Subject: Comments on other People's Cynism Hi, this is zealotpker here, you can email me at vze39myj@verizon.net . anyways, this is to comment on something funny I've noticed about rants. Most rants are either saying upper deck is releasing sets too fast, or that all decks are too unoriginal. Well, it seems to me that you are contradicting each other. This is why. If you have ever played a Japanese duelist or have an extensive collection of your own, you will see that almosty no decks are beatdown. Sure, most world champiionship decks were control, but that was because only enlgish cards were allowed. Now, first off, Dark Paladin, while discussed by the Look Into the Future articles, was not really given the credit it deserves. First off, this spells card advantage once it hits the field, pure and simple. Why? Because most magic cards look to give you card advantage. And black paladin can also be a nice complement to a yata lock. So, card advantage happens because of this. Opponent's pot of greed=no card advantage instead of +1 card advantage Raigeki, Feather Sweep, etc.=no card advantage Opponent plays mirage, then tries MST...mirage is now useless and they're gonna deck out soon Another nice thing is, you have just set yourself up to summon another favorite card, chaos soldier, messenger of creation. If you fuse with Dark Magician and the mystical sheep substitute, you already have 1 light and 1 dark monster. If you have a airknight parshath in your graveyard, same thing. and, if you have any of these in your graveyard: Magician of Faith Asura Priest Skilled White Magician Not sure, but I think the XYZ set as well same thing as for airknight. I have been beaten many a time by this type of deck. Also, I'm not sure many people comprehend the power of fiend decks. They happen to be very versatile and powerful. Next, is the much awaited XYZ Cannon Dragon deck. That's also a break away from beadown. Another thing is the insanely fast suicide deck using jirai gumo, dark elf, etc. to abuse megamorph. With last turn they are even better. Another insanely fast deck is a dark magician deck, which can also abuse megamorph. Dark Magic Curtain + Megamorph = 5000 Atttack monster. Another good deck, is a magical scientist deck, which can be found in the look into the future section. Solemn judgements work well with dark magician deck and suicide deck. Also with any type of last turn deck. I'm not sure, but I've heard talk of combo decks gaining popularity in japan. that works 2 ways. use combos with M/Ts and a few mons instead of the standard set-up, or work completely around a 1-hit ko deck. Well, if someone wants more examples of "original decks", email me at vze39myj@verizon.net. And now, about upper deck releasing stuff too fast. the entire point is to catch up with japan so that it is possible to have a world championship using all of the cards and not giving the US an advantage by using only the cards released here. and also, you are getting more and more deck types while more and more sets get released. only problem right now is unhelpful FAQ rulings, the stupid skull lair text change, and slow restriction list releases. well, this is zealotpker signin off. you can reach me at vze39myj@verizon.net