Horseshoes And Hand Grenades

Life is like a card game. The hand dealt is deterministic, but how one cuts the deck is all about personal judgment. If their judgment is right, it is possible to savor a longer and a more fulfilling life. Those who lack judgment skills often resent the world, resent others, and leave this world in despair without ever blaming their lack of capabilities. There are always those who try to improve their memory but there are none who try to improve their judgment capabilities. Needless to say, the gamble called "life" is a chain of desires that ruins the ability to judge. A vicious cycle of desires being created one after another and because of their unquenchable thirsts, people live their days in struggle. Though, of course, we are not here to talk about emotions but it is one of the key aspects for today’s topic.

Fire Fist is an aggro-control strategy, a play-style similar to Dino Rabbit, but with a slightly bigger emphasis on resource superiority and less priority on lock set-ups. Having said that, Fire Fist also share many common traits of how Inzektors take control of the board. The core of Fire Fist’s strategy is a group of monsters that are reminiscent of Jurrac Guaiba and Atlantean Marksman, a number of recurring +1 monster effects, and a group of lingering spells afterward that also serve as attack boosters and monster effect fodders. The deck quickly builds momentum and escalates to the point of being unstoppable. It rarely makes explosive plays, but it can generate field presence seemingly out of nowhere and has easy access to cards like Number 16: Shock Master with well-rounded back row protection (basically every good generic Rank 4 Exceed you can find.)

The usual suspects center around this deck are Yushi (Bear), Ensho (Gorilla), and Soko (Tiger) with recurring theme spells and traps like Tenki, Tensu, Tensen, and Tenken. After the release of V-Jump Edition 8 many builds include Wolfberk as part of their core strategy for bigger plays (there is also builds that utilizes Chicken and Spirit which is faster in comparison to the Meta type.) What Fire Fist lacks is monsters with immediate bigger bodies without the support of spells and traps but many have chosen to include Vorse Riders (DDV fodder) and Gene-Warped Wolves as their baseline hard hitters giving them more leverage in what the deck does best, beatdown. I almost forgot Horn of Phantom Beast as a potential tech card (Damage Step hello Verz!) One thing to jot down is, after the release of Lord of Tachyon Galaxy, many players will begin to include their new Exceed Cardinal Commander (oh my Pot of Avarice) and another Fire Formation spell which is Gyokko (attack boosting effect fodder Night Beam!) Overall, Fire Fist is pretty much an all-rounder.

Going into weaknesses, to start and end with, running out of Fire Formation spells. With no effective ways to recycle them the deck dies out sooner than you know it (fuck Cardinal Commander fixes that!) Fire Fist has a very fast and strong early to mid game but as the match draws longer they find themselves with little to no plays thus why the deck’s ratio is very important to avoid such circumstances. However, remember the opposite happens if players go greedy while constructing their decks. Technically, you don’t want to draw into too many Fire Formations other than Tenki (maybe Tensu.) You’d rather draw into other stuff. 

How do you deal with them? It is important to not have split focus when you are going against Fire Fist. Attempting to deal with both their monsters and back rows can result to a series of misplays or a quick depletion of resources (Side Deck excluded.) Your set of concerns should reflect upon your choice of deck, either focus on getting rid of their monsters by effect (kudos to HLG for highlighting) or their back rows. If your choice of deck packs much bigger beaters, go for the back row (a better choice in my opinion.) If not, focus on getting rid of their monsters. Paying attention to that helps to make Side Decking against Fire Fist much easier. Here’s a list of cards that works and could work against Fire Fist (depending on your deck of choice.)

Effect Veiler

Thunder King Raioh
Twister

Overworked (kudos to Baha for highlighting)

Fairy Wind

Mind Crush

Skill Drain

Mirror Force
Dust Tornado

Fiendish Chain
Macro Cosmos

Threatening Roar
Breakthrough Skill 

Malevolent Catastrophe

The only staple i included in the list is Effect Veiler seeing that many still doubt its usefulness in the coming change (not everyone but some.) I might have missed out points here and there but I hope this piece of article has come in handy for readers. If you wish to discuss anything, comment below. Work has finally starting to let up for me and thank God I will have time to prepare for Asia Championship Qualifiers. With that, more posts will follow. So, as always remember to play smart, fight hard, or go home a loser. Thank you for spending time here!

Three Tides

Upon revising everything I was left out during my course of absence, I notice much has changed in the format as we all know it. The most notable change was the shift between fast end games to a more grind-ish type of format. Nothing slowed down (don’t get me wrong) what I am saying is Yugioh as we all know it right now is going back to its roots, beatdown. While Mermails and Wind-Ups continues to serve as a public figure, decks like Verz, Fire Fist, and Constellars coming into power moved the balance of the Meta and the format shifting it tremendously towards a mid-game kind of trend (in a sense.) Like we all know it, players either follow the trend or settle for less. 

