the combination, and practice with it, to ensure that you

will be able to access your cards when you want to.  I recomend a

combination lock that uses the three rotating number switches rather

than the one where you turn the single thinger-whatever-it's-called so

many degrees clockwise, etc. as they can be harder to open. o_O I

think I have confused a lot of people.  *prepares for a barage of

emails* :B


NOW FOR THE RANT! :(


Ill introduce you to a simple fact.  As of 8:43 PM Eastern Standard

Time, on June 5th 2003, Yu-Gi-Oh! Poll#7 reads "Do you think Upper

Deck is doing a good job of keeping fans updated on CCG News, Rules &

Leagues?".  Well, I am sad to report that Upperdeck has at least

23,865 heads of brainwashed individuals stuck up their corperate

butts.  That is 55.7% of those who polled.  And yes, those are the

people that have said that Upperdeck IS doing a good job.  Allow me to

clue you in.  Upperdeck has not released official rulings for the

Labyrinth of Nightmare expansion set.  Is that really allowing us to

be updated on current rulings when they are sitting idlely and doing

nothing?  People are losing games becuase Tournament Directors are

making rulings that are contrary to how specific cards really work.

And UD could fix this by releasing correct rulings, however for some

oddball reason, they are doing nothing but printing cards, releasing

games, and guzzling money from the pockets of oblivious kids and

parents.  I say that we put up a struggle.  I think that people should

contact Upperdeck ands ask them (or demand, whichever you feel is

appropriate) that the rulings be released and that they do a better

job of releasing gaming information, especially for the recent release

of the Legacy of Darkness set.

Okay, its time for air, but the rant isn't over yet.  I am going to

rant about another topic, a topic that some of you have already ranted

about.

First thing's first.  Upperdeck is nothing but a organization of

corperate bastards that are doing everything they can to syphon as

much money from individuals as possible while sitting on their asses

and not doing anything productive.  As you can see, I personally

dislike Upperdeck, if I were to ever market a game, I would sign a

contract with WotC or Interactive Imagination and avoid UD like the

plague.  First off, I wouldn't want to make all my best cards and/or

game peices so friggen rare that you have to spend $300 or so on each

set in order to be good at the game.  Secondly, Upperdeck has had a

history of bad deals; pretty much every other card game it has made is

dead, and has been dead for a long time.  This is mostly the companies

own fault.  I'll bet that most of you reading this didn't even know

that Upperdeck published other CCGs before Yu-Gi-Oh! ever came out.

A lot of you out there are complaining that Yu-Gi-Oh! is becoming a

game for rich kids.  Well guess what people, YUGIOH HAS ALWAYS BEEN A

GAME FOR RICH KIDS AND IT WILL NEVER EVER GET ANY BETTER, UNLESS

UPPERDECK MAKES A COMPLETE TURNAROUND WHICH IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY.  I

mean think about it.  While none of the really good cards from the

first few sets were secret rares, most of them were still pretty rare.

  I am lucky to own Raigeki, which I got among my first 8 packs of

Yu-Gi-Oh! cards that I bought.  Raigeki is Super Rare.  Super Rares

aren't that hard to come by, but I know a LOT of people that still

need Raigeki.  AND THE FACT THAT UPPERDECK HAS DISCONTINUED LOB

DOESN'T HELP!!  Mirror Force is an Ultra Rare card in Metal Raiders,

and another staple, Heavy Storm is Super Rare.  See a pattern?  Most

of all the best cards in the game are Super Rare and up, all of which

are worth at least $20 when sold as singles.  Half the cards in most

competitive decks are Super Rare and higher, and a lot of decks are

worth two and three hundred dollars because of the insanely rare cards

in many of them.  But some kids don't have parents who are willing to

shell out gobs of money for kids to get good cards.  I know a kid that

has only won three duels in his entire life.  Thats right, just THREE.

  And it's all basically because he can't get a hold of some of the

better cards in the game.  The only reason I can have a decent deck is

because of the recent release of the new starter decks.  Many insanely

rare cards like MST and Magic Jammer now have parallel commons, and

for that...I do have to give a little gratitude to UD.  But certainly

not a lot, and their most recent deeds have really infuriated me.

There are a lot of cards that have much more common versions of

themselves in the Japanese sets.  For example, the two secret rares of

the latest set were Normal Rares (a.k.a. Secret Common) and were a lot

easier to get in Japan.  Fiber Pod, a very powerful restart button

card was COMMON in the Japanese sets, now it's an ULTRA RARE!  Mage

Power, too was common in Japan.  And so was Mystical Space Typhoon.

It makes me so mad that UD is making all of the best cards in the game

so rare that some people simply cannot get them.

