AboutMichael Lucas (Yu-Gi-Oh Category Guru) Expertise On vacation until August 16th. Will fix decks at that time, and discuss options regarding the Forbidden/Limited lists when they are officially posted.
I can answer any question based on the English Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game.
Rulings questions are my specialty. Ask me about ANY ruling for ANY card or combination of cards. If there's a valid ruling or a way to deduce a valid ruling, I'll be able to help you.
I'll also be willing to do deck fixes, but ONLY on decks that actually show some promise of possibly becoming good. Decks that are just random cards that aren't very good will be rejected, and I'll link you to a page where you can look at some better decks for ideas. Decks that are not in Advanced Format, or not competitive, will be sent to the Question Pool.
IF YOUR DECK INCLUDES DARK MAGICIAN, BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON OR RED-EYES BLACK DRAGON, I WILL IMMEDIATELY REJECT IT. These are CASUAL decks, not tournament-competitive ones. Please take decks including those cards to our casual deck experts. Also, I may or may not do fixes on other themes that would be consider non-tournament worthy. (Basically, if your deck is not a Blackwing, Gladiator Beast, Vayu Turbo, Dark Synchro, or Lightsworn deck, AND I don't think it has the promise of being able to compete with any of the above five decks, I'll be hesitant to offer a fix.)
I should also be able to give you general values of cards if you`re looking to buy or sell, or answer whether a certain trade was fair or not. Please limit value questions to 15 cards or less. I'm not going to appraise your entire collection. Additionally, please only list Super/Ultra/Secret/Ultimate rares, and make sure they do not come from structure/starter decks.
Experience Player/trader/collector for 7.5 years
Publications Writer for Beckett Yu-Gi-Oh Collector, Beckett Anime Collector, Beckett Pokemon Collector, and various books produced by Pojo.com
Education/Credentials Player of the American TCG since January 2002, tournament player since March 2002
Awards and Honors Duelist King Tournament Season 3 Champion -- Jahinie Productions, West Mifflin, PA...which has since, sadly, closed its doors.
148th/482 players at 2005 Yu-Gi-Oh Nationals
Top 4 at April 2005 Butler Regionals (Chaos/Trinity format)
Top 4 at August 2005 Butler Regionals (Chaos/Trinity format)
Top 8 at July 2008 Monroeville Regionals (Oppression Monarch)
Top 4 at October 2008 at Coraopolis Regionals (Tele-DAD)
Top 4 at June 14, 2009 Coraopolis, PA Regionals (Blackwings)
Qualified for 2005, 2006, 2009 Yu-Gi-Oh Nationals
Non-gameplay Yu-Gi-Oh Credentials:
Have made over $120,000 in the past 6 years from dealing in bulk quantities of Yu-Gi-Oh collectibles
Created "the point system", a method for fairly trading large quantities of low-valued cards in exchange for high-valued items, commonly accepted throughout the Yu-Gi-Oh community
Question Deck(x40)
Monsters(x21)
cyber dragon(x3)
hydrogeddon(x3)
mobius the frost monarch(x2)
exiled force(x2)
jinzo
amazoness swords woman
d.d. assailant
d.d. warrior lady
don zaloog
kuriboh
asura priest
sasuke priest
treeborn frog
sangan
breaker the magical warrior
Spells(x12)
smasing ground(x2)
premature burial
book of moon
mystical space typhoon
enemy controller
reinforcements of the army
confiscation
pot of avarice
graceful charity
nobleman of crossout
heavy storm
traps(x7)
sakuretsu armor(x2)
mirror force
ring of destruction
torrential tribute
bottomless traphole
call of the haunted
Side deck(x15)
Monsters(x7)
old vindictivemagician(x2)
apprentice magician(x2)
cybernetic magician
white-horned dragon
thestalos the firestorm monarch
Spells(x5)
scapegoat
enemy controller
shrink
brain control
reinforcement of the army
traps(x3)
sakuretsu armor
magic cylinder
divine wrath
its been a while and i just wanted to get back up to speed so i would appreciate it if you could tell me if these cards will fair well against all the new cards their coming out with. I havent got any new cards in a while and dont plan on it if this deck can stand a chance so i would really appreciate it if you would let me know what cards I should take out and put in.if the cards you think i should put in are in a new or fairly new pack could you please let me know what pack they come in.
thanks
Answer Okay...first thing's first:
Breaker and Graceful are banned now. They need to go.
Traps are pretty much fine as is.
Spells, once you remove Graceful...add Snatch Steal, since it's not banned anymore.
Monsters are where I have the most issues.
You mean Sasuke Samurai, not Sasuke Priest, right? Sasuke Samurai #4 is worth playing. The others aren't.
That random Kuriboh won't defend against much. Stein's banned, sadly, so you don't have to worry about it coming in one shot. You actually have to worry about a different OTK deck, and the side deck should take care of it.
Asura Priest is iffy to the point that I wouldn't include it. Hydrogeddon isn't as hot to the point where you need to ram through their face-downs and deplete their searchers like that. Actually running your own Hydros should punish any face-down shenanigans.
Finally, that Amazoness Swords Woman just doesn't sit well with me. I know WHY it's there, but usually a good opponent will take between 100 - 1,000 damage (usually 600-900) to take a card off of your field. I'd put a Spirit Reaper in its place, honestly.
Side deck...
You NEED Pulling the Rug. 3 of it. It basically negates Monarchs for free, and that's huge.
Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, Waboku, and Threatening Roar are all viable choices against the new one turn kill deck, Demise, King of Armageddon. Just do a Google search for "Demise OTK" for all you need to know on how it works and what cards it uses. For more anti-Demise, try Neko Mane King (it ends their turn when they blow up with Demise if you have it face-down) or Winged Kuriboh (they can't do damage after they blow up.)
Finally, Banisher of the Radiances or D. D. Crows are big for stopping graveyard-oriented effects. Decks involving Destiny Heroes -- mainly combining Destiny Draw with D-Hero Dasher, D-Hero Malicious, D-Hero Disk Commander, and their various effects/potential to draw/summon extra stuff, have been utterly dominating tournaments as of late. If you can afford to have some of your own stuff removed, run Banishers. If you can't, D. D. Crow can still remove a critical Malicious or Disk Commander so they can't use its effect, and still let you run your own Graveyard-oriented stuff.
Otherwise, check Metagame.com's coverage of major events and look at what cards are in the top decklists for anything new you need to know.