Come March 2013, Mermails and Wind-Ups will see a significant amount of hit by “the list”. Though not enough to completely take them out of the picture it will be enough to lessen their influence and thus usher the “new” format. Having said that, assuming Mermails and Wind-Ups do get left out by the majority, the first shift of tides would be the importance of Effect Veiler trump Maxx  “C”. I am not saying C is no longer important. What I am suggesting is Veiler plays a role that cannot be replaced in this format. Decks like Verz, Constellars, and Fire Fist all function under the rule of beatdown and slowly building up pace and advantage thus why resolving an Effect Veiler is more of a milestone compared to Maxx “C”. Escalation still exists but in a different form. One way or another, Veiler will go back into being the number one hand trap. 

Next up is the classic argument between Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos.  Last format shown us how taking the first step with Fissure proves to be more effective in comparison to the waiting game Macro effectively excels in. In late 2012, Dimensional Fissure was almost a staple in every deck’s Side board (some chose to stick with Macro Cosmos), majority-wise. Activating an early Dimensional Fissure against Mermails was an immediate game lock unless the opposition had an out to it. While RFP strategies never grow old, the current format shifted from water to fire, Fire Fist is a major threat now and one way to stop them is by preventing them from utilizing Bear’s effect together with Tenki acting as a pseudo Damsel-Hornet play. Fissure doesn’t give you that Macro does. What Dimensional Fissure can do Macro keeps up and that includes stopping Verz Cercion’s nasty tricks. With both Verz and Fire Fist becoming major contenders, Macro Cosmos becomes a better answer (you still get to stop Mermails, Heroes, and Dark Worlds with it.) Same trick different card.

Finally, the saying “old is gold” applies in this case. Yugioh has already taken us back into a grinding format where we see beatdowns all around and see less of spazzing (not a real word.)That helps bring Mirror Force back into relevance. Granted it doesn’t do much against Verz thanks to having own their version of Forbidden Lance but there are ways to deal with that (fuck not every day is a Sunday.) Eventually when going against Fire Fist, you will realize Dimensional Prison is not fit enough to hold you through. It’s an instinctive matter I admit that much. A valid explanation is how games progress as it enters mid or late stages (when your primary resources have been depleted.) This is all I have for today. Hope you have enjoyed reading and thank you for spending time here!

Eram Quod Es, Eris Quod Sum

Hey kids, Digital Mortal here! Work has been a major priority this month and as a result less time for everything else. I’m looking through the new set due to hit the market in February (while taking a break from work) and so far everything is as exciting as the new year. Overall, it looks to be a very promising set. There are plenty of highlights in Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy set but this one card appears to have more value when it comes to multiple utility in a variety of decks. As mentioned before, I am looking forward to test out Burning Knucklers but I’ll leave them for another post. Here goes!

SHARK FORTRESS!!!

                                             "http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Shark_Fortress"

Arguably one of the best Rank 5 Exceed monsters to ever exist, Shark Fortress has one in a million say about everything! It is a generic Rank 5, a DARK, and it comes with a solid body of 2400 ATK and 1800 DEF. What’s scary of course is having the ability to deal massive damage or possibly end the game. Shark Fortress is what many would coin as “Daigusto Phoenix on crack" and truth be told it deserves to be hyped up. Simply having the ability to allow double attacks is merciless (broken) and if that wasn’t high enough Shark Fortress protects other monsters you have on the field (protection effect could be game changing.) 

Being a Rank 5, it automatically becomes further support for Hieratics. Shark Fortress opens up other ways for Hieratics to OTK (though the deck doesn’t need it?) and being a DARK it’s always a good fodder for Chaos plays also for Deck Devastation Virus. Having said that, the next obvious place to run Shark Fortress is Chaos Dragons and it doesn’t even need any explanation. The thought of having REDMD or LPD swing twice is tempting enough and the same can be said for Hieratics which packs a deadlier Extra Deck. Other decks that can run Shark Fortress would be Wind-Ups and Constellars. I can see how this card can benefit them as much the earlier two. On a side note, Shark Fortress works with Forbidden Lance in terms of offense or defense. Worst comes to worst, it becomes a Gaia Dragoon. Plenty of ways to use this guy so make sure to get yourself a copy!

Before I end today’s article, Slyphine and Cardinal Commander needs to be given more attention. I’m pretty late on this set’s review and I’m sure other bloggers have done their version of reviews on other highlights in this set so look around for more info. That’s all for today people. Remember to play smart, fight hard, or go home a loser! Thank you for dropping by!

KABOOM!

                                                         (Best way to start a new year?)

Hey guys, I’m just here to wish everyone a happy new year and best wishes for 2013! Right now everyone is probably enjoying the fireworks, drinking like there is no tomorrow, having some good time with friends and family wherever they are. To wrap things up, 2012 was a decent year for me though there were some tough calls I managed to achieve some of my resolutions and I hope you have enjoyed, learned from 2012 as well. As for now, let’s welcome the year of the Black Snake! The main element this year is water according to Chinese Feng Shui I don’t know how that might affect Yugioh but I’m hoping to see Konami giving us some sick archetype revolving serpents. LOL! Before I end today’s post, I would like to thank everyone who has supported Digital Mortal and brought it this far. Hopefully you guys will continue supporting the blog and I will do my best to bring more interesting (informative) updates from the world of the best trading card game. Again, happy new year cheers to you guys out there and best wishes for 2013! Stay tuned and thank you for dropping by!