There is another growing problem that I am seeing among players.

Because some cards are rediculously rare, some players are encouraged

to steal some these cards because they have no other way to get them.

I know a little kid who had his Magic Cylender AND Mirror Force stolen

out of his binder in one day.  The poor kid didn't have any other

copies of these cards.  I know of a guy that had a spare Raigeki taken

from his binder.  Luckily, he didn't need it, as he had at least two

others.  And I have heard other stories of people having cards stolen

from them.  It's sad that some kids resort to such actions, but some

either have the choice of stealing a card, or not having that card

ever.  I am not condoning stealing by any means, but I know what it is

like to go without a card that I really want.  Yu-Gi-Oh! is really

just another Pokémon, it's a fad that will wash over.  After it's said

and done, there will still be Yu-Gi-Oh! players, but all it is is just

a craze.  And crazes do not last forever.

A lot of the crap that I have been dishing out has been directed at

Upperdeck.  None of us really know whether or not Konami is just as

much at fault as Upperdeck is for making many of these cards insanely

rare.  After all, Upperdeck claims that it only prints what Konami

tells it to, so could it be really Konami and not Upperdeck that is

screwing up Yu-Gi-Oh!?  I am not inclined to believe that, but I

wouldn't be surprised if Konami is just as bad (if not worse) than UD.


END RANT!!! :)


Complaints about the Metagame.

I have been hearing a lot of complaining about how people need to

create new decks and the only thing that is good is the same old

beatdown.  Well folks, I hate to tell you, BUT IT IS NOT GOING TO GET

ANY BETTER.  The metagame of Yu-Gi-Oh! sucks right now and it is

always going to suck.  This is mostly because the rules of Yu-Gi-Oh!

sets it up to be this way.  In Magic: The Gathering, the power of most

cards is counterbalanced by the card's cost.  In M:TG you dont see

some ultra powerful card costing nothing to play, at least not without

it being banned from any from of play.  However Yu-Gi-Oh! has no

payment system.  You dont have to pay mana to play cards.  You dont

have to attach energy to make your monsters attack.  You just play

cards.  And when the most powerful of cards are NOT counterbalanced

with an innate cost that makes it less playable, then what you have is

a game where every deck is going to be the same, every deck is going

to have some of the exact same cards, every deck is going to use the

exact same strategy.  Not only that, but you dont have a "color

scheme" type system that prevents some cards from being played

altogether in some types of decks.  I.E. I am talking about the color

hexagon of M:TG.  For all of you M:TG players out there, what if in

some set Red, Blue, and Black got their own color's version of

Disenchant/Naturalize.  I'm not a M:TG expert by any means, in fact, I

hardly know how to play.  But, I know that that Red and Black are NOT

supposed to be able to kill enchantments, their strengths are in other

areas.  But if there were such cards, my friend wouldn't have to

splash green to play Naturalize, so he may be happy.  But, I know

there would probably be chaos among the Magic community, and emmense

contraversy over the issue.  Enchantment Killing is mostly reserved

for White, with green following up with Naturalize.  I apologize for

those of you that I have confused, but Yu-Gi-Oh! does have it's own

version of Disenchant; it's called Mystical Space Typhoon.  And the

whole Disenchant/Naturalize thing was brought up to prove a point.

Only certain decks in M:TG play those cards.  But in Yugioh, EVERY

competative deck needs to play with these cards.  There is no question

about it.  You play MST.  If Yugioh DID have a color hexagon like

Magic, there would be a lot of diverse decks.  Like Yugioh White could

use all the life gain cards like Dian Keto (Healing Salve, anyone?) as

well as all of the mass removal cards like Mirror force and Dark Hole.

  Yugioh Red would have all the burn cards, and Yugioh Blue would use

all the countertraps.  Yugioh Green would use lots of beatdown

monsters and powerups, and Yugioh Black would be all those monsters

that have high attack power for their level while sporting a slight

weakness.  If only one of these colors could use MST, then you

wouldn't see MST in every deck.  Anyways, as far as the future, it

doesn't look good.  Dragon decks will make a comeback, and warrior

decks will do quite well for a long time to come.  Necrofear will

evolve into Feind decks, and of course beatdown will continue to

thrive.  The future for Clown Lock looks bleak IMO, however I could be

proven wrong.  Burn does have a few new toys to clown around with, but

I don't think it will be enough to make Burners as good as I think

they should be.  Yes, I do beat a lot of people with my burn deck, but

beatdown monsters reign supreme.

Anyways, disagree? angry? happy? TELL ME ABOUT IT! :D

Email Cait Sith - felojiro@dangerous-minds.com

So long and happy dueling